Pebbles and difficult decisions

difficult decisions

One of the difficult decisions we face every weekend is where to go! Durham is within easy reach of cities, mountains, woods, moors and the seaside. As well as gorgeous sandy beaches (not many blackened by coal now), the North East of England coast has ones lots of interesting rocks and pebbles. So after some…

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Best 5 Resilience Resources in Times of Uncertainty

Resilience Resources

Resilience Resources A wealth of resilience resources were created in the first few weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown. I thought you might appreciate having some of the best in one place. Although they were created for lockdown and Covid-19 times, almost all of them are useful in any difficult times. 1. Use your natural strengths–VIA…

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Conflict Coaching

Conflict coaching

Conflict coaching helps you to be your best self in conflict and stressful situations. Most people react to stress instinctively or in ingrained patterns learned from their childhood. Are you happy with the way you respond to conflict? Does it give you the results you want? Sometimes, learned responses work in one situation but not…

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How to get back up when you’ve been knocked down

sun comes up and we get back up

However well we plan, life has a habit of throwing unexpected curve balls. We can’t stop getting knocked down, but we can get back up. We can’t make a brand new start, but we can start now and make a brand new ending. What we do that doesn’t help What do we do when we’re…

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ABC of Ways to Cheer Yourself Up

Feeling down in the dumps after your holiday? Or depressed that you didn’t get away? If you are working and most people aren’t it’s easy to feel miserable. Everyone else seems to be off, regular routines are disrupted,  and nothing seems quite right. Credit cards are maxed out, we feel sluggish and things seem a…

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Leaving Home? Excited but Doubtful?

Doubtful?

You’ve been thinking about leaving home for such a long time. Everyone says how excited you must be about the new opportunity. You are, and yet…behind the happy face, you have some worries. Excited but Doubtful You don’t want to say anything to your parents because your mum is already sure that you will starve…

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Making the best of it: It’s how you play your hand

Making the best of it mixed up

Making the Best of It Over the recent bank holiday, I hope you’ve had time to relax and do something different, as I’ve had. I entertained,  walked in woods bursting out in bloom, played board games and worked on puzzles. One of the puzzles was a series of anagrams, no clues, just anagrams. I was…

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How to Reset a Bad Day–With a Smile

Reset bad day with smile

ad You know those days when everything seems to go wrong and you wish the day had a reset button? Well, amazingly, there is something that works just like one. A smile.  So how do you reset a bad day with a smile when you’re already down in the dumps? Fake it? Well, although some…

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5 Ways to Boost Your Resilience (even works for grumpy people)

5 Quick Ways to Boost Your Resilience and Mood (even for grumpy people) January Blues? Run out of steam on the New Year resolutions? Tired of gray skies and grumpy people?  Just like a ball without much air, you’ve lost your bounce. You need some help to boost your resilience. And no, it isn’t just happy,…

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Resilience: Finding the Silver Lining

clouds silver lining

Every so often I spend a day in prison. Not because I’ve been convicted, I deliver a workshop to pre-release prisoners. Going through the security and talking to the people about their daily lives makes me realise how much we take for granted. The workshop covers controlling our emotions, building resilience and achieving goals. First,…

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