May
2008
In this issue...
- Time Management
for Downshifters.
- Why I Chose
the Homeopathic Approach to Health. By Mike Andrews.
- Your exploration this month.
- Quotes of the month
- Want to comment or contribute?
- Teleclasses and personal coaching
News and Events
Your
Business as a Sustainable Enterprise. Community
Soul Group event. Glastonbury,
Somerset, UK. 20th May, 7-9pm. £10.
Sustainability in business is not only about establishing
a robust company, with clearly defined opportunities and
strengths. It is also about operating our businesses in
harmony with the needs of ourselves and our families, society
at large and the planet. Climate change and peak oil is
having ever increasing effects on our economy and our awareness
of how our actions affect others. What can we do to ensure
that we are running our businesses sustainably?
Further
details
6 Steps to a Sustainable Small Business
A series of 6 teleclasses, each 45 minutes long, exploring
the three main elements of the Triple Bottom Line of
Sustainable Business Practices, People, Planet, Profit
and how to incorporate them into your business.
Further
details
1. Time
Management for Downshifters.
Have you downshifted and yet still spend your days racing
against the clock? One of the bug bears of many of my
clients is this: they manage to leave the rat race, to
reduce their working hours, to balance their working
lives with their personal lives, to find work doing something
they truly love BUT they still feel stressed and pressurised
because of their attitude to time. Why is this? The traditional
approach to time management is all about how to fit as
many activities into each day as is humanly possible.
Multitasking, efficiency and effectiveness rule in this
rat race mindset. Unfortunately, this all too often leads
to excessive stress and unhappiness.
In my previous life, about 10
years BD (Before Downshifting), a typical working day
would consist of about 10 hours
of work in a job I didn’t enjoy, ½ hour
of self care mainly to do with work (i.e.. making sure
I looked the part), about ½ hour with my partner,
2 hours of commuting, 2 hours slumped on the sofa in
front of the TV, 2 hours of household chores, 7 hours
of sleeping. If you’d asked me how I most enjoyed
spending my time, I would’ve said something along
the lines of “Being with my friends and family,
being in nature and making a positive contribution to
the world.” It took several years and eventually
ill health to prompt me to spot the mismatch!
How do we downshift our approach
to managing our time and still get things done? I’d like to answer that
question by applying the well known principle of “reduce,
re-use, recycle” to time management.
Reduce.
Actually, this is not about managing
time at all. Chronological time is not something we
can manage since it will march
on, second by second, minute by minute, however we choose
to spend it. The crux of “time management” is
really “life management” or even more specifically “alignment
with values”. In order to avoid the type of huge
mismatch that I managed to create in my life, you need
to align how you actually spend your days with what’s
really and truly most important to you - your values.
The first stage in this process is to start saying no
to those things that are not in alignment with your values.
This way you can reduce the number of tasks and projects
you are committed to and thus create some space in your
life.
Re-use
You can then re-use the space
you’ve created to
take some time to reflect on what your priorities are
and narrow them down to a handful of commitments. This
exercise is applicable in your personal and working life.
How will you know what to prioritise? Whereas your values
are part of the essence of who you are and what attracts
you to life, your priorities are what you decide to give
your attention to sooner rather than later. For example, “health” might
be one of your values but “brushing your teeth” might
be a priority only twice per day.
When you create some space for reflection, you can tune
in to your values and then your priorities for each moment
will become evident. Contrast this with being in the
rat race where, if your priorities are not being decided
for you, you are so overloaded with stimuli that you
do not have the opportunity to even be aware of what
matters to you.
Re-cycle
Now you can use your time, the
same time you always had, but in a different way. Slow
down, do one thing
at a time, do nothing, be present, aim for quality in
everything over quantity, act from your heart. It’s
not what you do but how you do it that counts. Why? Because
this has a profound impact on your contribution to the
world and subsequently on how meaningful and fulfilling
you experience your life to be. Think of the consequences
of performing a task with resentment, for example reading
your child a story, explaining a new business system
to an employee or phoning an order through to a supplier.
There’s very little that’s positive that
arises from performing any of those tasks with resentment.
In his book “A New Earth”, Eckhart Tolle
suggests that there are only three favourable states
in which to perform any task – acceptance, enjoyment
or enthusiasm. So, I would suggest checking in with your
feelings before beginning any task. When you find yourself
starting something in a state other than one of these
three, try stopping for a moment and asking yourself
whether it’s something you really want to do. If
it’s something you definitely want to do, what
do you need to change in order to perform that task in
one of Tolle’s three favourable states?
Conclusion
Time management for downshifters in a nutshell:
1. Reduce to a minimum the number of commitments in
your life that are out of alignment with your values
and priorities.
2. Re-use the time and energy you’ve just released
from your previous rat race habits to reflect, relax
and re-balance.
3. Re-cycle your time by deciding to use it in a different
way – slow down, give up multi-tasking, shorten
the “to do” list and watch your emotional
state. Aim for acceptance, enjoyment or enthusiasm in
everything you do.
Suggested Further Reading
The Power of Now. By Eckhart Tolle
First Things First: To Live, to learn, to love, to leave
a legacy. By Stephen R. Covey.
Timeless Simplicity. By John Lane.
2. Why
I Chose the Homeopathic Approach to Health. By
Mike Andrews.
At the age of ten I was hospitalised for
13 weeks with a burst appendix. I was rushed into hospital
and was on the operating table within an hour; I then
died and was resuscitated. I spent a further two weeks
in intensive care and lost over two stone in weight.
This was followed by an abdominal abscess, pneumonia
and adhesions.
This life changing event at the age of ten was to influence
the direction that my life was to take. Surgery and modern
medicine had saved my life, but I was left with emotional
scars and some physical symptoms. In my early twenties
I discovered herbal medicine and meditation which helped
with some of the physical and emotional scars of that
childhood experience. I then came across homeopathy and
found that to be even more effective than herbal medicine
in that it helped on a more profound level and results
lasted much longer. I was also impressed with the philosophy
behind it. My initial search for self healing led me
to my vocation as a homeopath.
Last summer I had a motorbike accident and broke my
arm in two places which required surgery. Once again,
I appreciated the skill of the surgeons and what they
were able to do for me, but I was reminded of why I chose
to be a homeopath and not a doctor. As a homeopath I
am able to take the time to listen to what the patient
has to say, to explain what I am doing and to treat each
person as an individual. I am able to take into account
the emotional side of the illness/accident and to address
that as well as the physical. I am able to treat symptoms
without causing side effects and to aid long term recovery.
Homeopathy, and other forms of
alternative or complementary medicine, seek to understand
the causes of illness and
to treat them. Homeopathy is based on the principle of
treating ‘like with like’, and thus stimulating
the body to respond; whereas conventional medicine treats
with opposites to suppress symptoms. Homeopathic remedies
are not tested on animals, but tested on healthy human
volunteers. The remedies are made in local pharmacies
and generally supplied with minimal packaging. The minimum
dose, preferred by homeopaths is non-polluting with no
chemical residues to get into the water supply. Few resources
are used in the manufacture of the remedies, as they
are produced through a process of dilution and potentisation,
and given in small and often infrequent doses.
If you would like to read more
about homeopathy, order my Special Report: Homeopathy:
What it is and how it works.
Mike
Andrews RSHom Registered
Homeopath. Clinics in West Sussex, central London
and online.
3. Your
exploration this month.
Sit perfectly still and in complete
silence for a few minutes. This is the biggest test
of how comfortable
you are with time. Can you let is slip by and just “be”?
4. Quotes
of the month.
The best way to
prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully
conscious in the present.
Deepak Chopra
The past is
history, the future is a mystery and this moment
is a gift.
That is why this moment is called the “present."
Anon
Time is but
the stream I go a-fishing in.
Henry David Thoreau.
5. Want
to comment or contribute?
If you would like to comment on any aspect of this newsletter
or submit an article for inclusion in it, please contact
me by email.
6. Teleclasses
and personal coaching.
"6 Steps to a Sustainable
Small Business"
A series of
6 teleclasses, each 45 minutes long, exploring the three
main elements of the
Triple Bottom Line of Sustainable Business Practices, People,
Planet, Profit and how to incorporate them into your business.
More details.
"How to Step off the Treadmill"
A series of six teleclasses, each
45 minutes long, exploring the elements of downshifting,
the reality of living a
sustainable lifestyle in a consumer driven society
and how to motivate ourselves to make the switch.
More details.
What is a Teleclass?
A teleclass is a straightforward,
low cost and sustainable way of taking part in a group
learning session. It's
like a conference telephone call.Each participant is
supplied with a phone number to call at the appointed
time. When you call, you will be welcomed to a virtual
classroom where you can listen to the class leader present
the teleclass material and you can participate by asking
or answering questions if you wish. So it's just like
being in a real classroom or workshop setting except
that you can take part in the comfort of your own home
without having to travel anywhere!
More details
Personal Coaching
One-to-one coaching can help you:
- let go of your old,stressful
way of life, find a new path of vitality and an improved
way of living.
- deal with fears surrounding
financial responsibilities, your relationships with
others and other consequences of making a major life
change.
- improve your health, wellbeing
and spiritual life.
- further your personal growth.
- achieve balance, clarity and
peace.
You can view further details on personal coaching here.
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policy
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Have a fruitful
month!
Sally
Sally Lever
Sustainable Living Coach
+44 (0)1749 674842
sally@sallylever.co.uk
http://www.sallylever.co.uk/
7 Welsford Avenue, Wells, Somerset.
BA5 2HX. UK. |
