It’s so easy to think negatively at times about yourself and put yourself down, but have you ever tried it the other way round, thinking positively about yourself instead?
Think of all the times you got back up when life knocked you down, each time you said enough and made a change in your life all the fight you have had in you and determination.
Look at your character, you will be full of personality, skills, attributes and ability in many fields to succeed; some you might not have had the chance to unlock till now, but believe me we each have a wonderful positive contribution to give to both ourselves and others.
So go ahead start your list, ask yourself;
1,what our your personal strengths and list them;
2, list all of the things your happy with about you and your life right now;
3, Find a positive word that you feel best sums you up ! Us this as a tool to help you keep going when you have a challenging day especially when you feel like giving up;
4, Become strong in who you are, remember the inside is just as important as the outside. Make yourself solid to the core in your values, visions and future. Don’t let anyone or anything take that from you, stay true to who you are and allow yourself to grow, progress and most of all enjoy your life!
So the end of January is approaching and “Blue Monday” has pasted!
Hows your motivation? Still feeling determined?
It’s so easy to hit the start of January with great intentions even a “go hard or go home approach” whatever your goals, whether it’s a new routine, job, workout, business venture or personal development journey or any chosen change you want to make this year to your life!
But you also need to sustain your aims for the long haul making them “life style choices“, which are permanent and not short lived. Unless you change your goal then that’s different! What works now might not work in the next chapter but don’t let your motivation wear off!
Keep yourself going and motivated. We all can start our year off with good intentions but they can become short lived if we don’t give ourselves something to keep a determined mind and remember to keep your aims in site; it will make a big difference.
Make a note of what and why you are doing this for, what it will lead to and remind yourself of this each time you feel a dip.
Visuals are good to use and can keep you being you! Have something to look forward to; sign up to a new challenge, such as a run; have a load of small projects you want to do, a declutter or your new garden project; trying new recipes or leaning something new.
Mark your steps along the way, keep a log like a diary, however, you want to show the aims of the day and tick them off when you have done them, such as 3 things today I am going to get done that will support my goals and keep me motivated.
Have fun along the way, keep things enjoyable, change it up to stay on track there is no one size fits all, remember your the pilot in all of this, your the making of these good things that can happen!
Most things you’ll find that are positive in your life will lead to more good things in your future so focus on them. Be aware how far you have come! Only look back to see how far you have come every positive change has an impact no matter how small it may seem! It’s your change so own it!
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.
There is a time where we all struggle to identify with what makes us truly happy. It hard to no where your happiness lies as it’s all part of our ever changing mindset, but once you have identified it, it will change your life. Choosing to do more of what makes you happy is one of the best investment you can make!
The more happier you are the more you will project this outward, to what you attract into your life and naturally to those people around you,so don’t feel guilty for investing time for yourself , they to benefit by you being the best version of yourself. We All need to make the time to help find out what makes us happy and build on this in our life and the strategies that we feel provide this to us as a person.
Remember you get out what you put in, if little time is invested into your personal happiness, then the less happy you will feel.
This “Internal happiness ” isn’t always easy to find as it’s a ever changing and supported by our mind-set therefore it needs to be maintain! If you don’t keep it topped up it’s going to start to slip and fade. Keep being consistent in investing in it for yourself.
If you want to try to identify what currently would help you feel happier, then It’s good to list the things out that you feel are currently in your life, that do make you happy.From this list,then identify what of this is purely for you, just you,you as an individual not as a role you play to others. Remember this is keeping your happiness true to you. Making sure you regularly do what makes you happy as daily as possible, even if it’s a 30 minute me time, exercise class or walk, it will keep you also feeling strong in your mindset to.
The key is to learn how to keep it going. It’s very easy to dedicate time into making others happy but don’t you too need to also be happy and have this as a priority in your life? This is to ensure you keep “you” being the real you. So you keep true to who you are, who you identity as a person in your own right, as well as all the other labels you carry, partner, mother, father, sibling, colleague, friend etc.
It maybe a collection of things, that when put together they collectively lead you to finding your happiness. When you find this and your mindset is happier, you’ll find that your living more in the moment, your more at peace with yourself and have learnt that it’s ok to say no to things. You may also become more confident in who you are, you may want to try new things, new experiences, thinge that definitely move you outside your comfort zone. With these things until you brave them and take more steps forward towards the things you want to do,but have been to scared to try in the past, If you don’t ever try these, will you feel regret or feel your missing out?
Make a list of what you feel makes you happy. Identify What on the list is currently in your life and what on the list currently isn’t. Then if you have a few things listed pick 2 or 3 of them that you want bring into your life and Focus on right now. plan some steps for this to happen. keep the things you feel make you happy under review as it can change, so goals can be made, moved and achieved, keep a eye on your mood and mind. Don’t let yourself slip back because your giving everything to everyone else.
It might be you don’t yet no what truly makes you feel happy, but no what definitely doesn’t make you happy!maybe start with this and looking at what can you change, even eliminate from life. Try to avoid and stop doing the things that you don’t like and that are definitely not making you happy. It maybe this change has to come first before you can even think of what makes you happy, clearly in your mind.
Making time to analyse what impacts you negatively and positively is very important, others wise you can form a toxic lifestyle and routine of things that collectively make you unhappy, and spend little time on what brings positivity to your day, the long term impact of this will be on your mental health, so get it right for you.
Remember your mind is one of the most powerful life tools you have and happiness is a state of your mindset. Invest in it and the returns are endless.
Ever thought if we spent more time on the positive rather than as much time as we do talking negatively about, ourself, putting our self’s down and as a result missing out of things, as a result of all this, what you could actually achieve and be doing with your life?
When if we actually believed we can, how much happier we would be and what we would already have achieved and succeeded at and where we would be?
How many opportunities have come your way that your confidence, limiting self-beliefs, fears and influence of others stopped you taking?
Make a positive change and Stop this happening again! to you and yourself and don’t miss out on any more things you want to do in your life!
Go for it! say yes not No to positive opportunities and the worse thing that can happen is that you tried and it didn’t work or wasn’t what you wanted and then at least there is never going to be any regrets, you tried.
And just What if it all worked and you actually got want you wanted, it would be worth it then.
Take and apply these simple steps right now to your life!….
1) signing up to things! That course, that challenge that task, lessons, new ventures etc, get it’s done sign up!
2) saying yes more often! Those things you want to say yes to but fear stopped you pick one to start with and change the no I can’t to yes I can!
3) drop out more of the things you don’t want to spend your time and energy on! It’s so true the old saying, if you’ve always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got, time for change, if something is not working change the approach, or draw a line under it and move on!
4) keep the path true to you and go get your dreams. Make sure you’re doing more of what you really want to do it’s your life.
5) make sure all of the above leads you to something that makes you feel really happy regularly.
Brain Biscuits Coaching 