Telling The Truth

The Law of Dominant Thought

Whether you're thinking and talking about a tragic event or even a minor irritation, you're working against yourself and just perpetuating negative conditions.
There is a Law of Dominant Thought, which states that we're always moving in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.
This is why it's so important to keep your focus on what you want instead of what you don't want. Said another way, what you focus on expands.

Leaping

"You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps. "

Old proverb often attributed to David Lloyd George

Berries

Berries contain antioxidants that reduce and repair the kind of damage to cells that can lead to cancer.

When they’re not in season, choose frozen berries since they’re typically just as healthy as fresh.

Agreed

The Familiar

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar."

Raymond Lindquist

Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie

Kidney Stones

Prone to kidney stones? A poor diet could be to blame. Limit your intake of salt, meat and soda, and drink plenty of water.
If you’ve had kidney stones in the past, you know that, while not life-threatening, they are definitely no walk in the park. And you’d probably do anything to avoid that kind of pain again. People who have had kidney stones in the past are likely to get them again. You may be able to reduce your risk of kidney stones by following a healthy diet.
Kidney stones are linked to higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and other risk factors for heart disease. A large study found that people who followed the most heart-healthy diet were 40 percent less likely to get kidney stones. A heart-healthy diet is one that’s high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, low-fat dairy and whole grains — and low in sodium, sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats. In addition, drinking plenty of water throughout the day can also help lower your risk.

Beware

"Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance. "

George Bernard Shaw

Lighting

"It is better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness."

Chinese proverb often quoted by Eleanor Roosevelt

Sleep Debt

It takes more than a weekend to catch up on lost zzz’s. Tack an extra hour or two onto your sleep time until your sleep debt is repaid.
If you burn the midnight oil during the week, you can’t catch up on all of your lost sleep by sleeping in on the weekend. Your body needs to recoup every hour of missed shut-eye. So if you deprive yourself of two hours of sleep Monday through Thursday to meet a major deadline, that’s eight extra hours of bedtime that you have to make up in order for your body to recover.
People who routinely get fewer than six hours of sleep per night may be unwittingly racking up this so-called sleep debt, which can impact performance and cognitive function. Even if you feel only slightly drowsy, you may still have a tough time focusing, learning or memorizing.
New research suggests that significant and chronic sleep deprivation may even have long-lasting negative effects on the brain.

The Best Things In Life

THANKSgiving

Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goodness of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy,
however stale these experiences may have become to others.

Abraham Maslow

Anxiety-Part One

Inability to sleep, a racing mind, a constant stream of worries, future projecting, a debilitating concern about the state of the world, inability to focus or make decisions, or adding to lists of troubles in your mind are all clues that you are feeling anxious.
Once identified, label it rather than avoid or deny it. State simply to yourself or someone else, “I am anxious.” Usually we resist stating this because anxiety suggests a state of vulnerability, fragility, lack of control, or weakness.
When we can accept this current of energy running through us as not really of us but a mind-imposed state, we are able to come closer to peace.

Memory and Doodling

Though it may seem like a distraction, scribbling while listening can help you recall details later.
Can’t seem to remember anything anyone tells you? Grab a pen and start doodling. Engaging in this mindless act while listening to someone talk can actually help you recall the information later.
A small study in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology found that people who were given the task of doodling while listening to a dull phone message had a 29 percent better recollection, compared with those who didn’t doodle. The researchers believe that this simple act helps keep people’s minds from wandering so they can pay better attention to what is being said. So the next time you want to remember important information, grab a pen and start scribbling.

Shaking It Gently

Holding Onto

There are things to hold on to,
and things to let go,
and letting go doesn't mean you lose,
but that you can acquire that which has been waiting around the corner.

Character

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation".

John Wooden

Fitness Myths-#4

MYTH: You can get flatter abdominal muscles by performing abdominal exercises

TRUTH: The fact is, the only way to get a flat stomach is to strip away the fat around the midsection. This is accomplished by doing cardio/aerobic exercise (to burn calories), strength training (to increase metabolism) and following a proper diet.

Abdominal exercises will help to build muscle in your midsection, but you will never see the muscle definition unless the fat in this area is stripped away.

Fruit

“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb.

That’s where the fruit is.”

H. Jackson Browne

Practice

“Every day brings a choice: to practice stress or to practice peace.”

Joan Borysenko

Insomnia and Exercise

Put insomnia to rest with daily exercise. Regular aerobic activity improves sleep quality, mood and vitality.
Looking for a drug-free way to increase the number of zzz’s you get at night? Start pounding the pavement. In a recent small study of sedentary adults 55 and older with insomnia, those who embarked on a regular exercise program improved both their sleep quality and duration.
Sleep problems increase with age, but sleep medication can pose risks for older adults. Seniors are more likely to be taking other drugs that could potentially interact with sleep medication. Seniors are also at greater risk of falling, so pills that cause grogginess or sedation can be particularly dangerous.
Over the course of 16 weeks, the study’s participants exercised for 30 to 40 minutes four days per week. In addition to reporting better sleep, exercisers said they felt less depressed and more alert during the day.

Changing The World

Equanimity

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning
if it were not balanced by sadness.
It is far better to take things as they come along
with patience and equanimity.

Carl Jung

Be The Difference

In the healing process, people often convince themselves that they have to get well before they can choose happiness again. In my work I encourage my clients to honor their pain and choose peace, to feel fear and choose love, to face the anger and choose forgiveness, to experience the heartbreak and choose happiness, and to experience guilt and choose innocence.

Gandhi once said you have to be the change you want. Why? Because the mirror cannot change without you. And the world is only a mirror. Remember, you see only your thoughts. When you shift, shift happens. If you don’t, you simply experience more of the same. It is no good saying, “I’ll be open with you, as soon as you are open with me.” Be first. Be different if you want a different outcome. Be the difference.

Fitness Myths-#3

MYTH: If you can’t exercise hard and often, there’s really no point.

Truth: Even moderate activity is shown to reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke. If you don’t have 30 minutes in your day to exercise, try splitting it up into 10-minute segments instead. Everyone can find 10 minutes to spare sometime during the day!
There are simple things you can do to increase your activity without having to go to the gym: take the stairs instead of the elevator, jump rope or do body weight exercises (push ups, crunches) at commercial breaks, take a short walk after lunch. Remember that any exercise is better than none!

I Choose

Peace

"We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves. "

Dalai Lama

Naming Feelings

Our feelings can sometimes present a very challenging aspect of our lives. We experience intense emotions without understanding precisely why and consequently find it difficult to identify the solutions that will soothe our distressed minds and hearts. Yet it is only when we are capable of naming our feelings that we can tame them by finding an appropriate resolution.
We retake control of our personal power by becoming courageous enough to articulate, out loud and concisely, the essence of our emotions. Our assuming ownership of the challenges before us in this way empowers us to shift from one emotional state to another—we can let go of pain and upset because we have defined it, examined the effect it had on our lives, and then exerted our authority over it by making it our own. By naming our feelings, we claim the right to divest ourselves of them at will.

Fitness Myths-#2

Myth #2: Women who lift weights will bulk up.
Truth: While on a weight lifting program, the right hormones (testosterone) are necessary in order to bulk up. Women’s testosterone levels are much lower than men’s, so in most cases, they are not capable of building large muscles. In fact, since muscle takes up less room than fat, women tend to lose inches when they strength train. So in addition to the physical benefits (increased metabolism, decreased risk of osteoporosis, increased strength), strength training will help you slim down too.

Love

Dancing In The Rain

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain".

Vivian Greene

Inside Of Yourself

The fear that something is missing in you is what leads you to search somewhere else for happiness.
You overlook what is already “here” as you chase after “there”; you miss the “sacred now” as you ponder your “next step”; you forget to be grateful for what “is” as you prey after “more.” You search, struggle, and strive, but you never arrive because you can’t get past the thought that something is missing.
Can you see that all your pain comes from the belief that your source of happiness is outside you? This single misperception—this little fear—is what feeds your mental junk, your learned unworthiness, and your “not good enough” stuff.
Notice how all your thoughts of fear and lack are reversed the moment you accept that every piece of universal joy rests already in your heart. Feel this, now.

Back Pain

Laid out on the couch because of back pain? Believe it or not, you’ll recover more quickly if you stay active instead of resting.
Back pain got you down? Don’t give up — get up. Researchers found that people who were advised to stay active despite their pain recovered more quickly than those who were told to rest. That doesn’t mean you should wince your way through a grueling workout, but you should resume your normal activities.
According to the study’s researchers, inactivity combined with pain can turn into long-term disability, depression and even more agony. To help alleviate lower back pain and restore strength and function to prevent further injury, practice gentle mind-body workouts like tai chi or yoga.

Thoughts

Choices

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein

Living in FEAR, or Living in LOVE

Notice each day whether you are choosing to live in fear or love.

Fear can keep you disconnected from the loving presence inside of you. Causing fear is a tactic of the ego, whether it be your own ego or the world’s ego. The world’s ego is a reflection of individual ego power and the amount of fear that is active.

Learning to experience authentic love means abandoning ego’s insistence that you have much to fear and that you are in an unfriendly world. You can make the decision to be free from fear and doubt and return to the brilliant light of love that is always with you.

Fitness Myths-#1

Myth #1: You can take weight off of specific body parts by doing exercises that target those areas.
Truth: This concept is called "spot training" and unfortunately, it doesn’t burn fat. When you lose weight, you are unable to choose the area in which the reduction will occur. Your body predetermines which fat stores it will use. For example, doing sit-ups will strengthen your abs but will not take the fat off of your stomach. Similarly, an activity like running burns fat all over your body, not just your legs. You can, however, compliment a balanced exercise program with a selection of weight training exercises to gradually lose weight and tone the body.

Making It Bearable

Going Within

Every action has its seed in a thought and every thought is a creation of the thinker, the soul. We choose what thoughts we wish to create and as is our thinking so is our experience in life.

Going within, we can touch the stillness and pure love that lie at the core of our being and every thought that we create is of benefit to ourselves and of benefit to humanity.

Creating Yourself

"Life isn't about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself."

George Bernard Shaw

Getting Through Divorce

How to get through a tough divorce: Practice self-compassion. Allow yourself to feel without judging your situation or your emotions.
Divorce can be difficult for everyone. But why do some people bounce back while others fall into despair? According to a study in the journal Psychological Science, it may come down to how much compassion you have for yourself. People who are kind to themselves tend to weather tough times better. If that doesn’t come easily to you, here are some tips on how to cultivate compassion.
Try not to judge your situation. Instead, remember that divorce is something that half of all married couples go through. Thinking of your loss as part of the human experience can help take away feelings of isolation. Don’t beat yourself up for feeling sad, jealous, angry or depressed. Getting angry at yourself for feeling a certain way can trap you in a cycle of despair.
Practice mindfulness meditation to learn how to feel emotions without judging them — so you can release them and move on.

All There

Setting It Into Motion

"Those who believe they can do something and those who believe they can't
are both right."

Henry Ford

Here and Now

Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date.
It isn't. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow.
Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over.
When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds.
Practice keeping your attention
on the here and now. Your efforts will pay great dividends.

Prehypertension

Slightly elevated blood pressure can increase the risk of stroke. Work with your doctor to bring your numbers down.
Don’t take prehypertension lightly. A review published in the journal Neurology found that people with slightly elevated blood pressure were 50 percent more likely to suffer a stroke compared with people with normal blood pressure levels, even after accounting for other risk factors like age, diabetes, obesity, cholesterol and smoking.
Systolic blood pressure levels (the top number) between 120 and 139 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure levels (the bottom number) between 80 and 89 mmHg are considered prehypertensive.
Along with high blood pressure, hypertension also increases the risk of heart attack, heart disease and heart failure. Unless you take steps to lower your numbers, hypertension usually turns into high blood pressure. Be sure to work with your doctor to bring your numbers down. Medication and lifestyle changes — like losing weight, exercising, and eating a heart-healthy, low-sodium diet — can all help get blood pressure under control.

Past

Wish

I wish for you the ability to let go, the ability to allow yourself to allow life to do its thing without you attempting to control the outcomes of everything that goes on around you.
I wish that you will be able to recognize the situations over which you truly have no control, and try to let them be, accepting the outcomes as they are, and not judging them based on what you wanted them to be.

Assumptions

"The problem with making assumptions
is that we believe they are the truth."

Don Miguel Ruiz

ANGRY Headaches

Holding in and onto anger is a major headache trigger. Try to accept your feelings and let them go.
Feeling ticked off by just about everything these days? More than depression or anxiety, bottled-up anger is one of the biggest causes of headaches. Letting your hostility fester can do a lot more than cause body tension; it may even lead to premature heart disease.

However, getting things off your chest by way of an angry outburst isn’t always the best reaction either. Instead, when you feel your fuse getting short, remove yourself from the situation, if possible, and breathe deeply to calm your body down. Acknowledge your feelings and identify the reasons why you’re upset. Try to let go of things that are beyond your control, and accept that some things in life are simply unfair.

Instead of assuming others are out to get you, give people the benefit of the doubt. Have compassion for them, and ask yourself if perhaps they just don’t know any better.

Above all, learn how to forgive; make that conscious choice to not hold a grudge. It will help you control your temper — and your headaches.