Your Special Haven

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Imagine having a special haven. A beautiful special place all to yourself that you can do, be, say whatever you so choose. You can make your mark here and stay here time after time. This space is yours for the taking, the making. You can dream up, design and create beauty all around you. The walls and floors are canvases just yearning for your individual contribution, your essence to hit. The colours, themes, light and spaces are yet to be defined. Nobody else can enter your haven without permission. Nobody has access to your domain, your dwelling, your sanctuary, your retreat. Only you have the key.

Your haven is a place for everything you have, you are. A space to rest, think, lie, sit, stretch, breathe, act, play, write, draw, make, create, see, dream, eat, drink, sleep and just be you. However you are feeling you can come here and take time away from the world, time for yourself. Whether you are feeling restful, thoughtful, fearful, bashful or wonderful your haven is like a blanket ready to warm you up and hold you still whilst you replenish yourself before it’s time to leave.

How your haven looks and feels is down to you. As is the support and nourishment it offers you. As the creator you have full choice in it’s identity. You are responsible for every single area surrounding you. If things in your haven are out of place, messy, cluttered, dirty or uncared for only you can restore it back to it’s ideal state. If in your special place you feel flat, uninspired, unbalanced, trapped or unclear only you can help change these feelings.

We each have a special haven, whether we have fully embraced it or not. Our bedroom is just this! Our very own personal room, our blanket, our nest. What we receive from it depends greatly or what we give to it. If we choose to love it and use it carefully we will surely reap the benefits. If we plant the right seeds our garden will grow!

I love my bedroom! And I love my own personal place. I take great pride in keeping my space clear and tidy so I can feel clarity and space within me. I know well how my environment affects me, what goes on on the outside matters on the inside. I choose colors that resonate with me, whites, blues, yellows and purples to keep me calm, cool and balanced. I choose simplicity for peace of mind. I am a minimalist which helps me focus on things individually and carefully, and in the present. I make sure that I have space for yoga, to breathe, stretch, be on the wall, and lie down. I allow as much light in as possible to aid my vision. These are my personal choices for my haven.

This morning I did something that I do several times a year. I rearranged all of the furniture in my haven. From the moment I woke up I knew it was time for change in my close environment. This Spring has been a time of great change for me. More and more I am feeling aligned with my true self, my core, my values. I am refining my attention to the things that matter to me most. And in this process I am experiencing a great shift within me. This morning I wanted to express my internal emotional change in my physical visual reality. As I cleared away the things in my room which were out of date and unused I felt amazing. I now stand on new ground, new space and I feel totally refreshed!

Are you living in a special haven? How does your bedroom look and feel to you? Do you feel happiness in being here, nestled in a warm, safe blanket? Or is it time for a change, a shift or even a complete rearrangement?

Make your special haven represent you, the true you. Do not compromise on something so important.

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My Special Haven today

The Calmest Possible Option

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Recently I’ve learnt a new technique that I’m wholeheartedly applying to my life. I feel so happy and grateful for this and welcome it with open arms! Thanks to this discovery, I am currently processing great change in myself and my surroundings. I feel a positive shift within me, a sense of spaciousness forming, new energy being released and peacefulness arising. This is definitely a direction I want to go in!

My new and embraced technique I call ‘the Calmest Possible Option’. Simply because that is what it is. No matter what the situation is, how I am feeling, my environment or any of its involvement, I choose the Calmest Possible Option available to me. In exploring this technique I am already noticing that there is an abundance of options available to me and my once closed vision is widening.

In using an example of anger, if I feel angry in the presence of someone, perhaps it is something they say, instead of reacting immediately, impulsively, which was my default response and often led me somewhere lacking resolution or joy and to a great deal of counterbalancing actions, I now have a handy tool up my sleeve. This tool being a conscious and active choice of calmness. I choose peace. I throw in the towel of emotional bursts, flashes of rage, vicious words and backlash and I choose peace.

So there I am feeling angry, my body trembling, a rush of fury inside my belly and I take time to still myself. I detach myself, remove myself away from what is happening and I come to my breath. This may involve me physically taking myself out of the room or place that I am in, or by staying put but altering my focus, either way drawing in on my breath, a powerful force. I count around five deep breaths consciously slowing it down to a steady pace. This process allows me to immediately feel more calm and steady. It also gives me time and space to feel a gentle change taking place within me. I then in that moment recognise that I am in control of my actions, my choices, my words and I am able to choose my next step. A step that will soon become my past.

I can’t fully comprehend where this new awakening came from, but I can say that the timing is perfect. I had been feeling somewhat out of balance, uncertain and fearful of things around me, as though I had no say in the unfolding of my life. Such feelings are now being pushed out of me, as calmness sets in. I am experiencing feelings of freedom and strength as I choose how my behaviour and actions progress.

It is not an easy method to set in motion. Although it involves peace, quietness and time for reflection, it can be very difficult to detach yourself from a situation, a scene in the making and choose differently. It can be difficult to alter your reactions, your responses, the default mode you have set it place. And it can be difficult to let go of justification for emotional outbursts and cries of pain. But it is without a doubt an incredible tool to uncover, to recognise and to embrace.

I have been enjoying the recent process of putting the Calmest Possible Option into play. Just today I actually noted the exact moment I caught myself in an oncoming angry bolt. I felt my fierce emotions, the fire within my belly and something told me to step away, and so I did. In that moment where in the past I would feel uncontrollable, throwing judgments and losing my energy to a point of exhaustion, I chose otherwise, I told a different story. I choose peace. I thereby kept my energy reserves, put a new story into action and did something I didn’t previously know I had control of.

The Calmest Possible Option is not only something that you can apply in angry situations. You can choose to step away from moments of any kinds, such as sadness, over excitement, fear, worry, greed or even happiness. And you can decide to take a different step on your journey and create new behaviour patterns.

Sometimes we think that we just have to act in certain ways, that there is a justification for all that we do, and we’ll go on justifying this until we’re sick and tired of it. But this is not the case! We do not have to act in any such ways, we can choose what we do next.

It is an incredible vision if we think about what we would be saving in our lives if we just took time to think in the present moments we are in. We can save energy and time and friendship if we notice our current stories that we are playing in our lives. We often become so absorbed in what we are doing that we forget that we have choice, that we are choosing every way in which we move. We get ourselves in such states when we could in fact avoid them and have more peaceful times. We can change the dynamic of our relationships, our thoughts and create such healthy minds.

Are you choosing the Calmest Possible Option in the things that you do or say? Or are you setting things is motion for a Storm?

Choose peace. Choose calm without a storm.

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Wake Up To Health

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What do you currently wake up to?

Are you waking up to health?…..Are you a chirpy birdy first thing in the morning? Do you feel happy and excited ready for the day ahead? What are your immediate thoughts when your alarm clock goes off? What foods do you nourish your body with? Are you smiling?

Be honest with yourself in answering these questions.

I want you to know that you can wake up to health. You can start your day in a calm and healthy fashion and create a positive chain of events that will spiral throughout the entire day. Know the importance of your morning time and start feeling fantastic!

Get up half an hour earlier than you usually do and slow your pace down to truly enjoy the sunrise or meditate.

Remember that the things you choose to do early on in the day will effect your choices, mood and energy levels later on. Make good choices first thing and you can have the best day ever!

I personally love morning time. I love the feeling of having a brand new day ahead of me. A fresh clear space for me to create anything I like with! I suppose I have a certain morning ritual….

The first thing I do when I wake up is head straight to the kitchen and make myself a bowl of porridge made with oats, ricemilk and water. I sometimes like to add a little honey, sugar free jam or a banana, mmm mm perfect! Porridge is just heaven to me! Then I sit down and relax to enjoy my very tasty wholesome breakfast.

I love to ‘just be’ in the morning, enjoy the quiet and allow any thoughts to enter my mind. I observe how I feel and see what comes up for me and breathe. I practice gratitude in the morning whilst I enjoy the peace and think of all the positive things that happened the day before and all the things and people in my life.

Then I set an intention for the day. I ask myself what kind of day I want to have? What foods do I want to nourish myself with? What ways will I keep active? How do I want to feel at the end of the day? I consider my three simple factors which constitute health for me: healthy food, healthy body, healthy mind. And I decide how I will put these into action today.

What healthy foods do I have in the house? Do I want to go to the local veggie? What new healthy recipes can I try?
Is there a yoga class on today? Is it a lovely day outside for a run? Or perhaps I could get together with my friends for a rounders game!
Are there any negative thoughts I haven’t dealt with? How can I deal with them? Perhaps chat to that friend I feel angry with?

These are just some examples for morning intention setting. Have fun with coming up with your own. Get some colorful pens and paper out and get writing some ideas!

Through past experience I have learnt well what things make me feels good and what don’t. I have discovered the importance of my morning time. The importance of laying out a positive and clear intention.

I know so well that good morning choices lead to a good day, and so I choose well.

I know that the food I eat effects me greatly.

I know that the amount of physical activity I do has a big impact.

I know that I am in control of my own happiness.

And so I choose with delight to Wake Up To Health! What are you waking up to tomorrow?

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