Sleep is so important it is an essential function for our body so it can recharge and this is equally as important for our mind also. Sleep is how we restore and is vital for a healthy mind, body and of course our spirit, know one’s their best self when they are sleep deprived!
Tips to help you prepare and unwind for sleep;
1) Have a brain dump before bed. Try to wind down by getting all the things swimming by around in your head out, do a subconscious Brian dump right a list tor tomorrow so that’s not something else to worry or lay awake about stressing.
2) Unwind by Taking a nice warm bath with your favourite aromatherapy bath products or salts etc, light a candle and make yourself a mini me spa time.
3) Consider avoiding to much screen time light from devices such as phones and I-pads etc near the time you want to sleep and Cut down the amount of screen time at night and before bed a few hours before if possible.
4)Try Listen to relaxing sounds, songs, music, stories, positive things to aid sleep when ready to sleep.
5)Try Read a book or something that helps you relax and unwind.
6) Make your bedroom as realxing and sleep aiding as possible, nice colour scheme which is clam for the mind, bedding that’s fresh, soft and cosy, keep it decluttered, clam and welcoming when it comes to sleep.
7) Think about lightning, soft fabrics, scents etc in your sleep environment, all which help promote and aid a good night sleep. Get rid of lights and sounds that bother you. Blackout when can any curtain gaps unless you want to wake when the sun comes up.
8) Consider scents that are known for promoting good sleep, lavender is meant to be proven to promote support with insomnia as a natural alternative, add this to your routine, bath, room etc
9)When it comes to your actual Sleep routine timeframes, try to set a typical sleep pattern of time you go to bed and time you wake up, this helps the brain program a bespoke body clock for you over time. Most of us need 6 plus hours a night 8-9 at best so try to aim for this.
10) stretch and relax, find something you enjoy to rebalance and recenter from your busy day, from light yoga, Pilates or meditation or simple stretching
This is a hard subject at times for us all, Blame.
Blaming things, people, life for where you are, unfortunately leads to no movement forward. When we find ourselves really wanting to do something or really not wanting to do something, the reality is, your the one making the decision, making and taking the move forward or not in life.
It’s very hard to be true to yourself and honest and say, you no what I can make this happen or not for myself, I am the one driving the steering wheel, regardless of what life trows your way, you are choosing how to deal or not deal with it, right here right now.
An example is let’s say you have decided to follow a goal of yours, this goal might be that you want to be your version on healthy, which is to not to drink alcohol and watch what you eat in regards to processed foods and your goal is to change how you currently feel in your own skin. You feel the foods make you feel bad and that you feel alcohol makes you feel unmotivated for your new exercise routine, which you are following as part of your overall goal.
The situation you then find yourself in is that you have been on track now for just over 4 weeks, your starting to feel so much better mentally and physically, getting results in your moods, energy levels and seeing the physical positive changes of your efforts, your then invited to a social event and there will be the foods you want to avoid and wine, cocktails and things you feel hinder you and your goal right now, what do you do?
A) Do you decided to have a night off from your regime, that’s fine you have decided I want this stuff this evening so I will.
B) Do you not go because you don’t want to put yourself in this position when you have just started to make the steps to the goal and it’s to early on for you to be in this position?
C) Do you go but not drink alcohol and have your meal before you go so your are not Hungary for those food items when there?
The answer is all of them are right, which ever you want, you decide you take control of the decision and own it.
Then you don’t blame anything or the social event for why things go wrong or right because you are deciding what you want to do how you want to do it and you are fully in control and accountable for you and your actions.
When you start being positive In your decisions and accountable you then don’t blame anyone or others for where you are, because their is no negative spin on you making very conscious decisions. You either want something or you don’t, you either do it or you don’t. You go or don’t go and everything still moves on and progresses for you if you want it to.
Accountability is such a powerful tool, to be accountable is such a strength, it allows you to have boundaries for where you want your goals to sit, move and shape, face what you feel is where you are at, where you are going and have realistic mindset those goals and keeping yourself in check.
Top key tips to ensure you stop blaming and start positive aiming, towards your goals:
1) Attitude, start looking at the way you talk about things, do you find yourself blaming and shaming things, circumstances and people for we’re you are today ? A movement forward would be the next time you go to do this,try to stop yourself and instead support yourself into a new more positive mental attitude, say to your self, do you want this? Or not? When you start having a more negative spin on things try to use more positive language and actions towards yourself and your steps. Aims and goal, be your own cheerleader and prep talk yourself out of what you don’t want to happen, remind yourself that you can do this you can stay on track and tenner what and why you are doing this all for in the first place.
2) Focus, keep where your heading fresh in your mind, think of how you will feel when you make the changes and goals happen for yourself how amazing will this feel, then also think about if you didn’t change anything at all how would you feel, let this motivate you further, choose the direction you want and keep focused , you will get there which ever you choose, change or no change.
3) Admitting where your at, what’s working, what’s not working and be really true to yourself about what you want and don’t want. Work out what your strength’s and weaknesses are and plan for success and drop out things which you have admitted do not help you! Things that do not help you and change the approach so you can’t fail.
4) Stop self sabotage; when things start going right and you either feel a little outside your comfort zone or you become scared or fearful of your successes and change remember that old habits die hard, don’t start self sabotage try to prepare for these times and coach yourself out of doing this, remind yourself, its ok I feel scared this is new and think of all the good you have done to get here right now and all the great things your goals will lead you to, it’s worth staying on track. Work on yourself, your fears and find ways of facing and understanding what can and has held you back and when you feel this starting again to happen you take control and stop it taking control of you. It’s important to get support and help if you need to don’t let anything or anyone stop you from your successes, it takes a great and real strength to face things.
5) Excuses, leave them all behind, accept you are the one who is in the driving seat and making the decision to do or not do something. Don’t blame anyone or anything else you are in control, so take control of the direction you are going.
The bottom line is invest your energy in yourself, learn to let go or draw a line of anything that’s holding you back and be open to the fact that it could be you holding yourself back, blocking the way. you have the key to unlock your life and start aiming towards your future the future you want. You just need to believe in yourself more, remember the mind is one or the most powerful tools you have.
It’s a great idea to try to start a routine in your morning, if you haven’t already, to get yourself in the best frame of mind, for the start of your day especially if in a lock down. Do something today ,that will help you feel better tomorrow. Here is some tips to start off your morning better…
1) Make the areas of your home, you are going to wake up and use first thing, tidy and clam. Pick say two areas,get this done the night before, just a quick tidy nothing to crazy just so it’s ready and feels in order,so it’s a clam usable space.
2) Right a quick list of things you want to achieve for the day, from ordering a food shop, sending some emails, exercise goal for the day etc.if you can’t do in the morning then list the night before ahead of the next day. Remember to tick them off as you go you will feel a Real sense of achievement.
3) Pick out what to wear for tomorrow, so when you wake up, it’s ready. Doing this will help you have a more positive wardrobe choice than you are likely to do if in a rush in the morning. for example if it’s a run first thing have it all ready for you to go do this in the morning,charge your fit bit, phone etc, so a positive start from the get go.
4) Wake up before the rest of the house, this is so you can have a moment to have your coffee, wake up properly ahead of the day, and anything it trows at you, such as work, homeschooling, house tasks and the work life balance you juggle
5) Make your breakfast count. Get organised, prep it all ready the night before into Tupperware , especially if you no, this is the only way you will have time round your activities to eat. Make it full of what you need to fuel your body for the start of your day. Make sure you include a glass of water first thing to when waking up, keeping hydrated is so important!
6) Morning movement, If you can fit in exercise In the morning then do! Ideally start with a stretch,walk, yoga or Pilates style workout that allows a lot of breathing and mindfulness, it will boost the start to your day so much. If you haven’t tried these things before, give them ago! Exercise really can give you a great positive boost, just what you having been missing or looking for,from your mornings.
We all have mental health just as we have physical health however, it is not always something we look at regularly supporting and training, or exercising and reviewing. It would be wonderful to think we soon will be in a world where we could openly ask each other ” how you feeling today and how’s your mind”, without it being uncomfortable. We all have those moments in life where things can cause us to feel lower in our mood. This often affects our mental health. Times of this “low mood “ or any ongoing sadness can happen to any of us at any time, feeling as if it comes upon us without any warning. It is important to recognise your own personal triggers. It’s important to ask yourself;
1,what are my triggers?
2,What sends my stress levels over the edge?
3, Is there any changes you can make to help you manage these things?
4, what helps you to keep going when you feel like this?
The triggers could be anything, such as a memorable date, topics you are sensitive to and don’t want to face yet, family, relationships, self-limiting beliefs, traumas, life events, medical reasons, life pressure, public speaking, anything! It is so important to take the time to look at any trigger patterning you have. By looking at triggers you can possibly unlock a resilience strategy for yourself that just might help you cope better when you are in need. Emotional stress can be really overwhelming, it can impact both your physical and mental state. Strategies to support your resilience can work wonders in helping you through this time, along with of course any support groups, professional outreach etc available to you. Examples of resilience you can use when this happens are things such as supportive building blocks to help manage your stress levels. Some of mine are below:
When life is busy I have to make sure I have me time
Personal head space-time, walk, read, chill out somewhere away from everything to just clear your mind (a pause moment)
Something that is physical such as sport; for me my main choice of activity to spend my “me” time on is running
Something that makes you feel a sense of belonging such as socialising with the right community
Things I enjoy, things that make me happy, as happiness is so important! Such as hobbies (Creative Diet)
I try to goal set my activities into my weekly plans, looking at how I can review and improve and identify the priorities I have. These keep me on track and both my physical and mental health are in better shape for it (Muscle Motivation)
Predict my stress triggers. When I know something is coming up that is likely to cause stress good planning is key. I look at what I can do to manage it as best I can, and what best supports me
Make sure you tell someone. If I am worried about things or stressed, just saying things out loud to someone can make a huge difference as you then own your true feelings
Choose to hang out with people on your level. Someone you can text, call, meet and have that support with
I ensure I take regular pause moments; so important!
Even when you don’t feel like it connect with the world daily so you don’t become withdrawn.
Remember you are often not alone with these feelings and it is so important to tell someone. Don’t suffer in silence, it will only get worse.
Personal progress starts from within remember the steps you took and where you once started. revisit the start in your mind how you felt and what your mind set was like and then use this for motivation, with comparison to where you are at present and more importantly where your heading and imagine how you will think and feel in your future when your goal is achieved, mentally, physically and emotionally.
It’s great to gather motivation for your journey but try not to compare yourself to others along the way if you can help it! don’t get me wrong It’s wonderful to have people who inspire us but when it comes to inspiration, take a lot from where you once where and don’t forget each positive change and step you have taken. Be your own measure-able motivation. Only you no the efforts it took to get you where you are today! These steps are so worthy of being phrased.
Just take a moment and ask yourself, when did you last celebrated for a minute your personal progresses, look at what you have achieved and not what you haven’t! I encourage you to keep records of your own start point and progress line and look back at the differences along the way. Look at what makes you feel and think the best you can about who you are and all you have become. These would motivate you to Become the version of yourself you want to be; what dose that even mean you ask?
Only you know what you want and who you want to be and have in your life, but I would imagine for most of us we would have on our list something that represents finding true happiness at the top of this.
So look at your present self, past self and what you want in your life with your future self.
It helps to become more accepting of yourself and make changes to what you don’t like or don’t want to accept and look at ways of working with the bits you want to change and plan your goals and the steps that will lead you to get results.
For the things we can’t change, review the way your mind set is towards them. Its so self rewarding to learn to draw a line! It’s important to learn to move forward with accepting this that your drawing a line and then let go of what you are not in control of and can’t change and finally be free of those holding you back.
I find it helpful to log all of your steps you have made, try a simple yet affective exercise.
1)Firstly find a quiet spot
2) take a price of paper and write down what you are in control of .
3)write wha you can’t control.
4) in the middle draw a happy bubble in the middle and fill it with a list of all the things that you love, enjoy and makes you smile.
5)pick a item off your list that you have in your can control column and make a start planing your steps towards that becoming a reality.
This chart example is where you list the things you can control, can’t control and then what’s your happy place your centre . Good for anxiety, personal goal setting,
Then every time you feel you need to re-evaluate you can use this exercise tool to help get things out and down on paper.
If you find yourself comparing things in life compare your journey, from where you have been, where you are now and where you are heading.Be in competition with no one just yourself!
Brain Biscuits Coaching 