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Golf Confidence Hypnosis AND Mental Training Package

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:13:13 -0500

It is time to Improve Your Golf Confidence… this combination Mental Training & Hypnosis Package will help you easily make the mental shift!

Included In Purchase:

• Instructions PDF

• Intro to the Mind Video

Subject Specific Training, includes:

• Mental Training Video

• Hypnosis Audio

• Lifework Sheet PDF

• Self Suggestion Page PDF

• Mini Pocket Suggestion PDF

[add_to_cart item=”GCH4115″ quantity=”1″ ]

This product is an instant download.
It will be immediately available to you on the confirmation page after your purchase.

Golf Putting Hypnosis

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:16:15 -0500

It is time to be Perfect Your Putting… this 25 minutes hypnosis session will help you get started immediately!

Included In Purchase:

• Instructions PDF

• Intro to the Mind Video

• Hypnosis Audio

[add_to_cart item=”GP4013″ quantity=”1″ ]

This product is an instant download.
It will be immediately available to you on the confirmation page after your purchase.

Golf Putting Hypnosis AND Mental Training Package

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:18:04 -0500

It is time to be Perfect Your Putting… this combination Mental Training & Hypnosis Package will help you easily make the mental shift!

Included In Purchase:

• Instructions PDF

• Intro to the Mind Video

Subject Specific Training, includes:

• Mental Training Video

• Hypnosis Audio

• Lifework Sheet PDF

• Self Suggestion Page PDF

• Mini Pocket Suggestion PDF

[add_to_cart item=”GPH4015″ quantity=”1″ ]

This product is an instant download.
It will be immediately available to you on the confirmation page after your purchase.

Golf Chipping Hypnosis

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:19:27 -0500

It is time to Improve your Chipping… this 25 minutes hypnosis session will help you get started immediately!

Included In Purchase:

• Instructions PDF

• Intro to the Mind Video

• Hypnosis Audio

[add_to_cart item=”GC4003″ quantity=”1″ ]

This product is an instant download.
It will be immediately available to you on the confirmation page after your purchase.

Golf Chipping Hypnosis AND Mental Training Package

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:21:03 -0500

It is time to Improve your Chipping… this combination Mental Training & Hypnosis Package will help you easily make the mental shift!

Included In Purchase:

• Instructions PDF

• Intro to the Mind Video

Subject Specific Training, includes:

• Mental Training Video

• Hypnosis Audio

• Lifework Sheet PDF

• Self Suggestion Page PDF

• Mini Pocket Suggestion PDF

[add_to_cart item=”GH4005″ quantity=”1″ ]

This product is an instant download.
It will be immediately available to you on the confirmation page after your purchase.

Exercise Motivation Hypnosis

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:23:27 -0500

The exercise Motivation package is the ideal way to keep yourself motivated with your exercise regime … use mental training to maintain and enhance the motivation that got you started in the first place!

Included In Purchase:

• Instructions PDF

• Intro to the Mind Video

20min Hypnosis for Transformation

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:26:45 -0500

This 20min hypnosis audio is generic in nature… I give it to every one of my clients at their first appointment so they can start doing hypnosis immediately at home, to become comfortable and familiar with it. I also encourage clients to use it as a tool to assist them in becoming familiar with how often their conscious mind wanders from the task at hand. They then can train their conscious mind to be more present by reeling it in every time it does wander. This 20-min transformation hypnosis is the ideal companion to all of Dawn’s transforming mental training products.

Some of the area incorporated in this hypnosis are:

Deep breathing relaxation exercises
“5, 4, 3, 2, 1” Sectional progressive relaxation
Deepening progressive relaxation
Visualization experience using all senses
Ability to easily relax and make positive change

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro to the Mind” Video
20 min Hypnosis For Transformation Hypnosis MP3 Audio

[add_to_cart item=”TR2005″ quantity=”1″ ]

This product is an instant download.
It will be immediately available to you on the confirmation page after your purchase.

Healthy, Comfortable Skin Hypnosis

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:29:00 -0500

Do you have any on-going skin discomfort or issues? If you’ve been having problems with itching, dryness, or irritations, you are definitely ready for some help! Clients with Shingles, rashes, or other kinds of outbreaks have experienced relief from their symptoms from using Dawn’s Healthy, Comfortable Skin Hypnosis. If you are ready for stronger, healthier and more comfortable skin, it’s time for a break and this powerful hypnosis will give you that!

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Healthy, comfortable, smoothed-over, silky, irritation-free skin
Skin feels good on my body and is getting healthier every day
Skin is a reflection of my health, my body is now healthy and my skin is now healthy
I desire and crave large, refreshing, health-giving, energizing, delightful glasses of water as it helps my skin to heal and be continuously healthy
My skin is a living organ in my body and every second it is renewing, healing and creating new skin cells, each day the outer layer of my skin is more vibrant as the old cells slough off easily, all new skins cells are now programmed to be healthy, hydrated, nourished, silky, smooth and soft

Included In Purchase:

Instructions
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Healthy, Comfortable Skin Hypnosis MP3 Audio

Clay Shooting POST Segment Sequence Hypnosis

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:33:10 -0500

Have you ever noticed the crazy and self defeating thoughts that you experience POST stations or peg… and POST round or event? These unproductive thoughts can temporarily or permanently decrease your performance. The amount of time they haunt you and effect you is different for everyone. For some it is a few minutes, for others it can be a few stations/pegs, and for still others it can be days or weeks or years.

Dawn’s advanced Clay Shooting POST Segment Sequence includes Hypnosis as well as the POST Segment Sequence and POST Event Worksheet. Together they will help you make productive and positive changes to your POST Segment mindset, these changes will dramatically and permanently change how effective your thoughts are and your shooting performance. This product contains Advanced Techniques and is only recommend for clients who have undergone mental training sessions with Dawn.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Step by step detail of Post Segment Sequence
Positive and productive mental skills for post event period of time
Effectively process both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ shots
Stop negative reflections on ‘bad’ stations and recognize the learning available
Profound and permanent change from effective processing

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Clay Shooting: Post Event Sequence MP3 Hypnosis Audio
POST Event Sequence PDF
POST Event Worksheet PDF

Clay Shooting Perform with Confidence and in the Zone Hypnosis

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:55:55 -0500

Just like most athletes, Clay Shooters enjoy Performing with Confidence and in the Zone. They wish is would happen more often. But, unfortunately, they face a few obstacles that hold them back and they experience the exact opposite, a lack of confidence.

When a Clay Shooter experiences shooting in the Zone state they are in a state of complete Confidence. The Zone state is described as: their body just seems to move, they shoot subconsciously and intuitively, they are free of thought, everyone and everything disappears around them, they feel great, and they easily smoke the targets.

Dawn’s advanced Clay Shooting: Perform with Confidence and in the Zone Hypnosis will make positive changes to your mind to dramatically change your level of confidence and ability to be in the Zone state.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Experience confidence going into an event, station, peg
Having fun while competing
Build confidence every time you shoot
Familiarize yourself with the Zone state
Experience the Zone state more often and for longer periods of time

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Clay Shooting: Perform with Confidence and in the Zone Hypnosis MP3 Hypnosis Audio

Master The Zone State and Peak Your Performance in Sport and in Life

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:08:06 -0500

Have you heard of The Zone?

If you are an athlete it’s pretty likely you’ve not only heard of it, but you have experienced it and loved it!

But what if we could ALL peak our performance… in LIFE, by Mastering the Zone State!

Most athletes would do anything to learn how to be in the ever elusive zone state more often and for longer periods of time. When they describe being in The Zone, they mention things like: I performed intuitively or from the subconscious, there was no ‘thinking,’ time flew by, my body just did the right thing, I felt great, and everything seemed to disappear around me. They also recognize that their performance peaked considerably while in The Zone.

If we all gained Mastery over the Zone State, we could Peak our Performance at Everything we do in Life… you could have greater career success, lower stress levels, greater health, a sense of well-being, weight-loss and improved fitness! You could reap the rewards of this powerful state as you Peak Your Performance as a spouse, parent, daughter, son, sibling, entrepreneur, employer, employee, friend, and neighbor!

This may sound like a tall order but it’s not when you come to understand the mind. Not only can you have this, but I can help you achieve it…

Since 1994, I have been professionally helping people to overcome life’s challenges, enabling them to achieve their goals, obtain personal fulfillment and live their ideal life. I have an obvious passion for my work which draws clients globally, including mainstream & elite athletes. Many of my clients are World Champions, Hall of Famers, Team USA & Olympians in Golf, Clay Shooting & Surfing; with 25+ that are PGA TOUR Pros (averaging 219% increase in earnings), and 50+ Competing Clay Shooters. In 2008, I even helped PGA TOUR Pro Vijay Singh obtain a mental shift that contributed to his 2 FedEx Cup Playoff wins and his earning of the 2008 FedEx Cup Championship (and $13,000,000).

If you are ready for Significant Change and to Peak Your Performance in Life or Sport… you have come to the right place. I don’t just offer you good ideas and motivational pep talks… I teach you, coach you, encourage you, inspire you, and hold you accountable through a step-by-step process that will gain you insight, understanding, empowerment, and, eventual Mastery Over The Zone State.

It would be my pleasure to assist you!

Clay Shooters Benefit from a Post-Shot Routine

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 06:50:11 -0500

I know, I know… you have heard of a Pre-Shot Routine and you are thinking “What is she talking about? A Post-Shot Routine? Doesn’t she mean a Pre-Shot Routine?” Nope, sorry, I mean a Post-Shot Routine and I would even venture to say that Clay Shooters could benefit significantly from a Post-Shot Routine. And it’s not just a Post Shot that will serve you well… there is tremendous advantage from participating in a productive Post Station/Peg, Post Round, and Post Event Routine.

Take your mind for a moment to the period of time as you leave a station or a peg, and imagine that you just missed several ‘easy’ targets. What do you typically say to yourself or others? How do you typically act? If you are like a majority of Clay Shooters, your thoughts, words and actions are likely not very favorable. You will be lucky to turn them off prior to the next station or peg, and you may even carry them throughout the rest of event, week or year! You know that these thoughts are a recipe for disaster! They will significantly decrease your performance…. Even a year later! Yep, I would say that a Post-Shot Routine is important. But I don’t call mine a Post-Shot Routine because it needs to be used Post-Shot, Post-Pair, Post-Station, Post-Peg, Post-Round, and Post-Event. I call it a Post Event Sequence.

I have outlined a sequence of positive and productive mental skills that need to be applied Post every Clay Shooting event. These specific skills will help you turn around a ‘bad’ station by finding the ‘good’ in every shot, whether you have missed it or smoked it. This is not just about ‘forgetting about it and moving on’ as that is only a temporary fix. I help you make profound, permanent change and that only occurs when you have learned how to effectively process what has just transpired.

Most of my Clay Shooting clients find tremendous value from learning and applying my Post-Shot Routine. Their only wish is to get it into auto-pilot, subconscious mode faster. Their wish is my command! I have created “Clay Shooting: Post Event Sequence Hypnosis” as there is no faster way to benefit from good stuff then to get it turned into a good habit!

Clay Shooters Want to Perform with Confidence and in the Zone

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:51:41 -0500

Like most athletes, Clay Shooters want to Perform with Confidence and in the Zone. But, unfortunately, they face a few obstacles that hold them back. Rather than having Confidence going into an event, station or peg; Clay Shooters tend to worry about their abilities, whether they have practiced enough, if they deserve to be at the level of competition they are at or which they are striving for, or if they will be able to shoot the rabbits. After missing a few targets in a station or peg, they will be hard on themselves, fearing they won’t be able to recover, or questioning why they are even at an event. The obsessive negative thoughts and scenarios that replay in their minds are exactly what contribute to a lack of confidence. Sadly, most Clay Shooters participate in these mental activities by default. They have no idea they are even speaking to themselves or others in this way; so they surely don’t realize they are acting as their own worst enemy.

When a Clay Shooter experiences shooting in the Zone state they are in a state of complete Confidence. While shooting in the Zone state, they describe the experience as: their body just seems to move, they shoot subconsciously and intuitively, they are free of thought, everyone and everything disappears around them, they feel great, and they easily smoke the targets. Do you see how Confidence is an intricate part of this? If we take a moment, we can see that when a Clay Shooter is lacking in confidence the opposite scenario happens, they: try to force the shot and make it happen, over-think and analyze, have a ton of chatter and second guessing, hear and are aware of everyone and everything around them, aren’t having fun anymore, and miss many targets.

After working with several dozen Clay Shooters it became painful for me to watch their innocent self-sabotaging behaviors. All Clay Shooters would prefer to perform in the Zone so I have created a hypnosis audio to tackle this exact problem. Suggestions on “Clay Shooting: Perform with Confidence and in the Zone Hypnosis” address every aspect of what builds a Clay Shooters Confidence… which ultimately leads to performing in the Zone more often and for longer periods of time. It’s what every Clay Shooter could want!

Confidence is necessary for a Clay Shooter to perform regularly in the Zone, meanwhile the mental calisthenics they most regularly participate in work against their ability to be confident! It’s time to reverse this and you can do it with my “Clay Shooting: Perform with Confidence and in the Zone Hypnosis”

Consistent Performance in Clay Shooting from Planning, Preparing and Better Focus

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:56:37 -0500

This past week, I had three Clay Shooters fly in from out of state and worked with several others via Skype or phone. Like the rest of us, Clay Shooters think their challenges are unique to them, but, in reality, the details may be different but the scenarios are the same. Every Clay Shooter I have worked with could benefit from more consistent and deliberate Planning, Preparing and Better Focus.

If a Clay Shooter steps up to a station or peg and believes the targets are easy, they will likely breeze through their preshot routine and take it for granted that they can break the targets. But guess what happens? They miss! It happens all the time!

Most Clay Shooters know that if they could break every easy target in a competition they are ahead of the game, and they have significantly increased their odds of being in the lead. Isn’t it funny, Clay Shooters that practice all the time, and spend a ton of cash on their apparatuses, instruction and travel, will miss the easy targets which cost them their position. Ok, maybe not so funny for those of you living it. But, come on now, let’s stop the insanity.

After hearing of the struggles with inconsistent performance due to lack of Planning and Preparing prior to every station or peg, I was inspired to create “Clay Shooting: Plan, Prepare, Focus Hypnosis.” But not every kind of Planning is going to work. If you are doubting, worrying, fearing, or having expectations during your Planning and Preparing you are actually setting yourself up for a struggle, and your focus and performance will suffer. What is ideal is to have a perfect mix of Calm Alertness, a perfect marriage of Peaceful Attentiveness. This interesting combo comes with practice and repetition of specific mental skills, but you can get a huge jump start via “Clay Shooting: Plan, Prepare, Focus Hypnosis.”

Better Focus and Consistent Peak Performance come when a Clay Shooter has purposefully, deliberately and confidently Planned each shot, and Prepared through a productive preshot routine. Combine all this with that perfect mix of calmness and alertness and you have a recipe for Peak, Consistent Performance whether the targets are easy or hard. Are you ready for this?

About Gun Control and People

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:02:37 -0500

The ongoing gun control debate has several different aspects, but is currently mostly defined by overheated political rhetoric in the aftermath of ongoing gun violence atrocities. As a mental trainer and hypnotherapist who has been in private practice for 13 years I have had the honor to closely observe the mental happenings of thousands of people and reached the careful conclusion, that where it concerns gun violence, we need to focus on identifying those with violent mental instabilities, rather than trying to control gun ownership, a constitutional right.

Because I offer hypnosis as a tool for change, you’ll want to understand that I am typically a ‘last resort.’ By the time a person contacts me, they are faced with major challenges which have become debilitating to their functioning and they typically feel they have already tried everything else. They are at a loss, have reached their limit, and are getting in touch with me in hopes that my services will assist them in gaining control over some aspect of their life or psyche.

This is no different for the Clay Shooting athletes that started contacting me for help about 4 years ago. The obvious difference being they are packing a high powered shot gun. Yep, in their truck parked outside my window, is a rack with one or more shot guns, which they have typically paid somewhere between $10,000 and $50,000 for. Moreover, many are traveling to Clay Shooting Competitions or to a winter southern home where they can practice their precision shooting till their heart is content, so they need and usually have cases and cases of shot gun shells.

In short, guys with guns and plenty of ammo come to my office all the time for mental help!

Am I scared? No, not even close! Why would I be?

Over the years, I have observed and worked with many levels of mental capacity and functioning. Having worked with several thousand people who readily admitted to needing mental help, I would venture to say, even in spite of their need for mental tweaking, 99% have fallen into what I would consider a ‘normal’ range of mental health. Only 2 or 3 stand out in my mind as ‘abnormal’ or mentally unstable to the point that I was concerned about their motives or my safety, and they were not Clay Shooters.

What is even more intriguing is when I step back and look at a bigger picture for Clay Shooters. These gun packing, ammo carrying fellows are faced with the same life challenges as the rest of us… they get in disagreements with their spouses, in-laws, siblings, parents, children, colleagues and neighbors; they get cut off on the highway and experience road rage; they get reprimanded at work; or as a boss they have employees that need to be laid off due to lying or stealing; and they too lose millions of dollars in the stock market or feel short changed by the system.

And competitively these shotgun shooters put even more stress on their plate. Because they are competing athletes, they willingly put themselves in situations where anger can be enflamed. Here are just a few stressors that Competing Clay Shooters willingly face: thousands of dollars have been invested in their skill building and equipment which causes them to have a lot riding on their performance; they have arch enemies and equal rivals who have beat them out of trophies; they face judges that make bad calls that cost them a win; they get partnered up with squad mates that talk too loud, rudely interfere, or have anger issues, cursing, throwing used shells and fist pumping the air; they can be in freezing temperatures, soaking wet from rain, mud up to their knees; their $50,000 gun can break in the middle of a shot; and they can get into disagreements with their competition after watching them lie or cheat. Their pride and egos are on the line, all while carrying a shotgun and hundreds of shells.

Clay Shooters are faced with all this and yet they are not killing each other. It doesn’t even cross their mind! Because killing isn’t about whether one owns or carries a gun, killing is about a person’s mental state.

Gun control will not stop killing because those inclined to kill will find a way to do so… their psyche will come up with a motive, it will make a plan and it will find the means to carry it out. Our only hope for prevention is to be able to identify this small percentage of the population and provide the help or restrictions necessary to keep us safe and them under close observation. This debate should be about developing a failsafe process that identifies people with a propensity for violence to keep guns away from them and not about blanket gun control.

Clay Shooting: Plan, Prepare and Focus Hypnosis

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:31:38 -0500

If you are doubting, worrying, fearing, or having expectations during your Planning and Preparing you are actually setting yourself up for a struggle, and your focus and performance will suffer. What is ideal is to have a perfect mix of Calm Alertness, a perfect marriage of Peaceful Attentiveness. This interesting combo comes with practice and repetition of specific mental skills, but you can get a huge jump start with this Hypnosis … designed especially to build the focus you need to maximize your clay shooting performance.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Consistent performance whether targets are ‘easy’ or ‘hard’
Deliberate and purposeful planning
Positive and productive preparing in pre-shot routine
Achieving calm alertness
Better focus from confident planning and preparing

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro to the Mind” Video
Clay Shooting: Plan, Prepare and Focus MP3 Hypnosis Audio

Can My Clay Shooting Clients Perform Like They Practice?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:15:35 -0500

Seminole Cup is Around the Corner!

February 20-24

I am very excited to be attending my first Seminole Cup! As one of the first big events of the year, many of my Clay Shooting Mental Training clients are wondering if they can perform like they have been practicing. Although I have been working with Clay Shooters for about 4 years, with well over 60 Clay Shooters that have hired me and several dozen which are active clients, I have yet to see many of them compete. So I am very much looking forward to watching them perform!

Obviously, a competition is where one’s mental skills (or lack of them) will either make or break them. There’s no better place for me to see who is applying and mastering what I have been teaching them and who isn’t. Just as all humans are different, every Clay Shooter has taken a different approach to their sessions with me. Some do their homework as instructed, others do their homework twice as frequently as I asked, while a few never seem to find time to make it a priority. Each of their efforts will show up loud and clear at the Seminole Cup, and in each of the upcoming events after it.

All athletes know it is one thing to receive instruction and practice, it is quite another to be able to take those skill sets into performance. From the outside a competition can seem the same as practice, especially if the shooter practices as if they are at an event, but they are very, very different. Yes, they have the same shotgun, the same shells, and the same type of targets… but there is something vitally dissimilar. The culprit behind one not being able to perform like they practice is the conscious mind and its wanderings and infamous stinking thinking!

Every one of my Clay Shooting clients is well versed in the tactics of the conscious mind; they have learned about it and have acquired skills to overcome its old unproductive tendencies and thinking. They have had ample time to practice the productive mental training techniques they have learned, and for those that were diligent, these mental skills will be on autopilot. For the others, the question will be… can they perform their mental skills like they have practice? We shall see in a few weeks.

For those who have slacked off a bit on their work… it’s not too late for a refresher. You know where to find me! Or you could even get some good hypnosis suggestions via one of my new Clay Shooting products:

Now there is no excuse for a Clay Shooter to not be able to Perform Like They Practice!

See you at Seminole Cup Sporting Clays Tournament!

Trying my new Howard Leight Shooter’s Electronic Earmuffs at the Seminole Cup

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:25:03 -0500

I am ready to try out my new Howard Leight Shooter’s Electronic Earmuffs at the Seminole Cup!

Last week I spent a day at South Florida Shooting Club for the Team USA Shooting School, where Doug Vine and I spent several hours watching Wendell Cherry and John Woolley instructing students. Hours of non-stop shotgun shooting and my poor ears were ringing and sore. Like most shooters, I came to realize that the foam ear plugs just don’t cut it; they don’t stay in well, they don’t block out the shotgun sound sufficiently, and you can’t hear conversation.

So I have been picking the brains of several of my Clay Shooting clients to find out what kind of ear protection they recommend. Many of them use Custom Molded Shooting Earpieces with electronic inserts so they can hear normal conversations while the electronics block out shotgun sounds, these are made to fit their ears. The cost for a set of Pro Ears Custom Molded Electronic Shooting Earpieces is about $2000. Since (at this time) I am not shooting often and most of the work I do with Clay Shooters is in my office, I opted out of these earpieces.

One of my clients suggested Peltor Tactical 6S Active Volume Hearing Protectors. He said he has been using them for 20+ years and has never had a problem with them. They do well to cut out the hazardous impulse noises from firearms, allow for conversation, have a volume controll, fold up, and run on batteries. Because they are earmuffs, he prefers them in the colder months as they keep his ears warm, but in the summer they be hot and cause him to sweat. He also suggested taking the batteries out when not in use to prolong the life of the earmuffs.

When I researched Peltor Tactical 6s Earmuffs I was able to come across hundreds of reviews. Most were very positive and recommended them. But there were several that made a different recommendation.

The Howard Leight R-01526 Impact Sport Electronic Earmuffs had thousands of postive reviews and recommendations. They fold up smaller and are more compact, have an plug-in for MP3 player (this will be great for clients who are using my hypnosis MP3s), the muffs are thin in the area where the stock needs to come up tight to the face, automatic shut off after 4 hours, can easily hear normal conversation around while automatically blocking noises above 82 dB, and they have a noise reduction rating: NRR 22. Like many other folks, I was sold.

One guy who is a sound engineer, life member of NRA and sport shooter thought so highly of the Howard Leight R-01526 Impact Sport Electronic Earmuffs that he created an informative video review that’s available on Amazon.

Seminole Cup is next weekend and I am looking forward to using my new Howard Leight Shooter’s Electronic Earmuffs!

A Butterfly’s Struggle

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:07:01 -0500

The story of A Butterfly’s Struggle has touched my life for many years. The first time I read it I was in awe of anyone who could live their life in such a manner.

Over the years, this way of thinking has become more and more a way of living for me. To be able to look back on my life and see that every struggle has brought me strength. Every time I wished a problem away, and it didn’t leave, I have learned a valuable lesson.

I have learned to appreciate the ‘good’ and to see the ‘good’ in what I would have considered ‘bad’… helping me to live a life where every day I am happy and stress free.

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.

One day a small opening appeared.

He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours

as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.

Then it stopped, as if it couldn’t go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and

snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.

The butterfly emerged easily but

it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,

expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge

and expand enough to support the body,

Neither happened!

In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life

crawling around.

It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness

and haste did not understand:

The restricting cocoon and the struggle

required by the butterfly to get through the opening

was a way of forcing the fluid from the body

into the wings so that it would be ready

for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly

what we need in our lives.

Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as we could be. Never being able to fly.

I asked for Strength ……. And God gave me difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom…….. And God gave me problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity…… And God gave me a brain and brawn to work.

I asked for Courage…….. And God gave me obstacles to overcome.

I asked for Love ……….. And God gave me troubled people to help.

I asked for Favors…….. And God gave me opportunities.

“I received nothing that I wanted….. But everything that I needed.”

Videos

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:30:27 -0500

Mental Trainer and Performance Hypnotherapist Dawn Grant presents the Power of Your Thoughts during a World on a String Inspirational Evening in Fernandina Beach.

The Power of Your Thoughts from Dawn Grant- Mental Trainer on Vimeo.

Here are videos that answers many of the Frequently Asked Questions. For more videos go to my Channel

John Woolley will be ‘Looking At The Bird’ this weekend at Seminole Cup

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:17:44 -0500

Along with many other Clay Shooters, John Woolley, will be ‘Looking At The Bird’ this weekend at the Seminole Cup. In the Clay Shooting world, John Woolley and his phrase (spoken in a British accent) “Look At The Bird” are as famous as Nike and their slogan “Just Do It.” There is good reason for this! John is not only well accomplished as a Clay Shooting competitor, he is a world renowned instructor, writer, championship and private course designer, has served as Captain of both the US Veterans Sporting Clays team as well as the Veterans FITASC team, and sells shotguns to shotgun sports enthusiasts. Many of John’s students have become winning international shooters.

Of John Woolley’s many accomplishments, he has won 2 world champion titles, World Professional Doubles Championship and the Beretta World Sporting Clays Championship, has represented Great Britain many times on their four man National Team, and has won 12 Gold Medals and 1 Silver.

John has a great website where you can get information on his many ventures, including individual and group lessons, 3 day clinics, and gunfitting.

Since early 2010, I have been working with John on the mental aspect of his game. It may surprise folks that such a high level achiever would seek out help for their mental skills, but it’s no surprise to me. Being that I have worked with several dozen elite athletes… there is one thing we all have in common, we are human with mental thought patterns and beliefs that limit our ability to be the best we can be… at anything we put our mind to.

When John sees that one of his students is struggling with confidence, fears, doubts, worries, or debilitating expectations, he sends him or her to me. John has come to recognize that one’s mental skill set can make or break their progress and performance; and, at times, in order for him to see progress in their mechanics, they have to gain some control over their mind. It has been great working with John’s students because they are very receptive and ready to get to work. Mainly because they have such great respect and admiration for him, they trust his referral to me. Every one of them is proud to be working with John, but they are also honored to call him a friend. Because John is more than an instructor to his students, he treats them like family. He welcomes them into his home where is Fiancé and Home-Chef, Gretchen, tantalizes their taste buds with splendid home-cooked meals, Woolley labeled wine, and tons of laughter. He has a loyal following because he has earned it with his moral character and values.

I have also had the pleasure of working together with John in one of his 3 day clinics. In November 2012, at Amelia Shotgun Sports, we did a combo platter where we split the group in half and while he worked outside with one set on their mechanics, I worked inside with the other on their mental. By the third day, I was on the course with them coaching in the implementation of their mental skills. It was a lot of fun and very rewarding.

Things don’t stop there though, like thousands and thousands before me, I have been honored to receive shooting instruction from John. He is very good at teaching fantastic shooting skills, a gift that has come naturally to him for many decades. It’s been great having John so close by, as my son, Charlie, and I have enjoyed lessons with John while having some great quality time together. We both have John’s British voice programmed in our heads, saying “Look At The Bird.”

Since John has moved from Amelia Shotgun Sports to bigger and better endeavors, it is best to contact his Fiancé and Personal Assistant, Gretchen, to schedule some time 904-631-1365.

In the meantime, I hope to see you at the Seminole Cup, where I will be watching John Woolley “Looking At The Bird”

Achieve Success: Autograph Your Work With Excellence

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 07:52:53 -0500

As I consider new tools or skills that will help people achieve greater work and life success, I think it is important for them to recognize what success they already have. In life, people experience numerous opportunities to work hard and devote time to building skills over a period of months or years, or while working on various projects. Those skills have likely created lots of success through many of life’s challenges, opportunities, ups and downs. It would be beneficial to folks and their confidence to recognize how those opportunities have given them great skill sets.

When you stop to review what you have accomplished or gone through in your life, you will see that you have achieved much more success than you realize. You just need to take a moment and look at all you have overcome, what you have built and the success you have had. Doing that will help alleviate pressures you place on yourself, help you find greater confidence in yourself, and actually create a different energy or feeling in your body; a shift in energy.

ENERGY AND SUCCESS

Rather than being down yourself, hard on yourself, or feeling like you just haven’t ‘pulled it off’, (which causes a poor attitude and negative feelings as your energy goes down) you need to start to see how far you have come because of all your hard work. At first, it may seem foreign to you when you begin to look at what you have achieved, the hard work you have gone through to get to where you are and how far you have come. But your energy will shift as you start to believe that you really have done a lot of great things and have amounted to a lot, and you can start to see what successes that hard work has brought to your life.

If you have spent a lot of time frustrated or feeling like you have not yet arrived, that you have not reached your dreams or you are not where you think you should be, then it might be tricky to overcome those mindsets. Start by seeing your progress and recognize just how far you have come. I can tell you that by encouraging that kind of belief system, you will have a very powerful shift in your energy which will then propel you at greater speed and bring about even greater levels of success.

As you assess where you are, how far you have come and where you are going, there is no reason to feel bad about your life, any of the troubles you faced along the way, or to worry about where you are headed. All three areas need to be in balance in a way that you can feel good about. Recognizing the growth you acquired as you overcame struggles and challenges will give you a shift in how you feel. Feeling good about your life right now and realizing the progress you already made, will give you a second shift. Looking forward with a positive outlook will give you a third shift. All three shifts together will contribute to even more successes in your future.

In building upon this energy shift and review of past success, what next step, skill or tip will help you achieve all the levels of success you desire, in a way you prefer? One great way is to look at every job you do as a self portrait of the person who did it, or; “Autograph your Work with Excellence”.

HOW DO I PORTRAY EXCELLENCE?

So far you have learned a little about the energy of your body; meaning, how you feel or how your attitude affects the way you see things, and how you feel about whatever you work on. If you apply the best of your abilities or skills to your work, really try hard and maintain a positive presence of mind while you work, you create excellence. If you are distracted while working, think negatively or with a sense that there is something wrong with you or the work itself while you are doing it, you will autograph that job poorly. Your work will show the corresponding level of attitude or effort you put into it. You can do a job half-heartedly or when your mind is off somewhere else, or you can do a job with focus and a desire to really put your best foot forward. However you feel is reflected in your work; every job is a self-portrait of you at that time.

I saw a recent example of Autographing Work with Excellence when I hired a cleaning woman for my old Townhouse when I moved. She asked me several times if I thought she was doing a good job, if I liked what she was doing or if it would help me get my deposit back. She showed me she cared about the outcome, she did not rush to get the job done quickly, and she did not appear to hate what she was doing or dread having to do it. She obviously cared a lot about the quality of her work and put her heart and soul into it. She even called me the next day to ensure I was satisfied. She had a positive attitude, appreciated the opportunity and wanted to do her best. The job was not just a paycheck. She Autographed her Work with Excellence.

Since that time, I have recommended her regularly, saying she did the most thorough job I had ever seen, and I will hire her again. I really appreciated the great job she did and could truly see and feel the excellence and effort she put into it. That is true of the work everyone does; we can tell if someone Autographs their Work with Excellence, or not. Excellent work is appreciated in both the short and long run, and there is really no reason why everyone cannot do it or be aware that we can do the same thing.

ACHIEVE SUCCESS: AUTOGRAPH WITH EXCELLENCE

You leave a mark on everything you do, and that mark has a domino effect. If you want consistent success, in ways you prefer or in growing amounts, then you want to Autograph with Excellence. That will then spread like wildfire. As word-of-mouth gets out about your ‘excellent work’, you follow up and continue to autograph other jobs with excellence, people will hear about you and want to hire you, and more opportunities will come your way. I have seen it happen myself; word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing. You only pay for it with a good attitude, a good work-ethic, and by autographing your work with excellence.

GET STARTED!

In order to achieve work and life success, remember to start at the beginning: Inventory what successes you have had, appreciate where you have been, and what it has taught you. See the success in your present day life, feel good about where you are now, and feel good about where you are heading. This kind of attitude shift will clear out any crud that could have infiltrated your work and caused ‘not-so-good’ outcomes for you. Also, remember that every job is a self portrait of the person who did it, and start autographing your work with excellence!

I really hope you take this information to heart, and are able to autograph your work with excellence. I would be happy to help you assess your skills and apply the principle of autographing with excellence; please give me a call. Achieving greater success in work and life is right around the corner for you. Have an excellent day!

Serenity as a Cushion For Less Stress and Greater Joy

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:42:40 -0500

How would you like to achieve a state of greater joy and happiness in balance with less stress in your life? You might wonder: “Can I really reduce stress and increase my joy?” “Can I effectively and permanently increase joy, happiness, and the feeling of really loving life, while decreasing stress at the same time?” Apply the techniques I describe below, and the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. It is possible to lessen stress and increase joy, when you use Serenity as a Cushion.

As you decrease stress in your life, what ultimately happens is an increase in greater joy. Since many people tend to have so much stress going on in their lives and minds, they need a practical way to learn how to decrease it. First, people can shift their perceptions, attitudes and focus toward increasing joy, happiness and serenity – or thoughts of peacefulness. One emotional state replaces the other. Decrease stress and automatically joy, happiness and serenity increase. It is a natural occurrence. People do not actually have to try harder to be happy or joyful. What they can learn to do is decrease their stress.

For years, people have looked outside of themselves at things that agitate them, as the focus for how to decrease their stress. They think that if they could only change outside events, change their spouse, their boss, their children, their neighbors, or maybe even the house they live in, their stress will decrease. Possibly traveling more or increasing the amount of money in their bank account, buying a different wardrobe, more jewelry or a different set of golf clubs, are all things that people have come to believe could make them happier or more joyful. People believe they need those things to feel better.

Reality is that those external things will only bring temporary satisfaction or increased joy. Yes, a new set of golf clubs might make you may feel pretty darn great for a while, but how long will that last? If you got the new house or a certain amount of money in the bank, or if you did succeed at noticing your spouse has changed, you might feel a temporary lift in your joy. But I can almost give you a 100% guarantee that your misery, sadness or stress will be there the next time your neighbor does something you do not like, your bank account drops below an amount you want to maintain, or your golf clubs do not pull through for you on the course the way you had hoped. So what can you do?

I want to give you the opportunity to consistently decrease stress by shifting your thought pattern in a way that steadily increases your joy, and I will illustrate how to do that through the use of a quote. Although the quote is actually a prayer, I will say up front that it does not matter what religion you are or if you are even religious. I refer to praying as a way of silencing your analytical mind and controlling your ego, so you can focus your thoughts, let go, and invite powers greater than yourself into your life; however you perceive those powers to be.

Here’s a quote, “I pray for quietness to help me cure my own emotional instability. Let me use serenity to cushion the impact of whatever happens outside of me.”

“Pray for quietness”. How often do you actually ‘pray for quietness’? Again, like my examples above, a lot of people pray or hope for outside events to change; they would like their spouse to be a certain way, life, children, work, etc. What happens instead, if you pray for quietness to help you cure your own emotional instability? Have you considered that maybe emotional instability can come from your own mind not being quiet, and not just outside factors that are out of our control? I strongly believe it does, and have found much success as I have applied the quote to my own life. You can too.

Your own emotional instability can come from the constant chatterbox of your analytical mind that continues to think things should be a certain way, based on your perception and ego. This is quite common among most people, including myself. How often do you attempt to quiet your analytical mind that says; “the neighbor should not do that”, “the dog should not bark that much”, “I should be further along in my career”, “my boss should not treat me this way”, and so much more? All that chatter in your analytical mind is largely responsible for your stress and feelings of instability, or the emotional roller coaster ride up and down that you may experience. As you start to pray for quietness, you take control of what you actually can control, which will begin to reduce stress and increase joy in your life.

So take a moment each day to pray, for …”quietness to help me cure my emotional instability…”. That is a great place for you to start. Begin to take a look at what is really causing upset or emotional instability from within, even though your first tendency is to look at outside people or events. If you pause long enough and consider what I am saying, you will find that it is your own analytical, judgmental, chattering mind that controls your stress and joy. Starting to quiet your mind is truly an amazing thing. Your mind plays a big part in the emotional upset and stress you suffer, but you can control your own mind.

Next; …”Let me use serenity to cushion the impact of whatever happens outside of me.” That part of the quote acknowledges that there are external events, situations and people that may also upset you, and they are likely outside of your ability to control. I do not mean to ignore outside factors completely, nor am I saying that instability is only caused by your own mind or emotions. There are outside events or triggers such as divorce, job-loss, victimization, financial difficulties, war, and others that obviously exist. But you can learn to use serenity to cushion the impact of whatever happens outside of yourself, on those things that are outside your power to control.

Ultimately, absolutely, I can control myself. You can control yourself. That means each one of us can control our thoughts, emotions, personal stability, instability or reactions to outside events. I have control over myself alone, just as you have sole control over yourself. However, I have limited control over anything outside of me, if any control at all. Same is true for you.

There are varying degrees of what you can impact and what you cannot, depending on whether or not you insert yourself into a given situation. You will also find that the more you try to change something or someone, based on your own ego or preferences, the more you might cause it to have the opposite effect you desire. Meaning, if you want your husband to act a certain way and you keep nagging him, getting angry with him or even trying to manipulate him to be more like the way want him to be, the actual likelihood of him changing decreases significantly. His defenses and protective mechanisms come up, and he is then more likely to maintain or increase the behaviors that frustrate and upset you or increase your stress. You cannot change someone else to suit your preferences, you need to let that go in order to reduce your stress and increase your joy.

By letting go, tapping into your own quietness and serenity, you will find that you can calmly make requests or suggestions about someone or something you would like to see changed. However, you have to be prepared to let go of the outcome since you are not in 100% control of what happens outside of you. If you allow external events to continually stir you up you put yourself on an emotional roller coaster ride; and you are not being fair to the one thing you do have control over; yourself. You are capable of quieting your mind and seeking serenity as a cushion, which will help you reduce stress and increase joy.

Please, digest some of these statements and see how they resonate with you. Seek evidence of areas in your own life where your mind and thoughts have increased your stress and decreased your joy, but are out of your control. Do not just take my word for it. See if you can find evidence of this being true for you personally. Then go out and attempt to experience a more ‘quiet mind’; one with less judgment or analysis, and begin to cure your own emotional instability. You will start a positive journey towards a less stressful, more joyful future.

I am available to help you get started on your journey anytime. Reducing stress and increasing joy requires diligence, being mindful and aware of your thoughts, and constantly working towards knowledge of things out of your control. As you practice serenity, acceptance, and trust in things you cannot change, and you work on changing the things you can, use serenity to cushion the impact of whatever external events do happen. With a quiet mind and serenity as your cushion, you can reduce stress and increase joy with great success! Have an amazing day!

Achieve The Success You Desire

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:12:07 -0500

As I have helped numerous professional athletes in a variety of sports achieve the success they desire, I have also seen some of them go on to waver in that success. During my years in private practice and prior to that in other settings, I have studied what helps people achieve great success, along with studying the areas where they struggle with their mental capacities and have difficulties due to unhealthy mindsets. With the knowledge and information I’ve acquired, I am able to offer you techniques that have been helpful to others so that you can apply them in your own life, to achieve the success you desire.

In order to achieve the success you desire, I have found three main 3 areas of critical importance that are necessary to achieve consistent success. They are balance, clarity and energy.

Looking at the list, you might ask; “What does balance have to do with success?” When you spend too much time in one area of your life (like work for example), at the sacrifice of another area of your life, then you are out of balance. Being out of balance will cause your subconscious self to carry the burden and weight with you from that unbalanced, ‘overworked’ area into other areas of your life. Carrying that kind of heavy burden can actually hold you back from achieving the level of success you desire and are working so hard for. So balance is truly important.

Having clarity means that you can answer the questions; “Who am I? What is important to me? What stirs my blood and motivates me to do things? What gives me inspiration so strong that I can overcome any hurdle, obstacle or challenge along the way?” You must be clear about who you are as a person, what your preferences, beliefs and priorities are, and what you really want out of life. You can then take the appropriate steps or actions toward achieving the success you desire.

Energy has to do with the level of energy necessary to achieve your highest success. Do you have the energy necessary to persevere through the obstacles and challenges you will face, as you strive to achieve the success you desire? As you form a strong belief system within you that knows you are working in alignment with who you are and what is important to you, your energy or level of excitement and commitment will propel you towards achieving great success.

These three areas are what I have found to be the most important for achieving the success you desire. You need a solid foundation of balance in your life, clarity of purpose, and enough energy to get you where you want to go. Add to that a wise quote from Mario Andretti, a famous race car driver, who has certainly enjoyed great success throughout his racing career. The quote comes from “The Wisdom Of The Years”; a great collection of wisdom from famous people and what they decided were the driving forces in their lives.

Mario Andretti said: “Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”

If you break down what Mario said, you will see that desire is very important to motivation. Going a step further, I can tell you that desire must come from within you in order to achieve success. I see this all the time as a hypnotherapist, with people who want to quit smoking or break some other habit. Their level of success and motivation is directly related to their level of desire. For those people whose spouse wants them to quit smoking, and the spouse even pays for them to get the help they need, they come into my office lacking an internal desire to make the changes necessary to be able to quit smoking. The results are astounding. Their success rates drop significantly from those people who truly have an internal desire to quit.

So what I have personally found in working with clients is that achieving success is only possible for those with their own level of desire to quit smoking – or whatever habit they want to change. Their success rates explode and the percentage of increase in success is unbelievable. I see it in other areas as well. Desire is the key to motivation – but determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – that really sustains your perseverance in achieving the success you desire.

Imagine driving your car like usual and coming across speed bumps in the road that slow you down. You might then come upon major construction and have to take a detour around it, or find yourself climbing a really high mountain that takes everything your little engine has to climb. If you do not maintain unwavering determination to get through the many obstacles, bumps, hurdles and mountains that stand between you and the success you desire, you will give up along the way. It might happen the second you hit the speed bumps, or when you get frustrated taking the construction detour. Or maybe you get through those obstacles, but then it happens when you start to think the mountain is too high or hard to climb. You will give up if you feel like it is too difficult to go through all of that, and you will not achieve the success you desire.

This example is identical for achieving success with any goal you may set. Your level of determination is going to make or break any goal you desire. If you lack the desire, you will go nowhere. If you have desire but lack determination or commitment as the bumps, hurdles and challenges come along, you will find that you are ready to quit or ‘pull the plug’ at the first sign of struggle. You might say: “This isn’t going to work.,” “I can’t do this,” or “This is a failure and won’t amount to anything.” You might even tell people: “I tried and it’s just not going anywhere.” I have seen this happen, but it does not have to be your story. If you identify your desire and commit yourself to seeking it with an ‘unrelenting pursuit’, you can achieve the success you desire.

Every one of us has a different level of determination and commitment when striving for success. If you have a high level of determination and commitment, you will hang in there longer and work through more challenges. I can tell you from my own success, and many of the elite athletes I have worked with, you have to get back up on that horse when you feel like you have fallen off. When you do, try to look for what you learned about why you fell off in the first place. Feel like you can gain knowledge from the so called “failure” and see how you might learn something important that you can apply, to take yourself to a whole new level. Rather than getting upset about the setback, use it to help you accelerate and excel even more. The greatest achievements happened after several “failed” attempts along the way.

If you think about the invention of the automobile, light bulb, the telephone…not one of those things just showed up overnight. Their success came after repeated attempts or what some would say “repeated failures.” I encourage you to think in terms of attempts and lessons learned, and not failures. You can gain lots of knowledge and information to apply on your road to success from them. It is all really important. If you do not look at it that way, you will find yourself in a continual struggle or always looking for ‘more’. You might feel like you are not good enough or that what you are doing will not amount to anything. That kind of attitude will not help you achieve the level of success you desire.

So desire is the key to motivation, but it is the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will ultimately bring you the success you desire. As you strive to achieve great success, you must start looking at your determination and level of commitment. You will not have the necessary level of determination and commitment if your desire is not there. Desire might be absent if you are unclear about your goal or if it is not really a priority to you. Something must be important to you for you to spend time on it, to have a personal desire behind it, for it to inspire you and tap into who you are. It must include your preferences and beliefs and represent an important use of your time. All of these components together; desire, determination, commitment, perseverance, your goal and your personal beliefs, are absolutely necessary for you to achieve the success you desire.

So as you consider your goals and the commitments you plan to make, please remember that you need clarity about who you are first before you can think about achieving any success. You must have the desire from within to reach whatever you aspire to achieve, and it must come from you personally. Work hard to maintain a healthy balance in your life on your road to success, and do your best to maintain the highest level of energy possible. Determination and commitment will help get you through your day to day struggles, but you must stay true to yourself. If you do, you cannot help but achieve the success you desire.

I hope you find this information helpful, and I look forward to the opportunity to help you personally achieve the success you desire. Please contact me for further information, assistance or additional tips on building a life filled with success. I truly believe it is possible for you to achieve the success you desire, and hope you have an amazing day!

Interfaith Study Group Going Strong

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:36:43 -0500

Our Interfaith Study Group is going strong! There seems to be a great interest in learning about different faiths and religions! We have close to 20 participants at this time.

We meet every other Tuesday 10:00am – 11:30am ET (next gathering is today, 3/5)

You can read more about our Interfaith Study Group on my webpage

Here is our revised list of topics:

Overview/Discussion	Religion	Presenter
1/22/13	Primal	Dawn Grant
1/30/13	Taoism	Cheryl Duttweiler
2/19/13	Buddhism	Cheryl Wynn
3/05/13	Judaism	Amy Thompkins
03/19/13	Unity	Cheryl Wynn
04/02/13	Mormonism	Peggy Elam
04/16/13	A Course in Miracles	Cheryl Duttweiler
04/30/13	Bahai Faith	Christine Hieble
TBD	Atheism	Jane Hoskins
TBD	Unitarianism	Jane Hoskins
TBD	Wicca	Stephanie Mooney

Islam
Confucianism
Shintoism
Zoroastrianism
Christianity (as a whole or individual denomination)
Roman Catholicism
Protestantism
Baptist
Episcopalian
Lutheranism
Methodism
Congregationalism
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Rastafari
Hinduism,
The Mystery School,
Shamanism,
Sufism,
Jainism,
Sikhism

Achieve Peak Performance: Go with the Flow, Play your Own Game

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 07:33:33 -0500

I wonder how many golfers, clay shooters or other athletes have considered that in order to achieve peak performance, they need to learn how to: ‘Go with the Flow’ and ‘Play their Own Game’? Professional athletes understand that if they want to play well, they must practice their skills and mechanics. They put a great deal of emphasis on practicing mechanics by seeking instruction to improve them, or gadgets to help make their mechanics better. Of course that is important, but equally important is the need to improve the mental side of their game. Athletes typically spend too little time on the mental side and fail to realize that if they truly want to achieve peak performance, they must practice mechanics and improve the mental side of their game equally. Both aspects are vitally important.

If you do not clear your mind before starting a game, or even taking a single shot, your mind will very likely muck it up and prevent you from achieving peak performance. If your mind is not right with you in the moment as you attempt to play, your game will fall apart. The mental side of your game is really important, but is often not ‘practiced’ to the same extent as mechanics. Learning ways to practice, build skills, and perfect the mental side of your game or sport will bring you to a much greater level of performance. It will help you achieve the peak performance you desire.

To help illustrate the importance of your mental game to achieving peak performance, I am going to describe one of the many tips you will find in my Golf Product. Although you receive a lot more information when buying the actual product, I feel this particular suggestion will really help get your mind going in a positive direction that you can start applying right away.

One of the ways you can improve the mental skills necessary to achieve peak performance, is by applying the following statement to each and every game:

“I start every single round with a clear mind, confident – ready to go with the flow. I apply knowledge I have gained along the way – I play my own game and get creative.”

To say you should “start every single round with a clear mind” sounds simple enough, right? Well, you not only need to start every round that way, but each time you approach your next shot you need to have a clear mind if you want to achieve peak performance. You definitely have to start the whole game or event with a clear mind, with no expectations or mental chatter that says: “I am not going to do very well here, since I did not do well here last year”, or: “I have not played very well the last couple of weeks/yesterday, so I probably will not play well again today”. If you say to yourself: “I am afraid I will not do well on this particular hole” as you approach your shot, you probably will not do well. One important area of your mental skill set is to clear your mind before that round, hole or station, or your mental chatter will lead to a lack of confidence that will cause your overall performance level to drop.

Confidence is another key factor to achieving peak performance. Having a strong level of confidence when you enter a round or station, or even just start your day, is important in everything you do if you want to achieve peak performance. You build confidence through the continual practice and mastery of your skills, and you carry that with you into every game or shot. If you lack confidence in your abilities, for whatever reason, your performance will suffer. You cannot go into a game doubting your ability to perform well. Confidence is very important to achieving peak performance.

Although clearing your mind and being confident in your abilities are two concepts that people can grasp pretty easily, being “ready to go in the flow” kind of stirs up a lot of people. In talking with many athletes, I would say they have an energy of forcefulness and power, or a strong drive to ‘make things happen’ and ‘give it their all’. Those attitudes, thoughts and beliefs are ego driven and carry a feeling of ‘yeah, I’m going to give 110% and make this happen according to how I think it should happen’; which does not take into account true reality. Environmental factors, other players, your own varying degree of how well you might be playing that day, or even how well you slept, all impact your ability to achieve peak performance. The ability to be ‘ready to go in the flow’ sets your ego driven self aside and allows your body to perform what you are confident it can do, no matter what circumstances exist as you play.

At any given time, you need to be present in the moment and able to ‘go with the flow’, if you want to achieve peak performance. To ‘go with the flow’ means, no matter what is happening around you, you can be calm and accepting of it and do what you need to do. If you do not ‘go with the flow’ and instead try to force your will to ‘make it happen’, you will end up feeling like you are on an emotional roller coaster if things do not go exactly the way you would like. That way of thinking is charged with a lot of emotion and forcefulness, which can easily stress or upset you. Your performance is then likely to suffer the harder you try to ‘make it happen’, whereas remaining calm and “going with the flow” increases your ability to achieve peak performance.

Now, let us look at ‘applying the knowledge you have gained along the way’. All those times you hit your ball off the fairway or put it in the water; or maybe when you missed the rabbits or tower shots, all those times were huge opportunities for learning and growth. Do all players take advantage of those opportunities? Unfortunately, the answer is no. What typically happens is that people get so upset ‘the bad shot’ happened at all, they do not allow themselves to receive the full potential of the growth, understanding and knowledge that is right there. They may not have achieved peak performance in a ‘bad shot’, but they can learn from it and use what they learn to make better shots and improve their performance in the future.

People constantly evolve and learn every day of their lives, and can use that learning to achieve peak performance. They constantly mold themselves through learning experiences or by making ‘mini-mistakes.’ I should not say mini-mistakes, necessarily, but unexpected or unwelcomed experiences that help us learn something new – if we let them. When glass-top stoves came out, for example, we all had to learn that a burner could be off but the top would still be too hot to touch if the indicator light was on. We may have gotten too close or even touched the top and felt pain from the hot burner underneath, but the next time we saw the stove burners off and that light still on, we probably stayed away from it to avoid injury. Although this is not a sport-related example, it clearly shows our brain’s ability to learn something very important through an unpleasant experience that ultimately improved our life in some way as a result. Same theory applies in sports if we allow our brains to seek the lesson learned instead of brooding over the fact that we missed the peak performance we were shooting for.

We all have this great brain that is able to process information and learn, and that helps us achieve peak performance. At some point, people learn by accidentally making the mistake of getting too close or touching a hot stove. Once that happens, people usually do not make that mistake again; it was a great opportunity for learning. Now take that example and apply the same way of thinking to your sport. Rather than getting upset when you miss a shot, go ahead and really look for what you can learn from it instead of continually getting burned. As you start to ‘apply all the knowledge you have gained along the way’, not only will you pay closer attention to every moment in the game, but you will start to achieve peak performance.

Now, what does it mean when I end the statement by saying: “I play my own game and get creative”? It really represents a whole other level of peak performance for you. Your ‘own game’ is when you have so much confidence in yourself, your choices and your abilities, that you start having a little fun with it again. You look around and say to yourself: “this is my game, I own this.” You understand what works for you and you trust your abilities, club choices, where you want to break the bird, etc. You play your own game and do not have to watch another golfer or look at what club they choose, how they do it, or let it bother you if they choose something different than you would. In shooting, you don’t have to look at where somebody else is breaking the bird or how they choose to shoot the pair. You can play your own game with your own confidence, skills set and abilities; honor them to play a game that is powerful for you as you achieve peak performance.

For you to get creative, you have to recognize that you have lots of confidence, clarity and knowledge behind you. I say ‘get creative’ because when you understand who you are, your capabilities and what you bring to that moment, you have the freedom to get creative with it all – to make your mark or insert your own style. You can confidently and creatively assess your game to identify your own unique way of doing it that helps you achieve peak performance, while still having fun. What a great way to play!

So start every single round with a clear mind and confidence, ready to go with the flow, and apply the knowledge you have gained along the way while you play your own game and get creative. That is a really powerful suggestion with lots of information behind it that will help you achieve peak performance. Practice is key with regard to your mechanics and mental training, and I am happy to help you achieve that peak performance as you apply what I have described to your own game. I have worked with many athletes and helped them achieve greater performance levels than they ever had before. I really welcome the opportunity to do that for you as well.

If you find yourself reading my other articles, taking advantage of the products and services I offer, or generally trying to pull the many elements together on how to improve your mental abilities, you should start to see yourself making significant progress toward achieving peak performance. If you need any extra help along the way, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am confident that I can help you achieve peak performance as you learn to Go With The Flow and Play Your Own Game. Be clear, confident, calm and creative, and have an amazing day!

Enjoy The Adversity and Challenges in Golf

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:22:28 -0400

How can mental training help someone learn to enjoy the adversity and challenges inherent in the sport of golf? Mental training is as simple as helping you to understand the strengths of your thought patterns and perceptions, your attitudes, expectations, fears, the preprogramming of past life experiences, and how they affect your present day circumstances. All of those areas help to mold and influence your days to come.

As you look at the game of golf, you will see that it parallels life in being 90% mental. If the game carries such a huge mental aspect to it, you would think you could find a lot of information on how to change the mental side of the game. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

There seems to be a lack of available information on how to truly change the mental side of golf, and ultimately help golfers enjoy the adversity and challenges it brings. As a mental trainer, I take the approach of helping people to change their mental skills in life. Since golf is one of the things they do in life, I encourage people to master their life mental skills which enables them to have mastery over them on the golf course. One way I get people going in that direction is through the use of suggestions or positive affirmations.

Positive affirmations help people focus on beliefs that they can wrap their minds around, to help them gauge where they are right now. They also help people assess where they would like to go with their mindsets in the future. In this article, the suggestion I would like to address is the following:

“I understand there is adversity & challenges in golf. This is one of the things I enjoy about golf.”

I created this suggestion after working with dozens of golfers and hearing more of them complain about their frustrations with the game, rather than enjoyment of its adversities and challenges. More of them complained about problems on the course than those who embraced the challenges as positive learning opportunities. They allowed themselves to be upset about their ‘bad’ shots rather than seeing them as opportunities for growth, strengthen and learn, so as to perfect their skills even more. They got hung up on the negative side of what they initially admired about the game; its adversity and challenges.

Although people recognize that golf is filled with adversity and challenges, every time they face one, they need to see it as an opportunity and not something to complain about. Adversities and challenges give people ways of working on mechanics and pulling all they have learned over the years out of their magic hat. It allows for the opportunity to sharpen and improve their mental skills. Seeing the good in the situation and being open to the lessons, learning and opportunity for growth, is the benefit of mental training with the use a positive affirmations like the one above. It helps to retrain golfers on how they think about things on the course; to see adversity and challenges as good instead of ‘bad.’

So right now, take a look at your mindset. Do you feel you understand and accept that there are adversities and challenges in golf? You may know that they are part of golf, but do you actually accept and welcome them? Welcoming the adversities and challenges is a total shift away from complaining about them and being frustrated by them. A large percentage of golfers are frustrated, they complain and are very negative in their attitudes pertaining to any challenge they face on the course. Do you think they really enjoy the game, if that is how they behave? Do you? If not, would you like to find a way to enjoy the adversity and challenges of golf?

Your first step to welcoming the adversity and challenges of golf is to open your mind and move in the direction of neutralizing your belief that adversity and challenges are bad or problems. You need to make a conscious effort not to think that challenges are wrong or problems that should not happen. Do you ever find yourself saying or thinking: “I should have a perfect game, the perfect mechanics, the best swings and shots”, or: “The ball should always go exactly where I thought it should go”? Maybe you even say: “The course should not have been laid out that way”. Those kinds of thought patterns argue with reality and keep you miserable. They are actually quite insane because to argue with reality is truly a level of insanity.

On a scale of one-to-ten (1-10); 1 being complete unacceptance of any adversity or challenge; 5 being a neutral perspective; 10 being complete acceptance and welcoming of adversity or challenges, and truly believing there is growth to come from them; where do you place yourself right now? Where do you see your particular level of perception and attitude towards adversity and challenges in golf?

As you gauge where you are right now, notice how that particular level of perception and attitude affects your golf game. Make a decision right now to move yourself towards 6, 7, 8 and eventually 9 or 10. I have many products and services that will help you move towards 10. If you practice the skills I teach you, the more welcoming and accepting you will become of all adversities and challenges in golf and life.

My teachings apply to golf and life because I am coaching you in a process of reaching the point of true acceptance. When you reach that place of acceptance, you actually perform better in whatever you do. So when you have a level of acceptance and appreciation for the adversity and challenges coming your way in golf, you take them in stride, enjoy every moment out there and actually have fun in those challenging moments. You will find yourself present in the moments instead of rehashing the missed shots or problems, or complaining and completely missing the true experience of golf altogether.

It is possible to get there, no matter where you fall on the scale of 1-10. It is possible to get to the place of truly having fun again. If you think back to when you first started playing golf, you probably felt that way in the beginning. As we get older our experiences accumulate in our memory banks; we reflect upon them, but unfortunately our social programming has us focusing on them in a negative way. So we have compounded, negative perceptions and numerous ‘negative’ experiences built up over time, that give us evidence of the possible problems that can occur. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of those experiences, I would like you to reverse all of that now and build up positive, good thoughts as you consider those same situations and scenarios. Build up your positive perceptions of life and golf, and get ready to have fun and enjoy the adversity and challenges.

You can go out and enjoy golf again, no matter what adversity or challenges happen in the game. It starts with neutralizing some of those negative thought patterns, as you state the positive affirmation I talked about here: ‘I understand there is adversity and challenges in golf. This is one of those things I enjoy about golf.’ If you want quicker success in this area, I suggest you change the statement to: ‘I understand there is adversity and challenges in life. This is one of the things I enjoy about life.’

If you apply this today, all day long and again tomorrow and the next day, you will begin to master this mindset and level of perception, so that when you are on the golf course, you are not trying to make it your reality. Since it has taken years to create the negative mindsets you have, you cannot take just a few hours a week to try and accept or enjoy adversity and challenges. In time and with practice, you will be training yourself through your life experiences to accept and enjoy all of what is being presented to you. That includes adversity and challenges.

I wish you well in this endeavor, and am here for you if you would like extra assistance in this area. Please practice saying to yourself: “I understand there is adversity & challenges in golf. This is one of the things I enjoy about golf.” You will love the benefits you realize in your life and golf game, as you welcome adversity and challenges. Have an amazing day!

Preparation and Confidence Bring Peak Golf Performance

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:47:19 -0400

In golf, as in life, preparation and mastery of your skills through practice and perseverance is extremely important to building confidence and achieving peak performance. Equally important is your ‘presence’ in any given moment. You can achieve that by learning how to properly focus your mind to break free from the past or future, and into a level of inner peace connected to this exact moment. By peace, I don’t mean complacency or relaxation. I mean that you achieve an acceptance or level of inner peace in which you are able to be present (in the ‘here and now’) and accept what is happening around you. That peace then helps you achieve peak performance by limiting the effect of typical agitations, frustrations or angers, that come from thinking about what you “should’ve, could’ve or would’ve” done differently. So achieving peak performance is possible, as you acquire and maintain skills in mastery, presence, and inner peace.

One of my ‘Self Suggestions’, that I have found to really help people in trying to achieve peak performance, pertains to being prepared and confident. It is one of the many techniques I include in my Golf Product, and greatly increases performance as people apply it to their golf game and their life. This suggestion states:

“I train my mind to see good in myself, to feel prepared & confident in who I am & what I bring to my game and life.”

How can you train your mind to see good in yourself, and how does that help achieve peak performance? Part of the problem you face when you reflect on yourself and your game, is that you might only focus on your faults – what needs to be improved. That is because a large percentage of people only see their faults and the faults of others. When you feel like there is lack, that there are problems or that things are constantly wrong and need to be fixed, you are limiting your abilities. You actually, physically, decrease your energy by thinking that way.

When people experience this decrease in energy, they tend to label it with different words like: sad, upset, down-and- out, lethargic or maybe even depressed, irritable or guilty. There are all different kinds of feelings and emotions to pick from. When people do that, they are actually labeling the sensation of the cells of their body. When those cells are in that kind of decreased energy/lower vibration state, they do not perform very well and actually cause the body to shut down – literally. So obviously, people are not able to perform to the best of their ability when their bodies are shutting down and cells of the body are not functioning in the best way they could be. Not an ideal state to be in, that’s for sure.

But what can be done about that in order to improve performance?

Training your mind to see the good in yourself is going to increase your cell vibration, which increases your energy level necessary to achieve peak performance. As an effect of having a more uplifting way of looking at yourself, and a more uplifting energy, your performance improves. It is a process that starts with awareness, and it is possible to achieve peak performance with this technique. Training your mind to see good in yourself starts with first cutting out, stopping or eliminating the negative thinking of yourself, or the tendency to only think about what you are doing wrong or not good enough. You must stop that first, and then begin to focus on what you are doing right; how hard you are trying, how you persevere through challenges, how far you have come and all of the progress you have made.

This is another tendency people have, of constantly seeing their lack or what they “could’ve, should’ve or would’ve” done better. So achieving peak performance requires you to train your mind to see the good in yourself…and feel prepared. It is a shift in perspective to start to recognize in yourself that you really are prepared, and able to achieve peak performance.

So how do you do that?

First of all, you actually do have to practice the mechanics and mental skills you previously learned to help you achieve peak performance. You will not feel prepared if you’ve been slacking off. If you have not made your sport and practice a priority at all, you will feel you have neglected that area. There is no way of mentally overcoming that other than by deceiving yourself. Or, you could look at the fact that you have spent many years of perfecting your skills and just because you took a few weeks off, does not mean those skills have gone away. You can still feel prepared even if circumstances have caused you to not practice as frequently as you had preferred. So, you need to see the shift in mindset from being hard on yourself in thinking you will not perform well, because you did not practice, to thinking you will perform well because you have many years of experience and skill development.

Whichever road you choose in your mind, will either increase your energy and cell vibration or decrease it. Either one will affect your performance. So now you have a few options on how to proceed. You can practice as much as you feel is reasonable, in balance with your human self where you take care of all aspects of your life to the best of your ability. You do not want to feel lack in any area when you are trying to perform well in your sport; especially in certain areas like sleeping, eating and exercise, as they will immediately affect your performance. To really feel prepared, includes taking care of those things you truly have control over; your health, well being, relationships, work and practice of mechanics and your mental skills. That is how you can best prepare to achieve peak performance.

So “I train my mind to see good in myself, feel prepared and confident,” in order to achieve peak performance. I have talked a lot about confidence and peak performance in sports in other articles and teachings over the years. Confidence in who you are comes from choosing to focus on what you do well, progress you have made, and what you offer to each moment. So being confident in who you are and what you bring to your game and life is a critical factor to achieving peak performance.

As you reflect back on feeling prepared, you need to realize that your level of preparedness is what you bring to your game and to your life. You then need to ask yourself what level of confidence you bring. That should really be equivalent to how prepared you feel, if you want to achieve peak performance.

Therefor starting now, begin the process of training your mind to see good in yourself, so you can achieve peak performance in your game and your life. You undoubtedly harbor a lot of old habits that are limiting your performance and need to be broken, so new habits can be made. If you need any help with that beyond what I am offering here, I am available to you. You can contact me or, like many people around the world, you can purchase my help products.

Just remember my suggestion: “I train my mind to see good in myself, to feel prepared and confident in who I am and what I bring to my life and game.” I wish you well in implementing this and hope you come back to my website tips for more information in the future. Achieving peak performance is possible with these techniques, and you can do it. Have an amazing day!

Athletes Must Commit to Shots

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:15:36 -0400

As you strive for peak performance in a competitive sport, you must be able to commit to shots! You do this by having greater peace, mastery, calm, confidence, and a highly focused energy, while at the same time maintaining a relaxed calm and confidence. These areas are what I try to help you address for the mental side of your game in my work as a Mental Trainer and Hypnotherapist. You need presence, mastery and peace, and without these elements I would say it is impossible to have consistent good performance – let alone peak performance. You might win once in a while but it is likely that the emotional roller coaster caused by occasional wins, will be to your detriment in the long run.

What do I mean by emotional roller coaster? If you lack mental skills and you move into the following event or week after a win, you will probably experience a letdown if your performance is not up to the perception of what you thought it should be – or what it was the week/event before. So the mental skills are vital to consistent winning and vital to consistent peak performance. They are also vital if you intend to see regular success or progress in your performance.

So you need mastery, presence and inner peace; and not just in your sport. These elements are important in many areas of your life – wherever you wish to seek peak performance. You can actually “win” at whatever you put your mind to; career choice, projects at work, a hobby or interest you have, or as it pertains to your relationships. It is the same mastery, presence and inner peace that will allow you to “win” or succeed in those areas also.

To expand on the concept of calm and confidence with highly focused energy, while at the same time maintaining relaxed calm and confidence, I pulled a suggestion from one of my golf products to use in this article. It is: “I easily commit to shots – I am calm, focused and confident.”

Since I work with a lot of different kinds of athletes, I kept the suggestion generic because it can pertain to golf, clay shooting, boxers or lots of other athletes, in which there is a moment of asking “am I committed to this shot or the next move, or not?” Even chess players benefit from being committed to the next move. Being committed makes the difference as to whether you will persevere in the face of challenges, or how often you might practice the mechanics of your sport. You must be committed in order to be successful or seek a higher level of performance.

What does it feel like when you are not committed? You feel uneasy or nervous about what you are about to do; you start to doubt yourself. Doubt creeps in if you lack confidence. It creeps in if you lack confidence in yourself in general; it creeps in if you lack confidence in how well you can perform in that particular kind of shot; it creeps in if you haven’t been performing as well as you’d like in the last few holes or stations, or the last few times you’ve actually performed. It can even creep in if you played at that particular event a year ago, when you did not perform as well as hoped back then. Doubt can also creep in if you have thoughts like “I haven’t practiced as much as I’d like” or “I haven’t had time to practice as much as I’d like, and here I am looking to perform well at this event”.

Doubt can come in for lots of different reasons, and it keeps you from achieving peak performance. You know that feeling in your body, and the way your energy shifts. When doubt is there, you are definitely not committed to your shots. So how do you address it? How can you stop the doubt from attacking your confidence? First you have to recognize that feeling. When it starts to come to the surface and you first notice it, you must be able to turn it around and turn it off. Like hitting the power button on a TV remote, you just turn it off.

The next step is to realize that the doubt is there because of a thought pattern, thought process, or belief; and then address the underlying cause for those thoughts. Yes, you can derail those kinds of thoughts and turn them off, but it won’t come easily. It takes a continual ongoing effort to turn them off. But for a long-term change, it will be more beneficial to you if you address the underlying cause – or get to the root of the problem. It’s not enough to just turn them off in that moment, because they will keep coming back around. In order to achieve peak performance, you need to keep them from coming back.

You might think that those thoughts won’t be there when you perform well and things are going the way you prefer, but doubt can creep in there also. If you are having a streak of good performance; you might start to doubt that it will continue. Let’s say you’ve been shooting well after 3 stations – if that’s been your best performance – then you might expect to do poorly at the next station. It’s the same with golf. If you’ve had a streak of birdies – the longest streak you’ve ever had – the thoughts and doubts may start coming in, affecting your performance and level of success.

So what you want to do is recognize the feeling of doubt, and the kinds of thoughts that lead to that feeling. In the moment, the band aid cure is to just get rid of the thoughts and replace them with a more positive statement like “I can do this”, or some other positive affirmation you hear about. But that is a temporary fix, because the next time you struggle in your performance, they will come back again.

If you want to consistently achieve peak performance you have to address it even further than just those thoughts. You have to look at your belief system and be able to ask yourself “Why do I think this way? Why do I allow myself to keep focusing on the negatives in these situations? What can I address internally in me as far as my confidence and preferences and where I spend my mental time?” You can then train or program yourself to think in a more positive, beneficial way. It is a shifting at the core level of your belief system, not just “let me think more positively and everything will be rosy”, because it will come back again and again, and cause your performance to suffer each time.

“I easily commit to shots…” This is a positive statement or affirmation, and it will help with temporary change so you can achieve greater levels of success, in spite of doubt that creeps into your mind. I recommend that you use it to affirm your belief in your abilities, because repeating it will help you build your belief system around it. In time, it will become more significant and strong and believable to you, but it must happen at two levels. It must happen at the surface level with repetition and changing your focus deliberately, with stopping the negative kinds of thoughts. Then for permanent change, you will have to dig deeper.

“…I am calm, focused and confident.” In this part of the statement, I am looking at calmness coming from being focused and having confidence; believing in yourself, knowing what you bring to the table and trusting yourself in that moment. It also includes a level of acceptance of who you are, where you are at in your performance, and what is going on; that you can handle whatever is happening. This is what brings about calmness. Your focused self is that level of presence you bring to ‘the moment’, so being focused is being present. Being focused is being able to allow everything around you to become almost invisible, where it has no effect on you – you are just ‘in the zone’ – something people mention as being a fluky thing that they wish would happen more often or they hope will happen again. It is real, it does contribute to peak performance, and it comes from being focused in the present moment.

I can help you to become more focused, present and in the zone every day, achieving peak performance in your life and in your sport. I have helped many athletes and sports professionals already and my techniques are proven effective. It is a matter of learning all of the skills necessary to be fully present; to be fully accepting and have the ability to tune out, but yet be tuned in and have calm, focused confidence, all at the same time. Many have learned it and achieved peak performance, and so can you.

As for increasing your confidence, that comes from a repetition of focusing your time and energy on what you are doing well. You can put your attention on what you are screwing up or what you are doing well; it is really up to you. The more you focus on what you are doing well, the higher your confidence will be in that area. Practice your mechanics and mental skills to build consistent levels of success in your performance, while using positive affirmations to build your internal belief system in your abilities. If you truly need help in a certain area, then I am not suggesting you ignore it altogether. Just maintain a positive focus, looking at that area as an opportunity for growth, and watch your performance improve.

Easily commit to your shots, stay calm, focused and confident. It may sound simple, but it really is a lot of information to digest and to put into practice. These mental skills are vital for consistent winning; consistent peak performance. You need mastery, presence and inner peace. These are extremely important elements and if you are able to implement them immediately, you will see direct cause and effect in achieving peak performance in your game – and some great successes in your life.

I hope you enjoyed reading this lesson, and that you benefit from the skills I described. If you need any assistance or clarification in committing to your shot, please contact me. I love helping people achieve peak performance and improve their skills for successful life and living. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Take And Make Opportunities

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:23:57 -0400

“Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them.” –Colton

A few years ago, the book and DVD called “The Secret” had a huge impact on many people. The modern presentation, largely based on Wallace Wattles’ 1910 best seller the Science of Getting Rich, which in turn was based on the Hindu philosophies that One is All, and that All is One, has educated today’s generation on a concept that has been around and recognized by some of the greatest minds in history, including Einstein.

The Secret explains in detail a universal law referred to as The Law of Attraction. Many books in the past have addressed The Law of Attraction but none were marketed in such a way as to create as much interest as The Secret has. In simple terms, The Secret teaches the reader that your thoughts are very powerful, as if they have magnetic energy. When you think a thought repetitively it then has even more energy. If there is an emotion, like belief, associated with the thought, it then has even more energy. All of this increases the likelihood that the thought will come to fruition. And this brings us back to the word ‘attraction,’ the event being thought of will be attracted to you (i.e. more likely to happen). If you are like many others who have read The Secret, you may be thinking “well that is great, so all I have to do is think about something over and over, add belief, and it will happen!”

I am sorry to say, but the answer is “no.” As we live here on earth, there does exist the buffer of time. A thought does not instantly manifest into form. Along those same lines, a thought will not manifest into form without your action.

The first step is deciding what you truly want. The second is taking the time to get specific and clear as to the details of what you want. When you truly want something in life there will automatically be a positive emotion associated with it, so be aware of the good feeling and allow it to get very strong. The next step is to be aware of opportunities that come into your life which are conducive to what you want so you can act upon them. The final step is to follow the inspiration within you to take action (inspiration is always present when a person has a desire for something they truly want).

So… to create the circumstances of the life that you desire and deserve, be ready to not only take opportunities, but make them if need be.

Be Open to See the Uniqueness in your Child

Tue, 07 May 2013 05:29:53 -0400

Even with 7 billion people on earth, we can safely admit that each one of us is unique within the common denominator of being humans. Unique is what the universe dictates. For example the shoreline in most areas of northeast Florida has sections which are layered with tiny shells. Each shell is unique in its size, color, shape, and texture. If you sit among the many shells and pick one up at a time to observe its characteristics, you will likely find and be able to appreciate the unique beauty in each of them. Rinsing them off, you can observe them more clearly, wiping away the dirt to see their luster. One may be dark brown and rippled in texture. Another may be smooth andhave a pearl essence. Some are large and some so tiny you can barely see that it is a shell. Although they are different, they happen to also be the same. Similar in chemical makeup, properties, and purpose. You know all of this as you take the time to admire them. And truth be known, it is very unlikely you would believe one shell should be like the other, or that you would decide one ‘had’ to be a certain way in order to be ‘good’. Each of them you accept for what it is, the same, yet different.

Take this same way of thinking and apply it to how you view yourself and others. Each person is unique in its size, color, shape, and texture. We are also just as unique in our preferences, interests, talents, thought patterns, gifts, passions, and abilities. If you sit on a park bench, in an outdoor café, or along the beach shore and watch each person around you participate in life, you will find and be able to appreciate the unique beauty in each of them. Each individual having individuality. Some finding joy in athletic activity- feeling the adrenalin rush through their bodies. Others being social and communicative- pleased with the company of many. A few enjoying their solitude and time of reflection- each of their thoughts unique to their specific life experiences. Although we are different, we are also the same. We are in physical form living a human experience.

Take time to understand yourself and the uniqueness of who you are. Then use that wisdom to recognize the uniqueness in others- your friends, parents, siblings, partner, co-workers, and especially your children. What aspects of your preferences and beliefs are you imposing on others? Many parents get caught up in their own world, their own thinking- what they perceive to be fun, interesting, and worth while; then expect their children would feel the same way.

Decide you are going to slow down long enough to see the unique and individual beauty in your children and then take out the polish and help them to shine. The only residue to wipe away is that which you have created with your own beliefs, thoughts, and perceptions of how they are ‘supposed to be.’

I am President of Joy To The Children

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:22:19 -0400

EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT AS OF MAY 1, 2013

I AM PRESIDENT OF JOY TO THE CHILDREN

As one of the co-founders, I have been actively involved with Joy since its inception in 1995. Serving many different positions on the board of directors, I have watched Joy grow from birth, through infancy, and, now, as a teen in its 18th year. Being a part of Joy has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, even through its many awkward growth spurts. I look forward to working with our current board, which includes: Vice President (and my amazing sister!) Stephanie Mooney, Secretary Joanne Wright, Treasurer Susan Childers, Volunteer Coordinator Dan Morris, Jan McCray, Bill Mooney, Sandy Balzer, and Hope Harbin. All of which bring incredible wisdom and creativity to our ever evolving endeavor. We are about to have an incredible year and I am excited to share it with all of you!

Joy to the Children is a 501(c)(3) organization and has operated for the past 18 years with an all-volunteer board and workers. We reach out to financially challenged children to provide a Christmas Day party and gifts (clothing, backpacks, school supplies, hygiene items, books, bedding, and, of course, toys). On Christmas day each year, we provide a holiday feast, entertainment, and presents for Nassau County children and their families at Yulee High School. The food for our feast is donated by local restaurants and we have approximately 200 volunteers that shop, wrap presents, and set up the school prior to Christmas and serve the families on Christmas Day.

We serve only children and their families from Nassau County and our families are selected through 17 schools and service organizations. Agency lists are cross referenced to ensure that assistance is going to benefit as many families as possible. Last year we served 140 children from 46 different families.

In addition to the Christmas Day celebration, Joy to the Children also works with Florida State College at Jacksonville to provide scholarships for Nassau County graduating seniors. Each year we award two scholarships in the amount of $1500 each. We target students who not only show promising scholastic ability, but who also demonstrate a drive and determination to overcome challenging life circumstances Provided the recipients show satisfactory academic progress, they receive the same amount for the second year.

Please consider joining our efforts. If you would be willing to contribute financially or would be interested in volunteering your time, please let us know. I greatly appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to working with you in the future.

Please Consider Volunteering your Time or Funds

Learn More & Donate Here: http://joytothechildren.org
Volunteer Opportunities: http://joytothechildren.org/volunteers
Like Us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joytothechildrennassau

In-Joy,

Dawn Grant

Hypnotherapist Smoking… where?

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:43:22 -0400

Hypnotherapist Smoking… where? Not this one, at least not any more.

Yes, I used to be a smoker and for a brief time in 2001, I was a Hypnotherapist Smoking. But now, I am a Non-Smoking Hypnotherapist who helps others to become non-smokers!

Like many, I started to smoke cigarettes as a young teenager, and it continued into my 20’s and 30’s. I would smoke about ¾ of a pack a day- and got into the habit and routine many smokers are familiar with. Smoking: in the morning, with coffee, when on the phone, when needing a break, in the car, after a meal, with a drink… and on… and on. I tried to quit smoking many times and I tried every technique… none of them got rid of the urge or desire to smoke.

It was as if I had an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. One would encourage me with “you can do this, keep going, four hours without a cigarette- good job;” the other would say “you can’t do this, just give up, four hours without a cigarette- you can have just one.” Every time I quit smoking, I went back to smoking again, especially when something stressful was going on in my life.

In 2001 I became a hypnotist and started a private practice. Within weeks, I was booked up and helping people to quit smoking with my smoking cessation program. But the deeply buried secret was… I was a Hypnotist Smoking. I would still smoke in the evenings. And yes…I felt like a hypocrite so I decided to get hypnotized to quit smoking myself. It was so much easier than I had expected or ever experienced on my other attempts to quit smoking.

Finally! The desire and urge to smoke had decreased! I could be around others who were smoking and feel free from the haunting mental invitation to smoke. The first week I was in disbelief and kept waiting for triggers or circumstances to make me want to smoke… but nothing did. It was easy and I have never turned back.

I am a Permanent Non-Smoker… and no longer a Hypnotist Smoking.

I bet you are just as ready as I was to finally be rid of the smoking habit! I can help you stop smoking permanently, no matter where you live, with my ‘Quit Smoking For Good’ Mental Training and Hypnotherapy sessions which are Instant Downloads!! A 25 minute Mental Training Video and 25 min Hypnotherapy Audio… so in less than an hour you too can be a Permanent, Healthy, Active Non-Smoker!! I am excited for you!

$1500 College Scholarship to Macie Lewis

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:52:06 -0400

As President of Joy To The Children, I would like to CONGRATULATIONS Macie Lewis for earning one of our $1500 college scholarships!!

On May 2nd Dawn Grant, newly elected President, and Susan Childers, newly elected Board Member & Treasurer, represented Joy at FBHS College Scholarship Award Ceremony.

Joy to the Children works with Florida State College at Jacksonville to provide scholarships for Nassau County graduating seniors. Each year we award two scholarships in the amount of $1500 each. We target students who not only show promising scholastic ability, but who also demonstrate a drive and determination to overcome challenging life circumstances. Provided the recipients show satisfactory academic progress, they receive the same amount for the second year.

Clay Shooting Private Sessions Mental Training & Hypnotherapy

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:47:20 -0400

Private Sessions last 1 hour, but can go up to 1 ½ hours if the situation calls for it. Sessions can be in-person, but since 90% of my clients live abroad, we do most of their sessions via telephone, Skype, or Facetime, or any combination of that.

The method and process I take clients through is 100% unique. It is based on my personal experience in private practice as a mental trainer and hypnotherapist since 2001, and my work with elite athletes since 2007. My approach is comprehensive and sequential; you would gain not only understanding but an on-going familiarity and mastery over your mental skills. One of the aspects that makes my training unique is my comprehensive understanding of the subconscious due to my training in and use of hypnosis. All my clients learn & practice regular self-hypnosis, a powerful & empowering tool which is then used in performance and in life experiences. Through a program series, I coach you through a topic-specific sequential journey which ultimately increases the frequency of your performance in the ‘zone.’

My preference is to work with a client over a period of time to allow for a more permanent change. Therefore, I suggest clients commit to a series of sessions. As an incentive to encourage people to commit to the process, the package fees are discounted. When a package is purchased, I suggest the entire series of sessions be scheduled, so as to ensure consistency.

When you have the opportunity, go through my website, you will find it to be very informative as it explains my approach both in the form of mental training and hypnotherapy.

All Private Sessions Include:

Person & topic specific Mental Training with instruction, lessons, homework skill building exercises

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Are Used By Me In Many Ways, They Help To Familiarize You With And Build Skills In:

Noticing tension in the body and releasing it
Noticing negative, limiting, analytical thoughts of the mind and releasing them
An Invisible Tool Belt of mental skills
Going from ‘trying too hard’ to ‘allowing to happen’
Training your mind to be more focused and present, while calm
Going from feeling like a victim of your mind/thoughts to mastery over them
Trusting your subconscious and the abilities you have
Your natural ability to be in The Zone state

You Will Receive:

Hypnosis For Transformation MP3
Pertinent Clay Shooting Downloadable Hypnosis Product MP3s which fit the lessons being addressed
Email, text and brief phone support between sessions for support & encouragement

Here Are Some Private Session Packages For Your Consideration:

Consult 1 Session
Sampler 4 Sessions: 1 month of weekly sessions
Knowledgeable 12 Sessions: 3 months of weekly sessions
Proficient 20 Sessions: 4 months weekly plus 2 months biweekly
Mastery 28 Sessions: 6 months weekly plus 3 months biweekly

Ready To Get Started:

Call 904-753-0640
Email dawn@dawngrant.com

Dawn Grant is a Mental Trainer & Hypnotherapist. Since 1994, Dawn has been professionally helping people to overcome life’s challenges, enabling them to achieve their goals, obtain personal fulfillment and live their ideal life. With an obvious passion for her work, she has drawn clients globally, including mainstream & elite athletes. Many that are World Champions, Hall of Famers, Team USA & Olympians in Golf, Clay Shooting & Surfing; 25+ PGA TOUR Pros (averaging 219% increase in earnings), and 50+ Competing Clay Shooters. In 2008, she helped PGA TOUR Pro Vijay Singh with a mental shift that contributed to his 2 FedEx Cup Playoff wins and his earning of the 2008 FedEx Cup Championship. Since 2010, Dawn has been regularly working with Clay Shooting Greats like Wendell Cherry and John Woolley, and she can help you too.

“In order to perfect your performance, you must take control in the game of life.”

PGA TOUR & LPGA Pros • Competing Golfers, Clay Shooters & Endurance Athletes • World Champions • Hall-of-Famers • Team USA • Olympic Athletes

Golf Private Sessions Mental Training & Hypnotherapy

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:57:06 -0400

When you have the opportunity, go through my website, you will find it to be very informative as it explains my approach both in the form of mental training and hypnotherapy.

All Private Sessions Include:

Person & topic specific Mental Training with instruction, lessons, homework skill building exercises

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Are Used By Me In Many Ways, They Help To Familiarize You With And Build Skills In:

Noticing tension in the body and releasing it
Noticing negative, limiting, analytical thoughts of the mind and releasing them
An Invisible Tool Belt of mental skills
Going from ‘trying too hard’ to ‘allowing to happen’
Training your mind to be more focused and present, while calm
Going from feeling like a victim of your mind/thoughts to mastery over them
Trusting your subconscious and the abilities you have
Your natural ability to be in The Zone state

You Will Receive:

Hypnosis For Transformation MP3
Pertinent Clay Shooting Downloadable Hypnosis Product MP3s which fit the lessons being addressed
Email, text and brief phone support between sessions for support & encouragement

Here Are Some Private Session Packages For Your Consideration:

Consult 1 Session
Sampler 4 Sessions: 1 month of weekly sessions
Knowledgeable 12 Sessions: 3 months of weekly sessions
Proficient 20 Sessions: 4 months weekly plus 2 months biweekly
Mastery 28 Sessions: 6 months weekly plus 3 months biweekly

Ready To Get Started:

Call 904-753-0640
Email dawn@dawngrant.com

“In order to perfect your performance, you must take control in the game of life.”
PGA TOUR & LPGA Pros • Competing Golfers, Clay Shooters & Endurance Athletes • World Champions • Hall-of-Famers • Team USA • Olympic Athletes

Endurance Athlete Positive Mindset Hypnosis

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:26:41 -0400

If you love participating in Marathons, Ultras, Triathlons, Duathlons, Biathlons or Ironman Events, you already know very clearly how your mindset affects your performance! It is also very likely that you are determined to break through and far beyond the perceived limits of the body and mind. But have you successfully learned how to manage the thoughts of your mind when the negative, limiting fear based thinking starts creeping in? What if you not only had effective skill sets to turn off the negative, limiting fear based thoughts but you also had powerful mental skill sets and triggers to stimulate a surge of energy and smooth, powerful performance? Dawn’s Endurance Athlete Positive Mindset Hypnosis will efficiently explode you past old mental and physical barriers!

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Trigger to instantly and completely turn off negative, limiting fear based thinking to be truly powerful
Mind engrossed in specific details of surroundings, fascinated with features; seeing them in a positive light
Mind occupied in a healthy and productive manner
Uplifting thoughts bring about uplifting, empowering energy in body which contributes to body’s ability to have peak performance
All aid stations trigger surge of energy and smooth, powerful performance; helping you to tap into your body’s amazing and natural ability to perform well physically and mentally

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Endurance Athlete Positive Mindset Hypnosis MP3 Audio

Freedom From Telling White Lies Hypnosis

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:39:07 -0400

Have you ever noticed that you will tell white lies in an effort to make things easier or to not create any problems? Most people that tell white lies have good intentions. They are usually trying to spare someone’s feelings. But have you ever considered that your friends have been observing you lying to others in their presence, or that people can usually tell in their gut that they are being lied to? You can be a kind, loving, friendly person but have a reputation for lying. And, even though you had good intentions, you are losing respect and tainting your relationships. Isn’t it time to stop telling white lies? Dawn’s Freedom From Telling White Lies Hypnosis will help you gain the confidence to lovingly be open and honest in conversations.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Healthy level of confidence in who you are and what you have to offer
Highly capable of having healthy communication and relationships with others
Respect yourself, honoring your position, your perception and your truth
Open and honest in conversations. Communicating from a healthy, loving place
Acceptance of others, their perception and their truth

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Freedom From Telling White Lies Hypnosis MP3 Audio

Freedom From Drinking Alcohol Hypnosis

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:50:51 -0400

Drinking alcohol is such a ‘normal’ part of so many people’s lives. Many people drink alcohol every evening to wind down, on weekends to forget about the stressors of their week, to celebrate special occasions and to turn off their minds when life gets tough. But have you ever had a feeling that you have become dependent on alcohol? Or that you can’t seem to stop drinking after one or two? Dawn’s Freedom From Drinking Alcohol Hypnosis will move you beyond your drinking habit and offer you an opportunity for a new healthy, active life. A life in which you manage stressor in more productively and see the value in yourself and what you offer.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Experiencing a calm, peaceful, blissful mind and body naturally, free of alcohol
Healthy coping skills to deal with life, your thoughts and your past free from alcohol
Recognize potential for wonderful and powerful things in life, to be great and contribute in so many ways
See value in yourself and positive aspects of your unique personality; ready to offer the best of who you are to yourself, your relationships and to life
More ready than ever to live a healthy, active life. Stubbornly refusing to drink

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Freedom From Drinking Alcohol Hypnosis MP3 Audio

Stop Tobacco Dipping Hypnosis

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:56:32 -0400

Did you start using tobacco and dipping at a young age when you thought it was no big deal? Feeling like it was the cool thing to do or a way to fit in. Now you are older and know that it is unhealthy and causing you harm but you feel like you have no control over it. It can be extremely frustrating to want to quit dipping but feel like there’s no hope because every time you have tried to quit, you couldn’t! Dawn’s Stop Tobacco Dipping Hypnosis will help you at the subconscious level to be tobacco free, to choose a healthy, active life and easily be free of that old dipping habit!

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Right now is truly the right time; you now have a strong desire to be completely, 100% free of tobacco
Being free of tobacco and dipping is easier than you had ever imagined, easier and easier every day
You awaken excited about your life and inspired; desiring to live a long, healthy, active life
Water is your new priority and companion, you always have drinking water with you
All choices and actions throughout your day contribute to a long, healthy, active life

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Stop Tobacco Dipping Hypnosis MP3 Audio

Trap Shooter Gun Mount Follow Through Hypnosis

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:00:29 -0400

As a trap shooter, has recoil ever caused you to come out of the gun too early? Maybe there are other reasons why you find yourself lowering the gun too soon. You know it is best to stay in the gun long after you’ve pulled the trigger but it’s almost like bringing it down is out of your control. This tells us that the ingrained habit is to come out of the gun and not have proper follow through. A new habit has to be established, but that is tricky to do on your own. Dawn’s incredible Trap Shooter Gun Mount Follow Through Hypnosis will help you build the new habit of staying in the gun until you clearly see the results of your shot.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Continually look down the barrel of your gun long after shooting at the target, until you’ve clearly seen the results before you
Move the gun to the target and shoot, easily leaving your head on the stock of the gun
Confident and committed to the shot, staying in the gun
Everything you do after calling for the target is natural, easy and calm
Staying on the gun after you shoot, your gun mount follow through is easy, natural, automatic and familiar

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Trap Shooter Gun Mount Follow Through Hypnosis MP3 Audio

6 Ways to Immediately Increase Your Sports Performance

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:50:56 -0400

Wouldn’t it be great to master 6 ways that will immediately increase your sports performance? I have worked with 20 PGA and LPGA athletes in successfully helping them improve sport performance, and am happy to say I have expanded my focus to include Olympic Athletes, Professional Surfers, Boxers and Tennis Players. Anyone looking to improve their performance will benefit from the insight I bring, to help improve one’s ‘mental game’ in order to achieve peak performance.

How does someone achieve great performance in athletics? Of course, practicing the mechanics and putting hours of hard work into learning the sport is a must. You can spend money on a professional to teach you mechanics, and then practice what you learn over and over. However, mastery of mechanics alone will not guarantee you success. You must master your mental game in order to achieve peak performance or you will struggle come game time.

What do people think about when they perform their job or sport? If people doubt their abilities or show up feeling afraid or anxious, their performance will suffer with a lack of confidence. You can minimize your fears and work towards the best performance possible by controlling the following six things:

Sleeping well / getting enough rest before an event
Eating well / getting proper nourishment for body strength
Exercising / ensuring adequate endurance to draw from physically
Drinking enough fluids / getting proper hydration for your body
Honing your mechanics / practicing continually to ensure proper skill mastery
Improving Mental Skills / taking the “thinking” out of the event

You want to ensure you progress in all of these areas to achieve the feeling of being on “auto-pilot”, where you can take thinking out of your equation. You might hear someone talk about being “in the zone” when they perform, and their body just does what it knows to do. When you turn a door knob or walk every day, years after learning how as a baby, you no longer think about how to do it…you just do it. That is auto-pilot. When you are just present in a moment and your body has a life of its own, doing what it knows how to do, without anything in your surroundings having an effect on its’ performance.

Anything repeated enough over time can go on auto-pilot; like learning how to ride a bike or drive a car. We learn and evolve through exposure to new things and then repeating them. Our capabilities are strengthened with repetition, and repetition without thought becomes a behavior or action on auto-pilot.

Why would you ever doubt your abilities on auto-pilot? Anxieties over memories of falling off a bike, or analyzing different scenarios in fear of what could happen. Thinking about previous experiences creates problems in performance for athletes. That fear you bring in basically mucks up your performance.

So how do you eliminate that problem? You learn to trust your mechanics by performing tasks daily. You increase your faith in your ability to do what you have trained so hard to do.

You do not stop practicing just because you think you know how to do something. When you stop doing a task over a period of time, the neurotransmitters and synopsis pathways in your brain will weaken; as a trail through the woods will become overgrown and difficult to traverse when no longer used. You keep practicing and tweaking the mechanics of your sport. But you must learn to trust, and you cannot trust without practice or repetition. That is necessary to reach the ‘auto-pilot’ state.

So how to you learn to trust yourself? You form a belief system by making daily suggestions to yourself on things you know how to do. You look for areas in your daily life that are on auto-pilot and remind yourself of your trusted ability to do those things. You build trust in what you don’t think about doing anymore, as a means of developing trust in yourself in other areas.

You will see tremendous payback in your sport performance by following the six steps I outlined above, and focusing on building trust in your auto-pilot ability.

AND, since this works so well on sport performance, I am expanding my reach to help people with overall career success, lower stress in their lives, achieve greater health and sense of well being, weight-loss and improved fitness. I know all of this is possible for you, as so many have realized the benefits from my insights and techniques already.

I look forward to helping you achieve peak performance in whatever you do. Thanks, and hope to see you soon!

Execute YOUR Best Ability to WIN

Fri, 17 May 2013 05:10:48 -0400

How do you think you can execute your best ability, to win at whatever you are doing? As a mental trainer and hypnotherapist, I can tell you that the ability to tap into and access the mental levels of your mind can make some significant positive changes in your life and sport. You cannot get away from your behaviors, habits, attitudes, mindsets, reactions, fears and expectations, when you are out there in your life or sport. They are part of who you are, and stay with you on a day-to-day basis. You might not even be aware of them until you face extreme pressure, either from yourself or others’ expectations. But when you try to perform your sport under any kind of pressure, you don’t really have much of a chance to execute your best ability if you have not been working on the mental side of yourself beforehand.

It is very difficult to rise to your best ability if you have not been working on all of your skills. Training yourself in all areas necessary to execute your best ability and win, at whatever you do, is vital to your success. So in this article, I take a look at one of my hypnosis sport product suggestions, as a free mental training tip, that pertains to helping you execute every shot to the best of your ability. It is:

“I execute my shot to the best of my ability.”

I created this for golfers, but it applies to every sport and basically everything in your life. The athletes I have worked with, whether they had mental training with anyone else before me or not, tend to lean in the direction of their mechanics when it comes to executing shots to the best of their ability. Meaning, if you were to ask them how they felt they performed in their last shot, they would give you a blow by blow of their mechanics. Then let’s say I am an instructor and I told them to do the best they could on a particular shot. Typically they would focus 90% of their effort on the mechanics – if not 100%. They give very little consideration to the mental aspect, even though it is vital to executing their best ability.

So the first step to executing every shot to the best of your ability is to recognize that it takes a lot more than just mechanics to make it happen. The mechanics are only a very small element when you look at the broader picture. Several factors actually go into every shot, when you take into account the environment, the people around you, and your preparation up to that point (in a bunch of different areas – not just whether or not you practiced). But a lot of athletes will say “I’ve practiced mechanics every day” and think that should be enough. What about preparation and the surrounding environment – not just the weather and land, but the actual surroundings? What happened to you in the last 5 minutes, hours or day before, including what you think is about to happen, the people in your squad, group or those playing in front or behind you, all contribute to your ability. Your reaction and thoughts about those situations effect whether or not you execute every shot to the best of your ability as well.

As you look at all of those factors, you can see it is extremely important that you work on yourself, your perceptions, fears, doubts, attitudes, expectations, regrets and worries, in order for you to truly execute every shot to the best of your ability. Since you take all of that with you into the moment you attempt to execute your shot, your level of performance will drop significantly if you have not trained well in how to deal with it all. Additionally, how well you have slept and eaten, your level of endurance from exercising regularly and keeping fit, how well hydrated you are; they too affect your ability to perform well and execute every shot to the best of your ability.

When you consider your personal relationships and thoughts around them, especially if you had some disagreement or argument before the game, they come with you into every shot. Thoughts about yourself and previous performance, your previous hole or round, previous station, previous event, previous year – all of it comes with you. So the moment of your shot is not as pure and innocent as just your mechanics. There is a lot more work to be done and elements to be looked at, in order for you to perform well, or execute every shot to the best of your ability.

This can be very overwhelming, so it does need to be broken down for you to take small steps at a time. But at least start working on all of these areas so you can diligently perfect your abilities. Mindfully and diligently tackle or tweak one thing at a time, making progress over time, so that each time you do perform and execute a shot, you bring a new and better you to that experience. That is what we are looking at here. That is how you can execute every shot to the best of your ability.

In order to affirm and believe this statement: “I execute every shot to the best of my ability”, you do need to work on all the areas I mentioned, but also have the belief that you are executing every shot to the best of your ability. You must have that belief beyond any other thinking about yourself – more than anything else, when you are about to execute the shot. You must believe that you truly are performing to the best of your ability at that time, and have done everything you could to prepare for that moment. That will really help you execute every shot to the best of your ability.

I am not saying you sacrifice everything else in your life to achieve that belief. You still need to have balance in your life, where you take care of all areas and therefore feel serenity that you truly are doing the best you can in all areas. If you believe you are practicing as much as you reasonably can, with balance in your life, then you should feel that you are performing to the best of your ability in all areas. If you do that, then when you get to that moment of executing a shot, you bring a belief system that you are ready and prepared to execute to the best of your ability at that time. Even though there may still be progress to be made and things you still need to work on (because there always will be), you are satisfied with your progress. Therefore, you believe you truly are ready to execute every shot to the best of your ability, and chances are, you will.

So as you can see, executing your shot to the best of your ability is actually much more complicated under the surface than what is visibly going on. But if you take this large chunk of information and begin to work on your mental training, it will definitely put you well above others in your sport. As I said initially, a large percentage of athletes focus just on their mechanics when it comes to executing every shot to the best of their ability. So this gives you a huge advantage over your competition if you realize there is much more to it and you start working on it. You will then begin to see progress in all the different areas of your golf game and life, and truly execute your shots to the best of your ability.

If you would like extra help or coaching along the way, I am available to work with you so please contact me. I wish you much success, progress, and lots of evidence of great performance in your sport and life as you apply what I have talked about here, and you execute your shots to the best of your ability. Have an amazing day!

In Golf, As In Life, There’s No Such Thing As Perfect!

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:16:11 -0400

Do you believe things should be perfect in your life, or you should have a perfect swing or perfect golf game? As I work with many athletes and consider different ways a golfer might achieve peak performance, something that comes up a lot is the word ‘perfection’. Perfection is probably the most common trap golfers fall into without even being consciously aware that they are falling into it. Why is that? What is wrong with seeking perfection that I would label it a trap?

If we take a look at a quote from one of my hypnosis product suggestions, I think it will help you better understand the implications of perfection on a golfer’s ability to achieve peak performance. The quote is:

“I understand there is no such thing as perfect – not person, not swing, not in life, not in golf – we are all growing and evolving.”

The issue of perfection comes up a lot when I am working with golfers to help them achieve peak performance. It is quite amazing, actually, when you can step out of your lives and thoughts long enough to see how you have this set expectation of perfection in what you do; according to your own definition of what that may be. You must realize that everyone perceives things in a certain way, and has expectations based on those perceptions. People have definitions of how they think things should go perfectly, and they suffer from stress, insomnia, overeating, drinking and drug problems, all as a result of the fact that things did not go the way they thought they ‘should go.’ They think things should be a certain way and when they are not, they freak out about it – in one degree or another (mildly freaking out, or excessively freaking out about it).

So what I am saying in this suggestion is that I understand there is no such thing as perfect. I wake up in the morning with a general idea of how my day will go: appointments, meetings, deadlines and things I need or want to get done. I have a general flow in my mind. The problem is, I somehow believe that just because I have decided that is the way my day should go, I get pretty upset if it does not go that way. Now, I am just like any other human on this planet, but I have worked really hard to observe this tendency in myself and move away from it. I can still fall into the trap again, though, as many of you do. So how can you avoid the trap in order to achieve peak performance?

The first thing you need to have, when it comes to detecting perfection in your thinking, is awareness. It is likely that many of you do not even realize you are in the trap. You just expect your defined perfection, the personal definition you have for yourself, about people in your life, strangers, someone driving down the road, how your work and life should be, how much money you should make, how the economy should be, how politics should be handled and so on, to be the way things should be. Once you form that conclusion, you become agitated when someone does not meet with your idea of perfection – what you think they should be doing.

So change comes first from awareness, and then you need to let your definitions go. You need to let go of your expectations of perfection, based on your definition, and start to view life a bit more open minded and mindfully. You ultimately want the ability to be present in situations around other people, free of those visual or perceived expectations of perfection. When you do, you will find that you are even more present in life than ever, because your conscious mind will no longer take you out of the joy of the moment while it analyzes and thinks about how things should be different, or how they are wrong and should be some other way. The whole time your mind does that, you are unable to operate at your peak level of performance. So it is very important to let those expectations of perfection go.

Now let’s transfer that over to the golf course and into your swing. What level of perfection are you expecting for yourself in your swing? What level are you expecting while you play at certain holes? Do you have a level of expectation that does not allow for reality? Are you going into a shot thinking about how it should play out, how you should be able to take on that hole, and then get frustrated with yourself, your life, the club, the ball or the course when it does not go the way you thought it should go? I am sure this happens a lot.

The reason I am sure is because I have worked with tons of golfers that have fallen into the trap of not recognizing how far they have already come on their journey of learning, evolving and growing, but still have much to learn and fall into the rut of getting angry and frustrated at themselves for not playing perfectly. So recognize that it is just like spinning your tires in the snow, on a sandy beach or in mud. Your growth, learning, and evolution in your golf game becomes stagnant as long as you maintain expectations of perfection and chew yourself out when you have not met those expectations. You need to recognize how far you have come, that you are on a timeline that does not stop right now, that all aspects of your golf game are evolving, you perform some areas better than others, and that is perfectly okay. Recognition is key to moving yourself toward achieving peak performance.

Since I have just used the word perfect, I will add a little twist here. Now that you have this concept down that I have just explained, you need to realize that things are perfect just the way they are. I had to take you mentally through that journey for you to understand that there is no such thing as perfect as long as you are using your old definitions that were based on your perceptions and expectations. I want you to see that there is perfect, but it is just not according to your definition; it is perfect just the way it is. To see that things are perfect just the way they are comes from you being mindful and present in what is happening, rather than being caught up in some storyline in your mind of how you think things should be. That is absolutely necessary if you want any hope of achieving peak performance.

It takes lots of effort, work and diligence to let go of those old mindsets, and I suggest you get to work on them starting now. A stumbling block for lots of people when I explain this is that they fear complacency. They fear and have a hard time computing that they are supposed to be okay with ‘so-called’ bad thoughts, or okay when the ball does not land where they wanted. I say ‘yes’, be okay with it, but it does not mean you become complacent. Be okay since it is your reality at that moment. It is really where the ball has landed. You will be stuck in the mud if you argue and get mad about it. You will move forward when you accept it, learn from it and allow yourself to grow and evolve from that information. Then you will see your performance levels improving, but not until you drop those old perceptions of perfection.

I gave you a lot to process here, so I suggest you read this a few times to really digest the information. It will take you far in your golf game, in life, and in all of your relationships with yourself and others. If you would like some extra help with this, I am available for you. By understanding that there is no such thing as perfect – not in a person, not in a swing, not in life, not in golf – we are all growing and evolving, you will alleviate much pressure and stress, and truly be able to achieve peak performance. It is possible, and I wish you much success in your journey. Have an amazing day!

Success Breeds Confidence

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:31:36 -0400

Does confidence bring about success or does success bring about confidence? As you learn specific ‘mental training’ skills for success for your sport, you should really apply them to your every-day life as well. They will help you live a more peaceful, loving and accepting life, which will then help your relationships to be healthier. As you become more peaceful and accepting, you will also be able to see what you can learn from different people and
experiences in your life. Openness to learning is key to becoming more confident in yourself, improving your sport skills, and achieving greater success.

There are many things you can do to build confidence in yourself and your game, in order to achieve success. In this article, I will focus on the following suggestion that I took from my ‘golf product’ (available for sale on this site). It is:

“I encourage myself by recognizing my successes, both big and small – success breeds confidence. I find it easy now to reflect on my successes in an instant.”

As you read that statement, think about a skill you feel confident in your ability to use, in achieving success. One thing I have found in working with many athletes, is if you think about an area in your life in which you feel confident in your ability, you will find the reason you feel that way is because you have gathered evidence over a period of time that you are good in that particular area. You believe in your time-tested ability, which helps you feel confident in your success with whatever skill it may be.

So confidence does not necessarily come from others saying that you are good or successful in a particular area; you have to believe it yourself. If people tell you over time that you are good at playing the piano but deep inside you say to yourself “no I am not”, than every time someone says you are good at it, you do not really accept it as truth; so it does nothing to help your confidence. Confidence really comes from finding your own evidence that you are good in a particular area, based on your belief of how your abilities led to achieving success.

If you were lucky, you may have grown up with many years of reinforced belief that your skills in certain areas led you to achieve whatever successes you experienced. If someone gives you kudos for your skills or success in certain areas and you already have a belief system within you that you are good in those areas, than positive comments from others about them will feed your belief and encourage and strengthen your confidence in those areas. So what you see, then, is a foundation of confidence that is built from successful experiences and positive reinforcement.

This does not mean that you have to have had perfect experiences all along, like a golfer winning every event from a very young age. It just means that you were able to view every experience in such a way that you still saw something good in yourself or the experiences, and that is what your foundation of success and confidence was built upon. So as you review your past experiences, say to yourself: “I encourage myself by recognizing my success”.

If you did not grow up with people reinforcing your beliefs about your skills or success in certain areas, it is never too late to start. In sport or life, it is not like the old saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. It is just not true. At any point in your life, you can look at old habits or patterns or some of the ways you have been programmed through yourself and others, and make a very deliberate and conscious decision to change. You just need to look for your past successes, and begin building a new foundation.

When it comes to your game, take a look at the areas where you feel confident in your skills and success (visualize for a moment and let some images flash through your mind), and get a good sense of how it feels when you do have confidence and a belief system that you are good and you have been successful – in golf, say at putting, your long game, your drive or chipping. Take a moment and go there right now in your head and say: “how do I feel when I imagine, envision, think about or play this particular aspect of golf?”. The confidence you felt in the original moment will come back to you, and as you pay attention to those moments going forward, you will begin building your foundation in confidence on those little successes.

Since I just gave you a few examples of how to envision successful moments, some of you will likely experience a lack of confidence in some of the areas I mentioned, and some of you will experience confidence – depending on how successful you saw yourself in your minds. Right now if I say: “how confident do you feel about your putting?”, some of you will feel weak and have very little confidence and some will feel strong and confident; same goes with chipping or driving the ball. You want to get a good idea of what area of golf you feel confident in and have had the greatest success, and see how that feels in your body.

Now if someone says: “hey, you are pretty good at putting”, and you already have a belief within you that you are good at putting, see how that strengthens it and creates a really good feeling inside you. On the flipside, let’s say you are struggling with putting right now, and imagine you have a belief system that says you are struggling. When somebody says: “hey, you are really good at putting”, you reject it because deep inside you say to yourself: “no I am not, they don’t know what they are talking about”. It creates a whole different feeling inside you. The foundation you have built within you says you are not good at putting, so that is your belief. That makes you lack confidence in yourself, but you can change that belief in order to achieve success in that area.

As you encourage yourself by recognizing your successes, you must realize that you are the one who has to gather the evidence of your successes, in order to acquire greater confidence in yourself. That is possible no matter how you have played. Let’s say you walked away from several holes in which you had several bogies. There will always be something good that you can see in those experiences. But what happens if you speak down or negatively about yourself after several bogies is, you reinforce and strengthen that weakness within you. If you had several bogies and you decided to look at what you could learn from each of those holes or the skills you need to work on, and you know that you can work on those skills, then you walk away from those bogies with a whole different perspective. Therefore, you end up encouraged and strengthened not only from the success you had and progress you made, but you will feel energized to continue making progress which will lead to greater confidence and even more success.

So encourage yourself by recognizing your successes, both big and small; that success breeds confidence, and it is up to you to see your own success. No one else can tell you, especially like I already said above; if you have a bunch of old negative programming in your mind, then you will not accept someone else’s comment about how good you are. Success breeds confidence, but you need to teach yourself and train yourself to look for the successes. By default, most people look for their weaknesses and their lack in something; but the opposite really exists, and it is a matter of what you choose to look at. As you make that choice to look for the good and you recognize your successes, no matter how small they may seem, you should find it easier to reflect on your previous successes in an instant. When you can do that, you will know that you now have a more positive belief system in looking at areas you are good at, and your success and confidence will grow. Success really does breed confidence.

So the work for you to do is to purposely look for your successes and what you are doing well, what you have done well, and the progress you are making. It can be from one hole or one aspect of your game, a whole event, week or month…whatever segment you want to look at. See purposely the progress and successes you had and are continuing to have, whether they are big or small, and know that you are purposely and diligently building your confidence. You will see how it not only gets easier and easier over time, but you will feel your confidence growing and you will be able to recognize more and more successes with every shot, hole or round you play.

Please be aware that I am not talking about becoming arrogant, here. That level of success comes more from ego rather than actual skill and is completely different. I am talking about a genuine recognition and confidence that comes from gifts and skill sets that you possess, and that does not have to become arrogance. It is just an understanding or a knowing and feeling good about yourself, that comes from a loving place. Arrogance comes from a fearful place, which is a whole other topic.

So as you hit the links this week, remember my suggestion: “I encourage myself by recognizing my successes, both big and small – success breeds confidence. I find it easy now to reflect on my successes in an instant.” Really give this a shot and see how it improves your confidence and success. If you need any extra help, please contact me. I wish you much success as you work on building your confidence. Have an amazing day!

Are You Seeking Success? Do You Know What It Is?

Wed, 22 May 2013 05:24:21 -0400

If you are seeking success you probably have a good idea of what you think it is, or maybe you don’t. How do you acquire and maintain greater success in your life? What is success? As you read this article, you may think that I take a unique approach on what success is, as compared to a lot of information that is out there. I feel like success is much broader in scope than simply looking at how much I acquire, or thinking that if I acquire more material things then
that makes me successful. What is your definition of success? Is it the more that you reach certain goals and only when you reach those goals, or do you see it in a broader scope? How about looking at whether success just pertains to your work? Does success just have to do with your career choice or job; your goals that you set pertaining to your profession? I believe that you can take a much broader perspective than that, and success in life can show itself in a lot of different ways. It can show itself in small steps. Really the invention of anything starts with one little step at a time, and each “failed” attempt is not really a failure along the way. They are learning experiences and challenges that present themselves in which you are able to learn about whatever it is you put your time into. So is success the act of continuing on in the face of those challenges?

Rather than get frustrated, angry, worrisome or fearful when something does not turn out the way you want on your path to success, I encourage you to see your progress. You need to see the many little successes along the way; see how they can come together towards one of your goals (or several of your goals). Little successes lead up to greater successes as you move forward in life. But you have to see the little successes and not ignore them or become frustrated, resentful or angry, which will prolong the amount of time until you succeed at achieving the larger goals.

Striving towards your goals provides so much opportunity for learning along the way. You just need to be mindful and pay attention to what you can learn in each situation leading up to success. Then you can tweak the knowledge you learned, apply it and tweak it over and over again until you eventually have something like the snowball that just keeps getting bigger. You will accumulate knowledge and better understanding and get more and more clarity about what you want and what you are creating.

As I have mentioned in other articles, I believe clarity, balance and energy are necessary to acquiring and maintaining success. People tend to place so much focus on materialism and work success, that they very often miss a huge opportunity to focus on all of what makes them successful. That is where balance comes in to achieving success.

In my many years working with clients and elite athletes, I’ve helped them in their pursuit of greater and greater success, even though they have already had some successes before I came into the picture. I have seen them be so surprised when they realize that if they are struggling in any way, let’s say in their marriage, that it has an effect on their sport performance and ultimately their success. Now there is much learning that needs to take place in order to recognize how your mindsets in your personal life affect your performance in other areas, and those mindsets do not have to overlap (although for most of us they do, because we don’t know any other way). But overall, as human beings, you will achieve greater success if you have balance in your life.

When you feel that you know within you that you are taking care of business in all important aspects of your life, then you have balance. With that piece of mind you will actually be able to perform better in each segment of your life, and achieve greater success. Performing better at work has a lot to do with performance and success at taking care of yourself, which then has a lot to do with your ability and success in taking care of relationships and other areas of your life; whether it is with your parent, children or significant other. So you have the ability to achieve success in all areas of your life, and it will catapult you in your ability to be successful in your career, or whichever area is important to you.

So balance is extremely important to success! Without it, let’s say you do not take good care of yourself mentally, emotionally and physically, you will decrease in your ability to perform well and have a deficit in your energy. That will show itself 100% of the time in everything you try to do. So if it is important to you that you become more and more successful in your career, you need to do whatever you can to be successful in taking care of yourself. Another example: if you have a disagreement with a significant other and are then looking to perform well at work, you will find some difficulty there if you have not taken the opportunity to clear things up in your relationship first.

Then down the road, you will find that you need to be fully present in whatever it is you are spending time doing as you work towards success. If you are working, to be fully present in your work is a skill you can learn over time that will increase your feelings of success. I will provide more information on that in future articles, but you must first start with the realization that clarity, balance & energy are extremely important to your success – in whatever you choose to pursue.

Clarity is a matter of answering the questions: “Who am I? What is important in my life? What are my priorities and do I need to shift them? What are my preferences in all aspects of my life? Are they in balance? Do I have an ability to check and balance in all areas that are important to me?” Some areas you probably do well in. But for some, you probably have not even taken the time to get to know yourself to know if they are important to you. Then there are other areas you probably know very well you could be doing better at, and you know you want to do better at, but you have not taken the time to prioritize them in order to achieve success. You must be clear about these things in order to define what success is in your own life.

I encourage you to look at all of these areas, starting today. Ask yourself: “Who am I? What are my priorities and do I need to shift them? Do I have the level of clarity I need, or do I know myself well enough to say I really know who I am? Or have I been spending too much time taking care of everyone else and external things that I have not stopped long enough to say: Who am I?” If you are dating or in a relationship with another person, think of all those questions you ask that you feel are so important when you want to know: “Who is this person? What are his/her interests? What are his/her preferences? How does he/she like to spend his/her time? What is his/her favorite food? What are his/her values and does he/she live up to them? Do his/her actions follow his/her stated values?” All of these things that you look for in others…have you ever stopped to look for them in yourself? That is the level of clarity I am talking about, that will be extremely important in contributing to your success.

In order to achieve success, you must have clarity, balance and energy

Now you know a little about balance and clarity, but energy definitely comes from a lot of different areas. You need to have physical energy to put into things you have now prioritized and decided are important to spend your valuable and precious time on. So energy comes physically from how you eat, sleep, hydrate, and exercise, and it also comes from your mindsets. How do you choose to think about things and focus your mental time? Your emotional state affects your energy. As you will see, if you put your time towards things that are not compatible with who you are, you will have an energy deficit. If you put your time and energy towards things that are compatible with who you are, your energy will increase and the energy will actually inspire you and help you to be ready to take the actions that are necessary for your success.

So, this week, look at having clarity, balance and energy as a means of helping you answer the question: “What is success?” Take at least one tiny step towards your greater success by using the information I gave you in this article. Feel free to share this with friends, family or others you feel could benefit, and please contact me for further assistance or to ask me any questions. Now that you know what success is, I look forward to helping you seek and achieve greater success in your life. Have an amazing day!

Accept Challenges, Learn From Experience

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:41:50 -0400

Let’s take a look at how you can accept challenges and learn from your experiences. Would you like to achieve peak performance in your golf game? How about in some other sport, career or area of your life? Well, you cannot have peak performance in your sport mentally unless you practice those skills in your life on a regular basis. Your brain, thoughts and mind do not instantaneously shift just because you are in your sport. To be able to master those skills in your sport, you need to master them in your life as well. As a Mental Trainer and Hypnotherapist, that is what I am here to help you with, and I hope you find my articles, training products and actual services helpful. If you need extra help beyond what I give you here, I am available to you. Please, do not hesitate to contact me.

As with other articles I write, I am taking a quote (or mental suggestion), from my golf product. It is: “I accept challenges and my swing just as they are in that moment- I access the information, gather data, learn from experiences and situation, get deeper understanding, then apply knowledge as opportunities arise.”

That is a really long suggestion compared with others I have reviewed in these articles, and I honestly feel like it includes practically all that I teach. It is interesting that it all fits into this short phrase, but the bottom line is that it is not so easy to apply. If we start at the beginning: “I accept challenges…”, just those three words alone are going to be a block for many of you in trying to achieve peak performance. Why?

First of all, many people do not look at interesting situations as challenges. They look at them as bad shots or maybe bad stations. Your first step, then, is to actually eliminate that form of thinking and see them all as challenges. After that is to accept the challenges. Again, I am not claiming this happens quickly or easily. It is a matter of being diligent and truly working on these things as a means of improving your performance and achieving greater success in your game.

Acceptance is having peace about challenges. It is having an inner knowing that all is going to be okay, and through this I am going to move further ahead, see progress and success, and evolve. “I accept challenges and my swing…”; but no matter what sport you are in, you can translate it over. I accept challenges in my ‘swing’, my ‘mechanics’, my ‘abilities’, just as they are in that moment. So what I am pulling in here is a realization that at any given moment, you have different levels of skill sets you are able to perform. Although people are actually capable of a lot of things, in any given moment they are only able to perform at a certain level, based on thousands of different elements. Those elements include your mechanics, your physical space, your mental state, your environment, other people and what they contribute to a situation, and so many other things. So at any moment, it is a level of acceptance for whatever varying degree of those elements exists at that time that contributes to your ability to achieve peak performance.

Then you look at how “…I access the information…”, in a given moment…which means to scan around you, within you and all that is presented in that moment; from a place of non-emotion, of gathering data and knowing that what is being presented is real and separate from yourself and your emotions; any expectations and fears from the given facts. Your ability to do this will directly impact your ability to select the right club, for example, or make other crucial decisions that will affect your performance or success with that shot.

After accessing information, comes gathering data and learning from experiences. Since a lot of people are unable to accept challenges – or they look at situations as ‘bad’ – they miss huge opportunities to learn from experiences. They miss the timing or ability to instantly accept and learn from whatever is being presented to them, or get a deeper understanding that will lead to an improvement in their performance. They do not realize that it is with a neutral assessing of information and gathering of data, that they can get a deeper understanding of themselves, of life, of the situations being presented (or the challenges), and their abilities in those situations. That understanding is necessary to lead them towards the changes in their mindsets or mental skills, that will help them improve performance – especially when faced with those challenges again.

The next step is to apply the knowledge (learned) as opportunities arise. So as you move forward, you gather data, you are neutral, accepting and open to learning from experiences, and you will apply that knowledge as other similar opportunities arise. Then each time you apply what you have learned, your performance should improve. Although every moment is new and unique, each one offering a different set of circumstances, you should be able to identify what skills to use in similar situations that worked, and build on them for greater success in the future – or you learn what to avoid that did not work so well the last time.

Since you will never be in the exact same moment again, your ability to access information, gather data, get a deeper understanding and apply what you learn is really invaluable to your pursuit of peak performance. Just as each person brings a different set of characteristics into each moment or interaction, your ability to master these steps will better prepare you for all the different possible challenges you face in future events. That will ultimately help you surpass your competitors and lead to greater success for you. Who wouldn’t want to be a step ahead of their competition?

Once you have gone through all of these steps, you will find that the process starts all over again at the beginning. As the next opportunity arises, you accept the challenges in that situation, within yourself and that moment, you access the information, neutrally gather data, learn from experiences, get a deeper understanding, and then apply the knowledge you learned as opportunities arise again. It’s like reading the back of a shampoo bottle, where the directions state: “apply, rinse, then reapply and rinse again”. The more attuned you are to this process and the better able you are to view situations as opportunities rather than challenges or problems, the more peaceful and successful you will be.

This teaching will help you to evolve and move forward in the mastery of the sport that you choose to participate in. In order to achieve peak performance in your sport and some level of mastery, it is a level of skill and also having a level of inner peace that I am talking about here. Mastery without inner peace is chaos – like being on an emotional roller coaster ride, depending on whether you are winning or losing or you perceive things as good or bad. Having this inner peace with mastery is what is going to take you to the top and help you to stay there. To have consistent peak performance and continued success in your game, and in life, please pursue inner peace as you work to master the skills of your sport. You will be glad you did.

I hope you find this information helpful in creating greater success for yourself, and you are truly able to begin (right now) to apply it to your life and sport. I am available to work with you if you need extra help staying on track with your sport, life, or overall well being, because they are all interconnected – the mind, body and spirit. I truly wish you well in your pursuit of mastery and inner peace, so you may achieve peak performance by accepting challenges and learning from your experiences. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Commit To Shots

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:45:17 -0400

Do you commit to shots and feel like you can win? As you strive for peak performance in a professional sport, you must have greater peace, mastery, calm, confidence, and a highly focused energy, while at the same time maintaining a relaxed calm and confidence. These areas are what I try to help you address for the mental side of your game, in my work as a Mental Trainer and Hypnotherapist. You need presence, mastery and peace, and without these elements I would say it is impossible to have consistent good performance – let alone peak performance. You might win once in a while but it is likely that the emotional roller coaster caused by occasional wins will be to your detriment in the long run.

What do I mean by emotional roller coaster? Let’s say you just won, as you move into the following event, if you don’t have good mental skills, you will probably experience a let down if your performance is not up to the perception of what you thought it should be – or what it was the week/event before. Mental skills are vital to consistent winning and vital to consistent peak performance. They are also vital if you intend to see regular success or progress in your performance.

You need mastery, presence and inner peace; and not just in your sport. These elements are important in many areas of your life – wherever you wish to seek peak performance in. You will actually face a ‘win’ at whatever you put your mind to; career choice, projects at work, a hobby or interest you have, or as it pertains to your relationships. It is the same mastery, presence and inner peace that will allow you to ‘win’ or succeed in those areas also.

To expand on the concept of calm and confidence with highly focused energy, while at the same time maintaining relaxed calm and confidence, I pulled a suggestion from my golf products to use in this article. It is: “I easily commit to shots – I am calm, focused and confident.”

Since I work with a lot of different kinds of athletes, I kept the suggestion generic because it can pertain to golf, clay shooting, boxers or lots of other sports, in which there is a moment of asking “am I committed to this shot or the next move, or not?” Even chess players benefit from being committed to the next move. Being committed makes the difference as to whether you will persevere in the face of challenges, or how often you might practice the mechanics of your sport. You must be committed in order to be successful or seek a higher level of performance.

What does it feel like when you are not committed? You feel uneasy or nervous about what you are about to do; you start to doubt yourself. Doubt creeps in if you lack confidence. It creeps in if you lack confidence in yourself in general; it creeps in if you lack confidence in how well you can perform in that particular kind of shot; it creeps in if you haven’t been performing as well as you’d like in the last few holes or stations, or the last few times you’ve actually performed. It can even creep in if you played at that particular event a year ago, when you did not perform as well as hoped back then. Doubt can also creep in if you have thoughts like “I haven’t had time to practice as much as I’d like, and here I am looking to perform well at this event”.

The next step is to realize that the doubt is there because of a thought pattern or thought process, and then address the underlying cause for those thoughts. Thoughts like the ones in the example I just gave above; those are what you need to address. Yes, you can derail those kinds of thoughts and turn them off, which won’t come easily by the way. It takes a continual ongoing effort to turn them off. But for a long-term change, it will be more beneficial to you if you address the underlying cause – or get to the root of the problem. It’s not enough to just turn them off in that moment, because they will keep coming back around. In order to achieve peak performance, you need to keep them from coming back.

What you want to do is recognize the feeling of doubt, and the kinds of thoughts that lead to that feeling. In the moment, the band aid cure is to just get rid of the thoughts and replace them with a more positive statement like “I can do this”, or some other positive affirmation you hear about. But that is a temporary fix, because the next time you struggle in your performance, they will come back again.

You have to address it even further than just those thoughts, if you want to consistently achieve peak performance. You have to look at your belief system and be able to ask yourself “Why do I think this way? Why do I allow myself to keep focusing on the negatives in these situations? What can I address internally in me as far as my confidence and preferences and where I spend my mental time?” You can then train or program yourself to think in a more positive, beneficial way. It is a shifting at the core level of your belief system, not just “let me think more positively and everything will be rosy”, because it will come back again and again, and cause your performance to suffer each time.

“I easily commit to shots…” This is a positive statement or affirmation, and it will help with temporary change so you can achieve greater levels of success, in spite of doubt that creeps into your mind. I recommend that you use it to affirm your belief in your abilities, because repeating it will help you build your belief system around it. In time, it will become more significant and strong and believable to you, but it must happen at two levels. It must happen at the surface level with repetition and changing your focus deliberately, with stopping the negative kinds of thoughts. Then for permanent change, you will have to dig deeper. Ultimately, it will help you achieve peak performance in your sport.

I can help you to become more focused, present and in the zone every day, achieving peak performance in your sport, as I have helped so many athletes and sports professionals already. My technique is proven, as I have helped numerous clients to be more focused, in the zone and reach higher levels of success than they ever had. It is a matter of learning all of the skills necessary to be fully present; to be fully accepting and have the ability to tune out, but yet be tuned in and have calm, focused confidence, all at the same time. Many have learned it and achieved peak performance, and so can you.

As for increasing your confidence, that comes from a repetition of focusing your time and energy on what you are doing well – what results in success or good performance. You can put your attention on what you are screwing up or what you are doing well; it is really up to you. The more you focus on what you are doing well, the higher your confidence will be in that area. Practice your mechanics and mental skills to build consistent levels of success in your performance, while using positive affirmations to build your internal belief system in your abilities. If you truly need help in a certain area, then I am not suggesting you ignore it altogether. Just maintain a positive focus in your time and energy, looking at that area as an opportunity for growth, and watch your performance improve.

Easily commit to your shots, stay calm, focused and confident. It may sound simple, but it really is a lot of information to digest and put into practice so you can gain significant improvement in your sport performance. These mental skills are vital for consistent winning; consistent peak performance. You need mastery, presence and inner peace. These are extremely important elements and if you are able to implement them immediately, you will see direct cause and effect in achieving peak performance in your game – and some great successes in your life.

I hope you enjoyed reading this lesson, and that you benefit from the skills I described by seeing improvement in committing to shots. If you need any assistance or clarification, please contact me. I love helping people achieve peak performance and improve their skills for successful life and living. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Clarity. Balance. Energy… Success Through Perseverance

Sat, 25 May 2013 13:50:24 -0400

For success it takes perseverance, but you also need to have clarity, balance and energy first, before they seek to achieve peak performance. That applies to sports and life in general. In this article, I’d like to go a step further and describe the role of perseverance in achieving greater success. Perseverance helps your ability to achieve peak performance in life, and whatever aspect of life you choose to put your attention to.

To help illustrate the value of perseverance in achieving greater success, I chose the following quote from Jacob Riis. It states: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it-but all that had gone before.”

I chose this quote because so many times we focus so hard on our outcomes…looking at the end goal or destination, that we overlook all of the successes we have along the way. We can become so goal oriented and focused on what the goal is, what life will look like when we get there, how we can visualize our life, revving ourselves up mentally and emotionally in order to get to that point where we are ready…to feel like we are focused, we know what we want and we are going to stop at nothing until we get it!!

The problem with that is, since we are so focused on achieving our long-range goals, sometimes we end up missing out on opportunities right in front of us. We end up not seeing the smaller successes and their opportunities, because our vision is so set on where we want to end up, that we do not see what is right here in front of us. We then tend to get frustrated or not see progress, as it usually takes time to achieve success. Or, we only look for progress that looks the way we want it to; meaning, we define sub-goals in order to reach the larger ones and if they don’t look the way we want, we don’t see our progress.

This quote really addresses perseverance as a way to achieve peak performance. Being steady or persistent; having a course of action or a purpose and in spite of all kinds of obstacles, challenges, discouragements or difficulties, you stay steady on pace…committed to the journey you are on. In theology, I like how they bring in grace as a part of this. The ability to be in a state of grace from beginning to end; being able to put your mind to something and have goals, desires and wonderful ideas for your life, but to come back and take action and commit yourself to the process with a state of grace…not with frustration, discouragement or set definitions of exactly how success should look. It is when your egos get involved that you say: “this is exactly when this should happen and if it doesn’t happen like this, at this time, or look like this, then I am going to get frustrated and discouraged and think that things are not going the way they should.” If you do that, you might feel like you are not making any progress and you may want to give up on your goals altogether. Instead, with grace, you are capable of realizing that you are making progress, and progress is success.

Of course, you will see a lot less progress if you sit in your recliner watching TV all day. You can have all the goals you want, visualize things and have all these ideas of how you would like outcomes to be; but if you just sit like that all day with very little action on your part to participate in the creation of what you want, then you won’t see progress to keep you energized in pursuing your goals.

Putting that aside, let’s say you are taking action, making phone calls and stepping out, filling out applications and going on interviews, having regular get-togethers or events that are part of your business plan. Then it is just like that stone cutter hammering away at his rock. It may be the 101^st blow when you finally see all of your hard work coming together…all of what you have been focused and working on, resulting in some great achievement. The point is that success does not come by thinking about achieving it alone. You must take consistent action if you are going to succeed.

So as you work towards your goal, keep in mind that you cannot chisel out a beautiful sculpture with just one whack of your hammer. You also cannot chisel it out by hacking away at it and being crazy with your hammer. You have to do a little at a time; have a vision, have a goal and come back to take the steps and see the progress of each success along the way. So in that, you will be able to slowly, gradually, with perseverance, diligence, and focus, make the kind of progress to have a really beautiful outcome – achieve peak performance.

Now think about being that stone cutter, and maybe how you just want to get the job done…you really want the outcome and are focused solely on that as a measure of your success. You want it to come out and you get frustrated as you chip it wrong, or something doesn’t work out the way you want, or it is taking too long. Obviously, stone cutters know better than that. But here you are in life, doing that with your own dreams, goals and desires. People do that every single day. Every day, they get frustrated when things don’t go the way they hoped or it looks like their hard work is not paying off. When outcomes are not exactly as people want them to be, they do not see success in what they have accomplished. They fail to realize that peak life performance does not just come from reaching a goal…it is the journey and all the work they put into reaching that goal that creates success.

Rather than being gentle on ourselves or realizing success comes with one hit of that hammer at a time; and sometimes one hit could change the whole plan because what we thought was going to be the shoulder, might have to be something else if we whacked a little too hard and a bigger chunk came off then we wanted. So now we have to recreate our plans and vision, but that’s okay. It doesn’t mean we have to destroy the whole piece. It means recreating our vision. We don’t have to get upset about that.

There are always obstacles along the way to achieving greater success. You will face challenges, but it does not have to mean the end of your goal or dream, or that everything is over. It could mean that you will evolve, accept and mold yourself with life and circumstances and still have your goals, dreams and desires, but be in reality at the same time. You could redefine success as you hit each obstacle and figure out how to persevere in spite of it. Perseverance is so important to achieving peak performance.

Success is a matter of not giving up. That is persevering; of knowing that each little step along the way is building to the end result, and it’s with each success that your goal is achieved. Then when you reach one goal, you can decide what else you want to pursue after that – you never really reach ‘the end’. You want to pat yourself on the back, give yourself credit for what you have done, and see the progress you have made already. Know that success does not have to look exactly how you think it should look, and that’s okay as long as you are taking action.

How do you really achieve peak performance? As long as you have really good clarity, put energy forth into your goals and desires (that you are clear on), and take action to move forward in spite of obstacles that arise along the way, you will achieve successes that propel you toward your best possible performance. You will start to see the evolution of the beautiful desires you are creating, the beautiful sculpture of your dreams, if you keep taking one step, one hit of that hammer, without giving up as challenges present themselves. Your successes come as you work around those challenges.

But have that clarity and vision 1^st, like that sculpture for the stone cutter; and find the right level of emotional balance, so you avoid an emotion roller coaster if things don’t happen like you thought they should, or in the time you envisioned them to happen. Have balance and take breaks from your work to rejuvenate your batteries and have energy. Take care of yourself and other areas of your life so you don’t feel guilty, like you might be neglecting yourself or others. You want to have really good energy when it is time to focus on achieving greater success with your goals, and you need to maintain balance in order to do that.

As you are striving to be successful and reach your goals, be totally in the process and enjoy the moments, knowing that every step creates your peak performance and leads to the greater picture of success in your life. Never become discouraged or think your steps are small or insignificant, as you work towards greater success. Remember what Jacob Riis said: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it-but all that had gone before.”

What peacefulness and grace that brings, to help you enjoy the journey. Have your destination in mind and just enjoy the journey. Steady persistence, perseverance in your course of action and purpose, your state of mind…especially in spite of obstacles, difficulties or anything that would be challenging or discouraging…that is what creates peak life performance and will bring you the greatest success. If you cannot enjoy the journey, what’s the point?

I hope this helps to get you into a healthy state of mind and being, where you can really enjoy your life to the fullest on your road to achieving greater success. If you need any help with this or other similar topics, please contact me. If you strive for goals in line with your clarity of purpose, life balance and personal energy, you can have greater success and achieve peak performance in your life – so long as you persevere. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Feel Effects of Actions on Others: Greater Joy/ Less Stress

Sun, 26 May 2013 14:16:11 -0400

After years of education, private practice and my own journey, I believe that in order to truly have more joy and less stress, it is important for you to perform well in relationships. Did you ever think about the fact that you actually perform in relationships? This is an area most people don’t even consider, when they look at improving their performance in sports or at work or with their hobbies. You perform in everything you apply yourself to in life. The problem is that you don’t always put emphasis or priority on all of the areas in your life that are absolutely important. Relationships are one of those areas.

Most of us seem to just kind of take relationships for granted, and not prioritize them in the sense of needing to improve our performance. We don’t always apply our efforts to the best of our ability in relationships, or being the best we can possibly be. We will do it for sports, hobby or work, but not necessarily in this area. If we do, we will really see our joy increase and stress decrease significantly.

So what I have seen and come to believe, then, is that you have the potential for less stress and greater joy by improving your relationship performance. It’s the relationship with yourself, family, others…different kinds of circles around you that make up all of your typical relationships. You have the closest circle which contains the most intimate relationship (your significant other), your family and children. Then as you move out a little, you have close friends; move out a little more and you have acquaintances; out a little more are neighbors; and further out are those people you see less frequently. The level of acceptance you have for each individual in your various circles has a lot to do with your level of joy and stress.

Also in your innermost circle, is your relationship with yourself. It is actually the closest relationship you have as far as physical relationships. And if you are a religious or spiritual individual, then your ultimate closest relationship is with your higher power – there is no physical separation there. So acceptance in all your physical relationships; having greater love, appreciation and compassion, will significantly decrease and may even completely eliminate the level of stress you will experience and feel in your body as you perform in those relationships.

You also have a relationship with life, which covers everything outside of you…everything in the physical world that you watch going on. It’s what happens in your career, schooling, your children’s lives, in your neighborhood, and all the situations around you. How much acceptance do you have of them? I need to clarify here, because this comes up all the time with clients: acceptance does not mean complacency. So you don’t have to fear that this means becoming lazy or uncaring. I mean acceptance as far as seeing what is being offered as the reality of the moment, and if you are going to be upset with it or not accepting, then you are not accepting what is real. What you would be doing then, is accepting an illusion in your mind instead of accepting what is really happening. That would not help you increase your joy or reduce your stress, but instead would probably make matters worse for you.

To delve a little deeper into relationship performance and its effects on joy and stress, I would like to address the following quote: “When you are able to see the effects of your actions on others, you have learned one of life’s most important lessons.”

When you are able to feel, not even see, but feel the effects of your actions on others, you have learned one of life’s most important lessons. How often do you pause and maybe watch and feel the emotional reaction of the person you are speaking to, because of the words you just said? How often do you stop and feel the effects of something you physically did or a choice you made, and pause long enough to see how it is affecting others around you?

What I am suggesting is that you step outside of yourself; or rather, to step out of your own ego…the part of you that thinks: “I’m right, I know how things should be, I know how this needs to be handled, I’m going to do it my way, that person doesn’t know or understand what I know”. All of those kinds of thoughts or beliefs come from the ego of yourself, and you are capable of stepping out of that and observing it in action. You can watch your ego at work, and also watch other people’s egos as well.

When we are in ego, we think: “We are absolutely right, this is absolutely the way it should be, and I’m going to make it happen this way”, or at least we attempt to. That is the secret behind it: the ego thinks it is going to make things happen but it has very little ability and ends up like tires spinning in the mud. It tries and tries and tries, but doesn’t get very far. That causes lots of stress. A lot of stress comes from believing: “I am right, and that is wrong; I am right, she doesn’t know; I am right, he has no clue what he’s talking about”. That kind of thinking contributes to lots of stress, but can be eliminated with a little effort.

Obviously stress affects your body. You can feel the effects when you pause, meaning that you are present in the moment and get out of your own agenda long enough to see the cause and effect of what is happening right now. You can stop and see the cause and effect right now of your words on this situation, people around you or a particular person, because cause and effect happens repeatedly, continually, all the time. There is no true beginning point – I want you to know that. It is not like your one action created this one effect. It is repeated action, years of action, years of words, all combining and contributing to the effects that you are seeing. But you want to know also that you are still contributing to every moment of every relational interaction, so you can be mindful of your words and actions on the level of joy and stress you and the other person experience.

What should you do to improve your relationship performance? Continue to do what you believe is best, but do what you believe is best for the entire situation – not just according to your agenda. Feeling the effects of your actions on others is an extremely powerful and positive skill that you can learn, but also to just be more aware of. Your capability in this area already exists. It is a matter of whether or not you are able to do it because of a choice you make to pay attention and work mindfully to be selfless, more observant and careful of how you affect others. As you do, you will feel yourself experiencing greater joy and less stress, and your relationships will most likely improve as well.

This is one of life’s most important lessons

This is one of life’s most important lessons and absolutely one of the most foolproof ways of decreasing stress and increasing your joy. You can make a choice right now to be more present and mindful in every moment of your day, in order to feel the effects you have on others. The only thing that needs to occur differently, is to just be in the moment. It may sound easy, but it takes a lot of work and effort. It is the kind of mental training I teach my athlete clients, in coaching them towards being more present. It helps them to be more focused rather than in the future or past where the analytical mind can wander. The end result is an improvement in their sport performance. Hopefully for you, your relationships will improve, along with your level of joy and a decreased level of stress.

If you would like more help applying this, please contact me by email or my website. I wish you well as you apply this to your life and you see your relationships improve, your stress level decrease and your joy increase. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Calm. Relaxed. Focused. Present… Mental Golf Moment

Mon, 27 May 2013 14:23:15 -0400

There are many things golfers can do to sharpen their mental skills, in order to improve their performance. I have covered some of those things in other articles, teachings and sessions with clients as we work together, and they are all available in my golf products. In this particular article, one thing I want to focus on helping you with – that is so important to making good shots for any golfer – is the ability to be calm and relaxed. You must be calm and relaxed if you expect to hit the ball well.

As with other articles I have written, I will take a suggestion from my golf product and expand on it, as a way of helping you improve your skills in that area. I initially intended this suggestion to apply to putting, but you can really apply it to every shot you take. It is: “When taking a shot I am calm, relaxed and focused on the present shot”.

So what I want you to look at here, is your ability to be more calm, relaxed and focused in the moment, and ‘in the moment’ can be anything happening in your life. Specifically in golf, though, ‘in the moment’ applies to whatever particular shot you are engaged in at any given moment in time.

Some other things I have spent a lot of time discussing or teaching are: the importance of being present, being aware of negative thoughts, being aware of your reactions to some of those thoughts or old programming, and being able to feel confident that you have the tools to shift away from those old ways of responding or thinking. The reason I have spent time on those topics is so you can have a more positive, effective, healthy and limitless way of experiencing life and any shot you take. You can do that as you recognize how to stay in a present moment, and keep your mind from wandering out of the ‘here and now’. Staying focused and present are critical factors to improving performance.

All golfers know the importance of being present in that moment, but they struggle with their mind taking them into the past…into a past shot, a previous hole or bogie. Maybe they two or three stroked the last hole, or it could have been a few holes before that. What if they started an event and got a bogie or double bogie on the first hole, and carried the frustration with them on the third, fourth and fifth hole, or each shot, each drive, chip or putt after that so-called negative experience? Do you think they would perform well if that is all they thought about?

Another tendency is to allow your mind to take you into the future, with ‘projections’. Let’s say you missed a few shots or played a few holes poorly. You can then have this doom and gloom attitude about what will happen on the upcoming holes or shots, and maybe draw a gloomy conclusion to the whole tournament. Or, let’s say you had a string or streak of pars and birdies and you have been performing really well. You might get to a point of concern about whether you can carry that on, where you may think: “I can’t do that very much longer…the most birdies I’ve ever gotten in a row is eight or nine so I’m going to bomb this next one”. You could also project: “At this pace, I could win. At this pace, I could end up being in the top ten or the leader!”, and potentially have fear or expectation creep in as you worry about future shots.

So there are all these different things that can happen, if you allow your conscious mind to wander into the past or the future. It becomes imperative, then, that you learn how to keep your conscious mind present and stay focused in each moment when you are taking a shot; that you are calm, relaxed and focused on the present shot. This ultimately is the biggest skill to learn. It’s not really hard, but it takes commitment and diligence because after learning this information and going into observations of this phenomenon happening, you will see that your conscious mind wanders all day long continually into the past or future. Your mind plays all different scenarios of what happened, what should have happened, what is about to happen and all sorts of different ways of analyzing them. You will see that every time your mind does that, it takes you out of what is real – and the present moment is what is real. You probably already know what it feels like to reel your conscious mind back in – to bring yourself present. You can train your mind to do this, with commitment and diligence, and you will see your performance improve as you do.

I refer to being calm, relaxed and focused on the present shot in my statement. The calm and relaxed part comes from having a mindset of confidence and feeling like you have clarity; that you trust in yourself and your abilities, and can shovel out the old negative ways of thinking. You can remain calm, in spite of whatever happened on the last hole (meaning you can let go of the past). You can have confidence in your skill and belief in your abilities as you move forward, but not to the point that you are creating anxiety over expectations of what is yet to come.

So think about my suggestion: “When taking a shot, I am calm, relaxed and focused on the present shot.” You can start training yourself in this way, by shifting this statement a little bit to something pertaining to what you are engaging in life. It could be at work: “I am calm, relaxed and focused on the present project, meeting, conversation, etc.”. Any of those scenarios will work. At home I am calm, relaxed and focused on family, conversation with loved ones, or I am engaging in the chore in the house. You can find opportunities all day long to practice this skill. This is a skill where the more you practice it, become aware of it, and commit to changing it, the more likely you will be in transferring it over to the golf course, to your game and into your shot, so you will experience greater success.

I wish you well this week as you apply this in your life and golf game. If you need any extra help, please contact me. I think the information from this article will help you make profound change by shifting your thoughts toward being more calm, relaxed and focused. So have fun playing and watching your performance improve! Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Believe. Trust. Faith… Inner Peace for Sport Improvement

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:26:29 -0400

As a Hypnotherapist and Mental Trainer, I offer mental training with a hypnosis suggestion to help clients achieve inner peace and improve their performance. One way I do that is by helping them believe in themselves, trust themselves and have faith in their abilities. I help them change their perceptions and belief systems that affect their sport performance, as we identify the true underlying problems they experience in their sport. When we identify those difficulties and work on their belief systems, people really begin to see positive improvement in their sport performance.

What do I mean when I talk about your belief system? Your belief system includes your ability to trust yourself and your abilities, and your level of faith. You might ask: “What does faith have to do with playing a sport?”. There is a level of faith in recognizing that whatever is happening, first of all, is actually happening. It is not something to be upset about or frustrated with. Faith helps you to actually accept the outcomes of your performance; not from a place of complacency, but to simply recognize your reality for what it is, without judgment, and then go from there.

So the suggestion I chose for this article, from my mental training product for athletes, is really pretty simple. As you look at it you might wonder what it has to do with golf, clay shooting, boxing, tennis, or with any other sport. You will see that this suggestion would serve you well in life as a whole, not just in a particular sport. If you have read other articles of mine, you already know that you can practice all of what I teach in life, and therefore gain a great deal of mastery over it prior to going out and attempting to perform in an event in your sport. The more you put it into practice, the greater it will help you improve different areas of your life and sport performance.

The actual suggestion is: “I believe in myself and my abilities, I trust myself, I have faith.”

Think about that for a moment. How often do you say those types of words to yourself? How often do you say: “I believe in myself.”, “I believe in my abilities.”, “I trust myself.” ,or “I have faith.”? It is pretty likely you say just the opposite a large majority of the time. Rather than saying: “I believe in myself.”, you probably say: “I am not very good at this; I don’t even know why I bother with this; I won’t get any better at my putting; I won’t get any better at tournament performance; I cave under pressure.”. All of that is quite the opposite of believing in yourself.

What if you try believing in your abilities? Where is the realistic look at the fact that you have been practicing your mechanics for a long time, or you undergo regular times of repeating and building on your skills? Where is your belief in your abilities? Do you give yourself credit for the amount of time, diligence, sweat and tears you put into building your skill sets? Or are you chewing yourself out most of the time? How often do you say: “I trust myself. I trust my club choice. I trust my interpretation of where to shoot this bird, or where to hit this ball on this particular hole. I trust the shot that I just took and the knowledge I used to make that decision.”? Or do you maybe say: “Oh that was a stupid decision. That was a dumb choice of clubs. I should not have tried to break it there. Look at what my opponent is doing; maybe I should have done that instead of what I did.”? All of those are examples of having a lack of trust in your abilities, and affects your sport performance.

So you can see that there is a lot of evidence pertaining to this idea. It all has to stop. All of that negative talk, putting yourself down, not believing in yourself, being frustrated in your performance…it is all holding you back. So what are you going to do about it? You can decide to put an end to that chatter. In a very purposeful, diligent, or a focused intentional way, you can start changing the kinds of thought patterns and conversations you have with yourself in your head and with others. Put an end to those conversations where you put yourself or abilities down and encourage a lack of trust in yourself. Begin to have conversations in your mind and with others that encourage a strong belief in you, how far you have come, what you have done with your time or your level of progress. If you stopped right now and thought back to day one in your sport, you would see that you have made some great strides and progress. So believing in yourself and trusting yourself will not come from anyone else other than you, and there is no better time to start working on it than now.

Granted, it would have made your life a lot easier if you grew up in a home or were surrounded by people in school, relatives, neighbors, parents or friends, who spoke encouraging words, believed in you, encouraged you and saw great abilities in you. As they pointed them out and trusted themselves (and you can see that trust in their behaviors where you could model that), it would also encourage you to trust yourself. Life would be a lot easier if that had been your reality. But for a lot of people, that was not their reality in their younger years. Maybe you experienced the negative conversations that were encouraged, not only within yourself but around you for many years. Even if that was you, you have got to discourage the negative conversations and encourage the positive ones if you want to improve your sport performance. It is possible, if you believe in yourself and your abilities, trust yourself and have faith, as my suggestion says to do.

It is just like raising your own children now. Knowing what you know now, and what you are learning right now, how would you speak to your children today? Would you encourage them to believe in themselves and help them to notice what is unique about them and to see it in themselves? Would you help them blossom and build upon their uniqueness and teach them to trust themselves, their intuition and instincts, and release themselves from doubt and fear? This is what you would do, right? If you understood what I am teaching, you would not want to decrease the opportunity for your children to believe in themselves and their abilities, to trust themselves and have faith. You would want to encourage that belief system, to ensure they achieve the greatest success possible in their lives.

That is the same thing I am encouraging you to do for yourself right now – starting right now. You have that inner child that might have been taught differently and needs to be re-taught; but the energy and determination must come from you. You must decide right now to purposefully and deliberately fight and take action on building a belief in your ability, to trust yourself and have faith, if you want your sport and life performance to improve.

The last part of the suggestion about having faith falls into the same category of conversations you have with yourself. What conversations are you engaging in around you regarding faith, from your upbringing or the way that faith was brought into your life (or discouraged/role-modeled for you)? All of these things are identical to what I said above. I want to address it separately, though, because it might seem strange to say I need to have faith on the golf course or while I’m shooting sporting clays, while I’m performing in tennis or in any other sport, in order to improve performance.

It is important to bring in faith at this particular time. This last year, there has been a lot of controversy about bringing faith into sports. For instance, there is a football player who prays and thanks his higher power whenever he performs well, and it has raised a lot of questions. But he is also doing really well. Even Tiger Woods, in the midst of the dilemmas in his life, had said he wanted to go back to his Buddhism and Buddhist roots and bring it back into his life more like it had once been. There is a reason for this. The principles of having faith are identical to the important principles you need to apply to your sport to have greater success.

So faith really has to do with the level of inner peace I talk about in a lot of my articles and teachings. Mastery, presence, and inner peace are the three most important elements to peak your sport performance. Inner peace comes from having faith and knowing that everything is exactly as it should be; trusting and being grateful for how things are right now – exactly as they are. But it is also accepting that there are larger things happening then what you may see with your own agenda and ego. You can see that if you just step back a little out of your life or sport. You can see that even those things you thought were the most awful or traumatic can have the most amazing outcomes or lessons attached to them. It is in recognizing those lessons that you will build your faith, and you need faith to perform well.

The more you can reflect on those types of examples, the more you will learn to have faith. To know that in any given moment, even if things are not going the way you intended or the way your ego wanted them to go, you can have faith that there are important lessons or outcomes that are really fabulous and about to come from them. You can bring that down to the tiniest moment…the moment when your ball goes in the water or you missed a few birds, had some bogies or did not perform as good as you would like in tennis. All these examples are the same principle, and all can increase your faith, inner peace and ultimately your sport performance.

So begin the process today of increasing your belief in yourself and your abilities, your trust in yourself and your level of faith, and bring it all into your sport. You will see rapid and consistent success as you do. If you have trouble applying this and getting rid of some of the old negative stories, I am here to help so please reach out to me on the web or my email. I wish you much luck and success in your pursuit of believing in yourself, trusting yourself and having faith, in order to improve your life and sport performance. Have an amazing day!

Greater Joy-Less Stress and What is Stress Anyway?

Wed, 29 May 2013 14:31:27 -0400

How can you achieve a state of greater joy in your life? What if I said it really equates to having less stress, worry, fear or doubt? If that is so, then how do you accomplish it? How can you have it in your life on a regular basis? What is stress and Where exactly does stress come from?

Consider, for a moment, the most frequent thing you do throughout your day. If you are anything like me, then you have a lot of contact with other people; people with whom you have some sort of relationship. It is all of those relationships and your views on them that will make or break your joy; increase or decrease your level of stress.

When you think about relationships, you naturally think of those you have with other people. Did you know that you also have relationships with your experiences in life, and how you perceive them in your mind? Good or bad mindsets about your life experiences will make or break the level of joy you have in your life. It can create stress in your life, or completely eliminate it. So it is really up to you and how you choose to think, if you want less stress or greater joy in your life.

Our bodies as human beings are equipped to handle stress to the degree of it being a crisis situation. A situation in which we have an emergency – that is how frequently our bodies are created to experience stress. We are not equipped to handle stress every day, all day long. It ends up taking a major toll on our bodies; on the cells of our bodies. The ‘stress zone’ we enter as we face emergencies, when our bodies go into a ‘fight or flight’ response, is there as a precaution to help us when a serious or significant thing is happening. But the rest of the time, stress just wears our bodies down. The cells of our bodies deteriorate more rapidly because of the high level of stress we put on the cells in our bodies.

The high levels of stress we endure also age us quicker, and cause illness and disease in our bodies more frequently. If we trace back to where stress comes from, we will find that it is not a reaction to life but rather a reaction to our thoughts about life. It’s our thoughts about our relationships and circumstances; where we think we should or should not be; how a person should or should not be acting that creates stress in us. So by learning what I am teaching here, you should be able to decrease stress and increase your level of joy as you shift your perspective or perception of yourself, others and the various circumstances of your life.

As you read some different articles I write, work with me one-on-one, or maybe buy one of my available teaching products on-line, you will find that I look at different ways you can increase joy and decrease stress. I often give you specific exercises, information and ways of viewing these things that will help you have a permanent and profound change in your life. Ultimately, if you decide to join me on this journey, you will notice that each day, as the weeks and months go by, you are happier than you’ve ever been, and you are more joyful and less stressed than you’ve ever been.

I encourage you to begin looking at ways of changing your relationship perceptions, so you may decrease stress and increase your joy. If you need any help doing so, please feel free to call or email me. I look forward to taking this journey to less stress and greater joy with you. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Spiritual Dowsing- Change Your Energies

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 15:18:55 -0400

Interfaith Study Group Meeting Announcement

To: Members and Their Guests

Date: July 9, 2013 – Tuesday

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Location: To Be Determined based on your response: RSVP by July 2, 2013

Topic: Spiritual Dowsing – Change Your Energies – Change Your Life

Guest Presenter: Joey Korn

Joey will come to us live through Google+ Hangout. ~ Learn what is Dowsing? Joey demonstrates dowsing and answers your longing questions about this spiritual modality

Internationally acclaimed dowser, Joey Korn, is a spiritual teacher, energy worker, and global leader in the world of dowsing. He has been passionately on his spiritual path for almost 40 years, exploring many modalities to utilize the unlimited powers of the mind.

Joey has found dowsing, combined with prayer and blessing, to be the most powerful spiritual tool that we each have at our disposal to understand the invisible world of subtle energies and take charge of our lives. He specializes in working with the Life Force energies that fill and surround us, connecting us with each other and with everything in the universe. Joey condenses years of personal exploration into an extraordinary system of practical understanding and energy work. He is a revolutionary and innovative explorer for today’s spiritual seeker. Joey shares his understandings in his book, Dowsing: A Path to Enlightenment, in his Web site, and in lectures, workshops, and retreats. Learn more about Joey’s work at www.dowsers.com.

PLEASE RSVP no later than July 2^nd : by email to Cheryl B Duttweiler, cbdutt@comcast.net

Clay Shooting: The Focus Loop Hypnosis

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:31:15 -0400

Ohhh the chatter of the conscious mind, the guilty party which affects every Clay Shooter’s game! Although most shooters recognize the chattering mind to be a problem, they have very few skill sets to effectively turn it off. But beyond turning off the conscious chatter is the ability to tame and train the conscious mind to be more focused or present. With Dawn’s Clay Shooting: The Focus Loop Hypnosis you will acquire the skill sets that will both help you to be calm and focused mentally, and to be calm and present physically.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Familiar with and perform from a calm, productive, efficient state in your mind and body
Turn off the analyzation and wanderings of the conscious mind
Tame the conscious mind to be focused on the present moment
Turn off the stories, doubts, fears, projections of the conscious mind
Clear residual in the body which was caused by negative thoughts of the mind

Included In Purchase:

Instructions
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Clay Shooting: The Focus Loop Hypnosis MP3 Audio

Clay Shooting: 6 Elements To Peak Shooting Performance Hypnosis

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:43:18 -0400

Most clay shooters will put most of their time and money into perfecting just one element: their mechanics. But there are 5 other elements that need regular attention in order to produce consistent peak performance. It doesn’t matter how much money you have spent on your shotgun, ammo or instruction for mechanics, these other 5 elements will trump your mechanics every time. Addressing all 6 elements will significantly improve your performance, allow you to shoot like you’re capable of and give you a huge advantage over your competition (most of which will never take 5 of these elements seriously). With Dawn’s Clay Shooting: 6 Elements To Peak Shooting Performance Hypnosis you will immediately be improving on the ‘secret’ essential 5 elements.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Increase performance significantly by focusing on all 6 areas
Doing what’s needed and being the best you can be at every moment
Focus off end result and putting it in the process, the journey rather than destination
Peaking performance each moment along the way ultimately give you consistent peak performance overall
5 Secret elements beyond mechanics that will give you a significant advantage over your competition

Included In Purchase:

Instructions
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Clay Shooting: 6 Elements To Peak Shooting Performance Hypnosis MP3 Audio

PGA TOUR Pro Cameron Beckman 2nd Place at Sanderson Farms Championship

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 16:39:35 -0400

Dawn Grant about to go flying with PGA TOUR Pro Cameron Beckman

In only six events of the 2013 PGA season, Cameron Beckman placed 2nd on the tour mid-July at the rainy Sanderson Farms Championship that included an exciting ending. Beckman got in seven holes during the opening round Thursday before the rains stopped play. Back in 2001, Beckman won this tournament, the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, and he has made the cut each of the 12 times he has played there. By Friday afternoon he was two shots off the lead at 8 under to end his second round.

Having only two top 25 finishes in 2012, of 26 events played, it is obvious Beckman is using a secret weapon for 2013! Is it his new TaylorMade cap? Does he have a magic driver, perhaps a putter with a built in scope? No, what this PGA golfer has that has helped improve his game is Dawn Grant, a mental trainer and hypnotherapist who is currently working with him to Master the Zone.

Check out this 16 foot putt for birdie on the par-5, 18th hole:

Beckman began working with Grant in 2007 when they were introduced through Reflexologist Jim Weathers. After just five sessions, Dawn has helped PGA golfers average a 219% increase in earning! This year, Beckman has returned to her and it is evident in his game as he is once again finished in the money on July 28, 2013 at the RBC Canadian Open.

Whether you are playing to make the cut, aiming at a target or dealing with the stress of everyday life, Dawn knows how to get you calm, relaxed and focused.

PGA TOUR Pros 219% Increase in Earnings After Dawn Grant Mental Training

Mon, 19 Aug 2013 16:51:17 -0400

The essence of Dawn Grant’s work with Golf Pros and other top competitive sports icons, is reflected their earnings. Since 2007 Dawn has worked with well over 2 dozen PGA TOUR Pros, many of whom have won on Tour during the time they worked with Dawn. After seeing repeated miraculous and quick improvements with her Pro athlete clients, Dawn requested a professional number cruncher to assess the stats of her PGA Tour Pro clients. The results are remarkable.

When comparing several PGA Tour Pros stats from 5 months prior to working with Dawn to the 5 months after working with Dawn, the results seemed clear… 219% clear!

Check out this graph that shows an

average 219% increase in earnings for PGA Tour Pros!

Yes, it’s hard to ignore these numbers!

And what you don’t see in this graph is that Vijay Singh, who made an additional $2.5 million in the 5 tournaments after working with Dawn, also won the entire FedEx Cup Championship, earning himself a total of 13 MILLION dollars.

Here’s another way to look at the numbers!

For Dawn’s PGA Tour Pro clients, their average income per tournament, when comparing 2 months before working with Dawn to 2 months after working with Dawn,

increased by an average of 560%!

Numbers don’t lie!

Mental training is not just for the Pros… the mind is the mind, is the mind. It doesn’t matter who you are, what sport you play, or what level you play it at; Dawn’s mental training can give you a HUGE advantage over your competition!

Private Sessions Offered Globally Via Phone, Skype or Facetime

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 21:10:37 -0400

Are you interested in private one-on-one sessions but live outside of the northeast Florida region?

No Problem! 90% of my clients live out-of-state or even abroad… and I do a majority, if not all, of their sessions via phone, Skype or Facetime.

Don’t let distance keep you from getting a mental advantage!

I am ready to get started when you are… no matter where you live!

Here is some information on my sessions:

When you have the opportunity, go through my website, you will find it to be very informative as it explains my approach both in the form of mental training and hypnotherapy.

All Private Sessions Include:

Person & topic specific Mental Training with instruction, lessons, homework skill building exercises

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Are Used By Me In Many Ways, They Help To Familiarize You With And Build Skills In:

Noticing tension in the body and releasing it
Noticing negative, limiting, analytical thoughts of the mind and releasing them
An Invisible Tool Belt of mental skills
Going from ‘trying too hard’ to ‘allowing to happen’
Training your mind to be more focused and present, while calm
Going from feeling like a victim of your mind/thoughts to mastery over them
Trusting your subconscious and the abilities you have
Your natural ability to be in The Zone state

You Will Receive:

Hypnosis For Transformation MP3
Pertinent Clay Shooting Downloadable Hypnosis Product MP3s which fit the lessons being addressed
Email, text and brief phone support between sessions for support & encouragement

Here Are Some Private Session Packages For Your Consideration:

Consult 1 Session
Sampler 4 Sessions: 1 month of weekly sessions
Knowledgeable 12 Sessions: 3 months of weekly sessions
Proficient 20 Sessions: 4 months weekly plus 2 months biweekly
Mastery 28 Sessions: 6 months weekly plus 3 months biweekly

Ready To Get Started:

Call 904-753-0640
Email dawn@dawngrant.com

Acceptance for Less Stress and Greater Joy

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 17:21:01 -0400

Over the years, I have found that joy actually comes from acceptance. You can increase joy and decrease stress in your life by accepting yourself, your life, other people, and whatever situations may be presented to you. Of course, joy is quite the opposite of stress, or always feeling resentful, angry, frustrated or guilty. You have the ability to experience joy in everything you do and every moment of your day. It may sound farfetched or impossible, but it is not. I hope this article encourages you and offers you guidance in your progression towards that reality, so you can experience the greatest joy possible in your life.

So what does it mean when I say that joy comes from acceptance? It means that things don’t always have to be perfect or how you think they should be. Things don’t have to be how your analytical or conscious mind decides they are supposed to be. Your ego may believe that things should happen in a certain way or a specific timeframe, and other people should act a certain way (or not). But those kinds of thoughts cause stress, anger, agitations, resentments and guilt within us. Joy, then, comes from learning how to accept what is; starting with how to love and accept yourself exactly as you are.

When I talk about the need for acceptance of oneself, an interesting fear usually comes up for most people. They are afraid that if they accept themselves as they are, then they will become complacent and not want to make any healthy changes for themselves. That really is not true. I will teach and encourage you to realize that you can love and accept yourself for exactly who and what you are right now, and it is because of your love and acceptance that you will want to make positive change that increases joy and decreases stress in your life.

Let’s say you are overweight and have been struggling for a while to lose 20lbs, 100lbs, or maybe 200lbs. You can actually accept and love yourself where you are, and even how you got there. If you do, your mind will then be in a neutral place as you consider where you are and where you would like to be. You do not want to think that what you did was all wrong or bad, an error, mistake or problem, because that thinking decreases your mood and energy and gives you the opposite of what you need to lose the weight you want to lose. You need energy, motivation, desire and inspiration to start exercising, make good choices, buy different foods, eat healthier or eat smaller portion sizes, in order to overcome and rise to the occasion. All of that will not occur from a place of low energy, being down on yourself, being stressed, or feeling hopeless or helpless.

That example is just one of the benefits to shifting the way you view yourself. The other is a sense of calm that comes from accepting your reality. Wherever you are right now is your reality. Why would you be upset by what is real? The only reason is because you think reality should be different from what it actually is. When you have an illusion in your mind of how you believe something should be, and then you look at reality and that illusion is not met, you get upset. That is the opposite of what you should be doing or what could be occurring. When you look at your reality and get upset, you start to fantasize about how it should be different, you then create the opposite effect in your body than what you need for a positive change. But if you accept what you see as real, then you remain calm and in control of your emotions, instead of getting stressed out and losing your joy.

So accept and love yourself as you are, and for everything you have ever gone through that brought you to this point – with no condemnation or negativity. Then, from a neutral place, you are able to gain greater clarity of what you would like to change, work on, improve, or put time, effort and energy into. How do you want to spend your time and energy in life, and all the moments you experience? Do you want to feel positive and energetic about yourself, or negative and hopeless?

Acceptance of life is exactly the same as accepting yourself. So how can you learn to accept the circumstances of your life? It is identical to what I just said about being overweight. Your reality is whatever is happening around or in front of you. If you are behind an elderly lady at the cash register of a store and she is counting all of her pennies to pay, but you are in a hurry to get to a meeting, the reality of the moment is what is actually happening. Your stress, anger and agitation come when you believe the situation should be different. If the story in your mind says you should be able to get through the line quickly and off to your meeting, then that is what causes your stress. Again, the opposite needs to occur; you need to be in reality, not an illusion in your mind.

While you are in reality, you can make some clear decisions. It doesn’t mean you become complacent or make no change. You can choose another check-out line if that’s what it takes to get to your meeting, but do it calmly. It is a decision you make. Or you can stay in line, watch her count her pennies and decide all is fine. Maybe you find as you wait that the scenario is kind of cute and it reminds you of your great grandmother, and then you reminisce about some really wonderful times from childhood. So you have lots of options. Unfortunately, you may wish she would hurry up or the situation wasn’t happening at all, and then stress comes from believing the story in your mind rather than acknowledging what is actually happening around you. You think “if things around here would change, then I’d be happy”. That is just not so. What really needs to happen is that you change the way you think about the situation, and stop believing the illusion. When you do, then you experience happiness.

Now I’ve talked about how to accept yourself and situations around you, but there is one more area of acceptance that either creates joy or stress in your life. You need to accept others. Even though everyone is unique and different, the same process occurs with each interaction you have. Your level of acceptance of each person, will determine your level of joy or stress.

There are people with all sorts of different personalities on this planet. You will undoubtedly meet some with similar characteristics to yours, and some without. People also have varying degrees of personality traits; they are like a soup with all different ingredients. You will be able to relate on some level with people most like yourself, maybe on certain topics or ways of living. But a ton of people exist who do not share the same kinds of ideas on how to live, they don’t have similar traits, or way of making choices and they aren’t handling themselves as you do. It’s when you interact with someone very different from yourself that you often create unnecessary stress in your life, because you tend to think: “If that person would just be different… (meaning, if he/she would think or act more like you, or be the way you think that person should be)…then everything would be fine and I would be happy”. But that is not what will make you happy over the long haul. You need to accept them for who they are in order to keep your joy, or happiness.

Now, accepting people for who they are does not mean condoning their behavior or saying: “Okay, I will continue to hang out with them even though they are physically, mentally or emotionally abusive to me.” I am not saying that at all. Acceptance means saying: “Okay, this is what is being presented to me, or what this person is offering, and it is my current reality. Why would I get angry or stressed about it?” You can then make a decision calmly because you love yourself and want to take care of yourself. You can watch them, accept them as they are, and make the right decision for you.

What people often get caught up in is the illusion in their mind that others ‘shouldn’t do that’, or they ‘shouldn’t be like that’. ‘They should be different, more respectful, kinder and less abusive’. Then people get more and more angry, upset, saddened or stressed when others are not the way they think they should be. But believing the story in their heads is what upsets people, not what others have the right to do or not do. I am not saying that people have the right to be abusive, but they have the right to do what they do and experience the necessary consequences of their actions. I do not condone abuse or think anyone else should condone it; it’s a matter of looking at the interaction and making a choice to maybe move on or take action. Someone can file a lawsuit, call the police, etc, but the point is that there are many different options. There are a lot of ways of handling it, but it does not have to cause stress, anger or frustration. In other words, you may not agree with other peoples’ words or actions, but you can still accept them as they are, and make decisions from a calm, clear perspective.

In looking at all of this, how can you increase your joy and decrease your stress? I would say that you need to increase love of yourself, life and others, and accept yourself, life and others. It does not mean being complacent or condoning unhealthy behaviors. It means looking at yourself, life and other people for who and what they are, and making very clear decisions about what you want to put your time and energy into. Life is short and your time and joy are precious, so you need to be clear on how you want to spend that time, and accept whatever is real in each moment.

I encourage you to adopt what I have described in this article into your everyday life. It’s not always easy to do, but I hope you understand it because it will make a world of difference in the amount of joy or stress you feel. If you have any questions or need help applying this in your life, please contact me. I wish you well as you learn acceptance as a tool to achieving greater joy and less stress. Have an amazing day!

12 Reasons to Really Quit Smoking

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 19:05:20 -0400

Are you still considering quitting smoking? Here is an article from usnews.com containing 12 really good reasons to quit smoking:

We’ll spare you the lecture. (Seriously, though. Stamp out that butt and flush the pack, already.) Tobacco use, namely cigarette smoking, is the chief cause of preventable death in the United States. Left unbridled, smoking could kill more than a billion people this century, according to the World Health Organization. That equals the number who would die if a Titanic sank every 24 minutes for the next 100 years, as former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop so starkly put it at a March press conference.

Still, it may be harder than ever to quit: Three quarters of today’s smokers trying to shed the habit are heavily hooked on nicotine, up 32 percent from almost two decades ago, according to research presented at the American College of Chest Physicians’ annual meeting in October. So quitting, for most, is not merely a matter of willpower. Nonetheless, the reasons to do so keep amassing—and they’re not all about heart disease, lung cancer, or respiratory problems. Here’s a few downsides you might not have considered.

1. It fogs the mind. Smoking may cloud the mind, according to accumulating research. A June study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that smoking in middle age is linked to memory problems and to a slide in reasoning abilities, though these risks appeared lessened for those who’d long quit; this is important, the authors wrote, because other research has shown that people with mild cognitive impairment in midlife develop dementia at an accelerated rate. Their report piggybacks on several focused on the older set: A 2007 analysis of 19 prior studies concluded that elderly smokers face a heightened risk of dementia and cognitive decline, compared with lifelong nonsmokers. And in 2004, researchers reported in Neurology that smoking appeared to hasten cognitive decline in dementia-free elderly smokers, bringing it on several times faster than in their nonsmoking peers.

2. It may bring on diabetes. As if we need any more risk factors for diabetes, an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year found that across 25 prior studies, current smokers have a 44 percent greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers do, and the risk was strongest for those with the heaviest habit, who clocked 20 or more cigarettes per day. In an accompanying editorial, researchers made a striking estimation: That some 12 percent of all type 2 diabetes cases nationwide might be attributable to smoking.

3. It invites infections. In October, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices made its first ever recommendation that all smokers ages 19 to 64 be added to a short list of candidates for the pneumococcal vaccine. That’s because there are very strong data showing that the risk of infection by pneumonia-causing bacteria is substantially greater for smokers than for nonsmokers, says Pekka Nuorti, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exactly why is unclear, though there’s evidence that smoking may damage the respiratory system’s protective mucous membranes, making it easier for infectious organisms to latch on and cause disease, says Nuorti. Other research suggests that smoking may interfere with immunity, compromising people’s ability to fight infections, he adds.

Heightened susceptibility to infections, it appears, isn’t limited just to those who do the smoking: A May study in Tobacco Control found that children exposed to secondhand smoke at home during early infancy (especially those born prematurely or with a low birth weight) are more prone to a throng of severe illnesses that may land them in the hospital at some point during childhood. The findings were based on an analysis of more than 7,000 Chinese children from 1997 to 2005.

4. It may stultify a sex life. If men want to hop aboard the Viagra bandwagon, mounting evidence suggests that puffing cigarettes might be just their ticket. Smokers are more apt to experience erectile dysfunction than nonsmokers are, and this risk climbs as the number of cigarettes smoked increases. A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2007 tracked more than 7,500 Chinese men with low risk for artherosclerosis, a chief underlying cause of erectile dysfunction, and found that smoking could independently hike a man’s chance of wrangling with the sexual condition. Preventing smoking is an “important approach” for cutting the risk of ED, the researchers concluded.

5. It may lead to wrinkles…everywhere. Not only does smoking contribute to premature facial wrinkles, but a 2007 study in the Archives of Dermatology found that it may also lead to wrinkling of skin that rarely sees the light of day—in areas such as the inner arm and perhaps the buttocks.

6. It may hasten menopause. Women who smoke face an increased risk of infertility, and they may experience natural menopause at a younger age than do nonsmokers, according to the 2004 and the 2001 Surgeon General’s Reports, respectively. Further evidence: A 2001 animal study in Nature Genetics found that chemicals in cigarette smoke can hurry menopause by killing off egg cells made by ovaries, thereby dwindling the egg cell reserve. Since the timing of menopause is dictated by the size of a woman’s egg cell reserve—which is stocked with about a million eggs at birth and vanishes by menopause—anything that speeds up its loss could logically lead to a much earlier onset of fertility troubles, notes Jonathan Tilly, one of the study’s authors and director of the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital. More worrisome: Women who smoke during pregnancy may be compromising not only their own future fertility but the fertility of their unborn daughters. In studies testing that idea, mice exposed to chemicals in cigarette smoke during gestation were born with shrunken egg reserves. “Even under the best-chance scenario—you’re a nonsmoker, you’re healthy, you’re young, you eat well, you’re in shape—human fertility isn’t 100 percent,” says Tilly. “Anything you can do to make it better is certainly worth your while.”

7. It may dull vision. Several studies have found a robust link between smoking and eye disease, specifically age-related macular degeneration, which can permanently blur vision or cause blindness. A 2005 review of 17 studies in the journal Eye reported that active smokers may face two to three times the risk for developing the disease experienced by those who have never smoked.

8. It hurts bones. Smoking weakens the body’s scaffolding and is a serious risk factor for osteoporosis, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. It’s been shown to fritter away bone density in postmenopausal women and to hike the risk of hip fractures in both sexes, according to the 2004 Surgeon General’s Report. (People who endure hip fractures are 12 to 20 percent more likely to die than those who don’t, the Report notes, though there are ways osteoporosis sufferers can protect themselves.) Smokers may also experience slower healing of broken bones and wounded tissues than do nonsmokers.

9. It may injure the insides. Sure, cigarettes may be smooth to inhale, but they can rough up the digestive system, leading to heartburn, peptic ulcers, and possibly gallstones, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. What’s more, current and former smokers have an elevated risk of developing Crohn’s disease, a condition characterized by inflammation in the digestive tract and causing pain and diarrhea, says NIDDK.

10. It may stifle sleep. Feeling groggy despite a night’s slumber might be a problem for those who light up: A February study in Chest found that smokers are four times more likely to get nonrestorative sleep than those who don’t smoke, and researchers deemed nicotine the likely culprit. They theorized that its stimulant properties deal smokers a double blow, making it difficult to fall asleep and also potentially sending the body into nicotine withdrawal during the night. (Half of the chemical’s effect wears off within two hours.) Since inadequate shut-eye can invite health problems, consider forgoing cigarettes for the sake of your sleep.

11. It shaves years—and quality—off life. Men who have never smoked live on average 10 years longer than their peers who smoke heavily, according to an October report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Moreover, they enjoyed a higher quality of life throughout those extra years, throwing sand in the face of the old smokers’ defense that an early death is a small price to pay for a lifetime of pleasure. The study’s Finnish authors drew their conclusion after scrutinizing data on more than 1,600 men tracked for nearly 30 years.

12. It’s tied to lots of cancers! Not to belabor the point, but tobacco use and smoking have been linked to much more than lung cancer. In September, the CDC released a report estimating that more than 2 million cases of tobacco-related cancers were diagnosed nationwide between 1999 and 2004. Lung and bronchial cancer topped the list, naturally, but other types included stomach, pancreatic, kidney, urinary bladder, and cervical cancer. “We knew this was a big problem and a preventable problem,” says Sherri Stewart, the epidemiologist at CDC who led the research. “But when you present the hard numbers, you start to see the profoundness of the problem.” Her message: To protect your health, do everything you can to quit.

This article can be viewed at http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/cancer/articles/2008/11/14/12-reasons-to-really-quit-smoking?page=3.

Common Sense in Eating Habits is Very Uncommon

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:59:52 -0400

“Common sense is very uncommon”… Mark Twain’s keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. But yet this statement is as true today as it was then. I am sure every one of us can think of examples of times when the simplest solution didn’t come quickly to our mind. There are times when we are so busy in our tunnel vision or defending a point that we don’t stop long enough to look at the bigger picture, to see the broader perspective.

Well, this is how I feel about the kinds of foods we are in the habit of eating. Over the past 40-50 years, technology and science have ‘evolved’ to bring us foods with chemical additives and preservative, lab created ingredients that just taste like the real thing but are void of nutritional value, and foods that have been genetically modified and changed at a cellular level. We have been lied to and manipulated through advertising and packaging so as to herd us like sheep to buy certain kinds of foods.

Clients come to me all the time for weight loss issues and I feel bad for them. Most of them have been riding the ‘diet’ roller coaster for years, and the deception and false hope have left them in fear to try anything new. Sadly, at times, their obesity isn’t even their fault. They have fallen victim to the lies and deception. When I ask about their eating habits many will say, “I am doing good but I just can’t lose the weight.” But then I have them describe “doing good” and I hear things like, “I only drink Diet Soda.” As if it is OK because it is Diet. The same goes for foods that have been labeled Fat Free, or as was recently pointed out to me by a client… the new trend for marketers is Trans Fat Free. There’s No Carb and Low Carb, No Fat and Low Fat, No Calorie and Low Calorie, all leading folks to think that if the label says anything like any of these, they are in the clear. Wrong… Dead Wrong! And that is to be meant literally!

The so-called food we are eating and being fed are not only void of carbs, fat, and calories… they are void of nutrition. We might as well be eating cardboard. Ok, get ready… here is the common sense part… our bodies NEED, that’s right NEED, and I don’t mean slightly need, I am saying COMPLETELY ABSOLUTELY NEED nutrition in order to function properly. For our cells to participate efficiently in reproduction, digestion, and the fight against illness and disease, those cells NEED nutrient dense foods… foods rich in vitamins and minerals, and healthy fats and proteins. Most of what we are eating is lacking what we need the most! Even the daily vitamins we are being sold to make up for the nutrition we aren’t getting from our foods don’t make up for this lack, as they contain lab created ingredients as well. Many folks take the time to put better gas in their car engine but don’t take the time to put good food fuel in their bodies. When we put poor quality food fuel in our bodies the resulting inefficiency is evidenced by headaches, lethargy, attention deficit disorder, constipation and digestion problems, infections, skin diseases, frequent illnesses and disease. According to Dr. Furhman deficiency in DHA fatty acids has been linked to impulsiveness, aggressiveness, sleep problems, temper tantrums, dyslexia, depression, reduced intelligence, alcoholism, schizophrenia and manic depression. Every day more and more evidence is being gathered which points towards a link between food intake and autism. Even cancer and its ability to grow or not is linked back to the kinds of foods we eat.

How long will we follow the herd? Those of us that take our nutrition seriously and attempt to eat healthy are considered extremists. Funny how common sense can seem so uncommon.

Are you ready to take your health to the next level?

Here’s a good website and documentary to get you started: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

You can buy the Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead DVD on our official store.
You can buy the Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead Book on our official store.
You can stream the movie on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon.

Based on Joe’s Rebooting program, I am starting a 10 day juicing cleanse today. Although I have completed 10 Day Master Cleanses on two occasions, I have never done a juicing cleanse. The above picture is of the food I will be eating from Day 1 to Day 5. This will be interesting, I’ll keep you posted!

Sporting Clays Nationals Here I Come!

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 04:28:18 -0400

I am all booked and ready to go to the 2013 National Sporting Clays Championship, or more commonly referred to by competitors as “The Nationals.”

With several dozen active clients shooting the event and well over a hundred whom I have helped in the past or via my Clay Shooting Hypnosis Product Downloads, I am excited to see the mental part of my work in action! What it comes down to is not only who has the best mechanics, but who has the best mental game. Because as many of you know, you can’t have one without the other.

This premier Sporting Clays event is put on annually by the National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA). October 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas, along the edge of the beautiful Texas Hill Country, competitors from around the world will be showing off their skills at the National Shooting Complex. Both the National Sporting Clays Association and The National Skeet Shooting Association are located here as well.

This is the biggest Sporting Clays event of the year, and this year they are breaking records with the number of registered participants, 4,000 last I heard. Yep, Sporting Clays is on the Rise! There are over 600 clubs nation-wide and that number is increasing every year.

Because Sporting Clays is so much like golf, there is a lot of cross-over between the two sports. It is believed that the rise in participants is partly due to the fact that anyone, at any age can get involved. I have many clients who are couples or married, they travel and compete at events together. Clay Shooting has been turning into a family game, with women being one of the quickest growing participants in the sport.

I am looking forward to seeing the shells flying and the smoke arising!

Hope to see many of you there!

Good Fuel for Your Engine

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 04:38:55 -0400

I watch car enthusiasts take great care of their classics, hot rods and muscles cars, some of which are over a hundred years old! Engines have been rebuilt with original parts that have been hunted down and found. Time, energy and a lot of money have gone into these beauties. You can imagine how important it is to keep their engines clean and running well.

If you had a muscle car with an engine modified to achieve high performance, I am quite confident you would fill it with the best fuel available. You would be well versed in knowing what the best fuel is and where you could get it. You might even know that over the last decade fuel chemistry has radically changed, with street gas now being reformulated with weird additives and oxygenates. It’s even got to the point where there are 23 different regional street gas blends, where ‘brews’ can vary seasonally and where not every state imposes strict quality control. While some blends have caused minimal problems, others (particularly those with ethanol and other abrasive additives) cause drastic degradation.

We can respect this information and know that there is likely much truth in the fact that fuel has changed drastically over the years. And if you had tens of thousands, maybe even as much as $100,000 dollars in a classic car, you would take note of this and make some wise decisions to preserve and maintain your investment, ensuring its ability to perform well over a long period of time. But do you take this much care in what you put into your body so that YOU experience peak performance over the long haul?

Are You Taking the Right fuel for YOUR Engine?

The answer is likely “no.” And from what I have seen from working with both athletes and clients looking to lose weight, even the ones believing they are eating well, really aren’t; mainly because what has become ‘normal’ eating habits contain foods that lack in nutrients and quality.

It should not come as a surprise to you to know, that I can easily rewrite the above first paragraph with the subject being your body and the effects food as fuel has on it? From the day you’re born until you leave your parents home, your price tag may easily reach $100,000.

Yes, your body is like a fine tuned automobile and what you put into it will either help it run efficiently or make it sluggish. Which would you prefer? Foods have changed drastically over the years with processing, additives, preservatives and pesticides. Excessive population growth has put demands on food manufacturing that are not always met with health in mind. Clever marketing has made it nearly impossible to decipher facts from fiction, and weeding through the information is almost impossible. It has taken me years to decipher and analyze. I have been implementing changes over that time while helping clients become more aware and supporting them in making the changes too.

This is why I have a section of my website devoted to health.

I have seen, both personally and professionally, the connection between mind and body, between the kind of food fuel we put in our bodies and the level of performance we can achieve. The food we eat will either improve our performance and health or hinder it, and that is performance at anything and everything you choose to do with your time.

Is Getting Help For The Psyche Just For Psychos?

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 04:37:21 -0400

For years, people were afraid to make mention that they were going to therapy or seeing a Psychologist. The misperception was that admitting to such a thing would make them appear weak or disturbed. Nothing could be further from the truth! A person seeking outside help to improve themselves is a person who is courageous enough to admit to their weaknesses and pitfalls, who is willing to face change and who recognizes, like Einstein did 100 years ago, that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. What I have seen over and over is there is great strength in the decision to look at one self and take on the difficult challenge of honest self reflection and diligent daily change in how one thinks, speaks and acts.

For those still under the misconception that getting help for your psyche is for psychos let me offer some insight. Most of you have smartphones, but do you know how to use them? I have come across a lot of folks who use their smartphones for as a basic telephone… they just use it for phone calls. The next group that ventures further into this technology will actually also use theirs for emails, texting and photos. Then, there are those that benefit from its many intuitive, interconnected apps that will help them to organize their lives, stay fit, eat healthy, read books, keep track of the weather, compare items before buying them, navigate their whereabouts on the planet, and even learn about the solar system. A phone that can be as smart as you would like it as you completely personalize it to your tastes. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? It is! But, here’s the catch. There is no way that you could benefit from the tremendous amount of tools available to you in a smartphone if you didn’t learn how to use this minicomputer. Ya, you could keep your mind limited and choose to not bother learning more than how to make a phone call. But without a better understanding of how it works, you can actually cause some problems from random dabbling. It order to get the most efficient and best use of your smartphone, you have to learn how to use it. And you can even choose to use it well.

Your mind is no different. Imagine it like a computer. It has memory, interconnected programs, data in and data out. Here’s the big question… Where did you learn how to use it?

The answer for 90% of the 7 billion people on the planet is “nowhere.” Your parents, although most having had good intentions, likely didn’t know how to use their mind, thoughts, words and actions effectively. What you gained from them is default behaviors and ways of viewing things, many of which are limiting. Your schools and teachers taught you subject specific content that was nothing more than ‘data in,’ they didn’t teach you how to use your mind either. The bottom line is that nowhere along the timeline of your life did someone pull you aside and say “Hey you, there are some really cool things you can do with your mind. Most of what you are doing with it is detrimental and limiting, so here’s how you can use it more efficiently!”

Isn’t it time you step out of the monotony and insanity? Positive, effective and empowering change is awaiting you, if you are courageous enough to step on board this fast train to a happier, healthier, more productive life. Let me know when you are ready.

In the meantime, learn more about The Power of Your Thoughts from one of my speaking engagements at a World On A String Inspirational Evening:

The Power of Your Thoughts from Dawn Grant- Mental Trainer on Vimeo.

Book I Recommend for Weight Loss: The Fast Metabolism Diet

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 19:10:23 -0400

A growing number of clients come to me for weight loss mental training and hypnotherapy. I have found that, of all the clients that I have worked with and all the problems we’ve addressed, the weight loss clients have the greatest challenge ahead of them.

In order for someone to lose weight – and keep it off – they have to address their mental attitude, thought patterns, belief systems and habits… and I’m not just referring to eating habits. And even if I was referring to just eating habits, this encompasses alot more than how much we eat, it refers to the type of food we eat and how often we eat… all issues that need to be addressed individually.

Who has time and mental energy to learn the right way of eating especially when we have to filter through all the diet trends, marketing strategies, and manipulative labeling on packaging? So if changing eating habits wasn’t challenging enough, to lose weight we also have to change exercise habits, drinking habits, sleep habits,grocery shopping habits, how-I-eat-when-I-celebrate habits, how-I-eat-when-I-feel-down habits, time-spent-cooking habits, how-I-eat-at-social-events habits, and what-I-grab-to-eat-when-I’m-busy habits. Wew! All this makes us want to give up before we even start!

Due to all these possible pitfalls I have taken it on as a personal and professional challenge to come up with a program to help weight loss clients. I have done a lot of research and have implemented much of what I have learned in my own home and life.

Finding reliable sources of information is an important element in successful weight loss. So I was excited to come across The Fast Metabolism Diet: Eat More Food and Lose More Weight. Haylie Pomroy pulls together much of the information I have learned along the way and she does an awesome job of pulling it together in a way that simplifies the some of the challenges that need to be addressed. She offers a great 28 day plan which I have seen clients easily understand, implement and succeed with.

The Fast Metabolism Diet: Eat More Food and Lose More Weight

Haylie Pomroy has helped countless clients lose up to 20 pounds in just 4 weeks –all through the fat-burning power of food. Hailed as “the metabolism whisperer,” Haylie reminds us that food is not the enemy, it’s the rehab needed to rev-up your sluggish, broken-down metabolism and turn your body into a fat-burning furnace.

On this plan you’re going to eat a lot. You’re going to eat three full meals and at least two snacks a day – and you’re still going to lose weight. What you’re not going to do is count a single calorie or fat gram. You’re going not to ban entire food groups. You’re not going to go carb-free or vegan or go cold turkey on the foods you love. Instead, you’re going to rotate what you’re eating throughout each week according to a simple and proven plan carefully designed to induce precise physiological changes that will set your metabolism on fire.

Phase I (Monday-Tuesday): Lots of carbs and fruits
Phase II (Wednesday-Thursday): Lots of proteins and veggies
Phase III (Friday-Sunday): All of the above, plus healthy fats and oils

By keeping your metabolism guessing in this specific and deliberate way, you’ll get it working faster. This isn’t just a theory, it’s the results-based product of Haylie Pomroy’s successful programs. It’s worked for celebrities, for athletes, and for people with chronic illnesses who need to lose weight, doctor’s orders. Now it’s going to work for you.

In 4 weeks not only will you see the weight fall off, you’ll also see your cholesterol drop, your blood sugar stabilize, your energy increase, your sleep improve, and your stress dramatically reduce. All thanks to the miraculous power of real, delicious, satisfying food!

Plus, by switching up what you’re eating every few days, you’ll get to enjoy a greater variety of foods, so your palate will never feel bored or deprived. Complete with 4 weeks of meal plans and over 50 recipes – including vegetarian,organic, and gluten-free options – this is the silver bullet for the chronic dieter who has tried every fad diet and failed, the first time dieter attempting to kick her metabolism into gear, and anyone who wants to naturally and safely eat her way to a skinner, healthier self.

The Fast Metabolism Diet: Eat More Food and Lose More Weight

The Power of your thoughts

Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:12:14 -0400

The Power of Your Thoughts from Dawn Grant- Mental Trainer on Vimeo.

Joy & Happiness: One Day at a Time

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 19:47:23 -0500

As you consider your wellbeing, do you think about the words you use every day? The way you speak to yourself (or others) and the way you think everyday directly affects your feelings, your physical health, and your success. Moreover, your mindsets and belief systems prompt you to speak and think as you do. They either set you free to experience life how you choose or limit your greatest potential. A positive shift in mindset leads to greater joy, happiness, and success one day at a time.

I believe part of the foundation of joy is peak performance in maintaining relationships daily. This includes a relationship with you. How much do you love yourself? How well do you take care of your personal needs, physical body, preferences or desires? True joy comes from acquiring a love of yourself, and love of your life. How much do you enjoy your life? When you arise, do you dread your day or do you look forward to it? Do you feel like you had a miserable night sleep or that you rested well? Do you appreciate the things in your life, or do you constantly look at what is wrong or what else you could have?

In addition to loving yourself more, joy comes from loving others better as well. Loving yourself, your life and others more will greatly enhance the joy you feel. On a typical day, you have interactions with an inner circle most of the time: Your spouse, family members, friends, neighbors, fellow employees, and maybe even your boss. Anyone you have the most contact with is in this social circle. Do you find that you seek great qualities about them when you speak to them, look at them or think about them, or do you notice their faults more? Do you focus on their faults more, or do you naturally see the good in them? Do you even see their unique gifts and what they offer you and others around them? I want you to have greater joy by “peaking your relationships” through acquiring greater love of yourself, your life and others and then be able to maintain them.

Let’s say you are really good at implementing things that take care of your needs, desires and welfare. Then one day you arrive late to a meeting because you slept too late. Will you chew yourself out for that, or will you have the strength and ability to maintain a love of yourself, despite your actions and choices? Your goal should be to acquire and maintain a love of yourself, your life and work. This is the way to joy and happiness. Do you have a satisfactory or greater love of your life and work? I can help you to acquire it, but it is up to you to maintain it.

What if a job proposal does not go through, or some employees do not follow through on meeting their goals or their part of a project? Can you maintain a level of acceptance and peace in despite of their actions and choices? The same goes for others–acquiring the love of others and seeing the good in them. You need to do it every single day, and it comes from true acceptance. I don’t mean that you have to condone and encourage behaviors, actions, or words you disagree with. I mean to accept the current reality. Ask yourself if you are going to let those behaviors, actions or words steal your joy, especially when you have been working hard to become more joyful.

To help illustrate my point even further, let’s look at the following quote from a book called One Day At a Time: “If I am under pressure & setting myself deadlines, I will stop for a few minutes and think of just this one day and what I can do with it.”

When people set goals and deadlines with work, we often feel pressure. If you have deadlines with work, even if you set them yourself, you probably experience the pressure of them creeping closer. You may question if you have progressed enough and risen to the occasion to get things done in a timely manner. If you feel that pressure with regard to deadlines, the healthiest and most joyful way to manage it is to stop and think of the current moment, the hour or the day, and look at what you can do with it. There is so much less pressure in reality because right now, this moment is truly all that you have.

If you allow your analytical conscious ego to constantly go into thoughts like, “Oh my gosh. Tomorrow this is due and I meant to have it finished,” or “Next week is the deadline and I have this going on this weekend,” then it is time to stop and realize that your only options are the ones presented to you in the current moment. That will relieve a tremendous amount of stress and pressure from your body and your life. Stress and pressure does not come from the deadlines, your life, your job, or others. It comes from your belief, interpretation or thoughts around those deadlines, your work, or outside things. It is your mindset about these things that causes an instantaneous effect on your body. The kinds of thoughts you have instantly effect the cells in your body, and that energy shift is what we label with different words, emotions, feelings or sensations, like feeling good, happy, down, sad, or stressed. It is only you that can put pressure on you and limit how much joy or happiness you experience.

Even if you have a boss that chews you out constantly and seems to put pressure on you, it is how you handle the situation and what thoughts you have around it that causes you stress (or not). People who have a level of inner peace and acceptance and know they are doing the best they can each day, hour, and minute will not be phased by a boss that tries to put pressure on them. It is just that person’s way of handling situations, but it does not have to infiltrate into your life, to your level of peace or joy. How you choose to focus your mind, thoughts, and energy is up to you. The secret is to focus every day, and that is how to maintain joy and happiness.

So as you go through each day and face interactions with people and various pressures, remember today’s suggestion: “If I am under pressure and setting myself deadlines, I will stop for a few minutes and think of what I can do with just this one moment.” You will feel so much more accomplished, joyful and peaceful with this reality check; truly being in what is happening rather than your mind projecting you into the future. It is possible, each moment, hour and day at a time.

If you would like more help or more information about how to apply this suggestion to your life, please contact me. I wish you well on your journey to greater joy and happiness in relationships and life. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Trust Your Gut Feelings: Improve Sport Performance

Fri, 08 Nov 2013 16:45:24 -0500

When you think of improving your sport performance, how often do your gut feelings come to mind? Do you relate your gut feelings to how much you trust yourself and your abilities? I’d like to bring you some mental training that will help you take full advantage of your sport mechanics and how you think and feel about your ability to perform well. There are many factors that affect performance, not just the skills you’ve been practicing, when it comes to performing well at an event, practice, or competition and doing it to the best of your ability. As a mental trainer and hypnotherapist, of course, I try to help improve your mental skills and hope to do so in this article.

If you haven’t noticed already, what happens when your mind and body are a little bit out of whack is that you are not able to perform to the best of your ability. Take the example of not sleeping well. You cannot perform well in whatever you do, if you are overtired or not well rested. If you haven’t eaten well, you know that you run out of energy before you finish your game or whatever you need to accomplish, so needing to sleep and eat well are important. Exercising regularly, so you have enough endurance and energy to compete, is another example. These factors are all important for the long haul if you have any expectations of improving your performance.

What we seem to take for granted and forget is that the mind and brain are controlling our experience to some degree. Not to say it takes control of everything. Although, that’s what happens when our ego gets involved and believes we are in control of everything and that how we think things should go is how they really ought to go. We need to recognize that our mind creates our thoughts. It creates the way we view ourselves, our mechanics, our skills, and the way we view the event we are about to step into. All of these things affect how well we are able to perform, just as much as sleeping, eating and exercising help to prepare our bodies properly for a good performance. So you want to make sure you are practicing your mental skills as well. You need to tweak and work on them just as diligently as you work on your physical and mechanical skills. They really are just as important as making sure you eat well, sleep well, exercise and drink lots of water. All of them combined enable you to not only perform well, but also to improve your performance.

In order to help you with this, I want to look at an affirmation or suggestion that I pulled from some of my hypnosis products. It is: “I trust my gut feelings, my internal guidance, how I feel- I trust myself”. This might sound fluffy to some of you, especially those of you who have very traditional ways of learning and are rational thinkers, but I have been pleasantly surprised to find out that most of my clients have said they know what a gut feeling is when asked if they get them.

So why don’t you stop right now and think about what a gut feeling is to you? Think about times in your life where you have had a sense about something or a feeling about which way to turn when you were driving (left or right), or a sense about whether or not to go to a particular event, talk to a particular person, or a feeling that there was something more to a person coming into your life than you may have realized. You might have had gut feelings about moving or making business decisions. Really, we all have had experiences with gut feelings at some point in our lives, whether we labeled them that way or not.

What I have often observed in talking with golfers is that they get a gut feeling about which club to choose, how to go about playing a particular hole, where they should aim the ball, and what strategy they should take with each shot. They have gut feelings about them, but the tricky thing is whether or not they trust those gut feelings.

Lots of golfers have shared with me that they have gut feelings about what club to choose, but if they doubt themselves or have any issues with confidence, they second guess themselves. They may end up trusting the club another golfer in their group chooses or the golf club the group before them used (which driver for example). They end up second guessing themselves—and we have all heard that expression—which points to the fact that they had gut feelings to begin with.

So when you second guess yourself, you are actually doubting yourself. You might look around you to see what someone else is doing. You might change your actions or your thoughts because of what you observed from someone else. It is really a lack of trust in self, a lack of confidence and knowing yourself well, honoring your decisions and what’s right for you. You have allowed doubt to creep in, and that decreases your performance. So when doubt creeps in and a lack of confidence is present, you need to counteract that with trust in yourself and your gut feelings. Trust how you feel and the internal guidance you have. “I trust my gut feelings, my internal guidance, how I feel. I trust myself.” This type of thinking will improve your performance.

If you have read any of my other material, then you know I advocate using these skills in all areas of your life. By doing so, you get the repetition, reinforcement, understanding, knowledge, and ability to excel without hoping you can “pull it off” when you are performing or competing in your sport. Most people don’t know how to work their mental skills, and they attempt to make something happen when they are out at an event, or they try to make themselves focus and trust themselves. Those things cannot be made to happen so quickly. They are skills that need to be built upon and need to be perfected over time. Trust is not something that is going to pop out of the blue and suddenly happen.

Doubt and lack of confidence are likely in your character, in some form or fashion. You are probably even familiar with the way it feels when you doubt yourself, but you can also tap into the fact that trust and confidence are in your character as well, and you can start to decipher the difference between when you doubt and trust yourself or when you have confidence and when you don’t. With that kind of self study or observation and understanding, you can gain greater and greater clarity about who you are and notice when you are in confidence and when you are not. When you are not, you need to do something about it. Step out of it. Take a moment for yourself. Look within yourself for your gut feelings or your internal guidance and see how you feel. Reflect upon your past and your understanding of who you are and what you have learned through your experiences. When you doubt yourself you know it is time to work on trusting yourself. The moment you feel doubt, you know you need to work on trust.

This will not happen overnight. You need to practice and understand these aspects of yourself. Work with them and know that you can handle them and switch over from lack of confidence to confidence, from doubt to trust, at any given time. Then if doubt tries to creep in when you are out there performing in your sport, you will know exactly how to handle it. Not only that, but doubt and lack of confidence will become less and less frequent in your day to day life and golf game, or whatever sport you may play. So not only will it occur less often but when it does happen while you are out there playing, you will know how to handle it.

So remember this suggestion and say it over and over to yourself this week: “I trust my gut feelings, my internal guidance, how I feel. I trust myself”. Take a look at yourself, reflect on your past and observe and notice the gut feelings you’ve had before, and go to work on the suggestion I’ve given to you in this complimentary mental training. If you’d like any more help, please contact me. I do phone and Skype sessions all over the world, and I have product downloads in the product store on my website. I am here to help you any way I can in many available forms.

I wish you well as you work on this aspect of your mental skills. Really take it seriously, and use the information I have given you. As you begin to start trusting your gut feelings, you will improve your performance. Have an amazing day!

Powerful Practical Prayer: Express Your Love

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 17:12:20 -0500

Do you know how powerful and practical prayer is as an expression of love for others? Prayerfulness is a virtue we can all experience, and you can too. Many people recognize the value of prayer and choose to make prayer a part of their life—a part of each morning, possibly, to start out their day. For those who pray, it helps them experience the feeling of “letting go.” As they pray throughout the day, it also helps them continually recognize that forces larger than themselves exist. Forces greater than their little ego-mind wants to admit or acknowledge exist. This is not to say that we are not powerful in ourselves or that creation doesn’t work through us. But let’s just say that even with our contribution, there are much more contributions being made by many, many others and the energy that surrounds us.

Prayer helps us to be able to trust and let go and to recognize what we have control over versus what we do not (have any control over). Prayer is a really great tool to help you practice the recognition of what you can control and what you cannot, and it helps us in letting go of trying to control situations or people outside of ourselves. Not only that, but then as you pray for those people you now recognize you cannot control, it opens your eyes to a greater awareness of how powerful and practical it is to really pray for others.

As I have looked at prayerfulness with self, I have concluded that there are a few things that prayer is in battle against: Wandering thoughts of our ego mind, a lack of intimacy with God’s character, and a lack of being open to living a virtuous life. All of that keeps us from a meaningful prayer life. But with discipline, we see that we can change those things as we recognize the virtue of prayer.

I would like to analyze prayerfulness with others. In looking at prayer as it pertains to others, I have a really great quote from John Calvin that I’d like to explore:

“Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.”

This is definitely a path I choose and work towards, as I feel like it is part of the path towards enlightenment and a spiritual awakening (or getting out of self). Praying for others will help to shift your focus from yourself to others and as you do, you will experience how powerful and practical it truly is.

Many people pray for themselves and what their wandering thoughts and ego mind wants and believes would be good for them. This is a very common thing people do with prayer, but is also helps people to recognize the tool of prayer as a process of letting go to a power greater than self. If we try to dictate in prayer for our own good, then we aren’t necessarily letting go or recognizing and respecting and honoring that there is a power greater than self out there.

So “… prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God…”. Let’s look at that, our own need. The ego mind perceives and believes it knows all and has stories we get caught up in, perceptions of self and others in life, and expectations of what those should look like. All those “should” and “shouldn’t” statements create a type of need—or perceived need I should say—that feels like a burden upon us. It becomes the weight we carry around and must let go. It is because of these thoughts, patterns, stories, and perceptions that we end up experiencing anger, hurt, resentment, and fear. They are burdens upon our mind, health, physical body, and wellbeing day after day.

When we feel our own need as a burden, we have to be able to pass it over and let go and lay it upon God (or the higher power that exists beyond us and within us). Prayer gives us the ability to pass on the burdens we create upon ourselves through our ego mind and perceptions and lay them upon our higher power. Also, to pray because “…we are so bound up in love…” and intertwined as people that we recognize we are co-creators in this worldly universal experience, where one choice or thought affects all others and the situations and circumstances around us. Every person’s energy, thought patterns, perceptions, and interactions with the world and universe affect all around them and us as well. We truly are all connected as one and bound to each other.

Having said that, can you see how every other human being creates burdens in their own lives just like we do? Think about that. Every human being has that ego mind with thought patterns, perceptions, expectations, fears, and stories they are experiencing burdens from as well. Those burdens take us all out of the natural state of peace and serenity available within each one of us, until we free ourselves from those thought patterns. When we free ourselves from the burden of the ego mind and experience the higher power that exists within us, we become a clearer channel to that energy all around us. We can then see how alike and similar we are all. Our eyes are opened to the fact that we are all trying to do the best we can with what we have. That then gives us compassion that we experience in love and loving types of thoughts, prayers and experiences with others.

We can feel how bound up in love we are for our fellow man when we begin to experience this connection to our higher power through prayer. We see how intertwined we all are and how we all procreate. “…we are so bound up in love with our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own…” We can actually see their need, their perceptions and ego mind, including their existence-types of needs such as food and shelter, and all of the basic needs we feel in ourselves. Prayer outside of ourselves helps us to see that the needs of others are not so different from our own, and we all battle with that same ego mind that weighs us down. We are able to feel their needs and even recognize the fear they may be creating for themselves based on their ego thinking.

Not only do we want to pass on our own burdens of these needs to God, but we want to help our fellow men pass on their burdens of their perceived needs. How can we do that? The way we can help is by making intercession for them. Intercession is the act of pleading on someone else’s behalf—the attempt to settle something or to help with resolution. To make intercession or plead on behalf of others and be able to look for peace for others through prayer is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.

I believe prayer is powerful because when I started praying more often, I did access that power that is greater than myself and that works through me (it is not a coincidence that many call it a higher power). It is very powerful and practical as we move through life and are able to recognize that we do not control others and cannot change others, even if we believe or have a perception of what might be healthier for them or what they are doing. There is very little way that someone can help another through ego minds or the thinking mind, which makes intercession for men through prayer so powerful and practical, and truly the best way to express our love for them.

Prayer is the best way to let go and know that just as in our own lives, there is a power greater than ourselves that we can actually see in action, occurring in all men and women’s lives as well. So thanks to John Calvin, because I think his quote really helps us look at the power and practicality of prayer and prayerfulness.

To recap John Calvin’s quote: “Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.”

If you would like more information about this or other services I offer, please contact me. I hope you are truly able to become more prayerful with others, and that this information helps you not only see the burden your ego mind puts upon you, but also to see that it happens to others as well. Just knowing that others feel burdened like you do will likely help you to experience what it means to be bound up in love for them. You can then begin to make intercession for others, knowing that prayer is the most powerful and practical way to express your love.

Effective Pre-Shot Routine: Improve Sport Performance

Wed, 13 Nov 2013 18:09:27 -0500

Do you have a pre-shot routine? Most of you probably do, but maybe some of you do not. If you use one, do you feel comfortable with it and understand the many benefits you gain from a pre-shot routine? In this article, I would like to share some insight with you on an effective pre-shot routine and how using one positively affects sport performance.

Have you found that your mind gets distracted during your pre-shot routine? Do you sometimes doubt your ability to pull off your shot? Do any similar thoughts like that come to mind as you work through your pre-shot routine? I have worked with many athletes, and pre-shot routines are common among several sports such as golf. My clay shooter clients use a pre-shot routine as well. Most people have learned about pre-shot routines either on their own, from experiences in practicing/competing with others, or more typically, from an instructor who suggests or suggests a pre-shot routine.

From a mental training perspective, I see that there are many really great benefits to having a pre-shot routine as it pertains to your sport performance. Maybe you are aware of some of the advantages, but you probably don’t realize just how many there really are. Let’s look at the mechanical side of it first. A pre-shot routine will definitely set you up for good mechanics as you gather the information around you. You make some decisions about how you will play out a particular shot, and then you begin to set yourself up physically. You set your hands, legs, feet—you basically go through the sequence of getting your physical body situated, which is really great. As you know, if your physical body is not situated properly, you can throw yourself off by not being perfectly aligned, and that will present some difficulties that would not be there if your body had been set correctly.

The pre-shot routine is a great way to get your body set, and it takes a huge factor of possibly mucking up your shot out of the equation, but it isn’t the only element to consider here. Most people believe that the physical set up is all the pre-shot routine addresses, but an effective one also addresses the mental aspect. I would say that the pre-shot routine has the ability to get your mind set just as well as your body, and both are necessary if you want to improve your sport performance.

How do you ‘set’ your mind in a pre-shot routine? It starts with repetition. In my experience, I have seen when movements and thoughts start to get programmed into the subconscious mind through repetition and time. This frees up the conscious mind to daydream or wander off. In golf, for example, it allows the conscious mind to overthink a shot, maybe dwell on the last shot or bogey, or bring in doubts, fears, and concerns about the shot about to be taken. It’s the same for other sports.

I even observe this wandering take place in daily life all the time. If you listen to someone lecturing, your conscious mind can wander off. When you drive down the same highway you take every day, your mind can wander off. If you ride a bike and have for years, your conscious mind can be free to wander off as well. As you began learning any of those experiences, maybe for the first several times you participated in driving down the highway or riding a bike (for example), your conscious mind was drawn in and fully focused because it was a new event or skill for you. When something is new and creates a bit of a challenge, your conscious mind pulls in and is fully present, but with repetition and time, your conscious mind frees itself to wander off. This is the element you need to include in your pre-shot routine in order to perform well on your shot.

Recognize that if your pre-shot routine is something you have repeated over time, the elements you address in it are no longer new, and your conscious mind is free to wander around and think about other things. If you have had little or no mental training, you wouldn’t realize that you are offering a huge opportunity for your cuckoo conscious mind to take you in a zillion different directions. For example, your conscious mind may think, “I’m not very good at this. I can’t pull this shot off.” or “My putting stinks and has been awful the last several months.” or “I can’t seem to play a very good short game.” or “I’ve had a string of birdies so I’ll probably bomb this shot.” or maybe “I am so mad that I just had a few bogey’s and can’t seem to shake it off!” You can see here that by only addressing your physical mechanics, you allow the opportunity for all these cuckoo thoughts to come in and distract you. Then as you believe them, they have an effect on your body, your game, and your ability to perform well.

So what can be done? I highly suggest that you use your pre-shot routine as an opportunity to become fully present with your mind to prevent your conscious mind from negatively impacting your sport performance. From now on, when you get into your pre-shot routine, don’t just robotically go through the motions, movements, and sequences. That will be your tendency—to robotically do it – especially if you’ve done it many times, like riding a bike. Make the effort to be mindful and present in your pre-shot routine. When you set your feet, be there in the feet. When you set your legs, body and hands, be there in every element of your pre-shot routine as you set each one. By doing this, you are reeling in your conscious mind. As you practice this over time, you will see how that crazy cuckoo mind will try to wander off and dredge up some disturbing shot that could muck up your current one. You just have to train it not to, and you can do it. As you do, you will notice a positive difference in your sport performance.

Of course if you need any help, that is what I’m here for. I’m happy to help you, encourage you, and teach you specific skills to learn how to become mentally present in your sport. Definitely start using your pre-shot routine as an opportunity for mechanics and the mental side of your game. When someone asks if you get distracted during your pre-shot routine, or if you doubt your ability to make a shot, you can confidently answer “No, I don’t!”

To help you accomplish this, I will give you an affirmation that you can repeat to yourself over and over that will help you keep that conscious mind in check. The affirmation, or self-suggestion, is something I would give to you as a hypnotherapist that would go directly into your subconscious mind. But through my years of doing this, I have seen and know how we all have about 60,000 thoughts a day. For those of you without mental training, you believe and react to most of those thoughts. For those of you who have had some of my mental training, you have learned skills to stop believing them and can detach from them so you don’t have an immediate reaction in your body. The use of positive affirmations has helped you build those skills, and they can help anyone who is willing to give them a try.

So from the lesson I just taught you on repetition and the 60000 thoughts you have each day, you can use this affirmation (as one of those thoughts, repeated several times a day) as a way of ingraining it into your subconscious mind: “My pre-shot routine is very comfortable to me. I gather all the information I need and put myself in a perfect, positive, confident frame of mind.” Think about that. What if you repeated that several times a day? Just like riding a bike with repetition, it goes into the subconscious level of your mind. It becomes a skill you have, an understanding or knowing that runs on autopilot. Repeat it enough and you won’t have to think about it anymore. Just through repetition, as with practicing your drive over and over, it will become more and more truthful and more and more a natural part of who you are.

Use that affirmation or self-suggestion several times a day, and see what a positive difference it makes! If you need any extra help, I am here for you. Please call or email me. You can also download my products from my web store. Starting today and every day after, address your mechanics and conscious mind in your pre-shot routine, and your sport performance will improve. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

Deeper Love: Improve Your “You-and-I” Relationships

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:21:57 -0500

How do you feel about the “you-and-I” relationships in your life? Do you feel like you are a loving individual? Do you experience love in your relationships? How do you feel about love and recognize it in your own life? Is this an area you would like to improve in some way? Love is a word many people say, but it takes work to become more loving individuals toward ourselves and others. Improving relationship skills is something I believe everyone can and should spend time working on, and as a hypnotherapist and mental trainer, I can help.

I would like to use a quote that I think will really help illustrate an aspect of relationships that people often overlook. It comes from a book by David Richo entitled, When the Past Is Present: Healing the Emotional Wounds that Sabotage Our Relationships. If you have not heard of David Richo, he has a PhD and is a psychotherapist, teacher, workshop leader, and writer. He pulls together insight from many different schools of thought and provides a great deal of useful information on his website: www.DavidRicho.com. I highly recommend you check him out and what he has to offer.

So the quote I chose from David Richo’s book is “In a true you-and-I relationship, we are present mindfully, non-intrusively—the way we are present with things in nature. We do not tell a birch tree it should be more like an elm. We face it with no agenda, only an appreciation that becomes participation: ‘I love looking at this birch’ becomes ‘I am this birch’ and then ‘I and this birch are opening to a mystery that transcends and holds us both.”

Let’s look at the example David Richo uses of a birch and an elm tree. Right now, I can look out of my window and see a Magnolia tree, and I happen to be a lover of nature, so I really enjoy being a part in nature. For a long time, though, I can honestly say that the way I used to refer to it was that I loved looking at nature. That is what David Richo is saying in this quote: Our first step is to say we love looking at the tree. If you are near a window or have a plant next to you, take a look at it and recognize that you’ve probably been saying “I love looking at this plant or tree.” You most likely see the tree as something you’ve been enjoying, whether it was mindfully or not, as something separate from you.

What David Richo goes on to suggest, is that we turn that separateness into “I am this birch.” Realize energetically that we truly are all connected; we are all one. What we see is really a reflection of our perception, and whether or not we love the birch or magnolia tree is just a reflection of ourselves. Not everyone will say that in the same form or fashion, but everyone is capable of saying it. It is because of our varied human experiences that everyone has different preferences. Some might say they love oaks whereas others might love weeping willows, but it is still a reflection of self, although we are all part of one in the same.

From there, we can move forward into “I and this birch are opening to a mystery that transcends and holds us both.” What exactly does that mean? Whether you realize it or not, so much in life goes on beyond our knowing, seeing, and hearing; beyond the little circle that surrounds us individually. There are multitudes of cause and effect interactions of self with the world around us and the universe that happen every moment of the day. Any time two come together, there is always a unique, mysterious interaction between the two that will be unlike any other two interactions on the entire planet. It transcends us but also holds us.

Let’s take that example back to a true “you-an-I” relationship with two human beings who are looking to be in a special relationship, which includes being present mindfully. Say this applies to you and a significant other. See the other person as a universe that you are ready and excited to explore so much beyond what you can possibly imagine. Be mindful in that presence, in the present situation and the present circumstances with that unique individual that is before you. A lot of us have the habit of trying to impose our will upon that person, thinking that the birch should be more like an elm if that’s what we are and how that birch should be more like me. That is one of the most common downfalls of relationships: Continuing to impose ones will on the other rather than seeing each other as mysterious, unknowing, amazing individual souls that we can get to know more of every day.

Being present mindfully means watching, seeing, and observing. It means being excited to get to know the intricate details of that person and their experiences and not intrusively imposing your will upon them or trying to make them change. It means to not believe they should be different or grow more quickly. It means to be present mindfully and not intrusively, the way we are in nature. Think about how silly it would be to stand next to a birch tree and tell it to be more like an elm. You wouldn’t do that to a tree, right? So why would you do it to another human being?

I challenge you to face nature today, this week, with no agenda. Appreciate all aspects of the environment and nature around you and see the different trees for their uniqueness. Right now I can see three magnolia trees and each one is completely unique. I won’t stand here and tell one it should be more like the others. I will just appreciate them mindfully and not intrusively, so I become one, in my mind, with nature around me.

Practice this throughout the week. As you do, take that same appreciation for the trees and your ability to see uniqueness and beauty in each of them, and apply it to the humans around you. All people are unique and beautiful in their own way. They are all amazing mysteries—all their own universes waiting to be explored, just like you.

If you would like assistance in being more loving—not only giving more love but being open to receiving it as well—please contact me. I wish you well in your journey of experiencing deeper love in your life. Know you can improve your “you-and-I” relationships as you apply this teaching. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Workshop by Joey Korn on Spiritual Dowsing & The Blessing Process

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:43:57 -0500

Fernandina Beach Interfaith Study Group is proud to announce an Weekend Workshop in February:

Spiritual Dowsing & The Blessing Process

Presented by Joey Korn

Global Leader in the World of Dowsing,

Energy Worker & Spiritual Teacher

Author of

Dowsing: A Path to Enlightenment

www.dowsers.com

February 8 & 9

Saturday 11:00-6:30 & Sunday 12:30-6:30

(Optional By Appt: 3^rd Day Workshop on Monday & In-Home Coaching on Friday or Tuesday)

Much more detail can be found on Joey’s Website, www.dowsers.com (same info as the below images)

Mastery, Presence, and Inner Peace: Peak Sports Performance

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 19:23:45 -0500

If you want to peak your sport performance, choose something you want to work on every week. As you do, you will acquire increased understanding, insightfulness, and confidence in your mechanics and mental skills over time. Practicing helps you build confidence in your mechanics, which 90% of athletes do, but I encourage you to treat the mental side of your game just as importantly. Practice the mental skills on a regular basis so you can reinforce them and be excellent on all levels when you are ready to perform in your sport and win.

How does one achieve peak sports performance? I believe it is acquired through mastery, presence, and inner peace. It is also maintained by these same three elements.

So what is mastery? Mastery is the practicing of your skills—regular, deliberate, intentional, mindful practicing—so you can master whatever you choose to put your mind, energy, time, and effort into. The more you practice your skills, the less you have to think about them as you play and compete. Mastery frees your mind from self-doubt when it is time to perform. This is very important in any sport. It allows you to be present as you perform.

Presence, or to say it another way, “being present,” is the ability to be focused and in the moment. Athletes know they need greater focus. What they try to do is just focus harder or stare harder, but there’s a lot more to having presence than that. Presence is focused intention. It is when one sets an intention and decides to work on it in the moment as well as throughout long periods of time.

Finally, inner peace causes a lot of confusion with athletes when I start to talk about it because they think they need that “go-get-‘em” edge or fighter’s mentality to win. This belief isn’t necessarily correct and causes a lot of resistance toward their pursuit of inner peace. What I can tell you through my observations and training is that inner peace is different than what you may assume. It is a matter of having peace of mind. You are not a ball of mush, but you are completely relaxed. I read a Dalai Lama quote this morning that helps describe what I am talking about:

”When we are angry, we are blind to reality. Anger may bring us a temporary burst of energy, but that energy blocks the part of our brain that distinguishes right from wrong. To deal with our problems, we need to be practical and realistic, and if we are to be realistic, we need to use our human intelligence properly, which means we need a calm mind.”

I definitely agree this quote. I have observed Dalai Lama’s warning in action in many of my clients and in my own life. You may be deceived in thinking your anger and fit of energy are going to help you in your sport, but in reality, they are not. There are a lot of reactions that take place in your body when you experience anger or fear. “Fight or flight” sets in and you do not think clearly. A bit of a fog exists in your mind, and you are in the illusion of your thoughts, and you react to them rather than to what is really happening around you. Inner peace (having a calm mind or peace of mind), is definitely what you need to strive for in order to win.

You can see examples of anger and its effects if you watch professional athletes on television. When they start getting angry and trying too hard, things start falling apart. Even though they may have mastered their skills, they need all three components of mastery, presence, and inner peace to truly achieve peak performance.

So the suggestion from my hypnosis product that I have chosen to write about today is, “Each day I practice with a confident mindset, focused intention, and a positive way of viewing myself, my life, and how I play.”

“Each day I practice with a confident mindset…” This goes back to mastery of your mental skills and not just waiting for an event, hoping you will be able to have confidence or a focused intention or mindset. You cannot hope for things like that. A lot of athletes feel like being in the zone is kind of a fluky thing that they have no control over, and it just randomly or haphazardly happens. But I have seen and helped clients master the skill of being in the zone and apply it at will whenever they feel like it. Each day, you need to practice a confident mindset if you want to improve your sport performance.

Now that you know you need to practice a confident mindset, what exactly does that look like? You need to pay attention to when you lack confidence in some area of your life and get to know what that feels like. Then, pay attention to when you do have confidence in that particular area and learn to recognize the difference. When you practice in your sport, eliminate any thoughts or language that reinforce a lack of confidence, and make sure you feel confident in each of the elements that go into it.

When you think about focused intention, treat it like goal setting. You can have focused intention in the morning for your day or your particular practice round and what you want to work on. You probably do that already. Sometimes you decide you want to practice your putting for a while. This is a focused intention. You recognize the strength of when you pull your mind in and keep it focused on one particular task. You can do that throughout the day or one round of golf. You set your intention up front and say, “I want to maintain a confident mindset and inner peace” throughout the entire round of golf. You set that intention and decide it is what you are working on.

As you practice having a focused intention, you will begin to recognize when your focus wanders. Any time you start to stray from the path you have chosen, just bring yourself back in. Let’s say you want to practice that inner peace while you are playing, but you start to wander from it (say you get upset about a bogey or something). You recognize it and pull yourself back in. You practice having a confident mindset, focused intention, and a positive way of viewing yourself.

I have addressed this topic in different articles and trainings and have done so from many different angles. Why is it so important to have a positive way of viewing yourself? If you go out there chewing yourself out in your mind for not being very good, saying that you don’t deserve to be there or any thoughts like that, then you are definitely going to struggle no matter how much mastery you have of your skills. This is why it is so important that you practice having this positive way of viewing yourself.

As I have said before, don’t just practice in your sport but practice throughout moments or days in your life. You can master this positive way of viewing yourself. Catch yourself when you are being negative or thinking life shouldn’t be a certain way, and replace those thoughts with something positive. Catch yourself if you are thinking down or limiting about how you perform in your sport, or what you are capable of doing. You can even choose to focus your intention on viewing yourself positively and the areas you perform well in already. Build on that and remind yourself of that instead of allowing negative thoughts to affect your confidence or impede your performance.

“Each day, I practice with a confident mindset, focused intention, and a positive way of viewing myself, my life, and how I play.” Really let this soak in. Start practicing this. It will bring you great mastery over the mental side of your game and over the mental side of everything in your life. I highly encourage you to apply this to all areas of your life so you may have even more opportunity to master it. Hopefully you can see how all of this can be directly applied to anything in your life. Take the “I apply” part out, or the “I practice” part, and say to yourself, “Each day, I have a confident mindset, focused intention, and positive way of viewing myself, my life, and how I play.” Carry it over to include how you work. Bring it into your relationships and home with your family. The more opportunity you find to perform in this way throughout your daily activities, the more you will master inner peace, one of the critical components to achieving peak sport performance.

So have mastery, presence, and inner peace in each moment, and be confident in your mindset, have focused intention, and decide what you are going to work on this day. Have a positive way of viewing yourself, others, your life, or situations you are involved in as you go about daily living. If you need any additional assistance as you start working this in your life and sport, I am here to help you. Please feel free to contact me. As you strive toward mastery, presence, and inner peace, I know you will see improvements in your daily life as well as your sport performance. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Questions and Answers

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 09:15:16 -0500

QUESTION: Will I be aware of what is going on?
ANSWER: Absolutely! Some people feel that when they are in hypnosis, they are asleep. On the contrary, your mind is two to three hundred times more alert than it is at this very moment. If you have ever taken a power nap- you know that you are aware but choosing to relax,

About Me

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 09:44:51 -0500

I LOVE that I have the honor everyday of helping people make profound positive changes. I Love What I Do & Do What I LOVE! As a Mental Trainer & Hypnotherapist, I have found great avenues to reach out & assist others in experiencing greater health & wellness, peak performance, inner peace, tremendous joy & ultimately unlimited love.

Hypnosis is

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 09:48:59 -0500

The benefits of Hypnosis are profound. Hypnosis can make rapid & substantial changes because it helps a person to access the programming part of their mind to make permanent changes. With a positive change, you become healthier mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Healthy, happy, positive people radiate success & attract even more success into their lives.

Shop Here

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 10:02:28 -0500

Over almost 20 years I have developed many different programs that have proven to help people to cope and improve or master their individual goals and circumstances successfully. Here is a listing of these programs for purchase by category:

Mental Training

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 10:53:35 -0500

As an Expert Trainer and Instructor, Dawn will help increase your team’s productivity, knowing that each individual has unique life experiences. Their experiences have contributed to their unique personalities, perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, thought processes, behaviors & habits. The success of your company or team teeters on the success of each team member.

Sports Improvement

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:11:04 -0500

My teachings and mental training techniques start where most others stop. I’ve had the privilege to assist some of the best athletes in the world to improve their game, including PGA & LPGA TOUR Pros, National Sporting Clay Champions, World Champions Paddle Board and Surfing.

Services

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:15:46 -0500

Dawn offers Private hypnosis sessions globally, regionally and locally through a diverse range of technology and person-to person arrangements. Dawn also is well versed in corporate team building practices, as a motivational speaker and workshop/clinic instructor.

Health & Wellness

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:22:07 -0500

Whether a person is struggling with weight control, smoking, fear, anger, anxiety, or other unhealthy coping skills and addictions, I can help to release the old limiting beliefs and accept new healthy behaviors and mind-sets

Confidently Plan and Execute: Improve Sport Performance

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:23:44 -0500

As I work with athletes in various sports, I see how performance is positively impacted by confident planning and execution. Now we can just focus on executing shots, or we can also apply this to other sports and to life in general. There are a lot of similarities, from the mental perspective, even if people do not think about daily activities in terms of planning or executing them.

For now, I would like to take a look at subject from the sports angle in planning shots and then executing them. Let’s say you are a golfer. You use all of your senses to evaluate every hole or shot you are about to take. Before you execute a shot, you may not be aware of this, but every cell of your body is also involved in that process as well. As you approach a shot, you start scoping out the landscape and evaluating distance and other factors that have an impact on getting your ball to the hole. You also probably have an idea of what club they want to use.

But what happens if someone else hits the ball before you and uses a different club as you approach your drive? Do you find that you start to doubt yourself? What if they chose the same kind of club as you? Would your confidence become stronger if you both chose the same club? Or should you even consider another golfer’s club choice, when planning your own shot? You can see here that there are opportunities for information to come in from lots of angles. You gather information from the environment, such as the lay of the land, distance, weather, lay of the hole, and information pertaining to other golfers’ choices and how they want to execute their shot. You also have information at a subconscious level on what you are capable of doing: How your arms and legs can move, how much energy and strength you have, and how you typically perform on a hole like that. All of this information gets factored in as well, without you even realizing it.

A large majority of my clients are unaware that their subconscious minds are so involved with information gathering and processing. The subconscious mind is actually extremely powerful and gathers a lot of information, as it works in conjunction with the conscious mind. When you engage your conscious mind, you are fully focused. You know your mind can get distracted and wander off and think about a lot of different things. That’s where doubts and fears can creep in. However, it can be fully focused on whatever it is you are participating in. When you bring it in, fully focused, that’s when you are being mindful. That’s when you approach whatever you are doing mindfully (rather than thinking distracting thoughts or being unfocused). It is there, mindfully present in the current moment.

There is only so much that your conscious mind can be mindfully present of at any given time. If I told you right now to notice the sensations in your big toe on your right foot, your conscious mind will shift attention from this article to your right big toe. Sensations have been there all along, but you have just not been mindful of them or paying attention to them. So you can see, then, that you have the ability to focus your conscious mind wherever you would like.

Do you find that you are able to do that easily? Or is your conscious mind more like an untrained, wild little puppy running around until you train it to be otherwise? Learning to bring your focus in so that it works in combination with the miraculous subconscious mind (that already picks up on a trillion things at the same time) is what really helps you confidently plan and execute whatever shot or decision you have to make.

To help you improve in this area, I’ve taken a suggestion from my Perfect Putting and Golf Confidence hypnosis audios, and it can be used for any shot you take on the golf course. You can also apply it at work, at home, or in any number of other sports. The suggestion is this: “I confidently plan each and every shot, and then execute that shot with ease.” As you look at the words “confidently plan,” think back to where I already touched a little bit on how doubt can creep in. If you noticed a golfer picking a different club than you were thinking of using, then doubt could creep in. There are also other opportunities for doubt to come into play. You want to approach your shots with confidence and not allow doubt to even enter your mind.

Confidently planning each and every shot means having a level of knowing, security, and trust in what you are about to do and what you capable of doing. Think of yourself collecting data, like someone who inputs information into a magnificently powerful computer (your mind), with no emotion attached. You are completely calm and at ease, which brings you to a place of confidence as you plan each and every shot. Then execute each shot with ease, which means carrying that confidence and trust through from beginning to end. You remain trusting and confident as you are about to swing the club or take the shot or make the decision. It is so important to maintain consistency in your confidence and trust. You do that by managing any other kinds of compromising thoughts, like potty training that little puppy of a conscious mind.

If you’re a clay shooter, the concept is the same. Say to yourself, “I confidently plan and execute each and every shot.” Shooters scope out the area and how other people prior to them are shooting the clay birds or targets that have been set. They take note of the angle, distance, speed, and break point; especially when they work pairs. So when it comes to performing, they must plan their shots, visualizing them just like a golfer visualizes theirs. Then, knowing they are capable of smoking it (capable of hitting that target), they execute that shot with complete confidence, trust, and ease.

Think about my suggestion today and try repeating it throughout the day in your mind, but also attach a visual to it, and experience yourself confidently planning each and every shot, executing each one with ease. See it and feel it and experience as many times today as you can. Visualize it over and over again every time you have the opportunity. Repeat this several times a day, and then as far as the cells of your body are concerned, they will believe it is actually happening, and help you recreate it when you go out to perform. Visualize it and reinforce it just as you do when you are out there practicing your strokes on the driving range, while shooting, or while playing any other sport in which you want to improve. This helps you and gives you insight on how to confidently plan and execute shots with ease.

If you would like more help with this, I am happy to work with you. I can teach you more about the conscious and subconscious mind and give you more tips on how to train or redirect your thoughts. The subconscious mind is very powerful, picking up a ton of different elements you aren’t even aware of. Simply realizing that, recognizing your thoughts and pulling your conscious mind back to a state of mindfulness, goes a long way towards keeping the mind confident, focused and trusting, so you can confidently plan each and every shot and then execute your shot with complete ease. I offer private sessions in person, by phone, Skype or video internet calling, and I do have the products available for sale as well. But I really believe that if you repeat this suggestion and visualize it happening—if you truly visualize it—you will see an improvement in your ability to confidently plan and execute your shots with ease. Good luck with this, and have an amazing day!

Success through Courage: Test Limits, Break Barriers

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 17:56:57 -0500

When I envision success, I view it from a perspective of what overall true success really is. I am not going to advocate having more, wanting more, or a feeling that “I am only happy if I have more.” That is not the kind of success I am talking about here. I encourage having goals, direction, and desires for yourself. However, you must balance your desire for things with acceptance and appreciation for what you have now. To help you achieve that, there is an interesting mental skill you can gain—a balance between aspiring, having goals, and seeing the direction you want to take, and living in the present. This balance is crucial in order to be successful, no matter what you are striving to achieve. Over the many years of practice in my area of expertise, I have seen literally thousands of clients. Because of that, I am fortunate enough to have my own ongoing study in human nature and behavior. I have witnessed people learn so much in their process of evolving and transforming on their pathway toward greater success and happiness, and I would like to share my observations with you.

As I reflect on all of my clients and years of experience, I would define success as “peaking your performance” in life. You can be successful in many different areas of your life. You can say you have a failed marriage or a successful marriage. You can say you have failed at many job projects or you have been successful at many job projects. You can be successful as a parent, at work, as a spouse, in whatever hobby or sport you choose to participate in, or not. So success is truly “peaking your performance” in whatever areas of life are important to you. Maybe you don’t realize how important they are and it is time to peak your performance in areas you haven’t spent much time on. Put another way, success is truly a level of performing in the areas of your life that you consider to be important, or of significant preference to you.

So what is important to you? To help you identify those areas, I have broken down success into three hot topics. I would say that success is acquired and maintained with clarity, balance and energy. You must understand yourself, what your preferences are, and where you want to put your energy (clarity). You need balance in order to look forward, yet remain in the present. Balance all the different segments of your life so you are not tipping the scales and only devoting time to your work success at the expense of your family, for example. Balance means looking at all the aspects of who you are as a human being and “peaking your performance” in each of those. It is possible to be successful at work at the same time you succeed as a parent, spouse, personal health and well-being, and so on. You do not have to sacrifice in any one of these areas to have success in another.

For some people, they devote all their time into making more money or achieving certain goals at work, at the sacrifice of their family and possibly at the sacrifice of their own health. They will say things to me like, “I don’t have enough time to exercise or eat well,” “I wish I spent more time with my kids when they were growing up,” or “I wish I went to more baseball games.” I hear this all the time, so what I am looking to do here is to help you acquire and maintain success through clarity, balance, and energy.

You cannot be successful sitting on the couch. You definitely have to put energy into these different areas of your life and experience what it feels like to exert energy. However, there is another form of energy which comes from inspiration: the feeling of waking up inspired and motivated, having energy flowing through your body because you truly are in balance. Your mood is great because you are not feeling subconsciously like you are a cruddy parent who has put too much time in at work. A certain “energy” exists when you are in balance and when you have clarity because you are working on the things that you love. When you have decided what your preferences are and you focus your efforts on them, it naturally and automatically shifts your energy into being excited to do the things you are doing. It goes back to loving to do the things you love.

I would love to help you on your journey to peaking life performance with clarity, balance, and energy. To help us understand what I am talking about, let’s look at the following quote: “It takes courage to push yourself to places you have never been before… to test your limits… to break through barriers.” Courage is interesting and comes from a deeper place within you. It is not on the surface. Think about that for a moment. Think about times when you have felt courage. It is not superficial or on the surface or a feeling that comes and goes. Courage comes from a level of strong confidence and knowing in yourself that you can do whatever you put your mind to, a feeling like, “I can do this, I can persevere and keep moving forward even at times when it seems like what I’m doing isn’t working.” It takes courage to push yourself to places you have never been before.

How does one become courageous? Well, it doesn’t come from just reading this article. It’s going to take time to acquire courage, and it’s a matter of you focusing and being diligent about reinforcing the mindset of confidence and an “I can do this” attitude. That does not happen overnight because you have stories in your mind from previous experiences that hinder you. Everyone has a different level of courage and confidence, depending on their upbringing, personality and experiences. Do you tend to see your successes along the way, or do you tend to dwell on your failures? Do you tend to think of yourself like you can do whatever you set your mind to, or do you say that any time you try to do something, it doesn’t work out the way you would like?

If you have the more negative stories and mindsets going on, it will take time to break free from those. You must start with an awareness that your negative thoughts are even occurring, and then weed them out. Actually visualize your thoughts and mindsets as being like a garden in your mind, and weed them out. Pull the “weeds” out, get rid of them, stop watering or fertilizing them, starve them out. Weed out the negative ways of viewing yourself, and weed out the ways you think are encouraging a lack of confidence. Plant in the kind of attitudes, mindsets, and thought patterns that will encourage confidence and courage, like “I can do this,” “when I put my mind to something, I see it through and whatever happens, it helps me learn along the way.” It takes courage to push yourself to places you have never been before, and test your limits.

Limits are different for each of us. At what point do you want to give up on a project? How many no’s does it take for you? How many rejections or attempts where you don’t succeed does it take? That’s your limit. You have different ones depending on your experiences. Let’s say you have a lot of experience playing guitar in front of people on a stage. Your courage in that area will be stronger than an area where you have very little experience or where you attempted to do something, but felt like you failed because you were not able to follow through in the way you thought you would.

I encourage you to look at your so-called “failures” and see what you have learned from them. You know that inventing a light bulb did not happen in a day. It took a lot of trials and errors. Those were not failures. Where were the limits there? It took courage to keep trying over and over, but it eventually led to success: the invention of the light bulb.

It takes courage to push yourself to places you have never been before, to test your limits, and break through your barriers. Barriers come from your previous “programming,” thoughts that you have, your belief systems that you created or allowed in, or maybe things you heard from others or told yourself. They are like speed bumps on your journey. So the first step is having an awareness that it is even happening. Next is to weed out the negative thought patterns that are barriers or limitations and that keep you from having courage or lacking confidence. You want to replace those and fertilize and water them in, or repeat conversations in your head that will encourage your confidence and therefore build up your courage. That will help you move beyond any perceived limits and overcome the barriers that may have been holding you back from achieving true success.

I truly wish you well and hope this helps you on your journey to greater success. Start by recognizing that you already have some great success, through the tools of clarity, balance, and energy. Please contact me for more information or help, and get started on what I gave you in this article today. Through courage, testing your limits and breaking through barriers, you will achieve great success. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!

Natural to be Present with Peace of Mind: Mental Golf Moment

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 19:25:50 -0500

How natural does it feel for you to be present in any given moment, with complete peace of mind? How about when you play golf? Do you typically feel at peace when you are playing, or do you worry about how you will swing? Maybe you think you will miss a particular shot like you “always do.” You understand the importance of having a strong mental game to play well, but somehow your mind struggles to remain peaceful in the present moment. This is very frustrating. I completely understand that struggle, and I can really help you improve that mental skill.

In all my years of working as a hypnotherapist, I have gained a lot of information that helps me understand the power of the mind, belief systems, perceptions, and how they affect every aspect of our lives. They affect what we see, what we are attracted to, what is attracted to us, and what areas of life we seem to magnetize towards us and happen to notice. As an example, think about what happens when you go car shopping and you have your mind set on a certain car. If you set your mind on a particular car, you will actually begin to notice them everywhere you go. That’s not because folks just went out and bought them all of a sudden. It is because you have your mind so set on that particular car and the details of it in your head that you pick up on them, are now attracted to them, and see them all around you.

You can see this take place in a lot of different aspects, and you need to realize that it affects everything in life. Your mindsets, thought patterns, and perceptions kind of create a filter system through which you see certain things in your life or not. All options or possibilities exist around you at all times. Depending on the type of belief systems you have, you filter certain things in and certain things out. You can see this in your personal and work life, but since I want to focus on golf, I want to help you recognize that this happens in your golf game as well. Your beliefs about your golf game, your perceptions about what you are and are not capable of, and what you believe are your limitations or your strengths all impact your performance as you step out to play.

What I would like to discuss in this article pertains to being in the present moment and having peace of mind. To help us look deeper into this, I took a self-suggestion from my golf product. The suggestion is, “It is natural for me to stay in the present moment with complete peace of mind as I play golf.” The more you wrap your mind around this concept and recognize the importance of being present and having peace of mind in that moment, the more you will realize that a large majority of the time, you are not in the present moment.

Your analytical conscious mind usually wanders around daydreaming or analyzing some subject matter of the past or potential future, maybe judging someone else, yourself, or your circumstance. Because of the way your mind is programmed at this point, a majority of those kinds of thoughts are negative, limiting in some way, or fear-based. Before you can train your mind to be present, you first need to be aware of the tendencies of your conscious analytical mind to wander and how you go into day-dreamy states. If you go into the past, you also need to realize it is just your perception of the past and not even necessarily true. You will want to work on training your mind to be present, on a regular basis, until you get really skilled at just being present.

If you move into the future, it’s like you think you have a crystal ball and are powerful enough to foretell what is going to happen. You get stuck in moments of analyzing with such force and power that you truly believe once you have made a conclusion, that it’s correct and that’s the way things are going to be. It is quite crazy when you stop and realize how much you have been reacting to the stories in your head—stories of what you think should have been, could be, or may happen. All of this is what brings you out of being in the present moment, and it is what keeps you from experiencing peace in your life.

When I say, “It’s natural for me to stay in the present moment,” I am actually giving you a hypnotic suggestion pulled from some of my products. What I speak about in my products and to clients directly comes from my experience as a hypnotherapist, knowing what works to help someone make a positive change. A suggestion given in hypnosis has the ability to go into the deeper level of the mind and cause you to go into autopilot. I also know that with repetition, anything and everything will go into your subconscious mind as well. That is the basis for affirmations, positive statements, and self-suggestions. You can have this suggestion brought into your subconscious through hypnosis, from using one of my products, or you can repeat it over and over and say to yourself, “It is natural for me to stay in the present moment with complete peace of mind as I play golf” (it just may take longer to work by you saying it yourself). Then, when you have acquired this kind of thought pattern and when you start to accept it more and more and believe it to be possible, it will eventually become the filter you view life through.

Let’s just say that right now, the filter or thought pattern you have is, “I just can’t seem to stay focused for anything. My mind wanders all over the place and I have a really hard time staying focused.” If you carry that belief system around, you will observe life and yourself in a way to prove it to be true. That is the filter you will view life through. You will see evidence that confirms that statement all around you and within you, period. That’s just how it works and what I meant about attracting, magnetizing, or seeing it, like seeing a particular type of car when you go car shopping.

The effort here is in stopping that kind of negative self-suggestion and getting rid of that filter system, and very purposefully, diligently, deliberately replacing it with a more healthy, positive, and un-limiting way of viewing yourself and your golf game. I know at first it may seem strange or weird like, “Wait a minute. I don’t feel like this, so why would I say it? I am a realist, so why would I say things that are untrue?” What I am telling you is there is evidence of this in your life that already exists. You just have to start focusing on it to see it. The more you do that, the more you will believe in the suggestion that, “It is natural for me to stay in the present moment with complete peace of mind as I play golf.”

It will also help you if you apply some training to yourself where you actually work on being present in the moment and having peace of mind, like getting out of the stories in your head. You need a combination of many things. Work on being present, having peace of mind and not believing the old stories. Affirm this suggestion over and over again, and begin to notice and attract this kind of information in your life so you can view life through this kind of lens. See the evidence of it and say, “Oh gosh, there are times when I am present, and there are times when I have peace of mind.” As you observe and notice it in your life, check it off and give yourself credit for it so you will see that it really is true. The more you do this, the more you will believe this statement, and it will just compound from there. The more you believe this statement, the more you will see it in your life, the more you will live this way in your life, and the more you will experience it in your life. The more conscious level mental training you do on being present and having complete peace of mind as you play golf, the more you will have it in your life. You can do this!

As I always say, it’s not just in golf. You can and need to do this in every aspect in your life. If you are serious at all about improving your golf game, I highly suggest you find opportunities in other areas of your life to practice this kind of statement and affirmation. How do you do it? You just drop off the words “as I play golf” and say, “It is natural for me to stay in the present moment with complete peace of mind.” Period.

Work on being present and having peace of mind (meaning rejecting stories and getting out of analytical, fear-based thinking). See life through this filter and find evidence more and more every day, of moments when you are able to be present and have peace of mind. Affirm this and believe it more and more each day. Do these things in life and you will excel in your mental golf training to such a level that you won’t have to try to be present and have peace of mind in golf because you will have mastered it in life. You are the common denominator between your life, relationships, work and what happens on the golf course. Mastery in one area carries over to all of the others, which should result in improvements to them all as well. Who wouldn’t want more peace of mind in everyday life?

Use every minute of the day as an opportunity to train in these mental skills, and you will master them in your golf game, far beyond measure. If you would like any extra help with this, I am available for you and would be happy to assist. I wish you well as you take this teaching and work on being in the present moment with complete peace of mind in golf and in life. Thanks, and have an amazing day!

Take Care of Yourself and Practice: Improve Sport Performance

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 16:52:01 -0500

As you prepare to perform in your sport, do you make sure to take care of yourself and practice enough beforehand? Does this question even seem silly to you, like why would I even ask? Well, in this article, I will go over one of the hypnosis suggestions from my golf-pro products, and it will help clarify the importance of taking care of yourself. It is also a self-suggestion, and that is why I offer it to you in this manner so that every day you can repeat it to yourself and begin to believe it more and more. Maybe you are unaware of how you speak to yourself, and the kinds of conversations you have. Just like anything else, the more you repeat something, the more you reinforce and compound it, the more it becomes an automatic behavior and thought pattern. So by being very mindful of the types of thought patterns you think in your own mind, or conversations you have with others, you can deliberately cut back on those that limit you or hold you back in your performance. You do not want to keep thinking in terms of lack, of how you perceive that you are not good enough, or how maybe you do not have enough. You need to mindfully shift your thoughts so you speak and think in more un-limited ways. You want to reinforce, compound, and build the areas and thought patterns you truly prefer. Speaking my self-suggestion is a great way of accomplishing that in your life and in your sport. Let’s use golfing as an example. Say we are talking about your putting. Do you constantly look at the areas in which you fall short or have a problem? Do you think and converse in ways like ”I have a putting problem. I can’t seem to make the short putt?” If you do, that builds an anxiety, worry and sense of fear around any short putt you face. So then when you have to make a two foot putt, for instance, you will walk into that with an expectation of missing it, a decrease in your energy, and a lack of confidence. All of that will very likely continue to keep you performing weakly in that area. You need to be aware of how you think. So let’s look at the suggestion I want to delve into here: “I take care of myself and practice (mechanics and mental skills) frequently, so I feel prepared and confident when I play. I take care on all levels—eat, sleep, hydrate, exercise, and practice of mental skills and mechanical skills.” Why is it important to have this as a self suggestion? First of all, it is important that you shift your mind to recognize whether or not you are even doing these things and to see whether or not you are taking care of yourself and practicing in these areas. Are you making sure you practice your mechanics and mental skills frequently? Are you eating, sleeping, hydrating, and exercising properly for optimum performance? Let me give you an example of why it is so important to take care of yourself, although it seems funny to me to even say that because it is almost common sense to me that we have to take care of ourselves—but we don’t. We may get very little sleep, not eat very healthy, drink enough water, or exercise enough. Instead, we keep thinking that our bodies should be able to handle it and overcome and be fine, but that is not reality. Our bodies and the cells of our bodies are living organisms and need to be taken care of and if they are not, they will struggle. They will go into states of unhealthiness and disease, and obviously your performance will decrease – not just in your sport, but in every area in your life. So let’s say you are a golfer and want to have good endurance—a consistent level of energy the whole time you are out there on all the holes. Or you are a shooter and you want to feel as energized on the last stations as you do on the first one. Well, again, common sense would ask; “How well did you sleep last night? How good are you eating? Are you getting sugar spikes and then coming down off of them? Are you skipping meals or not eating healthy, and therefore lacking the nutrients to carry you through? Are you drinking enough water and hydrating your body enough?” Your body can easily become fatigued if you aren’t taking care to ensure proper sleep, nutrition and water intake. Are you exercising? If not, the strength and endurance of your muscles might not be there when you need them. So honestly, if you really stopped and thought about it, you cannot perform to the best of your ability in your sport unless you are truly looking at these categories in your life. Of course you have to practice your mechanics and your mental skills, but you must also deliberately and diligently make sure you get enough sleep, eat healthy foods throughout the day, hydrate yourself throughout the day, exercise regularly and strengthen your muscles, spine, bones, and even improve your flexibility. Things like Yoga will help you have flexibility and flow that will also benefit your performance. Even if this sounds very basic, I highly encourage you to resolve to take care of yourself. Take a look at your eating habits. Many athletes know to carry snacks with them, but how healthy are your snacks? Are they causing a sugar spike and then bringing you down from that? Are they nutrient based or junk food? Junk food won’t help the cells of your body or clarity and focus in thinking that you need. If you don’t eat very healthy, are you taking a good, real whole-food based vitamin to at least supplement that you aren’t eating healthy? There is no getting away from the fact that the cells of your body need nutrients. In order to think clearly, your brain needs nutrients. You also need to take your sleep patterns into consideration. Most people need around eight to nine hours of sleep a night. There may be a small percentage of people who can get by on about six hours of sleep, but they are far and few between. How much sleep do you get per night? I hear from a lot of clients that they have to get up at five or six in the morning. Whatever time you have to wake up, just reverse back eight to nine hours, and that’s what time you should deliberately and diligently go to bed. You go to bed at that time to get the sleep that your body needs to perform well. I understand that some people have other issues with sleep pattern problems, such as falling asleep with difficulty or waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. If that sounds like you, then trying something like self-hypnosis, breathing, or relaxation techniques can help retrain your body and mind to drift into relaxation and sleep. Now you are ready to tackle these areas so you can truly perform to the best of your ability in your sport. Not only that, but these areas also affect every area of your life. Drinking lots of water is important because your body is made up of about 90 percent water. If you don’t keep your body hydrated or replenished when you sweat, or you don’t continue to put the water back in, you will experience various health problems. Lack of proper hydration can cause headaches, vision problems, skin irritations, and the inability to focus. The organs in your body all need hydration to function properly, so it affects your life even if you do not participate in a sport. When it comes to exercise, how can you expect to have the strength and endurance to get through an entire day if you ignore that key area? Especially if you carry sports equipment or a golf bag, or you constantly put physical energy out when swinging a club, kicking a soccer ball or lifting a shot gun? Whatever sport you play, if you don’t exercise regularly to create muscle strength and improve your heart and lung capacity, it will be impossible to be able to perform well. Or course, the suggestion does include taking care of practicing your mental and mechanical skills. Taking care of this level of your sport is obviously so important – especially the mechanics. There is no athlete that can say it is unimportant to practice mechanics. It’s a given that you need to practice your mechanics. But I see such an imbalance here, because most athletes only take that one area seriously. They say, “I must practice my mechanics!” What I am encouraging you to do is open your mind and realize that it is just one of the elements necessary for good performance. You can practice your mechanics every day for weeks and months, but maybe you don’t sleep well; there goes your performance. Then let’s say you have been practicing your mechanics diligently, but you don’t eat well. Let’s go a step further and consider an extreme example. Maybe you skip meals, and don’t eat the night before or breakfast that morning, and you don’t bring any snacks with you for the day. How will you perform well? It makes no difference for your body if you eat cruddy or just skip breakfast. Depriving the cells of your body with necessary nutrients negatively affects performance. I hope you can see that you need to take care of more than just the mechanics. It is one of the elements, but it is not the most important. You have to practice them, but you also have to take care of these other areas. Of course the mental side is one element that I find to be invisible to most people; especially as a mental trainer. People don’t usually consider working on mental skills, unless they read a few books here and there. Even then, they don’t necessarily put those skills to work every day. So I tell my clients they have to practice their mental skills, just like they practice their mechanics; just as diligently, with as much time and effort, if not more. Your mind has been programmed throughout all of your life experiences. In every waking moment, your mind is being programmed. So you don’t just reverse and change the negative programming for your sport, but you must change the way you view and think in all areas since you have only one mind. You don’t take out one mind that you use in life, and then put your sport-mind in to play, and then put the life-mind back in when you are done on the course. That’s not the way it works. It is the same mind involved in everything you do. The training of it can go all day long and really needs to be applied in all different areas, not just when you practice or perform in your sport. So I highly encourage you to take a look in these areas and this suggestion: “I take care of myself and practice (mechanics and mental skills) frequently, so I feel prepared and confident when I play. I take care on all levels—eat, sleep, hydrate, exercise, practice of mental skills and mechanical skills.” Make this a life statement, and really try to live this way every day. You will find that you not only improve in your sport, but you should feel and perform better in all areas of life as your body gets everything it needs I am here to help you with this if you need any extra assistance. I really wish you well in applying this teaching and hope you are able to see some great progress and bring your performance to the next level by taking care of yourself and practicing your mechanics and mental skills. Have an amazing day!

Acceptance for Less Stress & Greater Joy

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 16:35:19 -0500

Over the years, I have found that joy actually comes from acceptance. You can increase joy and decrease stress in your life by accepting yourself, your life, other people, and whatever situations may be presented to you. Of course, joy is quite the opposite of stress, or always feeling resentful, angry, frustrated, or guilty. You have the ability to experience joy in everything you do and every moment of your day. It may sound farfetched or impossible, but it is not. I hope this article encourages you and offers you guidance in your progression towards that reality, so you can experience the greatest joy possible in your life.

What does it mean when I say that joy comes from acceptance? It means that things don’t always have to be perfect or how you think they should be. Things don’t have to be how your analytical or conscious mind decides they are supposed to be. Your ego may believe that things should happen in a certain way or a specific timeframe, and other people should act a certain way (or not), but those kinds of thoughts cause stress, anger, agitations, resentments, and guilt within us. Joy, then, comes from learning how to accept what is, starting with how to love and accept yourself exactly as you are.

When I talk about the need for acceptance of oneself, an interesting fear usually comes up for most people. They are afraid that if they accept themselves as they are, then they will become complacent and not want to make any healthy changes for themselves. This really is not true. I will teach and encourage you to realize that you can love and accept yourself for exactly who and what you are right now, and it is because of your love and acceptance that you will want to make positive change that increases joy and decreases stress in your life.

Let’s say you are overweight and have been struggling for a while to lose 20lbs, 100lbs, or maybe 200lbs. You can actually accept and love yourself as you are, and even how you got there. If you do, your mind will then be in a neutral place as you consider where you are and where you would like to be. You do not want to think that what you did was all wrong or bad, an error, mistake or problem, because that thinking decreases your mood and energy and gives you the opposite of what you need to lose the weight you want to lose. You need energy, motivation, desire, and inspiration to maybe start exercising, make good choices, buy different foods, eat healthier, or eat smaller portion sizes, in order to overcome obstacles and rise to the occasion. All of that will not occur from a place of low energy, being down on yourself, being stressed, or feeling hopeless or helpless.

That example is just one of the benefits to shifting the way you view yourself. The other is a sense of calm that comes from accepting your reality. However, you are right. Now is your reality. Why would you be upset by what is real? The only reason is because you think reality should be different from what it actually is. When you have an illusion in your mind of how you really believe something should be, and then when you look at reality and that illusion is not met, you get upset. That is the opposite of what you should be doing or what could be occurring. When you look at your reality and get upset as you start to fantasize about how it should be different, you create the opposite effect in your body than what you need for a positive change. If you accept what you see as real, then you remain calm and in control of your emotions, instead of getting stressed out and losing your joy.

So accept and love yourself as you are, and for everything you have ever gone through that brought you to this point—with no condemnation or negativity. Then, from a neutral place, you are able to gain greater clarity of what you would like to change, work on, improve, or put time, effort, and energy into. How do you want to spend your time and energy in life and all the moments you experience? Do you want to feel positive and energetic about yourself, or negative and hopeless?

Acceptance of life is exactly the same as accepting yourself. So how can you learn to accept the circumstances of your life? It is identical to what I just explained about being overweight. Your reality is whatever is happening around or in front of you. If you are behind an elderly lady at the cash register of a store and she is counting all of her pennies to pay, but you are in a hurry to get to a meeting, the reality of the moment is what is actually happening. Your stress, anger and agitation come when you believe the situation should be different. If the story in your mind says you should be able to get through the line quickly and off to your meeting, then that is what causes your stress. Again, the opposite needs to occur. You need to be in reality, not an illusion in your mind.

While you are in reality, you can make some clear decisions. It doesn’t mean you become complacent or make no change. You can choose another check-out line if that’s what it takes to get to your meeting, but do it calmly. It is a decision you make. Or you can stay in line, watch her count her pennies and decide all is fine. Maybe you find the scenario is kind of cute and reminds you of your great grandmother, and then you reminisce about some really wonderful times from childhood. You have lots of options. Unfortunately, you may wish she would hurry up or the situation wasn’t happening at all, and then stress comes from believing the story in your mind rather than acknowledging what is actually happening around you. You think, “If things around here would change, then I’d be happy.” That is just not so. What really needs to happen is that you change the way you think about the situation, and stop believing the illusion. When you do, you experience happiness.

Now we’ve covered how to accept yourself and situations around you, but there is one more area of acceptance that affects joy or stress in your life. You need to accept others. Even though everyone is unique and different, the same process occurs with each interaction you have. Your level of acceptance of each person, will determine your level of joy or stress.

There are people with all sorts of different personalities on this planet. You will undoubtedly meet some with similar characteristics to yours, and some without. People also have varying degrees of personality traits. They are like soup with different ingredients. You will be able to relate on some level with people most like yourself, maybe on certain topics or ways of living, but many people exist who do not share the same kinds of ideas on how to live, similar traits, or way of making choices and handling themselves as you do. It’s when you interact with someone very different from yourself that you often create unnecessary stress in your life, because you tend to think, “If that person would just be different… (meaning, if he/she would think or act more like you, or be the way you think that person should be)…then everything would be fine and I would be happy,” but that is not what will really make you happy. You need to accept them for who they are in order to keep your joy and happiness.

Accepting people for who they are does not mean condoning their behavior or saying, “Okay, I will continue to hang out with them even though they are physically, mentally, or emotionally abusive to me.” I am not saying that at all. Acceptance means saying, “Okay, this is what is being presented to me, or what this person is offering, and it is my current reality. Why would I get angry or stressed about it?” You can then make a decision calmly because you love yourself and want to take care of yourself. You can watch them, accept them as they are, and make the right decision for you.

What people often get caught up in is the illusion in their mind that others “shouldn’t do that,” or they “shouldn’t be like that.” “They should be different, more respectful, kinder, and less abusive.” Then people get more and more angry, upset, saddened, or stressed when others are not the way they think they should be, but believing the story in their heads is what upsets people, not what others have the right to do or not do. I am not saying that people have the right to be abusive, but they have the right to do what they do and experience the necessary consequences of their actions. I do not condone abuse or think anyone else should condone it; it’s a matter of looking at the interaction and making a choice to maybe move on or take action. Someone can file a lawsuit, call the police, distance themselves etc., but the point is that there are many different options. There are a lot of ways of handling it, but it does not have to cause stress, anger or frustration. In other words, you may not agree with other peoples’ words or actions, but you can still accept them as they are, and make decisions from a calm, clear perspective.

In looking at all of this, how can you increase your joy and decrease your stress? I would say that you need to increase love of yourself, life, and others, and accept yourself, life, and others. It does not mean being complacent or condoning unhealthy behaviors. It means looking at yourself, life and other people for who and what they are, and making very clear decisions about what you want to put your time and energy into. Life is short, and your time and joy are precious, so you need to be clear on how you want to spend that time, and accept whatever is real in each moment.

I encourage you to adopt what I have described in this article into your everyday life. It’s not always easy to do, but I hope you understand it because it will make a world of difference in the amount of joy and stress you feel. If you have any questions or need help applying this in your life, please contact me. I wish you well as you learn acceptance as a tool to achieving greater joy and less stress. Have an amazing day!

7 Proven Suggestions To Help You Succeed In Your New Year’s Resolution

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 22:16:54 -0500

To have a resolution or not to have a resolution… that is the question.

Is it that time for you? It’s the New Year and some folks are setting New Year’s resolutions; others are so sick of hearing of them they don’t even want to consider setting one. Or maybe these non-resolutioners are “over it” because they have been there, done that, and couldn’t stick to the change. Whatever position you take, there’s no doubt change is challenging.

One of the reasons hypnosis is so popular is because it catches the attention of those striving to change, and who have likely tried many other methods first. Yep, they typically only come to me as a last resort, when will power and nothing else has worked. Ya, I could take that personally, but I actually love this aspect of what I do. I get to hear all about the ups and downs of my client’s previous efforts, I learn a lot about the challenges involved in change, and I get to see the limitations of will power. Then, to the benefit of my clients, I can turn all this around in a sort of sneak attack on their subconscious. These clients’ minds are very ready for a change because they have already tried everything else. Combine that with highly effective suggestions and they are guided over and beyond the hump. Their change is significantly easier and seemingly miraculous.

But what if you want to tackle change on your own, without the benefit of hypnosis… here are a few things I have learned about change:

You will be more likely to make permanent change if the motivation comes from you. Meaning you want to make the change because you believe it is in your best interest vs doing it for someone else or because you have been told to.
Make small changes and don’t bite off more than you can chew. We can get so excited about making change that we set lofty goals, only to find it was too much to keep up with or attempt to implement.
Change comes from deliberately decreasing a specific behavior while simultaneously increasing the frequency of the new behavior… both of these take effort and must be addressed.
Make a commitment and stick to it, especially in the midst of stress. I recommend clients learn healthy coping skills to productively address stress, because life challenges will arise and tempt a person to revert back to their unhealthy habit.
Be mindful as you enter into circumstances where you would have engaged in the old habit, think through and be ready to implement alternative choices.
If you slip up and engage in the old behavior, don’t attack yourself and give up, take it as an opportunity to learn about yourself and your areas of weakness… this will help you be one step ahead of yourself and catch these potential obstacles as you move forward.
Take it one day at a time… or one hour at a time. Along the way remind yourself of the positive reasons for making the change, be patient and believe in yourself.

With these 7 suggestions you can have the strength to make a healthy, positive change. So the question isn’t whether or not to have a New Year’s resolution, it is a question of which one to commit to.

See How Far You’ve Come: Improve Golf Performance

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 17:57:25 -0500

How often do you ever stop and look at how far you’ve come in golf? How about your life in general? In this particular article, I have pulled a self-suggestion from my hypnosis products that relates to the idea of “looking back” in order to achieve greater confidence in where you are today. I believe it will help you understand the importance of building, reinforcing, and strengthening certain kinds of healthy thought patterns that lead to better performance in your golf game and in life. You can accomplish this through repeating the suggestion daily, several times a day, in order to master the skill. The more you master the skills that I teach in your day-to-day life, the more naturally they will come to you and carry over into your golf game.

The topic I want you to consider here is realizing how far you have come. In working with many athletes over the years, I have observed where people tend to see and think about things with a negative perspective. This could be based on their “programming,” what they learned from listening to others, what they learned growing up, or from typical conversations they engage in every day. People tend to limit themselves in their thinking, and you can really see this with golf. You see people looking at what they were unable to do, or wishing they could have played a hole better. Sometimes at the end of a round, they even look back at what went wrong in the round instead of all the things that went well.

That is a tendency you need to change and break free of, if you want to improve your performance in golf. So how do you do that? First, let’s take a look at the following suggestion: “I see how far I have come, just as a mountain climber can look behind and feel proud of his obvious accomplishments.”

Why don’t you go there visually right now? Take your mind, as if you are a mountain climber, and see yourself reaching with your arm and grabbing hold of a rock with your hand, or noticing your foot placement as you scale a cliff or rock wall. Obviously every step of the way is an opportunity to be present, or a challenge that presents itself. You must be confident in your skills, knowledge and abilities to truly be able to perform well as a mountain climber. The same is true in golf, and in many other areas of your life.

The skills used by mountain climbers are all really great mental skills that will benefit every golfer, but what if those mountain climbers kept feeling like, “I am not far enough along,” or “this is not as far as I should be,” and were constantly ridiculing themselves and looking at their lack instead of abundance? How does that differ from the mountain climbers who can turn around and feel proud of how far they have come and can recognize their skill levels improving over time?

Maybe some mountain climbers have gone from climbing small cliffs to large ones and onto mountain climbing excursions, and can see how far they have come from the very first day when they learned how to tie off and where to place their hands. All those basic skills that they have moved far beyond and built on now enable them the ability to be out there successfully implementing all they have learned. Recognizing that gives them confidence in themselves and motivates them toward achieving even greater heights. The same is true in golf.

There is progression that takes place as mountain climbers practice and continue learning and climbing more and higher than they ever have before. Then as they take a moment to look back, they can see that they have come a long way. They can see how far they have come with all of the skills they have learned, their improved performance, and ability to participate in that sport the way they would like. They can also be proud of what they have accomplished.

Let’s take a look at that same concept with golf. Remember the basics and when you first started playing. Realize how far you have come from day one, when you first learned how to grip and swing a club, read the green, align your putt, define the speed…all of that. Take a moment right now to reflect back on the basics, and really remember how you felt when you learned those things. Reflect back on the progression you have made over time with those skills, and see how far you have come with them. Notice that you are now at the point where you don’t have to consciously think about a lot of them anymore. The fact that those skills just come to you automatically now, when you used to have to think about them and practice them over and over, is really huge progress! Recognizing that progress will help you feel more confident in yourself when you step out to play, and improve your golf performance as a result.

I’d like you to take a look and see how far you have come, starting today. With that level of thinking, go about your day and golf game from a mindset of seeing growth and abundance, feeling appreciative, strong and confident, versus feeling lack, that you are not good enough, that you are not far enough along or that things should be different. If you don’t play golf today, I would suggest that you apply this to your life, work or relationships, and find a way (or several ways) to see how far you have come. You can do this in one area of your life, or take yourself through different areas. Go back to the beginning of that particular area, look at your skill set then and what you had to learn, and recognize your growth and how far you have come from then until now.

By doing this in different areas of your life, you will easily be able to transfer that way of thinking over into your golf game, but it won’t work from doing it just one time. You must train yourself to think in this manner on a regular, daily basis. Look at abundance in your life rather than lack. Look at your progression and how far you have come, rather than thinking you should be better by now. Feel confident and good about how well you play golf, rather than down on yourself or like you aren’t as good as some other players out there.

I challenge you to repeat this suggestion from my golf products over and over: “I see how far I have come, just as a mountain climber can look behind and feel proud of his obvious accomplishments”. Congratulations on how far you have come in so many different areas of your life and golf game! I wish you well in applying this today and every day in golf, in your life or any other sport, and am here for you if you need any help. So get out there and do this for a week, and watch how your golf performance improves as you really see how far you have come. Thanks, and have a great day!

Unlock Lid of Love Jar with Passion, Admiration and Respect Hypnosis

Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:00:49 -0500

William Wharton has been quoted in saying “What is Love? As far as I can tell, it is Passion, Admiration, and Respect. If you have two, you have enough, if you have three, you don’t have to die to go to Heaven!” This defines Love so simply yet so significantly. If you are like me, you may have questioned Love, wondered what it is and if you should say it or not. Love is a verb. Love is an action. Love is a feeling, an emotion. I’m sure you are as ready as I have been to experience a powerful Love full of Passion, Admiration, and Respect! My Unlock Lid of Love Jar with Passion, Admiration and Respect Hypnosis will have you experiencing this Heaven in no time!

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Old stories, fears, worries were keeping a tight lid on your ability to experience love
Take the lid off the Love Jar, set Love free; Love is free, exploding out of the jar
Recognizing and feeling: Passion- a strong feeling or emotion, Admiration- great and delighted approval, and Respect- a special regard
Now ready to feel powerful Love in your life, in relationships, and with a special person
You have all three elements now, you have taken the lid off Love jar and are ready to experience Heaven here on earth

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Unlock Lid of Love Jar with Passion, Admiration and Respect Hypnosis MP3 Audio

Professional Sporting Clays Association (PSCA) TOUR Televised on NBC Sports Network

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 20:02:12 -0500

Televised by NBC Sports Network

Televised by NBC Sports Network!

Televised by NBC Sports Network!!

Can’t Wait, So Exciting!!!

The Professional Sporting Clays Association (PSCA) features the first ever professional tour, of the top 60 sporting clays athletes, competing for the largest financial purse in the sport’s history. This exciting professional tour will be televised by NBC Sports Network, featuring the rivalries, personalities and shooting action encompassing the tournament.

“We are truly excited to represent PSCA’s groundbreaking efforts of bringing sport shooting to the professional competitive level and sharing the sport with a national television audience.” states Joe Betar, President, Betar Business Works.

PCSA Partners With Betar Business Works

Houston, TX. – The Professional Sporting Clays Association (PSCA) has selected Betar Business Works as its Marketing, PR and Communications Agency.

Betar Business Works will function in tandem with PSCA’s internal marketing group to serve as the interface for all PSCA media inquiries and assist with PSCA’s marketing, PR, media and social media campaigns.

The Professional Sporting Clays Association (PSCA) features the first ever professional tour, of the top 60 sporting clays athletes, competing for the largest financial purse in the sport’s history. This exciting professional tour will be televised by NBC Sports Network, featuring the rivalries, personalities and shooting action encompassing the tournament.

Michael Osowski, CEO of PSCA states, “We are very pleased to be working with Betar Business Works to further promote the sport of professional sporting clays.”

“We are truly excited to represent PSCA’s groundbreaking efforts of bringing sport shooting to the professional competitive level and sharing the sport with a national television audience.” states Joe Betar, President, Betar Business Works.

About The Professional Sporting Clays Association

The purpose of the Professional Sporting Clays Association (PSCA) is to provide a professional tour for top athletes. This tour will give qualified top athletes of the sport greater access to closed competition with other athletes of similar skill. It will also provide access to media and other notoriety, which in turn will allow them all of the benefits of other professional sports. By creating such an association, the benefits will not be limited to the professional athletes, but also to amateur competitors, club owners, and the entire industry by allowing greater mainstream acceptance of the sport. For more information please visit www.psca.com

About Betar Business Works

Betar Business Works is a full service Marketing and Management Strategy company. We provide services including Marketing, PR, Sales, Media Planning, Branding, Social Media and more. Contact Joe Betar at joe@betarbiz.com; 210.260.3925 or Charlotte Betar at charlotte@betarbiz.com; 210.275.7113. Visit our website at www.betarbiz.com.

Originally Tuesday, January 28, 2014 on: http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/story/1390891321p5vrrtuwmhc

3 Keys to Unlock the Lid Of the Love Jar: Passion, Admiration, and Respect

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 08:29:10 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

Here is a quote by William Wharton: “What is love? As far as I can tell, it is passion, admiration, and respect. If you have two, you have enough, if you have 3, you don’t have to die to go to heaven!” I have chosen this quote because I have spent many years trying to figure out what is love. I wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to dissect it. I heard people talking about it all the time and there have been times in my own experiences where I was unsure of what it meant and if I should say it or not. How does a person know? That is why I chose this quote. It defines love so simply yet so significantly.

February is cupids, red roses, and velvet-boxed candies. February is the month of love. All of us could stand to learn more about love. Love is a verb. Love is an action. Love is a feeling, an emotion. There are so many misconceptions about love. It is believed by a lot of people that it is just there. That you don’t have to understand it. You don’t have to know what it is, it just exists. People go out of their way to avoid love. People deny the existence of love. However, love is within us. We were created to love and so it is there all the time. But if you don’t know how to recognize it, if you don’t know how to set it free, or express it, then it really doesn’t matter if it’s there or not. Through fear, or past situations, or even worries of what the future will hold, there are a lot of negative emotions that can actually hold us back from expressing love and “taking the lid off.” I like to imagine a mason jar like canned peaches or something along those lines. It is tightly sealed. It may even be troublesome to open. I think that is what happenes in our lives. We keep the lid tightly on. Sealed even. You have got to take the lid off of it! Keeping the lid on love is detrimental to our health and well-being. Love can bring out such wonderful things in your life.

Let’s look at the word passion. I once talked with someone who thought passion was not a good thing. I can see that in some situations, passion can lead to negativity. Especially when one is over the edge, or has excessive amounts of feelings that end up causing more trouble if they are passionate about something that is not healthy for them. So that is one way to look at it. But the reverse of that is one which with we are more familiar; that of a strong feeling or emotion. A strong liking, strong desire for someone or something. A healthy passion is another word for love. If you are a passionate person, you’re showing emotions which are affected strongly by feelings in certain areas in your life.

In realtionships, love is allowing yourself to have a strong desire towards someone. This may be difficult for some people. Especially people who respond out of fear. When we allow ourselves to become passionate about something it’s almost like riding a roller coaster. If you get too involved in that high, in that goodness, there can be a huge “let-down” if it doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would. It does come with risks. It reminds me of another quote. This one I kept on my fridge for many years. “Great success and great love involve great risk.” It does take risk to let your guard down and allow yourself to be passionate because you can end up looking like a fool. We have done this in success as well as career choices in our lives. But you have to let your guard down in order to have those passionate feelings flow through you.

Admiration is another part of love. Admiration is defined as great and delighted approval. I love the way those words are put together. Have you ever had that with someone? Approval is when you acknowledge another person’s choices or decisions. That is to say, you may have similar interests, or your value system is the same. It is a common ground. To be delighted in the decisions that he or she makes. When you see eye-to-eye, the reflection of the other person’s decisions and values are like-minded and this causes us to have a pleasing appreciation for them. Admiration in someone is recognizing that we are all unique but being able to share common ideas in such a way that we develop feelings and deeper bonds.

Respect is another key to defining love. As we have heard in life, you cannot demand it; you have to earn it. You can claim to be respectful, you can demand that others respect you, but it’s really your actions that create a manner of respect. Holding someone in a high or special regard, an expression of regard or courtesy to another person is how it is defined. If you respect someone, then you consider them worthy. People’s decency in their day-to-day conduct help us to guage respect. One doesn’t go around respecting anyone you see or meet, although you could. People have to earn respect by how they treat others. This means that you’ve paid attention to who they are in life and how others treat them. You’ve seen how they react in certain situations. You see what they do for a living or in their free-time. Respect is defined by your preferences. What you consider to be important to you, what you believe to be respectful behavior is going to be unique to each individual. Finding that in another person can bring out a lot of respect and draw you in close to one another.

So, if you have a combination of passion-a strong feeling or emotion, admiration-delighted approval, and respect-a special regard, William Wharton would say that you don’t have to die to go to heaven because this kind of love feels absolute and amazingly wonderful. This is his definition of love and I would have to agree with him. What a great combination to have all three! He points out that if you have two, it is enough but it could be phenomenal with all three. What if you have admiration and respect? Would that be enough for you? Or what if you had respect and passion? Could you live in a relationship with just those two? I would like to think that if you had respect and admiration, that it would eventually lead to passion. I am willing to assume that having a combination of any two would lead to the third. Why not take a look at these 3 keys of love: passion, admiration, and respect. Take the lid off of the mason jar that holds your love inside. Act on these measures. Learn about yourself. Choose to love all things in your life. But hold out for that person in your life that makes you feel all three of these things. Because as Wharton said, “you wouldn’t have to die to go to heaven.”

Ready to Unlock the Lid of Your Love Jar with Passion, Admiration and Respect? It just got easier!

Click here to get my Downloadable Hypnosis Audio to help you make the transition: [add_to_cart item=”LV0201″ showprice=”no” quantity=”user:1″ ]

Dawn Grant on Love vs Fear… February’s Theme

Sat, 08 Feb 2014 00:44:05 -0500

February is the month for Love.

But maybe you hadn’t realized that Fear (sadly) rules most of how you think, speak and act. It’s time to kick Fear out the door and to experience greater Love!

I am here to help… in this video I offer a quick lesson on Fear vs Love

Dawn Grant on Love vs Fear… February’s Theme

During the month of February I am offering help so that you can experience Greater Love and Less Fear… you will find this availabe on my website. At www.DawnGrant.com I offer free mental training via my articles and video blog, as well as downloadable hypnosis products.

Each month I address a different theme, and create new hypnosis products throughout the month so as to assist you in making those healthy, positive changes

Hope, Wisdom, Love: Love Better, Receive Greater Joy

Sat, 08 Feb 2014 08:29:10 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

How can we acquire more hope, wisdom, and love in our lives that will ultimately lead to more joy? To try and delve into this further, I would like to look at what I consider to be ‘true love’, rather than the romantic Cinderella-story type of love. If we look at a deeper perspective of what love is to us as human beings, I believe it can have a profound effect on our life experience and bring us greater joy and peace every day.

As I consider this topic, I turn to a quote by David Richo for guidance in this article. If you have not heard of him, David Richo is a psychotherapist, teacher, workshop leader and writer, and you can find more information about him on his website, at www.davidricho.com. As for the quote, it comes from his book, entitled: “Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power and Creativity of Your Dark Side”.

So the quote is: “Hope grows from welcoming our positive shadow, since hope is about believing in the potential in us for a life that is greater than the one our frightened and limited ego has designed, a wisdom larger than our thinking mind can muster, and a love that is wider than that with which we embrace our immediate circle of friends.”

So “Hope grows from welcoming your positive shadow…”. Think about that for a moment. How tuned in are you to your positive side? I am not talking about the part of you that doubts who you are or what you are doing, or reflects on your past in an unhealthy way. That can limit you because of fears or reactions to past situations that have absolutely nothing to do with the present. You need to get out of that dark, negative side and into the light, positive view of yourself; the light of love, of being present in current situations and accepting what is, who you are and who others are. I bring this up a lot because it is important to talk about and consider. It has a huge impact on how you see and think about yourself and others, and how much you are able to love yourself and others. It really affects every aspect of your life.

David Richo goes on to say that hope is: “…believing in the potential in us for a life that is greater than the one our frightened limited egos have designed”. Why would our egos (or our minds) be frightened? You have probably seen me address ego in other writings before – or heard me talk about it. The more you hear me talk about ego, the more you can reflect on it and see that it feeds off of fear. Ego feeds off of fear. The more you start to witness that, the more you will see that it is true. Then, through that realization, you should be able to step out of the fear and limiting perceptions in your mind (in your ego), and step into hope and the unlimited potential that exists in all of us. We each have a unique gift, but we will not know what it is until we step out of fear and pursue our full potential.

How does David address wisdom? He says: “A wisdom larger than the thinking mind can muster”. We really have such great wisdom available to us; far beyond our conscious level of thinking. Our conscious mind is the part of us that thinks it is in control, comes up with solutions, rationalizes and analyzes everything. There is so much more to our minds than that. When we learn to get out of that conscious mind, we can tap into the wisdom that is far beyond our thinking mind. How do we get there? I have lots of information on how to do it, so please contact me if you would like more information. It is possible, and I can help.

As for love, David Richo ends the quote by saying: “…and a love that is wider than that which we embrace in our immediate circle of friends.” We know what love feels like, to some degree in our lives. We experience it, but most of us only experience it with our ‘close circle’; typically our family, or some aspect of family, and friends. The love we give and receive to our parents, our children, brothers, sisters and other family members is one form. But the kind of love that moves beyond; that is something you can experience and come to recognize, appreciate and enjoy, and goes much deeper. That is the love that brings us greater joy and peace, and includes loving ourselves and other people who are not ‘family’. It is possible to experience it in all its fullness, and I have lots of ways to help you grow in this area as well.

So I highly recommend you read David Richo’s books and check out his website. If you would like some help implementing ways of growing in these areas of your life, please contact me. I sincerely ‘hope’ you are able to bring more hope, wisdom and love into your life, so you can experience greater joy. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

Love Is A Way Of Being Present In Each Moment

Wed, 12 Feb 2014 08:29:17 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

Being that we are breezing through the month of February, there have been a lot of ideas about love. What is love? How does it feel? What is true love? What is the difference between love and being in-love? Is love a feeling? Is love a presence of mind? To help me explore the definition of love, I turn to a quote by David Richo: “Most people think of love as a feeling but love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present.” I think most people want to have a loving relationship with self, with family members and friends, with a significant other and people we come across every day. We live on this humongous planet where there are so many facets of culture, life, and sustenance, but I like to think that love is a common thread of which we all share and relate.

I can honestly say that this is something I am working on for myself. I speak from personal experience when I say that the greater amount of love I experience in life with myself and others, the more peace, serenity and joy I feel on a regular daily basis. David Richo has helped me do that. He is a practicing psychotherapist, teacher, workshop leader and writer in California. He harmonizes and brings together transpersonal psychology, various religious perspectives, poetry, mythology and his own experience – of which I can easily relate. (www.DavidRicho.com)

The quote I chose here is simple, but yet I think it is very meaningful: “Most people think of love as a feeling but love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present.” (How to be an Adult in Relationships: The 5 Keys to Mindful Loving, by David Richo)From clients, friends, and my own experiences, I have seen this to be true. I, like most people for a long time, thought of love as a feeling that eluded me. I wasn’t quite sure what it was. I am pretty clear on what the love I have for my children is all about – I experience that every day of my life. But really knowing what it means to be ‘in-love’ or seeing what love for different friends and relationships is…well, it is an interesting thing to observe in my own life. So, let’s take a look at what love really is.

What I have come to realize is that when I am being a loving person to myself, I am truly present in who I am and accepting of who I am at this exact moment – and in each moment. Wherever I am on my journey, I know that there are numerous timelines going on as far as some areas where I excel, some where I am mediocre, and some that are a new kind of experience for me altogether. There are hundreds of those different timelines going on at all times.

I don’t know why, but it seems like people expect or believe we should already know things or already be perfect in all these different elements and areas of our lives. Obviously, that is not realistic. We really need to be able to stop and get a general idea, from our own perspectives, of where we are and be 110% good with it. To refer back to the quote:“…love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present.” The way of being present with oneself, when you look at self-love, is to be present with yourself in whatever you are experiencing in that moment. Sometimes you experience hurt or sadness. So be present in that. You can love it but also learn from it instead of being upset or arguing and thinking you shouldn’t feel that way. You can be present with that and love that it is something you are seeing about yourself, which you can observe. Becoming aware and accepting of oneself in each moment is a necessary step toward love of others. You must first love and accept yourself, and everything about yourself in each moment.

Let me stop here and say that you can accept yourself where you are, but you don’t have to become complacent. That has been a huge topic with my clients over the last several months; especially with athletes. Moving into acceptance, love, and peace does not mean complacency or becoming lazy or condoning unhealthy behaviors or actions on your part or others. It just means you can accept and be present in love in that moment, and know you have the ability to make some changes.

How about being present in your relationships with others? I have seen that when I am experiencing love with another, I see them in that moment no matter what they are doing. Even if my teenager is acting out or having a moment of frustration, I am able to look at her and experience what is happening and be present in that moment. I can realize that is where she is at in her journey, and know it is just one aspect of many in the timelines I mentioned. There are many other levels or timelines of events that are parts of her that are happening as well. So the love can be present with where she is in the moment.

I can also see this in my son who is a few years younger, and the completely different journey he is on. I can be present in his faith and what he is experiencing no matter what it is in that moment (hurt, anger, sadness, etc.). To be able to embrace that and not believe it should be different, even if, as a mother, I wish he didn’t hurt or feel sad. It is a part of life and something we all go through. Wishing would take me out of the moment, but being present allows me to love him in the moment.

Then there are relationships with significant others. Everyone is unique and on their own journey with their own characteristics, values, sense of humor, philosophy, ways they choose to spend their time, care for others, and so on. We see all of those things in every human being. But when in relationships with a significant other, we probably spend more time with them seeing the intricate details of their personality on a regular basis. We need to be able to genuinely love them, wherever they are in their journey; to be present in each moment and whatever timelines they are experiencing, and honor that. It is wonderful be able to look at them and enjoy their sense of humor and whatever challenges they face, and see how they work through those. Enjoy those relationships and build them and experience what you bring to them and what the moments bring out.

“Most people think of love as a feeling, but love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present.” I completely agree with David Richo and I can tell you I see it all day long throughout my life experiences and what I have evolved into. His book, How to be an Adult in Relationships; The 5 Keys to Mindful Loving, definitely raises a mind flag because we can get caught up in the thinking mind that can go off in some tangent or fear and take us out of being present. The ego that can believe “I am always right and what they are doing is wrong”, or “things should be a certain way and if they are not then it’s a problem”. All of those things are us not being mindful and not being present, but getting caught up in reactionary, fear-based mind instead. We can get out of it over and over again if we are not mindful.

What can you do to stay mindful when your ego takes you out of the present? You can defuse it and realize you don’t have to fall for it all the time. I actually view the ego here as a young child-like part of the mind that has tantrums when things aren’t going it’s way and it is afraid of all sorts of things. It’s even a slow processor compared with the subconscious mind. The conscious mind analyzes and takes longer to try to figure something out. Then when it does, it believes it is right and factual and the only way that something can be. It’s very interesting when you start to look at that level of the mind and take the power away from it. That level of the mind will not disappear, but its energy can go into healthier ways of thinking and be pretty powerful in creating a more joyful life just as easily as it was in the habit of creating an anxious, stressful or frustrated life.

A turnaround in the mind back to the present is possible. But it first comes from the recognition and awareness that the conscious mind is caught up in a cycle of stoic, fear-based thinking. It can be analyzing, rationalizing, worrying about the future or dredging up regrets of the past. You can see how those things might affect all of your relationships (with self, others, friendships, dating relationships, significant others, children – all of them). Obviously you don’t want that, so keep working on bringing yourself back around to being present in each moment.

I completely agree with the author; that love is a way of being present. I hope you can use this information and begin to apply it to your life. If you need any help, I can definitely assist you with this. It’s one of the main things that is lacking in my clients. It doesn’t matter what subject they call me about, or why they believe they are calling. On the surface are the symptoms that made them pick up the phone to call me. But beyond that is the need to see and feel love, whether they believe it is there or not. I help them find it and tap into it. It’s always there. It’s just a matter of getting out of the overbearing thinking of the ego mind, being present, and then learning how to stay that way.

What is love? Love is not so much a feeling, as a way of being present.” Remember to live in the moment and love in the moment. Thank you for reading. May you have a mindfully present day!

Coming Soon…

Thu, 13 Feb 2014 11:40:48 -0500

Living the Virtues Blog is coming soon. Stay Tuned.

Triump Over Love and Life: Brilliance, Success, and True Love are Attainable

Sat, 15 Feb 2014 08:29:24 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

Being able to reflect on your life and putting your best-foot-forward is often difficult at times. I hope the next few minutes I can bring you some encouragement. We are in the month of February and I am writing about love. As we embark onto today’s love quote, keep in mind that love is the ultimate goal. Love of yourselves. Love of the people in your lives. Today’s quote is: “Brilliance requires patience and virtue to rise above ignorance. Success requires optimism and effort to prevail over average. True love requires tender passion and faithful devotion to triumph beyond a feigned heart.”

This is a pretty long quote and if you take a glance at it can be overwhelming trying to process all that information. But if you break it up into little pieces it is easier to digest and may even lead to finding a truth about yourself. The first part is: “Brilliance requires patience and virtue to rise above the ignorance…” Well, brilliance when you think about it try to imagine the many facets of a well-cut diamond. It shines brighter and more glorious than you ever thought possible. It is very impressive. To have brilliance in your life is to be impressive; to rise above others’ accomplishments or what you have set for yourself. Taking it above and beyond the limits you set forth. To be brilliant; a shining light, to radiate. Those are great aspects to have about yourself. I always tell my clients to radiate love, joy, peace, and happiness. You can radiate that. Brilliance requires patience. I have written a lot about patience before and you must remember that there will be highs and lows in life. There will be times where it feels really great and others where you have no idea what is going on. If you go into life knowing there is much growth and learning to acquire from it then you can actually be more patient with the process. Ultimately learning patience will help you to have brilliance. It will help you to be the best and radiate positive feelings. It requires virtue. Virtue is moral excellence; knowing and acting on what is right at all times. No matter what is going on around you, if you are in a valley rather than a peak, then it is your virtue that will help you to show your brilliance but also to rise above the challenge; bringing yourself to a higher level. Ignorance is a state of being where you have little or no knowledge. In order to go from a standard present state of being to brilliance, that requires patience and virtue.

Being in a loving relationship where there is brilliance is really knowing and loving that person not only with patience but with strong moral integrity. Letting the love that you have for each other shine above all else. It is beauty that can be seen and felt. Patience and virtue lead to brilliance. Discover how you can be more patient, more virtuous in your relationships. Let your love radiate, let it shine.

Looking at “Success requires optimism and effort to prevail over average” is similar to the first half of this quote. Ignorance and normalcy are states of beings. Success is taking average to a whole different level. You can be average or you can decide that you want to rise above and be better than average. The success in life and love is going to require optimism. Optimism is a habit of expecting good things. A belief that there is positivity and goodness in the world. Do you perceive that? Success can be defined in many different ways. But today we are looking at success in relationships. Success is defined by your personal preference. You decide what successes you want in your life and relationships. It requires effort to prevail over average. You cannot expect success to fall into your lap. You cannot just sit around and be positive. You have to put one foot in front of the other. You cannot get from point a to point b without putting in effort. Even though you may be optimistic and have great ideas, you won’t go anywhere if you don’t do something with those ideas. Put in effort with that optimism and you will see success. There are people that go into downward spirals. Some people think negatively too much and this can cause you to go way below average. Seeing negativity and letting it bring you down will get you nowhere. Success, however you define it, requires optimism and effort to prevail over just being average. In relationships, in love, being successful is letting go of hang-ups, communicating well, and enjoying the uniqueness that both people bring to the relationship. Love can be such an amazing success when it is with the right person. Optimism and prevalence over average stature leads to success.

Since we are in the month of February I will spend some time on true love. True love in the above quote is: “True love requires tender passion and faithful devotion to triumph beyond a feigned heart.” A feigned heart is one that is contrived or being affected in a negative way. A feigned heart comes from a heart that is somewhat insincere. It is at the same level of being average or ignorant. A heart not wanting to go beyond is not very healthy. True love does require tender passion. Passion behind living and loving what you do or a person is a very positive thing. It is a strong feeling or emotion, a desire full of love. True love requires a gentle and delicate passion. Recognizing that you do not want to wound this person or be too strong is perfecting a loving relationship. Faithful devotion is being reliable, being firm in your support for one another. If you are faithful, you believe with all your heart in another person. You can believe in your loved-one’s admiration and affection. Being faithful isn’t about monogamy. It is about being reliable and trustworthy. Faithful devotion is being completely reliable in your love and affection for that person that you are completely loyal to your loved-one. If you have faithful devotion in your relationship, then you can rely on each other and trust that each one is doing her part to love, cherish and devote herself to a relationship. To triumph over something means an outstanding victory. To triumph over a feigned heart, the level of intimacy, passion, trust, and loyalty must be real. People with feigned hearts will not advance well in a lot of areas in their lives. They will not know how to express the best possible you they can if they have a weighted-down heart. A feigned heart will hold you back from experiencing one of the most wonderful things in life: love.

Having the ability to love yourself and others and being able to express that outwardly is not being ignorant, or average. It is being brilliant and successful. Love and passion can bring about such wonderful aspects of a person’s character. Allow yourself to work beyond your fears. Go beyond the affected-wounded heart that is there from past relationships. We all know what that feels like in one instance or another. Recognize that you will triumph over ignorance, triumph over average, triumph over your feigned heart and allow yourself to have true love in your life with tender passion and faithful devotion. If you want to offer 110% of yourself into relationships, it is not succumbing to your past fears but releasing it and begin being brilliant, successful, and ultimately finding true love. Thank you for reading. If this post left you with questions, or you want to know more about the person you can be, feel free to peruse my website to see what kind of services are offered. May you triumph over your day!

Love Is Life and Life Is Love

Wed, 19 Feb 2014 08:29:39 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

Leo Buscaglia was a well-known lecturer who passed away in 1998. His sole purpose was to spread the word on how to live a happy, health, joyful, life in love. He was often referred to as “Dr. Love.” He wrote a book called Love and I was first introduced to him when a college professor made us read it. It ended up being one of the best books I have ever read. If you want to experience creativity in your life, reading this book is not a bad way to start. This teaches you to live life more fully and to experience life which is ultimately to experience love. There are a lot of people that feel like we evolve in life, spiritually, habitually, relationship-wise. We are all moving towards greater love. Experiencing love more fully, completely is worth the effort. Learning how to love yourself, love your environment, love your life, love the people in your life. Love is acceptance, which includes forgiveness, awareness, etc. The quote is: “Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.”

There are so many things I have written about how to change your life, how to change your thought process, experience them in a positive manner and increase your awareness so that you can live life to the fullest and enjoy all the amazing, wonderful things going. Each of us is unique. Finding that acceptance of yourself and awareness of yourself is a big step in the right direction. Even accepting the past, and the choices that you have made have an effect on your future endeavors. It’s being able to recognize those choices, to learn from them, to be aware of them that will help you discern your life in the present and future. Our intentions change throughout life. We learn, we grow, hopefully we become wiser. If you are spending time upset about who you are, what you have done, it is time to let those fears go and become the person God designed you to be. You cannot live in love and joy if you are hanging on to them. Recognize that you are who you are today, based on your life choices and experiences. We learned through the challenges we faced. So your job is to apply that knowledge and wisdom to see that you are evolving and growing towards a better you.

If you feel stagnant, take a look at your life and see what you are holding onto. Our instincts are to become better, greater in love because love is life and if you miss love you miss life. The only reason to miss out on a life of love is if you have shut your mind off to it. Love exists at all times; within you and around you. Some people say that God is love, and He has the potential to live in all of us, if we choose to let Him. Again, if your beliefs are as such, then you have love within you. The only thing that would cause you to miss love is if your thoughts got in the way of what your heart truly wants. Let not your thoughts be negative, it causes doubt and limitations. It is a choice that we make to open our minds to awareness and deliberately foster the positive thoughts. There are still others that may never in their lifetime recognize that their thoughts control them and those people, sadly, will never experience a life of love. If you search for truth, and you are not a robot or a “sleepwalker” as Eckhart Tolle would say, then you desire a life of love.

Just as I have written above, all these different types of people are proof that we are trying to change, evolve, if you will, towards love. All of us have met a person that is so accepting of self and others. As if he or she is more connected in life, he or she has an appreciation for life and love that we admire. Peaceful and kind in nature, he or she has the ability to make you feel a peace within yourself. That type of person is experiencing love being life.

Make it a mission today for yourself, to become more aware, to connect to life to weed out negative thoughts and replace it with goodness and joy in your life and within yourself. You will always have a choice. Choose to love people in your life. Choose to surround yourself with the same type of loving people. Choose to love life. That way you can absorb a life of love. If you want to break free from oppressive thoughts, surround yourself with loving people and choose to accept your circumstances. Then move forward with positive thoughts and people. Make good choices for your health and well-being. Make a choice to be more loving. Be more aware of the thoughts in your mind. Live a life of love. Have a loving day!

For more information on my Love vs Fear Products, click here.

Qualities You Display vs Qualities You Possess: Making Sense of Relationship Reality

Sat, 22 Feb 2014 09:00:39 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

Today’s love quote: “You attract people by the qualities you display; you keep them by the qualities you possess.” Personally, it is the most commonly talked-about thing that relates to dating that I have ever come across, especially in the lives of my clients and friends. I can tell you that several years ago I had a man tell me that the “representative” is what you meet up front. In the first several weeks it is a representative that takes you out to dinner or movies. At first I remember thinking: what in the world is he talking about? But it makes sense. When relationships are first starting out, people tend to be on their best behaviors. They don’t put all their cards on the table, so-to-speak. They are cautious, maybe try a lot harder, listen better. So the young man I had a conversation with a few years back wasn’t totally misguided by that statement. In new relationships, we do tend to focus more, so it is almost like sending a “representative” out there, into the field of relationship-possibility.

People display certain qualities depending on how comfortable they are with themselves. If you think you have nothing to hide, then you are going to go into a relationship as transparent as possible. Some people are so confident with themselves that is is natural for them, something they don’t have to think about. They don’t feel like they have to be someone they’re not, just to impress another person. Ideally it would be great if all people were like this but that’s not reality. So many times people don’t even know who they are. People get bogged down with fear, rejection, egos get in the way, pasts creep up on them. It is really hard to separate the lessons we’ve learned from our pasts and use them in a positive way in our current and future relationships. This is even harder when you don’t know who you are. It makes it difficult to be true to yourself and the people in your life.

When you look at the dating world today, it’s hard to put yourself out there and many times what happens is that you take a look at the other person and try and guess what he or she wants or likes. What qualities you think he or she thinks attractive. There are a lot of stories about people who go out to eat for their first dates, and they actually wait to see what the other person orders. They may even order something because they think it would impress the other person. Rather than looking at the menu and asking yourself what you want to eat. The difficult thing about this is when you display those types of falsities, those things that may not truly be who you are, the person on the other side of that actually believes that is who you are and they are thinking, ‘I like that she enjoys traveling, or pepperoni pizza,” etc. They see these qualities in you and they believe it to be a truth. If you are confident in yourself, then displaying true qualities about yourself when in relationships is easy for you, and it is not something you need to think about. The problem is when you are on the other side of this. That is when you are left questioning yourself and this person in front of you. Is this a quality they really possess? Or is he putting on a show because he thinks that is what I like?

Imagine relationships as a time line. When you first meet someone, that becomes point A. Point A is not going to be the truest form of a person. Everything is new and untarnished, fluffed-up even. The true test is a little phrase that I like to recite every day: Actions speak louder than words. Be cautious. Does he or she possess actions that you admire? If you see these qualities up front, don’t get encouraged by them automatically. You have to wait and see if that person is genuine in their actions or if this is just a show. I am not saying that people have ill intentions during this time. It is just a matter of who they are or what they perceive themselves to be and whether or not they are living in truth. At first glance, we cannot discern how much of a person is to be believed. You’ve got that first half of the time line, from A to B and I would say during that period of time, just be cautious. You do not know if the qualities being displayed are legitimate or not. However, during your time from point A to point B, if you notice that the person you are with possesses those qualities through and through; it is a measurement that this is a consistent reality of that person and how he or she treats others. The qualities being displayed are constant in their actions, words, and daily lives.

We have all heard cautionary advice: “Don’t fall too soon, because you might not fall for the truth.” I think that is good advice. I think in today’s dating world that people often display certain characteristics upfront that aren’t normally in their realm of character. Hence the “representative” that I wrote about earlier. How much fluff is added to it? Fluff will dissipate over time. It will die off because it is not completely true of that person’s character. In the relationship time line, if the person is constantly showing those qualities in thought, word, and deed, it’s a pretty good indication that it is genuine. If you truly fall in love with that person from point A to Point B and it is a consistent display than you would be happy with this person’s actions for a long term commitment because that is who he or she truly is. You attract people by the qualities you display which is a combination of who you are and who you are trying to impress. But it is the qualities that you truly posses that is going to keep someone around. And if you don’t find those qualities to your liking, let that person go. Be cautious, be conscientious as you embark on any new relationship, not just dating but friendship or business. Know that the qualities that are being displayed are likely a combination of who the person is and what he/she is thinking you want to hear. The combination is unique to each individual. Over time, you will see the qualities each person truly possesses. That is what you should base your decision off of, whether to have this person in your life or not.

Take a look at all the different relationships that you have in your life at the moment. You could probably reflect into your past as well and see when there were times where you have fallen into the relationship situation where you were really attracted to the qualities that were being displayed; only to find they were not true. And then when they dissipated, you were let down and deceived, lied to or hurt. This is what most people do in the beginning of relationships. It is important to take time to get to know the person’s true character. This is human nature and only time will tell the truth. Actions speak louder than words. Each of us wants to fall in love or be with someone who has qualities that are attractive to us, not the ones that are displayed upfront.

Keep your eyes open and ask yourself questions about your relationships this week. What qualities does this person possess? Do I like those qualities? The ones that you do really like should make you feel grateful for that person being in your life. There are people who will appeal to you differently. Some may even make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Remember, what people display and what people possess aren’t always the same thing. It takes time, so be patient, be cautious, be smart. If you would like any more information about finding out what kind of person you are and how to live a deeper, more meaningful life, please contact me at DawnGrant.com. InJoy your day!

For more information on my Love vs Fear Products, click here.

Passion is Action: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:03:56 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

“Passion is to kiss or to hug and to prove that actions speak louder than words.” I chose this quote for a few different reasons. The first was because I was on a mission a few years back that led me to try and help define what passion really is because it is a word I use a lot in my line of expertise. I am passionate about what I do for a living. I feel passion and compassion throughout the facets of my life. So I thought it would be a good idea to delve into that a little bit and see what passion truly is in a relationship. I have to admit that I have learned a lot about that word these past few years. I also picked this quote because I live by the motto actions speak louder than words. It is a saying that helped me both professionally and personally. A lot of times people will open up their mouths and say things with either good or bad intentions and you always have a choice. You can choose to build someone up or break them down with your words and actions. I am not here to say I have hard feelings for people that have said things that have never come to fruition. A lot of times in my business experience, people will say “Oh, we should write a book.“ And in the past, I would get excited with the possibility but then it would never be followed through. The helium gets let out of the balloon and then you realize its not going to happen. I used to take those things personally and I would come down off this emotional roller-coaster and if you hang on every word that someone says then you end up getting disappointed. After realizing what was happening, I decided to trust their actions instead of their words. I wanted to see the proof behind the things of which they spoke. Because that is what true intention is. That is when you know what a person is like.

If you have good intentions and you try to be the best you can be and say the best you can say; positivity flows. Passion is a strong feeling, sometimes a desire; usually related to love. If you truly had chemistry with someone then that passion would be an effect of that love. What I have learned is that true passion comes when you know someone. It is more sincere and real. It is a matter of truly knowing that you would put your life on the line for someone; that you truly care. You must allow that passion to come forward in your life. A kiss or a hug is proof that passion exists. For example, let’s say your child is at school and you are going to pick him up. When you first see him, do your eyes light up? Do you embrace him and tell him you love him? That is passion. But you don’t have to be a mother to understand passion. You can attain it with anyone in your life that you love. Actions do speak louder than words.

Here is another example: Did you ever share a glance with a loved-one from across the room? Their eyes and facial movements speak to you, without saying a single word. If you follow that up with a kiss or a hug or just holding hands, then you are speaking through your actions and saying to that person: I love you.

As I have written about in past inspirations, why not let your guard down? Why not set that free if you are at a point in your relationship where it matters. In relationships, you have to work together to bring out the best in each other, to keep each other inspired and to grow together. If you have gone through the first few stages of relationships (as I have mentioned in earlier blog-posts) where you really do care about another person, then surely show through your actions that you truly love that person. And if you are not in a romantic relationship you can still show loved-ones your passion for them by the things you do for them. It could be a simple wink or a sweet lullaby before bedtime, but it is still passion. Passion is defined by your actions.

The whole idea behind actions speak louder than words is that there is a balance to that. If it is something that is meant to happen, there will be enough inspiration that you will want to follow through. Both parties in a relationship will want to put action behind those words. Everyone is different and things do change. Whatever the reason is, it is not worth riding an emotional roller-coaster. Take what people say in stride. Look to see that their actions give truth to their words. If it is meant to be, then it will happen. This is a standard in all kids of relationships, whether business, family, etc.

Since we are in the month of February, lets take a look at love relationships. A lot of times when your relationship is new, words are spoken and if you take them to heart and that is not what the person is truly like, you may end up getting hurt in the process. Especially in men, they want to WOW women on their dates by saying things they think she wants to hear. It’s almost like a job interview where you are trying to impress. I am not saying that women don’t do it too, but it is more prominent in men. Be aware of your loved-one’s words, don’t write them on your heart until you see proof of that passion through his or her actions.

Why would a person do everything in their power to keep a relationship that may not be worth it? Every situation is different and it may not always work out. Sometimes those two people don’t mesh well and you will see that the passion isn’t there. If you see that there is no future with a certain person, and they are not worthy of your passion, then you need to move on. It will be painful at first but you have to experience love at least once in your life. It is more than worth it. When a person is able to show you passion through their actions and their words then they have earned a priority spot in your life. He or she care about you; you like having him or her around.

All of these things take time in relationships. Healthy chemistry can build and you can sow your passion through actions and intimacy. But first, it takes time to get to know a person for who they truly are and watch how they truly act. There are many questions you ask in relationships. For instance, do we get along? Do we mesh well? Are we strong enough to stand the test of time? Can I live without him or her? Take time to see the proof behind each other’s actions. Is it passion? Are their passions louder than ever? Do their actions inspire passion in you? Passion is using action to display love and affection. Passion is action. And actions do speak louder than words. Think about the love you have with someone today. Do something to inspire passion in him or her. InJoy your day!

For more information on all my Love vs Fear Products, click here.

FULFILL YOUR LIFE PURPOSE: LOVE MORE

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 08:00:37 -0500

February’s Theme is Love vs Fear

As February, the most romantic month, draws to a close, now would be a good time to reflect on one of the most important things in life: LOVE. Do you believe that you are fulfilling your life purpose, or that you truly love people? How do you even feel about love? As you may or may not know, I have talked a lot about ego, your conscious analytical mind, thought patterns, habits and perceptions in different articles and teachings. If you understand the impact of your ego, conscious analytical mind and thought patterns on your life, you can see so clearly how fear-based thoughts contribute to so much unhappiness and insanity in your life. So what I want to look at here is real love, not the Cinderella kind, and how love connects to your life purpose.

I have been looking at different love quotes and information pertaining to love. I haven’t been looking to define or contribute to Cinderella stories of love, though. There is a way in which our society portrays love in movies, books and stories, that tends to create a false belief and perception. Eventually , this causes a lot of pain, disappointment, anger and sadness in people’s lives. At least, that has been my experience with clients and in my own life. Those false perceptions end up creating a lot of self doubt and questions, like: “Why isn’t that happening for me?” or “Why don’t I feel like they do?” The stories people believe about how love looks, how a relationship is supposed to be and how different experiences are supposed to go, just don’t match up to the Cinderella version. Of course, your human perception of what real love is will differ for everyone. But in general, I think I will explain it well enough here for everyone to understand what I mean by ‘real love’, and its impact on fulfilling your life purpose.

For help with this topic, I have turned to David Richo, who is an author, psychotherapist, teacher and workshop leader in California. He brings together transpersonal psychology, different religious theories, mythology, poetry and his own life experiences combined. Of all the information I have read, his seems to be the most concise that I have seen in addressing the topic of real love.

So the quote I chose was from his book: Everyday Commitments: Choosing a Life of Love, Realism, and Acceptance. The quote is: “I ask this question as I embark upon any relationship or project: Is this a suitable context for me to fulfill my life purpose? My life purpose is to love with all my might, in the style uniquely mine, in every way I can, here and now, always and everywhere, no one excluded.”

I love that he starts off talking about life’s purpose, because that is another thing that gets tossed around in different areas of life from religions and careers, to different philosophies. Everyone is trying to figure out his or her life purpose. I love how he brought it in to something that is so general yet so huge. A “…life purpose to love with all my might…” I also appreciate that he put: “…in the style uniquely mine…” because all of us are unique individuals. Even though we are connected through species with so many similarities, our opinions are as different as snowflakes; no two are alike. The way our minds and bodies work show that we are so similar to the point of having a oneness, like a bond; but there is also a uniqueness about each one of us as well.

I personally love to honor that uniqueness. I love to recognize that we are unique in many ways, and have a style of loving that is uniquely ours. We may define it in different ways, based on how we express and feel love, yet, it is the same thing in each of us. So loving with all our might in a style that is uniquely ours, is a way of fulfilling our life purpose, while honoring and respecting who we are and how we choose to live a loving life in every way that we can.

There are opportunities around you at all times to express love. As you radiate from a place of love and compassion and pass that along to other people, it not only contributes to their life experiences, but it also contributes to your own. Here and now, choose not to waste any time living a life of purpose by holding back love for people – even from yourself. It is amazing to me how much time people think they have and because of that, how much time they end up wasting. You never really know how much time you have to live, do you?

I have a friend who was making some amazing plans. She was so excited to move back to what she considered ‘home’; a place where she has family, where there are things for her children to do, and possibilities beyond that which are available where she lives now. I was so excited she was ready to make that move because I knew it would be really great for her, based on what she said she wanted for herself and her children’s lives. But then she told me they would be going in 10 years. When I heard that, I sat in amazement. I thought about how something that seemed so great, wonderful, and in alignment with their preferences, desires, needs, health and care for her children (one has special needs), was perfect for them now. I thought 10 years…wow… that’s unbelievable. Do people even know if they will be around in 10 years? I don’t know if I will be here in 10 years, tomorrow or next week even. Think about that for a moment. I know it gives me so much incentive to live and BE in the here and now. There is no better time than right now to live a life of purpose in love.

I try to love, uniquely in my own way, in every way I can, in the here and now, every day. I try to be present in each of those moments and love the best I can in each of those moments – always and everywhere. This is without exception. Always and everywhere, no matter what is happening in your life or around you, you need to try to love the best you can. You need to find that place in your heart that brings about the best in you, and puts you in the healthiest place to be able to love in that moment. When you do, you will affect the world around you in a positive way; from a place of love.

As you live your life purpose in love, it has a rippling effect. You are responsible for your thoughts and energies that you radiate at all times. Whether you realize it or not, energy radiates from each one of us; it is what you sense when people walk into a room and you know it is there. It happens subtly through brain scans and picking up on electrical energy as you use different parts of the brain or different aspects of the mind. You can’t necessarily see the energy, but it is perceptibly present.

Your energy actually hits the cells of your body first, which is what you feel, and then you define it in whatever word you have come to label it with that makes sense to you. But it also radiates even further out from there where others experience it as well. It is a continual wave of energy that begins inside of you, and it has the ability to affect everything around you (including people). So if you want to live a life of purpose in love and exude a loving kind of energy, then you need to experience love, always and everywhere, with all your might, in a style uniquely yours, in every way you can, here and now – no one excluded. That means nobody!

If you struggle with the thought of loving everyone, consider what it means to be compassionate. I know the Dali Lama talks a lot about compassion. You can learn a lot from him and his insights into the study of compassion. He will help you recognize that you have the capacity to love every single human being. This is especially true, the more you love yourself. You know the challenges you have been through and yet you can still love yourself. You know the struggles you have had with thought patterns, your ego and fears. The more you break through those and have clarity on that aspect of self; the more you love and love and love yourself through all of those things that they eventually dissipate, the better positioned you are to share that love with others. Fear fades; that darkness goes away. From that place, you love yourself more and more. You experience that really wonderful feeling within you that you label as love.

When you reach that comfort level, the world looks much different for you. As you look at other human beings you will see the fear they react from, ego they feed into, and thought patterns that cause them to react in certain ways. When you can recognize that in them, you will then have compassion for them. The struggles don’t mean there is something wrong with those people, but as you see them struggle, you can relate to what they are caught up in because you know you have been there yourself. Compassion helps you to find the ability to love other people.

How many times you have gone back into that old way of living, and how with love, you have come out of it over and over again? It is a wonderful place to be, to be able to love others with compassion and understanding. Thanks to David Richo and his quote: “I ask this question as I embark upon any relationship or project: Is this a suitable context for me to fulfill my life purpose? My life purpose is to love with all my might, in the style uniquely mine, in every way I can, here and now, always and everywhere, no one excluded.” I like to think that if you really immerse yourself in this quote and what it means, you will learn how fulfilling your life’s purpose will lead to an abundance of love.

For more information on David Richo, you can go to his website at: www.DavidRicho.com. If you would like more information on how I can help you out with getting to this place of love, please contact me. I hope you have an amazing amount of love in your heart today, and you extend it out to everyone and everything you come in contact with. It really does help you fulfill your life purpose, if you live your purpose in love. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

For more information on Love vs Fear Products, click here.

Motivation To Make Change Hypnosis

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:26:15 -0500

How many times have you attempted to make a change only to find yourself back involved in the old behavior? How long have you wanted to implement a healthy or positive change only to find that you procrastinate it over and over? Not anymore! With Dawn’s Motivation To Make Change Hypnosis you will now experience incredible levels of strength, courage, discipline, determination; and levels of empowerment that will help you to implement the positive change that you desire right now. You will be able to keep moving forward no matter what tries to stumble you up, you will feel so committed that nothing will be able stop you. Fear will be a weakling next to your strength.

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Stamp the old excuses, fears, doubts, concerns, and worries with dark, black letters that say “Old Story;” closing the file, learning from your attempts to sabotage your best efforts
Free from fears, moving into powerful love… love of yourself, love of your life, love of your future and your desire to make this positive change
Feel freedom and empowerment, knowing it is time and you are truly ready to make this positive change that you desire and deserve
Visualize 7 motivations for making this positive change, hear loud and clear the whisper that has been telling you to make this change
Ready to experience yourself as powerfully as you possibly can, to perform to the best of your abilities, knowing that this positive change will help you to do that

Included In Purchase:

“Intro To The Mind” Video
Motivation To Make Change Hypnosis MP3 Audio

To connect to the store, click here!

To purchase MOTIVATION TO CHANGE, click here!

March’s Theme: Health and Weight Loss

Sat, 01 Mar 2014 08:43:50 -0500

For March I’ve decided to address health and weight loss as a theme. Over the years in private practice, weight loss has been one of the most common areas for which folks seek my help. What has been interesting (and aggravating) is I can help someone stop smoking in one session and then, in the next session, see little progress with a weight-loss client. This was discouraging to me since I got involved with Hypnosis due to its ability to rapidly effect change.

I went on a personal mission starting in 2009 to debunk the weight-loss myths and to find the truth. Soon I learned that common sense in eating habits is very uncommon, and that the diet industry is making billions of dollars while misguiding the masses.

I’ve come to feel bad for those trying to lose weight, who have fallen victim to the industries lies and misinformation.

When you start to learn about the body and it’s needs (and also the lack of understanding regarding this information), the fact that there is an obesity epidemic is no longer surprising. So many people are discouraged and have lost hope.

I want to help! I see now how comprehensive of an issue it is of being overweight. It’s not about eating smaller portions or using some quick-fix or fad diet.

After much research, and personal trial and error; I am now a huge proponent of helping people learn about and implement the eating of nutrient-dense foods; as well as supporting them in the day to day grind of how to change their eating habits so as to have fine-tuned, high functioning body parts; and rapid, healthy weight loss.

But we can’t just stop there because it’s more than just our eating habits. We need to also address motivation to make change, exercise motivation, proper hydration, and healthy (and easy) grocery shopping. All of these habits are addressed with my varying Hypnosis Products.

I am here to help you make change easily and swiftly. Together we can make common sense in eating habits common!

The New You: Ready For Change

Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:00:30 -0500

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

What fuels our appetites? Sadly, the answer to that question is: Thought. Your mind can be a powerful weapon against you. It can make you feel sad. It could make your muscles ache. It could change the way you see yourself when you look in the mirror. Did you ever stop to think about what you are hungry for and why? Does your body automatically grab the nearest sugary treat? Do your thoughts tell you that you are hungry when, in reality, your body is starving for water?

This month, I am focusing on the healthier YOU. It all starts in one place: your thoughts. Taking care of your mind and body will help you to appreciate life and all it has to offer. Are you ready to change? Are you ready to feel better, look better, think better? Join me as I blog about health and weight loss this month. The journey of a lifetime starts with a single step.

For information about all the Health and Wellness/Weight Loss Products Available, please click here.

Motivation To Change

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 07:00:39 -0500

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

I know that it is difficult to make change. I know this as a professional more than most people realize. People seek out hypnotherapy usually as a last resort. They have typically tried everything else without success. Just because most people have so many misconceptions about hypnosis; it is not what they first seek out. Now, there are plenty of people that seek out hypnosis for change because they know it works and they are already familiar with it. But a majority of people seek it out as a last resort. I hear lots of stories and receive lots of information from people regarding how many times they have tried to make a change. How many obstacles that they’ve hit, how many times they have gotten their hopes up only to find failure once again. These people start to formulate beliefs in their minds that they probably wont ever succeed at this change they want. Or they’ll have a belief such as: “Well, I can probably only go ten days without smoking,” or “I have lost thirty pounds and then I put it back on again.” So many manifested failed attempts end up being very discouraging. With all of these attempts that reap very little results people are left feeling burnt-out. They are left feeling hopeless. They wonder if they will ever be able to make that change and a lot of them decide that it will never happen. This is so very obvious regarding weight loss clients. There are so many fad diets that have come and gone and we have seen tremendous sales of these products but in the end, they do not work. There is so much marketing and misinformation out there that it is believed to be reliable but the more you research, the more you realize you were being misguided. There are efforts being put forward for multi-billion-dollar industries that would not succeed if their jobs were to be built on truth and reliability. People who market products count on your naive nature to help them become a booming industry.

With weight loss, so many people are burnt-out on trying. They have lost their drive, hope, and will. Then they end up rationalizing and coming up with excuses for why they are overweight or why they can’t make the change. Things like: “Well, this is what happens when you reach forty,” or “This is what happens after you have kids,” “I’m overweight just like all the other women or men in my family.” These are the rationales that help people feel better when they have tried to lose weight and weren’t able to do so. I want to help you take that first step. I want to help you get back your motivation and hope. I want you to know that you can succeed at whatever change you are ready to take on right now. I help you to identify your main motivations; meaning the ultimate reasons why you want to make this change. In my Motivation To Change Hypnosis audio. I help you to see yourself having succeeded at many other things that you have put your mind to during your life. I boost your confidence, your courage, strength, drive, and determination. All the areas that have been wounded through previous experiences that didn’t give you the results you wanted are absolved. I would like for you to start here, with this Motivation To Change Hypnosis. Whenever you are ready to make a profound and healthy change, or if you find you are up against some of your own mental blocks that have sabotaged your efforts to take on your newest change. I wish you well. I wish you much success. I wish you much confidence, strength, courage, determination, and all these wonderful things that will help you get over that speed-bump to actually overcome it and bulldoze through it with lots of strength and motivation to change.

This product is available for immediate download, please click here.

The Obesity Epidemic and Weight Loss

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 07:00:31 -0500

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

We are eating more junk and getting less exercise. Obesity is the globes newest epidemic. It’s a Fat World. Fat for Life? Six million kids are seriously overweight. Does any of this sound familiar? These are some of the topics from Newsweek for several years running now. Maybe it took some people by surprise that this would be posted on the front of a magazine and stated as an epidemic but if you’ve been taking a look around at the people in your community, or on TV, or the people you see when you travel, it won’t be much of a surprise to see this epidemic displayed all over regarding our size, weight and health. I help a lot of people with a lot of different problems. They come to me mainly to change habits, thought patterns and behaviors. Weight Loss is actually one of the most common issues in which people seek help from hypnotherapy. Since around the year 2000 I have been regularly helping clients with weight loss issues. I got into hypnotherapy because I enjoy helping people and I like to see quick successful results. That is what was so attractive to me about hypnosis. I had seen, and then confirmed through my work, that people could make rapid change, seemingly miraculous changes. This got my attention. Going into college looking for a degree in psychology, I knew I wanted to help people from a young age. I saw the traditional methods in psychology weren’t as successful and eventful as I had hoped. Hypnotherapy fit the description as the tool I wanted to use to help people become a success. I wanted to see profound and obvious change in people. Here is the interesting twist regarding weight loss: It’s been recorded that I have helped people quit smoking within one hour. I am seriously talking about someone who smoked two packs a day for forty years. In one hour of hypnotherapy I had gotten him to quit. That is only one story, but over and over again, I am able to witness miraculous change when a client seeks my help; changing a habit so ingrained that the client had tried everything else to quit but to no avail. Imagine my delight when in one hour I could help someone quit smoking a habit that had been so ingrained that they have tried so many other ways to stop without success. In the next hour, I had a weight loss client that made little to no progress. This was very discouraging to me especially with the success rate that I have had. This was so disturbing that I have been on a decade journey of understanding this epidemic that Newsweek has identified. There are so many other news sources, books, and magazines that have been printing this for years.

I was one of many trying to crack the code, trying to figure out what was going on, recognizing there was such a big problem with obesity. I even did trial and error at home (not to say that I have an obesity issue) but I have put on an extra ten to fifteen pounds and have even struggled to get it off especially as I have gotten older. But I do not think anymore that it is a matter of age. What I have learned from my research is that it is more of a matter of “junking-up” your body and metabolism. I believed I was eating healthful when I really wasn’t and having been sold all these products that seemingly made life easier but it was poison I was putting in my body and our bodies store it into fat cells in order to save our various organs from the chemicals. There are these little storage units that store away the toxins. These little storage units are found in our fat cells. I had no idea that these things were occurring in my body let alone all my clients’ bodies.

Over many years of researching, talking with healthcare professionals, studying cases, studying weight loss clients, trying different things, and doing different cleanses, eating what appeared to be healthy foods, I still noticed that the bodies were carrying extra weight. None of it seemed to be working effectively. I began to feel compassionate and quite sad for the people that were struggling with much greater weight issues and I started to see there are so many misconceptions out there as to what healthy eating is. It has gotten to a point that when I ask a client to explain what they are eating (by the way, these are clients that seek me out for other issues) they will say “I am eating healthy” but I want to know details. Because what I’ve come to see is that what we think is healthy and what actually is healthy are not the same thing.

We buy with our eyes; we eat with our eyes. We are being marketed. For more than 30 years, TV, magazines, print, internet, stores, billboards, etc. have been leading us down a chicanery of food deception. They research what appeals to us and make us believe it’s what we need. When really what we need to recognize is that we are being taken by marketing geniuses who know how to manipulate our minds. We have been led astray by companies that are looking to make top dollar, whose greed and egos have made it more important to fill their pockets than to care about the people. Lets give them a little credit. Maybe it is possible that the “higher-ups” don’t even know the truth since the masses don’t even know the truth. The truth is simple. It is common sense. As I stated in a previous blog article common sense in eating is very uncommon. It is not 100% our fault. We are not learning it in school. We learn the food pyramid but it’s WAY off. It has actually changed but I am still not impressed with what the government implemented recently. It seems even more confusing and less clear. For instance, there is so much information out there about grains. A book called Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis has been a huge success in opening up our eyes as to what wheat does to our bodies. There have been great documentaries like Fast Food Nation and Forks Over Knives, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. Our eyes are being opened. But for so many, it’s almost as if it’s too late, because it is going to take a complete overhaul to do things differently. Do not despair though. I can help you with all of those areas in your life.

This is the next phase of what I started to learn. If you look through my eyes as being a hypnotherapist, I see things as habit. Repetition of thought or behaviors get reinforced, compounded, and then autopilot mode sets in where it is a part of familiarity, and is continued on a daily basis. So what I have come to find out is that obesity is an epidemic, but weight loss is a comprehensive issue. It is a lot more than just eating three healthy meals a day or half portions at mealtime with healthy snacking, (which was what I was taught when I first learned how to be a hypnotherapist helping people with weight loss). Being able to lose weight and be healthy must be attacked from many different angles. How we go about our day-to-day lives, what we do when we wake up in the morning, what we do for lunch, the places where we go when we are leaving work, what we bring IF we bring anything to work, what we do for dinner, especially when we are busy, what types of foods we actually grocery shop for, where do you go in the grocery store, what isles are familiar? Where do you go for a quick dinner? What do you grab? What types of foods do you keep in the house? (because those items are what you know) What do you grab when you are sad, happy, bored, or lonely? It’s the types of drinks that you put into your body because they “taste good” to you. What do you do on weekends, holidays, and celebrations? What do you do at social events? Food is what is being offered at every angle. But here is the thing: Can we actually call that food fuel for our bodies? The true answer is no. Unfortunately, major food distributors and companies have blindsided us with tricky packaging such as: whole grain or sugar-free. In reality, our bodies are just being fed more poisons and chemicals.

Even with the truth of food ingredients lurking in your minds, it becomes clear that this epidemic so much more than food. It is your exercise level, but unfortunately for most people that are overweight they do not like to exercise. It is your hydration. What fluids are you putting in your bodies? I have spoken to many people that will adamantly defend the right to drink diet soda. As I said earlier, if you look at the ingredients, you know it is full of chemicals and guess where those chemicals go? They go into the storage units in your fat cells. This is your body’s defense against those chemicals effecting your organs. A lot of people are drinking alcohol regularly which has a high content of sugar and toxins. Well, we know what is happening there also. Studies have shown that even our sleep or lack-of is contributing to the epidemic of obesity. Lets throw in the emotional issues. I have helped many clients that have put on weight as a protective layer in hopes of keeping people away for fear of rejection, abuse, etc. Many of them share the sentiment that they do not deserve to do any different or that life is not worth living any differently. Are you starting to see how comprehensive this is? It is a lot more than taking a diet pill (which by the way is full of toxins). It is much more than joining the next fad in dieting. One of the reasons I rave about The Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomroy is that she understands what horrible eating habits do to our insides. We have damaged our bodies. We have damaged the functioning of our organs, we have damaged the excretion of hormones by eating poisons. The obesity epidemic, the fact that we are putting fat on our bodies is only the external visual that we have of the damage that we are doing. The internal is more serious; throughout the entire body. The Fast Metabolism Diet author, Haylie Pomroy explains what nutrition and healthy eating does, how it benefits your organs, how it kick-starts your glands to produce the right amount of hormones, how to ultimately slim down. It will take you on a journey where your body is free at last. It is almost as if it is begging you to do this. Your body wants to be free to function as it is meant to do. I encourage you to take a look at The Fast Metabolism Diet and all the products that I will be releasing to contribute to this comprehensive obesity problem.

I am here to tell you the fundamentals you thought about weight loss are untrue. Take a deep breath and forget everything you have ever read or tried concerning weight loss. Obesity is an epidemic, just look around you. Weight loss is a comprehensive issue. I am here to help you get on track. I will tackle it one issue at a time starting with a “ Motivation for Change Hypnosis,” then moving into healthy eating habits, healthy hydration habits, and exercise motivation. All of these will be introduced this month and available for purchase. This epidemic is much more extensive than people realize and it is going to take a lot more than just changing your eating habits. I have taken it on as a personal mission to address every single angle of weight loss. I want you to be victorious. I want you to be healthy. I want your body to be lean and happy. I wish you much success.

For more information on all my Health and Wellness Products, click here.

Live a Long Healthy Active Life

Sat, 08 Mar 2014 10:48:33 -0500

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

How motivated are you to live a long healthy active life? It seems to me that most people are pretty content with getting up, and going about their same daily routine; going to bed at night only to turn around and repeat the same thing the following day. The next thing you know, most of their lives have gone by. They aren’t necessarily as healthy or as active or as fit as they’d like to be in order to live the kind of life that they want to live. Now I have met plenty of people that have said; “well, you gotta die of something,” and they defend their rights to eat unhealthy foods and ingest unhealthy beverages or smoke cigarettes or not exercise. I wonder how many of them really are that interested in not living a long healthy active life. I would guess that most of them probably haven’t stopped long enough in their day-to-day routines to realize that time is passing by and they are not taking good care of their bodies. To live a long healthy active life, you’ve got to do something. Plenty of people don’t particularly care about their lives or they are miserable with their circumstances and maybe they would like their lives to be over sooner rather than later and if that is the case, I can help them to enjoy life once again or for the first time ever in their lives. But for the rest of the folks who may be oblivious about health issues, maybe aren’t taking the best care of themselves or not even putting much thought into it; they have made efforts to take care of themselves based on the information that has been fed to them. Only to find out now that they aren’t really that healthy and if they continue down a certain path they will not live a long healthy active life.

I see this elderly lady in the picture here doing the yoga postures. First of all, how cool is that? Secondly, that is how I want to be! I want to live a long healthy active life. Life has so much to offer. There is so much I want to see and do and experience. I could almost guarantee that if I eat unhealthful and if I don’t exercise and if I don’t sleep well and if I fill my body with poisons such as nicotine or alcohol, I won’t be like that old lady in the picture. I could write it in ink that I won’t be living a long healthy active life. It is more in your control than I think most people realize. Make a choice. Make a change to do what is within your power so that you can contribute to the likelihood that you will live a long healthy active life.

What I have come to see through my many years of research and working with clients is that it is a lot more than eating healthy according to standards that aren’t really that healthy. It is a lot more than whether or not you are exercising. It is a combination of all of this as well as your mental attitude. There are two great books titled Biology of Belief and The Wisdom of Your Cells both by Bruce Lipton that have shown us there are connections between the health of the cells of our bodies and our thoughts and belief-systems. I recommend this book frequently because of how well the author paints the picture and explains the connections between our minds and our bodies.

When I look at this lady in these postures I see health, I see her as a representation of a long healthy active lifestyle. She obviously exercises regularly. Exercise is an important element. Eating healthful (meaning that you disregard the government food pyramid) is an important element. Drinking water is an important element. These things are also pointed out extremely well in The Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomroy. Our sleep pattens also help us live healthy active lifestyles. Our mental attitudes and our thoughts and belief systems determine our level of healthy living. These five things we can control. These five things can ensure the likelihood of living a long healthy active life. I am here to help you with every single one of them. I have products available Motivation to Change Hypnosis and becoming available that will aid you with every single element I have mentioned above. These five elements will enable you to live a long healthy active life. I think life is worth living. I think life is worth living pain-free, not limited. Living a life full of energy, strength, and a healthy body is attainable. I look forward to helping you live a long healthy active life and to make it easier on you so that you can implement the changes easily, quickly and effectively.

For more information on Health and Wellness Products, click here.

Clear Your Mind Of Can’t

Wed, 12 Mar 2014 15:32:12 -0400

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

How many of you start the day with I can’t? Samuel Johnson said “Clear your mind of can’t.” There are actually hypnotherapy sessions that I take clients into that clear their minds of can’t. It works extremely well and many people have changed their lives for the better. So if there is something that you are ready to put an end to, a habit or the habitual saying of I can’t, then you are ready to move forward. Make the choice to make a difference in your life today. There have been many clients of mine that come to me wanting to quit, whether smoking, drinking, over-eating, dipping, etc. They all say the same thing: I can’t. I can’t quit for more than a day, I can’t stop for more than 48 hours, I can’t seem to get past a month, I can’t have a cup of coffee without wanting a cigarette, I can’t deal without a drink, I can’t go past this bakery without getting a dozen donuts, I can’t I can’t I can’t. Theses are a lot of things that people repeat. The more you repeat those things, the more the brain reinforces them for you and the more likely you are to continue the habit or action in your life. There is no benefit to the I can’ts. Whatever it is you say to yourself, whatever thoughts you have, they are factual to your body. They are perceived as truth. If you simply learn to say things like: I CAN have a cup of coffee without a cigarette, or I can deal with this stress better today.

What does it truly mean to have a healthy mind; healthy personal image? A lot of people are going about their days like a broken record. They have repeated thoughts, repeated attitudes, kind of like an automated program. Many of these people have low self esteem, they may even think less of themselves as other human beings. No positive self image. Stop right now and think about the self image you have. What type of image did you get? Does it tend to be more positive than negative? When you get up in the morning do you have confidence in yourself to go about your day with productivity and positivity? Are you excited to put your best foot forward? Are you ready to experience your relationships with other people from a grateful standpoint? Do you wake up in the morning crabby about how you’ve slept, wishing that life was different? Maybe negative thoughts about your spouse, even? Do you get up and pop a pill?

People turn to substances like nicotine or alcohol or a drug to numb themselves towards the unhappiness they feel. A lot of those negative thoughts can be related to your unhappy nature in life. Maybe going as far as saying you don’t even know what would make you happy in life. Have you stopped long enough to ask yourself what works for you? What is it you desire? You may be very surprised to know that those negative thoughts can be turned around when you experience gratitude. Each morning, stop and be thankful that you are breathing. This little start of being gracious can make such an influence in your life. There are a lot of things to be grateful for. Your health, your job, your children’s health…pick one and choose to look at it from a different vantage point. Be thankful for the little things. This is beginning step towards bettering yourself. Live in each moment and take time to recognize those things of which you are grateful. Observe them, feel them, have gratitude for them.

Make a point to work on positive affirmations. These concepts re easy and you can start today. One thought is just as powerful as another. Repeating it and putting belief behind it can turn your whole life around. People that are successful in life, whether sports, business, or art, rarely use the phrase I can’t. There is a difference in them that they wouldn’t allow themselves to think that way or repeat negative thoughts. There was no I can’t that got reinforced over time. They may have had positive influences in their lives to help them and that helps a lot; but even if you don’t, you can still start small.

If you have come to a crossroads in your life you have two options: Option one is the I can’t road; Option two is the I can road. Whichever one you happen to choose, it will be repetitive. The more you reinforce it, the more it becomes truth for you. Even if it never had to be. We always are given a choice. Choose to make a difference. Choose to go down the I can road. Especially if you are a parent. You need to think about what messages you are sending to your children. Do they see you act out negatively and portray someone with bad habits? You have a huge influence over your children. Don’t start them on a road to I can’t. Be an example and start them on the road to I can. Be positive towards them. I know we have a lot of off-the-cuff sayings like: You are a pain in the neck, or You’re being a baby. Those words can have a very negative effect on your kids. What message are you sending them? What perceptions are being built? Always be positive, even when you are wearing thin with their behaviors. Talk about how he or she can improve his or her attitude. Send positive messages to your children, don’t let them go down the I can’t road.You want the best for them, you can have the best for you too! All it takes is one choice, a little patience, repetition of positivity and you will be on a new road to success, whatever your endeavor.

You want to always be aware of your thoughts. We perceive them as real; then we react to them in life as if they are real. Cut out the I can’t in your life. It is not beneficial. It is not healthy. It will not provide success in any area of life. Clear your mind of can’ts, replace them with cans, and decide that you are moving your life in a more positive direction. Catch yourself when you start limiting your days with negative thoughts. Replace them with positive. Take a look at your thoughts today. Make it your mission to sift through them and count up the negative vs positive. Is it time to retrain your brain? Is it time to take a detour to the I can road? Our mission is to grow, in gratitude, in health, in mind, in life. Choose to grow positivity. Choose the I can road. If you need help with this, visit my contact page on my website. InJoy your day!

For more information on Health and Wellness Products or the Motivation to Change Hypnosis, click here.

Seminole Cup 2014

Fri, 14 Mar 2014 17:37:46 -0400

Seminole Cup Sporting Clay Tournament-Quail Creek Plantation February 20-23 2014

Seminole Cup is one of the first events of the year that draws a large crowd in the clay shooting world. For many it is the first event of the year for which they are ready to dust off their shotguns and break some targets in the sunshine. This year, we had such a long, cold winter. I know everyone was looking forward to warm weather. Many were itching to shoot some clay. Fortunately, we had some wonderful weather. The sun was shining, the breeze was gentle. Quail Creek Plantation was a beautiful place for a tournament. I love it’s rustic nature, the log cabin style clubhouse, the outdoor eating area under the pavilion, wood chip pathways that weave through the trees and woods, and of course, the long visual stations on the course. All these visual components makes for great entertainment. Especially watching the shooters break the their targets. Many vendors who we love to see at all the events were present. This time I actually got some customized earplugs made from Granny herself. I actually can’t wait to receive them in the mail in the next few weeks. I am, of course, talking about the beloved Granny Sherman. Her kindness, ability to help with anything firearms, runs deep. She and her husband run PMS firearms. They have been traveling to events for many years.

I traveled down to Quail Creek with Tracy, my boyfriend. It was actually his very first Clay Shooting Tournament. It was great to watch him go from a slight curiosity to a distinct interest over the course of the weekend. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on a shotgun to see if he could come close to breaking a few of the targets flying through the air. Being that he is in a profession in which he is skilled at shooting a pistol he was curious to see if he could shoot a shotgun with the same level of efficiency as his hand gun.

Personally, I have had many shotgun lessons. Clay shooting with John Woolley, along with my son who also enjoys the sport. It is more fun than most people realize and it is quite a thrill to be able to break a target that is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, flying through the air, speeding, watching it break into smithereens in the flash of a moment. It is very exciting and addictive. It was great fun going to Quail Creek Plantation and watch the greats shoot at the 2014 Seminole Cup.

We watched John Woolley and his famous FITASC abilities. We were amazed at how well he can smoke targets that were coming from all angles and at all speeds. John Wooly did finish first in FITASC veterans and was tied for first with Doug Vine. Doug Vine ended up winning in the shoot-off. He is quite the character. It was good fun to watch him as he made his way around the fields. Doug also won in 5-Stand at the Seminole cup, again at a shoot-off involving Kevin De Michiel. I was privileged to meet Anthony Matarese as so many of my clients work with him and have shared their experiences of learning from such a great shooter.

Wendell Cherry, of whom we watched frequently throughout the weekend, was not at the top of his game. It was clear he has a few areas to work on. Wendell is considered one of, if not the best, shooting instructor in the world. He has many students who look up to him, learn from him and shoot with him in competitions. He is a very sought after instructor and is the most photographed shooter in Clay Shooting Magazine. Wendell Cherry and John Woolley both refer me to a significant number of clients on a regular basis. Many of which were present at the Seminole cup, and I had the privilege of watching and cheering on as we drove around the different courses in our golf cart.

It is really great starting off the year with so many events here in Florida and within my driving distance. It is a fun way to kick things off, to root clients on, to meet new clients who are ready to get that extra advantage of peaking their mental skills. I look forward to working with many of them and meet many of you who have yet to start in this endeavor.

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TEAM USA Super School January 2014

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 11:40:32 -0400

TEAM USA Super School January 27^th 2014

I had the wonderful honor for the second year in a row, of being invited by Judy Morris to be a guest speaker at the TEAM USA Super School at South Florida Shooting Club. This is one of four Super Schools that are offered quarterly throughout the year and being the second year in a row that TEAM USA has offered these schools that I am privileged to attend. TEAM USA consists of the best shooters in the United States of America whose performances at competitions have consistently shown that they succeed far beyond average and have been able to prover over time that they have mastered their skills.

TEAM USA travels to many different events and in an effort to fund these events the Super School was created. Several TEAM USA members volunteer their time and teach students of all ages how to peak their performances. The students pay a fee and a small number are accepted into this two-day-program. The students revolve between the different instructors. They have instructions in group settings, for several hours at at time and then rotate. South Florida Shooting Club is a gorgeous setting for this first Super School of the year. Although I enjoy going out and watching and being a part of the Super School, this year I was occupied with appointments and clients and I was not able to watch any of the performances. But all is well, because I was able to prepare and be ready to speak to them at the end of the day during their cocktail and dinner time.

This year’s TEAM USA Super School participants not only got to learn about the power of their subconscious mind, but also how and why their conscious mind interferes with their ability to perform well. They were educated about the truth of hypnosis and how a hypnotic state and regular practice can help a person transition out of a full conscious state of performance to shooting from the subconscious level. They even got to have a first hand experience at trying hypnosis during my lecture. Many of them were obviously very pleased and happy with how calm they were able to get their minds and bodies, seeing very clearly then, the benefits of regular practice and hypnosis and the ability to clear one’s mind and calm one’s body. The ability to have a calm mind and body with a focus concentration, determination and drive makes for an outstanding performance on the range. It was an honor to be a participant in TEAM USA Super School 2014 at the South Florida Shooting Club and I look forward to many more opportunities to help TEAM USA and their endeavors.

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Healthy Grocery Shopping and Eating Hypnosis

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:22:55 -0400

We can have the best of intentions when it comes to losing weight or taking better care of ourselves, but the reality of implementing these intentions is daunting. Planning, preparing and prepping are the commonly ignored aspects of healthier eating. These steps are currently not even happening or are used for unhealthy, convenient eating. There is a necessary learning curve to healthier eating and Dawn’s Healthy Grocery Shopping and Eating Hypnosis will take huge amounts of time off that endeavor. The time to start is now, let her help you get on the right track!

Special areas of Concentration Incorporated in the Hypnosis Suggestions:

Planning, preparing and prepping to have healthy ingredients to create healthy meals and snacks
In grocery store strongly attracted and drawn to the perimeter; to healthy, real, natural, clean foods
Attracted to and drawn to fruits and vegetables because you know of their high nutritional value, ability to ward off disease, and how they give you fuel and strong energy
Large majority of what is in your grocery cart is fruits and vegetables, feeling proud of how you are implementing knowledge of healthy eating
Healthy lean sources of protein, beans and legumes; best dairy items… foods that build and strengthen your body

Included In Purchase:

Instructions PDF
“Intro To The Mind” Video
Healthy Grocery Shopping and Eating Hypnosis MP3 Audio

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Private Sessions

Personalized Hypnosis Audios

Dr Fuhrman’s Healthful Eating Food Pyramid

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 11:26:19 -0400

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

Dr. Fuhrman Healthful Eating Food Pyramid

I came across Dr. Fuhrman’s work while searching healthy eating habits and nutrition. I actually have a friend of mine who was raving about Dr. Fuhrman and his books and workshops series that can be bought as a DVD set called Eat to Live. The title of that caught my attention because we hear so much talk about live to eat and how so many people will go about their lives loving food and living to eat. I like that Dr. Fuhrman sees it differently. He has been on Dr. Oz Show and Dr. Oz is quoted as saying that “His work is a medical breakthrough. That there is no question in my mind that it will work for you.”

Eat to Live offers a highly effective scientifically proven way to lose weight quickly, but more importantly, Dr. Fuhrman comes up with an equation suggesting that we take a look at the density of nutrients in our foods so that we can not only lose weight but be health-wise about it. Nutrient-dense foods are a first priority. Calories are a second priority. The equation that he has come up with is H=N/C. Health equals nutrients divided by calories. Low calorie nutrient-dense foods are at the base of our food pyramid, that means that those foods should be on our “must eat every day” list. This is what we should be eating the most of: Low calorie, nutrient-dense foods.

High calorie, nutrient-poor foods are a the very top of the pyramid. As nutrient density decreases, the quantity of the room in your diet decreases as well. Always look at comparing the nutrient density to calories. This is quite the opposite of what has been happening on the planet. Fast food chains, scientific GMOs, pre-packaged meals have taken over with marketing ploys and misconceptions. The nutrition of science has helped and hindered our health. Nutritional science has actually demonstrated that colorful plant foods contain a huge array of nutrients like protective compounds, many of which still remain unnamed. This proves that those leafy greens are more than just vibrant-colored foods. However, because scientific research had allowed for the genetic alterations of so many of our precious and pure foods, it has actually decreased our ability to make healthy choices for ourselves and loved ones. We are eating packaged frozen foods (or foods that don’t even require refrigeration) that have been processed many times over. We are eating foods that are jam-packed with preservatives that enable their shelf-life to sustain throughout a couple years. Many times, even fast food chains pump their foods full of preservatives so that they stay somewhat fresh for weeks on end. These foods are not nutrient-dense but they are high calorie. They should not be in our diet. Even Dr. Fuhrman agrees that minimal contact with these foods aren’t detrimental but I beg to ask the question “Why?” Why would you eat them?

Only by eating an assortment of nutrient-rich natural foods can we even get the protective compounds that are available to us to prevent common ailments and diseases. These illnesses are afflicting not only Americans but people across the globe. Did you ever stop to think why there are so many cases of Diabetes now than fifteen years ago? Why high blood pressure is at an all-time high? Did you think it was because we choose to eat nutritious foods? On the contrary, it it because we have conditioned our minds to believe that what we are eating isn’t “bad” for us.

It is this modern low-nutrient, high-calorie eating habit that has lead to an overweight population. The majority of which have developed diseases, like the ones mentioned above, because of their body’s’ nutritional deficit and ignorance. There is a huge lack of understanding and misguided marketing, that has influenced our decisions. This is caused our medical costs to spiral out of control. Medicine is attempting to treat the symptoms instead of finding the root cause. In our society, the causes are being ignored.

I love Dr. Fuhrman’s concept of looking at nutrient-dense foods compared to calories. Deciding to eat a majority of foods from a category that is high in nutrients and lower in calories is a step in the right direction. You will see when you look at his pyramid that the foundation is built on a diet rich in nutrients. The largest part of your daily dose should be taken from the bottom of the pyramid. Foods that have the highest ratio of nutrients to calories should be consumed. Guess what these are? These are vegetables. Ninety percent of your diet should be made up of plant foods. I know there are plenty of meat lovers out there that are going to frown at the thought of this. But the calories in nutrient-rich plant foods are accompanied by health-promoting phytochemicals. Greens, fruits, legumes, raw nuts, seeds and avocados are what we find at the base of the food pyramid. These all contain health-promoting phytochemicals that we need for disease prevention.

If desired, the remaining ten percent of the diet consists of those low-nutritional-value-high-calorie foods that are not going to provide you with the nutrients you need. So of that percent, Dr. Fuhrman would say you could have animal products, sweets, processed foods, but only in minimal amounts. You can see this at the top of his food pyramid. By keeping these low-nutrient foods to a minimum and striving to eat your vegetables, each day, you are building health-promoting, disease-fighting nutrients up in every cell of your body.

In Dr. Fuhrman’s world, those that follow his high nutrient eating call themselves nutritioutarians. They are not quite vegetarians, but nutritioutarians. The emphasis being on nutrition and nutrient-rich foods. These are the foods described at the base of the food pyramid. In my research, I have found much confirming information regarding this. There are very few, if anybody that would argue the point that we can eat unlimited amounts of vegetables in our diets and reap many rewards from eating those. The other interesting thing that I have found is that many people are under the guise of evil fruit fairies (and certain medical practitioners) in such a way that they think fruits contain too much sugar, so they avoid eating them. It is sad to hear this and see it happening because as I have just stated there is an unimaginable amount of fruits that are available to us, and scientists have only begun to scratch the surface of the nutritional components contained in fruits. Our bodies need the nutrients from fruits as much as they need the nutrients from vegetables in order to perform at our best. Our immune system will strengthen, our bodies will be able to handle germs in such a way that renders some diseases obsolete.

As I make products and offer products to help you eat in this manor the hypnotic suggestions do give you freedom from your old unhealthy eating habits. This will give you an added advantage of being able to easily create healthy habits and nutrient-dense eating. My products will also have you craving the foods that are best for our bodies. I have one such product available now. It is called the Healthy Grocery Shopping and Eating Hypnosis. It is available by clicking here or going to my website at http://dawngrant.com/healthy-grocery-shopping-and-eating-hypnosis/ It is important to remember that you have a choice. Your mind may crave the fries that you saw on the fast food commercial ten seconds ago, but your body does not. Healthy eating habits are instrumental in our defense against obesity, life-longevity, and spiritual growth. Don’t be afraid to make that change. Do something good for yourself and your family. Follow Dr. Fuhrman’s Food Pyramid. Eat healthful. Eat right. Live Healthy. Live happy.

Dr. Oz Food Pyramid and Eating Suggestions

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 09:00:38 -0400

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

Dr. Oz came to my attention because of his very own television show. I have many clients who were referring to Dr. Oz and his insights and knowledge base he presents on his show. He has a no-holds-bar attitude towards health, he answers the hard questions, he breaks down complicated subjects and makes them easy to understand. Dr. Oz first appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007. His daily program focuses on medical issues and personal health. It was actually launched by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions. His professional career was such that he was a professor at the Department of Surgery at Columbia University since 2001. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complimentary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Aside from that, he is founder and chairman of Health Corps which is a non-profit organization which pays a small stipend to recent college graduates to spend two years in high schools, mentoring students about health, nutrition, and fitness. In many ways, similar to Dr. Weil’s Food Pyramid and Dr. Fuhrman’s Food Pyramid, Dr. Oz puts vegetables at the very base of the pyramid. When we think of pyramids as a shape, they get the strength of their shape from their bases, right? Essentially, that is what these doctors are trying to teach us. The base of the pyramid is the most important, so when we make decisions about what to put in our bodies, we should look to the bottom of the pyramid to find the most nutrient-dense foods. We should be consuming the greatest amount of food from the vegetable category in our diets. Above the vegetables in the pyramid he has added grains, then fruits, then proteins, then dairy. Dr. Oz is in agreement with Dr. Weil. He makes many of the same recommendations. He has a simplified pyramid that he presented on his show. He definitely wants us filling up our grocery carts and stocking our shelves with nutrient-rich foods that can add years to our lives.

Vegetables are at least four serving a day, emphasizing foods such as jicama, kale, and sweet potatoes. Know that vegetables are the most powerful tool in fighting almost every major health-killer in America, including heart disease, hypertension, and cancer. He suggest jicama because it is slightly sweet and crisp root vegetable, high in potassium which helps to reduce high blood pressure. Kale, which is the rave of the modern health society is high in flavenoids which kills off cancer cells. Sweet potatoes are high in Beta Carotene which helps to build heart-healthy Vitamin A within the body. Dr. Oz even goes so far as to recommend how to prepare these foods. These foods can be steamed so as to retain the maximum amount of nutrients.

He has whole grains in a second level at about six serving a day. However, his whole grains are not your traditional “white bread” grains. These grains, such as Teff, Amaranth, Millet, are ancient grains. These grains are high in fiber and necessary for colon health. These ancient grains were popular in other parts of the world but are gaining recognition in the US for their many health benefits. They are higher in protein than most grains, and are not genetically modified. These grains are also high in calcium which strengthens bones and they have Omega3 fats that are critical to brain health. Millet is also a great source of B-complex vitamins. One of the keys to longevity is getting your protein from plant sources instead of animal sources which is why he has put animal protein to minimal amounts on the pyramid.

The third level of the pyramid is fruits at three cups a day. Highlighting the benefits of mangoes, dates and apples. Fruits are packed with anti-aging elements. The actual flesh of many fruits contains vitamins and minerals while the skin is loaded with powerful anti-agers due to a higher concentration of nutrients. One of the reasons why mangoes are so highly recommended is that they help fight cancer and heart disease. They are full of beta-carotene which gives them that beautiful color. As a result of the drying process, dried fruits like dates are high in antioxidants. They are also a great source of magnesium, which helps the body maintain normal muscle and nerve function, steady heart rhythm and strong bones. Date also promote normal blood pressure and blood sugar regulation. Who can resist the crisp yet juicy enticement of the apple? The old saying still stands true; an apple a day may be the ultimate longevity food. It is loaded with fiber, antioxidants, folate and vitamin E which fights Alzheimer’s; and a flavenoid called quercetin that protects the brain against the oxidative stress of daily life.

At the fourth level of the pyramid is protein. He suggests three serving a day. Protein is an all-encompassing category that includes meats, beans and nuts. Make sure that you choose proteins that are high in Omega-3 fats will ensure normal brain function and lower the risk of dementia. Trout is high in omega-3 fats. Omega-3s are essential to brain health as they provide the building blocks for brain cell renewal. Omega-3 is a healthy fat. Unfortunately through the diet craze of eating low calorie low fat foods, many people cut out the healthy fats. This is detrimental to your ultimate health and well-being. Your brain is made up of fat. It needs healthy fats such as Omega-3 to subsist. We are looking to correct this by raising awareness as to the benefits of healthy fats and where to find them. Brazil nuts are considered healthy protein. They contain selenium, an antioxidant that fights the free radical damage that can cause cancer.

On the next level, Dr. Oz puts dairy. He suggests two serving a day. He is talking about healthy dairy, like Greek yogurt or Feta cheese made with goat milk. Even buttermilk is on his good list. This is the least amount of serving, the least amount of intake for the day. It is especially important for women because dairy contains calcium and is fortified with vitamin D– Dr. Oz’s number-one recommended supplement. Strengthening bones and fighting against the onset of osteoporosis is why it’s so important to fortify our body with vitamin D.

If you are interested in learning more about health and nutrition in a straight-to-the-point way, Dr. Oz has a great website with lots of video clips from his shows. Or you can tune into his show that airs during the week. If you are looking for help in implementing healthy eating habits into your life, please check out my Health and Weight Loss products here. These products will help you to make your health a priority and also help you implement these healthy eating habits that will ultimately promote life longevity and lean body mass.

For more information about my Health and Wellness Products, click here.

Dr. Weil’s Food Pyramid and Healthy Suggestions

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:00:44 -0400

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

I think the first time I came across Dr. Weil I was watching him on PBS. Since then, I have seen him on many PBS documentaries. He is pretty well known for his appearance in 2009 on a documentary called Botany of Desire. He actually explains that humans have always sought altered states of consciousness and that there are foods that he feels benefit us despite being banned. Beyond that, Dr. Weil likes to have a view of a combination of mainstream and alternative medicine. He believes the two can work together in a complimentary approach to achieve maximum benefits. He feels patients should take western medicine as prescribed by their doctors and then extend the biomedical model to incorporate alternative therapies. Dr. Weil believes very strongly in Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Vitamin D, herbal remedies, meditation and other spiritual strategies. He is a huge proponent of nutrition, exercise and stress reduction, and like Dr. Fuhrman suggests a diet rich in organic fruits and vegetables with regular consumption of fish.

When looking at Dr. Weil’s Food Pyramid, we actually see that it is closely related to Dr. Fuhrman’s but in much more detail. I kinda like Dr. Weil’s Food Pyramid because he does break it down and it seems much more comprehensive and palatable. At the base, the largest of the pyramid, we see vegetables, both raw and cooked. He makes an emphasis here to the color spectrum and stresses the importance of organic when possible. He suggests we eat vegetables at least four to five times a day, minimum. Once again we see here that vegetables should be eaten in large amounts, often unlimited. Fruits, especially those fresh in season, organic when possible, should be eaten about three to four times a day.

Dr. Weil brings in cracked grains, pasta (al dente), beans and legumes, healthy fats. These are eaten in less amounts than fruits and vegetables but are looked at as important for various health benefits. This is very similar to Dr. Fuhrman’s Pyramid. This brings up the topic of healthy fats. Over the years in the diet world, people have looked at lowering their calories, lowering their carbohydrate intake, lowering their sugars, and lowering their fats. These common methods of dieting have been done in the wrong manner. Decreasing good fats has been interpreted by the majority of dieters as meaning cutting out all fats. This is a huge mistake and a problem for our bodies. Omega-3 fats are needed and necessary to counteract the unhealthy fats that we consume. Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Coconut Oil are rich in polyphenols with antioxidant activity. These are the best oils to cook with and use in our salads. Other sources of healthy fats include nuts (especially walnuts), avocados, and seeds; including hemp seeds and freshly ground flaxseed. These are all extremely healthy fats that have been eliminated in the minds of many dieters because they believe they should completely cut out fats. Even eggs have gotten a bad rap over the years with people cutting out the yolk to avoid what we thought was cholesterol-inducing-fat. Organic, expeller pressed, high-oleic sunflower or safflower oils may also be used, as well as walnut and hazelnut oils in salads and dark roasted sesame oil as a flavoring for soups and stir-fries.

Dr. Weil’s Food Pyramid stresses the importance of seafood. Wild Alaskan salmon (especially sockeye), herring, sardines, and black cod should be eaten two-six times per week. These fish are rich in omega-3 fats, which are strongly anti-inflammatory. If you choose not to eat fish, take a molecularly distilled fish oil supplement that provides both EPA and DHA in a dose of 2-3 grams per day.

Dr. Weil is also an advocate for cooked Asian mushrooms. He stresses the importance of eating these in unlimited amounts. Shiitake, enokidake, maitake, oyster mushrooms, and wild mushrooms varieties contain compounds that enhance immune function. Never eat mushrooms raw, and minimize consumption of common commercial button mushrooms (including Crimini and Portobella). He is an advocate of specific medicinal mushrooms in your daily diet.

For other sources of protein, Dr. Weil suggests that we eat a selection of high quality natural cheeses and yogurt, omega-3 enriched eggs, skinless poultry, grass-fed lean meats. The other cool thing about his food pyramid is he suggests tea two-four cups a day. White, green, oolong teas are rich in catechins, antioxidant compounds that reduce inflammation. Make sure your teas are high quality though. Dr. Weil includes the option of red wine, but no more than one to two glasses a day; and healthy sweets such as dark chocolate with at least 70% cacao. This is suggested at the very tip of his pyramid so as to be eaten sparingly. I am a dark chocolate lover, so this pyramid works for me.

This one is definitely the most progressive of pyramids. His diet pyramid is thought to counteract chronic inflammation which is at the very root and cause of many serious diseases such as, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. These are some serious diseases and conditions. Dr. Weil’s diet plan is an anti-inflammatory diet. Anyone looking to research serious diseases will find the more modern information talks about your body’s inflammation being the root-cause of such ailments. Many of us are so used to eating foods that are causing inflammation that it is our normal state to feel this inflammation. I personally have experienced doing things like cleanses and eating healthy for periods at a time and when I eat food that is unhealthy, I immediately become inflamed whether it’s my eyes, face, or hands. My body more immediately shows a cause and affect between foods that I eat, and the reaction in my body. Inflammation is a serious side affect from unhealthy eating.

We cannot forget water consumption because it is the way our bodies cleanse and hydrate. Look for my product on healthy hydration, drinking more water, coming soon. Also, being able to understand Dr. Weil’s Food Pyramid is essential to optimum health. If you have questions or want to know more about Dr. Weil, you can visit his website. If you would like to know more about the products I offer, click here. I understand that changing your eating habits is a huge undertaking, however, it is what is best for your health and well-being. Make good choices. Eat smart. Live happy.

For more information on Health and Wellness products, click here.

Benefits of Drinking Water

Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:10:24 -0400

March’s Theme is Health and Weight Loss

We have all heard how important it is to drink water and you have heard that the body is made up of a large percentage of water and that we need to stay hydrated and drink water throughout the day. We hear things like we should be drinking eight glasses of water a day and drink before and after exercise. I have even heard that we should drink a glass of water first thing in the morning. The benefits of drinking water are endless. Water is essential to our health and well being. When your body has proper hydration, it can perform at it’s best.

Coming from personal experience, I know it is not easy to drink a lot of water. For years I was lucky to drink one glass of water a day. I remember sometimes going a couple days without drinking water. So I know very well all the excuses and reasons for not drinking water. I know that there is a concern that the more I drink, the more I will have to use the bathroom and that is an inconvenience. There is the complaint of taste as well. Some people just cannot fathom drinking water because it either lacks taste to them or it doesn’t taste good. I get it, sometimes the quality of the water isn’t the best. If you live in an area where the water quality is poor, you might not like the water that you get from your faucet. There are circles of people that don’t want to drink the water from the facet because of the Fluoride that has been added. Fluoridated water is found in almost every single state. Many people think that Fluoride is toxic to your body. I know there are so many reasons not to drink water. But why don’t we look at the reasons to drink water.

Water is vital to our health. Period. The human body is anywhere between 55-78% water. The variation between the percentage is depended upon your body size. The basic rule of thumb is 2/3 of the human body consists of water. The main component of your body that controls every single function throughout every single cell, muscle, nerve, is water. Your tissues, your organs, everything is made up of water. Here is the breakdown. Your muscle is 75% water. Your brain is 90% water. Your bones are 22% water. Your blood is 83% water. If we pause and think about this for a moment, if I am not consuming healthy amounts of water throughout my day, how are the inside-workings of my body going to perform? They cannot reach their optimal level of performance without water. You can only imagine what starts happening when your body parts aren’t getting supplied the amount of water that they need to survive.

We have all heard of dehydration. As a matter of fact, I have experienced dehydration once when I was pregnant and I wasn’t able to keep food down and I couldn’t drink water. I went in for a routine OB appointment and the moment the nurse came out into the waiting room she saw my face. I had black rings under my eyes. I felt weak. My head was foggy. My eyesight was unable to focus. I felt lethargic and sleepy. They immediately took me in and admitted me to the hospital to regain proper hydration in my body. Dehydration occurs when you have a loss of fluids, mostly water, and it exceeds the amount that you are taking in. If you are not taking in water, then your body is not able to function properly. We lose water every second of every day through the vapors in your breath, through sweat, urine and stool. Along with water, small amounts of salts and minerals are lost. When we lose too much water and we don’t take in water, our bodies become imbalanced or dehydrated. As you are probably not surprised, severe dehydration can lead to death.

Some of the symptoms of dehydration are increased thirst, dizziness, weakness, heart palpitations, confusion, sluggishness, fainting, inability to sweat, decreased urine output, dry-mouth, swollen tongue. Obviously, we are not able to function, barely surviving if we are dehydrated. Lets stop and realize if we are not drinking enough water, we are living day-to-day at some level of dehydration. Your body is walking around impaired.

I have created a hypnosis audio to help you drink more water. It will help you ingrain into your subconscious mind the reasons to drink more water. If you are wondering of you need to drink more water or not, one really easy way to know if you are drinking enough water is that your urine should be clear with a slight tinge of yellow. If your urine is concentrated, you may already be dehydrated. The amount of water that we should be drinking is a simple equation. Find out your body weight in pounds. Divide that in half. That number in ounces, is how much we should drink every day. If I weigh 120 pounds. I divide that by half. That number is 60. I should be drinking 60 ounces of water a day. If you are drinking much less than half your body weight in ounces, then it is time to bump it up. My product Drinking More Water Hypnosis can help you achieve optimal levels of success. When you use this product, it will help you reap all the benefits of drinking water. Water is essential to our well being. It is time to put away the crystal light, the soda pop, the sweet tea. Drinking water will help you lose weight, feel energized, moisturize your body and keep your skin looking it’s best. Don’t you want peace of mind, knowing you are doing something for your body that is absolutely vital to optimal health? Find out your goal. Start today and feel better tomorrow.

Be Comfortable With Your Swing, Putting & Ball Position

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:00:36 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

Do you feel comfortable with your swing, putting and ball position, and know that you are learning what works for you every time you golf? Do you realize how important it is to believe that about yourself? If you are lacking in that area and easily taken out of the present moment, then it is quite possible for the mental aspect of the game to take you to a level of frustration, anxiety, worry, fear, regret, or any number of those types of feelings that inhibit your mechanics. Practicing your mental skills, however, will help you come to a place of confidence, trust and understanding that you need, in order to feel comfortable with the mental part of your game. So obviously if you are working hard to build your mechanics and perfecting your skills, the last thing you want is for your mental skills to be lacking and subsequently inhibiting your mechanics. But that is exactly what happens much of the time.

I have no doubt that you can think about lots of occasions and examples in your career or sport where your attitude, mental focus, anger, agitations, stress or worry have caused you to not perform very well. So ideally, then, you need to maintain an understanding and control of the mental aspect of any sport, job, project or activity in which you participate. You must perfect not only your mechanical skills, but also your mental skills. Most people believe they can do that to some degree, but what I have witnessed is people going into an event just hoping they can hold it together mentally. They hope to stay focused and present but have no true understanding of how to do it. Even if they understand what it means to be focused and present, they often lack the skills necessary to be that way. That can frustrate them even more.

What I’m looking at here are specific mental skills you can practice throughout the day. Practicing those skills in your life and sport will help you get lots of time building, reinforcing and perfecting them. That way, when the big event does come, you won’t just hope you can pull it together mentally or hope to stay focused. You can exercise a skill you have had time to practice building. So I am really talking about building that skill all the time. Then when game day comes, you aren’t hoping for it to be something that it isn’t.

In order to help you get started, let’s look at an affirmation that I have taken from some of my products. You will find it in the Perfect Putting and Golf Confidence training, which you can get from the store on my website. Although it may seem to apply specifically to golf, mental skills for golf are basically the same as in other sports. All you need to do is change some terminology, and you can apply this to any sport or specific mental skill development. So the affirmation is: “I am comfortable with my swing, putting and ball position, and each day I am perfecting – learning what works for me”.

I came up with this suggestion as I recognized a lot of frustration in the golfers I worked with. They were frustrated because they believed they should be further along in their performance from all the practice and everything they were doing. They believed they should play perfectly. They left no allowance in their minds for a few poor shots or of making mistakes. Those things brought about a level of agitation that came from a place of “that shouldn’t happen at all, as much as I have practiced and worked on that.” That way of thinking is really a lie; a misconception. There is no perfect.

What you see, though, is that the ego gets involved and believes that things should go exactly as it believes it should – period! It doesn’t allow for much variance. That’s why many golfers have no level of acceptance or realization that they would experience fluctuations. How about you? Do you allow for the possibility of variables that can affect your skills come game time? Look at something as simple as how well you sleep the night before as an element that plays a significant part in your performance. You can go to the extreme and think of sleep deprivation and look at how it affects your focus, your mindset or energy level. I bet it is easy for you to understand how it happens in extremes. But you also need to realize that even minor cases of sleep deprivation will affect your mental and physical performance.

There are tons of elements that can create variances in your performance but when the ego gets involved, you don’t even allow for the possibility of that happening.

So this affirmation addresses that to some degree, and it also addresses the constant beating up on oneself that many people do. “Oh, there’s something wrong with my swing or putting; I don’t trust my ability to read the greens; the ball shouldn’t have landed there, it was a mistake– it was bad”. When you see any or all of those things from a negative perspective, you immediately set yourself up for decreased performance.

I came up with the suggestion of “I am comfortable with my swing, putting and ball position…” because most people are uncomfortable with their swing, putting and ball position. They become agitated about them and tend to have negative perceptions about them. They don’t realize how that attitude and mindset only inhibits their performance, no matter how hard they try to perform well.

I also have in there “…and each day I’m perfecting…” to allow for the fact that people, places and things are not perfect. No day will be perfect as far as everything going exactly as you would like it to go in life or in your sport. Each day you are perfecting and realizing that you are evolving and working at certain things. You get better at some, and some you don’t even know are a problem at all. You go through different levels of this happening at all times. It is a natural progression through life. There is no perfect, and you need to become comfortable with that.

Now as you start to accept this and perfect these mental skills that allow you to view things in a more open way, you will actually begin to see that things are perfect just the way they are. What do I mean by that, when earlier I said there is no perfect? Eventually down the road, with mental training sessions that you sign up for with me or however you ultimately receive focused mental training, you will be able to see that things are perfect just the way they are. But that is a lesson for another day. For now, you want to realize that you are perfecting your skills – both mechanical and mental. The ego looks for perfection and gets excited when things align with what it wants. Or it is disappointed when things don’t align with what it wants or believes should be. That is detrimental to staying present and accepting, and it inhibits your performance.

To look at your golf game and life as perfect just the way they are, for where you are right now in your skills and abilities, will bring a level of acceptance that is different from the ego view of perfection. I hope that doesn’t confuse you; my talking about this difference in perfection. It is just part of the process that I take people through, and something that will help you become more comfortable with your swing, putting and ball positions, and achieve greater performance.

Then, consider how: “…each day I’m perfecting – learning what works for me…”, rather than spinning your wheels in the mud. You don’t want to be upset because your putting is off, you have a problem with your swing or you don’t like where your ball lands. You want to look at the information that is there to help you perfect and learn. If you have problems with short putts, you will find information there that will help you to perfect your putting.

How can this help your mental skills for golf? Gather data to see what you need to tweak and work on, get to work on it and take some action. That will be work for you over time; for you to become aware of it without being angry or agitated about it. Try to think of yourself as being on a journey traveling through an experience, with ups and downs and fluctuations in your abilities and capabilities. Realize that being easier on yourself does not mean being complacent, or that you accept a so-called ‘poor shot’ as what you want to happen. It is a matter of accepting each shot exactly as it is, being comfortable with your swing, putting and ball position, and knowing you have a lot to learn from that. You will then be able to move forward with that information, apply it, and continue to evolve in your putting or any other area in your life.

Hopefully you get what I’m talking about and where I am coming from with this teaching. Try applying this in your everyday life and begin to open up your mind, so that you view things from a more positive place rather than a limiting, unhealthy one. Take some time today to really look at how I’ve explained it to you. Become aware of the discomfort you’ve been experiencing with your swing, putting and ball position. Take a look at how you’ve been beating yourself up rather than accepting, and believe that you are learning and willing to take on challenges. Really try to learn what works well for you rather than putting yourself down and thinking that there’s a problem. You will realize improvements in your comfort level and performance as a result. If you’d like more help with this, please contact me by phone, email or through my website. I am here to help you in any way I can. Until then, say to yourself until you believe: “I am comfortable with my swing, putting and ball position, and each day I am perfecting – learning what works for me.” InJoy your day!

Sports Improvement: April’s Theme

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 17:43:38 -0400

In 2007 my private practice took a large turn when Sports Improvement was added to my menu of services. Yes, I had worked with a few athletes here and there prior to this… a Pro Boxer, and a few baseball and tennis players, but nothing like what was starting to happen. Unbeknown to me, this turn ended up sending me down a very rewarding and success-filled path. I didn’t just stick my toes into Sports Improvement, I jumped in with two feet into the PGA TOUR. Within a few months I was working with about a dozen PGA TOUR Pros and flown to tournaments a few times month.

I was helping some of the most elite golfers to clear their heads of clutter and to use their minds more constructively. The intensity and excitement of this grew considerably when I was contacted by Vijay Singh in 2008, a week prior to the FedEx Cup playoff series. Many remember this pivotal time in Vijay’s career. He had gone from being the only Pro to ever beat out Tiger as best in the world, to barely winning 1 tournament in an 18 month period. The cameras followed him to catch his putting foul-ups, many predicted his career was over, and he was mentally falling apart.

With my mental training and hypnotherapy, we worked together on his attitude, mindset and beliefs pertaining to his putting for 3 full days, then he confidently set off on a jet plane to The Barclays believing himself to be ‘The Best Putter In The World.’ A 26’ birdie putt on a playoff hole, a tournament record, 2 wins, a change from 125^th PGA TOUR ranking for putting average to a 7^th place ranking, and $13 million dollars later, and history was made.

Want more details, here’s some info on the PGA & Vijay as a Plunge into the Sports Improvement Arena

Vijay’s Testimonial

Go to PGATour.com to see how they wrote of Vijay’s putting turn around and FedEx Cup Championship

YouTube Videos of tournament play and Vijay’s interviews

After Vijay flew off as ‘The Best Putter In The World,’ I watched him on TV every day, sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for any sign as to whether the hard work would pay off. Fortunately, by Saturday, it was evident that it was. By Sunday, it wasn’t only evident, his confident walk was back and he was kicking butt. Three Pros tied for first, Vijay Singh, Kevin Sutherland, and Sergio Garcia; and went into playoff holes. Kevin fell out under the pressure on the first hole. Sergio and Vijay went on to play another, where their 30’ putts on opposing sides of the hole put us into suspense. With Vijay’s well-known 18 months of putting ‘problems,’ everyone felt certain that Sergio would win the event even before the putts were taken. But {{surprise}} Vijay rolled in his 26-foot birdie putt to extend the playoff which he eventually won. To the obvious surprise of commentators, he later announced himself Live on TV as ‘The Best Putter In The World’ when interviewed by the Golf Channel. Hmmm, where would he have ever received that programming?

In the second week, Vijay and the rest of the 115 field were heading to The Deutsche Bank Championship. Where, as many of you know, not only did he win again, he shot a tournament record of -22. We know the turn-around was in his putting because when the playoffs started, Vijay’s putting average was 1.801 putts per hole, which ranked 125^th on the PGA TOUR. But at The Barclays, his putting average changed to 1.736, and he ranked a respectable 32^nd on TOUR. And by the next week at the Deutsche Bank, he was even better – with a 1.627 average, placing him 7^th on TOUR!

Due to these two wins, by the time Vijay was going into the fourth and final FedEx Cup Playoff event, The TOUR Championship, he had to do little more than finish all four rounds without disqualification, which he proceeded to do. Vijay won a total of $13 million through this glorious month, and I couldn’t have been more proud and excited to have been a part of it all.

Needless to say, my Sports Improvement days had a significant jump start, and have yet to lose momentum. I’ve worked one-on-one with several dozen PGA TOUR Pros, and many more have bought my Golf Improvement Hypnosis Products. Doors have opened for me to work with hundreds of other elite and competitive athletes, with thousands globally reaping benefit from my Sports Improvement Hypnosis Products.

What I offer is very different from what most Sports Trainers offer, mainly due to the fact that I am a hypnotherapist with extensive understanding and working-knowledge of the conscious and subconscious. Athletes want to perform from the subconscious and be in The Zone State, and I can help them to do this. Helping people access their subconscious mind is what I do, and have been doing since 2001.

Working with athletes has been some of the most rewarding hours of my career. They are highly motivated, disciplined, and committed. They aren’t afraid to take a look at themselves and fix what needs fixing; and, fortunate for them, they are in a position to receive the immediate gratification of their efforts via their improved scores and wins. Are you ready to take your sport to another level? It is easy to master your mind when you are properly taught how to do it. Let’s get you started! All month I will be offering free help in my Advice Blog, and Sports Improvement Product discounts.

Mastery, Presence, and Inner Peace: Keys to Peaking Performance

Wed, 09 Apr 2014 06:00:09 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

If you want to peak your sport performance, choose something you want to work on every week. As you do, you will acquire increased understanding, insight, and confidence in your mechanics and mental skills – over time. Practicing helps you build confidence in your mechanics, which 90% of athletes do; but I encourage you to treat the mental side of your game just as importantly. Practice the mental skills on a regular basis, so you can reinforce them and be excellent on all levels, when you are ready to perform in your sport and win.

How do you achieve peak sports performance? I believe you acquire it with mastery, presence and inner peace. You also maintain it with those same three elements. What is mastery? Mastery is the practicing of your skills; regular, deliberate, intentional, mindful practicing, so you can master whatever you choose to put your mind, energy, time and effort into. The more you practice your skills, the less you have to think about them as you play. Mastery frees your mind from self-doubt when it is time to perform. That is very important in any sport, since it allows you to be present as you perform.

Presence, or to say it another way ‘being present’, is the ability to be focused in the moment. Athletes know they need greater focus but what they try to do is just focus harder, or stare harder, but having presence is a lot more than that. It is the realization that you are in this moment in time, doing what you know how to do, wrapping your mind around the very action you are getting ready to complete. Having presence is about reaching the mindset that allows you to perform at your peak, no matter your sport or profession. I tell my clients you have to believe that you can do what you can do in this very moment in time and nothing less.

Then there is inner peace. Inner peace causes a lot of confusion with athletes when I start to talk about it, because they think they need that ‘go-get-em’ edge or fighter’s mentality to win. That creates a lot of resistance toward their pursuit of inner peace. What I can tell you through my observation and training, is that inner peace is different than what you may assume. It is a matter of having peace in your mind. You are not a ball of mush, but you are completely relaxed. I read a Dalai Lama quote this morning that helps describe what I am talking about. It states: ”When we are angry, we are blind to reality. Anger may bring us a temporary burst of energy, but that energy blocks the part of our brain that distinguishes right from wrong. To deal with our problems we need to be practical and realistic and if we are to be realistic, we need to use our human intelligence properly, which means we need a calm mind.”

I thought that quote was perfect. I definitely agree with it and have witnessed it with many clients, and in my own life. You may be deceived in thinking your anger and fit of energy are going to help you in your sport but in reality, they are not. There are a lot of reactions that take place in your body when you experience anger or fear. ‘Fight or flight’ sets in and you do not think clearly. A bit of a fog exists in your mind and you are in the illusion of your thoughts and then reacting to them, rather than what is really happening around you. So inner peace (having a calm mind or peace of mind), is definitely what you need to strive for in order to win.

You can see this also if you watch professional athletes on television. When they start getting angry and trying too hard is when things start falling apart. Even though they may have mastered their skills, they need all three components of mastery, presence and inner peace to truly achieve peak performance.

The suggestion from my hypnosis product that I have chosen to write about today is: “Each day I practice with a confident mindset, focused intention, & positive way of viewing myself, my life & how I play.”

“Each day I practice with a confident mindset”…this goes back to mastery of your mental skills and not just waiting for an event, hoping you will be able to have confidence or that maybe you will have a focused intention or mindset. You cannot hope for things like that. A lot of athletes feel like being in the zone is kind of a fluky thing that they have no control over, and it just randomly or haphazardly happens. But I have seen and helped clients master the skill of being in the zone, and then apply it at will whenever they feel like it. So each day, you need to practice a confident mindset if you want to improve your sport performance.

Now you know you need to practice a confident mindset, but what exactly does that look like? You need to pay attention to when you lack confidence in some area of your life, and get to know what that feels like. Then, pay attention to when you do have confidence in that particular area and learn to recognize the difference. Then when you practice in your sport, eliminate any thoughts or language that reinforce a lack of confidence, and make sure you feel confident in each of the elements that go into it.

When you think about focused intention, treat it like goal setting. You can have focused intention in the morning for your day, or your particular practice round and what you want to work on. You probably do that already. Sometimes you decide you want to practice your putting for a while. Well, that is a focused intention. You recognize the strength of when you pull your mind in and keep it focused on one particular task. You can do that throughout the day, or one round of golf, or clay shooting or running. Whatever your sport is, this mantra will work. You set your intention up front and say “I want to maintain a confident mindset and inner peace” throughout the entire round of golf, or clay shooting or running. You set that intention and decide that is what you are working on. Or let’s say that you have a tournament. If you have been practicing a confident mindset and your ability to maintain a focused intention, you go on out for your event and you can set your intention for that also.

As you practice having a focused intention, then you will begin to recognize when your focus wanders. Any time you start to stray from the path you have chosen, you just bring yourself back in. Let’s say you want to practice that inner peace while you are playing, but you start to wander from that (say you get upset about a bogey, a missed target, or something). You recognize it and pull yourself back in. So you practice having a confident mindset, focused intention and positive way of viewing yourself.

I know I have addressed this in different articles and trainings, and from many different angles. Why is it so important to have a positive way of viewing yourself? If you go out there chewing yourself out in your mind for not being very good, saying that you don’t deserve to be there or any thoughts like that, then you are definitely going to struggle no matter how much mastery you have of your skills.

So it is definitely important that you practice having this positive way of viewing yourself: and as I have said before, don’t just practice in your sport but practice throughout moments or days in your life. You can master this positive way of viewing yourself. Catch yourself when you are being negative or thinking life shouldn’t be a certain way, and replace those thoughts with something positive. Catch yourself if you are thinking down or limiting about how you perform in your sport, or what you are capable of doing. You can even choose to focus your intention on viewing yourself positively, and look at the areas you perform well in already. Build on that and remind yourself of that, instead of allowing negative thoughts to affect your confidence or impede your performance.

So each day, I practice with a confident mindset, focused intention, and positive way of viewing myself, my life & how I play. Really let this soak in and start practicing what it says. It will bring you great mastery over the mental side of your game, and over the mental side of everything in your life, actually. I highly encourage you to apply this to all areas of your life, so you can get even more opportunity to master it. Hopefully you can see how all of this can be directly applied to anything in your life. Take the ‘I apply’ part out, or the ‘I practice’ part, and say to yourself: “Each day, I have a confident mindset, focused intention and positive way of viewing myself and my life”, and carry it over to include how you are at work, or how you are in relationships or at home with your family. The more opportunity you find to perform in this way throughout your daily activities, the more you will master inner peace; one of the critical components to achieving peak sport performance.

So have mastery, presence in each moment, and inner peace; be confident in your mindset, have focused intention, and decide what you are going to work on this day. Then have a positive way of viewing yourself, others, your life, or situations you are involved in as you go about daily living. If you need any additional assistance as you start working this in your life and sport, I am here to help you so please feel free to contact me. As you strive toward mastery, presence and inner peace, I know you will see improvements in your daily life as well as your sport performance. Just get started! Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

For more information on my Sports Products, click here.

Take Action, Be The Best You Can Be: Improve Sport and Life Performance

Sun, 13 Apr 2014 07:00:59 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

How do you prepare to be the best you can be, in whatever you do? Do you take action in life, or do you let things go that you later believe you should have done something about? Are you kind to yourself in your thoughts and words? Do you wish you could be more positive about your game, but wonder how you can make it happen? In this article, I will help you answer these questions and more, with a self suggestion formulated from one of my hypnosis products.

Over the last 11 years or so, I have come to realize the power of the mind, our programming, our belief systems, our expectations, doubts and fears, and how extremely powerful they are. They can be shifted in hypnosis through suggestion, but we can also shift them through our own self suggestions, or conversations we have with ourselves all day long, every day. This is true not only of the thoughts in our own minds, but in conversations we engage in with others and what we choose to see in the world around us; on what we choose to focus our attention.

The suggestion I want to talk about here will help you shift your perceptions. It will help you work on your belief system by changing the thoughts in your head, conversations with others and what you view in life. It will help you recognize the need for a healthy balance in all areas of your life, and way to achieve that balance. All of this will ultimately lead to better performance in your sport and in life.

The suggestion is: “I take action– I prepare to be the best I can be each day in my sport and in life. On all levels I take action– physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.”

Now as an athlete you are probably thinking: “Why do I need to work on my spiritual, mental and emotional stuff?” It probably even sounds fluffy to most people, except for the physical part. But I can tell you from working one-on-one with thousands of clients, you have to be in balance. It is just a fact. If you want to perform the best you can in any aspect of your life, you have to take care of yourself in all areas and ways possible, so you bring the best ‘you’ to any given situation.

Let me give you an example on the spirituality part. We all have our own programming and belief systems based on our upbringing; on our religion and spirituality. Take me, for example. Let’s say I was raised in a home in which my family went to church every Sunday and Wednesday, where I was a participant and my parents did different group studies. Let’s also say I was very active in church, but in my 20’s & 30’s I got very busy in life and was no longer as active as I used to be. What happens if I still have the belief that I should be as active as I used to be? Would I be in balance spiritually?

There are a lot of different ways that scenario could play out. You could have been very active in a church growing up, but at some point you made the decision that it was unnecessary and you did not really want to be that way. So your belief about your level of activity shifted. Then in your 30’s and 40’s you find yourself not being as active in a church, and it is fine for you because you had changed your belief about it. Now instead of that example, let’s say you grew up in this very active, religious, spiritual home, and you are now in your 30’s and not as active as you still believe you should be. That will be a problem in your life – unless you take action and do something about it.

So you have some options. You can accept that you are just not as active as you used to be, you shift your belief system about it, and now you are fine with your level of spiritual activity. Or, you can decide you want to take action on it and you become more active in church again, in order to live up to your belief about how active you should be. Either of those choices is a much healthier option than what most people do, which is to be upset with themselves for not doing what they believe they should. How can you be the best you can be, if you allow yourself to be upset with this area of your life?

If you are upset with yourself for not being as active as you believe you should be in your religion and spiritual practices, it will be a real energy downer for you. It will depress your mood, make you feel bad, bring about feelings of guilt, negativity and possibly even fear, and it will affect everything in your life. So let’s say you have an event on a weekend, and that Sunday will be one more in a long line of Sundays when you couldn’t engage in your spiritual practices. You wake up thinking about it. How can you possibly be the best you can be? Without a doubt, it will affect your sport performance in that event.

So …“on all levels I take action”. When I say take action, I mean to stop right now and look at these areas of your life. You can take action mentally and change your belief system. You can realize that by believing certain things that create a low energy level or negative emotions and reactions, it is time to take action on them. This applies across the board in every single area of your life. At any time, if you experience a low level energy feeling, low level emotion, or reactions of anger, fear, frustration or guilt, then you are reacting to a belief system that is contradictory to what is happening in reality. There is something in you or around you that is part of this reality that you are in conflict with because in your mind, you believe it should be different. You need to take action on that.

What do I mean when I say you need to take action? First, you can notice your negative emotion or negative reaction and say “Wait a minute, I don’t want to feel this way or react like this anymore or have these negative emotions, so I need to do something about it.” Doing something means taking action. You can shift your belief system, or you can actually change some aspect of yourself or how you are in life.

By stating this self suggestion: “I take action – I prepare to be the best I can be each day in my sport and life. On all levels I take action – physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually,” you empower yourself to do what you need to, in order to create a healthy balance in your life. Of course, I am only referring to the areas over which you have control. You cannot control things outside of yourself, but most of us aren’t even controlling what we can to the best of our ability. We tend to keep pointing the finger and trying to fix everything around us rather than fixing what we really can fix, which are things within us.

So if you really want to perform well out there in your sport, ask yourself how well you take care of your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self. When thinking about your physical body, do you know in your head, or do you have a belief in your head, that you should be eating healthier and exercising more? Do you feel you are out of shape and have no energy or endurance? Do you recognize when you aren’t very healthy, or when you haven’t given your body what it needs to have the kind of energy and clarity of thought to perform well all day in your sport? You can generally apply the same examples regarding your spirituality, to the physical, emotional and mental aspects of yourself. It comes down to your belief system and whether you are in sync with it, or not.

When it comes to your physical self, you can shift your negative perception that you should be eating healthier, since you react in a way that makes you feel guilty when you don’t eat like you think you should. Or you can decide it’s time to start eating healthier and cut out sodas, sugars, caffeine and excessive use of alcohol. You can decide to cut those things out right now, and start eating three healthy meals a day, drinking lots of water, and only putting in your mouth things you know the cells of your body will thrive from. Your sleep factors in here as well. How are your sleep patterns? Do you recognize the need for more sleep? Are you feeling guilty about that or bad about that? You can shift your perception about it or you can decide to take action and actually get the amount of sleep that you believe your body needs, or you have recognized your body needs to be the best you can be.

So the mental aspect would include all of the mental skills I give you and applying them; not just knowing you should be more positive. It’s actually taking action. I know it can be tricky taking action on the mental or emotional side of things, because they are the most invisible to us (words and thoughts are invisible to us), but they are not invisible in how they impact our lives. When you go to work on your mental skills, it reminds me of being a fluent right handed writer. When I have a cast on my right hand, I have to write with my left and it takes very mindful, focused attention to write with my left hand. That’s the kind of effort I want you to put into shifting your mental skills, your mental performance, your mental abilities and the way you think about things; what you choose to see and believe.

Now emotions are a reaction to something and are really signals coming from the cells of your body. All we’ve done is to come up with a fancy word for them. But the cells of your body feel a certain way depending on what is happening around you or in you, and create an energetic sensation that we then label in a word such as ‘emotion’. If you are experiencing a negative sensation in your body, it is a signal that you are either engaging in your mind or with the people or situation around you. You are engaging with something that does not fit with who you are or what you want, so you get this negative feedback. I believe you can actually feel horrible, so you pay attention to the sensation and want to change something; you take action. Pay attention to those signals. Your emotions are signals that trigger you, and it is a domino effect. As you go back to identify the source of your discomfort, imagine that your emotions are the third or fourth domino, but something originally set off the very first one that caused the others to fall. If you follow your thoughts back, you will follow it to a belief. So take action and change your thoughts or belief, or take action and change your life, if you want to be the best you can be.

As you read over this information, realize that it will take more than five minutes to apply it and affect any significant change. You really have to be diligent in deliberately applying this in your life. I can help you with this and take you through the steps necessary to help you get clear on who you are, and how to take action in your life. Get working on this today, and remember every day to tell yourself: “I take action– I prepare to be the best I can be each day in my sport and in life. On all levels I take action– physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.” You will be the best you can be. InJoy your day!

For more information on the products that are available for purchase, please click here.

Recover Quickly & Shake Off Negative Thoughts: Mental Game Moment

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 05:00:00 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

How can you recover quickly and shake off negative thoughts, in order to perform well in your golf game? When you consider that you have about 60,000 thoughts each day, most of which you had yesterday (and most of them negative), it may sound like an impossible task. That is because people don’t really know any different, even if they have the best intentions. Why is that? Why can’t you hit one bad shot and just shake it off, instead of berating yourself with negative thoughts about the kind of golfer you are, or wondering what you should have done differently? When you begin to understand more about the mind, you will see that most of your thoughts are limiting you and hampering your ability to just ‘shake it off’.

Chances are, that you habitually think in a certain way. You probably respond the same to certain situations each time they come up, or to certain things people say. Although you may want to make a change, you limit your own abilities by the way you think about yourself, other people and your circumstances. Even if you continually believe a problem exists or something is wrong, whether or not there really is a problem, those thoughts can hold you back.

I’d like to offer you the following self suggestion, which you could also call an affirmation. It gives you an example of how you can shift your mind away from your usual perceptions or thoughts about certain situations, and provides some instruction or guidance to help you think in a more positive, unlimited way. The suggestion is: “I recover quickly and shake off any negative thoughts, present in each moment.”

This suggestion applies primarily for golfers and sporting clay shooters, which are the largest groups of athletes within my work. If you golf or shoot, you know what it’s like to not recover, or to not recover quickly. It means that if you miss a shot or get a bogey, double bogey or even a few bogeys on the last several holes, you just can’t seem to get over it or move beyond it and get back to a present focus. As a shooter, maybe you missed birds at the last several stations and you are so bothered by it, that you really struggle to shoot well on the next ones. That is not recovering quickly. That is holding on to something and letting it continue to frustrate you and keep you from the present moment, which will obviously decrease your performance on the next shot, hole or experience – whatever that may be.

In your day-to-day life, see how quickly you recover from situations that don’t go the way you would have liked them to go, as a means of gauging your ability to shake things off. How long do you hold on to resentments or anger and frustration? Take a look at this because that habit is really a way of life and you carry it over into your sport. So as you work on improving your sport performance, ideally, you should include a goal to recover quickly and shake off any negative thoughts in whatever situations you may face.

Let’s put it another way: If you perceive your last experience in a negative way and you carry it over into your next shot, hole or station, it is 100% guaranteed that you will muck-up that next moment. So you have to start recognizing your negative, limiting-type thoughts and learn to shake them off. Replace them with more positive, uplifting types of thoughts. This may sound easy or silly or overly simplified, and it actually is a simple concept. But it can be very difficult to apply, because of the habit most people naturally carry around in their thinking. So if you find it difficult to recover quickly and shake off negative thoughts, please know that I am here for you. I have a process I take people through where I spoon-feed them, one step at a time, to break off those old cycles and patterns of thinking. I am more than happy to help you with this, and I have helped numerous athletes improve their performance with this suggestion – so I know that it works.

If you are someone who feels that you are ready and interested in making a positive change, then I feel like the information I give you here should really help you do it. You just have to be determined and decide it’s time to see things differently, think differently and shift your perceptions. You need to believe you can do well rather than building up evidence that you cannot. So first, you must believe you can recover quickly and shake off negative thoughts. As in sports and in life, it all starts with a belief.

Next, let’s move on to the last part of the suggestion: “present in each moment.” As I’ve stated above, if you are still upset or frustrated about something that happened to you earlier, and you bring that into your next experience, you will muck it up. That happens because your thoughts are taking you out of that new present moment. In order to be present in each moment, you must let the past go, or just ‘shake it off’. Again, it sounds simple enough, but it can be tough to accomplish. Do not feel bad if you need help with this. Many people do, and many people have improved their performances as a result.

As you begin to realize that your thoughts take you out of each moment, you can then begin to train your mind to focus on the present. You can change this bad habit of your conscious, analytical mind, just like you can house train a new puppy. If you think about it, a puppy that runs free in your house and gets up on any furniture it wants to, chews whatever it wants to and pees wherever it wants to, will continue doing it if nobody teaches it otherwise. You cannot get mad at it if it has never been trained. That is how your conscious ego mind is. It is peeing all over the place and mucking up your experiences, by taking you in a lot of different places besides what is truly happening in each new moment. It prevents you from recognizing and accepting the reality of the present, which ends up decreasing your performance.

Again, the new behavior or way of handling a situation that usually causes negative thoughts is to shake off the past and let it go. Let it go, let it go, let it go! Let it go as many times as you need to. It could be 100 times in three minutes; it does not matter. Just let it go. Be aware of the negative thoughts, let them go and replace them with positive, more unlimited thoughts. You want to be out there with more of a positive attitude and expectation of having fun and enjoying yourself. You can get there if you enable your mind to recover quickly and shake off those negative thoughts.

Go to work on this! This is a big one. It is extremely important, not only in your sport but also in your life. For more information on this and other topics, please check out my product page and look for sports performance products, which are packed with suggestions, hypnosis and mental training. To start improving your performance today, begin saying this suggestion and really believe it to be true: “I recover quickly and shake off any negative thoughts, present in each moment.” Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

Understand & Trust Yourself: A Key to Being In The Zone

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 05:00:42 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

How often do you find yourself in the zone, in golf or in life? This is something most athletes are familiar with, but not on a regular basis. Of all the hundreds of athletes I have worked with, many of which are elite in their sport, they frequently say the zone experience eludes them. They can name moments when they have felt it, but only a handful of times. So they come to me anxious to learn how to be more in the zone, although I would say most of them don’t think it’s really possible to learn how to get there on purpose. They have tried so many times on their own in the only ways they know how, with little or no success. That all changed as they applied my teachings. They learned to understand themselves. They learned to trust themselves and ultimately became better performers. Most of my teachings will ultimately help guide you into a state of mind described as being in the zone, a large majority of your life; not just when you play your sport. You cannot expect your mind to be a certain way on the course, while shooting or performing in whatever sport you play, that is different from how it is the rest of the time. You cannot expect that all of a sudden you will turn on these really great skills that instantly put you into the zone state. The mind doesn’t work like that. Life doesn’t work like that. You have to master these skills, get out of the conscious analytical, ego mind, stop letting it run the show and causing you to just react. You need to get to a place where you are out of that mode, more than you are in it.

One of the important elements that I will discuss in this article comes from a suggestion in my sports hypnosis products. As you apply it to your life, it will help you shift your mindsets and how you view yourself and life around you. When your mind shifts to a more healthy and unlimited way of seeing things, you will experience greater performance and profound positive change in your life and sport. You should also be able to achieve the zone state on a more regular basis. The suggestion is: “I take time to understand myself, and then deliberately apply that knowledge in my life and in golf”. You can apply this to any sport; just drop off the ending of “in golf” and replace it with “in my sport” if you participate in shooting or something else. You can even drop off the sport reference completely, because it applies to everything in your life. That is the overall approach I take with my teachings, since it will help you reach your performance goals more quickly, and it also provides the added benefit of improving performance in all areas of your life as you consistently apply them. I highly encourage you to take the same approach as well. When it comes to taking time to understand yourself, you may think it sounds superficial, silly and ridiculous, because you think you know yourself pretty well already. But do you really know yourself? I ask because when you have a really strong clarity about who you are, then you can make decisions from a place of trust and honor who you are and your preferences. Through that, you can achieve greater performance in everything you do. You recognize that people are all unique. I am not eliminating that here, but I am not going to address it right now. The genetic makeup and experiences we have are all the same in a lot of ways, but it is a whole other topic.

Knowing who you are as a foundation will help you to understand yourself. Let’s look at the fact that you are different as far as your unique preferences, and who you are and how you choose to live the hours and days of your life. What are your gifts and in what areas are you limited? Take time to recognize those. In what areas do you excel? What can you do to tap into those areas in which you are gifted or excel, and what can you do to recognize, neutrally, the areas in which you are limited, and identify ways of using them to the greater good in your life?

As you begin to acquire a deeper understanding of yourself, you will also gain a higher level of trust. How many of times have you not trusted your club choice when are out there on the golf course, preparing to tee off? You’re getting ready to drive the ball, but maybe you see other golfers making other club choices from the one you had intended to use. You then begin to doubt yourself. With a true understanding of you and your abilities with each particular club, and respecting and honoring that knowledge, you will perform better. I know this happens with so many different athletes. I know you know exactly what it feels like when you have a thought and believe you know what you need to do, but you second guess yourself and doubt your decision and change your mind because of that doubt. Then what happens? You don’t perform as well as you would like and you want to kick yourself because you think you should have gone with your initial choice. You knew what you should have done but you doubted yourself, reacted to that doubt, and then your performance decreased. I know you are familiar with that and you can also experience it in many other areas of life, not just in golf. The same thing happens with the shooters with whom I work. They can watch others shoot the clay and the break points that they use, and then they start to doubt themselves. They begin to question where they thought they should break the bird. Then they either rush or slow down their gun to make it happen differently than they originally thought it should happen, and there goes their performances. Because they allowed doubt to creep in, insecurities ,or a wavering in their decision, they end up missing the shot.

Taking time to understand yourself is extremely important; not just in your sport, but also in your life. Think about the clarity you could have at work, in your business partnerships and your relationships. Let’s say you are single and dating and have very little clarity about who you are, what you really prefer in your life and how you want to spend the hours of your day. You may be wishy-washy, moving in a lot of different directions or going with the flow, and finding yourself in situations you don’t want to be in. Or you could engage in conversations that you do not enjoy, but you stay there anyway because you think you should. You might even be dating a lot of different personalities and find yourself frustrated. Now let’s say you had clarity and took the time to understand yourself, and deliberately applied that knowledge in your dating life. You would have better ‘picking ability’ with a date because your filter would be stronger. You could make clearer decisions as to who you are compatible with in the long term, and build healthy relationships. You should also be able to filter out people with whom you are not compatible. You would not need to spend much time trying to figure it out, because you would see it clearly as you understand and trust yourself. I hope you can see how this works across the board, and the importance of the connection between clarity and performing well.

Okay, so now you probably wonder, “Well gosh, how do I get this level of clarity?” That does not happen overnight. What I do with my clients is I actually take them through a pretty long brainstorming series of exercises, in which they can neutrally observe themselves, others, life, relationships and various situations. We basically cover every area of life, so they can learn what their preferences are in each area. They neutrally observe all of those areas and get a really clear idea what direction they lean in, and take note of that. I say neutral because I am not talking about judging others as good or bad, or that choices or situations were right or wrong, that they were right or wrong or better or worse than another person. It is a neutral observation of situations, scenarios, personalities, people, choices, the way people speak to and treat others, and even how they dress. We go through all of that. It is sort of like getting to know a new dating companion, except you ask yourself all the same kinds of questions. It’s like dating yourself for a while. Ask yourself all of the big questions, and it will help you gain a real clarity in understanding who you are and what you prefer.

This is an ongoing process, but when you get started you can have some light bulb moments early on. That will help you really start to honor and trust yourself, and enable you to make the types of decisions that help you perform better and better in life as you move forward. It is that trust in yourself that enables you to get in the zone. When doubt disappears and you just go with your decision in the moment, knowing that what you are doing is in line with who you are and your capabilities. You won’t even have to try to be in the zone, it will just happen. You can start the process now, a little bit at a time. It’s learning about yourself and applying what you learn in the next opportunities that come up and are similar to what you have observed, in a manner that honors who you are. Then you continue to learn more and more as you keep observing and staying neutral, while you strive to gain a deeper understanding of who you are. The more you continue to honor and trust yourself and make the kinds of choices in your life that are compatible with who you are, the more you will experience being in the zone and the better you will perform. I hope you take the time to get to know and really understand yourself, so you can begin to trust and honor who you are and perform better in everything you do. If you would like extra help with this, please contact me. I wish you well as you seek to better understand and trust yourself, and be in the zone. I know you can do it! InJoy your day!

Book I Recommend: Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 17:31:19 -0400

Myself and several of my friends have studied Caroline Myss’ work to get a better understanding of our archetypes and divine potential. I use this information in my own life to help me with empowerment, as well as to help my clients. The information is spot on and always leads to deep and meaningful clarity.

Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential

New York Times bestselling author and medical intuitive Caroline Myss has found that when people don’t understand their purpose in life the result can be depression, anxiety, fatigue, and eventually physical illness—in short, a spiritual malaise of epidemic proportions. Myss’s experience of working with people led her to develop an insightful and ingenious process for deciphering your own Sacred Contract—or higher purpose—using a new theory of archetypes that builds on the works of Jung, Plato, and many other contemporary thinkers.

Myss examines the lives of the spiritual masters and prophets—Abraham, Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad—whose archetypal journeys illustrate the four stages of a Sacred Contract and provide clues for discovering your own. Myss explains how you can identify your particular spiritual energies, or archetypes—the gatekeepers of your higher purpose—and use them to help you find out what you are here on earth to learn and whom you are meant to meet. Exploring your Sacred Contract will shine a light on the purpose and meaning of your life. You are meant to do certain tasks, you are meant to have certain relationships.

In coming to know your archetypal companions, you also begin to see how to live your life in ways that make the best use of your personal power and lead you to fulfill your greatest—in fact, your divine—potential.

Both visionary and practical, Sacred Contracts is a bold, powerful work of spiritual wisdom. Without a doubt, your most intriguing challenge in life is to recognize your spiritual commitments and live them to the fullest.

Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential

Book I Recommend: Sacred Contracts: The Journey

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 17:45:43 -0400

Carolyn Myss’ work on Sacred Contracts and archetypes has helped me tremendously to, not only understand my unique tendencies, but to understand the uniqueness in each of my clients. The more I have learned about archetypes, the more I have been able to empower myself, and, therefore, be able to help others be empowered also. This little book is a quick reference guide to some of the most common archetypes. I recommend it along with the Sacred Contracts main book: Awakening Your Divine Potential

Sacred Contracts: The Journey

Caroline Myss’ New York Times bestseller Sacred Contracts invites readers to gain a unique perspective on their lives by working with a family of personal archetypes and their location on the Archetypal Wheel, similar in format to an astrological chart. Sacred Contracts: The Journey expands on the insights contained in the book and introduces whole new levels of awareness. We are each born with a Sacred Contract, an agreement to learn certain lessons and develop wisdom in this lifetime. Among our allies in the pursuit of wisdom is a set of 12 archetypes drawn from the inexhaustible well of the collective unconscious. Recognizing those archetypes within our psyche helps us learn how to benefit from their energies. Those 12 archetypes, when placed on the Archetypal Wheel through an intuitive process, make up your Chart of Origin, a diagram of key forces at work throughout your entire life. Although they are your primary archetypal patterns, however, they are not the only ones that influence you. There are countless archetypes in the collective unconscious, most of which come into play only in specific situations. Discovering the identity and function of the secondary archetypes in relation to your psyche is the goal of Sacred Contracts: The Journey. It is an interactive experience that can be used alone or by up to four people, and can add new layers of insight to that provided by your Chart of Origin. These levels represent a heightened understanding of archetypes that Caroline has developed since she wrote Sacred Contracts. Sacred Contracts: The Journey is a way of seeking guidance for a particular question or issue in each participant’s life. You name the matter on which you are seeking guidance at the beginning of the Journey, and compile insights and guidance as you move along.

Sacred Contracts: The Journey

Book I Recommend: The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:05:11 -0400

One of the best books I have read to understand the mind, body connection. Dr. Lipton takes his knowledge as a biologist and helps us to understand how thought energy effects our bodies. He takes what could be very complicated information, and makes it easy to comprehend. I recommend this book to all my clients when we get to a point in our training when they are starting to see how powerful their mind and thoughts are.

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles

With more than 100,000 copies sold of his self-published book, The Biology of Belief, Bruce Lipton teams up with Hay House to bring his message to an even wider audience. This book is a groundbreaking work in the field of new biology, and it will forever change how you think about thinking. Through the research of Dr. Lipton and other leading-edge scientists, stunning new discoveries have been made about the interaction between your mind and body and the processes by which cells receive information. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts. Using simple language, illustrations, humor, and everyday examples, he demonstrates how the new science of Epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of the link between mind and matter and the profound effects it has on our personal lives and the collective life of our species.

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles

Bradford Sportsmen’s Farm: Florida Challenge 2014

Mon, 21 Apr 2014 09:28:08 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sport Performance

Florida Challenge Sporting Clays Event at Bradford Sportsmen’s Farm Graham, Florida: March 1-2 2014

There were 293 shooters that attended the challenge at the Bradford Sportsmen’s Farm. Heavy rains on Wednesday made it very soggy. By the time we were leaving, I actually saw an RV stuck in the mud being pulled out by a tractor. Fortunately the sun was shining and although it started off chilly every morning, it warmed up quickly and ended up being a beautiful 75 degrees by Sunday. There was definitely something for everybody: FITASC 100 Targets, 200 Target Main Event, 5-Stand, and even two practice 5-stands. I heard from many of my clients that the targets were very challenging. Even some stated that they were set in a way where one target in a pair would be lagging and slow and the other would be fast and soaring which made for quite the mental game. Sounds to me from talking to many people that Bradford Sportsmen’s Farm is known for their tricky targets and that anyone coming to this area for one of these events knows what to expect.

I was fortunate enough to watch about a dozen of my clients shooting throughout the weekend. Many of them did very well. Watching Wendell Cherry come out on top with four out of five events. He came in first for Thursday prelims, Friday prelims, 5-stand, and FITASC. He came in 8^th for the Main Event.

John Woolley came in first in 5-Stand Veterans, 3^rd in FITASC Veterans and 3^rd in Main Event, Veterans. Most of my Saturday and Sunday was spent coaching these two greats and watching their master skills. It was fun to be able to bring my son, Charlie and my boyfriend, Tracy along for the show. Bradfors Sportsmen’s Farm and the Florida Challenge turned out to be a very exciting and eventful weekend. This year is shaping up to be a really great year for competitive clay shooters. Hope to see you at the next event.

For more information on Clay Shooting and products I have available, click here.

To see pictures of this event, click here.

Hold Out Under Pressure: Golf Performance

Wed, 23 Apr 2014 07:00:16 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

Golf is a serious mental game. I work with many of my clients to alleviate the many thoughts they have going through their minds as they ready themselves. I use suggestions during hypnosis to help them clear their minds and ultimately perform better. A suggestion I would like to expand upon here is one I pulled from my products. It is a hypnosis suggestion and also a self suggestion: “I hold out under pressure – mentally, emotionally and with each swing and stroke.” I chose this because the main times I see golfers under pressure are during tournaments or events, and they typically come to me for help with improving their performances for such events. Very little pressure exists when practicing or playing for the fun of it, but a lot of pressure exists when playing in competitions.

Did you know that how you think and talk to yourself affects your golf performance? You speak to yourself all throughout the day, and have various thoughts going on about 60,000 times a day. The ones you grab onto as they go by are the ones you believe, based on previous programming or perceptions. A ton of opportunity exists for different ways you can perceive yourself, life and others, from thoughts in your mind or comments made by people in your life. But you only tend to grab onto those that you believe – and again, your belief system comes from previous experiences and perceptions.

Just because you might have negative beliefs right now about your golf game, does not mean you will always have them. I am not trying to encourage you to be delusional here; if you are not making putts, do not tell yourself that you are making them. That would be a superficial way of looking at this. But I am encouraging you to look at what is going well with your strokes, rather than focusing on what is not. By doing that, you will tune in to those positive behaviors and begin to shift your perception of your putting, which will free you up to perform better and better. If you look at what you lack or what problems you have, that just encourages those problems to build up and continue. Decreased moods or negative attitudes and perceptions cause performance to suffer. So it stands to reason that the opposite would also be true: improving attitude and perception will cause performance to improve.

Pressure increases as the game goes on, depending on whether you are in the lead or close to it, and you perceive or believe that each hole is very important to you taking over the lead. So mounting pressure, then, is on each shot, hole, or stroke. I also see this when I work with PGA tour clients who are near the cut line, or the time of year when they try to keep their cards. In the same manner, each hole is seen with greater and greater value. Each shot, hole, tournament and subsequent pressure increases there also.

Learning how to hold out under pressure is crucial to any golfer who is looking to compete or perform in different arenas, avenues or experiences. If you constantly think that you do awful under pressure, or you can’t hold it together, you stress out, freak out, notice that you kick your bag, throw your clubs, get really frustrated and your tension builds, and depending on your perception of the experience you see this as your tendency, then you want to also see that you have the ability to hold out under pressure as well. The possibility does exist and I can almost guarantee that if you reflect back in life and in golf through all of your experiences, you will find evidence of times when you held out under pressure. Times when you held it together and performed very well, when the going got tough at work, home, in relationships, crisis situations, driving on the highway or other scenarios; those times are the evidence I am talking about. Recognizing your ability to hold out under pressure from moments in your past, will help you create that reality for yourself in your golf game now and in the future.

You are the same human being whether you are running errands, at home, or on the golf course, and you want to see clearly that you are capable of holding out under pressure. When you see that you are capable, then you open the door to transfer over that feeling or ability to hold steady under pressure, and you can imagine yourself doing it on the golf course. Using some self hypnosis or visualization, you can imagine yourself holding out under pressure. Imagine that you are out there in the lead or close to it, or maybe not making the cut, or you are on a final hole. Imagine or visualize any of these scenarios and pull in the feeling of being comfortable, confident, calm, relaxed and performing well, even under pressure, and your performance will improve as you do.

As you practice this technique, you will see that it is not the experience that causes the pressure. It’s your thoughts about the experience that cause the pressure and you can control where your thoughts take you, as you actually do what I described above. You can shift your thoughts and belief system and mentally and emotionally ‘hold out’ – staying calm, confident, relaxed and performing well in both your swing and stroke. The first step is to recognize your perception of where you are in terms of your ability to hold out under pressure. Then you must find evidence of times you have done well under pressure in the past, and focus on those. Lastly, you need to realize that it is just your thoughts that create a shift (not whether you are under pressure), but how you perceive the situation and what you can actually do. As you shift your thoughts and deliberately pull in a level of confidence and calmness where you lacked it before, you will find your performance improving.

So start visualizing yourself calm, relaxed, confident, holding out under pressure and performing well, in all those situations when you had perceived pressure, and go to work on that right now. Work on it in life and in golf. You need to deliberately apply it to life scenarios so you can master the skill, and then you’ll be able to pull from that when you are out golfing. You are not trying to create or pretend to be something you are not, and all of a sudden become (or hope you are) this person who is calm under pressure in life. But if you work at this in all areas of your life, it will naturally carry over into golf.

I am here to help as you begin applying this to your life, so please contact me if you need to. I know it will improve your ability to hold out under pressure in golf, and I am sure will help your performance tremendously. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day.

If you would like information on any of my available downloadable Golf Products, please click here.

Improve Golf Performance: Believe, Recognize, Apply

Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:00:58 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

Although I often focus on helping golfers improve their performance, I also help sporting clay shooters, athletes and non-athletes as they implement my suggestions and mental training in their lives. You may notice your performance level in your sport, but you also have a performance level in everything else you do: work projects, relationships, time with yourself, work around the house, and things you do for others. In all aspects of your life, your performance can either be on par or off. You either live what you are capable of, or you experience lack or limitations due to ability; which incorporates your mental state at the time. You can’t ever separate your mental attitude, mental acuity, alertness, skills, pros versus cons, from anything you do. It is there and a part of every single moment of your life.

In this blog post, I am pulling the following suggestion from my mental golf product, as a means of helping you improve your golf performance: “I believe in myself and my ability to play golf well. I have come a long way, learned a lot about how I play golf and am now easily applying that knowledge each time I play”.

As you look at the above statement you can see how you can apply this not just to golf, but many different aspects of your life. You know when you have confidence in a particular area, such as with your job working projects, guiding people through meetings, or maybe with social or sales skills. You know that when you believe in yourself, you have the ability to do well in that area, and you perform a lot better than if you had doubt when going into that situation. As you believe in yourself when playing golf, then you automatically improve your performancefrom how you played when you doubted your abilities.

You can look around and see evidence of this with other human beings who doubt themselves in areas, that maybe you have confidence in. That’s no different than you – for the areas you have decided and believe you are good in versus those you are not so good in. So say to yourself before you go out for our game: ‘I believe in myself and my ability to play golf well.‘ And that belief will really impact how well you play.

If you took some time to gather evidence and see this as true for yourself, you would start looking at the progress you have made and what you are doing well every time you play, versus complaining about the bogeys or the shots that did not go as well as you’d like. There are plenty of opportunities to find positive reinforcements; it’s just a matter of what you decide to focus on. So this does not have to feel farfetched for you. It’s completely 100% available to every human being, and it doesn’t matter what level of a golfer you are. Believing in yourself and your ability to play golf wellwill positively effect your performance.

Some golfers tend to get stuck on this because of how they define ‘playing golf well’, you want to be careful about that. Are you defining it with absolute perfection, that you should be at a certain handicap or playing with so many birdies or pars in a round? However you define it is really your limitation. If you have already decided that you are only playing golf well if you have three birdies in a round or if you are winning then you will struggle to have that belief or confidence in playing golf well unless those conditions are met–(I work with tons of people that unless they are winning, they think they are playing poorly – period. For them, there is no other option). You must be introspective and look at how you define “playing golf well”, and loosen up on yourself. Get a reality check, look at your personal progress and what you are doing well. I can guarantee 100% that if you start doing that, you will progress in your sport faster and more efficiently than you ever have before.

Define what ‘playing golf well’ really means to you, and find evidence in your own personal experiences where you played golf well, or where a belief in yourself helped you play golf better than you have before. That will help you build more confidence and belief in yourself and your ability to play golf well going forward, which will help youimprove your performance.

After belief, you need to reflect upon all your years of playing golf and say to yourself “I have come a long way”.Recognize that you have come a long way and learned a lot about how to play golf in the process. Look for the proof of how far you have come. Think back to when you first started playing and look at the different areas where you have improved: your chipping, putting, driving, planning, initiation, trust and confidence. Look at all these areas and many more, and see how far you have come. This is the gathering of the evidence and proof that will build your confidence and belief in yourself and your ability to play well.

Next, you want to take the information you have gathered and apply it. Don’t go out with fear or expectation or worry about how you are going to play, how many bogeys you will get or if you will pull off certain shots. Each time you go out there you need to recognize how far you have come and what you have learned along the way, and do it with confidence knowing that you are easily applying that knowledge today. Try and maintain the attitude that you will learn from today and move forward. Each time you play, you are learning and growing and perfecting your golf game, and progressing in your abilities. I am pretty sure that is a lot different than how a good number of you have been doing it.

Take some time right now, and look at believing in yourself and your ability to play golf well. Look at how far you have come, look at what you have learned along the way, and make a decision to apply that every time you play. It is a matter of doing the best you can each time, progressing along the way, and your performance will improve as a result.

Continue to see how far you have come, rather than expecting perfection as your measure of ‘playing well’ – or however you define it. Unrealistic expectations will keep you feeling less than or like you are “not good enough.” You will likely end up being negative towards yourself, your life or your game (like tires spinning in mud). Improving your sport performance will take you a lot longer from that point of view, if ever, so make sure you set a realistic definition of ‘playing well’ for yourself.

I am sure this will be beneficial to you; now it’s just a matter of getting to work on it! If you need any extra help, please contact me. Try this out, not only in your golf game, but in other areas of your life as well. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you improve your performance. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

Perfect Putt – Trust Yourself: Mental Golf Moment

Mon, 28 Apr 2014 07:00:10 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

How would you like to make perfect putts each time you play golf? If you answered yes to that question, then you need to know if you trust yourself to make them. How do you know whether or not you truly trust yourself? Take a look at your mindsets and the way you perceive situations, yourself, others and your golf game. How well do you putt? Your perceptions or mindsets affect your performance in your golf game (or whatever sport you’re involved in), and also in regular activities of your daily life.

In this blog post I am writing specifically about putting. After years of researching what each of my golf clients struggle with, I discovered the most consistent information and the best ways to putt, including how to hold the putter. I also identified what the pros suggest and recommend. I then pulled all of that together into a hypnosis audio, so you can have all of the information at your fingertips.

So how do you work towards making perfect putts? Consider the following suggestion, from my hypnosis product: “When I putt– I have perfectly light grip pressure, perfectly slight hinge in wrist, my head is perfectly still from start to finish, and my eyes and complete focus are straight down for my perfect putts– I trust myself and my line, and I let my putter release naturally”

In looking at the mental side of that suggestion: trusting yourself, your line and letting your putter release naturally, I felt like I had to lead up to that by going over the proper ways of putting. You need to know how to hold your putter, to focus straight down, and all of the other elements of the perfect putt, before you can trust yourself and let it go naturally. It’s kind of a build-up of information, so you can get to the point of trusting yourself and your line, to let your putter release naturally.

When you putt, you need to apply light-grip pressure to your putter. You don’t want to squeeze the heck out of it, or let it wobble around in your hand. You also need a perfectly light hinge in your wrist. You don’t want to be too stiff. Stiffness, from a mental perspective, usually comes as a reaction to fear and anxiety. You know when you feel stressed, fearful or anxious, how you tighten your shoulders or clench your jaw, teeth and hands. So it is important to recognize the mental influence on your grip, not only the mechanics of your putting, as you apply perfectly light pressure to your putter and a perfectly light hinge to your wrist.

Next, consider the importance of your head and eyes. Your head is perfectly still from start to finish. As a mental trainer, I know if you are looking all around, it is probably because you doubt something in your read or interpretation of the greens. You may be trying to figure out how to play the hole and whether or not you have all the information correct. You need to gather all of that information before you step-up to make your putt. Then, at that moment when you are ready to stroke your perfect putt, you are still. Your head is still, your focus is clear, your eyes and your focus are straight down – not looking around or wandering. You clearly know what you are about to do.

As evidence of this, you should observe others in every-day life. As you do, you will notice that when people are unsure of something or they lie, their eyes will shift all over the place. This is something people are trained to identify, like police officers or others trained in lie-detecting. There is a subconscious shift in the eyes that accompanies doubt. You can force your eyes to stay straight, but there are twitches or movements of your eyes that say different things. Even if you are unaware of it, when you are in fear in some way about your putt or reading of the green or your stroke, your eyes will move. It is the same kind of flinching that comes from doubt or insecurity, and it shows in your eyes.

To make a perfect putt, you need to have confidence and security, and your eyes in complete focus – looking straight down at your ball. You need to trust yourself and believe in your abilities in that moment. You need to trust in all of your practicing and progression; trust that you have come a long way, and be confident in the skills that you have. You must trust yourself and the line that you read, and how you want to play out your putt, and then let your putter release naturally. Do not force it. Try to ‘make it happen’ or make the putt go in. It should be a natural process for you. Anyone who has been ‘in the zone’ will say that it feels like it is intuitive and just happens. You want to play into that. You want to recognize that your performance excels tremendously when you are in that state, versus when you try to force things to happen.

This is great information for you to work on at a conscious level, and practice each time you are about to putt. If you want to put it into your subconscious mind more quickly, you can do that using my Perfect Putting hypnosis audio – I have gotten really great feedback about it. If you would like help beyond this article and the audio I mentioned, I am here for you. Please feel free to contact me.

I wish you much success as you practice all of the elements of putting, and see yourself improve. Just keep at it. Trust yourself, and you will make perfect putts. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

It is Easier and Easier to Play With Each Shot

Wed, 30 Apr 2014 08:00:03 -0400

April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance

Do you feel like golf gets easier and easier for you to play, with each shot you take? Do you see the opportunity to play golf as a chance to learn more about your abilities, improve your skills and enjoy the sport? How about other areas of your life? Do you look at meeting new people as growth opportunities to learn something new or make new friends? What thoughts come to your mind as you think about answers to these questions? Do you realize that mental skills come into play whether you step out to golf for the 100^th time, or meet new people for the first time?

Mental training really pertains to any sport, and all aspects of your life. As you improve your mental skills and abilities, you are able to improve upon your performance in all areas of your life, including your sport. You know that your mind is with you everywhere you go, so it stands to reason that mental skills involve the mind with everything you do. You really can’t just work on mental skills for golf or your sport alone, without recognizing that they will affect everything else in your life. The mind doesn’t work that way.

If you have read any of my other blogs or received prior training from me, then you know that I place a great deal of importance on looking at how you approach all of life – not just your sport. This includes your mental skills and everything it takes in order for you to perform well in whatever you do. Even if you just want to focus on improving your golf game, you cannot magically flip the switch and have the mental side of your sport rise to the occasion when you are out at an event or ready to perform. If you have not been practicing your mental skills just like you do your mechanics, it is not realistic to expect those mental skills to be there on demand. These are skills that need to be practiced and worked on regularly, in as many opportunities as you can find, so you can perfect them. That way, they are readily available in your mind when you need them to perform well in your sport.

In this blog post, I am taking a look at a suggestion from one of my hypnosis products. All of my products are available for you to purchase and download from my website, but I like to offer this complimentary training to help you get started in the right direction with your mental skills. It is the kind of suggestion I can give you as a hypnotherapist, and I know it goes right to the subconscious level of your mind where your programming takes place. It then contributes to your mental programming and you begin to live as if that suggestion were factual. The same thing happens if you repeat it to yourself a multitude of times, over and over again, for the next several years. It will then become part of your mental programming where you will react to it as if it is factual. It is the same as hypnosis, to a certain degree, but hypnosis works in a lot less time where your repetition takes longer.

So the bottom line is, you are programming yourself all day long every day with all of the thoughts and suggestions you give yourself – good or bad. That is why I give you information on how to think correctly; the kinds of thoughts you want to think that will help you improve your sport performance. My suggestion here is one I would like to see you working on this week, starting today. Any time you hear yourself speaking negatively or thinking negatively about your game, stop doing it. Repetition and reinforcement build expectations, fears and doubts. Then when you go out to perform from that place, naturally your performance suffers. So let’s take a look at the suggestion, as a way of reprogramming those negative thoughts. It is: “With each shot I learn about myself and what works for me- improving my touch- learning and noticing that each day it is easier and easier for me to play golf well.”

This is a healthy, un-limiting suggestion that will help you perform better as you keep it in mind on a regular basis. How can you tell if your thoughts are negative and need to be changed? First, you must become aware of your thought patterns. Second, you must stop the thoughts that are limiting and unhealthy. Then third, you must work hard to focus on yourself and your sport in an un-limiting way, by replacing those limiting thoughts with ones that are healthy. So begin by saying to yourself over and over: “With each shot I learn about myself and what works for me- improving my touch- learning and noticing that each day it is easier and easier for me to play golf well.”

Does that suggestion sound like something you already speak to yourself? I think that it is very likely you’ve been beating yourself up with each shot before now, and you carried a level of expectation of perfection in your head. Then if you didn’t hit your ball as perfectly as you would have liked, or it didn’t land as perfectly as you hoped, or if it didn’t do exactly what you wanted it to do, you would have instantly started attacking yourself, the situation or the game of golf itself. All of that leaves you agitated and frustrated. Then those feelings build up inside of you, and you have probably already seen how your performance decreases when that happens.

So when agitation, stress, anxiety, doubts, frustrations, worries and fears all increase, your performance decreases. What can you do about that? Well, why not go into the experience ready to have fun, but ready to learn at the same time? You go into the game with the skills you’ve learned over time and still have today, but you need to recognize that you are still evolving, learning and growing. There is no such thing as perfection, in golf or in life. So, every time you get upset when the shot doesn’t happen exactly the way you want, you have to realize it’s your ego trying to hold you back, and you need to move away from that kind of thinking. Move towards the knowledge that you are learning along the way.

Each time you play, you are learning what works for you and improving upon things you actually have control over. You can control your swing, your stance, and your mental skills, and you are improving, learning and noticing that with each shot, it will get easier and easier to play golf. That will be the case as you look at the opportunity to learn, have fun and be present. Whatever experience comes your way, you can learn from it, grow from it and apply the knowledge at the next hole, your next drive, or your next experience with that same or similar situation. It is a continuous evolution that you are learning along the way, and frees your mind up from the negativity that holds you back.

Getting rid of negativity frees your mind up to be open to the experience of learning. When I say that each day with each shot it will get easier and easier for you to play golf well, imagine thinking that way on a regular basis, rather than thinking “I’m just not putting well”, or “my short game’s getting worse”, or “my long game’s getting worse”, or “I don’t know why I’m even playing anymore”. Instead of thinking all those kinds of thoughts, imagine being present, recognizing that you are learning and growing, figuring things out mentally and mechanically, and that it is getting easier and easier to play. As you do, you will then begin to have fun again in your sport. Isn’t that why you started playing in the first place? I know that a lot of people have lost the ‘having fun’ aspect of playing golf, because they have gotten so frustrated when things haven’t gone the way their egos wanted them to go. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can choose what you think, and how you approach the game.

So what you need to do to improve your performance and level of fun playing golf is to first: be aware of the limiting ways you think about yourself, and the negative thought patterns you have about your performance. Second, you need to just stop thinking those limiting types of thoughts. Finally, you must go to work on releasing the blockages and boundaries you place on yourself with your mind, and start thinking in healthy ways. You can start with this suggestion: “With each shot I learn about myself and what works for me- improving my touch- learning and noticing that each day it is easier and easier for me to play golf well.”

So have fun with that suggestion as you play this week. Have fun learning, understanding yourself and growing, and be sure to take the mental part of your game as seriously as your mechanics. You can have some of the best mechanics in the world but if the mental skills aren’t there, your mechanics will waver and lag behind, and you will become extremely inconsistent in your game. Start to take a look at the importance of your mental skills and realize there is a cause and effect relationship between what you think and how you play. If you think a certain way, it affects you and your performance in a certain way. But don’t just take my word for it. Start finding your own evidence and it will have a much greater benefit, long term, once you learn it for yourself.

If you would like any more information about this, or some help applying it to your life and game, please contact me. I am available to work with you, and I know this will help you get back to enjoying golf and the things you used to like doing (but maybe don’t so much anymore). I really hope you find golf getting easier and easier with each shot you take this week, and going forward. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

Toxicity of Cigarettes

Sun, 04 May 2014 11:00:25 -0400

May’s Theme is Breaking Bad Habits

Gone are the days of most things pure. America’s food industries pre-package everything. Few of us are savvy enough to figure out that box food is bad, and detrimental to our health. Well, the tobacco industry is no different. Gone are the days of dried tobacco leaves rolled up in some paper. Did you know that there are over 600 ingredients that go into a cigarette? It’s true. And while I am shocked at that number, I am even more surprised that burning a cigarette causes chemical reactions so that over 7,000 chemicals are released into the atmosphere. For us. To breath. Did you just consciously hold your breath?

Shocking, right? Many of us have no idea that something so little can be so harmful. But the sad thing is, that is the problem. What we don’t know can harm us. I am blogging about this today to give you some insight. Hopefully, this can teach us all a little awareness. Below is a SHORT list of ingredients that are found in cigarettes and while not all of them are poisonous, many of them have been known to cause cancer.

Acetone – found in nail polish remover

Acetic Acid – an ingredient in hair dye

Ammonia – a common household cleaner

Arsenic – used in rat poison

Benzene – found in rubber cement

Butane – used in lighter fluid

Cadmium – active component in battery acid

Carbon Monoxide – released in car exhaust fumes

Cyanide-lethal poison

Formaldehyde – embalming fluid

Hexamine – found in barbecue lighter fluid

Lead – used in batteries

Maltitol-diabetic sweetener linked to tumors

Methanol – a main component in rocket fuel

Methoprene-insecticide

Methyl-Isocyanate-used to produce carbamate pesticides

Naphthalene – an ingredient in moth balls

Nicotine – used as insecticide

Polonium-cancer causing radioactive element

Tar – material for paving roads

Toluene – used to manufacture paint

This is meant to raise awareness. If you have ever wanted to quit smoking, I can help. Not only do I offer downloadable hypnosis products, but I can also schedule one-on-one time. Smoking cigarettes has serious negative affects on your health and well being, but studies have proven second-hand-smoke is equally toxic. Make the choice to change today for a better tomorrow. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

For more information on all of my habit changing products, please click here.

US Open Sporting Clays Championship

Fri, 23 May 2014 10:18:32 -0400

Did you know that Clay Shooting has been around since the early 1900s? We have the crafty Brits to thank for this game that has been described as “golf with a shotgun.” In fact, England held the first ever British Open. Since the early 1900s, Sporting Clays has had a whirlwind of recognition. It has gained popularity all over the world. Dubai’s crown prince just held a Sporting Clay Championship event this year.

So it comes as no surprise that NBC Sports Network recently taped the PSCA Tour. With this onset of popularity, a lot of my clients are ready and willing to be the next “Tiger Woods” of Sporting Clays. I make it a priority to attend as many events as I can and this year is no exception. I will be headed to the US Open in less than two weeks!

I am really excited to have the ability to travel there and meet all of the US’s premiere Clay Shooters. The Championship will take place in Columbus, Kansas from June 3rd through the 9th. I have actually reserved a tented booth Wednesday through Saturday with special guest John Woolley. Look for us alongside the TEAM USA booth. I would love the chance to meet you and chat. Stop by and say hello!

US Open Sporting Clay

Mon, 26 May 2014 10:32:29 -0400

The US Open is a little over one week away. Are you getting ready? This is a huge deal to the Clay Shooting world. I have many clients that I work with who will be competing at this week-long event. I will be watching them. This year I will be attending the US Open in Kansas from Wednesday to Saturday. I encourage you to stop by and meet me under the tented booth. I will have product and session information available as well as discount coupons. Come check it out. Hope to see you there!

The Truth About Lies

Tue, 27 May 2014 10:40:24 -0400

May’s Theme is Breaking Bad Habits

I am pretty sure that all of us, at one time or another have told a white lie, whether it was out of fear, feelings, to gain respect, or simply saving face. Our brains flipped a switch and the lie came forth on our tongues. Some people even think they are doing the right thing because, in their head, they are saving someone embarrassment, hurt, or inevitable consequences. Studies have shown that people lie just to do it. For example, if you’re pulling out of the driveway heading for the grocery store, and a neighbor stops you to ask where you are going, and you say you’re going to the gym, that counts as a white lie. It is as if it is a reflex, a “knee-jerk” reaction. Ayn Rand wrote this befitting quote in her book Atlas Shrugged: “People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked. The man who lies to the world is the world’s slave from then on. There are no white lies, there is only the blackness of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.”

Ayn Rand was onto something. I think she was a writer way ahead of her time. The insights, her life applications, and philosophy are all very meaningful and true. She fully understood the capabilities of the human mind and defined new principles with every novel she created. If you have read the Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton, you would understand that the way cells receive and process information depends on physical and energetic environment. Even though the size of a cell is minute at best, the information therein packs overwhelming complexity. Psychologists who have studied deception found that a person that lies has an abundance of stress and anxiety after telling a lie. Even in lie detector tests, a person who is lying has elevated blood pressure, raised heart rate, and visible signs of stress. The stress from your deceptions enters into your cells. Your body biochemically changes into the “fight-or-flight” mode. While this may seem harmless at a glance, continual lying and elevated stress levels can lead to cardiovascular complications, depression, anxiety.

Glucocorticoid is a stress hormone. This hormone is manufactured in each of our bodies. If the levels of Glucocorticoids are high in your body it can lead to inflammatory diseases. Ayn Rand was right. Telling a lie is surrendering yourself to a form that is more acceptable by the receiver of that lie. How long will you have to keep up the charade? How long will it take for your lies to consume you, so that it becomes an instantaneous reflex? Lying is unhealthy, not just for your mind, but for your entire being.

If you are ready to put that bad habit to bed, I have a product for you. Freedom From Telling White Lies is available for immediate download. Click the link to view and purchase: Freedom From Telling White Lies

If you need help or have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

2014 US Open Sporting Clay Championship

Thu, 29 May 2014 15:19:52 -0400

Wendell Cherry, John Woolley, Gebben Miles…Do any of these names ring a bell? If not, you are probably not familiar with the world of clay shooting. If you recognized one or more of these names, then you are aware of how easy these competitors make shooting look! The art of shooting clay targets has been around for ages, but it hasn’t always been looked at through the same pair of sport- lenses, like golf or football. Although it’s “Greats” don’t have preeminent public reputations the way that Peyton Manning or David Beckham do, their abilities are just as noteworthy. These competitors travel throughout the globe, with guns in tow, as they break more than just records and win tournament after tournament.

This year is shaping up to be quite the battle in the clay shooting world. All three of the above shooters have recently won a prestigious event. Next week, the US Open Sporting Clay Championship will be held in Columbus, KS from June 2nd through the 8th. I cannot wait to see how these gentlemen do in the competition.

I will be at the US Open to cheer on my clients and to meet some of you. I’ve reserved a tented booth with guest John Woolley that will be chock-full of information…and guns. Look for me alongside the TEAM USA booth. Make sure you stop by and check out the deals and specials, or sign up for my newsletter or clinics. I cannot wait to witness history in the making and see the outcome. I wish all the competitors the very best of luck.

Amrit Yoga Recommendation

Thu, 29 May 2014 18:16:52 -0400

Yoga serves many purposes which tie in very nicely to my mental training teachings.

There is no question that yoga helps a person to build strength, and flexibility. It is common to see a person that practices yoga regularly as having a long, lean, toned body.

When I first learned of yoga, I remember thinking “Well, some of those positions don’t look much different than the floor exercises and stretches I had learned in gym class.”

I have come to learn that nothing could be further from the truth.

Yoga has many, many benefits to our mind, body and spiritual lives. The physical benefits are the most obvious, but the benefit of the mind and spirit are profound.

But don’t take my word on it, you can search for all the studies yourself.

These are the benefits to yoga and meditation that you’ll find have been scientifically validated:

Decreased stress
Reduced symptoms associated with:
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Pain
- Insomnia
Enhanced ability to pay attention
Increased quality of life

Check out this TEDx Talks to learn more

Neuroscientist Sara Lazar’s amazing brain scans show how yoga and meditation can actually change the size of key regions of our brain, improving our memory and making us more empathetic, compassionate, and resilient under stress.

Meditation is a huge part of what occurs during yoga. And know that meditation and hypnosis are the same. They are both levels of relaxation for which a person journey’s to using the same type of techniqes. Therefore, the practice of one compliments the familiarity with the other.

I recommend Amrit Yoga to many of my clients because it is one form of yoga that has stayed true to it’s roots. Many yoga practices have been altered to fit into the gym and fitness world, and instructors have made them more like an aerobic exerice.

Here is where you can purchase and order your own Amrit Yoga DVD:

Level 1 Sequence DVD

Level 1 Sequence DVD, The Amrit Method of Yoga can take you to the deepest levels of integration, meditative bliss, and harmonious self awareness. Enjoy clear and simple guidance for precise alignment and points of focus to maximize the benefits of every pose. Emphasis is on integration during the “Second Half of the Pose”, where you are guided to relax and immerse in the energetic impact, activating the restorative, therapeutic and transformational effects of Amrit Yoga. Benefits are immediate and tangible, and long-lasting when practiced consistently.

10 Amazing Examples of Mind Over Matter

Thu, 29 May 2014 19:02:59 -0400

Great article from The Mind Unleashed on 5 February, 2014 at 09:57

While we often think of our bodies and minds as two distinct entities, it turns out they are much more entwined than we might assume. Researchers are continually finding evidence that the brain has a distinct power to manipulate the body’s physiology. As these 10 examples show, the mind/body connection can work in our favor or detriment, depending on our knowledge of a situation and our ability to control our thoughts.

10. Drying Sheets

Judging by their ability to meditate for hours on end, to abstain from food for days, and their vows of silence, most us would agree that Tibetan Monks have better control over their minds and bodies than the average person. Still, what’s particularly amazing is some of them can control physiological processes, such as blood pressure and body temperature – feats many medical doctors find astounding.

In one of the most notable exhibits of their skills, a group of Tibetan monks allowed physicians to monitor the monk’s bodily changes as they engaged in a meditative yoga technique known as g Tum-mo.

During the process the monks were cloaked in wet, cold sheets (49 f / 9.4 c) and placed in a 40 f (4.5 c) room. In such conditions, the average person would likely experience uncontrollable shivering and would shortly suffer hypothermia. However, through deep concentration, the monks were able to generate body heat, and within minutes the researchers noticed steam rising from the sheets that were covering the monks. Within an hour, the sheets were completely dry.

Although, the display was fascinating to the doctors, for the monks it was an ordinary occurrence. In fact, new monks use g Tum-mo as a way of proving their meditative strength and hold contests to see who can dry the most sheets in one night.

The Buddhists say the heat they generate is a byproduct of the meditation, since it takes energy to reach a state of alternate reality – a place unaffected by our everyday world.

9. Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple personality disorder, or dissociative identity disorder, is a mental condition that’s interesting on many levels. Perhaps most intriguing of all is how some sufferers not only exhibit personality and behavior changes as they switch between their different identities, but some also have measurable physiological variations between each persona. For instance, one of a patient’s personalities may need eyeglasses and another won’t. Or, one identity might be diabetic and another will have perfect health. In such cases, it isn’t simply a matter of the patients thinking they need eyeglasses or insulin, their bodies actually go through legitimate alterations, such as differences in intraocular pressure or blood sugar levels.

In one case, published by the American Psychiatric Press, a doctor noted how medications prescribed to a dissociative identity disorder patient had different effects depending on what “personality” took the drug. For example, when a tranquilizer was given to the person’s childish persona, it made the individual sleepy and relaxed. However, when the adult personality was administered the same drug it made him anxious and confused. Similar results were found with other patients and with a variety of different medications. Doctors even noticed visibly apparent traits, like lazy eye, would come and go depending on which personality was present.

This phenomenon is especially fascinating since no one, including the patients, is claiming mysticism is at work. On the contrary, it is a genuine example of the mind altering the body.

8. Placebo Effect

A placebo is an inert substance or belief which produces real biological effects in humans. It’s so widely accepted as fact that a placebo variable is included in most medical tests as way of proving if, say, a drug works on its own merits or because people “think” it works.

There are tons of experiments showing the proof of the placebo, but one of the most amusing to watch is a test done by a group of Princeton students who decided to throw a non-alcoholic keg party for their unsuspecting classmates. The experimenters secretly filled a keg with O’Douls (contains about 0.4% alcohol while regular beer has around 5% alcohol) and then watched as their peers acted silly, slurred words, slept on the ground, and generally acted drunk. Although it’s nearly impossible to get intoxicated on O’Douls, these college students had such a strong belief they were drinking standard beer that it affected their behavior.

Curiously, researchers have discovered the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger, and some drugs that have been on the market for years, such as Prozac, are now proving less effective than placebos. Naturally, this is a major issue for big pharmaceutical companies, which has left many scrambling to conduct neurological studies in an effort to come up with new ways to safeguard their industry from ordinary sugar pills. Incidentally, Big Pharma is currently more profitable than Big Oil, so there’s quite a bit at stake.

7. Nocebo Effect

While placebos are generally associated with positive outcomes, like curing an illness or getting drunk on O’Douls and having fun (if you consider that positive), the nocebo effect produces negative results, such as a cancer patient vomiting before chemotherapy starts or someone breaking out in a rash because they thought they touched poison ivy, even though it was merely an ordinary plant.

One of the most talked about examples of the nocebo phenomenon was an incident published in “New Scientist.” According to the account, late one night an Alabama man, referred to as Vance, went to a cemetery and met up with a witch doctor who told Vance that he was going to die soon. Believing the witch doctor’s prediction, Vance soon fell ill and within a matter of weeks was emaciated and close to death. Vance was taken to the hospital but the medical doctors could find nothing wrong with him. Finally, Vance’s wife told the physician, Dr. Doherty, about the encounter with the witch doctor, which gave the creative physician an idea. The next day, Dr. Doherty told the couple he had tracked down the witch doctor and physically threatened him until the medicine man finally admitted he had put a lizard inside Vance that was eating him from the inside. Of course, the Doctor’s story was completely fabricated, yet he made a big show of injecting the patient with a mysterious substance and snuck in a genuine, green lizard that he pretended to extract from Vance. The next day, Vance awoke alert, hungry, and it didn’t take long before he fully recovered.

Apparently, that story was corroborated by four other medical professionals, and is often cited when explaining why Voo Doo sometimes works (i.e. not because of magic, but because of the nocebo effect).

6. Dreams Cause Real Injuries

There are a lot of stories floating around out there about people who experienced an injury in their dreams and then found real, physical evidence of the wound on their bodies once they awoke. For instance, some people have claimed to have been caught in a fire in their dreams and then woke up to find burn marks on their skin. Other common stories involve people being attacked during their dreams and then waking up to find scratch marks somewhere on their bodies. However, most of these stories are found in chat rooms or message boards, so it’s hard to corroborate if they are true.

But, there is one well documented case, reported by famed psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, about an Indian man named Durga Jatav who, during a battle with typhoid fever, had an extremely vivid dream about being held captive in another realm. To keep him from escaping, his dream captors cut his legs off at the knee. Unfortunately, his legs were already severed by the time the captors realized they had the wrong man and didn’t need to keep Jatav after all. When Jatav asked how he could leave with no legs, they offered him several pairs of legs, he picked out his own pair, and then they were miraculously reattached.

While Jatav was having the dream, his body became very cold and at one point his family thought he was dead, yet he revived a few days later. Once he was awake, his sister and neighbor noticed deep fissures around his knees that weren’t there previously. X-ray photographs showed no abnormality below the surface of the skin, which led Jatav and his family to believe the marks came from his dream experience. Dr. Stevenson met Jatav some 30 years later (1979) and took pictures of the still visible scars. Although Stevenson did not witness the event, he apparently believed the story, which was confirmed by all involved, and he even included the account and photographs in his book “Reincarnation and Biology: A contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects.”

Obviously there’s no scientific proof to this intriguing account, but it’s not too far-fetched considering what we already know about the power of the brain over the body.

5. Yogis Nearly Stop Heart Beat

Like the Tibetan monks, Indian Yogis seem to have an unusual talent for manipulating their physiological processes while in deep meditation. After hearing stories of yogis spending 28 days underground and surviving, in 1936, a French cardiologist named Therese Brosse traveled to India to see if the yogis truly did have such talents. In her experiments, the yogis reportedly slowed their heart down so slow that it was only detectable via an EKG machine.

In the 1950s Brosse’s study was expanded by another group of researchers who traveled through India with an eight-channel electro-encephalograph and various other instruments, which they used to monitor the yogis’ brain activity, respirations, skin temperature, blood-volume changes, and skin conductance. Two of their test subjects were placed in air-tight sealed boxes, on two separate occasions, and were monitored for 8 to 10 hours. During that time the Yogis showed biological characteristics similar to sleep and were able to slow down their heart rate and respiration to low enough levels that oxygen and carbon dioxide quantities inside the box remained virtually in the same proportions as found in air at sea level. Thus, it was shown that by slowing down their bodily processes and not panicking (as most would do) the Yogis could survive a live-burial for far longer than the average person, possibly even weeks longer.

4. Sports Visualization

Many athletes claim it helps them perform better when they “play” the game in their minds before ever stepping foot on the field or court. While we might assume doing so is just a mental exercise that enables them to better focus on the game, there might be more concrete changes happening inside the body.

Take, for example, Air Force Colonel George Hall who was locked in a small, dark North Vietnamese prison for seven years. While most would lose their minds in such circumstances, Hall went to his happy place, so to speak, by mentally playing golf every day of his imprisonment. His visualizations were extremely in-depth and included everything from hitting the ball off the tee, raking the sand traps, feeling the wind, and of course tapping the ball into the hole.

Regardless of being weak and 100 pounds lighter than before his capture, one of the first things Hall wanted to do after his release was play a legitimate round of golf. He was invited to the Greater New Orleans Open where he astoundingly shot a 76. When a member of the press suggested his performance was a case of beginners luck, Hall replied, “Luck, I never 3-putted a green in the last five years!”

So, despite his physical deterioration and not stepping on a course in over seven years, his body had developed muscle memory based simply on his imaginings.

3. Block Out Pain

Jack Schwarz, a Dutch Jewish writer, also lived in horrific conditions while forced into a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Like so many others, he was beaten, starved, and tortured beyond what most of us can comprehend. To cope with his situation, he began the practice of meditation and prayer, which he developed to the point where he could block out the pain of his torment and subsequently withstand his situation.

After his release, Schwarz continued his mind over matter practice and occasionally demonstrated his skills by putting a long sail-maker’s needle through his arm without injury. He also displayed his ability to regulate his body’s blood flow by causing the puncture hole in his arm to bleed or stop bleeding at will. Schwarz was studied by researchers at the Menninger Foundation who found that he could indeed control many of his bodily processes with only his mind. Furthermore, through an electroencephalograph, they determined his brain had different electrical activity as compared to most other test subjects. According to Schwarz, he could also see people’s auras, which allowed him to gauge their physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental conditions.

2. Positivity and Meditation

Undoubtedly it’s difficult to keep a positive attitude when you’re facing a life-threatening disease, but, based on a variety of medical studies, doing so may mean the difference between living and dying.

For example, in 1989, Dr. David Spiegel of Stanford University conducted a study on 86 women with late stage breast cancer. Half of those women received standard medical care while the other half were given weekly support sessions in addition to the standard medical care. During the sessions the women shared their feelings, talked with other patients, and generally had a positive outlet where they could cope with their illness. At the end of the study, the women in the support group lived twice as long as those not in the group. In 1999, a similar study found that cancer patients who have feelings of helplessness and hopelessness have a lower chance of survival.

In recent years, David Seidler, writer of “The King’s Speech,” claimed to have eliminated his cancer through meditation and imagination. After battling bladder cancer for years and only two weeks away from surgery, Seidler decided to see if he could get rid of the cancer through his imagination. He admittedly thought the idea was a little “woo-woo,” but by that point he figured he had nothing to lose. So, he spent the two weeks leading up to his surgery envisioning a clean, cream-colored, healthy bladder. When Seidler went in for his pre-surgery biopsy, the doctor was stunned to find a distinct lack of cancer – he even sent the biopsy to four different labs for testing. While Seidler believes his visualization were behind the cancer’s disappearance, his doctor labeled it a “spontaneous remission.”

1. Boosts Weight Loss

It seems counterintuitive that increasing numbers of people are claiming to put a greater effort into exercising and eating a nutritious diet, yet there are more obese people in the world than ever before. Some researchers think positivity is a missing variable in the weight loss equation, and a lack of it is what’s keeping people chubby.

To prove the point that the mind has a major impact on the body, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer conducted an experiment on a group of predominantly overweight hotel maids who, judging by their daily activity levels, should have been thin. Despite essentially exercising all day long through their work, Langer discovered through a survey that 67% of the maids felt they didn’t do any type of exercise. Langer predicted the maids’ perceptions were hampering their weight loss, so she took half the maids aside and, in addition to taking their physical measurements, explained that through their cleaning work they were exceeding the surgeon general’s definition of an active lifestyle. The other half of the maids were given no information.

A month later, Langer’s team returned to the hotel and reevaluated the maids. They found an overall decrease in systolic blood pressure, weight, and waist-to-hip ratio in the educated group. The other group had no significant physical changes. While some suspect the mere discussion of exercise somehow altered the women’s behavior, Langer said there was no indication any of the maids modified their routines, and she feels the results were due simply to a change in mindset.

Source/Article credits: ListVerse

References:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/04.18/09-tummo.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/28/science/probing-the-enigma-of-multiple-personality.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

https://www.avatarepc.com/html/placebo9-4.html

https://books.google.com/books/about/Reincarnation_and_Biology_Birthmarks.html?id=fkOtQgAACAAJ&hl=en

https://www.yogapsychology.org/art_biofeedback.html

US OPEN Clay Shooting Championship 2014

Sat, 31 May 2014 13:22:35 -0400

The first week of June marks one of the most competitive sporting events of the year for clay shooters. If history repeats itself, the US Open Clay Shooting Championship 2014 will draw more than 1000 entrants. The competition will be held at the Claythorne Lodge in Columbus, Kansas. Wendell Cherry, who was inducted into the NSCA Hall of Fame in 2012 will be competing; as will John Woolley and a few other great sportsmen and women who I have the privilege to call clients.

Clay shooting is gaining popularity in certain sports circles due to the intense focus and talent that the sport requires. I have been to many events over the years and can attest to the rigors of FITASC, 5-Stand, and 12-Stand. The clay targets range is size, distance, speed, and height. The men and women of the clay shooting world practice and perform at events throughout the US and abroad. Several of my clients have had a life-long attachment to the sport, others have recently found their niche in this competitive sport. Wherever you fit in, I offer sessions, clinics, products, and workshops to aid in your mastery of this game.

John Woolley will be a guest at my booth at the US Open this year. Look for us alongside the TEAM USA booth. I am excited to meet and talk with you so please stop by and say hello. I have a ton of discounts and specials going on through the month of June that pertain to Clay shooting as well as promotions for Clinics and Workshops. If you have no idea what I do, I would love the chance to enlighten you about the world of hypnotherapy and mental training.

Below are the specials and discounts I will be offering next week. See you there!!

US Open Event Specials 2014

Sat, 31 May 2014 23:39:02 -0400

Ask and you shall receive.

Below is a copy of the Event Specials for the US Open Clay Shooting Championship 2014

Less Stress, Greater Joy: Acceptance and Action

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:10:31 -0400

June’s Theme is Less Stress, Greater Joy

How often have you tried to lessen the stress in your life, or experience greater joy? What if I could help you to live a life with a lot less stress and a lot more happiness? I can tell you that my clients and I are living proof that it is possible, so I know it can be for you too.

Over the last six years, I have had the privilege of working with numerous professional athletes who wanted to improve various skills and areas of performance. Can you imagine the overwhelming stress that might weigh on a person who is about to perform in a sport upon which he believes his whole life depends? It’s his career, his livelihood, his means of supporting family, and of course his ego is invested in what it means to perform well (or not so well). Before I go any further, I must explain that it is not gender specific. Women and men in all various professions, and sports go through the gauntlet of stress daily. I have lots of experience helping athletes and professionals manage and overcome stress to the point of really knowing how to achieve peak performance in their sport, and increase their levels of joy in life. It is truly wonderful to see.

How about you? Would you like to perform at your best, lower stress and increase joy in your life? Well you really can, but you have to know that you cannot suddenly become calmer, more relaxed and joyful in a few short hours. It doesn’t just happen on demand when you need to perform well or you want to feel happier. You must understand the techniques I will talk about here and apply them on a daily basis. It is through diligent effort and application that you will feel less stress and greater joy in whatever you do.

The conclusion I have reached regarding the amount of stress and joy in your life is summed up in one word: acceptance. Stress and joy are acquired and maintained based on your level of acceptance of whatever you perceive is causing you stress or joy at any given time. So what exactly does that mean and what can you do about it?

First, let me be clear. I am not encouraging or condoning unhealthy behaviors or abuse or anything like that, when I talk about your need to be accepting. But you can maintain a level of acceptance of yourself, your life and who you are at this given moment. You can accept how you live, the choices you make and what you are capable of versus what you are unable to do right now. You can accept where you are as a person in life right now and how your life is going. You can actually learn to accept more and more each day. The circumstances of your living environment, your family relationships, your free time, your work, career or schooling; you can learn to accept these things as they exist in this present moment. Doing so is what lessens your stress and increases joy.

Again, I am not saying you should condone unhealthy behaviors, being lazy or complacent, or not having goals or aspirations. I am just saying that in this given moment, you can have a greater level of acceptance in all of those areas of your life, while still having a drive or desire to make some positive or healthy changes. That is the balance I am going to teach you about as we move forward.

You can also learn to gain a level of acceptance of others. In my career, I have seen that accepting others is one of the greatest challenges people face. Are you truly accepting of that person who drives slower than you? How about the person taking too long in the check-out line, or the one being rude and disrespectful to the wait staff? Can you accept the way a husband may treat his wife or the wife treat her husband if you don’t agree with their behavior? These are all examples of the ways people show their personalities. You can gauge your stress or happiness level on your ability to accept these aspects of the people you come in contact with throughout the day.

I encourage you to look at your level of acceptance of yourself and others in your life. This is vital. Applying this kind of principle might sound simple but it takes effort, and does not bring about change overnight. But you can learn how to do it more and more all the time. You can become aware of your level of acceptance and take steps to improve your ability to be more accepting. So identifying your level of acceptance will be your first step – gaining a level of awareness. You need to be able to recognize that acceptance does not happen overnight, but it is a skill you can build. It is something you can work on every day, but you must first be aware that each and every one of us possess this skill.

To help address this topic, I chose a quote that challenges us to look at how people can impact stress and joy, and I will go over it with you. I found it in the book “Wisdom of the Years”, which contains loads of guidance for more joyful living. I like using quotes like this because they work, and they cut out so much time in trying to figure things out on our own.

The quote is: “When you share joy it multiplies, when you share pain it divides.”

Now you can look back at what I already discussed, as far as how non-acceptance can cause problems and stress in your life, and acceptance can create greater joy. So think about sharing joy. When you share joy, it multiplies. To emphasize that point, here is another great quote I saw recently while out shopping, and it went something like this: “With a flame, you can go ahead and light a hundred thousand other flames, but that original flame doesn’t ever lose its original strength. It has the ability to pass on and light other wicks and flames but yet still has its original strength.” I compare that to love and joy. You can pass it along and still maintain your same level along the way.

Have you ever heard that smiling at someone is contagious? There is a kind of inner desire within us where we always look to feel better, be happier, and yearn to have greater joy. A lot of times the problem is that we are looking in the wrong places and not addressing the underlying issues of why we don’t feel that way in the first place. Are you smiling on the inside? If you are, what is stopping you from taking that action outwardly? If you are not smiling on the inside, what is stopping you? Believe it or not, smiling can reduce stress. Studies have shown that smiling during times of great stress can help reduce the brain’s response and the body’s action to the induction of stress. Just like that flame, smiling is one of human nature’s most powerful and suggestive gestures.

So “when you share joy, it multiplies.” Just imagine that flame spreading and spreading and lighting other flames. You have that ability and can be a part of that, but you must find your own joy first. Even if it’s in the smallest degree, look for something within you that you can feel good about. Look at your progress in a particular area, decide to focus on that and encourage your thoughts around that. Continue to focus on the progress you have made until it puts a smile on your face. Eventually it will do that, because your face automatically reacts to what you are thinking. I have learned that through hypnosis, but also through studying the biology of our bodies. When you smile, the muscles that contract in your face send positive feedback back to your brain. That in, turn, reinforces the feelings of joy. Smile more and it will help you feel better. That energy will multiply like that flame.

On the flip side, “when you share pain it divides.” Let’s look at that statement. How do you share pain? As a society, we have unfortunately been trained to complain and talk about our aches and pains, spouse, boss, pets, neighbors, children, what’s wrong in our lives, bodies, the world, planet, other countries, drivers on the street, bank tellers, cashiers at the grocery store, and on and on. It is a bad habit. Instead of finding solutions to our aches, pains, problems and behaviors, we feed them like gasoline on a fire. We even encourage each other to participate in this kind of conversation. It is unhealthy to live and think this way. And yet, it is so easy for us. Are you aware of how much negativity you carry around? If not, a simple exercise to do is to keep a memo pad with you and each time you have a negative thought, write a tally mark on the pad. Chances are, the pad fills up rather quickly. We are not wired this way, so these bad habits can be changed by our awareness.

Let’s say you join a circle of friends and one is complaining about a sore throat, another says she didn’t sleep very well last night, and another says she is starting to feel the same way herself. If you walked into that conversation smiling saying “I feel great, I haven’t been sick in months or years, I slept great last night, my body feels great , I’ve been exercising a lot and my back feels strong”, they would all probably look at you wide-eyed shocked. It has become kind of a sad reality for us that we have not been permitted, as a society, to speak in that kind of manner. Why not? Why is it so hard for people to find one thing to be joyful about?

What we then experience as the outcome is division, separation, and feelings of “I am right and they are wrong so now I’ll be upset with them”, or “that person shouldn’t be taking so long in line, this car shouldn’t be driving so slow, I don’t like how my boss handled that situation” and so on. So as you share pain, not only are you dividing yourself from all of those people in all of those situations (you are creating a kind of mental barrier), but you also encourage whoever you speak with to have the same kind of barrier or division. “My friend and I agree, that should not have happened, that person should not speak that way or your boss should not act like that”, etc. What happened? Pain creates division. It separates us and ends up strengthening our egos, strengthening our bad habits.

Can you see the problem in how that way of speaking and believing encourages separation or division? Does that reduce stress and increase joy? No. If you view your life and others in a negative way, there is no joy, no happiness. That is quite the opposite of how I started this blog on acceptance, right?

So you will have greater joy and happiness and less stress, if you start to recognize these old habits and negative ways of viewing yourself and others in life. Start to look at how you can encourage healthier conversations, share joy, step out of the box and feel strong enough to move beyond what has become the norm. Talk about how good you feel, and don’t be afraid to do it. Find friends that will talk with you that way. If you are persistent about it, a lot of your friends will start to get into the habit of talking like that, and they will join those conversations with you. The ones who remain upset with themselves or don’t accept themselves, their lives or others will probably move on. The tongue can be a very powerful source of energy. It can be positive or negative. When you are talking, be conscious of your words. Are they Truthful? Are they Helpful? Are they Inspiring? Are they Necessary? Are they Kind? THINK before you speak. You can build a thousand fires with one flame, metaphorically speaking.

As you begin to accept yourself and others and participate more in healthier conversations, you will begin to experience greater joy and less stress, and be able to share that same experience with others. Like the quote says: “When you share joy it multiplies, when you share pain it divides.” So start today to gain awareness of your level of acceptance, and work on that area every day. I wish you much success as you apply this in your life. If you need any help with this, please contact me. I really enjoy sharing this kind of information with you, and look forward to helping you lower stress and increase joy in your life. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!

Joy is Attainable

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 07:25:56 -0400

June’s Theme is Less Stress, Greater Joy

Today I am blogging about how to live joyfully in your life; go about your day getting a little more enjoyment out of it. Today’s quote is by Marianne Williamson which I am sure you have all heard of her. She is a successful business woman who has written nearly a dozen best sellers. The quote is: “Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” And the funny thing is, it is amazing to pause for a second and really let those words seep into our consciousness. So many people in this world do not look at their lives with joyful intent. Many people, choose to look toward their future for success and joy rather than focusing on the good things of the moment. So many people we know are constantly looking. Looking for a better job, looking for a rewarding career, looking to win a championship, looking for love. Those people are held back by the future. They think once those things are achieved, they will finally know joy. So much thought and energy go into making lofty goals, and while that is not a bad thing, people often put emphasis the wrong things. All these other things that are attainable are outward displays. People often believe that happiness will come when they have what they are trying to attain. So it comes to no surprise that when the goal is finally reached, the people are not happy. They are not living joyfully.

The future is unknown. The life lessons that are artfully spun into each of our lives are not visible. There is no way to know the future; so who is to say that once you buy that new house, or get that new job you will be happy? So many times people get stuck in this trap. Always looking toward outward things for their joy. Joy starts on the inside.

Life is a series of learning experiences. If you go into those experiences with joy, with positivity, then you will get much more out of those happenings. If you go in with an open mind, you are already aware of the process and you will perceive the lesson with much better results. Some lessons are short, some are long, but if you have that awareness in the process, you will actually be able to absorb much more. Being present in each moment in life will help you to cope with life’s little challenges. If you haven’t read Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose, you should. This book talks about practicing to live in the now. So many people get caught up in the future but what Eckhart tries to teach us is that all we really have is this moment. This very second. This very breath. That is all we really know for sure. So many people are indifferent to their breathings, their existences, their souls’ purpose. They graze through each day waiting to get to the next day. So many people are oblivious to the fact that each moment is a gift.

What are you doing this very moment? Are you sitting? Standing? Eating? Breathing? To experience the precious gift of life, take a moment to understand that each and every gesture, action or reaction we have will become part of your life from your inner-most being to the universal truths. Use all of your senses to completely experience this moment. At any time, if you are feeling disconnected or you want to ground yourself, use your senses. Visually notice what you see around you. If you are sitting outside, look at the trees, the grass, the waves. Listen to all the sounds you hear. There are faint sounds that you have probably learned to tune out. If you are outside, do you hear birds? Notice the fragrances or aromas in the air. What is the temperature of the air on your skin? How do you feel emotionally? Take this opportunity to be present in this moment. Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are. In this moment, in this experience, joy is present. Always. Through every situation, learn to find the joy. Stop looking outwardly for your joy. Take a moment to use your senses and really appreciate each moment you live. The future will not give you joy. Joy comes from inside.

Go ahead and brainstorm for ten minutes today and write down all the things that you can think of that cause you to be grateful in life. The ordinary, the extraordinary, and the simple things. Every single minute detail of your life is what you make it to be. Write all the things that you are grateful for. When you first start doing this, your tendency is to think of the obvious things but I challenge you to keep adding to it. Try to add at least five unique things to that list every single day. I can guarantee you that by doing this, by experiencing life in each moment, you will be more joyful. You will know happiness and peace. Your life experiences will change. The fact that you are a living, breathing gift will bring you joy.

There are so many extraordinary things about life, living and experiencing these lessons. We take a lot of things for granted. Counteract that with gratitude and joy. Be joyful to wake in the morning. Be joyful to walk to school, or work, or that you have two legs to do so. Decide to live joyfully. Be joyful to experience your lunch or dinner today. You can use the senses exercise above to help you. When you choose to live life joyfully your attitude will change. Life is extraordinary. Even in the smallest detail, there is an extraordinary quality that exists within it. Start viewing life that way. By feeling joy in each moment, by practicing gratitude, by recognizing how great life is, you will have this phenomenon of opening up to a higher experience of living. It becomes more spiritual, more positive. You will notice that you will attract even more good into your life. I am a believer in the Law of Attraction. Being aware of the things within your existence will lead you to self discovery and living joyfully. Awaken to these small details. Keep in mind what you desire for your life experiences. Each and every one of us has a uniqueness that drives us to get up in the morning and go about our days. However, if you awaken to the simple pleasures and small extraordinary details of your life, those things will evolve. Recognize the gifts that you’ve been given. Express those gifts in your life. Explore your preferences and get comfortable with recognizing them. Then begin to be present and positive in each moment. See each moment in joy.

Each time you feel caught up in a stressful situation, stop and use your senses. Breath. Be thankful. Be joyful. Marianne was right. Joy is attainable when you realize just how good you have it. If you would like help in any of these areas in your life, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!