It’s been a while – I have been busy with taster sessions at the See You Next Tuesday festival and our Open evening at The Awareness Centre.  I have also had a really good time lately, been to the theatre  twice – first I saw All The King’s Men , then the Vagina Monologues – what an amazing show, if you are in London you have to go and see it!

I have been thinking a lot lately, about what it is like to be human, to be me – to be the person I am meant to be. I meet a lot of people who seem so shut down, so closed, so worried about behaving in a way that will make them look different or weird. So they decide to keep quiet. To close, to not express that other side of themselves. To not be who they really are.

I try to be me in most situations. I did many years of not being me. Then I started to see glimpses of who I am, what I like, what I don’t like. And I said to the world and to myself, take it or leave it , and I started to love myself for the human being I am. In the beginning it was difficult, it was a struggle every day. But I had to start somewhere. And here I am, still doing it, still talking to myself, still giving myself love, acceptance, compassion and forgiving. I treat myself as my best friend, not as my enemy.  I am hot pink, sparkly, laughs a lot, talk a lot of nonsense , dances alone in my kitchen and am totally loving it.  I am proud of myself and the person I am today and don’t feel weird saying so, what a gift.

The sun is shining and I’ve got a brunch meeting to attend . Laters!

I woke up this morning feeling incredibly worried. Fearful of something I am about to do, something I have agreed to take part in.

It’s new and I don’t know what to expect – therefore, I feel very nervous. Which is absolutely ‘normal’ if I allow myself to use that word. Nothing strange to feel nervous, at all.

Many of us live our lives in fear. In any given situation, we think about the worst possible thing that may happen. The thought is there, automatically without us even noticing where it came from. We visualize terrible things for the future, catastrophise everything in our minds until we are so feared up that we barely have any energy left for anything.

Does it sound familiar? How can we deal with our fantastic ability to fantasize about all the things that could go wrong? Try this :

In any given situation, try to visualize the best possible outcome. Close your eyes and see it happening in front of you. Then remind yourself that this is actually likely to happen. If the negative thoughts about everything that could go wrong comes back to you , think again and look for the evidence.

Fear and worry is overcome by having faith. Faith in that good things do happen, and will happen.

Today I will practice visualising the best possible outcome for all the scary things I have got to do this week. I challenge you to do the same. Good luck!

Come on down to our taster sessions at the See You Next Tuesday Festival at the New Players Theatre, Charing Cross.

£10 for two hours of self esteem building , and a great opportunity to meet us and find out what we are all about.

Need more information? Email sofia@goloveyourself.co.uk .

This Thursday March 11th , 2-4 PM.

The Arches Villiers Street, London , WC2N 6NL .

Morning readers

Ah, not to bring myself down or anything, but I am pretty bad without my coffee. In response to Devil’s Advocate comment on my previous post below, I too have my days and moments when I don’t feel happy at all.  Specially moments like this when I have no food in the house and have not had my coffee yet.  Will go for a walk to the shops very shortly. I can feel upset, worried, depressed, anxious – because I am human. ! It would be weird if I was a super-happy bunny 24/7  , however, I do not let my destructive thoughts dominate my life.

I am like everyone else trying my best in this world .We are only human beings living in a world that at times can be seen as a hostile, dark and unfair place. I read something on compassion the other day and how to treat yourself and people you encounter with compassion rather than judgement. We all mistakes as we go along and it is very easy to become angry, annoyed, frustrated with oneself and others when we feel a situation should be dealt with differently. But if we remember, that we are all human beings, just trying our best – we might not feel the need to judge and be harsh to the same extent as we would be if we were just to react accordingly to our emotions. (Just remember to eat and drink your coffee first!)

So, today’s question – what would your response to yourself if you treated yourself with compassion rather than judgement?

Have a lovely day readers.

Someone once said to me - Sofia,  you are like  the happiest person I have ever met…how do you do it?

Controlling ones  mind is about making a conscious decision to be the person you would like to be.

I have  just woken up  and even before I  had opened my eyes a lot of negative thoughts had gone through my mind. Thoughts about self doubt, thoughts about every thing that could wrong – yes – there was a lot of negative brain activity there for a few seconds.

I felt tired but as I opened my eyes and looked through the window, I could see the beautiful blue sky and decided to take control over my mind and not maintain all that negative self destructive thinking. I felt tired but realised that although I have a heavy week a head of me, it is also exciting and  challenging.   And I have faith that this week will go well so therefore I have nothing to feel worried about.

It is all about making a conscious decision. Who do you want to be today? How can you control your mind by thinking about yourself in a positive way? What would your positive thoughts tell you today?

I had a really busy day yesterday – so when I came home at the end of the day I gave myself a self esteem assignment, to not do any work that evening and instead of feeling guilty about it, just enjoy the freedom instead.

And I did – until I suddenly felt an urge to respond to a couple of e-mails at 2 am in the middle of the night, I am a bit of a night owl but hey, I managed quite well having a nice relaxing evening for a few hours. Progress, not perfection!

I have just had a good and very effective meeting with Laura, and am now going to take a break for 45 minutes until the next meeting begin. The sun is shining and I want to buy myself something pretty….cause I am worth it, as we all are.

Have a lovely day and don’t forget to Go Love Yourself.

The Coach x

In order to build self esteem – you need to train your brain to think more positively about yourself, and in order to do this you need to practice.

You can practice by thinking about and writing down things that you like about yourself. It may seem difficult in the beginning, but with practice it gets easier the more you do it.

So, for all of my my lovely readers – I got a challenge for you! Stop and think for a second and write down five things that you like about yourself  in your blog, and challenge your readers to do the same. If you don’t have a blog of your own and still like to take part,  post a comment with all those sweet thoughts about yourself.

I shall start -

5 things I like about myself

- my ambitious drive, I make things happen.

- my ability to laugh and be funny

- my GREAT legs

- my ability to somewhat being able to control my mind

- I am a good friend, sister and daughter. I try to be there for other people rather than self obsessively worry about myself too much. It’s about giving a little bit of yourself rather than demanding the world to give to you.

Right then, over to you! What do you like about yourself today?

Look what London’s best cafe has written about us , Scandinavian Kitchen – Go Love Yourself loves you! For all of those who have not payed them a visit yet, please do – I am totally addicted to their cakes and coffee.

I wish I had something really inspirational to write today, but I am afraid that I am too tired tonight. We are getting really busy over here with the start of the workshop at The Awareness Center on Thursday, and have also had a lot of interesting offers from other organisations regarding our floating workshops  - so watch out,  there will soon be self esteem boosting out from different parts of the country.

Right, I better get some sleep now. Big day tomorrow!

If  you want to taste what we at Go Love Yourself are all about – get yourself down to See You Next Tuesday festival the 11th and 18th of March @ the New Players Theater, Charing Cross.

£10 only for a  two hour long self esteem boost. For further information, email Sofia at sofia@goloveyourself.co.uk and don’t forget to visit See You Next Tuesday at www.vdaylondon.com .

How exciting this is ,  welcome to Go Love Yourself’s new blog!

I (Sofia) am  currently in Sweden – working on the distance course in front of the log fire with 60 cm of snow outside, beautiful.

I meant to upload a few pictures here but it wont allow me to do it – will try later. Now I shall do the last bit of work for this weekend, it is my birthday tomorrow and I am planning to do a bit of skiing and cake-eating before I fly back to London in the evening.