The Truth About Wellness Revealed...

My Wellness Tips Are Now On Intent.com and Twitter...

2009-09-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed that this blog
hasn't been updated recently.

That's because my blog has moved
to www.intent.com

Please visit me there and also...

Find out what I'm up to on Twitter

Now, Get Regular Updates On Twitter!

2009-03-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

If you're not using Twitter yet,
it is the best way to get regular
updates from me!

I post inspiring quotes, tips and
insights regarding wellness every
day there.

If you don't have a Twitter account,
it only takes a moment to set one
up. You can find me at:

http://www.twitter.com/johnamaral

Dr. John

Check Out My New Posts At www.intent.com!

2009-01-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

I'm now blogging regularly
as an expert voice on Deepak
Chopra's daughter's site:

www.intent.com

You can search for
John Amaral on the home
page to find my posts.

Warmly,

Dr. John

The 4-Legged Gift...

2008-12-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

Our beloved family dog died
last weekend. She was 14.

She was blind, deaf, incontinent and
barely able to stand. Finally, after months
of avoiding the inevitable we decided to
put her down.

I sat with her in the field where she spent
much of her life romping about, and our vet
gave her the injection that would end her
life.

It wasn't more than ten seconds before her
head dropped into my lap and "whoosh", I felt
her leave her body. That was it.

We buried her and cried.

Life is such a gift. The power and the fragility,
the strength and the vulnerability, the joy and
the sorrow... all a gift.

We're here for a while in this form, and then
we're not. So, while you're here I suggest
you heed these lessons from the dog realm:

When loved ones come home, always run to
greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in
your face to be pure ecstasy…

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on
the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under
a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance a round and wag
your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent,
sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

We'll miss you Naala. Thank you.

Dr. John

Are You Really Paying Attention To Your Body?

2008-10-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

I worked with a woman the other day who
came in with pain in her pelvic region
(her pubic bone to be exact). It had been
nagging her for 9 months and she's now
6 months pregnant.

She'd been treated by a number of people
who were all trying to reduce the pain with
various approaches but nothing had worked.
The pain wasn't going away.

I instructed her to locate the epicenter of the
pain with her fingertips and focus her attention
there. I asked her what it felt like. "It hurts!" she
groaned. I asked her to notice where the borders
of the pain were. She described a spherical region
around where she was touching.

Then I asked her to imagine the borders of the
pain expanding and spreading out so instead of
remaining concentrated at a specific point it
could become more diffuse. She did this and said
that she could feel energy beginning to move through
her pelvis.

I asked her "If you allowed this energy to fill your entire
body instead of keeping it bound in your pelvis, what
message would it carry to the rest of your cells?"
I added, "Since pain means pay attention, something
needs to change, what do you think you're supposed
to be paying attention to that you've ignored enough to
now need pain to get you to focus on it?"

She continued to hold the point and her eyes welled up
with tears, "I feel it" she said.

"This part is telling me to stop walking three miles a day
and just take a casual stroll around the block instead.
It wants me to get support rather than try to do it all myself.
It wants me to stop carrying my youngest son so much
because he's too heavy and it's hurting me." She
continued on with a number of other things as well.

As she received the message that the pain held within it,
the pain began to disappear. Her pubic bone suddenly
was no longer something to fix and the pain was no longer
a thing to take away or eradicate. Her body relaxed and the
color came back to her face along with a smile. "I'm going
to listen to this part of me from now on" she said.
"There's wisdom there."

Think about times when you have pain. What do you do? Do
you immediately try to make it go away? What if you put your
hands on the area of pain, focused there and sought to
discover what that part really wanted rather than cursed it for
being a nuisance instead? Then, what if you actually changed
your behavior to comply with what that part wanted?

Dr. John

Stop Waiting...

2008-10-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

What if...

Every time you remember your past you
focus on the gifts that those experiences
brought you, rather than on the pain that
they caused you?

What if...

You trust in the gift of the present moment
rather than focus on the uncertainty of the
future?

What if...

You trust that you are guided into relationships
to grow and evolve, rather than focus on all of
the times that you've been betrayed or wronged?

What if...

You decide to be totally authentic in every moment
rather than try to be the person you "should" be to fit
in and be accepted?

What if...

You choose to express your passion and freely
express your true emotions rather than live
a logical and practical life where you feel dead
inside?

What if...

You accept that you always have the resources you
need inside when you need them, rather than focus on
what's lacking on the outside or why the circumstances
don't allow you to be, have or do something?

Your focus is powerful beyond measure.

You are so blessed. Consider that much of the world's
population lives on under $2 a day. What are you
focusing on? Is it on what you're not getting, what's
missing in your life, or why things are happening "to" you?

Where is your energy going? Are you helping others?
Are you contributing your gifts? Look around you. Our
world needs you. Stop waiting.

Dr. John

How To Improve Your "Luck"...

2008-10-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some tips to improve your luck
(excerpt from Is Effort a Myth by Seth Godin):

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of 'spare time'
from your life. This can include TV, reading
the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in
social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

Exercise for thirty minutes.
Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines,
journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
Send three thank you notes.
Learn new digital techniques (spreadsheet
macros, Firefox shortcuts, productivity tools,
graphic design, html coding)
Volunteer.
Blog for five minutes about something
you learned.
Give a speech once a month
about something you don't currently
know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing
absolutely nothing but being with people you
love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things
you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest,
relentlessly.

If you somehow pulled this off, then six months
from now, you would be the fittest, best rested,
most intelligent, best funded and motivated person
in your office or your field.

You would know how to do things other people
don't, you'd have a wider network and you'd be
more focused.

It's entirely possible that this won't be sufficient,
and you will continue to need better luck. But it's
a lot more likely you'll get lucky, I bet.

I think Seth makes a good point. What do you think?

Stay positive. Don't listen to too much NPR or
watch too much news right now. Stock prices
might be falling but the sky is not. Focus on what
you can do something about instead of what you
can't control.

Dr. John

How To Thrive During All The Financial Collapses...

2008-10-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

Whether you've seen your stock portfolio
plummet, your business drop off, or a friend
or family member lose their job (or even worse
their house) -- you can honestly, successfully,
immediately and massively thrive during the
financial and economic crisis we're dealing
with today.

How? It all depends on where you choose to
put your focus and what actions you decide to
take in your life.

Could it really be that simple?

Did you know that there were more millionaires
created during the Great Depression than in any
other era in US history? Some people have always
thrived during even the most challenging times. Are
you one of them?

Don't get caught up in all of the fear and panic ---
Choose to focus on all of the opportunities around
you instead.

The worst thing that you can possibly do is buy
into the hype --- whether it's true or not. Is it
harder to get a loan right now? You bet. Is it
tougher to grow a business right now? Yep.

Is it more challenging to stay open and trusting
and resourceful so that you can can see opportunities
where others only see roadblocks right now?
Of course.

Most people are contracting. They're focusing on
exactly what it is they're most afraid of, and putting
their physiology right into the least resourceful state ---
the posture, breathing, emotions and movement of
overwhelm and survival.

When you're in survival, you have tunnel vision. Your
focus is on just getting through the day. Your creativity,
energy and vitality is squelched. Your passion is lost
because your higher brain isn't even receiving adequate
blood flow and oxygen to support a more expanded
perspective.

The truth is everybody is having to work smarter
right now if they're going to make it through this
economic situation in good shape. They're going
to have to expand their mind and draw upon their
core gifts and talents.

Are you working smarter or are you biting your nails
and wondering what's going to happen "to" you?

Many people are going to be painfully and brutally
affected by these trying times. Their health is going
to suffer the serious consequences of stress hormones
being pumped continuously through their bloodstream.

But, you can escape unscathed.

You can unhook from the stress and refocus your
attention and awareness on "what's working" in
your body, in your life, in our world. There are many
ways to do this and I'll be bringing them to you in the
One Minute Wellness Modules regularly.

But the very best way to do it that I know of is through
Network Care. If you haven't been in for an entrainment
or SRI for a while, then now would be a very good time
to give Michelle a call (475-2448 if you're near your phone).

Release the tension from your body, unhook from the
stress and fire up your creativity and passion so that
you can be sure to see the unlimited opportunities that
are available all around you.

Warmly, Dr. John

How To Close The "Gap" To Well-Being.

2008-09-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

To create and sustain true wellness where
you're feeling physically vital, mentally and
emotionally passionate about what you're
doing, why you're doing it and who you're
doing it with, you've got to choose where
you focus your time and energy very wisely.

Here's a tip to help you gain clarity about
what's really important:

Ask yourself this question: "What would
the picture look like if my life was happening
the way I really want it to?"

Now make a list of what it would look like.
As simple as this seems, few people will ever
do it! Yet, just the act of writing this down
sets wheels in motion that will change your life.

I can guarantee you, the bigger the gap is
between what you'd like your life to look
like and what you've settled for, the more
stress you'll have.

Once you've acknowledged that gap, every
action that you take to start closing it will
increase your sense of well-being. It's time!
Go for it!

Dr. John

The Power Of Practice!

2008-08-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Wow. Blogging is a practice...
Go away on summer vacation
and get out of the habit, and the
next thing...over a month has
gone by!

It's amazing...the power of practice!

For thousands of years, human beings
have been accomplishing things by
applying their time, energy and focus
to things on a consistent basis!

The key to creating just about anything
in both the internal and external worlds
is putting your time and energy into it repeatedly...over and over until the desired
result occurs.

But, we get off-track. I get off track!
We get caught up in the events and
circumstances of the moment, and
often put the very things that are the
most important to us aside.

If you've been putting something off
that is important to you, I invite you to
get back into the habit. Resume the
"practice" by scheduling time for
whatever it is that you've strayed
from.

Dr. John

5 Language Patterns To Avoid!

2008-07-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

If you're feeling like life is a struggle
or that you've been dealt a poor hand,
then pay special attention to this next
series of posts!

Your linguistic patterns and metaphors
(the way you talk to yourself and others)
play a huge part in your life experience.

Certain language patterns are a sure-
fire way to return yourself to a less
resourceful experience of life. They
can surface during challenging times,
and keep us in a rut.

Since how you talk about your past
and present experience reinforces
its effect on you, the more conscious
you become of the language you're
using, the more power you will have
to shape your life the way you want it.

Awareness of the patterns is the first
step to changing them, so start paying
attention to how often the following
language patterns (offered by Dr.
Donny Epstein) show up for you:

1. Generalizing occurrence, size or
effort to avoid pain.

Example: "I've given him/her everything!"
"I've tried everything!", This always
happens to me!", "Good things never
happen to me!"

2. Needing to prove someone else is
wrong, you are right, it isn't your fault,
or that you had or have no options.

Example: "He told me to take the
medicine.", I had to have the surgery.",

3. Using significant situation, intensity
or urgency as proof that you had no
option at the time.

Example: "I had to be rushed to the
hospital because of...", "I have _____
(fill in the blank with a diagnosis", "I
was an alcoholic."

4. Locating the cause of pain or
suffering outside yourself.

Example: "I was born this way.",
It was because of _____ (fill in
the blank with some person who
is not here to respond to the claim).

5. Showing how hard you have been
working or struggling to demonstrate
that you are OK having a gap between
where you are and where you want to
be.

Example: "I have been on a healing
path for the past 20 years.", "I have
been struggling with my history.", I
have been struggling with depression."

Notice how you felt as you read these
statements. Did you feel empowered
or like a victim? Share your comments,
and look for 5 more Linguistic Patterns
To Avoid in the next post (Don't worry,
we'll get to the empowering linguistic
patterns soon!)

Dr. John

The Tattoo Vs. The Entrainment...

2008-07-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

A while back a wise client of mine
told me why it is often hard
for people to share their Network
Chiropractic experience with others.

He said, "John, think about a tattoo.
A tattoo sells itself over and over to
people who think tattoos are cool. That's
because a tattoo can be touched and
examined right there on someone's arm.

A Network session, on the other hand
is intangible. It is an experience
that one has deep inside, and stories
about deep experiences don't spread
easily because there's no 'thing' to
talk about!"

No "thing" = Nothing. Interesting I
thought.

When there's no "thing" to talk about,
what does one say?

I got to wondering, "How would you
put your Network experience into words?"
and how few words could you use to
describe the experience?

So during July were having a fun contest:
The practice member who describes their
experience at The Well Being Center in the
most powerful way, using the least words
will win a very special gift!

You can enter by posting a comment to the
blog, sending us an email or dropping off a
handwritten message. By entering you agree
to allow your description to be shared with
others.

By the way, you can now gift your friends
and family with an extraordinary discount
on introductory visits at The Well Being
Center through our new Wellness Ambassador
program! This is a great way to help people
you love reduce stress and end pain. Just
ask for details at the front desk!

Dr. John

2008-06-25T23:49:00.001-07:00

Blog Directory

Are You Practicing The 3 A's?

2008-06-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

Are you constantly seeking to

become more aware of your

very experience of being alive...

...from moment to moment as it is,

without attachment to it, judgement

of it, a story around it, or even a

complete understanding of it?

If so, you're practicing the first A:
AWARENESS.

Are you focusing on really recognizing
the energy, breath, and movement in your
body...from moment to moment,
as it is, without trying to immediately
change it and make it different?

If so, you're practicing the 2nd A:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

Are you able to just be
where you're at, even if where
you're at is not where you think
you should be?

If so, you're practicing the 3rd A:
ACCEPTANCE.

When you seek to become more
aware of your authentic experience
(rather than avoid it or suppress it)
and you acknowledge and accept
where you're really at in life, you
begin to set yourself free to truly
transform your life.

The 3 A's are a springboard for
incredible growth and change!
Yet there is a paradox inherent
in practicing the 3 A's:

Awareness, Acknowledgement,
and Acceptance facilitate change
precisely because they aren't about
change!

Ah, the deep truths of life...

5 Tips For Creating More "Time For Wellness "

2008-06-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

The How To Find Your Passion series will
continue! It has been a very busy week and
I haven't had time to add the next post
in the hustle and bustle, but stay tuned.

Speaking of not having time...

How often do you find yourself
saying, "Yeah, I'd be doing what I really
wanted if I just had the time."

I hear it a lot in practice. So often people
think they've just got too many pressing
matters to deal with to find time for creating
the quality of life that really fulfills them...

...in other words, wellness.

But the truth is, you don't have to wait to
feel well!

Here are 5 tips from Organizational and
Time Management expert Julie Morgenstern
to help you free up some time:

1. Slap a sign on your refrigerator that
says DON’T DO OTHER PEOPLE’S
JOBS. If you find yourself picking up
toys or washing dishes when you’ve
delegated those tasks, STOP.

2. Set aside generous blocks of free
time in your schedule, hold yourself to
them as if they were important meetings.

3. Figure out how long you’d spend
on something if you were doing it last
minute. Then give yourself ONLY that
amount of time and do it right away.

4. Perfectionism can eat up hours
every day. For each item on your to-do
list, see how little effort you can put in
to achieve results.

5. When you do free up time don’t
rush to fill it. Keeping your schedule
open will make you receptive to
unexpected good things that may
come your way.

Until next time...

Dr. John

Bored With Your Life? How To Find Your Passion Part 4!

2008-06-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

What emotions do you currently feel most
often in your life?

Jot down a list of as many of them that you
experience on a day to day basis as
you can think of. How many emotions are on
that list?

The purpose of your emotions is to adapt you to
the world. Your emotional "system" prepares
your cells... so that you have the internal readiness
to make the external changes required when the
time arises.

The wider your range of emotions, the greater
the changes you're capable of making in
daily life.

If the emotions you feel the most often are anger,
frustration, and sadness. When an opportunity
to radically improve your life presents itself, do you think
you'll even notice it? Do you think you'll
be ready to take action, adapt, change your behavior,
and reinvent yourself in that instant...

...or might you find another excuse not to take the
action that could change the course of your life forever?

Passion is intimately tied to emotions, but living with
passion requires more than just "being emotional". It
requires accessing a wider range of your emotions!

Make a list of all of the emotions that you want to feel
more often. What is it really going to take to feel them
on a regular basis? Who are you going to have to "be"
to feel them more often?

I'll continue to give you tips and ideas to find your passion
in the coming weeks. We're just getting started!

Questions or comments? Post a comment below.

Dr. John

Bored With Your Life? How To Find Your Passion Part 3

2008-05-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience
is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and
science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger…
is a good as dead.”

-Albert Einstein

Most people move from crisis to crisis
without making significant changes in the way
they're being as a whole. They are unable to use
the emotions they are experiencing to transform
their life and manifest their greater purpose.

Why?

Their biology is in survival mode, where access
is denied to the parts of their brain (the cortex and
prefrontal cortex) that must be active to experience
a more global view of their life situation, observe from
a more expanded perspective, and access transcendent
consciousness (or soul).

Powerful emotions will help you evolve unless you've
lost the connection with your essence; the unique gifts
that you contribute to the world -- your purpose.

When you're connected, the frustration of living under
who you realize you really are can drive you to say
"Enough of this! I'm done playing small!" Or, the pleasure
of feeling grace, bliss or joy can get you
to change your behavior and stop sabotaging yourself in
areas of your life where you've been suffering.

Consider these questions:

What emotions do you express the most often right now?
What emotions would you like to feel more often?
What emotions would you like others to feel in your presence?

I'll explore the relationship between your passion and how
you answered these questions in upcoming posts.

Dr. John

Bored With Your Life? How To Find Your Passion Part 2

2008-05-29T00:23:00.000-07:00

So, What do your emotions have to do with passion?
Where exactly are your emotions? Are they in your body?
Are they in your mind?

Dr. Candace Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion,
explains:

"For a long time, neuroscientists agreed that emotions are
controlled by certain parts of the brain -- the amygdala,
hippocampus, and hypothalamus. This is a big, "neurocentric"
assumption that I now think is either wrong or incomplete."

According to Dr. Pert, emotions are happening
throughout your entire body all of the time. On a
cellular level you are having an emotional experience
right now, whether you're aware of it or not!

According to evolutionary biologist Donald
Symmons:

“We have powerful feelings precisely because
the goals our emotions are propelling us toward
are difficult to achieve. The more difficult the
objective, the more powerful the feeling"

If all your actions are an attempt to either move
away from a painful emotion or move
toward a desirable one, then whether you’re
conscious of it or not, the drive to avoid a feeling
that you don’t like or to experience a
feeling that you like is what is motivating you
in virtually every situation in your life!

The stronger the feeling or emotion, in other
words, the more passionate you are about
something, the faster you will take positive
action to transform your behavior and your life.
The faster you will evolve, unless...

(to be continued)

Dr. John

Bored With Your Life? How To Find Your Passion! Part 1

2008-05-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Do you find yourself rolling out of bed with a groan many mornings, feeling overwhelmed by the mundane tasks that lie ahead of you as you prepare to navigate another day of "busy-ness"?

Do you ever feel stuck in a sort of flat-land where everything is "fine" but deep down you know that something is painfully missing. Where the bright spark and vibrant energy of your life has cooled down to more of an ember?

If so, then you're not alone! In a culture where we rush around meeting deadlines, checking cell phone messages, deleting emails in full inboxes and catching up on shows we don't have time for on TiVo, it can be all too easy to lose lose our zest for life, get in a rut, feel stuck, frustrated or bored. It can be all too easy to lose touch with our passion!

So in the midst of all these demands, how do you
find your passion?

The secret to finding and sustaining passion lies in
first understanding your body's formula for creating
a passionate experience and what gets in the way
of that.

When you're overwhelmed and stressed, your body
mobilizes itself for survival by initiating a fight or flight
response that consists of over 1,400 biological changes.
These changes include a contraction of the muscle system,
shallow rapid breathing, and a decrease in blood flow to
the part of the brain (the frontal cortex) that helps you observe
yourself from a "higher" perspective and make responsive
rather than reactive choices.

In this state you're not accessing the part of your brain that
helps you be creative, find new and useful meaning during
interactions and experience transcendent states of consciousness.
In this state, you're operating off of learned and inherited habitual
survival patterns -- you're just getting through the day -- hardly
a recipe for passion!

To move from survival to passion, you've got to do more than just
understand what's happening within your body. You've actually
got to do something about it!

Join me for a multi-part series of posts on How To Find
Your Passion in the upcoming weeks! Until the next time,
consider this:

Brain researcher Dr. Candace Pert in her book Molecules
of Emotion, wrote that:

"emotions are the nexus between
mind and matter, going back and
forth between the two and influencing
both."

Do you think emotions have something to do with passion?

Dr. John

When Your "Former Self" Is No Longer Enough: What Symptoms Are Really All About

2008-05-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

"The truth is that there is nothing noble about being superior to someone else. The only real nobility is being superior to your former self.”

-Whitney Young

I've had the unique privilege of working with thousands of people from over 50 countries over the past decade, and there's one thing I know for sure...

Symptoms are your body's way of letting you know that who you are "being" needs to be reassessed and reorganized.

So, what do I mean by that?

I mean that symptoms are your body's way of getting your
attention when how you're going about your life
needs changing...but you've been ignoring the more subtle
cues and signals.

Unfortunately, what most people do when they are
experiencing symptoms is try to eradicate them rather
than change either their behavior, their perception
or the structure of their life.

When you've outgrown your former self, in other words,
when your identification with a certain role ("I am" a....)
is stunting your growth rather than enabling it, you should
have symptoms!

Your body needs to let you know that you're playing too
small and it is time to exchange your old story, your old
behaviors or even your old body posture for a new one
that is congruent with your current level of awareness.

Your body is letting you know that your former self is no
longer enough and it is time to evolve.

Find out how to better gain the wisdom from your symptoms
by visiting our website today.

Dr. John

Oprah And Eckharte Tolle On Awakening

2008-05-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

We’ve been participating in Oprah and Eckhart Tolle’s free web class on his new book, A New Earth; Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.

As many spiritual teachers do, Tolle talks about
being in the NOW, the Present moment as a way to awaken. He suggests stopping for a moment to sense the “Aliveness” in your body, to sense your hand without moving it, to tune into your essence and become aware of where in your body you have a sense of well-being.

Tolle suggests that tuning into your body and
nature, and feeling their essence — unattached
from past preconceived notions or future desires
about these “things” — is a way to enlightenment.
A way to feel more alive, less dense and bogged
down by heavy thoughts, feelings, demands etc.

We see the awakening process happening at
different levels and speeds everyday in our office.
Everything you are doing here leads you to your
true authentic essence — an awakened state
of consciousness.

What does it mean to you to be "awake"?

Dr. John

Your Brain Is Always On "Vibrate"

2008-05-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

According to brain researcher Karl Pribram your brain
actually talks to itself not in the language of words or
images, or just electrical or chemical impulses, but in the
language of oscillation, wave-interference, phase, amplitude
and frequency. In other words, vibration.

Pribram says that when you place your attention on
something in the world "out there" a certain resonant
frequency is created in your brain that is then picked
up by electrochemical circuits and vibrated throughout
your body's 75-100 trillion cells.

Pribram says that you perceive all things by literally
resonating or getting in synch with them.

This is very powerful to understand because
depending on the frequency your brain and body
are "vibrating" or resonating at, you either
attract or interfere with certain experiences of reality.

When everything is going the way you like
it, when you're in the "zone", life is effortless
because you're resonating with experiences
you enjoy and you feel well.

When everything seems like a struggle, when
you're out of synch with the experiences you
enjoy, you feel ill.

This resonance is a biological process, not just
some New Age woomeister's story!

I'll be writing more about how your body and mind
attract or interfere with the experience of wellness
in upcoming posts.

Dr. John

The Wellness Formula: Simplify. Support. Sustain.

2008-05-14T11:32:00.001-07:00

As a culture we're information overloaded.
We have a million things to deal with and
everybody wants everything NOW!
However, there's never enough time.

We're busier and busier but so many people
don't feel fulfilled by doing what they're doing.
Life seems very complex.

“Wellness", is more than just feeling good
physically. It is the subjective experience
that life is working and the millions of things
you have to do aren't closing in and suffocating
you. The world seems easier to navigate.
When your body is in "fight-or-flight" or survival
mode nothing seems simple.

People turn to drugs, alcohol, TV and other
addictions to tune out and temporarily "simplify"
things. However, they just get numb for a
while and then have to deal with an even more
complex situation when they focus back on their
life circumstances.

The body, mind and spirit need ongoing
support so that the stress of life doesn't take
hold and keep one in such reaction and
defensiveness that creativity, joy, spontaneity,
playfulness, and passion are squelched.

A quick-fix isn't enough. People are realizing
that it isn’t enough to achieve "success" according
to the old cultural paradigm where you practically
kill yourself to get to the top, or be the perfect
parent, or family or community member.

It's also not enough to just exercise your body
and have good physical fitness or try to transcend
the whole material world by meditating to awaken
to one's spiritual nature without "showing up" to
take part in making a difference in the world.

To be truly well, in other words sustain an optimal
level of well being, we have to have to acknowledge
that we're physical beings, we're emotional beings,
we're mental beings and we're spiritual beings and
we need strategies to sustain balance for the
long-term in every area. Only then do we really
feel whole and connected.

Join me in the discussion about how to
simplify, support and sustain true wellness.
I look forward to your questions and comments.

Dr. John

Mindset Isn't Enough To Overcome Stress!

2008-05-14T01:15:00.000-07:00

Since there are so many factors involved in what

you do that are "out of your control", what are the
biggest challenges, frustrations, headaches or
nightmares that you have to deal with on a regular
basis, that you want help with?

Are you adapting to the challenges in front of you?
How rapidly are you able to unhook from the
catastrophe of some screw-up this morning and
re-set to an optimistic and opportunistic mindset?
What does it really take to do this? More than just
"positive thinking"?

My colleague Robert Dilts and I were training the
CEO and top management of a multi-billion dollar
hedge-fund in Switzerland on how to stay resourceful
during high stress situations. The team told us that some
days they would sit in front of their computers and watch
as they were losing millions of dollars a minute! They
couldn't control it. All they could do was learn to adapt
to the circumstances and stay creative and proactive.

Positive thinking and mindset alone won't work in
most stressful situations because it's not sustainable.
When you're stressed, you're stressed and telling
yourself you're not just leads to emotional overload
and eventually breakdown in creativity, passion and
productivity.

The key to remaining optimistic, resourceful and vital --
in other words "well" -- is learning how to understand
and work with your BODY!

Tell me about the biggest stressors for you, and I can
help you create a number of powerful strategies to deal
with those stressors in ways that let you actually work
through the stress, so you don't carry it in your body and
carry it home with you to your family.

Dr. John