A great tip from Chris Gardner!

Hello everyone! I hope that you are enjoying a great start to a new month! We are already in August and for those of you who still have unfulfilled aspirations, well, it's about time that you took a small step towards achieving whatever it is that you set out to achieve.

Today I would like to share a simple yet brilliant advice mentioned by Chris Gardner, the highly successful entrepreneur that the movie 'The pursuit of happyness' was based on. It is a very simple advice but yet a lot of us do not really do this and as a result, we get overwhelmed by a lot of the problems and obstacles and we never really take the action step required in order to move us closer towards achieving your goals.

Chris Gardner's advice was 'Always take baby steps towards the accomplishment of your goals. If you are moving forward, you are doing great.'

Such a simple piece of advice but a lot of us simply do not take action because we only focus the problems and not the joy and happiness that accomplishing our goals could bring us and our loved ones.

Always keep Chris Gardner's advice in mind whenever you feel too stressed out or just not 'feeling it'. Remember, this is a guy who had worked his way up from  seemingly overwhleming odds to accomplishing not just financial abundance, but wonderful achievements in other areas of his life as well. For those of you who have not watched the movie, 'The pursuit of happyness' I highly recommend that you watch it and remember the priceless lessons that you will learn from it.

So, remember, just take a small step towards achieving your goal. No matter how small it might seem, it is still a step forward! Cheers!

Please feel free to email all comments/enquiries to me at bodypulse@ymail.com. Looking forward to your mails!

Great ways to strike a conversation

Hi everyone! As usual, I had an extremely busy June and my apologies for not being able to reply to some of your email question. I will definitely do so within the next few days. For today, I thought that I should go through some simple conversation starters. I decided to write about this topics becasuse a lot of people have been going to the outdoor screenings of the World Cup matches and sometimes if you go alone, it would be a great opportunity to strike up a conversation with someone just to make friends(and also keep you and your new friend entertained in case teams decide to play boring football!).

Coming up with friendly conversation on the spot isn’t always easy. But here are some tips/topics that might get the other party talking:

1.) Ask them open ended question but give your own opinion as well.
Avoid question that invite a 'Yes' or 'No' response. Ask them how they feel about a particular situation. Open ended questions allow people to elaborate and this creates conversation. For example, if it is at a World Cup screening, ask them after a goal, 'Hey why do you think the team is playing with one attacker today?'. However, also give your own ideas/opinion. Asking too many questions too quickly will almost always make the other person feel uncomfortable and leave them looking for a way to leave the conversation before it has really started. Ask question but give them some space as well.


2.) Prepare a few topics in mind to chat about.
Read up on current affairs to start some simple chat about some interesting latest news.


3.) Bring up a very popular event/topic that almost everyone can talk about.
This would depend on the crowd. For example, if you are at a networking sessions attended by business executives, you could talk about the recent rise in price of a certain stock. If its a gathering of old friends, you could talk about an unusual career/hobby that one of your friends have decided to pursue.

But of course, one of the best tip in order to begin anykind of conversation?

Smile! Why? When you smile the whole world smiles with you. And they would most likely want to talk with you too! Research has found that we find people who smile and look directly at us more attractive. And people are 86% more likely to strike up conversations with strangers in the street if they are smiling.

Have a great week!

Please email me your questions/feedback at bodypulse@ymail.com.

The difference between the concious and subconscious mind

I conducted a sports psychology programme for student athletes recently and many of them did not realise the superb powers of the subconscious mind and ways to use these powers to their advantage in various situations, be it their sporting aspirations or even their schoolwork. Here's a very simple yet clear description on the difference between the conscious and subconscious mind.

The human brain possesses two very distinctive functional characteristics – the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The two are separated by specific attributes and abilities, yet work harmoniously together to achieve a common goal. Some people are familiar with these terms, but many are confused about the individual roles they play.

The conscious mind is your rational thinking mind that acknowledges the outside world and everything around you. Its primary function is to process and validate the accuracy (or truthfulness) of new information that's continually being received from all your bodily senses, whether external senses (i.e. sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing) or internal senses (e.g. stomach butterflies, chills etc.). The conscious mind does this by comparing the new information against all your stored facts, beliefs and memories from past experiences. Once a true or false perception of the new information is reached, it’s passed to the subconscious to be actioned - and it all happens in just milliseconds.

The subconscious mind on the other hand has no reasoning ability, but is purely goal orientated. It regulates and controls all of your body's involuntary physical and emotional processes according to your mental database of facts, beliefs and memories. When new validated information is received, the subconscious takes two primary actions. It updates that information as a new fact or belief, and then it generates the body's physical and emotional response to that new fact.

A champion athlete using sports psychology, Tennis Legend Roger Federer

Review of the improvement experienced by the participants
- 90% saw an improvement in their timing/distance in their sports event after just 4 weeks(6 days a week, 20 minutes each day) of mental imagery!


For the other 10%, they would probably need a little bit more time as certain people might have a lot of 'hidden problems/ideas' that would take time to eliminate.


Please feel free to email me at bodypulse@ymail.com for any enquiries/feedback. Enjoy your weekend!

Improve your energy levels

Most of us are enjoying the World Cup matches. However, for some of us(especially here in Asia!), the matches are shown in the early hours of the morning and thus I know of a lot of friend who sacrifice their sleep to catch the action. As a result, they might feel a lack of energy and enthusiasm during the next day at work(unless of course their favourite team wins, then there's a magical surge of energy!). So, I thought that I should re-emophasize some techniques that you could use to improve energy levels, especially those who are unable to get a good nights' rest. Here's a simple but powerful breathing exercise to energize your day:

Important notes
•If you feel dizzy when practicing this breathing technique, you should stop and substitute normal breathing. If you suffer from vertigo, you should use caution in practicing this breathing exercise.


•You should be careful practicing these exercises if you have high blood pressure, heart disease or suffer from stroke or epilepsy.
 
Steps
•To practice this breathing exercise sit up in a comfortable position.

•Elongate your spine upwards, lengthen your neck and subtly bring your chin back and in like a soldier at attention. This will align the spine with the back of your head.

•Close your eyes.

•Bring the palms of your hands together at sternum level but have them 2-4 inches away from your chest. Your elbows should be up such that your forearms are parallel to the ground.

•Press the palms of your hands together applying equal pressure to both sides. The pressure should be firm but not excessive.

•Relax your diaphragm and stomach muscles.

•Then you should begin with Diaphragmatic Breathing. Which means to breathe into the abdomen. Also called Abdominal Breathing.


•To do this, as you inhale allow your diaphragm to move down and stomach move out (expand). Try to only use your abdomen, not allowing the chest to rise (or fall) as best you can. On the exhalation, let the diaphragm move up and he stomach move in towards the spine. So only your stomach region is rising and falling on inhalation and exhalation. Continue on for 3-5 minutes, just using your stomach/diaphragm to breathe.  

Please feel free to email any question/comments to bodypulse@ymail.com. Enjoy the World Cup action! For non-football fans, have a fabulous week as well!

Tips for effective Teambuilding sessions

It is the middle of the year and lots of companies and schools are organizing staff and student teambuilding retreat with the view of strengthening bonds between members that would ultimately result in a more efficient and effective teamwork and results. For student activities, it would be geared more towards motivation and self discovery. But whatever the target group, you should take note of a few pointers in order to get the most return on investment from your teambuilding sessions. Here are some tips:

1.) Have a session at least once a month
Some companies would try to save cost by having it only twice a year perhaps vee once a year. But they do not realise that the long term benefits of having regular monthly sessions far outweigh the short term cost involved. There is no need for an overnight session. Even a two or three hour programme would be sufficient. Especially if you work in a highly stressful environment. Regular sessions of fun activities help to de-stress.Try it and see the difference in your employees attitudes.

2.) Use your participants' feedback to imrove subsequent sessions
Always make sure that you get your participants to fill out the evaluation form and use the collated results to help improve future sessions. You could have a short question where you ask what they feel is the most enjoyable part of the session and which might require improvements. Remember that these will be the participants for the next session so it is improtant that you show them that you value their feedback.

3.) Have 'out of the box' activities
Do not limit yourself to overnight BBQ sessions, sports meet and wine and dine sessions. Have something that is unusual, for example a balloon twisting workshop, a juggling teambuilding session or even a cross cultural trip where you learn about a culture that is not very well known to your part of the world. By having sessions that are unique, you keep your participants enthusiasm levels at a high and always looking forward to actively participating in the next session/s.

Please feel free to email all comments/enquiries to bodypulse@ymail.com. Have a great day!

Upcoming programme June 2010-Introduction to Hypnotherapy

Here's more details regarding our upcoming hypnotherapy workshop:

Hypnotherapy is often applied in order to modify a subject's behavior, emotional content, and attitudes. It is also used for a wide range of conditions including dysfunctional habits, anxiety, stress-related illness, pain management, and personal development. This beginner’s level workshop is open to anyone from the age of 21. No previous experience in hypnosis or hypnotherapy is required. Participants will learn the instant self-hypnosis technique and basic applications of self-hypnosis. They will also get to try out simple hypnotherapy techniques to hypnotize others.

Title: Hypnotherapy Workshop for Beginners

Venue: Club CSC @ Tessensohn
Date: Thursday, 24 Jun 10

Time: 7.30pm – 9pm
Fee: Member $18, Public Officer/Guest $22 (Inclusive of notes)

Registration Contact: Gek Cheng at 63915624 of kua_gek_cheng@csc.gov.sg

Please register by 17th Jun 10

Please feel free to email me at bodypulse@ymail.com for enquiries. Have a great week!

Panic/Anxiety Attacks and Treatments

Hi everyone!

I do hope that you are all enjoying yourselves. Working hard as well as playing hard! My apologies for not publishing any new updates for the past 3 weeks. I have been very busy filming a new reality show and did not have a chance to update this blog. I have tried to reply to as many emails as possible the past couple of days. I do hope to reply to every one of them within the next few days.

Anyway, I recently had a few questions with regarding panic attacks. For those who are suffering or have suffered from it, you would know that it is such an unpleasent and even frightening experience. About 10 years ago I witnessed someone getting a panic attack. It seemed like an asthma attack but it's not. Here's some info about panic attack that I hope you would find useful and interesting.

General Info

Panic attacks are sudden feelings of terror that strike without warning. These episodes can occur at any time, even during sleep. A person experiencing a panic attack may believe that he or she is having a heart attack or that death is imminent.

Most people with panic attacks experience several of the following symptoms:


-"Racing" heart
-Feeling weak, faint, or dizzy
-Tingling or numbness in the hands and fingers
-Sense of terror, of impending doom or death
-Feeling sweaty or having chills
-Chest pains
-Breathing difficulties
-Feeling a loss of control

Panic attacks are generally brief, lasting less than ten minutes, although some of the symptoms may persist for a longer time. It is not clear what causes Panic Disorder. In many people, its symptoms develop in association with major life changes (such as getting married, having a child, starting a first job, etc.) and major lifestyle stressors.

Best Ways to Ease Anxiety Disorders- I shall describe each method in detail in my future posts.
1.) Medication- One might required medication initially to reduce the number of attacks if you experience frequent attacks (a few attacks per day)
2.) Hypnosis or hypnotherapy
3.) Meditation and Other Relaxation Techniques
4.) Good Night’s Sleep
5.) Laughing/Laughter Therapy
6.) Avoid Places Where You Have Had an Attack

As always, although the alternative therapies are extremely powerful and effective, please check with a physician if you require medication to curb the initial phase of the attacks.

Please feel free to email me your comments at bodypulse@ymail.com. Have a fabulous week!

Upcoming course- Breaking the Chains Preview

                             Breaking the Chains Preview

I am pleased to announce that we would be organizing a group workshop style for our 'Breaking the Chains' one-to-one session. We had a lot of request from participants who wanted to have a preview before signing up for the actual one-to-one session, which is the actual format for the course. So, as requested, I came up with a preview to the programme. Here are the details of the preview as well as the actual programme:

Preview details
Date: 1st June 2010
Time: 6pm-8pm
Venue: 221 Henderson Road, Henderson Building, #02-06
Fees: $8 per pax (Inclusive of notes and subliminal CD)
Participants would learn:
- Basic self hypnosis techniques to aid in personal development
- Real life case studies and how problems were solved
- How and why subliminal music can help/has helped people in different circumstances
Please email me at bodypulse@ymail.com for registration details and/or enquiries. Thank you.

Here are the full details of the actual one-on-one sessions:

                     Breaking the Chains

One-on-one/group Hypnotherapy incorporating techniques such as EFT and other holistic therapies.


Do you often feel:
- Stressed
- Overwhelmed with emotions
- Anger at the point of it being destructive
- Tired/Fatigued
- Sad and lonely
- Depressed

Are you often struggling to improve your relationships? Do you feel that a phobia or addiction is ruining your life/hindering you from achieving your dreams? Tried many therapy methods without success?

Then we might have the solution for you. Join our exclusive ‘Breaking the chains’ course. This course could help you with overcome many obstacles including:

- Addictions (including smoking, sex, drugs etc)
- Anger Management
- Anxiety
- Grief
- Fears and Phobias (crowded places, birds, snakes, public speaking, blood etc)
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Lack of Confidence / Lack of self-esteem
- Negative thoughts / attitude
- Stress
Each session is usually 1 hour.

Child participants must be 8 years and older.

As always, please register your interest/email enquiries at bodypulse@ymail.com. Thank you very much!

Sleep positions and your personality-any links?

I came across this very interesting report/study done by reviewing the sleep patterns of 1000 people. They matched the sleep positions with similar matching personalities. As with all surveys and study reports, there were plenty of discussions and questions on the results of the study/report. Here's the report findings.

Six most common sleeping positions (Graphic from bbc.com)


Foetus position: A whopping 41% of participants sleep in this curled-up manner. Women are twice as likely to rest like this and it is listed as the most common position. These sleepers are said to have a tough exterior but are still sensitive and may appear to be shy but warm up quickly.


Log position – If you sleep on your side with both arms down, you are a social, easy-going person who is trusting, sometimes to the point of being gullible. The study showed 15% of people sleep like a log.

Yearner position - A close third is the side-lying position with both arms out in front of the body, with 13% of partipants sleeping like this. Yearners are noted to be open-minded and still cynical, suspicious, and stubborn about sticking to decisions once they are made.

Soldier position - These sleepers lie on their backs with arms down and kept close to the body. This 8% study is said to be reserved, quiet, without fuss, and hold themselves and others to a high standard. Soldier sleepers have a higher likelihood for snoring due to the flat-back position, which may not cause them to wake up often but may result in a less restful night’s sleep.

Freefall position - Those people who lie on their bellies with arms under or wrapped around a pillow with head turned to the side, make up 7% of the population studied. Freefallers are brash, outgoing, and are very uncomfortable with criticism.

Starfish position - Sleepers who lie on their backs with arms up near their head or the pillow account for 5% of participants. These people are good listeners, helpful, and are uncomfortable being the center of attention. People who sleep in starfish position are more likely to snore and to suffer from a poor night’s sleep more often.

 
There are some very interesting questions that arise after reading and analysing the study. Some questions that you might ask are:
 
1.) I do not know my sleeping position. I am asleep, after all.
2.) What happens if throughout the night I go through at least 3 or perhaps all of the sleeping positions?
3.) What if I change my personality? Will my sleep position also be changed? Or can changing my sleep position 'alter' my personality?
 
Let's go through each question:
 
1.) Obviously you will not know your sleep positions throughout the night but generally, the position that you wake up in should be taken as your most comfortable and therefore, the position that you spend majority of the night in. Please take note that this is just a general rule.
 
2.) Once again, take the position that you wake up in as the one that you spend the most comfortable and therefore your favourite.
 
3.) This is a very good question. Just take note that the link between the sleep position and personality might just be the results of a majority and not exclusively to each group/position. Just like your personality traits/characteristics in a horoscope, not all people born in the year of the Tiger are aggressive go-getters, as most experts predict them to be. The same thing applies to this particular study/report. So while your sleep position and personality might be strikingly similar to the report, pleased do not be alarmed if it isn't. With regards to whether you change your sleep postion if you change your personality, well, I guess there should be another study and research done on this. What about changing your sleep position to change your personality? Good one, but once you are asleep, your body alters its position naturally so there is no way that you can 'force' your body to sleeping in a particular position. What if you hypnotize yourself to do so? Still, if you naturally feel comfortable in a particular position, your body would still adopt that position even though you might start in your desired position. So its better to use hypnosis to change your unwanted personality traits rather than your sleep position!
 
 
Please email your questions/comments to bodypulse@ymail.com. Have a good night!

Money, money, money

It isn't enough for you to love money— it's also necessary that money should love you.

The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.

Kin Hubbard

Yes, money can help everyone get the experience that they desire, be it further your education, travel to your favourite countries, eat your favourite foods or simply live comfortably in your dream home. Its always great to be in control of money to make sure that it comes back you. As they say, money can be a great servant but a not so good master! Here's some tips on saving money:


Simple tips on saving/making money
1.) Give up expensive habits (like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs).
Those habits cause money to flow away from you with nothing in return. Replace these expensive habits with ones that are cheaper and cause less harm. For example, if you drink alcohol because it makes you feel more relaxed, try something else, such as reading a good book or breathing exercises. You might say that you only have drinks and cigarettes on weekends but these things add up. If you do the maths you'll be surprise how much you could save(not including the non monetary ways as well!).

2.) Try getting some passive income.
Yes, the key is to work smarter. Passive income allows you to get money while you are doing other activities besides work. Some examples of ways to build a steady stream of passive income are investing in stocks and shares, writing a book and setting up a blogsphot/e-commerce website.

3.) Sell things that you do not need
One man's junk is another man's treasure. So, look around the house for things that you do not need. You'll be surprise at some of the things that you might find because you might not have touched it in months or perhaps even years! Someone else might find the need for it so put it up on Ebay or other auction sites and you never know, your trash might become cash!

4.) Make your own items instead of buying them.
Whether its birthday gifts, breakfast or simple cleaning devices, making your own instead of buying a ready made product could save you plenty of money! Pus you might have fun doing it as well.

5.) Seek more affordable means of transportation.
Transportation cost a lot for most people. So, cut dowb unecessary expenses in this area by:
•Carpooling with a co-worker or someone who works nearby.

•Taking a bus or other public transportation. You may enjoy the time alone to read or listen to music.
•Cycling or walking to work. You'll drop pounds from your waist as well as your wallet.

Please feel free to email me any questions/comments at bodypulse@ymail.com. Have a fabulous week!