As we move further into 2016, I'm reflecting on how fast the first 3 months of the year have passed for me. So fast that this is my first blog post this year!

Has it felt the same for you? Has maintaining balance and remaining grounded been a challenge for you?

I am aware that in February, the Chinese calendar moved into the year of the Red Fire Monkey

Monkeys are intelligent, playful and agile, but they can also be mischievous, aggressive and unpredictable.

What does it take to keep your internal fire gently burning, not raging , smoking or fading? Fire can be both destructive and creative.

We need to have the flexibility to respond healthily to any curve balls that unexpected life changes throw at us! Rigid thinking based on our individual old preconditioned beliefs is restricting. This can lead to a smoke screen or flares from your internal fire, blocking access to your true self and to the growth or changes you need to be the best you can be.

Fire needs oxygen to exist, and so do we!

Effective breathingtakes oxygen to every cell in your body, and takes away waste products from cellular activity. Relaxation breathing active relaxation and meditation reduce our stress hormones and raise levels of feel good hormones like serotonin.

We all need to give ourselves the best 'energetic fuel'. To me this means having a focus on maintaining life balance, connectedness to myself, to mother earth and to spirit. It means following my passion and my hearts desires, through practices and achievements that feed my soul and keep me on my path to being and giving the best of me

Being true to ourselves is vital. An old Chinese proverb says that 'tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are'. Be yourself, everyone else it already taken!

Energetic fuel can be the healthy giving and receiving of love, both to ourselves as well as to others. It can also be engaging in creative activity like singing, listening to music, engaging with any of the arts, or simply connecting with nature in your garden, at the beach or star gazing.

Keep your internal fire steadily burning!

Arohanui

Sally

I am not really one for new year's resolutions any more, as over the years my resolve has quickly dissolved into apathy! However I do reflect at this time of the year on my experiences and achievments from the previous 12 months and then I set some goals for what I want to achieve for my highest good within the coming year.

Being goals orientated helps me to have focus.

I believe that "energy flows where focus goes", (one of Tony Robbins catch phrases).

Sometimes it is difficult to find the clarity to identify goals.

Here are some strategies that you may find helpful.

Tips to help you to identify your goals for 2015

Set aside a few hours and create a comfortable space in which to reflect and look back on your memorable experiences (positive and negative) and your achievements from the previous 12 months.Write down these memories and life insights from 2014 under 4 headings: Self care/Personal fulfillment; Work achievements/experiences; Family/Friends time; Wider Community involvement and activities. Some may relate to a couple of these categories....Are some of your lists longer than others? Are there any glaring gaps?Can you now see some goals to set for 2015? What needs to change for your highest good?Goals must be realistic, achievable, relevant to your life, able to be measured and set into a timeframe. A goal without a timeframe is simply a dream. Happiness is not a measurable goal, it is very hard to measure, instead look at what will help you to be happy. For example you may feel happy when you spend time with your family, so the goal is setting aside regular time to spend with family (every other saturday morning). This can be measured!You may like to create a vision board for 2015, here are a couple of examples:

Yes it is nearly 'that' time of year again. Though potentially a very high stress time, to me, the holiday season is a time full of love, peace and joy.

I have plans underway for gathering the family together for Christmas, dates are being set, flights are being booked and my 'to do' lists are long.....

The shops all have their 'Buy me! Buy now! Buy buy buy!' Christmas stock in, and the media are aleady beginning to hit us with festive season advertising. Buy Buy BUY!

I admit to generally being a bit of a Christmas fairy, but sometimes the thought of all the work and expense does make me want to scream!

Does it feel like that for you too?

So here are some tips to help keep the stress down:

buying Christmas treeordering Christmas ham/turkey/salmonorganising decorationsbuying and wrapping presentswriting Christmas cards, sending overseas mail

Like many of you I have recently been unwell with colds and various winter ills. Today I was beginning to feel a little sorry for myself when I noticed the stunning yellow hues of the daffodills defiantly blooming in the pots on my patio. I smiled and held the pleasing feeling inside me. Such promise of spring and all the brightness to come. I began to get a cascade of positivity which is much more my usual 'default' mental state!

So I encourage you to recognise the good experiences that happen every day in your life, and smile for a while appreciating each one! Believe me, those good moments are there, currently available and happening in your life every day. Enjoy them! Breath them in! Feel, hold and extend all positive experiences, don't let them slip by unnoticed because you are too busy or stuck in negative 'poor me' thoughts. It may be noticing beauty in a flower, or the joy of a child at play. It may be a smile from a stranger. Soak it up and feel your happiness bank fill up. Positive experiences and attitudes bring happiness. Happiness is good for your total wellness, including natural healing and immune function. Research has shown this to be true.

The following excerpt is taken with thanks from http://www.care2.com/greenliving/6-surprising-things-that-affect-your-brain.html#ixzz39TrMbcyM

In his book The Genie in Your Genes (Elite Books, 2009), researcher Dawson Church, PhD, explains the relationship between thought and belief patterns and the expression of healing- or disease-related genes. “Your body reads your mind,” Church says. “Science is discovering that while we may have a fixed set of genes in our chromosomes, which of those genes is active has a great deal to do with our subjective experiences, and how we process them.”

One recent study conducted at Ohio University demonstrates vividly the effect of mental stress on healing. Researchers gave married couples small suction blisters on their skin, after which they were instructed to discuss either a neutral topic or a topic of dispute for half an hour. Researchers then monitored the production of three wound-repair proteins in the subjects’ bodies for the next several weeks, and found that the blisters healed 40 percent slower in those who’d had especially sarcastic, argumentative conversations than those who’d had neutral ones.

Church explains how this works. The body sends a protein signal to activate the genes associated with wound healing, and those activated genes then code blank stem cells to create new skin cells to seal the wound. But when the body’s energy is being “sucked up” by the production of stress biochemicals like cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine, like it is during a nasty fight, the signal to your wound-healing genes is significantly weaker, and the repair process slows way down. By contrast, when the body is not preparing for a perceived threat, its energy stores remain readily available for healing missions.