How I Organised The Messiness Of My Inner Work OR The Power Of Mindmaps, Song & Affirmations
I thought I share a more personal post with you in which I tell you a little bit about the range of inner work I embarked on last year and most of all – how I kept track of it. It seems to become tradition to share my personal journey more openly around the end of the year/start of the new one and so I will just roll with it!
What I am sharing with you here is only a small aspect of what I have done, but I want to show you that you are not alone in doing this work.
And if you are on your own journey of doing your inner work – I HONOUR YOU. I see you and I thank you for this massive piece of work you are doing. You are breaking cycles. You are renewing the world. You are changing paradigms.
So, let’s begin.
In May, 2020, I officially began a Life Coach training. I say “officially” because I had started studying the field months earlier, had started on my own conscious unravelling journey even more months earlier, had taken up regular mindfulness practices 10 years earlier and may just have been preparing for this moment all my life.
Part of my training was to be coached by a buddy. One of the goals we set for me was to have a rock-solid and grounded mindset.
And gosh, it was quite a journey.
As part of this experience, I dove so deep into my own inner work as never before. I’ve already shared with you about my journey last year but this year round, I did more and deeper and more honest exercises in less time. Sometimes I would do this work for 3-4 hours a day.
That said, as an Enneagram 7, I do find it a little tricky to focus on one thing at a time sometimes. I get distracted and attracted by many shiny things at once and so I ended up with a wide range of areas in the field of mindset and deep inner work that I wanted to work on.
Let’s just say that I am both very organised AND messy. I am the master of my chaos – or at least I thrive to be.
But the mind can only focus on so many things at once and so I knew that I had to find a way to organise my thoughts and ideas in another way than linear journalling. And in this post, I want to share with you what I did so you can perhaps gain some ideas or inspiration for your own journey.
You see, this work is so deep and profound and life-changing. But when we don’t remain present to it and instead fall back into our daily life without making any changes, we also fall back into old patterns (emotions, thoughts, behaviours, ego). And that is completely okay and natural.
But I knew I wanted these changes to last.
I wanted to begin a truly grand journey in growth and expansion. And so, I thought I share with you one “process” that worked for me to keep the range of inner work I did present.
Take pictures along the way
We take pictures with our phones all day long – we take selfies, we take pictures of the food we eat, the dogs we meet, the friends we hang out with, the trips we go on…
So, why not take pictures of our inner work journey?
One day I sat down to take a picture of my current inner work status and it became the foundation of the following weeks and months.
I took this picture in form of a ritual and the two main steps were
Making an Inner Work Mindmap
Listening to music and creating affirmations
Inner Work Mindmap
First, I made a big, long, messy list of things I was in the process of working through. Getting it all out of my mind.
I knew that all of them were related to each other in some way. After all, I was their common denominator. I was their centre. The sun of their universe. And so, I wanted to get a clearer but simple visual that I could come back to any time.
So, for a mental image I used a mindmap.
I wanted to see the work I was doing for my goal of having a rock-solid and grounded mindset all tidied up. And while this mindmap might not make much sense to you, I am sharing with you to give you an idea of what I did.
I quickly realised, that this was a huge amount of things to work on, but somehow I had started the process on each of them and I didn’t want to forget about any of them in the months to come.
And so, next, I decided to take somatic pictures of each and to elicit affirmations.
As I listened to the music, I dropped into my body and my physical sensations.
And when I felt fully present in my physical form, I took the mindmap and went through every inner work area, felt into my body, took a somatic blueprint image of where I wanted to be with this area and channelled one or more affirmations until I felt complete around each area.
What does that mean? I felt into my body and then let affirmations flow onto paper, affirmations that felt to me to be representative of what I wanted to create.
One area, in particular, took around 7 affirmations to feel fully expressed.
It was like a dance between my mind (my desire of where I wanted to be) and body (my body was able to already feel the sensation of the desire in the NOW).
The whole exercise made me feel hyper-present, light and buzzy! I’d never done anything like this before but it felt freeing and fun.
It was an exercise in free soul expression. Each affirmation that came through was not created by my mind. I wasn’t thinking the affirmations. I was feeling them. They were channelled through the wisdom of my body and soul onto paper.
The music I chose helped to elevate the process even more and after I was finished, I felt celestial.
And that is an important point.
One of the most beautiful, present and aligned feelings in this entire ritual was the sense of completion at the end.
It was a whole-body feeling, a sense of light satisfaction. My body knew before my mind that I was finished and leaned back in the chair, putting down the pen.
I had expressed what I needed at that moment. That was my picture of my inner work.
(You can see the affirmations at the bottom of this post.)
Record them with music
The next thing I did – which I can really recommend doing – is I recorded the affirmations on my phone so I could listen to them over and over again to allow for the messages to slowly drip into my subconscious.
Of course, there are all kinds of fancy apps out there that help you do this, but as a friend of simplicity (one of my *new* top three values) I simply used my pre-installed voice-recording app on my phone while playing dreamy music on YouTube on my laptop for the background.
I listened to them every day for a very long time and even now I sometimes come back to them. Or I read the printed version when I feel that I need a refresher.
The most amazing thing about this is that these affirmations are still very much aligned with me. They are still an expression of my soul’s desires.
Do you
In the end, it boils down to what works FOR YOU. What feels good for you on your unique journey is what will have the most impact and results for you.
If you feel inspired by my personal share, I feel so very honoured. And at the same time, I want to kindly remind you to not compare yourself to me or to how I did this.
You are invited to play around, to tune in, to feel into your own body and follow your intuition.
Especially when it comes to creating your own rituals, listening to your very own unique self-expression and need is going to make all the difference.
Here is the list of affirmations that were channelled out of me:
I am filled with calm and grounded confidence.
I am fully confident in myself and my skills as a coach.
I release what others think of me.
I speak my needs and wants without shame and guilt.
I don’t compare myself to others. I know that everyone is on their own path.
I have focus and clarity, I don’t get distracted but I can see a clear path in front of me.
I don’t worry when I get distracted, I have focus and clarity and come back to me without regret.
I fully trust myself and my intuition.
I know that my intuition is as fruitful as my rational brain.
I receive plans and ideas through my intuition and follow them up with action.
I follow what feels good.
I fully approve of myself and the approval of others is a mere cherry on top.
I have an abundant, fun and playful money mindset.
I am fully worthy and my actions and thoughts don’t add or take away from my inherent unlimited worth.
I am free of fear of criticism and judgment.
I value presence over perfectionism.
I fully embody myself and fear no self-expression.
I stand by myself and I let go of people-pleasing.
My voice is strong, clear, stable and welcoming.
My belief system is strong and fully supportive of me.
I embrace my shadow with love and compassion.
I say no when it supports my vision and my boundaries.
I have healthy boundaries and I honour them.
My boundaries outline the path to the life I want to live and am living.
I am the master of my emotions.
My emotions are here to support me.
I let my emotions travel through my body.
I channel my emotions through my body in a powerful way.
I process my emotions in a healthy and empowering way.
The way I channel my emotions through my body gives me energy - is not depleting.
I express any anger or frustration in a healthy and productive way.
I am equanimous.
I am not swayed by external experiences and energies, opinions, or emotions.
I love and use my life breath consciously.
My breath enhances my life experience and my ability to be present.
I don’t take things personal.
I receive productive feedback but know that all feedback and criticism says more about the other person than about me.
I easily try out new behaviours.
I am not enslaved by my fixed behaviours.
I am flexible in my behaviours, I experiment and am not attached to any way of being.
I flow.
I release any judgment I have of others.
I am open-minded, I don’t judge, not others and not myself.
I float.
PS. Whenever you’re ready…
If you want to get clearer on your purpose, learn to love yourself, find the courage to step into your vision and make a difference in the world – let’s have a powerful non-binding conversation! I know you are here for a reason and I’d love to support you further. My support looks like this: You talk. You tell me about your dreams and your struggles. I listen. We play. Your life changes.
I’ve seen it time and time again. I’m ready when you are.
PPS. If you loved this blog post, please share the love with a friend you know would benefit from it. Send it to them via WhatsApp, email it to them, text it to them, ... Whatever you've got to do to get this in their hands. ✨
