For the last 20 years, Nick Fewings has been working with teams around the world to motivate and inspire them to transform how they work,  and so achieve even greater success. He has also shared his knowledge and experience of teamwork at many conferences, providing delegates with practical tips and suggestions on how to increase their team’s effectiveness.

Asked, “Have you written a book about how to achieve high performance teamwork?” His answer has always been no, but that has all changed.

Team Lead Succeed is for anyone who works in a team and wants to make a positive difference to the effectiveness of their teamwork. It provides tools, learning and practical suggestions to help teams achieve even greater success by understanding both WHO is in their team and HOW effective their teamwork is.

Team Lead Succeed helps teams appreciate those areas of their teamwork that are working well, while also highlighting areas that could be working better and need to be shared with the whole team, discussed and if agreed, changed.

As I read it, I thought about this, and  I  feel I could have used it when my kids were teenagers… It might have stopped me from tearing my hair out. Most useful, readable and sound.  Nick says “I believe everyone in a team has a voice, which needs to be heard, especially when things aren’t working as well as they should be. After all, nothing will change if you do not take action and speak up.”

  Author Nick Fewings, Director of Ngagementworks, has for the last 20 years facilitated team development. He calls himself a teamologist, someone who specialises in the study of the dynamics of teamwork, using this knowledge to help teams become more effective.

Nick is also the creator of the Team DyNAmics Model, used by teams to measure their effectiveness in 16 areas of teamwork. This allows teams to understand whether they are dysfunctional, average or high performing.

So back to this book,  Team, Lead, Succeed.

Read it, learn from Nick’s experiences as a worldwide team coach. Be guided, we don’t have to make ALL the mistakes in order to make a better job of it when this is on hand.

Team Lead Succeed by Nick Fewings is out now.

Kate’s book grabbed me in the first few lines:

‘Menopause is transformative…an opportunity to evolve & grow. Menopause is a loud call to re-evaluate who we think we are, and to become our true selves with authenticity & grace.’

‘Yes!’ I thought & grabbed my highlighter, I knew I was going to like this book.

Kate Codrington  invites the reader to consider the seasons of our life like the seasons of our year: active & adventurous in Spring & Summer, quieter, more inwards in the Autumn & Winter, emerging, reborn if you like, into our Second Spring.

Peri-menopause is our Autumn phase, menopause our Winter stage. We are being called to slow down, turn inwards, take stock, re-evaluate. This is something I absolutely believe in.

Taking the time to nurture & nourish ourselves in our Autumn & Winter stages allows us to emerge again with vitality, vibrance & a lust for life.

Kate takes us on a holistic journey, exploring the psychological & physical issues as well as the emotional, mental, spiritual aspects of the separation encountered during peri-meno; surrender during the menopause & emergence of post-menopause.

It’s broken into short, really easy to digest sections, quotes, anecdotes, so it’s really easy to pick up when you have 5 minutes & just as easy to get lost in. I went through 3 highlighters reading it!

There are facts & figures, tips & advise & down to earth suggestions of a more traditional & more holistic approach.

In my own meno journey, I had very little experience of menopause until it was apparent I was up to my ears in it. As soon as I started talking to friends I realized I wasn’t alone. I started doing lots of research & doing the work: turning inwards, slowing down, making changes so that I could live my best life for the rest if my life.

But I had never really considered my peri-meno journey. Having been diagnosed over a decade ago with severe agitated depression, I had however begun to question this diagnosis, as I began to understand that many women are misdiagnosed with mental health issues in their peri-menopause.

Reading Kate’s own description of being peri-menopausal with babies resonated so profoundly with my own experience. Finally something made sense. I carried a lot of shame for being a bad mum, letting everyone down, unable to cope when in fact I was experiencing the peri-menopause. Wow that was powerful – such a relief, finally I could let go of all those old story lines.

Kate also offers practices to try out at the end of each chapter. In all honesty, I have a good solid self-care practice. I know what works for me & I’m unapologetic about claiming the time for this. So I definitely got more from the body of the book than these sections.

However, if you don’t prioritize yourself regularly, try not to be overwhelmed by the suggestions, pick one that resonates & give it a go. Nurturing & nourishing yourself through this transition is absolutely key.

At the end of the day, I always think if you come away with a couple of good ideas from a book like this it’s done its job.

So, what have I come away with? A great deal & can’t recommend this book more highly because even if you’re not menopausal, I bet you know someone who is – after all approx. 1/3 of the female population are estimated to be surfing their Autumn, Winter or Second Spring phase.

I love Kate’s vision for the menopause, it’s absolutely what I believe in;  embracing this life changing transition as an opportunity to create a life you absolutely love, because you are absolutely worth it.

Buy it, learn from it. I have.

Second Spring by Kate Codrington. Available from all good book stores and online too.

If you would like to find out more Alex Bannard and a creating your own self-care practices check out Alex’s FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindfulnessyoga4selfcare

Or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexbannard/

Incorporate short yoga sequences & meditations as part of your self-care toolkit with guided practices on Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQlKZJ7MeyYc6lqkv6seISw

For more info check out www.alexbannard.com

Alex is based on the edge of the stunning Cotswolds & has been sharing her love for all things yoga & mindfulness for almost a decade, not just in the UK but also around the world. Having used her training & knowledge to navigate her own menopausal journey & create a life in which she is thriving, Alex is devoted in supporting other’s in this life changing transition.

If ever there was a time for comfort food, (as opposed to comfort eating,) it is probably now, battered by the elements, courtesy of various storms and stubbornly low temperatures, I want a healthy, but robust breakfast in the morning and a tasty dessert in the evening. Yes, even during the week.

Fortunately, Lizi’s Low Sugar Nuts & Seeds Granola is capable of fulfilling both of these demands

With less than 2g of sugar per 50g serving, this granola is perfect for anyone trying to keep their sugar intake low this Winter, without having to compromise on taste and texture. In fact, had I not read the label, I would not be aware of this, as it was so well balanced even to my sweet tooth.

Lizi’s Granola is full of pecans, almonds, toasted oats, and sunflower, pumpkin seeds and desiccated coconut, presenting a bowl full of flavour without sacrificing nutrition.

Bake it in the oven for a warming bowl of happiness on a dark morning, or simply top with a favourite yoghurt for a quick fix before the morning commute.

The versatility of this Granola really comes to the fore when making a quick and easy recipe for Maple baked Pears with Granola Crumb. Pears baked in the oven with Maple syrup, butter and topped with granola crumb can be prepared and on the table within 40 minutes and that includes the 10 minutes preparation time.

So, whilst the cold weather persists, and even when it gets better this hot dessert accompanied with crème fraiche or sour cream will certainly fill the gap.

Lizi’s Breakfast Range is available from Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Ocado, Asda, Morrisons, Whole Foods, Co-Op, Booths and all good health stores.

Low Sugar Nuts & Seeds – RRP £3.89 for 500g.

Joffe’s  book of the week this week is MIDNIGHT LIES, the utterly gripping new detective mystery from #1 bestselling author Chris Collett.

Secrets, lies, bodies. Nothing stays buried forever . . .   On an abandoned campsite in Norfolk, developers unearth a human skeleton. The remains are those of an eighteen-year-old girl. Her name was Robina Scanlon — a blast from the past that shocks Detective Tom Mariner to his core.   Back in the summer of 1976, a teenage Mariner fell in love with Robina. He thought she was the one who got away. Now he realises she never even left. What happened to his his first love? As midnight approaches, someone out there will do anything to keep the past buried.

This really is an intensely gripping book.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY OF MIDNIGHT LIES BY CHRIS COLLETT FOR JUST 99P | 99C.

Murder under the Palms by Paula Lennon 99p/99c

The beautiful Caribbean Sea laps lazily against the verandah where Jamaican Supreme Court Judge Everton Wrenn lies dead. Someone strangled him with their bare hands.  But who wanted to squeeze the life out of him? Detectives Raythan Preddy and Sean Harris are determined to find out . . .

A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB PICK.

A Welsh Murder Mystery Box set 1-4 by Cathy Ace for just 99p/99c

This appealed to me enormously. So, let’s meet the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency . . .
in  FOUR brilliant cozy mysteries set in Wales, filled with humour, suspense, and brilliant characters, in one great value box set. Just what we need to lift us at this dramatic moment in world events.

The Langstone Harbour Murders  by Pauline Rowson  99p/99c

The headmistress of a school is found brutally murdered in Portsmouth’s Langstone Harbour. The evidence points to a killer who wanted to leave a very clear message.  Renegade detective Andy Horton finds himself in a race against time to stop the killer. As the clock ticks, he is forced to make a decision that will put his life on the line . . .

Heavens, Langstone Harbour used to be an old stamping ground of mine – if only I’d known what lurked beneath the surface!!!

And finally, exciting news from team Joffe.

Joffe announces  the acquisition of four gripping psychological thrillers from Amazon Top Ten bestselling author Patricia MacDonald, author of From Cradle to Grave, Cast Into Doubt, and Missing Child. They will be sharing them with us soon.  Can’t wait.

Honestly, Joffe is a force of nature as it brings us such a wide selection of new books each week. Those I have picked are just a few. Go to Joffe Books for more.

A highly  imaginative  mystery-thriller that sees a group of friends set out on a mission to unite the Three Kingdoms – one of animals, one of flora and one of humans –  to fight the terrifying threat from the sinister Dr Slatane De’Aff and his master Qnevilus, the evil  ruler of the Alterworld, who are intent on destroying planet earth and any gainsayers.

There are twists and turns galore, imaginative leaps to land the reader on another level of understanding, with yet another open door to enter. A  tour de force of improbable happenings, or are they improbable?  You decide. Aimed at Young Adults but works for the adult reader too.

This is a meaty book, and a journey, and a great idea for holiday reading.

F.L Ying was inspired by his daughter Tanya, who designed and built the main characters of the story in the first place.

‘The idea happened purely by accident, maybe by chance! A long time ago, my daughter Tanya desgned and  made several life-size figures at Art College as  film/stage props. One of them – her favourite, was a harlequin with a happy cheerful face… She called the figure Chance – a figure full of fun and laughter.’

Read and enjoy. A Dangerous Riddle of Chance by F L Ying.  £8.99

ISBN 9781913551988.

Lockdown has, I believe, made us consider ‘community’ and over the months I have remembered our lives as children just post war, the rationing, the making do, the repayment of the country’s debt, the lack of complaint allowed by our parents. Why? Because we had been born too late to be part of the  generation of kids evacuated from their homes as the skies filled with bombers. We were not delivered by trains to bunk in with strangers in small villages for years, with some schooling if lucky, often half days, as the local children had the morning, the evacuees the afternoon. No online teaching for them. And while they were in rural areas, frequently their mothers were  victims of the bombing. Consequently we post-war kids were aware we were the lucky ones.

I remembered going to the corner shop with mum, holding out our ration cards for sweets. Boiled or liquorice I seem to remember. I remembered my mum chatting to everyone else who was registered at the corner shop, their ration cards at the ready too. Corner shops were a community asset. Corner shops were part of our lives, and then the supermarkets landed.

But… But … In Carlton Miniott a step from Thirsk , there is a corner shop, not admittedly on the corner, but it is a precious wonderful community asset. Carlton Stores and Post Ofice is family owned, there they all are, with a couple of helpers, but it is on Jack I inflict myself most often though they are all glad to see us, all glad to laugh with us, chat with us. In masks still , as the family cannpt afford to become unwell for who would run this priceless asset?

So, come with me, down the path, and into this world of wonders. Dad makes their very own coleslaw. I eat too much, we all do, it is scrumptious, and not a calorie included. Ho hum

.                                                              

You need a birthday card? There, over to the right, just along from the newspapers, and we have loyalty cards for well – cards, ‘There you go,’ Jack says. Stamp goes the -well – stamper. When full, we have a free card. So peruse the great choice carefully. But don’t take up too much room for it is here   we queue for the Post Office part. The queue gives one time to check the padded envelopes, and gather up cellotape from the shelves to your right,  and on the other side; biscuits and  cakes. And there they are – Grandma Wild’s Shortbread biscuits – again calorie free Dick has decided because he eats LOTS.

Bought your stamps, have you, and posted your parcels, had a chat with whoever in the family is behind the perspex shield? So move on with me round the centre aisle. Bread? Yes. Ibuprofen ? Yes.

Here are the fridge cabinets – independent cheese makers?  Oh, yes please, and there is wine for the evening, and in the cool cabinet behind which Jack is waiting are Jones’s deep pies. My friends, deep means deep. Chunky steak, and chunky chicken means chunky.  The best we’ve ever tasted, yes really. so home they come.

Then the ham. ‘Just two slices please, Jack.’

Swish goes the slicer. Something to read in the evening? A bookcase to your left as you wait to know  how much to pay. But you give what you want for the books, they are donated for charity. Raffles with proceeds to charity take place near to the hot food cabinet, which is empty  of pies, pasties and so on, once  the blokes in hi-viz jackets and others have popped in. Hot drink too? Here you go. There are knitted toys now Easter is entering people’s consciousness.

Chat chat to Jack, or whoever else is there, then home. On the way a neighbour shares with me that if a regular fails to appear the family make  sure all is well. My daughter came from the south to see us. ‘It looks like the front room of their house, and they treated us like friends come to see them for a chat.’

‘That, my girl,’ I said, ‘Is called a corner shop.’   ‘You must cherish it,’ she said. ‘Oh we do,’ I reassured her.

Carlton Miniott – lucky lucky us. We have a proper corner shop, one with a heart, one that every community should have.

Many, many years ago, I picked up a book in the Barbican Centre bookshop because I liked the painting on the cover and the title: Stately Pursuits. I had never heard of the author, Katie Fforde, but my usual technique of reading a random page led me to buy the book, and then her previous three books, and I think I have read pretty well all of them since.

Back in the last century, light romantic reading (mainly aimed at women), had not become the huge phenomenon of ‘Chick-lit’ it is today, but Katie Fforde has managed the impressive feat of riding the wave and has produced a book a year ever since. From canal boats to auction houses to celebrity chefs, she has explored many settings, always turning them into places where her heroines could find love.

Katie Fforde is now exploring a new time period with her latest two books, moving from modern day back to the 1960’s. Although it meant more research into the period for her, perhaps it is a relief for a romantic novelist not to have to deal with awkward modern inventions like mobile phones. Imagine An Affair to Remember if Deborah Kerr had just been able to What’sApp Cary Grant – ‘I’ve had an accident – meet me at the hospital’ instead of suffering for all those years apart. I enjoyed the simpler feel and felt she used the descriptions of the clothes as a very good way of getting the sense of the period.

Set in late summer 1963, A Wedding In Provence follows the adventures of Alexandra, a young heiress at the mercy of distant relatives, who whilst trying to stay in Paris, accidentally becomes nanny to three children in a chateau in Provence. She arrives to find the housekeeper has departed, a stove she can’t light, and the children are at first hostile (shades of The Sound of Music), but she gradually wins them over. Add in a handsome Count, some wonderful friends to help her out of fixes, a selfish ex-wife and some glorious food (she is really very good at food) and you have a very pleasant novel filled with delightful characters to while away a Sunday afternoon with. Also perfect if you happen to be confined to bed. I would recommend a large pot of tea and some French pastries as well. Warning: you will want croissants after reading this book.

Century   Hardback £14.99 and e-Book

One of my favourite daily mindful practices is to go out for a walk, just me & the dog, no phone, just us & nature. I absolutely relish it. It’s my happy place.

I had my first ever panic attack on a dog walk, I literally thought I was dying & didn’t know what on earth was going on. I thought I was having a heart attack. I was terrified. At the time I was cycling 20-30kms a week, doing yoga, I couldn’t have been fitter at 50. So I just couldn’t believe it was a heart attack.

I was beginning to realise that the chaos of the previous year or so wasn’t because I was going mad like I thought, but was more likely caused by the menopause. I thought I had sailed through the menopause because in my head I was Peter Pan. I was in denial. Big time.

So I started investigating my symptoms, talking to professionals, other women & friends & realised it wasn’t just me & I probably wasn’t going mad, it was probably menopause.

I briefly considered going holistic & investing in some flower petals to solve it…but I was so lost  that I realised a few rose petals was just not going to cut it. In the end I resorted to HRT (that is another story).

But I also realised I couldn’t heal & get better in the environment I was living in which had become really toxic & unhealthy, so we moved again (for the 4^th time in 3 years). And so began the recovery which has evolved into an amazing journey of self-discovery & spiritual growth. And now I feel better than ever.

But I digress. I was beginning to think what I had experienced on my dog walk had been a panic attack because I’d experienced more & talked to friends. One shared an article about the links between alcohol, caffeine, the menopause & anxiety. I barely drank anymore…one glass & my filter was right off & things were fragile enough. So I ditched the caffeine & had another ah ha moment: I had had a panic attack. And it was fuelled by the menopause.

So using my mindfulness training I started to recognise the physical signs my body was giving me when the anxiety started to rise. I was particularly mindful not to drink coffee to exacerbate it. I would ground myself, connecting my feet into the floor to centre & balance myself physically. Then I would gently challenge my thoughts & remind myself: this is just menopause, it’s not real, this is just anxiety, it’s not real, it’s not real – until I felt calm.

And I only had to do that a couple of times & my panic attacks were over.

And that is the power of a mindfulness practice. All those frustrated meditations at the beginning when I thought I was doing it wrong, and therefore I was failing, I was learning & when I really needed it I had the answers & could solve the problem.

Sadly, the menopause being what it is, the anxiety passed but now my happy place was being sabotaged by suicidal thoughts. I would stand by the farm gate onto the bypass that ran alongside the fields willing myself to step in front of a lorry. I felt a failure & didn’t know another way out.

Thankfully again a logical, mindful voice of reason would remind me: these are not the thoughts of a happy healthy mind, these are the thoughts of an unhappy, unhealthy mind, no need to act on them. I  must not believe everything I think. And I would not only step away from those thoughts in my head & become more of an observer to them but I would also literally step backwards & walk away with those replacement mindful words reverberating in my head.

And again I repeated this process several times & I just stopped doing it or even thinking about it.

And all this was possible because as my practice developed, I learnt more & grew. What’s more, I kept practicing even if I didn’t think I needed to. And as my practice evolved so did a much more profound conscious awareness of how I was feeling, what I was thinking, how I was behaving & being.

I believe thoughts are energy. So it makes sense to me to be more mindful of my thoughts & the quality of them because only I can change the way I am thinking. And in changing the way I am thinking, this changes the things I am doing & how I am being. This has changed my life.

And yes 18 months or so ago I would have said I was at the end  of my tether. But I have learnt so much, healed, transformed and now I feel better than ever. I am grateful for my meno journey for it broke me into a million pieces to allow the light in, to quote another Rumi favourite  & make space for this growth & healing.

And you know it is possible for you to learn how to bring a more mindful approach into your life & to learn how to meditate & how these beautiful practices can literally change your life in the same way they have & continue to change my life.

If you would like to find out more about creating your own self-care practices check out Alex’s FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindfulnessyoga4selfcare

Or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexbannard/

Incorporate short yoga sequences & meditations as part of your self-care toolkit with guided practices on Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQlKZJ7MeyYc6lqkv6seISw

For more info check out www.alexbannard.com

Alex is based on the edge of the stunning Cotswolds & has been sharing her love for all things yoga & mindfulness for almost a decade, not just in the UK but also around the world. Having used her training & knowledge to navigate her own menopausal journey & create a life in which she is thriving, Alex is devoted in supporting other’s in this life changing transition.