Self Help ebooks and audio programs to improve YOU and Your Life.

Do you feel that your life and wellness is average and you desire more?  Then you need to break out of a rut and dream.   “Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectations and reality” John C Maxwell.

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People who don’t dream are allowing themselves to have the average life, we are discouraged to dream by others and we get into the habit of settling for average. We often offer excuses for the reasons why we don’t follow our dreams and, ordinary people have a belief that dreams don’t come true, or that its not the right time to pursue your dream. To live a life of meaning and purpose we need to take ownership of our dreams.   What does a dream give you?…it gives you passion, energy enthusiasm, commitment and desire. You can choose to accept your life or you can choose to take action towards your dreams. Our mind tells us that we could have, we should have, we would have… but its now time to tell your mind… you must do. People avoid setting goals as they feel that it’s difficult, but you only need 5 minutes to set your purpose.

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So what must you do?

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If you have a dream then you need to start with the end in mind and define what it is that you want to achieve.  Make the goal a big fat audacious one that compels you to take action. By starting with the end in mind you can see the steps that you need to take to get there and break it down into bite-sized pieces. By breaking your goal down to daily tasks there is no such thing as an unimportant day towards achieving your dream.

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To start, evaluate your life on each of the following areas that is important to you for example career, finances, health, partnerships, family & friends, physical environment, personal growth, and recreation.   Rate yourself from 0 – 10 across these areas with zero the lowest and ten the highest to define your reality.   Then rate where you would like to be in one or more of those areas in one year (or other defined time) set the goals and decide what you need to do to achieve a higher ranking. Then write your dreams as though you are already there, for example “it’s the 17th May 2011 and I weigh 70 kilos and feel fantastic”.

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You must see it to seize it. So get dreaming.

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Harlan

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Hi Wellness Followers

OK, I was looking to loose just a little weight to improve my wellness and I’ve been eating more bananas than usual! (We have plenty in the office every day). No idea why, but I was sure they were starting to help (along with a generally healthier lifestyle)…. so I did a little research on wellness and bananas and found the following video. It’s a funny video but with some good wellness tips.

Enjoy

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Rest Your Mind, Body & Spirit

When people become stressed they often respond by working harder to resolve it and therefore working longer hours, canceling holidays and reducing hours of sleep in order to tackle the problem. All of this has a negative effect on wellness for your mind, body and spirit.

Stress may be a short lived period, provoked by something outside of our environment for example studying for exams, a change in jobs, a tough period of finances or a relationship. However, it can also become sustained over a longer period of time, which can have serious wellness impacts on the mind, body and spirit. It can also trigger a crazy eight, periods of stress followed by anger which results back to stress, following the highs and lows of the figure eight. Anthony Robbins often refers to the Crazy eight during talks about depression.

Rest And Relax your Mind, Body & Spirit to increase your wellness

Rest is one of the key ways to increase wellness and reduce stress. Rest helps the stress to subside. It’s important to rest and relax during periods throughout the day, at the end of the day and at the weekends.

A couple of wellness tips to reduce stress is:
Take up a hobby, maybe something that will distract your mind and have a physical element too. Try sailing, walking, cycling, enjoying soft physical activities or even just switching off and reading a book or listening to an audio book. Even listening to music and socializing can be a great way to relax.

Taking holidays is also important, particularly longer holidays. Although its good to take long weekends and short weeks away you also need a good long break to totally wind down and put everything back into perspective. Holidays should have periods of total relaxation and quality rest.

Put your Mind Body and Spirit to Bed Early!
If you’re like me you may survive on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. But even if you’ve been doing that for years try having a period of longer sleep and see what difference it makes to your overall wellness. The average person needs eight hours of sleep a night, although depending on the person it can vary from four to eleven hours.

Lack of sleep has an impact on our moods, concentration, rationality and overall effectiveness. It can also reduce energy levels and reduce immunity. All of these negative areas have an impact on our general wellness, we start to make mistakes, have an impact on our relationships and even our mind talk can be different. This impact can increase stress and wellness.

Have plenty of sleep and boost your wellness, your mind will be able to think more clearly; your body will feel rested and energetic whilst your spirit will be happier.

Getting to sleep quickly can be boosted by reducing caffeine and alcohol intake from early evening onwards, have a few minutes of relaxing music or meditation before going to bed, empty your mind and thoughts by writing down any concerns on a notepad, give your mind a period of wind down before hitting the sack, and get into a routine. All of these wellness tips can help your mind body and spirit improve.

Harlan

So you had all those great post Christmas ideas to get fit, increase your health and wellbeing, to eat well and look after yourself more.  Yet not even a month later and the sudden over indulgent surge of guilt has subsided into a busy routine of normality.  It’s tough to find time for the gym this week, after all you’re so busy with everything else, the guilt of Christmas is but a distant memory.

The average life only has a little over 600,000 hours, not much time really in the grand scheme of the universe, so slow down, stop for a moment, readjust your priorities and use some of the tips below to enhance your wellness and wellbeing.  It’s your life, and you should be looking after it, no one else will!

(1) Make Time For You; take some time out in the day, a power hour…half hour…  or even just 20 minutes!  Hold your calls, shut the doors, relax…empty yourself and think… of nothing.  You need to turn everything off and recharge.  Try this a few times a day and ideally listen to a meditation audio.

(2) Quit Smoking… Yes even if you’re still having that sneaky smoke on a Friday night, give them up.  There’s no better time than this, the whole World is going anti smoking and for good reason.  Have a look at the figures and diseases, the cost to the health care system.  It’s not good, so give it up for good.

(3) Smile, I know its cliché, but it’s been proven that smiling improves your health and certainly improves the attitude of those around you.  You can fake smile (I do it in the car for half an hour) and it still apparently has the same effect, it also follows you throughout the day.

(4) Keep Positive. It sounds so easy, a simple little word! But if you can keep a positive outlook on life it will reduce stress and associated illness. Turn problems into challenges.  When someone greets you and says ‘how are you?’ tell them your “Fantastic” not “fine” or “good” you’ll start to enjoy your life more…and it makes it easier to smile.

(5) Exercise Daily…OK I used to hate this bit. I never had time and I didn’t particularly like it, but WOW, what a difference it makes not only physically but also mentally.  It increases endorphins, white blood cells, reduces stress etc.  I started to enjoy it by going to the gym at lunchtime for 45 minutes, and listening to an audio book on my iPod.   I love it, it’s my time, I’m keeping fit and I’m learning something new with the audio book.

(6) Cut back the Fat! Try to reduce your intake of calories, certainly stop putting that spoonful of sugar in your tea, within a few weeks you won’t notice the difference…it’s habitual.  Eat less fatty foods, more fruit and veg.  Snack on nuts and fruit rather than a chocolate bar (almonds give you energy and Brazil nuts apparently have anti cancer fighting agents).  Eat smaller portions, use olive oil for cooking, eat stir-fry’s etc you know what’s good and what’s not…  just common sense.  Oh, and avoid those jumbo sugary drinks or even just a can (375ml) of Coke has 40g of sugars, all that sugar, and then you eat food with more sugar!! What are we thinking…  or are we even thinking….  Again it becomes habitual, break it today.

(7) Make “Wellness” a Verb. Don’t think of health and wellness as something to do for the moment, think of it as a way of life, your way of life.

(8) Go Green. Yes eat green vegetables.  Read my previous blog about wellness tips with fruit and vegetable colour properties.  Greens are high in many properties they are also mostly antioxidants and alkaline foods. (Go to the chemist and test your acidity level, our lifestyle dictates a highly acidic body).  One of the best alkaline and green foods is wheatgrass, one of the most nutrient rich foods in the world and excellent as part of an alkaline diet.

(9) Reduce Alcohol. Have I really just said that!  Alcohol isn’t good for you, it’s high in sugars, and the alcohol has obvious effects on your body, including the increase of acidity.  I found changing from beer to red wine helped me to loose weight, feel better and apparently it’s an antioxidant!!  (Please note I didn’t say give up alcohol!)

(10) Be Social, having a social life and getting out at least once a week with friends.  This will give you the opportunity to relax, dump your daily stresses, have fun, laugh and be human (and drink small amounts of alcohol)

The above isn’t difficult to achieve, a lot is just common sense, but its amazing how people fall into bad habits, sitting at a desk all day, coke or coffee in hand, walking to the car only to drive home and sit in front of the TV, not even realising the damage they are doing to their body with no exercise, poor diet and much more.

You only live once, look after your mind, body, spirit and wellness and enjoy life for a few more hours!

Harlan 

WWW.WELLNESSTIPSANDSECRETS.COM

Does napping help relieve stress, or is it just an excuse for laziness?

The World Health Organization predicts that stress-related disorders and psychological disorders will be the second leading cause of disabilities in the world by 2020.

Guided Relaxation is another tool for your stress relief toolbox.
“The secret to gaining relaxed energy is to clear away the mental ruckus and emotional debris to make room for clear thinking. One of the easiest ways of doing this is through relaxing the muscular tension held in the body by tensing and releasing muscle groups throughout your body using a reliable technique known as progressive muscular relaxation.
Progressive muscle relaxation, conscious breathing, creative visualization and guided imagery techniques are often incorporated into guided relaxation exercises.”

I have tried this technique – called a power nap – to totally de-stress and energise my body and mind.

Interested? Try Stress Solutions Now by Julie Lusk…..great read.

Keep healthy. Brent

I have recently become more aware of what I’m eating, OK I’ve never been a McDonalds kind of guy, and I know it’s important to eat a balanced diet.  But, I am often searching the internet looking for health and wellness  subjects and there are hundreds of tips and “secrets” on the web to enhance your wellbeing, reduce illness and increase health.   But, one of the more basic but interesting aspects is the nutrition in colour throughout our fruit and vegetables.  Those colours are packed with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that keep you healthy, give you energy and enhance your wellness.

Each colour throughout the fruit and vegetable world has its own benefits, which is why it’s important to ensure you have a varied selection.

The five main colour groups are:

Blue / Purple

These fruits and vegetables contain nutrients which include lutein, zeaxanthin, resveratol, flavonoids, vitamin C, ellagic acid, quercetin.  These may help to lower the risk if some cancers and are good for urinary tract, memory and aging.

Fruits and Vegetables include: Blackberries, plums, blueberries, black currants, purple grapes, raisins, purple cabage, purple peppers, Eggplant etc

Red

Contains nutrients such as lycopene, ellagic acid, Quercetin.  Helping with anti-infammatory for arthritis, lower blood pressure, bad cholesterol and reduce the risk of cancer, heart and urinary tract health

Fruits and Vegetables include: Red Apples, blood oranges, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon, pomegranates, cranberries, red grapefruit, beetroot, red pepper, red potatoes, tomatoes, radishes

Orange & Yellow

Contains beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, vitamin C, lycopene, potassium and the phytonutrients carotenoids and bioflavonoids.   These may help the heart, vision, healthy immune system and lower the risk of some cancers.

Fruits and Vegetables include: Apricots, yellow figs, grapefruit, lemons, mangoes, nectarines, oranges, papaya, peaches, tangerines, butternut squash, carrots, yellow peppers, pumpkin, sweet corn, yellow tomatoes.

Green

Contains chlorophyll, fiber, zeaxanthin, folate,, vitamin C, beta-carotene and have varying amounts of lutein and indoles which help to promote strong bones, vision and may lower some types of cancer (prostate).

Fruits and Vegetables include: Green Grapes, Green apples, Limes, Kiwi Fruit, green pears, asparagus, broccoli, green beans, green cabbage, celery, green peppers, Leafy Greens. Spinach, watercress, artichokes etc

White

(OK I had trouble with this colour!)

Which also includes brown fruit and vegetables is known for phytochemical allicin. It contains nutrients such as beta-glucans, EGCG, SDG, and lignans.   These help to boost the immune system, may reduce the risk of certain cancers (colon, breast and prostate), helps cholesterol and promotes heart health.

Fruits and vegetables include: Bananas, Brown Pears, white peaches, dates, onion, garlic, mushrooms, parsnips, turnips, cauliflower, ginger.

Have a Colourful Life, and Eat Well

Harlan Marriott -Director  wellnesstipsandsecrets.com

Do you ever feel like your life is passing by too quickly?  That you never have anytime for yourself? That your stressed, tense, and your minds crammed with a thousand things your need to be doing?  If you answered yes to any of these then read on…

“I never have any time, I have a young family, a pressured job and no time for myself. I always thought meditation was something for hippies and was just for relaxation.   I didn’t realize that meditation is “The Secret” to achieving personal success, to visualize your goals, to achieve total relaxation, improve health and much more.  I now meditate (ok not every day!) and occasionally listen to meditation CD’s before a good nights sleep, I realised that it helps to direct my subconscious mind to providing me with solutions, better health, greater success, improved confidence and much more,  what’s amazing is that it really does work (I take some convincing!) .  Meditation has helped me to relax, set clear goals,  develop innovative ideas and improve my family and work life,  there’s a variety of CD’s, MP3’s etc on the market and I recommend just trying one,  I have placed a few meditation tracks on the ebook page, take a look and try one…  you may be surprised”  CLICK HERE

Harlan Marriott – Director – Wellness Tips & Secrets