spiritual wellbeing ’. Hold on a minute . Health professionals aren ’ t usually the type to pray for good health in their dayto-day practise . I ’ ve obviously driven her to a point of desperation . “ Let us pray this crazy woman can control her emotions once and for all ,” Fortunately , after our first consultation I had finally wrapped my head around the words ’ spiritual ’. Spiritual was in fact a way to describe what ‘ grounds us ’ - our core values , i . e .; strengths , morals , aspirations and dreams . Goal setting I could do . Filling in the booklet was pretty hard work . I hadn ’ t been so ‘ deep ’ in what seemed like forever , and with a constant barrage of sick kids , deadlines and piles of washing to do it was hard to prioritise time to think about prioritising time . Yes , the irony was not lost on me . When I was at home I was worrying about work , when I was at work I was worrying about kids . Something had to give . Then a funny thing happened . The more I filled out of that booklet , the more my grin grew . Thinking about senses that made me happy . For me it was the feeling of water running through my fingers , the smell of fresh cut grass , the taste of real Italian ice cream the feel of droplets on the outside of my wine glass .
They were all things I associated with happy memories . Philippa talked me through how to create a scene in my head . To recreate a few of these senses , in order to transition from being a mum to getting into work . Pretty much my own personalised guided meditation track . This was to be my way of switching off from work before I picked up the kids , and switching off ‘ mum mode ’ when I went to work . My productivity instantly increased tenfold . Once I had my ‘ transitions ’ sorted I had to work out what my values were . I felt like I was constantly disciplining my kids . Why should I be ‘ bad cop ’ the whole time ? Philippa asked me : “ When your children are adults , how will you know that you ’ ve succeeded as a parent ? What do you want them to be ?” " Alive , I suppose . Oh … and healthy , and happy in whatever they ’ re doing .” She then asked me to just consider this when I was disciplining them over ‘ trivial ’ things . As soon as I stopped telling my two-year-old to stop using her digger hands , she wanted to use a knife and fork . I stopped caring whether they wore matching shoes to daycare , and now they find their own shoes ( most of the time they match ). It was a revolution in my parenting ,
I actually stood back and thought about what I was ranting on about .
When my five-year-old is 20 , he ’ s probably not going to be making fart noises behind me in the supermarket . It doesn ’ t affect me , so why should I tell him off for it ? Why was I disciplining my son for the sake of others ? I started out on this journey to help my productivity in my job . Now I ’ ve realised that it is my home-life that ’ s affecting my ability to perform at my peak . I am my own boss , in more than one way , and I was just setting the bar ridiculously high ! By completing this part of the course , I ’ ve discovered that a lot of things I do are actually to please others . I have a set of my own values on the wall now , if something I ’ ve set myself to do doesn ’ t align with one of these values- it ’ s not something I should be putting too much effort into . These values are the traits that make me a great Mum , Wife , Daughter , Sister , Aunty , Friend , Colleague and Acquaintance . So by adjusting my values to suit what others see as important , I ’ m actually letting down those who ’ ve already come to rely on me for being me . It ’ ll be interesting to see what next month brings when we move onto ‘ Emotional Intelligence ’.
How does Philippa Ross describe her ’ Personal Intelligence Programme ’?
I use the word ‘ intelligence ’ to mean knowing what to do with knowledge you acquire and how to use it to expand your understanding – it ’ s all about personal perspective . I ’ ve always found metaphors to be a great way to understand the relevance of information and what difference it can make to me and my life – so I use ‘ BALLS !’ in my work because it ’ s a fun , tongue in cheek way to explain why , when we treat life as a load of balls , it ’ s so much easier to feel energised , enthused and able to fully engage in the game of life . On a scientific level , everything in life is energy . Every cell in our body is a ball of energy . If we can master the art of juggling the 50 trillion balls of energy within our body , we can synchronise the spiritual , emotional , mental and physical parts of ourselves to work as a team so we feel happy , healthy and whole . I ’ ve developed four phases to the programme to help you discover your unique needs .