Find your Focus
Hello beautiful souls! 💖
Have you ever experienced an obstacle or road block while trying to accomplish a goal? I think we all have. As we set out to accomplish goals in our lives it’s commonplace to encounter an obstacle here and there. But sometimes the discouragement and frustration caused by those obstacles can throw us off track and cause us to lose focus.
When we experience the feelings of discouragement and frustration, it is important not to give way to those emotions. We must only acknowledge them and allow them to pass. Once you let the negative feelings pass you must refocus and continue to apply effort. Know with a certainty that success is always on the other side of effort. It’s only a matter of time.
If you are having trouble finding your focus after a setback or obstacle, here are some helpful tips to find your focus and get your mind back onto your goals!
1. Think Positive
You may be thinking ‘easier said than done’, right? But in this context what I mean by ‘be positive’ is don’t quit mentally. Believe in yourself and know that there is a solution to every single problem you face. Process the obstacle as a learning experience and look for the good in it. Move forward knowing that there are better days ahead!
2. Keep A Clear, Open Mind
Always be ready to receive new ideas. Focus and concentrate. Think in a wide scale manner and always be open to new options that eliminate your obstacle. Brainstorming with peers, coworkers, or a coach is a great way to stir up some new ideas as well as refocus.
Meditation is a wonderful way to regain focus. When you meditate, you still the mind and get rid of excess noise. Excess noise is anything that distracts you from your current goal. It could be day to day nuances or huge life events that present themselves at the most inconvenient times. Either way, meditation can help you slow down your thoughts and reign in the ego. When the ego is subdued it is easier to have positive thoughts. Those positive thoughts create more positive thoughts. And with the increase of positive thoughts you begin to feel happy, relaxed, and full of gratitude. This is the best state of mind for goal setting and focus.
3. Persist and Persevere
Be sure to exhaust every possibility. Do not be afraid of trial and error. Exploring every option and aspect will increase knowledge and experience in your desired area. This knowledge, in turn will lead you to accomplish your goal with continued effort. Remember: Success is always on the other side of effort.
4. Simulate
Try to picture in your head a possible solution to help overcome and/or solve the problem you are having and return your focus to your goal.
Visualization is a really good way to simulate. Visualization is powerful because the subconscious mind doesn’t distinguish your concentrated thoughts from your reality. With diligence, your mind will accept your visualizations and work to create the reality that you visualize.
How to Visualize
Relax. Close your eyes and try to see as many accurate details as you can. For example, if you want a car, visualize the make, model, color, year, and interior of the car you want. If you can, go a bit further and imagine the fresh car smell and feel yourself sitting in the driver seat. When you think often of a thing your brain creates it. So why not think of positive things that you’d like to create? When you visualize, you can literally see it happening!
5. Ask for Help
If all fails, get assistance from others you know who are more knowledgeable on the work being done. Even if their suggestions are not the exact ones you were hoping to hear, they may trigger some new ideas and ways for you to refocus, set your goals, and find the solution to your problem.
You got this!
Until next time, beautiful souls! 💖
2 Keys to Boosting Your Inner Confidence
Hello Beautiful souls! I’ve been spreading myself a bit thin over the last several weeks. I’ve been writing my book, working on content, preparing to launch my life coaching business, while working my 9 to 5. From now on, my blogs will be posted on this site as well as my patreon site so that more people are able to see it.
http://www.patreon.com/glowwithmimi
I would really like as many people to see it as possible; so if you know someone that may benefit from my blogs- please share! Let’s build each other up. I want to help as many people find their inner glow as I can.
During my journey of self discovery and my evolution to becoming a life coach, I’ve learned one very important thing – inner confidence is the key to it all.
There are all kinds of strategies, ways of thinking, patterns of behavior and practical tips for improving your life and feeling better about yourself, but they’re all redundant if the foundation isn’t there. That foundation is the real you, the you that you know deep down you are. The trick is that it takes confidence to find that and to bring out who you are – here are the three keys to real inner confidence.
1. Get To Know Your Values
Personal values are a big passion of mine and I often get carried away with myself when I talk about them. I make no apology for that though – they’re one of the most important things you can know about yourself and are vital in getting genuine inner confidence. Your values are ten thousand feet down inside you, right at the very core of who you are; and they’re the building blocks, the foundations and cornerstones for you. A value is something in yourself, in others or in the world that’s most important to you, and could include things like beliefs, progress, family, fun, nature, achievement or freedom.
Why is it that some people and situations leave you feeling angry, frustrated, demotivated or deflated? It’s because one or more of your values is being denied, suppressed or repressed – and we experience that as a negative experience because it’s denying a fundamental piece of who you are. You know those times when you’ve felt really alive, amazing or buzzing? Those are the times when one or more of your values are being honored, and you can get more of that by living according to them.
Your values are all yours, and no matter what happens, no one can ever take them away. You can have absolute confidence in them because they’re there all the time just waiting for you to notice and use them. When you get to know your values, you can start to make choices and align your life around them. It’s so simple and it feels amazing because all that really means is that you’re allowing who you are to live in the real world.
2. Exercise the Muscle
Confidence is a muscle, and like any muscle you need to exercise it so that it doesn’t shrink and waste away. The problem is that unlike your biceps or glutes, which tend to stay in the same place, your confidence muscle can be harder to find. How do you develop your biceps or firm up your glutes? By doing exercises that are designed to work that muscle over a period of time until you see the results you were looking for.
It’s just the same with confidence. Let’s say that you’re the kind of person that doesn’t take many risks, the kind of person who goes through each day doing what needs to be done and doing it well, but not really stretching yourself. You might talk yourself out of doing something because it’s too scary or because you think to yourself ‘I’m not good enough,’ ‘that’s not who I am’ or ‘I don’t really want it anyway.’ That kind of person lives within what they know and what keeps them safe and comfortable. The fewer risks they take, the less confident they need to be and so the less confident they become.
To work your confidence muscle you need to be prepared to take risks – big or small. You need to be willing to stretch yourself in an unfamiliar direction, to try something new or try something in a slightly different way. You need to open yourself up to the possibilities around you and push yourself to increase what you know, what you do and who you are. The more open you are to risk, opportunity and possibility the more confident you need to be, and so the more confidence you’ll develop. That’s your confidence muscle – the question is, what are you going to do to exercise it?”
That is the question that I had to ask myself. What am I going to do to exercise it?
And now, I pose that same question to you. What are you going to do to exercise your muscle?
Let me know in the comments. 🙂
Until Next Time Beautiful Souls
Reciprocity
Hello beautiful souls!
If you haven’t already, please reconnect with me on my Patreon site.
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Same blog with added content. 💖😊
Postpone your Procrastination!
Hello beautiful souls 💖
Today, let’s talk about one of the biggest roadblocks when it comes to our success.
We’ve all done it at some time or other. We put off our exercise routine until tomorrow, we continually delay finishing that project or starting that business.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
For some, it may be a bit of a self-love deficiency, a lack of confidence, for others it may be stage fright or imposter syndrome. No matter the reason, the culprit remains the same: procrastination.
Procrastination can literally stop you from achieving the greatness that you desire.
Here are 4 effective processes you can use to slay this giant.
**Thank you for taking the time to view my blog. My content is expanding and I am making an effort to have my content in one centralized location.
I appreciate your understanding.
Until next time beautiful souls 💖
Powerful Stress Management Tip!
Hello beautiful souls 💖
Considering the week I’ve had, I felt it appropriate to blog about stress management. It’s important that we care for ourselves and manage stress because it can have long lasting effects on our quality of life.
Often times, stress will manifest when we carry over yesterday’s concerns into our present day experience. An accumulation will almost always end up in a high stress level. Therefore, we must be able to “dump” all of our concerns from the previous day and concentrate on today.
Here’s a stress busting tip!
Resolve right now to release every thought from yesterday and be only mindful of the now…focus only on this thought…this breath…this moment. Then take three deep breaths and slowly release each one.
As you breathe deeply; feel each and every concern, problem, and unresolved issue begin to dissolve. Do not focus on your problems. For now, you are only to be in this very moment.
Now go to your inner quiet place. Go deep inside to a place where you feel that you are at peace, and then just relax; breathe in deeply and enjoy the feeling. This is how it feels to be one with yourself.
Use this special time and place to be calm. Free your mind and body of all worry, regret, disappointment, anger, and grief.
If you’d like more tips on how to manage stress, please feel free to read the rest on my patreon account.
Patreon.com/GlowwithMimi
I have the blogs set free to read, so you don’t need a subscription for it.
I will soon be adding ebooks, poetry readings, motivational content, and Glow With Mimi merchandise.
Follow me to stay updated!
It’s always a pleasure sharing with you.
Until next time, beautiful souls 💖
9 Ways to Fight Fear!
Does Fear get in your way?
Hello Beautiful Souls! Today, I’d like to talk about fear.
Fear gets to the best of us, whether it is fear of failure, fear of success or even fear of fear. All of us have experienced fear at some point in our lives and it can be a real stumbling block that holds us back from being truly successful.
A beautiful life is on the other side of our fears. So, let’s step out of our comfort zone, face our fears and thrive! There are several ways to overcome fear, here are my top 9:
1. Separate Reality from Perception
Ask yourself what is really going on, locate the facts and place them over your feelings. Sometimes we form an unfavorable point of view in our minds based on past events and accept them as facts. Remember that just because something happened before, doesn’t mean that it will happen that same way again.
2. Identify the Trigger
Figure out what it is in a situation that triggers you. Learning to identify it will help you learn to combat it. (This is where self-evaluation is key.)
3. Know where Fear lives in your Body
A lot of times, fear takes over physically. It affects different people different ways. Identify if/how it affects your physical body and do the work to take care of your body. Ex: if you hold stress in your back, you can learn stretches, foam rolling, etc. to avoid the pain.
4. Practice Gratitude
Everyday, list out 1-3 things you are thankful for. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is, gratitude helps shift the mind into a positive light, which overtime, overcomes fear.
5. Listen to Your Inner Voice
Monitor your inner conversations. If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, don’t say it to yourself. Speak positively to yourself and remind yourself of your strengths.
6. Create a New Association
Remind yourself that the feeling and the moment will pass. Focus on the positive outcome of the situation, rather than the scary inbetween.
7. Look at the Glass as Half Full
Perception is a very powerful thing, and how you feel about your situation dictates how you respond. So think positively and you’ll give yourself a much better chance of success. This won’t happen overnight; practice with just one thought. What is one recurring negative/fearful thought you have? Work on reversing this one thought. Overtime, this will become a habit.
8. Practice Breathing Techniques
Breathing helps center your body. You can do a grounding exercise, or even just take 5 deep, long breaths at any point to calm and center yourself. It is best to start your day with this, but feel free to practice all day long.
9. Create a Safe Space
When you feel safe and secure, there is no room for fear. Find somewhere safe you can retreat to when ill feelings begin- whether this is a real place such as your bedroom, or a place in your mind such as the beach. This sense of comfort will soothe you and allow you to face your fear.
Please keep in mind, these are just 9 strategies, not everything works for everyone. But this is a place to start. Start implementing these techniques into your life and don’t let fear hold you back from reaching your goals and your highest potential this year!
Until Next Time, Beautiful Souls
Have Fun/Enjoy Life
Hello beautiful souls 💖
Growth and personal development are topics that we speak of often. But…what about fun? It seems that as we age, we leave the concepts of fun and adventure behind us as if they are only reserved for the young.
As we grow into adulthood and load more responsibility onto our plates, we find that we have no room for fun.
Adulthood is about being serious and taking care of business. Or, at least that’s what I thought. So, I went about the business of adulting… I took care of my spouse, our home, our children. I paid bills, the mortgage, and such. My life became a list of obligations instead of a gift to enjoy. I was made aware of “my job” as a female adult and I didn’t deviate from that.
Then one day; about seven months ago my life changed and I had suddenly lost most of the things that I was so serious about. I was left alone to piece my life back together.
For quite a while, all I did was work and go home. I worked, I went home, I paid bills, and went to sleep so that I could go to work again.
My morale began to sink. I was grateful for my job and the ability to provide for myself and my little family. But there was something missing.
It was fun. Fun was missing!
I began to make friends at work and they started inviting me out. And there it was. The fun that I had been missing.
It took me a while but I finally realized that life is about enjoyment and love. All the things that we do should be based on enjoyment and love because that’s the beauty and purpose of the human experience.
I know that every minute of every day can’t be fun, but we all deserve to enjoy life. Remember to schedule some fun into your life. Don’t get too busy to smile, laugh, and make memories.
Until next time beautiful souls
Relinquish my Strength?! Uh, No.
Hello, beautiful souls 💖
I’d like to discuss something that has been tugging on my heart strings lately. Ive noticed that there has been a reel trending on social media about ‘strong black women’. In case you aren’t familiar with it, it goes a little something like this:
I am not a strong black woman. I am delicate, fragile, and I can’t do it all on my own…
There’s more to the reel, and I don’t remember the audio verbatim but I’d like to address the sentiment. I viewed this audio as a cry for help from my queens who are tired of carrying the load alone.
Being strong is a blessing and a curse in today’s society. When a person is strong, they are often given more weight to carry. The growing assumption is that since you’ve carried so much, you can carry a little more…and a bit more…and wait, here’s a little more. People typically don’t check on or offer assistance to strong people. And that can cause even the strongest of people to be weary.
Yet, strength is a gift. It is earned based on perseverance and is the by product of experience and wisdom. Strength is an invaluable attribute that should be celebrated.
I am strong.
I didn’t think of myself as strong at one point. I endured quite a bit of misfortune as well as mistreatment from people I loved and to be honest I felt anything but strong. At times I felt broken, lost, and out of control. And that’s okay too. A strong person doesn’t feel strong all the time. In fact, a person is strong because they go through painful experiences and still stand.
Strength is often appreciated in the hard times. In relationships I was often commended for my strength when I helped my mate with an issue they were facing or found a solution to a problem when my partner didn’t have one. But when I stood up for myself, I was told often that I was “too strong”.
What does that mean?!
The same strength that was admired and appreciated was quickly shunned and viewed as a negative attribute once I established some boundaries. That is not how things work.
That being said, strength is an attribute that I’ve earned and I will not relinquish my strength so that a person will accept me. I am strong, I am soft, I am fierce, I am sweet. I am human. We are human. And we all deserve to be loved and accepted as we are.
Until next time, beautiful souls 💖
Use the Power of Choice to Discover your Purpose!
Hello beautiful souls 💖
Do you wonder what your purpose in life is? Do you grow weary of drifting through life feeling unfulfilled? If you feel that way, you aren’t alone.
Determining what our purpose is in life can be one of the hardest questions that we as humans must try to answer. In this blog, we will explore our feelings and options, and by the end, we should have a fairly solid tool to help give our lives a more meaningful direction!
There are three steps to the process of discovering the purpose of your life:
1. Understanding the Principle of Choice.
2. Creating your ‘Underlying Principle’
3. Aligning your Life with this Underlying Principle
Understanding the Principle of Choice
Norman Vincent Peale has this to say about the Power Of Choice: “The greatest power we have is the power of Choice. It is an actual fact, that if you have been groping under unhappiness, you can choose to be joyous instead. And, by effort, lift yourself into joy. If you tend to be fearful, you can overcome that misery by choosing to have courage. The whole trend and the quality of anyone’s life is determined by the choices that are made.”
Choosing is the most important activity of our minds, because by making a choice, we are proclaiming our desires to the subconscious mind. Once the subconscious mind gets to know our desires, it does everything in its power to manifest those desires in our lives. The things the we choose become goals to the subconscious mind. And if we are sincere in pursuing them, there is no reason why we would not accomplish those goals.
Naturally then, it’s reasonable to deduce that indecision prevents us from accomplishing our goals. It not only creates frustration and anxiety; but indecision confuses the subconscious mind about what we want. That is not at all to suggest making snap decisions or behaving impulsively. We should always follow our intuition and make decisions that are in accordance to our true desires and purpose.
A lot of us let others make choices for us, or make choices according to societal norms or cultural stereotypes. Sometimes we make these choices even though they go against our own wishes. We must not make our life decisions based on the desires of other people. What is right for one individual may not be right for another, and the way to know what’s right for you is to listen to what your heart says.
So, to begin the process, make a list of things that interest you. Add things you’ve always enjoyed, things that make you feel better, that inspire you, etc.
Whatever it is that interests you, write it down and answer these questions:
What thing do you love to do?
What is it that you love about that thing, and why?
How could you do this for money, and make a living out of it?
Creating your Underlying Principle
The next step is to examine the list you made and find out if there is a recurring theme. Then, take the central theme of the things you love to do, and try to put it in a short and precise statement. This will be your Mission Statement. It could be a quote by a famous person, or a philosophy that has influenced you. The mission statement doesn’t have to be permanent; it can grow and change as you do. Go ahead and write down your Mission Statement 🙂
Aligning your Life with Your Underlying Principle
Now that you have your Mission Statement, it’s time to map out the path to your ultimate purpose. By implementing small changes and remaining consistent to them, you will begin living out your underlying principle each and every day. By becoming aware and intentional of this underlying principle of your life, you will certainly start to feel the difference in your enthusiasm for life as a whole. Create time and space to bring the things on your list into your life. If you find that you like being in nature, plan a camping trip or visit a national park.
You could even change professions or start a business that more closely aligns with your Mission.
So..there it is!
By following the steps mentioned above, you will be on your way to finding and living out your purpose. And as you go through this process, always remember that –
“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously. ” – Steve Maraboli
Until next time beautiful souls 💖
Inner Glow Blog 