Tag Archives: relax

Friday the Thirteenth

12 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Advice, Attitude, Being brave, Life journey

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Friday the 13th…
Scared or not?
There are some people who are so scared of the date that they stay at home to avoid accidents or sudden death.  If you are one of those people, hello! We wish that we were home in our pyjamas too.
So, how can we be scared of a date?
Or a black cat crossing our path, or walking under a ladder, or breaking a mirror or any other superstition that you may have grown up with?
My mother taught me that if I killed a spider, I would lose my money which may explain a lot….
Whether you are superstitious or not, I hope that you are aware of the fact that all of these fears only come true if you allow them to.  The more you think about them and obsess about them, the more likely it is that something happens to you.  Not because you are willing it to but because you are more aware of things potentially going wrong.
Suddenly you have a spate of bad luck and you remember that a cat happened to have run past you a few days ago and that cat might have even been black.
The more you think about it, the more you notice that your luck seems to have changed for the worst.

The truth is that some things are just out of your control.  Things happen – whether for a reason or not.  You go through good things and bad things and you may be prepared for them or not.  And a lot of the time, they have nothing to do with you.  You just happened to be there.  Wrong place, wrong time, wrong man, wrong career choice….
When you realise that you have no control, you can either freak out or sit back and relax.
Okay, maybe not relax but realise that things are out of your hands and you can stress about forcing it back to the way that you want it to be or see where it takes you.
Because it may be a crazy, wild adventure.
Wild enough to even go to work on Friday the 13th!

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Chocolate cake cure

18 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Advice, Anxiety, Chocolate yeah!, Depression, Food for the soul, Illness, Life Lessons, Recipes

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My 13 year old son has an autoimmune illness and he deals with frequent anxiety.
It is a constant battle for him to deal with his issues and he swears that chocolate cupcakes still warm out of the oven are a cure-all for a bad day.

This is what he writes:
How chocolate cake makes everything better

When you are feeling down or depressed and you need something to make you feel better – eat chocolate cake.  Cold, warm, hot, all of them are delicious.  Every bit of soft, spongy, rich chocolatey taste gives you the sensation where the taste is so good that you enter your own space.  It is like the world of stress doesn’t exist and all of your problems and worries are gone.  Afterwards you can focus on your work, your mission, your goal.
Life lesson: Eat Chocolate Cake!

I can’t argue with him even if I am not the world’s greatest chocolate cake lover.  But just spending a few minutes calmly enjoying something that you love is going to make a big difference.  Particularly if you are becoming overwhelmed by stress and anxiety.  You are seriously not going to get anything done while you are panicking.
Rather watch your manager’s expression while you sip your tea and eat your snack as they stare you down expecting your deadline to be met yesterday (don’t tell them I said this…)

So here is my son’s favourite chocolate cake recipe.  It sounds crazy but that is because it is called a crazy cake but trust me on this.  It is a fast and easy way to make cake.  You can make it into one large cake (enough to share with everyone in the office) or make 24 cupcakes – freeze them all and take one out each day to pop into your lunch box….

3 cups flour
2 cups white sugar (stop right here if you are diabetic or a health food fanatic)
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½  cup cocoa powder

Mix all of these ingredients into a large bowl and then make three wells and add:
¾ cup sunflower oil
2 tablespoons vinegar (really!)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence or extract (or be daring and use a different flavouring – I’m quite partial to caramel)
Put each one into a well (don’t worry if they overflow or the wells collapse.  It works anyway)
Top the whole mix with 2 cups of water and mix well until there are no lumps (I do this in a mixer but you can do it by hand)
Pour into a prepared cake tin (or in a foil roasting tin that you can just throw away when the cake has been eaten) or into 24 cupcake cases (put them in muffin tins because the mixture is really runny)

Bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes for a cake and 25 minutes for cupcakes

Make time for relaxation

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Relaxation, Shades of Grey

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I am sitting at a restaurant with my kids having a (partly) leisurely lunch with my kids on a Thursday afternoon. Why? Because I can!
After a very stressful morning at work, the last thing I feel like doing is working. And even though I have deadlines looming closer, I know that forcing myself to work when I am already stressed and overworked is not going to be productive.
So that leads me to part 4 of finding the grey – making time for relaxation.
In our busy, stressful lives we forget that relaxation is not only important but is actually a necessity for our sanity.
You are not going to achieve anything if you burn out because you don’t think that relaxation is part of working. And the brilliant companies out there realise this. They value creating time and space for their employees to relax because they understand that a happy, relaxed employee is going to be more productive, take less sick leave and be more loyal to the company.
Yes, I can sense most of you rolling your eyes because the only reason you are reading this blog is because your job is so stressful and your company is so uncaring.
So that leaves the responsibility of relaxation time up to you! Sorry, but it does.
Find time in your day for relaxation – in the beginning it may seem impossible but if you get into the habit of making time to relax, it gets easier.
Try deep breathing exercises at your desk; start a yoga or stretching group at lunch time;  take a 10 minute walk during your tea break;  meet somebody for a chat about non-work related issues; eat energising food for lunch; take a 5 minute relaxation session away from your desk.
Unchain those invisible chains that bind you to your desk or your computer or those piles of paperwork.  Not taking a break is not going to get it done, it is going to take you longer to get it done!
Think about your plan for relaxation over the weekend and then on Monday – start getting your relaxation time sorted and watch how things improve.
You deserve a break – take it!