Don’t Set Another Goal Without Reading This. If you are like most of us, you might think of improving your life, but balk at setting a goal. We know goals are important, but something gets in the way. Sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot even before we get a goal off the ground.
Let’s explore the Goal Setting Cycle. The thought to create a change may happen, and if we are feeling inspired, we might even set a goal. If we are really detailed, we might set a SMART goal: making it Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and put it on a Timeline.
Then, a few days roll by, and maybe we do pretty well, but then after a few more days we procrastinate, don’t have time, and other things take priority – until we’ve totally fallen off the wagon. But that’s not it – that is not the end of the Goal Setting Cycle! We then berate ourselves for not staying on track, maybe even call ourselves names and feel bad about not following through. Finally, we tuck it into the graveyard along with all the other goals that have fallen by the wayside.
The next time we go to set a goal, we get visitations from all the Ghosts of Goals past. “Remember what happened last time” echoes in your head, or “You’re just lazy, undisciplined, it won’t work.” Because of our history, we might even give up before we start. When you think of goals, what comes up for you? Quite possibly, it’s all the goals sleeping in the graveyard rather than the cheerleading squad.
The problem with setting goals is that we have rigid ideas of success and failure attached. If we do not fill the goal 100% – it’s a failure (even though we might have made progress). Here are my top tips to Transforming Goals into Action!
Tip #1: Call it a Plan! Plans change, they have flexibility and wiggle room, and we don’t have the same ideas of success and failure attached. It’s easier to set a plan rather than a goal.
Tip #2: Get specific – How will you achieve the plan? Can you break it into small action steps
Tip #3: Put it in your Planner – If it’s not written down- it’s probably not going to happen. I even need to schedule my playdates!
Tip #4: Focus on What you REALLY want! The real secret behind the goal is – it’s not really about the goal. It’s really about what the goal will get for us. If we aren’t looking for this piece, we are missing the battle, and we might find ourselves struggling over and over without ever really feeling satisfied or accomplished. How discouraging is that? It’s like having a carrot out in front of us, and then never being able to eat the carrot.
• Ask The Magic Question: What is this going to get for me? And thinking of that, what will that get for me, ask the question a few times to find the higher sense of something.
• if your plan is to make more money, what will that get for you? Pay the bills without worry, relax more, stress less, and what will that bring? more peace of mind. If I start to make more money and then decide to buy a car, it may not serve the higher purpose of the goal if I make more financial commitments and increase my bills.
• For example, my weight loss clients, the goal may be to lose 20 lbs. But its really about what we think that will get for us, When I ask, what will losing 20 lbs get for you, the answer: I will fit my clothes better, and what will that get for you? I will feel more comfortable in my body, I will be able to move more and feel better about myself.
The REAL secret is – we don’t have to wait until we’ve done x, y, or z to connect with this sense of something, we can do it now. Think of the things that bring the sense of something. Relaxing can be as simple as a bubble bath, peace of mind can be a 15 min. walk during lunch break, appreciating yourself can be reviewing a list of what you like about yourself.
• Find the Higher Purpose to Really Empower your Plan (remember., we are not calling it a goal anymore) What is it the plan will bring you? If you ask the magic question a few times, you will find, the higher purpose is really a “sense of something.” Feel better about myself, more freedom, enjoy life more.
Tip #5: Reward Yourself! What we really want is what we think the tangible goal will bring us. If we aren’t paying attention to what the goal will bring us, it can be like spinning in a hamster wheel, setting a goal, falling off the wagon, beating ourselves up, until we don’t want to set another goal. Give yourself rewards along the way to celebrate your success, and make sure your rewards fit your positive intention. For example, if I want to make more money to have peace of mind, my rewards should be tailored to the activities and rewards that bring me peace of mind.
To Recap! Call it a plan, make it specific, put it in your planner, know what you really want by asking the magic question, and being aware of the plan’s higher purpose, then reward yourself along the way! You can hold the carrot out in front of you – and eat it too! You’ll be more satisfied, energized, and inspired to create the change in your life that you want!

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The Basics of Low Glycemic Eating to End Yoyo Dieting for Good!

Counting calories is fine for those who love all those numbers running through their head all day. Counting calories may tell you what amount of energy is in a food, but it says nothing about the quality of foods you are eating. I’ve recently been seeing the 100 calorie snack packs. Only 100 calories, but full of sugars, processed foods, and preservatives. There’s nothing healthy about them!

The problem with weight loss programs based on calories: they don’t account for the quality of foods you are eating. And once the weight is gone, you return to old habits and food choices, and it all comes right back, with even more fat to boot!

Stop Counting Calories – Just Eat Better! If you are ready to stop the dieting yoyo, and create a few simple changes by replacing unhealthy foods with some easy alternatives, read on! When you focus on health and nutrition, the benefit is weight loss, as your body gets the nutrition it needs, it drops the extra pounds. It doesn’t have to be hard, you don’t have to go hungry or feel deprived or weak, all you need is a few simple substitutions.

Beware of Big White Five! White sugar, white flour, white rice, potatoes, and popcorn. These are the number one instigators of extra weight. First let’s discover why they are bad for your body, and then we’ll look at what you can do instead.

White sugar is refined and processed sugar from the cane plant. The main problem with sugar is that it’s in everything! I picked up some Organic Butternut Squash Soup, and as I was eating it, it tasted sweet to me. I looked at the label, and sure enough, they had added sugar to my soup! Just because it’s organic, doesn’t mean it’s healthy!

Why is sugar bad? Well, a little is fine, the problem is that manufacturers keep adding more because we are all accustomed to the super sweet tastes. The other problem, is that when we eat high sugar foods, it turns to glucose ( the sugar our body operates on) very quickly, which causes a spike in our blood sugar. The spike in our blood sugar then signals the pancrease to release insulin (which carries the sugar molecule into the body’s tissues). Once this happens, there is more sugar in the tissues than we can use, so what does the body do? It stores it for later – as fat!

Not only does this high sugar intake cause us to store more fat, but it can also lead to all sorts of health challenges including insulin resistence, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and even cancer has been linked to high sugar levels. In fact, recent advancements in technology have created machines where you can see the glucose use in the body. Areas in the body that are using too much glucose are identified as cancer cells. Let’s not wait to get cancer, let’s stop eating so much sugar!

Not all sugars are equal, there are many good substitutes (I’m not talking about chemical compounds such as aspartame and sucralose). It’s never been found that diet drinks help you lose weight. There are some all natural wonderful sweeteners that are much better for your body. Here’s my top all-natural choices:
• Agave syrup (low glycemic all-natural sweetener made from the agave plant)
• Stevia – this is a super sweetener made from a plant in South America. Because it is super sweet, you only need a pinch. Some people notice an after taste, so try it out and see if you like it.
• Licorice root- made from a plant, a wonderful sweetener with possible health benefits. It can have a slightly licorice taste to it.
• Raw Honey- raw honey is actually medium on the glycemic scale. Pasteurized honey (because of the heating process is higher glycemic).

White flour is the next one to watch for. It’s made from wheat, they grind the wheat kernels, polish off the bran, the wheat germ, and the hull. What is left is pure starch. When we eat white flour products, breads, pasta, crackers, the refined flour turns to glucose (sugar) in the body quickly, which signals the pancrease to release a spike of insulin, and then causing the body to store fat. An indicator of how quickly the body turns foods to glucose is called the Glycemic Index, and it is already appearing on food labels.

White rice, much like wheat has been processed and polished, removing the fiber and bran, and what is left is just starch. This again causes the same pathway of spiking the blood sugar, spiking insulin levels, and causing the body to store fat. Skip the white rice, brown rice is better, but still higher on the glycemic index, wild rest is an even better choice, and here are a couple more less well-known great grains that you cook up much like you would cook rice! 1 part grain to 2 parts water.
• Quinoa – a tiny grain from South America, very high protein and low on the glycemic scale, it only takes about 15 min. to cook.
• Buckwheat – this is a grain, actually not related to wheat so it doesn’t have gluten protein. Takes about 20-30 min to cook, add a bit of seasoning as it is a little bland.

An easy general rule: the more refined and processed the food, the higher the glycemic index. So, go for the whole grain foods, whole wheat bread, wheat pasta, and other whole grains. To get yourself used to the taste, start buying partial wheat, or mix white and wheat together, or experiment with making your own. My sister who is a big do it your-selfer says that grinding white wheat kernels instead of the red winter wheat kernels makes all the difference in flavor and taste for her home ground flour.

Potatoes are all starch. High on the glycemic index, these little starch pods can spike your blood sugar and set off that sequence of insulin and storing fat. That’s one reason that many people found benefit in the Atkins diet, they were cutting out the white flour and starches. Where did it go wrong? People weren’t getting the fiber they needed to keep their colon clean and working well.

Instead of white potatoes, try yams and sweet potatoes both have higher fiber and don’t impact your body the same way. Other good substitutes that can give you that creamy texture are squashes, (I especially love mashed butternut squash), and there’s a great recipe for mashed cauliflower.

Popcorn. Who knew that something so low in calories was so high on the glycemic index? Yes, unfortunately, popcorn has one of the highest glycemic indexes. Well, there aren’t any great substitutes for popcorn, it’s kind of in a category of its own. I still eat popcorn, but only once in a while, and I am aware that it has the same effect on my body as cake or cookies. So, if you are eating popcorn as a low calorie snack, you might rethink its place in your life, and have it only as an occasional treat, like you would sweets. Just be aware that eating popcorn isn’t a healthy snack!

When you focus on healthy choices, and nutrition, your body can let go of the extra weight and you’ll slim down to your ideal weight. You don’t have to feel deprived, hungry or weak, and in fact all of my clients have felt more mentally clear, stabilized mood, and energy that lasts all day when they follow the glycemic index eating plan. Basically, it’s eating foods that the human body has used for fuel for thousands of years: Whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean meats, nuts and seeds!

It’s Time to be eating better, and when you do, your taste buds even begin to prefer the healthier choices! It’s only been in the last 50-100 years that our diets have been so messed up, and we are seeing so many health effects now from poor diet choices.

How to Get Started: You may be motivated to make some diet changes now, and it’s a good idea to focus on adding in the foods that you love. Take a sheet of paper and write a list of what you normally eat, check it with those things in this article, write out a substitution. I also like to have my clients focus on the healthy foods they love, like your favorite fruits and vegetables. Add in some of your best healthy indulgences while you are making changes. I love mangos, avocados, peaches, artichokes, broccoli, and asparagus just to name a few. It’s also a good idea to keep an open mind, and try out a new fruit or vegetable every week. Variety is the spice of life! And play with your spices too!

We may be motivated, but sometimes our old habits get in the way. Changing habits can be the most difficult part of eating healthier. Many times it’s as if part of us wants to change, and part of us doesn’t. This inner struggle is responsible for self-sabotage, craving the wrong foods, eating for comfort, eating when stressed, or a whole bunch of other difficulties that can throw us off track. A lot of times, we might think, “If only I were more disciplined, I could make myself do it. I like to focus on building the motivation of my clients to make the changes they want. Because of this, I’ve created a couple of tools for my clients that you might find helpful in breaking old habits and making healthy life choices easier than ever!

• The Lighten Up Mind Body Weight Loss Audio Course which makes changing your old food habits easier than ever! The CD series helps train your brain to create new habits in how you think and feel about food, and to begin preferring healthy choices. The workbook brings together some of the best planning tools and strategies for making new habits, such as creating your one week menu, your healthy shopping list, and more. Plus, when you bring together a group of family or friends to go through the course with you, it can be a great support for staying on track and moving forward, see support groups on the website.

• The Information Report: Change your Habits, Cravings, and Even Addictions: NLP Tools to help you Train your Brain to get the results you want! This power packed 25+ page report will help you understand your habits and triggers, offers essential NLP tools for addressing your habits, create internal alignment with what you want, allowing you to reduce the struggle, and making change easier than ever!

Here’s to your Health – Holly Stokes, M.NLP, NLP Coach, C.Ht.

Article Submitted by Holly Stokes, “The Brain Trainer”, Master NLP Health Practitioner, and Certified Hypnotherapist. Holly lives in the Portland, Oregon area helping clients stay on track and motivated with their health and weight loss goals. She is passionate about teaching and helping people to make the changes and live your best life now! Check online for upcoming teleconferences, workshops, and or create your own support group at: www.LightenUp.Me or visit the main website for more mind – body results at: www.ExpandingPotentials.net

References:

• Releasing Fat by Ray D. Strand, M.D.

• Dare to Lose: 4 Simple Steps to a Better Body by Shari Lieberman, PhD, CNS, FACN

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With the recent stock market challenges, struggling banks, and media coverage about our economy, times such as these remind us to re-focus on what’s most important, re-center within ourselves and maintain internal balance, and well-being.

With the perception of chaos around us, it can be easy to give sway to ideas of scarcity, difficulty and distress. However, much of what we perceive about our reality is just that – a perception. I invite you all this month with me to re-affirm positive frames of mind, to be strengthened in your personal sense of well-being, and to re-affirm that there is plenty and abundance on the planet for all.

Money Illusions: What if it’s all made-up? We’ve all heard there is no gold in Fort Knox, no real value backing the American dollar. Our money is just colored paper, something that we have all agreed has value and represents time, services, even survival and power. Most of the money that transfers these days are only digits, numbers on a computer screen. What if money is a mass hallucination that we’ve agreed to let it define who has access to products and services. I’ll admit, money is important, we need it to cover mortgages and rent, to access food (since most of us don’t grow our own). I just wonder if all this difficulty and uncertainty with our economy will help us in some way outgrow our old ideas about the currency we transfer and call money. Perhaps, it will inspire us to re-think the flow of money, and our relationship to it.

7 Steps to Affirming Abundance!
1. Use Affirmations to Boost Your Well-being. Step one to affirming your positive future is to use affirmations. Affirmations can be a powerful tool for turning around your thoughts and feelings. Affirmations direct your mind’s attention and focus, and even engage your emotions. Positive thinking leads to positive feelings, which then guides your brain to finding creative solutions. Here are some examples of Positive Affirmations:

I am thankful for all the wealth and abundance that I am now building.
I am enjoying all the benefits of wealth and well-being in my life
I am thankful that I have an abundance of clothing, food, and shelter.

Notice how you feel when you say these things. The best affirmations are ones that inspire positive feelings and engage your positive emotional states.

2. The Problem with Affirmations is that to some parts of us, it may feel like it’s only sugar-coating, or even downright lies….When you are aware of internal resistance to an affirmation, then you know you’ve struck a cord of an internally held belief. A belief is only an idea, mostly formed when we were young. As we internalize beliefs, they seem like truths in that we’ve accepted them as the rules of life. (I am not talking about religious beliefs, I am talking about beliefs about how the world operates and who we are in it). The good news about beliefs is that they are only ideas, and we can change them. Even during times of difficulty, there are those who do very well. Visit the blog to find more on beliefs.

3. Identify your Internal Money Beliefs: As a child, we simply soak up the ideas about our world and internalize them – This then is perceived as the rules of how the world is and our place in it. Good clues to your internal beliefs of money are your parents’ relationships with money and especially your re-curring life patterns. Here are just a few of the common beliefs in our culture:

You have to work hard to make money.
Life is a struggle, you have to struggle to survive.
Money is the root of all evil.

If these, or any other number of mal-adapted beliefs are the blueprints you are working from (even subconsciously), you will find yourself continuing to struggle, even working against yourself. How would life be different if you really knew that you always had everything you needed? Or what if your blueprint was set with “money comes easy for me!” For a more indepth look at your beliefs, take the beliefs quiz by clicking here.

4. Identify the lesson. What are you learning? What is this struggle or challenge teaching you? Once you’ve identified the lesson, it becomes much easier to move through it in a different way. How is life helping you grow into your next level of openness, trust, or encouraging you to let go of old ideas that do not work for you? Take a moment and jot down your responses, and how are you committed to embracing the positive lessons?

5. Define New Money Beliefs and Find the Evidence for it: How would you rather think and feel about money? Often, the true counter to a negative belief is more than simply the opposite. You want to create your new belief in positive language, avoid isn’t, not, etc. Here are some possible examples.

I have everything I need; I have an abundance of food, clothing, shelter
I live in an abundant world, just look at all the abundance of green plants, water, and rain (particularly here in the northwest).
Money comes easily for me as I share with others

You can create an even stronger internal system if you incorporate “I am” into your new money belief
I am the sort of person who is resourceful and I can find positive ways for creating what I want

6. Envisioning Cues your Brain to Paying Attention to What you Really Want. What will new wealth allow you to have, do or be? What will you do with your wealth? How will you use it? Vision boards are great for keeping your mind focused and visually reminding you of what you want. Pictures send visual cues to your brain, which then goes to work to finding ways to make it happen. You can even ask your subconscious mind to work on the challenge while you sleep, it loves having something to do!

7. Giving Back! When you receive greater wealth, what way will you give back? How will you continue the circle of good fortune? Choose a charity, an organization, or another population less fortunate, and find even small ways to help out. When we give back, we not only get warm fuzzies for ourselves – but we also become the answers to other’s prayers! www.secondharvest.org

Note: Individual sessions with a qualified NLP Practitioner can be extremely valuable for helping you clear old blocks and internal resistance to wealth and receiving. Rather than trying to remember to combat negative thinking and feeling – an individualized session can actually train your brain with new patterns of thinking and feeling about money – no conscious battle needed. Here’s what happened for one client:

“After we went through the money belief change process, my Mom called and said she had a bunch of extra money sitting around that she didn’t need, and she said she was sending me a check for $10,000!”–M. Mason, Vancouver, WA.

Call or email now to reserve your special offer: Hstokes@ExpandingPotentials.Net or call:
360-837-3209 * 503-351-8021.

Find more articles at: www.ExpandingPotentials.net/resources.html

Recommended Reading:
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
Creating Money by Sanaya Roman

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By Holly Stokes, The Work Smart Wellness Coach

Do you feel like you are caught in the hamster wheel of life? Spinning your wheels and seeming to get nowhere? All too often, however, the good intentions we make with goals slowly fade and are gone within a week or two. If when you hear “goal setting” you think of hard work, Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s time to rethink your possibilities. We are living in a very exciting time, when the boundaries of our world are constantly being tested and redefined. Old ideas and beliefs about the world and who we are in it are rapidly changing and new possibilities are presenting themselves. There are examples of all extremes present in every facet of life. Even during times of recession, there are examples of those who are struggling as well as examples of those who are doing very well. The money doesn’t just go away Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to my blog,

I am passionate about sharing some of the best tools, strategies, and disciplines for personal change and living your best life now! You may also visit my website for more tools, audios, worksheets, articles and more at: www.ExpandingPotentials.net

Whether you are struggling with a specific problem or challenge (such as fear, anxiety, phobias) or just know that you’d like your life to be different, the field of practical psychology and personal change has never been better or more accessible! What we know of the human mind, brain patterning, human behavior, and more has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 20 years. Challenges that used to take years to recover from are now simply a matter of helping the brain create a new pattern or set up a new habit.  Here are the highlights of the best disciplines I’ve found and work with regularly, and their strengths.

Life Coaching: The field of Coaching is gaining popularity from corporations to the individual. Coaching is for those who would like to have clarity in what they want in life, or business, and stay focused with their goals and outcomes. Coaching is for well functioning clients who would like to increase their focus, performance, motivation, and live their best. I’ve often heard it said, “If you want a diagnosis, see a psychologist. If you want practical tools for moving your life forward, and staying focused on achieving your goals – hire a coach.”

Neuro-Linguistics: The field of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) began in the 1970’s as Psychology researchers John Grinder and Richard Bandler noticed there was a wide difference in the level of client results between psychologists. They decided to study some of the best psychologists, and most brilliant minds of the times, so that they would be able to break down what they were doing, and teach it to other people. What they discovered is the world of mental strategies, patterns of thinking and feeling, and how to work with such internal strategies to help clients create change easily. NLP has vast applications from replacing fears, phobias, anxiety, and negative thinking, to increasing focus, performance, motivation, and more! NLP is a field of study as well as practical strategies for making anything you do in life even better!

Hypnosis: Milton Erickson was one of the great Hypnotherapists of our time. It was often said that clients would simply sit down with Erickson while he told them  a story, and the client would walk away changed. Hypnosis engages the unconscious mind to helping the individual create the change they would like. Many people might be afraid of hypnosis because of the bad reputation from Hollywood. Hypnosis is simply a way of calming your own mind, being more aware of your own internal motivations, and moving yourself forward with greater awareness. Hypnosis has had amazing applications in the field of medicine, from speed healing, to replacing anaesthesia in surgery, increasing memory and focus, reducing addictions, compulsions, and cravings, and more! With recent advances, one can gain all the positive benefits of hypnosis while wide awake.

Thought Pattern Management: Robert Fletcher streamlined the processes of Hypnosis and NLP, and developed the approach with the insight that once the mind (or brain) learned to do something, it could apply that same strategy to other areas for greater growth, learning, healing, and more. Once the mind learned some new strategy or process, it could also speed it up and automate it. TPM allows people to shorten the time frame for healing, speed recovery, accelerate learning, create new habits, replace addictions, and much more. I’ve found it so useful in clearing up past negative events, I’ve incorporated it as session 1 in my Coaching. Clients have reported that depression, anxiety, old fears, past abuse, and more seem to just fade away as the mind learns and automates the strategy for resolving negative events.

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