Karen Ramsay-Smith Karen Ramsay-Smith

How to make Winter walks your source of JOY!

Now that we have transitioned over to Autumn, and we can physically see the effects, the rust-like and golden coloured leaves, the soaking morning grass, the nip in the air as we sip our morning coffee. We may begin to think cosy thoughts and perhaps our usual walk may begin to slip from our day as we hunker down to work each week and let nature do her thing. Perhaps you’re feeling that it is getting a little more difficult getting up and out in the mornings, the days seem like they are getting shorter and you really must get on with that to-do list first.

Now that we have transitioned over to Autumn and Winter is on the way, and yep we can physically see the effects! The rust-like and golden coloured leaves, the soaking morning grass, the nip in the air as we sip our morning coffee at the window. We may begin to think cosy thoughts and perhaps our usual walk may begin to slip from our day as we hunker down to work each week and let nature do her thing. Perhaps you’re feeling that it is getting a little more difficult to get up and out in the mornings, the days seem like they are getting shorter and you really must get on with that to-do list first.

Heads up though!, you started getting outside in the spring and summer to help you to stay grounded and balanced in your mind remember and perhaps you even have a mindful walking practice. Right now it is even more important to continue with that commitment you made to yourself.

With everything that is shifting outside in the world, we need to work with nature more than ever for a better more balanced state of being for ourselves and those we support in our lives.

So I thought I’d put together some tips and little incentives to motivate you to continue walking in nature and even maybe a longer walk than usual over the coming colder months ahead!

Firstly! Don’t let the weather stop you!

Get your favourite coat out!

Get your favourite coat out!

Go prepared! Wear layers and take a waterproof, my mum always used to say ‘you can take things off, but you can’t put it on if you don’t have it with you’ I take a backpack so I can take my hoodie off if I get too warm. My walking boots and my coat are probably my best buy and they have lasted me years! Oh and some good comfy socks and a cosy hat are a must as it gets colder!

Set the intention to reset!

I like to set an intention for my walk, the reason for this is that often we chose to walk in nature to clear our minds and reconnect to our souls. Why not try setting an intention before you set off? How would you like to feel? Is there a specific goal you’d like to achieve on your return or something you’ve been putting off that you want to complete?

My fave little SMASH flask!

My fave little SMASH flask!

Keep your tummy happy!

There’s nothing worse than having to head home because you’re peckish and thirsty. Pack up a little flask of your favourite hot drink or soup (I like Dream Magic mushroom coffee!) and maybe a couple of biscuits or an energy bar. I have this little SMASH flask that I got from Homesense! It is small enough to fit in my pocket and gives me a warm break after a short meditation session.

Plan a break or stop off if you’re going further!

If you are planning to go further afield, arrange a stop-off point where you can rest for a while and get warm, log fire and cosy chats anyone?

Log fires are the best!

Log fires are the best!

Harry makes walking a treat for me!

Harry makes walking a treat for me!

Take a furry friend!

If you don’t have a dog, you could try borrowing one for the day. Having Harry has always got me out and about in all weathers, he’s great company and always puts the fun into my walks, he just loves a stick and has me kicking stones and fallen apples for him to chase for hours, I’m sure I’m his human rather than him being my dog!

Start a personal charity challenge or a new commitment!

I started the #walk1000miles challenge at the start of the year for charity and although I don’t think I’ll quite make the 1000 this year, I have gone a long way toward this and I have got outside in nature for a walk at my local nature spaces every single day throughout 2020. This has hugely supported my mental health at a really difficult time. For the rest of the year and to help me complete the challenge strongly, I have set myself a 90 day challenge to help me complete a personal well-being goal before the end of the year! Feel free to send me a message if you’d like support with a goal and let’s finish 2020 on a high!

Taking a few pictures on your phone will create joyful memories to help you on the more challenging days.

Taking a few pictures on your phone will create joyful memories to help you on the more challenging days.

Switch off but capture your experience!

One thing that I do practice is not looking at social media while I am in nature, this helps me to cultivate a practice of presence and calm. But I do like to go live to share messages and take a photo or two on a few of my walks.

This helps me to capture the feeling of my walk, helps me to create a relationship with nature and notice the beauty of the seasons and the little things that change, especially at this time of the year! Plus they make awesome pics to share later!

We are all in this together!

If you’ve not seen too many people in your day and you pass a stranger, a smile goes a long way and can change your state of being and that of others too! So make the effort and say hello to your fellow walkers! If you can, arrange to walk with a neighbour or a friend. Giving someone the gift of your time and presence is precious.

Let’s all help one another with a smile

Let’s all help one another with a smile

Allow mother nature to support you.

Allow mother nature to support you.

FEEL nature’s gift to you!

The most powerful thing I have experienced in nature is the ability to feel again! After many years of pushing my feelings to one side, through daily walks, I have learned to breathe deeply, feel my feelings, and even enjoy the process of moving through emotions and returning from my walks feeling renewed, refreshed and ready to begin again! Breathing deeply out in nature has even improved my asthma! Start by feeling the feelings nature gives you, try using all your senses by walking on a cold frosty morning, in the rain, crunching the leaves under your feet, using your senses will help you reconnect with yourself in a way that staying indoors simply can’t do for you!

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Bring a little bit of nature home!

I’m well known for bringing a bit of nature back with me from my walks! ‘What’s she brought back now lol!’ But honestly, let your inner child come back out to play! Look for conkers, acorns, pine cones, give yourself a little challenge to find the most interesting thing before you return! Nature is a magical place when you notice what you notice!

Cosy up when you get home for your reset!

Cosy up when you get home for your reset!

Give yourself a cosy retreat!

Why not get a meal ready before you go, go for a walk and then indulge in a lovely spa bath when you get back before you eat. There’s nothing quite like reading a book in the bath after a long nature walk.

If you’re reading this and thinking, I wish I had this motivation! I have created a brand new coaching program that includes walking with me one to one, so we can use the healing power of nature to help you to reconnect with yourself, your vision and your life goals. Check it out here, or book in for a powerful conversation call with me and let’s talk!

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Present Moment Power, Thrive not Survive Karen Ramsay-Smith Present Moment Power, Thrive not Survive Karen Ramsay-Smith

Why keeping simple this Christmas is the most powerful thing you will do for your business

After spending the best part of 6 weeks recovering from a bad bout of illness and asthma, I am now almost fully recovered with plenty of time out from being online and working hard on my business. One of the lessons I have learned and have reflected on during the latter part of this year is the message that’s been on my mind and in my heart for months now - Karen you need to KEEP IT SIMPLE.

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'Practice presence -- embrace the place where life happens.'

Eckhart Tolle

After spending the best part of 6 weeks recovering from a bad bout of illness and asthma, I am now almost fully recovered with plenty of time out from being online and working hard on my business. One of the lessons I have learned and have reflected on during the latter part of this year is the message that’s been on my mind and in my heart for months now - Karen you need to KEEP IT SIMPLE.

I had heard the message, received it and passed it onto my connections but not acted fully on it myself! Isn’t it always the way in our businesses? It’s so easy to get caught up in trying to do everything at once and it’s one of the major reasons small businesses fail in the first five years.

If you’re always doing doing doing with no pausing for presence, you’re on the road to destruction, and that’s not the reason why you started your business. Keeping it simple means, connecting back with your heart, working from within and focussing on gratitude and the love for your work (why you started in the first place!).

I have realised deeply that don’t want to just keep my head above water, but actually soar in my life and work and that’s going to take commitment to keeping things simple not just in my business but in my whole life, my bigger picture.

So what does keeping things simple actually mean when it comes to your life and work and why does it matter?

  • It opens up space for ideas and inspired action to come through

  • It allows you to conserve and share your beautiful energy with the world

  • Keeping things simple brings that focus you need to be really amazing at what you do.

  • It helps you to communicate better with your connections, clients and collaborators about your vision and the value you can bring to the world.

So how can you do that and why start now at Christmas when everyone else is throwing caution to the wind and drowning their sorrows that second bottle of wine?

Keeping things simple this Christmas can mean putting the POWER back into your life and work ready to the New Year by:

  • Reflecting with pure honest gratitude for what has already passed and for what you have in this present moment.

  • Using your intuition, the present moment and your heart space to actively create your daily experience over the holidays. 

  • Having some fun and laughter - let go! You’ll be amazed at how this opens up your energy!

  • Doing simple things that bring you joy - I’ve been enjoying being fully present by doing some baking, swimming, drawing and of course walking my Harry bear!

  • Setting a powerful and emotionally connected intention and theme for 2019

Practicing presence can have an incredible transformational effect on you and your work. It brings you back to a place where you can fully work from your uniqueness and help you stand out from the crowd!

If you’d like to get into the art of simple presence, practice these skills and begin your New Year working with intention and inspired action, so you can focus and be in your own flow, I’m sharing my best tips and exercises on how you can strip it right back and keep it simple this Christmas in my Radiant Leaders group for connected, heart centered women leaders. Join us here.

Let me know how you’re getting back to basics this season!

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Time for you Karen Ramsay-Smith Time for you Karen Ramsay-Smith

Are you tuning out or tuning in?

Silence is how the light gets back in

Are you spending time escaping your life? Becoming a little unconscious to the crazy busy world? Do any of these things resonate with you?

  • Sleeping in more than you'd like at the weekends and your snooze button is worn out

  • Getting down that bottle of wine without really realising it

  • Polishing off a large packet of your favourite snack in record time in automatic pilot mode

  • Not able to help getting involved in the latest office drama

  • Collecting those busy badges of honor

  • Scrolling and rolling on social media for hours until your eyes are so tired you have to go to bed

  • Binge watching box sets until you feel ready to throw up

  • Not being able to speak to anyone before your first of a million coffees

All of these things are deadening the voice inside you. They are tuning you out from your inner voice. That inner voice that would tell you if something is off or out of balance. Something may be out of kilter and needs your attention. Perhaps there is a truth that you don't want to hear? And it's not always the first thing that we feel.

The trouble with escaping it all is that often these things that disguise themselves as pleasurable, and it is easier not to listen in because, you are telling yourself you don't have time or it'll blow over eventually. However, one day those emotions and thoughts you are pushing to the side will start to spill over. And when we don't have the inner awareness to acknowledge our fears and emotions we can be so out of touch with them that this can spark a negative effect on our outer experiences, relationships and on how our business is going.

This can show up in our outer experiences in many ways:

  • You finish working late and no-one has tidied the kitchen (again). You feel less than valued and end up shouting at the person you are supposed to love the most.

  • You wake up late for an appointment and struggle to have patience with the other drivers on the road who seem to be intent on making you later than ever.

  • You don't get an answer to the text you just sent, so you text someone else for attention and when they don't answer straight away you feel hurt and angry.

  • Everyone at work is just plain annoying 99% of your day, it's more comfortable to hibernate at your desk than to potentially have a conflict in the office.

  • You never have quality time with your loved ones there's just too much to do and not enough time to do it all in. This is making you feel depressed.

  • You just want an hour to yourself but your diary is constantly packed out with things for everyone else but you.

  • You never seem to get past that financial target and are consistently worried about your outgoings

It's just not sustainable to continue to live in this way. More importantly you're probably not feeling like you're really living if this is your experience of life. The reason is because your emotions are not being felt and expressed, you're avoiding what's really going on and you're scared to face that voice inside because it is going to tell you the truth, and so you go round in circles day after day, week after week. And there may be a deeper message that you are ignoring.

For example:

  • You're feeling disconnected in your closest relationship - so you shout at the dog

  • You're feeling down about your career or business but you're too fearful to change - so you keep procrastinating talking to your boss

  • You feel lonely - so you keep berating yourself for not finding that person you crave a close connection with

  • You had a hurtful experience in the past that you never want to go back to again - so you keep a distance from people who remind you

There is a way back to truth that will help you on your journey to getting back to feeling more alive, regain balance with your emotions and get back to feeling good again each and every day.

There is bad news and good news :)

The good news:

It is entirely your choice to feel more alive and even better than you ever thought possible and the way you can begin to do it is totally free.

The bad news:

You are going to get uncomfortable doing it.

What is the answer? SILENCE.

Yep. Silence.

Silence can change your life as it allows you to listen to the truth. It's the way the light gets back into your life. When you become quiet silence will speak to you. It will be your greatest teacher. It will support you to process the emotions, thoughts and beliefs you have been escaping from. Sound a bit strange?

Listen to silence. It has so much to say. Rumi

Giving yourself the gift of silence will open up a powerful space for you to listen to that voice within and let go of what is causing you to disconnect with yourself so often, and yes it could get a little uncomfortable along the way, but with support it's a small price to pay to feel the freedom of actually living.

Next time you feel like numbing out from your day to day life, instead of reaching for that second or third glass of vino, try taking a few moments of silence, perhaps take quiet walk and see if there is a thought or emotion present. Try listening and connecting with your breathing, and experience the moment with all of your senses. Just be. An experience of connecting with yourself in this way may well have an important and enlightening message for you that might just change your life and your business.

Have you tried connecting with yourself through silence?

If you'd like to explore the power of silence further, why not consider an online or offline retreat where you can take some time away to reconnect with your inner world?



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Thrive not Survive Karen Ramsay-Smith Thrive not Survive Karen Ramsay-Smith

Thrive not Survive Campaign #WomenWhoThrive

Life is about experiencing and bringing your FULL self to the world. It’s about waking up to becoming more conscious of our thoughts, our fears, our behaviour, our true power!

Enough! I’m starting a Thrive Not Survive campaign this week! We’ve been running on the hamster wheel of exhaustion for long enough, going round on the carousel of overwhelm for too many years, putting ourselves down for not achieving our goals and not getting there!

This is NOT what life is about.

Life is about experiencing and bringing your FULL self to the world. It’s about waking up to becoming more conscious of our thoughts, our fears, our responsibility to the world, our true power!

Inside us all are the answers to what the world needs, but we are suppressing this power by accepting fear into our hearts and minds. We are numbing out pain and therefore remaining asleep not fulfilling our full potential! Most of us haven’t even scratched the surface of our full potential because we are living life by upside down rules that are not allowing us to have a relationship with our inner world. We need to allow more space for our dreams, our visions, our purpose. But because we are going round in circles of constant action, constant trying hard to ‘get there’ where ever that is! we have forgotten to live now, in the present.

We are living in a world where everything outside of ourselves is deemed more pressing and important than our well-being and our true power of vision and creativity.

I see so many women pushing too hard, berating themselves for not getting somewhere, seeing their time running out to live out their vision for their lives and that’s causing massive overwhelm.

The TRUTH is you don’t have to live like this. You CAN wake up to the real world and live without this roundabout of overwhelm and procrastination, personal criticism and self-doubt.

This week, I’m running this campaign on social media and I am sharing one of these top tips each day to help your awareness of when you are going into fear and overwhelm.

  • Practice speaking your truth every day - It’s OK to stick up for yourself and act from a place of your values, your integrity and your well-being. Speak from your heart in your daily life.

  • Be your best self by creating each moment - Remember that you have the power inside you to determine how you feel. We are constantly creating our future so take a few moments every now and then in your day to ask yourself “ Am I creating the way I want to live right now in this moment”?

  • Don’t settle for less! - It is your BIRTHRIGHT to be happy and feel alive. Your thoughts may try and tell you different, but the reality is that you are free and have infinite power inside you.

  • Look to the light - Every day! But especially on those days when you’re feeling defeated, unmotivated or in fear of taking action that you know is your calling. Seek out happy experiences!

  • Stop denying your truth - Get real honest with yourself about who you are & get clear on your values! There are jewels of wisdom buried inside you that hold your unique value in the world.

  • Seek support and assurance - have faith in yourself and the bigger picture and people and opportunities will begin to become visible to you. Ask for help - a biggie I know but it’s a massive game changer when you do! I recently had a round of coaching that supported me through a bout of overwhelm and it’s changed my perception to clarity and focus again.

  • Be flexible - you always always have choice! Some of the greatest leaders have tried and changed direction when something didn’t fit. It’s more important to be true to yourself than to continue doing something that doesn’t work! Seek out things that bring you more satisfaction and less pressure.

    And last but very much not least:

  • GROUND YOURSELF EVERY SINGLE DAY - Get outside for a short time each day to ground yourself in nature’s energy, consciously breathe in and out slowly, and take this time to use your senses to connect. Enjoy just being for a few moments.

    I’d love it if you’d share your own tip for keeping fear and overwhelm at bay using #WomenWhoThrive and #ThriveNotSurvive

I’ll also be sharing practical tips in my Facebook group Radiant Leaders. Join in here.

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Guided meditation Karen Ramsay-Smith Guided meditation Karen Ramsay-Smith

Opening up to receiving more into your life

Do you truly desire to do more work that you love, create more soul connected clients and create your life from your heart? Well you need to learn to receive if you wish to really do this!

Do you truly desire to do more work that you love, create more soul connected clients and create your life from your heart? Well you need to learn to receive if you wish to really do this!

If you want to create the right connections, first you must work on the connection with yourself. When you learn to receive as well as give (unconditionally) you become open and are able to let go of the control and conditions you are putting on your life, your work, yourself and others.

Esther Hicks talks about finding the path of least resistance. That path is within, within you, your inner guidance will always offer you the path that is easiest for you. When we open up we find that path. Often the blocks to what we truly desire are known to us, but we are afraid to open up to them. Practicing self compassion and compassion for others is part of the essential groundwork that will support you to let go of what is no longer serving you and help you to open up to create your life as your true self.

I have recorded this meditation for you to support you moving into this space.

If you would like further support and guidance on connecting with your truth and creating and leading your life and work from your heart I’d love to welcome you into my free facebook group Radiant Leaders

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