5 Ways to Interrupt a Worry Cycle

Worry is not something that comes and goes. Sometimes it sets up camp in our minds and bodies, creating an endless line of worry soldiers that are set on defeating you. However, you do not have to live like this. You can take steps to stop the worry.

 

1. Get Moving

 

Any form of physical exercise that you can focus on will also take your mind away from worry. This can be a walk in a park, a game of basketball, or even hula hooping with your kids. The important aspect of moving is to focus on how your body feels—the feel of your legs and feet stabilizing you on a dirt path in the woods or your hips swiveling to keep a hoop around your waist. These can help ease worry in your mind and the physical side effects of worry that plague your body, such as muscle tension.

 

2. Yoga or Tai Chi

 

These forms of exercise help you to focus on your breath and movements in a manner that forces you to use all your intention on the practice. Therefore, leaving behind your worry, even if just for a short time.

 

3. Mediate

 

Meditation is the practice of focusing on your body in its current state. Your breath, how you feel, and whatever else a guided meditation can take you through. Meditation also teaches you to acknowledge interruptions or sporadic thoughts, but then to move your mind back to meditation practice. This training can help you not to relent to worry cycles in everyday life.

 

4. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

 

This practice calls for you to tense and then relax specific muscles in your body. Doing this can take deep concentration as you flex muscles, you may not be used to flexing, and then expending equal concentration to relax that muscle.

 

5. Deep Breathing Exercises

 

Deep breathing exercises can help lower your heart rate and focus on your body. You can find an array of these exercises online, or you can simply sit still and breathe deeply through your nose, hold the breath for a five-count, and then slowly release the breath for ten counts. Bonus points if you use a timer and work on lengthening your exhalations.

 

When worry seems to be attacking from all sides, take time to explore these steps, and interrupt the worry. Sometimes getting out of your own head for just a few moments can help you gain perspective.

 

5 Strategies for Obtaining and Maintaining Inner Peace

So, you’re working toward inner peace. Perhaps you’ve already settled into a harmonious routine, and you feel like you’ve already found the tranquility you’ve been seeking. Your journey doesn’t end there. Nope, it’s a lifelong endeavor of maintaining your happiness and fulfillment. It’s not something to fret over, though. It’s an exciting journey – and it starts here: 

 

1. It is what it is 

 

You’ve heard the saying, and you’ve probably said it yourself. But have you lived up to it? Every time you try to fight what life is handing you, you’re just creating a struggle for yourself. This is one of those practices that is ongoing.  Practice accept that it is what it is in each moment.

 

2. Confront your feelings

 

Stop with the “I’m fine” speech. If you’re feeling something (negative, positive, or anything in between), show yourself some respect and allow yourself to experience those feelings! Life is too meaningful not to acknowledge your feelings and let them be expressed appropriately. 

 

3. Pay attention to every facet of your life

 

That twinge of guilt? An overdue bill? Dirty windows that need to be cleaned? Often times, we ignore things that seem like “little things,” but over time, these things add up and pile on top of each other. Pay attention to your life – especially when it pertains to your wellbeing. 

 

4. Peace > Performance

 

Sure, we all love to perform well and aim for success. Sometimes it comes at a cost, though. If you notice yourself overpromising and working too hard, at the expense of your happiness, tone it down and take some time to find peace with yourself. 

 

5. Minimize clutter

 

Take a look around your home. If it doesn’t bring you a sense of peace, it may be time to minimize the clutter. If you’re a disorganized person, start small. You may be inclined to live your life among the clutter, but this does not keep you stay on top of things. If you make it a regular habit to de-clutter, you’ll feel a tremendous sense of relief. 

 

These tips are among many of the tactics to achieving and maintaining a sense of inner peace in your life. Welcome to the journey! It’s a long journey (lasts a lifetime, in fact), but it’s certainly worth it. You don’t have to embark on this alone. Peace is a universal feeling and an experience that we all deserve —gather your friends and family to join you on this exciting endeavor! 

 

5 Things to Do Right Now if You’re Experiencing an Upheaval

Life is uncertain. One minute, you’re going along, doing what you always do, and the next, everything has come crashing to a halt. Now you’ve been left floundering, and everything in your life has become overwhelming. You’re experiencing upheaval, and you don’t know what to do.

 

Thankfully, there are several things you can do right now, which will help you gain a clearer head and a better ability to cope, regardless of the disaster. Try these quick tips to help you regain your equilibrium:

 

Put on the Brakes

 

When things leave you feeling you’re running in all directions at once, the last thing you need is added responsibility. It’s time to start protecting yourself by saying ‘no’ when asked to shoulder more. This is you taking control where you can.

 

Vary Your Day

 

It’s so easy to fall into doing whatever feels comfortable when you’re in upheaval. Let’s face it, you want comfort, and there’s something soothing in repetitious action like watching TV, snacking obsessively, or sleeping. Even good things, like working through your inbox, exercising, or cleaning the house, can become unhealthy if that’s all you’re doing. The goal here is to mix up your schedule. Only allow a set time for each activity before you need to switch to something else. 

 

Drop the Device

 

Speaking of obsessive, set the phone aside. You don’t need to keep checking social media or your text messages. Give yourself a break. More often than not, the feedback of others is only going to invite you to obsess about the crisis and not offer much in the way of solutions.

 

Be Kind

 

Attitude is everything. If you’re feeling the disaster, start looking for ways just to be more helpful to those around you. Doing this takes your focus off your negativity and builds positivity in someone else’s day, with the side benefit of raising your mood at the same time. 

 

Take Care of You

 

When you become disaster-focused, it’s very easy to neglect yourself. Now more than ever, you need to eat right and get enough sleep. Taking time for yourself will help you reduce some of the physical strain an upheaval can cause. Also, feeling better physically can lower anxiety and stress.

 

See Your Future

 

Grab a mental picture of where you want to be in the future. Hang onto this image. By reminding yourself you’re going to get through this and be able to accomplish your future goals, you’re acknowledging the current situation is temporary.

 

Unfortunately, not every upheaval can be solved. Most are out of your control from the moment they hit. On the other hand, you do still have the ability to control your actions and the steps you take afterward. By practicing these techniques, at the very least, you’re going to feel stronger and more confident about your next steps. It’s here where you’ll find peace of mind.

 

6 Practical Steps to Improving Your Life with Positive Self-Talk

Negative self-talk impacts your life in more ways than you can ever imagine. Without realizing it, we become our own worst enemies, stripping ourselves of self-confidence and peace of mind. Left unchecked, this lack of positivity in our lives can start affecting our health, leaving us worried and stressed, unable to relax. 

 

Fixing it? This is actually easier than you think. It all starts with positive self-talk and following these six practical steps.

 

You start by catching yourself in the act. These three steps will put the brakes on negative self-talk before it can gain a foothold:

 

Write it Down

 

Keeping a journal is a great way to get a handle on what you’re thinking. Try writing down your impressions of the day before bed. This allows you to let go of feelings that might fester if allowed to run unchecked when you’re trying to sleep. Re-reading those entries later will give you a picture of just where you are. It might be you’ve been more negative lately than you thought.

 

Just Say “No”

 

When you catch the negative statements in your head, your job is to stop them before they form. The moment you recognize your self-talk shifting to something less than uplifting, you need to say ‘no’ to it immediately. Say the word “Stop” out loud if you need to. 

 

Snap Back

 

Psychologists have advised this therapy for years to stop negative thoughts. You simply place a rubber band around your wrist (one that doesn’t fit too snug). Simply snap the rubber band whenever you have a negative thought. Eventually, you’ll find yourself stopping those thoughts automatically just to avoid the ‘punishment.’

 

Next, try following these three steps to put positive self-talk in action:

 

Tone it Down

 

What word can you change in the negative thought to take the sting out? Instead of ‘stupid’ perhaps you were ‘mistaken.’ Instead of ‘slow’ maybe you’re ‘thoughtful.’ By paying attention to your words, you’ll automatically start shifting your self-talk to the more positive.

 

Switch Sides

 

Make a game of it. Every time you hear yourself making a statement in your head, ask yourself if you can somehow reword things to make your words neutral or even positive. See how many of these thoughts you can change.

 

Question Everything

 

Instead of listening to negative assumptions, turn them into questions. For example, “That’s impossible” can become “How can I make that possible?” Questions look for solutions while statements are already decisive.

 

By tracking what you do and acting with intentionality to change the situation, you’ll discover life looks different. You’re feeling more relaxed and can even embrace optimism. You start liking yourself a little more. It’s here where you start discovering the potential you’ve been holding all along. 

Why Is Mindfulness So Important?

You’ve probably heard at some point in your life that being mindful is an essential part of a healthy and happy life. But you may be wondering just why this is. And this is because being mindful has the power to change many different aspects of your life.

 

Mindfulness Helps With Mental Health

 

When you spend your entire life running around, worrying about all the things which may be happening in your life at present and in the future, you’re likely to run into mental health problems. When you aren’t mindful of yourself and how you feel, you become stressed, which can have numerous effects on your mental health. To take care of your mental health and lower your stress levels, it’s crucial to be mindful of your environment and how you feel and respond. This will help you be more at peace mentally and keep your brain feeling fresh.  

 

Mindfulness Boosts Creativity

 

Not only does mindfulness help preserve your mental health, but it also nurtures your creativity. This can be especially important when you face challenges in your life, as creativity is a part of learning to overcome challenges. According to various studies, mindfulness has even been discovered to improve brain function and memory, which can also help an individual navigate the twists and turns of life more easily. And those who were more mindful in their everyday life didn’t tend to suffer the same memory loss issues later in life as those who weren’t mindful. 

 

Mindfulness Keeps You Healthy

 

Besides just mental benefits, mindfulness also has several physical benefits for your body. It works to improve immune function so that you can stay healthy and fight off infections more quickly when you do get sick. One study even discovered that being more mindful increased enzyme activity in the body which slowed down the aging process (Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress, Epel et al.). This means that mindfulness is scientifically a part of leading a longer, healthier life.

 

Conclusion

 

Mindfulness is an integral part of leading a happy and healthy life, no matter how you look at it. Mindfulness helps to keep you mentally sane, boosts your creativity, and works in several ways to keep you physically healthy as well. So, if you want to live your best life, it’s time to start being more mindful today. 

 

What To Chat About With Your Accountability Partner

If you’ve never had an accountability partner and are new to the idea, you may wonder how to handle this new relationship and what to discuss. Don’t fret – here’s how to get started with your accountability relationship. 

 

Decide How & When You’ll Meet

 

You need to be having regular meetings with your accountability partner. These sessions might be in person at a local coffee shop or if you’re virtual accountability partners, then these meetings might be held on Skype or Google Hangouts. It doesn’t matter if you use technology to meet up or not, you need to have a regular meeting place. 

 

How often you meet should come down to what works for you. It can be helpful to start meeting two to four times a month. This allows you both time to report on progress or setbacks as you encounter them. 

 

But keep in mind that it’s OK to change your meeting place or time, depending on what’s going on in your life or your accountability partner’s life. For example, if you become accountability partners with another solopreneur during the summer months, then you may find that you need to adjust your meetings during the school year so that you can spend more time with your kids. 

 

This is a normal part of a partnership. So don’t be afraid to periodically review your schedules to see if another time slot would work better for both you and your accountability partner. 

 

Talk About Your Goals

 

During your first session, you’ll want to talk about your values and goals with your partner. You’ll probably have a mix of short-term and long-term goals for your business or your life. 

 

Your accountability partner can help you break down your long-term goals into easy, manageable steps. For example, if your long-term goal is to publish a Kindle book on your niche, then your short-term action steps would be items like ‘outline my Kindle book’ or ‘contact a designer to create my book cover’. 

 

Follow Up with Your Partner

 

In follow up meetings, you’ll want to talk about what steps you took since your last session together. Did you complete all your action steps? Did you forget something or run into a problem that prevented you from completing one of your action steps? Can your accountability partner come up with ways to try to overcome this roadblock?

 

Don’t just talk about the hard stuff either. Be sure to celebrate when either one of you meets a milestone or accomplishes a goal. Celebrating accomplishments can be simple—like going out for dessert together or if you’re virtual accountability partners, send your friend a small Starbucks card. By celebrating your success together, you make it more likely that you’ll achieve even bigger goals.

 

Be patient with yourself and your new accountability partner as you learn how to navigate this new partnership. If something isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for what you need. 

 

Reach More Goals With An Accountability Partner

You’re not where you want to be in your business or your life. You have goals, but you’re inching toward them. It feels like every step is a struggle and you’re just not seeing the results you want. You don’t feel motivated. You feel stuck and helpless to change. 

 

You’re not alone in this feeling. Many people experience feelings of being stuck with their goals. You probably started out with plenty of energy but within a few days or a few weeks, your energy fizzled out. Weeks and maybe even months have passed and you’re not any closer to achieving your goals. 

 

An Accountability Partner Might Be The Answer for You

 

An accountability relationship is a simple way to get back into gear and start moving toward your goals. It’s easy to set a goal and make no progress when no one is looking over your shoulder. But when you have an accountability partner slacking off is much harder. This is because we usually work harder to honor commitments we made to other people than we do the commitments we make to ourselves.

 

Think of Weight Watchers. It’s a weight loss program with accountability built right in. From the weigh ins to the weekly meetings, members are accountable to each other. The meetings are filled with people that support each other in the goal to better their health and fitness. 

 

An Accountability Partner Will Help You Shape Your Goals

 

An accountability partner can help you shape your goals so you set ones that are achievable. For example, you could set goals to go back to school for your degree, start a side business, and spend more time with loved ones. An accountability partner would gently point out that those are good goals but will be difficult to achieve at the same time.

 

An Accountability Partner Will Help You Breakdown Your Goals

 

It’s good to set ambitious goals, ones that force you out of your comfort zone and make you grow. But ambitious goals have to be broken down into smaller steps. That’s where an accountability partner comes in. A smart partner can help you focus on taking one step at a time until you reach your big goals.

 

An Accountability Partner Will Help You Deal with Roadblocks

 

Everyone encounters roadblocks at some point when they go after their goals. But an accountability partner can help you brainstorm ways to get around your obstacles and find success. For example, if your goal is to launch an online business but the tech stuff has you feeling confused, then your partner could offer both moral support and fresh solutions. 

 

With the support of an accountability partner, you’ll be able to escape the rut you’re in. You’ll also feel more energize and be able to tackle your goals once again. 

 

Finding The “Right” Accountability Partner

As a solopreneur looking for an accountability partner, you might be worried that you won’t find someone. While it’s true that solopreneurs are a rare breed, there are plenty of other solopreneurs looking for accountability partners, too. You’re not alone in your search and it can be helpful to have someone who understands what it is like to work from home and juggle both home and business responsibilities. 

 

Make a List

 

The first thing you want to do when looking for an accountability partners is to make a list of people you already know that might be a good match. You can start by thinking of solopreneurs or small business owners that offer similar services to a different audience. 

 

You should also think about any networking groups that you participate in. Is there anyone there that you connected with and feel might be a good business match?

 

Of course, you don’t have to limit your search to offline networking groups. You can also look for a virtual accountability partner if you like. Make a post in Facebook or LinkedIn groups about your search. Let people you meet know you are looking for one, and what your needs are. You may get a response from someone that would love to work with you.

 

Look for Matching Values

 

Carefully consider your potential accountability partner. You want someone in your corner that shares your values. If you have conflicting values, neither of you will get the most from your accountability sessions. For example, if you value serving customers above all else, but your partner values making a buck, even at the expense of her customers then you aren’t going to enjoy your partnership very much. You can’t be supportive of each other because your values are not in alignment.

 

Before you agree to jump into an accountability partnership with someone, take time to do your research. Look at their blog, website, and social media posts. Are they always complaining about their customers? Do they share negative news constantly? Do you cringe when their name shows up in your news feed? These are all warning signs that you may not be a good match with this other solopreneur.

 

Keep It Short Term in the Beginning

 

When you find someone that you think might make a good accountability partner, make sure to keep things casual at first. You want to agree to a limited trial time of six weeks to three months. After this time frame, you can evaluate your partnership and decide if you’d like to continue it.

 

For the first meeting, you’ll want to plan for an hour or so. This gives you and your partner time to talk about your core values, your goals, and your business principles. It can be exciting to get to know your accountability partner so take your time and don’t rush your first session together.

 

Consider Paid Options

 

Sometimes, you need more help than one or two partners can offer. In that case, you may want to consider paying to join an accountability group or business mastermind. These groups gives you a chance to meet regularly online and talk with other solopreneurs and small business owners. If this kind of support still isn’t enough, consider hiring a business coach to guide you through this season of your business. 

 

It can take some time to find an accountability partner that you connect with. Just keep patiently searching and you’ll eventually discover a solopreneur that’s a great fit for you.

 

Are You Ready To Find An Accountability Partner?

An accountability partner is a great way to motivate yourself and makes it more likely that you will achieve your goals. But an accountability partner is not a magic bullet. It won’t solve all your problems or make accomplishing your goal painless. 

 

If you understand that, then you should know that having an accountability partner can make the journey toward your goals enjoyable and fun. Here are signs that you’re ready for an accountability partner:

 

You’re Willing to Motivate Yourself

 

If you don’t know how to motivate yourself already, then it won’t matter how many partners you have – you’ll still struggle. The best way to learn how to motivate yourself is to study projects and tasks you’ve completed previously. For example, when you created your first product, was it the pressure of a deadline that you kept you going? The daily rewards you created for yourself after you finished each task? Study what you’ve done previously. This will give you plenty of ideas on what motivates you.

 

You’re Willing to Take Responsibility

 

You’re not ready for an accountability partner until you can take responsibility for both your successes and your failures. It’s easy to dismiss your failures as being someone else’s fault or saying that “life just got in the way”. But this kind of approach means that you lack the discipline necessary to achieve your goals. 

 

Remember it’s not an accountability partner’s job to change your life. It’s their responsibility to keep you on task and hold you accountable.

 

You’re Willing to Be Transparent

 

Are you willing to share your bad habits, your deepest dreams and your biggest fears with someone else? Your accountability partner can’t help you unless you’re willing to be transparent. 

 

You can’t hide out from your partner if you fail to meet a big goal or if you encounter roadblocks. You have to be open and honest with your partner if you really want your partnership to succeed.

 

You’re Willing to Accept Feedback

 

Accepting feedback about your projects and goals from someone else is never easy. It can leave you feeling uncomfortable and challenged. But that’s a good thing! If you’re too afraid to share what you’re working on or won’t talk about your goals, then don’t look for an accountability partner. An important element of having an accountability partnership is being humble enough to accept feedback. Even if you don’t always agree with what your partner says. 

 

An accountability partnership can be a beneficial relationship for both you and the other person. But it’s important to remember that you’re making a big commitment when you agree to take on a partnership. That’s why you need to be willing and ready to help each other succeed.