Simple Way to CHANGE

"Change is the only constant." - Heraclitus

From Nona Jordan:

Life can be a constant barrage of new and exciting experiences.  Still even the most savvy and confident of us can get thrown off balance during the unexpected changes life throws our way.

Not everyone is aware when a change has upset the balance in their lives. Often, super-confident people have no idea until they notice other signs of trouble. You may notice it as changes in your body or emotions.  

Signals Include:

• Feeling irritable and edgy with people you love
• Sleeping more or less than usual
• Changing your eating habits
• Drinking more alcohol
• Feeling physical “aches” (headaches, backaches, stomachaches)

It’s difficult to relax and enjoy the incredible adventure of living when you’re feeling physically or emotionally off-kilter. However, if you’re willing to embrace change and be present to it, what you find on the other side may justify the discomfort. Sometimes happiness, peace, and a renewed sense of passion are just one messy transition away.

Here are six steps to defeat the pain of change:

1. Start Where You Are.
Simply acknowledging that what you are going through is difficult is the first step toward freedom. It may sound trite, but it’s common to resist acknowledging that anything is wrong, and believe we need to be superhuman. Draw on your community to find a safe place to talk about what is happening for you.

2. Grieve.
Deep change means grief. Many of us avoid grief like we would avoid the plague; but honestly, the only way out of it is through it. Make “crying dates” with yourself, if you need to. Spend an afternoon watching an emotional movie, or just spend 10 minutes of your day crying, if it helps you get the grief out. Get the grief out however you can.

3. Use Radical Self-Care.
With compassion and kindness, assess how you are taking care of yourself. Change what needs to be changed. Eat whole, nutritious foods. Exercise gently, in ways that feel nurturing for your body, and practice some form of meditation, be it yoga, Thai Chi or guided relaxation. Breathe deeply and frequently throughout each day.

4. Accept.
Once you’ve grieved and are in the habit of taking care of your body, take a look at your thoughts about your life and the changes that have rocked your world. Notice any shoulds/can’ts/shouldn’ts in your language, and start questioning those thoughts.
“This shouldn’t have happened.” Really? Do you know that for sure? Maybe losing your job set the stage to pursue your dream; or moving to a new town opened up new possibilities for adventure.
“I can’t go out and meet new people.” Why not? What stops you? Or would it be more accurate to say, “I’m not ready to meet new people. Maybe next month I will be.”
Play with this. A good resource is The Work of Byron Katie. By diligently questioning the thoughts that cause pain, we free ourselves from suffering. What we realize is that believing our thoughts is a choice.

5. Set a New Course.
Possibilities are endless once you recognize your power to choose how you want to feel and live. By tuning into and taking care of your body, you now have an ally in discovering who, what, and how you want to be in the world.
Test it out. Think about something that you can’t stand doing—something that saps your energy and takes you away from the elements of your life that are most important to you. For me, house cleaning, ironing, and certain administrative roles fall into that category.
Note the sensations in your body—the tightness, the constriction and where it is located. Think of this as your -10 experience. Shake it off. Now think about something you love doing and note those sensations in your body—lightness, expansion, springy, maybe? Call this your +10 experience.
As you try new things, rate them on this scale to tune into how you really feel about it. If it’s on the -10 side of the scale, and you don’t absolutely have to do it, don’t! For example, I’ve outsourced the responsibilities I don’t enjoy so I can focus on writing, coaching, speaking, and taking care of myself.
Some change and discomfort is inevitable; but there’s no good reason to consistently bury your energy in things that feel negative to you. There’s a lot you can’t control in life—but you can make choices about where you spend your energy.

6. Check in with Your Happiness.
As you move forward, set aside time every day to appreciate everything that makes you insanely happy. A simple list of five things a day (more is even better) will help keep your energy focused on all the gifts in your life.
Happiness is available to us in each and every moment. By writing down your appreciation each day, and what motivates you to feel gratitude, you are choosing joy over sadness and you are rising above your pain.
Difficult transitions can inspire incredible self-discovery. When you embrace and work through the pain, you become a richer version of yourself, find a deeper sense of happiness, and feel a more authentic connection to your life.

Simple Recipe For Fitness Success

From my observations, I find that when someone wants a change in their physical image and starts exercising, they focus on that change from the outside and overlook the change that needs to occur from the inside of the body. Most people tend to focus on training their bodies while neglecting their diet by overeating foods without any nutritional value. Other times, people turn to drastic measures by cutting calories to lose the weight without realizing that they may look good on the outside but inside their bodily processes are slowing because the body is not receiving quality nutrients to repair itself.  

In a recent article published by Tribune Media, Olympian and Orthopedic Surgeon, Eric Heiden, explains the link between diet and true physical fitness.

"Exercise changes virtually every tissue in the body via many different pathways -- metabolic, hormonal, neurological and mechanical—says Jennifer Sacheck, a nutritional biochemist and exercise physiologist at the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity Prevention at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. To supply these changes, athletes need to consume specific nutrients. Junk food supplies little or nothing; the right food choices, says Sacheck, allow your body to make the most of the time and effort you're dedicating to exercise and help you achieve your fitness goals faster."

Read more here!

Heiden states, "even the most robust exercise program won't grant you true fitness if you don't take control of your diet," to which I fully agree. It is a simple fact that we often forget the harder we train. The more obsessed we are with exercising, we tend to believe that we can just "burn it off later." This is the reason why we see minimal results!

Now, I am definitely not a supporter of the "popular" diets in the media today. There is one "diet" that I believe in and will be discussed in a later post. I believe that one needs to consume foods from every food groups to get a complete set of nutrients needed by the body that one food group cannot provide. Not only that, these "miracle diets" often take extreme measures that the body cannot handle for a long period of time and thus results in the "yo-yo" effect. A successful diet cannot and will not happen overnight or in a few days, it's a lifestyle change! The key is to find what works for your body and for your lifestyle in the long run. We want to live a long and happy life so we must provide our bodies with the right fuel to keep up with us!

Simple Eating Guidelines

Geneen Roth's Eating Guidelines

Geneen Roth, author of Women, Food, and God, explains the seven eating guidelines that will help you listen to your body and change your relationship with food.

Here are her guidelines with my thoughts:

1. Eat When You're Hungry - not when you're sad, mad, or glad, etc.

2. Eat Sitting Down in a Calm Environment - the car doesn't count!

3. Eat Without Distractions - no tv, radio, ipod, computer, etc.

4. Eat What Your Body Wants - listen to your body for what it needs.

5. Eat Til You're Satisfied - not to the point where you can't breathe!

6. Eat With The Intention of Being in Full View of Other People - imagine what people would think or say if they saw what you're eating.

7. Eat with the Enjoyment, Gusto, and Pleasure - make food your friend and not enemy.

Check out her clip from the Oprah show here!

Walk On Water

A brand new sport called Liquid Mountaineering is in the works! For centuries we have been wanting to be able to walk on water as much as go to the moon. Although the latter is now possible, it is still a challenge to find ways to walk across that water without sinking to the bottom. A group of people have turned this into a sport and tried to find ways to get across that challenge. They have found that with the right water repellent shoes, we may just be able to do so! Although not completely successful, they are definitely one step closer with every try, literally.




A little motivation proving that "impossible is nothing."

Top Five Keys to Wellness

Great article written by Vicki Berry at Nutrition-now.com on the "Top Five Keys To Wellness."


Read more here!