Archive for 5. TIPS.Mind and Health
Weight Loss and Sleep Deprivation
Posted by: | CommentsIt is a well documented fact that insufficient sleep interferes with metabolism and even on the best diet you will not lose weight without enough sleep. There are two questions I had on this subject and perhaps you have others we could discuss in the comments after this is published.
The first questions is why? There is more than a simple answer to this but it all revolves around hormones and hormone controls. Basically, if you don’t sleep enough you release stress hormones, adrenalin and cortisol. These cause insulin to elevate through their effect on blood sugar and the side-effect of this is weight gain or at best no weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you have to get enough sleep.
Reinhard Engels of EverydaySystems.com says that habits are what we need to concentrate on. It is the actions that take us to the goal, not the result of the actions that we want to concentrate on. Unconscious actions are habits. Success, then, has been defined by some one as a habit. Consistently taking action that yields the desired result is success. If we internalize those actions into unconscious activity then we have a habit. Establish the habit of getting sufficient sleep.
The second question is, How much? How much is enough? The answer is – your body will tell you. With insufficient sleep your brain does not work well. You can’t tell if you are hungry, thirsty or tired. You don’t store memories the same way and you are in a constant state of physical stress. When your metabolism is acting like you are in danger and all you are is sleepy, you need to get the required rest.
Take a vacation from all evening activities for one week. Got to bed every night 9 hours before you need to awaken. Allow your body to sleep as much as it wants. In about 5-7 days it will awaken after a consistent number of hours sleep. Usually between 7-9 hours.
Leave me a comment about this or sign up to listen in when I discuss sleep and your health on Ask an Expert Anything on a Wednesday night at 830PM EST very soon.
For more information look at this study: University of Warwick (2006, July 13). Sleep Deprivation Doubles Risks Of Obesity In Both Children And Adults. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 30, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/07/060713081140.htm
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Debra Mazda – a passion for helping women become fit.
Posted by: | CommentsDo you know what your passion is? It will be something that would energize you, giving you energy that overflowed. If you have that you know how Debra Mazda sounds when she talks. She is excited and enthusiastic. She has a passion and an 
understanding for women who are large and want to be fit. She is their major encourager and their poster girl. I had the pleasure to interview her last Wednesday night. We had a few questions but a great conversation.
She is an inspiring woman with tons of energy. I loved the time we spent talking about her personal journey, what she in doing now and why she is doing it. She quit a very good paying corporate position to pursue her passion of helping plus size women everywhere to reach their dreams of fitness and health. She thinks you should pursue that dream now. Everyone tells her they will start Monday, but Debra says, “Everyday is Monday. Start now!”
I loved it! She was so energizing and enthusiastic I wanted to drive to Philadelphia to take one of her classes which are for women. There is a way to exercise with and spend time with her and that is on her fitness cruise to Mexico. It happens next January. Visit her site DebraMazda.com and sign up for her news letter. All the details will be in there.
If you did not hear the interview I want you to have the chance to do so. Please click on the link and listen or download the mp3 to listen on you mp3 player (I almost wrote iPod but there are others). Debra has promised me some of her videos to give away. I would like to do some kind of contest. Leave me a comment and tell me how you think I should do that.
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Intentions, Affirmations and Self Care
Posted by: | CommentsI just finished a podcast about self care – the most unselfish thing you can do for others. During the podcast I did 4 things. I make an offer that is good for 24 hours so download and listen for the offer. Then I talked about the 
meaning of circles and how self care was at the center of the coaching I do. The process of self care is represented by a circle with 12 areas of self care defined within it. I talked about these 12 areas, about moving meditation and writing intentions and affirmations. It is 50 minutes that flowed along for me. I really want your feed back! Listen, take action on my offer and leave me a comment about the recording content, quality and your gut reaction. I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comment section below. The link to the recording is here.
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Stress – Reduce it with Self Talk Validation
Posted by: | CommentsI have stated before that Stress is a way to make us move and to make us wise with respect to danger. The Stress Reaction can make us wiser. We have to learn from each situation and one thing to learn is to get over your fear. Learn what to do for yourself in the situation that causes you stress. This takes some thinking and that requires focus in the moment. I am not saying you 
should ignore the source of stress, I am saying the stress does not take your power. You are still in control of you.
You control your attitude and actions. It takes practice to do it well when you feel stressed. Just think of stress as a kind of workout. You need to vary your workouts so if stress is one workout, then another would be validated self talk. You need to validate your feelings without giving them control over you. It is OK to feel stress, but learn it is OK to relax too. You can bring on your RELAXATION RESPONSE with words, actions and laughter. It is good to practice these so we can do it when we most need it.
Self Talk is what you are saying to yourself. There is an old Native American folklore story about a Grandfather teaching his grandson about this. The Grandfather is telling the grandson that within him are two wolves. One is telling the grandson he is strong, resourceful, and capable of meeting challenges. The other is telling him quite the opposite. These wolves are continually fighting for control of the person. As the story goes, the boy asks, “Which one wins?” The Grandfather replies, “Which ever one you feed!”
We feed our internal Wolf with our words and our beliefs. These eventually get translated into action. If you want to change your habits the first habit to change is your habit of mind. A belief is a “Mind Habit”. It is a way of doing something based on our experience. Many beliefs are based on the experiences and reactions to those experiences by the people who raised us. They were humans and like all humans have/had strengths and faults. It is OK to change our mind habits as we age and gain experience. Like all habits, they are familiar and even if uncomfortable or potentially self-limiting, they are what we know. They are likely to be there forever unless we challenge them with other thoughts. Not all these beliefs mind habits are bad. But if they are, we need to create new ones.
Validating ourselves through our self talk is a good way to do this. We have to be real and we have to be kind. Be kind to yourself. Reinforce the good that you do verbally. Quit looking back! Look at now. If you took time to read this, realize it is a good thing to do. If you do a moving meditation and talk to yourself kindly, be pleased and satisfied and at peace with yourself. You fed the positive speaking wolf and he is stronger and winning that inner battle.
So, here are two actions for you to take.
First, listen to this audio interview with Paula Harvey. Paula is an expert on passion and life transitions. We talk for an hour about her work, about passions, beliefs and the effect on our lives. In a prior post I offer a free workshop if you schedule a passion party with her. Get the details in the post from August 14, 2009.
The second action is to listen to this video called Validation. As you hear the words he speaks to others and to himself, think about what you could say to yourself. How could you give yourself some encouragement and what could you do to deserve more encouragement from yourself. One of the things I ask people is – what are you doing now that supports you in one important area of your life? Or when someone decides to change an area, I ask them what strengths or victories they have in that area already. Remember you are whole and complete. What you need is inside of you. You can bring it out and reinforce it with validating self talk. Now enjoy this video and leave me some comments about your thoughts. If you realize you are limited in an area that you desire to change, sign up for a workshop to find out if my coaching would be a good match for you.
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Coaching and the Personal Empowerment Process
Posted by: | CommentsThe type of coaching I do is based on a self assessment of 12 basic areas of life as seen in the circle on the right. The process 
involves self assessment, envisioning the place you want to be, checking your readiness and creating a blueprint for success. Then choose action steps, mind body practices and create affirmations to maintain momentum. Use the 15 powers inhernet in the process including self discovery, a fail proof/safe place to grow, an expertless system to create momentum in the direction you have chosen. This link to a short presentation will help you to understand a little about the process and help you to decide if you want to attend a workshop on coaching or perhaps go directly into the coaching process. It is a bit new age in the presentation, but it is adaptable to your personal philosophy because you are the center of the process.
I would really like your reaction to what you see. Please leave me a comment or email me. Tomorrow I will give people an opportunity to begin to sign up for a workshop. The first 4 people to sign up for coaching will each be give a $215 scholarship and pay only $50 for 10 hours of group coaching instead of $265. This is a one time only deal and each person must first attend a workshop so check the blog tomorrow for that opportunity.
I look forward to your comments.
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Nutrition and Meditation – two ways to improve your life.
Posted by: | CommentsNutrition or diet is a key element in health, energy, weight management and disease prevention. Kriza is a blogger that has written a guest post on Entrepreneurs Journey about 7 Eating Habits that Sabotage Your Productivity as an Entrepreneur.
Guess what number one is? Not eating Breakfast. I recommend you go here to read the other 6 and all 7 reasons why.
Ben Langley writes a blog called Peaceful Prosperity. I receive updates for Kiza’s and Ben’s blogs directly into my google Reader via RSS feed. If you don’t understand that search rss on my blog – I have a post about it here.
The link I am giving you to Ben’s blog is a post that is number 5 in a series about 101 Tips for Powerful Meditation. I teach a form of moving meditation when I coach you. It helps you to focus on your intent and your affirmation of your intent while also improving your health. Take a look at Ben’s posts on this subject here.
Tell me what you think about these two people and what they have written in the comments section here. What do you want to know about meditation? Tell me through the comments. I intend to have a poll for you to take soon to tell me about what you think would make your life better. Look for it here soon.
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Stress – How to handle financial stress
Posted by: | CommentsMoney or at least the love of it has been called the root of all evil. It is also the root of a lot of stress. No one stresses much about too much money, just not enough. It is stressful if you are underemployed, if you are deeply in debt and if you have had a sudden change in income due to illness, change of marital status or a death.
The first thing to do is to get a handle on your fear. To do that you have to decide what about your finances causes you stress. Begin with what about your current financial status is good. List all the benefits that you receive if nothing changes. There are one or two benefits or you would have changed already. Maybe the only benefit is that your current situation keeps you from getting in worse shape financially. There is a benefit(s) so find them and make a list.
Then make a list of all the benefits of changing the situation from where it is to where you would like it to be. Remember change requires energy, a plan and some accountability. If you change you have to put in energy for a while before you will see results. That isn’t a benefit, but it is a part of reality and I want to keep you grounded during this process.
What is your financial strength? On a scale of 1-10, how strong are you financially? Draw a picture of your financial strength. Make a bar graph. Make the base of the graph 0 and the top line 10. 10 is the best you could be and 0 is the worst. Draw it as a long tall rectangle, sort of like a skyscraper outline. Now take a pen and draw a line at the number you designate as representing your financial strength.
Lets look at other aspects of your life. How about nutrition, environment, spirituality, self esteem, exercise, stress management, health care, play, work, life purpose, or relationships? Which of these areas are you really strong in? Don’t be ambivalent. Take a carefully thought out position – where are your strengths? If you are a eight or more in a couple of areas you can look at your actions there and apply those same principles to your financial life.
Why are you strong in an area? Because you understand it? Like it? Learned it very well? Do you have a natural talent in one of your strongest areas? What you must remember is that you are not broken. You do not “need” me to fix it or anyone else for that matter. You have what it takes to gain strength in any area of your life. You need to see it as it might be, look at the next step and think about the actions you might need to take. Before you make a list of actions look at victories or successes you have had financially and at potential roadblocks. Think about what you want to happen and write an affirmation.
A generic affirmation about finances might be something like this:
I am day by day paying off my debt. I am light in spirit and body as the burden of debt plus interest is lifted off of my life. I am thrifty, resourceful and able to find information and guidance when ever a challenge occurs. I am successfully eliminating debt and excess want and poor financial decisions from my life.
Now you could write down some actions in the order they need to occur, and assign them reasonable dates and times for accomplishment. Remember you are not broken, this is not a weakness. Problems are challenges and areas of lesser strength can be made strong.
I would be honored to be your guide. Would you like to invite 4 friends to go on a journey with you. I could arrange to coach you over the phone or if you are local, in person. I have a one time special and when it is gone, it is gone forever. I will give a group of 4 people 10 hours of life coaching for $50 each. You meet as a group and we will work out the other details. Let me know ASAP if you want to take advantage of this offer. Use my contact info page on this blog to email me about your interest. My middle initial is L by-the-way. It will help you email me if you know that.
I look forward to your comments here and to your emails in the near future.
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Stress – Breathe and live with less Stress
Posted by: | CommentsStress is a response to a threat. When the threat is perceived like possibly losing your job during a recession, the response to it can grind on and on. This response is detrimental. The purpose is to get you moving and that is what these words are intended to do.
Breathing is necessary for life. Three minutes without oxygen and you enter another realm but leave this one. Increasing your levels of oxygen for brief periods throughout the day can make you anxiety proof and lessen your stress response. It isn’t hard and when you do deep breathing for brief periods of time you make you body accustomed to changing levels of oxygen. One indicator of an emergency to your brains emergency monitoring system is falling levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is a waste product we breathe off. There are levels that are usual. If the body perceives lower than usual levels, it thinks you are sensing a danger because you are breathing faster. Breathing exercises can teach your body that lower levels of CO2 can be a sign of relaxation and this will help you reduce your stress response.
Here is how you do it. Stop for a moment right where you are. Imagine you need to blow away something falling on your face. I don’t like feathers so I imagine them. I imagine each feather is something bugging me. A person, a situation, a problem that I am going to blow away.
Now, take a deep breath down into you abdomen. You know you are breathing abdominally when your belly button moves out or up when you inhale. Now exhale fully and completely but purse your lips like you are blowing something away. For me I blow away feathers and problems and relax. I let my shoulders fall into their normal place, I let my back relax and I feel better. Stop what you are doing now, stop reading, stop any music and breathe deeply in and out 3 times. It isn’t magic. It is effective. I have learned to do it when walking from one exam room to another, quietly and quit effectively. You can learn this too.
Want to learn more? Join my Personal Empowerment Plan. You can find it here or you can become a fan of my Personal Empowerment Plan on Facebook. Too much to do? Leave me a comment or question in the comment section below or contact me using the information on the “contact me” page of this blog.
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Personal Empowerment through The Circle of Life Coaching System
Posted by: | CommentsPerhaps you missed it but last Wednesday night was another weekly episode of Ask Bruce Anything. This week I did lots of talking and explaining. I went through the 12 aspects of the Circle of Life Process, talked about the area, gave a quote and explanation for each. Then I explained how to use the circle to evaluate your life and I talked about 15 intrinsic powers that help you in the process.
If you did not get an opportunity to listen live, you can still hear what I said on the replay. Listen on line or download it and listen on your mp3 player. I really would like to answer your questions, hear your comments and even better host 4 of you in a small coaching group. (That will cost you $50 for 10 hours of time and a manual. The manual is over 220 pages long.)
OK, want to hear more? Click on this link to go to the download page for the most recent recording. Of course the password to that protected blob post on Wednesday is given out in the first 10 minutes.
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Personal Empowerment Program using the Circle of Life
Posted by: | CommentsDo you have a problem in your life you are having trouble solving? Is there a change you have wanted to make but it just has not worked out? Maybe you are working on the wrong area? Maybe you need help to plan and execute your plan successfully. How would you like to assess your life, create a plan and have a council and coach to support you? Such things exist you know.
I am accepting applications for 4 people that have some common challenges in their life – like empty nest boomers – or single women or men over age 50 or some other group of 4 with similar life challenges. The course will begin in early September and last 10 hours. You will receive my coaching, support from the group, recordings of all the calls that only your group can access, a guide book that is 81/2×11″ format and very well written and access to me for 10 hours. Your group will learn a process and can after 10 hours remain together and proceed to use the process to help each other to accomplish all they wish to accomplish over time.
This is not a panacea for every problem. If you have serious problems that need resolution, then counseling is the place for you. But, if you have things you want to do and have a desire to change and improve, then my course – Personal Empowerment Plan is for you. The hooker is this first inaugural program is only going to cost the 4 participants $50 each and their time. After this opportunity, the cost will go up to $265 each for the same amount of time.
If you are interested, you need to download the application, fill it out and mail it to me. I will call you and if you are a good fit for the group, will accept you for our September sessions.
You can email me at (I am spelling the address to keep spam bots from stealing it and using it) Bruce dot L dot Bair at gmail dot com Mail it back to me Bruce Bair at 127 Long Shadow Place, Durham, NC 27713
Here is the application to download.
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