3 Ways To Stay Healthy When You’re Really Busy

08 Jun 2015

Simas Skuzinskas

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Have you been on the extreme busy run schedule lately?

Get up, get kids to the school, go to work, come back, take kids from the school, and by the end of the day feel SO tired that you just want to lie down and do nothing?

Perhaps you are missing one specific piece on your daily basis that keeps you away from the energy and enthusiasm driven life.

1. Cultivate A Morning Ritual

We, as people, expect a lot from ourselves every day. And how we begin the day will result in how we end the day.

Amazingly, many of us “forget” that we take care of the outside world so much leaving ourselves behind the picture.

When the gas tank is empty, we know we need gas to fill it up. Otherwise, we cannot move further.

But when our bodies feel exhausted and sick, we go for a quick fix (food full of sugar to get a fast energy boost), and in afternoon we feel sleepy, moody, out of balance.

How come we never pour diesel into the car that is run on gas when the tank is empty? Yet, we eat the food that has ZERO or MINIMAL nutritional value to our bodies?

2. Take Care Of Your Body

To feel great from the start of the morning, follow a simple effective formula that nourishes your body, mind and soul.

Implement a morning ritual that consists of:

• Water upon waking up.
• An exercise of 2 minutes to awaken your body and mind (can be squats, push ups, burpees, or Ab routine)
• Meditation of 15-20 minutes to CLEAR the mind (I personally find Rebirthing the MOST effective, as Tony Robbins finds this as well). Meditation not only calms your mind and soul, but also provides the energy to kick off the day!
• Moment for gratitude and appreciation for your current life
• Read a book or listen to an Audio for personal growth to build some new brain cells, open up your mind for new thoughts and opportunities.
• HAVE a breakfast. Many people skip it, or just grab a coffee and a bagel/muffin and go. By noon, their energy levels drop significantly. Implement a new habit of starting the day with a Green Shake.

3. Get Fit – And Stay Fit

A 15-20 minute workout of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) in the morning or at night 3-4 times per week WILL get you fit and help you STAY fit.

Now, what you do every morning is you prepare your body physically, your mind mentally, to go through the day with full capacity to perform at your best.

More energy at your work, with kids and wife, workouts, better sleep – more productive life.

You need to spend the time nourishing yourself, inside and out.

The best part of it is that YOU are responsible for this, and how you have been spending mornings is a direct reflection of how you LOVE yourself.

Treat yourself best! The better and well you are, the more you can give to others. And…

You do not need to do this all right away.

Start off with just ONE thing (exchange coffee with green shake, then after a week or two start doing one exercise after you wake up, later meditation and etc.), and gradually create new patterns in your daily habits. At the beginning, won’t be easy, but will be WORTH it!

You MUST plant the seed in order to reap.

Not a single seed has grown without sowing and harvesting it!

http://www.finerminds.com/health-fitness/3-ways-to-stay-healthy-when-youre-really-busy/

5 Easy Steps to Reach Your Full Potentia

20 May 2015

Gregory Henderson

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Do you ever feel like you could be doing more with your life?

But perhaps you continually find yourself stuck because life just feels like it hasn’t turned out the way you thought it would.

Your heart yearns to be somewhere else, do something else, and be someone else.

You should listen because it knows what you must acquire to achieve your full potential in life.

You have a power deep down within you that can intuitively tell you how to overcome the hurdles in life, which you face each and every day.

Something that when triggered will give you the answers to your most pressing questions.

Are you interested in finding such a power if it were to truly exist?

You Have The Power To Reach Your Full Potential Inside You…

Every living thing on this planet has a guidance system, somewhat like the Global Positioning System (GPS) you find in your automobile.

But it’s better defined as an Automatic Success Processor (ASP) which helps in finding solutions to necessary objectives to successful living.

In simpler forms of life like insects, reptiles, and animals, their success goal is twofold:

• Physical survival, which is limited to finding food and shelter, and escaping or subduing enemies and threats.
• Reproduction for the survival of the species.

Humans have the same two survival instincts embedded in our DNA. This is where the fight, flight, or freeze response comes from when we perceive a harmful event, attack, or threat.

However, humans have a brain far more developed and complicated, which gives our guidance system the ability to act on even more areas of our lives than our animal friends.

Producing a meticulous plan for escaping financial debt or creating a blueprint to build self-esteem and confidence are just two amazing examples of tasks your ASP is capable of performing.

Which means we (you) have the ability to create the life you want, and that’s exactly what you’re doing right now.

Believe it or not, the life you live today has been created and reinforced by your ASP.  

But before we go into more detail on your ASP’s capabilities, let’s briefly discuss the reaction to instinct.

Instinct: The Inevitable Driving Force Of Nature

Instinct is by definition an inborn pattern of activity or tendency to action common to a given biological species.

With this definition, that means every creature has an inborn system (instinct) already set in place with the sole purpose being to help achieve success (survival):

• Baby sea turtles hatch on a beach; without hesitation, they head to the ocean for safety.
• Honeybees communicate by dancing in the direction of a food source without instruction.
• Squirrels in the forest know to gather during the fall and store nuts for the winter.
• Birds have no nest building instructions, but instinctively they know how.

Nature is full of such examples, which really have no explanation other than they have internal instincts, a guiding force that helps them in their natural environment.

But the one thing you have over all other creatures is you can reason, make choices, and create realities in your world with your imagination.

Imagination: The Key To Creating Reality In Your Life

Everything on this planet that has been made by man was just a thought in the beginning, and with imagination, that thought became a reality.

Think back to a time when you thought of someone but couldn’t remember their name no matter how hard you tried.

Your brain sent imaginary pictures to your mind of the person; in some cases you even received an image of the situation in which you met them, but you still couldn’t recall the name.

Then several hours later, while you were doing something else, the name popped into your head.

This was your ASP; it continued scanning all information stored in your brain to find your answer, even though you weren’t conscious of the search at the time.

When you learned to drive a car or ride a bicycle, your brain continuously sent signals to your body to readjust until you succeeded.

Imagining yourself riding around, without the drudgery of having to walk everywhere, created such intense positive emotional thoughts of success that yourASP was stimulated to its highest degree.

So when these emotions were processed, your ASP jumped into overdrive, influencing your muscles to perform appropriately to the task at hand.

Even though riding a bicycle isn’t a natural instinct, but rather a created one by yourASP, imagination along with stimulation was the integral factor in sending strong performance signals to the muscles.

The more imaging your ASP received, the more precise your results.

Now, you perform these task without the slightest thought of how.

Mainly due to that intense focus on images of your results your imagination created in the beginning.

Your Brain is The Ultimate Source of Potential

Your ASP is more powerful than anything known to man, using your brain and nervous system that consists of over 100 billion cells, 100,000 miles of blood vessels, firing information at over 270 mph to make 20-million billion calculations per second to create the life you live.

The truth is, your ASP is a super-calculating mechanism within your brain and nervous system, which finds answers to problems concerning finances, relationships, health, and virtually anything else.

Its capabilities are boundless.

But it’s crucial that you accept the amazing ability of your ASP as real for you to reap the full benefits it offers because one area of your brain is capable of sabotaging your outcome.

Your Conscious Mind Keeps You From Reaching Your Full Potential

Your conscious mind has the amazing ability to reason and make choices, which is fundamentally a great benefit.

The problem is, it can’t distinguish information coming in as real or unreal, and that’s terrible for your internal ASP because it is there to help you succeed in life.

In fact, the conscious mind has all but destroyed it.

Your ASP is locked up in your brain as if it were a convict on death row waiting to be executed for crimes against the world.

But this happens because your mind has been overloaded with negative informational input over the years.

Your ASP worked fine as a child, but whether intentionally or not, society programmed you not to use this powerful solution-seeking system.

Google Your Brain for Faster Success Solutions

Need an answer? All you have to do is send your brain in search for it.

It’s a lot like a Google search.

Input the information (think – meditate on it), trigger your brain to start the search mode, and wait for the results.

Let’s take a look at the 5 steps to initiate your Automatic Success Processor.

1. Target.

Pick a goal, write it down on a note, and place it somewhere you’ll see it often.

2. Believe.

Imagine yourself having reached the end-result, and believe it can happen.

3. Calm.

Relaxing is part of the game; ASP will achieve the goal from negative feedback and automatically correct mistakes, so let it take its course.

4. Learn.

Reminding yourself constantly of your target, mentally correct your aim until you hit your target imaginatively

5. Action.

Your ASP goes into operation as you act, and you place demands on it by your actions. Trusting that your ASP will work as you act is the key that unlocks the door to success.

By letting it work on its own schedule, your brain will process billions of bits of information to find the specific answer you seek.

Belief is crucial; your ASP operates at levels below your consciousness. It’s impossible to know what’s going on at these levels.

Remember, it works spontaneously according to your present need. It goes into operation as you act and place demands on it by your actions.

Don’t wait for proof. Act as if it’s already there, and it will come through for you.

Repetition furthers the learning process until negatives are removed from your ASPand skills are cemented in a solid, positive foundation.

Devote just 15 minutes three times a day for 21 days, focusing on these five steps. You’ll be amazed at how your ASP can change your life.

You’re Worthy of the Success You Are Capable of Creating

You are a unique one-of-a-kind individual. No human on the face of this planet has your fingerprints, brainwave patterns, or DNA.

Your Automatic Success Processor already makes 95% of your choices each day without you knowing it.

Take control, and decide to create the life of your dreams, today.

Don´t worry about potential consequences; everything is better than what you have now. You deserve the life you desire.

Awaken the sleeping giant locked up in your soul, and become the champion in life you were meant to be.

It’s time to get Fired Up! About living and loving life to the fullest on your own terms.

You can do this!

http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/5-easy-steps-to-reach-your-full-potential/

10 Motivation Tips that Yield Big Results

It can be really hard to stay focused sometimes and stay motivated. It sucks when you want to finish something, but you can’t seem to find the motivation to get it done.

I guess, you can say that is why I created this post: it is going to share with you 10 ways you can stay motivated and push through the hard times.

1. Give Yourself a Reward
Hard work is excellent, but you will run out of energy. That is why I find it crucial to give yourself rewards in order to be successful.

All work and no play makes for a dull day. (ha, that rhymed) Go and give yourself a day off and relax, or maybe go get dinner at that amazing restaurant you have been wanting to go to.

Or just give yourself a day at the spa.  Either way, pick something you can reward yourself with, and then do it.

2. Spend Time with Friends and Family
If you are constantly working and you feel demotivated to do anything, it might be because you haven’t seen your family or friends in awhile.

I know for me and many others that just being around friends and having a good time, can really give you a much needed break and help you have a little fun on top of all of that work.

3. Try Something New
Ever felt like you are doing the same thing, just on a different day? I have. It sucks, because life is about being spontaneous and trying new things out.

Sometimes often more than not we get caught up in the routine of life. That is why I find it vital to try something new in order to revive your motivation.

It could be going on a new hiking trail, going scuba diving, maybe taking a cooking class that you have been wanting to take: moral of the story? Try something new!

4. Get Excited
How cliche. But I think most people don’t realize that maybe you have to try and be excited about a goal in order to get out of your slump. Sometimes it takes a little inspiration to get excited (which you can read at #5) but it’s not impossible and you would be surprised at how much motivation you will have if you are excited about your goals.

I find that when I talk to others about my goals and read more success stories that I tend to be more excited about the goal.

Think about it, if more people know about what you are doing, and you accomplish that goal, then you have more people to share your success with.

5. Find Inspiration
For me, inspiration comes in many forms. For instance, I get inspired by reading other people’s success stories, but I also find inspiration when I read a new book.

Success stories show you that it isn’t impossible to be a success, and books can open the door to imagination and allow you to be creative.

Here are a few things that might just inspire you…

1. A family member (my grandma always inspired me to be a better person and to strive for excellence)
2. Charity or volunteering (I recently went to a food harvesting charity where my group and I were able to package up 10,000 pounds of food to send out to family who are in need, this inspired me to give back to my community and to others who are in need)
3. Teachers (I feel bad for some of my teachers who helped me, but they inspired me to get more out of life)
4. Superman or other super heroes (I know it may sound silly, but sometimes when you look towards others who can do anything it might just inspire you to get off your rump and get things done)

6. Stick with It
I know how it feels to be tired and drained and not want to do something. But I find that my motivation peaks when I push through the hard times because I have proven to myself that I can do it.

Commit to yourself that you will work on accomplishing your goal(s) every day. Speaking of commitment…

7. Commit Publicly
You will have a much more harder time dropping a goal if you commit to it publicly. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to have a giant speaking event to commit to your goal, but it could be as easy as putting it on Facebook, or sharing it with family and friends.

Trust me, none of us like to look bad in front of others. This method will keep you accountable and will hopefully motivate you to stick with your goal because you don’t want to fail in front of others.

8. Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help
Everybody’s motivation will drop, but it’s not a matter of when, rather it’s a matter of allowing yourself to ask for help so that you can refuel your motivation.

It can be as easy as emailing someone who will listen and inspire you (you can even email me if you want!), or joining an online forum, or posting to Facebook asking for guidance.

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice, just do it.

9. Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive Thoughts
Negativity doesn’t help anyone. However optimism can help. It is important to take note of your daily thoughts and how you think of yourself and your ability to accomplish a goal.

If you are consistently saying that you are dumb or that you aren’t smart enough, then you are only fooling yourself and holding yourself back.

Instead of saying “I’m dumb,” just say “if this dumbie Kevin can do it, then I can too!” It may seem silly at first, but it will work.

10. Write a Thank You Note to Someone
I love writing thank you notes to others because it makes me feel happier, and typically if you are feeling happier then you will have more energy to be motivated.

Listen, sending a thank you note doesn’t have to be a huge letter or long drawn out story. It could be something like this…

“Dear (insert name),

I wanted to say thank you for helping me with (whatever it is they helped you with), it inspired me or helped me become a better person (writer, singer, etc.) and I appreciate you for that.

You are amazing and thank you so, very much.

Sincerely,

(Your name)”

and boom! You now have a thank you note that you can send out to someone who has helped you out.

Trust me, it can do wonders for boosting your motivation.

http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/10-motivation-tips-yield-big-results/

The 4 Psychological Triggers That Catalyze Change

By Matt Jager

“Things do not change; we change.” ~Henry David Thoreau

The world knows no joy like an evangelist with an opening. My eyes lit up as I jumped into my sermon on the incredible power of lifestyle change.

The year previous I had decided it was time to take charge of my health, and I had made some big changes.

I transitioned to a whole food diet, put plants at the center of my plate, started meditating regularly, and began attending yoga classes multiple times a week.

I was absolutely astounded at how the synergy of these three lifestyle changes completely transformed my quality of life.

So when my friends began asking me to what I owed my newfound glow, I couldn’t wait to endow them with the key to lasting health, effortless weight loss, and inner peace.

And so my lecture would begin. “It’s so simple! Just change your diet, start exercising, oh and don’t forget to meditate every day!”

Can you guess how many people I converted? Not a one. My regretful interlocutor would begin to nervously shift their weight, looking for any opportunity to end the conversation.

Finally, the realization made its way through my thick skull that everyone already knew that they should be eating right and exercising.

The last thing they wanted was to listen to someone else preach the values of diet, meditation, and exercise—what they already knew that they should be doing.

So I finally learned that knowledge isn’t enough to trigger a lifestyle change.

Despite knowing full well the value of yoga, meditation, and eating veggies, few people are able to make and sustain such changes, especially with career obligations, social engagements, and the other demands of modern life.

So I was left with a conundrum. What was it that had allowed me to make these changes? What was I missing in helping others to realize the same health benefits and increased quality of life?

I became obsessed with answering these questions, and thus a quest was born. A few months later I packed up my life and moved to Arizona to work for a holistic healing center.

I spent the next four years at the Tree of Life center in Patagonia, Arizona, where individuals are taught yoga, meditation, and a plant-based diet as a healing modality. I supported hundreds of people as they adopted the same lifestyle changes that I underwent, and the results have been powerful.

But what I was most interested in exploring was not the effects of diet, yoga, and meditation, but rather understanding what allows individuals to make and sustain these changes in their lives.

Why were some able to take these holistic health practices back into their busy everyday lives when they left the center? Why were some successful when others continued to struggle?

I devoured every book on the science of behavior change that I could get my hands on, and had the incredible opportunity of applying the principles in a real life setting.

The takeaway? Behavior change itself is a skill, and there are certain psychological triggers that we can employ to kickstart the process. Anyone can learn these triggers and cultivate the ability to make healthy changes that are sustainable and lasting.

Here are the four best ways to catalyze change:

1. Start small and celebrate success.

Healthy habits are the bedrock of lasting and sustainable health. Why? Because once established, they no longer require willpower to maintain.

But what is the best way to create a habit?

Stanford psychologist BJ Fogg has pioneered an extremely effective behavior change method that he calls Tiny Habits.

The premise? Start small and celebrate your successes.

Want to cook more plant-based meals? Start with putting a recipe book out on the counter on Sundays.

Want to start meditating? Start with just three breaths every time you sit down at the computer.

These tiny actions may seem insignificant, but by starting small we remove the biggest barrier to change—simply getting started.

Engineering (and celebrating) early success is key in reinforcing the creation of new habits and also motivates us to make bigger changes in the future.

Tiny habits transform into big habits, which cascade into big life changes.

2. Understand the motivation myth.

The key to changing behavior is motivation, right? We need to be motivated to cook healthy food, to go to the gym, to wake up early and study.

Not exactly.

Motivation naturally waxes and wanes, and psychologists have found that trying to change how motivated you are at any given moment is hard. Really hard.

The better bet is to use times of high motivation strategically.

Everyone has periods of peak productivity, and the best way to leverage these times of high motivation is to do something that helps structure future behavior.

Next time you find yourself having a super productive day, use that motivation to sign up for a weekly yoga class, invite an interested friend over to explore healthy cooking every Sunday, or plan a plant-based potluck.

These are all examples of setting up future events that will help keep you on track. Using your existing motivation to create accountability and social support increases follow through.

3. Get laser focused on one big win.

The archnemesis of healthy change is a pernicious little devil called overwhelm.

Take getting healthy for example: There are thousands of different dietary theories, conflicting health information, and more exercise programs than I can count.

Should you be fasting one day a week? Eating a low-carb or low-fat diet? Doing yoga? Jumpstarting yourself with a cleanse? Doing three hours of cardio weekly? Eating plant-based meals? Weight training?

The options are endless and analysis paralysis can easily set in.

Focusing on one big win is about identifying what is going to give you the greatest result for the least amount of effort.

For weight loss, a great “big win” is to focus on meals that are low in caloric density, i.e. plant-powered dishes which include a wide range of veggies, beans, grains, and greens.

You can eat as much of these nourishing, delicious, hearty foods as you like and make sustainable progress toward your goal weight.

Whatever your goal, find what gives you the biggest bang for your buck and ruthlessly cut back everything else.

Simplicity empowers change.

4. Learn one thing at a time.

In their book Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard, authors Chip and Dan Heath share some surprising truths about change.

For me, the most interesting revelation is as follows: What looks like resistance is actually a lack of clarity.

When taking up healthy habits, there is almost always a learning curve.

We might go the gym, but we don’t really know how to work out.

We want to cook healthier meals, but the recipe is full of exotic ingredients we’ve never heard of before.

And we most often resist making these changes not because we are unmotivated, but because we don’t see a clear path forward. We don’t know the exact steps to take to begin eating better, exercising, or sitting down to meditate.

The best way to reduce the resistance and get started? Break down the task in front of you into baby steps and learn one thing at a time.

If you are interested in cooking healthier meals, first learn how to shop. Add a new-to-you ingredient to your list every time you go to the store.

Once shopping is a breeze, then devote time to learning to cook up a few quick, easy, and delectable healthy recipes.

Breaking down the learning curve into easy, manageable steps is one of the best ways to catalyze change.

The most important takeaway here is the understanding that behavior change is a skill that can be learned and cultivated.

There is no secret source of motivation, willpower, or discipline that some have and others don’t. Apply these psychological triggers and you’ll be well on your way to creating healthy habits that are sustainable and lasting.

- See more at: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/the-4-psychological-triggers-that-catalyze-change/#sthash.YRpPadXm.dpuf

Shake off Your Jitters (Pt 2 of 2)

Last week I discussed what the No. 1 fear is for most people, public speaking.
In part 2 of our series, I am going to give you my 3 tips for conquering this fear so you can start rocking the stage.

Mark Twain, who made most of his income from speaking, not writing, said,
“There are only two types of speakers in the world. 1. The nervous and 2. Liars.”
Let me help you with that nervousness.

I do a lot of keynote presentations. My first company at 18 years old required me to speak publicly many times a week, and I have done it thousands of times since. Most of the businesses I have built compelled me to champion the cause of the business through large group presentations. I am often asked for tips on preparing, packaging and deliveringpresentations, so let me pass forward a few of the tips that have worked for me when it comes to overcoming jitters:

First off, you have to come to terms with this:

Who Cares? (Certainly not the audience).

Someone once told me that the reason why there is NO reason to be nervous is because people care far less than you think. Think about the last time you were in row 30 of an auditorium, in the corner of a boardroom or in the back of some dreary classroom trying desperately not to daydream or fall asleep. You think they are hanging and judging you on your every word, when in reality their greatest hope is that you are close to ending.

Remember this: They’re not judging you as much as you think, because they don’t care as much as you think. I think knowing this helps enormously (whew, feel better already?)

In the super unlikely event that some disaster does happen, something explodes or you trip and fall, at least you know you will have more attention from the audience than in the 30 seconds before. Now you can use that attention to do something good.

Certainly, whatever you say next will be remembered. If nothing else, your tragedy will give the audience something fun and funny to share. The laughter from that story will do more good for the world than most anything your presentation might have done anyway.

Meaning again, look, it’s not a big deal really. The only one making it so is you.
It’s all self-imposed fear conjuring.
Repeat that mantra in your head: no one really cares.

Number two:
Who Do You Think You Are, Anyway?

Here’s another tip someone shared with me about being nervous before speaking:
If you are nervous that means you are being an egotist—making yourself way too important. Instead, you should be making this about the audience. Stop thinking about yourself, your performance and how you will look, and think only about your audience.

Think about them, their problems, fears, hopes, dreams and ambitions.
You are there only to serve them.
The spotlight should be on them, not you.

When you take the spotlight off yourself and make what you are there for about them, not only does your nervousness go away, but you also empathize and connect with your audience better.

Finally number three, and I learned this from John Maxwell when I asked him how he prepares for his keynote presentations. Maxwell says an hour before his presentation, he stops looking at and studying his material and only thinks about his audience.

He envisions them sitting in the audience. He tries to see the stage from their vantage point, what they must be thinking, feeling, hoping for, wanting and not wanting. In other words, he tries to get into their head and heart instead of staying stuck in his head. Ultimately connecting with the audience happens only when you enter the conversation they are already having in their head and once you connect with the desires they already have in their heart.

http://darrenhardy.success.com/2015/04/shake-off-jitters-2/#article