Knowledge of the law of attraction provides a basis of understanding for the experiences that occur within your life. Law of attraction affirmations complement your active engagement in directing your thoughts, raising your vibration, and working in harmony with the law of attraction.
Using the law of attraction affirmations can serve you by:
reinforcing the principles of the law of attraction in your mind
increasing your mindfulness of the law of attraction’s influence and power in your daily life, and
acting as a means to remember and reiterate to yourself your role as a powerful being who has a direct impact on your personal experience of reality
The law of attraction affirmations shared within this post are offered as a means to reinforce the basic principles of the law of attraction to whoever chooses to repeat them. The goal is to intentionally integrate positive thoughts and imagery, inspire optimism and gratitude, and make accessible one of many means to redirect thought in a direction that serves your highest good.
How to Use Law of Attraction Affirmations
The purpose of adopting regular affirmation use is to inspire, direct, and reinforce focus on the life experience that you choose to have. Specific affirming statements and phrases can be elected with either broad or specific content aligned with your desired outcome.
When the affirmations are stated on a regular and consistent basis the content becomes part of your conscious thought. As a result, you may find yourself reflecting on the content detail at several points within your day. You may also use these affirming statements and phrases to replace undirected, misdirected, or negative thoughts.
This list of law of attraction affirmations is written to reflect a positive tone and an optimistic and empowered view. These affirmations are also intended to act as a mechanism to resonate with you and your thoughts, emotions, and vibration and by doing so enhance your ability to manifest your intentions.
Building Your Affirmation Practice
As a matter of practice, you can use these law of attraction affirmations in whichever manner that provides you with a positive experience. Suggested usage includes:
Choosing a singular affirmation as a focal point for a morning or evening meditation
Repeating one or two affirmations when using mala beads
Randomly selecting an affirmation and using it as a journaling prompt.
Reading through an entire list or deck of affirmations three times and intentionally invoking positive emotion and inflection when reciting its content
Selecting an affirmation that represents a dominant personal focus and rewriting its content on paper or in a journal 10 to 15 times a day for a month (or for whatever repetition and frequency you see as a good fit for you)
The potential use of law of attraction affirmations is expansive and in no way should be restrictive. You can choose creative ways to actively use, review, recant, or display your affirmations so as to have the greatest impact on you.
15 Law of Attraction Affirmations
I excitedly anticipate good things to come into my life
I am happy for any opportunity to be inspired to want more and to dream bigger
I know that my powerful thoughts and positive emotions create my reality
I have gratitude for all the good things that exist in my life today
I am heavily focused on everything that makes me happy
I know anything and everything in my experience has been attracted to me by me
I am a powerful being
I know that the law of attraction exists in my experience always
I am aware that what I cannot see at this moment can still exist
I can expect the experience in my life to be exactly what I believe it to be
I still my thoughts and open my mind to gain inspiration for my next aligned step
I am thankful in this moment
I honor my thoughts and emotions as essential parts of my life experience
I embrace relaxing and welcoming as the pieces of my life harmonize and come together
I anticipate that this day will be a very good day
Share this post with those you care about who are looking to expand their affirmation practice. Do you have a favorite affirmation that you use daily? Share it in the Comments!
You may be creating more problems with your self esteem than you realize. Killing it in fact!
Your self esteem is tied to your vision of yourself, your presence with others and the image of you shared with the world.
When you lack self esteem, you lack a confident presence in your own life. You are hollow when you should be whole.
If you suffer from ongoing self esteem concerns, you likely are fighting a host of insecurities and self sabotaging actions. And it is easy to have these counterproductive thoughts and actions steal your enthusiasm, break down your momentum, and kill your self esteem one moment at a time.
Take a look at these deadly sins killing your self esteem and see how conquering these habits can help you regain your confidence.
Self Esteem Problem #1: Compromising Your Values
Your core values represent who you are and how you demonstrate yourself to others based on what you deem most important. Once you identify what your values are you act in accordance with these beliefs and allow them to shape your life. Use our Core Values Journal to explore your core values more fully and to understand your life’s priorities.
No matter what you choose to prioritize in your life, your core values stand at the forefront, sometimes even unconsciously coming to the surface. You know what you stand for and what you believe in. This knowing can contribute to your self esteem.
The effects of denying your core values
When you put your values to the side, it can only happen through conscious decision and effort. You have elected to be different or support actions different than what you believe in.
Compromising your values can take many forms:
Looking the other way when a co-worker falsifies the numbers on a financial report
Not inviting a relative to a family event because other family members don’t want you to do it
Staying at work late when you have a game to attend for your child
Fake smiling at a friend who has bitterly hurt your feelings nonchalantly in casual conversation
You know when you feel something is wrong or right, and most importantly when it is different than what you understand as your core values. And even if no one other than you knows or feels the disconnect, you know when you have compromised your own core values. The sinking, sick, uncomfortable sadness inside tells you that you have permitted a disconnect to occur.
Reclaim your self esteem by representing yourself authentically and in alignment with your values.
Let others know when their actions or words do not align with your beliefs or standards
Take on decisions and actions that your feel strongly about regardless of outside opinion
Be honorable and act with integrity even when faced with difficult choices
Acknowledge your emotions and be open about your feelings with others and allow the same to be received by you
Overstated humility will often lead to putting yourself in the background instead of the foreground.
We are taught to hold the door for others, allow another person to step ahead in line, or give to those less fortunate than ourselves. While these acts are exemplary forms of chivalry and compassion, they also train a less desirable attribute. The attribute of diminishing self worth.
While an inaccurate conclusion, it is easy to assume that if putting others before yourself is commendable, it is not commendable to put yourself first.
Self prioritization can become unattractive when humility and charitable works are over-accentuated. True harmony lies in the balance of both.
Honor yourself and your self esteem by caring for yourself as much or more than you care for others. This healthy self love technique puts you in the best position to give the best of yourself in everything that you do. It also helps to thwart feelings or patterns of personal depletion by giving more than what your body, mind, and spirit can withstand to give at any given time.
Placing yourself in a position of priority is healing to your spirit and particularly to your self esteem.
Self Esteem Problem #3: Demonizing Self-Pride
The world is full of hope, inspiration, and optimism because of the actions that others have taken as a leap forward in their personal life progress.
To take pride in your accomplishments, your skills and talents, and your ability to overcome challenges is a reward for yourself and those able to witness your evolution.
To bask in self pride and personal acknowledgment provides a boost to your self esteem, an energetic elevation to your self worth, and an opportunity to experience more fullness in life. When we hide from experiencing self pride, we reduce our big wins as inconsequential and insignificant happenings and neutralize the difference between one experience and another. The world can become bland without the acknowledgment of good, better and great.
Key elements to remember when healthfully practicing self pride:
Admiring your work or your own image is not the same thing as vanity
Saying aloud what you did well is not the same thing as boasting
Sharing your accomplishments with others is not the same thing as showing off
Reflecting on how well you have done is not the same thing as gloating
When you recognize that exaggerated, mean-spirited, and intentionally hurtful forms of self pride are not the only forms of self pride, you give yourself permission to engage in healthy self acknowledgment, respect, and love.
Self pride is an important means to create and sustain healthy self esteem.
Self Esteem Problem #4: Devaluing Your Opinion
Knowing yourself is knowing what your independent thoughts and opinions are and owning them.
Your entire life experience is made up of instances where you learn yourself and the world around you. And while you gain significant influence from the world that builds your sense of opinion, your opinion is still yours alone.
To diminish your opinion is to remove your voice and to relinquish your sense of self in exchange for others.
Without your thoughts and your decisions of how to respond or act because of your thinking, you render your true self as almost invisible and inconsequential. This lack of presence can have a significant impact on your self esteem.
Sometimes you withhold your opinion and hamper your voice intentionally. You may choose when and where to share your opinion and determine if the share of your opinion is necessary or appropriate for the time and place. But even with this practical assessment you still honor that your opinion exists. And you use of tact is not the same as abandoning your opinion.
To preserve your voice and your self esteem it is important to practice authenticity in your thoughts and feelings.
Be honest with your thoughts and opinions and genuine when asked how you feel on a subject
Make a habit to respectfully share your thoughts when the opportunity presents itself
Refrain from apologizing if your opinion is different than others. Difference of opinion is not a mistake or misstep and therefore do not require correction.
Permit yourself to share your opinion with conviction. There is no need to force, pressure, or over-project your stance but energy and enthusiasm can provide necessary passion to a strong position.
Self Esteem Problem #5: Criticizing Yourself
Critical thinking and assessment are useful at the right time and place. However, those who are apt at these skills often turn the looking glass upon themselves and many times way too intensely.
There is balance in reviewing ourselves, our work, or our interaction with others. But there can be burden with intentionally examining yourself to find youreslf flawed or erroneous in your actions. Additionally, the presence of error does not equal total failure or complete lack in any person.
Criticizing yourself intensely or plaguing yourself with negative can become cruel, disheartening, and its own form of bullying toward yourself. A pattern of negative self talk can be an even more damaging practice because you have the opportunity to repeat hurtful thoughts and words incessantly.
Changing the course of your self critique to regular positive and favorable feedback can have a significant impact on improving your self esteem. Particularly when imparting genuine and thoughtful commentary and reinforcing acknowledgment of your best attributes, you can become the cornerstone of self validation and self worth for yourself.
Self Esteem Problem #6: Comparison with Others
The strength of individuality can be muted by the comfort of conformity especially when you deem someone else to be better than you.
Comparing who you are and what you do with others can belittle your sense of self when you deem your source of comparison as superior. The difficult but necessary shift is in seeing others with strengths and abilities as inspiration rather than competition.
The world contains such variations of skills, achievements, forms of beauty, and talent that inevitably you will find those who present themselves better than you perceive yourself to be.
That said, it is also equally possible to find those who underperform in comparison to you or who perform similarly to you. The question then becomes, what are you seeking to find?
Look to admire, learn from, and be inspired by others and the world around you. This is a much better support to your self esteem than counting yourself lesser in the contrast. You have your own uniqueness that includes a countless number of aspects to be proud of.
Build confidence by looking for and celebrating the best in you and valuing the inspiration around you to become more.
Self Esteem Problem #7: Fear of Failure
There is no circumstance where you can live without ever trying and failing. But at same time every attempt does not end in failure. Therefore to stand in perpetual fear of failure, waiting for the worse to occur, can create an even worse outcome than the event itself.
Anxiety, stress, lack of confidence, and low self esteem are just some of the symptoms when you suffer serious fear of failure.
However, facing your fears, regardless of the outcome, can build an internal strength and fortitude that can bring good fortune.
Take on a new task at work knowing that you may have to learn as you go
Travel to an unfamiliar location and explore without a defined plan
Talk to a new person in your favorite coffee shop even if they may not engage you back
Ask for a raise or new position even if you think your boss is not a fan
Taking risks can feel beyond uncomfortable. But everything that feels bad is not bad for you.
And while you have a chance to have an unfavorable end result, you also have opportunity for more. Moving beyond fears creates opportunity for growth, learning, better experiences, and personal gains. Walking away from these opportunities limits your ability to have more friends, greater skills, and even more money.
Above all, taking a chance on yourself can lead to higher self esteem, more confidence, and a feeling of preparedness for the next challenge on your life journey.
Conclusion
When you suffer problems with your self esteem, look to see their true origin. When you can confront and repair the poor habits that compliment this negative outcome, you have the opportunity to build your confidence and sense of self worth.
Instead of allowing self criticism, sabotage, and comparison with others to kill how you perceive yourself, be authentic, positive, and expressive.
You hold the power to strengthen your self esteem and boost your confidence by allowing yourself to fully be you.
If you know someone who could use a confidence boost, share this post and inspire small changes that can make a big difference in their self esteem. And if you have more ideas of your own, share them in the comments for others to see.
Self care at work, or occupational self care, is a means to regularly integrate practices during your work day that demonstrate your focus and attentiveness to your total well being.
While the content of your job, your work environment, and your interactions with others at work are a part of your world of work, from your vantage point you are the most essential piece of the puzzle. Only you can take in all the information, requests, responsibilities, and requirements for the job you are expected to perform and at the same time do the best for yourself so that you can productively and effectively get the job done.
When you acknowledge the importance of self care and actively engage in it as a regular practice, you are in the best position to get the most out of your work experience.
Here are 3 personal traits that can make self care at work a regimen that actually works for you:
Work Self Care Trait#1: Self Awareness
A core component of practicing self care at work is to practice self awareness at work. Set intentions to have a healthy, productive, successful day at work but when things derail, check in with yourself regarding how you feel and are performing.
Stress is not always an obstacle to a job well done and high-pressure situations are not always the catalyst to chaos. Many people will profess that they have had their most creative and productive moments when stressed the most.
But it is important to know when your job environment supports you or deflates you. Or to know when the work that you do suits you or is simply not for you.
When you practice self awareness regularly you not only know when things are going well but you are able to react appropriately and act timely when things are completely off the rails. When you need to recover from a temporary or significant imbalance, you can take proactive action to build yourself back up:
Take a moment to yourself in a quiet corner, even the bathroom
Engage with co-workers that naturally lift your mood
Have a quick snack, coffee/tea, or drink of water to boost your energy
Change tasks when you feel blocked in one area so that you are still productive yet less stressed
Only when you are aware that you are headed down a bad path can you make the choice to move a different direction. So use self awareness as a means to keep your self care at work intact.
Work Self Care Trait#2: Confidence
You may think that you would only invoke confidence when taking on a new job or asking for a promotion, but you may not realize that you have opportunity to use confidence every day.
It is a confident person who feels assured about their job even after making a big mistake. Or who remembers their self worth despite an angry boss downloading their bad day towards them.
Confidence as a form of self care is giving yourself the benefit of the doubt, the morale boost for a job well done, and encouragement to get through tough moments and failures. It is what lets you walk in the door with your head held high when you have a bad hair day. And it comforts you when you arrive late to a meeting.
In absence of this fortifying of self, you may allow feelings to take over your disposition and impact your work, your health, and your outlook on the day. When you lack confidence you can experience:
Unhealthy levels of stress when managing new or difficult tasks
Anxiety and paranoia over your performance, job stability, and self perception
Inability to speak assuredly or relay your thoughts and ideas to others
Defeat or a lack of self worth when your work goes unnoticed or unrewarded
While confidence will not always resolve these issues, when you are self confident you rely less on the feedback, input, or actions of others. Instead, you take your independent opinion of yourself as a priority and act in accordance with your own positive self perception.
Self care is permitting yourself to be self confident and to take on the challenges of your day with trust in you.
Work Self Care Trait#3: Self Control
Losing your self control is an internal emotional reaction to an outside stimulus that you permit to envelop you and that you share with others.
Emotional response to stimulus is normal and has many positive attributes in daily living. You could lose yourself to excitement, joy, eagerness, or anticipation.
But the more difficult side of uncontrolled emotional responses are those that create a spiral of negative behavior. Shouting, cursing, being excessively aggressive or demeaning toward others can create an imbalanced, tense, and even hostile atmosphere.
Practicing self control is another form of self care. It allows you to transition from acknowledging what you feel in the moment to making a conscious effort not to act on how you feel in a negative way.
Active self maintenance in these situations may include:
taking a deep breath
removing yourself from a situation
becoming quiet and reserved for a moment,
changing the subject within a discussion or
apologizing for a misunderstanding as a means to move on from a stressful interaction
The personal benefit to taking these steps, even when they can be EXCEEDINGLY DIFFICULT in the moment, is that you do not permit your negative emotions to continue or escalate. Additionally, you remove the opportunity to trigger others with your actions rendering yourself a victim to being further agitated by another person’s response.
Depending on the circumstance, self control can be a simple redirect or a feat of powerful mental stamina. But in all cases keeping your cool is a testimony to your dedication to your self care at work.
Self Care Trait Bonus Idea: Optimism
Optimism as defined by Cambridge Dictionary is “the quality of being full of hope and emphasizing the good parts of a situation, or a belief that something good will happen“.
Possessing the ability to carry optimism in all situations at work is the ultimate form of self care that you can provide to yourself.
The obstacles to portraying this trait regularly and consistently often are our ties to reality. The need to frame what we see currently in the box of what is limits our ability to see what could be. And while the current reality may appear as real, obvious, consistent, and true, refusing opportunity for alternative outcomes can cause more harm than good such as:
frustration at what appears as an unresolvable situation
sense of defeat when facing a lack of career growth or financial mobility
low enthusiasm when surrounded by a lack of creativity, innovation, and open-mindedness
lethargy when days seem repetitive, long, and filled with never-ending streams of work
All of these situations and more can be met with a different reaction and emotional set point when optimism is a part of your self care regimen.
Optimism gives room for opportunity for improvement, for people to act differently than expected, and for the course of action to move differently within any business. Seeing the bright side of any challenge focuses on the lessons learned, the bonds created through joint struggle, and the birth of new ideas for otherwise insufferable problems.
While having a positive outlook consistently may take real focus, re-enforcement and diligence, it is a worthwhile investment into your self care at work regimen and your total well being.
Conclusion
Self care at work is just as important as self care is in any other facet of life. However, putting the practices in place regularly in what could be a very stimulating environment can be a challenge.
Use the traits of self awareness, confidence and self control that you already possess to support you in your daily focus to maintain your balance and keep yourself lifted. And build the strength and belief that constant optimism can also be a key factor to achieve total well being more often than you do today.
Self care at work is completely possible to exercise on a regular basis if you choose to use the traits that help you make it happen.
Share this post with someone you know it could help today. Or share your unique character trait that keeps you healthy and happy at work in the Comments section below.
When you make the decision to place conscious and consistent effort toward your physical self care regimen, you are acknowledging the importance of your physical body to your overall life and your life experience.
Honoring your physical self is
Recognizing how your physical body contributes to the life you are able to live today
Respecting the needs of your body and placing these needs as a priority
Celebrating the gifts that your body provides you with access to engage with the world around you
Realizing that your body gives to you always by way of an intricate system of health, healing, restoration and flow that harmonizes and synchronizes with your being at each and every moment
When you fully acknowledge how remarkable your body is and what it gives you instinctually, the practice of physical self care is more and more easy to see as a natural compliment.
What is Physical Self Care?
Physical self care is a form of self care where the emphasis is placed on the total body, its condition and health, and its maintenance and sustainability. Wellness and preventative care can complement your physical self care regimen as well as actions to address, improve, or eliminate concerns related to your body’s functioning and well-being.
As with any other aspect of your life, you get to decide what physical self care is to you. Regardless of your perceived health status or the perception of others, you decide what form of physical self care is a priority.
You may be motivated to place importance on this aspect of your life due to
health conditions,
personal goals to expand and become more,
physical limitations you seek to have lifted,
external influence that you trust to advise towards your betterment, or
concerns that family, friends, and other loved ones have shared
Identifying what you want to achieve by way of physical self care can assist with clarifying your personal definition of self care and start a productive path towards achieving your personal goals.
How Do You Build a Physical Self Care Mindset?
Your body is a complex vehicle with many different components that contribute to your health and well-being. When you possess a physical self care mindset, you respect, honor, and appreciate the care necessary to maintain such a complex system.
Part of respecting your physical form is to embody acceptance just as you are. While you may have areas of improvement or a definition of optimal physical condition, you also have many positive attributes at this moment.
When you can accept and then appreciate the body that you have, flaws and all, you can envision yourself in a balanced way. You are not a project desperately in need of repair, but a beautiful gift that can be further enhanced and shared. From this healthy viewpoint, you can seek to further honor your body as a gift that you cherish and develop ways to improve or maintain its condition and sustain its ability to perform at its best.
Why is Physical Self Care Important?
Physical self care is important as a means to maintain or improve your health and bodily condition. Just as with any other assets that you may own, better performance and longevity can be attained when focused on preventative care and timely response to concerns.
Alternatively, neglect of the body can result in a host of issues including:
Fatigue
Strain and sprain
Stress
Misalignment
Deterioration
Disease and illness
As you are the primary observer of your body, you are the first true caretaker of you. Without you, your body cannot gain access to the care it needs whether you perform it yourself or alert others to its needs.
Your body needs you to survive and this is why physical self care is so important.
Physical Self Care Tips and Ideas
Physical Care Tip #1: Perform a Full Body Scan
A body scan is an excellent starting point on your physical self care journey as it provides opportunity to give focused attention to your well-being that you may not always do.
To scan your body fully is to permit your awareness to travel around your physical self, part by part, and to focus on and evaluate its condition.
A full body scan has many benefits:
You have the opportunity to focus your attention on any and all body parts, big and small, and acknowledge gratitude for its movement, flexibility, protection, or function that it provides
Placing focus on different sections of your body opens the internal dialogue of any special needs or care required or healthful actions that you recommend to yourself
You give yourself opportunity to know your body through personal self awareness. This process may result in new learnings, understanding, and prediction of changes and concerns. It also develops your own personal opinion regarding your condition.
Perform a brief scan daily and an in depth review of your body on a regular frequency that you feel matches the needs of sustaining your best health.
Physical Self Care Tip#2: Educate Yourself on Your Version of Nutrition
Nutrition can sometimes be an underutilized educational opportunity. With so much information on different forms of diet, an emphasis on restriction consciousness, and constant focus on weight loss initiatives, proper nutrition can easily get confusing.
Rather than taking fix-it-fast steps to ensure that you are providing your body with the nutrition it requires, study the subject of nutrition and yourself more.
Learn and know the basics of healthy eating.
Investigate what maintaining a healthy diet really is. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) provides details on balanced nutrition on their website https://www.myplate.gov.
In addition to general data, the USDA offers a customizable resource called MyPlate Plan that recommends the right food combinations and calories for you to have. See this service below:
You can also find a dietician or nutritionist who can guide you through the process of learning your body and your diet and nutrition needs. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has a website that provides you access to local professionals to perform one-on-one consultations to assist you in navigating your own personal health journey.
Most importantly, gain an understanding of what food works for you:
Some foods affect your energy levels differently.
You may have allergies or food intolerances unique to you.
At times you may experience ravenous cravings and respond to them unhealthfully because you never explored their origin.
Your body may need small meals frequently or prefer intermittent fasting.
While different people can have common nutritional requirements, we are all unique in what exactly works for us. Take the time to know your version of proper nutrition and create meal plans that make you and your body happy and aligned.
Physical Self Care Tip#3: Stretch Daily
Your body helps you to experience yourself and the world around you. When you are limited in your mobility or feel tension and pain when moving, you are more likely to disconnect and withdraw.
Including stretching in your physical self care routine is another means of providing mindfulness and self awareness in your day. Stretching helps to open you up and to invite you to engage with movement, flexibility, and relaxation.
Yoga with Adriene has been providing routines and practices through stretching and yoga for 10 years. She acts as an excellent at-home companion if you are new to developing stretch routines. When performing your stretches, you do not need to overextend or challenge yourself to the point of discomfort. Instead focus on consistency in your movement and the gains achieved through repetition and commitment.
Participating in daily stretching allows you to be regularly mindful of the condition of your muscles and joints and to be purposeful in your routine makeup and execution. Physical self care in the form of a stretching regimen serves to honor your movement and the healthful engagement with life that your body provides.
Physical Self Care Tip#4: Maintain a Sleep Routine
Sleeping is your body’s opportunity to experience rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation from your daily movement and mental engagement. Your mind and body take in many inputs throughout your day. And physically your body fluctuates in its energy levels, strength levels, agility, and flexibility while managing these various inputs.
Sleep gives you an opportunity to restabilize and bring your body and mind back into balance. If you repeatedly suffer from a lack of sleep then you may be experiencing issues with:
Mental fatigue and lack of focus
Irritability
Forgetfulness
Increased cravings for sugar or caffeine
Lack of fluidity in motor functions
Physical fatigue and tension
Developing a consistent, restful sleep schedule can be a great compliment to prevent or combat unwanted concerns. It also creates a positive expectation in your day of your care for yourself through preparation for rest, body consciousness, relaxing atmosphere and personal downtime. If you are ready to put new emphasis in creating a soothing sleep ritual or learning more about the process in general, read my post Wake Up Brand New by Creating a Sleep Ritual.
It is important to note that at times life will pull you away from restful sleep. A newborn baby, time-senstive and important project, or heavy personal problems often disturb your ability to sleep as long or as well as you would prefer.
Being ever mindful of your need for sleep can help to ensure that time is spent renewing your commitment to a full night’s rest, napping when needed, and otherwise being aware and prioritizing your physical health condition as it relates to your current sleep regime.
Physical Self Care Tip#5: Perform Exercises You Love
Some people love exercise and easily keep a workout routine as an excellent form of physical self care. But some of us struggle. If this is you, make a special effort to look for the best ways to keep your body moving that feels good to you and helps you to reach your goals.
How often do you think of exercise as something to look forward to?
Change your mindset for the better by creating a plan that makes consistency, good form, and enjoyment all part of the equation. Physical self care is not only doing exercises that keep your body healthy but sustaining a healthy mindset regarding your physical routine.
Create a workout playlist that keeps you inspired
Find videos, apps, or a physical trainer that keeps you engaged and interested
Use a workout buddy when trying out a new class
Engage your friends and family, including your kids, to encourage you on your workout journey
Pay attention if you like to walk outdoors or use a treadmill, lift dumbells, or use bodyweight exercises only. Do what you can and what works for you!
Physical exercise is not just the gym and workout classes. Regular life can be physical, healthy, and fun.
Take a long walk in a beautiful park.
Go roller skating or ride a bike.
Jump rope (try double dutch).
Play on a trampoline.
Garden or mow your grass.
Dance.
Just get moving. And let what you love to do be a bigger part of how you give physical self care to yourself.
Physical Self Care Bonus Tip: Drink Water!
Drinking water is the most basic, common, and repeated physical self care recommendation there is and yet it is often the practice most neglected.
Whether you forget to drink water, don’t like the taste of it, or simply do not want to drink it, water is a key component of your health.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one significant reason to drink water is to prevent dehydration. The regular deprivation of water to your bodily system can create a host of problems. Alternatively, drinking water regularly strongly supports normal functions of the body like:
Aiding in digestion
Transporting oxygen and nutrients to your cells
Regulating your body temperature
Preventing constipation and
Protecting organs and tissues
Drinking water directly is the easiest way to hydrate your system. But you can also increase your daily water intake through your foods. As a complement to your water intake, consider these foods with high water content:
Cucumbers
Celery
Lettuce
Watermelon
Strawberries
Oranges
Peaches
In addition to eating these foods independently, they can also act as a nice enhancer to plain water as an enticement to drink more.
Build a daily hydration routine and watch your physical self care regimen flow right into place.
Conclusion
Physical self care is a much needed compliment to your daily regimen targeted on maintaining and sustaining your body. Whether you are improving your sleep, drinking more water, or exploring fun ways to exercise your body, caring for your body with intention and regular frequency is a good way to demonstrate care for your body.
If you are looking for more ways to enhance your self care regimen, look at these posts:
Do you have the perfect add to your physical self care routine? Did you learn a new idea from this post? Share your comment below. Don’t forget to share this post with someone you know who may need a self care idea or reminder.
Are you suffering through your busy life only to feel stressed and depleted at the end of the day? These 5 simple emotional self care ideas can be just what you need to decompress, release stress and improve your mental health.
Whether you incorporate 1 idea or all 5, you can experience a shift in how you approach changing your mental disposition by intentionally focusing on your emotional status. Acknowledge how you feel. Decide that you no longer want to feel the way you do at this moment. And take decisive action to move in another direction.
Your emotional state can impact your total well being and therefore it is important to identify the state that is healthiest for you in the moment and to do your best to direct yourself there.
This post provides 5 easy-to-.implement emotional self care ideas that can help you with your mental health and put you on the path to feeling better.
Emotional Self Care Ideas
#1 Watch a favorite movie or tv show from your childhood
Watching tv or movies can be the perfect way to ease your mind, lift your spirits, and transport your thoughts to a good place.
The magic begins when you truly allow yourself to be emersed in the experience. And particularly in movies or shows that have nostalgic origins, you can find yourself rekindling deep-seated positive emotions that you have not visited in years.
Allow an old movie to make you laugh out loud again. Or curl up under a blanket and binge-watch a show that you could never get enough of when you were younger.
While any light-hearted movie or show could do, when you relive a past positive experience you provide yourself a compounded effect of acting on your inspiration, reliving happy memories, enjoying fun, laughter and excitement, and it all being uniquely special to you.
The power of your personal joy rests within you and you made it come to life.
Choose your topic with the explicit goal in mind to be good to yourself and to be 10x happier than when you sat down and started watching. Keep a running list of go-to favorites to immediately enjoy the next time your day seems to wipe you out.
Share the Moment
Family time is a perfect time to pass on the magic of your favorite show or film. Not only can you share what you love with others, but you can also share the habit to relax and decompress after a hard day.
Let your family and friends know that when you think of moments that make you feel better, you think to include them in the process.
Honor these special moments even more by extending your favorites lists with new suggestions from your loved ones and scheduling regular nights to watch together.
#2 Start a diary
While a planner or a journal can be filled with agendas, to-do lists, journal prompts, and other predefined purposes, a diary can be a free and unlabeled space to simply express yourself, if you let it.
Enjoy a diary just for the fun of having one. Diaries often give space for the sharing of your story: your hopes, your dreams, and your day gone by.
What happened today and how did it make you feel? Who are you excited to see tomorrow and what person made you feel crazy today?
Your life is a whirlwind experience and it’s a story worth telling and remembering. Emotional self care can be as simple as showing yourself that you actually care about your life by writing it all down.
#3 Expand your emotional intelligence
Knowing your feelings and how to express them is not easy. We all learn as we go and it is helpful when we gain knowledge of how to feel connected and understand what we feel.
Too often emotions can come to the surface. And when they are more challenging feelings such as fear, doubt, hopelessness, or tension, it can be hard to know what to do with them now that they are here.
Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.
travis bradberry
There are books, online assessments, tools, and more that are made to make you more aware of your feelings and to understand the plethura of feelings that exist. You also can spend time with yourself to think through the origin of your emotions, your triggers for certain emotions to appear, and your best methods to cope with or redirect emotions when they feel intense or unexpected.
Take the time to understand emotion as it relates solely to you. Seek to understand the impact your emotional status has on your life. Allow yourself to feel more attuned with your feeling body and your unique form of self expression.
#4 Connect with a professional for personal guidance
Your emotional well-being can be a very fragile thing amongst the harsh elements of the world. Not everyone is able to navigate alone through situations deemed important and impactful to their sense of well being.
Seeking help from a professional, whether it is a therapist, physician, coach, or mentor, can make all the difference in learning how to cope with life challenges and gain assistance with emotional growth. Remember that your health insurance or employer may have referral recommendations in addition to trusted family and friends.
You can also use referral service platforms like BetterHelp that can link you with a trained professional who has experience with the specific issues that you are facing. These types of services are particularly helpful when you don’t even know where to start to seek help, feel apprehensive and you need guidance through the process.
Instead of forcing yourself to take on heavy or confusing emotional tasks alone, seeking help can be a much-needed form of self care for your emotional well being.
#5 Be intentional with your joy
Plan, with intention, opportunities for you to have happy and joyful experiences.
This can include planning a special dinner with a friend but also taking time to pack your work bag the night before to avoid a frenzy in the morning.
Joy can represent itself as doing things that create calm when you feel that you are alwaysanxious. Or adopting a new sleep ritual when you can’t remember the last time you got a good night’s sleep.
Don’t wait until life makes a way for your joy to happen. And don’t wait for permission from your job, your family, or your over=anxious mind worried about your never-ending to-do list. Make It Happen.
Practice self-awareness regularly and learn what brings joy and peace into your daily life. Then with this learning, intentionally make space for the people, activities, and circumstances that are most joyful to you.
Conclusion
Your emotional and mental well being is an important facet of a well rounded, happy life. But when you feel disconnected from your emotional health, it can seem overwhelming to get through life’s everyday matters.
Use this list of emotional self care ideas as a starting point to direct yourself to prioritize your personal awareness and self care practices. Whether you use them daily or had them in your toolbox of things to do to enhance your well-being, emotional self care is an asset for a better you.
Was this list of emotional self care ideas useful to you? Did this list spark any new ideas for your self care overall? If so, please share your experience in the Comments below.
Is your daily life starting to become anything but an amazing experience? It may be time to invest in creating a home sanctuary that symbolizes exactly how you would prefer to feel.
When it seems like the whole world needs a change for the better, it may be better to start with what you can change.
Your home.
Make your home into a home sanctuary and find a place that you find amazing and look forward to experiencing every day.
What Exactly is a Sanctuary?
Merriam-Webster.com defines sanctuary in two ways. One is as “a consecrated place”. In this way, the space is looked at as one that is sacred, holy, and deemed for a special purpose.
Another definition is “a place of refuge and protection”. From this perspective, the inhabitants are otherwise exposed to negative experiences or people, and a sanctuary provides a respite from this exposure.
In both ways, a sanctuary can provide a place for its guest to be brought to a safe place of peace, calm, and opportunity for an elevated point of being.
A sanctuary is a special place of focus, care, and healing.
So Why is a Home Sanctuary Important?
Your home sanctuary is important because it serves to honor you, protect you, and elevate your state of being with peace and internal harmony.
When you designate space and regular intention to restore yourself and realign with your center, you
Create a healthier mental state and mindset
Promote a more peaceful emotional state of being, and
Influence an improved condition of your physical body
When you use your home, or a space within it, as your home sanctuary, you are inviting all these benefits of wholeness and centeredness into your daily life.
The result is easily an amazing experience.
You are surrounding yourself with an emotionally, physically, and mentally healthy environment specially curated by you.
Where Do I Begin to Create a Home Sanctuary?
An important first step in creating your home sanctuary is to determine the exact space you will designate as your sanctuary.
This can be your entire home. Or, if this is too much of an undertaking, you can use a certain room or even a corner of a room.
The amount of space is not as important as the designation of a specific space that will be retained for your sacred purpose.
Each of us has an inner room where we can visit to be cleansed of fear-based thoughts and feelings. This room, the holy of holies, is a sanctuary of light.
Marianne Williamson
Once you have defined the space to be used, here are some tips:
How to maintain your sanctuary’s elevated purpose
Regularly refer to the space as your sanctuary. Naming your space is claiming your space. It reinforces that you have redefined its purpose differently than what it was before. If you reside with others, remind them to also honor this space as special and sacred to you.
Keep your home sanctuary neat and orderly. Regular use of any space can lead to clutter and disorganization. However, keeping your space in its best form demonstrates your honoring of its bigger purpose.
Also, viewing clutter and messiness tends to keep your mind overly active on needing to take action. Eliminate clutter from your view. Even doing so temporarily (i.e. covering it up!) allows the mind to calm and slip easier into relaxation.
Determine your intended use of the space. If your home sanctuary is your entire home, create an inviting, calming, or invigorating atmosphere in every room.
If you have designated a room or specific space, reserve creating a special atmosphere in that location only.
Decide how often you will visit your sanctuary. Will you intentionally schedule time in your space every day or use it as a respite when you have had particularly tough days? There is no required frequency. Just ensure that it is always ready to receive you for its intended purpose.
No matter what space you designate as your home sanctuary, consider the entire space and the state of being you intend to have once you are within it.
Choose soothing colors, pleasant décor, and even adjust the temperature to ensure that you are comfortable. The goal is to regularly feel welcomed by the space when creating a home sanctuary.
7 Tips for an Amazing Home Sanctuary
#1 Dress in Honor of Your Sanctuary
Often when people enter a sacred place, they will come wearing special garments that serve to honor and recognize it with reverance.
You may choose to adopt this practice.
Wear special clothing to remind you that you have created your home sanctuary with special intentions.
Honor your sanctuary simply by immediately changing your clothes once you arrive home from work. Envision that you are removing the stresses of the day and embracing the love and relaxation of your home.
Make a daily practice to bath, put on your most relaxing clothes, and then visit your sanctuary immediately after.
Imagine that you have washed away anything that did not serve you in your day.
Your clothing then symbolizes the first step towards you covering yourself with all things that lead to you becoming whole again.
#2 Incorporate the Benefits of Sound Healing
Sound healing or sound therapy uses sound as a means to improve physical and mental health and well-being.
Try different variations and instruments for sound and see what form promotes a sense of personal healing for you.
Regular practice of sound healing can elevate the effectiveness of your home sanctuary by creating peace and balance.
Explore sound through instruments
Singing bowls have been used since ancient times for ceremony and healing.
Depending upon their size and method of use, you can generate soft or very intense sound waves that fill the space substantially. The effects of using singing bowls as a means of sound therapy can include a reduction in stress and anxiety or improved mood.
Wind chimes are whimsical, light-sounding instruments that can be used inside or outside of your home.
Any movement of air will cause the chimes to sound, so don’t feel limited to only outside wind.
When choosing the right wind chime for your space, test before you buy. As they each sing a melody with every air blown, choose a melody that inspires calm and relaxation in you.
Tuning forks are handheld instruments that you can use to create a sound of a certain frequency.
Unweighted tuning forks are best when you look to create a more audible sound.
Strike your fork to initiate your relaxation practice in your sanctuary. Or strike them walking through your space to cleanse stress or the unwanted energy from the atmosphere.
You can also gently move the forks all around your body as a means of cleansing yourself with sound.
Use music to enrich your experience
Playing relaxing music is a common method of introducing sound healing to your home sanctuary.
Incorporate your connection with nature by playing sounds of ocean waves or singing birds.
Envoke a sense of ceremony and sacred presence by playing Gregorian chanting .
Use any music that is pleasing to you such as instrumentals, soft jazz, or your favorite love songs.
Your choice of music is endless and is beest applied when it inspires a lifted feeling for you.
Affirmation music is a specific form of sound healing that blends positive words and intentional affirmation with pleasing music.
In the growing arena of affirmation music, there are many artists to choose from such as Toni Jones, Beautiful Chorus, or Mayestra. These artist blend thoughtful, high-vibration lyrics with penetrating music.
Try any of these forms of sound healing or auditory stimulation to enhance your home sanctuary environment.
#3 Use Visual Stimulation to Create Calm and Focus
You can create a home sanctuary mood based on how you decorate your space.
Hang pictures or place photos of serene, nature-filled views.
Post affirmationsor quotes that remind you of the state of being you choose to regularly possess.
Surround your space with family photos that spark joy and recall pleasant memories.
Candles can also be an excellent visual stimulus for your space.
Not only can you decorate with beautiful candles that are visually pleasing. But you can also light your candle and use its flame to practice attentive focus.
Candle gazing is a meditative practice that helps increase your attention and awareness. This can train your ability to release unwanted thoughts by practicing mindfulness on intentional positive thoughts.
#4 Take an Opportunity for Positive Reflection
Creating a home sanctuary will often include reserved quiet time to reflect on your thoughts and feelings.
You receive thoughts and opinions about your life from others every day. But it is even more important to explore your own interpretations. Give yourself the space for this internal exploration.
Create a serene environment free of noise, alarms, ring tones, or alerts
Inform others in the home of your need for quiet and no distractions
Use your time to reflect intentionally on the positives within your day. What happened that was important to you? How was your day pleasing or memorable?
Challenge yourself with ways you could have improved your day if things did not go well
Reflect on how you could see or approach things differently to create positive out of perceived negative events
Seeing your day and interpreting its meaning to you can provide you with more insight.
With this insight, you can choose different actions in the future.
Feel empowered to purposefully create more pleasing moments and overall focus on an elevated sense of being.
Using a journal can serve as a means to record your thoughts, feelings, and insights.
Capture learnings and patterns in your thoughts and behavior that would otherwise go unseen.
If you find using a journal difficult or foreign, use journaling prompts to assist with the self-exploration process. See this post on using journal prompts for self worth as an example.
Practice positive self-reflection daily. It will attune your sense of optimism and positivity with life within your mind and when interacting with the outside world.
#5 Meditate
Meditation has become a commonly referred to practice for achieving improved well-being.
It is said to improve relaxation and focus, reduce anxiety, reduce stress, and stimulate creative ability.
If you have not explored meditation before, it can be difficult to sit in quiet and remove all thoughts.
There are different tools that can assist with learning the meditative process.
Guided meditation is a form of meditation where a skilled practitioner guides you through the meditative process. You will listen and follow their words and phrases to help quiet and clear your mind. Your guide may also instruct you to bring positive images and situations to mind as a form of relaxation.
Sound machines or meditative music can be used to provide a point of focus. When focusing on these sounds intently, you will abandon other thoughts and more easily reach a meditative state.
As with all things, meditation takes practice and developing your own personal form to do it well. Your home sanctuary can be a perfect place to develop your discipline and perfect your practice.
#6 Reprogram Your Mindset
Use your home sanctuary as a place to reset negative thought patterns or a negative self-talk habit.
Use affirmations to build a practice of positive word patterns in place of your otherwise unproductive thinking. Psychologydictionary.org defines affirmation as “a brief phrase which is spoken again and again….to plant seeds of happy and positive notions, conceptions, and attitudes into one’s psyche”. Regular use of affirmations is thought to create new thought patterns thereby increasing positive speech, actions and interpretations.
Mala beads or japamalaare another means of creating new thought patterns and improving your mindset. These beads can support you to be more methodical, organized, and intentional with the repeating of words, prayers, or mantras for better well-being.
Mala beads can serve as a compliment to your affirmation or positive thought regimen.
You can use your mala beads as a means to encourage positive repetition. You can create a ceremonious practice by restating your words at the touch of each bead on the strand.
#7 Perform a Relaxation Ritual
The act of ritual is to create a consistent and repeated set of actions for a defined purpose.
Creating a relaxation ritual within your home sanctuary brings purpose to your space. It also sets an intention of relaxation in performing the corresponding actions.
Any of the suggestions throughout this post can be combined to create your relaxation ritual.
As example, you can
Take a relaxing bath
Adorn yourself with a robe or special garments
Enter your home sanctuary space
Light a candle
Meditate to clear your mind
Journal for 5 minutes to note any positive impressions
Say a positive affirmation while using your mala beads
Strike a tuning fork to close your relaxation ritual
With purpose defined and taking specific actions, you have created a relaxation ritual.
Elevate your practice by adding sacred elements to the process
Dedicate certain soaps or bathing salts for your cleansing
Use a particular scent or color for your candle
Choose a particular form of meditation
Find a special journal or writing utensil for your journaling practice
Use a pillow or chair specifically for your ritual or practice
Your home sanctuary should feel like a relaxation ritual itself. And the actions you take within it can further engrain its purpose into your daily life.
Conclusion
When the stress and anxiety of day-to-day life weigh too heavily on your shoulders, creating a home sanctuary can be a much-needed means to replenish yourself and your spirit.
A home sanctuary is a designated space that is meant to protect you from unwanted interactions and provide you with a space for calm, relaxation, and healing. With regular use and engaging in practices supporting this goal, you will experience life benefits that expand well beyond the walls of your home. And you will feel amazing!
Looking for more ways to improve how you feel every day? Take a look at these posts or subscribe today to receive the latest on Work Life Balance:
Are you a phenominal helper that also suffers from being a people pleaser? It can be a difficult balance, especially when your heart is in the healing of others.
When you possess a natural helping spirit, you give to others in the most supportive way as part of who you are. And your intent is always to be of true and genuine help.
But, unfortunately, the best intentions can land differently than expected. And you not only can connect poorly with another but also give so much that you hurt yourself.
Examine who you are as a helper. Acknowledge both your gifts and your challenges. Recognize if you are helping or reaching further into people pleasing.
Knowing the difference is key and can be the key to healthly relationships with others and toward yourself.
Master the balance and become an even better helper to yourself and everyone else in the process.
Why Helping Others Is Your Calling
Not everyone has the helping spirit. Even the nicest individuals may be focused on other deeds than helping others. Or, more often, nice people do not realize how much they support others and do not call themselves helpers.
But some of us gain genuine joy with being intentional when helping and supporting.
To provide a helping hand to a person, an animal, or the environment when needed sparks an indescribable joy and energy that lights you up.
It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
– Mother Theresa
It does not matter if you get a thank you or if anyone knows that you helped at all. You know and that is all that matters.
Your knowing is enough to gain new energy and that feel-good feeling of being of service.
Charitable givers, volunteers, mentors, teachers, donators….the list of titles is lengthy and so are all the good works that come from those that help.
You are called to perform these actions because you feel a sense of purpose in sharing your gifts with others.
The calling, or knowing, is that you are supposed to provide what you have to others in order to positively impact another’s well-being.
And your calling is confirmed in the positivity you gain in the process.
Helping others is an absolute and unquestioned mission for you.
What Helping Excellence Looks Like
Whether you are in a helping profession or you are simply a helpful person, you innately strive for excellence in your brand of giving.
Helping excellence takes many forms but starts with the unique ability to combine being introspective, extrospective, and compassionately empathetic.
When you are introspective you not only know yourself but acknowledge your skills, abilities, or assets of value. You honor yourself in knowing that you have worth that is worth sharing.
To be extrospective is to demonstrate that you are attentive to absorbing the world around you. You pay attention to your surroundings and even look beyond your immediate view to understand the context of life and your place in it.
But the key that binds is your compassionate empathy. This is where all your gifts truly synchronize.
You see your gifts of worth, interpret the needs outside of yourself, and extend yourself to give selflessly to bridge the gaps.
You understand how you can be a solution and are compelled to make yourself available as a resource.
This remarkable talent and example of character and humanity are what set helpers apart from all others. It is a form of excellence that gives true purpose to your body, mind, and spirit.
What Causes People Pleasing?
Giving of your talents with heartfelt compassion can be a beautiful experience for both the giver and the receiver.
However, there are times that while a helper can give with the best of intentions, it is not a healthy exchange.
The reality is that helping feels good but when an attempt to help fails, it can feel horrible.
You may have created the perfect solution, but you were impatient to capture all details so you missed the true mark.
It is possible that the receiver of your kind acts was not in the heart space to receive your assistance well. And instead took your act of kindness as an act of pity or condescending behavior.
You could have had the best and most thoughtful plan, but may have had unintended bad timing.
And while mistakes happen as a normal part of life, when helping fails it can make you feel disconnected and unsure of your ability to give well.
In the heart and mind of the committed helper, leaving another with a poor experience creates a restlessness that needs repair. It is in this dissatisfaction with self that the people pleasing tendancy can rise.
The Rise of a Pleaser Personality
People pleasing can appear very similar to being a helper but can take a more negative turn if you are not self-aware.
The nature of people-pleasing is that you take specific actions to ensure the result of making another person happy. It can become toxic when you will take action regardless of the negative impact on your person.
Sometimes you aren’t listening to your body because you’re listening to everybody else’s expectations.
– Ann voskamp
Some people develop this pattern at a very young age, attempting to please overly strict or aggressive parents or other influencers.
Others develop this behavior as a result of their work or school environments as a means to ensure positive achievement or acknowledgment.
But often failed helpers will turn into people pleasers. Particularly if a helper has inadvertently experienced a significant instance or pattern of failed attempts to help.
Having experienced a negative or even angry response to their extended help, a helper may overextend looking for ways to fix the failure or make the person happy.
What is worse is that it is hard for an innate helper to see the difference between helping with genuine positive intent or helping for personal gain.
Helpers can hurt themselves when desperately trying to calm their own people pleasing anxiety due to displeasing someone else.
They can also become overly focused on being seen or treated in a positive way in response to their giving.
This unhealthy and imbalanced excessive preoccupation with giving can be detrimental to your mental health, financial stability, or your physical well-being.
When helping hurts then somewhere the helping excellence equation has been thrown off balance.
What to Do When Helping Hurts
Correcting your behavior and healing from people pleasing is possible. Depending on the length of time this pattern has gone unchecked, it can take time.
All helpers should develop the habit of being good givers to themselves.
This is represented by an honest self-assessment of whether or not helping still feels good. And also recognition of whether or not you are still a happy giver.
More often than you may want to admit, helping others can start to feel bad to you. This is why people pleaseing is bad. You give when you are tired or when your resources are too low to sustain yourself.
You may also develop an obsessive tendency to gain positive feedback from others or your own personal dopamine charge from the act of helping.
The habit of giving turned into a giving compulsion can have significant detrimental effects on you.
Dedicate time to the practice of self-care. Know and embody the understanding that only when your tank is full can you give to others at your best.
If being an expert helper is your goal, then respect that only a healthy helper can excel at helping.
Also, to give when you are not at your best degrades the quality of what you give.
And a true helper wants to give to another the best that they have to offer always.
While it may seem counter-intuitive and hard to retrain, giving to yourself first makes your helping stronger and more effective.
Great Helpers Accept Help
Another means to support your helping health is to lean on others.
Having people that you love and trust tell you when you may be going too far is important. In the midst of your helping frenzy, you may lose yourself in the process.
An accountability partner can assist in providing you with another point of view regarding your personal well-being status.
Seasoned helpers can have a never-ending list of ideas on how to help. It is also essential to seize the opportunity to let others be expert doers when you may be a visionary expert.
You do not have to have the vision and make it happen all by yourself.
Permitting others to be a part of the process is another form of giving.
Through your vision and inspiring energy, you create opportunities for others to participate in the helping process.
Because you know how to give you provide an excellent opportunity to teach others and to create more helping hands for the future.
If you are a natural helper but suffering from chronic people pleasing or helpers’ burnout you may find yourself in the strange place of needing a charge to your helping spirit.
You may also be trying to balance your self-care with your care for others for the first time and feel confused in the process.
Be reminded and use as motivation that your unique gifts serve the world in a special way and continue to be needed. Giving to yourself puts in you in the best position to serve.
“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth unti it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being”.
– john joseph powell
Give yourself permission to experience all the benefits that your helping gift provides to others and yourself:
Reflect on positive past experiences where you well-demonstrated your gift of helping. See the smiles and gratitude in others and remember your own feelings of gratification.
Save any memories of gratitude you may receive such as cards, gifts, or smiling photos, and review them as part of your self-care regimen. Congratulate yourself for all the help you have extended to others.
Affirm to yourself how you have grown to be an excellent helper and all the ways that you help others. You are not the same person you were when you helped for the first time. Your helping gifts are likely overflowing when you truly reflect on all of them.
Have close friends and confidants to confide in when you feel unsure and let others remind you of your beautiful spirit. Don’t worry. They won’t think you are being prideful. The best partners know when you need a boost and will be more than happy to remind you how truly wonderful you are. And you deserve to hear it, especially when you need it.
Take a moment just to be grateful. Be thankful for your helping gifts and talents and all the experiences that they have provided you. You have been given an exceptional way to live your life and not everyone can experience what helping has given to you.
Recognize that you are enough. While you are excellent in all that you do for others, it is not the only thing that defines you. You do not have to do a single other thing in order to be considered a good and loving person. You do not have to prove what you are, you just are. Accept that your spirit goes far beyond your actions and relax into knowing that you are enough no matter what.
Conclusion
If you are a natural helper then you should know that you possess a unique gift of giving to others.
That gift is worth special care and attention as it serves an important need to the world. No matter how big or small your contribution, your help can be critical to another.
Knowing how to give to yourself so that you are in the best mental, physical, and spiritual health to help is important. And recognizing the signs of people pleasing or when you need to receive help is just as important as the help you give.
Balancing your view of yourself, all that surrounds you, and the empathetic compassion that you extend to others can be challenging at times.
But when you master this synchronicity, you can heal from people pleasing and excel in living your purpose, helping others to the best of your ability.
Could you relate to this post? Are you on the path to be a healthier and happier helper? Maybe you know someone else who could use these reminders to support their helping spirit. If so, please share!
Self-worth journaling prompts can assist when knowing your self-worth does not come easy. That knowing and acceptance can be hard for many of us.
In our early beginnings, we may learn self-worth based on the reaction and input of others.
Before our language, critical thought, and interpretation mature we may look to others for our definition of value.
And based on others’ definitions, we may see certain aspects of ourselves as worthy or unworthy.
Through the years as we grow, we then begin to create our own definitions.
Now coming into an understanding of ourselves, we may seek self-worth but not always have it. The patterns of thoughts and beliefs received from others can train an unworthy automatic response.
We see ourselves as less than others. Our ideas and opinions become insignificant due to the reaction or opinion of others.
The ability to have what we want, do as we want, or be who we want is decided by something other than ourselves.
To reclaim our place of prominence in our own lives, it is necessary that we know and live in accordance with our own sense of worth.
Why Is Self-Worth Important?
Having self-worth at its very basic level is represented by our self-care. To act as if you are of worth or value means to provide care toward yourself as if you are of value.
This can start as simple as basic personal hygiene, nutrition, how you rest, and how you attend to any personal problem or ailment.
It can also be represented by how you speak to yourself, acknowledge your strengths and positive attributes, or simply love yourself out loud.
Do you take care of yourself?
Do you prioritize your well-being?
Are you worthy of care?
Do you see acknowledging your self-worth as important?
The importance of self-worth is that you are the lead of your own definition. You live life in accordance with how you define you want to live it.
In living as you deem right for you, you honor your feelings, your interpretation of yourself, and your opinion.
When you take accountability and ownership for who and what you are in accordance with your definition, you essentially create you.
Having self-worth benefits you because with it you are wholly created in your own defined self-image.
You can define the parameters and live as healthy as you choose mind, body, and spirit.
How Does Journaling Support Your Self-Worth?
Journaling provides an opportunity to record your own thoughts and ideas. It is a method to capture what you think and believe without outside interference.
Your thoughts and ideas may have been influenced by others.
However, through journaling, you have the opportunity to express any thought and to examine if you want to hold it as true or important to you.
Rather than live through auto-pilot, journaling permits the opportunity to pause and reflect on the thoughts that come to you.
Using the journaling process, you can consider the subject of your self-worth and your personal thoughts, ideas, and feelings on all aspects of your lie.
With this self-examination, you can determine where you feel vulnerable or misaligned in your life. How much have you permitted the outside world to misdirect your internal thoughts of yourself?
Decide if you want to address these insecurities and improve your personal well-being.
Even if you are unwilling to change, you can make peace with your vulnerabilities and embrace who you are with them.
If you do not like your vulnerability and the emotions that come with it, you can choose to make a conscious and intentional plan of improvement.
On either path, journaling can serve as a resource.
You can write where you are, where you would like to be, and your plan for the journey in-between.
With regular journaling, you can unlock how you walk your life’s path and identify if you need to change direction on a daily basis.
What Are Journaling Prompts for Self-Worth?
Journaling prompts for self-worth help to inspire thoughts around your definition of self-worth and self-value.
With this inspiration, you have the opportunity to evaluate how you define your value to yourself.
You can bring clarity to the actions you take or withdraw from based on your self-opinion. Look closely to determine if you have patterns that do not serve you or that are made primarily to please others at your expense.
You will discover that even the smallest daily actions can be clues to define how your define your personal value.
There are no absolute rules to self-worth other than the ones that you make for yourself.
You may find what you have learned as self-worth in the past is not what you agree with as your definition today.
Determine if you actually have a definition but maybe you are not practicing it actively in your life.
You may also learn that there are situations in your life where you honor your self-worth well. It is important to identify, intentionally repeat, and honor these practices.
Journaling prompts targeted specifically around self-worth will help to call out these situations and give you space to reflect upon them.
In this way, while you will use prompts to begin the internal conversation, you will lead the way to your own self-discovery.
20 Journaling Prompts for Self-Worth
What is the best compliment you have given yourself or received from someone else?
What is important to you in life?
Without overthinking it, what is your opinion of yourself?
What is your biggest accomplishment and how did you achieve it?
What are the best attributes of your closest friends? Do you share the same ones?
Who do you admire the most and why? Do you have similar characteristics?
What do you do that makes you most proud?
What is an example of you at your best?
If you could be, do, or have anything in world, what is top on your wish list? Why?
Do you take time to care for yourself?
In what ways are you exceptional? In which ways do you want to be exceptional?
When you love and/or respect someone else, how do you show it?
The last time you took care of yourself, what did you do and how did you feel about it?
If you made a self-date, what would you do?
What do you aspire to be? Do you believe you are capable of being what you dream? Why?
What positive statement do you say to yourself often? If you made a new one, what would it be?
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of your strengths?
When have you truly showed your kindness?
What is it like to be your friend?
What is your definition of self-worth? Do you live this definition?
Responding to Your Journal Prompts
You can utilize the journal prompts here, research others, or make your own.
In all cases when responding to your journal prompts, you want to be open and honest with yourself.
Some questions may seem easy and straightforward, others may be difficult to answer. You may find it easy to reflect upon the positives in your past but not in your now.
Sometimes you will not find your positive attributes right on the surface. But searching for even the smallest compliment can cause more to come to light.
When it’s hard to compliment yourself or recall positive interaction with others, for example, don’t skip the prompt. Instead, look at the situation deeper.
How would you like things to be?
What would be an ideal outcome?
How can you impact your now so that what you truly want becomes your now or your future?
Taking these steps helps to uncover your definition and crystalize your ideas of self-worth and how it applies to you.
To this end, when you have good experiences, memories, or thoughts of yourself, do not shy away from them.
Spend time on the subject.
Write pages and pages if you can.
Take the time to bask in what is brilliant about you.
This time taken to relish in the best parts of you helps to further strengthen the foundation of your self-worth.
Conclusion
Self-worth journal prompts can help to define your values, your opinions, and essentially your voice in the world.
When you have a solid definition created by you of your self-worth, it helps you define who and what you are.
Your valuing of yourself is what makes you healthy, mind, body, and spirit. And it helps you to healthfully interact with others.
Taking the time to journal permits you the opportunity to reflect on your thoughts and feelings and to gain better clarity of how self-worth is defined by you.
Any version of self-reflection and introspection can provide a better knowledge of yourself and your interpretation of the world around you.
Self-worth journal prompts can lend to you knowing yourself well and valuing your uniqueness in a deeper and more impactful way.
You deserve to be valued, and the most important person to know and show your worth is yourself.
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Do you have a sleep ritual? Are you looking to sleep better?
Sleep provides rejuvenation of the body and clarity to the mind. This mental, physical and spiritual daily cleansing is vital to your wholeness and healthfulness.
A sleep ritual blends the consistency and expectation of regimen together with the sanctity and reverence of ceremony.
You may want to explore creating a sleep ritual and unlocking the power of deep rest and its impact on your life.
An optimal sleep ritual involves preparation, participation, and reflection on your process.
Particularly through the preparation and reflection processes, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the ritual can be determined. If your sleep ritual is not effective then you have no true ritual to follow.
But if you are able to create a strong and consistent sleep ritual, you can reap all the benefits that deep, restful sleep can provide.
How to Prepare for Your Sleep Ritual
The ultimate goal is restful and rejuvenating sleep that, when achieved on a regular basis, creates the foundation for a strong wakeful day ahead.
Taking the time to be planful in creating your best sleeping conditions can go far in creating a successful sleep ritual.
If your goal is better sleep, the means to obtain it must include improvements in the atmosphere and conditions conducive to your best sleep environment.
Every person has different conditions that support their ability to fall asleep productively.
And these conditions may change based on individual preferences, the sleeping area available, and the bodily conditions of the person.
For these reasons, it is important to evaluate your specific needs to create an environment conducive to restful sleep for you.
1. Preparing Your Body for Sleep
The body performs many different functions throughout your wakeful day. For this reason, it is necessary to move away from wakeful activity and to trigger the transition that signals sleep preparation has begun.
Take a hot bath or hot shower. The use of heat can signal muscle relaxation and induce a calming feeling throughout the body.
Use warmed oils or lotions after bathing. These too can support calm, relaxation, and, if used only at bedtime, can help to reinforce defining sleep readiness.
Wear clothing that is comfortable and that helps you to maintain your preferred body temperature. Whether too hot or too cold, sleeping in discomfort can lead to wakefulness. Be mindful of room temperature and dress accordingly.
Perform a massage on yourself as a means to relax and release tension. If possible, receive a massage from your partner with an agreement that falling asleep mid-session is permissible and encouraged.
Engage in a yoga practice specifically designed for the evening. Preview this one by Boho Beautiful as an example. A less rigorous set of movements, a bedtime yoga practice will focus on stretching the body, loosening tight muscles, and creating an overall relaxing sensation for the body. Performing a bedtime stretch routine can have a similar effect.
Any or all of these steps can create an expectation that you have moved from an active body state to a still or calm physical state. Conducting this regimen regularly will ritualize the process of relaxation before bed as a means of preparation for sleep.
2. Sleep Environment Preparation
To ensure a restful, full night of sleep, you want to create a soothing and comfortable environment.
The steps to create this may change from one night to the next based on the exact place, time, and other occupants in your space.
Confirm that your room temperature is warm or cool enough for your personal comfort.
Address any ambient noises that are in your space. If these sounds cannot be controlled, consider using earplugs or finding access to white noise to camouflage the unwanted.
If you sleep with another person, attempt to coordinate in advance if you will sleep on the same schedule as your mate. The movement of another person in or out of your bed can cause interruption to your sleep continuity. If this cannot be avoided, you may consider sleeping in an alternative space until you create a consistent sleep routine, particularly if you have had significant prior sleep concerns.
Lights, cellphones, a television, and other electronics can cause disruption or unwanted alertness. Remove or turn off any items that signal wakefulness to your mind and body and engage only with those that will signal restfulness.
You may want to use a diffuser or a candle warmer to engage in aromatherapy as a means to trigger relaxation. Scents such as lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, or cedarwood can well-compliment a soothing atmosphere.
Your sleep ritual can be heavily influenced by your environment but when mastered your environment preparation can be the ideal catalyst for deep sleep.
3. Nighttime Activity Before Sleep Preparation
Your sleep ritual is focused on the relaxation of your mind and body but does not only include relaxing activity.
In order to settle an overactive body and mind, it can be helpful to engage in preparational activities that signal a wind-down towards relaxation. Think of this as a prep for your sleep ritual preparation.
If you initiate the activity several hours before sleep, you can engage in a rigorous exercise routine. While this may stimulate alertness soon after completion, over time your body will look to replenish and recover and can then create strong signals for rest.
A less intensive activity is home cleaning and organization. To ensure that you feel mentally settled, you may want to engage in 30 to 60 minutes of house cleaning. Removing clutter and setting your space in order can be a form of mental calming and anxiety reduction.
An even lighter activity that can stimulate a pre-rest status is to read a book or engage in watching television. While either can stimulate your wakeful attention, the key is to choose lightly stimulating content. Feel-good storylines, laughter, and hopeful and positive plots can improve mood and serve as an easy transition point towards relaxation.
While it can seem to have the opposite effect, engaging in activity hours before you intend to sleep can help to take you on your path of relaxation.
Setting your space in order, de-escalating after a long day at work, laughing or learning, can each provide you a sense of peace and remove tension from your mind.
4. Evaluate Your Mental Status Before Sleep
Creating the mental space for sleep is as important as all the other elements.
The pressures of the day can build anxiety, stress, racing thoughts, and hyperactivity.
These high-intensity mental states can be counterproductive to sleeping or achieving levels of deep sleep.
Taking steps to slow the mind and settle the flow of thoughts that you generate can lay the groundwork for sleep readiness.
Journaling can serve to relieve the mind of any burdensome thoughts. It can also be used to focus on the good within your day, elevating your spirits, and setting a tone of gratitude.
Listening to soft music or intentionally using binaural beats can help to ready and stimulate sleep. This form of sound healing can work in partnership with your relaxation practices and set expectation for your mind to rest.
There are also many forms of meditation that can serve to ready the mind and body for sleep. If experienced with a meditation practice you may simply sit in silence for 10 or 15 minutes using your breath as your focal point. Alternatively, guided meditation can walk you through a path toward internal downshifting and thought cleansing, calming active thought, and introducing mental silence.
This shift towards mental cleansing and intentional positive experience can melt your stresses and signal transition toward relaxation and sleep preparedness.
Initiation of Your Sleep Ritual
Now that you have considered all elements of your sleep ritual preparedness, you can initiate your sleep ritual.
1. Plan Your Sleep Ritual in Advance
Examining all the details collected from your preparation steps, incorporate those most meaningful to you into your sleep ritual.
Especially when creating a new sleep ritual, take time to put all the important steps to your ritual in writing. Use a special notebook, writing paper, or even scroll to capture your process.
You can note your ideal room temperature. Gather your ceremonial bedtime clothing. You may even have a set towel to use after bathing or certain bed linen to commemorate the initiation of your sleep ritual practice.
Structure your process so that you build consistency.
Make all steps achievable and repeatable.
Do not feel that you must try everything.
And certainly, do not cause yourself stress when establishing your process.
When you have all steps outlined, silently set the intention of regular restful sleep.
You can even light a candle or close your eyes and take a healing breath to signify your commitment to your intention.
2. Undergo Your Sleep Ritual as Sacred Ceremony
Follow your sleep ritual with reverence and loyalty to each step.
Elevating the importance of your sleep ritual is an indication of self-care and self-love by way of honoring your sleep.
As you step from one action to the next, be mindful that all actions you are taking are in support of your sleep and self-preservation.
Take time to ensure that you have the proper materials for each action or, if not, pause to gather them. There is no need to rush as the goal is to slow down and come to rest.
Be flexible as you are developing this ritual. All things may not be perfectly smooth from the beginning.
Be watchful for any necessary adjustments to make the process easy flowing.
Modify as you see fit. Eliminate any actions that seem laborsome. Add any new actions that enhance your process.
Once your action item list is finalized, stay true to following your process each night and, if at all possible, at the same time. Your sleep ritual should become habit-forming and be as if a recipe for your most restful sleep.
Be open to communicating to others about your sleep ritual, especially those you may live with. It is not necessary to share all parts in detail. But be sure to establish to others the sanctity and necessity of your process towards sleep. Part of your sleep ritual reverence is to ensure that others have reverence to not disturb your process.
Reflection on Your Sleep Ritual
Evaluating the effectiveness of your sleep ritual gives you the opportunity to optimize what works well. As well as the flexibility to change what doesn’t work.
All actions to achieve the goal of optimal rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation should feel as if by design.
This is the opportunity to review your process for the ultimate goal of quality sleep.
Be free to accentuate the most meaningful parts of your ritual. If you enjoy a certain activity, such as your meditation, be open to lengthening the process or try other options or modifications. You may create a playlist of rest-ready music or utilize different stretching techniques to relax your body.
Be mindful throughout the preparation process. Stay consistent in the core steps of your practice.
Honor your ritual daily regardless of the day of the week or outside circumstances.
Take the opportunity to reflect upon your work in creating this ritual of health and to acknowledge your care for yourself. Celebrating even small improvements will stimulate hope of achieving better sleep.
If you have not been successful in creating a smooth sleep ritual or you cannot consistently commit to your practice, examine why.
Eliminate blockers with compassion for yourself and the process. Examine ways for improvement and be open to eliminating even the most desired components that are not practical.
Explore ideas beyond those suggested above and make adjustments that best meet your sleep intentions.
Above all learn what you can through the reflection process to customize your sleep ritual to be both effective and enjoyable for you.
Conclusion
A sleep ritual can be an enriching and rewarding process leading to the well-balancing of mind, body, and spirit through better sleep.
If you can well-incorporate both the ceremony and consistency of your sleep ritual through preparation, participation, and reflection, you can reap the benefits of this sacred process.
Tailoring each component of your sleep ritual through careful self-observation and exploration can lend to the precision of its makeup.
Honoring your need for a consistent sleep ritual with yourself and with others can only lend to its effectiveness and the sustainability of your process.
Using these ideas or exploring others with friends, family, and other resources will help you to create a well-crafted sleep ritual that will serve you to achieve regular, restful, much-needed sleep.
Do you have a trusted practice as part of your sleep ritual? Share it in the comments below to help others reach their rest and rejuvenation goals.
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