Keeping it creative

CBT, compassion, lifestyle, mental health, Setting goals and intentions, wellbeing, wellness

Monday Matters: Nine ways to make your day amazing

Posted on May 15, 2023May 11, 2023 by Laura

As I shared in a previous post, I’ve started using The Five Minute Journal morning and evening as a way to be more grateful, live with intention, remain positive and just generally have a good day, every day, no matter what. One of the prompts for early morning is to decide on three things that would make today great and list them. At first, when I started using the journal, the temptation was to just write my ‘must do’s’ from my ever lengthening to-do list as a way of being and feeling super productive. However, what I think is much more valuable (and a key idea with the book) is to think about ways in which you can upgrade your day by considering things such as be present (mindfulness), doing things that really matter to you (based on your core values + current goals and intentions) and finding time for or creating habits which give your body and mind what they really need to improve both your physical and mental health and therefore your general wellbeing. So, today, I’m going to share nine ways to improve your day by figuring out your current priorities, doing things that align with your core values, instilling positive habits, re-phrasing self talk and making meaningful progress towards your short term / medium term / life goals, desires and intentions.

Of course, I do realise that, every now and then, events happen in our day which contribute to uncomfortable emotions such as those associated with anger, fear, sadness and disgust and that sometimes, it becomes difficult to remain positive or optimistic. However, I hope that by sharing these suggestions, I will be helping you to learn simple ways to create high vibe states such as peace, joy, gratitude, enthusiasm, optimism, hope and happiness and recognise the effect that these can have on your day. As you create and maintain healthier habits, you should also notice that you spend less time dwelling on negative events and situations and more time celebrating the positives and recognising all that is good in your life.

Today, I’m sharing nine ways to improve your day-to-day but I’m sure, when you think about it, you’ll be able to come up with many more ideas for upgrading from an okay day, to one which leaves you feeling satisfied that you’re living your best life.

Be present

Being present is a state of mindfulness where we slow down and bring awareness to what is right in front of us and what is happening in the current moment. By focusing on the here and now, we’re not dwelling on the past (sometimes referred to as rumination) or worrying about the future. This can help us feel calmer and more relaxed. It can also have a positive impact on our relationships, make it easier for us to manage stress and relieve mental health symptoms such as anxiety and depression.

Bringing you attention to and staying in the current moment is a skill that everyone can develop but it does take a lot of practice and can, at times, be really difficult. However, it’s definitely worth persevering if you want to experience the above benefits. To get started, give this blog post a read.

Consider what really matters and take action

Have you ever sat down and seriously reflected on what really matters to you right now? If you haven’t, I can highly recommend taking some time to do this as it can provide a useful starting point to help you decide where to make changes in your life for the better. I find that the best way to do this is to look at a comprehensive list of personal, professional or core values and make a note of those which particularly resonate most with you. Then, when you’ve selected those which matter the most, you can either continue to make time for these things, think about new habits to work on instilling or work on better aligning your behaviour to fit with your current priorities. So, for example, you might decide that having fun with your partner is really important to you and something you want to make more time for in your relationship. Then, you might list fun activities you’ve enjoyed in the past e.g. going to a comedy show, playing mini golf, spending the day at the seaside paddling in the sea, building sandcastles and eating ice cream, and some you’d like to try in the future e.g. canoeing, a Segway tour, exploring the night sky at an observatory, taking a road trip to somewhere new or go camping.

Get your body moving.

I’m sure you already know the benefits of exercise for your mind and body but adding movement to your day doesn’t necessarily mean hitting the gym for an hour. Here’s some quick and easy ways to raise your pulse rate:

check out this webpage for some easy stretches you can do in the morning before you even leave your bed
put on your favourite upbeat track and dance around your bedroom / kitchen / living room
take a quick power walk around the block in your lunch break
find a 10 minute ‘no equipment’ exercise routine on YouTube to have a go at. Add those you enjoy to your favourites.
Do some gentle stretching exercises throughout your day to ease tension and improve your circulation, flexibility, blood flow and posture. Try focusing on areas of your body where you typically hold tension such as your neck, shoulders and upper back. The NHS website has plenty of ideas – try searching ‘NHS flexibility’.

Do a little cleaning, tidying or decluttering

Doing a little bit of cleaning, tidying or decluttering each day can provide a real mood boost and a sense of satisfaction when you admire what you’ve achieved. It doesn’t have to be a long or arduous task, but just taking five or ten minutes can make a difference. You might give your kitchen worktops a deep clean, choose just one drawer or shelf in your kitchen to re-organised or decide to check through your make up bag for products which are past their best or haven’t been used in a while. Over time, these short, focused ‘projects’ will help you to create and maintain a home that you’re super proud of and, if you want an easy way to measure your progress, I recommend taking a quick before and after snap on your phone so you can see what a difference you’ve made – you could even store the ‘after’ photos in a digital folder called ‘my lovely home’!

Practice gratitude

I’ve talked about the importance of being grateful for the things and people you have in your life in a number of previous blog post and the benefits of a daily gratitude practice are well documented. The morning part of The Five Minute Journal asks you to record three things that you are grateful for and, I’ve found that I know find it so easy to fill in. I also find myself expressing my gratitude in my thoughts throughout the day on a regular basis. So, for example today, I was a little annoyed that I had to get the washing off the line as it started raining as soon I’d finished hanging it out but I was glad I had to because it rained much heavier whilst I was at my Zumba class. I was also grateful that I’d made the decision to pop on my raincoat to wear to the gym as the rain became torrential before the end of my class.

If you want to start a gratitude practice but you’re not sure how, check out this blog post which gives my best tips as well as discussing the benefits of developing a consistent daily habit.

Learn something new

Making time in your routine to learn something new each day is not only a wonderful workout for your brain, it’s also an effective way of reducing stress and calming your body down. Acquiring new information on a topic of interest or developing your skills in a particular area promotes self- improvement and personal growth and can really boost your self esteem and confidence. What you set out to learn and how you do it is really up to you but it’s a good idea to spend some time quietly thinking about subjects of interest and jotting them down in a notebook e.g. money management, particular hobbies, creative writing and animal welfare, things you’d like to know more about e.g. eco friendly cleaning solutions, a particular country or place you’d love to visit, British history, and skills you’d like to work on e.g. cooking, drawing, leadership, time-management and so on. Once you’ve done this, you can then schedule time for learning and begin to collect a bank of useful resources e.g. books, online articles, videos, in person or online classes etc.

Replace ‘I have to…’ with ‘I get to…’ and consider other aspects of your self talk

On the subject of being grateful for what you have, another way you can work on altering your mindset in a positive way is to begin to notice when ‘I have to…’ pops into your head and change it to ‘I get to…’ So, rather than saying ‘I have to go to work’, you would rephrase it as ‘I get to go to work’ focusing on the fact that you have the opportunity rather than it being an obligation.

In a similar vein, statements such as ‘I need to…’, ‘I have to…’ or ‘I should…’ can create pressure and an expectation to perform, whereas better self talk could include ‘I would like to…’, ‘I might…’ or ‘it would be good if…’ e.g. rather than ‘I need to get that washing up done because it’s piling up’ you could say ‘It would be good if I did the washing up now so that the kitchen is clean and tidy for making dinner’. (Find out more by reading this blog post from a few years back.)

Find time for things you love

I believe that setting aside time to do something you love each day is super important if you want to feel a sense of satisfaction with your life. Again, writing down activities you enjoy or get value from and recording a short explanation of why can help. Here’s some examples from my personal list to give you some ideas:

bird watching
nature walks
reading health and wellbeing magazines
watching psychological thrillers on TV (or reading them on my Kindle)
playing card and board games
making sweet treats such as flapjack, cookies or cupcakes
doing 1000 piece jigsaws
playing Angry Birds 2, Candy Crush and Word Cookies on my tablet
hand lettering with my brush pens
painting my nails
using my watercolours

Avoid distractions and information overload

My final tip for making the most of your time and having a great day, is to minimise sources of distraction and develop ways to prevent information overload. I would say that the most common source of distraction and productivity killer comes from modern technology and presents itself in the form of notifications such as text messages, emails or social media happenings (such as tweets, status updates on Facebook, Instagram stories and photo shares, YouTube video postings and so on) and often a combination of all three. I don’t consider myself an expert on avoiding such distractions but this is what I’m trying at the moment:

two email addresses – one for work related emails for my Etsy shop, blog and university work with notifications for messages from actual people (rather than organisationd) going to my Fitbit watch during the day, the other for all other emails such as those from businesses with notifications turned off. If I’ve placed an online order and want to track progress, I just use the search facility to find the relevant information.
keep my phone in another room whilst I’m working (whether that’s on my shop, my blog, gardening, housework etc)
turning off social media notifications and then setting aside a small amount of time each day to ‘check in’
avoiding looking at my phone during my 5 minute Pomodoro Technique breaks

In terms of information overload, there are some useful tips contained in this blog post including how to consider the type of content you wish to engage depending on your current priorities.

Final words…

I’ve found The Five Minute Journal really useful in helping me to decide what my priorities are for that particular day and in thinking about what would turn my week days and weekend days from just okay or average to great or amazing. Whether you use this journal system or not, spending a few minutes each morning in mindful contemplation in relation to the above can make such a difference to your day.

I hope you have taken away something useful from your reading and I would love to hear any thoughts or additional ideas you may have in the comments.

art, bullet journal, Bullet journaling, lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my Bullet Journal for May 2023: Travel theme

Posted on May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by Laura

This month, we’re finally going on our long awaited holiday to Vienna in Austria. It was originally planned for August 2020 but in March of that year, obviously COVID-19 hit and our flights were cancelled. My husband re-arranged for May 2021 but restrictions were still in place, so we made the decision to wait for another year. Everything is now booked (including an overnight stay in a hotel in Manchester as our flight is from there) and during the last month we have again started to think about what we’re going to take with us in the hold and in our hand luggage and what we want to see and do over the 5 days.

As we were making our plans, I decided it would be nice to create scrapbook style spreads with photographs of our hotel, plus must visit locations including parks, buildings and attractions. I’ve not finished all of my travel planning spreads yet but I’m making good progress and I’m happy with everything I’ve done so far.

My cover page

After printing mini photographs on my Canon Selphy printer, I chose 5 of them to include on the front cover. Whilst searching through my journalling supplies, I found a small travel themed sticker book with mini word and icon stickers plus some tiny hearts to fill in the spaces. I also treated myself to some new washi tapes from Stationery Pal and they arrived just in time for me to use one of them in my spreads.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Monthly calendar

I’ve gone back to the slightly larger boxes for this month so I have plenty of room to record my university work, fitness classes and travel plans. Again, I’ve included mini photos of popular places in Vienna to visit and then filled in the spaces with more of the little stickers from by booklet. I didn’t really come up with a colour scheme but I wanted to go for different shades of blue to match with the bright blue skies in some of the photos.

May finances

I’m sure we’ll be spending lots in May with all the bank holidays and our trip do I’ve made my expenses section a little bigger than last month. I decided to include a photograph of the amazing rooftop bar in our hotel as I reckon we’ll be spending time and money there relaxing with a cocktail or two!

Travel information spreads

I want us to be super prepared for our trip as it helps to keep travel anxiety at bay. The booking information is all in various emails so I asked my husband to forward everything to me so I could add everything to my bullet journal. I understand why everything is done electronically now but I used to like paper copies so that I could stick things into my Traveller’s notebook as part of my scrapbooking.

So far, I’ve got our Manchester hotel booking information, the outbound and return flight details and our hotel booking information for Vienna. I’ve also written details of the train we can catch from airport and the stations we can alight at. I’ve pixelated the specifics for privacy reasons!

On the next page, I’ve included a map of Europe which shows Sunderland to Manchester (as the crow flies!) and the route from Manchester Airport to Vienna International Airport. It was also good to learn more about the countries which border Austria too. The ink I used for the stamping is Stazon which claims to allow you to use it on any surface so I tried it out on the top of one of my grid washis and it printed and dried really well.

Over the page, I’ve listed the must see and must visit places on a double page spread. This has helped me to create an itinerary for the first full day we are there.

The next spread I have planned is a list of veggie / vegan cafes and restaurants which we might go to. I’ve tried looking at the menus for various places but most of them seem to be in German. I hope they have English menus as well as I can only speak / read about five words and none of them are food names.

My final travel spread will be my comprehensive packing list. I always do one of these no matter where we are headed and for how long as it ensures I remember everything and helps me to stay calm during the packing process. In the past, sorting everything out for a trip has made me really stressed out so I now do whatever I can to make the process easier and less fraught. Does anyone else find packing and organising for a holiday stressful?

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my spreads for this month and that they’ve given you some ideas for travel planning and preparation. Obviously, for privacy reasons, I haven’t shown the exact dates for our trip or any specifics related to our journey or accommodation but I’m sure you get the idea and I may share my filled in pages on social media when we return.

Wishing you a wonderful May, whatever your plans are for the month,

mental health, Mindfulness, wellbeing, wellness

Monday Matters: Practical ways to improve your wellbeing by unlocking the power of the vagus nerve

Posted on Apr 17, 2023Apr 17, 2023 by Laura

NB: This post was originally published in September 2019 and updated for April 2023

In 2019, as part of my ongoing therapy, I attended a weekly compassion group where I met up with like-minded individuals to consider different aspects of wellbeing and a variety of techniques for improved mental health. For one of the sessions, we spent time learning about the vagus nerve and its impact on overall health. I must admit, I hadn’t previously heard of this important bundle of fibres so I was really interested to find out as much as I could (I love every opportunity to learn something new). So, in today’s post, I’ll look at what the vagus nerve is, what it does and ways in which you can stimulate it to support good mental health.

Introducing the vagus nerve (a.k.a. the tenth cranial nerve)

The vagus nerve is the longest of our cranial nerves (the ones which emerge straight from our brain) and controls our inner nerve centre. It oversees a range of crucial functions, communicating motor and sensory impulses to each organ of our body – namely our heart, lungs, upper digestive tract, and other organs of the chest and abdomen. The vagus nerve is critical to our overall health and it has been scientifically proven that stimulating this important bundle of motor and sensory fibres is key to reducing our stress, anxiety and anger levels.

So, enough of the science lesson, what are the practical ways that we can get this thing working to our advantage?

breathe deeply and slowly

Slow and deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve in a way that can help reduce our heart rate and enable us to become more relaxed. That’s why focusing on your breath during mini meditations can be so soothing for us and is a key part of compassion based therapy. You can find out more about different types of breathing in this useful post from verywellmind, especially the diaphragmatic style which is also known as deep breathing.

exercise

Regular exercise such as a gentle walk or some simple stretches stimulates gut flow which is regulated by your vagus nerve. Why not combine your walk with getting in touch with nature so you can stimulate all of your senses and enjoy some peace and quiet at the same time?

have a good laugh

There’s a reason behind the popular saying ‘laughter is the best medicine’. Proper belly laughs are thought to be great for stimulating the vagus nerve. Why not try going to a comedy show, playing some humourous videos on YouTube or TikTok (haven’t ventured onto TikTok myself but I’m pretty sure there’s some funny content on there!) or watching an episode of your favourite funny TV series tonight? There’s even a thing called ‘laughter therapy’ according to a counsellor I used to see, although I’ve never tried it myself!

try getting yourself all cold!

Apparently any type of exposure to cold will increase vagus nerve activation. That’s why some people swear by having a cold shower first thing in the morning to get going! Personally I prefer a little cold water on my face or a nice cold glass of water to wake myself up but it’s entirely up to you how you expose yourself to a little bit of coldness!

Sing or chant

As a member of a choir, I love singing and find it really helps my wellbeing. Now I know why! Why not trying putting on your favourite music and singing along (and maybe do a little boogie as well for the exercise) to activate your vagus nerve? Chanting also works too so no wonder football fans feel so good when they shout for their team at matches.

Massage

A nice neck massage is a lovely way to stimulate the vagus nerve or why not try a foot massage to help lower your heart rate and blood pressure. I love it when my husband does a firm massage of my feet after a long day when we’re sat together watching TV. If you haven’t got an obliging partner, a session with a qualified masseuse makes a fantastic pampering treat if you can afford it.

Positive social contact

Being socially connected, be it with compassionate friends, family or even our beloved pets has been shown to help with emotional regulation though vagal stimulation. Make sure that you choose to spend time with kind hearted and thoughtful people to ensure a positive experience.

Reduce your consumption of junk food

I’m sure you already know that eating too much fatty stuff is bad for you but excess consumption of ‘junk food’ has been shown to reduce the sensitivity of your vagus nerve. The occasional treat is okay but try not to indulge too often.

Yoga and Tai Chi

The benefits of practises such as yoga and Tai Chi are well documented. They have both been shown to increase vagus nerve activity and your parasympathetic (also known as rest and digest) system in general. You can find many simple yoga sequences online and beginner classes of exercises are widely available if you want to make it a social event too.

And finally, try to make time to relax each and every day

It’s up to you what form that relaxation takes, a nice warm bath, a few uninterrupted chapters of your favourite novel, craft or art activities or settling down to watch a film. Find something relaxing to do each day will have a positive effect on your wellbeing by working your vagus nerve.

Final words…

I hope you’ve found today’s post interesting and have learnt something new. Let me know if you try any of the ideas and if they have a positive effect on your wellbeing as a result. I learnt so much during my compassion group therapy and I’m continuing to work hard to put things into practice to improve my wellbeing. Updating this has encouraged me to look back over the handouts we received to remind myself of the various ideas and techniques from the ten week course.

Until next time, look after yourself.

bird spotting, bird watching, lifestyle, nature, wildlife

My new favourite phone app: Merlin Bird ID

Posted on Apr 13, 2023 by Laura

My husband and I are keen birdwatchers and we love going to our local nature reserves and nearby woodland with out binoculars. Over the years, we’ve built up our knowledge of different woodland, coastal and wetland birds are able to recognise all of the most common varieties by sight. However, what we’ve always found slightly more difficult to do, certainly with woodland birds, is to identify them by sound alone. This is because, most of them have several different songs and a repertoire of calls. So, imagine our delight, when we discovered an app that was capable of recording all of the nearby birds and identifying them within seconds! Today, I thought I’d introduce you to the app we’ve been using for almost a week and explain a little bit about how it works.

Merlin Bird ID

Created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Merlin Bird ID is a tool for beginner and intermediate bird watchers which uses a huge database to provide information and identification of literally thousands of different bird species. It is able to recognise birds by photograph or sound, can provide suggestions of IDs based on information you input and supplies details of species which are common to your geographical location. The basic app is free and once you’ve downloaded it and shared and confirmed your email address, then downloaded a pack specific to the country you are in, you’re good to go.

Basic Bird ID button

If you click on the Start Bird ID button, it will ask you five questions about a particular bird you observed. It asks for your location which you can either name, choose current location or select from a Google Map pop up. You then say when you saw the bird (using the calendar), how big it was, the main colours (choosing 1-3), and what it was doing from a choice of options. This particular aspect of the app is very similar to the RSPB bird identifier on their website. Having answered the questions, it will provide suggestions for you to look through and even includes a sound button too.

Photo ID

In this part of the app, you can upload a photo of take a snap of a bird and then zoom in so it fills the frame. From this information, the visual database will try to identify the particular bird. I’ve only tried this once using an image from my phone gallery of a male reed bunting. Although my photo wasn’t particularly good and includes bushes and wire fencing, the app was still able to guess correctly!

Sound ID

This is obviously the feature that I’m enjoying using the most. The instructions say to ‘get as close to the bird as you can, hold still and press record’. The pack that I’ve downloaded includes as database of 867 birds, including a number which are not native to the UK but that you might spot at a centre with bird enclosures such as my local wetlands trust site or a Birds Of Prey place.

What’s great about this aspect of the app is that it is able to identify multiple birds in one recording (it pops up on the screen as soon as it has ID’d each bird) and it highlights in yellow the specific birds it can hear at that time. Also, when you end the recording, it lists all the species that were identified and allows you to read more about them. So far, we’ve often been able to guess most of the birds ourselves but we were excited to see that one of the individuals which we struggled to identify was a nuthatch.

Another plus point of this part of the app is that it includes a red dot next to a bird which is rare in the location or an orange semi circle to identify it as being unusual. This is really cool and it’s so exciting when you spot something a bit different.

Explore birds

This part of the app is great if you want to develop your knowledge of particular types of birds. You can view a range of lists with photos such as waterfowl, shorebirds, finches, warblers etc. You can then select a species by clicking on it to find out more. I haven’t used this part of the app yet but I can imagine it’s especially good if you are a beginner birdwatcher.

Final words…

Although we’ve only been using the app for a week, we’ve both being really enjoying trying it out. It’s super easy to use, seems really accurate and includes a wealth of useful information. I imagine the sound recordings might fill your phone storage up pretty quickly but you can easily delete the recordings when you have done with them.

Let me know in the comments if this kind of app appeals and if you plan to download it to use on your phone. I would also love to hear if you find it useful during trips out in nature.

Happy birding,

compassion, lifestyle, manifestation, Setting goals and intentions

Monday Matters: An introduction to Manifesting Your Goals and Aspirations

Posted on Apr 3, 2023 by Laura

Over the last few months, I’ve read a couple of books on the topic of manifestation – ‘Make It Happen – Manifest the life of your dreams’ by Jordanna Levin and ‘Manifest – 7 Steps to Living your Best Life by Roxie Nafousi. I found both of them really interesting and learnt a lot about the theories behind manifestation and things to work on to maximise your chances of creating the life of your dreams or your best life as mentioned in the titles. Today, I hope to provide a summary of the concept and my key take aways from both books so you can use the ideas to work on your goals for 2023.

Both authors talk about the success they’ve had with manifesting everything they’ve wanted in their lives so far and the steps they’ve taken to get there. They also discuss some of the struggles they’ve had in the past and how they’ve overcome them through the power of manifestation and making changes to their thoughts, feelings and attitude.

What is meant my manifestation?

There are various dictionary definitions available online, but, in short, to manifest is to make something happen. In today’s post though, I want to explore the idea that I believe was first discussed in detail by television writer, producer and author Rhonda Byrne in her documentary film and related book The Secret back in 2006 where she explained that ‘Manifesting is about breathing life into your goals through action, emotions and belief’.

Levin adds to this in her book by introducing her ‘Manifestation Equation’ which is states that:

Thoughts + Feelings + Actions + Faith = Successful Manifestation

and is based on four laws – The Law Of Attraction, The Law Of Vibration, The Law Of Action and The Law of Rhythm.

Whilst Nafousi, in her first of two books on the subject, describes manifesting as ‘a meeting of science and wisdom’ and ‘a philosophy to live by and a self-development practice to help you live your best life’.

Finding clarity

The first step of manifesting is to get clear on what you want you want from your life. As Nafousi states ‘…you can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where it is you are headed’. A helpful practice for this is to create a vision board filled with your intentions. This can be done digitally on your computer, or physically as a display, and commonly includes inspiring pictures and/or words representing your dreams and aspirations. If you prefer written methods, you might like to write a list in a special manifestation journal and expand on your intentions for each. Another option to try, is following a guided visualisation meditation specifically for manifestation, where you consider what you ideal life would look like and even more importantly, what it would feel like if you already had what you desire. There’s a range available online, some for a small cost and others free. You might also want to think about the kind of person you want to be or take time to explore your core values. Jordanna has two free PDF resources for this which include a comprehensive list of core values and a long list of personality traits. I found both to be extremely useful. Finally, using a Wheel of Life to explore where you are right now and where you wish to be in the future can also help you make plans and set intentions or goals.

Whatever methods you use to set your intentions, it’s recommended that you work on a small number – a maximum of five at a time can help to keep them powerful. Also, the advice is to write them in positive language, keep them short and to the point and use present tense e.g. I am well-organised and productive, I have a happy and healthy relationship with my partner, I feel full of vitality etc.

Take action

As well as thinking about and visualising what you want in your life, you should also be prepared to take action in order to make progress towards those things. As Levin says when describing the Law Of Action – ‘you must do the things and perform the actions necessary to achieve what you are setting out to do’. You play a vital role towards creating your future so you must work to make it happen! So, for example if you want to be happy and fulfilled at work, you might start by considering you current job situation and how you feel about it. You could then take some time to journal about what aspects you enjoy and which leave you feeling dissatisfied. Having considered this, it might lead to you identify potential changes you could make or help you to realise that it is time to move on and try somewhere else or a different role. You would then have to think about and perform the necessary actions to move things on.

Raise your vibration

The scientific principle known as the Law of vibration states that everything in the universe (objects, thoughts, emotions etc.) has energy and a vibrational frequency ( from high to low). With regard to manifesting, according to this law, we need to vibrate at a similar frequency to the things we are trying to attract and the best way to do this is to work on raising our vibe. High vibration emotions include unconditional love, joy, peace, gratitude, hope and optimism, whilst particularly low vibration emotions include jealousy, anger, fear and despair. But how can we work on raising our vibration so we resonate more of these positive emotions? Here’s some of what I learnt from my reading:

Let go of fear and doubt

One of a number of ways of working on raising our vibe is to let go of fear and doubt. If you believe that you are not worthy of what you want or that you are not capable of taking action and making changes then you are unlikely to manifest those things. On the other hand, if you have faith in your abilities and are optimistic about the future, you are ready to receive everything you desire because you believe you are worthy of it. This happens because our subconscious has the power to drive us towards our dreams but also has the power to hold us back.

Our fears and doubts show up in a number of different guises including worries and insecurities, limiting beliefs, feelings of unworthiness and a lack of trust in the universe to provide for us. These can not only sabotage our chances of manifesting, they can also stop us from being aspirational with our dreams and wishes too.

Of course, ridding ourselves of fears and doubts is not something that can be done overnight, especially as many of us have been accumulating them over many years. It takes constant work and commitment (what some practitioners call deep work). Self development is achieved over time and with perseverance. It might also involve working with a therapist, life coach or mentor. who can guide you on the way and teach you new techniques for managing your thoughts and emotions and working on limiting beliefs. The main ways forward include:

exploring your thoughts and considering more realistic or alternative ways of looking at things (focusing on positive and empowering choices)
being careful about our choice of language e.g. replacing if with when, talking about what we want rather than what we don’t want, choosing positive words such as I can…, I will… etc rather than negative statements such as I can’t…, It’s too hard etc.
using positive mantras to repeat e.g. Life supports me in every possible way. I am thankful for the endless opportunities that come my way. Today I am the best version of myself. I’ll achieve everything I set out to do.
practice visualisation – imagine what it would look like and what it would feel like if you were living a life in alignment with what you desire. This can be done as a meditation or if you prefer creative writing, you could journal what your day would be like if you were living your best life.
cultivate self love and compassion – be kind to yourself and value your wellbeing. Celebrate achievements but also be patient and forgive yourself when needed. Believe in yourself and your ability to have success. Treat yourself as you would a good friend, offering support and encouragement.

Live in alignment

Another part of taking action is to align your behaviour with what you wish to manifest. It’s no good creating your vision on a board or just sitting there thinking about what you want for your like, you need to be proactive in your journey. As you work on banishing your fears and doubts, you will start to develop confidence in your abilities and this is when you can really push yourself and step out of your comfort zone. |Nafousi has this to say:

‘To manifest change, we must first create change. We must do something different, we must challenge our fears and doubts, we must act as our future self would act and we must show the universe how ready and willing we are to step into our power.’

A good way to do this is to behave the way your future self would. So, for example, if you want to be a tidy and well-organised person, you need to act like one. This could include regularly decluttering, making sure you have a place for everything and putting things away in that place when you’ve finished using them, creating a schedule for your day or writing to do lists to make sure you maximise your time, having a good sleep routine so you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to have a productive day, making tidying a priority and a habit which you see as important and of value. It could also include spending time researching and implementing habits of tidy and well-organised people and maybe asking for help and advice from friends who always have a neat and tidy home.

If you’re not sure what steps to take or changes you might need to make, Jordanna Levin’s book has chapters on different aspects of life which are full of ideas and exercises to try.

Develop an attitude of gratitude

Whilst you strive to manifest your intentions, it’s also important to be grateful for what you already have. As I’ve shared in several previous blog posts, gratitude is all about being thankful and showing appreciation for all of the things we have. Nafousi splits gratitude into three categories which I found particularly helpful – gratitude for the self, your life and the world. So, you can appreciate things about yourself such as your health, your ability to listen to others and your crafting skills. You can be thankful for what you have in your life such as a supportive partner, a beautiful home and a job you love. And, finally, you can feel grateful universal things such as good weather, connection with others and the wonder of nature.

Gratitude is a high-vibe emotion which is wonderful for your physical and mental health, your relationships, self esteem and sleep. Being grateful for things as they are now shows the world that when you do manifest something you what you want for yourself and your life, you will be super appreciative of it.

Gratitude journalling is something I do every day as part of my Five Minute Journal practice and it something that I feel really helps to develop those high vibe emotions we want to increase. I identify three things each morning to write about and then reflect on the highlights of my day (and what made these things possible) and what I’ve learnt in the evening. It doesn’t take long and it has the potential to make a huge difference to your life.

Use sources of envy to inspire you

When I was young, there seemed to be limited sources of envy. You might feel jealous of a school friend who got 10 out of 10 in her spelling test or your best mate who had pretty much every toy in the Argos catalogue / went on super expensive holidays / had a bedroom the size of the ground floor of your house or a garden full of expensive play equipment. Nowadays though, you can go on social media and be envious of the perfect lives of not only your friends, work colleagues and acquaintances, but also people you’ve never met who have the perfect Instagram feed / the energy to get up at 5 am and be super productive until 8pm / the healthiest body with flawless skin / the tidiest and most well-organised home with all the latest gadgets bought with their huge and effortless income – you get the idea. As Nafousi says in her first book ‘Social Media is a playground for comparison and a fertile land for envy to grow in’. She offers a few tips on how to manage things. One suggestion is to become more mindful of the content you engage with so that you choose only to read / explore content which you relate to, makes you feel good or inspires you in some way. You should also continue to work on removing your fears and doubts which are holding you back, some of which may present as envy and jealousy. Another potentially powerful idea is to recognise thoughts and feelings associated with low vibe emotions such as these and turn them into inspiration. So, rather than believing that they have things that you can’t have (scarcity mindset), you have the opportunity to reframe and choose to believe that you could have the same for yourself if you work hard (an attitude of abundance).

Trust that the universe has got your back

As part of your manifesting journey, you will meet challenges, difficulties and obstacles along the way. You have several choices when these tests turn up: 1) you could admit defeat, become impatient and decide you’re never going to get to where you want to be, believe you’ve failed, believe that other people have all the luck and let envy creep in basically, letting fear and doubt rule, or, 2) you could use these situations and obstacles in a more positive way to build your inner strength, resilience, courage and self belief to keep going and trust in the manifesting process. You might need to take action by do a bit of problem solving, trying different approaches, working things out by journalling how you feel, or using positive affirmations to remind yourself that you can and you will, but ultimately, if you have faith in yourself and the universe to provide for you then you can absolutely get there.

Final words…

Today’s blog post contains just a small part of what I’ve learnt about manifesting. If you want to find out more, then I particularly recommend Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life by Roxie Nafousi as a succinct introduction and her more recent book Manifest: Dive Deeper to further your knowledge. Jordanna Levin’s book Make It Happen: Manifest the life of your dreams provides a much more indepth look into manifestation and also has lots of exercises to try. It also focuses on different aspects of life which you may want to work on as part of your manifesting journey.

I hope you have found the topic matter of manifestation interesting and something which is worth exploring further. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts or related comments.