How To Manage Stress Effectively

Throughout the lifespan of stress management research, experts have argued about the exact definition of the word stress. There are many opposing viewpoints, and like many words in our language, the conflict lies in the way the word is commonly used in popular culture. When most people hear the word stress, their muscles tense and they expound on feelings produced by situations like time restraints, emotional pressures and the responsibilities of the daily grind. To the man on the street, the word stress is associated with negative or, at the very least, uncomfortable feelings.

Medically speaking, stress is anything that makes your body work harder. For example, your doctor might administer what is referred to as a ?stress test? to gauge how your heart is working. The usually form of this procedure is gradually increase the amount of strenuous physical activity you?re performing until you?ve reached your limit. Theoretically, that limit will reveal a lot about the condition your body is in.

So technically, stress doesn?t have to be the monster we make it out to be. There are good kinds of stress too. It can be a creative energy, like an adrenaline rush for artists, or even writers in a hurry to make their deadline. Basically, stress is responsible for the internal flight-or-flight mechanism that alerts you to danger and could even save your life. However, researchers say not having to hunt our own food or fight for survival anymore has dulled our more feral instincts and we typically aren?t in enough control to use fight-or-flight as nature intended. A lot of people just panic.

The situation doesn?t have to be life threatening to initiate a flight-or-flight response. Studies say we tend to get a small does of it anytime we are startled or interrupted. When we are so stimulated, that it becomes an everyday part of our routine, we develop what is called General Adaptation Syndrome. Think of the syndrome like a callous. It?s your body?s way of coping with constant stress and allowing you to function in spite of it.

No matter how adept you become at handling whatever stresses you, your body will eventually rebel. Sighs of exposure to prolonged stressors can creep up in unexpected ways such a chronic headaches, muscle pain, insomnia, weight loss and a variety of digestive issues. You can only take so much. Sometimes what you think you can deal with and what you can actually handle are not the same. Pay attention to your body because it will let you know, even when your brain isn?t listening.

There are all kinds of ways to manage stress, and different methods work for different people. Some like to soak in a hot bath at the end of the day while others would rather sweat it off at the gym. Studies have shown that certain scents such as lavender trigger a calming effect for most people. It is commonly used in infant-care products for that reason.

As wide and varied as the things that stress us are the things that sooth us and perhaps even more so, the ways in which we perceive stress. The circumstances which trigger feelings of anxiety in one person may seem pleasant or at least benign to another. The key is to take a minute to evaluate the way you respond to the stimuli and adjust the way you thing and feel about it. Maybe if seeing a spider usually causes you to jump up and down, next time you see one try taking slow, deep breaths. Rather than perceiving the spider as something that might bite you, practice thinking of it as something you can simply step on.

Starting Your Day the RIGHT Way

The morning is the most important time of the day. Why? - Because it can easily set the mood for the rest of your day! - This is due to many reasons. One of the most significant is that it is much easier (scientifically, almost 25 times easier) to develop short term paradigms (viewpoints) upon first waking up. When you first awaken, your mind is slowly leaving the delta state, (low brain wave frequency) where it is most easily influenced by mental suggestion. In other words, your mind is most open ? and what you put in it will stay in it, until at least the end of the day. It is for this reason that often, if you are awakened by a sound or a song, you may be able to easily recall it again and again throughout the day (even if it?s a song you cannot stand!).

That being said, it is absolutely critical that you start your day off on the ?right side of the bed.? Any negative thoughts you have will shape your subconscious for the entire day. Realize, if you wake up and say ?Sh*t? today?s gonna suck??, then it will suck! - Your subconscious would be imbued with a belief that ?today sucks? and would work with your mental filtering systems and all of your senses to perceive information accordingly. There?s a lot to it, but the point of this article is to give you a list of tips to start your day off the right way? so back on track.

We know you?re busy as #%$! In the morning and don?t have time for therapeutic, two hour spa sessions when you?re trying to get to work or class on time. Therefore, this list is as ?grounded? as is possible, and you can start using it ? Now.

Also, for the record, we DO use every single one of these ourselves.

1. Initial Wakeup

GET UP! FAST! When you wake up, get out of bed as fast as you can! (without sending yourself into cardiac arrest, of course.) Waste no time in getting up. The best cure for procrastination is action ? so if you?re procrastinating about getting out of bed, just force yourself to get up! ?and wallah! - Problem solved! Jumping out of bed will spike your metabolism, and will end all thoughts of ?just lying there? a little bit more. As an added bonus, I put my alarm clock on the other side of the room ? forcing me to jump out of bed and go turn it off? and once I?m out, I stay out!

2. Light

The power of light is severely underestimated by most people. How? It has profound effects upon body chemistry and energy levels. You circadian rhythm (based on light levels) affects nearly all aspects of your physiology. Over 200 processes are controlled by the level of and type of light that you receive, including heart rate, digestion, appetite and thirst, fluid balance, stress level, emotions, immunity, hunger, energy, blood pressure, body temperature, physical strength, reaction times, sexual appetite, urine production and brain balance ? just to name a few. Bright, natural light is ideal for bringing the most energy to all these systems. The more light you receive, the more serotonin your pineal gland produces ? a ?feel good? neurotransmitter. The less light received, the more melatonin your pineal gland produces. Melatonin is essentially a depressant / sedative. This explains why humans living in Spain are some of the most upbeat, positive beings on the planet, where as residents in Norway or Russia are some of the most depressed. Your body makes melatonin at night, and makes serotonin during the day. So, the sooner you turn on the lights, or open the blinds preferably, the sooner your body?s systems will increase their energy levels. The longer you keep it dark, the harder it will be to wake up ? that simple.

3. Wake Up to a Clean Room

This one may not seem that significant, but believe me ? it is. Waking up to a clean, organized room has a positive first impression upon your mind. Waking up to clutter, dirty clothes, and piles of beer cans from the night before does not. This may seem like a bit of a feng shui thing, but give it a try, and you will realize ? it does work. It?s easier to vacate a room when it?s clean, pristine, and relatively organized / empty, versus one that is piled high and more ?cozy.? Keep your room stark? put things away from you?re done using them. It will help.

4. Fresh Air

Open the window. No matter what season it is. Open the window? even if it is just a crack. Your bedroom has sat stagnant all night, void of fresh air, especially if you leave your door closed as I do. When you open the window (and the door preferably) you create a cross draft to bring in fresh air. You have lowered the oxygen level by rebreathing the same air in the room at night. However, as soon as you open the window, you bring in fresh air with high oxygen levels ? instantly raising your energy level. Even if it is 10 degrees out, open the window just a tad. When it?s cold out, it will have even more of an effect ? the cool, denser air will carry more oxygen, and the temperature alone will help you to awaken.

5. Music
Music is a huge part of my morning. Even if you are not musically motivated, music can shape your mornings. Turn on music as soon as you can after waking up. Make sure it is something positive and uplifting ? as chances are it may become stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Personally, I love pounding trance in the morning ? it?s positive, uplifting chords and driving bass last with me all day. Make sure you?re listening to something that pulls you up? not down. The effect of music upon the brain is something we will discuss down the road ? stay tuned. Also, if music is not available, any high frequency sound chords can work. Birds chirping, wind chimes, ect ? all help awaken and sooth the mind.

6. Food

Start your morning off with a full glass of water before you eat anything else ? This is essential. Toxins have been ejected from tissue and line your throat and mouth (thus, morning-breath) and the last thing you want to do is to allow them to adhere to your breakfast. Drink a full glass of water ?and give it ten minutes. If you have an empty stomach, the toxins will be flushed down, and pass out with your urine, with no food to absorb them. Ten minutes later, you may eat your breakfast. The subject of a healthy breakfast is obviously a lengthy subject, but I?ll be brief ? DO NOT SKIP BREAKFAST. They?re not lying when they say it?s the most important meal of the day. Your body has been starved for eight hours or more, and breakfast is crucial. Breakfast jumpstarts your metabolism, ends your body?s ?hoarding mode? from the night, and will actually help you lose weight and stay lean if you chose the proper foods. Make sure you eat some fruit, some protein, and some carbs. My typical weekend breakfast consists of an orange and three scrambled eggs? very basic, but quite healthy. If you?re eating loads of sugary cereal, or worse, doughnuts for breakfast, you need to go do some basic research online on how to eat healthy. You could be lean and good looking, but lack energy, and your arteries may be 90% blocked ? as a result of your diet.

7. Cold shower

Take a cold shower. Yes, freezing cold is unbearable. You don?t have to do it that way. Start it off hot? like me. Then, after you?re medium-toasty (not well-toasty... it will make you more tired), put it on cold for as long as you can take it. Then, put it on hot for a minute? then cold for a minute. Repeat the hot-cold cycle a few times ? this will not only wake you up fast, but it will expand and contract your pores to force out toxins and oils from the night. End the shower with a cold rinse ? you want to be cold when you step out? it?s critical, as it will raise your metabolism, and keep it there. Try the cold shower thing for a week ? you?ll notice a difference. A long, hot shower depresses your physiological systems and makes you want to go back to bed. A cold, invigorating shower will wake you up ? fast. Try it.

8. Make Your Bed

This doesn?t serve as much of a purpose for in the morning, as it does for in the evening. I?ll explain how it works from my situation. I wake up. I do my morning routine. I (in this example) do not make my bed. I leave. I work all day, and at the end of the day, I think of all the projects that I am going to work on when I get home. However, when I get home into my room, I suddenly feel tired? there?s something drawing me to my bed. The covers are thrown back ? like a great, yawning mouth of gaping comfort? calling for me to dive in after a long day at work. So I do ? I jump in, cover up, get all toasty, and sleep away half of my evening ? only to go to bed again a few hours later. Leaving your bed unmade kills your motivation. Not only does it appear messy, which drains your energy in its own right, but it also invites you back in repeatedly, when you usually cannot afford to. So, make your bed. You?ll notice you get more things done in the evening.

9. Time Savers

There are several small, simple things you can do to save time in the morning. For one, if you check your computer in the morning (MySpace, Facebook, email, stocks, weather, ect), then try this. Rather than shutting down your computer at night, put it in standby. You will save a few minutes over turning it on, and it won?t use any more electricity. If it takes your computer four minutes to boot up, multiplied over a year, that is over 24 hours! An entire day you would save if you followed the routine everyday. Another rather obvious tip is to put all your ?to-go? items in one spot. Put your phone, wallet (or purse), watch, rings, notepad, ID badge, car keys, ect; all on the same part of the counter, or in a bowl perhaps. It will save you time searching for everything. Additionally, whatever time you are waking up now, wake up ten minutes earlier. It makes a world of difference in the morning. If you can get over the ?I could sleep for ten more minutes? thinking, you will reap amazing benefits. Ten minutes can take a lot of the edge off of your morning, allowing you to take your time as you go about your routine. It can save you money as well. I can tell you in my case that if I leave a few minutes early, rather than driving 80 MPH to make it to work on time, I can drive 65-70 MPH, which, due to exponential drag and air resistance, is optimum gas mileage speed for my car, and saves me a few bucks each week in gas.

10. Self-Talk

Self-Talk should be the most important part of any morning routine. In the morning, you need to load yourself with as much positive mental programming as possible. Your mind is most receptive to it in the morning (and at night), and it will shape the rest of your day. Your programming comes in many different forms, and it is our job to help you use it to your advantage. Mental programming is too much for this article? keep your eyes on us as we come out with new products to help you shape your mind exactly the way you want it ? and help you live the life you deserve.

The Power of Persistence Over Failure

The Law of Attraction says that we attract to our lives whatever we give our attention, energy and focus to, whether wanted or unwanted, that we attract from the outside what we resonate with, on the inside.

In other words, we bring into our lives what we momentarily strongly focus upon.

For many people when they first here about the Law of Attraction the idea of bringing anything they desired into their lives sounds quite exciting, ?I can be, do and have anything I desire,? this is great I have plenty of desires, and all I have to do is order them with the universe.

Weeks go by and where are all my things? I placed my order and haven?t got them yet!

What is it with this Law of Attraction, I order my stuff and it just doesn?t turn up, am I ordering to much or am I just not a good attracter?

If we read the definition of the Law of Attraction again, we can see that we bring into our lives whatever we give our attention, energy and focus to, whether wanted or unwanted!

But why would I give my attention, energy and focus on unwanted things, that doesn?t make sense.

Ah but it does, and we all do it. This is why your things aren?t turning up.

When we look at Cause and Effect, we can see that the Cause is our thought, and the Effect, our reality.

It is in this reality of now, possibly with debt, unhappiness, and dissatisfaction that we focus on. If you?re in debt you may know what you want and what you want to change, but your energy and focus is spent saving money, spending less and no more bills!!! Your energy is debt and your focuses is on not enough, and guess what, you?re getting exactly what you ordered.

We tend to live in effects, we experience effects around us, we think about the effects we see and when our focus and energy is on effects, the Law of Attraction obliges us by bringing more of the same, it?s a kind of cycle of reality attraction.

It is no coincidence that someone experiencing illness, thinks and talks more of this experience, and seems to have more than his or her fair share of illness dealt to them. In much the same way as someone who has experienced an abusive relationship, seems to attract the same kind of abuse in each relationship they end up in.

Similarly, a ?successful? person dwells in the positive and enjoys life?s abundance with passion, bringing more and more of same experience into their lives.

It not that successful people are good at using the Law of Attraction and unsuccessful people are not, anyone with the ability to think uses these Laws equally. It?s just that we tend to use attraction by default and to break it we must learn how to apply the Law of Attraction to bring us a more desired reality.

To change our current circumstances we must change our thoughts, to succeed we must have the thought of success, the idea of success, the intension to succeed. We must conceive.

This is great, all I have to do is think about being rich and I?ll be OK!!

Not so fast! Thoughts alone will not be enough to make you rich, you have move towards the things you want.

You want success, you?ve got to move towards it, you want love you?ve got to move towards it, you?ve got to give your attention, focus and energy on your desires so that the Law of Attraction can line them up for you.

But if I focus my energy on a new business what happens if it all goes wrong, what if I don?t get the deal. In love what if I?m rejected?

These are thoughts that stop us moving forward, there is nothing wrong in being aware of the negative, but we mustn?t let it define us. We need to walk towards our desires regardless, and as we move forward we may make mistakes and meet obstacles on the way, but it?s the way that we handle that failure that will move us ever forward.

So what of failure, how does failure help us succeed?

To begin with we need to understand what failure really is.

It?s interesting how we measure our own or other people?s achievements. We use bank balances, property size, lifestyle, power and evidences of abundance as a measure of success or failure, but we don?t really understand the difference between them.

Success and failure are not measures of have or have not, they cannot be judged by the size or the amount of our possessions, they are not destinations that we can look at and pass judgement on.

In Napoleon Hill?s book the Science of Getting Rich, he writes about R.U. Darby and the ?Dig and Grow Rich? story, Hill shares with us the story of Darby?s uncle who in the last century, was caught by ?gold fever? and went West to dig for gold.

?He staked a claim and went to work with a pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbours of the ?strike? They got together money for the needed machinery and had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work in the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of the Darby?s! Then something happened! The vein of gold disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again, all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to quit.

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some ?junk? men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with ?fault lines.? His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darby?s had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found!

The junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.?

So is this failure?

As a chapter of Darby?s life, this project is a failure, as the Darby?s quit and gave up on their dreams, only to find that they were only three feet from realising them. But in the contents of Darby?s life it is not failure.

You see Darby took the lesson of success through persistence that he had so harshly learned in his short mining career and applied it to everything he did. As a result Darby became one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who, at that time, sold over a million dollars in life insurance annually.

So what is failure?

Absolute failure is the habit of quitting, while failing with renewed determination to achieve is a stepping-stone to success.

Throughout history, in the world of commerce and science, we see this pattern of failure, determination, persistence and success. How many millionaires have a bankruptcy against their name? How many experiments by the likes of Edison and Bell failed, before they reached the conclusion they had been seeking?

It is with passion and faith that we will have the power of persistence. It is with belief that the Law of Attraction will be invoked and our journey of success will be realized.

Whether you understand the Law of Attraction or not, you must get out of the habit of thinking in your reality (unless your reality is where you want to be).

To make changes to your circumstances you must intend to, you must visualize your dreams and desires and move towards them with passion and faith.

To Achieve you must first Conceive and then Believe.

Use Your Spiritual Growth to Release Limits

The spirituality information that serves you the most is accepting the spiritual aspect of self as part of your being human. This concept will advance your spiritual growth faster than any other concept because your spirit is your eternal direct connection to your source.

If you choose to continue to live and define yourself as mostly a body and a mind, that is okay. You have free will to believe and experience life in any manner that you choose.

If you choose to open yourself up to the spirit part of your beingness and allow your spirit to be an equal partner in the decisions you make about your life, then you will begin to do different things than you have been doing in the past.

You are introducing new ideas into your thinking. You are no longer limiting yourself to two dimensions of your beingness. You are being more of yourself than you were previously. You are expanding your consciousness.

You are beginning to eliminate a limiting belief that you may hold about yourself that says ?as a human body I can only be, do and have so much because I am tied to the limits of my physical capabilities.? When you allow the spirit part of your being to be included in your definition of self, you become aware that this aspect of your being is limitless and not confined to physical parameters.

More importantly, you are letting the love that is the core of your being expand with every input from your spiritual nature. You are removing the limits that you set upon yourself when you were limiting yourself to your mind and body.

What's this? You are becoming unlimited? Wow! What a concept! But what about all those shackles and conditioning I put on myself when I didn't open myself up to my spiritual side? What? You say I am liberating myself? Wait a minute. I have to ask myself a question.

?Does this serve me?? If it does then I should ?be what serves me.?

In order to reach clarity on ?what serves us? we need to have a clear understanding of what it is that we are trying to accomplish. So what are we trying to accomplish? What is our mission? What is our purpose in the life process? How are we going to know ?what serves us? if we don't know where this service is taking us?

Until we can answer these questions we are just spinning our wheels with no sense of direction or reason. Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is just taking up time. Vision with action can change the world.

So now it is time to take a look at these larger issues of life. We need to explore the areas of our existence that can shed some light on ?being what serves us.? We need to get a better handle on this concept of understanding who we really are. When we know who we really are we will be able to see ?what serves us? from a much clearer perspective.

So let us go back to the beginning of time, as we know it, and answer some of these larger questions in order to get a better idea of who we really are and how this knowledge of who we really are will show us how we can ?be what serves us.?

Usually, we go back to the beginning of the story and follow the progression of the human species to see how we evolved to this point in time. This history of human evolvement usually starts out with ?In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.? We all know Genesis I:I, but in order for us to understand who we really are we need to ask an even more basic question.

Our question needs to be, ?Why did God create the heavens and the earth in the first place?? Our next question needs to be, ?What is our purpose in that creation??

When we can answer these questions, we will be able to see the bigger picture of life. From this larger perspective, we will see what serves the universe as a whole and can then more easily determine what serves us as the human species because they are one and the same. When we can see what serves us from the larger perspective, we can put ourselves in alignment with that and use it to serve us. We then move into ?being what serves us.?

Life is a process and understanding life is a process as well. Let us explore this life process and see the logic and reasoning behind some of the essential foundations that have taken us to this point in our human experience. Once we have gained some insight about the totality of the very reason for our existence we can use that knowledge to better navigate the journey that lies before us. It is such a fun adventure made even more so when you have a well-lighted path before you to help you from taking u-turns and running into obstacles along your way.

Beyond Boxes

If you're in the world of sales, it is quite likely you have gone through traditional sales training and learned that there is 'a way' or maybe ?one way? to sell. Maybe it was the Carnegie method. Maybe you learned 'features and benefits'. Maybe you learned some other easily definable, package-able way to sell to affluent clients or prospects which sort of hammers away at their defenses and attempts to corner them into buying your product or services. These techniques are responsible for boxing in many excellent sales professionals. I admit to having been hindered once by these techniques as a young man, but I had an awakening, so to speak, and my numbers soared and I never looked back to those old-fashioned techniques again.

Something that defines me and an awful lot of what I do in the world is 'living outside the box'. In persuasion, there's no easy way out and no quick fix. This shouldn't deter you. Anything worth learning is worth spending some time on. Persuasion is ever expanding and limitless, as limitless as human nature and all the myriad ways we interact. This is not a subject that can be mastered, but a constantly growing body of knowledge that is constantly transforming as human nature expands.

Fear not, persuaders. Even if something is vast, even if it's not entirely 'knowable', learning in and of itself is a fantastic process. Think of a specific area of knowledge--say, a new language or a new musical instrument. You do not need to know everything there is to know about the piano or the French language to enjoy the benefits of being able to play or speak with a native speaker passably the first time. I become thrilled by how much my life will be enhanced once this new practice or learning is languaged into my life.

Moving ourselves out of the 'sales box' and enlarging our view of the world creates a new paradigm for us enabling us to interact with our affluent prospects and clients and powerfully persuading them.

This is an invitation to be innovative and creative and free from limitations. If you think of the 'box' as a frame, then what the box contains, can be expanded and enlarged at will. If we limit our frames, keep ourselves in the box, then we're generally diminishing our options with persuasion and life in general.

One comment in support of boxes: When beginning anything, it's hard to get the basics if you don't know the boundaries.

Once the basics are learned, however, that's when it's time to expand and outgrow the imposed limitations. The greatest musicians had to learn theory (unless they had preternatural or divine talents which simply allowed them to compose or create without consciously knowing theory). After the foundation is laid out, then the real magic happens and unhindered improvisation or composition can occur.

The basics of persuasion is an open box which eventually will not contain you and you'll find yourself expanding beyond the limits.

How We Sabotage Ourselves And What To Do About It

Everyone wants to be beautiful, young, healthy and fit. There is no end to the diets, workouts and health plans. Yet the most important diet of all has been overlooked. This is a diet that releases stress, relaxes muscles, offers sound sleep, diminishes appetite, and makes you look and feel younger; it brings you new friends, a happy work environment, good relationships, and adds years to your life. This is the diet from anger' one of the worst plagues facing our nation.

Anger is a serious problem for one in every five Americans. Road rage, workplace violence, school shootings, domestic abuse and addiction are just a few of its many outlets. The reason such a huge proportion of our nation is on anti-depressants, involved in alcohol, and drug addiction, overweight, in broken relationships and involved in all kinds of destructive behavior, can be directly traced back to the effects of anger, particularly the hidden kind. It has also been well documented that anger strongly affects physical health and is directly related to heart attacks, blood pressure, back pain and many other physical disorders. This is called symptom substitution.

We also turn our anger against ourselves in other ways. We become depressed or experience mood disorders, hopelessness, passive aggressive behavior, promiscuity, domestic abuse and many other forms of general misery. Sometimes anger converts itself into obsessive-compulsive disorders and individuals become unable to make decisions or choices about their lives.

Anger is ruthless in the course it takes, attacking and disrupting our body, minds and spirits. As school and workplace shootings rise, the divorce rate climbs, people are on increasing anti-depressants. Many are increasingly unable to deal with the stress of 9-11 and an everyday terrorist threat. It is clear that anger is a societal problem, which is only growing worse. It is time we paid attention to the #1 terrorist we face: the anger we live with every day.

At the present time many of individuals in our society are dependent upon medication of all kinds. Anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, weight loss supplements, low blood pressure medication, blood thinners and anti-bionics of many kinds are taken to ease the many symptoms of unhappiness, unbalance and disease we suffer from. On the face of it the symptoms seem to differ from one another. If we look a little deeper, however, we can see that beneath the various forms of distress that appear, anger is quietly smoldering.

Today we fear many external enemies. It is not so easy to realize, however, that the worst enemy we face is this anger that resides within, the terror it causes us, and the ways in which this poison dictates so much of our lives.

Anger has many faces. It appears in many forms and creates different consequences. Anger that is overt and clear cut is the simplest to deal with and understand. When we or someone we know is openly angry, we know what we are up against and can directly address the cause.

Most anger lurks beneath the surface, however. It often does not even come to our awareness and manifests in endless, hidden ways - as depression, anxiety, apathy, hopelessness, and in many, many other forms.

It is crucial that we recognize anger for what it is, realize when it is appearing and notice the devastation it creates. Then we have an opportunity to root out this underground stream feeds our misery, and the misery we cause others. When anger is allowed to remain camouflaged it holds us in its grip and easily erodes the entire quality of our lives.

What To Do:

Just as we work out daily in the gym to strengthen muscles and attain flexibility, it is necessary to work out and strengthen the parts of ourselves that can recognize and release anger easily. We must learn to give up the various forms of anger and replace them with a healthy antidote. Some healthy antidotes to anger include: letting go of blame, forgiveness, generosity, seeing the best in others, letting the other be right, (just for today), giving others the benefit of the doubt.

Choose one antidote and work with it for an entire day. Then choose another. You will begin to feel so good, you won't want to go back to the old ways. As we daily eliminate the toxicity anger provides to our systems, not only will the results be reflected in our mental and emotional well-being, but in our environment and physical health as well. Eventually it will become impossible for anger to maintain the hold it once had upon them.

All teachings encourage us to be forgiving, but there is little actual instruction on how to accomplish this. Each of the antidotes listed above will help you along the way. Anger is the great impediment to forgiveness. When anger is rooted out, love and forgiveness arise naturally. Our lives and the lives of those around us then become hallowed and become all they are meant to be.

Success Is Simple!

Are you determined to become a mega success story?

Then this article will show you the simplest formula for reaching heights of success you've only dreamed about.

Remember that simplicity is not the same thing as ineffectiveness, for true power lies in simplicity. As the saying goes, "Common sense is not always common practice."

Let's begin.

Psychologist Arnold H. Glasgow has said, "Success is simple: do what's right, the right way, at the right time."

That's a simple concept, yet very profound.

The quote lays out three easy steps to simplify success, but those steps must be integrated to work effectively ' you can't afford to skip even one of them.

The first step is to do what is right. If you skip the FIRST and most important step, you're eliminating your chances to succeed.

But how do you know what is right for you?

Simply put, the decisions you make every day must match with your true purpose in life. Every action you take must enhance and solidify who you are and what you were meant to accomplish in this life.

When you have a purpose, your actions naturally become more powerful because they are focused and united to fulfill a sole objective. Consequently, you achieve faster and better results.

The second step is to do it the right way. If you skip this step, you'll find yourself in a never-ending loop of trial and error where you'll just keep re-inventing the wheel, instead of re-inventing yourself.

It has often been said that the easiest way to become successful is to find someone who is already successful and follow in his footsteps.

Take that advice and learn from the best. Look for successful people who have reached the same level of success you want to reach, and learn from both their mistakes and their accomplishments. Imitate their lives, learn their methods, and discover their secrets.

The third and last simple step to success is to choose the right time. Take small actions every single day that lead you toward fulfilling your purpose. Prepare yourself so that when the right opportunity presents itself, you'll be ready to seize it and ride it to unimaginable levels of success. The right time to start taking action is NOW. Even the smallest action can make a big difference. Don't worry about the magnitude of your every move; focus instead on the collective power of all your small actions combined.

"Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time."

Do what is right by discovering your true purpose in life.

Do it the right way by learning from the best.

Do it at the right time by taking small actions and preparing yourself to seize opportunity when it presents itself.

Can success be that simple?

It can be if you start NOW!

How to Communicate Better in 3 Simple Steps

Do you ever leave conversations at work wondering why you bothered opening your mouth? Do you sometimes wonder how many times you have to tell somebody something in order for them to get it right? Do you feel that just don?t listen? If so, then perhaps you need to know how to communicate better.

Communication failure is one of the biggest problems faced by businesses today, especially by their managers whose job it is to solve these communication problems; if you learn how to communicate better you can prevent these communication difficulties happening at all.

You know you are heading for communication problems when it appears that the other person has stopped listening to you even before you have finished talking. You get the hint when you can?t attract everyones attention when you speak at meetings or when you are not getting anything back from the other person with whom you are attempting to have a conversation.

You can?t blame other people for this and you can?t change the way that people listen to you; you need to improve your own communication skills.

1. Pause for thought

People are only capable of listening for so long. That attention span becomes shorter if they disagree with you or become confused, so when you see your audience?s eyes glazing over, you know it?s time to stop talking. Hopefully you will have stopped before that point. If you really want to communicate better, you have to listen too. Find out what other people are thinking; not only is that the polite thing to do but it also enables you to find out what people do not understand or what the resistances are to what you are saying.

2. Keep to the point

State your points clearly and simply with no mistakes in order to be easily understood. Signal what you are going to talk about from your very first sentence by stating your aim right away. Then the rest of your talk should be the way you expand upon it and illustrate your point of view. You can ask for feedback later or allow brainstorming of ideas if you wish, but make your point clearly first to avoid confusion. At the end, you should summarize any decisions that are made and make each person?s responsibilities for action clear. Make sure each person that needs to do something after the communication has a SMART target.

3. Watch your tone

You should speak to others as you wish them to speak to you, without arrogance, hostility or sarcasm. Make sure you speak loud enough to be heard but not so loud that your tone appears aggressive. Speak with authority, having thought out your words; you will be much more credible to your audience. If you have a strong regional accent you should try to soften that and make your dialect and accent more standard, to avoid confusing your audience who may not be from the same region.

You don?t have to neutralize your accent completely as an accent can be very endearing, but you need to make sure the way you speak is standardized enough to be understood by others.

You need to learn how to communicate better because communicating well is the best way to ensure that you are listened to and understood by others.

Positive Affirmation Rewiring The Brain

A simple definition of positive affirmation states ?An affirmation is a form of autosuggestion in which a statement of a desirable intention or condition of the world or the mind is deliberately meditated on and repeated in order to implant it in the mind?.

Is this just some New Age or Far Eastern idea of meditating and planting seeds of reality disillusionment, or is the idea of affirmation, backed by Neural Science?

Although the idea of the use of positive affirmation and meditation is often associated to some New Age ?hocus pocus?, nothing could be farther from the truth.

These ideas are based on sound solid medical facts, and deal with the science of your mind and neural biology. The joining or wiring together of brain cells, is often referred to as, "cells that fire together, wire together", and the theory explains that, when we learn, groups of cells that are activated together, grow a stronger connection.

This grouping of common brain cells gives us our learned behaviour, it allows us to walk, talk, run, write, sing, in fact any learned activity we do, seemingly without thinking. But it goes much deeper than that, every bodily function and every aspect of our personality is in the wiring of these groups of brain cells.

Even before you were born your brain arranged cells or neurons in particular orders, testing and rewiring its circuits, routing and rerouting its electrical signals. The day you were born, you were programmed to function, to pump and clean blood, control an army of defence cells, feel hunger, digest and dare I see it, fill a nappy.

>From this day on you started to make use of your senses, collecting data, analysing and testing. You started to recognise smell, sound, taste and sites and form Neuron Circuits to help you identify these things again.

Was the smell good, how did I react to that taste, was this sound pleasant and did this look nice. Whatever the reaction was the first time around, will probably be the same again, the circuit is formed, the cells are structured, the brain is wired.

You test reaction and response, that?s why babies cry, you test taste and texture, you learn about pain, fear, love and laughter, and each action and re-action is wired in for future use.

So how does this process work?

The process of wiring habit, pattern or memory into your brain is in two steps.

As I have already mentioned, ?At birth, you start to make use of your senses, collecting data, analysing and testing?, this is the first process of learning. This is the action of the objective or conscious mind, testing, retesting and programming data.

The second step takes place once all the data has been passed, and all responses verified, this is then belief, we know the fact to be true and the response to be appropriate and we then pass the fact to the subjective or subconscious mind, to be programmed in biologically.

So why do we need a Positive Affirmation, if we are passing facts to our subconscious?

Quite simply, to evolve our intellect, to achieve, to overcome and to grow as a human race. Now that?s quite a statement, but I?ll go further, ?Positive Affirmation is the key to all advancement and all achievement, without exception?.

You see there is quite a biological flaw with our outstandingly clever bodies, wiring facts into our brain means that we can achieve and remember almost anything. The analysis of data, testing of response and the programming of our circuits seems a flawless system, but there is one big, giant monster of a stumbling block.

What happens if the data was wrong and the response defective or inappropriate?

So how do we overcome faulty facts? Well to coin a phrase, it?s just like riding a bike!

But seriously it is, just like riding a bike, and how you learnt to achieve this marvellous feat is the answer to the problem.

Riding a bike is one of the most unnatural things to do, your subconscious is already in charge of your balance and speed, the data has been tested, retested analysed and programmed as fact. You know how to stand up, walk and run. But a bike? Balance on a couple of square centimetres and propel yourself forward at three times the speed? I don?t think so!

?But you know it can be done, you practise, you tell your body to take the pain each time you fall, you are determined, you will achieve, overcome and ride this bike?.

This is a Positive Affirmation at work!

To help you see this as a positive affirmation let me make the statement personal lets go back to our time learning to ride a bike and say the statement to ourselves, as if we were still learning.

?But I know it can be done, I will practise, and tell my body to take the pain each time I fall, I am determined, I will achieve, overcome and ride this bike?.

A powerful Positive Affirmation!

Now lets imagine that you live in 1790 and a Frenchman gave you his new invention ?The Celerifere?, this was one of the earliest bikes, with no steering.

Your beliefs and programming about balance and speed would be the same as they were when you actually learnt to ride a bike, but your experience would be different. You would never of seen one, never have witnessed it work and I?m sure you would believe, that the idea of a bike seemed an outrageous way to move.

How then, would your ?Positive Affirmation? read?

It would probably go something like this.

?But I?m not sure if this can be done, I don?t know how much I can practise, and take this pain each time I fall, I will never do this, I can?t achieve or overcome and ride this bike?.

Hardly a Positive Affirmation, but an Affirmation all the same.

OK, so it?s easy to see how we can use a Positive Affirmation to achieve a physical goal, but it surely can?t make me earn more money, find love or be happy.

Or can it?

This is the second flaw in our biological make up.

Your subconscious does not think, it only accepts, it cannot decide. Your subconscious discharges chemicals into your bloodstream every time certain circuits are activated, and you will perceive these chemicals as emotion, but your subconscious doesn?t feel, it does not know whether these chemicals are good or bad, wanted or unwanted

If you?re in debt you will be all to familiar with the dread of the arrival of the postman, the feeling of another bill, another demand and then the bill arrives, the letter is opened, yet another demand or final notice, and you experience the feelings of despair and depression.

The event is anticipated and the relevant circuit is activated, the corresponding chemical is released and you perceive the chemical as emotion, as dread. The event happens and another circuit is activated, the corresponding chemical is released, and you perceive the chemical as emotion, as despair or depression.

But this then grows more powerfully as our bodies start to crave this chemical rush, and just like the smoker, who?s body crave the rush of nicotine or the drinker the rush of alcohol, your body is crying out for the rush of proteins that give you these emotions of dread, despair and depression and you will keep moving towards the things your body needs.

Our subconscious, does not analyse this, it does not know that you do not want this result, why should it? After all, you are the trainer, you set this in motion by practising the event every morning, you analysed it, and passed it on, therefore it must be true.

This is why the abused, seems to move from one abuser to another, or the failure to more failure and the broken heart to the heartbreaker.

Whether you believe in the Law of Attraction or not, if you cannot see that like attracts like, surely you can see that what you think you like, you will keep moving towards by default. By your very own actions, you are what you think about.

You have today, built your destiny for tomorrow, and you will continue to become the things you fear the most, that is, until you respond, until you stand up and shout out.

?I know it can be done, I will practise, and tell myself each time I fall, I am determined, I will achieve, I will overcome and ride towards my chosen destiny?

"I will be, what I will to be?

What a Positive Affirmation.

The Power of Anticipation

As we rush about frantically preparing for the holiday season we all have a sense of anticipation. Love Christmas or loathe it those of us who live in the Western world are affected by it.

Anticipation has many guises. For little children there is the wide eyed wonder as twinkly lights and brightly coloured decorations appear overnight as if by magic. A visit to Father Christmas?s Grotto heightens the sense that something really special is about to happen.

Children?s belief in Santa is finally replaced with a strong sense of excitement for what gifts Christmas morning will bring. As we get older our focus changes. For many adults the anticipation is centred on seeing their loved ones gathered together. This can bring a pleasant and positive sense of anticipation.

On a far less positive note anticipation can be far less positive, anxiety about getting everything done in time, worry about the financial cost and the bills which will follow in January. For some a sense of foreboding becomes a deeply held sense of dread around managing truculent teenagers or difficult elderly relatives, arguments fuelled by too much time in one another?s company and too much alcohol.

For those of you who work long hours and are married to your jobs, Christmas can be lonely. The gap left by work allows enough time for you to recognise you need to do something radical about your work life balance but insufficient time to get to grips with solving the problem before it is time to return to work where you will once again be too busy to do anything to make any meaningful changes.

Negative anticipation has the power to spoil our enjoyment. Worrying about what might never happen is such a waste as by itself it so rarely changes anything.

Developing the skill of anticipation gives you the opportunity to take control of your personal and professional life in a very different way. If you would like to engage the amazing power of anticipation read on?..

The power of anticipation is amazing. It is a skill you can learn and if employed on a regular basis it enables you to maximise the resources at your disposal and helps you to manage your time effectively. It changes your mode of operation from one of fire fighting to one which allows time for strategic planning.

The strategies work in every walk of life.

Think of a game of football. If the striker passes the ball to where his team mate is at the time he kicks the player will have moved on and the shot will be wasted. All good players anticipate where their team mate will be and send the ball to that place. The skill is judging the speed and direction of the other player.

In business success is tied closely to your ability to anticipate the market. The one hundred business list published in the USA every year rarely has the same organisations in the top ten. I find it fascinating that many don?t slip a few places but disappear all together. Anticipation allows you to buy in raw materials at the best price. To plan to spread the work load over the year, minimizing peaks and troughs of work load. Appointing staff that can grow with the needs of the organization will difficulty; anticipating training needs will avoid stagnation.

As a leader and manager the skill of anticipation starts with a clear, shared vision and translates into a workable action plan delivered by well trained people who know what is expected of them. The plan is dynamic; there is a constant monitoring of performance based on the pursuit of growth and excellence. Time is made to look strategically at what is needed in the medium and long term and plans put in place to minimize risk and maximize performance.

As a team member anticipation should be clearly tuned to achieving the goals of the team. People know what needs to be achieved and are looking at how that can be done on the most effective and efficient way possible. There is a constant curiosity about how things could be improved. Underpinning the whole process is trust, good communication and a sense of contribution.

If you are always planning for things in the here and now it is likely that you will constantly chasing to catch up. I was working with a new client who is constantly late. She underestimates how long things will take, often does things for others when they probably have more time to spare and finds it difficult to say no. She finds herself stressed and feels overwhelmed by her life. She is highly intelligent and caring of others she has an interesting but demanding job but no time to organize her own life. The result is she is constantly tired, sleeps badly and is constantly chases her tail. Her story is not unique by any means.

Learning the skill of anticipation is incredibly useful if you want to take control of your life. Let me demonstrate what I mean using the Christmas theme. I have three resources available to me ? time, energy and money. All of them are finite resources, although I can buy other people?s time and energy with my money.

I love Christmas but when I worked as a Head Teacher I worked very long hours and the few weeks before Christmas were completely manic I needed to have all my attention on school and by the time the term ended I had little energy to spare. I wanted to enjoy my personal Christmas so had to find a way to make things work. Anticipation was the key. Although I no longer have the same pressures surrounding Christmas the benefits of applying the rules of anticipation are still incredibly useful.

I anticipated that I would give around 500 Christmas cards and would need a quantity of wrapping paper, bows, ribbons and labels. I always bought these in the January sales. They went in the loft until November. Net result was a considerable saving financially.

My long list of people to buy for includes seven God children, five nieces and nephews, a Great Niece and Nephew, brother, sister and partners, father and lots of friends. During the year I listened carefully and made a note in the diary if I hear one of my ?list? mention something which could translate into a suitable present. I keep a look out for things during the year and if something catches my eye I will buy it and put it away for Christmas. This can save a great deal of time and lots of energy fighting the Christmas crowds. I have been known to loose presents by putting them ?somewhere safe? and not finding them till February or buying twice for the same person. I have solved these glitches by having a Christmas list on the computer which is quickly updated each year. It also helps me to track what I have given over time. The benefit is that I spread the financial load and the last minute shopping lists are kept to a minimum.

I used the same principle I use with papers when dealing with presents. I try to handle them as little as possible so will often wrap things in batches before they go up into the loft. They are put into ?family? carrier bags so they are ready to go just before Christmas.

Labels for Christmas card envelopes were on the computer, updated well in advance of Christmas and cards for friends and family, staff, Governors and those who were associated with school written in batches whist watching the TV from November onwards. This made it far less of a chore. I was also careful to choose card designs which required less writing by me. I learned this the hard way having bought a set of cards one year which were blank for your own message making the job so much harder.

I enjoy entertaining but found I needed a creative approach to make the whole thing as stress free as possible. I cooked in advance, using the freezer to ensure that on the day I was still wake to enjoy the festivities. For example I prepared the roast potatoes and parsnips in advance ? parboiled them, brushed them with oil whist they were still hot. I placed them on the baking ray, covering them with cling film and freezing them once cool. On Christmas morning take off the cling film and pop them into a hot oven from frozen. It saves the peeling, washing up and time on the morning allowing you more time to enjoy your company.

The principle of looking ahead to see what can be usefully done in advance, of prioritizing the use of time energy and money and of breaking down the jobs into manageable chunks is applicable to any context. (You can?t eat a whole cow at one sitting but it is easy to do if you tackle it mouthful by mouthful.)

Consider your life. Where could you use the skill of anticipation more effectively?

The Power of Mind

I’m sure you have heard about the power of the mind. And also I’m sure you didn’t pay attention to that concept or maybe you didn’t give it credibility. However, you must know it’s the only way you can make miracles happen in your life. By using your mind properly you can change your life dramatically. You can object telling me you do use your mind in your own benefit, but I can show you didn’t do that. Just take a look at your daily routine; breakfast, work, fast lunch, work, date to dinner or beers with friends, maybe a session in a gym, back home to sleep, and that’s it. So, along this average routine you tell me at what time of your day you are using your mind to create, to build the lifestyle you would like to have?
LIVING A PLANLESS LIFE
As most of the people we used to watch our lives passing by inside pre-established routines inherited from our society. Most of us didn’t give ourselves the time to plan a life according to our expectations. We just let life to take us to a bank like the water in a river. We are just part of the life flow giving up to a, so called, destiny we may not agree. So, why do not give us a chance and try to use this concept in to our own benefit. Why not taking few minutes a day, or more if you can, to start building the lifestyle you deserve.
THOUGHTS AGAINST FRUSTRATIONS
Everybody has some kind of frustration, even you, so you can start unloading it from your back. Now, the question is how to do it.
It’s simple and believe it or not you have used this power in the past. It happens usually when we are in front of limit situations. Remember some “big” problem you had and as consequence of thinking a lot in the way to solve it ... , almost magically like a spark of illumination, the solution just appeared in your mind! In the same way you can overcome your frustration(s) using adequately your thoughts.
WHAT TO DO
As much people build their bodies at the gym, in the same way you have to dedicate some minutes every day to overcome your frustration(s) or to change that things you don’t like in your life. The way to do it is an adequate combination of thoughts, mind training, and will.
Thoughts are powerful. If combined with the other two elements they can make miracles happen. Jesus said “if you have the faith as the size of a mustard grain, you will be able to command this mountain throw itself to sea and the mountain would obey to you”, and where is faith?... right! in your mind! Faith is just some kind of thought. Einstein discovered the rules of the universe just by using his thoughts. Oh yeah, I can imagine what you are thinking now. You think you are not a celebrity just a regular guy with a normal life and you do not believe you can do such amazing things or discoveries. Believe me, I’m also a regular guy and maybe I won’t do things that change the world history, but you and I are able to make significant changes in our lives so we can do them more accordingly to our pleasure. In short, you can make changes in your life. You can influence for good your life with the proper use of your thoughts. You can start overcoming your frustration(s). I know that because I did it.
I know you are hesitating now and that’s a good start point. You dispose some time every day to take care of your body, to take care of your health, to take care of your appearance; so why do not care about your life. Why not dedicate some few minutes a day to build in your mind, using your thoughts, the lifestyle you want and deserve. What you have to lose. In particular, make your frustration(s) disappear.
Who influences every decision you make?... Your thoughts.
Who influences your state of mind?... Your thoughts.
Who influences your humor?... Your thoughts.
Who influences your life expectations?... Your thoughts.
Who rules your life?... Your thoughts.
Who controls your thoughts?... YOU!
So? It seems you just have to train your thoughts, right?
HOW TO DO IT
For instance, if you feel frustrated with your current job then force your mind to imagine a scene with you doing exactly what you would like to do. Imagine the scene with detail. Then create a sentence in present time like “I have a good job doing which pays me xxxxx $, and makes me feel happy”. Repeat this exercise as much as you can every day; and after some time you will start to see changes.
This is the way to induce changes in your life.
Believe me, it works!
You have to try it!
You have nothing to lose!

The Power of Dream

There area many success person said that the key factor of the success is dream. Thomas Alfa Edison said that success is determined with 95% dream and the rest is just technical.
“What is dream?” Did you ever ask to any body this following question “What is your dream?” and they replied: “Become rich”.
“What is dream?” Dream is something that you really want, both material and nonmaterial, so that you willing to work hard to realize it, whatever it cost. Dream is not just a want, however, it is a desire. In order to be able to have a dream you need to forget your actual condition. You hate to free your mind and there is nothing impossible as long as you believe in and struggle for it.
Why we need a dream?
1. An entrepreneur is not has boss, so that if you are an entrepreneur, nobody will angry when you did not work. Therefore, it is your decision to determine how big business you will operate.
2. Dream makes us release from the comfortable zone.
The main obstacle for individual to develop her/his-self is comfortable zone. She/he does routine activities without realizing that she/he is not doing the best for her/his-self yet. Strong dream can make you free from comfortable zone, releasing all of your potential, and reach out all the best for your life.
The last question is, “Do you have a dream?” What is your dream? Are you ready to struggle to realize it?
3. Change!!!
Albert Einstein said that the definition of new insanity is when a person wants to have different result but still doing same things. How about you? Do you want a change in your life? Have you done things differently? Many people want a change in their life, but not willing to change her/his-self.
There area three ways to make a change in your life: (1) Start from yourself, (2) Start from smallest things and (3) Start right now.
Initially, a change is not comfortable situation, however, you will accustom to it and you increasing feel comfortable.
Do you know that only one thing in the world that truly impossible to be change? It is your past! In addition, the good news is, it is ended right now. You are free to decide what future you have and the true is your future is collection of today. Then do your best right now. Filling your day with do best things for your future and bright future will be yours. Happy change!