Quite possibly the BEST speech about animal rights of our time.

My wife (Lindsay, of Kiss Me, I'm Vegan!, who recently wrote a post on this) and I watched a video last week, a video that I saw ONE posting of on Facebook, a video that looked interesting and like a good view.

What we didn't realize was that this video would become, in our eyes and now possibly the eyes of the 17,000 people that have viewed it online (not to mention the many who saw it in person), one of the best animal rights speeches given.  The St. James Ethics and Wheeler Centre in Australia hosted a debate in March, "Animals Should Be Off The Menu."  Philip was one of the three who spoke in favor of taking animals off the menu.  The video is only 10 minutes and with the rate of its views, shares, and commentary, is a must-watch as it's guaranteed to be an influential resource for compassion of our time.

Stop here. Please watch. And please share. 

After you've viewed the video, if you'd like to learn more about Philip Wollen or watch the full debate, read below.

About Philip Wollen: Philip is an Australian philanthropist. He is a former vice-president of Citibank and was also a general manager at Citicorp. At age 34, Australian Business Magazine named him in the top 40 headhunted executives in Australia. In 2005 he received the Order of Australia and in 2007 he won the Australian of the Year award. The following was said about Philip by the National Australia Day Council: 

"Through his kindness and generosity, Philip Wollen brings crucial help to many charitable causes and inspires others to share his humanitarian values and ideals. His achievements in the business world mark him as a man of action and he channels this energy into practical outcomes for the causes he champions through the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust. Philip promotes kindness towards all other living beings and strives to enshrine this as a recognisable trait in the Australian character and culture. The measure of his support can be seen in the extraordinary list of organisations the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust supports, benefiting children, animals, the ill, the environment and aspiring youth. Essentially a private man, he seeks no personal publicity but is not afraid to step into the limelight for a just cause.^"

Philip lives with his wife Trix and his four dogs in Melbourne, Victoria.

The full debate is below, for and against speakers & audience opinions/questions.  Enjoy!

All the best and yummiest to you.

Getting to the Heart of Your Wants

"I want one million dollars because I'll be rich and free and won't have to work my 9-5 job anymore!"


"I want to find the perfect woman to care for, who'll care for me, because then I'll be loved."


"I want to lose 20 pounds because then I'll look attractive and feel wanted."


This whole post could be a laundry list of wants.  I know I have 'em, and I know you have 'em.  And while we set goals for ourselves, and work for our dreams, we often find a way to feel unfulfilled, whether we achieve them to not.  We struggle sometimes in the journey, with our destination always out of reach.  Or we get there, only to find we actually want more, or something else...


Setting goals & outcomes and striving for your dreams are outstanding directions to go in your life.  Keeping fulfilled in the day-to-day on a simple scale is so very important while doing so though.  A simple reversal in the order in which we approach our goal- and dream-setting can make all the difference.


Rather than "If I get WANT, then I will FEEL this," try focusing on the feeling that you're truly looking to achieve.  Most of our wants are to bring an optimal or ultimate feeling into our life, whether it's at a greater level or on a more consistent basis.  What we're missing though is that we can choose to feel these feelings as passionately or as consistently as we'd like to right now.  Seriously.  All we have to do is start focusing on feeling them.  


Have you ever been in a fight with a loved one, anger raging, when the phone rings?  You pick up it with a "Hello" that's newly cheery or at least strays from the previous anger with which you were consumed.  What about when you're down in the dumps, wallowing in sadness or depression, only to be brought back up to a simple place of joy from a friend's joke, a funny TV show or movie?  These instant switches happen all the time - because we choose to let them happen.  We allow them to and start focusing on the preferred emotion rather than the unwanted one.


If we strive so hard to achieve a goal in order to thereby achieve happiness, joy, health, freedom, etc., we spend too much time and energy - sometimes successfully, sometimes not - to reach something that's accessible to us each and every moment of our lives.  If we stay present in our bodies, our minds, our emotions, and start to focus on feeling happy, joyful, free now, we can create a foundation for ourselves which will only build us up to accomplish those larger wants - which then bring on even more of the feelings that we truly wish to have!  It becomes a win-win-win!  


Over the past month, I've been focusing on five feelings to experience on a daily basis in any/every way possible: Great Creative Passion; Freedom from Restrictions; Loved; Impactful, Influential, Making a Difference; and Vibrant, Energetic, Beaming with Health.  Each day, in addition to my outcome & dream setting, I break it down to the simplest act of experiencing these five.  Knowing that if I experience any one of these, I'll feel good, great, excellent, outstanding, and can most likely do so through most of my outcomes from the day or even simple interactions with myself, friends and loved ones, my cats, or even nature, my days become more joyful, more vibrant, and feel more accomplished - just through my essential base feelings.

Get to the heart of your wants by tapping into your truest heart's feelings.  What are 3-5 feelings you would love to experience on a daily basis?  What feelings will allow you to boost yourself up, thrive, and feel rewarded in the span of a day?  Write these out as your weekly outcome in a schedule, list, etc.  Create a checklist, so you can check them off as they go and so you know what feeling will inject some happiness or freedom in your day if you actively pursue it.


Go for it! I'd love to hear how it works for you, if you feel any benefits mentally, physically, or even start seeing amazing things manifest for you in your personal or professional life.  


No more "out of reach," "too difficult to get."  Get to the heart of your wants by dreaming big and feeling simple.  Everything's right there for you, right now.


All the best and yummiest to you.

Light Bulb Moment of the Week: Avoid your Life Tangle & Effectively Unwind! Part 2!

Did you come up with some meaningful answers to Part 1's questions?  Did you learn anything about the way you treat yourself, consciously or unconsciously?  How can those discoveries help you lead a more productive, loving, stress-free, unknotted life?  

There are some amazing exercises/activities you can do that are simple and take up little time.  They are incredibly effective and can bring you back to your untangled peace of mind where you can thrive and progress forward:

1)   Tune into your breath.  Often when you are stressed, angry, depressed, frustrated or frazzled, you lose control of your breath – you may allow it to get quick and heavy or even shallow and weak.  By getting your breath back to a foundation of presence, stability, and strength, you can recalibrate your body and mind to a place of clarity, lightness, and ease. 

-       Be still, silent, and separate yourself from other happenings/distractions.

-       Take a deep breath in through your nose, allowing your diaphragm/belly to expand, over the span of about 4 seconds.

-       Hold it steadily for about 6-8 seconds.

-       Let it out slowly, either through your nose or mouth, over the span of about 5-7 seconds.

-       Make sure you’re in a comfortable position.  Plant your feet firmly on the floor (if you’re sitting) and closing your eyes can help too.  Placing one hand on your heart and the other on your belly, as it rises and falls, gives that tactile connection some depth. 

-       Repeat a simple statement that keeps you connected – “This is me breathing in.  This is me breathing out.”  You can even think of a location, either known or fantasy, that evokes ease and good feelings.   Tune into how the place makes you feel and make it your present state.

 

Photo courtesy of Yoga Awakening Africa

2)   Get outside and connect with nature.  A walk outside in the sun.  A hike in a canyon.  Swimming in the ocean.  Laying on a blanket in a park under the shade of a tree.  Whatever works for you – whatever gets you out of any walled, floored, roofed area and into the open outdoors.

3)   Practice gratitude.  Write down 5-10 things you are grateful for in a journal.  Call up a family member or friend and tell them how grateful you are for them.  Walk around your home and express these gratitudes for items in your house.  (i.e. “Refrigerator, you are a home for all that provides me my nutrition, you keep my food from spoiling right away.  I am so thankful for you.”)

By prioritizing focus to the MOST important part of your life – YOU (and this refers to everyone); by connecting with your most loved and wanted feelings, other people, nature; by removing your Self from and not dwelling in bad habits & negative feelings, you take control of your direction and focus.  By catching yourself before you spiral into an unwanted state, you can interrupt any detrimental routine with a neutral, open practice to put your Self in a more positive place.

Take care of yourself and aim to keep your tangles to a minimum; since we don’t have the privilege of having 60-day guarantees on our minds & bodies, we have to keep ourselves in tip-top shape…which, honestly, sounds like an outstanding plan to me.

Try actively practicing these simple exercises daily.  A little bit of something good is infinitely better than nothing at all, especially when you can make it a consistent part of you life.

Please let me know how incorporating (more) breathwork, (more) time outdoors in nature, and (more) gratitude helps you and your life.  Leave comments below with anything you notice and share about the success of your untangling!

All the best and yummiest to you.

Light Bulb Moment of the Week: Avoid your Life Tangle & Effectively Unwind!

From around 6:30 am to around 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday, I spend my time working at my desk.  During this time, it’s me and my headset.  From drawer to plug-in to placement on my head, you could say my headset goes through a lot.  The long cord, which starts thick at the plug, reaches a volume knob, then goes thin up to the actual headset, can be a bit of an annoyance, as it tangles easily as it gets moved around throughout the day.

Today, I noticed the unfortunate twists of the cord, a situation I had created and failed to fully resolve in my neglect of this poor headset in its day-to-day usage.  I didn’t think it was important.  I would normally pull it from the drawer, unwind the tied cord, plug it in, go about my head, placing it on my head and down on the desk, unplug it, casually make sure there were no knots, retie it around the headset, and place it back in the drawer.   

LIGHT BULB MOMENT!            

Instead of going through the normal “routine,” I picked up the headset, dangled it upside down – holding the plug/cord end, and let it hang and spin.  Sure enough, as I patiently watched and waited, the cord – on its own – twirled away any and all tangles, leaving a properly straightened cord.  I smoothed out the final little tanglebits, pressing the cord between my fingers from top to bottom, carefully tied the newly freed cord around the headset, and delicately placed the headset in my drawer.

Let’s take a look at my headset in terms of it being my/your life.   Ask yourself:

~ “How do I treat myself day-to-day?”

~ “Do I give myself the full attention I should?”

~ “How do I deal with situations when I get frustrated, angry, confused, mistreated, etc.?” 

~ “Do I practice a cycle of positive actions/reinforcement, negative actions/reinforcement, or mixed?”  

and finally,

~ “How can I take better care of myself to ensure I’m living my happiest, most fulfilling, least stressful life possible?”

It’s amazing how big of a difference little thoughts, feelings, words, and actions can make, especially when they add up.  A negative feeling may not make too much of an impact in the moment, but what if you allow it to settle in without clearing it and then add in several others throughout your day? You’ve just created a tangled knot of negativity that is a lot harder to straighten out and break free of.  What if we took the time to smooth out our knots, whether it was immediately after they surfaced or even at opportune “check-in/tune-in” times of the day?  Not only would our days be more carefree, less stressful, and more focused - we’d give ourselves the opportunity to stay present and positive without worry.  We could take comfort in knowing that our lifeknots are not permanent, only temporary tangles in the cord.  

Take some time and answer the important questions above to figure out what necessary attention, care, and consideration you might need to give yourself.  Keep an eye out for Part 2, which will introduce some troubleshoots that will take you out of your tangle and allow for smooth sailing...

All the best and yummiest to you.

Just. Do. It. Forgetting about Perfection & Birthing ALC's Blog

So I've written stuff in the past.  Plenty of stuff.  I've had the amazing privilege of guest posting for my amazing actress/activist/vegan/beauty queen wife's (Lindsay Wolf) blog, Kiss Me, I'm Vegan!  I have a newsletter, a start-and-stop blog on my website, FB posts, plus many other writings here and there that I've done.  So why has it taken me so long to start up a consistent blog, here on Blogger?

"I need the perfect first post!"  "I need a great introduction that will let everyone know exactly who I am and why I'm doing this!"  "I need to know exactly the order of my blogs, so that they are purposeful, and blah blah blah!"  

Well, today I decided to let go of all of those silly voices that ran through my head each and every time I clicked the "Start Blogging!" link to write this first post.  Because as we all know (or, if you don't know, you have the chance to learn something...which will be a common theme in my posts...learning something new), no one is perfect, nothing is perfect.  Or, in an even more empowering sense, Tony Robbins, one of my great inspirations and life guides, says, “Perfection is a ridiculously low standard because you can never achieve it."  Instead, he offers, and I advocate, to strive for excellence, and actually even beyond - to "aim for outstanding” in each and every thing you do, think, feel...knowing that you can be and are outstanding already in your unique, individual way.  Well, since I'm accepting now that I'm outstanding in my own unique, individual way, and this first post will be outstanding in its own unique, individual way, I'm excited to just start writing and share this with all of you unique, awesome, outstanding readers of this Ahimsa Life Coaching blog.  I thank you ahead of time and will continue to - I hope you enjoy my ponderances, advice, metaphors, recipes, pictures, giveaways, contests, thoughts, questions, educational articles, quotes, and whatever else appears here.  It's all in the spirit of health, hope, love, passion, compassion, growth, contribution, knowledge, and a lot of fun.  So here's to Just. Doing. It. in so many areas of life - for you, and for me.  Can't get anywhere, can't grow, can't achieve if we just sit and do nothing.  Here's to a lot of passionate, active doing in our lives.

My story?  Here's the recipe: Grew up very academic-based, toss in a generous dose of athletics, then breakthrough all of that with a creative, artistic thespianic soul that's been waiting to erupt but was afraid to do so, and swing into the most recent chapter of this narrative with a major life transition to an ethical, compassionate, health-driven vegan lifestyle.  This birthed a passion in nutrition, a passion in animal rights, a passion in helping others, a passion for my own peak performance in life, a passion for helping others reach their own peak performance, enlightenment, connection to themselves and all other life on this living planet of ours = Ahimsa Life Coaching.  

So here we are.  Some of you may have been following ALC for a while, others may have just jumped onto the ride.  I'm excited to connect with you regardless - we have a lot to explore together.  Are you ready for a fun-filled journey and some amazing discoveries in the world of food, diet, nutrition, time, balance, mind, body, spirit, manifesting, goals, dreams, careers, missions, ultimate purposes, optimal outcomes, and - my favorite - the meaning behind it all, the great big Why????

I hope so.  I am ready with you.  And I look forward to many more blogs with you from this day forth.  And since we're going bare bones now, just you wait...the aesthetic and design and info and links will just be like little gifts for all of us!

I leave you with an encouragement, which I will always do (because we all need encouragement! or at least something fun to do or try...): Find something in your life right now where you feel blocked, stuck, held back and take at least one simple, little step to move forward, make progress, breakthrough.  Could be the smallest little block or a resolution that's been lingering since January 1st.  Take it, know that you have the outstanding ability to accomplish, achieve, breakthrough with everything you have right now in your abilities, capabilities, and Just. Do. It.  Something, anything. When you let go of the idea of this false and unattainable perfection...well, you can probably do almost anything.  Oh, and have fun doing it.  You know, just because. 

Welcome to the Ahimsa Life Coaching blog.   

All the best and yummiest to you.