On Deck:

Hey Everyone! Check out these great upcoming events!! 

You're bound to see something you like. Grab a friend & come join us ! 

*Tip: If the Prezi doensn't start automatically, simply click the arrow to see the next slide!

Have A Safe & Happy Halloween!

Spicy Black Bean Enchiladas

Since Hurricane Sandy has us all bunkered down, let's take advantage and enjoy some good music and food!

Enchiladas have long been a Mexican favorite so why not brush up on some Spanish & get cookin!

Source: eat-drink-love.com via Carys on Pinterest

Spicy Black Bean Enchiladas

(Recipe by Kim Barnouin, author of Skinny Bitch)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded & chopped

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 (15-ounce/430 g) cans black beans, drained & rinsed

2 canned chipotle peppers

1 cup (150 g) diced tomato

Salt and pepper, to taste

12 corn tortillas (or whole wheat flour, if you prefer)

1/2 cup (120 g) shredded vegan cheese (Daiya Cheese is a great option!)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

Fresh salsa, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350º (180º C).

In a medium sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté about 5 minutes. Add the bell pepper and cook 6 to 8 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes and stir. Add the black beans and mix well. Pour a little less than half of the cooked bean mixture into a food processor or blender. Add the diced tomatoes and chipotle peppers and blend well, for the black bean sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

In a medium sauté pan, heat the remaining oil over medium-low heat. Place 1 tortilla at a time in the pan & flip to warm both sides.

In a 13 x 9-inch (33 x 23 cm) baking dish, spread just enough of the black bean sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Fill each tortilla with about 3 tablespoons of the black bean sauce. Roll & fold the seam under the place seam-side down in the baking dish. When all of the tortillas have been filled and rolled tight, pour the rest of the black bean sauce on top. Sprinkle with vegan cheese and bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until it bubbles.

Garnish with the cilantro. Serve with fresh salsa.

*Nutrition Facts*

Serving: 1 Enchilada

Calories: 150

Fat: 6 grams

Sat. Fat: 1 gram

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Carb: 21 grams

Fiber: 5 grams

Protein: 14 grams

Rainy days don't have to be depressing. Play some fun music while you cook. Shake things up and check out Buena Vista Social Club, the legendary Cuban ensemble. You can't help but break a smile listening to this!

                                      

Buena Vista Social Club: Dos Gardenias

Saturday Yoga with Sagit

Check out this great infographic on all the benefits yoga has to offer. 

And come join us for Saturday Yoga with Sagit! 

Source: dailyinfographic.com via Carys on Pinterest

Individual Nutritional Counseling

Janel Funk is back to do ONE ON ONE Nutritional Counseling this Thursday!

& it's totally FREE!!

A hungry crowd fills up The Loft at Janel's last presentation.

 Janel teaches the importance of including wholesome grains and foods into our diets to keep us energized and healthy throughout our day.

Berklee Students Gather Up Every Last Crumb of B.Good They Can Find!

If you're interested in meeting with Janel to privately discuss your nutritional needs, contact Jane Stachowiak at livewell@berklee.edu or come by the SAC from 11:00 - 2:00pm Tomorrow to see if we can squeeze you in!! 

See this event on Facebook: Individual Nutritional Counseling

*If you missed Janel's presentation or you want to know more about building better meals, don't fret! Janel will be back yet again for a presentation on Building a Better Breakfast next Thursday, November 1st! Details to come!! 

You are #1

Source: insidethetravellab.com via Carys on Pinterest

Important Vs. Urgent

                                                                        Source: brainharmonycenter.com via Carys on Pinterest

Now that you've figured out how to beat procrastination, how has your productivity level changed?

Sometimes we can spend our entire day as busy bees and somehow still feel as if we didn't accomplish anything at all--with yet another giant to-do list for the days to come that seems to taunt you at the end of the day.

To effectively manage your time, distinguish the important work versus the urgent items on your list. Important work leads to long-term impact and achievement of your goals. Urgent items result in only short-term impact and usually results in the achievement of someone else's goals.

Urgent activities consistently deter you from productivity and effective time management. Things like checking social media, answering emails, incoming calls and texts take away from your time to be more productive towards your long-term goals.

Take more initiative to permeate your daily activities with purpose. "What is the purpose of this call or text? How is this serving me right now? Am I being effective with my time?"

Find an image that inspires you to be productive and make it your desktop background or cell-phone wallpaper to help you push through distractions and temptations to divert your attention to the un-important things.

The more we use our time to focus solely on the urgent things we need to do, the important goals on our list inevitably become urgent things, throwing our entire productivity cycle off (if there was even one to begin with).

Use the tips from our Beating Procrastination post to enable your focus towards important long-term goals.

This matrix will help you distinguish the Important Vs. Urgent items on your list and help you build a strategy for effective time management and productivity success.

Category 1 items are urgent and important items that we usually attend to first.

Category 2 are non-urgent important goals. These require time to develop and complete so they don't become urgent (category 1).

Category 3 are distractions. They are urgent or seemingly so, but they are not important and have no long-term impact on our lives. These should be limited to increase productivity.

Category 4 items are non-urgent and non-important. These are the time-wasters we indulge in when procrastination wins. They serve no immediate purpose and produce no long-term result. (Think YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc.)

   Source: blog.gist.com via Carys on Pinterest

You will be surprised at the high level of productivity that results from the simple awareness of where your energy is continually focused on. When you feel out of balance and yearning for laziness or yearning for more hours in the day, think of a peer who is successful. (If you cannot think of a single person, I suggest a change in peers and/or environment until you find someone.) This person has the same amount of hours during the day that you do. There is no reason you cannot achieve the same success.

Commit yourself to action and organize your priorities today. And honestly, what could be more important than your long-term success?

Identify 2-3 MOST IMPORTANT tasks that need time and attention so that they don't become Category 1 tasks.

Get a clear vision of the results you wish to produce from completing said tasks. What kind of long-term impact will this have and how will this serve you? Use this as an incentive to concentrate on achieving your goals.

Conquer your "need" for technology. Computers and smart-phones intend to make our life easier, but mostly they distract and complicate our agendas. Evaluate the time you spend with technology and be honest with yourself. Does the constant accessibility to technology give you long-term success or short-term satisfaction? Is there any way you could diminish some of your use this next week and focus on the Most Important tasks you've outlined? Something to think about...

Eradicate the fear of failure. Our minds have the incredible capability of magnifying mole-hills into mountains. Did you know that the biochemistry of our bodies connects our thoughts to our physical selves? If you say, "I think I'm getting sick." Your brain will automatically come up with more ways to make this true. It sounds a little crazy, but there is truth to this.

(Check out New York Times: Abstract Thoughts? The Body Takes them Literally)

"When you truly believe that you deserve success, your mind will generate ways to achieve it."

(Erin Falconer, Editor In Chief, PickTheBrain.com)

So take the time to reorganize yourself this coming week. Extract the important from the urgent and budget your time more effectively. Let us know how this matrix helps you (or doesn't help you).

Remember your LiveWell family is here to help make your experience at Berklee enriching and well-rounded. If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear from you. Drop us a comment below or on our Facebook page, or "tweet" us @BerkleeLiveWell.

Balance Checklist

We have a lot to keep track of on a daily basis; so much that we frequently forget the importance of balance. Every day is a balancing act so there are days when our physical wellness may not have been as important as our intellectual wellness, or perhaps our emotional wellness took precedence over social wellness. Remember that each dimension of wellness ties into each other & striving to maintain and improve this balance is the key to success.

**Do NOT confuse this with striving to be "perfect."**

Balance is stability. 
Balance is an even distribution of weight.
Balance is harmony.

Balance in your life should evoke peace and calm; not more stress. Avoid the notion that balancing your life can only be done a certain way. As mentioned above, every day is different and requires a balance (catching on yet?) of activities, focus, and energy. This takes a fair amount of discipline. Believe that you have the ability and capacity to be successful. Don't be afraid to adapt a "Me First" kind of attitude. This is your time to be great. Take advantage of it.


Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help maintain your balance throughout the day and week.

Physical:
Did I eat well today? Did I exercise in some way for at least 15 minutes? Am I sleeping okay?

Emotional:
How am I feeling today? If I'm not happy with my emotions, how can I change this?

Intellectual:
What did I learn today? this week?

Occupational:
What have I accomplished today? Did I study/practice enough today?

Environmental:
What did I notice about my environment today? Is there any way I could improve it? (A clean workspace is a happy workspace!)

Spiritual:
Did I make time for relaxation today? Have I meditated lately? What are my values/beliefs/principles? Do I accept the views of others?

Social:
What's going on at school this week? Are there available opportunities to meet people? What kind of fun activities can I participate in?

These are just a few examples of the many ways you can check in with yourself regularly. Don't worry about being able to balance everything overnight. Remember that the wellness journey is a process. Therefore, there is no "perfect" or "end." It is a daily practice.

Source: remodelaholic.com via Carys on Pinterest

Beating Procrastination

These days, our to-do lists can be incredibly overwhelming. We have an abundance of homework, pieces to practice, songs to write, gigs to rehearse, people to see, and places to be!

With so many things running through our minds every day, it can be easy to confuse the important things with urgent things and the not-so-important things. We all procrastinate. We all get to the point where we have 100 things on our to-do list and we feel so overwhelmed that we choose an activity that doesn't require so much energy or focus.

In the spirit of our Latin Music Culture and Celebration, I'd like to share with you a Spanish quote that depicts the problem with procrastination: "El flojo trabaja doble." The direct translation is: "The lazy one works double." And this could not be more true! How many times have you put something off for a later time because "you'll have more time to do it then" and then suddenly that day comes and you're even more behind than you thought and you're scrambling to get everything done? Your physical and emotional wellness have gone totally out the window because you haven't slept and barely eaten more than a bowl of ramen or a hot pocket. Sound familiar?

Procrastination is one of the main factors for high stress in people, but it CAN be avoided!!

Reasons we procrastinate:

*Disorganization
*Failure to Prioritize goals
*Failure to set them at all
*Not having a to-do list
*Having too large of a to-do list
*"Multitasking"
*Ineffective use of time

Here are 10 ways to AVOID procrastination & keep it away for good:

1) Change Your Environment
*Take a look at your workspace. Does it promote focus or distraction?
*Change it ASAP or move to an environment that will keep you focused.

2) Stop Overanalyzing/Don't Dwell
*The more you come up with a "reason" (*cough cough* EXCUSE) to not do your work, the more you'll put it off for a later date.
*Give yourself the opportunity to exceed. Dwelling on the work you have to do makes it easy for your mind to expand it and make it seem tougher or worse than it really is. With all of the time you spend giving yourself reasons to not do the work, you could have been halfway done already.

3) Change Your Body
*Now that you have an environment you can work with, and you've put it out of your mind that this "can't be done right now," for whatever reason, get yourself into a focused state.
*Change your physiology. Notice how you are sitting or standing. Notice your breath. Notice your posture and the position of your head. Sit up, fix your posture, and take a deep breath. You are more likely to get to work if you're sitting up and ready to work as opposed to slouching over and frowning.
*SMILE! You're about to accomplish something and feel great about it!

4) Start With the Longest/Hardest Task FIRST
*This may seem counterintuitive, but the reason our workload becomes too overwhelming is because we put off the projects we should have started from the very beginning.
*Break it down into tinier steps and set a goal to accomplish each one step by step.
*Working on bigger projects for 15-25 minutes a day is a lot more effective and efficient than finding chunks of 2-3 hour blocks. (Remember: "El flojo trabaja doble!") Do it RIGHT NOW!!

5) Turn off your phone/computer/internet/iPad/iPhone/iDistraction
*Chances are you don't need your phone to do homework or to study (Don't come up with an excuse here.)
*Put your devices on vibrate or silent. This is YOUR time to be successful, don't let a phone call or text ruin it.
*If you need to type something up, turn off the internet. Learn to use your notes and books as a resource over Google. (Hint: It is college.) You'll get more out of work that you actually put work into (I know, what a concept, right?). And let's be honest: that cat video on YouTube is NOT going to help you study.
*Out of Sight, Out of Mind

6) Study Buddy
*Emphasis on STUDY.
*Surround yourself with people that are motivated to get work done. This kind of magnetic energy will inspire you to stay focused and driven.
*Don't let this turn into an excuse to hangout. Commit to actually getting work done before you start to vent about how much work you have to do. Quiz each other, proofread essays or music, and keep each other accountable.

7) Set a timer
*Commit yourself to working for at least 15 minutes without interruptions or distractions (i.e., checking Facebook or Twitter, answering that text, etc.)
*Take a 2 minute break to walk around, get a drink, and stretch. Be mindful of your breathing and keep yourself in that focused state. Set another timer for your next segment of work until you GET IT DONE.

8) Reward System
*Give yourself an incentive to get things done ahead of time.
*If you get all your work done during the week, maybe you could actually look forward to "Sunday Funday" as opposed to dreading another looming Monday.
*Tell yourself that if you dedicate 2 hours a day studying for midterms, you'll take yourself out to eat at your favorite restaurant, or maybe you'll go see that movie you've been wanting to see.
*Don't let the fear of not having time to yourself because you're too busy stop you from being productive. Tell yourself that being productive IS time for yourself and only for your benefit.

9) Expect the Unexpected
*Things happen. Take life into consideration when you think you'll be able to "just do it tomorrow," and then something comes up and now for some reason or another, you're stuck with an extra item on your list that know you should have just done.

10) JUST DO IT
At the end of the day, you know it, I know it -- we have work to do. Procrastination affects us in more ways than one and really disrupts our well-being. Remember that you are here to study, to learn, to create something of yourself and that's not going to happen by spending all your time talking about how much you have to do but never actually doing anything about it. Capisce??
And besides, why not now? Think of the sacrifices that both you and your family go through each day so that you can be successful. Don't let that be in vain. Recognize that you are fully capable of completing the tasks expected of you; you wouldn't even be reading this if you couldn't do it. No more excuses. No more "What If's."

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."
~Earl Nightingale


Okay, now that you've used reading this article as an excuse to not get started on your homework (admit that you didn't even read the whole thing through you procrastinator you), you can do it NOW. I believe in you!! :)

Cinnamon-Maple Granola

Even with Boston's fluctuating temperatures and erratic weather, make no mistake: Fall is here.
And what better way to embrace the chilly air than with a warm fall-infused breakfast?

Take some time to explore a different creative outlet this weekend and expand your repertoire as an artist. You can start by committing to eat better one meal at a time, and consider taking more time to cook a wholesome meal instead of just heating a frozen one.

Carole Raymond's Student's Go Vegan Cookbook provides easy vegan recipes for the budget-conscious student. Feel free to make any variation of this that you like. Enjoy.

Free Sunday Fitness

Don't forget LiveWell offers plenty of FREE fitness opportunities!

The Karate/Self Defense class is hosted by Eleftherious Mukuka. Grab a friend and come get fit! Self Defense Training helps to: increase your confidence and safety, conditions your body, and creates a better sense of self-awareness and focus. Come on by!

Vice Presidential Debate 2012

Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan had much to discuss at last night's debate. Part of maintaining healthy intellectual wellness includes staying on top of current events and important political and social issues. Sometimes it may feel like our voice has little effect on the outcome, but it truly makes a difference to be involved and educated on how our country is being handled by the government.

Get together with your friends to watch the debate and have healthy discussions -- you might be surprised how much you will learn.

Here is complete coverage of the debate:

Did you guys get to watch the debate? How do you feel about this year's upcoming general election in November? Are you voting? Why or why not?

Let us know in the comments!

Crossword Solution

Hey guys! Here is the solution for yesterday's crossword puzzle -- how did you do?

Crossword Puzzle

Today's crossword puzzle has both words that helps promote intellectual wellness and vocabulary words that most of us may not have seen since high school. As musicians, we must remember to stay well-rounded and well-educated. Build your vocabulary by reading books of interest and of varying genres, reading current event articles, and of course, practice good old crossword puzzles.

Enjoy! Answers will be posted tomorrow.

Across
3    Literary work that expresses feelings and ideas with distinctive style and rhythm
6   An object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest
9   The action of traveling in or through an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it
10  Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor

Down
1    One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas of institutions
2   Deadly
4   Inclined to keep quiet
5   A building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and    
      exhibited
7   To cancel, destroy, revoke, or void
8    Commonplace; trivial

Good Luck!

The Answers

How did you guys do with yesterday's brain teasers??

Check out these answers. Did you get any of them? Our brains work mainly with patterns, so it can be hard to think outside the box sometimes because we automatically gather the information that we deem important and put other data aside. Brain teasers and riddles help our brains stay sharp and focused so as to never dismiss the most relevant details.


1) You have a fox, a chicken, and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken he will eat it; if you leave the chicken with the grain he will eat it. How can you get all three across safely?

Take the chicken over first. Go back and bring the grain next, but instead of leaving the chicken with the grain, come back with the chicken. Leave the chicken on the first side and take the fox with you. Leave it on the other side with the grain. Finally, go back over and get the chicken to bring it over. 


2) What seven-letter word has hundreds of letters in it?

Mailbox


3) What occurs every minute, twice in every moment, yet never in a thousand years?

The letter m. 

4) A basket contains 5 apples. How do you divide them among 5 kids so that each one has an apple and one apple stays in the basket?

4 kids get an apple (one apple/kid) and the fifth kid gets an apple with the basket still containing the apple.

5) Billie was born on December 28th, yet her birthday always falls in the summer. How is this possible?

Billie lives in the southern hemisphere.




Brain teasers, if anything else, provide us with a good laugh and friendly competition amongst our friends and families. Other great benefits of practicing riddles: satisfies us emotionally with the feeling of accomplishment, improves attention and concentration, builds strong memories, and refines overall mental flexibility.

Brain Teasers

Give your brain a little exercise and see if you can figure out these brain teasers!

The answers will be posted tomorrow. Good Luck!

1) You have a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken he will eat it; if you leave the chicken with the grain he will eat it. How can you get all three across safely?



2) What seven-letter word has hundreds of letters in it?



3) What occurs once every minute, twice every moment, yet never in a thousand years?



4) A basket contains 5 apples. How can you divide the apples among 5 children so that each child gets an apple, but one stays in the basket?



5) Billie was born on December 28th, but her birthday always falls in the summer. How is this possible?

Enjoy and remember to check tomorrow for the answers! Do you know any tough riddles or brain teasers? Let us know in the comments! You can also "tweet" us @BerkleeLiveWell or let us know on our Facebook page. *Side Note: Don't forget Janel Funk's Nutrition Talk tomorrow: Healthy Eating Habits for Musicians! She will be in the Loft (located at 921 Boylston St., 3rd floor, Student Activities) from 1:00-2:30pm. Reserve Your Spot by emailing livewell@berklee.edu Limit: 40 for this sessions (students, employees welcomed) BGood Lunch Served

Brainfood

This delicious smoothie picks your brain up after all that studying and practicing. Soy milk and bananas provide a blast of protein and potassium. Raspberries abound in antioxidants, fiber, manganese, and high levels of ellagic acid, which impedes cancer cells from growing.

So while we focus on intellectual wellness this week, keep in mind that our brain needs healthy “superfoods” to stay in tip-top shape!

Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Being a Berklee student sure has its advantages!! 

Your Berklee ID will get you FREE admission to the Museum of Fine Arts on any given day. Included with your admission is full-access to all open galleries and special exhibitions, free guided tours and gallery talks, as well as admission to the bookstore, gift shop, Bravo restaurant and Remis Auditorium. 

Hundreds of amazing exhibitions to see and ponder make every visit to the mfa different and exciting. So why not take this day off and enjoy a visit to the mfa? Engage your intellectual wellness; find your inspiration. 

Courtesy of mfa.org

Directions:
150 Mass Ave. to mfa

22 Fenway or Hemenway St to mfa

Babyheads Entrance

Contemporary Wing

Art of the Americas Wing

Have any of you been to the mfa before? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments!

Fall ABC's Smoothie

Yesterday at Farmer's Market by Copley Square, Whole Foods had a representative handing out free samples of their Fall ABC's Smoothie! It was so delicious, and I bought all the ingredients to make it at home. You must try it! 

Have you tried a delicious smoothie recently? Let us know in the comments!

Remember to "like" our Facebook page

& follow us on Twitter @BerkleeLivewell

to Stay Connected!!!

Your Support System

What comes to mind when you read "Support System?"

We all have someone we can count on when life gets tough. Who is that person for you?
Who counts on you?

It's Family Weekend at Berklee once again and it reminds us, whether or not our family is able to visit, that we have people that love and support us every single day.

Maintaining relationships with people you love and trust will build a solid foundation to help keep you grounded even through life's bleakest moments.

When depression hits, don't retreat into yourself, but rather, get OUTside yourself.

Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional. And more often than not, others have suffered through tests even greater than our own.

Here are a few ways to battle feelings of depression.

*Give Back

It may sound like a cliché, but giving to someone who has less than you helps change your state and give you perspective. Make someone else's day that depends on the random kindness of a stranger. 

*Journal

Write it down. Put every thought, every emotion, in an unbound & uncensored full stream of consciousness. Don't worry about punctuation, grammar or fragments. There is no fear of judgement. Just get it out. 

*Write a love letter to yourself

Imagine a time when you were young and carefree. Playing with lizards or running around at a playground. What would you tell that little boy or girl if they thought they weren't loved? If they were sad and feeling lonely? If you could sit down with them, what would you say? Look inside yourself and release your inner child. Comfort them and remind them that they are loved, important, and unique.

*Will this matter 5, 10, 20 years from now?

Usually, the answer to this question is "No." The language we use in our head shapes our beliefs, and too often do we use the wrong words to describe a situation worse than it might really be. Our minds have a proclivity for getting the best of us, but asking yourself this central question will help diffuse negative thoughts and feelings to keep from magnifying the circumstances. If this won't matter in the future, why wait? Take a deep breath, call someone you love, work through it. Make pain useful to you.

*Talk to someone

The people that you love and trust have one thing in common: they WANT you to be okay. Life constantly reminds us of our humanity, but that need not be a limit of power or strength. Connect with people that love you and never hesitate to accept a loving hand.

Finally, remember that the Berklee family is here for you. Stop by LiveWell and get involved in a fun activity like yoga, zumba, or meditation. The Counseling and Advising Center offers academic and personal counseling as well. You are worth it! 

Healthy Eating Habits for Musicians

Hey guys! Don't forget about Janel Funk's nutrition talk coming up next wednesday! We learned so much last time she was here, and the next meeting will be just as promising.

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 10, 1-2:30pm

 in the Loft at the Student Activities Center (3rd floor).  

Reserve Your Spot by emailing livewell@berklee.edu 

Limit: 40 for this sessions

(students, employees welcomed) 

 BGood Lunch Served

*located on 939 Boylston Street.

See you there!!

Perspective

Sometimes all we need is a little bit of Perspective.

You can find the original picture here.

Awaken The Giant Within

Today I want to share with you a video that has empowered me and many people around me. You can find out more about Tony Robbins here.

The video is a bit lengthy, but his main idea is about changing the emotional patterns that disempower us and lower our quality of life.

All of our emotions, he explains, are created by motion. Like yesterday's post mentioned, emotions are what we DO. Think about your physiology when you're feeling down or discouraged. A depressed person is immediately identifiable by the look on their face, the way their head is down, their shallow breath, and soft speech. We magnify these feelings with the things we tell ourselves in our head, usually causing us to be even MORE depressed! Why do we this?  It's a result of patterns that have been triggered from different events in our lives that cause us to resort to this limited way of thinking and living. But the good news is that we can shift our focus to change our state and break our patterns.

Think of what you do when you're feeling determined and focused. What's your posture like? What are your thoughts like? What is your speech like? Compare this to what you do when you're feeling depressed, helpless or weak. Many times when we're sad, we try to get out of it by telling ourselves "I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy," but our bodies are still indicating a state of depression.
By changing our physiology, we can instantly change our state of mind.

Tony offers 4 steps to breaking your emotional patterns.
1) Identify where you live emotionally.
What are the emotions that empower you on a regular basis? What are the emotions that disempower you?
2) Identify the Antidote.
How can you change the emotions that disempower you? If you have fear, then courage is the antidote. It's not about eradicating the fear, but harnessing the innate power to work through our challenges and obstacles regardless of fear.
3) Exercise that Antidote.
Emotional fitness is just as important as our physical fitness. Emotion is a muscle. To get over fear, we have to practice being courageous many times before it becomes a pattern. To do 100 pushups without stopping, we have to practice doing 10 pushups without stopping first, then 20, then 30, and eventually 100. If you're feeling helpless or discouraged, get outside yourself. Your problems might not be so big if you compare and contrast them to situations that could be even worse. Get some perspective. Shift your focus. Change your physical state.
4) Condition it
Apply the awareness that we talked about last week during meditation. Accepting yourself in the moment. Be aware of the emotions that disempower you, and notice how you're physically reacting to those emotions. If it's causing you to magnify the negative emotion, you can acknowledge this, and change it. Do it as often as possible until it becomes second nature.

The fact remains that Life is not 100% certain. However, it's the uncertainty of life that enables us to grow and progress. If we knew everything that was going to happen every day, life would be pretty boring! There will always be people and circumstances outside of our control, but the one thing we will always be in control of is ourselves. A great quote from Conversations With God says, "What is happening is what is happening, but your experience of that is something you are making up."

How empowering does it feel to know that our reactions, positive or negative, can be controlled at will?

What are some emotions that disempower you on a weekly basis? How can you begin to shift your focus and change those patterns today? Find a friend that you trust to try these exercises with you and become accountable for each other. You'll find it a much more rewarding experience when you can share your progress with others.

Be Well.

Shift in Season

It's October first and Fall could not make it presence better known than with a cool blustery day. There's a lightness to it all, but it reminds us that there is a winter up ahead. As the end of the year begins to draw near, the shift in season from Summer to Fall usually brings shifts in routines, attitudes and feelings.

LiveWell is focusing on Emotional Wellness this week so in light of the colder days and longer nights, I encourage you to embrace this new season with positivity and a sense of renewal. The return to school or fall must not be a dreary one. Things are constantly changing and so do we right along with them.

Here are 5 ways you can lift yourself up and prevent any kind of emotional funk.

1) Exercise. The next time you're feeling down, get up and dance! Play one of your favorite songs, sing-a-long, play your air guitar & get your body moving! Run around the block, or just take a walk and enjoy the new Fall weather. Emotions don't just happen to us, we DO them. Lift your chin and lift your spirits. Plus no one was ever sad dancing like no one was watching.

2) Smile. Fake it 'till you make it. Life gets in the way sometimes. I know. It happens. Something falls out of whack and throws you off and you have no clue how to deal. Relax. Just smile and tell yourself that everything will work out (because it always does). Chances are you'll start laughing at yourself before you remember whatever was giving you a reason to frown in the first place!

3) Acknowledge how you feel & accept it. Many times our emotions get the best of us because we're trying so hard to ignore them. This just makes it worse. Emotions come and go, but we continue to be the same people. You are not your thoughts. You are not your emotions. Spend a few minutes meditating and don't try to overanalyze how you feel or why you feel a certain way. Just allow yourself to feel it. Accept the moment in its purest form. It is what it is.

4) Read a good book. When was the last time you read something of real interest to you (other than music)? We're all so engrossed in our music studies that sometimes we forget we had other hobbies and interests outside of that. Go to the library. Go to a bookstore. Get some coffee or tea and cuddle up with your favorite sweater or blanket. Get lost and get inspired.

5) Sleep. The human body is an amazing creation. We put it through massive amounts of physical, mental, and emotional stress on a daily basis (and we wonder why we get sick) and still it comes through for us. When we're cranky or emotional, chances are we just need a good nap. Seriously, when was the last time you slept 8 hours every night for even three or four days in a row let alone a whole week? Give your body some rest, and the other stuff will take care of itself.


Happy Monday.
❤

"Try not to spend too much time exclusively in your mind. It is a magnificent tool, but it has a limited perspective." ~ Neale Donald Walsch, author of 'Conversations With God'