Optimum Awareness

I must say I have followed with enthusiasm the events of the pre-2008 election thus far. Certainly Barack Obama’s pick of Joe Biden as a Vice Presidential running mate was a strategically made one. Many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters are reportedly outraged.

While I understand that Clinton’s supporters would have been outraged by today’s events, I absolutely cannot understand anyone that would be willing to vote for John McCain out of spite or because they think he is the better one to serve as president of the United States, since Hilary is not an option.

If you’re already supporting a party, such as the Democratic Party, then obviously your ideals are much more aligned with the party’s than the Republicans. I know you might be angry but don’t be silly. Changing to become a McCain supporter, in other words a Republican supporter, is a much bigger shift than from Clinton to Obama.

The best way to look at politics is to vote with the lesser of two evils. We can’t expect to like everything about the candidate. I understand you might not like everything about Obama. But the party you identify with should be the party you vote for. The ideals of the party is what you should believe in. Don’t put too much faith in just one person. I think whenever any of us make things more about a person (i.e. and not in the ideals of a party) then we are potentially setting ourselves up for failure.

I was reading a great story on the site of the Good News Network about a small town of 1300 people called Roscoe, Texas. Things were looking quite bleak but one man, together with support of others in the town, took action and was able to get a large company on board to set up windmills in the area. Now many of the farmers who were earning very little income are able to supplement their income in a very large way since they are paid by the company for allowing them to place windmills on their property. Each windmill earns them 10-15,000 per year. Not bad considering most are getting 6-10 put on their farmland.

This really shows how people can unite and make things happen. For more information you can click here and read, see, and hear all about it.

Please take a look at any of my previous posts. I’ve referenced many different things that can improve your life. Imagine the power if you just followed through consistently on any one of these things? It would be pretty powerful wouldn’t it? Exactly.

Many people, myself included, have looked at various other people and said things like “it must be nice to have the opportunities they had” or “yeah it works for them but they’re very lucky” etc. I think you get the idea. Many people look at others and explain away why they are successful. The fact is though that many people have not been that “lucky” or been “spoon fed;” yet some of these people are the most successful people in the world.

What’s their secret?

They take action. Consistently.

They don’t sit around criticizing other people or procrastinating. They take action as soon as they get an idea. They aren’t immobilized. Naturally over time they manifest success. It’s not even that amazing when you think about it.

Yet many of us fail to take the simple steps necessary for success.

If you want success in any area, try this simple suggestion:

Think about something you want to accomplish. Next just consider if you took simple action towards this goal each and every day and how long would it take before you start to see some results in your life? Probably not that long. Many of us start to take action towards the things we desire; that’s not the problem. The problem is we allow ourselves to get distracted along the way.

Do yourself one favour and take the following 30 day challenge.

Think of something you want to accomplish. Think about some initial steps you can take to get yourself started. Next take action consistently for 30 days. I think you will be amazed by the results. You will gain momentum and will succeed. It’s not that amazing but it can produce very satisfying results in your life.

We recently had friends from Ireland visiting us who gave us a pulse balm from a company called Molton Brown London

The product smelled nice. It made me feel relaxed. I slept better.

It started me on a mission (well sort of)

I started sampling some cologne and I found one that I liked. And it really made me think about something.

If smells give you pleasure then it’s is a good idea to bring them into your life.

Because feeling pleasure means you are feeling good

Which means all of your bodily functions are working better and your overall health – physically, mentally and spiritually – is optimized.

There is an abundance of literature on aromatherapy, for instance. Basically smells are very powerful; they can help with migraines, and mood, many other conditions and your overall health.

What a great way to have optimum awareness?

Bottom line: If you can be aware of what smells you like and in turn bring more of them into your life, you can improve your life in countless ways. What a simple and enjoyable way to do so.

Smell ya later.

- Matthew

If you think about all the negative headlines we read or hear about in the news it’ no wonder many people can get discouraged. Can you imagine if animals were able to produce and read their own newspapers!

Let’s look at an imaginary scenario. First let’s imagine that animals start off by reading about what is happening to other animals in their village and, slowly over time, they obtain have global coverage, like we humans have, so that they can read about all of the animals in the rest of the word. Imagine for another second that animals thought about things the same way as humans. In other words, they start hearing about the bad things that are happening to animals, ex, the animal that was killed while trying to cross the street, or the animals that are being killed by humans for food, etc. Over time many of the animals get depressed and start withdrawing from their usual routine. This wouldn’t work well for the animal kingdom would it? It would fall apart. Yet this is precisely how many humans feel after reading much of the bad news that is out there.

What can we do about it?

Let me provide a couple of tips.

Don’t constantly bombard yourself with news. It’s certainly reasonable to stay informed but don’t inundate yourself. Take a break from the news every couple of days. Don’t worry: the world won’t come to an end.

When you read about a news headline that upsets you or instills fear, try to analyze and see the larger message. Is their anything you can learn from this news story? Is there a healthier way of interpreting this news story or putting in the proper perspective?

Complete a web search on the opposite of what you just read. In other words, if you have read about someone who has been killed, read about someone whose life has been spared or saved. It’s important for you to have a balanced perspective. Only certain items are put into the news. Bad news usually attracts more viewers than good news. So by watching the news you are bound to get more of the bad news many times - or at best the news that deemed important by the people in networks who decide what’s important. What do you think they’ll decide is more important? You should be able to come up with free information about wonderful stories in the news that can make you feel better. A good place to start would be the Good News Network and browse by category – you can even do a search within the network! Here is the URL:

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org

I came across this headline today while checking the health news headlines. I like to keep abreast of the latest developments. It’s quite an alarming finding that was talked about by the website WebMD. The study was said to have followed 1000 patients with head and neck cancer and when they controlled for all variables found that positive outlook had no bearing on improved lifespan. Anyone who has been following my blog probably knows this isn’t the type of specific topic I usually discuss. I felt it to be of utmost importance to address a couple of points, considering how deflating this could be to anyone diagnosed with a serious illness or anyone who knows someone diagnosed with cancer, or really anyone in general.

Here are some points to ponder:

If the same study showed that 1000 patients were able to extend their lifespan with a positive attitude would it have been considered as influential and definite by as many? I think not.

Usually when a comprehensive study is done the implications are restricted to the findings. In other words, technically this study might have indicated there is not benefit from a positive attitude on head and neck cancer but this study did not test the influence of a positive attitude on other diseases. I’m just saying that usually people are cautious when interpreting findings, but, for instance one expert commented that “The idea that we can control illness and death with our minds appeals to our deepest yearnings, but it just isn’t so.” Again if a comprehensive study showed favourable findings with respect to cancer survival rates and people started saying it meant that the mind can help the body, I’m sure many experts would articulately comment that the study only looked at head and neck cancer and we cannot discuss the affect of attitude on other illnesses. Yet when people make sweeping statements like the above no one corrects them.

Anyone who has studied mind and body interactions knows that it takes more than a positive outlook to influence health. What good is a positive outlook if you don’t really believe it (at a deep level) How does this study control for that? In other words there are many people that consider themselves to have a positive demeanor, but deep down many may have doubts about the efficacy of a positive attitude on their health. Are they going to be able to account for this in the study?

Have you known people who lead such healthy life styles and appear to have such a positive outlook but yet get very sick? Just because one does everything that it considered “healthy” doesn’t mean they are really positive – at a deep level that is. For instance I’ve known many people who exercise, eat healthy and appear to have a positive attitude and some of them get sick while others, who don’t appear to lead what’s considered a healthy lifestyle, don’t get sick. Many of the so called healthy people are not that healthy underneath because many might be so rigid in their approach that they are stressed at a deep level.

There is certainly nothing wrong with leading a healthy lifestyle – of course – actually I highly recommend doing so, but if we ignore the basic level of our inner emotions we are not truly healthy.

I do believe that if we can look at this study with the right interpretation it can lead us in the right direction.

What can we learn from this?

I have been personally researching the mind body interaction for many years, surveying many of the leading thinkers in the field. I have come to my own opinion after reviewing an abundance of information available on this topic.

In order to be truly healthy it takes more than a positive attitude, rather it takes a positive outlook at the very basic level of our being as humans. Simply put, we need to really be happy. That is the most important. Many of you have heard the word vibration. Vibration acknowledges the fact that everything in the universe is made up of energy, which vibrates. When we are in a healthy state we are in a healthy vibration and the opposite is true when we are in a negative vibration. When we are truly at a level of healthy vibration, we not only have a positive outlook, but we can be positive at the core. It is my assertion that maintaining this true level of vibration allows us to be truly healthy and can certainly influence our health for the better.

Closing comments

I am not attempting to discount the physical either. If one has an illness I don’t think there is any harm in getting help from traditional medicine. This is really a topic for another day but suffice to say that I think one has to acknowledge the physical and the spiritual side of things. If we think of being truly healthy at our core, would we not welcome the help of traditional medicine? We would be open to helping ourselves.

On one last note, the study mentions that people often blame themselves for not having a positive attitude when they become sick. This might be true, but I think I’ve gotten my point across that it is most important to have a healthy vibration than merely have a positive attitude. I do agree that people should not blame themselves when they become sick. Rather they should become as proactive as they can to address the points I’ve mentioned and welcome all the help they can receive. It’s not about being right; it’s about being truly healthy.

I came across some James Bond memorabilia the other day and it made me think of something. Many of you who have watched and seen many of the James Bond films realize that the character of James Bond has been played by different actors over the years. There have been different directors, writers and producers. Some people are bothered by this and some are not.

Isn’t this like our life? Our life, really, is full of change. Life is an evolutionary process of change. People who really come to understand this are not constantly distressed by change but learn to embrace it. If we can learn to focus on our passion, not fight change, we can really enjoy life and have the life that we desire.

To Ivan Darrach (Idee) and Anna Darrach (nanny)

A man who was like a grandfather to me.

A woman who was like a grandmother to me.

He took me boating.

We used to watch TV together.

In the winter he would keep his driveway so clear: clear of snow and even making sure all of the ice was scraped away.

We used to spend a lot of time together. I remember sitting in their front porch on a Saturday evening, watching people go buy, reading tabloids for a laugh and having a good gossip. I remember Sunday morning was the day they used to sleep in. They would have bacon and eggs and coffee in the morning. I still remember the lovely smell and the memories.

He brought me apple juice when I was sick.

He used to give me treats such as sweet little candies and orange tang.

He used to walk the halls with my mother when I was sick in the hospital.

We used to watch the elections together. He allowed me to learn about politics. Learning politics allowed me to stand up for what I believed in, to have convictions.

They used to take care of me when my parents went away: making my meals and driving me to and from school.

He attended my piano recitals and other school functions.

Forever sending me presents for my birthday and at Christmas time.

He served as a role model for many things such as:

Cleanliness

Organization

Standing up for what you believe in

Boosting my self-confidence

And most importantly: being a good person

I could go on but I think I’ve captured many things.

We all need people like Idee and Nanny in our lives. We also need to be like them so other people can be affected for the better and the world can be a better place.

We all have our interests and passions. The best thing we can do is to harness our passion and help the world become a better place.

Many of you have probably heard about the latest custody battle between Britney and ex husband Kevin Federline. If not, congratulations! Seriously.

Why do so many of us are obsess over celebrities rather than taking control of our own lives?

If we directed more attention to our own lives then we could make them interesting. We could see the things we want to change, and realize the goals we want to accomplish. However by pacifying ourselves with the latest celebrity gossip, the latest television show we are too busy to address things with our own life.

What if we redirected our attention towards our own lives?

We could make our own lives interesting and live the life that we have imagined.

Many people out there talk about conspiracy theories over everything under the sun. The truth is people conspire against themselves to live the life they have doomed themselves to live. No one is keeping them down; they are doing it to themselves and they do it everyday.

If you want to improve your life, put your attention on what you would like to change and go for it. Spend less time obsessing over the lives of celebrities and the latest TV show and spend more on improving your own life.

As always, the choice is yours.

- Matt

Vincent Price was certainly an interesting person.

Let’s look at some facts about Vincent Prince.

He liked things that were creepy and scary.

He liked to scare people.

He had a scary demeanor (at least in most of his movies): he had a scary look and voice.

In fact it was his creepy voice that brought him fame.

Yes, while some may have viewed him as creepy, he was famous so this wasn’t a problem. However someone else, not famous, exhibiting his behaviour might have been simply weird.

Is this really true though? Does fame make the difference? Or does this observation represent the belief of someone who is simply scared to follow his/her dreams/interests?

I’m sure Vincent initially received reactions from some people which might have made him rethink his dreams.

Had Vincent Price chosen not to pursue his motivations he might have been unsuccessful. Thankfully he followed his interests. He was an interesting person and a great entertainer.

How many of us, fail to follow our interests and dreams for fear we might be considered strange, not following the status quo, etc.?

Probably many.

Even those who follow their interests, often give up when others express disapproval.

Those who continue to pursue their interests in light of disproval (whether it be from themselves or others) can pursue their interests and be successful.

I will end with a quote I have paraphrased from Hendy David Thoreau:

If we can follow the direction of our dreams and pursue the life that we have imagined, we will meet with a success not expected in common hours.