Become the person you know you deserve to be.

Often it's the simple act of Making The Decision to move from:

Where -or- Who we Are Right Now    - To -    Where -or- Who we Want To Be

Surrounding ourselves with:

The people who are already there or on their way to Where or Who we Want To Be.

&

With information which will get us to that place.

Draw A Line In The Sand

Sometimes you feel like you REALLY got to change something. Maybe it's an annoying habit. Maybe it's more serious. Maybe it's losing weight, or stopping smoking. Whatever it is, you just get fed up with the situation. You're motivated to change.

SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE!

Maybe it's occurred to you - either you think of it yourself, or you read it somewhere - Draw A Line In The Sand!

And step over it. And things just change.

It's tempting. Especially if you're really exasperated. While it can work, it often doesn't. Here's why:

Because the follow-through is either lacking or it's inadequate. So the motivation is faulty. It's easy to say the words:

"I decided! I'm going to change!"

But what really determines whether that decision 'sticks' or not?

Two things:

1. The state you're in when you make that decision.

If you're filled with your own power - in touch with yourself - standing on a firm foundation - that decision or choice is more likely to stick. If your foundation is filled with exasperation, worry, frustration, weariness, anger... then it probably won't stick. Because the motivation is not solid.

If it's filled with love and will, there's a much greater chance it sticks. The more of your own personal power you can muster as you're making the choice or decision, the more likely it will be to really change things.

As a child, you made many fundamental choices and decisions that are quite alive today. Generally speaking, you were filled with emotion - REAL emotion - and that gave them the punch to continue influencing you even today.

One powerful choice can change your life. Many childhood choices and decisions did. If you search your past, you can find those fundamental choices and decisions - to either accept them or change them.

2. How skilled you are at making choices and decisions.

Which basically comes down to practice. Out of necessity we make choices and decisions all day long. Whether we want to or not. Whether we realize it or not:

"I guess one more scoop of ice cream won't hurt anything."

But often we end up blaming those choices and decisions on circumstances, other people, or even our own subconscious or unconscious minds.

"Everybody else is doing it."

"You talked me into it."

"I didn't consciously choose that."

Blame is always a lie. But beyond that, we're not letting ourselves develop the POWER of choice - or the POWER of decision.

Thus, when it comes to drawing a line in the sand, within minutes or hours or days, we're back to 'normal'. Because there was no power behind the drawing of the line. Due to a faulty foundation, or a lack of skill, or both.

What's the solution? Stop drawing? Give up - retreat back into pity; or the judgments? Accept our miserable lives the way they are? Put on our coat of nobility?

"I guess it's just my lot in life to suffer. That's my fate. I can't change things..."

That's one option. Or, you can accept responsibility for your life. Realize WHY drawing a line in the sand doesn't work. And get about the business of changing it.

Besides the personal shortcomings you may or may not have, there's also one fundamental flaw with even drawing that line in the sand to begin with. That is, it presupposes that all you have to do is draw the line. Then it's over. Then you don't have to be responsible for what you chose or decided. Now you can go back to sleep. Now it should 'just happen'.

In other words, you're setting yourself up to fail.

But if you HAVE made a powerful choice or decision, then you WILL follow-through. By making all the *secondary* choices that MUST BE MADE - if you want your first choice to stick.

If your primary choice is to stop eating ice cream, then at the very least, you'll need to make a secondary choice to stay away from it! Stop buying it. Stop walking into the ice cream store.

You'll need to draw that line in the sand over and over and over. Not just once. Sooner or later, if you're persistent, then the pattern will be laid. And it will no longer be a 'contest of wills'. Instead, it'll be second nature. You won't have to think about whether or not you'll eat that ice cream.

But until that happens, you'll need to follow-through. Otherwise you're just spinning your wheels and you'll look foolish.

So what would stop you from the follow-through? Usually it's unresolved thoughts and feelings which comprise the patterns of the past. Those patterns compare to cracks in your motivation. Heal those patterns and you heal your faulty motivation.

Then it becomes much easier to draw a line in the sand... that changes you.

Mark Ivar Myhre, The Emotional Healing Wizard, writes articles on all aspects of emotional healing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/683545

From stress to resilience | Raphael Rose | TEDxManhattanBeach

Becoming more resilient, can lead to a more meaningful, joyful, and socially connected life.

Build Stress Resilience

Stress is bad for your health. But it's not as bad for some people as it is for others. A lucky few sail though life exposed to less than their fair share of external stressors. But more importantly, some people are less affected by stress because they've got more stress resilience than others.

How do you build stress resilience? 
You build stress resilience the same way you build muscles (or, in fact, the way you achieve anything in life): through practice.

• You lift a weight that's just a little bit hard for your body to handle.
• Your body rises to the challenge.
• You give yourself time to rest and rebuild.
• Then you repeat with a slightly heavier weight.

How can you apply this principle to building resilience to stress? 
Any time you put yourself into a situation you're uncomfortable with in any way, you're creating stress. Then, in resolving the situation and allowing your physiology to return to a steady state, you're giving yourself the time to rest and rebuild. For example:

• If you breathe slowly and prolong your exhale, the level of carbon dioxide in your blood will creep up. Your brain hates too much carbon dioxide. Your body always wants to be sure that its next breath is coming, and you'll yearn to begin taking in oxygen again as soon as you can. It's stressful to slow down your breathing! So by performing this type of exercise, you're training yourself to manage a higher level of stress.

• If you reach out emotionally to another person, you're taking a risk. It can take as simple a form as greeting a stranger on the street. Perhaps your efforts will meet with a cool response, or even worse, that other person might not like you, or respond in a way that embarrasses you. That's stressful! Yet by practicing emotional vulnerability, you're building your resilience to the stress of social rejection.

• If you run a half mile further than you've ever run before, you're challenging your heart, lungs, and muscles. You'll also be firing up the metabolic machinery that breaks down all the chemical by-products of muscle activity. You might also be challenging the mental apparatus that's got a pre-conceived idea about how far you're able to run. That's stressful! But just like in all the other examples listed here, your body will build its stress resilience.

The key is that external stressors don't cause harm in and of themselves. The negative health effects of stress only occur when your body can't adequately handle the situation and return to a calm, relaxed baseline. You can't avoid being exposed to external stressors. Life happens. But you can build stress resilience.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10334308

Most Benefitial Lifestyle Changes for Our Health

Great advice from Doctors Kitchen:

Eat more plants, rest more, find a stress-relieving strategy and stick with it.

Lose Weight Quickly and Healthy Lifestyle Choices

For many of us it is difficult to understand the correlation between how to lose weight quickly and healthy lifestyle choices. Most do not even see how important the choices we make affect our weight. Be it over indulgence, lack of exercise, stress eating or just bad eating habits, what we do in our lives dictates our overall weight and health. In this article I will hit on a couple of points that everyone needs to consider if they are looking to lose weight quickly and the healthy lifestyle choices that may be required.

First I like to start out by asking you, "How long did it take you to gain the weight you wish to lose?" Be honest as you are only cheating yourself. Now think about that for a moment. The bad news is weight is easier to GAIN than it is to LOSE it! Sorry... It is a scientific fact. To gain weight, all you need to do is eat more than you need and/or exercise less. Presto! You are overweight. If it were as simple as eating less and exercising more to lose weight wouldn't everyone be doing it? It is almost that simple, at least the science behind losing the weight is but it is not that simple for many of us.

As humans we are self destructive to a point. We know that we can lose weight quickly and healthy lifestyle choices are the way to get there but we still lose interest or the will to continue on the path. Why do we lose interest or the will to continue? In many cases it is a lack of education into what is a healthy lifestyle choice. We all have misconceptions about healthy lifestyle choices and thus sabotage ourselves before we even get started. Many believe it is becoming a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian is a lifestyle choice BUT it is NOT for everyone in fact, unless this is a life path you wish to take, just forget it. Healthy lifestyle choices come down to the simple few points:

1. Making healthy food choices at each meal - Avoid eating at fast food restaurants for every day. Many of the foods you will be ingesting are filled with excess calories, fat and salt and unless you are going to run for an hour after each meal, chances are most of this will be translated into body fat. Eating at one once a week can be maintainable if you make better choices the rest of the week.
2. Exercise a little more frequently - Some of us go to the gym, some play sports and some of us go for a walk. It does not matter what the exercise is what is important is that you are active. No, walking to your car or into your office does not count as being active.
3. Get outside - Explore your neighbourhood, play with your kids or go shopping. It is important to get out of the home as being in the home leads to sitting down in front of the TV and usually falling victim to all the food advertising thus you start snacking on whatever is convenient.

Eat Healthy, Exercise and live a happier, longer life!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5506318

Balance in our lives takes practice and persistence.