The Positive Habit Weekly Blog – 30th March, 2020 – Cocoon Your Mind!

Open Your Heart to Hope!

Cocoon Your Mind! Welcome to the week three in ‘Corona World,’ which is what I have been calling the surreal new world we find ourselves in. Until just a few mornings ago, I was waking up and asking myself, “is this really happening?” Now I’m getting used to it.  Our brave and dedicated healthcare workers haven’t had this luxury as it is all too real for them.

While this is a collective crisis, we all have subjective emotional responses; if we have a loved one who is a health worker or have vulnerable parents for example, we may worry more about possible negative outcomes. My father-in-law lives near the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in northern Italy where the death toll on a daily basis is almost unimaginable. Having a loved one there makes the scale of the threat seem very real to me and the physical impact of this fear meant I was struggling to sleep one night as I thought of the enormity of it all.

However, you feel right now I want to help you through this.

One thing that had a profoundly positive impact on my own level of anxiety occurred one night during the week, after hearing again about the increasing death toll in Italy. I had a powerful thought that really helped me; what if I could be free from fear? I immediately felt lighter and free from the clawing fear I had been  suffering from. I slept well that night and have done so every night since. The realisation that my sadness at the desperate loss of life across the world was accompanied by FEAR was cathartic; feeling sad without being fearful engenders empathy, kindness and compassion whereas fear disconnects and can lead to panic, irrationality and blame.

At this challenging time, I would ask you to cocoon your mind and take the time to get to know, understand and ultimately love yourself more. Finding yourself now in a situation you couldn’t probably have imagined in your wildest dreams, provides you with the opportunity to show how resilient, adaptable and loving you are.

Be sad. Be grateful. Laugh. Cry. Feel and process the full range of your emotions.  Above all, keep hope in your heart for this will pass and all of us will emerge into a world more awakened to love and compassion.

We are thrilled with the avalanche of registrations and donations for my five-star Hypnotherapy Programme has helped people all over the world to feel calm and now –

To help everyone ride the Coronavirus storm, we are now offering it for FREE* with the option to donate. The price is normally €149.95 so this is an incredible opportunity.

The Programme is designed to help you develop unshakeable strength in both the good and the hard times. Learn to create a quiet mind that allows deep, peaceful sleep at night and emotional resilience during the day.

For more information and to register please click here.

*Access to the programme will remain free for the duration of the current public health crisis.

Sending love and much light,

Fiona

I am delighted to say, I am still seeing my clients online and it is working really well. If you would like to book an online one-to-one session. You can do so HERE.

The ‘This is Me’ Webinar last Thursday evening was a great success. If you joined us, thank you so much. If you missed it, I will share it with you as soon as possible. The feedback was amazing and those involved felt honoured to be able help to the best of our ability. Watch this space to find out more about the forthcoming live ‘real,’ ‘This is Me’ event! 

Be sure to follow me on social media, as I share top positive tips and insights during the week. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

‘The Positive Habit’ book
is now available as an audio book on both Audible & Borrow Box!

ONLINE CORPORATE WORKSHOPS AVAILABLE!

I regularly deliver workshops and seminars.  If your company is interested in a Positive Habit wellness event please get in touch.  You can find out more of the amazing companies I have worked with HERE.

Evidence-based, rapid transformational, online, hypnotherapy programme, The Positive Habit trains your subconscious mind to let go of the past & to embrace the future with hope and happiness as you sleep!

Register FREE Now!

Latest Testimonial from The Positive Habit online programme:

Saturday, March 21, 2020
★★★★★

 

“This program has given me a much more positive outlook. Thank you.”

Kathryn Walters

The Positive Habit Weekly Blog – 23rd March, 2020 – Stay Positive! Stay Calm! Stay Strong!

Good News!

The Positive Habit is here to help in two ways.

1. My five-star Hypnotherapy Programme has helped people all over the world to feel calm and now – 

to help everyone ride the Coronavirus storm, we are now offering it for FREE* with the option to donate. The price is normally €149.95 so this is an incredible opportunity.

The Programme is designed to help you develop unshakeable strength in both the good and the hard times. Learn to create a quiet mind that allows deep peaceful sleep at night and emotional resilience during the day.

For more information and to register please click here.

*Access to the programme will remain free for the duration of the current public health crisis.

More Good News!

2. The ‘This Is Me’ panel of experts are coming to you live online next Thursday (26th March) to help you adapt to the dramatic change of circumstances.

Flourish Under Fire! Feel Calm, Stay Healthy, Stay Happy!

This questions and answers session is for YOU to ask anything you like.

The event is a reminder that you are not alone; most of the anxiety we feel is shared by many and we can all help each other.

Hosted by the ray of sunshine that is RTE’s Taragh Loughrey Grant the panel

  • Siobhan Murray (Psychotherapist and best-selling author of ‘The Burnout Solution’)
  • Allison Keating (Clinical Psychologist and best-selling author of The Secret Lives of Adults’)
  • Fiona Brennan (Clinical Hypnotherapist and best-selling author of ‘The Positive Habit’)

will share their collective wisdom and years of experience in helping people soothe anxiety and fear in hard times.

ZOOM LINK https://bit/ly/ThisIsMeOnline

Please forward your questions by emailing siobhan@siobhanmurray.com

The Panel will select a sample of the most common/frequent questions for discussion.

TO PULL TOGETHER WE MUST STAY APART!

Actually, make that three ways ways The Positive Habit is helping you:

3. Thanks for all the feedback on last week’s video. And now, here is another one that I hope will help. In it I ask the question of how you want to look back on this challenging period in a year’s time. The video also contains a lovely mediation imagining us all when this situation has passed. And it will. 

I am here to support your emotional response to the collective challenge we all face. 

It is my job to ensure that your mindset is as positive, calm and strong as it can be to ensure your immune system is working at it’s optimum and is in the best position to reject the virus.  As my sister said, it is everyone’s duty to do their best “to be a barrier, not a carrier”! How we behave now has an impact on everyone. Never before has the inter-connectedness of the world been so clear to so many.

Love and much light,

Fiona

I am delighted to say, I am still seeing my clients online and it is working really well. If you would like to book an online one-to-one session. You can do so HERE.

Be sure to follow me on social media, as I share top positive tips and insights during the week. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

‘The Positive Habit’ book
is now available as an audio book on both Audible & Borrow Box!

I regularly deliver workshops and seminars.  If your company is interested in a Positive Habit wellness event please get in touch.  You can find out more of the amazing companies I have worked with HERE

Evidence-based, rapid transformational online hypnotherapy programme, The Positive Habit trains your subconscious mind to let go of the past & to embrace the future with hope and happiness as you sleep!

Buy Now!

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE within 30 days & LIFETIME ACCESS to the life-changing audios

Testimonial from The Positive Habit online programme:

Saturday, February 29, 2020
★★★★★

“This course is very powerful which helped me through a period of anxiety and allowed me gain perspective again. I have since changed jobs and have noticed that I now respond to stressful situations differently, remaining calm. I am much more aware of my stress triggers and have incorporated the positive pause into my daily routine.”

Nollaig

The Positive Habit Weekly Blog – 16th March, 2020 – Smile to Stop COVID-19 Anxiety Spreading

Smile to Stop COVID-19 Anxiety Spreading. I hope you and your family, friends and colleagues are doing well in these turbulent times.

I decided the best way to reach you this morning was through a video I made and which you can see below. Please do watch it and share with family and friends.

Also below, some wise words below from Brother Richard, of the Capuchin Franciscans.

Lockdown

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes, there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes, there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes, there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes, there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.

Fiona

How to Stop the Spread of Coranavirus Anxiety!

Positive ways to keep your mind calm and your body healthy during these uncertain times. 🙏

The “This is Me” event on March 26th will now be online with the live event date postponed until further notice due to the current public health situation.

Thank you so much for purchasing your ticket to ‘This is Me’. We have, like many other socially responsible teams, decided to postpone our event due to the situation with COVID-19 until further notice.

However, all is not lost. In these challenging times anxiety can easily arise and we want to help support you more than ever!

The good news is we are still coming to you on March 26th as planned! You are invited to an online question and answer session where you can put your personal questions to the expert ‘This Is Me’ panel with the lovely Taragh Loughrey Grant hosting.

We will send a Zoom link with instructions on how to participate.

A full refund will be offered to anyone who is unable to attend the live event once the date is announced.

The online question and answer session is our gift to you. 

If you have not bought a ticket and would like to attend the online event, watch this space. 

A Note for My Current Clients:

I am still seeing clients on a one-to one-basis. My office has a handful of people working there and measures are being taken to ensure nobody at risk is allowed to enter the building. All surfaces are sanitised daily.  If you are at risk or prefer for any reason to have your session online via skype or video call, then this can be arranged.

Look after yourself,
Fiona.

Be sure to follow me on social media, as I share top positive tips and insights during the week. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

‘The Positive Habit’ book
is now available as an audio book on both Audible & Borrow Box!

I regularly deliver workshops and seminars.  If your company is interested in a Positive Habit wellness event please get in touch.  You can find out more of the amazing companies I have worked with HERE

Evidence-based, rapid transformational online hypnotherapy programme, The Positive Habit trains your subconscious mind to let go of the past & to embrace the future with hope and happiness as you sleep!

Buy Now!

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE within 30 days & LIFETIME ACCESS to the life-changing audios

Testimonial from The Positive Habit online programme:

Saturday, February 29, 2020
★★★★★

“This course is very powerful which helped me through a period of anxiety and allowed me gain perspective again. I have since changed jobs and have noticed that I now respond to stressful situations differently, remaining calm. I am much more aware of my stress triggers and have incorporated the positive pause into my daily routine.”

Nollaig

The Positive Habit Weekly Blog – 9th March, 2020 – Reclaim Your Life and Mental Health from Smartphone Addiction

smartphone addiction

When I was a teenager my parents put a lock on the phone on the hall table to stop myself and my sister making incessant calls to our friends. Calls that I admit lasted hours and back then must have cost a fortune. To add insult to injury (to my parents), the lock was totally ineffective and easily picked – sorry Mum and Dad!

Often, my sister and I would say farewell to our friends at the bus stop, go home and call them as if we hadn’t seen them in years. The race to get on the phone first was part of our lives. It was fun and the connection to my friends meant the world to me, it still does. Nowadays however, it is not just teenagers who are addicted to the “phone”, it is most of us and I am not sure it is as much fun anymore.  Unfortunately, the evolution of the phone into the smartphone means that what we use the handset for has changed radically since Alexander Bell invented the original phone. He intended it as a device for talking to one another and increasing more communication and connection. Usage now is often less about a connection to genuine friends and more about social media and comparison to people we might not even know. In addition, constantly checking work emails is about keeping up, always being contactable and demonstrating achievement.

Today, there are many modern alternatives to the locks my parents put on the phone, apps that kick us off social media after a certain amount of time or/and that tell us how much screen time we have spent on the phone. However, it remains to be said that they can be equally ineffective and easily hacked.

In the last few years, I have noticed, in my clients, my friends and myself that the level of smartphone use is one of the biggest threats to our mental health today. 

The constant checking leads to dopamine overload while the lack of “real” connection is ultimately isolating, can be overwhelming and is ultimately unsustainable. Noticing these trends in myself over the last six weeks and after reading Marie Forleo’s book, ‘Everything is Figuroutable’, I quit telling myself that I had to check my phone all the time ‘for work’ because I have an online business, I stopped believing I had no choice but to be connected at all times. Consequently, I have transformed how I use my phone and I want to help you do the same.

If you already have a healthy relationship to your smartphone, or indeed if you don’t have one, then you are already my hero. However, if you are like most of us and want:

More space in your mind
A greater sense of inner peace
To spend more quality time with loved ones
To read more books
To exercise more
To be more creative
To be more focused at work
To have better relationships
To laugh more
To be more present with your loved ones

then developing a strategy for how you use your phone is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself, and it will improve your mental well-being.

This week, your task is to observe your habit as it is now!  Notice how often you check your phone, where you are, the time of day and the impact it has on your peace of mind. Ask yourself what happens to you physically as you anticipate the next email or follow on social media. Notice how often the urge arises to check your phone.  Do you do it in the car and/or anytime you are waiting for something, a coffee, a bus? Is it social media, emails or news sites that you check most? Which ones do you crave more?

Next week I will share with you my ‘before and after’ phone habit and help you to design a plan that works for you. I can happily report that in the last six weeks I am so much more productive and happier.

Sending love and light as always,

Fiona

You can hear last week’s interview on Today FM here. I talk about how to manage anger through understanding.

Be sure to follow me on social media, as I share top positive tips and insights during the week. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

‘The Positive Habit’ book
is now available as an audio book on both Audible & Borrow Box!

I regularly deliver workshops and seminars.  If your company is interested in a Positive Habit wellness event please get in touch.  You can find out more of the amazing companies I have worked with HERE

Evidence-based, rapid transformational online hypnotherapy programme, The Positive Habit trains your subconscious mind to let go of the past & to embrace the future with hope and happiness as you sleep!

Buy Now!

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE within 30 days & LIFETIME ACCESS to the life-changing audios

Testimonial from The Positive Habit online programme:

Saturday, February 29, 2020
★★★★★

“This course is very powerful which helped me through a period of anxiety and allowed me gain perspective again. I have since changed jobs and have noticed that I now respond to stressful situations differently, remaining calm. I am much more aware of my stress triggers and have incorporated the positive pause into my daily routine.”

Nollaig

The Positive Habit Weekly Blog – 2nd March, 2020 – Understanding Anger!

“When a man gives way to anger, he only harms himself.”

Mahatma Ghandi

Understanding Anger – anger is one of the most powerful of emotions and the physical toll it takes on us when we feel it is huge. It is primitive and often what triggers it is unconscious. Being angry impacts on our autonomic nervous system and it can feel as frightening as if a hungry tiger is about to pounce on us. It is also very hard to be the target of someone else’s anger and this can also engender feelings of fear.

We are often more afraid of our own anger than that of other people.

You may have heard that getting angry at someone is like holding a hot coal in the palm of your hand – it only burns yourself, or that being angry is like drinking poison and expecting the target of your anger to become ill. Understanding this intellectually is one thing, but living it is another, like many of the concepts surrounding emotional intelligence.

Like all emotions, anger has an important role to play. Our job is not to judge or fear emotions but to understand them as fully as we can.

To quote Gandhi again, “Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.”  To understand we need to be present, we need to listen, we need to know what is driving the anger in this situation and this requires self-knowledge.

Anger usually stems from two main areas:

1. Injustice – both on a personal and societal level. For example, when you were a child your younger sibling never had to help around the house which was unfair and made you feel less important. Or, on a societal level, you may doing all you can to make ‘greener’, more environmentally sound choices but your neighbour makes no effort and carries on polluting regardless.

2. Fear – you may have been hurt in the past and now use anger as protective energy to keep the same thing from happening again. On an emotional level, perhaps an ex-partner cheated on you and now you have trust issues so you overreact and get angry if your new partner forgets to call or is late. Here anger and possessiveness does not protect you but could actually jeopardise your relationship.

This week, give some consideration to when, why and how you feel and express anger. Are you afraid of it? Does it flare up uncontrollably within you?

I’ll be on the Dermot and Dave Show on Today FM this morning at 10.30am talking in more detail about anger and how you can manage it. Please tune in if you can.

THANK YOU so much to the people who came to my workshop at the buzzing Thrive Festival in Dublin’s National Convention Centre on Saturday last – you are an amazing group of people! I really enjoyed it and hope I helped the group with practical tools to feel calmer and happier.

By the way, tickets are selling fast for the ‘This is Me’ event on March 26th, so do book soon if you can make it.

Sending love and light as always,

Fiona

‘This is Me’ – An Event to Give You Take-Home, Actionable Skills to Enable You to Live Your Life Better!

Feeling stressed or anxious? Find it hard to focus at work or relax at home?
Imagine feeling calmer, more confident and empowered to be your true self in both your personal and professional life.

Book Your Place at ‘This is Me’ and learn HOW to unleash your authentic self.

BOOK HERE on Eventbrite

Join

One enlightening host, RTE’s, Taragh Loughrey- Grant

for an illuminating panel discussion and immersive workshop

with…

Three of Ireland’s leading Therapists and best-selling authors, Siobhan Murray, Fiona Brennan and Allison Keating
on
March 26th
at
Huckletree D2
42 Pearse Street, Dublin
from 18.30 – 20.00

Siobhan, Fiona and Allison work at the heart of Ireland’s mental health – each day helping clients in their booked-out clinics and group workshops to transform anxiety and stress into calmness and confidence.

‘This is Me’ debunks the myth that you need to change who you are in order to become happier, calmer and more confident. Your unconditioned self is already all of these things and more.

All three of us believe in helping people to develop a compassionate based resilience to deal with the real challenges of life.

Grounded in positive psychology and mindfulness, you will learn practical tools to help you to feel comfortable being vulnerable and proud of your true self.

This unique event is YOUR opportunity to put your questions to the expert panel.

BOOK HERE on Eventbrite

Be sure to follow me on social media, as I share top positive tips and insights during the week. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

‘The Positive Habit’ book
is now available as an audio book on both Audible & Borrow Box!

I regularly deliver workshops and seminars.  If your company is interested in a Positive Habit wellness event please get in touch.  You can find out more of the amazing companies I have worked with HERE

Evidence-based, rapid transformational online hypnotherapy programme, The Positive Habit trains your subconscious mind to let go of the past & to embrace the future with hope and happiness as you sleep!

Buy Now!

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE within 30 days & LIFETIME ACCESS to the life-changing audios

Testimonial from The Positive Habit online programme:

Saturday, February 29, 2020
★★★★★

“This course is very powerful which helped me through a period of anxiety and allowed me gain perspective again. I have since changed jobs and have noticed that I now respond to stressful situations differently, remaining calm. I am much more aware of my stress triggers and have incorporated the positive pause into my daily routine.”

Nollaig