But the fact that the infection is there is telling me that my immune system is weak and that I need to take greater care of myself: physical, mentally and emotionally. We all know what we SHOULD be doing but so often we don’t take our own advice.

So briefly, if you feel like you’re getting run down. STOP! Take time out to rest. Watch your diet. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Cut down your alcohol intake. And certainly reduce the cigarettes if you’re a smoker. Your body can only go on for so long without packing up! Be kind to yourself.  I certainly intend to me much kinder to myself from now on.

Here are excellent and easy ways to maintain or boost your immune system from Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Deep sleep is one of the most important ways to boost the immune system. Chronic insomnia can lead to immune system deficiency. One good way to make sure you sleep deeper and longer is by taking a long walk each day.

Moderate exercise, at least 3 times a week, preferably daily walks. Excessive and prolonged physical activity temporarily reduces the function of the immune system. Avoid excessive sun exposure.

Reduce stress any way you know how. Stress releases the hormone cortisol which wreaks havoc with the immune system. Stress of any kind — emotional, physical, psychological — quickly damages the immune system.

Eat more fruits and vegetables. They have flavonoids that have anti-bacterial and anti-viral activity. Avoid excessive sugar intake. Consume more garlic, onions and culinary herbs such as cloves. Berry fruits are rich sources of bioactive compounds, such as phenolics and organic acids, which have antimicrobial activities against human pathogens. Among different berries and berry phenolics, cranberry, cloudberry, raspberry, strawberry and bilberry especially possess clear antimicrobial effects.

Ingest healthyprobiotic bacteria. These friendly gut bacteria may boost the immune system.
Reduce or eliminate smoking. Keep alcohol consumption low or moderate.

Drink more – up to mid-afternoon. Drinking tea appears to boost the immune system. Non-tea drinkers who downed two to four small cups of black tea per day for two weeks appeared to be better able to fight off bacterial infections. As an explanation for tea’s benefits, experiments in the lab revealed that an ingredient found in black, green, oolong and pekoe teas boosted the ability of immune system cells to attack a bacterial invader. The experiments used ethylamine, which is produced when the tea ingredient L-theanine is broken down in the liver.

Get a massage. Massage therapy reduces cortisol levels.

Pray, meditate, listen to music, or find a way to still your mind.

Do yoga, or relaxed breathing and stretching, at least once or twice a week.

Have regular exposure to the sun or take at least 400 units of vitamin D a day. Some people with little or no sun exposure may require up to 2,000 units a day.

If you’re suffering now, or feel like some bug is trying to take hold within you, try some of these solutions and you’ll be back on your feet in no time.

Today, I’ve been out-of-sorts (or crabbit, as they call it up here!) all day, feeling lethargic and even a bit nauseous… not to mention having trouble concentrating. Why? Largely because I chose to ignore what my body was telling me during the last 24hrs.

Firstly, I was thirsty much of yesterday, yet only managed to drink about 3 glasses of water despite my dry mouth and deep sense of craving. Secondly, I went to bed late even though I was tired and then felt knackered when I awoke in spite of the 9hrs sleep I’d had. And thirdly, I ate a big slab of baked Camembert for lunch rather than finding myself something decent to eat.

We can probably all relate to self-inflicted late nights, over-indulgence and dehydration at times, so what is so significant about this? Basically, because I know better than to do this to myself. Why? Because my body told me so, and has done on many occasions!

I know from past experience that if I am not asleep by about 11pm, then it doesn’t matter how many hours I get, I’ll still wake feeling tired and poorly-rested. I also know that when I am thirsty, I sometimes confuse water cravings for sugar ones… which leaves me feeling doubly bad (because I don’t drink enough water to wash all the sugar out of my system). And I certainly know that when I have dairy these days, I tend to feel sick afterwards – no matter how much I enjoyed it at the time.

I know these things, because my body has repeatedly given me messages confirming them – particularly when I forget myself and decide to splurge with a late night, lots of chocolate or anything creamy! My body is infinitely patient, and despite my continued mistakes, it simply keeps reminding me that I’m not listening.

But the cost is much more than just feeling crabbit all day.

I haven’t taken some of the actions I’d had planned for today to progress my big goals. I have minimised my chance of feeling refreshed and well-rested come the end of the weekend, and will probably find Monday morning more of a struggle because of this. And I also feel guilty, because deep down, I know this is not how my body deserves to be treated.

On top of that, I’ve also re-enforced some of the bad habits I’ve been working to shift – equivalently undoing some of the good work achieved previously. So how can we tune in to our body wisdom to better effect?

Here are a couple of things to try:

• Simply take a few moments to notice how you physically feel after you eat or drink something. Do you feel good? Lethargic? Refreshed? Unwell?
• Likewise, when you wake in the morning how do you feel? Are you ready to bound out of bed? Feeling like you need another night’s rest? Stressed because you’ve hit the snooze button a few times without realising?
• How do you feel at the end of the day, and what were your activity levels? Were you sedentary for most of the day (at a desk, pc or driving etc)? Did you get your body moving with some exercise?
• Use trial-and-error to check how your body reacts to differences in your diet, exercise or sleep patterns. What seems to work best for you?
• Try picking just one thing that works well for you, and persist with it for a while. What differences do you notice? And how do you feel if you ignore the magic of your body wisdom by reverting to an old habit or choice?

Whilst it is best to start with just one thing, rather than trying to overhaul all your physical routines at the one time, do notice what happens when you choose the “wrong” thing… because often one bad choice where we ignore our body wisdom seems to lead to multiple bad choices, and they compound to leave us feeling even worse!

Once we’ve started building our awareness of the messages our body tries to send us, we can start paying more attention to other things like our “gut instinct”, and even our reactions to situations or specific people. There’s an infinite amount of wisdom within our millions of cells just waiting for us to start listening to it!

Leave a comment below and share with us one message that your body repeatedly tries to send you, and what impact it has when you choose to ignore the wisdom! Enjoy the process of becoming more body aware!

It’s a simple question: “How will this year be different for you?” Or perhaps more accurately stated, “How will you make this year different than last year?” Our societies and technologies today give us a gazillion things we can choose to do and pay attention to. What will you choose to do?

Of course, the answer will be different for all of us, but there are some universal ideas that can guide each of us. Borrowing from Brendon Burchard, here are four thoughts to take with you on your 2011 journey.

1. Bring the holiday spirit through the year

The holidays for most of us, represent a time of reconnecting with things and people that matter most to us, of sharing laughter with friends and family, of putting down the blackberry and iPad and just being present with our loved ones. It’s a time where we show appreciation at levels that is rarely seen or felt at other times of the year.

This year, in 2011, how can you show, and just ‘be’ at, new levels of appreciation for those you want in your life? How can you engage with them in more meaningful ways? And what will that do for the level of fulfilment you get from your relationships? How much of that will flow over to other parts of your life? I suggest probably even more than you think at this moment.

2. Build on your greatest lessons from last year

What were your 5 big lessons from 2010 in the person you are, your relationships, your business, your career, your health and vitality for everyday living? What did you learn from your struggles? What were your big successes and what difference did you make?

For this year to be different, you’ve got to think differently, and believe differently. You need a vision bigger than you are right now. You need to dare to shake things up a little, have bigger, bolder thoughts on what is possible. You need to be willing to leave your baggage behind, to shed your doubts and to carry forward in spite of your fears. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the taking of action in the face of your fear. For a more guided process of discovering your lessons from last year, read this previous post from ActionPodcast.

3. Make this a year of action and creation

Whatever your areas of interest, work, and hobbies are, place extra focus and attention on taking more action. Choose small steps over procrastination. Choose big steps to bust through your barriers. Always choose some sort of action instead of over analysis and worry. Place extra value on being effective and efficient rather than being perfect. Operating from a place of ‘creation’ is also an idea worth considering. By that I mean decide what things you’d like to create this year, for example, an even more fun and loving relationship with your spouse, a fantastic close-knit team at work, a healthy and fit new body. Adopting a mindset of ‘creation’ often brings with it more curiousity, fun, playfulness, joy, trial and error, than just treating everything like a chore on your to-do list. You enjoy the process more when trying new things and don’t worry so much if things don’t go exactly as planned.

How would your days and weeks be different if you showed up in a state of curiousity, fun, playfulness and joy more often? If you took more action and learned to love the process of creation?

4. Really, fully, completely LIVE this year

How you show up every day, week and month is ALWAYS your choice. Even when life has got you down, you can choose to stay down and wallow in self-pity, or you can choose to dust yourself off and move on. So this year, decide to be fully alive, to show up on more days with positivity, a healthy dose of friendliness and healthy energy, with more vibrancy and presence, showing more heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for what, and who, you have in your life.

How amazing would you feel if you just decided to be like that each morning? How would your life be different? And, how would that change the lives of those around you?

Make yourself proud. Make it special for those around you. Make 2011 bigger, bolder and more beautiful. Make it one to remember.

Leave a comment and let us know what you will do differently to make this a better year for you and those in your life.

Thousands of people have been affected by the recent nasty flu bug. So how can you make sure you take more care of yourself to stop it knocking you for six?! We can’t live in a bubble, but there are ways you can take care of yourself throughout the year to ensure your body and your immune system is in tip top shape when the next flu season comes around.

Gina tells Paul how she unfortunately spent a lot of the Christmas holiday period sick in bed. So this year she has committed to making sure she looks after herself all year long!

For more information on flu have a look at the NHS website

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Flu/Pages/Introduction.aspx

But there is a simple solution…

Kindness!

An act of kindness, especially in the midst of chaos, not only makes you and the person you’ve helped feel better – but it can actually help counter-act some of the effects of stress from the festive season too…

We’ve all heard of the ripple-effect: where an action we take has an impact that ripples out like small waves from a pebble dropped in a pond. So if we give the gift of kindness with a smile, or a helping hand, then that will not only benefit the person we’ve helped, but it may well influence how they act towards others and the ripples continue spreading. What a wonderful gift to share!

But watching David R. Hamilton’s short video message has taught me something I didn’t know – that the chemicals produced when we connect with someone through an act of kindness can actually counter-act the effects of stress that we might be experiencing due to other pressures of the festive season. In fact, David suggests that a genuine hug can even lead to us having a healthy heart!

Now – I’ve done a wee bit of study into the physiological and mental impacts of stress, and the stress-hormones that are created within our bodies, and ANY way to reduce the impact of these stressful times is well worth trying. So, here’s a festive challenge for you wrapped up as a gift:

• When you are in a busy shop, take a moment to really thank the person serving you, and acknowledge how challenging it must be to deal with demanding customers at this time of year. Try this even if the service wasn’t as festive as you’d have liked!
• Smile at someone when you are standing at a bus stop, walking down the street in the snow, or waiting in a queue. Make eye contact with them briefly, and share a genuine smile – most people will smile back automatically (it is almost contagious!)
• Plan a small Christmas gift for someone you wouldn’t normally give to. It could be a neighbour you don’t know well, an acquaintance or someone random. The gift itself doesn’t have to be much – homemade sweeties, a beautiful card or a scratch-lottery ticket. The surprise will be as much a gift as what you give.
• Support a charity – at this time of year and in this economy, charities need all the support they can get. A few hours or a few pounds spent sorting out unwanted clothes from your wardrobe, or offering pet-food to an animal shelter or wildlife hospital could be a real act of kindness that has a massive impact.

Whatever you choose to do, one act of kindness can go a long way.

So as soon as you start noticing yourself getting stressed or tense with festive worries or complaints, just pause for a second and give yourself the gift of kindness by offering it to someone else!

1 Act of Kindness = Happiness to you, Joy to the Receiver, AND reduced Festive stress-levels!

Add your ideas for small acts of kindness to the comments below to help inspire other readers, and please let us know how an act of kindness has helped transform a situation for you too!

If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the podcast directly to your inbox, plus an additional weekly blog post!

I’ve learned that we – the average, everyday person – are capable of changing our lives in numerous ways, dramatic ways (!) and faster than most might believe. Many people are wanting or hoping to improve their situation in some way: to lose weight, save more money, develop more meaningful relationships, take on more interesting or engaging hobbies, travel more, give back more, and the list goes on. Many just want to feel alive again.

So what is stopping us and what can we do about?  In our world today, it is so easy to get overwhelmed with all the choices and distractions that surround us continuously. Information overload is a new problem of the 21st century. The subsequent setback is that overwhelm usually leads to inaction. Our brain gets flooded with ideas, reasons, excuses and worries – clouding our best intentions and completely confusing us on what to do next.

This in turn kills our momentum and blocks our progress. Over time, lack of motivation sets in and it’s a slow, steady decline into a less than totally-fulfilled life of ‘same-old, same-old’ mixed in with regrets of what could have been. Before we know it, we have settled for ‘our lot in life’ and forget to imagine anything more for ourselves. This naturally leads to frustration and guilt about the gap between where we expected we’d be and where we actually are in our lives.

In my quest to understand the difference between those that do and those that don’t, and through all the “success strategies” and “inspirational stories”, the “best advice” and “insider secrets”, there is one success tip that stands above all the rest and never fails. One that the world’s greatest do consistently, and where those just starting their journey always begin.

When in doubt, take baby steps.

Nothing will build momentum more directly. Nothing will get you climbing the life ladder faster. Nothing will start to rebuild your confidence sooner.

When in doubt, take baby steps.

When you feel frustrated that you’re behind on your progress, just do one thing, no matter how small or inconsequential it may seem at the time, towards the direction of your goal. When you’re afraid at the mountain you’ve got to climb, just focus on taking the first step. When you’re stressed you won’t be able to do it perfectly, start by taking your best shot and adjust as you go, but just start.

When in doubt, take baby steps.

Baby steps may feel insignificant at first, but they are always better than standing still. Baby steps may feel too slow, but you will quickly gain momentum. Baby steps may feel too weak for your massive dreams, but they give you immeasurable strength to keep moving.

Take baby steps, and you stop doubting.

Stop doubting and you start believing (again).

Start believing, and you start moving forward.

Start moving forward, and you begin moving faster.

The only way to achieve what is important to you, to create a fulfilling life, and to live life on your terms, is to continue moving forward. Press on when the odds are against you, keep walking when the road gets rough and soon you’ll be looking back at the miles you’ve travelled, one baby step at a time.

When you think it’s too late to change, it isn’t, it’s simply time to take the first step, a baby step, and before you know it, you’ll be exactly where you want to be, taking giant strides once again, and watching your life become as fulfilling as you know it is meant to be.

What baby steps can you take right now? What is one action that you can do today to get unstuck? Leave a comment to let us know how this thought helped you and you will inspire other readers to do the same!

As we grow up, we pick up certain beliefs or ideas about the world that stick with us into adult life – and even if we are aware of them, we rarely question them, simply taking them at face value.

I was thinking about my belief ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’ and how disadvantaged someone would be if they never believed that with a bit of focused effort and determination there is almost always a way around, through, over, under or out of an obstacle. Almost immediately though, my brain chimed in that sometimes this belief is damn frustrating too! Why is that? Well, if I believe that there is always a solution for everything, then if I am trying and failing it must mean that I simply haven’t found the ‘right’ solution yet.

The problem with that is we are never in control of everything (and rarely in control of most things) so there are occasions when we either need to:

• adjust our path
• make a decision about whether something is still important enough to pursue
• change our expectations about when or how we achieve something
• or stop being precious about the way in which we achieve it.

Yet the flip-side or corollary of ‘Where there is a will, there’s a way’ is an unrealistic sense of responsibility and pressure to make things happen. Funny that – since I’ve always identified myself as my own worst critic!

Maybe there’s a flip-side to all our beliefs then… How about: ‘No pain, no gain’? This was a mantra of pride for me when I was a teen, and I felt it was very character-building when I pushed myself through something that was uncomfortable or unpleasant or both – all in the name of health or achievement. It is only much more recently that I realised this has meant I rejected the thought that progress and success can be easy and enjoyable! If something was too easy, then I couldn’t have done it properly or something must be missing. Hmm.

OK, surely there’s not a hidden side to the belief that ‘No matter how bad things are for me, there’s someone else in the world right now who is much worse off’? Whilst it didn’t totally prevent ‘poor me’ moments as I was growing up, this belief certainly helped put things in perspective when life seemed to mirror the motto on a t-shirt I’d bought that said “I’m always in the shit, only the depth varies!” How could there possibly be a negative side to such a belief? Well: in my own experience it meant that I sometimes accepted bad situations as normal or typical, basically dis-empowering myself from trying to change them; or, I rebelled in a non-constructive way because deep down I knew I needed to challenge it but couldn’t quite reconcile that with being appreciative of what I had that others lacked.

I still retain these beliefs – it wouldn’t be helpful to just ‘throw them out’, even if such a thing were possible. We can challenge our own blind acceptance of them though, by following these steps:

1) Identify a belief you hold that you want to explore.

e.g. “No pain, no gain”.

2) Ask yourself “What does it mean to me?

e.g. It means that I need to make an effort with all I do; that I need to push myself to do something I might not feel like doing, because I know it is worth it in the long run (and repeating it as a mantra can help!); it means prioritising future reward or benefit over immediate desire; it is character-building something to be proud of.

3) Find its flip-side or corollary. You might need to ask yourself this question a few times: “If I believe this, then…what else does this mean?”

e.g. If I believe “No pain, no gain” then this means that if something doesn’t hurt I mustn’t have achieved anything; if I believe this, then if something is easy and enjoyable I mustn’t have completed it fully; so therefore I’ve missed something or not done my best.

4) Ask yourself: “How has this flip-side been influencing my actions or decisions throughout my life?”

e.g. This means I feel dissatisfied and self-critical whenever I do something that is easy or enjoyable! So I’m always looking for what I missed, failing to celebrate (or recognise) my achievements, and suffer an unquenchable thirst for perfectionism!

5) Choose whether you are happy with these additional consequences. If you aren’t, then you can choose to make more active and conscious decisions to change those habits that don’t serve you. Ask yourself “What is the first thing I can do to reverse this consequence?”

e.g. start acknowledging every little thing I do*, find a physical gesture that I could use to congratulate myself (back-patting works really well for me!), start noticing what works that is easy (I have to keep a list of these, and review them each week to make sure I’m doing more of them).

Share one of your beliefs by adding a comment to this post, and either start exploring possible flip-sides that might secretly be influencing you on a daily basis, or simply post it and allow others to help you – as we all have our own interpretations and ideas!

Enjoy!

Sam

* I needed real help with this one, so set myself a major challenge of congratulating myself for EVERYTHING I did for 24hrs. This included: waking up in the morning, eating, going to the loo, washing my hands, answering the phone – everything!

During a recent session it quickly became clear that I was on the verge of taking on too much. Over the last few months the power of being coached has resulted in some significant changes in my life and how I view situations. I’d been actively putting in a lot of work, spinning a lot of plates and generally been about as busy as I could physically be.

What surprised me was that I’ve now reached a point where pretty much everything is going to plan, on track and on schedule. I found myself looking for that extra thing that would put me back into the sensation of feeling, well rushed, busy and on the edge of coping.

I had become so used to “working my butt off” that now I had been able to schedule things better, automate them or even outsource them (my new favourite thing!) I was presented with a strange feeling of “what next?”!

Thankfully working with my coach I was able to see that, I was busy, very busy in fact. I was however, working smarter, better than before and I was now producing the results without having to work 16 hours a day. Ultimately I want to keep it this way, working at a pace that is healthy and even FUN!  As long as I’m still progressing, make moves in the direction that I want to go at a pace that works, then I’m doing the right thing.

I’d love to hear from others that have almost become so used to feeling rushed, that they often end up missing that feeling when everything is going to plan. What do you do to make sure you don’t overload yourself, just because you feel you should. How do you know when enough is enough?

The first decision is making the big decision, such as, “I’m going to get healthier”, “I’m going to spend less so I can save more”, “I’m really going to work on getting more customers”. Those are examples of the broader, or macro, decisions to address some area of your life. These are the kind of decisions that people are very good at proclaiming on New Year’s Eve as a resolution for the coming 12 months. Yet, the reason most people don’t get the results that they want, is that they are poor at consistently making the little daily decisions, or micro decisions, that really lead to the results they want.

And here’s why: most people make decisions based on who they are now, the skills they now have or the beliefs they now hold.

But if you’re a person who is aching for change and really wanting to get different results (e.g. more health, more wealth, more happiness, etc), you can’t make decisions based on who you are now.

The best advice I’ve ever received is this: make decisions as if you were the person you want to become.

Consider this example, you want to be healthier by going to the gym in the morning 4 days a week. You want it really badly but you struggle sometimes to get out of bed. You’re alarm goes off at 6am, you wake up and decide to lay there for another 15 minutes. At 6:15 you decide you need some more rest since you have a big day ahead of you and you can go to the gym tomorrow. That’s just not going to get you to your goal is it?

However, if you begin to make decisions as if you were a healthy active person, then you would begin to get out of bed as soon as the alarm went off and head to the gym regardless of how tired or unmotivated you actually felt in that moment. Act as if you were motivated. Act as if you loved going to the gym. And if you continued to make that decision on a consistent basis, and took that action on a regular basis, you’d soon become more healthy.

I recognise this can be easier said than done so contact one of the Action Coaches and listen to our motivational podcasts to learn some very simple and very effective techniques to make better decisions and consistently take the action you need in order to become the person you want to become.