Gorgeous gorgeous girls practice mindfulness. <3

Alright! Here are some of my favorite mindfulness practices that have helped me so much throughout the years. I am not a professional, just sharing what has helped me and what I recommend to all my friends! 😊

• #1! The first hour in the morning, no phone. I know it’s hard, I know. You are most likely addicted to your phone just like every other adult/millennial/gen-z’er, but social media does come at a cost and most of the time that cost is associated with decreased mental health and increased anxiety and depression. A huge point of social media is comparison. While it can be a phenomenal tool in bringing us together, it can also push us further apart. When you wake up and immediately get on social media or scroll through emails, texts, etc. you are training your brain to be reactive and distracted. It truly sets the tone for your entire day. Read more about it here! (https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2021/04/02/why-you-should-stop-checking-your-phone-in-the-morning-and-what-to-do-instead/?sh=7efb47c26842 )
  • Okay but HOW?
    • Develop a routine. Wake up and instead of immediately rolling over and getting on your phone, hop in the shower, go to the kitchen for a smoothie, coffee, make breakfast, plan out your day, whatever. The point is, if it is difficult for you to wake up and not immediately jump on your phone, then replace getting on your phone with another activity. You have the whole day to deal with the world’s problems, opinions, and urge to compare yourself; you don’t need it in the first hour of your day.
    • Focus on mindfulness instead: try yoga, mediate, eat a healthy breakfast, workout (if you go for a run share your location with friends), take a shower and get ready for the day, get dressed, feel good about yourself, maybe put on makeup if you like that, or whatever your happy morning routine looks like.
• #2! Affirmations! Say some amazing affirmations to make you feel confident, capable, and ready for the day. Over time, the more you say it the more you really will believe it. Positive self-talk is so important for your mental health and even if you start out not really believing what you’re saying, I challenge you to seriously try it for a week!
  • A few examples: “I am strong and capable of properly handling whatever difficulties are thrown my way today.” “I am kind and caring.” I am going to have a great day.” “I am beautiful!” “I am loved!” “I am purposed and capable of amazing things.” “I am so thankful to be alive today. Today is a new day and I have the opportunity to write my story.”
• #3! Take Care of Your Body! We’re talking bubble baths, skin care routine, eating healthily, taking your vitamins, working out, exfoliating, hair day, all of it! You only get one body, take care of it! You are a beautiful vessel that deserves to be treated well.
  • Stretch: Release some of the tension in your body. Your body will thank you.
  • Eating healthily:
    • What you feed your body is so immensely important. I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase, ‘Food is fuel!’ or ‘You are what you eat.’ Those are true! Food is meant to be nourishment and fuel for our bodies for all the bodily functions required for all the tasks we complete in a day. Food is medicine but unfortunately, it can also become a toxin. When you eat unhealthy food lacking in nutrition or high in certain chemicals, your body feels the effects. For example, when you eat out at most restaurants you really don’t know what you’re putting in your body. You don’t know where they got their ingredients from, how they prepare the food, if the kitchen is clean, how long it’s been sitting there or what ingredients went into the food you’re putting in your body. Obviously, this isn’t the case for all restaurants some are very healthy like farm to table, and organic restaurants and I am NOT saying never eat out because I myself am a HUGE foodie and I love eating out. I’m just saying be conscious of how often you eat out and try to have some balance at home with sourcing good ingredients if you can afford it and making your own meals. What you put into your body is so profound because it affects your mood, energy level, physical health, and so so much more.
    • Read more about it here! (https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-food-impact-health and https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/food-medicine/how-does-food-impact-health/food-information )
• #4! Drop the negative friend
  • Enough said. You know you need to it. Life is too short to be in the presence of people that are not rooting for you or that don’t positively influence you.
• #5! Clean!
  • If you are anything like me, clean spaces change EVERYTHING. Oftentimes, our space reflects the way we feel inside. When we are stressed, life is chaotic, and we feel overwhelmed, our spaces tend to look disheveled and quite frankly, a mess. Take some time to give your space a reboot- whether it’s one room at a time, one load of laundry, or the whole place!
• #6! GO OUTSIDE, take a walk, do something!
  • You need to get out! If you work from home or maybe you’re a college student still attending virtual classes, you need to go outside! Even if it is just a five-minute walk to go grab a KitKat out of your car, you need some Vitamin D. Go outside just embrace nature for a second or go for a short 10-15 minute walk. Grab a friend, grab a dog if you have one- I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too.
• #7! Open a Window
  • Maybe a walk isn’t happening today, so at least open your window! Let some FRESH air into your space. De-stuff that air and give your brain a much-needed boost of oxygen to help you feel more energized and get your bodily functions flowing. Unless the air outside is worse than the air in your home, open that window.
• #8! Journal!!!! PLEASE
  • I cannot express how much this one has genuinely helped myself and friends throughout our lives. Journaling is so powerful because it connects you to you. When was the last time you spent time with yourself? When was the last time you really invested in you and took time to work through all your complex emotions? Oftentimes, we brush off things that happen to or around us as unimportant because we’re not sure how to process it. Taking time to sit down and walk through your day or an event on paper really helps to process and heal from whatever happened. And maybe you don’t need to heal but you just need to talk it out. Maybe you’re none of the above and have a unique situation or don’t even believe in the power of reflection but I urge you to just try it out. If it doesn’t work, you lose nothing. If it does, you gain so much.
• #9! Mediate.
  • Alright hear me out. I was super skeptical about meditating at first, but I absolutely love it now, 20/10 recommend. If you try it and don’t like it that’s fine but let me tell you what I do and some of the benefits so you can at least think about it. Meditation is a phenomenal way to quiet your mind. I have ADHD so if you have ADHD, you know what it’s like to constantly have a million and one thoughts always running through your mind and this is a practice that has seriously helped me control my own thinking. It’s also another way that you get to spend time with yourself but more importantly you’re spending time working on yourself. I meditate in the mornings or at night and I find that I have much more patience because I’m actively working on sitting still somewhere for 5 to 10 minutes at a time and solely focusing on my breathing and my faith. I don’t do traditional meditation I prefer using a Christian guided meditation and my absolute favorite app of all time when it comes to meditation is SoulTime; I absolutely swear by it. I am not sponsored by them, I have no affiliation, I just really love the app. (For all of my other Christians out there, soul time is a guided meditation that is Bible based so they’re centered around a lot of topics like when you feel God is far or disappointed by God or forgiveness. They also have a ton of other topics like hope in hard times, anxiety, sleep, letting go, peace, difficult conversations, etc.) Most of the meditations I do are about 5 minutes, but you can always build up to the longer ones as you go. I did a 10 minute one that felt like 3 minutes. Once you really get into it it’s so fantastic how peaceful you feel, how the mindfulness impacts other areas of your life, and there are a ton of guided meditations on YouTube that are pretty awesome as well!
• #10! Last one and it’s optional… get a massage! If it’s in your budget, schedule it right now and your body will thank you.

Sending lots of love.

Always,