JohnKowalsky.com
A Self Evolving Site
Archive for April, 2009
Starting Your Day
Apr 23rd
“Oh, he just got up on the wrong side of the bed today.” — It’s a common expression, often heard at job sites everywhere. Have you ever noticed though, that some people always seem to get up on the wrong side of the bed?
You can’t always choose what mood you’re going to wake up in, but you can choose how you start your day. The energy that you start your day with, whether positive or negative carries through and overshadows your entire 24-hour experience. Don’t leave that energy up to chance. Develop a habit of starting your day the same way. Do things that start your day right and put you in a great mood.
The first thing I like to do when I wake up, even as I’m reaching over to turn off the alarm, is smile. Why smile? Because even if you’ve had the worst dreams imaginable, smiling causes your body chemistry to begin to alter. Don’t believe me? Try keeping a smile on your face for 60 seconds and see if your mood doesn’t improve.
Next, drink a liter of the best water you can get your hands on. If you can’t get the best water ever, then squeeze a lemon into it and drink the entire glass. Why? You lose a lot of water when you sleep. Your body is detoxifying and it is important to re-hydrate when you wake. It will also get your insides moving again.
After this, wake your body up fully with some stretching or yoga or physical activity of some kind. It doesn’t have to be a full on workout, just get the blood flowing and the muscles warmed up.
With a fully awake body, you now have a great place to focus on the rest of your day. Pray, meditate, or think about what the rest of your day will consist of. Get into a state of peace, joy, and love. See yourself doing the things you have to do today with love in your heart and a smile on your face. Then you are ready to have some breakfast and begin your day.
Try it out. Make up your own routine. I promise you, the better you start your days, the better the rest of your days will be.
Seasons
Apr 13th
Do you allow yourself to live through seasons? Always changing, never the same way twice.
In our modern technocracy, we’ve removed ourselves as much as possible from living out among the changing seasons that the Creation holds for us. We wall ourselves away in boxes that are temperature regulated, light controlled, terrain un-changing. We’ve grown to dislike and detest any change in our “comfort” level. It’s very easy for us to be un-aware of the seasons in our own lives.
The world we live on adheres to cycles of birth, growth, death, and decay. Nature has its seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Our lives replicate this same pattern on the large scale (of our bodies) and the small scale (of our day to day lives).
All too often I’ve spent my time, fighting to stay in one season for too long. I’ve forced creation/work, when I should have been resting, or I’ve slept the day away when I should have been creating/working. Learning to live in balance and harmony is a challenging thing in the world we live in.
There is no concrete solution to creating balance in your life. It’s something that is unique to you alone. What creates balance in my life, will not necessarily be the solution in your life. Just as the length of seasons varies in different parts of the world, so your own needs will vary from mine. What is interesting to me is that all of creation is guided in the right moment to undergo the change needed at any given time. Imagine if the winter didn’t know when to end it’s bitter cold, or the summer when to cease it’s fire and burning. There are parts of the world where we can see the effects of this. The ice caps, the deserts, both extremes are examples of what happens in our own lives when we don’t allow the natural flow of seasons to occur. We become stressed. Life is still present, but the existence is harsh and mostly unpleasant.
For everything under the sun, there is a season… What are the seasons of your life?
Lately my life has been undergoing the transition from sleep to awakening, or from rest to plowing… working the soil to be ready for planting. After sowing, a period of rest will occur in which the seeds will begin to grow. The seeds will only grow if the work I have done has created the needed conditions for birth. Those conditions will only be created if I have rested properly to have the energy to create them.
Perhaps you are in Winter (the season where no work takes place, and you begin to dream), some will be in Spring (the season where you sow the seeds of your dream), some will be in Summer (the season where you tend your creation and help it grow), and finally some will be in Autumn (the season where you reap the benefits or consequences of your work).
The benefit you have over nature, is you are the only force in control of your seasons. You can begin again any time you wish. For some their lesson will be to nurse their garden/life/dream back to health/success. Others will need to wipe the slate clean and begin back at the Winter/Resting/Dreaming stage. Some will need to learn that there is a time to cease working and enter into rest, some will need to get off their ass and begin taking action.
How do you know when you are in the correct season in your life? When you feel at peace, when you feel like you’re living your life’s purpose, when things seem to click and just fall into place, all these are good indications that you are in the proper season.
Most people will spend most of their time in the dreaming/working stage until they learn to create the right conditions for their dream to grow into reality, but once a seed/dream starts growing, it grows all on its own.
Whatever season you may be in, love your way into the next one!
Have a great day and tend to your Garden 
Renewable Energy
Apr 3rd
Have you ever been so worn out that everything in your life seems mundane or unimportant? No matter what you do, you just can’t get going again?
An abundant source of energy is a must-have to live an enjoyable life and to contribute to the joy of others. When you’re tired, you become more easily irritated and stressed out, which leads to poor relationships and poor health. Left unchecked, it’s all too easy to end up asking what went wrong, with the pieces of what used to be your life scattered all around you. Beside all that, let’s just face it — being run down Sucks!
So what are some ways that you can protect your energy levels?
1. No more coffee. The same goes for energy drinks. 99% of so called energy drinks aren’t actually giving your body energy, they are just stimulating your nervous system. The end result is usually that your body becomes more stressed out and unbalanced and tired. You can’t drug your way out of a problem that is caused by drugs.
2. Eat raw fruits and vegetables. An overwhelming amount of our energy is spent just digesting the cooked foods that we eat. There is a reason you get sleepy and sluggish after you eat a meal. It’s because your body is summoning all available energy to digest the substances you’ve just put into it. Raw food has enzymes in it that help your stomach digest it, thus giving you more energy, not taking energy away. As a plus, you’ll get much more nutrients from raw food, so you won’t have to eat as many calories, and eating less will give you more available energy and extend your life as well.
3. Get more sleep. This is kind of obvious, but all too often we just medicate our way through this with our coffee and red bulls. When you are tired, sleep. If for some reason, you can’t, see above and below.
4. Avoid negativity. This includes negative people. There are some people, you might even call them your friends, that all they do is suck the life energy out of you. They constantly complain and whine about every little thing. You might even be one of those people. All of this negativity zaps your energy faster than running a marathon. Don’t believe me? Try avoiding these people for a week and see how you feel. You don’t have to be snotty about it, but whenever they open their mouths and what they’re saying isn’t positive, just be somewhere else instead. If you’re the negative person, then try avoiding you! Every time you say or think something negative, be somewhere else instead
5. Exercise. This seems counter-intuitive, but I promise you it works like magic. The more active you are, the more energy you have available and the better you will sleep at night (thus giving you more energy again). I always hear on this one: “I just don’t have time to go to the gym or workout.” Blah, blah, blah. First of all, I wouldn’t recommend you ever go to the gym to workout, especially when you could do it for free and get some fresh air while you’re at it. Secondly, you have just as much time as everyone else in the world. Stop making excuses, you poor little victim, you. ;( (Please read number 4 again, if this victim is you).
The fastest most effective exercises you can do are at home with no equipment. That’s right! You don’t need any equipment at all. You remember what a push-up is right? There are even a hundred different ways to do them, so you never have to get bored either. Throw in some sit-ups, and some squats and you’ve just done a whole body workout in two and a half minutes (if you don’t break in between exercises). That’s a commercial break. Maybe you need a gentler work out? You can do yoga, tai chi, the five tibetan rites, ride a bike, or just go for a walk. Don’t think about exercising, just do it.
Remember, if you’re ever going to take over the world, or the equivalent — raise your kids, then you need to have the instantly available energy to do it. There is no quick fix for constant, steady energy, the only way to have it in your life is to live a lifestyle that cultivates it. Dream that lifestyle, and then make it real. You deserve it.
