Simple Thoughts About Health: Care For Your Mind, Body and Spirit

"Help Yourself Before Helping Others"

To this day, this simple piece of wisdom stands as some of the best advise I have ever received. As hard as I work to help others, build a profitable social enterprise, and spend time with friends and family, I also focus time every day to care for me, holistically. Here are some things that I do daily to improve my well-being and health:

1. Improve mindfulness
2. Take care of body
3. Balance and nurture spirit

IMPROVE MINDFULNESS

Stereotypes aside, mindfulness training is proven to reduce stress, lower heart pressure, and extend quality of life years. Meditation might be hard, but I think having to cope with a heart attack is worse. I'm confident it's worth it. Find a buddy to keep each other accountable. Even 5 minutes a day will help you out.

For tips and advice, I trust the amazing nonprofit, Mind Fitness Training Institute on what to do, and how to do it. For a full write-up, check out this great article from Men's Journal. Here are my personal favorite daily activities:

• REDUCE TENSION, RELIEVE STRESS | Sit straight in a chair and find tension in your jaw, neck, and back. Close your eyes, apply pressure / massage each spot for 30 seconds, and breathe deeply, envisioning all tension flowing out of your body. Once you have hit your tension areas, focus your attention on any source of ambient noise, then alternate your attention to your contact point with the chair. Keep alternating your attention back and forth between noise and contact point very slowly on every deep breath. Everybody can afford to do this for 5 minutes.
• INDUCE SLEEP | In bed, lay on your back and begin deep belly breathing. Wiggle and flex your toes. Focus on the sensations in your feet. Pause and continue to observe any feeling in your feet. Continue this pattern of flexing and resting sequentially throughout your body: ankles, knees, hips, fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, jaw, and eye sockets. 5 to 10 minutes of this and you'll be asleep in no time. 

TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY

Your body is a temple.

But as it turns out, the simplest way to care for your "temple" is also the hardest. Don't worry, everybody struggles to balance working out and eating healthy food. But keep working at it, reading about it, and talking about, and you'll develop healthy habits after all.

Note: Before starting, first find a "health partner" or use technology to help you out. Here are my tips for a healthy body:

• EAT SMART | I don't believe in diets or nutritional regimes. My eating is inspired by Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and loosely follows 3 rules:
1. Eat real food. Food that you recognize an can pronounce. I use the "great grandmother test" - if your great grandmother wouldn't recognize it, don't eat it. And if the ingredient list is over 5, be very wary. High fructose corn syrup is not food. Neither is soy powder. Here are Pollan's top 8 tips.
2. Eat less of it. No matter the food type, eat less of it. Period.
3. Eat mostly vegetables. Preferably plants, double-preferably leafy green vegetables. The more bitter, the higher in antioxidants. Cooking in butter or oil negates all benefits. If you must have a protein with your meal, keep it as a side portion. Make sure to have a diverse, colorful diet of fresh produce.

• EXERCISE REGULARLY AND HAPPILY | No matter how good I feel after I exercise, its always hard to motivate myself to do it again the next day, and I know you're the same way. I'm the opposite of obsessive-compulsive, so I do better not sticking to a regime. Instead, I mix it up to take care of all body parts, and I have fun in the process. Here is where I focus my workouts:
• My Heart and Lungs. Regular cardiovascular exercise is the single most important workout thing you can do. 30 minute a day, at least 5 times a week. And when I'm not working out, I try to maintain healthy breathing techniques. 
• My Muscles. I do something to strengthen my muscles at least once a week. Amount of weight doesn't matter, but getting them a little sore does.
• My Alignment. From improving posture while sitting at the computer to doing yoga to keep myself loose and balanced, this is essential for me to feel healthy.

BALANCE AND NURTURE YOUR SPIRIT

Some people pray, some people go to church, some people use yoga. I spend time in the outdoors. Find what works for you. How will you know if you found it? I use the "You Know It" test. If you know you found it, then you have. If you're not sure, you haven't.

Either way, explore new ways to get in touch with your spirituality. Regardless of your approach, I assure you that a few main tactics will help you develop it:

1. Get in touch with nature by spending time in nature
2. Help others, and treat them the way you would like to be treated
3. Smile and laugh with good company
4. Exert yourself physically, and overcome challenges

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No matter the rules you set forth to create a healthier you, remember the golden rule to overrule them all: Rule #1 is to Break the Rules Once in a While

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First Rule: Break the Rules Once in a While

Oscar Wilde once said "Everything in moderation, including moderation." It's good advice for you, no matter who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. Any rules about diets, business, personal growth and life should be broken once in a while.

The best business leaders break rules consistently. Here is a fun list of 25 business gurus who made their mark by not heeding conventional wisdom.

Inventors follow the same path of rule-breaking. Thomas Edison famously said that "...there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something." And Marilyn Monroe shared her similar conviction when she proudly stated that "If I'd observed all of the rules, I'd never have got anywhere." In his FANTASTIC book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan outlines some simple rules about eating healthy. The last rule to trump them all? "Break the Rules Once in A While."

Imagination and creativity will do way more for you than following rules and guidelines - but even that only applies in moderation.

Real Heroes Shine The Day After Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

One of the most inspiring days for me is the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I am inspired by this day because I think it is what MLK wanted:

Not a single celebration, but an ongoing commitment of action to make the world a better place.

I also wrote a blog post on the HelpingHelp blog about how Real Leaders Inspire Ongoing Action. Celebrating is great, and committing a day to community service is notable. But real impact takes weeks, months, and sometimes years to create. It is the long and arduous days after the MLK celebration that are the most important for leaders of the next generation. 

The day after MLK day is where true leaders shine. And they continue to shine for the weeks and months in between celebrations.  

Right now, the world doesn't need celebrators. It needs leaders, innovators, and motivators. A "Day On" once a year won't cut it.

The question on January 17, 2012 should not be "What did you do on MLK day", it should be "What are you going to keep doing to make the world a better place?"

You have skills that can inspire the masses, move mountains, and change the world - use those everyday to truly live MLK's dream - and yours.

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"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."

 Martin Luther King, Jr.

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What are you doing the day after MLK day?

3 Simple Thoughts on Pursuing Passion

This year, pursue your passion more than ever before.

I write about passion a lot since it is one of the most powerful intrinsic motivators. As it turns out, finding and pursuing your passion changes everything (affiliate link). It changes you, and it changes the people around you.

More than any other time of the year, with resolutions are in exciting early execution stages and Martin Luther King Day approaches, the topic of passion is paramount... or rather, the topic of finding and pursuing your passion is paramount.

Yes, finding and pursuing your passion will make you a happier and more fulfilled person. But that is not why I am writing about it again. You see, passion changes the people around you. It inspires, motivates and empowers your family, friends and co-workers. Like smiles, it brightens days and spreads hope.

So this year, take extra steps to Populate Your Passion, and Fuel the Persistent Pursuit of it. Inspired by some great articles on this topic, I leave you with 3 simple thoughts to successfully pursue your passion:

1. Surround Yourself With Passionate People | Just like fit people have fit friends, the most passionate people have super passionate friends. Find new ones if you need.
2. Write and Consistently Reflect On Your Passion | Make public (at least to yourself) what you are passionate about. Put it in a common place so that you see it all the time. I recommend finding a picture to symbolize it (or draw your own, framing it, and putting it right in front of a mirror you look at everyday, like your bathroom mirror.
3. Find and Talk with Passion 'Coaches'| Talk openly to people about your passion. Preferably 3: a family member, a co-worker/peer/mentor, and a friend. Go to coffee or tea once a month and talk about it. Talk about why your are passionate about it, how you are pursuing it, and what you are afraid of.

The worlds needs you to be passionate.

3 Tips to Live With More Meaning

One of the best pieces of advice I received as a leader is that you have to take care of yourself before taking care of others. To help you take care of yourself, here are 3 amazing tips to help you live meanginfully well:

1. Cultivate your better self | Find balance in body, soul and mind. Learn more, discuss more, experience more. Get better acquainted with friends, family, nature, adversaries and mentors. Read.


2. Create | Be ambitious and "dream laughably big". Architect something for the future that will make the world a better place. 


3. Forgive and fail | Give up all hope for a better past and focus on the future. Try as hard as you can. And then try again.

Want more information? Read the full article at the Harvard Business Review, "Mastering the Art of Living Meaningfully Well" by Umair Haque.