28Jul 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

My Wealth

Getting to know your Coach, Mental Fitness, Mindfulness, Personal Development, Philosophy, Self-Reliance
Do you associate wealth with money? I do struggle with the concept at times. Then I remind myself that I have enough. For me, it comes down to making the conscious decision to be happy in the Now. Because NOW is all we have. The past is a memory and the future is an imagination. Most of the time, I have all I NEED in the very moment I am in. It is often the WANTS that I want (!) to pursue. To remain still and just be, let the moment be all I want - that is happiness for me. My wealth is my happiness, the feeling of being enough, and of having enough (or more than enough), right now. __________ How about you? Where lies your wealth? And…
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25Jul 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

What is Wealth?

Cultural Awareness, Mindfulness, Philosophy
Once there was a wealthy father who was concerned that a privileged upbringing might give his son a limited view of life. He decided his son needed to see how the other half lived. To do this, he asked his personal assistant to find a very poor family who would be willing to allow him and his son to visit and stay with them. After weeks of searching she found a very poor farming family who lived in an impoverished country area and organized for her boss and his son to live with them for a couple of days and nights. At the end of the visit, as they were driving back to their expensive suburban mansion, the father asked his son, “What did you think of our stay on…
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21Jul 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

In My Own Way

About your Coach, Mental Fitness, Mindfulness, Personal Development
Have you battled internal obstacles – problems that were entirely created by your way of approaching the world in your thinking and actions? – I have! For more than a year I had been bothered by a digestive issue: There was a knot in my intestines, always in the same spot. It never went away. The intensity of the discomfort varied. I consulted my family doctor. I consulted an Ayurvedic doctor. Nothing. I researched online. – A partial breakthrough was achieved when I found a useful video how to alleviate the symptoms temporarily. But no solution appeared. I started to despair. Then, we went on vacation and I did not drink my tap water. The discomfort was gone. I had stumbled upon the solution. The problem – or obstacle –…
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18Jul 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Changing Course Fluidly

Mental Fitness, Mindfulness, Personal Development, Problem Solving, Self-Reliance
Flexibility is the key to common sense and success A battleship had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. The captain, who was concerned about the deteriorating conditions, stayed on the bridge so that he could keep an eye on all activities. One night, shortly after dark, [the fog was getting even thicker] the lookout on the bridge suddenly shouted, ‘A light, captain, bearing on the starboard bow.’‘Is it steady or moving astern?’ the captain asked.The lookout confirmed that it was steady, which meant that the battleship was apparently on a dangerous collision course with the other ship.The captain then called to the signalman, ‘Signal that ship: “We are on a collision course. Advise you change course 20 degrees north.”’Back came the response from the other…
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13Jul 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Change – Perspective – growth … Obvious?

Mindfulness, Personal Development, Philosophy, Problem Solving
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. - Wayne Dyer In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. - Max De Pree Do you remember the metaphor about the two caterpillars looking at a butterfly I shared a few days ago? – It can be found at: https://creeksideinspirations.ca/two-caterpillars/ __________ Question: What change are you resisting and what might become obvious if you change your perspective? (photo by Jeffrey Dungen, Unsplash) __________ Manuela Zeitlhofer | Authenticity & Mental Fitness Coach
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27Jun 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Edison and the Light Bulb

Mindfulness, Problem Solving
Failure is a natural part of the creative process! Thomas Edison, the American inventor, is thought of as being one of the most creative and intelligent men in history – and yet, the history books tell us that he attended his school in Michigan for only three months before being expelled at the age of 12 because his teachers thought he was ‘educationally subnormal’. In later years, Edison was to become famous for his saying ‘genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration’. This was certainly true for him in his attempts to convert electricity into light, one of his most famous endeavours. He was reputed to have tried and failed over 1,000 times to perfect the incandescent electric light bulb, and when advised by his colleagues…
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22Jun 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Authenticity

Mindfulness
"The final freedom is choosing to live who you are - especially when it's scary, uncertain, inconvenient, or unpopular." Kim George __________ What would you do differently if you lived every day without fear of the outcome? __________ Manuela Zeitlhofer | Mental Fitness Coach
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20Jun 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

The Star Thrower

Goals, Mindfulness
Do you see your mission and your goals clearly? And how do you feel about small steps – do you give yourself credit for them, do you celebrate your small accomplishments? __________ Story: A man was walking along the beach when he noticed a young boy apparently picking something off the ground and throwing it out into the sea. As the man got closer to the boy he saw that the objects were starfish. And the boy was surrounded by them. For miles and miles all along the shore, there seemed to be millions of them. „Why in the world are you throwing starfish into the water”, he asked the boy as he approached. „If these starfish are on the beach tomorrow morning when the tide goes out they will…
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12May 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Freedom in Between

Mental Fitness, Mindfulness, Personal Development
So often, people feel that they are not in charge of their own lives, that their lives are determined by circumstance, duties and habits. Victor Frankl is said to have shared a thought-provoking perspective: Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor E. Frankl What are your thoughts on that? Please drop me a note. ________________ New and super relevant: I have expanded into Mental Fitness coaching to support lasting change in my clients’ lives. #mentalfitness #personalfreedom #mindfulness #coachmanuelazeitlhofer
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28Jan 2022 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Multiple Perspectives

Connecting with Nature, Getting to know your Coach, Mindfulness, Personal Development
Essentially, things just are. We attribute meaning to things and events. Sometimes we dwell in the negative aspects or implications of something, when there really are other sides to everything. In coaching we use this principle, and we call it reframing: We encourage a different perspective or seeing something in a different light. Today, I did this with my sandpit: Part of our property consists of a former sandpit that was left in its soil-deprived state. For the past 25 years, nothing more than a few tough grasses, willows and even fewer very tough pines and cedars (all looking like bonsais) have been growing here. In the summer, this bothers my agriculturalist’s heart. Now, with a little bit of snow, the steep banks make marvelous sliding hills. And I wonder…
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24Nov 2021 by Manuela Zeitlhofer 1 Comment

Everything Has Two Sides

Mindfulness, Personal Development, Philosophy
I repainted my mailbox. It looks like new, but the flag is not installed properly yet (long story). When I inspected it today, contemplating how to solve the issue, I noticed beautiful ice crystals on the north-facing side of the mailbox. The south-facing side was steaming in the sunlight. I was thinking how everything has two sides: literally and metaphorically speaking. If we accept that our perspective can only be subjective, and that every situation has different aspects to it, then we have to accept that we might not always sit on the sunny side of a reality. And if that is the case, we could infer that there IS indeed a sunn(ier) side to things. How does that strike you? By the way, as a life coach I can…
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16Nov 2021 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Freedom Choices

Cultural Awareness, Mindfulness, Personal Development
I keep thinking about my fellow Austrians. My country of birth seems divided and propaganda is driving the wedge even deeper. Thinking about our collective history, I am concerned where this might lead (again). What comes after the division? Segregation? Finding a scapegoat? Then what? I keep thinking about this dilemma. And I want to understand. So please come along and let’s ask some questions. The situation as it presents itself to me in the stories I hear and read from people I know: The government is taking away some of our freedoms, and we feel restricted. Some of us fight by being obstinate or by complaining. Others, in a more inward-directed way, are being unhappy. A few might be involved in constructive political activism; others trust that our countries’…
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13Oct 2021 by Manuela Zeitlhofer No Comments

Less Knowing More Being

Connecting with Nature, Mindfulness, Personal Development, Philosophy
Sometimes I wonder about the scope of our awareness. My ego does not agree, but my intuition tells me that there is more than I can perceive. Nature taught me a valuable lesson about that: I have been baffled many times by the perseverance of ants, walking back and forth on their established routes, carrying up to twenty (!) times their body weight. I kept thinking about their world view: What do they see? What do they perceive the world to be? And where does the world as they know it end? While I am aware that the average ant might not be thinking those thoughts, I inferred that their world view is probably more limited than ours. Yet, they might confidently state: “This is how the world is!” We…
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