Maybe it’s just me, maybe it came to me in just the right time (meaning that I was just ready for it, after all the self development / self help material that I’ve been consuming over the years), but I have to say that this is one of, if not the most life changing book I’ve ever read or listened to.

 The Untethered Soul in a nutshell

To sum it up, this book is all about guiding you towards happiness, peace of mind, enlightenment… helping you become a “free soul”.

(BTW, untethered means unbound, free).

The “Publisher’s Summery” on Audible.com is short and clear…

Spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer explores the question of human identity and shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and achieve happiness and self-realization.

The main message of the book as I understand it can be summed up in these two points:

1. You are not your thoughts and you are not your feelings. You are the witness, the being who experiences all these thoughts and emotions.

2. Open your eyes and see… you are sitting on a great ball of dirt that’s spinning around itself in the middle of empty space that goes on forever. You’ve been put here for a short time (could be until tomorrow, you never know)  and then you’ll be gone. From that point of you – you have nothing to worry or stress out about. You just need to enjoy your experience.

As I said, I haven’t read it, but listened to the audio version several times. Either way, I believe that this book should be consumed at least a couple of times before you can say you “got it”.

The Untethered Soul got 4.5 stars ratings both on Amazon and on Audible (the “audio version of Amazon”). The book is about 200 pages long. The audio version is 6 hours long, narrated by Peter Berkrot who’s done a remarkable job IMO.

Get the paperback or Kindle version from Amazon

Get the audio-book from Audible

If you read (or listen to) the book, please add your comment below and share your own take on it.

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In case you don’t know (why would you?), it’s winter time here in Israel and over the last couple of weeks I’ve been struggling with breathing through my nose, especially at bedtime…

I used to think that my stuffy nose, snoring and sleep apnea were being caused mainly by my smoking. Well, it’s been almost two years since I stopped smoking, and the nasal congestion is only slightly better, if at all.

Do you know this feeling, when you can barely inhale through you nose? It’s not nice… and it lowers my energy level, my ability to concentrate and what not.

I’ve been testing various ways to open up my nose, including nose drops, which I soon enough found out were addictive and possibly harmful (some types aren’t so do your research).

I’ve also tried long walks or simply opening the windows and letting the cool air in – both are good ideas and helped to certain degree, but…

Next, I think I would have to invest some time in purifying my bedroom (to get rid of dust mites). After that I might visit the health food store and ask for some kind of essential oil or liquid spray for the same purpose.

Here’s a very short video that explains a lot about what I’m talking about…

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Being energetic starts in your mind. If you want to become an energeric person, you have to start thinking like one…

These days it’s quite common knowledge that our attitude and state of mind directly affects our physical state.

Yet, many people are constantly worried, stressed out or simply bored and unhappy. Others are always busy thinking about how tired they are. Having such kind mind-set can only help to make you tired and unmotivated.

Here are a few changes of mindset that you can start applying right now, to increase your physical and mental energy…

Act Energetically!

You should BE energetic before you become energetic – Walk tall, speak out loud, and move about energetically. Do your best to never look tired. Soon your mind will start believing your body!

Take Control of Your Energy Level

Keep track of your physical and mental level of energy. Notice how it’s affected by anything – what you eat or drink, your sleep and wake up time, places you go to, people you talk to, anything.

Start eliminate “energy wasters” from your life, like negative thinking and ‘insignificant others’ that suck the life force out of you :-( and of course – do the things that increase your energy level – turn those into habits.

Think Positive!

Negative thinking is one of the most common ‘energy drainers’. You have to avoid it as much as you can.

‘Always look on the bright side of life’ (One of my favorite clichès) – It really only takes some practice. You can “train” yourself to think more positively…

• At any situation, try to find the positive side.
• Be grateful. Just look closely and realize how fortunate you are. Make a list of all the good things in your life, and remind it to yourself everyday
• Accept obstacles as part of life; see them as challenges, and failures and disappointments – as lessons. Learn from them and move on.

Eliminate (or ignore) ‘Energy Drainers’

• News is stressful. Get less of it. (I personally stopped watching the news or reading newspaper years ago). In general, “filter” information. You don’t have to know about everybody else’s problems.
• Accept people for who or what they are, avoid clashes and arguments. Arguments are almost always pointless, and in most cases (in my experience) the best response is – no response at all. try it!
• Every time someone gets on your nerves or hurts in you in some way, don’t waste time thinking about it too much, dismiss it as something of the past as quickly as you can.

Take the Next Steps to Become Energetic…

Having the right mindset is usually not enough to make you energetic. There are a few other factors that determine your energy level – mainly your sleep, nutrition and physical activity.

Improving each one of those areas may take time and effort, and you’d probably have to make a few changes to your habits and your lifestyle. That’s never too easy…

Remember to keep the right mindset, while working on changing your habits. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Take small steps and give yourself time to adjust.

Set yourself short term, challenging, yet achievable goals, remind yourself every day WHY you’re doing it, and be proud and happy for any small achievement along the way.

When you fail, and you will, don’t beat yourself up and don’t give up. Accept it as part of the process and keep on going toward your goals.

I’m sure you already know about a few things that you do (or don’t do) that lower your energy level. Why not start there?

Pick one, set a goal, make a plan and take the first step…

Tell me how it goes.

(If you haven’t yet, join in to get more information and free downloads to help you get the power to take action »)

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When I say drive or ‘inner drive’, I’m talking about a combination of energy and motivation…

Now, energy is both physical and mental – basically they are one, because they affect each other. Your energy is both physical and mental. You can be in great shape but have very low energy if you are depressed, for example.

So, it’s a combination of physical and mental energy with self-motivation, which come from two main things.

1. Clarity (of purpose) – clear goals, clear direction of where you’re going, what you want from life, what you want from yourself, what you want to achieve.
2. Happiness - simply being a positive person, having positive attitude, being in peace with yourself, and having peace of mind.

So if you have low inner drive, you may feel powerless, often not feeling like doing anything. You kind of feel stuck. See, low inner drive is the number one cause of procrastination and under achievement, in my opinion.

At least that has been my experience for most of my life. I used to be a chronic procrastinator and a chronic ‘over sleeper’ – I used to sleep too much…

You see, bad habits and addictions (from Facebook addiction, poor eating habits, poor sleeping habits, and all the way to drug addiction) can come from feelings of “stuckness”, when you don’t know what you want and you find ways to escape from thinking about the future, it’s a way to procrastinate.

Why are you “low on drive”?

Why do you have low energy level and lack of motivation? Well, I’ll give you 3 main causes. I’ve already mentioned direction and clear goals. One of the main causes of low inner drive is lack of direction and clear goals - when you don’t know what you want and you don’t find the time to get clear on your goals for one reason or another.

Another thing is stress and negative thinking. As I said, happiness is essential for having strong inner drive. So if you’re always stressed and worried and you have negative thinking patterns or maybe you’re even depressed, then obviously your inner drive will be very low.

If you don’t believe in yourself and in your abilities, if you’re really afraid of what other people might think of you – your self-esteem is so fragile that you’re really afraid of failure, and you don’t want to take any risks…

Basically, it all comes down to low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can cause you to be really afraid of failure, of success, of criticism — anything that is a bit or a risk to your ego.

How to increase your inner drive

First realize that your habits are not you and that change is possible and easy. You really can change. Self-esteem can be fixed. You can change your attitude, your mindset, you habits. Your habits are not YOU. They are just habits.

You have to believe in your ability to change. It’s really important that you believe that change is possible for you. Otherwise, you’ll stay stuck where you are.

The next thing is to overcome stress, negativity, and frustration. If you are always stressed and worried, it clearly limits your ability to be energetic and motivated. So you have to work on that.

Lastly, start setting goals. Set bite-sized goals. Let yourself succeed. Get yourself a chance to succeed by picking maybe just one thing. It could be one thing that you want to change in your life, maybe a small habit, something that you want to get that excites you and inspires you, but yet very possible and that you believe to a high degree that you can achieve…

Set is as a goal and go get it. This way you start building your self-esteem, increasing your belief in yourself and start getting the ball rolling in the direction of your goals.

If you’re still with me, I urge you to go get the Positive Power Pack. It consists some of my best tips for increasing your mental and physical energy and your inner drive so you can start getting the power to take action!

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After being a smoker for 17 years, I finally stopped smoking for good almost a year and a half ago.

It was the last day of March 2011 when I put out my last cigarette and “never looked back”…

I don’t miss smoking at all, and damn, it feels so good to be able to say that!

I’m going to do my best at giving you a step-by-step road-map for quitting smoking in as little as 30 days.

At the very least, I hope that it will serve as a helpful tool in your belt for your next attempt to stop smoking.

First I’ll quickly tell you the story of how I stopped smoking, and then I’ll do my best to squeeze all that I’ve learned into a few short, simple, and powerful tips. My hope is to help you do what I did, but better – more easily and more quickly than I did it.

I Smoked About 17 Cigarettes a Day for 17 Years (Since I Was 17)…

As I said, I had been a smoker for all of my adult life. At times I liked being a smoker, and at times I hated myself for being one. You know how it is.

Either way, like any smoker, I could barely imagine my life without cigarettes. Not only was I totally addicted, but also pretty much everyone around me was a smoker, including my wife.

The idea of quitting came to me from time to time, and I made a few failed attempts to quit before the last (successful) one. A few years ago I even tried some pills, but long story short – I guess I wasn’t ready.

Anyway, when I finally did it, it was without any pills, gum, or patches. I “just stopped”…

I give most of the credit for my success in quitting to The Easy Way to Stop Smoking  - a book by Allan Carr, who created a worldwide chain of clinics, teaching his Easy Way method. (They claim to have a 90% success rate.)

I heard about it a couple of years ago, and like I usually do – I got myself the audio version. I listened to the (10 hour long) recording several times over the course of a few weeks.

Then, I tried to quit… and failed. I actually stopped smoking only about a year later (after listening to it a couple of more times).

Only now, looking back, I can tell you that during that year I went through an important preparation phase.

During that year I spoke with people who had quit or had tried to quit smoking, and I did some more reading – mainly about quitting smoking and about breaking bad habits in general.

When I was finally ready, I set myself a “quit date”. On March 1st, 2011, I committed to stop smoking 21 days later – on March 21st.

Actually, I broke that commitment. From the 21st to the 30th of that month, I smoked about 5 cigarettes (overall). But that was it. March 30th was the last day I ever smoked.

Why (You Think) It’s Hard to Stop Smoking

Any smoker, sooner or later, gets to the point where they wish they had never started smoking. The main reason that they fail at quitting, or are afraid to even try, is that they have illusions and false beliefs (Carr calls it “the brainwashing”) mainly that smoking is a lot of fun, but also that it’s extremely hard to quit.

So on one hand, you’re afraid that if you stopped smoking, you’d be miserable, and on the other hand, you’re afraid of the blow to your ego if you fail to quit.

You might also be under the illusion that smoking helps you relax or to concentrate. And guess what? It’s most likely true… but only because you are a smoker. You see…

You are a drug addict!

The only reason that you keep on smoking is Nicotine Addiction. Nicotine is highly addictive, and your body is addicted to it. Every time you put out a cigarette, the nicotine starts leaving your body, and you suffer “withdrawal pangs”.

So get it into your head…

The only “benefits” you get out of smoking come from the fact that you are addicted to nicotine. Your body craves nicotine pretty much all the time, so of course you feel a little bit better when you smoke.

So your very first step in quitting smoking is to take off the blinds and see the truth, which is…

Smoking has NO upside. Smoking isn’t fun. Ask non-smokers and they’ll tell you. Smoking won’t help a non-smoker concentrate or relax either.

Oh, and in case you haven’t heard, smoking isn’t ”cool” anymore.

Why It’s Truly Easy to Stop Smoking

As an ex-smoker, I know how annoying it can be when someone tells you to “just stop”. If only it were that easy, right?

But you know what? It’s almost that easy. You see…

Although it’s very addictive, the withdrawal symptoms from Nicotine are very mild. They feel sort of like when you miss your lunch time by an hour, not much more than that.

When you stop smoking, your brain will crave nicotine, but you won’t suffer any major pain. You will not feel sick, your skin won’t itch or anything like that. At most you might feel a bit “down”, a little low on energy, and maybe have a light headache in the first couple of days.

It’s nothing you can’t handle, and it would only last a short while, because…

It takes about three weeks to get cleaned up.

It’s not set in stone, but usually within 2-4 weeks without a cigarette, your body will stop craving nicotine.

Just put the ridiculously mild withdrawal symptoms on one side of the scale, and all of the awesome benefits of quitting on the other, and you’ll realize how EASY it is to stop smoking.

Getting Ready to Stop Smoking

As easy as it may be to actually stop smoking, I suggest that you do a little bit of preparation.

Here are a few things that worked for me:

1. Decide to stop smoking

Don’t take this lightly. One of the reasons that people fail to change behavior is that they never make a firm decision to do so. It’s not enough to “intend”, “plan to”, “think about”, or “hope you can”. You need to decide to stop smoking.

2. Make a “why list”

Get a piece of paper, and make a list of every reason to stop smoking that you can think of. Don’t stop before you have at least 20 items. Maybe I can help…

Did you know that nicotine robs you of nutrients? It does, especially vitamin C, so you can add ”have more energy”, “stronger immune system” and “get sick less often” to your list.

You may also want to calculate how much money you’d have spent if you kept smoking like you do now until you were 70.

Don’t throw away the list. Keep it in a safe place, reread it, and maybe rewrite from time to time. It’s an important motivational tool.

3. Raise your awareness

You need to become conscious of every cigarette you light up, when, where, why, and how each one makes you feel.
One good reason for this is to get yourself ready for those tough times, when avoiding smoking is the hardest for you.

You may also want to start developing a sense of disgust toward cigarettes and smoking. It worked great for me.

4. Cut back

Take it easy, but do try to gradually get rid of some of the “false cigarettes”, the ones that you light up for no reason, the ones that make you feel bad… you know what I mean.

Quitting Smoking in 21 Days

After a week or two of preparation (as I explained above), you can start the 21 day countdown to quitting smoking.

I got the idea from Lee Milteer, as she describes in one of her life changing programs – Habit Busting Secrets (21 day program for breaking any bad habit).

Anyway, here is how you do it:

Day 1: Begin the countdown

As soon as you feel ready, count 21 days forward and set is as your “quit date”. Until then you can smoke away.

Days 2-20: Do more prep work

If you haven’t yet done what I suggest above (in “getting ready”) do it now. If you have, take it up a notch – cut back a little more, track your smoking, re-write your “why list” and so on.

I highly recommend that you set aside a few minutes every day for some ‘mental work’. Even five minutes per day might do. Just make sure to do this at least once, right before you go to sleep.

The goal of these exercises is to get your mind used to the idea of quitting. It’s as if you stop smoking in your mind first, before your body actually does.

There are various ways to do this, from simple self talk to self hypnosis. I personally like using pen, paper, and a little bit of imagination. In other words, a combination of:

• Affirmations

(In case you don’t know, affirmations are positive statements that you say to yourself, in order to imprint certain thoughts and emotions on your subconscious mind.)

You can write down something like this: “I am proud and happy, because it is [DATE] and I don’t smoke anymore”. Make a habit of writing down (or saying out loud) such statements over and over again, at least twice a day until your quit date.

• Visualization

Simply close your eyes and see yourself, for example, having a cup of coffee and not lighting up. Imagine yourself proudly telling people, “I don’t smoke anymore.”  Things like that.

Day 21: Smoke your last cigarette

On your quit date, smoke your last cigarette at the time you usually smoke your last one for the day. If you’ve done your preparation right, this shouldn’t feel like “saying goodbye”, but more like saying “good riddance”.

That’s it.

What? You want more? OK, here are a few more tips to help you succeed…

Follow These Rules After You’ve Stopped Smoking:

1) Smile…

Don’t let self doubt and self pity creep in. Instead, get excited, be proud, because you are giving yourself a gift of great value – in terms of health, energy, self esteem, self respect, and of course – money.

Remember – you are not sacrificing anything! You are only getting rid of an expensive, stinking, unhealthy, dangerous habit.

2) Don’t wait for anything to happen

Don’t count the days since you stopped smoking. Don’t wait for the pangs to go away. Don’t expect some major changes in how you feel or think or whatever. Just get on with your life, knowing that you will never smoke ever again.

3) Do not fall for your own mind’s tricks

Your mind will probably try to trick you into smoking in various ways. Be ready for it, and counter it with positive thoughts of how proud and happy you are for not smoking any more.

BIG TIP:

Every time the image of a cigarette comes up in your mind, remind yourself that it’s only because your brain still has the programming, memories, and images related to smoking. In fact, they might not go away for a long time, even though the actual craving is totally gone.

It’s been over a year since I stopped smoking, and though I have no cravings at all, my brain still pops up these flashes from time to time.

For example, I might see someone light up, and the thought of smoking pops into my head for a split second. I don’t try to ignore it, because it will only feel as if I’m struggling. No, I acknowledge it and then dismiss it as just a memory flash, because that’s exactly what it is.

4) Don’t change (almost) anything else

Sure, it would be great if you could begin a workout routine, maybe drink more water or learn some relaxation techniques like meditation, but try not to make any big changes in addition to quitting smoking, at least at first.

Don’t use pills, patches, or nicotine gum, and if you usually don’t chew (regular) gum, there is no reason to start now. There is no need to stop drinking coffee or change your diet, either. (Be careful not to start binging).

I personally love coffee, and before I stopped smoking, I thought I couldn’t enjoy coffee without a cigarette. I couldn’t be more wrong.

In short – get on with your life with just one difference…

5) Never, ever smoke again

Don’t be tempted to try and see how it makes you feel. Don’t listen to people who say they “can enjoy a cigarette every now and then, without getting hooked.” (They’re lying to themselves.)

Remember this sad truth…

You can never really be a non-smoker. You can only be an ex-smoker. While a non-smoker might get away with “just a taste”, you don’t stand a chance, so don’t tempt it.

So get yourself ready for weak moments and promise yourself, dare yourself, to never, ever smoke again, no matter what happens.

Oh, and one last thing…

If you’re reading this and already making excuses for why you can’t stop smoking or that “it’s not a good time”, let me assure you – you are no special case! You’re not different than the tens of thousands who’ve already stopped smoking.

So stop waiting for the perfect timing, stop making excuses and start doing whatever it takes to get rid of smoking once and for all.

Any thoughts? Questions? Tips of your own to share? Go ahead and add a comment below…

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