Do you walk into your home with the same calmness and respect as when you walk into a church, temple or place of honor? Do you walk into your home with the same feeling of respect, reverence, honor, love and gratitude as when you enter your local church or temple or any  other place of honor ? If the answer to these questions is no then my question back to you is “Why in the world not?”  I had a priest who was a friend of mine tell me every time he would walk into the church he would pause just outside to take a deep breath and ask for guidance and gratitude.  I’ve spent a number of years of my life around some of the greatest martial artists on the planet. Invariably, before walking into the dojo or the mat or ring, they would always bow out of respect.  I know a very powerful woman who takes a few long cleansing breaths before a taxing meeting or mission in front of her. Those are  just three examples of how we cleanse ourselves of the burdens and challenges we carry before entering an honored and respected place. Yet, think about how most of us walk into our homes, which is the epicenter of our most loving, passionate and important life positions. We get out of the car after a long stressful ride, walk into our homes,(Along with all,of our problems) drop our bags or briefcases or laptops and proceed to tell the family or think to ourselves how stressful and bad and crappy our day was. No short thoughts, prayers  or blessings of guidance or gratitude.   No thoughts of respect. No cleansing breaths. We don’t even think twice about about bringing all of the days anxiety and stress into the most intimate space we have, our home. So many of our most important and intimate decisions happen in our home. So why don’t we respect our home, remember the gratitude, cleanse ourselves of all the negative fragments holding on before we walk in? Because most of us have never stopped to think of it in these terms. It’s about time we did! The kind of calm energy that slows us down isn’t allowed “out there” in the world, (even though it  might only take 30 seconds) we just assume the same kind of “damn the torpedoes, FULL SPEED AHEAD” attitude we live in each day outside our homes, has to happen inside our homes as well. Once we learn to calm ourselves and cleanse ourselves of those fragments of negativity we almost unknowingly carry each day, we can then work though those problems, challenges and difficulties faster and with a clearer mind than we ever thought possible.  •Attempt to just clear your stress (or at least some of it) before you walk through that door at home.  •Allow yourself those 3 or 4 cleansing breaths to transform yourself from the problems of then, to the calm, of the person you’ve now become.  Then walk inside.  Once you feel a change and […]

If you get a cut on your arm it will leave a scar. Over time, the majority of the scar will fade away until you barely notice it, unless you really look for it.   However, when we get a “scar” on our psyche, our heart or our confidence we seldom let it fade away. We do everything we can to remember it and remember exactly where it’s at. Who gave it to us. How we felt. Where we were. What we were smelling at the time. What the weather was. Etc… Etc… Etc… There comes a time when we must move forward and the only way we can do that is to let go. I’m tempted to say “unfortunately” this is also the hardest part but maybe being so hard is the fortunate part. Maybe it’s the hardest because of how deeply we felt about what we lost. When we get a cut, we really don’t have to do anything to make it heal. Just clean it and let nature take care of the rest. With our psychological scars, that’s not the case. We are constantly meddling with Mother Nature to “make sure we’re doing the ‘right’ thing.” Maybe though, if it’s not hard to move on, then we’d think that we didn’t love as deeply as we thought we did, or realizing that we’re human after all.  When you obsess over not getting hurt, you get hurt. When you obsess over not letting anyone or anything in, you forget that also means you aren’t allowing yourself to get out or get over it! Your scars HAPPENED in the past. Your scars  ARE NOT  happening in the present. All a scar is,is a link to a past event that will either hold us back with FEAR or a link to a past event that will instruct us how not to make the same mistake again AND MAKE OUR FUTURE BETTER! All our scars should mean to us is that we had some sort of challenge in the PAST and WE SURVIVED! Be proud of them. You faced something and won. Another term for a scar is a lesson learned and a  challenge overcome.  We all have scars. Some you might be able to see and others you’ll be able to feel. Some scars are kept hidden for a myriad of reasons and some are on public view all the time. All the scars we have or we see, are from the past. Keep this phrase in mind when you’re dealing with your’s or someone else’s…  “My scars are from THEN,  I am from NOW. “ I’m proud of how far you’ve come and how far you’ll go! Congratulations! Now move forward proudly… PEACE       …..Gregg

What Is Visualization & Why Can’t I Do It!?! Not long ago I got a message from one of my Substack followers after I talked about visualization in an earlier blog.  I got back  to them and also asked if I could share their question because I thought it was both a great question and hopefully, I could help some others at the same time. They kindly said yes and here is part of their original message.  Gregg,I hear people talking about visualization and forgive me for sounding stupid but I’m not sure I know what visualizing is and I definitely don’t know how to do it. Can you help me with this? (Keep in mind there are no stupid questions! Thank you for wanting to learn and asking the question in the first place. Because of your courage, now you’re helping others!)  So, what’s this whole visualization thing? First, let’s take a look at what Visualization is not. Visualization is not some mystical practice that only guru’s can accomplish. Visualization is at its most basic, simply a technique or a tool we can use to help make our life better. (There now, that’s not so scary is it?)Also, visualization isn’t something that only an elite few can discover and use. It’s a tool that doctors and nurses, police officers, the ultra rich and the ultra poor, mothers, fathers and children, business men and women and everyone else who wants to, can use in their everyday lives. The one constant to making your visualizations to work for you is ALWAYS MAKE YOUR VISUALIZATIONS POSITIVE! Even those who claim they can’t visualize, actually visualize all the time. The trouble is that most of those are probably negative. We imagine (*another word for visualization*) how nervous we are and are going to be, how bad an interview will be or we visualize that upcoming family gathering and only think about the negative things or people. Remember, in order to make visualization work for you, you MUST visualize the good things that are going to happen. By visualizing success, you are building up your self-confidence, which makes you perform better, which makes you build even more self-confidence and on and on and on! Instead of building a vicious  circle of failing, visualizing lets you create an ENLIGHTED CIRCLE OF SUCCESS. As you visualize  every successfull step along the way, it’s the same as an Olympic athlete getting  their mind and body ready to take those steps in real life. Anyone can benefit from visualization, including you!!!Congratulations!  So how do I do it? 1. What Is The Outcome You Want To Happen? What do you want to visualize about? Maybe more importantly. Why is it important for you? Have you had bad outcomes before and if so, what went wrong? If you know what the negatives were, you know where and what to Change in your visualization. Feel deep down everything you experience in your visualization.  2. Picture the end result.  What’s the best case outcome of the event or presentation or test or conversation […]