Peace Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Lightwords - Life Coaching, Healing, Wellness

27 Jan

Make Peace Your Goal

What if the only goal that you set yourself this year was the goal of … Peace?

That’s an interesting thought isn’t it? Most of us start off the New Year with a list of personal goals that we would like to achieve. We make promises to ourselves that this year we are going to do this and that, but all too often it’s not long before our good intentions fly out the window.

Why? I believe that one of the reasons this happens is that in our enthusiasm to improve our lives, we set too many resolutions; too many goals. As a result, we become overwhelmed.

Also, in our fast-paced world, most of us want to achieve our goals quickly and when we don’t reach our goals as fast as we would like (or see the results that we would like), we become impatient and before we know it, our goals get dropped and we revert to old ways.

I firmly believe that we can achieve our personal goals much more effectively if we take one goal—a spiritual goal—and embrace the spiritual quality as our personal theme for the year. It becomes the focus that underpins our thoughts, actions and daily decision making.

When our sights are set on a spiritual goal our lives improve considerably. By taking Peace as our goal, our purpose and mission for the year becomes clearly defined: whatever we wish to achieve, whatever circumstances take place in our lives during the year, the road taken towards reaching the desired outcome or dealing with the particular issue is … Peace.

Focusing on one goal—one spiritual value—makes managing life much easier. Peace, alone, can improve your enjoyment of life; it can help you to develop patience when it comes to achieving your personal goals this year and most importantly, it will assist you to stay spiritually focused and aware.

As Brian Tracy so succinctly says in his quote, “Set peace of mind as your highest goal and organise your life around it.”

I think this says it all!

Call to Action:

What spiritual value will you take as your goal and theme for 2015? Peace, Love, Joy, Truth, Compassion, Non-violence, Forgiveness? Have a think about it and see which quality is the right one for you!

09 Dec

Stress Less This Christmas

It’s the busy season when shopping, social engagements and completing work tasks before the festive break all add extra stress to our lives. How can we stay healthy and reduce personal stress during this time of year?

The key is to focus our attention on what Christmastime is really about: Inner-peace and goodwill. Both improve our wellbeing and when we incorporate them into our lives, our personal stress levels can be considerably reduced.

Here are some suggestions on how to incorporate these qualities so that you stay well and enjoy this Christmas season:

Foster Peace

Spend time in peaceful contemplation each day. As little as 10 minutes a day is enough to foster feelings of inner-peace.

Approach Christmas shopping with a peaceful attitude. Make a commitment to stay calm and unflustered even if the people around you are rushing.

Make it easier on yourself: Purchase simpler and fewer gifts; limit the number of social engagements that you attend so that you don’t over-commit yourself.

Go for morning or evening walks. It’s a great time of the year to be out and about and there is nothing like nature to bring peaceful feelings to our heart.

Foster Goodwill

Reach out to those you know who have experienced a recent loss; who are healing from an illness; who are lonely, poor or hungry. Kindhearted acts are great stress-busters and heart-warmers.

There are many charities that need extra help during Christmastime. Why not volunteer to help or contribute financially through food and/or toy donations. Making someone else’s life a little happier makes a day very worthwhile.

You can reduce your stress levels and enjoy this Christmas more by doing these things to make your life—and the lives of those around you—so much better.

Call to Action:

This week, begin to engage peaceful and kind-hearted activities so that the lead up to Christmas is one of less stress and more joy! Yay!

16 Sep

Relaxation – A Lost Art!

I believe that in our world today relaxation is a lost art!

The stressors of the modern day lifestyle along with the pressures of social media often prevent us from finding the time to relax. And when we do have a moment or two to relax, we go about it the wrong way.

We may class a walk in the park as a form of relaxation; likewise exercising, gardening, dancing, or a game of golf. Whilst all of these practices are healthy and very good for the body, whilst they do help us to de-stress, they are not true relaxation techniques. Proper relaxation techniques enable us to switch our minds off for a while—they quieten the internal chatter of our conscious mind. When we are engaged in effective relaxation techniques, our mind and body are in a deep restful and peaceful state.

Through the process of deep relaxation we can help our physical bodies to heal, we can bring a state of balance back to our mind and we can feel the peace and calm of our spirit.

In our busy world today, more than ever we need to take time out to relax. If you want to improve your health, or maintain optimum health and wellbeing, then relaxation is essential.

Call to action

Each day this week, find the time to listen to my ten minute relaxation audio that I have recorded. This audio will help quieten your mind, rest your body and allow you to drift into a pleasant state of deep relaxation. The audio is best listened to first thing in the morning (it’s a great way to start your day) or in the evening (as a way of winding down at the end of the day). And like all audios of this nature, do not listen to it whilst driving or operating machinery.

Through listening to the audio on a regular basis you will experience more peace and balance in your life. Now that sounds good doesn’t it!

Drop me a line and let me know if you enjoy the relaxation audio. Happy listening!

04 Apr

Use Your Breath During Testing Times

Welcome to Fabulous Friday, the day we look at ways to keep us feeling inspired and in-spirit.

It’s hard to live with equanimity during testing times, but here is a little technique that we can practise that is beneficial to apply to our lives when we are feeling angry, upset or when things overwhelm us.

A great way to break feelings of frustration or anger is to pause for a moment, then take a deep breath – preferably one deep from your belly – and then hold the breath for a second or two. Then, slowly exhale, ensuring that the exhalation of your breath is very, very calm and slow. Sink into the feeling of peace that emerges from taking the slow breath. Repeat the process three times.

Engaging in this action when we are out of sorts is beneficial. It helps to stop our mind and return us back to our spirit of peace.

This weekend, practise this technique. As you go about your day, just take a moment to engage in the exercise. Become aware of how peaceful it makes you feel. The practice itself only takes a minute but in that minute we are able to silence our ego and engender peaceful feelings.

Practices that help return us to the serenity of our spirit help us to manage life in better ways.

May peace fill you this weekend and may joy be yours.

18 Mar

Meditation The Ultimate Soul Food

“In stillness you can feel the magnitude, love and peace of The Universe. Peace comes from stillness.”

Often I ask my clients to engage in the following exercise … I invite them to schedule an appointment with themselves! That is, to pen a time in their diaries, daily schedule or on their ‘to do list’ that is earmarked just for them; time where they can be still and experience quietness.

Everyone needs a little quiet time—time for reflection and peace. In the many roles that we play daily—employee/employer, partner, parent, child—we are kept occupied and busy. Constant ‘busyness’ is not healthy. It places undue stress on our body, it prevents us from maintaining a balanced life and, worst still, it distracts us from tapping into our spirit.

Your spirit is your centre of peace and harmony. Connecting with it—particularly through the practice of meditation—allows you to experience inner-peace, solitude and clarity. All parts of our being need to be fed food that is nourishing and meditation is a complete food source because it benefits our whole being. It relaxes our body, it takes us beyond the mind into the realms of peace and calmness where we can feel the love of The Divine; feel the expansiveness of life and the love that lies in the heartbeat of life.

Taking time out for ourselves restores our energy levels and, meditation, in particular, is practice that completely nourishes our mind, body and spirit. It’s the ultimate food for the soul.

Call to action: Every day this week schedule an appointment with yourself and take some quiet time out for you.

How can you do this? Listen to my guided meditation, which I have created for the purpose of helping you to achieve good soul care. My meditation is only seven minutes long, and the seven minutes can bring balance to your life, improve your wellbeing and reconnect you to the joy and peacefulness of your spirit. Listen to it for the next seven days and notice the positive change in how you feel.

Make time to nourish your spirit. Good soul care is good self-care!

Here is my Light Meditation audio designed to feed your soul!

Light Meditation by Helen Martino-Bailey

I’d love to know what you think of it so please drop me a line.