Good vs. Bad

Life is all about choices. Take the recently completed presidential election. Millions of Americans were offered a ballot filled with multiple choices. From those choices, we analyze, ponder, discuss, weigh the pros and cons, then make our selections. While a national election is a major event that challenges our decision-making prowess, the personal choices we all make every day of our lives are equally, if not more, important.

One of the reoccurring messages I advocate on this blog and my video site, livelife365.com, is taking personal accountability for your actions. Part of being personally accountable is making choices. Often, this is not as easy as it seems (think back to all those propositions or initiatives, along with the multiple candidates on that ballot, calling to you on election day.) As with many of the options confronting us this past Tuesday, many of them are good, while just as many are bad. Same can be said about our own life choices.

Livelife365 is all about choices, hopefully helping to assist you in making the right choices for improving your life by offering entertaining blog posts and videos that show fun ways that can change your life for the better.

While recovering from my recent shoulder surgery, I have not been able to exercise as much as I normally do. I have also cut myself some slack (or maybe it’s just the Vicodin talking) and have indulged in some unhealthy snacking. Choices. Some good and some bad. The end results of those personal choices is that I’ve gained a few unwanted pounds that I do not like, but know that I will eventually drop. How do I know this? Because I will utilize the same healthy eating and fitness practices that helped me lose two pounds a week and keep that weight off for years.

I will make GOOD CHOICES.

Here is a video I created that demonstrates, in a fun and entertaining way, some good and bad choices confronting us in our daily lives.

GOOD MIKE VS. BAD MIKE



Some anticipated questions, along with my answers, about the above video:

Q: Were you really smoking?
A: No, those were fake cigarettes that my wife bought for Halloween.
Q: Were you really drinking?
A: No, just pretending. I’ve not tasted alcohol since 1992.
Q: Were you really eating those Doritos?
A: Yes…and they were good!
Q: What’s with you and that wig?
A: I Miss My Hair
Q: How’s the shoulder?
A: Sill painful, but getting better every day.


Life is all about choices, some good and some bad. We all have the power to make the right choices that can help us live a healthier, happier, longer, and more rewarding life.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

The Collector

Whenever someone visits my home, one of the first things out of their mouth is, “Wow, read much?” Or something along those words. Why? Picture a library, with furniture—not library furniture (desks and chairs), but living room, bedroom, dining room furniture—and you have a snapshot of my house (“our” house—mine and my lovely wife’s, who besides being wonderful in countless ways, is a saint for allowing me to turn much of our home into a book lovers paradise).


I am a collector. Not just books, but a collector of many things collectible.

Is this a bad thing? A form of some obsessive/compulsive disorder?

Here is the Mayo Clinic description of Obsessions:

Obsessions are repeated, persistent, unwanted ideas, thoughts, images or impulses that you experience involuntarily and that appear to be senseless. These obsessions typically intrude when you're trying to think of or do other things.

And for compulsions:

Compulsions are repetitive behaviors that you feel driven to perform. These repetitive behaviors are meant to prevent or reduce anxiety or distress related to your obsessions.

I can relate to my collecting the words—repeating, persistent and repetitive. But not “unwanted ideas or images”—I WANT to collect. Does my desire to visit bookstores intrude on my thoughts when trying to do other things? Sure, at times, but that’s not a BAD thing, is it? Do I feel driven to collect? Again, sure, at times. And, again, not a bad thing…is it? Does collecting help reduce anxiety or distress? Ahh, some good news: not when related to my obsessions, which are still debatable. Okay, now I’m not just concerned about the possibility of my having OCD, but bordering on confusion and bewilderment that may appear to be senseless. Let’s skip the psychological evaluation portion of the program and get back to collecting.

I was talking about books. Okay, maybe I exaggerated about our house looking like a library—my wife may be a saint, but she’s not stupid. She has magically managed to tastefully distribute over twenty bookcases throughout the house while still able to maintain…oh, heck, the place reeks with books, almost 3000 of them! What can I say? I can’t help myself—I’m a collector.

My love for reading began as a boy growing up watching my dad devour paperback after paperback with delightful ease. He was a paperback juggler, able to read a half-dozen at a time, leaving dog-eared, food-stained, abused and battered pulps strewn throughout every room of the house. Yes, I always enjoyed reading, but collecting? I used to be like my dad—read a paperback with nary a concern for its safety, then toss it aside like a candy bar wrapper. Then one day, about two decades ago, something clicked inside my skull. While visiting a book store, I noticed a queue of folks, brand-new hardbacks in hand, waiting to meet an author. I grabbed one of the books for myself and joined my fellow readers, met, chatted with, and enjoyed watching this writer (Robert McCammon) autograph my copy—and like that, I was hooked.

I started collecting signed first editions from all the writers I already liked, then expanded my tastes and collection from there. My hobby quickly became a passion; my passion a vocation—one that has yet to show any signs of slowing down. I still love nothing better than leisurely perusing the musty shelves of a used book store in search of buried treasure in the form of an elusive first edition needed to complete a collected set of one of my favorite author’s works. I’ll figure out where to put it (my book cases are overflowing) later. I just can’t help myself. Why? You guessed it—I’m a collector.


And I don’t just collect books. I have happily amassed turtles and frogs (not the real things!), guitars and magazines (I cannot throw them out), globes and tea. Yes, tea! I have over fifty varieties of organic teas, mostly green, rooibos, and yerba mattes. And, yes, I drink my collection every day. That’s another great thing about my collections—they, for the most part, are functional. I read the books I collect, drink the teas, play the guitars, read the magazines. Okay, I admit it—I like to talk to my fake turtles too.

Eliminate the massive quantities of these items and I am basically your everyday normal person…save for a few idiosyncratic tendencies that shall remain nameless.


It is just me? This collecting thing? I don’t think so. Human beings are pack rats, they enjoy accumulating things—be it old newspapers, cabbage patch dolls (remember them?), hammers or Hummels. It could be worse— Jay Leno collects expensive automobiles . Besides being way out of my league cost-wise, imagine what his living room looks like. Oh, that’s right; he has a garage the size of ten of my houses. Makes sense—he also collects a much larger paycheck than I do.

How about you? Are you a collector?

I bet you are.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

Triade of Balance

When you get right down to it, life is a balancing act. We constantly strive to balance everything—Work and play. Self time and time spent with our significant others, children, other family members and friends. Serious, reflective moments (like this post) balanced against silly, goofy ones (see my previous post). Whether we are attempting to find the time to start or maintain an exercise program, or just steal an extra hour from our week to sink into a favorite chair and catch up on that novel we’ve been dying to read, the need for balance in our lives is a daily, often hourly, task.

But what about the need for balance inside each of us? What are you talking about, huh, Mike?

Triad of Balance.

Before we can find the time to balance our hectic lives, or begin to understand how to approach doing so, we need to balance our selves.

There are three parts of each of us that I feel need to be individually balanced—Mind. Body. Spirit. And then they need to be balanced together.

Let’s start with the Mind, because once we have our head on straight, the rest falls into place nicely. The brain needs to be fed. There are lots of things that our mind absorbs each second—this post, for instance. The good thing is: we can, most of the time, choose what we ingest mentally. I suggest we feed our mind nothing but the good stuff, by that I mean: read more, watch TV less—or watch TV programs that add interesting, informative, positive data to our brain. That goes for what we read too—read fiction, sure, but a variety of it. Also everything else that stretches our limitations, help to learn new things, or add more positive, thought provoking images to our brain. Focus on the good in the world, while acknowledging the not so good, but remaining positive throughout. The more positive, intelligent, happy, helpful, kind, intriguing, beautiful (add your own positive word here) thoughts we incorporate into our brain every day, the healthier, happier, and more balanced we will become.

We also need to exercise our Mind. Just like muscles that do not stay active, an inactive brain will become flabby, less sharp. Work both sides of the brain: do puzzles (I love crosswords; do one a day), challenge yourself by learning a musical instrument, or joining a group like Toastmasters or by enrolling in a night college course.

Let’s move from the Mind for now and focus on the Body. If we need to feed our brain with good, healthy data, you can probably guess what I’m going to say next, right? Remember that old expression? You are what you eat. What we eat and the amounts are vital in maintaining our body’s balance. Eat healthy, nutritious foods and our bodies will respond in kind. Keep portion size down, and our body will not only be the right size, but it will help reduce some of the risks of heart disease (the number one killer in America), cancer, diabetes, hypertension, gastrointestinal problems, and any number of other maladies. Add to that healthy diet a sensible exercise program (see Ten Reasons To Get Out and Walk Every Day ), and our body is going to love us. Speaking of love, let’s add that to the list of things the brain should focus on each day.

We also need to keep the Body (and Mind and Spirit) free from negative intruders—tobacco, excessive alcohol, and dangerous drugs.

Treat your Body like the temple it is and you will feel great, live longer, and get yourself that much closer to being balanced.

Now the Spirit. Spirituality means different things to different people, but with one common bond—the act of doing something positive that fulfills us. And just like with the Mind and Body, our Spirit needs to be fed and exercised daily.

Feed your soul with happy, healthy, helpful thoughts, daily, then expand outward—share a funny joke with friends, call your mother or father on the phone just to say hello, offer a random act of kindness to a stranger, (leave a nice comment on someone’s blog post). On a larger scale, we can do volunteer work, give to charity (money or time), join groups or forums with like-minded people practicing spiritual giving. And, of course, worship our higher power at our place of worship, or at home.

Now the hard part—balancing all three: Mind, Body, and Spirit.

There are times, too rare, when I have had my Triad of Balance in harmony, when I have felt mentally healthy and happy, physically strong and active, and spiritually fulfilled and content. But more often than not, one, or sometimes two, or the three need work. And when even one of the three is off, the result is: I am out of balance. Put another way: I am not complete, not the person I know I can be.

The ultimate goal, for me at least, is to have all three—Mind, Body, and Spirit—in balance all the time. While that is often a mighty challenge, it is one that, when attained, makes me the best person I can be, and well worth the effort.

Remember, all we, as flawed human beings, can do is try. Work at everything I’ve discussed in this post, each and every day, and good things are bound to happen.

Visit my website, livelife365.com, for videos about everything I talked about in this post…and lots more.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

Practice What Your Preach

Stress. It's everywhere, it seems, at times. Waiting for you at your workstation, lurking behind that pile of bills, taunting you for not working out, reminding you that life is filled with challenges, issues, problems. These days my life has been filled with more stress than the norm. Working too many hours, physical pain (I have a chronic shoulder problem that will eventually need surgery to remedy), relationship challenges (nothing major, just the everyday give-and-take of fifteen years of marriage), job issues, to name a few. I have been so stressed out, as they say, that I decided I had to do something about it. So I made a video.

Now, I make videos all the time. My website, livelife365.com, is a vlog, or video blog, which is all about vids. And since my videos are based on programs or events or issues that I have lived through, I understand the genesis of each and every one of them. In other words: I practice what I preach. Except now I am battling this stress mess and in dire need of some advice. Well, Mike?

Check out one of my recent "how-to" vids titled: "How to...Manage Stress." Then check out a dozen others, but do that only after you have watched the one about managing stress enough times to, well, manage your stress.

Okay, I will. Be right back.

(that sound you hear is Mike munching on healthy, non-buttered, popcorn while enjoying a very well-made video about stress management)

Wow, that was good. I like the part about how exercise helps to reduce stress. Also how stress is a part of our lives, and we can never really get rid of it. We just need to work on managing it.

Great. What else?

Relaxing with a nice cup of green tea, trying not to think about things. Enjoying a good book, taking your mind away from your problems.

All good advice. Anything else?

Yes, as a matter of fact. Get out and work on a hobby, like gardening or a musical instrument. Wow, I'm feeling better already.

That it?

Nope. Meditation. Yoga. Sitting outside, catching some sun. Listening to a water fountain, or the ocean. Relax, think good thoughts, get away from it all.

Man, sounds wonderful. So, how do you--

Hey, I'm not done yet. Talk to a friend or family member on the phone. Laugh. Think positive thoughts. Hang around positive, funny, happy people.

Dare I ask...anything else?

Glad you asked. Eat right, take a nice walk, lose weight, feel better, and manage your stress.

And...?

Get a good night's sleep. Always. Six, seven, eight hours. Whatever you need. It's different for every one.

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel more relaxed.

See? It works. You just have to do it. Work on it, every day, every way.

Just like livelife365.com, that what you're saying?

Exactly. Think about it.

And I hope this helps.

peace,
Mike

Check out the video: "How to...Manage Stress" at livelife365.com and at the bottom of this blog.