PEP Weekly

Genuine Chats with Gina - Why Worry?

Gina Gardiner Oct 16, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

What are you worrying about? Because I bet there is something that you're worried about isn't there? We all do it - mithering and picking at things that 'might' happen. But how helpful has this worrying ever been to you? Why do we do it? Worrying must have some sort of use, else why would it exist? But how helpful is it really? Let's talk about this in today's Genuine Chat with Gina; bring your current worries and together we will work out if your worry is founded, unfounded, useful or useless.

Genuine Chats with Gina - What is Wisdom?

Gina Gardiner Oct 2, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

What do you think 'wisdom' is? What does that mean to you and how do you see your wisdom appearing in your day to day life? Perhaps you think of wisdom as the slow accumulation of knowledge and experience? Perhaps always having the latest fact and figure at your fingertips makes you feel wise? Or maybe your version of wisdom is a lifelong search for truths. Truths that connect you to the divinity of your own humanity and to nature and the big wide universe and help you find a divine grace to the way you live your life and give it meaning. Perhaps that is what wisdom is to you? Well, I am going to chat this through with my good friend Rachel - we're going to be two wise women having a wise chat. I hope you join us and lend us your wisdom too

Genuine Chats with Gina - How to Cure the Learned Helplessness Epidemic

Gina Gardiner Sep 18, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

How to cure the epidemic of learned helplessness? This is what I have decided to chat about today with my good friend Rachel. I'm currently working towards the launch of a new and exciting leadership programme and also working with lots of businesses helping them solve their management and leadership issues. I get to see a *lot* of learned helplessness in these workplaces. Essentially the teams have been 'trained', albeit inadvertently, by their leaders to do exactly the opposite of what the managers say they want their staff to be! They have learned to always ask the boss first, they have learned that taking a risk, even a considered one, is not worth it without first running it past the boss. They have learned to stick to what they know is safe and not risk the potential of the boss's disapproval. Yet, to a one, each of the 'bosses' talk of wanting a team that is proactively using their individual creativity, their intelligence and their greater knowledge of the 'front-line' for the good of the business. These bosses talk about wanting to create an 'empowered' culture. So how on earth does this gap develop? We're going to chat about it *and* we're going to talk about how it is possible to cure this helplessness epidemic...

Genuine Chats with Gina - Dealing with Abuse

Gina Gardiner Sep 11, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

Today's Genuine Chat we're going to be discussing what many might think of as a difficult topic; Dealing with Abuse. In recent months I have had a concentration of clients who have suffered varying degrees of abuse in their lives. I spend a lot of time working with them gently and consistently to move them into a space where they feel better able to resolve the issues created by the abusive behaviour and in the aftermath of it. My aim is to create a capability in their hearts and minds where they can feel forgiveness. This is often a provocative word though - one might think that forgiving what is unforgivable behaviour is a strange thing for me to encourage abuse survivors to seek! So let me explain what I mean...

Genuine Chats with Gina - Is Silence Golden?

Gina Gardiner Aug 28, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

Good morning! Today's Genuine Chat with Gina (me!) considers the question "Is Silence Golden?" I'm curious to chat through when it can be a good thing to remain silent rather than speak one's mind, to speak up and speak out. If you are anything like me then you will no doubt have experienced that moment of thinking of the perfect retort that you should have made 30 minutes ago to that person who was being rude or thoughtless (why is it always 30 minutes after the event?!). There are definitely times when it is far better for the world that we keep our mouths closed and say nothing. Equally, it can be distinctly unhealthy to never speak up and out, to never allow our own voices and opinions to be heard. Where's the line? How does one know when is a good moment to break the 'golden' silence? Let's chat about it...

Genuine Chats with Gina - Dreams and their Importance to Happiness

Gina Gardiner Aug 21, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

We're going to be talking today about the importance of DREAMS. I am not (necessarily) talking about our slumbering adventures! I am referring to our hopes and desires, our goals and wishes. Have a think about what your most pressing DREAM is and consider why this is so important to you. What does it fulfill? What desire or thoughts are behind it? What do you imagine the dream when it is achieved will give you (in addition to the achievement of the dream's specifics themselves). Why do we dream of goals and wish for things? What is it that this behaviour indicates about human nature? Let's chat about why having a dream is one of the key aspects of living a happy life. Of getting happy, staying happy and spreading happy!

Genuine Chats with Gina - are you in a relationship with the right person?

Gina Gardiner Aug 16, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

Finding lasting love with the “right” person is high on most people’s wishlist. Finding your ideal partner is just the first challenge knowing whether they are a “keeper” or one to leave before they do any damage is the second and if that wasn’t difficult enough the third and longest challenge is how to maintain a loving inter-dependent relationship over time and through the many significant challenges of daily living. How is it so many people get it so wrong? Why do so many relationships appear to be great at the start but deteriorate often quite quickly into something which is at best disappointing and at worst destructive and toxic?

Genuine Chats with Gina: Wholehearted vs Half-Hearted

Gina Gardiner Aug 7, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

Perhaps it is just my perception, but this week seems to have been full of bad news (both global and personal). So, I have to admit this - I started this day feeling a little half-hearted. Which got me thinking about the state of being half-hearted. How many times do we begin our projects (or our days) with only half our hearts in it? What good does half a heart do for us? Why not put your whole heart into your work, your relationships? Why withhold that other half? What is that withholding about? What difference do you think being fully wholehearted about your work, your relationships, your dreams would make to them? Let's chat this through. Where are you being half-hearted? Why might that be? Where are you being fully wholehearted? Why is that? What does it feel like?

Genuine Chat with Gina - Balance and its link to happiness

Gina Gardiner Jul 31, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

Today's Genuine Chat is about balance. This is a term that in modern parlance is often attached to the "work or life" decisions that we are told it is necessary for us to make. But this is a false dichotomy in my opinion. We need to stop thinking in terms of work being separate from life and rebalance our perspective on what it means to live a productive life. I think the key is to be as balanced as you can possibly be in every aspect of your life. Easy yeah? Hmmm, easier to say, harder to achieve in the moments when choices and decisions are being demanded of us!

Genuine Chats with Gina - Do Ultimatums lead to Happy Relationships?

Gina Gardiner Jul 24, 2019 Genuine Chats 0 comments

It is the day after we have a new prime minister here in the UK. Now then we're not going to get into politics (heavens no!) but it is interesting to see how Boris Johnson seems to have won the electorate within the Conservative Party by sticking to a strong theme of giving Europe an ultimatum - the Brexit no-deal brinkmanship. It got me thinking about how brinkmanship and ultimatums are often used in all sorts of relationships, not just international political posturing! Whilst it might be appreciated by some people as a sign of strength and strong-minded leadership, is setting an ultimatum and pushing things to the brink of... (what? a cliff, a disaster, a radical change?) ... is that a "good" way of behaving. Has it been successful for you? Rachel and I are going to chat about it.