Successful woman always know to set high goals, to celebrate all their achievements, and to stretch towards those goals every day.

When I say stretch every day, I mean literally and physically stretch yourself, and also emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually stretch yourself.

When you start the day off by stretching out, your muscles get warmed up and you remain flexible and limber. Your body gets stronger and more vibrant as you stretch and shake off sleep. Stretch out in bed, and then move to the floor or to a mat or cloth you’ve set out. Incorporate 15 minutes of stretching into your day and you’ll immediately feel better (and your posture will improve).

By emotionally stretching yourself, I encourage you to use the Buddhist exercise of wishing well upon a friend or loved one, then wishing well upon someone you may not be too happy with, then wishing well upon an adversary or someone about whom you have very strong feelings. Stretch out your feeling towards this person and release yourself from limited thinking. As you do so, you’ll gain a wider perspective on the world.

Stretch yourself intellectually by reading, listening, and learning from other teachers. Assemble a toolkit of links or resources that you use to stretch your mind and to increase your brain power. Do a crossword puzzle or a memory game to keep yourself sharp, and keep on learning about different subjects which interest you. Stretch your limitations of your knowledge.

Spiritually, when I say stretch, I mean stretch out your understanding of your purpose in the world and how you are manifesting what you were born to do. Stretch out your soul and strive to touch more people with your passion, to help more people with your products, and to assist more of your community through your work.

Reach out and stretch your “soul muscles” so you have greater understanding and appreciation of our human nature and the beauty with which each of us lives our life. I’ve incorporated an hour of power into my day: with 20 minutes of reading, 20 minutes of meditation, and 20 minutes of prayer.

Keep stretching yourself every day and you’ll find that your entire outlook expands. You’ll appreciate this enhanced perspective.

Where will you stretch yourself in the next few days?

We’re on day #27 of a thirty day series on exercises to help us achieve our greatest success.

Stretching our body every day is an excellent way to keep limber, fit, and healthy. Stretching on a regular basis is a great routine to incorporate into your day, particularly in the morning, right when you wake up.

I’d like you to take five minutes now to stretch out your body.

+ Head
+ Neck
+ Shoulders
+ Torso
+ Arms
+ Hands
+ Fingers
+ Hips
+ Legs
+ Calves
+ Feet
+ Toes

When we stretch, we honor and treasure our bodies. We give thanks for the physical body that helps house our innermost dreams, goals, aspirations, beliefs, and values. We value our physical being.

My dance teacher in high school always explained that stretching before anything was kind of like heating up water and putting spaghetti noodles into the water. If we had just taken a dry spaghetti noodle and tried to break it, it would snap easily. However, if we put the noodle into a warm pot of water and heated it up, it would become limber and flexible: we could stretch it, swing it around, or twist it and it would be able to retain its shape.

When we stretch out our bodies, we become more limber and flexible.

(The same goes for our minds!)

Stretch yourself out today. It feels great, and you’ll want to do it every day.

Monica S. Flores is an author, educator, and speaker.

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Tip #30: Celebrate!

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