Lifestyle coach, Alison Riches, was the guest speaker at the July meeting of the North-Hampshire Women In Business Group, held at The Red Lion Hotel in Basingstoke.

All of the women that Alison has worked with are successful, beautiful and talented and, to the outside world, confident and self assured. But, says Alison,

inside many are afraid to confront themselves and accept and connect with who they really are. Some are confused about their identity, others struggle to accept their bodies and long to look and feel differently about their physical selves. Some hide behind their clothes or use food and hard work as a comfort or a distraction!

Members were asked to think about the many ‘hats’ they wear, for example, being a mother, daughter, wife, cleaner, business woman etc. Alison then described how we juggle our lives around these many busy and varying roles.

Putting this into perspective, Alison (pictured with Sue Brown, President of the North-Hampshire Women In Business), explained a few strategies for us all to use in our every day lives to enable us to reach our full potential, both at work and socially.

One of the concepts was for us to learn to introduce “holi hours”, i.e. a holiday hour in the day to take a little time out every day to do something for ourselves. Alison explained that if this could be incorporated then, overall, we would all be less stressed and frantic and we’d achieve a lot more.

Alison runs regular workshops called ‘The Power To Be’, to encourage innovative personal and organisational development. To find out information on forthcoming courses, call Alison on 07976 695013 or email dare.to@virgin.net.
Also, this month, Lorraine Ashover, a Corporate Manager with Barclays Business Banking, was chosen to speak to the meeting about the SME businesses she looks after in the £2m-£20m turnover bracket, explaining that her passion is helping businesses across all industry sectors grow and succeed. If you would like to know more about how Barclays Business Banking can help your new or existing business please contact Lorraine on 07775 548821 or go to www.barclays.co.uk/business.