Tag Archive for: PQ

waiting for happiness

Waiting for Happiness

/in ,

Stop Waiting for Happiness

Are you constantly waiting for happiness to show up? I spent the majority of my life waiting which ended up dealing with constant anxiety and even depression. Here is what helps me every day to experience more happiness, less stress, less anxiety and way less depression. We have two mindsets we can focus on daily: simply stated negative thoughts and positive thoughts. According to Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence, they are also labeled as the Saboteurs and the Sage perspective.

Naming the Negative Voices

The Judge is our main saboteur or put simply the instigator of most negative thoughts. The Judge finds fault with self, others, and circumstances. This saboteur causes much of our disappointment, anger regret, guilt, shame and anxiety. It also activates our accomplish saboteurs such as the Pleaser, Controller, Hyper-Achiever and more.

Lie #1 – You’ll Be Happy When…

One of the biggest and most damaging lies your Judge tells you every day is this…”Your current situation and circumstances are not good enough for you to be happy. You will be happy when ______.” Fill in the blank.

So think about how your Judge has finished this sentence all through your life. You will be happy…

  • When you finally grow up and become independent from your parents.
  • When you get into that college,
  • When you graduate,
  • When you get that job,
  • When you get that promotion,
  • When you buy that house,
  • When you find that relationship,
  • When you have that child, and so on, and so on

Now, think about it, when you finally got what you thought would make you forever happy. How long did your happiness last before your Judge again said “actually you don’t have what you need to be happy”.

“You will be happy when” and it created a new target so you could finally be happy one day.

Therefore, it’s important to ask yourself these questions:

  • What is your Judge’s lie right now?
  • What are you unhappy about right now?
  • What situation or circumstance is bothering you right now that you’re waiting to change so you can be happy one day?

Whatever you are waiting for so you can be happy ONE day is the latest lie of your judge.

Tapping into the Positive Sage Mode

Likewise, your Sage knows that you have everything you need right now to be happy that’s because happiness depends entirely on which part of your brain is activated and dealing with your life’s challenges and what emotions you’re experiencing.

The Sage perspective is about accepting what is, rather than denying, rejecting, or resenting what is. Therefore, our Sage accepts every outcome and circumstance as a gift and opportunity. Our Sage is the exact opposite of many of the negative assumptions of the Judge.

For example, if you have failed at something your Sage would be focused on converting that failure into a gift using the five Sage modes of being deeply empathic, or curious, or creative, purpose driven or in calm, laser focused, clear headed action.

All these five Sage modes generate positive emotions, ranging from empathy, compassion and gratitude, to wonder, the joy of creativity to peace and calm.

When you’re feeling all these positive emotions, you’re happy, even if life circumstances haven’t gone your way. Therefore, happiness is an inner state of mind.

When you feel positive emotions, you have everything you need to be happy right now. Today intercept your Judge’s lie that you can’t be happy until something changes in your life. Therefore, stop waiting to be happy One day, choose to be happy Today.

If you are struggling, I get it and am here to help. In addition, you can take the Positive Intelligence assessment to identify your unique saboteurs. This is a quick 5 minute assessment that I can help you unpack during our time together.

 

What is Mental Fitness

What is Mental Fitness

/in ,

What is mental fitness?

It’s a new concept in health called mental fitness. It’s the percentage of time your mind is serving you versus sabotaging you.

Independent researchers have validated the PQ (Positive Intelligence Quotient)  Score to be the single greatest predictor of how much of your potential for both success and happiness you achieve.

Research has shown that higher PQ results in enhanced immune system functioning, lower levels of stress-related hormones, lower blood pressure, less pain, fewer, colds, better sleep in a smaller likelihood of having hypertension, diabetes, or strokes.

What Is Mental Fitness?

Stanford lecturer and best-selling author Shirzad Chamine has developed a program and book called Positive Intelligence®. Your Positive Intelligence quotient, or ‘PQ’, is a measure of your mental fitness. PQ measures the percentage of time your mind is serving you versus sabotaging you. Independent researchers have validated PQ Score to be the single greatest predictor of how much of your potential for both success and happiness you achieve.

According to Shirzad, 80% of us score below the minimum level of mental fitness required for peak performance and happiness.

But the good news is that mental fitness can be significantly improved with just 6 weeks of daily practice. Shirzad tells us that doing 100 PQ reps a day to build mental muscles (essentially, creating new neural pathways) is the equivalent of taking 10,000 steps a day for physical fitness or weight training by doing reps with a dumbbell.

Helping every human build mental fitness so they can fulfill their true potential for both happiness and contribution.

 

How is PQ different from other programs including meditation or mindfulness?

PQ Treat Root Cause, not Symptoms

The factor analysis research has revealed the foundational root-level enablers and disablers of optimal performance and well-being. We rewire the brain at the root cause level.

PQ Focuses on Habit Formation

Most training results in short-lived improvements. For sustained results, we focus on building neural pathways that form lasting new habits. That’s why we call this “mental fitness”.

PQ Develops all 3 Core Muscles

Mental fitness requires 3 core muscles. Saboteur Interceptor, Self-Command, and Sage. Meditation only focuses on Self-Command, which is why it is not sustained by most.

An analysis of more than 200 scientific studies, which collectively tested more than 275,000 people, concluded that higher PQ leads to higher salaries and greater success in the areas of work, marriage, health, sociability, friendship, and creativity.

Daily Practice with the App

PQ app

The PQ app includes a mental fitness gym to offer a variety of PQ exercises using different senses. There are exercises for sitting or walking and they vary in length from 2 to 12 minutes. The app tracks your daily progress so you can check your progress against the targets for creating new neural pathways. It also gives you a daily focus of the day to guide your practice incrementally over 6 weeks.

15 minutes/day of app-guided practice enables you to establish mental muscles (neural pathways). These exercises are bite-sized to fit your busy schedule and customized based on how you self-sabotage.

You may be asking, is this the right program for me?

This is the right program for you if you are: 

  • Committed to improving your performance and effectiveness dramatically while reducing stress
  • Looking for a science-based and trusted system to make it stick
  • Willing to put in the initial effort to rewire years of mental habits that don’t serve you

Take the Mental Fitness or PQ Assessment

The PQ program has been transformational for my personal and professional life as well as for my clients. If you’d like to learn more about PQ, or test your levels, you can do so here. If you have questions or want to be added to the waitlist, drop a comment below. I only run the program a few times a year and limit the program to 10 members. 

When you take the assessment, I’d love to hear your results.  Better yet, schedule a free Wellness Strategy Session to learn more. 

 

sage powers of pq heart with book mental fitness coach positive intelligence naturopath gut health

5 Sage Powers

/in

The key to positive intelligence is the 5 Sage Powers. The concept of positive intelligence helps us measure our PQ or level of happiness and success. You can take the assessment to learn yours. Positive Intelligence is based on the best-selling book by Shirzad Chamine. His book discusses why only 20% of teams and individuals achieve their true potential.

As a traditional Naturopath, I understand the correlation between emotional stress and disease or imbalances in our health. Your sage represents the deeper and wiser part of you. The essence of who God created you to be. The sage perspective is finding the gift or opportunity in any challenge. It has access to five great powers of your mind and you can tap into these powers to meet any challenge.

1. Empathy – showing appreciation, compassion, and forgiveness. Having empathy for oneself is our biggest challenge thanks to your judge.

2. Explore – Looking at issues with curiosity, openness, wonder, and fascination. This helps with problem-solving. Most of us start trying to solve a problem before exploring it, which is typically premature. Your judge, stickler, hyper-achiever, or controller will always try to step in.  Exploring is critical for learning from past failures.

3. Innovate – Always ask…”What’s a whole new way to do this?” Look for a job, lose weight, and get healthy. Thinking “I’ve tried everything” is not the truth. The judge will start evaluating before you have fully brainstormed. No evaluation should occur during this phase.  Write out all the ideas, no matter how crazy, and end with the power game called Yes, And.  After each idea, you say, “Yes, and what I love about that idea is…”

4. Navigate – when you need to choose between multiple options, connect them with your values, purpose, or meaning. Take time now if you have not identified your values. It’s the compass for how you live daily.

5. Activate – move into pure, laser-focused, action, not distracted by saboteurs. When you know it’s time to take action, do not allow procrastination, distraction, or interference with saboteurs.

Here are some examples of what or who gets in our way.

  1. The Judge wastes time by causing fear, stress, anger, disappointment or shame while you are taking action.
  2. Avoider & Restless – avoid dealing with painful situations
  3. Controller & Stickler – cause actions to be rigid, limiting your contribution to others
  4. Hyper Achiever feels action is only focused on achievement-oriented objective
  5. Hyper Rational has you miss the emotional signals from your self and others. So analytical to your demise.
  6. The Victim convinces you to remain inactive to ensure you will become a victim and prove it right.
  7. The Pleaser is focused on making others happy, which may have nothing to do with the goal.
  8. Hyper Vigilant wastes enormous amounts of time and energy worrying about contingencies and creating anxiety from unwarranted risks

For other resources on reducing stress and mental fitness visit my Resource page or you can take the assessment to learn more about your mental fitness.

Join my private FB group where I shared a 5 Day series on PQ.   Or if you’d like to learn more about your assessment reach out and schedule a time to talk.

Finding Happiness

Who is Sabotaging Your Happiness

/in

Have you considered who is sabotaging your happiness? Or who is preventing you from your ability to find joy and peace or think positively? Some of you would argue that you feel you are a happy person. However, I’m learning that after digging in deeper, people are shocked to find out that they truly aren’t living a life of joy. They are being tricked into thinking they are by those who want them to believe it’s for their good to be skeptical, cynical, or judgmental.

Many of us may blame the government, the economy, world leaders, schools, spouses, etc. I agree they are making life a bit more challenging! The list would go on and on to determine who is to blame for our lack of happiness. But in reality, it’s us. We are the only ones who can determine this. If you are like me, you are asking, “but how?!”

What would it be worth if you could determine how much time your mind is acting to your benefit and the control you have? What about determining who the Saboteurs are and their rationale for hijacking your mind for the majority of each day? How much would that help you in your work, relationships, and life?

Determine Your Positive Intelligence

Well, there is a way and it’s free. The rating scale is called Your Positive Intelligence, based on research by Shirzad Chamine. It indicates how much control you can exert over your mind, and measures how much your mind acts to your benefit. It scores your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ) from 0 to 100. To simplify, it is the percentage of time your mind acts as your friend rather than your saboteur.

The answer to that question is simple. It’s by taking this 5-minute test.

You may be shocked by the outcome, but I encourage you not to be dismayed. I was a bit deflated after taking it. But we know there is hope without spending thousands of hours and time in therapy! Most people can improve their scores in a matter of a few weeks.

The optimal PQ score is between 75-90. Once you have your PQ score, assuming it’s under 75, you will want to take a second 5-minute survey which will identify your Saboteurs. If it’s over 75, please let me know and I’ll celebrate with you!! You are a rare exception.

Identify Your Saboteurs

You’ll receive a list of nine saboteurs but only focus on the top four.

10 Saboteurs List

These will be ranked on a score of 1-10. The higher the number, the more control the Saboteur has over you. I forgot to mention the #1 Saboteur. We call it the Judge. The judge is universal and everyone deals with this one. It compels you to constantly find faults with yourself, others, and your condition and circumstances. How much freedom would you feel to not feel the need to constantly criticize yourself or others? I can tell you, it’s exhausting. 2022 has been my year to focus on some introspection to improve my relationship with myself and others. You can’t love others until you truly love and are at peace with yourself. Our parents, teachers, and society (some intentionally and unintentionally) have inflicted some false beliefs onto our minds at a very young and impressionable age. I’ve been on the therapy and self-help route but nothing has made an impact like the work I’ve completed with Tony Robbins and his team. He introduced me to Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence, and an arsenal of tools to support my journey. That journey started in March of 2022 with UPW (Unleash the Power Within), again in July UPW#2, and again in August as I continue my work with team Tony.

I thought I needed a different marketing or sales strategy, which I very well might. However, I’m 100% sure I needed this emotional/mental strategy to overcome long-term stinking thinking and weaken my Saboteurs. I truly needed this to improve my physical health, as our thoughts impact our ability to remain healthy and disease free. If you are having physical health challenges, I encourage you to take these two tests to see if your saboteurs could be holding you back from healing.

To give you hope, my first PQ score was 39 and I improved it to 67 (I’m striving for 75+) within a week of doing the work. I have more peace and contentment no matter what’s happening in the world. I’m less triggered by negative people. For example, I recently was engaged in a conversation with someone who was allowing their saboteurs (the Judge) to be in charge. Her words were not kind. Previously, I would have held a grudge and been angry for days. I can now recognize these demons in others as well as myself, and I’m on a mission to help everyone (if they are willing) find some much-needed and deserved peace within themselves. We can’t control others, but we can control our responses.

I would love to hear how you scored if you were surprised and know what saboteurs are in charge. Let me know how you were able to improve your score and most importantly, how your life has improved because of it. If you would like to learn more about how I can share this with you, your friends, and family, check this out!

Busyness is Based in Fear

/in

I recently listened to an audio (How Did I Get So Busy) by Valorie Burton that really moved me. It was an aha moment learning that busyness is based in fear.

My goal this year is, believe it or not, to do LESS.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to help more people but want to find ways of reaching more without overextending myself in the process.  I have come to the conclusion that if I don’t practice self-care, I will not be able to serve those who need it most.

Busyness is often based on fear.  I heard the words but never really equated busyness with fear.  Valorie discusses some of the reasons why people stay busy.  It’s often the “what if?” questions that cause people to get caught up in the busyness cycle.

“What if I say ‘no’ to certain activities and let people down?”

or

“What if I slow down and I’m not able to accomplish everything I need to?”

“What if I stop taking on so much and discover people don’t need me as much as I thought they did?”

Often, people equate being busy with being significant.  We wear our busyness as a badge of honor.  Significance and busyness are not one and the same. One is about doing a lot and the other is about making an impact.  It is about being intentional.

 

So what can we do to stop the busyness cycle?

First, acknowledge there that busyness is a challenge in your life.

Second, know you can reclaim your schedule. You can make time for yourself and those who matter most to you. But you must be intentional about it. That means making sure your priorities are reflecting in your schedule and life .  Is Wellness a priority for you? Then make sure you plan for it every day.  It could be meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, exercise, stress reduction or rest!

Is family a priority for you?  Be sure to connect with your spouse or children daily at breakfast, dinner through meaningful conversation and by being fully engaged.

The same holds true for reconnecting with yourself. Resting, self-reflection, vacation, hobbies, fun—these are all important aspects of living intentionally and fully. When these things get crowded out, it’s a sign that you’re too busy!

Need to know if you need a busyness detox?  Take the first steps toward better health and mental clarity today by booking a consultation today! I offer a 6-week program on helping you kick the busyness addiction that has been transformational for so many.