Your mind, body and soul glow up guide

I know it’s already halfway through the year. But it is never too late to glow up! I believe a full glow up includes your mind body and soul, so here’s your perfect glow up guide to do just that!

Mind

I believe this is the most important to work on, to achieve the best glow up. If you don’t have a good mindset, then I don’t think the others (body and soul) can fully be achieved.

I do however think the mind is the hardest to work on. So don’t beat yourself up if it takes a while.

I am still in the process of ‘glowing up’ my mind, and do not claim to be perfect, but I am definitely in a better mental place than I have been. So lets work on this together!

Positive mindset

Having a positive outlook on life is harder than it looks.

It is easy to look for the negative things, and overlook the positive things.

But once you start noticing the small (and big) positive things in life, more will come!

So, it’s easy to say just look for the positive things in life, and turn the negatives into positive, but how do we actually get a positive mindset?

• Gratitude. Writing, or intentionally thinking about things that you are grateful for everyday, allows you to remind yourself the things you have in your life that are positive. There are so many things that you should be grateful for. Whenever you are feeling unlucky, or you’re having a bad day, just think about what you’re grateful for.
  • For example, your health, the food in your fridge, the clothes in your wardrobe. But also the things that are bigger, like the fact you have a phone, holidays you go on, materialistic things that you have.
• Be delusional. If you have a goal, or an aspiration, do you think you are going to reach that telling yourself that it’s too unrealistic, and that you’ll never get there? No. Never EVER tell yourself that you can’t do something you are really passionate about and want to do.
  • Tell yourself everyday that you CAN reach that goal. Tell yourself that if someone else has done it, then why can’t you. Tell yourself that you are capable and that it is your dream because you were made to do it.
• Affirmations. Every morning, I say affirmations to myself, and it starts the day off with a positive mindset. I tell myself everything that I want out of life or for myself. Starting the day with this mindset, keeps me thinking about my goals, and keeps my mindset positive. By telling myself that I am these things, or I have these things, lets my mind and my feelings know that I have everything that I want, instead of telling myself that I don’t have any of this.
  • I tell myself that I am smart, I am healthy, I am successful, I am financially free, etc.

Positive self talk

This one is probably the hardest thing to work on.

I have grown up constantly talking negatively about myself, and always saying negative things about my appearance and about my personality.

It is natural to say ‘oh I’m so dumb’ ‘I’m so fat’ ‘I’m so stupid’. But if you think about it, you would never say that to your best friend, or your mam, so why are you saying it to yourself?!

It’s obviously WAY easier said than done to stop the negative self talk, but here are some of the things that I have been doing to help so I can achieve that glow up!

• Whenever you say something bad, stop yourself. Whenever I catch myself saying something bad about myself, I say ‘stop, why am I speaking to myself like this? I am not stupid’. Sometimes you have to be your own hype woman, and tell yourself to stop thinking those things!
• Think about all of the positive things about yourself. Again with the positive mindset, don’t focus on all of the negative things. Focus on the positive things, and more will come.
  • Tell yourself you think you have beautiful eyes, lips, etc.
  • If you are self conscious of something, for example your legs, tell yourself, actually they’re amazing. They have walked me to my favourite places, they are strong, they carry me, etc.
• Give yourself compliments. It is uncommon for people to say to themselves, you look good today, or your hair looks amazing. Usually, it is more normal to say ‘ugh I look weird today’ or pick out any flaws you think you have.
  • Trust me when I say, you need to be your own hype woman. You need to believe that you are amazing, because YOU ARE.
• Accept compliments from other people. Whenever someone gives me a compliment, I am usually like ‘ugh stop I’m not looking that good’ or ‘you’re way better’, etc. Why whenever we get a compliment, we feel the need to say something bad about ourselves, almost to even out the compliment we’ve just been given?
  • Instead of saying anything negative, say ‘thank you so much *compliment the other person*’. The more we bring ourselves and other people up, the better the glow up will be!

Lower your stress and anxiety

Again, all of these things are easier said than done.

Stress and anxiety are massive parts of people’s everyday lives, and it is something that we definitely want to lower!

How can we lower stress and anxiety?

• Journal. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Journaling is so good for lowering stress. Some people don’t like free writing, some people don’t like prompts. So that’s why you have to find what works for you!
  • Journaling your stresses and seeing things from a different perspective is an amazing tool to lower stress and anxiety, because you’re firstly getting all of the weight of your shoulders by letting it out. Then you are able to view the problem from an outside perspective. Then you can solve it easier.
• Plan. If you are stressed because you feel overwhelmed, or out of control, planning is amazing for reducing that. Especially in school, or work, when you have a lot to do and you feel like you don’t even know where to start.
  • Getting everything out so that you can see it on paper, (or your phone, or laptop), will already be so helpful. Then you can write to do list’s and block time, to ease your stress and let you know that you can get everything done!
• Practice self care. Anything that looks like self care to you. That could be reading a book, taking a bath, going for a walk, doing a face mask. Anything that helps you de stress and take your mind off things, will help you to lower your stress and anxiety, and give you the ultimate glow up!. You need to fill your own cup, before you can fill anyone else’s.
  • You are the main priority, and when you are feeling burnt out, you are allowed to take a rest and take some time for yourself.

Body

I’m not going to be telling you how to get your dream physique.

I am going to be helping you feel happy in your body, as well as getting healthier.

There have been many times I have went on diets, followed workout plans, exhausted myself, to get my ‘dream body’. And guess what, it didn’t work. I still wasn’t happy no matter what my body looked like, because the dream body that I wanted, was someone else’s.

So how do we glow up our body?

• Move more. It isn’t good for you if you just sit and do nothing all day. Your body will not thank you for it. I promise you, moving your body, no matter how you choose to do it, will make you feel so much better, and give you that glow up that you’re wanting.
  • Movement in any way is good. Whether that’s a walk, Pilates, strength training, yoga, stretching. Whatever interests you and makes you feel good is what you should focus on. And instead of focusing on how it can make your body look, focus on how it makes your body feel.
• Eat balanced. What has helped me feel the most confident and at peace with food, is eating balanced. This is because I feel like I am actually fuelling my body right, which is helping my body feel healthier. To me, balanced is where every meal (or nearly every meal – we don’t beat ourselves up here), has a protein, carb, and a fat (+ some nutrients).
  • This keeps you full and satisfied, gives you energy throughout the day and makes you feel amazing. Food freedom is an amazing thing, and something that I have worked on so much over the past year. It means that no food is off limits, which can help you not binge all the foods you restricted later on! I have a whole post on intuitive eating if you are interested: http://bigsisterera.com/heres-the-top-reasons-you-should-be-intuitive-eating/
• Moisturise everyday. We don’t want no crusty dusty skin. Moisturising everyday instantly makes me feel better and more put together! It also makes you smell nice, and feel smooth. What more could you want?
• Don’t compare your body to anyone else’s. Comparison is the thief of joy. Repeat that again. You cannot look like someone else. It’s impossible (I mean of course if you’re related you may look similar, and there are similar body types out there). Everyone needs different things. People move their body different, people need different calories and food, no one is the same.
  • You comparing yourself to someone else, is like you comparing yourself to your dog. Weird analogy I know, but you’s both need different things to thrive.
• Oil your hair. I have noticed the biggest difference since oiling my hair. I used to get my hair dyed very very blonde, it wasn’t the healthiest. Ever since I started properly oiling my hair, especially around my hairline, I have noticed so much growth and it looks way more healthy.
  • I have also stopped dyeing my hair as much, but obviously if you prefer your hair being dyed, then stick with that, because it’s all about feeling the most confident. But not dyeing my hair as often has really helped my hair!
• Have a solid skincare routine. I don’t care if it’s 2 steps. Having a consistent skincare routine will help your skin so much. I have the simplest skincare routine, where most days, all I’m using is cleanser, moisturiser and sunscreen. That’s all you need. I have a more in depth skincare routine here: http://bigsisterera.com/how-to-use-cycle-syncing-to-get-rid-of-your-acne-in-4-months/
  • On the topic of sunscreen. DO NOT SKIP IT! No matter if it’s cold and raining outside, you will thank yourself so much when you are older and you have barely any wrinkles and people will be asking you for your glow up guide when you are 40, looking like a 25 year old!

Soul

Mind and soul are quite similar. But to me, ‘glowing up’ your soul is all about making yourself truly happy and bringing joy into your life.

So yes, a lot of the mindset tips will feed into this, because with a positive mindset, you can fully appreciate the joyful things.

So here’s everything that I am doing to ‘glow up’ my soul:

• Celebrating the small wins. In life, there are only a handful of big wins. Such as graduating, passing your driving test, buying a house, having a baby, getting your dream job. So your telling me that you’re only going to celebrate a handful of times in your life?
  • You need to celebrate the small wins, like making it through the week, finishing your book, crushing your goals at work, going a whole day speaking positively about yourself, complimenting strangers. All of the things that you feel proud of yourself for, that you overlook and say it’s not important enough to celebrate. You should celebrate.
  • You can celebrate a number of ways: treating yourself to your favourite drink, going out for a meal, getting your nails done, watching a movie and having a night off, have a pamper night, literally anything you can think of, big or small, celebrate, because you just being here is something to celebrate!!!
• Heal your inner child. This ranges from person to person. It could be healing your relationship with food, with your body, it could be you doing activities you loved to do as a child, it could be trying new activities you really wanted to do as a child but never got to do.
  • Healing your inner child will make you feel so much joy, and it will make you feel proud of yourself that you are taking the time to do things for that little child you were not too long ago.
• Write down / take pictures of things that make you happy everyday. Being aware of the little things and appreciating them is so good for the soul. And it is also good for the mind, as you are constantly looking for little joyous things that you can take a picture of / write down for the day.
  • It could be anything from your morning matcha, your outfit of the day, a nice smell, the trees, the weather. (Just writing all of these things make me really appreciate that I am alive and get to experience all of this – life is crazy).
• Have sleepovers. As an adult, when was the last time you had a sleepover with your friends / siblings? They were always something to look forward to when you were younger, and I feel like making an occasion of it, getting your favourite sweets, maybe making pizza, or ordering food, watching your favourite movies and falling asleep together. There is something so wholesome about it, and definitely very good for the soul (and healing your inner child).
• Walk / go outside everyday. I remember when I was younger and I used to go outside with my friends, that is when there was less problems, less comparisons, less negativity. And I know we were all young then so we couldn’t have had that many problems. But going outside and getting fresh air is so good for the mind and soul.
  • I read something that said walking is more stimulating for your brain than reading. Which is crazy. But all of your sense will be so happy.

Thank you for reading <3

I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it!

These things have helped me massively glow up my mind, body and soul, and I hope they help you do the same!!

If anyone needs to talk, the comment section is down below, as well as my email which is [email protected], and my socials are on the homepage of this blog too!

You are doing amazing and I am so proud of you!! I can’t wait to see your glow up!!