How to manage post holiday stress?

The holiday are over and it's time to get back to the daily routine, which for many of us does not fill us with glee.

Do you have that feeling that life has to be more than simply working to pay the bills?

Is your inner voice shouting out all the things in your daily life that you do not enjoy, all the mundane and boring tasks that have to be done?

It is chattering non-stop and robbing your happiness and peace?

As you go about your daily activities are you constantly thinking of the fun times you had on holiday – of the freedom of walking on the beach – of the relaxed evenings with no e-mails / phones or agendas, waking up with nothing to do apart from have fun….

If you can relate to the above then the chances are you are starting to feel stressed inside, and it's time to take action to stop this before it becomes real.

www.soulcentre.org

A few tips from our resident stress experts at SoulCentre:

• Accept reality - Understand that whatever is happening in your life at this moment is a choice you made – so do not fight with it – simply accept it, this way you will be able to manage the situation in a more calm manner.
• Do not focus on the past - The holiday is over; it was fun at that moment in tIme, however it is now in the past. If you live this moment wanting what has passed, then you will become unhappy in this moment. Once you realise this then you simply focus on this moment with awareness and see the positives in this moment.
• Count your blessings and focus on what is good at this moment in your life - You were able to take a holiday and to travel to a lovely place; this is truly a blessing that many cannot afford.
• Plan in “me time” – simply get out your diary and block in at least 2 hours a week as “me time”. During this time do whatever you desire as a treat to yourself.
• STOP – look at the thoughts in your mind - Are they positive and serving your happiness? If not then change them; no one wants to be unhappy, so choose positive thoughts that serve you. For example you can think about planning a future break, you can think about the faces of those you love, about nature, about your favourite food… Whatever it is simply switch and focus on what makes you feel happy.

At SoulCentre we keep you stable in the storms of life.

We teach techniques and provide tools that support you in life.

We tell you stories that stay with you forever and ones where simply by hearing them you understand the lessons of life.

Life is a gift – Celebrate it!

Wisdom for the Soul

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE CARDS - SOULCENTRE

Do you ever wish you could simply find the answer to a question in life or do you ever feel a bit lost and would just love for some words of wisdom?

Well we have the solution, or as we love to say, the SOUL-ution.

SoulCentre Inspirational Words of Wisdom – Our SOUL Card series.

• Wisdom at your fingertips for you to use for any and every occasion.
• Beautiful quote cards that give you a boost in life just when you need it the most.
• Leave them on your coffee tables and pick a card whenever you need a boost.
• Put them on your walls / notice boards/ fridge to keep you inspired.
• Use them as handy post cards / notes to friends.

Available through SoulCentre – Order on line or simply just drop us an E-mail and order your set today.www.soulcentre.org

How to be truly happy - 5 Essential Secrets

Do you ever feel caught up in all the mundane things of life while happiness seems to elude you? Do you feel like life is just passing you by? Do you sometimes feel that you are doing so much but that you are not truly happy?

Life is too short to postpone happiness until the conditions are right. So if we are waiting for something is our world to be just right before we become happy, then we are keeping ourselves in an endless cycle of waiting!

Everywhere around, people are trying desperately to find their happiness in relationships, in expensive cars, mansions, overseas holidays, money, the perfect place or the perfect job – and yet after they have experienced some or all of the above, they are still not happy.

Happiness is the special sauce that makes everything else in life worthwhile. And if happiness is missing, then even a life full of wealth and health is not meaningful.

"If a person is happy, life is worthwhile" - Vikas

So how can one become truly happy?

What are the essentials to happiness?

Let me guide you to the 5 essential secrets that will create real happiness for you.

SECRET NO: 1 – START YOUR DAY WITH GRATITUDE

All of us have so much to be grateful for; it’s just that most times, we don’t realize it.

Gratitude helps to cultivate a positive mindset, which will help you to accept yourself for who you really are. Remember, as your day begins, you don’t know what the day will bring to you, but you can decide what you will bring to this day! So choose to bring a grateful and happy ‘you’ to your day and see the benefits happen.

Start your day with a positive attitude and a positive mind-set. Spend 3 minutes before you get active in the morning reminding yourself what is great in your life.

Start your day on a positive note, because a spiritual law is that whatever is inside you is what comes out of you. So if you create happiness inside by being grateful, you will ooze happiness all day, which in turn will make your day a happy one!

SECRET NO: 2 – DURING THE DAY, STRENGHTEN YOUR POSITIVE MUSCLES

As your day begins to unfold, many types of things, results and people will be encountered.

No matter what comes your way, choosing to be positive will help you to stay strong within the challenge and handle it in a peaceful and powerful manner. Even when things are difficult, try being positive and strive to make the best of whatever situation you’re in. It will help make even the most challenging situations easier to bear.

So as you live your life during the day, look for the positive not for the negative.

Often, during the day, repeat positive affirmations about what you want. Do so with faith, feelings, intention and focus. Your mind is the filter for this world around you, so look for the good in every situation, and you are sure to see it.

“Don’t gain all the wealth and lose your soul” - Vikas

SECRET NO: 3 – JUST FOR TODAY, ACCEPT IMPERFECTION

It’s a fact that we all have imperfections. When we stop worrying about our imperfections and what others think about us, and just start being what we are, then we can truly offer the world the best we have. For as long as we are living a life of pretense, we are sure to be tense, and real happiness will elude us.

Moreover, you can’t expect people to be perfect all the time. Perfection comes when you’re ok with imperfection.

Our ideas about the way the world works are based, in part, upon our expectations. Those expectations color our experience, good or bad and influence our reactions and responses to just about everything and everyone that we encounter.

Expectations help us form a world view, but they can also skew that world view in unexpected and sometimes unwanted ways. The more the expectations, the more the disappointment.

Being a perfectionist will not make you happy, I promise. So ease up a little bit, check the expectations you carry and lower them if necessary, and see how much more you can enjoy life.

You will be happily surprised.

SECRET NO: 4 - TRAVEL LIGHT

Keep your mind light. Carry the good experiences with you, and the lessons from the bad experiences. Both will help you and make you a better person. But carrying negative memories will only take your happiness away.

The best short-cut to happiness is meditation, which teaches you to train your mind to be calm and happy. Never put the key of your happiness in anyone else’s hands.

“Life is not a race, don’t make it so” - Vikas

SECRET NO: 5 – HUG TODAY. IT WON’T COME BACK.

So many people keep themselves constantly busy, but spend their whole life waiting to start living. And in the meantime, this beautiful gift from life called ‘today ‘is passing by forever!

Give your attention to the value of today. This day is your life, and you are alive only today! So value it, cherish it and live it fully while it is here. Because it’s soon going to be gone forever.

Take action in your life on the problems you face, if any. Any action is better than burying your head in the sand, hiding from the world, and more importantly yourself. But at the same time, don’t let your pains and problems define your experience; you also have a lot of blessings in your life, so let that be the flavor of the day!

"Create happiness, don’t wait for it!" – Vikas

Quit waiting for life to work out. Make a change and take control. You control your own happiness; don’t waste any more time waiting for it to come find you.

So embrace and HUG your life today. Bring some happiness, understanding and gratitude to your life today!

“H – Happiness; U – Understanding; G – Gratitude” - Vikas

There is always a lot in life to be happy and grateful for. Start living in the only moment that matters, right now. The more you are focused on the past or the future, the more you are missing out on happiness right now.

Pay attention to this day and make yourself truly happy, no matter what!

Reiki Healing – How to develop a healing touch

Reiki is a gentle, hands on healing practice that brings so many benefits to the body. It is easy to learn and remains with you for life.

Reiki allows the body to move into a state of balance and this means that the body is better equipped to heal itself.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are completely absorbed or lost in nature? Maybe you are sitting on the beach and watching a sunset, or, you have just climbed to the top of a mountain and are admiring the view.

In that moment everything else is forgotten; your aches and pains, your stresses and worries of life…in fact you are so completely absorbed in the moment that you feel so alive and in bliss. This is what I call the "Reiki feeling", and once you learn Reiki you simply put your hands on your own body and the "Reiki feeling" results.

Anyone and everyone can learn Reiki and at SoulCentre we have taught children from the age of 6 all the way to adults of 86.

So how do you develop the Reiki healing touch?

You need to attend a basic level Reiki class and during the class you will learn all about the hand positions on the body and how emotions are stored in certain areas of the body.

By simply putting your hands in certain positions on your body, the Reiki flows into the body and can have significant benefits not only to physical healing, but also to emotional and mental issues.

For example if you suffer from migraines, once you start to learn Reiki you may realise that you are being too hard on yourself, or expecting too much from others and by using Reiki your body starts to adjust. In addition, emotionally you feel happier and more stable and and you start to let go of things you cannot control.

The result is a healthier you and the migraines improve.

At SoulCentre we have taught thousands of students, many with healing needs. Reiki works on everything! It is also a great first aid kit to have in your hands for any and every occasion.

Reiki really is easy to learn and in 2 days you become so enthusiastic you cannot wait to get started on your own body and also your friends and family.

As Sally says "Keep those hot hands working and there is never an excuse to have lazy hands."

The next Reiki Level 1 will be held at SoulCentre on Saturday 20/Sunday 21 August.

We teach all the way from beginner to Reiki Master level.

www.soulcentre.org

How to stay calm in the storm...

8 powerful strategies to swim while others are sinking

The storm is all around us. Stock-markets plunge, economies around the world go into a tail-spin, and thousands lose their jobs and their livelihood. Relationships break up under the stress, divorce rates shoot up and millions across the world slide into debt for years to come. News of doom and gloom is the flavour of the day, every day. Everywhere you look, un-certainty and in-stability reigns.

How do we handle this storm that has come upon us? How do we stay centred even as the world shakes? How do we swim while others are sinking?

Here are 8 focused qualities that are powerful solutions to a time of crisis, guaranteed to keep you calm in the storm of life.

1. Have a willingness to make and follow hard choices  Crisis forces you to take a realistic look at the bigger picture of your life and make some hard choices to move forward. Be willing to do this rather than resist it. Make difficult choices if you need to and demonstrate a whatever-it-takes attitude. Remember, it takes less energy to get an unpleasant task done “right now” than to worry about it all day.
2. Have a personal vision  Having a personal goal of getting out of the crisis, as it will become the light that guides you forward. A goal will motivate you and make it easier to take corrective measures while having no goal will just make you drift and lose direction through the crisis. Goals give you power. Choose not to waste your precious present life on guilt about the past or concern for the future.
3. Set a clear strategy  To reach the goal, plan a clear strategy, and communicate it to others who are a part of it. Plan your journey forward and walk the plan. It is a truth that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Simplify your life!  Start eliminating the trivial things.  Also  don't major in minor things. Eliminate unnecessary commitments.
4. Be persistent  Probably the key quality to coming out of crisis is persistence  a determined mind that just never gives up. Once your mind is set, stick to your target with Crab-like persistence, changing only if a better way shows itself. Practice consciously doing one thing at a time, keeping your mind focused on the present.
5. Capitalize on opportunity  There is good even in the worst of times. Identify this by looking deeply at how you can benefit in the long term from the current crisis. Be quick to spot opportunity and to seize it to your advantage. Warren Buffet, the world's best performing investor, is famously known for making his greatest and largest purchases at a time of crisis when everyone else is selling. Welcome change as an opportunity and challenge to learn and grow
6. Be patient  Be willing to wait for the reward of your efforts. Believe that the strong man is a patient man. A crisis has little flexibility for the impatient or the irritable. Take time to be alone on a regular basis, to listen to your heart, check your intentions; re-evaluate your goals and your activities. If your schedule is busy, prioritise your activities and do the most important ones first.
7. Follow your vision with constant and constructive action  Take positive and persistent action on a regular basis. Even if the results are not fast to come, trudge on ahead towards your goal. Take baby steps if you have to, but whatever you do, make sure you are moving ahead all the time. The direction you are going in is important, not the speed. Plan to do something each day that takes you one step forward.
8. Stay optimistic  The night is darkest before the dawn breaks. Behind every dark cloud is a silver lining. The sun shines even when the clouds cover it. The dark night leads to sunrise and the day will end in darkness. Be aware of the larger movements and rhythms of life and stay optimistic even as you go through this time of chaos and crisis. You are bigger than it, and this is not the end of your life; it is just a comma in the sentence of your life, not the full stop. Having a positive mind-set is the greatest asset you can have in a time of inner or outer crisis.
   

7 Steps to Activate the Subconscious Mind...

Deep down, below the surface of our thoughts, lies that powerful component of our mind that we call the subconscious.

You can use your subconscious mind to rid yourself of frustration, anger, and resentment. This hidden guide will help you solve your most pressing problems and lead you to make the right decision. You can also use it's power to free yourself from fear, anxiety, and worry forever, as well as to deactivate and defuse a failure attitude and replace it with a more positive outlook.

One of the principles many achievers use is: Find a need and fill it.

The same principle applies to your subconscious mind. You must give it a goal to reach, an objective to achieve, before it will go into action.

Here is a 7 step procedure that will help activate the power of the subconscious mind:

1. Your subconscious mind operates best in a climate of faith and acceptance. With confidence, expect your problems to be solved, your obstacles removed and your goals achieved. This approach causes the sub-conscious mind to function at it’s best.
2. Know exactly what it is you want to accomplish. Be specific about the goal you want to reach, and the objective you want to attain.
3. Believe in your heart that your subconscious mind will deliver the answer you want or need.
4. Separate fact from opinion. Do your homework and gather all available facts on the subject.
5. Feed those facts into your subconscious mind with your request for an answer.
6. Relax. Wait patiently and watch diligently for the answer to your question or the solution to your problem. In due course it will come.
7. Take immediate action when your answer arrives. The first six steps are critically important, but unless you follow through and take action, all the preceding work will have been wasted. You'll soon discover that if you fail to act, your subconscious mind will reach the conclusion that you are not serious about your requests for help.

Scientific breakthroughs, great musical compositions, inspiring books, and all other ideas for original accomplishment are born within the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is the source of all inspiration, all motivation, and the excitement that rushes over you by a new idea or possibility.

It is the source of hunches, intuition, and flashes of brilliance.