SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE ONWARDS & UPWARDS

March/April 2005

Welcome to April's issue of Onwards and Upwards.

(OK, so it's not quite April yet, but I've decided to be forward-looking, like all the best glossies!) Since raving about my NLP World course last month (click to find out more), I have been busy using my new techniques. So far, I've helped people to stop smoking, stop nail biting, create powerful resourceful states instantly, improve self esteem and speak fluent Spanish. I'm having real fun with it! Have a look at my NLP pages to find out how I can help you.

Have a great Easter - breathe in the essence of spring and go create!


Claire Bradford

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making Space for Spring

It's Easter, and whether you are Christian or not, it's a time of new life and awakening. Trees are laden with blossom, there are lambs in the fields, grass verges are resplendent in purple and yellow, our daughter is delighting in the caterpillars that have appeared and there's a new mildness in the air.

This year, spring seems to have arrived very quickly. Only last month, I was writing about the snow that had taken us southerners by surprise. And yet, last weekend, we were treated to temperatures of 20 degrees plus. Inspired by the warm weather, my husband took to the garden. A few hours later, having created bags and bags full of garden waste (his forte), he drove to the council dump only to find that the world and his wife had obviously had the same idea - there was a queue 20 cars long!

Funny how spring triggers an instinctive urge to clear out. Old things, no longer serving any use, have to make way, clearing a space for potential to manifest itself. This is true on many levels, from detoxing our diets to clearing out the loft. Once we have freed ourselves from the anchors of surplus possessions, commitments, weight, weeds(!), or whatever it is, we allow the potential in.

The space we create is magic. Some people are frightened of it and immediately plug the gap with more possessions, or busy-up their time. The real art is to sit in the space and be open to what happens.

My challenge to you this month is to clear some space in your life in as many or as few areas as you feel comfortable. This could be from taking a bag of old clothes to the charity shop, to a complete overhaul of every aspect of your life. Sit with it. Be comfortable in it. See what happens. Let me know how you get on.

Read more about personal coaching services...

Personal coaching services...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Relocation: What's important?

Last month, I described an exercise to help you to notice what is important to you about your surroundings right now (if you missed last month's issue, click here: Onwards & Upwards February).

If you have done the exercise, you should now have a list of activities that you did in a week and a note of your feelings about each activity. Your next task is this: using your notes you have already made and adding anything else that occurs to you, make a list of what is really important to you (as an individual, couple or family group) about where you live now. When you have done that, highlight, underline or asterisk those things on the list that are absolutely necessary for you to keep your identity. Here is an example:

• garden or private outdoor space
• opportunities for work
• broadband internet access
• gym
• place of worship
• good schools
• open spaces, etc., etc.

If you know where you want to relocate to, check what's important to you against what is there and consider what you will do in the event of any gaps. If you are still contemplating a move, keep this checklist to hand whenever you are considering a potential location.

P.S. I will be visiting A Place in the Sun Live! at ExCel in London's Docklands on 2nd April. It promises to be a great day out - for more information, click on the link below. If you are going that day too, let me know - maybe we could have a sangria together!

More about relocation coaching...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This month, I'm crazy about...

.... Fair Trade. Especially the chocolate flavoured kind!

We're at the end of Fair Trade Fortnight and you could be forgiven for thinking that it never happened. The shops are stuffed to the ceilings with over-priced, over-packaged Easter eggs made with cocoa that the food giants have paid a pittance to the growers for in order to fatten our waistlines and their profit margins.

In Worthing, we're fortunate to have two supermarkets nearby who actively promote fair trade (Co-op and Waitrose) so that we have a real ethical choice available to us. I'm now happy that the enormous Co-op Fair Trade egg I've bought for Emika will produce the inevitable sugar high and chocolatey handprints throughout the house but won't have the bitter taste of injustice.

Spare a thought for those West African farmers, squeezed into poverty by the food giants. Fairly traded tea, coffee and chocolate are widely available now, as well as sugar, wine, bananas and a growing range of fruit. If you have a Co-op nearby, take advantage of the Fair Trade choice available to you. If you don't, lobby your local supermarket into action. You can make a difference!

Why Fair Trade is important

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Straightforward Coaching

Claire Bradford is a qualified life coach, NLP Practitioner, Time Line Therapist and Hypnotherapist. For a complimentary consultation session, giving you the opportunity to explore coaching and decide whether it is right for you, please call 01903 218736.

email: info@straightforwardcoaching.com
phone: +44 (0)1903 218736

SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE ONWARDS & UPWARDS

To unsubscribe, please click here