Category Archives: time

Energy, life, time, Vitality, you

Make the complex simple.

I have heard many reasons for people not making time to exercise over the last 20 plus years in they gym. Believe me, many. One of the reasons is I think that people work hard to complicate their lives even further.

Every one of us, when you think about it, lives within constraints – of time, of politics, of budget, of growing legislation and so on. It is hard to make time for ‘you’ even if you wanted to. It can be difficult to make time to exercise. We are never perfectly free.

Life is complex. True.

We are constrained by its complexity in all its forms. In today’s world where work can be done remotely, almost anywhere and any time, the line between individual’s work life and private time is blurred. Very blurred, sometimes. With a click of a button, you can be doing work for the organization you work for in an instant, anywhere, anytime. Advances in technology does not free us, it just adds another constraint to our lives. “How can I go to the gym, when I am on call 24/7 … I take my work home with me?” some may say.

There are many other constraints people say stop them from going to a gym, some of which are project deadlines; peoples’ moods which can be frequently bad or individual’s confidence which could be frequently low. There are the children screaming and all the other much more urgent things in life to be done and so forth.

But there in lies the answer – that is life. Real life!

Maybe, change your philosophy a little and accept that life comes with constraints. These are just the constraints within which one must try to make time for his or her health and strength training and make it a priority and accept that these are the circumstances in which we live.

We should all be trying to make the complex things in life simple – not the other way round. If you do make the courageous decision to step in to a gym, ask for help from a fitness professional and make sure your training program include these 4 simple things:

  1. Do a general warm up – spend 5 minutes on a low-impact piece of cardio equipment. Aim here: to raise your body’s core temperature a little.
  2. Weights work (strength training)
  3. Stretching (during and after weights work)
  4. Cardio work (15 – 20 minutes)

Don’t let real life be an excuse for failing to make time for your strength, health and vitality.

Good health, strength and vitality are not negotiable.

 

Until next time,

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The 2nd A of the Triple Effect to Life: Take ACTION. NOW.

Physical care of your body is very important.

We all know that now. Your health is great wealth. We’re all told that countless times, a cliché’ but true. But physical care alone is not enough. I have observed over the years that most, if not, all of us, work very hard at maintaining ‘less than ideal’ or ‘bad’ habits. People will go out of their way to keep their bad habits. It’s a daily war for almost every human being. I guess its one way to remind us that we’re human. Our imperfection makes us human, but that doesn’t mean we cannot strive to be a better ‘human’.

If you live with resentment, anger, or other destructive emotions, you’ll tear yourself apart internally if you don’t get specialized help. Happiness is an essential part of good health. Move closer towards finding happiness, you move closer to being truly successful, not the other way round – the pursuit of success does not necessarily bring you happiness.

Focus on the now. Focus and be grateful for everything you have rather than focusing on what you don’t have. Maybe, carry out a ‘gratitude assessment’ for yourself. See what it tells you about you, at this point in time.

Is your health something that is on that gratitude test of yours? Even if it isn’t, remind yourself never to take good health for granted. It needs to be constantly worked at, just like anything in life that is a worthwhile goal. Along with your other very important responsibilities in your life – your financial, your spiritual, your career/business, your mental, your relationships, make sure you take all possible actions to preserve good health – for your life – for your sake and those who depend on you.

No one is perfect, that is one truth we can all accept, just as true as there will always be taxes and that our physical being has a finite existence. From dust we came, so shall we return, as some may say, ‘so why should I even bother about exercise, when I am going to die anyway?’ True, but don’t die from something that is preventable. Take that step, that extra step and …. Be proactive about your physical health, not reactive. Being reactive, maybe too late.

Exercise and strength training does have aesthetic appeal, yes, but the greatest benefits are its health-related ones. It is known that in addition to building strength and developing muscle, strength training strengthens bones, improves overall fitness, helps control body-fat, increases the body’s caloric consumption, improving posture, slows down the rate of ageing, and increases resistance to injury as well as lowering the risk of injury. I have said this before: NO OTHER SINGLE FORM OF EXERCISE CAN PRODUCE ALL THESE BENEFITS.

That is why I believe, that strength training is the MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT of any exercise program, and when supplemented by other forms of exercise, it produces further health benefits.

Remember this: put aside time and effort now, while you’re still alive, to take care of your health. Don’t think of the time and effort put in as expenditures and as a waste of time. Rather think of the time and effort you put aside in the gym or exercise bike as an investment in your health and well-being, not just for the short-term but for the long-term. Like superannuation, the compound effect of continually making exercise and strength-training a permanent part of your lifestyle, will provide the fullest benefits and return on your investment in old age, just like the financial ‘nest egg’ that everyone supposedly contributes to for 30 or 40 years for their financial security in old age. The benefits of which you enjoy … if you get there. If you do, hopefully, you will have the skeletal muscle strength to make your daily activities just that little bit more comfortable and pleasurable. Basically, the quality of your old age is directly related to how strong your skeletal muscles allow you to be.

Done properly, exercise is not a chore. It’s a blessing and should be a pleasurable experience. Make the decision to help yourself today. Keep things simple. Here’s a few pointers to help guide you towards a better, more healthier YOU and taking those first few steps:

  1. Before starting a structured exercise program, see your doctor and possibly seek advice from other related professionals to help you determine if you have one or more of the following:  Scoliosis, tilted pelvis, uneven lengths of limbs, foot problems, muscle imbalances between one side of the body and the other.
  2.  Drink plenty of water before, during and after exercising – keeping hydration levels adequate supports energy levels, prevents cramping, improves endurance, reduces risks of injury and promotes fat loss, amongst other things.
  3. Make an exercise plan – sit down and draw up a basic but realistic plan. Set your physical goals and try and write down what exercises you think would help you get there and how it fits in to your daily schedule. Find a mentor if you need to.
  4.  Set daily and weekly goals – long term goals can be encouraging to set initially but sometimes it can get lost in the business of life. You find yourself asking “why am I working so hard” if the ultimate goal is so far away. It can be very difficult to see the nexus between your 3 hours or so exercise time each week and how you benefit physically, 6 months down the track and even more difficult to see the connection 30 years from now. Don’t despair, keep going, do it anyway. Start slow, just like a baby learns how to walk and run, it first gets up on all fours and starts crawling and then standing and then takes ‘baby’ steps and then … runs. Take baby steps too…. Until you find yourself running. And you WILL RUN if you persist!
  5.  Don’t over-exercise! – use commonsense and don’t try and do too much, too soon. A martial arts enthusiast cannot go from white belt to black belt in a week. It takes years of consistent and persistent deliberate action, one workout at a time. Don’t adopt the “no pain, no gain” motto, instead try and adopt the “little done right, frequently, wins” motto.

Exercise should not be a temporary thing, make it a lifestyle decision. Make that decision for yourself today, if you haven’t done so already. Its your one life, after all.

Until next time …

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body, Energy, Goals, life, long-term perspective, mind, muscles, respect, time, Vitality, you

Road sign in your journey through life: Stop. Rest and Revive. Survive.

You need adequate rest. You may ask yourself, what is adequate?

Exactly how much varies with each individual but remember this one thing:

Your body, spirit and mind needs respect. YOU need respect.

So, rest.

Breathe. Breathe again, but this time, more deeply. Fill your lungs with as much air as possible, feel your diaphragm enlarge and then, exhale. Breathe again. Repeat. If you’re religious, thank your God that you’re alive and if you’re not religiously-inclined, thank your lucky stars!

Your being is not a pump that generates energy, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year. It needs regular re-fill. Essential. You car needs regular refueling.

Getting adequate rest is akin to any modern day electronic gadget, which requires re-charging of batteries to operate. Re-charging energy back in to the gadget to function at its optimal level and be useful.

Getting adequate rest = re-charging of batteries within yourself, your mind, body and spirit. Don’t burn the candle at both ends.

In my 23 years experience in the gym, I have followed and still adopt many proven principles in attaining optimal results from resistance training. One of the fruits of this is an increased sense of vitality. A critical principle in achieving this is getting adequate rest. This helps your body repair itself, create an annabolic environment to help protein synthesis, rid the body of toxins, regenerating and changing its body shape for the better.

Over the years, I have regularly used what is called the “Instinctive principle” which basically says that you have got to listen to what your body is saying with regards to your energy levels and train to your energy levels accordingly. I believe the application of this principle has increased my awareness and been one of the main reasons I have stayed injury free in all my years of serious training.

Just because you lifted a certain weight last week does not mean you can do it again this week. There are just too many variables at play here that may impact negatively on your energy levels, one of which is lack of adequate rest. One must not let the ego run wild when one has the goal of building muscle or making small, incremental steps towards a larger, worthwhile goal in any area of life for that matter.

I always tell the enthusiastic youngsters in the gym, if you want to build muscle and a world-class physique, leave your ego at the door when you enter the gym. Don’t just get fit and strong. Build a physique!

Knowing when to call it quits in the gym before sustaining a serious injury is just as important as deciding when to exercise, but you would want to differentiate between genuine tiredness and plain laziness.

So, pace yourself and listen to what your body is telling you. If its says “stop”, then stop!

Since getting my driving license many years ago, I am very familiar with a great Australian road sign that says –

“Stop. Revive. Survive.”

So true. I like the simplicity of it and how powerful a message it is.

We can add “Rest” before Revive and see that it may also save lives even when you’re not in the car, driving. Just going about everyday life.

When in the driver’s seat as you journey through life, don’t overdo anything, go at it a little at a time and know when to slam on the brakes. Sometimes it is better than going slowly. It may just add a few more years to your life.

Its YOUR one and only life after all.

Until next time,

 

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body, Energy, life, time, Vitality

Vitality – the essence of life.

My blog name is Valentine Vitality.

Unlike my surname, I adopted the word Vitality not only because it flows off the tongue quite smoothly when used with Valentine, but mainly because I love the word “Vitality”.

Vitality is such a beautiful word. It is all encompassing, like the word heaven. Vitality is the essence of life itself.

A quick reference to the internet and you will find many sub-meanings but I particularly like these two:

  1. the capacity to live, grow or develop and
  2. the principle or force that distinguishes living things from non-living

It also represents ‘energy’. Most of us can be accused of doing our very best to better manage our time. We have been constantly reminded since we were in school of the importance of becoming better time managers. Thousands of books are written every year telling us how to manage our time better, with us wiry-eyed taking notes about how to manage our 86,400 seconds in a day, better, from the many management gurus out there. Does this really help?

In some instances, yes. But in most, I believe – no.

Why? Simply because we are following a paradigm or philosophy that is flawed and  we continuously allow ourselves to be bombarded with views from so-called ‘experts’. We should mainly view our daily life not in terms of how ‘busy’ I am and how great I am at managing ‘my time’. No, instead, I believe, we should adopt a more important paradigm/philosophy as more paramount and start a revolution to become better managers of our energy.

Yes, energy.

What is more important than becoming better at time management – it is becoming better at ‘energy management’ which brings you closer to managing your ‘vitality’ or ‘charge’ or ‘life-force’ within you. To do this, you need to find your ‘re-charge point’, your place of serenity. I find mine in the gym. Some may find it in the garden. Others spending time crocheting or with their cars. Those of you who have something, hang on to it. Those of you who don’t, it is imperative for your life, to find it and start re-charging. All things need re-charging. If your mobile phone and computer need it. So do you, my friend!

Everything in your life, either adds to or steals from your vitality, your life force. Be aware of this, diligently.

I once read that if you love life, life will love you back.

You see, I have seen them, so perhaps have you.

People who love life, with bright eyes, taut skins and great smiles. They look as if they have been freshly scrubbed or newly minted, exuding the very definition of Vitality.

How do they do it?

Partly through respect for their bodies, spirit, thoughts and deeds.

You see, Vitality, does not seem to be as objective as weight, exercise, diet etc. It is more subjective. It seems to come from within and rather intrinsic rather than achieved through outwardly efforts(extrinsic).

When you find one of these people with that glow, ask them their secret. Then, contact me please, and tell me all about it.

If a few readers of this blog do this, we might be able to deduce the magic formula worth more than a rainbow’s pot of gold.

Become part of that search, today.

Best of vitality to you!

 

Until next time …

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Is the grass green on the other side?

Greener grass anyone?

Greener grass anyone?

Change your philosophy, change your life.
Vv.

Envy

How much do you earn?

Is it enough for you? Do you wonder if your friends, neighbours or family are earning more than you? Do you secretly covet what your neighbours’ drive; what house they live in? I wonder …. Is the grass greener on the óther side?”

How do they do it? What do they do to make so much money and wealth? How can you learn their secrets, you wonder. Should you change jobs or see if the grass is greener on the other side. What word could sum up this way of thinking, I wondered. I think a good word would be: Envy.

Some argue that envy is the root of all evil.

Some argue that envy is what spurs on economic growth. Well and good in a capitalist society. My question is how much growth is enough? I must admit that I, along with many others have been charmed by “overnight success Rags-to-riches stories” and the wealth of the very rich.  You’re bombarded with examples on social media, on-line and in magazines and papers.

The simple things in life are often the best

The outward display of success seem so appealing that it’s pretty easy to fall for those less-than-subtle advertising ploys touting fancy foreign engineering (like cars) or architectural wonders of some luxury house.

Gee, even in church we sometimes focus on the trappings – lavish sanctuary, fine pipe organs, plush carpeting and so forth.

It seems the advertising industry is the machine that uses this belief as its fuel: Envy. Most in the western world have been have been prisoners in the tyranny of consumer culture. Programmed with advertising, movies, video games, magazines, tv and MTV from the cradle. They say by the time a child in our western world reaches the age of 21, he or she would have watched and/or listened to a million ads.

Now, that is a lot of noise and clutter for the brain, and you wonder why the fastest growing disease is mental disease.

It is certainly great for business, because more growth is better for everyone, for the sake of capitalism.

De-clutter your brain of all that noise built up from early childhood clouding your thoughts.
Delete and stop contributing to the bottom-line of ‘bullshit’
Work on managing your funnel better. Don’t be part of the horribly growing stat

 

Try Harder = more success?

The theory is that if people are unhappy which has resulted because people were envious or jealous, people generally tend to TRY HARDER. Does it work that way with you? Or do you pull others down rather than raise your standards and climb up to theirs? Do you just wrap yourself in self-righteous misery when you cannot complain anymore about the unfairness of life?

If you are a believer in Christ and very wealthy, remember not to leave God our of your life. It is said that – without understanding, you are like the beasts that perish. Your power, influence and wealth won’t carry weight now but will not matter one zilch, in eternity.

I know you know this already.

A neuron example & its network of dentrites

Nature of Wealth

Do you read the annual publications of Rich Lists? Where do you stand? What do your friends make? Do they make more than you? How does it make you feel? Does it make you happy or miserable? I dare say that it must make more people unhappy than happy. The thing is, it shouldn’t be. You see, there is a finite nature to wealth ….

Do you wonder those “what if “ scenarios like the price you may have got in on a certain share/stock or what if you had sold your car or business at a better price by waiting a little longer or if you had not left that job? I’m sure you have thought about certain things in your life this way too. We all have. Does this make your life better or worse?

In this life the wealthy often inspire awe, admiration and praise. Be happy for them, don’t envy. This adulation will be short-lived. The possessions that are the basis of their pride and self-aggrandizement will not serve past ‘six-feet under (the grave)”.

Allow your mind to ”connect’ with infinite intelligence.
With consciousness.
It is like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.

Contentment (genuine) brings you closer to the elusive Happiness

Maybe we should resolve not to begrudge others their success or good luck in life. Maybe we should resolve to be happy for them. To genuinely wish them well with it.

Maybe we should see that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not always. Maybe we should not yearn for the grass on the other side.

Maybe.

Maybe it would be easier to sail your ship through the sea of life by looking ‘straight ahead’ instead of looking over your shoulder at the other ships (other people).

Maybe, just maybe you will find contentment and move a little closer to everyone’s elusive ‘happiness’ goal, if you stopped coveting the wealth and treasures of the very wealthy. I believe – being content, genuinely content, is one of the surest ways of moving close to happiness. It is a process by which you also move to another consciousness level. Ask yourself how content (genuinely content) are you with everything in your life?

 

Be content with where you are and what you have achieved to get this far.
Appreciate what I refer to as your ‘reverse bucket list’ and have an attitude of gratitude.
This is a key ingredient to moving towards genuine happiness

Change your colour, change your life

I know one thing for sure: being less envious and accepting that ‘the grass is not always greener on the other side’ would make your life less depressing.

No, I am going to take it further and suggest that maybe, we should trying viewing the colour of grass not as green or greener but viewing it as another colour (another view/philosophy).

Change your colour (philosophy). Find the right colour. Change your life – for the better.

For me, the colour is a combination – black with a touch of red.

What’s your new colour?

Then ….

Ask God to teach you to help you find and guide you with your perspective on life … to learn to live always, not for this life only, but with “ëternity’s values in view.”

One way to know YOU is to understand God.
God is in you.
God is you.

I’ll hopefully, see and chat to you in heaven when our time in this third dimension is done and dusted!

Until next time.

Cheers and a big ahoy to you on your journey through the maize of life!

 

The old Cap’n Viking Pirate … & thoughts on envy, contentment and happiness in life.

Appreciate beauty. Find your truth. Create your beauty if you can. Usually, beauty and truth does not involve wealth, growth, mass and material possessions.
It is counter-intuitive, but to find your beauty, your truth … LESS IS MORE.

 

Eliminate and de-clutter the ‘noise’ that has been uploaded in to your brain since the cradle

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