Don't Let "Success" Cost You Your Health

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.
(Spanish Proverb)

If you say things like…

“No time to make healthy meals, I’ll just grab a bag of chips.”
“Too much on my to-do list.  I can’t remember to drink water.”
“Can’t settle down long enough to meditate.”
“My morning is too hectic to squeeze in an exercise routine.”

…then you don’t see Self-Care as a priority.

Somewhere, perhaps in high school, we learned that Public Priorities were more important than Personal Priorities.  Do the homework, get the grades, do well in extracurricular activities, impress the boss, serve the community, wow the committee - That’s what’s important.

In reality, though, Personal Priorities (like self-care) enhance your ability to manage the Public Priorities.

Here are 3 Easy Tips, and a quick video to help you work Self-Care into your daily routine...

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Ambition wakes you up in the morning.  It motivates you to keep going when things get rough.  But is ambition always a good thing?

That’s kind of like asking, “Is a knife a good thing?”  The answer is the same:  It all depends on how you use it.

You can use a knife to slice onions, open boxes, or clean your fingernails (eww!) - all good uses for a knife.  But if you use a knife to hurt someone (not in self-defense), then … say it with me …”that would be bad.”

In truth, a knife isn’t good or bad.  A knife is neutral.  (Knives don’t kill people, people kill people.) The way it is used makes all the difference.

Same with ambition.  Ambition is neutral.  Its effect on your life will let you know if you’re using ambition in a healthy or an unhealthy way.

Here’s how you can tell if your ambition is healthy or not.

Healthy Ambition:

1. There’s a beautiful vision, in your head, of something you’d like to create...

People depend on you.  Your friends, your family, your boss, your clients…you work hard to take good care of them, right?

Then you’ve got to take care of yourself, too.  You’re doing nobody any favors if you break down.  Just like you’ve gotta service your car so it can keep taking you where you want to go, you’ve gotta service your body (no kinkiness intended) so it can keep taking you where you want to go.

Your body sends you signals to tell you how well you’re taking care of it.  Those aches and pains, that extra weight, the irritated skin, are all ways that your body is saying, “Psst…hey…something’s not right.”

If you can’t hear it, or can’t understand what it’s saying, there may be too much “noise” - too much competing stimuli - going on in your body.

The number one way to quiet the noise in your body is to do a cleanse.

A good intestinal cleanse (one that requires 21-28 days) eliminates waste that’s been collecting in your colon and toxifying your system for a lifetime.  It purges your body in a healthy way...

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Will what I’m about to do or say
Draw this person closer, or push him (her) away?

Our first bookclub book of 2010 was William Glasser’s Choice Theory.  [You can hear brief audio clips on this page.]

We were joined by Talibah Mbonisi, founder of WeParent, a co-parenting resource for people “who are living apart but parenting together.”  And also by Carmen P, a massage therapist in Boston, MA.

Control = Conflict
Choice Theory shows how the nasty little things we do to try to pull people closer to us, are the very things that drive them away.  Criticizing, complaining, nagging, bribing…are tactics we use to try to control others…to make them do what we want, or to punish them for not doing what we want.

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Happy New Year!

- What will you accomplish this year?
- How will you grow?
- Who will you choose to be?

Self-Development is always the theme here at FHI.  Our philosophy is that you heal (develop) yourself first, then you can heal your family, then your family can help heal the world.

It all starts with YOU.

So, this year, you'll find tons of resources to help YOU create the life and relationships you desire.

Including:

• FREE MONTHLY BOOKCLUB - Just dial in and join the conversation as we discuss one of the best self-development books on the market - and apply its theories to our real lives.
• FREE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER - Containing tips and insights for building stronger, deeper family connections.
• BUDGET-FRIENDLY TELESEMINARS -
  Interactive, telephone-based workshops for busy women (and men) to learn powerful methods for improving marriage and parenting relationships.
• ARTICLES, VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, RESOURCES -
  You'll find lots of fun, useful 3min videos in many of this year's blog posts, as well as links to valuable resources...and, soon, interviews with your favorite self-help authors.

Remember, if you ever decide you don’t want to receive the FHI Newsletter, you will always find an option to unsubscribe at the bottom of the page. (You won’t hurt my feelings. Only keep it if it’s useful to you.)

Here's to a Outstanding New Year
and an Outstanding New You,
Venus

Since many of us start off the year promising to take better care of our bodies, FHI articles focused on PHYSICAL self-care.

If you are like many folks and started a new exercise regimen this year, here are  5 Easy Tips for Sticking With Your Exercise Routine.

1. Just roll out of bed and press Play.  Don't ask yourself if you feel like it.  Just do it.
2. Commit to doing a half-assed job.  Promise yourself you'll do only half the routine.  It's better than nothing.
3. Take a mental vacation.  Let your body do the work, let your mind organize your to-do list.
4. Relax everything except the target muscle.  Don't work harder or burn more energy than you have to.
5. Modify the routine. Substitute movements you don't like in a recorded exercise program with movements you prefer.

Read more

Register at www.MyHealingBooks.com, and join the conversation.  (You'll get the dial-in information once you register.)