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January 24, 2012

Health Yoga Life’s Bielkus Sisters LIVE on NECN

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The Bielkus sisters and founders of Health Yoga Life  share what they love about helping people make healthy changes.

Watch this clip from their appearance on New England Cable News.

Health Yoga Life is located on Cambridge Street and Temple Street, in Boston.   We offer a variety of classes, personalized coaching, workshops, trainings, and retreats.   To learn more visit www.healthyogalife.com 

We want to help you love your life!  Call 877-777-2010 or email info@healthyogalife.com for more information.

 

 

April 5, 2011

“Turn me loose, set me free, somewhere in the middle of Montana”

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I am in all ways, shapes, and style a city girl. I don’t mind that I share this little space of our planet with millions of others who are carving out their lives in the concrete jungle. But every now and then, when I bump up to my own contraction of spirit, I love to blare Merle Haggard’s “Big City.” I let my mind wonder to the open space, the majestic mountains, the peaceful lake, and the people of Feathered Pipe Ranch.

As Merle’s gritty voice drifts through my ears “I’m tired of this dirty old city. Entirely too much work and never enough play. And I’m tired of these dirty old sidewalks. Think I’ll walk off my steady job today. Turn me loose, set me free, somewhere in the middle of Montana,” I find myself easily brought to that place in the middle of Montana that has welcomed me over and over again. Instantly I am there, standing in the expansion, feeling my feet (firm, rooted to mother earth), my heart (expanded to the fullest reach beyond the mountain tops) and my spirit (loose and free, completely without constraint). Very few places illicit these deep psycho-somatic connected memories in me like Feathered Pipe.

Feathered Pipe Ranch is by definition down to earth. It is why when I look to bring groups on our B1 Community Yoga Health retreats it is always at the top of my list, and why I can’t wait to lead a retreat there in September. A yoga retreat needs a backdrop as powerful as the program to contain the deep shifts that happen for folks who are taking time out of their lives for growth. Many a day I have spent on my mat in the log cabin lodge, looking out at the mountain peaks that surround the Ranch. The mountains really become part of the experience of the retreat, a dear witness to one’s own reach toward the heavens.

On most self development programs, insight for learning doesn’t just come from the experience in the classroom it occurs through the interactions you have throughout the week, with each other, the teachers, the staff, and the quiet moments. On one of my visits to the Ranch, little did I know that I would grapple with one of our biggest obstacles we face as humans, fear. And I surely didn’t expect it to happen along a quiet path in the middle of the woods. But there I was, enjoying the sun as it played on the golden leaves of the recently turned trees, minding my own business, when there it was: The Beast. This moment is burned into my memory bank forever. The antlers alone must have been my height. The Beast was so close that I could here his gums flap as he chomped on his lunch of prime vegetation. My body literally came to a screeching halt, completely frozen in fear, unable to move. My only real experience with wildlife up to this point had been at the zoo, where there was a wall of comfort between me and the animals. So I stood there frozen, deciding what to do. I could yell. I could run. I could wait; all unviable options. As I stood there examining my options, I could tell one thing for certain, he did not mind me one bit. In this moment of observation, I realized I had power over my fear. And as soon as I reconnected to MY power, I was able to look the Beast, who now started looking a little bit more like Bambi, in the eye and walk right on by.

A great treat to partake in, that we will experience on the B1 Yoga Health Retreat, is the potent power of a sweat lodge. My first sweat was a gift, I have never forgotten. Pat, the Native Elder, brought us into his sacred world and healing happened on levels unknown. India, the owner of Feathered Pipe Ranch, gives a little prep talk before the sweat lodge as most people’s closest experience to a sweat lodge is the sauna at their gym. “If you have too many questions,” she says, “you aren’t ready for the sweat lodge.” Honestly it is an experience that is hard to describe and a bonding of spirits that seems to heal generations past, present, and future. The people who visit the Ranch are lucky to have this deep experience available to them, with authentic and traditional healers.

Making the experience complete at the Ranch are the people that make it come to life. By sharing a tea with India Supera you get inspired by her tales as a pioneer of the yoga world we all enjoy today. Her staff, some of them her children, brings warmth and love to the food they prepare and the service they do everyday. Guests feel fully cared for from the time they arrive to when they part with a hug and an “until next time.”

I am a fortunate soul who has found her way to Feathered Pipe Ranch and invite you to join us for a Self-Enrichment week of yoga, health seminars, amazing hikes and more, September 3-10th, which will leave you moved beyond your imagination, email info@b1community.com for more information. See you on the path!

 

December 23, 2010

Life’s Gifts

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Gifts don’t always come wrapped in pretty packages.  And this week, maybe because of the moon’s complete eclipse, life has been generous with reminding me what a gift truly is.

My best friend’s flight being cancelled out of Heathrow.  Life.
Being able to spend Christmas with him in London and then being flown home in first class on the 26th.  Gift.

Fracturing my foot and needing to cancel my trip to India.  Life.
 Getting to spend more time with my sister and her lovely fiancé while enjoying the lights of London.  Gift.

A friend getting a flat tire after her soccer game. Life.
Finding someone to help her change it and be on her way in under 45 minutes in the middle of winter.  Gift.

My mom cooking all day traditional Christmas foods with her mom.  Life.
My Grandmother celebrating her 95th Christmas.  Gift.

There really is a gift in everything that happens to us.  It is how we choose to look at life, and whether we have faith or not, that can turn life’s moments into precious gifts.  This Christmas open your eyes and your heart to all the gifts in your life, especially the ones not hiding under the tree.

 

November 18, 2010

Death of a Seed

Posted by vydabielkus under faith, Relationships, Spirituality, Transformation, Uncategorized
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There is nothing like a funeral to remind you that life is short, and that breath, prana, life force, indeed at a certain point simply stop.  The surviving family and friends are never ready for the passing of those they care for, and the unknown of this time period, because it is so much bigger than the certainty of the moment that existed right before the last breath.  As the priest spoke about my best friend’s mother, he so eloquently described that her death was just a new beginning in her spiritual journey.  He brought comfort to our grief as he explained that death, this part of our human experience, is a normal part of everything around us, just as a seed first breaks and dies before it blooms into a beautiful flower; our spirit too dies and transforms into a new, yet unknown experience. In this metaphor, we all could find peace in faith that the seed would indeed once again transform into a beautiful flower.

Thinking about our human fate, and my own life, I thought about how many “deaths” my spirit had already experienced and continues to experience as I push the limits of her growth.  The imprints from childhood that etched grooves on my psyche, which as I aged I had to confront in order to thrive.  I had to see how these limiting beliefs and behavior patterns that were formulated so long ago wreaked havoc in my adult life.   I made bad choices and stayed in bad situations for too long. Looking back now I see these were all the Universe’s way of helping me understand, befriend, and dissolve those parts of myself that didn’t believe in herself or didn’t believe in her own worth and power.

By confronting the untruths I formulated and lived by, I was able to let go of the limiting beliefs and behavior patterns that were keeping me in a permanent state of dis-ease.   Each time I confront these patterns, it is like a death. I cry with grief at the pain I had lived with and the loss of my old ways. But by filling the space that is left with faith and trust, I walk a little closer to a new life finding myself that that much closer to blooming.

Our willingness to transform from the carcass of our past is connected to whether we have faith and trust – or we don’t.  Faith is tricky, and we lose it at times, because it can take some time for a seed to germinate into a flower. As we shed old ways that no longer serve us, we need to experiment with new ways that more closely match who we truly are.  It can feel a little lonely, scary, and definitely uncertain.  Yet as you step forward into the new with faith by your side, you can trust that life will provide you the sun and water, through experience, necessary to blossom.

 

August 18, 2010

The Taliban and Eminem Make me Burn!

Posted by vydabielkus under Transformation, Uncategorized
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Today at the doctor’s office, I picked up the August 9, 2010, issue of Time Magazine.  On the cover is a startling image of a young, pretty woman from Afghanistan with no nose. It had been cut off along with her ears after she ran away from her abusive husband’s family.  As I read the article, I was so saddened to read that the Taliban’s rules and laws will be part of the fabric of Afghani daily life as the country rebuilds.  Women as second class citizens will remain the norm and horrific violence against women will continue to be lawful.

Whenever I read stories like these I often think about the men. What could they possibly have been thinking when they took the young woman to a mountainside in the middle of the night and brutally disfigured her and left her to die?  What justification did they use in their minds? What threatens them so?  I thought to myself, how asleep this group of people.

Driving home from my appointment, recalling the disturbing image, I started to think what if anything can be done.  Should the US increase its force against the Taliban in Afghanistan? Can it? Why are we not more outraged? Have we as citizens of this great nation just become numbed into complacency that nothing can be done? As long as we are not suffering, do we care so little about others suffering?

As my mind contemplated these questions, Eminem and Rihanna’s Number 1 hit “Love the Way you Lie” came on the radio.  And I realized, we are just as asleep.  Our world accepts violence, hatred, and mistreatment toward women everywhere; and in turn, our world is not at peace.  We are at war.  The few more violent, more powerful have us all afraid of demanding change.

If you haven’t heard the song, in this popular catchy hip hop tune, Eminem outlines the course a violent and abusive man takes in a relationship, culminating in the lyrics: “I just want her back/I know I’m a liar/If she ever tries to fu***ng leave again/I’ma tie her to the bed And set the house on fire”.  Through out the song Rihanna sings the part of the dutiful abused girlfriend: “Just gonna stand there and watch me burn/But that’s alright/ I like the way it hurts/Just gonna stand there and hear me cry/But that’s alright/Because I love the way you lie.” Is Rihanna trying to justify her personal experience of abuse as the “new normal” by singing along?  Rihanna being quoted as saying this is a “beautiful song” just exemplifies how unwilling we are to take a stand and to say enough is enough.

Now, I am all for free speech but to be playing on the radio a song that so glorifies a toxic relationship has nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with normalizing violence against women.  And yet where is the outrage?  Instead we have people downloading the song at warp speed.  It has so struck a cord with people that it has leaped to number one, what does that say about the status of our most intimate relationships?  Is the violence, the volatility, sexy, even desired?  I am afraid that we are so utterly confused that we actually accept that love and hurt go together.  I also believe this is why at some level we are okay with women being brutally tortured in Afghanistan.

This song being played on the radio, with a survivor of abuse singing the chorus, clearly punctuates our collective hatred toward women.  Along the way to this song being made and produced did not one person stop and say “What are we putting out here?  What are we really saying?  And what do we want to teach the children who are the ones buying the music?”

Taking no action to stop the production of such a song or worse yet to justify it as something good and acceptable, is exactly how the Taliban gets away with abusing half the population. And to those who say don’t buy it if you don’t like it, I say wake up!  Just because we might not see a women stoned to death in the street doesn’t mean it is not happening. Do we not have a human responsibility to stop turning our heads or demand that misogynistic songs be removed from the airwaves?  Isn’t it time to get outraged?  To call out and step out against those who keep violence against women as part of our collective cultural experience.

Many of us grow up without a healthy picture of what love is.  We all come to relationships with different parts of ourselves to be healed.  When you first fall in love with someone it is so all consuming that you feel it has to be love.  We all know that feeling of having your heart super-charged.  This is one of the best feelings in the world. No one instantly falls in love with an abuser.   When a partner becomes abusive (verbally/physically) it is so unbelievable and out of context that you rationalize it away.  Unless you have been or know someone who has been in a relationship like this there is almost no way to grasp this cycle.  But once you are free from the cycle and healed from the pain, it is hard to imagine saying the words “I love the way you lie.”  There is no loving it when a partner is yelling at and lying to you.  There is no loving it when you are verbally put down.  There is only pain.  In all those moments there is only deep, deep pain.

Our world will not heal and be at peace until we fully expose and heal the rage that is taken out against women.  As a women said in the Time article, “If you sacrifice women to make peace, you are also sacrificing the men who support them and abandoning the country to the fundamentalists that caused all the problems in the first place.”  By doing nothing, by continuing to lower women’s position and power, through culturally accepted media outlets like this song, we do not get any closer to bringing peace to our individual hearts, our country and our world.

 

April 12, 2010

Change your diet~Change our world!

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One of the best ways to make a positive impact on our environment and also on our national healthcare costs is to change what we eat. Watching Food, Inc. reaffirmed for me that the food industry is broken, and it is what is in the food that is creating the unhealthiest people on earth, ever.

The largest food producing companies in the US are creating a system that encourages sickness, obesity, and disease.  Some may say it is the fault of the consumers that we buy the unhealthy foods. This is simply not the only contributing factor.  As the movie points out, corn in this country is highly subsidized by our government because of our government policies.  Corn then ends up being cheap to buy, and cheap is always best for companies whose only goal is the bottom line. Thus products like soda, containing high fructose corn syrup, end up being less expensive to buy then juice.

Not only do we have the issue of the chemicals in the food that cause a range of problems, but the treatment of the animals is deplorable and so is the treatment of the workers.  This all seeps into the foods we eat and consume.  My grandmother was raised on a farm.  Slaughtering the animals was part of life on the farm.  However, the animals were raised and treated with respect and compassion.  No longer.  Animals are virtually tortured everyday in order to provide $1 menu meals.  If we are what we eat, it is no wonder that our society seems to have become more aggressive, less caring, and less respectful of others.

So what can we do?  For one, change what you eat and consume.  At every meal make a choice to eat consciously.  Encourage your friends to get educated.  Teach them.  Watch Food, Inc. Support local farmer’s markets. It is the right thing to do not only for immediate health gains, but also to make lasting changes in the quality of all our lives.

I have stayed away from meat/poultry for years, eating primarily vegetables with fish occasionally.  One of the key additions to my diet has been drinking fresh vegetable Green Drink, daily.  Here is one of my favorite recipes.

Green Drink

(Using the Vitamixer blender produces the best results. Buy organic when possible)

1 Head of Collard Greens
1 Head of Kale
1 Bunch of Parsley
2 Carrots
1 Apple
1 Lime or Lemon
6 Tablespoons Hemp Oil or Flax Seed Oil

Remove all the hard stems of the greens. Give all the greens a coldwater wash and add a little apple cider vinegar to the water.  Rinse thoroughly.  Add all the ingredients, with lots of water and blend to a juice.  You can blend together varying amounts of the vegetables at a time and mix it all together at the end.  This recipe can be made in a variety of ways with a variety of vegetables.  Add dandelion greens, broccoli, avocado, or ginger or to change it up.  Enjoy!

 

March 17, 2010

Life is Yours to Live

Posted by vydabielkus under Coaching, Health, Meditation, Transformation, Uncategorized, Yoga | Tags: , , , , |
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We humans are collectors.  From the time we are little we pick up countless items along the way and give them meaning.   Some of these inanimate objects stay with us a while, like my clown flannel blanky that was so loved that only a few threads remained when it was finally given up.  Other items  get picked up and put down quickly but still our inquisitive minds examines them to see how they fit or don’t fit what and who we want ourselves to be and be represented by.

Our experiences are much like this too.  As we grow up all of us have impacting moments along the continuum of life.  Some are big like when a parent leaves, other times the moments are small like when you are told to stop asking so many questions by a teacher.  Different from the items we collect, our experiences don’t ever leave us they simply build up our beliefs and the patterns of responses that we learn to operate under.   From the beliefs that no longer serve us, we react in fear, anger, confusion, etc.  As we go through life, these become the fallback emotions we operate from all the time.  Yet most of us don’t even know we are doing this.  We get good functioning out of our child-like responses that we spend very little time consciously creating authentic grown up reactions and behaviors.  This allows us to not take responsibility for ourselves and when we live without self-responsibility we basically never reach the potential of our spirit.  We operate constantly from two extremes never coming into middle long enough to make a different healthier choice for our actions.

For example, a ranting boss can so remind us of a yelling parent that we might immediately fall into a place of fear. As the fear comes up we then compensate to try to get out of feeling fearful, because our spirit does not feel good in a state of fear.  So we start reacting in ways we never would dream we would behave as a mature whole adult.  We try to over please the tyrant or we yell back, or a whole slew of possible reactions based on how we learned to behave in those early childhood pattern forming days.   These decisions are split second decisions.  We don’t formally think it through it just happens.

As you look around most of us are continuously acting out of some child formulated behavior.  We can’t seem to lift ourselves out of seeing that actually those behaviors those reactions are not really of this moment in time.  But how do we begin to stop acting out of these child-like ways and start claiming our own destiny, clear of illusion.  To pause and realize, “I am not naturally a person that yells back”, and therefore I can choose an alternate course of action.

For one you need to decide that what you are doing now isn’t working and that maybe why you are doing it is not based entirely on the reality of the situation at hand.  You also need to begin to observe yourself and get to know yourself beyond the constrictions of your past.  With meditation you can begin to develop a special relationship to your mind and see that it is a vast place with much opportunity for being in the now and creating a different future.  With yoga you can begin to sink deeply into locked feelings in the body that are connected to those impacting moments of your past.   As you stay with sensations in the body you can observe yourself in those moments of the past with clearer keener observation. Through coaching you are able to see yourself as whole, authentic and reclaim responsibility for your self.  It is through meditation, yoga and coaching conversations you learn to voice and manifest a life of wholeness, action and expanded consciousness.

When you live your life as a self-responsible adult, life is not done unto you.  You have the ability to shape your choices and your reactions, free from the limitations of your past.  When you are self-responsible, you see others differently too and can be there for them in a new way, not expecting from or controlling them.    Life becomes yours to live.

 

January 26, 2010

UNcompromise Your Life-Take a Retreat!

Posted by vydabielkus under Coaching, Health, Retreat, Transformation, Uncategorized, Yoga | Tags: , , , |
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Sometimes the best use of your money, time, energy is investing in yourself, and one of the best ways to do that is by taking a retreat, a journey to get to know yourself on a deeper level.  Yoga and health retreats can be powerful healing experiences because they provide an opportunity to put the demands of life on hold. When I went to my first retreat as a participant about 9 years ago, I was having what John Mayer so aptly coined “a quarter life crisis.”  I was workaholic, a complete coffee addict, and on a path that if I continued would lead to a very unhealthy life.  The stress of my life was sucking all of my inner energy and had severed the connection to my own true desires and wants.

Knowing I needed to do something to break the cycle I was in, I signed-up for a retreat in Costa Rica.  As I journeyed, alone (and I do recommend going alone on a healing retreat), my biggest concern was how I would handle being cut-off from my morning coffee ritual.  Terrified of not being able to have my fix, I packed some green tea for an emergency.  Landing in a location that is designed for a yoga retreat is like landing on a magical part of the planet, where there are no obstacles to peace, healing, vitality and inner growth.  For the first few days of my week of twice daily yoga, walks, and healthy eating minus coffee, I slept.  Literally if I wasn’t in a session or eating, I was sleeping.  Getting in touch with how deeply tired you are from the actions and behaviors of your daily life is very eye-opening (pun intended).

On about day 2 of the retreat came the headaches of serious caffeine withdrawal.  I was forced to face my addiction to coffee. Feeling that I would not make it through the day, I drank one of the contraband green tea bags I had brought with me and went to practice the second session of yoga for the day.  On my mat, I was able to observe my fingers shaking from the caffeine.  I noticed my heartbeat racing and my mind jumping around like it was on a pogo-stick.  There was no connection to calm, no sense of peace.  I was all over the place.  In that moment of awareness, I gave up coffee.  I could see just how negatively my body and mind responded to caffeine and decided withdrawal symptoms were easy compared to a life of dependency. The magic of a retreat is that letting go and shedding of negative behaviors is easy.  The environment supports positive change.  All I had to do when the headache came was go lie in hammock, watch the hummingbirds and breathe.  By day 4 I had no more headaches.

Practicing yoga twice a day, meditating, eating clean healthy foods, walking in nature all invoke a sense of stillness.  Stillness that we don’t have in our regular lives, ever.  Deep stillness brings you insights you cannot have when the mind is cluttered when the body is bogged down by toxins, and the spirit is heavy.  Going on a healing and yoga retreat allows for the truth to unfold in your life.  It lets you see your life with your internal vision, from a what is truly right for me perspective.

Leaving the retreat with a new body, a new mind, a happier spirit, I made two very small choices-that I wanted more yoga in my life and that I wanted more control over my time.  With these two choices and a sense of staying true to myself, my life unfolded in a way I could not imagine in the years that followed that first retreat.  Some changes were immediate.  Coffee never came back into my life and upon returning home, I was able to finally make a decision to quit my job which no longer suited me.  Other changes developed over time.  Yoga not only became my lifestyle it became my profession.  My body continued to change as I shed physical and emotional weight.  Going on a retreat is an investment, it costs money but the return on investment is high. You regain yourself and your health.  By choosing to go on a retreat you choose to put yourself first.  This is not selfish or self-indulgent in fact it has quite the opposite effect.  When you invest in yourself first you are able to more fully show up for others in your life.

This April 10-17th, join the wonderful teachers of B1 Community in Costa Rica, for the Living Healthy Retreat at the Blue Spirit Center.  In a time of uncertainty, strain, stress it is the best vacation you can take that will keep giving back to you even after you go back home.  During our retreat we employ the B1 Community Self-Care Solutions™ to begin to dramatically shift your relationship to your body, mind, spirit and health.  During our week together, we will engage in transformative yoga classes, inspiring walks, awakening meditation, coaching conversations, nutrition strategy classes and more! Also joining us is Wade Morissette, a world-renowned kirtan singer and author of Transformative Yoga: Five Keys to Unlocking Inner Bliss.   Don’t miss this opportunity to UNleash your spirit, UNlock your blocks, and UNcompromise your life.

Visit www.b1community.com to learn more or email retreats@b1community.com to register today!

 

January 10, 2010

Building your Boundary

Posted by vydabielkus under Coaching, Relationships, Transformation, Uncategorized, Yoga | Tags: , , , , , , |
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When I graduated Wellesley in 1997, we were very fortunate to have Oprah Winfrey as our commencement speaker!  Yes, having Oprah as your graduation speaker is something you never forget.  Women from the class of ’97 still quote various parts of her speech that was so full of helpful life’s nuggets that there was no way to forget its impact.   One of those nuggets I often recall (especially in talking with my sisters) is, “the first time he is a jerk believe him.”  It is a simple lesson, but not one that is so easily practiced.

Yesterday I was watching the Oprah show, and once again in trying to help others avoid loss, hurt and betrayal, Oprah evoked the life lesson Maya Angelou taught her and I had heard at graduation (in slightly different words): “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them. If a person lies, he/she is liar.  If a person cheats, he/she is a cheater.”

Hearing her talk about this idea again I questioned why is it so difficult for many of us to live by this principle?  Why when someone shows us their true colors do we either ignore our intuition or lower our standards of what is tolerable for us in the way we are treated?  Of course the person who is doing the misleading has their own demons to work out, but really in order to “believe others the first time” we must turn the mirror on ourselves.

When we choose not to believe someone when they show us who they are, we are living with a depleted spirit.  With little belief in ourselves, in our own power, we lower the standards of how others treat us.  Our need to feel loved and our need for approval keep us tied to people who might be saying one thing but doing another.  When we are living from a part of ourselves that feels less than, unworthy of love, in fear of the unknown, we are targets for those who manipulate and keep us in a cycle of lies.

When we are seeking approval from another, our awareness is externally focused. Everything we do is linked to the other’s acceptance of us which keeps us living from our ego. We live in fear of losing what we have built up in our minds to have.  In this situation, fear has severed our connection to our own inner knowing.  When you live in fear and without a strong definition of self, a gigantic red flag may be flying right in front of your face and you won’t see it (or you will choose to ignore it).

Another clever game we play with ourselves is when we see that someone is acting like a jerk toward someone else we rationalize that they wouldn’t ever treat us that way.  This rationalization is absolutely illogical.  A person is who they are, period.  But when we feel powerless within our own being, our ego is seduced into this rationalization.  We avoid having to look at the painful part of ourselves, which feels powerless and keeps supporting the illusion.

Luckily, our lives are healing spiritual journeys. Many of our closest relationships come in to heal those parts of ourselves that don’t serve us, that take us away from the essence of who we are, away from God.   This is why more often than not it is after the experience of disappointment, hurt, and betrayal that we recognize we have ignored all the signs, that we indeed had not “believed them the first time.” When this pain stops us we have an opportunity to dig deep and heal the soul.

There are many ways to begin to heal the spirit from imposed limitation and fear.  Going to yoga classes and starting to awaken the body is key. Yoga helps us open up to sensations in our body which are great indicators of what is actually going on in any given moment.  Even more supportive would be working with a coach who helps us examine how feelings of unworthiness, powerlessness or of not being loveable stem from childhood beliefs that no longer have to determine our present actions.  With the coach we can begin to set out forward action to diminish the fear.  So if you find yourself struggling in a present relationship (with anyone, these emotions are not limited to intimate partners) or in one that has completed, take action meditatively in yoga or in coaching conversations to heal yourself so the next time (not the 5th time!), you are ready, able, and willing to “believe them the first time.”

 

January 4, 2010

New Year, New Decade “Think Different”

Posted by vydabielkus under Health, Transformation, Uncategorized | Tags: , |
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It is that time of year when we look back and assess the last year, and recommit to changing the usual list of things we are unhappy with within ourselves.  I resolve to “lose weight”, “stress less” “find a better job” etc.  The list of resolutions typically is full of goals that will never be met and are easily broken and forgotten.  We make a resolution to eat healthy, and as the words come out of our mouths we reach for that second cookie.  It seems that we love to set up ourselves up for failure.  We set out these unrealistic resolutions because we intrinsically know we won’t reach them, because the same thinking that stopped us last time will stop us again this time.

I was never much for resolutions because of this insane cycle.  It did not appeal to me to psyche myself up for failure, because I knew whatever went on my list would not be on it by March.  It is just the way life works. The distractions are too great.  So this year I have decided to replace the tradition of resolutions with defining a motto to live by for the year.  A phrase so potent that whenever I call upon it, I will be reminded of what really matters to me and therefore, make better choices and take better action.

The other day at the gym I picked up Fortune Magazine who declared Steve Jobs, the genius behind Apple, the CEO of the decade.  The magazine declared the fact that Jobs revolutionized not only the computer industry but also the music industry (itunes) and the movie industry (Pixar) while surviving two life altering diseases, nothing short of awesome.   It went on to examine how Apple is Jobs and Jobs is Apple.  Apple is what it is because Jobs is who he is.  Now this inspired me.   It made me think of all the individuals who, because of who they ARE change the world.   As they define themselves they define the world around them. We actually all do this. The world around us is what it is because of what we create it to be through our thoughts, beliefs and actions.  It just seems to me most of us don’t think outside of the limits of our own environments to really be able to impact the world.

Many, many years ago, before the iphone, before the Apple comeback, there used to be a huge vertical billboard on Sunset Blvd. in LA. It was a photo of John Lennon and at the bottom a small picture of a rainbow colored, half eaten apple with two words to the right of the apple “Think Different”.  It was part of Apple’s ad campaign that featured change agents of our planet, like Lennon, Gandhi, Graham, Picasso, etc.  These ads had nothing to do with technology or Apple’s products.  At the time, Apple was off the radar.  But as the article explained Jobs was responsible for the campaign. It was a charge.  Apple had the courage.  It was going to think different and therefore change the world.

So this year in 2010, I am resolving to “Think Different”~to use the power of my mind to radically change my every day and therefore my world.   It seems everything that I would want to make resolutions about can be changed with this simple phrase.  If I want to create a life that I don’t have now, I need to fill my mind not with the same thoughts I have now, I need to “Think Different”.   Looking back over the past year, I have to admit my mind was often caught in sticky thoughts.  I had too many thoughts of my past, the hurts, the cants, the justifications of why things are a certain way, guilty thoughts, shame thoughts, thoughts that were definitely not different and definitely not taking me into a different tomorrow.   So instead of figuring out how exactly my life is going to change, I resolve to think different to let a different life find me.

If I want to lose weight, I need to think differently about why I might be holding on to the weight or what keeps me from exercising. For example in the past perhaps I used to think I have no choice, “I have to work so I can’t exercise.” I can change my statement to “I have to work and I want to exercise”.  All of a sudden I have a choice, and now I can rearrange my day to allow both to happen successfully.  When you start noticing your thoughts, it is almost amazing how much of them are related to past events, things that cannot be changed, or have absolutely nothing to do with you.  By noticing how little time you are actually thinking about the things that bring you personal enjoyment, you can begin to actively change the landscape of your mind.  As you do this you begin to practice pulling out weeds that are literally sucking the life out of you and replace them with seeds of sunflowers.

If I want to have a different world around me and I want to be different, I first need to start with my mind and “Think Different”.   I am now so seriously committed to this that every time an unproductive, unsupportive, negative or old stupid thought enters my mind I resolve to “Think Different.”  As I do this, I can actually sense an inner smile that makes the things that seemed impossible somehow plausible.

So find your power phrase. Create a personal slogan.  Make sure it resonates with you and holds the power of a high school cheer at homecoming.  Let who you truly are be what the world gets to see and experience.  If we all committed to this, the world would be a totally different place by the end of 2010.

 

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