Optimize Your LIFE!
So I’ve always been what I believe to be a healthy person,(for the most part, I’ve at least always worked out on a consistent basis, ate healthy foods(sometimes really bad foods as well!!), taken vitamins..basically I’ve always been healthy as I know at the time!! Looking back I realize that I had no idea about GMO’s, dairy, rice..etc but once I know I ween off and become healthier every moment!.) I’ve also have always tried to be a good person (honest, trustworthy, caring, giving, loving, dependable.) And for sure I’ve always been TRYING to help those around me, not always coming out right and sometimes seeming judgmental to people who refused to be as healthy or as good or as whatever as me..I know it’s silly but I really couldn’t see how or why people would be so terrible to themselves and others….OKAY so OFF of my ramble..what I’m trying to get out is I’ve always wanted and strived to be the person that I’ve FINALLY become! Now I feel balanced, calm, compassionate, understanding, direct, confident, focused, and JEN-UINELY HAPPY! AND it feels wonderful.. No I’m still not perfect! But guess what I’m not thinking I’m going to be I’m totally happy and good with striving to be my best, I’m enjoying the ride of “LIFE” while still kicking butt and planting seeds daily for a future even more awesome me..YAY!!
I’m sharing this all because what was 100% to thank for all of this has been the most amazing Optimal Living 101 program put together by brianjohnson.me!
The most useful life lessons that I was never taught growing up have been on:
Meditating
Gratefulness
Journaling
Further Breakdown on how those things have DRAMATICALLY changed my life for the better!
Meditation: I finally learned how to ACTUALLY meditate and once I had that breakthrough meditation I personally have had amazing will power, I’ve been able to read! I mean I can actually read! For as long as I can remember I try and try to read but I have always had SOOOO many thoughts in my head that I couldn’t get through a page and actually understand it..now I CAN! I can have conversations with people and actually listen to them and not have my thoughts wondering..if this happens to you then you understand already but if not..basically most of the time I use to talk to people while planning my day or thinking whatever..and it seemed like every word they said would spark a new thought about SOMETHING! Making it so I really wasn’t listening. ALL of my relationships have improved significantly! I’m able to stay focused! (and just as an FYI…I had thought that I had meditated many times before I actually had..or at least before the “breakthrough” meditation and was wondering what all the fuss was about…MY key was not learning to get the mind silent, but controlling my mind when thought did come up to get back to the mantra and control it away..I think that’s what really helps…CONTROLLING YOUR MIND, not letting your mind run on it’s own.)
BrianJohnson.me has a great lesson on meditation..meditation 101/How to Meditate Without Moving to the Himalayas…my additional Jenius Meditation Tips: When you meditate with the Oprah and Deepak Chopra 21-day Meditation series’ ( I STRONGLY recommend starting with them..they are very good!! Oprah makes a great headliner for Deepak) The net free one starts VERY soon Monday July 13, 2015 you can sign up for FREE at the Chopra Center Meditation Website.
Download Meditation to your itunes or music player.
FOLLOW these directions for ideal meditation. 🙂
When the recording starts(with Oprah) already be relaxed, either sitting comfortably or laying down(I lay down on the ground)
Start taking deep slow breaths, my favorite breath is the inhale through your nose for 6 seconds, hold breath for 2 seconds, exhale through your mouth for 7 seconds…(there are many breathing styles out there so if you don’t like this then do another one.)
Close your eyes, calmly resting eyes in your head as if they are looking out your “3rd eye” in the middle of your forehead, if it hurts your brain, be more gentle, no one wants a headache..but sometimes it takes a lot of times to not get one..you are literally working your pineal muscle..and it’s just like any other muscle and can hurt when you’re strengthening it.
Once Oprah and Deepak have spoken and you’re on your own with the mantra repeat the mantra, when other thoughts come into your head don’t get frustrated, just repeat the mantra, the key to meditation is getting those thoughts out pleasantly..but it’s natural to have them.
At end of Meditation stretch and have a great day or night. The “experts” say it’s best to meditate in the morning, I like to meditate in the morning but I ALWAYS mediate at night right before bed, it puts me into a great sleep.
**extra Jenius Tip: If you have A LOT of thoughts while you’re meditating and you’re actually trying to not forget them..try writing out everything you have to do, everything you’re thinking in a journal or on a piece of paper BEFORE you start the meditation process so you can be more present and have less thoughts to fight off. 🙂 (repeated below in Journaling!)
Also there is a GLOBAL MEDITATION that Deepak Chopra is putting on Saturday July 11, 2015 9am PST that’s free for everyone to join.
Gratefulness: No matter what is going on there is a positive thing to be grateful about…literally in EVERY situation I have faced to date. The key is knowing that so you can focus on what to be grateful about in every situation. At first figuring out what that is can be difficult..Like in death or something really bad happening to you or something good happening to someone who you know is rotten…but trust! Everything happens for a reason and be grateful for that. The more you practice being grateful the more great things happen..it’s so true though…I personally also try to avoid the news, negative movies, things, conversations, etc that will put negative or ill-willing thoughts in my head. I mean why? What good does following, knowing about a shooting do for you or anyone? Does it scare you? Does it make you more cautious in your life? I mean like I said you can be grateful about anything…so I guess you can be grateful it didn’t happen to you..but why even seek out that type of entertainment? I don’t! To be super honest I went to one of the best Broadcast Journalism schools, The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and it was then that I realized I dislike the news! I was assigned to go to cover a shooting for our Cronkite News and as I was there the energy was so somber, I was nearly in tears feeling terrible for the dead victim, scared to even be in the area..and as I reported I was thinking my job is to scare people? They wanted to WOW the audience in anyway they could…personally I don’t think that the news people understand what they’re doing to their audience when they run scare stories but it really is terrible for our metaphysical selves and is the root of many illnesses in my opinion…Anyway that was the last time I did HARD NEWS..I was made fun of as being a “fluff reporter” and my grades went down because I refused to cover anything real…oh well, I knew for sure that I wasn’t going to be in the “real news” business anyway at that point so I graduated with cum laude instead of magma cum laude..no one cares and I got to be a happy being. 🙂 Sorry to go off on a tangent but it definitely leads me into journaling.
Being grateful can be as simple yet impactful as just feeling grateful about waking up, smiling because something made you smile, to journaling about things you’re grateful for..which is also fun because then you accomplish 2 things at once(my favorite thing..is to be efficient.) really 3..because when you list out what you’re grateful for on a daily basis..you’re being grateful, journaling, AND keep track of your life(I keep my grateful journal on a dated paper pen journal AND/OR en*theos which dates everything and spreads LOVE & HAPPINESS into the world. 🙂
Journaling: Just to start off with there are many ways to productively journal and everyone should do what makes them feel the best. I personally even mix up different journaling styles on a daily/weekly basis depending on what I feel or for what different projects/goals I’m going towards. What I love about journaling and why it has changed my life is that I have a record of EVERYTHING! It’s so nice to want to remember something and you can flip through a couple of pages and there it is! Exactly what you’re looking for and with a lot of details!! SO awesome. So everyday my journal is dated! I feel like not matter what style works for you it should be dated. So if I’m having a physical or mental issue I write that in my journal along with as many details as I can about my diet, people I’ve talked to, activities I’ve done, movement or lack of, vitamins, how much sleep I’ve been getting, along with bedtime, wakeup time, what time in my cycle it is..I mean anything and everything. I figure that way when I have the same issue/feeling in the future I can write out everything and see what things are similar so I can figure it out! I love figuring stuff out. I also journal about my goals, my companies, the steps I need to take to get something done, things I want to accomplish, daily tasks, notes while watching documentaries, pretty much anything and everything. I also journal when my mind is overthinking especially before bedtime or meditation so I can actually fall asleep or meditate..which to be honest has been necessary less and less as I’ve been figuring myself out more and meditating daily. But when I use it for this I write out EVERYTHING that I am thinking, people I need to call, shopping list, things I need to do, just random thoughts and then presto peace is had. It’s a beautiful thing.
