Daily Affirmations - Meditation & Coffee

Hello!

You are listening to Meditation and Coffee,

The weekday meditation podcast that helps you start your day off calm,

Aware,

Intentional,

Focused and most importantly,

Awake.

Because did you know that the word Buddha actually means awakened one?

I'm Hannah,

Your host and founder of the online meditation community Breathe Like a Badass,

And I am obsessed with starting the day with good coffee and seriously simple meditation.

As a trained meditation teacher and a female entrepreneur,

My mission is to help anxious yet ambitious women cut through overwhelm,

Negative self-talk,

Constant comparison and fear so they can get the calm,

Clarity and focus that they need to build happy,

Fulfilling,

Freedom-filled businesses and lives.

Meditation is not magic,

But it's a pretty good place to start.

So whether your coffee is a shot of espresso,

A latte decaf or even a tea or a chai,

I invite you to join me every weekday to start your day off right.

FYI,

These sessions are recorded live on my Instagram page,

At Breathe Like a Badass,

So if you'd prefer to join in and watch them live,

You can do so there.

The videos are also available after the lives on my IGTV page.

Now,

On to the meditation and coffee.

Hello,

Hello,

Good morning,

Good afternoon,

Good evening,

Depending on when you are watching this,

If you're watching the replay,

How's it going?

I'm just posting what this meditation and coffee session today is all about.

If you're watching,

You'll be able to see there that it says daily affirmations.

So daily affirmations,

Oh,

Interesting.

I'm going to jump right in there and say that for many people,

The idea of affirmations feels incredibly cheesy and just like your kind of wishful thinking,

Repeating phrases in the mirror,

Writing phrases down and having like no idea how or why you are repeating these affirmations.

So for people that don't know,

Affirmations are basically phrases that are often written in the present tense that usually talk about things that you want to do,

People you want to be,

The kind of person you want to be,

The life that you want.

Writing down,

For example,

I am strong or I am successful or I am a badass businesswoman or I am capable or whatever it might be.

Affirmations can be fantastic,

But it's really important to know why you're writing them.

The reason that I am talking about affirmations in today's meditation session is because it's something that's been coming up massively with my clients recently.

Pretty much every single person that I've spoken to in the last couple of weeks has really benefited from putting affirmations into their morning routine,

From including affirmations as part of their mindset ritual and from combining meditation with after the meditation or as part of their morning routine,

Which includes meditation,

Writing the affirmations down in a journal.

So doing between five to 10 every single day in the present tense.

But the key here and the reason why we combine it with meditation and what we're going to do today in today's session in a few minutes when I've finished explaining is how to really make your affirmations work for you,

How to really make them resonate with you and what you need rather than just copying out some affirmations that you've seen on Instagram or that you think you're supposed to want or need and actually they don't really resonate with you.

Because the whole point of affirmations is that we want them to really be meaningful to us,

To really strike a chord with us,

With our heart,

With ourselves and we write them down.

We really want to feel an emotional connection with the affirmations.

And the thing about this and the kind of scientific side of why I think affirmations are amazing is not just because they're kind of like,

Oh yeah,

Nice phrases that make you feel good,

Which is true.

They do.

But also because if you write something down in the present tense as if it's already true,

Such as I am open to all opportunities that come my way or I notice good things about my life,

Things like that,

Right?

Then it means that you're going to be tuning in your brain to notice examples of when that is true in the rest of your life.

Now there's something in your brain called the reticular activation system and that's basically long story short,

For example,

What we,

If we learn a new word or we are maybe buying a car,

For example,

And we suddenly notice that word everywhere or we suddenly notice the car that we want everywhere or we really start paying attention to all the cars on the street that we see because our brain is tuned in at that moment to really pay attention to those things which may be otherwise we wouldn't really notice.

And it's exactly the same with affirmations.

If you make a conscious effort to write down or to focus on phrases,

Concepts,

Beliefs that you want to be true in your life,

Then your reticular activation system is so much more likely to step in and notice times in your life or things that are going on around you that are going to help,

Uh,

Help you believe that your affirmations are really true.

They're going to reinforce the concepts that you've written down in your affirmations.

So for example,

I am open to all the opportunities that come my way.

That could be a great affirmation.

It would maybe resonate with you because you want to be someone that is looking for opportunities in your life and your business that is open to change,

Open to new things.

And it could also mean that the more that you write that down or the more you focus on that affirmation,

I am open to new opportunities.

When you see an opportunity,

You're much more likely to notice it and you're much more likely to take action on it because you're much more likely to say,

Oh yeah,

Well I am a person who is open to opportunities.

And so your outside reality therefore starts to reflect your inner reality or your inner wishes that you've written down in your affirmations.

So it's a really fantastic tool to start you,

You on the journey of making your reality and your real life match up with the goals that you have in your head and the way that you want your life to be.

And that's why I think that they're great and they're not woo woo.

And actually there's a scientific reason behind why they work.

So today we're just going to do a quick meditation to help you start the process of figuring out what affirmations might be important to you,

Which ones might resonate really brilliantly with you.

And then after this meditation,

I recommend grabbing a journal and writing down five to 10 affirmations that came out of this session.

So without further ado,

I invite you to come into a comfortable position and allowing your shoulders to drop and allowing yourself to come into a balanced,

Grounded,

But still alert position with your spine straight and supported your neck and your head balanced gently over your spine,

Your shoulders dropped and allowing yourself to come into a still posture today,

Taking some deep breaths in through the nose,

Out through the mouth and closing your eyes if you like,

If it feels safe,

If it feels relaxing,

Now allowing yourself to bring your attention to your breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth and with every out breath,

Allowing yourself to relax any areas of tension or muscles in your body,

Giving yourself this permission today to just take this time out for yourself,

Noticing how it feels to be sitting here now breathing,

Allowing your attention to go to your whole body,

Noticing again how it feels to be breathing,

To be sitting here today.

And from this place of stillness,

I invite you to ask yourself,

What is it that I really want?

What is it that I really need?

If I was to write down an affirmation today,

Such as I am strong,

I am powerful,

I am successful,

What would it look like?

I have everything that I need to be successful.

I am enough as I am,

Another good one.

Every day I am getting better and better at my work.

I am open to opportunities.

So at this point when we are doing what is basically contemplation meditation,

Which is where you ask yourself a question and see what comes up,

Maybe for you right now it is just a feeling.

Maybe it is a feeling of wanting to be powerful or focused,

Organised,

Calm,

Peaceful.

So if your affirmations are not coming up for you in full sentences,

That is totally fine.

But if you can notice the feelings,

The desires that are coming up as you ask yourself these questions.

What do I want?

What do I need?

What affirmations might resonate best with me today?

Notice the feeling,

The images,

The sensations that come up when you ask yourself that.

And that in itself is an answer.

So opening your eyes if you had them closed and coming back into the room.

That was a great way of starting to tune in with yourself and what maybe you need in your daily affirmations.

As I said before,

A great tip with this is once you have kind of figured out how you are feeling and what you need with your affirmations,

You can write them down in a journal,

Grab a journal and write 1-10 affirmations.

You can do 5,

10,

Whatever works.

That allow you to really feel into the imagery,

The visualisation or the feelings that came up just then.

Who you want to be,

What kind of life you want to lead.

I like to write I am getting better and better every day.

I am a hard worker and I deserve to enjoy my work,

Another good one.

I am open to new opportunities every day.

I care about my work and I am invested in my clients outcomes,

Another good one.

So it is really whatever works for you.

My affirmations are not going to work for you and that is the key.

That is why we do this exercise.

We allow ourselves that time and space to go inwards and work out what affirmations are going to resonate most with us.

So I hope that has been useful this morning.

Let me know if anything came up,

Any particular visualisations or sensations or images that came to mind or feelings when you did that meditation.

I would be very interested to know.

In the meantime,

Thank you so much for being here.

Do not underestimate the power of affirmations.

They are brilliant from the point of view,

They just make you feel good but they also help to retrain your brain to notice the reality of what it is that you are writing down to try and make your outer reality reflect your inner reality.

So thank you so much for being here.

I will see you tomorrow for another session of meditation and coffee.

Have a great day.

Bye bye bye.

That's it for today.

Thanks so much for listening and spending your morning with me.

If you like this podcast and you are as obsessed with coffee and maybe meditation as I am,

Please go ahead and leave a rating and a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you normally listen as it helps spread the word and get the message out to more brilliant women just like us who need it.

You can also share with your friends on Instagram tagging me at Breathe Like a Badass.

I always love to see you there.

If you liked this and you'd like to hear more from me and Breathe Like a Badass on how to use meditation to get the calm,

Clarity and focus you need to build a happy,

Fulfilling,

Freedom-filled business and life,

Head on over to my other full-length interview style podcast,

Just search Breathe Like a Badass anywhere that you normally listen to podcasts.

Thank you so much for listening and I will see you for the next one.