Seven years on and only a few months since the last update!
So what has changed since the last update in February?
I refreshed my website and I love the results. I moved away from Wordpress and on to Wix. It took a while to decide which was best and I’m pleased with the final decision. I wanted to make the maintenance of my website easy and not worry about plugins being updated and becoming incompatible. Not a problem if you have capacity to monitor it regularly. Not ideal if you have too many other priorities. Wix offered a one stop shop for simplicity and integrations. They also offer mobile apps, very useful if you have regular content or updates to share, and it makes it so much easier for clients to book onto classes, if they download the app.
Where to focus energy?
One of the questions I was mulling over at the beginning of the year was where do I focus my energy? Do I keep a strong focus on the now ‘side-hustle’ or do I shift some of that energy into the day job.
Some people are amazing at multi-tasking and working on several things at once, I’ve even read a few books on related topics this year to try and understand how I can improve my focus, but it all comes down to how I feel at a moment in time, and trusting your instincts. This year I felt like I needed to give more energy to my day job and let the ‘side-hustle’ become just that, a side-hustle. As much as I love spending time with it, I wanted to see what happened if I re-channelled my energy.
After the website was moved, I had a re-think on the podcast. I was hoping to record a few
episodes this year and even lined up a few people, however I considered whether this was the best use of my time and energy. I loved doing them, but would I be doing myself a dis-service my reducing my own personal downtime.
How do you make decisions about the best use of time in your business?
I could have out-sourced the editing, but there is a cost associated with this. I decided to let go of the podcast. Perhaps I will re-visit this again at some point in the future. I’m proud to have been able to create something like this and thoroughly enjoyed speaking to all of the guests. I always felt like I learnt something with every chat and I know I’ll enjoy listening to them again in the future.
So, after making my website easier to maintain and slowly letting go of the podcast, I could see the shift in focus in my day job. It’s been interesting to observe and has felt quite good. Sometimes we just need to create space and watch what happens.
Even though I was looking at re-channeling my energy I’m still interested in the occasional training. I completed level 1 Reiki and joined a beautiful group brought together by the Alison and Carolina from Quest in Epsom. Since then I’ve been practising self-treatments and have also completed a few case studies so I can better understand the effects of Reiki on others. So far I’ve been amazed at the feedback I’m getting. Thank you to by gorgeous guinea pigs who have been open to Reiki.
In May I also had the pleasure of being asked to support Anne Malone of Oasis of Sound at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival. I initially held back on doing this as I was scared! I had no idea what the environment would be like other than there would be a lot of people. I decided to go for it and hoped for the best. Sometimes we need to get ourselves out of our comfort zone to grow and develop. To help manage the anxiety about the event I attended the festival the day before my workshop to get familiar with the environment and give me a better idea of what I would be doing, I had a great day and attended one of the many workshops on offer, and I delivered about four hours of individual sound healing on the day. On the day of my session I was quite nervous, however attending one of the workshops before mine, really helped to bring me feel calm and ready for the sound check and delivery of the sound bath. It was a scary, thrilling, humbling and overall an amazing experience. Thank you to Anne for the opportunity and faith.
What’s next?
For now I’ll continue with the Reiki practice and look to complete Level 2. The training wish list is still going and I look forward to exploring and learning more Yoga and Pilates.
I’ll continue to channel my energy to my day job and continue to practice Yoga and Pilates, which is such a good tonic for a desk job.
Moving into the latter part of the year I’m looking forward to starting up the Candlelight Yoga and Sound Baths.
Tips from year seven
· Continue to reassess where to channel your energies.
· Just because you love something it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.
· Rest.
· Create time for you.
· Switch things up.
· Don’t be afraid to let go.
· Be curious.