Michael Thomas Sunnarborg

Michael Thomas Sunnarborg

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More Life to My Years

More Life to My Years

MichaelSunnarborg / September 29, 2015 Article, Link / Leave a Comment

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Abraham Lincoln

This past weekend I visited my Grandma Dorothy. She is 94, lives in San Diego, and has become one of my favorite friends. When I asked her about the secret to living a long and happy life, can you guess her response? Heath Bar Ice Cream. Yep. Now you can see why I love her so much.

One of the reasons I try and visit Grandma each year is because she reminds me how much I, too, want to live a long and happy life… and I’m planning to live to at least 100 years old. Why not?

Since I know that happiness and healthiness go hand-in-hand, I’m reminded that living a happy life is living a healthy life. Each time I return from a visit with Grandma, I have a renewed sense of optimism about my health. I am reminded about how important it is to support and nurture the natural balance that’s already within me.

When I published my first book, 21 Days to Better Balance, I outlined a three-step process which helps me to return to that naturally-balanced state more often: Awareness, Alignment, and Activation. These guiding steps are reminders that balance returns to me when I pay attention to my choices. This, in turn, affects all areas of my life: my job, relationships, and personal experiences.

Here’s quick review from the book, along with the accompanying themes:

  1. Awareness: Our powerful consciousness is absorbing and processing everything in our environment—sights, sounds, and smells—whether we realize it or not. In order to find better balance in our lives, we must first become aware of the factors that influence our balance. Themes: Thoughts, Feelings, Intuition, Frequency, Fear, Time, Flow
  2. Alignment: Alignment happens both on the inside and outside of us. Alignment means that our thoughts, beliefs, and intentions are aligned with our deepest truths. Internally, this means that we strive to be conscious of our thoughts, feelings, and intuition so that our behaviors reflect our true values. Externally, this means that over time, we bring our attitudes, actions, and words closer to our fundamental beliefs. Themes: The Body, Relationships, Silence, Truth, Intention, Purpose, Abundance
  3. Activation: Activation puts theory into practice and ideas into motion. Without activation, good ideas are only ideas. Activation is the key to implementation and the third step to finding better balance. Themes: Choice, Boundaries, Perspective, Focus, Empathy, Allowing, Gratitude

By revisiting these steps on a regular basis, I tend to find myself in a better state of balance and harmony more often. And each time I visit Grandma, I am reminded how important it is to keep myself happy and healthy as I add “more life to my years”.

Now let’s go have a bowl of that awesome ice cream!

To Our Better Balance,

Michael Thomas Sunnarborg

Michael Thomas Sunnarborg is a professional speaker, best-selling author, and life transition coach. His passion is to help people reclaim their power of choice and find better balance in their work, relationships, and life. You can follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter, or find out more at michaelsunnarborg.com.

Need some inspiration? Pick up a copy of Balancing Work, Relationships & Life in Three Simple Steps or one of the other books in the balance series, and start finding better balance in your career, relationships, and life. Want this blog sent to your inbox? Then subscribe to Balance Bits by visiting my Contact page.

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3 thoughts on “More Life to My Years”

  1. Nerrak YEKRAHS says:

    What an inspiration you are! Living a balanced life. I have not been living healthy and my/family has stepped up to help me. I feel so fortunate to be in this family as I have wanted to get help for a long time. So today starts a new beginning for me. As I read your messages, they inspire me to keep in the right track. I will send you my messages as how I am doing since I believe you can also be in my corner too. I appreciate you.

    Love
    Nerrak

    1. MichaelSunnarborg says:

      Thank you, Sweet Karren! Oops, I mean Nerrak :o) Our whole family loves you and Grandma so very much, and we all realize what a blessing it is to have you there in this time. Thank you for showing us all what “real family” means.

      Love,
      Ekim

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