Aging Backwards

It is interesting to experience what it feels like to get younger. Most people lament aging, they simply hate getting older. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say getting old sucks I think I would be driving a Mercedes instead of a Mini.

I am overjoyed that at the age of 44 I feel more like 24 than I think I did at 24. And 24 is a random number, I could have just as easily have chosen 23 or 22 ... but you get the point.

We seem to have this mindset that with age comes pain, discomfort, loss of looks, health, energy and motivation. That the good times are behind us. I have never believed this to be written in stone. I'm fortunate to posses a liberal amount of know how involving the importance of food, nutrition, exercise, positive thinking and gratitude. Some of it is newly acquired, some I have been working on for a long time. As with everyone, I am most assuredly a work in progress.

I believe I look younger now than I did five or ten years ago. I know I feel younger, I am stronger and can do things I couldn't do years ago. I move better. I think happier, more optimistic thoughts effortlessly. My skin is better. I can see each day is filled with opportunity and I am much less prone to look at my day as a long list of must do's and rushing around.

Things I do to feel my best:

• Eat Clean - I eat a Paleo diet which in short means to avoid grains, processed foods, sugars and focus mainly on eating healthy fats, lean animal protein, and lots of vegetables.
• Exercise Wisely - Shorter, higher intensity workouts with ample recovery time, lots of walking, stretching and even bouncing on a trampoline. We don't need to work out more as we age, we need to work out smarter.
• Focus on Gratitude Every Day - Every day is a gift after all. If things do not go right or smoothly, find the lesson. It is there. Ask questions, evaluate ...
• Keep Learning - Turn off the TV, close Facebook and get out and learn something new. I take dance lessons and keep my brain working. Think of standing water ... it needs some fresh flowing water to prevent it from becoming stagnant. If you aren't out making new memories, learning new things ... you end up sitting on the porch reliving your glory days. I want to keep stacking those memories up. My best days are ahead of me, they are most certainly not behind me.
• Challenge your Limits - There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than the one after overcoming a fear. I am afraid of heights, or I was, and I am learning to rock climb and scramble. My fear of heights is evolving as a result. What once would have made me tremble I barely notice now.
• Do Things for Other People - I like to look for opportunities to pay it forward. It has begun to feel like my own little selfish guilty pleasure because I get so much out of doing something nice just to do it, with absolutely no agenda or desire for reward or acknowledgement.
• Take Care of Your Body - Oil pulling, dry skin brushing, rebounding, flossing are a few other ways I nurture my body and keep it feeling its best.

The end result is I feel younger, look younger and enjoy life so much more than I ever did. This is enough positive reinforcement to make everything worthwhile.

-Nicola Byrne

Lift

There is an amazing app for the iPhone I have been using since approximately March 10th. It is called Lift and there will be a web version available soon for those that do not have an iPhone. 

This is an application that allows you to create habits, change habits, track habits, and receive feedback and motivation from others for your progress. You can also encourage others and leave them feedback as well! This little app is enabling me to be more productive and has had a real snowball effect in achieving new and more consistent habits. I have even resurrected some old habits I wanted to cultivate and dropped the ball on. It is a free app!

The habits I am currently tracking on Lift are:

• Blog More (ta-da!)
• Meditate (ok I have zero entries here but it is still on the list and I will begin meditating again, I know it)
• Stretch
• Wash Face Before Bed (I have been so much more consistent now that I'm logging it)
• Weigh Yourself (I still average once a week or less and I am ok with that)
• Be Grateful for Someone or Something (it pays to be grateful, every single day)
• Dance
• Floss
• Oil Pulling
• Pay it Forward (it feels so good to do something for another person just to make their day better)
• Rebounding
• Set Priorities for your Day (goal setting ... a great idea)
• Skin Brushing
• Write Three Positive Things About Today (this is one of my favorites)

My days feel more productive, more meaningful and I appreciate the things I am doing. One great aspect of Lift is that it takes what may seem like an arduous task and makes it fun. There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment in ticking off habits and adding notes about them. The feedback from others is a great pat on the back too. There is a sense of camaraderie from it.

Great job to the makers of Lift!

-Nicola Byrne

Education at my Fingertips

When I was a child my family had encyclopedias. I remember sitting on the floor opening them one at time, A through Z, and reading about all kinds of topics. Little bits of information and learning new things right there at my fingertips. It was exciting and fascinating.

It is so much simpler now because we have the internet. Google. Bing. Wikipedia. Smartphones. I can look something up immediately. Instant gratification. With a computer you can even find free courses online. I just signed up for one at Coursera. I will be taking this course:

Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence

It begins May 1st and will run for 6 weeks. The workload is about 3-4 hours a week. That is very little time invested for learning something new! Time I will invest in myself.

As a personal trainer I feel developing leadership skills is important. I seek to lead by example, always, however understanding my clients better through expanding my own emotional intelligence will help me help them.

I have selected my next course as well:

Understanding Einstein: The Special Theory of Relativity

I look forward to learning new things!

-Nicola Byrne

Asking Questions

I have been asking myself lots of questions lately … what should I write about comes up frequently and there is no resounding answer. Waiting for the perfect topic to reach out and bite me in the butt is just another form of procrastination. It is so simple to be good at procrastinating, however it is a skill I would rather forget.

As I work in stimulating new thoughts and experiences I am going out and dancing more. I am learning to Two Step. I am learning to advance my West Coast Swing. I have even jumped in and started learning line dances. One of them is called … Asking Questions. Of course. Just one of those little hints from the Universe to reign me back in and call attention to what I want to be doing. I appreciate the reminders, especially when they pop up out of the blue.

• What do I want to change about myself?
• What is holding me back?
• What new way of being would I like to visualize?
• What habits do I want to let go of?
• What would a great person do in "this" situation?
• What would it be like to …?
• What is a better way to be …?
• What if I was this person, living in this reality? 
• Who do I want to emulate?
• What does it mean to be successful?
• What would a financially independent person do?

Instead of sitting and watching TV and becoming mindless … I am choosing to go out and learn some new skills, read more, and ponder new ways of being. It feels good.

-Nicola Byrne

Affirmations in a New Light

One day, many years ago, I listened to the Secret audiobook by Rhonda Byrne and I learned about affirmations. I had been using them successfully for years, without realizing it, and decided to begin using them consciously to improve my life. No longer would I affirm negatives. I would affirm positives. <head nod for emphasis>

It has certainly worked. Today I am a far more optimistic woman and my life is filled with experiences I am thankful for.

Last week I had revealing moment of clarity, a lightbulb going on in my mind, when I realized that my affirmations had been working even better than I knew. My next thought was it is important to be more aware of what I am affirming! The Universe is very literal.

A good friend and I wear speaking, comparing notes about manifesting and what we are learning as well as experiencing. I mentioned how lately there is even so much more than usual to be grateful for and I told her about changing my password. A couple of years ago I decided my passwords would be affirmations. Positive ones, I thought. My new password has to do with being grateful. My previous password had to do with being strong. Four two years I had been using different variations of "a strong one" before I decided to change my focus to gratitude. Well it worked like a charm. Both times.

As I look back on the previous years and see all of the challenges I overcame and how very strong I was to do so, I also see how well that affirmation worked. Consistently bringing to me events, situations, challenges and opportunities for strength.

I'm so grateful … I decided to be more grateful.

-Nicola Byrne