Batteries set to ‘recharge’

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

I have split this blog into two parts ‘batteries empty’ and ‘batteries on recharge’.  Up until today, I’d had ‘one of those weeks’ where everything has felt too much.  Fortunately I have just over a week off work now which I am really looking forward to. The plan is to recharge my batteries before going back to work. 

Batteries empty

I’ve desparately tried to fight a cold this week coupled with hayfever at its worst.  I struggled on at work (as you do) but yesterday it got the better of me and I had to go home part way through the day.

Also, imagine having to tell your child that she cannot go to a birthday party because ‘mummy forgot to confirm the invite’.  That was also me yesterday.  My little one was so sweet about it when I apologised to her.  “That’s okay mummy,” she said.   “It’s not your fault”.  She’s not even five yet and so much more in control than me sometimes. 

If you’re a parent, you will be able to relate to the amount of party invites and other papers that come home with your children.  Fortunately the invites are all organised on our noticeboard in the kitchen for once, but what’s the use of that if you haven’t replied to them. I’ve now asked the girls to help me out by checking with me if I’ve replied and then marking the invite accordingly. 

Anyway, back to focusing on my days off. My friend Myra read something the other week about taking time off (to alleviate stress) every 62 days.  Remembering that the last week I took off was around the time of the Royal Wedding, that sort of makes next week about two months later. What a good tip that was; I’m so ready for my week off!  Thanks Myra.

Batteries on recharge

Today can only be described as the best ‘me day’ that I’ve had in ages.  My partner was at home too, but stayed out the way upstairs (I’m not an ogre really!).  He also collected the girls from school and took them to have their hair cut.  This left me with ample time for:

  • an Indian head massage and eye brow shape (thanks Marianne).  I felt so relaxed after the massage and it was a fantiastic experience.  Will definitely book that again (tomorrow maybe – ha ha). 
  • meditation for one whole hour (without interruptions).
  • lunch
  • a girly film – ‘The Holiday’, whilst curled up under a blanket.  It was raining today and I felt cold…oh and I put the fire on too.
  • exercise for an hour – Kundalini Yoga by Maya Fiennes.  A detox and destress DVD!  I love that one, it’s brilliant (see the ‘Books and DVDs’ page on my website for more details www.tipsandluxuries.com).
  • Cooked and ate my delicious home-made shepherds pie with the family.
  • A few hours lovely family time.
  • Lots of blogging…

Hope your day has been as good as mine.

Until next time…

Sandra

 P.S. Please check out my other blog http://mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com

Posted in Fun and relaxation, Goals and direction, Health and wellness, Life, Me time, Miscellaneous, Quality time | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The chaos of housework and chores

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

On Saturdays, my partner and I are mostly rushing around taking the girls to swimming, to parties and carrying out various other errands and chores.  Today was no different.  Finding myself with a small gap of time, I thought I could fit in a bit of tidying up.  As I looked around the house, I felt overwhelmed with the unorganised chaos I faced.  Everything was where it shouldn’t be and that was only the lounge – the rest of the house was even worse. 

I could feel myself getting stressed and it must have shown in my face.  “Mummy, why are you sad” said my daughter.  I told her that mummy has so much to do to which she replied “I thought it was because if daddy takes me to the party then you would miss me”.  I gave her a big hug and told her that it would be a good idea that daddy takes her and asked her advice about how to tackle all this mess and clutter.  She replied “if I was here I could help you”.  She then told me to start with the kitchen because then it would look tidy.

So I did and it only took ten minutes to empty the dishwasher, load it and clean down the kitchen surfaces.  All the time I was doing it, I thought how easy it is to dwell on what needs to be done instead of taking action and getting on with it.  Putting some washing on means that the clothes as well as the dishes are being cleaned whilst you can get on with something else.  Then a quick whizz around the house with a few storage baskets gets rid of all the surface clutter and make things look much tidier. 

My tip for today:  Are you fed up of spending so much time on the housework? Are feeling out of control?  Nip those feelings in the bud; set the timer for half an hour and immediately get a few small jobs done.  Taking action has a way of eleviating some of that stressed feeling. 

I felt so much better after half an hour, that I even had time to write this blog.  Even my four year onld knows that doing something (taking action) when you are feeling overwhelmed, makes you feel better.  “Are you going to think about me talking in your head,” she said to me as she left for her party.   My daughters are wonderful!

Until next time…

Sandra

Posted in Getting organised, Household chores, Life, Me time, Time management, Toys, mess and clutter, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Striving for your dreams

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

Work life balance

I’ve recently made a work life balance adjustments which is working my 35 hour week over four days instead of five.  Although the days out of the house are long and the evenings shorter, the extra day at home gives me more family time, me time and writing time.  It’s a fantastic feeling taking and collecting my girls from school once a week – we all look forward to it. 

My passion for writing

I love where I am heading with my writing at the moment.  As my regular readers know, I set myself a challenge 41 days ago to learn something new about writing, every day for a year and to blog about it http://mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com.  This is going so well, that I often look back at my notes to remind myself how to do something, for example, when to use ‘affect or effect’ or the correct use of semicolons. 

Another big plus on the writing front is that after almost two years of writing my book ‘A Gift for Stressed and Busy Mums’ I have a publisher interested – watch this space.   If you wish to take a look at the first chapter, please visit my website www.tipsandluxuries.com.

So what has to give when striving for your dreams?

Occasionally things have to give when you are striving to make something more of your life, but hopefully the messy house is only temporary!  I’m also getting less sleep than I would like, but then I do start the day with meditation and end it with a relaxing soak in the bath listening to calming music. 

The silver lining: Everything I am working towards is now pointing in the direction of my goals.  My life coach Helen is so encouraging with that. 

My 3 tips for today:

  1. Continually think about your overall goal and revise and rewrite it often.  
  2. Set mini goals and never move far from the path that is taking you to your dreams. 
  3. Trust your intuition.

As Noel Walker says in his newly published book Get the Life you Want: “Following your intuition will always hold you in good stead, but it is pointless if you lack the self-confidence to act on it”.

Enjoy your weekend!

Until next time…

Sandra

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Seize the moment

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

Hi there

I love to learn and improve my skills, not only at work but for my own personal development.  There has been something that I’ve wanted to have the opportunity to try for so long, but never had the courage to actually do it – standing up in front of people and teaching or training. 

Then, a couple of weeks ago I was discussing with Helen, my life coach, how I could do this and she encouraged me to look into some courses.  Around the same time, I talked to my line manager about how I could use these skills at work.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered a course that work were happy to send me on; a course that would send me on a journey to become a certified trainer.

Knowing that lack of confidence has always held me back I pushed myself into booking the 4 day ‘train the trainer’ course before I could change my mind (it was like someone else had picked up the phone!).  There was only one space left and it was this week. 

Over the last four days I have learnt so much.  Amanda is a brilliant trainer and has 20 years experience.  What you see when a trainer stands up and presents is only the tip of the iceberg – there is so much theory to learn.  The biggest tips I took away this week were: how to structure a course; how to make sure you are really prepared before you start running your course; how to use questioning effectively and how much you have to know your subject. 

As I presented my course ‘The World of Blogging’ I felt more confident than I thought I would and got good feedback in areas that I thought I would never be able to do.  Of course, there are areas of improvement, but each time I present  I will get better.

To cut a long story short, I’m so happy and relieved that I passed the assessment today!

I must sign off now as I’m so shattered from the busy week – what with my daily blogging, writing a course on blogging and lastly presenting my course on blogging. 

Thank you WordPress for giving me something to present.  The good thing was that one of the exercises I asked the course participants to do, was to either create a WordPress blog account or create a user log in – so we have a few more ‘bloggers’ and ‘people commenting’ out there now!

Until next time…

Sandra

My other blog:  www.mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com

Twitter: @madeirasandra    and   @TipsandLuxuries

Posted in Goals and direction, Learning, Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

New look to website

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

Hi there

Hope you are having a great weekend. When you get a moment, please take a look at my website as I’ve given it a bit of facelift. I haven’t added any new content yet (that’s coming soon) I’ve just changed the layout. Please let me know what you think – www.tipsandluxuries.com.

You will also find links to my new blog ‘My Writing Challenge’ which began on 1st May 2011.  The task I’ve set myself is to learn something new to improve my writing, each day for a year, and blog about it. I’m just about to add note 7. Let me know what you think.

Until next time…

Sandra

My writing challenge: www.mywritingnotebook.workpress.com

Email: sandramadeira@tipsandluxuries.com

Twitter: @madeirasandra  and  @tipsandluxuries

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Learn to say yes

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

You may have heard the saying ‘learn to say no’ many times.  If you are a people pleaser, you may feel guilty about saying no and be easily persuaded to say yes.  However, this can result in you doing things you would prefer not to do with your precious time.

Learning to say ‘no’ takes practise, but have you ever thought of learning to say ‘yes’ first?  In his book ‘Reinventing Yourself’ Steve Chandler explains that by saying yes to something you want to do first, you will then feel more confident saying no to something else. (Steve Chandler: American author, motivational speaker, coach and author of many inspiring books).

Filling your life with things you want to do sounds like fun, so why don’t we do it?  I wouldn’t suggest filling your schedule every minute of every day, but at least have a think about what you want to do with your time and book these things into your life.  Then at least when the next person asks you to run them an errand or join them for a drink, you can say ‘no thank you, I am spending the day with my children’.  You’ve already committed to it, it’s important to you and nothing will stand in your way.

You will feel much better going about your day doing things you value or that are important to you.  Try saying ‘yes’ today.

Until next time……

Sandra

My other blog: www.mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com
Website: www.tipsandluxuries.com

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A ‘me time’ sandwich

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

This is day seven. I have just one hour left of my three ‘me days ‘ which have been conveniently sandwiched by two four day bank holiday weekends. Once next Tuesday comes around I’ll be back at my desk for ten hours a day!

It’s been lovely being able to walk the girls to school these past few days and then do my ‘own thing’ for six hours before leaving to collect them again. Even if my ‘own thing’ does mean a bit of clutter clearing and cleaning, at least I feel like I am doing something for myself for a change. I even had the opportunity to attend a yoga class this morning instead of yawning through it at 8pm on a Thursday. I’ve also found the time to sit and read a magazine in the garden whilst the sun is still up.

I’ve been able take them to the park, coffee shop and pub gardens after school knowing that there’s nothing to rush home for. It’s all been at a lovely pace (unless anyone saw me rushing around behind closed doors this morning when my youngest decided at the last minute that her crown she’d made for school was too big!).

Dressed in red, white and blue and wearing their pretty home-made crowns, I proudly walked my beautiful girls into school this morning. The school is holding street party all day today so the children can join in the Royal wedding celebrations and there’s lots of fun for everyone. The girls were so excited knowing that they were going to be playing outside most of the day and having the mayor select the best crown from each class during the parade. The fun continues with a disco in the school hall at 3.30pm and the best bit is the ‘Pims tent’ for the parents.

Looking forward to watching the Royal Wedding tomorrow – I hope the weather holds up, although I’ve just heard the first few spots of rain on the conservatory roof!!

Until next time……

Sandra
Blog: sandramadeira.wordpress.com
Website: www.tipsandluxuries.com
Email: sandramadeira@tipsandluxuries.com
Twitter: @madeirasandra and @tipsandluxuries

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Changing direction overnight

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

I have a new life coach who has set me off on a tangent thinking about my short and long term goals. Although I am a self-motivated person, life coaching keeps me on track. A couple of weeks ago, my coach set me some actions to work on and I’ve finished most of them ahead of time. My mind is working overtime thinking about all the things I can do with my time, career and life in general. I’ve completed a ‘me time’ collage around the theme of a six pointed star. My girls (4 and 6), who wanted to join in, made a heart shaped ‘pot of dreams’ collage. Life feels brilliant.

My overall goal took me a few days to perfect. It was suggested that I write this out and place it somewhere visable. I was also encouraged to have a timeline which we can work through together to achieve my 6-12 month overall goal.

So, where do you find a life coach and how much does it cost?
Most life coaches offer the initial session for free which may be useful to see if it’s for you. I first considered coaching when a friend put me in contact with someone who was working towards a qualification and as part of her course she required a few ‘guinea pigs’. I was fortunate to be offered twelve free coaching sessions. This was almost two years ago and it encouraged me to write my book, seek out agents and establish my website www.tipsandluxuries.com.

Then about a month or so ago, I felt like my life needed direction again and a friend told me about www.coachmefree.com. Many trainee coaches advertise their services here, as it allows them to build up their hours and at the same time offers coaching to people who cannot afford it. Before contacting them you can read about each coach to find out how much experience they have and what they have to offer. On this site and possible others you can get started with a few free sessions. Charges for qualified coaches vary, but as a guide you may be looking at around £40-£60 an hour, although they may offer shorter sessions for less.

So, why have life coach?
Sometimes we just need direction. Life coaches are not there to advise or recommend, but to encourage and bring out the best in you (which I am feeling the benefits of already). They like you to have a bit of an idea of what you want (just a few bullet points will do) but even if you have no idea, their powerful questioning, written questionnaires and techniques can provide you with answers. Somewhere buried deep inside you could be the seed to move forward with your life.

As Jim Rohn says – ‘You cannot change your destination overnight but you can change your direction overnight’.

Until next time……..

Sandra

Website: http://www.tipsandluxuries.com
Blog: https://sandramadeira.wordpress.com/

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Slow down and enjoy your soup!

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

Hi

As I hurriedly spooned my piping hot carrot and coriander soup into my mouth, I realised that it wasn’t going to cool down any quicker just because I had to rush back to the office for another meeting.   It made me stop and think.  Maybe I should just stare out of the coffee shop window at all the passers by and wait the required time for the soup to cool down, rather than frantically blowing it.

I took out my note book and decided to turn this into a blog because I feel that life is a rush for many people including those passers by I witnessed.  Do we really save time by walking and eating quicker?  Is it a matter of life and death if we don’t arrive somewhere on time?

A few days ago, eager to get home quickly, I tripped down the curb and into the road outside the train station.  The image of me rolling forward was possibly quite funny as my rucksack containing my laptop was going faster than I was falling.  For five days I could hardly move my arms as they took most of the weight.  I had to give my favourite yoga class a miss, as I could never have supported myself with those tricky moves.

Anyway, my soup eventually cooled down, I was in time for my meeting and I had a blog to post.

So, as the title suggests – slow down and enjoy your soup!

Until next time……

Sandra

Email: sandra.madeira@tipsandluxuries.com

Website: www.tipsandluxuries.com

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The Secret to a Happy and Organised Day

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Sandra Madeira

Do you ever brainstorm on paper at 3am (with insomnia in full swing), feeling overwhelming and wondering how you are you going to fit everything into the coming day? Do you fall asleep sitting up and awaken stressed and exhausted?

The other week, I did this very thing and woke up to a list of 36 things that I wanted to cram into my day off (which was surely going to stress me out). Pondering the situation over breakfast, I decided to take control of my day before it took control of me. I was determined to enjoy my day off, but still have a feeling of achievement at the end of it.

Having read Stephen Covey’s ‘7 habits of highly successful people’ many years ago, I thought about how I use his A, B, C, D method to prioritise my day at work. For example, an ‘A’ task would be an important and urgent one and a ‘B’ task, important but not urgent and so on.

So how do you decide what would be an important ‘work’ task to be tackled first i.e. an ‘A’ entry? This could be something that will have the most benefit to the company if it is completed, or the worst impact for not doing it. For a ‘personal’ list of tasks, the ‘A’ entries may be ones that have been annoying you for so long like clutter on every surface or paying urgent bills.

On this particular day at home, I knew I had things I wanted to do without fail – for example, exercise for thirty minutes and order my supermarket shopping online. I also had many outstanding tasks that had been irritating me such as clearing the clutter from the lounge, hoovering to make the house feel clean and sitting down to enjoy a bit of writing (a hobby of mine).

Taking my personal list, I read each entry and marked an ‘A’ next to the tasks that jumped out at me. I then prioritised these selected eleven entries. From experience I knew that by making exercise the first priority, I would be motivated to tackle the rest.

Later that morning, after ticking off the first five tasks, I put my feet up in my tidy lounge and rang my sister. As we chatted, I glanced at my list and suddenly realised that the other tasks no longer felt important – it was like a weight had been lifted. As I worked through the rest with ease, it felt good knowing that I could have haphazardly tackled a long list of tasks and ended the day not really doing what would have been the most important to me.

My productive day was followed by a good night’s sleep and my motivation and positivity spilt into my next day at work…..

So what is the moral of the story? A carefully prioritised list, together with the self-discipline to follow the tasks in the order you’ve set, is the ‘secret to a happy and organised day’.

Until next time…

Sandra

My writing challenge blog: www.mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com

My website: https://blog.sandramadeira.com

Twitter: @madeirasandra

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