Susan regularly hosts seminars and speaks at conferences. Susan’s presentations generate glowing feedback and she is frequently invited back for repeat appearances. For more information, view the Speaking At Events page.
Author Archives: Natasha
Making Stress Vanish – Wave your Magic Wand
By Lisa Edwards of Radiate Corporate Wellness
Do you ever wish you could wave your magic wand and make your stress disappear? We’ve all had days where deadlines, personal commitments, and unending email leave us feeling overwhelmed. Stress! Overcoming it may not be quite as easy as waving a wand, but here is a little bit of stress ‘magic’ you can use next time you think you’re going to lose your mind:
Movement
Moving your body instantly changes your thoughts, and puts a bit of space between you and the source of your stress. If you are at your desk, stand up and walk around. Take a minute to shake out your arms and stretch your neck and shoulders. Taking even one minute to walk around will dissipate your stress, and open your mind to alternative ways of looking at a problem.
Acceptance
Get in the habit of accepting each situation exactly the way it is. It’s amazing how much energy is wasted by resisting what is actually happening. A simple example of this is putting off a task or assignment that you don’t want to do. The stress mounts as the days slip by with distractions and excuses. When you finally sit down to do it, most of the time it’s really not so bad. Maybe you even enjoy it! The sooner you can accept a situation, the more energy you will have to take action.
Gratitude
Whenever you are feeling completely overwhelmed, stop. Think of something you are truly grateful for. This alone will get your endorphins flowing and allow you to see possibilities that are right in front of your nose. Cultivating an attitude of appreciation on a daily basis will make you happier and bring more of what you want into your life.
Imagination
Your imagination is one of your greatest gifts – use it! We are all more resourceful than we give ourselves credit for, and the imagination is the gateway to ingenuity. One quick way to get the creative juices flowing is to draw the problem. Go to the whiteboard, or get out a piece of paper and start sketching. Begin with something as simple as a mind map. Even better, think of a metaphor that represents what you are working on. This will allow you to visualize the problem in a new way, and give you ideas about possible solutions you hadn’t considered.
Choice
Remember that you always have a choice. This starts with your ability to choose your thoughts and attitudes about a situation. When you are inundated by stress, this can be easy to forget. Just like everything else, it requires practice. Each time you choose to replace visions of despair with optimistic thoughts, you create positive momentum that prevents stress before it starts. Thinking about the optimal outcome also signals your mind to give you information about how to make that mental picture a reality.
Move your body, accept your reality, be grateful, use your imagination, and choose your attitude; all the magic starts in your mind!
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Lisa Edwards is the owner of Radiate Corporate Wellness and offers wellness seminars to businesses and professionals. Visit the Radiate website to register for the upcoming 90-min Stress Strategies for Professionals seminar on August 23, 2011 or September 21, 2011 or contact Lisa at 250.896.7939 | lisa@radiatewell.com.
SWOT Analysis How-To
Getting started with your strategic plan can be a daunting task, there’s just so much to be done!
Your SWOT Analysis is a great place to get started. This video will walk you through the basics of developing a SWOT Analysis for your company.
At 8:40min, we discussed Porter’s Five Forces. For more information, please visit this MindTools.com article.
The First Three Weeks at Directis
I’m Natasha Veenhof. I’m a Camosun College Business student and I finished my first year in April. As a part of the program, I’m participating in Co-op, co-operative work experience. I spent most of April and May applying for job after job, only to have other people get selected ahead of me. At the beginning of May, I saw a position available for an “Online Marketing Whiz” at Directis Consulting. I was skeptical, I’ll be honest, but I applied anyway. After the interview, I got the job. I was so happy, but I had next to no idea what to expect.
May 24th rolls around and I head into the office for my first day of work. Sue and I set up my desk together and go over the kinds of things I’ll be expected to do while I work for her. Not much actually gets done, but that’s almost to be expected. The next day, I come into the office and Sue asks me to go over the presentation she’s going to be giving in the evening, see if I can tweak it a bit. It’s a whorl-wind of a day, and so much happened that I can barely keep it all straight in my head. The presentation in the evening went well and was very informative. Working on it through the day and watching it in the evening really helped me get a grasp of what Directis Consulting does and helped me understand what I would be doing.
Friday, at lunch, I walk into Sue’s office and say to her, I’m not sure how much more I can do. We go over what I’ve done and, I’m right, I’ve basically finished everything she assigned me to do on Tuesday. She thought it would take me three weeks. We go over a plan and she assigns me more work to do and we carry on with our day.
Week two goes by and I’m pretty sure, every day I get assigned a new task, but that’s okay, I’m usually finishing two. It’s been three weeks now, and every day has been busy and hectic. It seems sometimes like my priorities change by the minute. But that’s okay.
In learning how to use social networking to market Directis, I’m also learning oodles about strategic planning and all the steps and bandits in the process. The projects I’m working on are all fun, like the Strategic Planning Bandits I had to draw for Facebook, or the SWOT Analysis video I had to put together. I can’t wait to see what else comes up through the summer and I’m really excited to keep learning.