Chapman The Pocket Life Coach

Coach Yourself to Health and Happiness
1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-1-84590-637-5
Verlag: Crown House Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

None of us have all the answers all of the time, especially when it comes to our own life. We all need a little objective guidance from time to time when we want to improve or change something about ourselves and our lives. It is not always easy to find someone who has the ability to help us change for the better and one thing is for sure, no-one is going to do it for us. This workbook is your tool, your very own pocket life coach to help you rediscover the healthiest, most productive, positive and creative you.

Pete Chapman, a Lincolnshire farm boy had dreams of making it big and became British Bodybuilding Champion in 1991. After breaking his drug dependency and body obsession, he studied yoga, nutrition, philosophy and many other healing arts and this led to his own radio fitness show. He has run a gym, trained professional athletes and has worked with youth groups to develop drug rehab and wellness programmes. Now living and working in the US, Pete mentors and trains teenagers to be healthy and successful.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chapman, Peter

Leseproben

Chapter Two

Making the Best Of It. A Better Life

THE PUZZLE OF LIFE

We all have the potential to have a great life but it is up to us to make it happen. Life is like a picture made up of pieces just like a jigsaw puzzle. When we get all the pieces and put them together in their right places we see and appreciate the complete picture. The way we live our lives and the choices we make determine what kind of picture we create and it depends on the pieces we put into it. To be prepared for life we must know what is good for us (the pieces) and how to organise our time so that we can put in the pieces in the right way. This way we ensure that we get the most out it because we have put into it the best that we can. It’s simple. The more of our needs we have met in our life (pieces of the puzzle), the happier, healthier and more successful we are. These are the more important pieces of the puzzle.

Your mind needs:

1. Progress – We don’t need perfection just progress. Try to see some progress and achievement (however small) each week.
2. Goals – Set realistic ones, keep them up-to-date, and review them regularly.
3. Organisation – Plan the next day the evening before.
4. Problems/Challenge – This is how you grow and learn.
5. Achievement – We all need to feel useful and productive.
6. Reading and Learning – Expand your mind like a muscle. Read regularly. Learn a new skill.
7. Rules and Boundaries – Sometimes we need to be disciplined in our lives so that we can contain and focus our energies and perform at our best.
8. Relaxation – As much as the mind needs to be worked, it also needs to relax and stop thinking. Learn to be passive sometimes and take time out regularly.
   (see the Healthy Mind section on pages 90–93 for full list)

Your body needs:

1. Oxygen – Oxygen heals and revitalises the body and mind. Exercise and breathing exercises are required regularly.
2. Water – You need a minimum of eight glasses per day.
3. Nutrition – Three nutritious meals and a snack per day.
4. Sleep – Seven to nine hours depending on your body. Relaxation and stretching before bed helps restful sleep.
5. Exercise – More than necessary for the maintenance of physical abilities and energy ?ow, a celebration of being ?t and alive!
6. Stretching – Good health depends on good posture and being free of muscular tension.
7. Hygiene – Keep yourself and your environment clean for good health.
8. Touch/Hugs/Massage – It’s all good. Make it loving and fun!
   (see body section on pages 50 – 51 for rest of list)

Your inner self needs:

1. Inspiration – Seek out regular inspiration, books, music, church, friends and mentors. We all need a boost.
2. Appreciation – Appreciate what you have, everything is a gift.
3. Truth – Be honest with yourself and others – you will be rewarded. Stand in your own truth and you will be empowered.
4. Freedom – Don’t get tied down too much. Along with your health, your freedom of choice is your greatest asset.
5. Laughter/Fun – Be light and don’t take life too seriously. Try to laugh and have fun every day.
6. Friends/Family/Love – We all need love and support. The more you love yourself, the more love you will receive.
7. Forgiveness – Release your negative pain by forgiving yourself and others for their mistakes. Your health suffers greatly from carrying this burden around.
8. Nature/Beauty – Food for the soul. All of Creation is beautiful and we are all connected.
9. Hope – When all hope is lost, so are we. (see spirituality section on pages 127–129 for full list)

Missing Pieces

Our problems begin when we live out of balance, make poor choices and manage our time badly so that some of the pieces of that puzzle are missing. Some are felt more than others such as the basics like good nutrition, water and sleep. We can get away with missing pieces some of the time, but if we want to be really happy and healthy and realise our potential, we must try to complete the picture. Our missing needs create a kind of void which, because we live twenty-four hours a day, will be ?lled by something. That something is usually an excess of some kind like too much work, food, TV, computers or booze or other things. So it is not necessarily what we do that harms us, it is what we don’t do that creates the space for excess, obsession and addiction. So the message here is this; Do something new, needed and positive instead of too much of the same old thing! The more needs we miss regularly, the less balanced, healthy, productive, patient and loving we are. We also become more susceptible to stress, negative thinking and illness and this, in turn, leads to more unhelpful choices. This is how we ‘create’ our own dif?culties and problems much of the time.

WELLBEING, IMMUNITY AND LONGEVITY

Along with an outline of our potential, this book attempts to de?ne a general recipe for optimum wellbeing that ?ts us all. We are all human beings and, as such, we have our requirements to function at our best just like all living things. And not just living things. It is the same way even with machines. If you don’t maintain a mechanical object, it too will perform poorly and is liable to break down prematurely. We too need to be maintained but we need more than that. We need to grow, become ?tter and more dynamic so that we can take on all that life has to offer. The closer we get to achieving this state of balance and strength, the more resilient our immune systems become and the more smoothly our bodies perform. This not only translates into a better quality of life, but a longer and happier life.

This sounds simple, and it is, but we make life dif?cult for ourselves because of our choices. We often get distracted from what we know is good for us and forget the things we need to do to get our health and vitality back up again. So, in addition to this book being a guide to your wellbeing and personal potential it is also a roadmap to guide you back to health if you have mislaid it somewhere along life’s rocky highway. It can serve as a self-healing system, if you like. Whatever your shortcoming or problem, you must believe that your natural and true state of wellbeing and vitality is waiting to be rediscovered. It is just a matter of returning to the balance you need and getting your crucial requirements met. Only you can really heal yourself because, ultimately, it is down to you and your choices. You are mainly responsible for your health as well as your longevity. The choices you make, the way you spend your time, directly affect the state of your relative health and happiness.

We all have to ?nd our own way towards wellness and ful?llment. Some of us just need a little more guidance than others. You may just have a key to a better future now. So what is it going to be? Are you going to accept it, use it and live it? Or are you going to let another opportunity for growth and genuine progress slip by? The choice is yours, as always.

BALANCED LIVING

Balance is strength, a sure footing for success. A healthy life is a balanced life. Balance in the context of health means living your life in a way that meets your needs holistically, i.e. mentally, physically and emotionally; creating an environment for optimum wellbeing, vitality and ful?llment. How we spend our time and our general attitude to life, determines our state of balance and wellbeing. Unfortunately, we often live life out of balance. With a lack of basic knowledge, busy schedules, pressures and distractions we miss out on doing some of the things which are vital for maintaining our wellbeing. We need to get back to living in balance to make sure that our life is not only healthy and sustainable but also ful?lling. The simple way to check is to look at the list of needs and see how many you are missing out on regularly. Some will be more important than others such as drinking enough water, eating good food or getting suf?cient exercise or relaxation. You may be spending too much time on some things like TV or boozing in the pub instead of reading or outdoor pursuits. There is a time for everything. It is just a matter of knowing what things need to be accounted for in your schedule and then planning accordingly. The message here is; Get what you need, ?nd your natural balance and return to your better self. You will ?nd life easier and more fun!

Work/Life Balance

It is not always easy in a busy life full of demands on our time and resources to know the best way to divide and manage our time. The upcoming section on time management should help you begin the process of organising your time as best as you can. Let’s start with a few basic ideas. We know we need to sleep for eight hours a night or a third of our lives. Sleep is one of our most important needs. This leaves two thirds or sixteen hours a day to do with what we wish, or think we should do, or have to do. It is impossible to satisfy all our needs by working all the time and equally impossible to do the same if you are playing and relaxing. So we do have to ?gure out some way to balance all this up. We struggle to make sense of life today because we can’t ?nd the balance between these three major elements of our lives and continue to spend excessive time on what we think we should be doing, and not what we ‘need’ to be doing for our wellbeing.

We all need to work and feel...