Cleanse me please

Day 1 - 3

Nothing about cleansing ever really feels exciting. "At the end of the day I am going to have to sacrifice a whole lot of stuff for some kind of future return that I don't really believe in yet. And I feel like all my favorite stuff is being taken away from me " and so the internal dialogue goes.

That's not made any easier by the current heat wave and this general feeling of lethargy permeating all of Sydney. Add to that trying to get to sleep without an air conditioner and we have a lethal combination.

The biggest missing in the first couple of days is the good old cup of coffee. I think I would speak for the vast majority of cleansers who say "just give me my coffee GRRRR !!" - something about the coffee ritual and the so called coffee kick start is what we so crave.

And then there are the addictions. They are the painful letting goes. Most commonly they are cigarettes, alcohol, and sugar (in all its guises) and most often all three at once. That takes something and for the cleansers who are giving it a true go, they will be in a world of pain.

I am fortunate that the only addiction (of which I am aware) is the old morning cup of coffee.

It is a daily ritual and something I will often drive right out of my way to satisfy. Luigi's in Bondi is my absolute favourite and I have been known to drive there from Coogee just to get a my dose of flat white.

I am not really counting but this is probably my 20th cleanse in the past few years. I usually do the 10 days but once did 29. I know that the first 4 days are tough and then everything starts to go woosh but right now there are no wooshes.

I am irritable, grumpy, a little headachey, slightly vacant and also feeling lots of sadness. I recently farewelled someone that I love deeply so maybe all the "pushing it down" is not so easy now. Who knows ?

What I do know is that letting go of anything takes something and it is so incredibly freeing to know that you can let go. There is an incredible feeling in knowing, or at least glimpsing that you are whole and complete and do need anything to make you okay or make it okay.

You do NOT need the coffee, the cigarette, the glass of wine, the lolly or the person.

That does not mean you turn into a selfish git or an Island of self assurance. What it means is that you can start looking beyond your own selfish needs and be more cognisant of the needs of others.I used to love Simon and Garfunkel as an adolescent and I remember the words of one of their songs "I am a rock, I am an Island, and a rock feels no shame (Pain?) and an island never cries" - so aptly put.

So what the cleanse teaches you is not to be some stoic I have got it handled and all sorted type.

Instead it teaches you that in being self contained you have the strength to open up.

And then there is the physiological benefits, the simple experience of putting goodness into your body, of truly treating it like a temple for 10 days and experiencing its profound response. Your body is your temple. never forget that. When the headaches go away and the bowels have settled you will feel a new sense of energy, a glow, an ease and you might even drop a couple of unwanted Kilograms.

So that's all that there is to look forward to but today, right now, I am still feeling the last of that headache, that little bit of grumpiness, and the sadness that I mentioned. I know that this to shall pass even if i have to drown in an Adzuki Bean Stew

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Onwards and Upwards

Mike

Is 40 the new 30 & If it is What can we learn from it ?

I turned 40 last week and it felt like a real milestone. As my birthday happens to be around the new year period it happens to fall during a 'contemplative time'. I would have to say that this was my first contemplative birthday.

I remember my Dad turning 40 and 40 just seemed so grown up. It also seemed like an apt time for reflection. So I hit 40 with a few things I (and others) thought I would or would not have.

I have a full set of hair, I have two beautiful kids, I am single, I still have a six pack, my business is established and I am doing something I love, I have an intimate group of friends, a home that I love, very few wrinkles, energy to do the stuff I love to do. And in the name of lightheartedness I asked my Mom to bake me a BOB the Builder cake for my birthday. She complied.

One of the gifts that I received was a book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers. Yesterday, on a flight to melbourne I had a read of it.

The book challenges the premise of success, how it is both created and defined. What I loved about it was that it stirred my own creative juices.

I have been fortunate to create a business that centres itself around creating success, creating an optimal life and a life that works. While exercise and wellbeing are an important piece of that pie they are only a piece. And the pie itself is multifaceted and totally integrated and intertwined.

In that integrative context we do the following at evolution. All our evolutionaries (lead trainers) buddy up with each other. They are then given a very basic goal setting structure that has 6 categories that essentially incorporates their whole lives. The aim is to create three specific actions in each of the categories. The structure is loosely based around that advocated by Stephen Covey in his book 7 habits of Highly Effective people (which to date has sold in excess of 30 million copies)

The categories are

1/ Work within evolution. 3 things I am up to as an evolutionary

2/ Work/finance outside of evolution. what am I doing and creating

3/ My health and wellbeing

4/ My friends and family

5/ My greater community

6/ Self/spirit/awaerness development

The goals need to follow the classic SMART Framework

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Achievable

R = Realistic

T = Timebound (within a specified timeframe)

Doing that in our own lives enables us to do that in the lives of our evolutionites (clients) and other people in our world for whom we can make a difference.

So while its a simple process it is also incredibly empowering especially when Buddies hold each other to account.

My buddy is Brett who happens to also be my closest friend of 20 years. At my 40th party in lieu of a speech he composed a poem about us which he read out. As a 40th birtday gift he created a 7 minute DVD that tracks our friendship in video and images while the poem is reading the background (check it out at http://www.vimeo.com/18946092 if you like)

Gladwell makes the same point over and over again in his book. To be great at something (anything) takes persistence, commitment, passion and lots and lots of practice. SO I feel like having hit 40 I have had lots of practice at this thing called life.

I have had ups and downs, highs and lows and many obstacles to climb over. I have fallen hard many times but I have always gotten up. And I have learned some key lessons the most important of which is probably this:

"Do what you say you are going to do"

Be your word, be accountable to what you say. It makes you clear. it makes you trustable. It makes you accountable. It makes you believe in yourself and it grants you enormous power

I am not sure if it is possible to know that lesson at 30 but I know at 40 that I have a spring in my gait and my waist is still the same size it was when I was 30. I laugh with more ease then I did at 30 and I am clear that I know alot less.

I am more forgiving of myself and others and less likely to debate. I listen more and talk less. I need less sleep. I read as much but not as widely. I have forgiven God and I have found my own way. And I am surrounded by many people that I love.

I have some great possessions but I know they come and go and I have a vocation that I love.

And I am looking very forward to the next ten years and am planning on meeting them as a present and open man who knows that whatever this is - it to shall pass.