Adventure

Having adventures is a big part of my life-balance manifesto. Planning trips and holidays gives you something to look forward to and a different way of looking at things.

My adventure this week was a family holiday in the beautiful country of Wales. North Wales to be precise, Porthmadog. We had such a wonderful week. We went to the beach, on a steam train, underground to a slate mine done up like King Arthurs Labyrinth, to a dogs grave in Bedgelert and had plenty of laughs along the way. Travelling of any form with kids is a military operation but it’s worth it to see the delight in their eyes throughout the week. So today after travelling home I am pretty tired. I’m just going to share a few pics then today.

   
            Do you love adventures as much as me? Where are you planning an adventure to? I can’t wait until my next one!

Love,

Imogen x

Spending time outdoors

I lead a pretty indoorsy life. We didn’t even have a garden until recently and having lived very close to a town centre for about 8 years I spent very little time outside. Now we have moved I fully take advantage of the fact that we have a garden. I sit, the children play, the husband gardens and its idyllic to me. We are by no means out in the middle of nowhere now but we aren’t surrounded completely by houses now and behind our garden there are fields! and a farm! and trees! We live very close (3 minute walk) to a beautiful riverside which is abundant with nature and I seriously feel like our quality of life has improved. If you live somewhere where there is an outdoor or green space where you can sit, or walk, don’t take it for granted. Use it. Breathe in the fresh air, look at the natural beauty surrounding you. This is such an important aspect of self care and I didn’t realise what a difference it can make in your life. I have more energy, I feel happier, I feel like the nature that is a part of me is being nurtured by spending time outside. I get out every day now. At least once a day. I walk more, I feel the rain on my skin and my favourite is standing in strong winds and letting it take my breath away, I swear it is the most energising thing I can do.

What do you enjoy doing outdoors? I hope this part of you gets nurtured today,

Love & hope,

Imogen 

  

Self-Love

I feel like self-love can be quite controversial. It’s as though, to truly and really love yourself you must an egomaniac, you must be selfish and self centred and arrogant. Well I say that is crap. I’m sorry but in my opinion self-love is necessary. I am not arrogant or an egomaniac, actually i’m highly sensitive, I am thoughtful and considerate. But I spent so long in my life not liking myself. I didn’t like myself. Me! Me who I have been through everything with. Me who will always be there no matter what.

I didn’t like the way I looked or the way I spoke, I didn’t like what I thought about or that I was different to other people. If I seemed confident it was a front. For anyone who may have known me in the past may have thought I was arrogant or confident but I wasn’t. I was incredibly insecure and hiding it from the world and myself so as not to feel vulnerable or unsafe. What I actually needed was love. Love from other people helps it can create a tiny glimmer of self-esteem but not like loving yourself. That is where self-esteem comes from.

I have been reading a book, sent to me by my wonderful Auntie, called Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie which is just a wonderful, joyful book which I highly recommend. The passage for May the 18th sparked this thought for me;

‘Love All Of Yourself’

‘Do more than just accept yourself, tolerate yourself, put up with yourself, endure who you are. Love yourself.

 There came a time in my life when I simply could no longer put up with putting up with myself. I had talked about self-love. I had said it out loud that I loved myself. The words were good, but they didn’t ring true. I had to actually begin experiencing and practicing love for myself. It became the next step on my path. 

To live in a magical way, one in which you connect with the universe, loving yourself isn’t optional. It comes first. To hear the quiet voice of your heart so you know when you’re being led, to hear your thoughts so you can see what you really believe, to trust and open your heart, you must first experience love for yourself.

Have you abandoned yourself? Let yourself see if that’s true, feel if that’s true. Then learn to experience love for yourself.

Learn to love the way you handle things. Love your unique way of learning, growing and seeing things. Love where you’ve been. Love what you’ve done. Love where you are, and what you’re doing now. 

Love how you look, smell and feel. Love the colour of your eyes, the colour of your hair, and the radiance in your heart. Love how you laugh. Love how you cry. Love your mistakes, and love all the good you’ve done. Love it all. Love all of you.

Step into love for yourself, and the universe will reflect that love back to you.’ (Melody Beattie, Journey to the Heart pg.143-144)

Sending you love,

Imogen x

It works!

I had a wonderful message the other day from one of my readers, she had a bad day with a lot of stress from outside influences beyond her control and decided to delve into the ‘bag of tricks’ to feel more balanced and calm heres what she said;

‘I had the most horrendous migraine yesterday with it all and I realised my neck and shoulders were tense. This made me think about the things you have said so I put everything on hold and jumped into a nice hot bubble bath and came up with an action plan. It worked!!!! Thank you! You should be so proud of everything you are doing for yourself and other people.’

I’ll be honest now it brought a tear to my eye. I love to know, on a personal level that the tricks and tips I write are being used and are working. I mean, I know they work because I do it myself but it’s so good to hear this.

And very importantly-Dear Lady, you should be soo proud of yourself too for noticing the signs and for looking after yourself. I am so proud of you and happy for you!

Remembering to take care of yourself when it feels like the world is falling apart is hard to do. But it works, it puts things into perspective and it makes you stronger for when these things do arise.

Have you been delving in to my bag of tricks? What do you feel is working for you?

Don’t forget to sign up for self-care month emails. A self-care task to your inbox everyday throughout June for FREEEEE!!

And the Ebook Balance Your Life Today is available worldwide on Amazon for £1.99 or free on kindle unlimited. It is a practical guide to creating balance in your life and is choca-blok with tips and hints.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Love & joy,

Imogen x

Life Balance

imogen j hope

If, like me and many other people I know, you struggle to fit everything into your day, I want you to know that help is out there. There is a way to fit in everything you have to do and all that you want to do. After all I know from experience that it is the things wewant that we make time for last. Life is busy, we are all busy. We have families and jobs and commitments and we forget what it is that we love to do. That which makes our soul dance.

For me this was painting. After I left college I didn’t paint for 6 years or so. Through having a family, jobs, my own business for 3 years when I was a nail technician, that part of me got simply forgotten. Brushed under the carpet, by me, in favour of looking after my family…

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Life balance coaching

Hello my lovelies! After a few requests I have decided to create a life-balance service one-to-one. Actually, this was my plan all along but it has been brought forward somewhat.

The life-balance coaching service will include

• Daily contact with me in the form of email and/or skype
• I will work out some routines for you to fit into your life more of the things you struggle for time for
• I will create and send you routines and worksheets in PDF format
• Free access to any of my ebooks, ecourses, and any other products that I release
• My guarantee that you will feel like your life-balance has improved
• Anything you want to talk about, discuss, need help or advice with is fine by me. I am here to help as much as I can in any way I can

There will be a monthly charge for this service but for now I want to offer 1 month free to 2 people. There is absolutely no pre-requisit to applying for this freebie. I am going to choose 2 of the applications at random for the free month. The full service will be launched officially at the beginning of July. To apply for one of the 2 free 1 month month places please email to imogenjhope@gmail.com or use the contact form and provide the following information

• Name, age, location
• Where you heard about the blog
• Why your life needs more balance

I will choose the 2 winners on May 31st so keep an eye out in your inbox on that day!

Good luck peeps,

Joy & love,

Imogen x

New Moon Rituals

Tonight Monday the 18th of May there is a new moon cycle. The new moon is the perfect time for release and renewal. I think we should take this opportunity to release some old stuff and work towards the new don’t you?

The new moon is believed to be the most powerful time to begin something new, a new routine, a new project, a new intention. It is believed that how you start the new moon cycle will set out how you spend the next month.

If there is something you have been wanting to start then do it today. Here are my intentions for the next moon cycle

• To find time to meditate daily
• To grow my business and reach more people
• To be ahead/on time with all my uni work
• To be calm and mindful in my actions
• To treat myself with unconditional respect and love

So here are some ideas for how to set your intentions for the new moon cycle and harness the powerful cycle of renewal at this time

1. Write down your intentions
2. Read them out to the moon
3. Bathe yourself in herbs and essential oils and visualise your energy being renewed
4. Meditate and visualise what it is that you want to manifest over the next month
5. Write down what it is that you are grateful for and would like to manifest more of
6. Burn smudge stick, candles, incense to cleanse your home and yourself of negative energy that has built up
7. Create a vision board I love this one. Or if you already have one-update it. Take down anything that no longer speaks to you and update it with new dreams, visions and inspirations.

Hope you enjoy the fresh start!

Peace & love

Imogen x

Friday Roundup #2

I’m making the Friday roundup a regular thing you see..I think its a good way to have another look at what I’ve been writing about and also tell you a little bit about what has been going on for me personally. I try not to write too much personal stuff because i’ve heard that its bad for a blogger….I don’t know though I quite like reading things about people’s lives, it makes them seem more human…what do you think?

Anyhoo on Monday I posted about Warning Signs for Stress because when describing my blog to somebody they asked me, ‘What are the warning signs for when you’re getting anxious or stressed again?’ (i’m paraphrasing) so I thought it was an important subject to try and cover.

On Wednesday I posted about Most Important Tasks which is a really cool way of setting tasks and not getting too overwhelmed by a huge list so worth a read for tips on the organisational front.

Things that have been happening this week for me are

• A meeting about a talk I am going to do for a charity which supports people with pre and post natal depression on self-care. They are called Pandas and I’m excited to go along and hopefully help give them some ideas about self care
• Speaking of which, self-care month sign up is still on. A whole month of daily emails with self-care tasks in throughout June so sign up here
• On Wednesday I got hypnotised for the very first time ever. It was a pretty emotional experience but so worth it. I think it has probably changed my life actually
• I went out for tea with a friend which was nice. Gave me a chance to feel like a proper grown up. Something other than parenting and sitting in front of a computer to fill my time
• Writing an essay. I am studying an architect called Pugin at the moment. He likes medieval gothic churches which is nice! Also there is a Pugin Church literally over the road from my Mums house so I was very excited to find that out (I know I’m a geek) anyway the essay is due in while I am away at the end of the month so it’s got to be done ASAP so I won’t be sat in a static caravan in Wales somewhere trying to finish it while everyone else is playing on the beach.
• Hula-hooping. My exercise of choice again at the moment, so much fun!
• Not eating meat.
• Reading The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Expressing Gratitude
• Doing a photography challenge over on Instagram

 

I found this on Pinterest actually but have no idea where it had come from unfortunately!

• Having really good responses to my first ebook Balance your Life Today available worldwide on Amazon and free if you are on Amazon unlimited or £1.99 (or equivalent)

And I think that is about it. Today I am going to paint something, hang out in the sunshine with the kids and do some reading.

Hope you all have a spectacular weekend!

Hope & joy,

Imogen x

Most Important Tasks

In my Leonie Dawson workbook that I filled out at the beginning of this year there was a page called

12 Zen Habits (From Leo Babuta at Zen habits.net)

They are all pretty useful and zen and go as follows

1. Set your 3 MIT’s (most important tasks) each morning
2. Single task (focus your attention)
3. Zero inbox
4. Process emails once a day
5. Exercise 5-10 mins a day
6. Work while disconnected
7. Keep your desk decluttered
8. Clear & declutter home for 15 mins a day
9. Stick to a 5 sentence limit on emails (make your words powerful)
10. Say no to commitments & requests not on your important short list
11. Eat fresh fruit & veg everyday
12. Follow a morning routine

I think we can all pretty much agree that these ‘Zen Habits’ are worth thinking about as we go through our days. In fact I have them stuck on the wall in front of me right this very second look

My favourite one is number 1. I actually do use this one every day now. Having 3 MIT’s is great because it isn’t overwhelming. It its an endless to do list. It is just what actually matters to you the most on that day. Sometimes there is time for more. Some days I have achieved my MIT’s by 11am and I have the rest of the day to frolic..or whatever. I take 5 minutes every morning to figure out what the 3 tasks are for that day that i definitely need to do. If i think of 4 i have to choose which ones are the most necessary to my day.

Todays MIT’s for example are

• Write blog post
• Go to appointment
• Start assignment

Today is pretty standard actually. Often my 3 MIT’s have something to do with self-care (appointment-actually for hypnotherapy) something for my business (today-write blog post) and often something to do with studying because there is basically always something I really need to do for that.

Other days, I know immediately that My number 1 priority is self care. Sometimes my MIT is actually to find time for a quick nap, or a bath, or just to read alone for a while. On days when I’m not feeling that great I know that that needs to be taken care of first.

Some days it is to do something fun with my family, to visit my grandma, to clean something, to business plan, to organise something for charity, to find time for yoga or a walk or to write in my journal if I haven’t done that for a while, to create something if i haven’t done that for a while.

You get the picture. I need to sit down each morning and actually give myself a few minutes to think about what the day holds in store for me and how I can work out when to do my MIT’s.

Why don’t you try it? Could you list 3 MIT’s today?

Peace out,

Imogen x

P.S.

Have you signed up for self-care month? Free daily emails throughout June with self care tasks in for every day! Sign up here

http://eepurl.com/bl49EP

Warning signs for stress

Sometimes when you get a little off track and are struggling to create life balance you don’t see it coming. You burnout, stress out and you can’t think why. Everybody has their own warning signs when this happens, yours might be different to mine. I know mine because when I was diagnosed with anxiety I realised that all the things that I had begun to feel every day were not normal. When you are in the midst of it though you may not know what is normal, you may not know what your warning signs are. Mine are

• Shoulder pain. When I tense up my shoulder muscles get the worst of it. I hunch up and I can tell maybe even after only a few hours that I am out of balance. Something has got my stressed and I need to implement a little self care to balance myself out again.
• Fatigue. Being stressed is exhausting, the tension, the anxiety, the physical symptoms. For me especially my body screams at me to rest. If I sit down for a few minutes I struggle to get back up. I feel tired and then I figure out why.
• Not being able to sleep. Anyone who has suffered with anxiety or stress will no that on the other side of the tiredness there is a horrific inability to sleep. You get so wound up that you can’t relax or rest. Something has got your mind whirring and you can’t switch it off.
• Irritability. If I am getting unreasonably snappy at my family then I know I need to calm down. It happens when I am preoccupied with something that is causing me stress.
• Feeling emotional. As well as the snappy irritability theres the urge to burst into tears with very little cause!
• A feeling of uneasiness that you can’t put your finger on. It feels as though you have forgotten something, your mind is racing but not for any particular reason.
• Headaches. Because of the combination of tiredness and tension headaches are bound to happen.

Some of these warning signs come straight away some of them come as the stress builds up over time. The big one for me is the shoulder pain. I know that if I am really sore up there then I haven’t been looking after myself properly and I need to stop and figure out why and how I can correct it as soon as possible, by scheduling some time for myself to relax and recover and to use my bag of tricks so I can get my life balance back to what it should be. It doesn’t happen as often anymore because I am used to balancing my life every day. But I won’t ever say that it will never happen, of course it will. We all lose track and we all get overwhelmed and we all forget to look after ourselves sometimes but now I know that I can see it coming. As it edges towards me I can tell myself that something has gone wrong and I need to reassess what I am doing in my every day life.

Do you know your warning signs? Perhaps you share some of mine. If not, do you know how to work yours out? Drop me an email at imogenjhope@gmail.com if you need help figuring it out.

Peace & joy,

Imogen x