The Wellness Revolution

A decade ago if you would have seen me on the street, you would have thought that I was healthy and fit, which just goes to show that you can't judge a book by it's cover! Most of my life I've been able to maintain a fairly slender build...and the times I haven't...well, at those times I learned to be a master of disguise. :)

There comes a point in life where eventually you ask yourself "if I don't do anything different where will I end up?" I reached that point just prior to my 5oth birthday, I felt like I had one foot in the grave and couldn't envision the aging process going very well for me considering how lousy I felt...between the monthly migraines that lasted for days at a time, extreme joint & tissue pain, insomnia, and depression...probably brought on by all of the other issues. I felt like a ticking time bomb.

I'm a huge skeptic, so when a client of mine told me that I should go see a lady that she and her husband had gone to for years and that she would whip me up a tincture, (her words!) I had visions of some far out, hippy type person, mixing up herbal remedies! Much to my surprise, she was a very professional lady in a suit...imagine that. That's where my journey started and I've been on a mission ever since to make sure that I don't end up like the majority of the population who work their whole life, save their money, plan for their retirement, and then end up with some illness or disease that either takes away their quality of life or wipes out everything that they have worked for. The sad truth is that it's not just the older population...according to statistics over 1 million middle and upper middle class Americans are forced into bankruptcy every year due to medical related issues. What's even sad er is that most of it could have been prevented.

The book The New Wellness Revolution, by author Paul Zane Pilzer, called "economist turned wellness guru" by the New York Times, has many examples of "why" a Wellness Revolution is necessary. Paul received an honorary doctorate for the role the book played in helping Congress pass Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and other health care reforms-reforms that now allow wellness-oriented consumers to save money on their health insurance and finance their wellness.

Although millions of new consumers every day embrace wellness, millions more remain outside the reach of the current wellness industry and become more overweight, malnourished, exercise less and or continue to smoke.

The New Wellness Revolution explains how the population of every developed nation continues to divide itself into two opposing socio-economic groups - those who are fit and healthy and take care of their wellness, and those who don't.

We are only at the beginning of the public consciousness of this growing need - because most people still are not aware of how simple choices affect their health and well being.

Approximately one-sixth of the US economy, about $2.0 trillion, is devoted to what is erroneously called the "health care" business. Health care is a misnomer, as this one-sixth of the economy is really devoted to the sickness business - defined in the dictionary as "ill health, illness, a disordered, weakened, or unsound condition, or a specific disease."

The sickness business is reactive. Despite its enormous size, people become customers only when they are stricken by and react to a specific condition or ailment. No one really wants to become a customer.

Most of the one-sixth of the U.S. adult working population that work in the health care industry today focus on treating the symptoms of disease rather than on preventing disease. This is because it is more profitable for medical companies to research and develop products that create customers for life.

The wellness business is proactive. People voluntarily become customers - to feel healthier, to reduce the effects of aging, and to avoid becoming customers of the sickness business.

Wellness is defined as "the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal (emphasis added)"

The above statements are taken from the book The new Wellness Revolution...so don't get upset with the messenger!

I've been told by a few in the medical profession that if government health care does in fact happen, we won't even be able to get vitamins without a prescription! Wake up people...we CAN NOT afford to lose anymore of our rights.

So Many Books So Little Time

I've spent most of the day reading and wishing that I could just run my hands over the books and absorb all of the great information and inspiration that they contain!

A friend of mine, who has been such an inspiration, recently sent a link to an ebook of Joe Vitale (The Secret) called Attract Money Now. I've only made it to page 63 so far but its full of insights into what keeps most people from attracting wealth, success, or happiness into their life. Here is a little clip from pg 43:
What you put out into the world comes back to you several times over. If what you put out into the world is positive you receive positive returns. If what you put out is negative, then you receive negative returns. Its that simple. When you were young, you were probably taught the ideas of 'give unto others' or 'its better to give than receive' along with other similar truths. These ideas are simple statements of the Law of Attraction. If you give freely, without expectation of return, you will receive back in kind many times over - not to mention the sheer joy that giving brings into your life.

As you've probably guessed...I've become a book junky! Another book that I found during a trip to Starbucks...my favorite coffee shop...has a large 1 on the front and the question "How many people does it take to make a difference?
I'll end the week with two pages of this book to give you something to ponder!

One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself or anyone else is inspiration. Inspiration to get in touch with your dreams. Inspiration to seek out your deepest passions. Inspiration to make a difference in the world, a difference that only you can make. This is not a book about making a living; it's a book about making a life. It's not a book about fame or acclaim; it's about making a contribution and service. Instead of asking "What can I get from life?",watch what happens when you ask "What can I give?"

What does a GREAT LIFE look like?
Ask a hundred people what a great life looks like and you'll probably get a hundred different answers-but certain answers will make virtually every one's list.

Most people would agree, for example, that a great life includes something worth living for, maybe even worth dying for. A portion of a great life would be devoted to something bigger, greater, grander, than yourself. Something that inspires you, energizes you, pulls you forward. Something that responds to your unique talent or touch and, ultimately, makes a difference in the world around you.

A great life you naturally bring more meaning, purpose, love, laughter, wonder and adventure to your days. And, at the end of your journey you would look back on a life of significance, rather than regret-knowing in your heart that you left the world a better than you found it. Knowing that you made a difference in the lives of others. Knowing that you got something wonderful out of it, and you gave something wonderful back.

A great life, of course, is not something we experience, it's something we create. That's what this book is all about.

I love it...can't wait to work thru it!

Are the Days of Networking and Niches Over?

What a blessing finding this article in my inbox was this morning!

I got involved in the "Health/Wellness" business 2 1/2 years ago because of my own personal life changing events. I was so excited about the changes that I experienced with my health & well being and that of several other people that I've shared the information with that I set out to share it with whoever would listen. If you knew that there was a product that had changed the lives of hundreds of people wouldn't you desire to share it with people?

Unfortunately, at this time, my excitement, passion, and belief has had an impact on a select few...in the big scheme of things...which has been very disappointing to say the least! Especially when the people closest to me, who know for a fact that my life has been truly changed as the result of the products that I've been introduced to...and having issues themselves, but still won't listen...ugh...its enough to make you throw in the towel and say "If I can't even get these people to listen to me who will?" I know I'm ranting but hey it makes me crazy some days...I'd like to knock on peoples heads and say "Is there anyone home up there?" I'm sure I've been that blatant at times to the ones I'm closest to so if you're one of those people reading this I do sincerely apologize.

Ahh...and then comes an article like the one below to fill you with certainty that you are on the right path for the right reasons...to keep plugging along and touch the lives of those who will hear with their hearts...who do desire to live a healthy, vibrant life...those are the people that I will attract into my life...one person at a time!


Are the Days of Networking and Niches Over?

by Karen Frank, Networking Expert

Boy, you can tell that the gurus - and everyone else - is scrambling desperately to figure out this new economy thing. It's pretty interesting actually because one thing I have noticed is that almost no one has a clue what to do - and so they are beginning to bash the experts - and each other.

Of course the two that have caught my attention are the Niche bashers and the Networking haters. Lots and LOTS of people are out there screaming that the emperors (experts) on these two subjects have no clothes.

What's most interesting is that these people with all of the thwaking and whacking of these two "n's" have utterly failed to realize that they are 'undeniably and reliably dead' - wrong. (to borrow a phrase I particularly like from the Munchkins). And there's blame to share because most of the experts also have it wrong - hence the internet airtime battle.

Here's the truth that EVERYONE is failing to see:

Your business is supposed to be an expression of who you are - your highest and best self.

If you don't believe me realize this:

During the industrial age it was important to our economy to have large numbers of people trained to obey and do "big box" corporate jobs - both blue and white collar. Even our school system was created to provide industry with an unlimited supply of ready workers. We, as a society forgot how to be entrepreneurs. As children we were taught that money doesn't grow on trees so we had to give up our deepest desires, be responsible and go get a job. Our jobs became separate from our "regular lives" and our dreams were forgotten.

That was all well and good in 1950 (sort of). Now it's 2010 and schools, business schools, big business and society in general tells us that the 1950's way is "safe and sensible." Don't believe me? Just watch the news tonight. BUT the new economy is all about changing those paradigms. True, many of the experts and gurus haven't caught up, but neither have the naysayers because they too are still coming from this mentality.

"I am not my job, I am a human being." said the Elephant Man and many of the networking naysayers. Well sure you are, but in the new economy your job, your business is not just about making money any more. It's about helping and healing people on a global scale - and that is where the disconnect lies. Your business IS who you are and it is important to be able to articulate that.

Your uniqueness aligns you perfectly to do something that will change people's lives, even if just on a small scale. It's no longer about you making money, it's about you helping people - even if you are "just a financial planner."

And don't get me started on how spirituality and integrity are incompatible with having money. Just how many people can a homeless person help? How many lives will be changed by someone whose business is failing?

The fact is that by successfully communicating who you help, what you help them with and who your perfect client is, you will make the money you need to stay in business and make a difference in this world however you choose to do it.

I can teach networking and why niches are important all day long BUT if the student is "just in if for the money" and they'd rather be off doing something else in their spare time, it's a total waste of time and money because it won't work.

This is also why the network marketing people really struggle. They go money to money. They see their job as changing people's lives by giving them an "opportunity" - which is about making money and recruiting more than it is about helping people with their problems which (oh my god) sometimes have nothing to do with money (imagine that).

So my first request of you in 2010 is to think about what your ideal life would be like. Not just the things you want, but your life, your experiences. What would you like your perfect day to be like? Where would you go? What would you do? With whom would you do it?

Take out a sheet of paper and write it down - seriously.

When you answer these questions, you'll be able to see clearly whether your business is really an expression of you or if you are "just in it for the money." If your job is a mismatch for your ideal life, then you need to make some adjustments. I am not saying close your doors necessarily, just notice and adjust.

Finally, as you think about how to talk about what you do and for whom you do it (your networking statement and your niche) remember your passion. The deep "why" buried beneath the surface of why you do what you do. When you speak with that passion to someone about what you do, the words come easily and don't matter so much, because they will hear you with more than their ears. They will also hear you with their hearts.

And that is what Networking is all about.

Want to use this article in your newsletter or on your website? You can! Just be sure to include the entire article and include this complete "blurb" with it:

Networking Expert, Karen Frank publishes Networking News, a semi-monthly newsletter devoted to helping you avoid marketing disasters and networking faux pas. Get the home study course "The Seven Deadly Sins of Networking and How to Avoid them" Free when you sign up for Networking News at www.3ecommunications.net.

The Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction is as scrupulously fair as a mirror.
Man tends to attract to himself that which he loves, fears, or steadily expects; that is, those things that he keeps at his central (focal) consciousness.

Man fears certain negative experiences, and quite logically, he attracts them. There will come times when the negative will edge toward the center, but the instant he notices this, he will immediately say "I resist that suggestion" and he will again bring back into focus that good that he wishes. Gradually, he will notice that the good, more and more, tends to stay at the center, while the negative tends to fade away.

The above is taken from The Science of Mind by Frederick Bailes

Thoughts attract that upon which it is directed. Recall that it was Job who said: "For the thing which I have feared has come upon me." Our fear thoughts are just as magnetic in attracting troubles to us as are the constructive and positive thoughts in attracting positive results. So no matter what the character of the thought, it does create after its kind. When this sinks into man's consciousness, he gets some inkling of the awe-inspiring power which is his.

We hear and read much about various stages of thought, degrees of consciousness, thought concentration, the strength of our faith, all of which deals with the intensity or degree of power we send forth. Creative force comes only when there is a fully developed mental picture, or when the imagination can visualize the fulfillment of our ambition and see in our mind a picture of the object we desire....just as if we already possessed them.

As a result of my studies of the so-called mystic teachings, the various mental sciences and the regular orthodox church teachings, I am convinced that they all work in varying degrees, but only to the extent that their followers believe. So it is with prayer, whether it be a part of a church service or the purely spontaneous and personal supplication of the individual.

However, I am forced to the conclusion that many people go through the lip-service act of saying their prayers without the slightest belief that those prayers will be answered.

Taken from the Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol

It is written; "it is done unto you as you believe"

When I first started reading these materials it was just too out there for me...a lot of it went against my personal spiritual beliefs and some of it still does...however, the more I dig into it the more I realize that a lot of the principles presented are found throughout the scriptures of all religions. What I've learned thru this process is; even though we may not agree in full with what is being presented, when we close our minds to things we may miss out on some pearls of wisdom that can be gathered along this path of life.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge...knowledge is limited."
Einstein

Life Pays Us What We Ask

Life is never unfair to us. We are unfair to ourselves. Ours is the choice: we may offer ourselves in the bargain basement or in the exclusive section, and Life is not only willing to pay; it has no alternative but to pay the exact price we set upon ourselves. It can pay no more or less, because it is impartial as the mirror, which must reflect exactly what is placed before it. It is as impersonal as the loom, which must weave into cloth the threads that are given it, be they cheap white cotton or costly threads of silk.

"My Wage," by Jessie B Rittenhouse, says this very well:

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer;
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life
Life would have paid.

When we come to see this, Life no longer seems harsh and cruel to us. Our world will change as our ideas concerning ourselves change. So never be afraid to think highly of your value.

This implies making ourselves valuable. The shirker, constantly watching the clock or giving inadequate service, should not expect to lie on his back, filling his thought with the picture of his worth, and imagining that Infinite Mind will bring this later picture into form.

Never say a thing about yourself that you don't desire to see realized in your life. Act out the part of the person you desire to be...we can decide what sort of person we would like to be and begin at once to act the part.

Today is the finished product of yesterday's or last year's thought. Today's thought is even now passing through the loom of mind, will become the pattern of tomorrow's or next year's experience. That which we now are thinking will take form, sometime, somewhere.

If we hope to get free from those negative, unwanted conditions we have been voicing, we must change our thought. And if we have not yet advanced to the point where we have thorough control over our thoughts, we can, at least to a large degree, control our speech; therefore, today we refuse to give utterance to that which we now know will only perpetuate our unwanted past experiences.

Turn away from past failures...and focus instead on past successes no matter how small.

Taken from the book The Science of Mind by Frederick Bailes

Let's practice putting a guard over our mind and our mouth!

The Power of Choice

My focus for this week is on the mind because it impacts every aspect of our life...our health both mental & physical... relationships...success...wealth.

That said I'm going to share with you some of the things that I've learned over the past year on my journey of taking control of my thoughts, attitudes, and what I speak. Its a lot harder than I thought it would be! In fact I challenge you to pay attention to the random thoughts that go thru your mind on a continuous basis...become conscious of what you think about and say, then change any negative thoughts to positive ones as soon as they show up. I picture a big red X for delete on the computer of my mind whenever they happen...sometimes I even say delete that out loud!

Our conscious mind can be called "directing" mind. It is characterized by the words "I choose." With it, we weigh values; we weigh reasons for and against; we judge; we decide; we deliberately choose what we desire to do, what we desire to be, what we desire to have. And we deliberately choose the thoughts we wish to think.

All of our choices are made in conscious mind.

Our subconscious mind is the creating, the manufacturing, phase of mind that takes what conscious mind gives it and turns thoughts into things. Beneath the surface, it works ceaselessly to turn those thoughts - both good and bad - into the outward conditions of our lives.

It has no power of choice, it never reasons. It cannot refuse to take what conscious mind gives it. It must always work from a pattern, and it has no choice but to work from the pattern of thought that comes to it from conscious mind. Like the soil that must accept the seed, it must accept that thought.

Subconscious mind is habitual mind. Whatever we entertain often enough and vividly enough in our conscious mind - whether by conscious , deliberate choice or by choice made so rapidly that we are not aware we have made it - eventually passes into subconscious mind, where it continues to act automatically. This is the process by which we learn everything that we learn.

A negative disposition, for instance, is the result of repeated negative thoughts that have sunk into subconscious mind and have become habitual. But a cheerful, happy disposition can become just as automatic by conscious choice of positive thoughts. Thus it is not true that some people are blessed with positive natures, and others cursed with the opposite. People are not born optimistic or pessimistic: they learn to be what they are.

What anyone earnestly desires to be, he may become, not, however, by waving a magic wand but by the same procedure he uses to play the piano or to swim.

It is the level of the thought of subconscious mind - of our inward mental states - that makes us and our outer circumstances what they are and will become.

The loom that weaves thought into thing.
We all know enough about the principals of rug weaving to know that there are a loom, threads, and a weaver (or overseer) - and a rug.
The loom has only one task; that is, to keep weaving. It does not decide whether it will weave a beautiful or an ugly rug. Hour after hour, it moves back and forth, while yard after yard of rug comes slowly forth at the end of the loom.
The weaver watching it may be displeased and outraged by what he sees coming out, but he does not berate the loom and say, "Why have you done this to me?" He does not sit at the other end crying over the ugly pattern wishing it would somehow change into a thing of beauty. He knows that the only place where beauty can be made to replace ugliness is on the rack of spools at his end before the obedient weaving apparatus gets it, and so he changes the threads. He takes off a dark spool, replacing it with a brighter color; he exchanges a gaudy yellow for a mellow gold. Then he starts the machine once more, and as he watches what now comes out at the other end, he is pleased.

Daily, man's loom of mind weaves the pattern of his life. If he does not like the pattern, he is foolish to sit crying about it or wishing it would change. He is wrong to complain about "luck" or to berate "Providence." He, and he alone is the weaver.

The great law of cause and effect gives us back what we have put in.

The above is taken from the book The Science of Mind by Dr. Frederick Bailes

These were initially hard concepts for me to swallow...to think that our thoughts have brought circumstances that we honestly don't believe to be our fault into our life is a hard lump to swallow! I argued profusely with the friend who shared these concepts with me...giving him all the reasons "why" I was NOT responsible for this or that. The sad reality is that now that I've taken the time to study these principals and pay attention to what I'm thinking and saying my mind has been happy to send me instant replay messages of all the things that I previously thought to create the circumstances that I didn't feel responsible for. Your subconscious mind never forgets anything! The bright spot is that you can start immediately to reverse the negative and shift to the positive...this has truly changed my life.

The Power of Thought

I've always look forward to January...minus the snow and cold! The reason it's my favorite month is that I see it as a clean slate...a chance to do better...to be better than the previous year...I'm filled with hope and anticipation. This is especially true this year because I've spent the past 12 months doing much reading on the topic to follow.

"There was a time when I would have laughed at people who talked about the magnetic force of thought, how thought correlates with its object, how it can affect people and inanimate things, even at great distances. But I no longer laugh, nor do others who know something of its power, for anyone who has any intelligence sooner or later comes to the realization that thought can change the surface of the entire globe." Claude Bristol

I too, was once a skeptic, and even after spending considerable time reading and studying these concepts and findings, certainly wouldn't have risked being ridiculed by my peers by admitting that I now believe them to be true! Not only do I now believe them to be true, I believe that in our current economic environment, along with the gloom and doom mindset of the media, that it is more important than ever to determine whether or not you will choose to focus on all that is good with your life or will you buy into the concept that the best days of our lives are behind us. I personally choose to believe that the best days are in front of us and that we can overcome the obstacles and be stronger as a result!

Perhaps the following story and insights taken from the book I'm reading, The Magic of Believing by Claude Britol, from which most of the content for today is coming will be an encouragement to you as it has been for me.

"It came to me in a flash that the reason my firm was going on the rocks was not because of the threatening outside happenings and events, but because of the mental attitude of its members and employees. We were all succumbing to mass fear thoughts; we feared that the depression was weakening our spirit and sweeping everything downhill to financial disaster, and with our own thoughts of ruin we were attracting the disaster to ourselves. It occurred to me that all I needed to do to save the firm and to begin fighting the depression itself was to reverse the thinking of every person connected with our organization. I set about doing that very thing; and as Frank W. Camp who wrote the introduction to my brochure declared, "it was followed by the most remarkable transformation of individuals and organization as well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that the ancestor of every action is thought; when we understand that, we begin to comprehend that our world is governed by thought and that everything without had its counterpart originally within the mind. It is just as Buddha said many centuries ago: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Your very life is your thinking and the result of your thinking processes. Your flesh, bones, and muscles can be reduced to 70 per cent water and a few chemicals of small value, but it is your mind and what you think that makes you what you are. The secret of success lies not without, but within, the thoughts of man. You are the product of your own thought. What you believe yourself to be, you are." Claude Bristol

"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Jesus

"Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement. Without it there would be no great empires, no great fortunes, no great transcontinental rail lines, no modern conveniences; in fact, there would be no advance over life in the most primitive ages.

Your thoughts, those that predominate, determine your character, your career, indeed your everyday life. Thus it becomes easy to understand what is meant by the statement that a man's thoughts make or break him. And when you realize that there can be no action or reaction, either good or bad, without the generating force of thought initiating it, the Biblical saying, "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap," and Shakespeare's words "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking that makes it so," becomes more intelligible. We become what we contemplate, what we envisage.

I would like to point out that hard work alone will not bring success. The world is full of people who work hard but have little to show for it. Something more than hard work is necessary: it is creative thinking and firm belief in your ability to execute your ideas. The successful people in history have succeeded through their thinking. Their hands were merely helpers to their brains.

Another important point is that one essential to success is that your desire be an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be co-ordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without letup. It may be riches or fame or position or knowledge that you want, for each person has his own idea of what success means to him. But whatever you consider it to be, you can have it provided you are willing to make the objective the burning desire of your life. A big order, you say. Not at all; by using the dynamic force of believing,you can set all your inner forces in motion, and they will in turn help you to reach your goal." Claude Bristol

"It is done unto you as you believe." Jesus

"Now that you have a clearer idea of the part that thought and desire play in our daily lives, the first thing to determine is precisely what you want. Starting in with the general idea that you merely want to be a success, as most people do is to indefinite. You must have a mental pattern clearly drawn in your mind. Ask yourself, Where am I headed? What is my goal? Have I visualized just what I really want? If success is to be measured in terms of wealth, can you fix the amount in figures? If in terms of achievement, can you specify it definitely?" "I ask these questions, for in their answers are factors which will determine your whole life. Strange as it may appear, not one out of a hundred people can answer these questions. Most people have a general idea of what they would like to be a success, but beyond that everything is vague. They merely go along from day to day figuring that if they have a job today they will have it tomorrow and that somehow they will be looked after in their old age. They are like the cork on the water floating aimlessly, drawn this way and that by various currents, and either being washed up on the shore, or becoming waterlogged and eventually sinking." Claude Bristol

Thought - Desire - Belief...are you paying attention to yours?

Make it a great year...the choice IS yours
Wendy