Written by: Vasilisa Lukyanenka, 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.
We are sleepwalking if too many elements in our lives are the same day in and day out. We get up, have breakfast, commute to work, or go to our home office. Then we have a lunch break, dinner in the evening, maybe some sports activities for a few days. The same schedule at least five days a week. We tend to have a well-planned and predictable weekend, too.
Having a structured day is good since you do not make decisions all the time. But doing activities without any effort because you repeat them numerous times makes your life stagnant. You disconnect from your life, allowing it to run on autopilot.
So how can we be more connected? How can we feel excited about our everyday lives?
Here are a few ingredients to add to your life:
Get into a flow state and give 100% of yourself to what you are doing.
Find ways to tweak and change routine activities.
Become more authentic and spontaneous.
Practice Present Moment experience.
Challenge your triggers and automated reactions.
Flow State
“But it is impossible to enjoy a tennis game, a book, or a conversation unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity.” ― Csikszentmihaly
Flow state is a remedy for work-related stress and burnout. Once you are in a flow state, everything else disappears, and you immerse yourself in the activity at hand. Flow state is the result of giving 100% of your focus to something without sharing it with other activities or thoughts. Remember, this can exist in any activity that you fully engage in.
Question to contemplate:
How can you be more engaged with the activities at hand to allow yourself to feel the flow state?
Brighten up your routine activities
Be it breakfast, commute, or a task at work, it is possible to make these activities less automated. Try changing something about these routines. You can decide to make a breakfast you have never had before, choose a different means of transport or route to work. You can find a way to change your approach to the daunting task at work, think of a way to optimise, or use a different strategy to do it.
Question to contemplate:
What are the automated routines you would like to change, and how can you do it?
Become more authentic and spontaneous
Authenticity and spontaneity go hand in hand. We often think that being spontaneous means being irrational or indulging. In this case, it is rather impulsive behaviour as a reaction to some emotional trigger.
Being truly spontaneous means being creative, playful, brave, and inspired. Do you remember the last time you allowed yourself this kind of spontaneity? How familiar are you with this authentic part of you?
Think about situations where you wish you could add more intuition and playfulness, or maybe where you could allow individuals to hear your inner wisdom. If you want to explore this aspect of your personality more, start your day to be more spontaneous and see what happens. Engaging in hobbies or other pleasurable activities can bring out your impulsiveness.
A more exciting and colourful life might be awaiting you on the other side!
Practice Present Moment Awareness
“I know, I know! Mindfulness, presence, and other boring stuff!” ‒ you can be saying now as you read this. Being individuals, we need to see the outcome of our time investment and we are not used to having our minds empty.
You can also be a person who has experienced the effects of clearing one’s mind, which feels like literally pressing the reset button. In such a case, you understand the value of activating your prefrontal lobe by switching from autopilot to presence. It might be hard to stick with a strict disciplined 20-30 minutes meditation routine, but there are other effective ways.
For me, it is more effective to do my 2-3 minute 'Present Moment' routine every few hours during the day. It has a refreshing and resetting effect on me and my clients who do it daily.
Present Moment exercise steps:
Focus on your breath. Take 5-10 breaths. You can combine it with any of the below steps.
Focus on your surroundings. No matter what you are doing, pause for a moment, and look around. Focus on the visual part of the experience: colours, textures, details, shades.
Focus on your emotional state. Ask yourself: How am I feeling now? Where is my emotion located?
Focus on your bodily sensations. Scan your body from head to toe and pay attention to your 'feels' ‒ the clothes touching your body, the chair you are sitting in, etc.
Focus on what you hear. What do you hear in your room or building, near or far?
Challenge your automatic responses
Before you can change an automatic emotional response, you have to be aware that it exists. ‒ Daniel Goleman
We often rely on our emotional triggers and end up running the same patterns of behaviour. Rarely do we stop and think about why you are reacting this way; what about this situation triggers me and what is the most important for me now.
Key tips to become more aware and in control of your automated behaviours:
Start noticing your emotional responses and become curious about what is driving them.
Decide for yourself what to do the next time you feel the urge to act the same way.
Journal about your progress and observations.
Becoming more present, alive, and engaged in life begins with an intention to do it.
Vasilisa Lukyanenka, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Vasilisa Lukyanenka is an Emotional Intelligence and High Performance Coach. She has been through an immense transformation in her life with the help of Emotional Intelligence. She successfully completed several coaching courses and is a lifelong learner in the fields of Emotional Intelligence, Transformational and Existential Psychology. Currently, her main focus is on organizational coaching. She helps leaders and teams remove walls and build bridges instead by developing communication, empathy, collaboration, trust, and understanding within companies. She has helped a lot of people realize their true potential, find their meaning in life, gain control over their emotions, become happy and fulfilled. Vasilisa is able to see the inner power every human has and she has made it her mission to help others tap into it!
