Self-Awareness Archives - Page 2 of 2

10 journal prompts to prove can do anything

Dec 14, 2020 | Journaling, Soul Purpose

Journalling has become a pretty big part of the wellness and spiritual community of late, but that’s for a very good reason. Journaling or keeping a diary has been proven to help you sort through difficult emotions, unlock the subconscious and learn a whole lot more about yourself.

Journal prompts aim to give you a focus so you can set an intention for your journaling session. If you just sit down to write, you can often struggle to get started, so grabbing a few prompts from Pinterest or blogs can get the ball rolling for you. Of course, you could just think about the answers, but writing things down makes a thought tangible. Written words give our thoughts and feelings life in our external world, making them easier to comprehend and ultimately face head-on.

With our exercise today, we’re going to be using the power of journaling to prove to ourselves that we are incredible beings, capable of incredible things. We’re going to prove to ourselves that we have the ability to do anything that we feel called to do, so let’s take a look at some of the journal prompts waiting to be explored.

Write down 5 challenges you have overcome in the last 12-months

Exactly as it says on the tin. No matter how small, think about what challenges or obstacles you have had to face in the last 12-months. It could be something as huge as facing a job redundancy, or something smaller like having your phone stop working.

What did you learn from overcoming those obstacles?

Every challenge and obstacle teaches us something, even if we don’t realise it at the time. Think about who you were before the challenge came along and who you were after. Did your perspective shift during that time? Did you realise something about yourself? Did your priorities change due to the challenge?

If you could tell yourself anything at the start of the year, what would it be?

Imagine being sat in front of yourself at the beginning of this year. What would you want you to know? What words of wisdom would you give to yourself?

List 5 things you have achieved in your personal life over the last 12-months?

Again, these can be small things like running outdoors for the first time or big things like having a baby or getting married!

List 5 things you have achieved in your professional life over the last 12-months?

Just like above, only this time we’re going to be focusing on your job, career or business.

Did you achieve anything this year that you hadn’t planned for?

If you’re anything like me, you like to create goals and work until you reach them, but sometimes life throws things your way that requires a bit of spontaneity. Is there anything you’ve achieved that you never even thought you’d have to achieve? As an example, this year I started to learn to roller skate, not something I thought I’d be achieving this year, thanks lockdown!

List 5 ways you are different compared to the beginning of this year

How have you changed over these last 12-months? We are never the same year on year, things happen that change us, as well as age and experience of life in general. Compare the person you were at the start of this year to the person you are today. Are there any changes that you feel particularly happy about?

What were your priorities at the beginning of this year?

Think back to the start of this year and list what your key priorities and values were.

What are your priorities now?

What are your priorities and values now? How have they changed or shifted since the start of the year? Why have they changed?

If you were to describe your life now to yourself 3 years ago, what would past you say?

If you had the opportunity to talk to yourself 3-years ago and tell them about your life and everything that has happened in those 3 years, what do you think past you would say? Would they be surprised, happy, excited?

If you struggle with the task of journaling, try and break it down into small chunks. Instead of sitting down to go through all 10 prompts at once, choose to quickly do 1 a day. There’s no rush and approaching each prompt with a fresh mind may prove useful!

The 6 areas of self-care for spiritual entrepreneurs

Nov 2, 2020 | Soul Purpose

As spiritual entrepreneurs, we need to make sure we take care of ourselves on many different levels. Whether it’s looking after our physical body, our mental wellbeing or our spiritual health, we need to make sure everything gets some love and attention.

When it comes to looking after my own wellbeing, there are 6 different areas I like to make time for. It may sound like a lot and you may think ‘Cat, I do not have time to maintain 6 areas of wellbeing!’, but I’m here to show you how you can ensure all parts of yourself are being well cared for in a time-efficient and intentional way.

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“A person being “too busy” is a myth. People make time for the things that are really important to them.”

— Mandy Hale

Area 1: Physical

It’s one of the most well-known areas and for many, one of the easiest to let slip into nothingness. I won’t lie, cardio workouts make me want to instantly lie down and nap, but I know I feel better and I can do more when I look after my cardio fitness… I hate it.

I also make sure to do one exercise class a week that is fun, for me it’s aerial hoop, for some it may be pole or if you’re stuck at home, there are a plethora of online exercise videos to choose from. Physical health isn’t just about looking good or keeping your body in good condition, it can have a knock-on effect with all the other areas we’re going to be looking at in this post. Physical exercise can boost your endorphins helping to lift your mood, it can also force you to breathe more deeply, helping you feel calmer and get more oxygen into your bloodstream, making you feel more awake and motivated.

Area 2: Mental

Something that we are all very aware of at the moment and rightly so. Our mental health can be one of the trickiest things to take care of. I always liken it to trying to keep a mound of sand in your hands whilst juggling, at least that’s what it feels like for me.

The key to taking care of your mental wellbeing is to take breaks. Force your mind to stop, relax, unplug from the information filth cauldron that is the internet. A lot of the issues we see today are because we are constantly pushing information into our brains at a rapid rate, so do something where you have to focus on just one thing, like reading, sewing, gardening or even watching your favourite show.

Area 3: Emotional

Our emotional wellbeing can often get lumped in with our mental wellbeing and that makes a lot of sense as the two are closely connected, but they are not exclusive. Your emotional wellbeing often requires some dedicated time and attention, as it has its roots in your subconscious.

Your emotions control how you feel, your mental wellbeing controls how you think but how you feel can influence your thoughts, this is where it gets tricky to separate the two. However, when taking time to take care of your emotional wellbeing, we need to delve into that subconscious and the way we do that is through mindfulness meditation, journaling, gratitude lists and shadow work (facing and working through the darkest parts of ourselves).

Blog Recommendation: How to start fighting against self-limiting beliefs

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“You only get one life, make it a balanced one”

— The Self-Care Emporium

Area 4: Spiritual

Your spiritual self-care should aim to create a connection between you and the universe in which we live. It’s all about recognising what we don’t know and may never know and coming to terms with that. It’s about exploring our faith, our philosophical beliefs and how we feel about the world and the people in it.

Not only should we focus on forming a relationship with the universe, but we should also be focusing inwards in order to uncover and tap into our own personal power. As energetic beings, we are capable of so much more than our conscious mind allows us to believe, so taking time out for some spiritual self-care can help to build confidence, create a much healthier relationship with self and even open your eyes to new perspectives.

Area 5: Creative

Creativity, whether you think you’re a creative person or not, is essential to being able to process and express difficult emotions. This is why so many artists, poets, playwrights and actors have deep dark troubles. Granted back in the day some of the great artists had various diseases that made them crazy, but they still managed to use creativity to unleash some of their deepest emotions so you have no excuse.

Even something as simple as doodling in your notepad can help you get that creativity moving along nicely. Creative self-care can be the key to unlocking difficult emotional memories, self-limiting beliefs or even fears we never knew we had. Freewriting is great if you’re not good with a pencil or a paintbrush, or even just creating visual mood boards can help, Canva is a great tool for this and you can just save the images you love and drag and drop!

Blog Recommendation: How to stop believing you’re too busy for self-care

Area 6: Intellectual

Finally, we have our intellectual self-care. Now, the trap we don’t want to fall into is overloading ourselves with information, which can be easy when we fall down a YouTube rabbit hole or go on a Google rampage. In order to take care of our intellectual health, all we have to do is challenge ourselves in an intellectual way. This can be grabbing a puzzle book to fill out in your break times, taking a short online course in something you’ve always been fascinated with or researching about a specific subject you want to know more about.

Taking care of your intellectual wellbeing can help you to discover new perspectives on the world, yourself, your career, your wants and desires, how you treat others and so much more. Plus, keeping our minds focused in this way links back to that mental self-care from earlier.

How to combine them all together

You may have noticed a few commonalities as we went through each area, but here are a few things you can do, as a busy spiritual entrepreneur, to give each area care and attention without having to take hours out of your day.

Freewriting – The idea behind freewriting is that you just write down everything you have in your head without censorship. This helps with your mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing all at once. You could even do this in the form of a short story, adding in that creative element.
Dancing – Whether it’s a Tik Tok dance or a professional dance class, dancing can help you be creative using your body and help to get your heart pumping. This can take care of your physical, mental, emotional and creative wellbeing.
Reading non-fiction – Picking up a history book, a book on an academic subject or a self-help book can be a great way to not only take care of your intellectual wellbeing, but it also tackles your mental wellbeing. Depending on the subject it can even address your emotional, spiritual and creative wellbeing. If you grab yourself an audiobook, you could listen to it while running or in the gym, adding in some physical self-care.
Sex/Masturbation – Yep we went there. Sex or some one-on-one time with yourself can be a great way to not only reduce stress and tension in your body, but it can also help you learn more about your own preferences, likes and dislikes. Plus you open up that Sacral chakra, which is the seat of your creativity and emotional wellbeing.

Scheduling in specific self-care time is something all business owners should do, after all, your business relies on you in order to succeed and it can’t do that if you’re burned out. To give the most to our projects, we have to to give an equal amount of energy to ourselves in order to balance the scales. How do you make sure to stay balanced when busy?

A great way to take care of your wellbeing, learn how to read tarot today!

A Halloween ritual for new beginnings

Oct 27, 2020 | Soul Purpose

It’s finally here, Halloween or Samhain if you celebrate the pagan holidays. We’ve talked a bit about what Samhain is and how we can use it to give ourselves a fresh start, but now we’re taking action and cracking on with a ritual to help us do just that.

Halloween is one of the most powerful nights of the year, because the veil to the spirit world is the thinnest, meaning we can call upon the energy and wisdom of those that came before. It’s also a time that is filled with gratitude and thankfulness and if there’s one thing the universe loves, it’s being thanked for everything it’s already given you.

Gratitude and reflection are going to be our main drivers as we go through this simple Halloween ritual for beginners. We’ll be making sure to put out that positive grateful energy, so that we can attract it back to us later in the next cycle.

Let’s have a look at what we’ll need:

1x Black Candle – To absorb negativity
1x White Candle – To promote positivity
Smokey Quartz Point – To ground you
Heat Proof Bowl
Paper
Pen
Mirror – For amplifying your energy
Dried Sage – For cleansing and purifying

How to perform your Halloween ritual

Position yourself in front of a mirror, ideally, one that you can see your full face in. Place the two candles in front of the mirror and light them, positioning the smokey quartz point between them, pointing towards you.
If you can sit in front of the mirror great, if you need to stand, that’s ok too. Concentrate on the flames of the candles in the mirror’s reflection and focus on your breathing. Breathe in for 5, hold for 4 and breathe out for another count of 5.
Once you feel ready and relaxed, take your paper and write down everything you are grateful for receiving or achieving this year. You can do this using separate strips for each point if you want to, this can make them easier to burn.
Use the candle to set fire to the paper within the heatproof bowl and focus as the smoke rises into the air. Watching the smoke, repeat the following affirmations:
- I thank the universe for everything it has gifted me this year and I’m grateful for what has been, what is and what is yet to come. I now banish the negativity holding me back and embrace the positivity pulling me forward.
I like to keep saying my affirmations, either out loud or in my head as I then slip into a 10-minute meditation. Playing meditation playlists really helps me to get in the zone. To get the most out of the ritual, maintain that contact with the reflections of the candle flames in the mirror as you meditate.
Once you’re done with your meditation, take the ashes of your paper and mix in some dried sage. You can then transfer this mixture and your smokey quartz crystal to a pouch or jar that you can carry around with you or keep nearby, as a good luck charm. You can also bury the mixture in the ground, showing that this cycle is over and you’re ready to start a new one.

7 ways to start fighting against self-limiting beliefs

Oct 19, 2020 | Soul Purpose

By now, you’ve probably heard all about self-limiting beliefs, but if you haven’t, here’s a very brief breakdown of what it means:

Self-limiting beliefs are subconscious beliefs that you have created, that stop you from doing what you want or need to do. Business-minded or entrepreneurial people wanting to build their own business in particular struggle with this.

The thing about self-limiting beliefs is that the root of them is not always what we think. Our mind never works in straight lines, it zigs and zags and jumps to conclusions. This means that even the smallest event can create a belief we have of ourselves.

For example, say you were in school when you were very young and another child told you that your drawing was rubbish. From that point on, the seed has been planted and it may not grow into ‘I can’t draw’ it might evolve and mutate into ‘I’m not a creative person’ or even a step further ‘I’m not good at anything’. This can also become things like ‘people will laugh at me behind my back if I try and do that’ or ‘I probably won’t be good at what I want to do so why bother trying?’. We never realise it at the time, but from this point on we have an emotional trigger, that clicks on whenever we are threatened with having to feel the way we felt in that moment. Our brain creates these beliefs in order to stop us from putting ourselves in a situation where we could possibly incite the same outcome.

Stop feeding your self-limiting belief monster

Do you see how the smallest seed can create the biggest self-limiting beliefs? This tiny voice in your head telling you that you can’t, gets stronger and stronger the longer you feed it. We feed it by denying ourselves the opportunity to try, agreeing with the ludicrous statements it creates for us and staying within our comfort zones.

Today is the day we stop letting the monster make the decisions though! With these seven handy tips, you can start to make positive steps forwards. Put up a fight and win against those beliefs that are holding you back.

1) Identify what your self-limiting beliefs are

First things first, we need to know what we’re fighting against. This can take a bit of time and a lot of self-awareness. We need to pinpoint what our self-limiting beliefs are and we do that by noting down everything the little voice inside is saying to us. Sit and think about why you’re not going out there and working towards your biggest goals. Don’t filter yourself, just let whatever needs to come up, come up and make a note of it.

2) Create conflicting affirmations

Once we’ve identified what our self-limiting beliefs are, we can then work on creating facts to contradict them. Take that list of beliefs you made in point 1 and create a sentence that contradicts that belief. So, for example, you may have:

‘I’m not skilled enough to become a photographer’ as your belief.

Then you need to contradict that belief with something along the lines of ‘I will be skilled enough to be a photographer in time’ or ‘I have the passion, drive and creativity to become a photographer’.

Say these affirmations to yourself every day in the mirror. The more you say it, the more you’ll believe it.

3) Do a self-dedication ceremony

I did something similar when I decided to become pagan and dedicate my time and energy to a more mindful and spiritual lifestyle. You basically tell the universe that you are willing and ready to put just as much effort into yourself as you do your work and loved ones.

We need to show those self-limiting beliefs that we’re serious about what we want and that they aren’t going to hold us back anymore because we have dedicated to ourselves completely.

Some perfect crystals for your ceremony are Lapis Lazuli for inner wisdom, Blue Onyx for higher consciousness and Carnelian for passion and motivation.

4) Prove yourself to yourself

If there is something you subconsciously believe you’re not good at, or that you ‘can’t’ do, then give it a go. Tell yourself it’s just this one time and see how you feel once it’s over. You might find that you actually do have a knack for it after all and that little voice won’t be able to tell you ‘no’ anymore.

5) Create a bucket list and an affirmation for each point

What would you do if you couldn’t fail? It’s a cliche question at this point, but it can be the ideal thing to get you thinking. Write down what it is you want to achieve, what you’re too scared to give a go and what you’d love to do before you kick the bucket.

Next, take that list and create an affirmation for each. So if you have a bullet point that says ‘I want to own my own business’ then your affirmation will be ‘I own my own business and I love it’.

Affirmations always work best when you word them as though they are already in your life.

6) Argue with the little voice

When that little voice pipes up, muster up all the sass you have in your body and tell it where to go. I love to tell my self-limiting beliefs where they can shove their opinion. Even if you have to argue with it out loud, let it know that you’re in control.

7) Journal using the ‘Why, why, why what’ method

I love the ‘Why, why, why, what’ method as it gets your brain thinking about the root of the issue. It’s not always an easy thing to do though, because our brain is keeping things in our subconscious to protect us. It doesn’t want us to be upset or brought down by past events, so instead it keeps them all locked away. But it’s these events that are causing the self-limiting beliefs, so if we can address them directly, then the beliefs dissolve away.

The ‘Why, why, why, what’ method requires you to take those self-limiting beliefs from point 1 and break them down time and time again until you’ve got a more concentrated outcome. It works a little like this:

Belief – I’m not skilled enough to be a professional photographer

Why do I think that?

Because I haven’t trained to become a photographer and I don’t have the same knowledge as professional photographers.

Why should that stop me?

Because clients want people that know exactly what they are doing and want professional pictures as a result and I don’t want to disappoint them.

Why do I feel I wouldn’t be able to deliver that?

Because I don’t have the confidence to present my work as a professional piece of work and I worry that clients will be unhappy with what I present to them.

What can I do to resolve this?

I could take an online course or even re-train as a photographer and build my portfolio in order to grow my confidence and present my work to potential clients.

The ‘Why’ questions are flexible, they should address the previous answers and get you thinking about why it is you have those beliefs. What emotions are behind them? On the surface, it always appears like a cold hard fact, until you dig a little deeper and realise you actually have a very emotional root keeping it stuck in your mind. You can see by the above examples that fear and a lack of self-esteem are the main emotional root of this belief, so what can we do now to address those emotions?

This technique can be tricky though, so if you need a little bit of help identifying what your self-limiting beliefs are, or what their emotional root is, then getting yourself a guidance tarot reading can be the perfect way to get you on the right track. Alternatively, here’s a little spread you can do for yourself with your own tarot decks.

Remember, I’m always on hand to help you fight against those self-limiting beliefs, so don’t be afraid to get in touch if you want to talk through things!

Use Your Cards to Reconnect With the Authentic Self

Learn how you can use your Tarot or Oracle cards to reconnect with the most authentic version of yourself with my Tarot for Reconnection workshop.

What is Samhain and how can it help you to start fresh?

Oct 5, 2020 | Soul Purpose

It’s officially October and that means one thing, Samhain/Halloween is on its way! But what is Samhain and how can you use it for something more productive than lighting your pumpkin and eating your weight in chocolate?

Before Samhain became the commercialised holiday of Halloween (I won’t lie, I love both equally) it was a pagan sabat that was used to celebrate the end of a wheel cycle. Samhain is the very last celebration in the wheel of the year, with a brand new cycle starting on Yule. With this in mind, Samhain was seen as a pagan new year, a time where we look back and reflect on what has been and start planning for what will be.

So how can we use Samhain to help us move forward with purpose, balance and courage?

Celebrating the end of a cycle

If I had to relate Samhain to any of the tarot cards, it would be the Death card. Which also ties into the spooky, death laden aesthetic we’ve come to know and love around Halloween, ironic? I think not!

Just like the Death card tells us to do, we have to now accept and welcome the end of this yearly cycle. We have to choose what we want to move into and decide how we want to bid farewell to this chapter in our life. Even if there are things we want to continue into this next wheel cycle, there will be things that are better left in the past and this time of year is when we get to dig those things out and be rid of them for good.

Starting fresh

To get the most from Samhain, we have to figure out what things we have carried with us this year that have held us back, kept us down or stopped us completely. What thought processes have been plaguing you? What self-limiting beliefs have made this year less productive?

The best way to get to the heart of what you need to leave behind is to spend some time with your journal. And to help you dig deep and really think about what you’ve got weighing you down, here are a few journal prompts you can use to ask the important questions.

A Samhain ritual for starting a new chapter

If you didn’t already know, Samhain 2020 is a very special one as it takes place on a blue moon, meaning it falls on the second full moon in one single month. It’s filled with a powerful energy that shines a bright light on the darkest parts of ourselves, so it’s the perfect time to uncover all that negativity that has made a home within your mind.

This Samhain/ Halloween you can do a ritual for yourself, to help you figure out what you need to leave behind in this year cycle and how you can make more positive and productive steps forward into a new chapter.

*Remember, we aren’t repressing these negativities, we are uncovering them so we can work through them and resolve them in a healthy way!

Samhain Ritual For a New Chapter

Let’s start a new chapter with purpose and courage…

What you’ll need:

1x White candle or 1x Samhain ritual candle
1x Snowflake Obsidian – for hope, banishing negativity and attracting positivity
1x Sodalite crystal – for intuition, inner wisdom and spiritual awareness
Sandalwood incense or sandalwood fragrance oil
Heatproof dish or bowl *water if you can’t burn materials
Paper & pen

The ritual

*In this ritual, we will be burning paper, but if you can’t burn things for whatever reason, don’t worry you can still do the ritual, but instead of burning, submerge it in water and then dispose of it.

Step 1: First things first, we need to get into the right mindset so do 10-minutes of meditation, focusing on the breath and allowing all sounds and distractions to melt away. Light your candles and incense/ burn your oil, get comfy and allow your body to let go of all the stress of the day.

Step 2: Next, we’re going to grab those journal prompts and work through them. If you’ve done them in advance, awesome! We’re going to use our answers to figure out what we want to let go of during this ritual.

Step 3: Look at the answers to the questions around what has stopped you from achieving your goals, what bad habits you want to let go of and what you wish you’d done less of. Take those answers and re-word them into statements.

For example, one of mine would be: “I let go of my habit of criticising my work ethic when my energy is low“ or “I let go of my belief that I am not capable of achieving my biggest goals in life“ etc.

I want you to write these on a slip of paper and fold it up.

Step 4: Next we want to counter this negativity with some positive affirmations. Just like we did with our negative statements, we want to do the same for our positive statements, using the answers from the journal prompts around what you wish you’d done more of and what good habits you want to adopt in this new cycle.

For example: “I meditate for 10-minutes every morning“ or “I have a good balance between working hard and taking care of my wellbeing“

Word these affirmations as though you already do them.

Step 5: Now we’ve got our negativities all wrapped up in our paper prisons and our positive affirmations waiting to be affirmed, we then want to light the negativities paper on fire using either a lighter or the flame from your candle and drop it in the bowl or dish. Please be careful when doing this! I don’t want any burned fingers or for you to burn your house down. If you can’t burn the paper, cover it in water and let it sit while you do step 6.

*Quick tip: Printer paper can be a menace to burn, so if you can get your hands on some natural paper or paper made from plant materials, it’ll burn much faster and easier.

Step 6: Whilst you watch your negativities be destroyed and disappear in a puff of smoke, hold your crystals in your left hand and read your affirmations out loud. Repeat all the affirmations three times in total. *the left hand is the hand of receiving and we want to receive the hope and intuition our crystals offer us.

Step 7: Once you’re all done with your affirmations, blow out your candles and take the remnants of your negativity paper and dispose of it. If you want to really go the extra mile, bury the ashes in the garden. You can then put your crystals and your positive affirmations in a small bag and carry it around as a good luck talisman, or sleep with it under your pillow to affirm your desires even further.

Don’t forget, you can grab all my exclusive Samhain products over on my shop!

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