Category: Awareness

Categories
Awareness Optimize Your Life

MY IDEAL LIFE…

What does my ideal life look like…

I’m confident to say that I am very clear on exactly what I want my ideal life to look like. When I visualize my perfect life I can easily fill my time with all the things I enjoy doing like writing books in inspirational places, racing Ironman triathlons in different countries, and coaching clients while having the freedom to attend retreats and conferences around the world. Now I’m pretty close to doing just that as I’ve now had the pleasure to work with over 50 clients from 3 different countries, I’ve raced 2 Ironman races and have another one coming up in Mexico, the internet has given me the ability to share my writings and YouTube videos with my audience and I’ve made the world a better place in the process. However, this wasn’t the life that I had always planned and it’s taken me some time to figure out what true happiness means to me. 

Throughout my childhood and through college I had always thought that I would be a successful businessman wearing dry cleaned suits with monogrammed sleeves, driving an expensive exotic car with a fancy Rolex on my wrist. My house would be over 10,000 square feet in a gated neighborhood on the golf course (trust me I’ve spent a lot of time visualizing this.) With this life of luxury I’d be super busy with my high net worth clients and I’d rarely have the time to spend with my family or friends. However, when I would make the time to squeeze them in my schedule we’d be going to expensive restaurants and drinking even more expensive wine while I tell stories about the massive deals I’m working on and the potential commissions I’d be earning so I can buy more of the overpriced things I don’t really need – thank god this isn’t the case. I already know I’d feel so empty inside and I’m blessed to understand that all those materialistic superficial objects are not what’s going to fill my heart with joy.

Growing up in South Florida a lot of people have these things and the message that this sends is that you are a happy and successful person with everything at your fingertips. You can “do whatever you want, whenever you want” but this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s pretty evident that the 80 hour work weeks, millions of dollars these people are chasing, their broken marriages, substance abuse problems and compromised health issues are not worth sacrificing and it takes some years for these people to realize that. There is a great story about a businessman and a fisherman and it encapsulates this dilemma very succinctly. It’s a famous anecdote and I know it’s famous because dozens of non-fictional authors tell it in their books. The most recent book I read that featured this story of the businessman and the fisherman was in the 4 hour work week by Tim Ferris.

The businessman and the fisherman….

(taken from Paulo Coelho author of the Alchemist )

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.“ This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said. The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?” The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.” The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.“ I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.” The fisherman continues, “And after that?” The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.” The fisherman asks, “And after that?” The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!” The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

This story is the epitome of the way we live these days. The dichotomy that we are stuck in. We chase and chase and chase when what we want to do or what we want to have is right under our nose. We believe that the grass is greener on the other side but if you can be extremely clear on what matters most to you then you will find a way to get it and get it now. It’s crystal clear to see that the fisherman is already living his best life. Building a multimillion dollar business and taking it public on the NYSE is not what’s going to allow him to live his dream life faster as he is already doing that now. A lot of us are the businessman, we need to start thinking more like the fisherman. This is because we are groomed to believe that we should focus on what type of work we want to do or what type of job we want to have to be “successful” but I believe we should be doing the complete opposite. I think it’s time that we shift the paradigm from what we want to do to how we want to live. 

What do I mean by this? Well before you start coming up with your perfect career or what type of work you want to do you should gain clarity on the type of life you want to live. Do you want to have freedom to travel? What do you want to spend your time doing? Do you want to make your own hours so you can spend more time with your family? How much money do you really need? I think we tend to overestimate the amount of money we need to do the things we want. 

As I sit here writing this blog at Starbucks preparing for my business trip overseas I can’t help but feel grateful for all the opportunities I have in front of me. If you are someone that has uncertainty around your purpose in life just know you are not alone. Reach out to me via email or DM me on Instagram and I can help you find that purpose and create that life you are destined to live.

Categories
Awareness Blog Uncategorized

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

Mindfulness isn’t difficult – we just need to remember to do it!

– Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practices.

First of all, what is mindfulness? Mindfulness by definition according to google is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

What can mindfulness do for you and why is it so important?

Mindfulness will optimize every human experience you have on Earth.

Mindfulness will allow you to enjoy your food more and mindfulness will open your eyes to the beauty of the trees. Mindfulness will give you the Earthly massage of the wind blowing against your skin and mindfulness will help deepen the relationship with the people you care about most.

Mental Health benefits of mindfulness…

The two most common mental health challenges that we all face are anxiety and depression. Where anxiety is thinking too much about the future, depression is thinking too much about the past.

Anxiety…

It’s 2021 I think its safe to say that we all deal with some sort of anxiety – whether its anxiety about future work deadlines, contracting an invisible virus, stress due to an illness, family issues or what Donald Trump is going to tweet next… oh wait nvm. Anxiety is simply being too worried about the future, the “what ifs” about life. What if I get Covid and die? What if my family member gets Covid and dies? Future stress in the household because of tension rising. All of these things give us anxiety no matter how big or small so lets focus on preventing future anxiety by living more in the moment – the only problem you have is the one right in front of you right now.

Depression…

We all deal with some sort of depression. We all get sad, it’s part of life but, what are the highs without the lows?! Sometimes our lows linger for a little too long and we begin to really become and identify with our sadness and this ends up turning into our personality – que depressed state. It’s easy to find something to be depressed about… your money situation, your career, seeing other people on Instagram looking like they are having more fun this summer than you… the list goes on and on. In order to fight depression and prevent more depression from coming into your life you must live in the moment and remain present right here, right now. Stop thinking about the past, it’s over, time to move on Charlie!

Exercise 1:

Are you depressed about your money situation? Good, take action right here right now to take control over your finances. I wrote a great blog about how you can take control over your personal finances and you can read it here: PERSONAL FINANCE.

Living in the moment to prevent future depression is the best way to deal with being sad about the past so do something about it! RIGHT NOW!

What does depression and anxiety do to our body….

Over 10,000 years ago when we were hairy and ugly cave men walking on all fours we lived a very simple life. Hunt, gather and have sex. Our only job was to hunt food and procreate. Even though it seems like a fairly easy task there were man-eating predators that we had to watch our backs over. Sabertooth tigers and man eating reptiles were always on the lookout for human flesh and during this time humans started to develop a “flight or fight response.” This fight or flight response turns our body into Superman mode so we can fight or run! Our body puts digesting food, fighting disease, and regulating our body temperature and heart rate on hold so it can focus all of its attention on either outrunning this tiger or going to war! Well over the years, magically, our body through survival of the fittest, changed its DNA to elicit this flight or fight response and encode it in our new DNA so that next time when we were in trouble from a sabertooth tiger coming after us for it’s warm dinner we were ready to act and act fast. So what does fight or flight response have anything to do with mindfulness, anxiety, or depression?

Well, fast forward to 2021 and we still have this flight or fight response and our body is physically breaking down because of it.

Why is this important…

When our body is constantly in flight or fight mode our central nervous system is sending signals to the rest of our body – the digestive system, the immune system, and the cardiovascular system etc., that we are in DANGER! DANGER DANGER DANGER DONALD TRUMP JUST TWEEETED FLIGHT OR FIGHT DANGER DANGER DANGER WHAT IF YOU DONT GET THAT WORKTASK DONE ON TIME DANGER DANGER DANGER YOU MIGHT GET COVID AND DIE DANGER DANGER !!! This is the signals that our brain is telling our body when we are living in the past or worried about the future. The brain is there to protect you and to do this it draws upon past experiences predicting what the outcome will be and sending you signals to act according to those past experiences. In order for our central nervous system, brain, and body to do what it does best and heal and digest and nourish and rest it must not have to be constantly in fight or flight mode.

How does this have a negative impact on our physical health and what does this have to do with mindfulness? Good question….

I am not a doctor. Whether you believe what I’m telling you or not the fact is we are living in a time of the world where chronic mental stress is at an all time high. This chronic mental stress is causing us and our family members diseases and illness. The importance of dealing with stress is not as important as preventing it and one of the best ways that you can prevent more chronic stress is through becoming more mindful of the present moment. One of the best ways to be more mindful and present in the moment is through a daily meditation practice or reminding yourself to be mindful. Meditating can literally be as little as 5 minutes a day. Time set aside where you just sit and acknowledge your thoughts and focus on your breath. Mindfulness reminders can be as simple as a post-it note on your bathroom mirror or on your car dash reminding you to live in the present moment.

5 ways you can be more mindful:

1. implement a daily meditation practice.
2. take 1 minute just to breath before or after getting in your car or elevator.
3. when you take a shower or wash your hands remember to be mindful and feel the water dripping off your hands or body.
4. watch the birds and lose all thoughts…
5. watch youtube videos on other mindfulness practices!

Mindfully written,

Categories
Awareness Blog Optimize Your Life

BENEFITS OF MEDITATION

Meditation has become very mainstream these days but most people still don’t adopt a meditation practice. If you know something is healthy for you, why not give it a try? And if you’ve given it a try but haven’t received any benefits from it I can understand but the number one excuse I hear from my friends on why they don’t meditate is “I just can’t sit still”. Well ya, either can I! That’s the point of meditation, to do what you can not do – sit still! Be in control, have more free will to tell yourself that you’re going to sit in silence for 10 minutes and not get up until your timer goes off! It increases your awareness and builds more mental strength.

There’s a laundry list of different reasons why people choose to meditate and they are all important but the largest benefits that I have gotten from a daily meditation practice is an increased awareness of my thoughts and feelings. Let me explain.

Why meditate?

The point of meditation is to bring peace, calmness, and more awareness to our life, do I need to say more? I can confidently say that no one will argue that we can use more of these things in our life especially after the crazy year we had in 2020. 

That’s the point of meditation, our mind tells us to go do that, and get up to go get this, or call that person back and the more we identify with our mind and listen to our mind the less conscious we become. 

You are not your mind, you are the awareness of your mind.

Humans are a very unique species. Because of the way our brain has been constructed we have this ability to be aware of our own awareness. We can have a conversation with ourselves in our own head and we can witness when our mind is telling us something that just is plain untrue. Most of our fears and self conscious thoughts are just made up by our mind to protect us and 99% of the time we don’t need that protection. What we really need is to have a practical and logical conversation with that voice inside our head and use our free will to proceed accordingly. You see, we are not our mind, we are the awareness of our mind. Your thoughts in your head are just thoughts they are NOT you, you are just the awareness of your thoughts – HUGE DIFFERENCE. 

Emotional Intelligence

This plays a large role when it comes to our feelings. Our feelings are created from thoughts, for example when you think your partner or friend is taking advantage of you then you get angry or when you think that the world is against you, you get sad. Our thoughts create emotions. Well, when we identify with these emotions we start to become them but when we have the awareness and use our free will to acknowledge these emotions without becoming them that’s when we start to strengthen our emotional intelligence which will allow us to process our feelings in a healthier way and not react on how we feel in an impulsive manner.

Back in 2017 I was recommended a book by Eckhart Tolle called A New Earth. I had no idea what this book was about but I gave it a shot and I was instantly hooked, it was very mind blowing to say the least. The ideas in this book really made you think. The author Eckhart Tolle was 40 years old living on a park bench when he decided to write his first book “The Power of Now”. At the time of writing this, “The Power of Now” has sold over 2 million copies world-wide and has been translated into 30 different languages. 

At the time in 2017 I was meditating, but not consistently, and even though I had this new found inspiration and passion for consciousness and awareness of mind identification I still hadn’t started meditating on a daily basis. “A New Earth” would continuously talk about Buddhist principles and mastering your mind and the more research I did on the subject and the more time I put into the practice of meditation I started to realize the benefits.

This book has completely altered my path and journey and I’m so thankful for A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle and all the positive results this has brought to my life.

In conclusion..

Meditate more! and be consistent with it 🙂

In this video I talk about why I meditate and my goals from meditation and how its improved my life over the last 3 years.

Categories
Awareness Blog

HUMILITY

WHAT IS HUMILITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT 

Humility – the quality of being humble.

Humble – having or showing a modest or low estimate of ones own importance.

Back in 2005 I was a little, know it all, arrogant, obnoxious 8th grader (as most of us are at 14 years old) and I played on the boys volleyball team. It was my first year playing and I picked up the sport pretty quickly. After about a few weeks of practice, prior to the season starting I was awarded one of the most important positions on the court, libero. Libero is one of the most important positions on the court for a few reasons but I don’t know much about volleyball and that’s not what this blog is about so that’s neither here no there, what was important was my first lesson on humbleness. After our last practice before our home opener our coach, Mr. Sparks asked us what is the best trait to have as a teammate. A few of us shouted out some pretty decent answers for 7th grade jocks, and I only say jocks because most of us played other sports like baseball and basketball. After a few short moments Mr Sparks saved us the agony of guessing because the answer he was looking for was not going to be said by any of us. He said the most important quality in a teammate is being humble.

Now at the time I didn’t really understand what being humble meant and as an 8th grader with very little life experiences and understanding of admirable character traits my instinct was that being humble meant you didn’t have any confidence. Being humble is not having low confidence – being humble is understanding there is more for you to learn and more in the future for you to be proud of, two great qualities to have in a teammate. 

Now how does this relate to life?

To be a good teammate in life you have to understand you have a lot more to learn and you must strive to accomplish something else to be proud of, something better. One of my favorite quotes ever is “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Read that again and think about it… “you don’t know what you don’t know.”  This has made a profound impact on my life in many ways, for example I didn’t know that I’d gain so much value from mediation and I didn’t even know that I didn’t know that. If I knew that meditation would bring value to my life but still didn’t do it then I’d just be making a poor choice but at-least I’d have a choice to make! Not knowing something could potentially bring value to your life is only possible if you know that there’s something that you don’t know. Even if it hit you like a brick in the face you would still realize that there was something that you did not know. So why not just start by knowing that you don’t know what you don’t know, ya know? I was just 25 before I knew the power of compounding interest in a retirement account and I didn’t even know that compounding interest existed! How did I not know that? You’re telling me you can get interest on your interest!? The power of not knowing what you don’t know is the foundation for growth and the essence of humility. When you understand that you don’t know what you don’t know you become more curious about what you also don’t know! As I’m sitting here writing this I’m salivating at the fact that there is something out there that I don’t know that could benefit my life! What is it? Someone show me! There is something to learn from everyone and everything you just have to know that there is something to know.

As a Certified Nutritionist and someone who reads a lot about diet, food, and the body I know a little bit about what foods are healthy and what foods are not healthy. I have a decent grasp on macronutrients and average knowledge on micronutrients. I can hold a basic conversation about genes, proteins, and cells toxins, and bacteria. If I had to guess I’d say I know more about diet and food than the “average American” (which is not something to be proud of) but, I do not know everything – actually I know nothing. I know nothing about food and I know nothing about diet. The only thing I do know is that I don’t know what I don’t know. Knowing that I don’t know what I don’t know allows me to seek more knowledge and gain more wisdom. But, if I lived my life thinking because I am a Certified Nutritionist that I know everything about food then I wouldn’t be able to gain more knowledge and my skill set would plateau – I wouldn’t be able to become the best version of myself and I would be doing myself and my clients a disservice.

“DO NOT BE THE PERSON THAT DOESN’T EVEN KNOW THAT THEY DONT KNOW WHAT THEY DONT KNOW!!” 

In life it’s important to ask yourself questions like the ones below in order for you to grow and become a better person:

  • Tell me how I am wrong? Show me where I am wrong…
  • How can I be looking at this the wrong way?
  • What don’t I know about this subject?
  • Who knows more than me about this and why do they know more?
  • What can I be better at?
  • How am I not doing this as efficiently as possible?
  • In what ways can I grow and how?

So when was the last time you said the word humble? When was the last time you used the word humility? Humility is something that most of us overlook and have surprisingly low awareness of. When you have humility you can look at someone else’s point of view. When you have humility you give yourself room to grow. Grow, grow , grow your boat gently down the stream! 

Categories
Awareness Blog

WHAT YOU PERCEIVE YOU BELIEVE

June 8, 2021

“The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.” – Marcus Aurelius

Imagine growing up in a third world country 20 years ago. You have no cell phone, no money to travel, no TV. You have never left your village let alone gotten on an airplane and you have no idea what’s going on around the world, especially in America. The only news you see is the news and media that your own country provides, about your own country. You don’t have access to internet and the only people you know and see are the people that live in your community. Because you don’t have internet or a computer you don’t have a list of Facebook friends that you never talk to or care about but scroll through pictures of their new house and baby. Believe it or not this was true for some people – do you feel a little envious? Can you imagine zero pressure to check social media and see what CNN and FOX is covering about the US government today? Same.

Our environment controls so much of how we live and we are all so unaware of our biases. The thought of living like this seems not only unfathomable but also refreshing in a way. If you lived in this time, in this village do you think you’d be happy? (assuming you were healthy and had all your basic and necessary needs met.) If you lived during this time what would be your perception on “the world” , in this case “your world“ be if you had no idea about what existed in America? What would you value and what would you care about? What would you spend your time doing and how much love would you share with your family? How would you make decisions and choose to live your life on a day to day basis?

Remember, you can’t check Instagram or Facebook so you’re forced to be bored while waiting in line at Starbucks or when a commercial comes on your TV. Wait let me take that back, you probably don’t even watch commercials. You don’t know about the glitz and glamour of celebrities, you have no idea who Meghan Markle is and you have never seen a fancy car or Louis Vuitton bag in your life. You don’t get to choose your clothing because you’re so poor and no one even cares about the logo on your shirt or shoes and the best part is you don’t have to resist ordering ice cream on your Door Dash app! Wouldn’t life be so simple?

Our world today is so tainted and the integrity of our minds are so compromised because of the news, media, and iOS Apps. We live in such an instant gratification society where we order our Starbucks from our phones and our food from Uber eats. We buy all of our groceries online and its delivered to our door in under an hour – we want everything and anything and we want it now! We perceive that everything is easy and when it doesn’t work out the way we had hoped we either give up or play the victim. We don’t know what hard work and grit means and we think that unless we have a million dollars we are poor. Now if you don’t believe these statements than disregard them and I’m happy for you. But for most of us our awareness of our own perception on reality is severely inaccurate and the more unaware we become the closer we get to the death trap – not physical death but emotional and spiritual death.

Eventually far far in the future thousands of years from now no one will even know that you or I existed- not even the memories of us will exist. Let that sink in, there will be a time that you and me and the athletes and celebrities that you admire will no longer be alive and if its far enough into the future their memories may even be forgotten as well.

I’m currently reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius which is a collection of letters and journals of the once Roman Emperor. If you don’t know who Marcus Aurelius is he was one of the most respected emperors in Roman history from 161 to 180 and he was renowned as one of the greatest stoic philosophers of his time. Regarded as the last of the 5 good emperors of Rome. He served in an age of relative peace, and stability for the Roman Empire and his book Meditations is now one of his golden eggs he is survived by. Meditations has been published and read by millions of people since his time and the principles that he lived by are one of a true Roman warrior. Full of practical wisdom its the private thoughts of the worlds most powerful man giving advice to himself on how to make good on the responsibilities and obligations of his position. A lot of his journal entries discuss discipline but not just discipline of your mind, discipline of your thoughts – a true philosopher. 

Now lets get back to your other life in this third world country in 2001…

Sometimes not knowing something is for our own good. I recently deleted all social media apps on my phone (besides Tik Tok because I’m trying to grow a following at the moment.) A full week had gone by before I even realized I haven’t looked at Instagram or posted anything in what seemed to be a long time! After my 7 day short hiatus I needed to get back on Instagram to screen record a previous story about Ironman that I wanted to post on Tik Tok, I know.. I know… embarrassing. 

Well after redownloading Instagram in an attempt to just repurpose content I started scrolling though my feed just by habit. Well after looking at a few peoples stories that I usually see on a daily basis from Instagram I had realized how little I cared about what was going on in their lives. I found the time that I was spending watching other peoples lives was bringing zero value to my life and bringing me down and that’s when I realized how bliss ignorance really is. Not knowing how much money Logan Paul made from 30 minutes in a boxing ring with Floyd “Money” Mayweather is good for my mental health. Not seeing my friends having an incredible time in Mexico is what I need sometimes. What you perceive is your reality and sometimes choosing to not perceive and living your life hidden in a bubble is good for you and your mental health, remember we will all eventually be forgotten.

Live your life now, live your life for you and control the content you allow into your world, it could make all the difference.