While we ring in another new year, we are reminded that the world is changing, and we must change with it. One of the questions I ask myself often is, how can we all best help support each other? This may look different for each of you, but for me, I can help by sharing with my readers about my personal rituals and routines that help me live my most joyful life — no matter what is going on around or through me. My personal rituals for JOY begin with my yearly practice of creating INTENTIONS & GOALS.

Goals and intentions are two of your most important tools in life.

If you’re building a house, and you don’t have an architectural plan as to how you’ll build that house, it’s never going to be quite finished. Your goals and intentions set the groundwork for the house, and the way you live your life.

One of my mentors said, “discipline is knowing what you want.” The process of achieving what you want involves setting the foundation. First, by building a framework of what we want, our goals, then doing the necessary steps to sculpt, strengthen, and build upon them.

Goals are things we desire that are tangible and recognizable, like keeping a healthy body, integrating meditation into daily routine, or achieving a satisfying career. Consider what you want to do and what living out that goal looks like…what it really looks like. What does it feel to live out that goal? Visualize your goal with as much detail and clarity as possible. The more vivid your vision, the more easily you can build upon it.

Knowing your goal alone, however, will not bring it into fruition. This is where intentions come in. Intentions are the choices we make to achieve those goals. They are the steps we take to fill in our foundation. It’s not what we want, but how we will live consciously to make that goal a reality.

1. How will you carry yourself?

2. How will you treat those around you?

3. How will you approach situations with grace?

Goals help you shape the foundation for the life you want to lead, and intentions are how you embrace the moments that get you there! With goals providing the framework and intentions filling the spaces in between, we really can create the life we imagine for ourselves.

Take Action!

Once you have identified your goals, write them down…then go back and visualize them. If it’s a career goal, visualize yourself giving a presentation in that career. If it’s your wealth, visualize yourself healthy and vibrant! Know what it feels to live out that goal.

My challenge to you? Make five conscious choices today—no matter how big or how small—to make one of your goals a reality.

How to Make Your Intentions a Reality

“Energy follows your thoughts.” 

This is a mantra that has changed the way I approach my work, my relationships, the biggest decisions of my life, and the day-to-day.  What we think drives what we do. Through recognizing this fact within ourselves, we realize that we have the power to create our own reality.

Illness and issues with my physical health have been a part of my life since I can remember. I grew up in unhealthy environments, which instilled damaging habits that turned into patterns and took a toll on my mind, body, and spirit. Through recognizing these patterns and changing them, I found a way to heal myself. Now, when I refer to changing, I am not referring to the change as a thing, but rather as a process of changing the way I think.

Research shows that like any muscle in our bodies, the brain also acts like a muscle. The brain can be trained and can grow through practice, as synapses fired in the brain form thought processes and patterns. We can retrain our brain to process information differently, and consequently, retrain the way we think, act, and live!

Have you ever had those mornings when you wake up feeling cranky and you know your day is off to a bad start? Then you spill coffee on yourself, become even more upset, and the avalanche of your horrible day continues! I’ve had those days too.  

Working Through Tough Days

I’ve learned an interesting thing about those mornings. Instead of letting the snowball of bitterness continue to consume my day, I now take a moment after that first cranky feeling to pause, take a breath, and focus instead on how awesome my day is going to be. I replace the negative thoughts that arise with positive affirmations for at least five deep breaths. I then continue to focus on the positive moments throughout the day, acknowledging then moving over the negative ones. By utilizing this technique, I arrive home again after what could have been a disaster of a day, with a smile on my face!

The way we approach our thoughts dictates the actions that follow. If we can change the way we think about things, we can change the reality that unfolds. This is not to say that simply “thinking positive” will be the solution. Instead, it is focusing on the way we react to situations. With patience, time, and practice, we can shift our thinking to allow more positive thoughts to arise than negative ones—even in the most challenging of times. By reworking negative patterns of thinking into patterns of positive thinking, we can reprogram our brains to think in a healthier way. If you think something differently, you speak differently, you act differently, and you live differently.

Take Action!

Think of a recent time a frustration was a roadblock in your day. How did you react to that emotion? Now, think instead how you would change the way you reacted to replace the negative emotions in that moment with positive patterns of thought.

For the next 24 hours, whenever moments of frustration arise, take a moment to pause and take five deep breaths; focusing on filling yourself with peace on the inhale, and pushing out negativity on the exhale.  

JOYTerms

Goals: The things you want that are tangible, like a healthy body, integrating an hour of meditation into your day, etc.

Intentions: Intentions are how you live through your goals. These are conscious, intentional choices that make the life you want to create.

Join the FREE Fighting For Your JOY eCourse to Learn More

Join the Joy Warrior eCourse for FREE as I share personal rituals and routines that help me live my most joyful life no matter what is going on around or through me. These tools derived from many years of personal discovery and I use them still today. I am in the trenches with you and it is my honor to walk alongside you. It is my hope that together we can create a world community of change. 

The goal of the Fighting for Your JOY community is to create a movement that builds rituals and practices for a happy, thriving, and prosperous life, creating JOY as a new global currency for success—all while giving back! 100% of your purchase goes directly back to Mamas of the OneMama family and immediately saves lives.

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Sending all my LOVE to my JOY Warrior friends and OneMama family.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love and light,
Siobhan