Become aware!

Why do you do things you know aren’t good for you?  How many of you already know what things upset your mind, body or spirit and yet you still continue to do them?  And how do you know that they aren’t good for you?

I think if we are all truly honest with ourselves, each and every one of us already knows what is good and bad or right and wrong.  Not only are these things taught to us by our families and society, but we are intuitively aware of these things. Our mind, body and spirit constantly give us feedback, signs and warnings when things aren’t right.  It’s just that we have become so disconnected, unaware and numb to these signs that they go by unnoticed and we become immune to their presence.

I recently posted a comment on Gratitude Log stating that I was grateful for all of my senses that I have available to me.  Sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.  Our senses are one of the first things in our body that receives a signal that things aren’t right.  How many times have you heard all of these old clichés?

“I’ve got a gut feeling about that”

“It leaves a bad taste in my mouth”

“I can feel it in my bones”

“It just doesn’t sound right to me”

“It just doesn’t look right”

“My ears are ringing”

Now some of you might think that they are just old wives tales, but I think that some of those old wives were pretty wise old girls and they knew what they were talking about a lot of the time. 

It’s only us in today’s fast paced rat race who continue to; 

Our bodies are forever giving us all of the signs that we need to see, hear and feel what’s right and wrong. 

We spew and we poo,

We smile and we frown,

It goes up and it goes down,

Our tears flow and our colour goes,

We cough and we splutter,

We’re so busy, we get dizzy,

We sweat and we fret,

We shake and we fake,

We don’t stop until we drop,

We end up with snot and then that’s our lot!

So next time instead of opening your mouth to take yet another pill, to overcome the side effect of the last pill, try to listen to your own intuition and open your eyes to what your mind, body and spirit is already telling you.

Until I talk with you next time, keep your ear to the ground and I will keep my eye on you!  Enjoy!  

Take control!

So far my blog posts have related to a range of topics such as Releasing the Anger, Stolen Generations, National Apology, Reconcilliation, Forgiveness and Procrastination.

You will notice that all of these above things involve us “taking action,” us doing something, instead of us being done to!  They all involve us taking responsibility for our lives and our actions, whether they are positive or negative experiences.

Often when things go wrong in your life, it makes you feel better to lay the blame somewhere else, outside of yourself.  In many cases you can say that you had no control over the situation and you were helpless.  It wasn’t your fault

Blame gives you back a sense of power, convincing yourself that it was something outside of your control that made something else occur.  When you do this you will often feel better, but gradually like the sand through an hour glass, a sense of guilt and shame begins to pour back into your mind.  Before you know it, it has rubbed against your sub conscience and you begin to feel raw, exposed and vulnerable to criticism again.  To help defend and justify your actions you have to get more creative, defensive and angry and so the cycle goes on.

When you believe that you have no control over the situation, you begin to believe that you are powerless in the situation.  You seek and attract like minded people who agree with you and support you in your hopeless circumstances.  You start to believe what you are hearing, seeing, thinking and feeling.  You start to think that this is who you are, because everyone and everything around you continues to reinforce your false beliefs. 

It is hard to avoid the descriptive words that highlight the struggle, inequality, discrimination, racism, frustrations, failure, conflicts, violations and barriers that we all have so strongly come to identify with.

How many times have you bought a new car and then the next time when you're driving on the road, everywhere you look you see the exact same car as yours.  Now you and I both know that those great cars, just like yours, have always been there, the only difference is, before now you haven’t been looking for them.

So next time when you hear words that increase your sense of power, pride and self-determination.  Remember that you can embrace those great words and become more resilient, consistent, stronger, open to change and responsible for your actions.  You can take back control of the situation and look for solutions rather than excuses.   
You are in control and you can steer your life in which ever direction you choose.

Until next time, travel safely and enjoy your journey!

Procrastination

How many of you are guilty of procrastinating?  How many of you even know what the word procrastination means?  The one thing that I do know is that we are all guilty of it. 

Now, my previous post was about "Setting goals for 2011".  How did you all go with that?  I bet you’ve got them all written out and up on the fridge door or in a neat little folder that you read every night just before you go to sleep.  Mmmmmm I thought not!

Now perhaps the reason you are “putting this off” is because you are procrastinating.   Procrastination is when you just avoid doing stuff that you really know you should be doing and you just can’t seem to figure out why you don’t just do it!  

I decided to write about procrastination today, because I have recently been procrastinating over “writing my book” and I am feeling really frustrated with myself and I thought that a blog about procrastination would help me work through some of my procrastination issues.  I know that this is actually another ploy to procrastinate further, but as long as I am aware of that then that’s a good start in overcoming it.

There are a million things that we all put off and they all range in level of importance.  Some are big things and some might be small things, in other words some things we put off are either important or not so important. 

Now often we feel guilty if we don’t achieve or at least have a go at completing these things.  But why do we feel guilty?  Is it because we are letting ourselves down? Or perhaps it’s because we think we are letting someone else down or could it be both reasons?  Only you know the answers to those questions.  So they are worth contemplating.

Often the closer something gets to the last minute is when I seem to procrastinate the most.  It’s like I can’t function unless I am under pressure.  Yet I tell myself that I hate putting myself under pressure.  It seems like a vicious cycle and it is!  So why do I do it?  Why do any of us do it to ourselves?

This is also a question that only you can answer, but some possible reasons for this are;

1.    We are scared and we fear failure or fear success.
2.    We are punishing ourselves.
3.    We are punishing others. 
4.    We fear change.

So, now that you know some of the possible reasons why you put things off, what can you do about it?  What can you do to overcome procrastinating habits?

If you do something long enough it will become a habit or a pattern of behaviour, whether it is good or bad.  To turn a negative pattern or habit into a positive habit or behaviour does take some serious attention and most of all action.   Despite being challenging, it can be done as long as you are persistent!

Follow these steps!

Step 1 – Become aware of your procrastinating habit

Step 2 – Identify why you are or are not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.  Is it fear of success or fear of failure?  Ask who am I hurting?

Step 3 – Remember that action overcomes procrastination.  (Do 1 small thing towards achieving your task or goal - put a time limit on it too)

Step 4 – Reward yourself for moving forward. 

Step 5 - Repeat Step 3, continuously until the job is done!

I found this count down timer tool on the internet and thought that you might also find it valuable to monitor your time and help you stay on track with your tasks.

http://www.focusboosterapp.com/download

Best of luck with overcoming procrastination and until next time!  Enjoy!