“I am teaching you to be selfish. Let me repeat it, because the word "selfishness" has been condemned so much that there is every possibility you will misunderstand me. But the word is really beautiful. To be selfish simply means to be yourself. I say to you: don't consider anybody else in the world, just consider yourself; and in that very consideration you will have considered the whole world.”  ~Osho

Osho is a hilarious wise teacher who eloquently speaks of why we need to be selfish. The word itself feels “bad,” and filled with guilt. If you have ever been told “You’re selfish!” it probably was not a compliment. However, if you do not take time to take care of yourself and to be true to yourself, in essence you help nobody in an authentic way.

When you are trying to please everyone at the detriment of your own health and life satisfaction, sooner or later, you will hit a wall, and your physical, mental and emotional health and happiness will pay the price.

I re-discovered something super awesome today, and just had to share it. You see, I was cleaning up and found an old back up cd. I slid it into my computer to discover a bounty of old stories and reports, as far back as my University days when I studied Psychology. I started to get intrigued by one document called “awareness”. What? I was learning about awareness 12 years ago? I guess so! As I read through the 13 page report, there was one study that really fascinated me:

It was a study on intuition. If you’re thinking what—people study this? Yup, they sure do.

Well, in a study on intuition, they discovered, in a controlled scientific study that those who were able to shift into a positive state with ease were more intuitive. 

 
The Power of the Body-Mind Interaction

How we treat our body has a direct effect on our state of mind. Likewise, our state of mind can majorly influence how we treat our body.
For example, if you do not feel good about yourself, it is easy to fall into a cycle of emotional eating. Similarly, when we make unwise food choices such as grabbing a doughnut, this can cause our mood to go from high to low.
Essentially how we treat our body effects our mind, and our mind effects how we treat our body.

I have a whiteboard at home which allows you to write on the wall and then you can wipe it off with a damp cloth. Well, today I decided to clean my whiteboard as I’ve had things up there for months now. Well, let me tell you, it was not easy to wipe those words off the board. The marker seemed to cement itself deep into the white board, and I was scrubbing and scrubbing. I wanted to give up, but as I persisted to scrub, the marker slowly started to make its way off. It occurred to me that this is exactly like what happens when you are trying to create mental white space in your mind to reach a deeper state of clarity.

Happy April!
Don't you love getting inspired by the most random events? Well, last week I walked in to teach my corporate yoga class and was greeted by one of my students telling me how she really needed a yoga class to relax and couldn’t wait for the week to be over.

The door of the room was locked, so a quick call to security, and the door was unlocked by a smiling comedic security guard telling us how he’s been told that he should start yoga. “Yup. My doctor told me it will help me live longer. But heck, I don’t wanna live longer,” he said in a joking comedic tone. As we both laughed, he said, “Yeah, life is too short. You have to enjoy it, appreciate it, and complaining about things won’t make life any better.”

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."
~ John D. Rockefeller
It takes a leap of faith to be willing to let go of a good situation in order to move towards a great one.
When things seem fine, but inside there is a knowing that “there is MORE than this,” that feeling, is the indication that you need to be brave enough to take the leap of faith to give up the good, in order to move into your greatness.

Living an exceptional, empowered, happy, and healthy life means using every avenue for whole wellness.
If you only eat healthy food, but spend all day thinking negative thoughts, is this true health

Sometimes life events can trigger us so badly that in that moment we are not able to shift our focus as quickly as we would like. Our emotions can take longer to resolve than our mind, or intellect would want.

Nature is a primary teacher. We can look all over the place for inspiration, and in search of the secrets of life. However, all you need to do is spend some time in nature to hear the wisdom that comes from  being within the stillness and vibrancy that nature has.

“As resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.”
~ Steven Pressfield
Have you met with resistance? It can show up in your business, your relationships, your diet, and exercise regime. It’s the excuses and environmental factors we use to explain why we couldn’t work to our fullest potential, and why we couldn’t engage in our yoga or running practice, and why we couldn’t be more present with our loved ones.