The balance and fulfillment you need is already present around you. You may have passed it by without recognizing it, and only need to turn around and start being more open to truth and reality. REVERSE is an inspirational and action driven approach to personal growth, with real-life success stories on overcoming adversity and obstacles, which sometimes turn out to be our very selves. This book gives you three simple steps on how to live a balanced, happy and more productive life. 1) Appreciate and value yourself as a person. 2) Identify what is not working in your life, so you do not repeat the same mistakes; set new goals, create new priorities. 3) Apply exercise, nutrition, and spirituality as a lifestyle for balance, and celebrate every victory as you experience your newfound peace and happiness within. "Simply a new vision, for a new world, with effective and applicable lifetime values" -Dunia magazine "REVERSE to see the fun and value in making smart choices for food and fitness on a daily basis" -Steven Koller, actor-Mad Men "Thought-provoking, inclusive of every culture and origin, with simple answers to complex and challenging life questions. An easy read with a positive, result-driven finish" -Dr. Nicoline Ambe, PhD, speaker and author of A Teacher's Note "An entertaining, powerful, and effective recipe on how to start living a life of balance, from an inspiring young author on his way to become a voice of motivation for a worldwide audience" -Martina Darnell, president, Society for Conscious Living

Reverse

Sometimes we need to take a step back in order to make a better move forwardBy Ondrej Zouhar Anze Mofor

BALBOA PRESS

Copyright © 2012 Ondrej Zouhar and Anze Mofor
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-5582-9

Contents

1. Your Inner Child.....................................................12. How People Live Around the World.....................................113. Daily Routines (Actions and Reactions)...............................224. Everything is Possible if You Believe................................305. Taking Charge and How to Start.......................................376. Develop Discipline...................................................497. Balance in Exercise, Nutrition, and Spirituality.....................578. How to Develop and Maintain Healthy Habits...........................719. Stress: Its Causes and Effects.......................................7910. Reverse: to Find the Right Way Forward..............................89

Chapter One

Your Inner Child

"Everything beautiful needs to be loved and protected. You are beautiful. Love yourself." —Ondrej Zouhar

"What if I told you the child in you from years ago is still in you and longs to be out, to be loved, to be heard and to shine because a child's love is pure, a child's dreams are endless and a child laughs often. You have the choice to let that pure love shine through, to bring those great dreams alive and to laugh more often, no matter what stands in your way".

Each one of us has been a child - that is where it all begins. For some, it was a few years ago; for others, it was decades ago. Like children, adults need to feel loved, valued, protected and heard by someone greater than who they have grown to be — someone they can trust and emulate. You may say, "No way. I am an adult now." That makes sense, but I would like to ask you to keep your mind open on this topic and try to relate this chapter to yourself.

Try it, because childhood has a great impact on how we act as adults. Everything about life starts in the first few years and develops as we grow.

When you were born, you had basic needs; your parents or guardians were there (in most cases) to help you. They gave you food, a place to sleep, care, love, affection, and protection, and they let you play and rest. Some had the privilege of growing up with all that and more; some only got part of it. As a newborn, you did not have many choices, and you were mostly responding to your external environment. If you wanted to disagree with anything your parents said or did, in most cases, you were allowed or denied the privilege. Some were spanked, got a long explanation, were placed in time out, or had privileges suspended for a given amount of time. But no matter how upset you got, you still came back to those same parents for love, food, and shelter, hoping that someday you would grow up, make lots of money, buy yourself whatever you wanted, live the life you wanted, and move very far away from them—but that hardly ever happens.

As a child, your mind was blank like a new notebook, but now you are having all this new data filling up the empty space. New beliefs, information and knowledge slowly fill it up. Are they right? Are they wrong? Who knows? That is what you choose to accept in order to remain and belong to the group or class of people you found yourself in.

Sometimes the circumstances we find ourselves in do not appear to be rational and convenient. As such, human nature rebels against it in various ways. We tend to question it so we can break away, be free to make more rational decisions, and break a long chain of irrational habits.

For example, if you were raised in a home that had little or no love and affection and your dad never questioned why his dad was always out of the house and did not show affection to him, he would not desire or know how to show affection and love to you. This is not because he does not want to; it is because he does not know any better and needs to learn how to do so like a child again. The only way he would know his ways were wrong would be if he asked and was willing to learn how to express feelings better behavior.

You may despise him or nurse a grudge against him for not being the way you expect him to be, but it is a waste of energy because he does not know any better. His inner child never had such experiences. However, if you choose to be compassionate toward him, like you would with a child, the compassion will slowly open his heart and make room for him to learn how to give you what he never had.

No matter how late in life it happens, he can choose to create better values and apply them to you. Only then will that chain of dysfunction be disconnected. Not too many parents will do that, but a few brave ones will; we will always be proud and grateful for them.

As a child, you are open to anything. You are curious and your mind has no filters or judgments—just plain innocence. You are just alive. That child in you is still alive today.

Within a few years of observing and learning your surroundings, you become part of your culture, society, and family. We very often say that we eat, drink, believe, or do certain things because they are a part of our culture.

People say, "I always eat pasta. I can't quit. I am Italian," or "My father always drank vodka. We always had plenty of alcohol in the pantry. I'm Russian—that's my thing," or "I have a sweet tooth. I love sweets. My mom was a pastry chef—that is how I grew up."

Clearly all those habits are completely fine, but we have to understand that as we are growing and changing in many areas of life, we adopt these habits and make them a lifestyle. We keep some habits forever, even though they do not necessarily help us. People living in Italy sixty years ago were eating pasta and highly - caloric cheese were also manually working eight hours a day, walking to and from their jobs, and using natural ingredients out of their own gardens that they spent time and energy to grow. If we try to copy the same eating habits by buying processed food, the results will not be the same.

The activities and lifestyles are not the same, and we cannot feel the same way by sitting in front of a computer eight hours a day and driving everywhere, with little physical activity. It simply will not work. We need to teach our inner child new ways of living in today's world, using some knowledge and beliefs from the past, but not limiting ourselves to them. There are some beliefs and traumas that have more impact than others, but I want you to know that you can change them and mold them any way you want. Henry Ford said: "If you think you can, or you think you can't – you are right".

If we look at our bodies and lives a little closer, we will see that everything is about stimulation and reaction. Our nerves have a lot to do with it. We feel pain or pleasure, hot or cold, taste salty or sweet. Our bodies feel lots of things, and we react in many different ways.

What feels good to you might feel terrible to me. You may like tea, but I like coffee. Coffee stimulates me with energy, but it may put you to sleep. Everything is about action and reaction. Jim Rohn said, "It's not about what happens, but what you do about it."

We all have a choice every day over how we act or react to what we encounter, be it people, experiences, challenges. If we only keep reacting, we will keep doing the same things over and over. But when we start consciously acting, the results will be different and correct—and not based on...