Peace, Peace of Mind & A Piece of Cake

 

Peace, Peace of Mind & A Piece of Cake

There are three things you need in your life- Peace, Peace of Mind and a Piece of Cake. A little bit of each will help balance you and help you to live a more productive and fulfilled life.

Peace

Want to make your mind and body happy? Then get rid of any toxic anger or grudges you are holding on to. If you find yourself holding onto the past, now is the time to let go. The great thing about forgiveness is you don’t have to feel it, you just do it. And, you are doing it for yourself, no one else.

Sometimes we see ourselves as non-combative people because we walk away from fights, don’t yell and rarely get mad. However, don’t forget about the way you treat yourself. You may not be at war with other people, but reflect to make sure you are not at war with yourself. Peace encompasses peace with yourself, too.

 

Peace of Mind

The best things in life are free, and peace of mind constitutes as one of them. A great way to live healthy is to have peace of mind.  Peace of mind gives us happiness, energy and the ability to sleep at night.

Want more peace of mind? List out your morals and values and see if you are actually living them. Living untruthfully to others or yourself is painful and stressful. It requires the body to exalt a lot of energy and time, and can cause paranoia and confusion in your mind. The more things you can take off your plate that cause you internal pain, the more you will see your peace of mind go up.

 

Piece of Cake

While you are working on forgiveness, becoming a better person and doing everything else that you do in a day’s work, don’t forget to have that piece of cake. And I mean that literally and figuratively. Every once in a while, eat a slice of your favorite cake.

More importantly though, make sure that you have some fulfillment and fun in your life. Don’t forget all about your bucket listers, your dreams and doing the things that make you let go, laugh hysterically and make you feel like you are really living.

I understand we all “have” to do things for survival, like work and pay bills, but that is not all that life has to offer you. You do have time for the enjoyable things in life. You make time for work, make time for Life.  You can do it.

 

 

This week’s challenge is to reflect on how you can add a little more peace, peace of mind and a piece of cake to your life. Then, select one of the areas and begin adding that into your life.

Peace, Piece of Mind, Piece of Cake. Make sure your life has all three.

 

Tools To Make Your Self-Talk More Positive

 

Tools To Make Your Self-Talk More Positive

 

Be careful how you are talking to yourself because you are listening. Lisa M Hayes

 

Who came with up with the slogan sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me? They must have been a tree. Words hurt. In fact, sometimes words are more painful than sticks and stones. Words become more painful than sticks and stones when the hurtful words about us, come from us. Sticks and stones will break your bones, but negative self-talk will destroy you. Below are the Top 3 Tools for better Self-Talk.

 

#1: Rid of the “Have To,” “Must” and “Should” Talk.

Those things that “have to get done” are part of a sabotaging mind habit we created for ourselves. The reality is, a lot of what we do does not “have to” get done, or, if it does, it doesn’t “have to” happen right then and there.  Using words like “have,” “must,” “should” and “ought” are words that fill us with guilt and anxiety. Women despise feeling guilty, thus to avoid feelings of guilt, we satisfy the “haves” in our lives before we satisfy ourselves.

Women often do not deem themselves as a “have” or “must” in their own lives, thus everything else is worked on and fulfilled, except them. Despite popular belief, laundry does not HAVE to get done on the weekends. Weekend is a compound word. Week-end. Your week has ended. Use this time to walk away from the “should” and “haves” in your life, and do the things that you really would like to do in Life, like all those things you “missed out on” or “wished you could do.”

 

 

#2: Stop Telling Yourself Everything Has to be Perfect.

Perfection is subjective. That is why you should never try to be perfect for anyone or anything. If you spend your life trying to be perfect for someone else, you may find you are never perfect, for you.

Thinking that you have to be perfect at anything in life is not only a barrier to your goals and Life fulfillment, but you have directly set yourself up for failure. Don’t spend your life trying to be something that doesn’t exist. By striving for perfection, your mind and body will go one of two ways:

1.      Back down altogether. Your mind and body are smart. If you set a goal for something that is not attainable (such as trying to be perfect) why even try? Your mind and body won’t waste its time and energy trying to strive for something that is unachievable. So, the mind finds excuses and the body will support that.

2.       You will attempt your goals with perfection in mind, and then fail (because perfection does not exist). This pattern of attempting and failing lowers our self-esteem and sometimes our desire to set goals at all.

Instead of perfectionism, work toward self-actualization. Self-actualization means to develop your full potential. You are always in the mind-set of growing and developing yourself.  It is through striving for self-actualization that you will find Life, Mind and Body fulfillment.

 

 

#3: Recognize Life is Not Only Black and White

I get it, you don’t have time. Neither do I. But the reality is, we are both thinking in black and white right now. Working out doesn’t mean 60 minutes or 0; all or nothing. Working out to a ten minute app on your phone in the middle of the kitchen is still some form of exercise. It counts.

We often get stuck on thinking and doing things the same way for so long, that we forget there are so many other ways to make decisions or succeed. If you think you exhausted every possibility, you’re wrong. When you think differently, you open more doors for opportunity, doors you can’t even fathom right now because you just don’t know they even exist. Talk yourself out of the black and white, and into the shades of grey.

 

 

5 Tips for Feeling Healthy Inside and Out

 

5 Tips for Feeling Healthy Inside and Out

1.     Exercise is all Encompassing

 

The best way to feel happy, healthy and fit is to exercise. There is no substitute. Research shows that exercise will boost your mood, help you to sleep better and increase your self-esteem. This is partially due to the release of endorphins in your body as you workout. Endorphins decrease our sense of pain and increase our happiness and sense of pleasure.

 

If you want your mood to go up, increase your exercise. Working out doesn’t mean 60 minutes or 0; all or nothing. Working out to a ten minute app on your phone is till exercise. Start somewhere.

 

2.     Put the Good Stuff in Your Stomach

Ninety percent of serotonin is made in your gut. Serotonin is the chemical that makes you happy. That means, whatever you are putting into that tummy of yours, could impact your mood.

Do your best to stay away from frequenting antibiotics, processed foods and high sugar and carb diets. Of course, that chronic stress will get you every time. So, find ways to eliminate stress. Take walks, do yoga, rid of toxic people, eliminate negative self-talk and journal out your pain in order to help minimize some stressors.

 

3.     True Wealth is in Peace of Mind

 

The best things in life are free, and peace of mind constitutes as one of them. A great way to live healthy is to have peace of mind.  Peace of mind gives us happiness, energy and the ability to sleep at night.

 

Want more peace of mind? List out your morals and values and see if you are actually living them. Living untruthfully to others or yourself is painful and stressful. It requires the body to exalt a lot of energy and time, and can cause paranoia and confusion in your mind. The more things you can take off your plate that cause you internal pain, the more you will see your peace of mind go up.

 

 

4.     Comparing is Quite Contrary

 

Don’t compare yourself to others.  A great way to feel healthy is to stay in tune with your body and its needs. When we compare ourselves to others, we focus our time and energy on trying to be something that our body and mind might not actually want us to be. As you spend countless hours trying to be or do things like others, if your mind and body don’t agree, you will never achieve what you are trying to do. As we compare ourselves to others we are giving ourselves a very unrealistic and skewed perception of reality. This can decrease confidence and even lead to depressive symptoms.

 

Instead, work on becoming more self-aware. Reflect on your values, your goals, your current life situation and begin creating a realistic plan to get you where you are trying to go.

Stay healthy and happy by re-shifting your focus and attention that is on others, toward you and your desires.

 

 

5.     Dress Up, Mood Up

Dress up. Of course, there are days when you want to cuddle up in yoga pants and just relax, and quite frankly, I think you should do that. However, don’t let this dress style be your only style. I know that the day to day routine can be boring or nothing exciting might be going on, but dress up anyway.

 

More days than not during the week, make sure you put on a little makeup, paint your nails or style your hair. At least twice a week, wear something that makes you feel sexy or pretty. The way we dress and feel in our own skin does impact our confidence and our attitude about our day. There is nothing like a new sundress, a great hair day, or a little mascara and lipstick.

 

Dress up your body, dress up your mood.

 

 

 

 

If Christmas is in July, then August is New Year’s: Regaining Focus on your 2014 Goals

 

If Christmas is in July, then August is New Year’s: Regaining Focus on your 2014 Goals

By June, 50% of the population who set New Year’s Resolutions has already fell off the band wagon. Here we are approaching the middle of July. What the heck does that mean then? The Magic 8 ball says: “Outlook is not good” for those of us who set goals seven months ago.

I am here to tell you some good news though; there are still 5.5 months left in 2014. And, if Christmas is in July, then that means we can prep for New Years in August. So, this month, rethink about your 2014 goals. Design a plan for moving forward with your goals, and, within the next couple weeks, begin putting them back into action.

 

If your goal was to lose weight this year, start going to the gym this month, running outside, or eating healthier and not late at night.  Do you know how many pounds you can lose in almost six months? A lot. On the other hand, if you continue to give up that goal you initially set in January, do you know how many pounds you could gain in six months? Yikes!

If your goal was to push for that management position in your company, you still have almost six months to create an idea for a project that your company needs and begin to implement it. In six months you have the ability to really show management and leadership what you can do for your company.

The point is to not look back. Don’t look back at what you have not done, rather look at how much time you do still have left and how much is possible to complete in that amount of time. It is never too late to start something you began, especially if it was something you started only six months ago. Don’t let your mind trick you into thinking it is “too late” or that you can “reset your goals in January.”

Six months is a long time to steer yourself even more off track, or, on the other hand, really accomplish something in life.  Always look at what you do have and not at what you don’t have. You actually have a lot of time left this year to move yourself into success in many areas of your life.

 

This week’s challenge is to begin to refocus your New Year’s Resolutions and create a plan to begin implementing for New Year’s in August.