Lifestyle By Liv

Blog #4 - Are you living a LIE?

I wanted to start this blog with a poem which has greatly impacted my life. It is called “Our Deepest Fear, “ By Marianne Williamson.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

I love this poem, the part that stands out the most to me is where she mentions how our playing small serves no one. For a large majority of my life I would undermine all of my achievements in an act to not make other people feel inadequate. I would play small and not focus on living up to my true potential because I was scared that I would offend other people and they wouldn’t like me. But, since learning the coaching tools and having a coach, I have learnt to accept that not everyone is going to like me, nor should everyone like me!

The reason for the title of the blog is because for so long I knew I was lying to the world about who I was, what I wanted and what I was interested in. I think we all do this at some stage of our life, we try to change ourselves in order to “fit” in, but this leaves us feeling unfulfilled and takes us away from experiencing the things that truly light up our souls. This is why I wanted to challenge you to ask yourself “Are you currently living a lie? And is it time to start living your truth?” I think YES.

Are you being YOU or are you being someone who you feel you HAVE to be?

My Mum always told me to be nice to people and to think of others feelings, this is helpful to a certain degree. However, in order for me to “be nice, “ to everyone I would need to be fake and pretend to be someone who I wasn’t. I was living a lie. This caused me to become a very resentful person who really struggled to connect with people. With what I know now, it is much more effective for you to just be YOU and always share your truth for the following reasons:

• It fulfils you

• You will connect with the right people, not just any people

• You maintain your dignity

• You back yourself and develop confidence

• Life is simply better when you accept that not everyone is going to like you or what you have to say!
  
  Are you a people pleaser? You probably are if you do any of the following:

• Putting others needs before your own

• Always going with what the crowd decides

• You hate making decisions and double hate conflict

• You never worry about yourself

• You identify as an empath

• You don’t have clear boundaries with the people in your life, and everything is always about everyone else

It’s okay if you are a people pleaser, and its also okay if you are extra nice to people because thats what you believe is safe and will make you a good person! What I want you to tell yourself is that, “You dont know what you dont know.” And what this means is that up until you are made aware of the things you’ve been doing that aren’t serving you, you were simply doing your best and that is ENOUGH!

You are and always have been good enough.

As a Life Coach I are here to help you see what beliefs and habits you have in your life that are no longer serving you, or getting you a result you do not like. A coach will teach you the things you were taught in school, like how to understand yourself, how to know what you want in life, how to set clear boundaries or how to manage your emotions. If you feel like you aren’t sure of who you are or what you want, then I have the perfect solution for you in May 2022!

If you feel this blog resonated with you I want you to email me at lifestyleby_liv@outlook.com so I can send you all of my free material that can help you TODAY. Otherwise if you would like to go deeper into this topic and learn the tools and strategies to have all of your questions answered, let go of all your worries, have a clear picture of what your future loos like and be excited to create it, then I highly suggest you click on the Book in a time with me today button!

Lots of love,
Liv xx

Blog #3 - How do the products we use effect our Mind and Body?

This topic is one to read carefully and pass onto as many people as possible!

IT IS IMPORTANT!

If you have been following my journey on social media then you would know that about a year ago I made the switch to no longer use products that are potentially harmful to my mind or body. I wanted to share my personal journey, and also some interesting facts which will help educate you on what ingredients and lifestyle choices you may want to consider changing in the near future to help support your health goals.

Acne. Most of us have had it, and all of us know the drastic impact it can have on an individual’s confidence. I am someone who is familiar with going out in public with a red mountain on their face, it isn’t fun. But I believe we were all given things that challenge us, and acne for me is one of many. After trying Cosmeceuticals (a cosmetic that has or is claimed to have medical properties) my acne had taken a turn for the worst. There is a-lot more to my skin journey, and I will share this in another blog, but for the purpose of this blog here is the long story short. I decided it was time to invest in a Naturopath and try the natural way of doing things (I had never done this before, and ALWAYS went to a GP or Dermatologist, I even previously used Roaccutane). This was when my eyes were opened and I was SHOCKED to learn about all of the potentially harmful ingredients in products and foods I had been consuming my whole life! After doing some further research I discovered the main ingredients in personal care products to avoid are below:
-SLS and SLES (Sodium Laureth Sulphate)
Polyethylene glycol (PEGs)
-Triclosan
-Oxybenzone
-Homosalate
-Aluminium

ACTIVITY:
Go to your bathroom and check to see if your soap, shampoo, toothpaste, facial cleanser or deodorant has any of these ingredients… My bet is that one of these exists in ALL of them!
I don’t want you to fear, these products won't kill you over night, however after many years of continued use it can have detrimental effects to your mind and body health and I do advise that you seek to swap to a natural brand or I can direct you to one if you’re looking to make the change.

Common side effects of using these ingredients over a long period of time may include:
-Infertility (hormone imbalances)
-Cancer
-Eczema and other skin conditions
-Headaches
-Irregular periods and PMS symptoms
-Joint pain
-Loss of sleep
-Acne
-Weakened immune systems
-Disrupted thyroid function

So as you can see we are constantly exposing ourselves to chemicals and toxins that are having short and long term effects to our health and WE HAVE NO IDEA! So you’re probably thinking, NO WAY brands would never be allowed to put harmful ingredients in their products and sell them without a WARNING! Well, sorry but they do. Feel free to prove me wrong by doing some more research, I am positive you will find more reasons to prove me RIGHT! So what do we do?! What is the solution? It’s okay I want you to relax and breathe and just be grateful that you are now informed and can make more mindful decisions moving forward for yourself and your family. I have had an extremely positive change to my mind and body health since I made the swap.

To list a few, here are some of the lifestyle changes I have made below:
-Only drinking filtered water
-Eating mostly organic food (or buying my fruit/veg from a local farmer)
-I only use Modere for all my house hold and personal care products (Message me for more info)
-I only eat Ancient Grained breads (Bills bread is great!)
-I only use Modere sunscreen (READ THIS TO KNOW WHY - https://stream2sea.com/ingredients-to-avoid/ )
-I only use essential oils for perfume
-I only use natural candles
-I avoid using single use plastic items (always buy reusable’s!)

I want you to know that this swap did not happen overnight and has taken me about a whole year to implement and I am still not perfect! Sometimes we simply dont have a choice about what products we use, and we can make do with what we have. MY INTENTION is always to put my health first! I can happily say that since making all of these changes I am the healthiest and happiest I have ever been. Working on my mind and body has taken me years to get to this place though! There are many specialised health coaches who work with healing the mind and body, however my coaching focuses more on your mindset and sustainable lifestyle changes to help you with everything LIFE. If I feel you would benefit from the expertise of another coach I will always refer you!
I have listed below some of the health complications I have overcome since prioritising my mental and physical health:
-IBS (irritable bowl syndrome)
-Anxiety and Depression
-Acne (It is now very mild and I’m still working on it)
-Eczema
-Irregular periods
-Disordered eating
-Monthly migraines
-Allergies

Okay so my health journey is a long one, but the purpose of this blog is to focus on how the products we use effect our mental and physical health. I don’t believe it was a coincidence that I had the most mental breakthroughs with coaching after I made the swap to no longer use harmful or toxic chemicals in any of my personal care products. Our mind and bodies are LINKED and thus why it is essential to take responsibility for everything we expose ourselves to!

I highly encourage you to go and do some additional research, and then go through all of the products you’re currently using and consider just how many chemicals you are innocently exposing yourself to. The change doesn’t have to be made overnight, but small steps in the right direction overtime will accumulate to BIG CHANGE.

If you have any additional questions please DM me, or book in a discovery call via my website today.

Take care,
Olivia Broadhead xx

Blog #2 - How to cultivate a Positive Mindset!

Positivity is defined as the practice of being or tending to be positive or optimistic in attitude.

I love choosing to be optimistic now, but this wasn’t always the case for me. Growing up I became really good at focusing on the negatives and picking out all of the things in a situation that had gone wrong. I guess we are all good at this, until we learn that we have a choice and can actively choose to focus on the positives. But how?

How do we cultivate a positive mindset?

I believe that in order to achieve this you will need a coach of some sort to help provide you with a perspective of your life that you may not be able to see whilst living within your life. This is why I have 2 coaches, one for my life and one for my business! This is one of the many benefits of having a coach in your life. The other ways you can help yourself to cultivate a positive mindset on your own would be to start engaging in some or all of the below:

-Reading inspirational/motivational books

-Listen to podcasts that are interesting to you (I highly recommend the Life Coach school podcast)

-Practice gratitude daily

The other main things you can do to achieve a positive mindset is to practice having awareness of choice. This is the realisation that you actually are the creator of your life, and you always have a choice with how you decide to think/view your life. REMEMBER that your thoughts create your feelings. So in order to be more positive you ultimately need to remind yourself to choose the positive way of looking at your circumstances. E.g It is raining outside. You can choose to make it mean that it sucks and you feel depressed and lazy, or you can choose to think that you are grateful that the rain is watering the plants and filling up the water tanks for potential droughts in the future. Do you see how neither of those thoughts change the fact that it is raining, but it helps you to feel better about your circumstances? We don’t try to be positive for others, we do it for ourselves!

How do you maintain an optimistic attitude?

As mentioned above I suggest to see a coach on a regular basis to keep you accountable for times when you may slip below the line and become at the effect of your life (this is never a good time). The only other way to maintain it, is it practice it! You want to be sure that you are actively choosing to see the light in every situation everyday, even when it is hard. The other thing you can do is write down some positive affirmations and repeat them to yourself everyday, place them on your phone wallpaper or even record yourself saying them and then listen to the recording everyday (this is what I do). This is what we do to create a new neural pathway in our brain. So, instead of automatically thinking negatively, we are intentionally telling our minds what to think, and creating a stronger, more natural positive pathway for the brain to think unconsciously.

Activity:

-Journal what is on your mind right now, get everything out onto the paper and then inspect whether you are choosing to be positive or negative?
-Write down one thing everyday that you are grateful for

-Watch my video on “Positivity,” email me for access

There are many people in this world who are worse off then us, and yet they are able to wake up with a smile on their face everyday. Ever wondered why? Because they choose everyday to think of the things they’re grateful for, and choose to always see the light in every situation. They focus on the things they DO have, rather than the things they DON’T have. I challenge you to see how this can improve your life, by implementing these simple, easy to follow activities.

“A positive mindset, brings positive things.”

Blog #1 - Self Confidence

What is self confidence?

Self Confidence is defined as “A feeling of trust in ones abilities, qualities and judgments.”

This is an amazing definition as it reminds us that the only person who can generate the feeling of confidence within our bodies is ourselves! For me confidence is the willingness to feel or experience ANY EMOTION. Emotions can be scary, until we learn that emotions are simply a vibration we feel in our bodies. So if you can go into any situation and remind yourself, “The worst thing that could happen right now is a feeling,” then you will be able to start building some REAL self confidence. Not the type of confidence which is fake and you’re trying to flick your hair around and act like your shit doesn’t stink. REAL CONFIDENCE comes from within, and is created by the thoughts we choose to think. You will hear me repeat this a-lot, “Our thoughts create our Feelings.” This is because it is true! The only thing in the world that can cause us to have a positive or negative emotion, are the thoughts we choose to think in our own minds. AMAZING!

So how do we achieve Self Confidence?
Well we reveal our current thoughts and then generate new thoughts. I want you to write  down and ask yourself, “What am I currently choosing to believe about myself?” Then I want you to be as honest as possible and get it all out on the paper in-front of you. Did you know that anything is possible as long as you believe it is possible? And did you also know that a belief is simply a thought which has been repeated over time? AND the best part about this is who controls what we think? WE DO!!! So congratulations the secret to the universe and self confidence is YOU. You may be rolling your eyes right now or saying what I did which was, “This cant be it, this cant be the answer, tell me something else!” HAHA, no this is it and it is very simple once you can wrap your mind around it.

You are the person who chooses what to think, and nothing you believe is permanent because you can change your thinking within a few seconds and this repeated over time will become a new belief which will in-turn generate the feelings you most desire. Okay so how to generate new thoughts? I want you to write this down and ask yourself, “What do I want to believe about myself instead, knowing that anything is possible?”

These are your new thoughts or what I like to call AFFIRMATIONS.
Now the next step of the transformation process is practice and repeat. SO, how can you do this? Get creative! You can place these affirmations as your phone wallpaper, you can record yourself saying them and listen to the recording every morning (I do this) or you can wake up everyday and say it to yourself in-front of the mirror. Whichever feels best to you, and is something you KNOW you will repeat everyday is the one I recommend for you.

So now you’re excited and thinking about all of the possibilities of what is possible for you, GOOD!
Next:
What does it mean to be confident?
- You know people won’t like you but you do it anyway!
- You’re no long afraid to give things a go, make mistakes or fail.
-You can trust that you will aways have your own back.
-You choose to like who you are, with no adjustments!

Im going to repeat that one : You choose to like who you are, with no adjustments!

What self confidence ISNT:
- Pretending to ‘love yourself’.
-Thinking you’re better than someone else.
Remember, confidence is created internally and has nothing to do with what is external to us. I believe that every human has the ability to be confident, we just need to be shown HOW TO generate confidence within ourselves first.

So there it is, I want to encourage you to do the REVIEW journalling activities below, to begin practicing and repeating what you’ve learnt to ensure you reap all of the benefits! If you have read up until this point I want to thank you for being on this journey with me, and also congratulate you on dedicating this time to yourself. Your mind and body will thank you for years to come if you invest in your mental wellness consistently.

REVIEW:
- What are you currently choosing to believe about yourself?
- What do you want to believe instead?
-Place your new thoughts/affirmations in a place where you will either hear, see or say them to yourself everyday.

With lots of love,
Olivia Broadhead xx