How to Be FREE

One day, I was watching some videos (you know how that rabbit hole works) that led me to a video on this interesting sport.  I love water sports, and am frequently daydreaming this time of year about being in warm water.

Prime Hall and Don Tran of Deep End Fitness.I have no idea how that led to this video, but it was a team playing this weird underwater game of hockey/ultimate frisbee/survival thing.  It was the Underwater Torpedo League.

Underwater Torpedo was invented by two former special ops guys.  They used it to help training clients get better at breath holding and calm under stress.  But it sure looked like a blast of a time!  I filed it under “I’d love to do that!”

Fast-forward and I met these two guys.  Turns out they do more than just train some people.  They actually train professional athletes on a regular basis, including MMA, NFL, and even pro surfers.

Prime Hall and Don Tran are the guys behind the game.  But they are also performance coaches outside the pool.  They work with people about performing in life, using their F.R.E.E. Your Mind protocol.  Through their coaching, they help people reduce stress, perform better, and become better versions of themselves.

In this episode, Don and Prime discuss their protocol with me, so that you can make shifts toward higher performance in all of your pursuits.

RELATED RESOURCES
FREE Your Mind Info Website
Underwater Torpedo League Website
What Is Stress?
How To Deal With Stress
 

Antidote To Stress

Feeling stressed out?  Wondering what your doctor would say?

Surprisingly, doctors get very little training on stress, both in how it affects the body and how to deal with it.  Got an injury?  Great.  The doctor has you covered.  Got an infection?  The doctor has you covered.

But stressed out?  Not so much.

Elizabeth Hughes, MD, The Stress Antidote DoctorThat was the experience of my guest, Elizabeth Hughes, MD.  A practicing physician, Elizabeth was reading in the back of a medical journal about adrenal fatigue.  She noticed that most of her patients suffered from the same symptoms.

And she realized that the culprit was stress.  Or more accurately, the inability for her patients to successfully deal with stress.  No surpise, Elizabeth realized, given how even her medical school training had failed to offer solutions.

That led Elizabeth to seek ways to help.  She picked up a number of certifications in the process.  But more importantly, she discovered an important antidote to stress that is simple and powerful.  Since stress is implicated in many chronic illnesses and adversely affects life satisfaction, it is important for each of us to find that antidote to stress.

Listen in to this episode to learn how.

RELATED RESOURCES
Elizabeth’s Website
Why We Stress
6 Other Ways To Deal With Stress
Shifting from Stressful to Restful

6 Steps To Dealing With Stress

6 strategies for beating stress.How many times do you hear someone say, “I’m so stressed!”  Or how many times do YOU think and feel that?

We live in a culture that seems to revel in being stressed.  Unfortunately, it is sometimes a badge of honor — the cost of being in demand and doing important stuff.

But is it?

How do you not just “deal” with stress, but beat stress?  Well, first, we need to be clear about what stress REALLY is (and what it isn’t).  Then, we can talk about strategies for addressing the REAL issue.

When you are “stressed,” there isn’t a solution.   When you know what it is, the solution(s) are easier.

Let’s talk about defeating stress with 6 strategies in the training below.

Calming Your Thriving Body

Calm your thriving body -- without drugs and without becoming a hermit!“I’m so stressed out,” has become a very common refrain.  But what does that mean?  Have you paused for a moment to wonder, what is behind that idea?

We all have moments of feeling a bit overwhelmed and frazzled.  We all have times when we react to some event.  Our body comes along for the ride.  Adrenaline spikes, headaches strike, stomachs get upset, palms get sweaty. . . our body goes into Fight/Flight mode.  Not a pretty picture, and not very fun.

We all have our coping strategies.  Some are helpful and healthy, others — not so much.  Some people crawl under the covers and hide from those events.  Others rely on a few choice substances to forget those events or at least numb the body.

But some have found other, healthier, ways to face the events, understand their response, and move through the responses.  They experience the same event but learn to move through healthily and helpfully.

Let’s talk about the truth of stress — and how to deal with stress effectively , but healthily.

Your Thriving Body Series:
Introduction
Fueling Your Thriving Body
Fueling You Thriving Body, Pt. 2

Moving Your Thriving Body
Resting Your Thriving Body

Your Thriving Body

Your Thriving BodySomehow I missed it.  I was cruising through life, doing my thing, working hard, and trying to move forward.

What did I miss?

That my body was what took me through life.

And it was quite a rude awakening.  Like a doctor telling you and your wife that you were headed for total disability — and then death.

That will wake you up! (Well, it woke me up, for sure.)

Here I was, learning about thriving and resilience, and my body was NOT thriving.  I was overweight, out of shape — and almost out of time!

You can hear the whole story in this week’s podcast.  But clearly, I did not die (at least, not yet).  And I began to recover my lost health.  I got serious about this body that had to carry me through life.  And I learned a few lessons along the way.

In this new series, I want to share some of what I learned.

(NOTE:  I am not a trainer, dietician, or physician.  This information comes from my own studies and experience.  I hope it is useful.  But it is not intended to replace the advice of experts.)

Thrivers Care For Themselves

ThriversCareForSelvesYears ago, I was learning all I could about resilience, personal development, and how to thrive.

I forgot one very important element:  my physical health.  My body, it would seem, I just left out of the equation.

My body did send me a loud “wake up call.”  When the doctor told my wife I was headed for disability and eventual death, due to a diagnosis he had made, I woke up.

Well, to be honest, it still took me several months.  During those months, I was just struggling to move forward, one plodding foot at a time.  But about 4 months in, I was starting to get better — and realize I was NOT where I needed to be, physically.

As I discovered, it was my body that needed to cart around my thriving mind.  And, in fact, it was much easier for my mind to be thriving when my body was thriving.

Let me be clear:  this is not about being in optimal, ready-for-magazine cover, shape.  It is about taking care of your body, so that you can truly thrive.  We all have a different level of what is possible.  For most of us, though, there is room for improvement.

Learn about the 4 areas I recommend, and the very simple recommendations I make in this week’s podcast.

You’re Going To Be Alright

Everything will be okay in the end.  If it isn’t okay, it isn’t the end.
– John Lennon

You are going to be alright.I don’t know what is happening in your life.

Only this:  we can always continue to grow and thrive, no matter what is going on.

How do I know?  Life is that way.  We all have difficulties and struggles.  The illusion that we should not have difficulties — we have to give that up.

Sometimes, it takes awhile to get back to “normal.”  Sometimes, we have to learn a “new normal.”  Many times, it is a “wake up call.”  Time to change!

In today’s podcast, I offer 5 ways to be alright — a better alright — when life throws a curve.

Learn how to be alright, so you can be alright, no matter what life throws your way!

5 Ways To Shift Your Day From Stressful To Restful

Shift from stressful to restful.I was at a workshop yesterday, and was struck with how many people said, “My life/job/relationship is stressful.”

That was a belief I once shared.  Now, I understand that stress is our internal reaction to an external event.

There is nothing inherently stressful to a life or job or situation, except as we experience it as stressful.

In other words, we may be having stressful thoughts about the situation.  But someone else may be experiencing the same thing, but feel free of stress — perhaps even exhilarated.

If, though, you are feeling stressed, and want to make some shifts, I have some ideas to share with you.  Here is the really good part:  nothing I suggest will add to your load.  Most are simple shifts you can make right now, today.  And all have been proven to help you.

These are some things you can do to make your life a bit less stressful — make your life a bit more smooth and restful.  And I promise you, none will require you to make any drastic changes.  No need to quit the job, move to a deserted island.

If you incorporate these simple ideas and strategies, I promise you will see a change in your stress load.  You will have more resources (emotional and energetic) to deal with those issues in your life.

Think of it like a glass of water.  If the water is almost filled up, it only takes a little more to overflow the cup (your life) and make a mess (stress you out).  But if you start the day with half a glass, you have more room for those issues and problems that will inevitably arise — and it won’t overflow your cup (your life) and make a mess (stress you out).

Learn how to keep the glass less full with my 5 simple suggestions to go from stressful to restful.