A Habit You Simply MUST Develop

Mindfulness and Meditation

WHAT EXACTLY IS MINDFULNESS?
Mindfulness is not just a way of thinking about others and their state of mind, but it can also be used a form of meditation. Using Mindfulness Meditation allows you to focus on the moment, becoming aware of your senses and what you are feeling right then and there. When you are able to focus just on that particular moment, there is no need to try to interpret things or make judgments about how you feel.

You are simply present.

If you have ever studied Eckhart Tolle or other spiritual teachers, you realize that the present moment is all that actually exists. The past no longer exists, and the future has not yet come. So focusing, being mindful, of the moment, can help you relax and eliminate stress.

Think about all the time we spend planning for, or worrying about the future, thinking negative thoughts about the past, worrying about all the things we need to do - pick up the kids from school, make dinner tonight, pay the bills, etc. All those things are draining and can even be exhausting. When you are able to be mindful, you are able to put those things away, and focus your attention on the present moment, which reduces your stress and anxiety. Mindfulness meditation can be very powerful!

WHY SHOULD I MEDITATE?
For years, spiritual teachers and their students have been practicing meditation, and espousing its benefits. Now, thanks to advances in modern science and medicine, there are actually many clinical trials that scientifically back up these claims. It is amazing that for hundreds of years people have known that meditation works, but there is always a certain percentage of the population that needs to know how and why before they will believe it.

There are so many studies now that provide empirical data as to the how and why of meditation, and its effects on the body and brain. Those studies are so diverse that they need to be in a separate article on their own. But suffice to say that the overall evidence of these studies show that meditation is effective for reducing stress, anxiety, pain, depression, and even a host of "medical" conditions and disease.

WHEN AND HOW OFTEN SHOULD I MEDITATE?
There is probably no such thing as too much meditation, especially if you are struggling with any of the issues previously mentioned. Studies have shown that there are certain times of day when meditation may be more effective than others. Those times are when the brain is emitting certain waves that enable it to be more receptive to suggestion and meditation. Books have been written on that topic alone, but for our purposes, for most people that time is before you go to bed, or right when you wake up in the morning. During those times your brain is emitting the proper waves and producing the proper chemical to allow the mist benefits from meditation. But as Dr. Joe Dispenza says, "There is no such thing as a bad meditation."

The best way to develop your mindfulness meditation routine is to practice, practice, practice. Do so, and you may be truly amazed with the results.

If you want to live life to the fullest, then http://www.divineconnectionsbyroxy.com can help! Roxanna Teeling is a Relationship Coach specializing in individuals, couples, and relationship issues. She not only has two mental health master's degrees and two undergraduate mental health degrees, but she is also a Certified Relationship Coach from the Tony Robbins/Claire Madanes training institute. Roxanna strives to help you address and improve the concerns you have individually, with families or as a couple, by implementing techniques that fit your goals and values. Visit http://www.divineconnectionsbyroxy.com for more!

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How To Stop Delaying, Taking Action

Many people have the habit of delaying things indefinitely. They make plans and then lack the willpower to start working on them immediately. They think that they have indefinite amount of time on their hands. Soon, things change for the worse and they realize they are left with no option but to drop the plan. Most of us don't start working on a plan not because the time is not right but because we lack the willpower.

Many times we keep waiting for the right time to start a work and miss the opportunity in the process. If you hesitate some other person will come and grab the opportunity, and you will be left repenting your procrastination.

Make a to-do list

One way to stop procrastinating is to make a list of work to be done. It will help you make your mind about important work to be done. When you make a list of work to be done then your mind becomes clear and it becomes easy for you do to the work. It also makes it easy for you to prioritize your work.

Do difficult work first

When you have prepared a list of work to be done then you should start working on a difficult task first. Since tough work require more energy, work on that first so that when your energy level is down you have less difficult work to do.

Many times we keep postponing difficult work to a later stage and it makes us feel stressed. Don't do that.

Focus on end result

One way to stop procrastinating is to focus on the end result of your work. If you just focus on the number of tasks to be done then you will feel stressed. On the other hand, if you focus on the end result you will feel energized to do the work faster.

The human history is a witness that great events take place when people are moved by visualizing great results in their minds. Thinking about positive results will keep you motivated and will push you to take action.

Remove distractions

If you want to stop procrastinating then you should remove all kinds of distractions from your surroundings. Many times we are distracted by objects and useless tasks that take away our attention. It's bad for your work. If you want to do good work then you should focus on important tasks by removing your attention away from less important things.

KV Gautam is a business trainer based in New Delhi, India.

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How to Take Charge of Your Life - Jim Rohn Personal Development

Thoughts Are Machines

Mankind has invested in machines for many centuries. From the first labor-saving device to what has become artificial intelligence. The world is run by machines and we have given our power away to them. Proof of this statement is evident in the dependency of which we have on our computers and cell phones. Tied to these realities it is difficult to conceive of a world without them, particularly for the younger generations and the children who were born into this world with no recollection or experience of a life without cell phones.

All of these technological advancements, when stripped down to what it truly is, becomes a life-enhancement device. A vehicle for adding to one's life. Joined with other technologies, it creates a social environment of devices that are orchestrated by mankind. Men and women use these to project themselves onto the world stage. Albeit hiding behind these altered personalities. Who lives behind these realities?

Where I am going with this is the idea that this is the same manifestation that has been created by mankind in the beginning. Interesting idea, you ask? Consider the concept of thought and what that is as well as the role it has played in the overall evolution of the human race. We have recorded our thoughts in our minds and have transmitted them to each other through the vehicle of communication. Language passed from person to person froms a continuity of a dialogue that begun in ones own head as thoughts. Saved in the form of written books, the thoughts live for as long as the book does, often superseding the person who originated it. As time goes on, perhaps a face remains and a guess as to who the person was. His or her thoughts remain though.

Like a computer program these thoughts can travel the world, reaching all of its inhabitants. Well, not quite all. These are ones whom I want to focus on, for they are certainly in the minority. People who have not been caught up in the western world of the last fifty years at least are at an advantage if they choose to explore the potentiality. These individuals coming into the western world can make the juxtaposition of thoughts and the information age.

People are able to think faster than a computer does, but the tools of which he or she was taught to express the thinking is limited to its creator. Each word has an association and each association brings with it an image that creates a deeper association depending upon the person's history be it cultural, educational, religious, etc. These boxes, are connected and could be viewed as personal websites. Communication between two people could be seen as websites interacting with each other. As they do information is passed back and forth. Sometimes one challenges it and then it branches out into another website. All of it creating a complex dialogue of interconnected websites.

On the surface it may appear that thoughts and their expressions are unlimited but in truth, like the borders of a website, they are not. The parameters are there and if not seen for what they are then thoughts will forever be a machine that runs in your mind and entangles with your emotions and causes a third entity which given the tumultuous tendencies of emotions and mental entanglements either within oneself or with another person will cause disharmonies or disease within the body. The body is the resting place for thoughts. Consider that for a moment, and then thank your body, or apologize to it.

Machines play out programs, as I've said before. Thoughts play out programs too. What stops a machine? Who has the power to stop thoughts? There was something smarter that created the machine or the computer. There is something wiser that allows the thoughts to run amok in the mind.

By seeing thoughts as machines, you are afforded the opportunity to see them from the limited perspective that they truly have. People get lost in their thoughts because they do not understand their history nor their origin. By relabeling your thoughts into something other than what they are conventionally thought as allows for new light to be shone upon them.

At that moment you can ask yourself, do I want to set my cell phone aside and spend time with what is most important to me, or do I want to continue scanning through the social media page that I have been on for the past half hour? Are your thoughts any different? This is your choice; it is your limited time here. Choose how you spend it wisely. Be the master of your mind, not its slave.

I am a metaphysical author and spiritual healing facilitator. I have written 7 books and have performed countless sessions over the past decade. My website: http://www.josephmachney.com

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Train Your Brain To Make More Money - John Assaraf

Optimism and Thoughtlessness Are Not Synonyms

Ask people what optimism means and you will get a complete array of answers. From the 'glass half full' to 'seeing life through rose-tinted glasses,' or 'hopefulness about the future.' Optimism is one of those abstract and hard-to-define words that everybody thinks they understand. But what does it really mean?

These last few years, optimism has become a field of growing interest among experts, scientists and professionals. Authors like Professor Seligman and his 'relearned optimism' or the many studies proving the relationship between optimism and better health (like those by Julia Boehm and Laura Kubzansky, for example) indicate the level of interest there is for this topic. Many attempts have been made to clearly define this concept, but still different cultures and different fields of study explain it somehow differently, as culture also shapes the way in which the term is understood and interpreted.

Human beings are born optimists

When babies are born, they are always optimists. They expect the world to feed and care for them and for years wake up in the mornings believing that the new day will bring them happiness, adventure and fun. They face each moment like there is no other and enjoy it completely. A child plays and there's nothing else in the world but that game. The child will play the same game many times, and will not give up on it but persevere in the fun without questioning what comes next. Unless something deeply negative happens to alter that worldview, children remain deeply optimistic for quite a few of their first years, until their adults begin to chastise them for it and demand that they 'be more realistic,' or 'get their heads out of the clouds.'

Those same human beings then gradually start losing part of their optimism as life throws hurdles and problems at them and others recommend a less hopeful view on reality. They will start believing what others tell them and adapting their beliefs to their environment. Little by little, their natural optimism will dwindle and be replaced by a more somber worldview.

Lower levels of optimism result in poorer health and shorter life spans

Many of the studies carried out around the world have consistently proven that optimists live longer, happier and more rewarding lives. They've also been proven to be more resourceful and creative. There is an easy explanation to those results.

When pessimists face obstacles, they already believe that chances are they will fail, that things always go wrong, that they will not succeed. By the time they actually need to make the effort, they are so convinced of their failure that a) their effort is not absolute and b) they subconsciously sabotage themselves. As soon as they fail, then, they immediately tell themselves something like, 'see, I knew it was impossible.' That new failure thus reaffirms them once more.

Optimists, on the other hand, face obstacles believing that there always is a way to overcome them. They try to solve the situation one way. They might fail but that doesn't discourage them. They try another method and then another until they finally manage to overcome the problem and find a solution. They study their obstacles and ponder the different approaches to solving them. In their mind, there is no room for failure because they 'know' that they will succeed. Optimists never give up because they are convinced that there always is a way. By never giving up, then, optimists become more and more creative and start accumulating a great range of resources that make it easier to succeed at each attempt. That faith thus, results in them doing much more than pessimists and logically getting better results at the end.

All human beings are found somewhere between the two ends of this optimism-pessimism spectrum. Realism is just a way of describing those who are more in the middle of it. Realists, thus, have less resources than optimists but also fail less than pessimists.

Optimism is not thoughtlessness

Optimism, as just shown, is not just a matter of hope and expectations, but the conviction that good things will happen through a constant search for solutions. The true optimist is a hard-working, resourceful person who devotes a lot of energy and effort to reaching whatever goals are to be reached. A thoughtless person is not a true optimist because pursuing a goal without a plan barely ever leads to reaching it and optimists never give up. If one of the attempts to reach a goal is somehow thoughtless, it will likely fail, in which case the true optimist will think it over and formulate a new alternative, thus becoming the opposite of thoughtless. Thoughtlessness and optimism are therefore mutually exclusive in the longer run.

Optimism yields better results

As a result of the optimist's natural faith and hard-working habits, optimists become much better assets for companies and in general life. They push and drive, inspire and persevere. By not giving up, optimists become natural leaders and motivators.

Optimists rarely suffer from stress or burnout, either, as they don't worry but act. Stress and burnout stem from worry, from rumination and from fear, three attitudes that optimists naturally avoid by their own lookout on life. Consequently, optimists are less often sick or tense and end up developing a greater capacity to concentrate and focus on the task at hand.

Optimism can be recovered and relearned

As human beings grow up and live, society tries to instil a more sober view of life onto them as children and young people, thus slowly draining optimism from them. Without optimism, energy is low, motivation scarce and drive non-existent. That lack of optimism results in extreme personal and professional costs for families, companies and society as a whole. Fortunately, optimism can be relearned and developed. Like everything else in life, there isn't one formula-fits-all method for every human being. Optimism can be killed many different ways, and should therefore be reacquired by applying the right tools and methods, adapted to each person's needs and personal learning strategies.

Underlying subconscious beliefs can lead certain people to adopting a more pessimistic attitude in life. Fear is another trigger, as are pain, guilt or worry. A lot of professionals offer specific stress and burnout solutions to clients and patients but neglect to tackle the underlying problems that caused the original drain of energy and optimism. Only by solving and changing those will the human being truly recover that natural optimism that we are all born with.

If you wish to recover your drive, your motivation, your energy or if you want to help your team or your family to do the same, remember that each human being might have different reasons to feel the way they do and that specific tools and methods might be needed for each of them. Ask the professional you work with to present you with a detailed, personal plan for each person. If they fail to do that, look for a professional who does. Human beings are not robots and their complexity sometimes requires complex solutions. Those exist and can be used, believe me.

Enjoy life... ALL of it,

http://www.jessicajlockhart.com/en

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