Healthcare Niche
We’ve all had times in our lives when we feel like we’ve hit a brick wall. I’m sure I have. Every effort we make to get off the ground is greeted with opposition. One by one, doors slam shut in our faces. These challenges can be disheartening, and for good reason: they appear to be so unfair. Regardless of how helpless you feel as a victim of circumstance, the solution does not rest in guilt or victimhood. It’s inside of you!
For years, I’ve worked as a business coach and public speaker. I’ve experimented with a variety of techniques, practices, and modalities over that time. These have included everything from brain scans and dawn meditation retreats to one-on-one sessions with very costly business mentors.
Aligning your energies is one activity that may appear “out there” on the surface. It’s all too easy to reject this kind of thing as a bunch of hippy crap, and even if we are open to it, we may feel as if it’s a luxury we simply don’t have time for. But what if harmonizing and revitalizing your energies gave you more time, clarity, and energy?
You’ll be amazed at what comes through for you if you unlock the door of your belief systems and leave it unlocked, as I tell my clients. I’m not talking about flinging it open and taking anything that comes your way. Just don’t get in the way with cynicism and denial, I’m saying.
Related: Workplace Wellness: 9 Ways for Employees to Stay Healthy
Contents
Don’t be the path of most resistance for the universe!
I understand that connecting the dots between esoteric practices and bottom-line results can be difficult. You’re probably more concerned with practical techniques that will provide you a competitive advantage as a businessperson.
The problem is that if you’re not aligned with the outcomes you want for your company, you’ll be at the mercy of all types of subconscious conditioning that dictates what happens behind the scenes. This means you’re probably not aware of all the ways you’re sabotaging your own efforts. You’ll understand what I mean if you’ve ever shied away from a situation/opportunity/person because you felt ill-equipped to cope with it or were terrified of coming across as a phony, as I have.
Consider this: how do you feel about someone like that when you’re the one who encounters them? Are you more likely or less likely to assist them? If someone puts on a show of “I don’t believe in myself,” you’re more likely to dismiss their request for assistance as a waste of time. It’s in our nature. When someone shows that they have the desire, enthusiasm, talent, and willingness to learn, you will go to great lengths to help them.
It’s all too easy to become complacent once we’ve grown our company to the point where we’re making a decent living. The will to succeed beyond our immediate needs can start to weaken. If this is you, I want to emphasize the importance of not attaching shame or guilt. It’s entirely normal for you to be in this situation. But now that you’re aware of it, it’s up to you to decide what to do next.
You don’t have to believe in “out there” stuff to realize that your mood has an impact on your day and the outcomes you observe. If you go into a meeting grumpy, you’ll be short with others. If you do that, they will be hesitant to share ideas for fear of provoking your fury, limiting the meeting’s productivity.
Related: 4 Life-Changing Benefits of Drinking More Water
Your energy impacts others and how they relate to you
With that in mind, here are three simple things you can do to shift your energy in a positive direction and start seeing tangible results in your business. No, you don’t have to believe in esotericism to use them.
1. Smile
Yes, I’m sorry. I know this will be the most difficult for some of you to summon the energy for. Holding an engine block above my head for two hours seemed like less effort than cracking a smile when I was at my lowest ebb. Nonetheless, this has a big impact on your vitality and even your physiology!
Try smiling the next time you’re having a bad day or feeling tired. If you’re ashamed, go somewhere else, but make the broadest grin you can and notice the difference in your energy right away. It’s profound, and I promise you’ll notice tremendous increases in what you get back if you practice it on a regular basis. You’ll feel less anxious, more energized, and more productive as a result of this treatment.
2. Be kind in your mind
Wentworth Miller, the star of Prison Break, said something similar in an interview a while back, and it really stuck with me. He’d had a lot of trouble with mental health concerns and despair. Learning to speak to himself with compassion and care, as if he were speaking to a friend or loved one, was an important component of his healing.
Self-love is a difficult concept for many of us to grasp. When we make a mistake or create an unsatisfactory result, our initial instinct is to chastise ourselves. ‘We’ll say stuff like that,’ we’ll say “You moron! “You’ll never succeed,” “You’re not good enough,” “Why did you do that?” “and so on. Why do we subject ourselves to this? That’s something you’d never say to another person (at least, I hope you wouldn’t).
When those thoughts arise, attempt to rebut them with what you would say to someone else, as Miller suggested. Tell yourself it’s all right and that you’re doing your best in good faith and with the best intentions. Give yourself a pep talk and be kind to yourself. Life is difficult enough without having to be cruel to yourself on top of it.
3. Breathe before you react
Isn’t it true that we’re not very good at this? Because we spend the most of our working days sitting, we tend to slouch and breathe shallowly. This is bad for oxygenating our bodies, and we lack energy as a result (along with a diet of simple, processed foods).
I do recommend, though, that you practice deep breathing throughout the day, just as you should smile. This will need a little more skill and practice than smiling, so I recommend finding some guided breathwork to help you out. Stick with it. It takes a lot of time and determination to develop habits like this. Another advantage of controlling your breathing before making a decision or reacting to anything is that you’ll be more likely to act rationally. You’ll prevent more instances of self-sabotage if you’re more objective and less prone to ego/emotionally-driven behaviors.
There are innumerable additional methods to delve deeper into this, but if you can master these three techniques first (which is more difficult than it appears), your productivity will skyrocket.