Powerful Motivation Strategies

Creating and sustaining motivation can be at the heart of making significant changes in life and is an important part of life coaching. I have recently added a new webpage to my main website introducing the topic of motivation and how to achieve and sustain it. You can find out more at:

Powerful Motivation Strategies

Does Laughter Help Health?

A couple of years ago a team of researchers at the university of Maryland provided some scientific evidence to support the belief held by many in the beneficial effect of laughter, by studying the physiological effects of watching a humourous film compared to watching a stressful film. Maybe the moral is to watch funny films rather than war movies if you are stressed. To find out more, visit:

Laughter and Health

Effective Communication in Relationships

For an article on effective communication in relationships, focusing particularly on core skills of listening and attentiveness, go to:

Improving Communication in Your Relationships

Creative Problem Solving

A recent addition to the Life Coach Tips website describes a technique for creative problem solving which involves writing down a description of the problem and then challenging implicit assumptions in the description. To find out more click on the link below:

Creative Problem Solving Technique

Positive Thinking May Help You Live Longer

A few years ago it was reported that scientists in America had found evidence in research that having a positive attitude and thinking positively can help you to live longer. To find out more, click on the link below:

Positive Thinking Helps You Live Longer

For life coaching tips about how to help you deal with negative thoughts and create positive thinking go to the link below:

Negative Thinking and Positive Thinking

Is Steve McClaren a Fan of NLP?

So, the England football team has failed to reach the European Championships. But was it really a failure? According to NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming - 'There is no such thing as failure only feedback'. Given that Steve McClaren, the England Manager, is reported to have received a £2 Million compensation payout it may be that indeed he is viewing this as positive feedback. I guess this just goes to show the truth of NLP. Any views?

Charisma

Can you develop charisma? - Maureen Shaw thinks so. Find out more by clicking on the link below:

Increase Your Charisma

Feeling Crappy? - All is Not Lost!

Here are 10 tips to lift your spirits if you're feeling out of sorts:

Feeling Crappy - 10 Tips

Overcoming Procrastination

The latest addition to the Life Coach Tips website is a polemic against the dangers of procrastinating. To view the article on procrastination, go to the link below:

Procrastination

Treatment for Panic Attacks

A panic attack can be a terrifying experience, leading you to believe you might be having a heart attack when, fortunately, the experience though very unpleasant is not quite that serious.

Up to one in three people are said to suffer from panic attacks today - what is a panic attack, what causes it and what are the treatment options for panic attacks?

Today I have posted a new page on my website looking at some of the issues around panic attacks, which you can access from the link below:

Panic Attack Treatment

Are We All Eating Too Much?

One of the articles posted recently to my Life Coach Tips Directory of life coaching articles describes how researchers from New York University have discovered that average food portion sizes have been rising at a phonemenal rate in the last few decades. The article, entitled: "Don't Be A Victim of Portion Distortion" gives some tips on how to keep control of the size of the food portions you are eating. You can find the whole article at the link below:

Portion Control

Personal Development Coaching

Personal Development Coaching is a form of life coaching which focuses on helping you to achieve personal growth and character development, so as to enable you to progress over a variety of different life areas. To find out more visit the link below:

Personal Development Coaching

Beat Stress

How do you beat stress? There are a plethora of options available - medication, counselling, CBT, stress management, acupuncture etc. For an overview, visit the Channel4.com article below:

Beat Your Stress

For my own basic stress management tips go to:

Stress Management Tips

Taming Your Gremlin

Yesterday I put a new featured book on my Life Coach Tips website: Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way. If you haven't heard of this famous book, it's by Rick Carson and is an engaging approach to how to release the natural you from the inhibiting voice(s) in your head - which Carson refers to as "your gremlin". You can see a description of it at the Amazon link below and read what people have said about this magical book:

Definition of an Expert

An expert is someone who has made more mistakes than anyone else.

It's OK to make a mistake - that's the best way of learning!

Improving Your Job

If you are someone who finds it hard to get up on a Monday morning (or indeed any weekday morning) because of the thought of another tedious or stressful day at work, you may be interested in the article "Learn to Love Your Job: 7 1/2 Secrets for Living a Life You Love" which contains tips on how to reinvigorate and reshape a flagging work situation. To find out more, visit the link below:

Tips to Improve Your Daily Work

Is there a Formula for Happiness?

Is there a such a thing as a formula for happiness? Well, as a life coach I would certainly agree that there are ways of improving your happiness and your frame of mind generally, but a few years ago someone went even further and suggested you can put it in a formula! See what you think:

Formula for Happiness

Treating 6 Million People for Depression

The Government recently announced its intention to put in place a training programme for counsellors, social workers and health professionals in psychological therapies such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) to provide more help and effective treatment for the 6 million or so people in the UK who suffer from anxiety or depression. You can find out more about the initiative in The Guardian article below:

Government Funding for CBT Training for Care Professionals

For those of us already trained and experienced in providing CBT who have seen its effectiveness in helping many people who suffer from these disabling conditions this is welcome news and not before time.

If you think that you may be experiencing anxiety or depression or might be interested in coaching to assist you in these areas, please call me on 0117 904 2908 or visit the link below to find out more information:

Beating Depression with CBT

Relaxation Techniques

If you are feeling stressed you may find it helpful to try out some simple relaxation exercises. You can find three simple relaxation techniques in my article below:

Relaxation Techniques

Interview with a Life Coach

What is it like being a life coach? If you ever wanted to know, then you may be interested in the Interview with a Life Coach published by The Independent Newspaper on 25 October 2007, "I Want Your Job: Happiness Expert". It paints quite a glamourous picture! You can find the full text of the article at the link below:

Interview with a Life Coach

Life Coaching Tip for Positive Thinking

One thing you can do to help you focus on something positive is to create a password for your mobile phone or email account that reflects your positive aspirations or the state of mind you want to achieve. You might for instance create a password to do with relaxation or humour or lightness or tranquillity or energy. Every time you input the password you will then be reminded of that characteristic or aspiration, so why not create it for something where you frequently have to input the password! Alternatively create a screen saver that reflects the mood you want to achieve - or pin a notice with the nice word on your fridge or your bed or anywhere where you will see it! With a bit of luck this will help you to keep the positive thought present in your mind!

What is Life Coaching?

Every life coach will have their own view of what life coaching is. Many will emphasise that it tends to be more pragmatic and forward looking than counselling, which some see as being more about finding out why you might act in a certain way than on focusing on strategies to improve your situation (some counsellors might dispute this!).

Others might describe a life coach as being someone who helps you to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. Nice as that sounds, it misses the fact that sometimes you need to do a fair bit of trying things out before you discover exactly where it is that you want to be.

I consider the end product of life coaching to be primarily about emotions and satisfaction - about helping people to act and think in ways that will make them feel happier and more fulfilled. The purpose of setting goals or targets to aim for is that you believe that those goals will be what will bring you that sense of satisfaction, inner peace or happiness. If you reach a target but you are no happier then you may wonder whether it was worth it - Perhaps the Beatles had it right when they sang "Money Can't Buy You Love".

You can find out more about my view of life coaching as being primarily about helping you to feel happier, more fulfilled and more in control of your life in my introductory article about what life coaching is. The article considers the relationship of personal goals, personal outcomes and individual needs. If you are interested in reading it, please visit the link below:

What is Life Coaching?

Life Coaching Blog

Welcome to my life coaching blog! Here you will find thoughts and ideas about life coaching, stress management, positive thinking and related topics updated on a regular basis and contributions or comments are welcomed.

One of the aims of the blog is to provide additional information about life coaching to complement the articles and information available on my UK Life Coaching website and on my directory of Life Coaching Articles. I update both of these websites frequently and I hope to be able to use the blog to post notification of recent additions if that is of interest to people.

Please let me know if you have any comments!