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BELIEF
Belief is the big enchilada, belief in what you are
doing, why you’re doing it, and an expectation that the utter right
of your cause will produce the result.
We know almost nothing about
the mind-body connection other than it connects.
The new science of psychoneuroimmunology is attemp-ting to get to the bottom of it.
While we’re waiting, we know enough to get started.
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Know why you’re doing what you’re doing |
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Obtain control over your environment |
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Develop values and stick to them |
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Gain knowledge from more than one source |
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Be wise in the ways of the world |
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Believe in what you do even if others don’t! |
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Phillip Day |
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There are many Lifestyle Prescriptions.
The first time round I got 2, fitness and
diet, but it trivializes the concept of lifestyle to reduce it to the lowest
common denominator of physicality.
Take dieting. You can go on a diet for 12
weeks and lose 10Kg, but if you don't have a program to satisfy the inner
hunger, another 12 weeks later you'll have put the fat back on again.
Lifestyle management starts with our thinking. Whilst
you wouldn't know it, we're at
the top of the species chain because of our ability to think. Certainly if you're reading this you have
the capacity to think about your life, what you want and what you don't
want.
Most people have the capacity to make choices, in this case
whether to be healthy or unhealthy.
Descartes said 'I think therefore I am.' I think
that's true, but thinking goes hand in hand with doing. 'I do therefore I
am' as well.
Some time ago a bloke said to me that there
are a lot of things we have to juggle if we're going to be reasonably
successful. The problem is that whilst some of the balls are rubber and if
you drop them they bounce, others are made of glass and when you drop them
they smash into smithereens. And when you look at the list below there are
certainly lots of critical areas in our life that we need to juggle.
As Scott Peck wasn't wrong when he wrote 'Life
is difficult in the opening line of the Road Less Travelled.
In this list of prescriptions I've presumed
that the body is an ecosystem with all parts inter-related. There's some
thinking stuff, body stuff and stuff that's running on auto pilot that you
don't even know about, but it's all important. And back in there somewhere
is the Great Spirit and your real essence. Get them working for you and
you'll be powerful beyond measure.
I've listed them in arfabeck
lauder, but ideally, thinking ought to be at the top of the list.
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Inspiration
There's lots of good stuff around that you can
read, listen to and watch which will inspire you to greater
heights, to live the life you'd like to live.
The story of mankind is the story of people
who started off in the most humble of circumstances and ended up
making a success of their lives. |
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Refection
Pensive, freewheeling thinking I call it. The moment I thought of reflection the world
'daffodils' came into my mind.
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Career
Wouldn't it be good to have a job you loved doing
so much you'd do it for nothing, but which you did so well you'd
be paid handsomely.
It was either the Buddha or Confucius who said
'Choose a job you love, and you will
never have to work a day in your life.'
Confucius also said 'Man who sinks
into woman's end up with arms in woman's sink.' You can read more
about what Confucius said by clicking here. |
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Diet
Eat to nourish the cells of your body and not
just fill up your stomach. Eating too much of some things and
too little of others is the root of all kinds of body system
dysfunctions. |
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Energy
If you want more energy use more up - and stop
eating so much wheat flour and sugar. |
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Family
Wouldn't it be good to have a family whose
members you adored and whose members adored you. |
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Finances
The lack of money is the root of all kinds of
angst. There's nothing worse than persistently ending up with
more month at the end of the money. |
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Fitness
There are three main factors of fitness - aerobic
fitness, strength an flexibility. It's a big ask expecting to
stay healthy without being fit.
When you persistently get more oxygen into your
body you feel better. Vigorous aerobic exercise stimulates your
elimination systems, you get rid of all the crap out of your
system. You feel better.
When you have a regular and systematic strength
and flexibility training program your body gets back into better
alignment. You feel better. |
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Laughter
Still the best medicine. You'd be a pretty
miserable sod not to like a good laugh now and then. |
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Meaning and Purpose
The good news is that life is empty meaningless.
You start with a blank slate.
The bad news is that from the moment you're born
other people start filling it up with all sorts of stuff.
The good news is that if you wake up to yourself
you'll realize that you're not living your own life, you're
stuffed full of other people's
myths, superstitions, dogmas,
creeds, ideologies, characteristics, attitudes, values, beliefs,
habits, likes and dislikes.
You can wipe the slate clean and then
fill it up with your own meaningful and purposeful stuff. Once
that's done, the world's your oyster. |
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Meditation
Meditation stimulates an under-stimulated para-sympathetic nervous system bringing better health to many body
systems and providing access to the sub-conscious mind. |
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Recreation
All work (and TV) and no play makes anyone dull.
The average Australian goes to work, comes hove, has a drink,
has tea, sits down, watches television, falls asleep, gets up
and goes to bed, can't sleep, gets up late and does it all
again.
Gurdjieff said if you're feeling miserable go and
do some gardening. Yung said if you're feeling miserable go and
be of assistance to someone who is even worse off than you are.
If you're sick of banging your head against a
brick wall, go out and hit a ball.
Leonardo Da Vinci Code said something to this
effect: 'Every now and then take a holiday. While you're away
things at home look smaller and when you return to your work
your judgment will be surer.' |
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Sleep
The number of people who don't sleep well is
legion - hence the need for a prescription.
The first casualty of anxiety is sleep. Seek out
the source of your anxiety and fix it. Complete the past, live
the present and create for yourself a powerful future.
The first casualty of a sedentary life is sleep.
As soon as you increase your level of physical activity you
sleep better.
Nietzsche said some thing to the
effect that if all you've got to worry about is not sleeping,
then you haven't got much to worry about;
life is vacuous. Fill your life up with things that are
meaningful and purposeful for you and you'll sleep like a log
and wake up refreshed and raring to go. You won't even need much
sleep. You'll have boundless energy. You'll never be tired.
If you do wake it will be to think about
something important. Think!
When you can't sleep there's a
reasonable chance that your sub-conscious mind is
telling you to wake up to yourself. Taking a sleeping pill just
puts the sub-conscious mind that's woken you up back to
sleep again. What a dreadful prescription that is - spawning a
nation of vacuous zombies.
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Spirituality
I'm an
amateur at this one. In fact, I reckon it would be a brave
person who'd confess to being full bottle on the nature of
spirituality - particularly anyone indoctrinated as a young
child into any of the Abrahamic religions.
My considered stab at it would be to suggest that
the first law of spirituality is to
find the Great Spirit within
you. The second law is to nurture it. How powerful would you be if
you could harness that Great Spirit within you? You'd be
powerful beyond measure.
I'll leave the last word to William Blake.
If the
doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man
as it is: Infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all
things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.
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Stress
Stress is the difference between what you're
getting and what you want. Work out what you want and then go
and get it.
It's also the rebellion of the Self
against lack of time, attention, affection and thought.
It's the yacht without a rudder. It's the
guided missile without a target. It's the ship that never came
in because you never sent it out.
Give back to your Self. |
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Thinking
It all starts with your thinking. |
John Miller
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