3 daily practices to change your life
/“Your life is the expression of the limit of your thoughts.” - Prem Sadasivananda
My dear friend, Prem Sadasivananda, wrote this amazing book Empower Your Life: A Guide To Your Highest Purpose. I’m studying the book with Prem, examining my own thoughts, and how they’ve impacted my life. Many of us are living in our own heads and believing thoughts that either paralyze us with fear, or subdue us into a life of mediocrity and complacency.
There is a statistic that I’ve read several times that highlights the issue. Experts estimate that the average person has anywhere between 50,000 - 80,000 thoughts per day, or 2,100 - 3,300 thoughts per hour. You know what we’re thinking about? According to research, the thoughts are repeat thoughts that play like a record over and over again, and as much as 80% of them are negative thoughts.
We now have the attention span of 8 seconds, basically the same as a goldfish. Negative thoughts, beliefs, and even words that we speak release stress hormones in the body that can manifest physical symptoms and weaken the immune system. The other challenge with focusing on negative thoughts for most of our waking and sleeping hours is that these negative thoughts that we tell ourselves then lay a foundation for our actions, tendencies, and habits.
The great news is that we can do something about our thoughts. We’ve all heard of the placebo effect, which was discovered over 50 years ago. In trials, patients given sugar pills, saline injections, and sometimes fake surgeries have been shown to improve up to 80% of the time.
Did you know that there have been more recent scientific studies that have proven that our intentions and words can positively or negative impact living things? Dr. Masuro Emoto conducted experiments showing the impact of energy on water and rice. He believes that “human consciousness” can impact the molecular structure of water. In his experiments he showed how positive words spoken over water could either create beautiful crystallizations or turn the water murky. He also experimented with taking polluted water and cleaning it through positive affirmations or prayer. In another experiment on rice, he had three identical containers of rice and water. For the first container, positive words of affirmation and praise were spoken. For the second container, negative, hurtful words were spoken. The third container of rice was ignored. The rice in the first group sprouted and had a pleasant smell. The rice in the second group turned black. And, the rice in the third group started to rot.
Other similar studies have been done using plants and apples. The results have been similar. Our intentions, thoughts and words do matter. Three things that you can add to your daily routine that will positively impact your overall well-being are meditation, gratitude, and affirmations or mantras.
Meditation:
Meditating daily has made a positive impact on my life. As someone who also teaches meditation, I often hear from my clients that they can’t meditate. They say that they can’t quiet their mind or sit still. My advice, in the most loving voice, is always the same. “Don’t wait for your mind to be ready to meditate. Sit your body down, close your eyes, breathe, and continue doing so for 10 minutes.” Over time, our bodies and mind settle in faster, and we come to enjoy our moments of quiet and solitude.
Benefits of meditating:
Your brain releases serotonin, dopamine and endorphins – leading to a good mood
Your blood pressures drops
Pain decreases – a recent study showed a 40% reduction in pain
Inflammation and swelling decreases
Digestion improves - rebooting the parasympathetic nervous system
American Heart Association issued a statement saying that seated meditation “may help reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure and stress”
Gratitude:
Giving thanks, being grateful, and saying thank you for the wonderful things in your life today, is one of the fastest way to improve your energy and lift your mood. There are many ways to establish a gratitude practice. Some clients like to keep a gratitude journal. Others incorporate giving thanks in the morning, and then as part of their evening reflection before they go to sleep. The key is to be consistent, and to go deep. Remember, no one is reading your gratitude list, so write without judgement. Strive to add new items to your list daily and notice how your perspective changes on what really brings you true joy, peace and happiness.
Benefits of giving thanks:
Feeling happier
Becoming a nicer person
Increased energy levels
More resiliency and improved health
Improved relationships
New life perspective
Affirmations and Mantras:
While expressing gratitude makes us feel good, and is relatively easy to do, writing positive affirmations about ourselves is sometimes very difficult. In one of my first sessions with coaching clients, I ask them to do a one minute exercise in which they write as many positive things as possible about themselves in 1 minute. The average number written has been 3-5 on the first attempt. However, with practice, the same clients generate lists in the double digits.
A mantra is a seed/word for energizing an intention, and over time it bears the fruit of your intention. Mantras have been around for over 3,000 years, and used in many spiritual practices. Many of the ancient Sanskrit mantras were used for healing, abundance, protection, and good fortune. Mantras help us focus on those things that inspire and create joy. Incorporating ancient mantras can help grow your practice. Repeated negative thoughts or spoken words create beliefs and behaviors that don’t serve us well. However, choosing to speak positive affirmations or mantras can calm our nervous and respiratory systems, and change our energy.
Benefits of doing daily affirmations or mantras:
Stimulates the right and left side of the brain to help move from beta state (super focused) to the theta state (relaxed)
Reduces stress
Increases energy levels
Improves overall well-being
Enhances capabilities, strengths, talents by focusing on positively expressing your abilities
Positively affect actions, behaviors and attitudes
Promotes feelings of gratitude
Challenge:
Making positive changes doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you start with small steps daily. Incorporating meditation, gratitude and affirmations or mantras into your daily routine is a great first step towards improving your holistic health.
Find a place to meditate daily and start doing so for 10 minutes per day
Start a daily gratitude practice by writing down as many things you are grateful for in 1 minute
Start a daily affirmation practice by writing down as many positive affirmations in 1 minute
Join me on a 30 days gratitude invitation to share gratitude on Instagram. Follow me at consciousendeavor_ on Instagram.