How To Begin Self Improvement – When You Don’t Think It’s For You

We all have busy lives: work, family, extra curriculum, social, then back to work again… It’s very easy to get caught in the hamster wheel, going through the motions without really considering how you are, what you want and what is the meaning of life? How To Begin Self Improvement – When You Don’t Think It’s For You..It’s time to put yourself first.

The definition of Self–improvement, simply means the process of improving oneself.

I know, it may all seem ‘woo woo’ and ‘airy fairy’ to some, sitting around pondering upon the meaning of life is only for people with lots of time on their hands! We can all be terribly judgey, I know I have been in the past. But really, self improvement is very important – how you show up in the world, how you want to live, being able to answer those questions and accept your life.

Being happy in yourself will affect everyone around you, which could even affect generations after you!

I mean where do you even start to look at self improvement?

Well it’s here in this blog! I’m here to encourage you to stop and consider….YOU.

Why You Might Think Self Improvement Is Not For You…

Some people never dedicate any time to themselves; they never allow time to examine or question too closely the life they want. Many people distract themselves with TV, sport, or more seriously – drugs, or alcohol to chase feelings away.

I get it, we all want to numb out sometimes. Grab a glass of wine, chill out in-front of Netflix and switch off from the tough week we had. But maybe it’s time to consider that instead of shutting off your brain and escaping, you could make the most of the precious time and do something you really want to do. Make your weekends the best they could be! Take a picnic to the beach, invite some friends over for charades and pizza, take a hike somewhere you’ve always wanted to go, pick wild flowers and brighten up your house with nature…

Routines, bad habits, having no money, being too busy – there’s an endless list of excuses out there. But none of these need to affect your own self improvement.

Give yourself 15-30 minutes a day for you.

Stop the excuses, they’re only hurting you in the end.

Self Care For Mind & Soul

Self care can take form in many guises. You may consider this as self care – I would say this is self care for our mind and soul.

Many people don’t take the time to figure out what they want – that’s why finding a practise that helps you to open your mind is key. When people don’t find out about who they really are, they put everything on the exterior, which is a lot of pressure – hoping that the job, relationship, connections will define them.

But by learning more about yourself, you should begin to get clear on what you want and why you want it.

Pick Your Own Practise

Below are suggestions of how you can delve into who you are:

Books

There are so many self help books (now called self improvement books) out there – I see countless new releases every week. This is great, but you don’t necessarily need to start with a book. How I see it, you can pick up the wrong book and find you don’t resonate with the author’s words, so your notion to self improvement disappears as you throw the book across the floor! Some books I love, others I don’t. What I would suggest is to look at the below practises and see which feels good for you, most of these self-help books will encourage people to start the practises below anyway…

Affirmations

There are many variations of affirmations. You can write these down everyday, or stick them up all over your house so you can see them, you could listen to affirmations on YouTube, or you could record your own affirmations and listen to those same affirmations everyday.

I listen to a podcast every morning that gives two new affirmations everyday, I listen to them and write them down.

What sounds good for you? Why not give it a go!

Meditation

There are so many meditations out there. You can listen to these on YouTube/Spotify to name a few. You can meditate anywhere from between 5 minutes to an hour (according to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) recommends 40-45 minutes per day. The Transcendental Meditation (TM) recommends 20 minutes, twice daily).

I suggest to start small, ease into it, because meditation takes a lot of practise. So don’t be hard on yourself if you suck a bit at the beginning!

Journal

Journaling is a process of writing down your thoughts and feelings. Some people doodle too! Get yourself a lovely notebook for this purpose and use it everyday. You could do this every morning or before bed. There are so many journaling prompts online, but here’s a few to get you started:

What are you excited to do today?

What happy memory do you have from yesterday?

Is there anything nice you can do for yourself today?

Is there something that’s been weighing on your mind?

Gratitude

This is so simple and part of my own daily routine. Get a notebook especially for gratitude and each day list three things you are grateful for. You can do more than this, but I find three sets me in a good mood and is done within a minute!

Visualise your goals

You may need to do the above practises before you even know what you want in life to start this task.

Write down a list of 50 things you want to do/achieve by the end of your life (kind of like a bucket list) Create a Pinterest board of images that you like and see for yourself… cottage in the country? Surrounded by friends and family? chickens and a dog? Successful business? Loving and attentive partner?

Choose Something

What feels right for you? Perhaps you’ve never considered any of these practises and you need to try them out. Do it! or why not try each one out for a few weeks and see how it fits.

Every morning I do a 10 minute meditation, followed by writing 3 things I am grateful for. Sometimes I may say affirmations to myself but I see that as a bonus. As long as I can do my gratitude and meditate I am chuffed with myself.

Start Your New Habit

Pick a time you’d like to do this and stick to it. This doesn’t need to be a slog – only 15 minutes a day! If you can find time to scroll on your phone or watch a numbing TV show, then this can be done too.

I usually start mine about 6-7.30 am before the house wakes. A lot of people recommend morning time, but I say – do what works for you best. Make this as easy as possible.

Do You Feel Invincible Yet?

I don’t think I’ll ever go back to my old ways, since I made these changes. The shift in my mindset has improved and I look for the good in most things, that I know others would not. It’s down to these practises that I am happier and understand myself more, I have no doubt about it. Since I’ve opened the door to this I see the beauty and wonder of the world.

I welcome abundance in all areas of my life and encourage you to do too.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Have you started your self improvement journey? Do you have a daily routine? I’d love to hear what you implement if you’d like to share below..

If you enjoyed this, please have a peek at my previous post – Don’t wait for your passion to grow, just pick something now!

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