Written by: Hedi Schaefer, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
If you want to make 2024 your year, stop making plans to change anything in your outside world. But start to shift from within. Only 10% of what we are changing outside will lead to long-lasting change.
It’s our habits and daily rituals that make our mornings better, thus priming our day, and if you add those days to weeks and months, you create your best potential year ever.
“Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world.” T. Harv Eker
And you can shape that inside world of yours with very simple yet powerful habits and give your system the message of success and power. So it then reflects that very same thing in the outside world.
Here are 3 steps to use every morning to shift positively
Step 1. Don't touch your phone for an hour after awakening. At least
Not engaging in a destructive habit can be as powerful as engaging in an empowering one. Checking your phone directly after awakening primes your brain for exactly what you engage in: reactivity and even negativity with scrolling, reading heartbreaking news, or to-dos from your boss. It takes your power away and sets you in a state of re-action rather than pro-action.
Step 2. Make your bed
It might sound silly, but making your bed is already an item that produces a sense of "yes, I did it" and empowerment early in the morning. Nobody can take away this first success of your day.
Step 3. Power boost your nervous system with affirmations done right
There is an equation that is simple yet often requires a shift of perspective. It’s this:
The quality of your thoughts and emotions equal the quality of your actions. And these actions equal the quality of your results.
So your productivity starts with what you think and believe. And the state that these thoughts put you in. If you think “Yes, I can do this”, you have a much greater chance of going into action mode to turn your goals and wishes into reality with satisfying results than when you’re believing, “There is no way. I can’t.”
You can block yourself with 1 thought alone.
Now, what if you could shape your thoughts and state to create better results in a matter of minutes? The power pose by the Harvard researcher and psychologist Amy Cuddy (see her fascinating TED Talk here) in combination with empowering affirmations is my go-to tool for success and has helped countless clients of mine reprogram their minds and reshape their mornings and lives.
It’s a power cocktail you can sip whenever you need your body's intelligence to take over, produce a testosterone kick (by about 20%) and lower the stress hormone cortisol (also by about 20%).
It's so handy before important presentations, a special appointment you are nervous about, when you feel low after a bad night's sleep, or if you just want some healthy coffee alternative.
And the best part? It only takes 2 minutes of your day.
That’s what it needs to be effective.
So, how to do the power pose?
Set your alarm to 2 min
Pick a power pose (any superwoman pose you can think of), like hands on your waist or behind your head
Stand tall and breathe deep
Every time you breathe in get bigger and taller
After your alarm goes off, release
Now let's add some empowering affirmations.
Affirmations are positive statements you repeat during your power pose. Through repetition and the hormonal balancing act due to the pose, you create new neural pathways, helping you believe they are true. Often, working with affirmations is difficult because you feel you are pretending and therefore blocking the very essence of the new, empowering information in that affirmation.
It's often referred to as "toxic positivity". Because it can harm you in ways like adding more self-doubt than before.
With the power pose, you embody the information.
A completely different phenomenon, and it works like marinating it in your system. What affirmation is the best for me? It depends on what limiting beliefs currently keep you in a low state. But let's not make it too complicated to choose "the best one". It's usually a combination of positive statements that speak to you the most.
And I am sharing with you my favorite 33 success affirmations beyond the topic of productivity here, so you can just pick the one, two, or even three statements that make you feel positively excited inside.
I am productive!
I am powerful!
I am enough!
I am worthy!
I am the creator of my reality!
Everything I need always comes to me!
I am a master creator!
I have more money and resources than I could ever need!
Money comes to me effortlessly and easily!
The more money I have, the more good I can do in this world!
Everything always works out for me!
With every breath, I am more and more blessed!
Blessings pour into my life!
I am healthy!
I am vibrant!
My energy is attracting only good into my life!
My heart is wide open to receive blessings and riches!
I am successful!
My pains and shadows are dissolved!
I am free!
I am grateful!
My life is positively up-leveling every single day!
I’m getting better and better every single day!
My happiness is expanding daily!
I am pure love!
I am loved and valued!
I am peaceful and whole!
I have everything I need to succeed!
I love that I am able to do what I love!
I am worthy of joy and ease!
My life gets better and better every single day!
Everything I desire, desires me more!
2024 is my best year ever!
Now, while you are in your power pose, you state your affirmation(s) silently or out loud. Close your eyes if you want, and say them with absolute conviction. Even if it's uncomfortable at the beginning, don't give up. Help your body become more and more familiar with these statements and new empowering information.
The key is repetition. So, do this exercise with the same set of affirmations at least 21 days in a row. And come back for more inspirations when they feel "sunken in" and like a normal belief you hold.
Enjoy your new morning.
Your new day.
And thus, a newly empowered, productive day!
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube, or visit my website for more info!
Hedi Schaefer, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Hedi Schaefer is a leader in work-life innovation through identity work, and future skills. An identity crisis and depression made her question herself and work-lifestyle as a jet-setting innovation consultant. She understood that to create a business and life based on true passion, purpose, ease, and flow, the key is inner work. Hedi created strategies to shift dramatically and turn everything around. She has since dedicated her life to helping others do the same and become the authentic changemaker and creative leader they wish to be. She is CEO of the Hedi Schaefer Academy, the online hub for Work-Life Innovation, an author, and a speaker. Her mission: Light up and lead! inspires people across the globe.
