Lately I’ve been attracting conversations with amazing women who are feeling the call… the call for “more” but are stuck in some area of their lives. Sound familiar?
It led me to reflect on my own journey and to remember those times I’ve experienced that too (and how very limiting and compressing it feels). So, let me tell you a bit about it, and how things have changed for me now.
5 Years Ago
Life changed dramatically for me 5 years ago.
Before that, I’d had a successful banking career in London and Luxembourg and then a successful coaching and counselling career in Singapore.
But the effort it took to achieve success left me feeling disengaged from life and unwell.
I’d always thought achieving anything meant taking ‘massive action’ (remember that phrase?) but most of the time that felt like I was pushing a boulder up a hill…with one finger…while balancing on a ball…
In 2014 I was back in London and working flat out as a coach for a coaching company, I was flying to L.A, and N.Y to attend a a training course, looking after my family and ignoring my health. But operating like this was normal for me and I’d get bored if I only focused on one thing.
An Insight
In 2014 while on the training course, I also saw something transformational about my constant companion in life – thought.
I’d spent the previous 20 years learning about how to change my thoughts, reframe my thoughts, make thoughts smaller in my mind, how to make them positive, how make them disappear while meditating, how to accept them while meditating and lots more…
I don’t regret anything I learnt over the years.
I trained in N.L.P, hypnotherapy, coaching, got a master’s degree in counselling and trained to teach Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Everything I learnt, but particularly the mindfulness, helped me cope with the challenges of life and to thrive.
But I can’t believe how many years I spent doubting myself, feeling like I wasn’t good enough. that I needed to be better, that there was something wrong with me, that I was broken in some way and needed to be fixed.
So many years comparing myself to other women, hiding myself, not expressing myself while trying to look like I had it all in hand.
But nothing else was possible back then because I had certain thoughts that kept playing in my head and I believed them to be true. These thoughts kept pointing me to situations and people as the cause of my dissatisfaction and failure in certain areas of my life.
If you can relate to this then please make sure you read my P.S. below.
The areas I was struggling in were my work and my health.
What I saw during that training in 2014 was that I was looking in the wrong direction. I was so focused on the thoughts telling me about the problems in my life, and feeling like life was coming at me, that I completely missed the enormous possibilities that were available to me when I looked beyond my thoughts.
In fact it was also a diagnosis of M.S. that year that helped me to see beyond my thoughts and to the natural wellbeing within me and that changed everything.
In the next few posts, I’ll talk about how looking beyond my thoughts helped me with work and most importantly my health. I’ll also share how I’d compartmentalised my wellbeing to certain areas of my life but I’d never questioned my natural wellbeing when it came to parenting.
Let me know which areas of your life you feel stuck in because you can’t see past your unhelpful thoughts. I’d love to hear from you and I’ll reply to your email. Email me on neeta@neetaokeeffe.com
Until next time, take care!
Neeta xx
P.S.
I know from experience how one “aha” or decision can make a world of difference and help you to move forward with more ease. Being stuck is no fun (I know) so if you if you are at a crossroads right now please know this is a moment of great power.
As my own work is now moving into supporting others through this process, I’ve decided to offer 10 complimentary Get Unstuck calls for those who have reached a turning point and are ready to get the clarity and confidence to take that step to creating the next chapter of your life.
These are “no obligation” sessions – a gift from me to you. But there are only 10 so please do make the most of this opportunity. You can save your slot on my calendar by clicking the link below, or hit reply to this email for more information:
