Staying healthy is more important than ever considering the rising rates of cancer and chronic disease in our world – not to mention the expense of healthcare and the emotional fallout. While I personally have healthy nutrition habits and exercise regularly, I do very little specific teaching on what supplements to take or what exercise routine one should be on.
I tend to come from the core of what makes us stay healthy or get sick – mindset. Yes, even disease is related to how you think and feel. In fact, it can make or break you and holistic/integrative physicians already get this.
When we become aware of the role of thoughts, feelings and emotions, we become even more empowered to make healthier choices and actually apply them in the first place. Also, intuitively doesn’t it just make sense that if you think and feel joyful and connected to life, you will feel and be healthier than if you are full of worry, judgment and anger?
In our changing times this information that I am sharing is critical. We are generally conditioned to fear change and by the time the “survival” instinct kicks in, we can find ourselves overwhelmed with worry and anxiety if we are not aware of how to deal with our own brain and nervous system. We think that we have a “right to our opinion” and we certainly do.
The question to ask is, what would you rather be, “right” or healthy? In fact, does it really even matter as to what other people are doing in the details of their life and why waste time looking over the fence into the lives of others? Does our opinion about what others are wearing, doing (particularly if it is legal and not harming others) or how they live their lives, really matter?
Will our opinion change them? Does complaining, worrying or gossiping really create the abundant, prosperous life that you desire? Actually, what I know for sure is that our opinions can be hazardous to not only our body’s health; if left unchecked, they can drain our entire lives. On the other hand, becoming consciously aware of the power of what we think and feel to attract the health and wealth we seek is the most economical and quickest way to achieve it, and this is science, not woo-woo.
Here is a powerful point: Every thought you have has a type of quality of feeling associated with it. When you send out negative opinions with negative feelings about others out into the universe, you ALWAYS feel it in your own body first. This should give new meaning to the ancient proverb: “Do unto to others as you would have others to do unto you”.
Confidence is a key element to empowerment. If you can’t speak up, take risks or all too often buckle under the opinions of others, your gifts and talents will likely never reach authentic expression. Let me say that confidence from the core, authentic self is what I am referring to.
Not the “fake it ’till you make it” to whatever status you believe holds the magical key to empowerment. I’m referring to knowing that you know that the “real you” is already ok, just because you breathe. The starting point from this place is assuming that you are not broken, just in evolution, like the plant in the garden that is in the process of unfolding to its true beauty and potential.
We as a society tend to come from a mindset of lack and deficiency – the old paradigm of selfishness and “survival of the fittest”. This is just one way of seeing life; it is not the only way. We live in a world of infinite potential, and what determines how you experience “reality” is based on your perceptual system. How you wire your brain and nervous system really matters.
And get this; what runs your life is generally the 90% that is out of your awareness and comes from the unconscious part of your mind. So, why is self-love so important and why is it not ok to beat yourself up and put yourself down? Aren’t we taught that this is “humble”? Isn’t it “pride” to think good of yourself? Isn’t it “narcissistic”?
Narcissism stems from fear and is often rooted in insecurity. When you come from core confidence, you know that there is no need to compare yourself and judge worth and value between people. Yes, we vary in the expression of our gifts and talents, yet at our essence, the “founders” of our country had it correct when they said, “all men (and women) are created equal”.
When you come to know this Authentic Self, the essence of your very life force, you can begin to separate yourself from the “stories” of who you think you are that keep you stuck and playing small. These stories that you’ve wired into your mind and nervous system can be re-written when you are ready to accept the challenge. And it is much simpler than you may think.
Ego often gets a bum rap. I was happy to see the video of Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor, author of “My Stroke of Insight”, (see her video at the end of this post) a while back as she exemplifies why we need an ego and why is not a good idea to try to “get rid” of it.
First of all, unless you want to damage the left hemisphere of your brain (which was her challenge when she had the stroke), you are going to have a sense of “identity” which is what the ego is. It is the mental construct of the “false self”.
Ego is imbedded within your personality. Within the word personality is “persona”, which means, “mask”. It is not the real you, it is what I call the “Mental Me”; the story of who you THINK you are. This is in opposition to the “Magnificent Me” that most people apparently are not aware of.
The Magnificent Me is the Authentic Self, the Real Deal, not the memory you hold of yourself based on genetics (karma if you are so inclined), environment and simply the illogical mind of the child you once were. Most of our sense of limited identity starts in early childhood, which is when we are most susceptible and predisposed to believing the opinions of others and making up the meaning of our experiences.
It is not what happens to you; it is HOW you interpret the facts of your experience that determines the meaning that is assigned. This is what perception is in a nutshell. This would explain why one person can experience an event as horribly traumatic while for another it may just be “water off a duck’s back”.
Healthcare is on many people’s minds these days. Unfortunately it is a heavy weight on most people’s minds as they are focused on worry, or actually “dis-ease” care when it comes to their health.
This is a part of the very problem we are faced with – worry and focus on disease. Your brain does not like stress; in fact it is toxic to brain cells and a health hazard in general. I believe that the financial pressure from our existing system will likely be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.
I don’t care how much money is pumped into the system, until the waste stops and people change their paradigm, their belief system about HOW they think – about themselves, their bodies and life in general – the system is going to fail ultimately.
What do I mean by “how we think”? We focus on fear and what we don’t want without realizing that this is not only damaging our brains, it’s creating the very havoc we see in our lives. The hormones and processes that are released in your body when your worry and stress (both based in fear) can not only kill off brain cells, it can damage your heart, your immune system, your digestive tract and your musculoskeletal system…among other things.
Staying healthy and stress seems to be on a lot of people’s minds lately. I came across an article just today that referred to the new study done by Dr. Anil Sood and others in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, that demonstrates that when experiencing stress, mice and humans had acceleration in the growth of cancer cells, in this case, ovarian.
The bottom line – stress is hazardous to your health. Many people do not realize that the chronic feelings of “overwhelm” that they feel – you know, not enough hours in the day, long “to-do” lists and not enough rest and sleep – is really what stress is.
It is the feeling that you cannot control what is happening to you and it is also the fear that you are under threat of some kind, be it job loss and even feelings of insecurity. Yes, it has also been shown that low self-esteem can trigger this stress response in your body. So, is stress something that “you cannot help”?
Do you believe that if your environment where different that then and only then, you can overcome overwhelm? If you believe this, you are like most people. I used to buy into this one back in the 1990’s. It was then that I first experientially realized that stress starts within, it is an inside issue.
It is not the “facts” that cause stress. It is not the things that are happening around you as much as it is the “fiction”, the story about the meaning of the facts. It is about where you are putting your focus and whether or not you are taking care of your mind and body – from the inside out.
Video Blog Post: There is a science to learning how to deal with change so that you are able to go from where you are to where you want to be without all the fear and struggle that affects most people. It is all begins with mindset.
Self-esteem and self-image make a huge difference in the level of success you can have not only in your business, but it will affect relationships and even health. There have actually been studies that show that low self-esteem lowers your health, as for one thing, it impacts your susceptibility to stress and ineffective self-care.
If we try to go after love by taking care of everyone else but ourselves, we ultimately will not even be as effective in caring for those we love. We as women are also setting an example for our daughters. I have a 17 year-old daughter, and I have seen how the impact of media and peer pressure can cause wear and tear on the psych.
It has been my awareness of the importance of making it a point to develop self-esteem and keep a positive self-image that has spared my daughter all types of emotional drama that I see some of her peers going through. In fact my daughter is often mentoring her friends on getting through their challenges on self-esteem issues and on more than one occasion has told me how grateful she is for the information that I share with her.
We live in a community that has recognized that there is a problem with competition, materialism, and perfectionism. All three of these issues are directly related to an issue with low self-esteem and trying to hide feelings of insecurity. Often trying to find security, love and self-esteem creates that type of messy experience in not only teen-aged girls, but also throughout the lives of grown women.
I see these challenges in my peers all the time. So, what is a major source of this low self-esteem? It’s actually negative self-talk. That’s right, we have found the “enemy” and that enemy is the “Mental Me”. It is the voice in our head that is critical and always comparing and judging.
It is also the voice that may have come from external “mean girls” that we encountered early in life. I managed to avoid a lot of external mean girl voices, as I grew up in an environment that cultivated my aggressive side, so most girls did not mess with me. However, I was my worse critic.
Career and business success depends on this question: Who do you think you are? Often this question is asked with an attitude, as in “you must think you’re somebody”. Well, yes, I do, and you should too.
Not only are you “somebody” you are unique, special and it’s time to stop playing small and letting the world around you define you. Since the default setting for the mindset of the world is so constricted, and limited, focused far more on lack than on abundance, if you plug into this viewpoint – you are bound for lack and struggle right out the gate.
In these times of change and flux, you had better get a grip on your mindset and learn to consciously manage yourself or you will be in for a heck of a bumpy journey. I used to be so worried about the opinions of others and micromanaging life that I was stressing myself out and creating unnecessary drama.
Like most people, I operated my mindset out of a worldview of fear. Well fear, unless it is due to truly life-threatening circumstances, is really only “Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality”. It is psychological. This acronym that I created when I wrote my book “Empower Up and Play Big”, is based in neuroscience. Even many years ago, Albert Einstein said:
“Reality is an illusion; albeit a very persistent one”
Reality is an illusion in that it is not “the way it is”. It is relative, based on one’s perceptual system, the way we wire our visual system, our brain and nervous system. We first wire, then we continue to find the evidence from the “facts”, (our nervous system is masterful at this without our awareness) the events and information of the material world around us, and we create our own “story” based on our view of life.
Confidence and self-esteem boils down to this: you are making it all up. Think about it. Where do you get the ideas to judge yourself by? Why do you think you are born unworthy?
Is that the absolute “Truth”? How do you know? Who told you this? Why do you accept it as true? These are some of the questions I eventually asked myself, as I broke free from the fear of “thinking outside of the box”.
Granted, at one time in our social history we were highly likely to die if the “tribe” kicked us out of the group, but nowadays, with so many options available, you can always find a new “tribe”.
I know that there are feelings involved, however, I’ve come to the conclusion that if someone does not care enough about my well-being to support what is dear and near to my heart (they don’t have to agree, but they don’t have to reject me over it), then it’s just time for me to get over it and move on.
The more comfortable I am in my own skin, the easier it is to move on. After all, I have to live with me; I have no choice (I don’t a have desire to check out of my body). I just say, “there’s only you and me so let’s just disagree” and move on if we cannot work it out – no harm done. Anyway, as far as forming our self-esteem, what we believe about our selves come from a variety of sources when we are not aware of what belief is and how it rules our world.
Your reality is relative – did you realize this? Science clearly shows that “reality” begins on the inside of us based on our own personal perception or way that we see life, beliefs and experiences. Have you ever heard someone say, “You need to face reality”? I have to ask, “whose reality”.
You see, your reality is not my reality. We view the world through different eyes, through different lenses. This is very relevant at this time in our history. Right now, I’m hearing a lot of fear messages being generated over the airways and occasionally I’ll bump into someone who talks about doom and gloom – I quickly excuse myself from the conversation and move on.
This does not mean that I do not notice that Wall Street has tumbled, the health care system needs to call 911 (I practiced medicine for over 20 years after all, I was an insider), the housing industry is generally in quicksand, and the workplace is shifting rapidly. Yes, I do live on this planet and I live in Chicago.
However, from my perspective, these are not doom and gloom times at all. In fact, I see it as a time of opportunity to wake up and shake up any of my old paradigms that may be holding me back from living a life I truly love. Because I have chosen to adapt instead of trying to hang on to a dying dinosaur, I feel like I was born for “such a time as this”.
Staying healthy is more important than ever considering the rising rates of cancer and chronic disease in our world – not to mention the expense of healthcare and the emotional fallout. While I personally have healthy nutrition habits and exercise regularly, I do very little specific teaching on what supplements to take or what exercise routine one should be on.
Your reality is relative – did you realize this? Science clearly shows that “reality” begins on the inside of us based on our own personal perception or way that we see life, beliefs and experiences. Have you ever heard someone say, “You need to face reality”? I have to ask, “whose reality”.
