5 Simple strategies to help you live more wholeheartedly, improve your health and your life
1.) De-clutter your living space.
Clutter in your outer world is a sure sign of clutter in your mind. We too easily get stuck thinking everything is a priority and never being able to decide what’s to be done first.
So if things are out of place or piled up waiting for a home to go, here’s my favourite clean up trick. It doesn’t matter what room you start in, or what time of day you try this, just start anywhere, anytime.
Put a timer on for 5 mins and use your focused attention to pick up and clear away – you will be amazed at what you can do in such a short time. This is one great action that can immediately inspire a wonderful sense of visual peace.
I often find, especially over the weekend when I’ve been working on several projects, my home by Sunday evening can look like a bomb went off. Things scattered everywhere feels a bit overwhelming until I remember my “5 min ritual” It works for me every time!
If you have a habit of leaving things out thinking you’ll find them a home “sometime,” or just procrastinating on everything, this is a great habit to consistently practice.
When your environment feels serene, you will feel so much calmer and at ease, and it’s another “to do” you don’t have to juggle in your mind, along with everything else there!
Could you give yourself permission to take a baby step or a huge wide open leap, a hop, skip or cartwheel!
2.) Simplify your life.
Slow down, make time and space for you, so you can “upshift” the overall quality of your life. Surrounded as we are by a constant stream of stimulation, we need to consciously choose to find ways to quiet our minds and make specific time for ourselves.
How much quality time do you spend with the people and the things you care about the most? What do you value most in your life? What really are your priorities? Are all your commitments really, equally important? What could you let go of in the interests of your mental and emotional sanity? What is the best use of your time so you can create the life you want to have?
Use this season of renewal as a reminder to get rid of things that are weighing you down and sapping your energy?
- Gently give yourself permission to let go of what isn’t working for you
- Give yourself the gift of space and time for new things to come into your life.
- Commit to making decisions you’ve been putting off.
- Challenge limiting beliefs about yourself and about how things should be.
- Recent research has shown that we can actually change the circuitry of our brains by the way we think. When something negative comes up, what positive statement could you exchange it for?
Could you give yourself permission to shrug off what no longer makes you happy and find a super comfy chair to lol about in while you find the things that really speak to your soul!
3.) Start one new Practice this week
There are many practices that when done consistently, even for just a few minutes at a time, can make an amazing difference in how you feel. New activities like a Morning Ritual and an Evening Ritual invite in mindfulness and creativity, enthusiasm and new experiences!
Daily practices help us to move through resistances and give us a “time-out” from every-day routines and habits. Real freedom happens when we create even the simplest consistent actions that eliminate the eternal “shall I?” “shan’t I?” that happens before our actions become habits. Give yourself the gift of inspired action, and a willingness to begin.
Walking, especially now the weather is improving is a wonderful way to help your body while clearing your mind. When we change the scenery, we change our perspective! Walk instead of drive. Use the stairs instead of the elevator. Drive a different route to work, we all are so programmed to do the same routine every day.
Could you give yourself permission to not know everything, to forgive yourself, to give yourself new permissions and trust the whispers of your heart.
4.) Begin something brand new.
Spring is a lovely time to add in new pleasures to your life. Take a simple an inventory of your health and wellness practices and resolve to do something you’ve never tried before, perhaps something you have been thinking about for some time.
Begin slowly, one change at a time and add to it along the way.
Julia Cameron offers the idea of “artist dates” as a weekly ritual. Think of it as a time of renewal for your spirit and emotional wellbeing.
A block of time 1 or 2 hours a week you choose an excursion or a play date with yourself that you preplan and defend against all interlopers.
Just you and your creative self are invited. A solitary excursion to the beach or some place in nature early morning or late evening, a rendezvous to a specialty store to just browse and enjoy, an art show, a theatre show or maybe your inner spirit just fancies a trip to a new coffee house and uninterrupted time to read a book.
Could you give yourself permission to abandon an obligation in favour of some pleasure every now and then. More play, laughter and dreaming.
5.) Be kind to your mind.
We can have some pretty cruel and nasty thoughts going on in our heads when those “should have” scenarios start nattering at us. Self hatred in any form is really only hating thoughts about yourself. That’s about all it really is. And you don’t want to hate yourself for having thoughts do you?
You gently want to change those thoughts and your thinking. We are all worth loving and despite some of the ways we were raised as children we really don’t have to earn love. We are all completely loveable as we are. I think that we just have a few outdated beliefs that get in the way of that knowing, but it’s time to clear them out and just start being kinder to ourselves and everyone else.
Look at it this way, you don’t have to earn the right to breathe, you have the right to breathe fully and freely because you exist and so of course, you have the right to be loved because you exist. I think it’s really important to know this and make it true for ourselves.
Every thought and every word we speak is an affirmation, and far too often they are negative, and all too often we’re not aware that these words and thoughts are shaping our future and our experiences. Positive affirmations are simply statements to create something new and wonderful in our lives.
Think of positive statements as building you up instead of using negative statements to beat you down. And so many of us, and I know I can still do this, beat ourselves up with our own thoughts. Thinking well of yourself is an act of kindness that pays enormous dividends.
Could you give yourself permission to consider that you truly are a powerful being and your power lie in the choice of your thoughts that you think and the words that you use.
Wishing you a week of graceful pauses and gentle movements forwards.
Namaste
Are you ready to take that step towards creating positive change in your life?
You may not know exactly what it is you actually want, but you do know you’re looking for the next steps and some support and guidance to help direct you towards improving your life and accomplishing more of what you truly desire.
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Together we can clarify your challenges, and talk about how best I can help YOU make your dreams and intentions a reality!
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