One of the hardest things for people to come to terms with is the effect that their thinking has on their health, body and environment. I remember one particular client who had read a book called “You can heal your life” by Louise Hay; they had a really tough time coming to terms with the way that their health had been shaped and created by their thinking. I remember them telling me that at one point they had hurled the book across the room in temper. I can also remember the transformation in them once they had taken responsibility for their thinking and began to turn their life around.

Not only does the way you think show up in your body, but the way you think also shows up in your environment. If you have a cluttered desk or a cluttered house, then it is highly possible your thinking is also cluttered. A simple sort out and tidy up usually does the trick, however if it quickly gets cluttered again, then maybe there’s something else going on.

Our thinking shapes and creates our words and our actions. So if we take this beyond ourselves as individuals and consider how groups of people think - such as communities, societies, continents and even the whole world - then imagine what an impact on our global environment all this thinking has.

The way that our world and it’s environment is today, is a reflection of our collective thinking. To change the world (if indeed that is our aim) we first need to change our thinking - person by person. So like my client, who took responsibility for their thinking in order to improve their health; to change our environment and world, we need to take responsibility for our thinking, words and actions and how they affect the world we live in.

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Technorati Tags: Change, effect, global environment, health, louise hay, reflection, responsibility, thinking, transformation

The people I encounter in my coaching work never cease to amaze and astound me. The most common theme amongst people who make something of their lives (by their own definition of course) is that they always use their circumstances to their advantage. Be it ill-health, lack of money, lack of education or skill, whatever their circumstances they do what they want to do anyway; nothing stands in their way.

I’ve certainly met plenty of people who are the opposite - in my network marketing days I encountered so many people for whom their circumstances were the reason they chose not to succeed. Ultimately it all boils down to one thing… EXCUSES!

Life is littered with examples of people who have made fortunes and built incredible companies, organisations and charities in spite of their circumstances and upbringing. To them, it is just a part of life, something to be celebrated and used to motivate them towards their own greatness.

Today, I’d like to ask you which of your circumstances is your excuse for not moving toward your goals and dreams? Ultimately it doesn’t matter what your excuse is - it will prevent you from achieving what you set out to do.

Start by celebrating your circumstances - after all you would not be you today without them!

Technorati Tags: Celebrate, circumstances, Coaching, dreams, excuse, EXCUSES, goal, Goals, goals and dreams, greatness, health, ill health, lack, money, upbringing

I’ve always been surprised about how people’s mood and feelings can be linked to the weather. There is much talk in the media about Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) where people have a tendency to be depressed during the winter months when it’s colder and darker.

Today I experienced the opposite. It was very sunny this morning as I drove to a session and I could see the shadows the clouds were making on the fields and the music on the radio was very summery; I found myself feeling genuinely elated.

This got me thinking and wondering how it might be possible to use this wonderful elated state to our advantage and strive to remain in this place as often as possible. My first thought was around the NLP technique of anchoring, where you use some physical device to link your memory, feelings and state to. For example, if you feel wonderful and then pinch the area between your thumb and forefinger, you can then create a link and perform the pinch at any time you wish to feel wonderful again.

But what else? I’m really wondering at the moment if it’s as simple as a choice. The decision to feel happy or elated or wonderful all the time. From my own personal development and self-improvement journey, I certainly feel happy for the vast majority of the time, however this feeling of elation felt much more than simply happy. My thought is that perhaps this is our natural state of joy and it is certainly something that I aspire to feel all the time.

I’m really wondering what kind of world we’d all create if we all simply felt elated and joyful all the time? Imagine a time where we all go to the doctors worrying about whether we feel too happy!

I’m fascinated by this subject and I welcome comments, feedback, suggestions or ideas that you may have about this.

Technorati Tags: Choice, Creating, elation, experience, feelings, happiness, health, joy, positive thinking, sad, seasonal affected disorder, thoughts, weather

This is a very complex and interesting question for me and I’m really looking forward to finding out my thoughts on this by writing this article. Firstly, it is important to acknowledge that most people fear change. They fear losing their jobs, lack of money, war, ill-health, in fact a whole heap of things that in themselves imply a change of state - from happiness (or in most cases comfort) to unhappiness.

Indeed is this all it is? People fear change because they associate it with a change from good to bad or from bad to worse? Lets examine some situations:

Fearing change at work: Why? Because they think that their job is already hard and change has previously meant more workload or new systems to learn.

Fearing change in relationships: Why? Because people are frightened to be on their own, or lose a partner or family member or friend.

There seems to be a pattern emerging here… Are people simply focusing on the bad stuff and not any of the good that may come from change? If this is the case, why?

One guess, and it is a guess, would be that we are constantly bombarded from an early age with negative messages about change. We are encouraged to focus on all the bad things that may happen and certainly from our news and media, how things are not as good as they used to be. In fact if we looked at the evidence, there is more money, better lifestyle, more opportunity and better health and health care than there ever has been. So really what is there to fear?

I’m remembering the book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, by Susan Jeffers, in which she states that the real fear is the fear of not being able to handle it. This ties in very nicely with change - if change happens, we are automatically or instinctively frightened that we will not be able to handle it.

So people fear change, because they focus on the possible negative impacts on their happiness and lives and they do not know if they will be able to handle it. I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this, click below on the comments link and leave a message.

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Technorati Tags: Change, fear, health, money, relationships, work

My wife and I spent many years (and still work with) a health company called Herbalife. Specializing in weight management, we have made many observations from watching our customers lose and not lose weight.

It would not be appropriate for me to say that these are the factors in losing weight successfully, however I can certainly give comment on our observations.

The major factor seems to be the thoughts of the person losing weight. The successes very often come from the realisations of the reasons for the poor dietary choices that are made. This difference is often most clear in the cases where weight loss is achieved and then successfully maintained.

Discipline is important, but very often is unsuccessful on its own in maintaining the new shape and size. It appears that the person who is willing to take responsibility for their health has more chance of changing their poor choices and habits. In fact, the person that has a clear picture of what body they wish is almost incapable of making a poor choice.

It is then that a harmony can occur between mind and body and only time seperates the person from their desired size and shape.

There is so much information available to us on good dietary choices that the only thing that stands between us and our beautiful healthy body is our excuses. They too are our responsibility and our choice to make.

If you are struggling with your own weight or health, this may feel like a harsh post and I understand it may cause anger. For you, I’d like to leave you with a question:

If you do not take responsibility for the state of your body, who else will?

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Technorati Tags: health, herbalife, mind and body, responsibility, weight, wellbeing