The Come Alive Project

Category: Transformation

  • Energy Bite 281 – Your Virtual Reality System

    Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging trend. You put on a pair of special lenses and you feel and believe you are in another world.

    Did you know that you have your own built in Virtual Reality Systems? They are called your Imagination and your Subconscious Mind. Together, they are capable of doing a lot more than any commercial VR system available, to let you create and feel a new reality for yourself.

    You can activate the Imagination and Subconscious mind through a process known as Visualization. That’s nothing new, and it can work to help you stay Healthy, get Fit, and help slow down or stop the aging process. The best form of Visualization is what I term: “Multi-Sensory Visualization”.

    Multi-Sensory Visualization is creating the reality you want through ALL your physical senses, and can even include an emotional feeling as well. Most people use only the visual part of Visualization. I suppose that’s why it’s called visualization. It is often said that the subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between something vividly imagined, and something real.

     Authors Michael Murphy and the late George Leonard were both principles of the famous Esalen Institute in the California Big Sur Region, where many pioneers of the Human Potential Movement in the United States got their start.  In their excellent book, The Live We are Given, they listed the three elements of Exercise, Meditation and Visualization as the three essential ingredients for a long life of Healthful Vitality and Personal Energy.

    They are not alone. Many authors and personalities practice all three. Tony Robbins, tells about how he uses all three elements as part of his daily ritual to energize himself for his grueling weekend seminars.

    Bruce Lee the actor and martial artist told of how he used both meditation and visualization to both set and reach his goals, both as an actor and as a marital artist.

    Lindsay Vonn, the World Champion skier not only keeps mental images in her head, she physically and mentally visualizes the ski runs by shifting her weight back and forth, and simulates her breathing patterns, AS IF she were actually on skis.

    And Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of one of the more successful personal development books of all time, Psycho-Cybernetics, called using the imagination: “The theater of the mind”, and wrote that you can create your own mental movies of whatever you want your life to be, using this powerful tool.

    In my workshops for Seniors about discovering Your Own Fountain of Youth, you will learn and practice a form of guided, multi-sensory visualization – meditation, that will help motivate you toward adapting new physical movement, eating and breathing habits, making them an integral part of your personal identity.

    Some claim visualization to be a healing tool. While the medical science is still debating that, neuro-scientists are making new discoveries that seem to bear out the idea of healing through multi-sensory visualization and meditation techniques.

    Meditation and Visualizations are no longer reserved for practitioners of Eastern Philosophy or Yoga classes. They have become mainstream.  They are practiced as lifestyle tools by business leaders, champion athletes, musicians and other entertainers, and for the most part, anyone who wants the benefits of their own built in Virtual Reality system. Your imagination is a powerful tool.

    So why buy expensive Virtual Reality equipment when you already have it built into you —  your subconscious mind. It’s that part of you that vividly imagines the way your world can be. It sets the stage for your own future actions based on what your internal Virtual Reality system shows you is possible.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 201 – What Turns Off the Flow of Energy

    Two weeks ago, in Energy Bite 199, I wrote about what we know as Flow, and how powerful a mental and physical effect it has on the way you live your life, particularly as you get older.

    In his book, In the Flow of Life, author Eric Butterworth cites Emerson, who he said:  “had this consciousness of the flow of life which indwells each person as a Presence and which is forever bubbling forth through each person as a fountain.”

    So, when I talk to groups, I use the term “Fountain of Youth” or “The Flow of Life” or sometimes “Feeling Alive”, interchangeably. It’s a mental and physical state of being  that provides you with an abundance of health and personal energy. It’s that state of mind where you are fully alive . . . and are “bubbling forth as a fountain.”

    But sometimes the flow seems to shut off. Sometimes the energy leaves you. Sometimes you feel low, even depressed. What causes the flow to slow or stop?

    • Negative People, places and things. Whiners and complainers. Other people’s drama. When you are around them, they seem to drain the energy right out of you. Unpleasant surroundings can also sap your energy. The same with clutter and noise.
    • Fears and resentments.
    • Physical deterioration . . . POOR EXERCISE AND EATING HABITS. Even poor posture.
    • You don’t use the tools that keep your Fountain of Energy flowing . . . Movement, Good Food, Deep Breathing, Meditation, Visualization (mental imagery), and even Affirmations.
    • And finally, when you write your own story, you’ve let someone else “hold the pen”.

    And writing your own story? That’s how to turn the flow back on. That’s how to age with energy and to feel alive! And that’s the topic for next week . . .  Stay tuned.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 177 – A More Effective Motivator

    Last week I wrote about intrinsic motivation.  This week I’m taking it a little bit deeper.

    One of the biggest fears we have as we start go grow chronologically older is a loss of independence. Some see it as the specter of having our driver’s license taken away in a few years. Others see it simply as the fear of having to rely on others to do things for us. I’ll come back to this in a moment.

    When I have written in the past about Health, Fitness, Personal Energy and Motivation, it has been from an “if you do, if you don’t” perspective. I’ve said that, “If you don’t move your body the way nature intended, you will start to deteriorate. If you do move your body, you will be rewarded with good health and vitality.”

    But as I pointed out in last week’s weeks article, only one out of seven people actually take action to improve themselves, even after their doctor has told them they will die if they don’t take action.

    Thus, it appears that the old “carrot and stick” or “if, then” motivation model doesn’t work to get people to take responsibility for their Health, Fitness and Personal Energy.

    Since that may not be the best way to motivate people to action, what then will work?

    In their book, Bold, authors Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis  suggest that when the rewards are internal, emotional satisfactions, they are called “intrinsic rewards” and are the drivers of the intrinsic motivation I wrote about last week. They quote author and business thinker, Daniel Pink from his book Drive, as saying;

    “If, then” rewards are mostly invalid. But the third drive is most important: “. . . our deep seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to fill our life with purpose.”   In simple terms, these drives are:

    “Autonomy – desire to steer our own ship

    Mastery – desire to steer it well

    Purpose – the need for the journey to mean something.”

                — Bold, p. 79

    These intrinsic drives are the very motivators that activate us the most.

    That paints a different picture of the subject of motivation and reinforces what I suggested last week, that there is an intrinsic drive within some of us that inspires us to take action to do certain things.

    Since, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, losing independence is one of the main fears of seniors, and since the desire for Autonomy is a major motivator, then perhaps that is the direction we should be focusing on to inspire us to move our bodies, eat right and do those things we know we should be doing to keep us healthy, fit and filled with a profound zest for life. More on that another day.

    I would be interested in your comments on this. If you would care to comment, send them to bob@thecomealiveproject.com and write “motivation” in the subject line. I’ll read them all.

    And thank you for reading.