How To Increase Creativity

To increase creativity, you need to do two things. First, you need to encourage it. Second, you need to train your brain. Start on both of these right now, and you can experience greater creativity today.

Encourage creativity and you'll increase creativity. This is true of most things you want to see more of in your life. Encouragement can work wonders. How do you encourage creativity, though?

First, by paying attention to it. Your subconscious mind tends to give you more of what you pay attention to. If you ignore the creative aspects of your life, you are telling your subconscious that they are unimportant. If you consciously note when you are creative, and you look for opportunities to be creative, your subconscious mind will start feeding you more creative ideas. Look for it and you'll find more of it.

Another way to encourage and increase creativity, is to write your ideas down. Keep an "idea journal." If you do this regularly, you'll notice that you often start having more ideas the moment you start to write. A so-so idea may normally be forgotten, but by writing it down, you may remember it, your subconscious works on it, and it can transform into something very creative.

You can also encourage greater creativity in yourself by putting creative ideas into practice. If you paint or write, for example, try anything new. Even just driving a different route to work to see if it is quicker can help. The point is to get you mind working outside of its regular patterns.

Just changing your surroundings can encourage creativity. If you want more creativity in your love life, go hike up a mountain with your partner. If you write, try sitting on a roof to write. If you need new ideas for your business, take a notebook to the park and sit by the duck pond. A change of environment can get your brain out of it's ruts.

Creativity Training

If you want to dramatically increase creativity, develop creative habits of mind. Watch a good comedian and you'll see that she has trained her mind to look for the "different angle" on everyday things. You can train your mind to do the same.

Challenge assumptions, for example, until it becomes habit. Looking for ways to get customers into your store? Stop and say, "Do I really need more customers?" The question suggests other creative solutions, like finding ways to make more money off existing customers, or ways to cut expenses. These may lead to more profitable ideas. Challenge assumptions to increase the creativity of your solutions.

As you drive to work, randomly choose anything around you and ask how it may be connected to whatever problem you are working on. A helicopter overhead might make you think about a way to track where the car goes when you loan it to your kids. A palm tree may lead to a new design for patio umbrellas.

The above techniques are called "Assumption Challenging" and "Random Presentation," and are two classic creative problem solving techniques. There are dozens more. Train your brain to habitually use these, and provide it with a little encouragement, and you really can increase your creativity.

How To Increase Creativity

To increase creativity, you need to do two things. First, you need to encourage it. Second, you need to train your brain. Start on both of these right now, and you can experience greater creativity today.

Encourage creativity and you'll increase creativity. This is true of most things you want to see more of in your life. Encouragement can work wonders. How do you encourage creativity, though?

First, by paying attention to it. Your subconscious mind tends to give you more of what you pay attention to. If you ignore the creative aspects of your life, you are telling your subconscious that they are unimportant. If you consciously note when you are creative, and you look for opportunities to be creative, your subconscious mind will start feeding you more creative ideas. Look for it and you'll find more of it.

Another way to encourage and increase creativity, is to write your ideas down. Keep an "idea journal." If you do this regularly, you'll notice that you often start having more ideas the moment you start to write. A so-so idea may normally be forgotten, but by writing it down, you may remember it, your subconscious works on it, and it can transform into something very creative.

You can also encourage greater creativity in yourself by putting creative ideas into practice. If you paint or write, for example, try anything new. Even just driving a different route to work to see if it is quicker can help. The point is to get you mind working outside of its regular patterns.

Just changing your surroundings can encourage creativity. If you want more creativity in your love life, go hike up a mountain with your partner. If you write, try sitting on a roof to write. If you need new ideas for your business, take a notebook to the park and sit by the duck pond. A change of environment can get your brain out of it's ruts.

Creativity Training

If you want to dramatically increase creativity, develop creative habits of mind. Watch a good comedian and you'll see that she has trained her mind to look for the "different angle" on everyday things. You can train your mind to do the same.

Challenge assumptions, for example, until it becomes habit. Looking for ways to get customers into your store? Stop and say, "Do I really need more customers?" The question suggests other creative solutions, like finding ways to make more money off existing customers, or ways to cut expenses. These may lead to more profitable ideas. Challenge assumptions to increase the creativity of your solutions.

As you drive to work, randomly choose anything around you and ask how it may be connected to whatever problem you are working on. A helicopter overhead might make you think about a way to track where the car goes when you loan it to your kids. A palm tree may lead to a new design for patio umbrellas.

The above techniques are called "Assumption Challenging" and "Random Presentation," and are two classic creative problem solving techniques. There are dozens more. Train your brain to habitually use these, and provide it with a little encouragement, and you really can increase your creativity.

Doing What You Love

What do you want to be when you grow up? I’m sure you were asked this question at least once when you were a youngster. When asked the question, did you have an answer at the ready, or did you need a few minutes to think about it? We all had dreams of becoming something great, like a fireman, a teacher, or a rock star, just to name a few. Well, how did you do? Maybe you never aspired to be what you set out to be or said that you would become. But then again, things change. The older we get, our tastes change, our view of the world changes, even our goals change.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned during my career path is to do something you love to do. Why is this important? I feel that if you enjoy what you make a living at, you end up being happy in more ways than one. Life itself becomes much more interesting and fun. You find yourself speaking passionately to others about your work. The experiences you have along the way become much more rewarding, and enrich your life in many ways. You meet fascinating people. I know people who have turned favorite hobbies into small businesses, and have succeeded. Sure, they may have had to sacrifice a steady paycheck for their happiness, but not one of them either turned back or gave up. Their passion carried them through to success.

While no job or business is perfect, the important thing is to enjoy it, even learn from it. If you are unhappy in your current situation, why not take steps now to change it? Somewhere out there is a job or business that is perfect for you. If you are already there, I applaud you. If not, realize that it may take some time to figure out what you really want to do, and even more time to actually get there. That’s all right! I can tell you from experience that finding and doing what you love is absolutely worth it, every step of the way. All of the research, training, and hands-on experience has made me a stronger, happier person. Feeling in charge of my own destiny…well, there just is no greater feeling.

Do what you love, and love what you do, whatever that may be. You’ll be happier for it, trust me. I promise you will never look back.

Giving Happiness

We all want happiness. We all need appreciation. We all crave for recognition. We all want to be applauded. We all desire to be called as good and lovely human beings. We are all looking for this certificate from our friends, family and our partner. This makes us happy. This makes us feel good about ourselves. This gives us new confidence in ourselves. This all gives us a new and positive self esteem, which is very important.

How to get it? Let us do all this for others. If no one is praising us, let us praise others. Let us do all that we want others to do to us. Let us give love, affection, appreciation, and let us applaud others even for a very small victory. Will this help us? It helps us immediately. The first feeling we get after doing a good deed is feeling of satisfaction. This raises our self esteem in our own eyes. This makes us feel good. By making others happy, we get happiness. So let us become proactive and get all we want by not asking for it, but giving it.

What will happen to others when they get such praise from us? They will feel very happy. They will be happy with us. They will like us even more. They will like to do something in return. They will do all that we have been wishing for. Send happiness to get happiness. The shortest route to a lovely life.

Happiness is a state of mind, when one feels contented with oneself. One feels cheerful with one's life and circumstances. Remaining unhappy is not our goal in life, but happiness is our goal. If we are not happy, life become a burden. One lives, but only because one has no choice. Why not make happiness a part of everyday living?

Be A Leader Not A Follower

Most people in life are happy to follow the lead of other people, to sit on the fence in a debate or have the attitude of hiding at the back of the class. The most successful people are leaders and make things happen for themselves by taking a positive attitude and through working very hard to reach their goals. We are all able to become leaders and this article may help you to achieve this status.

I grew up as a very nervous person, who had very little self-confidence and who was very shy. I was not happy being this way and often felt jealous of other people who were happy to speak up and take control of tasks and situations. I wanted to be one of these leaders and not the follower that I certainly had become.

In my early twenties, I decided that the time had arrived to make a series of life changing decisions. I was determined to have a happy and successful life and was aware that I needed to change my whole attitude and approach to life.

I was not happy at where I worked and joined an employment agency in an attempt to find alternative employment. In the reception area of the agency, I started speaking to a man who was also their hoping to find a different job. His name was Mark and we got on well and wished each other the best of luck in our quest to find work. We even exchanged phone numbers and vowed to keep each other up to date with our progress.

I was then interviewed by a man who explained his plan to help me to find this new role of work. He was very bright, clever and positive and had many interesting ideas. He seemed very confident that I would soon be employed for a different company more suited to the skills which I had.

At one stage of the meeting he described the scenario of a group interview. He suggested that we may be ushered into a large room with a big table. As we sat down there would be a sheet of paper asking the group to debate a particular subject. He stated that all of the people in the room would be in the same position, all looking for work, all nervous, however that in that room I could be whoever I wanted to be. He said that I needed to stand up and take the lead by stating that I would act as chairman and that if anyone had a comment that they wanted to make, that they could raise their hand. If I did this I would show my prospective employer that I was a leader.

I went home and thought about this and did not believe I had it in me to act in the way that he wanted me to, as I was not a leader. Later that evening Mark phoned and all he was talking about was the group interview scenario. He also stated that there was no way that he would be able to stand up either in the way that had been described.

I did not have to ever attend a group interview, but Mark did. He surprised himself by carrying out the advice and stated that after he had said his initial statement about being the chairman, that he had never felt so powerful and in control. For the rest of the day other members of the group had been regularly asking him questions as if he was some sort of team leader. He was very proud of himself and I am happy to report that he was successful at that interview and is very happy in his new position.

He has also taken the success and learning experience into his social life and states that he has never had a higher self-esteem. I am very pleased for him as he is a genuine person who works very hard. He is also one of only a few friends that I can honestly say that I trust.

I have taken inspiration from Mark and have entered into a career of helping people who stutter, to achieve fluency. This is something which I really enjoy and which gives me a large amount of job satisfaction. I am also far more confident than I ever have been and have at last found happiness.

In conclusion we all have it in us to be a leader. We need to be brave and determined to take control and remember that all we can do in life is to try our best. We are only sure about living one life, so lets be happy and not accept second best. Be a leader in life, not a follower.

Forgiving Yourself and Others

At some point in our lives, all of us have been wronged by another person and felt hurt, angry or resentful. This is a natural reaction and part of being human. However, if we do not resolve or come to terms with these hurts, they drive our actions and create a negative way of life. By harboring past hurts, we have the potential to do far more harm to ourselves than anyone else can possibly do.

“All illness is caused by not forgiving.”
– Native American belief

Forgiving others – or yourself – does not mean forgetting or condoning what happened, or giving up the values that were violated or assuming you are at fault; nor is it condemning the other person or seeking justice or compensation. Forgiveness can be viewed as foregoing the resentment or revenge when the wrongdoer’s action deserves it and giving the gifts of mercy, generosity and love when the wrongdoer does not seem to deserve them. To release the shackles of the past, we must be willing to forgive.

Forgiveness is about creating a state “for giving” – both to self and others – and excusing a mistake or an offense and letting go of the associated hurt, anger or resentment. Because forgiveness has the greatest benefit to the person doing the forgiving, it is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to yourself.

Forgiving allows us to get on with our lives and to open up our minds and hearts to new ways of seeing others, the world and ourselves. It releases energy that can be used for other, more productive thoughts and actions.

Coping With Stress

With Christmas just around the corner, many people are racking their brains trying to figure out what gifts to give to everyone. Finding the time to shop on top of all the other daily stresses we encounter just adds to our dilemma. (No, I am not going to try and sell you products here or give you gift ideas.)

Holidays bring about their own added stress with all the shopping and party going that must be done. For some it is the straw that breaks the camels back so before it arrives we must be prepared to cope with it.

Stress is an inevitable part of life. We will never be able to get rid of it completely. In fact, you wouldn’t want to get rid of it completely because, believe it or not, stress is also good for you. Stress revs up our internal engines and makes us ready to take action. The problems arise when we don’t take care of the situations at hand. This keeps our engines running but we are not going anywhere. Life is not meant to be lived as a Formula 1 Race.

Lily Tomlin once said, “Some people say life is a rat race. If we take that attitude, then even if you win, you are still a rat”.

Life doesn’t have to be a rat race. We can learn to live with stress as we learn to allow balance into our lives.

How can we cope with stress?
The first step in coping with stress is to be sure that we get enough sleep. This is the first area that people fail in. They feel that because there is so much to do they need to cut back on sleep in order to get more time in their day. This is a never-ending devil’s circle because the less sleep we have the more tired we are and the less able to cope and then the more stress we feel.

Dealing with stress does not depend on the quantity of time we have but on the quality. If we are well rested we are clear headed and able to come up with solutions to our problems. If we are overtired we will accomplish little and keep going in circles.

Try and find a balance in your sleep cycle. Go to bed the same time each night and get yourself into a routine that your body can count on.

So rule #1 Get more sleep.

Rule #2 Eat a balanced diet.

What does diet have to do with stress? Everything! Our bodies need to run as a well tuned engine. If we feed it crap you will feel like crap. You need a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables and lots of water to keep running well.
Rule #3 Stop Procrastinating

Procrastination is the biggest stress producer. If you don’t have time to tackle your problems all at once at least put aside some time each day to work on a part of the problem. Take care of it in little chunks and before you know it the problem is gone.

A Mountain is moved one stone at a time. Start moving your stones and you’ll get rid of your mountain.

Rule #4 Manage Your Time Effectively

Just like money, time also must be budgeted. You only have so many hours in a day and they must be used judiciously. Balance here is the key. Make sure to take some time to work, deal with problems and relax.

You must be sure to include relaxation time for yourself, even if it is only 15 minutes a day. Add it to your schedule and make sure you take this time for yourself. Even if you must go to your room and lock the door to get it, be sure to do it.

There are many things you can do to relax and get your mind at ease. Simple things such as a walk outside can help restore frazzled nerves and give you time to reflect on your life. Other choices would be a nice, warm bath, or a quiet spot where you can meditate.

Mediation does not have to be anything grand or complicated. Just find some quiet time and let all cares out of your mind. Think of nothing for 15 minutes. I find it easier to imagine a black screen in front of me. Every time a thought comes through my mind I remind myself that I do not want to think right now. My black screen is on. Just do nothing, think nothing, be totally at peace for 15 minutes. It will do wonders for you. After you will find that you can think much more clearly. A quiet mind brings about answers that you would never usually think of.

Lastly, the effects stress will have on you is defendant upon the way you react to it. Stress is like the bully at school who keeps coming around to taunt you. You can let him have your candy or you can stand up and do something about it. The choice is yours.

May the Christmas season bring you peace.

God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference

Can Leadership help Your Career?

We want to grab your attention to this article on leadership. It not only is interesting, but also has loads about leadership.

In Part One, I described the Leadership Talk and how it is a much more effective leadership tool than presentations or speeches.

I also described two fundamental premises that the Leadership Talk is based on.

In Part Two, I will show you the purpose of the Leadership Talk. You won't be able to give a Leadership Talk effectively on a consistent basis if you misunderstand its purpose.

Do not judge a book by its cover; so don’t just scan through this matter on leadership. read it thoroughly to judge its value and importance.

The Leadership Talk doesn't drive purpose. Purpose drives the Leadership Talk. There is one and only one purpose of the Leadership Talk: that's to motivate people to be your cause leaders in meeting the challenges you face.

This is important in understanding the difference between Leadership Talks and presentations/speeches.

You're a leader. You have a task to complete. Do you want the people you lead to simply do the task? Or do you want those people to actually take leadership of accomplishing the task? For the difference between doing and leading in terms of accomplishment is stock car and a formula 1 racer.

Clearly, you can order them to accomplish the task; and if you're in a position of authority, they will most likely carry out the order. But they might not do it with full commitment. Or they may resent being ordered. Or they may be inclined to do nothing unless ordered, and so after accomplishing the task, they do little else but wait for the next order.

It may take some time to comprehend the matter on leadership that we have listed here. However, it is only through it’s complete comprehension would you get the right picture of leadership.

However, their committing to take leadership involves your establishing a special relationship with them.

For instance, going back to the example I used in Part One, if one is a floor sweeper, one does the best floor sweeping, not simply by doing it but by taking leadership of floor sweeping.

Such leadership might entail: taking the initiative to order and manage supplies; evaluating the job results and raising those results to ever higher levels; having floor sweeping be an integral part of the general cleaning policy; hiring, training, developing other floor sweepers; instilling a "floor sweeping esprit"that can be manifested in training; special uniforms and insignias; behavior, etc.; setting floor sweeping strategy and goals.

We hope you develop a better understanding of leadership on completion of this article on leadership. Only if the article is understood is it’s benefit reached.

Otherwise, in a "doing" mode, one simply pushes a broom.

You may say, "Listen, Brent, a job is a job is a job. This leadership thing is making too much of not much!"

Could be. But my point is that applying leadership to a task changes the expectations of the task. It even changes the task itself. Think of it, when we ourselves are challenged to lead and not simply do, our world is, I submit, changed.

Furthermore, though you may order people to do a job, you can't order anybody to take leadership of it. It's their choice whether they take it or not.

After many hopeless endeavors to produce something worthwhile on leadership, this is what we have come up with. We are very hopeful about this!

The completion of this article on leadership was our prerogative since the past one month. However, we completed it within a matter of fifteen days!

This is where the Leadership Talk comes in. Using it, you set up the environment in which they make that choice.

The Leadership Talk is not only the most important way to get cause leaders; it is the only way to get them on a consistent basis.

So what is your verdict on this composition on leadership? Are there anymore unanswered questions about leadership in your mind?

Happiness Versus Pleasure

We are a pleasure seeking society. Most of us spend our energy seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. We hope that by doing this, we will feel happy. Yet deep, abiding happiness and joy elude so many people.

There is a huge difference between happiness and pleasure. Pleasure is a momentary feeling that comes from something external – a good meal, our stock going up, making love, and so on. Pleasure has to do with the positive experiences of our senses, and with good things happening. Pleasurable experiences can give us momentary feelings of happiness, but this happiness does not last long because it is dependent upon external events and experiences. We have to keep on having the good experiences – more food, more drugs or alcohol, more money, more sex, more things – in order to feel pleasure. As a result, many people become addicted to these external experiences, needing more and more to feel a short-lived feeling of happiness.

Thomas sought my counseling services because he “had everything” – his own successful business, a lovely wife and children, a beautiful home, and time to enjoy life. Yet he was not happy. While he had momentary feelings of happiness while watching a ball game or socializing with his friends, he also felt anxious and depressed much of the time. In fact, the anxiety had become so bad that he was having almost constant stomach pain, which his doctor told him was from stress.

As we worked together, it became apparent that Thomas’s main desire in life was to have control over people and events. He wanted others to do things his way and to believe the way he believed. He was frequently judgmental with his employees, wife, children and friends, believing that he was right and they were wrong and it was his job to straighten them out with his judgment and criticism. His energy would become hard and tough and he would be like a steamroller in his efforts to get his point across and get others to do things his way. When it worked and others gave in, Thomas felt a momentary pang of pleasure. But the pain in his stomach kept getting worse and worse, which is why he decided to consult with me.

Thomas also wanted control over his own feelings, and would often judge himself as harshly as he judged others in an effort to get himself to perform well and feel okay. He especially judged himself harshly when he felt rejected by others, frequently telling himself that he was an inadequate jerk.

As we worked together, Thomas began to see that happiness is the result of choosing to be a kind, caring, compassionate and gentle person with himself and others – quite the opposite of the judgmental, controlling person he had chosen to be. Thomas learned that happiness is the natural result of being present in each moment with love and kindness toward himself and others, rather than with being attached to the outcome of things and trying to control the outcome regarding events and others’ behavior. He discovered that he felt deep joy whenever he let go of control and chose caring instead. The anxiety in his stomach went away whenever his intention was to be a kind and caring person rather than a controlling one.

It is not easy to shift out of the deep devotion to control and become devoted to love and compassion toward oneself and others. Our ego wounded self has been practicing control since we were very little. Yet the moment our intent is to control, our heart closes and we feel alone and anxious inside. Our intent to seek safety and pleasure through controlling others, outcomes, and our own feelings leads to an inner feeling of abandonment and emptiness. We abandon ourselves when we are trying to control our feelings rather than be kind and compassionate with ourselves. Our anxiety and feelings of emptiness lead to more seeking outside ourselves to fill up with pleasurable experiences. The momentary pleasure leads to addictive behavior.

When the intent shifts out of controlling and not being controlled to becoming loving to ourselves and others, the heart opens and joy is the result. Deep and abiding happiness and joy are the natural result of operating out of the spiritual values of caring, compassion and kindness.

How Great is the Strength of Your Belief?

Be careful what you believe because that is what you will experience. Your belief system is a mechanism which is uniquely yours. It is powered by your desire and controlled by your thoughts and actions. In other words, your success is measured by the strength of your belief.

What is it that you desire? Often people do not have a clue what it is they want, they just know what they do not want. Now is a good time to evaluate your goals and determine the end result you want to achieve. Put your goals in writing and place them where you can see them throughout the day. Read them frequently to keep them fresh on your mind.

• Be inquisitive. Research and learn as much as you can on how you can achieve your goal. Use all possible resources such as books, CDs, courses and people. Yes, people. Talk to as many people as possible who are already successful in what you want to achieve. Ask, ask and ask some more about what they did to reach success. Do not limit your contacts to only the people you already know. Introduce yourself by phone or mail, explain your purpose for contacting them and ask for a tip. The worst thing that can happen is that they ignore you. The best thing that can happen is that they become your mentor and offer support and encouragement. Chances are you will receive at least one great tip from many of the people you contact. This method is the least expensive and most rewarding.

• Be unique. Next, take the ideas you learn, embellish them and come up with your own creative process. Think of how you can approach your goal in a way that no one else has. Dare to be different. Don’t be afraid to take risks. What do you have to loose? Write out a list showing the worst things that could happen and then list all of the best possible outcomes. Always maintain your concentration on your desired result.

• Be better than your competition. When you were a child and saw your older siblings or friends riding a bike (without training wheels), you didn’t look at their scraped knees and elbows and say, “Whoa, I could get hurt doing that.” Instead, you begged to try it for yourself. With a great deal of practice and often pain, you gradually learned how to maintain your balance. Before long you were trying to “out do” your friends with your speed or fancy tricks. When you fell, you would get back on and try again with even greater determination. From your very first effort, you believed in your mind that if you got back on, you would eventually learn to ride. I bet you even knew in your mind you would be the best in the neighborhood, in your school, in the state, in the world!

• Be positive. If you see obstacles before you, then you will also only see problems. If you have hesitations that you plan will not work, then it will not work. If you are influenced by the power of negative people, then you will never be any better than they are. Believe in yourself and what you are capable of achieving.

When your desire to succeed is stronger than the pain, fear or frustration of failing, there is no turning back. I challenge you to view your goals just like you did when you were a child before you learned about self doubt and negative criticism. Remember, anything is possible as long as you believe. Make a commitment that you will not let anything or anyone, including yourself stand in your way of reaching your goals.

Be Happy! Happiness is just a Matter of Mind

Though one could be infinitely happy by just enjoying the nature and family and all the human-made things, there are still millions of people who are unhappy. In the developed countries there is very fortunate circumstance of having both God-given and man-made things. Still majority of people there are unhappy. In the developing countries, where for millions there is a real scarcity of even basic needs, people seem to be happy. There are some people who are engaged in difficult tasks and in warfare, and even incarcerated in prisons, and are still happy! We have just discussed the factors of happiness. Millions of people have them, still they are unhappy. There are millions of others who don’t have them, yet they are happy!

You would realize that the mere availability and abundance of God given and human-made things is not enough. There is something else which should be right to be happy. Of course, it is our mind that must have right attitude towards and capacity to be happy.

Milton in Paradise Lost says,

'The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.'

One can give various examples of how mind can influence our body::

• Pavlov’s dog starts salivating at the sound of the bell without any food in sight.
• If we are tense we often get headache, backache, and spondylitis, etc.
• Heart attacks are directly linked to worry and tension.
• Right mental attitude helps in curing many bodily maladies.
• By self-talk, motivation, and positive attitude we can become happy and successful.
• Through hypnosis one can have command over another person’s mind and body.
• Through meditation one can have a healthy body and extra sensory abilities.

Mind has extra-ordinary powers and as far as happiness is concerned it has the ultimate power. We should, therefore, have a positive attitude towards life. Instead of concentrating on bad things in life and people, we should concentrate on redeeming features in them. We should not keep on thinking about past failures and bad experiences but be encouraged by our past success and good experiences. Similarly, we should not be unduly anxious about future as our anxiety is not going to have a positive effect, but we should plan and work hard for the future.

In whatever circumstances you are, you can never have total lack of God-given and man-made happiness. You cannot completely take away nature from somebody; you cannot take away all man-made things from somebody. Even if everything is taken, one’s family and friends are there. One’s precious body is there. And, even if you chain somebody securely in a dungeon, one’s mind is free. One is free to be happy in one’s mind! Mind is difficult to be mastered by oneself, but it is impossible to be vanquished by anybody, any authority, or whatever conditions or situations.

Abraham Lincoln has beautifully expressed it: “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

BE HAPPY!

3 Positive Steps to discover the purpose of life.

In this article we will discuss the concept of life and its underlying principle. We will be going through a step by step procedure, exploring your feelings and options, and by the end of this article, you should have a fairly solid tool you could immediately employ in your life, to give it a meaningful direction.

There are three steps to the process of discovering the purpose of your life:

Understanding the principle of choice
Creating your underlying principle
Aligning your life with the underlying principle

Understanding the principle of choice

Norman Vincent Peale has this to say about the power of choice. “The greatest power we have is the power of choice. It is an actual fact, that if you have been groping under unhappiness, you can choose to be joyous, instead. And, by effort, lift yourself into joy. If you tend to be fearful, you can overcome that misery by choosing to have courage. The whole trend and the quality of anyone’s life is determined by the choice that are made”.

Choosing is the most important activity of your mind, because by making a choice, you are proclaiming your desires to your subconscious mind. Once the subconscious mind get to know your desires, it is going to do anything to manifest them in your life. The choices you make in your life become your goal. And, if you are sincere in pursuing them, there is no reason why you should not accomplish them.

Indecision, on the other hand, not only creates frustration and anxiety, but can also confuse the subconscious mind about what you want. But it is important that the choices you make are made by you, in accordance with your true desires, purposes and aptitude. A lot us of let others make choices for us, or make our choices according to what we think is ‘correct’, even if that means that we go against our wishes. What is right for someone is may not be right for you, and the way to know this is listening to what your heart says.
So, begin with, make a list of things which interests you; things which you have always enjoyed, which makes you feel better, which inspires you to surge ahead, no matter what obstacles you face. Do you like doing something creative, or something artistic? Do you enjoy nature, do you like the sea? Do you enjoy helping others? Do you get pleasure out of making a difference in other people’s life?

What ever it is that interests you, go ahead and make a list under the following headlines:

Things you love to do:

______________________________________

What is it that you love in this thing and why? How you could do this for money, and make a living out of it?

__________________

__________________


Creating Your Underlying Principle:

The next step is to examine the list you just made and find out if there is any recurring them. Maybe, it is the contribution that keeps coming up, or an effect to seek or give love, or helping your parents cope with old age. Whatever it is try to identify the central them of the things you love to do, and try to put it in a short and precise statement. This will be your ‘Mission Statement’. It may even be a quote by a famous person, or a philosophy that has influenced you. Of course, as you grow up, this statement could evolve, but its soul will remain the same. Now, write down your Mission Statement.

Aligning your LIFE with the Underlying Principle:

The final step in this journey is to map your path to your ultimate purpose. Make the little changes in your lifestyle that would accommodate this principle in your life. LIVE this principle each and every day. It might take a few days, but you will certainly feel the difference in your enthusiasm for life. If you realize that you love being amidst nature, plan out your holiday. Maybe an outing with your children could be enough to recoup with your energy. On the other hand, you might even want to change your job, or start a new business, that is more in line with your mission.

Remember – “Do what you love, and money will follow”.

Are You Trapped By Old Beliefs?

If you have ever wondered what kinds of beliefs you have stored away in your unconscious that silently influence your choices, take a good look at your life, including your friends, your loved ones, your job, and even your health.

The life you currently live is a reflection of your beliefs about what you are willing to accept and tolerate. This is the vital difference that separates people who live abundant happy lives from those who don’t.

For instance, people who continue to stay in abusive relationships, work at jobs they don’t enjoy, or struggle financially, do so as a result of the beliefs they hold.

Yet there are individuals in society who will never ever accept being unjustly treated, living just above the poverty line, or working in professions that do not make full use of their gifts.

These individuals are those who stand out in the crowd: the entrepreneurs, pioneers, and leaders who refuse to allow the opinions of others to dictate how they live their lives.

They do this not because they are better or more gifted than everyone else, but simply because their beliefs do not allow them to do otherwise.

It is important to remember that we all play an active role in the creation of our belief systems, even if this occurs when we are vulnerable to the influence of others.

Once these beliefs are impressed on our unconscious mind, they become the rulebook that controls the direction of our lives.

All your successes and failures, then, are in some way influenced by this unconscious set of rules you have written. Whatever it is you wish to achieve, whether it be a skill you’re attempting to master, a subject you wish to learn or an illness you are struggling to overcome, your success will be determined by a single factor: the unconscious beliefs that make up your book of rules.

Much of the struggle you experience in life relates to the inner turmoil you feel when you make a new choice that conflicts with the set of rules you have created about life and simply forgotten.

To end this struggle and become the master of your own destiny, you must therefore master the unconscious beliefs that control you.

Are you ready for LOVE?

Are you at a place in your life where you aren’t attracting the love you want?Has your current relationship lost its sizzle? What prevents you from being ‘in love’? How much energy do you exert NOT to love yourself or others? It takes more effort NOT to love, than to love.

Want More Love and Joy?

In order to make room for what you do want, you have to release and let go of the things you don’t want. To attract what you want, you will want to let go of everything that keeps you away from Love. Like attracts like.

Unless you want to continue on your current path, you are probably overdue of letting go of emotional pain of a break-up, past failures or the need for approval. Maybe you continuously seek recognition at work or have unrealistic expectations for yourself. Thoughts like, “I’m not attractive” or “I will never have a loving relationship” need to be purged.

What You Resist – Persists

As long as you continue to resist painful memories and limiting thoughts and beliefs you create separation. You create separation from your true self. You separate yourself from what you are ‘love’! And, love remains illusive.

Are you resisting painful experiences from your past? Are you doing everything you can to forget the past? Maybe you think that the more you put your past behind you, the less effect it will have on you.

Do you spend hours contemplating problems? When you focus on your problems, they persist. Your contempt for your problems fuels and strengthens them. The more energy you direct to your problems and pain, you create ‘stress’ and ‘dis-ease’.

Are You Holding on to Pain?

Do you find yourself watching endless hours of TV? Are you trying to escape emotional and spiritual pain by taking drugs or alcohol? Do you overeat to escape the pain? Do you use your computer for hours on end to escape? What distractions take you out of being present with what you are feeling? Stored up pain such as hatred, anger, fear, frustration, apathy, depression etc. become scattered in your body and energetic space.

Releasing Stuck Pain or Resistance

If you have ever been light-headed from hunger and then felt a sigh of contentment as you fed your body the perfect meal, you’ve experienced grounding. If you’ve ever melted into the back rub you got from a trusted person at the end of a stressful day, you’ve experienced being grounded.

Grounding is a simple process of connecting to the Earth that many people do naturally throughout the course of a day. Anything that brings you to the sense of pleasure and release is grounding. When you are grounded, you feel centered focused, and present.

People connect with their bodies and the Earth in many ways: through touch and body work, through eating, through being out in nature or in water, through contact with animals and through healthy sex. Visualizing, an imaginary grounding cord, is a way to release foreign energy from your body so that it can experience love and joy.

Create a Path for Releasing to Feel Safe and Happy

A grounding cord provides a way to flush out pent up energy and emotion so you can feel good about yourself. It is a way to move energy as it comes towards you, rather than letting it get stuck in the body. When foreign energy gets stuck in the body, it stops the natural flow of energy and might manifest as depression, a migraine headache, aches, pain, or eventually illness.

Effortless Release Every Day for More Love

Grounding works much like a drain or waterfall. When you pour water down the drain you probably never wonder ….:”where did it go?” Be patient with yourself and have fun with your new toy. Grounding becomes as natural like breathing or smiling with practice.

Consider releasing other people’s problems, your worries and anxiety that are weighing you down... Keep it simple and stay amused with yourself. Tune into being in harmony with this process of grounding and letting everything go effortlessly.

Grounding is such an invaluable tool in healing yourself that it’s worth taking the time to be sure you can do it easily and comfortably. With practice, you can train yourself to be connected with the earth all of the time. Don’t create any limits for yourself on how much you can release without effort.

Grounding Cord Visualization

To revitalize and refresh your body, mind and spirit take the first step by letting go with grounding. It is always the first step to all the subsequent steps in this book. From the base of your spine, make a connection to the healing planet energy to release excess energy and stabilize your body.
1. Close eyes but stay focused.
• Be aware of own body with your feet flat on the floor.
Create a mental image of line of energy between base of spine and the center of the planet.
• Connect a grounding cord into the center of earth.
• Secure the grounding cord snuggly at the base of your spine.
• Notice your breathing.
• Using the gravitational pull of the planet start to release foreign or stuck energy from your body and aura.
• Notice how your body feels while grounding. Imagine seeing stuck energy draining out of you.

Remember to:
1. Start your day with by grounding yourself.
2. Check in with yourself during the day to see if you have a grounding cord.
3. Notice what happens in your body as you release using your grounding cord.

Grounding is one way to bring your self back into alignment with your essence– love. Practice the following grounding meditation 10-15 minutes each day. The more you practice to better your results.

Amirah © 2006 All Rights Reserved.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

A Better You: Your 7 days program to self-improvement

I seem to lost count on how many times I've read and heard of celebrity marriages failing almost left and right. Not that I care (and personally I don't), it seems strange that we often see movie and TV stars as flawless people, living the fairytale life of riches and glamor. I suppose we all have to stop sticking our heads in the clouds and face reality.

There are many ways to lose your sense of self-esteem despite of how trivial it could get. But whatever happens, we should all try not to lose our own sense of self.

So what does it take to be a cut above the rest? Here are some of the things you can think and improve on that should be enough for a week.

1. Know your purpose
Are you wandering through life with little direction - hoping that you'll find happiness, health and prosperity? Identify your life purpose or mission statement and you will have your own unique compass that will lead you to your truth north every time.

This may seem tricky at first when you see yourself to be in a tight or even dead end. But there's always that little loophole to turn things around and you can make a big difference to yourself.

2. Know your values
What do you value most? Make a list of your top 5 values. Some examples are security, freedom, family, spiritual development, learning. As you set your goals for 2005 - check your goals against your values. If the goal doesn't align with any of your top five values - you may want to reconsider it or revise it.

The number shouldn't discourage you, instead it should motivate you to do more than you can ever dreamed of.

3. Know your needs
Unmet needs can keep you from living authentically. Take care of yourself. Do you have a need to be acknowledged, to be right, to be in control, to be loved? There are so many people who lived their lives without realizing their dreams and most of them end up being stressed or even depressed for that matter. List your top four needs and get them met before it's too late!

4. Know your passions
You know who you are and what you truly enjoy in life. Obstacles like doubt and lack of enthusiasm will only hinder you, but will not derail your chance to become the person you ought to be. Express yourself and honor the people who has inspired you to become the very person you wanted to be.

5. Live from the inside out
Increase your awareness of your inner wisdom by regularly reflecting in silence. Commune with nature. Breathe deeply to quiet your distracted mind. For most of us city slickers it's hard to even find the peace and quiet we want even in our own home. In my case I often just sit in a dimly lit room and play some classical music. There's sound, yes, but music does soothe the savage beast.

6. Honor your strengths
What are your positive traits? What special talents do you have? List three - if you get stuck, ask those closest to you to help identify these. Are you imaginative, witty, good with your hands? Find ways to express your authentic self through your strengths. You can increase your self-confidence when you can share what you know to others.

7. Serve others
When you live authentically, you may find that you develop an interconnected sense of being. When you are true to who you are, living your purpose and giving of your talents to the world around you, you give back in service what you came to share with others -your spirit - your essence. The rewards for sharing your gift with those close to you is indeed rewarding, much more if it were to be the eyes of a stranger who can appreciate what you have done to them.

Self-improvement is indeed one type of work that is worth it. It shouldn't always be within the confines of an office building, or maybe in the four corners of your own room. The difference lies within ourselves and how much we want to change for the better.

Multiple Steps To Success

Having an interest in online business, I often frequent forums that are for people who have or want a successful online business. There is one theme that recurs time and time again, and one that touches me with sadness. That is, the number of people who sound despondent and want to give up. You may think that such an attitude would be confined to those who had at been trying to get their online business going for a year or more. Often, though, it might just be a month, or like an example today, three weeks.

Such a short term view is totally unrealistic. In that particular case, the person concerned was being given a kick start by a highly experienced and well known internet marketer, for free. He was complaining already, despite not having done anything himself, that he had so far received no benefit, and that the whole idea needed to be rethought, presumably so that he could be raking in a fortune inside another month without doing any work.

That sort of attitude is likely to lead to failure for a tough ambition such as making a decent income online. Success at anything normally involves taking one step at a time, sometimes along several parallel routes that, eventually, run into one and bring you success. With working online, for example, there are a wide variety of skills, methodologies and pitfalls, all to be dealt with methodically en route to success. Success does not come quickly unless you are very lucky; but those who are patient, have a vision, and are prepared to work hard, taking a step at a time, have a very good chance of succeeding....eventually.

I was not sure whether to feel sorry for that particular poster, or annoyed with him for complaining about what was some valuable free assistance from a genuine expert. In the end, I felt neither, and left him to find out the realities of life.

Most visions of success do really need a number of steps to be taken, and success cannot be achieved in one giant leap. A good example is with a professional qualification, such as the management accounting qualification for which I studied when I was younger. The end result, the "success", was a certificate, but you could not just order that certificate. There were several series of steps:

1. 5 stages of either 3 or 4 examinations had to be passed to qualify; a total of 18 examinations in all.

2. To pass a stage, you had to pass each exam individually, which meant being well inside the top 40% of students for each one. Fail in one, and you fail the stage. That meant starting again.

3. Each examination required different skills, knowledge and practical application to succeed. Subjects were varied, such as computing, marketing, financial accounting, organization and management, contract law, business law, and corporate planning. Each was a separate step, requiring a separate approach, with no scope to put a foot wrong. Each a big step in itself, with many little steps along their own route.

Once a stage was passed successfully, it was like starting all over again with another series of steps, each getting progressively more difficult. Many students fell by the way side or had to resit. There was no avoiding the necessary steps.

That is true of most ambitions in which you seek success. If success is really worthwhile in something, it is unlikely to be easy and simple. So it is best to bear that in mind when focusing on your goal.

Once you have a vision of your goal, you need to recognize all the essential steps to the goal's realization. There is no harm in imagining the final success; visualization of fulfillment will help. However, you do need to give appropriate attention to each of the essential steps. In the professional qualification example, I hated business law, but had to give it special attention to pass, otherwise all my work on the other subjects in that stage would have been worthless. Having got through that stage, the next included company law, which was nothing more than a memory test. I hated that even more; but still had to pass it.

Most worthwhile goals have similar essential steps, which you need to recognize, and then devise a plan to address each step with whatever effort, knowledge, skills and practice you may need. Having formed your plan for each step, you can then set about them methodically, carving your way to success, one step at a time.

If you write down your goal, and then the individual, essential steps, you will have the great satisfaction of ticking off each step, and then stand back and see you have reached your vision. Your goal will be achieved.