Random Inspiration Archives | Page 5 of 6

Make Your Life a Work of Art

That new and sudden realization that you can change your life in an instant with one decision becomes clear. Maybe it's saying yes to spending time with new friends or saying yes to being invited on a trip, even if you feel anxious about leaving your comfort zone. It's that sense of realizing that you can take risks and be the orchestrator of your life in a big way for the first time. And the best part about realizing this at that age, is that you're not scared. There's a feeling of invincibility, as if the decisions don't really matter, which is both true and false.

By Christine Mattschei| February 26th, 2012|Categories: Manifesting, Random Inspiration|Tags: Life a Work of Art, Life Art|5 Comments

Is Perfectionism Getting in Your Way?

I am definitely a perfectionist. I've been a perfectionist all my life, although I never really thought about that label much until recently--until I started considering how much it can get in the way. For me it can show up as the desire to write the perfect article, complete the perfect project, handle a sticky situation flawlessly, look as best as I can when I go out, or take the perfect picture. I am happy to say, that perfectionism has never ultimately kept me from doing what I want to do. I have found a way to break through each time I've been caught in that state of non-doing, because I've been afraid of failure. This is so important, because each time I break through, I am telling myself that not doing whatever I want to do perfectly is not the end of the world. And failure is only how I define it. In some ways, perfectionism has been a good strategy for me. It means that I don't settle for less very easily, so I usually end up pretty happy with my results. But there's a down side too. It means that I can be hard on myself. And that I often wonder if I could have done even better. But maybe worst of all is the realization that being a perfectionist can actually make everything worse!!! Isn't that horrible? To think that you are putting in all this perfectionistic effort, even when it means being hard on yourself, and instead of getting the perfect outcome, it may actually be sub-par? Worse than what it would be if you hadn't tried so hard at all??? The first time I heard that, my reaction was--Seriously? No! But then I started reading and learning more about perfectionism, and now I believe this is true! Having high standards can get us closer to perfection, but there is definitely a line that can be crossed where these thoughts and behaviors lead to dangerously perfect and are not serving us.

By Christine Mattschei| December 6th, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: Perfectionism|2 Comments

Sensual Strawberry Mindfulness Tool

I found a Mindfulness Tool I really love and want to share it with you! This will help if you find yourself consumed by your thoughts and worries to the point where you don't enjoy the immediate experience of your being. This will help you if you're running through your day feeling emotions come up and pushing them down and away, because there's just no time for them. If you find yourself making judgments about yourself, other people, or your experiences all the time like, "I'm too fat, I'm too thin, if only I could change that one thing about myself, this room is too hot, this movie is boring," you may actually be creating an unpleasant emotional state such as anxiety, depression, anger, or a desire for unrealistic perfection.

By Christine Mattschei| November 29th, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: mindfulness|Comments Off

Easy Tool to Combat Fear

One of my strongest tools for dealing with fear and nipping it in the bud is compassion. The reason it works so well, is because it takes the focus off of the self, the ego, and places it on sharing love and kindness with others. I gave it some thought to see if compassion could combat all fears, and found that it is more relevant for some than others. For instance, compassion is probably not going to help you get over a fear of roller coasters or heights, but it can help you get over a fear tarantulas!

By Christine Mattschei| September 13th, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: Compassion, Fear|1 Comment

How to Overcome a Fear of Needles

Are you so afraid of needles that you dread getting blood work done or trying acupuncture? I decided about one year ago that I needed to overcome my aversion to needles! I used to feel powerless and like a victim, when I would go to get blood work done. I would make a big deal to whomever was inserting the needle about how scared I was. The strange thing is, even though the person drawing the blood would be extremely nice and understanding, the experience was always awful. I later found that slightly mean, efficient- looking blood drawers drew blood more painlessly and quickly. Could there be a connection? Why We Stay Scared and Stuck

By Christine Mattschei| July 13th, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: fear of needles, needles|Comments Off

How to Forgive Yourself

It's very difficult to manifest change and create new beginnings, if you're not forgiving yourself. If you don't have what you want in your life, ask yourself: Where are you not forgiving yourself? If you're feeling guilty about something and not forgiving yourself, you are probably holding onto "toxic guilt." 2 Types of Toxic Guilt There are 2 ways you can experience toxic guilt: 1) One way is feeling like a bad person, because of something specific you did--and you're carrying around feelings of guilt about this action with you every day. Maybe you don't believe you deserve to be happy or have all the things you want in life, because you feel this kind of guilt. 2) There's also another motivation for guilt that doesn't really have anything to do with being "bad." It's more about not being "good enough." If you're a perfectionist, you know what I'm talking about here. This kind of guilt is about wishing you had only tried harder or known better, so you could have suceeded rather than failed. Either way, all kinds of guilt are about beating ourselves up. So why do we do this?

By Christine Mattschei| June 21st, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: forgive yourself, forgiveness, self-forgiveness|Comments Off

What is Mindfulness?

Defining Mindfulness If you've ever wondered exactly what mindfulness is, you've come to the right place. First, let me start with a basic dictionary definition. Mindfulness is defined by Webster's dictionary as: bearing in mind, aware, inclined to be aware and by the Oxford English dictionary as: a state or quality of being mindful, attention and also intention, purpose It is the underlying theme of all the areas that I practice and coach clients on for self-improvement and healing. It is how I approach my own life. What Mindfulness Is to Me To go one step further I'll explain what mindfulness means to me personally. For me, it is simply being aware in the present moment. It sounds very simple and basic, but this really applies to so many things! When you practice mindfulness in your daily life, you are completely in touch with what is happening in the present. Because time is relative, you may find that the true experience of mindfulness is not just a sense of the present moment, but a sense of no time or all time. It is a state of being connected to a deeper truth where no illusion is present.

By Christine Mattschei| April 8th, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: Buddhism, mindfulness|3 Comments

How to Unclench When You’re Feeling Stressed

How do you know if you're "clenched"? Well if you're clenched, your body feels tense. There's a tightness in your stomach and shoulders. You are busy, busy, busy--focusing on getting things done or maybe even avoiding your feelings. These two tend to go together. We avoid feeling our emotions by staying busy. The problem with this is that not only are you avoiding your feelings, but clenching also creates internal conflict. The reason is that one part of you feels the right thing to do is stay busy and focus on "getting things done", while another part of you is really upset with this strategy. Another part of you just wants a break, just wants to relax, and just wants to feel whatever it is you are trying to avoid! This is more than just a bad coping strategy. Extreme forms of clenching actually involve your brain "locking up" in negative cycles. It's very possible that this is even happening to the average person in less extreme situations in an attempt to avoid feeling uncomfortable emotions

By Christine Mattschei| February 25th, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: stress, Unclench|Comments Off

4 Ways to Cultivate Mindfulness

A new study by researchers Killingsworth and Gilbert at Harvard suggests what many human beings have known for thousands of years--mindfulness is the key to happiness! It turns out that it isn't what you're doing that determines your state of happiness--it's whether your mind is wandering or not. This makes a lot of sense. Happiness is not based on your external environment and what you're doing. It is based on your internal state, and a focused mind is a happy mind. The study by Killingsworth and Gilbert followed 2,250 volunteers at random intervals to look for correlations between what they were doing in the moment and how happy they were feeling. They found that people were happiest when having sex, exercising, or talking with others. All of these activities focus the mind on the present moment and keep it from wandering. They also found that people spend almost half of their waking hours (between 30 and 46.9% of the time) having thoughts that have nothing to do with what is happening in the present moment. Mind wandering during this time was found to be correlated with unhappiness It turns out that it isn't what you're doing that determines your state of happiness--it's whether your mind is wandering or not. This makes a lot of sense. Happiness is not based on your external environment and what you're doing. It is based on your internal state, and a focused mind is a happy mind.

By Christine Mattschei| December 28th, 2010|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: mindfulness|Comments Off

How to Communicate With Yourself

If you start to pay attention to your own internal dialogue, you will start to notice patterns emerge. You may find that you have different "parts" within yourself reacting to a given situation, and they can even be in conflict. Some examples are your masculine versus feminine side, your doing versus being side, your inner optimist versus your inner pessimist, your heart versus your mind, etc. They could even be parts of other people incoporated into your self such as a parent or your inner child. Since there is more than one way/perspective to look at things, it is inevitable that you will experience inner conflict at some point between two sides or perspectives within you. I've noticed that communication that takes place inside of you can often mirror the way you communicate with a real person in the same situation.

By Christine Mattschei| December 15th, 2010|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: communication|Comments Off