Your Mind--A Secret Weapon For Vibrant Health

Would you like to have bounce in your step and wellness shining from your eyes? Our body gets back into order when we give it all of the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that it needs for optimum performance.

Most people look on disease and sickness as inevitable. Large numbers of people break nearly every known natural law of health, and are surprised that they become ill. Yet the wonder is that they are as well as they are.

We are not machines. We are far more complicated and dynamic than any machine that will ever be. And you must honor the dynamic and fluid system when it comes to how you eat and how you exercise.

Most of us take our bodies for granted. We expect them always to do what we ask of them, effortlessly and efficiently; we assume that they will always be there for us. So we go through our daily lives thinking about anything and everything except how we use these reliable vehicles, these loyal servants that unquestioningly carry out all our orders.

We were endowed at birth with bodies that are perfectly designed to serve us with ease and enjoyment through a long, active and pain-free lifetime. So what goes wrong?

It is not an inescapable toll of some vague aging process. Blessed with the phenomenal powers of regeneration, our bodies can withstand years, even decades, of systematic misuse and still continue to serve us faithfully, with only the occasional twinge or ache.

We can try to blame “something” that runs in my family, our age or an old injury. But this is simply adding insult to injury. It is the piling up of years of abuse—of driving the car with the brake on and without changing the oil, so to speak.

Always recognize the true miracle of our bodies. Without any prompting from us, food is digested and changed into fuel, air is breathed, nutrients are circulated to every cell and hands and feet follow our desires for any action we want to take.

But the body goes beyond that. If we fail to supply the kidneys with enough water to rid the body of waste, the liver steps in and helps to strain out the impurities. If we break a leg, other muscles help us move around while the leg heals. Man-made machines do not work until the broken part is replaced.

We may not observe all the rules, but we willingly accept the idea that food, exercise and sleep are essential for optimum health. However, the link that gets ignored too often is the mind.

When we look to the mind we find a prolific cause of sickness. Man thinks himself into ill health and disease. People who are forever thinking about disease, illness, operations and other morbid subjects, become a prey to these things. Those who believe that sickness is inevitable, manifest it in their life.

Yes, it is hard to forget the aching finger, toe or whatever. Constant thinking of how much it hurts just puts you in a worried and depressed mood—and you know what worry does to blood pressure.

No one can say it is easy, but change your focus onto another subject. Remember the times as a child when you forgot about an injury because you were too busy doing something that you enjoyed.

Once we become aware of what we are doing to ourselves and begin to use our bodies the way they were designed to be used, the damage can be halted and healed. Health is harmony—a delicate balance and adjustment between spirit, soul, mind and body.

Your Five Closest Friends--How Do They Affect Your Success?

One of the biggest factors in your prosperity is the people you associate with. They color your goals, expectations, and what you believe can be achieved in your lifetime.

The five most important people for your prosperity are not necessarily consciously chosen. It is much more likely that it just happened. You may have heard that if you add up the annual income of the five closest friends and divide it by five, you will likely find that is the amount you make a year.

This does not stop with money—carry the idea further to the quality of your health, relationships and happiness. In particular, we need to understand the impact these friends have where health is concerned. How much similarity is there in eating and exercise habits?

You made the decision to move to a healthy lifestyle. No doubt there was anxiety over change, and fears about your ability to persevere. You are not actually trying to be something different, but are simply letting go of all the wrong habits that you have mistakenly accepted for a while. This is the time when that circle of close friends can become crucial.

At the start your closest friends encouraged and praised your success in losing weight. You probably heard some “that is what I have been telling you” words mixed in. Also, you have met some new role models who know how to have the health that you want.

When you get close to your goals, problems start happening. Strangers and casual acquaintances are complimenting you about your appearance. However, your close friends now seem to be doing their best to sabotage your weight loss.

One long-time friend invites you to her favorite pizza place to celebrate and you end up choosing the sausage with extra cheese and toppings. Another friend pushes the calorie laden snacks while you are watching television. Your spouse brings home a box of your favorite chocolates. Today your mother was hurt because you took only a small slice of cake she had made especially for you—it used to be your favorite!

Everyone seems to be ganging up and saying that you earned and deserve special treats. They know it is against your new routine, but this one time will not matter! Really? It would have been easy to give up but you did not quit. Each time you returned faithfully to your new eating plan. However, instead of losing you gained weight this past week.

Stop! This is not the time for anger and hurt feelings. Nor is it necessary for you to change your goals. But you do need to try and understand what is happening. You are no longer the person they have known and loved for years.


It is not just your size that has changed. You have new interests and activities. The friends are missing the old times and things you used to do together. There is fear that they will lose you and their life will be changed forever.

Allow everyone time to adjust. At the same time, practice using the words "no" or "no thank you" when that is how you feel. And you are not obligated to explain why. You simply prefer doing something else.

Later, you may wake up and realize that while you have been moving forward, the old friends have been stuck in neutral or moving backwards. Most times they just fall by the wayside—they do not want to join in your new activities and you no longer enjoy the old pastimes.

Releasing negative relationships is the highest good for all concerned. They come to the conclusion that you are no fun anymore, and they attract people who are at their level of consciousness. You, in turn, will attract those with desires similar to yours.

Think of your health as wealth. Perfect health is the foundation for a fulfilling wealthy life. You chose to have abundant health—a state of unbounded energy and vitality. Let others make their own choices.

Self Insight Creates Personal Power

“Why” is the world's best teacher!

You have your choice of living your own life or of letting other people live it for you. The more you live your own, the greater personal power you will have with other people; the less you determine your own activities the less influence you have. It is really as simple as that.

You can, if you choose, let other people run your life for you. And, in the long run, they will contribute more to its ruin than to its construction.

Do not waste your time and energies wondering about the opinion of others toward you. Never permit another person to determine your decisions, your beliefs or your emotional moods. Make up your mind that you will respond as you really want to, not according to what is expected of you.

None of us need to sway before the pointless influence of other people, much less do what they do because it seems to be the proper thing to do. Unfortunately, lots of people do. Make up your mind right now that you are going to be influenced by you.

A sure road toward understanding the other man—and thereby influencing him—is to first understand yourself.

To develop adequate self-insight we must frankly face ourselves as we actually are, not as we would like to see ourselves or as we want others to see us. Human behavior follows certain basic patterns. If you can get first-hand knowledge of its principles by observing yourself in action, you enable yourself to predict the attitudes and behavior of the other man.

You already do this to some extent or other. For instance, you enter a friend’s back yard and find him adding the finishing touches to his homemade barbecue pit. You know very well that he would not at all mind a compliment or two on his skill in building the pit. How do you know what he wants and needs from you? Because you would like a word or two praising your own efforts in a similar situation.

Your insight into your own need for a kind word enables you to understand his need, therefore you say the thing that influences him toward you in a favorable way. That is a very obvious example of the persuasive force found in self-knowledge. Its development can empower you far more than may be obvious to you at present.

You must have an idea of what you want if you are to understand what other people want, for your basic needs are the very same as those longed for by others. By knowing what they need you can satisfy them; by satisfying them you can influence them.

Possibly this seems familiar. There is some routine that you do on a regular basis that has become a dreaded and boring part of the day, but you know everyone depends on the information to be timely and accurate. How good did you feel when someone actually thanked you and praised your efforts?

Start making it a habit to notice and praise others for those daily “small” things. Thank you does not have to be used only for major events.

Ask yourself how well you know yourself. To that very same degree you will know and control others. Self-insight is a personal power you should start developing to maximum use right now.
If you have committed an error, admit it—do not try to hide it, justify your actions or allow someone else to be blamed. There is something humanly likeable about admitting shortcomings and errors. And there is something extra appealing about the person who faces his need for correction.

Remember that one of the greatest principles for human growth and personal enrichment is: Never try to protect a mistake. The more we attempt to justify a false position, the more we are bound by it. Whenever you make an error, look at it squarely, even cheerfully, and then take immediate action.

Do not wait for the ideal solution to pop up; it never does. Just go ahead with whatever imperfect plans seem best for the time. This is the honest and courageous self-correction that carries your human relations from fair to good to superb in the shortest time possible.

It takes mature strength to admit and solve problems in our business or within the home circle. One of the best things about self-correction is this: If we do it, others will not be so tempted to try and do it for us! We retain our independence.

Every time you correct yourself you charge yourself with extra personal strength. Make enough corrections and you will have more than enough people who will want to do things for you. If you do not believe it, try it.

This quote from Robert Louis Stevenson summarizes self-insight well: “To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”

Unlike the wicked queen in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, most anyone wanting to lose weight avoids looking in mirrors if at all possible. Of course there are the normal routine glimpses such as the half-asleep gaze while brushing teeth or during the morning's rush to get off for work.

All of us who have been described anywhere from pleasingly plump to obese avoid looking at ourselves like a plague. It is self protection when we really do not like the image reflected back to us from that mirror.

Unfortunately, not enough attention is paid to those inner feelings. Instead we are told to concentrate on losing fat, learning to make healthy food choices and exercising.

False Myth: Reaching your “magic number” on the bathroom scale is going to solve all problems: Life will be happy ever after just like the Snow White story. It takes more than weight loss to replace those hidden feelings of self hatred or dislike. First we recognize the feelings and then we can go on to create a positive image.

Your clothing has gone from loose to the point where certain movements might result in some unexpected exposure that could prove embarrassing. You can postpone it no longer—some new smaller sizes must be purchased.

You have been looking forward to finally being able to wear more stylish clothing. Instead, in spite of your leaner body, the shopping trip becomes a painful experience. You select some outfits that look promising. The store staff interrupts their gossip session long enough to point you in the right direction for the dressing rooms.

The next 20 to 30 minutes are full of misery because nothing looked good. That saleslady’s smirk when you told her nothing fit or looked right was the final straw. Her parting comment about the style being better on thinner individuals did not help matters. Defeated, you order a smaller size of the same-old, same-old comfortable “things” that you had learned to hate!

The learning experience of choosing what looks best gets bypassed when you have been purchasing large size clothing for any length of time. Limitations on the selections seem to increase rapidly as the size goes up. Shopping becomes more a matter of grabbing something to cover rather than to flatter the body.

No matter what dress size you are or how much you weigh, perfect proportions are hard to come by. It is easy to have a change in hair color. Contact lenses will provide a new eye color. But there are certain “givens” that are not going to change ever and others you can change with plastic surgery if you have enough money.

You cannot grow taller but your clothes will certainly look better with the improved posture gained from your exercise program. Many of the other problems such as bone size, tall or short, top heavy or bottom heavy and long or short waisted can be minimized by using camouflage in clothing.

Before your next shopping trip, spend some time really studying why one friend looks great in the current fashion and another does not. I have found that health and/or fitness magazines have more practical, usable ideas than the standard high fashion ones. Also you can increase your fashion “smarts” doing some people watching at the local mall. Spend some thought figuring out why one person has succeeded while another has failed to look their own personal best.

At intervals the Oprah Winfrey show has programs on looking your best. Their experts will take ordinary women (no fashion models) and show how they can improve their image by clothing selection alone. It is magic now and not six months later. The best part is the explanation of why the choices were made. The undergarment features are equally helpful. (You can always tape programs for later viewing.)

Just once I would like to see the same skills in clothing selection, makeup and hair styling used for the “before” and “after” photographs in the diet product advertisements. Instead the before photograph shows the person in the worst image possible. The after view has also had the benefit of a very skilled photographer.

One of my favorite books is Leah Feldon’s “Does This Make Me Look Fat?” Her book gives definitive rules for dressing thin for every height, size, and shape. It is a great tonic for the ego to learn that even the rich and famous have doubts about appearance and have tricks to disguise their problems.

Take time to explore your local book store. There are other good books offering advice on styles to flatter the various figure types and avoid the trial-and-error disasters. Many of the department stores have personal shoppers who can guide you to the right choices for your body type and lifestyle.

Be open to experiment to find your best styles. Always remember that you are unique--no one else is exactly like you. Shopping becomes much more fun when you know in advance the kind of clothing that shows you off in the best possible way. Your weight loss program is a success when you enjoy looking at that mirror image. You have learned how to look and feel beautiful!