It’s that time of year again when students all over the country are faced with the great challenge of writing their personal statement.
I have just written an article giving seven useful tips for students, teachers and parents.
My article can be viewed on Innovate My School’s website using the following link.
At the weekend I attended an ‘Arts and Tarts’ evening at my local church St Mary’s Redbourn. A fundraising evening for PTSD Resolution (This year’s chosen charity).. a show and tell of arts and an amazing collection of puddings!
We were fortunate to have one of the counsellors attending who helps Military with Post-Traumatic Stress, together with an ex-military man who had benefited from their support who was able to give a first-hand account of the work they do.
If you wish to make a donation or find out more about this charity please visit their website; http://www.ptsdresolution.org.
For prompt help call 0300 302 0551
For the second time I had the great experience of seeing Brian Kennedy at the London Irish Centre Camden performing an acoustic set.
I never get tired of listening to what I describe as ‘the voice of an angel’. Indeed the first time I saw him live, at a CD signing I said as much to this amazing singer…comment so cheesy but so true.
This time we were treated to tracks from his latest album covering Joni Mitchell classics; Opening with ‘Night ride home’, later ‘A case of you’ simply beautiful.
He also sang ‘A free man in Paris’ for those caught in last week’s tragic attack.
He did a wonderful slow rendition of Van Morrison’s ‘Brown eyed girl’ and as before his magical delivery of ‘Carrickfergus’ moved me again to tears.
He always takes time out to talk to his fans, and he kindly signed three cd’s for me -great voice, great man!
As always my guest and I were shown great hospitality at the Irish Centre so thanks to all the staff.
So if you have yet to discover the talents of this singer/musician do so now!
Speaking as somebody that lives in a rural village maybe I realise and value the presence and difference our Police make.
The minute we reduce Police protection in any shape we send out the wrong message and an open invitation saying we are vulnerable.
Somebody please talk some sense into the decision makers and stop the proposed cuts.We need any additional special armed forces as well as the Police not instead!
I refuse to let others dictate or hamper my freedom. However, on my trip to London yesterday I certainly appreciated the reasuring sight of our Police at Euston Station.
I refrained from writing my blog at the weekend as I, like many, tried to digest and make sense of Friday’s terrible attack on Paris. Sadly, of course there is no sense in what has happened.
I am reminded of how my mother (who was brought up being very aware of prejudices) encouraged her children to look for the good in people. Not judge others by their religion, nationality or anything else which we may inadvertently feel makes them different to us. Live and let live.
As my blog has always been to inspire mindfulness and being positive I believe that remains a priority. We must continue to carry on living our lives and following our dreams. I said as much to my own daughter yesterday.
We mustn’t allow any actions taken by a small minority to prevent us from going about our life or feel fearful. Remember to tell those we love that we love them..and often.
All our prayers and thoughts are with those who have been touched by what has happened and the difficult road of bereavement which lays ahead.
Nothing more interesting and amusing than watching children at play. I managed to catch the second episode of ‘The Secret life of a four year old‘ which was a fascinating insight into their world and developing emotions.
There were some real stars in the group of children who were being filmed, seeing how their social skills, including the start of applying empathy was fascinating.
I did chuckle when one child gave his family list, ‘Daddy, my cat and my sister’ which just confirms how important the family pet is to our children.
One regret was I didn’t watch this type of documentary when my daughter was four…would have been a great help. Girls!!
I am a natural people watcher and stand accused of lovingly watching ‘the prince’ (a friend’s new baby boy.) Beautiful… at four months he already has a great character.
Both in my own experience as a parent and various projects work, studying etc., I can both marvel and be left in a quandary about ‘The secret mind of a teenager’ title of a forth coming project.
We know that for many years the mysteries surrounding the contents of a woman’s head and indeed her handbag are to be held in awe! Times that by infinity and you may be closer to understanding what your teenage son or daughter is thinking.
Being a parent is a rewarding role but holds us often left wondering… and often worrying far more than we need to. In a family each child is an individual and will deal with events in a completely different way to his or her siblings and this will come as a surprise to their parents who believe they know their child well…or not as the case may be.
We know from medical research that in terms of how they evaluate and react may be not the way we would wish and this is not based upon the hormones, stress levels but because the reasoning part of the brain is not fully developed until they are in their early twenties.
So do we give up the ‘perceived nagging’? Most definitely not, but be patient as hopefully they are growing, at their own speed, into rounded individuals in the majority of cases. They need time to catch up emotionally.
Mothers of boys don’t forget some boys are not as willing to share ‘secrets’ with their parents and being quiet in approach may not necessarily be a bad thing…maybe your son just has his head really sorted out, knows where he is going and is calm. Now wouldn’t that be a good thing to know?
However, if we can encourage our children to share rather than keep their emotions bottled up it will help with their emotional intelligence. Sometimes it is easier to talk to somebody independent and several parent friends know their children can come to me as a befriender if this helps and at times it has.
So many pressures exist on teenagers these days and the added peer and media activities can sometimes be a negative influence. As parents it is hard sometimes to gauge how to be supportive without prying and encouraging without pushing.
What we need to do though is be aware of the type of pressures they are facing however shocking they may be. Remember we are living in fast pace times with temptations that we never had to endure ourselves as teenagers and ‘apparently having everything’ doesn’t mean that your child won’t lose their way and possibly disappoint you.
Remain the adult and show them love..that’s their security.
The cure for Monday blues is to do something fun and think positive. I say this after a rather late start, lazy bath (where I do most of my planning and scheming).
Being self-employed we work such long and strange hours and rarely switch off completely at weekends either. So opting to seemingly avoid the grumpy morning can work really well.
Monday is often a day I meet with my fab life coach pal where we talk through our projects, aims and objectives over lunch. We both find this really motivates us both for the week and makes Mondays easier to digest.
So Mondays?? We either fight it or make it a positive start to the week. Off to be inspired now!
Happy Friday to any other mature students out there who may be studying holistic courses. Alongside my NLP course I have kept a reflective journal which is very personal.
Yesterday I had a light bulb moment and realised what I should do is make another journal from key posts from my blog during the period of my NLP course.
Having read back the past months posts -I was right my blog is more often or not indicative of my reflective moods and reactions to what is relative to my course assignments, what is happening in the world and in my own life.
So my tip for the day is to other writers and mature students to get writing a blog, what better way to collate material to use and re-use?
If we are really lucky we will have a few good friends along the way that genuinely care about us and will listen when we are sad and join in our joy when we are happy.
At a recent event the speaker was saying how shocked he was when asking a former audience just how few were actually able to say they had friends that would help them if they were in trouble, visit them if they were in hospital and really listen to their problems.
There is no secret to friendship it just has to be a two-way thing. The message is to be that friend that you want to have. The rewards are returned beyond infinity.
I count my blessings that I am fortunate to have some wonderful friends that I can trust and share with. I will listen to them and they will listen to me..but moreover we genuinely care.
What more do we need in life? Forget the lottery we are millionaires of life!
Today’s blog is dedicated to a very special lady…you know who you are!
credoblogdotco 