Posted on

Respect for yourself – 3 part formula for great health – SLEEP

When we talk about respect we must talk about showing respect for yourself.  You matter.  You are valuable.  One of the most valuable thing that matters the most is our health. Staying healthy and taking care of our bodies has a simple formula.

Eat healthy foods + Exercise + Sleep

Cheat on any of these and you will survive (for a while) but you will not perform at your best.

Sleep-HowMuchDoYouGetANightHere are some tips for the sleep part of our formula.

  • Go to bed at the same time every night.
  • Get up in the morning at the same time every morning.
  • Get 8 – 12 hours of sleep a night depending on your age.
  • Young children need more sleep than adults, but even adults should get 7-8 hours every night.
  • Turn off all electronics 1 hour prior to heading off to bed.
  • Do not do homework or emails (work) laying in bed
  • Have a nighttime routine
  • Be careful of the foods and drink that you have in the evening.  Some of them will inhibit your sleep patterns.

Try these and see a whole new kind of energy for your body.  This is one way of showing respect for yourself.

Posted on

Commitments to ourselves

One of the most important kind of commitments we ever make is the promises that we make to ourselves. We know that our ability to keep promises to others will have an affect on the way they view us. They will see us as someone they can trust, or that we are reliable, dependable and responsible.

Did you know that the way we keep or not keep promises to ourselves has the same effect on us personally. If we continuously make promises to ourselves, and then break it we are not showing the same respect for ourselves that we show to others. This has a very negative affect on the way we feel about ourselves.

Lets say we promise ourselves to take a walk everyday for exercise, and we do so for 4 days straight. But then we let various things get in the way of our keeping this commitment. In affect we are lying to ourselves, and we begin to see ourselves as not reliable or dependable. This then allows us to give up in other areas of our life on commitments and soon we find that our self respect is very low. Do you know how good you feel about yourself when you keep commitments to yourself?

Showing commitment to ourselves will make a difference in our success in life and it will help us keep our commitments to others.

Read about Mr. Joe’s commitment to the Ultimate Black Belt Test that started in January 2009 and will be completed with the final test in February 2010. He recently committed to the “Live Like a Champion” journey that begins in January 2010. His journal is My Journey.

Posted on

Respect for Ourselves

This week we have been discussing having respect for ourselves.  This idea of self respect is one that has many aspects, from the physical (exercise, sleep, good nutrition) to showing others that we respect ourselves by standing up to them when needed and not giving up on our personal goals.
Recently I did a seminar about bullying to a group of 6th – 8th graders and we talked about the idea of self talk, those words we say to ourselves in good times and bad.  Unfortunately many times we hear the words of others tell us we can’t do something or that is not possible, or your not good enough.
It is funny how we can find ourselves repeating them back to ourselves in words like, “your not good enough”, “or just quit, you can’t do this”.   If we had a “friend” who constantly told us we were not good enough we would likely not keep that person as a close companion, yet we may be saying those same words to ourselves over and over again.
We can break out of this habit with better ‘self-talk’.  It is our responsibility as a parent to teach our kids how to use positive self talk and to speak to them in a way that helps them build ‘self respect’.  More on that in our next post.