It's All A Question Of Balance

Photograph by: Wytchwynd Photography

It’s All A Question Of Balance

As human beings we need to lead balanced lives if we are to get the best out of our time on earth and as the Moody Blues say “just open you eyes and realise the way it has always been”  

Yin does not exist without the Yang, Male does not exist without the Female, Day does not exist without Night nor does light exist without dark.

So here we have several tips that will help us all keep ourselves in balance as we move on our journey through this thing we know as life on earth.

Spending
Are you spending too much? Most people do! Take a good look at your monthly outgoings and trim where you can. But, don’t be so cheap that you’re cutting out birthday gifts or being rude at occasions. Remember, we are cannot take our money with us!

Time
This is not always easy and even the best of us work too much and many times we don’t stop and smell the roses. Unfortunately, and not wishing to be morbid, time is a limited resource. Seek balance! 

Diet
No breakfast and a big dinner – that’s the way a lot of people eat and the opposite is usually a lot better for you! A big breakfast and a small dinner provides a much better balance for most of us. 

Cheque Book
Small deliberate actions really do add up (pardon the pun) when it comes to mastering your personal finances. Does your cheque book match what your bank account says? 

Children
Make certain that your children are balanced people and that they give and take, study and enjoy, watch TV and read. 

Meals
Are you eating too many carbohydrates and not enough healthy fats, or conversely too much fat and not enough carbohydrates? There is really nothing wrong with a little junk food once in a while, but there is definitely something wrong with junk food all the time. 

Your Net Worth
This is your financial balance sheet: Your Assets – Your Liabilities = Your Net Worth
The formula always balances out, but it should be calculated from time to time. Ideally, you should see an increase in your net worth each year. 

Relationships
Do your friends drain you? Do you drain them? Good friendships are balanced, thought provoking, informative, enjoyable and often a little challenging. 

The Tyres On Your Car!
Far too many people miss this one! It can save you many, many Pounds (or your normal currency) in fuel over the course of your life and make you a quite a lot safer on the roads as well. 

Goals
Should not be too hard and impossible, but they should be challenging enough to excite and stretch you. 

Education and Action
Too much action without education can lead to major mistakes and pitfalls. Not enough action on things we learn can be lost education. You either use it, or lose it, when it comes to education. 

Positives and Negatives
Too much positive feedback can kill us, we need some negative feedback too (constructive analysis/criticism). If you are not getting negative feedback, ask more people to critique your work. 

Portfolio
Building a healthy balance between shares, stocks and bonds, and then re-balancing as you age is a must for meeting your life long financial goals. 

If this post has made you think or it has prompted any questions please feel free to leave a comment in the box below.

To check out my website at www.moonshadowmedia.wixsite.com/bluesky

Visit my Pinterest board The Blue Sky Company

If you would like to follow this blog please go over to the right hand side of this page and click the BLUE button that says “Follow”.  Once you do that you will be added to my list of followers.

Have a fantastic day and live a life of Passion and Power.

And above all

Don't Predict The Future - CREATE IT!

DAve x

PS if you would like to receive a new Inspirational Phrase delivered free of charge to your mailbox every day please send your email address to moonshadowmedia@mail.com and quote "add me" in the subject line

Forthcoming Posts (updated)

A very good day from Ilfracombe, N Devon, UK - today is Monday the 16th January 2017 and after a very busy weekend with friends and family I thought it would be useful to give everyone an indication of what and when I will be posting new topics on here.

So here is the programme for the next 4 weeks

Wednesday 25 January - "Responsibility, Forgiveness, Gratitude and Action"

Wednesday 1 February - "Overcoming Shyness"

Wednesday 8 February - "Make A Positive Impact"

Wednesday 15 February - "It May Not Be Our Fault........y 

Wednesday 22 February - "I Am Flawed ......a misconception"

All of the above posts contain simple steps that anyone can follow to make significant changes and hopefully, improvements in their lives.

Some of you may be asking what qualifies me to post these things?   So let me give you a small insight into the world of Dave Baxter 

I have been a life coach since 2006 and hold an Honours Diploma in the subject.  I am a member of Associated Stress Consultants.  I hold a diploma in Music Therapy, I am a certificated Reiki Practitioner, a certificated Crystal Therapist and am currently studying towards a qualification in Mindfulness.

Furthermore I have had several Personal Development articles published in the USA, I lead guided meditations and run the virtual light centre The Crystal Spring with my business partner Kaz and I also run The Blue Sky Company which is my coaching / personal development brand.

If this has made you think or it has prompted any questions please feel free to leave a comment in the box below,

I hope that you will join in and read the coming posts and tell your friends about this blog.  You can also follow me on Twitter as @realdavebaxter

To check out my website at www.moonshadowmedia.wixsite.com/bluesky

Visit my Pinterest board The Blue Sky Company

If you would like to follow this blog please go over to the right hand side of this page and click the BLUE button that says “Follow”.  Once you do that you will be added to my list of followers.

Have a fantastic day and live a life of Passion and Power.

And above all

Don't Predict The Future - CREATE IT!

DAve x

PS if you would like to receive a new Inspirational Phrase delivered free of charge to your mailbox every day please send your email address to moonshadowmedia@mail.com and quote "add me" in the subject line

The Glass Ceiling Effect

Photo by: Wytchwynd Photography

The Glass Ceiling Effect

The term "The Glass Ceiling" is often used to describe a situation that applies to women in the workplace.

It is argued that women progress along their career path until they reach a specific point and then suddenly they reach a stop and no matter what they do in an attempt to move higher, they can go no farther, it seems that the point where their career development ceases has been reached.

In 2000 (at the age of 51), Lorraine Heggessey, became the first female controller of BBC1.  At the time of writing the original version of this article she was the Chief Executive of TalkbackTHAMES, one of the United Kingdom's largest TV production companies. Lorraine who lived in West London with her husband and two teenage daughters is quoted as saying:

"Yes - the glass ceiling does exist. But my advice is this: it's a transparent construct, so look through it and act as though it's not there".

Ruth Badger, 30, was the runner-up on the second series of “The Apprentice”. Helped turn failing companies into successes on Sky One's “Badger Or Bust”, and at the time of writing the original piece (in 2010) had her own consultancy firm based in Didsbury, Manchester, where she lives. She said

"No one could put a ceiling above me that I wouldn't smash through. Successful women don't acknowledge barriers, whether you believe they exist for other women".

I believe that it is easy to see The Glass Ceiling Effect at work in our own lives, and I also feel that all too often we put it there ourselves.   We repeatedly fail to realise that it is but a creation of our own making.

For example - How many times have you decided that you want something, you can see it, you can almost touch it, but no matter how hard you seem to try you cannot quite reach out and grab it?

Finally after several failed attempts you give up.... The Glass Ceiling has triumphed and as a result you tell yourself that it is not going to happen, that you are destined not to have the thing that you seek.

I believe that to think in this way does you absolutely no favours!

Therefore I feel justified in saying to any client of mine who presents this situation . ”If you want something enough it will not matter how many false starts you make or how many times you hit The Glass Ceiling. 

You will need to return to the beginning and look at a different way to approach the situation.....(a cautionary note here - if you go back to the beginning and repeat past actions then guess what? You WILL hit the ceiling again!)”

It is important to recognise that changes will happen.  Such changes are inevitable - we all get older, our hair often turns grey etc.  We cannot stop these things from happening but to really alter things in our lives we must make PROGRESS.

Therefore, progress comes from understanding (and actually knowing) that if doing a certain thing has not given  the expected result then we must learn from it and move on to the next attempt and if that does not work then we must keep moving onwards until we do get to our desired result.

Please feel free to leave a comment in the box below, to check out my website at www.moonshadowmedia.wixsite.com/bluesky or to visit my board The Blue Sky Company on Pinterest.

I would love to have you follow this blog so if you go over to the right of the page and click the BLUE button that says “Follow” you will be added to the list.

Have a fantastic day and live a life of Passion and Power.

And above all

Don't Predict The Future - CREATE IT!

PS if you would like to receive a new Inspirational Phrase delivered free of charge to your mailbox every day please send your email address to moonshadowmedia@mail.com and quote "add me" in the subject line

Small branding update

Photograph by: Wytchwynd Photography

Over the past few days I have been wrestling with ideas for the structure of this blog and how to achieve a coherent branding - I think that now I have finally achieved this and so going forwards

contact email address is:- thedavebaxter@mail.com

Twitter contact is:- @realdavebaxter

To follow this blog please click the blue button marked follow on the right of this page.

DAve

What Are Emotions?

Hi everyone and I hope that you have all recovered from the (potential) excesses of the Yule / Christmas / New Year period.

So I thought that I would start 2017 with a repost of something that I put on my old (long retired) coaching blog.  The post is called "What Are Emotions" and this may possibly resonate with my female friends although it does not only apply to women.

I had intended to revive the old blog post but sadly that was not "doable" so I decided it would be simpler to amend the old post and then maybe add all the coaching posts at some future point.

So here is the earlier article

What Are Emotions?

Emotions are a call to action! 

It is often said that emotions can be positive or negative. 

Positive emotions help you to feel good about yourself and your life, whereas, negative emotions have a tendency to create doubts, worry, fear, discomfort etc.

We can sum up negative emotions in the following way, “they are pointers to change” or  as a teacher of mine once said - Emotional Signposts

Here I would like to ask you a question and I would like you to answer truthfully

How do you deal with your negative emotions at present?

Your answer will probably fall into one of the following categories

a)         avoidance

b)         endurance or denial

c)         competition

d)         learn and utilise

After saying that I feel it necessary to say something that I know a lot of people who are watching this video will find difficult to believe -

“You ARE 100% responsible for your reaction to your circumstances (your emotions!)” 

Nothing at any time MAKES you feel anything. 

How you feel is the result of the meaning that you attach to a situation, the logical conclusion to this is that there are no such things as negative emotions.  There are simply emotions - positive or negative labels are simply down to your interpretation of the events that have brought about the emotion .

So let us take a moment to try a short exercise

I want you to imagine something specific that you would like to own

Now I want you to spend a few moments hoping that you will get it.

How does it feel?

How are you standing?

How are you breathing?

Now take a few moments being absolutely certain that you are going get it (whatever it is) –

How does that feel?

How are you standing?

How are you breathing?

Now compare those two sets of feelings – is the way you felt when you were hoping very much different from how you felt when you were certain that it was going to happen?

I'll bet it is!

So now let us think about the process that you went through – does the actual thing exist? 

No!  It does not exist right here and right now and yet I know that the feelings in you were as genuine as if you were experiencing this expectation for real.

This experiment has just proven that you don't need the actual thing to make you feel the emotion and that you can change your feelings and emotions at will. (from hope to certainty in an instant)

Earlier we concluded that Negative Emotions are pointers to change (Emotional Signposts).

For example the emotion of Fear = get prepared, cope with or deal with.

6 steps to help you deal with these emotions when they arise -

            1          Identify the emotion

            2          Appreciate the message (see below, The Action Signals)

            3          How can you use it

            4          Feel reassured

            5          See release as a tool of empowerment

            6          Take action to improve the situation

10 basic messages of change (The Action Signals)

            1          Uncomfortable – boredom, impatience

            2          Fear – worry, apprehension

            3          Hurt – loss

            4          Anger – irritated, annoyed

            5          Frustration – held back

            6          Disappointment

            7          Guilt – regret

            8          Inadequacy – less than perfect

            9          Overloaded – hopeless, depressed, more than you can deal with

            10        Loneliness

The Mastery Steps

The following steps are designed to help you take control of your emotional situation

1 -        Identify the signal then

            a) change your state  b) clarify what you want  c) take action in that direction

            Change your perception or your procedure.

2 -        Appreciate the message

3 -        Get Curious – how do you want to feel.  What would you need to believe to feel this way

What would you be willing to do to handle this emotion.  What can you learn from this.

4 -        Get Confident – remember when you have felt this before and got over it.  What did you do?

5 -        Get Certain – identify 3 or 4 ways of dealing with the emotion

6 -        Get Excited – Take MASSIVE Action. - Kill the monster while it is little!!!

And finally ….....

Here are 10 emotions to cultivate seeds of greatness, to make life work.

1          Love and warmth

2          Appreciation and Gratitude

3          Curiosity (wonder)

4          Excitement and Passion

5          Determination

6          Flexibility

7          Confidence

8          Cheerfulness

9          Health

10        Contribution

I hope that in some way the points raised in this post on Emotions have helped you to understand that they are your responsibility and belong to no-one else.

Remember – there is not one person alive today who can make you feel anything (despite what you may believe) you are responsible for EACH and EVERY feeling you experience.

If you have found this piece interesting I would love to get some feedback from you so please leave a comment in the box.

It would be great if you would click the follow button over there on the right of the page and that way you won't miss out on anything.

You can also take a look at my coaching website (still under construction) at moonshadowmedia.wixsite.com/bluesky

and recently I have created a presence on Pinterest 

https://uk.pinterest.com/davethemerlin/the-blue-sky-company/

So now in closing let me wish you the best things that life can give -

Live a life of Power and Purpose and remember

Don't Predict the Future – CREATE IT!

DAve

PS if you would like to receive a new Inspirational Phrase delivered free of charge to your mailbox every day please send your email address to moonshadowmedia@mail.com and quote "add me" in the subject line

New Year update

Hi and thanks for joining me on the last update of 2016.  I really look forward to sharing the journey into the New Year with you all.

Here's to a fantastic 2016 for all of us

Christmas Day 2016

Hi and welcome to Christmas Day 2016 with me Dave

I hope you all had an amazing day with family and friends.  

To follow this blog please click on the blue button on the right of the page

The whole Moonshadow Media thingymabob.

Hi Good Thursday Afternoon

I hope that you are having a great week - I know that I am.

Just lately I have been doing a great deal of thinking and I don't know if it is the time of year or what but I just feel rather unsettled, disheartened with various things and so on.   So I have been trying to work out what my priorities are and where they lie.  Some things are going to have to go "out the door" in 2017 to make way for new ones.

As a result of this thinking phase I have already begun to make a few changes.  Starting with Wytchwynd Photography

I have decided that I really want to specialise in a few areas and whilst I will not turn work away willingly, I am hoping that as my name gets out and about that the work in the fields in which  I want to operate comes in and fills up the available time.

Alphabetically, the areas that I will be targeting are:-

Accident and Incident
Architectural (buildings,statues etc)
Artistes (in particular bands and singers)
Automotive (cars, buses, trucks etc)
Industrial (machinery etc)
Maritime
Nature
Press work

To see some of my photography (if you have not already done so) you could go to the Facebook page, Wytchwynd Photography or to my website http://bit.ly/wytchphotog

I have also been looking closely at my broadcast work and to be honest I have started to feel that radio is my first love and TV comes in second. Therefore, it is not beyond possibility that, unless I can find someone who is prepared to work with me to take IlfracombeTV to the next level, it might have to go back onto the back burner.

All that said I produced a new video for the blog that touches into Mindfulness and that is one area that I am keen to study.  During the last couple of days I recorded a new mini programme for Coaching Radio.

To listen to the latest item on Coaching Radio follow this link -  http://bit.ly/TheTao26

CauldronFM will also be getting a new Yule show, probably by the end of the weekend, so as you can see the broadcast side is busy, but again that is only because I make it so.

Therefore - if anyone reading this would like to jump on board and take on some of the broadcast bits (such as finding advertisers, sponsors for programmes, all of which I would love to do but I just don't physically have the time) and leave me to make the programmes I want to make, that would be fantastic.

And as yet I have not really touched upon the works that I feel called to do regarding my therapies (Crystal Spring, The Music Ladder, Reiki, Crystal Work) and the ongoing development of my skillset as a therapist.

Nor have I mentioned my work as a writer and a musician!

So basically, I think what I am saying is, I need to find a couple of clones that can be instructed to go off and do bits of the work that I already do.

All in all that is an indication of where my head is at the moment and as I said at the top of this post some things have to give - I have to move away from certain things to open the way for the development of others.

So, if you are, or you know of someone who is, a Girl Friday / Man Friday who shares the same passions as I do, and wants to jump on board the Moonshadow Media ship and join in the madness whilst helping me to push it from an almost, non - paying wannabe business into a paying successful media brand that is creating a living then please give me a shout or get them to give me a shout.

If you want to follow me on here please hit the blue button on the right hand side of the page that says  "Follow" - it would be great to see your name on the list.

I can be contacted in various ways including but not limited to:-

email - capstoneradio@mail.com
facebook - capstoneradio
twitter - @capstoneradio

So just before I go I would like to thank you for reading this and I wish you the best things that life can give.

Love and light to you all and remember

Don't predict the future - CREATE IT!

4 Ways To Train Your Mind

The Invitation.....Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Hi and good afternoon to you all.  I sincerely hope that you have had a great week.  I was just checking my emails etc. and discovered this piece that had been posted by a friend of mine from an organisation called "Conscious Living Events" and as I read it it rang so true and also highlighted some areas that I need to work on.  So I have decided to share it on here, I hope that you enjoy it

THE INVITATION

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, 'Yes.'

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer ~

Isn't that a great piece of writing and a wonderful challenge to us all?

I will be recording a new video programme over the weekend (all being well) and if things work out the way I would like them to it will be posted on Sunday or Monday.

If you enjoyed reading this it would be great if you would "follow" me and my blog page by clicking the button over there on the right of your screen that says FOLLOW

You can also email me at thedavebaxter@mail.com - i would love to hear from you.

Until the next time we speak I will say "bye for now" and wish you the best things that life can give.

Don't predict the future - CREATE IT!

Blog Uodate 4/12/16