Day 26- Absolute Best 30 Day Challenge

4 more days left!  You're almost there!

The cosmic vibration resonates in us all.  We incarnate into this life to live in abundance, joy, peace and love.  So why do we stress, live in contracted states of awareness and fear?

First, congratulations for making it to the final stretch of your journey.  You are my hero.  You made a commitment and stuck with it and now you are coming out the other side a stronger, more emboldened and healthier person than when you started. 

Last night, Christo Pellani- a gifted musician and healer, shared his beautiful Vitalization and Harmonization workshop at Absolute Best.   Christo created this self healing program designed to elevate your chi (life force energy) by incorporating basic Qigong movement, sound and meditation techniques.  Summon your highest potential for health, wealth and happiness through this amazing and experiential format Thursday evenings at 7:00PM at Absolute Best.  Learn how the subtle vibrations of your body, mind and soul can reverberate at their highest frequencies and ultimately bring you great power.

One of the best aspects of the 30 Day Challenge is the complementary programs offered to enhance your experience.  You can build on your success by adding different elements of holistic healing to your daily activities.  Meditation, journaling, camaraderie, traditional healing arts like Yoga, acupuncture, chiropractic, massage and special workshops; are all available at Absolute Best.  These programs are here to optimizing your health and wellness so you can live a healthy and productive life. 

A strong healthy body, a level head. and a loving heart which is open to receiving the goodness the world has to offer is truly powerful.  Yes, the world throws you curve balls at times; however, how you choose to catch and release what comes your way is what distinguishes your personality.  Your response to life is your signature, your mark on the world.   

I hope that these 26 days have created an awareness of how to show up for life.  If you stop to take a breath before you react, you discover there are many choices for your behavior.  All those fears and anxieties that throw you into contracted awareness and a reactive mode typically stem from old patterns dropped into new situations.  They may not be serving you any longer; however, they are familiar and comfortable so it’s hard to let them go.  Every once in a while you have to clean house; clear out the old stuff to make room for the new. We can still hold on to the memories, however, we don't have to hold on to the baggage.

I’m looking forward to day 30!  You will graduate into the next level of growth for your life with a new perspective; armed with powerful tools and the seedlings of intentions for a new beginning.   

Again, congratulations for having made a commitment to yourself and working on your health and wellness.  Keep your mind, body and soul in perfect harmony and don’t forget to reward yourself!  You have made it this far so go ahead, treat yourself to something nice. 

“Bridging the gap between you and your Personal Best.”

Namaste

Clarita    

Day 25_Absolute Best 30 Day Challange

That Winning Feeling

You can almost taste it - you know you can do it - what seemed to be a struggle only 24 days ago is easy today.  

You can reinvent yourself at any given point along life’s path.  You can choose to bring forth into each day all the painful memories of the past or, choose light, happiness, peace and joy instead.  The choice is yours.

Life can change in the blink of an eye; best laid plans may go awry, unforeseen variables may bump you off the road to success however, you inner guide- your soul- will always get you back on track. The purpose for your existence is encoded in your DNA; your internal map which includes a built-in GPS system.  It is designed to take you back home no matter how far you roam.  

Life is a classroom.  You come here to learn lessons and put them to practical application.  Your internal map has many roads to choose from- you can choose the road less traveled, or the worn and beaten path.  However, whichever road you take will always lead you back home; ultimately, back to source, to nothing, to the pure potential and possibility of the cosmos. 

Knowing that, choice determines your legacy.  The imprint you leave behind is determined by your behavior each day of your life, how you use your time and what kind of relationships you cultivate.  Will you make winning choices today?  Will you associate with people who lift your spirits?  Will you feed yourself pure and healthy food, and will you give your body sufficient time to rest and recharge?  Will you give of yourself unconditionally to help others?  And will you do something for the planet to help it thrive and sustain itself for future generations?  If so, you have a winning spirit.         

   

Even though your DNA may be set for predisposition to certain diseases like diabetes, heart disease, or addiction, the coding of your genes can be rearrange by your internal and external environment.  You have the choice to eliminate toxins from your body and the world you live in.  You can choose to clear emotional stress from your mind and create balance between your internal world and the planet.  You can literally, break the chains that bind you.

You have a responsibility to your legacy to choose wisely regarding your lifestyle.  Your choices today will affect your children and your grandchildren.  You are the guardian of your genome.  It’s selfish to think that you can be reckless with your well-being and that of your planet today and not have it affect future generations.  If you can develop a habit of healthy choices, you can transform the “code of life”, and transform the future of the world.

You are not insignificant; you are part of a magnificent plan and design that is preset to win and thrive.

Namaste,

Clarita

P.S.  Tonight we are hosting a special Vitalization and Harmonization Sound Meditation Workshop designed to help you tap into your primordial energy.  Come join us and celebrate the final days of our journey together.

Also, don’t forget to join the new Deepak and Oprah 21 Day meditation series beginning November, 3^rd, 2014.   

    

Day 24_Absolute Best 30 Day Challenge

The Countdown!  You’re almost there.  Keep it up.  The finish line is a visible and an attainable goal.  Now it’s time to dig deep and pull out all the stops.

I have run 5 marathons in my life and it is astonishing how after running 26 miles, there is always a fresh supply of strength left to push you through the last .2 miles to the finish.  Just when you think you are totally depleted and can’t take another step, the realization of a reachable goal brings forth a new surge of energy and makes crossing the finish line a reality.  Each time it’s an amazing feeling to actually DO IT!  Those last few yards you run faster and you push harder.   You get to experience the thrill of victory! 

It’s curious how your mind questions success.  Throughout a long race like that, your mind wonders if you will finish.  Questions like, “Why did I sign up for this anyway?  What am I trying to prove? What am I really seeking?” begin to creep up.  Can you relate to those types of questions racing through your mind as you near the end of this 30 Day Challenge?

Whenever you push yourself towards a new goal, your mind will begin to sabotage your commitment – it will try to psyche you out of completing the task.  Even though you know you have been successful in the past, your head keeps questioning your ability to win! 

The shadows of self doubt creep in at every level of your progress – you are constantly confronted by them.  Simultaneously, the lighter side of your heart and soul lead you to understand that “Yes, you can really do this!  If you put one foot in front of the other you can make it across the finish line!”  In the end, the act of accomplishing the goal is the victory, not when you get there or how you got there.  The bottom line is you will soon say, “I have arrived!” 

      

And I encourage you to feel your arrival right now!  Visualize and imagine it, feel it, taste it.  This is last leg of your marathon; you only have .2 miles left on your journey to reach your Personal Best.  Your true arrival is just around the bend.   This challenge has made you reflect on your behaviors and helped you decide which ones to keep and which ones to discard.  You have created new habits and directed your body, mind and soul towards health, wealth, fitness and expanded awareness.  Now it’s time to dig deep and pull out the last remnants of your strength.  You have carved out a road toward success.  You have arrived!   

Quote for the day:

“What you are not changing – you are choosing.”

Namaste

Clarita

Day 23_Absolute Best 30 Day Challenge

Warning- just because you want to change doesn’t mean you are going to...at least not right away.

I drank a RedBull yesterday because I was very tired.  I had only 4 hours sleep the night before, I have been sick, and feeling stressed with the pressures of administering to my mother’s affairs since her passing.  However, I did not drink coffee (although I believe there is the equivalent of three cups of caffeine in those energy drinks.)  I will stick to my goal for the rest of the challenge.

How can you be sure your efforts haven’t been in vain?  Why should you stay on course and complete your 30 Day Challenge and beyond if there is no guarantee of success?

 

You have a desire to do great things.  You are capable of putting one foot in front of the other and showing up for life and, if you slip, you simply get back on track.  Having a clear goal, a plan of action and an unrelenting discipline to achieve a dream are the keys to success.  However, “showing up” is the most important of all.  Every day you wake up, you have the opportunity to start anew with a positive and winning attitude.

If you carry over old feelings and emotions from past failures into this new day, fear not, there are remedies to help you eliminate these unhealthy compulsions.  One remedy has been discussed in previous blogs; the practice of meditation.  Taking time for daily contemplation and introspection is one of the healthiest ways to break through old emotional baggage.    

Another remedy to free blocked energy is acupuncture.   Dr. Nguyen, our resident chiropractor at Absolute Best, is also a licensed acupuncturist.  An ancient medical modality originating from Asia, acupuncture traces back over 2,500 years.  Like meditation, it helps increase the vital energy force in your body.  According to traditional Chinese medicine, there are patterns of energy flow (Chi) throughout the body that are essential for health.  Disruptions of this flow are believed to be responsible for disease.   Acupuncture breaks through blocks that inhibit the even flow of this vital energy by inserting very thin needles at specific points throughout the body’s meridians (meridians carry energy through the body like arteries carry blood.) 

This Thursday evening at 6:00 pm, we will be hosting a Vitalization and Harmonization Workshop which is based on meditation and acupuncture through sound healing.  Your body is vibrating and resonating at different frequencies at all times.  That vibration is what keeps your body together so your atoms don’t fly away and dissipate throughout the universe.  It is important to “tune” into your physical and emotional vibration in order to achieve great success.    

If you feel you are challenged to the point of possible failure; go see Dr. Nguyen and come to our Thursday night “Vitalize and Harmonize Workshop”.  It maybe that blocked energy is keeping you from reaching your peak potential not only physically, but emotionally too. 

Namaste

Clarita

Day 22_Absolute Best 30 Day Challenge

Who said this would be easy?

It is not as easy as you thought, is it?  The path to self improvement requires consistent focus, time and energy; without these ingredients, change cannot occur.

 

If you were to renounce your worldly possession and live the life of a monk, you would find plenty of time to contemplate your soul.  You could ponder the questions “who am I”, “why do I exist” and “what is my life’s purpose?”  You could meditate for hours, days, months, years and wait for the answers to come; even still, they may not arise.

The reality is that you are of this world living in a society with a family, a career, and bills to pay.  It is important to ask deep and introspective questions however, the road to discovering your soul’s purpose becomes a little more circuitous while engaging with the material world.   

Deepak Chopra speaks to this in his book, Spiritual Solutions.  He talks about being “of” this world but not “in” it.  To be truly honest with yourself, you must develop maturity, discipline, and carve out time for meditation.  Deep within your mind and soul you will find your “true self.”  If you can maintain the responsibilities of life as a citizen, family member and co­-worker and make time for introspection, then you are “of” this world and not “in” it.  

  

When you create a healthy body by habitually eating right, exercising, and meditating, it becomes easy to deal with day to day problems.  “The secret,” Deepak writes “is that the level of the problem is never at the level of the solution.”  You must rise to the level of the solution; expand your awareness towards limitless possibilities to go beyond the drudgery of day to day existence. 

That’s the main reason you committed to this challenge.  You wanted to rise to the level of your Personal Best. You wanted to transform and overcome obstacles that were holding you back from reaching your fullest potential.  You have come a long way and by now, you can see changes happening, however, you can also see how easily you fall prey to your old habits once a sense of complacency sits in.       

That’s why you have to be ever vigilant with your new habits.  Remind yourself to stay positive, take daily action steps towards you goal, develop discipline and meditate.  My belief is that meditation is the most important tool for self improvement. 

In the quiet and solitude of your mind, you can forgive yourself.  You can imagine whatever reality you want.  You become fully aware of your body; what hurts, where the extra fat is hanging, and what other physical limitations keep you from sitting quietly for a few minutes a day.  You can look deep in your heart to ask the hard questions, “Am I happy?”  “Have I hurt someone?”  “Am I acting from my heart or out of pressure from others?”

And none of this is easy.  It’s hard to stay on track.  It’s hard to get to class when you’re tired, it’s hard to arrange your schedule to find 15 minutes of quiet solitude, and it’s hard to manage all of these things around family and work.  And that my friend, is why most people just quit!  However, you will never give up!

Namaste

Clarita

Day 21_Absoluter Best 30 Day Challenge

Can willpower alone get you through to the end of this challenge?  Science says, maybe not.

You’ve come so far.  21 days into your 30 Day Challenge and sometimes it seems difficult, like you might not make it to the end.  Well, you are not alone.  The latest research shows that sheer willpower can be exhausting.   Scientists liken it to a muscle that can fatigue from overuse.

These few weeks have been tough right?  Instead of going for the cookie, you went for the healthy power bar, instead of staying late at the office, you left in time to get to class, instead of eating the burger, you ate the salad, or instead of making that snide remark to your co-worker, you decided to be supportive and nice. 

Over the last decade, there have been several studies on willpower depletion.  Dr. Roy Baumeister conducted a study wherein half the subjects were escorted into an aroma filled room of fresh baked cookies.  Half the subjects were given cookies to eat and the other half, radishes.  Afterwards, the subjects were asked to work on a difficult geometric puzzle and given 30 minutes to complete the task.  Those subjects who ate the radishes gave up on the puzzle within 8 minutes while those who ate the fresh baked cookies lasted, on average, 19 minutes.  The study concluded that drawing on self control to resist the cookies drained the “radish group” of the willpower to concentrate on the puzzle.

In another study, subjects were asked to view a movie and suppress their feelings while another group was allowed to watch and experience their natural emotional responses.  Afterwards, they were tested for physical stamina and the group who deprived themselves of emotional feelings gave up sooner than those who were allowed to emote.  Again, those who tested their willpower during the movie portion of the test seemed depleted when executing the physical part of the experiment.     

Scientist from the University of Toronto found that when your willpower has been depleted, your brain actually registers decreased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain involved with cognition.  When your willpower has been tested, your brain may function differently.  Some scientists think that the brain demands high levels of glucose in order to maintain self control.   And when the glucose is used up, it can’t replenish it fast enough to continue on to other tasks.  So, this makes it difficult to continue the discipline of depravation.  However, restored glucose tends to “reboot” willpower.   

There is also evidence that attitude and individual drive makes a difference as to whether or not willpower lasts.  Those that are in tune with themselves and self motivated fair much better with willpower than their counter parts who are motivated by “pleasing others.”

These studies also concluded that positive moods and beliefs seem to affect willpower depletion.  Subjects that watched comedies, or were given surprises overcame their willpower depletion.  That’s why I suggest you give yourself rewards, meditate and honor yourself for taking this journey towards better health and fitness.  Yes, it’s hard and arduous but if you stay strong and stay on track, the end result will be life changing. 

You’ve come this far.  Don’t quit now.  Keep going; I’m right there with you… my goal was NO COFFEE.   Trust me; I am going to reward myself with a very nice cup of coffee when these 30 days are over - a big one too.  What goal did you declare?  Are you still doing it?  I hope so.  Declare it again and start over if you have to.  Remember, true character is developed by what you do when no one is watching.  Do this for you, nobody but you. 

See you at the end.  

Namaste,

Clarita

Day 20-Absolute Best 30 Day Challenge

Countdown!  10 more days left in the challenge and you are going to make it to the end!  Awesome!

Continue to see yourself as a positive, goal directed, disciplined person every day.  Once you have established this view of yourself, just keep doing it.  Instead of saying “I want” say “I am”.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  The more you see yourself as productive, happy and successful now, the more you will achieve in the future.  People who feel inadequate in the present simply do not have the skills to effectively plan for a brighter future.  Your strength comes from doing better now; not from hoping you will do better later.

Instead of focusing on the end result, learn to enjoy the process.  Think of this 30 Day Challenge. At the end of the journey, there will be more work to do.  However, intentional focus on daily activities will ultimately bring you the brass ring and the caveat is; the work will feel effortless.  Whether you meet your specific goal or not; your new behavior has cleared the path for a new habit.  You are on the road to success.  And when you reach the goals you have set, you will invent new ones.  Do you know why?  Living this life is like living the Never Ending Story.  It’s fun and exciting to try new things and reach for new dreams.  You will always be moving ahead, so you need to learn to also savor the pleasure of being active and interested in your progress.  If you think about it, growth is one of your goals.  Change is an inevitable part of your life and it can be exciting and energizing.  

People who retire sometimes think they will just relax and do nothing the rest of their lives.  The next thing you know, they have taken up a new hobby or have embarked on some journey.  Sometimes the hobby turns into a money-making enterprise, and soon these “retired” people have started a new career!  So if you imagine that “someday” you just want to reach your destination and take it easy, you are fooling yourself.  You are an active, energetic person who will always be up and doing something.

When you remain active, you are in touch with the powerful forces that direct your life.  Remember to fall into the flow of life.  In earlier blogs I urged you to discipline yourself in such a way that you remain in tune with your own growth rate and the opportunities that life offers you.  This flow is always there, tugging at you, asking you to pace yourself according to the natural movement of your energy; transitioning from one change to another.  You can learn to feel this flow if you take the time each day to clear your mind and listen to your body and more importantly, your heart.   Your body is your connection to nature.  Notice the aches and pains that tell you where you are straining too much.  Allow for a pleasurable state of relaxation to counter the strain by opening your heart- the love center.  And then, notice the pleasure you feel.  This is an unerring sign that you are living intone with the natural flow of life.

Cement you natural connection of mind, body and soul.  Be free from ever-hoping desires and from cravings for possessions.  The mind controlled by the heart and your body- retiring alone to a quiet place- will unite you with your soul.  And that my friend is all you will ever need- your truth.  

Namaste

Clarita