Love

Love

Love is such a powerful word that has been said and expressed right throughout history. It would be hard to imagine a life without love, when we think of love we tend to think of our loved ones, family, friends some might be thinking, car, job, holidays anything that brings us real happiness. Love on my list comes purely from the heart.

Self love is something that is becoming harder and harder to find, with society and the media creating an unrealistic scorecard of success, job, status, house size, fashion, we judge ourselves as a person based heavily on how we rate in these certain extrinsic areas of life, with so much to live up to self-love is getting tough. A lot of smarter people than I, believe you can’t love anybody if you don’t love yourself,  you can care, do things, attend but deeply love somebody or something, now that’s different kettle of fish, what about loving what you do? When was the last time you got up and did something because you loved it, no outcome, reward, paycheck or pat on the back, the love you expressed when you were 6 riding freely on your bike, a simple pure and authentic love with no strings attached. Unconditional Love, better or worse, richer or poorer, even when you get a job and that makes you really busy or whilst stuck at home looking after our 4 kids under 6, stressed out of your brain and you want to scream, that kind of love. How many people do you stare in the eye and tell or at least think “ Gee I love you” how about an experience when all you can feel is pure joy and happiness in your heart?

 

To find love I think you need to pause, create some space to just be, take it all in. You can do a wedding, but you can’t do love, you BE in love, you don’t do caring, you BE a caring person, you don’t do compassionate, you be a compassionate person, remember we are human BEings not human doings.

 

My guide to love

 

1. Show love any chance you get
2. Love the environment, ride instead of drive, compost or plant trees, little things that show love for this land.
3. Let your guard down, be vulnerable and let love in
4. Discover what you love to do and do it
5. Lastly and most importantly, look into the mirror and into your heart and start to love yourself, love the person you have become.

Thanks Love and Peace

2 loves of my life right there.

 

What’s your ROI

 

 

I manage one of the biggest corporate health and wellness programs across the globe, ” we spend well over a decent salary just on fruit, for our employees each year”. In the corporate H+W world I hear the words ” what’s the  ROI (Return On Investment) a’lot, I also get the amazing opportunity to get some one on one time with employees to discuss there health and wellness, there teams health and wellness etc. Lately I’ve been flipping the whole ROI thing and asking them ” Is your investment really worth the return?” What does that question really mean, I can hear you ask. Firstly I’d like to say business is business in many cases, a’lot of the time this is not the companies or corporations fault and a’lot of the time it’s not the employee’s fault. How much you invest into your career, pursuit, etc is it worth the return?  Now the return might be a 20K salary increase, it might be an Ironman PB, it might be losing a stack of weight, but are you happy with what your investing to get that return? Don’t get blinded by the outcome before you can clearly navigate the process, here’s a really common scenario to put it into context.

You get a huge promotion at work, more money, bigger house, you know the story. The Return

The promotion means, 30 days of travel, longer hours, more sitting and greater pressure to deliver. The Investment

Is the return worth the investment?

I ask myself this question a’lot, I have 4 kids, do my kids want a bigger house or more time with me? Do I want to sit in meetings all day, or train, move and interact with people?

Guys I don’t have the answer for you, find the right fit for you and own your life ROI.

Enjoy Luke

Knowledge V Action

If it feels good, do it

Having wellness knowledge and putting that knowledge into actions are two completely different conversations.  More and more do I hear the clean eating, mindfulness, work – life balance lines get thrown around without it being remotely lived by the manager or leader preaching it. Understanding the concept, even supporting the idea is completely different to living that value yourself, I know super clean natural living families who just live the holistic natural life without needing a magazine, recipe or Instagram site, I know a lot more people who will tell you how amazing Kale is as it sits in their crisper rotting away next to the rainbow chard. Raising awareness is fantastic and an important step to your health and well being future, but eventually you need to action all that knowledge you have from the books, blogs, websites and start living it a little, and guess what? Your first green smoothie will taste crappy and you will crave sugar and refined carbs, but your body and your mind will thank you for putting all that knowledge into action.

The Sitting Trap

 

I’m sitting writing this now, it’s a part of life and we need to accept sitting and embrace sitting, but there’s sitting and then there’s sitting. Stats are showing that we sit for an avg of 9.2 hrs a day and sitting for more than 6 hrs a day makes us 40% more likely to die within 15 years (data Forbes magazine http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2013/04/04/how-taking-more-meetings-could-save-your-life/ )

 

Walk and Talk

We all have too many meetings, why not go for a 30 minute while you have your next 1 on 1, here’s a few ways you can do this and reasons why you should walk and talk.

 

How to make a walk and talk meeting happen:

 

• If you wear heels, have some runners or even flip flops on hand (Rubi can help you out)
• For notes get yourself a pocket size notebook and a pen (Typo) it’s ok to stop whilst walking, you could even take 30 seconds of silence.
• Then walk

 

Why walk and talk:

 

• This is a no brainer to get your 21 minutes of daily movement in.
• Getting outdoors and moving is great for ideas generation and creative thinking, when was the last time you got a great idea at your desk?
• It’s good for your health
• Walk and talks can aid in weight loss and weight management. It makes sense, I bet sitting for 9 hrs has aided in your weight gain.

 

Below is a link to an amazing Ted Talk from Nilofer Merchant who talks about how walk and talk meetings changed her life, it goes three and half minutes and I recommend you check it out.

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/nilofer_merchant_got_a_meeting_take_a_walk

Enjoy

Welcome to Happy Body & Mind

Happy Body & Mind is about providing information,coaching and services to help people develop a happier body and mind. If you don’t know who I am and where all this is heading, well this post will give you an idea of where these posts are heading. I encourage you to give me feedback, both good and bad (don’t worry I’m a big boy) also please ask me questions, I’m passionate about helping, learning and growing, there’s no such thing as bad question.

My name is Luke McLean, I am a life and wellness coach, and personal trainer. I have also helped develop one of Australia‘s largest corporate wellbeing programs. I have a real passion for helping create change, helping people live their best lives. Happily married with 3 perfect kids, I love experiencing and challenging myself physically and mentally, Ironman triathlons, reading and constantly up skilling myself. You can either live life or exist in life, I choose to live as many days as I can.

Areas I coach and will be writing about in my Happy Body and Mind blog are:

* Have you had a PT. tried to lose weight but failed (creating lasting change)?

* Would you like to take you career or relationships to the next level?

* Would you like to live life with more purpose or passion?

* Living life with purpose and passion

* Goal Setting

* Getting out of your comfort zone

Happy, Body and Mind will focus on your personal and professional physical and mental wellbeing.

I look forward to catching up and growing with you.