(Free Printable) How to Start Intentional Living and Feel In Control of Your Life : 5 Easy Ways

Intentional living is not always easy to me.

It requires energy. Time. Being present.

So why does everyone talk about intentional living these days?

That’s because…it makes us feel more in control of our lives and creates a life worth living.

A life made of well thought-out actions will shortcut the way to reaching our aims and goals.

Our journey to achieving our goals - be it big or small goals - becomes more enjoyable.

Some of us are not sure how to start intentional living.

I’ve compiled 5 simple ways for you to start your journey towards intentional living.

If you want a shortcut, you can download the 25 Days of Intentional Living printable below.

1. How to make meditation easy in the mornings

I’ll admit that meditating in the morning is hard work.

That’s because it means I’ll have to wake up earlier. And fight the drowsiness whilst I sit cross-legged and calm my mind.

Not very appealing.

Meditation is so important to intentional living, in my opinion. I will usually have a clear mind after that - which means I make better, intentional choices.

I’ve found 4 ways to make meditation easier in the mornings:

• Use guided meditation. I personally like Jason Stephenson’s meditations on YouTube. I stick to a 15-30 minute meditation because I usually have a ton of things to settle in the morning!

• Plan your morning the night before. (Yes - every blogger says this. Haha.) We can start by writing 3 things we will do once we wake up. So, mine is typically: Shower, coffee, meditation time. In any order depending on my mood.

• ‘Warm up’ to your meditation time. Have your tea or coffee first, read, stretch, shower, do your chores etc. Make sure you are fully awake before meditation starts. If not, you’ll end up dozing off in the middle of it (been there done that!).

• Choose guided meditations which you enjoy! Please don’t torture yourself by meditating to something you don’t like even if the guided meditation is wildly popular. What works for others, may not work for you. YouTube is a GREAT source of guided meditations!

2. Choose joyful decisions

Sometimes when making decisions, we are not sure which option brings us ‘joy’.

Especially when we have grown up in a family where we are not allowed to have what we want. (this topic needs another blog post on its own ;) )

If you don’t know which option brings you ‘joy’, choose the option which gives you feelings of relief.

Intentional living applies even when we are ordering tea or coffee at Starbucks. Choose a drink which brings up feelings of joy or relief.

Some of you who are more in tune with your feelings will be bewildered and ask “But…how can anyone not know which option makes him or her happy?”

It’s more normal than we think. From young,we’ve been trained to follow our logic and downplay what we truly want.

So sometimes, we get confused between what we want and what we have been taught is ‘good for us’.

But I digress. For intentional living, choose options which make us happy - even when we are picking the blouse we want to wear to work the next day.

It makes us feel more in control of our lives.

3. Have a reason behind every main action we take

This is a tough one.

It takes a lot of mental energy to have a reason behind the actions we take.

But this is the basis of intentional living. Every choice we make has to have a reason…because it makes life more enjoyable!

For example, when we pick up our phones to look through Instagram, intentionally choose whose profiles we are going to view.

I’ll admit that I am particularly intentional when doing my makeup almost every day.

It makes the whole process more enjoyable instead of a chore. The best way to do this is to watch YouTube videos and get inspired by new makeup looks and techniques to try for the day.

You can use this tactic for any of your chores or un-enjoyable activity.

There are even cleaning motivation videos on YouTube to motivate us to do household chores!

Try a new way of doing your daily tasks. Even if your reason for doing something is: ‘I want to see if this new technique works!’ - it’s enough as long as you have a reason for doing that activity!

4. Unplug as much as possible!

When I was a member of a yoga studio, I relished yoga classes because of how fresh, clear-minded and calmer I felt after every class.

It hit me that a large part of this was because I was away from my phone for at least an hour.

I’ve realised that I have a clearer mind, am calmer and make more intentional decisions when I’ve put my phone and laptop away for about 45 minutes or so.

If we want to surf the Net, write down what we are surfing for. And stick to that list.

It saves your time and precious energy.

Also, unplug for 1 hour before going to bed at night. It helps you have a restful sleep…which brings us to the next point.

5. Lastly, please be well rested

I’m sure many of us have made terrible decisions when we were feeling sleepy, grumpy and irritated.

Having good sleep and resting especially when we feel burnt out is crucial to intentional living. Crucial!

That’s because not having enough sleep and rest will lead to us making bad decisions.

You’ll notice that you start craving for chocolate biscuits and frappuccinos on autopilot on the days when you feel exhausted and did not sleep well.

In fact, it’s scientifically-proven that we crave for sweet treats when we are sleep-deprived! That’s one bad decision for the day.

I felt burnt out recently. Part of me wanted to push through and complete 1 blog entry. But as much as I pushed myself, the write-up felt stiff and was such a chore to do.

Hence, I decided to practise intentional living and did what felt good at that time - which was to lie down in bed watching videos and letting my mind rest. My burnout faded pretty quickly.

Have a good week.

Shikah

These 5 Self Belief Habits will Boost Your Confidence

By right, believing in ourselves shouldn’t be hard.

It’s just a matter of having the confidence to go after what we want.

But life is not so straightforward sometimes.

If you find it hard to believe in yourself, these are 5 self belief habits to kickstart your journey to be a more confident You.

1.Don’t listen to others (too much)

I know this is controversial, but people tend to give too many opinions sometimes. If you ask 10 people about their opinions on your plans, you will get 10 opinions.

Whose opinion(s) are we going to listen to?

It’s good to keep our projects and goals a secret at times to boost our confidence levels.

It is to prevent some people from projecting their negative beliefs on our plans.

Even if you have the best plans in the world, the most negative person can still pick holes at them and criticise.

If you wish to get feedback, choose a level-headed friend or a mentor (or coach) who has already achieved what you wanted.

You can also research for someone who has succeeded doing what you want to do, and model after him or her.

2. Spend time with people who recognise your talents

Join Facebook groups, follow Instagram personalities and watch Youtube videos from people who share the same values as you.

And please spend time with people who recognise your excellence! This will boost your confidence a hundred fold.

I’ll give you an example: Your talent in motivating people will be more appreciated in a group of self help enthusiasts than in a group of pessimists.

So choose the people you spend time with, wisely. (I beg you!)

3. Create a ‘Success Log’ for yourself

We can create a Success Log to increase our confidence instantly.

A Success Log keeps track of all achievements you are proud of.

Nothing boosts your confidence like recalling and writing your past successes.

Our minds focus too much on our mistakes, failures and negativity.

So let’s do the opposite and retrain our minds to focus on our success instead!

You can learn how to create your own Success Log here.

4. Put yourself ‘out there’ and see what happens

Putting yourself ‘out there’ is terrifying.

Please only ‘put yourself out there’ in activities which you genuinely want to do.

Create those Youtube videos which you’ve wanted to do for a long time. Do an IG ‘live’ video. Record a Facebook ‘live’ video or even post your picture on your blog.

Don’t create a video just for the sake of getting over your fear of videos.

If you are scared about something but there’s a fire burning inside you to do it, go do it.

But…

if you feel scared about something and you have no desire whatsoever to do that thing, don’t do it. (Promise?)

Go put yourself ‘out there’ and see what happens!

Nothing boosts confidence (and gives you thick skin) like putting yourself ‘out there’.

5. Know what you like and be unapologetic about it

This sounds obvious - but be aware of what you like and what you don’t!

Most importantly…be unapologetic (but polite) about it.

If you like exercising 30 minutes a day even though you are slim by society’s standards, don’t be shy to admit so.

Some people will make comments (sometimes out of curiosity) such as: “But you are already slim! What are you working out so hard for?”

You don’t have to explain your life choices to everyone.

You don’t owe anyone an explanation :)

-

If you need to boost your self confidence fast, I can send you a copy of my ever popular Raise Self Esteem Now worksheet to help you out!

Have a good week.

Shikah

(Free Printable) 2-Step Formula for Goal Setting Success

I’ll be sharing a 2-step goal setting formula to double your likelihood achieving your goals.

You can also download the 2-Step Set Exciting Goals Worksheet to help you with this:

Goal Setting Step 1: Set clear, uncomfortable goals

High achievers are very clear about their self-concept.

They know their strengths. Weaknesses. What they want. How to get it.

They also have clear, challenging goals.

Setting challenging goals can be very intimidating for me. But researchers confirm that  ‘stretch’ goals will make us motivated and excited about the future.

A ‘stretch goal’ - which is aiming for a little more than what you think you can do - will energise us and give us a good starting point for excelling at work.

For example, perhaps you are aiming to save $5000 by Dec 2018 (for a vacation next year).

Instead of aiming for $5000, aim to save $7000 by Dec.

This will add some excitement instead of remaining in our comfort zones.

Whether you get to save $7000 or not doesn’t matter - you would have pushed yourself to your maximum.

Maybe you have a business goal: “To make $1000 in my side hustle business by December (insert year).”

To make it a ‘stretch goal’, you can write: “To make $2000 in my side hustle business by December (insert year).”

Always set deadlines for our goal setting process or we might lounge around and procrastinate (been there, done that!).

Step 2: Set SPECIFIC plans for your goals.

Setting specific plans to achieve your goals can double the likelihood of reaching that challenging goal.

Isn’t that exciting?

During the days when we feel tired or drained, we just need to glance at our specific plans and know immediately what to execute that day.

Your goals can be everyday goals such as “I want to finish creating my Powerpoint presentation by 6pm today.”

You can set specific goals for the day such as: “I will finish creating section 1 by 11am, section 2 by 1pm, section 3 by 3pm. I’ll edit the slides by 330pm and finish the presentation by 530pm.”

As you can see, the 2-step successful goal setting formula is:

Clear ‘stretch’ goal

+

clear, specific plans

= double your likelihood of achieving your challenging goal

If you would like to have a goal setting worksheet to have your goals and steps clearly laid out, you can download the 2-Step Set Exciting Goals worksheet below.

Have a good week!

(Inner Beauty Journal) How to Discover Your Inner Beauty, Boost Self-Worth & Realise Your Excellence

We are not all blessed with Gigi Hadid’s external beauty and social connections.

But we are all born with a certain purpose. And a certain ‘medicine’ to offer to the people around us or to our community.

Sounds a little grandiose, yes? ;)

I think it is helpful to know that we have innate talents to offer the world and to the community.

I created the Inner Beauty Journal last week because I was reminded of someone I know.

She is blind to her excellence. Her brilliant qualities. And her ability to do some things which other women will give up after Day One.

She is unaware of her own inner beauty and wonderful qualities. Too busy counting other women’s blessings instead of her own.

I know there are many women like her out there. Always praising and admiring other women who are prettier, richer and more ‘successful’. And being totally oblivious to their own excellence.

This 6-page Inner Beauty Journal is something I sketched and visualised on my own.

It will help you to

• uncover your inner beauty characteristics

• feel comfortable in your own skin

• boost self-worth

• realise that you are valuable to people around you

Once you have pinpointed your inner beauty qualities, it’s time to do more activities which magnify those qualities.

Excellence, in my opinion, is the value we offer to the people around us.

Maybe you are a good listener. Or someone who brings people together. Maybe you are a brilliant caregiver. Value is not necessarily something which brings in money.

Your self-worth, by right, should not be dependent on your net worth. :)

All in all, I hope the Inner Beauty Journal will help to raise your feelings of self-worth. Share it with your friends, students, kids and family members.

Have a good week!

(Free ‘High-Vibe’ Printable) 13 Ideas to Raise Your Vibration & Practice Self Love

I have been under emotional stress these 2 months. This means that my self love and self care practices have fallen to the wayside!

Even if you are a life coach, counsellor or healer with tons of experience - you are not invincible to life’s stresses.

I may know 101 ‘how-to-practice-self-love’ strategies. But when something unwanted happens, sometimes the most self-loving thing to do is to let time slowly heal you.

As for me - and maybe some of you! - I need to ‘revise’ and recap how to practice self love. After months of neglect, that is.

The first step to practising self love is to list down activities which ‘raise your vibration’. You can download the printable below for your own use!

Raising your vibration involves doing activities which make you feel good about yourself, joyful and present.

I should raise my vibration & frequency because…

When your vibration or frequency is high on a particular day, you will realise that you attract pleasant and helpful people around you, the weather seems extra beautiful, your child or partner is more loving than usual…and other little gifts.

My logical explanation is that when you are in a high-vibe state, nothing gets you down. You easily brush off a nasty encounter, you don’t get bothered by small things and your focus is mostly on the good stuff.

I want to practice self love and raise my frequency because I want to enjoy life like I used to!

So I created the ‘My High Vibe List’ to list down all activities which make me feel good instantly. You can download a copy and use if for yourself.

13 Ideas to Raise Your Vibration

If you are lost, below are 13 proven-to-work suggestions which raise your vibration:

1. Playing with a pet

2. Taking a warm bath or spending time in water

3. Spending time in nature & soaking in the sun

4. Spending 1 hour away from your laptop, mobile phone or TV

5. Watching your favourite comedy series

6. Your favourite exercise

7. Cooking or baking your favourite dish

8. Cleaning or decluttering the house

9. Music which makes you feel good

10. Hanging out with friends you love

11. Aromatherapy

12. Random acts of kindness

13. Anything which makes you laugh!

Your ‘High Vibe List’ is highly personal. Whatever makes me feel good may not work for you and vice versa.

If you are new to practising self love, there is no need to feel awkward. Remember that you are worthy of all the luscious things life has to offer - as worthy as anyone else on this planet. 💛