Good Habits

31/08/2009 — rosannagordon

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Good Habits make a Good Life!

When your habits are good, you feel better, you have more energy, you see positive effects from the things you do, you have much more time available to do more of the things you love and the world just seems to work so much better!

Good Habits are not something just a percentage of us can have – they are out there for the taking by each and everyone!

The sooner you start to pay attention to your habits, the quicker life will brighten up. You will begin to notice that the world doesn’t happen ‘to you’, but that you get to choose your circumstances, make your mark and reach for the top! And there’s no time better to do so than the present moment!

Have a think about your current daily habits. How do you feel about them? Do you feel they are contributing to your life, your goals, your dreams in a positive way? Or do you feel led by circumstances, driven by a ‘fixed’ behavioural pattern or unhappy with how things are unfolding?

Often we mistake our habits for our ’selves’. We think that the things we repeatedly do are indicators of our personalities, genes and make-up. Inescapable, unavoidable. ‘It’s just the way I am’ you may hear yourself say. But this is not the case. Habits can be cast away, changed and created! There is nothing set in stone about the way you are from moment to moment. You can change the script at any time you like….

So be courageous, bring an active mind and create Good Habits today! Here are some examples to get you started! -

- Getting up early and having a slow morning pace, bringing a calm, clear focus for the day. 10-30 minutes exercises will give you an extra boost too!
- Spending 10 or 15 minutes each morning setting a positive intention for your day, identifying a source of motivation to keep you energised and on track and planning your daily doings.
- Having a healthy breakfast – a wonderful source of energy first thing that sets you off well!
- Planning your daily exercise/fitness early on, writing it in your diary and keeping to this important appointment with yourself! (You can look to your source of motivation to spark your thirst for this.)
- Making and setting goals and dreams that you can work towards and which provide a central meaning to your life.
- Arriving at appointments/meetings 10 minutes early – this will help you feel calm, settled and on top of things, whilst also not letting yourself or anyone else down!
- Choosing 3 positive things to do or say daily to loved ones, colleagues or strangers!
– Acting and living by your principles, values and what means dear to you.
- Making healthy food choices throughout your day – by staying fully aware and responsible for what you fuel yourself on.
- Being outdoors in the fresh air each day and lapping up the breeze!
- Having a phone chat/ meet up with someone you love spending time with – and who you leave feeling refreshed and happy.
- Choosing to use positive, meaningful words and language and dropping the rest that’s holding you back.
- Thinking positively about your career, the benefits you gain, aspects you love or perhaps considering an alternative occupation that’d suit you better.
- Keeping your room clear, tidy and organised – a clear surrounding space helps a clear and focused mind. Recycle or take to a charity shop anything that’s no longer of use to you – it may just well be of fantastic use to someone else!
- Creating a night-time routine – getting a good night’s seep, finishing off any lingering task from the day and thinking over everything that went positively whilst falling off to sleep.

Getting into the swing of nurturing good habits allows the best you to shine! You’ll feel forever satisfied and thankful for it.

Create some good habits today and reap the rewards they bring you….

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Freedom through Discipline

13/06/2009 — rosannagordon

A path to freedom is through self-discipline.

Quite often discipline is viewed in a negative light, as something which limits you, is too severe, too controlling or mundane. But this view shadows the importance and true beauty that such an art form has to offer. Through certain discipline we can actually free ourselves and draw a forcefield around us protecting our healthy selves.

Freedom is something that we are all searching for, whether it is on the forefront of our consciousness or a little deeper within. We love what freedom makes possible – the ability to do, act and say what we like, live the life we so desire, express our authentic selves with ease and spread our wings wide! Yet, so many of us are creating distance between ourselves and freedom by not paying enough attention to our everyday choices. By acting on impulsive decisions and for short-term pleasure we make freedom harder to reach. In reality we are yearning for a guiding light to show us the way home to our healthy nature – and we can shine the torch today by choosing discipline.

The wonderful thing is, any day you so choose, you can learn discipline and make your way to freedom! You can help prevent feelings of tiredness, heaviness, unworthiness or even illness. You can attract positivity and create new life-changing habits and rediscover what it feels like to be free! You can relearn the beauty of life! – All it takes is a little discipline and an open heart.

For me, discipline is my ally, accompanying me through life, helping me to remain happy and healthy. I non-restrictively follow certain patterns of behaviour that help me to live and develop myself in the best way I know how. And I can honestly say I love it! Thanks to my self-imposed discipline I feel light, full of energy and peaceful. I am more active, alert, clear-headed and full of life! I have a good vision of where I am headed. I truly enjoy having discipline in my life and all the benefits it provides me with.

My Daily Discipline:

I get up at 6am and practice half an hour of Sun Salutations followed by some gentle stretches and breathing techniques. Providing me with a fit, light, supple, healthy body; a calm and focused mind and bounds of energy for the day!

At 6.30am I brush my teeth and shower, finishing off with cold water to feel fully awake and refreshed! I then make myself comfortable, prop myself upright on my yoga block with a soft blanket around me for a 20 minute meditation. Bringing me more peace and quiet for my day.

Between 7.20am and 8am I enjoy the morning time – being my favourite time of day! I nourish myself with a healthy breakfast of cold cereal and fruit (now that it’s warmer weather) and I relax listening to the sounds of nature in my garden.

I leave for school at 8am. I work full-time as a Teaching Assistant in a Primary School.

Lunch is at noon and is a salad sandwich with an apple, banana or yogurt and water. I like to eat light and healthily so not to feel sluggish in my afternoon activities.

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I get home at 3.45pm and unwind usually sitting on my bed with a glass of water or milk. I take 15 minutes of ‘free time’, checking emails, chatting to friends and family, checking post or just relaxing. This time allows me to check in with myself and how I’m feeling.

My yoga self practice is at 4pm. I practice my own routines for an hour, often finishing with a meditation. Leaving me feeling re-energised, awake, peaceful and ready for the early evening!

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I eat dinner at 6pm, or as near to, depending on the layout of my day. I like to have an early dinner to nourish myself well after yoga and leave room for digestion before bed. I usually have a grain with vegetables, and perhaps a little dairy or fish.

Around 7 or 8pm I walk my dog or cycle outdoors enjoying the fresh air and sounds around me. This also helps my dinner to digest well.

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The evening is my preferred time to read inspiring books, listen to music, create cards and presents, lie on my bed and chill out.

Between 9pm and 9.30pm I wash and prepare myself for bed. I think through my day, sometimes writing things down in my diary. I assess what things worked well and what changes I can create. I set goals and intentions for the next day, week, and months to come.

Lights out and sleeping time is 10pm. I like to get my full 8 hours sleep to feel well rested the next day, on top form and to make it as productive as I can!

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My routine is simplistic but very effective for me. I make sure that I am not too rigid or serious with it, and allow for additions or alterations and the needs of my friends and family. Sunday is my day away from a schedule, although I naturally want to do a lot of these things! I also make holiday time with friends and family. For me, the key things are being happy and healthy. I eat well, exercise, live positively and most importantly remember to smell the roses.

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You can establish discipline any time you like. Start slowly, little by little by daily integrating more behaviour into your days. Try things out, drop things that don’t work for you and let freedom shine brightly.

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Happiness

07/06/2009 — rosannagordon

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We are as happy as we choose to be. No more and no less.

We can think of happiness as something that spontaneously arises in our lives from time to time or as an end post we reach after life’s great trials ad tribulations have taken their toll, but it is not until we open to the idea that ‘happiness is a choice that we can all experience at any moment’ that we will source the flow of an abundance of this glowing warming feeling into our lives.

Make happiness a priority and feel good from moment to moment. How often do you enter a situation in full awareness that you are responsible for how you feel? Do you allow circumstance to decide or do you take charge? It is easy to forget, and we all do, that happiness is at our disposal all the time! We get caught up in life’s dramas and events that we mask that which we all need and are truly searching for. It is indeed the one who wears rosy glasses that sees the beauty, the joy, the greatness and the happiness in everything. We can choose to see what we want to. We can choose to be happy. We each have a pair of rosy glasses, we just don’t always put them on.

Happiness is available to us all, in every moment. It is up to us as individuals to claim happiness and to live it and dance it’s song. From the second we get out of bed in the morning we can choose happiness, in all of our actions, words and motivations. Just as on our birthdays or Christmas day we choose to experience rushes of excitement and tingly sensations within which carry us through our day, we can do this day in day out. It just takes an awareness of how we choose to feel.

We often spend too much time wasting opportunities, moments and experiences. We carry blame, judgment, non-forgiveness, criticism and hurt around with us. But where does this get us? Further away from happiness and further bogged down into an unnecessary state of no return. We need to create bridges towards peace and happiness, to freedom. We need to start living to our fullest potential and sing happiness to the treetops! And to do so we must dissolve the things that keep us stuck and distant. Life is too short not to be happy.

Sure, still choose wisely your environment, circle of friends, hobbies, partners and what you fill your life with. I am by no means suggesting that you choose to be happy but neglect your wheel of life. Positively change the things that you can and choose happiness in those you can ‘and’ can’t change. We all have certain things that we can’t change, that just are – whether it be our past, families, genetics or the way others treat us – but it is down to us to nurture acceptance for these. To react in a positive and healing way and to make the most of everything in the best way we can. Why make a situation worse than it is by being unhappy? We can all turn any situation around for the better and call it one of life’s lessons.

What lies in the way between you and continuous happiness? Rid any excuses that you have. Put on your happiness coat right now, go outside and enjoy the light rain as it falls on you. Enjoy all weather! Marvel in it’s uniqueness! And apply this attitude to all things, big and small. Smile more, in fact right now. Give it a go. Be aware of your facial expressions, your body language. Look around you and see the beauty. See the heart in everyone, the brilliance in everything and know this is how things should be! We are experiencing the real uncovered us when we feel fuzzy inside.

So instead of seeking ways to justify unhappiness or complacency with life, find reasons to be happy. When you meet up with your friend today or tomorrow make an intention to only speak words of kindness and positivity. Give moaning, complaining and negativity no room, no purpose. Make a list of all the things that you are grateful for in your life. Sit back and be amazed by how many you can come up with. Make today a happy day! Do the things that help bring about happy thoughts and encourage this warming glow.

How do you currently live happiness? To the maximum or with great interludes? Start to bring happiness to the forefront of your minds, your actions and your motivations. Experience feeling happy in all situations, from brushing your teeth to writing a letter to meeting up with family. Think carefully about how you are feeling and how you could influence happiness inside yourself and all around you.

Our world needs more happy people. Choose happiness now.

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