Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

There’s a saying that mighty oaks from little acorns grow. Some of the highest altitude oaks in the world grow in Nepal, which is where Danusha began in 2008.

I remember the first time I stepped into the workshop at Lalgadh Leprosy Services centre. It was an incredibly moving experience as I watched women whose fingers had been lost to nerve damage manipulate stones and thread to make objects of beauty.

As well as training in jewellery making we provide adult literacy lessons, decent wages, good food, basic health and hygiene education and we’ve sponsored compost toilets too - very important in the fight against pollution of drinking water. Childhood diarrhoea is one of the main causes of death in children under the age of 5, simply because people don’t have access to clean water.

I’ve always been concerned about issues like poverty, equality and human rights, and think it’s important for us all to do what we can to make the world a better place for everyone. Along the way I’ve been inspired by ordinary people who work to get the job done. You won’t read about them in books but many of my friends work really hard for the benefit of other people.

My Danusha experience has been life changing for me. I think far more carefully about what I buy and opt for fair trade whenever possible. I spend a fair amount of time in south east Asia and have seen first hand some terrible working conditions.

Take a moment to look around. What can you see? If you’re reading this I guess there’s a computer, phone or tablet not too far away. Imagine all the people involved in making it. It’s impossible to know just how many pairs of hands it’s been through on its journey to your home, but it’s a fair bet there’s been some exploitation along the way. I’m not saying ‘don’t have stuff’, simply that we should all do what we can to redress the balance from time to time, and buying fair trade is a good first step.

At Danusha, highlights have been working direct with the women to develop new designs, and watching them blossom as they gain in confidence. In their society any association with leprosy is a one way ticket to ostracisation so it’s fantastic to see them regaining the respect of their families and being accepted back into their communities. This is what skills training does. It gives people back their dignity and I love it! I also love the light and life and colour of Nepal. Being there is like fire for the soul. 

You can find and find a wide range of Danusha pieces of jewellery at both www.facebook.com/ConfusedArt and www.con-fusedarts.co.uk

From Alli of Danusha,

www.danusha.org

SPRING INTO COLOUR

Well, spring officially sprung last week, what with the spring equinox on the 20^th and British Summertime beginning next weekend, and I got to thinking how lovely Spring feels after a long winter (and oh boy, has it felt like a long winter!) and what it is about the season that really seems to inject a new sense of life into us at this time of year, and a lot of the changes in the way we think and feel eventually come down to light and colour.

During winter, we suffer from an absence of both light and colour in our natural environment, which means that even the colours that do occur in our lives are often muted thanks to the grey days, dark cloud and early evenings, which encourages us to cuddle in and hibernate.

But spring brings with it lighter mornings and evenings and shoots of colour peeking out from unexpected places. The sky starts to seduce us with bright blues, snowdrops peek shyly through the grass and the bluebells dance alluringly on the woodland floors. The light seems brighter and everything seems to have more impact.

Our clothes seem more vivid and leave us feeling more vibrant, our décor seems just a shade more vivid than it did before. It all seems lighter and brighter and that tends to wake our brains up and become more aware of our surroundings, especially now that we can see more of it!

The colours of spring can all be thought of as fresh. They’re light, bright and invigorating. They have the same effect on our psychology as sorbet has on your palette. They induce feelings of revitalising, freshness, brightness, and energy. So what sort of colours are spring colours?

Sky blues dominate the spring landscape as we start waking up to skies where we can see the sky instead of waking up to cloud cover, rain, snow or fog. Blues traditionally inspire comfort and a sense of continuity, reliability, loyalty and constancy, and within the context of the vivid colours of spring, those traditional colour traits become representative of life continuing on, of the dawn of a new season and the cycle of life.

Tender greens are the colour we traditionally associate with spring, as we begin to see shoots of new life coming through the ground, and plants beginning to slowly bloom. Whilst greens are traditionally representative of nature, interpretations of the colour green run the gamut from emotional stability to healing to nature. In Spring, however, we seem to predominantly focus on the tender, fresh and more vivid shades of green to represent life and renewal.

Primrose yellows and nectarine oranges often come with the new blooms like daffodils, black-eyed susans,  shasta daisies and honeysuckle and offer a cheeringly optimistic bloom of colour after a stark winter. Both bright, but strangely delicate colours, they provide a positive accent to the greens and blues that surround us and remind us of the warmth that is seeping back into the world around us, giving us energy to begin new things and push forward towards to a sense of being able to thrive in our environments once again.

White is a colour that we often see during Spring, though rarely associate with the season. In fact, Spring is often heralded by a blazing display of white through the snowdrop. When we see white in winter, it can seem very bare and stark, but when we see it amongst the fresh and positive shades of Spring, it appears as a blank canvas, an offset for all the colour that surrounds it, making them and itself all the brighter for the contrast.

This time of year is a chance for you to spring into colour, inspired by nature.

Enjoy yourselves!

Sarah Clive is an Inspirationalist from Sarah Clive – Life’s Too Short where she helps people to follow their dreams and live life outside the box, on their terms. Sarah's a specialist in thinking outside the box and uses her unique skill and enthusiasm for life by helping people find ways to make life work for them so that they can focus on doing what they love. She can be contacted through her facebook.com/sarahclivelifestooshort, twitter.com/inspired_sarah or website: sarahclive.com. Or you can always get in touch the old fashioned way and give her a call on the phone on 01228 513134

 

 

Your life changes the moment...

 

 

I have just come across this quote that has so resonated with me that I simply had to share my story.

In April 2012, I took the leap of faith and started my own business to get away from the most difficult and challenging set of circumstances (that have been ongoing since 2009) I have faced in my personal life in a long time. This was the beginning of an exciting journey for me and I finally felt happy and contented for the first time in a long time.

However, in July 2012 yet another unexpected event pulled the rug from under my feet and left me feeling completely bewildered and unable to focus on anything good or positive in my life. From July through to December, I was fighting a constant battle with the “mind gremlins” who were telling me “what are you doing this all for”, no-one cares whether you succeed or not” “just give up”. I have never come so close to listening to them and simply just quitting. However, giving up is simply not in my nature or in my vocabulary so I wasn’t prepared to give anyone the satisfaction of giving in and quitting what I had worked so hard to achieve - this was simply not an option or solution.

Fortunately for me I have always had a very strong and supportive network of family and friends around me who stand by me no matter what - for which I remain eternally grateful. I began to realise towards the end of December 2012 that I had spent an unnecessary amount of time focusing my valuable time and energy on aspects of my life that I really have no control over. This “light bulb” moment about how I had allowed certain people – who no longer had any significance in my life - to clutter my mind with negativity was for me life changing.  It was then that my outlook changed and what better time than just before the start of a new year. Yes, I may have carried over some unfinished business into 2013 but I no longer allow it to dominate my time or energies and give it any credence with which to influence my life.

January has so far been an amazing month for me. I have changed as a person and I no longer take for granted anything or anyone who matters dearly to me – the rest of them can take a hike quite honestly. I have so much to be grateful for and so many positive aspects of my life that truly deserve 100% of my focus and energy that I have no room for any of the negative “monkey chatter” that I have allowed to dominate my life. I have never felt so focussed, determined, positive and full of excitement for the opportunities that lie ahead. I am working on the confidence issue and I am sure it is only a matter of time for that to be fully restored also.

April 2013 will be the first anniversary of my business and I am determined to have made a real success of it in order to celebrate in style. If someone had said to me a year ago that I would have fulfilled a life-long ambition of having my own business, I would not have believed them. So, now that I am in this position, nothing or no-one is going to stop me from reaching my goals and fulfilling all my life ambitions and dreams. I have been blessed with so many wonderful experiences and met some truly inspiring ladies who I am privileged to call my friends that the incentive to succeed in business is massive. I most definitely would not give it all up now. Bring it on, I am ready!

I love what I do as a massage therapist and am passionate about health and wellbeing. I love working with clients to try and alleviate pain related issues due to back ache, tension, stresses and strains.

Hold onto your dreams and don’t ever give up. Don’t ever let anyone make you think you are not capable of achieving whatever your heart desires.

As you can see, I do love my quotes and the following are also very close to my heart:

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.  Maya Angelou

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. Alexander Graham Bell

Do you suffer from square peg syndrome? - GUEST BLOG BY PAULA JONES

I believe wholeheartedly in stepping outside of our comfort levels. In fact, I believe that comfort zone, when seen as a dot in the distance, is a great marker of how much we’re willing to push ourselves towards the shiny stuff we want. However, there’s also the issue of being a square peg in a round hole and in trying to batter ourselves into shape to fit, we have a tendency to knock our confidence levels.

Let me give you an example.

I have a client who knows that for her business to be a success, she must network. And let me tell you, she loathes it. Now, I’m not the biggest fan myself, but I do it and I’ve found networking formats that suit me really well. My client, however; we will call her Sue, and you guessed it, her name has been changed to protect her confidentiality; Sue made appointments for networking and signed up to tons of events, because they would seem like a good idea at the time, and then she’d torture herself over them.

Here are some of Sue’s old thought processes:
“I really have to go.”
“I should go, I’ll feel terrible if I don’t.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“If I don’t go it will look really bad.”
“I’ll feel like a failure if I don’t go.”

So, not a healthy set of thoughts, and thoughts that are guaranteed to make us instinctively form the “loser” gesture once we start beating ourselves up about them. What a shame.
Sue and I discussed her reasons behind these thoughts and I asked her what she did enjoy; and she enjoyed the social type of networking where she didn’t have to stand, quaking in her shoes with all eyes upon her while she stumbled through an introduction. So, I asked what was stopping her from choosing the networking events she could get along with and ditching the others.
Her eyes were like saucers. “I don’t have to go to the ones I don’t want?”

No, of course not.

Now; this may seem like a no brainer. However, if you run a business and your mojo is running on empty, the temptation is to think that in order to get yourself “out there” you must attend every event going. I don’t believe that’s a useful or viable option. If you are mojo – less, forcing a square peg into a round hole is a pointless and painful exercise, and your discomfort will show. You may as well carry a sign that says, “I don’t belong here!” Trying to keep up and act of being someone other than yourself is tiring and self identity is central to confidence.

This is true of so many situations. Push your boundaries, leave your comfort zone in the distance while you speed away in a cloud of dust; just remember you don’t have to put yourself into situations that leave you thinking, “well, I’m not going there again.” Network like mad, in a format you love. Get into social situations that you wouldn’t normally attend, just making sure you are likely to enjoy it.

You don’t have to force a square peg into a round hole.

Paula Jones is a qualified life coach at www.sugarboxcoaching.com. She dedicates her time to helping women who have been in a toxic relationship to recover their mojo and get back the confidence and self-esteem they left behind. She is now happily married to a fabby man who makes her laugh every day and reminds her of what it’s like to feel valued and respected and gently made fun of. Life is good again...

How to put a smile on your face!

It is coming up to that time again, ordering the turkey, getting the Christmas tree bought or in our case down from the attic and deciding who is going to whose house on Christmas day! Unfortunately not everyone is so blessed and there are lonely folks amongst us and this is only magnified during the festive time.   So, why not carry out an ACT OF RANDOM KINDNESS to bring a smile to their face and hearts?? 

Here are 6 acts of random kindness that I wanted to share with you, they have been collected either from personal experience or heard from other folks;
1) If you are at the supermarket, why not leave the £1 in your trolley?
2) I read this one "A girl slept through her bus stop and ended up at the bus station at midnight with no more money. A couple paid her fare back to her final destination"
3) Why not cook a meal for someone -whilst my mum has been recovering from cancer, so many friends, family and neighbours have been cooking meals. Very useful seeing that the cooking has been left to my dad!
4) You could help to shovel the snow from your neighbours path especially if they are elderly!
5) Why not help out a co-worker when they have a big deadline?
6) You could help someone out for free, maybe babysitting or helping with garden or painting!

So what is stopping you from carrying out your very own act of random kindness? It might even make you smile!  Why not tell us if someone has helped with you something randomly or you have carried out an act of random kindness.

Whilst you are being kind, why not surprise someone with one of our brand new gift vouchers - just CLICK HERE . Another gorgeous gift bought without leaving the comfort and warmth of your own home.

Wishing you a very happy and peaceful festive season!

Love Pam x

Skills NOT just for the CV!

Well, ladies to say the last few months have been a steep but interesting learning curve is an understatement however I am glad to announce that as a result, Con-fused Arts and my personal life have a clearer, more focussed vision for the future! I have been reading inspirational e-books, quotes and reports and am currently doing a "training program" with Claire from "The Girls Mean Business" (a very knowledgable lady with both great business and life skills).  We have also re-launched our website - www.con-fusedarts.co.uk, you are sure to love it!

Con-fused Arts, however, is not just about jewellery and style but about your self-esteem, confidence and proactively bettering all our lives. Now, I want to share with you five skills that are helping me in the right direction in all aspects of my life;

• BREAKING DOWN TASKS into bite sized chunks. We all have busy lives, whether it be running our own businesses, working day jobs, having kids, looking after elderly or disabled relatives or all four, sometimes we just don't have the energy to face those daunting tasks. Break them down and see what can be done today! You will feel so much better for it!
• BUSINESS VISION, BUSINESS PLANS AND A MARKETING PLAN may sound really professional and scary but they don't have to be and can be tailored for your own needs. Once I had these done, a fog had lifted and now I know what I am doing month by month for the next year. You could also apply this to your everyday life
• YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEND ALL DAY on FACEBOOK, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbled Upon (you get the idea!) Decide what you need to do on there. Do it and then get on with the next thing!
• BE A LITTLE BIT SELFISH SOMETIMES! As with running a business, in everyday life, you need to take some time for yourself to recharge your batteries and be the best you can!
• BE OPEN TO HELP - It's ok to admit you don't know everything! We all have to start somewhere and weren't born with the skills and knowledge we now have.Whether it be running your own business, a project at work, a personal/family issue - be open to help. 

Thanks for reading ladies, believe it or not you have taken a moment to yourself just by reading this post!

Love and peace, Pam x

TAKE A MOMENT!

Although it may not be in our mission statement, Con-fused Arts is passionate about women's self-esteem and wellbeing. You ARE worth it, no matter what you have been told in the present or past. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and don't forget it!

Having a busy life myself and being everything from a mother, a wife, a daughter, an employee and a small business owner - some may think I dont have a second to myself. My secret is to take a few minutes here and there - I regularly spend an extra few minutes in the bathroom. When I make that much needed cup of coffee, I just AM, listening to the kettle boil, watching the spoon swirl round in the cup. When I sink into bed, I take a few minutes to be thankful for the day, for food and drink, for shelter, for freedom of speech - the list goes on.

Whatever it is, try take a few minutes each day to recharge before the chaos starts all over again!