Great this day with love and you will succeed

Love connects us with each other and the universe. Start by loving yourself. When you love yourself it is natural to love others.

Love is the greatest secret to success.

LenaM

Is fear keeping you stuck?

Know that fear will always be part of your life. It is there to protect you. The problem is when it keeps you from reaching you goals and dreams.

Overcoming fear can be as easy as

• Have a clear goal that you are passionate about
• Make a detailed plan of what you want to do
• Take action
• Celebrate every step you take toward your goal, step not outcome.

If you get stuck make your plan more detailed, take smaller steps and actions. Celebrate the action, not the outcome.

Keep on moving!

LenaM

Permission to be happy

When I was growing up I was taught “Eat an apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” Meaning eat fruit and stay healthy. Today I say ” Have a good big belly-laugh a day and it is granted to keep the doctor away.” New studies has showed that laughter has a very strong healing power. Because it releases endorphin and boost your immune system.

Besides that why is being happy important?

Happiness is an positive emotion that elevates our mood, which makes us feel good about ourselves. We can do more, accomplish and achieve our goals.

The problem is that we are not supposed to walk around being happy. The culture today dictates that we are unsatisfied with our lives and complain about it with anybody that bothers to listen to us.  If you don’t, you don’t fit in. We as humans has it ingrained in our DNA that it is important to belong. It is part of our reptilian brain, fight or flight and belong to a group for survival.

Well, if you want to achieve your goals you have to break the mold.

• Stop listening to the complainers, it’s contagious.
• Each day write down one happy thing, by focusing it will elevate your mood.
• By being happy you will improve the emotions of other people around you. A good thing.
• Having a really bad day, put a pen or your finger in between your front teeth and hold for two minutes. This will force your edges of your lips to lift and your brain will notice and believe you are happy and you will feel better.

Spread the cheer, keep smiling.

LenaM

The Hero’s Journey

Yes, I can finally see daylight again, after being in a rabbit-hole for a couple of weeks. I don’t know why but I decided to look into Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey”. It was a call to action and I had no resistance at all, jumped in with both feet. I should have know better, the Hero’s Journey is a structure for telling a compelling story, and I love stories.

There are many different versions of the Hero’s Journey defined in how many different steps needed to complete the journey. Joseph Campbell defined 12 steps, others have everything from 21 steps to three steps.

The Hero’s journey represent three things, change, success and proof of the journey.

Short Hero’s Journey:

Looking for my bliss. How do I find my bliss? I have to find my own path. I have to stretch myself. Meet the dragon = fear. Courage moving forward. Slay the dragon/fear. We are all born with love, fear is learned. Love your dragon. Love and accept yourself. Finding my bliss. This is the story about the journey.

Watch-out for rabbit-holes!

LenaM

 

What is your Mindset?

Do you have a fixed mindset?

Fixed mindset assumes that your character, intelligence and creative ability are static. You have what you have and can’t change. For example: I can’t do that, I’m not smart enough. I’m not creative. I’m not a speaker.

Or

Do you have a growth mindset?

Growth mindset assumes that your character, intelligence and creative ability can change with experience, learning and effort. In this mindset, the hand you are dealt is just a starting point for development. For example: I don’t know, but I can learn. I get better with some training.

Develop your growth mindset

• Acknowledge and embrace imperfections. To overcome your weaknesses you need to know what they are.
• Challenges is opportunities 
• Learn about the research on brain plasticity. Your brain can change so can your mind
• Fall in love with the process to reach your goal. Enjoy and be happy during the process, instead of being happy for only one day when the goal is achieved.
• Learn form your mistakes. You ave not failed you have just found a way/thing, that didn’t work.
• Use the word YET. If you are struggling with something just tell yourself. I haven’t master it yet.
• Take actions. Reward yourself for the effort to take action and the action itself.
• Train your brain. The brain is like a muscle it needs to be worked just like your body.
• Learn from other peoples mistakes. You don’t have to do all trial and error yourself.
• Take risks. You don’t have to save your face all the time. Let yourself goof up now and then. It makes it easier to take risks in the future. To develop skills you have to take risks.

There you have it. Live happy, love yourself and grow your mind.

LenaM

Why Meditate?

What is meditation?

There are many different version of meditation even yoga is considered a form of meditation. The essence of meditation is to be aware of and reduce your mental chatter. You know that voice in your head that is never quiet.

It is simple, just sit quiet and focus on your breath don’t control it just let it flow. When you become aware of a thought just let it go and focus on your breath. Easy NO, this is the hard part, letting go of your thoughts. With practice it becomes easier and you don’t have to spend hours on this. Start with a couple of minutes and work up to 10 to 15 minutes and you will experience the benefits of meditation.

The benefits of meditation:

• reduce stress
• reduce anxiety
• reduce depression
• improve your immune system
• reduce pain
• improve focus and attention
• improve memory
• improve creativity, thinking outside the box
• control your emotions
• lower blood pressure

 

Meditation improves you brain the same as exercise improves your body. If you do it you get better and fitter.

LenaM

What have you said to yourself today?

Was it something positive or just the regular stuff, beating yourself up?

The way you talk to yourself is the way you love yourself. Your self-talk can be kind or cruel. Self-talk is your inner dialog. It is guided by your subconscious and it reveals your thoughts, beliefs and ideas.

Thinking about what you say to yourself, if the same thing was said to you from a friend would you still be friends with this person? I would not keep that friend to be honest.

There are several reasons to change your self-talk to something more positive.

Positive self-talk

• reduced stress
• better physical well-being
• reduced pain
• improved immune function
• improve memory
• improve focus
• improve confidence

 

But how do you change your self-talk?

1. Notice what you are saying to yourself. If it’s not nice
2. Stop Just say stop to yourself and add something positive to it. Example I’m not good enough. Restate I’m not good enough, but I am working on it. or I’m not good enough yet. You get the idea.
3. Practice, prepare positive statements to use when you stinking thinking surprises you.
4. Practice some more

 

If you want more self-esteem, confidence and vitality, positive self-talk is the easy way to get it.

I do have a great exercise for you if you want to improve confidence and it is the use of self-love. Stand in front of a mirror and look yourself in your eyes and say,

I love you, ‘fill in your name’

It is simple and effective. Did I say easy, NO. I had to try several time before I could do it.

Keep practicing.

 

LenaM

Have you seen the movie Door-to-Door?

I love this movie, the story about Bill Porter’s life. Bill Porter was a successful door-to-door salesman with cerabral plasy. His condition affects his right side of the body and he has difficulties speaking. His dream is to become a salesman like his dad. Anybody would say that this dream would never come through, but his mother believed in him.  Bill had many failures trying to find a job. He was even rejected at Watkins Co at first, but he went back and persuaded  the manager to give him the worst rout they had and he only worked on commission.

And it doesn’t get better when Bill starts working his rout. Doors get slammed in his face and many are afraid of him because of his handicap. But he continues every day walking 7 – 10 miles knocking on doors in sunshine, rain or snow. Weather did not stop him.

Bill is persistent and patient, you could even say he is stubborn but above all he has passion. He continued servicing his customers even after he no longer could walk his rout. Some of the comments his customers has about him is funny, patient, strong, excellent salesman.

He worked his door-to-door rout for over 40 years and reached the rank of best salesman in the company. Bill died 2013, 81 years old.

If you have not seen the movie, SEE IT. It can be scary, what is your excuse for not reaching your goal? If Bill could reach his with all setbacks he had, you can reach your goal too.

LenaM

7 Benefits of practicing gratitude

Practicing gratitude means paying attention to, what we appreciate and are thankful for.

1. Gratitude opens doors to more relationships. Saying thank you and acknowledging other people can lead to new opportunities.
2. Gratitude improves physical health. Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and is feeling healthier then other people.
3. Gratitude improves psychological health. Gratitude effectively increases happiness and reduces depression.
4. Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression.
5. Gratitude helps people sleep better. Spend 15 minutes writing down a few grateful thoughts before bed improves your sleep.
6. Gratitude improves self-esteem. Being grateful for what you have makes it easier to appreciate other peoples accomplishments.
7. Gratitude increases mental strength. Gratitude reduces stress

Short summery of the benefits: Gratitude strengthen our emotions, reduces feelings of envy, reduces stress, makes our memories happier and lets us experience good feelings.

There are many ways to practice gratitude. Write a journal, praying, meditating, simply sending thank you notes or just stopping and expressing your feelings. Although it is simple it is important to do this regular, like every day to experience the benefits.

LenaM

Two minutes to better self-confidence

The trick is powerful posture.

Amy Cuddy, Harvard psychologist, has study the connection between body postures and confidence. Our body has a primitive and direct link to the brain. Behaving and acting a certain way will affect how you feel about yourself, not the other way around. The connection between our body position and our feelings can be used to improve your confidence.

What is a powerful posture?

Think Wonder Woman, chin high, hands on your hips and stand with feet hip-with apart.  Breathe deep and hold pose for one to two minutes. Another power posing is, chin high, throwing your hands up in the air in v-shape as the athlete do, that won the competition.

So next time when you feel nervous or insecure about a task, like an interview or public speaking, try it. Or just start doing power posture every day, it can’t hurt.

LenaM