Tai Chi Workshop

Tai Chi has proven to be a very effective ‘exercise program’ to reduce stress and increase your energy.

Tai Chi increases flexibility and strength in your joints. It leads to a very good, upright body posture. Tai Chi eliminates blockages in your main and sub-meridians (energy lines) and encourages a balanced flow of Yin-Yang energy throughout the whole body.

The subtleness and complexity of Tai Chi initiates a never-ending process. Once starting this journey, Tai Chi practitioners experience a vivid connection with energy. Like rarely any other form of exercise, Tai Chi leads to harmony and flexibility for body, mind & spirit.

This ‘Tai Chi for ‘Health’ program will start you with the basic moves (forms) for beginners. The program is based on the modified ‘Sun and Yang’ styles of Tai Chi.

Also included are safe warm up exercises and a basic Qi Gong breathing exercise to help you relax.

With ongoing classes and continued practice, you should develop better balance, improve blood circulation, notice some relief from joint pain and feel a reduction in stress levels as well as become aware of improved concentration levels, clarity and focus.

Overall, Tai Chi aims to achieve an improvement in health and well being.

Join us on

29th of September 2011 at 9.30am

for the first of 6 Tai Chi classes.

Cost is only $50, payable on registration via EFTPOS or cash.

Places are strictly limited to 12 participants and only another 11 places are left, so register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Registrations are taken via the form here, per email or phone (0439 265 230).

We look forward to meeting you there for a great time with like-minded people.

If it is important that you absorb information quickly or that you do a task efficiently and without mistakes you want to be able to concentrate, to focus your attention and your energy on one specific thing.

Step 1 – Improve The Basics

Stress of any kind is a major influence on our ability to concentrate, so the main aim when it comes to improving our concentration is to take away some of the stresses that prevent it.

Some easy to control factors are:

• Sleep – make sure you get enough (not too little, but neither too much)
• Breaks – allow yourself short breaks between tasks where you sit and think of nothing, at least not of the task you just finished or the one you are about to start
• Balance – in your leisure time, establish activities that are of different dynamics and energy than your main work. Balance a stressful work environment with activities that are calming and a quiet, very structured and repetitive workplace with playful and adventurous endeavours.
• Nourishment – Nutritious food, a healthy amount of  water at room temperature and exercise are essential to supply body and brain with the energy to concentrate, so are fresh air and natural light

Additionally you might consider, if possible, what time of the day you do the tasks that require your focus. Some people work best in the early morning, some prefer late nights and sometimes that may change too. Observe yourself, listen within and get familiar with your own needs and strengths.

Be careful with the consumption of coffein as a stimulant. It may give you a quick kick, but eventually causes dehydration, which your brain won’t like as it needs a healthy fluid balance in order to concentrate.

Step 2 – Have A Break

Some people have a tendency to push themselves hard and to go without a break until the job is finished. Sitting back and taking a nice deep breath is regarded as the reward that comes at the end of the task (if it comes at all).

However, having regular and refreshing breaks is essential in order to enable concentrated working. If you keep on pushing, the effect will be contrariwise: you will be too exhausted to keep going and over time your body and mind will develop unconscious strategies to avoid being under such stress again. Procrastination anyone?

So give yourself a regular break, where you intentionally and mindfully relax. This means that you are not filling it with an activity that again requires your attention, like reading or watching TV. Instead, literally smell the roses, sit down to listen to some music, do a breathing exercise or take a short walk in fresh air.

Take your breaks before you feel the signs of exhaustion. That way your break can provide more recovery quality and you will reload quicker than when you are already running on empty. Remind yourself with a timer that you set on 45-60 minutes and allow at least 5 minutes to reload your energy.

Step 3 – Create A Supportive Environment

The environment we live or work in has also a big impact on our ability to concentrate. Feng Shui is an ancient art and science that deals with the mutual effect of  Chi (energy) and environment and gives suggestions how to improve the flow of energy in internal and external spaces.

But you don’t have to be an expert in Feng Shui to create space that supports your concentration. Here are some simple to implement ideas:

Phone/Mobile – turn it off! It’s that simple

Sign -Let the people around you know that you don’t want to be interrupted with a ‘Do not disturb’ sign. And shut your door!

Declutter – put away everything from your desk that is not related to your work and that has the potential to take away your attention from your task. A clean desk leads to a focused mind.

Move -create some space for movement. Ideally, have a mat handy for a quick Yoga posture, a breathing exercise or some stretches.

Reduce – remove every picture or furniture that you don’t need in your room and keep it clean and tidy. As with your desk, the less there is to take your attention away, the easier it is to concentrate.

Music – turn it off if it distracts you or try whether some nice background music is supporting your concentration. If you prefer to have some background sounds, choose from a CD or put your own collection together.

If you work for a company, you might have to ask permission to change things around. However, if you explain to your employer that you would like to make a few (appropriate!) changes in order to increase your concentration – and therefore your performance -  it is very like that your boss will happily agree.

Step 4 – Find Your Stressors

After finding out what supports your concentration, have a look what may trouble you. There are some factors that you won’t be able to influence. You’ll simply have to find a way to live with them. However, there are a few measures you can take to deal with potential stress factors.

External Factors

There are quite a few factors that – once recognised – can be eliminated. They are again very individual. What bothers one, another may not even take notice of.

Noises -from traffic, people in the streets, loud music, voices, machinery or similar can easily distract us and disturb our concentration. Train yourself to get accustomed to external noises without losing focus. Alternatively, try earplugs. You may feel funny to do so in the beginning, but you will soon get over it.

Other People – Colleagues, children or other family members can become real concentration killers, for example if you don’t have your own office where you can shut the door. If possible try to have the house for yourself during the times when you really need to concentrate, find a bit of room in a part of the house that is not so much frequented, try to arrange something with a friend or simply go back to earplugs.

Odours – Even odours can derange us. These are hard to avoid and to make it worse they are very powerful. You can try to fight them with your own set of  fragrances from incense sticks or burning your favourite oils. Go for the woody essential oils, like Bergamotte, Cypress or Sandalwood. Their fragrance does not only more easily overpower annoying odours, they are also supportive for your concentration.

Other Stressors – If you start to focus on things that catch your attention, you might be surprised how little things can suddenly be annoying, like a shrill colour, the busy-ness of a picture, a pattern, a dripping appliance, a sound that can’t be located…Many of those can be eliminated, once we have finally become aware what the problem is.

Internal Factors

Internal factors, like a merry-go-round of thoughts in our head, worries, high expectations or critical self-talk can easily throw us off balance.

It is hard to concentrate if your thoughts easily wonder off or you constantly worry about things, even more so when you start to feel guilty about not being able to concentrate. A downward spiral into a place where concentration feels impossible seems inevitable.

A simple exercise may help to break the viscous cycle: Write your thoughts down.

1. When you find your thoughts spinning in your head and you just can´t turn them off, get yourself a piece of paper, a pen and a stop watch that you set on a 3-5 minute countdown.
2. Start to write down everything that comes into your mind without stopping until your set time is over or your paper is full.
3. Imagine that by writing your thoughts down, they actually get sucked out of your head onto the paper – a bit like Dumbledore does it with his wand in the Harry Potter books.
4. Put your paper aside and notice how your head feels lighter

This exercise has a few positive effects:

• You allow your thoughts to come up and be heard
• You pay attention to the things that bother you, which is part of becoming more aligned with yourself
• You can more easily let go of the thoughts, because you have written them down, hence your unconscious mind recognises that they won´t be forgotten and will therefore allow you to calm down

Step 5 – Train Yourself

Our ability to concentrate can decrease over time, if we are exposed to many or continuing stresses for a while. The good news is, it can also be improved if we train ourselves to do so.

If you choose to train yourself, remember to have fun with it. This will ensure that you’ll have better results than if you’d look at the exercises as another thing you don’t want to do. If you don’t want to do them, don’t do them!

However if you would like to train yourself to improve your concentration, here are a few ideas to get you going.

The Watch-Watcher

Level 1

1. Grab a watch with a second hand.
2. For two minutes, observe the second hand as if there was nothing else important in the world
3. If you loose track because your thoughts wandered off, start again for two minutes

Level 2

Once you have mastered level 1, lift the bar:

1. Put the watch on your TV or very close, while there is an interesting movie or program going on.
2. Only watch the second hand and don’t allow the TV to take your attention away

Level 3

Now we’re talking!

1. While watching the second hand for two minutes, continue to recite the following number pattern:

               2 4 6 8 10 8 6 4 2 4 6

As soon as you find yourself drifting off, start again. Keep going for at least two minutes.

Mandala

Colouring in Mandalas is a fun way to improve your concentration.

1. Find yourself one that you like and that has lots of little  different segments to colour in
2. Decide on a pattern how you are going to colour it in. Stick to that pattern
3. Start colouring in, using either one colour first until you coloured every pattern with that one colour before moving on to the next or complete one set of segments in different colours, then the next. Choose the option that is more challenging in terms of concentration

Word/Letter Puzzle

Option 1

1. Find yourself a puzzle where you have a number of given words that you are supposed to find in a field of letters (up, down, diagonal, forwards, backwards, upside down…)

Option 2

1. Create your own puzzle:
2. Make a few copies of a paragraph of text from a newsletter or magazine with around 1000 words. Hint: up to here you have around 1700 words in this article)
3. Choose a letter that usually appears quite often, like A or E or N
4. Circle each letter of your choice in the text of one of the copies and count them
5. Check again with another copy. Do you have the same number?

Memory

Memory is a great game that is also particularly good for children to help them improve their concentration.

Choose a memory game with pictures that are appealing to you or make your own.

1. Place all the cards face down either in an ordered structure of rows and lines or randomly all over the place
2. There is always a pair of the same picture that you have to find by turning two and remembering where they are
3. If you turn two that are the same, you may take them and have another go, otherwise it’s the next player’s turn
4. Keep going until all cards have been taken
5. Then go again.

You will find that once you have played the game three times in a row, it gets more and more challenging to remember where a card is placed.

Have a break after three games.

Step 6 – Monitor Your Progress

Like with every exercise that you do, it is a good idea to monitor your progress.

Get yourself a little notebook where you put down your main stress factors/concentration killers, what you did to eliminate or reduce them or how you chose to cope with them. After a while check in how your concentration has changed as a result of your efforts, what worked and what didn’t.

Remember to give yourself a little reward when you notice some improvement!

 Step  7 – Establish Cross References Through Anchoring

This is a technique from NLP – Neuro Linguistic Programming. With it you can program yourself to better concentration – literally by ‘pressing a button’.

1. Decide where you want to set your ‘anchor’, preferably at a place that is easy to access, but won’t be touched by others than yourself; knuckle valleys are ideal.
2. Remember a time when you were extremely focused and concentrated, when nothing could take away your attention. Let the image of this specific event become bright in colours, intensive with sounds and most importantly, connect to the feeling of being totally focused and concentrated.
3. When you find yourself at the peak of intensity for being concentrated, press your anchor for a few seconds, just as long as you are at the peak. Let go when the intensity drops.
4. Repeat with another event where you felt totally focused, absolutely concentrated.
5. Now think of something different, like what you had for lunch yesterday
6. Then test your anchor by pressing your knuckle or wherever you set your anchor. Do you feel how you suddenly start to recall the state of being totally concentrated?
7. ‘Stack’ your anchor. Whenever you are in a deep state of concentration, press your anchor to intensify it. That way your anchor is getting stronger over time.

How often have you heard it or even thought or said it yourself today?

We may use other words, but the statement is the same. We experience a lot of stress from the moment we get out of bed until we – often exhausted – fall back into it and even beyond.

Constant stress is one of the most serious causes for un-resourceful behaviour that initiates even more stress.

But is stress really our enemy?

In fact, stress is a very important factor when it comes to survival, because it helps the body to prepare for fight or flight.

The purpose of stress is to enable us to react to a stressor (stress factor), allowing us to quickly adapt to changing circumstances.

Stress also supports our development, because every effort and solution requires a certain amount of stress energy. It brings out the best in us. Top performances wouldn’t be possible without it, as they require a controlled amount of stress.

Like with many things it is the ‘too much’ that is harmful for body, mind and soul. Stress can only be useful, when it is controlled, managed, and dealt with resourcefully.

But how do we do that?

There are three starting points for stress management:

1. Stressors – changing your environment

Knowing what stresses you is a good place to start with. Once you know that, you can then work on ways to either eliminate, reduce or even avoid your stress factors.

For example you could

• turn off the phone or radio during a break, meeting or when you want to have some ‘me-time’ (eliminate)
• turn down the volume of phone, radio or other devices or shut the door to reduce noise when you need to work concentrated (reduce)or
• take another route to work, start earlier or later or even switch your way of transportation completely to public transport if you want to avoid the rush hour or road rage

2. ‘Self-Management’ – managing your stress response

Managing your stress response means learning how to create long-term health and wellbeing strategies and a resourceful attitude to

• cultivate or increase resistance (through active relaxation
• develop skills for an optimistic, positive mindset
• change the perception of the situation

3. ‘Agitation management’ – finding ways for an immediate response adjustment

In an acute stress situation it is useful to be able to refer back to more resourceful short-term techniques to influence your immediate response in order to avoid agitation peaks or the build-up of (negative) spiralling effects.

Short term health and wellbeing strategy options to reduce, cope with or prevent stress include

• Spontaneous relaxation
• Perception channelling
• Positive self-talk
• Venting -release from immediate pressure

Great natural and non-invasive alternatives to drugs, alcohol, medication, smoking or other health compromising choices are systematic muscle relaxation, autogenic training or breathing techniques, asking yourself power-questions or learning how to use self-suggestions or affirmations effectively.

In the long run, prevention is better than cure and dealing with the effects of stress is essential. Stress is always individual and usually home made, which means it is a learned behaviour or results from impractical habits.

The good thing is that every learned behaviour or behavioural pattern can also be unlearned, replaced or changed.

Stress can impact your body, mind and spirit on four levels:

1. Cognitive level – all mental processes – thoughts and senses
2. Emotional level – all feelings and sensitivities
3. Vegetal-hormonal level – all reactions of the autonomous nervous system and the connected organ processes that are normally not consciously controlled, like hormones
4. Muscular level – reactions of the muscular skeleton system, those that can be controlled consciously

This means that different stressors require different stress responses. How you experience stress mainly will give you a good indicator how to best deal with it.

For long-term health and wellbeing you may want to consider a strategy that involves relaxation (regular massages, meditation in motion…) or intentional exercises to calm the mind and strengthen the body, creating a supportive network or attending personal development workshops or seminars that teach self-management and life leadership skills.

Chi is the Chinese term for vital energy or life energy, also called Ki in Japanese, Sen in Thai or Prana in Ayurvedic (Indian) tradition.

The belief in those and other cultures is that Chi/Ki/Sen/Prana… runs through energy lines in the body that are not visible, but which can be sensed by trained practitioners and even the aware individual.

People who experience a lot of stress, grief, anger, frustration or other strong emotions without finding a balancing counterpart or learning a resourceful way to deal with these emotions, over time develop blockages in their energy lines which are called meridians (Chinese and Japanese), Sen lines (Thai) or Nadis (Ayurveda).

Those blockages are experienced as tensions and are often the first symptoms that something is not quite as it should be. If no attention is given to those signals, the body uses a more intense language to express the need for Chi, which can’t pass the blockages in the energy line. This is when dis-comfort starts to turn into dis-ease, which will become serious or chronic illnesses if only the symptom, but not the real cause is treated.

A blockage in an energy line causes the Chi flow to slow down or even to stagnate. As a result you feel tired, exhausted, weary… Your body starts to go in recovery mode, winds down to safe energy or to get in a state where it thinks it can regain some vigour. It is your body´s way to say it needs time to repair itself.

The stronger the flow of Chi, the quicker is your recovery time and the easier it is for your body to initiate whichever healing process is necessary, which means it is a vital prerequisite to provide your system with high quality and quantity Chi.

There are a few simple ways to do that:

1.      Breathe – Breathing deeply into your belly helps to take in lots of oxygen and Chi, provided it is fresh air. Avoid closed, all day air conditioned rooms, search for a place close to a tree, garden or natural water.

2.      Eat – Nutritious food like organic fruit and vegetables are great carriers of Chi. It may not be suitable for everyone to eat vegetables raw, but if your constitution allows, go for it.

3.      Drink – Choose pH neutral, if possible mineral rich water and drink it at room temperature. Ice cold or very chilled drinks make it hard for the spleen to bring intakes to a temperature where their nutritional components can be split and sent to the relevant systems and a lot of the value gets lost.

4.      Exercise gentle and thoughtful moves – While Qi Gong is referred to as the art of generating Chi, Tai Chi is the modality that helps to manage it. Yoga focuses on breathing, heating the body and keeping or ideally increasing its flexibility. Pilates exercises strengthen and stabilise the core, movements based on the Feldenkrais method may release memories that are stored in body tissue and increases body awareness.

5.      Relax – Meditation and deep relaxation quieten and bring focus to your mind and spirit.

The ChiBall Method™ is a body-mind exercise program that is build on the above principles and also considers Yin and Yang, the Five Elements and seasons known from TCM – traditional Chinese medicine.

A ChiBall™ is a ball the size of a honey melon, available in six different colours, each with a specific fragrance, utilising the therapeutical powers of aromas and colours while performing a choreographed routine to specifically composed music.

A typical ChiBall™ class is gently balancing, energising, activating Chi and relaxing and can be adapted to suit older adults, children, high achievers, mums-to-be,  athletes or mixed classes. To learn more about The ChiBall Method ™ go to the website www.chiball.com or www.chiyujveda.com

Find classes in Townsville

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. – John F. Kennedy

How is Gratitude related to the relief, management or prevention of stress?

It has been a big challenge for me to be grateful when I was younger and when things happened that either made no sense at that time, that confused me or that I did not like/want to be an experience in my life.

When I was challenged I tended to get upset either with myself, others or the situation. Blame was my good friend.

As you can imagine neither of this was very effective in terms of moving on. The worst experience was when I found out that my (then) husband had an affair with my best friend. That moment I felt like drawn into a black hole, spiraling downwards.

I went through the whole spectrum of negative emotions: anger, sadness, frustration, self-pity, fear, grief, aggression and once through started all over again. Only a few friends who really cared about me dared to be physically and mentally close when the ‘fire horse’ in me came out and the volcano was braking loose.

Today I have the deepest respect for these friends – I really wasn’t a pleasure to be around.

Fast forward 10 years. A few months ago I reconnected with ‘the adulteress’. To be honest, I was very surprised myself when I felt the need to get in contact with her. Even more as she tried to apologise for what happened (back then) and there was no way I would have even listened.

It feels really odd now to use the word adulteress, because this is not how I see her any more. Today I can see the pain that she went through herself. I no longer feel any kind of stress calling her name, while before I almost felt physical pain when I even only thought of her.

Besides time of course, there is one virtue that helped me to see this event differently now:

Gratitude

By practicing Nuad Thai – Traditional Thai Massage and studying its roots in Buddhist tradition as well as becoming a life coach I learned to take responsibility for my actions and my non-actions.

Instead of blaming others, I rather look for the gift in the situation and ask myself better questions:

What can I learn to avoid/do better next time?
How does this help me to grow?
How can I use this to become a better person?

By establishing some resources like a trusted source, a coach I can share insights with, journaling and meditation it is now easy and almost effortless to tap onto the power of Gratitude.

A heartfelt Thank-You to whoever you pray to invites harmony and instant relief to your life. The answer is often a knowing deep inside, that once you have accepted the gift of the situation as an opportunity for learning and growth, it will no longer cause any physical or mental stress.

How to practice Gratitude

Practicing Gratitude is very easy. To start with, ask yourself a simple question:

What happened today that you could choose to be grateful for?

Maybe you got a smile from a stranger, someone picked up your bag when it fell down, you got a nice call from a friend…

Even the simplest things can be a great source to experience Gratitude: the song of a bird, the beauty of a tree, the blue of the sky, a raindrop on a leaf…

Once you get in the habit of practicing Gratitude for the small things, you will find it easier to see the hidden presents in a situation that is more challenging.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. – Albert Schweitzer

Every person has a story and we are all connected.

The story of ‘The Little Soul And The Sun‘ by Neale Donald Walsh gives an insight of how each of us is a shining light and why sometimes the ones that bring us the biggest pain are those we need to show our deepest appreciation. (A review and summary will be available soon).

The Gift Of Gratitude

By practicing Gratitude you will connect with your higher spirit. This is one of the most powerful resources to increase the balance of your body, mind & spirit and will help you to stay much more relaxed when the road of life gets a bit bumpy and challenging.

I would like to share my gratitude for the organiser of the eco fiesta and lifestyle expo, who put together a wonderful event that enabled me to connect with new prospective and re-connect with existing friends.

My deepest appreciation goes to my husband Thomas and my youngest son Noah, who support me unconditionally in everything that I do and who enrich my life beyond words.

Each of my older children, Aaron, David and Lukas, gave my life a twist which was extremely valuable and I am grateful for their strong personalities and enriching characters.

To all my existing clients: your appreciation for my work makes my days. You are all precious to me and I cherish our relationship no matter how often or seldom we see each other.

Without the people who read this, I would just be talking to myself, so my Gratitude includes you as well.

And before this starts to sound like the acknowledgements in the foreword of a book, I stop here – curious to hear what you are grateful for today, tomorrow and the day after. Please share your thoughts and insights below. Thank you.

Lots of stalls where present who showed ideas, strategies or products that support a healthy lifestyle and at the same time live in tune with nature, reduce or avoid waste and overall be more sustainable.

Transition Guidance was represented through the Nuad Thai Academy – providing FREE Foot Massage during the whole duration of the festival.

Almost 100 people put their name down to get in the draw and win the Introductory Offer, the signature Package that gives an overview and an impression of the Nuad Thai Academy‘s specialty:

Nuad Thai – Traditional Thai Yoga Massage
Head Over Heels - Hand, Feet and Head Massage
Nuad Thai Aroma Oil Massage and a
Personal Energy Assessment

All together 2 hours of relaxation and balance, valued at $125!

The lucky winner is announced here.

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice – it’s conformity!

Nightingale then goes on to explain:

And there you have the trouble today. It’s conformity! People like being like everyone else, without knowing why, without knowing where they’re going.

Over the years I have discovered that this is a phenomenon that can cause a lot of stress. How do I know? I experienced it first hand, because I refused to conform.

When (almost) all the girls in my class were ´Poppers´, I was a ´Rocker´.
When girls were expected to wear skirts and pumps , I was wearing my jeans and ´adidas three stripes´.
When my peers studied, got married and had children, I got married, had children and then started to study.

After all the discussions I had with my parents, shaking heads from the rest of my family and lack of comprehension from my peers and colleagues for being so different, I can testify that being expected to conform has caused a lot of stress in my life.

But I had a lot of fun, I enjoyed life and I took every opportunity to be free to be me.

Except for one occasion:

There have been different careers that I was intrigued to pursue, but one was most outstanding: to become a carpenter (specifically: furniture designer). But when it came to making the decision to make a dream a reality, I chose to listen to advice from people who told me why I should not go that path (too hard for a woman, not profitable, no future for that, not the right thing for me…) and I learned to become a sales representative instead.

Now the only reason why I even had a chance to get one of the rare, sought after and popular apprenticeships was because I had ´connections´ – indispensable for a corporate career if you were not extremely talented . So I did my trainings, on site and at school and passed the necessary tests to get a title and to be accepted at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The problem was, I wasn´t happy. Not at all. Being an Industrial Sales Representative was so far away from who I was, that it was only a matter of time when the problems would start.

To make a long story short, my first son gave me the opportunity to be physically away from the company and doing a job that was neither challenging nor fulfilling me – it simply almost ´bored me to death.´

Though today I am not a carpenter either, the work I currently do is who I am. It is fulfilling me, rewarding me, making me happy and it is what I call my temporary purpose.

Living an authentic life has helped me to make a difference in people´s lives that I never would have been able to make in my first job. What I do now is not a job. It is not even a profession. It is a calling.

The first moment I realised this was one I cherish like gold, because it had a profound impact on my body, my soul and my spirit.

Since then, I had the opportunity to notice the same or very similar effects on other people´s body, mind and spirit too.

Here is what I observed:

Impact on the BODY:

People who are not living authentically with their true self

• feel like there is a heavy burden on their shoulders
• have a low immune system
• often develop eating disorders and weight problems
• have low energy levels
• often create chronic illnesses

Impact on the MIND:

People who are not living authentically with their true self

• are often nervous
• get easily stressed and overwhelmed
• are inclined to excessively beat themselves up over trivialities
• find it hard to build relationships with colleagues
• experience their work as hard

Impact on the SPIRIT:

People who are not living authentically with their true self

• easily give in to feelings of anger, frustration, sadness or fear
• feel unfulfilled and out of alignment
• get easily bored with/in their jobs
• have the feeling that there is something important missing in their life
• seem to be (and often are) unsettled

Living authentically means doing what you love and loving what you do for a living. Living an authentic life also means being true to yourself, to who you really are.

Authenticity means being free to be you, free from the need to conform, free from listening to others who want to create a life for you that you do not want to live.

Authenticity means taking a lot of distress away, which is the kind of stress that causes the above mentioned problems for body, mind and spirit.

Living an authentic life means being fulfilled with what you do, living in a healthy body, with a peaceful mind and  a happy spirit and I´d love to invite you to the adventure of experiencing the real you.

Components of authentic living

Courage

To act in spite of doubt

Integrity

To be true to yourself first, then to others

Perseverance

To keep going when the going gets tough

Focus

To know where you want to go or what you want to achieve

Structure

To find your way back when you have to go a detour

Support

To have a shoulder to lean on and guidance along the way

The moral of the story: it’s never too late to start living on purpose and with authenticity. It doesn’t matter WHEN you start, only IF you do.

What are you doing on a consistent basis that is not really you? That you have been influenced to do from others who thought it would be good for you?

Where have you sacrificed your true self or parts thereof  for a job or a relationship that gave you security because it was easier, you felt you had no other choice or pursuing your dream seemed not to be appropriate at that time? Is that still true today?

What could you do to bring some flavour back into your own life? What was is that you always wanted to do? How can you incorporate it in your current life?

If you have difficulty creating a meaningful environment, Transition Guidance has custom designed programs to help you learn to live authentically and with purpose. Call +617 4774 8146 or write to info[at]transitionguidance.com to find out how you too can live the life you were meant to live and make the difference you are born to make.

physical, mental and spiritual/emotional

Stretching your BODY

If you exercise, stretching is (or should be) an essential part of your workout. Some classes focus solely on stretching, because of the enormous benefits it has on the body. By stretching a muscle, you allow it to lengthen, which sometimes is all it takes to get the tension out of the muscle.

If you stretch your spine, it allows the vertebraes to re-adjust on each other and to get back in alignment.

Take it easy if you just start out. Beginners want to stretch in the four major directions: forward, backward and sideways. For people with back problems, an easy cat-stretch (where you are on your hands and knees and roll your back up and down like a cat) is a great release.

People who are advanced may find benefit in yoga classes, where stretching is given for almost every asana (yoga position).

Stretching your MIND

Stretching the mind involves some so-called ‘Level-2-thinking’. This means that you do something new or differently; something that stretches you out of your comfort zone.

Level 2 is everything that you have not done before and that feels like a challenge in the beginning.

Public speaking is a big stretch for many people, for example, as is change.

What is it that you can do to put some more level-2-thinking in your life? You will be amazed, how quickly you will get adjusted to this level until the point, where it is no longer a stretch (and level-2 becomes level-1).

In Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this would correlate with quadrant 2: important, not urgent. for people in business this is the quadrant that is the most important for the business, because this is what will make it grow.

Generally stretching the mind is what helps us grow – personally and professionally. And it helps us to stay relaxed.

Considering everything mankind knows about aerodynamics and the proportion of wings to the body, the bumble-bee would not be able to fly. But the bumble-bee does not know and does not care and flies anyway.

Stretching the SPIRIT

“The sky is the limit”.

How often have you heard this saying, yet never really could believe in it?

Stretching the spirit is all about giving yourself the permission to think and dream big. What would be possible for you if you had no fear? What if you knew that whatever you did, you would succeed?

A stretched spirit is going beyond what everybody thinks is possible. Like Roger Bannister, who ran the first 4-minute mile. Nobody even thought that it was possible, until one day Roger just did it. Amazingly, since then a four-minute mile is not even an issue for young sports students. It has become a ‘normal’ achievement, not even recognised as something special any more.

Stretching the spirit can also mean to be the one to practice forgiveness for example, if that is something that you would not normally do.

What can you do to stretch your spirit? What is an emotion that does not come easily to you, yet would make the biggest impact on your performance or in your relationship?

Stretch your spirit once a day and experience the difference this has on your whole life.

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.

Chinese Proverb

Stretch yourself to who you really are and let go of the stress of trying to be what, who or how you (or even worse: others!) think you should be.

Are you feeling …

…stressed or overwhelmed?
…stuck or out of alignment?
…burned out or of low energy?

Are you concerned about…

…your ability to perform to your usual personal or professional standard?
…your lack of concentration, memory or learning difficulties?
…social isolation, an urge to withdraw from social activities or communicational challenges?
…unexplainable moodiness, depression, constant fatigue, allergic reactions or rashes, eczema or itches?
…reduced libido, temper or frustration, feelings of loneliness or not being worthy?
…hallucination, sleeplessness or nightmares?

If you recognise some of the above symptoms in your life, here are the good news:

Your body, mind and spirit are giving you signals that either or all of them are out of balance and need some time (and maybe support) to even themselves out.  In order to do that it is important to have a rest, listen to your self talk, observe your emotions and look at the signals of your body. That way the relevant part can do its work, respectively all three work together symbiotically.

The real reason for an imbalance of body, mind and spirit always comes back to one of three causes:

• physical stress (tensions and blockages in your body)
• mental stress (draining thoughts and limiting beliefs that seem to run around in circles, drag you down and make you feel powerless, weak or tired)
• spiritual/emotional stress (when you seem to be controlled by your emotions rather than being in control of them, when there is a conflict in your values or a lack of purpose)

Often a stress in one area is the reason for tension or blockages in another, because they are interconnected and feed from each other.

This is why Transition Guidance looks at the whole person and offers a holistic approach to reducing stress, improving your overall wellbeing and supporting relaxation for the body, the mind and the spirit.

What we do:

We balance and relax

body, mind and spirit.

We guide

through transition by choice or necessity.

We empower

to live an authentic life with purpose

We connect

you with your inner resources

and with like-minded people

Often these feelings are feeding from each other, creating a downward spiral that leaves us with bitterness, as ‘victims’ and in an un-resourceful , very stressful  and often painful state.

From here, physical or mental violence, anxiety or depression can be only one step away.

When dealing with painful and stress promoting emotions, the only way to respond is with emotions  that get you in balance –  physically, mentally and spiritually. For the above feelings, one of the best and most resourceful responses is forgiveness.

The effects of forgiveness on your body

• reduces the stress and the adrenalin level (which initiates our fight or flight modus)
• lowers blood pressure (which cools down excitement)
• slows down the heart beat (which reduces the risk of heart attacks)
• decreases the risk of gall and kidney stones (which often develop through continuous  living on a high stress level)

The effects of forgiveness on your mind

• allows you to connect with your inner resources (instead of using external stimulants like sugar, alcohol or drugs)
• helps you to relate to your own power and strength (instead of giving it away)

The effects of forgiveness on your spirit

• creates a positive chain reaction of supporting emotions like understanding, compassion, connection
• enables you to feel peaceful

How do you get to a state of forgiveness?

Forgiveness isn’t something that automatically comes to you, but it is a state that you can reach easily, if you commit to the process of change.

An important presupposition is to recognise and accept the value of forgiveness and how it can change your life for the better.

Forgiving is an active choice to do so. This doesn’t mean that we excuse or give permission to repeat or continue the hurting person’s behaviour. By you forgiving, it doesn’t make the hurtful action better, right or acceptable.

But it does mean that you are no longer willing to accept the state of being a victim and that you have chosen that you won’t give away your personal power, integrity and worthiness.

Actions of your body:

Take a deep breath. Sounds simple and it is. When you focus on your breath, you give your body the opportunity for a short break. A deep breathe in provides the body, especially the brain, with much needed oxygen to work more effectively and find a better solution.

It also erects the body, which in return sends signals of confidence to the brain. If you can manage to put on a smile, even better, because that will send ‘happiness hormones’ to your body and helps to release physical tensions. It is ok to fake it; your brain doesn’t know and doesn’t care – the effect is the same.

If you can, walk (physically) away from the situation. A quick walk or a hard workout will help you channel the adrenalin that is released to fight or flight.

Have you got a trampoline? Get on to it and start jumping! Jumping and hopping (maybe on a swiss ball) also release hormones that get you back on the road to feeling better quickly and as a result forgiveness and happiness will come even more easily and effortlessly.

If you feel like punching something, punch your pillow, a punching bag or the couch. Whatever you need to do,  get rid of it and be mindful to let it go in a way that is safe for your body, mind and soul – it will help you to clear the way to forgiveness faster.

Actions of your mind:

Forgiveness is an act of imagination. Instead of seeing or visualising yourself getting angry, acting out or even getting physical, you can quickly imagine how you walk away from the situation, do something that soothes your soul or imagine yourself calming down.

Actions of your soul:

Forgiveness does not mean to suppress your feelings. Let them out. If you feel like screaming, get in the car, the toilet or somewhere else where you are by yourself and scream, stump your feet, get some relief. You will get a clear head and you can start to think of a better way to deal with the situation.

Forgiveness is a state of awareness. It is not about denial, but one of conscious choice.

By letting go of grudges, you will find yourself moving away from defining your worthiness by other people’s action. You will be able to draw on powerful resources that make you feel better, in tune with yourself and the universe.

As a result you will feel peaceful and in control of your feelings instead of being controlled by them. You will feel in charge and you are, because it is your own responsibility

The act of Forgiving

Forgiveness can be challenging for the very reason, that often it is not done in one go. Some events need to be forgiven daily before we can heal.

Forgiveness is a divine act that helps us to connect with our spirit, with who we really are. It is one way to experience ourselves and an opportunity to realise that we are spiritual beings who live in a physical body and have human emotions – and choice.