Mindfulness Archives — Flourish Health

Posted on October 19, 2020December 8, 2020 by sales@flourishhealth.ca — Leave a comment

Hacks to Live in the Present Moment

Hacks to Live in the Present Moment

Living in the present moment means no longer worrying about what happened in the past and not fearing what will happen in the future. It means enjoying what’s happening now and living for today.

One of the best, unforeseen consequences of simplifying our lives is it has allowed us to begin living our lives in the present moment.

There is only one time and place where you can be and have any control over. The present moment. Most of us spend a lot of our regular days lost in memories, reliving a sunny vacation or many more commonly repeating an old conflict of negative situation over and over in our thoughts. Or maybe we get lost in scenarios about what could happen in the future and our thoughts can become split or unfocused between several different tasks. Choosing to live in the past or the future not only robs you of enjoyment today, but it also robs you of truly living. The only important moment is the present moment.

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not too mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

The easiest way to explain living in the present is to start by explaining what it means to not be present, since this is the state we have become habitually used to. When you aren’t being present you become a victim of time. Your mind is pulled into the past or the future, or both. You thoughts are of the past: what has been, what could have been, what you thought happened vs. what actually did happen. Or, your thoughts are of the future: what will be, what could be, and what might be.

Our routine, our habit, is to be off in our heads somewhere mulling over negativity and struggles of the past, or becoming anxious and fearful of the future. Rarely are we fully “here”; neutrally centred to see through life’s lens with clarity and awareness – a state that assists us in finding contentment and understanding in ourselves.

Preparing physically, mentally, and energetically is critical. Proactively approaching our day with a sense of sacredness will channel your body and mind to respond as such.

How to Live in the Present Moment

1.) Remove unneeded possessions

Minimalism forces you to live in the present. Removing items associated with past memories frees you and allows you to stop living in the past. Once the past no longer has power, you can begin to live in the moment.

2.) Stretch your muscles

Muscles contract overnight, and starting your day with tense once certainly won’t help with any energetic blockage. Use your body as a tool to leave behind yesterday baggage, and clear your mind for a new beginning. Yoga increases blood flow to organs and relaxes muscles and tissues.

3.) Consume soul-nourishing foods

Sattvic foods, including almonds, honey, and whole grains, are known to promote calmness and mental clarity. Food’s correlation with brain health means that a poor diet can make you feel less energetic and more depressed. How do you expect to bring your A-game to a Monday morning when your energy flow is working against you.

4.) Think beyond old solutions to problems

Our world is changing so fast that most of yesterday’s solutions are no longer the right answers today. Don’t get locked into a “but that’s how we’ve always done it” mentality. Yesterday’s solutions are not today’s solutions and they are certainly not tomorrow’s solutions.

5.) Take mindful breaths

Incorporate intent and energy into your breaths to restart your mind. Sit cross-legged and place your right hand’s middle and index fingers on your forehead and your thumb on your right nostril. Inhale deeply through your left nostril and release the thumb, exhaling thoughts from your right nostril.

6.) Connect with nature

Picnic outside, walk barefoot on grass, pick some flowers. Even if it’s five minutes of sun exposure, it helps us feel one with the universe, and any thoughtful interaction we have with Mother Earth will help ground us. Reach out to nature – the most inexpensive remedy- because nurturing your soul is essential for a strong, clear start.

7.) Block negative energy

Be selective about who and what you let into your life and enforce this every day. Don’t permit negativity to enter your space. Put your guard up when you sense danger, bad intentions, and anything that may distract you from your desired path.

8.) Let go

Letting go of something that happened years ago is important, but so is letting go of yesterday. Let go of your need to control the past, and don’t tie yourself to an object, person, or idea.

9.) Stop worrying

You can’t fully appreciate today if you worry too much about tomorrow. Realize that tomorrow is going to happen whether you worry about it or not. And since worry have never accomplished anything for anybody, redirect your mental energy elsewhere.

10.) Dream about the future, but work hard today

Dream big. Set goals and plan for the future. But working hard today is always the first step toward realizing your dreams tomorrow. Don’t allow dreaming about tomorrow to replace living in the moment. Dreaming about the future is only productive when combined with action taken today.

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Posted on September 16, 2020December 8, 2020 by sales@flourishhealth.ca — Leave a comment

How to Recognize Your Triggers

How to Recognize Your Triggers

Awareness is the birthplace of possibility. Everything you want to do, everything you want to be, starts here.

It’s easy to say something triggers us. “Triggered” is essentially a hashtag when it comes our generation these days, and it’s true, many things are triggering, especially with the widespread dispersal of information via social media. But not everyone is triggers by the same things. We are all shaped by our own emotional response and past traumas.

Why do we all have triggers? In short, some believe it is correlated with when we were children. When we were growing up, we inevitably may have experienced pain or suffering that we could not acknowledge or deal with sufficiently at the time. So as adults, we typically become triggered by experiences that are reminiscent of these old painful feelings. As a result, we typically turn to habitual or addictive ways of trying to manage the painful feelings.

Learning to identify your triggers is an important skill, and even a tool to manage your emotional well-being. Understanding what can set us off into an unproductive spiral can help to eliminate what doesn’t serve us or allow us to be our best.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor E. Franklin

The hardest part is maintaining awareness when we find ourselves in the midst of an emotional episode. It’s important to be very honest with yourself about your triggers and how you react to them. Even if this approach feels harsh initially, it will help you learn to be more compassionate with yourself. Sometimes your emotional responses can be incredibly physical, such as shortness of breath, panic attacks, nausea or indigestion, sweating, and more. It’s key to try and notice when you are triggered by paying attention to when you start to feel that flooding of emotion or identify where you first begin to feel it in your body.

Here at Flourish Health we encourage you to pause at the first feeling of sadness and anger and take five deep breaths the best way we can, in through our nose, and out through our mouth. This is a great practice of mindfulness – walking away from what we are doing for a moment to take time to gather our thoughts and feelings, identify them and decide how to proceed in a healing way. Thoughtfully communicating our way out of the response, even if that communication is within ourselves is such a powerful way of practice.

We know it’s not possible to avoid every situation that may emotionally trigger us, and that’s not the goal. We want to be aware of our triggers so that we can be emotionally sound in the face of real-life issues in the future, and to work through the issues, learn, and heal. Recognition is important to take actionable steps and develop true intuition. If we only learn to avoid triggers instead of acknowledging them, we will end up avoiding the real issues that trigger us, which becomes unhealthy suppression.

The goal is to protect our mental health, garner strength from within, and navigate through the muck of life with minimal collateral damage. We must protect our energy at all costs in order to be the best, most powerful, and productive version of ourselves, so we can serve our own joy and others.

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Posted on September 10, 2020December 8, 2020 by sales@flourishhealth.ca — Leave a comment

5 Affirmations That Will Shift Your Energy

5 Affirmations That Will Shift Your Energy

That will shift your life.

You, me, and almost everybody in the 21st century has heard of them. But if you’ve never tried them before the idea can seem awkward. It’s my personal belief that our self-talk (that voice inside your head that has constant conversations with you throughout the day) is programming ourselves for our statements to become true. Have you ever had a fear, whether it be that you’re going to get sick, or have a terrible first day of school or work and your mom will say “quit thinking those things because then they will happen.” Well it’s because some of us believe that what we put out into the universe even if we don’t physically say it out loud, will actually come back and happen to us.

It’s my belief that our self-talk is programming ourselves for our statements to be true.

On average we have almost 30,000 thoughts in one singular day. Most of these thoughts are fleeting and uncontrolled and sometimes you don’t even realize they are happening because it’s so natural. Whether we recognize it or not, some of these thoughts can affect our mental heath, the way we choose to live, and every decision we make on a daily basis. Taking control of our thought life will result in a healthier mind frame and a better version of us.

Here are a few helpful things I say when I am trying to take control of my thoughts. We are all subject to bad days, but it doesnt mean we have to live in those negative thought frames.

I am doing better than I think I am – We all have a tendency to be hard on ourselves considering we are our own worst critics. In some cases this can cause us to believe we are doing worse than we are in reality. Let’s try to reroute our thinking from focusing on our failures to paying attention to all of our wins.
There are more people for me than against me – It is so easy to focus our attention on the people who are against us and forget about all of those who are in our corner. Next time you learn of someone who is against you, remember all of the people who are in your life who truly want the best for you.
There is purpose in my pain – Circumstances we have to face are catalysts in our growth. We must remind ourselves that there is a purpose in our pain and experiences. We will overcome them and because of the work we did to overcome it will make us stronger and a better person in the long run.
I will focus on being present over perfect – Let’s be honest – no one is perfect. Let’s focus on the beauty of the present moment and stop trying to perfect every aspect of your life. There is room for mistakes and growth that is the beauty of it all.
I look good!! I look beautiful!! I look SEXY! – Which ever word you want to use to describe your endless beauty, SCREAM it at the top of your lungs, but most importantly; believe it. There is only one you and you are beautiful.

When shifting your mindset there is a strategy that works the best for our team at Flourish Health. Try it and let us know what you think.

When you write it, the magic begins.
After you write, you can start reading it.
When you start reading it, you’ll be able to start saying it.
When you start saying it, you start hearing it.
When you start hearing it, you start believing it.
When you start believing it, things begin to change.
When things begin to change, you will understand. And believe.

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Posted on July 30, 2020July 30, 2020 by sales@flourishhealth.ca — Leave a comment

How to Start the Morning on a Positive Vibe

How to Start the Morning on a Positive Vibe

We want you to be surrounded by positive vibes!

Every time we open our eyes from a blissful night’s sleep, we have the chance to make a change and live our best life. Your morning alarm goes off, and it’s your choice to set the tone for the next 24 hours. How you start your morning will impact your attitude and outlook on the day ahead. But it’s not always as simple as it sounds – we can relate. Maybe you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or in a funk from a situation that happened a day or two before. No matter the reason, you can take action to pull yourself into a happier state and shit your mood into a good one.

We have the chance to make a change and live out best lives.

Does your morning routine consist of staying in bed as late as possible while barley making it to work on time? Getting the day off on the wrong foot can negatively impact how your day goes. I have to admit that there was a time when I was like this. I convinced myself that I was a night own and would make up the work time by working later or doing things I needed to get done later on in the day. I didn’t have a positive routine in the morning to get me going. Instead, I started the day off like a zombie. Imagine how different your life would be if you had a positive morning routine that ensured an enjoyable day instead! A morning routine that radiates positivity does not have to be complicated. It merely just has to get you started.

Read on to find out how to set a positive vibe first thing in the morning.

Deep Breaths: Set your timer for five minutes, sit wherever you are, close your eyes, and focus on the breath coming in and going out. You can repeat a phrase or mantra on each in/out-breath or focus on the space between breaths. If the mind wanders, simply notice it and, without judgement, gently bring the mind back to the breath.

Morning Walks: Go for a walk and bring yourself back to the now through your sense. Breath– take in the scents around you, all the subtle layers of them, such as flowers, fresh-cut grass, and morning rain. Feel the air around you, the body’s motion, the earth under your feet as you walk, and the sun on your face. Hear the sounds of birds chirping, dogs barking, children playing, you’re breathing, and even the heartbeat in your chest.

Don’t look at your phone when you first wake up: Avoid looking at your phone the first five to fifteen minutes (or longer) of waking up. Use this time to disconnect from technology and connect with your thoughts. This includes waiting to respond to work-related emails/texts/chats until you’ve completed your “you time.”

Express Gratitude: Keep a gratitude list in your notes, phone, or journal, and read over it after you’ve had your no-phone time in the morning. You can even text a close friend or relative and let them know you’re grateful for their friendship. This small gesture will boost your mental outlook in a big way.

Hype Yourself Up: Look in the mirror and HYPE yourself up like you would a friend. Thank your body, skin and face for being how it is and tell yourself you are looking great. Sounds silly, but try it.

Morning Sweat: Schedule a morning workout (even if you’re feeling super lazy) and encourage yourself to show up and sweat it out. Exercising the morning increases energy and improves productivity for the day.

Water time: Drink water. You’ve likely gone close to 8 hours without water consumption. As soon as I wake up on an empty stomach, chugging some water had instantly made me feel refreshed and energized. Throw some lemon in there that you juiced the night before to cleanse out that toxin build-up from when you were asleep.

Positive Affirmations: Say positive affirmations out loud: “I can do this.” “I am successful.” “I will complete this project.” These are all examples of how to increase confidence and ultimately manifest a positive vibe for the day.

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Hacks to Live in the Present Moment

How to Live in the Present Moment

How to Recognize Your Triggers

5 Affirmations That Will Shift Your Energy

Here are a few helpful things I say when I am trying to take control of my thoughts. We are all subject to bad days, but it doesnt mean we have to live in those negative thought frames.

How to Start the Morning on a Positive Vibe

Read on to find out how to set a positive vibe first thing in the morning.

Dates

Citrus Fruits

Sweet Potatoes

Parsnips

Citrus Fruits

Sweet Potatoes

Parsnips

Kale

Parsnips

Garlic

Garlic

Dates

Sweet Potatoes

Parsnips

Kale

Garlic

Kale