makin' your mind up

Ahh Bucks Fizz, I remember the Christmas I was given their album....What pearls of wisdom..'Makin' your mind up', and don't get me started on 'The Camera never Lies', but I digress, which of course means I'm not focussed on the task in hand.

Focussing is so important and yet can seem impossible. Ever been encouraged to constantly learn, and take on new things, 'strings to the bow' ? I have, and to tell the truth sometimes my bow is at breaking point, (flat hunting will do that to ya).
Not that I'm complaining, I love having lots to do, but I recognise that to do something really well, you need to focus on it. I wouldn't have been a very good host this evening if my mind was everywhere. My entire focus needed to be in the room, and that is what made it a great evening, well that and the great material and wonderful clubbers!

Deciding what to focus on, 'makin' your mind up' if you will can be the tricky part, how you do it is your choice, throw a dice, write lists, ring everybody you know and ask for their advice, get a million different points of view and be none the better, (a past favourite of mine!) like I say it's your call, but if you really concentrate on one thing, you'll reep the benefits.
Vanessa x

Ps for past readers, I have made a discovery concerning the food diary. It's not enough (for me) to simply write down what I've eaten each day and forget about it, you have to look back to highlight the patterns, or in my case the complete denial, to truly see where to go. It's all very exciting. Will let you know how it goes.

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It's All a Blur

Aaaarrrrghhhh.

Too much to do today. Lesson plans to sort, a staff meeting to get to, a Tuesday 200 to write, a Life Club to get ready for, and now the cat's walking around squealing in pain and throwing up on the carpet that I just got steamed cleaned last week.

Did you ever have one of those days when it's all just swirling around you and the duvet seems to be half-calling you and half-mocking you, knowing that there's no way you can succumb to its warm cocoon?

It's mornings like this when I forget to breathe. Forget to sit down, take things one step at a time and focus on the task at hand.

Okay then, the vet's been called and an appointment's been made.

The cat sick won't leave too horrible a stain. Nothing that the steam cleaners can't get out next time. Why'd he have to barf on my side of the bedroom? Let it go. At least it's not in plain site.

I did more prep work over the weekend than I thought, so the lesson plans (at least today's) will be fine.

We've done tonight's workshop before, so it will be like visiting an old friend.

And the plot/characters for today's story will probably come to me on the tube or during the staff meeting.

Ahhh, I'm calm and centered and, well, reasonably focussed again.

It's so easy to get caught up in everything and lose sight of what we can actually accomplish. Wouldn't it be nice if we came with the auto-focus settings that the snazzy digital cameras come with?

Auto-focus. How do we install that in ourselves?

Maybe that's what a few deep breaths and this cup of tea are for.

Bob

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Focussed as a locust

That's how I'm approaching this week. Oh yes I am.

It strikes me that very geometric language is occuring to me here. There's 'FOCUS', which is the subject of this week's Life Clubs; CONNECTED to, or DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED to that, is going off on TANGENTS (a forte of mine). I could go on, but I'll get to the POINT. Geometry has a simplicity, a beauty and a clarity to it. That's what we get when we're focussed. When we're not, everything's messy and confused and full of struggle.

The funny thing is how easy being focussed seems to be when you actually are being focussed. I'm going to hang onto that thought this week and see where it gets me.

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Dancin' in the streets...or maybe the living room!

At Salisbury Life Clubs this week, we explored Where the Heart is in terms of how we use the space that is our home. Also, if that space seems unable to support some expression of our self, where can we find the place that best suits our heartfelt desires to dance, exercise, relax, calm down and a whole host of other activities and moods we might want to create.

Although Dancin' in the Streets is a great tune, it really is not advisable if you live anywhere that there is traffic. So the living room might just fit the bill as the place to crank up the tunes and "get on down with your 'bad'self" as a friend of mine used to put it. Maybe the club scene is where you can let all that creative dance expression out.

I had an idea about how you might broaden your horizons as to places you can do your thing. You could make a collage (cut out images from magazines and stick them on paper or card) to correspond with either each activity (be creative, romantic, relax, exercise, etc) or for each room of your home, and see what fits where for you. Maybe the kitchen is the place to do the salsa as well as make it! It then might become a place for some romance as well...

Have fun with it-

Cyndy

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Home coming - by Kimx

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Home Coming

After all the talk about home this week it really got me to thinking about the chaos I call home. Four children, husband, dog, numerous neighbours and friends constantly in and out. I always say how much I love the chaos and the buzz. I love never knowing how many for dinner and can I make sausage and mash stretch thaaaaaat far. But this week I got to wondering…..do I really enjoy it ,what about relaxation.

Ho Hum I’d have liked to have taken a quiet moment to contemplate this and navel gaze a while. But I couldn’t find a quiet anything, all bathrooms taken up with a massive teenage ‘dye in’ of Goth black hair, back room full of 8 year olds wii-ing and front room full of those who missed Ugly Betty on Friday having a second chance Sunday.

You see!! Ha ha !! revelation I have no place to call home – for me!

Someone at our sponge day said ‘what if you became ill’. That statement was sent off into the gods…….and it happened. I spent the next two days in bed with an ear infection.

The tornado that was my house had shifted, it was now my head. I spent two days feeling extremely drunk, with the room spinning and not a drop of alcohol to show for it. As I spent two days with one foot on the floor trying to steady the room the strangest thing happened.

The house went quiet.

Neighbours, children, friends and Goths were shoo’d away. Coffee. Biccies and sarnies appeared and no one came near nor by with a request for dinner money, school shoes or keys.

I had been given peace.

Its great to know that out of the wonderful chaos, a little quiet and thought for mum can be found, when she really needs ‘to come home’

Now which one of those black haired Goth kids IS my daughter!

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show me the way to go home!

I am currently house, well flat, hunting for my first property, and the process has really made me think about what I want from a home, need from a home, how much influence I want over the decor, am how important the area is to me, and how in the end most considerations fall by the way side when you find a place and just 'know' it's yours.

It's taken me the prospect of spending vast amounts of money to think about this, but that doesn't have to be the case.Just looking at how you use your home can make you see it in a whole new light. I realised that I don't think of the bedroom as a place I use to relax....no wonder I don't sleep well!

Having lived in various places in my life, the most challenging and colourful being the student flats I shared, and touring where you spend each night in a different hotel and most of the time on the tour bus, I quickly learned to adapt and feel at home in new places. For me it's about feeling at home in yourself, being flexible, creative, having a comfy bed, and (the realisation that one of the questions tonight prompted), having somewhere to dance!

I'm off to start making my bedroom a place to relax, and then I'm off to sleep! The dancing will have to wait til tomorrow.
Vanessa

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