5 Simple But Powerful Fitness Steps You Can Take in the New Year

If you are tired of making New Years resolutions that you never fulfill here are some tips to help you keep them way past January 1st. For most people the hardest part of any fitness program is getting started. We want to achieve something grand or something we have never done before. What happens is we end up placing too much pressure on ourselves because the fallacy in our thinking is that in order for us to achieve our big goals we need to take big steps.

We aim for giant leaps like "This is the year I will run the city marathon!" or "I will lose the extra 30 pounds" and the list goes on. Now don't get me wrong, these are great things which I highly recommend, but you have to remember, if we never become experts at doing the simple things and wait to do the big ones we might end up doing nothing at all. The saying is true. The only way to eat and Elephant is one bite at a time!

So Happy New You! Let this year be the one where you enjoy health and fitness at a level you have never experienced and here are some steps to help you get started.

Set your goals but use pictures and not words. The human mind is not motivated by words, but is motivated by pictures. Start making an inspirational collage of images and photos that really speak to you. You can get these from advertisements for fitness products like running shoes, magazines or fitness magazines. Post these somewhere you will see each day. Post a picture or a photo of what you want your body to look like. You can even use your computer's background desktop or screen saver, the trick is for you to keep seeing it.

Find a Friend Find a friend who also wants to get healthy and fit. For example there is a 90% chance that your next door neighbor also wants to get fit in the New Year. Ask them or any of your close friends to walk or workout with you. If you go to the gym, make some friends at the gym and try interacting and reaching out to others. This will make the gym a more delightful place to visit and when you skip the gym your buddy might notice and give you a hard time about it . In life, we need all the encouragement we can get.

Invest in magazines and DVD's - Get inspirational fitness magazines and exercise videos that will give you something to strive for. I produce my own exercise videos and I really know first hand how beneficial they can be. I get tons of email from people who are making significant changes in their lives. You many not have access to a gym, so buying fitness magazines and exercise DVD's are a wonderful resource for exercise ideas and workouts.

Out with the Soda. Eliminating sodas from your diet is one of the simplest and most profound health improvements you can make. One can of regular soda has an equivalent of about 10 teaspoons of the artificial sugar-like product high fructose corn syrup and studies have linked sodas to osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease.

Join a gym or take neighborhood fitness classes. Personally I love the gym and I'm not just saying this because I'm a trainer who teaches classes almost everyday, but because I know that being a member of a gym can be a life changing decision. It's not just about the equipment and the trainers at the gym it's about the spirit and the energy you will find there. Being a member of the gym will allow you to feed of the energy of others, you will be inspired to see other motivated people pursuing the same goal you are.

Kenn Kihiu is a fitness expert and the creator of DanceX Fun Dance Exercise Workout DVD's for both adults and kids. To learn more about Kenn or DanceX visit http://www.dancexfitness.com

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How to Be Powerful in Mind, Body and Soul

True power comes from the continuity and connection between mind, body and soul, which creates an inner power that allows you to feel, know and live your purpose and express and share your essence with certitude, clarity and love. Working in dance and healing through the emotions in the body, I explore how to connect mind, body and soul through creative visualization of the Ideal Body and how this can affect change in your real body.

The nature of the human body and soul is to work with concepts and beliefs about your body and your being. We live with a concept of our body (or a mental structure) and beliefs about our body (or an emotional structure). You can affect true change in your real body by visualizing and meditation with your Ideal Body. The Ideal Body is a construct I use in meditation and dance therapy. It's a combination of your mental images charged with emotional beliefs that empower you. Using an emotionally exciting image of your Ideal Body is how I access the power of your soul and your essence that charges, energizes and influences all your life choices and experiences.

The concept of an Ideal Body with the power of visualization, movement meditation and guided imagery and also fantasy, daydreaming and wishful thinking, works on moving you beyond your perceived limits and what you see in the mirror.

Playing with and visualizing your Ideal Body is a way to listen to your real body, to understand you body from a heart-felt place and allow your feelings, desires and dreams to be expressed. The real you is not just a physical body. Your body and being is created by your life experiences (parenting, environment, socialization, education, spiritual beliefs and relationships) and your soul experiences. The soul has both positive and negative memories. What you may feel as limitations in your life or body, may actually come from your soul. As we play with the concept of an Ideal Body we move beyond both the limitations of your body, mind and emotions and even beyond the limitations of your soul.

The Ideal Body is where your emotions, your physical body and mind are working together to access your true self, your inner power, your aliveness and messages from your soul about how you are truly meant to be. When you connect to your true self, who you are from the level of your soul, you are empowered with a clarity that allows your body, mind and emotions to work synergistically.

Your emotions are vital keys as to what has created your physical body the way it is. The clue is to not see the emotions as who you are, but simply an aspect of who you are, that is open to change and will change daily, even from moment to moment. Emotions need to be felt and moved through the body. That is why you feel different after a good cry.

The body you have is not good or bad - it simply is what you have - at this point in time. Your Ideal Body is one that allows your emotions to move as you move beyond limits of time and conditioning, allowing your expression of self to flow out of you in a way that does not harm yourself or others. You may still offend or confuse people, but that doesn't harm them!

Emotions that get bottled up get stored like toxins in your body. They collect around fat cells, get deposited in trigger points and meridians that create painful muscles, swollen lymph, poor digestion, extra weight, bloating or clouded obsessive thoughts and inability to focus, do things or simply be yourself. You can also lose your life vitality, libido, appetite and lose weight or suffer mental health issues from withdrawing from the life you are truly meant to live, simply because you cannot feel who you are on either the level of your body, your emotions or even your soul.

Movement helps the body to move stored energy and stored emotions. Dance is movement with emotional intent. You have to feel the movement to really be flowing with the dance. Dance is like exercising the muscle of emotion. When you dance you are practicing what it is like to feel and you can release feelings that are bottled up or simply not being expressed.

When you are dancing or in meditation or any body awareness practice, ask yourself what is that you feel good about or what you feel bad about. Simply asking your body to show you what it is that needs more attention or what needs to be felt, allows your emotions to surface and begin to be released and expressed. When you have danced or meditated with this question, write about your feelings and you will have another excellent way to understand, express and release your feelings.

Sometimes you may gain a sense of physical release without moving deeply held emotions. In order to get to deeper more chronic or problematic emotions, work with the INTENT in your dance of accessing your true self. This type of dance is a form of "authentic movement", where you encourage the body to simply move without thinking about how you dance. You can simply use the idea and intent to access your true self in any movement form and your body will automatically flow according to this desire. Release any expectations of what that should be, look like and feel like and simply allow your body to explore.

Releasing emotions in a healthy way is acknowledging that there is no right of wrong way to feel yourself or acknowledge your emotions. Your emotions will be different every day and change through out life. Dance can be fun and just for laughs and freeing and sometimes dance can access blocked or negative feelings that need to be understood. Simply because you are moving, you have the choice to allow your emotional body to move as well, which is the pleasure that empowers your mind, body and soul to be and feel synergistically at one.

Dance is an external expression of an internal beat. The two elements of inner feeling and outer movement are always in dialogue. The dialogue of inside and out is the way the dance acts as a mirror for what is truly going on in your body, your feelings and your life. Empowerment for you will come when you connect this dialogue between your Ideal Body and your emotions and gain access to what it is you truly wish to be and how that feels like, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Angela Ambrosia is dance teacher, performer, movement therapist and workshop facilitator based in New York, Canada and Australia. As a performer she discovered dance and belly dance as a vital way to connect to the joy of life and the power of pleasure. Her movement practice connects women AND men to the healing pleasure of sensuality as well as enhance communication of love with yourself and in your relationships. She offers private sessions, workshops and seminars for men and women to enjoy the freedom of their body, connect to your authentic self and LOVE your body! Go to http://www.DancewithAngela.com to receive monthly newsletter and offerings.

Dance with Angela is part of an international healing network of therapists and advisors who work with body, mind and spirit, in the USA, Australia and Canada.

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