A Cool Compassion Trick!

Have you ever been annoyed by someone tailgating you? Do you have a coworker that you struggle to get along with? Is one of your friends or family members just driving you crazy lately?

I bet there are some people in your every day life that cause some unnecessary irritation. These people could be anyone from strangers, relatives, friends, acquaintances, and even coworkers.

One way to beat that almost incessant feeling of annoyance is by practicing compassion towards that person. I know, I know, sometimes it can be really hard to try and focus compassion on someone that is driving you up a dang wall! I’ve been there. I’ve been that crazy driver screaming at all the people around me as I rush on my way to work. I have gotten super snippy and annoyed with people at work or friends and family that think different or act different than I would. We’ve all been there.

These kind of outbreaks though very rarely ever serve any genuinely good purpose. All they do is tend to make us even more irritated! This is where compassion comes in. Compassion towards others instead allows us to find our own peace and maintain our own joy!

Like I said before, I know it can be super hard to try and practice compassion. So! I have come up with a nifty little trick that personally helped me manage a whole weeks worth of commuting without losing it on some random driver!

Here’s the trick! Make up a story about that person irritating you. It can he anything that tugs on your heart strings just a bit. The goal is to pull you out of the irritated annoyance thought pattern and into a more positive compassionate thought instead. Honestly, who cares if what you have to tell yourself isn’t true. The purpose of this exercise to help you create and maintain your own peace. If that means making up a story about the lady behind you driving too close to your bumper, then so be it. Maybe she’s late for a big meeting, just like you were last week! Maybe she spilled some coffee on her favorite shirt and had to change last minute. Maybe her grandchild is about to come into this world. Maybe her dog or cat is suffering and she needs to get to a vet. Who knows and who cares. That made up story will snap you out of your own anger and put you in a more relaxed and relatable state.

Once your more relaxed you’ll be on a better track to a better day. This may even help you build an eye and heart for compassion and it may become second nature to start seeing and believing in the goodness of the world. Who doesn’t want to live in a world like that?

Try out our trick and let us know in the comments if you find it beneficial! We cant wait to hear from you!

How to Create a Plan

The New Year is almost here! It’s crazy how fast the time passes. So crazy that I don’t even have my 2019 goals created yet! Ah! But simply having goals isn’t enough. Creating a plan of action is an essential step to achieving success. Without a plan there’s no foundation for the building blocks to achieving your goals.

Here’s some simple steps you can follow to create a plan, once you have your goals narrowed down.

1) Decide on a specific goal or end result.

Example: “I want lose weight,” is too broad a goal. Be more specific. “I want to lose 20 pounds by March 30th,” is a more defined goal.

2) Write your goal down, somewhere you will see it everyday like a planner, calendar, notebook, or vision board.

3) List out all of the actions you will need to take to achieve your goal/end result. In other words, how are you going to lose 20 pounds by March 30th? Write this list in the same place you wrote your goal.

Example: 1. Workout 5 times a week. 2. Follow a healthy eating plan. 3. Go for walks on breaks at work.

4) Break these actions into more detailed tasks or “to do’s” that can be done everyday.

Example: Workout 5 times a week can be broken out into smaller daily tasks: Monday, run on treadmill for 30 minutes. Tuesday, leg strength exercises. Wednesday, 20 minute HIIT workout, and so on.

Do you see how the steps needed to reach the goal are becoming more defined? Doing this helps you see what actions you need to take each day in order to reach the end result which might be months or even years away.

5) Write your daily tasks on a calendar or in a planner to remind yourself everyday to do them.

6) As you complete your tasks each day, check them off. It’s easy to feel like your getting nowhere when you’re not tracking your process so this will help you feel accomplished each day.

7) Celebrate small wins! Did you check off all your “to do’s” today? Make sure you congratulate yourself for a job well done. It might seem silly or insignificant but trust us, it’s not. Negative self talk can do some serious damage, so patting yourself on the back along way is a great way to self motivate.

Still having trouble? Check out Nikki’s planner for a great visual on how to plan:

Planning can be overwhelming which is why it’s helpful to break things down into smaller pieces. If you need help creating a plan reach out to us! We’d be happy to help get you started!

How to Create a Meal Plan

We believe that a meal plan is key if you want to stick to a healthy diet or if you have a tight budget that you need to stick to. But how does one meal plan you ask? Let us share with you some tips on successful meal planning.

• First, decide on how much you can spend on groceries.
• Then, decide on what meals you are going make for the upcoming week.
• Not sure what to make? Pinterest is a great tool for ideas and recipes.
• Write down your grocery list or use a grocery store app to create your list.
  • Shop Rite and Walmart both have apps that were designed for grocery pick up but they are actually a great tool in calculating your grocery total so you know you won’t go over budget!
• Choose a day and time that will work best with your schedule for food prepping. You’ll want to set aside a few hours as it may take that long depending on what you are making.
• Choose a day and time before your food prep day to go grocery shopping.
• Never go grocery shopping hungry…unless you want to throw your list out the window or you have an iron will.
• When food prep day arrives, do the thang, make the noms!

Other Food Prep Tips:

Food prepping in bulk is a good option if you get bored with the same old, same old every day. For example, cook a batch of quinoa or rice to have on hand throughout the week. Then, when it comes time to cook whatever meat you are making for dinner, you can just heat up the quinoa or rice.  Easy peasy!

Don’t have time to make fresh veggies? Or maybe the kind you like are out of season? Try frozen, they are just as good because they are generally frozen at the peak of freshness while in season. They’re also super easy to pop in the microwave as most come in microwave steam-able bags.

Deciding To Start & Starting

The hardest part of any plan or goal is starting. I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll start Monday. I’ll start on the 1st of the month. Sound familiar? It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is or even what time it is. Make the choice to begin, and do it right then. Every day after you get over the initial “start” day seems to get easier and easier. Here’s some tips that work for me that might work for you too:

Steps To Starting:

1. First, you need to decide on what your goal is.
2. Then, you should write down (in order of priority, if applicable) the steps you need to take to achieve that goal.
3. “Start” by doing or completing the first step.
4. Incorporate a new step every day or every week, whichever makes more sense with your schedule.
5. Schedule your goal achieving steps on your calendar so you can check it off your “to do” list.

What If Things Don’t Go According to Schedule:

1. Don’t beat yourself up! Negative self talk will not help you achieve your goal.
2. Don’t think of setbacks as having to “start over.”  You are human, you make mistakes, and sh*t happens.
3. When faced with a setback, say to yourself: okay, that happened or that didn’t happen today, now I’m moving on and continue with the steps you created to achieve your goal.

Other Tips For Success:

1. Pick an accountability buddy.
2. Choose someone who’s goals and values align with yours.
3. Choose someone who won’t flake out on you.
4. I believe these are key to a successful accountability buddy, or the accountability won’t work.