Whether you want to have more peace and ease in your life, feel more connected to your heart and your purpose, or just want to feel happier throughout your day, becoming present and intentional about your actions and choices is the path to get you there.
Before I blow your mind with simple, practical, and actionable tools to cultivate more presence in your life, it’s essential that you see self-care as an intentional way to make yourself a priority.
And if that last sentence made you squeamish and immediately want to close this page, let me first say that self care is NOT selfish. It’s selfless. And if you keep reading, you’ll be on board with this mindset shift by the end of this blog. Trust me.
You see, society has told us for years that putting ourselves first is selfish. We’ve been ingrained with the message that if we sacrifice ourselves, bend over backwards, and put others first, THEN we’re a good person. But let me tell you, NOTHING could be further from the truth!
The truth is that being willing, able, and committed to making yourself a priority is actually the KEY to manifesting and creating the life you desire.
One of my favorite analogies is the airplane analogy. You’ve heard it a million times – put your mask on before helping someone else. The message is super clear: You can’t show up for others if you don’t show up for you first.
When you’re not making yourself a priority, life feels exhausting. You’re not present when you’re with others, you’re missing/forgetting things, showing up late, always feeling like you’re on edge… You see, when you don’t make yourself a priority, you’re not showing up as the best version of you. And no one wins in this situation my love.
When you do make yourself a priority, life feels easy, peaceful, and flowy. Because you’ve taken the time to nurture your needs, you’re now able to be present, grounded, calm, and fully show up for others as the best version of you.
As you can see, there’s a huge difference in the way life feels when you prioritize yourself vs. when you sacrifice yourself. This is the power of learning how to make yourself a priority.
You see, everything in your outer world is a reflection of what is happening in your inner world. So when you shift your inner world by making the time to prioritize your needs, you ultimately end up emanating out the things in life you truly desire and you start to create the life of your dreams.
Hopefully, after reading to this point, you’re now able to see that being intentional about your self care is one of the most selfless things you can do. So now I want to get into why it’s so important to cultivate this as a daily practice.
Yes my love, a DAILY practice.
Sure- going for a massage, getting your nails done, a wine night with your girlfriends, and dropping in for a yoga class can all be valid parts of your self care practice, but it’s the consistency of a daily practice that will create the powerful shifts in your inner world so your outer world becomes a manifestation of your dream life.
Your daily self care ritual is important because it creates space for you to simply BE. It provides a daily opportunity for you to connect with your highest self and receive the guidance that is available to you.
And most importantly, your daily self care ritual helps you stay grounded and connected to your heart so you can respond to life vs react to it. Let’s face it, life happens and there will be inevitable challenges that come your way. When you have a daily practice to connect to your heart, you can catch the ego-based stories/negative thoughts in their tracks, remain grounded, and respond to the situation from your heart vs reacting to it from your head.
This is why (most) of the self care tools I’m going to share with you next are morning practices. My intention is for you to use them to set the tone for your day so that no matter what life throws at you – a flat tire, an unexpected work deadline, a rude comment from someone – you are set up for success and nothing can get in the way of you creating the life of your dreams.
Everything I have created in my life and business has come from carving out time for my intentional daily self care practice. I truly believe that when you fill up your cup, connect to your heart, and make time for yourself first, nothing can stand in your way.
So without further adieu, here are some of my favorite practices to create more presence in your life:
1. Journaling
My all time favorite practice! I used to have resistance to it but now it’s something I look forward to every single day because it gives me a safe space to process my thoughts, feelings, and triggers in a healthy way. It also gives me space to be creative, dream BIG, and manifest my desires. I always write in a cute journal to make the practice fun and exciting. This is the journal I’m currently loving if you want to grab one and be journal twins with me!
If you want to start a journal practice, but feel like you’re too busy or don’t know how or where to start, you can download my simple journal prompts to get started here.
2. Meditation
I love meditation because it’s a practice to quiet the mind and get into your heart and connect to your intuition. So often we live in our heads and not our hearts and we end up confused, indecisive, and looking externally for answers. What if all the answers we needed were inside and we started making time to actually listen and receive the guidance?
One ritual tool I love using to help me connect to my intuition and inner guidance system is to pull a card from the Work Your Light oracle deck. I focus on a question I’d like guidance on, connect to my heart, then pull a card and meditate on the guidance I receive.
I love this ritual because even though I’m using something external, it’s used with the intention and in conjunction with me connecting to my own inner guidance. Like the name suggests, this deck helps you to connect to and work with your own inner light. I freaking love this deck!
3. Gratitude practice
This is a big one for cultivating more presence in your life because it reminds you to remain focused on the present moment. There will always be goals for the future, but the truth is that we only ever have the present moment. Reminding yourself to find gratitude for what you have right now, in this moment, is essential for living a heart-centered, present life.
Essential oils are one of my favorite tools to help with my gratitude practices. They have powerful properties that work to shift your energy and immediately bring your focus back to the present moment. If I’m ever feeling overwhelmed and need a moment to ground and regroup, I use this Balance oil from Doterra to come back to gratitude in the present moment. I diffuse it throughout the day, put a couple drops on the bottom of my feet, or simply smell the bottle and think of something I’m grateful for in the moment.
I shared these 3 intentional self-care tools with you today because they’re quick, practical, and if applied consistently, they can have a powerful impact on the way you live your life.
Whether you implement some, all, or none of these, know that you get to love yourself anyway!
Remember my love, you’re powerful beyond measure. What you focus on expands and you’re the co-creator of your reality. My hope is that after reading this blog, you feel empowered to start your day with intention. I can’t wait to see what you create when you start living a more heart centered life.
For more self-love and inspiring content, you can connect with Randi Halaway on Instagram @randihalaway, or in her Facebook community Club Self Love.
*This blog contains affiliate links. Please note: If you purchase an item through my affiliate links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you!
