Finding Balance : A ReFocus on Priorities

Perspective.....the ability to find perspective allows you to see things as they really are. It's that ability in any given moment to step out of yourself and have a birds eye view on a situation and assess it for what it is. Perspective allows clarity of thought and that mindfulness leads to better decisions, more creativity and greater satisfaction with life.

The greatest challengers to perspective are time and awareness.

In today's unrelenting modern lifestyles the time for perspective is seldom allocated. Secondly with our minds bombarded more than ever before with information at speeds never before experienced in human history our awareness of our feelings, of situations is challenged and ignored. We become expressions of that which we have knowledge of but not necessarily understood. And that knowledge without understanding applies to ourselves.

We all understand the problem. What's the solution? Awareness is the key. But to give awareness an opportunity to change our direction, our perspective we need to allocate the time to gaining perspective.

Our advice is simple: time block it.

1) Allocate to start 10 mins in the morning and 10 minutes at night to mindfulness. This may start as simply a quiet spot where initially you don't think of anything. So don't take your smartphone with you. Now if you can't find a quiet room at work or home, then multi task. In all seriousness this might be time spent in the lavatory or in the shower. If that's all you can grab then take the opportunity.

2) Move next to assessing your life and how you feel about it. Ask yourself how you feel about certain aspects of your life, rank it on a scale of 1 to 5 and then write about what you want in the future and how you want to feel. This is a great exercise to do as a couple. The areas you are assessing include : relationships, health, fitness, philanthropy, community involvement, friends, spirituality, hobbies, work, house and home, finances, personal space, education and personal development.

3) Identify the three most important areas for you and assess whether you are spending enough time and resources in these areas.

4) By now that 10 mins hopefully has moved to 15 now you need to start a dialogue with your self and significant others : try setting time aside and this may start as only once a week that you and your partner just talk about your world and perhaps it's just as simple as a download of the week. Take turns. Listen don't solve.

5) Start focussing on what's really important (identified in 3)

Check in with PCE after a few weeks and let us know how you did.

Overcoming fear to reset mind and body to achieve

How did fear, drive anxiety that drove backing down in a challenge that then drove a reset of mind and body to achieve?

There are ten realisations that PCE discovered recently.

The story goes a little like this.....

PCE recently visited our Canadian friends and Aussies working at the Ski Resorts in BC and took the opportunity to hit the slopes.

First step was to find the ski legs again and then get challenged by some of the harder terrain.

One morning a decision was made to try a black run called "Dragons Tongue". With no information on what to expect the run began. As the moguls got larger and the terrain steeper, technique fell away and anxiety crept in. As a ridge approached that seemed to fall away a look to the right through the trees caught a glimpse of a red jacket fly past on clearly an easier run. Fear had set in and a lack of positive talk was replaced by a lot of negative chatter.

The decision was made, through the trees and onto a blue run "Born to Run".

Safely home later that day a piece of paper was torn out of a scrap book and two goals written down.

1) Complete "Born to Run" in it's entirety

2) Finish "Dragons Tongue".

The next morning off the lift towards "Born to Run" what ran through the mind was this:

- activate the body : form, technique; let's start feeling how it feels, feel the muscles activating
- activate the mind : fun, belief, positive talk

The run started. This seemed a lot harder than "Dragons Tongue". It was steeper. Longer. Narrower.

You can do this.

Remember the technique.

Feel every turn.

Control every turn.

Vocalisation took effect over each mogul: "turn....turn..turn...turn..."

Awareness of breathing.

A shout up from a skier below "be careful there's lots of exposed rocks here". "Thanks!", a quick reply.

The last few moguls before the run opened up and flattened. The exhilaration the vocal celebration "whoohoooo!!!"

It's done!!

Tomorrow bring on "Dragons Tongue".

Later that night at dinner, as the run was described, the fellow skiers looked puzzled. "That wasn't "Born to Run"

"Born to Run, starts through trees and it's steep but it's not overly moguled".

Having missed the entrance to "Born to Run" the right fork has been taken onto a black run "Goats Kick". That was what was conquered.

The next day "Born to Run" was a dream to ski down. And "Dragons Tongue" was completed not once but twice. On all three of these runs the same attitude and process taken down what was thought to be "Born to Run" was followed.

Technique, belief, positive talk won the day.

So what was learnt?

1) Fear can cripple

2) Fear without knowledge makes for bad decisions

3) Fear causes doubts in self

4) Attitude can be programmed

5) Mindset can be programmed

6) With the right base you can programme your body to perform

7) Visualisation is a powerful tool

8) Positive self talk drives you forward

9) Vocalisation of your process keeps you on track

10) Writing down a goal makes you accountable to it and drives your mind, body and spirit towards finding ways to fulfil the goal.

Taking these lessons and applying them everyday to every challenge is the next step.