Changing Your Habits

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success

We often feel that making a change in our lives, whether it be a change in diet, to exercise more or working on our craft, the change often seems too big so we don’t do it, or we start and don’t continue. I have procrastinated so many times when it comes to making beneficial changes but I’m trying a new strategy, to make micro changes in my habits.

When a plane sets off to fly long distance a small change in direction can become a big change in where the plane ends up. Micro changes in habits work the same way. The trick is to make a small change, so it doesn’t seem so scary, and be consistent with it, so it becomes the new normal.

I’ve had a lot to deal with personally over the past few months and I have not been posting on this blog. I’ve also been procrastinating and prioritising other things. I’ve decided to make a small change and commit to posting once a week on a Monday morning. A small change with a big difference, as blogging helps me as much as it helps my readers.

I’m also cutting down on the amount of caffeine I intake each day. I’m limiting it to one cup of tea a day. I usually have two or three when I am at work. A small change hopefully with a positive outcome, as caffeine makes the pain from my fibromyalgia worse. You can make small changes too, the result of which can be very beneficial, even life changing, depending on the change you make.

Look for a small change that you can make and give it a try, consistently. You might surprise yourself at how successful you are.

Setting Goals For 2023

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

It is that time of year again when we make New Year Resolutions with an underlying suspicion that we may not keep them going beyond January, but we convince ourselves that this year it will be different. This may be a conical view, but it is often our experience.

Part of the problem is that we set general goals like losing weight, which we are not necessarily invested in and there is no specific purpose behind them. Another part of the problem is that we want a quick fix to fix our lives, something easy and quick to do that will solve all of our problems. This will never work, because there are no quick fixes. The issue is that we do not want to commit our time to improve our lives. We want something we can do for 5 minutes a day or something quick at the weekend.

In order to improve your life you must fix your life. This must be a long term commitment. For example, I have lower back pain for which I have been to see a physio. Their advice was to complete daily exercises to strengthen my core muscles, which would alleviate my back pain. I did it for a week every morning and my back pain began to improve. I then missed a couple of days and my back got bad again. So, if I want a pain free back I need to complete these core strengthening exercises every day for the long term, with no missed days. It is the same for all areas of our lives that we want to improve.

This is how life works. We need to stop making New Year Resolutions and start making life commitments. These commitments should be decided and reviewed after a long period, say every 3 to 6 months. Then adjust or pivot where needed. This is so we consciously understand that this is a life change and that we are committed to it.

In order to have a life we are happy in we need to invest in a life that creates wellbeing and joy. This takes daily commitment. We also need a purpose for the life changes we make otherwise the changes will be as effective as trying to lose weight for no serious reason. With purpose and commitment your life will change for the better.

Having Some Perspective

Happiness

When I scroll through my Facebook feed there are often the same generic quotations and pictures of family and friends showing the best bits of their lives, but the other day a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy, stating that it “is the sharpest view of the Andromeda Galaxy ever, showing more than 100 million stars!” Here is a video showing just that.

The picture blew my mind. It began zoomed in and slowly zoomed out, eventually showing the image in full. We are finding from the James Webb telescope that the number of stars in the universe are many many times more than we thought. My point is that we can get so caught up in little things in our lives, but it helps to reflect on things like the enormity of the universe to put our lives into perspective.

The Lessons of Chronic Pain

Happiness, Health, Success

Being in pain most of each and every day has its drawbacks, clearly. It limits ones capacity to live and move in the world, but it has some unexpected benefits. I know this from the personal experience of living with Fibromyalgia. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Carry On Regardless

Being in pain, as I often am, with pain in my muscles and joints, doing the everyday tasks becomes challenging. Let alone going to work and looking after my family, but I must carry on regardless. Necessity becomes the motivation to keep going, and this becomes a skill, the skill to keep going when all you want to do is stop.

Choosing Your State Of Mind

Being in chronic pain can send you into dark places in the mind. Depression is a slippery slope of despair that feels like the only way to think about the circumstances you are in. This is essentially helplessness, but helplessness is a learned mental state, which can be changed to an optimistic state, you can choose your state of mind. You can be in pain and be joyful. This is a skill and one that is very difficult to master, but with practice you can be in good states of mind no matter your circumstances.

Your Health Is Your Responsibility

Often we assume that our bodies will keep on going until we get old. This is why we drink heavily and spend the weekend partying. This is also why we think we can work long hours and not get enough sleep and keep going. Your body is an amazing machine that functions well when it is well maintained and well looked after, but less so when it is not.

We can’t live life at full throttle and when we get sick expect others to fix us. We can’t go to the GP and say fix me. They will often just give us some pills to take which will mask the problem and cause other problems.

The way to ensure we are healthy is in what we eat and drink, what physical activity we do, how good our relationships are and how we think. This is a lesson hard learned when you are in chronic pain, because you just want someone to come along and make it all go away. You have to be your own saviour.

Self Mastery

We have been blessed with amazing faculties of mind and body, but they do not come with an instruction manual, though much can be understood if you know where to get the correct guidance. Your mind and body are connected in a sort of synergy where each effects the other. Self mastery requires mastery of both, but mastery of the mind is the key. Being in chronic pain, you are brought face to face with the necessity of this kind of self mastery. What begins as survival can become thriving. What seems to be coping strategies can become techniques of self mastery.

It comes down to a choice of how you want to live your life.

Self Development: Weekly Check-ins

Achieving Goals, Health, Success

It is around this time of year that we start to think about making New Years resolutions that we often don’t keep up. We have good intentions of making life changes, but a lack of consistency let’s us down. I have started something that is keeping my improvement at work consultant. It’s is taken from the Agile project management framework called Scrum.

When working on a project you would have a period of work called a Sprint, usually a week or two, and at the end you would have a Retrospective where you discuss what went well and what you didn’t get done. I’ve been setting specific goals to improve how I work and then doing weekly Retrospectives and asking myself; What went well? What could have gone better? What are the goals for the next week?

The goals are usually linked to what could have gone better with new knowledge from what went well and they morph each week as a modify my actions until something works and then I stick to it. It is a simple exercise that takes ten minutes at the end of the week and five minutes to review as a reminder at the start of the next week. Try it and let me know in the comments how it goes.

Life On Sale

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success

Much like Black Friday, we spend spend spend in the Boxing Day sales. We often buy things we don’t need just because it has 50% off, or some such discount, but we don’t often stop to think if we need what we are buying at a discounted rate. Are we buying because it’s on sale or because we actually want or need it?

We often do the same if something is free. We may be on a strict no sugar diet but if a company is giving away free cans of their sugar-laced drink we grab two of them. This is usually put down to a lack of will power, which is true, but there is a lot of manipulation from companies who want to sell you things as well. It will help if you live by principles that lead to a healthier and happier life, and to developing a high motivation to stick to these principles. Then, sale or no sale you will live well.

Asking For Help Is Refusing To Give Up

Happiness, Health, Relationships

At this time of year, with an economic crisis, the aftermath of a pandemic and lots of other factors, many of us feel stressed and isolated. Some of us can fall into depression and despair feeling like there is no way out. We may not feel like we want to ask for help or even talk about what we are going through. This is true mostly of men who want to handle everything themselves. But talking about it with a trusted person will help.

It is not true that asking for help is a weakness. It is in fact a strength. To ask for help is refusing to give up. Many feel that ending it all is the only option, but you will have people around you who will help if they know you need it. So, if you are feeling low, if you feel depressed or if you feel there is no way out of your situation, ask for help and it will come. To tackle the hard shit that life throws at us can be extremely difficult at times, but together we can get through it. Together is better.

How To Develop Confidence

Achieving Goals, Leadership, Relationships, Success

On the way into work yesterday it was quite misty, but it wasn’t thick enough to be fog. It reminded me of something I heard about how driving in fog is a metaphor for life. Often, when moving forward with a new venture, a new relationship, or anything that takes us out of our comfort zone, we are scared because we don’t know what the future holds. This is like driving in fog when you can only see 10 feet in front of you. The way to get clarity on what is ahead of you is to move forward 10 feet and then you can see the next 10 feet.

The lesson here is that we will never be able to predict the future 100%, but this should not stop us from moving forward. The best strategy is to work on your skillset and learn from your experiences. With skills and experience you can make wiser decisions and you can pivot where needed, depending on what life throws at you. If you trust your car brakes, steering, lights etc, then driving in fog is less stressful because your car and you can handle whatever you come across.

In order to improve your skillset and experience, you have to put in the time to try things out and develop skills. However, confidence also comes from our mindset, we have to believe in ourselves and our abilities or the actions we take will largely be ineffective. This mindset has to be a growth mindset, the ability to be agile and flexible requires it. Having a fixed mindset will cause your confidence to crumble when you hit the realities of life.

So, confidence requires skillset, mindset and experience. A seemingly obvious statement, but we often think of confidence as something we are born with. In reality confidence comes from how we behave on a moment to moment basis.

The final piece to the puzzle of confidence is our environment. If we feel safe enough to try and fail and try again, then our confidence goes up. If failure is treated with rejection, then we will develop a fixed mindset, we won’t believe we can do anything and we will not gain the required experience. This is why we need trusting teams at work, and supportive relationships in our lives. Add together all of these elements and you have the recipe for confidence.

The Power Of Now

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success

The future is a fantasy and the past a memory, both of which only exist in the present mind. This is what many Eastern philosophies proclaim. This may jar against your religious or non-religious views, but there is something powerful about being present.

It is where we can be in the state of Flow, where we are more productive and more available for those we have relationships with. The power of the now, as it is often called, seems to me to be a truism; being present is powerful and transformational. It is also difficult to consistently be mindful of the present moment.

The tried and tested method to become more present is meditation, a habit I’ve been trying to bring into my morning routine and something I recommend, as do many others.

When you have chronic pain you have an interesting relationship with the present moment. Knowing that being present is beneficial and wanting to escape the pain creates a conflict that is only overcome, ironically, by being present and working through the difficult thoughts and feelings. Whether you suffer from chronic pain, as I do, or not, this process of trying to stay in the moment is part of the work of self mastery.

To tame and control your thoughts and to remain present is the mastery we can all strive for through practice. So sit your bum down and meditate, even if it is only for 5 minutes a day. Practice mindfulness and your life will be transformed. This is the power of the now.

Your Attitude Matters

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success

Recently I have been struggling with inner ear problems, which causes Vertigo and Tinnitus in both ears. Not a fun combination to add to my Fibromyalgia, but the tougher the challenge the bigger the opportunity for growth. In the mornings I am trying to develop a routine that starts my day off with stretches and exercises, meditation and Chi Kung (Qigong), but I have struggled to be motivated, as many of my health problems seem to be a constant. It causes me to think “what’s the point?” Though there is also a positive voice in my head encouraging me onwards.

I was reminded when reading the book Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty that the act of completing a morning routine consistently is not just about the health benefits, of which there are many, it is also about your mind realising that you did what you said you were going to do, no matter how hard it is. I was also reminded of a quote from Viktor E. Frankl’s book Man’s Search For Meaning which has kept me positive when I’ve felt like staying in bed and not bothering with my day. I hope it helps you too. This is the quote.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."

Choose your attitude and you choose your way in the world.

Give Your Life Purpose

Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

I’ve been thinking a lot about Purpose recently and I’m sure I’ve discussed it on this blog before. I may have already covered the points mentioned here, but, as it is with human beings, we forget profound truths because we return to our default behaviours and mental patterns and the wisdom does not stick.

What occurred to me this morning is that life does not give you purpose, you have to figure out what your purpose for living is and apply it to your life. Last night I was feeling a little lost, so I picked up my copy of Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, an astounding book that I recommend you read. I dipped into it and found this quote from the section ‘The Meaning Of Life’ that really struck me, “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.”

Then the obvious truth became clear, that there can never be one meaning of life, because we are all different people. What you find meaning in cannot be the same as what I find meaning in, though there will be some overlap. The thing to do is to figure out what gives your life meaning and to live that and do that, whatever it may be.

Finding Steady Ground

Achieving Goals, Happiness, The Pathway To Fulfilment

For a while now I’ve felt a little lost, in the sense that I didn’t feel like I was living up to the purpose I had found for myself and I was just coasting. It felt as if I had a purpose but no motivation to work towards it. Having Fibromyalgia I feel exhausted most of the time, so taking the time to work on my purpose is hard. Though I do need some sort of steady ground to keep me centred and from which to build.

I have a Buddhist faith, although I would also class myself as Unitarian, and I haven’t meditated or prayed at my shrine for a long time and watching this interview with Shia LeBeouf shifted something in me. He is someone who has hurt people and this recently spilled out into the public eye, which brought him to rock bottom. However, he found a way forward through a Catholic faith, as well as doing the work with other groups to get sober and make amends for the hurt he caused to others.

I guess seeing his transformation through faith I have realised the importance a daily religious practice has on giving you structure and a steady ground on which to move through the world. It has to be a daily practice though. My approach of prayer on an ad hoc basis has not worked. This is part of the work of finding fulfilment, to have daily practices that nourish the soul and clear the mind. I will try again.

Teams Need A Purpose

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Leadership, Success

In any organisation every team needs a Purpose. Often a company will have an overarching Purpose and/or Values, but if this is either not articulated well or made relevant to every team within the company, then productivity can drop off, as can retention of staff.

Everyone needs a reason to go to work, other than just to pay the bills. If our job gives meaning and purpose to our lives then we will be happier and will work harder for the company we work for. The assumption that staff will only work for a paycheck is a shortsighted view that many leaders have.

So, if you are a leader within your organisation, review how effective your company’s Purpose, Values or Principles are and work to ensure every member of staff feels that they are contributing towards them. This will increase levels of fulfilment and productivity, and will make them want to stay.

Serving Others Better

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Relationships, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

One of the principles I try to live by is ‘own your journey’ and another is ‘serve others,’ and to me these are very much linked. If we have our own issues with our health, relationships, work, etc that we leave unresolved, because we don’t want to deal with them, we are not in a good position to serve others. Therefore, in order to serve others well we need to make sure we are in a good place.

The way we make sure we are in a good place is to take ownership of our problems and find solutions for them. Anyone who has reached advanced stages of a spiritual practice will be effective in serving others, because they have put in the work of resoling their problems. Whether you are spiritual or not, you still have to do the work.

Imagine having such peace of mind and clarity that you help to solve the problems of others effectively. If more people took ownership of their lives the world would be a better place. Let’s do the work and make it better together.

Using Your Energy Effectively

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

In Physics it is known that energy can change state, but it cannot be destroyed. When a ball is held in the air it has gravitational potential energy. Once this ball is dropped this energy becomes kinetic energy as it moves towards the ground. When it hits the floor some of this energy is lost as sound energy and heat energy. The ball then squashes and the remaining kinetic energy becomes elastic potential energy before bouncing back up with kinetic energy.

This is not a science lesson, don’t worry. I give this example to point out how energy moves through the universe and the world, it changes state. This illustrates how we can view our own energy. When we invest energy into a particular activity sometimes the activity is not fruitful and we feel like we have hit a dead end. If we do nothing after this and move onto something else the energy spent doing the activity is lost.

But if we were to pivot and used what we have learned and the experience we have had to move in a different direct the momentum we have built up moves us forward and we are more likely to succeed. The building up of momentum matters. A train going at speed can break through a brick wall, but a train standing still cannot move if you put a one inch block in front of its drive wheel.

Failures often cause us to stop, but they are really opportunities to pivot and move in a different direction. With this mindset our lives will flow more than stop and start and we will be more successful and happier as a result.

When They Go Low You Go High

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

This title comes from a saying that Past President Barack Obama and his Wife Michelle often said. It came across as a family motto, which is a very positive way to think about things. It essentially says that when others resort to lies, insults and immoral tactics to bring you down and make themselves look good you take the moral high ground.

However, going high, which is essentially acting like a good human being, is something that I would say should not be limited to scenarios where others have gone low. Being a good human being is always a good way to live. We can never be a good human being all day every day, as we have challenging times that cause us to waiver, but the intention is what matters. Think good and be good is my advice.

Do The Work

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

I was watching an interview with Jay Shetty on Impact Theory and he said something that resonated with me. It was something that is really obvious, but my brain omitted the logic of what was said to avoid the risk of making a change in my mindset. We often fear change more than staying the way we are.

Jay was talking about his book Think Like A Monk, which he wrote after living for some time in an ashram as a monk. When he left the life of a monk he spent seven years testing what he had learnt in the real world before then writing the book. The logic that struck me was that he put in the work of learning how to think well while training as a monk and spent seven years testing this out.

Essentially, the obvious truth is that in order to gain self mastery you have to put in the work of mastering your mind. I am some way down the path of self mastery, but I am far from mastering myself, and the journey does not have an end point, it is a life long pursuit. Step one is, as always, admitting that there is a problem and that action is required, but you have to do the work. Progress is not automatic.

Try To Be Grateful

Happiness, Health, Relationships

There are millions of people in the world who do not have access to clean water. Many have no access to electricity. Many are homeless. There are so many things that we take for granted that others just don’t have.

Being grateful does two things. It puts your life into perspective in relation to others who do not have what we have and it makes us so much happier. Start off the day by listing at least five things that you are grateful for, starting with the fact that you woke up alive this morning and you will be in a really good place to start your day.

Look For Opportunities

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

Sometimes life can seem overwhelming and we unconsciously start thinking about things in terms of the worst case scenario. We say things like “I’ll never get it done” or “Its never going to work.” This type of thinking will reduce the chances of things going well and it may even become a self fulfilling prophecy.

We often tell ourselves that we are just being realistic, but we are actually being negative. We are more likely to succeed if we have a positive mindset that looks for ways around problems. If you think of water, it is fluid and flexible. It goes around and under obstacles. Yet water can wear away rock. Many rivers are there because water carved a path through the landscape while taking the path of least resistance.

We don’t have to fight to the last or keep doing the same thing because we have invested time into one approach. Life works best if you use creativity and humility to problem solve your way through it. And problem solving assumes that there is a solution. Change your mindset and you open up lots of new possibilities. Life is a series of opportunities, but you have to be looking for them to find them

Change Your Thinking

Happiness, Health, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

I saw a Facebook post today that said “Until you change your thinking you will always recycle your experiences.” There is truth in this statement. The way we see things is often based on our thinking. In other words, we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

The way to change the experiences we have is to change our thinking. There are three areas of a person to master, if we are to develop self mastery. Our mind, our body and our chi. The mind is the linchpin, as it controls much of the functioning of the other two. The thoughts we have change the biochemistry that our brains control, because the mind controls the brain. Our thoughts as translated into physical sensations and experiences. Thoughts can ruin our day or uplift our day.

Self mastery begins with mastering our thoughts.

You Are Not Broken

Happiness, Health, The Pathway To Fulfilment

Often when we have experienced trauma we feel broken, we call ourselves broken and sometimes other use this word to describe us. I would like to respectfully disagree. No one is broken.

Trauma damages our sense of well-being and we can feel as if we will never feel well again, but this is not true. There is always a path back to the light of wholeness. We may need support from the people around us and the resources we have access to, like well chosen books.

It may take time, sometimes it can take years, but the things missing that took away your wholeness can be brought back into your lives and wholeness will be possible again. You are never alone and you are not broken. You are a beautifully unique human being that has a unique that only you can bring to the world. I for one am happy you are sharing this life long adventure we us.

What Principles Do You Live By?

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

To many in the western secular world the idea of living by principles will seem somewhat alien. However, many cultures of the past, and, to a degree, the present, have principles or values that are seen as important to live by.

Many of the most successful people have principles that they use to guide their decision making and how the spend their time. For example, someone who values integrity will likely stick to their word, do what they say they are going to do and make sure they are consistent on their positive habits.

As strange this concept might be for you, I recommend looking at principles in two ways. Firstly, review what you care about, what you value. Secondly, review your goals and what you want out of life. Then see where there is a cross over. For example, you might value good health and you want to achieve more at work. If you build in habits that optimise your health you will likely have more energy to put into your work. Your Principle to live by might be ‘healthy habits are productive habits.’

Try out a few principles and see what fits. You do have to commit to loving by your new principles for a while before disregarding them as a bad fit or unhelpful. Sincerely try each new habit for a month and see what happens.

Progress Is A Journey

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

Each year we have four season, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Life moves in cycles in many ways in our lives and sometimes our progress feels like Summer and sometimes it feels like Winter. However, this is not the end of the story, as Spring follows Winter and on it goes.

When we make progress in anything it will stop and start, it will take sharp left turns and the terrain will changes as you go. Progress is far from a linear step by step process. Life ensures that we have both challenges and rewards.

For a long time I saw progress as a linear process of climbing a metaphorical mountain, but real progress has metaphorical valleys and desserts, forests and oceans. I realise now a wiser way to think about progress is as a journey. It is the destination that should be our focus and we will figure out the route. As Friedrich Nietzsche once said “One who has a ‘why’ to live for can endure almost any ‘how’.”

Don’t Rely On Habits

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success

As adults a large percentage of our thoughts and actions each day are automatic. They are habits programmed in and controlled by our subconscious, so we can use our conscious mind for any unique situations that appear in our lives.

These programmed habits are useful for survival, but they often don’t serve us in the modern world, depending on our habits. The habits we develop are often a combination of things to make life easier, influences from advertising and the media and experiences we had as children. If we do not take control of our habits they will run our lives haphazardly and we will rarely feel fulfilled.

We need to live more mindfully, more consciously. To choose what we do in each moment, and when a programmed habits pops up we can analyse it and see if it is serving us. If it is not, then we can replace it with a better habit, thought or intention. Mastering our habits will help us master our minds.

Responsibility Is A Privilege

Happiness, Health, Success

This title could be taken a number of ways. Let me explain my meaning. Often in life we see responsibility as a burden, something that we avoid, either because we don’t want to have to devote our time to it or because we already have a lot of responsibility and we would struggle to fit in more.

In either case, the way we see responsibility can either leave us feeling stressed or excited. If we see responsibility as a privilege then we will see it as something we have earned and are capable of. We will feel more confident and able to fulfill the needs of the responsibility.

Essentially, seeing a responsibility as a privilege naturally brings out excitement and makes us want to work to prove we have earned it. It is a completely different mindset, a mindset that can make the work you do more fulfilling. However, we must be mindful of taking on too much responsibility. There are only 24 hours in a day and we all have a limit to the energy we can spend each day. So be selective with the responsibilities you take on too.

Humility In Action

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

There is a story about a samurai and a wise man that goes something like this. A samurai once stopped a village elder on the roadside and asked him to define heaven and hell. The wise man responded by saying, “you are too stupid to understand something like that.” The samurai flew into a rage, took out their sword and raised it above their head to bring down onto the wise man. The wise man then said calmly “that is hell.” The samurai stopped, lowered his sword and reflected on the wise man’s words. The wise man then said, “and that is heaven.” The samurai bowed in respect and continued with their journey.

It is said that for a samurai to use their sword they must make the decision to use it before they take it out, as they must draw blood once it has been taken out. The decision, therefore, is not changed once decided. I would like to argue that we should be humble enough to change our decision once it has been made, when there is new information that requires a better course of action. This takes humility, which is a skill we all need to practice. Sometimes someone wiser than us will show us a better way and we should listen, acknowledge them and act in accordance with this new found wisdom.

Managing Your Physical Health

The Pathway To Fulfilment

The problems we have with our bodies is largely that we don’t have the user manual for it, so we misuse it and suffer poor health consequences. The human body, including the brain, is the most sofisticated machine on the planet.

The food we eat and the liquid we drink literally become the body. An hour after eating an apple the body has taken essential vitamins, minerals and water and sent them to the places in the body they are needed. If we want to have a well functioning, healthy body we need to put in only what it needs and avoid things the body has to work at removing.

Anything man made and things like alcohol can be poisons for the body, but taken in small doses the body can handle removing them. Balancing what we should eat and drink with what we want to eat and drink is key. There are also ancient methods of maintaining a healthy body which, when done consistently, will bring about healthy and strong bodies.

The two main methods which have made there way into Western society are Yoga and Qigong (Chi Kung). I highly recommend both. I practice Qigong every day and it helps me keep my energy levels up throughout the day. Explore these and the impact diet has on your health and make some positive changes. You won’t regret it.

Living In Alignment

Happiness, Health, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

When we are born our body and mind understand our nature as human beings, what we need to sustain us and how to live as a human being. Not intellectually, but instinctively. Then we become aware of our culture and our minds shift to operating in alignment with the culture in which we live.

This could be the culture in our family, in our friendship group or in the society in which we live. When our minds are overridden by cultural expectations that do not match what our bodies instinctively know to be correct, our levels of stress go up and our bodies get sick.

This might seem unrealistic but we have all worked in a workplace where the culture does not feel right, it feels outside what we expect to be the norms we want to live by. This friction causes stress. Many of us don’t fully understand or are aware of our beliefs and values, specifically, and we live lives based on the people and environment around us.

If we were to go deep and really understand what our beliefs and values are and we lived in alignment with them, then our energy, enthusiasm and fulfilment would grow exponentially. Living in alignment with who we really are is the first step towards living a fulfilled life.

Serve Others

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

One of my driver’s in life is to serve others. Not because it sounds good or that I intend to benefit from it, it is because serving others is something my parents modelled for me and it is now part of who I am.

I also feel that if we all spent some of our time serving others then the self interest, which is so pervasive in modern culture, will be reduced and society as a whole will be better off. It is also the right thing to do.

Service towards others makes us humble and helps us appreciate the help that others give to us. Also, we cannot be effective in life without working with other people. We need mentors and colleagues, friends and family, leaders to follow and those who we lead.

If we all look after the person the right of us and to the left of us we can do amazing things. There is a saying I have heard, but I am unsure on its origins.

If you want to go quickly go alone. If you want to go far go together.