When you think of the new year what is the first thing that pops in your head?
I know for me it’s always new year’s resolutions and the gym being overcrowded for a month or two. Everyone becomes obsessed with working out, healthy eating, and cleaning out all the clutter in the home Marie Kondo style.
I confess I do this myself every year, especially the de-cluttering. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of deep cleaning that frees you and makes you feel light. Okay, so many people do this, but do you know what the significance of it all is? We clean out our physical space and sweat off all the holiday joy, but that’s not what we are really doing.
Let me explain.
When you clean out your physical space: Closets, drawers, rooms, you are really making mental space in your mind in mirror of your physical world. Ever notice your mind feels lighter when you walk into a room after its been deep cleaned and you feel less cluttered on the inside too? It’s like you can feel the extra space in the drawers. It’s all mental.
When you go and workout, you’re really sweating out the bad emotions and feelings left behind in your body. That’s why you feel that after workout glow, you just detoxed the bad mojo out. Eating clean greens and that celery juice cleanses you from the inside out. It’s all an inside job that is disguised as physical health.
Of course, your physical health will improve as well but the way you feel and look on the outside is a direct influence on how you look and feel on the inside. It always begins within. Just like you can never out train a bad diet, you can’t out run a bad and limiting mindset. It always catches up to you.
The silent killer is that little voice inside that is your internal critic.
“You’ll never make it. Why do you even bother trying? It’s too hard, just give up now before you embarrass yourself.”
The mind and the words you tell yourself is the number one reason people give up on resolutions, fall back into old habits, and don’t obtain their goals. But it doesn’t have to be that way for you. Not this time. There are a few tricks you can do to switch that little voice from your biggest critic to your biggest fan. Well, biggest fan behind your mom because let’s be honest, no one is a bigger fan than your mom.
Trick number 1:
Spend a few moments every day in silence quieting your mind. Call it meditation, prayer, quiet time, whatever the important thing is you take time daily to control your mind. Remember you are in control always and your mind is there to help you succeed. When you are able to control your thoughts, even for a moment you gain control of your mind and are able to stop those bad thoughts when they come.
“the mind is a great servant, but a terrible master.” – David Allen
Your mind was made to wander and trail off into thoughts, it’s just what it does. It’s up to you to get to know your mind and guide it to where you want it to wander to. You have that power, you always have. Now is the time to practice it.
Trick number 2:
Write down your goals and reflect and write on them weekly. It’s one thing to be able to guide your mind and the thoughts you think, but you have to know where you want to go.
Your mind is very powerful, you manifest in your thoughts first where your life will lead. You may not believe that last sentence, but it is truth and here is an example to prove it.
Look around you, everything you see was once a figment of someone’s imagination. Every chair, light, electricity, the food you eat, the technology you are using was all just an idea that was brought to life by someone. But first, it was just a wandering thought that stuck.
Now just think what kind of life you could live if you brought some life to a few of your wandering thoughts and guided it to where you wanted it to go.
Trick number 3:
Spend some time at least once a week taking good care of yourself. Soak in a bubble bath, moisturize your skin, take some time to stretch under candlelight and calm music, really get ready for your day. Do your hair and makeup and put on your good outfit, you know the one.
When you take the time to care for yourself you begin to gain some self-love. It’s not a selfish thing to do, it’s an essential thing to love yourself and take care of yourself. Because when you do it regularly, you will want to do it more and will begin rooting for yourself more.
Finally, trick number 4:
When the inner critic comes out, and it will eventually rear its ugly head from time to time in protest, Stop it in its tracks. Take a deep breath, grab a pen and paper, and write down what your angry about. Not the shallow reason but the root cause of the critic… Where did the thought come from? What happened? What made you feel this way?
Once you find it write it down and sit with it for a moment, feel it, and then let it go. Either throw the paper away, shred it, or I’ve even gone as far as burnt it (just be safe when doing this one and don’t burn the trash can too, oops) This allows the thought to be released from your mind and out into the world so you can then crumble it before it’s able to cause damage.
Now you have a few tricks up your sleeve to help that silent killer from creeping into your life again. This year take these tricks and begin cleaning out the clutter of a limiting mindset and live in a healthy, free way of life.
Happy deep cleaning!
What are your thoughts on this post? As always, the best part of blog posts is the conversations that stem from them. I’d love to hear what you think and any additional tid bits you’d like to add in the comment section below.
Good job! You thoroughly covered everything with your post. I would like to read more by you. Do you maintain any more blogs?
Nope! This is my main squeeze. I’m glad you liked the article 🙂