Nicola Walker Coaching

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find your truth

Not Feeling Joy in Life: Find Your Truth and Live The Full You

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Sunlit Path in Redwoods - when not feeling joy in life, find your truthHave you noticed that you are not feeling joy in life? If you yearn for a sense of completeness and a richer, fuller life, choose to honor your truth. Discover how to find your real truth, the truth that makes you feel alive, rather than the false truth that flattens you.

Many years ago, unhappy in my marriage and not feeling joy in life, I attended a personal growth workshop where I burst into tears, sobbing that I was “living half a life.” My words seem to land in every woman’s heart that day. One of them approached me later to say that she realized that she too was living half a life. She promptly announced that she was leaving her job and moving. She drove off to live in another city. I faced the truth of how I really felt about my marriage and ended it. This was the right choice for me at the time, and in retrospect.

Since then, I have had billions of opportunities to face my truth. Each day, I have to find what is true for me. Sometimes my truth is obvious; my truth moves me into action that feels good and right. Other times I can wrestle with my truth, trying to convince myself that it’s really something else. I don’t know quite why I’m sometimes unwilling to face my truth, because I suffer the consequences. I feel small, incapable, confused, anxious, tired and don’t enjoy life. However, when I find, face and follow my truth, I feel alive, vibrant and joyful. I am courageous and free inside, which results in me feeling enriched by who I am and by the richness of life.

If you are not feeling joy in life, take some time to reflect on what is going on in your heart.

Most importantly, find and honor your truth. Follow the career that calls you deep in your heart, make your business joyful, or launch yourself into the special project that makes your heart sing. Life is too short to settle for second best.

Here are three steps you can take to find your truth: [Read more…] about Not Feeling Joy in Life: Find Your Truth and Live The Full You

How to Unwind When The Stress Gets Too Much

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Still lake image for self care at work“Give yourself the time to move through the initial awkwardness, even a sense of fear or guilt that arises with open-ended time you can sink into, rather than more busyness disguised as unwinding.”

It has been a hectic week. Lots of driving, meetings, rushing out the door feeling so pressed for time that my jacket falls from my full arms into the flower bed. I run towards my car, keys clanging as I throw bags in the trunk, slam doors shut, roar out of the driveway; an oddity on what is really just another peaceful blue sky day in the Santa Cruz mountains with birds chirping from the branches of tall, bright green needled pine trees.

Today is Saturday. I planned the day to be blank, to unwind.  “What do I want to do?” my mind wonders, almost slightly anxious about making the right decision. “Walk on the beach? Go to a café?” It seems like I feel the need to do something to make the day special in order to unwind, yet my body is fatigued. I’m processing from all the events of the week. I don’t actually really know what I want to do.

Keep it simple and don’t let trying to unwind actually make you busy.

I remember how much nicer it is to let the way I spend my day happen naturally and spontaneously, without making a conscious choice. At first I feel the awkwardness of letting myself not “do anything of consequence”. I look out at the sunny tree tops feeling a little lost because I don’t have plans or anyone to share at least part of my day with. Yet I know I’m doing the right thing. [Read more…] about How to Unwind When The Stress Gets Too Much

Losing Heart? Five Ways to Find Your Heart Again

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Feeling sad, overwhelmed or discouraged? Or, maybe just not as bright as you know you could be? Sometimes we can feel worn down by a situation and lose all sense of perspective.

Here are five simple ways to start opening up your heart again so you can benefit from its wisdom and love. The wisdom of the heart is always available to you, though hard to hear when your heart feels closed. Spending time with someone you love and can communicate deeply with is also wonderful, but there are times when this may not be an option.

  1. Take some time out – go for a walk, look for beauty, things to appreciate, breathe, enjoy exerting your body and notice the difference between before your walk and after. If you prefer to run, make sure you observe and appreciate your surroundings so your attention is outside of yourself and your preoccupations.
  2. Lie down and have a rest. Your breath will find its own rhythms again and you’ll find your mind will let go of cycling around the same themes and leave space for a more balanced state of being. [Read more…] about Losing Heart? Five Ways to Find Your Heart Again

Follow Your Heart

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When a new year begins, it’s as though your slate has been wiped clean and you can begin again. Ask yourself, “what is deepest in my heart to create and experience?” Keep this question with you as you go about your day, especially when you go for walks, exercise or relax. The answer will float into your consciousness.

Ideas about what you want in life can change. That’s why it’s important to listen to what is true, to find out if it is still true for you. Remember that life can be perceived in many different ways. Keep going deeper to find the truth. You’ll know when you find your deepest truth, because you’ll resonate with it. Maybe you feel a rush of energy, a quickening or a deep sense of inner knowing.

It’s always most effective to act on what feels most alive for you. When you listen deeply in this way, you are flowing with your inner wisdom that is guiding you to your highest good. Maybe you hear that it is time to address an issue that has been bothering you with another person. Or it is time to stay at home and spend more time alone. Or now is the moment to look into that niggly feeling that you could be doing more with your life.

If you ever feel dull, irritable or dissatisfied, ask yourself, “what is true for me?” “Am I following my truth?” You’ll find your truth in your heart. Summon up the courage to follow your heart and you’ll feel full of life again. This is the path of inner happiness.