The why's and how's of gratitude

I’ll be posting my most recent Youtube videos here every Tuesday from now on. This week I decided to talk about gratitude, because, well, it’s changed my life.

Gratitude is the gateway drug to happiness.

I would really appreciate your feedback on this one since I’m new on this whole Youtube thing and wanna know what you want me to fill my channel with. I wanna be helpful.

The three practices that I mention in the video are:

1. Gratitude lists

2. Sharing gratitude

3. Priming gratitude

And my previous tips of gratitude of course still applies:

1. Be specific in what you’re grateful for and why you’re grateful for it

2. Come up with new stuff all the time (there’s always so much to notice)

3. FEEL the feeling of gratitude, don’t just think it.

I wish you a beautiful and grateful rest of the week!

With all my love,

Helena

I started a Youtube-channel

Well, yes, this wasn’t really planned or top of my priorities but the other day I just felt so strongly guided to do it and that’s how everything beautiful in my life has started to I just went with it. My plan is to post every Tuesday on everything personal development and holistic health. If you feel called to it, please support me over there by subscribing and commenting and sharing and all those things.

All my IGTV’s from the fall will also be there tomorrow morning so you have lots to watch if you wanna.

Wohoo, this feels real exciting - I hope you feel it too :) I don’t know much about video editing or thumbnails or any of that stuff but I know I’ll learn along the way. Join me on the journey!

With all my love,

Helena

What "alignment before action" means to me

As a weekly commitment in my Productivity Planner I write it out. As an intention of my everyday I proclaim it. As a parentheses after every plan I make or goal I set out, there it is: Alignment before action.

Alignment for me means being in tune with my intuition, with a higher power, with myself. When in alignment I’m more present and much more able, to see clearly and act as a co-creator with the universe.

When I’m out of alignment everything I do is “tainted” with this misalignment and therefore don’t come out at its full potential. Sometimes it takes me down painful paths, sometimes it’s just a waste of time.

I know that I’m in alignment when I feel joy, curiosity, strength, expansion, faith and love. When I feel contracted, annoyed, angry or bored I know I’m out of alignment. It’s totally okay to be in this place of course, it’s part of being human. But when there my first priority is to deal with whatever needs dealing with, giving myself space to feel, to process and to let go. It’s not a time for action.

You could also explain being in alignment versus not as love versus fear. When in fear, I create more of it around me so I better not do a lot. When acting from a space of love, that’s what I’m creating more of in the world.

I’ve had three years of experimenting with this concept in my business so far, and the verdict is clear, alignment before action is all I need to create a business and life that I love. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have all of this “hard work” backwards. When I act out of alignment I get results on a much higher level so I don’t need to do as much. And, a lot of the time, I just need to get out of the way and let things unfold in beautiful ways in front of my eyes.

So, 2020, here’s my commitment to you, once again: Alignment before action.

With all my love,

Helena

How to create the Holiday that you're longing for

Hey! It’s almost Christmas and I’m about to take a short break from most of what I do in my business and probably a little longer break from the blog but I do want to leave you with this: How to create the Holiday that you’re longing for.

We do what we do because we want to feel a certain way. We plan our Holidays in pursuit of getting to feel the way we want to feel. But what if we turned it all around to realize that we don’t actually need all those external circumstances to be a certain way for us to get to feel the way we want to feel.

Imagine this Holiday, Christmas and New Year’s, being everything you ever dreamed of, perfect in every sense, what feelings are you experiencing?

Joy? Love? Connection? Peace? Pleasure? Relaxation? Meaning? Community? Safety? Balance? Creativity? Or something else?

Now that you know what the feelings you’re longing for are, you can simplify everything by going for the feeling first and realize how much power you have over your own life quality. If you long to feel joy you can put on a great song and dance. If you wanna feel love you can hang out with a pet or stay extra long in a hug. If you wanna feel connection you can reach out to that friend that you’re missing. If you wanna feel peace you can go out in nature and sit for a while, leaning on a tree or a rock. If you want to feel pleasure you can enjoy that piece of chocolate for at least a minute and really taste it. I could go on and on but I think you’re getting it.

Life is a long string of moments linked together through time. You can affect those moments. Create lots of moments in presence where you create the feeling that you want to feel and you don’t need everything to be perfect around you. You don’t need to control everything that happens this Christmas. You can relax.

I’m hosting a retreat in January where we’ll create a conscious plan for 2020 starting with the feelings you’re longing for using this process, Desire Mapping. It’s in Swedish and registration closes December 27th. I hope to see you there. All info and registration here.

I’ve also created an online program for starting the new decade off with intention and pleasure. You can read more about it here. The program starts January 3rd so you need to hop on latest January 2nd.

Wishing you a nice and present Christmas and New Year’s <3

With all my love,

Helena

A first aid kit for when life falls apart

The other day I stumbled upon a re-post of an article I wrote a couple of years ago for Tiny Buddha. As I read through the hundreds of comments on the post and more than 3 000 shares I teared up over how it seamed to resonate with so many people.

I summarized a first aid kit because I wish I would have had one in my time of crisis. And even though words don’t fix everything, it seams to actually help others when in it too. I recommend you read the whole article here . Below are the different parts of the first aid kit.

1. Feel your feelings

2. Let people in

3. Remember, you’re not alone

4. Write it out

5. Move outside

6. Maybe you’re not dying?

7. This too will change

And this poem that I wrote years ago to myself and later posted on one of my first blogs.

To me, if I ever end up there again, and to anyone else, who’s ever been there, or are right now, in the black hole:

It will get better. There is a meaning to what you’re going through. 

You will feel like living again. 

If you can’t do anything else but breathe, do just that; you don’t have to do anything else.  

Don’t fight it. Let it be. It is as it should be and it’s okay. Just be. Don’t judge. Let go. 

Look at what’s beautiful. Listen to what gives you peace. Eat what tastes good. Do what feels nice. Even if it feels pointless right now, it’s good for your soul.  

Ask for help. 

Let other people help you. Let other people take care of you. 

Cry. Scream. Wail. Laugh. Sleep. Close your eyes. Do whatever you need to do. Let it out. And embrace.  

It will get better. I promise.

With all my love,
Helena

Share, share, share

We are a species used to live in tribes. Human beings have been around for about 50 000 years but it’s only in the last 10 000 years that we would gather in larger groups than 150 or so. In these giants groups of people that we now create in companies and in our society it’s really easy to disappear in the crowd. But we need real human connection, we all need to be seen, heard and valued.

You will stand out from the crowd when you show your real self. When you share of yourself and your story. That’s how we connect.

I meet so many people who feel so lonely and isolated. Who don’t have anyone to share their life and their struggles with. If only you would all find each other and realize that you’re not alone in feeling lonely. We all do that. But there’s an antidote and that’s sharing. Sharing of our lives. And when you start others will follow.

Sure, there’s a risk that people won’t get you. That’s okay. It might hurt for a bit but you’ll get past it, and it will be worth it.

So, please share. Of yourself, your talents and gifts, of your stories and your pain. Share yourself with the world and you’ll find that your not alone at all. We’re all there, being human with you.

With all my love,

Helena

What's easy in ease is so difficult when things are difficult

Life really is 10% of what happens to us and 90% how we react to and deal with it. I believe this and it’s my own-lived experience.

But the confirmation bias in our minds can play tricks on us. It means that if we’ve made up our mind that everything is working out for us and that life is good, then that’s what our mind will go looking for proof to. And on the opposite, if you believe that life is out to get you and that you just don’t have it in you to create a good life for yourself, well, that’s what your mind will be looking for. And ultimately, that’s the reality you’ll manifest.

That’s why what's easy in ease is so, god damn, hard when things are difficult. Because when you’re in pain you’re looking at the world with that lens. And when you’re in love with life, love is all you see.

So, how do we get around this? Well, your confirmation bias is based on the belief you’re holding. And beliefs are just thoughts we keep repeating. So when you change the words you change your world. And it would really be this easy when in ease. But it isn’t all that easy when things are difficult, are they?

I don’t have a definitive answer to how we change our thoughts when things are difficult because it feels so freaking hard. But I do know this; this too shall pass. And whatever you are learning right now, will be a gift you’ll get to enjoy in the future. I promise you that. I promise me that.

With all my love,

Helena

Core Desired Feelings in action

I’m standing in my bathroom, brushing teets and looking at my core desired feelings on my bathroom mirror. Faith. Joy. Community. Alignment. Authenticity. What can I do today to get to feel the way I most want to feel?

This is how I start my everyday. Core desired feelings in mind when deliberately planning my day.

Faith - my morning practice, starting with gratitude for what I have and by meditating and listening inwards.

Joy - whenever I get too serious I take a dance break or watch something funny on Youtube.

Community - I make sure I share my everyday life with people that I feel safe with. I invest in my relationships and try to contribute with my light wherever I go. And share my darkness when I need to get it out from the shadow.

Alignment - before action. It’s written everywhere in my productivity planner. Because it’s my absolute experience that whatever I share and create in alignment gives love ripples everywhere for both me and the people affected by me. When out of alignment I deal with what brought me out of alignment to get back into it.

Authenticity - I try to share as vulnerably as I can. Both online and in the in the real world. Or both are real to me. I wanna live my life close to my heart and I listen to others with my whole being.

Here I am again, before bed, in front of my bathroom mirror, brushing teeth. How has this day been? Well, the more of my core desired feelings I’ve created the better the day. It’s as simple as that. Because life is nothing but a long string of moments patched together by time. And we can create so many magical moments in a day, by being aware of the way we want to feel and how to go about creating those feelings in our lives.

If you wanna know more about this process (are in Stockholm and understand Swedish) check out this retreat that I’ve created in November. It’ll be a magical weekend!

With all my love,

Helena