“A miracle to one person is an expectation to another” – this quote came to me one day when I was texting someone – what do I mean?

People manifest their desires because they expect their desires to happen.  They realise they are the power in their own lives.  When we expect our desires, we keep the faith, we figure out what we need to do to assist the manifestation – we get creative!  We know it’s just a matter of time before we get our desires.

Ciúnas – 10^th Anniversary on 1^st March 2010

What a 10 years it’s been – a business plan was written back then but Ciúnas took on a life of its own through the people I met and the experiences I had.  I know now that life is meant to be fun and along the way we have much learning to do in order to create that fun.

Because of our past negative or painful experiences we made some very bizarre decisions about what we believe we can and can’t do.  Pain often makes us feel powerless and then we start believing that’s who we are.  When something happens, there’s the event, our perception of it and our response to it.  We can’t change the event but we can definitely control our perception and response to it.  Unfortunately sometimes we adopt the perception and response of those who influence us, as opposed to determining our own perception and response.  This is where the “rot of powerlessness can set in”.  After a while the “rot” seems the “norm” and we begin to believe that’s how we are, but is it our truth?  Much of our emotional development is complete by the time we’re 7 years old – that development can be wonderful or not, depending on who or what influenced our decisions about ourselves.

We don’t always realize how powerful we are so to create our dreams we have to challenge some of those “dodgy” beliefs we adopted.  Over the past 10 years, I’ve had to “delete” a few “lies” that I thought were true and what a relief to discover, I’m much more than what I first believed.

When I decided to create Ciúnas, I wanted to have a business that allowed me to do what I love, generated a comfortable income, that I could do anywhere in the world.  I’m still in the process of refining those goals.  I love what I do, and love what doing what I do teaches me about myself and life.  The income is sometimes “comfortable” and sometimes not, a bit more learning about creating abundance is required but oh I can see the progress!  The more I realize my own power, the more I generate “comfortable” income.  I have, however, generated much abundance that isn’t just money.  As regards to working anywhere in the world, if starting in Dublin and moving to Carrick-on-Shannon counts, then I’m “moving”.  One thing I do know is that change is constant – we can’t stand still so embrace change.

I’m very grateful to all the support I’d had over the years – the faith people put in me when I hadn’t as much faith – I so appreciate that.  Why is it that we see power in other people before we can see and appreciate it in ourselves?  People often credit me with “changing their lives” and yes I had input but I can only work with the “material” I’m given.  As the saying goes “you can take the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”.

Over these 10 years, I’ve acquired a huge respect for people and their amazing spirits.  People have this huge capacity to survive, what often sounds “un-survivable”.  Despite the most awful pain, people keep going and don’t give up – they just know instinctively that life can get better and when they discover that if they change their attitude, then they attract “better” – that’s the miracle of the human spirit.  I love meeting those “spirits”.

So where to now – more of everything thank you……… more fun, more learning, more abundance, more spirit and more power!

People often ask me how to fight negativity – there’s a lot of it around!

• Stop listening to the “external” negativity and making it your own
• Do an internal stock-take of your abilities and talents
• Appreciate those abilities and talents and notice when you use them and their impact on people and situations
• Give thanks all the time for all the great things in your life (and if your now saying, “there’s no great things” – Look harder!)
• Start to notice the gifts you receive on a daily basis – it could be a friendly smile, a car stopping to let you cross the road, a compliment or someone makes you laugh…………..  These are the simple gifts that we can forget the notice.

Do these things for a while and I guarantee your focus of attention will become more positive and life will get better incrementally. You’ll become more open to seeing your opportunities.

Here’s something I’ve learned and sometimes forgot and had to relearn about manifesting desires and dreams:

• Set your intention positively
• Put it “out there” to the Universe
• Don’t absorb the fears/concerns of others – what is your truth, what is right for you?
• Clear your own fears and doubts about your ability to deliver your desire
• Clear any fear you may have about receiving your desire
• Ensure you 100% believe you deserve your desire and that it fits with your sense of yourself
• Demonstrate your faith in your desire
• Identify and do all the actions you can to deliver the desire, and in doing so, allow your creativity to flourish without judgment.
• Trust your intuition – if it feels right in your gut, then it is right.
• Relax and allow the Universe to do it’s “bit”
• Keep the faith
• Keep your eyes open – opportunities can present themselves in very unusual ways
• Receive graciously and be grateful
• Give joyful thanks all the time.

Have fun and here’s to another wonderful 10 years of Ciúnas.

What is your relationship with food?

We all love food but some of us over-indulge while others seem to know how to stop!  Can eating be fun, yet balanced so that we can have the body we want?  Is food a battleground, a comfort, a demonstration of love, a boredom “avoider”, or is it enjoyable sustenance for the body?

Our relationship with food is forged at a very young age and food has so many associations for us – just think for a moment of the smell of freshly baked bread – it can transport many of us back to our mother’s kitchen, happily covered in flour waiting to lick the bowl.  The ideal relationship with food is to use it as fuel for the body, knowing when we have enough, and enjoy it.  We don’t pore extra petrol into our cars when the tank is full so why do we do that to our bodies?

If you notice that you are eating food because you are bored or want support and comfort, what can you do?

• For boredom, think about what you enjoy that doesn’t involve food.  Explore other options and try new things.  Could you join a club, take up a sport or join a night-class, go for a walk with a friend, even calling a friend is enough to distract us from thoughts of food.

• Sometimes changes in our lifestyles can trigger an increase in our eating habits.  Perhaps there are more demands on you time and you don’t have time for yourself so food becomes a substitute way of caring for yourself.  Think about other ways to care for you?

• “Food is always reliable, it doesn’t let us down or criticize or take us for granted”.  It’s only a short-term solution though.  When we overeat, we tend to be unhappy and critical of ourselves, why would you believe you deserve such criticism and abuse?  Look at what is great about you, what is special about you and appreciate yourself and all you do.

• How often have you eaten rather than spoke up for yourself?  What stops you speak your truth.  Your truth is as valid as anyone else’s.  Honest expression is vital for our emotional wellbeing.  When we care enough about ourselves to stand up for ourselves, then we really are on the road to self-empowerment.

There were some basic elements of Irish society that have really affected our relationship with food:

• “Clean your plate”, “don’t waste that good food and all the people that are starving in the world”.   I was 25 before I realised eating food that I didn’t want meant I was using my body as a dustbin!

• Life was a struggle for people who had to support large families and often they were too busy to spend “quality time” with children.  How many of our parents proudly stated “we hadn’t much but there was always food on the table” which of course you ate and didn’t dare leave on the plate.  Food was a demonstration of love and the more food, the move love.  Find another way to show love.

• “There’s a good child, clean plate, well done”.  Everyone wants approval and praise and sometimes mealtimes were the only time we got any approval so naturally it’s easy to see how many of us ate more food just to hear those words.

We all enjoy eating out, it’s sociable, it’s a treat but do we really need 3 or 4 courses?  Do you actually taste the food or are you too busy talking?

So how can you increase your enjoyment of the “eating out” experience?

• When you’re choosing from the menu, do you see the dishes in your mind or taste them or enjoy the sound of the ingredients or do you remember how you felt when you last had a similar dish?  Each of us has a strategy and once you know your strategy, then even choosing from the menu can add to the overall experience.

• When the food arrives, enjoy the look of it and smell the aroma.

• Eat slowly; perhaps put the knife and fork down when you are talking. When you’re eating, concentrate on the food and when you are talking concentrate on that – it will be more fun when you do one thing at a time.

• Take small mouthfuls and chew your food so that you actually taste it.

• When you eat slowly, you give your body time to digest the food and become aware when you are full.  When we eat too fast, we don’t tend to realise how full we are until all the food is eaten.  I don’t know anyone who enjoys that really stuffed feeling.

• Enjoy your wine, it has its own taste and aroma which is best enjoyed separately and not used to “wash down” food.  So fully chew and swallow your food before drinking, that way you can enjoy your drink as well.

• Remember you are an adult now, you won’t get told off for not cleaning your plate and you won’t get praise for eating everything either!

The best time to eat is when you are beginning to get hungry rather than when you are starving.  When we are too hungry, we tend to eat fast, not enjoy it fully or realise when we are full.

If you are considering embarking on a weight loss program, consider what you want to achieve?  It’s important to have positive goals to work towards.

What is a positive goal and how do you establish your goal?

• If you want to loose weight, ask yourself “if you achieve your goal, what will that do for you”? And the answer might be, “I’ll be more confident, or I’ll be healthier, or I’ll look great in my clothes”.  Ensure your goal is stated positively.
• Write your goal down and put it on the fridge door to remind you.  It’s much easier to work towards a goal to be confident or healthier rather than I want to loose weight, which tends to mean dieting, monitoring what you eat and denying yourself.
• How will you know you have achieved your goal?
• What will you be seeing when you have achieved your goal?
• What will you be hearing when you have achieved your goal?
• What will you be feeling when you have achieved your goal?
• What do you get out of your present eating behaviour that you wish to keep?  It’s important to remember our eating behaviour, even when we’re not happy about it, has a positive benefit for us, e.g. over-eating to provide comfort.
• What do you need to do to help you achieve your goal, e.g. do you know how to eat healthily.  How will you maintain your motivation?
• What emotions trigger over-eating?  Sometimes we need professional help to clear negative emotions.  I’ve seen clients struggle for ages to lose weight with no success but once they cleared the hurt of negative emotion, then the act of losing weight became easy.
• Remember to praise your success!  Every single positive step – appreciate your achievements.

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