Finding Clarity

When I can’t see the wood for the trees, I panic and attract chaos and negativity. On the contrary, clarity makes me feel confident and creates positive vibes in my life. So, I really appreciate it when I can see clearly. As recently I was struggling with seeing the big picture, I stopped and created an action plan to find clarity in my life.

picture: Pinterest

First, I watched Cassie’s “You Are Enough” book-launch party webinar and I learnt what important role clarity plays in your life. When you always keep yourself busy and just can’t stop, you can easily lose track of your initial goals. It’s easy to fall into the trap of sweating the small stuff and being lost in the details. It’s good to slow down from time to time and look back; just checking on what a long way you have come and appreciate your efforts, mistakes and results.

One of the reasons I love journaling is because I can always look at my old notes in the diary and realise how many things I have achieved since I set a certain intention or created a plan to achieve a goal. Even if I can only tick one or two things on the list, I feel so happy and content and empowered. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing your dreams coming true step-by-step.

It is important to realise that it’s essential to create a plan and organise the steps that you can take working towards your big goal. Once that huge dream is broken down into small and realistic parts, it seems truly achievable. And this can be the most encouraging.

After writing down your goals, creating a plan and starting working on it, it’s good to simply let it go. I have often found myself focusing too hard on certain things that I wanted to invite into my life. I have learnt since then that once you set an intention and have started to make it become a reality, it’s okay to let your hair down and just do things that make you feel happy and involve lots of fun.

It could be cooking, reading, exercise, yoga or just spending time with friends and family or alone. Whatever works for you; anything that you enjoy and makes you forget about your work, problems or the chaos in your life.

Lastly, remember that You Are Doing Enough.

Finding your Way in the Labyrinth of Life

Paul Dolan defines happiness as 

"experiences of pleasure and purpose over the time".

The keywords of Prof. Happy’s definition are experiences and time as he advises to pay attention to living in the moment; i.e. instead of evaluating or comparing our lives to someone else’s or to our own expectations about it, just focus on finding the balance between pleasure and purpose in the present.

Apart from pleasure and purpose, you will encounter other emotions as well, such as pointlessness or pain – says Dolan. Negative feelings are also part of the big picture; so be ready and accept your unpleasant sentiments, as you experience these for a reason. Very often, negative emotions prepare you for something or make you avoid dangerous situations. However, be aware of the difference between necessary negative feelings (e.g. anger) or unnecessary ones, like self-doubt or limiting beliefs about yourself.

To be truly happy, you need to clear your mind, with regular physical exercise, mediation and practicing mindfulness every day.

image:Pinterest

Then, you must stop having expectations about your own happiness. Instead, just live in the moment and accept that life is not black and white. Start living the grey lifestyle; accept your failures and do not regret anything; finally dare to risk and challenge yourself often. You might fail but by focusing on having a good balance of pleasure and purpose in the moment, you will always be able to follow your true passion and be as happy as you should be.

If you need some more guidance in finding more happiness and exploring yourself and your dream-life, check out Caroline Zwick’s blog. She is another amazing expert on mindfulness and self-fulfillment. Her articles and videos have had a really beneficial effect on my transformation into the person who I really am. 

I have just started to discover my true passion in the last couple of years and I would like to share some of the "secrets" that I explored recently; to be as happy as possible, the following are really important:

• Knowing who you really are and what you want in your life
• Setting intentions
• Being positive
• Appreciation and Gratitude
• Living in the moment
• Being courageous; daring to risk and fail
• Trying new things often (especially things that you do not want to do at all)
• Balance between pleasure and purpose 

What would you read about in the next posts? Please share your suggestions in the comments below!

Scarred of Difficult? Try Easy!

What is the connection between small details and great progress? You will see in a minute. You might have realized that whenever you really want to achieve something (=you are extremely motivated to get a certain thing) you can be very creative and are able to come up with several plans in order to realize your dream. Your goal can be either big or small; it does not really matter whether we are talking about losing weight, getting your dream-bag or dream-job. Due to your increased level of motivation, you are enthusiastic and pro-active: you are working on your little project whenever you can; you try to do everything to get what you want.

It is important to catch yourself as soon as you are the most motivated because then you can really work hard and you can save energy and willpower for times when you are not so enthusiastic or are a bit down. For this reason, it is ideal to separate your big aim into small steps. It is always better to start with small and easy because you are more likely to be successful if you have a realistic and achievable mini-project. For example, if I want to lose a significant amount of weight and decide to reach my dream-body in a month’s time with working out 5 times a week and being on a strict diet, I am very likely to give up the whole plan after two weeks because it is simply extremely hard. Especially, if I did not exercise for years and was eating junk food for a while, it is not possible to change my whole lifestyle in one month.

If you want to change something, you need to come up with a detailed plan. Either we talk about losing weight or getting a good job where you can feel useful and appreciated, it always helps if you sit down and think about the followings:

• What do you don’t like in your life and why?
• What do you want to change and why?
• What do you want to achieve and why?

Take a nice notebook and your favourite pen and write down your answers to these questions. You will see, how much a little journaling and self-analysis can help in defining your aims. Break your big plan into small increments and list all the steps that are necessary to reach your goal. It is much easier to focus on small and easy tasks and you are more likely to repeat the steps every day. You are not going to give up exercising or studying after few weeks if you aim to fulfil small and easy challenges. The secret is to do regularly what you planned. If you repeat the steps often, they will become automatisms very quickly and you will not have to use your willpower for these as they are habits already. All the small steps will lead to a huge success in the end. You will be very happy whenever you manage to do what you planned. If you make an exercise-plan, for example, every Sunday, you can easily prioritize and organize your other responsibilities for the whole week. A useful hint: always start as soon as possible because early in the week you are less tired and you are more motivated. As you start using your willpower for duties that you have to do but do not really want to, your level of motivation will decrease and you are more likely to feel too exhausted to exercise or study, e.g.

picture: Garance Doré

So, take a moment to think about your life, decide in what areas you want to change and make a plan. Then separate your big goal into small and easy bits that you can repeat as often as possible. Also, reward yourself and practice self-appreciation! You can be really proud of yourself! You did that 15-min training, wrote the planned 10 pages or read those 5 chapters. Be objective and do not come up whit things that you should have done according to you. Every beginning is a new chance to succeed. It is as good to be a beginner as nice it feels when you achieve your goal. Do not feel ashamed of being a beginner or being fat, slow or unorganized. Guilt and other negative feelings will not help your progress. Be positive and do small and easy tasks regularly. Soon, you will be happy, satisfied and successful.

based on Maria Brilaki’s book: Surprisingly unstuck 

What is the Reason Behind your Failures and Unsuccessful Efforts?

Referring to the previous post, I would like to encourage you to check out Maria Brilaki’s website and watch her video about the power of your thoughts, especially your inner dialogue’s effect on your achievements.

You might have experienced in your life either getting wrong or just few results or not getting results at all. I guess that you have. I honestly have never ever met anyone who has not made any mistakes or wrong decisions in their lives. Although it is really difficult to be objective with yourself when you are in the middle of a crisis, it could be extremely helpful if you tried to support yourself and change the way how you think about your (under)achievements. In the video, Maria suggests to analyze your inner dialogue preceding your decision to take certain actions that lead to failure afterwards.

“If you get bad results, it is because you did not believe in the first place that you can get good results”- says Maria.

If you are practicing self-doubt and are questioning your own success, you waste lots of energy and are not fully focused and committed to achieving your goals. If you change your way of thinking and truly believe that you can get what you want, you are more likely to develop and succeed in the end. This is because you are triggered by the so called “PositivePull”, namely you are not escaping from something negative that you want to avoid; it is exactly the opposite: you are motivated by your self-supporting, positive attitude towards yourself and others. Whenever you enter this circle of your own positive thoughts, you are in the flow and wonderful things will happen!

photo: Pinterest

Before you decide to change or do something, you need to be confident and committed; you need to believe that your actions will lead to success. If you want to live a healthier life, for example, you decide to exercise regularly and eat fresh, healthy and clean food. It sounds so simple, however so many of us have been yo-yoing and giving up diets and sports after a while. The reason why you have not been able to keep doing what you decided to do is that you did not believe that you would be able not to give up your dreams. If you are really focused before you start taking any actions, you are not second-guessing yourself. You are 100% committed to and positive about getting what you want. It can be a healthier and better-looking body or your dream job. If you are insecure and do not believe that you can get a certain job, you are more likely to fail in the interview; simply because you had negative thoughts about yourself and were convinced that you are not qualified or suitable for that position. Maria’s message in this video is the following: 

“You need to believe that you can achieve anything but you need to believe it BEFORE you get it.”

Soon, I am going to introduce you to Caroline Zwick’s really effective method and we will learn how to practice the Positive Pull. 

Welcome to the Rhythm Blog!

• Have you ever felt overexhausted, unmotivated or depressed?
• Do you need some motivation or inspiration?
• Do you have a calling but don't know what to do with it?
• Do you need some support in following through the way to your true self?
• Would you like to live a happier and healthier life?
• Are you planning to change your lifestyle?
• Have you ever wondered about the ways to find balance in your life?
• Are you interested in some useful pieces of advice from the best experts in the wellness and fitness industry?

  

  photo: Pinterest

If your answer is yes, read on!

The Rhythm Blog was created to help people who want to live their lives and don't just let things happen to them. I write to you, who -similarly to me- want to change your lifestyle and are listening to your calling but are still looking for your real passion. If you want to live a happy, healthy and complete life but need some advice, you will find plenty on this blog.

In the posts, I share a collection of unique and useful stories of successful, fearless and happy people and introduce their ideas to you through my own experiences and point of view. They all set wonderful examples for us, who need a "kick"; some motivation and support in following through the ways to find our true self. With presenting the world of the best experts, my blog’s aim is to provide you with relevant and appropriate information in order to help you to create a happy, healthy and balanced life.

My posts on the blog will mostly cover subjects related to mental wellbeing. However, if you follow the Rhythm Blog's facebook page you will not only get fresh wellness & fitness tips (motivational and inspirational quotes, exercising, beauty, healthy eating, recipes, etc.) but also some instant soul-candy in the form of short posts including topics that might be covered in a longer article on the Rhythm Blog. 

I hope that you will enjoy reading the posts and find them useful. I am looking forward to hearing your ideas and opinions; please e-mail me on the Rhythm Blog's facebook page.