Have you ever wondered why some days go well and others not so good? Don't you wish you had a crystal ball so you can see your journey ahead? I know I used to wish I could see where I would be in 5 years. Then my mind used to go to work, just dreaming about all the things I would love in life and the things I would love to be doing. Then I got curious about why some people excel in any sphere they step in, while others have skills and talents and they still cannot manage to excel. Great news, my life warriors, I think I have figured it out. To win the game of life, you must first learn how to use your thoughts as a guiding light.  Research says that the way people think and see their ability matters and plays a critical role in one's life. You can define mindset as a set of ideas that an individual hold, and it plays a role in an individual's motivation to continue and accept or adopt certain behaviors. If you are alive and living, then you are a life warrior. Every day we wake up we are on the battlefield, and we have no idea what awaits us as we begin the day. What I can tell you for sure is, we can guide our days in the way they should go, we do have the power to experience joy every day, but most importantly once you have learned to fix your thoughts in a positive direction, you will encounter nothing but feel-good moments along your journey.

Understanding the Conscious vs. Unconscious Mind

Your success relies on how you feel about your experiences. Ultimately, you want to establish a growth mindset. The growth mindset is explained as an understanding that you can always improve your skills and abilities by practicing them. If you are having a growth mindset it means that you consider failure as a learning opportunity. In this case, failure is considered as a chance for you to polish your abilities and deliver the best results for the next time. I have found that most human beings have a limiting belief mindset because they have allowed their bad experiences in life to take residence in their mind, which now becomes 80% of their thoughts. This is where your conscious vs. unconscious mind comes in. Pay real close attention to this part, as it is the foundation to understanding why you react the way you do to certain events in your life.

Your conscious mind is what you use every day to get through the day. It is aware of what needs to happen each day. You use it to brush your teeth, eat breakfast, attend that meeting, and meet up with your friends. It is well aware of what is happening in your life each day, and it is very prepared for your planned events. Here's one thing to understand about the conscious mind, at the end of each day it is responsible for dumping all the experiences you encountered in a given day in your unconscious mind.

Your unconscious mind is not very smart. I call it the garbage truck. It is responsible for storing all your life experiences even from your childhood. Your unconscious mind has one job and that is to archive all your experiences into your memory bank and bring them to the forefront when requested. Here is how the conscious mind works with your unconscious mind. Remember, your conscious mind is all about knowing the plan. When you encounter an unexpected event, for example, let's just say the person you are dating usually calls you every morning before you go to work. It's always been their routine so you expect this. Now you haven't heard from them all morning into the afternoon. Your conscious mind sends a signal to your unconscious asking how should we react to this. Your unconscious mind now chromes through the archive of the closest event that matches the current experience and tells your mind, panic, they are cheating, they no longer want to be with you. Do you know why this is the message!?, because this has always been the case from your past relationships. Your mind only knows what you've been through and your normal reaction, so it tells you the only thing it knows. Scary right!?

You have the ability to retrain your thoughts?

Our brain can be reshaped every time and it forms new neural pathways. The neural pathways are developed by doing particular things. The things that we do repeatedly are imprinted in our brains permanently. You can still change all these things, all you have to do is train your mind to react differently when faced with negative encounters. Apply the 80/20 rule to your life. 80% positive intake daily and 20% everything else.

Heal your mind and you heal your body

Guess who’s the real MVP on your team? It’s your brain! If you meditate you know first hand how it is such a relaxing experience. Research is evident that mind-body practices such as meditation, deep breathing, and journaling induce relaxing responses and end the stress and production of stress hormones. So as a result your heart rate becomes normal, the blood pressure falls and digestion also eases. When you are relaxed the relaxation response causes cells to release small quantities of nitric oxide which helps a lot in the dilation of blood vessels and stabilizes the immune system. Negative thoughts and being depressed make us ill, if you are in a stressful situation for a long time then you are at a greater risk of getting conditions such as diabetes, dementia, and may even spread cancerous cells within the body. The easiest thing that can help you in this situation is meditation. You might have seen monks meditating on mountain tops and caves for some time, to gain spiritual enlightenment. This effort also plays a part in improving their physical health. Meditation no doubt is a mind-relaxing technique but studies have shown that it also boosts the immune response in people with cancer, protects you from depression, soothes your skin, and also retards the progression of various viruses. So it becomes obvious that a healthy body has a healthy mind. When your mind is fresh, calm, and relaxed, it enables your other body parts to function efficiently and as a result, you can focus on your tasks which bring good results in the end. A healthy mind grows well and you can utilize it to do many productive activities.

Follow these steps to gain control over the direction of your life

1. Do a 30-day mind detox.

I highly recommend 30 days to a new journal, because this is intentional journaling. I used this journaling technique on all my life coaching clients for over 2 years and it works! After 30 days I am happy to report their mindset shifted from a limiting belief mindset to a positive one. I am not saying you are 100% transformed, but you now know how to look for the good in everything that has occurred. What I love about this journal is it serves as a guide to developing self-awareness, mastering discipline, and retraining your thoughts to the path of positivity.

2. Create daily affirmations

As you wake before your feet even touch the ground, speak life into your day. Say at least 3 daily affirmations over your life and your day.

3. Clean up your social media feed

Most of us nowadays spend a lot of our time scrolling on social media. We have to ensure that we are putting at least 80% good images in our minds daily. Go through your feed right now, and unfollow anyone who is not constantly feeding your soul positive imaginary. You are what you feed your mind. Just remember 80% good, 20% whatever else makes you happy.