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Meditate

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What is meditation?

Many people think that meditation is about thinking about nothing, but it is not this at all. We cannot block thought and emotion. In-fact we need thought and emotion. Instead, meditation is simply the act of diverting your attention inward, in order to become more aware of, and familiarise yourself with the present moment.

Why is meditation important?

Today, we live in an incredibly busy world, where the pace of life is often frantic. It seems that we are always doing something, to the point where most of us are over-worked, over-loaded, and over-stimulated. The sad fact is that we have become so distracted in the world in which we live, that we miss out on the things that are the most important to us. In-fact, research shows that almost 50% of our life is lost in mindless thought – which directly contributes to unhappiness. What’s even crazier is that we assume that this is the way life is, and that we just have to get on with it.

In essence we have forgotten to be still, and the absence of stillness has led to increased stress and anxiety. In-fact, around 17 million Australians admit that stress is affecting both their physical and mental health.

But rather than distracting ourselves from stress, what we need most is to bring the very essence of who we are back into our lives – stillness. Just as the body needs rest, so too does the mind – especially when you consider that we have about 60,000 thoughts each day – 80% of which are negative and 95% are not original. Your mind becomes like a washing machine, whizzing around lots of difficult, confusing emotions, which we often don’t know how to deal with it.

Meditation enables you to slow down your mind enough to help you return to that place of stillness that exists between your thoughts. A place which is available to all of us in the present moment.

You cannot have happiness until you have inner peace. You cannot have inner peace until you live in the present. You cannot live in the present until you remember who you are. You cannot remember who you are until you go within and mediate. Robert Greco

Every time you connect to this place of stillness within, you become more conscious and aware of what is real and what is not in each moment. In this way, meditation acts as a doorway to who you really are. This is essential, because knowing yourself affects everything you think, say and do in life. Knowing yourself is the not only the key to both preventing and managing stress and anxiety, but is also the secret to lasting peace and happiness.

What are the different types of Meditation?

There are 3 main types/categories of meditation:

1.Focused Attention or concentration techniques (e.g. Zen, Qi gong, Vipassana) is where you focus on a single word, thought or object, excluding all others. It may be your breath, a word, a mantra, sound, a movement, pattern or an inner or external image. The purpose is simply to better develop your sense of concentration. That way, when thoughts or emotions arise, you are able to direct your mind back to the original object of concentration. This type of meditation requires effort to sustain controlled attention on an object, and is characterised by high frequency activity in the front and core of the brain.

2.Open Monitoring includes mindfulness-based techniques, in which all experiences are allowed to pass through awareness without manipulation or control, otherwise known as non-judgemental moment-to-moment awareness. The mind is generally being trained to return to the present moment by using an object, breath, or body as an anchor. This allows us to become aware of negative thought patterns, enabling us to make conscious choices rather than being mindlessly controlled by them, and preventing us from being led into habitual negative behaviours. These techniques also help us to embrace whatever our current experience is (including emotional or physical pain) rather than trying to escape or get into a struggle and thereby amplify it. This type of meditation is characterised by theta activity primarily in the front of the brain.

3.Automatic Self-Transcending (AST) involves neither concentration nor training the mind. ‘Automatic’ means innocence is the key here. Evaluation, control or manipulation will leave you caught up in thinking and prevent transcending. ‘AST’ includes Transcendental Meditation (TM), and the occasional expert in other techniques. It describes any technique which transcends (goes beyond) the steps of the meditation practice itself. Typically this includes resting your attention on a mellow, meaning-free one or two syllable mantra or sound in an effortless way that allows the mantra to gradually melt like a cough drop, leaving a state of inner silence. Whilst this may seem much like a focused attention practice, the method is actually more subtle and easy going than that.

Alpha brain waves (characteristic of reduced mental activity and relaxation) permeate the whole brain, which receives more oxygen. Increased blood flow occurs at the front of the brain (which is coordinating activity) while the core is more quiet, indicating alertness in the midst of deep rest, the state of transcendental or pure consciousness/silence.

Which type of Meditation is best?

Which type of meditation is best depends upon what you want to achieve and more importantly how ‘aware’ you are. As a recommendation, if you are a beginner to meditation, then I would suggest that you start with some basic concentration and mindfulness techniques. Then once you have been meditating for some time and made some progress in becoming more mindful, then I would encourage you to try TM.

Regardless of what type of meditation you choose, I would encourage you to complement your practice with yoga. This is important because many of the emotional and behavioural responses we experience occur because of previous stress which has become trapped inside of our body’s cells as distorted memories. And so no matter how much we mediate, we can only often get so far. However, by including the regular practice of yoga – both physical postures (asanas) and breathing techniques (pranayama), we can better respond to the actual demand being placed upon us in the present moment, rather than being forced into reactions pre-fabricated by our stress. In other words, full present moment awareness is actually the gift of a stress free nervous system, not just a present mind.

If you want to begin mediating, then save your self years of wasted time and learn to meditate the right way by joining my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

April 7, 2018 2 comments

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Eat Mindfully

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What is mindful/intuitive eating?

In order to understand what mindful eating is, we need first to understand what mindfulness is. Mindfulness simply involves deliberately paying attention, and being fully aware of what is happening both internally (mind, body and heart) and outside yourself (your environment). It is awareness without criticism or judgement.

Mindful eating simply involves paying full attention to the experience of eating, by connecting more deeply with, and enjoying your food, before, during and after your meal.

Mindful eating is a life skill we can all learn, which leads to a more satisfying, healthy and enjoyable relationship with food. Unlike food rules or diets, with mindful eating there is no right or wrong ways to eat, but instead varying degrees of consciousness about what we are eating and why. The goal of mindful eating then, is to base our meals on physical cues, such as our bodies’ hunger signals, instead of emotional ones (comfort eating).

Why is it so important to eat mindfully?

Mindful eating enables us to hear what our body is telling us about hunger and satisfaction. It helps us become aware of ‘who’ out of the mind, body and heart is really hungry, and how and what is best to nourish it.

This is important because the busyness of life today often keeps us in our head, instead of the present which equates to mindless eating. Mindless eating eventually becomes habitual, and can lead to food addiction which is the most prevalent type of addiction today. Addiction is simply the opposite of awareness.

If you want to begin eating more mindfully, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

March 23, 2018 0 comment

Put Yourself First

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What does putting yourself first really mean?

Putting yourself first has nothing to do with being selfish. Instead, it is about living your life in a way which enables you to achieve and maintain balance and well-being.

Many of us are really bad at putting ourselves first

Every day in every way, I see examples of people not putting themselves first – and mum’s are especially like this, because of their nurturing and caring role for the family.

Why is it important to put yourself first?

By putting yourself first, it is possible to achieve and maintain balance and well-being in your life. If you don’t put yourself first, you will put others ahead of you, and this will detract from your own balance.

There are lots of ways to put yourself first – and if you are serious on doing so, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

March 10, 2018 2 comments

Spend Time Outdoors

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How much time are we spending outdoors?

Compared to 20 years ago, adults are spending 30% less time outdoors, whilst children are spending 50% less time outdoors. This is ridiculous – prisoners spend more time outdoors! And it’s a trend which is getting worse.

Why are we spending less time outdoors?

There are many reasons why we are spending less time outdoors – getting lost in the world of social media and technology is one of the major ones. In-fact, we are spending an average of five hours daily on screen time/our mobile devices and an average of 50 minutes on applications such as Facebook alone. Pay TV only adds to our time spent indoors.

Many of the children born in the past 20 years have been connected to a computer before a field of grass, which has resulted in a generation with minimal appreciation for the outdoors and for movement in general. Many choose to be indoors even when they have the opportunity to be outside. Luckily, I grew up in a natural setting of which I am extremely grateful for, as I strongly believe that these early experiences have prevented me from getting sucked into the lure of the technological world.

An ever increasing population has also meant that our land sizes are decreasing and our backyards are shrinking.

Most of us also work longer hours, and spend more time commuting to and from work as congestion increases.

Fear of crime and increasing skin cancer rates have also had negative impacts on the amount of time we spend outdoors.

What happens when we don’t spend enough time outdoors?

Not spending enough time outdoors can result in;

Physical Consequences…

*Increased inflammation – resulting in autoimmune disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, and cancer.

*Vitamin D deficiency – leading to things like osteoporosis, weakened immunity against bacteria/viruses, and obesity, etc. Every second person living in South Australia, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania are deficient in Vitamin D.

*Causes Poor Sleep/Insomnia – not spending enough time outdoors affects your internal clock/circadian rhythm and affects your melatonin levels– a hormone which helps you sleep.

*Delays recovery from injury/increases pain – Research shows that limited exposure to nature increases pain, illness and delays recovery time from both major surgery and minor health problems.

*Is bad for your lungs: Indoor air is 75% higher in pollutants, as well as positive ions (oxygen molecules with an extra electron) which have been linked to decreased sense of well-being, decreased alertness, increased anxiety and a higher resting heart rate.

*Decreases your immune system – For example: a lack of exposure to dirt increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

*Poor Vision – a lack of outdoor exposure is creating a myopia epidemic – so much so that by the year 2050, the amount of people who are short sighted will grow from 4 million to 22 million.

*Exposes you to relentless noise pollution – which has been linked to higher blood pressure, stress, and even a heart attack.

*Shortens your life – people who spend less time outdoors have been shown to have poor overall health and longevity than those who do.

Mental Consequences…

*Increased stress and anxiety – by increasing levels of cortisol — a hormone often used as a marker for stress. The less time you spend in nature, the more time you spend in your head, and this results in increased stress and anxiety.

*Increases mental fatigue – less time in nature means less restorative time for your brain, resulting in decreased problem-solving skills, less creativity/imagination, weakened cognition, short-term memory loss, selective attention, decreased ability to multitask, and a decreased ability to concentrate or focus your attention on one task, which is linked to things like ADHD.

*Decreases your self-esteem and mood – not spending enough time in nature increases activity in a key region of the brain associated with depression.

Spend more time outdoors…

Whilst this may all sound bad, the good news is that all of these things can be easily avoided by making more time to be outdoors. We should all be aiming to spend an absolute minimum of a 1/2 to 1 hour outdoors each day.

To find out the best ways to spend more time outdoors, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

February 23, 2018 2 comments

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Eat Vegetables

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Q.What’s the one thing that every successful diet in the world has in common? They all contain vegetables, and for good reason too…

Why is eating vegetables so important?

Vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, digestive enzymes and microbes, fibre and other nutrients. Any and all of these reduce acidity in the body and chronic inflammation, aiding vital nutrient absorption, stabilising blood sugar levels, keeping bowel movement regular and removing toxic waste, decreasing bad/increasing good cholesterol, decreasing blood pressure, feeding your healthy gut bacteria/microbiome and so on. Vegetables are also important because 80% of Australians are suffering from dehydration on a daily basis. And a big reason why this is the case is because we are eating more processed foods and less veggies than ever before, which also equates to less water in the diet. Veggies help to keep you hydrated and functioning at your best.

Veggies are also the key to losing excess weight, which is something most of us need. Veggies are low in energy and some even contain negative calories. You could eat 40 zucchinis a day and still lose weight. If you’re not eating enough veggies, you’re not supporting your weight loss goals.

We are eating less vegetables than ever before:

Despite the importance of eating veggies, 93% of Australians are not reaching the recommended daily intake of vegetables. That’s virtually the whole of Australia!

The main reason for this is because most of us live very busy lives, and as such we often reach for foods which are quick to prepare, including processed foods, pre-prepared meals and meat – especially chicken. Also, vegetables have become increasingly expensive. Whatever the reasons, it is a real concern, and we should all be trying harder to eat more veggies.

How many vegetables should you be eating?

Australian guidelines recommend that we eat 2 to 3 cups (5 to 6 serves) of vegetables per day. If you’re already eating veggies that’s great, but if not, then it may take some time to increase your veggie intake. Just start with one cup and increase from there. At the end of the day, you can’t eat ‘too many’ veggies, as long as you’re eating a healthy, balanced diet.

If you would like to find out the healthiest way to prepare veggies, how best to store them, the best ways to eat more veggies and more, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

February 9, 2018 0 comment

Take responsibility for yourself

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What does taking responsibility for yourself really mean?

Taking responsibility for yourself means being accountable for everything which is within your power or control. It’s about doing the things you are expected to do and owning the negative or positive outcomes of your thoughts and actions. This includes self-respect, that you respect yourself enough, and that you are truthful with yourself. And most importantly, it’s about realizing that you always have a choice; knowing that different decisions will lead you to different outcomes.

Why is it important to take responsibility for yourself?

Research tells us that out of anything, the biggest determinant of success in life is having strong ‘self-control.’ Taking responsibility for yourself is important because if you don’t, then any problems you may have remain outside of yourself, and with that out of your own control. You are literally giving away your personal power to external forces, rendering you powerless towards positive change.

This is better known as having a ‘victim’ mentality. Victims often have the outlook that life is not up to them but rather that it is just happens ‘around’ or ‘to’ them. They tend to go around in circles doing the same things again even if it doesn’t work. They often complain and blame anyone or anything else other than themselves for their dissatisfaction of life. This could include the economy, the weather, an injury, a past relationship, their parents, their age or anything else in their environment. After all, it’s much easier to play the blame game, than to take responsibility for their own success. This often becomes a habit for most, and so they continue to sit around feeling sorry for themselves and waiting for their life to change instead of engaging in it which is a real waste. And then before they know it, life ends up passing them by.

In contrast, when you take responsibility for yourself, then change not only becomes possible, but inevitable. That’s because when you stand in your own power, you naturally become empowered towards positive change. And with this, new solutions and opportunities begin to arise. In-fact, the moment you accept responsibility for yourself is the same moment you gain the power to change anything in your life.

Sure, sometimes life hands us a lemon, but we can either choose to be bitter about it or choose to ‘make lemonade.’ By make lemonade, I mean that we have to make the most of the situation; we have to find the best way out, the opportunity and the solution in there, as there is always something we can do. And whilst we definitely can’t control everything in life, we can control the way we respond, and this is the key. It is only by taking responsibility for our self, that we can begin to consciously co-create the life that we want, instead of the one that we don’t.

If you want to start taking responsibility for your life, and in doing so start attracting the life you want, then I’ll show you exactly how to start doing so, as well as when not to take responsibility in life, when you join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

January 25, 2018 6 comments

Set Goals

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Why is it important to have goals?

If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail – Benjamin Franklin

Research clearly shows that people who make consistent progress toward meaningful goals live happier, more satisfied lives than those who don’t. And this is largely because having goals allows you to steer your life in the direction you choose. Sure, you may already be setting and working towards certain goals, such as getting a job promotion or saving for a holiday. But are you setting goals for ‘all’ of the other areas in your life which are important to you?

I say this because so often, I coach people who have gotten to their 40s, 50s, and 60s, only to find that their health is failing, their marriage is broken, their doing a job that they are not passionate about, or sometimes all three. Or it could be any other less than desirable state that they look up and find themselves in, one which is far away from where they thought they would be at this point in their lives.

This is because they have gotten caught in the drift of life – where life has taken them along for the ride, instead of them dictating where they wanted their life to go. Sure, we can’t control everything that happens in life, but we can work towards a future we want to create.

If you can relate to any of this then the first thing to do is to acknowledge where you are at today/your current reality. Are you where you should or want to be in any area of your life –relationships, health, finances or anything else? If not, then don’t beat yourself up – that’s fine. You simply need to acknowledge where you are at, to get to where you want to go. Remember it’s never too late to get back on track – regardless of how far you have drifted off course.

Next you need to decide what you want to create for yourself. This is where you need to let yourself dream a little. What do you want your health to look like? What kind of relationships do you want to enjoy? What kind of work do you want to do? And anything else. Write it down.

Once you have decided where you want to be, then you can start working towards steering yourself in the direction you want to go. And you do this by setting some goals and working towards them.

If you would like to learn how to successfully set, stick to, and achieve your goals for once and for all, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

January 12, 2018 0 comment

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Plan and Prepare Meals in Advance

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Given the busyness of life today, many of us struggle to find the time let alone the energy, to prepare and eat a healthy meal three times a day, every day of the week. And you know what, I don’t blame you – especially if you have a family to cook for too.

However, by pre-paring meals in advance (meal prepping) we can avoid this constant struggle, and eat healthier meals more consistently. Here are a few tips to help get you started…

Make a plan of what you want to eat – Make a list of your favourite foods, then find recipes which are not only simple, but which can be made quickly or in bulk. You will also need to decide on what you are going to eat for snacks between meals. Simply write down 7 healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack ideas right now, and you already have your first week done. Then do the same thing again for next week. Once you have a few weekly menus worked out, then you can rotate them to keep things interesting.

Know what you need to buy – Once you have worked out what you want to eat, then write or even type out all of the ingredients into a shopping list which you can re-use each week. This way, you won’t waste time doing multiple trips to the supermarket each week. It will also mean that you are less likely to buy things which you don’t really need – including junk foods! This not only means you won’t have to use your willpower to avoid eating junk when it’s in your pantry, but it also cuts down on waste.

These are just a couple of many of my essential tips towards planning and preparing meals in advance. If you are serious about doing so, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

December 29, 2017 0 comment

Be The Bigger Person

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What is being the bigger person?

Many of us have heard about the notion ‘be the bigger person,’ but what does this really mean? Well it definitely doesn’t mean eating more. Put simply, being the bigger person means to live and interact in the world in a way which better allows us to get along with each other. The result being more peaceful, rewarding and meaningful relationships in our life.

Why is it important to be the bigger person?

If you are not being the bigger person, then chances are that you are experiencing conflict within your relationships to some degree. How many families and friends do you know whom are free of conflict of some sort? Be it the royals, celebrities, or anyone else, most are riddled with drama. Whether it’s a sibling not talking to a parent, this friend not talking to that friend, that partner not talking to their ex, or anything else. And it’s a similar story within workplaces too. The fact that there are so many lonely people within families is a real tragedy.

Apart from the damage this does to relationships, the stress of these interactions can literally suck the energy out of you and rob you of joy in each and every moment. And this is true regardless of the fact that it may have been in the past, if you try not to think about it, or even if you no longer see the person anymore/have removed yourself from the situation. In this way, it is important that you strive to be the bigger person, because doing so allows you to live more in the now and enjoy life, which equates to a happier, healthier, fitter you. It’s simple – the more we get along the less stressed we are.

To find out jut how to be the bigger person, and have more peace rather than conflict in your life, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

December 15, 2017 4 comments

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Get Regular Medical Check-Ups

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Anyone who owns a car knows that you need to service it on a regular basis to ensure that it runs smoothly and without problems. Well the same is true for your health too – regardless of your age, regular health check-ups can help find potential health problems before they become more problematic, and help you to live a happier, healthier, fitter life. Prevention is always better than cure.

But what tests should we really be doing? The best answer to this is to see your doctor, as there are various factors which influence what tests they will recommend, dependent mainly upon your age and your potential risk factors including family history.

But if you want a general guide to the most common tests that are essential to be doing, then join my 3 keys holistic health and fitness program at www.h360.online

November 30, 2017 0 comment