Alex Kingman

How to Stop Having the Dreaded Monday Syndrome & Live the Life You Truly Want

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Do you have the Dreaded Monday syndrome?

This is where every Sunday evening you get stressed and grumpy because you have to start another week and go back to work. You live for the weekends and you just get through the weeks.

Does this sound like you? If you have the dreaded Monday syndrome then you are doing something wrong in life – just saying. Life is meant to be enjoyed. It is meant to be spent doing the things you like. If you can only enjoy your time here on this earth on the weekends (or only 8 days per month), then what kind of life is that? It is time to make a change for the sake of your happiness and sanity. I see way too many people stuck in this trap, and I hope that this post will help you truly escape this mindset and way of life (not just artificially escape on the weekends). The truth is, if you are living like this, you are bored with your life. You feel unmotivated, tired, and dull most of the time. You feel like you need something exciting to change your state. Most people turn to partying and drugs on the weekends. Others turn to extreme activities to feel that rush of being alive. Why? Because they are starving to feel alive in their normal daily lives, and they are not getting this feeling from their habits and activities right now. Living this way is completely ridiculous – and yet millions of people – MILLIONS – live this way every week. But you don’t have to. Let’s get started.

First off, on Sunday what exactly about your upcoming week do you dread? List it all!

Why do you dread each of these things?

What about on Friday? What do you most look forward to? List everything you think of.

Why do you look forward to these things? Is it just a way to forget about your life, or is it something you truly enjoy doing?

Your answers may surprise you. And they will probably bring you some insight that you hadn’t realized before. What is crazy is how many people just assume that work has to be hard, boring, and unpleasant. This is completely not true! I can tell you this from experience. For the past couple of months, I have not once felt any dread come over me on Sundays before starting work on Monday. I actually find myself excited and eager to get back to work on Monday. I don’t say this to brag, I say it to show that it is possible. I know many people who love their work and each day they feel just as alive as any other.

Now of course, there are always some things that we have to do that we probably don’t want to do, but if you are doing things that you truly enjoy, those unwanted things are totally worth doing, and don’t feel so bad.

All I am saying is that if you are living in a rut, you can change. You have all the power and strength you need to be able to turn your life around. It is up to no one else but you. If you don’t like the life you’re living, then change it! Don’t just sit there and complain and blame others for where you are. You have gotten to where you are today because of the decisions you have made. If where you are right now is not where you want to be in life, don’t worry. I know, I’ve been there too. It is not a very empowering feeling and it is a very monotonous and grey lifestyle. So change it! What’s holding you back?!

Probably fear.

That’s all. This means that YOU are the only one holding yourself back from happiness and enjoyment in life. You fear that you won’t be able to do this or that, you fear that your family or friends will be upset disappointed, or disown you. So be it. If they aren’t willing to love you when you change for the better, then you need real, true, and better friends anyway. You fear that it won’t work out or you’ll fail. So much fear, fear, fear!! You may call it worry, stress, your reservations, or “I’d like to, BUT…” – either way, it is still fear! You want to feel alive right? Well let me tell you, facing your fears will definitely make you feel very alive. So give it a shot! Wake up!! YOU HAVE ONE LIFE! What’s the worst that can happen? You can always go back to living your same mundane mediocre life as before. But the best that can happen is that you start living a life of awesomeness and enjoyment! Yes! YOU can do this! You are the key! And as long as you never give up, your dream to live this life well is inevitable. So what’s it going to be?!

 

To living your best life,

Alex 🙂

 

Ps- If you have a lot of resistance and fear toward changing your life for the better, try fear setting. This is an exercise that I have adopted from Tim Ferriss, and it helps me totally demolish my fear and see how irrational and ambiguous many of my fears are. Here’s how to do fear set.

Pps- If you are having a hard time handling the stress of change while you are in transition, I suggest trying Peace of Mind Natural Blend – a natural supplement for less stress and better sleep. It will help you get through your transition in a much calmer and more centered manner. And you will sleep through the night so you have the energy to make big changes! It has helped hundreds of others do the same with fantastic results, so if this is something that you want to try, check it out on Amazon or on the Life Tools website! 🙂

7 Things That Make Life So Good Right Now – With Linnea Locsin

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Linnea with her dog Moomoo! 

This is a guest post by Linnea Locsin from her blog over at http://www.linnealocsin.com. Linnea is an amazing singer and marketer, and she owns Singer Savvy, an online community for singers to learn about singing, improve their own voice, and mingle with the community. She helps you find your voice and become an amazing singer through fun, relaxed, and extremely effective singing lessons (I would know – I took them!). Linnea is a good friend of mine so when she wrote this post on her blog, I loved it and I knew that I had to ask her if she would let me post it here on my blog too! And she said yes! So without further ado, here is Linnea! 🙂

7 Things That Make Life So Good Right Now

1. Vitamin D

aka…. vitamin sunshine!! This is a given.  The sun makes everyone happy! As we near summer, I’ve been making time for more lunches outside. And after a long stretch of work i’ll take a book out, sit in the sun and all sudden I feel calm again.

Oh man — this alone is making every day a little sweeter.  I feel happier and notice the difference in the overall quality of my day.

All you need is 10 minutes! Take a break! Go find the sun. Vitamin D is good for your immune system, your nervous system, your brain, your lungs…! You need it! And coming out of winter, we are all probably a little deficient in vitamin d.

2. Cooking Dinner Daily

(I live in the bay area… I live a fast-paced lifestyle…)  I recently believed that cooking was not a good use of my time. I couldn’t justify being in the kitchen over working, studying, or creating something.  While I do enjoy cooking, I thought of it as a weekend thing.  Doesn’t it take forever to cook a meal? Not really…. actually…

What I’ve been doing lately: I buy 6 different cuts of protein: chicken breasts, ground beef, tilapia, salmon, a cut of beef, and the 6th is whatever else I’m feeling that week (shrimp, bacon, more chicken..).  Then I buy 6-7 different veggies: green beans, asparagus, zucchini, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower….

Then I pair a protein with a veggie — I’m not picky about it either — and boom! There it is.  It’s pretty simple – sometimes, I’ll add rice, potato or salad to a plate.

To my surprise, cooking a simple meal every day has NOT overwhelmed me or stolen my time.  I actually feel like I have a better grasp on life now that I’ve incorporated cooking a meal. lol. Takes 20 minutes + 2 pans + olive oil + my flavor creativity (garlic, onions, seasonings…) It has also forced me and my husband to sit and eat a fresh meal together – There is something special about that.

What about meal prep? Yes! we are major fans of meal prepping! That’s what we were doing before. While it’s great for fitness goals, I was using meal prepping as a way out of cooking daily.

Perks of cooking dinner daily: 

  • A fresh meal
  • Eat together
  • Turns my day into night – I’m an entrepreneur and many days I work till late hours in the night with no pause.
  • Leftovers turn into tomorrow’s lunch meal prep.
  • I feel like I’m winning at life and being a wife (except jimmy likes to take over in the kitchen – He loves to cook – I don’t mind that at all)

3. Sticky Notes

2018 might have been one of the weirdest starts to a year. Sometimes it would seem like I couldn’t get my head on straight… and I’m pretty sharp… my head’s always on straight.  But THIS YEAR, I experienced my first anxiety attack. I was having trouble handling external pressures and I could not figure out how to organize my brain.

I tried all sorts of planners, journals, online todo lists… Nothing was really working or making me feel grounded.

THAT’S when I thought to simplify.  STICKY NOTES!!!

Every idea, to-do, campaign, strategy, goal, affirmation, —- I wrote on a sticky note and stuck it on my wall. 

It was so gratifying to see everything that goes through my mind on my wall.

Here’s are some of the things I put on my wall.

  • Things to remember for taking care of my home
  • Health goals and strategy
  • Singing lesson plans
  • People to get back to
  • Finances to manage
  • Morning routine habits
  • Night routine habits
  • Business blogs to read
  • Courses to finish
  • All the parts to building funnels
  • All the parts of a marketing campaign
  • All the parts to integrating marketing platforms
  • Headline, Copy, Sales ideas
  • Videos to record and edit
  • Pictures to take and edit
  • Affirmations

Somehow, this gave me so much peace. To top it off, when I would complete a task, I’d remove that sticky note —- Not gonna lie, I think that feels even better than checking off a to do list.

And you know what else, seeing everything that I do made me proud of myself. It allowed me to validate my own feelings and overwhelm. I do a lot. I wear many hats. I love what I do. But girl…. better restrategize.

I’ve been doing the most self reflection I ever have in my entire life. I’ve analyzed every hour of my day, every emotion that comes with it, ever role I have, and job I have to do.

 

4.  A Blanket on the floor

This new habit happened at random. I couldn’t find my yoga mat so I grabbed a soft blanket instead.

A couple things happened:  1) Yoga, of course 2) Diaphragmatic breathing 3) Foam rolling 4) Mediation 5) Read more books 6) Napped with my dog

This blanket on the floor made room for things that helped me be more mindful and thoughtful of my body and breath.  I found that everything I did on this blanket made me grateful. Yoga centered me. Diaphragmatic breathing and foam rolling made me aware of my good health. Meditation took my mind to a place that made me ask questions like “how can serve more?” “What’s my purpose?”, “How can I love more?”. Books = knowledge…and who doesn’t get grateful for knowledge? And then there’s my dog, Moomoo… He made a dog lover out of me and I am so grateful for his love every day.

This blanket has become a special place for me.

5. Burning Candles

Why did I not do this more before?  I have been burning candles the whole month of April.  Day and night.  It just makes me feel good. I like to see it, smell it.

The main thing:  Having a candle lit seems to help remove any anxious feelings that I may have.

6. No Phones At Night

My husband Jimmy and I decided to take on the habit of not being on our phones an hour before bed. We do slip every here and there… however, the intention to remove our phones from the last hour of our evening together has been so rewarding. Doing this made room for great conversation but most of all …laughs!  Jimmy wakes up super early for work, so by 7-8pm he’s pretty delirious. This makes for some of the strangest times I’ve ever experienced. So many nights in this past month have ended with us laughing our faces off!

It’s easy to just spend the last part of your day scrolling… but I wonder what would happen if we ditched the scroll?  Would you read a delicious book, write a poem, play your guitar, draw, journal, have juicy conversation…  Try it. See what happens. Then tellllllmeeeeeee.

7. Affirmations

This goes back to the sticky notes and getting my brain together.  I have affirmation sticky notes all over the place now.

I’m all about the power of words, your voice, your mindset and the message you tell yourself.

The world is pretty loud and in your face – and most of the time the messages we hear are not so good. If you aren’t interrupting it with something you know is good, what do you think you are going to be focussing on?

Affirmations I’ve been telling myself:

I’m full of new ideas

I can solve any problem

I am here to serve

My body is strong and good to me

I will find the good in every moment

I am surrounded by good people

*I’m not making weak promises here – I’m feeding my mind good fuel. I am helping shift my worldview. 

Here’s the opposite of all my affirmations (Which phrase do you tell yourself more?…subconsciously)

I’m full of new ideas  –  I don’t know what to do. 

I can solve any problem – I can’t figure this out

I am here to serve – I’m here to make something of myself

My body is strong and good to me – I’m so tired, my body isn’t being kind to me

I will find the good in every moment  – I wonder what sh*! will happen next? 

I am surrounded by good people – Good people are hard to find these days. 

The best thing about this post is that everything on this list is very simple. Anyone can do these things to improve the quality of their lives quickly and easily without much extra effort. They could be enjoying life that much more by just making a few changes and making good habits (see my post on how to kill bad habits). I especially love her affirmations and I totally use some of them now too! 🙂 I challenge you to choose at least one of the actions above and incorporate it into your own life so that you can get more enjoyment out of life as well! 🙂

 

To living your best life,

Alex 🙂

Personal Power

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Hi guys! I wrote this article to get back the basic fundamentals of life. Everything starts with you and it all comes down to you. This sounds really heavy, but really all it means is that you have the power to change and create anything – which is AMAZING! So one of the best things you can do is work on yourself and on how you can improve. So why not start with your own personal power?

Personal power is when you give yourself permission to listen to your inner self and let your decisions come from this place. If you are making decisions from your inner self, you know deep down that you will always be okay. You can trust yourself to make good decisions and choices, and you have a healthy sense of self-worth. You know that although life may not always be easy, you are on your path as long as you give yourself this personal power. Generally, people with personal power have confidence and good self esteem. They take responsibility for their own problems and they do not rely on others’ opinions or decisions to solve them. They trust themselves.

Without personal power, you are not connected with your inner self and therefore, you feel uncentered. You don’t trust your own judgement, so you rely on what others think and use that to make decisions and choices. Since you depend on what others think to make decisions, you base your self-worth on what others think of you and their opinions. You don’t listen to your heart. You play small and you don’t follow your dreams because you believe that they aren’t attainable. You let life push you around instead of deciding for yourself how life is going to be. Most people who do not give themselves personal power feel insecure, worried, anxious, or depressed. They might even blame others for their problems (we have all known at least one person who does this) and they have trouble solving problems.

So how is your personal power? Here is an exercise to find out:

Do you feel anxious when someone doesn’t agree with you?

Do you agree with people even when you feel they’re wrong?

Is it hard for you to say no when people ask you to do something you really don’t want to do?

Do you need other people’s approval in order to be happy?

Do you say things you don’t mean to try to make people like you?

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions, you might want to think about how much control you have over your life, and how much you are listening to your inner self.

“If we don’t trust ourselves, then how can we trust anything else that we are doing or anyone else we know? Trust yourself.”

We all know that you can’t please everyone, so don’t expect approval all the time. You are free to have your own way and your own opinion no matter what others think. Most people who struggle to have personal power don’t realize that the root of their unhappiness in this area comes from their unhealthy need for approval by others. If someone criticizes you, do you get down and upset afterward, blaming the other person for what they said and thinking about their harsh words? Or do you realize that it may be your need for approval that’s making you feel bad- not the person or what they said? Don’t judge yourself by how much approval you get from others. Good self-esteem starts with you. It comes from how you feel about yourself, not how others feel about you. You must always look within first. This is how you make good decisions and how you trust yourself. Stop giving your personal power to others! What other people think has nothing to do with you. It does not have an effect on you unless you let it.

But how can you like yourself when you don’t feel good, confident, or trusting of yourself?

Start with self- love. Even if you hate yourself, you can change into someone you love.

What do you like about yourself? List them.

What characteristics and traits would you like to have more of? Less of?

Who do you always feel wonderful being around? Why?

Who are the top three people you look up to? What are the top three characteristics that you like about each of them the most?

 Who do you want to be more like? What do they have that you want to develop?

If you could be the perfect you, what would you be like?

Ok great! Your answers should give you a pretty good idea of the ideal, optimal you. The great news is that you have the power in your hands to change and become this person! You can love yourself and live the life you want. But only you hold this power. No one else can do this for you.

I couldn’t imagine going through life hating myself. I am sure it would be pretty awful, so I think that you have nothing to lose by trying to love yourself. When you hate or dislike yourself, you are your own enemy. When you distrust yourself, you compromise your happiness and enjoyment. You are not living your dream life if this is how you live. In fact, you are not truly living at all.

But you can…

The choice is yours.

 

To your highest personal power,

Alex 🙂

How to Ditch Your Car, Get in Shape, and Follow Your Dreams :)

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My whip & Shasta 🙂

For the past few months now I have been riding my bike everywhere. On average, I have been riding about 8-10 miles per day. This milage might seem like a lot, but sometimes it is split up throughout the day, depending on what I am doing. Other times it is all at once. Either way, you are probably wondering why I would do this?

About 2 months ago, I quit my job and started working on Life Tools full time. I saved up enough money from my job that I could have all of my living expenses covered for about 5 months. I would like to sound like I have life all figured out and that I had planned it this way from the start, but I didn’t. I just got tired of my job and realized that I really didn’t have to work and I could give 100% of my attention to Life Tools and my blog (side note: I have some AWESOME things coming very soon for this blog so stay tuned because it is about to be great!). So that’s what I did! If you read my previous post, I am on a journey this year to become happier than I have ever been in my entire life (so far) and I knew that doing this would greatly improve my happiness.

So what does this have to do with riding my bike?

A lot, actually.

The only problem I had was that my job provided me with a work car to drive that I took home at night. I was also allowed to drive to do my own personal errands and grocery shopping after work, and do pretty much anything I needed to do if it wasn’t too far out of the way. So at that time all I needed was my work truck, but when I quit my job I also lost my set of wheels. I didn’t want to buy a car because it would use most of my fund I had saved up to live on and I wouldn’t be able to pursue my passion and dream! So, inspired by Mr. Money Mustache’s blog, I decided that I could just ride my bike for a while until I need a car. Right now I simply don’t need one. Would I like one? I guess. Would I enjoy it? Sure. Probably not much more than my bike. But is it an absolute necessity right now? No. It is far more important to me that I work on my passion until it not only can support me financially, but can also more importantly impact thousands of lives in a positive and enlightening way. I would much rather work on this than have the material comfort of a car. Besides, cars are kind of expensive and then you have to pay registration, insurance, and you are at the mercy of the gas prices. Not to mention pollution (for most cars, at least).

What I have noticed when I ride is that you smell the most wonderful fragrances as you pass by beautiful gardens. You see things that you never would have noticed in a car, like a for-sale sign in front of a house or a new park, etc. You can hear everything around you and feel the wind and sun on your skin. And of course, you get in great shape (at least cardio-wise)! Plus, once I get to wherever I am going, I am always alert, energetic, and ready. That is just naturally how you feel after getting a little exercise. Plus, if you are trying to get in shape or get some cardio in, it is a lot easier to do it when it is your only way to get somewhere. Riding your bike also helps you prioritize the things you need to do away from your house and it really motivates you to chunk together all activities that are close in proximity to each other. Another nice thing I have noticed is how kind the drivers are to bikers (at least in my area). They will usually go way around you when they pass, they will slow down and let you by, and they are typically really careful. Whether they truly care about my safety as a person or they just don’t want a lawsuit, they are very respectful and it makes me feel grateful for all of the good people in the world. What a difference from when you are in a car! Everyone just seems to cut you off or drive ridiculously. So basically, with a bike you just become more efficient, more energetic, more lean, and more appreciative of everything around you. 🙂

Is this no-car, only-bike thing for everyone? Of course not. But my point here is that we need to look beyond what we think are necessities and understand that we can live life very simply – AND still be happy! Am I ever going to be a hard-core biker? Probably not. I don’t really have a desire to do that. I just use the bike as a tool. Choosing to ride my bike instead of spend money on a car allows me to have more time and freedom to do what I love and help others do the same.

I have learned that not having a car is really not that big of a setback and biking is not only a great alternative, it is really enjoyable. Do I feel like riding it every day? No. But am I grateful that I am riding my bike and working on my dreams (no matter how much of a headwind there is) instead of driving a car to a job that doesn’t fulfill me and sitting in terrible traffic. There are other options, of course, if you don’t have a car – depending on where you live. For example, I am really lucky that my surrounding area is pretty flat. If there were lots of steep hills, I would probably not be riding my bike – especially since my bike is a one speed. There is public transportation, Uber and other driving services if you are in large metro areas, carpooling (which I do when I can), motorcycles and mopeds, etc., even walking! There are many options! Honestly, many things in life just come down to how creative you can be. And guess what? This makes life very interesting!

If you want to follow your dreams and passions, there is nothing holding you back but yourself. No matter what setbacks you face, the only one who can decide to persevere or quit is you. You are the only determining factor as to whether you can do it or not. Chose your dreams. Choose to make decisions in favor of them. Go all in! And NEVER, EVER give up!

 

To living your dreams,

Alex 🙂

PS– Here is one of my favorite speeches by Les Brown that will really inspire you to go after your dreams and what you want in life. I have listened to it countless times and it still motivates and inspires me each time. Listen and/or watch it on Youtube here. 

PPS– Peace of Mind Natrual Blend (the wonderful supplement for less stress and better sleep) now has a brand new label on Amazon! I just wanted to let you guys know about it so that you can check it out if you want! 🙂

How to Know What You Want (When You Don’t Know What You Want)

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Let me ask you a question: What do you want?

Do you want a fancy house, 8 new cars, and a 30 person hot tub? Or a job working outdoors with a wonderful family to come home to? Or do you want to retire early and travel the world? Or do you want to go to college for a degree? What about health? Do you want to complete a triathlon? Do you prefer jogging 5 miles daily? Or crossfit? Dancing? Sports? Yoga? Do you want abs? Do you want to do all of these things? None of these things? Some of these things?

There are so many options in life!

We all want to live an awesome life, full of adventures, fun, and success. We all want to live our dream lives. We all want to be free in every way- personally, spiritually, physically, politically, etc.

We all know these things. But the problem is that most of us stop there. We don’t ever get to this place of freedom and happiness. Why? One reason is we might not know what we really want. Yes, we know in general that we want to be happy, wealthy, healthy, etc., but we need to get a little more specific and focused to figure out what we truly want.

Ask yourself this question: what do you visualize as your dream life?

What are you specifically doing? This may bring up a wall for you. Your mind might go blank. You may not know exactly what you want it to look like. There are so many paths that your life could take. You might begin to realize that you don’t really know what it is that you truly want.

Here are three things you can do to figure out what you want from life:

 

Figure Out What You Don’t Want. Then Flip It. 

Sometimes we don’t know what we want out of life, but we do know what we DON’T want! If you are having trouble finding purpose and direction in your life, start out with what you don’t want to do. What do you dislike or hate? What are your least favorite things to do? What are you unhappy about in your life right now? Write your answers down so you can see them plain and clear for what they are! These negativities in your life are causing you pain and suffering. Luckily, you can turn these negative things into amazing triumphs! It is time to turn your life around and get happy! If you are clear on what you don’t want in life, then you can steer away from those unpleasant areas and move in a more positive direction. What I would advise is this: Get a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left side write down all the things you don’t want in the given situation, or just life in general. Once you have finished listing your non-wants and dislikes, look at each non-want and write down the opposite of it in the right column.  It should look like this example:

Don’t Want: Want:
to fight w/ spouse good communication & enjoy time w/ spouse
loneliness & isolation close friends and frequent social interaction
etc.

Filling in a table like this will give you a good starting point. You will know what you definitely don’t want, and you will have an idea, therefore, of what you might want. You don’t have to know exactly where you are going, so long as it feels pleasant and exciting. The next step is to take action and try things to see what works and what brings you more happiness in your life.

 

Try New Things. 

If you don’t know what you want, then it might be because you have never committed to trying a new or different type of living- and I mean completely committed by giving this new try your all. By trying new things, you learn what you like and dislike/ want and don’t want in life. You want this to be something simple that you can start today. You can add this into your chart as well if you want, and it will look something like this:

Don’t Want: Want: Action:
to fight w spouse enjoy time together spend time together daily, eat&sleep well so not grouchy/tired
lonliness & isolation close friends, social volunteer in town to meet people. Spend time w/ bff
etc.

In this example, the actions recorded are all able to be started today. You could call up your spouse right now and plan a date or just plan on going on a walk together through the neighborhood later. You could go to bed early tonight to ensure a restful sleep, and you can eat good, healthy food for breakfast lunch, and dinner to ensure that you don’t get hungry ad grumpy. You could also set up a time to hang out with your friend, and you could get signed up to start volunteering soon too. All of these baby steps you would be taking today would be catalysts for a better tomorrow. Each step makes it possible for a bigger action step in the future until you are living in the “want” category on the chart above, and not the “Don’t want” category!

 

What Do You Know You Want in Your Life? 

It is ok to feel unsure of what you want! Don’t panic. Don’t feel like you are a hopeless or lost soul. You don’t have to know every little detail of your future life! You just have to look at what you know that you want in your life, and compare it to your current life, and then take action. You don’t have to know every detail of your life. You don’t have to know what every second of your perfect day would look like. You just have to commit yourself to making every day awesome. You have to truly believe in yourself and realize that while you are trying to build yourself your perfect life, it was right there all along. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the results. Enjoy the present.

When you envision your dream life, what comes to mind? The specifics, I mean. Don’t get bogged down in every little detail, just simply close your eyes and ask yourself this question. Write down your answers.

These are the things that you know you want. For some people, it may be to travel, or to be a singer, or to eat healthier food every day. For others it might be to write a book, or start a business, or meditate daily. There will probably be multiple things that you are positive that you want in your life – probably more than you think. Now that you have figured out what you don’t want, it is much easier to understand what you do want, or at least have a general direction to try out.

Remember, nothing here is permanent and nothing is set in stone. You can always change, in fact you will change. What you want in life changes as you do. You want different things out of life now than you did when you were a kid, right? Exactly! So don’t worry about it. Just go towards your passions, interests, and hobbies, and go away from what you don’t want in life.

“At the center of your being, you have the answer; you know who you are, and you know what you want.” – Lao Tzu

Now, whatever you wrote down for your answer, go do that. Whatever actions you wrote down in the chart, do those too. Start working on it, even if it is in tiny bite-sized portions. Little by little, great things get done.

 

To living your best life,

-Alex

PS- Peace of Mind Proprietary Blend is now on Amazon! If you need less stress and better sleep, you can try it now for 40% off (for a limited time, so now is the time to try it if you are curious!). Check it out. It may also help you relax and center yourself when going through the process of figuring out what you want from your amazing gift of life. 🙂

Get Happy With …Stretching!

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Welcome to another edition of the “Get Happy” series!

Just as a reminder, the point of the articles in this series is to try different ideas and methods to bring you to a higher baseline happiness level. These “baseline happiness boosters” have cumulative effects, meaning that if done only once, you probably won’t get much benefit out of it. What we really want is the lasting effect of doing it so often that it is engrained into your brain, and it is part of who you are. If you do it on a regular basis to the point where you do it without even thinking, then you will see a huge overall positive surge of benefits!

In this post, we are talking about Stretching! 🙂

Did you know that when your muscles are stretched or exercised they send signals to the brain which help keep your body and mind from degenerating (damage and aging in the body)? That’s right! Even just 15 minutes of stretching every day will allow you to enjoy the benefits of a healthier mind and body as you continue to grow older.

Aside from just the long-term effects, the act of stretching literally loosens your muscles by creating a mild stress response in the body. When you do this, you are bringing oxygen into the muscles which in turn puts you into a better mood due to the increased oxygen and blood flow in your body. You feel better physically and mentally. While you are loosening and relaxing all of your muscles, you are literally eradicating your stress. All day long you have little things that cause you to feel slightly pressured, annoyed, stressed, anxious, etc. The amount and intensity of these emotions you feel vary from day to day, but we all feel them. When you are stressed, your body responds to how you feel by tensing up and tightening its muscles. By stretching, you are reversing this stress process and renewing your body for a more relaxed state of being. When done daily, stretching can really help eliminate stress while increasing your mood and health. It’s completely a win-win!

If you want to take stretching to the next level, you can also activate your spiritual and emotional side of stretching. To do this all you need to do is turn on some relaxing music and take some deep breaths while doing different stretching exercises. You will be surprised how great it feels, and how different it is from stretching without it. And by the way when I say relaxing music, I mean that it has no words. It is just calming music. You are trying to breathe and relax. If you don’t know what kind of music to listen to, then you can always put on some meditation music from YouTube. Just type in music for meditation, or for studying, or relaxing, etc. Usually hours of nice, soothing music shows up. You can also do Yoga. This has long been known for its mind body spirit connection. If you don’t want to sign up for a class, Yoga with Adrian is a YouTube channel and you can learn Yoga from your home if you have never done it before.

Most people say that your muscles and bones and everything else just gets weaker as you age, but research hasn’t actually proven that to be completely true. Yes, as you age, you do begin to degenerate from damage in the body and brain (that’s what aging is, damage. There are no aging genes). But that doesn’t explain how 80-year-old men are able to become just as fit and muscular as people in their 20’s. There have been a few studies based solely on these facts, asking how this is possible for some people at 80 while others are struggling mentally and physically at 50.

The secret has to do with physiology, or how people move their bodies on a daily basis. The reason most people’s muscles begin degenerating in their 40’s is not necessarily because they are aging. If that was the case then everyone at 40 would have this problem, and we all know that not everyone does. So what is it? The answer lies within the most basic concept. Move your body every day. Most people in their 40’s and up have set their habits and sit at a job all day to come home and sit around some more. Where’s the exercise?! Nowhere to be seen.

The people who have the least amount of problems with their bodies and minds as they grow older are usually the people who live more active lifestyles. It doesn’t matter whether that is walking, running, lifting weights, stretching, yoga, biking, whatever. As long as you are moving your body daily for at least 15 minutes, you are setting your present moment and your future up for lasting success, happiness, and health.

SO, by stretching for just 15 minutes every day your body, mind, and spirit will all be much happier and healthier. Try it out yourself! Just remember to not over-stretch. If it starts to actually hurt, then you have overstretched. That is an injury. Don’t stretch more than your body is comfortable with. Flexibility comes with time and consistency.

Here are some other benefits I noticed from daily stretching (which I have done for about 3 months now):

  • Greatly reduces the risk of injuries as long as you go at your own pace when you stretch to avoid over-stretching.
  • For women around their menstrual cycle, no back pain anymore and reduced cramps by 80% with the remaining cramps at only 60% of the usual intensity.
  • Puts you into peak state. In other words, it relaxes you and puts you into a centered state of being.
  • Increases flexibility a lot
  • Puts you in tune with your body, so that when you stretch every day you notice every little difference in your muscles or whatever else each day.

If you want to create a better life for yourself, start with your physiology. In other words, start with moving your body every day. I recommend starting with stretching because it is one of the easiest ways to move your body (compared to other exercise). Many health problems are created by people to themselves because they don’t take care of their own selves. One particular area where people are pretty bad at taking care of themselves is exercise. But it is one of the most important. Moving your body and eating Happy Food is key to an extraordinary life and a higher baseline happiness level.

 

To your utmost happiness and health,

-Alex 🙂

ps: One of my favorite ways to stretch is to use the Yokebar. I can usually get a deeper stretch and feel better in 15 minutes using the Yokebar than if I did 30 minutes of floor stretching. The Yokebar is used and known best for its intense workouts and exercises you can do to train like a pro, in fact it is even in olympic and military gyms. But honestly, I have used it for more than three years to work out and I still like it best for stretching.

 

I Did.

/ alexkingman / Leave a comment

Think about it.

In the moment of your death, your life will flash before your eyes. Looking back through your life, will you say, “I wish I had…” or will you say, “I did!”?

I imagine that you want to be able to look back and feel a sense of wholeness when you reflect. You want to know that you lived your life to the fullest and you did the things you wanted to do in life, and you impacted the world and others in a positive way.

Working backward from your last day on Earth is a great way to realize what is important to you in life, and what you should focus your time and energy on. Your life is whatever you want it to be. It is an interesting story. When it starts to feel boring and dull, it means that you are not living your dreams. You are living according to someone else, not yourself. When life gets complicated, it is simply because you haven’t taken enough time to thoroughly look at your life, your current situation, your past habits and beliefs, and your inner self. When you live according to anyone but yourself, be it society’s whims, another person, and institute, etc. you are not living your true life of passion.

So how do you get back to living your dream life? How do you stop living a boring, monotonous life? How do you free yourself from the habits of the past and begin on your path toward personal freedom? It’s quite simple, actually. You just have to put your dreams first. Don’t let your other obligations get in the way all the time. Put aside some time every day to work on your dreams, and guard this time relentlessly. This is your time to get you where you want to be in life, whether that is spending more time each day with your kids, becoming financially free, going on a vacation to Thailand each year, having a better sex life and relationship with your spouse, meditating for 20 minutes each day, etc. Don’t let yourself become distracted with other things during this amount of time that you set aside for dreams. Take this time to grow and work on creating your dream life until it is a reality.

Living how you are ‘supposed to’ according to everyone else is not necessarily the way that you want to live. We are individuals. We are not ‘one size fits all’. We are unique and what is right for one person is not right for another. This is why your dreams have to come first. If you don’t make them top priority, then society and others will continue to dictate how you live your life. If you let anyone else other than your inner self rule your life, then you will most likely never do the things you have always wanted to. You will never get to feel that major sense of inner peace and freedom you have when living your best life. You are the only one who can make your dream life come true. You must take your dreams by the hand and make sure that you are truly giving all you can to make them a reality.

You will reach all you want if you can just simply put your dreams first, be patient as you work on them, and know that they will all come to you just the way they are supposed to. You may not end up exactly where you imagined you would be, and you will take some interesting turns and detours to get there, but you will eventually reach your best life. It will be your amazing life; no one else’s. Simply your life, your freedom, your lifestyle, and your true happiness.

Instead of always wishing to do something, cut out the excuses – make it happen and be able to say, “I did!”

To living your best life,

-Alex