I CHOOSE…
to live by choice not by chance;
to make changes, not excuses;
to be motivated, not manipulated;
to be useful, not to be used;
to excel , not to compete.
I choose self-esteem, not pity.
I choose to listen to my inner
Voice, not to the random opinion of
others.
The benefits of exercise are mind-blowing. They can range from increasing memory not only for your muscles but also for your brain and all in between. Get inspired to start moving by reading the many ways working out can improve mental well-being, relationships, and an overall happier and healthier life.
1. Adapt easier to change
Once you begin a routine of exercise the benefits are reaped even after a break. Thirty minutes of endurance or strength training 3 times a week affects muscles on the cellular level first before any physiological results are seen. Thus after exercise is stopped and muscles begin to atrophy, the cellular level memory remains intact and can remember previous learned motor sensory to achieve faster results upon onset of exercise again.
2. Reduce stress
A brisk walk or weight lifting stimulates the central nervous system and increases the neurotransmitters including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine which our body releases to adapt more efficiently to stress. The intense concentration for coordinated exercise such as dance, tennis or rowing precipitates a type of distraction that may reduce anxiety even further.
3. Relieve depression
Exercise is like taking a happy pill. It’s a form of mediation which facilitates an altered state of consciousness. Playing tag can reignite that inner child and boost mood. Press that fun button and get that body moving again.
4. Increase self-confidence and body image
Physical activity gives a sense of mastery and control. Seeing results of your hard work gives a sense of gratification. Not only are the improvements seen in your body but also running that mile faster or lifting more weight than before.
5. Inspire others
Exercising with a buddy is an instant motivator. You are more apt to exercise because your partner is there waiting. They hold you accountable for your actions and vice versa. Not only are you encouraged to show up but when you are running side by side, you are more apt to push just a little harder. There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition.
6. Make new friends
There’s no better way to make new friends than at a pick-up game of soccer, a group class at the gym, or joining a running club. Exercise is just more fun with someone else.
7. Anti-aging
Working out can help prevent telomeres from shortening. Telomeres are like the plastic protector at the end of your shoe laces but for your chromosomes. Telomeres protect genetic data and determine how we age and get cancer. When we age, cells divide and telomeres shorten. Overtime, telomeres reach a point where they can no longer divide and become inactive. This process is associated with aging, cancer, and a shortened lifespan. Research shows that aerobic exercise can help delay shortening of telomeres and add years to your life. So go ahead and take those stairs instead of the elevator knowing you are doing your body and cells good.
8. Decrease onset of Alzheimer’s
Staying physically active maintains good blood flow to the brain and supports new brain cells. Research shows regular exercise such as tai chi, yoga, even gardening can increase blood flow to the brain which reduces brain cell loss. Exercise also stimulates mental activity especially when done with a partner. The social interaction and decision-making process of planning your route or coordination of a good game of softball provide added brain benefits.
9. Improve learning
Researchers who published a study in the 2011 Archives of Internal Medicine determined that even mild exercise improves cognitive functioning compared to folks who did not exercise. Learning a new sport or activity like ballroom dancing can increase the amount of gray matter in your occipital lobe, the area of the brain associated with visual memory. A 2004 Nature article stated that those who learned how to juggle increased the amount of gray matter but when they stopped the new gray matter vanished. So learn a new move, improve your learning and memory and keep practicing!
The positive effects of physical activity out way any negative, self-sabotaging excuses. Exercise doesn’t have to be at the gym to be beneficial. All you have to do is access that inner child and get that body moving again. You might just lose a few pounds and gain improved relationships, memory, and confidence.
By Richard Branson
When posting recently about the importance of making lists and resolutions, there was an overwhelming response from people keen to reach their goals in 2013. It’s great to see such enthusiasm – and practical planning – for making positive changes from people all over the world.
Planning is extremely important, for any adventure in or out of business. But even more crucial is the will to simply get out there and do something new. A couple of thoughts have caught my attention this week about creating original ideas.
Dr Muhammad Yunus, founder of the wonderful Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, said: “All human beings are born as entrepreneurs. But unfortunately, many of us never had the opportunity to unwrap that part of our life, so it remains hidden.”
He touches upon the potential within us all to bring new ideas to life. For those of us fortunate enough to have the chance to see their dreams come to life, it is foolish to waste our opportunities.
Another perceptive point comes from Seth Godin. On his blog, he wrote about the challenges of initiating any project. “Not enough people believe they are capable of productive initiative.
“I don’t think the shortage of artists has much to do with the innate ability to create or initiate. I think it has to do with believing that it’s possible and acceptable for you to do it.”
As Mr Godin suggests, it is absolutely possible for you to create, to take chances, to allow your ideas to flourish if you have enough self-confidence. While he is referring to artists, the same applies for the art of business.
Now is the time to do doesn’t just apply to starting businesses. it applies to relationships, to fitness, to all aspects of your life.
Nobody else is going to start your business for you. 2013 is the time to put your ideas into action. Now is the time to do.
I’ve found that four conditions often forecast the advent of real and healthy love. Love’s arrival feels like magic; a gift of luck. Yet we can invite that luck by approaching our dating life differently. If these shifts are happening for you, be encouraged. You’re probably well on the way to finding the kind of love that can last.
You lose your taste for “attractions of deprivation”
It’s easy to become attracted to people who can almost commit; people who treat us wonderfully–and then diminish, demean or ignore us. These relationships are usually highly charged and gnawingly addictive. Like a slot machine, they keep us coming back for more. We long to get it right, to get our partner to love us. We struggle to improve ourselves. We play hard to get. We try giving more, or we practice giving less. We try to be funnier, more successful or more in-shape, so that our desired one will finally want us as much as we want them.
At a certain point, (and usually as a result of tremendous pain) we begin to lose our taste for relationships that chip away at our sense of self-worth. We find we just can’t stomach the thought of being hurt like that again. And this is a great thing. When we become less “sticky” to these kinds of attractions, a dead-end era of our dating lives is finally coming to an end. Now, we can begin the real work of intimacy–cultivating our attraction to relationships that feed and nurture us.
Kindness and availability become more important to you
As we lose our taste for attractions of deprivation, we usually experience a temporary void in our dating life. We know we don’t want the pain of past relationships, but nothing else seems as exciting. In time, (and often with guidance) we begin to seek what I call attractions of inspiration.
These attractions are based upon a (basically) consistent quality of shared kindness, generosity, and emotional availability. They often unfold slowly. They get richer as time goes on. They make us feel love, not desperation.
We can measure the very quality of our lives by the relationships of mutual inspiration we’ve cultivated.
The joy we feel in these relationships doesn’t come from conquest or momentary validation, but from an essential quality of contentment we feel with our partners. We don’t feel consistently bigger or smaller than the object of our affections. In some basic way, we feel what the twelve-step programs call “right sized.” But most of us have never been taught that these relationships have a trajectory of their own. They need to be cultivated and nourished in different ways than we might be used to. It may seem that they are not as exciting at first, but in fact, they are much more so.
There is a thrilling risk available to us in these relationships—the risk of revealing our authentic self. If we take that risk with our partners and find that we are accepted and embraced, the erotic and emotional charge of the relationship deepens and intensifies. These are the people who deserve to see the real us: our wild self, our kinky self, our unshared ideas, our tender soul.
And by the way, that’s precisely why these are the scariest relationships of all. Our fear may do anything to save us from the risk of vulnerability. It’s best strategy is to trick us into fleeing by shouting “Next! Back to the hunt!” But if we don’t flee, we may find that the fear passes, and a deeper, more passionate love shows through on the other side.
If you find that you are seeking these relationships and ignoring the thrill of your attractions of deprivation, then celebrate. You’re on the path to a relationship that can sustain a future of love.
You become willing to give up your “flight patterns”
All of us, single or coupled, flee the heat and the risks of true intimacy. All of us. Any single person who wants to find love would do well to become a student of his or her own “flight patterns.” There are so many ways to flee intimacy, even as we seek it:
Staying home and watching TV every night. Surfing the net, instead of going to places where people with shared values can be found. Wasting time on attractions of deprivation. Not being authentic. Chatting online but never taking the steps to meet. Playing it cool. Looking for hookups instead of dates. Drinking too much on our dates.
At a certain point, we really start to mean it in our search for a life-partner. We realize that time is ticking, that we are growing tired of living and sleeping alone (Please note, this isn’t true for everyone. Many of us are quite happy living solo.)
When we’re willing to let go of our flight patterns; when we find ways to meet people who share our values; and when we only have second or third dates with people who hold the promise of becoming attractions of inspiration, then things really begin to change.
You lead with your authentic self.
Leading with your authentic self may seem on the surface like an easy thing, but it’s not. We get most wounded around the places we care the most. These are the parts of us that I call “core gifts.” Because our authentic self is so vulnerable and because most of us have incurred profound wounding around our core gifts, we tend to either suppress them or create air-brushed versions of them for the world to see. But these versions of self lack the vigor, soul and magnetism of our authentic self, so we find we are less successful in attracting the very people who would accept and treasure us for who we are.
I’ve found that the key does not lie in simply accepting our authentic self, in all its humanity. The key lies in treasuring it, in all its timidity, imperfection and excess. We have the right to honor our core gifts, and to only choose people who can do the same.
When we do that in a non-defensive way, our world begins to change. That’s when we somehow find ourselves dating people who accept us for who we are; people who are kind, generous of spirit and available. I can’t explain why this happens, but I’ve see it occur so many times that I’ve come to accept it as a happy truth in the frequently treacherous world of dating.
Instead of helping us embrace our core gifts, the singles world teaches us to dishonor them—in ourselves and in the people we date. Like those ugly fun-house mirrors, the prevailing singles culture flashes distorted, haunting images at us–images of our own flaws and inadequacies and of the inadequacies of the people we date. The solution is not to find our self-esteem within the walls of that hall of mirrors. It is to get out, and to find a better path.
Money is the solution to all our problems. Or so we think. If we just had more money to pay the bills, put healthier food on the table, and aid struggling companies so that they can pay their employees and hire more. All we need is more money and all our problems will be solved. Right? Well I say wrong.
Throwing money at the injustice in the world is not going to solve the abuse illegal immigrants endear while in prison. Money is not going to solve the problems of a family who lost their mother to the immigration laws that took her away from the love of her life of 40 years and her college attending, American born daughter. Money is not going to solve the problems of an educated, single woman who lost all her confidence to an abusive relationship.
So you ask, well if money is not going to solve their problems, what is? A transformation in our government is going to solve all of their problems. How so? A revolution in our thinking, our psyche, our relationship to power, control, and money.
Our country has become materialistic, lazy, unforgiving of diversity, and has a sense of entitlement. The tech boom brought overnight success to young, ambitious entrepreneurs that soon became cocky in their quick achievement and that everything else should come just as easy. It affected all of society, from individual stock investors, to money hungry mongrels like Goldman Sachs, and everyone in between.
Wealthy, pompous, Wall Street has puppeted naive politicians who are eager to make their stance in our society not necessarily for the people but for a name in history, prestige, and power. Wall Street continually hungered for more money and power and used their resources to gain more. The more money one had, the more control and power they entailed. Whatever got in their way, got crushed. That’s just one of the many problems with our relationship to money and power.
Our economy has paid a BIG price. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Middle America is slowly diminishing along with their self-worth, ambition, and faith in the American dream. We have become cynical and blame it on anyone we can get our hands on. The one’s who suffer are the very ones who are doing the blaming. We blame immigrants. They are taking all our jobs, we blame Wall Street, and we blame politicians. Everyone is pointing a finger at someone else and not taking responsibility for their own behavior. In the end, we are all suffering.
This brings me back to the revolution that needs to occur within American society. We have become lazy and have a sense of entitlement without looking internally at our own actions. We are quick to judge and are unlikely to look within and ask, “What can I do to better my situation?” How can I be proactive in my life? How can I make a difference?
We have the philosophy that if we lower taxes and make the rich pay more then there will be more money and then more jobs will automatically appear as companies feel more secure to hire employees. The problem is money will not change the attitude of Wall Street, politicians, and American society. What will? A sense of community, social support, encouragement, and personal confidence in our own character. We start to look at humans as human beings again. We treat each other with respect, and not respect out of fear because of the gun in my hand but because of who we are; our dignity, honor, and value. Every person has their own unique gift that can be utilized and America can return to that once prosperous, free-spirited, welcoming country where liberated thinking is hailed and opportunity exists. This philosophy is present; it’s just a matter of changing our psyche and priorities. Thus money is not the answer, humble community support and reverence of spirit is.
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