In today's episode of the Live Life Extraordinary Podcast, we talk about self care and why it's a lifestyle, and not just a routine of things you do in the morning.

Self Care is anything that you're doing, to take care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally, energetically or spiritually. This can be things like yoga, breathwork, meditation or journaling, but it can also be things like, what you're eating, if you're exercising, the types of relationships you're participating in, how much media you're consuming, what type of media you're consuming, etc.

Living a self care “lifestyle” is about, every single moment of your life, assessing what is going to be for your best and highest good, and then making the decisions that are in alignment with that.

It can feel really good to lay down after work and watch Netflix while binge eating your favorite snacks, but is that of your best and highest good? Probably not.  Self care is not just about  waking up in the morning and meditating for 10 minutes, it’s a conscious choice in every moment of your life.

Living a self care lifestyle takes both boundaries and priorities. It's about prioritizing yourself in your life, which sounds very selfish but in reality, when you prioritize yourself, and prioritize the care of yourself, you are able to show up as the best version of yourself, for your family, in your household, at your job, etc.

Think about how you interact with the people and things in your life when you are in a really good mood, when you're really taking care of, when you're well rested, when you're feeling good. Then think about how you interact with those same people and things on days when you're exhausted, burnt out, stressed, frustrated, angry, etc. The interactions you have are probably much different. That's why self care is so important. Because as you become the highest and best version of yourself, you can show up in your life as that version of yourself. When you prioritize yourself, you are prioritizing your career, your health, your family, your wealth. You prioritize EVERYTHING in your life when you choose to prioritize yourself first.

The second thing is boundaries. We as a society tend to struggle with boundaries, we are constantly trying to please other people and seem to have a hard time saying “no” to things and many of us believe (either consciously or subconsciously) that setting boundaries is mean. But there's nothing about boundaries that has to be aggressive, or assertive, or rude or mean. It actually comes from a really loving space. You are loving, honoring and respecting yourself and your time enough to communicate with those around you to let them know what you're in need of. And 9 times out of 10 they're going to be very respectful of that because the people around you want what's best for you too. But it's not just about having boundaries with the people and things in our lives, we often neglect to realize that having boundaries with ourselves is very, very important and valuable as well. What I mean by this is, if you say to yourself, every morning when I wake up I'm not going to check my phone for the first 10 minutes of my day because it makes me stressed and anxious, that is setting a boundary with yourself. For a whole episode on healthy boundaries click here!

Having a morning routine will help you become the best version of yourself so that you can set the right priorities and boundaries throughout the day, learn how to craft the PERFECT morning routine with my FREE Morning Magic Masterclass

And for help crafting the ultimate self care lifestyle click here to download the FREE Fall In Love With Yourself: Fall Self Care Guide

With love and Gratitude,

B ♥

*Trigger warning* This episode talks about trauma, what it is, signs of trauma, complexity of trauma, self healing, etc. If you have experienced trauma that has significantly impacted you please proceed at your own discretion.

In today's episode of the Live Life Extraordinary podcast, we're going to be talking about trauma and about self healing. Everybody on Earth has experienced some sort of trauma at some point within our lives. We often believe that trauma is a major event like what war veterans experience or someone in an abusive relationship experiences or someone in a really bad car accident experiences. But trauma very simply put, is anything that dysregulates the central nervous system. So you could be walking out of the bathroom at your house and someone that you live with as a joke could jump out to scare you and if it is a form of dysregulation, it was a form of trauma. It seems really, really silly but it's important for us to recognize this because there are a lot of traumatic experiences that happen in our lives and unless we are learning what trauma really is, and how it presents itself, and how we can heal it and move through it and process it, then we're going to continue to live with all of these experiences ingrained in our body, our minds, our hearts and our souls. And it's going to hold us back from being the version of the self that we want to be and living the version of our lives that we desire to live. 

In terms of trauma, the complexity of trauma has nothing to do with how severe the trauma is but at what age you experienced the trauma, which I think is very fascinating. Simple trauma is any type of trauma we experience in our adult years, complex trauma is anything we experience in our childhood years. This is because between the ages of zero and seven, everything that we are experiencing as we are in those developmental phases, gets ingrained within our bodies and our minds as the foundation. So if we are starting life in very traumatic situations, we are forming a foundation based on these situations, and then it's a little bit more challenging to heal from them. 

Regardless of whether you have trauma that's simple or complex, there is space for healing. If you’re an adult and you're not sure whether you have any trauma that you're holding on to and that's inhibiting your life, some of the signs that you can recognize of trauma are being chronically upset, whether that's chronically anxious, or depressed, or frustrated or angry or sad, or anything like that. And it might seem like there's no root to it, like “I just always felt irritated and I don't know why” or “I'm just always so frustrated and I don't know why”.

Another thing is chronic pain. If you are somebody who has chronic pain and you've gone to a doctor and a chiropractor and a massage therapist, yet for some reason, there seems to be no root cause, it could be mental and emotional trauma that has been stored within your physical body that is now being stuck there. Unfortunately, as humans, we are taught to be strong and to be rigid, and to hold ourselves together and to pull ourselves together, so we don't allow ourselves the time or the space to sit and  process what we've gone through and release it.

Resources I’ve used to heal trauma: licensed therapists, yoga, breathwork, EFT, Meditation.

Regardless of where you're at in your journey. My hope is that this was informative, and gave you some new perspectives so that you can move forward in an empowered way. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode, and I cannot wait to connect with you again in another episode of the Live Life Extraordinary podcast.

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Today's Episode is all about Positive Affirmations. Learn why you should use them, how to create ones that are effective, and ways that you can use your positive affirmations once you craft the ones that are ideal for you.

Positive affirmations or mantras, are words or phrases that you can recite to yourself either silently, out loud or in written form, in order to reframe your mindset. For example, if you're struggling with anxiety, you can use affirmations like “I am at peace” or “peace begins with me”. What we focus on will grow. If you have constant thoughts about your fear, your anxiety and judgments of yourself, your neuro pathways, fire information from one neuron to the other, will strengthen and cause you to have more of these fears, anxieties and judgements.

Let's say you have a neural pathway in your brain that's all about fear and anxiety, every time you think about fear and anxiety, it comes a little bit faster, and a little bit easier to your mind. If instead, you’re thinking about the sensations of peace and calm, the pathway to anxiety will start to weaken and the pathway to peace and calm is going to start to strengthen.

One of the ways that we can start to rework these neural pathways is through positive affirmations.

Tips for creating custom affirmations:

1.  State your affirmations as if they are already true. Avoid using phrases like I will, I should, I wish, I desire, I hope I pray, etc. Instead use phrases like I am or I have. Affirmations like I will be peaceful or I desire peace or I pray for peace tell your brain that you aren’t already peaceful and  reinforces the stress or anxiety that you're going through. Use affirmations, like I am at peace, or I am grateful for the peace I experience in my life. If you’re in a really crappy situation, it might be hard for you to believe your affirmations. If your brain doesn’t believe your affirmations it will ignore them and continue focusing on the reality that it knows to be true.

2. Use positive statements to focus on what you desire.  Don’t use affirmations like I am debt free, I am losing weight or I am not broke because you're focusing in on the debt, on the anxiety weight or whatever it is you’re trying to let go of. Focus your affirmations insetad on the abundance that comes from not being in debt, or the freedom that comes from not being in debt and focusing specifically on what it is you desire. This is important because if I tell you not to think of a purple elephant. Basically your brain has to focus on the debt, anxiety, weight, judgement, etc to "unthink" it.

Three ways to use your affirmations:

There are tons and tons of other ways to use affirmations.

Learn more about affirmations with the Self Care Bundle, It includes an affirmation workbook, a journaling workbook, 21 days of guided meditations, a breathwork workshop, an EFT Tapping workshop and MORE! The bundle is valued at $111 but you can get access for just $66! Click here to learn more about the bundle!

Keywords: Affirmations     Peace     Anxiety     Positive Affirmations     Calm     Focus     Mind     Desire     Life     Brain     Podcast Episode     Alignment     Breathing     Meditation     Self Care     Mindset    Positive Mindset

On my Colorado Road Trip I was the most aligned and in flow that I have ever been. I was truly living as my highest self and this was reflected in my environment. 

I was manifesting things from my vision board quicker than I could imagine and I was receiving signs from the universe and intuitive downloads left and right. 

Books mentioned in this podcast episode:

You Are a Badass At Making Money

Think and Grow Rich

E2

Ready to Manifest your dream reality? Join me for Manifest Destiny, the Oceanfront retreat taking place in January 2022! Limited space available, details and registration at biancamjohnson.com/manifest

Yoga, meditation, breathwork, journaling and similar practices have all been on the rise with self care movements over the last several years. 

Whether you started practicing self care for mental clarity or emotional balance, it's important to understand that self care is very deeply a spiritual practice and is an essential part of manifestation.

 When we are stressed, frustrated and anxious we have a lot of "stuff" clogging up our minds that effect our manifestation power, when we feel crummy we don't want to take aligned action and often end up sabotaging our manifestations and when all of this is taking place we experience blocks in our spiritual connection. 

 "When the mind is still the soul speaks" 

 You can't listen to your soul if the mind is in control. Your self care time is your opportunity to truly get to know yourself, to show yourself radical love, to come into full alignment, to get clear on what you truly desire to experience in this life. 

If you're ready to start your journey of radical self care join my FREE Morning Magic Masterclass that teaches you how to craft the perfect morning ritual to be your best self and live your best life. Details and registration for the FREE Masterclass https://www.biancamjohnson.com/free

Today's episode of the Live Life Extraordinary Podcast includes special guest Danie!

Danie is a internationally known and accredited, board certified Life and Success Coach, Hypnotist, Neuro-linguistic Programming Practitioner, Emotional Freedom Techniques Practitioner and TIME Techniques Practitioner. Equipped with techniques that rewire the patterns of the brain, Danie is able to facilitate massive shifts in the life's of her clients which results in peace and growth in the mind body and spirit.

In the episode we talk about things like living authentically, manifesting your dreams and having faith in your manifestation process.

Danie is such a bright light in our world and isn't afraid to speak Truth with a capital "T". Her perspective on self development and spirituality is such a refreshing one.

If you want to connect with Danie further check out the links below!

Danie's Instagram

Danie's Main Links

Danie's Website

Connect with Bianca at the links Below

Bianca's Instagram 

Bianca's Podcast "The Live Life Extraordinary Podcast"

Bianca's Main Links

Bianca's Website

If you learned about manifestation from the secret you might think that you can simply attract your desires through law of attraction but this is far from the truth. Law of attraction is ONE of the universal laws at play that help you manifest your desires.

Other universal laws include the law of karma, the law of divine balance and the law of inspired action.

But even with all of the universal laws, these are JUST the spiritual aspects of manifestation. You still have to have the proper mindset and the embodiment of your knowledge, this is why manifestation is a mind, body, spirit practice.

You can try to manifest through just hard work or just spiritual practices but there will always be something that is lacking or out of balance. 

If you want to learn about all of the universal laws and about how you can start manifesting from a place of wholeness, join me for Manifest Destiny the Oceanfront retreat happening in January 2022! Click here for details and registration. 

Over that last several weeks members of our community have submitted questions about spirituality, intuition, manifestation, life purpose and more!

This week in the Live Life Extraordinary Podcast you get your questions answered!

Referenced in this episode are the following:

Is Your RAS (Raticular Activating System) Working FOR or Against You?

What Do Purple Elephants, Pineapples and Roses have to do with Spirituality?

Your Greatest Gift

Manifest Your Destiny

Manifest Destiny 2022 Oceanfront Retreat

*DISCLAIMER* I am NOT a mental health practitioner. This episode is not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose or treat any disease. If you are struggling with mental health PLEASE seek the help of a licensed practitioner. 

*TRIGGER WARNING* This episode discussed topics like depression, mental health and suicidal ideation. It may not be suitable for all audiences. If you are struggling deeply with mental health and feel this topic would be hurtful or harmful please do not press play. 

*PLEASE NOTE* There is no one size fits all approach. If you listen to my journey and it inspires you to do what I did GREAT. If what I did doesn't work for you, know that you are not broken, there is nothing wrong with you. Your journey is unique and should be treated as such. Similarly if you have received help from a professional and did not find the healing you were looking for, do NOT feel hopeless. There is something or someone out there that can guide you in your journey. Do NOT give up hope. Your health, happiness and healing is waiting for you. Keep seeking until it is found. 

With deep love,

B ♥