My Top 10 Mindful Habits

This year has bought us many opportunities to learn and understand each other at a much deeper level, to reconsider our priorities and the impact of our actions. It has also bought new challenges around mental health.

Mental health has always been a topic close to my heart and as supporters, carers and sometimes as business owners, we can lose sight of looking after our own mental health. We don’t make caring for ourselves a priority. But there is a reason why the airlines ask you to secure your own oxygen mask before helping others.

In my coaching business, I love the energy that is shared during client sessions. But to keep that energy high, I have to make sure that I am bringing my own high energy.

To help me manage this, I have my ‘Goddess Routine’ that I try to work through each day.

My routine was inspired by Dani Watson from The Clique Academy and builds on from The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.

I have read the books and done the trainings that all say you should get up early and embrace the day. That if you are living the life you love then you will bounce out of bed at 5am or 6am.

Now, I’m the first to put my hand up and say that I am not a morning person. No matter how much love I have for my day, I just can’t do it. My brain just works better at 1am than it does at 9am. And that’s okay, although mainly because I can be flexible with the hours I work… So, I gave myself permission to work on these actions throughout my day, rather than doing everything in the first hour.

Before I go into detail, I understand that the below actions aren’t for everyone, and not everyone will have the time or opportunities to do everything on this list. My intention is help create awareness of the options and impact that having some mindful exercises in your day can have.  

1. Meditation

It took some time for me to be able to enjoy the benefits of meditation. I had tried it in the past and felt more stressed as I tried to block out all of my busy thoughts. With time and practice, I was able to learn to acknowledge and release my thoughts.

Over the past few months, it has now become a ritual of its own. I have my crystals, incense, candles, theta wave music and my cushion for extra comfort. I love sitting by my window, feeling the sun on my skin and taking time to pause and allowing time for my soul to speak up.

2. Reading

I was never a big reader growing up. I thought that the only time I had for reading was in bed, and if I’m in bed then I wanted to be sleeping not reading!

Now I try to spend a few hours each week expanding my knowledge through personal development and learning new ways to improve and grow my business.

3. Movement

In my perfect world, I get up every morning and do a yoga routine.

Whilst I’m not quite in my perfect world yet, I do try to make sure I do something to get my body moving for the day, whether it’s stretching, yoga, a few minutes of my weights, or a nice walk in the park.

It is also important to be mindful of the habits we create when we work behind a computer all day. I’ve had to set reminders in my calendar each hour to make sure I would take a break from my screen and stand up. Yes, my colleagues thought I was weird but it was worth it!

4. Affirmations

Affirmations are a great way to help change your inner voice, negative self-talk and sub-conscious beliefs over time.

To help enhance the impact of your affirmations, ensure they are something you believe is truly possible. If you don’t believe what you are saying, then you will not be able to change your thoughts.

You can also strengthen your connection to your affirmation by creating an anchor for when you say your affirmations. Anchoring is a common NLP technique that helps encourage a frame of mind or emotion by carrying out a particular action, such as pinching your ear.

5. Visualisation

The most common and fun way to visualise is to create a vision board. I have my physical board as well as my digital board on Pinterest. Visualization meditations are also gaining popularity with many guided meditations available online.

But as fun as it is to do arts and crafts, you need to check in on a few things:

Do you really feel connected to the image your quote that you are putting on the board? If it feels too detached from your current reality and mindset then you could begin to self-sabotage your success. It’s wonderful to dream big, just be sure that you are comfortable with achieving that success.

Include your current successes and achievements on your board, creating it as a Vision and Success Board. Our subconscious mind cannot differentiate between our imagination and reality so seeing the all the images together raises your vibration so you can begin attracting more of what you want into your life.

Also don’t be afraid to mix things up a bit! When we look at something every day, it can begin to lose its power as it settles into being a part of our environment. Part of my money mind set practice is to ‘Act As if’! I look at the travel brochures I would if I were booking my dream holiday. I configure my dream car online and look up my dream homes online. By doing this I am experiencing the emotion of achieving that goal, creating a stronger attachment to my future success.

6. Inspiration

If you go looking, you will find endless sources of inspiration, the most common and easily accessible being Instagram.

I need to put my hand up for being one of those ‘life coaches’ that’s always posting motivational and inspirational quotes. It’s always done with good intention, what may not resonate with you on a particular day could be just what someone else needed to hear. Plus, I love my music so it’s a fun way to sing to the world!

But even I can only handle so much #goodvibesonly. Some days it just not for us, we struggle to find our motivation and being told to ‘always be happy’ just makes it worse.

Alternatives from the OTT #myperfectlife people of Instagram, there are podcasts, trainings, supportive Facebook groups and books that can help you feel more supported and connected to yourself, no matter how you feel each day.

7. Health Shake and Juices

It’s important to keep our mind, body and spirit nourished. Our bodies go through so much to support the needs of ourselves and others. Even when we need to rest, we push our bodies to keep going because someone else needs us.

Reward your body with a juice or health shake. I personally like my Vega shake as its full of nutrients and ready in only a minute!

8. Journaling

There are multiple types of journaling that I do – goals, dreams, ideas, gratitude, reflection and money mindset. I don’t journal on all of these every day, but I like to spend few minutes, whether in the morning or evening, writing down my thoughts.

Journaling has been known to have the following benefits:

• Gives you greater mental clarity through the process of releasing your thoughts onto paper
• Helps you to visualise the dream life you want to manifest
• Reduce stress and anxiety by acknowledging your thoughts and releasing them
• Helps with learning by reflecting on what you have learnt throughout your day
• Provides support with managing negative self-talk as you become more aware of your thought patterns. Once you have identified your internal chatter, you can begin to change your voice to more positive self-talk.  There are several NLP techniques that can assist with this.

9. Planning

Each Monday I have a big planning session for my week ahead, but I still find it beneficial to still plan for each day the night ahead. It gives me an opportunity to review my day, acknowledge my achievements and be clear on the tasks I have ahead of me.

Again, by writing everything down on a To-Do List, it means that I don’t have thoughts racing through my mind when I am trying to sleep.

10. Money mindset

Many of these steps were covered in my previous blog, It’s All About The Money… Mindset.

Unfortunately, your money mindset isn’t something that you can change overnight. It takes more than a few changes to start manifesting money. You need to show up constantly for yourself before you can see results.

Some of the tasks I do include the activities listed above, including mediation, chakra cleansing, affirmations and journaling, I just adjust my intention to focus on my beliefs around money.

So, long story short… You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great – Zig Ziglar

Ready to create your own Goddess Routine? Download the FREE Mindful Habits List with 21 suggested activities to introduce to your day!

Photo by Thought Catalog.