YOUR LIFE A-Z: SLEEP

Nighty-Night ...Time to Wrap it Up for the Day. 

SLEEP

Now more than ever we know the  importance of a good night sleep.  We know proper SLEEP not only effects your energy level but also your health and longevity.  Each person requires a different amount of SLEEP but everyone should strive to make sure that they receive at least six hours of uninterrupted SLEEP.  SLEEP is important for memory, learning, safety, and our immune system.  What are your SLEEP patterns?  How do you know if you had a good nights sleep?  Do you dream?  Do you remember your dreams?  Dreaming cannot take place if you are not getting the necessary amount of SLEEP.  Dreams are important for our mental health.  SLEEP often gets a bad rap and often those who need more SLEEP than others are considered wimps.  SLEEP is worth the attention and work it needs to make sure you are getting enough of it.  SLEEP is an important as eating correctly and exercising.  Inadequate SLEEP over a long period of time will take you down a path of poor health, low energy, lack of concentration and even make your day life unsafe for you.  Some tips for a good nights SLEEP:
Have a regular pattern, including a set bedtime and set awake time.
Cut-off electronics an hour prior to bedtime and read or listen to relaxing music. (or even meditate) 
If you wake up do not get up but lay there and pray or count backwards from 100-0 until you fall back to sleep. 
Consult your doctor if you are SLEEP deprived. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z:FINISH

NO MATTER WHAT THE TASK...FINISH IT!

FINISH

FINISH it.  Don’t procrastinate and keep putting off that to-do list of yours.  FINISH it.  Where are the loose ends in your life?  What unfinished project is nagging at you to finish it?  What is it about this unfinished business that keeps you from accomplishing what you set out to do?  Energy is renewed, goals are refreshed and dreams are re-launched when space clears out in our daily life because projects get FINISHED.   If you sit with yourself and ask what is it that stops me from FINISHING my project and write down six reasons that you are not FINISHING what you set out to do, you may discover really important information about yourself.  Perhaps you think you feel overwhelmed but if you allow yourself to be self-reflective you might discover that you never really did not want to do this project in the first place.  Or perhaps you are disappointed that the project is not what you thought it would be?  There are many reasons that the FINISH line is often illusive in our daily life.  FINISH can only happen when you have at least 90% buy in and investment in the project. Something inside of you is giving your resistance and you need to make peace with that resistance or bypass it to FINISH.  FINISHING projects, unfinished interpersonal business, and your daily to do list will allow you to feel a sense of accomplishment and new life and energy will be available for you to move on to new goals and dreams. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: ZYGOTE

Everything Starts from a Spark

ZYGOTE

Researchers estimate that 60% of all naturally occurring conceptions fail because the ZYGOTE never becomes properly implanted in the uterus.  Kendra Cherry references in, About Psychology, a ZYGOTE is a one- celled organism created after the egg has been fertilized.  What does a ZYGOTE have to do with your dreams and goals?  In order for a ZYGOTE to make it to the uterus, it must rapidly divide into many cells.  In order for your dream or goal to be birthed, it must be properly planted in your heart (uterus). When you plant your dream or desire in your heart you have to provide for the ZYGOTE a nutrient enriched environment for it to be able to multiply and divide rapidly.  If 60% of those dreams and desires are going to fail then you have to keep replanting and focus on the 40% that are going to grow and flourish.  Think of your personal goals as ZYGOTE ideas.  An idea is just an idea.  You can have a hundred different ideas a day.  Forty percent of those ideas can develop into dreams and goals if you provide the ZYGOTE idea with the necessary steps to become a reality.  Nothing just happens.  All things come to life with proper attention to detail, planning, and “tweaking” what doesn’t work until the ZYGOTE grows hands, feet, heart, lungs, and brain to become a mobile and viable life force to reward you with the joy of staying with the process until the hard work pays off.  Don’t be discouraged by the 60%, focus on the 40% that survive.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z:INTEGRITY

WITHSTANDING ALL TYPES OF WEATHER, CREATES A STATELY SELF

INTEGRITY

Barbara Killinger, PhD., in her book Integrity: Doing the right thing for the right reason, says on page 12, “Integrity is a personal choice, an uncompromising and predictably consistent commitment to honor moral, ethical, spiritual and artistic values and principles.” The Twenty Minute Coach says, integrity is necessary for your own personal happiness.  You are You!  You need to celebrate and honor yourself everyday, twenty-four hours a day.  If you compromise your value, your honesty, your commitment to honor your truth then you lose yourself piece by piece.  Maybe at first you don’t realize it, but as the days turn into months and the months turn into years you become more and more asleep and begin to feel as if life has passed you by. Personal integrity is as important as your health.  Without it, you lose your sense of importance and risk becoming a chameleon.  

Today, start asking yourself, “Who am I?”  “What matters to me?”  Listen to yourself when you are in a conversation with others. Do you do the right thing by you or do you go along with the conversation because you are afraid of what your friends will think?  Listen to your inner voice when you are watching politics on TV.  What is your opinion?   Write each day about how you used your voice and thoughts to speak up for yourself and practice your own sense of integrity.  Writing it out will help you become clear, and the clarity will help you really know who you are and what it is that you believe.