New life on a Saturday morning

What a wonderful start to my day! Whilst out in the field this morning I heard a cow making a horrible noise. I thought she was dying, so stopped to watch and listen to see what was happening. I saw her straining, and wondered if she was in calf. The farmer usually keeps them in the barn when they are due to calf, so this was unusual. Anyhow, very soon I saw a calf being pushed from her and relaxed.

But all was not well. The calf was stuck mid section. The heifer was walking around in small circles and had given up pushing {This was 10am and I learned later that she had been struggling since 5:30am}

Telling the dogs to wait, I hopped over the fence and walked over. The calf looked dead. Talking quietly to mum, I told her that I had come to help, I pulled the birth sac off the calf, and cleared the mucus from his nose. His eyes blinked. Hooray, he was alive. I grabbed his wet slippery legs and tried pulling. Nothing. He wasn't going to budge. I had two dog leads in my pocket, so I tied one to his legs and pulled. Nothing. I wrapped it round my waist and pulled. Nothing.

I pulled and pulled but he didn't shift. I removed the rope and wondered about going for help. No. I decided to have one more go. Tying the rope back round his legs, I pulled again. This time I was sure he had moved a little. I pulled again. Plop! Out he came. I cleared his nose again and his mum turned and started licking away the afterbirth. I moved back and watched to see that they were both ok.

What an incredible moment. I felt so grateful.

Ten minutes later I spotted Roger - the farm labourer - in the tractor, driving into the yard. I went and told him what had happened. He said that the heifer was a 'right nasty old bitch', but I was surprised at this as she had been relaxed and calm with me, even when I didn't go away once the baby was born. I believe that when we don't have a history about others our approach is unbiased and so we often get a better response.

I walked back to watch them both, amused to see baby struggling to get to his feet. Falling, time after time as mum increased her vigorous licking, he eventually managed to get up onto all fours. Mum tried to steer him to the teats. He licked on her hairy black chest. You could feel mum's frustration as he tried to suckle in so many different places. But eventually he got it.

A little wet calf on a cold windy morning, hands and coat covered in blood and mucus, but happy as a sand boy! Does it get any better than this?

Beliefs versus inspiration

For many years, I wrote a lot about beliefs. I figured that, to change our lives, all we had to do was change our beliefs. That's still kind of true for me, but over the last few weeks I have been having some different experiences, of the type that has made me question if we actually need beliefs at all.

Some of you that subscribe to my newsletters, know that I often tell stories about how my physical challenges appear to have a dramatic effect on my mental & emotional state. And, I think that my current state of mind has everything to do with my running programme.

I started running in January - for fun. As My fitness improved, I somehow found myself entering races. Having only ever run 3 miles during training, I entered a 10k race and did OK, running the whole way round and I wasn't last. Now, I wanted to stretch myself, and at the weekend admitted to my fiance that I am now considering entering a Marathon in 2010. Oh my god! Did I ever think I would ever have that thought! I thought marathon runners were either bonkers or extraordinary people. I know now that they are just like you and me.

A few weeks ago I developed a hatred for my computer. I spend far too long tapping away on here every day. That week I just couldn't do it. I run an online equestrian products business, and simply completed my orders and then spent the rest of the time appearing to do nothing. It's not as if I haven't done 'nothing' before, but this time I savoured it, I enjoyed every moment and there wasn't a shadow of guilt. It was truly wonderful.

That down time is so important, and I know that it is something that many people would never consider. During that period of reflection, I spent time sitting on my garden wall, watching the lambs and calves with their mums in the fields. The six premature lambs at the back of my house were getting stronger.

They had now formed a 'gang' as lambs inevitably do, and were charging up and down the field. They jumped over the small ditch, leaping in the air, kicking sideways, turning and doing it again. When they were tired they slumped down behind the wall, or collapsed next to mum. I thought to myself that animals are great teachers to show us how we could live, if we were not tied to tradition, money and societal pressures. I turned my thoughts to how I lived my life.

It was at that point that I decided to {try to} give up my beliefs. I stand by my values of honesty, integrity and truth but wanted to explore a life without beliefs. Instead, I decided to allow inspiration to guide me and just see where that went.

It's early days, but I can tell you that my life is moving in a different way. I am calmer, happier and enjoying the flow of seeing what comes next. I don't have an eye on the future anymore, I just enjoy 'right now'. Inspiration has led me to make contact with new people, seemingly out of the blue, and embrace new experiences {good or bad} with passion, playfulness and joy.

Just give it a try. Notice when your beliefs are driving you or limiting you. Once you become aware, then just take a deep breath and allow inspiration to guide you next. It might feel weird at first, but within a short time you will wonder why you never tried it before.

Take care

Jan
Tel: 0800 634 3320
http://www.thepeoplewhisperers.co.uk/

Stop making excuses

I once remember saying to someone close to me, 'when you die, I am going to put on your gravestone 'yeah but....'

This person had become afraid of life. By admission she said she felt caged in, trapped and unable to move. But, whatever suggestions anyone made, she could find an excuse for not doing it.

We can all find excuses, and utterly persuade ourselves that our excuses ARE 100% valid.

But what excuse are you going to come up with for wasting your life? That is not another persons judgement as to whether you are wasting your life, but rather your own. What are you not doing that you really want to do, but aren't for fear of consequences, fear of change or an inability to take action?

No one is going to come and do it for you after all. If you decide to squander your hours wishing things were different, but doing nothing, don't expect any sympathy from those around you.

A friend told me a story about when his dad was in hospital dying. Just before he went down to surgery {from which he never recovered} his father grabbed his hand, and implored him, 'son, I have wasted every single minute of my life. I haven't done one good thing, but worse I haven't done all the things I wanted to do, and it's too late now. Don't waste your life like I have.'

You think you may have 70 plus years on this earth and you become complacent - do it tomorrow, or the next day or never! Do it now. Pick up the reins of your life and play an active part in your destiny. When you are old, crippled, insane and in a wheelchair, you will have bucketloads of memories to play with.

Do it now - whatever it is that you want to do - no excuses!

Jan
Tel: 0800 634 3320
http://www.womenssuccesscoach.co.uk/
http://www.thepeoplewhisperers.co.uk/

Going with the flow

Yesterday I had an ex student call me up. She is a wonderful girl, and it was great to hear from her. She is a student from my healing horses teaching days. I don't do this any longer, it just seemed the right time to stop a few years back.

She called to ask me a few questions about her current journey. She was being guided to start an animal practice, and wanted my insights. I gave them gladly. What followed was an interesting conversation about going with the flow of life, and what happens when we resist.

I know about resisting. I had crawled along on broken glass with bleeding knees, for the best part of my life doing it. I could lecture in resisting, maybe get a degree even. But that is the past. I thought, silly me, that I had stopped resisting, but it is not until something weird hits us that we think, 'what the heck, where is THIS going?'

I made some decisions lately, no, hang on, lets get this right, they weren't actual decisions. They were 100% gut instinct, intuition, subconscious brainwave activity maybe. No sir, they definitely had little to do with my conscious mind.

I took action, pretty massive action actually, and still, as I did it, wondered what I was doing. But, and here's the interesting thing, the response from a handful of people has been incredible. One lady said that she has never related to anything so much in her life. O'er, that's sounds good. Maybe, just maybe I am onto something radical here. Maybe, oh crikey, maybe I am on the right path for the success that eluded me all those years I fought like a caged tiger.

This letting go and going with the flow, it's easy to say isn't it. But it isn't so easy to do. I believe that this change has come about for me after years of meditating. I just changed around four weeks ago to Kelly Howell's brainwave technology http://www.brainsync.com/ and they certainly seemed to have kicked in some pretty amazing stuff.

I do go adrift don't I? What was I saying? Ah yes, stop resisting! Just give up. Hand it over to the universe, God, Great Spirit, your cat or whatever floats your boat. The minute I dropped the reins and said, 'it's a fair cop' the message came back, 'well it's about bloody time you stubborn woman!'

The only way to do it is to do it, and to do it daily. Every time you start 'plotting' and 'planning' your future, remind yourself to stay in the now, enjoy this very moment and live to be happy. Happiness is what we are all after in the end anyway, whether it is wrapped up in material objects, spirituality or relationships, it is ultimately what we all, as human beings, seek in this life.

Take care

Jan

Tel: 0800 634 3320

http://www.womenssuccesscoach.co.uk/

http://www.thepeoplewhisperers.co.uk/

Stepping up

For the last year I seem to have been on a journey of stepping up to the bar, doing things that I never thought I could do. Last year my greatest achievement was to complete a 60 mile bike ride for Against Breast Cancer.

On Sunday I did my first off road duathlon. It was a one mile run, a five mile bike ride followed by another one mile run. It was over rough woodland terrain and was hard as hell. When we started the run, it was agonising to watch all the younger fitter people hurtling off into the woods. But I knew, after only six week of running training, that I was not going to be up there with the front runners.

So I settled into a rhythm and padded round. 13 minutes later I was mounting up on my bike, expecting some relief from running and not actually getting it! The start was easy, all along flat polo grounds, and then along hardcore woodland tracks. But the last 11/2 miles was purgatory. The ride was mud, dirty, wet, deep and disgustingly sticky mud. Cycling was almost impossible. Getting off and walking the bike wasn't much easier, but most people had to resort to this in places.

At the end of five miles {39 minutes} I started off on my last run. Hello! Who has stolen my legs? I had little feeling below the waist, apart from the sensation of two extremely heavy dead weights attached to my hips. I trundled round, barely raising one foot in front of the other. Slugs laughed at me as I slithered and slid round the woods. But, eventually - 15 minutes later - I reached the finish line. People cheered and clapped, even though they didn't know me. They must have known how hard it was!

I finished 50 out of 56 women, but was one of the oldest in the group. Despite my low position, I was proud of myself. I had raised the bar and now can only get better.

It never fails to amaze me how my physical challenges always have an effect on me emotionally. I tackled the start of the week with some gusto, feeling better than ever and with a sense of certainty for the success of my new projects.

I don't think that we can ever underestimate how much our bodies influence our minds, and vice verse. Worth thinking about eh?

Jan

Tel: 0800 643 3320

http://www.womenssuccesscoach.co.uk/
http://www.thepeoplewhisperers.co.uk/

It can be another way

The human brain has an uncanny way of getting stuck. When we feel 'trapped' during an unpleasant situation or phase of our lives, our thoughts can become circular. After a period of time, which will be different for everyone, we give up on hope. We can't see another way of life and cannot believe that things can ever get better.

With those thoughts rattling around in our heads, for sure we may suffer a lot longer than we need to. But the only way to escape our hell is to head for heaven. We must believe 100% that we have the power to change our own experiences.

At first it's hard, nothing seems to change. Indeed, it may become worse for a while. That's a test. What are you made of? Are you going to give up just because it gets a bit tough?

Imagine if you came back from the supermarket with someone elses shopping. Inside the bag were sweet, fattening processed ready meals, crisps, chocolate, cakes and all the stuff to clog up your heart. This is not what you want. You are a healthy eater, your bag contained fruit and veg, salads and lots of other fresh foods and healthy snacks. What do you do? Do you accept this rubbish bag of food, or do you take it back to the supermarket and change it for what you want?

It's that easy, once you get your head around the concept. But our brains seek to make things more complicated, thus making it harder to change. And we are supposed to be one of the most intelligent lifeform. I am sure ants would get it a whole lot quicker than we do.

If you are finding it tough to change your mindset, I can recommend 'The Attraction Factor' by Joe Vitale. I am reading it for the third time as I am trying to create change in my life right now. Join me in this process of change, and let me know how you get along.

Jan
Tel: 0800 634 3320
www.thepeoplewhisperers.co.uk
www.womenssuccesscoach.co.uk
www.helpforcancer.co.uk

Jan's Podcast

Running with dogs

I love it when I discover an aspect of life that inspires and motivates me, or when I undertake something that sparks my flame.

At the weekend, I took part in a cani-cross event. What an incredible experience. This is a sport where you run with your dog. You have a waist belt with attachment to a long lead with bungee, which clips to a special harness on your dog. The theory is that your dog then pulls you along. There were 200 dogs competing, quite a few people running with pairs of dogs - an array of all interesting shapes and sizes of dogs and people. The atmosphere was wonderful, with everyone helpful and focused on the fun element, rather than the competitive edge.

The distance was 5k and I ran with my old dog Cassie [see picture] - who is almost 12. She is fit as a flea and, despite never having done it before, she ran ahead of me well. I didn't have the equipment so had to carry the lead, which made it a little harder to run. It took me 34 minutes, which was quite slow, although in my defence I have only been running for six weeks and had built up to running two miles, three times a week, so I had an extra mile to run.

My fiance also took part with my 3-year-old dog and he blasted home in 24 minutes. His core fitness is much more established than mine.

We were still talking about the experience days later. I can't quite explain what was so good about it, but I think in part it was the sense of working as a team with your dog. It felt good to be running along woodland trails, skirting round the deep mud and on tracks. My dog and I guided each other as best we could, each checking how the other was doing from time to time. This teamwork was practically wordless, apart from a bit of encouragement, but it worked so beautifully. Now hooked, we plan to attend all events except one at Northumberland.

The experience made me think about how much we rely on creating teams by using words when, if we tuned in to each others strengths and weaknesses, we could be much more effective. Teamwork, when operating in perfect symmetry is an incredible process.

Still high from the experience and now running 3.5 miles on my runs, instead of 2, I am preparing for the next event at the end of March.

What sport motivates and inspires you in this way?

Jan Barley
Tel: 0800 634 3320
http://www.womenssuccesscoach.co.uk/
http://www.thepeoplewhisperers.co.uk/
http://www.helpforcancer.co.uk/

Jan's Podcast