Power-Ups

[3:57 PM]  Which wolf are you feeding? Our ancestors used to learn a lot through meaningful storytelling. It is something of a ‘lost art’ that we would do well to bring back and practice. Next time you’re at a get-together, or chatting with someone, find an opportunity to share this story with them: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One evening an elder told his grandson about the battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between the two ‘wolves’ that live inside us all. One is Unhappiness. It is fear, worry, anger, jealousy, sorrow,  self–pity, resentment, and inferiority. The other is Happiness. It is joy, love, hope, serenity, kindness, generosity, truth and compassion.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?“. The old man simply replied, “The one you feed”.

Life's not about expecting, hoping and wishing. It's about doing, being and becoming. After the poppers have been popped, Auld Lang Syne has been sung and the fireworks have lit up the sky, what then? At the beginning of the New Year, we love to think of all the things we would like for the new year, make our resolutions, go to bed - get up, and continue through as we have always done before. In those few short hours, we have forgotten the weight we want to lose, or the new job we want to get, or the Spring clean that your wardrobe was going to have. There is a quote that says: A new year is unfolding - like a blossom with petals curled tightly concealing the beauty within. I believe that we can take this one step further and say that every sunrise is a new day, a new opportunity, a new chance to reach out and fix the mistakes of the past or move into a future that you design. Everyone will have their opinions, but the only opinion that matters is yours. What are you wanting to...

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all other virtues. - Marcus Tullius Cicero When the movie Flashdance was released, with its hit song “Feelings”, it left people thinking about and discussing all aspects of freedom of expression, healthy differences, and how people process emotion. This article may make you feel slightly uneasy as it asks something of you (remember, “life begins at the end of your comfort zone”). It asks that you be prepared to fully allow yourself to tap into, and acknowledge, how you truly feel. With a host of things that will help us become “HEALthier”, this one is right up there.  Our feelings are signals. It is our body’s way of helping us get information about our internal or external environment. Feelings, like most things, if left unchecked, can control us, and we can become an emotional wreck, or we can learn to read the signs and act on them before we get lost. I fully believe, that if you allow yourself to truly feel and ...

We can no more afford to spend major time on minor things than we can to spend minor time on major things. Our three most precious commodities:  1) Time 2) Money 3) Personal Productivity (energy) Do you jump out of bed each morning with a plan, feeling excited about what lies ahead for your day? Or do you watch the clock hands tick by and wonder where all that time goes? It is all too easy to feel that if we are not busy working on some project or urgent thing to do, we are wasting time. How we perceive time has a mighty effect on our priorities. If we have a high priority on money for instance, then we will be driven to be more productive to try and use our time as effectively as possible in keeping with the phrase ‘time is money’. What is the price tag on time? If we live by the above phrase, then we will indeed be giving currency to time. How does that affect our confidence and self-value?  This can lead to rating our self-worth by how productive we perceive that we are. Th...

"Opportunities don't happen. You create them."  - Chris Grosser Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as ’Dr. Seuss was a well-renowned cartoonist and writer.  He had many other pursuits before he was given a request by William Spaulding that would set Theodor’s sights in a whole new way. Theodor was asked to reduce a list of 348 words that Spaulding had compiled, believing they were the most important words for first-graders to learn, and asked Theodor to reduce the words again to 250 and write a book that would engage young readers. This task was undertaken after Life Magazine published an article about the growing issue of illiteracy stating that children weren’t reading due to books being boring. This started Theodor on a journey of great proportion with his first book (using 236 words) of this type being ‘The Cat In The Hat’. It would be a miss of us, however, to believe that Suess’s work is only for young readers.  Keep reading to find the 8 keys of personal success th...

It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society. - Jiddu Krishnamurti We often impose on ourselves unrealistic expectations, or values that are not our own, that we accept from outside of ourselves and try to live in our life. Aside from the reasonable amount of compromise and the dance of human relationships that is necessary to co-exist together, outside of this, living solely on what other people value does not serve us very well. A lot of this stems from, as you would well suspect, advertising and indoctrination from the medical/pharmaceutical and fitness industries which envelopes the industrialised world. Most would consciously deny any effect or manipulation to the fact that many of their thoughts  may not actually be their own , whilst their subconscious mind drives them to depend on suckling the sickly teat of the consumerist, immediate-gratification society. This is demonstrated by  actions ,  purchases , thoughts, and what they hold ...

Love is our essential nutrient. Without it, life has little meaning. It's the best thing we have to give and the most valuable thing we receive. It's worthy of all the hullabaloo. - Martin Luther King Jr. Over the years, many cultures have written and analysed love and formed it into this  complex, indefinable, and often elusive  thing. There is no topic that equals the number of poems, songs, and books that have been written about it. Is love as hard to pinpoint and define as we are led to believe? Is it just that something magically takes place when we connect with some people? Do we like to hold on to the mystery so that somehow we don’t lose the impact or exhilaration? Or  could it be that it is not love that is that complicated, but all the ‘add-on extras’ that we as adults join to this powerful emotion? Let’s leave the ‘suitcases’ at the station for a moment and break down this thing called love . Basic Elements of Love I am a firm believer that  love is an act...

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves. - Leo Tolstoy We often think that if we could just control what somebody else thinks, says, does, and how they perceive us or the world, we would feel peaceful, and happy, and be our  ideal selves. In reality,   the only person we need to focus on is ourselves – what we think, say, and do, how we perceive what’s happening around us, and what we are doing to deal with it.   I do mean DEAL with it too, not just push it under a rug and avoid it. When we are aware enough to move out of the “I know” mindset, to learn how to be happy with who we are and where we are at, and prioritise some key new concepts, we will be struck by  how simple and straightforward it is to experience true emotional well-being . Concept One - Expanding your worldview  (instead of living through a one-sided perspective) Meditation Most people’s idea of what meditation is and can be is quite limited. To meditate ...

A healthy mind breeds a healthy body and vice versa!                                         - Zig Ziglar   With the alarming rise of obesity and many products coming onto the market offering overnight weight loss, there is an increasing focus on putting into place good nutrition and health practices. This is a time when a lot is being invested in re-educating children and adults alike on what food has a positive or negative effect on our bodies. This is very important, but after we have got on top of our physical bodies,  what are we feeding our minds?  What would our brain’s diet look like if we wanted to give it a full overhaul? Depending on the food we eat, it will either nourish us or draw from us. This works exactly the same way with our mind.   “As we think, so shall we be.” Positive thoughts affect both our mind and body by creating a greate...