It does not take a giant planner configured with time blocking sections, a vision board with 10s of tiny cutouts, and years in a routine to make major moves happen.
After all, change is simple to achieve, as long as we know where to look. Or better yet, where to smell, taste, and touch. But more on that later.
Whether you need one more big boost of energy to complete that essay or are trying to create a brand-new identity for fun in the summer sun, change is more accessible than we think and does not have to take all the time in the world to make it happen.
With summer on the horizon, we want big changes and we want them now. No problem, because simple actions can be taken every day to become the versions of ourselves we envision.
In fact, it is as simple as 1. 2. 3. Okay, no more games. Keep reading and see which simple switches to your day can bring major changes your way, quick, fast, and in a flash.
1. Switch Scents to Switch Selves
Researchers have said that scent is one of the most influential senses in control over memory. That means not only do we remember the scents we like, don't like, and hate, we tend to remember the scents we love.
When the scents we love are perfumes, lotions, or body washes and others take notice of how good these scents pair with us, these scents go down in our mental or physical notebooks as our signature scents.
Once a signature scent is found, we often tend to get very regimented when it comes to the way we smell. This becomes the platform of a woman's beauty identity and although a strong platform, it is easy to get stuck in a house of beauty we are outgrowing.
"No, sorry, I only do vanilla scents." "I am more of a warm, spicy amber girl." "Well, I love a great powder fresh." "Floral! Floral! Anything Floral!"
Yes, many of us have come to know ourselves quite well, but when it comes to our "signature scents" holding on to them may mean making ourselves as predictable as a signature.
So, if you want to feel like a brand-new woman this summer try a new scent combo or even the addition of a singular unique-to-you body spray. It can be $1 from the corner store or $100 from the boutique. Your goal is to get those olfactory senses reeling from this simple scented switch, so not only will you be making major moves, but you may also be making some major memories.
2. Taste Your Way To a New Life
"You are what you eat." Someone said, not sure who but ya'know someone said it and now we all say it. But I digress. Whether we take that phrase figuratively or literally, what we eat serves up a giant portion that nearly covers our entire "identity plate". It could keep our egos fed for many nights. But I digress, again.
What we put on the table says a lot about what we bring to the table.
Are we consistent? Prepared? Resilient? Well-learned? Naturally talented? Culturally inspired? Racially oppressed? In love? Brokenhearted? Wealthy? Just broke? What we eat, how we prepare it, and whether we like what we eat or not creates a larger narrative that speaks to how we identify ourselves.
Think in terms of foods that get associated with certain cultures, religions, racial groups, political groups. Maybe your friends, family, or other loved ones can choose your order for you without calling you first. (Chicken and mashed potatoes, wait who said that...). I don't know your lifestyle just make it a point to change out one food you normally eat for something you don't or to add something you don't normally add while cooking to the dish as your cooking.
Order something off the menu you say you will get but never do. Switch the ice cream for yogurt. Or yogurt for ice cream. Try a classic recipe with the fish instead of the chicken. Try green grapes over purple. Do try the dessert and order another for home. Pick up an egg plant at the grocery store and actually take it home.
Swapping out one food daily or weekly with another food we never had or want to try is a great way to peel away the old connections to ourselves and our egos and to cook up newer, bolder, and much more flavorful identities.
3. Feel Around for the New You
Walk instead of drive. Run instead of walk. Laugh instead of cry. Talk instead of listen. Mail a letter. Give a call. Check in on someone who normally checks in on you first. Feel yourself feel something new, i.e. whatever you do try something new.
We get so caught into our daily routines. Or we struggle to form routines because we are so use to how certain actions make us feel.
"I'm staying in bed, because I don't feel like working out." "I am too scared to fly, remember?" "Last time I tried that, I got so frustrated I couldn't accomplish it, so I gave up." "I can't try because I have failed too many times."
I have felt failure. I have felt heartbreak. I have felt sadness and depression. Anxiety and fear. Yet, the growth I can make as a human kept me going. The possibility to feel something new I've never quite felt before encouraged me to do it while losing, heartbroken, sad, depressed, anxious, and even afraid. Especially afraid.
Our ability to change what we surround ourselves with is one of our most powerful tools for creating quick change. When we do new things we put our minds and bodies in new environments. Our minds, natural curious, and our bodies, designed to sense, are excited in new environments and feel electrified as we play and explore. This change of scenery tells us we are capable of not only making grand changes but also of handling vast adjustments even when they occur quickly.
So, dare to feel something differently today. Dare to feel all your feels more fully and more feely. When we feel fully and when we choose what we want to feel physically, mentally, or emotionally, we align ourselves to the way our dream selves want to feel, making our dreams feel possibility in reality.
So, there you have it 3 shifts to make today that are easy and simple but can mean big changes happening for you quick and fast.
Choose not to get stuck in identity ruts that keep you predictable as a signature scent, safe as comfort food, or stuck in an old set of feelings unaligned to the version of you that you envision yourself becoming.
You are free to make a change. Change does not have to take a long time. You are capable of being the most real, beautiful, and authentic version of yourself today, right now!
Choose to switch-it-up today and know that these simple switches and others like them will be all we need to make the major moves we dream of.
You got this.
I am proud of you.
See you next Tuesday.