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How To Know What To Do In Stressful Situations

July 2nd, 2013

Stressful situations are part of life.  Think of three situations in your life that you’ve experienced as stressful.  Just list them to yourself.

Chances are, you didn’t say ‘Landing an aircraft when both engines had failed’ or ‘Keeping a patient alive in surgery when her airway became blocked’.  For most of us, stressful doesn’t mean ‘life or death’.

But for some people it does.  Recently I watched a TV documentary about surgical procedures.  The presenter was looking at innovations in medicine and other professions that could be applied to surgery to make it safer, especially when things don’t go as planned.

So he interviewed top trainers leading the world in training fire-fighters to deal with complex scenarios.  He spoke to Formula One teams who have seconds to repair cars and refit tyres in the pit before the car goes out again into tremendous high-pressure situations.  He spoke to Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who landed his passenger plane on the Hudson River in 2009 after losing both engines when birds flew into them and they stopped working.  And he spoke to surgical teams at international centres of excellence like Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital (just around the corner from me here), who are developing safer ways to remove all the anesthetic and life support equipment from patients immediately after surgery, and deliver them safely to intensive care.

It was a fascinating programme.  Across all these diverse, dangerous and stressful situations, all the teams had just one tool they all used to help them stay safe.  They know it works because they’ve studied things like incident rates before and after using this tool.

So what is this amazing tool? Read the rest of this entry »

Come Into The Quiet

June 18th, 2013

I’ve suddenly developed a problem with Outlook, the software I use for all my emails.  It used to work quickly and be very responsive.  Then I went on holiday and when I came back, it went on a ‘go slow’.

This isn’t a blog post where I just moan about my email software.  There’s something valuable here for you.  It will just take you a while to find it.  It took me a while to find it, too.  Keep going. Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Impact Of Small Changes

June 5th, 2013

This is an invitation to you to join me on an adventure.  It’s an adventure of change.  The path of transformation.  The first step is very simple and easy to do.  It’s this. Read the rest of this entry »

How To Deal With Difficult People

May 21st, 2013

‘He’s just SO annoying’

‘I can’t believe she just said that’

‘If I have to look at his stupid face again I’ll punch it’

‘I just can’t be in the same room as her any more’

Sometimes in life you meet a person who just rubs you up the wrong way.  They wind you up, push your buttons, irritate, annoy and sometimes enrage you.  They aren’t so awful that everyone around you shuns them, but they drive you nuts.

Often, we can organize our lives so we don’t have to be around people like that much.

But sometimes, that isn’t possible.  Maybe that annoying person is a new colleague at work or perhaps a friend’s new partner.  You can’t get away or avoid them.  You have to deal with them.

So what can you do?

Here’s a three-step strategy for dealing with difficult people. Read the rest of this entry »

How To Eat An Elephant

May 7th, 2013

First, catch your elephant.

OK, this isn’t really about eating elephants. Because of all the things elephants need right now, being eaten probably isn’t one of them.

But if you did have to eat an elephant, it would probably feel like a mammoth task. (I know. Listen, I wanted to write ‘mammoth tusk’, so you’ve got off lightly here).

Sometimes life can feel as though we are faced with an avalanche of insurmountable challenges.

When it does, we feel overwhelmed. Overwhelm is horrible. It’s a tightness in the throat, a shallowness of breath, a twitch of anxiety in the stomach. And when we feel overwhelmed, we stop. Either stop being effective, or just stop dong anything at all.

So here are twenty seven things you can do when you feel overwhelmed. Now wouldn’t that be horrible? You’ve got too much on your plate then someone adds twenty seven more things that you have to think about.

Nope, not twenty seven. Just two. Count ‘em. One. Two.

Two simple, effective, manageable ideas that help me, whenever I notice a sense of overwhelm is slowing me down. Try ‘em out for yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

Learn From My Mistakes And Avoid Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

April 23rd, 2013

Last week I could hardly walk.  It was very painful, and entirely self-inflicted.  Here’s what I did to create this problem for myself, and some ideas so that you can do things differently and learn from my mistakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Blink! How To Stay Healthy At Your Computer Part One: Avoid Eye Strain

April 23rd, 2013

Blink.  Blink again.  And again.

Blinking is what spreads valuable tears over the surface of the eye.  As you’re reading this off a screen, your blink rate is half what it would be if you were walking around.

Yes, half.  50% less.

It’s an incredible difference, and explains why prolonged work on a computer can lead to sore, tired eyes and eye strain.

So take a post-it, write the word ‘Blink’ on it, and stick it where you can see it.  Look away from the screen, widen your visual field and blink, blink, blink.

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Why The Alexander Technique Helps You In the Spotlight

April 9th, 2013

Last week, the Alexander Technique was featured in the UK edition of OK magazine.  It’s a celebrity gossip magazine, and the piece mentioned the benefits of the work for improving posture as well as many of the celebs who have studied the Technique: Hilary Swank, William Hurt, Joanna Lumley, Sir Paul McCartney, Pierce Brosnan, Sting, Julia Sawalha, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jennifer Saunders and Ruby Wax.

In fact, there are tons of famous people who have taken Alexander Technique lessons.  It really is the A-listers secret weapon.

But why?  What makes this work so valuable to this particular group of people?  And just because it works for them, will it work for you? Read the rest of this entry »

Five Blubbery Tear Facts to Keep Your Eyes Bright

March 25th, 2013

I’ve had a problem with my eyes recently.  My left eye kept watering.  At first I thought nothing of it, but after two weeks the skin around the eye had become red and sore.  It felt painful and looked terrible.  I decided to pay a visit to the opticians.

The problem, it turned out, was not that I was making too many tears but that I was making the wrong kind.  Oddly enough, having the wrong kind of tears and a constantly watery eye are symptoms of having dry eyes.

So my eye waters constantly for two weeks because I have dry eyes?  Yep.  Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of tears.  Obviously I’ve become intrigued and have been doing a bit of research.  The result: I’ve discovered tears are amazing!  Here are the top five tear facts you need to know.  You’ll never weep in the same way again. Read the rest of this entry »

How To Feel Better Instantly

March 25th, 2013

We all have difficult days. Days when we need a quick fix to feel better and lift our mood.

Sometimes tasks are challenging and push us out of our comfort zone.

Other times, people push our buttons and we get a big emotional reaction that flares up.

Or we didn’t get enough sleep, or eat properly yesterday, or we’re dehydrated – it doesn’t take much to knock us off course.

There’s one simple fix that will always help you to feel better instantly.  It’s this: Read the rest of this entry »