The excerpt below from Harvard Health is one small example of the large body of material available on the benefits of expressing gratitude. Each study (along with endless personal anecdotes) demonstrates the great benefits that gratitude can have for personal health and happiness; workplace climate; personal relationships; and the general sense of well-being within a family or community. It seems that the more we express gratitude and acknowledge the good we have in our lives, the more abundant and rich our lives become. This week, I invite you to introduce into your life a daily practice of expressing gratitude. There are so many fun ways to go about this. For me, I like to take pictures and caption my points of gratitude, (#gratitude is ample on the IG) and I like to begin my day by writing down 10 points for which I am grateful. Some families like to talk about gratitude as the start to dinner; some like to write gratitude points on a post it and keep those in front of them at their desk. Whatever the means of expressing gratitude, choosing at least one consistent practice and sticking with it is helpful. Some points to consider: Handwriting the gratitude helps to anchor the feeling of gratitude into your muscle memory, making it easier to make gratitude a part of your go-to response. Speaking gratitude aloud to others helps to anchor the feeling of empathy and connection. To help you anchor the habit, consider some of these ideas. 1. Journal about your gratitude every day: Keep a journal and write down 10 things for which you are grateful either first thing in the morning, or the last thing every evening. 2. Keep a gratitude jar: Use a large jar and every day, write down your points of gratitude. These are great to look back on a year from now, or even when you are feeling glum and need a reminder of all the good in the world. 3. Meditate: Begin your meditation practice (or yoga practice) by reflecting on things for which you are grateful. 4. Write thank you notes: Every day for the next two weeks, write a thank you note to someone who has made a difference in your life. Send the letters old fashion style. 5. Begin staff meetings with gratitude: At the start of each meeting, encourage community members to share things for which they are grateful. Acknowledging the good in the day and one another helps to lift the mindset to solution seeking and positive thinking. I once had a boss who kept a jar of chocolate kisses and anyone who wanted to acknowledge someone took one chocolate and passed it on with a public thank you. It's was a great mood booster, for sure! (and the chocolate didn't hurt) Do you already do some of these ideas? Have more to share? Tell us about it in the comments section. I will leave you with two of my favorite talks on gratitude. Research on gratitude- excerpt from Giving thanks can make you happier, Harvard Health Publishing, (www.health.harvard.edu) Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, have done much of the research on gratitude. In one study, they asked all participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics. One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation. Another leading researcher in this field, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on 411 people, each compared with a control assignment of writing about early memories. When their week's assignment was to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness, participants immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores. This impact was greater than that from any other intervention, with benefits lasting for a month.
0 Comments
The 30 day challenge invites us to bring yoga into our lives as a daily habit. The act of getting on the mat and taking 30 minutes for your physical and mental health is a reminder to yourself that you value your own well-being. Tuning into the breath, stretching our bodies, strengthening the core, and opening the heart are all ways to help release tension and set yourself up for approaching the day ahead LIKE A BOSS. As we approach week two, I invite you to layer in additional daily habits that can help you achieve health and well-being, beginning with practices for general physical and mental health. A few that we will explore include staying hydrated and keeping a gratitude journal. Consider layering some of these habits into your daily routines, and see if you feel any differently by the end of the week. You may already practice some of these habits, and may have some suggestions that can help the rest of us. Please feel free to share your strategies in the comment section below.
1/5/2020 2 Comments Trust Your IntuitionJanet Steinhauser of Littlebird joins us today to talk about following your intuition. A remarkable resource for those seeking support for well-being and with living their best lives, Janet offers Intuitive Readings and Professional Life Coaching. You can learn more about her work or schedule an appointment here. Dearest Yogi: Well done you! Even in a time of global pandemic, you are choosing to thrive. Some of these days have been tough, right?!?! It would be easy to just crawl under the blankets and hang out a sign that says: wake me when the world is better. But you aren't doing that. Because you are choosing to thrive. You show up for yourself. For others. For Life. You are finding the #silverlinings; taking the opportunity to go slower; using this as an opportunity to reflect and connect with yourself and others. You are sheltering at home for the well-being of others, and if that isn't love in action, I don't know what is! You are trying new things, embracing challenges and are willing to maybe even look silly or be uncomfortable in the process. Maybe you are even doing a full on Mari Kondo to your life, cleaning out all the things that no longer spark joy. And on some days... yes, there are those days when you just don't want to have to be amazing, so you are curling up with a book and luxuriating in bed- because that's what you need and that's amazing too. This has been a unique journey for each of us, and there is no one right way to go about it. There is your way, and as my son would say, "You gotta do you girl!" The question is, who is the you that you really yearn to be? Who do you hope to show yourself as? At the end of this time of cocooning for safety, what do you hope to see when you look back to see how you showed up during this unique time in history? The question is, who is the you that you really yearn to be? Set the scene for some quiet time (candles, music, you know, set the scene!) and take a moment to write a love letter to your future self, the one who is well past this time and who has so many stories to tell. Maybe it's the you in a month from now, maybe 5 or even 20 years. You get to decide. Write a love letter to let this older version of you know how proud you are of her. How much you respect her. How much you learned because she... How much you LOVE that she... What about you is just so gosh darn fabulous? Get it all in there. Get gushy with it! Love up on this older version of you like no one else ever has. Make this THE love letter of all love letters, because YOU, dearest Yogi, deserve an epic love letter. Allow this process to help guide you towards the version of you that you most want to be. She's in there, so just write her a love letter to let her know that she is seen. With all the Love for the You that you are now, and the You that you wish to become, Erin Vision boarding has been a part of my life for so long, that I cannot remember what inspired me to start. Dating from at least 25 years ago, I have old "cow pattern cover" mead notebooks that have been covered with a collage of words and images; digital vision boards created with an app provided by Notes from the Universe; vision boards in my phone notes; and I have vision boards on large art stock paper, created from curating words and images out of magazines. You get the idea: I create vision boards for my life like interior designers create moodboards for remodeling a room! The process for me has become a sort of cathartic ritual. They are a way for me to think deeply about what I want my life to look like, and to often uncover what I didn't even realize was there as a desire. My process begins by simply curating what inspires me. I rarely set out with a strong intention or prescribe what should be collected. Instead, I let the process guide me. As I search through magazines or online images, I ask myself: what resonates with me? What do I want next? What lights up a certain spark of joy? What makes me feel calm? What ignites passion? Any word or image that stands out gets clipped and set aside in a basket until I am ready to pull it all together. When I am ready, I start to sort and organize and glue it all down, the composition guided only by what feels harmonious to me. In the end, when I step back, a beautiful story emerges. When it feels complete, the board goes up in a prominent place where I can see it every day. "the process helps to create a strong, inspiring vision into which you can live..." There is no exact right way to create a vision board. I know some people who keep a large bulletin board and add images, words, and artifacts as they find them, often reshuffling and organizing as the days unfold. Some people take a picture of a larger board to create a small reminder that they can keep in their wallet or handbag. What I have heard from many different people is that the process helps to create a strong, inspiring vision into which you can live. When you know what you do want, you are better able to identify what you don't want, making it easier to weigh out decisions and determine where you should invest your energy. At the end of the day, a vision board at its very least helps you to think through your next small, right step towards achieving a personal dream. Interested in making your own vision board? Learn more about my process here... 26/4/2020 1 Comment Setting an IntentionOver the next 30 days, I will share some practices that can help you build daily habits that contribute to happiness & well-being. Pulled by the demands of everyday life and the needs of others, it can be really easy to slip into a "just getting by" state of being. We, however, have committed to living beyond "just getting by;" our intention is to thrive, and to do that, we will need to be intentional about how we go through our days. Here are a few key practices that I invite you to "try on" while we go through the challenge.
Keep a Journal The act of writing can be a very healing and cathartic process that helps you to process what you are feeling, record your hopes and dreams, and feel anchored to what inspires you. As we go through this journey, consider keeping a journal where you can reflect, set intentions, record gratitude, and take notes. Each day, I will provide a prompt for reflection. You can respond to that prompt in your journal, in a sketchbook, on your computer, in your phone's voice memo notes, or simply as a point of consideration while exercising. You may already have a solid journaling practice that you would like to keep going as is; if you would like to share what works for you, please do! If you don't already keep a journal, I encourage you to try on this new daily habit. Find a journaling tool that feels great to you; anything will work. Over the years, I have used everything from mead notebooks that I create a cover for to beautiful high quality Moleskin journals, and a lot of variations in between. For my journaling, I love to keep a jar of colored pens and nice thin tip gel pens that feel great in my hand as I write. Design a Schedule TIME can be the biggest obstacle to self care. The only way around this is to set a schedule that you are willing to commit to, and stick with it. I have made a promise to myself that I will get up by 05:30 every day so that I have time for my morning rituals before my son wakes up. I am fully aware that this is going to be a challenge for me, so I am setting things up in a backward planning sort of way to ensure I can make that early morning wake up happen. Set Yourself Up for Success In this time of sheltering at home, there are so many easy distractions and obstacles that could keep us from thriving, one of which is our mindset. Think about your obstacles and create a simple plan to overcome them so that you may feel set up for success. Little things like creating a menu for healthy eating and schedule, having healthy snacks prepared in advance, and having a pitcher of water with fruit can help you to feel prepared for the day ahead. We will soon talk about having our resources planned in advance- this can be little things that you keep around you for inspiration, to having an accountability buddy or inspiration station at home. Please do not beat yourself up when you have a rough day, or when motivation is hard to find. It is important to find the balance and be gentle with yourself, and remember that there is grace in this 30 day challenge. I am here for you on the challenging days. I am also here to celebrate the great ones with you. Hold an Intention: What will success look like for you at the end of this 30 day challenge? For me, I most want to bring yoga and a gratitude practice back into my life. If I can get the balance of using my mornings intentionally to achieve this, I will have succeeded. I want to prove to myself that I can be better balanced and take care of myself. I also really want to explore supporting others in this journey, so ensuring that I am providing the resources and creating content for you over the next 30 days will be a success. Your feedback will be really valuable throughout this process! To help me achieve this, I have created a schedule, set the reminder alarms, and I put a post-it note on my desk as a reminder to prioritize my own well-being. This blog is also one tool for me to achieve these goals. Your first writing assignment: Set an intention. What do you most want to achieve? What will you put in place to ensure you can do that? I followed an If then... writing practice. Example: If I want to feel and look better, then I have to take better care of myself. If I want to take care of myself, then I have to make the time. Then I have to get up early every day when there aren't distractions. Then I have to go to bed on time to ensure I get enough sleep. Then I have to ensure that I am not working too many hours in a day, so I will finish by.... You get the idea. Welcome to our 30 day challenge! Erin |
|