Morning Tone

How you choose to start your morning sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Start it beautifully and it will keep on flowing...


Meditation~Gratitude~Intention~Inspired Action~Compliment yourself~Eat Breakfast~Herbal Tea~Green Smoothie~Exercise~Stretch~Creativity~Smile

Benefits of Mindfulness

I'd like to talk a bit about mindfulness as this is the key goal to all I am sharing.

Mindfulness simply means being fully present in the moment. I may tell you mindfulness is simple but I am certainly not saying it is easy.
What does it mean to be fully present in the moment? You'll hear this a lot from self help guru's, yoga teachers, meditation leaders, psychiatrists and therapists amongst many others but not many truly understand what it means to be in the moment and that it is something that needs to be practiced regularly, as it is a skill. A life changing skill.

I'd like you to take a moment right now to experience some mindfulness. Take a slow deep breath in through the nose and feel the sensation of the cold air entering the nostrils, feel your lungs filling up and the tightness in your chest when you can't inhale anymore. As you exhale feel the warm breath leaving your nose. Feel the sensation on the tip of your nose as the breath leaves it. How does your body feel right now? How do your feet feel on the ground? Is the floor cold? Hear the sounds around you close by and in the distance. Just hear the sounds, don't try and figure out what they are or attach feeling or emotion to them, just listen. For a moment take your eyes off the computer (once you've finished reading this direction) and sit there in the moment and feel every sensation, hear every sound and take in your surroundings. In that very moment you have all you need. Let your thoughts just pass by you like clouds. In that moment you do not need to plan the future, worry about the past, or answer the demands of others. You have everything you need, take in your surroundings and just be.

For those few moments you were fully present. That may have seemed like a lot to be thinking about, sensations, feelings etc, but in fact the less you think the better. Mindfulness is deliberately paying attention to thoughts and sensations without judgement. Acceptance of what is.

Now why do we do this? The benefits of mindfulness are vast and vital to overall happiness, health and life. Mindfulness can:

• Improve well being
• relieve stress and anxiety
• lower blood pressure
• improve sleep
• significantly help relieve symptoms of depression
• help with eating disorders
• help with obsessive compulsive disorder
• help you focus
• support in weight loss
• improve creativity and memory
• improve blood sugar control
• boosts immune system
• let you get to know yourself and your hearts desires

And many more...

The benefits to your life and improving mental health are amazing which is why, as someone diagnosed with bipolar and managed to turn my life around, I want to share ways and inspiration to help you be more mindful in your everyday life. Through practices like meditation, yoga, certain food, creating a routine, setting goals etc. you can do this. And I will go into detail on each area. 

But to start with, how about every morning before jumping out of bed, take a moment to be grateful and present, set a positive intention to start your day. Practice just 5 minutes of meditation before the chaos of the day kicks off and your taken with it. When you pour tea hear the sounds, feel the steam rising, inhale the smell. Taste your food. Don't eat while watching the TV. Food tastes so much better when you are mindful about what you are eating, you will also be less likely to eat junk food as you will be fully aware about what you are putting into your amazing body. Taste it, smell it, feel the textures in your mouth and see the different colours on your plate.

I hope this has given you a clearer understanding of mindfulness and what it can do for you. Please subscribe for guides, meditations and inspiring life lessons.

Now go and be present xx

Feeling Stuck

We all experience times of stuckness. I've recently found myself feeling stuck with regards to my purpose in life and not knowing how to move forward. Stuckness can lead to feelings of depression, anxiety, low self esteem, lack of confidence and a general feeling of being lost and not knowing how to move forward.
Stuckness can give you a sense of panic and make you want to move out of the situation quickly creating a quick sand effect.

It's OK to feel stuck. Accept how you feel and instead of fighting against it, give yourself some space to breathe and think. Feeling stuck is a sign that you need to make a change in your life and only you will know which area of your life this signal is highlighting for you, be it work, relationships, health, home etc.
The stuckness signal can be one of the most important signals you will ever receive and it's important to sit up and take notice. Don't give into to the feeling and let it overwhelm you. Use it and take the steps needed to make the change in your life.

Ask yourself some important questions.
What am I not happy with in my life at the moment? (this is usually the area where you will feel stuck)
How can I make positive steps to begin making changes in this area?
Don't overwhelm yourself. Make small attainable goals which will leave you with a feeling of satisfaction and control over your life.
What is one thing you can do today that will make the biggest change in your life?
What am I not admitting to myself?
How can I begin each day more positively, creating more energy and productivity? 
A morning routine is a hugely valuable renewing step to take, Again, don't overwhelm yourself by setting a goal of getting up an hour earlier and going for a 45 minute jog followed by meditation and eating a bowl of spinach. A drastic change will give you a sense of fear and dread. This should be enjoyable.
Wake up 30 minutes earlier, no snoozing of the alarm. Before getting out of bed take a deep breath, smile and think of 3 simple things you are grateful for in your life. E.g The sunshine, your comfy bed, music... anything that rings true to your heart. And really feel the gratitude. The more grateful you are in your life the more the universe will create things for you to be grateful for.

15 minutes of gentle exercise like yoga or stretching. Youtube has a wonderful selection of free yoga tutorials. Check out my links for you page to try some of my personal favourites.

Review the areas in your life that you need to change and start to take the necessary steps you need to pull you out of the quick sand.

What do you truly want?

Be brave, take risks, you can do this!

Morning Ritual

As a sufferer of bipolar disorder I know how hard it is to drag yourself out of bed and face the day. I was one of those who would snooze the alarm 15 times, then lay there huffing and puffing before slowly dragging myself out of bed all hunched over and feeling heavy and depressed. This would set the tone for the rest of my day. Spilling the milk when I make my tea, running late for work and generally feeling like life is a bit mundane and rubbish and this is how it will be, day in and day out.

I had a reality check, I realised that I was causing this crappy feeling every morning and I decided to change the way I woke up. I set my alarm earlier and as soon as it went off I stretched my arms above my head, took a deep full breath and jumped up out of bed. This small change makes a HUGE difference. Trust me, Please try this. The way you get out of bed really affects the way you feel in the morning.

After getting up I would take myself to the living room and meditate for 15 minutes. For me meditation works best in the morning, I can connect with my inner consciousness more easily and it sets a positive and loving tone for the rest of the day.

When I open my eyes I sit there a moment longer taking deep full breaths and think of everything I am grateful for in my life. It doesn't have to be big things. I make the effort to think of 3 things I am grateful for every morning.  For example: The energy to practice yoga, the sun beaming through my window or the sleep I have just enjoyed in my safe warm bed. Practicing gratitude will help you to notice all the wonderful things you actually have going on in your life, it will also attract more things for you to be grateful about.

If I have time before work, after my meditation, I will do some yoga. Sometimes just 15 minutes, other times I can do an hour. Yoga will fill you with energy, wake up your whole body and get breath into stagnant areas of you body where the energy isn't flowing. I will dedicate a post to yoga in the future but I highly recommend it. I love fitness and it is a massive benefit to my mental health. Of all the fitness I do, yoga has made the biggest changes in my body, fitness and mind.
If there is no time to exercise, just do a few simple stretches to wake up the body and set your alarm 15 minutes earlier for the next day.

Finish off with a healthy breakfast and a detoxing herbal tea or simply hot water with fresh lemon and ginger and congratulate yourself for the amazing thing you have just done for your body and mind. Starting your days like this will have  a big positive impact on the rest of you day.

So start now. Think of how you can create a simple and doable morning routine to make a positive difference to the rest of your day, Even if you just make one positive change it will make all the difference.

Guided Meditation

In addition to my post yesterday on meditation, I would like to share with you some nice guided meditations that you can try out. Guided meditation isn't the way to get complete stillness in your mind as your thoughts are following the voice and journey you are being guided on, but for a novice they are a lovely way to get started and create some peace and calmness in your mind.

Follow the simple steps on the meditation page, listen to the voice and let your mind get lost in the journey. Here are the links to a couple I really like.

Enjoy the journey.

Guided Meditation for healing

Guided Meditation for clearing negativity

Meditate

I'm choosing to kick off my blog with a post on meditation as this is where the journey for a more mindful way of living started for me.

The benefits of meditation are vast, they include eliminating stress, lowering blood pressure, decrease  in tension related pain, gain clarity and peace of mind, increase in happiness, sharpens the mind, intuition develops, improves the immune system, increases energy and more.

For someone who doesn't know anything about meditation other than people in orange robes crossing their legs and chanting for hours, the idea can seem a little strange. It did for me. I was first introduced to it in my early twenties. My mum was going through treatment for breast cancer and a friend of hers had given her a chakra balancing guided meditation to listen to. I walked in on her laying on the bed covered in rose quartz crystals listening to a soothing voice telling her to imagine she was walking through a beautiful green forest. I thought great, she's lost it. But I gave it a go. At the time I was struggling with chronic depression and wasn't feeling very hopeful.
I was pleasantly surprised, it took me away for 30 minutes and I came out of it with a sense of calm.

I began trying out different guided meditations, buying books and talking to others that practiced meditation. I took myself away on a Buddhist retreat where I meditated with monks for hours every day. It was there that my practice changed and I learned the true meaning of meditation. To find stillness in the mind.
Meditation rests the mind and helps you attain a state of consciousness that is very different from the normal waking state. In this state you will experience the centre of consciousness within.

Meditation is not a religious practice, anyone can do it. It is a truly loving and kind gift that you should allow yourself to enjoy daily. It has made huge changes to my state of mind and can do the same for you.

Take a look at my page on meditation where I give you an easy breakdown of how to meditate. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, take just 10 of them to dedicate to yourself.