Such wisdom from this little bear, how could I let Winnie the Pooh Day go by without acknowledging some thoughts from his and his friends…

1. “The things that make me different, are the things that make me, me.” These were actually words from Piglet, but when I often find myself talking about our authentic self and the unique gifts we bring to the world, how could I leave this off the list! Sometimes we don’t want to be different, we do what we can to fit in, to align.  I have had a core belief around being different.  When I got to a place where I embraced any differences I felt, I was more accepting of me, and therefore was not striving to get that approval or acceptance from anywhere else.

2. “If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”  Winnie the Pooh said.  In our instant world, we can have expectations and timeframes of when we think we should have a response by, we can see someone has read a message, so why haven’t they replied?  

I remember a friend saying that she enjoys taking the time to respond fully, rather than a quick response, or maybe someone is busy, doesn’t have the capacity at that point to reply, or maybe simply they are focused on that small piece of fluff….

3. Ah and Eeyore, believing that “it never hurts to keep looking for sunshine.”  Even in our darkest days and Eeyore’s we can find something, however small, to be grateful for.  The more we keep looking for the sunshine, the wholesome things in our life, the things we can give thanks for, it can help to shift our focus from some of the struggles we are facing.

4. I remember speaking to a coach once and saying that I had done my vision board and was putting my intentions out each day etc and she said that was great, and went on to ask what actions I was taking….  Winnie the Pooh was on to it….  “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”  We can have dreams and goals, but yes, we need to get out of our corner of the Forest and take the steps to make them happen….

5. “Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”  I cannot emphasise this one enough.  Last year I came clearer on the difference between headspace and heartspace, how easy it is for our headspace to take over some of that creative, nurturing heartspace, and how essential it is sometimes to simply do nothing…

6. What an awesome morning intention – “I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?”  It can be so easy to let our story reel keep running from the night before, the day before, the week, the month, the year, morning intentions can help us break that reel and get our mind focussing on something else, as Piglet says, something far more exciting!

7. When you’ve got Piglet setting morning intentions like that and then “you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen,” you know that the people around you are living lives aligned to their core values, showing up, being courageous, wanting to make the most out of it.  Big adventures, whatever they mean to you, may not be every day occurrences, but are they happening often enough in your world, and could you line up some smaller adventures in the meantime?

8. “I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been.”  Whether it is a change we are wanting to make, a change that is brought in to our world, that we may not have control over, or a change when we are seizing an opportunity, it always involves leaving where we once were and that takes courage and whatever size steps are most suited to us at that time….

9. “Tiggers never go on being sad,” Rabbit observed.  I wonder whether that is to do with the amount of bouncing Tiggers do…  Just think of what Tigger could release through all the physical activity, whether it be sadness, grief, frustrations, anger….  As a society, we are often told to suck it up, get on with it, get over it.  This ends up with us holding on to things that are truly not serving us, I often talk to clients about finding their ways to safely release what they are carrying.  I think Rabbit is on to something!

10. Finishing off with some words on resilience from Owl – “If the string breaks, then we try another piece of string.”