Jamie Fellrath | Practical Mindfulness

Today's Morning Coach podcast was a very good one, with an introduction to the topic of "Struggle."  Everyone has struggles in life, but it's important not to judge the struggles as problems and instead to see them as opportunities. We can sit and moan and complain that our lives are filled with too much struggle and change.  We might get past those struggles with some work, and then sit back, exhale sharply, and say "whoa, glad that's over."  And we might even get a small sense of satisfaction out of having beaten that struggle. Or...we can look at that struggle as what it is: an opportunity.  Every struggle in life can be used to learn and grow. Having money problems? Learn better money management, or find new ways to make money.  Or both. Having health problems? Research your problem above and beyond what the doctor tells you - you might find different ways to regain your health to even better levels than before you were sick.  You may even d

This past weekend, my family and I went up to Cleveland to watch our friend Sam Felsenfeld run the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon .  Sam is running 60 marathons in 2010 to raise money and awareness for Train4Autism via his charity Operation Jack (named after his own Autistic son).  My wife was going to run the 1/2 marathon in Cleveland, but an injury put her on the sidelines, so we went up to experience it and support Sam. One of the things that many self-improvement experts talk about in regards to creating motivation and putting yourself at a higher vibrational level is to put yourself among those types of people.  And you could not do better at this than to hang out at a marathon and cheer on the runners as they complete this awesome event. Now this is not to make less of running shorter races at all.  As you may recall, I ran a 5K a couple weeks ago to gauge my fitness level  and I enjoyed it a lot.  But there's something about the people who have put in the time and work to

As I get older, I'm finding that I have increasingly less tolerance for the marketers of the world, the folks who want us to poison ourselves or take care of ourselves wrongly under the guise of health.  And it's all just to make a quick buck. Now don't get me wrong: I don't believe there's anything wrong with money, but what's really more important is providing value to the world.  If you provide value to the world, the world will provide value to you in return.  And that's not saying that you'll get rich, that's saying you'll have a life that is happy and rewarding.  The rewards may be financial, or spiritual, or they may be a number of things.  But they all supply energy to us - whether it's financial energy, emotional energy, what have you. But the modern world increasingly has little to do with treating ourselves well.  We're told that we're treating ourselves well if we buy a new car, or get that new pair of running shoes, o

I've been working with the Men's Health Ultimate Iron-Free Circuit Series workout recently. Basically, it's seven different bodyweight exercises done without rest, alternating between an upper- and lower-body exercise, then rest a minute, and do the whole thing again. You start with two sets. . And, I've been getting good results from it. I added a third set of it today and the results I'm feeling are really good. Definitely feeling it more in my shoulders, from the extra sets of close-grip and t-pushups.  But I also felt it from an exercise that I didn't think I was getting much out of, but was doing because it was part of the routine. It's called the inverted hamstring. I figured it was getting me some good balance work and that was about it.  But today, I really concentrated on doing it slowly and keeping my balance all the way through it.  It's still not as exhausting as some of the exercises, like the aforementioned t-pushups, but today I

MorningCoach.com is doing a series this week on prosperity. Here's founder J.B. Glossinger's introduction to the week. The thing that struck me about this is that we need to take care of ourselves before we can even hope to expect that the universe is going to take care of us. If we don't take care of ourselves, how can we hope to add any value to our lives? If we don't value ourselves enough to get off the couch, get some exercise, eat healthy food, and make sure our health is in order, then we're basically telling ourselves that we're not worth any other improvements. And that's counterproductive to creating the passion to improve other aspects of our lives. One of the things about setting goals that I'm learning is that they don't mean anything without passion to achieve them, and that passion comes from what's called "having a big enough WHY." To say it another way, you need to have a big reason to want positive change i

Morning Coach has been doing a series this week on Belief.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Morning Coach , JB Glossinger is the creator of the Personal Evolution system in which he helps you to improve your life a little bit each day via regular podcasts and workbooks to help you manifest the life you desire. I've been listening for a long time now... a year and a half or so! And I love getting that positive boost of energy each morning as I ride to work. But as I said, this week's topic has been belief, and the power of belief.  Belief that we can achieve the things we want is key to getting them.  I think that's a pretty simple concept: if you don't believe you can achieve something, well, then, you're right.  But you can make yourself believe them and not limit yourself by your beliefs. But today, the specific belief-related topic was Action.  JB pointed out that many people believe you can manifest your dreams simply by having great enough be

I'm not a runner. Seriously, for the most part I really don't care for pounding the pavement on a regular basis.  I don't really like sports that I have to worry about proper hydration and nutrition schedules during the race, or whether I need to replace my shoes because I've run 500 miles in them, or anything like that.  I enjoy trail-type running at times but don't really live in an area where it's a regular option.  So for the most part, I really don't do it very much.  I ran cross country the fall of my freshman year in high school and screwed up my knees, which negatively affected my swimming season that following winter (and swimming was my primary sport in high school).  I never ran it again after that. So running and I have a live and let live relationship.  I recognize that some people do really well with it, and are able to turn their lives around with it.  For a great example, go and read a bit about Operation Jack .  And my wife is turning in