Smile you are BeYOUtiful x

Monday 13th July 2020 

Know you're already BeYOUtiful 

One of the first things mom said to me this morning was "I like your new hairdo!" This my friends is the result of Peri-menopause combined with living with Alzheimer's/Dementia. The grey I'll thank my mom for, the tied on the top of my head look is because it's too bloody hot to sleep with it down thanks to the hormones. The smile I thank my inner strength for and all those wonderful people in my life helping me to keep going through the crazy! Oh I'll give a little credit to Yoga With Adriene as her yoga & meditation has worked wonders since the start of lockdown. Love the skin you're in my BeYOUtiful people, love the skin you're in.

Yesterday was a mixed bag but we survived, I won't bore you with the details this morning I'm working on focusing on the positives which is why I did a FB post before going to bed last night with a few things I'm grateful for which included; my sisters support. V & Kell popping round. The few hours of peace my mom had in her day. The sunshine and my walk with Alfie. Being able to work virtually from my office. Having a roof over my head and my health, oh and almost my sanity! 

I'm going to try to do to remember to do that every night and go to bed thankful.  This is a habit I'm going to work on putting in place along with a bit of mediation each morning following my yoga.  All ways to help me cope with moms disease.  

We're talking habits this week and I've read a few good books over the years on them, I'm reading one right now called Tiny Habits by B J Fogg, it's got some interesting stuff in, including the questions you should ask yourself before starting to build a new habit. 

These are them; 

What is making the behaviour (habit) hard to do?

How can I make this easier to do?

Do you have enough time to do this behaviour?

Do you have enough money? (if relevant)

Are you physically capable of doing the behaviour?

Does the behaviour require a lot of creative or mental energy?

Does the behaviour fit into your new routine or does it require adjustments?

Remember to help you do your new habit, you’ll need a prompt, so if it was to go for a walk when you get up, it might be put your trainers by the front door. If it was to do some yoga, put your mat on the floor ready.

Then when you’ve completed the habit, give yourself a reward and I don’t mean food! It can just be a fist pump or a DID IT Dance!

Remember healthy habits aren’t just about weight loss! I’m all about tweak of the week so here’s some suggestions, you can pick your own or use one of mine.

Drink a pint of water before your first cuppa

Tracking you breakfast on your app

Doing a 5 minute FitOn workout on app

Swapping evening snack for fruit

Parking further away from the entrance at work / supermarket

Thinking or writing about 3 good things when you get into bed

Doing a short, guided meditation in the morning

Getting out of bed as soon as alarm goes off (no pressing snooze)

Drinking a glass of water when you put the kettle on

Read a chapter of a book each day

Take 5 deep breathes when tempted to stress eat before opening the kitchen door

Perform a morning skincare routine

Eat fruit and/or veg at every meal

Have at least one early night

Up step count by 100 daily

Put phone away 2 hours before bedtime

Have 2 alcohol free days each week

Do 10 push ups (and build on it)

Do a plank for 10 seconds (and build on it)

Stand when talking on your phone.

I've got my prompt to do my meditation, it's finishing my yoga, my reward is the calmness I feel when I'm done.  What can be my prompt to do my 'things I'm grateful for?' I don't have to wait to go to bed to do it, actually a really good time to do it would be when moms mood is most likely to start to turn, so around 4pm, I know that's not the end of my day but good things are more likely to happen before that time than after, so I'm going to put a little reminder in my phone to go off to prompt me to do it.  My reward will be acknowledging it's not all bad and I will smile. 

No workshops today, got a little work to do this morning on my computer but then I'm going to try and get some crochet done, mom was a bit too needy yesterday.  I want to do a bit of study too so fingers crossed for a calm day. 

Whatever you're doing work, rest or play, enjoy 

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me