Author: Anna Godfrey

Healing From Past & Toxic Relationships

Journaling about relationships isn’t a magic solution to relationship problems, but writing about your relationships can help you enjoy deeper, more meaningful connections. Keeping a journal allows you to reflect on your feelings, actions, and reactions in a safe space. By putting pen to paper, you give yourself the opportunity to understand patterns, recognize areas that need growth, and appreciate the moments that bring joy.
Whether they be romantic, familial, or platonic, healthy relationships are typically characterized by several key components:
Trust: Trust is foundational in any relationship. It involves believing that the other person will act with integrity, honesty, and in your best interest. Breaches in trust, like dishonesty or betrayal, can be damaging, though not irreparable with effort and commitment.
Communication: Open, honest, and effective communication is essential. This means both speaking and listening actively, expressing needs, understanding, and seeking to be understood.
Respect: Treating each other with respect involves valuing and acknowledging each other’s feelings, wishes, and rights. It also means avoiding actions or words that are harmful or demeaning.
Boundaries: Healthy relationships have established boundaries that respect individual rights and feelings. These boundaries ensure that each person feels safe and valued.
Equality: Each person has equal say and equally invests in the relationship. Decisions are made together, and each person’s input is valued.
Independence: While sharing time and experiences is crucial, it’s also important for each person to maintain their sense of self and independence outside the relationship.
Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person is crucial. It involves being attuned to each other’s emotions and offering support when needed.
Affection: Physical and emotional expressions of love, care, and appreciation, like hugging, complimenting, or saying “I love you,” can strengthen bonds.
Conflict Resolution: Disagreements and conflicts are natural in any relationship. However, the key lies in addressing them constructively, without resorting to blame, avoidance, or aggression.
Shared Experiences and Interests: While it’s essential to have individual interests, shared experiences and common interests can strengthen the bond between people.
Support: A healthy relationship involves mutual support in both good and challenging times. This means being there for each other, offering help, encouragement, and understanding.
Growth and Adaptation: As individuals change and grow, the relationship must adapt. Recognizing, appreciating, and accommodating for personal growth and changes ensures the relationship remains healthy.
Intimacy: For romantic relationships, emotional and sometimes physical intimacy is an important component. This intimacy is built on trust, respect, and open communication.
Commitment: Being dedicated to the relationship and working towards its longevity and health is crucial.
Journaling Prompts for Relationships:
What does a healthy relationship look like to you?
What does a toxic relationship look like to you?
Describe what romance means to you.
What are you most grateful for about your relationship?
How do you communicate love to your partner?
How do you want love communicated to you?
Is it easy or difficult for you to ask for help when needed? Why?
Do you believe in soulmates?
Do you believe in love at first sight?
In what ways could your relationship be better?
What are some ways you could make your partner feel more loved?
List 15 things you can do to make your relationship more fun (they can be realistic or far-fetched, anything goes!)
What are some ways to say “I love you” without using words?
Describe what commitment means to you.
Describe the moment when you first realized you were in love with your partner.

The 6 steps to mastering “negative” emotions…

The 6 steps to mastering “negative” emotions…
The truth is, there are no “negative” emotions because they all serve a purpose. Consider them as signals of action that provide insightful information and give us the ability to make a change. Yes, some emotions are tough, challenging us at our core. But growth requires that we recognize their signals.
To truly master your emotions, follow these 6 steps of emotional mastery:
Step 1: Identify the emotion
The first step is always to identify the negative emotion – or more accurately – the action signal. What kind of feeling is it? annoyance? Sadness? Or are you just hungry? Which feeling do you actually feel? Finding the central feeling will enable you to understand its important lesson.
Step 2: Appreciate & clarify the message
As soon as the emotion has been recognized, give it your whole attention and explain what it is trying to tell you. It basically tells you that something needs to change. Is it necessary for you to modify your behavior, such as your communication style? Or maybe by shifting your perception (i.e., the meaning) of a situation? Use the table in the next section to help clarify both the emotion and its powerful message.
Step 3: Get CURIOUS
Get curious about how you want to feel by asking these four questions:
How do you want to feel?
What would you need to believe to feel that way right now?
What are you willing to do to feel that way now?
What’s great about this situation or what can you learn from it?
Understanding the cause of an issue will help you keep it from happening in the future and realize that every issue is a gift.
Step 4: Get CONFIDENT from past success
Consider a specific instance where you handled a comparable feeling well. How did you overcome it? Feel the confidence pour over you as you relive that moment as a comeback story. Recalling times when you were able to master your emotions gives powerful reassurance that you’ll navigate through this emotion once more.
Step 5: Get CERTAIN about mastering the emotion
By envisioning multiple solutions that assist you in experiencing the desired sensation, you can fortify your mental image of how you will manage this challenging feeling. If one doesn’t work, try another. Rehearse until you feel certain you can deal with the emotion.
Step 6: Feel excited and take ACTION
Take immediate action to demonstrate your ability to control your emotions. In order to modify your feelings and reinforce your practice, it is important to express your emotions in a healthy way.
Remember, you always have a choice when it comes to mastering your emotions and it all begins with the steps you take now.

Downward-Facing Pigeon Pose (Adho mukha kapotasana)

What is Downward-Facing Pigeon Pose?
Downward-facing pigeon pose, or adho mukha kapotasana in Sanskrit, is a restful version of the upright pigeon pose. The torso folds over the front leg with the arms stretched forward in this deep hip opener.
Instructions
Begin in pigeon pose with the right leg extended back.Exhale and lower the torso down, walking the hands forward.Rest the forehead on the floor and press the palms together in prayer.Breathe while holding the pose.Inhale and release. Change sides.
 

Unlock Your Inner Power

Self-worth and confidence are important components that have a big impact on our lives. Our emotional state and our capacity to overcome obstacles in life can be significantly impacted by the way we view ourselves and interact with the world.
Our self-confidence and self-esteem rise when we feel good about ourselves, believe we can overcome challenges, and feel deserving of respect and acknowledgment. These factors improve our quality of life.
Practical tips to improve our self-confidence and self-esteem
Practice positive talk: Be mindful of how you talk to yourself. Brain circuits governing self-perception are built by internal dialogue, which is incredibly effective. Be deliberate with your words and mindful of the way you talk to yourself. Assume you are conversing with a friend.
Acknowledge your achievements and strengths: List five areas of your life (hobbies, abilities, skills, etc.) where you have succeeded. Give yourself time to be grateful for all you do well.
Set some realistic, achievable goals. As you successfully complete tasks, your confidence will grow. Start small and work your way up from there. For example, take a shower, respond to three emails, go for a little stroll, etc.
Feel it in your body: Psychologist Amy Cuddy and others have studied the positive effect of confident body postures on our minds and hormones. Plant your feet firmly, erect your shoulders, and maintain a proud posture.
Seek counseling and support: Building our self-confidence and self-esteem can be tricky. Never hesitate to ask for help if you think you might use it in this area!
Keep track of successes by regularly answering these questions: what is something you did well recently? How did you arrive there? In what way does this relate to you?
Celebrate successes: you’ve received a new promotion? Discover a method to rejoice! (For instance, having dinner with friends, celebrating with coworkers at the end of the workday, or treating yourself to a spa day..).

Increase Your Good Vibes

Our vibrations originate from a variety of sources;
Your mindActionsThe people you surround yourself with
Enhancing positive energy in each of these domains would thus lead to an immensely improved quality of life. All three of these aspects are important.
Lets do this in sections…
Mind
How to use your mind and thoughts to enhance your positive energy;
This is probably one of the most difficult things to train to choose positive since it is so easy to be negative quickly.
You have a lot of ingrained habits in your head, and everyone gets set in their ways. The individuals in your immediate environment will also have a big impact on how your mind functions. This is why you need to think about who influences you.
Therefore, having one’s own sense of self, opinions, and thoughts is the finest thing one can do.
The best approach to handle this is to avoid merely agreeing or following the unfavorable trends. You will learn to control this impulse and these negative thoughts eventually. It resembles forming a new habit.
It takes practice to rewire your brain to think more positively and to persuade yourself to act more morally. But you’ll make it, and everything will be alright.
Here are some things that might help your mind choose the positive and let in the good vibes.
Don’t get sucked into negative media and other peoples thoughts. Make your own decisions.Learn what works for you in the sense of gathering thoughts before acting on them.Create more positive actions for yourself. Take action. Produce. Step outside.Make sure you are being healthy, hydrating, and sleeping well.
Actions
How to increase your good vibes via your actions;
Your actions convey your sentiments about something and elicit feelings from other people as well as from yourself. These can be verbal or non-verbal.
This implies that it encompasses your actions, words, and behavior. One of the biggest lessons you will ever learn is realising that you probably do act in ways that need changing.
Once you have figured this out, your life will improve dramatically. Making positive choices for words and deeds will not only make you feel better about yourself, but those around you will also notice and benefit from this.
Your good vibrations can bring others up too!
Here are a few things you can do to change your actions to increase good vibes;
Stop being horrible… Not that you are BUT if you feel yourself talking about someone else, saying negative things ‘bitching’ then just stop. When you act in this way, your negative energy grows.Choose better vocabulary. Use words with good meaning, and talk when it’s positive or useful. Don’t say anything to start a fight or to generate a response.Follow the rules of just being a good human. This essentially means to act appropriately. Don’t hurt other people or pretend to be someone you’re not. Act morally upright. You understand this one, I’m sure.Be helpful. Give forth what you would like to receive in order to increase your good karma. In all you do in life, try to be of assistance to others, but remember to look after yourself as well.Don’t burn out. Take care of yourself as I just described. Spend some time learning to appreciate your own company and become an apprentice with yourself.
Circles
How the people you select to surround yourself with can help you feel better;
This is one of the biggest ones, yet they all work together.
The people you are around will affect your vibrations massively.
Surround yourself with people who enhance your life. Individuals who make the decision to better themselves and their own lives.
Avoid surrounding oneself with negative or unsupportive people. Select to surround yourself with individuals who exhibit the qualities you hope to possess yourself.
Assess the connections that you have. Do these individuals positively impact your life? What emotions do they evoke in you?Don’t waste your energy on individuals who won’t treat you the way you want to be treated.Tighten your circle to the people who matter the most, and the people who influence you the most. Remember who is there to encourage you and provide you with constructive criticism.
Changing the circle you are in is difficult. I don’t think cutting people off is a smart idea. Start by discussing your feelings. Reassess the individuals in your life if nothing changes and you still feel like you’re being pulled down.