When I went for my first big interview in New York City to manage the Fitness Department at Reebok Sports Club, the first question they asked me was, “What is your definition of flow?”  Being 25 years old, I wasn’t very profound with my answer, but I thought quickly and answered the best that I could explaining that flow was when everything works in sync.  It seemed right, but never really thought about it again until I my father gave me a book called Flow.  Being at the point in my life where I now enjoy learning about the deeper meaning of things and how life works I was interested in this flow phenomenon.

The book explains how Psychologists investigated “optimal experiences” and revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow.  During flow people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement with life.  We can learn as human beings how to control this positive state and how we can order information in our consciousness to discover true happiness and improve the quality of our lives.

Each of us finds our own experiences that put us in a state of flow.  Examples of activities would be making music, rock climbing, dancing, sailing, playing chess and so forth.  What makes these activities conducive to flow is that they were designed to make optimal experience easier to achieve.  They have rules that require the learning of skills, they set up goals, they provide feedback, they make control possible.  You must use concentration and total involvement by making the activity different from everyday existence.

Games give us the opportunity to go beyond the boundaries of ordinary experience.  In competition, the participant must stretch his/her skills to meet the challenge provided.  The roots of the word “compete” are Latin and mean “to seek together”.  What each person actually seeks is to realize their potential and this task is easier when others force us to do our best.  Competition improves experience only if the attention is focused on the activity itself and yourself doing the best you can.  If goals are focused on beating the opponent, wanting to impress audience or obtaining a big contract then competition becomes a distraction rather than an incentive to focus consciously on what is happening.

Exodus has been training clients for the Ocean City Triathlon which is being held on Sunday, May 20^th.  We have taught people that training consciously is a very important part of the game.  I hope that each participant in this race finds his/her own flow.  And it provides them with a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of growth.   When pushed to higher levels of performance, the participant is tapping into undreamed states of consciousness and therefore transforms the self.

Find flow in your life to expand your self mentally, physically and spiritually.

MAY IS GOAL SETTING MONTH AT EXODUS

Personal Goal Setting

Find Direction.  Live Life Your Way.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn the vision of the future into reality.  The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life.  If you want to succeed, you need to set goals. Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life's direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding.   By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

5 Golden Rules for Setting Goals:

1.  Set Goals That Motivate You-Create goals in all areas of your life…Health, Family, Career, Financial, Spiritual, Education, Pleasure, Service.  your goals should be important to you and you have value in achieving them.  This will help you make them a priority.  Motivation is key in success.

2.  Set SMART Goals-your goals should be specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time oriented.

3.  Set Goals in Writing-writing goals down on paper makes them real and tangible.  Post your goals in a visible place so you can be reminded everyday of what your intentions are.

4.  Make an Action Plan-Create a long term goal (what you would like to achieve in this lifetime) and then 5 year goals that will support you in reaching your overall goal.  Break it further down into yearly, monthly and weekly goals.  Write out a daily to do list that works toward your lifetime goals.

5.  Stick with it-goal setting is an ongoing activity.  Your long term goal may stay the same, but your plan may change significantly along the way.  Enjoy the process and always keep sight of your destination.

GRAB YOUR JOURNAL AND WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS.  WE WANT TO HELP YOU MAKE YOUR DAILY, WEEKLY AND MONTHLY GOALS HAPPEN.

TOP 10 WAYS TO HELP YOURSELF AVOID STRESS

1.  Use Guided imagery or Positive Self Talk.  Imagining a happy, peaceful, stress free place has been found to reduce significant amounts of stress in the mind and body.  With the guidance of a professional or an imagery tape, you can get into a deeply relaxed state and tune into your subconscious mind to find inner peace.

2.  Meditate Daily.  Meditation restores the mind and body to a calm, relaxed state helping the body repair itself from the damages of stress.

3.  Deep Breathing.  Breathing Exercises are a great way to slow down, bring awareness to yourself and heal yourself with this vital energy.

4.  Get Organized.  Being organized for your day is a huge way to relieve huge stress. Putting in the effort to get organized in all areas of your life will help you avoid unwanted mistakes, scrambling last minute for things or rushing through your life unconsciously.

5.  Exercise.  Any form of exercise increases the levels of serotonin in the body helping you feel happy, vibrant and ready to face the challenges of life.

6.  Eat a Balanced Diet.  A poor diet can trigger stress release hormones that raise your blood pressure, increase heart rate and leave you feeling tired and deprived.  A balanced diet can bring you greater physical, mental and emotional wellness.

7.  Enjoy Aromatherapy.  The power of smell has proven benefits for stress relief--it can help you to become energized, more relaxed, or more present.

8.  Music Therapy.  Music can alter your mind set in ways that help you to relieve stress. Find music that makes you feel good and energized.

9.  Journaling.  Writing things down allows you to express your thoughts and feelings and gain valuable self knowledge.

10.  Be Positive.  Surround yourself with positive people, places and things and you will find that you feel better mentally, physically and emotionally.

At Exodus, we want to inspire and motivate you towards health, peace and happiness so we decided to focus on eliminating stress to be able to find this inner strength. Stress is the cause of 80% of disease, insomnia, premature aging, high blood pressure and a low quality lifestyle. By eliminating stress we remove the layers of "dirt" from our minds and are able to find clarity. When we are able to see things through a clear lens, we are able to tune in to our true nature, find our personal meaning and live an authentic life. Now that sounds like stress free living to me!

I personally found that simply by accepting Buddah's number one rule (and 1st of 4 noble truths) that "Life is Suffering", you accept that life will be full of challenges and obstacles. There is daily stress such as anger, frustration, desire, jealousy, sadness, greed. People will encounter personal stress through the course of a lifetime suck as sickness, aging and eventually death. There is global stress such as world hunger, tribulism, racism, warfare, that we need to recognize. The second noble truth tells us that stress is caused by our "attatchments or how much we cling to things". If we cling to our youth, our bodies, our children( who will eventually grow up and leave the house), our possessions, our image of how things should be, we create internal stress. The third noble truth tells us that "We can eliminate this Stress" by letting go of the world and things that are constantly changing. As humans, we cling to things that find us temporary happiness, but everything in the world is constantly changing. If we cling to these constantly changing situations, we set ourselves up for stress. We need to learn to flow with life and adapt to each new circumstance. Let's learn how to live in harmony with ourselves and the world so we can find everlasting peace and happiness on this journey called life. Check out the events at Exodus this month that will support you on this adventure. Hope to see you for a great month ahead.

Amy

"Most folks are as happy as they make minds up to be"

-Abraham Lincoln

12th BLOG – MAKING CHANGES IN OUR FOOD CHOICES

Why is it so difficult to make changes in our food choices?  There is a strong human tendency to like the familiar.  It has nothing to do with our taste buds but more to do with familiarity.  Children best display the reluctance to eat untried foods.  This tendency to eat what is familiar comes from our ancestors the “hunters and gatherers”; they were continuously challenged with the absolute necessity of trying new and unfamiliar foods in order to survive, but each time when eating this new food they would be facing a very real risk that this new food could be lethal.  There are actually 4 million years of evolutionary history supporting the child that says: “I don’t like it!” with outever tasting it.

The strong influence of familiarity for dietary selection makes change difficult.  Changing to a health-promoting dietary pattern is certainly worthwhile but it will require an effort and commitment.  Once tried, new foods are no longer unfamiliar.  And the longer you stick with a new food, or dish, recipe or meal the more familiar it becomes.  For example, sushi; who would have thought that it would become a familiar food, the same can be said for Thai food, Mexican food.  These foods were not a staple in our recent past but they became familiar and now we find these new foods delicious, the same can happen with meals based on wholefoods,mainly plant-based.

When making changes, the key is to go slowly.  Keep in mind that any additions, deletions,or substitutions that change your diet into a more health-promoting choice are to be considered as a small success. Some may prefer going “cold turkey” and change all at once, but beware,your body needs to ease on in and get familiar with the new foods.  Taking small and gradual steps along the way to eating well is useful because it allows the overall diet to remain familiar.  You can keep your basic recipes but make substitutions; one good fat for a bad fat; one leaner meat fora more high-fat one…

When these new eating patterns become more familiar, the effort involved in maintaining it disappears; it becomes, simply, your way of eating.  For instance, if you add sugar to your tea or coffee, slowly diminish the amount of sugar and pretty soon you can drink it without sweetener (better solution than substituting it for an artificial sweetener that can have its own issues).  The same goes for salt; avoid putting salt in the water when cooking pasta; you won’t even miss it once you put your sauce over it. Change your white rice to brown rice; baked potato to sweet potato;fries to baked sweet potatoes; organic for non-organic… You will notice, for instance, after avoiding high sugary sodas, you won’t be able to go back to them; they will seem to you incredibly sweet, too sweet.

Once you have adopted, and gotten used to a health-promoting dietary pattern, the power of the familiar becomes your ally, making it easy to maintain a diet that will promote your health and weight control, forever.  These changes will be more easily accepted and will become a new lifestyle. This is a more successful way to achieve optimal health, and keeping your weight in check.

DO NOT FORGET, 50% OFF ALL NUTRITIONAL SERVICES FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH. THESE INCLUDE: EVALUATION AND WELLNESS PLAN; NUTRITIONAL CONSULTATIONS; NUTRITIONAL SUPERMARKET TOURS (including Wholefoods); HOME EVALUATION (from your foods in your pantry and refrigerator to  your cleaning products)