Life can feel very serious sometimes can’t it?  

There are always a zillion reasons to feel cautious, concerned or even afraid, but equally there are always a zillion reasons to feel interested, light-hearted and a little bit playful.  

What if we remind ourselves every morning when we get up, that “today, I will remember to pause for some playfulness”? 

But why should you pause for playfulness I hear you ask?   

Because we‘ve have a brain that’s always on alert for things to be concerned about and all our internal chatter and dialogue, which is negatively geared because it is on alert, never stops. 

We’re also emotional beings and by default, your emotions arealways reactionaryto your environment.  

We need to stay playful and make the most of this totally mystifying thing called life. 

We don't know why we're here so we might as...

I've put together a list of simple yet effective ways for you to embrace the joy of Christmas this year. 

Let’s take a proactive, relaxed approach to Christmas and enjoy the festivities by taking the pressure off: 

Take the pressure off of your credit card and bank account: 

If people are old enough that they no longer believe in Santa, flying reindeer and elves, feel comfortable to give the gift of connection. This will relieve you of the pressure of gift preparation and the financial burdens that excessive gift giving can create. The best gift is genuine connection:  

• having real conversations with people 
• listening deeply  
• giving the gift of loving touch, hold someone’s hand, give them a longer than normal hug.  

So many people are never touched lovingly and neutrally by other human beings. Did you know that we need 5 hugs a day for general well-being and happiness? 

...

I was thinking about you this morning when I woke, thinking where am I going to fit in time to write a newsletter to you today? 

My mind said,“Hurry up Katie! You've got a lot on today, you don't have time to sit and write a newsletter!” 

But, I know you read my newsletters and I wanted to write to you and to connect with you today so I ignored what my mind was saying and my instinct to just hurry up and get on with things and I went ahead and did the opposite! 

Did you know that your daily instinct has you doing the same things over and over again? 

That's why I teach my clients how to go against that natural daily instinct and do the opposite. 

It’s only when you go against that instinct and stop following your daily routines and habits that new experiences can then flow into your life. 

If you’re feeling stuck right now, in your weight, health, life, happiness or mindset,...

I took this picture on a walk along the Brisbane River recently as a reminder of life.

From a seedling, this mangrove bush has been inundated with water every day as the tides rise and fall.

It not only survived the daily drownings but needed them to grow to full bloom.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED 

I used to complain whenever I was inundated and felt like I couldn’t breathe and I was fearful I wouldn’t survive.

But the reality is it’s been from those times that my greatest growth has come.

When I was just a wee seedling, there was no way I could get my head up above those high tides, I was too underdeveloped, and I had to learn to hold my breath long enough, till the water subsided, and I could catch my breath and feel the sun on my face again.

I didn’t understand then that this cycle is a lifetime cycle and wishing it to be otherwise was futile. I...

You don’t deserve to be slender, fabulously healthy and happy.  

You choose it!   

Every day in every way, you have to choose it.  

From the moment you wake up you’re making, not just one, but potentially hundreds of choices and you have to think about where those choices are taking you.  

And some days it’s hard to make those great choices isn’t it, because we’re hurting in some way: 

*Mentally 

*Emotionally 

*Physically 

Mindset is everything but shit happens and most of us come from tough backgrounds, we've been through hard times and we’ve had to fight to achieve every success.  

Unfortunately, we’ve achieve it at the expense of our health.  

Because in those hard times we listened to that quitter’s mind that comes in when things are hard. The mind that says, “stay in bed”, “just...

We know when we’ve lost our mojo don’t we?  

Life just feels bland, our inspiration has dried up and we just don’t feel like we’re connecting to  

*Ideas 

*People 

*Places 

*Situations or 

*Ourselves  

And that leaves us feeling a lack of  

~Confidence 

~Self- belief 

~Ability  

What’s missing is the “hum”.  

You know, that indescribable great feeling, that inner hum that we feel in our very being that gives us the impetus to get up and go?  

It sort of catches us by surprise when because we not only didn’t notice when it stopped humming but we don’t know how to turn it back on. 

We all have to deal with life, it’s not always sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, and feeling exhausted is a real thing, or is it? 

I suggest that when we lose our hum, what we lost...

We can all build our resilience and learn to bounce better and there's a lot we can do to assist ourselves and others to get through the ups and downs of our lives.  

It’s what’s happening in our lives that is having the most impact on our weight and health and the more skills we develop, the more in control our emotions we feel, which leads to feeling more empowered about the responses and behaviours we have to what’s going on. 

There are great short courses around that everyone can do. I did one back in 2009 at The Hopewell Centre on the Gold Coast called ASIST – Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. This is so you can help others but the personal value to yourself is also right there. There are actually a lot of places still providing this 2 day training and I highly recommend it. 

It’s important to build our own skills and knowledge on what to do in times of distress, whether it’s our distress...

It's completely normal to have ups and downs in how you feel. 

We all go through it. I've had my fair share of ups and downs over my life, some big, some small. It's all part of being human isn’t it. 

It's important to remember that everyone has days when they feel great and days when they feel low, it’s the natural cycles of life. 

It only turns into a problem for us when things start to accumulate and we don’t have the time, skills or support to deal with them or there’s a time when too many things come faster than we can deal with them. 

That’s when we find ourselves grappling to regroup, to get some purchase on a slippery emotional slope. 

The problem is we’re running at life at such a speed that we don’t have the time or motivation to develop and maintain the daily physical health routines that will help us in those times, let...

What do you want?  

Do you ever ask yourself that question?  

If you said yes, I invite you to check-in with yourself: do you ask yourself the question “what do I want” or do you think you know what you want because you complain about what you don’t want so much that it seems obvious that you know what you don’t want?  

The reality is we mostly do the complaining part rather than the more proactive approach of asking ourselves the straight up question “What do I actually want?”  

If we ask ourselves that question, we’re more likely to find ourselves living it.  

Because when you take the reins of your life, then you are the one in control. 

You’re in a better position to be steering that run away stallion that is our unpredictable life rather than being the person tied to its back flopping around, arms flailing, banging our head on...

Emotional eating has a massive impact on our weight and health and one of the keys to reducing emotional and stress eating is to increase relaxation. 

 
Taking simple steps to find some little pockets of “you time” throughout the day is one way to begin to reduce stress and increase feelings of calm. 

Another way to break-away from this long standing learned behaviour is to simply be aware that you’re about to engage in emotional eating and take steps to reduce that drive towards putting food in your mouth.

That’s easier said then done though isn’t it.  

I shared my story last night at the Happy Healthy Workshop: Find Your Food Freedom In 5 Simple Steps & Lose Weight Before Christmasof knowing all too well the shame of feeling out of control and that food was my enemy when emotional and stress eating would kick in. 

Sure there were times when I was the one in control and I was able to...