Thanksgiving is a day set aside to help us reflect on all that we have to be grateful for in our lives.

It is incredibly easy to get bogged down in all the negative news flying around on the Internet and on the evening news, but today we need to stop and remind ourselves of the good things in our lives.

Mindfully and intentionally practicing gratitude is a powerful thing you can do for yourself not just today, but every day.

A Few Resources to Help You Practice Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day is often full of warm feelings and joy, but how do we carry those positive emotions forward into our everyday living?

You need to give yourself the gift of gratitude.

If you aren’t accustomed to practicing gratitude often enough, and most of us are not, then here are some resources that will help you to get into the right mindset.  You can use them as often as necessary.

• Be Grateful Because We Are So Incredibly Fortunate!
• Living Life To The Fullest On A Fine Fall Evening
• 7 Things In My Life That Fill Me With Gratitude and Joy
• I Wish Money Could Buy Happiness
• Avoid The Pitfall Of Comparing Yourself To Others
• 7 Reasons My Life is More Fulfilling
• Mindfulness: The Art of Living in the Present

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Carry It Forward

I wish you the most enjoyable Thanksgiving you can imagine.  May your day be full of love, gratitude and joy.  May you be surrounded with family, food and tons of good football.  May you carry the good feelings of this day forward into the rest of your life!

Photo by marksdk

Mindful health is about actively choosing foods, activities and thoughts that favorably affect one’s physical and mental well-being.

Good health is important to living life to the fullest.  You need energy to do and feel your best.  Also, your physical condition directly impacts your mental state.  If you want to be happier and enjoy a more rewarding life, then you need to start practicing mindful health.  This is just commonsense.

You begin by identifying the barriers you are up against.  You can’t get from where you are today to where you want to be in regards to your health without  facing the obstacles head on.

3 Barriers to Mindful Health to Overcome

Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.  ~ Sun Tzu (Chinese General and Author)

What stands in your way to eating right, exercising more often and being happy?  Well, I think there are some common obstacles we all face.  You might not be up against all of these, but chances are you can identify with at least a portion of this. 

Knowing your enemy is key to winning the battle of better health.  Your biggest hindrance could be inside your own mind or it could be an external factor.  Either way, identifying it properly will help you defeat it.

Here are some common barriers to mindful health:

1.  Bad Habits

We are creatures of habit.  These habits give us a sense of comfort and security.  They help us to know what to expect, but they can also become a crutch.  When it comes to mindful health, we need to take our lives off autopilot!  We have to steer in a new direction. 

What bad habits are keeping you from the healthy lifestyle you desire?  You need to clearly identify them so you know your enemy.  Here’s a list of habits that can work against your efforts at mindful health:

• Watching too much television
• Eating out at fast food restaurants
• Ordering or preparing portions that are too large
• Thinking negative thoughts (yes, this is a habit)
• Smoking or using tobacco
• Snacking on junk food
• Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol
• Eating the wrong kinds of food
• Not eating enough fruits and vegetables
• Remaining sedentary

Habits are just well-worn paths.  We are not chained to them.  Yes, it takes a little effort to change our habits, but we can do it if we apply ourselves.  Knowing what you’re up against is the first step in changing a bad habit.

2.  Incorrect Thinking

Our thoughts drive our behavior.  Every action you take starts out as a thought in your head.  Therefore, you have to control your thinking in order to control your behavior.  If you are thinking wrong or negative thoughts about healthy living, then you are never going to achieve your goals.

Again, it is crucial that you clearly identify the thoughts in your head that are counterproductive to mindful health.  Take a look at this list to see if you can identify some of what is holding you back:

• I could never… (be thinner, stop smoking, run that far, etc.)
• It is just too hard.
• I’ve tried many times before and I can’t do it.
• It will be too expensive and I can’t afford it.
• I’m too tired to do that.
• Now is not the right time.
• I have too much working against me.
• This is the way I’ve always been and always will be.
• It just doesn’t matter.
• I was born this way and there is nothing I can do about it.

You’ve got to overcome the incorrect and self-defeating thoughts in your head before you can truly be successful at improving your health over the long-haul.  You need to replace the incorrect thinking with positive, encouraging beliefs.  Believe in yourself and you’ve won half the battle!

3.  The Wrong Strategy

How you go about improving your health has a lot to do with your success.  Fad diets, unrealistic expectations and various quick fixes undermine people’s confidence in their ability to change and erode their willpower to live a healthier lifestyle.  Having the wrong strategy is definitely an obstacle to mindful health.

You need to evaluate your strategy to see if it conforms to the Law of the Harvest or if it is just some wishful thinking leading you astray.  Here are some ways that your strategy may be off track:

• It has unrealistic timelines (i.e. you are expecting too much too soon)
• It has unrealistic measures of success (i.e. these results are not typical)
• It doesn’t allow for a period of adjustment and adaptation
• It doesn’t conform to recognized health standards
• It just seems too good to be true
• It doesn’t include a system for support and encouragement
• It doesn’t acknowledge that change is hard work
• It is not a realistic way to live forevermore

Embracing the wrong strategy will only lead to defeat and discouragement.  There are no shortcuts to a healthier life.  We often buy into snake oil hoping it will cure what ails us, but more often than not it just compounds our problem.  The fastest way to better health is to start a well-founded plan today and stick with it for the rest of your life.

Know Your Enemy to Emerge Victorious

There are many barriers to mindful health, but you can defeat them.  You just have to take some time to identify what you are up against so you can go into battle with your eyes wide-open.  It is what you don’t “see” that can sneak up on you and rob you of your victory.  Arm yourself with this knowledge and you are sure to emerge victorious!

What barriers to mindful health did I miss?

Photo by Selective Focus Photography

A useful technique to keep mindful and committed to your resolutions

I ran across this idea on Chris Brogan’s site. He suggests choosing one word that embodies the intention of your goal. If you set three goals or resolutions, then you would have three words, one for each. Here’s how Chris describes it:

If you want to try the process, it works something like this: think of how you want to be successful in 2009. Then, try to think in even broader terms. Extrapolate on the broader terms, and find one word to hang the idea on.
~ Chris Brogan

I really like this technique! As the year progresses, you just focus on your three or so words. I think this will help me remember my resolutions and remain mindful of them.

Also, because the words are broad, they are flexible. As the year progresses, the words can bend and mold to circumstances better than something more specific. This way my original intention doesn’t get lost just because my first idea doesn’t work out.

The three words that embody my goals for 2009

I’m going to stick to using just three words. Three is enough, but not too many. I think I can remember and keep mindful of three. Here are my three words for 2009:

Experiment. Brand. Live.

Let me explain a little what my words mean:

1. Experiment – 2009 is going to be a year of trying new things for me. I like the word experiment because it implies that failure is an option. Experimentation by definition is about testing hypotheses. I want to give myself permission to explore.

I’ve already started experimenting by buying a used MacBook. I intend to continue my experimentation with various uses for video, social media and maybe some programming. Who knows where this word might lead me?!?

2. Brand – I’ve been reading some about establishing a brand. I came up with the idea for starting MySuperChargedLife.com sitting under a tree. It was like a coconut fell and hit me on the head. I didn’t know a thing about blogging, but I was eager to begin.

I’ve learned a lot in the past year, but I still have a ways to go. I don’t think that I’ve done justice to creating and evangelizing the brand I want. Therefore, I’ve chosen this word to help me stay mindful of my brand.

This word also has value with things happening in my full-time employment, so it has implications for me that reach far beyond this site.

3. Live – This word is rich for me in so many ways. It will keep me mindful of my obligation to live out the things I write about. There is nothing worse than a hypocrite!

In addition, I’m going to use it to remind me of my commitment to improve my fitness and health. People live longer nowadays and I want to be sure that my quality of life doesn’t deteriorate as I grow older. I plan to make a real effort in this realm throughout the year.

What are you focusing on in 2009?

I recently posed this question on Twitter, “Do you design your life or do you simply let the chips fall where they may?” What’s your answer? All you have to do is choose three words to define a plan for where you want to be a year from now. Aren’t you worth it?

For more ideas and examples of how to use this technique, please read Chris Brogan’s article that inspired me to write this.

What are your three words?

Photo by vana_gwen