Archive for May, 2009

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Finding your Own Shambala

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

When you feel the intensity of a situation and react with anger, you reach your breaking point. You break down, your energy is dissipated, and you become mentally and physically exhausted. Staying upbeat and positive, despite problems, is very difficult to do. You usually end up shifting your focus to the things that pull you down. In the end, you sulk and mope around, wishing that you were elsewhere. If everything you see on TV were real, you simply have to bring yourself to Shamballa, a place of sheer enjoyment and pure pleasure. But what good is this when you know you can’t find this place anywhere on the map? It’s not even in Tibet where the myth started in the first place.

But there is a Shambala. In fact, it’s in every person at this very moment. Getting there, however, is another story altogether. A place of tranquility and peace is inside every person. The paradise mentioned above is a state of mind. If you can learn to better direct your thoughts, you can achieve an energetic state in virtually any situation or circumstances.

An energetic person is one who is always on the go. Despite any difficulties the person is facing, he or she is able to get back up and move on. As you go through a rainbow of experiences, some darker than others, you’ll see yourself stumble along the way. But stumbling isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, this could be your chance to know more about life and understand the many ways things work.

Yoga aficionados also believe in their form of exercise. Many swear by it and say that they are better able to take a step back from the issue and see the bigger picture. Unlike the common belief that exercise tires a person, facts show that it is, in fact, quite the opposite. It can be a way for you to release all your frustrations and have an outlet where you can channel all your anger. There’s a basic explanation behind the power of exercise. After a workout you will be able to see an increase in your serotonin and endorphin levels. These are known as happy hormones in layman’s term. Aerobic activities balance your emotions, calm your nerves, and lower your blood pressure. Try it and see your glow after every thorough workout.

Another strategy is to create your support system, a set of people who will love you and see you through every trial. They will help you stay hopeful and will be your pillar of strength when you are about to collapse. No structure can survive without the proper foundation.

If your energy level reaches the breaking point and you feel just plain tired, it might be time to make some simple changes. No matter what your age, these easy but powerful tips for increasing your energy can really help. You just have to remember that you can always support yourself and adjust your life according to the demands set on you. Coping with problems is a learned skill, but once you will yourself to master this art, you’ll soon find that you are more than ready to meet challenges head on. Happiness is a state of being, and achieving it relies in the power of your mind.
Let your brain be the battery of your life’s energy.

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Learn to De-Stress

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

In the most stressful of days, everyone needs some for that famous TLC, or what is more commonly known as tender loving care. When you feel like you’re about to jump out of your skin, tear your hair out, and throw yourself out a window, maybe it’s time to mentally remove yourself from the situation and see things in a bigger and better perspective. Stress cannot be avoided, as much as you would like to at all costs. However there are responsibilities you just can’t ignore, and unfortunately, some of these are accompanied by anxiety.

Sometimes giving up just seems to be the best solution. Unfortunately, taking the easy way out is often the worst thing you could do. Yes, you have to learn how to let go, but a lot of things just can’t be solved that way. What do you do when the time comes that you have to deal with everything, face up to your decisions, and take all the consequences? Running away is certainly not an option. This is the coward’s way out. Just remember, being scared is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s what you do when you’re faced with fear that counts. When you successfully deal with bad situations, take the time to treat yourself with a reward. It helps inspire you to do better every time a form of harassment comes into your life.

One thing many people resort to when they need to unwind is have themselves a “spa day.” The term intrinsically assumes the idea of health. Thus, many believe this to be a wisely spent day. A day of relaxation trumps anything that comes next. This is the ultimate way to spoil yourself, a way to reward yourself for all your hard work. Unfortunately, spending the day at a spa can be costly. It only affirms the notion that all good things come at a price. The good news is, this doesn’t have to be the case. As a matter of fact, there are more than hundreds of ways to celebrate your triumphs, many of which require little or no money.

When things become too rough to handle, a walk in the park does wonders. The nice fresh air and the smell of flowers is nature’s version of an energy drink. If the park isn’t your thing, maybe you can call friends and ask them out to a movie. If that still doesn’t cut it, a day spent at the beach should do the trick. The idea is to do the things you love. Rewards aren’t there to tell you to get your wallets out and spend. The idea behind it is to let you feel that you are also worth something and that you deserve the goodness in life because you’ve been a responsible person. Whatever it is that you like, you have to set aside some quality time for it so you are able to see things clearly and in there perspective after you’re refreshed.

A good method to use is to have a list of things you must accomplish in say, 10 years. Include things that are not necessarily related to work. Make it as holistic as possible, bearing in mind that you also need to spend time with those who are close to you on a more personal level. After all, pampering is not a benefit that only some of us should enjoy, it’s everybody’s birthright!

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Better Focus and Concentration

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Improving my concentration is one of my focuses this year. For whatever reason, I’m finding it more and more difficult to maintain my concentration. I’ll start a task and wander off mentally within 2 minutes. It’s almost debilitating and certainly annoying. I wind up staying late to finish my work because I’m so unproductive.

Here’s some advice on improving your ability to concentrate and maintain focus on the tasks at hand.

Bruce Lee was once quoted saying that a successful warrior is an average man with laser-like focus. The ability to concentrate is a daunting task, especially if your mind is ridden with worries and distractions.  In fact, studies reveal that a person can listen to something only for so long, which is why speakers are urged to keep their talk short and precise when they can.

Long speeches and talks that ramble nonstop for hours and hours get people fidgety, and in the long run, all they’ll hear is blah, blah, blah, blah. The true message of the speech is lost. In fact, a lousy speaker doesn’t think that less is more. For him, more is, well, what it exactly is, more!

In fact, the poem Humpty Dumpty is a political allegory for the people in power. The question now is, why did he fall from the wall? Could it be that he simply got too bored listening to the speeches of those in power? It wouldn’t come as a surprise if this was, in fact, at all true.

Many people have a hard time concentrating. Can you blame them? Not really. Maintaining focus all throughout the day is very difficult to do. It’s not entirely impossible, but highly improbable. Several factors must be considered when you ask yourself why you just couldn’t see through your work:

  • The noises that surround you
  • Your state of health
  • The level of confidence you have in yourself
  • If your work environment is not conducive
  • The outside factors that force you to direct your attention elsewhere

Today, multi-tasking is a must, especially if you want to succeed in your work.  Unfortunately, there are also more demands placed upon you as the world continues to grow and develop. Focus plays a key role on your way to success. Although there are some things are simply out of your control, you also must work on the aspects that you can easily overcome.

To start with, you have to learn how to remove yourself from all the distractions. A quiet corner and a locked door make a world of difference. Secondly, you must learn to will yourself not to give in to temptations. When you hear the television blaring, don’t see what show is playing at that moment. Remember, work sustains you, not the shows you watch.

You have to learn to push yourself to the limit. If concentrating is just too difficult at the moment, then reward yourself with a few minutes breather. Even top-ranking officials know when to take a break, and so should you. In the end, you have to think about the benefits you’ll reap once you will yourself to move further. No one rewards the lazy, and pitfalls come to those who procrastinate.

Motivating yourself is what gets you to move forward and think of ways to improve the quality of your work. It is when you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor will you realize that good things come to those who try. And to experience these benefits as soon as possible, there is not other resort here but to learn the value of focus and concentration.

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I Know I Can I Know I Can

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Here’s a quick introduction to affirmations. Essentially, affirmations are positive self-talks that help us get through moments of self-doubt, keep us on the path we’ve chosen and generally us us “order” what we want from the universe.

Using Positive Self-Talk to Conquer Any Goal

Do you feel like you are always talking yourself out of success? As soon as you start to set goals for yourself, do you suddenly have nagging thoughts about how you aren’t up to the task or how you simply aren’t qualified to carry it through?

If you have ever experienced either situation, you need to change the way you respond to your inner dialogue. Instead of obeying your negative commands, you can use positive self-talk to counter the negativity and overcome nearly all anxious thoughts.

Setting Goals and Sticking to Them with Positive Self-Talk

Are you initially filled with excitement when you first set goals for yourself? Are these thoughts then followed by self-doubt and self-defeating thoughts that stop you in your tracks before you even get started?

It can be difficult to make the most of your life when you are constantly talking yourself out of being a success. It can be frustrating and discouraging to have these thoughts constantly plaguing you. Many of us, in fact, don’t even realize we have them! All we know is that we don’t have the confidence to stick to our plans and reach our goals.

But there’s another way!

Positive self-talk is an effective way to set goals and ensure that you stick to them, even if you have never been able to do this before. The way this works is that you decide what goal is important to you, and then you plan the logistics of how you are going to attain this goal. When self-doubt starts kicking in, you will respond with affirmations that prove your success without surrendering to the negative pressure. Since you’re reading this article, it’s clear that you’re no quitter and you’re certainly not a failure, so start believing in yourself!

Re-Programming Your Mind

Affirmations are essentially positive statements that re-program your mind for the positive. The moment you have a self-defeating thought you’d be able to counter the negative with a motivating statement. An example of a positive affirmation is: “I am worthy of great success,” or “I see myself in the winner’s circle.” What this does is replace negativity with thoughts that will help you move toward your goals instead of further away from them.

Positive self-talk is easier to implement than you might think. You may not be aware of the severity of the negative dialogue currently within your mind. However, once you begin with positive self-talk, you will suddenly realize that you are self-sabotaging the goals you set for yourself from the minute that you make them. This process can open your eyes to exactly how much this inner conversation has been interfering with your life. You’ll feel hopeful that you can now set goals and surpass them.

Through positive self-talk you will be able easily set long and short-term goals for yourself. And when you use affirmations, you’ll have accessible tools to help you push yourself further than ever before. Learning to quiet negativity with positive thoughts is a great move toward setting and attaining future goals with ease.

Stay tuned for much more on affirmations. They are a powerful tool as you will see.

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Keeping a Positive Attitude

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Setting up one’s life so that it’s easier to keep up one’s positive attitude is very important.

Here’s how to develop and keep a positive attitude:

When it comes to your quality of life, attitude is everything!  In fact, it could even be said that whatever you focus on the most, you tend to bring into your life, whether by choice or circumstance.  Have you ever known someone who had a terrible attitude?  Perhaps they were extremely negative and pessimistic and not much fun to be around; or they complained non-stop about how terrible their life was.  Did you find it draining to be in their presence?

A negative attitude will not only make you miserable, but everyone around you too!  

A positive attitude, on the other hand, turns you into a person that everyone wants to be with; a person that constantly experiences great things, and a person who loves their life!  Do you want to be that kind of person?  If so, read on for some easy ways to develop a positive attitude.

1) Do what you love.  This applies to hobbies and fun activities, but it also pertains to one of the biggest parts of your life – your work!  Do you enjoy your job?  Are you spending most of your time on something that makes you feel purposeful and fulfilled?  If not, consider exploring other career options and moving toward a job you’ll love.  When you regularly do things that make you happy, you can’t help but feel better about yourself and your life, which fosters a positive attitude.

2) Expect the best, always.  It’s easy to get into the habit of seeing doom and gloom in every situation, but doing so keeps you forever focused on the negative.  Instead, make a conscious decision to expect the best, even if your first impulse is to think negatively.  Affirm as often as you can, “This is going to work out great!  Wonderful things are going to happen today!”  The more you do it the more you’ll begin to believe it, and the more you’ll begin to experience just that.

3) Build yourself up.  Think and speak positively to and about yourself every day.  Most of us are in the habit of talking down to ourselves, which leaves us feeling hopeless, frustrated and pessimistic.  Get into the habit of building yourself up with positive self-talk and positive thoughts.  Affirm your good qualities and downplay your negative qualities.  Affirm that you are a work in progress; not perfect but great nonetheless!

4) Build others up.  As often as you can, make an effort to encourage, support and compliment the people you encounter each day.  That goes for people you know as well as strangers you meet in your daily travels.  The more you focus on emphasizing the positive in others the more likeable you’re going to be, and the better you’re going to feel about yourself too!

5) Think strength.  The more you worry about your weaknesses and “failures” the more pessimistic and negative you’re going to feel.  Instead, consistently affirm your strengths, talents and capabilities.  You’ll end up feeling empowered and in control of your circumstances, which cannot help but improve your attitude!

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Winning People Over With the Right Attitude

Monday, May 18th, 2009

The right attitude and approach spells the difference between winning people over to your side and alienating them by being a pest.

In our eagerness to win people over, we sometimes have this mistaken notion that we must put all our efforts into doing anything to win their friendship. Truth is, some people just along while others just don’t. It’s part of life’s facts. People were built differently, which is why we develop certain kinds of friendships with some. Friends are people who share the same views in life, and birds of the same feather do tend to flock together.

We need to know that there are some things in life we cannot change. Instead, you simply have to stop focusing on the negative and learn to harness all our energy knowing the positive. Joel Osteen, the world’s leading inspirational speaker, urges all of us to believe in ourselves and to know our worth. People oozing with confidence become the more popular ones simply because they inspire the others around them to be the same upbeat individual.

When we become too much of a pessimist, we can’t blame the others who try to avoid us at all cost. In fact, we might be guilty of doing the same when we encounter people we just don’t like. No one likes to surround themselves with gloom, unless your purpose in life is to bring others down. But then again, who wants to be with this sort of person?

The secret to winning people over is to exude a positive aura. When we become happy with whom we are, we’ll soon see people flocking in our corner of the room. It’s all a matter of communicating our inner glow and of believing in our ability to make others feel good.

Pressure plays a big part in making ourselves seem more attractive to people. When we force ourselves to become someone else, we tend to radiate insincerity. Our physical outlook is inconsequential here. In the end, it’s when we are truly beautiful from within and believe that we are will people start to perceive what we see in ourselves.

Developing great people skills is simply a matter of outlook. We need to work on the skills that are already innate in us and find ways to enhance these skills. Our personality traits are neither good nor bad. When it comes to who we are, we shouldn’t see things in black and white. We are born with these traits, and it’s just difficult to let go of some of these because they have become habits.

What matters most in how we deal with every situation and our ability to become flexible. There’s a fine line between flexibility and change, but what sets these two apart is the willingness to adjust to another person but at the same time, not forget who we truly are. Now that’s flexibility!

When the Cheshire cat gave the rabbit rose-colored glasses in one scene from Alice in Wonderland, he simply wanted the rabbit to see the world in an affirmative light. Seeing the world through the eyes of an idealist isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

After all, it is in being positive can we truly know what our strengths are and how we can make ourselves better. It is how every person should look at life, and this is what creates stronger ties between human beings.

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Do What You Like and Like What You Do

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

The zest for life is paramount to our happiness. But how to maintain it? Here’s a look at how to finding and staying on that wonderful path you enjoy.

Imagine this, you go through the daily grind, pay for all the mistakes that you didn’t make in the first place, and still be answerable to someone else. Who wants this kind of life anyway? Unfortunately, the picture I just gave isn’t based on an isolated experience. A lot of people lead this kind of life. In fact, most of them do. There is something truly wrong with this picture.

To know if you’re one of them, ask yourself if you align actions according to your personal beliefs. Most likely, it’s not all the time that you get to do what you want. In fact, you may find yourself joining the bandwagon, going with flow, and still feel that somehow, deep down inside, you’re not exactly enjoying the moment. 

First and foremost, you must not mistake selflessness with cowardice. Most of the time, we do what we must for fear of rejection or of getting ridiculed. Yes, this may be part of maintaining the peace around you. But then again, maybe there is some way you can get yourself out from this rut. No one is forcing you to be where you are right now. In fact, you are the master of your own destiny, the person answerable for everything. Do you really want to see yourself 20 years from now living life with regret? I’m sure not.

You have to realize that every life is distinctive, even yours. No matter how mundane things become, there are just some aspects in your life that are uniquely yours. You need to know what is most important to you right now. Otherwise, what matters most will soon be forgotten. You can get distracted by other activities such as work, bills to pay, economic crisis, pressing problems, and just basically an array of activities that takes most of our day’s time.

You need to follow a system wherein you make a list of things you want to do. As dramatic as this sounds, it does help a lot to have an actual representation of all your life’s goals. Never ever forget to take care of yourself and your health along the way. After all, we all want to achieve many things so that we can become happy, and happiness is just not possible if your health and the relationships you have with the people in your life crumble into smithereens. Take a look at your list on a daily basis and attend to it, even if it’s only for a fraction of your day.

Life is meant to be a journey, and whether you’re 20 or 80 years old, you still need to get into the adventure. Age is insignificant here. Get yourself into the thick of things and surprise yourself by learning just how much you can do. Living your life according to someone else’s rules is never the way to live. The choice has to always come from you.

Just like the story of Aladdin, you have to find your own magic lamp, your own path to get you to your dreams and to fulfill your destiny. Now, go back to the list that you made and start seeing the numbers being crossed out. It’s now time to begin your life’s new journey.

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The Law of Attraction in a Nutshell

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

The Reality behind the Law of Attraction

Life always has a way of working out. The recent success of books like The Secret and The Law of Attraction can credit the people’s enthusiasm to its increase in sales. However, many also mistake the practice this law. They’ve misconstrued the general message of these books and have led themselves to believe that they simply have to sit back, relax, and think about what they want with their lives.

As far as I’m concerned, I believe that the law can only be put to good use with action on our part. I do believe that the universe works with us when we strive to achieve all our dreams. But, it can only nudge destiny towards our way. The rest is up to us, whether we choose to meet it halfway or not. After all, no one rewards the lazy.

If we made an inventory of all the successful individuals in this world, we’ll realize that each of them went through hell and high water just to be where they are today. Whoever said that the path to success was easy couldn’t have been further from the truth. In reality, to reach our goal, we’ll have to ready ourselves with the hurdles we’ll face along the way. It’s now simply a question of how badly we want the dream to become a reality.

As go through the hole-ridden path, we sometimes will stumble along the way. We court failure when we have the kind of self-defeating attitude that leads us to believe that the more we’ll fall, the harder it’ll be to get back up. This is a shortcut to sabotaging our dreams. It’s when we shift our focus to become pessimistic that we doom ourselves to failure.

Instead of thinking of what we don’t want to happen, we should think of what we want. Putting words like don’t or no in our statement is an indication of where our focus is, and that is in the negative. On the other hand, if we make claims about things that we yet have to achieve, this can also be seen as a lie.
Positive thinking is based on the belief we WILL get what we want and that we are in the process of fulfilling our dreams. We’ve all heard of the term self-fulfilling prophecy. It is in believing that good things will come to us because we’ve already started to fashion our lives according to our personal desires.

This article, in no way, claims that success can only be measured through our monetary achievement. Winning comes in all forms and in every aspect of our lives. Be it with our personal or career paths, we can only truly say that we’ve won if, at the end of the day, we go to sleep with a happy and content heart. We truly have to understand what the law of attraction is.

Simply put, it is accepting the fact that we can do what we want and that anything is possible if we work at it. Something good can happen to us today and the miracle is already set to unfold if we open the doors to opportunities that will make us happy.

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How to Create Healthy Relationships

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

Life is one great big workout. We strive to keep a balance on the things that are in it and often find ourselves burned out. We often have to juggle our time between our personal needs and the demands of our career that we sometimes find ourselves breathless, as if we had to focus all our energies into fulfilling all our duties. The 24 hours that are allotted to us each day is just not enough. We encounter problems and try to take every single setback with a grain of salt. The truth, however, is that life is what we make of it.

Part of life’s experience is that we encounter relationships that sour over time. Let this be a learning experience. In the end, there are just some things we cannot control, things that are out of our hands. For relationships to remain healthy, we need to look at ourselves first.

We must evaluate our actions and see what caused the problem in the first place. We can start by evaluating ourselves before implementing the changes from within. We cannot control the actions of other people. So instead of dwelling on what we cannot be in command of, we have to work on what we can change. It’s imperative for all of us to know the things that will enable us to become a friend, a colleague, and a partner that we want to become.

The first thing to assess is our worth and the value we have as a person. Are we the kind of friend to go the extra mile? Are we good confidants? Do we take our friends’ needs into consideration? These are only a few of the many questions we can ask ourselves. When the answer always leads to the negative, then maybe it’s high time that we think of our nature.

The next thing to do is measure our level of commitment. Oftentimes, we don’t equate the longevity of our relationships with the kind of person we are. Of course, every situation is unique. We meet people along the way, and not many of them make ideal friends. The thing is, we have to know the cause for the breakdown of every bond we’ve created.

Then, we also weigh these against the relationships that have actually worked. We must commit ourselves to every association we find beneficial. What gets us through life’s rough patches are the people that we’ve helped. After all, no man is an island. We need support during the most difficult of times, and the only way to make this possible is to become a true friend to the people we have in our lives.

When all is said and done, we should know and realize that we are good people. We deserve these friendships because we don’t expect anything from them in return. People are naturally inclined to show kindness to those who are genuine with their deeds. As long as we stay true to ourselves, we can also say that we are comfortable with whom we are. It’s when we are happy that we create ideal relationships.

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An Approach to Personal Development

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

My Self Improvement Philosophy or Thoughts On Personal Development

Problems can never be avoided and sadly, they always get the better of us. As much as we would like to pull our hair out and wail like a child, we keep all the anger bottled deep down inside. Then, we try to move forward and mask the issues with a calm facade. We all know that this is the last thing we should do.

Stress is everywhere and we cannot live our entire adult lives like children, free of cares and worries. As we enter into the real world and live our lives as adults should, we will encounter things that we may not always like, we will meet people that we may not take to, or we miss out on the fun simply because we have to take care of other needs first. Whatever the reason is, it’s not too difficult to find a reason to frown.

What most of us take for granted are the good things that we encounter as we move forward with our lives. We’re simply so preoccupied with the bad things that we often forget to look at the good. We count all our misfortunes; keep track of all our failures.

We need to remember what we live for, lest we become bitter human beings. Avoiding problems is all very well in theory, but many of us have worries that we simply can’t resolve, and statistics reveal that one in every twenty people suffer from panic attacks.

The idea here is not to attain permanent happiness. We all know that we will stumble along the way as we learn life’s lessons. This article, for all intents and purposes, is meant to teach you how to deal with the issues that we face so that by the end of the day, we can still give ourselves a pat on the back and say that we are happy with our lives despite all the negativity happening around us. Here are just a few things we might want to keep in mind should we feel overwhelmed at everything happening to us:

1. Avoid situations that aggravate anger – this is a classic case of fight or flight. If we see ourselves heading towards a dark corner of the street, we simply have to turn around and take another route. Unfortunately, not every situation offers us a way out. When we have to deal with a difficult boss or a stubborn colleague, we cannot always solve the situation by going the other way. The best solution to this is to have something that helps soothe our nerves – a stress ball, some exercise, a few minutes to ourselves, or anything that gets us to shift our momentary unease.

2. Reprogram your mind – there are several books in leading bookstores that offer us guidelines. These reading materials have been helpful to many, and knowing that these are “experts” sharing their views, it somehow reassures us to know that they are knowledgeable with what they are talking about.

4. Think positive – as simple as this sounds, the task can be daunting. It’s especially difficult when we come face to face with something that we simply do not like. The trick here is to exercise out minds. It is only through practice that we can perfect this skill.

In the end, we have to know that we’ll survive. Life isn’t always about winning. Most of the time, it’s about getting up when we’re down. It’s the ability to continue and move forward as we go through life’s processes. Know that problems don’t kill us. We are in control of things of our destiny, and if we let these inconveniences get in the way, then we definitely will lose. We always have a choice, and we should always choose to be good to ourselves.

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