Category: Mindfulness

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Mindfulness Self-care

I Hired A “Mindset Coach” And Couldn’t Believe the Results

I never planned or expected to “hire a coach.” To be honest, I sort of thought that any type of “life coach” was a bit of a scam. But after working with a mindset coach for the past four months, I can honestly say that I feel quite differently now.

Why I “hired” a mindset coach (it sort of fell into my lap!)

Let me explain how this all went down. At the end of the summer, I received a random email in my inbox from a woman named Christina Spinazola, who told me that she is a “mindset coach” and felt strongly that I am someone who would “thrive” with this kind of coaching. 

At first, I was both confused and skeptical. Mindset coach? What does that even mean?

But what made me give Christina a chance is that she is also a big fan of Dr. Joe Dispenza. She explained that her style of coaching aligns with quantum physics and many of the models that Dr. Joe discusses. Because I have grown so much through learning about Dr. Joe and doing his meditations consistently, I warmed up to Christina. And when she offered me four months of FREE coaching… I could not pass up the opportunity.

I went into this with an open mind, to just see what might happen.

Meet my mindset coach Christina!
My amazing mindset coach, Christina Spinazola!

My mindset coach Christina Spinazola is a certified professional coach and a master practitioner in the Energy Leadership Index Assessment. She is young, adventurous, super smart, and found her passion for coaching during her own healing journey. You can read more about Christina on her website.

Christina has helped me get tangible results in my life through mindset coaching and I can’t believe how much of a transformation I have experienced throughout the past four months of working with her.

If you’ve been following Sky Life for a while you’ll know that I am super into personal development, meditation, manifestation, and mindset. I have tried all different types of wellness, spiritual, and personal development methods and modalities to improve my physical and mental health.

Some of what I have tried, I hold onto and continue with… like Dr. Joe Dispenza meditations… and others I never bother doing again, like this artificial intelligence workout bike named CAROL.

So when I began trying out mindset coaching with Christina, I had no idea what to expect or what kind of results I might see, if any.

Tangible Results

Before I continue and discuss how mindset coaching works, I want to list some of the real results that have come into my life since working with Christina. I am certainly not claiming that all of these things are a direct result of mindset coaching because there is no way to measure that. However, I strongly believe that mindset work has been a major contributing factor to all of this goodness coming into my life!

Granted, I am also in Witch School right now with Mia Magik, but I am not sure if the magic would be working as strongly if I didn’t have the mindset work to back it up.

So here are some REAL results that I have seen over the past four months:

  1. Subscriber growth on YouTube has doubled (per month)
  2. Revenue has increased significantly
  3. “Manifested” my dream new home
  4. “Manifested” a FREE, luxury vacation to Costa Rica
  5. Experienced the most magical New Year’s of my life

And these results did not happen because I was working more hours, strategizing, and taking more action. Christina helped me shift my beliefs above all else and actually do less. Wait… what?! How does that work?!

How does mindset coaching work?
Journaling exercises have been a huge part of working with my mindset coach.

Mindset coaching helps us witness and look at our thoughts objectively and with neutrality, so we can decide if our thoughts are serving us or hurting us.

“We think about 60-80 thousand thoughts per day,” Christina said. “But most of those thoughts are subconscious, meaning they happen on autopilot.”

Depending on our conditioning, it’s likely that our autopilot thoughts are not serving us. They are keeping us stuck. Mindset coaching is about taking back the steering wheel and deciding how we actually want to think and feel. It’s taking our power back to become the boss of our monkey mind and decide how we want to think and therefore live.

So often, we think that we need to take more action to get the results we want in life. However, all of these results truly start at a thought level. In order to change our results, we must start with our thoughts and beliefs.

I was definitely stuck in this limited way of thinking, where I believed that if I wasn’t working myself into the ground that I couldn’t possibly succeed. I am shocked and thrilled to say that these tangible results actually all happened when I started doing less and focused on being more.

What I did to change my mindset

Christina and I meet every week for a one-hour session. She helps me bring neutrality and objectivity to my beliefs and thoughts and see things from a different perspective. This is a game-changer when it comes to those pesky limiting beliefs that we all carry. Sometimes we can’t even see our own limitations. Christina is like my objective accountability buddy to call me out and question my own blocks and limiting beliefs. In doing this work, we have to be willing to get uncomfortable and take a hard look at ourselves. But that is where the growth comes from.

Journaling Exercises

Journaling exercises have been a huge part of this journey for me. I still wake up nearly every morning with anxiety. But instead of letting that dictate the rest of my day, I’ve learned that I have the ability to transform and transmute that anxiety into excitement.

I write down all of my “junky thoughts,” as Christina calls them, simply to identify what’s going on in my brain. Then, I work on my “bridge thoughts,” which are simply new thoughts that open me up to possibility, instead of limitations.

Shifting from limitation to possibility.

By simply writing, “It’s possible that…”  and coming up with a few ideas around pure potentiality and possibility, I am amazed at how quickly my brain and body can shift from anxiety to excitement. When we step out of fear and worry into possibility and excitement, we decide to live in a new dimension where we align our frequency to new outcomes that we may have been shutting ourselves off from before.

Quantum meditation
Dr. Joe Dispenza’s guided meditations are a great tool for mindset work.

Although meditation is not necessarily required or a part of Christina’s mindset coaching program, it’s something that has become complementary and important for me to really maximize the benefits of working with her.

Because mindset coaching is very aligned with quantum physics and the quantum model of the Universe, Dr. Joe Dispenza’s meditations have been a staple for me throughout the past four months. I typically do the “morning meditation” on most mornings, and I sometimes do his “evening meditation” as well. If you want to learn more about Dr. Joe, my go-to source is Gaia, the world’s largest streaming platform for conscious media. It’s basically like the “Netflix of spirituality.”

Would I recommend mindset coaching?

From my experience, I have absolutely loved mindset coaching with Christina and plan to continue working with her. Based on the results I have seen and how different I feel, I would absolutely recommend mindset coaching with Christina. If you want to sign up for her group coaching program Uninspired to Unstoppable (starting this month) here’s the link. With that being said, I always say this with everything that I try… I cannot promise or predict if this will work for you or not. But if you feel the call, then why not give it a try?

To learn more about my experience trying a mindset coach, watch my YouTube video about it! 

Categories
Mindfulness

5 Days of Meditation Apps

5 Days of Meditation Apps

Meditation is something I have been practicing for several years now. I began practicing yoga about 10 years ago, which is how I discovered meditation, and it’s truly changed my life.

Even though I love meditation, I am very sporadic with my practice. I go through periods where I meditate every day and then I will fall off the wagon when life gets “busy.” And usually it’s the moments when we “don’t have time” to meditate, that we need it most. 

Recently I was going through a little bit of a slump. I had low energy, my mindset was off, and I wasn’t feeling like myself. I decided I wanted to do something that could help me get back on track. Since there are so many cool meditation apps out there that I’ve been wanting to try, I decided that I would spend one week trying them all and meditating every single day.

The scientific research on meditation 

Meditation is an ancient practice that’s been around for thousands of years, and is now finally validated by scientific research. We see the benefits of meditation across multiple studies.

A 2008 study published in the academic journal PLOS ONE, found that just 15 minutes of meditation each day can actually influence gene expression. This study showed a change in the expression of 172 genes that regulate inflammation, circadian rhythms, and glucose metabolism. The researchers also found that consistent meditation resulted in a statistically significant decrease in the participants’ blood pressure.

We see again and again in the research that meditation positively impacts both our brains and our bodies and how they work together. 

My 5-day experiment

My goal with this challenge was to meditate for just 10 minutes per day using a different app each day. Hopefully I would find one that I could use to continue with a more consistent meditation practice. 

Headspace 

The first app I tried was Headspace. Headspace is one of the most popular meditation apps out there. I absolutely loved the design and user interface of the Headspace app. It’s very well designed and organized, making it easy to find exactly what kind of meditation you’re looking for. I also loved the animations that it includes, which offer educational information about meditation and different techniques, in an easy-to-understand way.

I think that Headspace is particularly helpful for beginners or anyone looking for a way to easily add meditation to their life. You can even choose meditations that are just three minutes long, which surprisingly can have a huge impact on your day. 

Calm

The next meditation app I tried was Calm, another popular app on the market. Calm is particularly helpful for sleep, with an entire library dedicated to meditation for sleep.

Calm also had a whole section for mindfulness at work. I loved that Calm has 7-day programs such as “7 days of gratitude” and “7 days of self-esteem.” 

Insight Timer

Insight Timer was so cool because of the community-oriented nature of the app. As soon as you open it you can see how many people around the world are using the app and meditating alongside you. This made me feel really connected to a larger global community of meditators.

Another great feature of Insight Timer is that meditation teachers that can upload their own meditations for users around the world to follow. They have so many categories as well, everything from meditation for depression, anxiety, confidence, and motivation. 

Unplug 

What I loved most about the Unplug app is how connected I felt to the teachers on the app who are guiding the meditations. It was also organized really well with a wide variety of topics. I liked that you could sort by the length of time of the meditation.

I did feel that their design could use some work. The app was definitely not built for mobile viewing and could definitely use a tech update and better user interface. But the meditations themselves were really nice.

10% Happier

Even since hearing the story of how this app was created, I’ve been excited to try it out. 10% Happier was created by this guy named Dan Harris who is an ABC news anchor. He actually had a panic attack on live television during Good Morning America and was motivated to find a way to address the build-up of anxiety he was feeling.

After this experience, he tried meditation and found that it helped him immensely. He has now made it part of his mission to spread meditation with others. He wrote a book called 10% Happier and later created an app as well. 

The app is not only providing guided meditations, but also educational interviews with different experts, so you can actually learn about meditation and apply it to your practice.

10% Happier says it’s a meditation app for “fidgety skeptics.” So if you’re someone who feels like you can’t meditate because you’re too “fidgety” or skeptical whether or not it will actually work, this is definitely the app for you!

My Favorite App 

I enjoyed all five of these meditation apps for different reasons and would definitely recommend any of them to try. 

However, I’d have to say that Headspace was definitely my favorite. When it comes to design, user interface, the meditations themselves, and overall effectiveness, I think Headspace is the clear winner. Also, you really can’t beat the guy’s voice who guides the Headspace meditations. It’s one of the most calming voices I’ve ever heard! 

If you are looking to try meditation for the first time, or you want to make it a more consistent practice in your life, I definitely recommend trying out Headspace. It makes it super easy to learn how to meditate and it’s perfect for all levels of meditators.