Rise and Shine – Personal Development is a Lifestyle

Personal development technology is not a telephone booth that doubles as a dressing room for us to change into our super self.

True self improvement addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the individual. It guides us in the process of supplementing our deficiencies and reducing our excesses. One size does not fit all.

Those of us interested and actively involved in the personal development journey have by now become familiar with the focus placed on constant forward motion in self improvement literature.

The gurus of self improvement are for the most part type A, take no prisoners, no surrender-no retreat icons of maximum performance.

But what about the rest of us. What about the type B folks, who are content with living our dream of non-competitive personal best.

What about those who are motivated by an intrinsic sense of self-expression and self-actualization that does not revolve around besting the gal next door.

An integral and very important tool employed in the personal development journey is the observation of retreat. Retreat is removal of oneself from the normal activities and environment. It provides a clear space and time for you to reintegrate, reflect and renew.

When we retreat, we remove ourselves from the battle field. We find a safe place where we can go within for assessment and reparation.

Retreat allows us a moment to listen to the signals that may be getting drowned out by the constant rabble of the world. We embrace quietude, reflection and assessment as a foundation from which our next campaign will be launched. We slow down, tune in and right our course.

When we re-enter the fray, we return with clarity, having dropped the excess baggage of the previous encounter.

We return with strength centered in the core of our being and ready to be directed. We return focused, eye on the prize and single minded.

Retreats are necessary and should be built into all of the cycles of our life. There are not just for special times of year. But are for transitioning from one campaign, task, strategy to the next.

Here are some ways we can work retreat into our personal development lifestyle.

• Use a portion of your meal time to retreat. Don’t just rush down your food then rush back to your work station. A focused, sincere prayer before eating is the ideal retreat. After your meal, a casual walk with no “next” destination on your local streets or a park is an excellent daily constitutional.
• Incorporate internal exercise time into your day. Practice 20 min. of yoga, tai chi or qi gong or some other internal art. If you are not yet a practitioner. Take a class 1-2 sessions per week and practice on your own.

• Choose a scripture or passage from you favorite spiritual text and contemplate it’s deeper meaning in your life. What does the passage mean to you? How does speak to you personally? What can you take from it to improve your life and the life of those around you?

• One day of your week should be a Sabbath day. A day that is focused on connecting to the source of your being. A day devoted to inner labor. A day to let the cares of the world fend for themselves.

• Once a month take a trip with family and friends to a nature setting. A lake, a park, on a hike, a hot spring, a waterfall. In inclement weather go to a spa and allow the sauna and steam rooms to melt your stress and eliminate your toxins.

• An annual retreat with your religious or spiritual organization is always rejuvenating. You will return re-connected to divine, humanity and nature. With clear purpose to guide you in the coming year.

These are but a few ways to hit the reset button of your spirit and unclutter your brain, so it may serve you optimally in the challenges ahead. Start incorporating retreats into your schedule today. Notice the way you feel and perform after re-entry. Develop your on protocol for how to get the most out of your retreat time, based on your own personality and needs.

Meditation is often practiced by people who want to relieve stress in their lives, by athletes who want to perform better, or by medical patients who use the power of the mind over the body to help heal themselves. For each of these purposes, a meditation clock can be a great addition to your meditation routine

During the process of meditation we often become unaware of our surroundings and are not attentive to the passage of time. Meditation clocks will help to guide you through the various stages of meditation and can serve as a gentle alarm of sort that will bring the participant back to the present reality.

This can be very helpful in the beginning of your meditation practice. Once you learn to truly let go and free fall into the mediation state, a short 20 minute meditation can pass in “no time.” If you are fitting meditation practice into a busy schedule, meditation clocks may be of assistance by gradually bringing you back to the waking state at the appointed time.

Meditation, although a stress reducer, requires patience and time to recognize the emergence of the altered state. When a person first begins meditating they may get more involved in the mechanics of the meditation process as opposed to the meditation itself. The meditation clock allows the participant to concentrate on their own awareness as opposed to getting caught up in where they are in the process.

The meditation clocks or timers often have soothing sounds instead of the harsh bell clamor that most people are used to in an alarm clock. Using a clock allows the meditator to put their full attention on their inner awakening and not on the clock or a timer.

Many people practice meditation to widen their awareness of both their external and internal selves. Regular practice can lead to a clearer and more object perception of self, others and the environment around us. A perception less clouded by our personal prejudices, cultural beliefs, desires and conditioned perceptions.

For those of us committed to personal development, some form of meditation practice is essential. Personal development requires personal intimacy. It requires the ability to step back and witness our own inner processes (pre-dispositions, aversions, growth opportunities, fears, etc.)

Our self development goals are often impeded by the social-survival mask we have shaped from past experiences that no longer exist. The mask not only hides our authentic, naked self from the world, it hides it from our own perception. The meditation state is the doorway into the boudoir or our being.

Mediation is not necessarily about sitting in an uncomfortable position for hours on the floor while your legs freeze in that position? While posture is a key aspect of mediation technology, it is but one click in the combination that unlocks the bolt holding fast the boudoir door.

The chosen posture must be accompanied by the inward gaze upon the breath of your beloved soul. A complete focus upon he/her until no one else occupies your heart. Only then will the veil be drawn and your nakedness revealed in it’s true beauty, power and light.

Although the process itself is simple the practice takes concentration and desire. There are many different types of meditation roads but they all lead to the same place. Like the branches on a tree all leading back to the trunk and trunk to the roots, roots to the soil .

Your favorite meditation technique will be the one that affords you the most direct path to the meditation state of no-mind. The state that allows access to the re-set button of the psyche. It cleanses the mind of excess (distractions) by emptying the psychic recycle bin and supplements your psychic deficiencies with added clarity, laser focus and motive force. Now we have a foundation upon which to build our personal development lifestyle.

Do you have experience with meditation practice? Leave a comment below and share your insights and experiences with us.

These days, many of us work from our homes. Some are full timers, burning the morning, mid-day and mid-night oil, slumped over a keyboard and monitor trading their social and economic currency of attention, empathy, creativity and expertise in exchange for dollars.

A successful online business demands social marketing strategies that insist on developing genuine relationships with your target audience. No matter how many systems you put in place to automate this process, you still have to put in a significant amount of time and energy to be successful at it. I have yet to meet an internet entrepreneur with a “Four Hour Work Week.”

When running a business, in which your ability to attract and service clients is directly impacted by the time and energy you put in online, you had better have systems in place to ensure you get the personal outer and inner cultivation you need to remain healthy and on top of your game. Your attention, time, energy and creativity are all aspects of your Chi. Your Chi is your very life force. It is the very basis of your health, wealth and wisdom.  If you allow your chi to diminish, you allow your life to diminish.  Isn’t this why we left our jobs?

Here are some tips to help you maintain your life force as you build your internet empire:

• Maintain office hours. You should have a specific time you clock in and clock out each day. Strange as it may seem, I accomplish more when I have deadlines and a full calendar. Create your own “sense of urgency”. When the whistle blows. Close the office and put it out of your mind.
  
• Being your own boss means you can take an extended lunch. Once you become familiar with the rhythm of your particular business; schedule siesta hours that allow you to not just have lunch, but to pencil in prayer/meditation, sit down time with family or a friend, a walk in the park, short nap or whatever will give you a temporary respite from your “office mind” and reconnect you to your body-heart-soul complex.
  
• Keep basic fitness equipment in your office. A good workout can be done in spurts.  Yesterday I did my workout while writing my blog. I got in three sets of Pull Ups – 10x, Overhead Triceps Press (20lb. dumbbells) 20x and Stability Ball Crunches 40x.  Each set took about 3-4 minutes max.
  
• Being at home means you don’t have to be at the mercy of the menus of the institutional cafeteria, local restaurants and food stands. Stock you fridge and cupboards with healthy, simple to prepare foods that give you the physical and emotional nourishment you need to perform at you best.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Working from home should be more that being your own boss.  It can actually be the hub of your wellness lifestyle transformation strategy. Would love to hear ways you have turned working from home into an opportunity for wholistic healing for you and yours.

muchpeace,
Kazi

BodyFit Boot Camp – Branch Brook Park

Mornings: Tuesday, Thursday 6 AM – Saturdays 7 AM

Evenings:  Tuesday, Thursday 7 PM – Saturdays 7 AM

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kazi@mybodytemple.net

A healthy lifestyle addresses all of the aspects of our lives that contribute to our ability to thrive physically,socially and psychologically. No stone should be left unturned. These three components of our lives are integrated.  They support each other, inform each other and work together as a unified whole that is the cornerstone of true health.

As you already know.  I am a stickler for efficiency when it comes to health and healing power tools (strategies, techniques). I am a believer in the acronym KISS: keep it small and simple.  So anytime I find a tool that is not only safe, effective and efficient, but addresses more than one of these crucial areas of our being at once. I incorporate it into my way of life. One essential power tool that I discovered over 30 years ago and have been committed to for over 20 years is the practice of meditation.

Meditation practice addresses the physical body through relieving stress and resetting the sub-conscious, life maintenance faculties of our being, in the way that you re-start your computer after a minor crash.

Meditation teaches us patience and to pause the constant ego chatter that prevents us from truly hearing and connecting beyond our own self interest, without becoming a slave to tribal, common senser standards of right and wrong.

Meditation also acquaints you with that part of your self that is quiet, non-judgmental and most important enduring.  The part that is always and forever in the here and now, which is all there is. Making this acquaintance is the key to mind health and to tapping the wealth of the psyche.

Here is another simple meditation practice you can begin today.

1. Find a comfortable, quiet space.
2. Sit erect, but not tense on the edge of your seat.
3. Breathe deeply and slowly into your belly (your chest and shoulders should not rise and fall).
4. Mentally scan your body from head to toe for areas of tension and release them.
5. Now, begin counting backwards from 100. Counting one number for each inhalation and each exhalation.
6. If at any point you lose count, return to 100. Do not become frustrated. Losing count is normal in the beginning. It too shall pass.
7. When you arrive at 0, just sit quietly and listen. Just listen.
8. After 5-10 minutes, very slowwwly open your eyes.
9. When your focus fully returns to the outer world, slowly stand and end your practice.

Run this experiment for 28 days (four weeks) and keep a journal of your experience during the practice and of new things you notice in your physical, social and psychological life since beginning the practice.  Come back and share with us your findings.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating!
bro. jamal

muchpeace,
Kazi

PS. Free Pre-Boot Camp continues Thursday. 5 sessions remaining.
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kazi@mybdoytemple.net

In the past couple of weeks I have stepped up my own fitness routine to take advantage of the exuberant energy of the season and to prepare for the Spring/Summer season of BodyFit Boot Camp at Branch Brook Park in Newark. Over the years, when exercising at a challenging intensity I’ve become well acquainted with my minds borderline panic reaction to physical stress.

When we exercise our bodies at a level it has not been accustomed to, when we push or get pushed beyond our comfort zone, our mind sounds a crisis scale alarm before we even enter our personal Red Zone. The alarm takes on various tones. Rationalizations- logical, reasonable arguments that support the idea of letting up – “Take it down now and go hard on the next set.” Suddenly remembering something Important and slowing down to “….gather your thoughts.” Or, after the sensation of your lungs and muscles burning, get outright ignorant with some “what da fuk am I doin, this sht is crazy.” (Pardon my french)

On the flip side, exercising at athletic intensity requires a very monitored field of attention. You don’t have the luxury of allowing your thoughts to drift in whichever direction the wind is blowing. The successful (safe, efficient and effective) application of strength, balance, agility, speed, energy transformation and will; to complete a movement or series of movements is tied directly to ones’ ability to stay in the moment.

So a polarity is set up in the psyche, with the thoughts running in one direction and the attention affixed to another. Some may see this as a less than ideal situation. It is most ideal. It is the ideal opportunity for the sedentary man and women to practice an ancient and simple method of gaining physical and psychological strength, simultaneously. Here is a technique I have found useful. Put it to good use.

1. In safe surroundings. While performing a movement/exercise you have mastered and can execute with proper form.
2. Allow your attention to remain fixed on the observation of :

• your movement in space and in your body
• the breath entering and leaving your body (don’t try to control it)
  3. When your mind begins to make SUGGESTIONS to let up or stop:

• scan your body for pain

• if you find pain, observe it, along with your motion and breath
• do not comment on the suggestions from the mind keep returning your attention to your movement, breath and body

This is the practice of compassionate confrontation with comfort. It yields strength, body awareness and stress resilience. So don’t just read this post and go back to the couch. These holistic benefits will carry over into every aspect of your life. I dear you to take these 5 simple points and see what a difference they will make in your daily wealth, health and wisdom.

Leave me a comment about your experiences with entering your physical discomfort zone.  I would love to hear it.

Kazi

Rise and Shine Your Light Divine

http://mybodytemple.net
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In todays economy, in fact in todays world, it’s no longer enough to “know your stuff”.  Being relevant in ‘the game’ (whatever field you play on) requires us to continually reinvent, our product/service, our marketing, our mission, our recruiting and sometimes ourselves.  The advent of mega-mass communications (the internet) has resulted in an exponentially growing tide of information overload that makes it difficult to be heard above the crowd.  Becoming a Purple Cow is not easy when everyone else is trying to do the same.

To get the creative juices flowing, it’s sometimes necessary to do the opposite of what the experts would advise, which is to dig in and push until you come up with something astounding.  Creative ideas are a bit shy and don’t necessarily adhere to the usual rules. I would suggest taking a step back.  Ease up on the gas,  pull over and take a look at the  scenery you drive by each day, totally unawares.  What I’m saying is, to boost your creative faculties, it may be best to pay them no attention.  Don’t try to force insights, intuitions and genius.  When your genius-soul has something unique and mind blowing to share with you (and the world) it will smack you upside your head and get your complete and undivided attention.

Here are some techniques for getting the creative juices flowing:

• Take a hike, literally. To the urbanized mind,  nature is a fascinating and awe inspiring environment which can awaken the dormant centers in our brains.  Exercise your wild side by visiting a forest, mountains, beach, lake, cave, river (boat, kayak, swim, etc.)
• If you can’t escape the city (I’m sorry), then you need to find some alternate routes of travel.  Commute to and from work by a different route than usual.  Allow your brain to exercise it’s discovery muscles and realize that their is a bigger world than the rat maze.  Turn off the GPS.  Technology is not evil, but it can retard our faculties when we become addicted to it.
• Read something you usually would not.  If fiction is your thing, read a non-fiction.  If the Times is your daily bread, try the Voice or some other left of center publication.  I find reading children’s books very helpful in opening new avenues of thought and exploration.
• Take 5 a few times a day to reset your internal management systems.  When you complete a project or task for the day, spend  a moment in meditative silence before starting your next task.  Allow your mind to re-organize and close all of it’s open files.  Allow the woman behind the curtain a moment to relax, regroup and center her energy before the next hump.

These are just a few suggestions of the top of my head that will help you give your creativity a boost.  What tricks do you use? Feel free to share with all of us in the comments section below.

Kazi

www.mybodytemple.net
www.mybodyfitbootcamp.com

I will not stack the deck with any explanations on what meditation is, does or what the benefits are.  This way we avoid the power of suggestion.  Just follow the directions below and share with us  your personal experience. Experience is The Best Teacher.

Meditation 101 for First Timers (Virgins).

Find a quiet space. Sit erect, yet relaxed. Feet flat on the floor. Hands resting on your lap.

Softly focus your eyes on the tip of your nose.

Inhale deeply into your abdomen. [when you inhale, only your tummy should expand. Not your chest. If necessary, place your hands on your tummy (navel area) until you feel your tummy expanding with each inhalation.]

Inhale slowly, but not so slow or deep that you find yourself straining. Maintain a relaxed effort.

Pay attention to the sensation of your expanding and contracting  tummy as you breath.  Keep your mind on the sensation you feel with each complete breath.

Periodically check your posture.  If you begin to slouch, gently resume your original erect/relaxed posture.

If your mind wanders (you start thinking about other things (job, lunch, telling your friends how you meditated), return your attention to feeling the sensation of breathing in your tummy.  This will definitely happen. Do not become frustrated.  Just keep bringing attention back until your time is up.

If your eyes become heavy and want to close allow them to close.

When done, open your eyes very slowly.  Then you can begin moving very slowly.

First timers practice for at least 5 minutes.
You can do this a few times a day. Most important, is to practice everyday at least once.

First timers, please post comments on your experience.

“The proof is in the pudding”