Things that make you feel good!

Saturday saw the launch of our brand new optimallyou Thrive Live series at Yogalilies studio in Newcastle. Thrive Live is a weekend wellness workshop that runs once each month and combines a positive psychology group coaching session led by myself, with an aroma yoga and meditation experience from Lissa of Yogalilies. This event was focused on “Show Yourself Some Love”, which aimed to help the group to work out where in their lives they felt stress, and how to combat it. 

Stress is the mental or emotional strain that results from demanding circumstances, and involves both the stressful situation, as well as how we respond to it. 39% of all work absences are attributed to stress, and it is something that is increasingly being noticed as being so detrimental to our health and wellbeing. Before Thrive Live I created for each member of the group their own Thrive Live Personal Growth Book, which included questions and exercises related to dealing with stressful situations, and how to develop a greater self awareness and self acceptance. 

I arrived at Yogalilies, and helped Lissa to set up the studio, then welcomed our fourteen guests to sit down at their yoga mats and get comfortable. We set the intention to clear away any feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear, and work on allowing ourselves to experience more self love. The first 90 minutes of the session were focused on creating a conversation around strategies for reframing stressful situations, and talking about the things that made us feel good. It was really interesting to see and feel the energy in the room shift as we moved away from talking about the things that stressed us, and began to share what makes us feel good.

It is so easy to get stuck in a negative dialogue with yourself and find yourself complaining all of the time, almost as a default setting – we all do it! I challenged the group to complete one whole day of no complaining in between this Thrive Live session and the next, and to see how it can help shift your mindset and wellbeing for the better. You should try this with us too! Just choose one day when you commit to no complaining from start to finish, and tweet us your views of your experience or share with us on facebook! One member of the group had actually given up complaining for the forty days of lent! I’m excited to hear the results of her challenge!

An interesting point was raised by a member of the group, about how to deal with other people that are negative and complaining all of the time, and I have actually commented on this in this week’s optimallyou vlog, so check it out for this cool piece of advice!

Everybody claimed one new healthy habit to install into their lives going forwards, and taking time to appreciate the beauty of nature and flowers in particular was one of the hot new habits from the day. Other ideas for creating more self love included taking more alone time as rest, listening to more music (positive playlist coming right up in this weeks optimallyou newsletter, just subscribe here), spending time with family, and for Lissa, enjoying time with Watson her dog. 

Our intentions for a new positive habit were carried through into the second half of the session where Lissa led the aroma yoga experience with essential oils to help imprint the positive emotions of the day into the brain. We practised some deep twist movements and core work to fire up our energy centres, and worked through a dynamic yoga session followed by a meditation which guided us to focus on our new habit, and the one action we could take today to bring our new positive habit into reality. 

Lissa is truly amazing and our aroma yoga experience was so incredibly powerful! There is such value in allowing yourself some time, whether it be half an hour, a day, or in this case, an afternoon, to dedicate to yourself and really give yourself something that nourishes you and makes you feel good. I loved it and can't wait for our next Thrive Live event on Saturday 21st March which is called "Dare To Be Creative". I will outline some keys steps to take towards creating the best version of you, and we will be creating our own manifestation vision boards to help identify what you want to bring in to your life and what the best version of you actually looks like. Lissa will then lead the aroma yoga experience, this time focusing on hip opening exercises, and a mandala colouring meditation.

Until then I will be practising my daily positive habits for more self love, and working on not complaining. Hopefully these things can be of use to you too. Have an amazing week!

With Gratitude, 

Niyc xx

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