by Sharon Charlton-Thomson | Dec 21, 2020 | Advent
Research shows that those people who find the courage to have difficult conversations have more positive relationships and are healthier when measured by the strength of their immune systems. You can understand why. Avoiding difficult conversations won’t make them go...
by Kerri Summers | Dec 17, 2020 | Advent
With work life balance we assume that, like a playground seesaw, when one is high the other is low. If you are smashing it at work, there is a price to pay at home. If you are making fairy cakes with your 7 year old on a weekday afternoon your work will suffer....
by Sharon Charlton-Thomson | Dec 17, 2020 | Advent
Imagine if we could look at every person and every situation in our life as if for the first time, with a fresh new attitude, not tainted by what we know or think we know. This is called the beginners mind. We don’t jump to conclusions and we seek possibilities rather...
by Kerri Summers | Dec 14, 2020 | Advent
No matter how you feel about networks, fostering them matters. They teach us new things, do favours, introduce us to new possibilities and people, makes us more innovative and give us a sounding board. If you want to know what is wrong with your network think about...
by Sharon Charlton-Thomson | Dec 14, 2020 | Advent
One thing we know is that if we approach a great challenge, difficulty or fear defensively, and react habitually, we are less likely to reach a creative solution and more likely to be worked up and worried. It may sound counterintuitive but in mindfulness practice we...
by Kerri Summers | Dec 14, 2020 | Advent
We are wired to notice the negative because it is crucial to our survival but it means that as parents (or colleagues or bosses) we are alerted to the behaviour we don’t want and often overlook what is going well. If we give attention to the negative, children will...
by Sharon Charlton-Thomson | Dec 14, 2020 | Advent
One of the most uplifting and freeing things to do is to create a ‘to stop’ list. It requires us to reflect on how we fill our life and which jobs, obligations and rituals are no longer of value or could be passed on to someone else. This activity is very powerful...
by Kerri Summers | Dec 10, 2020 | Advent
Often when coaching working parents we hear that performance reviews are consistently good but peers are being promoted and they are not. This can be because, with the extra demands of parenthood, they do not have the bandwidth to do more than meet the daily demands...
by Sharon Charlton-Thomson | Dec 9, 2020 | Advent
Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to sore down a tree. “What are you doing?” you ask. “Can’t you see?” comes the impatient reply. “I’m sawing down this tree” “You look exhausted,” you exclaim. “How long have you been at...
by Kerri Summers | Dec 9, 2020 | Advent
The behaviour of others – children, peers, bosses – can trigger us to enter a defensive mode projecting righteous indignation or poor me victimhood. It also makes us less able to respond in a smart way. Can you press the pause button? Recognise the unpleasant...
