Peaceful Habits: Transforming Chaos Into Calm

Hey, my name is Teresa Hildebrand and this is Organized Chaos. We take a deep dive into living with intentionality, focusing on what's important in our lives so we can truly feel our best. It may feel chaotic at times, but with a little organization, the right mindset and a ton of self-love, we can still thrive. Join me as we talk to other busy moms and experts who will share tips and strategies to help you reach your goals. Hope you enjoy this episode of Organized Chaos. Now on to the show. Hey friends, welcome to this episode of Organized Chaos. Today we're going to be talking about peaceful habits. Now I've talked about all different kinds of habits before habits for success, habits for your morning routine. I want to specifically talk about peaceful habits, because this is a little bit different, but it's a way to really help you calm the chaos in your life and your work Because, let's face it, we don't take the time to really slow down and create a way for us to ease the stress a little bit and reframe the challenges that we struggle with every single day. So I want to give you some ideas on things that you can do that aren't just, like in the moment, type habits, more of things that you can establish. That will give you that upper hand so that you don't find yourself in really stressful situations or just not being able to manage the situations that you have on a daily basis. So it's really inevitable that we're going to have some type of chaos in life and in work. It's about really embracing that, knowing that this is kind of how life is sometimes, but it doesn't take away from the stress that that causes us and how it can affect our well-being. So chaos can really be a catalyst for growth and learning. So, rather than seeing chaos as this thing that you really want to stay away from, it's more of understanding that it's going to happen, it's inevitable, but you can grow and you can learn from it and really find the opportunities around it. I really think about this in my life when it has been really chaotic and kind of like a mess sometimes in life, and I find that I can really use it as self-discovery, as a way for me to understand myself and how I react to things. So it could give me a chance to kind of reflect on that and think, okay, how do I want to show a better next time and how can I avoid some of this next time. So it's really about understanding yourself, what makes you tick, what makes you angry, what makes you like snap, and really taking the time to find those triggers and create a plan to do something different, to say something different, to react in a different way, that you will feel much better about yourself. But I wanna take it one step further and talk about these peaceful habits, because this is more of a proactive rather than reactive approach to things. So why create peaceful habits? Now, like I said, this is kind of like a way to reduce stress and really kind of help you show up as your best self. It really can improve your mental and emotional well-being so it can contribute in maintaining really inner peace. So we all have kind of like those habits that are reactionary, those things that we do that sometimes we don't even realize we're doing. Let's say, our kids are acting up and we tend to yell or snap. Those are some of those habits that just happen automatically because that's something that you feel like you have to do in the moment to kind of stop the chaos. But I wanna talk about the difference between kind of like reactionary habits and intentional habits, which are gonna be more of those peaceful habits. So, like I said, reactionary habits are those habits that just happen automatically, that you don't even realize are coming, but it just happens because you just want you know whatever is happening to stop. Intentional habits are the things that you kind of put in place as a plan. You know if, hey, if my child starts acting up or starts to make a scene, this is what I'm gonna do instead of reacting, right? So you're kind of putting, like, this plan in place where you're going to have tools in your toolbox that will allow you to show up as the better version of yourself, right? Because you know, nobody wants to yell at their kids. Nobody wants to, you know, create even more of a scene in public. So there are certain things that we can do and kind of identify that, okay, if you know Susie acts up this way and you know, at the store or in a restaurant, this is what I'm gonna do, like I'm gonna stay calm and I'm gonna, you know, you identify whatever those habits are that are gonna allow you to take a little bit more control of the situation but, most importantly, take more control of yourself, and you can most definitely apply some of these habits for your work, because there are certain things that happen in your business that you react to, and if you implement some of these other habits and be more intentional about it, it can actually help you so much more in business and contribute more to your success. Now, a lot of these intentional habits are piece focused habits, so things that kind of bring down the temperature. So I wanna share one of those habits and this is probably my favorite habit and something that I have learned in the last few years and that is self-coaching. So this is definitely the best tool for navigating chaos, because we live our lives based off of our own perceptions, meaning that life happens, situations and circumstances happen, and the way we live our lives are based off of the interpretation we have of those situations, and it differs from person to person, based off of how you grew up, your life experiences, the things that have happened to you. So all of that comes into play when life is chaotic, because we interpret it in a specific way and, based off of that interpretation, we feel a certain way about it, and when we feel a certain way about it, then we act accordingly. That drives our behavior and our actions, and then we ultimately manifest whatever it is that we originally perceived. So let me give you an example. Let's go back to the child who was acting up. So let's say that your child starts screaming in the store. Right, our interpretation of this could be and it's an automatic thought we could perceive this as us not being a good mom. So if we think I'm not a good mom, we'll feel a certain way. I mean I would feel bad or feel like a failure. And if I feel like a failure, then the actions that I take are just well, I'm just gonna yell at this child because I just want her to stop yelling, or stop throwing a tantrum in front of everybody because I'm embarrassed. And then I'm gonna start thinking well, like if I was a better mom, then this wouldn't happen, she wouldn't have these outbursts in public or she wouldn't act this way. And you don't find ways that you can kind of prevent this from getting worse or happening again. So it's kind of like something that you brush off and then what you're ultimately manifesting and this is not true, but you're ultimately manifesting the original thought of you not being a good mom, and the cycle will just continue. And of course, this doesn't harness any type of peace right in our lives. It just adds on to the chaos. So, in order to self-coach, you have to understand that whatever is happening on the outside is not something that you can control. However, you can control how you react. You can control how you perceive the situation in order to be able to take on the behavior of someone who can maintain the calm or who can feel a certain way, so that you take on the behaviors of someone who can bring down the temperature in the situation or prevent it. All together, and creating this habit of self-coaching can really help you develop that resiliency and adaptability, because you can feel like you can take on anything, because you know that you're going to be able to manage situations and interpret situations in a way that will help bring out the best in you and the best reaction in you. So this leads me to fostering inner peace with peaceful habits. So this can be things like meditation, practicing gratitude and mindfulness. Those are really great peaceful habits that you can do on a daily basis that are going to help create that inner peace that'll help you show up as the best version of yourself. And having those consistent peaceful habits will actually help you with the original habit that I talked about self-coaching, because this is going to give you a way to just bring out the best in you, bring the best version of you, to any situation. Now, of course, life isn't perfect and life is not all about seeing the silver lining and everything. But it's just about certain situations where you can perceive it in a different way and that can help you. That can help you with this and having these peaceful habits are going to kind of bring you down to a level where you don't feel like you're super stressed and like way up here and always reacting, and these habits don't take up a lot of time at all. I created a seven minute guided meditation, first off because I needed it, but also because I thought it was a really great tool for mompreneurs and it's a way to like relax and really take time for yourself, and I'll actually link it in the show notes if that's something that you want to start implementing. But practicing gratitude is something that takes seconds, but it can make a huge difference in your day. I usually do that in the mornings In my journal. I just write something that I'm thankful for and I try to do something different every single day because we can always find something to be thankful for. And then, of course, mindfulness is also just another practice, and this is really a great way to kind of put some space in between the situations and your reaction. It's about knowing that, okay, last time I reacted this way and I didn't like it. Let me see if I can find a different way. And I know it can't be hard, because when you're in the thick of it it's sometimes not even possible to do that. Like I said, we have those automatic habits that we tend to like kind of lash out. But having that mindfulness will get you to kind of step away from the chaos and kind of see it in the bird's eye view and really take some time to think about how you really want to show up. Okay, so I talked about a few things. I talked about like how you can actually self-coach and creating some of those peaceful habits like meditation, mindfulness and practicing gratitude. There are tons of other peaceful habits, but I wanted to stick with these because I think these are really the most impactful ones. So I hope that was helpful and I hope you can kind of create like a reframe to really maintain your composure when you're under pressure, because many times we do things or say things that we really don't mean, but because it's in the moment and because we're reacting, then we start kind of getting into a cycle of beating ourselves up and that is where the self-coaching comes in and understanding that we're all human and we always have a chance to make it better. So, like I said, I hope that was helpful. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you next week.