As we move forward in our day to day lives and become intertwined with home, friends, family and work, have you given much thought to what healthy boundaries are?

“Boundaries are a life enhancing system of “Yes” and “No’s,” as outlined in the booklet, Building Better Boundaries, created by The Self Help Alliance. It is stated that boundaries are the stop signs we create and install in order to protect ourselves. With the boundaries, it is clearly laid out that you own and are in charge of your own life and that you are capable of making good choices for yourself.

The Self Help Alliance also states that, “Boundaries are a limit you set between yourself and people due to thoughts, activities and things that aren’t in your best interest.”

What are some of the helpful aspects of boundaries?

Boundaries help us to:

• Define your identity
• Self-protection
• Bringing order to your life
• Helps in self-promotion
• Self-protection from...

Health is like beauty, if you blindly buy into others definition and biases of it 
- It becomes ugly.

“Health” can be measured by how you feel physically, think mentally, respond emotionally, and connect spiritually. 

Six Elements of True Health:

1. Physical: Maintaining a sound substantial body through regular exercise, proper nutrition, sleeping well & avoiding harmful habits. Maintaining a consistent well-rounded exercise program is crucial to physical wellness. 

2. Emotional: Being in touch with your emotional presence & being aware and comfortable with your own thoughts and feelings. Emotional wellness relies on being able to express one’s thoughts and sensations and to be able to absorb those of others.

3. Spiritual: Having a sense that life is meaningful & has a purpose and that we are guided in our journey. Spiritual wellness is about embracing the meta-physical and reaching beyond the physical realm of existence and...

Many women I meet worry about having to network – believing that men are better at it than women. They feel they are disadvantaged and missing out because of this.

The trick to networking is not going to lots  of meetings, but identifying the key network of allies who have your back. These are trusted advisors who understand your contribution to the world of work. Some of them will be people of influence that you can consult, share concerns with and whom you can depend on to be your champions. They can put you in touch with the right people and put you forward when they hear about the right opportunities. You also want your virtual board to have a network of experts and a network of introducers.

You will come to realise that you don’t have to be alone and you don’t have to do it all yourself as many women in our surveys seemed to believe to be true. Through your virtual board, you will find the resources, encouragement and support to move beyond these...

Back in 2016, I was delivering an International Women’s Day Webinar for global recruitment firm Morgan McKinley. Watching one of the clips from the webinar, I was initially struck by the thought that, due to the Equalities Act, my response would be different in 2020.  But the fact of the matter is, if we’re talking about conflict and bias, my approach would be the same.

Let’s take a look.

Webinar participant: “I find that I am coming up against the obstacle that male leaders in the organisation presume that I will be planning to start a family soon and this is getting in the way of my progression.  How do I deal with this?”

My response:

“This is clearly unfortunate for young women who haven't had their families yet.  It comes down to understanding your manager’s unconscious bias…think about where they are at and their point of view…where are they coming from?

Often when we know that our manager or people in the...

You work hard. You've achieved success. But you worry.

…perhaps you worry that you don't deserve to be where you are today or

…that you're not as smart as others think you are or

…that you've not really achieved what others credit you with.

If you have these or similar thoughts, you're dealing with a very specific self-esteem issue called imposter syndrome.

Let me give you an example.

January, 2019, I'm sitting across the table from Jenny. Jenny is a newly appointed CFO in the London branch of an international bank. She's a black woman and she's been in the role for three months. She's concerned that she doesn't know her job well enough, which is really interesting because Jenny has been head of finance for at least three years, and she had a great relationship with the CEO. But now that she's at the C suite, she started to worry that she's not good enough and that she doesn't know what it is to be a CFO.

Interesting…don’t you think?

We work...

Lately, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about what it really means to hold space for others. I think about how my understanding of that concept has evolved over my years as a teacher, and how glad I am for that evolution.

As I watch what Tim has done every day for decades, and continues to do, I have such a great appreciation and admiration for it. While I’m moving away from thinking in terms of the word “guru,” I continue to learn from Tim every day.

We talk a lot about holding space in the Mysore community. I believe that cultivating the capacity to hold space is the single most important thing we do as teachers - more than the adjustments, more than the teaching, even. Without being able to hold space, we lose the opportunity to truly meet others where they’re at in their practice and growth, and we miss the chance to see how we can be most genuinely helpful as we spend some time with them on their journey.

As a teacher, the idea of holding...

I’ve had a lot of students come and go in the six years that I have been teaching a daily Mysore program. This can be for a variety of reasons: schedules change, people have babies, jobs relocate. But the truth is, a lot of people never really stick to the practice, or the practice doesn’t stick to them. What I have noticed over the years is that those who make practice a habit are the ones who practice for the long haul. 

Our habits shape us and they play a central role in any successful long-term discipline. Once practice is a habit, it is no longer something that we have to think about. You wake up, you brush your teeth, you practice yoga. Boom—it’s done. 

But getting to the point where practice is a habit is difficult. We’ve all felt it—showing up is the hardest part. Our minds play tricks on us. They have all sorts of sneaky reasons to try to prevent us from practicing, because the mind knows that with practice, its thought...

I think you can all remember an occasion where you've been talking with someone and your mind is completely somewhere else, and when they finish the last sentence you realise, uncomfortably, that you haven't heard a word! 

There are other times when you are having a conversation with someone who happens to still be on their phone: checking out Facebook or texting or scrolling or surfing, while you are trying to have a dialogue with them: ” I'm listening, keep going!" they say, but you really don't feel that they are with you.

Of course in the extreme, we all remember those conversations which just become a shouting match and no one is listening to anyone!

On the other end of the scale, remember those beautiful conversations where there are no distractions, each is completely present with the other person. You feel heard, you are open to listening, the conversation itself nurtures your relationship - deepening the connection between you.

Sadly, the latter kind of...

If you are not having inspired and balanced thinking  - you are more than likely feeling stressed or out of balance in either relationships, career or health and probably being run by your emotions, feeling ungrounded and reactive in nature. Does this sound familiar? 

I know that it is possible to brush it off/cover it up, say ‘I’m fine!’ but this is about listening to the signs and symptoms of your body and adopting attitudes that create poise and power in your life. 

Here are Ten ‘I’s to assist having inspired and balanced thinking:

1) Introduction:

Introduce your self to new things, people and ideas.  We are ‘here’ to grow, and fear lurks where we lose our nerve. When we stay in our comfort zone with everything known and cosy around us, the world can seem increasingly alien, challenging and fearful. You don’t need to be radically changing all the time but have an open mind and an open heart. Trust. Develop a...

Life can be chaotic and difficult at times, causing you to feel out of control or a victim of circumstance. There are periods in life where it can all feel too much. You may feel overwhelmed, insecure, worried or a lack of control about what is happening to you.

The effects of these feelings can mean increased anxiety and uncertainty, and these stresses can cause sleeplessness, raised blood pressure, over-eating, over-drinking, tension in the body that results in pain, and for some, disease. 
 

When seeking help from a doctor, many people are put on anti-depressants or anti-anxiety drugs, which only masks your emotions from you, without ever changing your perspective or get to the heart of the matter.

As an Emotional Wellness Specialist, I am dedicated to assisting my clients to shift their perceptions, reduce their stress levels and help them heal. I define Emotional Wellness as: a state of being that includes the ability to handle challenges head on, grounded thinking,...