7 Steps to a Positive Daily Mindset
Quick Disclosure: Some of these links are affiliate links. When you click on them to purchase something on this page, it won’t cost you anything extra! I might receive a commission for sharing this good info with you. Which works out, because I was going to tell you about it anyway!
Our minds are a powerful thing. The brain is the control center that makes everything go physically, spiritually and emotionally. Think about that for a second. That thing is THE thing that can make or break us! Contrary to popular belief, we are able to control our mind. We control how we feed our brains with the food we eat, the media we consume and by what we tell ourselves. If we feed ourselves with a bunch of junk, we’re going to have clouded minds that feel like a closet we need to clean out. If we feed ourselves with wholesome, nutritious, positive things, our brains will feel strong, tight and ready to run this marathon of life.
After I had my daughter, I was overwhelmed with the responsibility of being a new mother and simultaneously trying “not to lose myself”. Spoiler alert, it’s been scientifically proven that women are physically and literally different people after they birth a baby. For a long time, I thought this was a bad thing and that I had to constantly prove myself (to who, I’m not sure) that I was still this strong, badass, smart, capable, independent woman that could still do it all with a little girl hanging off of my hip. Um, hello, the fact that I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl during a global health pandemic definitely proves that! Anyways, I got into this dark place of allowing myself to believe that all of those qualities I had before becoming a mother were no longer within me. I started searching for something that would help me feel better about myself and remind me of who I was.
Enter, Jennie Leigh. She’s a blogger that is really big into mindset and how your mind holds the power to accomplish anything. Through a course I started taking (about blogging, actually) Jennie Leigh went through this whole daily mindset ritual that she does everyday to help accomplish her goals in her blogging business. I was kind of skeptical at first, I mean this was a blogging course I was taking after all, but once I tried it out a few times, I became a believer. Over time, I tweaked the process slightly to fit my daily needs. After a while, I could tell that I was becoming more confident, having a brighter outlook each day and feeling like the new self I was searching for.
This daily mindset routine consists of:
Deep Breathing
Spirituality
Gratitude
Visualization
Affirmations
This may seem like a lot of steps, but I don’t spend hours on each thing, here. Most mornings, I spend about five minutes on each step (for a total of 30ish minutes). As I take you through what this process looks like for me, imagine what it could look like for you.
Start in a beautiful, serene space that inhibits clarity and creativity without inhibiting distraction. This needs to be a space that is comfortable, yet supportive of creating work (read: not the bed or laying on a comfy couch). For me, this space is my desk. I’m a total and complete freak about how my desk is organized and everything has to be in the exact right place. To someone else, it may look like a disaster zone, but to me, I know where everything is and can access it easily. It’s a space where I’m surrounded by beautiful things that I love and inspires creativity and doesn’t have anything that can distract me (read: my computer is closed and my phone is on Do Not Disturb). My desk chair is comfortable, supports me to sit up straight and alert and is attractive (we need to be surrounded by beautiful things, remember?). I turn on the Deep Focus Spotify channel for some low, calming background sound and light a candle.
Deep Breathing.
I start out by taking at least three deep breaths with my eyes closed. In through my nose, out through my mouth. When I start my daily mindset routine, I either just woke up about 30 minutes prior, or I’m fresh off a workout, or I’ve already started my day and I’m doing this during my daughter’s afternoon nap. Regardless, this is the chance to clear my mind, be still and relax into the headspace I want to be in. Sometimes this can happen in three deep breaths, but other times, I need more. The rule of thumb here is to just keep this slow, calm breath until the mind is calm.
Spirituality.
Once my mind is clear, I pray. First, I ask God to fill the space I’m in (usually my home) with His presence. I thank God for His goodness and mercy and give Him praise for who He is and what He has done. I ask for the things I desire in my and my family’s life. I pray for my husband, my daughter and other family members. I also keep a running list of prayer requests that have been spoken at my small group at church or by anyone else I know. If someone comes to mind during my prayer time, I take that as a sign to pray for them, too. When it feels like my prayer time is coming to a close, I ask God to reveal Himself to me in His word as I read the Bible and to show me how what I’m reading is applicable to my life. At this time, I’m working on a goal to read the entire Bible in order, so I open up my Bible and read a few chapters. I also use this guide to help me digest the ancient text I’m reading.
Gratitude.
At this point, I have pretty much eased into a headspace of calm, peace and focus. I take a few minutes to write in my Gratitude Journal (props to Rachel Hollis for teaching me how to do this). I LOVE to use these journals because they have a choice between blank, lined or dotted pages. I list five things that I am grateful for that have happened to me in the last 24 hours. It’s important to think of recent and/or tangible things to be grateful for so that this practice is authentic. On the same page, I list ten dreams I made happen. These are actually life goals that I have for myself to accomplish in the next 10 years. So, these are life goals that I haven’t accomplished yet, but I write them down as if they already happened. This rewires my brain to start focusing on how to make that thing real right now. Directly under that, I write down the goal that I am going to achieve first, because I can’t go all in on ten things at the same time.
Visualization.
The process of visualization is something that I didn’t even know I was doing until I came across the benefits of organized visualization. As a retired professional dancer who has been performing since she was three, I have been imagining myself on stage for years while I was still in the studio learning the choreography. This practice served me well in all other areas of my life because I would unconsciously imagine an end result while I was still working on something. Today, I have created a Desires List that includes all the things I want out of my life from what the perfect day looks like to what the perfect year looks like for me. Each day, I read through this list and allow myself to feel what it would be like to have each thing on my list whether it be what I do with my time, how I make money or material things I would like to have. This process allows me to see my future self and honor her today by doing what I need to do to make her a reality tomorrow.
Affirmations.
I have some amazing people in my life that love and care for me to the depths of their souls. Anytime I need words of affirmation (which is my love language), I can call these people up and they will sing my praises from the rooftops. Those relationships are important to have and are reciprocated. However, it is important to have those same thoughts about myself. If I don’t believe in myself, then how is anyone else supposed to? If I don’t speak to myself in this positive, caring, affirming way, then how will I believe it when those that love me do? I’m the one that I have to be with, work with, and live with all day everyday, so I’ve got to love her and tell her how amazing she is, even when she screws up. This practice rewires my brain to live up to what I’m telling myself that I should be. It makes me believe that I am capable of the things I’m saying to myself and increases the likelihood that I will achieve my life goals.
Meditation.
Ok y’all, I’m not the best meditator in town. Quiet stillness is something that used to make me feel extremely uncomfortable, and sometimes it still does. This is why meditation is towards the end of this daily mindset routine for me instead of at the beginning. All the other steps have put me in the right headspace and physically prepared my mind to take on the quiet stillness. Once I decide something, I like to take action and move quickly, which can be a good thing most of the time. Let’s put some emphasis on most of the time. Sometimes I have been known to move too quickly on a decision and it actually ended up being the wrong choice. In this time of meditation, I actually start with a short prayer simply asking God to show me what the right next step is. As a wife, mom, and entrepreneur, my mind is going in three thousand directions at all times. It all needs to get done, and it all needs to get done right now. But what’s that saying? If everything is important then nothing is important? Right. So, I take this time for God to show me what is THE most important thing to tackle next. Like I said, my mind tends to race, so sometimes (read: almost always) I get a list going in my head of what it is I should do next. That’s ok. The goal of this meditation is not to clear the mind. It is to allow space for what comes next. Once I feel like my meditation is coming to a close, I’ll write down the things that came to mind. I’ll think about those for a bit and allow my gut to point me in the right direction of the ONE (yup, only one) thing that I should be focused on that day and release the other things for another day.
Take Action.
The time has come! I’ve calmed my mind and gotten into a headspace that creates an environment of peace, calm and being proactive instead of an environment of chaos and being reactive to what’s going on around me. Now, I feel confident that I have chosen the right thing to take action on and trust that this idea is going to get me one step closer to my desires on this particular day.
Y’all, I cannot stress this enough. It is because of this daily mindset practice that I’m able to calm the crazy and be in charge of my day instead of being a slave to my own life. Before taking care of my mind each day, I was a total and complete mess. I was making valiant efforts to “be a positive person” but I wasn’t doing anything about the foundation: my mindset. If you want to become more focused so that you can accomplish all your life goals and be able to roll with the punches from day to day, I challenge you to take on this daily mindset routine. Starting one week with the deep breaths is enough. The next week, add on five minutes of whatever spirituality practice is for you. Before you know it, you will have made your way through to taking action and becoming laser focused on accomplishing your life goals.
So, now what? The biggest factor in achieving your goals is creating a foundation of simple routines that set you up for success each day. I’ve got something just for you to help make that happen! In my free Morning Routine Maker, I show you just how quick and easy creating a morning routine actually is. Click the button below to get instant access to the life changing magic that is the morning routine. Brace yourself, you just might become a morning (read: routine) person!
To make our dreams happen, we’ve got to feel good, right? Our mind, body and spirit are all connected and if our body is out of whack, our mind and spirit aren’t going to be in tip top shape either. Something that is an important part of my intentional lifestyle to feel at my best is having a protein packed smoothie for breakfast. My Sunrise Smoothies are what I drink for breakfast every single day to pack in the nutrients needed for crushing my life & biz goals. Skipping breakfast because mornings are too chaotic to even think about eating something? Skipping breakfast because eating in the morning makes you feel nauseous? Skipping breakfast because you’re trying to lose weight? All of those are myths that can leave you feeling hangry and how can a hangry person achieve their goals? Let me show you the magic that are the Sunrise Smoothies and I bet all of those skipping breakfast excuses will fade away and your achievement will skyrocket.
How well do you know yourself? Do you know what really sets your soul on fire? Maybe you’ve taken a deep dive into getting to know yourself before but it’s been awhile. In the Happiness Helper, you’ll go through a quick and easy exercise to really dig into some parts of you that you may not have stopped to think about before. Once you’ve explored these areas of your likes and dislikes, you’ll experience clarity and may even be surprised at some of the things that make your wheels turn. Don’t live inside a tightly structured box of a narrative that you or someone else has placed on you anymore! Prepare yourself to feel empowered to go after the kind of life that YOU want to live; not a life that someone told you that you were destined to. Get ready to take a deep sigh of relief!
Putting small biz owner’s and serial entrepreneur’s plan into action with step-by-step breakdowns of long-term and short-term goals so you can obtain your version of success every day, month, quarter and year!