Woody Wonders

As we approach the half year point, and whether it's work or home, many of us are no doubt thinking about how we've fared over the last 6 months' and what the next 6 months' will have in store for us. In order for us to move on, it's important that we take some time to look back and evaluate what went well and what didn't quite go to plan between January and June. Have the goals you set yourself at the start of the year now changed? Most likely, yes!  Things change, move on, are not as important, so now is the time to re-evaluate your goals and decide which are still relevant or not. Did you set yourself too many goals? Most likely, yes!  In the excitement of starting a new year, you probably set yourself way too many goals.  Over the next month, choose the most important goal to work on and give it your full attention. Has your environment become a little messy? Most likely, yes!  A new year signals a fresh start and no doubt you applied that to your environmen...

It’s taken some time to reach this point but we’re finally starting to realise that our bodies and minds don’t function as two separate entities, they are very much one.   It’s a well known fact that exercise produces endorphins which lift our mood, but  I still don’t think enough is being done to promote the connection between body and mind.   If you’re really lucky and have a good doctor, they might make a token effort to ask you about exercise but has your doctor ever asked ‘and how does that affect your mood’ , ‘what kind of exercise makes you feel good’ ?    We need a more holistic approach to health. We’re making huge strides in both physical and mental wellbeing but we need to bring the two together.   Instead of reaching for the usual crutches of food, alcohol and other kinds of self-abuse when we’re feeling low, we should normalise it so that we’re turning to meditation, yoga and and other kinds of exercise that makes us feel good.  Who cares ...

I know, I know, it's a phrase that's becoming rather over-used at the moment but relevant all the same for this week's blog. Why does it always take a sad event to jolt you back into reality and re-assess your own life.  A recent death in the family made me do just that.  If there is such a thing as a 'good' funeral, then this was definitely it.  It was a celebration of that person's life and a chance to recall some touching, yet funny stories. But have you noticed that these moments make you question how happy YOU really are in life?  This event especially, as following a very short illness, this person was given the news that they literally had only days to live.  How the *&%! do you process that news? It got me thinking, if a doctor had told me that, would I be happy in the knowledge that I'd been living my best life?  Would I be thinking 'yep, I reckon I've done alright' , this news is NOT what I want to hear but I'm ok with how I...

Having lots of PA is vital in my role as a PA!  Yep, it's all about 'positive attitude' this week and it could be the key to your happiness at work. It might sound a bit dramatic but without a positive attitude I simply wouldn't be able to do my job and get through the day.  For example, myself and a fellow PA spent an hour last week trying to book one meeting - yes, seriously!  You see, it's a bit like playing 'Kerplunk' (anyone else remember that game?!), you move one item in the diary and the whole thing comes crashing down and you lose ALL your marbles - quite literally in our case.  But we persevered with "what if we moved that", "what if we changed the time for that", "what if we shortened that meeting to fit it in there" and so the discussions continued until we'd sorted it.  Our positive attitude kept us going and exploring at all options. That's the thing about having a positive attitude, it drives you forward...

It’s been a lovely long weekend of well needed downtime so I won’t keep you too long for this week’s blog, as I hope you’re doing the same.   A few months ago, my company gave us all a ‘wellbeing day’, a day that could be taken whenever we chose to do so, on the understanding that we had to do something enjoyable. It was their way of acknowledging the pressure everyone had been under over the course of the previous year. I chose to take mine last Thursday and tag it onto the bank holiday weekend, and as I don’t work Fridays, that meant a super long weekend for me!!! I started my day with a run in beautiful sunshine around one of my favourite routes. I then went for my second Covid vaccine, ok so not exactly enjoyable but wellbeing all the same. On the way home I called into the shop for fresh croissants, how decadent on a Thursday.   I then decided to go shopping for some new clothes. It’s been a while as I’ve spent most of my time in Lycra or something ever so slightly more e...

Ah yes, that age old topic of communication skills, don't we love to bang on about this subject.  We're criticised of under-communicating, over-communicating, being too positive, being too negative, not enough detail, too much detail, talking too much, not talking enough blah blah blah. It is however, hugely important to us as humans to be able to communicate effectively and we all have little traits or gestures that can be interpreted in the wrong way so we need to be aware of how we communicate. So what are the basics we need to be aware of: Voice Our voices are unique to us so we can't change them as such but we can change the pace, tone and volume of how we speak.  In this day and age, things move so quickly and we all want to get our point across that most of us speak way too fast.  So first of all, let's slow down a bit.  The tone of our voice matters too, it can show 'coldness' towards someone or it can show 'warmth and empathy' - read your audi...

When did we become so completely and utterly reliant on tech??   I’m usually banging on about having a break from screens, having a day of detox from your gadgets and I’m usually pretty chilled about having time away from my phone. However, recent events made me go into a complete meltdown.   Last Tuesday evening we had the mother of all storms, there was thunder, lightning, torrential rain and some pretty hefty hailstones.   I’d literally just got home from running so I was counting my blessings that I’d only encountered about 10 mins of the thunderstorm on my last mile back. As me and Mr Bob watched the worsening storm from the safety of our orangery, there was an almighty crash, bang, wallop which sounded like an explosion. We discovered the lightning had struck the lamppost outside our house and the resulting surge had blown out the phones lines and therefore the internet.   This is a pic our neighbour took and our house is directly across from where the lightnin...