For those of you who know me by now, you know that there are few women on planet earth that I adore, love, and am obsessed with. On the top of this list are my mom, my daughter, my sisters, my grandma (who passed 24 years ago), and the one and only Miss Oprah Winfrey.
On Mother's Day, I watched the Super Soul Sunday episode, where Oprah interviewed Ariana Huffington (founder and CEO of The Huffington Post). This was for the release of her new book “Thrive”, and was such a great interview on the topics of motherhood, success and spirituality.
From watching these two, extraordinary women having an open and honest conversation about the lessons that Ms. Huffington had learnt from her own mother and daughters, and how her life completely changed after she started meditating, I also learned my own personal lessons from this interview.
1. Set aside the end of day where you shut off your many devices. Turn off that power that holds you captive all day with the day's busyness, and remove them completely out of your bedroom. Don't make the mistake of sleeping with your smart phone on the dresser right next to you.
By doing so, you will be able to completely disconnect from work, deadlines, projects, worries, and people, and instead, reconnect with the divine, your soul, your family, your children, and the things that are truly important in life.
2. Take a 10 minute nap everyday- a “power nap” so to speak. Rather than injecting caffeine into your system, or making a trip to the local bakery to pick up a cinnmon bun, go to a secluded spot and just close your eyes.
You have no idea how much this will rejuvenate, renew, and revive your mind and soul. It will also help you to complete more with less time.
3. Get 6-8 hours sleep. According to Ms. Huffington, when she started this habit, she worked less, but got more done.
4. Give up what no longer works: it can be a project, a dream, or something you have been believing or focusing on, but hasn't worked out. Ask yourself:.What do you really, really, truly want? Be honest and pay attention to the signs that come up.
5. Don't work hard, work smart.
Instead of working 24/7/365, Ariana decided to find a way of working less and achieving more, by adding 30 minutes meditation practice to her daily routine. If ultra-busy Ariana Huffington could fit it in her busy schedule, so can you.
6. Ariana suggests that you should ask yourself, “How do I make people feel?” Do you take the time to really care about them? To be truly present in their life? Do you honestly, truly listen?
7. Be fully present. It's the greatest lesson she learned from her daughters. Anything that matters requires your full attention. No multi-tasking anymore. You cannot give your attention to more than one thing at a time. By doing so, you sacrifice quality.
Below are two of her all-time favorite quotes that she lives by. By the way, I decided that these two quotes below are so true, so powerful, so brilliant, and so pure, that I'm going to declare them as my favorite quotes, and apply them to my everyday life when coaching other clients.
“Live life like everything is rigged in your favor.”
– Rumi
“We have what we seek. It is there all the time. And if we give it time it will make itself known to us.”
-Thomas Merton
Do you have your personal all-time favorite quote that you apply to your everyday life? I'd love to hear it.
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