Written by: Serene Shereef, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." ‒ Victor Frankl
As a mindfulness & productivity life coach, I have seen the power of mindfulness and habits as the foundation to maximize our productivity. Let’s explore three mindfulness habits that will 10X your daily productivity.
One of the biggest struggles in our lives now is the busy-ness that we experience daily, the whirlwind of stress and chaos that our daily routines can often feel like from the moment that we wake up, rushing to get our morning routines done, get kids to school, get to work, getting all of our work done and then hurrying back home to get through our evening routines, and then somehow making it to bed completely exhausted, and feeling most often overwhelmed and burnt out. So how do we reclaim our day?
These are 3 key habitual routines, based on mindfulness principles that can help you create your intentional & productive day.
1. Create your mindful morning routine
Wake up 5 minutes earlier than your usual time and add the following steps to create your mindful morning routine.
Connect to gratitude What are you grateful for that day?
Connect to yourself Use words of self-love and self-compassion to support yourself “I am enough.” “I did an amazing job with this project.” “I'm cheering for me.” “I believe in me, I can figure this out.”
Connect to your breath and body Take 3 deep breaths, standing and stretching with your entire body, feeling the breath flow through your body and setting your intention for the day, whatever that might be.
Play with it a little bit. This is the space that we get to explore what feels true for us? What feels authentically just who we are. And consider, what would it be like if you woke up just five minutes early and connected to gratitude, practiced self-love and self-compassion and set an intention for the day that allows you to stay focused on what you want to achieve that day.
And throughout the day. I want you to just check in with yourself. Are you connected and conscious of your intention for the day? Are you showing up truly present and working from your zone of genius? I'm excited for you to try this. This is truly a game changer. 2. Create your mindful pause for the day.
Most of the time we are just running throughout the day, trying to get everything done. When was the last time that you intentionally created a pause in your day? Just so you can spend a few minutes bringing mindfulness to where you are, bringing acceptance and curiosity to your experience in the moment, bringing awareness to your habitual patterns of thinking and being aka the things that you believe and do without even being aware of it.
The goal of creating a mindful pause is to strengthen our mental fitness and build a habit of managing our mind. Just like you do strength training reps for your physical fitness, we can do mental reps to strengthen our mind and connect to our wiser self, our Sage inner wisdom. This habit is based on Shirzad Chamine’s work on Positive Intelligence and these reps are PQ reps. You can refer to his book for further details on the science and psychology behind building mental fitness. PQ reps are an incredible tool to not just build mindfulness in your day, but to really help you intentionally connect to your creativity and innate wisdom, contentment in the moment, building awareness and insights in your life experiences.
Positive intelligence aka PQ reps can be done by shifting our focus to our body and connecting to any of our five senses for 10 seconds [~3 breaths]. And that counts as one rep. The ideal is to do 5 minutes of PQ reps, three times a day. One of the easiest ways to build consistency for a new habit, is to connect it to something that you already do on a routine basis. So for instance, I do my PQ reps right before my meal-times [breakfast, lunch, dinner]. An additional advantage in doing PQ reps around mealtimes is it automatically creates a deeper connection and mindfulness while eating. Take a look at your life and think about what are things that you already y do in your day, and how can you create your mindful pause connected to these moments?
And I typically close my mindful pause with some loving kindness for myself, for a friend or a family member or a community member, sending thoughts of love, kindness, acceptance and gratitude. These are all ways that we rewire our brain to stop the stress and chaos that it's used to. That was our old habit. As we rewire our brain and create these new habits, what you're going to notice is the impact on your day, not just the stress level, but your responses in the moment to the unexpected. When things are stressful, as it invariably happens in all of our lives, our brain reminds us, “You know what to do”. You know how to create your pause and be present in that pause to decide what you want to do next, with intention and deep connection.
3. Create your mindful evening ritual
This is an opportunity to create a five-minute ritual at the end of your evening as you're unwinding and getting ready for bed.
Mindful breathing Take three deep breaths. With each inhalation, remind yourself “I'm breathing in calm, peace, and tranquility.” You can add any emotion here that you would like to experience. And as you exhale, remind yourself “I am letting go of frustration, discomfort, and worry.” Again adding any emotion that you are ready to let go of.
Mindful journaling Journaling is a great way to connect to your subconscious deeper self and explore some of your thoughts and feelings for the day. I am frequently surprised by the things that come up when I ask myself questions and allow my brain to provide the answers on paper. Questions to explore: “What were my wins for today? What was my favorite part? What am I grateful for today?” “What were my challenges for today? What did I struggle with? What did I need help with?” “What is the one thing that I want to focus on for tomorrow? What would be my intention for tomorrow?”
And as you wrap up your evening ritual and finish your journaling, letting your thoughts flow through from pen to paper, allow your mind to quiet down into stillness, connected to yourself, and relaxing into sleep.
I hope that this has been helpful in exploring how 5 minutes of intentional connection and specifically designed habitual routines can help you create your mindful day. So what are some habits that resonated for you? Today I just shared a few. There are so many ways to build mindfulness into our everyday life, including mindful walking, mindful eating, mindful laundry, mindful cooking, mindful time with your family, etc. Mindfulness is not a separate task that you need to add to your to-do list. It can be sprinkled into your everyday routine, creating that mindful pause for a moment of reflection, doing PQ reps to build your mental fitness, to build your connection, strength and resilience, to reclaim all of the lost moments where we used to spend time ruminating over the past and worrying about the future, to truly maximize your time in this moment. And if there's anything that I can do to help you with your time and productivity needs, connect with me on social media. I'm happy to support you.
If you are ready to take it even deeper and really apply this to your life, if you're tired of being stuck in the same place every day, having the same problems, not understanding or not knowing how to create that change, that I invite you to schedule a free discovery call with me. So we can explore what this means to your unique set of needs. If you're ready to take your life to the next level, then I invite you to explore this because the truth is nothing changes if nothing changes!
Serene Shereef, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Serene Shereef is a general & trauma surgeon and a mindfulness & productivity certified life coach. After struggling with severe burnout and hitting rock bottom, she used the energy of mindfulness with the scientific principles of habit building and created systems of productivity to reclaim her life. She now uses this unique powerful framework to help other professional women struggling with burnout and overwhelm to take control of their time, mind & energy. She has created an integrated mindfulness and productivity program that builds clarity on your life’s passion and purpose and uses individualized systematic tools to take control of your life so that you have time for everything that is important to you. Her goal is to help you do less and live more, embracing the joy of living your best life.
