Denny Strecker’s Blog

Black Belt Champions strive to be their best in every area of life.

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A recent Consumer Reports article presented the latest research about keeping your mind sharp, especially as you age. As I read the article, I couldn’t help but notice that you could follow, or fulfill, all five of the report’s recommendations with martial arts training!

1. Reduce Stress. Exercise is a well-known activity to help you reduce stress. Martial arts, as an exercise regimen, is a real stress buster, since it provides even more stress-reducing benefits.

2. Stay Connected. Be sociable and enjoy the company of others. Your martial arts training is serious, but it can also be a very sociable experience. Martial arts classes are fun and engaging, helping you to commit to its long-term benefits.

3. Feed Your Brain. A nutritionally balanced diet is key to any martial arts program and to your complete healthy lifestyle. The recommendations to maintain healthy brain functions are much the same as for healthy bodily functions: minimize trans-fat intake, reduce saturated fat intake and consume more fish and other foods that contain healthy fats.

4. Stay Fit. Physical activity is the best-known method to protect your brain against aging. The recommendation is the same as for general health and wellbeing: at least 30 minutes of exercise most days. Martial arts training incorporates daily exercise into your routine in a fun and exciting way, so you can stick with it.

5. Flex Your Brain Muscles. Use it or lose it. The mental aspect of martial arts training provides this type of mental stimulation and a great physical workout.

Keep in mind that "aging" doesn’t necessarily refer to your chronological age. Depending on your lifestyle, aging-related changes to your mind, such as memory loss, can begin as early as your 20s or 30s. Stay committed to your martial arts training. Your mind will thank you for it.

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You make choices everyday that reveal your character. The choices that you make should be the best decisions possible. The choices you make determine just how successful or unsuccessful you are. When you choose to exercise, you are choosing to be healthy. You must also make healthy choices about your emotions, such as anger, happiness, sadness, etc.

Your emotional choices are your reactions to your emotions. If your little brother spills water on your schoolbook, then you may become angry. Anger is your emotion. If you yell at your brother, then yelling is your reaction or behavior to your emotion of anger.

When you are emotionally intelligent, you choose not to yell at your brother. You choose not to behave badly, even though you are experiencing a bad emotion. This is a lesson that Black Belts understand and practice every day.

Making good choices is a skill you must learn. You must practice making good choices. Sometimes you will make bad choices, but you can learn from your mistakes and be more emotionally intelligent. You may not control many things in life, but you can control your reactions to emotions. When you learn how, you will live a more successful and positive life.!

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In order to get the absolute most out of the time you spend in the Playhouse of Your Mind, it is imperative that you learn to relax, physically and mentally.

Why is this?

Because a mind that is filled with stress cannot easily absorb a new idea.

The good news is that regardless of how much stress you currently feel, you can learn to relax very quickly. Regardless of how much of yesterday you are carrying into today, you can get yourself to emotionally deflate within seconds.

One of the fastest ways is to pay attention to your breathing. Watch yourself breathe. Inhale deeply. Pay attention to the air filling your lungs. Exhale deeply. Feel the old energy leaving your body.
After a few deep breaths you’ll wonder where all the mental stress went and once you get your muscles to simply ‘let go’ you’re ready to work on improving your self-image. You’re ready to begin building the NEW YOU - the person you instinctively know you can be - the person you really really want to be.

It is great idea to visualize for a few minutes just before lopping off to sleep. But be careful. Avoid the temptation to lie down for your ‘Theatre of the Mind’ session. Sit up in bed or sit on the side of your bed with your feet on the floor. This will help you avoid falling asleep before you get to the highlights.
If you visualize before sleep your subconcious mind will work on your goals while you’re in dream state.
And that’s a wonderful thing to know.

If you tend to doubt the effect that what you think about before sleep has on your next day, then consider this. Most people go to bed with a final thought of ‘I’m tired.’ Hence, they wake up tired.
The very first day you say to yourself, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to wake up feeling totally energized and refreshed.’ - you will discover that you no longer wake up feeling tired.
Try it if you don’t believe me. I dare you.

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Want to know the secret of getting more done in less time? Okay, great. Let me give you three things you can do to double your "done" rate.

Number One, make out your "to do" list before going to bed each night - or when you first wake up. You may not think you have time for this, but studies prove those who spend 15 minutes planning their day get back 2 hours in greater productivity.

Number Two, highlight the tasks you have to do that are "important" but not urgent. These are the tasks that build a great career, but never fall onto the "urgent" list because they don’t really NEED to be done. It’s never an urgent task for me to excercise or to hug my wife.

Yet, these things are "important" to me and when I do them, not only do I benefit, others do, too.

Number Three, do the "important" tasks that you’ve highlighted and find other people to help you do the "urgent." In fact, the less you do of the "urgent" - the more time you’ll spend on the truly important - and the more you and the world will benefit.

Last of all, never forget that daily exercise falls into the "Important" category. You don’t have to do it. You can put it off forever. But doing so not only leads to health problems, it leads to far, far less ability to "get things done." Remember, 15 minutes of exercise per day won’t just get you into great shape - they give many people as much as two extra hours of increased productivity.

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Never be afraid to lose “friends.” A true friend is someone who takes pride in seeing you succeed. Some friends can only handle your success to a certain point - then they get jealous. If and when that happens, slice them out of your life immediately and never look back. When one door closes another opens.

And take it from someone who knows: The new door is much bigger, much broader and brings much more success and happiness your way.

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Try this experiment: Sit straight in a chair. Place one hand on your lower stomach and the other on your chest. Take a very deep breath through your nose. Which hand rises? If your chest rises instead of your stomach, you are breathing incorrectly and are restricting your oxygen intake.

When we are under extreme stress, our physiological/mental/emotional systems react to it the way they would react to an actual physical threat. This unconscious reflex causes our muscles to tighten to prepare us for making a life-saving “fight or flight” response. Most of us automatically tighten our stomach muscles and diaphragm - and, as a result, we stop breathing normally. We begin to breathe with our chest muscles, which does nothing but expand the upper chest. This causes shortness of breath, a decrease in our oxygen supply, and anxiety. And if the anxiety is severe, it can diminish our ability to think or act effectively.

To alleviate this problem, practice the following exercises.

1. Learn to breathe properly. Lie on your back on your bed. Place your hand on your lower stomach. Breathe deeply through your nose, focusing on directing the breath to your stomach. When you breathe out, press gently on your stomach to push the air out. Repeat the process, taking a break after every third breath. Practice for five minutes a day.

2. Practice deep breathing throughout the day. Take a deep breath every time the phone rings, before you start your car, every time you look at your watch, when you wake up, when you go to bed, before you eat. Your body will be more relaxed, your mind will be clearer, and you will have less anxiety.

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When it comes to making changes and achieving goals in your life, the process is actually quite simple. We complicate the matter by - well, complicating the matter. So let’s take something basic and simple you do everyday and analyze the “success” process.

Each and every day of your life you “get hungry.” And when you get hungry you ask yourself, “What do I want to eat?” After asking this question your brain scans the data and comes up with a mental image of a specific food. Once you see that image in your mind you say something like this, “Yeah, I want that.” Then guess what you do? Yet get up and do whatever it takes to eat the food that you chose.

Now, in case you think this is overly simplistic, you’re right. And this exact sequence is precisely what you go through when you want to accomplish matters more serious than your next meal. Ask yourself, “What do I want?” Once you get the answer in the form of a mental image, mentally choose it by saying, “Yes, I want that.” Then do whatever it takes to bring it into your reality.

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Have you ever gotten up in the morning with an overwhelming feeling that you’re going to have an awesome day? I’ll bet you have at one time or another.

Would you be interested in knowing how you can make that feeling happen more often? How about all of the time?

Okay, here goes…Did you know that most people go to bed with thoughts such as "Damn, I’m really tired" in their head? Well, it’s true. And guess what? If you go to bed thinking, "I’m really tired," - when you awaken the next day, you will still be saying "I’m really tired" to yourself.

You’ve probably experienced this yourself. I certainly have. But once I heard that there was another way to put myself to sleep, and that I would wake up feeling much different, I jumped on it.

I’m sure you’ve experienced days in which you woke up excited. Maybe it was the night before you went on a vacation. Even if you set your electronic rooster for 7 a.m., you probably woke up before it went off.

Why? Because you were "pumped" before going to bed.

Seriously think about this: Why type of thoughts did you have before going to bed the night before a vacation? I can assure you that your thoughts were more along the lines of "Tomorrow is going to be great. I can’t wait."

The above paragraph contains the secret to waking up feeling great! Before going to bed at night, consciously choose your thoughts. Tell your subconscious mind what you want it to do for you while you sleep. Sometimes I tell it to wake me up at a certain hour (without an alarm clock). Sometimes I ask for an answer to a question. At other times I simply tell myself, "Tomorrow is going to be awesome. I’m going to do something great!!"

You can do the same and reap the benefits as well.

Don’t believe it works? I don’t blame you. But before you completely make up your mind, experiment with this method for a few days. Then you will truly KNOW that today’s tip can work for you too.

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I want to tell you about your SECRET POWER.

Whether we are talking about success in fitness, sports, academics or the marketplace, everyone has this SECRET POWER at his disposal - and it will work every single time, if you use it.

This secret power is nothing more than having a daily regimen. I know, it sounds too simple. And it really is simple. But hardly anyone else does it.

The masses flap, flop and flounder. They have no idea what to do from one day to the next, and they is why they fail.

The person who follows a daily regimen of exercise, work or study quickly rises above the herd and becomes better than even he can imagine.

And it doesn’t take that much.

For example, if you do calisthenics for thirty minutes per day, every day, without missing a beat, I can guarantee you that after one year, you’ll be in amazing shape compared to how you look and feel now.

Your regimen may be as simple as 100 assorted pushups, 100 assorted squats and 100 assorted abdominal exercises. Follow this everyday and you’ll be amazed at how much it helps you.

Because I understand the power of daily regimen, I wholeheartedly recommend it in my training sessions. Those who don’t recognize its power would prefer to only Ytrain twice a month. On a regimen like that, you aren’t going to be training for more than a couple of months. You’ll have so many diversions that you’ll forget you were even on a schedule.

Daily regimens guarantee your success.

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