LIFE ULTRA

Too often we ignore physical signals. Particularly because we are ‘too busy’ with everything we do. We eat to late and it causes exhaustion and stress. Today you will do what your body needs. Do you feel tired? Lie down and take a nap. Eat whenever you’re hungry. You feel like eating sushi? Make a detour if you have to. French fries? Delicious! Are you in need of a shoulder massage? Go to a masseur. You feel like making a walk? Go for it! Finish your evening with a quiet moment for yourself, make some tea or have a drink and put up some nice music.

Be proud of everything you’ve accomplished this month!!

August 30, 2009, 12:48pm   Comments

It’s extremely tiring to take yourself seriously day in day out. How often do you start your day laughing at yourself and your life? No, you don’t look fresh when you look in the mirror in the morning. Laugh about it. Today laugh (out loud or inside) about all your bad habits, mistakes, missteps, worries, aches and even your heaviest problems. It puts everything in perspective when you realize how incredibly boring, tough and useless your life is. And with you there are billions of others on this planet just like you. While you’re busy smiling finish another task off your to-do list! It can’t be that bad!

August 28, 2009, 11:16pm   Comments

Write yourself a doctor’s recipe that will cure your discontentment and dissatisfaction.

August 28, 2009, 1:36am   Comments

Grief, bad luck, misfortune, mourning: they are an inevitable part of life. Today’s assignment is: let go of the assumption that everything has to be better. Adjust your expectations. Maybe you’ll achieve the biggest improvement by accepting you can’t be happy, healthy and energetic on a daily basis.
Write down your imperfections and issues and decide which ones don’t need to be solved this very instant.

Allow yourself time to solve them. Let it go for now.

August 27, 2009, 1:16am   Comments

Watching tv is not necessariy bad for you, but how many people come home from work and automatically turn on their tv to leave it on for the rest of the evening? You win time and energy if you learn to turn off that button faster.

Tip 1: Don’t just turn on the tv for no reason. Look at the tv guide first and check if there’s something you’d like to watch.

Tip 2: Leave the room. A lot of times you are watching a worthless show. If you walk out the room, you’ll break ‘the spell’ and it makes it easier to detach yourself.

Today, you will have a tv-free night. Find out how much time you’ll have for a good conversation, a book, watching old photos. Or checking off another task off your to-do list…

August 26, 2009, 1:07pm   Comments

Today, you’re going to write a letter about the same subject you wrote about on day 9. Again, this excercise takes about an hour to complete.

Describe your feelings, but this time, try to look at how these incidents have shaped you and what you have learned from them. Is there room for new thoughts about your past? Or do you need more time? If so repeat this excercise. You can finish your writing session, by actually sending a ‘worthy letter’ to the person it’s addressed to. You don’t have to if you don’t want to though :)

LifeUltra

August 25, 2009, 11:07am   Comments

This day is imperfection day. Go to work without ironing your shirt, put on colors that don’t match, don’t comb your hair, answer all questions with: ‘I don’t know’ and all assignments with: ‘I can’t do that’, ask help for everything, drop a cup. Be weak and unsuccessful today. You’ll be a lot more relaxed. Besides that, you’ll notice that no one probably notices your imperfection today and that life just goes on. You might even win some sympathy with it!

August 24, 2009, 1:47am   Comments

Feelings often arise from unrealistic thoughts. This exercise has a proven scientistic effect and is part of cognitive therapy.

Think of something that makes you feel bad. (example: you think one of your colleagues doesn’t like you).

Event
1. Describe an event the way you see it. (ex. ‘My colleague Jenny ignored me this friday when I came in. I think she doesn’t like me’).
2. Now describe the same event from a viewer’s perspective, as if there had been a videocamera. Just the plain facts. (‘A person came in, he/she said ‘goodmorning’, an other person was bend over to her desk and said nothing’.)

The difference between 1 and 2 is that 1 probably consists of several thoughts and assumptions. Now do some research on those thoughts, feelings and behavior.

Thoughts
A. Write down the thoughts that come up during the event. (‘Jenny dislikes me, I’m not fun enough for her to say hi, Jenny is not nice.’)

B. Ask these questions with every thought you have:
1. Is the thought absolutely true?
2. Is the thought helping me to get what I want?
3. Is the thought helping me to avoid or prevent the feelings I don’t want to feel?
4. Is the thought helping me to avoid or prevent conflicts with my surroundings?

When the answer to the questions is no, replace the thought with another (rational or helping) thought.
(Ex. ‘The fact that Jenny didn’t greet me when I came in, doesn’t mean she dislikes me or that i’m not fun enough. Maybe she was concentrating hard and didn’t hear me come in. It doesn’t help me to create a relaxed and nice work environment, cause it makes me feel cranky. I would like to work with Jenny on good terms and these thoughts make me avoid her.’ Etc.)

Feelings
A. Describe what you feel during the event. (irritation, insecurity, etc)
B. Describe what you would like to feel. (peace, cheerfulness, etc)

Behavior
A. Describe what you were doing during the event. (I slammed the door really hard and walked to my desk. I didn’t ask Jenny if she wanted coffee’).
B. Describe what you wanted to do and could’ve done - new behavior- in stead of your regular behavior (‘I could ask her if she heard me coming in, I could stay calm and not pay it too much attention’).

August 23, 2009, 12:56pm   Comments

Write down 6 things you have never done before, but would love to try once. Put down a few things that are easily achievable like having dinner at the Ethiopian restaurant or visiting the new museum in your city. Also put down some stuff that will require more energy like starting salsa classes or paint the livingroom. And here comes the most fun part: add a few that are scary like negotiating about your salary, ask out a colleague for a date. Number them from 1 to 6. Grab a dice and throw…Promise yourself that today you will really do what the dice tells you to do!

August 22, 2009, 9:03am   Comments

Make a list of your bad habits (addictions, compulsive actions, bad food intake, bumpersticking, worrying, procrastinating etc.) Think of habits that bother you. Eating cake everyday can be bad, but if it doesn’t bother you that your pants won’t fit after a while, why would you stop eating the cake?
Choose the habit you want to change the most. What do you need to do to change the habit?  Write down 3 things that will help you. Do those things. Start TODAY!

What are your bad habits?

What is your worst habit?

How will you quit the habit?

August 20, 2009, 11:15pm   Comments