Recently, a friend of mine (who happens to be a beautiful, funny, and all around amazing gal) invited me to a Bikram Yoga class. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a rather difficult type of yoga done in a room that’s 105 degrees. In other words, it’s a form of self-torture. Yet, as part of my philosophy of always being willing to try new stuff, I went to the class. I must have lost 10 pounds in sweat during the one-hour class. However, after the torture was done, I felt fabulous. In fact, now I’m a regular…and the benefits to my body are already very clear.
The reason I’m sharing this story is to talk about the importance of trying new stuff. As we get older, it’s easy to fall into routines, ruts, and grooves. Unfortunately, the only difference between a groove and a grave is a couple of feet! Taking the chance to try a new hobby, a new spiritual practice, or even a new type of food allows you to grow and change at an accelerated rate. Had I not tried that first yoga class, I would have potentially missed out on a valuable new addition to my life.
Where in your life have you fallen into comfortable routines that no longer serve you? Perhaps in your job, your marriage, or in how you take care of your body? I believe people are like sharks—if they’re not moving forward, they’re slowly dying. Therefore, it’s critical that we occasionally re-evaluate our routines and see if they are still working for us. It’s also important that we periodically try out new stuff just to see if it might be a valuable addition to our lives.
On a related note, yesterday I ran into a friend at a store in town. I had not seen this friend in a couple of months. I asked her how she was doing, and it was clear she was doing very poorly. The church she had been going to for twenty years was slowly shunning her. She was miserable. I asked her, “Why don’t you try some other church? After all, the purpose of a church is to help you find inner peace.” She responded, “I couldn’t do that; I’ve been going to this church for over twenty years.”
My friend was making a classic mistake. She was holding onto a past that wasn’t working for her because she was afraid to embrace an unknown future. Yet, I believe our first commitment needs to be to finding peace, joy, and love—not to continuing with jobs, churches, or outdated beliefs that no longer serve us. This can be challenging to do, but the alternative is to stay with a comfortable but ultimately deadening past.
So, I encourage you to be willing to try new stuff this week. Look at the various areas of your life and ask, “Is this still working for me, or is it time for a change?” If it seems like it could be valuable to try something new, then take action—even if it’s just a small action. Life is always asking us to move forward. It’s best to be willing to move with the ever-moving stream of Life…
One day I called up my friend, Susan, and asked her how she was. She said, “Things are great. Joe and I just got back from another week long vacation.” I realized that, just about every time I talked to Susan, she had recently gone on vacation. I was a bit annoyed and jealous. “How do you take so many vacations?” I asked. Her reply made me even more annoyed, “We simply make it a priority.” I felt a certain amount of self-pity as I shot back, “Boy, I wish my life was set up so I could take so much time off.” In a compassionate, yet direct manner, Susan replied, “You can if it’s important enough to you. Joe and I just decided we’d take eight weeks off each year. There’s a lot of resistance to doing that, but we’re committed to living the life that we want to live.” 
If someone asked me to describe in four simple words how they could achieve wealth, health, and happiness, my answer would be easy: ask the right questions for success. When we ask ourselves good questions, it leads us to make better decisions as to where and how to spend our time. When we fail to ask the right questions, we can easily fall prey to mechanical routines, other people’s goals, and a life of unhappiness. When it comes to taking charge of your time and your life, asking the right questions can be the answer you’ve been looking for.
These five questions are an easy, quick, and powerful way to gain important insights that will help you to plan your time wisely. Rather than waiting until a problem is big, these questions will help you to handle things when they’re small and easily handled. By writing your answers in a journal, or taking turns answering these questions with a friend, you can help each other create the life you truly desire.
Setting and achieving goals is perhaps the most documented technique for manifesting what you want—efficiently and effectively. Since writing your goals is so powerful, it’s important to know precisely what you want to create so you will be pleased when you get it. If you don’t specify your dreams clearly enough, you can end up creating a nightmare. Sometimes people who write down their goals do create a life that is out of harmony. Why? Because their goals are all outward goals—such as making more money. Yet, manifesting more money 
create a balanced goal, you need to know two things. First, you need to know exactly what you’d like to manifest in the material world. Second, you want to identify what you hope to experience as a result of achieving your external goal. The easiest way to know what 
that in the above example with Sarah, I had her create an internal way to measure her progress towards more security and comfort. You can always improve what you can measure. Although creating an “intuitive 1 to 10 scale” is not absolutely precise, I’ve found that people say it works surprisingly well in measuring their progress. All you need to do is rate, on an internal 1 to 10 scale, how you’re currently doing in the area you want to work on. Then, about once a week ask yourself, “How am I now doing (on a 1 to 10 scale)?” Hopefully, you’ll see gradual improvement. If not, it may mean you need to do different tasks in order to be more successful.
Why do people travel half way around the world to visit a place such as Disneyland, pay $125 to get in, and stand in line for an hour for a three minute ride? Because, as human beings, we crave peak moments. The desire for an intense, special, extraordinary experience is one of our deepest desires. That’s one of the major reasons why we like sex, falling in love, winning a big game, and weddings. Yet, peak moments need not be reserved for such major events. You can learn to create them in daily life with people you care about. Once you learn the skill of creating special times for other people, your relationships will never be the same. People will want to know you, do business with you, and even marry you because you know how to create a sense of aliveness wherever you are. There are four key concepts that can help you create more peak moments with your friends, mate, 
Perhaps the most important thing a human being can learn is how to quickly let go of negative thought patterns and emotions and quickly return to the peace and love that’s hidden behind our turbulent minds. Once you can do this well, everything in your life changes. In my exploration of how doing this effectively, I’ve tried a lot of things. One of my absolute favorite ways to quickly return to a place of peace (after being upset) is to use something called “The Sedona Method.” What follows is a mini-course on the Sedona Method. If you try this out and like it, I recommend that you get the book “The Sedona Method,” so you can get a better understanding of this truly effective and simple technique. 
I’ve been reading recently about how important a good night’s sleep is for feeling happy during the day and being productive in life. Unfortunately, about 30% of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia and/or sleep deprivation. In our fast paced world, many people try to do with as little sleep as possible, but then end up suffering emotional and health effects from getting too little sleep.
During the winter months, a lot of people end up feeling more “down” than usual. In many cases, this can be due to the fact that they have what is called S.A.D. 
As a psychotherapist, I often counsel couples who frequently argue. Early in my career, I tried to help these people with communication techniques aimed at helping them be more open with each other. Yet, it rarely worked. They would simply forget the method and continue with their verbal attacks. When I realized couples behave like hurt infants when they get into a fight, I asked myself, “What helps crying infants to feel better?” The answer was obvious–they like to be held. As parents gently hold their baby, the baby soon feels better. Before you know it, the infant is giggling and happy. I wondered if a similar approach might work with adults. After much trial and error, I found something that works even better than I expected. I call it “The Spoon Tune.”
while in a spooning position, breathe in unison with your mate. Generally, it is best for the bigger partner to follow the breath of the smaller partner. When the smaller person inhales, the other partner should inhale. When the smaller partner exhales, the other should exhale. Hold each other and breathe in unison like this for at least four minutes. Do not say anything. As soon as your mind wanders, focus once again on breathing in unison with your partner.
Once you begin the Spoon Tune, no talking allowed. If possible, find a place to lie down together. If that is not possible “spoon” standing up. The key to doing this method successfully is to breathe together. As you breathe together, try to focus on and be present with each breath. Use your breath as a meditation. By focusing on your breath as it goes in and out in rhythm with your partner’s breath, you will feel more peaceful, safe, and connected, spoon for at least three minutes.