I once read, and I am no longer sure where I read it, that circus elephants are brain washed to believe that they are not stronger than the rope that holds them down. As baby elephants they are tied down with heavy chains and as they try and free themselves, they are unable to. As time passes and the elephant grows in size and has the power to break away from this bond, it no longer believes it can.
This type of conditioning happens a lot in our own lives and yet most of us are not aware of it. We go through life having certain beliefs but without us challenging these beliefs , are we no different from the circus elephant?
For instance, when I was younger ( back up a few decades) I would constantly be bombarded by people telling me how skinny and weak I am. I had always wanted to join the volleyball team but was not able to serve the ball over the net. That was a major requirement at that time and probably today as well to be able to get on the team. So year after year ( okay two years of junior high) I would try out for the team and year after year I would get cut. My first year in high school, I did not even bother to try out as I believed it was pointless. I was a circus elephant but I wasn't even working for the circus. If it weren't for a substitute teacher coming in for physical education class that I had, I would have continue to be my own circus elephant.
The fact is in two years my body had gotten stronger and with a minor technique adjustment in my serving suggested by my substitute phys ed teacher, I was suddenly getting the ball over 99% of the time. In another years time, the under hand serve was history and I was serving over head.
How many of us still carry or hold the same belief system we had as a child? How many of us are not consciously aware that things that may have been "impossible" or "improbable" in the past may now be a "possible" ? There are many factors that changes in our lives yet for some reason we sometimes stay stagnant in the "impossible" sphere.
Try creating a list of all the "impossible" things in your life. These can be anything from relationships, phobias, trauma, physical ability etc. We may not discover everything on the list of "impossible" as it has been buried deep within us for so long. Start scratching the surface and you may find yourself surprised that all this time when you had the strength of an elephant to roam freely yet you chose to stand still with a frayed rope tied loosely around your leg and attached to a wooden peg. Circus Elephants they are every where.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Healthy Money Saving Tips
Here we are with our economy in "free fall". Well since we are falling we might as well enjoy the ride and learn to get creative with our downward spiralling journey and not get blind sighted by all the negativity. I wrote an earlier blog about a website called GoEyeball, a price monitoring website that helps you monitor an item until it is on sale. It also helps with our "spur of the moment spending", as you need to wait for the sale therefore, giving you some time to think things over as to whether you need it or not. As some of my clients know already, the GoEyeball idea is an idea that I had conjured up in my moments of being "cheap".
But this blog will be my cheap ideas of staying healthy. Here are my 10 tips in no particular order:
Tip #1: Register to be a GoEyeball user and feel happy about the savings you got. Just kidding. Although feeling happy is quite health related, so if possible watch a comedy (movie, sit-com) whatever touches your funny bone. Internet has lots of things you can watch these days even TV shows that you previously might need cable for.
Tip#2: Try dry skin brushing nightly before bed to help move the lymphatics so toxins don't build up. Cheapest loofah brush I have found is at the Dollarama. This will save you the cost of needing to go in for drainage massage.
Tip#3: Sleep is cheap and free. Free amounts of melatonin (some people buy this as a supplement). Sleep helps to boost our immune system, repair our body that is damaged during the day, improves our memory and so much more health benefits.
Tip#4: Quit the gym fees and do some outdoor activities now that we have the warmer weather rolling in. Get the free sunshine vitamin (Vitamin D) for free but don't stay too long out side without protection.
Tip#5: Use vinegar to clean veggies and fruit. Boil meat for a minute in boiling water before cooking. It's not totally equivalent to eating organic but it is cheaper and still has healthy benefits.
Tip#6: Use food as your cleansing/detox kit. Move your bowels with fibre-rich foods, tablespoon of ground flax seed or chia seeds, drink enough water so you don't feel thirsty. Cleanse by supporting your liver with liver friendly foods such as carrots, beets, celery, artichokes or having some freshly squeezed lemon with water. Exercise and work up to a sweat to remove toxins through our largest detoxing organ , our skin.
Tip#7: Filter water at home instead of buying bottled water.
Tip#8: Eat whole foods as they are packed with nutrients. This will help decrease cravings so you aren't paying to buy snacks and candy bars that only give you a sugar high.
Tip#9: Learn to take short breaks from work so that you are deep breathing for 5 minutes or doing some stretching. This will help to reduce stress and keep your immune system healthy. That means less down time and less visits to the doctor's office.
Tip#10: Okay, this last tip is probably going to make some people squeamish but hard times calls for some good old fashion scrub down. What I mean is to stop using soap (you might even try to stop using shampoo and conditioner). There is too much chemicals in our so called hygiene products to be healthy (unless you found a 100% organic, and I mean the entire bottle of ingredients is 100% organic/natural). Try using some water and a terry cloth to gently scrub away the dirt. Unless your soap says anti-bacterial, it usually isn't killing anything and I wouldn't recommend an anti-bacterial soap for every day home use. It's just an open invitation to create some super bug that you can't kill.
If you have a healthy tip to share please feel free to add to the list. We'll be gliding soon so don't get too down about the economy. The silver lining is just under the cloud if you look for it.
But this blog will be my cheap ideas of staying healthy. Here are my 10 tips in no particular order:
Tip #1: Register to be a GoEyeball user and feel happy about the savings you got. Just kidding. Although feeling happy is quite health related, so if possible watch a comedy (movie, sit-com) whatever touches your funny bone. Internet has lots of things you can watch these days even TV shows that you previously might need cable for.
Tip#2: Try dry skin brushing nightly before bed to help move the lymphatics so toxins don't build up. Cheapest loofah brush I have found is at the Dollarama. This will save you the cost of needing to go in for drainage massage.
Tip#3: Sleep is cheap and free. Free amounts of melatonin (some people buy this as a supplement). Sleep helps to boost our immune system, repair our body that is damaged during the day, improves our memory and so much more health benefits.
Tip#4: Quit the gym fees and do some outdoor activities now that we have the warmer weather rolling in. Get the free sunshine vitamin (Vitamin D) for free but don't stay too long out side without protection.
Tip#5: Use vinegar to clean veggies and fruit. Boil meat for a minute in boiling water before cooking. It's not totally equivalent to eating organic but it is cheaper and still has healthy benefits.
Tip#6: Use food as your cleansing/detox kit. Move your bowels with fibre-rich foods, tablespoon of ground flax seed or chia seeds, drink enough water so you don't feel thirsty. Cleanse by supporting your liver with liver friendly foods such as carrots, beets, celery, artichokes or having some freshly squeezed lemon with water. Exercise and work up to a sweat to remove toxins through our largest detoxing organ , our skin.
Tip#7: Filter water at home instead of buying bottled water.
Tip#8: Eat whole foods as they are packed with nutrients. This will help decrease cravings so you aren't paying to buy snacks and candy bars that only give you a sugar high.
Tip#9: Learn to take short breaks from work so that you are deep breathing for 5 minutes or doing some stretching. This will help to reduce stress and keep your immune system healthy. That means less down time and less visits to the doctor's office.
Tip#10: Okay, this last tip is probably going to make some people squeamish but hard times calls for some good old fashion scrub down. What I mean is to stop using soap (you might even try to stop using shampoo and conditioner). There is too much chemicals in our so called hygiene products to be healthy (unless you found a 100% organic, and I mean the entire bottle of ingredients is 100% organic/natural). Try using some water and a terry cloth to gently scrub away the dirt. Unless your soap says anti-bacterial, it usually isn't killing anything and I wouldn't recommend an anti-bacterial soap for every day home use. It's just an open invitation to create some super bug that you can't kill.
If you have a healthy tip to share please feel free to add to the list. We'll be gliding soon so don't get too down about the economy. The silver lining is just under the cloud if you look for it.
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