Commitment

Commitment can be an exchange of promises or a legally binding contract.  It is a necessary part for us to succeed in our personal or business life.  Have you ever made a commitment and not followed through with it?  For example, signing up at the gym and then not going the number of days that you anticipated??  

If you are wanting to make changes in your life, then being committed to that goal is fundamental for that change to occur.

Desires

Desires are things that we wish or long for.  They can take on positive and negative features.  How are your desires changing your thoughts and feelings?

Present

There are only three possible timeframes – past, present and future.  Try to become aware of the thoughts you are having and the content of those thoughts.  You may notice which timeframe you are in at any given time and how much of them is focused on the past or future timeframe. 

Being Present is what you experience when you are completely focused on this very moment.   Attempt to be in the present this week and see what changes you notice.

Habits

Habits are something that we all have.  It is a tendency to behave in the same way repetitively as we have done in the past.  Once the habit is established it is automatic.  Habits can be effective (walking, logical thinking) or undesirable (carelessness, smoking, biting nails). 

Determination should be present prior to breaking a bad habit.   The bad habit should be given no scope for expression, so that it gets forgotten by disuse.  The new habit should be given good positive energy.   The energy served by giving up the bad habit should be used for the good habit and any other useful activity.

Regain and maintain optimum posture

To regain and maintain an optimum posture, firstly, be consciously aware of your posture and how you hold your body on a daily basis. It is important to know exactly if or how your posture differs from what is considered normal so that you know what to work on. From the side view, in the standing position the following anatomical areas should line up in a vertical line, your ear, the tip of the shoulder, the hip joint, the middle of the knee and the ankle bone. 

One way of improving posture is by imagining that a string is attached to the top of your head and is pulling up towards the sky, not enough to lift you off the ground but just enough to stretch you just a little taller.

Below are a few more ideas that may help:

* Avoid lying in bed reading or watching TV, using pillows to prop your neck up.

* Use a pillow that supports your neck more so than your head and try to avoid sleeping on your front as this can create distortion throughout the spine.

* What about that comfy lounge suite that you feel your self slumping into? Perhaps try sitting on a stool, a swiss ball or just sitting on the floor.

* If you are ever focusing on something for long periods of time it is important to take short breaks often, just to move your body around. 

* Avoid giving children large school bags as they will tend to fill it with more stuff, which equals more weight. This often results in their bodies having to leaning further forward in order to counteract the increased weight, therefore setting the stage for bad posture.

* Avoid wearing high heeled shoes as this tends to place more pressure on the lumbar spine as the body attempts to bring its centre of gravity backwards.

Postural changes can take some time but by reminding yourself to hold the body in a correct position, over time it will become automatic and the specific muscles will strengthen, therefore allowing you to hold your body upright in an effortlessly way.

I wish you all the success and benefits of having great posture!

More on Posture

Poor posture can affect our lives in many different ways. Postural alterations often cause an increased load or tension within the spine, resulting in spinal misalignment that can lead to nerve interference also known as a subluxation.

Muscle imbalances can occur as a result of long term postural distortions, often resulting in weakened muscles that are more likely to become strained when vigorous activities are performed.

Our posture can also have a large effect on our emotions. Having our back rounded and head hanging down and forward with our shoulders rolling in represents feelings such as apathy, sadness, loneliness, fear and a lack of self worth. Holding our head high, shoulders back and standing tall represents feelings of happiness, enthusiasm, confidence and focus. By focusing on correcting our posture we can have a positive effect on our emotions.

Postural alterations result in biomechanical changes in the spine. This means that weight is not distributed evenly throughout the spine, but rather specific areas hold more weight or tension.

Abundance

Abundance can be talked about in several different contexts, financial abundance, abundance of resources, an abundance of knowledge, information, etc.
It can also be referred to as the ability to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. In essence what it brings us is a sense of freedom.

Opportunities to act, speak, or think without any externally imposed restraints.

When we look at it from this perspective, we may ask ourselves what is it that restricts us from being in a constant state of abundance. More often than not, it is the restrictions we place on ourselves by not allowing this state to manifest. Our own ‘stinking thinking’ all too often can be the leading barrier to creating a state of abundance in our lives.

Have you noticed an area in your life where you feel restricted and are unable to carry out the things you desire? We need to let what is on the inside shine through, and trust that we have the potential for greatness. Abundance is a state of mind put into action. Our thoughts have the potential to manifest our greatest desires in our physical world. It is just a matter of access. So the first step is to perhaps bring some awareness to those ‘blocks or stops’ we sometimes hold in our mind. Awareness alone will help remove and dissolve much of the resistance. Secondly we need to trust ourselves and this will open up all possibilities, have a firm reliance on your own abilities.

When a climate of abundance exists, all things come easier.

Posture

As children we are generally told to stand up straight, push our shoulders back and to stop slouching. I thought that this was just another formality or ritual within our society, like placing our knife and fork together when we had finished eating a meal. But now, in becoming an adult (or the age of one) I can see that being aware of my body and how I hold it is as important as any other activity or process involved in maintaining or restoring my health.

Posture; coming from the root word penere, meaning to hold, in other words how we hold our body from head to toe, has been known for centuries as has the importance of posture and its effects on our well-being. In evolutionary terms, our body is designed to move about gracefully as we roam this planet, however, in the last hundred or so years, with the invention of things like the car, television, computers, desk jobs, and in more recent times, the internet, we find ourselves performing relatively repetitive tasks in regard to the way we hold or move our bodies, often being in one position for hours at a time, and at the same time being so focused on the task at hand that we shut out the subtle messages that our bodies are trying to tell us.