Carl Massy

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Optimum Health Rest

Pillar 4 for Optimum Health: Rest Up (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

restRest up of fall downThis was actually the name of a chapter I included in The Guidebook to Happiness.The basics are this, when it comes to ‘SLEEP’:
  • The majority of the population need 7.5 – 9 hrs sleep (which means a big % of the population are sleep deprived).
  • Deep sleep, as opposed to interrupted or restless sleep, is essential for the mind to process short term to long term information (miss this and your brain will feel full, muddled and be less effective).
  • The body needs deep sleep to carry out the billions of repair and rejuvenation functions for optimum health.
  • Your body LOVES to rise with the sun and wind down when it gets dark. Go to bed earlier, so you can rise earlier. I recently interviewed Octavio Salvado (a yogi with a good Aussie name) who said rising with the sun is one of his Top 3 Happiness Tips and was a key teaching in yoga for 1000’s of years.
  • Stimulants like caffeine obviously affect most peoples depth and quality of sleep. Ease up on the caffeine later in the day.
  • To sleep better, keep to a regular routine, so the body gets used to the cycle.
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Nutrition Optimum Health

Pillar 3 for Optimum Health: The Importance of Detoxification (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

detox1Cars

Put your hand up if you own a car? I have my hand down, since I haven’t owned a car since 2001 (but I do own a very fast 110cc scooter ;-)). Does your car run better after you have it serviced? And do you get a MAJOR service after your car has run for X number of km’s (or miles)? But it’s only a car. A hunk of metal and stuff. Bloody handy, but still not great for conversation, love & intimacy (although some may disagree on this one), and making a difference in the world.

You on the other hand are a work of art. Infinitely creative and with the ability to make an amazing difference in the lives of others. Something that special deserves a lot more attention, support and maintenance so it can shine most brightly. This is about taking deeper care of yourself.

The number 1 detox method

This is for those with a short concentration span. I will share the biggest tip now, but for those that want to make a huge difference in their life you might want to read on to the next section.

I have talked about this before and will mention it again. It is the famous Green Drink. Click here for a great recipe. This cleanses the body by adding healing micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and enzymes), and fibre for elimination (pooping) plus aids in insulin management.

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Nutrition Optimum Health

Pillar 2 for Optimum Health: Nutrition (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

nutritionMurky waterIt was that Hippocrates dude that said it right when he made the eternal comment ‘let thy food be thy medicine’. So of course nutrition had to be one of the key pillars to optimum health. The thing is we all know it, but with the proliferation of the diet industry, media, an industry worth well over a trillion dollars (the US industry alone is about 1 trillion dollars), it is pretty hard to work out what the ‘real’ message is. So I am going to share with you some of my basic philosophies and the biggest tips I have taken away from following nutrition and researching it for the last 15 years. My views have definitely changed over the years too.

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Book Optimum Health Physical Activity

Pillar 1 for Optimum Health: Physical Activity (from The Guidebook to Optimum Health)

activityNo surprises

The first Pillar (or key) to Optimum Health is – no surprises – physical activity. I can just imagine you reading this thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don’t know. Did you know that physical activity actually helps with your memory, your cognitive functioning and neurogenesis (development of new neurons)? Physical activity is just as important for the brain as it for the body and internal systems. Sometimes we forget that. You are also likely to score better on tests or be more creative after you exercise. Now have I got your attention? 😉   Tal Ben-Sharar, a leader in the positive psychology field, said ‘Not exercising is like taking a depressant’. Oops. It turns out that exercise is one of the best stress management and stress resilience strategies we have. In many research situations exercise performs just as well as anti-depressants (without the side-effects).     

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Relationship

One of the Best Relationship Tips for 2014

relationshipAre you being realistic?

Picture this. Two people born in two different cities. Two different parents. Two different sets of beliefs installed. Two very different behaviours at play in the family environment. Two different schools. Two different groups of friends and influences. Two very different life experiences. Two different physical appearances. Two different interests, talents, and hobbies. I could go on, but I am sure you get the picture.

Now here is the big question: What are the chances that when these two people connect they will think, feel and behave in exactly the same way?

If your answer was anything other than NONE or VERY UNLIKELY then you definitely need to give me a call and we definitely need to chat. So we agree (apart from the people calling me shortly) that the chances of two people from two different places, families and life experiences having exactly the same values, beliefs, skills, mindsets, perspectives, outlooks, etc. is very very low.

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Emotional Happiness Tips Life Purpose

Do You Want a Better Life or Some Useless Piece of Cr#p?

shoppingBack to basics

Over the years I have done a bunch of work and traveling to Singapore. Great food, nice and orderly especially after coming from Indonesia, and a bucket-load of shopping centres. Plus people working their butts off to make more money so they can buy stuff that they actually don’t need (and haven’t got the time to enjoy).Did I hear someone say ‘but what about retail therapy’? Well here is a question for you. Was the term ‘retail therapy’ introduced by the retail industry or by a team of the worlds leading therapists on emotional intelligence and stress management? Research does suggest that shopping is actually likely to make you feel worse, in the long run, as opposed to better. Having said that, if you drop the shopping for stuff you don’t need and catch up with friends for meaningful conversations, that is a different story entirely.

Here is my theory

When you look about your house, how much stuff do you see that you really ‘need’. That contributes to the quality of your life and the lives of the people around you?

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Choice Emotional Feeling Happiness Tips

The Greatest Thing Being Sick Teaches Us

sickThere is no such thing as failure (or being ill), only FEEDBACK.

What is the feedback telling you?

The biggest opportunity we are given when we are sick is pretty clear communication from our body. And since our brain is hard-wired into the body, you can assume when the body speaks, it is our subconscious mind communicating with us. Dr Darren Weissman – one of the leaders in mind-body field – tells us, if we did not consciously choose something, then it is coming compliments of the subconscious mind. What might your subconscious mind be telling us when we get sick?

Could it be saying to slow down? Or ease up on the Oreo’s. Or get more sleep? Or let go of the worrying about things you don’t control? Or accept that change is inevitable. It is time to sit up and pay close attention especially before the symptoms get really serious. This is the greatest opportunity we have whenever we are sick. The best thing we can do is to listen to it when it is just a tap on our shoulder, rather than ignoring the tap, and setting ourselves up for something a whole lot worse.

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Nutrition Physical Activity

The Top 3 Rituals for Happiness and Health

succeeeThe reasons why these are so transformative physically and psychologically is they are also acts of Self Love. And sorry dudes if the ‘L’ word makes you look over your shoulder to make sure no-one see’s you reading sensitive new age stuff, but in my experience, coaching numerous people from CEO’s to athletes and single mums, we could all do with some more self love in our lives. It is healthy on so many levels.

Daily Ritual Number 1: Shake that booty

Also known as ‘physical activity’. We all know it is great for us. But it is not just great. It is ESSENTIAL for our physical and mental health. We will never be our best if we don’t move our body. It impacts our ability to remove toxins from our body, and optimize the immune and circulatory systems. It gives us more energy. We will live longer. It reduces stress and builds up our resilience to stress. We recover more quickly from illness. That is just the body. At a mental level in increases cognitive functioning, the growth of new brain cells, improves our memory, positively affects our moods, and a whole lot more.I know you know a lot of this stuff.

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Happiness Tips Life Coaching

Discover 5 Ways to Tap into More of Your Potential (If You Are Not Using 100% Already)

potential2So you are like the rest of us and know at some level there is more of you to come? Sometimes realising we are holding back, or playing too safe a hand, or letting fear stop us, is an incredible opportunity for growth. So let’s look at 5 ways to tap into even more of your potential. 

Tip 1: Look in the mirror

This is about accountability. Not beating yourself up. It is having an honest look at yourself and asking if there is more in you. We have already realised there is. When we look at ourselves and acknowledge that we might actually be holding ourselves back (as opposed to something or someone outside of ourselves), it also makes it very clear we have the power to change the situation. This is you seeing what physics calls ‘potential energy’. Know it in every fibre of your being (as scary as it is to acknowledge) you have a LOT more in you, waiting to be liberated and utilised to create an even better life.

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Choice Doubt Happiness Tips

5 Tips to Creating Powerful Momentum (when you are feeling stuck)

momentumTo keep the momentum going I am going to just jump straight in. How is that for momentum!!

Momentum Tip 1: Don’t make it about yourself

This is first and I think most important. It is what got me moving to write this newsletter when the other option was to kick back and read a book on this wet Bali morning (which for the record was VERY appealing). When I stop thinking about myself and start thinking about how I can help others, or serve others, or support others, it makes me dip into a source of creative energy much bigger than me. Quite often we will do more because of another person or for another person than we will do for ourselves. So focus on how you can help others. When you focus on serving others, you are also likely to be liberating some healthy brain chemicals to turn up your emotional energy.

Momentum Tip 2: Connect to the bigger picture

This is for two reasons really:

1. When you put things into perspective and given you are going to live for about another 50 years or so, is the two weeks where you worked at 40% productivity instead of 80% really going to matter? As much as I would like to think I make that much difference, the reality is my 2 weeks at half pace will mean nothing to me in 6-months time. So stop beating yourself up and just consider how you can change things from today forward. Which takes me to the next point.

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