Nordine Zouareg - InnerFitness

Copyright 2021 by Nordine Zouareg

Foreword copyright 2021 by Dr. Richard Carmona

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

InnerFitness is a registered trademark.

All clients who are referenced in this book have had their names changed to protect their identity.

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-5741-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-5742-4

Printed in the United States of America

I dedicate this book to those who will take the journey to health and wellness; those who found inner peace in the mist of chaos and challenging times. And to those who have the courage to rise above.

To my mother, Yamina, and to my loving children, Samir, Samira, Tarek, Walid, Armand, and Isabella.

CONTENTS

by Dr. Richard Carmona

FOREWORD

InnerFitness is a timely and much-needed addition to a nation struggling with mounting preventable physical and mental challenges that require new and innovative approaches.

As we put 2020 behind us, we approach 2021 as an unwell world. An infectious disease pandemic potentiating a mental health pandemic in a nation plagued by hyper partisan politics being viewed by a world witnessing democracy being challenged. All of the aforementioned being superimposed on an unwell nation already saddled with an increasing preventable disease and economic burden.

A tsunami of self-help books, podcasts, and apps have emerged to address whatever your self-diagnosed chief complaint may be. However, addressing your chief complaint without understanding the holistic underlying relationship to your self-identified problem is like trying to extinguish a fire while fire accelerants are being added.

Fortunately, Nordine Zouareg, author and international fitness and wellness expert, realized that a broader health philosophy was needed. He has now built on his previously successful 2007 publication Mind Over Body , and has provided us with his renewed guidance in InnerFitness .

Nordine has not only written about the essential mind-body connection for optimizing health and wellness, as well as including weight loss, but he actually embodies these concepts in his daily life activities. He has been recognized as Mr. France, Mr. Europe, and Mr. Universe in global body building competitions.

In InnerFitness , he defines how we are inextricably tied to our mental health status and mindset and that finding our inner peace is essential for fitness and health.

In six opening chapters, Nordine outlines an approach to reclaiming your self-worth, followed by seven more chapters explaining the importance of connecting mind, body, and spirit.

InnerFitness is essentially the proven life plan and experiences of a very successful fitness entrepreneur. Unlike many books and testimonials, Nordine walks the talk and speaks from personally applying evolving science to his life to achieve a desired outcome which, in his case, was being recognized as the best in the world.

Although Nordine personally took this information to the maximal limit, he has written this book in a very practical and easy to read manner so the average person can greatly benefit as well. Achieving optimal inner fitness is dependent on aligning mind, body, and spirit.

Nordine has provided us the needed path forward.

Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS

17th Surgeon General of the United States

INTRODUCTION

REGAINING INNER PEACE

Dont let failure or success affect your inner peace.

FOR ALL OF us in our lives, there are times when we experience deep levels of fear, anxiety, doubt, or even depression. Things fall apart, and we seem to have no way of bringing ourselves back to peace. Such challenges as unmanaged stress at work, overwhelming life changes, or unfortunate losses emerge out of nowhere. We feel the incredible pressure of those difficult situations and it throws us off balance as were not prepared, not strong enough, or simply dont know how to deal with them. Inner peace becomes then an ever-elusive fantasyit has lost its true meaning.

We have a mental health crisis. Passionless, unworthy, unlovable, and insufficient is how we mostly feeland we dont want to talk about it mainly because of the stigma attached to our predicament. Wed rather be safe and keep on faking it by wearing our mask of deceptionto some of us, this delusion can last a lifetime. I call this living at a low and dangerous level of existence, where reality is no longer available to us.

Like most people, and for a long time, I thought to reach inner peace I had to have peace of mind firstby thinking about, doing, achieving, and gaining the things that would lead me there. Success, achievement, fame, and money werent bringing me peace, they pushed me away from it, and the more I got the more I wantedI was only feeding my self-esteem. My ego.

Luckily, they also helped me realize that I was forgetting about the part of me that would make the difference: my inner being, which is the very foundation for the creation of everything, including inner peace. Imagine being engaged in creating your deepest desires without being attached to the outcomeyou are creating while being in the here and now, with no fear of failure or success. This approach helped me tremendously; it allowed me to find the strength to stop looking for peace in my head. It is there that I graciously stumbled upon the awareness of my delusion. I immediately understood that staying at the level of the mind would further create difficulties for others and myself. I knew that no matter what was happening to me, there was more than the physical body, the fame, or the thoughts that were going through my head. To diffuse any tension that would arise from any situation, I would have to go beyond the fallacious belief that peace was of the minda concept held by many from the beginning of time. Although God placed love in the human heart, its the last place hed search for it.

Peace Is Not of the Mind

Peace is not of the mind. Its beyond its confine, and you wont find it if you keep looking in all the wrong placesin your job, your relationships, your dreams, your physical appearance, or everywhere else. Peace is within you! Its a comfortable space surrounded by an uncomfortable worldlike a lotus that has its roots in the mud but remains beautiful and strong. When you connect with your inner peace, you step through a door in time and into a new reality where you conceive without the fear of losing it allyoure not attached to the outcome. You have ultimate freedom from ego; you cease to be in a state of constant lack and are in control of your life.

To illustrate this concept, I request you do a simple exercise: sit comfortably on a chair (or whatever you are sitting on), close your eyes, and take a few slow and deep breaths. Now project your mind back in time. Reflect on a situation that recently caused you to be negative, perhaps even angry.