In this jam-packed episode, we chat about how to increase your prices in a way that feels authentic, aligned and expansive for your comfort zone. We invite you to take a different perspective on what increasing pricing actually means not just for your business but for how you want to live your life and serve your best customers.
We chat about:
In this episode, we explore manifestation in a way that is grounded and practical yet intuitive. We share our steps for manifesting in our businesses through aligning and directing a clear channel for our energy and focus when it comes to our vision, goals, habits, mindset and actions.
We chat about:
In this episode, we take a look back to the past 6 months and discuss what went well, what didn’t and our biggest lessons and changes we’d love to make for the rest of the year.
We do these mid-year check-ins to share our own personal and honest journey as business owners and give you a clear BTS behind our businesses.
As business owners we know things are not always rainbows and unicorns and life can get messy, but we believe that the more we talk about our own experiences honestly and openly, the less alone we feel and the more support we can find along the way, to help us get there one step at a time.
In this episode, we continue on to part 2 of our favourite business apps! We share our favourite customer facing digital apps and tools for nurturing an authentic and memorable experience for our best customers. These resources have been personally tried and tested by us and have been in our toolkit for years, helping us craft the best customer experience.
We chat about:
In this episode, we share our conscious approach to “pain points”. We explore this topic through a different lens - from a perspective where we aim to serve and add value to our customers in order to help them get to the desired version of themselves or goals.
We chat about:
In this episode, we share our favourite internal must-have digital apps and tools that help us wrangle our to-do list and get things done in our business. Most importantly, these tools made list because the have helped us build our systems for productivity, clarity and focus. We hope that our list inspires you to explore a few of these for yourself!
We chat about:
In this episode, we chat about what it means to build an unapologetic brand and business; one that is embodied, authentic and true to your values, vision and mission. We share our top tips on how to infuse this into your own brand so you can tell your brand’s story from a place of conviction, confidence and clarity.
We chat about:
In this episode, we chat about how to smoothly navigate the ups and downs in our businesses that come with seasonal changes. We look at these seasonal changes, going from winter to spring in the northern hemisphere and going from summer to autumn in the southern hemisphere, from an energetic, Ayurvedic perspective.
We chat about:
Part of the health of your business comes from how you set boundaries. We chat about the importance of conscious boundary setting and how it creates space, flow, alignment and ease for your business.
This is a continuous practice in integrity and intentionality and ultimately serves not only yourself but others as well.
We chat about:
The key to leaving a lasting impression comes from your ability, as a brand or business to create a memorable emotional connection with your audience or customers.
On this episode, we talk about how to cultivate and nurture that impression by expressing our brand voice and personality in a way that feels natural, authentic, relatable and personable.
We chat about:
In this episode, we share our own experiences around dealing with the dreaded work funk. We talk about how to consciously move through the times in our business when we struggle to feel motivated or creative and also how these challenging experience can help us become better business owners.
We chat about:
On this latest episode, we dive deep into Brand Archetypes. We share what Brand Archetypes are, how we used them and we discuss how knowing our brand archetype can help us focus our brand so we can connect more deeply and genuinely with our customers and clients.
We chat about:
The start of a new year can often come with mixed emotions. We may feel pressured to “start things off right” with a blank slate and new goals.
Or we may feel like we aren’t ready to move into the new year as we reprioritise rest, self-care and indulge in comfort foods. In this episode we explore a different perspective for beginning a new year; through embracing imperfection.
We chat about:
In this episode, we chat with Jo about her story and how she became a designer; how she made the shifts throughout her life and career towards design and why living consciously has helped her in this journey.
We chat about:
In this episode, we chat with Donají to learn more about her story, her daily rituals and ideal day look like, her unique insights and experiences around building a design business and all the wonderful things in her life that make her who she is.
We chat about:
An honest conversation around the high expectations that we set for ourselves and how we manage this to cultivate more ease in running our businesses. We share our experiences around over-attaching to goals and the mindset shifts that have helped them cultivate a healthier balance in setting a big vision and the expectations that go with it.
We chat about:
To effectively guide clients through my intuitive and strategy-led brand process, I developed a number of questions that I ask them. These questions bring clarity and intention into building their brand, so that everything is deeply aligned with their values, vision and their business goals.
When we look at intuition through the lens of building a brand, it’s about creating a human to human connection. Intuition is the innate ability that we have, as humans, to understand or know something without rational thinking. And it’s this emotional connection and response that communicates what your brand is, and what it isn’t.
Now, this doesn’t mean you focus only on making brand decisions based on how something feels. In my work as an intuition brand coach, I’ve found that the best branding outcomes happen when we explore both the strategic AND intuitive approaches.
When it comes to branding, these initial, intuitive perceptions can influence whether your customer chooses your brand over another. Integrating intuition into your branding process and brand discovery is necessary for ensuring that the final result resonates with your customers on an emotional level. The intuitive approach to the branding process and brand discovery allows your dream customers to feel understood and connected to your brand message. It creates a relationship that is honest, empathetic and built on trust - between your customer and what your brand stands for.
Intuitive branding considers how the emotional energy of a brand comes across as a first impression. By making your messaging and all the visual elements that make up your brand intentional and simple to understand, you will create a strong first impression. In other words, your customer won’t have to jump through a series of cognitive hoops before “getting” what it is that you stand for.
“If your audience doesn’t understand your position instantly in that first communication, you’ve lost them.”
~ Lee Hunt, brand strategist and thought-leader, in this interview with Billy Sobel
As humans, we are more likely to remember how an experience has affected us emotionally rather than the cognitive decisions and thoughts that came before it. Emotions have the ability to stay with us, long after the experience is over. For your customer, branding that has been intuitively conceptualised and designed has the ability to connect from an emotional place to be memorable and impactful.
Intuitive branding doesn’t have to be complicated. The goal, at the end of it, is to get your customer to understand what your brand stands for and how it can resonate with them.
My Chakra meditation and visualisation practice is one of my favourite mindful morning rituals. It helps me ground, focus and reset my energy for the day ahead. It is a practice that I have created, shaped over the years and has played a significant role in guiding me through building an intentional business and brand.
Every time I do this meditation, I feel more deeply connected to my purpose and vision; not just for my business but how everything integrates back into my life. The purpose of this meditation is to observe how each chakra point feels and the emotions and energy that arises. What is your body trying to tell you in each moment? And what insight or clarity can you glean from this?
A Chakra, derived from the Sanskrit word meaning wheel. It is an energy centre in your body that your prana or energetic life-force moves through. There are seven major Chakra centres in your body. Keeping them in flow, in alignment and open allows for your prana to flow freely, bringing vitality and a sense of connectedness, contentment and well-being.
For your meditation, seek a quiet space where you can sit in stillness without interruption (if only for a few minutes).
Close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths into your navel. Visualise your inhale breath moving from your Crown Chakra (top of your head) down through your body towards your Base Chakra (base of your spine). Exhale the breath through your Base Chakra and into the earth. Continue this breathing pattern until you feel centred and relaxed. Bring your awareness first to your Base Chakra and move up through each of your 7 Chakras towards your Crown Chakra.
Observe any emotions that arise and the energy it holds and become aware of any vibrational changes. You may like to visualise the colour relating to this Chakra.
How does the colour emanate from your Chakra in your mind’s eye? Is it a soft glow or is it fierce and burning? Is it hazy or is there clarity?
Soften into your emotions.
Do your feelings change in intensity or do they move to another part of your body? Follow it with a gentle curiosity. Does it feel light, expanded and open or does it feel contracted, closed and tight?
Even if it doesn’t feel like anything, sit with this numbness and lean into it. Perhaps you received a message from your higher self in the form of visual imagery, audio and other sensations too. Allow your senses to guide you intuitively. What is your intuition telling you? For example, if my Heart Chakra feels light and playful, then it means that I am experiencing the world with open-hearted, childlike curiosity.
Once you have meditated on all 7 Chakra points, bring your awareness to your entire body. Then bring your awareness to your energetic field which sits outside your body, and then into the room or space where you are.
To close the meditation, give gratitude for your practice.
So you have invested your hard-earned money and a good few months working solidly with a designer on a rebrand. You have wanted to do this for years but now that it's finally time to show your audience your fresh new look, you feel stuck or lost the next steps.
To help you move through this, in today's episode, Donají and I share their musings on what happens after a rebrand.
We chat about:
A series of small conversations with Emmie Rae from The Daily Rest and me. In today's video, we talk about the practice of playing with yin and yang in our work.
We cover the reasons why we, as business owners, may have a tendency to be in a state of yang energy - active, practical, cognitive and focused. Being aware of this and taking note when we are off balance.
This can be help us choose a more conscious response so that we can lean further into cultivating a relaxing, calming, introspective, sensitive yin energy when we are in "yang mode".
Balancing energetic states such as the high yang of summer and the slower yin of winter energy is something that you can learn to use as a foundational practice and guide for running your conscious business in flow so you don’t feel stressed or overwhelmed. It can also help you define what to prioritse versus what you can hold off on.
I believe that knowing how to intuitively move between the yin and the yang will ensure that you are able to create a sense of ease so you don’t ping between the two extremes.
In a previous blog post, I spoke about the importance of single-tasking. Single-tasking is so vital to how you go about your day. By choosing to focus on one task, we’re choosing to act with intention. And slowly, you will find yourself going about your tasks with clarity, gratitude and a calmer demeanour.
When I first chose to become a business owner as a self-confessed multi-passionate-new-project-starter, I struggled with trying to do #allthethings in my business.
However, I knew that life and business didn't need to feel like I had to grow five heads and eight arms in order to get everything I wanted done. My perspective and practice with consciousness and mindfulness played a huge role in guiding me towards doing business with grace, ease and intention.
This where single-tasking comes in. Something that surprised me when I choose to practise single tasking (in both my life and while running my design studio) was how I was able to let go of certain things. By going about my day with a sense of focus and commitment to single-task, I realised that I had developed a rather unhelpful habit of adding unnecessary stress and complexity. This was really coming from my desire for ultimate perfection (recovering perfectionist), greater "efficiency" and a fear of missing out.
However, when you try to do more than one thing at a time, it detracts your energy from focusing on the tasks that really matter. In a way, single-tasking is about creating a more minimalist lifestyle with more thought behind each action and decision.
Shifting from multi-tasking to single-tasking isn’t easy. Having worked with so many ambitious, business owners, I have seen how easy and comfortable it can be for my clients to subconsciously default back into multi-tasking mode. Especially because his habit has been so deeply ingrained in how we move about each day, something as simple as breakfast can be overrun by the urge to answer a work email whilst writing out content for our next Instagram post.
So, I’ve written down a list of thirteen tips for single-tasking that will serve as reminders to help you focus on one task at a time:
Single-tasking isn’t something that you’re going to be able to do overnight. After all, it’s so easy to let things we come across during the day get sucked up into the whirling hurricane of a chaotic to-do list.
By choosing to take a step when you are going about your day-to-day in your business, focusing on one thing at a time and letting go of the things draining you energetically, you will find that your day flows so much easier!
Donají and I talk about the key things that you need to take into consideration when it comes to nurturing your brand for sustainable growth.
Nurturing your brand is a little like cultivating a garden. It is a dedicated and consistent process that involves getting to know what will flourish and thrive, and what won't. Tune in as we share our tips for building a cohesive reputation for your brand.
We chat about:
Donají and I talk about the essential practice of rest and slowing down when it comes to working "in" our businesses.
We talk about our passion for building our businesses and the challenge of integrating self-care and life. We share the rituals that have helped us prioritise rest so that we can run energetically sustainable businesses.
We chat about:
In this episode, Donají and I talk about the essential design must-haves for your website. We delve into how to make your online home a memorable, easy to navigate and integrated experience for your audience.
Why is this important? Because having an online home that cultivates an honest connection with your audience builds trust and loyalty in your brand over time.
We chat about:
Donají and I deep dive into the topic of energy and how leveraging our natural, energetic cycles have been invaluable for flow, clarity and creativity.
Learn the steps for applying this to your own business as a guide for decision making, planning and organising your day without the burnout.
We chat about:
Donají and I dive into the four business decisions that we wished we did sooner or did differently.
We share our honest learnings and the steps we took to overcome these mistakes and the positive impact that these experiences had on our businesses.
We chat about:
Donají and I explore vulnerability and visibility when it comes to using social media for your business and brand.
We chat about establishing the right balance and holding intentional boundaries for sharing your thoughts, emotions and experiences with your audience.
We chat about:
Donají and I share our business essentials. These are the systems, structures and foundations pieces that have helped us build, nurture and grow our businesses over the years in a way that is energetically sustainable and has kept us deeply aligned to our vision.
We chat about:
Donají and I are talking all about shiny object syndrome, why it happens to the best of us and how to overcome it when it strikes.
We look at how to find focus when it comes to our long term projects, goals and the things we know will make a significant impact on our business.
We chat about:
In our first episode, Donají and I talk about what the Brand Journey Podcast means to us. We also deep dive into the intention we hold for the podcast as a resource for helping vision-led, conscious business owners nurture their brands and mindset for growth.
We got you covered! You can find us in the following platforms:
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Audible
How do you know whether the fear or uncertainty around a decision is because it is the wrong decision for you, versus whether it is something that will help you expand your comfort zone? How do you know whether it is coming from your head, your heart (intuition) or your instinct?
In this episode, Donají and I chat all about the role of listening to your intuition and the art of decision-making in your business.
We chat about:
Donají and I review the last 6 months and talk about the changes that we have made in our businesses and the key perspective shifts that have helped them nurture our business for growth.
This episode is a reminder to take time and space for reflection; for reviewing our vision, our goals and intentions, and all the lessons we have learned along the way.
We chat about:
Here are seven tools and resources that have helped me run my conscious design business & supercharge my workflow.
Over the last few years, I’ve tested out various tools as my design business has grown. These are tools that help add to the relationship between my clients and so, I want to introduce them to you.
These are ones that I have come back to time and time again. The key reason why I have chosen this list is because they have all helped me speed up and simplify my workflow so I could spend more time on serving my clients and growing my business.
I am a hugeeeee Webflow advocate. Why? Because it makes designing and bringing to life a memorable, creative, non-stock-standard site super easy. The platform is smooth to use and I love the flexibility that it offers both designers and business owners to turn heads with a wow-worthy online home.
Learn more about Webflow *Affiliate Link*
This lightweight application is fluid and a dream to use. Plus they have a free version too which is great for anyone who just wants to get things started! I use Figma as well as Adobe XD to design content for social media and as a tool for UI / UX design. It’s an all-in-one UX tool that makes design effortless and it’s free to boot. You’ll no doubt become a big fan just like I am when you get into nested components and the auto-layout feature and see just how quickly it makes the whole design process.
If you want to reduce the size of your JPEG files with minimal quality loss, this app will help you save so much time and space when it comes to uploading and editing.
Gone are the days of cheesy, corporate stock photos. Unsplash has a quality and range that is one of the best for royalty-free stock photography. Who said you needed to pay hundreds of dollars for good quality images?
One of the best tools to help further the skills of any illustrator is Procreate. The app is packed with features that make illustration for designers easy, enjoyable and efficient.
This platform helps me create stunning mockups that make presenting work to clients in context so much easier. I love the quality of their photos and the customizability of their mockups allows for differentiation. To make things easier to begin with, they offer 50 free mockups when you sign up for their mailing list.
Learn more about Mojo Studio *Affiliate Link*
A time saver for any brand or logo designer. This app helps package up logo files easily and quickly, creating the right folder structures and naming each file so that you don't have to! I use it for every logo project because it works and cuts hours from my design process.
Learn more about Logo Package Express *Affiliate Link*
Sometimes you can be bogged down by the sheer number of tools that are available. Through a *bit* (more like a loooot) of trial and error, the above six resources have helped me create an efficient and streamlined design process for my clients. As a result, these time-savers have given me more time and energy to spend on creating the best work for my clients and also work on scaling my design business.
Looking to make running a conscious business feel light, spacious, and simple? Have a look at these seven tools and resources for creative and conscious business owners.
In the last few years, I have spent many hours invested in finding the perfect workflow. Not only for myself, but to help my clients move through a coaching series or branding project with me in the most easeful way possible.
I quickly realised that the amount of time I spend working on myself is never just limited to client work. This is just a small fraction of where my energy flows. The rest of my time is spent on things like admin, invoicing, nurturing a small but growing team, making sure my terms and conditions are up to date, content creation etc!
And I'm sure that as a business owner, you also wear a bunch of different hats when running your business. So today, I want to share with you the tools and resources I use in my business that have helped me speed up my workflow and keep things running behind the scenes (even when I'm not in the office).
I recommend Squarespace for the majority of my clients. And with additional custom coding from Squarestylist, I have been able to implement truly unique website designs for my clients time and time again. Squarespace is intuitive to use so my design clients can feel confident that they can make simple tweaks and changes themselves without needing a developer.
For a deeply immersive website experience that breaks all the rules, Webflow is my personal favourite web design platform. Webflow has a much steeper learning curve than Squarespace, but it also allows a much higher degree of customisation.
As I started working with more and more clients, I needed an easy way for keeping track of invoicing, new potential clients and contracts. Dubsado is the one tool I use for invoicing and sending out my contracts. I have dedicated a number of joyful hours to setting up my Dubsado so that any new client forms are stored and trigger the right email responses so that booking a vision discovery call with me runs effortlessly in the background. Having automation in these areas makes the onboarding process so much easier and its something that my VA manages a large portion of now.
Want to get your start with Dubsado and save a bit of money?
Use this link to get 20% off on Dubsado. *Affiliate Link*
If Dubsado has a bunch of features that you may not need for your business, I think Calendly is a great streamlined alternative for scheduling meetings. By integrating it with Zoom, the client application form on my website has become fully automated. Although I no longer use Calendly since moving my onboarding systems over to Dubsado, my previous experience with it has always been positive so it comes highly recommended.
Flodesk is a platform that allows you to design emails with a more personal touch using a drag and drop approach. The thing I love about Flodesk is the quality of their templates and the ease of setting up workflows. The pricing for Flodesk at a set amount per month, irrespective of the number of subscribers. This worked out to be much cheaper for me versus staying with Mailchimp. Compared to other email design platforms, Flodesk has a smooth interface with a beautiful design that makes email automation super simple.
Get 50% off with this link for Flodesk *Affiliate Link*
Notion is undoubtedly one of the best platforms to make use of when running your business. It’s an all-in-one organisational note-taking system that has an incredible number of features and customizable options. You can use it as a planner, note-taking app, calendar or all of the above. I currently use Notion for tracking my goals and vision and collaborating with Donaji on planning and keeping track of our podcast episodes.
Get $10 off on Notion with this Link. *Affiliate Link*
Running your own business means you’re constantly bombarded on a daily basis with an ever-growing todo list. Todoist is my tool of choice and it helps me schedule my daily tasks. I love that I can tag my tasks based on the project, category, location or urgency. To supercharge Todoist, you can integrate it with your Google Calendar so your todos are automatically added as events.
Learn more about Todoist *Affiliate Link*
Planoly helps you manage and automatically post your Pinterest and Instagram posts. Pinterest and Instagram are two of the key social media apps that I use for my creative businesses so this app makes things so much easier because everything is in the one place. My VA uses Planoly for uploading the next images, scheduling and adding things like hashtags etc and I go in and write out the captions.
Learn more about Planoly *Affiliate Link*
When you’re running your own creative business, it can feel like you’re being bombarded by a mountainous list of to-dos that are never-ending. And getting super clear about what you need to focus on first, second and third and setting up strong foundations for an effective workflow can feel overwhelming.
It can be so easy for us to live life trying to control each outcome so that it falls perfectly inline with our goals and vision. Bringing awareness to the flow of our thoughts, emotions, and reactions, rather than forcing the desired result or outcome, can help us gain a deeper understanding of who we are and reduce the tendency for us to propagate negative self-talk.
Here are three steps to bringing greater awareness through your day and ending negative self-talk:
Every time you observe a thought, acknowledge its presence. Observation doesn't mean joining in on the conversations inside our heads. It just means taking a step back and looking at it from the outside, like a spectator without judgment.
With childlike curiosity, take notice of the emotions that may arise. You may find that your body will also react to these emotions. As an example, fear can feel like a dull ache in the pit of my stomach. It might take a different form for you.
Allow yourself a few moments to experience the feeling that you get from your thoughts. Many of us have the tendency to deny ourselves this. We instead suppress our emotions and bottle them up over time. Know that the feeling or thought is only temporary and it will pass with time. Know that in this moment, you are just where you need to be.
Letting your thoughts go is probably the most difficult step. We hold onto thoughts that no longer serve us or we set expectations about how we should be thinking instead.
Especially with regards to negative thoughts, we have the tendency to put them on repeat in our heads. This weighs us down and over time it can drown out the positive thoughts which can bring us joy.
The best way to deal with these thoughts is to let go of them with acceptance and refocus. By sitting with the thought, you can accept that this moment is what it is, letting go of trying to control it. When you do this, you’ll notice a lightness - as if you’re no longer burdened.
Refocus and redirect your energy towards the version of you that you want to be instead. What response or action would you take if you were this higher version of you?
This is a simple technique to help you live more mindfully day to day. And remember, it is only time and conscious practice that will help you release the cycle of negative self-talk.
It’s when the sky darkens and the hustle of the city slows down that the night ritual begins. An effective night ritual cultivates a grounded, calm energy and environment to prepare you for a good night’s sleep.
My own night ritual is something that has gone through a lot of change over the years. I think the reason for this is that my lifestyle has changed considerably. From working in a corporate office to moving overseas and becoming a student of Japanese to working for myself full-time at home.
I went through months where I tried to do too many rituals and it just left me feeling anything but grounded and calm before bed. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I also had long stints where I worked myself to the extremes, where I had felt so disconnected from myself that rituals were the last thing on my mind as I drifted off to sleep in bed with my laptop open.
I'm happy to report that the last few years have been rather uneventful when it comes to working late nights. I have made little positive habit shifts towards finding a night ritual that feels more sustainable, easy and balanced.
Today, I would love to share with you some of the things you can do to create a mindful night ritual. Mix and match from the following list, add in some of your favourite things to do, keep things simple and make it your own.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I love tea. My favourite tea to help me get ready for sleep is a blend of peppermint and camomile. Camomile is gentle and relaxing while peppermint is refreshing and soothing for the stomach and helps with digestion. Perhaps you might take a liking to only one of the above two teas. Or perhaps, a different blend altogether. I find that any warming tea that has lavender, camomile, fennel or turmeric can help us wind down and it will do wonders for your night routine.
An aroma diffuser can be the perfect addition to your night routine. Infusing essential oils during your night routine can be the perfect relaxation ritual. I love a blend like Aesop's Catherine oil blend; spicy, warm, and comforting. On the other hand, something as fresh fragrant of lavender or jasmine on a warm summer's evening can help set the mood. When it comes to candles, try a soy-based candle with a gentle, subtle fragrance. A personal favourite of mine is BlackMILK's candles - I love that these candles have a wooden wick, which recreates the crackling sound of a fire, adding a particularly satisfying backdrop to your evening.
As business owners, it can be difficult to switch off our thoughts at night. I tend to get a burst of energy, clarity and creativity in the evenings. This means that it can take me a while to feel like my mind is ready for sleep. This is why meditation or even chanting can be supportive to still the thoughts. Meditation can be practised in various ways. So experiment with different styles to find something that resonates with you. Spend a few minutes in quiet and stillness each night.
Try being mindfully observant of your thoughts, emotions and the environment around you. You can do this even when brushing your teeth, putting on your pyjamas or sipping your tea. Or try closing your eyes and sit in a comfortable position. Focus on your breath just for a few moments and find a sense of flow. Notice how deepening your breath can change how you feel in your body. Keep your eyes closed and listen to whatever arises without judgement to your thoughts.
Yoga helps bring fresh oxygen into our bodies and the below poses where the heart is lower than the head are good for releasing stress and tension. All while finding balance. You can relax by stretching in the child's pose, plow pose or shoulder stand. If you’re not sure of how to go about it, find helpful tips in our podcast episode all about rest. If you have the time, try a late-night yin yoga class or a Nidra (sleep) yoga class to stretch and release any tension from your muscles to prepare your body for deep rest.
Temperature is more important to sleep than you think. Personally, I like to reach straight for my hot water bottle on wintery nights. I like to place it on my bed to warm it up as I move about the house, getting ready for bed. The heat from this is so soothing and puts me straight to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. A warm wheat pillow with a few drops of lavender oil to enhance relaxation is also a great addition to this ritual.
Journalling is wonderful for emptying out all our thoughts and worries from the day that have been consuming our energy and attention. Think of it like a detox for your mind. Use it reflect on your day or to let go of any thoughts you are holding onto. I also love including a prompt for the three things I am grateful for in my journal entries - learn to notice the little things that may be so easy to miss during the busy-ness of your day. Try The Intuition Journal or see our Etsy shop for contemplative templates to help you wind down.
Diving into a book can help you release the worries of the day. I dedicate about 20 minutes each night to reading. I accept that I am a terribly slow reader so I often sit with a book for a long time before I finish it. For me, I love just savouring a good book.
I’m sure you have found yourself on one too many mindless scrolls before bed. Your device is not just a big distraction - the blue light emanating from it suppresses melatonin, a hormone that’s super important for sleep. It’s so easy to get carried away so I recommend making a conscious effort to switch off your devices before starting your night routine. I personally try to switch off my computer and my phone by 9.30 pm.
We can get dehydrated during the night as we lose moisture through sweat, so remember to hydrate your skin with a rich moisturising serum or oil. Find one that contains Vitamin E to help with skin repair. If you have the time, go the extra step and do a light face mask as well.
While I’ve included a few tips you can try and experiment with, remember that it really depends on what your body is telling you. Pick a few things from this list each night that you want to do and savour the time you have before you go to bed. A night routine isn’t just a night routine. It’s a dedicated practice in self-care. One that involves being mindful and intentional about how you end your day.
As an only child, I was happy to spend time alone - mindful, content and confident in my own skin. I loved books, drawing and just observing the world around me.
However, by the time I was in university, meeting new friends, going out to parties or dinners became my life and a priority. And I found myself spending the majority of my spare moments with friends.
We have a natural tendency to seek companionship, to share our time and the things we love with people. At that stage of my life, having a strong core group of friends made me feel better about myself. Not to digress, but it is important to have a solid network of people you can depend on to share your burdens, heartaches and challenges.
I remember becoming used to having this emotional support from the people around me - to cheer me on, pick me up and reassure me that everything was ok. This became the source of my confidence and I ended up craving this ego boost whenever I felt lonely. At that point in my life, it seemed so much easier to get this validation from others than it was to find it within myself. But when it comes to self-confidence, it shouldn’t be dependent on what other people’s opinions are of us. Being comfortable with ourselves needs to come from within.
Therefore, learning to spend time alone is important. It gives us time to reflect, sit with our feelings, tap into our intuition and rest. It also gives us time to do what we really want to do - such as our hobbies, cooking, going for walks, or going to a yoga class. Read my post on 50 Things To Do Alone for some creative ideas!
Here are a few tips I have learnt so far in my journey to become more comfortable in my own world:
Whenever you feel an unhealthy need to surround yourself with your friends, family or partner, take a step back and ask yourself why it is that you feel this. Are you reaching out because you need others propping you up to feel better? Or do you seek to connect and bring joy into their lives?
I wrote a blog post on Being Here Now, which is about dedicating time for yourself to sit in stillness. Whether you spend your time meditating or do other activities you enjoy, make the choice to spend time alone and love your own company.
A lot of times, we may feel that we need to provide companionship, support and help to those we love. However, it’s also important that we put ourselves first. Only when we devote time and energy to looking after ourselves can we have more to give others when they need us to be there.
Be inspired, invigorated and rejuvenated by doing things on your own. It could be sitting under a tree and reading for the afternoon, making a beautiful dinner, or taking yourself out to the movies! Go out and explore, experience and discover this for yourself! Find the things that you love doing and enjoy doing them with yourself for company.
No one understands us better than we do. So why should we constantly look outside, to others to get their perspectives on how we should live our lives? By prioritising ourselves, we strengthen our relationship with ourselves. Look to become your own cheering squad and stop the negative self-talk.
As a creative, I’ve always loved exploring different avenues. When I realized the need to spend more time alone, I took some time off and let go of the need to surround myself with people whenever I felt isolated. I balanced this with seeing my friends and family, but it now comes from a genuine desire to connect.
This isn’t something that’s going to be easy. In fact, it’s going to be something that you need to get used to. I’m not going to lie but there will be days where you feel the weight of loneliness. But know this - these feelings pass with time. For the most part, you will learn to be content to be on your own, independent and free.
In a previous blog post, Why you need to spend time alone, I wrote about the importance of finding confidence and joy within ourselves, rather than always depending on others to prop us up.
Finding ways to spend time with yourself isn’t as hard as you think it might be. As a coach, I find that there are so many ways to spend more meaningful time with yourself by putting your energy into things you love.
One of the tools I used to plan out my time alone that goes beautifully with this list these Etsy journaling templates - a bit of a choose your diary adventure if you will, full of worksheets, journal and planner sheets to help you get organised and plan for a more intuitive life. Have a feel for each item on the list. Whatever you end up doing for yourself, be sure to listen to how you feel and make sure it lights you up from the inside out.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by this list - don't! It's not about ticking everything off, but taking the time to find the things that bring you joy in your day. Even if it is just one simple 10 minute ritual or activity. Perhaps you will have found some new things to try from this list or discovered old hobbies you had forgotten.
I love the fact that there are so many uplifting, happy things that you can put your heart into during the mornings. So today, I thought I would write down a list of things that you can do to bring you more joy in the mornings.
Hopefully you will find a few things that resonate with you that you can start incorporating into your mornings too.
In the last few years, I’ve discovered the art of single-tasking. However, this wasn’t always the norm for me. Up until a few years ago, multi-tasking seemed like the most efficient way for me to juggle various tasks at the same time. I felt at my most productive when I was ticking things off my to-do list. It seemed to have a positive impact on my life, at work and I continued with it at home as well. While preparing dinner, I’d do my household chores while also doing all the other things that come with running a business.
Over time, multi-tasking became more than just a habit - it was a way I went about my day. It was rare for me to be single-tasked focused - doing only one thing at a time - like eating my breakfast without staring at the computer screen. By the end of the day, when I’d finally finished ticking off all my tasks in a chaotic scramble, I felt restless, anxious, and disconnected. It was a struggle to find calm as I moved throughout the day.
By doing various tasks at the same time, we no longer move through each moment with intention, but simply going through the motions. I believe that each intention holds energy (whether negative or positive). And by doing things without intent, without thought, without focus, we’re not giving this task our positive energy in order to truly experience the moment. As a result, we end up gliding along the surface of our experiences - failing to go deeper.
A few years ago, I decided that this needed to change. I created a little mindful challenge for myself in order to re-establish a habit - to be more single task-focused. Over the years, this is what I’ve learned about the art of single-tasking:
Throughout our day, it’s so common for us to become easily distracted - by other people and by our own thoughts. When you’re in multitasking mode, you’ll find yourself typically reacting to these distractions; obviously you’ll want to action these tasks immediately. Instead, what you should do is gently remind yourself to pause whenever a distraction comes along, connect back to the present moment, sit with your thoughts, and set your intentions on completing one task first. After a bit of practice, it’ll become simple and easy to do. While we accept that distractions will always continue to flood in, consciously choosing where to invest our energy makes all the difference.
By pouring positive energy into every little thing we do, we’re able to experience the moment holistically and with gratitude and intuition. Try applying this to even the simplest of tasks - whether it’s making a cup of tea or washing the dishes. You’ll find yourself feeling a lot calmer throughout the day. As a result, you’ll find that this aspect of single-tasking will help you appreciate the little things in your day so much more.
One of the reasons why many people multi-task is because they want to feel more productive. They want to control the situation because that’s what they think will give them the best result. However, you have to know that this is not feasible - after all, you’re only human. Perhaps you also have your own conscious business or are a busy creative and you just crave more space in your day.
So, give yourself space to do one task at a time - without the added pressure of having to do everything on your list. While you will still need to prioritize your tasks, you need to tune into your intuition more to do that. By understanding what feels right for you in the moment, you’ll be able to focus on the task at hand.
I’m sure a big distraction for you is when random ideas come to mind. Something you should do is write these ideas down once you complete the task you were doing. This means you can keep track of the things that inspire you throughout the day without worrying about forgetting them.
Try this for a day and see the zen and zing it brings into your life. Ever since I started single-tasking, I’ve felt a lot more calm, connected, and energized throughout the day.
A few years ago, I turned 30.
Turning 30 was one of many big changes going on in my life and I felt a strong pull to retreat so that I could spend some much-needed time for myself. It was a period of time where the energy was continuously shifting, where it felt like the ground was constantly moving, unstable beneath my feet. Energy shifts tend to come to us when we’re ready for change, for the next step, for something new to come into our lives. But not without its challenges. With this change begins emotional highs and lows that bring up resistance, discomfort, and unease.
Coming back to my story, I’d just turned 30 in that month of July. And for the first half of the month, I found myself coming to terms with this "pivotal point" in my life. To my surprise, there was so much fear that kept coming up - the fear that I had not achieved the things that thirty-year-olds "should" have done. Even though intuitively, I knew that I was on the right path, I still felt pressured to be part of these societal expectations.
I wanted to observe its presence without judgment. Which was why I spent the next 6 weeks dosing up on self-love and being so kind to myself. And gradually, with time, my discomfort simmered down. It felt similar to the aftermath of a downpour of rain. The glow of the sun slowly drying up the ground, revealing something better beyond the horizon. And I felt this little buzz of energy, of lightness, of expansiveness returning to me. Every time I feel moments where I’m experiencing energy shifts, Otherwise, I’ll end up tightening my grip on all the areas of my life, trying to control the outcome.
Up until thirty, I’d been afraid of these energy shifts. I’d choose to try and stop time by holding onto all the things in my life, being afraid to let go of them completely. And so, by choosing to listen closely to my intuition, I can focus on the act of letting go. By the act of mindful decluttering. The interesting thing is that once I started to release my hold, I realized that space - energetically, emotionally, and physically - was created to welcome in better things.
If we’re looking to let go of thoughts, habits, and clutter that no longer serve us, it’s best to work on creating space for something new. Here is how you can do with the help of intuition and mindful decluttering:
Spend a weekend going through your closet, removing the things that you no longer need in your life. The same goes for your office or workspace. Ensure that your desk is clean and organized - that any files or documents on your computer are stored away. A clean space is what you need.
Wherever possible, simplify things. As soon as things start to get complicated, take a step back and try to see things from a wider lens. It’s best to ask yourself what the intention would be for you to take a certain action. Even our decision making needs a bit of mindful decluttering. How is it that you can make a decision within the next thirty minutes to take action or let it go and move forward?
Something as simple as cleaning the house or even reorganizing our nuts, seeds, spices, and cooking powders will physically have helped clear out things we no longer use in the kitchen. Something I’ve found useful is identifying all the ingredients that need to be incorporated into my cooking more often, instead of having it stowed away in mason jars only to be later forgotten. See if you can identify spaces and items that you can make better use of.
Meditation practise is one of those things I try to incorporate into my daily mindful rituals. Adding onto this is journaling. By journaling, we grow more aware of our thoughts and feelings, and are able to move through the day with greater intention and lightness.
We need to ask ourselves - what areas of your life are we holding onto with a grip that’s too tight? What do you need to do in order to let go, to release and welcome in the new? Meditation and journaling are practises that can help guide us in this process.
As detailed in this post about single-tasking, being able to do one thing at a time without feeling the pull to do several other things, helps you go about the day with intention. Single-tasking, i.e. being focused on one task at a time helps create more space in terms of time during the day. Time moves slower, things appear to be calmer and you’ll find yourself enjoying even the boring chores on their own.
When you desire change, the process of transformation can feel never-ending. Or it can feel like you’re always just one step away from where you came from. We have to intuitively progress through this discomfort with patience and compassion. Typically, we’re always in a rush to escape discomfort. Sometimes, however, we try to force the process - to move us forward without learning the lessons that we really need to. And so, we inevitably manifest the same situation to happen again, as life tries to teach us the lesson again.
So take your time as it is never a race. Focus instead on moving through it slowly, gracefully, and be incredibly kind to yourself. You’ll notice that once you move past these energy shifts, you’ll find yourself on the other side - one where you’re finally experiencing lightness and the stir of butterflies in your stomach. I know I did. The most interesting thing is that you’re never really certain of what things will come into this space you’ve created. But, there is something beautifully humbling about taking a step into the unknown.
Since I was young, I have always looked at the world with so much curiosity and passion. I seemed to pour my heart completely into everything that piqued my curiosity. It was like an endless chase to attain greater understanding and new perspectives that kept me interested.
However, as my curiosity gradually seeped its way into all areas of my life, I often found myself smothered by my interests and hobbies. It was so easy for me to get trapped in the exploration stage of a hobby, only for me to move on to the next thing that caught my eye.
As a multi passionate creative, I spend my days delicately balancing my energy between all my interests and projects. For example, I absolutely love studying Japanese and learning about alternative health and doing my yoga as well as illustrating, designing, cooking and blogging. I guess I have always loved learning and the feeling from discovering something new just lights up my heart.
But, as a result of this, I feel a sense of guilt when I spend more time on some projects or hobbies than others. It is constantly a balance. And for the long list of unfinished projects and hobbies that I have pushed aside, I feel like I have failed them in a way. Multi Passionate creatives also feel the judgement of others as they try to understand why we can't just choose one thing and stick to it. And we curse ourselves for overcomplicating our lives with so many passions.
However, I have recently started embrace my multi passionate personality. For me, this intense curiosity about the world is something that I am so grateful for. I find that it is a source of inspiration which breathes new life to different ideas and ways of thinking.
We are constantly trying to make sense of connections, as we love viewing the world from a wider lens as well as zoomed up close. We seldom find ourselves "bored", and we truly embody the idea of living life to the fullest, as our plates are never empty!
But in order to move ourselves forwards with our projects, hobbies and interests, we sometimes need to take a step back.
As we head into spring, I am feeling like the energy that I have been cultivating during my months of self reflection, turning inwards and hibernating is finally propelling me forwards at lightning speed. I love this feeling, this expansiveness that brings so much hope, excitement and joy as I follow this energetic pull to start new again.
As I make my way down this new path that lies before me, I feel like I am also guided by a sense of ease and calmness. Unlike all the other times where I have dived head first into a variety of different projects at once, this time I am feeling like a part of me is standing strong on supporting my foundations. Its like this energetic excitement is balanced by stillness and a return to "simplicity". It is the gentle reminder in the background, telling me that it is ok to take things one at a time, to be ok with only having a few projects or hobbies on the go.
So, over the next few months, I am going to be focusing my energy onto strengthening my foundations so that I can fully channel my energy towards the projects and hobbies that I really love. For me, this means ensuring that all the projects, hobbies and interests that I do will be aligned with my highest self (in this case - my core desired feelings).
It will allow me to step up, to move forward a little each day on the projects and passions that I prioritise. And although, this may mean saying no to new projects that I really want to start in September for later, I know deep down that this will actually make things more sustainable, longer term.
One thing that has really helped me in the past has been writing down a list of 5 things I want to do each day (outside of work). These things may be related to your hobbies and projects, which is a great way to ensure that you are spending a little time each day devoting your energy to this.
In this exercise, I also ensure that I am creating this list with a connection to my intuition, really listening to what it is that I need to do for myself each day. For me, all my projects and passions are aligned to bringing out my core desired feelings which are connection, authenticity, intuition, passion and creativity.
This is not just a "to do" list but it is more about setting your intention for the day ahead.
I do this after I have my tea in the morning. Make your tasks realistic, enjoyable and aligned to bringing out more joy to your day.
Balance is about the yin and yang, the feminine and masculine, the flow of energy around you. Yet, many creatives might not consider the concept of balance in their lives. Many people live in black and white, swinging from one extreme to the other, always looking for a clear answer or solution so that they can move forward.
For instance, it felt normal for me to give 110% towards something, for weeks at a time. I would go through phases in my life - I stuck to my yoga routine, eating well, blogging and other commitments.
And then when I did realize I was feeling lonely, I went on to another extreme. Feeling I should never rely on friends, family or the external world to bring joy, I challenged myself to retreat from social outings and be alone.
I lived in this extreme state and punished myself with negative self-talk whenever I felt like wanting to connect with others. I told myself that surrounding myself with people was a distraction because I couldn't be completely happy with my own company. And that’s when it hit me. There is a balance to everything.
In the case of loneliness - there are times where we, as human beings, would feel the need to connect with others. This is natural and it doesn’t mean that we’re not happy by ourselves. It’s about living a life fulfilled.
Reflecting back, forcing away from spending time with people to prove a point was not the way to go about it. Once I recognized that this approach came from such an aggressive, forceful, controlling perspective, I felt a strong call to let it go. After all, being so controlling was not serving me.
Since then, I’ve been letting myself ease into my day with gentleness. With the acceptance that energetically, life will always be trying to establish a healthy balance. Sometimes, I need to ease into things at my own pace, to take my time and sit within my comfort zone. And there are other times where I need to feel energised, to push myself outside my comfort zone a little to experience something new.
When we look at things from a wider lens, we will come to understand that balance can also help us with decisions. Sometimes, we make decisions for ourselves that would lead to the best outcome at that moment.
But, in balance, we also need to consider a bigger, more longer-term perspective as well. And also, there is accepting the balance between the head and the heart to get to a place where both exist harmoniously! Because ultimately, life is all about cultivating balance, and it can be applied to so many different things. We’re always in constant ebb and flow, push and pull, giving and receiving.
A few years ago, I went through what can only be described as the most challenging year of my life. 2014 was a year where I was called to let go of all the things that I had been holding onto - emotionally, physically and mentally - so that I could grow and emerge a stronger person on the other side.
The year started with a relationship breakup in January. At the time, I was shattered by this. Not only was I deeply shocked and hurt, but I had been disappointed to start the new year in this way.
A lot of our energy is spent trying to make things go exactly how we want them to. So, we must release this control and desire for things to always go our way. This catalyst gave me permission to do exactly that.
It wasn’t easy. It first started with letting go of habits that no longer brought out the joy and lightness in me such as multi-tasking, saying yes to things because I felt obligated to, etc. I also let go of things that weren’t adding value to my life - physical objects and even relationships that were no longer bringing out the best in me.
Just because I’m an intuition coach doesn’t mean that I’m perfect at what I do. Even I can acknowledge that letting things go is a forever process and there’s still so much we’re constantly working on - whether it’s an emotional attachment to objects that aren’t bringing us joy or friendships that are taxing on us.
Whether you’re looking to let go, release, detach or declutter in any area of your life, here are 4 mindful lessons to letting things go:
Acknowledge that you will feel extreme emotions and accept that your feelings and perspective will change continuously through this process.
The process of accepting and grieving the end of my relationship and then moving on took a really long time. This act of letting go was one of the hardest things I have had to do as it took me on a seemingly, never-ending roller coaster ride of emotions.
Acknowledging this is necessary when we are in the process of growth. So sit with the discomfort, be observant without judgement and feel what you need to feel. Instead of keeping all your emotions buried below the surface, build the courage to release them so that you can move through it and grow even further.
Time will teach you that if the timing is right, the lesson will appear. At this point in time, we have all the necessary resources within us to take this lesson and grow from it. Surrender to the process without pushing, fighting against it or trying to control it.
Once you start to trust the process of letting things go - you will find yourself easing into it. Things became so easier and simpler when you aren’t trying to control your feelings. As you reflect, you might also become aware of the things you need to declutter from your life because it’ll feel heavy to keep holding onto these things.
Depending on the situation, detaching from people, experiences, things, memories and stories will take time. It can be a long process so it is important to be forgiving and gentle with yourself. When I came out of my relationship, my heart was closed off to the rest of the world for a long time. I was so fearful of opening up and being vulnerable that it also stifled my authentic voice.
If you’re scared to open your heart again, practise self-care and doing things you love. For me, I invested my energy into writing, drawing, creating, learning and connecting with friends. These things gave you a channel to express yourself authentically so you can gain back your inner confidence.
Sometimes we displace our emotional energy onto physical things. And then, we hold onto these things because of their sentimental value. As you begin decluttering, you’ll realize that sometimes having less is more. I know I did. When I moved into a small apartment, there was simply not enough space for a lot of the things that I owned.
So, I began hacking away at my pile of giveaway clothes and items until eventually getting rid of them from my life. When you declutter down to owning only the things you truly need - the things that bring you joy - the energy that emanates from your decluttered space will be refreshing and liberating.
Living in the big city means we aren’t too inclined towards outdoor activities. It’s much easier to spend time inside. Even with friends, we might just head on to a cafe for a chat. But it also means that we tend to neglect the outdoors. When I spend too long holed up inside, I begin to feel a strong pull towards connecting more with nature - to come out of hiding, to seek freedom, to feel grounded and alive.
I notice that I immediately feel refreshed and find a new awareness of the environment around me. I revel in this space that has an uplifting impact on my soul. It’s important to incorporate more opportunities to connect with nature. The screen can’t be your only source of connection.
Here are 12 ways to connect with nature
Grounding activities such as yoga (maybe select a thinner mat), running or hiking are great for helping us connect back with the earth! We are often separate from the ground we walk on, with every path we tread paved in cement, concrete or carpet. Rebalance this separation by spending a little time each day with your feet on the earth, sinking into the grass, or leaving behind footprints along a beach.
When going to and from work, running errands or doing your everyday chores, snap yourself out of autopilot and take a more scenic route. One of the things I love about staying at my partner's eco-house in the hills is the invigorating drive to work. I drive past the Ferntree forests, running creeks and farmsteads. Even though it takes me twice as long to commute to work, I feel on top of the world when I arrive.
This piece (pictured above) is something I created with shells and corals that had washed up on the shoreline as I went on a walk. While it wasn’t something I could keep, the process of foraging is so intriguing and has made me so much more appreciative of the things we can find in nature. Also, check out the below video of artist, Belinda Evans and her creative process. She is a Melbourne based artist who handmakes beautiful pieces all inspired and made from nature!
So many activities, meetups and playdates seem to take place in restaurants, bars, cafes, movie theatres, yoga studios, shopping centres etc. Let's flip this around and start suggesting activities where you meet your friends outdoors instead. Opt for picnics, walks in the park, berry picking and even camping trips. Incorporate Nature Into Your Travels: This was taken in Nikko, Japan during the start of Autumn. ( picture )
One of my favourite places to travel to is Japan. This place just displays a stunning balance between nature and the sprawling neon cities. For those that love the intense, swelling energy of buzzing cities, balance this by spending a few days retreating to a tiny cabin in the woods or even swinging up high from a treehouse!
Take the time to declutter your home of manmade medicinal products. Incorporate oils like lavender (to help you sleep), clove, calendula (to heal your skin), tea tree (for your acne) and coconut oil (so many uses) into your medicinal stash. Bring the outdoors inside: succulents at our home ( picture )
We have been busy decorating our home with lots of hardy succulents. Plants are a wonderful way to bring the outdoors inside. Bring greenery into your home - plants cleanse the energy of our homes and filter the air we breathe.
Dinacharya is a daily routine that respects your Ayurvedic dosha. To start, begin your night ritual when the sun sets and rise with the sun. Generations before us would have called it a day after sunset and their body clocks will have been much more aligned to the sun and the moon than ours are.
By surrounding ourselves with computers, mobile phones, etc, our natural body clocks are misaligned. This makes it more difficult for us to wind down each night. The additional challenge for this experiment is to spend one night without switching the lights on in the house after sunset, allowing your body to truly adjust to the night.
At the base of it, food is such a vital part of connecting with nature. See how you can incorporate more ways of connecting your food with nature. Perhaps, spend some time at a farmers market and explore the produce on offer. Add one new vegetable or fruit into your basket each week that you’ve never cooked with before.
If you are fortunate enough to have some space at home, why not grow your vegetables and herbs too? There’s nothing more rewarding than cooking with fresh organic ingredients you’ve taken the time and love to grow yourself. Even in the smallest of apartment balconies, you can grow herbs and veggies like rosemary, mint, dill, chives, sage, thyme and super red hot chillies. Don't have space at home? Research community gardens around your area instead.
In recent years, I’m become enchanted with how the natural cycle of the moon can affect our moods and emotions. Release the old at the full moon and create intentions for the new moon.
A simple walk takes only 10 minutes out of your day and can be quite a meditative experience. Enjoy the freedom of exploring, adventuring, meandering and wandering without the rush to get from A to B. Take the time to really experience the environment you’re in - notice the patterns on the bark of a tree, follow the Fibonacci sequence on a pine cone, smell the flowers, and soak it all in!
Adding to our earlier point about nourishing with whole foods, gardening is incredibly healing and can be so grounding for our base chakra. It allows us to connect deeply with nature by observing how plants are nurtured and grow with the environment they’re in. The beauty of slowing down and moving with what feels natural is such a poignant lesson that we can learn from watching seeds sprout into a plant.
Connecting with nature is so simple. This list is filled with 12 ways to connect with nature - some as short as taking a ten-minute walk to something as long-term as gardening. It’s something that you can slowly incorporate into your life.
As you get older, it can be so easy to forget the simple bliss that comes from experiencing the world through a childlike lens - full of gentle curiosity and wide-open wonder. When I reflect back on my childhood, I remember tea parties under lemon trees and darting through sprinklers in bursts of giggles and excitement. Of summer days spent foraging for insects amongst tropical ferns. Building fortresses made of sheets and pillows that became temporary hiding spots.
As we grow older, we come across instances that remind us of this younger self - this younger self that we’ve left behind. And how, somewhere along the way, we’ve had to learn to turn down the volume of our inner child. We’ve come to reluctantly accept that our inner child’s voice, desires and dreams have gradually faded away. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.
In doing so we will refuse to let our to-do lists, our jobs, our bitterness or cynicism shut down the joy of our experience of being in the moment. At the same time, she points out that bringing out our childlike selves doesn’t mean we should be childish, acting without maturity.
Reconnecting with our inner child can be such a healing, mindful and cathartic experience, awakening a sense of playfulness within. As an intuition coach who’s worked with many creatives constantly looking to reconnect with their inner child, I’ve developed a few questions that’ll help you do the same.
You can use these questions as journal prompts to explore your own connection with your inner child and see how you can bring them back into your life:
These questions exist not just to help you reconnect with your inner child. They exist to also help you understand how you’re living your day to day life. Life shouldn’t be a list of to-dos and goals that you’re setting out to achieve. It’s full of little moments that allow you to live life meaningfully and to the fullest. After all, don’t we encourage children to be children and embrace the bliss of play, nature, freedom and discovery? It doesn’t have to end just because we’re now adults.
Conscious living is the desire to simplify and declutter aspects of our lives (and ourselves) to give breathing space for where we want our energy to flow. However, we’re often limited by time and the ability to somehow do all that we want.
The potentiality of having 3 hours dedicated to just morning rituals sounds amazing. However, the majority of us don't always have the time to fit it all in before needing to scoot out the door. Not to mention days where we’re scrapping by in survival mode and running on empty?
You can begin with stripping everything back to its most essential - a concept we refer to as "bookending" our day. In other words, how do we begin the day and how do we complete our day consciously?
Even on these days you can still create rituals to begin and end your day beautifully by dedicating little conscious moments to yourself. Here are three prompts to create your own ritual to begin and end your day:
Before you begin your day, take a moment to reflect and sit in stillness before beginning the day. Like I explain in a blog post for creating mindful mornings, meditating as you connect with yourself to understand your emotions and feelings can be a beautiful way to reflect before starting the day.
If, perhaps, you do want to start your day with meditation, gently observe your breathing and the thoughts that flow in. Meditation allows you to still your thoughts and draw awareness back to where you are, how you’re feeling and connect with yourself for a few moments. It’s all about setting a conscious intention to begin your day and for years, I’ve started my day with meditation.
What emotions are you feeling at this moment? What do you need to release with a sigh because you’re holding onto things that give you pain and anxiety? And if you are feeling discomfort; where is it and how does it feel? Sink into connecting with yourself, however, you are in this space and time. Whatever activity you choose to begin and end your day with - choose to take that time to reflect on your state of mind.
Why not part-take in an activity that could serve you in the best way possible - whether it’s writing, decluttering, nourishing yourself with a homemade meal, having a good conversation with a friend, doing some gentle yoga stretches or connecting with nature. Morning rituals can be best customized according to how you like it once you ask yourself, “What is it that you truly need?”
Look into your overall well-being. Similarly, with your night ritual, there are a variety of activities to choose from to customize a calming way to end the day. Whether it’s drinking tea, moon salutations, reading or lighting a candle as you disconnect from technology, choosing how to end your night can be a mindful and reflective experience.
How do you complete the year with intention? What did you learn about yourself? How did it challenge you? What did you gain? And what did you give? Its time for a little reflection some end of year rituals! And how will you begin the next one?
Here are some essential practices for reflecting on a year that has passed - best done a week or so prior to the year end!
Light a few candles, burn some incense or clear your space with white sage. You could hold a crystal in your hand. Make this space comfortable, quiet and still - set the scene for how you want to close your year. Keep your journal or your Journal Sheet templates with you.
Spend a few minutes in quiet meditation and soak up the energy of this sacred time of the year.
Capture your thoughts in your journal or you could use your Meditation Journal Sheet from the Etsy journaling templates too for this exercise.
In your journal, write down each area of your life and your thoughts, feelings, experiences that moved you for this area.
It's a beautiful time for appreciating the completion and a beautiful time to set your intentions for the year ahead. These don’t have to be New Year resolutions, but simply an intention or energy that you wish to hold for the year ahead.
Write down a list of your goals for next year, whilst exploring exactly why your soul wants this for you. Does it make sense for your higher purpose and how much will it move your soul to lean towards this goal or intention.
What did you accomplish? What are you grateful for? What did you learn about yourself? How did your soul grow? How did it push you to sit with the uncomfortableness of it all? What were your biggest challenges and most amazing moments? What were the moments that made your year? What do you hold gratitude for?
What habits do you need to do less of in the following year? Release it all with love and grace. Accept that these habits, perspectives or ways of thinking has taken you so far. What do you need to do for yourself to heal from or release this? You may like to write this and then burn it to release the energy it holds. It is time for you to transcend from these experiences to something new.
In Japan, one of the rituals that is done before the end of the year is 大掃除 (osouji) which is a deep clean. The ritual of purification, cleansing and decluttering is a custom that many households partake in as a symbol of welcoming in the new. In Shintoism, the religion that is widely practiced in Japan, the priests perform a ritual called the susharai in December where dust is cleared and the shrines are purified for the year ahead.
So welcome in the new year with a little spot of decluttering, donating the things you no longer need, and cleaning. You could do this for your home, your work space and even computer as well. I love the feeling of starting the new year fresh, having filed my emails and documents into archives.
What are some mantras that you will hold for yourself in the year ahead? These are different to New Year Resolutions or goals in that they are defined by the way you intend to show up - how do you want to be?
During my brand discovery and strategy workshop, I developed a few questions to ask my branding clients - questions that will bring clarity and intention when building their brand. When we look at intuition through the lens of building a brand, it is about connection. Intuition is the innate ability that we have, as humans, to instantly understand or know something without rational thinking.
And this is how your brand will communicate most effectively.Now, this doesn’t mean you focus only on making brand decisions based on how something feels. In my work as an intuition coach and brand designer, I’ve found the best branding outcomes happen when both the strategic AND intuitive approaches are explored.
When it comes to branding, these intuitive, initial perceptions can influence whether your customer chooses your brand over another. Integrating intuition into your branding process and brand discovery is necessary for ensuring that the final result resonates with your customers on an emotional level.
The intuitive approach to the branding process and discovery allows your customer to feel understood and connected to your brand message. It creates a relationship that is honest, empathetic and built on trust - between your customer and what your brand stands for.
Intuitive branding considers how the emotional energy of a brand comes across as a first impression. By making your messaging and all the visual elements that make up your brand intentional and simple to understand, you will create a strong first impression. In other words, your customer won’t have to jump through a series of cognitive hoops before “getting” what it is that you stand for.
“If your audience doesn’t understand your position instantly in that first communication, you’ve lost them.”
~ Lee Hunt, brand strategist and thought-leader, in this interview with Billy Sobel
As humans, we are more likely to remember how an experience has affected us emotionally rather than the cognitive decisions and thoughts that came before it. Emotions have the ability to stay with us, long after the experience is over. For your customer, branding that has been intuitively conceptualised and designed has the ability to connect from an emotional place to be memorable and impactful.
Building trust and a genuine connection are so important when working with a client or a customer. It’s why creating a first impression that is an honest and true depiction of who you are is so important because it creates a lasting emotional memory for your dream client or customer.
They’re honestly so simple and are the reason why I’ve been able to build strong working relationships and conscious interactions to create a better final result and experience.
Here are three things that will be helpful for any creative business offering a service that will wow your dream client or customer:
When your dream client sends you an email or DM wanting to work together, don’t send an automated response back. Instead, put some thought behind this and send them a warm greeting to say Hi. By doing so, you are creating another point of connection. Sometimes, it can be intimidating for people to reach out, so help people feel comfortable about reaching out.
I use Calendly, which allows me to add a few questions and upload a file (such as an Intro packet) onto my meeting invite. Calendly also automatically creates a Zoom room so my client knows where to go for our chat.
I ask a few more questions at this stage to help set the scene for our first meeting so my clients will know roughly what we will chat about. Make sure to edit all the text, where possible, replacing it with your own copy so it sounds like ‘you’ and not an automated response.
Instead of jumping into solution mode, spend more time trying to understand exactly what it is that your client needs help with. Seek to understand your client’s biggest challenges, intentions and goals. And instead of prescribing a solution from your offerings or services, think about what would be best for this client - this is so incredibly valuable. Use your intuition here and practice the quiet art of listening.
Ask questions to delve further when you feel there is more the client wants to say. Sometimes, people need a gentle nudge and a little encouragement for them to feel comfortable speaking up and saying more. In some cases, I have even recommended other designers to potential clients if I feel like they would get a better outcome. Reserve the urge to take jus job, just because it is available. Trust that the right client and the right job will always have a way of finding you.
It’s so important to apply the following principle to create balance in your business, work and life. To create vitality, balance, abundance and flow, focus on bringing one of these three areas (spiritual, emotional and physical) into greater harmony (whilst still allowing for the ebb and flow) and alignment.
As a brand designer and intuition coach, I have been applying this theory for energetic alignment in:
According to Ayurveda, to create vitality in your life, the spiritual, physical and emotional aspects should be in alignment and harmony. This has been foundational in helping me navigate tricky business decisions and allowed me to create more space to be in a state of flow. This isn’t just helpful for other designers but also for conscious entrepreneurs, coaches and creatives as well.
This is also true for your business. So let’s define the 3 aspects you want to balance when running your conscious business:
Choose one area to work with today. Clarify and define the following:⠀
As someone who spends the majority of my time working at home, I found that I needed to infuse various mini tasks and activities which I could do at home in between work breaks. Of course, getting out of the house and into nature would also be a highly rejuvenating practice to do during a work break, but for the purpose of this post, I'm going to focus on the things that we can around the house!
Here are 12 conscious things you can do at home:
A series of small conversations with Emmie Rae from The Daily Rest and me. In today's video, we talk about how to manage being self-employed as an over-achieving Generator and the role that human design has in our approach to work and running a business.
We talk about saying yes to the things that intuitively resonates deeply with your highest self, how to prioritise all the projects and ideas that you want to explore.
A series of small conversations with Emmie Rae from The Daily Rest and me. In today's video, we talk about moving effectively through seasons of hard work and creativity (Summer and Spring) and seasons for rest and completion(Autumn and Winter).
We delve into the importance of being disciplined when it comes to your rest practice, where you lean into slowness and space for your intuition to land. And when it comes to those Summer seasons where you find yourself working longer and with greater focus and creativity, it is equally important to make time to cool the heat of this summer energy.
A series of small conversations with Emmie Rae from The Daily Rest and me. In today's video, we talk about creating a space to play in that feels creatively exciting, interesting and special for you.
We delve into how to use our fear in a way that is constructive and as a guide for continually moving forward in the right direction. And allowing ourselves the space to play, create and approach our business and work from a place of gentle curiosity rather than chasing hard and fast results.
A series of small conversations with Emmie Rae from The Daily Rest and me. In today's video, we talk about how to navigate the over-saturated space of online marketing and social media ‘hacks’. We chat about the importance of knowing what truly works for you and allowing yourself to let everything else go.
A series of small conversations with Emmie Rae from The Daily Rest and me. In today's video, we talk about how to deal with the fear of putting yourself out there, particularly on social media.
We cover the importance and role of fear in growth and expansion and how to tell if it’s a genuine fear (to keep you safe) or an ego-based fear. We also delve into the need to take stock of the fear so that you can understand where it is coming from and the micro-steps that you can do to move forwards.
I have been doing a loooot of work to level up my business behind-the-scenes recently. I have been intentionally focusing my time and energy on content creation, testing out a sustainable marketing strategy that aligns with my values and improving my client process and experience.
And because life and work can feel a little busy and hectic sometimes, I wanted to share a recent snapshot of how I have been spending my days and hours. The reason I wanted to share this with you today is because I'm really happy with the flow, focus and effectiveness that I am able to cultivate in my work days - much of this, I believe, is due to how I have been planning my work day.
Because it creates a consistent foundation for connection, establishes your brand and offers value and support for your clients/customers.
Content creation and an aligned marketing strategy is important because:
Creating one piece of content that uplifts or provides value & share your learning with your community.
Your client and customer experience is important because:
Implementing one change in your current client or customer process that improves the experience makes it more memorable & positive.
You business and life flows in a natural seasonal cycle. This is based on your energetic cycle in your body. Depending on what rhythm or cycle you are more sensitive to, will denote the season that you are currently in.
The seasons in your business are the same as you would see in nature and take on similar characteristics:
This is the season for you to shine. The work that you do will naturally have a momentum and pull towards high intensity activities like writing, content creation, collaborations, meetings and facilitating workshops, launching or implementing a project.
Like an autumn harvest, this season is about receiving. You will be reaping the rewards from your hard work in summer, finishing a project, doing admin & invoicing, asking for testimonials, celebrating and reviewing how you are going in your business.
Winter allows for space to reflection and decision making. The quieter energy of winter is perfect for research, reading, slowing down and prioritizing rest and renewal.
You will feel the craving to begin new projects, create new connections, up-skill and learn. Planning, creating strategies, idealization and conceptualization will happen naturally during this time.
Intuitively, tune in and see if you can tap into the season that your energy is currently in and begin to apply this to how you work. Additional resources for this topic that I really loved are : Kate Northrup who writes about using the menstrual cycle for work, Ezzie Spencer for lunar cycles and I am Sahara Rose for the Ayurvedic approach.
As Simon Sinek says, “Start with Why”. This is foundational for your brand and business because it:
In other words: Your why is your purpose. It is the passion, motivation and drive that gets you out of bed each morning, ready to move your business one step closer to your vision.
When you are in alignment with your why, you will feel a sense of clarity and focus because everything you do will have stemmed from this. Your why is determined by your core values. Define your values and you have your why. But many brands don’t actually know what their why is. Or how to find it.
When we make decisions in our business or in our lives, we may choose to follow our:
Instinct and intuition are terms that are often used interchangeably, but there is actually a distinct difference between the two. Your instinct is a gut reaction which shows up when you feel like your basic needs are not met, in order to protect you and keep your safe.
In contrast, your intuition is a gentle nudge of inner knowing that helps you move closer to your higher self through growth and alignment.⠀
As long as your basic needs are met; follow your intuition so that it helps to set the direction for where you want to go. And then, consult your cognitive brain to help you plan how you will get there.
Do you have a hard time hitting the desk running, so to speak, on any given work day? Try following some of these strategies to jump-start your work mornings and make yourself more productive and engaged from the get-go.
Now, of course, we won't always have ideal days - sometimes work life can get a bit messy. But its ok - keep tracking how you go. Work with a coach to stay accountable and work on shifting your mindset (as required). Try different approaches as you go along. Apply what you can based on your own life and how you work
When was the last time you felt like you were working from a state of flow and ease in your business? Recently, I have been delving into learning more about the flow state because I am on a bit of a mission to create more consciousness in how I run my business.
The flow state or being "in the zone" is your optimal state of consciousness. As intentional business owners, getting into a state of flow can positively impact how you run your conscious business and manage your energy. For me, I would find myself in a state of flow when doing something creative like design, branding, coaching or concept creation. Working within this state of flow has been proven (based on research from McKinsey) to increase productivity by up to 500%.
Match what you are skilled at with something that feels challenging. This allows you to focus in on that particular task whilst also feeling confident that you can complete it.
Practice or build your skill or expertise so you feel competent & confident doing it. Example: Get better speaking in front of a camera by practicing on Insta-stories.
Apply your skill or expertise to a task or project. Example: Create my first Youtube video of me speaking.
Adjust the difficulty by setting a goal for the project so that it feels challenging but achievable. Example: Create a 20-minute video tutorial on something that I am comfortable speaking on.