Archive for category Mind Body Spirit
5 Tips to Gain Control of Your Health
Posted by admin in Mind Body Spirit on February 10, 2012
Want to get your chronic health issues under control once and for all? Following are 5 strategies you can use so that you’re controlling your condition, it isn’t controlling you. It’s not always easy, but with clear goals in mind and a plan to get there that you can live with, success is attainable.
Tip 1 – Set a clear and concise goal. We sabotage ourselves when we fail to do this. Starting off with multiple resolutions to lose weight, get fit, get off your cholesterol, diabetes, or blood pressure medications will probably last until about February with no measurable improvement anywhere. Focusing on just one area will ultimately impact the rest of the areas that need improvement as well. For instance, the clear and concise goal of losing 50 pounds in six months will probably include upping your exercise, so you’ll get more fit. Weight loss will, in turn, help with your cholesterol, blood pressure and/or diabetes, possibly allowing you to cut back or eliminate some meds.
Tip 2 – Determine what you must do to attain that goal. Where do you begin? Where are you now? What factors might stand in your way? What have you tried before? What’s worked and what hasn’t? What do you like to do and what don’t you like to do? You can figure out if there are things in your environment that you may want to change or replace to support the direction you want to go. This is where values assessment tools can come in handy, such as the “Authentic Happiness” Signature Strengths questionnaire. There are a couple of Lifestyle Questionnaires available to my coaching clients through Health Coaching University which also serve to help you determine how best to proceed towards your ultimate goal. Making a plan that is contrary to your core values is just asking for failure and unhappiness.
Tip 3 – Take baby steps towards your goal. True and lasting change doesn’t come by taken mighty leaps, but rather in taking small, manageable steps that steadily and consistently move you towards your goal. Research shows that making small changes can add up to a big difference in your health over time. By doing a little every week to improve your health, you will notice a big improvement in your overall sense of well-being. Setting small, easily attainable goals along the way to your ultimate goal is the best way to avoid getting discouraged and giving up. It doesn’t matter how small the step is, as long as you come up with it and commit to it. You have to decide what will work for YOU. For instance, in our weight loss example, a baby step might be to cut out desserts three nights this week, or walk at least 15 minutes twice this week. Every week you can build on those baby steps without it getting daunting right off the bat. Telling yourself you’re going to walk for an hour every day this week might be too big a goal. If we fail, we get discouraged and are more likely to give up altogether. But success feels good. By giving yourself a baby step that you know you can accomplish, you become encouraged to keep going.
Tip 4 – Get support. Who is going to help you? Who will try to sabotage you? To whom will you be accountable? A health coach is a great person to have an accountability relationship with. We’re trained to help you put all these tips in place and to train you to use these same tools for whatever goal you’re trying to attain. No man (or woman) is an island. Especially when we want to make lasting lifestyle changes, we need the support of the people around us. If you have a chronic condition, are there support groups available in your area? Can you start one? Are there online forums that deal with your issue? Going public with your commitment will do a couple of things. First, it may provide you with people who will support you in your quest. Second, public commitments are much more powerful than private ones.
Tip 5 – Make it a way of life. The ultimate goal is to make the changes that were made a permanent part of your life so you don’t just go back to the way you were before – wanting to make a change. By setting mini-goals all along the way, you can gradually get used to the changes that you’re making. Building success upon success feels good and encourages us to keep going. When your goal is finally reached, you’ll feel so good and you’ll have these new habits so engrained that you don’t even want to go back to your old ways. But if you do start to slip, just go back to tip #1. As time goes on you’ll become a brilliant self-manager in all areas of your life.
You key is to determine for yourself what works for you. We are not all the same (thank goodness.) Our bodies need different things. What works for one person may be anathema to another. Following these tips will make gaining control of your health issues so much easier.
Health Coaching is not a substitute for medical care. You may be asked to contact your physician before entering into an aggressive Health Coaching program.
Health From Inside Out
Posted by admin in Mind Body Spirit on February 10, 2012
This article is dedicated to the self improvement of all. Why? Recently, I’ve been made aware of the challenges people are continually facing; relationships, health, money, career, study and others. I realise we’re all doing the best we can given the resources available to us.
Those resources we often call upon consist of our mental faculty, awareness, perception, level of consciousness, health, thoughts and emotions to name a few. If any of these areas are of out of alignment, there’s disruption in the human ecosystem i.e. your mind and body.
Over the years I noticed when working with clients once we addressed the emotional and mental concern of weight related issues, typically most of their physical issues resolved themselves. I believe as a health professional, most of one’s health issues are mental and emotional in nature.
The problem pertaining to obesity and overweight may be related to thoughts and emotions. For example, the young woman who is mildly overweight and slightly depressed who struggles to develop a loving relationship. Without generalisation, it is my contention to use this as a thought experiment; nothing more. I do not wish to offend nor generalise about a population.
Her health concerns are connected at some level. Her weight issues are affected by her mental state (i.e. depressed) while her weight issue is affected by her emotional state (i.e. perhaps feels unworthy, lacks self esteem or does not like herself).
What affects us in an attempt to make progress in life is to be CONSCIOUSLY aware of what is holding you back. This requires introspection and honesty. It takes a great degree of self honesty to admit you’re unhappy, with a view of healing that which needs to be resolved. That is the biggest challenge and albeit may also open up a can of worms.
Here’s an analogy to consider. What would happen to your computer if you continually downloaded illegal music, software, games and other related items over time? I’m certain every person reading this article has at some stage or another fallen prey to use of pirated information.
The point I’m making is that over time your computer would become infected with a number of known viruses, ultimately disrupting its day to day function. It would become slow, be prone to disruptions in its operation and may occasionally be inclined to stop working all together.
Whilst we’re a considerably more functional and organic beings with a mind; comparing us to a computer system remains simple and trivial given the complexity of our lives. For the sake of drawing a comparison we can all relate to, our lives fall prey to the same intricacies as that of computers. If you don’t continually clean your computer or setup antivirus software, the risk of losing all your precious data is inevitable. It therefore becomes a ROUTINE habit.
Our lives are also the same (save the hardware and wiring issues associated with a computer!). We must become vigilant in our efforts to improve our life via continual self examination and personal growth. Using the computer example, we should strive to become aware of the virus/es (thoughts, limiting beliefs) by applying self examination (regularly running a virus scan). Once we’ve identified the culprit (thoughts), our aim is to venture inward in order to stop that malicious program from wreaking havoc again.
If left unchecked, the virus grows and gathers momentum, until it shuts down the entire system or in our case the person. By that time rebuilding one’s emotional state and its associated physiological disturbance, becomes painstakingly challenging.
Recognising this as a recurring theme in people’s lives, last year I created a program to address these issues in order to give people back the PERSONAL POWER missing from their lives.
I felt it was crucial to guide others toward their journey of self fulfilment by providing them the resources they need. The truth of the matter is that NO diet, pill, potion or immediate weight loss remedy will EVER provide you with lasting health.
The media has perpetuated the instant gratification model throughout the last forty years, at the risk of society falling victim to consumerism and a quick fix model.
Nature does not work that way. This is evident by the wondrous landscape, mountains, trees and forests which took hundreds of years to form. I reiterate that we are Nature. You cannot create any LASTING health changes by a quick fix. Reread that passage again until you have a deep understanding of it. Nothing GOOD can be acquired in a short amount of time when it comes to your health and wellbeing.
If you’re currently facing health challenges, know it is a call to heal something within you which you have neglected or unconsciously repressed. Once you address these issues, there is a deep transformation at the level of the mind, body and soul.
Take Action: Making Heart Health
Posted by admin in Mind Body Spirit on February 10, 2012
February is a month focused on the heart. From your loves to your life, the heart is central to your daily experience. It is during this month that attention is also focused on heart health. Awareness itself is important, however, prevention must be walked out everyday.
The facts are clear; according to the CDC,”In 2008, over 616,000 people died of heart disease. Heart disease caused almost 25% of deaths-almost one in every four-in the United States. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.”
The serious nature of heart disease is staggering; however, too often people do not realize they have a problem until they experience one of the grave consequences of heart disease, such as a heart attack or stroke. That makes this issue very problematic. It is not that people do not know what they “should” do to be healthy, things like, exercise more, eat better quality food, reduce salt intake, get more sleep, lose weight, don’t smoke, and reduce stress. It is that they don’t get serious about doing them until the problem gets “personal.” Unfortunately with heart disease, your first symptom could be your last. That is why it is essential to make heart health a priority in your life now, before it gets too personal.
What we know about human behavior is that people are motivated by outcomes. You must believe that the outcome is worth the effort to change, or you will not earnestly pursue it. That becomes the issue with heart disease. People do not want to think about the problem, so that deters them from connecting with the outcome. It is easier for someone to pursue healthy habits out of vanity than it is out of a deep desire to maintain ones health. It is time to do something about this.
Knowledge without action is dangerous. It leads to complacency and apathy. The word is out, and people have heard it time and again, they understand what behaviors lead to good heart health. Now it is time to connect with this message in a way that will bring about action.
This month, evaluate your personal motivators and find a way to make heart health “personal” without the crisis that usually causes this to occur. Avoid feelings of guilt over not doing what you “should be” doing, it only causes frustration. Ironically, guilt and frustration lead to stress, which means that the very knowledge of what you should be doing, combined with not doing it, is a major risk factor for heart disease.
The heart is a vital organ in the body, its proper functioning is essential to health. It is also the symbolic home of your spiritual being, as in: you will always be in my “heart.” We have all heard of heartache, heart sick and broken heart, these are all conditions of the spirit, not the actual organ. But studies now show that there is a distinct link between the two. What causes dis-ease in the spirit has a direct correlation to disease in the body.
When a person experiences stress, guilt, or anguish the disease it causes in the spirit will affect the chemicals that the body produces. These, stress hormones have a tremendous effect on body functioning. Overtime prolonged stress, combined with various other risk factors, can negatively affect your health.
This phenomenon seems to be a bigger risk factor for caregivers. It is their special nurturing quality that can lead to personal health issues if not managed properly. The need to nurture and care for others, often leads people to take less time for self-care. For some, taking time to care for their own needs causes extreme guilt, leading them to become overwhelmed and under cared for. By not wanting to burden others, some will ignore the symptoms of heart disease. This accounts for why many people do not seek treatment until after they have a heart attack.
It is time to understand the underlying reasons you are not nurturing yourself. The number one way to reduce your risk for heart disease is to be vigilant in taking time for proper self-care. Making this acceptable, will release the guilt that causes further stress, and that can promote heart disease.
When you begin to value yourself and believe you are worthy of self-care, it is then, you will begin to do heart healthy behaviors. Until then, you will continue to feel the pressure that comes with being excessively selfless, the kind of pressure that elevates your risk for cardiovascular disease such as heart attack and stroke.
By relaxing more and focusing on self-fulfillment and work-life balance, you can begin to circulate heart healthy hormones. These activities not only keep the spirit strong, but can boost your immune function by strengthening the heart. For years the focus has been on “what to do,” now it is time to personalize “why to do it” and “how to do it.” This is an issue of the heart and spirit as much as the organ itself. By making heart health personal, and making self-care valuable, you will be empowered to make purposeful heart healthy choices. Don’t wait until a crisis to get connected to the health of your heart. Be healthy by choice, not by force.