Podcast Episode 8 Show Notes- 36 Tips To Upgrade Your Life Pt2

(Listen to the full episode here)

Welcome back to the Eternal Crown Lifestyle Podcast! Last episode I began to share with you my 36 tips to help you upgrade your life. We were only able to get through the first 10, so I’m back to share with you 10 more. These are tips that will help improve your mental, physical and spiritual strength when applied. Ok enough with the introduction, it’s time to get back to the tips!

Tip number 11 is very very simple and is to drink more water. It is weird for me to admit this , but growing up I did not like the taste of water at all. I believe that my high soda consumption and all the sugars they contained had a lot to do with this. I would drink almost anything else besides water; soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks and milk were my choices. You must be drinking more water and ditching the sugary beverages. Now I almost exclusively drink water with a little bit of flavoring added to it. Look, our bodies are made up of primarily water and water is crucial for proper health and functionality. You can go several days without eating food, but you will only survive around 3 days without water.

This next tip may surprise you, but this is tip number 12. Take a bath, enjoy a nice soak in a warm bath. When was the last time you just enjoyed a nice long soak in the bathtub, instead of rushing to get cleaned up quickly in the shower? Getting in a nice hot bath will allow you to calm down, relax and give yourself some much needed peace time. The great thing is you can do some of the other tips at the same time while enjoying your soak. You can practice using your imagination to meditate, visualize or create things. You can read if you are careful with the book and don’t drop it in the water. It’s a great time to rest your overly active mind, that is constantly trying to figure out solutions to problems or putting together to-do lists. It is a great time to practice gratitude and recognize all the blessings you have in your life. If you are a believer in God like I am, then this is the perfect place to pray and talk with God. There are so many great things you can do while taking a bath if you will just slow down and give yourself time to rest properly. It is just a great tool to help you slow down your life and to recover from all that is going on around you.

Tip 13 is to get 8-10 hours of sleep. You need more sleep! Most people are really lacking in good quality sleep time. I know what you may be saying right now, you don’t know my schedule or what time I have to be up every day. You are right and to execute this tip it may require you to make some sacrifices. You may have to start going to bed earlier than what you are used to. This may mean turning off the TV or giving up some of your other late night habits to ensure you get enough hours in your bed. It will however be completely worth it! If you focus on getting 8-10 hours of sleep, your body will thank you for it and you will feel so much better. If you can make this a priority you will notice a huge difference. If this is just not possible, because of your schedule then at least make it a priority on the 1 or 2 days where your schedule allows it. If you are off on the weekends, then sleep in longer. Even if you are able to just get a couple days of 8 or more hours of sleep you will benefit. Also make sure you are getting quality sleep too. At least 2hrs before bed turn off all your screens and avoid exposure to fluorescent lighting. You can use yellow or red lights to help with this at night. There are many more sleep tips and I will probably do an entire episode dedicated to this topic in the future.

The next tip number 14 actually assists tips number 13 and it is to start sleeping in a dark room. Turn off all distractions and this means most certainly do not leave the TV on while you are sleeping. I know a lot of people do this and believe it helps them, but this is not a good idea. You will get much better and deeper sleep without the sights and sounds of the TV in your bedroom. If your room has a lot of light coming in from outside or from electronic devices, you need to make an effort to cover those up. You can get black out curtains for your windows to ensure no light is getting in from outside. For your technological devices you can turn them off, which is the best option or you can simply cover their lights with tape or something else to block it out. The darker the room the easier it will be to get to sleep and the better quality that sleep will be.

Our next tip, number 15 is to meditate on a regular basis. Meditation work is really great for your mind and body. Just sit quietly for 5-10 minutes or longer and breathe intentionally. This is a great time to focus on your thoughts and to think about what you are thinking about. We talked about this in a previous episode before, but your thoughts are powerful. This time can be used to clear out the negative and destructive thoughts and to replace them with positive ones. You can practice thankfulness and gratitude during meditation too.

This leads right into the 16th tip, which is to practice breath work. Nasal breathing has a lot of benefits for both mind and body, which is why it is so often paired with meditation practices. There are all types of breath techniques for different situations that you can look up and learn about, but my favorite is called box breathing. Box breathing is when you inhale, exhale and pause for the same amount of time. For example a 4 by 4 box breath is as follows: 4 second inhale, 4 second pause, 4 second exhale, 4 second pause and then repeat. That is a simple way to get started, but there are lots of other variations of nasal breathing you can learn by just doing an internet search on the topic.

On to the next tip, number 17. This tip is to start journaling. I have been journaling pretty consistently since 2012 and it has been really great for me. There are a lot of different ways you can journal. You can do more of a diary style where you write about the events that are actually taking place in your life and in the world around you. You can also journal your thoughts and feelings about what is going on or what you have been experiencing. You can write out and journal your prayers or dreams. You can do more abstract journaling techniques too like poems, drawings, and other creative expressions. Journaling can really be a powerful tool that will help with mental health. One thing I love about journaling is you can see patterns and progressions in your life. I enjoy going back to journal entries from the current day, but different years to see what was occurring at that time or what my thoughts were. An example of this would be, since today when I’m recording this podcast it is the 27th of June. Now I would get journals from several previous years 2019, 2016, etc and look to see if there are any entries that I wrote on June 27th. If there are, I read them and see how things were different at that time as compared to now. What kinds of events were occurring in my life and what were my thoughts like. It reveals to me if I’m progressing in specific areas of my life and also keeps me aware of patterns that have developed. Like if around the same time every year I start focusing on and writing about a specific topic that puts me in a negative place. If I’m aware of it I can be more proactive to ensure I don’t allow it to continue to happen year after year by fully addressing the case behind it. Journaling is a great tool for expanding your creativity and if you are a believer in God then this is also a great way to learn to hear His voice for yourself. You can ask and receive answers which is extremely powerful and if you want me to go into more detail on this you can use the contact form to reach out and I’ll teach you more about how to do this yourself.

Tip 18 is to create yourself a vision board. You have probably seen these before. It is where people cut out pictures and words from magazines that represent things they want to see achieved or obtained in their lives. The items represent their goals and dreams in visual form., They take a big poster board and attach these images and words to them in a collage. This is another activity that strengthens your imagination and creativity. It also helps you to begin visualizing the future and what you are believing for. This allows you to create a focus for your life that is in a positive direction and keeps you on track. You place this board somewhere that every day you will see and look at it. While looking at it you meditate and think about why you want to achieve these things and what it will feel like when you actually do. It will help you keep your eyes fixed on the long term future, while helping you develop motivation to do what is necessary in the short term to get there. A lot of these tips work together to help you achieve and fulfill your dreams.

So of course the next tip number 19 is to set goals. You need to set goals that are both short term and long term focused. The goals you set need to be specific, measurable, actionable, and timed goals. Specifically, I want to eliminate 15 lbs of ft as opposed to in general I want to lose weight. You must be able to measure the goal and determine if it was achieved. Also you need to set a deadline for reaching your goal, this will allow you to build a game plan for reaching the goal and gives you a target to aim for. When running a race, having a finish line marked out is very important. This lets you know where you are on the track in relation to the end goal. Once you have a goal that is specific, measurable, and has a deadline then you need to develop actionable steps to achieve the goal. These are daily actions that when done consistently will get you to your long term goal. Don’t forget to write down your goal, deadline, and action steps, because those that write out their goals are far more likely to achieve them than those who do not.

Ok we have reached tip number 20 and I love this one so much! Tip 20 is to make a gratitude list. When was the last time you just sat down and really took time to think about everything you are thankful for? It is so easy to do! Just get a sheet of paper or your journal and just start listing them out. I’m thankful that I have power and electricity. I live in Texas and for the first time in a long time, this year we dealt with some severe winter weather. It knocked out both our power and water for several days. It became really cold and was quite difficult. Now I know there are places where people deal with this type of weather all of the time , so I’m not trying to complain. I’m just stating what happened and the result for me was when it was over I had a new appreciation for both power and water. I know there are a lot of people across the world that don’t have either of those and so I always want to remain grateful for what I do have. It is now on my gratitude list. You should make a list too and read it every couple of days and especially on days when you are feeling sad or depressed. You will be surprised how just viewing and reading your list can really shift your perspective and mood. It is a really great practice to start your mornings off with thankfulness and gratitude. Both adding items to the list and reading the list will be very beneficial and get the days off to a positive start. Remember if you have a vehicle you are blessed! If you have shelter and a roof over your head you are blessed! If you have clean and running water you are blessed! If you have the ability to see, hear, or walk you are extremely blessed! We really need to stop focusing our attention so much on the negative things. At the end of your day why not write down and make a list of all the great things that happened during your day? This will allow you to end the day with a great attitude and really position your mind for getting good sleep.

Ok there you have 10 more of my best tips for helping you to upgrade your life. I will continue with the list in the next podcast episode, but now it is time to end with the Eternal Crown Lifestyle Weekly Challenge ( #ECLWC ). How did you do with the first one? Were you able to do it successfully all 7 days in a row or at least get a few complete days? What was the hardest item on the list and which item made the biggest difference in your life? Send me a message and let me know. These challenges will benefit you greatly if you will participate. Now here is the week 2 Eternal Crown Lifestyle Weekly Challenge ( #ECLWC ). Here are the 5 items for this week’s challenge list.

1.) Smile at yourself every time you are in front of a mirror- this one has such a great benefit and our world needs more smiling people, so I have brought it back into the week 2 challenge.

2.) 75 sit ups- remember you don’t have to do them all at one time, just complete 75 total before the end of your day.

3.) Spend 20 minutes outside- for some people this is not much of a challenge at all, but for others it is a big challenge. It doesn’t matter what activity you chose to perform while you are outside, just make sure you get outside and do something!

4.) 15 burpees- If you don’t know what a burpee is then you will probably need to look it up on the internet. It is basically a jump, push up and another jump. Doing 15 of these a day will provide great cardiovascular benefits for you.

5.) Spend at least 15 minutes journaling ( On at least 2 days use your journaling time to write what you like about yourself)- We just talked about the tip of journaling in this episode, so it is a great time to put it immediately into practice. Developing a healthy self image is so important and this exercise  on writing what you like about yourself will help with that a lot.

There you have the 5 daily challenge items for this week’s Eternal Crown Lifestyle Weekly Challenge ( #ECLWC ) . Push yourself out of those comfort zones and let’s create some positive growth this week!