Lifehacks – Page 2 – The Grounded Tree

FIXED MINDSET VS GROWTH MINDSET

”There is no failure. Only feedback.” – Robert Allen

You’ve might have heard these two terms but never knew what they explicitly mean. The fixed and growth mindset derives from Dr. Carol Dweck, who believe that humans carry two types of mindsets and how we experience life can be effective by the types of mindset we have. She is known for her work in psychology especially in human interaction and understanding peoples beliefs about their intelligence.

I’m here to give you a little crash course in what the two are and the benefits of having one type of mindset over another.

So what exactly is fixed and growth mindset?

A fixed mindset is having an outcome not turn out how a person expects and feeling like a complete failure and as a result of this feeling, every other experience, and interaction they have throughout the day, results in the same feeling of reject, the feeling the worlds out to get them and worthless. It is quite common for people with anxiety to have these reoccurring thoughts that can spiral out into days, weeks or even a month.
This feeling of failure can have a person reacting through overthinking or engaging in unhealthy substance to suppress their feelings for example, Alcohol drugs.

What is a growth mindset:
A growth mindset is having an outcome not turn out how a person might have expected but understanding that it is not the end of the world and the result they have will either push them to work differently, take inspired action from the outcome, see what they can do to improve or seek help. It’s about acknowledging the experiences and instead of blaming your self-worth, you take the movement to change your reality.

Which category do you think you are in?

Fixed mindset, Growth mindset or Both?

Stay tuned to find out how you can benefit from changing to a growth mindset.
Be True, Be You X

SLOW DOWN & BREATHE

Self care routines are needed to remind you to slow down.

*This post is in collaboration with Jess of Earth*

Do you ever feel like the days are just on a constant loop and you don’t know what day or month it is but, you know you are exhausted? This constant loop can manifest physically and mentally and is a tale-tell sign to slow down.
Today post is in collaboration with Jess of Earth and we are going to share our experience on what are self-care routine is when we need to slow down. Be sure to check her routine after.

I feel like a self-care routine is needed every night, even if some days are busier than others, it’s a great way to let your body relax and get into its natural rhythm. To get me back into the flow of things I do a few things, one of my favourite things is to immerse myself in a book especially a fiction book. Fiction books allow me to get out of my head and into a place of imagination and wonder. Currently, I am reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mande and every time I open that book I let go of the outside world and submerge in the world of post-apocalyptic ( I won’t spoil it for you but, I do recommend you read it).

After I read, I start to do a bit of yoga and meditation as I’ve been stuck in one position for a long time. When we are constantly on the go our bodies get tensed because we are constantly on the go, but by introducing yoga at the end of the day, it has helped me get those knots and kinks out of my body so I can feel relaxed and free. I often incorporate meditation once my body feels light after yoga, as the mind and body works as one.

If I am out and about and I can’t do the above activities, I will either phone a loved one to just take my mind off of everything and seek advice. Another thing I enjoy is walking in nature, it’s like letting go of everything and just being able to focus on the present and what I see around me.
What is your favourite way to unwind and slow down? Comment below

And don’t forget to have a read of Jess’s experience on her self care routine.
Stay Grounded X

It’s Time To Switch Up Your Daily Routine

From the time we wake up in the morning, we are straight into a routine that is a habit for us. The way we shower, the way we get dressed and put on certain items of clothing first and how we prepare to leave the house is a continuous routine. We are so conditioned to this routine that it’s second nature to us, we don’t have think about it because we’ve done it a million times before.

Routines can get a bit boring after a while and sometimes you need a change, so what would it be like if you reverse your chronological order of putting clothes on or changing the order you begin in the bathroom.

How would that make you feel?

So, I took it upon myself to do this fun experiment. If you know me one thing I always do while listening to music is, I always shuffle songs on my phone, I could be anywhere, with anyone and I will continuously shuffle to find the right song. Now, there is nothing, in particular, I am looking for, it’s just anything that grabs my attention at that moment, I will settle for. When doing this fun experiment instead of falling back into my old routine of shuffling songs, I was open to each song that blessed my ears and listening to it with full attention. Turned out, the songs I were skipping, were actually pretty good.
Another example is on my journeys to frequent places I tend to cross the road at a certain point because it’s become a natural habit for me. This time I decided to cross the street at a different point on the road. Previously, if I ever tried to do this before it would freak me out. but, I just said what’s the worst that can happen. I am still going to get to my destination even if I cross the street later or earlier.
After a long day, I sat down and reflected on why I did this. This experiment made me realise:

Change is not a bad thing and the more we embrace it, the more it has a positive effect on us.
It’s ok to switch up your routine from time to time, as long as the main goal is in focus.
And lastly, the amount of overthinking we do when it comes to doing something new, resist us from stepping out of our the comfort zone

What will you change this week?

Stay Grounded X

KNOCK DOWN YOUR WALLS

The thoughts we condition ourselves to believe can be more harmful than good. Inside I talk about knocking down your walls and gaining your power back

Our belief system stems from our old habits and thoughts that are repeated over and over again until it’s ingrained in our system. The good, the bad and the ugly are stored in our brain and the pattern we’ve become conditioned to, keeps us ‘safe’. I put the word safe in quotation marks because in hindsight it actually does not keep us safe but affects our experience because we are trapped in the thoughts and habits that don’t work for us but that is all we know.

I am currently reading the Untethered Soul by Micheal Singer for the second time and there is a chapter that sparked inspiration for me. He speaks about a house, a house that is made up of 4 walls and a roof, all around you the walls are filled with your consciousness, beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. There is no light, just darkness but, it’s ok because you enjoy this, it is comforting for you. You don’t step beyond the darkness because the certainty of the unknown keeps you. However, you do know that there is natural light outside but you are afraid to step into it.

Now if we think about it, this is how our mind is set up, what we know has slowly stopped us from reaching the other side due to our ego, emotions and thought patterns taking over. This feeling blocks us from the infinite light and abundance that is calling us. For us to reach the infinite light, we need to stand up to the 4 walls, we need to acknowledge what is holding us back, feel the emotion, understand that it no longer works for us and moves past them.

A great quote Micheal said is ‘’You must realize that when you defend yourself, you are really defending your walls. What you are defending is the house you built to protect yourself’’.

Now that gave me shivers!

We need to do intensive work to find solutions that do not keep us trapped and in the defending mode but to move in building a structure that benefits us in a healthy way. When we change our outlook we attract healthy lifestyles, self worth and healthy relationships into our lives.

Stay Grounded X

How To Use Affirmations

How to use affirmations to your advantage.

When people hear the words affirmations, they often roll their eyes, switch off or have a strong opinion of it(usually a bad one) but, I am here to tell you how affirmations can work in your favour.
Affirmations do not have to be standing in the mirror telling yourself ‘you are perfect’ ( because there is no such thing as perfectionism), but, there are countless ways to affirm your words and some of them you don’t even have to say a word.

I’ve tried the whole speaking into the mirror and I quickly found myself either laughing about how silly I look if anyone walked in the room and caught me or I end up criticising myself and noticing all my flaws. So I decided that was not for me and simply moved to an alternative that suited me better. This is when I discovered the power of post-it notes! Now I know, post it notes have always been around and it’s not this new invention but writing my affirmations down on a post-it note and sticking it in places I would see it was a new invention to me. By placing these affirmation notes within eye level enables me to really take moment to read and reflect on them. A few areas that the affirmation notes are dotted around my space is the mirror, light switch and the drawers, I purposely stuck them against these objects because these are the places I go to the most during my morning or day.
I also have set my alarm to be my affirmations to wake me up in the morning via the voice note app on my phone. This helps me to not instantly jump up out of bed and stress but ease myself into the morning.

Setting these intentions can bring you a satisfied feeling of what you want your future to look like. An increase of feeling good via your affirmations allows you to have a great rest of the day because you have started by setting those intentions.

A few other ways to affirm your words are:

Making it your screensaver

Sending daily alerts to your phone

Recording your affirmations and using it as an alarm

Writing in your journal

Saying it out loud ( it didn’t work for me but it might work for you)

A list of positive statements:

I am grateful for my healthy mind, body, and soul

I am happy with who I am, what I have and with what I will receive

Success flows to me effortlessly

I am always on the right path

If you’re new to this, it will feel different for the first few tries, but once you get over the hurdle of awkwardness and start allowing yourself to feel each word you read, speak or repeat, this will become second nature.

Stay Grounded X

Organisation Is Key

Learn all about how staying organise can keep you ahead of the game!

Inspiration of the week

The feeling of having your life together is one of the most euphoric moments. You feel like a true adult smashing life!
We always want the end result but we forget what we have to do in order to get to it. By taking some time out at the beginning of the week to organise your plans for the commencing week, it will highly benefit you in the long run and as a result you can thank past you, for being so productive that future doesn’t have stress.

This week if you have not already started I want you open that planner, notes, calendar whatever you use and start organising your week ahead.

You can thank me later 🙂

Quote of the week: ‘’ Organised life=Tidy mind’’

To view last weeks inspiration of the week click here

Embracing The Uncertanity Of Life

The art of embracing the uncertanity of life can be pretty scary. Find out how you can turn this fear into good energy.

Every day we are faced with uncertainty with the decision, experiences and thoughts we go through on a daily basis and some of the thoughts can be on a minuscule level such as ‘’ Will the bus arrive in 3 minutes? ’’, we don’t know for certain if the bus is going to arrive in 3 minutes but we embrace that uncertainty and we know that the bus will eventually arrive or if not in 3 minutes there is an alternative. We tend to have a nonchalant attitude towards smalls thoughts like this but, when it comes to an experience that will have a bigger impact on us, we often get into an anxious state.

Why do we not share the same attitude that we have for the bus with the bigger things in life?
Because the uncertainty scares us and as humans, we like to have control of our lives and what is going to happen next.

We should embrace uncertainty as a means of improvement. By acknowledging and welcoming this feeling we are accepting that it is there but what we do next determines how we manipulate the thought to bring the best outcome for us.
For example, If you are stuck in the mud and can’t get out, your mind starts to irrationally go into overdrive but if you acknowledge the feeling (that you are stuck) and that you don’t know how your going to get out but you know there is a way and you start to strategically find ways to release yourself. You have fundamentally found a way to overcome that situation which was the best outcome for you.

I hope this all makes sense as this is something I am still working on and by sharing my journey with you. It can help unleash any limiting thoughts you may have.

I guess what I am saying is, stop letting the fear of the unknown stop you from doing the things you want to do in life. Walk in faith, understand that you might not know how you will get to your end result but by embracing the uncertainty and having that energy of determination you will push through in life.

Stay Grounded X

How I Organise My Life

If you’re anything like me adulting can be tough at times. There are so many responsibilities, jobs and overall things you need to remember; and then you would end up forgetting what you needed to complete and the inevitable cycle happens once again.
It got to a point where I didn’t know what to do, so then I started to stick post-it notes around my room to help me remember but, they always end up disappearing and I couldn’t remember what I ever wrote down.

I felt like everything I tried didn’t work.
I had a little pep talk with myself and ask ‘’what can I do to feel more organised and how can I make it fun for me?’’

It was until I dedicated some time that I ended up finding a planner that suited me (I love anything that has quotes on it so this was perfect for me.)

Everything was going so well, I absolutely loved the planner and felt a sense of accomplishment and a bit of an organisation queen. Until I kept leaving the planner at home and felt myself slipping back into my old ways.

Then it hit me!! My phone is always by my side so why not record all my dates and reminders there.

So below is an example of how I organise my life:

*Due to privacy reasons I had to cover up names

An easy way to help navigate my life was to colour code. Each colour has specific category. There is-
Social- This includes social events, meet up’s with family and friends and birthdays
University- Any university work, meetings, deadlines
Work- Any work dates, meetings etc.
Gym-The days I go to the gym and what I do there
The grounded tree- Anything to do with the grounded tree

Now, I use both my planner and calendar in conjunction with each other. It’s great because if I forgot my book, I still have what I need right on my phone.

If you are trying to get organised, why not try out the calendar on your phone or if you’re old school and prefer something physical, why not invest in a diary. It’s really beneficial in the long run.

Stay Grounded X