5 Steps to Shift From Madness to Mindset
If you’re mindset, or beliefs around your actions aren’t aligned, you’ll often find yourself reverting back to your old ways. We’re going to focus this year on shifting from this madness to developing a strong mindset for making an actual change that is aligned and long lasting.
A few years ago I offered a deep reflection tool that allowed you to recognize when changes in behaviors happened..
And in recognizing those changes in behaviors, my hope is that you’re able to see those as a major step forward. If you haven’t done that exercise, I suggest giving it a try this year. Because you might be surprised by how much growth you’ve been able to accomplish with just behavioral shifts! You can do last year’s activity by reading about it here. It includes some downloadable worksheets too!
Now, to take your reflection even deeper towards transformation this year’s tool will help you understand your mindset. I can talk actions all day long and you can engage with actions that change the way you do things, but if you’re mindset, or beliefs around those actions aren’t aligned, you’ll often find yourself reverting back to your old ways.
Take this beginning of the year season where we typically see folks committing to “a better diet”, “more exercise”, or some other form of better living. When the enthusiasm and stamina around that change wears off, say around February or March, excuses start to take over. Without a strong mindset aligned with that change, belief systems from other people, societal norms, or just those stories you developed on your own can take over a derail your plans. The madness sets in.
So, as a way to make your shift a holistic and solid one, we’re going to focus this year on shifting from this madness of varying beliefs in your head to developing a strong mindset that sets you up for making an actual change that is aligned and long lasting.
So what does a successful shift from madness to mindset look like?
Simply put, these 5 steps can help you put some back into it! Below I give you some examples to help jumpstart your reflection and I also encourage you to download this worksheet and FULLY engage with the activity.
Name what you want to change. Bottom line it.
In 2019 I want to change the way I eat to have a more plant-based diet
What are your beliefs (madness) around that shift? For instance, what goes on in your head when you think about making this change in your life?
a. Plant based diets are healthier and will help me lose weight
b. It takes too much time to prep food for a more plant based diet and I’ too busy
Where did they come from? You, someone else, societal norms, etc…?
a. I see it all the time in the media, a couple of people in my community swear by the a plant-based diet reversing chronic illness and other things, and ever since I started eating more plant based foods I feel better about my overall body
b. I grew up with fast food and TV dinners, so making food from scratch is too time consuming and I’m a really busy person
Determine which of those beliefs serve to your benefit versus ones that result in preventing you from making a successful, long term shift. Can you add an action to take to make that change?
Example
Mindset - I see it all the time in the media, a couple of people in my community swear by the vegan diet reversing chronic illness, and ever since I started eating more plant based foods I feel better about my overall body.
Action - 3 out of 7 days in a week will be a plant-based lunch
Bottom line your mindset in a statement. This is the part that shifts from madness your mindset. Affirm it and ritualize it into an affirmation or reminder to yourself, especially when you have the urge to revert back to old habits. Write or draw this statement out and put it on display in a sacred place in your home so you can see it and recite it at least once a day. Do this for at least 21 days!
a. I make time to have more plant-based foods in my diet because it supports my overall health
Keep yourself accountable by looking back every week and tell someone.
How many times were you able to implement the change?
How many times were you able to state your mantra (mindset) to yourself?
Celebrate the wins and when you’ve been consistent in using this mantra and don’t be hard on yourself if it’s not perfect! Your mind is, after all, conditioning itself to a new norm! But also don’t have a gallon of ice cream, instead, share with someone who supports you that you reached your weekly goal!
Tip: If you’re not consistent, next week, customize the action so that it fits better into your unique life and try again. It’s all good as long as you don’t quit all together!
Finally, its always a good idea to have at least one “transformational buddy”; someone who can witness your change and cheer you on! I personally would shamelessly plug that hiring a coach is the ultimate game changer! But if you’re not yet ready for that type of investment, I’ll leave you with some final tips to identify who that buddy can be:
Someone you trust and has been a natural and true champion of you all along
A person who can keep their personal agenda out of your goals and be an active listener
Someone who can empathize, not sympathize with you
Good luck in the next year of change towards your best life!
THANK YOU FOR READING!
IF YOU FOUND THIS RESOURCE HELPFUL
AND WOULD LIKE MORE LIKE THIS, SUBSCRIBE
TO MY NEWSLETTER BELOW!
5 Steps to Shift From Madness to Mindset
This year’s tool will help you understand your mindset. I can talk actions all day long and you can engage with actions that change the way you do things, but if you’re mindset, or beliefs around those actions aren’t aligned, you’ll often find yourself reverting back to your old ways. As a way to make your shift a holistic and solid one, we’re going to focus this year on shifting from this madness of varying beliefs in your head to developing a strong mindset that sets you up for making an actual change that is aligned and long lasting.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting the same results”
At the end of last year (2017) I offered you a deep reflection tool that allowed you to recognize the changes in behaviors you were able to make that year...
And in recognizing those changes in behaviors, I hope you were able to see those as a major step forward. If you haven’t done that exercise, I suggest giving it a try before doing this year’s activity. Because you might be surprised by how much growth you’ve been able to accomplish with just behavioral shifts! You can do last year’s activity by reading about it here. It includes some downloadable worksheets too!
Now, to take your reflection even deeper towards
transformation, this year’s tool will help you understand your mindset. I can talk actions all day long and you can engage with actions that change the way you do things, but if you’re mindset, or beliefs around those actions aren’t aligned, you’ll often find yourself reverting back to your old ways.
Take this upcoming “New Years Resolutions” season where we typically see folks committing to “a better diet”, “more exercise”, or some other form of better living. When the enthusiasm and stamina around that change wears off, say around February or March, excuses start to take over. Without a strong mindset aligned with that change, belief systems from other people, societal norms, or just those stories you developed on your own can take over a derail your plans. The madness sets in.
So, as a way to make your shift a holistic and solid one, we’re going to focus this year on shifting from this madness of varying beliefs in your head to developing a strong mindset that sets you up for making an actual change that is aligned and long lasting.
So what does a successful shift from madness to mindset look like?
Simply put, these 5 steps can help you put some back into it! Below I give you some examples to help jumpstart your reflection and I also encourage you to download this worksheet and FULLY engage with the activity.
Name what you want to change. Bottom line it.
In 2019 I want to change the way I eat to have a more plant-based diet
What are your beliefs (madness) around that shift? For instance, what goes on in your head when you think about making this change in your life?
a. Plant based diets are healthier and will help me lose weight
b. It takes too much time to prep food for a more plant based diet and I’ too busy
Where did they come from? You, someone else, societal norms, etc…?
a. I see it all the time in the media, a couple of people in my community swear by the a plant-based diet reversing chronic illness and other things, and ever since I started eating more plant based foods I feel better about my overall body
b. I grew up with fast food and TV dinners, so making food from scratch is too time consuming and I’m a really busy person
Determine which of those beliefs serve to your benefit versus ones that result in preventing you from making a successful, long term shift. Can you add an action to take to make that change?
Example
Mindset - I see it all the time in the media, a couple of people in my community swear by the vegan diet reversing chronic illness, and ever since I started eating more plant based foods I feel better about my overall body.
Action - 3 out of 7 days in a week will be a plant-based lunch
Bottom line your mindset in a statement. This is the part that shifts from madness your mindset. Affirm it and ritualize it into an affirmation or reminder to yourself, especially when you have the urge to revert back to old habits. Write or draw this statement out and put it on display in a sacred place in your home so you can see it and recite it at least once a day. Do this for at least 21 days!
a. I make time to have more plant-based foods in my diet because it supports my overall health
Keep yourself accountable by looking back every week and tell someone.
How many times were you able to implement the change?
How many times were you able to state your mantra (mindset) to yourself?
Celebrate the wins and when you’ve been consistent in using this mantra and don’t be hard on yourself if it’s not perfect! Your mind is, after all, conditioning itself to a new norm! But also don’t have a gallon of ice cream, instead, share with someone who supports you that you reached your weekly goal!
Tip: If you’re not consistent, next week, customize the action so that it fits better into your unique life and try again. It’s all good as long as you don’t quit all together!
Finally, its always a good idea to have at least one “transformational buddy”; someone who can witness your change and cheer you on! I personally would shamelessly plug that hiring a coach is the ultimate game changer! But if you’re not yet ready for that type of investment, I’ll leave you with some final tips to identify who that buddy can be:
Someone you trust and has been a natural and true champion of you all along
A person who can keep their personal agenda out of your goals and be an active listener
Someone who can empathize, not sympathize with you
Good luck in the next year of change towards your best life!
THANK YOU FOR READING!
IF YOU FOUND THIS RESOURCE HELPFUL
AND WOULD LIKE MORE LIKE THIS, SUBSCRIBE
TO MY NEWSLETTER BELOW!
Feeding the Inner Soul with Healing Outside
Alas! The year is coming to a close! Can you believe it? Now is the time to reflect on and celebrate the year past. But for many the weight of the holidays and all its festivities are a true challenge in keeping balanced both physically and mentally as we charge through to December 31st.
This guest blog post appeared on Nutrition Consultant, Mike Nguyen's blog on December 26th, 2016. Alas! The year is coming to a close! Can you believe it? Now is the time to reflect on and celebrate the year past. But for many the weight of the holidays and all its festivities are a true challenge in keeping balanced both physically and mentally as we charge through to December 31st. EMOTIONAL well being, meaning the well being of spirit, can also be challenged. Especially in these most recent months of more social and political tensions, I’m seeing and hearing the vast majority of us longing for some sort of timeout from society’s happenings. It’s true and it’s real. We are a nation in transition; the world is going through it as well.
So how do we maintain the balance of mind, body, and spirit when in every soundwave, every corner there lies some sort of commotion happening? How do we sit with our position in these events?
How do we manage our stress, better yet, move through stress with a time out from life? Nature, of course! It’s the one thing that grounds us, the one thing we are made of, and the one thing you can guarantee is there for you WHENEVER you need it.
And for those over achievers out there, I’m not talking about a trip to the beach or some epic Redwood Forest hike, although if those things are close to you, I say go there! We ALL should be able to find nature no matter where we are. Impossible you say? Let me illustrate for you how I coach during walks in nature whether wild or urban.
When we go outside say, “for some fresh air”, there’s more to that statement than the physical intake of less contaminated, indoor oxygen. Breathing outside in nature does something to your body, therefore something in your mind triggers an ancient memory. Outside is where we come from. The elements outside are also found in our bodies. Think about it. Earth (our body), Air (oxygen we breathe), Water (in our cells), and Fire (adrenaline, or the passion in our hearts). All of these elements that exist in us, exist outside. So when I start a hike with my clients we always acknowledge these elements FIRST. Then, we ask those elements FOR PERMISSION to heal us from whatever it is we need healing or balancing around. I’ve done this with clients on a forested trail and I’ve done this sitting in front of Lake Merritt with a lot of people walking by. This can be an everyday stress management practice for you. This can be your meditation.
This simple practice of acknowledgment and asking for permission is an intentional way to feed your inner soul. Just like when you would mindfully choose your meals because you want to make healthier choices in nutrition intake, acknowledgment of the natural elements around you when you are outside and asking for permission for balancing are the synonymous actions of intention setting. And when we walk through life with more intention, magical shifts begin to happen.
Back in October I started a series of monthly healing hikes in San Francisco called, Vicarious Trauma Healing Hikes. This hike invited service professionals working directly with clients experiencing trauma. The work is stressful. The work takes work to stay balanced. I know from previous career experience, vicarious trauma can house those dangerous levels of stress that impact everyone. So, I worked with my spiritual teacher to create a walk in meditation and healing for these professionals so they can cleanse themselves of stress-related symptoms and go back to work in full capacity to sustain their service. In this intentional process, we ritualized our presence by acknowledging the elements and asked Nature to accept the stress energies we would be releasing to her that day. The processing of trauma proved to be transformative for all of our participants.
“The Sunset Healing hike gave me permission to focus on my self-care needs and gave me the courage to continue my self care practice with no apologies.” — Lyslynn Lacoste, Director, BMAGIC in SF
I also started weekly healing hikes in Oakland. Since then, hikers say they are feeling much lighter at the end of our walk; there’s healing happening. Jessica Sanchez, a Program Manager for Grassroots Ecology in Palo Alto says the facilitation is, “…using and reclaiming nature to honor and replenish our spirits on these wonderful healing hikes…..I feel free to be myself and explore who I am.”
Reclaiming. That’s that ancient memory I mentioned earlier when we breathe in fresh air. Reclaiming Nature is a part of our identity and that’s important when we need to feed the soul. When we go back to these ancient memories we are healed the same way our ancestors were healed and guided through life. And when we feel some sort of reconnection to our spaces, we know that our souls are being fed. I invite you to join me on a healing hike someday and engage in this radical act of self care alongside your daily routine of healthy living. Mindful walking and mindful eating go hand-in-hand with a holistic approach to a better life. To find out when and where the next healing hike will be, follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and my website.