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Why Live Vibrantly is for You!
Live Vibrantly revolutionizes the way you live!
Proven and time-tested foundations that transform how you think, achieve,
live, feel, plan, create, rest, grow, do business and impact other people
SO YOU CAN THRIVE!
You can improve your life dramatically with regular exercise, even after a serious illness. Maybe you fell off of your exercise routine sometime during the pandemic with gyms closing and opening and closing again, but don’t let yourself use that as an excuse. Here’s why:
Every day you’re not exercising, you’re allowing your body to decay—literally! It’s just a chemical fact. When your body notices a “shut down” like not exercising (or not eating), it “helps” you by tearing down fiber or muscle so that you can “survive” the situation that caused the shutdown. The body is very efficient. If you’re not using a muscle it gets rid of the muscle as quickly as possible so that your body doesn’t need to support it with blood, nutrients, etc. So, the less active you are, the more “fit” fiber you lose. The more active you are, the more “fit” fiber you build.
If you want your body to work for you, work it! Little by little you can increase the time and intensity of exercise.
Work it in in several ways:
1. Cardio (of any kind from elliptical to dancing)
2. Strength training (of any kind from weights to resistance to toning)
3. Stretching (lengthening muscles makes your body more limber to move easier)
Make movement a priority in your life and in each and every day. However much or however little you can do each day – just do it! You will not regret it!
QUOTE:
“Joy is the most magnetic force in the universe.”
–Danielle LaPorte
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Intentional Passion
When you have an idea of the things that you gravitate toward joyfully, try some of them out. How do you feel when you are doing them? Does it give you “life” or drain the lifeblood right out of you? Do more of the things that GIVE YOU LIFE!
If you don’t have the opportunity to do that in your work at work or home, be sure you set aside ample time outside of working hours to spend significant time doing what gives you life — THAT’S WHAT YOUR PASSIONATE ABOUT and that’s where you’ll discover your purpose!
QUOTE:
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
–Virginia Woolf
When was the last time you really paused and recognized what your food tastes like? What is the texture? The sensation?” Next time you’re eating, pause to ask yourself these questions and see how eating can bring even more joy to your life.”
Be a slow eater! Here is why:
*A recent study out of Kyushu University in Japan found that people
who take time to chew slowly have better digestion and feel fuller,
faster.
*Researchers also found that, on average, slower eaters had a smaller
waist circumference and lower body mass index.
TIP:
QUOTE:
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
-Abraham Lincoln
Theorists and philosophers warned us at the beginning of the technological age that if we didn’t control technology, it would control us.
Reagan Bach shares:
“Going slow means investing in the things that matter long term and that take time to develop, so that we can move quickly and become successful over the long haul.”
We CAN slow down. We don’t have to allow the technological age to push us into high speed and drive us to distraction. Geir Berthelsen founded The World Institute of Slowness, as a Think Tank in 1999.
In Carl Honoré’s 2004 book, In Praise of Slow, he describes the slow movement:
“It is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. It’s about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting.”
While Live Vibrantly focuses on everyone in all walks of life, let’s look at how you focus your work:
For those of you in business, it is important to remember some things Regan Bach teaches:
“These are the aspects of business that suffer and ultimately fall apart at the seams when companies focus exclusively on moving fast. Many companies aim to gain market traction first, and then deal with everything else (culture, communication, HR, etc…) once they get there. That’s like attempting to summit Everest first, and then dealing with setting up base camps after the fact.”
TIP:
How about pausing today and asking yourself what you can do to slow life down?
Here are some resources for you:
In Praise of Slow – Carl Honore
https://www.carlhonore.com
The World Institute Of Slowness
https://www.theworldinstituteofslowness.com
QUOTE:
“You are only as young as your spine is flexible.”
–Joseph Pilates
Ever watch a 15-year old body move compared to a 70 year old body? What’s the difference? A lot of it is flexibility. We get to keep our healthy, youthful flexibility if we’re willing to work at it by stretching regularly. And stretching improves posture, range of motion and also prevents loss of range of motion.
TIP:
In under 15 minutes of yoga or any kind of stretching every day (or even every other day), you’ll feel better and look better AND keep from looking old as those years tick by.
Cheri Clampett has great ways for you to make your own stretching routine in her The Therapeutic Yoga Kit.
And here’s a free, quick daily routine for you on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCAnb1RkXvE
QUOTE:
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
–Stephen Covey
I’m often asked, “How do I cram more into the time I have? I seem to never get it all done.” Well, here’s a little story:
TIP:
1. If you haven’t mastered the use of the Achieve Road Map yet, stick with it. It will soon become a habit and it will make you as calm and productive as Suzanne.
2. If you have questions about how to effectively use the Achieve Road Map, send me a question at the bottom of this page link:
https://livevibrantly.life/about/
Happy Getting Things Done to each of you!
QUOTE:
“The key to achieving your aspirations lies not in ‘being a success’ but rather in working to reach your unique potential…”
–Robert Kaplan-
Good Morning!
Do you live “the good life?” The Greeks “good life” is characterized by a life of thriving with purpose at its core.
TIP:
Review 1-5 above. Take a few minutes quietly. Now – specifically, ask yourself and answer these four questions:
“What activities have I enjoyed doing the most throughout my life?”
“What has provided the happiest moments in my life?”
“What do I want most at this point in my life?”
“What can I simply not live without in this world?”
QUOTE:
“There is an intense hunger for genuine community where people feel related in truly human ways.”
–J. Douglas Holladay
Good Morning!
TIP:
Focus this week on connecting with people more intentionally:
● Listen really well.
● Ask questions that show real empathy and curiosity (see above)
● Actively reflect back feelings.
● Celebrate with those that are celebrating
● Feel with those who are feeling strongly
● Make someone’s day through how you relate to them!
QUOTE:
“The attitude is very important. Because, your behavior radiates how you feel.
-Lou Ferrigno
Good Morning!
The company, Whitespace says:
"An individual who has the openness, honesty, and subtlety to perceive the nuances of their attitude in each moment, and the concentration necessary to make corrections as necessary is truly an unlimited person. For it is our attitude which determines the reality we live in and the opportunities and experiences we are available to.” (bewhitespace.com)
What kind of attitude do you want? It’s your choice, you know. Or do you know? Choose to relax and just be with what is, or even enjoy what is. It may not be what you would have preferred, so can you switch gears and choose to prefer it?
Can you dance in the rain?
TIP:
Here’s how to retrain your brain (grow new positive neural pathways. Just google neuroplasticity*):
If you notice your attitude isn’t serving you:
1. STOP (OR PAUSE)
2. Make a new choice to switch gears and attitudes.
It’s that simple. When you do that over and over, you grow new positive neural pathways. When that happens you find that you now automatically see and feel differently than you used to and have a much more joyful, free flowing, VIBRANT life.
Remember what Zig Zigler said: “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
*Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. These changes range from individual neuron pathways making new connections, to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping.
QUOTE:
“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”
-John Milton
GOOD MORNING!
Ever had an epiphany? An illuminating discovery that shifted your reality? A bit of insight that helped you see/think differently than you saw/thought before?
That’s what we mean when we say, “pick up a different lens to see through.” When you do pick up a different lens or several different lenses to see through you are allowing an epiphany to happen on purpose instead of by chance. It opens you up to new ways of seeing and thinking. It helps you expand as a human being and have a larger life view. That’s what happens when you have an epiphany. You suddenly see more than you saw before.
I remember the day I realized that there are at least 100 right ways to do/see most everything. When we stop blocking different views and stop defending our solo view, our world opens up, our anxieties can lessen, our acceptance expands…WE BECOME MORE VIBRANT!
Here’s an example from my life:
The moment I stopped wishing someone would adore me and started giving freely to others—recall the valentine story* on February 8, 2021?—my life began to change. That was a slow moving, slow in coming epiphany—A real change of perspective that eventually paid off in spades (the more I give, the more I get) even though that wasn’t even part of the motive. I continued to find other little ways, little acts of kindness, little words, little cards, little gestures to make people happy and show them gratitude (and it paid off to me in that it made me happy to make others happy!) The happiness snowballed and showed up all around.
TIP:
Want to feel more calm and able to ride with the tide and go with the flow? See how many different lenses you can try on this week. Ask you friends and coworkers how they see things and just listen and drink in what they say. Guard against blocking their view with your view shield. You don’t have to believe and adopt their view. You can look at it, view all sides of it and either pick it up and hold on to it or lay it down. But just knowing other views frees you up and calms you down.
Doubt it? Try it!
Full story: I was always so sad when Valentine’s Day rolled around if I didn’t have a love in my life. One Valentine’s Day I decided I would try something different. I bought some inexpensive kids valentine’s packs and carried little valentines around with me all day. I handed them out to strangers as well as people I knew. They were first reluctant, then surprised, then so happy and said things like, “THANK YOU SO MUCH. This is the only valentine I will get today.” Epiphany: By focusing on making other people happy instead of my sadness resulted in my own happiness! I was shocked at how happy it made ME to hear how much happiness the little valentine’s gave them! I was happy all day instead of staying home and sulking. I created a perspective shift and an attitude change from sad to exceedingly happy. I picked up a new lens through which to view Valentine’s Day. The long-term benefit was that I started looking for little ways I had never seen/known before (perspective shift) to bring a little joy to people on a regular basis.
Try not to think of a pink elephant. Try to not have any thoughts for the next 60 seconds.. How did it go?
Why Live Vibrantly is for You!
Live Vibrantly revolutionizes the way you live!
Proven and time-tested foundations that transform how you think, achieve,
live, feel, plan, create, rest, grow, do business and impact other people
SO YOU CAN THRIVE!
Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. These changes range from individual neuron pathways making new connections, to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping.
So you now know you can actually rewire—retrain—your brain without a surgeon, mechanic or tech specialist! By intercepting and editing our thoughts in the present we are laying a foundation for how we will naturally think in the future.
It’s simple, but not easy. Last time (August 2, 2021), we touched on growing new neural pathways and neuroplasticity. Yep, we have pathways in our brain that we can reroute—sort of like the direction apps on our phone reroute us if we choose to go a different way to a destination.
Would you like to be in the positive attitude automatic mode? You CAN! It takes a little work to do the rerouting, but it is simple,
by using the brain’s ability to change* through growth and reorganization of our personal neural networks
TIP:
AGAIN, Just STOP… PAUSE and ask yourself:
FOR SITUATIONS: Well what good could come out of this? OR Sure this is bad, and what’s the good here?
FOR PEOPLE: Yep, they can be a pain and what good do they bring to the table? (Sometimes it helps to remember where they came from and why that might have affected them and made them be this way–compassion.)
Do this over and over and you will discover that you are automatically seeing the good and experiencing more joy in life.
If you do that often enough, the old route in your brain (neural pathway) will shrink and fade into the background and the strong route you have chosen will light up instead.
Why Live Vibrantly is for You!
Live Vibrantly revolutionizes the way you live!
Proven and time-tested foundations that transform how you think, achieve,
live, feel, plan, create, rest, grow, do business and impact other people
SO YOU CAN THRIVE!
“I was a truck driver with limited formal education and then a US senator and finally ran for the presidency.”
While running for governor, he was known to have said, “My opponent has charged that I have been in jail in four states for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. That’s a damn lie. I was in jail in six states.”
With his colorful language and straight talk, he won election after election by a landslide. Why? Because he was so incredibly real. By sharing his flaws so openly and vulnerably, he became ‘everyman,’ and people loved him for it. The public knew him as a flesh-and-blood human rather than a celluloid, perfectly scripted politician.
TIP:
Just be yourself. People will be more drawn to you because you’re real. The world is starving for authenticity. Give it freely.
“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.”
–Brene Brown
“Be so completely yourself that everyone else feels safe to be themselves too. Authenticity requires vulnerability, transparency & integrity.”
–Michael Bliss
– Garbine Muguruza
Good Morning!
Today is the birthday of a very special person who is dear to me. It is my brother who is big in the honey world. He tends bees and officiates organizations that assist beekeepers. He spends a lot of time and love on the bees he tends and they, in turn, benefit greatly by producing absolutely wonderful nutritious honey. We could also benefit greatly by eating that wonderful honey as we tend to the health of and nutrition for our bodies. Did you know that high-quality honey is RICH in Antioxidants that can help lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol? Honey can actually lower triglycerides!
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Something to Buzz About
So let’s start buzzing about honey. Why not begin transitioning from eating refined sugar to using honey instead?! You can either just take a couple of tablespoons of honey in the morning and one at bedtime as a supplement OR use honey throughout the day as the sugar substitute of your choice. I love to use honey in my coffee or espresso macchiato in the mornings and anytime during the day that I want to sweeten anything. (It took me a while to get used to the different taste. Now I love it! There are instructions on the internet for substituting honey for sugar in baking. So try some SWEET and TASTY HONEY to punch up your nutrition!
– Melissa Etheridge
How noisy is your world, your life? We have traditional noise. We have visual noise (clutter). Now we have lots of digital noise, don’t we?
Do you feel differently when your out in nature as opposed to in your home or office?
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Reducing Digital Noise
Well, here’s a tip. Become a minimalist in the areas of turning down the noise in your life—the visual noise, the sound noise as well as the digital noise. Digital noise??? “What is that,” you may be asking? If you’re wondering, you might want to check out the book, Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. You probably want to think about letting digital noise drink up all your valuable life.
– Kenneth H. Cooper
Let’s make exercise easy and doable during these difficult times. You don’t need to make it a chore or take a giant chunk out of your day. You just need to make sure you get some sort of exercise 5 to 6 days a week. Here’s an easy way to make that work for you.
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Exercising throughout the day can be fun
Pick an exercise you want to do. It can be skipping rope, dancing, taking a walk. You can even do pushups or situps– actually anything at all.
Then, set an alarm to sound off every hour and do 5 minutes of whatever you have selected.
If you do that every hour for 8 hours, here’s what happens. By the end of the day, you’ve done 40 minutes of exercise! If you do 10 pushups every hour, by the end of the day, you’ve done 80 pushups. It all adds up to staying fit!
– Sean Stephenson
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Authentic Exchange
Next time you talk to your partner or close friend, ask them how all this has been affecting them—really affecting them. Ask them what they have been thinking most about during this time of perhaps less business, less running from social activity to the next. Have an authentic exchange with them rather than just a “what have you been doing.” Many people report they are finding a more connected place with people and touching in at a deeper, more gratifying level.
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Morning Mindset
Rather than waking up in the morning and checking your phone, why not keep an uplifting, inspirational book next to your bed or by the chair you sit in while you drink your coffee. There are hundreds of inspirational books. You likely have at least one, if not several on your bookshelf. (If you don’t, send me an email and I’ll give you a few suggestions.) Grab one. Get it ready for tomorrow morning. Watch how the right mindset changes your day.
– Steven Furtick
How would it affect you to spend your time being angry and feeling sorry for yourself for having been convicted and sentenced unjustly? Alternatively, how would it affect you to spend your time productively like studying for the bar exam, or writing a best selling book, or becoming amazingly fit? Isn’t it a matter of perspective?
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Transforming a prison into a passport
When you find yourself in a difficult situation or a bad mood, ask yourself a couple of questions: “How am I seeing this?” (What lens are you looking through?) and next question: “What good might come out of this?” In other words, “How can I make this a passport rather than a prison?” It all depends on what lens you decide to pick up and see-through because if you change the lens you see through, the things you see change. As Salman Rushdie said, “Reality is a Question of Perspective.”
Karen’s Vibrant Tip for Today – Stop Eating Junk
Just stop eating junk. You don’t have to just eat raw veggies. But you don’t want to have a regular diet of fast food, sugar, and white flour. It’s okay to eat those things occasionally, but not all the time. It’s a simple tip and it is pretty easy to do, so begin today and notice how much better you feel by next Monday! I think you’ll be surprised!
GOOD MORNING!
A very senior executive who I coached was always completely scheduled—never time to even think quietly. When I helped him pick up a new lens to see that time for not working was the most important determinant of the quality outcome OF his work, we instituted several blocks of time on his calendar. We called those blocks of time “GreenTime.” In his mind the color green indicated nature, natural, refreshing, spring-like time—renewal time. Actually the use of green in those blocks of time in his calendar became green because green was a color he hadn’t yet used in his color-coded calendar ☺
Here’s what he said about what happened when he instituted GreenTime: “I initially thought that using Green Time would simply return some sanity to my life, with little blocks of time that I was in control of, rather than being driven mad by a never ending string of time filling commitments. But Green Time was much more than that. It underlined what was important and how much of my time was being wasted on phony emergencies. Before long I had more and more green time and more and more productivity and peace. Green time is now the most important time in my calendar.”
TIP: Green Time helps you have space to THINK about the things that truly can make a difference–EXPAND YOUR VISION. SO, if you don’t have GreenTime blocked out in your calendar, begin this week! Call it GreenTime or anything, just guard that time as if it were the most critical meetings you have for your business or your life—because it is!
GOOD MORNING!
Want to feel really good and be free from aches and pains? Want to be fit, strong and healthy until the day you die? Then EXERCISE!
Here’s my motivation for continuing to exercise and makes me nervous when I can’t.
Exercise builds strength like this: Exercise triggers a chemical called cytokine 6, a decay messenger molecule, which causes inflammation and pain. That reaction causes cytokine 10, a repair messenger molecule to come to the rescue. cytokine 10 combats the inflammation and repairs what exercise does so growth occurs (muscle repair and growth and other great things—like keeping us young and healthy).
Marathon runners have a hundred times normal levels of cytokine 6 by the end of the race. Your level of cytokine 6 is a measure of how much exercise you do, how much inflammation you cause, and how much growth (or decay reversal, age reversal) you will receive from cytokine 10.
Without exercise there is a slow, steady drip in our muscles and bloodstream of cytokine 6 (that’s the chemical process that makes us decay as we age), but not enough to trigger the cytokine 10 response (the chemical that jumps in and reverses the decay).
The only way to trigger cytokine 10 (and stay healthy and young) is EXERCISE. Want to jump up now and exercise hard? I do!
TIP: So the tip is very simple today: Exercise more DAILY and grow younger as you do!
GOOD MORNING!
When you know why you’re alive, and what makes your life meaningful, you will want to be able to look backward at your life from its ending phase and see all those things that have made you smile or cry with joy. That vision of the future will create a new passion to live life with purpose, and it will energize you with daily momentum. That’s the power of working backwards.
That is also what helps you dance in the rain rather than just weather the storms. That’s what gives you the sparkle, the passion, the vibrance that lights you (and a room) up.
TIP: If you’re not quite sure of what will make you glow with joy when you look back on your life from your end point, take some time to toy with that thought.
Walk on the beach or in the forest. What makes your life glow? It will come to you… It could be that having had deep, meaningful relationships will give you that glow. It could be that leaving a legacy of instituting reciprocally beneficial relationships gives you that joy. It could be that having been a mentor in some way to as many people as possible gives you that joyful glow. It could be that creating forums (even if just fun, social forums) for people to connect with people gives your life meaning and purpose. One thing for sure, it will be the thing that matters to you. And thinking and planning backwards will energize your day and enlarge your vision!
– Ari Meisel
GOOD MORNING!
Answer this question: Why should I be productive?
The simple reason to be productive is to create what you desire in life – to realize your chosen outcomes. If you ARE achieving your desired outcomes at the pace you like, then game over. You’re good—you’re GREAT!
On the other hand, if you’re not achieving all your desired outcomes, this week’s tip will take you to the next step toward achieving. But regardless, you’re still GREAT!
As Ari Meisel, productivity genius, says in his latest book, On Productivity, “It comes down to doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason—and nothing else.”
(BTW: In a phone conversation several years ago, it was Ari who gave me the roadmap for launching Live Vibrantly).
TIP: Here is your next productivity step after the Implementing Your Priorities tip.
From your Achieve Road Map, put everything you want to accomplish on your calendar during a specific time slot based on how long you estimate the action will take. Aren’t things that need to be accomplished are as important as appointments? So schedule them. It also helps you refrain from overcommitting. If there isn’t enough time available in your schedule, you simply won’t do it.
– Aaron Ben-Ze’ev
GOOD MORNING!
Let’s eliminate aloneness at home and in your work!
Relationships are how we expand as a person, as a business AND how you will get the most out of life. Does that surprise you?
Drs. Arthur and Elain Aron’s Self Expansion model tell us that efficacy–your ability to produce desired results–comes down to obtaining resources that make reaching your goals possible.
Financial resources, yes. Focus & priority setting, yes. But more importantly, human resources (CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS) with people have been found to determine efficacy and getting the most out of our lives as well as business success.
Here is an excerpt from Dan Sullivan’s latest book, Who Not How:
Research shows that relationships, not will power, are what help you overcome life-limiting and success-limiting habits (even addictions).
TIP:
Get out there (even if it still has to be on zoom) and make connections, build relationships. What relationship will you improve or even create today?
And check out this great book about the power of relationships and connectedness:
– Erik Pevernagie
GOOD MORNING!
Only when I finally listened to that yearning tug to paint again, did my life become excitingly vibrant—in every area of my life. Three years before, I kept having this feeling and vague vision of my arm swooping up very quickly on a very large canvas with a paintbrush in my hand. I wondered what that meant. I hadn’t painted in years and when I had painted with oil and watercolor years before for many years they were all painstaking, careful, strokes achieving representational works. I remembered one of my college art teachers beckoning us to paint rapidly to keep our thoughts from interfering and creating intentional creations instead of painting from our inner being (whatever that meant). I now know what he meant and it is very freeing and life-giving to paint from that place of feeling and passion.
Now I also LIVE from that feeling place that first drew me to painting and art and being my authentic self, the person I was born as. I am using the skills I learned from my teachers and from my experience, but I am regaining the pure joy of being me and using that to paint with all the wonder of exploration and expression. Painting is once again as dear to me as it used to be before I got so dominated and concerned with “doing it right”. I paint from a more authentic and joyful place rather than to satisfy some external standard or gain some outside approval. Remember the movie and song Born Free? We are born free, how great to rekindle that original passion and wonder and put that ahead of technique or rules or the lenses of others.
So here’s the tip:
– William Shakespeare
GOOD MORNING!
In 1923, nutritionist Victor Lindlahr wrote, “Ninety percent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what you eat.” Today, we know this phrase simply as, “You are what you eat.”
I will add: You not only are what you eat, you are everything you swallow. That includes what you drink, what supplements you take—everything that goes into our mouth affects our energy levels, our health, our looks and our vitality. It also can affect how much or how little pain we have.
Hummm….does that make you want to take stock of what you’re putting into your mouth on a regular basis? It doesn’t mean you can never again eat and drink those yummy “bad” things, it simply means we all need to eat and drink healthy MOST of the time, not ALL of the time.
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
Try this: 5 or 6 days a week, eat and drink well, take your vitamins and minerals. Then 1 or 2 days a week (or you might even want to limit it to 1 or 2 meals a week) eat and drink whatever you want. That’s easy enough, right?
Don’t deprive yourself forever. Eat and drink well most of the time knowing that you get to reward yourself for good choices occasionally with something fun. Deferred gratification is a wonderful habit to get into in almost every part of your life. Try it!
– Karen Duncum
GOOD MORNING!
How did you sleep last night? What was your mood when you woke up today?
Huffington Post reports that “mood and perspective play a significant role on our mindsets before bed, which can in turn influence our quality of sleep.” They also affect our mindset when we wake up in the morning. Isn’t it, therefore, important what we watch, listen to, read, talk about and think before we go to sleep? Huffington post also said, “Think about your own experiences — is there a difference in how you sleep when you’re feeling good about things vs. when you’re feeling stressed or down? A lot of that may have to do with what you’re thinking about as you settle into bed.”
The University of Manchester studies found that people with higher levels of gratitude and positive thoughts before bed slept longer and reported better rest quality than those with more negative thoughts.
Want some good news about this?
Rosie Osmun at Amerisleep reports, “You can train yourself to kick negative thoughts and flip the switch from negative to positive. It’s not about suppressing the unwanted thoughts, which often backfires, but changing gears (and dealing with negative thoughts at a more appropriate time).
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
TAKE CHARGE: Be your own authority in your sleeping and waking mindset. Be conscious and intentional about what you watch, listen to, read and think about before you go to sleep. If harsh, negative content tends to affect you, don’t allow it in several hours before you sleep. Take in uplifting, vitalizing, gentle content before you sleep. Count those blessings!
– Dr. Kypros Nicolaides
(Watch his story on Netflix: Surgeon’s Cut, episode 1: Saving Lives Before Birth)
GOOD MORNING!
Dr. Kypros story on Netflix was entitled, “Saving Lives Before Birth”. The story of this remarkable and compassionate Fetal Surgeon is truly inspiring. I hope you can see it.
The doctor learned deep into his career that he had a type of blood Cancer that would kill him. But he wanted to work until his very last breath. His life’s passion was to save the lives of babies at risk in the womb. He has invented several processes and continues to invent and perform the procedures to save the lives of babies.
What a reminder to us that life is so much more than the breaths we take. It is about what takes our breath away. As we live with purpose we feel passionate! Dr. Kypros: “I lived all my life with the feeling that you must not waste time.”
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
Living the Life you Love
If you are not already extremely passionate about something in your work or in your life, don’t delay in finding the thing(s) that truly juice you! What do you just LOVE doing? What makes you happiest? When do you get in “the zone…in flow*.” Flow is when you lose track of time and aren’t even conscious of where you are. You are totally absorbed in what you’re doing.
What were you doing in your life when you were in that flow state? What do you recall in your life that made you want to leap out of bed in the morning so you could go do it?
If you want to know more about achieving Flow States you can watch the 2004 TED Talk by the pioneering researcher of Flow below this text:
* flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Wikipedia
– Paul J. Meyer
GOOD MORNING!
Eight weeks ago we talked about setting priorities when the Vibrant Wheel had rolled around once more to productivity. It has rolled back around to it again.
Did you actually implement the tip of 8 weeks ago and determine your priorities? Now let’s take that a bit further. After you have your priorities set, how do you stay focused on the right priorities and not fall back into old habits of just doing “stuff?” Do I ever have a tip for you—and it’s FREE!
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
Have a Simple Plan for the Week
If you want to stick with your top priorities that will take you closer to reaching your life objectives and greater success, use my weekly one-page tool. You can print it right off the website. Just go here now. You only have to decide once a week what you will accomplish (1 or 2 things) that week because the tool already has your annual, quarterly and monthly goal on it. So you just decide what, this week, will take you closer to reaching those longer term goals. It is simple and easy. Try it for free “You can print it right off the website. Just click or tap here now!”
– Desmond Tutu
GOOD MORNING!
A wise person (Henry Cloud) said what research also tells us, “There is a difference between solitude and isolation. One is connected and one isn’t.
Solitude replenishes, isolation diminishes.” Even when we have “stay at home orders” or social distancing dictates, human beings need (not want, NEED) connection to be healthy. Some of the reported consequences of social isolation are physical health issues, mental health issues, personal relationship problems, job related problems. We truly need connectedness.
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
Be creative in finding ways to be with others. Here are a few:
Exercise with a friend, or even a few friends or family members at safe distances. Get together at a safe physical distance in a huge room (like a gym) or in the street and sing or dance or just sit in a circle and chat. Spend time in a park or dog part. Talk with strangers. Hang out in your front yard and interact with neighbors. If weather doesn’t permit you to be outdoors, join group internet exercise classes or discussion groups.
The real tip: GET CREATIVE! BE WITH PEOPLE!
– Buddha
– Jesus
– Lao-tzu
GOOD MORNING!
I’m sure you have heard this before:
Watch your thoughts;
They become words.
Watch your words;
They become actions.
Watch your actions;
They become habits.
Watch your habits;
They become character.
Watch your character;
It becomes your destiny.
The way we think is extremely powerful. Our thoughts DO determine our future.
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
Thinking about our Thoughts (all the time)
Just STOP. Give yourself a moment to BE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR THOUGHTS. STOP several times a day and ask, “What am I thinking right now. What is it possibly leading me toward.”
Be very very careful about taking in negativity. Our culture is swimming in it. Carefully select who you listen to and what you allow into your thoughts. Realize how very suggestable we are.
Ask these three questions about information you are consuming: Is it true? Is it good? Can you do anything positive with it?
Don’t you want YOU to determine your future instead of “them” –whoever “them” is to you?.
– Renee Swope
GOOD MORNING!
How many times have you said to yourself: “I knew this, but now I really know!”
A successful businessman, last month, said this to me:
“You’ve been saying that to me for years, but I guess I was only ready to hear it—see through that lens—and change my perspective about my entire way of operating in my business now. I guess it is true that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. You, my “teacher” have been there for a long time saying that, but only today did what you were saying to me—teaching me—actually appear because I am finally ready to take off my old lens and pick up that new lens. Now I see it. I get it and my entire business life can finally change.”
Sometimes, we all need to change the lens we see life through. Usually the only way we make life even better is by picking up a new lens, a new perspective. How?
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
Picking up a New Lens for a Better Life
You really can experience greater success in business and in life by finding new ways of seeing. How can you do this?
– Patricia Compton – FMTV Food Matters
GOOD MORNING!
Quick question – what is the most foundational part of nutrition?
Here is a hint. It has zero calories. No one is allergic to it. Without it you have about 3 days left to live. You knew right away. It is water.
Last time we talked about nutrition as one of the 8 pillars of Living Vibrantly, the tip I gave you was the book entitled, FOOD – What the Heck Should I Eat. Please read that book! It has many great answers.
Here is another critical fact for your health: It is highly likely you need much more water in your life. Water is critical to Living Vibrantly! Water is a huge part of nutrition. Drink more water!!
Here is your vibrant tip for the week!
Drink water for both health AND beauty: Since we need water to support nearly every body function—including sleep, digestion and metabolizing food, go here to calculate how much water you need to drink every day.
Did you know that water even plays a role in regulating your body temperature and making your muscles and organs function either vibrantly or poorly? If none of that matters to you, but beautiful skin matters, did you know that lots of movie stars and models always have a giant jug of water with them for that very reason?
