August 2006 Archives

Making conscious life choices
vs. taking whatever comes

The Dynamic Laws of Manifestation

Law #2 - The Law of
Conscious Creation
(Part two of a 12-part series)

By Chris Lucerne, PCC

This article is the second in a 12-part series on how to attract all that you desire by using the 12 universal laws of manifestation. If you are willing to set aside questioning, whether or not these laws are real, in favor of testing them out in the laboratory of your own life, read on.

It is possible to introduce positive concepts and pictures into our minds consciously.

These positive mental ideas have the power to change the outer circumstances of our lives.
~ Gay Hendricks

Last month we explored the Law of Unconscious Attraction, which says that we attract, by default, those life experiences that are appropriate to our unconscious programming. Then we tend to see those life experiences as ordained, rather than seeing them as products of our conditioning that can be changed by conscious design. (Note: Go to the resource page of my Web site, www.chrislucerne.com, to read about Law #1 - Unconscious Attraction.)

The Law of Conscious Creation dovetails beautifully with this, for it is all about consciously choosing what you want and rewiring your unconscious programming in order to get it. Many people go through life with no clear direction; one choice leads to another choice, and that leads to another. Pretty soon, they end up in relationships or friendships with people they never intended to be with, in careers that do not satisfy them, with religious beliefs that do not support them and in situations that, had they known what it would be like, they would never have chosen. Walking this path is one of going through life in a very unconscious way.

Everything that has been created began with a thought. Look around you: Every single thing in the room that surrounds you was a thought in someone's mind before it came into creation. While it is obvious that these tangible objects were first a creation in someone's mind, it might not be so obvious that the relationships in your life, including the relationship with yourself, are also creations of a thought or belief. Within you is an innate ability to manifest exactly what you want in your life. You have been endowed with the gift of being both created and creator.

Think of the acorn. The acorn is something that was created out of nothingness, and it has the seeds of creation hidden in potential within it. It is at the same time created and creator, just like you. You are a microcosm of the whole universe. You carry created and creator within you. This means that you have the power to create something from nothing.

Activity for manifesting your intentions:

Step One - Discover what you really want
Before you set an intention to manifest, you must first know what you want. So, search your mind and your heart, and decide what would really, really make you happy and fulfilled. Consider these categories: relationships (partner, friends, family, business, relationship with self), work/career, money/finances, spirituality, emotional and intellectual health, physical health, fun/leisure, community service
.
(Note: For help in determining the aspects of your life in which you would like to set an intention to manifest, go to the resource page of my Web site, www.chrislucerne.com, and get the tool, "Life Balance Wheel.")

Step Two - Write intention statements:
Write an "intention statement" for each thing you want to manifest.
Intention statements are different than goals.

   Intentions                         Goals
   ~ Big picture                      ~ Specific
   ~ Now-oriented                     ~ Measurable
   ~ Written in present tense         ~ Future-oriented
   ~ Driven by inspiration            ~ Driven by deadline
   ~ Open to manifesting              ~ Strategically planned
       in many ways 

Your intention statement must:
• Reflect what you really want (not what you don't want) and be written in positive language.
• Be written in the present tense as if it were happening now.
• Inspire, energize and motivate you.
• Be coming from "love" and not "fear." Only intentions that come from a pure space of love will ultimately be satisfying. Intentions set out of fear will ultimately end up dissatisfying or will often be disastrous.
• Be open enough to allow manifestation to come in many ways.

Sample Intentions:
• I celebrate and share the continuous flow of love, money and all forms of abundance in my life.
I have plenty.
• I easily resolve my issues around my body. I enjoy a healthy, fit, vibrant and attractive body.
• I live in expanding waves of love and creativity, enjoying a conscious loving relationship with my partner.

Step Three - Visualize your intentions:
At least five times per week, spend 10 to 15 minutes visualizing your intentions. If you can devote more time to it, your manifestation projects will happen even more quickly. In general, you will be creating positive pictures of your desired intentions and then beaming your choices into the future with the power of your mind.

Center Yourself: Create a clear state of consciousness by relaxing your body and opening your mind.
(If you were to create an intention from a state of being that is off-center and tense, you may unconsciously attach those qualities to that intention and manifest those in your life.)

Create Your Vision: Create present tense sentences of your intention, and bring those to life in your mind with moving pictures that represent your desire.

Experience your positive intention in vivid detail:
• What do you see?
• What do you hear?
• What do you feel (sensations and emotions)?
• What do you think?
• If relevant, what are other people doing, saying, thinking or feeling?

Step Four - Think positively:
During your visualization, and throughout your day, tune into your thoughts, your mental chatter. When you find yourself thinking thoughts that are counterproductive to your manifestation efforts, change them to something that is productive. Reaffirm your intentions.
• Direct your mind toward what you want instead of what you don't want.
• Replace worrisome thoughts with thoughts of your vision and seeing yourself as happy and successful.
• Focus on positive actions you can take versus obsessing over what you don't have.

Step Five - Take action:
As you continue to visualize and change your thoughts, new ideas and opportunities will come to you that are related to your intentions. Take action on those opportunities and ideas.

Be sure to love and appreciate yourself all along the path of manifesting. Appreciate yourself for all that you are, and all that you aren't. It is only through the energy of love that we bring into our life what we really want. It is important to note that you are constantly creating your life. You have the choice of whether you will allow this to take place through "conscious creation" or if you'll allow your life to spring forth from your unconscious programming. I encourage you to choose the conscious path and really step into the life you would most like to have.

This article is inspired by Drs. Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks. The Twelve Laws of Manifestation are based on the two-part CD set The Manifestation Course by Gay Hendricks, available at www.Hendricks.com.

Chris Lucerne is a Professional Certified Coach. Using a body-mind-centered approach, she specializes in two areas: supporting clients to Build Relationships that Matter (including the relationship with yourself), and to Go Beyond Loss and Embrace Life. Visit her Web site at www.ChrisLucerne.com or contact her at (210) 408-7699.

Bexar County gets a
health report card

By Raymond Wei, MHA,
CHE for The Health Collaborative

The Health Collaborative has just released Phase I of the 2006 Bexar County Community Health Assessment. The assessment serves as a comprehensive report of local health, guiding the community's efforts toward prevention and health improvement.

The 2006 assessment is the third in a series of assessments that have been issued by the Health Collaborative every four years since 1998. It is compiled and published as a gift to the community with the understanding that, the more the community knows about its health status, the better able the community will be to take collaborative action to improve it.

The 2006 assessment is being conducted in three phases. The initial phase relies on traditional public health sources, such as vital records of births and deaths, to construct outcome indicators of community health, such as low birth weight and causes of death.

Phase II, to be implemented this summer, will focus on behaviors which influence the health outcomes assessed in Phase I. The emphasis of Phase III is providing the community with the opportunity to have a direct voice in the health assessment process. A report also will be published at the end of Phase II, with a final report on the complete assessment to be published after the first of the year. Reports in each phase and the final summary report will compare the findings for Bexar County with Texas and another large urban area, Harris County.

Here are some of the key findings in Phase I:

Income and Education
The median family incomes of people who live in the north part the county are 75 percent higher than the incomes of people living in south Bexar County. The level of education of residents of south Bexar County is much lower than in the north. Forty percent of the residents living in the south and west sectors have fewer than 12 years of education. Research studies show that health outcomes are worse for people with lower levels of education.

Health Literacy
Understanding how to care for one's health and how to deal with medications and symptoms is important. People who have trouble understanding the content of a newspaper will have difficulty in understanding the complex issues dealing with health. Community efforts, including the employment of lay health educators or promoters, can help. Also, healthcare providers can reduce the amount of medical terminology and jargon and be more considerate of differences in levels of understanding, whether differences are the result of age, culture or education.

Leading Causes of Death
Safety and Injury: The leading reason for premature death in Bexar County is unintentional injury. Nineteen percent of years of life lost to premature death are the result of vehicle crashes and injuries which occur in the home and in other locations. The people who die due to unintentional injuries tend to be young. On average, an individual who dies of an unintentional injury loses 29 years of life during which he or she might have been a productive member of society.

Vehicle crashes alone account for over one-half of years of life lost to premature unintentional injury deaths in Bexar County. People who die from vehicle crashes lose an average of 34 years of life. This is compared to an average 15 years for those who die prematurely from cancer and 10 years for victims of heart disease. The county would benefit substantially from efforts to reduce unintentional injuries, especially vehicle crash deaths.

The number of people dying from homicide is the thirteenth leading cause of death in Bexar County and results in large losses of years of life with an average of 31 years. Homicides are signals to the community that a much larger problem with violence exists. The community needs to find ways to address violence among its residents.

Heart Health and Cancer: The causes that claim the largest number of lives are heart disease and malignant neoplasms (cancer). These two conditions claim the lives of 48 percent of all residents of Bexar County. Unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking and making uninformed eating choices that lead to obesity, are major factors that contribute to these conditions. Community prevention strategies and interventions that support exercise and healthful eating choices can help to reduce the risk for heart disease and cancer.

Mental Health: The number of people dying from suicide is substantially smaller than heart disease or cancer, but suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in Bexar County. The leading cause of suicide is depression. People who live on incomes lower than the federal poverty guidelines are 50 percent more likely to be depressed. A suicide death is a signal to the community that residents are in distress and need help.

The Baptist Health Foundation, The United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation and Methodist Healthcare Ministries are funding the assessment. To access the complete Phase I report, visit the Health Collaborative Web site at www.healthcollaborative.net.

Raymond Wei, MHA, CHE, is the president of the board of directors of The Health Collaborative. A cutting-edge, public-private model for solving community health issues, The Health Collaborative began informally in 1997 when several area health care organizations agreed to put aside their competitive business practices to conduct the first community health assessment. The mission of the organization is to improve the health status of the community through collaborative means. Representatives of this group are dedicated to the health and well-being of our community in the spirit of collaboration. Partners include the major health systems in San Antonio, Metro Health, the YMCA of Greater San Antonio, Community First Health Plans, Methodist Healthcare Ministries, and a community representative. For more information, visit www.healthcollaborative.net.

Meeting your goals with compassion

By Shelley R. Probber, Psy.D.

It's often difficult to be gentle with yourself, particularly when thinking about athletic or fitness goals. Most of us are taught to push through pain, tolerate discomfort and work harder in order to achieve our goals. While these self-imposed dictates are important, it is also important to know when to slow down and be a bit kinder to yourself.
Most competitive athletes, who are interested in achieving faster times when racing, have what we commonly refer to as "Type A" personalities. You know these folks; they're the ones who are constantly harried, who are always pushing themselves into more commitments than time will allow, who are impatient with others and who have a strong drive to succeed. While it is generally common knowledge that this sort of lifestyle can lead to physical ailments such as heart disease and high blood pressure, our society also tends to look at these individuals with admiration for their achievements. Put this style into the athletic arena, and it is difficult to argue that characteristics such as drive, and pushing to fit more into a small amount of time, will not lead to faster run or bike times.

Ironically, however, this style does not always translate into a competitive edge or faster times. A chronic state of impatience and anxiety decreases your performance in most instances. It often leads to poor form and technique. Perhaps most important, this state of tension, and a strong need for perfectionism, also leads most to be harsh and critical when unable to meet specific goals.

Imagine this scenario: You have planned to do a specific workout this morning. Planning to push yourself past your usual limits, you anticipate that you will experience discomfort. You know this is necessary in order to increase your level of fitness. You look at the workout plan, and a small amount of tension begins to build. As you drive to the track or to the gym, you begin to dread the workout. You know it will be difficult, and you have already decided that you likely will not complete it to your expectations.

In this scenario, even if you do the workout successfully, it is likely to be associated in your mind with thoughts and feelings of discomfort and uneasiness. The thoughts and feelings you experience prior to the workout may be linked to this experience in such a way that you will often feel bad before this type of workout, even when you have had many more successful experiences than not.

The real damage occurs, however, if you are not able to complete the full workout to perfection. Imagine that you attempt the workout, but you are unable to keep the pace you set out for yourself. Just suppose that you have put your "all" into the workout, truly tried your hardest and given it your best effort, but you just were not able to meet the times you set for yourself. If you are too rigid and too much of a perfectionist, you will lose the joy of your efforts and be unable to celebrate your hard work.

Now imagine that you completed the workout, and you feel fabulous that you did your best, even if you were not able to meet every one of the day's training goals. Psychological research has shown that we tend to remember negative experiences more than positive ones. Therefore, if you have eight repetitions in a workout in which you meet your goals six times, you will tend to recall the two times you failed to meet the goals more strongly. You may have had the experience in which you have had to speak in front of a group of people and you perform admirably, with the exception of one or two stutters or missed words. After your speech, you will tend to ruminate about those two or three mistakes, chastising yourself repeatedly for messing up those two or three times.

What if, instead, you recalled the other 500 to 1,000 words spoken well? Envision yourself holding onto an image of yourself speaking clearly and confidently for most of your talk. Now, envision yourself on your workout: See yourself running strongly and meeting your goals for six entire repetitions. Be your own best friend, and congratulate yourself on a job well done. Of course you can improve, but for today you did quite well.

This compassion for yourself allows you to really push yourself from within. It allows you to make choices about what you really hope to achieve and to be kind to yourself when you are not ready to achieve a particular goal at that moment. Being gentle with yourself can give your mind the room it needs to reach down inside and find the strongest part of yourself, so you can push yourself when you are ready and able. Being kinder to oneself allows you to find the courage you need to learn from setbacks and to find the fortitude necessary to keep trying to go forward.

Shelley Probber is a licensed psychologist in private practice in San Antonio. Her practice encompasses children and adults, with a focus on athletes.

The secret ingredients of Ironman
triathlete Bob Byard's success

By Kelly A. Goff

Local triathlon and multisport coaching phenomenon Bob Byard wants to know just one thing when he meets a fellow athlete: "Are you in my age group?" he'll ask with a glint in his eye. He sports his competitive spirit on a specially-made logo T-shirt that says, "I don't care how fast you are. You're not in my age group!" More concerned with attaining personal goals than finishing first, Byard's mantra is "pace and patience." "Sometimes I'm more of a competitor, not competitive," he says. It's served him well through 12 Ironman triathlons, six Team USA ITU World Championships, 19 marathons and numerous other fitness competitions.

At any age, his event record is impressive. But how many 63-year-olds can say they've done an Ironman triathlon EVERY YEAR for the past 12 years? Maybe you're thinking superior genes, professional coaching, a lifetime of competitive athletics, but this self-described fitness "late bloomer" doesn't fit any of those stereotypes. He wasn't active as a child and didn't complete his first marathon until he was 35. What got this retired Air Force lieutenant colonel moving? "I spent four years in a nuclear missile silo, and my uniforms started to shrink," Byard quips. "I had run, off and on, when I needed to pass the military's physical fitness tests, but I really started to like it in the late '70s. I blame my wife for giving me the marathon bug. After we moved to San Antonio in 1980, she saw an ad for the now defunct SA Marathon Clinic and said if I liked running so much, I should try a marathon. I told her she was crazy, and nobody in his right mind runs 26.2 miles in one stretch. Then I went and checked it out," he laughs.

Being a people person, as well as goal oriented, the marathon club was a perfect fit for Bob. He ran exclusively for a number of years. Then when he was stationed in Naples, Italy, he completed a sprint triathlon in a dormant volcano (that's another story...). It was his first multisport experience. "Most athletes, especially runners, seem to eventually gravitate to multisports," he says. "In my case I was getting kind of bored and needed a new challenge; others may get injured and want to stay fit, plus you figure out it's great cross-training."

At age 51 he completed his first Ironman in Germany. "My philosophy is to take small bites of the elephant. I started with running small distances, moved to marathons, then duathlons and triathlons. None of this happens overnight. You have to work up to it, set goals and reach them in increments," he says.

From here to there
Much of Bob Byard's success with multisports can be attributed to the way he approached his military career. "In the military you're always preparing for something, learning new things, 'checking off' boxes on objectives you've completed, then looking toward the next goal. I like that approach and have applied it to many aspects of my life," says Byard. 

One example of his relentless motivation was when he retired. "We were in Europe, and my wife still had another year in civil service before she could retire. So I got involved with the national ski patrol, which entailed taking an outdoor emergency care course. It's the same course EMTs take here in the States," he said. "I liked the interaction with people. So when we got back to San Antonio, I took the intermediate EMT course at San Antonio College and started volunteering in Boerne, Texas. They paid my tuition to take the paramedic course; next I got certified as a National Register EMT-P and I continue to keep current." Like a Nike poster child, Byard sets his sights on a goal and just "does it."

Coach Byard
Like some athletes, Byard isn't selfish or aloof. He's friendly and totally willing to share the knowledge and experience he's amassed these past 30+ years with beginners and veterans alike (so long as you're not in his age group!) In fact, his natural inclination to help others has morphed into a multisport consulting business called Lonestar MultisportsTM (www.lonestarmultisports.com), where he offers individualized guidance and training plans to a variety of athletes.

"It started out with my just giving free advice to people who I'd see while training or at events," he says. "They'd ask me how they should train for a certain event, and I'd get a napkin and scribble out a very generic plan for them right there. Soon I figured out that a lot of people don't follow advice, good, bad or otherwise, unless they've invested time AND money into it, so I started my coaching business a few years ago."

Currently he coaches 12 clients that run the gamut in skills, experience and goals. "I have everything from someone training for Army Special Forces selection to Ironman for next year," he says. "My niche is one-on-one coaching. I don't do groups because you can't give individualized attention -- if you have too large a group, you end up 'herding cats.' I really enjoy helping my clients realize they can do more than they thought possible if they put their minds to it, have a goal, a plan and truly prepare themselves. In the end, it's all about having some fun along the way. In some instances, if someone isn't having fun, he or she needs to find another coach, or I may need to find another client."

Free advice
What advice does Byard have for beginners considering signing up for their first marathon or triathlon? "Either get a coach or, if you're going to self-coach, talk to some of your successful contemporaries," he advises. "Be cautious at the beginning of training so you don't end up having to recover from physical injury or mental burnout. Get a plan and schedule that fits your lifestyle and time constraints, and then look for a group you might train with. There're Masters swim programs in the city, as well as running and cycling clubs." Byard also underscores the importance of balancing the frequency, duration and intensity of your workouts. "This is where the right training plan is crucial. Training should not be linear. Avoid approaching your training like cooking a potato in a microwave, e.g. cooking it until it explodes and then adjusting the timing and cooking the next one five minutes less. You've got to be smart about it, or you'll get injured and frustrated," he says.

Just desserts
After spending 34 years in the Air Force on their schedule, Byard is happily structuring his training, coaching and projects according to his timelines. Of course, that doesn't mean lounging in a hammock sipping sweet tea. It's more along the lines of coaching one of his clients to become a professional triathlete next year (and ultimately to the 2012 Olympic Trials). Short term, he's pursuing his own training as a member of Team USA at the ITU Long Course World Championship in Australia in November.

Byard says, "My motto is 'Life is short. Eat dessert first.' I'm eating dessert right now. And I'm thinking of having seconds."

Inspired to Tri?
Bob Byard's story is proof you can set and achieve fitness goals at any age. Local San Antonio multisport association, Team Alamo (www.teamalamo.org), is open to people of all ages and abilities. They promote triathlons, duathlons, adventure racing, training events, social events and having plenty of fun along the way! If you're feeling shy or intimidated by the idea of training for a triathlon or other multisport event, contact Team Alamo. They'll find an experienced member to mentor you through your training and race preparation. Check out other local clubs, such as the SA Wheelmen (www.sawheelmen.com) and SA RoadRunners (www.saroadrunners.com) for additional information and support.

Upcoming Events:

September 21:
Roadrunner Triathlon at UTSA (210-695-6430)

October 7-8:
Valero MS150 Bike to the Beach Tour
biketothebeach.ms150.org

December 10:
Du Boerne Duathlon (signmeup.com)