Monday, June 27, 2016

Imagine That!

There is a whole world inside your head, and it is accessed through that app we call Imagination. Go ahead, install the Imagination App to your brain and hit play!

Maybe I should say "reinstall" the app, because when you were young, you used your imagination freely and often. It's how you learned to deal with the world around you, how you configured the craziness into a whole life. And I don't mean craziness in a negative way, but in a way that reflects the innocence of childhood, when everything is new and needs to be sorted and even labeled.

Let your imagination take you over the rainbow!
As adults, we think we have everything figured out, and daydreaming is relegated to those few moments when we accidentally zone out when bored. Let's bring back the daydream! It's fun and it can be inspiring, can jumpstart creativity, and can fill those dull moments with pleasure.

Now you are ready to begin daydreaming! Go ahead and step into that land of the daydream, where you can create your dream life, execute a marvelous event, walk with confidence and live in abundance! As you practice daydreaming, it will get easier to slip in and out, and you'll develop some control -- you don't want to be caught out in a meeting slipping away and coming back with an obvious jolt! Time and place, people!

I like to start a daydream when I'm snuggled in bed waiting for sleep. I think of a beautiful scenario and let it play out as I drift off. The next morning, I try to spend a minute there again before I open my eyes.

You can use your meditation time to daydream, too! That whole "stilling the mind" thing does not mean you actually don't think about anything; that's pretty much impossible for folks who live out in the world and not on a deserted island. Begin your meditation by seeing yourself step onto a path, and see where it takes you! Go ahead and guide it if you want, or just let it play itself out.

I like to daydream about things I want to happen in real life, and I use exaggeration, smell, sound, and touch to make it more than real. This makes things fun and helps set the emotion, which teaches your body how you want to feel and eventually may lead you to discovering that emotion in the "real" world!

Keep it fun, keep it positive, and keep it going! Change it up or create a serial novel in your head. Spend your downtime wisely; let your imagination run free.

A Good Book I Haven't Read

If you dismiss sluggishness, aches, and forgetfulness as "a symptom of aging", you are on the wrong track! We as a human race have been woefully mistreating our bodies for the past generation. We've missed the boat on food, gone off the rails with pharmaceuticals, and jumped without a parachute concerning our exercise!

I am about to recommend a book I haven't actually read yet. But I did just put the CD on hold at the library, so expect an update at some point in the near future!

The book is The Ultramind Solution: Fix your broken brain by healing your body first, by Dr. Mark Hyman. He is a well-respected health guy who's been on all the TV shows and written several books, which is why I'm not worried about my recommendation. I recently heard Dr. Hyman speak on-line, and actually took notes; this is where the following info comes from. Also, it jibes with what I've heard elsewhere, and what I've experienced myself.

Let's start with food and nutrition. Yes, these are separate entities because often what we call "food" isn't actually nutritious. For example, sugar, soybean and vegetable oils, and the things that are added to our foods such as artificial coloring. Toss in the sugar substitutes and you have some folks' daily diet!

Anti-nutrients like these lead to brain drain and physical downgrades. If you switch to eating a real food diet you can upgrade your biology in days. Yes, Days! Bring on the veggies! (And this is the perfect time for that -- summer!!) Get more calories from good fats. Discover how to upgrade your gut biome, that lovely garden in your belly that is probably overrun by weeds that are sucking up the nutrients that you do take in!

What else? Well, get a decent night's sleep. Take a real good look at your list of prescriptions. Are there some that you can reduce or eliminate (with your doc's help) by upgrading your habits? Do you know how to exercise effectively? That "Calories Burned" gadget on your elliptical is not as trustworthy and useful as you'd like to think!

Create a meditation habit. Start small but know that allowing this habit to grow and strengthen will soon be the best hour (yes hour!) you spend all day.

Don't ask how you can cure these "symptoms of aging". Start with preventing them in the first place! And if you're already in the throes, step back, upgrade, and be joyful.

Here's my own question to you:
Why does the thought of a lifetime of exercise and kale sound horrible . . . but a lifetime of aches, pains, being left on a bench at the zoo because you can't walk far, not fitting in the seat at the movies, noticing your brain slowing down, and feeling tired and crappy, sound just peachy? Think about it.