To be completely present in the here and now...

Good morning loves!

I'm sorry, not sorry at all for the tardiness of this newsletter today. I have been busy the last three days sailing around the Whitsundays on an ex-racing yacht called 'Spank Me'... which despite it's name, is not the type of party boat that it sounds like 😉

There were twenty five passengers all up, and three crew commanding the vessel, and I was one of three Aussies aboard which made it interesting in conversations as we tried to translate for one another from several different languages. We had beautiful meals the entire trip, courtesy of Alex, our skipper who was also a chef in a past life, including one of the best beefs stews I've been served in a long time! None of us were prepared for the chill factor of the wind out on the ocean, and due to our limitations on luggage size, many of us froze as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon. I can't count the number of hot cuppas I enjoyed in an effort to warm up, particularly after spending hours snorkelling in the water. I swam with turtles, too many tropical fish to count, including George the massive Maori Wrasse, walked in the shallows with sharks, saw the most beautiful displays of hard and soft corals I've ever witnessed, strolled along Whitehaven beach, one of the whitest sand beaches in the world, and watched spectacular sunsets and sunrises over the ocean.

We were a range of different age groups and nationalities, but we all had one thing in common: our willingness to put fear and the unknown aside, and step into an adventure. We had several really great conversations about the transformative power of travel and I can narrow it down to a few key elements:

1. It allows you to step outside of your usual personality and upbringing and the expectations that you and others have placed upon you over time. You can explore who you are and who you want to be as a person and nobody is going to judge you for it because nobody there knows you.

2. You can hear how other people think, feel, and live and this is amazing because curiosity = growth and new perspectives. It's exciting to talk to people who have a different opinion than you do, a different culture/ religion/ political view/ and life experience.

3. We grow as individuals when we recognise our uniqueness only extends so far: ultimately we are far more similar than we are different. We all want to have fun and love and find our purpose in this human experience.

4. It really grounds you into the present moment. The need to feel/ see/ hear/ taste each moment as it unfolds removes the necessity of worrying and feeling anxious about the future. You can acknowledge those issues and know that they will still be there to think about tomorrow, or next week or even next year.

What really matters, is what is right in front of you.

I have been doing a lot of reflecting in the past couple of weeks about the idea of living in the moment and really making sure that I enjoy each second of it for what it is. Sometimes, or a lot of the time in my case, I get so caught up in worry about the decisions that I need to make for the future- I worry that I need to know every possible outcome so I can trouble shoot and navigate through them expertly without losing my authority and credibility. Something that has really helped me, is the realisation that it takes the same amount of energy and imagination to worry about the future, as it does to hope for the future. What about all of the ways that it could go right? What about all of the possibilities that I've never even considered, but could fall into my lap in the most divine timing?

This is your weekly reminder to take a second to hit the pause button and notice what your five senses can detect. What can you see in front of you, what can you feel, what sounds can you hear, and what can you taste and smell in this moment?

Imagine if we could do it often enough to train our brains into doing this automatically, and we ended up living more in the moment in front of us and less in our own heads?

It's also your weekly reminder to do the thing that lights your soul on fire. Seriously, whatever that thing is, go and chase it down! Life is too short and too beautiful and too amazing for you to be stuck somewhere worried about what people will think of you. Your trip might be dramatic and you might fly across the world to go backpacking, or travel Australia in a van (seriously recommend 😍). Or it could just be a day trip to the nearest town where you look up the tourist activities and do them like you're seeing that part of the country for the very first time! Travel doesn't have to be expensive and you don't have to have all the answers before you go- half the fun is working it along the way and learning in the process.

This is a shorter newsletter than usual, but I want you to really read what I've written here and take it all in. Look at your life objectively and see if you can fit something fun and spontaneous into your next week. It will give you something to look forward to, something to learn from, and something to explore and grow through.

Experiences are the gateway to knowing ourselves on a deeper level, and therefore learning what will ultimately bring us towards more happiness in this lifetime.

As always, reach out if you need some help with this one! If you're sitting there thinking yeah right, that's easy for you to say from the Whitsundays Haley... then you are the exact person that I'm talking to right now and you need this message more than ever! It's time for you to get out of your head and realise what you're missing out on... send me a message or click through to my website to book in for a free discovery call with me and we can work on how to move you closer to those dreams that seems so far out of reach!

Sending you all so much warmth, sunshine and love,

Haley 🤍