The Steep Climb

It’s that time of year when things start to get a little chaotic.  It’s two and a half weeks off Christmas and a lot of us are scrambling to buy our gifts, attend all the functions, and in amongst it all we’re trying to figure out how we can do things differently in the new year.

Christmas not only can be a joyous time but for others it can be approached with sadness or fear.  Often we get to this time of year and we can start to get nostalgic about years gone by or reflect on what we haven’t achieved. It’s a steep climb.

We compare.

We criticise.

We forget about the gifts we’ve already been given.

Our personal and professional lives seem a mess. We’re discouraged. We feel weighted down.  

And I’m simply reminded that: (more…)

It’s been a week of some highs and lows.

Highs

This year I wanted to get in touch with a few of my other passions. One of them being creative writing and working with women to help them get unstuck, gain clarity and a bundle of confidence!  I’m also a high school teacher so I am a self confessed professional and personal development junkie.  In other words I value learning and then passing that wisdom onto others.

On Sunday I graduated from the “Beautiful You Life Coaching Academy.” I am officially a certified “Beautiful You” life coach having studied this heart centred and International Coaching Federation recognised course. (more…)

As a self confessed hippie of some sorts I’m often asked why I use a certain product, eat seemingly bizarre food items or read certain books.  Today I’m going to share with you some of my favourite things that are making a difference in my world.

# 1 Black Chicken Axilla Deodorant Paste

I’ve been searching for the perfect all natural deodorant for years. One will either work in winter but not summer or may leave white marks on your clothes.  I had read great reviews on this product and it totally is worth the hype.  I wore this deodorant on super hot days at school (think 39 degrees people!), and at the end of the day I realised I had not needed to reapply! Holy freakin’ amazeballs!

What’s in this product (you’ll be pleasantly surprised no black chickens were harmed):

Shea Butter*, Coconut oil*, Camellia Tea oil*, Sodium Bicarbonate, Arrowroot, Kaolin Clay, Vitamin E, Vegetable Glycerin* and essential oils of Peppermint*, Cajaput*, Mandarin*, Clove, Rose Geranium, Lime*, Lavender* and Cedarwood*.  * Certified Organic ingredients

I purchased mine from: “Nourished Life.”

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Today on honour roll I will be honouring the lovely Natasha Sciotto from “Healthy You, Happy Me.”

Natasha (who likes to be called Tash), is a multi-passionate lover of wellness, dancing, food and fun. She is an aspiring holistic health and life coach and is all for creating a life of your dreams. One where you can live well, from the inside out, and feel good throughout the entire process.

Tash also has a Bachelor of Health Science degree, majoring in Nutrition and Psychology from Deakin University and currently is studying life coaching (with me), at “Beautiful You Life Coaching Academy.”  This fun, heart centred lady is such a beautiful person to be around and has so much wisdom and intuition in all that she does.  I’m so excited and blessed to share Tash with you all today. (more…)

The Dilemma

This week I had a mini identity crisis. My husband David came home telling me one day about his work colleague’s purchases for their baby.  They had gone out and bought all the latest gadgets.  A Bugaboo stroller, some fancy cot and side tables and 15 cute baby outfits.

Now if you know me well, you will now that I abhor unwarranted materialism.  Instead, I invest in self development, health and wellness products, good quality food and investing in others.  When it comes to Baby Braybrooke even though I absolutely love this little munchkin to bits, I can’t see the point in wasting money on crap it is going to grow out of. Instead I want to be a present mum.

Now I’m not saying if you buy cutesy stuff for your baby you are inferior or selfish. In fact this whole situation brought up insecurities linked to my identity.

“Oh crap. What if I haven’t got enough stuff for Baby Braybrooke?”

“What happens when we go down to one wage?  Can we afford all this natural health and wellness stuff?”

“What happens if the person who takes my teaching position is better than me?”

“We’ll never be able to afford a house. We don’t even have a nursery we can adapt cause we’re renting!”

And mean girl makes her appearance. (more…)

 Infertility and the Great (or Not So Great) Advice Givers

Now that I am 18 weeks pregnant and I’ve revealed my pregnancy to you I can share something that has been on my heart for a few years now and that is the topic of ‘advice giving.’ When thinking about what to write this week this topic just kept on popping up. My coaching clients had been on the brunt of it and then I read Claire Obeid’s newsletter this week and what she said resonated with how we all had been feeling.

When I started on this journey of infertility you have a lot of well meaning friends and family (and even strangers mind you), give you advice that is often beautiful but sometimes unwarranted. Claire Obeid wrote in her newsletter this week that it can come from a ‘polluted space that never quite fits.’ 

It’s hard isn’t it because you want to help people and people want to help you but often we and they just don’t know what to say.

Here are a few bits of advice and funny statements I received:

“If you just relax it will happen.”

“My friend went on a holiday and forgot about it all and when they came back they were pregnant.” (more…)

My First Award for The Butterfly House.

On top of some of the awesome things I got for my birthday (my husband bought me life coaching with Elle Griffin. I’ve been dying to work with her all year. I did get to work with Claire Baker and that was freakin’ awesome too!), I received a Liebster Award.

This award is given by bloggers to bloggers like a ‘virtual high five, you’re doing awesome.’ I was so honoured to be nominated twice for this award so I will be doing two parts to the interview.

The two lovely ladies are Brittany Baxter from “Freedom, Beauty, Happiness” and Naomi Arnold from “Project Healthy Happy Me.”  Today’s questions are brought to you from Brittany Baxter.  I’m yet to meet Brittany in person but we are doing the Beautiful You Life Coaching Academy together. (She’s in Sydney and I’m here in Brisbane) but I can tell from our interactions that she is just a kindred spirit! Her website just oozes beauty and wisdom and I am so honoured to answer her questions today.

Liebster Award Questions

How do I silence my inner mean girl?

I practice a technique my counsellor gave me years ago that is based around the fact that not only are we made up of body, mind and spirit but of our different ages.  For example the 14 year old me with the spunk and fire in her belly might comfort the 33 year old me. I find a quiet place and we have a conversation.  Listen to what you say to yourself!  My 33 year old me can say some nasty things, and that 14 year old me, the spirited one gets her arms around me and tells me how awesome I am.  It’s kinda hard to explain but it totally works.

If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life what would it be?

I’d love to be all health conscious here and say anything with Cacao in it but my authentic self would probably say cookie dough icecream!  (Awww c’mon don’t tell me you would say ‘lettuce?’)

Introvert or Extrovert?

I am most definitely an extrovert.  I am loud and love socialising. (My love language is ‘quality time.’)  However, in situations where there are more ‘extreme’ extroverts I find I can retreat inwardly and crave my space. (more…)

Are you being mindful?

Last week I wrote about being intentional about our mindfulness.  When I went away last weekend to the coast I realised how beautiful our wonderful world is and how much I thoroughly enjoyed not rushing from one place to another.

The thing about being intentional is that usually this starts with routine.  So for me I decided to sit down and write down what I wanted to feel like during the week and what I would need to do to put this feeling into action.

I want to feel calm and peaceful was my intention for the week and man did I totally have the best week as a result.  How could I achieve this?

(more…)

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

This weekend my husband took me away to the beautiful Ballina in New South Wales.  Over the weekend we explored, Byron Bay, Kingscliffe and Lennox Heads.  While there, soaking up the sun rays I came to the realisation that on holidays I completely take in everything. I am mindful.  I dig my toes into the sand, I read books (currently reading “The Underground Girls of Kabul – The Hidden Lives of Afghan Girls disguised as Boys”), and I spend awesome quality time with my husband Dave.

While sitting on a bench seat at Kingscliffe I mentioned to Dave that we needed to do more of this.  Not spending money as such and going away each weekend, but just being present, in the moment.

If you’re anything like me, our days are so busy.  I’ve spent time with you lovely ladies and there is just always so much to do.  Our spare time comes along and for some reason we tune out rather than tune in. We scroll through social media for hours at a time, sucked into its time wasting vortex, or we stay up late, unnecessarily.  And then we usually vow that tomorrow, we will go to sleep earlier, that we will write our to do list, and will make healthy snacks ahead of time.

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It’s my birthday! Yay!  And I’m feeling great. Today it’s my 33rd birthday. So much has changed over the years.  I have such a heart full of gratitude today as I reflect over the past few years and see the person I once was and the person I am now becoming.

So today I’m going to give you 7 things about me for the 7th of October my birthday.

+ I was three weeks premature and weighed 4 pounds 11 oz.  I was so small they put me in Cabbage Patch Doll clothing because premmie baby clothing was pretty much non existent.

+ I was once asked to go on channel 7’s Sunrise to appear on the Ask Dr Jo Lambert section.  They wanted to interview me about my story.  You can read about me here. I declined the all expenses paid trip because I wanted to honour, respect and grieve my previous relationship.  I’m not apart of a circus freak show just because I’ve gone through awful circumstances and it just didn’t feel right to parade my personal life on national wide television.

+ Birds creep me out a little. Mainly because I think they have weird feet. I hate the idea of them landing on me.   (more…)