​I had a client recently, who was struggling with imposter syndrome, can you relate?

My client felt like she wasn't good enough for this role and her confidence had taken a hit after some disappointing feedback from a Manager she really liked.

To be honest, her self-belief pillars were totally shaken.

After just one session of getting really clear on who she was and what she wanted she saw her confidence start to return and her work anxiety lessen.

That is the power of the mind!

Ps. If you want to learn more about the 4-session coaching program I talk about in this blog you'll find it here -> CAREER MINDSET RESET ​

​Sometimes as career women, we find ourselves at a crossroads: do I stay in this job that pays the bills but doesn’t give me much else? Do I want to spend the next 2, 5, 10, years in the same career? In the same job? At the same company? In the same industry?

Or do I…
What if I…
Could I…
Is it possible to…

See we think these questions, but then we also find ourselves afraid of the answers, because the answers often mean change, and change often means stepping out of our comfort zones, and stepping out of our comfort zones can be scary. 

​Have you heard the saying, that there is no growth in your comfort zone? If not, think about it and tell me it’s not absolutely true. Are you REALLY able to grow if you’re staying comfortable at the same time?
 
Now, you’re welcome to stay in your comfort zone as long as you like, especially if you’re happy with where you're at in your life, work, and career.
 
But if you want to have more, be more, do more, or try more, then you've GOT to take a leap. And by taking that leap you’ll inevitably end up growing in the process and therefore stepping out of that (career) comfort zone.
 
I recently had a client who was 25 years old and looking at going to university to study a new career. The time it would take for her to complete her studies would be 7 years, which was obviously a big commitment. It also meant that she would have to step wildly out of her comfort zone and into an entirely new industry, and it was THIS that was holding her back.  Not so much the time commitment, but the idea that she’d be stepping out into the unknown.
 
Whether you’re 25, 35, or 45, we often feel like it's too late to begin or we're too old or there isn't enough time or we don’t know how we could possibly make it work or…
 
Now stop.
​
Stop and answer me this: does it matter how long it takes if this is THE thing you've always a) wanted to do, or b) is the thing you want to do for the rest of your life?
 
It yes, then time doesn't really matter.
If yes, then it’s time to step out of your comfort zone, because if that thing that you want to do will set your soul and your passion on fire, then it doesn't matter how long it's going to take. You do it. You make it work. You ask for help. You reprioritise. You step out of your comfort zone and commit to the next stage.
 
For me, I spent 15 years working in a corporate career. In my thirties, I shifted my corporate role and went back to study public relations. Not easy, but I did it, because I knew I wanted to change. When I left corporate and started running my own business, it took another even bigger jump out of my comfort zone to transition. But guess what? I found my true calling and passion, coaching other women with their mindset and businesses, and couldn’t be more happy or fulfilled.  

And how did I bust through them? Well I continued to remind myself that the work I wanted was bigger than my fears. The women I wanted and knew I could help were bigger than my fears. They were bigger than staying in my comfort zone. And so it was only by stepping out of my comfort zone that I was able to thrive… and help other women do the same.
So if you find yourself heading towards a career crossroad (or know you’re already smack in the middle of one), I can help. If you’re got that side hustle happening you think (or know) could be something more, I can help.
 
With my Career Mindset Reset I can help you step out of your comfort zone and get you clear on:

• Playing to your strengths and working within your genius zone
• Finding out what you are best at and bringing it into alignment with your ideal career
• Discovering your personal and work values
• Exploring what your ideal career looks like
• Building a strategy to make your ideal career a reality 
• How to set your goals and create your future

 
Now will any of this be easy? Probably not. But I can guarantee this: it will definitely be worth it. Stepping out of your (career) comfort zone will bring you closer to your dreams. Closer to the life and business and career you envision for yourself.
 
So if you have any questions about my the Reset or just stepping out of your career comfort zone in general, comment below or send me an email.

I’d love to help you find clarity!

JB

​​

1. Stop checking the stats + #’s every morning when you wake up
2. Minimise your news/social media time - IF it is causing you angst! Be intentional with what you watch. Just tap in for 10 mins a day. Or, even better - I ask my husband to relay it to me what I need to know. 
3. Get outside - even though it is winter, grey and cold and gloomy – making a pact with yourself to get fresh air, even if its miserable and wet. This will help you immensely!
4. Call your people - stay connected, check in on your friends and loved ones, keep the channels open
5. Random acts of kindness will fill your cup - I cooked a big pot of veggie soup the other day and dropped a tub off with a loaf of bread on a friends doorstep who had been unwell. It gave ME purpose, and HER some soup cooked with love :)
6. Share your feelings with someone - and if you need to reach out for professional help, there is ALWAYS some to talk to. I'll post the links to Beyond Blue and Lifeline AA and Al-Anon hotlines below.
7. Positive Affirmations + Mantra's – reprogram your mindset with positive language - when you start to spiral use this mantra:
8.                                  "I am healthy. I am safe."
9. Remember to breathe - if you do get triggered stop and use 3 deep breaths, inhale and exhale using your full diaphragm to bring you back into the present. 
10. You can control your mind! Flick the switch to stop the negative loop. Your mind is a powerful tool. Ask yourself “Is this real?"
11. Shifting the emotions with support - Calm Pro.M.Emo Essence is a natural herb essence I use for calming my body response to fear and frustration. Click the Promemo link for more info

Lastly, this too shall pass!

We’ve seen other Australian states do it and New Zealand! They are showing us what is possible.

We can too!

Anxiety is 100% the physical response your body has to fear. Sometimes the fear stems from a real threat. If you’ve ever been bushwalking and seen a snake you would be absolutely grateful your body responds to the threat and triggers you to move to safety.

More generally in our everyday life or work-home-sleep-repeat the fear typically comes from an imagined danger. Meaning that the fear emotion is caused by our own thoughts. Things (or obsessing!) about the future and all the unknowns is what actually triggers the fear.

​Your worried and fearful thoughts then spark a hormone response in your body. Your body is flushed with cortisol and adrenaline, stress hormones as the fight or flight mode gets turned on. Your body thinks it needs to act on these fearful thoughts and either get you out of the situation or fight it.

The anxiety symptoms you get may differ from the woman next to you - stomach-ache, racing heart, racing mind, the shakes, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, muscle tension, insomnia etc
The problem is that the body is amped up, just from what you’ve been thinking!
The stress hormones have nowhere to release.

The good news in all of this is that I “thinking” got you in the situation, then our thoughts can be changed and ultimately get us out of it!

If you suffer anxiety, the key to freeing yourself is learning how to master your mind, and doing some work to heal your unconscious belief system and release that base level emotion of fear.

​The flow on effect is that our body response changes!

So, if you are ready to release the fear here are my 3 steps to help you start to learn to shift your anxiety:

I bet you’ve looped around in your mind down a rabbit hole of “what if this and what if that happens” over analysing and over thinking every possible scenario of this situation GOING WRONG.

It is basically your imagination having a field day. Triggered by that first fearful worried thought.
So, when the loop starts, I want you to catch yourself. Sometimes that is the hardest step. Catch the thought process before it spirals. If you can do that, you can master anything.

First things first move your body, go for a walk, get some fresh air, take some deep square breaths. Get out of the space you were in. You want to move your body and shift that flush of stress hormones. Remember the fear from your mind has just flooded your body with hormones.

Then Ask yourself: Is this a real or imagined scenario?

Am I on the “what if” loop Janel was talking about AND imagining every possible scenario going wrong, and being the worst it could ever be?

Say to yourself “This situation is not real. It is not set in stone. It has not happened. I am safe, I am safe, I am safe”

Use this like a mantra and keep repeating it until the feeling begins to lighten as you realise that this is your imagination taking you places that you do not need to go.

Break it down into specifics to get clear on the fear:

• What am I afraid of? Slow down, and tune in. 
• What specifically am I anxious about? 
• Why is that a concern?
• What are you specifically worried about in THAT concern?
• How is that a problem for you right now?
• What is this stopping you from doing, or causing you to do right now? Are you lashing out? Are you an emotional wreck?

And once you’ve got specific about it then get rationalise it, lets shine some reality on it!

Ask yourself “What would happen if this thing, that you now realise you’ve imagined in your mind, did actually happen?

On a scale of 1-10 how likely is it that this could actually happen.

And if it did how bad would it be? Is it really as bas as what you’ve imagined which is the sky is falling.

Sometimes our imagination has us down a rabbit hole and in reality, on the scale the event actually happening is like a 2-3, or but the fear in us triggered as a 10.

This step is all about perspective.
​

Why is Anxiety is showing up in your life?

This may be an entirely new concept for you, and it may or may not resonate and I’m ok either way.

I’m talking about the WHY – have you ever asked yourself WHY is this fear showing up in your life? What do I need to learn?

A growth mindset says that everything we go through, every challenge every obstacle is an opportunity to learn and shift and grow.

Tad James, one of the founders on Neuro Linguistics Programming, the coaching modality that I have been professionally trained in states that :

“Anxiety is your unconscious mind telling you to focus on what you want” – this body response you are having is reminding you to stop and focus on what you want instead of what you don’t want.

So, what is your anxiety trying to tell you?

Maybe even instead of hating on your anxiety could you shift your perspective and see your anxiety as a signal from a friend within?

And when you start to feel anxious you realise this friend is asking for your attention? She wants you to wake up. She wants to work with you, there is something she wants to tell you.

So, ask her – ok friend you’ve got my attention. What am I focusing on? Am I focusing on what I want, or what I do not want?  

• Ask – what do I want here?
• Is that toxic job or friendship or relationships not what I want? And yet I continue to keep going back?
• Do I keep pushing myself to do things in situations, or for other people that I really do not want to do?

This concept may take some time to ponder, but this is what I am here for!

I am here as a Mindset Coach to stretch your conscious and unconscious thought process to help you get back to thriving.

If you struggle with Anxiety and you would like to find freedom from this grip of fear in your life, then I would love to help you.

I run a 2 session short program that will help you to identify the root cause or event that has programmed your anxiety and release it. You’ll get an understanding of the specifics of what triggers your anxiety. And you leave the session with an amazing tool – you will learn my anxiety release technique to have help you in future.

Email me here or comment below for more information!

Take care, 
JB

Even when you do the work you can still slip up - I guess I am human!

And I was triggered by fear after a simple trip to the supermarket with my son.

It was not a huge traumatic event, there was no "incident" involving a masked robber or ANYTHING that anyone else would have noticed. 

In fact to be honest the entire ordeal was happening IN MY MIND. 

And that my friends, is how anxiety works. 

My fear was triggered from something I saw in aisle 1 and then how I perceived MYSELF to be unprepared to be at the supermarket with my 7 year old son (who btw cannot keep his hands out of his MOUTH!!!).

The loop of fearful thoughts started spiraling and in a split second I felt like a crazy woman. I reacted in curt words and anxious panic trying to flee.

My anxiety may look different to yours, it comes out in a angry irrational burst, often yelling, or demanding of the people around me. It feels like I can't control anything, so I need to push, manage and control the people around me. It feels like time is on fast forward and can't stop it. ​

Thankfully, I now understand my anxiety and I know when my fear has been triggered. 

I typically can see it on the face of the person I am directing orders at (eeeek!), and I can feel the stress hormones in my body making me want to fight or flight (double eeeek!). My husband is also good and recognizing the patterns and calmly and kindly asking me to "check myself"!

I was then able to move through the fear using 2 simple techniques that you can use too:

1. BREATHING TECHNIQUE TO CALM MY RACING THOUGHTS

2. REPEATING TO MYSELF AFFIRMING WORDS

Watch my video below to hear the full story and learn about the 2 simple tools I used in more detail to apply to your life.

This is exactly how I worked through it - and I offer guidance to you so that if you find yourself in a similar situation at any point during COVID-19. - you'll have the tools too!

I share this story with you to let you know that if you've been gripped by fear during this crisis, you are absolutely not alone. It happens to the best of us. And if you watch the Mel Robbins video below, you'll see that it even happens to the most famous of us too!

Some sleepless mornings have been more productive than others. I've actually come up with some good content and blog ideas! (lol) 

I can almost handle a 5am wake up if it's an idea that's worth it! But, I am no good with multiple nights of broken sleep. I know some people (like my husband) can thrive on little sleep, what about you?

I am NOT one of those people. I need 8 hours to function. The baby years were the HARDEST for me. My lack of sleep typically means get ready... a cold or something else is coming!

WHY IS SLEEP SO IMPORTANT ANYWAY?

1. Mindset and clarity - sleep allows your brain to clear waste from the brain and supports learning and memory (fun fact!)
2. Rejuvenating your body - sleep gives your body and organs time to repair cells and recharge your energy
3. Immune health - sleep helps your immune system to regroup and fight off any bugs

BUT, WHY CANT I SLEEP WHEN I'M SO EXHAUSTED?

• You can feel extremely fatigued but, in fact, not be ready for sleep
• An active mind that is super charged won't shut off - the more your thoughts race actually the more alert you become
• Your body could also be feeling tense from stress and still switched to "go mode" and hasn't yet got the "time for sleep" memo

What I've had to learn to do over the years is pretty simple - there are a few key things you can do during the day to help you get better, deeper, more nourishing sleep at night. 

Now, I actually set up my DAY for a GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP.

What I realised recently was that none of the SELF-ISO environment we are living in right now is helping our sleep patterns because most of us are...

• Staying up later than usual - lets face who has anywhere to be in the morning?! 
• Tripling our amount of screen time - binging Netflix is LIFE!
• Doubling our coffee intake - probably because having a coffee feels like you're taking a "break"
• Drinking more wine - well... it's not like you have to drive or be somewhere!
• Eating more chocolate - need I say more?

So, if your sleep has been “off” lately then check out my latest video.
I share some simple tips to help you find better sleep! Little things that I do during the day and in the evening to help me find sleep easier and get a better quality of sleep.

I have no doubt you’ve been feeling it during this 2020 Australian bushfire crisis.

As we sit and watch the devastation unfold, even though we are far removed - maybe hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from the threat - that anxious feeling of worry and hopelessness is overwhelming.
​
I have felt it too. I’ve donated, I’ve raised awareness, I’ve dropped off food, and offered my house to displaced family.  And yet, I keep thinking – what more can I do?? And what I realised was, this. 

I can front up, face my own worry, fear, and sadness and share with you how I've been keeping myself and my mindset in check. In hope that it helps relieve your pain too.

1. Accept that We Are Powerless Over this Crisis Situation
In the big picture of this bushfire crisis we have no power over Mother Nature. We have no way of knowing which way the wind will blow. No way of knowing if the temperature will spike, or the when rain will come (please pray). Or, how long this will go on for.
 
Our fear and anxiety comes from there being so many “unknowns”.
 
But, there are actually some factors that do we know right? Let’s break it down:

• We know this is a bushfire situation
• We know that trained emergency personnel are doing their best to keep everyone safe
• We know that people in effected areas have action plans in place, they want to be safe too
• We know that organisations are stepping up to help with evacuations and disaster relief
• We know that people are “doing something” all over Australia to help in this crisis

 
We may be powerless over Mother Nature, but together WE are all dong what we can to help.

2. Purge your feelings on paper (not social media)
Get out a pen and paper and purge all your feelings. Purge that ill feeling of angst, the worry, and the fear that is coming up.  The anger, the frustration. The sadness, and just have a cry. Let it all out.
 
Ask yourself “What specifically am I anxious about”
 
Through purging we release the emotions and lighten the burden, and often find clarity after writing. Often a learning or an idea of how you can help in a resourceful way comes to light.
 
I know how good it feels to be a keyboard warrior – ranting and letting all your frustrated emotions out on social media. However, often these posts can do more harm than good. Sometimes it sparks anger in others with differing opinions and that intense emotion can be directed right back at you. When you’re already anxious and feeling raw, that counterattack can be debilitating. And it takes the focus off the main thing – helping people, communities, families, lives to heal after the crisis.

3. Make an Action List of Things YOU Can Do. Big Or Small.  
We may be powerless over the situation – however, we still have a voice and we can act. One person can do a lot – but when we come together as MANY we can make a huge impact.
 
We can raise awareness, donate money/time, fundraise, offer our services, support the people in need, lobby politicians, etc etc.  Collectively we CAN DO  so much.
 
In this bushfire crisis I have already seen the power of the human spirit rise up in everyday people to help wherever they can. It has brought me to tears on many occasions.

4. Limit Your News Intake and Social Media  
Limit yourself to checking in only once or twice per day to the TV coverage or online news. Preferably not grabbing your phone or turning on the TV as soon as you wake up, and defiantly NOT before bed. 
 
The crisis is on every channel, on every radio station, the news is EVERYWHERE. It can be all consuming to you, specially if you are worried about loved ones and are anxiously awaiting updates.  

Absorbing that much negative news and sadness can be detrimental to your mental health.
 
If you are being paralysed by the horrific images and deep sadness and it is stopping you from doing what you need to do then you are no help to anyone. Not your family, not your colleagues, and defiantly not the people in need.
 
Checking in to get updates a couple times a day from one or two sources will lessen that level of anxiety. My advice – check in at 10am and 6pm. Get the update, watch what you need to and then take a break from it, get back to your action list.

It’s tempting to be glued to social media and the news. We want to be involved, we care, we have empathy - I have slipped up during this crisis too. It did me no favours. I couldn’t show up and do my part, because I was consumed by the sadness.

5. Wake up to a healthy Morning Routine  
It doesn’t have to take up much of your time. Roll out of bed and begin your day with a short 5 minute guided mediation will help to calm your mind and do wonders for your emotional resilience.
 
Spend time journalling as you eat breakfast, writing out your gratitude list, sending kind thoughts and love to the people in need all helps to refocus your mind on the good, and to raise the energy vibration of the planet to love and compassion for healing.

6. HALT – Don’t attempt to make any big decisions while you are hungry, angry, lonely or tired.  
Eating well during the day, drinking lots of water, going for a walk, or exercising will keep your body running well, so that your mind runs well.  Take care of yourself.
 
Making big decisions when you are feeling low or frazzled is never a good idea. HALT, take the time to rest and nurture yourself, so you can give more.

7. Keep Your Hands Busy  
When your mind starts racing and that anxiety is spiking - get up, move your body and keep your hands busy. It will help calm your racing mind.  Too much idle time alone our thoughts can wander.
 
Find some tasks to do, at home or work. Nothing to complex, anything to keep your hands busy. It will help.

8. Remember, This Too Shall Pass  
Keep your mind in the present moment, not thinking too far ahead. Sometimes a few deep breaths can bring you back to the present.

Remember that this too shall pass, saying it to yourself as often as you need.

This crisis will pass (hopefully soon) and all we can do is take one day at a time. Sometimes it is an hour at a time, sometimes a minute at a time. Doing what we can with the resources that we have.  Perhaps saying to yourself:

“I will not focus on solving all of today’s issues or tomorrow’s problems now. I release all worries from my mind and allow my mind time to rest”
 
I send peace from my heart to the families and communities who have lost so much across Australia, peace to our blackened bushland and all of our divine trees, peace to all our wildlife who perished. Our collective hearts weep for you. When we come together and unite as ONE we will get through this. 

Thinking of you all.
JB