Ikigai asks four questions: What do you LOVE? What are you GOOD at? What does the world NEED? What can you be PAID for? Where these intersect is your Ikigai - your reason for being. Like many Japanese words, there isn’t a direct translation into English, which I love as it gives us all room to decide for ourselves what it means to us. Iki is life, and the simplest translation of gai is value or worth. The value or worth you place on life could be one way to look at it. What makes you happy or brings you joy is another way. Think about all of the little things that come together to give your life meaning. This could be your work (whatever that means to you), your family, your spiritual life, or things you do for the greater good. Having a life of worth and value is great, but humans are wired for connection, and Ikigai needs somewhere for the energy to flow. That purpose is being of service to your community (family, friends, tribe, customers, animals, Mother Earth, etc.). Some people hate the word service, and if that’s you, think of it as sharing your gifts or your heart. Ikigai gives you a purpose because you share your gifts and are making a difference in others lives (what the world needs). The most confusing aspect of the model was the idea of what you can be paid for if Ikigai was about life value or life purpose. But paid can be translated in many ways. It might mean money, a reward, impact, happiness, fulfilment or how you invested your time or heart. Have a listen - find your Ikigai and let me know what you discover.

Do you have trust issues? Do you know what the roots of these are? Are they around certain things, kinds of people or situations? Listen in this week as I discuss trust. Trust sits in the root chakra and is one of our first level foundational things that we need to work on to create strong foundations for living a life of joy. When we don't trust we can slip into fear. We can become stressed as we anticipate what is going to happen and that eventually turns into anxiety. Accept where you are. You are now aware - this means you can create conscious changes Be willing to test the waters - to learn and explore Feel into the emotions and notice your behaviour - what do you learn? Now think of all the times that trust worked for you - explore why? What do you learn? How can you embrace that again? See the challenge, lesson and gift.  When you trust you, then you can trust others or more you will listen to your intuition and take good action based on that.

In this episode I talk about kindness. That's being kind to you and to others. Kindness starts within and is connected with the heart chakra. When we are kind to ourselves it opens up the heart. This also means talking to ourselves with loving kindness. Changing the I am narrative to I am feeling dot dot dot, but I am normally - you fill in the blanks. You may feel resistance. That's ok that's normal. That's when we can use Tonglen which I share in my overcoming anxiety toolkit. You breathe in the thing you are resisting and breath out love or loving kindness. The loving kindess will fill your energy field and will also travel energetically to those that need it and are open to receieving.  In this episode I also share the metta meditation, which is great for dropping into your heart and becoming aware of being kind to you. Remember to take breaks and just be kind to you, in whatever way that you can. Then there is kindness to others. Have a listen to the kindness chain story and learn how acts of kindness ripple out. And finally in the pursuit of kindness, my dogs ate a friends sausage rolls, especially made for tea. I walked away with some rioja which certainly ended my day well.

In this episode, I share a simple way to go through your day and being mindful about how you want to feel. Choose a word of the day - this is how you want your day to be Turn that into an affirmation Turn the affirmation into how can I...? Gratitude and appreciation My invitation is that you try this for at least 28 days and reflect on how this brings you greater inner peace.

I always feel safe and protected in the world The bodies natural call is to keep you safe, and this is fundamental to your wellbeing. You will have heard of flight, fright or freeze. This is where your brain decides what the best course of action is when it is faced with a perceived threat. For example, you may get triggered to use one of these responses when you feel unsafe or rejected, your finances are not stable, you are in a caught in a conflict, or when old feelings are surfaced when you face a similar situation from the past. What is important is to know what feeling safe means to you, and to know when you are heading for an emotional hijacking. Then understanding what you can do about it. Notice what happens in your body and work to ground and centre yourself. You may not be able to stop your emotions flaring up and from reacting to a perceived threat, but you can be aware of your physical state, your internal thoughts and respond productively. One way is to consider your own unproductive response from a past situation and replace it with a productive one. You’ll become more aware of these through journaling and reflective writing. Think of the tree again and how, when it has strong roots, it is unlikely to be ripped up from the ground and toppled over. Journal it: What is the one thing that will make you feel safe and secure right now. Set a timer for 10 minutes and explore

How does my book fit with my brand and my business I always talk about making your book, brand and business align. What does this mean? If you work with therapists on how to make better use of say LinkedIn or Facebook, then your book would be on this subject and would position you as an expert, In this way, the book is on brand and you could then leverage the book concept to build your business. You would then create a product roadmap around your book. This means you would have a coaching program, workshops, online course and a membership site, as examples. You would use your book to give away to your clients and constantly sell it on it's own and with your other products and service, You could also create add on products such as a journal and a planner. Want to know more about the 10 rules of a brilliant book, then please join me on Wednesday 10th. All of the details are here https://www.bookbrandbusiness.com/write-a-brilliant-book/

In this session, we are looking at books which are used by you to teach your proven process and you can sell it and your workshops,   and mastermind concept to other people to teach to their clients.   The two books are - Business Model Generation and Get Clients Now.  Take a look at the books and then look at what else the authors have produced to go with. Your imagination will be sparked - I guarantee.   We talk about things like this and other aspects of writing in the Big Book Inner Circle http://jo.my/bigbookinnercircle 

In this, we are asking what kind of book could I write. This book has been converted from a blog. Each chapter is a short piece of wisdom. The author sends out a daily email and has a daily brain tattoo, so he has maximised his content well. You could take some of your content and do the same or you could you plan it now and blog your book for later publication. I have done something similar.  I have something called 101 days of being me. It's a journaling adventure. You can sign up and get a daily email.  At the end of the 101 days I'll have a new journaling book.  This is a part of my sales funnel and my way to inspire people to start writing, explore themselves and possibly write a book. I can also use this as source content for a blog to promote the book later. Is this something you could do? Find me at www.bookbrandbusiness.com

Every two weeks, Esther and I talk about a subject that will be close to someone's heart. In this episode, we talk about letting go. One of the hardest things we have to learn to do in life is to let go and accept things as they are, rather than how we wish they would. Great stress and unhappiness comes from the times we push and try to force things to be the way we want them to be instead of accepting the way they are. There is great relief and peace to be found in this letting go, although it can be very hard to do.

 On Friday I took a good hard look at the books I am hoarding and asking why do I keep each of the books. I am not doing a Marie Kondo, I hasten to add. I was reviewing why did I buy this book and would I like to write a book like this?   I know, it all seems a bit deep, and possibly a lot of hard work, but I wanted to help the people in the Inner Circle think more deeply about why they might write a particular kind of book.   This is really an important and often overlooked aspect of creating a book.   But think about this why would you write a book in a style that you hate reading?   What do you like to read outside of novels? Here's what I like, perhaps you do too:-   * Factual books with no fluff that takes you through a process and make it simple for you  * Books with some of the writer's journey, some evidence (research of some kind or something the writer has discovered that lends weight to the story), key message and learning points and something for me to do - generally journaling and not too many things to journal about. I also like the journaling to be a journey * Short memoir with thinking/learning points * Dip in and out books that give me something to think about that day  * Fact-based books - think nutrition  * Oracle cards and associated books with something to think about   Most of the books that I own fall into these 6 categories. I've written a number of 1's and now writing in the style of 2. 2's are my favourite.   What about you?   Go and review your bookcase you'll be pleased that you did. You can now give away the books that are taking up space and you can review the structure of the books that you love.   You'll now have a better idea of what kind of book you might like to write.   When you want more of this support, you can find me in the Big Book Inner Circle. This is where I am creating a writing community for journaling, creative life writing and writing a book - basically writing...  http://jo.my/bigbook