Hello, hello, sweet friend! 💛

Top of the morning to YOU, as we greet this lovely day! I feel like weekday mornings, in general, get a bad wrap: Never appreciated, and always dreaded, you know? In fact, I feel like we’ve all somehow complicitly agreed that we should accept weekday mornings (Mondays especially!) as terrible without really thinking things through.  And it doesn’t really have to be that way— much of our daily experiences are based entirely on our mindset! If you wake up thinking about how positive your day is going to be, you go about your day looking for the positivity you expect! If you go to sleep thinking about the things that happened that day that you can be grateful for, you find the positive nuggets to focus on! And yes, negative things happen. And yes, they can be truly profound. And on the day doctors told us that my dad would be brain dead in the next 24 hours, I by no means saw a silver lining. But every single Monday? That’s not catastrophe.  Each day on the calendar? You can find the potential for positivity. And looking back? I can see the positivity of the day my dad almost died: My family literally filled the entire waiting room. Every single seat— standing room only. Because my dad is so loved.  And the nurses? Amazing!  The neurosurgeon? Literally a miracle worker. Your mindset? More and more under your control every day. I make this point (drastically, given the life-and-death example) because we can so easily dismiss the power that we have within us by giving it to others without thinking.  When Ted-from-Sales makes a snarky remark, and we think about it all day long, we’re giving Ted our power! And, like, screw Ted!  Seriously, why should Ted get to impact our day at all? And when we scroll Instagram or Facebook each morning, we focus on the feedback we’re getting from others, and we compare their lives to our own. Starting our day feeling behind already, and focused on others instead of our own mindfulness.  And, sweet friend, it’s easy to see, isn’t it, that it’s entirely ingrained in our habits to begin this cycle of giving our power away as soon as we wake up, before we even get out of bed! Of course Ted-from-Sales can have power over our thoughts, because we started giving our power away before we un-snuggled ourselves from our bedsheets! And that, sweet friend, I have a problem with— because honestly:  You deserve better than that! You deserve to keep your own power! You deserve to wake up positive, and refreshed, and focused on what you want your day to hold! 🎉 And so, today, I’m bringing you another quiet, beautiful 10 minute wakeup call— A sweet sort of siren-song from my heart to yours: determined to help you light up your morning in a way that’s positive and powerful 💛 So begin by taking a deep breath in—  — and a long breath out. And another— breathing in power and a refreshing sense of determination for finding positivity: take a deep breath in—  — and a controlled, lingering, breath out. Good! You’re doing it! Taking time for you; taking time for mindfulness! I’m proud of you, sweet friend! And now: Another deep breath in, while you say to yourself— “I breathe in power” And a long breath out, saying to yourself: “I breathe out negativity” Once more: A deep breath in saying: “I breathe in power” And a long, cleansing breath out saying: “I breathe out negativity” (Do this a few more time, if is feels right!) And next, ask yourself— (mentally, or in a journal, wherever feels good): What can you do today that will instantly make you happier? (A favorite song on the way to work?) (Wearing really excellent shoes?) (Spending a few moments outside in gorgeous nature?) What rings true for you today? Then be sure to do that thing.  And then ask yourself: What is a memory you have of being happy? A specific, lovely memory?  And in a moment, take a minute to close your eyes, and visualize that memory around you—  sinking into yourself and seeing through your own eyes, listening through your own ears, and really feeling the feelings of being totally happy. Go ahead— feel the sun on your skin, or a warmth of happiness in your chest. Whatever is true of your happy moment, take a minute or two and visualize, sweet friend 🤩 I’ll wait right here while you do 🤓 Beautiful 💛 So lovely, sweet friend! So delightfully lovely to start your day in a place of mindfulness that you control, isn’t it? Doing this is so important in setting the tone for the rest of our day! It’s the reason why I slowly created a whole morning ritual for myself, where instead of reaching for social media first, I’m reaching for mindfulness and self-love 💛 It’s the reason why I created Hello Happiness for you, sweet friend, as a way to focus your mind and your heart at the beginning of each day!  It works like this: Every weekday morning you get a mindfully-crafted email from me with a 10-15 minute activity that focuses you on your mindful sense self-love— supporting you in seeking what you really, truly want in life— happiness, fulfillment, and a strong, loving sense of self 💛 It’s profound in its impact, and it works because what your mind focuses on shapes your reality. For instance: We all know a person who’s constantly complaining. About everything. Because when your mind focuses on complaining, it searches for more to complain about. This works in reverse, and you can use this knowledge to grant yourself more power over your own mindset. And you don’t even have to work for it! I’m doing all the work for you, sweet friend!  All you have to do is take one step after another down the path with me 💛 Miss a day? No worries, those mindfully-crafted emails are yours to keep, and you can complete them anytime! Hello Happiness is here for you whenever you need it, and it can powerfully set the tone for your day, your goals, and your life 💛✨💛 Click to subscribe to this lovely, profound, goodness: >>> https://braveheartopenmind.com/hello-happiness Love, love, so much caffeinated love

P.S. Want to keep this lovely, positivity going? Heck yes! Take your Self-Love Quiz to find the perfect self-love mantra for YOU!

Meet Your Self-Love + Confidence Coach, Kayla Vavra!

I founded Brave Heart Open Mind, this enthusiastic self-love development studio, in an effort to empower women with the ability to live their happiest, most confident lives!

Because I’ve walked the path of feeling like I wasn’t good enough— drowning in self-doubt and self-hate— and it genuinely straight up sucks. (It does, for real. If you’ve been there— ugly-crying on cold floral linoleum— you know it’s true).

Part of the entire existence of Brave Heart Open Mind is to allow me to help you get to where I am— in a place of self-love; in a place of consistent confidence; in a place of self-empowerment! And to help you get there faster than I did. 😅🤩

It took me over a decade to get to where I am today.

From my own rock bottom— sitting at the end of an emotionally abusive relationship, fully depressed, with imbalanced hormones, halfway through college, unable to do anything other than barely hang on and pretend I was fine, (when really my self-image was a total dumpster fire on the inside). There were real moments of sobbing-on-the-floor feelings of wretchedness, catatonic-in-bed feelings of hopelessness, and hiding-blades-from-myself urges of self-harm during this time.

Medication to balance my hormones helped regulate my brain chemistry to smooth back the depression and darkness, but I was still left with a completely trashed self-image. I wanted to love myself, and it took me over a decade to figure out how to actually make that happen.

My personal journey over the course of that decade has thankfully brought me all the way to where I am now: the founder of an amazing and fulfilling business, totally loving my life!

And if I can help you skip the trudging, slow-as-heck, mountain climb out of the trenches of self-doubt and self-hate, and streamline a decade for you— like, that’s amazing! Why wouldn’t I help you? How could I not??

And through painstakingly building positive lifelong habits for myself, I’ve paved a new path: One where I consistently push myself to grow, feel good enough, and live in a place of calm, centered confidence.

And these habits aren’t magic— anyone can learn them! Everyone deserves to learn them. They’re rooted in solid verbal communication skills, body language tactics, and powerful mindset shifts. Meshing these three skillsets together creates a powerful range of habits that can make any lovely human feel confident! All you have to do is learn them and consistently work hard to practice them throughout your life. When you’re ready to commit to yourself, when you’re ready to finally let yourself feel good enough, when you’re ready to live a life of confidence, I can help you learn and practice these habits! You’re worth it 😀 (You SO are!)

I’m also a total scifi nerd 🤓 

I can’t wait for us to work together! Seriously, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with! You’ll learn such powerful new habits, and you’ll feel so much power in the confidence that you’ve unlocked! Heck yes!!

In other nerdy news, you should also know that I’m a total geek and an avid life-long learner: I am certified to teach public speaking (and more!) with a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communication & Journalism and a Masters Degree in Education by the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I am certified as a Life & Success Coach, Hypnotherapist, and NLP, EFT, and TIME Practitioner by the International Board of Coaches and Practitioners. I’m currently pursuing my certification as a Master Practitioner by the IBCP, as well as my certification in The Science of Well-Being by Yale University 🤓