The Magic Of Mindfulness

So, I recently read a magazine article on the practice on mindfulness and decided to give it a try. Based on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness in meditation, it is the focusing of attention and awareness. Now don't worry if you are religious, although this comes from Buddhist roots, mindfulness is often taught independently of religion so you can still give it a try!
Put into layman's terms, mindfulness essentially gives your brain a rest and it can ease feelings of stress and anxiety.

The aim of mindfulness is to teach you to focus your brain on tuning out distractions and it claims that the easiest way to do this is a five or ten minute breathing exercise in the morning. In quite a similar setting to meditation, the idea is to sit with a straight, relaxing back and feet flat on the floor. Gazing straight ahead or with eyes closed, bring your attention to your breathing and wherever you feel it most. When thoughts crop up, which they undoubtedly will, refocus your mind onto your breath.
The great thing about this is that there isn't a specific way in which you have to do it. Experiment with the time of day that works best for you. Which room do you prefer to do it in? How long can you last before deciding what's for tea really can't wait any longer?

At first I will admit that this was impossible for me to do for longer than about 30 seconds but it does get easier and I can definitely notice the health benefits. The thing to remember is to just take it at your own pace, start at 2 minutes and build it up.

Some other ideas you can try, if you're finding the meditation-type mindfulness difficult, are:

• Have a mindful shower- Focus on the warmth of the water, and appreciate the smells of your soaps and shampoos.
• Take time to enjoy your lunch- Eat slowly, enjoy the tastes and focus on what you're eating rather than checking your computer or phone. 
• Savour a cup of tea and just relax. 
• Before you go to sleep as you lie in bed do a mental tour of your body. Focus on different feelings and areas of tension, imagine your breath soothing them. Doing this can lead to a better nights sleep! 

So there you have it :) I hope you enjoyed this and that it was helpful! Let me know if you try it and if it works for you. 

Thanks for reading,
Charlotte xx

#100happydays

I wonder if you guys have heard about this?!

#100happydays is an awesome trend that is taking over the world and I think that it is such an amazing idea. All it asks you to do is to take a picture of something that is making you smile every day for 100 days and to post it to your favourite social networking site with the hashtag 100happydays.

Easy right? According to the 100happydays website 71% of people who start this challenge fail, with the main reason for this being that they simply didn't have the time. No time to be happy?! That's unbelievably sad.

On the flip side, people who completed all 100 days stated that they felt more positive and they realised truly how lucky they were.

So, are you up to the challenge? If you would like to get involved then all you need to do is visit 100happydays.com and sign up! You can choose to take part using twitter, instagram, Facebook, or if you don't want your pictures to be viewed publicly then you can opt to privately email them to the 100happydays team.

If you would like to keep up with MY 100 days happy adventure then be sure to follow me on instagram.

Good luck to you all and stay happy!
Charlotte xx

Just To Say..

You are all so beautiful and are loved each and every day by so many people! But don't forget how important it is that you love yourself! Be proud of yourself and of everything you do and just appreciate how awesome you are :) Don't worry about what everyone else thinks of you, just concentrate on learning about yourself and seeing the beauty that you have.

Goodnight everyone xxx

Anxiety.. You Can Control It.

There are hundreds of different types of anxiety but lets face it.. They're all crap. And, as a matter of fact they ALL stem from the same place; thinking too much.

Now before I get too far into this subject I want to say that no, I do not have any special qualifications nor am I a councilor so everything I am going to say here is from my own experiences. Ok, now that's out the way, lets get started :)

None of us want to admit it but most of our anxieties are our own creations, we make them up in our minds and let them become bigger than we ever wanted them to. It's a horrible thing to admit, that we do this to ourselves, but the fact that we do is actually a good thing; it means that we can rewrite those thoughts and make them into something less scary and more useful.

As anxiety sufferers we definitely feel as though anxiety runs the show and dictates what we can and can't do. Whether it's leaving the house, making that important phone call or trusting someone close to us; anxiety helps us to manifest the worst scenario and stops us from even contemplating doing the most simple of tasks. The most important thing to remember is that it doesn't have to be like that and that you DO have the power to tell your anxiety where to get off!

A little bit of anxiety is human, it helps us to distinguish between things we are comfortable with and those we aren't, but some of us let our anxieties run into every aspect of our lives and that's when it's time to stand up.

Anxiety is most common in those with creative minds but do not use that creativity to it's fullest potential. By doing this you are giving your mind the opportunity to use all that beautiful brain power in other ways, e.g. over-thinking EVERYTHING. So, the best advice I can give you to conquer your little anxiety demon is too drown it with creativity. You have to keep busy ALL THE TIME. And not just by doing the housework or by going food shopping because that doesn't engage your mind, you have to do something that completely blocks out any thoughts other than those that are focused on the task at hand. Learn an instrument, write/read an engaging book, design your own spaceship, create some handmade jewellery, do some baking, redesign your entire house, start a blog.. The list is endless and all of these things require creativity and complete concentration on your behalf.
The key is to not let your brain have ANY time whatsoever in which it can wander onto damaging thoughts. 

A lot of people who suffer anxiety find it useful to plan out their days. Doing this means that you shouldn't have any time during your day in which you're just standing around, staring into space, and therefore doesn't give you any time to over-think.
If you spend a lot of your day at a dull, uninteresting job this can be the time where anxiety strikes hardest. However, again the secret is to not let your mind wander. Either focus ridiculously hard on your work and make yourself do it to the best of your ability so that your completely absorbed by the task, or think about your new creative outlet that you have going on at home; come up with new designs and plans, research new recipes, try out your ideas on your colleagues. Just don't get into trouble!

One of the most important things is that you absolutely have to admit that the reason you have anxiety is because you put it there. I'm aware that that may be hard to hear, some of you may have had horrible events occur that you believe triggered your anxiety, and that may very well have been the case, however the event itself would not have been the cause, your reaction to the event was. You see, as long as you believe that you're not the cause, the longer your anxiety will control you, once you admit that you are the reason behind your anxious thoughts you can immediately regain control over your anxiety demon.

STICK TO IT. It will be hard and you will have bad days where you think that all your hard work has been for nothing but trust me, choose to change and stick to it. Imagine anxiety as a snowball (bare with me). Anxiety can be triggered by one sentence, sometimes even a word, and this is where it starts, as a pea-sized snowball. The more you dwell on it and think about it the bigger your snowball gets, rolling down a hill and getting bigger by the second until you have no room in your head for anything other than your snowball and you essentially get a metaphorical avalanche. When you become aware of an anxious thought popping into your head, kill it immediately. Actually say to yourself, "NO" and then consciously focus your thoughts onto something else. You have to have conviction and you have to work at it EVERY single second of the day. Stopping the bad thoughts and swapping them for good ones. It's hard work but it will get easier and pretty soon you'll be doing it without even realising it.

The last point I have is to do with medication, particularly if you are on anti-depressants for your anxiety. I want you to know that you don't need them. You are completely capable of conquering this without the need for meds, and you will feel so much better for doing it on your own. Let me ask you this? Have you ever actually looked at the little sheet that comes with your medication? The one that says that the side effects of your anti-depressant meds is depression and suicidal thoughts? I'm not a doctor so I'm not encouraging you to bin your anxiety related meds however, what I am saying is by tackling these issues on your own you will soon find little need for them and be shocked by how much they're hindering your progress as apposed to helping. I suppose what I'm getting at is, if you are yet to be offered anti-depressants I strongly advise that you think long and hard about it as it's very easy to become reliant on the pills and you are less likely to be willing to help yourself.

Simply put, in order to control your anxiety you need to:

1. Admit that you're the cause. 
2. Decide, with conviction, to make a change. Choose to fill your life with creative outlets and fulfilling distractions. 
3. Stick to it, no matter how hard it gets. 

Please don't think that I am trying to have a go at you, because I truly am not. I know that some of you may feel attacked or that I don't understand what you're going through or else I wouldn't be saying the things I have. Let me remind you that I, myself, have anxiety and have had it for about 6 years. All these tips and tricks are what have gotten me to where I am today, where I am finally able to keep my anxiety under control. I'm sorry if I have offended anyone but to those of you who are able to see the sense in what I have said, I sincerely hope that this helps you. Please feel free to ask any questions and approach me with any messages at all.

For those of you who are interested, here is a post I did earlier this month about GETTING POSITIVE IN 2014.


Thank you for reading and I'll see you all soon,
Charlotte xx

Let's Get Positive in 2014..

We all know that in this day and age it's really hard to have a positive outlook on everything BUT staying positive can help our mind, body and overall health.

Here are some of the top reasons for staying positive!

1. POSITIVITY HELPS COMBAT STRESS 
   Even if you are faking your constant smile and the fact that nothing ever gets you down, focusing on the positive side of life means that you are more likely to cope better with stress.
   
2. BEING POSITIVE CAN IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH
   Harvard University conducted a study which proved that people who were positive had better general health at the ages of 45 and 60, than those who were negative.
   
3. POSITIVE PEOPLE LIVE LONGER 
   People who are optimistic live longer and cope with illnesses better than those with a negative outlook.
   
4. POSITIVE PEOPLE ARE MORE RESILIENT
   If you stay positive you are more likely to face difficulties with more strength and will be more determined to sort things out. Focusing on what you can do to improve a situation rather than complaining about it helps you to overcome life's challenges rather than giving up on them. 

So, now let's talk about how to become a POSITIVE THINKER and how to ditch the negativity. 

One of my favourite things to remember is, 'What you can become depends on what you can overcome.' Let's overcome our negativity together. 

• Firstly, you must make a conscious decision to change, and stick to it. There is ALWAYS going to be negativity around you but you have to decide to stop letting it rule you. Don't let anyone or anything stand in your way.
  
• Positivity is all about OUTLOOK. It's all well and good telling yourself that from now on you're going to be positive but what about if your car breaks down? Are you going to be positive then? Let's look at the different ways you can look at that situation..
  
  1. Realism/Neutral - My car is broken.
  2. Negative - My car is f****d. I can't afford to fix it! My life is over!
  3. Positive - My car is broken. What can I do to fix it? How can I raise the money to fix it? What other ways can I use to get to work in the meantime?
  
  Nobody is expecting you to be like, 'Yippee, my car is broken, how delightful!!' But, being positive about the situation means that you can face the problem with a level head and are more likely to solve it with the least amount of stress.
  
• 'The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.' - Walt Disney
  The quote says it all really. You can talk about being positive until the cows come home but until you actually change something, you won't notice any difference.
• Remember that you can't expect to do things perfectly on the first try, but failing is good, it is part of learning, and it's not permanent unless you decide to quit and give up.
• Choose to be amazing. It may not be easy and being happy does require effort on your part, but once you get started it feeds itself and it does get easier.
• How you start the day is how you end the day, so start yours with a smile. 

Eventually you will be able to recognise when negative thoughts enter your mind and it's so important that when they do you acknowledge them and argue them. Stop negative thoughts in their tracks and make them work to your advantage. 

I hope this helped some of you and that you decide that a positive life is the one for you! I promise that you will notice a difference if you stick to it.

Thank you for reading and I'll speak to you all real soon :)
Charlotte xx