Put Your Mind and Heart To Bed
Whether you are listing your thoughts, engaging in meditation or yoga or ensuring your first meal of the day is a protein-packed breakfast, many of you have some sort of morning ritual. Starting the morning recounting what you are grateful for as you forge into your new day is imperative. But what about those nightly rituals? Now I know for some of you, washing your face, taking off your day's makeup or brushing your teeth at the end of the day may all be a continuous work in progress, but for those of you who are ready to up your gratitude practices, I am challenging you to take 5 minutes before you lay your head on your pillow and list what your day has brought, even if they involved some challenges. How can you use the power of your thought, now that you've had some time to take a pause, and rethink how would have liked the challenging situation to have played out. If you've made a choice that you are replaying in your head, go with it, replay it, BUT replay it as you would like it to have turned out. Not necessarily the outcome, we don't always have a choice in the end result, but in :
- how you would choose to think,
- how you would like to have articulated yourself,
- how would your body posture be different,
- how would your tone of voice be different, etc.?
Does that change the emotional energy around that challenge, making it a bit easier to step further into a different form or action or inaction? When the "next time" happens, when you get that do-over (and you will!) how do you envision it playing out in serving YOUR best interest? How will your best YOU show up? Challenges no matter the outcome, are all dry runs for that do-over. Next, what were your wins of the day? No matter how huge or small:
- You left work on time,
- You took your lunch hour,
- You engaged your child's meltdown deciding ahead of time that it would be from a place of patience and compassion,
- You chose not to make a co-worker's passive-aggressive behavior about you,
- Maybe you turned down that lunchroom birthday cake.
A win is a win. It's important that you train your mind to see them. Recognizing challenges and wins of the day, and setting your emotional energy up to embrace them, will help you better align our heart with the mind and get you ready to transition (through sleep) into your new day ahead. Bedtime rituals empower you as the only one who can determine the meaning of your own past (your day that is closing) and the hopefulness by setting your intention for your future (your tomorrow). Ready for an added coaching bonus? Here's a podcast interview almost a year ago that I was honored to be a part of that speaks all things "thought" related, some action challenges you can choose to take on and all things #MeToo movement ~ feel free to pass this link on to someone struggling with their self-doubt today. I would love to hear from those of you who are willing to give this nighttime ritual a try for at least 5 days and hear if your sleep improves. If your attitude upon awakening shifts. Send me an email, I'd love to hear from you. You aren't alone. And remember, change is one day at a time.
WAIT THERE'S MORE!
If you want a head start before the new year is here to create better habits around how you think about yourself and those thoughts that may be getting in your way to create the life you want to have, vs. what you already have, here's 30-minutes with me, my gift to you! No obligation, just bring one of those thoughts to our call and let's do it! On the call let's:
- Help you get started on tackling a challenge you are dealing with;
- You'll walk away with at least 1 coaching tool and strategy that you can immediately put into action and
- Let's talk about the benefits of working together.