Are you usually so busy that you spend your day going from one task to the next with no time to breathe?
And when you hit the pillow at night your mind suddenly becomes very active. Reminding you of all the things that were left undone, reliving past experiences, worrying about the future etc.
Well, that usually happens when you don’t give yourself enough down time.
Have you ever started an exercise program hoping that you would get motivated by results? You know, when you expect to see big changes in your body so you can get pumped to continue?
If so, you probably also felt your motivation going down the drain when the results didn’t meet your expectations, right?
A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.
Frank Zappa
Open mindedness is usually considered a positive quality and it’s a personality trait.
But what exactly is open-mindedness?
Being open-minded means being receptive to a wide range of ideas and experiences with no judgement or prejudice. Open-minded people are willing to listen to another person’s point of view with curiosity, even when they don’t agree with it.
They may think “what can I learn from this person?” rather than argue or try to prove their point. The thing is that open-minded people know that they don’t know everything, and are ok when their ideas and beliefs are challenged.
Why would you want to be open-minded?
Well, It gives us the opportunity to review outdated concepts and beliefs so we can learn and grow. This allows us to gain insights about ourselves, to experience new things, to feel more optimistic about the future and to become mentally resilient.
How can you become more open minded?
When you are feeling down and need to lift your spirits, what do you usually do?
A Bubble bath, a walk in nature, a cup of tea and a book…
Self-care is noticing your own needs and taking an active role in maintain or restoring wellbeing.
But be careful with the strategy you choose to adopt.
Eating a whole bag of cookies or draining a bottle of wine, – is not good for you and you know it. Neither is sitting in front of the TV for hours or mindlessly scrolling through social media.
Don’t mistake self-indulgence for self-care. How do you know the difference?
By how you feel after it. If you feel energised, joyful and in peace, it’s definitely self-care. But if you end up feeling guilty, ashamed or simply yucky, it was just a desperate attempt to break an undesirable state.
We all have our moments. It’s not realistic to think that you must feel bubbly and cheery all the time.
There will be days, in which you will feel less than best and that’s ok. Just understand that in those days, you will need a little more love, kindness and compassion. That’s what self-care really means.
If you have been struggling with weight-loss, you must watch this video. In this video, I explain how a simple shift in perspective can improve your long-term motivation and commitment, helping you staying on track.
Weight-loss is not just about calories in and calories out
This is a gross oversimplification of a very complex process. You see, weight-loss is a multifaceted process with way too many variables that cannot be just boiled down to a mathematical equation.
The truth is that even the scientists don’t know for sure everything that it is involved in it. So let’s spot pretending that this is just a matter of exercising more and eating less.
The human body is a complex piece of machinery that relies on homeostasis to function properly. If you are not familiar with the term, homeostasis is a self-regulating process that resists changes in the external environment in order to maintain a steady state of physical and chemical conditions that are crucial to survival.
When we make drastic attempts to lose weight, we threaten the stability of systems, and the body has no choice but to defend the energy balance.
“Your body will not manifest anything that your mind doesn’t believe is possible.”
Carla Torres
That’s right. Everything is created in your mind first. Your thoughts influence your behaviours and your behaviours, well, they influence your results.
If deep inside you don’t feel you can achieve something, your mind will prove you right. This means that you won’t find the strength you need to push your limits. You won’t have the will to look for solutions. You may try again and again but you will always fall short.
You know how we can feel very confident one minute and totally inadequate the next?
Well, that happens because we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. It’s not as if we do this on purpose. It happens automatically in our unconscious mind.
You see, in order to process the immense amount of information that comes our way every second, the unconscious mind must find a way to filter what is relevant and important.
A New Year begins and with that comes renewed hope for a better future.
At this moment, we are generally more optimistic and enthusiastic which makes it the perfect time to design the future we would like to manifest.
So to get the best out of the positive vibes we are experiencing, I suggest the following visualisation exercise.
You probably heard about affirmations before. You might even have tried doing affirmations as part of a self-development process. But have you being performing them in a way that will bring you the results you want?
You see, to be effective you must fully believe in the affirmation you are performing. And I find that that’s where most people fall short. Repeating a sentence without fully understanding or accepting its content will not change how you feel about something.
So let’s look at a better way of doing it, shall we?
First, what are affirmations?
