Podcast 319: Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and The Brain with John Ratey, MD

John Ratey MDI know that their has been lots of talk recently about our brain health.  Recently I had the honor of doing a podcast with John Ratey MD, the author of a book entitled ” Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.” In our interview together we discuss the many benefits and correlations to exercise and our brain health.

I know that many of us do not think about the “brain muscle” when we are doing our exercise programs, but the fact of the matter is that our exercise program has as much importance to keeping our brains sharp and clear as it does on building the other muscles in our body.

In a landmark study, aerobic exercise was shown to be as effective as antidepressants.  That women who exercise lower their chances of developing dementia by 50%.  Exercise even sparks new brain-cell growth, and it happens on three levels. First, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information, and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus.  The evidence is incontrovertible: aerobic exercise physically transforms our brains for peak performance.

The world seems to be getting more and more stressful these days, and the correlation between exercise and stress reduction is not big news to anyone.  But the importance that the exercise plays in improving our brain function is big news!!!.  The face that we’re much less active than our ancestors only exacerbates matters.  Just keep in mind that the more stress you have, the more your body needs to move to keep your brain running smoothly.

The next time you exercise, or more importantly decide to skip exercising think again.  Your brain really needs you to put in extra hours on the treadmill or biking to perform at peak levels.  If you want to learn more about exercise and your brain you can visit John Ratey’s website by clicking here.  There are many articles and references that I know you will find of value.

I hope you enjoy listening to my interview with author John Ratey MD about ” Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.”

Podcast 318: If God is Your Co-Pilot, Switch Seats: Miracles Happen When You Let Go with BJ Gallagher

BJ GallagherAre you ready for a dose of positive energy?  If so, you have come to the right podcast with author BJ Gallagher.  In my recent interview with BJ we discuss her new book entitled “If Go Is Your Co-Pilot, Switch Seats–Miracles Happen When you Let Go“.

I love BJ’s books they are always filled with great stories, and lessons about living and life.  In this book BJ writes about being “faithful” and each one of the letters in the word “faithful” is an acronym for what she is writing about.

I really can appreciate the quote in her book from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. ” Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase”  We discuss the differences between belief and trust and she has a wonderful story that truly gets at the heart of the differences between belief and trust.

A man  rides his bike on a high wire across Niagara Falls.  He does it the first time by himself then he asks for volunteers to ride on the handle bars of the bike.  A little girl speaks up and says that she will do it, much to the chagrin of the on lookers.  She hops on the bike and the man takes the little girl across Niagara Falls and back again.  When they return an older woman asks the little girl “Weren’t you afraid?”  The little girls answer ” No, I wasn’t afraid.”  ” You see, I don’t just believe in him–I trust him. He’s my daddy.”

 

This little story is a great example of the true difference between belief and trust.  BJ’s book is loaded with great stories, poems and is truly an inspirational book.  If you would like more information about BJ Gallagher and her books please visit her website by clicking here.

Enjoy my interview with BJ Gallagher author of ” If God is Your Co-Pilot, Switch Seats”.

Podcast 317: Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success with Ron McMillan

Ron McMillanIf you are like most people in life, we have all attempted to change a habit or behavior.  Some of us have succeeded and others have not succeeded nor have we been able to sustain the new habit or behavior we are attempted to supplant the old one with.

I can personally tell you that you have hit pay dirt with the ” Change Anything” .  In my interview with social scientist Ron McMillan we speak about the new and exciting research that his company Vital Smarts did around this very subject in the new book entitled ” Change Anything-The New Science of Personal Success“.  In my estimation the finding in the research conducted on nearly 5,000 people is truly breakthrough.

I have been studying personal growth and mastery for over 20 years, and the research finding revealed in ” Change Anything” will have a positive impact on anyone attempting to create positive change in their lives.  In the Change Anything Labs the people who applied the science of personal success are more than 1,000 percent more successful at producing change that those who tried other means.

So what is the secret–the truth is that willpower is not our problem.  As a matter of fact the scientists at the Change Anything Labs found out that our ability it change and maintain change is not a matter of willpower.   The fact is that we are blind and outnumbered by the outside factors that are effecting our ability to change and sustain our change.

What was found is that there are six sources of influence that effected our ability to change. 1) Personal Motivation 2) Personal Ability 3) Social Motivation 4) Social Ability 5) Structural Motivation 6) Structural Ability.

To learn more about these factors I encourage you to click here to be directed to a video experiment that the scientists did at the Change Anything Labs( click on the blind and outnumbered video).  This will provide you with a short explanation of the factors effecting our abilities to change any thing.

The bottom line is that willpower is not the answer.  The key to change is in understanding all of the subtle put powerful influences that shape your choices. Once you have an understanding of how you are being influenced you will no longer be outnumbered and blinded to these factors, thus making change easier and hopefully more sustainable.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is attempting to change .  It does not matter if it is a weight problem or your trying to get your debt under control. This book and the strategies outlined can be followed by anyone and most importantly successfully and they can be sustained.

 

If you want more information about Change Anything, please click here to be directed to the Change Anything website. Or  click here to be directed to a YouTube Video. You can also learn more by going to the Change Anything Book page.

I hope you enjoy my interview with Ron McMillan one of the founder of Vital Smarts.  This truly is enlightening and will shift how you look at change forever.

Podcast 316: Soulspace: Transform Your Home, Transform Your Life — Creating a Home That Is Free of Clutter, Full of Beauty, and Inspired by You with Xorin Balbes

Xorin BalbesThe timing for this podcast was was very fortuitous.  Author Xorin Balbes is a coach and interior architect of our living spaces.  His new book entitled ” Soul Space-Transform Your Home, Transform Your Life is a wonderful book about not just how to re-organize and design your living space but truly looking at the energy of every object that is in your space.

I know for me I have been wanting to re-organize, cleanse and create a new living space in my home office.  In my interview with Xorin we explored the eight stages of the Soul Space process which are assess, release, cleanse, dream, discover, create, elevate and celebrate.

What is so revealing about this process is that we not only examine the physical space, but our personal interior space.  Our emotional connecting to the objects that we have collected and decorated our living spaces with.  Xorin points out that the way our homes are organized all too often supports unresolved issues and relationships that we need to confront–get rid of for good.  By clearing out and redesigning our living space, by actively reconnecting and realigning with our surroundings, we are able to grow and evolve instead of remaining stuck and stagnating.

Soul Space is about getting in touch with the beliefs, thoughts and feelings behind all the things that you surround yourself with.  The aesthetic come from your soul’s expression and supports you in becoming more authentically you.  The design is truly about your interior as it emerges from you understanding that the external world impacts your inner self and vice versa.

If you are anything like me, I am very sensitive to my living space.  I like things neat, and orderly but lately I have let the office space that I am working in become cluttered and messier that I would like.  It really consumes lot of my energy, for I think about how I want to clean it up and re-organize it but when the time comes to do it I don’t seem to have the energy.

If you want to explore the underlying causes and attachment to all of your stuff then, this podcast will be a real eye opener.  I thoroughly enjoyed my interview with Xorin and his ideas and suggestion were enlightening about what I need to do, and my emotional connection to the stuff.

I highly recommend that you read Xorin’s book Soul Space if you are wanting to re-design, recreate and open up new possibilities in your life.  This book is more than just a book about re-designing your physical living space, it is all about you inner space and your connection emotionally to your possessions and collections.  It truly is a book about your soul’s calling to manifest harmony and peace in your life.

If you want more information about Soul Space and Xorin Balbes please click here to be directed to his website. Our click here to go to his Facebook page.

Podcast 310: Aware, Awake, Alive with Dr. Elliot Dacher

Elloitt Dacher MDDr. Elliott Dacher has been a guest at Inside Personal Growth previously.  I am honored to bring him back again to speak with us about his new book entitled ” Aware, Awake, Alive-A Contemporary Guide to the Ancient Science of Integral Health and Human Flourishing“.  Prior to his deep work in the Indian modalities of health and healing, Dr. Dacher practiced Western medicine for over 21 years seeing over 50,000 patients. Over this period of time, Dr. Dacher was finding that for many of his patients that the conventional ways of Western medicine were not have a lasting and sustainable healing impact that he would have liked to have had.

Through a series of serendipitous events Dr. Dacher ended up spending over 12 years going back and forth between the US and India studying the aspects of healing and what is termed in the book as “Human Flourishing”.   As Dr. Dasher state in the book ” to flourish is to move beyond the stress, dissatisfaction, and suffering that too often limits and diminishes our lives, and reclaim the profound well-being which resides at the center of our being.  That is our vision, a vision of human flourishing.

Even though each of our lives has an inner and outer aspect, they are usually unequally developed.  In modern times our focus has been on the outer aspects.  We have mastered an understanding of biology.  We know how to enhance our physical well-being, address physiological disturbances, reduce biological risk factors and promote high levels of physical wellness.  As mythologist Joseph Campbell reminds us, “where there was once darkness there is now light”.  We once knew very little about our biology, and now we know a great deal. But he also reminds us that, ” Were there was once light there is now darkness” There was a time we had a profound understanding of our inner life.  We could describe and traverse, as Plato did, the full development of consciousness from darkness to light, from confusion to wisdom. But in modern times that is no longer the case.  We have mastery of the outer world but we have simultaneously lost touch with our inner life.  It has become a buried and unseen treasure.

In Elliot’s book ” Aware, Awake, Alive” he provides the reader with a course of practice and study that is 10 weeks in length, along with more advanced material for those who master the basics and want to continue on.  This book and workbook provides the student with a complete overview of the journey to human flourishing—vision, path, fruition, and integration.   It also includes a CD to help the reader/student establish a stable and effective daily practice.

If you ready to transform your life completely, and have health, happiness and lasting bliss then you just might want to consider reading and studying the content of ” Aware, Awake, Alive” by Dr. Elliott Dacher.
I know you will enjoy this enlightening interview with someone who has devoted their life to helping us understand the miracles of how doing the deep inner work will assist in healing our bodies.  If you want to learn more about Dr. Dacher and his course please click here to be directed to his website.

Podcast 309: Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar with Jeffrey Armstrong

 

Jeffrey ArmstrongHow many of you have seen the movie “Avatar”?  I bet that many of my listeners have, and this interview with author Jeffrey Armstrong about his book “Spiritual Teaching of the Avatar” will provide profound insight and wisdom about an “Avatar”.

The authors knowledge about the deepest meanings of the word avatar revolve around his forty years of study.  According to the author Avatar, a Sanskrit word, combines Ava, meaning “to descend” and Tara, ” To heal and restore.”.  The idea is that a divine being or Supreme Being purposely descends to Earth, takes on a body, and then fulfills some kind of mission according to the needs of the moment.  This is different from reincarnating, which is not a conscious intentional birth but a result of karma. The Avatars come according to their own will.

When the Avatar comes, the primary purpose is to rescue and heal the Earth at a time when the balance in Nature or Mother Earth is being destroyed.  The secondary purpose is to remind us that we are also beings from the Transcendental and that transcendental is our true nature.  The Avatars usually leave us a set of teaching that are essential tools for living a life of integrity for the good of all.  The Avatars exemplify this message and teach us to do the same.  Thirdly, the Avatars also come to develop personal and loving relationships with humans, in a number of different flavors: as servant, child, friend, spouse, or lover. In the process, humans get to interact with the avatar–in simple terms, God or the Supreme Being–who has lovingly come to us disguised in what appears to be a human form.

In my interview with Jeffery you will be treated to the teaching of the Avatars collected form Vedic Spiritual traditions of India that can be traced back more than 15,000 years.  The author illuminates how contemporary cultural references to Avatars reveal their deep and enlightening historical roots.  At the heart of these teachings is a respect for all life, and the concept that we are each part of the same Ultimate Being, and that everyone is able to make the journey back home to the Divine.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with a very spiritual and knowledgeable teacher.  Jeffery’s book is definitely a must read for the spiritual aspirant wanting to learn more about this ancient tradition.  You can also learn more from Jeffery’s website by clicking here.

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