Hey, it’s your girl, Dr. Alisha Griffith, affectionately known as “Dr. Ali.” I’m your autism parenting strategist and ignite coach. I help autism moms, mompreneurs, and aspiring mompreneurs, to shift through the feelings of overwhelm, frustration, and stress, and move towards making bold, brave power moves so you can ignite the results you want and live that ultimate dream life you desire.
Today I’m going to be talking all about that Morning Mindset. Yes, that mindset that you start your morning with is how you can project the rest of your day – the events, your perceptions, and your results, in making that day the BEST day that you can create. I’m going to share with you some things that I use in the morning to help me to realign, to reshift, and to get myself ready for a fun filled packed day ahead.
As moms we wake up ready to go, especially moms that are entrepreneurs. We wake up and we’re ready to tackle the world, to tackle our to do list. We’re ready to check all those things we have to get done. Before we even get there, we have to make sure we are ready to take on what is ahead of us. We need to do some self care, some self work, and some self love before we go out there and give any love to anyone else, before giving any care to anyone else, before giving our attention to all of the other things that are going to take our attention away from ourselves. So I’m sharing with you three steps to creating those critical morning mindset moves.
1. So I’ll start you off with the first thing that I do as I get up in the morning. Most mornings I start with some meditation. I like to use different type of meditative sources. You can choose one that works for you, you might even get to choose one of mine that I’m going to be creating and putting out there so you can use it to start your day off on a positive note.
Meditation is important to me in the morning because it allows me to be still, it allows me to get in touch with what is that I need for me, but most importantly it stops everything. It stops the constant thoughts, the constant planning, the constant moving around, the swirl of madness that happens in our heads. I started to incorporate more meditative processes, and I started mostly with Deepak and Oprah. They actually taught me how to use meditation to really create the positive aspects that I want to happen in my life. Using their tools, techniques, and starts prepared me for the fact that it takes practice. You ever lay down to do meditation and then your mind is swirling into everything else? You’re supposed to stop moving, but somehow you’re still thinking. At first I thought that was so wrong, and I was like, “I can’t meditate, it’s not for me. Every time I do it I’m always thinking about everything else.” Then I had to learn that like everything else it requires what? PRACTICE.
So I couldn’t give up on myself, On the days when I did stray away I gave myself permission to come back in when I noticed it was happening. They have a technique where they give you a certain word, or a few words, that you’re saying in your head where once you feel yourself coming out of alignment or thinking of other things, you use that to kind of zone you in and center back in. I do a lot of similar things in terms of meditation that I do when I’m not using it. I choose that one word or phrase that I need to help me to focus that day, even if sometimes the word is just “focus.”
Whatever you need to use to help you to come back in, then use that! Some people will use a specific visual, some people will use a specific word or phrase, but the key is to give yourself permission to stop moving, to allow yourself to focus on something else besides your to do list, and then to really get your mind ready for what is ahead of you. Sometimes you just have to create a blank slate for the day. I think about it as an artist – before they get ready to paint on their canvas they start with a blank slate. So each morning start your day on a blank slate. That’s what I do, and I’ve noticed it’s accelerated my results. Instead of getting up and being ready to go, I get up first, I wait, slow down, be still, and THEN go.
2. Then I like to visualize exactly what it is that I want for the day, what I want to create. That’s step number 2: visualize the results of what we want. Sometimes I visualize a happy smile at the end, or a hug from Zachary, or success at something that I want to create, or the feeling of what I’m going to have at the end of the day. It’s really a way of setting yourself up for success by starting your morning with a specific routine that allows you to tap back into self before you pour back into others.
I hope some of you are writing this down or at least really responding with your soul, your spirit, and your heart space to create your own way. I love to share my way, but like I said, I started with the Deepak and Oprah, THEN I started to create my own. That’s what I want you to do. I want you start with something that is tried and true, and then incorporate your own, incorporate your own uniqueness, incorporate what works for you.
Visualize the results, visualize the end matter, visualize the end feeling so that you have something of a positive aspect towards whatever decision or steps that you make for the day.
3. That leads us into step number 3, those two magical words: THANK YOU. It’s pretty much how I start my day. As I take one foot out of the bed and I place it on the floor I say “thank.” As I place the other one on the ground I say “you.” We have to learn to start beginning our day, our process, our journey for whatever is ahead with GRATITUDE. We have to be grateful for whatever the moment is at this time. It could be thankful for being awake, thankful for being alive, thankful that I actually have two feet to place on the ground and that they’re working. For those who do not, then whatever way you use to come out of the bed, as you come out still use the words “thank you.” You may not have the ability of feet, but you have the ability of hands, you have the ability of thoughts, you have the ability of feelings. Whatever it is that your specific circumstances are, you have to remember to give thanks.
I do a lot of this with Zachary, my son the autism spectrum. He’s now moving into 13 which you know is this teenage age. So he is at the stage now where he is immediately thinking of what’s not right, or his mind is constantly thinking of what he has to do. I said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. We have to stop and we have to be thankful for what we can do. We have to be thankful for the things we have accomplished, and we have to be thankful for the now, for the present.”
I believe as parents, I believe as individuals, as humans – if we really start to incorporate being grateful, verbalizing it out loud, showing what thankfulness is – then we can begin showing others around us how gratitude and saying thank you, actions and meditation, and setting your mind in the right space so you can move forward in your day is so important.
We’re busy living in our day, and we’re busy with the nuances of what we have to get done, what we have to get accomplished to do things. And that’s fine because that’s LIFE. I’m not saying that that’s not going to occur, but what I am saying is that we can approach it in a DIFFERENT WAY. We can approach it in a way that we set ourselves up for success. Then when challenges come up we have the tools, strategies, and techniques to help us do kick through them or move past them. But before we even start with the challenges, before we even start with the wins, before we even start with the movement of the day, let’s start creating a morning mindset routine.
So that’s what I leave you here with. As you’re moving forward from today create your morning mindset routine. Look within yourself and see what is it that I can do that can set me forth for success for today. Make sure it doesn’t always include someone. We’re always thinking we have to do things FOR others, we have to do things WITH others. We have to learn to make sure we’re doing that self care for OURSELVES. We have to make sure that we’re pouring into ourselves and creating our own strategies.
The key of it all is to make sure you are creating that time and space for yourself and you’re putting some visualizations into actions. If you don’t see where you want to go, if you don’t see your aspect of success, if you don’t see the feeling and actually internalize within itself, then it just feels like its empty out there and it’s just waving around in the sky and the universe just as energy. So it’s our way of connecting with ourselves and connecting with the energy of where we want to go.
I’m so excited that you chose to spend the last few minutes reading this. What I want to leave you with is definitely make sure you get the 15 Secret Tips to Au-mazing Success available on my website on this time. Just visit the homepage and fill out the pop-up form to get it for free today! I share this information with you because I needed it. I share this with you because I know if you utilize these in different aspects of your life, you ARE going to see the change and the results.
Also make sure you follow my new podcast, The Dr. Ali Griffith Show! I discuss all things mindset, meditation, motivation, life as an autism mom, the challenges of life on the autism spectrum, divorce, depression, the good AND the bad. I keep it real and juicy y’all. I discuss topics like I have in this blog post today but in so much more detail. Check it out and make sure to subscribe, share it with your friends and family, and send me feedback!
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