Is it just me, or does time seem to pass more quickly with every year?  I can’t believe it is already March and here in California, we have moved the clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time!

What is new this spring in your life?  There are some exciting developments in my own life.  After two and a half months of non-stop studying, I took the California Bar Exam the last week in February.  I need to wait until May to get the results, but, I must say I am glad to be done.  It was a grueling, demanding, arduous process, yet I learned a lesson of great value.

We live in a culture that teaches “easier is better”.  Many of us have, especially in the United States, been raised with material comfort and the idea that the more comfortable and easy life is, the better off we are.

Yet this is not always the case.  Often the challenges and difficulties in our lives present the greatest opportunity for growth and maturation.  Think of your own life.

• Have you grown after making it through a particularly challenging and difficult time? 
• Have you noticed yourself become stronger when you learned from discomfort, instead of running away?

If you are willing, life can be a tremendous growth opportunity, full of rich transformation.  Yet, like anything and everything, this growth and transformation comes at a price.  That price often means passing through difficult, uncomfortable, and unpleasant times.

Are you willing to let the fire of life’s challenges grow you?  If so, life will present ample opportunities for your true expansion.

Please check out this month’s article What Your Body Tells You: Objective Feedback vs. Critical Condemnation.  Learn how to use your body for objective feedback, and drop the mind’s critical condemnation.

Also, please check out this month’s special (good through April).  If you are ready to drop your mind’s judgment and self-criticism through developing a consistent meditation practice, for the month of April, I am offering an hour-long introductory session for $100 (a $50 discount).  Take advantage of this opportunity to drop your mental nonsense and learn how to truly listen to your body.

With love,

Can you tell the difference between the objective feedback your body offers versus the critical condemnation of your mind?

Your body’s objective feedback can help you make lifestyle choices that promote your health and well-being, whereas the critical condemnation of your mind creates nothing but suffering.

Our bodies are incredible messengers, powerful gifts on the journey through life.  We can use the constant feedback that our bodies give us to help us make changes and adaptations to promote our health.  If we listen to the criticism of our minds, however, it will sabotage us.  The negative mental messages can eclipse the body’s natural intelligence and feedback, which will prevent us from making the healthy choices we want to make.

The mind opines, while the body illuminates.  The mind makes you mistakenly believe that your body means something about who you are as a person, your self-worth and your value.  It levels judgment and criticism.  It makes you believe that you are somehow not good enough, that something is wrong with you and your body.

Here are some examples to elucidate the point:

Objective Feedback vs. Critical Condemnation

The key is to use your body for valuable, useful feedback, and to disregard the worthless messages of criticism that come from mental conditioning.

Critical condemnation is when you use your body and appearance to:

• Determine your self-worth
• Use it as a reflection of your “success” or “failure”
• Use it as a reflection of your “strength” or “weakness”
• Use it as a reflection of being “good” or “bad”

Here are three helpful steps to help you use your body’s messages for objective feedback, while dropping the mind’s critical condemnation:

1. Become increasingly aware of the difference between the body’s messages and the mind’s messages
2. Separate the “wheat” from the “chaff” – use the objective feedback and drop the self-judgment, criticism, and condemnation
3. Make lifestyle choices based on the feedback, not the condemnation

A key tool to help you learn to differentiate between your body’s messages and your mind’s messages is meditation.

A regular meditation practice is essential to help you break free from the critical mind-chatter that can sabotage your best intentions.

If you are interested in developing a life-transforming meditation practice, book a private, one-on-one consultation to learn how to meditate, and do it consistently at breakfreebeauty.com/coaching.  Take advantage of April's discounted rate!