How I stopped creative overwhelm so I could have peace with my creative practice

For a long time, I wondered why making and sharing my art felt like such a core. And although I don’t like to admit it, it kept going on this way until I eventually burned out. And even then I was left looking at my work and what I had created and had to ask myself why I felt so blocked and so unhappy with everything I had created. 

I remember waking up every morning for a while just hoping that maybe things would be different. That creative energy would strike and I would make something that I was really proud of. But it never happened. 

Not until I realized the source of my overwhelm. 

All the stories floating around in my head. Taking up space and stopping me from taking the action I know I needed to. 

Here’s what I had to learn…

Most people don’t yet know the true power of peace when it comes to creativity. But that’s because we are sold so many stories on what an artist is or is not. And you’re consciously or unconsciously living out these stories of what you’ve decided an artist is. 

Seriously take a look at what you tell yourself about how hard you have to work to be successful as an artist. 

Or about how much money you can make as an artist. 

Or any of the other things you maybe didn’t even realize you believe about was an artist should be/look like/etc. 

I can tell you that you’ve probably been sold a story of struggle and lack whether your an artist or not. But if you haven’t done any work to learn a new story then you will keep repeating the same old things you’ve always done. 

And keep getting the same old results you’ve always gotten.  

So if you’re ready for change, read on.

Let me keep it simple for. This is what you really need to know. 

Beliefs->Thoughts->Action

So if you feel blocked or overworked and overwhelmed it’s time to address the root cause. The beliefs and stories you tell yourself. 

I know I wish I would’ve known sooner the being overwhelmed is NOT a normal experience. And it’s especially destructive to creative energy which is exactly why I’ve created the Artist Alignment Accelerator which gets to the root of the belief. So you don’t have to get caught in the overwhelmed+overworked pipeline to burnout. 

When you decide to say yes to having a powerful relationship with your creativity, drop your info in the box below and I’ll send you over all the details! (Plus a super useful ebook I’ve created for eliminating art block!)

What Self Love REALLY Is - How These 3 Secrets Will Make Loving Yourself Easy

Self love is an underrated topic.  Self love is often just brushed over as just ice cream and pyjamas in the afternoon or “love yourself before you can love anyone else.” But even that’s not entirely true.  Sure eating ice cream could be self love for some people but self love actually goes much deeper.  

Self love is honouring yourself and recognizing your worth.  Self love, like any true and genuine love, is unconditional. When you have self love, you see, value, understand, accept, and love yourself.  You care deeply about yourself and can recognize things, people, thoughts, and energy that does not serve you. With self love you are unstoppable because you know that you can do anything.  Self love is putting yourself first and taking charge of your life.

Most people don't have self love because they have over complicated it. They put up all these walls and barriers keeping them from being happy.  I will love myself when I lose these last 10 pounds. I will be happy when I get a raise. I will love myself when I do this or have that or am this or that kind of person.  And you’ve probably been overcomplicating it too. What have you put in between yourself and unconditional self love?

What if all you had to do was love yourself to get everything you want? How do you know that loving yourself is not the only thing you need to do?

Think about that for a second.  What would change in your life if you just chose to love yourself right now?

Self love is simple.  It can be broken down into three main things.

Self Acceptance

Self Trust 

Honouring Yourself

Self Acceptance.

Too often people start their day by looking in the mirror and jumping straight into picking themselves apart.  You look tired. Is that another pimple? Your teeth are too yellow. And so on. How do you feel about yourself right now? Are you unhappy with yourself or your body? What are you beating yourself up about? How do you talk to yourself? Are you loving or hurtful with yourself?

It is in human nature to look for faults and to compare yourself to others or your younger self.  This is flawed thinking when you are trying to embrace and accept yourself because it is hyper-focusing on the negative aspects of yourself.  What you perceive yourself to be lacking. When all you see are the negative things about yourself, it can be hard to feel as if you are worth accepting.  

True self acceptance comes when you can see the person in the mirror and feel good about everything you see.  And the person that you are or are becoming in every aspect. Accept the good and bad things, the problems and successes, all of it.  Accepting yourself is easy. Just choose to see yourself as already whole. You are complete and perfect just as you are. Act out of deep love for yourself and know your worth. 

Jump to self awareness to learn how to objectively view yourself, your habits, and your being.  Blind self acceptance, accepting absolutely everything about yourself without determining the effects it has, can be detrimental to your commitment to self love.  Self love is a commitment to do and be the best you can and without self awareness you will never know if you are just blindly accepting yourself or if you have true unconditional self love.  Self awareness is key to owning your happiness and having self love.  

Self Trust.

Self trust is honouring your word and doing the things you say you will do. How many times have you promised yourself something and not followed through on it?

A lot of the time it can be easier to keep your word to others but not to yourself.  You promise that today will be the day that you finally start eating healthy or that you will not forget to wash the laundry. But you forget anyway because no one held you accountable.  Every time that you don’t go through with your word, you are further moving out of self trust. The less you trust yourself, the worse you feel about yourself. How would you feel if a friend did this to you?

Acting with integrity is a key part of self esteem and trusting yourself.  When you do what you say you are going to do, you move into self trust. You can trust yourself to take care of what needs to be done and it’s not a question of if you’ll forget or not.  You take care of it because it is important for you to have a good rapport with yourself.  

As you keep up with what you say you will do, you feel better about yourself and your abilities.  You trust yourself and in turn have a better opinion of yourself.

Honoring Yourself.

Honoring yourself is knowing yourself and what makes you feel good.  When you honor yourself you are protecting your energy. You only have so much energy and it doesn’t feel good to give it away to things that do not serve you.

If you know that you really don’t like going out with friends all the time, you honor yourself by allowing yourself to say “no” sometimes.  If you know that you love to create art, you make time for it. If you really love ice cream and crappy tv shows, you will let yourself indulge sometimes.  

Honoring yourself can be anything that you do for self care.  From meditating to sleeping in, or calling your family. Honor yourself and your energy by doing things that make you feel good and recharge you.  

Don’t hesitate to put yourself first.  

Self love is an integral part of living your best and happiest life.  When you work from a place of self love, you act with a deep desire to show yourself love and compassion.  A huge part of the human experience is emotions and how you feel about yourself shapes so much of your world. By allowing love to flow through your being you open the channel for others to see themselves as valuable too.  Self love is knowing your worth and honoring your being. So love yourself deeply and don’t be afraid for the world to see. The more we can love ourselves and tell others that it is okay to love themselves too, the more love there is in the world.  And we can always use more of that.

Self Care for the Soul - 11 Things You Need to do to Take Care of Yourself

In the past, I used to believe that self care was fluffy and simple things like face masks and bubble baths.  And yes, sometimes that is the kind of self care we need but self care is actually bigger than that. So why is self care so important? 

Self care is listening to your body and spirit to understand what you need to feel better.  Self care is important because it is an act of self love and gratitude. Having ideas for creating the best self care checklist or self care strategies can be helpful but a true self care day has more to do with how it makes you feel.  Your self care routine should be full of different self care practices to fully nourish yourself. Self care can look like many different things for many different people but you will know what feels right for you.   

By creating a self care routine or a self care day around nourishment and health of mind, body and soul, you shift from doing something because it is on a list or because you think that that is what self care is supposed to be, to doing something because it feels good and makes you feel healthy and abundant.  Now, not to be contradictory of the list-- a list of no BS self care tips that actually makes you feel good and benefits you on a multitude of levels.  

Do Something You Love

Read a book. Create art. Journal. Take a nap.  Do something that you don’t normally have time to do or seem to always find a reason not to do.  Do this just because you love whatever it is.  

Talk to Someone You Love 

Call your mom, I bet she’d love to hear from you.  

It doesn’t have to be your mom specifically, just take a few minutes out of your day to have a conversation with someone you care about.  Go distraction-free and just talk.  

Say “No”

Self care can be as much about not doing something as it is about doing something.  The best thing can sometimes be to say no to the event or thing that you don’t want to do.  You know the moment from your childhood where you gave your parent the look that said, “please don’t actually give me permission to go, I’d rather stay home than go.”  Give yourself permission to stop when you know that something is just going to drain you more than you are prepared to deal with.  

Meditate

Taking a quiet moment(even as little as 5 minutes) just to calm your mind and recenter yourself, can not only help you to relax but will also help you to focus on how your feeling.  

Self Improvement

Learning more about yourself and cultivating habits that are healthy for your mind and body, is a big part of self care.  Self improvement or self development don’t have to be big things. It could be as simple as taking one thing from this list and applying it every day.  Self care is nourishing yourself and the best way to do that is by getting to know and grow yourself.  

Laugh

Ever heard that laughter is the best medicine?  It seriously is. Laughing, not only distracts you from the busyness of life, but it also acts as a release of energy.  Put on your favourite comedy, joke with a friend or loved one, or just laugh at yourself. Whatever you do just find some time to laugh or joke or just straight up be silly.  

Move your body

Now I actually don’t mean go to the gym or run a marathon(unless that tickles your fancy). Find a way to move your body in a way that energizes you and excites you. Dance. Take a walk. Learn to do a handstand.  Just move your body in a way that makes you happy and feel good.  

Have a Morning/Night Routine

Self care can be the act of nourishing your body whenever you feel like you need it, but it can also be something that you bring into every day.  If you know that drinking water first thing after waking up feels good, try to make it a habit. Having a routine is a good way to nourish yourself without having to think too much about what feels good or right.  

Clean Up

You're probably a little confused by this one but I’m not saying you need to deep clean your whole home.  Just do a little bit, declutter, dust, or any household chore that is simple but that might be bothering you.  It can be surprising how much better you feel when you tackle a small task. 

Talk Nicely to Yourself

Tell yourself, out loud or in your head positive affirmations and words.  When you talk kindly to yourself you are doing inner self care that feeds you from the inside out.  When you love yourself unconditionally, you begin acting out of self love more easily and all self care becomes more powerful.  Instead of being critical and hard on yourself, give yourself a break and just be loving and kind to yourself.  

Smile!

Do it right now.  Slap a big grin on your face and be happy that you are alive.  Smiling makes you feel and believe that you are happy. Smiling is probably one of the easiest and fastest ways to feel better.  For that extra umpth, think about something that you are grateful for and smile big.  

Self care doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.  Keep it simple and think about how you can nourish yourself and give love for yourself.  Don’t feel guilty about putting yourself first, I promise you, you deserve it. When you use self care with the intention of recharging and nourishing yourself, you are giving back to yourself for all that you do.  Self care is an act of self love and self appreciation. Self care can be so much more than just what is on a list, including this list. So do what feels good for you and do it often because you need to practice taking care of yourself and self care is the perfect way to do that. 

6 Scary Truths about your Phone Screen - How to use Blue Light Better

Before the introduction of technology into almost every aspect of life, the sun was the only source of blue light.  Nowadays, almost every form of technology and lighting emits blue light. Blue light is really important for the regulation of body functions and can help you to be more alert.  

Blue light also has a dark side though.  When you expose your eyes to unnatural lights, at the wrong time of day, you can actually mess with your body’s natural regulation of its systems and can make yourself always tired.

Learn to master the use of blue light in the right ways, and avoid it when it is harmful to you.

What is Blue Light 

Blue light is most light emitted from digital devices.  This includes your smartphone, tv, and even most e-readers.  Blue light is also emitted from the sun and fluorescent and LED lights.  

Blue light is a short wavelength color and is easily visible to the human eye.  Because of it having one of the shortest wavelengths(380-500nm), it also has one of the highest energies.  

Effects of Blue Light

Reduce Sleepiness - Waking up and getting some blue light, in the form of sunlight, is particularly important for helping to set the circadian rhythm and wake you up for the day.  

Alertness - Exposure to blue light suppresses melatonin(sleep hormone) and in turn, helps you feel more awake and alert. 

Reaction Time - This study found that 6000K lights were more effective for increasing a person’s reaction time than a lower Kelvin(K) bulb.   

Heart Rate - Your body temperature and heart rate increase after blue light exposure.  You get pumped up and ready to go.   

Dangers of Unnatural Blue Light

Before Bed - Because blue light from screens mimics the sun, it sends a message to our body that it is not time to sleep and instead keeps us up.  

When exposed to blue light from an e-reader, participants of this study were found to take almost 10 minutes longer to fall asleep.  As opposed to participants asked to read a printed book before bed.  To fall asleep faster, science says that it is important to stay away from your phone screen. 

Sleep - In the same study, using blue light also caused less rapid eye movement(REM) sleep. This could impair your ability to learn and affect cognitive function.  Misalignment with a natural circadian rhythm is more likely to lead to sleep deficiency or insomnia.  

Alertness - Blue light will also make you feel less tired and more energized so it will be harder to relax and calm down.  People who used blue light before bed also report waking up tired and taking longer to become fully alert.  

Cancer - The World Health Organization(WHO) has classified night shift work as probably cancer-causing to people.  Blue light exposure at night was linked with an increased risk of prostate and breast cancer.  

Eye Strain - Staring at computer screens or other digital devices can lead to dry, irritated eyes.  Eye strain from computers can also lead to difficulty focusing.  

Eye Damage - Over time, regular exposure to blue light can damage retinal cells and cause vision problems.  

How to Reduce Effects of Blue Light Exposure and Protect your Vision

Use blue blocking lenses(blue light blocking glasses)

Reduce glare on your devices(keep screens clean to avoid extra eye strain)

Use a program to change the colors of your screen(Flux- for computer, night mode - for phones)

Take breaks from staring at a screen 

Avoid screens for 2-3 hours before sleep

Use a candle for late night activities(instead of an LED bulb)

How to Get Better Sleep and Use Blue Light the Right Way

A healthy bedtime routine is a scheduled wind down from the day.  Have a night ritual planned out so you can sleep better. Put your phone down with any alarms you need already set.  Get away from any other screens or lights and do a relaxing activity like reading a book or meditating. Brush your teeth and wash your face using candlelight and relax with a cup of your favorite hot beverage.  

If you have to use a screen after sunset, make sure to use eye protection(like blue light blocking glasses). 

Regulating and normalizing your circadian rhythm is important for a lot more than just your sleep-wake cycles.  Your circadian rhythm also controls your metabolism, hormone secretion, digestion, and many more of your body’s functions.  By messing with your circadian rhythm, by using your phone or other screens late at night, you can disrupt a lot of systems in your body.  Blue light from a device, basically tells your body that it is midday.  

When you first wake up and stick your nose in your phone you seemingly tell your body that it is the middle of the day and you might become more alert but at the sacrifice of the rest of your day.  Then by the time you get to the afternoon, you feel tired and ready to sleep. But when bedtime rolls around, you have been looking at a screen right up until you crawl in bed. And now you can't fall asleep because your body still thinks its midday.  

To use blue light in a more effective way you have to avoid it until the sun has risen and after the sun sets.  Try to get outside to soak up the morning sun and again in the setting sun. This will help to regulate your circadian rhythm.  Plus getting outside can have other health benefits.  

Blue light, although not always harmful, can have a major effect on sleep and wake patterns, eye health, and overall well being.  It is almost impossible to avoid in a world dominated by technology but there are measures that you can take to reduce the negative effects of blue light.  

But you probably noticed that not all of the effects of blue light are bad.  Having more alertness and better reaction time can actually be quite beneficial.  To embrace these benefits, you shouldn’t stick your nose in your phone when you first wake up.  But instead, try to get outside and into the sun’s early morning rays. The sun is a lot more natural way to wake yourself up and, like it nourishes plants, it can nourish you as well.  

By noticing and applying the right timing and kind of blue light, you can effectively improve many different aspects of your sleep and health. 

How to Cultivate Strong Self Awareness for your Happiness and Health

When you develop strong self awareness, you become more aware of, not only yourself and your feelings, but the impact you have on the world.  More self aware people are calmer, happier, and more sure of themselves. Self awareness gives you permission to live by your values and be unwavering.  Growing your self awareness, is one of the key factors in personal growth. It allows you to see problematic behaviors, learn from your mistakes, and move forward.  Self awareness is key to knowing yourself, valuing your being, and living a fulfilled life.

What Self Awareness Is

Self awareness is one’s ability to objectively view their environment and what makes up the self.  This can be knowing your emotions, desires, beliefs, strengthens, and weaknesses.

Self awareness is a skill or ability that can be cultivated to help you better understand and work with yourself.  The key to mastering everything self(from self esteem to processing your environment) is self awareness.

External self awareness(understanding how other people view you) can make you more understanding of other people’s viewpoints and more empathetic.

Internal self awareness(how you see yourself and situation) will help you to have more happiness and self control.  As well has been associated with higher satisfaction in both work and relationships.

Why Self Awareness is So Important

Self awareness gives you the ability to regulate your thoughts and emotions.  You become more aware of the consequences of your actions and can, therefore, lead a more whole life where you stick to your values and have a strong sense of who you are.  You can build up your confidence and banish low self esteem. You listen to your body and take the best care of yourself that you can. You learn self acceptance and emotional awareness as your self awareness grows.  

By growing your self awareness, you not only know yourself better, but you have more wisdom that you can apply.  When you practice self reflection and insight(both apart of self awareness) you feel better and have a better outlook on yourself.  Over time as your wisdom grows, you become more understanding. Wisdom makes you more reflective and compassionate and in turn more likable and happy.  Self awareness can be especially important for your mental health.

Negative thoughts and patterns can be noticed and broken when you have more self awareness.  

Do you Lack Self Awareness?

Self awareness test.  People who are unaware of themselves tend to be nonobservant of themselves and the effect of their actions.  This could look like:

Unbalanced Emotions: Self awareness helps to keep emotions in check.  A person without self awareness will not be able to control their emotions and may have more adverse reactions to stressful situations.

Need to be in Control: Someone who micromanages or always has to be the one to decide, probably doesn’t have self awareness because they deem their opinion the only right one and cannot see the situation from anyone else’s perspective.  

Defensive: People without self awareness will not be able to own up to their mistakes and will instead find everything to blame but themselves.  The smallest comment could send a person lacking self awareness into defense mode where they deflect and cannot take responsibility.

Inconsistency: When you have self awareness, you will try to live a life where you live authentically.  But when you have no self awareness, you will not be able to see the way you act and will have no set values to live by.

As well, people lacking self awareness will typically engage in behaviors that keep them separated from the self.  These behaviors could include:

Watching TV

Overusing Social Media

Using Drugs

Overeating

Extreme Sexual Behavior

Oversleeping

And potentially many more.  Obviously, these behaviors are not all bad, but when used as an escape from the world and oneself, they are not conducive to being happy or self aware.  

How to Become Self Aware

Self awareness is a skill.  This means that it has to be cultivated through practice.  When looking for insight into one’s self, you should focus on asking “what” questions.  “What” questions inspire better insights and keep you objective, as opposed to “why” questions which can become more emotional and create rumination.  These are some self awareness activities that you can practice:

Meditation - Mindfulness practices and meditation go hand in hand when it comes to self awareness.  This is because they allow you to check in with yourself and your body, and become aware of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Journal - Write down your goals, feelings, and anything that feels true to you.  Use this as a form of self introspection and try to practice it daily. You will get a feel for your patterns, triggers, and anything else that you record.  

Ask for feedback - This could be at work or with your trusted friends and family.  When you ask for an honest breakdown of how you’re doing, you can get feedback from a more objective source.  The biggest part of this is that you actually absorb the information that you are being given.

Listen to your Intuition - You know that gut feeling? Follow that.  Follow your excitement and do things that you’ve always wanted to do but never had the courage or time to.  It takes some level of self awareness to actually know if it is your intuition or ego talking.

Try new things - Learn more about yourself by stepping out of your comfort zone.  You might even find something that you love(or find out that something is just not for you).

Learn about yourself - Not only does everything else on this list help you learn about yourself but there are many other ways you can do it too.  This could be through online tests like personality ones(Myers-Briggs, etc.), your love languages, or even your astrology birth chart.  Whatever it is, it can help you to understand different parts of yourself.

10 Questions to Ask Yourself to Become More Aware

How would you describe yourself in as little words as possible?

What do you want from life?

What role have you played in the situation that you’re in?

What are you the most afraid of?

What trait do you most value in yourself?

What trait do you most value in others?

How do you deal with stress?

How much of an effect do your emotions have on you?

What are the most important things in your life?

Do you like who you are right now? (If, no, what can you do to change that?)

How Much is Too Much?

Self awareness, seems like a good thing but when it spirals into self criticism, it actually can hurt your happiness.  

If you are too self focused or it feels like you are under constant scrutiny(eg. Celebrity, public eye, anxiety, etc.), you may participate in activities where you avoid oneself.  Almost as if you were unaware.

There is also a struggle for people with self awareness between who they are and who they believe they are supposed to be.  These self discrepancies are found in people who struggle to accept themselves and believe that they lack something. Their self awareness allows them to see the “problem” but not see themselves as already whole.  

Self awareness, when coupled with the right mindset, gives you the power to know and believe in yourself.  People with healthy self awareness are happier, more content, and can trust in themselves.

Self awareness is also important for personal growth, because, it allows you to find areas that need improving.  Personal development is best when you can identify what you need more work on and where you are doing good. It helps you stay on track and keeps you consistent.  Self awareness is the key to embracing yourself and getting the most out of life.

How to Hack Your Happiness with a Daily Gratitude Practice - Full Guide to Getting Grateful

Gratitude has become a bit of a buzz word.  The idea that we need to be grateful for what we have, has been around forever though.  Making gratitude a practice is something that many people are turning to, to feel better about their lives.  Viewing the world from a place of gratitude and appreciation seems like a small change to make, but it is a shift in perspective that can alter many things in your life.

Can an attitude of gratitude really increase your overall well being and satisfaction with life?  

What is Gratitude

Gratitude, in the simplest terms, is an appreciation and connection to things that are good and meaningful in your life.  Gratitude can be expressed as an appreciation and thankfulness for things or people around you.  

A gratitude practice can become a habit and coping mechanism for tough situations. Looking for the good in everything is an attitude that is cultivated with gratitude.  An attitude of gratitude changes everything. The definition of gratitude can be different for everyone because of the many applications it can have.  

Things that Strengthen Gratitude - How to Be Grateful

Gratitude Journal: Have a book or journal in which to record things you are grateful for.  Everyday write 5(or more) things that you feel grateful for. This gratitude list can include items as big or as small as you are feeling that particular day.   

Gratitude Meditation: This kind of meditation focuses on showing gratitude for different things or people in your life.  Try to find a person you know to be grateful for, one thing that has brought you great joy, and find gratitude for yourself and who you are.  

Tell Someone: If there is someone in your life that has helped you in any way, tell them how much you appreciate them.  It will not only make them happy but you as well. Show your gratitude and share your grateful feeling.  

Say “Thank You”: Even for the small stuff.  Practice saying(and fully meaning!) the words “thank you.” Thank the cashier who rung your groceries through or the guy who held the door for you.  Feel the appreciation for the small stuff.  

Reminder: Have some kind of reminder that every time you see or hear that particular thing, think about something you are grateful for.  You could set a reminder in your phone that goes off multiple times a day. You could even use a person and every time you see them you think of something to be grateful for.  It could be the sound of your furnace kicking on or every time you hear sirens outside.  

Write Note: When someone goes out of their way to help you, write a note or give them a card showing how much you appreciate what they did for you.  

Benefits

Positive Feelings: Gratitude, because it is a positive feeling, allows for more positive emotions to arise.  You feel grateful that your family member helped you out and you also can recognize that you are feeling loved and supported.  Grateful people overall tend to be happier.

Less Negative Feelings: Because grateful people tend to focus more on the good, it leaves less time to worry and feel negative emotions.   

Coping Tool: Gratitude can be used as a great coping tool because when a negative situation comes up, you will be more able to find something good in it.  You can also find meaning in traumatic events this way.  

Well Being: Grateful people are all around happier people.  Grateful attitudes allow for more optimism, appreciation, and joy.  Gratitude changes and shifts thinking patterns into the positive.

Better Sleep: Grateful people tend to ruminate less and will, in turn, not be kept up thinking about negative experiences.  

More Likeable: Gratitude makes you happier and people like to be around happy people.  Plus when you show them that you are grateful for something they did, they become more likely to help you in the future.  If you foster good feelings in other people, they take note of that.

Increased Awareness: Grateful people tend to be be better at noticing or seeing the positive in most situations. They also become more aware of how they are feeling and how expressing gratitude changes that.

More Gratitude: When you bring a gratitude practice into your life, you are welcoming more feeling of gratitude.  What you look for you will see more of. A gratitude practice solidifies to the universe that you would like to see more good and that is exactly what you'll see.  

Key Ideas

The most important part of practicing gratitude is that it is a consistent thing.  To see the most benefits, make gratitude a daily practice. The more you practice gratitude, the easier it will become to be grateful.  

Having a commitment with yourself can help to make gratitude habitual in your life.  Commit to keeping a gratitude journal for 30 days(or even a week) and notice how you feel.  Every morning say 5 things that you are grateful for. If after the time period you are more easily able to feel gratitude, that means its working.  Try to keep making time for gratitude as often as you can.  

Over even more time, as your gratitude practice becomes like second nature, see how feelings of gratitude come more easily or at times when you don't expect it.  Gratitude has a way of leaking into the rest of your life if you can commit to it. You will start to notice feelings of gratitude more often and outside of your practice.  

Observing your world from a place of gratitude has the power to shape your whole mindset.  You move away from “why did this happen to me?” and into “what did this experience give me?”  Gratitude is one of the most powerful forces for change because it forces you to look for the good.  The more good things you are able to notice, the more it seems that you attract them.  

Gratitude is many things.  Mindset, feeling, or a simple acknowledgment of the good.  When you make gratitude a part of your daily life, you become a happier, more optimistic person for not only yourself but everyone around you.  Making gratitude a habit for life is possibly one of the best things you can do.

Power of Meditation: Brain Health, Happiness, and Tips for Every Meditator

Meditation has a profound impact on people who practice it.  The act of being mindful, through mindfulness meditation or mindfulness activities, has the power to elicit change both mentally and physically(and spiritually).  From happiness to physical changes in the brain, the practice of meditation has the ability to enhance so many different aspects of life. Mindfulness and meditation are techniques that everyone should find a way to incorporate in their lives.  

Brain Health

After an 8-week mindfulness program, beginner meditators were seen to have better brain health.  Particular improvements in the posterior change(mind wandering, self-relevance), left hippocampus(learning, cognition, emotional control, and memory), pons(production site of regulatory neurotransmitters), temporoparietal junction(TPJ - compassion, empathy), and the amygdala(fight or flight reaction, stress reaction).   

Long term meditators appear to have younger brains.  More gray matter was found in both sensory and auditory, and the frontal cortex, this leads to improved senses and better decision and memory function.   

Meditation Benefits

Pain Reduction: After only four days of meditation, there was less of a reaction to discomfort and pain from heat.  This could also be true when it comes to pain of any kind, as meditation helps you to focus more on your body and breathing but also be less reactive.  

Self Awareness: Meditation changes the way you look at the world and yourself.  When you are more in sync with your body and aware of your thoughts, you cultivate a better way of looking at the world.  

Sleep: Meditation for sleep, like body scans and relaxation practices, can help in calming you down and in falling asleep.  The easier it is for you to relax at the end of the day, the easier it will be to fall asleep.

Emotional Regulation: Because of the awareness that meditation brings, it allows you to better “see” your emotions and recognize them.  Without getting caught up in them. Meditation can be especially helpful for anxiety.

Focus: It was found that, although meditation didn’t help people multitask better, it did help them to stay focused on one task for long.  Meditation trains your ability to focus and that focus can be seen in areas outside of meditation.

Happiness: It is suggested that the moments in which a person is the happiest, are the ones where they are the most present.  Meditation teaches how to embrace the present moment and not get distracted by thoughts and worries.

Decreased Stress: Along with the changes in your brain from meditation, having the ability to focus on your breath and body helps to slow the flow of thoughts.  Because of this, you are more able to relax in stressful situations.

Well Being: Meditation, not only decreases stress, but it also lowers depression, insomnia, and can help increase your overall quality of life.  Having a better functioning brain is important for a lot of areas of life.

For your Meditation Practice - Meditation Tips

Sit or lay with a straight back, don’t slouch or let your shoulders roll forwards but be comfortable.

Always bring your attention back to your breath.  Don’t judge thoughts that come up, just let them go.  Learn to come back to your body or breath.

Don’t beat yourself up when you inevitably lose focus.  You will question your ability to focus. Let that feeling be and come back to your breath.  Don’t get too caught up in needing to focus, this will make meditation feel like work and it won’t have the same effect.

A commitment to a meditation practice is key.  It doesn’t have to be daily, just consistent. Aim for 3 plus times a week, 10-15 minutes and increase it over time.

The more you do it the more benefits you will see.  With consistency and regular practice, you will notice more benefits and it will become easier to let go of your thoughts.  

The “in the moment” presentness of meditation should spill out into the rest of your day.  You want to be more mindful and connected in everything you do. Meditation just teaches you how to do that.  

Adding Intention

By adding intention to your meditation practice, you can get more out of it.  When you create an intention, you can help to deflect some of your doubts about meditation.  You stop looking for a goal and instead are open to whatever you are given.

To set an intention(for one meditation practice or more), come up with a positive statement about what you want to have answers to or work on. “I will feel calm and centered.”

Write it down or say it over in your mind a few times before or after(Was there something that came up while you were meditating that may be important for the rest of your day?) you meditate, let it really sink in.  Then surrender to the experience of meditation or the rest of your day and allow yourself to let go. Be open to whatever comes to you and if it doesn’t feel right, allow yourself to let it go as well.

When You Feel like You just can’t Meditate

Maybe you’ve never meditated before, or you are just finding reasons to skip your meditation practice.  Whatever the reason, these tips should help you feel more ready to meditate.

You don’t have to be good.  Meditation is a practice and your goal is not to do it perfectly, its just to do it.  

You can’t focus.  Meditation helps teach focus and so it’s perfectly okay if you feel like you are having a hard time not engaging with your thoughts.  Just relax and come back to your breath. Different kinds of meditation promote different ideas, some have nothing to do with focus. Trying new kinds of meditation can help you find what works best for you.  

You don’t like meditation.  There are so many different types of meditation.  If you don’t enjoy a certain type of meditation, there are plenty of other types and other forms of practice.  

If you don’t want to meditate, it probably means you need to.  If you are avoiding meditation for any reason, it most likely means that there is something going.  Whether its just stress or you don’t feel like you have enough time, practicing meditation will help you quell that feeling.  

The ability to slow down and be in the moment is something that everyone needs to embrace.  Meditation should inspire you to be more aware and apart of the world around you. When mindfulness moments are welcomed and embraced(especially outside of your meditation practice), you start to value your time in the present moment more.  

Everyone needs to slow down a little and keep themselves and their brain healthy.  Meditation and mindfulness can do all of that. This practice is beneficial for everyone.  I hope this gave you the inspiration to improve your health with meditation.

Benefits of Cold Showers - How to Embrace the cold for Health and Happiness

Taking a cold shower can seem like a whole lot of NO.  Like how can a cold shower be good for you? Surprisingly though, being exposed to minor stress like the cold can actually have many benefits both on the mind and body. 

Many cultures around the world have used forms of cold therapy to heal.  This can come in the form of cryotherapy(entering a room -100C for up to 3 minutes) or even through the practice of winter swimming(swimming in bodies of water where the winter conditions make the water freeze).  Beginning in the 1970s cryotherapy was first used as a fixed for rheumatoid arthritis and had now evolved to everyday people using the cold as a way to improve immune function, increase energy levels, and have overall better performance.

Cold Shower Benefits

Energy Increase: Jumping into a cold shower gives your body a boost of energy.  For this reason, a cold shower in the morning can be a great way to wake up.  Some people even liken cold showers to having a cup of coffee! 

Increased well being: Although only a slight increase, this study showed that in all intervention groups(each group participated in cold showers, just in differing amounts of time), there was an increase of the reported quality of life.  Cold showers can have an even greater effect on reducing depression and anxiety as well.  

Improved Immune Function: Cold showers in combination with regular physical activity have been found to result in a 54% reduction of sick days taken.  

Pain Relieving: Cryotherapy was initially used for arthritis and later found to be beneficial for sports induced cell and tissues damage(DOMS, injury, etc.) in high-performance athletes.  This could mean that most people could also see improvement with pain or injuries after exposing themselves to the cold.

Reduced Stress: It was found that being exposed to the cold did not increase cortisol(stress hormone, responsible for fight or flight response) levels.  With regular and consistent exposure to the cold, cortisol can actually be decreased. Plus the benefit of cold showers is that you can’t think about anything other than the cold.  

Increased Willpower: If you can expose yourself to the cold regularly because you have to endure some level of discomfort, you can condition yourself to be able to do other challenging things easier. 

Weight Loss: Cold showers can help with weight loss in a few ways.  When practiced long term, cold therapy can actually boost your metabolism and in turn help with weight loss.  As well the increased will power can help you resist the urge to go for an unhealthy snack.    

Hair and Skin Health: Cold water tightens and closes your pores, which can prevent them from getting clogged.  Hot water, on the other hand, opens your pores and can actually cause your skin to dry out.  By closing your pores, you stop dirt and bacteria from entering your skin. On your scalp, cold water can help you to lose less hair in the shower than if you were to wash your head in warm or hot water.  

Better Circulation: The cold shock that your body receives when you expose yourself to the cold, actually improves circulation as your body is forced to keep your vital organs warm.  When your heart has to pump more efficiently like this it helps blood flow to all of your body.

Downsides

Trouble Sleeping: The only cases where insomnia was reported after taking cold showers, was in individuals taking cold showers in the evening.  A cold shower before bed could wake you up. This just further proves that cold showers can act as a stimulant to get you up and ready to go.  It could also help to cool you down and relax before bed.  

Lingering Cold: In some cases, after getting out of a cold shower, the cold feeling may not go away right away.  This should not discourage you from trying a cold shower because you can always warm up afterward by putting on clothes or snuggling up in a blanket.  

Discomfort: Although cold exposure was only found to cause discomfort during the experience,  this discomfort isn’t a bad thing. When you can deal with a more mild level of discomfort, you, in a sense, prepare yourself better for high-stress situations.  

Tips for Tolerating the Cold

It might seem a little intimidating to even think about hoping a completely cold water shower, here are some cold shower tips to get you ready to cool down:

Hype yourself up. Get excited about getting cold.  Make having a cold shower fun and exciting.  

Find a distraction. Don’t think about the temperature at all, listen to a podcast or your favorite song, something to make you not focus on the cold.  

Go slow. You don’t have to jump right to full on cold showers.  Start small, maybe only a few seconds of cold.

Turn it into a meditation.  Focus on your breath and the cold becomes less noticeable.

How to Take a Cold Shower

If your normal idea of a shower is hot and steamy, the idea of blasting yourself with cold water can seem really intimidating.  You can start easy, by only slowly decreasing the temperature of your shower until you get a feel for cooler water. You can keep decreasing the temperature until it is nearly cold, either by the course of a few showers or only one.  This way you work up, slowly, to being able to tolerate the cold.

You could also have your normal temperature shower and, at the end of your shower, turn the tap to only cold water.  This way is a pretty simple way to have a cold shower because it doesn’t have to take away from your normal shower temperature.  Stay in it for as long as you can. Work up time-wise from 15-30 seconds to upwards of 3-5 minutes.  

Winter Weather

You don't even need to jump into a cold shower to see the benefits of cold therapy. For those living in regions of the world that get cold, just going outside can be an effective form of exposure to the cold.  

Acting in a similar way to cryotherapy, just going outside in winter weather exposes you to the cold in a beneficial way.  Depending on how cold outside it is, you will need to wear some level of clothing. You don’t want to wear a big jacket or snow pants, instead opt for shoes, gloves, shorts, and a light or sleeveless shirt.  And just go outside for a minute or as long as you can comfortably tolerate.  

Ice Bath

There are two ways of doing this, the first an actual ice bath. Fill your tub about halfway with cold or cool water, dump a hefty amount of ice in, and jump in.  

If you are just looking for the skin benefits, you can also do this in a bucket or bowl, and just dunk your face in for as long as you can.  You can then go for another attempt and dunk yourself again, continuing for three or four times, or until you can’t anymore. (Not too many times and you don’t want to freeze!)

You could also submerge yourself in a natural body of water for some cold therapy(and grounding too!). This one is pretty straight forward, find a body of water(lake, ocean, etc.) and just go for a dip.  

Always make sure to check in with yourself and your body while doing any form of cold therapy as you don’t want to overdo it.  If you feel like you are unbearably cold, stop, get out and warm up.  

Cold therapy can be an interesting(and mostly free) way to improve your health and well being. There are no limitations to how you can incorporate it into your day.  When you can tolerate a cold shower and really get used to it, you feel like you can conquer almost anything. The cold can act in different ways for many people, so experiment with it.  

Try getting cold in different ways and try it for different lengths of time.  Learn to love the cold(even if it’s only sometimes).

How to Tune into Your Intuition - 7 Benefits to Following Your Intuition

Although it might seem like a foreign concept, following your intuition is listening to the deep wisdom of your body and soul.  The idea that we don’t always need to make deep analytical decisions, can seem scary at first. There is a lot of trust needed to just listen to your gut.  

Intuition is something that can be almost impossible to study.  Which makes the practice of following your intuition all the more interesting.  Intuitive thinking opens you up to new ideas and can help you to learn about yourself.  

What is Intuition

Intuition is the gut feeling you get that seemingly comes out of nowhere.  It is a subconscious action that happens because of environmental cues.

Your intuition is a quick response that requires no conscious effort.  Your initial reaction of something might be your intuition at work. Intuition has no evidence or conscious reasoning involved. 

Acting on intuition might leave you dumbfounded or unable to explain your reasoning.

The gut feeling you get, when you just know something, is your intuition at work.  You have a wisdom that resides inside your body and you can tune into it when you learn to listen to your intuition.  When you listen to your intuition and trust your intuition, you are connecting with yourself on a deeper level. You quiet your brain and allow for a message to rise from your gut.  Because developing intuition is an act of listening, you need to be open to receive the message.  

What Intuition is Not

The opposite of intuition is analytical and conscious.  This kind of decision making is a long process, it involves collecting information, organizing thoughts, and analysis.  Making decisions this way is slower and more methodical.  

Because intuition and instinct are similar, it might appear that decisions made by your intuition and based around fear and keeping you safe.  This is actually the opposite of true.

Intuition is not based on fear, instead, following your intuition will make you feel inspired and excited.  To listen to your intuition is not to listen to the fear and ego. If you feel uncertain, you are most likely not listening to your true intuition.  

Things Intuitive People Do

Practice mindfulness

Don’t hold onto negative thoughts and feelings

Have awareness

Have a creative practice

Practice empathy

Try to be alone

Benefits to Intuitive Thinking

Intuition leads to more creative thinking - When you follow your gut feeling you are not attached to following a certain way of doing something.  You can more easily think outside of the box because you are not worried about what you know.  

New perspective - By turning off the part of your brain that is rational, you can shift your perspective.  It can also be easier to look at something from a different or new perspective.  

Easier to make tough decisions - Listening to your intuition takes some trust.  When you relinquish the need to overthink and analyze something, it gets easier to feel sure about your decision.  

Improved mental well being - Less rumination and thinking keeps you out of your own head and helps you to trust in your initial idea.  Intuition teaches you to trust in yourself and in turn you feel less worried.  

More mindful - Listen to your gut is a skill and you have to be mindful to notice when it's giving you a message.  Because of this, your overall mindfulness and self awareness increases.  

More confident - “Trust your gut.” When you believe that your intuition will be right, you are trusting in yourself.  Trusting in yourself is the best thing you can do for your confidence.  

How to Develop Intuition - Intuition Exercises

Practice - Listening to your intuition is a skill and that means that to get better at it you have to practice it.  When something comes up in your intuition, act on it right away and when the next thing comes up, act on it too.  It stops feeling like you are deciding and get easier to follow your intuition every time.

Get out of your own way - When you talk yourself out of something, you are effectively letting yourself and your thoughts get in the way.  Just take a leap and do something before your mind can kick in and stop you.  

Mindfulness - Mindfulness and meditation are perfect for listening to your body and noticing the small things.  When you cultivate a mindfulness practice, you open yourself up to having more awareness so that when you have a gut feeling you can recognize it and act on it.  

Trust - Learn to trust in the unknown.  Trust that your intuition will steer you in the direction you need to go.  You have a natural intelligence that will guide you where you need to go if you listen to it.  

Listen to your dreams - When you dream your subconscious takes control it can sometimes give you insights. You can also guide your dreams by keeping a thought in your mind until you fall asleep and letting your subconscious do the rest.  You could record your dreams right after you wake up to notice if there are any reoccurring themes.  

Follow what excites you - If there is something that you have wanted to do or try, don’t be afraid, just do it.  Keep following things that light you up and make you excited. Your intuition can feel like excitement and wonder.  

Don’t think about it - When you have something that you want an answer for, instead of thinking about it, just stop.  Find something new to focus on and let the question hang out in your subconscious. Don’t think about a solution, let it come to you.  

The practice of intuitive thinking is almost that of an art form.  It requires a level of self awareness and introspection. When cultivated, your intuition can change the way you approach certain situations and can give you a new way of thinking.  Following your intuition can be a really rewarding experience that leads to excitement and new experiences. Strengthen your intuition to connect with the deep seeded wisdom inside yourself.  

Benefits to Going Barefoot - How to get Grounded with Earthing

Throughout history, humans had direct contact with the earth.  If they were not walking barefoot, they were wearing or sleeping on animal skins.  We were almost always in constant contact with the earth.

Until now, in present time, we spend almost all of our time wearing shoes or inside buildings.  We have almost completely disconnected ourselves from the earth. Can you recall the last time that you went outside barefoot and just enjoyed nature?

I'm guessing you either don’t remember a time when you did that or it was sooo long ago that you hardly remember it.  

Just going barefoot to the earth could be a lifestyle shift that helps protect your body from stress and could even keep you healthy for longer.  

How it Works

The human body produces free radicals as a response to stress, injury, or disease.  These free radicals are positively charged and can be eliminated by anti-oxidants or free electrons.  Our immune system produces free radicals to bind to negative electrons from damaged tissues or others pathogens that enter our body but because of the constant stresses from everyday life, these free radicals build up and can cause inflammation.  

Because human bodies are electrical and conductive in nature, we can connect to already existing currents.  The Earth has a negative potential and an abundance of free electrons. It is believed that by connecting the body to the Earth, it allows for free electrons to move into the body and bind with the free radicals.  When the free radicals attach to the electrons they are neutralized and can no longer cause inflammation and damage to your tissues.

On a more light note(and a little less scientific) connecting with the earth allows you to synchronize with its energy.  The earth is one of the best sources of life and energy(other than the sun which we also need to survive). Everything on this planet exists because of the earth and is reliant of it.  Every single animal has direct contact with the ground and humans are the only ones to be disconnected from it.

So what happens when we make purposeful contact with the earth?

Benefits

Feelings of Well Being: Many people report that spending some time in their day to ground themselves, makes them feel healthier and happier.  This could be the gratification of taking time to disconnect from stress and going out into nature. This could also be the result of the free radicals binding and no longer being active in the body.  Nature has a natural calming effect and grounding is one way to take advantage of that.

Improved Sleep: Earthing has been found to improve sleep in cases where the study participant sleeps grounded throughout the night.  However, just connecting with the earth can help to normalize the body’s biological rhythms. By resetting the day-night cortisol levels, grounding can help you to fall asleep quicker and stay asleep the whole night.  This can be especially useful for reducing jetlag.

Lower Stress: Earthing helps to regulate cortisol which is responsible for the fight or flight network. By earthing on a regular basis, you can help keep your cortisol levels regulated, and in turn, feel calmer.  As well, just getting outside is a natural stress relieving activity.

Pain Management: In individuals with chronic pain, earthing can be a great tool to reduce inflammation.  Because of grounding’s effect on blood viscosity, muscle tension and headaches can also be reduced.  

Muscle Recovery: It has been found that earthing reduces blood viscosity(thins blood) and in turn increases circulation.  This can have an effect on the body’s ability to recover after an intense workout and can reduce DOMS(delayed onset muscle soreness).  As well earthing reduces inflammation which can lead to faster healing in muscles.

Menstrual Symptoms: Women have been found to get even more benefits from earthing than men.  Earthing can provide relief from both PMS symptoms(food cravings, irritability, emotional irregularities, etc) and menopausal symptoms(hot flashes, weight gain, chills, etc.).  There is a lack of evidence showing why women have better success with earthing.

Weight Loss: Because of the connection between high cortisol levels and increased weight gain, earthing could have the ability to help you lose weight.  Not only do you feel more relaxed and calm when earthing but it helps to mitigate stress and in turn help with weight loss.

Some afflictions earthing could have the potential to help: cardiovascular disease, allergies, arthritis, anemia, asthma, psoriasis, eczema, Alzheimers, diabetes, hypothyroidism, and many more.  

How to

The best and safest way to practice earthing is by connecting with the actual ground.  Find a park or an area that is relatively untouched by human electrical current and just go barefoot.  Doing this for 20-40 minutes every day would be optimal. If all you could do was going out in your backyard daily, this would act to ground you as well.  

Grass, sand, dirt, or concrete are all conductors, meaning that all you really need to do is touch these surfaces(assuming that they are connected to the earth) to ground yourself.  Water is also a great way to practice earthing. Salt water is more conductive than fresh water so it could hold potentially greater power for its ability to ground you. Both fresh and salt water are good ways to ground yourself if you have access to them.

Avoid grounding mats of other technologies meant to ground you, as they may not be a reliable way in which to receive the benefits of grounding.  In some cases, grounding mats can actually cause more issues than fix. Keeping it natural and simple is often the best way to go.

Issues with the Science of Earthing

Most studies are only performed on small sample sizes.  This means that we don’t know for sure if earthing really has any benefits to the majority of society.  Many of the studies that have been conducted have only been done on people with ongoing sleep or other issues.  Because of this, it can be hard to say whether or not a person who does not experience any of these issues would receive the same kind of benefit.  

Many of the studies regarding grounding use different methods.  Some employ grounding mats, copper plates, or other technologies believed to ground you.  Because there is such a wide variety of techniques used to ground, it is hard to say if each method has the same effect.

Most studies that exist today, are funded or completed by individuals or groups that have a preset view of grounding.  Some of the conclusions made from these studies, are purely speculation and cannot prove definitively where the benefits come from.

Because of that, it is not taken into account that just being outside may have the ability to give the benefits we see from grounding.  Just the act of being outside with no other things to focus on could be the reason some of these studies find benefits.

A lot of the evidence behind earthing can be touted as anecdotal or biased.  Until more studies are completed, it is hard to say that grounding can really be a cure-all.  It is important not to take everything you read as fact, but to try it and see the difference(or lack of) in your own life.

Earthing is a relatively new idea and although we do not have all the science to back it up, some people have found some great benefits.  Whether you just try earthing for 20 minutes of quiet or just to see if you feel healthier, it is worth experimenting with to see how it can fit into your life.  

Beat the Loneliness Epidemic and Make Friends for Your Well Being and Overall Health

Humans are inherently social creatures.  We evolved through the sharing of resources and information.  Tribes and communities were the norm. As time progressed, we moved farther away from tight-knit communities and although with the invention of the internet, we can connect with people all over the world instantly, we are also very disconnected.  

Moving back to our roots of being close with the people around us, helps to grow strong connections and could be the key to happiness and health.  

Making and having friends helps you to better cope, be healthier, and can force you to level up in life.  You grow your social skills and get to feel apart of something when you do activities to make friends. You can meet lifelong friends and beat the loneliness epidemic when you embrace and welcome people into your life.  

Dangers of No Support

From this study, lonely adults were more likely to have poorer sleep and elevated heart rates.  On top of that, loneliness and depression have strong associations.  Being lonely for long periods of time, seem to contribute to immune stress and lower cognition in older people.  Lower cognition can also signal dementia and cognitive decline in later life.

Social isolation, such as in spouse-less or those with longstanding illnesses(arthritis, impaired mobility, etc), are at a higher risk of all-cause mortality.  This could be because they have no one to tell them when they need medical attention, or they overall have a lower quality of health.  

It appears as though, having a strong sense of community, leads you to live a healthier and longer life.  

Types of Support

Emotional - Emotional support helps you feel heard, deal with stress and worries, and feel like you have someone who will listen and back you up.  

Physical - Physical support is real tangible support, typically in the form of financial support, or goods and services.  

Companionship - Having a companion, not just in a relationship sense, makes you feel a sense of belonging as if someone is going through it with you.  This could be someone who goes to the gym with you or something as simple as someone sharing the same experience with you.  

Informational - Informational support is just what it sounds like.  It can be in the form of guidance or teaching or even decision making.  

Benefits of Having Friends - Importance of a Support System

Improved well being

Better coping with stress

Motivate you to make healthy choices

Feel cared about 

Feel apart of something bigger than yourself

Many types of needs can be met

Better sleep

Healthier 

Make it Not about You

Reaching out to people can be hard.  Sometimes, it can be easier to reframe it.  Think about the other person. They need a community as much as you do.  It might be scary to be the first one to reach out but having the idea in your head that it's not always about you, can help.  You can feel more empowered and excited to reach out when you know that they will feel good after talking to you.  

You never know how much someone else needs support until you reach out.  They might be suffering and just the smallest gesture can mean the world to them.  Not only can you use connections to enrich your life, but you can help other people do that too. Everyone needs a support system.  When you call/text/see this other person they benefit too.  

How to Make Friends(even as an adult)

Call your mom: Or your dad, or someone in your family.  Reaching out to family is a great way to have a support system.  

Join a Club: Have something that you are interested in? Chances are that there are other people in your area that are interested in it too.  If you like yoga, go to a class and talk to someone else in the class. Check internet forums for local people interested in the same thing you are.

Reach out to your friends: Everyone can get caught up in everyday life and seeing your friends can get put on the back burner.  Even just texting your friends or meeting for coffee for a short time can boost yours(and their!) mood.  

Go Somewhere: Even just walking down the street and smiling at the people you pass, helps to make you feel more connected.  When you radiate happiness it rubs off, even to strangers. If you’re feeling extra adventurous, you could strike up a conversation with someone you don’t know.  

Do Community Service: Volunteer at a soup kitchen.  Clean up trash in your city. Hang out at a retirement community.  There are so many opportunities to help make a difference. Doing something good for your community feels good and makes you feel like you are a part of something bigger than yourself.  Plus these activities line you up to make friends with good people.  

An Extra Note

Sometimes, in your life, you might not feel worthy of love or support.  It is important to know that wherever you are and no matter your circumstance, you are worthy.  To overcome loneliness and potentially social isolation, you might have to forgive yourself and let go of past pain.  You are better off talking to friends and family and building a support system, rather than suffering alone.  

There are clear benefits to having people you can talk to and, suffering or not, you deserve to feel supported.  

It is important, not only for you, but the people around you too to feel apart of something.  By building a community and reaching out to people in your life, you can improve your overall well being and the well being of others.  The key to mastering community, in this day and age, is to know when to embrace technology and when to put the screen down. Allow yourself to be fully connected with the person in front of you and to call or text people when you can’t see them.  

Everyone needs a sense of support, you can foster that in other people and nourish yourself at the same time. 

21 Powerful Mindfulness Affirmations for Inner Calm and Relief from Anxiety

Just like, how you can use good habits to beat bad ones, positive affirmations can be used to challenge and redirect negative thoughts.  An affirmation is a phrase or set of phrases that you repeat to yourself to affirm a belief or thought. By working with daily affirmations or morning affirmations, you can set intention into your day.  

With this list of positive affirmations, you can tap into your mind power to reduce stress and learn to live in the moment.  Not only can these affirmations help you be mindful but they can work as relaxation exercises and relaxation techniques for anxiety.  Mindfulness based stress reduction paired with positive sayings, like these personal affirmations, are sure to bring more calm positive thoughts.

Words of affirmation can be used like positive mantra’s, meaning the weight you put into them is up to you.  If you can believe these positive phrases then you can make them a reality.

Daily positive affirmations, because of the repetition, begin to feel true the more you say them.  This creates a habit of positive thinking.

I know how sucky it is to feel like you’re always worried about something on the horizon.  It feels like your mind is working against you and it starts to affect your health. I could never sleep, I always felt lethargic and tired, and something was always working against me.  

Being able to have positive affirmations for anxiety helps me to chill out.  Once I start feeling the overthinking sneak up, I can feel confident knowing that I have positive affirmation after positive affirmation to distract and bring my mind back.  By using these affirmations to create mindfulness for anxiety, you can begin to eliminate the stress caused by being too much in your head.

These do not need to be just positive affirmations for anxiety relief though.  You can use these to create more mindfulness and calm for any day.

I only exist right now.

I am calm.

I will not worry about things out of my control.

I have nothing to worry about.  

I am free from constraints.

I choose to exist right now.

I am here in the present moment.

I have the power to change what does not serve me.

I will focus on what makes me happy.

Challenges only bring me closer to my goals.  

I will be mindful and aware of my body and space.

I attract positive energy.

I am prioritizing my happiness.

My mind is calm.

I am free to let go of fear.

I will not be held back by the past.

I create the world I am in.

I surrender my fear and doubts, as they do not serve me.

All is well in this moment.

My thoughts are not me.

I choose to replace worry with love and acceptance.  

Feel free to save these affirmations for coming back to.  

Mindfulness opens the door to a calmer life where living in the moment is second nature.  Positive affirmation words like these can help to remind you to be more mindful. You can be a self fulfilling prophecy by using positive self affirmations to be the calmest, least stressed person ever!