BLOCK OUT THE DISTRACTIONS

Blocking out distractions is something we all have to adhere to at work, at school, or even home. For some, blocking out distractions is a little more difficult. When I was in the 4th grade, at one of my parent teacher conference, the teacher told my mom the only problem she had was every time the door open I’d look up to see who was there. Well, you can say I was curious, nosey, or bored. But if a door opens it’s almost a natural reaction to look up and see who’s there. Well not so much.

Fast forward to now. My youngest son, who’s in the 5th grade, have some kids that seek attention and may disrupt the class from time to time. Well when that happens and the teacher has to give certain students special attention, it throws my son off. He can’t concentrate. He’s upset that they are acting out and interrupting. In the result he has to finish his work at home or it may take a little longer than usual.

“Son you’re going to have to block out the noise.” Simply put. I explainied to him we can’t control other people, their actions, or when some distractions may occur. The only thing we can control is how we respond. We must not let other people actions cause us to lose sight on our task, goals, or job. MENTAL HEALTH REMINDERS: KEEPING MYSELF CENTERED

Is it tough? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! But mastering the art of focusing on what you’re doing in the moment, completing the work, and staying consistent will allow you to block out the distractions. In every class, at every office, and every store there is going to be a distraction. If it isn’t preventing you physically, harming you, or affecting your mental capacity then it’s not your business to tend to. Every since then he has been able to block out distractions.

Blocking out distractions doesn’t just have to be at work or school. It can be at home. Blocking out negative mental and emotional noise is something we all work towards each day. Those are honestly the biggest distractions. The voices, thoughts, and emotions that we believe prohibit us from functioning on a daily. Block out the noise. Ignore the negative. Don’t feed into the distractions.

RosalynLynn

Be you so you can be free.

I HAD TO TAKE MY OWN ADVICE

I had to take my own advice and pause for a moment. These last couple of months has been a season of change. In order to be in the moment, understand my assignement and what I was supposed to get out of it, I had to give myself permission to focus. Not just focus, but prioritize and make sure my feet were planted.

As I’ve stated in some previous posts, late August I accepted a position that I’d been wanting and working hard for. With that came the transiton of working remotely full time, a 12 week fast track training, and longer hours. Not to mention this began at the very start of the school year.

Trying to juggle the new postion, transition my home and create an office space, and manage school activities I felt like a hamster on a wheel. Along with that, I was still freelancing and selling on Poshmark. Yes, I know, doing wayyyyyy too much.

Although I asked for each gift, position, and blessing I knew I couldn’t put a 100% into all of them. Plus keep my sanity, be a mom, wife, and maintain my home. So I took my own advice and paused for a moment. I needed to reset my mind and expectations. First on the whole idea of working from home full time. My lifestyle was going to change vastly.

I decided to spend Saturday morning 2-3 hours posting and creating new Poshmark listings. That way throughout the week I can manage and maintain my closet. I use my lunch and breaks to drop my sales off at the post office. Next, I accept freelance contracts that doesn’t take too much of my time. Which ironically I’ve enjoyed and been able to deliver great pieces of work.

But I will say that has been the one ironic thing about this entire situation. My self awareness, self care, and mental health has been great and heightened. I knew it was going to be a change and I had to work at it everyday while on this new path and journey.

Working from home allows me to get laundry done throughout the day and even get dinner done by the time the kids get home from school. Therefore, it frees my time up to be with the family when I get off. I still wake up early in the morning before everyone else and tidy if I hadn’t done so the night before. I’m able to have a moment to myself, get dressed, and mentally prepare for the day.

I’ve added 10 minutes of meditation before starting work. Increased my reading time during breaks and before I go to bed. Maintaining my cut off time of 9p.m. No matter what hasn’t been done or said checking out mentally and emotionally has helped me keep my joy and peace. I’ve noticed I have a great nights sleep when I sleep with the oil diffuser going.

Because I am remote, and we have to be on camera quite a bit, my skin care has also heightened. I take my time on my night time skin care routine to ensure I awake with bright, smooth, moisturized, and glowing skin. In the morning I keep my skincare routine to a minimum while focusing on my eyes and moisture. Working remotely also has me playing around with minimal makeup looks to make sure I am still professional and work ready. Lastly, I still get dressed as if I am going into the office. Outside of my comfy fuzzy socks.

Now my schedule is about to change again this week. I’ve learned to get comfortable with change and I really do enjoy my job and all the blessings I’ve been privileged to have. I am very thankful for the self awareness most of all. The ability to be honest with myself and say you need to prioritize, reset expectations I NEED TO RESET MY EXPECTATIONS, and not over extend yourself has been the best self care I can ever do or have for myself.

It’s the end of the year and holiday season. Before you have a blow up, a breakdown, or get sick, take a break or step away. Ask yourself what is more important to you in this season or journey. What shall you let go of. What is worth putting time and effort into. Have I neglected my mental, physical, and emotional health. Be well.

RosalynLynn

Be you so you can be free.

MENTAL NOTE OF THE DAY

”Only in the darkness can you see stars.”- Martin Luther King Jr.

spiral notebook with message on white paper sheet

The toughest moments in life provides the greatest lessons of life. The stronger the storm, the brighter, tougher, wiser, richer, smarter, and braver you become. Why? You’ve been tested, and you survived. Therefore, your ability to stand off anything becomes more manageable the more wisdom you gain. Learn in the darkest of times. Grow in those times. Heal through the pain. Most of the time when we’re at our lowest point we’re stuck. We can’t seem to make any decisions or move forward. The situation or circumstances has to play out. Therefore, while you’re idle, you have all the time you need to reflect, make plans, and heal. Once you’re in a storm once you won’t be in that same storm again. Yes, another one will occur, but it won’t be exactly like the last. Embrace the darkness. Just like when we sleep at night our bodies and mind are recharging. There is good that can come out of darkness. Enjoy the rest of your day!!!!!

RosalynLynn

Be you so you can be free.

6 BEAUTY TIPS FOR CLEAR SKIN

It took me a while to learn my skin and create a regimen. However, there are some non product beauty tips for clear skin that I’ve adopted to help keep my skin clear. 5 NON BEAUTY RELATED SKIN CARE TIPS The first thing to do is learn your skin type, then learn what products work for you, and lastly, be consistent. You must be consistent to achieve results.

Tip#1-Limit Alcohol
If you want to dry your skin out, drink excessive amounts of alcohol. Too much consumption, dehydrates the skin, thus leaving the skin to begin sagging, creating wrinkles, and causes breakouts. Also the lack of hydration causes your skin to look dull, grey, and lifeless. Notice I said too much. An occasional drink here and there is ok. If you do have a drink, drink double the amount of water to flush out your system. Another good way to flush out the system is to sweat it out. So a good workout to get you sweaty will help.

Tip#2-Don’t Touch Your Face
This one was hard for me. For someone who works in an office it’s very easy to rest your face in your hands. This causes all the natural oils from your hands and bacteria to soak into the skin. Not only touching your face with hands, make sure to wipe your phone often because it rest on the skin while talking, and don’t let others touch your face.

Tip#3-Keep Hair Out of Face
We use a lot of product in our hair. I know for me, any kind of hair on my face I will immediately breakout. The hair sprays, oils, and serums can effect our skin if we consistently allow our hair to rest on our face.

Tip#4-Change Your Pillow Case Often
I’ve heard some women say they sleep on their back to keep their face off the pillow. But at some point our face will touch the pillow. I’m personally a side sleeper, so inevitably my face will touch the pillow. Once again, the oils from the hair and product will transfer onto the skin. Changing as often as you can, will help eliminate unwanted breakouts.

Tip#5-Limit Sugar and Dairy
This is personal for me. Once I eliminated sugary drinks and dairy from my diet I noticed a huge difference in my skin. Lots of soda, candy, dairy, and sweets can cause breakouts that leave scars and discoloration. Remember whatever we put into our body comes out in our skin. That is with the good and bad.

Tip#6-Don’t Stress and Worry
Yes, I know this is very difficult to do. But stress and worry wears on our skin worse than makeup. Sometimes we can stress so bad, it wears on our pores, saggy skin, redness, dark circles, breakouts, lines, wrinkles, and even swelling. When faced with difficult times it’s most important to focus on our self care more. Spending extra time on ourselves in challenging times, refocus our attention on something we can control.

In addition to these tips keep your regimen simple and listen to your skin. It will tell you what you need. Good all round skin care is in our daily habits.

RosalynLynn

Be you so you can be free.

Self Care: Sleep Routine

As I’ve approached a certain age, the importance of me getting the proper amount of sleep has become a priority. Once I realized and admitted to myself that sleep is an essential, I needed to come up with a self care sleep routine.

So often at the end of the night we go take a shower or bath, lights out, and then go to bed. You ever find yourself not able to fall asleep, restless, still have a million things on your mind, and eventually you don’t get a good nights rest. Well that’s because body has laid down but your mind is still wide awake.

Why Getting Proper Sleep is Important

Sleep is important because its our charge and refuel for the next day. Just like you plug in your phone at night, our mind and body needs to be charged.

Mentally getting proper sleep helps us the next day remain alert, focus, and prepared to attentively tackle the day. When we are tired mentally, we’re more apt to be anxious which leads to anger and frustration. Lack of proper sleep leads to more stress and mentally being broken down.

Physically, when we get proper sleep, our bodies are rejuvenated and energized to get through the next day. Sleep gives our muscles a break and let them rebuild. Lack of sleep leaves our bodies feeling heavy, stiff, and fatigued.

Getting enough sleep allows our emotional health to remain stable. Because we’re tired mentally and physically the way we begin to process the days course is off. The smallest detour in the day may cause you to lash out, have a breakdown, and the snowball would just keep rolling.

Our productivity when we get sleep in increased. Having the energy to complete tasks, maneuver all the balls we juggle, and have the ability to prioritize is because the sleep has allowed our mind and body to recharge.Self Care: Personal Goal Setting

How to Create A Sleep routine

A sleep routine or nighttime routine is important because you need to unwind and unpack the days events. It’s sort of sealing or capping off the day so it does’t carry over into the next. Not having a routine will allow the days to run over and you still won’t rest at night.

Having a sleep or nighttime routine doesn’t have to take long, its time set aside to get you prepared for the next day, let go of what was today, and keeps your wellness in check.

The first thing is to pick a time to get started. The easiest way to get started is by tidying up the house and making sure its ready for the next day. This not only physically sets you up for success in the morning, but it puts your mental in a space of resetting. It may change or adjust as you become comfortable or life happen. Of course its going to vary depending on your career, if you have a family, and the days events.

Next in creating a sleep or night routine is logging off. That means checking emails, social media, playing your favorite games, and yes even watching the news. You don’t want the last thing you see or hear to be something that is going to interrupt you mental space when lying down to sleep.

In addition to logging off make sure you have written down or looked over your to do list or appointments for the next day. You know where you have to be and when. This one in particular is important for me because I can then create an outfit in my head for work or even get it out.

Of course a sleep or nighttime routine isn’ t complete without a shower or bath to wash the day down the drain. Take your time as this may be the only moment to yourself you have all day. Do your skincare routine and prep your hair for the next day. When we look good, we feel good, and present our best selves.

Lastly make it a point to get in the bed around the same time every night. When you do, don’t sit up and watch television. Decide to journal or read for 30 minutes. Listen to some soft music or read a devotional, my favorite.

Creating a routine puts our mental and a physical in clear headspace that set us up for productivity the next day. Most of the time we are so drained that we are in a rush, making decisions that aren’t thought out, and leads to stress and breakdown.

A self care sleep routine is important for everyone no matter what you’re doing, where you’re going, and what you have.

RosalynLynn

Be you so you can be free.