Make 2009 a great year!

As a fabulous start for 2009 let's remind ourselves of ten rules for Being Human, by Dr Cherie Carter-Scott.

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, and it's yours to keep for the entire period.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."

3. There are no mistakes, nor failures, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The so called "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work" and merely an indication for you on what to change so you get the result that you want.

4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here". The present is a gift of each day.

7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself. Look for the beauty inside.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours, fully.

9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this, so please remember it ;)

Wishing you all a wonderful year 2009

Love, Light & Smiles,
Celine Grey
Inspirational Coach & Trainer

The Power of Dreams

In Japan there are dolls called Dharmas or Darumas.
They’re hollow and round wish dolls. The Daruma has a face with a mustache and beard, and its eyes only contain the color white
They are representations of the historical Indian priest Bodhidharma, a sage who traveled throughout Japan and China around the 6th century AD and is credited as the founder of Zen Buddhism.
Legend has it that he achieved enlightenment, following seven years of meditation in a cave, facing the wall without speaking, nor blinking for the entire time.

Daruma dolls have no arms, nor legs and yet, knocking the doll on its side will always cause it to pop back into its upright position. So it has become a symbol of optimism, persistence of spirit, recovery from misfortune, and strong determination.

As a symbol of good luck and protection in Japan, a Daruma doll is traditionally given to someone starting a new venture, celebrating a birthday or at the beginning of a New Year.
And it’s quite interesting as using black ink, one fills in a single circular eye, the left, that's right, while thinking of a wish or a goal. And when the wish later comes true or the goal is reached, the second eye is filled in (the right one is left:).

At year-end, it is customary to take the Daruma doll to a temple, where it is burned in a big happy bonfire. This is done as a purification ritual to let Kami know that the wisher did not give up on the wish, but is on another path to make it come true or so you believe and focus on your next dreams.

Now what about you?
What are your dreams?
What actions are you taking to realize your dreams?
How focused are you on achieving them?

... And what if you were to make them come true ... ?

Take Care & Be Happy
Celine Grey,
Inspirational Coach & Trainer

Direction, Direction, Direction ...

Every day of our lives we are given hundreds of choices. And every day we take hundreds of decisions. Add up all of those choices you make every day, and you’ve got a pretty good picture of what your life is. So could it be that by taking responsibility for those choices we can live the life we truly desire?

Are you doing what you want in life?... or not doing what you want ... or doing what you don’t want. Are you being who you want to be?... or not being who you want to be. Are you having all of the things you want to have in life?... or having the things you don’t want. What direction is your life heading towards? Your dream life? or not...

Whilst most people have a bit of what they want and a lot of what they don’t want, a fraction is very successful in getting their dream life. How do they do it?
Well, they live one of the most basic principle of success and happiness, so simple and yet so powerful: They focus on what they want.

As you read the next sentence please follow exactly the instructions I give you ... and remember to follow the instructions!
“ Whatever you’re doing right now do not think of chocolate. That’s right, do not think of chocolate.”
Now tell me, what is the very first thing that came to your mind? Not the second nor third, the very first thing. That’s right ... chocolate. And following the instructions you shouldn’t have thought of chocolate ...
Simple really. You can not not think about something without thinking about it. Shall I repeat this? You can not not think about something without thinking about it!
Therefore by focusing on what you don’t want, you’re focusing your energy on what you don’t want and getting it!

Has it ever happened that you ask someone: “Don’t forget to pick-up the dry-cleaning today.” ... and guess what, they forgot!
Now instead ask this: ”Remember to pick-up the dry-cleaning on your way home.”... and guess what, they’ll remember and that’s because giving clear and positive instructions gets you the results that you want.

So next time you hear yourself or someone else saying: “I don’t want this to happen” or “I really wish I don’t fail” or “Don’t do this” ... think ... “So what is it that you do want instead?” so you give yourself clear positive directions to get what you want. Say it the way you mean it to get it.

Love, Light & Smiles,
Celine Grey
Inspirational Coach & Trainer

Anchor me!

How are you today?
Some of you will say ok, not too bad… or
Nothing to complain about … or
Fine ... or even
Yeah ... great.

And how about feeling FANTASTIC! FULL OF ENERGY, ON TOP OF THE WORLD!

Another example of using what we unconsciously know already is anchoring.

Anchoring did you say? Why would I use that?
We naturally anchor all the time and using this technique purposefully triggers resourceful states.
And why is it important to be in a resourceful state?
Let me ask you a question in return: When do you get better results?
- When you’re feeling down?
- Or when you’re feeling great about yourself?
Bingo! Tapping into resourceful states gives you a positive attitude and set of behaviour to achieve your goals.
And achieving our goals is important to you, isn’t it?

I can hear some of you asking: "So what is anchoring?”
Anchoring happens when you’re in an intense or heightened state and your nervous system is automatically searching for a trigger, a unique reason which causes you to feel that way. It then links the trigger with the state in your neurology so that when the specific trigger or stimulus is presented to you once more you feel the same way again.
And yes, it is all about reflex conditioning (ref Edward B. Twitmyer & Ivan Pavlov).

We anchor all the time, positively and negatively. Ever felt bad when someone looks at you in a particular way? Or felt annoyed when people speak to you with a particular tone of voice? Or romantic when you hear a particular song which reminds you of a special moment? Or even hungry with the smell of warm bread?

So you may want to start being aware of the anchors that you create around you and use the positive ones (for example notice and remember how you hug your kids or your partner when they feel good and hug them exactly the same way when they need comforting).
Have fun remembering fun positive states and remember that you too can be powerful, awesome, confident, totally loved and feel on top of the world in the click of a finger.

Remember to have fun in whatever you do and when you’re done, have dome more!

Celine Grey-Pelissier
Inspirational Coach & Trainer

6,671,202,855 ...

6,671,202,855 ...

... unique models of the world in this world.

... WOW.

... GREAT!

... AND?

And it means we all have our unique way to process and give meaning to the world outside, therefore creating our unique internal map to find directions and live our lives.
It also means we potentially have 6,671,202,854 other models of the world to discover and learn from!

... Talk about a challenge!

And maybe the challenge doesn't lie in the number, maybe it lies in accepting and respecting models that are different from our own. Maybe it lies in getting that greater tolerance and understanding of stepping in someone else's shoes and experience what they experience, the way they experience it. And whether we agree or not, whether we like that model or not is irrelevant, what matters is that we are flexible enough to operate from different perspectives.

Writing to you as someone who lives in Dubai, we all know there is a fantastic mix of cultures and nationalities, from all ages, all social backgrounds ... what a great testing ground for experimentation!

The first time I attended a meeting in the Gulf region half of the attendees turned up late (some half way through the presentation), everyone (but me ;-) had their mobile switched on and were taking calls in the room. I did find it a bizarre experience as in the UK you would be expected to turn up on time, apologise and have a good reason if you didn't and put your phone on silent when attending meetings (or else you'd get "the look" or a sarcastic comment). What triggered my curiosity that day is that everyone seemed to find this completely normal. Hello! Was I the only one to notice how rude people were here!
Well ... yes. I was the only one to think that. It didn't mean the attendees were rude nor disrespectful as in their model of the world it is ok to listen to a presentation and answer a phone call. It is also ok to turn up late and have no justification to give. And discussing with them after the meeting I discovered they did gather the information they came for in the first place.

Yes, we're all different, none the same and to get along with each other, live as a community in harmony one essential learning is to respect each other's model of the world. Everybody always says "Of Course!" when hearing this and still ... not only this means to accept and respect the other person's reality and also to switch off your own reality and get an experience of theirs. And very few people really allow themselves to let go of their vision of the world, instead they make excuses, justify themselves, give advice as to what is right or wrong ...

So just for a few days, let's allow ourselves to look into different realities with ease and curiosity, switching off our judgments and beliefs ... how many great discoveries can we make?


Love, Light & Smiles,
Celine Grey-Pelissier

Certified Trainer of NLP & Master NLP Coach
Certified Time Line Therapy™ Master Practitioner & Master Hypnotist
themagicalcompass@gmail.com