From Scarcity to Abundance: How to Change Your Money Mindset

Your money mindset can have a significant impact on your financial success. If you have a scarcity mindset, you're more likely to struggle with money and feel like you never have enough. 

On the other hand, if you have an abundance mindset, you're more likely to attract wealth and create financial abundance. Here's how to change your money mindset from scarcity to abundance:

1. Identify Your Money Beliefs

The first step in changing your money mindset is to identify your money beliefs. These are the beliefs you have about money that shape your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Common money beliefs include "money is hard to come by," "money is the root of all evil," and "I'll never be rich." Once you identify your money beliefs, you can start to challenge and change them.

2. Practice Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful tool for changing your money mindset. When you focus on what you're grateful for, you shift your focus from scarcity to abundance. Take time each day to reflect on what you're grateful for, whether it's your health, your relationships, or your financial situation. By practicing gratitude, you can attract more abundance into your life.

3. Visualize Your Financial Goals

Visualization is another powerful tool for changing your money mindset. Take time each day to visualize your financial goals, whether it's owning a home, starting a business, or retiring comfortably. Visualize yourself achieving your goals and feel the emotions associated with achieving them. By visualizing your financial goals, you can attract more abundance into your life.

4. Take Action

Finally, to change your money mindset, you need to take action. This means taking steps to improve your financial situation, whether it's creating a budget, paying off debt, or investing in your future. By taking action, you can create momentum towards achieving your financial goals and attract more abundance into your life.

At womenflix.org, we offer a range of resources to help you change your money mindset and achieve financial success. Our "Self-Made Wealth Course" is designed to help you cultivate an abundance mindset and take control of your finances. 

Join our community today and start your journey towards financial empowerment.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/

The Power of Positive Thinking: How Your Mindset Affects Your Finances

Your mindset can have a significant impact on your finances. If you have a negative mindset, you're more likely to make poor financial decisions and struggle with money. On the other hand, if you have a positive mindset, you're more likely to make smart financial decisions and achieve financial success. Here's how your mindset affects your finances:

1. Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

Your thoughts have a powerful impact on your reality. If you constantly think negative thoughts about money, such as "I'll never be able to save enough" or "I'm not good with money," you're more likely to struggle with your finances. On the other hand, if you have a positive mindset and believe that you can achieve financial success, you're more likely to take action to make it happen.

2. Your Attitude Determines Your Actions

Your attitude towards money also affects your actions. If you have a negative attitude towards money, you're more likely to avoid dealing with your finances or make impulsive decisions. However, if you have a positive attitude towards money, you're more likely to take a proactive approach to managing your finances and make smart financial decisions.

3. Your Beliefs Shape Your Habits

Your beliefs about money can also shape your financial habits. If you believe that money is scarce and hard to come by, you're more likely to hoard your money and avoid taking risks. However, if you believe that money is abundant and that you can create wealth, you're more likely to take calculated risks and invest in your financial future.

In conclusion, your mindset plays a crucial role in your financial success. By cultivating a positive mindset and believing in your ability to achieve financial success, you can take control of your finances and create the life you want.

At womenflix.org, we're committed to supporting women in their financial journeys. We offer a range of resources, including financial education, mentorship, and community support. Join our community today and start your journey towards financial empowerment.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/

5 Mindset Shifts for Financial Empowerment

Achieving financial empowerment is not just about having a good income or making smart investments. It's also about having the right mindset. Your mindset can either hold you back or propel you forward in your financial journey. Here are five mindset shifts that can help you achieve financial empowerment:

1. From Scarcity to Abundance One of the most important mindset shifts for financial empowerment is moving from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. A scarcity mindset is one that focuses on what you don't have, while an abundance mindset focuses on what you do have. When you have an abundance mindset, you're more likely to see opportunities for growth and abundance in your life. 

2. From Fear to Confidence Fear can be a major obstacle to financial empowerment. Fear of failure, fear of taking risks, and fear of the unknown can all hold you back from achieving your financial goals. To overcome fear, you need to cultivate confidence. Confidence comes from taking action, learning from your mistakes, and believing in yourself. 

3. From Consumer to Investor Another important mindset shift for financial empowerment is moving from a consumer mindset to an investor mindset. A consumer mindset is one that focuses on spending money on things that provide immediate gratification, while an investor mindset focuses on using money to create long-term wealth. When you have an investor mindset, you're more likely to make smart financial decisions that will benefit you in the long run. 

4. From Blame to Responsibility It's easy to blame external factors for your financial situation, such as the economy or your upbringing. However, blaming others will not help you achieve financial empowerment. Instead, you need to take responsibility for your financial situation. This means acknowledging your mistakes, learning from them, and taking action to improve your financial situation. 

5. From Short-Term to Long-Term Thinking Finally, to achieve financial empowerment, you need to shift from short-term thinking to long-term thinking. Short-term thinking focuses on immediate gratification, while long-term thinking focuses on creating a better future for yourself. When you have a long-term mindset, you're more likely to make smart financial decisions that will benefit you in the long run. 

In conclusion, achieving financial empowerment requires more than just financial knowledge and skills. It also requires the right mindset. By making these five mindset shifts, you can take control of your finances and achieve financial empowerment.

If you need support applying this 5 mindset shifts, join our community today and let's us help you out! 

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/

Mindset and Wealth: How to Grow Your Wealth

Can you really ‘think yourself rich’? I’m here to tell you that it is not only possible, but that it is also actually the best chance you have of making a lot of money. Many of us dream of living in a large luxurious house in a sunny country, we imagine wearing smart suits that exude power and confidence and we wish that we didn’t have to make so many hard choices because our funds can’t support the lifestyles we want to lead.

If that sounds familiar, then you need to make a change. And as with ALL things, that change starts with you and your mindset. If you want to be wealthy, then what are you doing about it? 

And is there any chance that you may, in fact, be going about it the wrong way?

Wealth and Your Career

Ask the average person in the street what they would hypothetically need to do in order to become richer and 99% of them will tell you the same thing: get a better job. Okay, fair enough. They are not wrong per say. Indeed, getting a better job won’t hurt their income and that in turn will likely mean they get richer at least a little.

But in fact, this is not the whole story. And what’s more, is that this isn’t even the main part of the story. Wealth and salary are not inextricably linked. They are related sure, but only to a small degree. If you wanted to see an equation telling you how to get wealthy, then it would really look like this:

Wealth = Income – Outgoings
So, let’s say that your income is determined solely by the amount of money you are making at work. Even in that scenario, you still have another, equally as important factor. That is your outgoings. If you earning a cool million dollars a month but you also waste a million dollars a month of lavish holidays and on nights out and clothes, then you are ultimately not going to be very well off. Rather, you’re likely to lose money over time.

But if you are earning a more normal $2500 a month but you only spend $500, then suddenly you are saving $2000 per month. In 12 months, you’ll have $24,000 saved away. That’s a decent down payment on a house! So, you now have two options. Two ways to get richer. One is that you seek to get a better job and increase your income and the other is that you save more money and spend less.

How to Spend Less

When I was at university, my summer job was working at a yacht club. Specifically, I was a waiter in one of the restaurants there that was actually paid for and owned by the clientele of the club. The club was located in Sandbanks, England – an area that is also sometimes referred to as ‘millionaire’s row’ because it has among the most expensive real estate in the world along the seafront.

So, these are people who own yachts and who belong to a club that is situated in one of the wealthiest parts of the world. Suffice to say that they were not struggling for cash. And of course, what many people would point out to me is that this should likely result in pretty big tips!

Except that’s not what happened. In fact, I received some of the worst tips I have in any job. I had a lady call me over to secretively give me 20p (around 30cents) for my hard work. She literally told me to buy myself something nice. And this is bearing in mind that it is standard practice in England to tip 10%. The meals usually cost close to $150.
I told my Mum this and her response was: how do you think they got rich, dear?

Makes sense
Look, I’m not here to tell you you should become stingy with tips. But what I am telling you is that the wealthiest people recognize that every little bit adds up and makes a very big difference in the long run. Your aim now is not to fritter. That $3 coffee you have every morning on the way to work is actually $15 over the course of a week. $60 over a course of a month and $720 over the course of the year.

That is a tiny amount and that’s before we have even considered all those other things you likely pay for that you don’t really need. Maybe your Spotify account, Netflix, 100+ TV Channels, gas for the car for all those trips you don’t really need to make. It adds up. Worse are all those larger purchases we make on an impulse.

These are things like clothes that we think will make us look smart, games consoles, PCs, overly advanced phones. How much did your phone cost you? If you’re on a contract, then chances are you’ll be paying $700 or more for it. Now ask yourself how much more that phone really does than something for $300. Do you really need the fastest processor around? Considering that even an old phone can play everything in the app store?

Do you really need a 30 megapixel camera? Or a 4K screen? Can you even see the difference between 4K and 1080p?The real problem here is marketing, the internet and other people. We have unfortunately been conditioned to associate these items with success and to find them highly desirable. We want to get the latest phone, car, computer etc. because it looks so sexy in those adverts. But the reality is that these things don’t really bring us happiness.

Likewise, we are told that we need to buy a large house, go on lavish holidays. Is this really for us? Or is it so that we can look successful to others? I’m not telling you to cut back on all the things that make you happy here. There is no point in having wealth if you aren’t going to enjoy it and have a better quality of life for you and your family.

All I’m telling you is to make sure you are certain of what it is that does make you happy. And that often means deciding what you don’t need and what you should be prioritizing. Have you always dreamed of a beautiful big house? Then why not stop going on those big holidays for a while? Why not stop buying widescreen TVs? And how about considering getting that big beautiful house in a less expensive area?

Heck, if you move to Spain, then there are places where you can live in a five bedroom home with swimming pool and roof pool and it will only cost you $200,000. You could almost buy that in cash and think about how much money you would start making then once there was no mortgage!

Conversely, if all you want is to travel the world, then you can change your accommodation to something less glamorous. How about moving to quiet neighborhood and living in a spare bedroom for a while?  Your outgoings will be low, so you can enjoy going on more holidays and still save up that wealth. Know what you want to achieve with that money. Know what wealth means to you and then you can focus on being more efficient with your money.

Financial Modelling

This will also help you to set up a budget and/or a plan. If you know how much you have coming in and how much you’d like to be making per month, saving per month and spending on things that make you feel wealthy per month, then you can create a budget that will help you to reach that point within a specific timeframe. This then is where you can look at those small things you can cut out to save money.

If you have a spreadsheet that contains all your income and all your outgoings per month, then you can look at what kind of impact cutting coffee from your routine would actually make. You’ll be left with a total profit at the end of each month and you can decide how much of that you want to put into savings and how much you intend to spend on other things.

You can even set up standing orders in your accounts so that money saved automatically gets transferred to a savings account. With such a spreadsheet, you can then multiply the savings you are making by any given number of months and see projections of what your finances are likely to be at certain points in the future. Need more money for an upcoming expense?

Then look at something else you can do to cut your expenditure. This is called ‘financial modelling’ and it’s a powerful tool for building your wealth rather than just letting it ‘happen’ without your direction or input.

A Couple More Ways to Save Money

And what if you have run out of things you can cut in order to save money? What if you are living on as little as possible? A few other options include changing your providers for bills, selling off old items, or even moving money between accounts in order to receive bonuses. A friend of mine does this religiously and will even take out credit cards with 0%APR, just so that he can put all of that money into an ISA and then make profit on it.

If he gets a cash incentive to signing up for anything then he will sign up! And he never buys a new piece of tech or even clothing without taking one of the older items to sell and thereby offset the cost. Something else to note is that if you have a dream of a wealthy future, then you might need to ‘be okay’ with living a little more simply for a while in order to get there.

You need to put the work in now, to reap the rewards in the future. And this is hard because it often once again means forgetting the conventional signals of wealth and success. Once again, you have to do this for you and not be worried about what others might think. So for example, if you want to someday have a beautiful home, one of the very best things you can do is to live with your parents if they will let you.

Sure, it’s not glamorous and it’s not fun, but if they charge a small amount of rent you’ll be able to save so much per month that it will help you to get on the property ladder MUCH faster. You could then buy a smaller home in a less attractive area but flip the property to make a big profit. You need to put in the graft and have an eye on the future.

Likewise, you might need to learn to stop trying to demonstrate your wealth and stability to friends. Have you ever met up with a friend and eaten in a restaurant that you can’t really afford because you want to see them and because it is embarrassing to suggest eating somewhere cheaper? As you can imagine, this isn’t exactly conducive to getting wealthy quickly! Again, you need to be willing to tell them that you can’t afford it and to go elsewhere.

How about you suggest they meet you at your house?

Setting Up Revenue Streams

Next come the revenue streams. We’ve seen how you can actually become richer without changing your job, simply by spending less. The other strategy is to become wealthier by having more than one income stream. Once again, your salary isn’t determining your wealth! So, what might this mean? One simple option is to take on another job, such as a weekend job.

If you are happy to work on a Saturday, then you will have potentially $150 extra to spend each week! That’s $600 per month or $7,200 per year! Save that and in a couple of years, you can be living in a nice house – or you can use it right now to feel that bit wealthier and wear those fancy clothes. This is a big sacrifice though granted. So, what would be better for most people would be to earn money online for instance.

Tim Ferriss describes creating a ‘muse’ in his book The Four Hour Workweek, which is a small online business that generates a passive income. This can be as simple as finding an affiliate product (a product that you sell for commission) and making a simple website recommending it, then sending people there with ads. This is very low maintenance but can potentially make a fair amount of money.

You could try matched betting alternatively (a form of betting that ensures you can’t lose – it uses only the free bonus amounts that you get given for signing up) or you could look for a simple online job. How about selling photography online? Working as a writer or a web designer? Or, like a friend of mine, try commentating on sports for websites?

You can also make money from arts and crafts of course and sell some things you make on the side, or you can buy and sell items in bulk on eBay! Then there are the other options that work offline: these include such things as renting out rooms to students, such as mowing the neighbor’s lawn, cutting hair, teaching an instrument etc.
All these options will help you to make an income that will be additional to your current income.

Not only does this of course give you a better total, but it will also help to make you more ‘resilient’ so that if anything ever happens with your main job, you’ll of course still have some money coming in. Another tip? The more you make, the more you’ll make. Try to look for investment opportunities, whether that means buying a second house and letting it out to someone else, or whether it means moving to an area that you know is up and coming.

A strange thing to think of here is board games. If you’ve ever played Monopoly, or any other game where you have to amass a kind of resource, then you might have found that it pays to invest wisely early on. To get the card that will pay out just a little bit every round, or that will prevent you from losing a little bit every round.

These seem like small changes in the short term but over the course of the game, they ultimately put you in a position of great power and help you to win decisively! It's the same in real life. Make a few right choices that will build up over time. Know what you want. Be patient. And avoid the temptation to splurge on the short-term gratification. That is how you get into a wealthy mindset!

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/ Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success! Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).

Clear The Mind

Our entire experience and quality of life hinges on our ability to clear and control the mind. Many of us believe that our happiness is dependent on outside factors and on what happens to us. This however is not true. Rather, our happiness depends on the way we react to what happens to us. And the same goes for every other aspect of our experience too: your stress levels are a result of the way you react to events, and your ability to be productive depend on your reactions too.

Don’t believe me? 

To prove it, let’s imagine that you’re in a caravan and it’s hanging over the edge of a cliff. If you move too much then it’s going to topple over the edge into a ravine. If you are aware of this situation, then in all likelihood you will be riddled with fear. Your heart rate will increase, your blood vessels will dilate, your muscles will contract and you will start breathing quickly. You’ll sweat and your mind will be all over the place.

But now let’s imagine that you’re in the very same situation but you believe that you can fly. In that case, you’ll probably sit happily reading and not worry all too much about your precarious position! As you can see here, your belief about the situation and about the events is what is in control of not just your mood – but your very physiology. And guess which person is more likely to survive this situation without letting the caravan fall?

Now don’t get this twisted: I am not here to tell you that holding completely deluded beliefs is the way forward! And nor should you convince yourself you can fly. But this is merely a demonstration of the power of the mind and of your beliefs. 

Now if you imagine yourself in another more realistic setting you can see how your beliefs can change the way you react. Let’s say you’re standing up on stage and you’re about to give a speech in front of lots of people.

Some of us don’t believe we can fly. Some of us think that we’re going to say the wrong thing, that we’re going to stutter and that people are going to laugh at us! We thus begin to panic and guess what? Our blood vessels dilate, our muscles contract and our heart rate goes up. Our mind begins to race which makes us more likely to make mistakes and our throat becomes dry and hoarse.The irony is that the speech is much more likely to go wrong simply because we’re worried that it might! 

And now imagine the same scenario but where you believe it’s going to go well, or where you just aren’t bothered about what other people might think. This kind of calm mindfulness is going to help you to act as though there isn’t even an audience there!
Again, it is your reaction to the event that is going to keep stress at bay. And it’s not just these acutely stressful situations that can benefit from mindfulness and calmness either.

Imagine for example that you come home from work and you can’t stop thinking about the last thing your boss/client/colleague said to you.

Then you wonder if you sent that important last email… 

How present are you going to be when you get home? How much are your family likely to enjoy spending time with you?

Imagine that you are on a great holiday but all you can think about is whether or not you left the oven on at home. How much do you think you’ll enjoy the incredible views of mountains going past your window?

Imagine that you’re in the gym and your mind is thinking about the computer game you were playing last night, or X Factor. Do you really think that you’re going to be capable of exerting maximum force in that workout?

My aim is to help you to take back control over your mind and in doing this, you’re also going to be taking back control over your emotions and your feelings. The end result is that you’re going to be able to become completely present in any given moment and completely ‘mindful’, thereby abandoning unhelpful concerns, stressors and emotions. 

Mindfulness meditation means that you are meditating in such a way as to become more aware of your own thoughts and feelings. In other forms of meditation – such as transcendental meditation – ask the person to try and completely clear their mind, often by focussing on a single point in space, or perhaps a sound or a word (this is called a ‘mantra’ and it is why we imagine Buddhist monks to hum as they meditate!).

The difference with mindfulness is that you aren’t trying to eradicate your thoughts but rather you are trying to simply ‘watch them’ as they float past you. The idea is that you are becoming aware of the kinds of things you normally think but you aren’t engaging with them and you aren’t letting them affect you. The description is often that you should watch them pass by ‘like clouds in the sky’. Do this for a while and then write down the content of some of those thoughts. Look at the things you stress about and worry about on a regular basis and reflect on them in an objective, disconnected manner – nonjudgmentally.

Some of these will be things that you are going to worrying about and stressing about and which are going to stop you from enjoying yourself in the moment. You’re going to practice dismissing them but to help, you’re also going to disassemble them using restructuring techniques. One example of this is called ‘thought challenging’ which is going to teach you to challenge the validity of your worries or your distractions.

For example, let’s say that you’re worried you didn’t send an email at work. Thought challenging is going to help you overcome this.

First, you ask yourself if there’s anything you can do about it. If not, then what is the good in worrying? In fact, it is more important that you relax and enjoy yourself so that you can be fresh and well to handle the challenges tomorrow. Next, you ask how much it really matters. What is the worst case scenario? Everyone makes mistakes and in all likelihood, your boss isn’t going to be furious – they’ll be understanding.

Does some small part of you think that you’re going to get fired? Then just remind yourself that this is incredibly hard for any business to do legally and it would be worse for them than it would be for you. And after all, if your workplace would fire you so readily, would you really want to be there anyway? Are you worried that people will be mad at you? You made a mistake! So what? And since when do you need to be best friends with your work colleagues?

This is the logical and reasonable reaction to this concern and once you can learn to deconstruct your worries this way, it will allow you to simply forget them and go back to enjoying whatever you’re doing – or remaining calm when you’re under pressure.

Use the Body Scan Meditation

Generally meditating is one of the most important ways to promote mindfulness, calm and self-control.
In his book Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss looks at the habits and routines of the world’s most successful people. What he finds is that they have a lot of things in common and one of the most prevalent of these commonalities is that they all meditate!

Everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger, to Tony Robbins, to Elon Musk describe meditation as being a key tool that helped them achieve everything they did. When you meditate, you learn a method to forget your worries and to simply let your mind ‘be’. More importantly though, you develop greater concentration and greater focus which prevents your mind from getting into an anxious mess to begin with!

So how do you begin meditation?

One useful strategy is to start with the body scan technique. To get started, sit somewhere comfortable with your legs crossed and your hands on your knees. Keep your back straight, your chin up and forward and your eyes closed – but make sure you aren’t in a position where you can fall asleep!
Now you’re going to simply ‘scan’ your body by focussing on each part one at a time and then making a note of how it feels and relaxing it. Before that though, you begin with your senses. Listen carefully to the world around you. You’ll find that there are sounds that you have completely blocked out until now and you’ll notice birds tweeting, cars honking, children playing and wind howling.

Feel the temperature of your skin, notice if you’re on a slight gradient and even look at the light as it dances through your eyelids.
Okay, now focus on the top of your head and start to take your attention downward to your cheeks, jaw and then neck and shoulders. Stop at each point and make a note of how it feels: are you carrying any tension? Are you feeling any pain? Release tension in the muscle and then keep moving.

Eventually, you’ll reach the very bottom of your body. At which point you can begin to concentrate on your breathing for a while. Breathing should be ‘belly breathing’, which begins with the gut expanding and then fills the lungs all the way up. Breathing steadily and rhythmically will slow the heart rate via the parasympathetic nervous system and put you in an even calmer state. Finally, bring your attention to just below the navel and hold it there.

This is your center of gravity and concentrating here will ground you.Throughout this process, you might notice your thoughts start to drift from time to time. If this happens, don’t let it concern you. It is normal and not the end of the world – just quietly dismiss those thoughts and then return to the focus.

Finally, repeat the steps in reverse order and bring yourself back around. That was a body scan meditation! This is a powerful tool because it is forcing you to direct your attention and to ignore the outside thoughts. More importantly, it is engaging you with your own body, physicality and surroundings. And when you do this, your sensations become richer and more vivid. Eventually, if you keep practicing this skill, you should get to the point where you can begin to become more mindful and more present at will – even while moving and engaging in other tasks.

That means just taking a moment to actually look at the world around you. Pausing to see what you can hear. And fixing your posture. It means not getting so caught up in your own thoughts that you let life pass you by, or that you live in a constant state of stress and anxiety. Once you can do this, then you will find that nothing can stir you in quiet the same way unless you want it to. You can always just enjoy being in the moment and forget the past and the future for a time.

You can enjoy living and taste the amazing taste of that chocolate biscuit while that email sits there in your outbox completely unsent.

This is the key to happiness: you can choose to react positively instead of negatively. You can choose to view things as a challenge or an amusing hiccup instead of a serious threat. But it is also the key to unlocking your full potential so you perform better and achieve more!

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/ 

Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).

Methods For Maintaining Concentration

No matter what your job entails though, there are going to be times when you’re not feeling particularly motivated or when you’re not feeling supercharged. One tip then is to try thinking about what it is about your job that is exciting or at least motivating. If you are currently working in a job that you find dull for instance, then remind yourself why it is that you’re doing that work and how it can eventually lead to a better lifestyle.

Perhaps you’re working here in order to earn enough money to launch your dream business? Maybe you’re working here to support your family. Focus on that fact and this will remind you why your job matters and why it’s worth your full attention. Creating a longer-term goal is a great way to do this. Even if your current career/lifestyle doesn’t excite you, then think about what your long term goals are and find something to feel excited and passionate about.

CBT for Concentration

Those of you who have studied any psychology might recognize this as a form of ‘cognitive restructuring’.
Cognitive restructuring is a technique from CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT meanwhile is a psychotherapeutic technique used to treat a range of conditions ranging from social anxiety, to phobias, to OCD.

Essentially, CBT works in two stages:

1. Identifying the negative thoughts that are leading to stress/maladaptive behavior (mindfulness, thought reporting)

2. Changing those thought processes using a range of techniques (cognitive restructuring).

So if you were afraid of speaking in public for instance, you would first use mindfulness meditation (listening to your own thoughts) and thought reporting (writing a journal of what you think just before speaking) and then see what negative thoughts were causing that anxiety. It might be that you find yourself thinking things like ‘what if everyone laughs at me?’ or ‘I might stutter’ which of course is what then causes you to freeze and to perform badly.

Thus you use two tools called ‘thought challenging’ and ‘hypothesis testing’. Thought challenging means that you challenge your beliefs and break them down to see if they’re accurate. Are people really likely to laugh at you? Or will they be more likely to be sympathetic and polite and continue listening? Likewise, does it really matter if you stutter? Ultimately, you’ll never see these people again and you never claimed to be an amazing speaker? Who cares!

This should hopefully help you to relax and thus avoid the stressful ‘fight or flight response’. At the same time, you can also use hypothesis testing to actually test the theory. This might mean standing up to speak in front of a crowd and then purposefully stuttering. It’s terrifying, but very quickly you’ll learn that it really doesn’t matter what happens – people are kind and you’ll survive!

But CBT can also be used in the reverse manner. You can also use cognitive restructuring to tell yourself that something is important and to focus on the reason it really matters. Repeat this like a mantra – I need to keep working on this, if I work now I can rest later, this work will help me achieve my goals. Focus on the emotions that drive you to keep going and put aside any negative thoughts like ‘five minutes on Facebook won’t hurt’. We all know that five minutes is never five minutes.

As soon as you start using these techniques, you can actually start to lead your brain state and force yourself to focus on the things that matter. When you do this, you will come to believe that what you’re doing is very important and as such, your brain will respond in kind by producing the necessary neurotransmitters to keep you engaged and alert. Other things – like Candy Crush – won’t seem as important and thus they won’t be able to distract you.

It’s Your Perception That Counts

What CBT really teaches us is that it’s our perception of a situation that really counts as far as the brain is concerned. It doesn’t actually matter what we’re doing or how important that is. What matters is how important we think it is.
Let’s put it this way: if you were standing on top of a volcano as it erupted, this would cause you a lot of panic and your brain would react by producing tons of norepinephrine and epinephrine.

This would trigger the ‘fight or flight’ response and your heartrate would increase, your focus would narrow and you’d feel highly stressed and scared. Did the volcano cause this? No: your belief that you were about to be incinerated did. If you were in the exact same position but you genuinely believed that you were invincible, then you wouldn’t have the same fight or flight response.

You’d be able to stand back and just relax while the lava erupted around you. Of course you’d also die, but your neurochemical profile would be completely different. If you can change your perception of events, then you can control the release of neurotransmitters, you can control the activation of brain areas and you can make sure you’re in the perfect state of mind for whatever task awaits you.

You can be more present and in the moment when you’re with friends, more focused when you’re working and more relaxed when you’re thinking creatively and engaging your ‘default mode network’. If you perceive something as important, then you will believe it is important and your body will react accordingly.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix  and CEO & Founder of Beautifly Digital

https://msha.ke/yolabastos/

Women Flix empowers financial freedom for women worldwide. 

Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).

Get The Mindset Of Winning

The winning mindset is a fundamental factor in achieving success in life or in business. This mindset is not created by chance or a flip of the coin. It serves as the foundation of success, conscious growth, wealth, and prosperity. If you want to create a positive mindset, you have to know how it works to help you become the winner.

The following are some essential information that you need to know about getting the winning mindset:

What is a Mindset?

Your mindset is who you are. It is composed of your beliefs, attitudes, feelings, and thoughts. Mindset is a simple idea that creates all the differences. It creates productivity and motivation in sports, education, and business. It is what successful athletes, business people, and educators have.

How to Achieve the Winning Mindset?

1. Believe in Yourself

You have to believe that you can do anything. You have to trust in your skills, knowledge, and capability when dealing with the challenges that you will face as you tread the path towards success.

2. Make a Plan and Create a Strategy

Part of having a winning mindset is to create a plan that will serve as your guide in reaching your goals. On the other hand, having the right strategy can make such goals easier to achieve. Most of the time, it requires an appropriate set of behaviors and a vision for the future. Without a holistic and flexible strategy, your are more likely to fall short in achieving what you want to achieve in your life.

3. Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

People who have the mindset of a winner are those who know how to use their skills and strengths to give them the will to win and enforce a positive attitude. They are also not afraid to fail and never give up.

4. Practice Self-Awareness

Top performing people are aware of the things that they have, the ones that can motivate and help them achieve their goals. Being aware of the things that they are good at can provide them with a competitive edge over their competitors. They also know how to manage such things in order to prevent them from becoming their weaknesses.

5. Be Brave Enough to Face Your Challenges

If you really wanted to win, you need to be brave enough to face your fears and challenges. You have to be ready to fight and take “No” for an answer. If you want help, never be afraid to ask for it especially when such help can greatly increase your chances of accomplishing your goals.

Take Care Of Your Body

One of the keys to having a happier living and a healthy lifestyle is to know how to take care of your body. Whatever task you want to accomplish or any goal that you want to achieve can be done easily if you are physically, mentally and emotionally healthy.

Your body and your mind are connected with each other. If you are living an unhealthy lifestyle, you are more likely to make unhealthy choices. Likewise, being active can help in improving your moods and lessen your chances of suffering from depression.

The following are some tips on how to can take care of your body for a much happier and healthier life:Eat

Healthy

Choosing fresh fruits and vegetables as well as lean meat and poultry are much better than eating junk foods, carbonated drinks, and fast foods. By eating healthy, you will receive the nutrients, vitamins, and energy that you need to combat the stress brought by a day’s work. As part of your effort to eat healthy, you should not forget to drink plenty of water to keep you hydrated and to remove toxins from your body.

Take Time to Relax

No matter how busy your schedule is, it is important that you take a break from the things that make you feel stressed and find time to clear your mind and relax. Whenever you’re at work, taking a break even for just a few minutes can make a big difference in the way you handle your job.

Exercise

Exercising is an activity that will allow you to rejuvenate yourself. Exercising does not mean that you have to spend hours in the gym. There are certain activities that can help you become fit while still having fun. It is advisable that you engage in any type of exercise or physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day.

Get Enough Rest and Sleep

Resting and sleeping allows you to regain the energy that you have lost during the whole day’s work. Having enough sleep and rest also have an impact on your ability to function well, on your mood, and on your metabolism.
Practicing good hygiene is another way to take care of your body.

This will prevent you from experiencing different kinds of diseases. Good hygiene means that you are health inside and out. You need to take a bath regularly, clean your teeth, trim your nails, put on clean clothes, and more.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix  and Founder of Beautifly Digital

https://msha.ke/yolabastos/

Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success! 

Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).