SigmaU Blog

Going through loss is such a complex process. I found myself slipping into thoughts that were more than regular sadness. I found myself in despair and teetering on entering another period of depression. I reflected on where I was at, through journaling, and realized that there were small things I could do to make this transitionary period easier, a little brighter and a way to cherish life.

Positive Inputs

One of the things I needed to regain control of was what I was listening to. I love listening to charged debates, but during this time I recognized it wasn’t serving me. In fact, it was making me edgy and pessimistic. I replaced my fiery podcast hosts and went back to the basics of personal development during my morning workouts, and it’s been helpful to ground me and refocus my energy on what I can control.

Pause & Reflect

The other powerful thing I found was self-reflection. Taking the time to look at the situation with a different perspective. I asked myself

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I know better, but I did it anyway! I checked my email and read a news headline before I was finished my morning routine and you know what? It messed with my head!

One thing that I’ve learned from the High Performance Coaching ™ community, is the importance of keeping a morning routine that is sacred and sets you up for success.

My morning routine normally consists of an early start, gratitude journaling, goal setting, setting intentions for how I want to show up, planning for what might trip me up, prayer and meditation. Most days, I’m vigilant about guarding my time.

Today, I was halfway through my gratitude journal and wanted to email myself a quick note about an upcoming team social so that I wouldn’t forget. Well, you guessed it! I was pulled in to my phone (something I typically don’t touch until my routine is done) and got sucked into emails!

I derailed my morning routine, answered some emails and before you knew it, was behind schedule. Slight...

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.” If that’s the case, the solution must lie in the actions that we take to generate peace. Perhaps we’ve been looking outside for a sense of stability and peace when we had the key to it all along inside of us.

It’s difficult to be at peace and present in our chaotic world. There are limitless distractions that cause us worry and upset and a plethora of reasons to raise our armour and be on the defense. In that state, however, we miss the everyday moments of calm and peace that can be.

I’ve learned that peace comes from being 100% present.

When we’re fully present and in the moment thinking only of the here and now, we’re not living in the past.  We’re not replaying all the wrong things that we said or did. We’re not considering others’ judgements on how they responded to our behaviour. We also aren’t anticipating the future or what we...

I’ll admit it, the past few weeks have been a struggle. I’ve been pulled into the news and sensationalism of news stories and doom and gloom. As a result, I found myself cynical, negative and on edge. I’ve always guarded my mind from the news. It’s been a discipline to ignore the news since 2008 when a coach challenged me to give it up for a month and see how my life changed. Well, it changed in an incredible way! During one of the most challenging economic times to run a business, ours grew 43% and I’m a big believer that it was because of the positive mindset I adopted during that time!

Some may say that missing the news is naïve.  I’m here to challenge that way of thinking and ask that you consider that if anything absolutely critical is happening in the world, it will filter through to you. You’re going to find out the major news that impacts you directly and that watching the news on a loop is one of the worst things you can...

According to Wikipedia:

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

When we’re not mindful, we’re not fully present. We’re not engaged in the moment and may feel overwhelmed with racing thoughts which can often become anxiety-producing. When we’re distracted and not being mindful, we easily forget things, scroll for hours on Instagram or find ourselves arriving at a destination like work and thinking “how on earth did I get here!” It’s difficult to be mindful in a digitally-crazed world! Here are a few hacks that I use in an effort to be more mindful…

Set Intentions

I never used to set intentions. In fact, I operated for most of my career in a reactive mode. I would let email set the tone for my day and I wasn’t intentional with my routines. Everything shifts...