Do you struggle to find balance? One of the ways to become better balanced is to shift your mindset and attitude. Learn how to use affirmations and other tools to be a more centered, happier, and balanced Mom.
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”
-Henry Ford
Ford’s quote is really powerful.
I have it posted right on my filing cabinet, where I see it every day. It’s a constant daily reminder that my mindset and attitude matters.
When I tell myself that being a Working Mom is hard, it becomes even harder. When I tell myself that I can’t possibly keep my house clean, my house is messier than ever.
What things do you tell yourself?
The messages you tell yourself throughout the day are important because they impact every area of your life, for good or bad, whether you realize it or not.
The Stories You Tell
We all have stories that we tell ourselves. Most of the time, you don’t even realize you’re telling yourself a story – you see it as a fact.
All day long you tell yourself stories. You repeat them multiple times a day. They’ve been going through your head for years.
You believe your stories, and for a good reason. You’ve built up your stories over your whole life. They protect you. They help you understand your world. They’re comfortable.
These stories are often negative, though. They tell you that you don’t have enough money, your life is hard, your kids don’t behave, and your husband is useless.
I know you have a ton of proof to justify these stories, so do I. I’ve spent years collecting evidence to show that my stories are true! But is it possible that these stories aren’t 100% accurate?
How to Change Your Life
If you aren’t happy with your life (or any aspect of it) and want to improve it, the first thing that you need to do is change your old stories and shift your attitude and mindset.
If you’re always telling yourself that you can’t lose weight, of course you’re never going to lose weight.
Before you even start on a weight-loss program, you need to shift your mindset. You need to believe that you are capable of making a change.
Only after you shift your attitude can change occur in your life.
Your Mindset Effects Your Balance
Your mindset impacts every part of your life, big and small. It therefore plays one of the most important roles in whether or not you feel balanced.
Let me give you an example. One that’s common for working Moms!
Example: You have a story (or mindset) that your husband doesn’t do his fair share of work around the house.
How this Plays Out: When you feel overworked and tired you get angry at your husband. You often ruminate on instances where he should have done more work and didn’t.
How this Impacts You: You stop asking your husband to do things because you believe that he won’t do it or he’ll complain. Consequently, you do more and more work around the house. He does less and less. As a result, you feel tired and resentful from doing so much work and your relationship with your spouse suffers.
Do you see how this all started with your mindset? What if you had a different mindset about your husband? How would that change everything, from how much work you have to do every day to your relationship? Do you see how it impacts everything?
How to Change your Mindset
Changing your mindset sounds really hard, right? How do you shift something you don’t even realize you’re saying?
Like everything in life, the best way to change your attitude is to keep it simple.
Step 1: Notice Your Attitude
The first thing you need to do is notice that you have a story or belief that isn’t serving you. This can be about anything, from losing weight, to how hard it is to be a working mom.
Often the negative thoughts have been there for so long that you’re used to them and see them as the absolute truth. The first step, therefore, is to first recognize that you’re having these thoughts.
Just doing this step, which seems so simple, is actually very powerful and will help you shift your mindset.
This is because noticing your thoughts is actually a pattern interrupter. It’ll help you stop your usual storytelling and rumination because you’ll notice that your story is….a story! It’s a HUGE first step, one to be proud of!
Step 2. Create a Helpful Affirmation
Once you notice your negative thought, don’t even think about arguing with it. You’ll never win. You’ve had YEARS to develop your thought and PROVE that it’s right.
Instead, it’s more helpful to replace it with another one, one that you actually believe (or can work towards believing). It shouldn’t be too far-fetched.
For example, if you constantly have the thought, “I’m terrible at organizing my time,” you can create a new affirmation that you can use whenever the thought pops up.
For example, you can use: “I’m getting better at organizing my time” or “I’m starting to learn new techniques that will help me learn to organize my time better.” You see how your statements are easing you into the new mindshift?
I have a free printable with lots of affirmations to help you get started. Click here to access my free library to download this printable, and lots of others.
Step 3. Replace your thought
Every time you notice yourself shifting to the negative thought, add your positive affirmation or thought right behind it.
It’s incredibly powerful and comforting to have a new thought that uplifts you instead of pulls you down.
See how this can change everything?
Step 4. Rinse and repeat
This process won’t happen overnight. You’re going to slip into your old thought-patterns. You’re going to forget you affirmation.
That’s okay.
Just keep at it! Every time you notice your old thought pattern, gently remind yourself of your new affirmation.
Over time, you’ll notice that your mindset is slowly changing over time. And so is your life!
SuperCharge Your Mindset
If you want to change your mindset quicker, write down your new, more positive mindsets and read them every day. You can do this in the morning as part of your morning routine, in the evening before bed, or any time throughout the day.
There are even apps that will let you write your affirmations so you can access them easily each day. Some apps let you record audio so you can listen to them in your own voice.
Recommended App: ThinkUp is a wonderful app for recording affirmations. To get you started, the App has many suggestions on affirmations you can pick. You can read them out loud and save the affirmation and then replay them each day (to music!). Hearing your own voice telling your affirmations is very powerful. [Note that the app has a one-time cost.]
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is another way to shift your mindset. Sitting in silence is incredibly powerful and can help you notice when you’re telling yourself stories.
To learn about mindfulness and how to get started with it, click here.
Wishing you lots of success on your journey. Let me know if you have any questions or if I can hep you in any way.
With love,
Rina
PIN for Later
I definitely struggle with this at times I’ve really found that working on mindset and mindfulness helps but it can be very challenging!
I totally agree with you – developing your mindset can be HARD!!! I hope the tips in this post make it easier (and actually doable!). Wishing you lots of success!