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Signý Unleashed

10 Reasons to Take the Week Off

I’ve been spending a lot of time in time-off mode lately. And I’ve got to let you in on a little secret… it’s pretty freaking fantastic! Not only do I get to lounge about in my PJ’s all day if I want to, I am finally able to do some much needed thinking, reflecting and rejuvenating. So, here are 10 reasons why you should take a week off, soon!

05-Week Off

September is just around the corner and we all know how crazy that can get. This is the last week of summer; you might as well enjoy it!
Spend some time in nature. Enjoy the beauty that Mother Nature has created before the dark months of winter creep in.
Take time to get together with dear friends. We all know once the school year sets in again, friends are going to be far too busy taxiing kids from here to there.
Savour romantic time with your partner.
Bask in a bit of self-care. Get a massage, go for a swim, or make the kind of dinner that makes you happy (not everybody else).
It’s the exhale. We can’t just stay in busy mode all the time. (That would be hyperventilating…) We need to have a balance between the inhales and the exhales.
Explore that new restaurant/café/ shop/neighbourhood/beach that has been on your list for ages but you’ve still never made it to.
Get creative. Take on some DIY, drop in to the pottery studio or sit alone colouring. Important thing is to get those juices flowing!
Sleep. I can guarantee you probably need it.
You work hard all year long. Stop guilting yourself out of time off. Take it and just enjoy it!

Our gas tanks need a chance to refuel. Allow your mind, body and spirit that chance.

Rest and rejuvenation will look different for different people so some of this is an exercise in figuring out what it looks like for you. Once you’ve done that, it’s so much easier to start to create rituals around it that will last the whole year.

Okay over to you:

When’s the last time you took a week off? What are some of your favourite relaxation activities? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.

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Do You Use Your Joy-O-Meter?

So some of us aren’t very in tune with how we’re feeling in a particular moment. Enter my solution… the joy-o-meter! (Don’t worry you already have one…you just might not know it!)

The joy-o-meter is a whimsical way I use to gauge how joyful I am in the moment or around a particular situation, and it’s also a great way to use joy as a decision-making tool. Every situation requires joy (or a bit of ), so the joy-o-meter can show you what activities to pursue, which people to spend time with, and which careers to choose.

Is your joy-o-meter working for you?

To get using your own joy-o-meter, first notice what are your indicators that you are closer to or further from joy? For me it is all in my voice. If I sound alive, excited, engaged, then my joy-o-meter is running high. If I am sunken, heavy, slow in my speech, if I think I have to do something or it is a “good idea”, then my joy-o-meter is low.

When my joy-o-meter is low, I take it as an indicator that it’s time to re-think that activity or choice. Or I consider that it’s time to change my attitude or perspective about that thing.

Sometimes, it takes a little bit of a snap to get the joy-o-meter back into working order. Use these questions to help you do that:

Where in your life have gotten into the rut of just doing what’s a good idea?
Maybe you’re going to the same place for your date night or even ordering the same food. At work you might be doing the same tasks and never volunteering for the interesting, exciting, or a little bit scary tasks.
What’s it costing you?

Your self-respect? Excitement? Spontaneity? New possibilities?

Where are you choosing joy or fun?

Hint: These are the things that make your heart pound, your eyes twinkle, or put a smile on your face. You know that you’re stretching yourself and you feel anticipation when you’re doing these activities.

How does it affect you? How do you know you’re in the joy and the fun?

Check out . Are you more aware, or tuned in to yourself and your environment? Maybe you’re feeling a buzz, an excitement, an anticipation?

What do you need to do to choose more fun?

Maybe it’s a matter of saying no to the stuff that doesn’t work. Or maybe it’s time to get your joy-o-meter tuned up so you know what’s joyful!

Okay over to you:

When has your joy-o-meter served you? What do you plan to do to trust it more often? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.

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Choosing Joy (and blueberries)

In the process of writing the joy posts for this month I was looking through my old Team Signý blog from my early days as a cancer survivor. I came across this post on joy dated February 1^st, 2006 and well, it’s relevant as ever today! So here’s a little blast from the blogging past for ya…

The day I went to see the surgeon, I also had an appointment with my Physiotherapist. She is really more of an energy healer than at PT, but that is why I like her so much! So naturally, she has a few things to weight in on about health issues.

Not a surprise to either of us, she reported that I don’t have anything that feels anything like cancer. Ok, good. So, what else? She said she saw it like a “Do over”. You know, what ever the things that I had managed to forget, that apparently were really important for me to remember, I get to go back and start again, wipe the slate clean and really get it, at an even deeper level this time. Cool! We never did “Do overs” when I was a kid.

So what was this really important thing that I forgot, I wondered. Causing poor Bev (PT) to stand there with her mouth hanging open. “You need to stop, you need to stop, you need to stop doing the things you are doing!!! You know the things that are sucking the life out of you! WAKE UP! Where have you been?” (yes, she really does talk to me like that, God I love people that aren’t intimidated by me).

“Oh yeah, that. OH YEAH, THAT! Oh my god, how do I stop, how do I learn to stop, how do I know when to stop”, I said, hitting my panic botton at the same time. “I know what you mean, there is a line, a line I cross, but I don’t know what the line is, I don’t know how to recognize it. HOW WILL I RECOGNIZE IT!!!!” (now you can see why is it so important for me to feel my feelings regularly, otherwise they get channeled into unhealthy expressions).

She didn’t need to slap me across the face, all she did was, in a quiet little voice, a bit like a 5 year old’s, say “joy”. What do you mean? (now more loudly and forcefully) “Joy.” “Joy, that’s the line you can’t cross.”. Now it was my turn, mouth open, eyes incredulous. Joy, yes, yes it is joy. I totally got it. It all made sense. When I choose people pleasing over joy, when I choose good ideas, or strategic plans, or doing it right or expectations of others or ought to’s over joy, over fun, over my heart, over what makes me happy and sing and dance (which, by the way, brings me joy – that is some help I need, take me dancing!!!). When I do that, it doesn’t work! What doesn’t work? My life doesn’t work, my whole life, I shrivel up, I forget who Signý is, I stop seeing myself as precious and important. No, no, no. From now on… NO MORE.

I CHOOSE JOY!!!

Now, how do I actually live that? Well, we shall see, and I shall keep you updated. But so far so good.

Fast forward to now. Joy may well be part of the gift I’m bringing to the world, but that doesn’t mean it comes easily in every situation. I choose joy and it’s a choice I make every day.

Okay over to you:

When have you been reminded to choose joy? What was that process like for you? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.

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What is Joy? (And How to BE More Joyful)

Joy is such a precious gift. And to me summertime is just filled with joy. Everyone is out, having fun and really enjoying themselves and the beautiful sunshine. I introduced the idea of fun leading into joy with my new word – foy. But we still need to do some more investigating…what is joy, really?

For me, joy can be seen in that childlike sense of wonder and curiosity, the delight we see on a child’s face (on their good days), and their overflowing enthusiasm when they get excited about something. A happy child is joy incarnate. Children are filled to the brim with it. It is their default position.

Think about it, we don’t wait patiently, coaxing out a baby’s frown. No, we are waiting for their smile and their laugh, because that is what comes first. Not just to some babies, but to all babies, and not just to some human beings, but all human beings. Joy is our birthright, our natural state.

Joy is like an exaltation—an interesting combination of gratitude, awe and happiness. But it’s beyond happiness.

Happiness says, “Wow, I have so many of the things I want. Life is good.”

Joy says, “Life is spectacular!”

Joy is about revelling in the absolute assuredness and certainty that everything is exactly the way it’s meant to be (even when something is a bit off, it is about finding the rightness in it – more on that next week).

The experience of joy is unique to each of us—from what brings us joy, to what qualities it encompasses to how we recognize it in ourselves or others. Yet there seem to be some common elements:

Feeling engaged in life
Being in the flow
Having a sense of connection, to our hearts, our communities, something bigger than ourselves, or to the whole
Being aware, being tuned in to ourselves and our environment
A sense of awe and wonder at life
A buzz, an excitement, an anticipation
It is self-referencing: we feel it inside ourselves and have to be tuned into ourselves in order to know we are in that place.
We are engaged in activities that fill us up, that strengthen us, and have us feel very much alive.

But over time we seem to migrate away from joy. Why?!? There seems to be a bit of a myth in society that we have to work hard. Therefore, if something comes to us easily, it must not have value. More and more I’m realizing that when we are in our natural state (of JOY!), life is easier.

There’s a cost to not living from a place of joy. The cost is that we get ourselves stuck in a non-flow place. We’re actually slowed down in our lives. It’s just like putting an obstacle in front of an oak tree that is trying to grow. It will most likely still be able to grow, but it’s going to be slower as it negotiates its way around the object.

Joy is about being fully yourself and fully expressed. Don’t let life drown out the joy. Find ways this summer to bring joy back into your life.

Okay over to you:

What does joy feel like for you? What are you doing to keep joy in your life? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.

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Fun + Joy = Foy!

Last week was my birthday. As you probably gathered from my last post I LOVE to celebrate my birthday! So much so that I don’t just to a birth-day. I do a minimum of a birth-week or a birth-month and ideally the fun will continue on for the whole summer!

Why? Well, fun is one of the easiest paths to joy. It is slightly tricky to put my finger on a precise definition of joy (although I took a crack at in my forthcoming book – Participation is Mandatory). But fun is different. Fun is the way you get to joy. Doing fun things gets you to that joyful place.

Fun is the vehicle that gets us to the north star of joy.

In fact, I use these two words, fun and joy, together so often that I invented my own word: Foy!

Fun + Joy = Foy!

Even during this hard time, this first birthday without my dad, I still have a choice to choose be connected to my friends and what’s fun for me.

As a result, my birthday itself was fantastic! I loved being surrounded by good friends, having amazing conversations, getting to be the center of a attention (yes, its true that’s what I love), having room for spontaneity, and maintaining a deep connection to my core self. All bringing me so much foy!

As we continue through Leo season, take time this summer to experience some foy for yourself!

Okay over to you:

What are some things that bring you foy? What are you doing to ensure you experience fun this summer? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.

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Birthday Celebration!

YAY! This is my birthday week and those of you that know me even just a little will know that I LOVE to celebrate my birthday (which, just for those who like to be in the know it is … wait for it… July 29^th – feel free to celebrate me on that day!!).

I believe in celebration and I believe in honouring an individual, so celebrating birthdays is a sweet spot for me. My birthday, other’s birthdays, it’s all worthy of celebration in my books!

We don’t do celebration well enough in our society. If we celebrate ourselves, we’re told that we’re proud or boastful. Why isn’t there room to trumpet from the rooftops that we’re glad we have this body, this life and this experience?

I for one want more celebration! Read More >>>

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4 Stages to Living a Life of Ease

Raise your hand if you have a lot on your plate.

Good, glad to see I’m not alone there. (You can put your hands down now.)

Women, especially businesswomen, have a really bad habit of over functioning. We take on more, and more, and more until we hit burnout. Even if we don’t hit burnout, we exhaust ourselves by choosing to make things more difficult than they need to be. The inner competitors and perfectionists shine through until we’ve done about a hundred times what was actually necessary. Yes, I’m talking to you.

What we really want is to open ourselves up to ease.

I have so many clients come to me and say, “Oh my god, I’ve got so much going on, it’s so intense! I just wanna follow my dreams!” Often part of the reason why people are so exhausted is because they’re not doing tasks that they love, so they’re extra drained. And while we’d all love to just jump off the busy bandwagon and start sailing towards dreams instead, it doesn’t quite work that way.

There are a few stages in between the two and unfortunately, if you skip those ones you’ll lead yourself right into burnout (again).

Stage 1

Recognize that you’re over functioning and ratchet it back. Say no to a whole bunch of stuff. And yes this requires some heavy lifting at first, and often a bit of introspection surfaces as you consider how you got here in the first place. You will need to admit that you’re overwhelmed, overworked and over functioning and then actually take steps to stop that. But it can be done! Read More >>>

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Choose Ease

As always, the thing about ease is that we have to choose it. And choosing can be tough because there’s no prescribed list of “This will be easy for me so I’ll do it.” You’ve got to do the work (in an easy way of course) to find out what is right, and easiest for you so that your best self can shine through.

Nobody else can know what is easy for you, but you.

No one else can know what creates a weight on your heart. It is such an inside job to choose ease. Only you can get yourself to your natural sweet spot.

And it isn’t always emotionally easy to choose the path of ease either. Sometimes to choose the path of ease means disappointing or upsetting the people around us who have different agendas for us.

Right now, for me, ease is about saying “no” to things. Not just “no” to more tasks, but anything that doesn’t have the feeling of ease when I think or talk about it. If anything feels heavy and hard or like I’d have to push it over the hill, I’m just saying no. I’m just stopping.

In a work context, often when we do certain tasks and accept certain jobs that aren’t in alignment with who we really are, we’re not working in our strengths. That is just taking ourselves further away from ease and creates a situation where we are stuck choosing struggle because we signed up for it before we realized what we are doing. (Why?!? Why oh why do we do this to ourselves?). Over time we can come to realize what will eventually lead to struggle and say NO to it when it first rears it’s ugly head. Read More >>>

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Let the Living BE Easy

Summertime,
An’ the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
An’ the cotton is high.

Lazy afternoons with a book, digging your toes into lush grass or gritty sand, sitting beside cool waters lapping at the shore, eating an abundance of fresh fruits, crisp salads and delicious barbecue (yes, my mouth is watering as well)… It’s July and summer is in full swing!

But in amongst all of those summer activities, how many of us actually take advantage of this time and truly let the living BE easy? I know the old tune reminds us to, but with the constant pressures to take on and achieve more, it has become increasingly difficult to really just let go and let things be easy. And I’m telling you, I’m a BIG fan of easy!

Ease is about choosing the path of least resistance. It’s about doing the thing that you are going to be best at, most comfortable with and the happiest while doing. It’s about stepping away from the overwhelm of taking on more and more. The saying “Do less, and accomplish more” is perhaps the simplest way of summing up easy. Sometimes, easy can mean saying no to certain tasks, other times it can mean branching out in a different direction. Ultimately though, ease comes down to maximizing who we naturally are. Read More >>>

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How to Promote Greater Connection

How can you live in a way, day in and day out, that promotes greater connection?

If you haven’t already figured it out with my posts on and connection, here’s some more on why it’s important to live from this place of connection.

It’s not just about the selfish benefit that comes when we’re feeling closer and tighter and part of something. It actually comes down to the fact that our world needs us to be more connected.

Many of the ills of the world today are instigated by the fact that we don’t see ourselves in other human beings. We don’t trust our IGS (Inner Guidance System) and we don’t realize that we’re part of something bigger. The wars that are raging throughout this world, right now as you read this very sentence, are happening because fundamentally we have lost sight of the fact that we are all one. Killing your enemy in the Middle East is no different than killing your brother or sister or killing yourself. It is born of separation and it leads to separation; but separation is a lie!

On the other hand, we see the fundamental truth of connection in the global reactions when huge catastrophes happen in our world. Such as the recent earthquake in Nepal or tsunamis hitting the shores of Japan in years past. During these times we naturally reach out to help our brothers and sisters and we remember that their misfortune and that our blessings are random and universal. When we see these other peoples’ suffering, we realize that they are us and that they’re no different from us. Read More >>>

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Signý Unleashed

Okay over to you:

Okay over to you:

Okay over to you:

Okay over to you:

Okay over to you:

Stage 1

Clients I've Worked With