004: Affirmations, mindfulness and meditation

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Evenin'. Buyer's remorse. Buy a new car? I'll be movin' in. Let's get started.

Uh, sorry, I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana.

You what?

Yeah, great price. I even have 7 days to love it or return it.

So there's no—

No, no buyer's remorse. More like buyer's rejoice?

I guess I'll let myself out.

Congratulations! I mean it. Buyers rejoice.

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Hello everyone, thank you so much for joining me once again. My name is Mart and this is Canny Crystals, the podcast. Well, what a week it's been. As some of you might know, I've been over in Malaga for a week. So my partner's mum decided to migrate from Northern Ireland about 5 years ago, so we head over there around about September, October every year to see her. And she comes to us a couple of times a year too. But yeah, I've gone from sitting in 30-degree sunshine drinking gin daily to this torrential downpour of rain and a measly 10 degrees here in Newcastle today. So back to both this and my NHS jobs as well, so I'm feeling a little flat if I'm totally honest with you. But anyway, let's pick up the mood. So this week I wanted to do my podcast based around mindfulness and meditation touching on affirmations and how these can benefit you in your life. So when I mention meditation, straight away you probably get a vision in your mind's eye of a monk sat at the top of a mountain, sat cross-legged, eyes closed, chanting, attempting to find inner peace. When in actual fact, meditation can be whatever you want it to be, for any purpose that you want it to serve. So starting with my own experience, About 10 years ago now, I'd say, I started working for a mental health trust, and as an employer, they were obviously really big on looking after your own well-being and mental health. So I noticed that my manager kept booking time out in her diary for something called mindfulness, and back then, 10 years ago, I had no clue what it was. She was always such a zen person and nothing ever fazed her, and I remember asking her how she kept her cool one day we'd had this huge blow-up with like one of our partners, and I just thought, "How has she kept her cool?" And in the conversation, she dropped that she practiced mindfulness on a day-to-day basis. Obviously, I was massively intrigued by this and asked her what it was about. The description that she gave me was something along the lines of, "Have you ever drove somewhere and you've arrived at your destination without having any memory of how you've got there because you were too busy thinking about something else on your mind?" Thinking about the future causes anxiety. Thinking about the past causes depression. But being present in the current moment allows you to switch off from everything else and be still and at one with the universe. Now, as you can imagine, my mind was blown. When I asked her why it was in her diary every week, she mentioned that as part of our employer looking after our well-being, they offered weekly classes where they would allow you to take time out of your working day to attend a group setting with other staff to practice mindfulness. So obviously I jumped at the opportunity and off I went onto this 12-week course. Now I've got to admit, the first time I turned up at the class, there were about 14 of us and our course leader was like Princess Diana, if Princess Diana had smoked weed. She was so prim and proper, but then she was just so chilled, very like squinty-eyed, relaxed, and everything seemed to be at a snail's pace with her. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I do everything at the speed of light, and I'm always going at 200 miles an hour, but I sharp learned from doing mindfulness that this is probably why I was constantly burning myself out. She had us answer a questionnaire about our mood and our mental health so that we could see at the end of our 12 weeks whether it had been beneficial or not for us. So if this is all new to you, maybe you could write yourself a couple of paragraphs about your current mood and how you currently feel about your aspects of your life, and then look at this again and review it in a month or two once you've practiced mindfulness to see if you too had an increase in mood. So the first exercise that she had us do was called a body scan, which was simply to close our eyes and check in with our body. So this is a little exercise that we can all do right now, and it'll only take a minute, so we can do this and discuss the benefits of it straight after. So sitting comfortably, Close your eyes, unless you're driving of course, that would be a bad idea. Uh, but with your eyes closed, firstly bring your attention to your breath and notice your breathing. Notice how your chest rises and falls with every breath. Now don't change your breathing pattern, just notice it, focusing all your attention simply on your breath. Now that you've got that, Try and follow a full breath from your nose down the back of your throat. Notice how it inflates your lungs and then back up your throat and out of your mouth. Notice which parts of your body are connected to the chair that you sat on. What sensations do you feel from the gravity holding you to it? How do your feet feel resting on the chair? How does your back feel supporting your body upright? Do you have any niggles or pains? If your mind wanders, don't worry about it. Simply acknowledge that it has and bring your consciousness back to the present moment of you sat upright. How is your mood today? Are you happy? Sad? Average? Tired?

Drained?

Hyper? Have some self-compassion and allow yourself to acknowledge these feelings. Be curious and ask yourself why you feel this mood right now in this present moment. And then once you're ready to, you can open your eyes. So you just practiced mindfulness and meditated. Although that was a very short exercise, you can see that this is what mindfulness and meditation is all about. Being present in the current moment, noticing that change in your body, noticing how you are feeling. So I like to do that little exercise every single day, and I try and do it maybe 2 to 3 times a day if I remember. It only takes 1 minute, but it's extremely effective for stress, anxiety, and depression. So let's say, for example, you're at work, you've had a bit of a disagreement with a colleague, and you suddenly start to feel that anger creeping in. Your mind then goes into overdrive and you start thinking of all the things that you could have said. You start thinking about the future and how the atmosphere is going to be really awkward in the coming days. Stop! Mindfulness will bring you back to the present moment and stop your mind from going into overdrive. That'll allow you to process what's going on in that very moment rather than what could have been or what will be. Some of the other exercises that she had us do during my course seemed a little odd at first, And at the time I remember thinking, what the hell are we doing? So for example, one was called mindful walking. So again, this is something that you can do next time you nip out anywhere for a dog walk or on your walk to work, and it's just to start noticing things. So notice how your feet feel as they hit the ground with each step that you take. Then using your senses, what can you see? What can you hear? What can you smell? Is there anything around you that you can touch? So even if just for 5 minutes out of your walk, you're bringing your mind to the present moment, and you're doing that rather than let it wander, and therefore your mood should improve because you aren't allowing your mind time to get anxious or worried about other situations. Now I do this most days on my dog walks, and I have a little Jack Russell called JJ, and whenever we go out, I like to really take in my surroundings and notice, for example, the leaves on the trees or the the blades of grass blowing in the wind, even down to the stony gravel on the path. So taking in all of the stuff where usually I would have just walked by without noticing it, it really does work wonders for de-stressing. So give that a try next time you head out anywhere. Drop me a DM, let me know how you get on with it. But yeah, cutting back to my story, the day that we first did mindful walking, it was pouring down outside, so our tutor asked us to move all the chairs to the outside of the room and she told us that we were just going to do this exercise indoors. She had us take off all our shoes and socks, and we started walking around the room slowly barefoot, feeling the ground under our feet. Now, we were all doing this in silence too, so obviously it's to give it our full attention, but to anyone looking through the window, we must have looked like mindless zombies, proper knobheads. There were a few moments where I caught eye contact with someone else in the class, and we just started giggling because it just felt so unnatural and odd, but Mindful walking has changed the way I go out and explore the world now. So I used to literally walk along, head in my phone, bumping into people, and I'd suddenly look up and wonder how I'd walked so far because I hadn't paid any attention to the journey. And now I do this more to lunchtime, so just to get out and stretch my legs and take me mind off things that have built up work-wise over the morning. Another exercise that we did in this class was around mindful eating. Now, this is great if you're trying to lose weight, okay? So listen up. So we were all given a raisin and told to hold it in our hand, and we then had 5 minutes—yes, really, 5 whole minutes—to look at this raisin, pass it between our fingers, notice how it felt, really examine it. What did it look like? What it smelled like? Putting it in our mouth but not chewing it. And then after the 5 minutes, we were allowed to finally eat it. I mean, we must have looked like llamas rolling this tiny raisin around in our gobs, but once you ate it, the flavours tasted so much more different than just scoffing one random raisin. I can't explain it, the taste was amazing. It's like if you had made yourself some food, you sit down in front of the TV and you start watching a film. You're so invested in that film that your mind is elsewhere and you're therefore not taking in those flavours and smells of your food. But by being fully present, you're allowing yourself to really concentrate on the food itself. It's also been medically proven to reduce overeating. So, you know how you might just scoff your food without any thought? Actually taking in the flavor of the food and slowing it right down helps your brain to realize quickly that you're full and not to overindulge just for the sake of eating. So maybe give that a try next time if you have some food. And see what you think. I appreciate it's not for everyone, but it does take your mind off other things and keep you present. Now, there are some amazing apps out there such as Headspace that go through the mindfulness practices that you can do in your own time. But if you want to, you can even just do what I do and search YouTube for things like 10-minute guided mindfulness, for example. So there are thousands of guided meditations on there. Not only does mindfulness help you with anxiety, stress, and depression like I mentioned before, but it's also been proven to treat heart disease, lower your blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve your sleep, amongst many other benefits. So that in a whistle-stop tour is mindfulness and meditation. So over the next week, give it a try. Like I say, I do the 1-minute mindfulness 2 to 3 times a day when I'm rushed off my feet, but the mindful walking and eating help at other points throughout the day as well. If you don't like it and it's not for you, you don't have to continue. It's all about allowing yourself to try something new and having that compassion for yourself if you realize that it's not for you. It's really helped me to stop worrying about what's happened and what's to come, which then allows me the focus and time to worry about the here and now. I'm hoping that by me talking about it, it even helps just one person listening. Once you've done mindfulness for a while, go back to that initial couple of paragraphs that you wrote at the beginning and ask yourself how your mood and your feelings have changed since then. Has this improved for you? This would be a great indicator for you to stick at it and carry on with mindfulness if it has. So something else that I wanted to touch on today was the power of positive affirmations. Now, for those of you that are all new to this, an affirmation is simply a phrase or a mantra that you repeat and affirm to yourself that could kind of trick your brain into believing that it's already true. So these can be so empowering to you and give you a real huge boost of confidence. The more you say them or write them down, the more it increases how effective they are. So by repeating them over and over, they begin to take over your main thoughts and your pattern of thinking until they ultimately change your life. You can boost your positivity massively by using them, as well as your confidence and ability to achieve what you want in life. So as I've mentioned in previous episodes, I have a journal by my bedside that I write things in that I'm grateful for on a morning and a night. But I also use it to write down 3 positive affirmations daily. Now, this is just things that I want to affirm to myself daily, and I change these 3 things every month. So this month, for example, I'm repeating: I only attract the best situations in life. I excel in everything that I do. And today is going to be the best day. By repeating these mantras daily, I'm reprogramming my mind into believing that they're real and I'll repeat these up to 10 times across the day as I remember to. One of my—

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Friends even repeats affirmations to her daughter for confidence growing up. Things like, I am fierce, I am strong, I am bold. Very simple affirmations. But she said that since she's been doing them, she's seen such a huge increase in happiness and confident behaviors in her daughter in the last few months. And it's crazy the effects that simple words can have on someone. Now, this is a little experiment that you can try yourself at home if you want to, if you want to see it with your own eyes. I've done it before with my nephew, and it's absolutely crazy what happens. But you might have heard of this experiment before whereby a scientist took two plants both at the same early stage of their life, and each day watered them and cared for them in the exact same way. They were both in the same conditions, but to one he would positively affirm nice statements such as "I am healthy" or "I am thriving," and to the other one he would state "I am ugly," "I am pathetic," etc., like negative connotations. So I understand this might sound a bit crazy, but stick with us here. So after 30 days, the difference in the plants was insane. And I mean, you can Google this experiment if you don't believe me, but as I say, I've done it with my nephew and we got the exact same results. The one that had been fed the positive affirmations daily was thriving, full of life, new sprouts growing, whilst the other one was drooping, wilting, and almost dead. It is crazy. Since this experiment went viral a few years ago, Prince Charles even came out to say that he talks to all of his plants and he commands them what he wants them to do. The power of positive affirmations is one of life's biggest secrets. Now, if you simply think, "Mart, I don't have the time to affirm these to myself 10 times a day," or, "I just won't remember to do it," stop. Like I mentioned before, YouTube is your best friend here. You've got no excuses. If you search for subliminal affirmations, there are thousands of these where you can just pop your headphones on and be doing work, and subliminally these messages are entering your subconscious. I do it every single day. If you search on YouTube for things like binaural beats, there's even subliminal messages that you can't hear at all over the music. I listen to these in the background of doing my work most days, and sometimes even whack them on my headphones at night to go to sleep listening to. There's also a great app I use called Subliminal that you can download from the App Store, and this has pre-made subliminal messages read out over the top of music for anything you can possibly think of, such as assistance with weight loss, attracting luck and abundance, increasing self-confidence, and even for assistance with anxiety and stress. It's totally up to you how you choose to listen to them, but it is ultimately whatever works for you. Now I'm going to quickly touch on how I used a positive affirmation mantra this week and made £3,000 in 12 hours. Yeah, you heard that right. So earlier this week, I came across a video on TikTok of a money mantra that you might have seen this yourself before, but if not, head to YouTube, just type "Ching Ching Ching Goes the Money Tree." Basically, you repeat these words 2 to 3 times a day, and it's had a massive effect worldwide drawing money to people. I thought, what harm can it do? So every few hours I've been repeating this mantra. I'll read it out, it's Ching Ching Ching Goes the Money Tree. And every time it chings, money comes to me. It all flows in so abundantly from the top, left, right, and up under me. Wave, wave, wave, I'm a money wave. Money flow, money flow, money made. Flowing in and out, plus money saved. Debt, debt, debt, all debt is paid. You can Google the lyrics at any time as well. So picture this, there I am Wednesday night launching my crystal advent calendar on my website. If you haven't seen it, head on over to TikTok or Instagram. I basically hand-select and fill an advent calendar full of crystal goodies. So anyway, I'd ordered 10 of these boxes from my supplier, put them live on my website. Within 20 minutes, all 10 of them had sold. I had £1,000 in my bank account. I couldn't believe it. I was honestly gobsmacked. I thought 10 was going to be a push, basically. I thought I would maybe sell 2 or 3, but 10 in 20 minutes. It was crazy. Anyway, I went back to the supplier and asked for another 10 boxes just to make sure that they actually had them. I quickly added the next 10 to my website. I went and I had my tea. By the time I'd had my tea and I came back, I had another £1,000 in my bank. The next 10 had sold as well. Like, what the fuck was going on? I had to then start thinking logistically, like, am I able to do any more than 20? I decided to get 10 more and to cap it at 30. I mean, these are huge boys. They each weigh around 4 kilos and are quite bulky. So imagine me heading to the post office with over 100 kilograms of mail. I'm sure Karen would have a fit. But anyway, I put the final 10 on, I went to bed, and I woke up to yet another £1,000. They had all sold. I honestly am so grateful and I can't believe it, but I made £3,000 in just under 12 hours, which is absolutely insane. And that's all from repeating that money mantra. So then I started thinking to myself, oh my God, I repeated that money mantra all day yesterday. Could it have been because of that? But needless to say, I'm repeating it all day again today. I will have that Range Rover. I'm absolutely determined to manifest a brand new Range Rover, so watch this space, it's coming. I had a look the other day for a brand new Range Rover because I thought I might treat myself like next year Anyway, I saw the friggin' price of one, eee my god, it was £75 grand! I was like, absolutely not! The monthly payments were something like £650, I was like, that's more than we pay for our bloody mortgage! Anyway, the Range Rover is happening, I don't know how, but I am going to manifest it! Now, one last story that I want to tell is about how I got a job a few years ago by using positive affirmations. So a few years ago, I was going to be redeployed. Now, if you don't know what this means, it just means that basically my fixed-term contract was coming to an end, but because I had more than 2 years service in the NHS, I was classed as a permanent member of staff. So they were basically going to shift me to another team, but it was of their choosing. It was like basically as if I was going in at the same level but with another team, so they would find me a job, but I didn't have a choice over that. Basically, it was like where I'm put where I'll end up unless I get another job. And I remember being sat at home on the Friday night, and I got a call to say, would I be able to attend an interview first thing Monday morning, 9 AM? There was a job come up, and it was the job that I'd applied for. And I thought, yeah, of course I can! So anyway, I'd emailed them back, and I just said, can I have a bit more information about the job? And obviously, because it was last thing Friday night, they weren't going to be back in the office until Monday morning. So I was sat there frantic thinking, where can I find information about this job? It was a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. They'd all gone home for the weekend. I've been given a last-minute interview. How am I supposed to prep when all I've got is the job description? I don't know anything about— like, I like to do my research on the team, the employer, that kind of thing, how the team fits with the rest of the department. And I thought, I'm just gonna have to research on the website and stuff. But NHS websites, if you've been on NHS websites, The neither nothingness of it! Bloody hell! So anyway, there I am frantic as hell! I spent all day Saturday trying to do some research, couldn't really find anything! I even went down to the building where it is, the building was all locked up because obviously they don't work weekends, and I thought, oh great! So anyway, it came to like the Monday morning and I was sat there in my car on the way to my job interview, and I just thought, you know what, I'm going to stick on some positive affirmations! I went on YouTube and I looked at a video for positive affirmations for job interviews, and it was just things like, "I'm a really confident person," "I achieve all I want to in life," "I'm always lucky and successful," that kind of thing. So it was all about positivity. By the time I'd reached my interview destination, I was on cloud nine because I'd listened to these positive affirmations. So although I was frantic, I bounced into that interview, and I remember the receptionist saying to me, 'Oh my God, you're so chirpy for Monday morning, 9 AM.' And I said, 'What do you mean?' And she said, 'You're just glowing, you're full of smiles, you're really happy, you've got everything sorted.' She was like, 'I bet any money you get the job.' And I said, 'Why do you think that?' And she said, 'Because they just love positive people in that team.' And I mean, needless to say, I was offered that job, and I stayed there for another 2 years. Now, I don't know how I got that job because I fluked that interview, but I think it was just because the affirmations had made me so positive and so happy that Anything that was chucked at us, any question that was chucked at us during that interview, I answered. But I answered it with such positivity and happiness and joy, and I think that they could just see I was a naturally happy and positive person. But I do think that the affirmations had a lot to do with it. If I didn't have those affirmations playing to myself in the car and I wasn't practicing mindfulness all the way there, my thoughts of what could be or what could have been would have got to my head. So for example, if you were to flip this on its head and say, what would my day have been like without those affirmations, without practicing mindfulness in the car? Obviously I would have been flapping all the way to my interview. I would have been a nervous wreck. I would have gone into that interview flustered, and because I was flustered, I wouldn't have been able to show my positive side, and chances are I probably wouldn't have got the job. So yeah, you can try affirmations and mindfulness in any aspect in your life. It doesn't have to be about getting a job. Doesn't have to be about attracting money or attracting the love of your life. Any aspect of your life, there will be a positive affirmation for that. Like I say, YouTube and Google are your best friends. YouTube especially, because they've got loads of positive affirmations on there where it's a man or a woman in a deep relaxing voice, and they'll just repeat that over and over again as a mantra. Stick your headphones in, blast it through your car, you'll feel better instantly, trust me. So I hope this episode has helped you and encouraged you to try something new in your daily activity, or maybe you've just always wanted to attempt to meditate but wasn't sure how. Let me know in my DMs. You can reach me @canny_crystals on TikTok and Instagram, or my personal if you want to see pictures of my dog, my garden, and trips abroad, which is @marttweedy. All links are in the show notes. And please, if you haven't already, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast. Tell your friends about it. Don't forget to also visit my website, cannycrystals.co.uk, and I'll see you all next week.

Bye! You want to get your backyard summer ready, but you don't want to break the bank? Wayfair gets it. Planning on dining alfresco or relaxing poolside? Wayfair has everything you need to prep your space. Shop now and save up to 70% off during Wayfair's Fourth of July Clearance. Score huge deals on outdoor furniture, area rugs, and more. We're talking thousands of products for every style and budget. Plus, surprise flash deals July 6th. Don't wait. Shop Wayfair's Fourth of July Clearance now through July 6th at wayfair.com.

Wayfair, every style, every home. Quick question. When was the last time a display ad changed your mind? Now think about the last time a friend told you about something they loved. Different feeling, right? That's how podcast advertising works. A host who's built real trust with their audience talks about your brand in their own words, in their own voice. It doesn't interrupt the experience. It's part of it. With Acast, you can access the world's largest podcast marketplace. Choose the right shows, the right audiences, the right format. Then watch the data tell you it worked. You're not buying impressions, you're buying influence. Learn more by visiting aCast.com/advertise.