We chose interesting, unusual and useful exercises from the workbooks of the “Simple Practices” series, which you can and even should do every day. Today we will create a bouquet of our own successes, we will learn to plan our load, meditate by drawing and fight our fears.
BOUQUET OF YOUR SUCCESS
Success greatly strengthens our sense of self-confidence and self-esteem. But for this we must understand what we have done, and be able to praise ourselves for it. Better yet, if we are proud of these achievements.
All events where we applied skills and abilities, learned new things, created something, overcame difficulties can be considered our successes. This could be a graduation from high school, a work project, the birth of a child, or playing a musical instrument. This also includes the crises that we managed to overcome.
Now create a colorful bouquet of your successes. In each flower of the bouquet on the next page, write down a keyword for each success. If you don't have enough flowers, paint them. Remember your life, from childhood to today. The following questions will help you with this:
- What did you manage to learn? What educational institutions to graduate from?
- What have you achieved in your profession?
- What projects have you managed to complete?
- What personal events would you like to celebrate?
- What difficult moments and crisis situations did you have to go through?
- What else in your life has influenced you the most?
- After that, consider your bouquet. All this was possible for you! Here they are, your various successes! Celebrate them and reward yourself.
Exercise from the book "Self-Confidence."
CONSIDER RESERVES
We often overestimate our performance in a specific time frame. It is not always possible to eliminate interference or predict when force majeure will confuse our plans. In addition, physically, we are not always in as good shape as we would like. All of this is a worthy reason to rotate intermittently.
The advantage of this method is that by taking a deep breath and planning enough time to work, you reduce stress levels, and thus start to work faster than under pressure. Schedule time for important things according to the following principle:
50% of the time is spent on the work itself;
30% - a margin of time in case of unforeseen circumstances (traffic jams, migraines, computer problems);
20% - for creativity (in order to analyze the work, make coffee, talk with colleagues).
Now take your notebook and answer two questions. And do not forget to allocate a reserve for those tasks that fall on the list below.
Exercise from the book "Planning"
WE DRAW LIKE A ZEN BUDDIST
To meditate while painting - yes, it happens! Draw without purpose or intention. Result: lines and patterns; monochrome and multi-colored drawings You can also, for example, divide the space with several randomly drawn lines and fill in the resulting gaps with geometric patterns.
Or take several empty glasses, turn them over and circle, filling the sheet with different circles - superimposed on each other or located side by side.
Leave everything to your imagination, but at the same time remain aimless - focus on every movement of the pencil. Exercise from the book "Meditation"
A CORNER OF SOCIETY INSIDE YOU
Do this exercise regularly. Thus, you will reliably capture this place in your soul and can mentally go there when you are scared or want to relax.
Close your eyes and imagine a safe place. It can be real or fictitious: a house that cannot be entered without your permission; a beach where you can completely relax. Imagine this place in all its details and yourself there in complete safety! Here are the leading questions. Imagine.
- This is my safe place
- There is such a smell
- There is such a temperature
- Such people live there (creatures, animals, angels)
Exercise from the book Overcoming Fear.
There are no ideal people, but we can always "twist" something in ourselves - not necessarily everything, but what prevents us from living a rich and full life and enjoying every day.
