Breathe

my beach, Greve de Lecq

They talk about the simple things in life. Well, I must say at this point, I agree with them.

Things we take for granted in life, 101

• health
• family
• relationships
• breathing

Wait on a second, I am with you on the first three, but breathing?

Yes, breathing. Its a simple thing that we do literally thousands of times a day, but how often do you take the time to just pay attention for even more than a couple of breaths? Maybe its time to take a little moment and pay attention to a function that is absolutely critical in your life.

Go find a quiet place, preferably somewhere out doors, at least with the window open if you cant manage outdoors yet.

Give me three minutes. Thats all, no special mood or environment other than that is necessary.

Take whatever air is in your lungs right now, and breathe it out, until the air is pretty much all gone out of your lungs. Now, lets take in that first breath. Close your eyes and pay attention to your how that breath feels, coming into your body, bringing life, nutrients and energy to your body, filling up your lungs.

Don’t hold it, just let it naturally dissolve and flow back out of your body.

Do that lets say three to five times.

How are you? Stressed? Calm? Relaxed? Tired? Whatever today is for you, just let that dissolve out on your outbreath, and breath back in energy. Lets do another 3- 5 cycles.

The reason why we choose a clean air environment, is because this air that you breathe, this sacreed life giver, can only really be appreciated in its natural state. Air conditioners and rooms with closed windows really miss the point.

You probably found that in the process of doing this simple cycle, you relaxed a little. Great.

Ok, you are busy, hey we all are these days, thats why I have said lets keep it to three minutes. But if you can, try to do this one as soon as you awake, and maybe one more time before you go to sleep at night, just before is fine.

Just connect with you for a little bit each day, three minutes is long enough. If you can really be with ‘you’ for that long, I guarantee it wil make you feel very much in the moment with what you are doing right now in your lives.

Things really tough at work? Having a stressful day? About to go blow a fuse at your boss? Take a minute to go step outside of that little stress paradigm you are living in, find somewhere quiet, and check in with yourself. I dont really care where you do it, just find some kind of private space, and check in.

Hey, how are I doing today?

Acknowledging whatever is going on is the first step in improving it.

So, take a few breaths for you today. Then get back out there and into this game we call life.

And enjoy the journey. Yes, its tough sometimes, but everything changes.

Enjoy that fact.

Cheers,

Mark

Why?

That is the question they all asked me. Friends, family, co-workers, my partner. Why leave a secure, if not so exciting job with a successful company in Japan, with great sales results and a stable life, and move half way round the world to a little island in the English channel, parked right between France and the UK? Why risk the change, the searching for new work, the chaos it would wreak on my relationship and just the added stress of uprooting everything you have, and trying to replant myself somewhere else?

Its a good question, and I have, what is to me, a very obvious answer.

There is more to life than just work for work’s sake. You may have heard this question before, but it is one that is worth contemplating:

Live to work, or work to live?

In Japan, it is most definitely live to work, and for some of you out there, that might be fine. But for me, life is about balance, the enigma of trying to keep both your private and professional life in tune with each other, dynamically interacting.

For me, its definitely work to live. To help other people, to help each other reach our goals and share in the fruits of our labour.

I love to help people. I have been ‘coaching’ now for probably most of the last 15 years, when I discovered that I enjoyed helping people find themselves. I was the person they could talk to when they were about to make a big change, the person to check with as they went through their process, the person who would listen without judgment when things didn’t quite go as planned, and they needed to stop and re-think their strategy.

“Mark, you should really get into life coaching/ career counselling! You have so much to offer people!”

I would smile, and listen, nod my head and think, yeah that is something I definitely want to do, some day.

But that day never came, and I found that after five years of gutting it out in Japan, learning their culture, adopting their lifestyle and manifesting as the best foreign employee I could be, there was still something deep inside of me that said, there is something more to life than this, where you could be really helping other people.

Events had their way. My mother got sick and I started thinking about ways of getting her closer to me so that I could take care of her. My health was going down, and I started to feel aches and pains that were both physical as well as emotional. There are only so many 130% crowded trains you can take before the cracks start to appear…

I went to Europe on business, and was taken to this little island called Jersey to visit one of the Japanese company’s regional distributors there.

And that was it. From a man who has lived in more than 12 countries, I had a feeling.

Something that I could not rationally explain, but what I saw as a manifestation of balance around me. Jersey resonates. Work, environment, nature, of openness, of possibility. I also saw and met a lot of people who were obviously doing quite well in life ( what would you expect of an international off-shore banking community) but yet were still looking for something. A meaning to their lives, a way to justify it all and themselves, a direction, a reason. A way to keep going if nothing else.

Suddenly, I had this overwhelming desire to help them get there. To find the answers they sought. And in that process, I realized that in doing so, I would be helping myself. No longer was working 50 hours plus a week enough. Not the bright lights, not the exotic foods and high sales results.

I wanted balance back in my life, where I could share this precious thing we call existence with my partner, family and friends, and have an experience that I would regret on my death bed.

To live. To reap the harvest of our hard work and lives in a genuine way.

Then things just kept falling into place. When resigning from my job, the company asks me if I would be interested to stay on as their European consultant?

Would I ever.

Needless to say, my reasons weren’t explained to such detail, but changed I have, and here I am.

And that, as they say, is that.

Jersey. Hallelujah.

What is Harvest about?

my little gemstone

Harvest is, quite simply, about reaping the rewards of your life in a tangible way. Its about finding yourself within the process of your daily life, and learning to enjoy the journey.

Success, as we know it, can be measured in many different ways. For some its about having the car, the house, the membership to some exclusive club, the recognition from their peers that they are ’somebody’, that they have indeed ‘made it’. Wouldn’t it be great if life were that simple.

In fact, life as we know and share it is much more complex. The end game doesn’t end, the goal posts keep shifting, the respect won from peers can just as easily be lost, or worse, the path to ultimate success can be a lonely one, with family and kids lost along the way.

Success for others is a point they never seem to reach, a constant longing for something better, something more complete, some dissatisfaction with the way their life has turned out, regardless of either previous successes or achievements. That what they have is not enough.

So what is the trick? How can I keep the things I have earned and work for, and my family, and my daily life, in balance?

Balance! Now that is what we are talking about. Fighting the good fight, sincerely. Going through your personal work place or career journey, sharing it with those who are close to you in an intimate and present way, working through life’s little trials and tribulations- and enjoying it with an intimate understanding of who and what you are.

Reap what you sow. Finding your balance in life.

So , I hope that this collection of stories, experiences and bit of advice I have collected along the way will be useful to some of you, and help you on your own individual journey.

I don’t believe in overloading you with information, I think that little things to contemplate, presented in a consistent way are much more effective.

So, lets enjoy our journey together.

Cheers,

Mark in Jersey