What love is...

This week I read an article about what love is.

Quite topical really, given Valentine's Day is just round the corner. Except this article was about children and their views on love.

Call me soppy, but one of the examples of what a child thought love was made me cry. She told a story of when she was asked to play the piano in front of a large audience and felt very scared. Then she noticed her father in the audience waving and smiling. Immediately her fears vanished. The reassurance of his presence and his love for her was enough.

The story that impacted the most, though, was one about a child who heard that the wife of the old man who lived next door had recently died. The child noticed the old man crying and went up to him and sat on his knee. Later, when the boy's mum asked him what he'd said to the old man, the child replied: "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

Sometimes, love is about just being there and allowing the tears to come. That holds true for ourselves as well as with others. If there are tears inside, and we love ourselves or the other person enough, we can just let them come. That way the tears can cleanse and allow us to move on, instead of eating away at our insides.

In sickness and in health

I've been juggling things more than usual recently as my husband has been mown down with a nasty tummy bug - probably the notorious Norovirus that has hit the news recently. Fortunately, after many days when the most he consumed was an anti-diarrhoea mixture - a rather drastic way to save money and lose weight - he's now on the mend.

It's little consolation to know he's not alone in his illness. You may have heard in the news that UK businesses were fearing the worst when people returned to work after the Christmas break. They were concerned that the Norovirus would have a field day when everyone got back together again.

Unfortunately their fears became true. Last week 3.6m people took time off work due to illness. That's a lot of sickness!

I read recently that, according to the CBI, one in eight sick days is not genuine - simply a chance for people to have a longer weekend, take time off without eating into their holiday allowance, or recover from a hangover. Would you believe there is even a so-called National Sickie Day. Apparently the first Monday in February - this year Monday 4 February - has this dubious accolade and is the day we're most likely to call in 'sick'.

I can't imagine what it must feel like to let your boss know that you're unwell when you know you aren't, nor the damage the combined effect of this must have on the UK productivity and economy.

At the very least, 'taking a sickie' compromises our integrity and must make many feel they are not being true to themselves or to their moral principles. And anything that attacks our integrity results in us feeling awkward and less of a person than we wish to be. Not a good place to be.

Better than calling in sick, when we're not, is to work out why we feel tempted to do just that, work out what we can do about it, and take the necessary action. For example, do we need to resolve something with our work colleagues, so we feel better about being there; is a move to another job or career appropriate; do we need to give ourselves more rest or change our lifestyle so we don't feel so run down that a day off work feels necessary?

If you, like my husband, are suffering with ill health at the moment, I hope you feel much better soon. And if you want to hang on to your integrity, you won't be joining the band of people who make the 4 February National Sickie Day!

How to make a Happy New Year!

OK, I know it's already 3 days into 2008, but I was taking a leaf out of my own book, and responding to what my body and mind required to feel restored....and, boy, did they need a lot of sleep!

However, after a hectic but great Christmas, followed by copious amounts of rest, I now want to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I hope it brings for you good health, peace and happiness.

I guess New Year is often about resolutions. Yet for many, resolutions fall by the wayside all too easily. Whether it's losing weight, getting fitter, taking charge of your time, or whatever, it's not enough to know what you want to do and feel you want to achieve it. There has also to be commitment to action and then the stickability to carry it through.

That's where life coaching comes in .... it offers the accountability and professional support to enable you to really see your goals through to success.

One thing I came across recently allows us all to make a difference with remarkably little effort on our part, and it would make an excellent New Year's resolution even for those of you who find the 'stickability' difficult. It also has the great advantage of offering much-needed help to those less well off than ourselves.

There's a great website called thehungersite.com that allows you to just click on a link and, as a result of the advertisers sponsoring the site, a cup of food will be sent to a hungry person. More than that, the site includes a number of other 'click to give' opportunities, including breast cancer, child health and literacy, amongst others. All you have to do is just click on the link and your support is given to the relevant charity. You can even do this everyday by saving the website to your 'favourites' list or saving this blog to your desktop (right click on it and follow the options) and clicking the links as soon as your computer is fired up.

So forward this on to your friends and contacts and we can all do our bit to help the world become a better place in 2008.

Happy New Year!