Before You Begin
Before you begin: let’s take a few deep, grounding breaths. Place one hand on your heart and the other on your stomach, close your eyes, breathe in deep, hold, direct your awareness to your heart, and release. Repeat until you feel centered and relaxed.
Welcome to the RE SELF Mindset workshop. As the first workshop in the Mind series, this workshop will guide you to reclaim your mind as a tool that works for you rather than against you. To help you get comfortable, in the right space (mentally and physically), and get the most out of this experience, here are some tips to make it most impactful:
Be Open
No matter what current mindset you bring to this workshop, the important thing is that you feel inspired to evolve your mindset enough to utilize this experience. Embrace those feelings by remaining open to the process, even when things get difficult or uncomfortable.
Choose a Suitable Environment
Where you do the workshop is equally as important as to how you do the workshop. Pick a physical space that is comfortable, safe, and calming. Make sure you won’t be interrupted, distracted, or disturbed. Maybe this means doing the workshop on your computer instead of your phone, silencing notifications, and placing your phone out of sight so you are not tempted. Set whatever necessary boundaries for yourself, with yourself and others to create an environment for you to center within.
Create Your RE SELF Ritual
This is time for you, with you. Make it a ritual. Your state of mind and environment will help you get into the mode each time you sit down to do a lesson. Add whatever else will help your center and be at ease to support your ritual. Maybe it’s lighting some candles, creating a dim environment, using essential oils, or having plants or crystals around you. All of these elements are intentional actions that have meaning and purpose. Now all you need to do is create consistency to truly make it a ritual. Consistency is key; consistency is medicine.
Increase Impact with Discipline
Discipline empowers your ability to show up for yourself, keep your commitment to yourself, and continually take action in the direction you want to move. Discipline empowers you to do what needs to be done, even when it’s difficult or you lack motivation, which inevitably happens. Discipline empowers balance and freedom.
Whether you consider yourself a planner or spontaneous, creating a schedule will help you keep your commitment to yourself. Maybe you want to do a lesson a day, maybe you want to do one lesson a week to give yourself space and time to digest the lesson and see what you notice in your life - whatever it is, create a schedule. Put it in your calendar and set reminders or alerts.
You may need to adjust your schedule - life happens, be open and flexible. If for some reason you miss your scheduled day, reschedule, make sure you have a plan to keep going. The important thing is that, once you establish a stride, no matter how small, you stick to it. Part of caring for and respecting ourselves is keeping commitments that we make to ourselves. Every lesson is a chance to show up for yourself. Every completed lesson demonstrates to yourself that you can depend on yourself and you are committed to creating and living your life in your own authentic image.
If you have a tough day, pause and consider whether working in the workshop will help you. Sometimes it can be too much, other times, the workshop is a great way to reconnect with the promise of the present and your ability to create change in your life at any given moment. Use this experience to strengthen your ability to hear and honour your inner guidance and needs, while understanding which days call for more discipline and which days call for more rest. If one day you are thinking about not keeping your commitment, ask yourself, “is 30 minutes too much for me to give to myself for my well-being and evolution? Is there really anything more important than that?”
Actively Engage with the Lessons
There are seven lessons in the workshop. Each lesson builds on the last, so do them sequentially and of course, do all that is included in each lesson:
Read the quote. Let it resonate with you. If it speaks to you, write it down.
RE LEARN grounds each lesson in knowledge and wisdom about the topic at hand. Listen to the audio and/or read the material, maybe jot down points you want to remember.
REFLECT personalizes the material to your unique circumstances. Consider and answer the questions honestly and thoroughly.
RE DO integrates each lesson through a different practice to put it into action in real life, outside the platform. Listen to the audio and/or read about the practice in RE/DO and do the practice. Write down the practices you find helpful so that you can utilize them as you see fit.
Write it Down
Writing is an integral part of your work in the workshop. It’s well documented that writing things down by hand versus typing establishes better memory. Using a physical notebook enhances the ritual and integration into your physical being and way of life (as opposed to the digital world). Keep a notebook handy to write down anything that inspires and resonates with you, that you want to dive deeper into and revisit at another time. By writing in a notebook, you can realign to the perspectives and practices that empower your well-being and evolution as needed, outside of and after the workshop. This is a powerful thing. Writing it down, all of it, is a powerful thing.
If you really prefer digital, try recording yourself talking through your REFLECT answers. If that’s not comfortable for you and you prefer to write digital notes, go ahead. It is not recommended to just think through your REFLECT answers. Remember, the more actively you engage with the material and workshop elements, the more ingrained and integrated it is with you and your way of life.
Some of your reflections may bring up heavier things that are difficult to revisit or write down. You may be hesitant to write on these topics and feel as if you are solidifying them by writing them down. When you write about difficult things, you actually get them out of your head and find release. When you give difficult emotions, beliefs, experiences, or patterns of behavior words and get them out of your head and put them on the page, you come face to face with them in a more objective way (not granted by just thinking about or trying to avoid them). What was once entangled inside of you, is disempowered by expressing it outside of you. Seeing the words on the page can empower you to know and choose the way to change instead of carrying the weight of difficult things inside. Challenge yourself to express these heavier things as equally as you do those lighter things. Know that it will benefit you far more than the momentary discomfort of writing it down or the longer pain of it remaining tangled inside. Honour what you need during and after those moments, maybe it’s some extra deep breathing, calling a trusted loved one, or even getting support from a professional. Do what you need to be gentle and loving with yourself and these tender areas. When you write things down you can reference them - the uncomfortable and the empowering - all as teachers. You can see how far you've come, because, with consistency, you will transcend your difficulties only by facing them.
And remember: your work in the workshop is what makes change happen. You can do this! You've done the hardest part - you've begun.
Your Mind // Mindset Workshop Introduction
Our mind is made up of many different elements and influenced by many different functions of our brain. We are constantly interpreting and filtering experiences through our own unique point of view. Our state of mind consists of our emotional and mental state at a particular time. Our mindset consists of our thoughts, beliefs, ideas, established outlook and attitudes we hold about ourselves, life, reality, etc., both conscious and unconscious, that accumulated over the course of time. Our mindset influences not only how we experience our lives, but also how we show up and live our lives; our state of mind and mindset are fundamental to our being, our lives, and our experiences.
Until now, you may have never paused to objectively consider what state your mind is in or what mindset you currently hold. Except, perhaps, you've noticed how your mindset tends to make you feel, negatively and positively, and impacts your life, negatively and positively. Thus, depending on our mindset, it can produce a garden of flowers from our thoughts or it can produce a bed of weeds. Neuroscience research shows that the majority of our thoughts are both repetitive and generated by the subconscious. On average, we have about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day - according to a study, on average, 80% are negative, and 95% are exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before. (See footnote 1) In addition, it is estimated that 95% of our decisions are the result of our subconscious. (See footnote 2) The subconscious can consist of habits, memories, learned knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, and past experiences, to name a few. So what does that mean for our mindset?
First, it means that cultivating our mindset begins with consciousness, meaning in this case, awareness. Honing objective awareness of our thoughts, beliefs, and patterns of behavior generates useful information that we can then use to redirect and cultivate our thoughts, beliefs, and patterns of behavior in the direction we want to go, using them to help us get there (rather than keeping us from there). In order to determine whether we are planting flowers or weeds with our thoughts, we have to be aware of what these thoughts, beliefs, etc. are that dominate how we think, speak, and act. We grow aware of our thoughts, watching them, by training ourselves as an observer. Objective observation, as opposed to being caught up in our repetitive thoughts, results from bringing awareness to our thoughts, feelings, decisions, actions, beliefs, and patterns of behavior, allowing us to act from an aware and empowered place. With awareness, we can observe, question, challenge, and shift our mindset by discerning what keeps our mindset open (which we will hold on to and cultivate more of) and what creates a closed mindset (which keeps us stuck and so we will let go of it).
Second, it requires us to be utterly compassionate and honest with ourselves. Compassion and honesty help us to avoid creating a dictator in our minds or misleading ourselves in our quest to better understand ourselves, our actions, and the world around us. Being objective in our observations, helps us refrain from judgment, which gets in our way and causes us to be closed-minded. Accepting ourselves in entirety, all of our experiences, patterns of behaviors, beliefs, positive and negative, relieves us to be more understanding and compassionate and thus, more open, objective, and flexible. We wouldn't be who we are today without all that and who we are today, as we are, is who we want to befriend. By befriending our present self, starting with this essential element - our mind and mindset, we can work with it, rather than against it. In turn, this will shift how we show up and how we treat others more compassionately and kindly because we are being more compassionate, kind, and understanding with ourselves.
Cultivating a practice of awareness, starting with our mindset, will have profound effects on our personal evolution and well-being. Feeding that which opens us up, positively impacts the way we think, speak, act, behave, and, in turn, positively impacts our present moment and future. By making our mindset and state of mind a garden, we befriend ourselves and our mind and inner world becomes a sanctuary, as opposed to a place we may have once feared.
Most of us weren’t taught how to do this or why it’s an important part of our development as beings. As we developed and matured, we accumulated ideas, beliefs, and patterns of behavior that helped us do the best we could with what knowledge we had. But now, we are going to dive into our depths and nurture what is necessary for us to heal and continue to evolve. It is a process; one that has no end because our potential has no end. It is never too late, no matter how fixed or permanent things seem. As we go deeper within, we reach the more subtle levels from which these old perspectives stem from. This is nothing to fear or shy away from because it is through this inquiry that we will bring new understanding and perspectives for our continuing evolution and well-being. At our subtle level, we simply exist, as a whole. To understand and embody our wholeness, we are zooming in on an essential dimension of our whole self - our mind. As we continue zooming in, we direct our attention to our mindset, to assume our active understanding and ownership of this dimension of our wholeness. From here, everything else is malleable, including our perception of ourselves, others, the world, and life. As we align with our depth and awareness, we gain deeper perspective, fulfillment, and meaning that empowers change within and throughout ourselves and our lives. This workshop will guide you through this process, with reflections and practices that support you living and thriving in this state.
We've just touched the surface of how much mindset impacts everything in our entire being and lives. We have the power to build a garden of flowers with our mindset. With this workshop, you’ll be planting flowers and doing some weeding while exploring your mindset in depth with the following lessons:
Thinking: Understand the impact and inner workings behind your thoughts to empower your active role in shaping your mind
Awareness: Reposition yourself in the seat of awareness - the fundamental step to shift your thinking, mindset, and experience
Overthinking: Overthinking, fear, and worry distort your mindset and experience; learn how to overcome these tendencies in your thinking and experiences
Thoughts & Words: The words you speak become the house you live in - learn how to make it beautiful, intentional, and authentic
Open Mind: Openness allows you to flow with and access all of the limitless possibilities of life; it begins in your mind - discover just how open you can be as you cultivate and strengthen your open mind
Optimism: Understand the essential role optimism plays in your mindset and how it can profoundly shift your experience and life
Nurturing the Garden: Learn how to continually nourish your mindset throughout the day to stay on your path, empower your well-being, and evolve
You will learn how to cultivate a balanced, open mindset through consistent reflection and practice. Consistency here is key. You are your greatest asset. Your potential is unlimited. Your thinking is also a limit and obstacle to overcome. This workshop will empower you to overcome your obstacles and embody your unlimited potential at the subtle level of your mind by planting flowers with your thoughts and balancing your mind with your heart, logic with intuition, to work together. Slowly, there will be a melting away of all that keeps you from truly knowing yourself, your wholeness, and life itself. All that antagonizes you in this way can be released; this journey of personal well-being and evolution begins by evolving your mindset. You're on the path. Happy travels!
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Footnotes
1. Antanaityte, Neringa. Mind Matters: How To Effortlessly Have More Positive Thoughts. Tlex Institute. https://tlexinstitute.com/how-to-effortlessly-have-more-positive-thoughts/.
2. From Love to Voting: Who Really Decides, You or Your Brain? CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/my-brain-made-me-do-it-who-decides#:~:text=According%20to%20Eagleman%2C%2095%20per,free%20will%20out%20the%20window.&text=Even%20the%20researchers%20found%20the,strongly%20prepared%20by%20brain%20activity.
To see how your mindset shifts from the workshop, take this quick Pre-Workshop assessment.
Once you access the full workshop and complete it, you will take another assessment and be able to compare the answers.
