Looking back last week at the whole of our lives from the perspective of our older selves is valuable as it connects us to our spiritual fuel and our values.

When we are creating a conscious programme of change and self-development in our lives it's helpful to look from two different perspectives.

I hope your vision for what you want for yourself is coming together! Over the coming weeks we are going to refine it and start subtly evolving it from dreams into goals.

Want to know something interesting? A spooky number of clients come to see me when they have a big birthday coming up.

Creating a delicious vision of the future is a really interesting, fun process; but some struggle to find the thing that is “their thing’’.

This is a fun exercise. It's also super-powerful. I used to get surprised when clients did this and amazing stuff started to magically happen and appear in their lives.

Last week we analysed the whyfores of what is working in your life.

We are building on the life satisfaction wheel that you filled in last week, looking at the 8 key areas of life.

This is hands-down one of the most common reasons I see that people are unhappy. That they are tolerating something crappy in their life. Crappy exploitative relationship with co-worker. Crappy loveless marriage.

It’s been a crazy busy couple of months as I race to get my book finished by the deadline.

Figure out what you are not letting go of. An old rejection that niggles away at the back of your mind. Make a note and then know that maybe you will never know why, and that's okay.

There is a new game sweeping the nation. Have you heard of it? Almost everyone is playing. It can be addictive and fun to start with, but over the long term players report rampant dissatisfaction, absence of joy and a low gratitude count.

Do any of these sound familiar? I have to stay in this job or we won't be able to make the mortgage, I have no choice. I have no choice but to go to see Mum again this evening.

How do you recognise the way beliefs drive your life?

This new series expands on the foundation of the 10 happiness principles we covered in the happiness audit. It’s called habits of happiness and it’s a natural next step from the principles we have already discussed.

Here is your recap of what we have learned in our 12- part happiness audit so you can check in and see where you are.

Oh, how to cover THIS in a few hundred words?! Practising emotional honesty is a real biggie, and one of the most common barriers to happiness there is.

A common trait that all happy, energetic people have in common is that they know their strengths and they play to them. They are also honest about their weaknesses and they delegate, hire or just plain cut out of life the stuff they are not so good at.

Clients come because they want change in one or many areas of their life. However: in order for life to FEEL different we need to learn to THINK different and we actually have to DO different.

Each week, life coach, yoga teacher and corporate escapee Louise Thompson will share actionable tips to make life happier, healthier and less stressful.

Bam. Right there. It’s a biggie and it needs more explanation. It’s not essential for happiness but it surely helps a great deal. It’s can be a lifelong quest... finding The One.

Hands up who has a new year’s resolution to exercise more, weigh less and reduce stress?

Can you boil down happiness to a formula? Of course not. Happiness is absolutely individual. As I work with people on their own personal happiness strategies, however, there are super clear themes that come through.

Goals schmoals. If I see another " New year, new yoooooooooooooou!!!" article I shall surely scream, strangled by the cliche. And yet, therein lies the rub. Cliches become cliches for a reason, do they not? No smoke without fire and all that jazz.

It seems every magazine I look at this month is full of helpful "How to plan a stress-free Christmas in 27 easy steps!" articles.

"You would be fantastic at that!" I heard one woman say to another in a cafe last weekend. "You think well on your feet, you are super-organised and you have fantastic presentation skills; it could be the perfect job."

There is an anecdote about boiling a frog that I kind of like. It’s from the 1800s when experiments of this type were much in vogue.

I was ill the other week, in bed feeling sorry for myself surrounded by a sea of tissues. It was the day the cleaners come and I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed so they had to clean around me.