inSPIRITation

Archive for the ‘Mind’ Category

Procrastination: to postpone doing something, especially as a regular practice.

So you have a million things to do, but cant figure out where to start. Things just keep piling up and you tell yourself, “I’ll do it later”. Later turns into tomorrow, then tomorrow turns into next week, and so on. The next thing you know you’re so overwhelmed with things to do that you don’t get any of it done. Well needless to say you are suffering from a bad case of procrastination. The positive thing is it can be cured as long as you are willing to put in the work.

Procrastination is self defeating behavior that only holds you back from moving forward with your dreams/goals etcetera. Plus it doesn’t make you feel good and adds unwanted stress.

Here are 10 easy ways to get started on overcoming procrastination:

1. Sit down and write out a plan- Writing things down really helps them come to life.

2. Pace yourself- Take on one task at a time and if that one task is too overwhelming then split it up into smaller more manageable tasks.

3. Praise yourself- After completing each task give yourself praise or positive reinforcement to stay motivated.

4. Make time- Make appointments with yourself that you can’t break. If you have to break the appointment, because of a real emergency then reschedule immediately.

5. Ask for help- Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Having another person around may motivate you even further.

6. Take Action- You can’t get anything done sitting around get up and get started.

7. Learn to Relax- Don’t stress yourself out about unfinished projects. Learn relaxation techniques to relieve any stress or anxiety.

8. Be patient with yourself- You can’t do it all overnight.

9. Never let things pile up- Get things done as soon as they come. Letting them pile up only makes you procrastinate more, because you feel overwhelmed.

10. Have fun- Turn on some music or gather some people around to assist you this way it won’t feel like work

Practice these 10 easy steps and before you know it you’ll be well on your way to accomplishing your goals without any problems.

Good Luck!!

I wish you a happy and successful life

Love,

Keyana

What are your perceptions about life? Do you see everything through positive or negative eyes? Do you think that people are mean and unfriendly or do you believe the opposite?

I used to have a negative perception about a lot of things and as a result I had negative experiences. I began to learn how the thoughts we think correlate with our life experiences. It made sense to me and I decided to try changing my thinking and perceptions about life. As I tuned into my thinking I realized that I was unaware of the destructive thoughts that I had. It was as if these thoughts were recordings playing over and over in my head. In order to make every thought a positive one I had to consciously pay attention to the things that I was thinking and change them. It was a challenge at first, but once I practiced changing the negatives to positives as they arose in my mind it then became second nature for me.

Trust me this works, it is like magic. I still have things that I am working on, but there are a lot of things I have changed. It has made a huge difference in my interactions with people and my day to day life experiences. Of course things happen, life happens, but you have the choice of how you deal with or react to every situation. We have more power than we give ourselves credit for. All it takes is a simple change in your thinking. That’s it. Sounds easy huh? Well it does take discipline to reprogram your thinking but with persistence and consistency it will become easier every day.

You are worth that. I know I am. I can sit here and confidently tell you that with practice I have been able to change my perception about life in general. When I wake up and in the morning I feel so refreshed and excited for the day. I used to wake up dreading the day. Ugh what a drag lol, but I consciously made a decision to change those thoughts and feelings and what a difference it has made.

Now, I can have one conversation with a person and see what some of their perceptions are about life. I love living in Tampa and some people I come in contact with love it too. As a result more things come for us to love about it. Then there are those who say they hate it and that seems to be their experience with the city they attract more things to constantly hate about it. You see how we are all in the same city but are having different experiences just based on our thoughts and perceptions? I was having a conversation with a lady and she went on about how she is new to Tampa and it is so hard to meet people. Well I am also new to Tampa, but I don’t have a problem meeting people in fact I am constantly meeting new people and I know it is because of my belief that it is easy to meet people.

So what can you do to change negative thoughts? It’s simple CONSCIOUSLY CHANGE them if they are negative. Sometimes we have negative thoughts that we have held onto for so long we don’t even realize we are thinking them so just pay close attention.
Here are some ways to change your thoughts:

Start to be more aware of all the thoughts you have throughout the day. Do this for a few days and you’ll notice that most of them are the same thoughts playing over and over. Once you figure out what these are then replace them with positive thoughts. This will take some getting used to, but when you think the negative thought instantly replace it with your new positive thought.

You could even try a 30 day positive thought diet where you commit to thinking positive everyday for 30 days. It only takes 21 days to form a habit so by day 30 you will continue on with little or no effort. You will feel a lot better too.

LIFE IS SUCH A GIFT AND ITS AMAZING HOW THINGS CAN CHANGE WHEN YOU CHANGE YOUR PERCEPTION.

Love,

Keyana

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.” ~Buddha

Often times I hear or observe individuals who appear to be successful down themselves for not being further in their lives. I have found that some common reasons for this behavior is due to pressure from society, comparing themselves to others, or feeling that they are not good enough.

SOCIETAL PRESSURE

From an early age we are conditioned to constantly push harder to advance to the next level; without focusing on the present and despite the success we may have already obtained. This form of action seems to spill over into every area of our lives and is self destructive behavior, because it can eventually lead to burn out or even worse lack of self worth.

For example: The senior in high school is asked are they going to college way before they can graduate high school; therefore instead of enjoying their last years of childhood they are bombarded with applications, SAT or ACT exams, etcetera. The high school graduate is asked shortly after graduation “Now what are you going to do? Are you going to college? Are you going to work?” They are faced with these stressors without enjoying their recent accomplishment of graduating, and if they do get to celebrate it’s not for long; a day or a weekend usually suffices. Then there is the recent college graduate who is asked, “What is next? Are you going to graduate school?” or “Have you secured employment yet?” Wow, how about congratulations you have worked so hard to get where you are? Nada, once again you are only allowed to celebrate for a day or a weekend. The list goes on and on.

In retrospect I don’t recall ever being able to fully enjoy my current accomplishments due to the peer pressure of having to quickly advance to the next venture; to prove to others that I was being productive with my life. I was always striving for more and not appreciating what was right in front of me, because I realized that I was trying to please others and conform to what society said I should be doing. Do not get me wrong I love where I am today and would not change anything, but what I am saying is that I did not stop and smell the beautiful roses of my accomplishments due to the urgency to move on to the next endeavor.

COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS

I have crossed paths with numerous people who are very accomplished, BUT DON’T SEE IT, because they continuously COMPARE THEMSELVES TO OTHERS around them, and as a result feel that they are not good enough. Individuals observing from the outside view these people as very successful, but the person is so consumed with what their lacking based on comparison to their peers, they don’t realize the blessings that they currently possess. Don’t compare yourself to others, because you are exactly where you need to be in this moment; comparing yourself to others takes the focus off of the most important person which is you!

FEELING THAT YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Lastly, there are the people who just have the plain ol’ feeling that they are NOT GOOD ENOUGH; therefore they feel the need to continue doing things to gain internal satisfaction, but consequently nothing they do seems to satisfy them. Well I can tell you now that satisfaction will never come until you dig deep and get to the root of the issue. Some people may be so unconscious that they don’t even realize that it is an issue. Once you figure it out and start to work on yourself as a whole then that thought pattern will go away, and you will be able to bask in and enjoy all of your wonderful accomplishments.

YES, it is WONDERFUL to have goals and strive for better life experiences, but do not stress yourself out or put yourself down about it. Take the time to reflect and be appreciative for WHAT YOU HAVE, and Realize HOW BLESSED YOU ARE. You may not have everything you want at the moment, but where you are now was once your goal in the past. So focus on and celebrate your present accomplishments on your way to attaining your future accomplishments.

No matter where you are or what position you are in stop and BE GRATEFUL NOW, because you’ve worked hard to get where you presently are. Most importantly make sure that you are not doing it for anyone else but you, do not compare your journey to others, and AFFIRM that you and everything you do is good enough.

APPRECIATE YOUR CURRENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS WHILE YOU ARE STRIVING FOR MORE

Love,

Keyana

“To love oneself is the beginning of a life long romance”

“How you treat yourself is how others will treat you.”

and

“You must love yourself first before you can love others and others can love you.”

I have heard these quotes a countless number of times, but never really sat down to contemplate the deeper meaning. Not realizing all that loving oneself entailed I would always say “I do love myself” but in hindsight I realize that my actions towards myself contradicted the thought. I say this because I was not caring for myself physically, mentally, or spiritually. I was placing others needs before mine, I was involved in one unhealthy relationship after another, I allowed myself to stay stuck in unhealthy situations, I allowed myself to be mistreated by others, I did not take responsibility for my own actions that were hurting me, I was not eating right or taking care of my body like I should have, and I was not engaging In activities that I love. Overall I was not putting forth the effort to make sure I was happy.

I put up with a lot of mistreatment from people because at the time I did not believe that I deserved any better. Healing has taken some time and I had to go through a lot of experiences, but now I KNOW that I deserve better. It all came to a head one day when I looked in the mirror and did not recognize myself. I looked tired, stressed, my appetite was not normal, my body was weak. I was not motivated. I was toxic and had forgotten about the long ways I had come on my journey. I completely lost myself. I had come to a complete stop on my journey and never thought I would get back.

But as you can see I did bounce back.

I believe that we experience certain things good and bad to grow into better people, share our stories, and heal others as well. It took for me to go through all of the things that I have been through to finally realize that “Hey I need to take care of myself I am just as important and this cannot go on any longer.” I now believe that how others were treating me was the result of how I was treating myself. I finally understood.

So then I began on a journey of self love.

I questioned how can I love myself? What specific steps do I have to take? I did research on this topic thinking there was this magical formula to loving yourself but it got me nowhere.
I finally realized that there is no set formula that needs to be applied you just have to take action. You know yourself better than anyone. You know how you treat yourself so you should create your own ways to love yourself.

You may say well “I do love myself” but sit down and make sure your actions are in alignment with your words.

Ways that I love myself:

I am much kinder to myself.

I say nice things to myself

I am patient with myself

If I make a mistake or don’t get it right the first time it is ok

I do things that make me feel good

I am my own inner COACH (See my article: COACH yourself to success)

I don’t entertain bad treatment or negative people in my life anymore

I listen to my intuition which has become quite strong, speaks to me through my dreams regularly, and is now also starting to speak to me on a regular basis in my awakened state.

I take care of myself before others: This is a big one because in the past I used to believe that if I didn’t cater to others then I was selfish. I would drop everything I was doing even if it was important to me just to satisfy other people, I was always left feeling depleted and unhappy. I thought I was providing a service to people when I was really tearing myself down. I was so used to doing for others that I did not know how to receive. I had to take a step back and realize that if I did not take care of myself first then how could I be of service to others. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE helping people but in order to help people I have realized that I have to help myself first. I constantly remind myself that I am just as important as others and need to give myself the same type of attention that I give to them. I used to engage in this behavior out of the fear of losing friends or mates but now I know that is ridiculous and I am now my first priority. If the people in my life cannot handle that and decide to leave, then I guess it wasn’t meant for us to be in each others lives.

Another biggie is that I think thoughts that make me feel good. If I am feeling down or am thinking a thought that makes me feel down I switch the thought to something that makes me FEEL better instantly it really works. (Look out for my article titled “What is your perception about life: The Power of Positive Thinking”)

Every time I pass a mirror I look into it with admiration and say nice things to myself. (I learned this from Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life (Gift Edition)(this is also listed in my miscellaneous category under favorite books) This is a phenomenal book it is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it.

I take care of my body by doing yoga, walking, drinking lots of water, and eating a Vegetarian/Vegan Diet.

I make time for myself to do the things that I love

I do not allow stress. I engage in activities that alleviate stress as soon as it comes up

I have filled myself up so much with the things that I love to do that now I totally understand the saying “You have to be a whole person within yourself before you can join together with someone else.” (The full story on my experiences with this is COMING SOON in a future article)

I have fully accepted the beautiful person I am on the inside and out. I am a good person and deserve to be happy so why not start by treating myself good.

Trust me if I can do it then you can too. There were times that I never thought I would get through certain obstacles but I did and as a result I am a stronger person. That in itself makes me love myself even more. I would not take back one thing from the past because all of those experiences have shaped the beautiful, intelligent, strong woman that I am TODAY.

Fall in love with yourself look past your flaws and imperfections, look at your inner beauty, give yourself a hug, accept yourself just as you are, don’t compare yourself to others, don’t let other people influence how you feel about yourself. Say nice things to yourself. Affirm to yourself that you are beautiful because YOU ARE.

Remember these quotes?

“How you treat yourself is how others will treat you”

and

“You must love yourself first before you can love others and others can love you.”

They make sense to me now because I am living proof of them. Hopefully they make sense to you too.

Love,

Keyana:-)

“You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere” ~Anonymous~

Sometimes we can be a little hard on ourselves, especially those of us who are extreme perfectionists. We don’t realize sometimes how we can put ourselves down when we don’t succeed on the first try. Or we think the worst possible solution in different situations we experience.

One day I was watching a movie you know one of those movies where the team is playing their hearts out, but they are still losing. The game is in the last half and the coach gives them the most inspiring pep talk. Consequently the team bounces back and takes home the victory.

After watching I had an epiphany to apply that technique to our everyday lives and become our own coaches. A coach always wants the best for their team and would never say words of discouragement to the players. There is something about great coaches words that inspires their team to bring home a victory. Think about it in that aspect and become your own personal coach. I am a perfectionist and can be hard on myself at times. Raise your hand if this sounds like you. I decided to implement my idea and it has made a huge difference in my life. Now when I am feeling a lack of motivation I pump myself up by reminding myself that I CAN DO IT!! After completing tasks I congratulate myself just to give recognition. If I make a mistake or do not succeed on the first try I give myself words of encouragement to try again. I am with myself 100% of the time so there is no candidate more qualified to motivate me than myself.

I used to look for others approval but was disappointed at times if they would not acknowledge me. I eventually came to the realization that while it is nice to receive recognition from others it is best to give it to yourself. By praising yourself on a regular basis you won’t be disappointed if others fail to praise you. Your opinion about yourself is the most valuable after all.

So when something does not go as planned, instead of being upset and disappointed, uplift yourself by reminding yourself of how proud you are for trying. Acknowledge the fact that trying is an accomplishment within itself and be grateful for where you are today because you are the one that got you here.

Do you see where I am going with this?

Ok, so the next time you have a victory or face an upset, picture that coach(YOU) right there cheering you on and congratulating you for all of your efforts. Your team (YOU) will play much better with positive reinforcement.

How exciting it is that you get to be all of the players in the game so no matter what YOU WIN!!!!!!!

Love,

Keyana