Isn’t life a wonderful, wild, mesmerizing, and crazy ride? It’s like a roller coaster that rouses every emotion that dwells in our spirit. It can take us to the highest of peaks and down to the lowest pits of despair. We travel through this life alone, as individuals, yet we share so many experiences with each other, be it family, friends, teammates, co-workers, neighbors or complete strangers. Whether we want to believe it or not we are all interconnected, one big family that needs each other’s love, support, compassion, and connectedness. Look how often we are inspired by one another. Look how often we feel each others pain and sympathize when we see someone else suffering. We celebrate each others happiness, accomplishments and creativity. We have the power to take pride in seeing someone else shine. Deep down inside, when we tap into the true essence of our being we can find that part of ourselves that is genuinely happy when we see other people thrive. Unfortunately not everyone is able to get to that place in their heart where they’re able to feel, express, and accept the love I’m referring to. When we disconnect and seperate ourselves from the human family we lose our way and we literally invite suffering into our lives. We only have this one precious life and we only have so much time to make the best of it. When we fail to love ourselves we fall apart. We neglect our body and we invite disease, we neglect our spirit and we’re left with a big empty void, we neglect our mind and we become susceptible to all of life’s temptations and stand the risk of being stricken with mental illness or emotional imbalances. We all struggle at times, we all fall down, we all make mistakes, some of us fall from grace, and some of us feel like there’s no way out. As long as our minds are intact then there is hope for anyone that desires change. When we decide that it’s time be free from suffering our first objective should be the realization that your life is a blessing. There’s only one you - a perfectly unique creation that has every right to be happy and at peace. By practicing self love it’s so much easier to make the right choices. We create a harmonious existence for ourselves by treating our mind, body, and spirit with equal amounts of care. Take pride in loving yourself. Nourish your mind and your body. Shower yourself in self confidence. Revel in your personality and accept everything about yourself. You are the one and only YOU and you have the capability to shine your beautiful light on all those you share this life with. Shine bright my friends. Shine bright.

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The New York/New Jersey Giants are heading to the Superbowl once again! I never considered myself a fan of any athletic team but now that I have 2 boys that love football I’ve paid much more attention to both the Giants and the Jets. I must say that what the Giants have done to get to the Superbowl was very impressive. They had to win 5 single elimination games, three of which were played on the road, in order to get to the big game. This is exactly what they did en route to a Superbowl win back in 2007. It goes to show you how you can never count a team out no matter what their regular season record is. Being a former football player myself, all of the excitement surrounding the Giants got me to reflect on my experiences as a football player. As a kid I always loved playing sandlot football with my buddies but when it came to strapping on a helmet it wasn’t allowed. My parents didn’t want me to get hurt, so every year that I went to them with a registration form to play Pop Warner, I got rejected. After years of begging they finally let me play my junior year in high school–and let me tell you, football was so much more than I ever expected it to be. Today I believe it’s the greatest sport on the planet. There were so many valuable life lessons that I took away from my 10 years on the gridiron. Football taught me about the importance of teamwork, leadership, and unity. I learned how to deal with the massive amounts of fear that came with playing. If there was any type of adversity, and believe me, there’s more than you think you can handle, you deal with it and figure out a way to carry on. Mental toughness was drilled into my psyche and it became paramount throughout my football career. Games would often create high pressure situations especially when you needed a come from behind score or a game winning touchdown or field goal. Football taught me how hard work pays off, that being lazy gets you no where in sports, and more importantly, no where in life. I saw how important it was to respect my coaches, my teammates, as well as my opponents. I learned how to overcome disappointments and manage very stressful situations. I was able to recognize the benefits of strength training, conditioning, and eating well. The list of priceless life lessons that football taught me runs long and deep. I loved playing, I miss playing and I’m forever grateful to the game and the coaches that influenced my life in so many wonderful ways. The good news is that I get to share these life lessons and skills with the local athletes that come to the Power Center for my Ultimate Athlete Conditioning classes. Working on speed, agility, strength and flexibility is very important but the mental part of it and the life lessons we get to share, in my opinion, are so much more important. Go Giants!

In 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. One that is considered by many to be one of the greatest speeches ever given. I personally find his speech to be intensely passionate, powerful and inspirational. I wish we were able to tap into Dr. King’s soul in order to feel the unrelenting compassion he had for the people of this earth. He spoke of injustice, segregation, discrimination and the poverty that people were subjected to. The sad truth is that all of those things still exist today. His dream has yet to be realized despite the 50 years of opportunity that has passed us by. When you compare where we are to today versus a half a century ago we have definitely made some obvious progress, but, it is my opinion that we still have a very long way to go, if we truly want to “let freedom ring.” I too have a dream of my own. I imagine a world where we all shine, living/loving life, rising above all of the unnecessary suffering. A world where we thrive instead of living like a bunch of confused, disconnected, powerless victims that are desperately trying to survive. I imagine a world where we come together, uniting as a solitary tribe of generous, kind, accepting and loving people. This may be an absolute pipe-dream but I believe we, as individuals, can create this for ourselves and our loved ones. If we individually evolve to such a level, then we’ll be in a position to help others pull themselves up and out of their misery. I have a dream that more and more people will start to Live The 7, discovering a heightened connectedness with God’s love and light. Once that is obtained then all things are possible. That’s when all of our dreams come true. Dream big, people. Dream Big!

2012 has arrived and right along with it has come the billions of hopes, dreams, resolutions, goals and opportunities, as well as fears and worries. I hope that all of you had plenty of fun bringing in the New Year and are as excited as I am for what lies ahead. My original plan for my first blog entry of the year was to talk about integrity. As I reflected back on 2011 I couldn’t help but notice the severe lack of integrity that stained the world’s landscape. I thought about my own lapses in judgment and vowed to work harder on elevating my own level of integrity. Although I think it’s a very important subject to discuss, my plans were altered thanks to a vivid dream I had last night. I have a huge chalkboard at my place of business, The Power Center, where I display my word or phrase of the week. In the dream I was the first to arrive, but mysteriously someone had already written on the board. It asked the question, Can WE CREATE an ABUNDANCE of PEACE, LOVE, HEALTH, and HAPPINESS? P,L,H, & H are something that I write and  about all the time so I didn’t find it to be so unusual although the handwriting wasn’t familiar. As I stared at the board wondering who did this my mind and body were flooded with images and thoughts that had very powerful feelings accompanying them. I felt like I was being spoken to by a divine source of power. The first three words of the question were the focal point at first. The emphasis on the word WE. I saw images of people of all walks of life gathering together, I got the feeling that everyone was able to let go of their prejudices and fears of our differences and understood that the only way we could be successful at creating this was by coming together as one. Then the feeling shifted and my attention turned to the word ABUNDANCE. The images I saw were people with smiles on their faces admiring the beautiful fields of crops, houses with vibrant gardens, acres of boutiful orchards, children of all ages running around and playing, and an enormous river of pristine water flowing through the middle of it all. The feeling that I had was universal harmony and joy. There was a collective knowledge that there was more than enough for everyone. More than enough provisions, more than enough peace, more then enough love, more than enough health and more than enough happiness! I realize that this image is so far removed from the reality that we currently live in but I believe that collectively we can change the world and make it a much better place. We start by saying yes to the question, Can WE? Then we reassure ourselves that we are all worthy of a life full of P,L,H, & H. Spreading it and sharing it with others has become my life’s purpose and I intend on continuing on that path throughout the year. Please join me in an effort to make this dream come true. Here’s to a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year for All!

This is one of those questions that you hear all the time. Old friends, family members you haven’t seen in a while, old colleagues, or just about anyone that you’ve had past experiences with could drop it on you at any time. Our typical responses are short, sweet, and to the point. “Life is good” is one of the more popular. Short and sweet is fine but let’s put some more thought into it, delve a little deeper into the age old question. How is life? Well for me, life is a multitude of things - it’s mind-bending, amazing, mysterious, mesmerizing, challenging, humbling, educational, fun, surreal, crazy, interesting and definitely worth all of the adversity and hardships it will sometimes offer up. Life is a never ending cycle of evolution. We arrive from God knows where, we’re born into a particular family, under particular circumstances, in a particular community, living amongst thousands of other people that are all in the same boat. Despite all of our differences we are all the same. Human beings that all thrive when we are submerged in and raised with love and we struggle and suffer when we are deprived of that same gift. As we approach this new year let’s all try to love a little bit more. Starting with ourselves. Let go of the past and release the memories that cause you to suffer. Start anew and create the life that fills your heart with love, your mind with peace, your spirit with happiness and your body with health. Do this for yourself and the whole world will benefit, especially those people that you’re closest to. Spread the love everyone and life will be much better than good. It will be awesomeness!

Each of us is provided with 24 hours of time each and everyday that we are above ground. Most people sleep anywhere between 5 and 10 hours a night, which leaves you with 14 to 19 hours out of bed. I try to get at least 7 hours of sleep, which leaves me 17 hours to use however I see fit. A lot of those 17 are spent at work but there’s still plenty of hours that I can do as I please. During my formative years, the religion that I was exposed to, taught me that when we die and leave this wonderful planet, we go to a place they referred to as heaven. In more recent years I have developed a slightly different perspective and some new found beliefs. I no longer subscribe to the one and done theory. I think each of us has come to this earth for specific reasons. Most, if not all of us are here to learn, to experience life and to evolve. I also believe that if we’re unsuccessful in fulfilling our destiny then we stand the risk of having to come back (reincarnation) to try it again–something I’d rather not do. My belief in this theory is more than enough motivation for me to do everything in my power to figure out what my purpose is on this earth and to work on it everyday. That is one way for us to use our time wisely but there are plenty of others. In my experience I have found that one of the most important ways to spend our time is by acknowledging and lifting our spirit. All too often we get caught up and focus a lot of attention on the physical. We spend countless hours partaking in activities that completely neglect the spirit. Be it the pursuit of money for material gain or the wide variety of choices we make to entertain ourselves (partying, sex, pornography, watching television, going to the movies, taking vacations, participating in or watching sports, or any number of hobbies, etc…), We need to remember that Spirit is consciousness and it needs some undivided attention. If we neglect our spirit we disconnect from that higher consciousness and eventually start to feel off. The best way that I have found to reconnect with our spirit is by Living the 7. So if you happen to be one of the millions that are feeling a bit of that disconnect may I suggest giving the 7 a try? Now that would be using YOUR time very wisely!

Live the 7,

John Nies

Hurricane/Tropical storm Irene didn’t offer up too much destruction for a lot of us here in Jersey, but that wasn’t the case for everyone. For the families from those States who lost loved ones my heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to you. The same goes for those people whose homes and businesses were destroyed by the flooding and high winds. Irene got her fair share of attention and discussion as most storms do. The events leading up to the arrival of Irene were actually the motivation behind this blog entry. It may or may not be evident to you but it seems to me that there’s been a substantial increase in natural disasters around the World. Having an earthquake on the East coast last week is proof to me that Mother Nature is trying to get our attention. The way we respond to these events is crucial. The collective media, in my opinion is way too much of an alarmist, and does more harm than good. By displaying panic they feed fear into the minds of millions. When we are faced with a natural disaster, a roller coaster economy, a difficult relationship, a health crisis, or any or all of the above, the tendency is to become overwhelmed, and to let the “what if’s” and fear consume us and get the better of us. During these difficult times the world can seem chaotic and confusing. For many of us it doesn’t take much adversity before we allow our mind to focus on fear and anxiety as we mull over all the bad things that could happen. Then we start spinning, and feeding into not only our own fears but other peoples fears and hysteria,  and soon we are experiencing the very thing we hope to avoid–suffering. It’s vitally important for all of us to remember that we are at our best in a relaxed/calm state. This state of mind begins with a solid foundation of beliefs. Make yours unshakeable for it can help you tremendously to be strong no matter what you might be facing. We all need to be prepared especially mentally when it comes to reacting in a way that will give us the best chance for success, healing, recovery, or in a worst case scenario, survival. So I urge you all to ask yourself the question: Can you be the calm in the storm? If your answer leads you to uncertainty then perhaps you should consider building a stronger foundation and there’s no better way than Living the 7!