I got up early this morning at 5:00 am to start my day with a series of rituals like meditation, reading, and prayer. This ritual, in theory, is supposed to help me start my day and align my intentions with that of the divine, or so goes the theory. What it does do for me in the conscious realm is to get to me to think about life in a very particular way, more contemplative and curious about possibility and also to shine a light on where I am hiding from the truth.

This morning I was reading a chapter in “Anatomy of the Spirit”, written by Carolyn Myss, and a sentence leapt out at me that asked the very uncomfortable question “are you hiding inside your practices”?  The actual statement was “I want guidance, but don’t give me any bad news”, and what she was referring to was the tendency of using practices like exercise, meditation or prayer as a tool to reduce the burden of stress we may be feeling…but never to really want to...

Today on the show we're talking with David Gilks about the journey of personal development. This episode is really a plea to do something with your personal development learning. We've taken all sorts of courses and listened to our mentors tell us over and over what we need to do but nothing happens if we do nothing. David is also a fitness coach and brings that sensibility to his I Am Project and his upcoming TedX talk. David is a great guest and deserves all of your attention!

https://anchor.fm/dopeamine/episodes/Embracing-the-Personal-Development-Journey-with-David-Gilks-e2tush

Though I discuss topics that mainly are about our mental and emotional health, the common denominator in our search for "betterment" whether it be emotional or physical is our brain.  

One of the biggest missing parts in our quest for better muscular definition and strength is the connection to our nervous system. We often focus all of our efforts on "toning muscle" when we really should be training the brain which controls the shape and tone of our muscles (and everything else)

I enjoyed talking to the GymWits crew about this topic on their Podcast.

Listen here https://open.spotify.com/episode/53LHcm2cvjNrEpFM482UBa

An interesting idea came to me this morning as I read the book “The Big Leap”. The author spoke of anxiety showing up on the heels of a good or positive event or thought and he wanted to explore why that was. What he had realized that he had an “upper limit” to what his unconscious psychology would allow him to believe.

 So when things were going good there was an emotional thermostat that was triggered and sent him messages that he was in an area of belief that conflicted the hidden messages in his unconscious mind.  

 Part of the trick was to quickly realize what was happening and to look underneath the surface of that negative emotion and to see what positive emotion was trying to come through.

 Next, check in to see where the emerging positive emotion is showing up in your body, and settle into that new feeling for a few minutes.

 As that good feeling emerges pay attention to the story that comes with it, and allow yourself...

 I have had a nagging question that I have had running through my mind these past weeks around culture and how do we define it? My first impulse is to think of places where there has been a long history of “being” that is consistent with that region, as in “Indian Culture, Jamaican Culture, Portuguese Culture”. This could include traditional ways of preparing food, the type of food consistent with that region, the religious practices, and daily cultural or traditional rituals.

Many of these practices evolved over thousands of years and were again, consistent with a geographical region and the people that inhabited that space. We understand that from a scientific point of view that this process of consistent environmental influence over time is a powerful driver on how our biology evolves, our immunity, our tolerance for certain types of environments, right down to the type of spiritual practices we adopted as we strove to make sense of our place in...

It was so interesting this morning as I woke up in a panic, the worry about money, about success and failure raced through my mind. I tried to go back to sleep but my mind was too committed to this negative track.

Frustrated and feeling a bit anxious I got out of bed to make a coffee, brushed the cat aside and stormed around for a few moments. After sitting down and reading for 10 minutes, a chapter on goal setting and taking action, I got up and decided to get to work.

The fear of failure is a big one for me as I had struggled to make the break into a new financial arena with my business ventures but just could not seem to ever make the leap to the next level of business success.

Isn’t it ironic that we have more solutions for depression, more books on financial planning, more leaders in the positive thinking movement, and more health solutions than ever before and yet, despite all that, our problems not only persist, they are expanding! I have spent half a lifetime trying to figure out the secret to happiness, looked to uncover the hidden solution that would transform my life into all I ever could have imagined it to be, but still seemed to come up short. I had health in many respects, but my quest for what I thought was healthy (image) only served to burn me out. I read endless books on personal development, psychology, and philosophy and had answers for the world, but none that seemed to unlock the key that would enrich my life the way I had hoped. I sought my happiness in the eyes of others and had not taken the time to ask of myself what happiness meant to me. So now standing at the precipice of my life I realize that I have been given a gift, and...