Posts Tagged ‘international coaching federation’

A beautiful thought for the day !

namaste

Nutritional Boosters to Help You Weather the Flu Season

Whether or not you decide to get the flu shot this year, it makes sense to protect your self and your family with a fine-tuned nutrition plan.  This is not the time for extra sugars and fast foods.

The immune system is a complex collection of tissues and cells that protect the body from allergens, bacteria, viruses, and other potentially harmful organisms.  Skin and the membranes that line entrances to the body — nasal passages, eyes, and respiratory and digestive tracts — are the first line of defense, providing a physical barrier against invaders.    You can keep your skin healthy with a balanced diet and extra essential fatty acids.  Make sure you work up a sweat daily (from exercise and/or saunas) as it is a great detoxifier.  Shower with a natural soap and loofah brush to keep skin and circulation healthy.

Internally, specialized white blood cells fight antigens that make it past the skin: T-lymphocytes continuously patrol the body in search of antigens; B-lymphocytes manufacture antibodies, special blood proteins that neutralize or destroy germs; and neutrophils and macrophages scavenge antigens from the blood for delivery to the lymphatic system, which disposes of them.  To work smoothly, these cells depend on you keeping your body in top shape. Nutrients critical for the production and maintenance of key germ-fighting cells in the immune system.  A balanced diet has a strong effect on vascular function.  The immune system is dependent on blood flow.  The bloodstream is the route along which infection-fighting cells travel throughout the body to where they’re needed.

Vitamins and phytochemicals in colored fruits and vegetables are great at promoting immune function. These nutrients help ensure that lymphocytes can divide and reproduce properly in response to a virus and that the neutrophils and macrophages that engulf and kill invading bacteria can do their job. Eat five to nine servings of different colored organic, locally grown seasonal fruits and vegetables per day..

Amino acids found in protein are the building blocks of all the body’s cells — including the cells that power your immune system. If your diet is low in protein, you won’t manufacture enough white blood cells to combat antigens.  Consume about a gram of protein per kilogram (kg) of your body weight.  Eat plant protein like lentils, peas and beans every day for at least one meal.  Keep animal protein choices to 100 gm portions of lean protein.  Add a protein shake for breakfast or before workouts if you are often on the run.

By Guest Blogger:

Victoria Pawlowski, R.D., R.C.C., M.Ed.

Counselling & Nutrition Therapy
info@victoriapawlowski.com
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1.888.556.3663

Vancouver: 1000-355 Burrard Street
Nanaimo:  170 Wallace Street, 2nd floor
tele-counselling. skype. email counselling

Words of Wisdom for Women’s Health

I generally lead a pretty busy and active life as a working mother, engaged in my life & leadership coaching work, family and personal life  skills activities.  The last couple of days, I have felt slightly ‘under the weather’ and it has been trickier to live a life in balance!

This morning, I feel so blessed and appreciative of the very simple, yet caring gesture of being served a cup of delicious, hot steaming coffee in bed.  As a woman and mom who is responsible for lots of others, it is such a wonderful treat to be ‘taken care of’!  I am usually the one caring for our family health and wellness and it is such a treat to be on the receiving end!

I am reminded of how it is the simple things in life that often have the biggest impact on our heart and soul and I feel such gratitude for the goodness of people and my family!

Enjoy your day!

Namaste,

In peace and mindfulness,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan, BSc., PCC

Life & Leadership Coach for  Working Women

coaching to bring more heart & soul to a healthy life & work

3 Work Life Balance Tips for Working Women

Take the frazzle out of your day and replace it with balance & serenity!

Do you feel like this at work?

But wished you felt like this?

Here are 3 Work Life Coaching Tips to Help You:

1.  First thing when you get to work, sit at your desk and take 3 deep in and out breaths.  Envision your day flowing forward peacefully.

2.  Have 1 main focus for the day ie meetings, admin work, working with staff, networking.  Set 1 – 3 major ‘to dos’ for the day, all of which are incredibly easily achieved, write these down & scratch off when completed.

3.  Be gentle with your self!  Don’t forget to breathe!

Namaste

In peace & mindfulness,

Zoey

wisdom coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach with the ICF & Legacy Leadership Trainer

Topaz Lotus Life & Leadership Coaching

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women

inspiration | innovation | clarity | wisdom

Professional Women: Are Your Work Values Balanced With Your Personal Values?

“Values” are the essence of who we are.

Values are principles that you hold to be of worth in your life.  Values are those things considered right, worthwhile, and desirable- the basis of guiding principles and standards.

“Crystal values” are those values that are so important that if not present in your life will cause your life to shatter.  Think of what would happen if you dropped a crystal ball.

“Rubber values” are those values that you can drop for awhile with no problem and will come bouncing back when necessary.  Think of what happens when you drop a rubber ball.

As women leaders, gaining clarity on the values that are most important to you personally and in your work will give you a solid framework for making decisions, taking forward movement and assessing dissonance in your life.

Let me tell you about a coaching client of mine.  Carol had identified that she held “social responsibility” and “respect for nature” as very strong values.  She found out that the company she was working for was pumping toxic waste into the local watershed.  She decided that she could no longer work for that company and in fact, felt she needed to report the company for the poor environmental business practices.  In spite of the fact that being unemployed was not attractive, Carol stayed true to her values and resigned.  While she had to deal with some short- term financial issues, this decision was worth it to her as she gained so much in the areas of self-honoring and self respect.

Is your work life balanced and in sync with your personal life values?  If it is, you likely feel great about the work that you do and love your job.  If you started your work without consideration of your personal values, and your personal and the values in your work life are out of sync, you may feel unfulfilled, dissatisfied and unhappy in your work. Clarity, transparency and collaboration with your colleagues and staff about personal and organizational values leads to a happy and fulfilling life and a powerfully positive work environment!

Do you know what your organizational values are?  What about your personal values?   What about your crystal values and your rubber values?  Are you in sync with your values?  Spend some time in personal reflection to gain clarity and if you would like to chat further, feel free to contact me personally!

Namaste

In peace & mindfulness,

Zoey

wisdom coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach with the ICF

Topaz Lotus Life & Leadership Coaching

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women Leaders and Mentor Coaching for Women Coaches

inspiration | innovation | clarity | wisdom

Lifestyle Design: The Top 3 Daily Success Habits of Empowered Women of Wisdom

“Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the action stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.” ~ Anais Nin

Use these tips for personal development, effective leadership and inner wisdom.

1. Get up early: and spend time every morning with yoga, mediation, dreaming, inspirational reading and journaling.

2. Focus forward with action: have a healthy holistic mindset and body, be ‘flexible’ and gentle moving forward in life with a positive attitude, learning and growing.

3. Be a spirited woman, be uniquely you: don’t be afraid to have a unique personality, live life with passion, grace and purpose. You are the only ‘you’ on the planet!

I would love to hear about your experience with these success tips and habits. Please feel free to contact me personally if this resonates with you.

Namaste

In peace & mindfulness,

Zoey

wisdom coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach with the ICF

Topaz Lotus Lifestyle & Leadership Coaching

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women Leaders and Mentor Coaching for Women Coaches

inspiration | innovation | clarity | wisdom

When I am coaching, a question I often ask is, “what is the one thing, that if you did it consistently, would have the greatest positive impact on your life”?  I hear answers like exercise more, drink less coffee, lose weight.  While all of these activities no doubt will be positive, I’m reminded, as women how we are so busy, “doing”, feeling like we need to change ourselves and seldom stop to just be more of who we are.

I recently had occasion to ponder “the question” and my “year in review”.  I sank into the stillness of my home and began listing what I was thankful for.  What I realized was that it is the very small, simple things in life that bring me the greatest joy and sense of fulfillment, not tasks and certainly not “self-improvement projects.  I get a sense of fulfillment from things like hearing my children laughing, the mist over the water, the depth and comfort of a longstanding friendship.

As I sat that early morning, I was reminded that the positive impact was a result, not of doing but of being, of allowing myself reflective time to sink into the “beingness” of me and open to the power of thanksgiving, gratitude and blessings. For me, using gratitude and blessing brings a feeling of putting on the “rose coloured glasses”, a feeling of objectivity, a sense of expansiveness and is a valuable part of personal development and life balance.

I was challenged recently in my commitment to this belief when faced with an unexpected and painful loss.  I found myself slipping into a place of hurt, blame and criticism.  The word “blessing” popped into my mind and I quickly said a blessing for the situation.  It went something like this; “blessings on this situation as I know that it is all for the best and that through the pain and sadness, a greater good will come.”  By saying those words I was able to set aside the “righteous victim voice” of “poor me” and had the sense of an easing and softening of my emotions.

So, ask yourself, the earlier question, “what is the one thing if integrated into your life regularly, would have the greatest positive impact”?  Experiment with using blessings, gratitude and thanksgiving and feel yourself open into a deeper sense of your “beingness”.  Start by making a list of at least 20 things that you are thankful for.  Every day, give yourself time to sink into your “beingness” and feel gratitude.  Send out blessings to your friends, family, all people and situations and imagine the world taking on a rosy glow!

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

- Melody Beattie,  Author

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

In peace & mindufulness,

Zoey

powerful wisdom coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach with the ICF

Topaz Lotus Coaching

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women Leaders and Mentor Coaching for Women Coaches

inspiration | innovation | wisdom

“Women Leaders, Power & Courage:  Empowered, Effective Leadership Qualities”

Many women, even women leaders having an edgy time with the word ‘power’.  Women’s and girl’s leadership and empowerment workshops and programs are flourishing, with great results, yet I am hearing back that the notion of  being powerful and can feel difficult or harsh or uncomfortable when doing this in the work environment.

So, here is a review of the “topaz lotus leadership matrix TM”  leadership traits.  The matrix acknowledges both the “doing and being” of women in leadership ie both personal qualities of individual women and ‘on the ground actions/competencies’ for effective leadership  for women in leadership roles. The topaz lotus leadership matrix TM builds on the solid ‘Legacy Leadership Model’ and integrates mindfulness techniques.

From the leadership matrix, foundational qualities are power and wisdom, the yin yang of leadership; infused with the following secondary qualities: courage, fire, boldness in one’s uniqueness, balanced by unconditional love, integrity and gentleness. For women, the word ‘power’ is often fused or linked  with ‘power over’, ‘arrogant’, ‘condesending’, ‘dictatorial’ and one of the first things I do when coaching women leaders is help identify their limiting beliefs and ‘fusions’ and then use a powerful tool to de-fuse those links.

I would also like to discuss courage, not the kind of hero courage that is exhibited with dramatic feats but a kind of quiet and sustainable courage.  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who coined the phrase, “well behaved women seldom make history”, was in fact speaking about well behaved normal women who in the course of their regular daily, non extraordinary lives, exhibit exceptional gentle courage by refusing to be pulled into the cultural drift of complacency.

Gentle courage and ‘power with’ show up as a components of your leadership presence!

It takes courage and skill to stand in ‘your place of power’, maintain vision, uphold policies while also inspiring others.  With the matrix, we talk about ‘power with’ rather than ‘power over’ and use a partnership model, collaboration, circle process and co-creation as organizing principles.

I am interested in your thoughts and experiences with these concepts. Answer the question: which woman/women leaders do you know who have  used ‘power with’ and shown amazing gentle courage?

I would like to share a leadership quote with you from  Margaret Wheatley, one of my favorite women leaders.

‘I think a major act of leadership right now, call it a radical act, is to create the places and processes so people can actually learn together, using our experiences.’ Margaret J. Wheatley

Enjoy your day, wonderful luscious topaz lotus women leaders!

In peace & mindfulness,

Zoey

powerful wisdom coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach with the ICF

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women Leaders and Mentor Coaching for Women Coaches

inspiration | innovation | wisdom

I love thinking, reading and surfing ideas about the future and admit that I have been imprinted and influenced by Faith Popcorn.  Although this may sound outdated, I also love and recommend “Megatrends 2010:  The Rise Of Conscious Capitalism – Seven Trends That Will Transform How You Work, Live and Invest” by Patricia Aburdene and absolutely any thing by or with Barbara Marx Hubbard (www.evolve.org ).  It is not my intention to “channel” these authors, rather I wish to acknowledge their original ideas and words and build on these concepts.  While the majority of the ideas presented are focused on trends in North America, some can be applied more widely.

Here is my compilation of 13 important trends and new ideas that will transform your work and life!

1.  Brain Dough aka brain plasticity:

Yes, you can “teach an old dog new tricks”, our brains are actually malleable or flexible.    This concept is referred to as brain plasticity.  What is brain plasticity? Does it mean that our brains are made of plastic? Of course not. Plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. As we learn, we acquire new knowledge and skills through instruction or experience. In order to learn or memorize a fact or skill, there must be persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge.  The ability of the brain to change with learning is what is know as neuroplasticity.

Source: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html

2.  Grandma Power:

Elder women are becoming an increasingly powerful and large group as the boomers age.  Think hip, happy, and hippie grandmas rather than blue rinses and fraility!

3.  Squeeze More In(n):

Community living takes on a new meaning as more extended families chose to remain living together.  This is a new idea for many North Americans and will require skilled and open communication and attention to compromise and consensus.

4. Values Redux:

Increasingly large numbers of consumers will make purchasing decisions based on their strongly held personal values.

5. Glass Houses:

With amazing technology and the internet, all we do and say will be visible, this is an opportunity to be uber transparent and ethical in life & work.  There will be no place to hide.

6. Big Hearts:

The emotions and qualities of love, loving-kindness and compassion from a big soft, warm melted open heart will be increasingly integrated into business practices through meditation, lovingkindness retreats and prayer.

7. C3 – Circles, Collaboration & Co-Creation:

All organizations, families and groups are moving towards and squishing down into wonderful, resonant, concentric circles around a big heart center.  The dominant forces will be: life, creativity, win/win and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

8. Saffron, Sage and Soul:

As India and China increasingly take over the global production of goods, our interest in and our reliance on these countries will increase.  We will continue to integrate both eastern and western spiritual traditions, adding in a dash of “conscious evolution”  producing a spicy, rich and deeply satisfying new meta-spiritual tradition.

9. Bugs R Us:

Everything will be about whole systems and models based on nature.

10.            Flowers In Your Hair and Everywhere:

Integrating the “big heart” concept, there will be growing appreciation of art & beauty and a laid back lifestyle as forces for social change and business re-vitalization.

11.            Re-Calibration Back to a Lunar Calendar:

It only makes sense for women!

12.            Science Fictionary:

Life expectancy will continue to increase and concepts that were only science fiction will be part of every day life.  More and more folks will choose to vacation at home through holograms and other multisensory innovations.

13.  The Concept of Paradox:

We will be challenged to live a life of increasing paradox and complexity and time will seem to speed up! Folks will be curious about the concept of “nothingness”.

Enjoy this “trendspotting” and let us know how you and your life & work are affected by these trends at by adding your comments to the blog!

In peace & mindfulness,

Zoey

coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach with the ICF

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women Leaders and Mentor Coaching for Women Coaches

inspiration | innovation | wisdom

“What we have not known is how to begin from our own centre, how to begin from our own experience, how to make ourselves as women the subjects of the act of knowing”

-       Dorothy Smith (A Canadian Sociologist, known for her work with feminist theory and women’s studies)

This quote is a wonderful reminder that each of us women, has a center point, a still point, an internal place of equilibrium, of power and energy that can fuel us, feed us and inspire us.  Inspire us to get to know ourselves intimately and to get to know each other intimately.

I have long admired Anita Roddick.  I had the great pleasure of hearing Anita Roddick speak in Vancouver in the late 90’s.  She walked on stage, wearing a funky understated outfit and totally captivated the audience of over 2000 women.  She modeled her essence to me by standing fully in her powerful presence.  It was clear to me then as it has been in the ensuing years that she “wore her skin well”, that she knew who she was and what she stood for and that this “knowing” informed all of her actions.  She exuded  a powerful leadership style!

Personal Development Life Coaching Question:

How can you, as a woman leader become your own “subject of the act of knowing” and how can this personal reflection inform your leadership skills and effectiveness?

In peace & mindfulness,

Zoey

coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach with the ICF

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women Leaders and Mentor Coaching for Women Coaches

inspiration | innovation | wisdom