Stuck in a Rut or Just Stuck in Negative Thinking?
So many individuals at a personal level and in business feel that there is nothing they can do to get out of certain situations they are in. They resign themselves to the situation, accepting their lot and that things will never change or perhaps have a ‘one day’ maybe attitude.¼br /> ¼br /> At Mpowerme we have resources; experience and knowledge that can help you sort out all manner of situations and indeed thinking!

When you need some building work done you employ a builder because you know they can do the job, when you are ill you go to the GP because you know they should be able to help.  When you want a holiday or a car you go to the experts to help you make a decision.  When life or work is not going to plan don’t resign yourself to the situation, call our experts at Mpowerme and see what we can do for you.

‘By just changing your thoughts you can transform your life!’

What do you want to change?

Positively Coffee
Positively Coffee was launched in early 2008.  After experimenting with venues and meeting times Positively Coffee is now moving to a more regular time of the 2nd Monday of every month at 7pm for a 7.30 start, ending at 9.30pm with coffee available till 10pm.

The next meeting is on the 14th July, but for full details of our new programme of topics and dates for 2008/09, please click here.

Of Two Minds…
Want to stretch your mind a little, how about a little quantum theory? Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: one morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke.

As it happened, as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding, she studied and remembered every moment. Her explanation about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another is amazing.
Follow this link to find out more.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU&eurl=http

Mpowerme Articles
The pen is mightier than the sword
Edward Bulwer-Lytton

We’ve been busy this month on the articles trail, watch our blog for future articles but for the meantime just log on to www.babyhampshire.co.uk/content/view/259/47/ and read an interesting article titled ‘Being your best - today’

Self Development

Mind Body Spirit
In May I visited the Mind Body Spirit festival for a couple of days.  I went to some great workshops and saw Sonia Choquette, Steve Taylor and Jason McDonald.  There was lots of meditating and I had some shiatsu on my very painful back, it was very helpful.

I met lots of new and very interesting people and it was great to have some time out to focus on me. This in turn means I grow more and have more to pass on to my clients.I was so inspired by the workshops that I went to the library and book shop and got some of the books to read, and here are some which I would heartedly recommend.

If you would like to find out about time and why some days it flies by and other times it seem to drag, have a read of the research conducted by Steven Taylor read: Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It.

If you are interested in spirituality you will really like Sonia’s books.  Here is just one from a range she has written.  Her four hour workshop was fantastic and her books have the same enthusiasm as her workshop did. Your Heart’s Desire: Using the Laws of Manifestation to Create the Life You Want (Paperback).

Stress Management Seminar
In early June I attended a Stress Management Seminar at Solent University to present a workshop. Click here to read more about my interesting and (and very informative) day out.

A ‘Magical’ Testimonial
You may be interested to read what Glenn Neckles, a professional magician has to say:

‘A few years ago I attended a team training course facilitated by Janet Ashfield. The course provided some very interesting strategies for team and personal development. It was the personal development elements of the course that caught my imagination and I arranged a private consultation with Janet that proved to be truly life changing.’

Click here to read the full testimonial.

Imagine

Imagine choosing what thoughts you carry in your head.
Imagine removing the burden of all the pressures you carry on your shoulders.
Imagine knowing yourself and being able to trust in yourself.
Imagine having good health and the energy you need.
Imagine this being achievable.
Imagine waking up to a new and bright day every day.
Imagine putting this in action today.

call Mpowerme now!

That’s all for our Summer newsletter, we hope you enjoyed it.  If you have any feedback you would like to give us, please do, or if you have any ideas you would like to see explored in the next issue (later this year) just drop us a line. In the meantime, have a great summer and remember

‘Once you free yourself from your limiting thoughts
you have the freedom to live your dreams’

Best wishes,

Janet Ashfield
Mpowerme

How lucky am I?
There is a saying - ‘find out what you are passionate about and turn it into a job’. I am really lucky to have been able to find a career that I am passionate about. I get to work with clients who ultimately have a better quality of life afterwards by helping them to take the time to understand themselves and what they truly want. I love learning and developing. My job enables me to read, research and attend training to keep myself up to date with any tools or knowledge that can help both myself and my clients! As a coach I do take my own advice and use my tools and techniques in my own life.

Here’s what Mpowerme is up to over the next few months;

Positvely Coffee
Positively Coffee was set up in January by popular request received from clients and colleagues who wanted somewhere to go to be positive. Somewhere they could remind themselves that ‘we really are in control of our destiny’ and to find a few more tools for the journey.

Click here to read more about the first Positively Coffee meeting.

If you would like more information on any of the above events, please visit the Positvely Coffee page on this blog. If you wish to attend, please book in advance.

Women’s Networking and Peer Learning
Have you heard about The Women’s Networking Company - Connecting Women in Business?

The Women’s Networking Company have numerous network and premier business groups across the South. I am pleased to say that I am hosting the new Petersfield Premier group.

Click here for more details.

Business Link Peer Learning Group
Business Link is a nationwide self-help organisation offering action-focused information for small and medium businesses.

On the 30th April I will be doing a presentation to the Peer Group ‘Your business, your stress, top tips for survival’ at Sparsholt College Winchester.

If you are a small business and have not joined the Peer Group, do take a look at the Business link web site and see more about the benefits of networking, meeting like minded people, getting your company known and hopefully learning along the way too. Like to know more?

Tell Me About It…
We live in a society now where people are always busy, where it often feels that no one has time for us.  Work, children, education, and careers -  the list is endless, lots of things that always seem to come before we look after our own needs.

You may be struggling and cannot talk to work colleagues, your partner may too be stressed out so you don’t burden them, or perhaps you have no partner.  You may want to change a relationship, have a relationship, change career or start up a business but you have no idea where to start.

A good place to start is with a coaching session.

Sit down with someone who is going to focus on you 100%, you don’t have to worry about anything else but you - now how often do you get this luxury? - pure ‘me time’, you are worth it,  live life to the full.  Make that call to Mpowerme now 023 8061 8388.

‘When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.’
Paulo Coelho
Contact Janet to book a coaching session

It’s Springtime - Spring Clean

We live in a materialistic society, we are always looking for the next thing we need. 

Our cars, worth potentially thousands, sit on the drive whilst the garage is full of junk that we don’t want to get rid of in case we need it one day.

Our wardrobes are over flowing with clothes that we can no longer even get in to but one day we might (and if we do we will probably find out they are not even in fashion anymore)!

Our kitchens are full of gadgets we will never use.

We have mobile phones and BlackBerry’s, we are now contactable 24/7, never a moment to ourselves.  We have Ipods or MP3’s, various play stations, DVD’s, widescreen TV’s, the cinema experience in the home, all of which we use to block out the world that engulfs us.

We stack up the post on the kitchen work top, always dealing with it another day, we write lists of things to do and lose them; we can never find the MOT certificate, home insurance documents or letter for the school trip when needed - sound familiar?

How can we change things for the better?
Have a spring clean, have a clear out.  Bag up your clothes that don’t fit and send them off to the charity shop.  Do not fall into the trap of bagging them up and putting them in the attic, (which is probably overflowing with stuff you might need one day!)

Sort out those files for the household paperwork and use them!

Be good to yourself - let it go.  Enjoy the quality of being able to find things.  It truly will be a weight off both your mind and your shoulders, it really is therapy!

Fancy a spring clean- read more 

Rocking Year
We hope you enjoyed our first Mpowerme Newsletter.  If you have any feedback you would like to give us, please do, or if you have any ideas you would like to see explored in the next issue (later this year) just drop us a line.

In the meantime, enjoy the sunny weather and think about making 2008 a rocking good year for you too by contacting Mpowerme. Even independent people can struggle alone, dependant people can drain others and never take any responsibility, interdependent people believe that they can have a great life, they seek out those that can benefit them and work together to ensure they live life to the full.  Can Mpowerme benefit you?

Best wishes,

Janet Ashfield
Mpowerme  

On the 13th of July I and 9999 other women could be found running 5k round Southampton Common for the Cancer Research Race for Life Event, hence the very red faced photo of me (and my friend Sheena).

I got round in about 32 minutes but bear in mind that there are 9999 other women on the route so it was not exactly a clear route, which was just as well as it gave me a chance for a breather, as I appear to be as unfit as I was last year!

Thank you, thank you; to those that have sponsored me, together we raised £265!

It was great to see a variety of people turn up, some knowing they had confidence issues at work.

The table below shows what people saw as the things that made them comfortable and uncomfortable:

The group were able to discuss the issues they have and give some feedback for others to consider about issues such as:

• What to do if a member of staff refuses to do work you have passed them.
• How to manage when some staff just do not pull their weight.
• How people feel when a younger and often less experienced person is appointed as your boss and tries to exert themselves.
• Potential redundancy and job changes.
• Managing bullies

The group felt that self confidence in their personal life was more of issues.  A lot of members are on holiday for the September and therefore we have change the career session in October for the self confidence in their personal life.  So to confirm the 8th of September Positively Coffee session with be “Career change”.  You do not have to want to change your career, you can come along and tell us how you have developed the career you have!

This was a really interesting session, not least because only single people turned up.  So as we discussed all the sportive aspects of being single such as:
· Having control over what you want, when you want to do it
· Living to your own standards
· Sleeping when you want
· Having complete autonomy with your career
· Financial control
· Shopping!
· No arguments, no agro!

We also discussed what made people unhappy about being single such as:
· Not eating well enough as people do not make the effort to cook for themselves
· Sharing sunsets, life events both positive and negative, holidays, walks etc
· Peoples attitudes towards people being single
· Sometimes feeling alone

And as the discussion went on we realised that actually it would have been really valuable to have had people in relationships attending as they would have been able to give a different perspective, which would have undoubtedly helped them to consider the value of their own situations. 

Hopefully in future, people will attend the Positively Coffee Evening, whether or not they think the title applies to them because they will have lots of life experiences and perspectives to share with the group too.

I spent this Saturday with my daughter and her partner driving tanks in Winchester! Not quite what you would expect in this cathedral town. It was an absolute joy to go out for the day and to find that the organisation of the day, the staff and facilities were faultless and the knock-on effect was that everyone there had a great time, I can’t remember the last time I was around so many smiling faces, everyone was having such a great time driving the Chieftain, the Abbot SPG (self-propelled field gun), the APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) and riding the Quad Bikes (although some of us spent more time in the field than on the track!). So I thought I would pass on the details of Juniper Leisure and encourage you all to give it a go!

www.juniper-leisure.com/tank_driving/index.htm

Life coaching is a 21st century phenomenon. In the United States where it all started many practitioners are self made multimillionaires. So what does a life coach do and how can they make a difference?

Life as we know has its up’s and down’s and in this increasingly stressful world even the strongest amongst us often find it hard to cope. Looking back on our own lives most of us retrospectively would have done many things differently. My philosophy is that we all give it our best shot at the time. Regrets are pointless. After all we can do nothing about the past, but we can certainly do something positive about the present and the future.

This week I met Janet Ashfield. She runs MPOWERME, her own successful life coaching company in Eastleigh, and channels her own life experience into the business of helping others. To her it’s a vocation. “I don’t want to make millions”, she told me, “I want to make a difference”.

Janet is a surprisingly complex, charismatic and dedicated woman. Her parents, she feels, actively discouraged ambition and therefore by the time she became a Mum at 22 years of age, she had next to no academic qualifications. After the birth of her son John, and fifteen months later her daughter Rachel however, she was enjoying what she describes as one of the most satisfying times in her life.

Almost immediately after the birth of Rachel, Janet began studying for a degree in Psychology and Sociology. Now, at 44 Janet has a BSc and a grandchild!

She believes that the best thing you can do for your child is to be the best person you can be. “Parenthood”, says Janet, “doesn’t have to mean losing your identity, as inevitably, a content parent means a content child”.

So what’s it all about?

According to Janet “Life coaching” is the process of getting people to look at their whole life. It’s not just work, it’s not just their personal life or whether or not they’ve got a partner. It’s really about taking an overall view. You can liken it to having an extension built on your house. You could take hours over getting the plans right, take great care employing the right trades people, make sure that local building regulations are in place, and pay close attention to decoration, fixtures and fittings. So much effort for many of the material things in life, but often paying very little attention to getting your own life right.

This journey called life, do you know the way?

Do you find that more frequently you are feeling unfulfilled and dissatisfied with your life? Do you keep thinking there must be more to it than this? And is that feeling made worse by the fact that those around you already think you have a great life? Do you make excuses and say it will change…….some time?

We can own a business, climb the career ladder, plan a holiday, debate which car to purchase, jump through planning hoops to build an extension or research the best school for our children, yet how many of us let our physical, emotional and spiritual health go unnoticed whilst we are on the conveyor belt of life?

We may fill our lives by working long hours, put up with an unhappy relationship, suffer with ongoing health problems just so we keep busy enough to avoid thinking about the direction we are going in.

Perhaps a mid life crisis or the seven year itch is a realisation of all this. People suddenly stop, think and realise that life is passing them by and they are not enjoying the journey! They get off the conveyor belt which their lives have become and start to think about how they want their life to be.

So isn’t it about time you gave yourself a little time for considering your future, a little time for reflection and just forget the computer games, chilling out in front of the TV with a glass of wine, taking work home for the evening and weekend and the constant rushing about? Perhaps it’s time to make a change or two? Identifying what you want out of life can start out like hard work or be phenomenally exciting depending on your starting point but it can turn into the time of your life – funny that!

Talk to Mpowerme about achieving quality living and becoming happier and more fulfilled. Director Janet Ashfield’s philosophy is to work alongside you to achieve a balanced approach looking at all aspects of your life to ensure motivation, direction, harmony and balance leading to improving your quality of life.

Janet truly believes that everyone has the ability to find out who they really are and what they are truly passionate about. It can be done, the secret is knowing how – contact Mpowerme to find out how.

Janet Ashfield

I am a member of the Hampshire Ambassadors, a group of people who during the course of their business and private lives support and promote business and economy in Hampshire.

One of their recent events involved a visit to the Winchester City Mill which is located on a site that has been used for milling flour since Saxon times.

We enjoyed a presentation given by the staff, who obviously enjoyed their work, and who were able to tell us all about the first recording of the mill in the Doomsday survey of 1086.  We also learnt how, following her wedding in Winchester Cathedral, Mary Tudor gifted the mill to the city in 1154.  After a rebuild in 1744 the Mill remained in use until the turn of the last century. More recently the mill has been restored to full working order and after the presentation we had the opportunity to see the watermill and its machinery in all its glory.

On a personal note it was great visit and it was lovely to meet staff so passionate about their work.  The downside for me was that I had just started a wheat and dairy free diet that was, until that point, going really well.  However I found myself being tempted to nibble on a range of wheat products (made with flour milled at Winchester) and local cheeses – all of which were very nice indeed.
The mill is a great place to visit with the family and both young and old can enjoy watching the mill in operation. 

For more information about this unique venue visit http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-winchestercitymill/

For more information on Hampshire Ambassadors please visit:
http://www3.hants.gov.uk/business/advice-information/hampshire-ambassadors.htm

Photo L-R - Hannah Payne from Hampshire County Council, Anne Aldridge Winchester City Mill Manager, Peter Coates-Buglear of NewNet plc, Jennifer Laing of Cresson Creative, Glenda Willis Assistant Manager of Winchester City Mill, Janet Ashfield from mpowerme and Heather Coates-Buglear of NewNet plc.

For all of you interested in attending the Positively Coffee events please note that due to unforeseen circumstances the venue has moved to:

Fair Oak Training Centre, Unit 17 Vicarage Farm Business Park, Winchester Road, Fair Oak, Hampshire SO50 7HD.

The Business park is just opposite the Fox and Hounds on the Winchester Road. The Training Centre is situated on the left hand side of the Business Park. Free parking is available.

If you would like to attend one of these events please call Mpowerme on 023 80618388.