fitness

Back to The Future

Wonderful Wellness Wednesday All!

This week I wanted to share something that may help you think about your plans or lack thereof. What I’m speaking of is your plan for your life. Often, we may have general ideas about what we want out of life, things we wish to do and or accomplish, but that could be just as far as they go, general thoughts and ideas. Thoughts like these stay inside your head and may come to fruition, but without a real plan and action they usually stay as wishful ideals of what we want out of life. Years later this leaves the door open to having visits by the “Should of’s,” “Could of’s,” or “I wish I,” family.
This is how one can get caught up into just going through life and not actually living life. What type of person are you? Are you one who plans or are you just an on the fly type person?

Making plans and writing them down will more likely get you results versus just saying you’re going to do something. I’m sure you have found yourself planning for a vacation; from everything to the hotel, clothes you are taking, places you may eat, or maybe you are someone who likes planning social gatherings, and you put so much time and effort into it to making sure it is a great event. The question to consider now is do you plan for where you desire your life to be in the coming years as you do for other things? Or is it just wishful, I hope to get there, whimsical thinking?

Leaving your life to just any blow of the wind takes the control out of your hands. We were created to be creators. This creative ability /energy allows you to live your life versus it living you if you use it to plan and use it well. Take a moment to imagine what you want your life to look like one year, two, or three years from now. Basically, take a trip to the future. Get a good clear picture of it. Once you have it, burn it into your deeper mind, and then jump back to the present. This is where the work begins!

What’s the plan? It’s time to act and plan out how you are going to get Back to the Future! Without the plans that future time you visited will just remain as those thoughts in your mind and lead to a life of I should of.

Take time today to start the planning process. Reclaim your time, think transformative, and then take Action!

“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.” – Brain Tracy

Until next time,

Stay in Wellness

How NEAT Are You

Wonderful Wellness Wednesday All!

This week I wanted to share some information about applying NEAT (Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis) activities into your health and wellness regiment. NEAT activities help boost metabolism and cognitive function. These brain boosters can be used to improve brain health and increase metabolism.

Let’s take a closer look at exactly what NEAT encompasses. NEAT represents the calories burned while living life; walking around a store, fidgeting, typing, chewing gum, folding clothes, washing dishes, running earned, etc. NEAT activities are the small numbers calculated in what is called TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditures) which are simply the number of calories burned during the day including all physical activity and food digestion.
Prolonged sitting deactivates the brain and lowers metabolism. Thus, limited physical activity and low levels of mental stimulation and the absence of socialization have a detrimental effect on the human brain over time.

There are number of activities that can boost NEAT while strengthening the brain. Physical activity, mental simulation, and socialization are key components to growing the trees of our mind by creating new neurons and dendrites.

Some of the benefits of NEAT Activities:

  • Improve Mood
  • Boots levels of key neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine
  • Decrease levels of cortisol
  • Help in effectively managing stress
  • Strengthen the Corpus Callosum (band of neural fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain)

Here is one NEAT Activity I am going to leave you with to practice. This one uses breathing techniques found in Yoga. The practice of yoga can improve metabolism, breathing capacity and cardiovascular reserves. This helps to reduce anxiety and improve focus. Follow this short breathing practice to re-energize the brain and body.

Breath Work

  • Develop a 6-second breath cycle to get 10 breaths per minute. Inhale for 2 seconds, hold for 1 second, exhale for 2 seconds, hold for 1 second. Repeat.
  • Practice alternate-nostril breathing. Gently close the opposite nostril, alternating thumb and ring fingers. Inhale through the right nostril; exhale through the left; inhale L; exhale R.
  • Practice double breathing. Sit upright, palms in thighs. Inhale twice through the nose and then the mouth, relaxing the muscles. Repeat several times.
  • Bee’s breath releases mental tension and/or reduces anger. Close the ears with the index and middle fingers, inhale deeply and hum during the exhalation (think buzzing bee).
  • Experience the therapeutic, calming effects of the three-part breath. From a comfortable position, with neutral spine. Inhale and exhale through the nose. Expand the belly, ribs and chest (in that order). Slowly exhale relaxing the chest, ribs and belly (like a wave).

Give these breathing exercises a try as well as be sure to get up and stay active in Mind, Body, and Spirit!

Until next week! Stay in Wellness!

The Process

Wonderful Wellness Wednesday All!

This week I am writing to you about something called “Process.”

Everyone directly and indirectly goes through the “process” of life. I define process as “a series of changes taking place in one’s life which stems from our thoughts, actions, and choices we make, as well as some circumstances beyond our control.” Going through the process of life is supposed to be forward moving, connecting one to a greater inner strength, thus affording one to operate and function on a higher level or vibration. How we handle life’s process directly correlates to how well our inner being has been developed and continues to be developed.

The dictionary defines process as the following: “a continuous action or series of changes taking place in a definite manner, a series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular end, the action of going forward or on.”

Process is not a short term set of experiences we have during our teen years. It is continuous as our life, because we are always on a forward path. Our human experience shows us, that process is not always easy. Being “processed” hurts at times, and we can become too focused on how it feels, which can cause one to get confused, stalled, or stuck in a place too long. It would server us better to redirect that energy away from our senses and use our untapped inner power to get past the sensations. These feelings are just our senses acting on high alert in an unbalanced state.

I have and continue to go through life’s process. We all do! The intensity of the process we go through can be offset by how well our inner being/power has been developed. The inner power is not based on “religion,” It’s part of universe law that we are energy beings and there is a deeper energy (strength, power, spirit) with in all people. How we develop and use this power is what makes all the difference in life.

Your life’s process can be something that builds you or it can be the thing the keeps you down. The difference will be in how you build and strengthen your inner-self. There are several methods once can use to begin to strengthen their inner being.

The one method I will leave you with has been practiced for thousands of years by people all over the world. The method is meditation. Meditation is mental exercises that includes focused breathing in a calm state for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness. This is one true and tested way to build your inner strength. Thus, allowing you to go inward to find ways to solve or navigate through life’s process. Take some time to read up on mediation and begin to practice. It is a valuable tool to have to help you navigate through the Process of Life. Life should be lived well even in the midst of chaos. The more your inner being is centered and calm the better you can control your state of being versus it being controlled by all the outside forces.

Until next time, Stay in Wellness.

Wonderful Wellness Wednesday!

Today is a great day to share some wellness wisdom with you as it is a day, we celebrate love! Happy Valentine’s Day all, be sure to express love in its many forms today.

So, let me get to this week’s message on imagination. Do you recall being a little kid and playing with your toys and using your imagination to make your play time more exciting?

There was something magical and powerful about that thing called imagination. It allowed you to create things that did not exist or allowed you to escape to a place outside your current reality. Yet, have you ever really thought about what imagination really is, and how powerful it can be?
Imagination is defined as the action or process of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses. The images are invisible to the outside reality. Your imagination is a tool that creates mental/conceptual images or ideas of things that don’t exist in real time.

Think about it, everything that man has created started with an image in the mind ‘aka’ the imagination. This image/concept/idea grew with inner concentration and outward actions that brought it forward to the visible reality.

The questions I have for you today; Have you lost your imagination? Do you no longer use that creative power to push forward aspects of your life that you want? Where has your desire gone?

Answering these questions can help you get on a path of discovering then hopefully action to getting back your child like imagination and use that tool/gift to bring your life to a level that you would be excited about as if you were a kid again!

“When you employ your imagination properly, you see yourself doing a thing and you go ahead and do it.” – Claude Bristol

Begin again to employ your imagination! It can be the preview of the coming attractions in your life if you use it as a tool and the gift it is.

So today not only give off love but imagine and dream again, believe again, turn up your desire and act on all of that and allow your life to be big!

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