This post is by Justine Bloome of JusBeing.

Think back on the day you’ve just had. What percentage of it were you “doing” something, versus just “being” in the moment?

Last weekend I attended an incredible retreat in the Yarra Valley; wine country in the State of Victoria in Australia. It was a meditation retreat, run by The Gawler Foundation.

The Foundation is perhaps best known for its founder, Ian Gawler, a decathlete and veterinary surgeon who conquered aggressive bone cancer by way of many intense hours of meditation. Until his recent retirement, Ian traveled the world sharing his insights about nutrition, meditation and self-help healing techniques to those suffering with cancer and multiple sclerosis.

The Gawler Foundation continues his work and also offers a health and wellness-based program for people who would like to simply foster a life of wellbeing, or perhaps continue their journey after recovering from cancer.
The weekend retreat I attended was especially geared to busy individuals who are seeking a short break from the rapid pace of their hectic lives; to take some time to press pause, learn the art of meditation, put the theories into intensive practice and ideally take away mindfulness techniques for daily life.

Circuit Breakers

A little tangent: in my career, I have spent some time creating brand experiences for clients. Some of those were internal brand experiences with staff, who can be a cynical audience to engage with.

I would often research this internal audience to test the level of cynicism and gauge what kind of “circuit breaker” would be required at the beginning of an internal brand experience. A circuit breaker is essentially a device to make people sit up and listen. It forces a kind of “A-ha!” moment, and it establishes a perspective in the audience from the outset that they actually do need to listen to what follows. It’s an incredible technique for anyone trying to communicate with an ambivalent, cynical or skeptical audience.

Human being… or human doing?

Paul and Maia Bedson, the husband-and-wife team hosting the meditation retreat, presented an excellent circuit breaker at the opening of the retreat. Each of the 30 people in the room had to introduce themselves by name and also give themselves a score on the scale below.

I watched expressions change and some of the cynicism drain from the faces of many of the people in the room identified immediately with the red side of the scale:

The doing trap

There is so much written today about productivity, and a lot of it’s focused on how much more we can fit into our busy schedules—it focuses on “doing” more in the same amount of time.

I read a report recently that said that Australians spend a total of 37.5 hours a day doing various activities. Did anyone notice that’s 13.5 hours more than there actually are in a day? And that’s not even counting the 6-10 hours some of us spend sleeping! (The same report gave a figure of 43.4 hours for the average person in the USA!)

So how are we managing to “do” so much in any given day? Well if you consider that 8.7 hours of those hours are spent with media and 5.5 of those hours are spent with technology, you’ve probably worked out the answer is multi-tasking.

With so much “doing” crammed into one day, is it any wonder we never find anytime to just be?

Just being

Meditation comes in many forms, but all types of meditation are all based in the notion of being present, being mindful, being still in mind, being a witness—just being.

A myth I often hear is that meditation is all about having a completely blank mind. This is usually the first question I get asked when I talk about meditation: “How do you manage to get your mind to be completely empty?”

Thinking is not “the enemy” of meditation; rather, meditation is more about stepping outside of your “thinking mind” and becoming an observer, a witness to what’s going on in the here and now.

Being Right Now

If you’ve never tried meditation and would like to experience it for yourself, here are three simple steps you can do now to practice “being”.

Step one

Sitting in an upright position in a comfortable chair, close your eyes and breathe into your belly (not your chest). Relax all your muscles on the out breath and now rest your attention on the blank space behind your eyelids. It might even feel like this dark, blank space actually wraps right around your head.

Just notice that space for a moment. If a thought enters your mind, just watch it from afar, like it was scrolling across the back of your eyelids. Then watch that thought go, without giving it any attention or judgment and rest your attention back on the space in front of your closed eyes.

Step two

Now expand your awareness to also include the sounds around you: those coming into the room from elsewhere, and those coming from you. The sound of your breath, the gurgle of your stomach, the rain outside, the birds chirping, the cars moving down the street—just notice those sounds. Don’t judge them, or think about where they are coming from. Try not to even label them. Just listen and rest your attention on these sounds as you continue to rest your attention on the back of your eyelids.

Step three

Now open your awareness one step further to feel your breath moving into your belly, and feel your belly push the air back out again. Notice the pause in your breathing at the top of the exhalation, before you inhale again and fill your belly with nourishing air. You are still aware of the space in front of your closed eyes and the sounds in the room and those coming into it from afar.

Continue to do this, without judgment, no goal or benchmark you’ve set for yourself. Just make a choice to be present and to truly feel the expansiveness of the space in front of your closed eyes, feel the sounds as they rest upon your ears, and feel the in breath bringing oxygen and nutrients to every cell in your body.

No goals, just a choice

The most important thing to remember as you start to try meditation is that there is no goal. Unlike the “doing” part of your brain which is constantly seeking to achieve, check things off a task list and attain new goals, meditation has no goals. It also has no judgmen—there is no right or wrong way of trying meditation.

Try not to tell yourself that you can’t do it, because the truth is, everyone has this capability in them. It is simply the ability to step back from your thinking mind and observe using your “aware mind” for a while.

Whether you managed five minutes or 15 minutes of taking these three simple steps, you have just experienced “being” through a simplistic form of meditation.

Open your focus

Once you’ve opened your eyes, instead of jumping straight back into “doing,” just notice the differences in yourself. Are your shoulders sitting lower? Do you feel more relaxed? Like you have created some “space” in your mind? Do you notice more of what is around you? Do you feel lightheaded?

The latter symptom may arise because meditation is medically proven to reduce your blood pressure radically and in a very short period of time. This is just one of many health benefits from incorporating a regular 20 minutes of meditation practice into your day.

What will you choose to be today? A human doing? Or a human being?

Justine Bloome, also known as “Jus”, blogs about her quest to be a mindful human being over at JusBeing. Follow her @inbloome on Twitter.

This guest post is by Tara Gentile of Scoutie Girl

Ignoring your creativity can have serious consequences. You feel stuck—even depressed. You start heading down a spiral of inaction. It gets harder & harder to make things happen in your life.

Reclaiming your creativity (yes, I know you’ve got some!) can jump start your life in startling ways. Finding your own creative spark will help you set your dreams in motion and push ahead when the going gets tough.

My senior year of college was a real creative peak for me. I was writing daily, blogging on Xanga, and reading like a fiend. I earned a full scholarship to my graduate program of choice with the intent to study postmodern Christian theology.

I was poised to be another small success story of academia.

But while I was working my summer job, I got bit by the conventional life bug. My forward momentum ceased.

I took a full time job at one of the bookstore chains, slinging coffee and steaming milk. I was passionate about coffee and books. Turns out I was also passionate about business. But Fortune 500 retail management doesn’t leave a lot of room for creativity in the workplace.

My independent successes were often overruled by overlords—I mean, middle managers—who preached conformity.

My mood ebbed and flowed with the decisions that those above me made. I rose in the ranks and found that the higher I went, the less creativity I was allowed.

In a lifetime of run-ins with depression, I battled the worst bout while working there. With no time or energy for self-expression, I couldn’t act on my usual creative self remedies. I quickly spiraled out of control, losing about 30lbs as my body shut down. I drove to work wanting to die. I drove home from work wanting to die.

Luckily, I met my husband and recovered. If only it was as quickly and easily as writing that sentence. With his accountability, I made time for me and my mood improved.

Now I realize that period in my life was a direct consequence of inaction. With no creative outlet, I lost touch with my own life.

It turned out that the conventional life I desired wasn’t what I thought it would be. Working my butt off for mediocre-at-best pay didn’t mean I could live on my own, purchase the things I needed, or keep up with any sort of social life outside of the occasional glass of wine with my coworkers, who I already saw too often thankyouverymuch.

On top of this, I realized that when you settle for inaction and the conventional, it’s that much harder to create and act on unconventional circumstances.

It’s that much harder to create the action you need to fulfill your goals.

Settling for inaction doesn’t just delay your satisfaction—it makes it harder to achieve!

Reclaiming my creativity and my own lust for action took a complete break from my circumstances: the birth of my daughter.

While the shift from dreaming to doing wasn’t immediate, I reconnected with my capacity for learning new things and achieving my goals. It was a process—one that was punctuated with reading, writing, and experimentation. Within a few months, I was able to act.

It was like drawing my pistol from its holster on my hip, still plump with post-pregnancy weight.

While my first shot may not have hit true, shot after shot, action after action, my aim and my circumstances improved.

People now ask me how I turn ideas into reality so quickly, how I can generate so much forward progress from a schedule that all to easily gets bogged down in the day to day. Very simply, it’s the cycle of action. The consequence of inaction is more—paralyzing—inaction.

The consequence of action is more—energizing—action.

If you’re feeling bogged down by the day-to-day, unsure of where the energy to achieve your dreams will come from, or simply stuck, here are some ideas for helping you break free.

1. Find your breaking point.

Not where you break, but where you can break the cycle of inaction. What fundamental change can you make in your life to produce an environment where your creativity can thrive? Your solution might be a change of routine or schedule, a change in location, or a break from a toxic friendship. In general, I don’t recommend having a baby for this purpose.

Your breaking point is a change that will allow you to fundamentally shift your perspective on your day to day tasks. Inevitably, these kinds of changes don’t happen overnight, they’re part of a process of change. But working words a single action that has the capacity to renew your energy and restart your forward progress can be motivation in and of itself.

2. Accept that not every idea is a good one.

While you’re recovering from inaction, it’s easy to get discouraged when you discover your new idea isn’t feasible or when your project just doesn’t turn out well. Part of creating your forward progress is failing, learning, and acting again. By accepting that a great many of your ideas won’t turn out, you’ll leave yourself open for even better ideas.

Failure is an integral part of creating more action in your life. It’s not a stumbling block; it’s an opportunity. People who produce a lot of good stuff produce a lot more bad stuff. But they use their failures to propel them forward not hold them back.

3. Don’t hold on to the things that hold you back.

While it sounds simple, many people I know hold on to habits that stop them from making progress: TV, naps, household expectations, shopping… Most of these things don’t have the ROT—return on your time—that exercising your creativity and action on your ideas can.

Whether you goal is to start a business, take up an exercise routine, or write the great American novel, you’ll find your time is better spent working towards your goals. Once you’re in the cycle of action, there will be plenty of time for obligations and mindless activities.

Inaction has serious consequences.

While you may not see its effects today or tomorrow, it’s wearing away at your productivity, tearing apart your creativity. Finding your way back to a cycle of action, progress, and momentum will help you deal with these consequences, reverse them, and find real energy in your life, no matter your goals.

Breaking the cycle of inaction requires a choice: to make your own needs a priority. Allow yourself to examine what kind of action you need to move forward with your goals. Allow yourself to consider what you’ve been missing as a result of your inaction.

Then, little by little or full steam ahead, embrace new choices that require your action.

Tara Gentile empowers people to live more creatively and change the world with their money on Scoutie Girl. Learn more about moving from inaction to accomplishment with her free Creating Action ecourse.

This guest post is by Mike Reeves-McMillan of Living Skillfully: Change Your Life.

As a hypnotherapist and health coach, I get three main kinds of clients.

1. People who want to change their behavior, their thoughts and feelings, so that they can be healthier. They want to lose weight, or exercise more, or (very commonly) stop smoking.
2. People who want to overcome emotional issues such as phobias, anxiety, stress or depression.
3. People who want to deal with physical symptoms such as skin problems, pain or irritable bowel syndrome.

At first, you’d wonder what these three types of people have in common.

What I’ve come to realize is that what they have in common is a determination to improve their lives. What they’re all looking for, whether they know it or not when they come in my door, is personal development.

For example, my stop-smoking clients. I had a lovely lady in the other day who’s turning 74 next year. She’s smoked since she trained as a nurse in the 1960s. Now she’s decided it’s time to stop. She’s over it.

That, my friends, is personal development. Because what happens when you make that kind of change in your life is that you gain a new confidence in yourself. You gain a new sense of control, a new perspective.

Another stop-smoking client of mine, a divorced mother of two in her late 30s, was smoking, in part, as an act of self-harm. Stopping involved changing how she thought and felt about herself. It was part of a global change in her life, from the dark place she’d been in since her childhood to a new and more powerful way of being in the world and being true to herself. Becoming a non-smoker, for her, was not just getting rid of a bad habit or an addiction, but getting rid of a negative mindset.

And the same is true of my other clients. Overcoming fear, sadness or that helpless feeling you get in the midst of overwhelming stress makes you a very powerful person. If you can do that, you can do all kinds of scary things.

What about changing your body’s responses by changing how you think? A lot of illnesses (more than we usually realize) are stress-related or at least made worse by stress. When we shift out of a stress mindset and when we reconnect to our own bodies and stop dividing them from our minds, it’s like pushing in an electric plug. Power starts flowing.

Health is not just medicine

I have immense respect for conventional scientific medicine. I always make sure that any client with a physical symptom has had it checked by a doctor before I’ll work with them, not just for my own protection and theirs but because I simply don’t have the diagnostic resources that are available to a medical professional. But where Western medicine, as it’s often practiced, falls down is that it treats a biosystem, not a person.

In its place, medicine is wonderful and does things that no other treatment can do. But a while ago, out of interest, I looked at the 20 most commonly prescribed drugs and asked how many of them treated symptoms that can also be addressed by better stress management, good nutrition and exercise. The answer? At least 19.

There are three things that a pill will give you that stress management, nutrition and exercise won’t:

1. (Usually) more rapid results.
2. Undesired side effects.
3. Reliance on the doctor and the pharmaceutical companies for your health.

And it’s the third one that I want to focus on here. If you improve your own health (in the very broadest sense, the functioning of your mind-and-body in the world) through your personal participation in a process that requires effort and attention, that cost in effort and attention is repaid many times over by the increased sense of agency you get. It doesn’t matter if you had a coach help you with information and planning and motivation; clearly, you did it. You made the change. But taking a pill is an inescapably passive act.

Sadly, all too often it’s only when there’s no viable medical alternative that we look to what we can achieve for ourselves. My mother farms dairy goats, and she used to sell milk to a man who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer some years before and given 6 months to live. He had done his research and found a diet that claimed to help in reversing cancer (the goat’s milk was part of it). I have no idea whether it was what he ate or how he thought that cured him. All I know is that he rode a big BMW motorcycle, had a handshake like the bite of a mule and was the healthiest-looking 70-year-old I’d ever seen. Cancer survivors in general tend to love life, but he had an additional reason: he’d taken responsibility for his own cure when the doctors couldn’t do anything for him.

Health is a personal development issue, because to take action for our own health we have to believe in ourselves and our own ability to change. And once we start taking that action, not only will we feel better than we’ve ever felt before, but we’ll have the inner strength to achieve more in every area of life.

So: what health action have you been thinking about taking? What healthy change might you make in your life? And how can you apply personal development principles to bring that change into reality?

Mike Reeves-McMillan is a hypnotherapist and health coach who blogs at Living Skillfully: Change Your Life. His themes for 2011 include connecting to your body and challenging yourself.

Lisa Johnson is a fitness blogger at LisaJohnsonFitness.com

When I was little I wanted to live in a Coca-Cola commercial.  Everyone was thin, healthy, beautiful, active, and loved each other. Those 30 seconds of Utopia are unattainable of course, but is there a way we can live, happy with who we are, and feeling loved and supported by the people around us?

Embrace your people

Those lovely souls who share your home, your work space, and your neighborhood.  These are your people and they would love to help you out.  Talk to them about living better: eating well and moving well.  Have a heart-to-heart with those you trust to help you eat better and move more.

Eating well

Everyone needs to buy in here and it is probably the hardest part about transitioning to a healthier lifestyle.  Your spouse might really like the greasy-burger-and-white-bread life.  Talk to everyone about making better choices and why you’re doing it.  It’s not just for you, it’s for them too.  Get ready! They’ll all nod in agreement when you start, but then they’ll resist when they don’t get their usual fare.  I have seen this a zillion times with my clients!  Start small and kinda sneak stuff in.  Here are some ideas …

• Buy lower fat or skim milk and keep the cap from the old bottle and switch it.  (My Mom did this to me and I never noticed, she had to tell me.)
• Buy whole wheat bread instead of white and they’ll barely register the difference.
• Cut meat up and mix it in with the veggies and they won’t realize you’re giving them smaller portion sizes of protein.
• Switch to olive oil and canola oil when cooking and they’ll never notice you ditched the butter or less healthy oils.
• Make the portion sizes of the veggies gradually larger, and make sure they are fresh and tasty (think: lots of herbs).
• If you make a big Sunday breakfast make the pancakes smaller (I use 1/3 cup measuring cup) for each pancake and put out lots of fruits.  They’ll pick at the strawberries and oranges and not realize their pancakes are smaller.  (I also use white whole wheat flour so it’s healthier and no one ever noticed I did that either.)

Moving well

Get excited about something and make it infectious!  Talk to your friend about the cool new Zumba class you found and why you should go and check it out together.  Tell your stressed out coworker about a awesome Yoga class after work, and how you both should go next week.  Joke about how your newfound Zen will help you with your cranky boss.  Tell your family how incredibly cool it feels to kayak down a river and you found a place where you can rent one.  Don’t even mention that this stuff is healthy, just mention how exciting it is and they’ll be caught up in the fun with you.  With luck, you’ll find an activity you like and have people to go with you.

Realize that your health is woven into your life

Our health is pervasive: it never leaves us, and it affects our decisions throughout the day.  Too tired to get up to have breakfast at home? You grab and go at the donut shop.  Decide to work late to get one more thing done? You’ll have to skip your planned workout.  Meet friends for a decadent lunch? Why not try a walk around a nearby pond together instead?

We choose our path a thousand times a day.  We need to remember that the immediate ease sets us up for more stress and struggle later.  Just as bad, our poor choices negatively affect those around us.  What do you want to pass onto your loved ones? Evaluate your choices and see how can you improve in small ways.  These add up in no time, and you’ll be healthier.

Group hug!

It’s so easy to throw in a platitude here, “no man’s an island” or “it takes a village.”  But, this is really just a series of simple choices.  Choose to live a little bit better, moment to moment, choice by choice, and you’ll wind up miles ahead.  You’ll even get to live in that Coca-Cola Utopia—at least every once in a while!

This guest post is by David Csonka, of Naturally Engineered.

Ask people if they’d like to be able to spend more time outdoors in parks or natural areas, and most would say “yes.” Sadly, all too often what we want to do and what actually happens doesn’t always line up. As the urban landscape expands more every year, many people face dwindling opportunities to enjoy being outdoors, especially in green areas like parks and forests.

This is a shame because it has been recently discovered that outdoor exercise has an immediate and remarkably positive effect on mental functioning including factors like mood, self esteem, and stress levels. Further, a positive nature experience amplifies the beneficial effects of exercise, much more so if near a body of water. That short jog around the pond at the local park might be even more healthful than you thought!

You get a substantial benefit from the first five minutes.

With the economy in what seems to be perpetual turmoil, the burdens of financial trouble, and long working hours have driven personal stress levels to all-time highs. This makes it more important than ever for people to get outdoors as much as they can and participate in some kind of physical activity. Whether it is gardening, or sports, or just a walk around the neighborhood dog park, the key is to get out of the house and move around. Some will say that they don’t have time to play outdoors. Free time is certainly a precious commodity, but it is encouraging to know that being outdoors for as little as five minutes can produce a beneficial effect.

Pick an outdoor activity that you enjoy, and just get out of the house.

You don’t have to hike the Appalachian Trail to reap these benefits. Nor are the benefits from outdoor activity just for busy adults trying to make it in the working world. Young children and adolescents have just as much to gain from exposure to natural areas in terms of their cognitive functioning and development. With an increasing emphasis on child safety and parents’ tendency to keep children close to home, they are less likely to spend time roaming around in the woods or parks near their neighborhood.

This is unfortunate because the early years of childhood are incredibly influential on a young persons long-term development, not just for brain development but also in habits and behavior. It was determined that children who live in a home with more natural elements tend to have a greater ability to stay attentive and moderate hyperactivity. This is incredibly significant when we live in a time where more and more children are being diagnosed with AD/HD every day.

Children need to play and explore their world.

A child that develops a fondness for the outdoors at an early age will acquire the developmental benefits of this type of activity, and will also likely choose this type of recreation later in life. Not only will they benefit from the demonstrated effects on their mood and wellness, but they will probably instill those habits in children that they have as well. By taking a few steps and prioritizing the time we have each day to allow outdoor activities, it is possible to change the cycle of our behavior and create long term positive change for our families.

One of my favorite activities to do each weekend is to go to the park near my house and hike on some its ten miles of wooded trails. This is not a particularly strenuous exercise, but after an hour of walking through the forest my body is curiously left feeling both energized and relaxed at the same time. The real pleasure however is that which I feel internally in my mind and spirit.

The solemn quiet of the woods brings a perceptible feeling of peace upon me. I believe I can almost feel my blood pressure and pulse rate dropping while I sit on a fallen tree, listening to song birds. None of the stress triggers like emails or phone calls are there to get me riled up, so what is left is a quiet void – filled in by the art and music of nature.

To me, this is a form of meditation, an activity that has been demonstrated to improve a person’s psychological well-being. The resulting stress reduction affects telomerase activity in immune cells, which has the potential to promote longevity in those cells and for humans in general.

Leave the office behind: it will be waiting there for you when you return.

Engaging in this type of activity is simple. It doesn’t require a special five part DVD training program, fancy workout clothes, or a personal trainer. You just need to disconnect for a little while from the world of emails and machines, and reconnect with the natural world that so many people have forgotten is out there.

So, I’ll leave you with a challenge. On at least one day during this coming week, find thirty minutes from your day and go somewhere outside. Try to find a place that is quiet, maybe with a pond, or flowers and birds. Turn off the smart phone and try to forget about everything that waits for you at the office. Trust me, it will be there when you return. But perhaps, when you do return, you will bring a sense of peace and wellness back with you.

How often do you get out to enjoy the natural world around you?

David writes about evolutionary health, fitness, and nutrition at Naturally Engineered. His goal is to help people to reach their full potential through meeting their bodies’ natural expectations. Connect with him at Twitter @thrivenaturally.

This post is by Bobby Lehew of Branded Matters.

They say technology makes us lethargic, that technology promotes a sedentary lifestyle. “They” are wrong. Technology enabled me to lose forty pounds, kick my blood pressure medicine and consistently run five miles a day, five days a week.

How?

Simple. I finally found the secret combination for someone with too many computer screens: I made them each my ally.

It started when I began calculating the time I spent sitting, reading my RSS feeds. Given that I was now virtually processing all my learning and viewing most of my entertainment via the web, I started thinking, there must be a way to stay in shape while online. One of the many hats I wear is that of a geek marketer for our business. I keep an eye out on trends that could impact our business. Staying up to date with technology is an important part of my work and my life. I needed a way to stay abreast of the radically shifting changes online while attempting to get in shape.

Standing desks were becoming popular and even treadmill desks but nothing really worked for me yet. With a few minor purchases and a few tweaks to my online experience, I eventually combined something I loved (the web) with something I hated (working out). Here’s how I did it.

Walk before you run

Walk before you run—this is conventional wisdom, right? I figured going from doing nothing to moving was progress, so I didn’t let the lack of athletic ambition get in the way of my simply moving. I started walking. Consistently.

Running a small business and raising a family of five children doesn’t leave one much room for discretionary time. Multitasking becomes an art form for a father of multiples. I began to seek ways I could maximize my time alone—reading books online, watching movies on Netflix, anything to help juggle multiple tasks simultaneously.

I walked almost daily for close to a year until one day, bored with walking, I started running. I didn’t plan on it, I just reached a point where walking was easy, I was no longer breathless and my legs didn’t quake. I could handle stepping it up a bit (literally).

From walk to run … with technology

Going from walk to run was made easier because I had figured out the solution to my personal fitness puzzle. Two essential pieces were a stable way to display my laptop on my treadmill and a way to easily browse the web while moving. I purchased a simple piece of acrylic called The Laptop Stand, affixed it to a tripod I already owned and placed it in front of my treadmill. This was one half of the equation.

The other half was to find a mouse that I could use to navigate while walking, perhaps even running. After many attempts with an actual mouse, technology finally advanced in the form of an app called Mobile Mouse that allowed me to use my iPhone as a mouse. Mobile Mouse replicates your desktop so that you can actually launch applications from your iPhone, scroll through pages on the web and click on the entire face of your iPhone screen. It is practically a hand-held trackpad.

The final component was finding a way to read my RSS feeds. Google Reader has a little used feature called Reader Play. Much like Google flip, Reader Play enlarges your feeds on your screen, enabling you to read them, safely, at a distance and flip through each update, magazine-style. Reader Play even automatically plays video clips when you advance to the next post. I will often save or share information, literally, while on the run. The Laptop Stand, Google Reader Play and the iPhone app Mobile Mouse was, for me, a fitness enabling trifecta.

For someone who hates exercise, I realized the secret wasn’t just discipline. It was much more than that: the secret was to combine something I loved with something I hated.

Today’s technology enables you to multitask like never before. A few simple hacks and you can watch while jogging, read while biking, and even jam while swimming. The hard work wasn’t getting on the treadmill. The hard work was tweaking and hacking until I found the perfect combination that eliminated all the reasons not to exercise. If you work hard at discovering how to combine what you love with exercise you’ll soon watch both excuses and pounds melt away.

Bobby Lehew is the Director of Operations at Robyn Promotions. He writes regularly on his blog Branded Matters and runs five miles a day five days a week. You can find him on NikePlus or Twitter as BobbyLehew.

Lately (in preparation to launch FeelGooder) I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading self improvement literature. I wanted to get a feel for the vibe of what’s being taught.

While there were certainly some good, positive resources in the mix of what I read, I also found myself reacting against some of the teaching that I saw.

There was a distinct negative thread running through some of the resources that left a bad taste in my mouth. It went something like this:

“Your life sucks and I’m going to show you how to fix all your problems.”

Okay, so I never read that exact statement anywhere, but it was a recurring theme.

Disclaimer: I’m a “The Glass is Full” kinda guy

Before I go on, I think I need to say up front that I’m a pretty positive guy—perhaps too positive. When people ask me whether I’m a “glass half-empty or glass half-full” person, I reply that it’s completely full (it’s half full of water and half full of air). I’m an optimist—annoyingly so (according to some of those closest to me).

Okay, with that disclaimer out of the way, lets get back to the negative thread I picked up in some of the self improvement literature that I’ve been reading.

It’s not that I don’t think people have problems that they need to work on or fix (I have my fair share) it’s just that I wonder whether a better starting point might be a positive place.

My darkest night

I wasn’t always a “glass full” kind of guy.

Back in 1993, as a 21-year old, I came to a place in my life where I didn’t see a lot of point in going on. Through a series of events (of broken relationships and friendships, death, depression, dependency, and failure) that I didn’t have an ability to process healthily, I found myself one night on the side of a highway considering throwing myself in front of a truck.

It was my Darkest Night and an experience that I know many share.

I was unable to find a way to move forward through the mess that I faced.

Obviously—as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this—I didn’t act on the thoughts I was having that night. Over the days, months, and years that followed, I was gradually able to find sense in the circumstances that lead me to that place and saw my life head in a more positive direction.

What brought about the change?

A number of factors played a part in my recovery but one was the influence of a woman I’ll call Alice (it’s not her real name).

Alice was the mother of a friend, and a person who had seen her own fair share of hardship in life. She had every right to be negative, bitter, and living in a dark place too—but she wasn’t.

We had many conversations over that time. I remember coming to her with the problems that I faced and asking for advice. She would almost ignore them as she refocused me upon the positives in my life.

I wanted to solve my problems—fix my life and make it better. She wanted me to see that I already had a good life in many ways.

Over the coming months Alice helped me to reframe my view on life—to take my eyes off the things that needed fixing and to begin to see a future based upon the positives that were already present in my life.

These positives included people (family and friends), experiences, and passions—things that I’d failed to see because I was so absorbed in fixing the broken areas in my life.

At first I struggled against seeing the positive (I was so absorbed in what was broken), but in time I began to see a few glimmers of hope.

Practicing positivity

Being able to see the positive is not always an easy thing to do. In fact, it took me years to get good at it (and there are days where I still catch myself and need to “switch it on”).

For me, this was actually something I needed to practice. Alice helped me initially but as I began to see the impact it was having on me, it became something I started to work on more intentionally. Over time I learned to look for and spot the good stuff. I began to be more aware of what was giving me energy and build upon that. In time it became more natural.

What I found is that the more I looked for and started to focus upon thinking about and doing what was working in my life, the less important the problems were.

There have still been problems that I’ve needed to overcome and work on (positive thinking doesn’t fix everything), but what I’ve found is it’s easier to tackle a problem when you have a positive outlook than one which is negative.

Avoiding false positivity

I hope I’m not coming across as one of those people who delude themselves with false positivity. I’m certainly not talking about convincing yourself that something that is bad is actually good.

Sometimes life does get dark—legitimately so.

Sometimes we need to grieve.

Sometimes we need to feel those dark times and acknowledge that we hurt and are experiencing pain.

However, sometimes I suspect we can get so overwhelmed and focused upon the negatives of life that they hold us back from experiencing life.

Practicing positivity

So as you face the day ahead, or ponder the day that’s been, take a moment or two out to identify some of the good things in your life.

For some of you this will be an easy task—you’ve already made a long list in your mind.

For others, it’ll be more of a struggle, but I encourage you to try it. Think about the people around you, the experiences that you’ve had, the interests and passions that you have (or have once had). You might need to search high and low, but keep searching until you find a glimmer of good and let yourself ponder that for a while.

One last tip—if you’re someone who struggles to find the positive, find someone who doesn’t. I was in such a gloomy place in my life that it took someone like Alice to help me in this area. Perhaps there’s an Alice in your life that you can ask for help?

This guest post is by Leo Babauta, creator of Zen Habits and mnmlist.com.

I walk every day, and it is wonderful.

Walking serves as a universal solution for me, because with one simple, minimalist action, I’m able to:

• get some fresh air and appreciate nature
• get some exercise and get healthier
• clear my head and rid myself of stress
• explore the city that is my new home in ways not otherwise possible
• spend time with my wife and kids in a healthy, fun way
• reflect, and compose new things to write about
• work better than ever—I walk, then stop and write on my laptop, then walk, and repeat that a number of times.

You don’t need anything to walk, and yet it gives you everything—health, clarity, fun, creativity, productivity, a connection with your environment.

I walk with no destination in mind. I set out, usually with my laptop and a book and a pocket notebook in my backpack, and I walk. It might be for 30 minutes or an hour or more, and I’ll find a new place to sit down and read or write—a park or a beach or a coffee shop or a library.

I’ll write, then I’ll walk some more. There’s no set schedule, but boy, I get more writing done as I walk than I ever did just sitting around the house.

Sometimes I’ll bring my wife and kids, and we’ll explore new territory, and then I’ll find a place to rest and work. When I bring my kids, I pack a bottle of water and some snacks (fruit, PB and J sandwiches). They’re getting to be amazing walkers.

I’m in better shape than ever before, and I don’t need a gym to get fit. I sprint up hills, race my kids. It’s minimalist fitness.

Walking is my meditation. I don’t need a pillow or a yoga mat—I just walk, and clear my head, and focus on being present.

I walk, and I create, and I am happy.

Leo Babauta is the creator of Zen Habits and mnmlist.com.

This post was contributed by Lisa Johnson of Lisa Johnson Fitness.

Jodi is a third of the way into her journey to lose 100 pounds.  She is very witty and has amazing enthusiasm about her progress.  She’s been losing weight at a very reasonable one to two pounds per week—the perfect way to do it.

The situation

Jodi has been focused primarily on eating and cardio. Her cardio routine consists of running, walking, and Wii Fit.  Her big goal is to walk/run a mile consistently in under 12 minutes, and currently she’s averaging 15 minutes. She’d also like to add in more weight training and lose 13 more pounds by January 1.

Available equipment

• resistance bands
• exercise ball
• 3-, 5-, and 8-pound weights.

The plan: cardio

Going from a 15-minute mile to a 12-minute mile is all stride length and gait turnover.  You need to move faster, step with a longer stride, or a combination of the two.  So warm up for five minutes moving along at a good clip, and once you’ve broken a sweat, start tracking your mile.

Alternate moving more quickly (gait turnover) with longer strides.  Spend one minute going fast, one minute going long.  You’ll learn over time which works better for you and will likely come up with a good combination of the two. Give yourself three different days to experiment with your stride.

Once you’ve got your stride figured out, add in the arms.  Swinging your arms will help you “pump” at a faster rate and you’ll pick up speed.  Set up your timer and go the first mile.  The next time you go out, try to push yourself ten seconds faster. That’s it, just ten seconds.  Have that as your goal every time you go out and you’ll have a minute shaved off your time within a couple of weeks.  In four to six weeks you should be down to the 12 minute mile you’re looking for.

You can do this either running or walking, or a combination of both—whatever works best for you.

The plan: weight training

Wii Fit weight training:  I’m going to send you to your Wii for the resistance training portion, but I’ll add the abs in separately. Choose exercises that cover arms, shoulders, back, chest, legs, and specifically glutes.  Choose ten different exercises to cover all your body parts. Do them two to three times a week without fail!  The strength training will help you build muscle as the fat cells are shrinking. This will keep your metabolism elevated. Since you’ve been losing for a while it’s likely there’s a plateau in your future and weight training can really help you bust through that.

Studies have shown that people who lose weight solely through cardio and calorie restriction have a harder time after the honeymoon period is over.  Adding in weight training before that happens is a great way to stay motivated.  You’ll also start seeing changes in your body sooner—especially your arms.

Abs

I want you to do these exercises three to four times per week, and I want you to use your exercise ball to do them. It’s one of my favorite props for ab work!

Knee lifts: Sit upright on the ball with your feet grounded on the floor.  Hands should be out to the side to assist with balance. Inhale to get ready.  On the exhale, lift one knee  up into the air and suck your abs in hard as you lift.  Inhale and hold the knee in the air.  Exhale, lower the leg back down to the floor, and get your balance.  If you’re new to balance work, have a piece of furniture or a wall near you to grab if you need it!  Repeat the exercise eight times on each leg, and work up to 15 repetitions.

Oblique Twists: Grab your 3-pound weights and sit upright on the ball.  Hold the weights in front of you, one in each hand, with your arms parallel to the floor.  Inhale to get ready.  Exhale to open your arm out to the side and turn your ribcage as your arm opens.  Keep your eyes on the moving weight to help you twist your upper torso.  Your bottom stays right where it is on the ball, and the pelvis should only shift a little bit.  The emphasis is on twisting the rib cage, not just opening the arms to the side.  Inhale to hold the twist and exhale to go back to the start.  Repeat this exercise eight times on each side and work up to 15 repetition.

Ball Crunches: A classic exercise, because they work so well!  Scoot down on your ball so that your lower back is supported by the ball.  Hands go behind the head, and your feet are a bit wider than your hips and firmly planted on the floor.  If you have trouble with this, you can nudge your feet up against a wall for added stability.  Pretend you’re pulling your belly button up and under your rib cage (this is a Pilates trick and it works great!).  Keep tension along the bottom of the rib cage and start your crunches.  Exhale to crunch up and inhale to go back. Don’t release the crunch all the way—keep a little tension always.  Go up for a two count (count 1, 2) and down for a four count (count 1, 2, 3, 4).  The slower you go, the more muscle fibers will fire, and the faster you’ll see results—possibly as soon as the first week.

Jodi, I hope that helps!  Please let me know your feedback: I want to hear about how you do with your 12-minute mile goal.  If anyone has questions about the fitness routine, please ask away.