Tag: well-being

How to Manage Your Health Simply

Learning how to keep things simple is a desire we all can relate to. Whether it's containing the to-do list or not allowing the good things of life crowd out the great, we know simplicity is the best way to live.

I came across this article from the Wall Street Journal over the holidays and got me thinking about our seemingly endless pursuit of improvement. In the healthcare arena you have to applaud. It might save your life or mine! This post is not about slamming improvements in healthcare or otherwise, but to make you aware of the best improvements you can make that may trump science.

  1. Research the power of habits and how you can build good ones just like you can build bad ones. If you get this, clarity will want to take up residence in your life.
  2. Seriously consider what you put into your body and make sure it's as pure and healthy as possible. Not calling you to pursue perfection, just a daily consideration (your choices, your perspective on food). Don't think of what you can't have, think of the gift of your life.
  3. Get moving. Exercise is not about losing weight, looking like a model or having the best 5K time. Those things are by-products/results of the work. Yes, work! Again, don't think of what you will lose (time is an often used excuse). Focus on the gift of your life. As Dr. Michael Martin once told me, "God made our bodies to move."
  4. Manage your stress. Stress is not a question of if, it is a question of now. I use Yoga, I pray, I use self-talk to protect from giving in. Our lack of discipline in managing our stress is driving us over the edge.
  5. Create and manage your health plan. And, yes, that means not blindly doing or accepting what a physician/practitioner tells you to do. Educate, reflect and act. It's your life and no one else has been given the responsibility to manage it.

The goal is to do as much as you can to minimize your use of the healthcare system, beyond what is preventative in nature.

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Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

IPhone Photos 020

You know the old saying about real estate. Sing it with me: location, location, location. The idea applies to life, with a change in terms. The words should be: simplify, simplify, simplify.

Easy to write and not easy to do.

Most have become used to the complicated and harried. It's quite the addictive combination. Last time I checked, people are just trying to keep up. They fail to realize that the answer is in hand.

Simplify and learn to say no.

I understand that your brain and identity will work against you. For example, if you start saying no to people or organizations, what will they think of you? Does that make you feel awkward or insecure? You would not be an alien if you said yes to that question. Liberation doesn't come without a fight, but when it comes it will be worth the fight you gave.

Try it out, simplify one area of your life and say no to something or someone. Be polite and loving as you do this. Now, begin to hear your real life start to call your name.

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Sustainability

Father's Day 2010 009
Sustainability is an oft-used word that can conjure many different thougths. My use of sustainability in today's post is around your life-the living of it part.

I conducted a workshop a few weeks ago and by accident I heard a participant say they never eat breakfast. As if I'd seen someone's purse stolen, I immediately said, "that's not sustainable." After the awkward pause, I reassured the individual that the body cannot do what it was designed to do when we skip meals in the name of carrying on business. It's a design issue.

That's the point.

We in America (many other areas too) are very arrogant in the way we treat our lives. We play a dangerous game of pretend. In the game we say we're not harmed by ignoring our physical and mental health because we're successful. Usually, the success is connected to our careers and/or money. Nothing wrong with career and money, but they only make up a quarter of our lives-combined.

Every game of pretend comes to an end.

I've come to understand in my own journey that sustainability is a simple, and yet hard, principle. One's life can only be Epic when the entirety is integrated and aligned with. So take your whole life and pay attention to it everyday and make sure it's aligned properly. Think of your car when the wheels are out of alignment and what the fix is for that.

This is where we tend to get tripped up. The messages we hear everyday speak in contrary voices and we fail to choose what is best. For example:

  • "You're too old now, accept it"
  • "Out-work the competition and you'll reap the reward"
  • "You need this"
  • "Retirement"
  • "It's not your fault"

I could go on, but you get where I'm going with this. It would seem we're fighting a covert war in our own heads. I believe we are and it's a war that carries very high stakes. Don't think you can pretend your way out of it.

To bring it home, I know you're tired (many of you) and I know deep down you believe a sustainable Epic life matters. Stick with me and let me help you.

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How to Make the Most of Your Physical Health

I had a great breakthrough this week in the area of making the most of physical health. My endocrinologist for some time has wanted to put me on a statin to address my LDL cholesterol. My LDL was in a reasonable range for a normal (whatever that means) male my age. But I have Type 1 diabetes, so they treat all things heart-wise more aggressively. I don't need to write about the issues relating to heart disease and diabetes. Just the same, I did not want to do a statin for multiple reasons. The most important one was my desire to address the issue naturally. I have a great medical team that allows me to manage my health and they act as advisors. That helps a lot.

My LDL before last week's blood work was around 126, with a total number of 198. My current number is 102 and 186 respectively. Huge!

I will breakdown what I'm doing that has helped my cholesterol numbers and then some general stuff that is good to do overall.

Cholesterol

  1. Eating good fats from walnuts and almonds (serving size of a 1/4 cup each).
  2. 1-2 glasses of red wine (I pay attention to how the wine is crafted here. The longer the time for grape skins to be in contact with the juice, the better) per day. This book helped me a lot.
  3. I changed my workout routine about 5 months ago to high intensity interval training. I apply this in my running and strength training. This article explains the concept I use.

General

  1. Reduce the amount of refined sugar in my diet.
  2. Exercise every day.
  3. Find tools for stress relief
  4. Practice total life management. I've found this to be the key in finding balance and integration in life.
  5. Know God.

In the end, my body and mind is not your body and mind. I've only written about what has worked for me. Here's to your health.

The Crossroads of 2012

Where do you find yourself in the early part of 2012? I realize we're in the infancy of the year, but as I've noted before, things can take shape quickly. Are you at a crossroads?

Crossroads are very much like earthquakes.  As with the earthquake, much is shaken, rattled and removed. The elements are good and bad, happy and sad, danger and opportunity. This can be vexing in a culture where we often only want the good stuff, or so we think.

Maybe this is the year to re-define.

The crossroads of 2012 will certainly look different to you than for me. But one thing is certain, your response to it will be the difference-maker. You carry a responsibility that is inescapable. This is a good thing.

You Don’t Want What the One-Percent Have

Dollar

With all due respect to the Occupy Wall Streetcrowd, you don't want what the one-percent have.  Our country is so fixated on material wealth.  Ironic, since it's that same type of wealth responsible for our ills (at least the majority).  Material wealth is not the problem.  Material wealth can be a good thing if you know how to manage it.  Sadly, most do not.  As the old saying goes, "we have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us."

If we stopped for a moment and took a look at the well-being of the one-percent, we might be shocked at what their true wealth is.

I am not advocating poverty.  I don't want any family to do without.  But I do want you to be wealthy beyond measure with your relationship with your family. with God, with your physical health, and more.

The one-percent are to be pitied, not envied.

Creating the New Wealth

Much discussion in my country right now about wealth and its creation. I'm for the new type of wealth creation. A type of creation that makes you rich beyond your dreams. Sadly, we seem to be fixated on material wealth. As if material wealth could really solve our deepest problems and desires.

You should create wealth in the following areas:

Wheel of Life 3 Small

Don't believe the hype from marketers and politicians. Those in the "wealthy one-percent" often have a true wealth index at or below the poverty line. Look at the wheel again and ask yourself what kind of wealth do you really want to create.

Go for the new wealth and find true well-being.

While the Kids Get Older

Kid playing

From time-to-time I wonder about how present I've been with my kids.  As a parent it's so easy to be waited down by the cares and struggles of life.  You might call them distractions of the most insidious form.  Whether a career moving in an unpredictable fashion or a fractured relationship with a friend.  The siege guns roaring at you.  They never seem to stop do they?  In the end, tt doesn't matter because time just keeps moving and you wonder how you got where you find yourself.

As my kids have gotten older, my parenting approach has changed.  In some arenas I'm more of a teacher.  In some areas I'm just a father with no words, just listening.  When you watch the change in yourself it reminds you of the brevity of this window you have to influence.  And though influence never fully goes away, these are the "wonder" years.  As things go, my daughter who is almost a teen, received the holiday edition of the American Girl catalog last week.  When she arrived home from school that day, I asked her if she wanted the catalog.  Part of me knew she would refuse, but another part of me hoped she wouldn't.  Of course she did refuse and I stared at the catalog with a bit of melancholy thinking of girl that had merged into someone new.

The someone new requires flexing and change.  It really forces me to move to the new, even if I'd prefer the old.  This is a good thing.  A way in which God uses to get me out of the land meant only for my memories.  Isn't that what we're supposed to be?  This unfolding story with highs and lows, smiles and tears.  And so I go onward.

I have figured out and accepted that I can't slow it all down.  No unhealthy levels of nostalgia.  A sense that it would be better to learn how to handle riding a fast and unpredictable horse.  And as I learn this art, I can love, listen and influence.  And for a boy that had a father that didn't say much of anything at all, I'd say that's a pretty good place to be.

How Meaningful Work Can Create Havoc

Havoc

Some would say that meaningful work stands in direct opposition to the structure of many organizations-specifically large organizations.  I would say it can create havoc.  And that might be a good thing.

I know you might be thinking havoc brings destruction and loss.  Correct. But the main point is found in how humans are wired versus the often insane motivations of the organization or business model.  It seems to me we're seeing the unraveling that is inevitable when the goals of the company run counter to basic human wiring. 

We're talking the desire for meaning and meaningful work. Not dreaming with no action, but the core of who we are.

I've talked to many a pragmatists who've told me to be realistic and not get lost in all of the soft stuff.  Most of the time these folks are just not willing to see what is very difficult to face. In other words, the train wreck we're grappling with in so many parts of the world.  The damage is so evident and many are not quite sure what to do. 

I saw this coming over ten years ago, some of you even further back.  Now we have a hunger to get life right.  In many ways, we want a place where well-being is balanced and intact.  Though we're struggling with the aftermath of years of neglect-individually and corporately.  It's as if we got drunk on profit, competition and the desire to succeed.  And in-turn, we wounded (sometimes mortally) the very group that makes all of the right form of the latter possible.

People.