But how do you keep your mind on track throughout the day?

When many set out to create healthy lifestyle habits, they get discouraged when the 20-lanes of highway, the automatic and most often negative thoughts take over and thwart all their efforts.

So though I know that you will soon feel on fire and all charged up for your day from the benefits of a morning ritual, I also know that when you first start out, and even after you develop a solid morning ritual, you will sometimes lose your “fire,” you will lose your charge from your rituals … and you will feel discouraged. 

Yes, you’ll see you’ll start to develop great confidence in your new morning routine and all the ways it makes you feel empowered, and before you even leave your house for the day, one of your kids or your spouse will do something that sets you reeling off in ways that cause you to wonder if there is any substantive validity to what I am offering you.

How do I know? Because it’s happened to me and everyone else. Repeatedly. It’s human nature. It’s called conditioned thoughts and behaviors and you can change them. I have and so have scores of others. As Tony Robbins, a master of mindshift training says, “your past does not equal your future.”

This is why I created what I call ‘daily mind hacks.’

I saw the pattern of disempowerment roll me over faster than it took for me to empower myself and it felt very defeating.

Mind hacks are by design a fusion of “mindfulness bells,” from the Buddhist tradition, and affirmations and incantations from the personal development and success worlds.

And it occurred to me one day, that it would be a great idea to merge these two ideas together.

Hello Mind Hacks.

There are many ways I coach my clients to use mind hacks. One of the more powerful ways is to:

1. Identify 5 disempowering thoughts that “run your show,” like a reoccurring story in the background of all your thoughts. Thoughts that you know limit you, defeat you, stop you. The most common? I’m not good, or it’s “kissin’ cousins,” “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m not as good as.”

2. After you identify your top 5, and make sure they are the juiciest, most emotionally-potent negative thoughts because to step fully into your power, you’ve got to interrupt the cycle of stories that defeat you, turn them around. Create a polar opposite empowering thought for every disempowering thought. Then, say hello to your new Mind Hacks!

3. Now you’ve got a list of 5 empowering thoughts that will literally change your life, but you have to “think them” in order for them to have an impact. This is where Mind Hacks come in. Since disempowering thoughts run in the background like an old tape-recording, you’ve got to scratch them up with this list of new empowering thoughts.

Here is where personal development mantras meet old world Buddhist mindfulness bells, nouveau-style.

4. In your alarm clock on your smart phone, enter each empowering thought at timed intervals that you know would make a difference. For instance, my first bell off the day, my wake-up bell says “100% responsible — Co-Creator,” as a first day cue to remind me that I am 100% responsible for every detail of my life, so of course I am responsible for who I am and what I accomplish in my upcoming day, and … that as a co-Creator, that I must surrender and trust too, that there is a Force that has a say in what happens too. (I highly recommend you “steal” this one. Its a game changer!)

5. Spread your empowering thoughts throughout your day at times that you know would serve you best. If there is a time of day that you know you need a boost, add a Mind Hack then. If you want to close your day with gratefulness let’s say, or a kind thought, Hack that. Since “repetition is the mother of all skills,” your new empowering thoughts will soon begin to take hold and you will be pleasantly surprised how “they” save you from a triggered response that might have “taken you down” in the past.

Read Other Related Articles:

Mindset of Success: How to Structure Your Day for Unstoppable Success (Part 1 of a 3 Part Series)

Mindset of Success: 5 Steps to Finish Your Day Strong (Part 3 of a 3 Part Series)

30 of Tony Robbins Best Quotes

Once you attend a Tony Robbins event you’re hooked. OK, once I attended my first Tony Robbins event I was hooked, and so was Oprah, Andre Agassi, Donna Karan, Serena Williams, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Jackman, Bill Clinton, and millions of others around the world. Robbins pulls no punches — he levels the playing field — he changes the “game.” His events are of another nature – part dance party, part mind-blowing, transformational explosion. His passion and level of contribution are an experience I highly recommend.

Here is a “sampling” of 30 of my most favorite Tony Robbins quotes. I promise you this, after reading through this list, you will feel empowered! I can’t say that they are in any particular order. Each one offers it’s own unique force for me. But I can tell you this, I can likely share with you a story or two about the ways each one of these quotes has impacted my life.

I hope you enjoy and find benefit from reading this collection.

“I discovered a long time ago that if I helped enough people get what they wanted, I would always get what I wanted and I would never have to worry.” ~Tony Robbins

“You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don’t think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.” ~Tony Robbins

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” ~Tony Robbins

“Commit to CANI! – Constant And Never-ending Improvement.” ~Tony Robbins

“It’s what you practice in private that you will be rewarded for in public.” ~Tony Robbins

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.” ~Tony Robbins

“Where focus goes, energy flows.” ~Tony Robbins

“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.” ~Tony Robbins

“If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.” ~Tony Robbins

“Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thoughts.” ~Tony Robbins

“If you can’t, you must. If you must, you can.” ~Tony Robbins

“If you believe you are right, or you believe you are wrong, you’re right. Whenever you are certain about it, you will support it. Remember that.” ~Tony Robbins

“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.” ~Tony Robbins

“People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.” ~Tony Robbins

“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.” ~Tony Robbins

“Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.” ~Tony Robbins

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” ~Tony Robbins

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” ~Tony Robbins

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” ~Tony Robbins

“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” ~Tony Robbins

“Most people fail in life because they major in minor things.” ~Tony Robbins

“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.”  ~Tony Robbins

“It’s not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.” ~Tony Robbins

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” ~Tony Robbins

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” ~Tony Robbins

“Things do not have meaning. We assign meaning to everything.” ~Tony Robbins

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” ~Tony Robbins

“The only problem we really have is we think we’re not supposed to have problems! Problems call us to higher level- – face & solve them now!” ~Tony Robbins

“Your past does not equal your future.” ~Tony Robbins

“For changes to be of any true value, they’ve got to be lasting and consistent.” ~Tony Robbins

Which Tony Robbins quote is your favorite? Share with me below what you liked most about this collection of quotes, and please do share if you enjoyed! 

I have a series of things that I do every morning no matter what, that I know can help you structure your day for unstoppable success.

No matter how late I go to bed, no matter what I have to do that day, I do my morning rituals. My morning rituals ground me. My morning rituals empower me and inspire me. I created them with great intentionality to include the whole “mind, body, Spirit” spectrum, because my research and experience make very clear that one type of practice alone does not offer the force of power that a balanced practiced offers. I sometimes laugh now when thinking about all the ways people and events would get the best of me, when I didn’t have my “Sacred, success-driven,” formula guiding me each day.

The first thing I do when I open my eyes is put my hand on my heart and take a few deep breaths and recount 3 things I am grateful for … and why. Gratefulness is a game changer.

I get right up to wash my face and brush my teeth.. Crazy as it sounds, water on your face, brushing your teeth are game changers. Sound silly. The next morning when you wake up exhausted and tired, but you’ve got a lot to do, but have the option to sleep in, get up and brush you teeth and wash your face. You’ll see what I mean, Fatigue vanishes.

I then make my Morning Elixir and take a probiotic — everyone can benefit from taking a probiotic (keep in mind, probiotics are like wine, the more money you spend the better they are).

I bring my Elixir to “my chair” by the window and read my big life Vision and Purpose — the two things that make every challenge, circumstance and seemingly troubling event a trivial matter. When I root into my Vision and Purpose — it’s MC Hammer time, “can’t touch this.” It’s such a powerful thing to do everyday.

When I complete my Vision and Purpose, I do deep breath work for at least 5 minutes. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone manages their life without deep breath work. You don’t have to be religious or Spiritual to really grasp from this practice that there is a Life Force that literally allows our breath to continue with no effort of our own. Breath work is an extraordinary practice — one that opens up a world of possibility that would not seem possible otherwise.

Another thing I do every morning? I learn one new thing. I read Success Magazine, a health book or journal, or listen to an audio while I get ready for my day.

This formula creates a mindset of unstoppability and success. I take time to align my body and mind to focus my goals and commitments to who I want to be in the world. But today I wanted to share with you the “Granddaddy” of my routine to set me up for success everyday:

Green juice.

From a purely scientific standpoint, green juice & leafy greens are the most alkaline, the most magnetic of all vegetables because of their high level of chlorophyll (the green pigment that gives them their color). Green juice and leafy greens literally go into your cells and pull out the acidic waste matter so it can leave your body. Think of greens like an internal soap to go in and clean your cells out.

Starting my morning with green juice aligns health, energy, beauty and success on the inside to directly reflect in who I am being in my day on the outside, because I’ve now primed my mind and body to run at optimum efficiency. My mind is pivoted for success. My body is pivoted to for maximum health and energy.

I highly recommend that you start creating a daily routine for your morning, so you’re excited to start the day, to shift your mind for success right from the moments when you open your eyes. Green juice? That recommendation peaks with all the others. Indeed the, equation is magical!

In a few days, I’ll be sending out Part II of my Three-Part Series for manifesting success  where I will give you a tip for driving your success-driven mindset all throughout your day. Register here to receive that post straight into your inbox, plus so much more!

Read Other Related Articles:

Mindset of Success: Keep Your Mind on Track Throughout the Day (Part 2 of a 3 Part Series)

Mindset of Success: 5 Steps To Finish Your Day Strong (Part 3 of a 3 Part Series)

I know. Health goals. They’re exciting and full of promise. And very often daunting the minute after you make them.

Like coming up on your last mile in the Boston Marathon, while simultaneously texting your friends about how much you love green juice.

Pure ridiculousness.

My solution? Always pack green apples and a pumpkin seed trail mix. They’ll both save you every time.

And type your list of reasons into your smart phone to have as a reminder, when you find yourself standing at the counter of your local pizza shop.

10 of my favorite get-healthy reasons?

1. Your energy will skyrocket — think explosive!
2. Your digestion will improve — hello Mr. Toilet — 2-3 daily eliminations a day = youthful you!
3. You will lose weight — ooh la la …
4. Your skin will glow — oh you’re so radiant!
5. You will feel younger — love me some Zumba!
6. You will look younger — yes, you’re right, he’s not my son, he’s my brother.
7. You will feel happier — please, let me hold the door for you.
8. You will be more productive, more clear, more focused — yes, your brain will work better!
9. You will get more accomplished — what’s next?
10. Your sex-drive will improve — oh, really, that’s what’s next?

Best case scenario? You will jump out of bed every morning and run to the bathroom for your “regular” elimination, and with explosive energy you confidently dart off to Zumba class when your young, handsome instructor says, “no she’s not your daughter”… You are oh-so, over-the-moon joyful that you don’t want to insult him, so of course you say, “no, not my daughter, my sister.” As you dash home, you get a call from Richard Branson to fly to the moon and since you already accomplished everything you needed for the day, you say, “heck, why not?” As you depart Virgin Galactic glowing, everyone asks, why are you smiling?

What are your compelling, FUN reasons for getting healthy? I’d love to hear. Leave your comments below?

I love this Glowing Green Smoothie 2x recipe because it is one that I enjoy 2 ways, as either a pure, bright refreshing juice, or a heartier, fiber-filled, more satiating smoothie. You get to choose, or not, have both = one of my top recommendations to my clients to include daily! But do know this, every ingredient will leave your skin bright, glowing and hydrated with a great BONUS to counteract the ravages of the modern fast-lifestyle – it will counteract the effects of dehydration and support all your bodily functions.

Juice or blend:

• 11⁄2 cups coconut water
• 1 small head romaine heart, chopped
• 1 handful spinach
• 1 cucumber
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 pear, cored and chopped
• 1 apple, cored and chopped
• 1 handful parsley
• 1-2  lemons – juice

Cheers to you and your vibrant, healthy body, mind and Spirit! 

Confidence is not something we are born with or inherit. Confidence is something we grow, we develop.

When I am in my zone, when I am fully in my power, it’s like MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” is blaring and my winning energy explodes. My coaching is strong. My insights are clear. My actions are focused. My posture is assured. Unstoppable. Kind. Patient. Generous. When I am in my zone all cylinders are on high volume.

Even if you think others are smarter than me, more accomplished than me, more skilled, more qualified, even more beautiful than me, my energy magnetizes you. My eagerness grabs you. My spirit captures you. My confidence bewitches you.

Yes, confidence bewitches.

I remember when I attended my first Anthony Robbins “Unleash The Power Within” event and he asked, “Which story is yours: you’re not good, you’re not good enough or you’re not as good as?”

Before I even thought about which story was mine, I laughed and thought about all the others that I thought were so assured, so confident, so powerful and queried, “How could they too carry a limiting story? Impossible,” I thought. But Robbins assured me and the 7000 other participants that each of us carry a version of “I am not good” and sadly for many, that story cripples them.

Imagine, even the brilliantly talented Meryl Streep writing in her book, “I have varying degrees of confidence and self-loathing… ”

And even award winning author Maya Angelou said, “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.”

Who’da thunk it possible? Meryl Streep? Maya Angelou?

Confidence was not mine for many years of my life.

My focus was on being the best Mom I could be for my son. But inside my commitment to be the best Mom I could be, I sought out opportunities to be the best me for me and I learned many things along the way about confidence. Each of these lessons came to me in the school of hard knocks,” so I feel solid in the four “slam-dunk” strategies I offer you.

Click here to read the rest of the article on Huffington Post

Faith is that thing that motivates us to drop the sadness when it waves through us. Faith is that thing that empowers us when guilt rises up and we feel like we might’ve dropped the ball. Faith is that thing that assures us to hold steady when the drama of an experience seems to latch on and not let go. With Faith, we surrender. With Faith we know that all is perfect right now. We choose empowering thoughts and actions, rather than indulge the limiting, the negative.

With Faith, we simply trust and let go. We trust that there is a Universal power that’s “got it all covered,” and that it knows what it is doing.

Without Faith we spend time swimming up stream, trying to fix, cajole and control people, circumstances and events that we can not fix, cajole and control. We spend time trying to fix, cajole and control things that we are likely way better letting go.

Faith is flat-out non-negotiable. I know, and I suspect you do too. To varying degrees, I bet life has also offered you many opportunities to rekindle your relationship with Faith.

With Faith, we simply trust and let go.

Why Chronic Disease Is Killing You And What You Can Do About It

Everyone, including “health enthusiasts,” is loving the big buzz words like anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and of course, detoxing.

Bah!

I mean, who do you know that is not talking up the latest recipes and ingredients that promote anti-inflammation? How about “get-your-glow-on?” Dieting? Good grief, what campaign sells more?

But, while we pursue anti-inflammatory foods and recipes, at-home juice-deliveries and healing superfood ingredients as the next best diet-fix, 47.7% of Americans are suffering from a chronic disease.

Yes, according to the private research of the Rand Corporation, “The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease,” nearly half of all Americans are suffering with a chronic condition.

Half.

And, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are causing 7 out of 10 deaths. Chronic disease is the No. 1 cause of disability and death in the country.

With statistics like these, don’t you think it is high time we start asking the question, “why is everyone so sick?”

For example, when overrun with many symptoms associated with all the chronic conditions I experienced earlier in life, I never even had a vision for life beyond my immediate circumstances. I was busy. Care-taking. Me. As I moved from illness to wellness over the course of the past 25 years, I’ve learned a few solid things about transforming the quality of my life that I hope will resonate for you on a basic, common sense level.

I distill everything I do down to the “lowest common denominator,” to create a baseline context to both heal the body and train the mind, so “we” transform the health of our body and our ideas about health and healing simultaneously, to move beyond the conversation of illness to the wide-open spaces of new possibilities. When we shift our thoughts and when we shift our health and wellbeing simultaneously, the horizon rises in ways we never even imagined, never mind even thought possible.

I offer you a few simple, but not necessarily easy foundational rules to implement:

Breathe. Oxygen is literally the breath of life! Do you know that your breath provides 99 percent of your energy? Do you know that science has proven that cancer will not survive in a highly oxygenated environment? Do you know that cardiovascular disease is directly linked to shortness of breath—your heart literally spasms without oxygen? Do you know that proper breathing directly impacts your nervous system, and correlative problems like anxiety and depression? Proper breathing balances and calms the nervous system. Oxygen even burns fat and calories, so directly impacts chronic weight issues. 

Through exercise, proper nutrition and stress management we bring oxygen into our body to oxygenate our cells. Each component is essential to maintain optimal health and ward off chronic disease. The oxygen you bring into your body with exercise, clean, whole foods and breath work produces ATP and without ATP, your body would immediately shut down. Think of ATP as a battery in your cells that gets charged by oxygen, which then produces the vital energy your body needs to thrive and run optimally.

Hydrate. As you likely know, but may not think about often, you can live for quite a long time without food, but you won’t last but minutes without oxygen and only days without water. Your body is roughly 60 percent water, with percentages as high as 83 percent in your lungs, and 73 percent in your heart and brain. With your body at such a high water content, it’s easy to understand how dehydration can cause serious problems. Many experts agree that many of us are chronically dehydrated today. Water literally is the vital nutrient you need for every function in your body. Every life-giving and healing process that happens inside our body happens with water. Most experts insist that the majority of Americans are chronically under-hydrated and should drink more water, and the reasons behind their insistence are solid.

Begin your day by drinking water when you first wake up. Think of your cells as droopy flowers in a vase without water. When you refill the vase with water, the flowers come back to life. You are most dehydrated upon arising, because you haven’t had water for about eight hours. I recommend 2, 8 ounce glasses of water firs thing in the morning.

Drink 8 ounces of water 30 minutes before a meal, and 8 ounces 1 hour after a meal. Drinking water with your meals dilutes the gastric juice (enzymes) and slows down the process of digestion in the stomach and intestines. Even if you need to drink water just sip water kept at room temperature. Cold water during a meal can greatly inhibit digestive enzyme power.

To optimize the digestive process, I recommend drinking your daily recommended amount of water 30 minutes before a meal, 60 minutes after a meal, throughout the day and 1 hour before bedtime. The last glass of the day will aid in the cell renewal process while you sleep,

Eating clean, whole foods is paramount to healing your body. Paramount. Consider this model like a math equation; you add in clean, whole foods and you eliminate nutrient-devoid, processed foods.

Nutrient devoid foods do not offer building blocks of nutrition to fuel your body, including oxygen. Do you know that oxygen quells inflammation? Do you know that yeasts, mold and fungus cannot live in a highly oxygenated body? Live, nutrient-dense, enzyme-rich, oxygen-rich foods are vital to maintain a healthy body, a healthy weight, to look and feel your best, to quell inflammation and to reduce the risk of developing yeasts, mold and fungus that promote disease. Live foods are the premium gas for your premium tank and the key to creating optimal health. Key parameters and reasons for why I set a very clean eating, healing diet for my clients are:

• Add diet high in live, raw vegetables and low-sugared fruits. You need the essential component of water in live vegetables and fruits for proper digestion, circulation, elimination, healing and rejuvenation.
• You don’t need the high sugar present in many fruits when you set out to heal your body. Limit your fruits to grapefruits, lemons, limes, and berries. This suggestion alone will help quell your sugar and carb addiction.
• Your diet should consist of 70-80 percent vitamin/mineral-rich water foods. You support your body in performing every vital function when you eat a diet high in raw vegetables and fruits.
• Raw fruits and vegetables offer you a rich source of live-enzymes, which naturally decrease as we get older. Enzymes are the spark of life and responsible for every biochemical reaction that occurs in your body. Sadly, many today take digestive enzymes in supplement form to support digestion, but supplement can never stand in for wide-spectrum benefits we get from vegetables and fruits in their natural state. Digestive-enzyme supplements do offer benefit, but do not replace the benefits of live food.

Know your purpose. Know your why, and don’t let “I don’t know my purpose” reasons stop you. Your first purpose statement does not need to be revolutionary or lofty, yet. Just create a purpose. Just create a why. Just create a compelling “thing” that excites you, that pulls you out of bed in the morning — you can always change it as you grow clearer about what you most want, but ‘we’ all need something to pull us forward. A few ideas:

• What is something that you love?
• What is something that you really want, or want to do?
• What does your family and friends always compliment you on = think you are an expert of?
• Conversely, what is something that makes you really mad that you’d love to fix, to solve? For example, let’s say you’ve experienced illness, and the most marked moment on your journey to wellness was the impact of the many kindnesses others showed you – your purpose could be simply a commitment to extending kindness to every single person you meet throughout your days, or as grand as becoming a spokesperson to enlighten others of all that you learned. If from your experience you feel convicted to be kind to everyone you meet from what you learned, or you feel convicted to share with everyone you meet preventive measures against the illness you experienced, you found your purpose. You found a compelling reason to inspire you to new actions.

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”
~ Oprah Winfrey

As a self-professed, juice enthusiast committed to supporting clients in healing their bodies and training their mind to look and feel their very best, those deeper questions get lost in the marketing campaigns and “fun business pursuits” of smoothie this and juicing that. I continue to guide my clients to getting off the proverbial gerbil weight-loss wheel, and to dive deeper into the questions that will support them in creating greater health and energy with results that last.

I’d love to hear what you thought about this post. Please do … in the comment box below.

Many often say to me, vegan? that’s way too much work! I could never do it! And I just laugh and say 2 things, 1) TRY this recipe and 2) Just start adding more vegetables into your diet, and soon you will be eating more vegetables. That is, of course, if you are committed to looking and feeling your very best self! Tis’ true, animal protein is acidic in our body and requires way more energy for us to digest than plant proteins, so by incorporating more vegan recipes, your body can much more readily begin to heal. And that IS the magic bullet in my world and with the work that I do. This recipe alone can start to pull you over to a healthier way of eating, of this I am very sure!

Mediterranean Kale Stew

• 2 large bunches kale, deveined and chopped
• 2 large cans organic whole tomatoes (Muir Glen are my favorite)
• 2 large sweet Vidalia onions, chopped hearty
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 15 ounce cans garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 – 2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
• Himalayan salt and Crushed Black Pepper to taste
• Crushed red pepper to taste (optional)
• Fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup white wine (optional)

Prepare: Pulse the tomatoes in food processor just once or twice to create a chunky, hearty texture. Set aside. Mince rosemary (Oh, my new addiction! LOVE fresh rosemary!) by hand or pulse in a coffee mill (I don’t drink coffee, I use a coffee mill to finely process fresh herbs)

Saute: In a very large soup or stew pot, garlic an onion until translucent. Add garbanzo beans, minced rosemary, salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth and wine. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add chopped kale and simmer until tender, but still “al dente.”

Garnish with crushed red pepper and coarsely chopped parsley and serve!

Buono Appetito! Prometto eccellente delizioso!