We are nearing the half-way mark for 2012.
How are your New Year’s Resolutions holding up?

Research studies show that by making modest improvements in preventing and treating disease we would reduce our costs by $1.1 trillion dollars in the U.S. annually (I would like to work on that investment committee…oh, the improvements we could make!). With these modest improvements we would also avoid 40 million cases of chronic disease. 40 million people out of pain!

Why is it so difficult for us as individuals to make these life enhancing modest improvements or, when we do, why is hard to stay committed to healthier practices over time?

Self-perception, self-worth and self-image continually influence our thoughts and choices.

When our self-perception gets hacked by something outside ourselves it is as if we are fighting personal malware or an accidentally downloaded emotional/mental virus.

For our health and protection we need reliable reset buttons.

What are your “go to” resets?

Is it learning something new? Applying your creativity? Volunteering in community? Mentoring? Enjoying a spa, wellness retreat, a mindful walk or personal care time? Perhaps it is something else. Is it outlining your next goal? Reflecting on your life purpose and passion? Cleaning up our environment?

Resets are preventative. They heal the hack attacks on our intentions and encourage us to look in the mirror and say: “I am so worth this effort.” Next time you design a change plan consider including your unique “resets”.

P.S. Stay tuned… Q SelfCare is launching in private beta August 2012.

A gorgeous reminder that humanity and Earth tied the knot long ago and that our choices today predict the future of life here.

We sipped, perused and cheerfully gave up our contact information booth by booth.

In one aphotic corner a young man stood behind his designated table and with the party well underway his sign-up sheet had only two contacts. After suggesting that he might angle his table a few feet for better exposure to the gregarious crowd he said “I don’t know if they pay me enough to work that hard.”

Guess he missed the memo: This is not work. This is a game. This is the collecting names game!

Corporate work environments are becoming venues for health games. Focus on peer competition and extrinsic rewards such as cars, dinners, hotel stays, etc. may get this personal health engagement movement off the ground. Will the extrinsic focus deliver lasting individual improvements?

Extrinsic rewards are weak in comparison to innovative personal tools and practices that help us build health and resilience from the inside out.

Extrinsic:

“I won a 3 night stay at a hotel for out walking everyone on my team!”

Intrinsic:

“ I feel great and am making big strides towards better fitness. I am doing it with a new company program, a fitness game. Amazingly for my self-improvement effort, I received a three night hotel stay… nice bonus.”

I like the tip from Mayor Mike Caldwell of Ogden Utah … he calendars his mountain biking, running, hiking and fitness time as a meeting.

Now, I am off to my yoga class…I mean “meeting”.

The rewards are plenty.

Art, creativity and imagination are agents of wellness.

Arts in medicine and healing has gone beyond beautiful images on walls. Expressive art is gaining acceptance as a medicinal that transfigures trauma.
Few of us will have access to the comprehensive program of arts in medicine provided by Shands Healthcare System in Florida.
They focus on:
The Visual Arts – Two-dimensional and three-dimensional arts including drawing, painting, collage, ceramics, and crafts.
The Literary Arts – creative writing, poetry, personal journaling and oral histories.
The Performing Arts – music, dance, and improvisational theater.
Mind/Body Renewal – meditation, guided imagery, yoga and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.
Aesthetics and Design – rotating exhibitions, a corporate collection and interior design.

Expressive Arts are improving healing times and reducing pain!

Commercial artists, musicians, painters, dancers, sculptors, and poets are exceptionally gifted, talented and disciplined. When it comes to wellness and healing, expressive art is personal. The value is in personal expression without judgement.

Many of us don’t consider ourselves as creative or artistic and we rarely schedule time for exploring our creativity as a wellness practice. The “not good enough” art critic comments in the background.

Fire that critic!

The beauty of personal creativity is that ~ no one needs to like it and there is no category of “bad”.

The only requirement is that we feel connected to something true when we create it.

“By using art as holistic medicine, we can all benefit from the mystery of art, balancing ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually.” – Jon Tsoi

For a demonstration of trust and connection with personal creativity as a healing methodology view Jon Tsoi, doctor and artist creating blindfolded.

Expressive art is a potent personal nutrient to add to our best practices of nutrition, rest and movement on our wellness path.

“No time” is not an excuse…the image “Art” at the beginning of this blog is designed with the application PAPER – an “on the go” expressive art app.

According to author David Agus MD “The End of Illness” is a reachable state.

Here is what we need to do:

Eat nutrient dense foods every day on a schedule. It could be 2 meals and a snack, 3 meals, or 5 small meals; a predictable routine is more important than frequency.
Our bodies thrive on routine and the consequence of skipping meals is a flood of the stress hormone, cortisol.

No random snacking. Depending on vitamins and supplements for nourishment rather than good food is a mistake.

Move. Move. Move. And, enjoy it! When we have a desk job keep a pair of free weights to use, a head-set that allows us to walk and talk and a reminder system to keep us active. Agus references a study that shows sitting for hours is as detrimental as smoking! He states that in one study “researchers found that C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation and heart disease, is twice as high in people who spent four hours sitting in front of a computer than people who spent fewer than two.” For some of us this is a major a challenge to moderate…how creative can we become? Our health depends on it!”

Eliminate low-grade irritation in all forms. Wearing uncomfortable shoes not only affects our feet it is disrupting our entire system. Maybe there is a point when our body stops fighting the inflammation we are causing? We know what happens next.

Empower through knowledge. Dr. Agus includes a need to know “checkup landscape”: the recommended checklist of tests available from a simple blood draw; what the results reveal; and what lifestyle changes may improve our outcomes. Invaluable.

There is a major paradigm shift – “Cancer is something that the body does” and not “gets”.

It is unfortunate that the advocacy of statins may stop some people from benefiting from this groundbreaking, belief busting tome. I had the same response to “ I am a huge advocate of statins” and “Until proven otherwise, most people should be taking statins after the age of forty…”. Many people have become highly sensitive to being oversold on pharmaceuticals as well as distrustful and fearful of the motivations of the system.

I urge anyone interested in cultivating optimum health to delve further into this transformative message of self-care.

Kudos and thank you to Dr. David Agus for sharing is wisdom, insight and experience.

1. The kindest thing to say when someone’s idea description seems incoherent is simply: “that sounds esoteric”. A program mentor said that to me the first week. Remembering that things were happening “for me” rather than “to me” was a necessary perspective.

2. HSSS is a common condition. It can strike at any age. Symptoms include a blank mind, heart palpitations, and trembling. The only known cure for (HSSS) Hot Seat Stress Syndrome is a lot of pitch practice, Toast Masters…or, wine.

3. “Founder proofing” a home environment is an important safety step when the founder is obsessive-compulsive with assignments. To prevent further damage in my home during the “name your company” assignment I had to switch to electric appliances with automatic shut off features rather than cook on an open flame gas stove.

4. Intention and visualization work … posting this note to myself at the beginning of the program made a difference.

Forgetting to breathe through the “product sprint” assignment was bad for my health. Again visualization works… when it is important, make it a screen saver.

What I appreciate:

1. The opportunity to share ideas and engage with entrepreneurs and founders that aspire to change the world and our experience in some smart, sexy, do good, brilliant, big, cool or stunning way.

2. The brilliance of Adeo Ressi’s idea, the generous insight of the San Diego program mentors, and the attentive and innovative work of the San Diego FI program manager, Jeanine Jacobson.

What I accomplished:

1. Only two days after deciding to give myself six months to find out whether or not my “big idea” could become more than an idea an article about the Founder Institute appeared in my stream. I had to apply. The FI curriculum prepared me to answer my question with a resounding “YES”.

2. Far more work and at a faster pace than I could have imagined!

Sign up to be notified of our beta launch at
www.cayaviv.com

I encourage anyone interested in building an enduring technology company to apply here: Founder Institute

If making lifestyle changes to improve health and well-being seems like an impossible task take a look at Jean Fain’s video Thinspiration. Jean teaches at Harvard Medical School and is the author of The Self-Compassion Diet. The video blog is less than six minutes and guides you into a calm state of balance and the feeling of “can do”, “can change” and “can grow”. After watching it a couple of times I found myself in a “can do” state of mind with energy to complete a huge project and make time for an extra yoga class. Amazing.

To follow the advice of Appetite for Health dieticians and fitness eperts, Julie Upton and Katherine Brooking we have to slow down or learn to reallocate time. Their suggestions for improving health and reducing excess weight: sit at a table and put distractions aside while eating; enjoy time in Nature every day; set aside at least 15 minutes a day to quiet the mind; and, enjoy time for your favorite exercises daily. These essential practices are necessary for an integrative lifestyle.

Where do we find the time to live with self-compassion everyday?

Bernie Siegel MD recommends not listening to or reading the news and being fully engaged in self-care. Dr. Siegel’s enlightening definition of what it means to be a “patient” is shared by Tami Boehmer in her blog “Incurable to Incredible”. a powerful motivator towards making integrative health practices a way of life whether we are battling a disease or healthy.

In his book “Laughter is the Best Medicine”,circa 1970′s, Dr. Siegel awakened us to a pharmaceutical powerhouse – our own body. Understanding this is a powerful motivator towards making integrative health practices a way of life. Dr. Siegel answers questions on his blog!

Author and researcher, Sonja Lyubomirsky, maps a path to happiness in her book “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want”.
Her research shows that our circumstances account for only ten percent of our perceived happiness. Fifty percent is the “set point”, which according to Lyubomirsky is what we are born with – an inherited happiness closely connected to the happiness of our biological mother.

Forty percent of our happiness is a result of our intentionality. If living intentionally could increase our happiness by 10, 20, 30 or even 40% why don’t we?

It is actually rather difficult because living intentionally tests our priorities and challenges us to live them out.

Action for Happiness posts ten keys for happier living and resources for learning more. It is all about our priorities.

When we feel down, depressed or frustrated the best medicine is to take some time to reflect and realize which of our life priorities we have overlooked or forgotten. It is amazing how uplifting, energizing and healing it is to make the choice to define our priorities for well-being and live them out.

To receive your free template for priority planning and intention setting sign on at www.cayaviv.com

A simple directive. Listening to conversations…there is a shortage of contentment. Why?

Contentment requires practice. When the content of the moment is exactly attuned to my heart, I am there.

Contentment takes an effort. It comes from pouring body, mind and heart into something I love. Whether that is a “world-changing” project, working with a new recipe or a zillion other possibilities.

Contentment grows when we note the moments, breathe them in, and share them.

While driving home from this thought-provoking afternoon of yoga sutra insight I looked across a valley to the East and there on the horizon a splendid full moon was rising and over the Pacific to the West the grand gold and amber light of the setting sun answered. I felt instantly transported from my place on the freeway to my place in our solar system… contentment was mine.

What inspires your contentment?

The Art of Self-Care, journal and process for wellness is now available on Blurb.

Thanks to edits by calligrapher Judythe Sieck and art therapist Ellen Speert I am content and pleased to make this journal/workbook available for you!