Friday, August 2, 2019
Wholeness Is An Inside Job
I am a huge believer in mind-body healing. After all we are each a spirit, who has a soul (mind, will, emotions) and we live in a physical body. Having all aspect of your being in alignment is really the only way to true wholeness. You can't just focus on the physical and ignore spirit and soul and think you will be truly healthy. It just isn't possible. We are integrated beings.
Often we jump from one 'health' product to another all the while, still feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, confused, and full of physical symptoms. Problem is we never really address the root issue. You can't just take a handful of supplements and think they will magically solve the problem any more than taking any medication is the total answer to healing.
Being well is just as much an inside job as it is an outside job. What you eat, how much, the quality of that food, is definitely important for health and for weight loss. I would never dispute that. However, what you believe about it and how you think about what you do informs your choices and impacts how your body responds.
If you believe making a certain change will result in healing or more energy or weight loss, you will be more consistent with it and it will do what you expect more often than not. That is the whole premise behind the placebo effect. People are given inert, sugar pills with absolutely no power to heal. They are, however, told that the pill will heal their problem and the power of their belief is what actually causes healing.
If our thoughts and beliefs are that powerful - and they are - shouldn't we be paying more attention to them? This is true in all aspects of health, including weight loss.
I have found that combining what you put on your plate, what you think about it and yourself, is the KEY to going from unhealthy to healthy, from burned out to balanced. While it is imperative that you properly nourish your body with high quality, one-ingredient foods and clean water, it is just as critical to nourish your spirit and soul! That is an aspect of Today is Still the Day that I believe is overlooked in many other plans. You can be slim and still be unhealthy! Changing your diet is only one part of the puzzle.
I think the bottom line is that we have to consider our ultimate goal. Sure you may want to lose 25 pounds and maybe for the sake of your heart or your knees, you desperately need to. It's important to realize that the excess weight is a symptom. In order to change that long-term, you have to find the root issue. That's why "diets" don't work - they are temporary and only address the symptom. Ultimately, you want to be a healthy, vibrant person who is able to live life with ease and joy.
That's what true health and wholeness is. In order to achieve that, you can't ignore your spirit and soul and just focus on dropping a certain number of pounds or fitting into a specific size jeans.
Health is more than the absence of illness and it is more than just being a certain size. So instead of just focusing on the diet or the scale, pay attention to the whole person and I would be willing to bet you will experience so much more success!
Ann Musico is a holistic coach and independent nutritional consultant. She has developed a "3-D Living Program" to assist her coaching clients in achieving vibrant health and wholeness - spirit, soul and body. Visit her website at https://www.threedimensionalvitality.com to learn more about the "3-D Living Program," her book, Today is Still the Day, as well as the coaching packages she offers. Subscribe for her free monthly newsletter and weekly email messages.
Health is more than just the absence of illness. Let Ann show you how to create a life of passion and purpose, wholeness and harmony.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Ann_Musico/51664
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Thursday, August 1, 2019
There's a Secret to Getting Yourself to Meditate
As a meditation teacher, I've heard countless students share their excuses for why they didn't meditate in the past week. They wanted to. They know it would be good for them. They just didn't do it. At least, not consistently.
Something always seems to get in the way: they need more sleep, the dog needs to be walked, the kids are up, they had to work late or had an early meeting, they felt too anxious, worried, or irritable... Meditation just didn't seem as important as other things they had to do. Yet, all those things they did didn't give them the peace of mind they desired.
Of course, meditation is about changing your relationship with all the events, worries, and anxieties in your life. It's a daily ritual-like eating, sleeping, and brushing your teeth-that creates a more relaxed, healthy, meaningful, and intentional way of living. It's a powerful practice to realize the deep peace of mind we all desire. So, what's the secret to moving from excuses to practice?
The answer is: you've got to have a strong "Why?"
Where do you find your Why?
The answer may surprise you.
The Secret is Body Awareness
Your body is not just a mechanical vehicle for carrying out all the activities in your life. It is a highly-sensitive bio-feedback system.
Your body can tell you what is good for you to eat and how much, when you need to rest, when you need to relax and have fun, when you need to get up and move, and when you need to be alone, have contact with others, be in nature, and spend time in meditation. It connects you to when, why, and how much to do anything. If you're paying attention.
In our context, it connects you to WHY you might want to meditate in the first place. At least it has the potential to do this-if you pay attention. Yet, how often do you pause and really pay attention to your body's signals? How often do you stop to sense what it is telling you?
Why aren't you doing this?
First off, we have a culture that encourages just the opposite. We are encouraged to focus outwardly rather than inwardly. We are encouraged to do as much as possible. We are encouraged to gather as many products and as much wealth, data, and sensory input from the external environment as we possibly can.
We are encouraged to react quickly and are discouraged from taking time for well-considered and deeply felt responses. We are conditioned to quick reactions and sound bites on news and social media. We are impatient with anything that takes time. We go, go, go, until we are too exhausted to continue.
Do you feel this exhaustion?
Yet, are you worried about what might happen if you stop? Are you worried you'll fall behind and be left out? At a certain point, you may decide you just don't want to live this way anymore. When you reach this point-or preferably long before that-take a moment to pay attention inside. Notice what all this thinking, doing, worry, accumulation, and stimulation is doing to you.
Is there another option?
Meditation Creates a New Way of Being
Meditation interrupts nonstop thinking and doing and gives your body a chance to relax deeply-something you may not even get to do in a restless sleep. Consciously relaxing, as you do in meditation, unwinds tension accumulated beneath your awareness in the past 24 hours as well as in the years of your life up to this point. It slowly dissolves the reactive mental-emotional patterns that drive you on the hamster wheel of nonstop activity. It quiets your mental chatter.
Now, when you first start to meditate, you may not notice this relaxing, quieting, and calming effect. You may become even more aware of how busy your mind is, how conflicting your emotions are, and how tense your body is. If you have mistreated your body through over-stress for a long period of time, initial moments of Body Awareness in meditation might not feel so great.
Or, you may feel little to nothing at all. All that thinking, doing, and pushing yourself to do things you feel you "have to" or "should" do may have cut you off from how you feel. You may have lost touch with your vital sensations and feelings. You may just feel bored without external stimulation keeping you distracted.
Yet, discomfort, boredom, or numbness, when you face them honestly, directly, gently, and without judgment, as you do in meditation, can alert you to just how much you need to activate another way of being.
If you heed this signal and take time to sit, breathe, and mindfully notice what's happening inside-the layers of stress will begin to unwind and your vital senses will reawaken. As you unwind, Body Awareness may tell you just how exhausted you are from the way you are going about your life.
As you pay close attention to what your body has to say, you might find that all those things you've been chasing after may not be as important as they seemed. You may discover you don't want to live on the human hamster wheel of incessant activity, worry, and anxiety any longer. You may be inspired to make new choices that reflect your soul's deeper desires.
Meditation beckons you to a more relaxed, healthy, meaningful, and intentional way of living-and your body will tell you just how important this is-if you pay attention.
Want to get started meditating? You'll be gently guided into deep relaxation and calm clarity with Clear Quiet Mind Meditations. Just click "Play" and follow along. Download on CD Baby or Download on ITunes
Kevin Schoeninger is a writer and teacher of Mind-Body training, including Mindfulness, Meditation, Qigong, and Reiki. He is the author of the book "Clear Quiet Mind" and numerous guided meditations and programs in the field of personal empowerment and spiritual growth.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kevin_Schoeninger/31493
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Wednesday, July 31, 2019
How To Stop Negativity And Start Thinking Creatively
One of the things that can get in the way of creativity is the practice of negative thinking. Some people just naturally tend to think more negatively than others. It doesn't matter, though; you can turn off your negative inclinations and learn to be more positive.
Negative Thinking Is Limiting
Right now, think of some negative things for about 30 seconds. Now you're likely finding it hard to even read this because you're thinking about how the dishes aren't put away, or you don't have enough to pay that medical bill, and other things about your daily life. Plus, now that you're thinking negatively, you're likely not looking for solutions because eventually, the negativity turns into giving up.
Acknowledge Your Negative Thinking
The first thing to do is realize and accept that almost everyone thinks negatively sometimes. It's okay to have a bad day. But it's not okay to let any negative thing that happens to you inform your entire life.
Combat Negativity with Facts
When a negative thought comes to your mind, combat it with facts. There is always someone who has it worse so if you can cite those facts convincingly to yourself, you're going to feel better - at least for yourself.
Keep a Gratitude Journal
Before you go to bed each night, write down at least three things in your life that you are grateful for today. If you're not sure what to be grateful for today, be more general such as, "I'm glad that today I managed to get through the day without going to jail."
Surround Yourself with Positive People
The more people you can find that are generally positive and don't focus on the negative, the more positive you'll become. First, you'll feel silly always trying to be negative to positive people who will point out the positives to you because that's how they think. Secondly, their positivity rubs off onto you.
Smile More
This might seem like a condescending thing to say but the truth is that when we smile with our mouths, eyes and face, it releases endorphins that make us feel better. Anytime you feel negative, think of something that makes you smile.
Take Care of Your Health
It's hard to be positive if you're not healthy. Even if you have health issues, taking the best care of yourself can make you feel better inside and out. Eat right, exercise, take your vitamins, and drink plenty of water and you're going to have the energy to be more positive. This is going to almost automatically make you more creative.
A 'Success Mindset' means that when you have challenges, you'll be able to work through them with confidence and clarity. It means that when you are presented with an opportunity you'll be able to set fears aside and take advantage of the opportunity. To help you embrace a success mindset to improve your business, and your life, download my free checklist, Cultivating a Success Mindset, at https://jonallo.com/mindset
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948
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