Sleep stability

My fitness brand began to expand. I took on more trainers and helped set up many gyms and clubs. I had been toying with the concept for years and soon, the time came to set up my own fitness studio. I had always wanted a space for personalized training and my gym `Play' was finally born. The first fitness studio of its kind in the country, it looked nothing like a gym. Soon, clients began pouring in, and stayed on. Every project has its golden moment and sometimes that moment is brief. The studio shut down six years later, but I didn't collapse with it. Thanks mind. The I'm not good enough story. Thanks mind! LET YOUR SELF GO Is a biography of Nelson Mandela the same thing as Nelson Mandela himself? Clearly not; And regardless of how true or false those words are, and regardless of the quality of the photographs, they cannot come close to the richness and fullness of the living human being himself. The same principle holds true for all your own self-judgements and self-descriptions; Whether your mind describes you with glowing praise or sums you up with scathing criticism, the words it uses are nothing more than words. And you may recall, in ACT we're not too interested in whether those words are true or false; PAULINE: LENNY, when you say you're a failure, is that the same idea as when you say you're incompetent? Or are they different?

LENNY: It's really the same. I'm a failure because I'm so incompetent. The Downward Arrow Technique The downward arrow technique helps you identify clients' negative core beliefs. It involves asking clients to assume their automatic thoughts (ones with recurrent themes) are true and then questioning them about the meaning of their automatic thoughts. Doing so can arouse increased negative emotion though, so you usually wouldn't use this technique in the first few therapy sessions. First, identify a key automatic thought whose theme is recurrent; PAULINE: Okay, to summarize, you were looking around your apartment and you thought, It's so messy. When she finally introduced Steven to her coworkers and relatives, everyone agreed that they made a great pair. Stephanie felt this one was it, the love of her life, the last she would ever want or need. Steven said and did all the right things. They talked about a future together, even playfully window-shopped for household items. Girlfriends pointed out bridal stores at the mall, and Stephanie's coworkers teased her about planning a shower. In their second summer as a couple, the pair sailed on a romantic Caribbean cruise. They took long walks on sparkling beaches, holding hands and splashing in the clear turquoise water. They danced on the deck at midnight and kissed under the stars. Stephanie had never been happier. A few days after their return, Steven was at Stephanie's kitchen table drinking coffee and Stephanie was musing over a recipe in the Sunday newspaper, when suddenly Steven announced, I can't go to dinner at your sister's house next weekend. I had learnt to deal with stress in my life and no sooner had the doors closed, I was ready to move on to my next challenge. I had always wanted to invest in workout gear on a small scale.

I was appalled at the kind of clothes most people chose to exercise in. I wanted to introduce trendy lifestyle gear that would make a person look so good that it would act as an incentive to push them to workout more. All this while the body got all the support it needed from the fabric. Four-and-a-half years ago, I went to Brazil and fell in love with a brand called BiaBrazil. Their range of sexy, yet supportive exercise gear was just the motivation most women need to devote themselves to a life of exercise. I was right. After I launched the brand in India, regular customers kept coming back for more. So, opening my own gym and launching my own exercise gear company have been two of my long-cherished dreams. If we allow these thoughts to guide our actions, will that work to make our lives richer and fuller? Now if your mind is anything like mine, you'll notice your self-judgements change like the wind. Some days my mind tells me I'm a wonderful father, a loving husband and an excellent presenter; There are days my mind says I'm a pretty good writer, and on other days it proclaims I write nothing but crap. The trick is, don't get attached to either story: the positive or the negative. Whether your mind says `I'm wonderful' or `I'm pathetic', `I'm a winner' or `I'm a loser', `I'm successful' or `I'm a failure', see it for what it is: just a story. What matters most in life is what you do, what you stand for, the way you behave. This is far more important than the stories you believe about yourself. If you doubt this, think about your own funeral. Do you want people to be saying: `What I really admired about him was that he was there for me when I needed him; I should never have let it get this way? PAULINE: We haven't looked at the evidence to see if these thoughts are true.

But I'd like to see if we can figure out why you had those thoughts. Let's assume for a moment that your apartment is too messy and you shouldn't have let it get like that. What would that mean about you? LENNY: I don't know. I just feel so incompetent. You can phrase the downward arrow question in different ways: If that's true, so what? What's so bad about . Stephanie looked up from the paper and responded, You can't? Instead of replying to her question, Steven went on as if she hadn't spoken, . Stephanie sat paralyzed, almost unable to breathe. It was as if he had punched her in the stomach. She finally managed weakly, What did you say? I just can't go on like this. What's wrong, Steven? I don't know, he said, staring into his coffee. Something is just missing. Despite Stephanie's fruitless questioning and tears, Steven gathered his toothbrush, clothes, and articles. I also had a secret third--to write a article. But why a article on stress?

There was a saying I learnt during my fitness training: `What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve. I strongly believe that the journey to good health begins in the mind. We need to be calm, happy, and stress-free to stay healthy and make the most of what life offers us. Not only that. If you want a perfect body, you first need to get your brain rewired. In fact, you need to be stress-free for exercises and diets to produce the best results. Here, I have to reveal that I have always been surrounded by stressed out people including clients who work fifty-hour days and carry a dozen cell phones and friends with frazzled nerves. Through observation, I've realized that no amount of abdominal crunches or leg lunges will work if your mind is tense. He was a fantastic role model. To quote the writer Margaret Fontey: `One important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second is disastrous. POINTING THE FINGER Most of us are far too quick to judge others: to label them as `quitters', `losers' or `failures'. If we want to let go of judging ourselves harshly, we also need to do the same for others. The more we point the finger at our fellow human beings, and write them off as weak or inferior, the more we entrench the habit of harsh judgemental thinking. And sooner or later, our minds will turn those judgements back on ourselves. Life is easier when we recognise there are no such people as `quitters', `losers' or `failures'. There are just human beings, who - much like you and me - sometimes quit, sometimes lose and sometimes fail. What's the worst part about . Worded in these ways, clients may respond with another automatic thought or an intermediate belief.