North Star Mental Fitness

Waiting for the Perfect Time

"Perfect times"; waiting for "perfect times" was the driving theme in his life. 

He was a muscular man.  For over 40 years he has been a body builder. He was a hard working, retired factory worker.  For forty years he labored in the factory, looking forward to the "perfect times" of retirement.  Now, he has been retired for over one year.

Looking back over his career and retirement, he became angry.

"I was waiting for the perfect time.  It never came."

Mental Fitness and Childhood

Dad and Mental Fitness may seem like a strange combination.  To me they are intimately connected.  My Dad taught me me a lot about life, love, giving, and success

I was raised after the great depression.  As a child I experienced the victory at the end of World War II.  I recall the rationing of gas, food stamps, and no or limited food in stores.

Above all, I remember what my Dad taught me about life and success.   

Choose Thin

Taming urges for eating forbidden foods is a struggle. Remember when you committed to becoming thin and you lost weight. Recall how good you felt with your new body image and outlook on life.

 

Although you enjoyed your thinness, eating right was still a struggle. You liked your weight loss, but the gorgeous sights and enticing aromas of your favorite foods, the forbidden foods, were

beginning to fill your mind. Besides, eating the right foods was becoming a chore.

 

The more you denied yourself of the stuff you really wanted, the more you seemed to want it.

What did you do? Did you eat the forbidden foods or did you eat the right food?

 

Denise Wakeman has a wonderfully human, website, Slim People in Progress, for people who want to be healthy and slim

 

In one of her postings, Denise asked for strategies to reduce this struggle. I gave her this suggestion.

 

Imagine, your desired, forbidden foods with their tantalizing aromas and delicious appearances in front of you. Now visualize yourself taking two steps towards the tempting foods. Stop and turn around. Now you are no longer looking at the desired foods and the attractive foods are no longer in your sight.

 

Now visualize yourself walking towards the thin you. You want the benefits from being thin. Fill yourself with the benefits from being thin. Immerse yourself in your thinness. Notice your energy, the lightness in your step, and the ease of your movements. Enjoy what you see in the mirror. Realize your improved health. Feel your emotional well-being. Claim your happiness and peace of mind. You are free.

 

Take the time and make a compelling and satisfying list of benefits for being thin. You can only have these benefits if you are thin.

 

Now, the struggle is no longer between eating and not eating forbidden foods. You will never make the choice to not eat forbidden foods.

 

Now, you will choose to eat the forbidden foods or you will choose to enjoy and keep your thinness and the benefits from being thin.

 

I have written about this strategy, The Turn Around Choice, and why it works in my two e-books I live Within the Environment Created by My Choices and The North Star Mental Fitness Program. Please visit, Nirth Star Institute, Inc., my website for your mental fitness needs.

Remember, You Live in the Environment Created by Your Choices!

 

Dr. Hal

Live and Mental Fitness Coach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permanent Weight Loss

Keep weight-loss!  It is possible to lose weight and not gain it back.  There is nothing more discouraging than to lose weight and gain it back.

Have you have experienced the joy of victory, when you have lost weight?

Have you experienced the agony of gaining back your weight loss?

Do you want to lose weight and not gain it back? 

New Year; New Choices and a New Life

Once a year, we celebrate New Year's Day. In reality, the first of the year is no different than any other day of the year. The same laws of the universe apply every day of the year.

What makes New Year's Day special is the deeper meaning. The message of hope generated by making new choices. Choices based upon reflection, honesty, self-awareness and commitment to change. For each one of us, we can have a New Day this year.

We must go beyond resolutions. We can change. We do have hope. We can achieve our dreams. New choices or re-commitment to old choces nurtured with courage, passion and persistency create a New Day and eventually a New Life.

For the wise, New Year's Day symbolizes the reality of finding a New Life this year. Some day during this year. A day when we turn the ordinary and routine in our lives into the pursuit of the spectacular. When we find genuine meaning in life. When we become self-directed and self-sufficient; while remaining connected and empathetic in our relationships.

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day;" which was written by Edith Lovejoy Pierce'

Mary Pickford said "Today is a new day. You will get out of it just what you put into it".

Remember, We Will Live the New Year, as Created by Our Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

Griffin Wins the Heisman

Robert Griffin III won the Heisman!

He not only won the Heisman, he deserved to win the Heisman on the basis of his accomplishments.  The award was not taken away from him, because he was not the best athlete on the best team.  The Heisman voters elected Griffin on the basis of his achievements rather than affiliations.

From a mental fitness perspective, Robert Griffith III is a living example of a person who has been motivated to achieve and excel at all levels of competition.  He has maintained the ability to focus and achieve amazing feats.  He has not rested on his laurels and drifted into mediocrity.  He has overcome adversity.  He has justly received the Heisman.

The following information in regard to Robert Griffin is from the Boston Globe.com.

"He epitomizes everything you have to be to become a complete player on and off the field and that's why he's a finalist," Baylor coach Art Briles said.

Griffin, a fourth-year junior, holds or shares 46 school records.

By time Griffin played his first game for the Bears in 2008, when at 18 he was the nation's youngest FBS starting quarterback and weighed only about 190 pounds, he was already a Big 12 champion and NCAA All-American in the 400-meter hurdles. He graduated from high school near the top of his class before enrolling at Baylor for the spring semester.

"Coach Briles told me he's not a prophet, but he did say that in two or three years, I'd be a Heisman Trophy finalist," Griffin said. "And it's coming true."

Griffin set an FBS record by throwing 209 passes to start his career before his first interception.

Only three games into the 2009 season, Griffin tore the ACL in his right knee. He got a medical hardship redshirt and then in his comeback last year led the Bears to their first Top 25 ranking since 1993 and a bowl game.

"Robert has become for many football fans the face of Baylor University," athletic director Ian McCaw said. "He's a model student-athlete. ... He basically was a 17-year-old when he came here, and he's a man now."  This ends the quotations from the Boston Globe.com.

Remember, We Live within the Environment Created by Our Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

60,000 Thoughts a Day

How many thoughts to you have on a daily basis?  According to Possibility Coaches, we have approximately 60,000 thoughts a day.

That is a lot of thoughts.  Out of your 60,000 thoughts yesterday, how many of them were determined by your conscious mind?  Did you purposely choose to change a thought or make a new thought?  Did you question any of your thoughts?  Did you decide that any of your thoughts were wrong or lies? 

Did you consciously began to think differently than in the past, because you want to change your life?  Did you consciously decide to frequently repeat thoughts in order to change the quality of your life including how you feel?

These questions are extremely important for you to consider and answer.  Most of our thoughts are automatic and not consciously created by us.  Unfortunately many of our thoughts are determined by past disappointments, fears, anxieties, painful issues and unsolved problems.  As a result, we frequently have automatic negative thoughts that control our mind and destroy our well-being.  Because we are so gullible to our own thinking, we accept our thinking as true even when it is not.

I urge you to interrupt the repetitive pattern of absorbing the same worn-out thoughts as true.  You do not have to be a prisoner to your own thinking.

If you want freedom, happiness, peace of mind and control of your life, then it is mandatory that you consciously take control of your thinking!

How you think will determine how you feel, act, and relate.  How you think will determine the quality and destiny of your life.  True mental fitness is determined by consciously interrupting the pattern of automatic thinking and consciously thinking thoughts that will provide you with a window of opportunity to be the person you really want to be.

Remember, We Live within the Lives Created by Our Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

Accepting Frustration

Frustrations are inevitable and often times unexpected.  I am in the process of moving my office.  Obviously, there are numerous frustrations associated with this undertaking.  However, I never anticipated the additional frustrations associated with having to change my website.

I now have a new website www.Northstarmentalfitness.com.  I no longer will be blogging at Northstarmentalfitnessblog.com.  Changing my website was not anticipated and has created tremendous frustrations.

Is Mental Fitness for You?

Take Care of You.  Take Control of Your Life.  Think to Be Strong.  Think to Be Stronger Than Your Problems.  Organize and Empower Your Mind with Mental Fitness Strategies.

Life is full of changes, risks, disappointments and challenges.  Mental fitness training can help you find the strength, clarity of thought and confidence to successfully take care of yourself, even during difficult times.

The goal of mental fitness is to make you strong enough to achieve your goals and solve your problems.  The goal of mental fitness is much larger than solving specific problems.  You can be stronger than your problems.  You will find peace of mind and solutions for any and all of your problems by increasing your mental fitness.

At North Star Mental Fitness we believe everyone can improve their mental fitness.  We can all improve our mental fitness by concentrating and making our thinking more organized, efficient and powerful.

Just ask us how!

You can have the tools to turn your past failures and disappointments into successes by applying mental fitness strategies from the North Star Mental Fitness Program and the e-book, I Live within the Environment Created by My Choices.

Remember, You Live within the Mind, Body and Environment Created by Your Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

 

WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE

We are pleased to announce that www.northstarmentalfitness.com has replaced northstarmentalfitnessblog.com.  All of the posts from the former website can be accessed through northstarmentalfitness.com.

Please add www.northstarmentalfitness.com to your list of Favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk Out of Depression and Anxiety

Do you want to avoid psychiatric medications?

If you do, consider walking.

Jasper Smits is a researchers and director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  Dr. Smits reported the following findings regarding walking. 

“Individuals who exercise report fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, and lower levels of stress and anger. Exercise appears to affect, like an antidepressant, particular neurotransmitter systems in the brain, and it helps patients with depression re-establish positive behaviors. For patients with anxiety disorders, exercise reduces their fears of fear and related bodily sensations such as a racing heart and rapid breathing.”

Why not begin walking today?  Why not choose to be less anxious and depressed?

Remember, We Live within the Bodies Created by Our Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach