Do You Know When To Stop?

Do You Know When To Stop?

After jumping out on a colleague from behind an office column and shouting stop, it occurred to me not everyone knows when to stop. That particular colleague just had to be approached about his cucumbers. Cucumbers? Yes! He has been sneaking around the office wielding organic cucumbers and depositing them on unsuspecting colleagues’ desks. I caught him the other morning in the very act of cucumber delivery. Something about it rang alarm bells. Since I run a social media team for a large corporation, I considered how best I could utilise the covert cucumber mission to best effect. So in the Social Media meeting today, we came up with all manner of cucumber anecdotes and titles for the blog including the Cucumber Surprise, Covert Cucumbers, Corporate Cucumbers and how to make your cucumber grow by speaking to it (the last one was a considered a little too rude to corporately publish - booo!!!). To accompany the article we decided to get the official photographer to photograph cucumbers with ‘googly’ doll eyes so we could maintain surprise cucumber expressions around the office. Of course we do very corporate articles too; however, I am having two weeks off work from Friday to focus on finishing my current book and felt the need for a little mischief prior to having a holiday. That way any repercussions would have been complete by the time I leave.

The cucumber interview questions included

‘How did you discover your cucumber love?’

‘Do you talk to your cucumber to make it grow?’

‘What attracted you to cucumbers?’

‘If you were a cucumber what advice would you give?’

‘Of all the cucumbers you have grown, has one particular cucumber jumped out at you?’

The thing is the blog has to be approved, so we will see what happens. 

So back to my original question – do you know when to stop? This covers many topics? Exercise, food, health and book promotion.

In terms of exercise where do you have to reach to stop? Today I crossed a paddleboard threshold: a line of yellow buoys mark my limits. I usually stay within them but today I was blown beyond them. Once I had experienced ‘unchartered’ paddle territory, I turned the board and paddled in. I realised I had gone beyond my limit and had to stop and turn around. That made me question when is the point when we know when to stop. So how ill do you have to become before you actually stop and rest? I watch so many people at work descend into complete flu and infect the whole office before they take the day off. Their martyrdom should have stopped and saved others from the infection.

What about food? If you were in front of a buffet when do you decide when to stop? Do you have to feel ill? I worked on cruise ships for years and watched gluttonous buffet bonanzas. People kept eating and eating and certainly did not know when to stop! The attitude was: I have paid for it and I want to get my money’s worth.

Finally, I have noticed that when it comes to product promotion and book promotion, there is a finite time that things can be rammed down an audience’s throat before the audience become blasé, bored or ignore a repetitious. So the question for me is when do you stop? Tonight is my final night of promoting The Hairy-Legged Mystery and Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs. The way I see it is you can do as much as you can to let the world know and then those little literary lovelies have to fend for themselves. It is a case of freeing the pigeon and letting it navigate its way home. In this case I released two fun children’s stories into the world, let the world know and now it is time to stop, move on and allow them to find their readers. Nice eh? It is great to know when it is time to stop and start new.

Enjoy my books at the following link:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

NEW RELEASE: TINGLE DINGLE AND THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS

 https://www.amazon.com/Tingle-Dingle-Little-Mischiefs-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G9C0XC2?ie=UTF8&keywords=Ruby%20Allure&qid=1465049617&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

NEW RELEASE: THE HAIRY-LEGGED MYSTERY

https://www.amazon.com/Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Ruby-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G2C0Y9Q?ie=UTF8&qid=1465049724&ref_=sr_1_2&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

Holidays - when things go astray...

Well this week I have been to Italy, Lake Como to be precise. It is a beautiful place with amazing food. I was fortunate enough to attend a Network Spinal Analysis weekend where all the stress in your system is downloaded. I have to say the people there were wonderful and all had such a positive outlook on life. When I say positive, not the wafty sort, more of a kind of concentrated focus, the kind that gets things done.

Now after spending the weekend indulging in the luxury of having a nervous system cleanse my friends and I were tested. It was quite strange because you realise how many potential stresses there are in life and how any of them can trigger a response. While we were having lunch in Como, just before going to the airport, we all received one of those dreaded texts: your flight has been cancelled due to weather conditions. The first response was to book another one. It was not so easy because the next one listed was three days later and that was filling up. What would happened if the next one was a week later?

It is in these moments that you really see how your mind works and how you are so fixated in how life 'has' to be. In some of my business life I work with contingency, resilience and disaster recovery. Ironically at the end of the week I was to be involved in a 'shut down' simulation. Well the flight being cancelled was completely going to destroy any opportunity to take part. The thing was that in normal life I would have been aggravated. All my attachment to being at work, the money involved and the fact that I was out of control would have welled up. Instead I thought, well there isn't a lot I can do. Instead let's enjoy Italy. If I have to stay longer then I have to enjoy it. It was then that I realised that I had to text my manager. His response was - 'oh how terrible to be stuck in Italy. If you can't get back then you can't get back.' It was then that I realised how much we all believe that we have to be here, there or everywhere because you have to be. Sometimes you can just relax into the flow of life and say 'it is out of my control - I have a choice - get angry or enjoy it'. :) The truth is life goes on without you... Life is ever changing so it is better to adapt and enjoy being where you are...

Mindfulness in the Working World

 

Mindfulness for the Working Day

 

Dr Gaby Davies, Director of Mindfulness Training at Mindlab, recently shared her insight into Mindfulness at a corporate  Emotional Wellbeing Speaker Event. Mindfulness is ancient Buddhist approach to paying attention in a specific way: on purpose, non-judgementally and whilst remaining in the present moment. The practice increases awareness, focus and acceptance of the reality of the present moment. Alternatively, you could look at it as an exercise for the brain that enables attention and emotional regulation. Consider where you place your attention on a daily basis? I am sure that it isn’t into how you feel within your body; instead, it is more like you are on a mental treadmill of trying to work through the ‘to do’ list. What you may not realise is that the practice of mindfulness has been scientifically proven to improve health, wellbeing and performance.  Employees who practice the technique have reduced levels of stress and have fewer days off due to illness. A few other added bonuses include improved relationships, increased ability to relax and an increase of 53% in a sense of happiness at work.

 

The regular practice of mindfulness affects neuro-plasticity, which is the technical term for how the brain is wired. What this means is that you can essentially re-wire your brain. Many of us are of the belief that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – however, where the brain is concerned you can completely rebuild, restructure and adjust your brain’s  neurotransmitters into old age. An old dog with a newly rewired brain can create their own new and invented tricks – you might even find that the rewired pooch becomes a trapeze artist. Imagine the potential! If you want to know more about this there is an excellent book called Mindsight, which provides plenty of information on this.

 

According to the Mindlab, Stress can be reduced when you recongise that you have been hijacked by an emotion. It is then that you re-align the mind and refocus within your body and count your breaths. Doing this regularly improves the individual’s ability to think in stress situations and affects your working memory capacity which improves mental adaptability in complex situations.  Just twelve minutes per day has an effect on DNA, reduces cellular aging and enables increased focus.

Mindfulness helps you to:

·         Come off auto-pilot
·         Provide clarity and objectivity
·         Respond rather than react
·         Enables you to experience situations as they are
·         Increases awareness
·         Development of flexible and adaptive behaviour
·         Reduce your stress and anxiety levels

 

So what do you need to do to generate all these benefits? Well you relax into the simplicity of breath. First you ‘check in’ this is when you pause and refocus your mind into your body and notice any areas of tension. When you locate these areas take a number of deep breaths as though directing the breath to the tension area. Actively choose to let go of the tension, which often results in a sigh.

 

 

 

Another technique is to simply breathe in and clench your fists and exhale and open them.  Make sure you do at least ten breaths. The same can be done with the shoulder blades with a ‘shoulder blade squeeze,’ where you sit up and motion your shoulder blades to meet as you inhale and then release as you exhale. After a minimum of ten breaths see how you feel. Obviously there are numerous other Mindfulness techniques that can be used; however, the above are easy and can be practised at the desk.

 

A few tips to maintain Mindfulness during the day:

·         Don’t get highjacked by your emotions
·         Understand yourself better
·         Develope clarity – the result is less misunderstandings
·         Reign in your wandering mind
·         Pay full attention to people – this improves resiliency
·         What can you do at the end of your busy day? What does your body need?
·         Question: who makes you hold your breath?
·         Question: What situation makes you hold your breath?
·         When aware of the situation that makes you hold your breath, breathe, release and let it go.
·         Give yourself a few mindfulness pauses during each day.
·         Practise this when going to the loo, getting a coffee, lining up for a sandwich etc.  recur
·         When you arrive home from work take some time to focus on the breath and let the day go

Enjoy your working day in peace:)

Ruby Writes  Books to Inspire:

LABYRINTHINE AMAZON.COM LINK: Link: http://amzn.com/B012FAYI5U




Olivia, the visionary artist, who fell by the wayside, discovers a way to access her creativity through the inner labyrinths. After visiting Labyrinthine, she awakes to find a mysterious figure holding a gun to her head. The episode triggers a series of events that reveal her boyfriend is attempting to swindle her, her agent has defied death and there is an underlying structure to people's life timings.

Rapidly, her world spirals into chaos. She learns that everyone on the planet has a divine blueprint contained within the iris of their eye. Unfortunately, there is a loophole in divinity. When death erases the blueprint, those who defy death affect the timing of everyone else on the planet. It seems the answers lie within Labyrinthine. However, the wisdom comes at a price.





21/08/15

 

"An Unexpected Gem"

***I was provided a copy of this audio book for the purpose of a review ***

With the required disclaimer out of the way, let me be brutally honest, I had not expected this little gem. In fact, I had expected my listening would be a bit rough and was fortified by it being less than 2 hours.

The synopsis says the author wrote the book as a takeaway from her evening classes on creative writing. My mental context was ... Community Ed evening classes ...and expected a well intended but kind of amateur product. However, I am interested in adult education, and batter my own nerd head against a giant personal creativity brick wall.

So you have an idea of my mind set... low expectations along with high interest.

Amateur hour it was NOT.

I don't know where the author teaches her class, but Sign Me Up! And bring the narrator. Wow. Two hours of unadulterated, straight up, right on, good learning material delivered by a close friend just sharing the material. The narrator's voice was warm, sincere without any artifact or pompous patronising, and well modulated throughout. The material was mind opening for me, with the right mix of the mechanics of writing exercises, sufficient context that using prompts now makes sense to me, and a sprinkling of the inner heart work of creativity through written material.

This was just what I didn't dare hope for in a how to creative writing listen.

Truly an unexpected gem and a learning and growing experience for me.

A keeper and one I will return to many times as I deconstruct my own wall, one block at a time.

Thank You, Ruby and Thank You, Erin.

A thought provoking workbook. 27 Aug. 2015

By SwordsLight - Published on Amazon.com

This book is great for some step by step, bullet by bullet guidelines on things you'll need to think about when starting a project and working through it. It's less inspiration and more practical advice for what questions you need to ask yourself before sitting down and creating characters, setting and story. It's rather like a workbook. I found it helpful to listen, pause and jot down notes, unpause and continue listening.

The narration was great too - it felt like the narrator was actually asking me insightful questions instead of blandly reciting the author's text.

 

 

TO BUY MONEY FARM ON AMAZON.com http://amzn.com/B010F04W9O

· Frode

06/08/15

5 STAR

"M.O.N.E.Y. is bad? This book is not!"

So Money Farm by Ruby Allure was a surprise! When I REALLY did not read things about this book I review for Audiobook Blast, I sometimes get books I don't know something about. BTW: I read 99% about the books I want to review, but this book I can't remember I did that for. Anyways: This was a nice surprise, and I think it is one of those books that is better the second time you read it. No joke! I listen to this twice before I made this! Money Farm makes you thin, and who does not like to hear a book that makes you think? It is an awesome book, that I will recommend to all that likes audiobooks, and really to people that does not!

Helen Lloyd English accent its the topic like a glow and a hand! Her "lady like" voice is so cold, and clear I feel that the author made this book thinking that Helen Lloyd would read it out loud! That is how I feel those two fits together! The 2 times 14 hrs and 6 mins I spend with her never feels boring or uninteresting! I would love to spend it again, and I will because this book I will hear again, and again, even when it is 14 hrs and 6 mins long! That is saying something!

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com