Mindful Monday Week 8

 Self Love

Hi, Thinking out loud here.

Welcome to Mindful Monday Week 8

I am starting these blogs different from now on. I will be putting a link for a playlist at the beginning of each blog which will hopefully go along with what I have written. It will be primarily instrumental, but some other songs may occasionally be mixed in. Here is the link https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ZgkXgf7jXMIBNI8tETxst?si=d25c5d8d379b4269 

Get a drink, maybe even a snack, and find a comfy seat so you can relax. Let all worries go for the next little while; get ready for five deep breaths. If you have any problems with breathing, please take an extra mindful moment here. For those joining me in the breathing exercise, breathe out.

Now time for your first deep breath; take in one deep breath through your nose for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. breath out through your mouth for five 1..2..3..4..5.. Hold for 1.. Breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out through for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. Breathe in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. two more to go; breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. last one deep breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. now go back to your regular breathing pattern. I hope you feel calm and relaxed.

Today is all about giving ourselves some self-love, we do so much for others that sometimes we forget about ourselves. It’s so easy to say, I’ll take the time for me tomorrow, but tomorrow always comes, and we don’t take the time out for ourselves. We get busy for one reason or another, and then the time we could have had is gone. So today, if you take anything away from this blog post, let it be this, take five minutes out of today to do something you love that is purely just for you and no one else. If it ends up being longer, that is even better; I say five minutes because that's more realistic than saying an hour out of your day, as I know many people don’t have that long to spare.

For the next few minutes, I want you to try not to think about what needs to be done today; I know it’s hard, but really try to let those things go for now; they will still be there when you have read this blog and had your five minutes. Let this time be your time, breath in love and breath out love, give yourself a massage on your feet or your hands, they do a lot for you during the day, they take a lot of weight and stress, maybe if you can massage your neck gently and the tops of your shoulders. Be slow and gentle; this time is for you. No need to rush; let the music play and guide you as you do for yourself what you do daily for others. Be kind to yourself as you are to others, not just today but every day. 

At some point today, write yourself a letter, make it separate from your five minutes, with pen and paper; don’t do it on your phone or any other device you have. Write down your name, your age, and maybe what you do daily, though this isn’t important. Write all the things you love about yourself, only kind words, maybe what you like physically, parts of your body that you love, what makes you feel good? What do you like doing but don’t do nearly have as much as you should? What makes you happy? I mean truly happy, the kind of happiness that you don’t ever want to lose because nothing will ever compare to it when you feel it. What keeps you passionate? What is your biggest dream that when you think about it you get the biggest smile and a little bit scared of the idea? But don’t let that stop you from doing that dream. 

Date your letter with today's date and this year, then in a year come back to your letter and read it, see if anything has changed. You could maybe then write another letter to yourself saying what you changed and how you felt about those changes or if things have stayed the same and how you feel about that. I hope this leaves you feeling more loved by yourself and not just by those around you.

Let's finish with a three-deep breath breather.

Take one deep breath in through your nose for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. breath out through your mouth for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. and out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. final breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. last breath out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. no hold here you can now go back to your regular breathing pattern.

As always, thank you for reading this blog post. I hope you have fun finding your self-love today but remember it doesn’t have to be just today, every day can be a self-love day.

Love always Thinking out loud xx:D

After I had finished writing this blog post, I read a quote that I think is perfect; I would like to share it with you here before you go. ‘When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another- and ourselves.’ By Jack Kornfield. I want you to focus today on the last few words ‘we lose connection with ourselves,’ don’t lose the connection with yourself or who you are, that is so important with being able to not only self-love but to keep being present and being there for others when they need us or equally when we need them.

Mental Health Monday week 8

Hi Thinking out loud here xx :D

As every week grab a drink and a snack and like always drink responsibly and snack responsibly take this time for you, find a comfy seat, put your feet up and let your breath guide you through this post, this week seems to be very breath related so please only do what you can and if as I say later in this post, you have any breathing problems please do not do any of the breathing exercises, do what works for you and do what calms you when we come to those parts of this blog. So sit back relax and let's get reading.

Before we get into this weeks blog post like with last weeks I'm going to do another little breathing exercise. So if you have any kind of breathing problems please and I can not stress this enough, please skip this bit of Mental Health Mondays.

Lets take three deep breaths in and out, take a deep breath all the way in through your nose, and hold for three seconds,1, 2, 3, and all the way out, two more through your mouth and hold for two seconds, 1, 2, two more to go breath in all the way through your nose and hold for three seconds, 1, 2, 3, and out all the way through your mouth and hold for two seconds, 1, 2, and the final one in all the way through your nose and hold for five seconds, 1, 2, 3, 4,5, and out all the way through your mouth and hold for three seconds, 1, 2, 3, now you can find your regular breathing pattern and breath as normal having let any stresses of the day go.

Now we can get into this week's Mental Health Monday, first off how is this week 8, I am still amazed that I've kept writing, a massive thank you to anyone who has been reading these posts. This week is of course catch-up week so how is everyone doing? How has this past week been? Anything changed? Anything exciting happening? Anything not exciting but still deserves to be talked about? Whatever it is that you are up to I hope you are having a good time. If at the moment you are struggling I want you to know that this time will pass, as much as it seems like it won't it will, it may take time and a little longer than you want it to but please be patient, if you have help listen to everything that person is telling you if you don't have help but know you need help then please take this as your reminder to go to your local GP, of course taking precautions for covid, but please take the time to get help and to help yourself, you have more to offer than you realise and have and will have in the future people who care about you.

This week for me is feeling good, after a bit of a crazy but good weekend on a little staycation I am feeling ready for the week ahead, I kicked off this morning actually watching one of my all-time favourites Emmet Cahill who did a stage it for his 30^th birthday, something that was a little odd for an early Monday morning but in all honesty, I could easily get used to it. For anyone who doesn't know who Emmet is he is an incredible Irish singer who is part of a group called Celtic Thunder if you haven't listened to them or to any of the guys as solo artist then I recommend you do. They are al amazing singers.

Today I am feeling a lot clearer than I think I have in past weeks, whether that is because I'm writing this post or not I don't know but whatever it is I hope you all are also feeling good about the week ahead. I'm definitely ready for getting stuck into writing, maybe even getting ready for this years NaNoWriMo for those of you who don't know what that stands for it is national novel writing month and it happens every November, I will before November do a blog post about it as a Thursday upload for anyone who is maybe thinking about joining but aren't sure about it and want to hear from someone who has done a handful of NaNoWriMos.

Lets do something a little bit different, I would say close your eyes but I realise that it is a little hard to do when you are reading a blog post. For this next little bit, I am going to attempt to do a little open-eye meditation, we won't go into a full medi, just a little one for the next few minutes. Maybe you will be able to manifest something that you have been wanting or something you have been wanting to do for the past little while but haven't had the time or the chance to do it, or maybe you need to let some more stress or worries go.

Lets take another two deep breaths in and out here to calm us before we get started. Breath in through your nose all the way in reaching every part of your body, hold this breath for three seconds, 1, 2, 3, and breath out through your mouth all the way, hold for two seconds, 1, 2, last breath, breathing in through your nose all the way in, hold for five seconds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and breath out all the way hold for three seconds.1, 2, 3, Now find you regular breath as we wind down, letting your breath guide you, letting all thoughts go, if you are focusing on manifesting something, hold that thought focus on that one thought, give it all of your energy, maybe here say it out loud, let it be known.

If you want to destress let every thought go, any worries that you can't and don't have control over let them go, whatever it is right now it doesn't have a purpose. It doesn't need to be taking your energy away from something else that right now needs your energy. This could be something you don't realise yet needs your energy, but once you stop focusing on what may be the wrong thing for now but the right thing later on a long time for this moment, once you stop that focus, the thing that needs your energy now will become clear.

Take another deep breath here just one, in through your nose hold for four seconds, 1, 2, 3, 4, and out through your mouth and hold this one also for four seconds 1, 2, 3, 4, now find your regular breathing pattern. Now as we come to the end of this little medi session, I hope you are feeling rested, calm, if you were trying to manifest something, I hope now that it is out in thought and in words. It coming into fruition for you may happen instantly, and it might take time this all depends on how big your manifestation is and how doable it is for right now. For those of you destressing I hope you are feeling calm, I hope you feel lighter, and I hope that you are starting to focus your energy on to what really needs your energy but also for you what you want to focus your energy on to.

For everyone though as a reminder we should all focus our energy into what we want to focus it onto, if what you have been focusing on isn't working, has stopped working or used to be for you but no longer serves you any purpose think about making a change, think about what is drawing you in at this moment in time. What it is that you keep going back to, and you've been trying to ignore it for whatever excuses you've been coming up with to tell yourself to stop thinking about it because you can't do it. Stop. You keep thinking of this for a reason, whether it's a new business idea, a new job, hobby, relationship, moving, taking a little staycation, whatever it might be, stop stopping yourself. Only you can make changes to your life no one can do that for you, your future starts with you, what has been your past has served its purpose it has been apart of you getting to this stage now, but now it's time to think about what the future holds, what you want to do, who you want to be, and how to get there. I hope over the week you think about these things, I hope you take time to really think about what you want the person you want to be and the changes you can start making today to make these happen.

Wherever and whoever you are I hope you have a lovely day and a lovely week ahead as always I will be back here on Thursday but if you only read my Monday uploads I shall be back here next Monday for Mental Health Monday week 9 until then take care, be present with your breath and let it guide you when things get a little tough, use it as a tool that your body provides it can help in so many ways to utilise it, and let it help calm you, remember you can always take three deep breaths when you need to just remember to always come back to your regular breathing pattern after. Thank you so much again for reading this post and once again I will see you back here on Thursday. You can also, find me over on @allthingspositive22 on Instagram we also now have a Facebook page at Allthingspositive

Kia Kaha, Kia Maia, Kia Manawa, Me Te Aroha. Be strong, Be brave, Be Steadfast, with love.

Love always Thinkin out loud xx :D