Lifestyles are evolving at a much greater pace than our digestive systems, and so as the obesity epidemic spreads across the developed world, people are taking more and more notice of the nutritional value of the foods they eat. Heck, even McDonalds openly tell you that a box of fries has as much fat in them as an equal weighting of lard. How do they do that? The miracle of food science.

Now as we know as readers of this blog, our mind and body are one system. What affects one affects the other, so Gillian is of course right to say that what we eat affects both physical and mental health. Give the brain the right nutrients, manage your insulin levels properly and there is a very high chance that you will feel better, happier and more alert.

So I wonder how much your mind affects your body? Lots of course, just imagine yourself eating a lovely, fresh, crunchy bit of fruit, with the juice spilling across your tongue and splashing against your gums and you will notice that you're salivating more, purely as your mind influences your body.

So if you are what you take in nutritionally, surely you are also what you take in mentally?

Of course, every thing we read, hear and see affects our mental state, and hence our physical state. That's one reason why I take news reports and newspapers with a pinch of salt - bad news sells, and it's not a fair reflection of what is going on in the world.

So I wonder if you ever consider the nutritional information of the TV you watch and the books that you read in the same way as you would with a food item you are thinking of buying when you are conscious of your physical health, perhaps wanting to get fitter or lose a few inches round the middle?

What you watch, listen to and read affects who you are, remember, you become what you think about, most of the time.

So do you ever think about who and what you want to be? And think about what you should be watching, reading and listening to, to become that person?

And it doesn't take much, let's say you read a book that supports your goals for 1 hour a day, on the train, over lunch, in the bath, before you go to bed. You would read about a book a week.

That's 52 books a year. Even if each book only had ONE point that gave you a new skill, outlook or positive viewpoint, that's 52 changes in a single year. Within 2 years you would be one of the most knowledgable people in your field. Within ten years you would accumulate more learning and knowledge from experts in their field than most people gain in their whole lives.

For just one hour a day, your life could be ten times better in one year.

Now I'm not saying ditch all of those novels and start reading text books... I'm saying think about where you want to be, and start reading around the subjects, learn from the experts and you can still enjoy your novels. Heck, I'm not telling you to do anything. I do, however, know that one surefire way to get paid more is to know more. The more you learn, the more you earn, and most people are happy to stop learning when they leave school or university.

You are what you read. Read the same stuff you always read and you'll always be the person you always have been. As the half-life of knowledge becomes shorter and shorter it is the people with a thirst for knowledge and the ability to read and learn that reach the top.

You become what you read. What do you want to be tomorrow that you could read about today?

Taken from http://www.watchtheskies.co.uk

Another gem from Brian Tracy's Success Mastery Academy is the use of affirmations. That is, using your self-talk to make behaviour changes. It works like this, a little guide that is a combination of the wisdom from Brian Tracy and Jamie Smart:

1) Identify a limiting belief you'd like to change.

We all have them, a belief, or a rule about the universe we live in that stops us doing something we really want to do, such as:

- I can't start my own business
- I'll always be overweight
- I don't ever have enough money
- I can't be happy because I'm manic depressive

The problem with these beliefs is that everytime we say them to ourselves, our unconscious mind hears them and does everything to help it be true. Your unconscious is incredibly helpful and trusts that what you say is what you want.. it can't filter good from bad affirmations.

2) Construct a positive affirmation using the following form: I am xxxxx.

The keys to creating powerful affirmations are:

- Make them positive (What you want, not what you don't want)
- Make them identity-based ("I")
- Make them present-tense ("I am...")
- Make them emotionally powerful

You see the unconscious mind doesn't process future tense, it needs to know what you are right now, and will work to make it happen.

Power affirmations based on the list from above would be as follows:

- I am a fantastically successful entrepreneur
- I am slim, fit and healthy
- I am wealthy and always have a surplus of money
- I am blissfully happy and full of joy

It's not reality, yet if you read this blog you already know that reality is just perception, and anyway the same was probably true of the limiting belief when you first started affirming it. It takes time for a belief to put down roots, so something you can do to plant it in your unconscious mind and help it to grow is...

3) Say your new affirmation, notice what thoughts and feelings are triggered and accept them.

It is likely that you'll have certain sensations and thoughts, so allow yourself to be aware of any pictures that pop into your mind, voices in your head, and feelings in your body. Of all of these, it is usually the feelings that keep an old belief in place and that push against the new one coming in. But you can relax - you don't have to fight those feelings; just accept them, maybe even say to yourself "OK, this is what I'm feeling."  Then wait a minute or so and say your affirmation again. You will probably find that the feelings and thoughts have changed in some way. Great! This is a sign that things are moving. Repeat this process several times, each time accepting the thoughts and feelings that come up.

4) Reinforce your new belief by repeating your affirmation daily, allowing yourself to feel how you'll feel when it's true, and by noticing proof that supports it.

Brian Tracy also suggests:
- Writing it out every day
- Saying it aloud while looking in a mirror
 
There's a great book by Shad Helmstatter called "What you say when you talk to your self" that explores this in far more detail.

Here's a lovely example of the power of affirmations from Jamie Smart.

Taken from http://www.watchtheskies.co.uk

I'm currently listening to Brian Tracy's Success Mastery Academy. Brian Tracy's work is superb - littered with good humour and plenty of stories and examples, he is kind of the Success Yoda... if you want to be good at something, really good, such as being a master in your field, ot just plain earning money, I recommend you listen to Brian Tracy. He's a straight down the line "been there, done it" guy with a lot of knowledge on what success is in its purest terms and how to achieve it.

And so far through this 10 hour programme, i've found it very useful. The first revelation for me was a new law. Sure I've heard of the Law of Attraction recently - who hasn't? And that one for me doesn't really ring true, I think it's The Thinker and The Prover all wrapped up in a bunch of mystical poppycock.

And yet Brian Tracy quotes the Law of Correspondence. Hmm...

In the time of Abraham, the teacher Hermes Trismegistos asserted that all information about a man could be found within a single drop of his blood and that within a man was represented the entire universe. He formulated from this a principle which he called The Law of Correspondence which stated: "Whatever is above is like that which is below, and whatever is below is like that which is above".

In the case of being successful, Tracy suggests that the Law of Correspondence means that your external world is representative of your internal world. And it's one way - changing your external world, such as buying that hifi you can't really afford, or giving your lounge a new coat of paint, doesn't change who you are inside. He suggests that to make real change to your outside world, you must change your inner world, your mind.

And at this point i'm going to leave it there. I could (and usually do) continue to talk about the how. I'll leave that for another post and let you wonder and wander about what this means to you.

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reposted from http://www.watchtheskies.co.uk

As we head deep in to Wedding season, the Hen nights and Stag dos are coming thick and fast. And so it was on Saturday when, following Live Earth, a well-intentioned mish-mash of artists who had flown around the world on private jets and driven to events in Humvees, and a watch of Jack Black's silly but occasionally very funny Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny, I settled down to wait for Jen to return from a hen night.

Channel hopping, I happened across David Fincher's genius movie Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. This is one of my all time favourite films, yet it is one I hadn't seen for many years, particularly since I got really interested in some of the subjects that I waffle on about nowadays. Back then I was mostly occupied with doing my MBA, which meant I didn't have time to philosophise, just learn lots of theories and hope that one day that I would understand accountancy.

So it was with a fresh eye that I watched the film, and found myself relating to it on a whole new level. The last time I watched it, I viewed Tyler Durden as an anarchist, spouting a lot of poppycock. Yet this time I understood, and sympathised with many of his views. Sure I don't think it was necessary to commit acts of terror... I don't feel the need to impose my views on others so forcefully.

And yet at the core of what Durden says is the idea that your identity rang true with me. That modern society pushes us to believe that who we are is a consequence of what we own, how much money we have in the bank and what car we drive. And yet all of these things are trappings that may reflect who we are, and we are no more complete as people if we have a big house. When coaching, I often ask people something like "what's important to you in life?", and the answers often start with material things, and yet with little investigation, they are replaced with feelings and emotions that are purely internal... peace, fulfillment, achievement. These "higher" criteria are actually achievable in many ways that don't require any trappings at all. So this new viewing of Fight Club changed my view of Tyler from anarchist to unconventional life coach for the members of Project Mayhem...!

This to some extent is easy for me to say, I have a nice house and an array of unnecessary gadgets, yet they don't specifically make me happier, the gadgets for example hold interest in me usually only until I have figured them out, or they have solved a larger challenge for me, often technically. The gadgets give me internal feelings, and I can get them from a number of methods, including sitting in the garden and playing with my son.

So for me, Tyler Durden was right... he saw the world from a pure perspective... he just had a funny way of translating that message of what was in his heart in to meaning for everyone else.

And then again, don't we all?