"What You Do Today Can Improve All Your Tomorrows.”

Time and again I have purchased books on self development that have sparked my interest. I have devoured the pages quickly and felt, 'this time I will change my life, this time I will do whatever I need to have the life I have always imagined.' However within a few weeks, days, even hours after the book has been lost in the magazine bin, used as a new sketch pad for my 2 year old or simply sucked into that vortex that swallows one sock in the laundry room, never to be seen again, I have fallen off the proverbial wagon. Old patterns emerge that I vowed to change, everything from my weight, finances (I still think the debit card should know my balance and not let me overdraw) or gaining the courage to completely change my life in order to truly live my dreams.

Does this sound familiar?

What I have learned simply from my running regimen is that change no matter how small or big, real change requires commitment and I realized I could not do it by reading a book or by myself. I needed a coach to root me on every Sunday morning to push me a little farther, help me go a little faster or to let me know that it is ok to not beat my personal best every time. Yes, sometimes our cheering section needs to remind us to let up on ourselves and apply the emotional breaks and sometimes he needs to tell you to kick it into high gear. I often wondered while running with my mentor how I would capture that inspiration when he wasn’t by my side.

We all need our own personal cheering section, don’t we? If you agree, read on. Read on because the Great Life Subscription is just such a solution.

Imagine for a moment a person, a coach in your life, who on a consistent basis is leading you in the direction of your dreams. Encouraging you to take hold of every moment of your life and make it count, who reminds you that your life matters and that deep inside of you is the potential to do, to achieve anything. Sound too good to be true? Ralph Marston created The Great Life Subscription specifically for iAmplify and more specifically for you.

Ralph Marston became known as the Daily Motivator by the tens-of-thousands who have been helped each year by his words, his guidance and inspiration. Each week of the year he will guide you with the steps and motivation to live the life you have always imagined.

I have started week one and feel as if I have known Marston for a lifetime, he is that kind, caring, inspirational and non-judgmental voice inside all of us that so often takes a backseat to all the negative thoughts and distractions in our brain stopping us from living our best life. His weekly downloads are literally a dose of unconditional love. All you have to do is download to your laptop or your ipod and he will remind you that all you need is one moment, all you need to do is take one step towards a new life, that "you can always, at any time become the person you are supposed to be."

"People from all over the world, in all walks of life, have a sincere interest in living lives of meaning, caring, dedication and fulfillment. I am extremely grateful that the technology of the Internet affords me the opportunity to share my work with so many people." -Ralph Marston. I am grateful for Mr. Marston and hope you will join me in this invitation to take small steps to big change. The Great Life is just a download away. Let me know what steps you are taking to achieve a Great Life by commenting on this page.

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes I recite to my two children:


“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way”. -Dr. Seuss


In this column I will seek out the most inspiring and life transforming content and products to share with you from some of the world's top experts in everything from fitness & health to self growth to conquering your fear of flying. We at iAmplify want you to live your best life. Turn up the volume and amplify your true self to the world. And remember that on-demand audio & video content reduces your carbon footprint. Go virtual. Go green! Download at http://www.iamplify.com/ today!


Ali M

What Does Your Inner Voice Say To You At 6 AM?

What does your inner voice say to you at 6 am?
Listen closely. It could change your life.

I saw the sign for the 5K run on my gym wall just as I was leaving, feeling like I had spent another hour in my comfort zone walking on the treadmill to no results. Yes, my body was 2 years from my last pregnancy. Yes, I looked as if I should be toting around a newborn in an infant car seat!!! Yes, the usual voices chimed in my head of – ‘you are not a runner, you’ll look ridiculous’. For some reason, unbeknownst to me at the time, I grabbed the application and signed up.

Synchronicity…

I had recently started listening to the Self- Esteem downloads from medical intuitive and healer Caroline Myss on my ipod while walking at the beach -- standing in line at the bank -- before bed. Like a great book you can’t put down I didn’t want to stop listening to her deeply touching seminars on empowering the self. Just like our bodies, we need to work on our self-esteem. Caroline believes it is the spiritual core of everything we do in life.

Having Caroline's healing voice all to oneself is like having private therapy sessions whenever you need them without the hefty price tag.

The night before the race I was winding down from an incredibly hard day with two very cute but needy toddlers -- never ending housework (I swear more dishes magically appear as I finish the pile that is in the sink) -- preparing meals for the family -- driving to swim class and playdates and more playdates -- playing therapist to my mother -- playing nurse to sniffles and boo boo's…

I realized I had not had a single moment to myself. Does this sound familiar to you?

I spotted my race number under a pile of clothes in need of folding and immediately thought ‘There is no way I am getting up at 6 am to run a race’. I put my ear phones on and fell back into my pillow and Caroline Myss was speaking of “high voltage intuitive hits” and how they lead us out of our comfort zone and into the unknown as we deeply listen to our inner selves. I remembered that tiny voice in my head that made me grab the race application and sign up, an ‘intuitive hit’…

I woke up at 6 AM sharp and Caroline's voice was in my head, ‘you can do the unknown, survive the unknown. Your self-esteem is the manifestation of your spirit in action, in life’!!!

The starting gun sounded and something inside of me said just put one foot in front of the other and no matter what, no matter how slow you are, if you have to walk, get to that finish line. I did get there and I got there 10 more races this summer. Yes, I have run my first half marathon. Yes, I lost all of my baby weight without looking at a scale and while doing something that I loved. Yes, I found out that I am a runner. Yes, yes, yes. I did not walk; I ran into the unknown and found my true self.

I look forward to how Caroline’s work can help me unlock other areas of my life and improve my self-esteem.

In this column I will seek out the most inspiring and life transforming content and products to share with you from some of the world's top experts in everything from fitness & health to self growth to conquering your fear of flying. We at iAmplify want you to live your best life. Turn up the volume and amplify your true self to the world.

What are you waiting for? Let me know your ‘high voltage intuitive hit’ stories on this page.

We believe in you!

Ali M.

Breaking Habitual Patterns

Each Sunday night or Monday morning, I find that I make promises to myself about the week ahead. This week, I'll only eat salads for lunch or I'll exercise every morning or I won't have a single drink until Thursday night. Most of the time, I make it through Monday with my promises intact. Tuesdays are iffy - if I'm on a roll and feel strong about my convictions, I can usually make it through a Tuesday. Wednesdays are harder. If I haven't already blown it, my willpower usually starts weakening by Wednesday. I've been so good, I tell myself. It's been a rough week, I deserve it. I'm bored, I'm tired, I'm cranky... oh the ways we justify our behavior. And once I allow myself one indulgence, all my promises to myself go out the window. I find myself bargaining: the "If I drink a glass of wine today, I won't have one tomorrow" kind of thing. I'm an all or nothing kind of gal and it's easier for me to indulge in bad habits than embrace good ones. So I frequently feel like I'm stuck in a bickering match between the devil and the angel that take up residence in my mind.

In Getting Unstuck: Breaking your Habitual Patterns and Encountering Naked Reality, Pema Chodron talks about how to break habitual patterns and live in the present moment. She compares the habitual pattern to something akin to the symptoms of a rash. A rash makes us want to itch, but itching only provides temporary relief and can actually make the rash worse in the long run. For instance, we experience an emotional hook or an urge which then leads to a chain reaction of thoughts which intensifies the feeling and then we try to move away from this feeling with the habitual pattern. We are constantly distracting ourselves, but this distraction can actually make our lives worse rather than better.

How can we break this cycle? The trick is to stay with the feeling or urge without reacting to it. She gives 4 steps to the process of breaking our habitual patterns:

1. Recognize the initial emotional hook or urge


2. Refrain from strengthening the urge (refrain from following the thoughts and the habitual pattern that results from the urge)


3. Relax into the underlying feeling


4. Resolve to repeat this pattern again and again

How do you get unstuck? We would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below

Expanding our Consciousness

Have you ever had one of those moments when you thought things could not possibly get any worse and then they did? I had one of those moments just last week. I know that I've mentioned my upcoming wedding a few times in my posts, but I'm not sure if I mentioned that I decided to have a destination wedding. Well, guess which country I chose to have as the destination? Mexico.

Poor Mexico. They've had a rotten year. First the Mexican drug war made national headlines. That was bad enough, and the coverage stressed me out a little, but this stress was manageable because I knew that the violence was mainly affecting border towns. My wedding was going to be in tourist Mecca, right near Cancun. I felt it was unlikely that the Mexican government would let one of its main tourist hotspots turn into a dangerous place to visit.

Then the swine flu made national news. People were suddenly dying from this strange flu, and visitors who got the flu were spreading it in their home countries, upon their return from Mexico. This became the headline of every news story for days; the possibility of a pandemic was even discussed. I couldn't believe it. Now, I was getting seriously worried. I tried to remain calm, telling myself that it was still early, that this would probably blow over in another few weeks. I talked to the resort, where our wedding is booked, and they reassured me the flu was mainly in Mexico City. I took a deep breath and figured that if this was the worst that could happen, it was good that it was happening now and not nearer to my wedding date.

That's when the earthquake hit Acapulco. I just looked up into the sky and half laughed, "Really? Are you serious?" I was beginning to think that I was being punished for some unseen thing that I had done in this life or some past life.

Sometimes life does seem that way doesn't it? It's easy to get caught up in the "why me" state of mind. This happens especially when we think at the micro level -- when we are deep in our own universe, we don't see past our personal and limited consciousness of the world. In truth, this series of disasters wasn't happening to just me. It was affecting thousands of people, not to mention many who were faring a lot worse than me. Some were dying, while I was perfectly fine (besides being stressed). Only after I had taken a step back was I able to take in the bigger picture and put these events into perspective.

Eckhart Tolle talks a lot about this idea of expanding our consciousness. When I last wrote about his audio program, Bringing Stillness into Everyday Life, I mentioned that I would be writing much more about his work. I have to keep coming back to him, because there is just so much to what he is trying to communicate. I have listened to his programs again and again and have still not absorbed everything. His work is as profound as it is simplistic. It's hard for the mind to wrap itself around what he suggests, because our ego clings desperately to what is familiar. We naturally rebel, finding it too easy to continue living and suffering in our own micro universe. Yet what would it mean to start living this new consciousness? If we were truly connected to everything, what other things would we have to change about our lives?

Do you have an experience you'd like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below

Prepare your Mind to get in Shape

I've been thinking a lot about the challenges of getting in shape and the reasons why we sometimes lack the motivation to see our goals through to completion. And I think it has a lot to do with our state of mind. It's hard to find motivation to work out if we feel negative about our bodies, but it's hard to improve our body image if we feel unsatisfied with how our bodies look. I always find it much easier to motivate myself to keep going once I start to see some results. But seeing results usually takes time. So how do we keep our motivation to work out and diet until this tipping point? Well, this is where "mind fitness" comes in. It's very important to include some kind of mind motivation into your workout program. This could be in the form of guided meditations, positive affirmations or hypnosis.

I also find doing a meditative movement exercise really helps my state of mind. Try Tai Chi, Qi Gong or Flow Yoga, also referred to as Vinyasa Yoga. Or check out one of my favorite workout series, developed by fitness expert Patricia Moreno, called intenSati. intenSati combines the best of group fitness with the elements of yoga and life coaching to create a new workout that is exactly right for our times, combining both physical and spiritual disciplines to create excellent results.

How do you keep your mind fit? We'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below.

Tips to get You Bikini Ready

So, I've been unofficially gearing us up for bikini season . . . not to mention gearing MYSELF up for my upcoming wedding! I've talked about eating well and making your workouts fun. And don't forget the Instinctive Weight Loss Hypnosis audio I mentioned a few weeks back. Like many things in my life, I sort of fell off track with listening to the self hypnosis audio programs regularly. It's hard to find a block of time to dedicate to this. But I have lost 7 pounds since starting this journey and I do owe partial credit to this program. From this day forward, I am going to re-dedicate myself to reserving a block of time to listening to these downloads. I've also been looking into joining a bootcamp fitness class to really jump start my toning and strengthening goals. But I've found that these types of programs can be really expensive and I wish they would come to my house!

So instead of investing some of my wedding budget in a bootcamp class, I've decided that all I need is a workout buddy. Someone to motivate me and push me when I'm not feeling in the zone! I found these bootcamp workout downloads that I can try with a partner. The great thing about downloads is that they are portable. So the sky is the limit as to where we can work out. We could go to the park and work out there if we wanted to. I can download the workout to my laptop and we can watch it there or I can hook up my computer to my TV and get the big screen effect. I can also download to my iPhone if I don't feel like lugging my computer around. It is the ultimate convenience!

Tips to help you get bikini ready:

• Get a fitness partner: Fitness partners can help motivate you and also hold you accountable.


• Create weekly goals: Be specific and try to choose goals that you know you can accomplish


• Reward yourself: Once you reach a goal, give yourself a small reward. Preferably not in the form of food. This can be a simple reward like treating yourself to a candlelit bath or downloading a favorite song. You can give yourself bigger rewards for bigger goals accomplished


• Try to give up one indulgence: If you know you have one particular weakness that you can't help but overeat, try to take it out of your meals all together. Allow yourself one cheat day a week where you eat that item, but don't overindulge!


• Eliminate high fructose corn syrup and highly processed foods from your diet: Try to eat whole grains, and fruits and vegetables as much as possible. Your body can more easily digest natural foods.
  
• Don't under eat and try to divide your meals into 4 or 5 meals a day. I've taken to saving some of my lunch and eating the rest of it 3-4 hours later. This really works!

Do you have any tips to get bikini ready? We'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below

How You Can Get Marisa Tomei's Great Body as Seen in "The Wrestler"

A couple of weeks ago my friend invited me to join her for a three hour hula hoop class. At first, I was mortified. I am kind of a hopeless case when it comes to coordination. I mean, I can barely do the hula hoop exercise on my Wii Fit! I could just picture myself looking like a pathetic dork in front of a class of people who were gyrating geniuses. But at the same time, I thought it might get me out of my exercise rut. Even though bikini season is right around the corner and I'm getting married in September, I've been finding it really hard to stick to my routine. Maybe if I learned something fun, I would actually WANT to exercise. Plus, I heard that hula hooping was how Marisa Tomei got that killer body for "The Wrestler".

So I went to the class and now I'm hooked! I mean, it was challenging and a little frustrating because I just couldn't get some of the tricks that they taught us. But at least I learned to keep the hula hoop up for more than five seconds! I even bought a hula hoop from the instructor so I could practice on my own. The trick is to get a large hula hoop if you are an adult. The smaller hula hoops are for children or for more skilled hula hoopers. I've been practicing most mornings and I'm really getting the basics down pretty well. It's really enjoyable to put in a CD and just hula hoop to the music. It's almost meditative and it is so much more fun than my normal routine!

When I told a coworker what I had been up to, she reminded me that we had a couple of hula hoop videos in our library. I was so excited because I wasn't sure when they were going to be offering another class! I just downloaded the Hoopnotica: Hoopdance Basics. This video teaches you how to keep the hoop spinning on your waist, hips, above your head and also how to take the hoop on and off your body in a beautiful spiral. Once I master these moves, I'm going to download the advanced video Hoopnotica: Hoopdance Workout. This video teaches hooping on your upper body, hooping on your thighs, additional corkscrews and angles. Plus it includes a 20 minute work out.

If you are getting bored with your workout routine, I really recommend that you try hula hooping or some of our other dance oriented workouts like Latin Groove, Bollywood Dance Workout and Brazilian Body

How do you keep your workouts fun? We would like to hear from you! Please leave a comment below.

6 Diet Tips from Dr. Weil

Growing up in a large family with a modest income, we didn't always have a lot of food around. My mother was sort of a health food nut who frequently bought bulk ingredients to make homemade bread and exciting things like Brunswick Stew. Well, let's just say it was not exciting to me at the time. My dad was sort of the opposite. When he would get his paycheck each Friday, he would frequently bring home hot dogs, chips and coke or pizza and soda. Whenever I would go out on work calls with him, he would always let me buy a Snickers bar which became my favorite indulgence. Those were the types of food that equaled celebration in my mind. I would hate the healthy foods we frequently had around and would look forward to each paycheck. Not only that, since I had a lot of competing mouths around me, I would have to eat as much as I could before my brothers and sisters could get their hands on the treats that were left.

As you can imagine, this sort of mindset about food was not very beneficial as I started to care about my health and weight. While I've made a lot of good adjustments to my diet, I still find myself living out this pattern in my life. I will eat well all week long, and then I get bored and want to celebrate. And you can imagine what celebration still means to me. Well, my tastes have broadened beyond hot dogs but it's still fattening foods that tempt me, and lots of it! I have a friend who orders fish or chicken every time we go out, while I just can't help but order the lasagna or the steak frites. I'm paying good money for this food and I want to enjoy it. Pour me another glass of wine please!

So how do I reconcile the conflicting desires to maintain a healthy body and my warped view of fattening food as a means of celebration? In Dr. Andrew Weil's Guide to Eating Well, Dr. Weil says "it's important to maintain the pleasurable aspect of eating. If you eat in a way that deprives you of pleasure, it will inevitably end in failure." But for him, there is no opposition between healthy food and food that gives you pleasure. The myth that eating in a healthy manner means giving up the food that you like- that's absolutely not true! He claims there are some common misconceptions in what we've been taught about carbs and low fat diets. Below are a couple of tips that I found interesting:

• The majority of our calories SHOULD come from carbs. We've been in an anti-carb era... this is wrong, but there are better and worse carbs.


• In general try to eat carbs that are lower on the Glycemic Load Scale. Whole wheat bread is not a whole grain food. When you pulverize the starch of a grain, you get huge surface area, which rapidly converts to blood sugar and can lead to insulin resistance and other health problems.


• Fats are misunderstood -- good fats are the mono-unsaturated fats: olive, nut, avocado. Extra-virgin olive oil should be your main cooking oil, particularly good quality, since the phenols it includes are protective. Canola oil is also good. Avoid saturated and polyunsaturated oils, which promote inflammation and cancer.


• You should also focus on sources of Omega 3's: oily fish; fortified eggs, walnuts, flax seeds, and hemp seeds, or take a supplement.


• The problem with low fat diets is that fat is a main source of flavor. Without adequate fat, food becomes uninteresting.


• We need less protein than people think. People eat protein in excess and it overburdens our liver and kidneys. Eat more vegetable protein than animal protein because animal protein often has other things in it like concentrated environmental toxins.

Download his video for more great tips on eating well without sacrificing pleasure. Now if I could only learn some portion control!

Do you have any nutritional tips you would like to share with us? We would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below

Seeking Fulfillment

So the last few weeks I’ve been talking about ways to better organize your life. I’ve been obsessed with this in my own life because I’ve felt overwhelmed with the list of things I needed to do to get to this undefined place where I would finally feel fulfilled. I wasn’t aware that this was my ultimate goal… I thought I bought into the idea that life is about goal achievement and once you accomplish one goal, you just set another one and so on and so forth. So when I first started feeling anxiety about my list, I thought I just wasn’t going about it in the right way. I thought maybe I just wasn’t committed enough. If I could learn the secrets of other successful people, perhaps I could master the focus to accomplish all of my goals and become just as successful. And I did learn some great new techniques and these techniques did help. David Allen’s central theme in particular was a kind of breakthrough in my goal setting.

But there was still something missing. I couldn’t define it. This anxiety, this weight kept tugging at my heart. What was it all for? What were these goals driving me toward? I thought I would be happy with each goal accomplished just for the sake of accomplishing something. But what happened instead was this momentary high followed by deep anxiety about needing to set my next goal. Was this really what I wanted from life? I wasn’t really happy. Actually, I was sort of miserable.

Then I started to listen to Eckhart Tolle’s Bringing Stillness into Everyday Life and I had an “Aha” moment. Now, I’ve read and listened to a lot of advice about mindfulness and living in the present moment. But Eckhart Tolle’s teachings take this concept to a whole new level. He talks about many things in this program, but I wanted to highlight just a couple of his thoughts. He says people are always trying to get to this future moment that will somehow make their lives better. We call this progress. But actions that arise out of suffering or anger will just bring about more suffering and anger. This is why the world at large is suffering. Most people are lost in the content of life and if you are lost in the content of life you will never be fulfilled because it is a bottomless pit… always wanting more content. His program really made me stop and think about my life and goals in a profound way. There is a lot to examine here and a lot to write about. I will certainly return to this topic in a future post.

Do you have a good “Aha” moment you would like to share with us? Please leave a comment below.

Spring Cleaning Time

It’s that time again. Springtime is just around the corner! I’ve been sort of obsessed with becoming more productive and organized lately. Sometimes you just need to remove the clutter in your life to make room for new and better things. I personally like to start my spring cleaning a little early, because as soon as it gets nice outside, the last thing I want is to be cooped up inside.

I just got through listening to Marla Dee’s Get Organized the Clear & Simple Way to see if I could get some good organizing tips before I started the process. I’m glad that I did, because she has some really great ideas. I’ll share with you some of the tips that I found useful. Of course, she goes into much more detail in her programs. This product has 9 programs, each over 1 hour long!

Her process includes 3 steps:

See it: Start with taking in your current surroundings. What’s working? What’s not working? Where are you stuck and why? What do you most need to accomplish? Create a vision of where you would like to be in the future. What do you need from a particular space?

Map it: Create this vision in its physical form. Where you are going and how you want to get there. This can be a list, chart, vision, mind map, pictures. This is your roadmap.

Do it: Take the action and create the results.

She also has a system called "S.T.A.C.K.S." It’s basically putting everything into piles without deciding where they go. It’s like categorizing everything. But the best tip is that as you are putting your stacks together, you put them each in a different banker’s box. This way, when you lose steam, you can put the boxes neatly away until you can deal with them another day. I really liked this idea,because I usually get over-ambitious and lose steam after the piles are created. Then I try to rush through the last part and usually end up cramming things places or not even finishing the project.

Do you have any good organizing tips? Please share with us by leaving a comment below.

Getting Things Done

My to-do list has been getting a little overwhelming these days both at home and at work. When I first began keeping it, it felt really empowering to be committed to an organized list. Before, I kept everything in my head and on notes scattered around home and at my desk. You can imagine how that system worked! But after a few weeks of dutifully keeping my list, I started to feel a little paralyzed on some of my projects, and soon I started to rebel against my list completely. Looking at the list was giving me anxiety and making me feel guilt and grumpy. I was starting to ignore the list completely and revert back to my old way of doing things – even though it didn’t work, at least it was familiar.

Then, David Allen came into my life. Sometimes things just sync up at just the right moment! David Allen is a NY Times bestselling author and creator of The Getting Things Done System. The tag line to this system is “whether you are a CEO, a student, or a stay-at-home worker, we’ll give you the keys to focus your energies without letting things fall through the cracks. We’ll show you how to create environments and best practices for work and home to avoid burn out and keep you relaxed, focused and productive” Sold! Sign me up.

I decided to just dive in and download the GTD full 2 day seminar. The seminar is an investment, but it is a fraction of the price of attending David Allen’s conference in person, and contains over 9 hours of really good material. The goal of the program is to master the flow of priorities into a manageable system so that your mind is emptied and ready for the present task. He claims your subconscious is usually on an endless loop about all of the things that are unresolved in your life. So this causes a lot of unneeded anxiety and keeps you from truly being focused on the present moment. Rings true for my life!

His system is much more advanced than creating simple to do-lists. He actually doesn’t believe these lists work because people tend to ignore them. Spot on!

One of the things he talks about in this seminar is mastering your workflow into five phases:

1. Collect all of the stuff you potentially have to pay attention to

2. Process: focus your mind on these things and determine they mean to you

3. Organize the results of that thinking into coherent systems that make sense

4. Review and keep current

Then: use this process to move ourselves into trust in terms of our judgments about what we do, and finally:

5. Do

Do you have your own process for getting things done? We want to know what is working for you! Please leave a comment below.

Instinctive Weight Loss

Last week I voiced my skepticism about hypnosis. I thought hypnosis could be a good addition to other types of programs you were using to help you achieve a goal, but I wasn’t convinced it could magically fix a problem you were facing. Well, I started listening to an amazing new program this week that combines hypnosis with practical advice and teaches you how to challenge some of your unconscious beliefs which may be keeping you from losing weight. This combination of hypnosis and advice makes this program an excellent tool to achieve and maintain your ideal weight.

It’s called the Instinctive Weight Loss System and I highly recommend that you check it out. It claims that diet and exercise treat the symptoms of weight gain, but it doesn’t tackle the source of your problem. This is why so many people gain the weight back after they lose it. Each program is an hour long and each program includes a special hypnosis session at the end. Damien Young, who is a clinical hypnotherapist and sports nutritionist, delivers some of the best hypnosis sessions I’ve ever listened to. His voice and visualizations truly helped put me in a hypnotic state. It’s only been a week, but I’m already seeing some results. I can’t wait to share with you more of my progress from this program.

If you have used Damien Young’s Instinctive Weight Loss System, please email me your experience! You can find our contact email by clicking on our blog profile.

If you’ve tried a weight loss program that has worked for you, we want to know about it. Please leave a comment below.

Does Hypnosis Really Work?

I’ve always looked at self hypnosis programs with a heavy dose of skepticism. First of all, I’ve never believed that you can fix problems without work. I don’t buy all of those marketing schemes that claim you can lose weight, but still eat as much as you want without exercising! Second of all, I can’t imagine lulling myself into a hypnotic state without falling asleep.

But I do believe in the power of the subconscious mind and the power of suggestion. I’ve been listening to a lot of motivational self help programs lately. I listen to them to and from work, every time I go out on a walk, while working and sometimes when I’m doing chores around the house. Listening to these audio programs has certainly helped me as I’ve been working toward my goals this January. I’m more optimistic and certainly more positive. These programs have helped me stay focused and have positively changed my overall attitude towards life.

Most of the self hypnosis programs I’ve listened to have some sort of positive affirmation and they seem geared toward putting you in a meditative state. Meditating on an issue and focusing on a positive outcome is a great way to progress toward your goal more quickly. Will a hypnosis program magically fix your problems, help you lose weight or make you more confident? I’m not sure. But I do know that they can be an important part of the solution.

Check out some of these self hypnosis programs: Build Confidence Hypnosis Session, How to Attract Love, Stop Smoking, Lose Weight, Success & Prosperity, Sleep Better, Relieve Stress & Anxiety

Programs I’ve been listening to recently: The Power of Self Coaching, The Body Fat Solution, Eat that Frog

What do you think about self hypnosis? We would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below.

Relationships II

Before I met my fiancé three years ago, I thought I might never have a long term relationship. My longest relationship had been in high school, which -- lasting only nine non-continuous months -- can’t really be characterized as long term. He was my first love, but I was very young and we broke up when I moved away to college. For years after this relationship, I only dated a few people and for no longer than 4 months or so. I was always looking for the next thing and really didn’t want to settle down.

But as I approached thirty, , I started to wonder why I couldn’t find a mate., The question “what is wrong with me?” began to haunt my thoughts. Now, I was not particularly proud of this thought. I am ferociously independent and claimed my singlehood like a badge of honor. But inside I was a hopeless romantic and had always dreamed of the day when I would meet my soul mate. The day I would meet the man who would turn me into the best possible person I could imagine. Looking back, I now know there wasn’t really anything wrong with me. It was my perceptions and attitudes that were keeping me from really connecting with anyone with whom I could build a solid relationship. I didn’t really understand what I wanted in a mate.

Once I began to examine some of the faulty perceptions I had about myself and about relationships, and to understand how I was attracting the exact opposite of what I truly wanted in a mate, my experiences began to change. I became more specific about what I was looking for and offered this vision up to the universe. I became more in tune with what is and is not good for me. I was able to explore relationships I would never have been open to before. Then, it just happened. It wasn’t a magical lightning strike like I thought it would be. It was something that grew with time and nurturing. And it was my choice. It was what I wanted. Now this relationship IS helping me become the best possible person I could imagine, but it’s not my mate who is magically causing this to happen. It is the relationship. Just like every relationship and experience helps you grow to become a better person, this one is helping me grow too.

If you are looking to understand yourself better and how you might be sabotaging your own relationships, check out these programs: Natural & Lasting Attraction, Cocky Comedy & Other Conversational Skills, Find Your Passion for Singles, Everything You Need to Find Real Love

Relationships

As we approach Valentines Day, many of us start focusing on our relationships, or lack thereof. It is my wish that all of you reading this have a loving and healthy relationship in your life. But even loving and healthy relationships need our special attention from time to time. Relationships are dynamic, constantly changing. They must be tended to daily, and we must be flexible enough to shift and change along with them. I wanted to share with you some relationship advice that Dr. Laura Berman details in her audio program, Guide to a Loving Relationship. The “soft addictions” portion surprised me and I realized this was something that I needed to work on. The technological innovations that permanently connect us to the outside world are amazing, but they can get in the way of being present with the people we love.

Dr. Berman advises: ·

• Never go more than two weeks without having sex. Having sex regularly keeps you more emotionally in tune, more connected, you get angry less easily, and you fight less often. It’s also great for your immune system and your health. ·
  
• One key to keeping your relationship strong is making sure you take time to create your own life, what psychologists call “individuation.” Make sure that you have your own friends, your own hobbies, and your own life. While it’s very important to spend time with your partner, you also need to find time for yourself.
  
• Soft addictions (such as blackberries, video games, shopping) get in the way of intimacy between partners. National research shows that partners who spend more than an hour every evening tending to their soft addictions have significantly less sex than those who don’t. · When men and women experience stress, they respond to sex differently. Men fall into a “fight flight” response, which increases their adrenaline and makes them want to have sex to let off steam and feel more powerful. Woman fall into a “tend and befriend” response, which lowers their testosterone levels (the hormone of desire) causing them a lowering of libido. If you’re aware of this difference, you can be more sensitive to your partners’ needs.

How do you keep your relationship healthy? We would love to hear from you! Please add your comment below.

Get in Touch with your Spirituality

One of my New Year’s goals this year was to get back in touch with my spirituality. I’m not a very religious person but I am very spiritual. Whenever I’ve gone a long while without nurturing my spirit, I can really feel the chaos of life start to get to me. There is so much negativity that we face in our daily lives, it is necessary to balance it with spiritual positivity. One of the ways I do this is by meditating. Even five minutes of daily reflection or silent contemplation can help. So on this note, I thought I’d share with you a simple meditation I recently learned. It’s straightforward and easy to do anywhere.

Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Sit on a pillow with legs crossed and spine straight. Close your eyes and spend a few minutes checking in with your body. Focus on relaxing each body part from head to toe. Check in with how you are feeling at this moment, acknowledge this feeling and then let it go. Try to spend five minutes on each breathing meditation described below:

1) Breathe in and out as you normally would. Count your out breaths until you reach 10. Once you reach 10, start your count again

2) Repeat above, but this time count your in breath

3) Now breathe in and out and this time concentrate on following your breath as it goes in and out of your body

4) Finally, as you breathe in and out concentrate on how the breath feels on your top lip as you release the breath from your nose

This meditation is designed to focus your mind on your breath instead of your thoughts. If your mind does wander off, just bring your attention back to your breath without judgment. Once you accomplish this meditation, you can combine it with other meditations. Check out some of our guided meditation downloads like The Eflexx Awareness Meditation: Dissolve Stress, The Efflex Empowerment Meditation, Mantra Meditation for Creating Abundance, Meditation Emotion and Healing, Kabbalah Meditation, Chakra Breathing Meditations, One Gentle Soul Meditation, Beginner’s Guide to Meditation, Loving Kindness Meditation, Mantra Meditation for Attracting and Healing Relationships, Plum Village Meditations, and Meditation for Beginners

Staff Picks

For the New Year, I thought it might be interesting to share with you some top download picks from the iAmplify Team. Enjoy!

World of Collector Cars:

I recently brought home some of the Collector Cars downloads to enjoy and found that they have a value far greater than my own personal enjoyment… They are like the best babysitters for our toddlers. My two boys are obsessed with Cars, especially Classic Cars thanks Pixar. Can anyone say McQueen!!!??? My wife and I can now have dinner in peace as our two sons sit mesmerized watching and being hypnotized by Hudson Hornets and Packards, MG’s and old Jags. Even the Classic Mini, so Shagriffic! Bottom line, my wife has always loved our fitness and personal growth experts, but she never understood the true value of our platform until she watched our two cubs silenced by the simple joys of the World of Classic Cars. Download Now. Satisfaction and Quiet Guaranteed! Kipp

Tracy Mallet’s Elliptical Training Package and Yoga for Athletes:

Growing up, I had always been an athlete, training for hours a day. Now with my 10-year high school reunion looming, I am faced with the daunting challenge of getting back into shape. My biggest challenge: time and motivation. So, the first thing I did was head straight to iAmplfy.com and download Tracy Mallet’s Elliptical Training Package and Yoga for Athletes by Kimberly Fowler. Tracy’s cardio workouts have gotten me back on track and have kept me motivated for the entire time. As cheesy as it sounds, I actually look forward to going to the gym. And, Yoga for Athletes is the perfect combination of toning and total body strength training without any crazy yoga poses or chanting. Plus, I can do it in the bedroom of my tiny New York apartment on my computer so I don’t have to worry about making it to a class. For the first time, I feel like I have started a program that I can stick with…even on to my 20- or 30-year reunion (yikes!).
Joanna

J.K.D. Body Weapon and Wing Chung Complete Package:

I’ve been studying martial arts for a short time now and was in need of finding a way to practice at home after class. I decided to try one of the Master Wong segments on Tai Chi and found that this was a great addition to what I was already learning in class. Also, it has been a lot of fun learning new and different techniques from such a talented martial artist, all while practicing in the comfort of my living room! If you want get into shape and learn something useful for everyday life, I strongly recommend the Master Wong J.K.D and Wing Chun packages! Kyle

Plyomix Core-Matt Hughes:

I recently purchased Matt Hughes: Plyomix Core and found it to be well worth the cost. The entire work out is only about 35 minutes and it had so many great techniques to work out my core. What I found most interesting was the back stretches. Most people, myself included, don’t consider the lower back as part of the core and often overlook it but that won’t be me anymore. After a few weeks of this training I am already feeling a big change and hope to continue until I get my six pack abs. This is a great product. Eitai

Joe Navarro:

Any Joe Navarro product. Too much of our interactions with other people are spent looking without seeing and listening without hearing. Reams of information are communicated, not by words, but by gestures and tone and posture, and Joe teaches us in simple easy to understand steps how to interpret what is really being communicated beyond the words, and how to be conscious of what we communicate to others by how we stand, or move our hands, or where we look. Invaluable skills, whether in dating, business or poker. David

Core Fitness- Lindsay Brin:

Over the years I’ve struggled with sciatica and other back problems, and my physical therapist has told me the best way to fight them is to strengthen my core muscles. This download gives a tougher, more targeted core workout than any other I’ve tried! It’s really hard but really good and I can tell it’s making a big difference. Kate

Golden Touch Craps:

My favorite product from the iAmplify catalog is Golden Touch Craps, by Frank and the Dominator. This series really peaked my interest because, as an avid craps player, I am always looking for innovative ways to improve my controlled throws.The first time I reached for the dice with the rigid, four-finger technique I learned from the Golden Touch team, I knew that something had changed in my relationship with the game. The idea of being able to control the destiny of your throws transforms the entire experience. What was once a combination of learning the odds and betting on luck, has become an obsessive game of precision, strategy, and skill. I’ve been too busy to make to Atlantic City since acquiring this imposing bank of knowledge, but they better look out when I come marching through next month! Danny

Fytek Body Masters:

I really like this download because when I can't make it to the gym it's really easy to do when I'm at home or away. It comes with tons of different routines so you're never bored. The hip-hop routines are especially fun and I think in general it's a well-rounded workout - it includes everything from aerobics and muscle toning to stretching and nutrition. I highly recommend it. Sheri

Keeping on Track

Oprah has been all over the news lately, confessing how she has gotten off track with her health and fitness routine and how she has let herself fall back into old bad habits. She says she is embarrassed. After all, she is a role model to millions of women. She has tons of money to hire personal trainers, chefs, etc. Her everyday message is about our personal power to change. So she really has no excuse, right?

Well, I think this example of personal weakness is very inspiring. This is what I get from Oprah’s experience: Maintaining your weight, living a healthy lifestyle, asserting your control over personal weakness is an everyday process. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are or how together your life seems. We all have to keep working to reach our highest potential in life. There are no short cuts and the work doesn’t stop.

Most of the time we set goals for ourselves and we are so focused on the end result that we lose sight of the everyday process. We think that our life will somehow be different once we reach that goal…that life will suddenly be perfect and we won’t have to do anymore work. I can’t tell you how wrong I think that world view is. You reach goals and then you make new ones. This is what life is about. If you have put on extra weight, your goal is to take that weight off. But once you reach your goal, do you think that if you stop exercising and go back to eating the way you did before that you will not gain that weight back? It is this perception of reaching some ideal place that keeps us from reaching and maintaining realistic goals and enjoying the process.

In How to Stay Motivated: The Goals Program, motivational speaker and master storyteller Zig Ziglar examines this very issue. At one point he says “so you didn’t reach your goals the first time you tried. So what? Failure is an event – it is not a person!... Failure is the result of the least persistence.” Without clearly defined goals and persistence, you simply can't achieve the success you want!

Also check out Denis Waitley’s Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. This 16 hour program is divided into 3 parts:

Part 1: Healthy: The Ultimate Fitness & Wellness System, How to build a Fat-Burning, Disease-Fighting, Age-Defying Body and Mind (based upon Denis' Olympic mental training experience.)

Part 2: Wealthy: The 12 Secrets of Self-Made Multi-Millionaires; The Richest Man in Babylon and Acres of Diamonds. A banquet of priceless knowledge on capital accumulation and financial independence, both philosophical and practical.

Part 3: Wise: The Psychology of Winning for the 21st Century (recorded live at Caesar's Palace) and a separate recording, The Psychology of Winning for Women, where Denis Waitley is joined by his two Ph.D. daughters, Deborah and Dayna Waitley.

How do you stay on track? We want to know! Share by commenting below.