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Book Happiness Tips Optimum Health

Q&A Time: Getting Perspective on the Gene Thing

iconsChristine (from USA) Question: “With modern medicine today there are many tests you can have now to see if you are more likely to develop some awful diseases such as Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s. Would you want to know?”

The right question

One of the things I teach in the 30-Day Happiness Challenge, is to ask better questions. And also to make sure the question we are asking does not pre-suppose a ‘fact’ that is not really a fact (100% true, 100% percent of time). Otherwise the answer we get will not be relevant.

By the way. Just wanted to remind you that I am not a Doctor, in case you forgot. I am just a voracious reader, researcher and therapist / Coach.

Here is the thing on modern medicine. It is EXCELLENT at treating symptoms – or broken stuff – but crap at the preventative stuff, and the creating optimum health stuff. For more on this read ‘Mind Over Medicine‘ by Dr Lissa Rankin.

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Book Optimum Health

Pillar 6 to Optimum Health: Wholeheartedness (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

wholeheartednessThe trump card

As I was writing my book on optimum health, I thought I had it all sorted out with my 5 Pillars: exercise, nutrition, detoxing, rest and how we used our minds. But something was niggling at the back of my mind. Sort of saying, ‘Are you missing something?’

Well it turns out I was. I had the body covered; the mind covered; but I didn’t have the heart taken care of. And the reality is, you cannot separate these three parts. It is like trying to create a complete picture, but only using two-thirds of the jigsaw pieces. There will be gaps and in this case those gaps can be major illness, recurring aches & pains, and even that regular ‘cold’ or ‘flu’.

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Book Optimum Health

Pillar 5 to Optimum Health: Mindfulness (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

mindfullnessNice word. What does it mean?

I use the term ‘mindfulness’ which is based on the concept of mindfulness in Buddhist meditation, but take it broader, into how it shows up each and every day. As numerous ‘smart people’ have told us over past millennium, we only have ‘this moment’. The past is gone, and the future is yet to be shaped. So it is the sum of our moments, and how we use them, that ultimately determines what quality of life we have and the level of results we achieve.

The other word that pops up when we talk about mindfulness is ‘consciousness’. Being conscious of the big picture, the small picture, our place in the picture, other peoples place in the picture, the possibilities, the reality of where you are right now, the place you want to arrive at, and your inner dialogue. So for me, mindfulness is a heightened level of consciousness of our thinking, feeling and behaving.

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Acceptance Feeling Relationship Self Love

So…How Do You Increase Your ‘Self-Love’ Muscles

selflove1What role does the mind play in Self-Love?

When we think of the whole self-love thing we often are focused on the heart and feelings. Which is rightly so. Love is a feeling thing. It is heart-based and felt throughout the body. As opposed to a funny feeling we experience in our heads. Although love and light-headedness do go together on occasions. When we talk about self-love we are talking less about hormones and swooning ourselves, or buying ourselves romantic gifts to be opened by ourselves while we have a candlelight dinner by ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, the gifts and romantic dinner sound like fun, but let’s get back to this question of ‘what role does the mind play in self-love?’

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Optimum Health Rest

Pillar 4 for Optimum Health: Rest Up (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

restRest up of fall downThis was actually the name of a chapter I included in The Guidebook to Happiness.The basics are this, when it comes to ‘SLEEP’:
  • The majority of the population need 7.5 – 9 hrs sleep (which means a big % of the population are sleep deprived).
  • Deep sleep, as opposed to interrupted or restless sleep, is essential for the mind to process short term to long term information (miss this and your brain will feel full, muddled and be less effective).
  • The body needs deep sleep to carry out the billions of repair and rejuvenation functions for optimum health.
  • Your body LOVES to rise with the sun and wind down when it gets dark. Go to bed earlier, so you can rise earlier. I recently interviewed Octavio Salvado (a yogi with a good Aussie name) who said rising with the sun is one of his Top 3 Happiness Tips and was a key teaching in yoga for 1000’s of years.
  • Stimulants like caffeine obviously affect most peoples depth and quality of sleep. Ease up on the caffeine later in the day.
  • To sleep better, keep to a regular routine, so the body gets used to the cycle.
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Nutrition Optimum Health

Pillar 3 for Optimum Health: The Importance of Detoxification (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

detox1Cars

Put your hand up if you own a car? I have my hand down, since I haven’t owned a car since 2001 (but I do own a very fast 110cc scooter ;-)). Does your car run better after you have it serviced? And do you get a MAJOR service after your car has run for X number of km’s (or miles)? But it’s only a car. A hunk of metal and stuff. Bloody handy, but still not great for conversation, love & intimacy (although some may disagree on this one), and making a difference in the world.

You on the other hand are a work of art. Infinitely creative and with the ability to make an amazing difference in the lives of others. Something that special deserves a lot more attention, support and maintenance so it can shine most brightly. This is about taking deeper care of yourself.

The number 1 detox method

This is for those with a short concentration span. I will share the biggest tip now, but for those that want to make a huge difference in their life you might want to read on to the next section.

I have talked about this before and will mention it again. It is the famous Green Drink. Click here for a great recipe. This cleanses the body by adding healing micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and enzymes), and fibre for elimination (pooping) plus aids in insulin management.

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Nutrition Optimum Health

Pillar 2 for Optimum Health: Nutrition (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

nutritionMurky waterIt was that Hippocrates dude that said it right when he made the eternal comment ‘let thy food be thy medicine’. So of course nutrition had to be one of the key pillars to optimum health. The thing is we all know it, but with the proliferation of the diet industry, media, an industry worth well over a trillion dollars (the US industry alone is about 1 trillion dollars), it is pretty hard to work out what the ‘real’ message is. So I am going to share with you some of my basic philosophies and the biggest tips I have taken away from following nutrition and researching it for the last 15 years. My views have definitely changed over the years too.

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Book Optimum Health Physical Activity

Pillar 1 for Optimum Health: Physical Activity (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

activityNo surprises

The first Pillar (or key) to Optimum Health is – no surprises – physical activity. I can just imagine you reading this thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don’t know. Did you know that physical activity actually helps with your memory, your cognitive functioning and neurogenesis (development of new neurons)? Physical activity is just as important for the brain as it for the body and internal systems. Sometimes we forget that. You are also likely to score better on tests or be more creative after you exercise. Now have I got your attention? 😉   Tal Ben-Sharar, a leader in the positive psychology field, said ‘Not exercising is like taking a depressant’. Oops. It turns out that exercise is one of the best stress management and stress resilience strategies we have. In many research situations exercise performs just as well as anti-depressants (without the side-effects).     

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Categories
Relationship

One of the Best Relationship Tips for 2014

relationshipAre you being realistic?

Picture this. Two people born in two different cities. Two different parents. Two different sets of beliefs installed. Two very different behaviours at play in the family environment. Two different schools. Two different groups of friends and influences. Two very different life experiences. Two different physical appearances. Two different interests, talents, and hobbies. I could go on, but I am sure you get the picture.

Now here is the big question: What are the chances that when these two people connect they will think, feel and behave in exactly the same way?

If your answer was anything other than NONE or VERY UNLIKELY then you definitely need to give me a call and we definitely need to chat. So we agree (apart from the people calling me shortly) that the chances of two people from two different places, families and life experiences having exactly the same values, beliefs, skills, mindsets, perspectives, outlooks, etc. is very very low.

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Categories
Emotional Happiness Tips Life Purpose

Do You Want a Better Life or Some Useless Piece of Cr#p?

shoppingBack to basics

Over the years I have done a bunch of work and traveling to Singapore. Great food, nice and orderly especially after coming from Indonesia, and a bucket-load of shopping centres. Plus people working their butts off to make more money so they can buy stuff that they actually don’t need (and haven’t got the time to enjoy).Did I hear someone say ‘but what about retail therapy’? Well here is a question for you. Was the term ‘retail therapy’ introduced by the retail industry or by a team of the worlds leading therapists on emotional intelligence and stress management? Research does suggest that shopping is actually likely to make you feel worse, in the long run, as opposed to better. Having said that, if you drop the shopping for stuff you don’t need and catch up with friends for meaningful conversations, that is a different story entirely.

Here is my theory

When you look about your house, how much stuff do you see that you really ‘need’. That contributes to the quality of your life and the lives of the people around you?

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