Ep 147: it's time to say...goodbye!

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you enjoy listening to your podcasts 

Hi lovely,

We started Project Love in 2013 and for over 8 years we have been on the most amazing journey together, with you, our wonderful community. We have recorded over 150 podcast episodes (that’s 100 hours and more than 3 days of non-stop listening!) and had over half a million downloads 🤯🤩 We’ve run numerous live events, two major online courses and helped over 700 women find love, with our Get Ready for Love course featured in Grazia, Red, Glamour and Psychologies. For 7 years, we helped people to discover the power and importance of self love with our 28 days of love self love challenge. And over the past 5 years we’ve watched our Goodbye Hello journals help thousands of people reflect on their lives and commit to their dreams all over the world. 

WHAT A JOURNEY!!! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

And through it all our friendship has deepened and flourished 😍

And now, with a deep breath we are announcing a new chapter and a new journey…

So join us on today’s episode to find out what that new chapter is and help us celebrate more than eight years of Project Love!

We really hope you’ll carry on this next chapter with us both!

To make sure you do, join the two lists below and you’ll get some goodies from each of us 😍 

💜 Carry on the journey with Vicki 💜

Carry on the journey of dating with confidence and creating a relationship you love, with 1:1 coaching, online courses and masterclasses with Vicki HERE (and sign up here and Vicki will send you a love letter with all the ways we can stay connected, inc an invitation to her free Dating Masterclass coming up in May!)

💗 Carry on the journey with Selina 💗

Carry on the journey of designing a life you love with Selina as she gets ready to launch Project You and the Time to Thrive course, Goodbye Hello journals, podcasts and more! >> Sign up to join the new Project You journey with Selina  HERE 

As ever, we hope you enjoy this very special episode and thank you so much for listening and being a part of our beautiful community.

So much love,

Vicki and Selina

xxxxxx

Ep 146: Self love lessons from 28 days of love 2022

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you enjoy listening to your podcasts 

Hi lovely,

Ooh we loved recording today’s episode! 

We got together to reflect on 7 years of running 28 days of love, our self love challenge that we’ve been running on Instagram since Valentine’s day (have you been doing it with us?).

Every year we do this challenge, we discover something new about ourselves on our self love journey and our understanding of self love deepens each time. 

If you’ve been doing 28 days of love with us (yay!) then we‘d love to hear how it’s been for you and what lessons you’re taking away from it. And if you’d like to start the challenge then you can do it anytime - simply head over here and download your free PDF guide to getting started (plus you’ll also find a big list of ideas to inspire you). It’s a great one to do with friends!

Whether you’re new to self love or you are wanting to deepen your practice, we hope these lessons will inspire you on your own self love journey. 

EXCITING NEWS

Plus in the episode, you’ll hear us celebrating that we have a brand new journal that is being released TODAY!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Goodbye 30s, Hello 40s is a reflective journal with prompts, exercises and inspirational quotes to help you to reflect meaningfully on your life as you step from one decade into the next.

Selina first designed it for herself when she turned 40 and it was such a beautiful and powerful experience that we decided to create one that everyone can do when they turn the big 4 0 

And so finally…here it is! 🎉🎉🎉

Goodbye 30s Hello 40s takes you on a reflective journey that helps you to say a proper farewell to a decade of your life as it comes to an end and helps you to create a beautiful and lasting record of that decade through memories, lessons learnt, milestones achieved and blank pages where you can add several photos from each year.

By the end of it you will have created a bespoke book celebrating and documenting a decade of your life that you can keep forever.

So if you or someone you love is waving goodbye to their thirties and stepping into a fresh new decade then you can order your Goodbye 30s Hello 40s copy today!

>>> Order your copy now!

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy today’s episode!

And be sure to join us for next month’s episode as we have a big announcement to make! We’ll see you then. 

So much love,

Selina & Vicki 

xxxx

PS here is the quiz for discovering your love language / self love language 💕

Ep 106: Looking at exercise in a whole new way

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you enjoy listening to your podcasts

Hi lovely,

In this week’s episode we are talking about looking at exercise in a whole new way! 

If you’ve listened to previous podcasts, then you’ll know that both of us have documented our (at times) huge resistance to exercise. In fact, if you told us a year ago that we would be doing a podcast episode on this, we wouldn’t have believed you! 

In this week’s episode, we talk about how we have worked through our own resistance to exercise (and how you can do it too!), the many ways to get your body moving (including the activities and practices that work for us), tips on how to find what works for you. Plus so much more.

We had so much fun recording this episode - we hope you enjoy it! 

We’d love to hear what resonated with you and where you are on your own exercise journey - simply reply to this email or send us a DM over on Instagram @loveprojectlove. 

Much love,

X Selina & Vicki 

Resources:

Couch to 5K (NHS): 

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/couch-to-5k-week-by-week/

EP 79: The day I married myself - with Donna Lancaster

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on iTunes), Spotify or wherever you enjoy listening to your podcasts

It’s Selina here 👋and oh I’m so excited for you to listen to today’s episode. It is with my greatest guide and teacher in life, Donna Lancaster - co-founder and facilitator of the incredible Bridge Retreat who is honestly the wisest, most powerful, loving and humble healer and transformational therapist I have ever met, so ANY conversation with her is going to be food for the soul, but this one in particular really inspired me (and you’ll hear why) because we were talking about the day, two years ago that Donna married herself. On her 50th birthday. With her best friend there as her witness.

SHE MARRIED HERSELF.

The ultimate act of self-love 😍😍😍

And so we talked about it all: what made her want to do it, what the ceremony was like, the vows and commitments she made to herself, how she knew a lot of people would roll their eyes at it and above all the difference it has made to her and the relationship with herself since saying ‘I do’.

As well as self marriage we talked about going through deep transformation in life, the suffering that is a necessary part of our development and growth and how to navigate those times of suffering so that you can get through to the other side where you’ll find peace, love, humility and all the good stuff.

We talked about why it is NOT in the interests of a capitalist society for us to love ourselves.

And of course we talked about witches 😉

So hit play, open your heart and ENJOY!

x Selina

P.S. The book Donna mentioned is ‘Falling Upward’ by Richard Rohr

Self-celebration and creating a career you love with Sarah Powell

It’s Selina here 👋with this week’s podcast episode. And I cannot wait for you to hit play on this one, because I am joined by the Queen of Self-Celebration and all round joyous creature: Sarah Powell.

I have head-over-heels fallen in love with Sarah via her instagram stories (if you are on instagram and you don’t yet follow Sarah Powell on @thissarahpowell then go and do so immediately). She is hilarious, courageous, loving and inspiring.

She is one of those people that has created a career that is a total expression of who she is and what she loves in life.

She is a celebrant, founder of Celebrate Yourself (the first Celebrate Yourself Live event recently sold out in just 4 hours!), she is co-host of not one, but two hugely successful podcasts - Jules and Sarah and Wobble - both of which she does with her co-host Jules von Hep and she has a rapidly growing instagram community that she pours love into every day.

And yet just a few years ago Sarah was stuck in what she calls ‘the wilderness’ - that no-man’s land of not knowing what you want to do with your life and career, where you’re feeling totally lost and afraid that you’ll never figure it out. The place where everyone (yes everyone) begins their career change journey (or any big journey of transformation for that matter).

And so we talked about the power of self-celebration, finding humour in the mundane and how Sarah made her way out of the ‘wilderness’ to create a career that makes her heart sing and brings joy into the world.

This is such an inspiring episode and one that I guarantee will put a smile on your face!

Look at how much we were grinning by the end of it!

And if you felt like I was speaking to YOU at the start of the episode and you know that it is time for you to make your career change happen, then I would love to hear from you.

I am opening the doors to my 3 month 1:1 Career Change Coaching programme this month and as always will only be taking on a handful of clients.

And I would love for one of those clients to be YOU this time.

So if you’re ready to take the leap, come and book yourself in for a discovery call!

Let’s do this!

X Selina

The Kindness Method - interview with Shahroo Izadi

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify.

Join Selina this week as she dives deep into conversation with Shahroo Izadi, author of the amazing ‘Kindess Method’ - the book that is taking the world by storm. Shahroo is a behavioural change specialist who has developed the ‘Kindness Method’ as a way to help people bring about long-lasting change in their lives, from overcoming addictions to alcohol, drugs, food, negative self-talk…you name it.

Shahroo is living proof that her method works – after years of yo-yo dieting she shed over 8 stone (and has kept it off ever since).

What is so astonishing and exciting about this book is that it shows how the key to changing a habit for good is not harsh discipline and strict self-control but self-love and kindness.

If you want to kick a habit once and for all THIS is the book that will help you do it.

So tune in and listen to Shahroo share her pearls of wisdom about making long lasting change, the power of kindness and how sugar really is one of the hardest drugs to quit!

Buy 'The Kindness Method' on Amazon
Find out more and book a session with Shahroo Izadi at shahrooizadi.co.uk

PODCAST - Self love lessons learnt from ‘28 days of love 2019’

Oof what a podcast episode we have in store for you today! We have just come to the end of our self love challenge, ‘28 Days of Love’ and we have so many fresh insights and lessons to share with you, this podcast is packed full of them!

Tune in to hear us talk about:

• Our top lessons learnt from practicing self love for 28 days to build a self love habit (which has also included the breaking of old habits!)

• All of the ways that we resisted self love during the challenge and how we overcame that resistance

• Our misconceptions and limiting narratives around self love and how we challenged them to expand our definition of what it really means to love yourself

• How simple it really can be to treat yourself with love each and every day (and how it really requires very little time and zero money!)

• The importance of self compassion on your self love journey

• and much much more!

(And here is the TED talk that we mentioned from Tracy McMillan, ‘The person you really need to marry’ (it is so gorgeous!))

Now, with 28 Days of Love having come to an end, we would love to hear from you what journey you’d most like us to take you on next. It will take no more than a minute to answer this ONE question from us in the survey below. We can’t wait to see what you all vote for!

Create your own user feedback survey

x Selina & Vicki

P.S. If you haven’t yet started 28 Days of Love (our free self love challenge!) and you would like to then it’s not too late, you can start any time! Head over here and download your free PDF guide to getting started (plus you’ll also find a big list of ideas to get you started on your self love journey)

PODCAST - The Trouble with Self Love - why we resist it so damn much!

When it comes to self love, we seem to have got ourselves into a right pickle and so we got together to talk about that, sharing fresh insights from our self love challenge ‘28 Days of Love’. We can’t wait for you to listen to this week’s episode!

Tune in to hear us talk about:

• The most common narratives and misconceptions around self love and the impact these are having on us and the way that we treat ourselves

• The many misunderstandings around self love and how as a society, we don’t actually value the inner work of self love and self care  

• How our perfectionist tendencies can hijack self love and limit us from really experiencing the power of it

• Why self love can feel rebellious (and why that’s a good thing!)

• Why we can resist self love so damn much

• And much more!

  🎧 You can also listen to this episode (and all of our other episodes) on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify.

We really hope you enjoy this episode, always recorded with love.

x Selina & Vicki

PS If you haven’t yet started 28 Days of Love (our free self love challenge!) and you would like to then it’s not too late, you can start any time! Head over here and download your free PDF guide to getting started (plus you’ll also find a big list of ideas to get you started on your self love journey)

PODCAST - How to bring magic to the mundane - interview with Tiu de Haan

Last week Selina went to visit the wonderful Tiu de Haan - the ritual designer, creative facilitator and intuitive mentor who has among her list of clients, the United Nations, L’Oreal, Google, neuroscientists, economists, world-leading quantum physicists and burnt out Londoners!

 Selina joined Tiu on her magical boat in the heart of London to discover how she helps people to create moments of meaning in their daily lives and experiences that bring them back into a deeper connection with themselves.

 Join them as they talk about:

• How to reawaken your sense of wonder

• How to bring magic to the mundane

• How to honour your natural ebbs and flows in life

• How to create micro moments in the day to reconnect to your deeper self

• How to align your life with your natural seasons, cycles and daily energy rhythms

• How to master the art of napping

• Radical self care

• and a whole lot more!

🎧 You can also listen to this episode (and all of our other episodes) on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify.

To find out more about Tiu - her online courses, workshops and 1-2-1 adventures (where you get to hang out in her magical boat too!) head over here. (There are all sorts of wonderful games and online classes for you to choose from in her online shop, so be sure to check it out!)

And if you’d like to buy the online course - Possibility of Wonder - then simply enter LOVE when you get to the checkout and you’ll get £20 off!

Lots of love,

Vicki and Selina

PODCAST - Committing to Self Love | Interview with Melody Godfred, founder of Fred and Far

We are so excited for you to listen to today’s episode as Vicki got to interview the absolutely wonderful and incredibly inspiring Melody Godfred, founder of Fred and Far and the author of ‘The ABC’s of self love’.

If you haven’t come across Fred and Far before then you are in for such a treat with this week’s episode! Fred and Far is a self love movement that is empowering women all over the world. And it started with a self love pinky ring (which are absolutely gorgeous btw, check them out over here).

In this episode, we talk about Melody’s own journey to self love, the lessons she has learnt along the way, the power of boundaries + self compassion and how self love and sisterhood will save the planet. Plus so much more!

🎧 You can also listen to this episode (and all of our other episodes) on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify.

This is such a special one, we can’t wait for you to listen to it!

x Selina & Vicki

Ps jussssst in case you missed it, 28 Days of Love (our self-love challenge) has begun over on Instagram and it has been so much fun so far! With 28 Days of Love we’ll show you just how easy it can be to give yourself a dose of self-love each and every day (no matter how busy you are). And what a difference it can make! We would love you to join us (it’s not too late!) <3 head over here for all of the details on how to take part.

PODCAST | LOVE: it’s not just for Valentine’s - a live recording at Liberty London

Happy Day of Love!

We cannot wait for you to hear this next episode. It is our first live podcast recording which took place last night at none other than Liberty London and wow was it a powerful one!

 We talked about:

• Why we are SO passionate about busting the modern day myth that love is something that comes from that one special romantic partner in life

• The impact that belief has had on so many of our lives and our relationships.

• The exciting rise in a new approach to love - that has self-love at the heart of it - that is empowering and liberating and actually helps us to flourish as individuals and in our relationships

• How learning to love yourself is a skill that we can all get good at

• The different ways you can weave self-love into your day to day life

• Why so many of us resist self-love (and what to do about that)

• And how, when you start to tune into that inner loving voice your life will start to transform from the inside out

We covered a LOT, we went deep and had a good laugh in the process. Such a special episode. Both of us went away feeling so calm and full of love and we hope you will too.

And as you will hear in the episode 28 Days of Love - our self-love challenge over on Instagram - has begun! It is free for everyone so come and join us!

With 28 Days of Love we’ll show you just how easy it can be to give yourself a dose of self-love each and every day (no matter how busy you are). And what a difference it can make!

💖✨HOW TO TAKE PART✨💖

It’s simple!

1. Make sure you are following us on Instagram @loveprojeclove - this is where all the buzz will be, with daily tips and inspiration on how to give yourself simple daily doses of self-love

2. Head over here to download your PDF guide to getting started (includes a big long list of daily acts of love you can choose from) ⠀⠀⠀

3. Choose your daily act of self-love for the day (and do it!)

4. Share and celebrate your daily acts of self-love with us by tagging us in your stories @loveprojectlove and using #28daysoflove2019 on your post

The idea of all of us making a self-love pact and doing this together just fills us with joy! We can’t wait to see what you get up to!

With love,

X Selina and Vicki

P.S. If you or a friend are currently navigating the world of dating and looking for a loving relationship then tune in on Sunday for the FIRST in our new ‘Get Ready for Love’ series here on the podcast. Each week we’ll be delivering a dose of practical tips and guidance on how to navigate the modern dating world and find the right partner for you.

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify.

PODCAST | How to love your body | Interview with Harri Rose

Ooh we have a treat of a podcast for you this week as we got to interview the gorgeous and infectiously joyful Harri Rose, a health coach who helps women to unapologetically love their bodies.

Listen in as we talk about body love, body confidence and body acceptance and how, treating your body with love, kindness and compassion can totally transform your life. And not a diet in sight!

We loved recording this podcast and we think Harri’s work is so needed right now (particularly at the start of the year when we are flooded with messages of gym memberships and diets).

Head over here for more Harri Rose magic and to find out how to work with her.

Can’t wait for you to listen to the podcast - and when you do, hit REPLY and let us know what you think and what resonated with you. We always love to hear from you!

x Selina & Vicki

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify

PODCAST: Why self-love is key when it comes to finding love and making love last

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify

Today we’re celebrating the 3rd birthday of Get Ready for Love - our 30 lesson online course that helps women to transform their love lives from the inside out.

It truly has been such a powerful course - in the three years since we launched it, 600+ women have been through the course, discovering the power of self-love and how to open up to invite love into their lives - we’ve already had a number of weddings and even babies amongst our Get Ready for Love community and we have received some wonderful features in the press with a fresh new one coming out in Red magazine in just a couple of weeks!

But what has been the most powerful of all has been to see so many women discover the power of self-love. They come alive with it and we get to witness it every day in the Love Zone - the incredible online community that has grown up around the Get Ready for Love course.

So we decided to dedicate this next Project Love podcast episode to the power and importance of self love when it comes to both finding love and making love last.

And we invited members of the Love Zone to share their stories and lessons on love with us so that we could share them with you, both in this podcast episode and on a brand new gallery we now have here where you can read stories and lessons on love shared by women who have been through the Get Ready for Love course. They are so moving!

So press play on this latest episode below or over on Apple podcast or Spotify and feed up on the love!

X Vicki & Selina

Vulnerability in action with Allysa Rochelle from the Vulnerable Podcast

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify.

This week's episode on the blog is a bit of a different one and a special one.

 I was joined by Allysa Rochelle, founder and host of the brilliant Vulnerable Podcast to talk about vulnerability and demonstrate it in action...

I am such a huge fan of Rochelle (as she likes to be called) and of the powerful work she is doing with her podcast (and beyond). I have been so inspired and learnt so much from her and her guests from their deep dives into all sorts of topics from white supremacy, to hyper-masculinity to sex after trauma - conversations that all require vulnerability and openness. 

So I reached out to Rochelle a few months ago asking if she'd come on the Project Love podcast to talk about vulnerability and the Vulnerable Podcast. 

We met up and talked and she shared a little bit about her personal story - I’d had an inkling that there was quite a big story under there and that she was very much on her own personal healing journey and we arrived at the idea that she tell her story for the first time on the Project Love podcast, embracing and demonstrating vulnerability in action. 

And so that is what we did.

As such it is quite a long podcast but I didn’t want to cut it down - I wanted Rochelle to be able to tell her story uncut. The most courageous thing any of us can do.

So thank you for joining us to create the space for Rochelle’s story to be heard. And thank YOU Rochelle for having the courage and love to share it.

x Selina

Listen to Rochelle and her Vulnerable Podcast on iTunes or Soundcloud
Follow Rochelle on Instagram @Vulnerablepodcast and @allysarochelle

PODCAST: Sex, self-love, orgasms and everything in between!

🎧 You can also listen to this and all of our other podcasts on Apple Podcast (iTunes) and Spotify.

Ooh we can’t wait for you to get stuck into this week’s podcast! 

Selina got together with Victoria Helen Roberts - body image and intimacy coach and certified sexological bodyworker to talk about sex, self-pleasure, self-love, orgasms and everything in between.  

It is as juicy a podcast episode as you might expect it to be.

They talked about the taboo around discussing sex openly and honestly in our society - where that comes from and the impact it can have on us, the importance of exploring and experimenting when it comes to our bodies and what turns them on and why sometimes it’s best to take the orgasm off the menu for a bit to focus on the other aspects of sex and learning how to give your body pleasure all over. 

Victoria shared loads of practical tips about how to get back in touch with your body and improve your sex life, whether you’re in a relationship, single or somewhere in between. 

Honestly, it is SUCH a good one!

So hit play above or tune in over on iTunes and enjoy!

And as ever, if you’re a fan of our podcasts then it would make our day if you would leave us a review over on iTunes - every review makes a big difference in helping us to spread the love to even more people. 

Much love,

x Selina & Vicki

P.S. If you are used to finding our podcasts over on Soundcloud we have now moved over to Audioboom, so that soon you'll also be able to listen to our podcasts on Spotify. 

Our brand new Project Love *free* audio workshop | 'Self Love for busy women'

Happy Day of Love!!!!!!!!! 💗 💗 💗

As we do every year, we are hijacking Valentine’s Day and making it all about SELF-love.

And to celebrate this special day we have created a brand new audio workshop for you: ‘Self Love for Busy Women’ - an in-depth workshop on the topic of self-love and how to find smart and easy ways to give yourself the love you need, even when you have a jam-packed schedule and barely any time for lunch!

If you're already part of the Project Love tribe then a link to the workshop will already be sitting in your inbox. Otherwise head on over here to sign up and we'll send you the workshop straight away!

In the workshop you will learn:

• What we actually mean by self-love (and no, it’s not all bubble baths and expensive body lotions)

• Why self-love is a radical act that has the power to transform your whole life

• How to start a self-love practice if you’ve never done it before (and how to up your game if you have!)

• Our four favourite ways to practice self-love

• How to make TIME for a self-love practice, no matter how busy you are

• How to use your calendar as your canvas to make self-love a permanent fixture in your life
  
  We've designed this audio workshop for you to keep in your back pocket and use any time you've managed to get so busy doing other things that you've accidentally forgotten about one of the most important people in your life...YOU.

Because loving yourself isn’t just a nice to have. It is the KEY to you living a life that you LOVE.

Because when you learn to truly love yourself and become THE source of love in your own life, everything changes. Your life transforms from the inside out.

If you're looking for a loving partner in life then self-love is the magic that will attract that person in.

If you have ambitions for this year - things you want to make happen, goals you want to achieve - then self-love is the fuel that will help you make it happen while remaining grounded, fulfilled and in flow.

If you’re in a relationship, self-love will feed and nourish that relationship, keeping the flames of love alight and if you're a mother, wanting to create a happy home for you and your family, then self-love is the key.

So let’s make this the year that we ALL take a stand together, reclaim ownership of our time and make self-love a TOP priority in our lives.

It's time for a self-love revolution!

So download the 'Self love for busy women' audio workshop and let's get it started!

x Selina & Vicki

PODCAST: Real Love Story with Caroline Atkinson

So excited to share this podcast with you - a real love story with a friend of mine, Caroline Atkinson, whose love story with Gus spans almost 10 years.

We talk about relationship challenges, the incredible lessons learnt from spending 6 years apart, the importance of taking responsibility for your own happiness and the absolute joy of brunching on your own.

I remember attending a talk with Alain de Botton and he made reference to the fact that novels and films (in particular, fairy tales and rom coms) often don't give us a correct map of love and 'leave us unprepared to deal adequately with the difficulties of being in a couple'. And so we grow up with slightly unrealistic notions of love and what it means to be in a relationship. Hearing Caroline share her story really helped me to understand this more deeply and how we can update our 'map of love' to be more in-line with the realities of relating in today's world. 

I was so inspired by Caroline's journey of self discovery and self love and how she and Gus were able to start a new chapter in their relationship and the strength and vulnerability that requires, on both parts. I hope you enjoy this as much as I loved recording it.

V xxx

Your calendar is your canvas

As many of you are spending this month dreaming and planning for the year ahead we wanted to share with you a tool that is a must-have when it comes to life designing.

Because while the dreaming and planning part can all be very exciting, there isn’t much point to it if they remain forgotten in a notebook.

What you need is the real-life version of a magic wand that will help to bring those dreams and desires to life.

Welcome to the ultimate life design tool:

A calendar.

When it comes to designing and living a life you love, your calendar is your canvas.

Plenty of us use calendars in our day to day lives to keep on top of things at work and do what needs to be done. But the magic happens when you start to use it to create your life, by taking your list of things you want to fill your life with - from time with friends, to more sleep, to a monthly massage, to changing career -  and giving each of those things dedicated time and dates in your diary.

Suddenly your dreams and desires are now booked and ready to happen.

Here is how to do it.

If you did our Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018 guide you will now have a beautiful book full of things you want to fill your 2018 with, so let’s get that list out.

If you didn’t do it then take a page and write down the activities, people, places, projects that you would like to fill your life with in 2018.

Include on your list any activities and practices you know you need on a daily or weekly basis to feel well, energised and calm in your body eg. proper breakfast to start the day, exercise twice a week, 8 hours sleep a night, a massage once a month.

Now get out your calendar (paper or digital, that’s up to you) and let’s start booking these things into your life and designing your day, your week, your month, your year, so that you are filling it with the things, people and places you love.

Daily commitments

Always begin with your wellbeing. It is THE foundation to a happy life. So start by looking at your daily calendar and book in the things you know you need to feel well and happy in your body, but that you often let slip.

So, for example, if starting the day with a nourishing breakfast is an important one for you, but something you usually forget to do, then get that in your diary as a daily date with yourself, setting your alarm to get you up 15 minutes earlier if necessary.

Eventually those nourishing breakfasts in the morning will become a natural part of your normal routine and you won’t have to schedule them, but until that happens, keep them as firm dates in your calendar.

Weekly commitments

Now let’s look at what you want to book in on a regular weekly basis as a fixed commitment - things you want to do for your wellbeing and happiness eg. time for exercise, dates with yourself, hobbies etc

Decide when in the week you want to commit to doing these things and book them in.

Also book in time each week dedicated to focus on any big changes or dreams you’re wanting to make happen in 2018. By creating dedicated time to focus on them, those changes and dreams are far more likely to happen.

Monthly commitments

Next schedule in the things you want to do monthly -  eg a massage, trip to the countryside, dinner for friends etc. If you need time to research, invite friends, make bookings in advance for these things to happen, then make sure you book in time for that too.

One-off yearly commitments

Finally, take a step back and look at your whole year ahead and block in time for the fun adventures, holidays, courses and outings you want to enjoy throughout the year, even if for now you can only pencil them in because you’re not yet sure on the exact dates.

Again, if any of these require a good amount of planning and research, then block out time to do that too.

And there you have it. A calendar that now has all your ingredients for a happy life firmly woven into it.

Now all you have to do is stick to those commitments. But that is for another blog post ;)

For now, enjoy painting that canvas of yours with the things you love and let us know how you get on.

X Selina & Vicki

How to create your own daily self-love rituals...no matter how busy you are

I’m writing this to you at 6.18am under a cosy blanket with a hot cup of tea. I love being the first one up, the flat totally silent.
It is pure, guilt-free, nowhere-else-I-need-to-be me time. There's no other time of day where I feel this sense of calm, peace and stillness. I've been practicing this morning ritual for the last few months. It’s my new personal ‘project love’.

And it’s much needed...towards the end of last year I was feeling burnt out and exhausted, struggling to find time for me, my calendar bulging with work commitments. Basically too much pink (in my colour coded google calendar, pink is work) and not enough green (wellbeing and me time) and so I decided that this year was about being more green and scheduling myself into my calendar. I realised that the mornings were the one time of day that I could claim as my own. And so now mornings have become sacred to me, giving me space to reflect, be still, take stock and check-in with myself. They set the tone for the day and I have become so fond of this time with me, like catching up with an old friend.

I start with a journalling exercise ‘morning pages’, a tool from the book ‘The Artist's Way’. The idea is that you write a stream of consciousness when you wake up (3 pages specifically), to ‘get to the other side’ (as Julia Cameron would say, author of the book). I’ve been writing about anything and everything that’s been percolating when I wake up. Sometimes it’s profound, other times it’s more like a pity party for one (which Julia encourages as any whinging and complaining needs to be processed so you can move on and get on with your day!).

I've been approaching the project like a builder, adding more layers as the ones before get stronger. A morning gratitude practice has been added in, writing down things I’m thankful for, including ways I am grateful and proud of myself. Some days are more challenging than others and some mornings I feel like I have nothing to say but persistence is key. Recently I’ve also been using guided meditations on Headspace and I've been dabbling with morning exercise but still resisting that one to be honest (working on it!). On the days that I have a little more time I've been indulging in a morning bubble bath and audiobook (currently listening to Caroline Myss’s Energy Anatomy and it is blowing my mind). It feels sort of rebellious, like I’ve been let in on a well kept secret.

Through this process, I've discovered that what I need the most is just to be heard. I am the speaker and the listener. And I’m feeling the effects of it already. I am complaining less out loud, I feel calmer, clearer, more connected to myself and connected to what's important to me. I feel more control of my day and better able to deal with challenges when they arise. And I feel more engaged with life.

What it all comes down to is treating myself like a good friend, with love, kindness, respect and devotion. Spending quality time with me. This sacred time has become like oxygen to me. I need it. I crave it. The main thing I've learnt is how to trust myself. I have a sort of quiet confidence that no matter what happens during the day, I can handle it. Feeling like “I've got this”.

That is the power of having a daily self-love practice.

And it doesn’t matter how busy you are, even with just 2 minutes a day, you can create a self-love ritual for yourself. And you really will feel the difference.

So if you want to learn how to design your own self-love practice, no matter how busy you are, then come and join us at our next Online Project Love Salon event  ‘Self-love for busy women’ on 22nd May at 1pm UK time.

We'll be digging deep into the topic of practicing self love even when you have a jam packed schedule. You'll learn how to design your own self-love toolkit based around your lifestyle and we'll be sharing with you what our own personal self-love practices are and how we work them into our own busy lives.

And as a special summer treat, it’s totally free!

>>> To register for a free ticket to the event and receive the recording from us afterwards SIGN UP OVER HERE

Plus we’ll be announcing an exciting new Project Love membership programme that we've been experimenting with for the last 3 months (with great results for us and the women that have been doing it with us!) and now we're ready to open the doors to you too!

V x
 

PODCAST: Interview with Chloe Brotheridge, author of 'The Anxiety Solution'

We have a treat of a podcast for you, as we got to interview Chloe Brotheridge, author of 'The Anxiety Solution: A Quieter Mind, a Calmer You'. Chloe, a clinical hypnotherapist and anxiety expert, wrote 'The Anxiety Solution' to help women manage modern anxiety triggers like perfectionism, social media pressure, people pleasing, fear of failure and fear of success.

Listen in to hear us discuss why anxiety is affecting more women than men (research shows that women are twice as likely to experience anxiety than men), how anxiety can show up in our love lives and why it’s so exhausting to be everyone’s cup of tea. Plus a whole lot more. We absolutely loved talking to Chloe! 

Listen to the podcast below or download it over on iTunes or Soundcloud

Lots of love,

Selina & Vicki XX