Today I want to talk about having a positive mindset and why for me I think it is the main key to success.
Achieving a positive mindset, can be done in lots of different ways, but the main practices I use are:
• Having a morning routine
• Meditating
• Journaling and Goal Setting
• Affirmations
• Gratitude
• And something a bit newer to me, Visualisation.
Having a Morning Routine:
Being self aware of ourselves is so important, it’s the first step to change. Commiting to a morning routine, can help ensure your day begins with intention and focus, therefore meaning you are more likely yo be able to deal with what the day ahead throws at you. It also gives me time and space to do things for myself that I wouldn’t usually do.
So what does my morning routine look like? (on a work day)
1. 6am alarm goes off-Get up!
2. Spend 5 minutes, just sitting and being.
3. Get dressed for workout and do workout.
4. Have shower/bath and get ready for work.
5. I tend to have about half an hour or so after all this, so I’ll Have breakfast,
6. Fill in my journal, say and write my gratitudes,
7. Then I’ll spend 5 minutes visualising how I want my day to be-positive, happy, flawsome thoughts, get detailed, really feel it. If I don’t visualise I’ll meditate using my breathe app for 5-10 mins.
8. Then head out the door to work, with snacks and lunch prepped for day.
Every work morning looks like this.
On a rest day or day off I’ll take things a bit easier but I’ll still journal, say and write my gratitudes. It’s definitely one of the main things for me that helps me maintain a positive mindset.
Meditating:
For me I like to meditate before bed, I find it helps me unwind after a busy day. I like to use a free app on my phone called breathe. It has a plethora of lots of styles of meditation, varying in time and all for free but they do have a paid version but I think the free one is fab enough. Just 5-10 minutes a days, every day and you will notice a massive shift in your positive mindset. Find what works for you, a lot of people hear the word meditation and think of lots of hippy’s sitting crossed legged humming. Not at all, do what works for you my friend. My favourite meditations on the breathe app are:
1. Body Scan
2. Counting Breathes
3. Sleep Tight
Journaling
I love to journal, for me it has been a complete game changer with my positive mind set.
Since I started journaling about 2 years ago now, I have tried various journals, from The Happiness Planner, 5 Minute Journal, Lady Lean Planners, and many more. But what I found was I was needing 2, to cover all the areas, I wanted but I wanted all in one place. So I got to work and created my own personalised 7 day one (7 Days To a More Flawsome You!), where I have included all the things I feel are useful to me. I like to record my workouts, my meals and snacks, my water consumption, work hours and to do’s, daily goals and affirmations and more. I’m pretty proud of it and want to share it with you and help you guys on your very own journeys.
I like journaling because, I can see in black and white (or whatever colour pen I’ve written in, lol) what I have achieved, etc. How awesome is that to see your progress, right there in front of you and also great for looking back on as well.
Keeps me self-motivated so much.
Affirmations:
What are these I hear you ask, well affirmations are powerful tools to help shift our mindset and begin to rewire the thought process in the brain. Affirmations can be said out loud and/or written down, I personally prefer to write them down, I feel they have more effect. Affirmations should be stated as ‘I am….’, in the present tense and keep them positive, simple and short. Eg, I am Flawsome!
You can make them more powerful by adding in emotionally charged words or action words ending in ‘ing’. Work on 1-3 a day, no more.
Gratitude:
Gratitide is so important and such a game changer with my mindset. It’s been scientifically proven to boost our happiness levels. By making/saying daily gratitudes, it trains our brain to look fot the posities and good things in life. With practice we can actually rewire our brains to combat negativity. Amazing huh?
Research suggests that the more you practice gratitude, the more your brain adapts to this positive mindset. Gratitude has also been shown to increase mental strength, improve self esstem, sleep better, have more empathy, reduces aggressive mannerisms, can improve your psychological health and help with your personal relationships. It has so many benefits. It’s also been shown that those who regularly practice gratitude tend to be more creative, bounce back from adversity better, have a stronger immune system and have stronger social relationships.
Why wouldn’t you do it? Be kind!
What will you do to be more grateful today? How will you practice Gratitude?
Visualisation:
This is reasonably new thing for me to officially do, I guess I’ve always dreamed and imagined things and I remember as a child having a great imagination so I thought when suggested recently I’d give it a go.
It’s a technique many successful people and athletes use. Visualisation is creating mental imagery.
Believe it or not our brains can’t tell the difference between a real and imagined scenario on a neural level, so if we visualise, it’s as if it’s already happened for our brains. You can visualise in what ever way works best for you.
I do it by:
• Sit Comfortably and Close your Eyes
• Focus on your breathe
• Once relaxed, imagine a specific part of your day/week/situation/future event going well.
• See it in as much detail as possible
• Where are you? What does it look like? What are you wearing?
• What’s the weather like? What can you hear?
• Who is with you? What do you say? What is said to you?
• What do you do? How do you react? How do you feel?
This is where the magic lies, get as specific as possible.
Have conversations with yourself? Get clear on your visualisation.
Notice what’s important to YOU!!
This can be used in all aspects of life from life, business, relationships, future events, etc.
This can be so powerful!!! Give it a go today and let me know how you got on and if it’s helped you.
Daily Goal Setting:
Setting Goals is so important, you don’t want to over load/over power yourself though, so focus on up to 3 daily goals.
By only setting up to 3 daily goals, this creates intention and focus. It doesn’t mean you will get more done but it means these 3 goals are your priority to complete. Being clear on up to 3 daily goals has been a big shift for me as part of my daily morning routine. Setting gals this way, forces you to prioritise, otherwise you will try and do everything at once and end up not getting anything or nothing much done, or you totally overwhelmed and achieve nothing at all.
Let me help you get started on smashing those goals.
-It isn’t about creating judgment but creating awareness around what we’re capable of doing in a day.
You got this my Flawsome friend, lets smash our goals together!
Thank you for reading my take on having a positive mindset and how it can help you succeed, I hope you enjoyed it and got something out of it.
Thank you!
Stay Flawsome my friend!
Lots of love
Jem xx
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