Well, I am back from ten days’ holiday in the sunny Eastern Algarve where I enjoyed walking along some of my favourite wild stretches of unspoilt beach, swimming in the sea and relaxing and reading around the pool of our private villa in a particularly tranquil spot up in the hills. It was wonderful.

Whilst I’ve been away, all sorts of crazy things have been happening in the world. Michael Jackson passed away and – such is the pace of the world that we now live in -  we heard about it in our little hillside retreat when we received a text from a friend within minutes of the news hitting the media.

Now it seems to me that I’ve been away for weeks and weeks – the kind of time distortion that, of course, prompts me to wonder whether I was in a holiday trance? Very probably. The gentle rhythm of the days:  breakfast outside, a trip into the local village to buy fish from the market, enjoy an espresso and some conversation, later relaxing around the pool or visiting one of the beaches, then barbecues in the evening under the carob trees… The days slipped away and I probably slipped into my sunwarmed being-outside-in-the-open-air trance.

When we spend as much time in our heads as most of us do, there is something very restorative about this sensory rhythm. It reminds us that we are body-minded beings; that our bodies are essential to who we are and how we feel.

So yesterday, amidst all the catching-up, I did manage to catch the end of the Wimbledon final and see Roger Federer’s victory. It is very interesting to me that he already had the special tracksuit top with the number ‘15′ embroidered onto it in gold. How is that for a winning mindset?

Rogere Federer, in preparing for this year’s Wimbledon actually saw and felt his way to the moment when he had already won. Inside his own mind, he had already projected himself forwards into the future to that time when he was holding the winner’s trophy aloft, wearing that tracksuit top, the crown cheering his fifteenth Grand Slam title that broke Sampras’s record.

Now some people have criticised Federer for being a little too big for his own monogrammed socks. But I don’t think that’s fair. When he is interviewed he always comes across as someone with great humility and respect for his fellow players.

I think his confidence comes from the way that he so consistently uses the power of his mind to build a picture, a feeling, an experience of success before he has even stepped onto the court. His special gold embroidered clothing is all part of that process. And it says both to himself and the world, very clearly, ‘I am a winner.’ Good for him.

Now that I have freely associated into this blog post, it’s time for me to get into my own working mindset and go and work with some very nice clients today.

Have a great Monday!