Tag: life thoughts

fitness, health, How to be happier, life style, lifestyle, Mental health, mentalhealth, motivation, out with old in with new, selfcare, spring, sutainability

Spring into spring!

brainbiscuitscoaching

Spring is coming, lighter days, warmer weather and hope on the horizon, There’s never been a better time to get planning, looking ahead and set your action plan to step into spring….

Think about what you want and the steps you need to get there, make a list of daily tasks, weekly steps that will get you to where you want to be this season.

Review where you are, what do you want next out of life, what are you aiming for? What’s next on your chapter?

Spring steps and tips of areas to focus on:

1) Clear out your old clothes, make a wardrobe that reflect you at your best, revamp yourself and style for spring. From looks, fabrics, colours, make up, accessories and self care routines to Maximise your confidence and self worth. Remember Your worth it!

2) Out with the old in with the new, review items you store in your home whatever isn’t being used and you don’t love! give it chance for a new life to become a treasure or use to someone else. Up cycle, recycle and give to those in need via your local charities.

3) Plan ahead the things you want to have and look forward to this spring. From a new challenge, venture that trip or staycation away this summer. It’s so important to have things to look forward to no Matter how small they may be. To keep you looking ahead, giving you motivation and drive.

4) Review your routine, with spring around the corner the days will be lighter for longer think about your fitness routines, Review your goals make tweaks where they’re needed to keep you feeling and getting the results you want and deserve. Keeping you determined, focused and accountable. It’s great to be able to do a lot more of your workouts outside and more options due to the weather change. Look to challenge yourself and revamp where you need to your workouts.

5) Review your eating habits and what will be in season this spring from vegetables, and fruit. Update your ingredients make things more interesting with what’s available. Find new and inspiring recipes. Review your nutrition, vitamins, nutrients, mineral intake, maximise free online support tools and apps that help you log these things and water intake!

6) Get more fresh air, Get out when safe to and get lots of Fresh air! we have been in fair to much! Especially now the days are lot more lighter, walking is so good for your well-being and mindfulness.

7) Review your Sustainability, consider anything you can do to help promote this. Review your garden is there anything you can grow and provide for yourself such as vegetables, herbs and fruits? is there an allotment or community garden you can get involved with? Perhaps support a charity you can make a donation with of any of your old garden pots and seeds to support others who may not have a garden. Gardening is super for supporting good mental health.

8) Spring clean Declutter, Spurs up your home, make a few changes weathers it’s more plants, colour scheme, Minimalise clutter and give life to the new area in your home that’s not currently being utilised properly, clear areas of chaos, a tidy home is so much better for promoting a clear mind.

9) Take on new and exciting personal and self development tasks, goals and challenges that put a spring in your step! fire in your belly, that takes you out of your comfort zone, that you’ve got into over winter and spring into new challenges this spring.

10) Ask yourself how happy am I at the moment? How much am I enjoying what I do weekly, daily right now? what can I do to make myself feel happier, list out thoughts of new suggestions and how you could introduce new things that keep your zest for life and your happiness at a top priority. Find how to keep or find your zest for life again and your happiness at the top of your weekly daily priorities.

11) Self-care, look at including steps and strategies to ensure you’re regularly checking in on yourself. Think about how your well-being is and how you’re caring for yourself, ask yourself if there’s any improvements you want to make? What’s been working over winter? what might have been the most hardest time for self-care to be at optimum level, use spring as a great time to ensure your on the best path for you possible.and Get list making a write down the steps and prioritise this! it’s not selfish it’s key to you enjoying your life. Draw on strategies that work and include them in your plan will ensure success.

fitness, health, Identity, life style, lifestyle, Mental health, mentalhealth, motivation, Well-being

Making goals that are true and from the H.E.A.R.T

brainbiscuitscoaching

It’s so important to be truly invested in your life and the direction your going and want to go in. When you make and list your aims, goals, dreams make sure they are things you would love to do, be and have in your life or change. Make them full of passion drive and determination, this is what is going to fuel them to happen and you to show up daily day in day out to make the end result become a reality.

I love using a HEART model approach to help me with my personal development goals. Because you have to be true to yourself, you have to make a time frame and it insurers the goal is set to be realistic by reminding you along the way.

An example of how to set your goals with H.E.A.R.T is below;

Honest: make sure your goal Is right for you? That it fit’s with your core values and beliefs?

Exact: think about exactly, what you will need to succeed and accomplish your goal. Think about and list all the steps you need to take along the way and log, celebrate and Mark them as you go.

Authentic: Make goals that are true to what you want, where you want to be what you want to have in your life and be sure it consistent with your values.

Realistic: don’t set yourself up to fail, make goals that are realistic to you and your life. Think about making steps and goals where you can or do you have the time, the energy, and motivation to complete the goal in mind. Think about the appropriate approach to the goal and If you have attempted it before and it hasn’t work just look at changing the approach.

Timely: think about the timeline you want to achieve this and what is realistic. Set a realistic deadline down on paper for example this time next year! Then Mark all the steps down somewhere like a dairy, for example weekly and daily steps that will get you there to the change the goal a year from now. Think about all the celebrations along the way with the steps what can change for the good along the way as a result. For example fitness goals, each week and step you will be getting healthier and fitter along the way to the goal which might be for example a half marathon, this goal as also then brought more to your life already along the way in this timeframe because it promotes positive changes in your life along the way.

accountability, beliefs, life style, lifestyle, Mental health, New beginnings, out with old in with new, Self development, Uncategorized, weightloss, Well-being, wellbeing

Stop blaming, start positive Aiming! …,,,

brainbiscuitscoaching

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.

lifestyle, lock down, Mental health

Struggling with your thoughts and feelings….Learn to enjoy a good brain dump!

brainbiscuitscoaching
A lot on your mind, thoughts in your head

Ever have times where you feel incredibly overwhelmed, like your really processing a lot of thoughts and feelings or just feel in a withdrawn state?

You may have a mind full of all sorts,This is the perfect time to have a good brain dump.

A brain dump is where you literally take every single thought that you can catch, that’s swimming around in your mind and get it down on paper, wether a word, complete sentence of thoughts or feelings. Write it all on a page and off load it there from your mind and make a subconscious brain dump.

It’s an ideal strategy when you need to clear your mind, I recommend that you find a place you can have a moment and take the time you need to complete this exercise;

The exercise should help you to understand and identify more about your thoughts and feelings and this should in return help your mental health. It allows you to keep your mind as clear and as aware as possible. By regularly doing this as a strategy.

This will help you Identify when your overwhelmed or stressed, which is so important as your mental health is just as important as physical health. I hope this practical exercise for the mind feel that it supports you just like an exercise routine for your body would.

This exercise gets the words, feelings and thoughts out that you need to expose to yourself and helps you exercise your thoughts, outward rather than harbour them inwards and keep them bottled up inside, where they manifest into something else if not addressed, like anxiety, anger, fear, worry, sadness and what you actually really need is to talk them outward, release them on to paper.

When brain dumping, Start with all the things that come quickly to mind first, as they are normally trigger words that open up more depth of your thoughts and feelings.

An Example is, if I wrote the word “Pressure “ I could look at that word and ask myself why did I write this? My answer might be, I wrote pressure because I feel, I am someone who regularly has presume in there life. The next question is why do you feel pressure? I feel pressure because I’m juggling a lot of things all the time. By asking this it helps you identify some context to the thoughts and words.

The next thing to then do is ask yourself what can be done about this? Can anything be done?, is it in your control? How can I feel less “pressured” what are my options, can I get help with X, Y and Z that I am juggling that makes me feel this pressure. If you find somethings you write on this that’s not in your control. Then how can you draw a line on it, accept and move on, or find a strategy to cope with the things your not in control of, you can make a list of what helps with these things such as exercise, walking , running, mindfulness, yoga, Pilates, craft projects, etc

The other things that can come to mind when you get things down on paper, might be things that are more of a list of things you want to do or need to do, with these, section them together and then you could make a to-do task list for yourself. This is so you feel you have these things now out of the mind and in your control.

You may have things that are on your mind that are impacting you a lot. A particular subject that comes back regularly, this is something to focus on. Spend more time on working this through. ask yourself why it regularly comes up? Do you need help with this?

Ask yourself, is this particular word or situation stopping you from progressing,becoming or doing anything? Ask yourself is it linked to anything?

Remember, It’s always better out than in, keeping it all internally will normally mean it’s coming out still,but in a different way. It may be displayed in mood swings, out of control with food or substances, feeling low or unhappy regularly. This is because your not dealing with it yet or fully, until you do your subconscious will keep it floating around to haunt you. Learn to let it out and let it all go….

Also If you are really struggling and feel you need support don’t be ashamed, reach out to someone don’t suffer in silence. talk it out and get support.

comfort eating, fitness, health, lifestyle, mentalhealth, weightloss

Dear self… why am i comfort eating!

brainbiscuitscoaching

Ever get those days where nothing seems right and you head to the fridge for whatever comforts you ,from wine, ice cream, cheese or cupboards for biscuits, cakes and crisps and without thinking consume them even if not Hungary. Are you someone who when things seem hard and hopeless you want a quick comfort, something that gives a short fix but then this adds to the feeling of failure and being out of control.

This behaviour is you hitting a self destruction button, which later you regret as you don’t feel better from the binge at all just worse.

The question to yourself is what’s happened?what started the slope that caused you to feel like this and derail?

If it’s negative thoughts and beliefs in your head about yourself causing this for you, have you considered how true they are,do you actually believe them? Are they limiting you in your life? Beliefs are only actually real if you believe them! So how can you unpick the real from the untrue ones.

The first step is to change the way you think and look at things. Try getting your own new perspective of things (this is your start line) if you have hit the bottom the only way now is up.Be honest about what you have been doing that hasn’t worked and what you need to do to ensure you succeed?

Ask yourself next time you go to open the fridge at night after a hard day, do I want that Ice cream or is this a comfort fix? If it’s for comfort, What if you decide to face the emotions instead and talk about them or write them down, get them out don’t store them and lose control by hitting self-destruct button anymore. For the moment you lose control, you open the ice cream tub you try to suppress emotions buy a short term comfort, this is you self sabotaging everything your working so hard towards.

The key is you realise this and make a change Recognise your hurting yourself your in a circle of comfort eating and break free, take control and be present in your thoughts and work on progress and happiness for yourself.

When you have a day or time where things start to slip and make you feel low, learn to recognise this and interject straight away.

1) when you feel your at your weakest, keep away from toxic communication and surround yourself with positive people and things that lift your spirits. This can be music, programmes, films, fitness routines to speaking to fiends. Engage with a Community of people in the same boat if it’s around fitness or weight goals. Look for motivation and inspiration.

2) It’s important to acknowledge where you are and know that it will pass. Don’t dwell, keep moving and if you do step off course , change the next step to being back On track,’the pass has happened but you can Change the now. Try Communicating to a close friend, others on the same journey or to your self, try owning the feelings “say I’m having a rubbish day” the sooner you own it the sooner it can change, as it’s no longer being stored and bottled up. Plus by owning your feelings by saying “I feel sad”this helps you realise where you truly are with your emotions and you may feel more able to deal with them. You can also see if you need greater support and seek help as the emotions will now be in your conscience and you can plan a way forward. When in denial nothing can change.

3) get through the foggy dark days buy drawing on strategies that help keep you grounded. Things that you find therapeutic try to build regularly into your life from creative pursuits to fitness routines, reading, writing, or watching something that lightens the mood and fills you with laughter.

4) Its important to reflect on the positives, look at how far you’ve come. Every step you have already taken. Remember to say to yourself you have got this! You can do this!be confident in the direct and aims you have for your end goal. Also remember we are all human and everyone falls of the bandwagon sometimes the key is you get back up and show up!

5) write down everything that’s stressing you out and you feel is making you feel low,ask what evidence their is that this is the case? if their is anything you think can prove this then ask yourself do I want to change this? If the answer is yes, then the next question is, how can I change this?

An example of this is, if a person says,they don’t feel very fit and healthy and it’s getting them down. They could then look at the evidence to support this, if the evidence of this that they currently spend little or no time on their physical well-being such as exercise, fresh air what can I do to change this…

They can then Start by Making a change towards this, for example start factoring exercise into their weekly, daily routine. This is them then taking control of their direction and making time to spend on them feeling better, they then are less likely to feel low and more in control so can coach themselves better when they find themselves considering comfort eating again and feel less out of control.

The key is to factor the things that give you strength and keep you on track regularly into your life. Make sure they are put into your weekly schedule, where they best work and suit the reality of your day-to-day life. For example if you know it’s not gonna work long-term in the mornings round your work, Kids etc,then change it to the evening or afternoons.

Make sure you set yourself up to succeed not to fail. It’s important to set realistic strong steps that really suit your lifestyle and current situations” set yourself up to succeed not to fail.

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