Celebrating the small wins 🙌

The title of this blog came to me while I was peeling carrots! This so often happens to me with ideas...it's always the most inappropriate time when I guess my mind is relaxed and open to receiving this stuff. On this occasion I didn't dither; I leapt up and grabbed my phone and recorded the lot! 

So back to the small wins...

It's quite challenging, even more so at this time of year I think, to remember to focus on the things you have achieved/are going well. I often get bogged down each day with things here & before I know it I'm concentrating on lack; the things that aren't going right; the time I don't have; the mundane tasks that are getting in the way. 

When this happens, what about if we stop and turn each of those things around? What about if we acknowledged those thoughts (because all feelings are valid and important) & said okay, I can keep focusing on things that aren't making me feel good or I could look at them differently and perhaps I'll feel less frustrated? I can focus on the small wins. Of which there will be so many more than you think!

I can guarantee you that you're regularly far too hard on yourself. Right? I know I am. And that actually, by looking at things from a different viewpoint, well, your perspective on them might just change. Celebrating the small wins is about focusing on any little thing you can, to pick you up and move you forward.

What little achievements can you celebrate in your life today? Here's a few of mine:

- I managed to get the children fed and everyone was happy with their dinner! (Shock horror!)

- I tidied our Utility Room which makes me feel so much happier when I walk in there now.

- Middle and youngest child are back asleep after waking several times (ok, I'm in the middle of them,  but they are  a s l e e p!)

They aren't life - changing events, but they are positive things that made an impact or difference to my day. We all deserve a little celebration in our lives :-)

Gemma xx

Happy New Year!

It feels like such an exciting year! I've been really enjoying seeing so much positivity and motivation around me...not resolutions as such but people just generally expecting good things. I truly believe you need to expect those things and trust and they will come to you.

Well we had a really busy and fun family Christmas!
My aim was to try to plan as little as possible other than Xmas Day & Boxing Day & it certainly felt more relaxing than usual. However there are already things I'll do differently next year ;-) But this is just me...I can't help but analyse and want to improve our experience! There can be so much expectation and pressure to 'do' at Christmas (all coming from ourselves!) & I really learnt this year that doing and planning less worked for me.

Mum and I decided to stop earlier in December than planned which was such a good move too. And we have decided to carry that break on. We aren't sure exactly when we'll reopen the shop so for now we are going to keep creating behind the scenes but we won't be selling for a while yet. Sometimes it's important to get yourself in the right place again.

2016 was the year we decided to move towards getting more of our artwork made in to products.

One of the main aims of this was to be able to work even more flexibly and offer ready-to-go items. Having 3 young children I have really struggled this past year being able to create and family has to come first. My evenings, in particular, are extremely unreliable! But things are getting easier and 2017 really feels like the year where we'll make some more changes. You might even see a little more handmade being introduced.

For now, our aim is to spend time having fun & we'll continue posting on both Facebook and Instagram and I hope to spend much more time focusing on writing here too. I have so many ideas already in the new notebook Mum bought me for Christmas! And I just love the words on the front too ;-)

All the best guys xx

Gemma

Birthing our new products!

So, several months in the planning and after much deliberation, we are finally releasing some new products.  We have gone through some rebranding and have reviewed our goals and intentions for The Seashack. All very exciting!

So today Gemma and I stood on a large piece of paper and birthed our new products!  What on earth is going on you might ask?

It’s simple.  Using the concept of everything being energy, we visualised draining off other people’s energies from our products, the blocks and limitations we have unconsciously placed around them being successful and called in supportive earth and universal manifestation energies, designed to help us attract the right customers for us and to receive an abundance of sales.  Not everyone will like our stuff and that's ok, we just want to spread those positive vibes and serve our tribe the best way we can.

Will it work?  We shall have to wait and see! It may look a little woo woo but using energy to create is in fact based on scientific principles so we are in good company :).

It is also fun!

Shirley x

With Autumn comes change!

I love the fact that we have seasons. We are so lucky to experience so many types of different weather throughout the year.  It's funny how quickly Autumn creeps up on you...one moment you're enjoying those balmy Summer evenings and the next you're clearing the garden away once the kids have gone to bed, and there's a real chill in the air.  That chill can be so refreshing after so many hot nights - especially when you have a really hot, sweaty baby!

I always think Autumn is really symbolic of change too and it feels like Mum and I have been going through such a process of change here at The Seashack. Our little business has evolved so much.  For a long time now we've been testing things out, trying different products, moving towards the direction we now want to go in.  I can't tell you how many set backs we've had along the way.  Sometimes it feels like everything is against you and you wonder if you are really supposed to be doing this?  But something is always there, niggling at you, reminding you not to give up and to keep going!

And it's a funny time of year with all the changes. It can be unsettling and uncomfortable waking up to those dark mornings. And only today I went out and there's Christmas things in your face already! I'm sure it's only just been Summer?! I've realised lately even more than usual that happiness comes from within and mindset has a lot to do with your quality of life. Do you choose to see all the niggles throughout your day or are you mostly seeking out and focusing on the better stuff?

I for one am trying my best to focus on the important things...slowing down to enjoy as many moments that I can...and just living and savouring the chaos and the calm times.

Gemma xx

A daily magical practice to enhance your life

The Magic gratitude challenge we set ourselves was such a great experience. 

It all started with me buying the book on impulse while browsing in a bookshop (my favourite places are bookshops especially if they have a cafe as well!) . I'd read The Secret and The Power (by the same author) and heard The Magic was based on gratitude exercises so thought it would be fun to try. Also although I was paying more attention to feeling more grateful for things around me I was also keen on trying something more focused and really learning more about how gratitude underpins abundance and manifesting the life of our dreams.

It wasn't always easy to make time for the 10 grateful things we needed to list each morning. I did miss the odd day but always caught up the day after and really, some exercises were worth spending more time over. Particularly the one focused on financial abundance ;) .

But what was really interesting was having to think about the reasons why I felt grateful - because that action made me feel even more grateful! It's important to feel it too, not just say the words. Feeling is everything because this fills your energy field with positive vibrations and therefore helps you to attract more things to be grateful for.

The other useful learning for me was to focus on gratitude at both ends of the day - holding my magic rock before I went to sleep meant I went to sleep feeling good and then started my day filling it with gratitude. What could be better than that?!

One of the exercises I found really powerful focused on feeling grateful for our physical body - from thanking every organ and cell to all the systems in my body that work so hard to keep us alive (life is such a miracle :) )  yet we pay so little attention to our body until there's a problem and we experience discomfort or illness. Or sometimes we're only concerned about the bits that show - what we think we look like to others,  which is so caught up with our self concept. 

Each day's practice builds upon the last and gives you another way of looking at the way we live and what we so often take for granted.

I do recommend using the book as a guided practice to explore the many ways we can find things to be grateful for.   It may unearth some hidden demons which appear for us to let go of but also taps into the powerful inner wisdom we all have access to - so stick with it!   

This is powerful. 

This stuff works.  

It will change your life for the better :). 

Shirley x

~~~ Riding each wave ~~~

I saw something yesterday on TV, a line from a film I think. Something along the lines of 'family holidays are supposed to be chaos'. Which happens to be very appropriate because we have just returned from a trip with the kids to sunny, humid, boiling, wet, amazing Florida!

It's really the only place we've ever wanted to bring them and we debated over whether to come with them so young or to wait. It turns out there's plenty for all ages there and as long as you're prepared to work with their ages and what they can cope with then it's a wonderful experience for everyone!

Even with all this in mind we've had a few stressful moments too. Some involving the kids......some involving getting *cough* lost...! But what I've realised is that at points we were expecting way too much - from the kids and from ourselves. No holiday is perfect no matter the age of your children or whether you are travelling with children at all. It's supposed to be an adventure and on any adventure things will go wrong at times. So many things will go right too! Like meeting your favourite Star Wars character or finding that a queue you were expecting to be 30mins is actually only 10!

And as with everything else attitude is so important. You get back what you put out there. I really believe that. Our flight home saw no sleep for me & a bit of an upset 9 month old at times who just couldn't settle. It's hard...he loves to lay down in bed! My only thought was how bad I felt for the other passengers, there was just nothing I could do to contain his noise on there. He is such a loud, happy, chatty little man who has been adored by so many people all holiday! But you know what? I was met by nothing by lovely, supportive people telling me what a great job I was doing & how the kids had all been brilliant. I can't tell you how much that empathy boosted me. It turns out that people know what it's like. I love that compassion in human nature ♡

Because we're all here, trying to do our best & that's all we can do :-)

Gemma xx

Why practice gratitude?

For the past couple of weeks Mum and I have taken on a daily gratitude challenge from the book The Magic by Rhonda Byrne. One of the most important things to me is to try to live the most positive life I can. I figure that along the way there are going to be all sorts of challenges, some major and some minor, but if I can build up my own happy vibe, I'll have a few tools I can use to get me through the tough times. Because somehow that's what we do. Life goes on and we keep going. We are so much stronger than we think we are.

Today's task is to dream BIG! (You can follow the other tasks over on Facebook.) I love the idea that like attracts like. When you or good thoughts or there, good things come back to you. By taking time each day to feel thankful for things you have or things you've experienced, or things you don't even have yet, you're putting those good feeling thoughts out there.

There are so many wonderful things to be thankful for!

Perhaps it's the person at the Post Office processing the parcels. Or the delivery driver who brings the goods to the ship for you to buy. The gorgeous sunshine you've woken up to or the lovely refreshing sound of rain which will help the crops grow. The fresh water running from the tap or the feet that carry you all day! On the greyest of grey days there will always be a shimmer of light somewhere. And it's this light you want to hold on to and focus on.

And feeling grateful for the things we want before we receive them is just as important as saying thank you afterwards. Focusing on exactly what you want gives it that positive attention and positive thoughts attract positive things :-)

Gemma xx