It was 1978 and in the years that would follow, Dean Hovey would meet with Steve Jobs and design the first mouse for Apple Computer. But today, he was a junior at Stanford University, majoring in Product Design, and he was sitting in drawing class.

His professor, Jan Molenkamp, asked if Dean could draw the roof of Stanford’s famous Hoover Tower from memory. “Without looking, can you draw Hoover Tower’s roof? Can you recall its shape, color, and texture?”

Hovey was surprised. He wasn’t sure what to draw. Years later, he would write…

For the past three years, I had been a student at the University and ridden my bicycle or walked by Hoover Tower hundreds of times. Yet I couldn’t confidently state the roof’s shape or its color, or composition. While I’d seen it a hundred times — I really hadn’t.

Even though Hoover Tower was part of Dean’s daily life, he wasn’t really aware of it.

I find that our habits often work the same way. We fall into certain patterns and routines — sometimes good, sometimes bad — without really being aware of the factors that are driving our choices and actions.

More importantly, just as Dean Hovey couldn’t draw the tower without first being aware of it, you and I can’t master our habits without first being aware of the decisions and actions we are taking on a daily basis. Awareness is the first and most critical piece for building good habits and breaking bad ones. Without awareness, even the most intelligent and talented people can struggle to make the right decisions on a consistent basis.

This may have you wondering…

What can you do to raise your levels of awareness? How can you change your bad habits if you’re not aware of them in the first place?

Again, I don’t claim to have all the answers, but here is one tactic that has worked for me…

For Better Habits, Measure Something

"What gets measured, gets managed." Peter Drucker

If you’re serious about making change, then you can’t sit around and hope to magically become aware of the important things. Instead, you need to make an active effort to measure and track what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

This is much simpler than you might think and it’s also one of the best ways to kickstart new behaviors. Here are a few examples…

Exercise 

I have a good streak going with weightlifting right now. I’ve trained at least once per week for over a year (which includes travel to Istanbul, Moscow, Italy, South Carolina, Portland, and a handful of other places). And for the last four months in particular, I have been in the gym at least 3 times per week.

It all started when I began tracking my pushup workouts. That simple action prompted me to track the rest of my training with a more watchful eye. It sounds so simple, but writing down how many days I was training each week helped me get my butt in the gym more consistently. (And along the way, I doubled the amount of pushups I could do.)

Writing 

Before November 2012, I thought that I was writing consistently, but I wasn’t. Eventually, I decided to measure my writing output and realized that I was unpredictable and erratic. I wrote when I felt motivated or inspired, which turned out to be about once every three weeks.

After becoming aware of how inconsistent I was, I decided to set up a Monday and Thursday publishing schedule. It’s been 10 months now and I haven’t missed a week. (You can look back in the archives and see every article I’ve written.) My Monday and Thursday posts might look like an old habit now, but the only reason I started writing on this schedule is because I measured my output and discovered my inconsistency.

Money and Business

According to many historians, John Rockefeller was the richest man in the history of the world. Recently, I read about his life and learned that Rockefeller was known for tracking every single penny across his massive empire. After reading about Rockefeller’s strategies, I was inspired to track my own finances even more closely.

What happened? I quickly became more aware of my finances and discovered a handful of places where I could cut costs and increase earnings. Furthermore, my increased tracking and measurement has helped me learn about things like tax efficiency and asset allocation, which I had previously thought very little about.

Notice that in each example above, I didn’t start by worrying about all the improvements I needed to make. I simply started by becoming more aware of my behavior. I tracked and measured. And by paying attention to what I was doing and how I was spending my time, ideas for improving my habits naturally presented themselves.

Your Challenge

"It is all about paying attention" Dean Hovey

Nothing happens before awareness. If you aren’t aware of your decisions, then you can’t do anything to improve them — no matter how smart you are.

With that in mind, I’d like to challenge you to measure something in your life for the next week.

Pick something that is important to you and make an effort to be more aware of the things that drive your decisions and actions. Don’t worry about changing your whole life. Don’t judge yourself for not being as good as you want to be. Just pick one thing that’s important to you and measure it. Take stock of it. Be aware of it.

Your awareness and your habits go hand-in-hand. The simple act of noticing what you do is the first step for improving how you do it. If you recognize how you’re spending your time, then the next step will often reveal itself.

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James Clear

The moment draws open as time itself seems to dilate… somehow the very second you’re living in seems to drip by in a languid, lethargic way… you focus, simultaneously, on everything unfolding around you… aware of so much, and thinking so little… suddenly your sense of self seems to simply dissolve as your awareness and your actions merge magically into one synchronized, intuitive, and creative moment.

You’re in the flow. You are about to make the shot, sink the put, break through your long-standing personal record, finesse the sale, finalize the project, create your masterpiece, accomplish any of your lovely life achievements.

Science has begun to seek out the ‘stuff’ that makes these flow moments so special. They’ve studied, tested, and teased out the components in an effort to understand how, when and why they happen.

Their efforts have led to a definition. Flow is ‘an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best,’ which would lead us to believe that an experience of feeling the ‘flow’ would be as different and unique as we are. Not true! Further exploration revealed there are a few qualities that appear in almost all experiences of flow, from increased concentration and improved creativity to non-linear timelines. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (check out his amazing TED talk), who coined the term ‘flow’ in scientific jargon, relates the experience as being one where

Ego falls away. Time Flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

Probably the most poignant quality to pervade the ‘flow’? Most people speak directly to a loss of sense of self, or self-consciousness! In essence, when you are in the flow you feel an overwhelming sense of oneness and unity. You are co-creator and created all at once. Your performance peaks, your intuition ignites, and your creativity soars.

Why is the Flow so Phenomenal?

In a recent study run in Australia, 40 research subjects were presented with an exceptionally tricky brain teaser—the kind that requires a deep creative insight to solve. No one solved it. But when ‘in the flow’, 23 subjects got the answer right and in record time! In a study run by the Flow Genome Project, the same result was found: people reported being 700% more creative in flow!

As Steven Kotler puts it,

Flow is a thoroughly transformational experience. A considerable pile of research shows that on the other side of the state, we’re more confident, capable and aware….top executives reported being five times more productive in flow. This means, if you spend Monday in flow, you can actually take the rest of the week off and still get more done that your steady-state peers.

Even better, the people who have the most flow in their lives are the happiest people on Earth.

How Do You Find the Flow?

The Physiology of ‘Oneness’

The idea of experiencing a loss of ego, self, or self-consciousness isn’t necessarily unique to the being in, or feeling, the ‘flow.’ In fact, it is a hallmark quality of other practices like intense athleticism, meditation, prayer, and even deep sleep. What, you may ask, do all of these activities have in common? The answer lies in the pre-frontal cortex.

mind imageDuring these activities our bodies begin to experience a sense of deep calm, shifting sublimely from a fight/flight/freeze sympathetic state where our lizard brain runs the show (read more about how to assuage your lizard brain here) and towards the nourishing parasympathetic neurology. This bathes our higher brain in a proverbial flood of new blood and neuro-chemicals. Our pre-frontal cortex becomes less hyper-active, decreasing our sense of ego and self, while our dorso-lateral pre-frontal cortex (the seat of self-constructed limits, doubt, and criticism) stops its hyperactivity entirely. The increased blood flow and decreased tension result in an increased awareness, a sensation of one-ness, and a profound increase in courage and creativity.

The Power of an Entrainment

Network Spinal Analysis, like deep meditation, sleep, and spiritual practices also increases blood flow to the frontal cortex while subtly disengaging the stressed fight/flight/freeze neurology. By finding places of access, resource, and ease, and connecting to them your body can begin to unwind and entrain the tender, tight, and stuck places in your spine. You will begin to bring brand new blood to your higher brain centers, allowing you to achieve a new state of oneness.

We, too, can help you feel your flow!

Its estimated that as little as 5% of the entire population of the world experiences any ‘flow states’! 

Article by Dr. Nicole

Source : Wellbeing Centre 

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Music is a common phenomenon that crosses all borders of nationality, race, and culture. A tool for arousing emotions and feelings, music is far more powerful than language. An increased interest in how the brain processes musical emotion can be attributed to the way in which it is described as a “language of emotion” across cultures. Be it within films, live orchestras, concerts or a simple home stereo, music can be so evocative and overwhelming that it can only be described as standing halfway between thought and phenomenon.

But why exactly does this experience of music distinctly transcend other sensory experiences? How is it able to evoke emotion in a way that is incomparable to any other sense?

Music can be thought of as a type of perceptual illusion, much the same way in which a collage is perceived. The brain imposes structure and order on a sequence of sounds that, in effect, creates an entirely new system of meaning. The appreciation of music is tied to the ability to process its underlying structure — the ability to predict what will occur next in the song. But this structure has to involve some level of the unexpected, or it becomes emotionally devoid.

Skilled composers manipulate the emotion within a song by knowing what their audience’s expectations are, and controlling when those expectations will (and will not) be met. This successful manipulation is what elicits the chills that are part of any moving song.

Music, though it appears to be similar to features of language, is more rooted in the primitive brain structures that are involved in motivation, reward and emotion. Whether it is the first familiar notes of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” or the beats preceding AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” the brain synchronizes neural oscillators with the pulse of the music (through cerebellum activation), and starts to predict when the next strong beat will occur. The response to ‘groove’ is mainly unconscious; it is processed first through the cerebellum and amygdala rather than the frontal lobes.

Music involves subtle violations of timing and, because we know through experience that music is not threatening, these violations are ultimately identified by the frontal lobes as a source of pleasure. The expectation builds anticipation, which, when met, results in the reward reaction.

More than any other stimulus, music has the ability to conjure up images and feelings that need not necessarily be directly reflected in memory. The overall phenomenon still retains a certain level of mystery; the reasons behind the ‘thrill’ of listening to music is strongly tied in with various theories based on synesthesia.

When we are born, our brain has not yet differentiated itself into different components for different senses – this differentiation occurs much later in life. So as babies, it is theorized that we view the world as a large, pulsing combination of colors and sounds and feelings, all melded into one experience – ultimate synesthesia. As our brains develop, certain areas become specialized in vision, speech, hearing, and so forth.

Professor Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist and composer, unpacks the mystery of the emotion in music by explaining how the brain’s emotional, language and memory centers are connected during the processing of music – providing what is essentially a synesthetic experience. The extent of this connection is seemingly variable among individuals, which is how certain musicians have the ability to create pieces of music which are brimming with emotional quality, and others simply cannot. Be it classics from the Beatles and Stevie Wonder or fiery riffs from Metallica and Led Zeppelin, the preference for a certain type of music has an effect on its very experience. It could be this heightened level of experience in certain people and musicians that allows them to imagine and create music that others simply cannot, painting their very own sonic image.

Article by MALINI MOHANA
Source: Psych Central
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Well Being is about a whole lot more than spinning and super foods. It’s about a shift in thinking that weaves the principles of healthy living into our every day, impacting everything from how we dress and move to what we eat.

Empowered by this dimensionality, STORY has teamed up with Yahoo to explore the many facets of not just being, but being well. Drawing on Yahoo’s depth of expertise in the realms of Health, Beauty, Food, Style, Tech, Travel, and Parenting, we’ve co-created an editorialized experience where the likes of Beauty’s Bobbi Brown, Style’s Joe Zee, and Tech’s David Pogue will show and tell you how to be at your very best.

Editors have curated items they swear by – from ALOHA’s daily greens powder to Magic Carpet Yoga Mats’ hand painted mats – and will be taking part in the STORY through a series of events – from a heart opening yoga class and a refreshing discussion with Bobbi Brown to a cardio dance party. How will you be the STORY?


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This Is Story | Online Publishing. 

Affirmations are an amazing tool that are underrated in my opinion. I have benefited exceptionally from repeating affirmations even though it took me a few years to decide to write some out! I thought why not, there is   nothing to lose!

When you say an affirmation you are sending a message to your unconscious mind and the universe. You are focussing your attention to what you want, rather than what you don’t want and your unconscious mind and the universe will then go towards bringing to you that which you are asking for. It may sound too good to be true, but it works as long as you practice! Your unconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between your reality and your imagination. Affirmations are a great way of re-programming and focussing your mind so you can eliminate negative patterns of behavior. When you know how to work the unconscious mind, you can do so much with it. Hence why I love to use NLP with my clients when they come to me for help!

Self love is something which we should all be working towards. Without self love you will find that you will always be looking externally for a solution to the way you feel. All negative states point to a lack of self love.

So here are some affirmations to get you going, you can change and adjust them to fit your personal journey, just make sure you keep them positive and avoid mentioning anything negative. Make sure you repeat them daily, sometimes I say them 3 times in a row, once a day. You can say them in the morning or at night. Also you can write your affirmations for any particular area in your life, perhaps a weight issue, work issue or to simply manifest your desires! It’s good fun to play around with them!

1. I love my body and all it does for me.
2. I let go of negative self talk.
3. My life is a place of balance and harmony.
4. I am always doing the best I know how.
5. I let go of people who do not have my best interests at heart.
6. I forgive any guilt at all times.
7. I am growing and learning each day.
8. I send love to my fears and feel confident in my ability.
9. I stay balanced when others behave in an unbalanced way.
10. I appreciate my life and satisfaction comes to me with ease

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CAROLINE RUSHFORTH | Mind Body Green

Imagine you have a huge mental burden that you could release if you chose to, but you opt to instead hold onto it even as you write your novel or create an art peace.  

If you can write a novel while maintaining your mental burden, that means you have amazing self-discipline!

But here’s the thing: Are you really still holding onto your mental burden if you’re writing a novel simultaneously?

The answer is actually no.

While that mental burden may still be in your head on some level, you’ve obviously chosen to let it go. If you were actually holding onto the mental burden with all your might, writing your novel wouldn’t be possible.

Self-discipline, then, is less about brute force and more about letting go.

Self-discipline is actually a form of relaxation.

Great people let things go

Anyone who reaches greatness has mastered the art of letting go.

Great athletes, great writers, great bloggers, great parents, all of them, without exception, are masters at letting go regardless of whether they’re aware of it or not.

An example of letting go: currently I’m writing my sixth blog post this week. If I loathed the idea of copious writing and actually held onto that notion, this blog post wouldn’t have been written.

Letting go doesn’t mean the absence of resistance to accomplish; it means letting go of resistance and focusing your mind elsewhere.

When you let go of something you’re no longer at the mercy of its influence. What you let go of can no longer direct your path.

Truth is, if you’ve ever done something in the face of resistance, whether you were aware of it or not, you chose to let go of that resistance.

Self-discipline is the art of choosing what to be attached to and what to be detached from.

Some examples of letting go in action

Someone succeeding on a diet lets go of his “need” for unhealthy foods.
Someone succeeding in writing an annoying research paper lets go of his perception that it’s a dreadful project.
An athlete who surprisingly made it to professional sports has not only chosen to let go of everyone who said he couldn’t do it, but he’s also chosen to let go of his own internal voices that said he couldn’t do it.
Next time you’re struggling to overcome something, try thinking of it as more an act of letting go than an act of brute strength to overcome and see where that takes you.


Article by Bamboo Forest
Source: Tick Tock Timer
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The expert builders and athletes at The Vanilla Workshop have released their newest bike, the 2015 SpeedVagen Urban Racer. Simple, sketchy, and fun, the bike is in a class all its own. It was designed to be uncomplicated and carefree from top to bottom, complete with a coaster brake for maximum “skidability” and minimum distraction. The automatically shifting internal two-speed SRAM hub makes for an overall simple design and adds to the bike’s intended rough-around-the-edges fun. 

While the larger wheel and tire size make it feel like it can ride almost anywhere, the bike still has the sleek and lightweight frame of a racer. The chain guard is designed in-house, made from super light stainless steel. Although the Urban Racer is a lot more than a commuter bike or grocery-getter, the designers want people to be able to dash across the city without attracting attention. Stripped of any flashy graphics or bright colors, the pure and simple Urban Racer can be your secret weapon.

Vanilla’s Sacha White describes it best as “A light bike that has some good volume to the tires, has a minimalist, modern, sexy design and above all is something that I totally want to SHRED on… I think about this bike when I’m not riding it. ” Order your own, or check out some more SpeedVagen made-to-order bikes.

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Gesatto Blog

The influence of inspiration on well-being was examined in 4 studies. 

In Study 1, experimental manipulation of exposure to extraordinary competence increased positive affect, and inspiration accounted for this effect. In Study 2, trait inspiration predicted an increase in positive hedonic and eudaimonic well-being variables (positive affect, life satisfaction, vitality, and self-actualization) across a 3-month period, even when the Big 5 traits, initial levels of all well-being variables, and social desirability biases were controlled. 

In Study 3, both trait inspiration and personal goals inspiration predicted increases in positive well-being variables across a 3-month period. In contrast, well-being did not predict longitudinal change in inspiration. Study 4, a diary study, extended the relation between inspiration and well-being to the within-person level of analysis.

For given individuals, variations in inspiration across mornings predicted variations in evening levels of positive well-being variables. These effects were mediated by purpose in life and gratitude. These studies provide converging evidence that inspiration enhances well-being and document 2 parallel mediating processes.

Information supplied by College of William and Mary, Department of Psychology
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Everyone knows that athletes must plan and time their meals and snacks very carefully to reach their performance goals. But what about the rest of us? You try to squeeze in 30-60 minutes of exercise most days of the week. Do you have to be careful about what you eat before and after your workouts, too?

Usually not. If you’re eating a healthy diet and getting enough calories to support your activity level, you can probably rely on your own appetite, energy levels, and experience to tell you whether you need to eat anything before or after exercise and what it should be. The basic rule here is: Find out what works best for you, and do that.

There are some advantages to knowing how your body works and what it needs to perform at its best. The bottom line for healthy weight loss and fitness sounds simple: You have to eat fewer calories than you use up—but not fewer than your body needs to function at its best.

The size, timing, and content of your pre- and post-exercise meals and snacks can play an important role in your energy levels during your workout, how well your body recovers and rebuilds after your workout, and whether the calories you eat will be used as fuel or stored as fat. Here’s what you need to eat and drink to get the results you want!

Your Pre-Exercise Fluid Needs

Being well-hydrated will make your exercise easier and more effective. Try to drink 16-20 ounces of water during the 1-2 hours before starting your workout.

Your Pre-Exercise Meal or Snack

News flash: Most of the fuel you use during exercise doesn’t come from the food you’ve recently eaten! It actually comes from the carbohydrates (called “glycogen”) and fat that’s stored in your muscles, liver, and fat cells. That’s enough to fuel 1-2 hours of very intense exercise or 3-4 hours of moderate intensity exercise.

This means that if your overall diet is adequate to keep your fuel tanks topped off, you may not need to eat anything before you work out. So, if eating before exercise upsets your stomach or you like to exercise first thing in the morning or at a time when eating first isn’t convenient, don’t feel like eating first is a must.

Some people do have a hard time exercising without eating first, especially if it’s been a long time since their last meal or snack. These individuals often are more sensitive to changes in their blood sugar levels, which fall during the first 15-20 minutes of workout. That drop in blood sugar can cause tiredness, mild dizziness, or even faintness—especially if your blood sugar was already low, but eating something beforehand can help prevent this. If you have health issues like diabetes or hypoglycemia that can cause low blood sugar, you’ll probably want to eat before your workout. If you get very hungry during a workout (and it interferes with your energy levels or focus), or become so ravenous after an exercise session that you end up overeating, try eating before you hit the gym to avoid these problems.

When it comes to gearing up for workout, carbs are your gym BFF. The key is to have a mixed bag of complex and simple ones so that the release of energy during your workout is slow and steady throughout your routine. Whole-wheat toast with fruit gives you both types of carbs with the bonus of being super easy to digest. Complex carbs will keep your motor humming, while the fruit adds an extra kick of energy. For those training for a race, bananas are perfect in raising potassium levels, which drop when you sweat a lot. For an added bonus, add a dash of cinnamon. The spice has been linked to stabilizing blood sugar and improving brain function.

Article by Dean Anderson

Source: Spark People

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