It’s not all fight or flight…..   Stress sharpens our instinctual response to danger. Whilst our stress response is geared to saving our lives, it isn’t meant to be switched on for a prolonged time.   Anxiety, like so many negative emotions, is actually a communication from your subconscious. Your mind is telling you that […]

We know that a quality sleep is vitally important and yet we often forget that it is not only restorative, but helps us to problem-solve better, think more rationally, memorise more easily, maintain emotional and hormonal balance and prevent excessive weight gain.   Caffeine I love a good cup of tea. There’s nothing that beats […]

Whatever, the doubt, no matter how long you have felt this way, doubts are simply beliefs that we only think are true. They don’t have the same resonance as the truth of the sun coming up each morning, they are not truths and they don’t have to rule our lives!   Doubts are limiting beliefs […]

It’s the ultimate form of learned helplessness, the scientific name is thanatosis. People call this ‘playing possum’ too, because opossums do it (they enter into a catatonic state that resembles death) and it’s widespread in the animal kingdom.   It’s not hard to see that it’s a great adaptive behaviour if you’re sure that your […]

I had a call with Sarah (not her real name), who was suffering from anxiety, anger, frustration and most of all, shame. A shame that reached back into her childhood and seemed to grab her at unexpected moments, taking her back to thoughts of her upbringing.   As a child of parents who were traditionalists, […]

Anxiety is a warning from your unconscious mind that you’re focusing on the things you don’t want to have happen. Often, you’re running a programme in your head where worse case scenarios unfold. To be aware of this warning is very useful, as we shall see.   The triggers of anxiety could stem from a […]

As an equestrian business delivering lessons, how can the business continue during uncertain times and lockdown? What about times when the weather is atrocious? Horse or rider have been through injuries and are working through rehab?   When lessons don’t run   Cancelled lessons are often unavoidable, yet lessons cancelled at short notice are the […]

‘Mental toughness’ is often confused with someone who pushes themselves to extremes, for example, someone who breaks a bone and carries on with the competition. That’s not what’s meant here. We want a bullet-proof mentality that we can lean on in tough times and continue to hold a positive attitude.   When you’re mentally tough, […]

Optimism is part of mental toughness and the latter is much-misunderstood term. Mental toughness is the outcome, the attribute that you enables you to feel that you can overcome any stumbling block, any down-turn and shake it off. You know that if you dwell on the negatives, they will loom larger and larger in your […]

Affirmations appeal very much to one type of learning/memorising style. That is, those people who are auditory digital and that’s only about 10% of the population. These people learn best when something makes sense and has been done in a logical step-wise manner.   The other 90% comprises 40% visual people (preferring to watch how […]