Leisure & Inspiration

At Professionelle we often refer to our items in this theme as 'bits of fluff' and we are utterly unrepentant about them.

As professional working women, we know we're not machines. We all need time out to recharge, even if it's no more than the mini-break of reading a short article over a cup of coffee. If you're in need of a quick shot of inspiration, a laugh, musings on fashion (Galia's weakness) or droolings on Colin Firth (Sarah's ditto) you're in the right place.

You'll also find contributions here from other professional women who have unique perspectives to share. Their writings often touch on aspects of our lives that get pigeon-holed as "not work" but that nevertheless have the power to influence all that we do. Gratitude, intuition, spirituality.

So grab that coffee, close the door for a few minutes, and browse what we have on offer...

Latest articles

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  • 21 July 2010 By Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 1
    The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma

    Drawn by the intriguing title and with repeated sightings in airport bookshops of promotions for this 'self-help/spirituality' book, Sarah finally sat down with it. Looking past its clunky prose, she was mildly surprised to find precepts that closely echoed tools and techniques of Positive Psychology.

  • 05 July 2010 By Kim Chamberlain, Successful Speaking Comments: 1
    Women in Work and Business: How to Juggle Life’s Demands

    As a working woman, life places many demands on you. The trick is to manage these demands to ensure that you are in control of your activities. Things start to fall apart if you feel the demands are controlling you.

  • 12 May 2010 By Sally Mabelle, the "Voice of Leadership" specialist. Comments: 0
    The Grass is Greener Here in New Zealand

    When you Google books on happiness you get 151,000,000 results! If you just Google the word happiness, you get 76.5 million results. It's obviously a popular topic. People keep searching for happiness and yet many haven't found it yet! Do you ever get that feeling that you "should" be somewhere else, with someone else, doing something else "bigger and better"? That's a common feeling which keeps you from fully enjoying your own life exactly as it is right now.

  • 20 April 2010 By Bernadette Griffiths, a life coach Comments: 0
    A Member's Journey

    We met Bernadette when she attended Professionelle's "Personal Branding" workshop in Tauranga in 2009. The positive psychology principles we discussed that day really resonated with Bernadette and she kept in touch. When she wrote to share her achievement of launching a new coaching business, a website, a blog and a radio show, and added "the Professionelle workshop I did with you and the other inspirational women last year is a big reason I have come so far" we simply had to ask her for the whole story.

  • 22 March 2010 By Galia BarHava-Monteith Comments: 0
    Mind Your Mindfulness!

    Being mindful is about being fully aware of the present, of yourself, where you are, what you are doing and whether it is the right thing to do. We can study mindfulness all we want, but the true test lies in how it is applied. And it's hard to do that when we work so hard and juggle so many things. This piece gives tips on how to increase mindfulness, and why it could be worth your effort.

  • 31 January 2010 By Galia BarHava-Monteith Comments: 0
    Tell me who your friends are!

    How often do we stop to think about the nature of our friendships? Do we stop and think about who our friends really are and the kind of friendship we have with them? Galia keeps returning to the topic and is most interested in exploring the types of women's friendships and the importance of understanding them for our own well-being.

  • 26 December 2009 By Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 0
    What You Can Change - and What You Can't by Prof. Martin Seligman

    It's New Year and once again you're contemplating well-intentioned changes to yourself. Will you eat less, exercise more, work on your irrational fears and vow to control your temper? More importantly, will you succeed this time? Seligman's book will give you important clues drawn from robust, outcome-based studies and for some problems the news is not good. His objective, however, is not to destroy people’s optimism about change, but to try to point that determination at goals we all have a much better chance of reaching.

  • 12 December 2009 By Galia BarHava-Monteith Comments: 0
    Watch those Boundaries!

    What are boundaries? They are the markers that show you are clear about who you are, and that you can say no to things that trespass on your time and emotional energy.To have clear boundaries you need self-insight about who you are and what you are prepared to share or to do. When you know and respect your boundaries, you'll tend to find that others do too.

  • 12 October 2009 By Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 0
    Girls Just Want to Have Fun

    A short story - with romantic undertones and alcoholic highlights - from Professionelle's resident fiction author

  • 10 October 2009 By Galia BarHava-Monteith Comments: 0
    It's Fun to Have Fun (but you have to know how!)

    No offense, but professional women and having fun are two concepts that don't exactly roll off the tongue together. What is it about having fun that is so elusive for many of us, serious, intelligent professional women? And what is "fun" anyway? How can we let go enough to let loose and really enjoy the moment?