Do you WANT to react to things differently, but you keep reacting in the same way?

Here’s how to create more joy and positivity in your life, without needing anything about your life to change.

With one single mindset technique, you can shift from getting upset about the “little” things to deal with it consciously and react in a relaxed way. You might even be able to laugh about it! If this sounds too good to be true, let’s start by looking straight into the enemies eyes: 

How many times have you been annoyed by a water glass that tipped over, something fell on the floor (and broke), you missed the bus by a second, the toilet paper roll was empty and no one changed it...?

This “getting upset about the little hiccups” uses up so much energy and it often happens unconsciously so that we’re tired and exhausted without really knowing why. So we question ourselves. So we try to do better. But you still find yourself in situations where you so wish to react differently, but you feel like you can’t.

If you know exactly what I’m talking about, it’s not your fault. It’s not that you just don’t try hard enough. It’s probably because you’ve been conditioned that way through your life experience. It’s probably because this is just how you, and the people in your environment, have done life for a long time, and it can feel hard to change things when that’s how we’re used to doing them or we haven’t ever seen them done differently.

However, there is a way to preempt our automatic reaction to the hiccups, and therefore be able to choose to react differently.

It comes from Abraham Hicks and is called “Segment Intending.” It’s incredibly powerful! Here’s how I use it daily to experience more joy and lightness every single day.

Are you ready to go on a mind journey with me?

Every day is split into lots of segments.

Imagine waking up in the morning. The moment you open your eyes: A new segment starts. And at the start of every new “segment” of time, you can consciously decide what your next decision will be, what mood you want to be in, what attitude you want to have, what intention you want to set.

While you’re still in bed, you set the intention of starting your day peacefully and at your own pace. Maybe you even say: Today I’m gonna create a good day for myself! And so you decide to get up and make breakfast with this in mind.

You open the bedroom door and the first thing you encounter are the clothes that somebody (your partner, kid, you…) has carelessly thrown on the floor before going to sleep.

Normally, this would make you extremely upset. But just a minute ago, your intention was: “I want to start my day peacefully and at my own pace!” Which means now you have a choice: Do I want to get upset? You definitely can, because you’ve told them over and over again that this annoys you and that you have a wardrobe or a chair for that and so on and so forth. Or, do you want to stick with your intention for this segment and start your day peacefully and at your own pace? Because of your intention, you now realize you have a choice, and you get to decide what choice to make.

You pause and consciously decide what your next decision will be, what mood you want to be in, what attitude you want to have, what intention you want to set.

Maybe you manage to just ignore these clothes and don’t waste any energy on this. If you choose this, I congratulate you!! If you get upset, that’s ok! The next segment and its magic is awaiting you, and you can always make a new choice, which means that you have control over how you interact with the things you encounter throughout your day.

Before using segment intending you might have been rushing angrily off to the kitchen, slightly aggressively throwing together a breakfast, hastily eating it and hurrying to your job. Now with your intention of creating a good day for yourself, you prepare breakfast maybe with your favorite song in your ear, even dancing a little? Is that too much to digest for the start? DANCING? In the morning? You are crazy, Ronja…! : ) I am a little crazy for sure and I whisper into your ear: YOU decide what you want your next segment to look and feel like. You are the boss of your day, you are the creator of your next segment.

Next segment: A family member enters the kitchen. In your mind you quickly check in with yourself:

Consciously decide what your next decision will be, what mood you want to be in, what attitude you want to have, what intention you want to set.

You can calmly tell your significant other or your kid that you’d like them to pay attention to the clothes not laying around in the hallway in the future because it’s important to you. End of discussion. Or you can yell at them first thing in the morning. You decide all day long, what you say or don’t say, what you do or don’t do. Either way it has an effect on you and the people around you. What effect do you want it to have?

Next segment: Getting ready for work.

See how you haven’t even properly started with your day and this is already the fourth option to consciously choose what you want to do and how you want to feel?

You continue your day with segments:

• Getting ready for work
• Your commute
• Before entering the building when you see other co workers from other divisions
• Elevator ride (yes, also these tiny segments can feel so much better when you’ve set an intention this happens in 2 seconds and makes such a difference! I will smile and greet when I enter and breathe relaxed during the ride… can you imagine how good this feels?)
• Entering your office
• Entering a meeting
• Receiving a phone call 
• Lunchbreak
• You see how this list goes on and on and you get the idea how this works, right?

This doesn’t mean that you’ll always be able to catch yourself in the right moment at the right time or that you’ll always feel like you imagined to feel, but at least - and this is truly important and can be life changing - you create the opportunity again and again. There is no failure with segment intending, because there is always a new segment to practice on. And the more you practice it, the more it will happen automatically without you putting any effort into it.

I know this may seem simple, even 'too' simple: "You mean I simply decide what I want to feel before I feel it Ronja? But how can I remember to do that when life gets so busy!" But the truth is that *yes*, with this one tiny tool, you can feel more in control of your day and even your life, and you can create a better, more joyful life without having to even change anything about your life (unless you want to!).

Last week I was cooking and opened the fridge with too much speed and a big jar of Japanese garlic-ginger-paste fell on the floor and the glass broke. Some years ago this would have freaked me out with a ton of adrenalin in my veins. It would have felt like the Universe was insulting me personally with SUCH an incident. Now I just think: Wow, ok… lucky me the paste is so sticky that the glass fragments didn’t fly around. Clean it up and DONE.

This relaxed awareness is the normal state of my mind within a segment. Now I must have a really bad day with a bad mood and probably I’m hungry and tired on top of it to lose my mojo and freak out like in earlier days.

I don’t tell you this to brag: Look at me, I’m so relaxed. I tell you this to show you that this is a possibility for you when you

Consciously decide what your next decision will be, what mood you want to be in, what attitude you want to have, what intention you want to set.

Whatever happens, breathe, accept the situation, clean the shattered pieces (or what’s appropriate for your situation) and move on with your day. It’s all about not letting one incident ruin your whole day and instead choosing what you want to give your energy to. Yes, you have a choice!

Going through your day in segments means that you constantly have a choice to turn things around. Maybe you have a shitty segment during that meeting but then you intentionally create a great segment for your lunch break. Maybe you treat you with your favorite meal and are extra nice with yourself. Maybe you even choose your favorite coworkers as company, or maybe you want to be alone and so you communicate this nicely and calmly to your coworkers, that you need a little break.

Creating your day consciously and true to what you need and want in that moment of that segment takes the pressure away “from your whole great day you wanted in the morning”. You focus on segments and do your best within them, with a new opportunity to start again at every point in the day. And it's all as simple as, before you start a new one, you consciously decide what your next decision will be, what mood you want to be in, what attitude you want to have, what intention you want to set.

By focusing (more) on what you really want, your life gets more depth and lightness. You have so much more power than you often think, and that is why working on your mindset using tools like segment intending is a central part of what we do in the Joy Academy. Creating more joy is not about being all smiley all the time and acting like everything is covered in rose plush, it’s about regaining control over your life, your decisions, your moments, your mood, your reactions. Because that’s key to enjoying your life and creating any change you want.

Try this segment-intending-method and tell me how you feel the difference after a little practice. I’d love to hear from you in the comments or write an email to ronja[at]joyismycompass[dot]com.

If you want guidance and community to work on all areas of your life to create a new mindset which goes beyond “creating a good day”, join the Joy Academy. On this one year journey you are guided to find what’s “missing” from your already pretty good life so that you can experience more joy and lightness every single day. You find all the information HERE and if you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them, reach out.

Let’s make this world more playful, colorful and JOYful.

Lots of love from Zurich, Switzerland,