The Wellness Combo:
I like to try different techniques that allow you to re-program your mind towards positive thinking and positive living habits. I have found that a powerful wellness combo include as a foundation a mix of Seven Techniques: breathing exercises, meditation practice, positive affirmations, gratitude practice, give away blast, visualization exercises and body pampering.
When you introduce to your life bites and pieces of the wellness combo you will start feeling fulfilled and happier, your mind body and spirit would naturally align with the universal energy and you will start creating a newer and more positive you.
I can share with you a tiny piece of each one, so you can have an overview of what I mean by the wellness combo, ready? Let’s go…
Breathing Relaxation Technique: Is one of the most powerful ways to relieve tension and bring peace into your being. Working with your breath is effective, convenient, and free!. One of my personal favorite techniques is the Complete Breath because it allows you to breathe with the whole of your lungs. The lungs stretch from the diaphragm up to the top of the chest, this technique utilizes the lungs to their full capacity, oxygenates the body, and activates the relaxation response.
Meditation Practice: It is a fact that in average our untrained mind wanders 47% of the time, this time we have no control over what we are thinking, this is why we need to Meditate, to train the mind to control our own thoughts and to concentrate in the now, however I know by experience that it’s extremely difficult for a beginner to sit for hours and think of nothing and have an “empty mind.” The easiest way to begin meditating is by focusing on the breath, by concentration. I encourage you to start your practice with “Concentration Meditation” which involves focusing on a single point (the breath or repeating a single mantra) Focusing the mind is challenging, if you are a beginner try to meditate for only a few minutes and then work up to longer durations. Simply refocus your awareness on the chosen object of attention (mantra, breathing) and each time you notice your mind wandering, rather than pursuing random thoughts, you simply let them go. Through this process, your ability to concentrate improves.
Positive affirmations: You are what you think. Affirmations help purify our thoughts and restructure the dynamic of our brains so that we truly begin to think that nothing is impossible. When we verbally affirm our dreams and ambitions, we are instantly empowered with a deep sense of reassurance that our wishful words will become reality. Affirmations are proven methods of self-improvement because of their ability to rewire our brains. If you constantly say “I can’t,” the energy of your words will repel the universal force against you. But if you say “I can!” the universe will endow you with the abilities to do just that. So predict your own future and live up to your potential with positive affirmations that will change your life! Examples of positive affirmations that you can repeat to yourself:
“I forgive those who have harmed me in my past and peacefully detach from them”
“My ability to conquer my challenges is limitless; my potential to succeed is infinite”
“I am the CEO of my Life”
Gratitude practice: Gratitude is a state of mind that arises when you acknowledge a good thing in your life. Whether it is a person, things, a tasty bite of food or good health, there is always something to be grateful for, even "bad experiences" at least teach us something. Gratitude is a state of mind that doesn’t actually depend on your life circumstances. When we fill grateful we connect with the universe, no wonder why practicing gratitude it is a common and main spiritual tradition worldwide (including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and East Asian religions).
Gratitude practice begins by paying attention to all the good things you normally take for granted. Then write about it in a journal, a letter or your PC; writing helps you organize thoughts and be more conscious; finally express gratitude to complete the feeling of connection. Grateful people are rated by others as more helpful, outgoing, optimistic, and trustworthy. Be grateful with yourself, other persons, things, a thought, anything can be a potential subject for you to display gratitude.
Give away blast: How great is it that our random acts of kindness and good deeds can make someone else’s entire day? If you perform a small act of kindness, the recipient of that small act of generosity will be inspired to do a kind act for someone else, and on and on… They’ve got infected with warm and fuzzy feelings. So simply find ways of give, to surprise random people with an unexpected flower or note, treat or any surprise that make them feel happy and special, find opportunities to give compliments.. I invite you to become someone else everyday Hero.
Visualization exercises: Mental practice can get you closer to where you want to be in life, and it can prepare you for success! Also this is one of my personal favorite routines, I practice it every morning for 5 minutes as soon as I wake up. Visualization is considered a form of mental rehearsal and it has been popular since the Soviets started using it back in the 1970’s to compete in sports. Nowadays, many athletes apply this technique, including Tiger Woods and the World Champion Golfer Jack Nicklaus who has said: “I never hit a shot, not even in practice without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head”. Even heavy weight champion, Muhammad Ali, used different mental practices to enhance his performance in the ring such as: “affirmation; visualization; mental rehearsal;self-confirmation”.
I find it fascinating to know that brain studies now reveal that thoughts produce the same mental instructions as actions, so it is like the brain is getting trained for actual performance during visualization. Mental practices can enhance your motivation, increase confidence, improve motor performance, and prime your brain for success. If you would like to give Visualizations a try, just begin by focusing on a specific goal, but it is important that you Imagine that you have already achieved your goal as if it were occurring to you right at that moment and picture the scene in as much detail as possible, engaging as many of the five senses as you can in your visualization, ask yourself: Who are you with? Which emotions do you feel right now? What are you wearing? Is there a smell in the air? What do you hear? Feel the emotion so it would be more powerful. Practice it at night or in the morning (just before/after sleep) it is more effective during that time because you would be in alpha state… Just Imagine!
Body Pampering: I always believe that we need to have a balance, the perfect balance: Mind- Body – Spirit. If Inner growth help us to balance our mind and spirit we are then missing the physical body part, and that is exactly what I encourage you to do not forget or neglect while working on your personal growth. You need to love yourself, and that includes your physical body as well, respect it and pamper it in any possible way. I would recommend you to start with providing the most essential source of life: Water! Drink lots of water but every time that you can put a positive intention in the glass or bottle or water that you would drink. Eat healthy food please, our body and internal organs love lean and fresh food, the less processed food the healthier you’ll be, have you ever wonder why the first thing doctors prescribe to sick patients is to get into a “healthier diet”?, If you create healthy eating habits you won’t need to later be in that diet because it would already be part of your lifestyle.
Then you can try to respect your sleep ours (it’s been said that sleep it is the secret to eternal youth) I totally believe it, your internal organs only get the change to rest and re-generate themselves while you sleep, so why don’t you allow your body to do so? Also Exercise it’s needed, we need to perform at least cardiovascular exercises in a regular basis to maintain good health, you can also additionally practice sports, yoga or lift weights to tone your body, be stronger and hotter (what is wrong with that)?
Another final ritual I recommend to pamper your body and senses is to use oils, creams on your body while lighting up essence candles, create your own home spa, take hot baths and save some money to go to the spa for a good massage, your body deserve it!