Six years ago John Anderson, one of the world’s leading nutritional experts, formulated a comprehensive nutritional cleansing program that made it easy for those of us with busy lifestyles to undertake.
Some of the common benefits of nutritional cleansing include
Loss of excess fat and water
Maintenance of lean muscle mass
Increased clarity of thought
More available energy
Increased sense of well-being
Reduction of food cravings
Increased desire to exercise and move
Greater ease of relaxation
Many of these results begin to show up after only a matter of DAYS!
I started this program a couple of years ago and have done a complete “about face” in terms of my health.
As you review the above list, I think it is easy to get a sense of how nutritional cleansing could support you in your business venture. Looking and feeling your best and having all the energy you desire, make a big difference to a budding entrepreneur. In the final analysis, we are often selling ourselves!
After completing my first cleanse, I went to the maintenance program. In a little over a month, I lost 15 lbs. On the program I was on prior to this, it took me almost 4 months to loose 20lbs., was more time consuming, and more expensive! I went from a size 14 to a size 10 and felt younger and had more energy than I’d had in years! I became my own billboard!
I like to think that entrepreneurs must develop three functions to a very high level: dreaming, doing, and reflection – and then allow all three functions to contribute to each other and to the whole.
1. Dream dreams that stir our souls.
2. Take inspired and committed action, always doing our best.
3. Take time to reflect on our dreams and actions, and be flexible in our approach to life.
As we get better at “awareness” and “acceptance”, we then can experience true responsibility, freedom, and power. We can also begin to practice meaningful forgiveness, as well as sensing a deeper level of gratitude.
We begin to get a deeper sense of ourselves as Love, and that Life is Love in action.
Do you have your stories or do your stories have you. A wise teacher once said, “Faithful servants make for terrible masters. Everything in its proper place!” So true indeed – especially when it come to our stories about ourselves, others, and our lives.
One of the key ideas to grasp is that stories are made up. They are INTERPRETATIONS about life. They are not life itself.
Therefore stories are human creations and can therefore be changed to suit our purposes and values.
(Please read those last two paragraphs again … they are the essence of the message of this article.)
Individuals have stories. So do families, groups, companies, communities, nations, and cultures. The key is – what are the stories for? Are they intended to ground, inspire, uplift, and illuminate … or are they designed to limit, manipulate, dominate, or be right?
Let’s bring this rather heady discussion down to earth a bit, shall we?
When you were a child, what were the messages you got from your mother, father, and other authority figures about the following: life, men, women, young people, older people, business, money, God, your body, your mind, emotions and feelings, spirituality, fame, your intelligence, learning, productive work, friendships, sexuality, healthcare, holidays, charity, vacations and relaxation, exercise, diet, etc….
By the time most of us are five or six years old, we have internalized many powerful stories that then shape our life experience. We then start to live our lives based on an intrepretation of “reality”.
I’ll use my own life as an example. I grew up with an alcoholic parent who would rage most nights after 5 pm (cocktail hour). I learned to run and hide as a way out of dealing with an irrational and angry parent. Later in life, I didn’t have to run and hide but continued to do so when differences arose in a relationship. It led to many a broken relationship.
Fairly recently, I began to trace this pattern to that time in my life and to bring the ramifications of this mentality to the forefront of my consciousness and was able to accept and forgive me, them, and everyone in between.
Many wise people throughout history have strongly suggested that an unexamined life (or consciousness) is a very limited way to go. I totally agree, and when it comes to stories, I heartily recommend you begin to inventory the stories you tell – not so much from whether they are true or not (as all stories are interpretations) – but rather from the viewpoints of (1) am I consciously CHOOSING to tell this story, and (2) is this story serving me and my life right now.
I’ll give you an example of a story not serving you, again from my personal book of stories…
Walking down the street the other day, I spotted a woman in a wheelchair in front of me on the sidewalk. I considered going another way, primarily out of fear. I found myself thinking the following thoughts…What if I have to do something? What if she ask for help? What if I would have to call an ambulance or the police? Those voices in my head went on and on.
I caught the thoughts, acknowledged them and continued walking towards this person. We exchanged greetings and I asked if she needed a push and she said no, she was just enjoying the morning! I was excited that I was able to catch the thoughts, accept them, allow them, forgive them and keep moving. As my fine coach says, “inch by inch, it’s a cinch!”
Until I understood where my reactions came from, there was no way I could redirect my response. As a friend once said, “You can’t know what you don’t know”. Like peeling an onion, one layer at a time! It’s almost fun if you can manage to remove yourself from judgements and realize there is a way out.
Stories are like training wheels. They can be useful at one time, and become a limitation later. Managing our stories is a dynamic and never-ending adventure in consciousness.
Wave of bad news sends Dow down nearly 360- APA barrage of bad news including yet another record high for oil drove stocks sharply lower Thursday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 360 points to their lowest level in almost two years.
This is an excerpt from a 3 part series of article written on the Essential Ingredients to the Recipe of Life (and your perspective in business). This section relates to Forgivenss…
“Many of us start out with high ideals, but get so “knocked down” by disappointment, confusion, and betrayal that we lose touch with our natural purpose and passion. We may become cynical or resigned to a life of mediocrity. Yet some people experience great hardship and somehow, come back stronger than ever. What is their secret?
Forgiveness provides us with the key that allows for such resiliency!
It “un-tethers” us from that which did not work; allows us to learn the lessons without a loss of self-esteem; we can move on.
When we forgive another, we are not giving our endorsement or approval or agreement. We are simply making a choice. We are choosing to give up any claim to judge and close down our Heart, no matter what. We are trusting that Life has its own inherent balancing procedures, and that we don’t have to be the “cosmic scorekeeper”!
We can forgive someone and still choose to not spend time with them anymore. We can even seek justice through legal means if we feel that is appropriate – but we can do it with peace in our Hearts and the desire to foster justice and greater workability, rather than the desire to punish.
Forgiving ourselves is vital as well. We must release perfectionism if we are to function at our best and know the deep peace that the great spiritual teachers embody. The journey of ongoing excellence is really the way to go!
We do not forgive by forgetting. Forgiveness is truly complete only when we UNDERSTAND – when we have really learned the lesson we have to learn in any situation.”
You may not know that Pierre is a major philanthropist, focusing much of his efforts on empowering exisiting organizations that already are aligned with his view of service and contribution. He seems particularly interested in supporting the efforts of micro-lenders who make small loans available to third-world individuals to start their own small businesses so they can break the vicious cycle of poverty and make a contribution at the same time.
My sense of Pierre is that he is a master at the right use of structure. He seems to be keen aware that structures are a tool for channeling energy and can be used to bring out the best in people and communities.
I see him as a modern-day “Cyber Buckminster Fuller”!
…Commit to a certain number of EXPOSURES per week (rather than committing to a certain number of products sold or new associates enrolled).
This will keep you in your power, as the number of exposures is well within your direct control. You can now adopt a posture of “non-attachment”. It becomes all about THEM .. Are THEY interested? Is now a good time for THEM? … It’s a whole new ballgame!…
…Allow everyone else their own point of view, and then you can simply allow YOURSELF to have YOUR own point of view — without having to justify it or “make it right”. Simply let it be and, if it is working for you, keep it; if it is not working for you, re-look at it and be willing to let it go and adopt a new viewpoint OR simply allow yourself to ask a new question like
“Gee, I wonder how others who producing really great results in this area of life are looking at this challenge.”
NEWSFLASH! … You are NOT your VIEWPOINTS.
(read that two more times please…)
YOU are the CHOOSER of your viewpoints. They are there to serve you — not the other way around.
