Category Archives: Gratitude

Treat Yourself Well – Let It Go – Move On!

forgive yourself for not knowing

“Times can be tough. Disappointments occur. Past and present. It is AS it is and it is WHAT it is. Sometimes there is a tendency for people to get down on themselves. You shouldn’t. Whatever happened WHEN it happened you did the best you could with the tools and knowledge that you had at THAT time. The decisions you made, the actions you took, the feelings you felt, the thoughts you thought all were what you had AVAILABLE to you at that time.

Regardless of the outcome recognize that none of us are perfect. None! We act from who we are at the moment. We may have done things we didn’t like.  We may have hurt others. If we can repair the damage or if an apology and a promise to never repeat is in order then that is the responsible thing to do. Do it!

Make it a point to walk well on this earth and not hurt people. That includes yourself. Give others a break AND give yourself a break. Ease up and take the pressure off. Relax.

what u put out u get back

Realize the opportunity you have is to LEARN from the incident, to learn from the mistakes, to learn from the past and then move on. Leave what is unimportant behind and move forward with new positive awareness. Drop the crap and keep the gold! So few people do this. They carry crap with them wherever they go. Drop it!

You may have been pressuring yourself.  If so, the possibility exists that you also pressure others. Maybe not, but it is a possibility. SO be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself kindly. Accept that you are human and learning as you go along. Even today you are doing the best you can with the tools, the insights, the beliefs you have and hold.

Every moment is a moment for the possibility of higher awareness, of joy of love of peace and blessings. Each second is available for us to enjoy. Each second is an opportunity to explore and discover. Mistakes are the way we get feedback and learn to self correct. Everything is an opportunity when you expect it to be one!

acting according to own consciousness

So treat yourself well. If you did wrong don’t make excuses make amends.  Forgive yourself. Love yourself. Accept yourself as someone capable of making mistakes. Learn from your mistakes. Accept them as part of learning and growing. Be tolerant, patient of yourself. Respect yourself. Embrace and celebrate yourself. Nurture yourself. Be a friend to yourself! Appreciate your self and all the learning you are discovering through each of life’s experiences.

When you are able to love yourself you can also love others. Treat them as you would want to be treated. That is the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule has implied in it that YOU do it FIRST. You don’t wait to receive it you give it freely first. This you can do. Give love to yourself and give love to others first. You’ll surprise yourself with how awesome life can be.” Rex Sikes

In how many different ways can you delight in today?

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Want A More Enjoyable Life?

change your attitude and it will change your life

“Would you like your daily life to be more enjoyable? Would you like more things to go your way? Do you want to get ahead and make things happen more quickly for you? If you answered yes to these three questions there is definitely something you can do to put you on the right track.

Fill your day with gratitude and appreciation. When you are thankful for everything it is as magic happens. You transform. You rise above the storms and you get free. You are not tethered to disappointing results and outcomes because each has something in it you can learn from.  Each disapointment has something you can ultimately benefit from if you will examine it with an open mind. In order to do this you need to be grateful.

When you are in a constant state of gratitude it is transformative. You energy is cleaner, freer, more positive. You are positively charged. You feel lighter, happier, healthier!  When you live like this you are able to make things happen much more easily. You think better and are able to recognize opportunity more quickly.

train your mind to see good

For decades I have recommended that people make a least of 25 thing they are grateful for each night before bed. It is a great practice and it is an exercise. Like attracts like so the more thankful happy thoughts you find the more you will get. Before long you are predominantly living from appreciation.

The point of it is to learn to recognize all the things you are grateful that may not be obvious to you right at first. The over all point is to live with gratitude during the day, moment to moment, not just before bed. At least the exercise  is a start. Do it and you will be amazed.

Be thankful! Be truly thankful for everything and you will transform and you will transform your life!” Rex Sikes

Make your day glorious for yourself and others!

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Mistakes Are Part Of Learning

your past mistakes guide u not define u

Let go of the past.

Learn from it and let it go. The key is to actually learn from the past mistakes and not repeat them. It is important to not hold on to memories that hold you back. Move forward.  Fill your self with gratitude.

Celebrate everything because when you do you become free.

Have a great day!

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Beyond Failure Comes Success!

success after failure HILL

“Last night I was fortunate to be a guest at the surprise party for a good friend of mine. A wonderful party it was and I ate too much. I was delighted to be there. On the way over I was listening to a Napoleon Hill  audio about calamity and opportunity.

Hill points out that prior to success there often appears great disaster or failure. He discovered this during his 20 years interviewing the rich and successful for Andrew Carnegie. Success often happens after a great, great hardship.

This point has been one I have reflected on through the years. In every apparent failure there are seeds of opportunity. It is important to understand this, keep moving forward and not quit.

happiness depends on quality of your thoughts

After a short while at the party the birthday honoree arrived. Delighted but not very surprised. After welcoming all who were helping him celebrate he gave a short speech. He began by stating he had been looking back on his life recently and reflecting on mortality.

He then stated that it seemed that in his life his success and good fortune had always been preceded by ‘bad things’. He mentioned how he was rejected from a job he very much wanted as a young man. Dejected, he found that he had to go into business for himself. He stated that obviously that delivered a far better outcome for him than had he got the original job.

His success was predicated on that rejection. He did not state the following I simply point out that he was correct. He had built himself a wonderful business whereby his money worked for him and he could enjoy mostly free time. He is wealthy.

everyday u make a choice

He went on to state that because of the Holocaust and the Nazi Party he got to meet his wife and some of his best and dearest friends. Had it not been for this terrible event in history people present and meaningful in his life he would not know. He was enriched and blessed even when things were horribly wrong. Camp survivors and their offspring met. He was wealthy with friends and loved ones!

He celebrated his friends and loved ones and the success he had in life. He lives with appreciation and wonder on a daily basis. He is open to what life offers and he has made his way in the world. I was happy to be there and delighted at the remarkable synchronicity of the evenings theme. Challenges give way to opportunity. Celebrate everything and be grateful!” Rex Sikes

Have a fantastic day!

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If You Aren’t Choosing Your Losing!

what consumes your mind controls your life

I saw a comment by someone on social media yesterday stating  ‘thoughts don’t do anything’. My thought for that person was, I hope it is true for him simply because he believes it. Science, philosophies, religious and everyday experience proves otherwise. Eons of investigation and commentary suggest that our thoughts have more power than most people realize. In fact, most people seem to miss this point altogether and never come to enjoy the incredible benefits of better thinking.

For many people life is merely okay. It is a mix of good and not so good, sometimes bad. For a lot of people it is a struggle. The reason seems to be that only a few people truly understand the power of thinking well. I have pointed out again and again that we become what we think about. Not my original idea at all, I co-opted it from Earl Nightengale but when I adopted that statement as an operating principle for my life everything began to change for the better.

We need to be mindful of our thoughts because our thoughts do have much more power than we realize. The reason people get so many mixed results, or merely an okay life experience is because instead of managing their thoughts their thoughts manage them.

Like a cork bobbing on the water drifts wherever the current takes it most people react to life situations similarly. For them, life is whatever comes along. When bad things happen or might happen they think about what they don’t like and don’t want. They obsess about what is wrong instead of obsessing about what is right.

thoughts design my energy

So if it is accurate that you get or become what you predominantly think about or hold in your head then mixed results come from not having any predominant thought. Poor results come from focusing on what is wrong, what they don’t have or what bad event is going to possibly occur in the future.

When life is a problem or less than you hope it to be, then the glass is either half filled with whatever, or it is certainly more filled with negative thinking than with positive thinking. It is common sense frankly! If you want a most wonderful life then the majority of your experience, your thoughts, feelings and actions must be wonderful. The bulk of your time must be spent thinking about what is fabulous, what you are grateful for, what you can accomplish and so on. The majority of your thinking must be positive!

If you obsessively fear that your relationship is falling apart you are increasing the likelihood that it will.  Why? because you are not focused on the reasons you are together. You are not spending your time or your thoughts loving and enjoying each other. You are focused on what is wrong and what will go wrong in the future. You aren’t focused on the ties that bind you.

If you are consumed with the notion that you might get fired or lose your job you are increasing the likelihood of getting fired. The more energy you give the problem the more likely you continue or advance the problem. You do not diminish it by obsessively thinking about it.

life is not hapening to you life is responding

If you are thinking negative thoughts about anything the more energy you put into it the more you get the results you fear. This is true about your love and family life, your career and job, your relations with friends and strangers, your health, wealth and well-being. NO one ever gets healthy thinking how sick they are.

It has been said that, “Worry is negative goal setting” and I think that is a profound statement. We bring about whatever we think about! Like attracts like, birds of a feather flock together. What we focus on we become! Why plan for disaster? Stop it! Plan to make it better!

People who experience anxiety, anger issues, and depression have learned to put their mind in certain directions more than in another direction. It isn’t their fault but they have learned how to do this for whatever reasons. Most all of us have learned to do this to varying degrees. All of us can learn to put our minds in more productive directions using the approaches, I’ve been describing all along, in this blog.

Your thoughts and feelings create your life. They create your reality. Energy begets energy just as priming the pump brings the well water. What begins as a trickle can become a mighty flow. This is true about negative thinking and it is true about positive thinking. Choose which flow you want.

your thoughts become words

Why are so many people negative?  Who knows for certain? It may be that we are raised in an environment where we grow up comparing ourselves to others. Media and messages constantly bombard us with the notion that we are incomplete unless we have a certain product, a certain knowledge, a certain something. We are told what to think, do and say in order to survive. News is always negative because that is what sells. I’m sure there is a boat load of reasons.

So why are so many people negative? I don’t know for sure but I am sure about this; more people need to begin to take responsibility for their own thinking. More people need to understand that change is possible and up to them! People can improve their thinking and their lives incredibly! It is absolutely doable! Anyone can do it! You can!

Others can help.  This blog, the books and audios, workshops and seminars, the sciences, philosophies and religions can all assist and point to the positive path. All of these can inspire and motivate. Ultimately, if YOU want change for the future YOU have to change what YOU are doing currently.

YOU have to take charge of your thinking! No one can do it for you. Although, hanging out with positive people can be a great help as you move forward. Spending time with powerfully positive encouraging people is a great thing to do. Find them and spend time with them!

your only limits

Your thoughts shape and create your reality over time. Like attracts like. The more you worry about something, the more you begin to attract exactly the energy you are worried about! The more you regret, fear, hate, and are angry about things the more you attract the same.  What you hold in your head you will hold in your hand. What you think about you bring about!

Do you want to create a happy life? Would you like things to get better and be better? Would you like more joy, self-love, peace, financial freedom, better health, loving relationships, a great home and home-life, things you have always wanted? Do you want to travel, learn some new skill, have an incredible career, meet more people? You can have all these and more! You can create and attract what you want and need BUT you have to do it!! YOU DO!

If you want to create a happier experience then utilize the same principle and begin to think thoughts of  love, health, wealth, abundance, peace, joy, and happiness. Think the best about yourself, others, and your circumstances. FInd the hidden gold and opportunity in all challenges. Think solutions and what you can do. Focus on what you want NOT on what you don’t want.

WHEN you do this consistently you will begin getting good results, Instead of ending up with exactly what you don’t want you begin to get what you DO want! It is all up to you and what you do daily.

what we project we perceive

You have the power  to create a life of negativity, lack and worry, if you continue to think and obsess about negative events and people. You also have the power and the ability and all the tools needed to make your life experience something truly wonderful.

While, it sounds trite to say it the fact of the matter is your life will become exactly what you think it will be. You will become what you predominantly think about most during the day. What you think about you bring about.

You CAN fill your life with love, gratitude, appreciation, respect, integrity, joy, peace, blessings, wealth, health, and incredible well-being by staying focused on all the wonderful good things! Manage your thoughts! You have a choice. Choose wisely!” Rex Sikes

Do something amazing for yourself and others today!

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Today Is Your Day. Do This!

the choice to have a great attitude

“Why don’t you just take today to relax and feel good. It’s not the weekend, it’s not hump day. It is just a regular ole’ day. Thursday. Doesn’t matter which day it is take this day and make it special for yourself.

If you go to work make it a point to relax, take some breaths, stretch a bit, smile more and make the day easy going for you no matter what goes on.  Keep on working well but do it with a delightful attitude.If you don’t work do the same thing, relax, take some breathes, smile more. Find things to enjoy and delight in.

Enjoy this day. Make each moment marvelous for yourself and maybe another person too. Think some happy thoughts, say thanks to others.  Find things about today and who or what surrounds you to appreciate and feel grateful for. Find something inspiring to read or spend some time thinking about. Positively daydream when you are able.

Do this for no reason at all. Do it just because you could. Make it your day to feel a bit better. To feel as well as you can. To feel absolutely grand. Today, is all up to you. Enjoy it!” Rex Sikes

Determine to make each day special. Why not? Each day belongs to you!

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Love Changes Everything!

you can always do more than you think

“No one wants to go without it. Everyone wants to feel loved. There have probably been times in your life when you wished someone would call you up and say something nice. You hoped for someone to share an encouraging, kind word with you. Perhaps, you longed for something that simple or just a hug when it was most needed.

When you take a moment for someone else you are helping that person to feel more significant, to feel validated and to feel cared for, maybe even, loved. We all want to feel these feelings.  We want to feel important. All of us can help each other to feel better. You and I can.

Take a second or two during your day to say hello, to smile, to acknowledge another person when you are passing by. See if you can’t put a smile on their lips. Listen, respond, validate. Be kind, be thoughtful, be gentle.

When you lift another person up emotionally; when you inspire them; when you can help someone reach a goal or  support them in their passion do so. Do not hesitate. Give and give freely. Providing a moment of caring can make all the difference to someone in need.

what u put out u attract

Not only will you help someone else to feel better but you will help yourself too. If you’d like to fill your life to overflowing with everything wonderful give first. When you give first, without expecting anything in return,  you change yourself in many positive ways. When you pay it forward you get it back many times over, even if it never comes from anyone else. You feel the feelings because you did something generous and wonderful. You transform yourself!

This time of the year can be particularly difficult for many people. Holidays are meant to be happy but they are not for everyone. Whether we are in the season or not being kind, loving and supportive is something we can be and do every day of the year.

Discover what you can do today! Small or large create a positive ripple of loving and kind energy through all of those around you. Spread thoughtful, loving energy to family, friends and strangers. Make your day and theirs a little easier and nicer!” Rex Sikes

Enjoy, celebrate and delight. Life is grand!

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Who Do You Think You Are?

correct your mind the rest will fall into place

“Who are you? The answer is, you are who you think you are. You are either a poor person who doesn’t have enough and lives hand to mouth, a pauper, perhaps, or you are a wealthy millionaire living abundantly enjoying everything there is to enjoy. Who deserves it!

The fact of the matter is that  what is currently in your bank account doesn’t matter. Your past and present do not define you. YOU define you!  What matters is your self definition, the view of yourself, the thoughts you think about you. These determine who are you. You determine who you are and how far you will go. You determine what your life will be like and what you do and have. YOU, it is all up to you!

You decide who you are . Your present situation shows you what your thoughts about you have been up until now. You are where your thoughts brought you. You will go where your thoughts take you. If you like where you are at, fabulous! Keep it up!

If you do not like your current circumstances YOU can change them! You can make life more of what you want it to be, BUT, you have to be willing to change what you are doing! That is the key. If you want your life to change then you must make some changes first. Then you can have everything you want.

Everything begins in thought. Thought precedes feelings and actions. Reality is really only our interpretation. You’d be better off imagining that you are very wealthy but have yet to deposit all that money in your account than to worry about about your current financial situation. Worry and fear only bring about more of the same. You don’t want more lack do you? If you want abundance you focus on it!

worry takes away today's peace

The point is to aim high at what you want to become. You may not have everything yet, but in your mind you should assume that you do and live there as though you have.  Imagine vividly what you want as though you already have all of it. See yourself as your ideal self and continue to hold these thoughts in your mind. Daily! Often!

Send a clear command to your unconscious mind (your servo-mechanism) that this is who you are and what you want. Then patiently wait for it to develop. It is a process and takes some time.

You faithfully work on it daily. It works similarly to planning a trip. You chose your ultimate destination. You know where you want to end up and then you travel there. You may have to alter your route from time to time but you keep heading toward where you want to end up. You  get there bit by bit. You can’t rush it.  It takes whatever amount of time it takes but ultimately you arrive at your chosen direction, but, you have to stick with it and never quit.

So decide who you are. Decide what you do and what you have and keep that alive in your mind daily. Stay positive! It is not what is presently going on that matters! You created that previously. Do not focus on the present circumstances!  Focus on what you want and how it will be in the future. Maintain that focus habitually! Stick with it.

see it in your mind first

How do you deal with the present? You embrace it with compete and utter gratitude. After all, you brought it about whether you wanted to or not. Appreciate everything.  Take 100% responsibility and appreciate yourself. You move forward faster when you are grateful!

Whatever you did, whatever you have was because of what you thought and did at that time. Whatever you did you did. No worries no matter. No blame. Accept it. You acted as you knew how to act then. What matters most is what you decide from here on out. From this moment on is what matters! It is what you do next and what you continue to do that will determine what your future will be like!

Recognize that YOU can make the future whatever you want it to be. Go back and re-read these blog posts for more details, tips, strategies and principles that will help guide you into having an incredible future!

Handle  current problems by focusing on the solutions and remaining positive. Stay calm and relaxed. Remember worry and negativity don’t help anything. Stay focused on your destination. Don’t get sidetracked. Keep your focus. You can and will make it happen!” Rex Sikes

Celebrate Today! It Is A Special Day! It is the only day of its kind you will ever have!

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To Succeed You Must Visualize Your Success!

you cant change anything if you cant change your mind

“You want success, don’t you? If there are hurdles or challenges, or ceilings in your way wouldn’t it be nice to know how to overcome these? If you could find away to accelerate having that success sooner wouldn’t that be wonderful? Imagine making your goals and dreams come true more quickly? The bottom line is you can! It is up to you whether you will do it or not.

If you will spend a few minutes each day visualizing your goals and dreams as already complete, already accomplished, you can drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to realize them. You can  quicken your realization of your desires and ambitions.

We think in pictures, images and mental movies. If you are like 99.9% of other people you think in pictures. If you grew up seeing you think in pictures. Words and sounds accompany the images as do feelings.

Most of our images operate outside of our awareness or consciousness. We can consciously engage the process when we want to remember something or are planning or engaged in other activities. Sometimes, someone says something and we respond by saying ‘thanks for the visual’ because an image, often unwanted, pops into our awareness.

Okay, try this on. Stop and take a moment to really do this. Check it out! What comes into your mind when I say the word ‘dog’?

What kind of dog is it? Was it your dog or someone else’s? Is the dog from the present or another time in your life?

Okay, good. Now what happens when I say, ‘wet dog’? Is it the same or different dog? Is it at the same time or a different time? Good, now try this, ‘bad dog’. What changes?

You may have seen vivid images or barely been able to notice them, yet, you still were able to come up with an answer.

there is nothing impossible

See, we don’t have to do anything to see mental images. It isn’t as if we have to try. It is true that some of us have developed the ability further than others of us. No worries, we all can improve it.

Just as muscles increase in size through repeating exercise so does our capacity to visual increase. We can enhance it! There are a number of benefits to developing our ability to visualize including clearer thinking, attention to detail and improved memory.  I want to focus on one benefit today; the ability to make your goals and dreams come true. When we see what we want we can get what we want.

When you repeatedly send crystal clear image messages to your unconscious mind it brainstorms ways, outside of consciousness, to accomplish it. It is as if you aim a laser beam at a target. When you vividly imagine what you want you are defining it clearly and powerfully for yourself.

You don’t even need to know how you will accomplish your goal. You just need to see it as ALREADY accomplished. You do this repeatedly! You do this daily. You stick with it.

It is a very simple practice!  Sit or lie back  in a comfortable position with  closed eyes and image your goals and desires as already completed. See yourself, as in a movie, and notice how you look, sound and behave when you are behaving as you want to be and doing and have everything you want in the future.

thoughts design my energy

For example: If you want a new home see yourself in the new home. Imagine it in as much detail as possible. See each room, the decor, walk through the house. See the inside details and the outside. Imagine what it is like to live in it. Watch yourself enjoying it, driving up to it in a great car etc. It is your future make it what you want it to be.

After a few minutes of visualizing in this manner, switch your position and look out through your own eyes and see what you see in that future. Hear what you say and the sounds and feel what it feels like to behave, do and have your desires and goals met. Savor, linger and delight in the feelings.

A few minutes visualizing every day will develop your ability to see it more clearly if you don’t at first. Just imagine and keep going. You are sending a powerful message to your unconscious about what it is you want to make happen. You are initiating and accelerating your abilities conscious and unconscious to accomplish your desires.

Do not be concerned with how it will happen. The how will come in time. You own mind will reveal plans in time. You will get ideas, inspirations and intuitions to act on as you continue. Maybe not right at first, so let it go, have faith and just imagine it as though it all already is accomplished.  Just keep with the practice a prescribed. Notice and enjoy the incredible feelings that accompany having everything you want.

Remember, we become what we think about most often! If you can hold it in your head you will hold it in your hand.What consumes our mind controls our life. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe you can achieve are all reminders that you can make this all happen.

if you can dream it you can do it

Visualize when you first wake up in the morning. You can do it before even getting out of bed. Throughout the day whenever you have a moment close your eyes and relive these positive images, sounds and feelings. Before going to sleep, after you do your list of everything you are grateful for, spend moments visualizing your goals. This is a great way to drift off to sleep with the last thoughts of the day about accomplishing your dreams. Make some special time daily to do this!

The goal is to feel good. So if at anytime during your visualizing you don’t feel wonderful, adjust the movie so that you do. The less than glorious feeling is just a signal telling you to adjust, something is a miss and you need to make it an adjustment. The goal is to feel good when you imagine your future. The goal of life is to feel incredible!!!

The goal is to feel wonderful throughout the day. So enjoy the wonderful feelings, find everything in your present to feel grateful for and spend time affirming your ability and power as a magnetic attractor and creator. Affirm and appreciate your ability to make you future come true.

THEN, no matter what happens around you, if the world crumbles, remember this has absolutely noting to do with your desires or your future. Keep your eye on the prize. Realize that the seeds that get planted grow underground in darkness for a duration of time.

The weather may be raging above ground but the seeds continue to grow. They take time to sprout. HAVE faith that ultimately, in whatever time it takes, you will accomplish what you want to accomplish as long as you stay with it and do not quit. You will succeed!

Whatever current challenges you face  appreciate them and you will get through them much faster. There is something to learn and opportunity hidden within every challenge if you only just look for it. Stay focused on what you want to make happen! Appreciate the present circumstances and do not let anything dampen your spirit about your future. Enjoy the present AND the future. Make the journey delightful regardless of what life throws at you.

‘Chicken Soup Of The Soul’ author Jack Canfield knows a little something about success and he states that the daily practice of visualization does quicken the time it takes to realize your goals.

Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles, Norman Vincent Peale, Tony Robbins, Bob Proctor and others for the past century, and religious texts for centuries have been stating the very same thing. You go where your thoughts take you. So make them take you where you want to go!!!” Rex Sikes

Have a marvelous day!

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Feeling Boxed In? Do This Now!

whoever cares to learn will find a teacher

“We spend most of our time seated, looking only a few feet away at computer screens or across a room. Our field of vision is narrowly limited. We rarely move. The only time we do move is to get coffee, relieve ourselves, change offices and enter or leave work. Many of our illnesses today can be traced to lack of movement, sitting for too long and recycled boxed air. We are surrounded by artificial light and the constant hum of computers and machines. Our day to day sees little actual change in environment and habit. People tend to get colds and flu more frequently in winter because we ARE indoors even more. We need to change this to be healthier. The good news is we can!

Humans are a very different breed today. We live in ways that we have yet to really adapt to or evolve into.This one of the major reasons we are sick a lot. We are not doing what we were intended to do. Early humans spent the bulk of their day moving while foraging, hunting or later working the fields. Our day should be spent moving just as much as they did but it isn’t. Still, it is important for us to try to get as much movement in each day as we possibly can. The hour at the gym isn’t enough. Move more, walk more, stand up more while at work if you are able.

Our focus and field of vision, our peripheral vision are stilted, narrowed and boxed in because we rarely look far off. Most of the day we only really look and see a few feet in front of us. We don’t realize how our visual field has shifted narrowly living in urban settings. We need to shift our focus and to expand it. We can’t do this indoors. We need to get outdoors and look far off into the distance. Get in touch with the world around you. Leave your box home, your box office, your box gym and get out of doors and into nature

By walking outdoors we can actually enlarge what we are able to take in and notice. This ability is great for problem solving, finding solutions, memory and improved concentration. Walk, looking far off into the distant horizon, because when you do you expand your field of vision. Set your gaze far away. Eventually, you will notice everything around you begins to open up and you will see and experience so much more. It is healthy to do this and it is healthy to get outdoors and walk. An hour of uninterrupted casual walk is best for you. Keep your focus out there, far away, on the horizon. Adjust it only for safety. Don’t walk where there are cars or lots of traffic or dangerous pathways.

red tree golden valley path and clouds

Do this daily and eventually you will notice your ability to expand and narrow your focus as needed increasing. You will discover greater flexibility in your thinking and creativity. You actually open up and utilize new neural pathways. The benefits are numerous and delightful! You may even notice yourself thinking and feeling healthier.

Consider what is being done to our children. They are forced to sit in desks all day. They must listen to adequate orators (at best usually). Their playground time, recess and gym activities have all been curtailed over the decades in favor of test scores and book learning. Their school lunches are processed foods high in sugar. They rarely move during the day and they are fed poor quality processed products.

Instead of allowing them to do what their young bodies and minds are made for we force them to be still. When they want to move or express themselves because they are repressed or oppressed for hours then ‘the powers that be’ want to medicate them because they fidget and have difficulty paying attention. The reason they can’t sit still IS because they have not moved enough. Forcing someone to remain still causes the desire and need to move. Attention will be there when the physical needs are taken care of. We can attend better once our other needs have been attended to!

They should be able to move in the classroom. More exercise, more play, more gym is needed NOT less. Let them play until tired but not exhausted and then help them learn. They would learn so much better and easier. You would see most ‘learning disabilities’ vanish. NO one, unless severely neurologically impaired, has learning disabilities. Learning is what we do naturally. Kids and adults need to spend more time out in the world and less time in boxed rooms sitting.

Much of our learning comes from physical moving. It is the wiring of the brain and body. Contralateral movements or those which cross over the midline of the body are necessary. Crawling and moving the body as we did was very important for brain development. In this particular case less is NOT more. We need more movement for our bodies and brains to be adequately stimulated and healthy. It isn’t just about the cardio-vascular effects it is about the overall effects on the human. We can’t restrict our minds, our vision, our bodies, we can’t limit everything about what it is to be human, to be young, and still expect to have good and healthy results. SOMETIMES natural is better. Sometimes more is better. Just as sometime it is not.

Wisdom means knowing and implementing the best choices that have the most positive effects.

Nature overflows with an alive positive energy. Get out outdoors and connect with this positive energy. It radiates from the earth, it comes from the sky and from every living thing. There is great commotion in nature and a great stillness. Stop and listen. Stop and take a moment to enjoy it. To imbibe it. To reconnect with it. You will feel better, you will think better. You will relax, let go, and allow more. You will feel more peaceful and at one. It is a healthy and positive practice.

If it is cold outside, bundle up and go for a walk. You can do this. If it is warm enough, where you are, walk barefoot whenever you can. Feel the soil, the earth. Lie down and feel the warmth of the ground. Reconnect with the earth. Listen to the sound of the wind as it moves through the leaves or over the grasses. It is simple. Get back in touch with nature. Sit by a stream and let go. Take a hike. Roll down a hill. Skip. Relax, refresh, walk, witness, observe, smell, listen. Get some sun! It actually IS good for you to get some sun. Do this often. The better you feel the better you are able to feel. Become alive again!” Rex Sikes

Make today special. Do something wonderful for yourself and another person!

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