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Gratitude
Day
Monday
Today I'm grateful for a great nights sleep in a comfy bed. I'm so lucky that I get to sleep every night in a warm and safe place
Coffee. It warms my insides like a hug and kick starts my brain ready for my day. I love waking up to coffee
And so on....
Examples on how to fill in this Journal Affirmations Today I will strive to be a better version of myself than yesterday. I choose healthy food to fuel my body and I choose exercise that I find challenging and rewarding.
OR try some "I AM statements" I am strong and I deserve to be happy and successful I am loveable and deserve to be treated with respect I am smart and I can learn anything I put my mind to
Movement How do you feel?
Duration Type of movement
20 minutes Today I tried yoga
Felt really good! It was different and interesting
hard to follow at first but I slowly got the hang of it, looking forward to trying again
Meditation How do you feel?
Duration Type of meditation
10 minutes Guided affirmations
More relaxed now but I struggled to focus my
thoughts and couldn't sit still for longer than 10 minutes. I'm looking forward to trying again tomorrow
Promise Today I am making a commitment to myself by
eating healthy food and not
giving into cravings. I will go for a 10 minute walk on my lunch break to remind me to stick to my promise
Let your thoughts be free
Here write about anything on your mind. If you need to vent, then vent. If you need to extend on your feelings above then do that. Write some goals or more affirmations . This is your space to get anything out you feel you need to...
Examples on how to fill in this Journal If you're stuck on what to write about, go to the "Journaling Prompts" page
How to use this Journal Congratulations! You should be so proud of yourself for taking this step to create a better life for yourself! So many people go through life just letting things happen to them, playing the victim and not realising how much power they have to make great changes. But not you! Actively working on improving yourself takes courage and a deep willingness to look within, and that can be a scary place to look sometimes. Our outer world is a direct reflection of our inner world, so if you open your eyes and you don't like what you see, perhaps it's a good time to start re-evaluating your mindset. The following pages provide you with simple (but very powerful) daily steps you can follow to raise your vibration and start living and creating your best life, and it all starts with perspective. Your perception creates your reality. It sounds so simple and sometimes I think it really is. But changing your perception does take practice and a willingness to let go of so many long-held belief systems that have kept you "safe". Starting with these daily exercises, done well and with good intention, will have a huge impact on your outlook and create big internal (and external) shifts. Einstein's Famous Quote holds so true here "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” If you want to see changes in your life, you are going to need to make some changes to your daily routine. How this looks will be different for each person, but basically every morning we wake up with a blank canvas, so first thing in the morning is the best time to do this work. Most people will wake at the latest possible moment, then proceed to race the clock to get ready and race out the door. This type of start to the day breeds more stress, especially if you have children to wrangle as well. The first piece of advice we suggest is to wake earlier than you need to and wake earlier than everyone else in your house and carve out an hour for yourself in your own energy each morning. Waking an hour earlier to begin with might seem extreme or even impossible to you, and that’s ok, don't freak out!
Start with 10 minutes and work your way to an hour or more when you're ready. Progress is what's important but what you do in this time is even more important. Once you've built up to an hour, we suggest taking 20 minutes for each of the below:
Hour of Power 20 minutes - Gratitude, Affirmations, Journaling 20 minutes - Meditation 20 minutes - Physical Movement If you're not quite at an hour, maybe alternate these each day until you get there or even do 5 minutes of each. Something is better than nothing. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT turn on the news or social media. We want this time to be full of peace and positive work to set the tone for your day. And we have some tools below for you to use in this time, so please read on…
Attitude of Gratitude If you do nothing else on this journey... do this. Have you ever heard the saying "What you think about you bring about"? It basically means how you feel and what you think will be mirrored back to you in your reality. If you think and believe the negative, then that's exactly what you'll see. Starting your day filling yourself full of the things you're grateful for, sets a beautiful tone for your day because by Law of Attraction “The more things you find to be grateful for, the more things you'll have to be grateful for”. Wait what? It's not fluff my friends, it's science... I think. Think about the last time you wanted to buy a new car, and when you had decided on a model or 2, suddenly you saw that car everywhere. This is a part of your brain at work called "The Reticular Activating System" and it's basically a filter. Your brain can only manage to process so many things at one time, and this system filters out the unnecessary information, so the important stuff gets through. You can train it to see what you want it to see... it is your brain after all. Training your brain is like training your body, it requires consistent and intentional exercise.
And what better way to train your brain to see the positive than by focusing on the things in your life that you're grateful for. Start each morning by writing down 5 things that you're grateful for. Write what you're grateful for and then write why you're grateful for it and try to really feel the feeling of gratitude. "Today I am so happy and grateful for coffee. It warms my insides like a hug, gets my brain firing and gets me ready for my day. I love waking up to a hot cup of coffee." It can be that simple. This is a really important exercise as it gets your brain out of the cycle of seeing what's wrong with everything around you, and it will start actively seeking what's good. This seemingly minor perspective shift has amazing benefits. Don't feel bad or ashamed if you automatically see the negative, our brains are wired to keep us safe, and seeing what could go wrong is a survival mechanism. It's super important in some situations that could be a matter of life or death or serious injury e.g. "don't walk down that dark alley" but in everyday life it will keep you stuck and afraid to step outside of yourself or take any kind of risks that might have you stepping outside of your comfort zone.
Self-Talk Our self-talk forms our belief systems and our belief systems create our reality. This is why 2 people can look at the exact same thing but see something completely different. Do you see a problem and automatically think of learning opportunities, possibilities and solutions? Or do you see a problem and think "typical, my life sucks and never goes my way, poor me"? The difference here comes down to what story you're telling yourself. If you don't believe you're strong enough, brave enough, smart enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, or worthy of being loved, well then, I'm afraid this is the reality you will create for yourself. So what stories are you telling yourself and how do you change them? This is where affirmations come in. Affirmation means to "affirm" something and whether you know it or not, or like it or not, you're already practicing affirmations everyday with the stories you're telling yourself.
Do you know what these stories are? Start to become aware of how you talk to yourself throughout the day, knowing how you speak to yourself will be very helpful in changing the story. The mind cannot comprehend a negative. "Don't think about an elephant" you will straight away think about an elephant. The mind doesn't hear "don't" it hears "think about an elephant".
Affirmations For this reason, when writing affirmations, it's super important to always frame in the positive, and not too far from what you believe is possible for you. If you're broke and write an affirmation like "I am rich" unless your powers of imagination are out of this world it may be a hard one to believe initially. So maybe something along the lines of: "My mind is open to seeing opportunities to increase my income. I welcome more money-making ventures into my life". If you want to lose weight and get healthier perhaps something like: "Today I will strive to be a better version of myself than yesterday. I choose healthy foods to fuel my body and I choose exercise that I find challenging and rewarding" Write them down every morning, set reminders on your phone, put them on the bathroom mirror and places you will see them around your house. Write them, read them and say them so much to yourself that one day they will become truth for you. This is again like physical exercise; you can't go to the gym once and expect to look like a fitness model (sorry). The work needs to be done every day, and little by little, things will start to shift.
Meditation Meditation is not some weird metaphysical magic practice reserved for yogi's, shamans and hippies. It is an amazing tool to help you learn to quiet your mind, stop racing thoughts and connect to your true self.
The benefits of meditation are far too many to list in this short little book, but here are my top five. Reduces stress and anxiety Connects you to your inner self Gets you grounded Improves concentration You can do it anywhere My preference is guided meditation with relaxing music. I find it much easier to reel my thoughts in, rather than when it's dead quiet. But it really doesn't matter how you do it. If you can sit still, with your back straight and hands relaxed in your lap, close your eyes and focus on your breathing, you're meditating. It can also be done standing up or lying down. A simple way to do this is to count and visualise your breath. Breathe in and count 1, and imagine your breath is a white light going down your throat and filling your lungs, then filling your stomach and then your whole body. Then imagine as you breathe out, all negativity leaving your body in a different colour (I like black or grey or any dark colour) then on your next breath in count 2 and do the same thing. Start with a couple of minutes and work your way up to longer periods. When you find your thoughts wandering onto other things, say "thank you but I don't need those thoughts right now" and politely ask them to shoosh, and once again focus on your breathing. Or jump on YouTube and bring up a guided meditation or meditation music, or a meditation with affirmations would be great too. Pick one that resonates with you and enjoy. It doesn't need to be more difficult than this. I feel this is one of those things that has been overly complicated and made us normal people feel like it's unattainable. Honestly, I rarely meditate for longer than 10 minutes. I'm sure there's great benefit to going longer, but I feel I get what I need from 10 minutes.
Move your body What you do here is up to you. Depending on what your goals are will depend on the type of exercise you do. The important thing is to move, move your body, get your blood flowing, your heart rate up and get out of breath a little (or a lot). Moving your body first thing in the morning is a great way to start your day off right. It will wake you up and get your brain firing. I know coffee does this too, but until science can show me it has the exact same effect as physical movement, I'm sorry, you need to move. Our bodies are designed to move and move well. Something as simple as going for a 20 minute walk is perfect. It doesn’t need to be strenuous, but you want to feel your heart rate rise and your breathing pick up. This will look different to different people, but it's about you and your body so work with what you've got. If you're like me and going for a walk first thing in the morning isn't really plausible as you have a sleeping child or 2 or 3 and so on, yoga is a good option.
Healthy Body I love yoga! It's such an amazing exercise for your mind and body I could go on all day, but perhaps I will write a blog post about it soon in case you're interested. There are so many amazing home yoga channels on YouTube, jump online and find one for beginners. You can even type in "20 minute yoga for beginners'' and you'll have your fill of options. I'm also partial to HIIT workouts. I do have some tools at home I like to use like resistance bands and Kettlebells, but you really don't need them. Jump on YouTube and search "20 minute bodyweight workout" or "20 minute low impact workout for beginners". If Pilates is more your style, or cross fit workouts or literally anything you can think of, pop it into YouTube and follow along. Honestly 20 minutes will fly by. And to keep it interesting, do something different each day if you want, you don't need to do the same thing every day if that will bore you, it doesn't matter what you do... just move. Something I discovered recently are the incredible benefits of a rebounder (mini trampoline).
Healthy Mind If you're really looking for something a little different that's really fun and low impact this might be something worth looking into. The best thing about the rebounder is it's amazing for lymphatic drainage (cellulite... yep you heard me) and this might be another blog post in the making so stay tuned. You can follow along to free workouts on YouTube with these as well. If you work in an office and are sitting down all day, another great thing to do is exercise in your lunch break as well.
Healthy Soul Prior to "Sky n Earth" I worked full time in an office and sitting down for 8 hours a day is not really my thing, it isn't good for anybody. However, working out through the day at your desk might be a little tricky, but hey if you can do that AND the job you're being paid for, right on. If not, go for a walk during your lunch break. It doesn't matter how long you go for, if it's 10 minutes or 60 minutes, the idea is to get moving as much as you can to pump your blood, detox your body, give yourself an energy boost and wake up your brain. If you can get yourself on a lunch walk, listen to something uplifting. A great positive podcast or audio book, a recording of some affirmations or some music that makes you feel good. This will help with the afternoon slump, and you might even start to skip that 3pm caffeine or sugar hit to keep you going.
Let's Wrap It Up If you're not willing to make changes things will never change. If you're insanely happy with your life exactly the way it is, and you wouldn't change anything, that's great! Don't! But I'm assuming you're here because you're wanting to make changes, and you're ready to do the work. Let's be honest here, I'm not saying get out of bed at 3am, drive to the gym, workout for 2 hours, smash yourself stupid, drive home, meditate for an hour, go to work and when you get home do it again and go on a juice fast. If that's your jam, that's awesome,
but it's not the intention of this book and it's so far from my jam I can't even tell you. All you need to do is simply wake a little earlier and give yourself some much needed "me time" so you can learn to love the body and mind and life that you're living in. The reason to do this in the morning is to set your intention for your day. You could do it at night before bed... but the day is already over. However, it's better than not doing it at all, and if this is where you start, that's amazing. I will suggest that you give yourself at least a month of waking early and see what happens. If you're just hating it and hating life, try it at night or another time of the day. You need to make this work for you, and if it isn't sustainable then you won't continue. That being said, you also need to make changes to create changes and sometimes that means getting comfortable being uncomfortable. I wake between 4-5am most days, and let me tell you... I am not a morning person, never have been! However, I notice a really big difference in myself if I don't wake up early and give this time to myself. I will have less patience, less energy, more anxiety and just generally feel overwhelmed all day. You cannot pour from an empty cup, so start making yourself a priority! Waking a little earlier is a perfect place to start, so you can set the tone for your day, the way you want it, so you can stop being a victim to circumstances. We are so excited for you for taking these steps to improve your life. Like I said, they're so simple yet so powerful!!! Love and light to you
Skye & Dusty xxx
Journaling Prompts There's no right or wrong way to journal. It's simply a way to connect with your thoughts and get them out of your head onto paper. There's something very powerful about putting thoughts to paper... it takes them from an abstract to a tangible. It's a good idea to use different prompts every now and then (or everyday) to get you thinking differently. Below are some journaling prompts for you to use if you feel so inclined. A cool thing to do is to write these out on individual pieces of paper, pop them in a jar and pull one out randomly. It's a good way to force your mind to think differently without having to make the decision yourself.
For you - How will you make yourself a priority today? - If money wasn't an object, how would you spend today? Be really specific, start with how and where you would wake up and go from there. - Goal setting. Write down your goals then break them down into bite sized pieces. Meaning what are the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly steps you need to take to make them a reality. Remember the acronym SMART: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time bound Don't discourage yourself by thinking a large goal is unattainable, this is why you need to break them down. And break them down as small as YOU need to, to feel it's achievable for YOU, no one else! If you want to lose 50kg, doing that in a week would be unattainable, but going for a walk each morning might not be. Small daily action done with good intention will lead to big results. - What brings you joy? Write a list of all of the things that bring you joy and start to think of ways you can incorporate these things into everyday life.
- What are your greatest strengths? - What are your weaknesses? - How do you use your strengths and weaknesses in daily life? - What can you do today to improve your mindset? - Describe yourself with the first 10 words that come to mind, then describe how you would like to be with the next 10 words that come to mind. - What significant events have brought you to this point in your life? - What do you feel has made you the person you are today? - Explore your personal beliefs and write about what beliefs you love about yourself and what beliefs you'd like to change. - Write a love letter to money. - Write a letter to someone who has hurt you/loved you/inspired you. - Write a letter to your inner child. - Write a letter to you from your future self and vice versa. - What emotions and difficult thoughts come up the most for you? - Write about a significant event in your life and what lessons you learned from it. - What scares you the most and what ways can you start to shift this feeling? - Do you live each day being authentically you, or are you living to make other people happy and to have a certain perception of you? - What are the obstacles you feel are keeping you from your goals/being happy and how can you make shifts to remove them from your path? - What do you look forward to the most when you think about your future? - What do you fear the most when you think about your future? - Who inspires you the most and why? - When do you find yourself procrastinating the most and why do you think that is? - How do you think other people would describe you? - How would you like other people to describe you? - When you look in the mirror what do you see? What would you like to see?
Happy journaling
Make today, the tomorrow you promised yourself yesterday - Sky n Earth
SELF-CAREChecklist Get outside in nature Learn something new Turn off social media Take a lunch walk Listen to motivational podcast Read a book Take a bath Do something creative Declutter something Dance like no ones watching Random act of kindness Take a nap Make a garden Go on a nature walk Go to the beach Watch the sunrise/sunset Catch up with an old friend Drink more water Turn off technology Set boundaries
Your why Before you get started on the daily exercises, take some time here to really think about why you purchased this journal. Whether you're new to personal development or continuing on your journey, what is it that has brought you here? What are you hoping to achieve and why? Getting really clear on your goals and intentions will make it more likely that you will keep going.
Gratitude
Affirmations
Day
Movement
Duration Type of movement
How do you feel?
Meditation
Duration Type of meditation
How do you feel?
Promise Today I am making a commitment to myself by
Let your thoughts be free
Gratitude
Affirmations
Day
Movement
Duration Type of movement
How do you feel?
Meditation
Duration Type of meditation
How do you feel?
Promise Today I am making a commitment to myself by
Let your thoughts be free