How is 2018 treating you so far? Did you know that last Monday was 'Blue Monday'? Apparently the day of the year when people are at their most sad, all the excitement of Christmas over and not much to look forward to. Apparently being back in work and Summer being a good few months away is enough reason to want to forget the New Year altogether and hibernate.

Well, this may be the case for some people, where I come from we don't need a holiday company making up days and telling us when to feel happy or sad. That said it is worth noting that Blue Monday is indeed the week before it is...

Merry Christmas!

With only six days to go until the end of the year, its worth taking time to reflect on the past 12 months but also to look forward to 2018 and all the possibilities that are open for you. You’ve made it to the end of another year, collected many memories and overcome many obstacles, no matter how minor, along the way. It’s time to celebrate all you’ve achieved.

Relax, have that glass of prosecco and enjoy the fruits of your labour. Have an amazing Christmas and a New Year without a shred of worry, for now, it’s time to enjoy yourself. You can keep...

With December fast approaching it’s the perfect time to reflect on the year so far. I imagine that you’ve achieved many of the things you set out to do and possibly some things that you didn't set out to. Congratulations! You have made it this far. It is quite likely you didn't achieve everything you wanted to this year but we aren't as the end of the year just yet so there is still time.

Even the most committed of us are likely to take our eye off the proverbial ball at some point or encounter challenges that completely throw us off track. You’re not going to achieve...

In my last blog I asked how focusing on your personal goals and aspirations had been going. I explained the importance of making sure goals are in alignment with your core values to ensure greater success.

No matter what they are, incorporating small changes into your day to day life can be a challenge. Not least because we are creatures of habit and habits can be difficult to break. Rather than trying to change or incorporate everything at once, the best way to make effective long lasting changes is to begin to introduce small changes one by one.

Let’s use an example of a change...

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...

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...

My last blog covered the topic of starting to get to grips with the clutter that may have accumulated over some time in your home. The process of decluttering doesn’t need to be a stressful one but it does require some discipline.

Today I’d like to look at the bit that most of us find difficult when it comes to deciding what should stay and what should go. Letting go of the things we no longer need to keep. How do we decide what should stay and what should go? After all, we don’t generally come from a place of buying and storing things we think we don’t need. Often...

Spring has officially sprung and with Shrove Tuesday traditionally allowing for clearing out the pantry, the start of Spring seems a good time to have a general clear out. In this month’s Empower we talked about the effects clutter can have not just on the appearance of our homes but also how it can make us feel.

Sometimes when we’re moving from one task to the next and the days seem to blend into one another it’s easy for mess and clutter to accumulate quickly. Before you know it, the few pieces of mail you promised yourself you would deal with has turned into a mountain...