I thought I’d gather some of the ones I’ve posted over the last month here in a post so they are handy to find and share

If you have a quote you especially like please leave a comment … I’m always on the look out for inspiring new ones!

Last week Mindful Productivity was nominated for the Gradam Gnó le Gaeilge [Business with Irish Award] which is organised by Gnó Mhaigh Eo.  It’s for businesses who use Irish in their business and a great way to promote the use of the language.  I was nominated as some of my products are as Gaeilge – prints, cards and bracelets [the bracelets are all sold out though ]

As part of my nomination I was given some nice things to put on the windows and doors of the studio/shop

It worked out very well as we were wanting to get an Irish language door sign and this one goes lovely  with our lime green paintwork!

I’ve also been busy making some more cards including some calligraphy ones in Irish.  The blue and green bordered ones are very limited editions as I’ve only made four of each.  I don’t have anymore of the lovely card they are mounted on so four of each it is!  You can check them out more closely in the Etsy shop if you like or call in if you are in Mayo and look at them in person

I enjoy making just a few of something, it adds to the individualism of them and I think it’s nice to get something handmade and special.  Something that is made with love and not overly mass produced.

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful … a great piece of wisdom from Annette Funicello.

It’s a fab quote and one that sums up nicely the whole process that I went through redecorating my new studio and starting the shop area that I share with Lisa from Studio C.

We are each running our respective businesses from the premises with Lisa downstairs [running workshops and creating lovely jewellery] and me upstairs [where Lisa used to be] doing my thang.  Then on top of that we have portioned off an area at the entrance which is our shop together…open each Friday 11am-7pm.

We decided to give the whole interior a new look and to put our own stamp on it.  We went for white as it is clean and simple – a terrific backdrop for our products, as well as those of the other designer makers we wanted to support and stock in our shop.  We aren’t professional painters so the interior isn’t perfect, nor did we have a bazillion Euro to refit the place – we did what we could with what we had and we are both really happy with the result and how things have turned out.

If we had waited for everything to be perfect before beginning we would still be planning and organising.  So we didn’t stress about perfection, instead we concentrated on how wonderful it all was – sharing the space, collaborating together, brainstorming and of course the new beginnings for both of our businesses.

It is in many ways perfect …  perfectly wonderful instead of perfectly perfect

I hope you look for the perfectly wonderful in your life today / Be

You can find us at Mount Street, Claremorris, Co Mayo and below is a pic of what we did with the outside … such a fab feeling when the sign went up!

The Stress and Anxiety Relief Benefits of Mindful Meditation

Stress gets its grip on you when you become anxious about the future or remorseful about the past. Life’s hectic pace and the daily stresses that come with it may make you want to shut everything out. Actually, it’s best you stay tuned in. While this may sound contrary to reason, paying more attention to your surrounding is your first step in developing mindfulness that will help you deal with a host of physical and mental problems, including stress and anxiety.

Cultivating mindfulness

Mindfulness, which has its roots in Buddhism, is the method of having complete and nonjudgmental consciousness of the present moment instead of living in the past or jumping forward into the future. The practice usually requires an increased perception of the senses and existing “in the now.” Mindfulness teaches the individual to be part of every moment, to direct their attention to what is going on right now and acknowledging it without passing judgment.

While it may sound so easy and uncomplicated, mindfulness is actually a potent therapeutic tool. It’s been proven to relieve stress, prevent the recurrence of major depression, decrease panic symptoms, ease anxiety, and repress physical symptoms like hot flashes and pain. Mindfulness improves mental function by enhancing the brain’s neural connections.

Mindfulness can be attained by regular meditation, but it can also be achieved through daily living. Merely concentrating on the present and silencing the nagging voices within can help you reach mindfulness. You can accomplish this yourself by exercising some basic techniques, such as sitting calmly, concentrating on the way you breathe, getting conscious of everything going on around you, and observing everything that enters and leaves your consciousness.

Benefits of mindfulness

As the West begins to welcome more Eastern practices, mindfulness has been frequently associated with cognitive therapy. Studies in the past have revealed some positive results. Mindfulness meditation was discovered to be helpful with:

• Depression
• Sleep disorders
• Relationship issues
• Eating disorders
• Anxiety problems
• Stress management

Research has revealed that mindfulness enables people to cope with everyday stresses as well as the major stresses that cause chronic and severe illnesses in people. Practicing mindfulness meditation has proven to promote better physical and psychological health with benefits that increase the longer you practice.

How does mindfulness ease stress?

Doing regular mindfulness meditation offers a lot of benefits for your physical as well as psychological well-being. Studies have shown that mindfulness can help in preventing contemplations on things that invite stress and stop people from wallowing in self-destructive thoughts. Mindfulness is also used as a deterrent against anxiety over the future. It can steer you away from stress-triggering thoughts and provide you that mental half-time to gain a better perspective.

If you can’t help but get fidgety during meditation, there are other ways to help you flow easily into the practice. Listening to music, garden work, and even doing house chores offer opportunities to practice mindfulness if you know the correct approach. Focus “in the now” and silence that small voice within you, the voice that constantly nags you about the things you’ve done, what you are doing, and what you should be doing.

Mindfulness is just as simple as being aware of everything in your immediate surroundings. It can be difficult to maintain in this busy life, but if you strive in becoming more mindful, you will discover that the results you obtain will be worth more than the effort.

If you would like to find out a bit more about Ryan Rivera and what he does, you can find him at calmclinic.com , which he developed to help others with their anxiety issues.

anxiety photo credit: R. Motti via photopin cc

** These are free to share on pinterest, facebook etc but please link back here to the Mindful Productivity blog … with gratitude / Be

To make it even more exciting I will be sharing the building with another Mayo designer maker – Lisa from Studio C Workshop.  No more solo morning teas for moi   It’s all happening in a lovely building in the town of Claremorris which is a gorgeous little hub on the road from Castlebar to Galway.

I’m taking up residence in the upstairs area, which is up the cutest multi coloured winding staircase, and Lisa will be running her studio and business downstairs.  We will share the shop space which is at the front of the building with a proper shop window and everything #fabulous!!!

I’ll be popping up some pics of the whole process as I move in over the next two weeks and get it ready as a functioning work area.  I hope you’ll drop by again and see how it is all going and what the finished space looks like.  In the mean time you can keep updated via my Mindful Productivity facebook page.

with kindness / Be

photo credit: Nrbelex via photopin cc

Did you know research out of Harvard recently shows we spend almost 47% of our time in wandering thought?

That is 47% of our day, our year …. our life.  So if we lived to be 85 then 36.5 years of our life would have been spent not paying attention to what we were actually doing!  Dwelling on something we wished we had done, thinking aimlessly about what to do on the weekend or playing different scenarios of what might or might not happen over and over in our heads.   That is scary business.

If you don’t already practice mindfulness or meditate in some way then maybe give it a go.  Even starting with one minute is beneficial ….. when you are waiting for someone in the car, making a cuppa and the kettle is boiling.  It can be anywhere … you don’t need to be sitting crossed legged on a rock in the middle of nowhere   I especially like to spend 5 minutes before I begin the workday – usually whilst the computer is warming up.  Plus, I also pay attention [as much as I can] to the everyday things like walking, brushing my hair or noticing how the steering wheel feels when I drive.  Some days I’m better than others but what matters is the awareness of when we are and are not in the present moment.

happy watching / Be

You may have noticed that I am quite fond of a quote or two.  It obviously just isn’t me who is a bit of a quote lover as I don’t know many people who don’t like quotes.  Either collecting them, hearing them, tweeting them, quoting them, pinning them or whatevering them.

Such is my interest in quotes, that last year I did ten blog posts listing 200 quotes in them.  These were ones I had collected over the years and had a good bit of variety to them.  The thing about the lasting power of these particular sentences is [imho] they are put together well; summing up in a few words or lines a really good lesson or insight.  They are a work of art in themselves.

So this year I didn’t want to just write out another batch of well known and not so well known quotes… so I thought I would put them in a nice and colourful way.  One that is easy to share and looks pretty… well I think it looks pretty.

Todays one is one of my own quotes but usually I will do them by others whose words resonate with me and may, I hope, resonate with some of you too.  There is so much wisdom out there and the more we focus on positivity, good vibes, beauty and happy things the more we move into a place where we can grow within and overcome some of the things that hold us back from being more self aware.

Please feel free to share the above pic.  If you hover over it a ‘Pin It’ badge comes up – so if you are a pinner like myself knock yourself out

happy sharing happy growing / Be

To be honest I was ready to go back and get into a routine again.  Holidays are lovely but my body  was ready to resume a non feasting routine.  Plus, it’s a good sign when it is just as much fun going back to work that it is taking time off.  I hope you all feel the same way about your chosen careers

So this is my second day back and I thought ‘why not have a sale?’  … yes, I thought it was a good idea too.

There is 30% off everything in the Etsy shop until the end of the month.  Just use the code HAPPY2013 and voila you save 30%.  There is still all the prints and calligraphy but now there is also tote bags and cards.

I’d also like to say a massive big thanks to all those who visited the blog during the last year and who joined me on this great journey by stocking my items, buying some products, chatting with me online or at markets and sending some nice messages.  Your energy and enthusiasm really helps me to grow as a person and I hope in some way, what I do helps you too.

If you are a liker of Mindful Productivity over on facebook you would know that a couple of weeks ago I collaborated with Lisa from Studio C Workshop here in Mayo on a new jewellery design.  You would also have seen the progress pictures and watched as they were being created but for those of you who didn’t catch the updates I’ll fill you in now.

Lisa makes lovely handmade jewellery using copper and silver usually.  Though for the festive season she decided to do some upcycled pendants and asked if moi would do some calligraphed words to put on them.  Naturally I said yes and was delighted to work with Lisa [as she is a real dote] and I also thought our work would complement each others – like minds etc etc.

I designed some words and did a nice font that added to the unique charm of the pieces.  Lisa worked with some lovely paper she had been waiting to use for ages to cover the bases and we used some paper made from tobacco leaves for my calligraphy.

We have done them in a mixture of pendants and bracelets.  Of course, we both nabbed ourselves one and I chose a bracelet with the word ‘breathe’ on it …. as I do love to be reminded to focus on doing that.  The other words we used were wander, journey, love, peace, enjoy, live, grá [love in Irish for my non Irish readers]

I’m sure you can tell from the pictures that they turned out really lovely.  These are a limited edition so get them whilst they are still around

If you’d like to see a bit more of them you can check them out in Lisa’s shop on Etsy.