Last month we started clearing out our physical environment because it’s easier and more rewarding to start in the physical world, since you see an immediate result. Our outer world reflects our inner world. There are several studies proving our surroundings have a direct effect on our habits in return. Science calls this situational support. 

This month we’ll focus on cleaning up our thinking and clearing out the cobwebs in our minds. 

Once our lives are decluttered, and our mind is calm, we can start listening to our hearts. On Valentine’s Day I will be tuning into the heart of what matters most and how we can start decluttering our hearts to start living wholeHEARTedly.

Don’t just think it, ink it! 

Get the thoughts that are fogging up your head out of your mind by writing them down. “Don’t just think it, ink it!”, my coach, who I affectionately call “Marcus Aurelius”, used to tell me repeatedly. 

In the mid 1970s Julia Cameron introduced the power of ‘Morning Pages’. She suggests to write down 3 pages in your journal upon waking every single day. You are not doing any ‘real writing’, no prose or poetry, you are simply unloading. She suggests that is an excellent meditation practice and they will clarify and prioritise your day ahead. In her workbook she writes this: “ Morning pages are not intended to be high art. … They are simply the siphoning off of the mind’s surface so that we can get to the deeper thoughts and impulses that lie beneath our daily voice-over. What is the daily Voice over? It is that petty, picky voice that brings us up short so often. You know how it goes: “I forgot to buy kitty litter. I didn’t call my sister back. I should have spoken up in that meeting yesterday. I need to get Tide… All of us have a voice-over of things we are concerned with. Morning pages are a catcher’s mitt for these concerns. By putting them onto the page, we are able to move into our days with fresh eyes.” Julia’s wildly popular and effective “Artist’s Way” teachings have helped millions of people uncover their creativity through their ‘Morning Pages’. 

The first 45 minutes of the day after awakening we are more likely to hear the messages from our subconscious since we are still without ego defences. It is the ultimate window of opportunity to tune into our true nature and subconscious . It is therefore also a beautiful time of the day to meditate! 

I would strongly suggest you use that time to your advantage this month and write down whatever comes to mind: who knows what hidden feelings, thoughts, projects, careers you will discover here! 

Walls Isaac

Listen for the Sound of Silence

Now that we have awoken the Feng Shui Master within you, it is time to call on his wise sibling, our inner Zen Master, as well.

Neuroscientific research has shown us our minds wander 46.9% of the time! What’s even more disturbing is that even though it might be our default setting, a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Controlling the mind not only physically strengthens the brain, but even boosts our cognitive performance. In other words, by quieting the mind we become smarter and more productive! Meditation turns out to be one of the most effective ways to stop a mind from wandering aimlessly. 

Mental hygiene is just as important as physical hygiene: we need to clean and groom it daily just like our bodies. Meditation should become a regular practice for the rest of your life.  

There are loads of accessible meditation apps, as well as local meet up groups that offer a variety of meditation techniques. Some meditation apps even have a built in buddy system to keep each other accountable to boot! Groups are a great way to practice meditations, especially for beginners. Not only can it be one of your most supportive communities, but it has been proven that meditating in groups exponentially amplifies the profoundness of the individuals’ experience as well. Our quantum fields are affected by our collective consciousness. Additionally, there have been several studies conducted in the past few decades proving how (group) meditations are even powerful enough to influence our physical environments!  

One of the most best known studies proving this was documented by the TM (Transcendental Meditation) University in the early 90s. “A number that exceeded one percent of the population meditated together every day from 1988 to 1991, and the crime rate dropped so much that Merseyside went from third highest to the lowest-ranked city in England during the time of the analysis. Meanwhile, the control town of non-meditators held a steady crime rate. Meditation was the only factor in the study that could account for the change, as the scientists calculated that police practices, local economics, and demographics remained the same throughout the study.” 

Simply put, not only are you improving your own wellbeing by practicing regularly, but you are making the world a better place by meditating. Meditation powerfully shows how interconnected we are as human beings.  If you you have a hard time meditating for yourself meditate for others! 

WOOP YOUR LIFE to wholesome! 

I would like to gently introduce you to coaching through a brilliant meditation practice called WOOP. Gabriele Oettingen is a scientist who ‘stumbled’ upon this meditative sequence and has been able to track its efficiency over the course of 20 years. WOOP combines the best of both worlds: meditation and coaching. It blends detachment with goal setting in a quick and easy daily practice. But what’s new is a concept called mental contrasting and negative visualisations. Well, negative visualisation has been around for thousands of years (and was actually used by the real Marcus Aurelius!). It’s the opposite of visualising the outcome you desire. You imagine your life without someone or something you value, to appreciate it even more! If you need a powerful reminder of how blessed you are, imagine your life without your blessings. Revers psychology works for our mind in more ways than one. That’s the task I have sneaked into your daily to do lists the past couple of days. When the going gets tough you imagine what your life would look like without it. What would you miss out on if you hadn’t signed up for this program? What would you miss?

Scientist Gabriele Oettingen (and colleagues) took it one step further, and has you imagine a desired future goal and than imagine what obstacle might prevent you from achieving that. They found that this mental contrasting is a self-regulation strategy essential to strong goal commitment. It is a fabulous tactic to set attainable goals and prevent disappointment. Your dream, might not be as great as you originally thought. When you concretely observe and truly imagine everyday life having attained that goal, you might not actually like the reality of it. What the dream would look and feel like might turn out to be undesirable to you. 

WOOP is the sequence in which you meditate and ponder your goals:

  1. WISH What do I want for me? What do I want for my life? What do I want for me today?
  2. OUTCOME What would be the best way to manifest this?
  3. OBSTACLE What stops me from achieving that? What in me stops achieving that? 
  4. PLAN What will I do when that obstacle arises? Come up with IF… THEN… action plan. 

Please visit their website for more information: woopmylife.org. There are some delightful short video’s listed to help you along. 

Listen to your heart

PEACE of Mind

Experiment to find out which style and which technique resonate most with you. If you are brand new to meditation, know that ‘single point focus’ calms the mind. A lot of people start their practice by simply focussing on their breath. If you make your exhale longer than the inhale it will calm your nervous system even more. You can simply count: three counts in, 4 counts out. Another easy exercise is to imagine you breathe in love and light, and exhale any stress and tension in your body. Visualisations are terrific mind-exercises as well: imagine you are breathing in a yellow golden light filling up your entire body from the toes up. Or start from the lungs and heart centre of the body and expand into every cell of our body till it reaches your fingertips, toes and hair follicles. I have published a page on my website with more information, please visit wholesome yoga if you want to find out more. 

Remember our mind is programmed to wander. Don’t fight your nature, just observe it with loving kindness. Whenever you catch it wandering, don’t scold it and beat yourself up about it! Just say something like “Hey, I know you’re just doing your job, but I don’t need your services right now. Just take a break and rest, you’ve deserved it! Thank you for sharing, but I am not interested in your story at the moment.” What you resist, persists, so don’t fight against the nature of your own mind just work with it.  You waste a lot of time and energy by swimming upstream, learn to go with the flow. 

Our Inner Buddha will assist us in decluttering our mind this month, if you ask it for help! If you make some time and space for Inner Peace daily, the heart of what matters most will be revealed to you! We need to quiet the mind, so we can start listening to the heart…

Live wholeHEARTedly while mindfully walking through this wholesome adventure called life! 

Nathalie Francois

Wholesome Life LLC

Feel Good, Be Good, Do Good. 

Everyday this month reflect on how you could clear out the cobwebs in your head: 

  1. Continue to declutter your physical environment: clean out the fridge, freezer, countertop; clear up and organise your desk and desktop, donate unused shoes and unnecessary clothing to create a supportive environment at home and in the office. 
  2. Start your day with journaling your thoughts to de-clutter your mind. Mindlessly write down whatever comes to mind when you wake up in the morning, don’t censor yourself – think big and let it flow! 
  3. Write down daily, weekly and monthly to do lists. You can enter them digitally into your smart phone calendar, but there is something very rewarding about physically ticking of your accomplishments at the end of the day. Don’t think it, ink it! 
  4. Set aside at least 10 minutes every morning to sit quietly and observe the mind. Explore different meditation styles to find out which one is most calming and centering to you. Some people practice TM (Transcendental Meditation), Mindful Meditation, repeat mantra’s or affirmations, say a prayer, use visualisations, listen to a podcast or music recording, etc. The top three meditation apps at the moment are Calm, Headspace, and Meditopia. Visit woopmylife.org to woop your meditation into the next level when you are ready! Explore and be open to find out what modality resonates most with you these days. 

P.S. Sign up for the Wholesome Newsletter if you’d rather receive these monthly coaching tips in your inbox.

P.P.S. The Valentine’s Day post on our Wholesome Life Facebook Page will talk about decluttering the HEART!

PPP.S. Join us on our Wholesome LinkedIn Page to take the (abbreviated) FREE SUCCESS TRACK Program, starting on Monday March 1 2021.  It looks like this pandemic might put our lives on hold till the summer, so why not take a 3 month coaching program to have you chomping at the bit by then?!