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How has your week been? Has it been slow or fast? Hard or easy? Fun or downright NOT fun? Has it been a bit MANIC?!

I started writing this email to you yesterday afternoon on the train back home from London This week has indeed been manic: Jam-packed with great connections, opportunities, challenges and events. I have met some wonderful people, achieved positive things and worked really really hard!

Maybe, like mine, your life can often be a bit manic, packed with things like this..

▪ Meetings
▪ Client delivery
▪ Commuter chaos
▪ Organising extra childcare due to travel
▪ Ditto for dog care!
▪ Trying to figure out what you’re going to feed the kids at night
▪ Wishing your kids would get to bed so you can go to bed early

If any of these strike a chord, here are 8 of my own top tips that help me. And I share them with you in the hope that they will help to keep you sane, happy and healthy too, even when life is a bit manic!

1. Choose sleep!

One of the things you have to consciously make a priority as much as possible when life is manic is getting enough sleep as possible. I realise the irony of this, of course! However, lack of sleep causes cortisol levels to rise which increases stress. Apart from the more serious health risks of elevated cortisol over a long period of time, in the short term when you’re tired you eat more when you’re tired, you put weight and so on.

However…

2. Don’t get stressed if you’re not getting enough sleep!

According to one tabloid I glanced at yesterday, here in the UK we’ve had the “HOTTEST JULY EVER”. Us Brits tend to start melting as soon as we get a heatwave, we don’t cope very well. Which means we haven’t slept too well here this week. My point is this: Don’t sweat it (pardon the pun) if you have a few bad nights sleep. Seek opportunities for a few minutes rest throughout your day. You WILL get through that important client meeting even if you feel as if you’re an extra on the set of The Walking Dead. You WILL make it til the end of the day even though you are so tired your brain is addled. Remember what I said about cortisol levels? Well, you’ll raise them even more if you get stressed about not sleeping!

3. Accept that it IS hard

If you’re a mum or a carer, it is hard. I’m a single mum and it’s really hard sometimes. I can’t just flop on the sofa as soon as you get in from a busy day and there’s nobody else to do one thing whilst you do another. Many of you will know about that anyway with partners working away from home. Your kids will want your attention, kids are selfish and quite frankly they don’t really give 2 hoots about your problems. Try to be the “adult”, shrug your shoulders and remember why you love the little blighters!

4. Prepare some good stuff so you are reasonably well nourished

Easier said than done when you’re busy, I know! But we all know that what we put in our bodies has a big effect on how we feel. I’ve been carrying a bag of nuts around with me this week, a flask of iced mint tea and a bottle of water. I can tell you that these things were manna from heaven when I got caught in the worst “commuter chaos” of the year on Wednesday on “the hottest day of the year”.

5. Listen to your body

Right now I’m pretty tired and I’ve noticed a tummy ache which greeted me on Wednesday morning and hasn’t completely left yet. I know what this is – too much adrenaline coursing through my body, not surprising with all the things that are going on. But the point is this – be mindful of what your body is telling you. It has taken me many years to “get” this!

I’ve seen too many of my clients and friends literally make themselves ill by not listening to the warning signs. If something starts niggling, then think about what you can do to gently deal with it. For me, it means more mini mindfulness moments (meditation) each day, putting my hands on my tummy and constantly reminding myself that “this too shall pass”. Yep.. it can be that simple!

6. Do what you can when you can to redress the balance

I have decreed Sunday as a complete relaxation day. No rushing round, no extreme physical exertion, no work, just a complete wind down. If you’ve got a run of manic days, look in your diary for slots when you can just switch off and SCHEDULE THEM IN!

7. Look for EVERY opportunity for fun and humour

I save the best for last: I do this every day and I think it’s the most important tip! Life can be serious, which is exactly why you need to train yourself to see the funny side, look for the absurd, lighten up and go with the flow. Put a smile on your face and remember that, whatever your challenges right now, this is just another opportunity to build your resilience and look for the ridiculous, mad, daft or fun side.

Take a moment to reflect please… How has your week been? Good? Bad? Average? A bit good a bit bad? Cloudy with sunny spells?

I had a sort of average day yesterday. It wasn’t bad, nor was it spectacular.

I spent a good 2 hours yesterday morning, starting very early before the school run, doing time-consuming chores. Things like this:

▪ Stripping beds of sheets that have been on there far too long
▪ Laundry, laundry and more bloody laundry
▪ Packing up parcels to be sent
▪ Clearing up the morning “boy aftermath” in the kitchen

You know the sort of thing!

I did all this stuff as fast as I could, but it still took four times as long as I’d estimated. And all this before my workday could actually get underway.

I had a lunchtime deadline on a piece of work. I had a business to run, money to earn, food to put on the table! But all this STUFF was taking up my time!

Then I spent almost 5 hours on one piece of work that had 2 hours blocked out for it.

So yeah.. it was an average day really. Not awful but not sparkly and shiny either.

However, here’s the thing: As I was racing around doing my chores, I was simmering inside with “poor little me” thoughts.

The “poor little me” thoughts are the thoughts where we see ourselves as “special” – semi martyr, semi victim, with nobody giving us credit for “just how hard we work, how much we do”.

And no, I most certainly ain’t a perfectly sorted egoless goddess. Just like the next woman, I sometimes get these “poor little me” thoughts! They have been particularly pernicious little beasties since this house became a “single parent household”.

So, there’s a big bad bold admission for you.

It’s the ego talking, of course. It whines like this: “You keep going and nobody appreciates what you do.”

BOO HOO! POOR LITTLE ME!

However, one of the advantages of having been a Coach for donkey’s years is that such thoughts don’t hang around for very long. I’m able to take a step back from the “poor little me” whiny inner voice and do some quiet reflection.

When I feel that I’ve over-indulged my “nobody gets how hard this is” broken record of martyrdom, I can quickly sober myself up and take a wider-angled view. Which means I feel happy again.

Of course, I’m no more special or struggling or coping or managing or juggling or whatever than YOU. Or the next person. We all have our own crosses to bear and none of us know what the other person is managing behind closed doors.

I was on my way to share more truly insightful nuggets of wisdom and advice with you on this! But then, just before I sat down to write to you I watched an 8-minute video shared by a friend on Facebook.

This video was shot at the One Young World conference in Dublin. It is a heard-rending, raw and powerful speech from a young North Korean escapee. I don’t know her name, but I’m sure we will all know it soon.

I urge you to watch it. Because whatever I was going to say is nothing compared to watching this girl’s speech. You won’t need any nuggets from me once you’ve heard this girl speak.

Any “poor little me” feelings will melt away.

I won’t give anything away, because I really want you to watch this.

Click here to watch a video that will instantly cure any thoughts of “poor little me”

Note: I can’t find this on You Tube; it was embedded in a post with no link back to You Tube, so this is a link to my Facebook page where you’ll find the video pinned to the top.

Suffice to say, the household chores, the deadlines, parcel packing etc are all mere trifles: “First World Problems”

In fact, not problems but blessings.

Remember to smile, love, share and savour each moment Amanda, because, if you have the freedom to read this, then you have freedom. And that makes all the “stuff” pale into insignificance.