Change your thoughts – change your life

As Healthy Chat evolves and begins to morph and manifest into the vision I’ve been holding for nearly 5 years, the process has encouraged me to look at how I’ve been resourced personally to get to this point.

Since 2009 my pace of life has changed as has my family shape, my home, and my friendships. I’ve moved from a garden-flat in the energy-packed city of London to a house in a quite village on Scotland’s east coast; from independent living with my daughter, to collaborative living as an extended family. And that’s not all; my sports have changed – from squash and running to tennis and swimming – as has my fitness, diet, finances, confidence, spiritual practices, education and volunteering time.

If you’d told me even 3 years ago that my life would have sustained such all-encompassing changes I’d have said ‘no way’. And so I’m here now asking myself how it’s possible that I’m not a quivering bundle sobbing in the corner? What has sustained me, what has kept me trusting and taking just a single further step forward? The answer is multi-faceted but at the core it involves resourceful thinking, an ability to reframe any situation as positive and faith in my vision.

For years I’ve wanted uplifting, life-changing, hope-filled conversations to be as normalised and as accessible as a good gym. This culture of ‘oh he’s seeing a therapist, he must be in crisis’, or ‘she’s working with a coach, there must be a problem’ is so 1900s. In 2013, coaching and theraputic conversations are underpinned by science, research and extraordinary professionalism – they’re going to make an impact.

This new ‘personally–unlimited’ era embraces a Healthy Chat as one of many success tools – specialized, empowering, breakthrough conversations.

Living life successfully is more complex in this millennium than ever before in history. We live in a world of increased choice and where we used to filter hundreds of choices we now filter millions.

From childhood, through teens to independent living our experiences influence how we look at our world. Then on through relationships, children (or not), work choices, travel, time investments in health, fitness and fun, finances, free-time, sport, food, technology, home life, self expression, peer groups, new interests, what to let go of, what to commit to phew endless choices. And understandably it can all be a bit overwhelming.

Where we used to be taught by our communities that there was a ‘right way’ to live life; the evolving world culture is one of multi-levelled acceptance of difference and an embracing of diversity. Developing a new skill set of personal clarity, respect and non-judgement is key.It makes for a more colourful world canvas that way too.

New thinking means that some of the old ways have to be let go of – you get to choose which received ‘wisdom’ has value and which is baggage. Keep one, dump the other. Change your thoughts and you change your life.