NickVenturella.com 12-10-22 - Raise Yourself Up

We are full-swing into the holiday season. 

There’s always a particular pressure to push hard through the end of the year, but at the same time there is a stronger communal sense of positive energy – at least that I sense – with holiday music on the radio and various decorations put out for all to see.

It’s an interesting dichotomy. 

However, not everyone feels the positive holiday vibes at this time of year. For some, the holidays are a hard reminder that certain loved ones are no longer with us to be able to gather and celebrate the season. For that reason, I encourage you to have patience with people this holiday season. You just never know what others are grappling with in their lives and mind.

As many of you are involved in 2023 planning at the moment, for your work, business, or life, what opportunities for continued improvement or professional development are you baking into your plans?  Hit reply and let me know.

Speaking of self improvement…

If you’re not sure where to start, I’d like to offer a tool I came across from Jonah Hill…yup, the actor…Nope, I’m not a huge fan of Jonah Hill, however, he recently directed and produced a documentary about his therapist, which was good (and it made me like Jonah slightly better). It’s on Netflix and it’s called, “Stutz,” the last name of his therapist, Phil Stutz.

Therapist Phil Stutz has created some simple tools to help his patients improve their mindset. The film strives to showcase these useful, yet fairly simple tools, to allow more people to take advantage of them and help themselves improve their lives.

One simple tool to use if you don’t know where else to start is your Life Force. You can always work on and improve your Life Force, and doing so will have the most immediate positive ripple effect on several other aspects of your life.

The idea is this:  picture a pyramid with your Body in the lowest, largest portion of the pyramid. Just above that is People, and the pinnacle is Yourself. 

If you start with improving your body – diet, exercise, getting enough sleep – you will start to make immediate improvements in your mindset because you’ll be taking care of a large portion of your Life Force that needs to be working reasonably well to support the rest. When you improve how your body functions it produces positive endorphins that help improve your mood and mindset. 

Next, People are important. You can’t completely isolate yourself from others. Humans are communal creatures, so take initiative to engage with at least one person – grab coffee, go to lunch, call a friend on the phone who you haven’t talked with in a while. By taking the initiative to interact with that one person it represents interacting with all people. That helps to satisfy that human communal need, giving you – even if in a small dose – a way to feel connected to something beyond just you.

Finally, Yourself, is at the top of the pyramid. You need to build a better relationship with yourself, and more specifically, with your unconscious self. Stutz describes being able to tap into this through writing/journaling. By engaging in the act of writing your thoughts – even if you don’t think you have something to say; that’s not the point – you will tap into your unconscious mind and its voice will eventually come out. This allows you to learn more about yourself, what you value, what you need to feel stable, strong, safe. This area – Yourself – is what this Investors newsletter is really all about.

Here’s an image from the documentary of Stutz’s drawing of the Life Force idea:

What you can control most is how you treat yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. Raise yourself up.Be well!

----------UPDATES:

Just booked - an upcoming music performance:The Cider Farm Tasting Room8216 Watts Rd, Madison, WISat. Dec. 17, 20226pm start----------I was at a conference in Vegas a few weeks back where I got a cold and lost my voice. When I got home I ended up writing and recording this song with my strained voice...you know...for fun.It's about being involved in an online metaverse-type party. Just an interesting concept to to explore for a little pop song. Listen here: Best Digital Life.----------There's still time to gift your guitar loving loved one an original nickVguitar. Click the link to see what's currently available. 

Stay positive. Stay healthy. Be kind.Sincerely,Nick VenturellaStrategic/Creative ProfessionalNickVenturella.com