Award-winning salon owner Caroline Sanderson heads up the Salon Jedi Coaching Academy, and is author of a new book, ‘The Ultimate Business Bible for Ambitious Salon Owners’ available on Amazon.
The past year has been extremely detrimental for the hair industry, affecting the livelihood of all salon professionals. During all uncertain times it is so important to look after our minds and internal worlds. How we think and feel affects us more than most are aware of.
If you live in stress and fear, you’re constantly releasing hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline to the body. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, blood pressure and boosts energy supplies to get you ready for ‘fight or flight’. Cortisol decreases functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. This breaks down your immune system, which leads to health issues such as anxiety and depression; you name it. When living in a state of constant fear and uncertainty, you’re creating an environment for these conditions to grow and develop. If you don’t take the time out to connect to your consciousness by doing things like meditating to lift your vibration, you’ll end up ‘reacting’ to situations in life instead of ‘responding’ to them in a calm and controlled manner.
I have created daily empowering habits through my simple M.a.g.i.c Mind tools that have now been shared with hundreds of salons and teams who are benefiting and reaping the rewards through these challenging times.
Use these practises daily to reduce stress and add happy hormones to your body for improved health and a mental state of calmness.
M – Meditation
Think of meditation as a reset. It can be likened to when you take your car to get serviced so it runs at optimum level; we need to look after ourselves in the same way. Petrol gets the car from A to B, just as food gives us our fuel, but meditation provides the “service” that we need. It calms our internal world and quietens the noise in our heads. When meditating, we are reducing stress by putting our minds into a state of calmness, healing and self-awareness. When practised as a daily exercise, the benefits are transformative.
There are so many guided meditation apps available such as Headspace as well as on YouTube, for example Jason Stevenson. Meditations can range from 5 minutes to an hour, so there is no excuse not to fit this into your daily routine.
A – Affirmations
The inner dialogue we have with ourselves affects our results to scenarios alongside our outlook on life. Are you empowering or disempowering yourself in your mental narrative? For example, “I can’t do this”, “this is impossible” etc. creates a fixed negative mind-set that will keep you locked within a low vibration of energy that can’t seem to notice available solutions. Using positive empowering affirmations sends a message to the brain and your operating system to behave in a positive way. You attract what you believe, so repeating affirmations such as “I am more than capable”, “I can do this” and “I am strong” attracts positive outcomes for challenging situations you may find yourself in.
Use these daily questions as part of your M.a.g.i.c Mind tools:
– How can I fix this?
– Who can help me?
– What’s the best and fastest solution to this?
G – Gratitude
When we are in a state of gratitude for everything we have, we are viewing life from a loving perspective. Love is the highest vibration we can feel, and feeling gratitude connects us to our heart. In being in this state we release ‘happy’ hormones to the body and present ourselves to situations in a positive manner. No matter what is going on in the world, there are always things to be grateful for, big or small.
I “Innercise”
‘Innercise’ is the exercising of our inner worlds to create mental strength, much like how exercise strengthens our physical body. A breathing technique I love to use comes from my mentor John Assaraf (from the film The Secret).
He calls this “take 6”:
– Breath deeply into your tummy for 6 seconds.
– Hold.
– Release for 6 seconds like you are breathing out through a straw.
I regularly use this throughout my day to maintain an inner calm and get back to base with myself.
C – Create
Being a conscious creator means we are aware that we have a part to play in what shows up in our life. What we give our focus to we invite more of into our daily experiences, so to create more of what we want in life, we need to give focus to that.
When we focus on the problem, we can’t see the solution, but when we focus on the solution, we open our minds to being active in resolution. We all have challenges that come up in our lives; our journey is never going to be perfect. We have great times and low times but the key is understanding that we CAN help ourselves by connecting with our inner worlds more and practising the simple tools that will change our mind-set when faced with an issue to overcome.
These 5 steps can be done everyday and don’t need to take up much time. For example, on waking, do a 5-minute meditation instead of checking your phone. When hopping into the shower, complete your daily affirmations to yourself and continue them throughout your day. In your mind, when on your daily walk, or making your lunch, think of the things you are grateful for and in the evening you can journal them before going to sleep. Finish with a visualisation of your life and the positive things you want to attract. See yourself happy, doing the things you love and feel it as much as you can. Embodying these positive visualisations is key to shifting your internal thoughts to your external world.
For free access to more details on M.a.g.i.c Mind Tools see the free Facebook group link below:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/magicmindchallenge
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