'How to Sport Confidence in uncertain times'

Now more than ever You need to stay Focused, Disciplined, and Determined do not give in to medicrioty and stay true to Your heart, soul, and game!

Confidence is a universally desired trait. It affects performance, and since confidence is purely a subjective experience controlled by your perception, altering your perception can greatly influence your confidence. Working on your mindset will likely provide far greater results than time spent training or working out in the gym.

Achieving Your Capacity

You can’t achieve more than your capacity. Let’s face it – you can only give 100 percent, and that should always be your aim: getting as close to your capacity as possible. One of the greatest blocks to performing close to your capacity is problems with confidence.

“Playing as best you can is one of the keys to greatness,” according to John Wooden, one of the few basketball coaches who is in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player as well as a coach.

In an interview with Anthony Robbins, John said, “I don’t get my players to play to win; I get them to perform the best they can.”

Expanding that belief, you can say, if a player is taking a free throw, his attention is best served focused on doing the task at hand and not wasting valuable space in his mind worrying about the effects of the shot.

John Wooden’s teams often beat better opponents because they played to a higher level of their capacity, even though they had a lower capacity as a team. It was this consistency that earned them so many titles.

The same holds true in other sports. Every tennis player can make a great shot. The great ones just make them more often and at the most important times.

Focusing on playing the best you can in each match will give you a greater chance to reach your capacity.

Focus and “The Zone”

The more you can focus single mindedly on the actions required to achieve a task, the more chance you have of achieving it. Anything else coming into your mind is redundant. When a player has this intense focus, he constantly slips into what athletes call “the zone,” the place where everything is effortless, the mind is quiet and magic just happens.

Richard Bandler (co-developer of NLP) in his work discusses some strange occurrences in this altered state of mind referred to as “the zone.” He notes time distortion in tennis players slowing the game down so they have more time to hit the ball.

The quickest way out of “the zone” is to think consciously, which will happen if you lose confidence or have doubts. Removing the fears and doubts and accepting you will give it your best shot will allow you greater opportunity to enter the zone.

Being Fearless

“I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games, and 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed,” said basketball legend Michael Jordan.

This quote shows that Jordan was fearless. He didn’t like losing, but he didn’t fear it. Being fearless meant he was less likely to get taken out of “the zone.”

I worked with a professional tennis player who feared having the second serve returned fast past her. As she threw the ball up into the air, this fear physically manifested itself in her shoulder, causing the muscles to tense up. This in turn caused a self fulfilling prophecy of having a weak second serve. Even thinking about throwing the ball up created tension in this player.

We addressed and resolved the fear using mental/emotional techniques such as NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). (EDITOR’S NOTE: For more on each of these techniques, please see the “related articles” to the right.) After EFT in particular, all the tension this player formerly experienced was released, freeing her physically to make the shot and freeing her mind to focus on the game. I have seen many muscle memory issues from past defeats and missed opportunities, and the actual process of clearing these up is simple when using NLP or EFT.

Each time you clear a fear, it frees up more mental capacity to focus on getting close to 100 percent capacity, which results in improved performance. Realizing that “there is nothing to fear but fear itself” is an important step. A fearless opponent is always a very dangerous opposition, as he will adjust his game until he finds openings.

The great players do not fear making shots. They are the ones who will make big plays on match point or with seconds to play in a grand final. They are willing to take responsibility because they hold no fear.

Release your fears of making mistakes and just focus on what you need to do. Once you accept you have fears and you face them, they transform into a valuable resource for you.

Fear and Choking

Choking refers to losing confidence, especially self confidence, just at the moment when it is needed most and doing poorly as a result (e.g., in sports). Often, the act of choking can completely alter an athlete’s life and/or ruin her career.

There have been many famous instances of choking but few greater examples than Jana Novotna’s defeat in the 1993 Wimbledon singles final to Steffi Graf.

Novotna, who became famous for crying on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent during the trophy presentation that year, had taken a 6–7, 6–1, 4–1, 40-15 lead and, with victory in her grasp, started missing simple shots. One notable shot was an overhead smash that hit the back tarp. Many shots went out by long margins.

Graf, sensing the crumbling of confidence, went on to win the next five games and the tournament. A great player can sniff weakness in an opponent and will rise to the occasion.

Novotna was a classic example of choking. Gripped with fear, she was unable to relax and play her game.

I once worked with an Australian Football League junior who had lost his confidence. When kicking the ball, he kept choking, which had been affecting him for half the season. This all stemmed from one poor kick he wasn’t able to put out of his mind, and therefore, he couldn’t concentrate on the things he needed to do.

Why is it some shots or failed attempts stick in the mind, and we are unable to get over them? I describe this as shadowing. This one (or more) kick, miss or game overshadows all the knowledge of how to play and overshadows the resources the athlete possesses. This is created from a state of mind that is influenced by many factors. The kick means more than just a missed kick. It could mean letting people down, and this adds unhelpful pressure. If this isn’t dealt with, you can play one bad game after another, which will really make an impression on the mind and can affect long term confidence.

Putting the mistake into perspective and moving on is fundamental in every sport. Michael Jordan had mastered this art. Some athletes perform better under pressure, but it is my belief that these athletes develop greater focus, almost needing something to “kick start” them. They do not allow the tension to affect them and their game negatively.

Relaxing the muscles is important. It is the mind that controls the muscles through its perception of events.

Mind Blocks

One amazing way to improve confidence is to remove a block in an athlete’s perception, which is usually tension created from a poor game or mistake.

I regularly see athletes who are stuck thinking about one bad shot. This blocks them from the mental resources of playing at their peak. They are just unable to stop thinking about it.

The bad event is likely to keep playing over and over in the mind’s eye until the player has learned something from it and can move on.

Let’s say a player played really well in nine games and badly in one. You would expect him to have high confidence, wouldn’t you? But it doesn’t always work that way, as the bad game takes on greater meaning than all the good ones combined. This one bad game literally blocks all of the confidence gained from the good games.

What if you were as good as all of your good performances? What if you could focus on the good ones and forget the bad ones and learn from them?

Something magical happens when this memory is resolved and put into perspective. This often happens naturally, but sometimes it can progress for years and can even ruin a career. When the block is removed, the bad game or mistake blends into the background, and the player gains a more balanced perspective and is able to focus on the task at hand.

I believe the great players learn to let things go the moment they happen and just focus in the present moment and the present shot. Athletes like Michael Jordan can just focus on their abilities. They think about what they want to happen and believe they can achieve it, putting mistakes behind them. Even missing so many important shots, Jordan is still one of the most successful athletes of all time.

Great athletes hold no fear and keep doubt at bay. Losing happens and is part of the game. Great athletes do not invest any energy or mind resource in losing. They get straight up and fight again.

Some will say that the great athletes rely on their ability. This is most certainly true, but how many other athletes have we seen with incredible talent but who are not able to apply it or to regularly get near their capacity. It is not just ability. It is applying that ability consistently.

Everyone’s own thoughts are unique, and it is what these thoughts mean to us that can cause problems. Instead of focusing on playing her game one shot at a time, Novotna let her fear control her, and this cost her the title.

Building the Right Frame of Mind

Since we can now see how the way we think about events affects our state of mind, will changing what we think about change our confidence? You bet it will.

Try it yourself. Think about one of the worst games you have ever played. Now take a moment and notice how your body feels. Notice any tension you feel and notice how much confidence you have. Doesn’t feel good, right? Most of you will have felt some residue energy from that memory. To your body and mind, it feels as though it is happening over again.

Now forget about that and think about the best game you ever played. Think about how great it felt. Tune into your body and sense how it feels. How’s your confidence? The chances are this feels much better. In the space of two minutes, you can completely change the way your body feels through thoughts.

I once worked with a professional athlete who was a great passer of the ball, but when he missed a pass, he would lose confidence. To restore it, he would make lots of small passes until his confidence returned. This seemed far too much work, so we used the following technique: whenever he missed, he thought about the best game he had ever had and felt the adrenalin of that rushing through his body. The result was quite startling. He went on to be player of the tournament.

You are free to think what you like, but we get caught in habitual thinking patterns and assume that is the way things work. Once you realize you have control, you are on the path to mastery.

A golfer may address the ball in the same ritualistic way for each shot to get him into the right frame of mind. Other sportsmen will bounce the ball a certain number of times or hit their gloves together. They are looking to activate a pattern.

If you create a ritual associated to confidence - known as an “anchor” in NLP - then you can fire this anchor off each time you need to access that confidence.

Three Easy Steps to Improve Confidence

1. Clear any blocks. When a bad shot or mistake plays on your mind, just accept you made a mistake and focus on the good shots. You can personally use EFT while thinking about the bad shot or mistake, and it will often clear the block there and then. If this doesn’t work, you may need to go a little deeper, and chances are a good EFT practitioner can quickly resolve it.
2. Create an anchor to get you in the right frame of mind. See www.nlpu.com or any of the thousands of other NLP resources available online. This will allow you to start to control the states of mind you require for top performance.
3. Just give it your best shot. When it comes to choking, realize that, whether you win or lose, doing your best is all that counts. You will win a lot of friends and respect giving it your all. You can’t do more than that. Looking back, you can relax in the knowledge that you gave it your best shot.

Confidence is an abstract concept and unique to each individual. But as we continue to understand more of how the mind and perception works, we can improve confidence significantly, which translates to improved performance.

References:

PT on the net
David Charalambous

Forwarded By, Natalie Pyles

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or 480-212-1947 e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com or WWW.MyFitnessElements.com

'Natalie's New Article Published'

'The Power Of Positive Imaging'

3 Key Secrets to Unlock Change & Your Way to Better Health & Fitness

Hope, Faith, and Truth are the keys to healing. When you have them you can image your own recovery and speed the healing process. When you don't have them you can't. Dr. Sanford Cohen, Chief of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, has made some studies that seem to indicate that hopelessness- that is, an image of no recovery- actually kills. For instance if the doctor diagnoses a fatal disease and tells the patient, and if the patient loses hope and gives up, death comes quickly.

There once was a women whose elderly father was hit by a taxi while crossing the street in Manhattan and died at the age of eighty-eight years old. When an autopsy was performed, the doctor was amazed at his discovery. "Your father had all sorts of lessions and ailments that should have caused his death twenty years ago,"he said to the women. "Then you say he was lively and energetic right up to the end. How do you account for that?" "I don't know" the women said," unless it was his habit of saying to me every single morning, "Today is going to be a terrific day." This daily imaging habit, it seems, paid off. How can we apply imagery to our health and fitness using this very purposeful tool? We have to work hard at changing our attitudes, habits, and thinking towards health and fitness. This is why cookie cutter approaches don't last in the long term. You must understand my friend change requires better habits and behaviors. I hope you can use this tip and apply it to your life. Have a healthy day!

Your Friend In Health & Fitness,

Natalie Pyles

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
WWW.MyFitnessElements.com

"How To Incorporate Living the Love Principle"

I first learned of the Love Principle in Walter Russell’s one-year home study course. Simply stated, Russell teaches that the Love Principle is expressed as a balance of giving and regiving.

The concept of giving and regiving is beautifully depicted in nature. For example, grass grows in response to the love given from Mother Earth and Father Sun. The grass is given life, in which it experiences the love of physical existence. Grass growing on the African savanna also experiences this giving. From time to time, a zebra comes along and eats the grass, which may or may not terminate its physical life. To be eaten by the zebra is the grass’s chance for regiving; it contributes its life and love to the zebra, nourishing and energizing the animal’s life. The zebra, experiencing the same love from Mother Earth and Father Sun in the form of water via river, stream or pool and food from grass, is perpetually receiving its giving or love and enters into its natural regiving when, for example, a lion kills and eats it. The zebra now passes its giving, its love onto the lion. The lion, though not a grass eater, enjoyed the love of both Mother Earth and Father Sun that was offered the grass as bioaccumulation in the zebra, allowing it to express the gifts of “lion life” on the savanna. Being at the top of the food chain, much like the human being, the lion’s only real predator is Father Time. The lion comes to the end of its natural life and typically dies in its sleep. Upon death, the buzzards, other scavengers and microorganisms will ensure that the lion offers its fair share of regiving, completing what is referred to as the closed organic cycle or the wheel of life.

Through the process of living the Love Principle, each life form is afforded the opportunity to exist and experience the splendor of a life sympathetic with existence as that particular life form. Under the laws of nature, life forms never suffer from a lack of love as a giving, nor can they consciously evade its natural regiving or loving back. It is only as humans that we manage to break these principles.

Analyzing the Love Principle, one can see that there is no waste and that all life and all forms of life are bound by love in a codependent relationship. Yet, when we come to human life and human behavior, we see over and over again a perpetual consumption or taking from Mother Nature. Humans consume Her love, yet at the same time humanity at large is negligent in its regiving. For example, we farm for commercial gain, literally strip mining the soils and turning what was once arable land into deserts where a fraction of the previous life can now exist. We dump billions of gallons of raw sewage and industrial waste into the ocean daily, poisoning the waters and impeding the immune systems of all sea life. We destroy the natural habitat of millions of living species so that we can drill for oil to power our gas-guzzling cars and fossil-fuel-hungry industries, despite the fact that both governments and big industry have suppressed numerous viable attempts by other loving, compassionate human beings to introduce more efficient and cleaner forms of fuel. Significant scientific evidence supports the contention that we are accelerating the greenhouse effect with our current forms of farming, industry and lifestyles. One effect of this is the changing weather patterns that disrupt the natural flow of the closed organic cycle or Love Principle even more.

While there are numerous more examples I could give, glancing at any major newspaper will elucidate my point. Because this article is an offering to health and exercise professionals, I would like to now describe how the Love Principle applies to those professional groups, both of which I personally receive a giving from and am hereby regiving in one of the many possible ways we all can.

The Corporatization of Health and Exercise

In our more natural state as hunter-gatherers, and even in the ancient agrarian societies that emerged in the Middle East some 10,000 years ago, we lived in accordance with the Love Principle. Most native societies were very careful not to waste any part of an animal. They ate what was edible and used the rest to manufacture clothing, shelter and equipment, such as fashioning tools from the teeth and bones. Our fecal material was returned to the earth, fulfilling the Love Principle by feeding the microorganisms that in turn accepted our giving and regave to the plant life. The physical movement of our life was woven into the fabric of the Love Principle’s giving and regiving as a natural, holistic expression of movement as seen in all of our developmental predecessors, be they water, air, earth, mineral, plant or animal. Our very movement, or exercise, was part and parcel of the wheel of life!

Within horticultural societies, the planting, farming and harvesting was primarily the task of the women, for it is well known that plant life has an affinity for female energy. Horticulture and hunting, a predominately male activity, existed side by side for some time, never disrupting the natural synergy of the Love Principle. With the advent of the plow, females were generally displaced from agriculture since they were not strong enough to handle the animal-plow combination. At this most important point in the development of humanity, the previously balanced contribution from males and females to the life process began to swing heavily toward patriarchy. This evolution in farming increased food production, which led to the ability to stockpile grains and other foodstuffs. This freed some people from the full-time task of food production and allowed time for specialization in tool making, art, crafts and more. Metallurgy developed, leading to the manufacture of progressively more advanced tools and weaponry. We became more and more specialized with our use of herbs and medicines. Out of the agrarian age came the industrial age, which gave birth to modern science. Modern science was primarily responsible for the progressive dissection of large holistic systems. Our scientific methods were never comprehensive enough to study the entire web of life, and therefore scientists had to confine aspects of living systems in attempt to gain knowledge of their functions. Yet the individual parts are never the sum of the whole! Despite the inherent drawbacks of an isolationist’s approach to science - through the dissection of nature – we gained the ability to harness electricity, to produce fossil fuels, identify the periodic table of elements and understand chemistry, to make plastics and much more.

Each step of the way, life seemed to get easier. By 1900, we had the ability to both destroy our enemy, produce electric motors and mass produce bread and other foodstuffs as well. As we drifted further and further away from the Love Principle, we moved into instant gratification. Some of the many results we now experience are:

• Using medicines produced from the fractionation of herbs or the dissection and extraction of various elements from plants, insects and animals. For example:
  
  
  • Horse urine is used to make estrogen used in female hormone replacement therapies. However, consider that the need for estrogen replacement was almost nonexistent prior to the onset of the industrial and scientific age because women lived the Love Principal - they were in tune with nature - and menopausal distress was relatively unheard of.
    
  • Antibiotics were developed to kill bacteria, which were suspected to be the cause of many diseases. Yet today, we prescribe more antibiotics than ever and now have problems with resistance to antibiotics, staphylococcus infections in hospitals and the highest rates of chronic disease in recorded history!
    
  • Hundreds of patents for medical drugs and billions of dollars invested in pharmaceutical companies, yet modern drugs in general do not address the etiology of illness. They typically suppress the symptoms of untold numbers of diseases that were uncommon when we were living in accordance with the Love Principle. Generally, neither the site of the disease nor the symptoms are where the etiology of any disease process is found.
  
  
• Food processing, or the progressive refinement of foods beyond what is absolutely necessary to soften fiber and improve digestion, has resulted in the massive loss of nutrients in our diets. Each step of the processing, life force is detracted from food and in short order what was once a life-giving food becomes a displacement food. By definition, a displacement food is any foodstuff that takes more energy and nutrition to digest, metabolize, assimilate and eliminate than it delivers. With the progressive increase in food processing has come a concomitant increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases.
  
• Conglomeration in cities has lead to humanity losing touch with Mother Nature, which has facilitated our willingness to kill Her! For instance, recent investigations have found that many children with attention deficit disorder, anxiety and other such stress responses can make great strides toward healing or normalizing their physiology and psychology simply by spending more time in nature. Children and adults in cities are being bombarded by environmental stimuli such as electromagnetic pollution that our biological systems have never until now had to deal with, while at the same time being deprived of such natural stimulations as:
  • Color stimulation
  • Effective use of near and far vision
  • Environmental pressures to use the body in such a way that our natural internal biological pump systems and energy systems are activated.
  
  Additionally, a tremendous number of today’s children and teens have never even physically seen the very farm animals they eat! Meat is considered to come in packages from a grocery store. With this departure from nature has come an unintentional indifference to the destruction of nature at large. All the while, we are killing our Mother! It is well known that babies who don’t receive adequate physical nurture from their mothers or a human surrogate will not develop optimally and in many instances will die. Why would we expect detachment from Mother Nature should produce a different result, when in fact Mother Nature merely transcends and includes our individual biological “mothers?”
  
• Transportation and the mechanization of farming, while helpful at large, has resulted in tremendous problems stemming from sedentary lifestyles. Charles Wharton, a highly respected naturalist, has shown that the average hunter-gatherer society completed their hunting and gathering tasks in approximately three and a half hours a day. Certainly, three and a half hours of activity a day, even at low levels of intensity, is adequate to maintain optimal biological function and stave off any diseases linked to inactivity, not to mention being sufficient to optimize one’s physiology in the way that exercise is known for. Upon completing their daily tasks, parents of children took time to play with them, relieving the elders – grandparents and extended family of this generation - of their duties as educators. The result was a level of psychological stability that now we can only look back upon!

While it is unlikely that the so-called modern advancements of science and society are likely to go away, there is still very much we can learn from the study of holistic systems, which combined exercise, diet and spiritual development as a living philosophy.

Ancient Practices Uniting Spirit and Exercise

As I’ve pointed out above, in most ancient or primitive systems of spiritual development, exercise was either included or was a direct by-product of survival in their given environment. For example, around 3000 B.C. the Aryans began to enter north-west India, bringing with them their practice of yoga. The Aryans believed it was of utmost importance that thought, speech and action be life supporting, or in other words, in harmony with all other levels of the universe. In fact, the very word yoga means yoke or union.

As much as 7000 years ago, Qigong (pronounced “chee-gong”) emerged as a Chinese philosophical system of harmonious integration of the human body with the universe. Like yoga, Qigong is a system of physical, mental and philosophical training for cultivating moral and body strength, prolonging life and developing human potential. Today, there are millions of Chinese and untold thousands of people from other nations who practice Qigong. It is my personal experience and observation that many of these people have spiritual experiences, experiences that bond them with nature, improve their sense of well being and their capacity to love self and others.

The Chinese also developed a system of gymnastic exercise called Cong Fou. Cong Fou dates back to 2698 B.C.E. and is defined as the art of exercising the body and its application to the treatment of disease. In addition to Qigong and Cong Fou, the Chinese developed Tai Chi, which is often referred to as a soft martial art. Tai Chi is a system of functional exercise because, like the others mentioned here, it seeks to improve the health and vitality of the body and mind, improving man’s relationship with both external and internal nature. Additionally, most of the ancient systems of spiritual development not only included spiritual practices and exercises, they were inclusive of dietary guidelines and advice, including how to use food as medicine in the treatment of various ailments. These were complete “holistic” systems for the development of health and well being.

Anyone subscribing to any one of the above mentioned ancient systems of living for as little as six consecutive months will show one or all of the following signs of health and well being:

• Improved aesthetics (often looking noticeably younger than their age!)
• Improved energy levels
• Improved mental clarity
• Little if any need for medical drugs
• Greater sense of autonomy
• Improved sense of purpose and wanting to belong
• Greater sense of unity with nature
• Elimination of disease
• Increased resistance to disease
• Greater passion and compassion for life!

These very markers of physical-emotional-mental-spiritual unity can be found among those who practice the integration of religion or spiritual development and exercise. Clearly, as the great philosopher Spinoza stated, “Whatever increases or diminishes, helps or hinders the power of activity in the body, the idea thereof increases or diminishes, helps or hinders the power of thought in our mind.” Plato and Aristotle, who lived long before Spinoza, are recorded to have demanded that their philosophy students exercise regularly and vigorously, for they knew full well that he who is not fit is not fit to think rationally! Modern understanding of human physiology, millennia later, supports their contention in this regard, for the brain, weighing only about 1/25th of our body weight, consumes approximately 80 percent of the available blood sugar whenever cognitively engaged. Anyone who has taken a test in school has had the experience of leaving the study room feeling exhausted from the mental event!

In the USA today, only eight percent of men and three percent of women participate in any regularly scheduled exercise and that 84.8 percent claim to be religious or spiritual. This suggests that the majority of the sick, diseased and obese people lack understanding of the relationship between being healthy as a means of being more holistic and spiritual as a means of achieving higher states of consciousness for the betterment of all! We must begin to see that through the unity of spiritual practice, whole food eating and exercise, we can achieve health and vitality again. Then, with our new view and our new vitality, we will have removed the hindrances to the powers of our mind, allowing us to creatively seek worldwide brotherhood.

The Offering of the Health and Exercise Professional

Are our gyms, physical therapy clinics, osteopathic clinics, chiropractic and medical offices offering and encouraging any form of spiritual practice, whole food eating and appropriately balanced functional exercise as part of a program for developing well being, or are we merely perpetuating a failing application of science and medicine?

Certainly, one may argue that there have been many advances made by science and medicine, as I’ve acknowledged above. Yet, please consider the following short list of “advances:”

• Synthetic carpet releasing toxic fumes into our homes and workplaces
• Microwave ovens destroying the cellular make up of our food
• Spraying some two billion pounds of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and rodenticides a year, despite the fact that crop losses are at an all-time high and food quality and human vitality are at an all time low
• Open heart surgery to cut out arteriovascular blockages that were relatively unheard of prior to the start of the 20th Century and the onset of modern food processing
• Having more gyms per capita and yet the most sedentary, obese population in the recorded history of mankind

Is this progress? I certainly don’t think so! We have done the very same thing to exercise that science has done to nature and food processors have done to food. We have broken the body into component parts and created machines to exercise each part. Our gyms and medical centers of all types by and large peddle every sort of isolate you could imagine and then some! We have surgeons and rehabilitation professionals worldwide isolating the spot that hurts only to cut it out, inject it with a numbing agent or anti-inflammatory agent or manipulation the sensory motor system through the application of electrical stimulation or other topical analgesics. Yet, how often are we addressing the etiology?

Is it a mystery that women suffering PMS commonly display sizable and at times unmanageable mood swings, low back pain and neck pain? Is it a mystery that we have the highest incidence of orthopedic injury among high school and college athletes (of both sexes), despite the fact of the so-called advanced exercise technologies available at every major school system in industrialized nations today? Why is it then that even among our athletic population, including bodybuilders, we have unprecedented psychological disorders, concomitant with rampant medical drug use? Is this our evolution? Does this in any way, shape or form resemble the very Love Principle from which we were spawned?

My personal opinion is that we, the exercise professionals, the acupuncturists, the physios, chiros, the osteos… indeed, the very professionals who once stood for identification of and addressing of the etiology of a patient’s pain and discomfort, must begin to practice what we once stood for!

We have all been given a grand opportunity to do what we love to do and to regive. The first thing we can do is practice what we preach! Our clients and patients need the gift of observational leadership - leadership not by academic rote but by example. You can’t give to another what you yourself do not have. It simply doesn’t work, and the proof is all around you, in the magazines, on the news, literally everywhere. We must give the gift of health and well being to ourselves first, which means following the foundation principles of health and well being. But are we? Is the average exercise or healthcare professional healthier to any significant degree than the very people they work with?

We must give ourselves health through the very means our ancestors did, as clearly outlined in Weston A. Price's book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. For clearly, our fad diets have failed, as have our amazing isolates! Only when we are overflowing with health and vitality ourselves can we outflow that love, that quality of existence to others. We must be like a tree so full of fruit that it literally bows to the earth, dropping its fruit out of the burden of its fullness.

When we take the initiative to remove the garbage (equipment and so-called foods and supplements!) from our gyms and healthcare centers as an act of leadership and as a natural outgrowth of our own well being, when we bow to our clients and patients to share the fruits of our own healthy lifestyle, we will bring forth the union of a real yogi, we will have the abundance of chi afforded to the committed Qigong or Tai Chi practitioner. When this occurs in your own life, you will not need to schedule appointments with your clients so they can pick the abundant fruits of your well being. Your well being will radiate to everyone around you.

Your health and vitality, your well being and mine IS our potential regiving. I can only speak for myself in saying that this is the future I dream for and work toward each and every day.

What is your dream? What are you working for? What is your regiving? What are you creating with your thoughts, words and deeds as you see your clients and patients each day? Is your spiritual practice one bent around survival, or is it an expression of your love?

It is my dream that we all live the Love Principle together, for surely that is what all the great spiritual masters have taught us to do. Surely that was their dream for humanity.

May we all dream together. May we all focus our thoughts, words and deeds on what we want as our future, not what we don’t want.

References:

1. Chek, Paul. PPS Success. The P~P~S Success Mastery Program. Online at www.ppssuccess.com.
2. Chek, Paul. How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!
3. de Spinoza, Benedictus. The Ethics Of Spinoza. Editor: Dagobert D. Runes, p.36. Citadel Press. 2000.
4. Heizer Wharton, Charles. Metabolic Man -- 10,000 Years From Eden. Winmark Pub. 2002.
5. Kimbrell, Andrew. (Editor). Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy Of Industrial Agriculture. Foundation for Deep Ecology. 2002.
6. Mogodam, Michael. PhD. The Nature Of Health Radio Show. AM 1000, San Diego, Ca. 2000.
7. Price, Weston A. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Keats Pub; 15th edition. 2003.
8. Russell, Walter and Russell, Lao. The Home Study Course, 3rd Edition. Available from www.dowsers.com
9. Taylor, George H. M.D. Health By Exercise: Showing What Exercises to Take. John B. Alden Publisher. 1885.
10. Tiller, William A. PhD. Science and Human Transformation. Pavior Publishing. 1997.
11. Wilber, Ken. A Brief History Of Everything. Shambhala. 2001.
12. Paul Chek

Forwarded By, Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutritional Expert, Author, Speaker

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com

" The Inner Game Of Health And Fitness" Part 1

"The Inner Game Of Health And Fitness" Part 1

"There is an Inner Game to Everything said W. Timothy Gallwey. He should know, Gallwey has written several books on " Inner Game" playing. The most popular are The Inner game of Tennis, The Inner Game of Golf, and The Inner game of Skiing. My personal favorite is the one he co-authored with Bary Green, The Inner Game Of Music.

There's an inner game of Your self- Image when it comes to your Health And Fitness too, and it plays a major role in developing Your Wellness Vision. Let me prove it to you by applying the Inner Game principles to Health and Fitness.

Self One: The Belittler

When you've decided and attempted to approach a weight-loss program, diet, or tried to incorporate healthier lifestyle changes in the past and discovered a little voice in your head judging your plan? You might hear it right now. It's the voice that tells you your plan is good or lousy (usually the latter). You may be used to this well-intended unseen companion that you don't know he's there in your head. But he's there, Believe me. And it's the inner Belittler called self one in The Inner Game that stops you from exercise, eating, and living fully to enjoy your recreational hobbies, sports, and fitness, etc. Your health and fitness should be approached with ease, flow, and add value and purpose to your life. Don't let self one the not so good buddy prevent you from exploring whats possible for you. The better you is there you just need to discover it my friend. Go for it take the leap and move towards the better you when it comes to your physical, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional self. Do that which you were born to be and live with joy!

We will explore Self Two: The Master in this two part series of "The Inner Game of Health And Fitness" Bye for now and keep those thoughts Focused on all that you are becoming that is good.

Your Friend In Health & Fitness,

Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutrition Expert, Author & Speaker


Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com

"How To Incorporate A Holistic Approach to Injury - Part 3"

In this, the third and final installment in this series, Paul discusses his system of prioritizing your approach to rehabilitation and revitalization of body/mind systems.

Movement that Matters

Today, there are many philosophical and mechanical approaches to treating injuries and developing exercise programs for health or performance. Unfortunately for the public, the majority of these approaches still operate on the illusion that the musculoskeletal system is an isolated system that runs all by itself. Since we know for absolute sure that this is far from the truth, prior to assessing a client or patient’s ability to move and perform general motor tasks, practitioners should have:

* Completed an investigation of diet, lifestyle factors, hormonal and visceral health within the framework of the six major classifications of stressors (see Figure 1 in Part 1).
* Looked for reptilian stressors that correlate with the patients symptom profile and behavior patterns (see Figure 2 in Part 1).
* Completed the survival totem pole assessment (Figure 4 in Part 2) to identify potential problems in any of the body’s major control centers, understanding that the hierarchical structure of neurological control allows for the sacrifice of subordinate structures on the totem pole. Included in the survival totem pole assessment is a very comprehensive assessment of length/tension relationships, joint motion, core stabilizer system function assessments and special testing for potential impingement of the CNS.

After gathering key systems information, the next step is to complete the Primal Pattern (PP) assessment. The PP assessment is based on research into human development. A study of the general evolution of species and the evolution of man suggests that we are what we are today because of the selective pressures of Nature. Through extensive clinical observation and empirical research, I have concluded that to survive in the wild (which was our home for greater than 99.9 percent of human evolution), humans would have had to have been proficient at the following movements while unsupported on our own feet:

* Squatting
* Lunging
* Bending
* Pushing
* Pulling
* Twisting (such as throwing)
* Gait:
o Walk
o Jog
o Sprint

It became evident early in my career that athletes, laborers and people in general were commonly injured when forced by their environment to perform movement patterns they couldn’t perform well. I also noted that anyone who couldn’t perform a PP movement with good form was at greater risk of injury because PPs serve as a working foundation from which a plethora of other movements are built (i.e., throwing a ball, which is a lunge coupled with a twist and a push).

A typical example is the laborer who hurts his back while squatting down to pick up a heavy object (heavy being relative to the individual's level of conditioning). Upon consulting a physician or typical rehabilitation professional, he is told he shouldn’t squat because it is dangerous for the back, and he is told he should hereafter avoid squatting! This scenario presents a common problem in that squatting is a Primal Pattern. As an PP, it is almost impossible to escape the environmental demand to execute the movement. You squat to sit in a chair, get into a car, get on and off the toilet (which used to be on the ground), dress small children, pick up a five gallon bottle of water for the dispenser... we squat all the time!

With extensive knowledge of how to perform PP assessments and how to modify the assessment techniques to better suit each person’s specific work, sport or recreational environment, you will then gather relevant data. After completing the PP assessment, the next task is prioritizing the combined findings of the entire evaluation process.

Determine Your Physiological Load and Prioritize

Having completed a very thorough assessment of your client’s physical-emotional-mental and spiritual stressors in the format described previously, we will have gathered a significant amount of relevant data. While this information is critical for developing a coaching and treatment strategy, there is commonly much that needs to be corrected, and the client can become overwhelmed. It is also my experience that less experienced health care professionals can also become overwhelmed by the volume and diversity of challenges presented by most clients! It is for this reason that I developed the Physiological Load Assessment (PLA) form (see Figure 5 below). The PLA allows the practitioner the opportunity to empower a client/patient by letting him see what are usually obvious changes that need to be made to achieve function and vitality.



Figure 5


The process begins by listing all key stressors in their relevant columns. For example, any musculoskeletal complaints would be listed above the “Physical – Musculoskeletal” column, while any relevant visceral findings or hormonal findings would go above their columns respectively.
You then need to explain to the client that the body shares it’s stressors to protect it's self from accumulating too much energy in any given system or tissue, the result of which would be dis-ease! With this understanding, we can look at the number of stress inputs above each of the columns (represented by one of the sinks that are plumbed together) and collectively agree as to which system is potentially the greatest source of stress or aberrant energy.

After the client understands that body systems all share their stress, creating a total stress picture (see Figure 1 in Part 1 to appreciate how the body totals stressors), and they understand which system is under the greatest load, the practitioner must decide which self help options will most effectively alleviate the stressors loading the body systems. As the practitioner decides what self help methods will be most advantageous for the client’s specific needs, they are listed below each of the systems (sinks named after systems). Through this process, the patient usually begins to see a pattern emerge. For example, diet is commonly listed under each system sink as an important means of alleviating stress. Common options to alleviate stress include:

* Diet
* Circadian rhythm management
* Hydration
* Stretching
* Self help courses for improved mental/emotional/spiritual understanding
* Exercise programs or exercise program modifications
* Specific therapies or specialists such as:
o Detoxification procedures
o Hormonal testing and balancing (Biohealth Diagnostics!)
o Tai Chi, Chi Gong or Yoga lessons
o Feldenkrais or Alexander lessons
o Body work options such as sports massage, Rolfing or trigger point therapy
o Breathing lessons from an expert (I often use voice coaches)
o Psychologist
o Marriage or relationship counseling
o Financial planning
o Seeking council to overcome addiction

Don't Treat the Disease, Treat the Person!

While the current medical model is heavily slanted toward what I call "this for that" treatment, or the “Band-Aid Effect,” I think the current statistics on disease show that the model is failing drastically! As I often tell my patients, we evolved in the wild without drugs and doctors and we did so without near the prevalence of disease. Therefore, the greatest healer of all must be within us! The goal is always to coach the person with the disease, not treat the disease that has the person. Simply stated, disease is a symptom. It is not a cause.

When the clinician or therapist identifies which of the foundation principles are not being lived by, a structured plan should be built and agreed upon by the client to bring him into a resource state, balance or harmony. Foundation treatment principles include:

* Good diet
o Eating correctly for your metabolic type
o Eat organic foods
o Rotate foods on a four day cycle for food variety and decreased immune stress
* Adequate daily water intake
* Adequate exercise
o Work hard and rest hard!
o Working-out vs. working in
* Adequate rest and living in accordance with a natural sleep/wake cycle
* Live with a purpose! Have goals to improve:
o Physical health
o Emotional health
o Mental health
o Spiritual health

In conclusion, this system of assessment uses a holistic approach. This approach can help your clients achieve the ease and the life they’ve always wanted! All practitioners should carefully assess a client’s overall physiological load and identify any red flags that may require specific medical attention or tests. Implementing a personalized treatment plan to address stress, diet, exercise and related lifestyle factors flows out of the comprehensive assessment. Further, each client should be respected as a unique human being with unique challenges. There are no cookie-cutter approaches where you can try to fit the client into a standard mold. We use a careful system of assessment tools and questionnaires based upon interrelated physical, emotional, mental and spiritual systems of the human. This approach maximizes each client’s probability of achieving actual recovery leading to a state of vitality and well being.

It is the dream of all fitness professionals that their clients reach independence, becoming truly functional individuals as soon as possible. Using the principles described in this article series will help you to realize this dream!

References:

1. Connolly, Ceci. March 29, 2002. Pharmaceutical Spending Continues Steady Increase. Washington Post, p. A09.
2. http://www.mercola.com
3. MacLean, Paul. (2002). The Evolutionary Neuroethology of Paul MacLean: Convergences and Frontiers. Ed: Gerald A Cory, Jr., and Russell Gardner, Jr. Praeger, Westport, Connecticut.
4. Pearce, Joseph Chilton. (2002). The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit. Park Street Press.
5. Paul Check

Forwarded By, Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutrition Expert, Author, Speaker