Podcast 285: Sharp: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower with Heidi Hanna

 

Heidi HannaI personally have been working with author and coach Heidi Hanna PhD over the last three months.  Her new book entitled “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower” is a must read for all my listeners.  If you have ever wondered what are some of the things that you could be doing to assist you in having more energy, improve your focus and mental clarity then Heidi new book is the place to start.

We are all leading very busy lives, with more stimulation coming at us from every direction..cell phones, emails, instant “ON” almost all the time.  Do you ever wonder what all of this is doing to our brains?  Are you beginning to forget or you memory doesn’t seem as  SHARP.  Heidi speaks about these problems and provides practical advice on dealing with these issues.

In her book “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower” readers will: 1) Understand how the demands on your time and energy impact your mental capacity, and learn critical components of brain health that provide a foundation for improved cognitive functioning. 2) How to utilize the power of brain training to stimulate mental energy with exercises that improve learning in areas that have the most impact on performance. 3) How to create an actionable plan for implementing a sustainable brain health training program that can be applied to your everyday life.

Our constant state of busyness has created a chronic level of stress on our brain–so toxic, in fact that experts believe more than 75% of medical visits are stress related. Heidi states that honestly most of us are too busy to notice, and will not realize the devastating impact of stress on our lives until it takes a serious toll on our health, happiness and performance.   Stress is literally making us sicker.

In Heidi’s new book “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower” you will be guided and coached on the proper steps to take to reduce stress, eat healthier and techniques to improve your brains function.  I don’t know about you but my brain is of utmost importance to the proper functioning of my job, and I believe that this is the case with almost all workers in society today.  But just how often do you think about the fitness of your brain—you take it for granted don’t you?  If you listen to, and read what Heidi has been teaching and coaching top executives for years you will really alter many of your current habits that are effecting the functioning of your brain.
If you would like more information about author Heidi Hanna and her new book please click here to be directed to her website.  If you would like to watch a short introduction video, just click here to be directed to her book’s promotional video.  Enjoy this wonderful interview with Heidi Hanna PhD author of “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower“.

Podcast 283: The 9 Intense Experiences with Brian Vaszily

Brian VaszilyI had a wonderful interview with author Brian Vaszily about his new book entitled ” The 9 Intense Experiences“.   Brian has a very interesting personal story of struggle and adversity, and this story allows him to convey the meaning behind the “The 9 Intense Experiences” so authentically.

Brian asks the question-” If you could abandon your fears, stresses and frustrations and finally achieve the happiness and success you know you are meant to, would you take the next steps to do so.?” This is a very powerful question, and one that deserves some deep consideration and thought, for many the next steps are what we find so challenging to determine.

The 9 Intense Experiences guides the reader into doing what Brian refers to as some very unorthodox exercises, such as host a dinner party where no utensils are allowed and serve spaghetti, talk to dead people, hug a tree and tell it a secret. These exercises are designed to get you to grow and transform, while they may seem uncomfortable at first it will get you out of old patterns so that you can receive the transformative power of the experiences.

Brian believes that the biggest issue facing the world today is a growing sense of individual insignificance and disconnect from self-awareness, true purpose, empathy, joy and wonder.  Despite endless opportunities for “Intense Experiences”, people are instead settling for success-sabotaging, health depleting, and happiness numbing pattern of mediocre to toxic experiences.  The 9 Intense Experiences is uniquely rich in providing highly transformative actions that you can take right now, using what’s around you every single day , to change your life rapidly.
I hope that you enjoy this great podcast with author Brian Vaszily.  If you would like more information about Brian and his coaching programs please visit his website by clicking here.

Podcast 279: Expand this Moment with John Selby

 

John SelbyJohn Selby is quite a prolific author and a fascinating man.  John has just returned to the mainland having been in Hawaii for the last 10 years spending time in silence and seclusion.  John is the author of many books, but this new book entitled “Expand This Moment” is very special to him.

When John was a graduate student, the well-known meditation expert Alan Watts challenged him to study the world’s meditation traditions from the inside, to identify their common underlying psychological processes, to formulate an approach to meditation based on these commonalities, and to then teach this universal process.  Forty years later, the birth of “Expand This Moment“.

As a result of a personal breakdown that lead to an amazing breakthrough John was gifted with the technique for meditation that we will share with you in this podcast.  This technique consist of 12 focus phrases which are designed to bring greater levels of awareness in the moment.  It does not take lots of time, and it is quite effective–as a matter of fact John leads us through the process during my interview.

During John’s breakdown and awakening, these focus phrases rose spontaneously into his mind.  They are broken down into Phases. Phase I-Zen Awakening.  1. I choose to enjoy this moment 2. I feel the air flowing in and out of my nose. 3. I also feel the moments in my chest and belly as I breathe. 4. I am aware of my whole body at once, here in this present moment.  Phase II- Emotional Healing. 5. I am ready to experience the feelings in my heart. 6. I let go of all my stress and worries, and feel peaceful inside. 7. I accept everyone I know, just as they are. 8. I honor and love myself just as I am.  Phase III-Insight Mode. 9. I am open to receive. 10. I feel connected with you Source. 11. I’am here to serve, to love, to prosper, and to enjoy myself. 12. I am ready to act with courage and integrity.

If you are looking for a simple and effective practice which does not takes lots of time, then I highly recommend John’ s 12 Focus Phrases.  I experienced the meditation while doing this podcast and they really did center me, bring awareness to my surrounds and bring me present.  What more could you want from a mindfulness meditation.
If you would like more information about author John Selby, please click here to be directed to his website.  It really is loaded with video, audio and reference material that you will find useful in your meditation practice.

Podcast 278: In Sickness and In Health with Vadim Liberman

Vadim LibermanI recently received the Spring Issue of “The Conference Board” Magazine” and was very impressed with an article that the senior editor Vadim Liberman wrote entitled ” In Sickness and In Health-Do Companies Care About Their Peoples“.   Over the last many years my interestes have been focused on wellness in the workplace, and Vadim’s feature article hit the nail on the head as far as I was concerned.

As Vadim states in the article ” As the world get flatter, its’s getting fatter and sicker.  Heart disease, diabetes, cancer and a host of other conditions afflict more of us than ever. But it’s not only our ballooning bodies that are ailing.  Companies are suffering from ill health, exhibiting symptoms that include lower productivity, engagement, and morale, as well as higher medical costs.”

In my interview with Vadim we speak about not only the issues of developing wellness program for organization to improve the overall health of the organization, but just as importantly we discuss the important issues of the necessary cultural changes necessary to sustain organizational vitality and health.

The main purpose of wellness programs–trimming medical expenses–is obvious.  Except that it’s obvious to no one outside the United States.  You see our focus is on reducing medical costs and it is our number one priority, but in other countries such as Canada, Europe, and Latin America productivity is companies’ top wellness-program objective.   According to Vadim’s research US businesses may be swallowing the wrong pill to slash overall expenses.  Productivity has a greater financial impact than medical costs, explains Barry Hall, a principal in the clinical-health-consulting and global technology-solutions practices of Buck Consultants.

According to the recent Buck Consultants global-wellness survey, two thirds of organizations currently have a formal wellness strategy, up from 49% in 2007.  However, few companies say they have fully implemented their plans, especially across borders, and 28% of those with no strategy admit they don’t know how to get started.  One thing for certain is that companies should seriously consider implementing a wellness strategy, and it needs to include a focus on the cultural issues of wellness as well as the metrics of creating a well and vital organization.

One connection seems clear: between worker heath and productivity.  “People who have poor health report lower levels of productivity” In fact one study indicates an 18 percent difference in productivity between healthy and unhealthy worker.  If you would like to read the entire article please click here to be directed to the Conference Board article.

 

I hope you enjoy my interview with Vadim Liberman the senior editor for ” The Conference Board Magazine”

Podcast 270 : The Upgrade: How to Improve Your Life By Healing Others with Doug De Vito

 

Doug De VitoIn my interview with author Doug De Vito we discuss his new book entitled ” The Upgrade: How to Improve Your Life By Healing Others”  Doug started working with author and founder of “The Reconnection” Eric Pearl, and was probably the least likely candidate  to become involved in the work of “The Reconnection“.   Previous to getting engaged in this work Doug was an engineer with an MBA, but synchronistically brought both Doug and Eric together, and Doug has spend a good percentage of his time working with outside researchers to prove the work of “The Reconnections”.

So just what is reconnective healing work?  It is a new form of energy, light and information that is here on the planet for the first time. When the practitioner accesses that “energy” it helps a person move into a state where tremendous healing can occur. It is as if the frequencies help to connect the other person into a state where their “dis-ease” states and symptoms tend to fall away.  This new frequency has been measured, documented and validated by various respected research and scientific teams around the planet, and they are stating that it is quite different that anything we have had on the planet before now.  Reconnective Healing sessions are typically done “hands off” , with the practitioner normally working around someone eles’s body.  The practitioner then feels and observes various energetic sensations in and around that person’s field, and this somehow connects the person to a healing state within himself or herself.

If you would personally like to experience Reconnective Healing, Doug De Vito will be conducting a class to teach this process.  It will be held in San Diego at the Crowne Plaza San Diego April 15-17, 2011.
To sign up for this class please click here to be directed to the Reconnective Healing website to register.   I hope you enjoy this interview with author Doug De Vito.

Podcast 265: Fried- Why You Burn Out and How to Revive with Joan Borysenko

 

Joan BorysenkoI know that many people go through times in their lives when they feel Fried, and burned out.  This is certainly not an uncommon feeling, especially when things have veered off course.  In my interview with author Joan Borysenko  about her new book entitled “Fried-Why You Burn Out and How to Revive“,  we discuss the challenges associated with these feelings and what one can do to revive.

As Joan states “Fried” may seem like an innocuous enough word since so many of us use it these days to describe our frenzied, speed-oriented, exhausted state of mind. But innocuous it is not.  Feeling fried is an alarm that life has veered off course.  It’s shorthand for losing our way individually and culturally in a world spinning so fast that it feels like we’re about to be launched into outer space.

In our interview together we discuss the work of author and psychologist Herbert Freudenberger who first popularized the condition in his book “Burnout: The Hight Cost of High Achievement“.  As Joan discribes in her book, and atributes to the work of Freudenberger ” Falling short of your ideal in a way–perceiving a gap between what you think is require of you and the reality of what you can produce can be disheartening to the point where your entire sense of self crumbles.

Joan certainly know the challenges of burn out herself, having gone through it several times and reverting to using antidepressants to combat the overwhelming feeling of depression. She soon learned that the use of drugs to treat the condition was only temporary and was not a permanent solution to the things she needed to change in her life to sustain a life of balance and harmony.   As Joan states knowing what to limit in your life and what to seek more of isn’t always easy to figure out, let alone implement.
Joan also reveals that burnout can have its roots in childhood, and the seeds germinate many years later and can be carried into adulthood.  They grow in emotional soil polluted by helplessness that was deeply rooted in the nervous system during childhood.  Given the right conditions–a bad economy, a mismatch of values at work, frequent rejection, and abusive or loveless relationship, those seeds of burnout and depression often germinate many years later.

If you are interested in learning more about burn out and want to know more about how to cope with it, then I highly recommend that you read Joan’s new book “Fried-Why You Burn Out and How to Revive“.  You can learn more about Joan’s book and become involved in her community of Facebook followers sharing their experiences by clicking here to be directed to her Facebook page.

Enjoy this great interview with a wonderful author and friend.

Podcast 257: The 12 Step Buddhist with Darren Littlejohn

Darren LittlejohnIn my recent interview with Darren LittleJohn the author of “The 12 Step Buddhist” we speak about his personal bouts with addiction as well as how he has learned to cope by utilizing his practices in the Buddhist philosophy.

Darren’s program is designed to augment the AA program, but is not intended to replace AA.  His states that Buddhism isn’t a substitute for the 12 Steps.   I don’t care how devout you are, whether your’ve meditated with the Dali Lama or had an audience with the pope states Darren.   The book is his personal story, his critical analysis of treatment methods, and practical advice on how to integrate Buddhism with a 12-Step recovery program.

In our interview together Darren addresses the Buddhist concept of attachment.  We’re all attached to something else: concepts. Our concepts form our identities, our selective, distorted memories, personalities, goals, dreams, complaints, and fears. And we love to have them.  When we look at attachment from this angle, it’s obvious that we’re addicted to our thoughts.  We’re willing to go to the mat for our right to believe them, especially the ones that we think define who we are.

The bigger questions we should really ask from a Buddhist perspective is ” Who are we?”  When an addict ( or anyone for that matter) asks this question, he or she can really understand at a very deep level this concept of  attachement. At this level of awareness we understand we are spiritual beings having a human experience, allowing us to let go of many of the addictions and attachements and this can be our awakening to a new life of sobriety.

If you are dealing with addiction and are looking to find alternative methods to supplement your current treatment program, then I would recommend reading Darren’s book “The 12-Step Buddhist“.  Darrens’ book is a great guide to alternative practices such as meditation which can really have an effect on both the physical and spiritual aspects of addiction.
Please visit Darren’s website by clicking here for more information as well as informative video of Darren speaking about the practices of Buddhism and their positive effects on addiction.

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