Are You Ready to Get Clear?
About a year ago I wrote this blog, "How I was 20 lbs Lighter After One Weekend." It was all about how all of the sudden something came over me and spring cleaning took over my home! I spent the whole weekend de-cluttering and throwing out things I didn’t need in my home.
The experience felt amazing and invigorating. I had this new love for the space I lived in and the energy flowed so much better in my life as a result.
My good friend Annick shares the same passions as me when it comes to fitness and wellness. She is also a designer so she is an expert in knowing how to get clear and create your environment so you can live a more inspired and energetic life.
Today I have the honor of having Annick on my blog today. I hope you all get a little clearer today!
“Removing clutter allows energy in our environment to flow and releases us from the burden of our past. It takes away excuses that have been used to hold us back from change and opens pathways for new energy to flow in. It makes room for new possibilities and opportunities to enter into our lives. It gives us a fresh vitality to conquer things we want to do.
The less you have around you the more you are able to stand out and lead your own life. This allows you to break free from your self-made baggage and to transition to a place of empowerment. That is how you live fearlessly.” Annick Magac
I’m so excited to be guest posting on Sabrina Sarabella. This is my first stop on my virtual book tour for CLEAR: How to Simplify Your Life & Live More Fearlessly. After reading the book, Sabrina invited me to share with you some of my thoughts on mindset and how to live more fearlessly from CLEAR.
I met Sabrina a couple of years ago in NC; attending a fitness retreat together. As destiny would have it, Sabrina showed up wearing a killer shirt that… I also owned. I thought-- this lady has good taste! Obviously, she has to be cool… She is going to be my new friend! And just like that, she was.
It ends up that we have a lot more in common than just our great fashion sense. Besides our loud outspoken mouths, we both hail from NYC, love to go out, laugh, experience life, and help people with their health, fitness, and mindset.
As coaching peers, we often bounce ideas off each other on ways we can help our clients live the lives they want and improve our businesses. Recently, we were discussing New Year’s resolutions which sparked this blog.
What does it take to make changes in your life to live the life you want?
You often hear the line—New Year, New You! This always makes me cringe a bit. You see, I don’t think there is a reason to be a New You. YOU already exist in human form. New You implies you are going to suddenly manifest into something completely different and amazing and all your problems are going to vanish as soon as the clock strikes midnight on December 31st.
Hmmm… while I believe in certain miracles, this is not one of them. I also think, you already are amazing. You just might not believe it.
What I do like about the New Year is that it triggers people to self-reflect about what they are unhappy with in their lives and/or what they want to accomplish. -- What do I want to change? What do I want to do? What doesn’t work for me right now?
Often times, people do not even consider these questions unless they are in a crisis or at the end-of-their-rope. It is hard to be honest with ourselves when things aren’t going well because in order to make things better we need to change and change is… Well,… it’s scary!
We fear change because it takes us out of our comfort zone. There are so many unknowns and what ifs? Even if our current circumstance totally sucks, WHAT IF the alternative is worse?!!!
I guarantee you-- when it comes to change, the alternative is never worse. (tweet this)
How can your environment support your goals?
In CLEAR, I write about how your environment is a reflection of your life. You see, a funny thing happens when we ignore the things in our lives that do not serve us to be our best selves. They are reflected in our environments.
One of the biggest New Year’s resolutions is- I’m going to eat better! After all the holiday treats and parties, we are ready to get back on the horse and clean up our diets to shed the pounds we’ve gained. (Of course, since you follow Sabrina and all her awesome holiday cooking tips, you probably only put on a couple of pounds of holiday bloat! ;) ) Still, you want them off and maybe you even want to lose a couple extra pounds that you have been gaining over the decade.
You are gung ho the first two weeks of the year! By the end of January, you are back to drinking wine every night, eating out every meal, and skipping half your gym workouts. What happened?
Let’s go and take a look in your kitchen. Is your sink full of dirty dishes? (Oops, can’t cook tonight because I don’t have any clean pans.) Are your cabinets full of out dated spices and mismatched dishes? (I would love to have people over for dinner but I don’t have enough plates for everyone and I have nothing to cook with.) Is your refrigerator a complete dirty mess? (Ewww, every time I look in the fridge I close the door because I don’t know if that out-of-date take out is going to come alive and eat me.) Heck, are you avoiding your kitchen altogether because you hate being in it? Let me guess, that isn’t getting you closer to your weight loss goals.
How to embrace change and become more fearless!
There are many ways we can self-sabotage ourselves. While we may believe that those thoughts or actions are only in our minds, they end up oozing out and being reflected in our environments.
The whole New Year, New You ignores the fact that you have to take responsibility for your actions in order to have change. The POOF miracle-of-change-at-midnight cannot be sustained without becoming aware of the ways we may not be supporting our goals within our environment.
It takes courage and fearlessness to look around and say- Hey, maybe this needs to change so I can support my goals to be more successful.
So, let’s go back to your kitchen. You want to eat better and you know cooking more regularly at home will help with that. One good way to start is by cleaning out your refrigerator. Give yourself a time frame to get it done, such as one hour on a Sunday night. Go through your fridge and get rid of anything that is expired. Wipe down the shelves and put a jar of baking soda in there to get rid of the funky smell. When you’re done clearing and getting rid of the clutter inside, you will feel so good. You will know what you have to eat, probably find some neat condiments you forgot you had that might inspire a meal, and invigorated to purchase some fresh food to cook that week.
The clean fridge will reflect that you honor what you put in your body, inspire you to continue with your goal, and hold the good food that will take you further along on your journey.
Instead of trying to ignore the elephant in the room (refrigerator) that is helping to sabotage your goal, you are fearlessly tackling it head on and taking control of the situation.
If you can clean your fridge, you can lose the pounds you want off.
If the fridge seems like too big of a project, start small. Maybe you just go through your spices and get rid of all the ones that are expired or you never use. The point is to start somewhere and have your environment reflect your best intentions for you and your life.
I encourage you to take a small step towards living more fearlessly and make this a year you can reflect upon and say – “Wow, that was the year I decided to make fearless changes that lead me to do… (insert awesome accomplishment)”.
I want to thank Sabrina for having me here for one of my first stops on my virtual book tour. It has been a pleasure to share my book and thoughts with you.
Here’s to a Clear and Fearless year!
For more tips on how to simplify your life and live more fearlessly, purchase your copy of CLEAR here and follow Annick on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter @annickmagac.
I am giving away a FREE autographed copy to one of my lucky readers. Follow these steps to participate in the #ClearBookGiveaway and enter the drawing for a FREE, SIGNED copy of Annick’s book:
- Leave a comment on this facebook post telling me why you would want to win this book.
- For a bonus entry, post a before picture of the space that you desire to de-clutter (it can be your car, a drawer, your bathroom cabinet, a desk, anything as small or large you would like to tackle with Annick’s guidance). Post the photo on facebook and/or Instagram. It needs to be a public post so that I can see it. Use the hashtag #ClearBookGiveaway. Each post I can see will give you an entry. Tag me @Sabrinafitness if you post on Instagram!
3. For a second bonus entry, publicly share this blog post with your friends and family using the hashtag #ClearBookGiveaway. If it’s not public, I will not be able to see the post or give you credit for the entry.
I will draw a name from the entries on Tuesday night, 2/10/2015 at 9 p.m. EST to announce the winner of the book!
