Sep 13

Have you ever been in the situation where you got that feeling where you were coming down with a cold or ‘flu bug? It doesn’t feel great and before you know it you’re at the stage where you can’t do much except and wait for it to pass.

Ask any doctor and they will tell you that generally if you are in a happy state and stress free, you are less likely to get ill and your immune system will be much stronger. It doesn’t take a degree in medicine to know something as simple as this to be true. If you’re someone who suffers colds and ‘flu often then I’m willing to hazard a guess that you go through a lot of stress. Please feel free to tell me if you think differently of if your experience doesn’t concur with what I’ve said.

Naturally, if you do often get ill, one of the first things you should do is consult your doctor as there maybe something more deep routed. After getting a clean bill of health it’s worth looking at a few area’s of your life so that you stay healthy for much longer and the times when you do get ill are very few and far between!

I’m sure many bloggers have posted about what you can do nutritionally to boost your immune system and so I’m not going to talk about that here. What I am going to talk about is how you can boost your immunity, with a few simple adjustments in your psychology, that will make you more immune to minor virus’s and who knows, maybe even more serious illnesses too! One thing is for sure is that trying these things can only do you good so why not give them a try and see for yourself!

The tricky bit here, is changing years of habitual thinking. New habits are easy to form, changing old ones are not so my advice to you is to focus on creating a new habit, rather than eliminating an old one.

Think of a time most recently where you felt yourself in the initial stages of getting a virus. Now can you remember the exact moment that you first felt it coming on? In that moment what was your first reaction? If it was worrying and hoping that it doesn’t turn into a bad cold or ‘flu, then, I’m sure you can see for yourself, why it gets worse quite quickly! As soon as you start worrying or you get annoyed or stressed, about that fact that you’re coming down with something, immediately you’ve weakened your immune system considerably. Again the trick here is to form a new habit. Next time you find yourself feeling a little run down and you feel the onset of a cold or flu the first thing you have to do is put yourself into a better frame of mind. You can use any technique for this. Here’s a few suggestions:

1) At that instant that you catch yourself feeling worried about the onset of the virus, first change your physical state by sitting up right and keeping your head and eyes up. As you do that you can much more easily visualise something positive or constructive. It can be anything of your choosing. It can be turning your focus towards an exciting upcoming project. It could be just looking forward to the plans you have for the weekend….it can be absolutely anything you choose as long as it puts you into a happy frame of mind!

2) If available to you, put on your favorite comedy shows or movie, or, put on your favorite uplifting music!

3) Do anything that makes you feel good. Get a massage or go have a round of golf! If it’s a minor virus, i.e., it isn’t the kind that’s making you feel exhausted, then playing a light sport or mild exercise will do you good both mentally and physically. If it’s a strong virus, the kind that makes you ache all over, then I’d suggest to stick to point 1, 2 or 4

4) Try some self hypnosis. Hypnosis is very simple and there are plenty of resources on the internet to explain to you how you can do this. Hypnosis, in many ways, is synonymous to some forms of meditation. The processes are very similar, they will differ slightly in some areas but ultimately the outcome will be the same in that you will be more relaxed and more focused. A good technique for getting yourself into a “trance”, something which everyone on the planet can do, is find something that you find easy to focus on in a relaxed way. A simple example is imagining yourself on a beach and imagining the tide going in and out. It’s very simple, people go into trance’s several times a day and so find out what makes you go into trance very quickly and use that!

Even a few minutes of any of the above will be extremely beneficial to you. The longer you do it and the more you practice it that stronger your immune system will become and the faster the virus or illness will be eliminated from your body.

There reason there is no cure for the common cold or few is because there are so many varieties and neither is this a cure but what this one method will do is allow the for the virus to be eliminated from your system much quicker because your immune system is in better shape and functioning properly.

The reason I decided to write this article was because at the beginning of the year I was getting a cold or flu at least once a month and it was getting so frustrating! Using the methods I’ve described, I have cold and flu free for the past 7 months and in the last couple of weeks I felt the onset of a cold but using the methods I’ve described above I can quite happily say that it passed without it becoming “bad” so to speak or without it disrupting my life in any way.

Naturally, what I’ve written above is an additional technique you can apply for maintaining your good health! For even better results make sure you take a good look at what you’re eating that that you’re incorporating plenty of water, fresh fruit and veg into you diet!

I would love to hear your thoughts, comments, or results on this so please let me know what you’ve got to say! :-)

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Jul 5

Create some time to do the following: Sit in a relaxed place or position, this can be done anywhere. Close your eyes and I want you to quiet you mind just a little. Now I want you to listen carefully to your body. Listen to everything going on. Listen to the new cells being created replacing the old cells. Listen to your heart pump your blood around your body. Listen to your lungs expand and contract. Listen to your body absorb the water that you drink. Observe your body extracting the nutrients from your food and nourishing the body. Observe your body move your eyes. Observe your body send signals to the brain with lightening quick speed and super precise accuracy.

Without even being aware, your body does some amazing things.

Now I want you to try this. With your eyes still closed and in your relaxed state, ask your body if there is anything it needs? Stay alert for an answer. Once you have your answer, if there are any problems you have with your body, lets say, you have a bad back. Whilst in the same relaxed state I want you to converse with your body and ask those secret governing forces to heal the part that needs healing. Once you’ve made your request, I want you to say thank you 3 times.

How did this make you feel and did you notice anything unusual while doing it? :-)

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Jun 13

Gone in 3 seconds!

For the last few days and for at least the next 5 days I’m going to be pushed to my limits emotionally, physically and spiritually! We are drawing ever closer to the end of this project at work and it’s now at the stage where it is crunch time! Not only is my job demanding mentally because of constantly learning of new technologies like wireless and VOIP systems but it is also very physical because at times I have heavy equipment to lift and lots of running around to do!

I was incredibly stressed today at one point but I realised I was stressed only because I was choosing to be so. It only took a moment to shift my awareness and change my perception of the situation. It was easy. All it took was 3 seconds.

1st second - In the first moment I had to become aware of what I was feeling
2nd second - Then I had to offer myself a choice on what I could experience alternately
3rd second - Then I got myself into that state and found my productivity jump! I also got to a point where I began enjoying once again the tasks and challenges ahead of me!

I was just talking to a friend also and she could here the tiredness in my voice but in truth I was grateful for this experience because it is pushing me to new levels of self growth!

If you happen to be in the same situation, you the gone in 3 seconds method and then also remember what you’re gaining from the whole experience!

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May 11
This entry is part 9 of 32 in the series 100 Days of Wisdom

Sometimes it’s good to have a good ol’ vent and a whine! If you don’t expel that energy it can clog you up and lead to pent up frustration and depression in the long run!

If something is really getting to you, don’t bottle it up. Either constructively deal with whatever it is or go ahead, shout, swear, rant, vent, curse, get it out of your system and once it’s out you will actually get you to a feeling of relief and positive energy much more quickly.

Make sure you use that energy as a avenue to then close the door on what ever it was that got you to that state in the first place.

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May 8

Spin Cycles!Every once in a while you may find yourself getting bored with the same old routine. The routine becomes so mundane that your head ends up spinning as you feel like your life is just going around in circles doing the same things over and over again! This can be particularly true if you end up doing a 9-5 everyday, 5 days a week! The only break to the cycle is the weekend and even then most of the weekend is spent worrying about the fact that Monday will come around again shortly! You spend the whole week looking forward to the weekend and then it comes and you and it becomes wasted away in a dreary cycle of trying to recouperate from the gloom of the past week, then it hits Sunday evening, and panic sets in!

LIFE IS CYCLIC! There is no escaping this simple fact. We will forever be in a cycle because that’s what we’ve chosen, as I believe, to experience human existence! The Sun rises and sets. You breathe, awake, eat and sleep in cyclic fashion. The seasons rotate, after winter, must come spring. We reproduce, we’re born, we die, we’re happy, we’re sad. The list of cycles of life goes on and on. It’s quite easy to succumb to these cycles and feel like we were not meant for great things - it’s just a simple question of surviving! But maybe it’s not so much a case of what we’re meant to do, as opposed to what we’re capable of doing! I believe that even through all these continous eternal cycles of life, we have the ability to take our understanding of it to the next level. Yes the repetition can sometimes cause your brain to melt of boredom but the trick is seeing the cycle in a whole new light, a way that never even fathomed!

The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes - Proust

That saying by Proust is more true than you’ll ever realise! Being in the same position over and over again is a natural part of life, experiencing it differently each time however, is not! It’s not nature, it’s creative! It’s the part of us the unleashes the creative genius within us all! This is where children have this skill down to a tee! They can play the same game over and over but what they tend to do is create new stories or characters or imaginery situations to go along with the real ones. They have mastered how to take the mundane and turn it into something exciting and fun!

It’s natural to feel boredom from doing the same job over and over again! But since when did nature intend us to feel bored when she’s offered us so much variety! The trouble with working in an office for example is that often it doesn’t allow for much creativity! You may end up looking out of the same window, day in, day out! The same people, the same situations, the same scenario’s etc. It just doesn’t give much scope for changing the way you feel because you’re seeing and doing the same things every day!

I remember I used to work on the 11th floor of a 21 story building. On the 21st floor there is a large restaurant and you can see for miles from that point. I don’t go to that building as often as I used to, but whenever I do, because I don’t see it often, I really get to appreciate the views from being that high up! There are no other tall buildings around it and on a clear day you get to see pretty much most of London.

That’s an example of how you can appreciate something you don’t see so often but how can you appreciate, something you see everyday, in a new way? How can you appreciate the people around you that you see all the time? How do you renew your feelings of excitement and anticipation? It’s quite simple really, YOU RENEW YOU! Ok, let me repeat that, YOU RENEW YOU!

“Ok Amit you’ve finally lost it and need to be put into a crazy house” I hear you say! :lol: Yes, yes, put me in a crazy house!

Think back to how you felt when you first picked up your mobile phone and made your first phone call. How did you feel? Wasn’t it exciting to know that you could be contacted and make calls while on the move? Wasn’t it amazing at the time that we first had the technology to do that? Or think back to the first time you enjoyed the experience of sending a email! I remember that these things to me were almost orgasmic! :lol: I love technology and gadgets and when I got my first mobile phone and my first laptop I was like a kid with new toys! Remember those moments when these things were new and exciting. What’s changed since then? Nothing except that the technology is like a 1000 times more powerful! We just got used to it all and now it’s a daily occurence. We’ve forgotten how to appreciate what this technology does for us.

Think about this: When you push a key on a keyboard, lets say, the letter “K”, You see a bit lettering on a piece of plastic. Now you push that button, and electrical signal is passed from that button through a circuit board, down some copper wire, through another super circuit board, though a super proccesor which is nothing more than a bunch of tansistors etched onto a silicon die which then sends those messages to a piece of software which then translates this signal into the letter “K” in your word processor. It does all this almost instantaneously! You don’t even notice all this going on, you take for granted that this amazing world is working in the background and all these intricate processes are going on in order that you can send messages to people in a coherent language form that we can all understand! HOW AMAZING IS THAT! I have to admit I forget this sometimes but then I remind myself of all the amazing bizarre stuff going on in the background in this quantum world that we never get to see! Most of this technology has come about in the last 10 - 20 years. Just imagine what we’ll be able to do in another 20 years!?!

There are an unlimited ways you can change the way you look at things. Just think about this, as you’ve been sitting here reading this, you’ve shed skin and grown new skin in it’s place. Unconsciously your body parts are renewing themselves and you don’t even realise it! You’re brain is doing way way way more than a computer could ever do and it does it with minimal of effort! You don’t even need to be plugged into a wall socket! :P

It will forever come down to the way you choose to renew your vision of life and the great cycle we’ve chosen. To me these mysteries will always provide me hours of fascination that takes the boredom away and lets me be a part of this amazing quantum world that forever works its magic while we enjoy the benefits. Remember to always appreciate the glorious microscopic wonderful events that are going on while you’re having your coffee and donuts! :)

Renew you!

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Mar 8

One of the things I’ve been taught, when it comes to sports, is to practise the art of ghosting. What is ghosting? Ghosting is where you practise the game or movements by yourself whilst imagining yourself to be in the live situation. So, if for example, you’re a squash player, you may book a squash court on your own and pretend to have a game. During that time, you’ll focus on your fitness, movement around the court, your pretend strokes of the ball, but your mindset must be that you’re actually playing a real match. In your mind you visualising the perfect shot and footwork every time, you’re pretending that your opponent is superior to you and yet you’re finding the perfect strokes and match play to equal their game.

In many ways it’s synonymous to shadow boxing, you as the boxer may not have an opponent but you pretend you have one and sparr just the same. It’s like you’re sparring against an imaginary opponent, you imagine the moves that your opponent would make. You visualise all the possible moves your phantom adversary would make, anticipate the moves and react accordingly. You train your muscles to react without the conscious mind taking up valuable proccessing time.

I do the same in badminton. When I’m waiting for a game to finish or waiting for a court to become available, I’ll use that time to ghost to train my muscles to move and react in the way that I choose. It’s always the shots that I consciously think about which are the ones that I get wrong. So if you can train your unconscious to do all the hard work, there is nothing left for your conscious mind to do. In badminton the shutttle can travel at speeds of up to 200MPH. In a fast paced game, if the opponent is attacking, you rarely have more than a quarter of a second to react to the oncoming shuttle, it’s all the work of the unconscious mind.

But ghosting doesn’t just apply to sports, you can apply to the same technique to whatever aspect of your life you choose. It’s not always practical, in all cases, to do ghosting with the physical movements. But you can ghost in your mind through visualising. I remember when I was at the Tony Robbins UPW seminar back in September. The first night, the Friday, was the day that we would be doing the firewalk. I was so nervous because I had bruised my foot quite badly the night before and could barely walk. But two hours prior to us doing the firewalk Tony began to train us on the mental preparation before walking across the glowing red hot coals. Instead of feeling the fear of being burnt, or falling, or doing something stupid in front of thousands of people (which is what most people were probably imagining at that point), he showed us that we could construct, in our minds, exactly how we wanted the walk to go. We created funny animations of the walk in our minds. We played it backwards, forwards, from different angles, with cartoon like actions, but we solely focused on the success, not the failure. The more whacky and vivid you ghost, the more successful you will be.

You can do the same too! Whether you have a big presenation to get ready for at work, a huge sporting event, or you’re just getting ready to tell someone how you feel. ;) Ghost the scenary in your mind. A while back I wrote an article called P.I.C.’s. Create some super P.I.C.’s in your mind and visulise that ultimate success coming through every action that you take!

No scary failure ghosties, only the kind succesful helpful ones please! :-)


If you love sports and are interested in new baseball bats or need other equipment such as baseball pants or possibly even baseball shoes then check us out today for what you’re looking for!

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Feb 9

We live in a world where we’re surrounded by masses of technology, so much is expected of us, we have more responsibility than ever before, our time is precious and not only is more expected of us, we’re expecting more of ourselves. With all of this in mind, it’s no surprise that illness, both physical and mental, is prolific throughout society!

There is so much for us to juggle that often we just become bogged down and find that joy eludes us because all we can do is think about the next thing that we have to doing or the next event we have to be at. I’ve noticed though that many people use the term: “I’m busy” not because they have too much on their plate, but because the things that they do choose to undertake are badly managed and that is what causes the “BB syndrome” as I call it. (BB= Busy Bee) I’m completely guilty of it too! It almost became an excuse so that I could get out of doing things or seeing people just because I wanted a bit of time to myself.

When we get to that stage where we begin feeling overwhelmed, we try and find solutions, but because we’re used to living in a complex world with complex systems, we think that the solution must also be complex. And then what happens? Because the solution you’ve formulated is so complex, you end up giving up and going back to suffering from the BB syndrome. It’s easier that finding great management strategies, but if no action is taken, all your time and energy is gobbled up by churning over all the things that you have to attend to, rather than taking action.

I was in a situation quite recently where I wasn’t enjoying my job. It was really frustrating me as I love working in I.T. in general, but after I got promoted just over a year ago, things went downhill and I really started to feel quite depressed when I was at work. Ironically, I was finding that everyone else around me was busy and I had nothing to do which really frustrated me! Even though it gave me time to blog and do various other things it was still a bit soul destroying being in place where I earn my livelihood and finding no fulfillment in what I was doing.

I’d had enough! I was so frustrated and I just could handle it anymore. I was on the verge of quitting but first I asked myself, what can I do to turn this around? I tried a few things like getting more involved with some of the other teams, but that didn’t help. I tried making work for myself but that didn’t help. I tried all sorts of things but nothing was getting results. But then I came up with a relatively simple plan, I had no idea if it was going to work or not, but it was so simple that I new that trying it would be easy and hassle free. Deep down I knew I’d found the answer to turn my situation around, but I put that feeling aside and just tried it out.

I formulated a simple strategy for gaining greater fulfillment at work. It wasn’t a supremely complex 50 point plan or didn’t involve taking drastic or massive action, all it took was a simple goal, a very simple strategy that turned things around.

My strategy was simply this:

TO LEARN ONE NEW THING EVERY DAY! 8O Would I be able to manage it? :P

To clarify; it didn’t have to be anything technical, I didn’t have to learn the complete working of a particular piece of hardware, nope, nothing like that, I just wanted to learn the simple stuff every day. Recently we installed a brand new VOIP (Voice over I.P.) system and that was a huge project, of which, I only had a small part. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get my hands dirty in all area’s of the project, so I decided that whatever I do get involved in, I will make sure that I learn something new from it everyday.

One day, I had a real headache of a problem, A Cisco network switch kept crashing when we switched it on. At first, I thought it was faulty cable, so I changed all the cabling. That didn’t work! Then I thought it might be a faulty GBIC card (A fibre optic component of the network switch). I changed it, but that didn’t work. Then I thought that port itself was faulty so I plugged the GBIC into a different port, that also didn’t work! Then I thought the fibre uplink going in the port of the PASSPORT (A giant core network switch) was faulty so I plugged it into a different port, that still didn’t work!! I then thought: “There’s only one thing left that it can be!” That was that the Cisco switch itself must be faulty. I swapped that too and guess what? It still kept crashing!!! This whole process of elimination took me two days in total, by which time 90% of my hair had turned Grey, :P but I was not licked yet! I thought: “Let me plug each network cable into the switch one by one and see what happens?” I did that and found that one particular cable caused the switch to crash! BINGO! At least now I knew that it was something plugged into the switch that was causing the problem! (Something that I thought initially but dismissed!) It turned out that someone had double plugged one of the VOIP phone into the wall ports and that was causing a loop which shutting down the port on the PASSPORT! (I promise no more techical jargon from this point onwards! :lol:)

So, I learned something new, actually I learned two things: 1) To trust my gut, and 2) That if that happens to a network switch in the future to try that avenue first!

Even though it was a stressful couple of days, that simple strategy made me feel more relaxed less stressed and also gave me greater confidence for the future. It took my focus away from the stress of the problem and put it onto what was good about the problem.

So in a nutshell, my simple strategy became applied in two ways. At the beginning of my working day I ask myself: What new thing can I learn today? At the end of the day I ask myself: What did I learn today? This extremely simple strategy turned around my entire feeling with regards to my job to the point where I now actually look forward to getting to work everyday. I’m now enjoying my job much more, I feel much lighter at work and even though it’s much busier, I’m not feeling the stress of it.

There we have it, the greatest transformation can come from the most simple strategies. It doesn’t take a major change or a huge 50 point plan or jumping off a cliff to find a solution. All it takes is one SOS and you’ll find the world around you transform in your favour. So let me ask you, what area of your life are you struggling with and what is the most SOS that you can think of to turn your situation around?

Happy hunting! :)

The Secret DVD

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Feb 6

MeditationMinute meditations are a method through which you can empower yourself in many different way throughout the day. No matter how busy you are, no matter how much you have on your plate, you can always spare yourself a minute or two, 3 or 4 times a day to recharge your spirit. Remember, this is for your well being and so you will give as time and commitment to this in proportion to how important you feel your well being is to you. This is your life and your time, make it important to feel refreshed and to find time for yourself because before you know it, this thing called life, will seem way way distant in the rear view mirror.

–

For much of my day I sit at an office desk in front of a computer. Working in I.T. there isn’t anywhere else I have to be unless I have to fix some hardware or attend meetings. What I find is that after even just an hour or two of sitting in the same position, when it comes to getting up and moving around, I feel very stiff and brittle throughout my whole body. It takes me at least a few minutes to regain my full flexibility.

For reasons of health and safety, our HR department recommends that we have a change of activity every 30 - 45 minutes to make sure we are getting plenty of movement and not doing to much damage to the body through sitting still for so long. In front of a computer, you eyes can strain, you can get headaches, your joints can get stiff, you can get dehydrated but most importantly you can become very dull from the lack of movement. :P

So what can you do during those few minutes free? Well for me, during those times where I change my activity, I have a number of minute meditations that I use to take my focus away from work for just a moment, and move it towards the bigger picture of human existence, as a whole, and the purpose of being. I try not to challenge myself with questions or bog myself down with proving what I feel to be true, I just allow myself to sink into the experience of being and enjoy the feelings of relaxed awareness and blissful communion with my innermost core.

I offer to you some suggestions and some of the momentary thoughts I use to regain alignment and enhance congruency with my being.

Thought 1 - As I sit here, I am aware that within this universe I am interconnected with every atom. I am a vibrational being and every atom of this body vibrates at a unique frequency just like each and every cell phone has a unique frequency. I know that my state of being will attract vibrational matches and so I, being the powerful creator that I am with unlimited choices, offer vibrations of love, happiness, peace, joy, caring, compassion to everything around me so that others around me feel the vibrations emanating from me. This in turn assists them in attracting vibrational matches.

Thought 2 - I am a 3 part being, a mind, a body and spirit. The body and mind are my tools for experiencing in this realm of the physical. I, the spirit, originated from a non physical plain and chose to inherit a body to come and experience the beauty of contrast within the physical dimension. This universe of relativity exists so that I experientially partake in that which I know of but have little experience in. I cannot know darkness without light; I cannot know happiness without sorrow. So I am grateful at all times to know the purpose of this physical see-saw.

Thought 3 - Every human spirit I encounter is a reflection of me just as I am a reflection of them. As I see each soul, I remember that we are ultimately one universal family. Skin colour, religion, nationality, languages, are all constructs of this social society but it is not the baseline of existence. These are just frames of reference and identity but ultimately we all originated with one purpose, with one desire, that is; to know ourselves through physical experience.

Thought 4 - At every single step I have a choice. I choose what to feel from what moment to the next. I choose how to perceive the world. Nothing shapes my perceptions other that those things that I have chosen to believe. I choose how I react to people, events and circumstances. No one is responsible for the way I feel except me. I have the power of choice. It is my greatest gift and is the most powerful force in the universe. No matter the outcome of my choices, I will remain empowered to know that I can choose something different the next time according to the purpose I’ve chosen for myself.

Thought 5 - I am extremely grateful to be here today. I am grateful for the joy of this experience. I am grateful for all the wonderful things in my life which I get to be a part of everyday. I take nothing for granted and appreciate everything. I am thankful that I chose this particular journey. I thank my creator and maker for offering me the freedom of choice whether to be here or not and I’m glad I made the decision that I did.

–

These are just a few of the ones that I use on a regular basis and I encourage you to make up your own as you see fit. Make them light but profoundly impactful to you. Think of new ones on a regular basis or just make them up as you go along. There are no hard and fast rules about how you can do this. Just a minute or two a couple of times a day to go deeper within yourself and you will feel more powerful that you have ever felt before and you will find yourself naturally more grateful for all your experiences. Have fun and make it a habit! :)

The Secret DVD

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Sep 25

InfluenceWherever you go and whatever you do, there is a degree of influence going on. This influence works in many directions and on many levels. One of the things that I’ve learned as a Life Coach is that my internal influence systems (IIS) must be greater than any external influence systems (EIS).

Okay, what do I mean by that? Well firstly, you must understand that there are many factors of influence on your day to day world. These can be people as individuals, groups of people, television, radio, adverts, billboards, media, newspapers, you, careers advisors, taxi drivers, and list just goes on. All the above mentioned factors have a level of influence over you in some form or another. It will be in varying degrees and levels but what you must acknowledge is that it is happening all around you in your day to day life.

I know many people whose entire lives are ruled by the TV. They never miss certain shows and they often end up becoming like some the characters that they see. I know because I was once the same too! I love “Friends” the show, and I still watch episodes whenever I can. It was a massive influence on my life! The whole “cafe culture” was a big influence on me and now, to me, cafes are my favorite’s places to go, chill out, and write my books! :) Not only that but the humor in the show is massive influence on me and I still use some of the jokes from the show with my friends! (shhhhhhh…coz they don’t know that! :D)

Have you ever seen someone do something, which you thought was cool, and then you ended up copying them? :cool:

I got home from a long drive yesterday and I was in a great mood, I felt alive and positive as I had just been to the coast on a wonderful date :cool: and we had a lovely relaxing evening. When I got home, I switched on the TV and as film was on called, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Now some people are inevitably going to fans of horror movies but I saw just 10 minutes and I truly started to feel depressed and it brought my entire mood down! Now I’m not saying that it will have or has the same effect on everyone but what I am saying there is a level of influence going on, whether you feel it or not. Imagine if that’s the kind of input you get on a regular basis!!

I’m not a parent yet but in working with children frequently, I know how much kids to get influenced by all the things going on around. I’m already planning, that as a future parent, I know I will not be able to control what my child is exposed to, I can however the greater influence to my child through using all the tools I learned over the years on personal development, especially tools such as NLP, EFT, etc. They will inevitably be bombarded with things from all circles but the way I see my role is to spend as much time with them, as possible and find ways of getting them to respond to me. The great thing is that I’m slowly building those skills and gaining experience all the time!

But it’s not just children that get influenced…whether we admit to ourselves and realise it or not, I know for a fact that If I spend the next two weeks, just submitting myself to the couch and doing nothing but watching TV then of course I’m going to be influenced on some level!

Take for example advertisers; their whole profession is based on influence. They will find ways of selling their products to us, in just a few seconds with minimal effort and we will be none the wiser. They will implant suggestions within us, to get instant brand recognition through a particular piece of music for example. So as soon as you hear that piece of music, it will then trigger the thought of that product.

So this gives you an Idea of the EIS side of the things. Now onto the IIS Now in essence, this is about input and self talk. Input is very important, what you allow into your mind will go in some degree go towards what goes on in your mind. The input is EIS but contributes to the IIS. It works both ways but we’re going to focus primarily on this way around. Over the period of this year, I’ve slashed the amount of T.V. that I watch. I watch it in very small doses and when I do watch it, it’s generally very light comedies like Friends, Family Guy, Scrubs, those sorts of shows. Things that will make me laugh or programs that will educate me Like the Discovery Channel, Wildlife Shows, or programs about health like, Diet Doctors, or You Are What You Eat.

In addition to that, whenever I do housework, I listen to some audio books, the type of books that will inspire and give some useful knowledge that I can apply in my life, like books by Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, etc and anything along those lines that give me life skills that I can take away with to me to positively influence my life. Since I’ve been following this routine I’ve noticed a massive change in my life, it’s by no means perfect, but I have more energy, I feel excited about life, I am positive, I feel enthusiastic and my thoughts are much more clear and focused. And so what this whole process is doing is using the best EIS’s that I can find and using those to change my IIS’s. The process of influence will always continue, I will still see commercials, watch TV, listen to music, be in circles of people with influence, etc.

What this has shown me is that I have a responsibility to myself to look carefully at all the EIS’s around me and know what impact they’re having on my experience of life. Through that awareness, I can then make wiser decisions about the EIS’s and in turn affect the IIS’s so that I’m giving my soul the good fruit and not the junk food. I know that I will supervise the majority of what I let inside me and hence what will influence me the most.

So look closely around you, what are you greatest spheres of influence, are they EIS’s or IIS’s?

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Sep 8

Thought PatternsMost of the time, without even realising it, we are repeating thoughts to ourselves in our heads. When I use the word “thought” I mean any sort of word, imagery or feeling that occurs in the mind. I’ve probably mentioned this before in one of my previous blog posts but there is a saying by Henry Ford that goes: Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right! So if you keep repeating to yourself that you cannot do something, what do you think will be the result overall?

So lets say for example, that you’re at work and you’re given a task, and it’s not an easy task by any means, but you keep saying to yourself; “I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I don’t want to do this, I can’t be bothered, I can’t do this.” What do you think will be the ultimate result of that thinking?

The process of repetitive thought has come to us in many guises. There are mantras, incantations, affirmations, prayers, chants, etc and all of these have a similar resulting effect. However, mundanely saying a thought again and again and again to yourself doesn’t achieve much on its own; the power comes from the feeling associated with those thoughts. So for example, If you keep telling people and repeating to yourself; “I am ill” and you feel ill and you keep telling people that you’re ill then the ultimate result of that is you feel even more crappy because that’s what you keep telling yourself, and everyone else, that you are!

So you might then ask, “If I am ill, do I keep telling myself that I’m well, aren’t I just deluding myself?” The simple answer is no, you’re not deluding yourself, but you choose your thoughts and if you can find a constructive way of changing your state and emotion then the faster you will heal. Most doctors will tell you that the more stressed your are, the weaker your immune system, whereas, the happier you are, the less likely you are to become ill. I personally am quite healthy and I don’t get ill often, but if I do, If I’m bed bound I may watch some comedies and I heal much quicker than if I was depressed and if I felt overwhelmed by the illness. I do have a serious health condition, it doesn’t affect me that much in my day to day life, but the docs have warned me that if I don’t act now, then I potentally could face serious repercussions in the future.

In the past, I used to think to myself: “Oh no, what am I going to do, I’m always going to be this way, I’m never going to get better!” So this series of repetitive thoughts led me to feeling stressed and unhappy. As doctors say, stress leads to a weaker immune system. Not only that, people hated being around me because I would make them depressed too! :p So after a while, I changed my perception of the condition and in time my whole attitude towards it changed. My new chain of repetitive thoughts went along the lines of: “I feel good, happy and I am greatful that I can run, jump and play” It wasn’t always exactly the same, but I would use these patterns of repetition to break the cycle of the less productive thought patterns. And I love being around people and I like to think people love being around me because I’m always, happy and cheerful and those feelings and attitudes rub off onto them.

Everything is repetition! You wake up, brush your teeth, have a shower, go to work or begin your daily routine, you eat, watch t.v., etc and the repetition of life continues. As I said earlier whether you’re consciously aware of it or not your life is repetition. A big part of that is the repetitive thougths that you will have on a day to day basis. So, breaking the cycle of a current set of repetitive thought patterns is not and easy thing to do, but doing so will change your state of being and the way you feel about any given situation or circumstance that occurs. One of the best ways of breaking that repetition is something I posted on earlier called “Minute Meditations.” Minute meditations are ways breaking old thought patterns, into newer, more positive and powerful thoughts at various times during the day when you’re performing a mundane task. So it could be while you’re driving, standing in a queue, cooking brushing your teeth, or at any other time when you choose. Consciously force yourself out of the old pattern and initiate a new pattern and then allow yourself to unconsciously flow into the new pattern.

The more you consciously direct your thought patterns in the direction you want to go, the more drive and energy you will have to follow through with anything you want to do and the more your creative juices will begin flowing!

As Tony Robbins says; “Repetition is the mother of skill” so go and be a repetition master of your life! :)

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Jun 13

PlayI think these two words could revolutionise the way people think. I’m willing to bet me life that the last time any of you used those two words were when you were a young child in imaginary mode getting ready to play a game.

“Lets pretend” or “pretend that” are great ways to get the imagination and creativity flowing. Our imagination is the tool that allows us to visualise anything that we choose. As kids we did it all the time. We pretended that we were Cowboys and Indians, Doctors and Nurses, Super hero’s and Villains, Cops and Robbers! Anything that our minds could conceive, we would pretend it and play! :)

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May 23

RushYou’ve all heard the saying: “Time flies by when you’re having fun” which is very true. Our perception of time is altered dependent on our state of mind. However, have you also noticed that: “Time flies by when you’re in a hurry?” No? Probably not because I’ve just made it up but isn’t it so true that if you’re in a rush to get somewhere, the second hand on your analogue time piece just seems go a lot faster?! But what you don’t realise is, that your entire biology goes faster and you end up ageing faster than you realise because of the physical reaction to feeling rushed or stressed! (This is also the reason why people are feeling “old” at a much younger age and also end up getting to a point where they feel like their entire life has passed them by when they’ve reached 30.)

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May 9

Eliminate StressMost of us will have some sort of task list that we write down on a regular basis. I do mine weekly and just make a note of my main appointments and tasks that I would like to see completed by the end of that week.

Between the points of the task list, you might get loads of other spontaneous tasks arising that you will need to take care of. (Looking after the Computer networks at work, this is very often the case!) When it feels that you’re getting bogged down at work with hundreds of things to do the last thing on your mind will be to take a break!! But, if you were hoping to get things done quickly, efficiently and with accuracy and yet you’re getting stressed and frustrated, it should be the first thing you do!

If you feel like you’re getting to the point where you are feeling stressed then you need to tackle your own stress first before you continue any further otherwise you run the risk making mistakes and being in and even worse state than when you started.

So how do you tackle the stress? Many people will have their own methods, some will listen to music, some will keep those stress toys on their desk, others will go and play sports, do some meditation, stretch, eat, drink, you name it, the list goes on and on!

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