Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Go Natural this Christmas not Nuclear

What a wonderful time of year Christmas and the whole festive season provides for us. Getting to spend quality time with the family and friends in a relaxed environment with an abundance of food, and drink; what more could you want? Unfortunately this is where we start to lose the plot and keep wanting more and more. Be it alcohol, food or even sleep, we just go too far. We get nuclear and not natural and take the focus off the loving (giving and receiving) and spiritual side of Christmas and place it all into having, wanting and indulging.

Nuclear influences play a huge part in our lives and as Christmas has the capacity to get very excessive, anything nuclear or unnatural can actually increases that excessiveness. Nuclear means anything that is chemical, artificial or unnatural, so heavily processed foods, alcohol, sweeteners and the likes.

Whilst you are on holidays and are experiencing the freedom of not having to turn up to work or answer to anyone. Taking that as an opportunity to let your hair down and hop into anything and everything that you perceive will give you even more freedom will only succeed to deliver the opposite effect. Sickness, tiredness, headaches, stiffness, back pain and even arguments and anger are all commonly reported in this festive period.

Your brain loves the freedom that holidays bring as well, but it doesn’t like nuclear influences and unnatural behaviors. It simply wasn’t designed to entertain them. The brain like you, needs time out and rejuvenation and if it doesn’t get it, things start to go wrong. We mistakenly associate late nights, a few drinks, lots of food, chocolates, sweets and even massive sleep ins as part of this great thing called freedom. Problem is your brain and body isn’t designed to handle them and will only succeed in causing more stress.

Instead of recovery, the brain is getting nuclear influences that give it an almighty whack of pleasure and it wants more of it. The more it gets the more it wants. The parts of the brain these influences hit are stimulated and excited greatly however this isn’t giving the brain recovery time. Whereas natural substances such as water, fruit, vegetables, meats, nuts, adequate sleep, activity, sunlight and a stress free environment is what will allow the brain and the body to recover and rejuvenate and be better after the break.

Treating the brain with nuclear substances is the most wonderful feeling for the brain however it is a stress internally that is re routing the natural systems that are set up to keep us alive, safe and healthy. This is why people report getting sick on holidays, the body puts everything on hold to deal with more stress and upheaval internally, even immunity. Your natural rhythms become confused as they don’t know when it is night or day due to the late nights and sleep ins. Excess sugar intake recruits masses of insulin which brings massive amounts of pleasure to the brain however the down side is the hormones think this is heaven and want more. All in all, stress levels go through the roof and the nuclear influences are part of the influencing factor.

Whilst this sounds like I don’t want you to eat anything or drink anything unnatural this Christmas, I know that is not realistic and would cause stress in itself. However I do recommend you create awareness around nuclear influences and limit them where possible. You are a natural being and nature is what your body and brain craves. Here are three tips to try if you want to reduce the inner turmoil of nuclear influences this Christmas and New Year.

1. Limit Nuclear power: Reduce the amount of unnatural or nuclear influences. This means alcohol, cool drinks, commercial fruit juices, sweets and chocolates to name a few. A good rule of thumb, we recommend is if it looks like it hasn’t been grown out of the ground or running around then it is unnatural or even nuclear.

2. Keep the Rhythm: Regular sleep and sunshine exposure should be maintained. Keeping the rhythms of your body in order or even improved aids recovery and rejuvenation. As soon as you start staying up later due to influences such as alcohol and unnatural light sources your rhythms begin to get confused. Our rhythms are in sync with the sun rising and sun setting. Upsetting that rhythm more than it already is decreases rejuvenation and your optimal functioning.

3. Get up off your bum: Keep moving to allow your brain and body to function. You are designed to move and if you don’t your systems that control overeating and motivation for activity start to shut down. Half an hour a day of walking will ensure these systems are still functioning but you still won’t be functioning optimally. So at a minimum get half an hour’s walk this Christmas and New Year period to keep your motivation ticking over

Enjoy this festive season and what it brings you. It is a time to savor however remember that natural influences will allow you to enjoy the moments for what they truly are and not for the more powerful and unsustainable nuclear pleasures your body and brain is receiving.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Is being busy a good measure of your success levels?

As we meet and greet people in our travels what do people say when asked the question, How are you going?

A very common response is busy, haven’t got time to scratch myself or I’m flat out. Another common response is around never having enough hours in the day. But there is usually a follow up that follows and acknowledges that they like being busy.

Conditioning in our lives plays a big part of how we act and how we conduct our daily routine. How we interact with others and how we do business, accept friendship, receive reward for our services and bring up our children. How we were bought up is usually the way we act and lead our followers and siblings.

Conditioning is a powerful tool and isn’t always a good tool but it is real and a fact of life.
My point being the majority of us were conditioned to work hard and success will come to you. The harder you work, the more you do the better results you will get. Hence the busy disease we all seem to catch. In fact if we aren’t busy or seen to be busy we feel guilty. Sound familiar.

Remove yourself from the mental blueprint you have been embedded with as a child. Step outside of that if you can and look in at yourself and ask this simple question and don’t leave it until you get an answer. What are you busy doing? Is that busy-ness taking you to where you want to get to?

Getting the answer to this question will reveal that you are focusing on the little spot fires we can encounter on a daily basis that are demanding and need your attention aren’t taking you to you to the right destination. That is if you know the right destination – most people don’t. Sure you are busy but not in the right areas. You are caught up in the day to day and not thinking the bigger picture.

There is a great story the Washington Post ran on a social experiment they ran in a subway to see how many people would stop and take the time to listen to the world’s greatest musician. He played of an hour and only a handful of people stopped and listened to him and he had only $32 in his hat after that hour from passersby. The night before he packed a concert hall with people paying $200 a ticket to see him. You can read the story in full here

It was peak hour and people were on their way to work however it goes to highlight how one dimensional and blinkered we get when we perceive we are busy. Everyone is busy but is it on the right things.

Ponder this for the rest of the day or however long it takes and see what answer you come up with. When your time is up and you are laid to rest will you be remembered and acknowledged for your busy-ness? Is it what you want to be remembered for? If not what do you want people to say about you when you have gone, what mark do you want to leave on the world? If being busy is not helping you achieve this then you need to make some changes.

Being aware of it is a great start.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Ever wondered how to true Freedom would feel?

As human beings we are given gifts at birth from our maker whoever you wish to believe he, she or what it may be. As children we don’t have much choice as to how we utilise these gifts, as our upbringing will play a huge role in this process.

From a very young age you have been conditioned to believe and behave in a certain way as this is the way your parents, guardians or circumstances dictated you must act. Whether this conditioning is right or wrong is not for you or me to judge, it simply is the way it is.

As young adults or even middle age you now have the ability to make your own choices and take control over your life.

Due to our conditioning this doesn’t always seem possible as we can feel like there are things in this world I have to do and choices don’t come into it. This is simply your conditioning showing up and making you feel this way. It is a documented fact that we believe as fact the first things we are taught or conditioned as is the right way or the only way, as highlighted in this study.

Research carried out by the University of Michigan states whatever information individuals first hear is what is believed. It is taken and embedded in your brain as fact. This illustrates why we must be careful not to carry around the old and out of date conditioning's that are mostly ineffective and often incorrect. As is normally the case with ideas carried around in the minds of most people.

Is work boring, non motivating and simply a means to an end? These are the questions you would be well advised to ask yourself in a bid to ascertain if you are aware of the way you think and approach life mentally.

Once you have developed and awareness of your unawareness now it’s time to start training in a bid to build up your own self awareness. The mind needs training just like the muscles in your body. Without stimulus the muscles lose strength and fail to support you physically and your metabolism slows as this muscle is seen as inactive and in no need of replenishment, recovery and rejuvenation.

A good way to start training this awareness muscle is to set out one, two or even three times a day to exercise it. Whether it be by an alarm or a diary recording to make you aware of this it doesn’t matter. What is important is you stop and think about what you are thinking about and the chatter going on inside your mind. What are you telling yourself? It may be things such as, life is hard, I hate this job, if I could just win lotto, I want a holiday but I have no money, I will never be the weight I want to be or how can she afford that? Doing this regularly for two, three and even four weeks will start creating a real solid base of the self awareness birth rite we were all given at birth.

If you want more freedom in your life I reckon from my experiences with sickness, living in scarcity and having a big worry gene inside me; not developing self awareness and realising the powers it possesses – true freedom isn’t coming to you anytime soon, if ever.

Monday, August 30, 2010

What is your Vision ?

Taking pride in being busy was the key to success. The more I did the more success I would have. Two jobs, 4 days a week at the gym, vegetarian, earning more money and having a great social life (probably too good at time) was ticking all the boxes and my life was on track. The only thing was, I didn’t know what track I was on and where I was going. There was no purpose to my busy schedule.

To be struck down with Leukemia was devastating however it was the red light I needed to have put in front of me. Whilst the next 18 months weren’t exciting or something I would recommend to anyone It allowed me to stop, think and hear the quiet. My life had become a constant noise full of busy-ness. But I had no purpose, definitely no long term vision, no value driven behaviours and definitely wasn’t serving anyone or anything. It was all about me, me and me.

Look at your own position in life. What is your take on success? We all have different views about what success is yet the way to get that success needs a vehicle. What is yours? Can you see the end point. Yes we all will die but what is the end result of your labours before you get to rest in peace. What is the end result you want to achieve, do you have a vision?

Taking the time to recognise this vision is a process the majority of the worlds inhabitants will never stop to do. They are too busy!! So that means thinking outside the square doesn’t it? It means being proactive and not reactive doesn’t it? It means developing some self awareness doesn’t it? Can you stop for a little while and so this. It may seem simple and it may seem trivial but I can speak from experience; it is a must do.

Life is full of choices and if you are reading this I challenge you to make one right now. Take the time to create or bring to life your vision. If you do, you begin to choose the path and direction you take in life. The universe is waiting for you to decide and help you but you need to make a decision. OR. Be prepared to work tirelessly to allow someone else’s dreams and goals to be met and achieved. Working busily to meet the requirements of the job and satisfy the boss, clients or members and having no regard or thought for why you are doing this isn’t serving you, your values and your life’s purpose. I liken this to a boat without a rudder. You will go wherever and whenever you are told.

If you have made the choice to find your vision let’s try these steps to start the process.

  • What is most important to you in your life it will be more than one thing and could be 6 or 8 things
  • What do you enjoy doing and want to do more of it
  • What are you good at
  • What are you passionate about
  • What are your strengths
  • What do close friends and family say about you and what effect do you have on them
  • What difference would you like to make in the world
  • What would you like to have said about you when you aren’t around

When you have the answers to these questions you are well on the way to identifying a purpose and a direction you can start following in your life.

Once the answers to the questions above are clear It is time to ask a few big ones that will begin to define your possible direction from this point on.

  • What needs do you see need satisfying in the areas of your passion, strengths and things you love to do?
  • What solutions can you see that would make a positive impact on the lives of others including yours as the provider of these solutions?

Luckily I had the time to sit and ponder these questions whilst undertaking treatments, recovering and entertaining thoughts of how will this all end. Whilst the records will show to this day that the Chemotherapy regime was a success on me I have no doubt I was able to get through and go into remission because I began to get some purpose and direction in my life. All of a sudden I was realizing doing what was important to me and remaining integral to my value system was more important that being aimlessly busy for the sake of being busy.

What‘s to gain from the Such is Life Documentary

Over two nights in Perth; “Such is Life”, a documentary was shown on television with over 2,000,000 viewers tuning in on the first night. The following day there was widespread discussions all over Australia. The impact was huge on the community and as a father of 3 young children it really smacked me in the face and made me assess what I am doing in my role as a father. It also made me think back to my days as a cricketer playing sport and associating with the elite on and off the field and realise how easy it is to go off the rails.

When documentaries like “Such is Life” are viewed, learning from them is absolutely imperative. Relating Ben’s battles with his addiction especially at the peak of the problem when he was delisted, with my battles encountering a life threatening illness actually reinforced some valuable lessons learnt, developed and actually employed in my life and now have started passing them onto my family.

What wasn’t happening in Ben Cousin’s life throughout his glory days was a lack of application to universal laws or principles or whatever you want to call them. Instead he gained strength and motivation from pleasurable experience that was quick and from external sources. He was feeding his desires by bringing in external influences. Unfortunately his was drugs and the only way to get more happiness or pleasure was more.

As soon as we rely on external influences for happiness, success or whatever we want in life, we set ourselves up for failure, because you aren’t relying on universal laws or guidelines to keep you on the right path to wherever you want to go. Ben had no self awareness or conscience for the people around him, the damage to himself as a person, the football club and the youth and impressionable people that adored him. The attributes of self awareness, having a conscience and even serving others or a greater cause are all common traits of successful people and Ben wasn’t doing and didn’t possess any of these.

Unfortunately in Ben’s and other addicts, drugs severely interfere in your brain’s functionality. In simple terms what was happening in his brain was his natural feedback mechanism for recognising and receiving pleasure was now being influenced by nuclear influences. Nuclear influences are so much stronger than natural ones so it is no fault of the brain to pull out all stops to get more and more and more. Recognising and receiving pleasure in our brain is a survival mechanism. It used to be drinking water, bursts of activity (running from things that want to kill us), sex (survival of the species) and food was what pleasure in the brain bought to us. Now the brain gets all manner of pleasures that are unnatural such as added sugar, drugs, alcohol and caffeine to name a few. Ben and any other drug addict are re programming their brains to get their next hit which is now their brains newly formed survival instinct.

The lessons learnt from the “Such is Life” documentary should be plentiful and varied as has already been highlighted by the responses in the media. I have put three of mine together to share and hopefully spark more thought on your behalf.
  1. Develop self awareness around your emotions and how they are dictating and controlling your life. Is anger, resentment, pleasure, happiness or even sadness which are all emotions making you reactive instead of proactive? Look at food if you are trying to lose weight.

  2. Having principles/guidelines in our own lives to guide you are important. Motivation is longer lasting and more powerful when it is related to a deep and internal value or mission dear to you. Take money for example; if that is your motivator and sense of happiness, what happens when you go broke, lose your money or are unable work for a period of time losing the capacity to earn money you are going to be unhappy, unmotivated and under the control of money.

  3. Address all aspects of your life that are most important to you to ensure a more fulfilling life can be achieved and maintained. Most importantly link all of the important parts to your life to your mission and values because when things get testing (which they will) you are getting pleasure and fulfillment out of serving a greater good – not just satisfying desires from day to day and simply surviving.

I hope for Ben’s sake he can keep his life going forward and if the reasoning behind showing this documentary are to serve others. He can live a life to serve others and make a real difference to society, but he will need to follow principles, guidelines or universal laws (whatever you want to call them) otherwise he may just end up getting his kicks in the wrong way again. I hope he chooses the right path.

Monday, July 5, 2010

The only two sides of the equation that matter

A big part of utilizing the natural powers that you possess is actually realizing that it isn’t at all about how hard you work or how many hours you study or how many sales you make in a month. But it is all about understanding the balancing act that the universe maintains.

Nature conserves perfect balance and once you realise this and base all of your efforts around harnessing these universal forces, your powerful inner forces can begin to really shine. Failing to stay physically active is a classic example. Physical inactivity is a symptom of the developed world’s utilization of technology and labour saving devices to make our lives more comfortable. However the by product of this is if it isn’t moving enough the true function of the human body is not optimized so it starts to kill it off. Look at the human race; it is beginning to self destruct with all the Obesity, Diabetes, Depression and Chronic stress to name just a few.

I remember reading an article from the great Dr John Demartini where he related this perfect universal balance to self worth and self wealth. One point that stood out more than any other was your true self worth is how well you can equalize and maximize your own giving and receiving. This is in no means just about currency either, in fact it is more to do with receiving the same proportionate amount of reward that you get from your giving. To fail in this area really is truly demeaning your own self worth. You can see how this can apply to relationships, work and even sport.

What’s my point? If you aren’t as happy, healthy, wealthy or fulfilled in your present life, it isn’t going to be found in working more hours to get more overtime, exercising harder and longer to get fitter or stronger or going out and forcing yourself to assist people in need and charities. You have to look deep inside and investigate where your imbalances are.

Are you giving to others more than you are taking from these relationships, are you not allowing the spending or using currency enough to allow the floodgates to open and allow more to come back to you. After all currency or money is only really an IOU for things in your life and will always come back to you if you truly have an abundance mentality.

Same with your thoughts; dwelling on the past or projecting into the future will only serve to create anxiety, worry or anger rather than being receptive and open to the myriad of opportunities that exist in the universe all around you right now.

Pretty deep stuff I know but it needs to be told and my tip to you; start working with the universe and not against it. Are you ever going to defeat gravity? Of course not so why try? The universal laws are the same. You only have to think back to when you bought a new car or even thought of buying one and then almost immediately started seeing them everywhere.

What you can do to start the journey is put it out there to the universe and ask for what it is you desire, but be prepared for the bombardment of opportunities that will follow because they will come. You can then choose to receive these opportunities and give them the appropriate attention they demand to make them a success for you or let them pass by and battle the universe for another day.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Is your motivation sedentary?

No one can make you partake in physical activity (PA) and if they do manage to force you in some way it won’t last long. There is no doubting the benefits of PA and I’m sure both you are fully aware of a lot of them. So why don’t you do more?

The reason I ask is because the average steps taken in a normal day only 20 years ago was 20.000. Today the amount of steps in our day is averaging out at around 3000. Add that up over a week and the difference is 119,000 steps and then taking that to monthly it equates to 476,000 steps less per month. Taking that to a yearly amount of lost steps then you are taking over 5.5 million steps less every year.

Given this bit of basic maths which is about my limit as far as math goes, it is quite evident that a lot of your energy requirements are now not required. So this would mean we should be eating the equivalent of over 5 million worth of steps less every year – right? Something tells me this isn’t happening if the share prices of Woolworths and Coles are anything to go by.

Hence the obesity epidemic and the diabetes epidemic that is strangling our communities are not going to be heading south any time soon. Not to mention the depression issue. In 1993–94, $521m was spent in health system in costs associated with depression (Mathers 1998). However, the true burden is impossible to quantify as there is family, work and relationship costs that are immeasurable.

As stated earlier you can’t be forced to move more it has to be a self motivated thing. And given the above statistics it is fairly obvious we aren’t self motivating ourselves are we? So my plea to you would be find your own major motivation to live a fuller more enjoyable existence. If you require more intrinsic happiness and fulfillment in your life PA is one of the most sure fire way nature will provide this for you.

To be blunt; without PA you aren’t going to get true happiness, wellness, wellbeing and fulfillment. I call it Lifesperity.

You need to be aware that happiness, fulfillment, wellness, wonderful relationships, continuing self growth and all of the associated benefits of living a full, inspiring and vibrant life won’t occur unless you are physically active. It isn’t possible to enjoy that type of life without having PA as a major part of your life because the brain needs this activity.

To spark the body’s natural responses which are responsible for weight reduction, feel good hormone regulation (the body’s natural and true way of recognising pleasure), energy usage by the muscles which then promotes occurrences such as improved sleep, digestion and moods to name just a few, the brain needs to be stimulated by the PA we aren’t getting enough of.

My plea to you is find your own inspiration and happiness through doing the activities you want to do in your life. It may mean making some changes to your way of living at present but given the statistics on the way we are heading I know the changes are going to be worth the effort.