Wearing a frock is good for your hormones!

November 11th, 2010

Sophia Loren once said “Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.” I believe dressing up in a frock gives a woman that belief.

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Intuition and period pain

April 28th, 2010

Intuition and period pain

Article written by Andrea Hepner the Period Pain Guru
Website: http://www.periodpain.com.au/

Women these day’s seem to have it all-  a family, a career, money. We are driven, we have achieved great things and great things have been accomplished. We have burned our bra’s and we have fought long and hard for women’s rights. But has the pendulum swung too far?

Do we really want it all?

The issue is often when we keep going, running ourselves into the ground until we reach empty. And that is when our health starts to decline. We might stop cooking the nutritious meals because we get home from work too late. We might have one too many cups of coffee to ‘get us going in the morning’.  We might get to bed too late, to get that deadline in, or get the kid’s clothes washed. But what we are really doing, is not listening to our intuition.

Are you suffering from period pain every month? Do you get cranky every month? Do you yell and scream? Do you need to take time off work? Are you doubled over in pain?

Do you listen to your intuition?

It is really important that we start to listen to our intuition. We need to listen to our body so that  we know when we have had enough . We need to make sure  we get some “Me Time”. Me Time might be focusing on our breath for a minute each day or it might be reading our favorite magazine for 10 minutes before bed. Or it might be taking a walk along the beach.

It’s about creating boundaries. Boundaries help to create balance. Being “Balanced” is a concept and term thrown around in our language these days like sand through the hour glass. It is something else that we now have to obtain. And something that a lot of people feel that they “fail” at, thus , ironically, it becomes another stress in our lives.  Here are 3 Steps to help you create more Boundaries, and therefore balance in your life so you can listen to your intuition more.

1)    Write a list of all the things that you enjoy doing. You might not have time to do all of them, but pick one or two and write them in your diary as if they were an appointment.  If your boss rings you up and asks you to do a morning shift on Wednesday, you can check your diary and genuinely say that you have something on- your boss doesn’t need to know that it is a morning walk.

2)    Write a list of the things that you don’t enjoy doing. Of course there may be some things that you have to do (ie. like cleaning), but can you change any of the things you don’t enjoy doing? For example,   do you have to work back late every night? Or can you finish at 5pm two nights a week. Every small boundary you create, will help you achieve some balance.

3)    Draw a mind map of the essences of you. For example, it might say Me- laughter, likes drawing, calmness, happy. Pin it up somewhere where you can look at it frequently to make sure that you are living in alignment with who you really are. If you feel you are not living your life in congruency with yourself, work towards making changes so you can.

You might be asking, what does this have to do with intuition and period pain? When we get caught up in a daily grind that doesn’t serve us well , our radiant spirit and our intuition can decline. We stop listening to ourselves as much. This often leads to female health problems. In clinical practice, I often see that period pain is associated with the stress from our daily lives, the stress that stops us from listening to our intuition. From looking at the human biochemistry, we can track why we get period pain when we are highly stressed. It is because our stress hormone called cortisol robs one of our female balancing hormones called progesterone. When we don’t have enough progesterone, we can experience period pain.

So how are your stress levels? Do you need to listen to your intuition? Do you need to create some boundaries? This is one of the steps in helping to decrease your period pain and live your life the whole month through.

The Period Pain Guru & Naturopath Andrea Hepner has been helping women who experience period pain and related symptoms for many years. She is also a specialist in hormonal imbalance and fertility issues. To contact Andrea Hepner for treatment call 1300 21 44 25 or go to <a target=”_new” href=”http://www.PeriodPain.com.au/”>www.PeriodPain.com.au</a>

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Harness the power of affirmations in 4 easy steps

April 17th, 2010

Getting Fit, losing fat, exercising, cutting back on alcohol, may require a change in your current lifestyle and thought patterns. If this is the case – you definitely need to change the inner chatter – your internal coach needs to be encouraging, embracing, positive and committed. No more telling yourself you are fat, lumpy, cuddly, not able to lose weight , or whatever self-sabotaging dialogue that you may use.

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Goal Setting

April 17th, 2010
GOAL SETTING THAT WORKS
Setting goals correctly can be very powerful!

They can help you to achieve the following:

  • self-critique to see if you are on target to achieve what you want out of life. Ie define a platform to improve from.
  • Re-inforce any improvements necessary to move forward
  • objectively let you know that you can achieve things in a timely manner
  • Motivation.
  • Keep you focused.
  • Highlight areas that need improvement.
  • Allows some objectivity into your dreams and aspirations.
  • Setting goals in an important step in achieve better health, better finances, better relationships, fat loss and pretty much better outcomes in any area of your life.

Most people don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan

Spend some time to think about the following and write down your answers. These will help you identify areas to you that are important to you and need improving:

a. Why do you want to change?

b. What are the consequences of not changing (health, energy, relationships, self respect etc.)?

c. Do you experience a sense of satisfaction and achievement on a daily basis?

d. Do you feel that you life is being lived as you intended?

e. Are there times when you feel unable to control your physical appetites (food, alcohol, sugar etc.)

f. When you interact with other people do you feel confident, calm and strong?

g. What will your life be like in 12 months/5 years if you make change? What will it be like if you don’t?

Setting Goals

There are a few tricks to setting goals. For example, writing down some where that “I want to lose weight” is not a goal, it is a dream. Goals need to be more specific and comply with the following SMART rules.

A well written goal will be:

Specific

Measurable

Achieveable

Realistic

Timed

An  example of SMART goals is:

It is now January 31st 2010 and I have lost 10 kg of fat and now fit into my size 12 cargo pants which look lose fitting and I feel great!

Write down your 5 SMART goals (if you need help with these, send them to Sam@byebyebridget.com and I will jazz them up for you)

1.            ___________________________________________________________

2.            ___________________________________________________________

3.            ___________________________________________________________

4.            ___________________________________________________________

5.            ___________________________________________________________

Now print these off, laminate them if you can, and hang in the shower or by your computer, so you can see them every day.

Have fun doing them Bridgets. You may want to do a set with your partner so that you have relationship goals as well!

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Get yourself a Bridget Buddy

March 11th, 2010

What is a bridget-buddy?

A bridget buddy is an appointed friend, work collegue or other such trusted person whom you request to help you through rough patches. That is they stop you piggying out when you feel weak, they don’t offer champagne when you pop in at 10am on a Sunday, and they motivate you to exercise as you leave work, instead of going home to self-satisfy on chocolate. They keep you on the straight and narrow. (more…)

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