My Latest Vision Board ♥

Here is my latest vision board.  This board represents spiritual growth and being involved in the spiritual community.  I would love nothing more than to be a part of the Hay House family, and move to a warmer climate.  Carlsbad, California is where The Chopra Center and Hay House Publications are located, the reason for picking that area.

I have had some great results come from my vision boards.  I am looking forward to taking this intention all the way.

I am ready to make a big move in my life.

I am ready to move to an area of the world where there are people on the same vibration as me.

Eating-Awareness; I Can Do Anything for a Week!

After a mildly disturbing weigh and measure yesterday, I have had time to really think this through, and even though at the time I wasn’t particularly happy that she shared my results with me after I asked her not to, I feel as though it was important that I know.  I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and without that information I would have not been able to formulate a plan to fix it.  After all, I am always preaching about self-Awareness.  It’s time to practice what I preach, right?

After really taking a look at what I was eating I could see that even though I was eating healthy, I was eating too much.  The amount of the healthy food I was taking is was more than I needed.  Yesterday I counted my calories and ate much more consciously, and I felt much more balanced and centered by the end of the day.

This morning when got up to resume my Magical Mind and Body audio book I found that today was the day we went through the sense of taste and different techniques for eating with awareness.  Synchronicity, it’s amazing, isn’t it?

Deepak went through these techniques and suggested to give it one full week and to make note of the physiological differences that occur in the body.  One week?   I can do anything for one week.  Since I follow the premise that, we will always know exactly what we need to know, when we need to know it, I cannot in good conscience ignore information that was seemingly handed to me on a silver platter.  Therefore, I have decided to give it a committed effort for at least one week.  I have made a handwritten instructional post for my pantry.  The place where I post all things that need attention in my life.

The techniques are simple and are as follows;

1. Always be sitting when eating.  Preferable at a table.
2. Don’t do anything else while eating.  No watching TV, reading, or working and do not eat while driving.
3. Eat only when the stomach is empty.  It takes about 4 hours, give or take, for food to leave the stomach.
4. Do not put food in the mouth until the previous bite is in the stomach.
5. Take two cupped hands of food at a time.  If you find that you are still hungry when that is gone, wait five minutes before getting more.
6. Stop when comfortable.

That’s it.  Simply following these techniques should allow me to feel more energized, centered and balanced.  I should feel an overall calmness throughout my mind and body.

Also it is important to include all of the six tastes into your day to eliminate cravings.  Those taste are; sweet, sour, salt, bitter, astringent, and pungent.  Most of us know what sweet, sour and salt are but bitter, astringent and pungent are a little different.  Bitter comes in the form of green leafy vegetables, pungent  comes in the form of spices, and astringent are peas, lentils and beans.  Incorporating all of the tastes into each day will satisfy the bodies need and will decrease cravings.

So there you have it.  This is my plan for the next seven days.  I will be sure to report how it works out.  I am actually pretty excited to get started.

And since I am now aware that my Curves coach is going to share my results with me whether I like it or not, I have decided to take the bull by the horns and be responsible for knowing my own result.  I weighed myself yesterday at my moms, so I know what my results are instead of being taken by surprise.  I must have a sense of control over my life.  I am not going to hand that over to anyone, at any time.  My head will no longer be berried in the sand.  This is about my health.  It is about being aware.  Now, I am aware.  😀

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It’s Monday again.  I had a fabulous weekend, but I am very glad it’s Monday.  I must have something to do during the day.  I wish I knew exactly what I wanted out of life.  Unfortunately all I know is I want to write and help people.  I don’t exactly know how just yet but I know if I continue to work on myself and learn more and more about myself that one day God will reveal to me what I am supposed to be doing.

It is much more than losing weight and getting fit.  I am working on my mind, body and soul.  I am working on myself from the inside out.  I have come a long way in the past couple of years, but I have a long way to go, as well.  I am just happy that God has given me this chance.  In 2011 life was far from happy.  I was depressed and suicidal but I can see now that all of that had to come to a head in order for me to awaken the way that I did.

Without great suffering I would not have been able to dis-identify with my ego.  I would not have seen the need to separate from the false self that I had created.  I would not have become aware that the story I was telling myself was the reason I was so overweight and so unhappy.  I was the writer of my own misery, and now I am the writer of my own success.  I am unbelievably grateful for each and every moment, the good, the bad and the ugly.  They were all necessary to get me here today.

I am not sure what is in store for me, but I know that I am being guided by the creator of the universe, so I am in good hands.

Today I intend to;

• Practice assessing my hunger levels before eating
• Use the breathing techniques outlined in What Are You Hungry For? by Deepak Chopra to combat cravings
• If a craving should arise and I am not hungry I am going to investigate exactly what I am hungry for and look for ways to fulfill that hunger
• Use all the above techniques to further my study of self-awareness on my greatest project, me
• Finally, stay present by checking in on myself regularly

What’s Your Story? Pt. 2

Click for the 7 Health Benefits of Meditation

I am about to meditate but before I do I ask to be guided to my next best place of expression or learning.  That I wander upon the best blog to read or write, the best video to watch and learn from, or the best person to help. Thank you God for your guidance.  Thank you for being with me every moment of every day.

After my meditation session I feel as though I should write a blog called “What’s Your Story” but something tells me I have already done this.  After looking in the archives I found that I did, I did this very blog in April of this year.  I am amazed at how profound it was.  I was changing my story back then and I must say I have become pretty good at it.  I completely understand, now, that I am the author of my story.  No one else, just me.  If I tell myself I am going to struggle my whole life, then I will struggle, if I tell myself I will be effortlessly successful then that is true as well.

I completely forgot how I used to feed myself thoughts that supported my struggle with my weight.  I used to tell myself that this was the way way was, I would have to struggle with this the rest of my life.  It was my cross to bear.  To be honest I believe that someone once told me that.  I believe I was told that we all have things in life we have to deal with and mine was my weight.  It seems absurd to me now.  As I look back I can see that when the old tired story I had created for myself disappeared, the struggle to lose weight went with it.

Click for Rekindling the Light Within

In the book I am reading “What Are You Hungry For? by Deepak Chopra, he explains how you can most assuredly see a person’s story when you look at their body.  If they are caring excess weight their story will support that.  What an eye opener.  This man and a handful of other great thinkers and spiritual leaders have played a pivotal roll in helping me change my story this past year.  I can say from the bottom of my heart they have saved my life.  I feel as though I need to give a shout out to Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfry, Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, and Joel Osteen.  These people, in my opinion, are God’s messenger’s here on earth.  I feel blessed to have stumbled upon their work and allowed it to teach and guide me to the person I am today.

Simply amazing!  This year has taught me so much.  First, I learned that I can be happy and the world would not collapse around me.  Second, I learned how to create balance in my life, the balance that I believe is necessary for all people, and third, I learned that loving me was the key to bringing this all together.  2013 has brought about exceedingly above and beyond explosive blessings (as said by Joel Osteen) into my life, now I am excited to see what 2014 has in store.  🙂

What Are You Hungry For? By Deepak Chopra

I am very early on in the book, but I must say that it is in support of how I have been evolving this past year.  Deepak talks of being fulfilled in the mind, body and soul which will in turn alleviate the need to overeat.  It will be effortless to overcome if we can become fulfilled in all of those areas of our lives.  This is why in my book “No Will Power Needed” I explained how I was able to lose nearly a hundred pounds without the struggle I normally faced when trying to shed the pounds.  I unknowingly started to become fulfilled in all of those areas of my life.  I didn’t exactly know how to express it but that was what it was.

I began learning new things, trying new things, getting out of the house, and most importantly, I began meditating.  It was as if I finally surrendered to a guiding force in my life that lead me to all of these things.  It was as if I had finally allowed myself to listen and follow my  intuition.

I am so glad that I bought the book.  It was just over ten dollars for the kindle version which allows me to read it on my tablet or computer.  Ten dollars, in my opinion, is a tiny price to pay to find true happiness once and for all.  Although I have been doing this for almost a year now I was unaware of what I was actually doing.  Now that I know, I will be able to explain it to people, or at the very least lead them to this book.  Previously when I tried to explain to people that they could lose weight without even trying they would look as me like I had three heads, like I was lying, but I am telling you that you can do this.

Food is such a small part of the problem.  It is mostly the mind and the way we perceive the events of our lives.  I highly recommend this book.  No matter what you are doing to lose weight now, you will benefit from it.  Deepak will teach you what you are hungry for and how to add that into your life while still being able to enjoy food without the guilt and shame many of us face after eating.  I will keep everyone posted as I go through the book in more depth.

This couldn’t have come at a better time since my weight-loss had stalled and old habits started to return.  Thank you Deepak once again you were right there for me.  🙂

Being Grateful for What Is

This morning as I was sipping my coffee and listening to The Awakened Life by Wayne Dyer on YouTube it occurred to me that I spent most of my life being completely identified with my thoughts.  I was almost 100% a left brain person.  I had to make sense of everything, and I believed everything thought about me that entered my mind.  The reason my right brain didn’t have a chance to come forward and direct my steps to a better life was because my thoughts were constant and debilitating.  I suffered many bouts of depression throughout my young life, some so dark I contemplated taking my life many times.  It is so glaringly clear that my mind was lying to me.  Which I can now see was my ego and with the help of Eckhart Tolle I am aware that my greatest problem was my complete identification with it.

Over the past ten months I have learned to meditate thanks to Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey who, with one of their 21-Day Mediation Challenges set the stage to allow me to develop this craft in my life.  It has been like taking a permanent vacation from my old self.  A self that wanted nothing more than to wallow in its own misery, creating and manifesting problem after problem.  As I look back and am able to see the “big picture” I can see how the world was not against me but rather I against it.  I am so grateful to all of my spiritual teachers for allowing me to find myself.  For allowing me to quiet my mind so that my right brain could come through and add some insight into my life.  To become a service to my right brain, if you will.  Instead of continually playing the same recording over and over of how I was not good enough, worthy enough, or smart enough to just be.  I can now hear my inner voice, I respectfully call my inner voice of God, allowing it to guide my steps to fulfilling my life’s purpose.

I am still cultivating that tiny seed inside of myself and forever will be.  I found my inner purpose, now it is time to link that up with my outer purpose and to do it for the betterment of mankind.  I feel as though if I can help even one person find that tiny seed that we are all born with and cultivate it, I have done a service.  I now ask God every day to allow me to serve in some way.  To help those who suffer with a madness of the mind as I did for so long.  My life and the lives of those around me will not only have purpose but will have deep meaning as well.

Benefits of Meditation by Deepak Chopra

Lose Weight Naturally by Creating Balance

Put an end to your weight problems by taking an interest in yourself.  Yes, you heard that correctly.  If you are willing to really take a look into your soul and discover the reasons you do the things you do you can be free of yo-yo dieting.

It wasn’t until I did exactly that, that I was able to put an end to my over active mind which attributed directly to my over eating.  I was unaware that I was allowing my brain to use me instead of me using it.  I knew from a lot of my readings that whatever I resisted would persist so that was the first thing I stopped doing.  If I wanted it, I had it, and I did so without guilt or remorse.  The next thing that was of great help was my journal exercises.  Finding out exactly what was happening in my life during each weight loss and weight gain was a huge eye opener for me.  In the past seven months or so I have filled seven composition note books as well as blogging.  Writing is a great way to get in touch with ourselves.  Writing is very therapeutic.  Anyone can benefit from keeping a journal.

Next I found creating balance set the stage to support my healthy boundaries.  Of course being balanced is something that has to be worked at and maintained on a daily basis.  Meditation is crucial for creating and maintaining said balance.  There is a wonderful program starting through Deepak Chopra and Oprah called the 21-Day Meditation Challenge starting August 5th that I highly recommend.  I was fortunate enough to be a part of the last challenge several months ago which got me started to fulfilling a life of pure comfort from within.

Once balance is present eating healthy and moving your body will become something that comes naturally and without forethought.  To be successful in this transformation it is also very important to have self-awareness.  Knowing why you are eating is a great way to make the change.   As I mentioned earlier, it is important not to resist anything because if you are constantly meeting with resistance you are likely to give in and give up.  Do not resist, but do ask yourself why.  Am I bored?  Am I sad?  Am I lonely?  So on and so forth.  Become aware of why you are eating and then eat.  Eventually your mind will recognize why it is you are eating and if it is to mask an emotion you will be aware and choose something else.  It really is that simple.

The Super Resilience of the Brain

Thus far in The Super Brain I have learned just how resilient the brain truly is. Many years ago it was thought that the brain was hard-wired and fragile. Today we know that this is not true. The brain can actually repair itself. We have all heard of stories of coma patients waking up and making a full recovering and of stroke patients who have lost the memory to do seemingly simple things such as talking and eating being able to relearn these activities and regain their mobility.

Our brains can do amazing things and like any other part of the body it needs proper nutrition and stimulation to function properly. Smoking and drinking are the absolute worst things a person can do to the brain.  Basically, if we would like to get the most out of our brains we need to exercise it. We need to take the time to learn each and every day. Often as people age they have the mind-set that they are getting older and therefor will lose their memory. This could not be farther from the truth. Of course if you believe you will lose your memory, you probably will. All of our thoughts create emotions and our emotions create memory. If you believe that you are losing your memory and there are strong emotions attached to that thought you could ultimately be manifesting your fear.

There is a baseline brain and a higher super brain.  The difference between the two are night and day.  In the baseline brain thoughts are restricted.  It is here that our brains “are using us” instead of “us using our brains”.  The super brain, on the other hand is where all things are possible and where life is viewed as a gift.  It is here that we would be using our brains to get the most out of life.

To keep the mind sharp all throughout life simply finding ways to get excited about learning will make all the difference. You are never to old to learn. We are able to tap into our inner child’s curiosity at any time. There is a vast array of knowledge out there, and as long as we absorb a little each day we will keep our brain strong even into our late eighties or nineties depending on the person.

So far this is a very interesting read.  It is in-depth but very easy to understand.  I am excited to continue reading.  🙂

Click here to buy and read The Super Brain.

It’s Free! What Have You Got to Lose?

I am very excited to have been invited to participate in Deepak Chopra’s 8-Week Online Series to awaken to happiness.  I have been lucky enough to participate in some other programs offered by Deepak, and I have yet to be disappointed.  Simply click the above picture and sign up.  Let’s all get happy together.