When we are children, we constantly learn and experience many new things each day. Learning new things creates Momentum and leads to growth.
Children have a natural thirst for knowledge because they are in a learning environment most of the time. They are seeing many things for the first time and are fascinated by the world around them. This is part of their natural development, and it makes them more open to new information and ideas.
Element 7 is about consciously learning something new each day, so that you can encourage freshness and Momentum into your life. For example, it might be learning something about a country you want to visit, or knowing more about a topic that interests you and have never explored. Our mind is a muscle and, like all of our muscles, it needs stimulation and a degree of stress in order to grow.
Opening your mind to fresh ideas and information can help you to be free from habitual behavior, reducing any tendency for you to become fixed in your attitude and actions.
Being closed to new ideas slows down your growth, and causes you to stagnate and resist the natural Flow of life. Keep yourself stimulated by trying something new, or by building on the skills and experience you already have.
There are so many new and exciting things to do and learn, whether it is mentally, physically, or emotionally. Take some time to connect with yourself and learn how you truly feel and want to feel. What are you thirsty for?
Learning inspires us to think creatively, particularly if it is something that we are interested in. It stimulates and excites us. Taking action to learn encourages motivation, and motivation encourages more action.
You are already learning something new by reading this book, so why not continue and develop your Flow of learning? This is just the beginning – there is so much more to learn that will help you to grow.
Today I would like you to learn something new. Choose something that interests and intrigues you about a subject that you would like to know more about.
Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors? I didn’t, until today. Yes, this fact will not change your life, but it might make you think about how much potential one human being can have.
Learning something new can be thought-provoking. Learning something new and putting it into practice can be life changing.
What new thing could you learn and do today?
Connect with your body and mind today by learning a new sport like climbing, or challenge a friend to learn something new with you, such as salsa dancing, or karate. You will be moving your body and getting fit while having fun.
Another good reason to get your body moving today is to help your lymphatic system, which is responsible for your body’s immunity. It removes harmful substances from your tissue fluid before it is returned to the blood and the rest of the body, and it relies on the movement of your body’s muscles to pump this fluid.
So give your lymph system some help and go for it.
An interesting and fun thing to do is to lie down immediately after vigorous exercise and notice what is happening inside your body. You will probably notice your breath first, as it is working hard to keep your body supplied with oxygen. As this starts to calm down, you might be able to feel the energy inside your body buzzing and your muscle fibers twitching. You may even be able to feel your expanded energy field, now that you have increased its vibration.
A healthy body is born to move. Try adding a few minutes of stretching after exercising to keep your body strong and supple.
Your sense of taste is stronger if your mind can connect what you’re eating with how it looks. Our sense of smell (and therefore taste) is strongest when we are hungry.
Today I would like you to focus on what you put into your mouth at one of your meals. Try chewing thoroughly and slowly, consciously becoming aware of how each mouthful smells and tastes. Did you know that a lot of energy is extracted from food while it is still in your mouth, before it is completely digested?
That is why, when you are tired, eating something restores your energy almost instantly, even before your food has actually been digested. Chewing properly releases more flavor and so extends the time that the taste of the food lingers in your mouth, because it spends more time in contact with your taste buds.
Therefore, by having awareness and taking more time to eat, you will develop your sense of taste and enjoyment, rather than having your thoughts somewhere else and not really noticing what you are doing. Being fully focused on what you are doing while you are eating will also help your digestion, and you will realize when you are full rather than mindlessly emptying your plate.
Learning to be present with your senses will bring awareness to whatever you are doing, helping you to become Balanced in your body and mind.
Today I have a relaxing visualization and breathing technique for you to use just before you go to sleep. Make sure you have finished all your tasks for the day, so that you can get maximum benefit from this exercise before you go to sleep. You can also listen to the free audio download by visiting thewayjohnwhiteman.com/9-elements-audio and entering the password ‘Feel Fantastic.’
Let’s visualize a peaceful, restful place.
Close your eyes and imagine you are going on a calm and peaceful walk.
You could be strolling toward a beach, a wood, in the open countryside, or anywhere else that you find peaceful.
Feel the warm sun relaxing your muscles and enjoy how this peaceful place makes you feel.
There are 10 footsteps leading down to a natural quiet resting place. Start to walk down the steps. As you go down each step take a breath in and out, enjoying the beautiful surroundings around you.
Let’s count down the 10 steps, breathing in and out with each step.
10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
You reach a path that takes you to a comfortable, safe space for you to sit or lie down and relax.
You melt into this soft comfortable space and close your eyes, breathing in… and out… in… and out…
In your mind, imagine a beautiful blue cloudless sky.
If distracting thoughts come into your mind just let them turn into white wispy clouds, and allow them to pass across the sky and out of your mind. Bring your attention back to the wonderful blue sky.
It’s now time to notice the sounds around you in your special place and to feel a gentle breeze on your warm skin.
It is time for you to leave your resting place now.
So walk back along the path again, toward the steps.
Walk up the steps, breathing in and out with each step upward that you take.
1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10…
At the top of the steps you notice how relaxed and calm you feel, and it is now time for you to come out of this visualization.
Wriggle your fingers and toes.
Stretch.
And when you are ready, gently open your eyes.
Take a few moments to notice how relaxed your body feels.
Enjoy this relaxed feeling that you have created and have a wonderful night’s sleep.
Mindful eating is all about eating consciously – being aware of the present moment and your appetite while you are eating. Are you really still hungry or are you already satisfied?
Mindful eating also involves learning to be conscious of the difference between hunger and other cues that can cause us to eat, such as painful emotions, boredom, tiredness, and habitual behavior. People often use food to fill a gap in their lives, such as loneliness.
Try to eat your meals in a calm environment where you can focus on what you are putting into your mouth, and whether you need to pause or stop eating entirely.
Take time to slow down, and make each meal an important and pleasurable part of your day. Get in touch with your body. Are your stomach and breathing relaxed?
Eating in front of the television or computer screen is commonplace, but it distracts you from realizing what and how much you are eating, as well as causing you to be in a less than ideal position and frame of mind to be eating.
A neural center in the brain called the appestat is the mechanism through which your body chemicals work together to signal feelings of hunger and fullness. It allows you to eat in response to hunger: in response to your body’s needs.
Inactivity can cause your appestat not to work as well as it would in an active person. It can actually leave you feeling hungrier than someone who exercises, which is another great reason to exercise.
Other ways that we override our appestat are by eating high-fat and sugary foods. This is because you are taking in a lot of calories in a short space of time, which means you can take in more calories than your body needs before your appestat has a chance to tell you that you have eaten enough.
Also, if you eat too quickly, your appestat doesn’t have enough time to register how much you have eaten, which causes you to eat a large amount before feeling full. You just start to rely on your stomach feeling uncomfortable, or your waistband feeling tight.
Being in touch with your body and mind by mindful eating is an easy way to stay healthy.
Today, I would like you to relish each bite, noticing the taste and texture of your food. Try putting your cutlery down between each bite and sipping some water. You could take a mid-meal break, have a chat for a couple of minutes, enjoy your companions and your surroundings, or get into the habit of taking a few deep breaths and thinking about what this food is doing for you.
Is it healthy and nutritious? Is it giving you what you need to feel fantastic?
Take small bites and chew them thoroughly. Become aware of what you are putting into your body and how it makes you feel.
Bon appetit.
Notice how you react to the people in your close environment today. Try leaving a few seconds before you reply, so that you can bring freshness to how you respond to the people around you. This can stop you from responding with habitual reactions, so you are more connected and present with your interactions.
You might be surprised by the loving and wise replies that you create just by pausing and connecting with the situation fully. This will definitely generate a better environment for you, as it will affect how the other person responds to you, too. They will notice a change in you on a subtle level, because you are not matching their emotional vibration.
Often we can unconsciously mirror other people’s energy and tone, which quickly affects how we feel and respond. It is our automatic defense mechanism (how we automatically react when we feel threatened), which has evolved over time, but does not always work well for every situation.
Replying from a more centered place in your mind, body, and spirit enables you to have awareness of the whole situation and works a lot better for you, leaving your energy and environment feeling happier, too. The Balancing elements can help you so much with this as, of course, they create the Balance needed. Over time you will find that you are more centered and calm when you do all five elements and less when you don’t.
Connecting with your breath is one of the best exercises you can practice to help you stay centered. It is a good idea to practice breathing into your chest area and centering yourself at times when you are not being challenged first, so you get used to responding mindfully. Choose a couple of activities a day that you can do while focusing on being in your body.
When challenged, try to keep centered in your internal environment today. I am sure you will have lots of chances to practice.
If someone knocks into you on public transport, or cuts you up when you are driving, make a conscious effort to stay centered and not to jump into thoughts about it in your head. Use any feeling of annoyance and anger to alert you to stay in your center. The negative emotions in your body come from the negative thoughts in your head about your situation. Staying centered helps you to view the actions of others just as they are: someone has bumped into you and that’s it. It’s not that they don’t like you, think you are easy to push around, or don’t respect you.
Stopping your mind from attaching negative thoughts and beliefs to a situation stops any negative emotions, and resistance to what is happening, growing in your body. Viewing them from a centered place in your body, not your mind, is the key to letting your negative emotions Flow. If you practice this it will change your life – it has mine.
If someone leaves the kitchen in a mess, don’t react. Instead, accept the situation because resisting makes you feel horrible inside. I don’t mean that you should let others take advantage. Just try to accept what is happening in the present moment without resistance, while staying connected to your body. Resolve the problem by asking or writing a note saying that you need the person’s help to keep the kitchen tidy.
This is so much better than begrudgingly cleaning up, with your mind churning with negative emotions that make you feel hard done by, and so rob you of your fantastic positive energy.
‘Let go of resistance and accept the present moment.’
You can apply this mantra hundreds of times a day. It will affect your relationships with the people in your life, and create a positive environment around you. This is a major lesson for anyone who tends to resist what is happening in their life, and it can have a massive affect on our energy levels.
Resistance to ‘what is’ creates lack of movement and stagnation in our bodies, and after a long period of time this can filter into the rest of our lives, leading to a resistance to any change.
Look back at your childhood and schooldays when change occurred all of the time and continual learning was taking place all of the time. Gradually, however, either because of different events in our lives, such as ambitions not being realized or facing problems, we progressively become more resistant to change and form beliefs about ourselves that aren’t necessarily true. For example: ‘I am stupid,’ or ‘I am a bad person,’ and so on.
You can see how, if we don’t learn to let things go and Flow with the situations we face in life, it is easy for resistance to form. It becomes a defense mechanism to life’s ups and downs – causing us to put up barriers and react out of context to what is actually happening and, in so doing, not feeling wholly happy with our behavior.
Just reacting in the present moment from what is stored from our past history.
I call this our stuff!
We all have stuff that we carry around, things that have happened to us over the years. It is called life, and although it has brought us to where we are today, it doesn’t have to define who we are today. It is much better to greet each new challenge with fresh eyes so we don’t pre-judge and react to it with the perspective of past hurts. Like the earlier analogy of the river, life would be pretty boring if it didn’t have the twists and turns that have created the characters we all are.
Noticing another person’s defense mechanisms, and not reacting from yours, results in you both not talking to each other from your past hurts.
By now you will have made a connection to your internal environment and are beginning to see how not reacting to the present moment creates harmony in your external environment.
Let’s give some thought to living a life in which, at the end, you can turn to yourself and say: ‘I did that. I am pleased I did that. I am proud I did that and I am happy I did that.’
Fill your life with special moments.
Yesterday you wrote a list of all the things you have yet to do in your life. I hope there were lots of exciting ideas on it, because today you are going to choose one and focus on doing it.
Choose one thing that you have not done and find out more about it. Choose something that is financially within your grasp and investigate prices or timings.
I remember the first time I wrote my list. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I had on my list learning how to motor race, to watch a sunrise, and to play squash. As squash and the sunrise didn’t cost very much, they were the ones I focused on first, while I started to save toward learning motor racing.
If you do this, you won’t be the person who always wished they had done something. You will be the one with many brilliant stories and life experiences to tell.
Hopefully more than you can ever remember. How great is that?
My first goal was to play squash and the next was seeing the sunrise. I still remember the latter now. It was a frosty morning in late autumn, and we had to get up early in order to catch it as we had decided to bike to a great spot to make the most of this everyday event. We had to race to catch it and our hands were really cold from the morning air; we felt so alive and this simple event is still imprinted on my mind. Many months later I started to learn how to motor race. Many great things are achievable; it just takes a bit of focus and taking one step at a time.
I have helped a lot of people who have what I call medium-termitus. They have a great vision of what they want, but often fail to take the steps to get themselves there. It’s like having a dream to run a marathon, but not doing the training to achieve it. What happens? Well, you never end up doing the marathon.
Having medium-termitus scatters your energy and keeps you from realizing your dreams. This can leave you feeling frustrated and disappointed, and sometimes lacking in self-worth, as you never seem to achieve any of your dreams.
So, as we did with Exercise on Day 1, we are going to start by taking one step forward to get some Momentum going.
Choose one thing from your list that can be achieved in the next month. Something that, within 30 days, you will be able to say, ‘I did that, I did that… Wow, I did that.’
This will then spur you on to do the next exciting thing on your list.
Today I am looking for you to be more thoughtful, and to start to become aware that how you feel and what you think are inextricably interlinked. You are now at the stage of working toward taking action, which will assist you in thinking less and feeling more.
This will then create more emotional Balance. You should be starting to have more awareness of how you feel and act, and feeling more of a spark of excitement about your life.
Igniting the spark within you and then taking little steps to get you either back on track and/or taking the steps to live your dream is, I feel, such an important thing to do in your life.
‘Allow your light to shine as brightly as possible, as it will show you the way.’