Cathy Towers' Blog
Speaking as a Way to Build Confidence
Speaking in public is a serious fear. Research shows that people are more scared of speaking in front of a crowd than of death. It used to be one of my fears too. I will let you into a secret: it still is. Although I have spoken to over three hundred at Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club, at professional conferences and special events, I still get nervous. It is just that those nerves take second place to me using the skill I have now developed.
Good Enough As You Are
I have been reading a lot of posts on social media recently about inspiration, positive thinking and abundance. All good? Actually I can find it draining as many of those posts focus on financial evidence through getting the house, car, (add your own wishlist) that you want. They tend to exclude any reference to the struggles and challenges of life, other than as something to be conquered, vanquished, denied, escaped from.
Trusting Your Inner Self
One of the areas I especially like to work on with people is confidence building. It has always been a challenge in my life which means I know what it is like. Self-doubt and fear have not gone, I just give them a diminishing space in which to live. I now have many experiences of things turning out just fine, or me being just fine even when they don't.
Meditation, Mindfulness and Children
I was talking to a group of people recently about the types of meditation I work with: reflective, receptive, guided journey and mindfulness. I was asked “does anyone do classes for parents and children together?” No one I knew of. Then a memory came back to me from when I was nursing children many years ago: encouraging a child to focus on a toy, and another to pay attention to their breathing, in order to deal with painful or scary things like injections or wound cleansing. I certainly wouldn't have called those meditation techniques back then, but I had a good reputation for managing psychological distress before I even started training down that line. It was a natural beginning.