What type of people traditionally attend your sessions/retreats?
My clients for these events are women aged from 20 to 65 seeking more balance and more tools to stay stress-smart in a busy world. They are well-educated, well-travelled women seeking more education about their own body-mind relationship and how it impacts their quality of life.
What are the key signs that you might be losing your mojo?
Anxiety/depression
Sleeplessness or restlessness
Lack of direction or drive
Physical symptoms associated with imbalanced hormones
Low libido
What five things can you do to get it back?
Create and commit to "checking-in'' regularly with ourselves.
I call it the "Stick-it'' Strategy where we can use reminders on our phone/computer or even the old fashion way with notes to remind us to check-in with ourselves intermittently throughout the day until it becomes second nature.
Our ultimate goal is to engage our central nervous system back into parasympathetic activation as the default coping mechanism.
This requires becoming aware of:
1. Breathe
Breathe deeply and more regularly. Recent studies at Harvard Medical school have shown that diaphragmatic breathing is essential for good physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
2. In the body - of the body (a Zen Buddhist saying)
Cultivate greater body awareness _ be aware of any tension in our body and identify when you are feeling stressed early on and what may be causing this stress.
3. W.A.I.T.
Use the W.A.I.T. principle _ (What Am I Thinking) to draw awareness to your thoughts _ recent scientific studies show that what we are thinking determines our physiological responses. For example: If I have a deadline I can choose to think of it as a negative or a positive. Our bodies respond accordingly to our perception of the situation.
4. Nourish yourself with weekly reflection time
Take time out from our busy schedule to deeply relax often, whether it's yoga, Qigong, meditation or spending some time in nature. Making the commitment to self-regulate through exercise, nourishing foods, time for reflection and slowing a busy mind has a massive impact on our ability to remain stress resilient when life gets challenging.
5.Solid support system
Ask to have your needs met and create an effective support network around you to set yourself up for success. Women need to talk about their experiences, express emotions, particularly fears and concerns. Surround yourself with people who are active listeners and who believe in your dreams.
You hold sessions on helping women find their intuitive self and reconnect with femininity. Why is it important in life and business?
Women are planning, organising, scheduling and doing so much in our personal and professional lives that we sometimes lose connection with our more feminine, receptive nature.
Our mojo is the unseen and often unspoken power to unite and transform our personal lives, our communities and our business cultures.
I believe women are most intuitive when we are using our feminine side. Then we can draw on our masculine side internally to take potent action with precision and efficiency. That way we get to keep our mojo flowing.
Five easy steps to reclaim the feminine within include:
1. Balance DOING and BEING
The Dalai Lama believes we should have a whole hour to ourselves everyday. It's not always realistic but find your own balance between action and rest.
2. Go within yourself regularly
Be it through silent walks, meditation or even journaling. This is where our wisdom lives. Our breath is our greatest bridge from our focus on our mind back into where mojo lives _ our beautiful bodies.
3. Trust and act on our wisdom often
Some things in life we just can't solve by thinking our way out. Being receptive and open is the embodiment of the feminine. It allows our life-force to flow and feed us. Excessive thinking drains us.
4. Transparency and vulnerability
Choose to be transparent about how and who you are in each moment. Others sense when you are being congruent and unconsciously align to support you when you are authentic. This is an essential key to building sustainable and loyal relationships in our lives. Check out Dr Brene Brown's YouTube talk on Vulnerability: youtu.be/iCvmsMzlF7o
5. Have fun at work and play
Take time to have some fun. Our happy hormones (serotonin, vasopressin and oxytocin) are produced when we value ourselves enough to enjoy life's beauty. As well as reaching our goals, we are also here to have a full and juicy experience. A continual slog into fatigue in order to tick off our to-do lists is not balanced or healthy. Nobody wins, especially you.
Tauranga Full Day Mojo Retreat, Sunday, March 30 9.30am to 4.30pm, venue to be confirmed, www.jobrown.com.au
Jo will be back in New Zealand in April at NZ Women's Retreat, April 5-8, at Aro Ha Retreat Queenstown.