The importance of doing what you love!

I am extremely lucky to be able to do what I love, for me it is creating artwork! I find that all of the pieces I create are an extension of myself, how I feel, and what inspires me.  This passion of mine is a wonderful form of stress relief and meditation, I am overwhelmed with the love I am shown for what I create and overjoyed that individuals see the beauty that I am trying to create with my pieces.

When I think about my art pieces being displayed in each individuals (or interior designer's) space they are creating it brings me a great sense of not only accomplishment but also happiness to think it is bringing enjoyment and a sense of beauty from what I have created. 

I believe that when you regularly do something that you love you gain mental health balance, by stimulating your endorphins which gives a greater sense of being whole and balanced.

Recently I have started experimenting with designing and putting my artwork on various pieces of clothing (all mine).  This has had a surprising and ongoing outcome for my creative side, I am finding that pieces of clothing that I have not worn for a long time are now becoming favourites again (with a new lease of life and look to them).  The other bonus of this is I am saving heaps on not having to purchase items to refresh my wardrobe!

I now have my sights set on creating some beautiful one off cushion covers that compliment my art pieces - I am extremely excited to get creating!!!

Another area I love and am so lucky to be able to do is helping business owners and employees through my consulting business.  Being able to inspire, assist when there are communication issues, educating for growth and working on positive business culture gives me so much satisfaction  every day (even when I have to perform difficult conversations or performance management).  I am lucky that I am able to see the results of my consulting work, seeing positive outcomes and enthusiasm every day!

The point of sharing this with you is to inspire you to really think about what you love doing and start doing it!  You never really know where it will take you but the journey is wonderful as well as good for your mental health. 

So I will post a couple of my art pieces so you can see what I do through my 'Designs by GML' business.  If you want to see more, head over to my facebook page @designsbygml or Instagram - Designs by GML or even my website: http:designsbygml.wordpress.com

Hope you have a wonderful day and find and start doing what you love!!!
Mary-Lou xxx

Love is Love!

So here in Australia we are about to go through a postal vote about legalising same sex marriage by reforming the Marriage Act, the vote is not compulsory and voting slips will be sent to all citizens who are registered to vote.

As John Lennon so eloquently put it:

 "It matters not who you love, where you love, when you love, it matters only that you love". 

This was posted on Instagram and Facebook by a beautiful friend, Mel, who also stated the following:

"People created marriage, but none of us created love.....and that's the only definition we should be looking to in this debate".

 I wholeheartedly agree Mel, as she finished in her post:

"we get to be the generation that voted for LOVE".

To the LGBTI Community or as I like to call them 'Friends', I am so sorry that the Australian Government is making you feel less than you are.  You, and everyone person has the right to live your life, your way, loving who you love.  Love is love, love conquers all and I as well as many other Australian people stand with you.

Sadly I have overheard or seen posted a number of people state that they intend to ignore the vote when sent to them as a form of protest of not supporting the Australian Government spending their money on this vote, they see the Government as wasting years debating an issue that has an inevitable outcome and they just want them to get it done.

Anyone in this mindset I urge you DO NOT WASTE YOUR VOTE BY NOT VOTING!!!  Essentially if you do this the Australian Government will not see this action as a form of silent protest, they will basically say that for each person not voting, those people mean they want things to stay the same!  By not voting you are basically forfeiting your right to have a say........We are extremely lucky in this country to have the rights to have a say, do not give this up!!!

So to all of my Australian fellow country men/women, please take this opportunity, vote and lets make history as Mel so beautifully put it, and lets be the generation that voted for LOVE and make sure equality for all is in our future!!

With love and hope for the future
Mary-Lou xxx

WOW! It's nearly end of financial year and I've been incredibly slack in writing my Blog....but with good reason!!

Hi there everyone,
Firstly, sorry it has been soo long since I last posted a Blog!  What I have been up to.......... So on reflection I now have 3 businesses!!!!  I know, perhaps I need my head read but I am so passionate about all of these businesses.

As you all know I formed a company with Simone Conboy called Sana Vita Pty Ltd, head over to our website and check us out :) www.sanavita.net.au.  We have been doing some training and have in particular been working in the Prison system trialling some resilience training with really great results!  Ultimately to enable a person to make informed and what we would class as good and non-harmful decisions we need to go back to the basics and give people the tools to work on themselves and their thought processes.  We have worked on challenging their long held harmful self beliefs and really help them by giving them tools to replace those thoughts and enable them to make good informed decisions in the future!  Our other area we are very passionate about is prevention and are hoping that we can implement some of this training in schools and for youth to avoid loss of resilience and poor choices in the future!

My second business is MLG Consulting, I have for the past 5 or so years done some freelance business consulting, utilising my 20+ years of experience in Management/Leadership positions coupled with my formal MBA studies.  I have finally formalised what I do and offer, primarily most businesses that I work with are struggling with HR (People) issues, poor work behaviours including bullying/harassment, non-performance, employment contracts, policy and procedure writing and implementation, generally people management!  I've also helped with Management/Leadership Mentoring, business strategy forming and setting as well as events management.  I absolutely love the feeling I get when I'm able to help a business get back on track and concentrate on delivering their business results they want.  Website: www.mlgconsulting.co  or Facebook: MLG Consulting

My third business if Designs by GML - my passion :)  This business started out as my form of meditation and stress relief.  I design, draw, paint Mandalas with a bit of a twist.  As I was doing this and sharing my designs I was regularly getting messages asking if I would sell some of these, so I took the giant leap of faith, along with much support from my family and friends and started Designs by GML.  To date I have sent artwork interstate, intrastate and overseas!!!!!  The artwork I have sent has been specifically designed for the individual and the special occasion it was required for.  I have loved the process of consulting with each client to ensure the art piece suits their desired results, the feedback I get once they receive their piece of artwork is wonderful.  A really exciting  upcoming event I have is where i have been asked to be one of the Artists in Residence for the upcoming SALA Festival (in South Australia).  More specifically my artwork will be on display and for purchase at the Mannum Dock Museum throughout August 2017 and I will be attending on a date yet to be sorted as the Artist in Residence, when general public when attending can talk to me and watch me design one or two pieces.  Whilst this is in some respects quite scary for me as I am not formally trained I am also extremely excited to experience it and meet people.  I am soo thankful that I was approached and given the opportunity to be involved, just goes to show things happen when you least expect them!.
Facebook: Designs by GML  @designsbygml  Instagram: Designs by GML

So, I have decided to share a couple of my artwork pieces here, if you want to see more just head to my Facebook or Instagram page and check them out :)

So I guess my message is this........chase your dreams, just go for it because you just never know where it may take you.  I will definitely be trying to schedule in more time to blog more regularly going forward.  Remember you can achieve what you want, you just need to try!!

Love
Mary-Lou xxx

2017!!! Feels like I blinked and missed 2016!

So here we are.........February 2017 and I am having a slight panic attack!!!  Since when did time start passing so quickly?

Yes I know it's been quite a long time since I posted, however I feel that during this time I have started to really work out what is important and what is not (for me!)  In the past twelve months I have been going through the ups and downs of commencing a business.  The anxiety of not have a regular income, convincing people of what I truly believe in, whilst still trying to be a good wife and mum and all that entails.

Business wise - Sana Vita Pty Ltd.  My business partner (Simone) and I launched this business after working in the Health Sector and seeing on a daily basis what is contributing to increased levels of stress and as a result extremely poor health outcomes for so many individuals.  When we really analysed what is going on everything kept pointing back to extremes and ever increasing lack of resilience as the tipping point for downward spiralling in all areas of individuals lives.  Simone has a background and qualifications in nutrition and physical activity whilst I hold qualifications in training and change/knowledge management.

So, with great enthusiasm and confidence we have spent inordinate amounts of hours designing training for both individuals and organisations to regain resilience, ensuring we covered all aspects required (nutrition, mental health, physical activity as well as dealing effectively and personally with change).  You see, we know, having been in the health industry that there was nothing out there effectively giving people the tools to take control of their own resilience and therefore claim back their own health and mental health balance. We also know, through actual experience, and what we have observed, that the way forward for the world is to teach these skills to the youth of today to ensure we can slow the ever increasing mental health issues coming to the fore as well as assisting in prevention of chronic diseases for the future.

Turns out that the agonising, constant rewriting of content, consulting with professionals and testing of materials was the easy part!!!  As with anyone in this day and age, we actually have to be earning some income, to continue on this path we both totally believe in.  So with absolute confidence in our products and knowledge we hit the market in a variety of ways (email, phone, face to face meetings etc).  Additionally, knowing our absolute passion was to help youth and highly disadvantaged individuals, we also started trawling through tenders and grant applications that aligned with achieving what we believe we can through this type of education/training.  We have written a number of tender and grant applications (quite long and involved with extremely strict time frames for submission) and are currently waiting on outcomes of our applications.  Interestingly whilst there are very strict criteria and time frames you must abide by to apply, it appears once submitted you are totally at the mercy of the (in most cases) Government Departments and their extremely slow processes.

So where am I at now?  Whilst just about every person I have spoken to agree's that it is critical for people to start looking after or reclaiming their resilience, turns out that most people are not willing to invest in themselves internally or businesses seem to be investing in patching their 'broken' human assets rather than working on the core of the issues they are experiencing.  Many businesses are identifying increased absenteeism, increased workcover claims and a significant lowering of staff morale however aren't yet at the point of realising that until they address the 'core' of their issues they will continuously only 'patch' the problems.  Similarly with individuals, they are happy to invest in external products (clothing, creams, shoes etc etc) in order to make them feel better but fail to realise that feeling is only fleeting unless the internal is addressed.  Yes we have delivered some training and worked with some marginalised individuals all with fantastic outcomes however we are still waiting on funding decisions of the government and for businesses and individuals to realise that investing in this will be the best decision they can make for themselves and their futures.  As for our incomes, that is at best extremely unreliable and fairly sparse.

Now don't get me wrong, we are definitely not giving up!!!  We have both had to go back to our own training to ensure our resilience remains strong, yes we are extremely frustrated, yes we would both like some assurity financially however our belief in this is so resolute that neither one of us can even contemplate not remaining on this path.  Yes we may need to look at alternate employment for short periods of time in order to take some of the financial burden off our families supporting us, but we will continue on this very necessary and we believe needed path!

Personally, during the past 12 months, I have had to adjust to working from home, and whilst that sounds wonderful for most people, what I found was that I had a tendency to work longer hours, there was no separation of business vs personal time (no office off site) and yes flexibility has been and  is fantastic, I have been able to schedule my time to make sure I was present for all of the important  things in my son's life.  But, I started thinking about the quality of my down or 'family' time and found that I wasn't mentally 'present' a lot of the time, constantly having my mind on our start up business and what I need to do.  Additionally I have recognised I have spent less and less time with friends, almost living in a hermit state unless I am doing something with my family.  Time seems to pass at a extremely rapid pace and I need to start gaining some more balance in my life in this area in particular.

So 2017, here is what I am aiming to achieve!  To continue pushing forward with our business and train and educate individuals in how to either regain their resilience or how to remain resilient.  Look for opportunities to do some either part time or contract work to help ease the burden financially on my husband (I'm quite excited about this as I would love to brush up my skills and keep them current in many areas).  I will also try and make a conscious decision to reconnect better and more consistently with my friends whilst also working on being 'present' not only physically but also mentally when with my family and friends!!!

Life is hard sometimes, it really is true that when you work hard for something you really appreciate it more when you achieve something.  My mantra is to believe in myself and never give up but to do it whilst never loosing sight of 'finding the beauty in every day'!  Hope you have a wonderful 2017!