A safe harbor where beliefs are respected and kindness prevails.

You Have To Do The Basics

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fotolia_293572_Subscription_LAre you still trying to figure out why you are not getting the results you want in your health and fitness? You probably feel like you’ve tried every program out there. You’ve  restricted calories, taken every boot camp available, tried running yourself to death, drank shakes till they are coming out your ears, and still you’ve had no lasting results.

Oh, sure you took some of the weight off, and got a little stronger, maybe even had some relief from the chronic pain you deal with. But, you still haven’t been able to achieve the body and health you are so hoping to have.

What else is there to try? How about that new kind of exercise program that’s on T.V., or a new class they are promoting. Even better, I hear there is a new diet that you only drink the juice from a tree found in the Amazon.

Can I say something here? Please don’t.

I know the way you feel. It’s so frustrating setting a goal of losing weight and increasing your fitness but not knowing where to turn. The motivation hits you and you want to run with it. What should you do though? You don’t want to do the same things you’ve done in the past like starve yourself and workout till you can’t move.

I dealt with this quite a bit when I was first starting off. I just tried to do what everyone else was doing. I would get hurt or not get results. I tried everything I heard would work. I would lift heavy. Then I tried lifting light. I tried eating mass quantities of food, then low fat, high carbs. After that I tried high protein, low carbs. Then I fell victim to taking this supplement and that supplement.

It got to the point that I didn’t feel I knew what I was doing. In reality I didn’t. I hadn’t learned about the basics of health yet.

Trying to figure out how to create real health and fitness in my life seemed too big of a challenge. There was too much to know. I would need a team of health practitioners to take care of me. Just like a professional athlete who has several team practitioners there to design every part of a workout and eating and lifestyle. No wonder so many of us give up before we even start.

I’m here to tell you it doesn’t need to be confusing or hard. All that we have to do is get back to the basics.

Believe it or not, as complex as we are, health, fitness, and wellness are not at all hard to create for yourself. You don’t need fancy gym equipment, or special supplements, or a team of practitioners. All you need are the six components to health and wellness.

These six components will give your spirit, mind, and body all that is needed to heal and create health, fitness, and wellness.

You are already doing them every day. The only challenge is that you have never learned how to do them correctly to bring about health and wellness. Without knowing it you have been sabotaging your health and fitness by not taking full advantage of these components.

Did you think I was going to reveal some hidden secret for health and wellness or the newest way to get your body in shape?

Well in a sense I am. I am telling you that health, fitness, and wellness require basic inputs in the right amount and in the right way. Those last two are the secret. In the right amount and in the right way.

You have these three amazing instruments but you have been using them ineffectively. Those instruments are your spirit, mind, and body. Each one comes with a simple yet very effective set of directions for optimum results in health, fitness, and well-being, along with love, happiness, and wealth.

As my high school algebra teacher Mr. Landers would say “ It so simple it’s slippery”.

Creating health, fitness, and well-being in your life is simple. All that is required is the deep desire and the will to implement these six simple components.

Any of you who have been following my articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos are well aware of these six components. They are your thoughts (self Image), breathing, hydration, nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

Within these six components lie the keys to the kingdom of health, fitness, and wellness.

It’s time to get back to the basics!

Are you ready to jump into integrating these components and start feeling the results?

Let’s do this together. You can go to here and watch a complimentary webcast I made for you all on the six components.

I am here to support you on your journey.

I wish for all of you Vibrant Health!

Don’t Be So Grown-Up

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Fotolia_48347527_Subscription_XLAre you one of those people who are often told to lighten up or that you are too serious? Do you see others acting in a childish way and roll our eyes thinking, “Some people never grow up”? Do you think, “I didn’t even like cartoons when I was a kid, let alone those ‘adult’ animated tv shows now? (That’s totally me.)

How is it that some of us seem to be so out of touch with fun in our life?

Unfortunately, it’s probably no secret that it stems from something in child hood. Think back. Did you have to be grown up way too early in life? Was there often no time for games, imagination, playing with friends because there were other responsibilities that had to take priority? Maybe that responsibility was not being able to leave your parent alone. Was there no safety in getting lost in fun because then you weren’t paying attention to what was happening in your household? There was only safety in being hyper vigilant.

I often wonder how things would be different for me at this stage if I had learned to live with a little more reckless abandon as a child. If I wouldn’t have been told to “stop wasting film” when I was taking pictures of the every day, simple things that I was able to see beauty in. I wonder how different my life would be if I didn’t let people’s poking fun at my enthusiasm for things bother and shame me into a silent retreat. If I hadn’t been directed to “settle down”, not when acting wild and out of control, but just when I was overjoyed and excited.

These acts, and unfortunately many that are much worse, are like a shot of poison straight to the vein leading to a child’s soul. They teach you that there’s no place for acting like a child, no time for fun.

But as we get older, and if we are lucky, we realize that fun is a cure to an unhappy life. And this means some of us must learn to be able to act like a child again. We must learn to have a feeling of safety & confidence in it.

So where do you begin? We all too often hear about getting in touch with our inner child. But what does that actually mean and how do we do it?

First there needs to be some healing that takes place. As I mentioned above, their needs to be a mending that can allow for a sense of safety while “acting out” in fun. Then, you must take time to really listen to your self. Think about things you liked doing when you were a kid. What were the things you were doing when you got in trouble for “getting carried away”? Is there something that you have secretly really been yearning to do? Do you ever watch small children and while you are observing them at play, find yourself beaming from ear to ear? These are all indications of places you might want to start experimenting with this idea of having fun. It can be anything from building a sand castle to racing down a slide; coloring in a coloring book or blowing bubbles. Nothing is too simple.

What is your favorite type of humor? Find YouTube videos, or movies, or shows on demand that make you laugh out loud and commit to at least one night a week indulging in this laughter therapy.

If you are really feeling bold, attempt to do something that seems absolutely ridiculous and absurd for you to even attempt. A painting class. Karaoke. A belly dancing class. Once you take the pressure off of yourself to do these things well and just allow yourself to have the experience, you will find that you can actually have fun. And you will start to be more daring at these attempts which you know would have only proved to be embarrassing to your old you.

Your path to reclaiming fun in your life may take longer than you had hoped. You may need to just start with skipping doing the dishes immediately after dinner, and going straight for ice cream and a walk in the park. (Some of you are thinking, “let’s not get crazy now?!”) But the key is to start trying-in the right places, alone, or with the right people.

Soon you will start to forget. Forget that fun is not allowed or is frowned upon. Forget that being caught having fun once gained disapproval and a withdraw of love. You will forget that you are always supposed to be a grown-up and that fun is for children.

Remaining Calm During Madness

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How does one keep your vibration positive when it appears that there is madness all around you? You don’t want to look naïve to your coworkers, or like a Pollyanna to your family, or unsympathetic to a friend with a problem. And what is the value to YOU for staying positive?

Let me answer that last question first.

Fotolia_65720515_Subscription_Monthly_MThe value to you is to improve your own well-being. The better you feel, the less likely you are to get sick, or get in a car accident, or attract an argument with someone. The cells of your body actually respond to what you believe your life is like. If you think “My life is a disaster,” your cells will respond by not working properly, “knowing” that things are hopeless…that they are part of a losing team. I realize that sounds like a stretch, but more and more scientific types are finding this to be true. Researchers are creating tests to prove it so.

If instead you say “Life is good, I am healthy and all is well,” your cells will eat it right up! Energy food for the little guys and they LOVE it and will say “Oh good, I’m on a winning team so I will do my very best to work really well!”

Another important reason is to understand that how you are feeling will affect what happens around you. The “Law of Attraction” is becoming more and more accepted and it is hard to find anyone that has never heard of it. If you haven’t, it works like this…what ever you are thinking/believing, you are vibrating…and like vibrations will be attracted to you and you to them. Simple as that. It may be that you feel like a victim…so you will attract someone to victimize you. If you are depressed, you are likely to sit next to the most depressed person in any room you enter. So that is another reason to use whatever techniques you know about to improve your mood…to be more positive.

I am by no means saying you should “ignore” what is bothering you. You can’t stuff it away somewhere inside of you and pretend it isn’t there…because it will only fester and grow. What you CAN do is change your attitude about it. When there is this “thing” sitting there in the way of your happiness, instead of being depressed or sad about it, get to work figuring out how to get rid of it. If you can take that approach, you may have a new, fresh idea that you couldn’t see in your state of depression. Understand that the problem is OUTSIDE of you…it is not you.

The hard part, of course, is to know HOW to change your attitude, to change how you are feeling, or to minimize the importance of a perceived problem. Here are some things you can try.

  • Stop repeating your same sad story over and over. If something bad happened to you, it is NOT YOU. If you keep repeating it and repeating it, it BECOMES part of you. A good friend of mine and I came up with this technique: First acknowledge it, then release it, then focus on what you want. Adironnda says you can tell a story only three times, and that is it!       So choose your three times carefully and know that you are telling it to “let it go.”
  • Step back and look for the silver lining. If you look back at situations in your past, how often can you find a situation that looked like a road block while it was happening, but later ended up opening up a new and better opportunity for you. I ask you to just take a minute right now and think back about a particular situation that turned out that way for you. We have ALL had them and looking back at such stories helps us look for the good in any new situations we encounter.
  • Make time to have some fun. It can be as simple as stopping in to get an ice cream cone on the way home. Treat yourself to something special that you know makes you feel good. We have many touchstones from our childhood, so identify them and DO them.       If I really want to be comforted, I watch an old episode of “I Love Lucy.” It instantly erases the stress of “modern life” as we know it today. We know we can’t really go back there, and realistically don’t want to, but for 30 minutes, all the stress leaves my body/mind!
  • Learn to Meditate. Find time in your day, usually best at the very beginning of the day, to just sit in silence. There are so many programs out there today teaching people how to do it, and many of them are even free. If you decide that it is something you want to try, the right teacher or program WILL appear for you.       Someone will tell you about a program in conversation, or you will stumble across something on Facebook. It isn’t hard to learn and there have never been so many willing teachers.       It no longer needs to involve a specific religion or philosophy. Those days are long gone. It isn’t even mysterious! It is just a simple thing to learn to do to make your life better.

Print this list out and keep it somewhere. Then look at it again in a month and see if you actually tried any of these things, and if they helped. You have control of your own destiny…no one else. So what do you choose? I have worked on this my whole entire life and just now feel like I am actually starting to “live” it…so don’t be hard on yourself…there is no deadline.

Just keep trying. It is the ONLY way to get there!

Amazing Restraint

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If you have a PC, have you ever looked at the “properties” section of your C drive? It will have a wonderful two-slice pie chart that indicates how much memory you have used and how much memory is available. If you haven’t saved a lot of files and have only used a little bit of memory, the pie slice will be but a sliver, and the vast majority of the pie will be the memory you have available to use.

Fotolia_59374652_Subscription_Monthly_MAlternatively, let’s say that you are getting ready to enjoy a piece of pie. You slice a teeny little sliver and leave the rest of the pie intact. This is how I see what happens on the news. The vast majority of people are kind towards their neighbors, live their lives in peace and take care of themselves and their families while a very small number of folks who act out get all of the press. Why is it that we focus on the tiny sliver of stuff that appears to be going wrong rather than put the attention on the biggest piece of the pie – all that is going well?

For example, there are dozens of Arab-Israeli peace projects going on right now – some date back to the 1940’s. Do we ever hear of them?   I say not often enough. However, what might happen if we put some real attention on the peacemakers? What might it be like if we elected to not look at the train wrecks but look at the gloriously moving trains instead? I truly enjoy acknowledging what is going right. By focusing on that, my mood improves, I smile more and I feel lighter and happier.

When I was clinically depressed and doing a lot of driving to and from work, I was all too focused on my abject misery. Yet, on many days I thought about all of the workers who helped create the freeways that I took for granted. Each second I would speed along, trusting that the road would be right there in front of me to help me get to work, or to get home. And for that, and the men who created them, I was grateful. That gratitude for the simplest things helped me weather my personal storm.

Things are really, really working well among us – in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities. How can I say this with such certainty? It occurred to me the other day that we have amazing restraint. Think about it. There are words that you can say to someone you love that could break their heart. You know their vulnerabilities and sensitivities, and you choose to protect and love them rather than hurt them. Our amazing restraint is much more common than we know. And for that, I am grateful.

It could be the most wonderful exercise to stretch your imagination in order to derive gratitude from the small things that we typically ignore. Incorporating this new habit can help you look at your challenges with renewed intention and a joyful spirit. We are more loving and kind than mean and hurtful. By focusing on the small victories, we can change how we see the world, and change our personal world in the process.

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