Women's Fitness

HEALTH

88 womensfitness.co.uk | September 2016

WORDS: ERICA BUSH PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCKWORDS: ERICA BUSH PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCK

proactively rather than reactively 

structure your day by identifying your

MITs (Most Important Tasks). Before

you go to bed write down your top

three MITs for the day ahead – the

three things that you must accomplish

in order to feel that the day has been

a success. Draw aline and under that

write down all your othe r tasks that are

less important but should still be

completed. ‘Make a commitme nt th at for

each task you complete of f the bottom

half of your list you must complete an

item from the top partbefo re moving

on’ Katie ad vises.

Let it out to... find presence

You may not have thought much about it

befo re but presence could in fact be the

key to your happiness. ‘The constant

search for the next “thing” that will

make us happy – but al ways seemsto

be just out of reach – means we are

missing life in the here and now’ says

Veronica Winterbourne mindfulness

expert and progra mme director at The

Evolutionaries. A grea t way to bring you

backto balance is to get a handle on

your thoughts. It’s estimat ed we have

more than 60000 a day yet according to

research as many as 98 per cent of

these are the same few thoughts on

repeat. What’s more a staggering 80

per cent of those are thought to be

negative. Katie’s suggestion ‘The

Repeat Thought List’ aims to look

deeply into ou r own thought processes.

Set a time r to go off at rand om points

throughout the course ofyour day.

Every time itgoes of f record in your

journal what you were just thinking

about (and be honest!). At the end of the

day you’ll be able to see which thoughts

were re peated and looking back  you

migh t have a betterunderstanding of

why. ‘Ref ocusing and bringing our

attention to this moment means we

don’t miss most of our lives’ says

Veronica. Robert agrees: ‘Journaling

forces people to addres s what is

happening right now how it feels what

matters what went well what didn’t.’

Let it out to... createabundance

And we’re not just ta lking money.

Far from in fact. Journaling to create

abundance is actually all about shifting

our thinking from a ‘lac k’ mentality to

an abundant one. ‘Today’s generation

has grown up without the likelihood of a

steady stable job due to globalisatio n

and rapid technological advances an

d

the worst recession si nce the 1930s’

explai ns Robert. ‘Add to the mix the fact

that today’s society is plagued not only

by the media and corporate marketing

suggesting that everyone should be

slim beautiful happy and successful

but al so countl ess “friends” on

Facebook postingevidence of their

wonderful lives showing how well they

are doing. All of this sublimin ally instils

a pres sure to succeed to thrive to be

happy to be beautiful and to be st

rong.’

It’s no wonder then that so many of us

lack a positive and abundant mindset.

One of Katie’s tools – ‘Texts from

Yourself’ – targets this. Set an alarm on

your phone daily that says: ‘Hey how

are you? How are you feeling?’ Then

simply answer these questions in your

journal taking time to think deeply

expres sing gratitude for the things that

have gone well and free-writing on the

things that haven’t. ‘A deep sense of

self-awarene ss I have found is one

of the true keysto happiness and

fulfilment’ says Katie.

Let it out to... heal

From affirming a belief in healing a

physic al condition tocalming the mind

journaling can help cure many an

ailm ent. Katie’s technique ‘The F-Word

Thro w Down’ for example zeroes in on

forgiveness and how this can plague us

if not ad dressed. ‘This is easily the

toughest tool in the book – but al so the

most transformatio nal’ she says.

‘Holding on to re sentment whether

toward yourself or others is like drinking

poison: it on ly hurts you.’

So how do we go about it? Katie

encourages us to first of all id entify

our resentments. Ask yourself: ‘What

relation ships or memori es st ill cause

me pain or sadness? Who am I unwilling

to forgive?’ Then dig in. Write exploring

why you’re still holding these

resentments and how it would feel if you

no longer ha d them. Next create a list of

compassion id entifying the ways in

which those you resent – even if it’s

yourself – are struggling or suffering

and put yourself in their shoes. ‘Doing

this heightens one’s sense of self by

facilitating the process ofgetting to

know and understand one’s own

thoughts values feelings and emotion s

and to learn from them investing this

knowledge in creatin g a bettertomorrow

for oneself’ Robert explains.

Let it out to... feel

‘Most fear is actually uncertainty in

disguise and to conquer our fears and

reach new levels of success we must

move outside our comfort zone – right

into the spot where uncertainty and fear

set up camp’ explains Katie. Thro ugh

writing  you can channel these fears

safely thus opening yourself up to

othe r feelings.

Katie’s ‘Fear-Quashin g Worksheet’

technique does just this. Start by

completing this sentence: ‘The fear that

is stuckin my mind is...’ Defi ne where this

fear came from explore how it makes

you feel and write about it. Then

complete this sentence: ‘This fear is

completely fake and does not actually

exist because... ’ Not only is the process

of pu tting these thoughts onto paper

extremely therapeutic and beneficial

(writing them down forces you to become

objective thereby al lowingyou to make

sense ofthem). It’s also grea t for your

brain. ‘You are creatin g new neural

pathways bybringing your thoughts into

the light of awareness and this will

dissolve the intense charge they may

hold – so journaling is definitely good

for your health’ Veronica adds.

Let it out to... reveal

Novelist Paulo Coelho wrote: ‘You

will never be able to escape from your

heart. So it’s betterto listen to what it

has to say.’ We all have thoughts

memori es and hang-ups and for most

of us they’re sealed in a padlocked box

in the backof our minds. Katie however

encourages us to let them out. ‘This is

invaluable in discovering and definin g

oneself’ agrees Rob. ‘It’s all about

calmly acknowledging thoughts

emotions feelings and sensation s as

they arise with acceptance and

without judgement.’

Katie’s tool ‘The Hunt-For-Light-In-

The- Dark’ encourages us to re lease our

self-hateregularly writing down our

deepest emotion s and thoughts in

real-time. The beauty of the journal?

Honesty. ‘We are far more likely to write

things that really matter an d to be

honest with ours elves in a journal

rather than spin ning our lives out on a

public forum and adding a rosy sheen’

explai ns Rob. Even if these thoughts

seemtoo dark to admit to anothe r

person here  there are no restraints

• so get ugly. By acknowledging their
  presence you’re one step closer to
  releasin g them. ‘Over time you’ll be able
  to pull more and more light out of you
  illuminating your reasons to live and
  slowly dimini shin g the darkness
  clouding your life’ says Katie.