There are a lot of ways we can feel blocked – mentally, emotionally, physically. Maybe you’re having trouble dealing with an event in your past or you’re feeling uncreative at work or you just can’t get started on that new, healthy lifestyle you keep promising yourself.

You can work and work and let your mind go around in circles, but sometimes it’s better to do “nothing.” Just as it’s important to give your body recovery time between workouts, it’s also essential to let your mind and soul recharge. I usually need both tons of sleep and alone time. Spending time with yourself is essential for living!

Here are a few things you can do to get “unstuck”:

• Rest. Exhaustion can be a major contributor to that “stuck” feeling. Rest is so important; it cleanses the mind, recovers the body, and restores function. Take a power nap, luxuriate in a bath, or do anything that feels relaxing to you.
• Breathe. Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and feel how your body begins to reach a state of calm. Your thoughts may start to wander in all directions, but continue to breathe deeply, wind down, and try to shut out the flood of thought. Concentrate all your attention on your breathing. Then focus on an image – a beautiful flower, an experience in nature, the sky, the sun, or something else. When you feel yourself completely relaxed and calm, open your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
• Take a walk. Just a simple, leisurely one. Go to the woods and sit down in nature to inhale the scents of your surroundings. In the big city, walk around your own neighborhood, but do it slowly and pay attention to little things you don’t usually notice.

Image: Hartwig HKD

Spending just five minutes a day exercising outdoors can do wonders for your mental health, according to a recent study. Increase that to 30 minutes or more and you’ll be extra happy, healthy, and fit. And now that it’s summer, you have no excuse! To help you get out and get going, here are 10 great resources on the web:

Beach California: Places to play beach volleyball in California

GORP: US parks for hiking, biking, surfing, climbing, and more

Helium: 10 places to learn to surf on the West Coast

Map My Ride: Find and map biking routes around the world

Map My Run: Find and map running routes around the world

Map My Walk: Find and map walking routes around the world

National Park Service: US parks, preserves, monuments, and recreation areas

Paddling.net: Places to canoe and kayak in the US

Pedaling.com: Bike rides around the US and Canada

Trails.com: US trails for hiking, biking, and running

Have fun and live life loud!

Image: aarmono

Physical exercise or regular movement of some kind is a vital part of creating health. It can help lower overall cancer rates and boost immune system function, build stronger bones, and provide more restful sleep. Following is my own list of more personal benefits of exercise:

• I feel more energy as soon as I exercise
• My mind clears if I am having a “foggy brain” day
• With feeling strong, I feel capable and attractive
• I use exercise as a form of active socializing (hiking, running together)
• Sometimes it feels like meditation
• Most of the time it feels like self love – giving my body what it needs
• I make sure I have fun in the process, which gives me a feeling of joy

Take a minute to sit down and note what moving means to YOU.

Please feel free to share your responses, too!

I meet people all the time – at the gym, on my Facebook page, and in any fitness situation – who want to transform their life in some way. Their first and foremost wish is to change their body or become physically healthy, but I always think this is just a foreshadowing of the desire for something more profound, to make a life change. Maybe to find one’s inner Warrior!

Sometimes our Warrior appears in order to help us through a difficulty or life crisis … but we also have the ability to tap into it because we WANT to. I strongly believe that everyone can do this, if the desire is there. I love seeing that light in a person when they have decided what is truly important to them in life, who they are and what they can give to the world.

Where is your Warrior? Will you let it shine?

Image: marfis75

This is an except from my upcoming book, Life Force.

Sometimes it can be a challenge to get started with exercise. After a long workday, you might just want to plop down on the couch and take it easy. But it is in these situations that training is most important. You need to recharge your batteries.

There are tricks to use when lethargy strikes. I usually try to muster enough energy to lace up my training shoes. Once I’ve done that, and left the sofa behind, it’s easier to get going.

Some lines I use to motivate myself go like this:

• I will feel more energetic as soon as I start to exercise
• My thoughts will become clearer even though I’ve had a hard day
• With new strength – mental as well as physical – I will come to see myself as capable and attractive

Test it yourself. Think up some bracing arguments to use after a long, dismal workday when everything feels tough.

Image: Lady-bug

Today I want to share with you a great tool called the Spike Mat. It might sound kind of scary, but wait – once you try it, you’ll love it!

Used for thousands of years, the mat is covered in tiny spikes that, when you lie on them, activate your body’s natural endorphins (pain-killing hormones) and oxytocin (feel-good hormones). It can be used for relaxation, meditation, yoga, and physical and emotional well-being. Try lying on it before you go to sleep or when you’re stressed out, low on energy, or suffering from muscle stiffness or pain. It has a positive effect on the body and mind!

To learn more, visit StyleWellness.

If the weather or other stress has got you down, take a look at these Six Mood-Boosting Yoga Poses from Whole Living. Besides stretching your muscles and getting your blood flowing, these poses should lift your spirit … and you don’t even have to leave the warmth of your house (or office, if you have some space)!

Image: Whole Living

The busier we become, the more we steal time away from our “joy” time. If work demands more time and effort, chances are that our gym time will suffer, and when our kid has yet another tantrum, our desire to watch a movie or paint our toenails goes out the window … Does this sound familiar to you?

According to a study (Lewinshon, Munoz, Youngren and Zeiss, 1986), the first activities that get voted off a busy schedule are the ones that would actually make us feel better and less stressed in the long run. How is that for irony?

The more sad and depressed we feel, the lower self-esteem we have, resulting in doubt that all the things that previously lifted our spirits have the power to do so again. In the absence of these moments of joy and positive emotion, it becomes more and more difficult to separate ourselves from work, bill paying, and everyday routines.

Harvard economist Juliet Schor (1991) reported that when workers in an English factory had to give up their overtime hours due to the bad economy, they recovered both physically and mentally shortly after. Because of the new extra time they had on their hands, they started hanging out with their friends, and their zest for life returned. Money lost its close grip on their minds, and even the ones with bigger families to take care of found it thrilling that they had been given more time with their loved ones. Life was worth living!

Finding joy and happiness in our everyday lives is something we can learn to accept and implement. For many of us, it is not an automatic thought. More often than not, negative thoughts are quicker to arise than positive ones. Many times it is easier to eat sugar or drink alcohol to feel the chemical high of what seems like joy for a brief moment.

However, it is very possible to make a conscious choice to do things we truly love, to be with people we truly love, and to give ourselves permission to enjoy these things. When we give to ourselves, there is more for others to enjoy, too. We enter a good cycle of giving and receiving.

Maybe the challenge is to find the joy in all things possible? Most of all, I know that there is joy to be found in the freedom of self-love.

What makes you laugh, enjoy, and feel joy? How can you share these feelings and moments? Can you stop and smell the roses a little bit every day?

Sunny ideas:

• Never skip your work out

• Begin to feel, smell, taste again. Smile.

• Before you do an activity, visualize in your mind what it is going to look like. Let yourself know that no matter what happens, it will be good.

• Experience new things in progression, especially if you are nervous about them. Note that you have done a great job. Every time.

• Exchange “I should” for “I would like to”

Life is your gift – living it is your choice!

Live Life Loud!

Image: Robert S. Donovan

Here it is, Week 10 of the challenge! For this last week, I would like you to approach your senses, body, and mind from all perspectives. All the pieces are coming together, and hopefully this is accompanied by a feeling of completion and newness.

First, I want you to go on a natural cleanse with your diet. Some of you might incorporate only fruits and veggies, while others might add fish and eggs for protein. Drink tons of refreshing water, and let your body rest from digesting animal proteins, if you can. Stick to whole grains in the morning and pump up the veggie plate. After a few days, you will experience a different sense of smell and taste.

Secondly, I’d like your workouts this week to focus on gentle, loving exercises. Do some introspective yoga, conscious stretching and lengthening of your hardworking muscles, and consider it a cleanse for your muscle tissue. Leave the pushing and pulling and contracting by the wayside, and just let your body breathe.

Lastly, for your heart and soul, focus on fun! Go to a comedy show, bring your friends, set up a play in your home with the family, play a practical joke on your best friend. Whatever it is that will make you belly laugh, let it out. Focus not only on the good stuff, but the funny stuff!

At this point, you should be ready to do it again… You can keep implementing the 10-week plan until you develop new healthy habits. It might not kick in the first time, but be assured that with conscious repetition and steadfast desire, you will reach your goal and actually make a change in your life. Finding health and joy is not a 10-week experience, it is a life-long experiment!

Live Life Loud and Good Luck!

Image: BarelyFitz

With only two more weeks left of the challenge, I hope a lot of exciting things have started happening for you! Maybe you’re experiencing abundant energy, a new outlook on health, or a brand new consciousness about the body. Maybe your days now start with a glass of water instead of coffee, and even if that is only the change you take away from all of this, then I am happy you have made that progress!

Now it’s time to introduce the three T’s!

1) Drink green TEA a few times a day. If you are a big coffee drinker, try to swap some of your coffees to green tea, which has a lower caffeine content and is not so stressful on your body. Green tea can aid in raising your metabolism, and it contains antioxidants, which strengthen the immune system and slow the aging process. It also helps with cravings, if you have any left after stabilizing your blood sugar. Instead of following the impulse to eat when stress arises, nurture your body with some healing tea.

2) Get some TANJA! I know it sounds nuts to plug myself, but what I’m suggesting is that you get one of my DVDs and try a something new! This can be your new workout for the next couple of weeks. Make a change, get inspired, turn it up a notch. If you have tried all of them already, then shoot me an email or leave a comment here and ask me any question that I can help you with. I will be happy to connect and help you move forward and upward.

3) TRY some thing new! Invest in a new book or a DVD about something you are curious about. It might be how to read horoscopes, Asian cooking, how to build a tree house … anything that tickles your intellect. Sometimes even 20 minutes is enough to give your brain cells a boost. Learning creates insight and strengthens your self-image in so many ways. Maybe it is time to read about why the sky is blue, which you’ve wondered about for so many years (or maybe that’s just me!).

Make an entry in your diary about what you would like to explore as it relates to trying something new. It could be anything from the physical, to asking someone something about his or her life that you don’t know. Reconnect with yourself, your surroundings, and the people you love.

This beautiful life is such a work of art in constant progress and motion, and limiting yourself to creating change for just for a short period of time is only limiting yourself from becoming the best you can be.

Live Life Loud and let me know how it goes!

Images: craigCloutier, Gaiam Total Body Cross Trainer, Insomnia