The theme for August has been one of simplicity. In my last blog I talked about the importance of ditching ‘Mummy Guilt’; something most of us feel at some point in our parenting journey. Today I want to talk about making time for yourself to create a life you love. When we aren’t wracked by guilt, worrying about what we’re doing wrong, it’s far easier to credit ourselves for what you are doing well.

Living a life that makes you happy is the most loving thing you can do for yourself and everyone else around you. The age old saying about not being able to pour...

As we fast approach September and back to school time,, you are probably looking over the past month with fond memories of the time you’ve been able to spend as a family.

By now, for some of you, the mere mention of children activities might be enough to bring you out in hives, after numerous wrestling matches over the remote control or the toy of the hour. Whichever side of the fence you sit, one thing is for sure. You ARE an amazing mum.

Let’s talk about something all mums at some point in their life experience; Mummy guilt.

No matter the parenting style, most of us will have...

By now, I imagine the school summer holiday will have started for most of you. In my last blog I shared some of my top tips for staying sane during the summer holidays. Planning and preparation are key. You may have a plan for every day, a  budget and the children’s requests on a list on the fridge but have you thought about what to do if things don’t go according to plan?

As with most things in life, some of your best laid plans for your summer holidays may not work out. Illness, childcare even the weather could pose potential challenges. So, what to do?

Spending a few...

This month’s Empower touched upon the topic of having a stress free summer. Continuing on from that theme I thought I’d delve a little deeper into once element that can have the biggest impact on keeping stress at bay. Planning.

Managing the summer holidays with a family in many ways is no different to managing a project at work. We have all sorts of important things to consider: Timescales - roughly 6-8 weeks, budget - to be determined by how many outings or ice creams the children want, milestones - each weekend signifies one week survived and one less to find a multitude of...

If I asked you to tell me who you are without being able to use titles such as mum, wife, partner, sister, manager, employee what would you answer? Would you answer easily or would you find it difficult?

Often as women, it can feel our identity is so tied up in who we are to others, we forget who we are to ourselves. What we love, what makes us happy, what we stand for. It’s easy to know who we in our responsibility roles. We play those roles on autopilot. They are so well rehearsed, we don’t have to think about them. How often do we get the chance to be ‘ourselves’...

June’s Empower focused on discovering your true purpose in life. You may be wondering what knowing your purpose has to do with self-esteem.

If knowing your purpose and living it is key to living a happy, contented life - self-esteem plays a huge role in being able to make that happen. Self-esteem is what allows you to believe you deserve to be happy and enjoy life. When self-esteem is low, its hard to focus on what makes you happy as often the negative self-talk will drown out any positives.

Low self-esteem will have a negative impact on quality of life, affecting confidence and...

In the last blog we looked at self worth and and how it relate to the value we place on ourselves. Following on from that, we’ll explore values, how we determine what’s important to us and why.

If we were asked the question - What are your top 10 values? We would probably answer in different ways. Based on our life experiences and priorities, our value system is as individual as we are - but what exactly are values?

Values are a way of describing what’s most important to us in life and often determine our day-to day and overall priorities. These priorities are likely to...

This month’s newsletter explored self-worth and how for each of us, it ties in with what we believe about ourselves. It can feel as if our belief and values are fixed. In many instances the values we grow up with and are instilled in us, usually from our parents and teachers, are one we take with us through life. They help us navigate the world and give us a sense of ‘knowing’ and belonging. They don’t change much, if at all and they are just what we believe.

When looking at values about ourselves it can be unhelpful for them to be fixed as sometimes the level of...

Our theme for this month is confidence. In addition to mindset, the second part of the confidence jigsaw is courage. I don’t know about you but anytime I hear the word courage I think of the lion in The Wizard of Oz who goes on a journey with Dorothy and the other characters in the hope that the Wizard will gift him courage. It turns out that in spite of always feeling fearful Cowardly Lion was acting with courage all along. He believed that feeling fear meant he wasn’t brave. He didn’t see any courage in the actions he took when he felt fear - because he focused on the...

How do you feel when you hear people talk about mindset? Over the past few years, the idea that we have total control over what we think at any given time has become almost trendy. Perhaps, making it seem like the answer to any challenge in life is to throw fairy dust at it.

If all it took to achieve success were a positive state of mind, we would never have any problems achieving what we set out to. If only it were that simple. Maintaining a positive frame of mind when you’re tired, overwhelmed and under pressure can be challenging, to say the least. Does having a mindset for...