New Years thinking

I still don't get why people are so surprised that the turtle beat the rabbit over the long run.
Consistent effort,  no matter how small, sparks magic, fills sails, butters bread, turns tides, instills faith, summons friends, improves health, burns calories, creates abundance, yields clarity, builds courage, spins planets, and rewrites destinies. No matter how small, so as you look ahead to this wonderful year, remember the idea of consistent effort and keep trying and if you do you will succeed.

Tonight we celebrate the arrival of another year, 2012 and my hope is that the year is all you want it to be. I hope the resolutions, the dreams, the opportunities you seek come your way and that you have a wonderful year with friends, and loved ones

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

More stress relief ideas

Get a Hobby 

Another method of stress relief is through a hobby. This can be model ship building,
stamp collecting, or any number of other means to help you keep your mind off of things.

Likewise, woodworking or even fishing can help you get some stress relief and clear

away the fog of anxiety that can arise from the stresses of everyday life. By focusing on
something other than what is pressing you, you can get rid of those piling stresses that
threaten to take you over. Hobbies give your mind something to concentrate on. And by
concentrating on something completely meaningless, your mind can finally relax and let go of the pressures that build up with every little concern.

Take up a Sport

For those who like to be a little more active, playing a sport is a great way to relieve
stress. Just going outside, kicking a ball around, shooting some hoops or joining a league can give you stress relief through simple physical exertion. These activities will keep your body active and provide some necessary relaxation to your mind.

You’ll also meet up with like minded people and probably widen your social circle in the process. Which means you’ll have more friends on hand to help you out when you feel stress coming along to put pressure on you.

Write a Diary or Journal

You can also get stress relief through writing. By concentrating on what is on your mind and putting it down on paper, it allows the stress to have an outlet. It puts your concerns into words and those words can be either kept or discarded. This is particularly effective for people who don’t have anyone to talk to and need to tell someone about what is going on or even what is going wrong. So keep a diary or a journal and let yourself get rid of your stress by putting ink onto a page.

Find Out What Works Best For You

The single most important method of stress relief is finding the method that works for

you. Many people like to take a nice hot bath to get rid of stress. Some enjoy playing
with a pet. Others find excellent stress relief through meditation. It doesn't matter what
you do, just make sure it works and then make sure that you do it.

Stress relief is hard to find, but it is necessary in the hectic lives that we lead. But many

other people have managed to rid themselves of their concerns for a little while and get
on with their lives. Stress does not need to overcome you and, though it may seem like a monumental task, it can be removed. So find a way to relax and make sure that you do it.

Once you learn how to remove your stress, you will find that you are much happier and

much more productive and much more able to deal with the issues that can cause stress
every single day.

Stressed--try these ideas

Count to 10

It is what your mother always told you to do when you got angry!

 

And it’s surprisingly effective.

The next time you get angry and feel your stress levels start to rise, slowly count to 10.

Out loud or under your breath – it doesn’t matter.

For some simple forms of stress, or when you catch yourself early enough, you may find this is all you need to.

Take some deep breaths

Take a nice, long, slow deep breath in.

Breathe in through your nose until your lungs are completely full.

Then hold your breath for a second or two, before slowly exhaling through your mouth

until your lungs are totally empty.

Repeat this sequence a few times.

As your breathing becomes slower, you’ll find yourself becoming more relaxed.

Like counting to ten, you’re likely to find that this simple exercise is often enough to get rid of your stress in just a few short minutes.

Get Up and Walk About

One of the best ways to help give yourself stress relief is with your feet. That is, if

something is causing you all sorts of stress, you need to simply stand up and walk away
from it. This will give your mind the break it needs to calm down and come to grips with the situation. Simply allowing it to stress you out more and more is just not a productive plan. So get up, walk away, and give yourself a break.

Once you have walked away, there are several things you can do for stress relief. One of the easiest things is simply cleaning the house. That's right, vacuuming, dusting, ironing, scrubbing the floors and cleaning the countertops will actually help you relieve stress.

Simply organizing messes and cleaning away dirt will help you immeasurably. This is

because you will be taking care of messes, much in the manner you want to clean up the

messes in your life. By sweeping away the dust and grime, you will be taking charge of

your own home and, in a way, removing the clutter from your life by removing the clutter from your home.

Or you could go for a walk. Ideally a walk in a park or somewhere else that you find

peaceful and tranquil. But even a walk around the local streets will work. As much as

anything, you’re giving your mind something else to think about. And chances are, it will leap at the chance to allow itself to be distracted and calm down.

Stressed out?

Stress can be a scary thing, especially at this time of year,  but it is also a self-creating thing. The more stress you feel, the less able you are to deal with the things that are stressing you, causing the stress to increase. This is a vicious cycle and the key to stress management is to not get into it in the first place. How do you do that?

Stress comes in many shapes and forms. You can get stressed while driving if – for
instance – someone cuts you up on the road.

You can become stressed for unhappy reasons – for instance if someone close to you falls ill or has a serious accident.

You can also become stressed for happy reasons – for instance, if you’ve just won the

lottery.

Work conditions can introduce stress into your life. Some people thrive on being always busy, whilst others can become stressed just by watching those people.

There are probably as many ways to become stressed as there are people on this planet.

So, once you recognize that you are stressed, what can you do about it? Fortunately, there are lots of different ways to counteract the everyday stress that crops up in life. Most of these techniques are simple, cheap and – best of all – they don’t involve potentially addictive drugs.

Vacation planning--Flexibility is the key

The first thing I suggest is that you start to plan early. Spontaneity works well for day trips, but is not as effective for longer jaunts. By planning early, you will find cheaper fares and accommodations that are more available. 

You can also have the opportunity to save any additional funds you might need, perhaps include extended invitations to other family members, and get together all the paperwork you might need if traveling abroad. 

While planning, it’s a good idea to stay flexible in your desires.  Flexibility equals maximum pleasure for everyone.  This is especially true if you have special needs due to a disability or are taking along teens and children who will want to do different things.

Get your children involved too.  This will not only make them much more enthusiastic about the trip, but they can provide their input into what types of activities they want to do and what types of activities they’d like to do as a family.  They’ll be much more excited when they are fully involved in deciding where the family will be vacationing, so be sure to get their opinions too.

You probably already have some kind of idea as to what you’ll be able to afford when taking a vacation.  If you do have a specific number in mind, this makes it much easier to pick out a destination.  You can research what’s available in your price range and choose the trip that will best fit your family.

If you don’t have a specific number in mind, make a list of your dream vacations.  Include those places you’ve always wanted to go as well as places you think would fit the personalities of your family.  See what these types of vacations will cost, and then pick the one you think you can save for or afford to take right away.

The Internet is an indispensable tool to do this.  There are many travel websites that offer vacation packages for specific destinations.  Here are some highly suggested by the experts:

www.expedia.com

www.orbitz.com

www.cheaptickets.com

www.travelocity.com

When you use these sites, they can give you best prices for various destinations, but they can also provide valuable suggestions for where you can go as well as activities that are available and ratings from other travelers who have taken the same vacations.

You can also use:

www.priceline.com
Price line often allows you to name a price you’re willing to pay for flights, hotels, etc., but you have to take what they offer you if they accept your price.  For example, you may be willing to pay $100 for a $200 airline flight, but they may accept your price only if you’re willing to take the redeye in the middle of the night.  If this is something you can live with, by all means, book it!  Just be flexible. 

Do you detect a theme here in the planning phase?  Flexibility is the key!

You’ll need to decide if you will be flying to your destination or driving.  There are many airlines that have cut-rate prices when you fly during certain times.  Again, you’ll need to be flexible on departure dates and times.

You’ll also need to decide on a time frame for your vacation.  Again, if you are flexible on departure dates, you’re more likely to get a better deal.  We realize, however, that work constraints might not allow you to change your vacation dates, but if possible, it’s best to just have a general idea instead of a rock solid date. 

Try to travel on days other than Friday, Saturday or Sunday which are the busiest travel days of the week.  You can firm up plans later if needed.

Once you’ve got your destination in mind, you’ll need to consider a couple of other things before booking your trip.

Vacation saving

SAVING FOR YOUR VACATION

Maybe it is too early to start thinking about saving for your vacation, but as we leave Xmas behind, many of us start to think about New Years Resolutions, and going on a vacation may be on that list. I know this is on our list, as we are planning to go down to Australia for my grandsons second birthday in Sept, so I am starting to consider how we can save up for the trip.

There are many effective ways to save for your family vacation. When you spend 40 hours a week slaving at your job, you deserve to have some time to get away from the rat race, relax, and enjoy your family.

Unless you’re independently wealthy, you’ll need a plan for saving up the money you need. While this may seem like a simple proposition, some people find it difficult to lay aside some money each pay period. The key here is discipline.

Open up a separate savings account specifically meant for your vacation money. If your employer offers direct deposit, you can usually specify a certain amount of money be put into this account. Some banks will schedule an automatic direct transfer to your savings account if you don’t have direct deposit or if you are not able to deposit money into two separate accounts.

Examine the amount of money your family spends weekly or monthly on family entertainment and fast food restaurants. Then reduce that amount, storing the remainder away for your trip. So that a pending vacation doesn't become a joy-buster, shop around for freebie and reduced-cost entertainment options to enjoy during the months before you depart.

Another good way to save up money is to save your change. When you use cash, resolve to use only paper money. Then take the change you receive and put it aside at the end of every day. You’ll be surprised at how quickly it can build up.

One family reported that they kept a “vacation jar” in a convenient place and each family member would deposit change and the occasional dollar bill into it. When they emptied the jar and had it counted, they had managed to save $5,000 – enough for them to enjoy a tropical getaway to Grand Cayman Island!

While you may not have that much in your change jar, emptying it at vacation time can mean extra spending money or that little boost you need to go on your dream vacation.

Be sure and involve your kids in the saving venture. This is a great time to teach the valuable lessons of saving and budgeting money.

Look for other ways to add extra cash to the vacation coffer. One family we know would save aluminum cans and take them into the recycling plant periodically for cash. Throughout the course of a year, they managed to accumulate an extra $1,000 for their vacation.

You could have a rummage sale to earn extra vacation cash as well. There are plenty of opportunities out there to add to your vacation savings. You just need to think outside of the box and resolve that any extra cash you get will go toward your family vacation.

You need to budget realistically. Vacations need not be expensive. Budget an amount and stick to it. If you're driving, set a fixed spending amount ($150 per day, for example). Include all of your expenses, gas, meals, admissions, special activities, etc.

Involve your children in the process. Share with them that conserving money on one day allows them to go to a water park on another day. Be creative.

To save money, you can eat only one meal in a restaurant per day. For the other two, prepare your own food and eat in the hotel room or have a picnic. Take turns letting the kids choose the type of food—and, if you are adventurous, the restaurant—each day. This way, the children feel important and it minimizes arguments.

A good point to keep in mind when determining how much you can afford to spend on a vacation is to be sure that you consider other periodic expenses that may be waiting for you when you return, such as back-to-school costs, holiday expenses, and next year’s taxes.

Have a wonderful Xmas day

For many of us this is a day of family, celebration and joy, I hope your day is joyful and full of wonder and delight. My grandson are spending this day with us along with his parents. While we are joyful to have them with us, I am most thankful for the opportunity to again see the world through a childs eyes.
For those of you far from family, may the day be filled with joy and friendship and may you capture, the feeling and spirit of the day and continue to hold that feeling for the full year

For those of you who are missing a loved one because of illness or a recent death, may you focus on the good that person has brought you and remember their spirit and may you have friends and family with you to help the day go better.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY

NEW YEAR FROM MY FAMILY TO

YOU AND YOURS

Visualization And Weight Loss - See The Pounds Drop Away!

As we approach Xmas day and the celebrations and food that the holiday bring, it is important to stay in touch with the idea of keeping weight down over the holiday.  Visualization helps.

The surprising fact is that many conditions can be improved by visualization and weight loss is one of them. It works like this: you keep a vision in your mind of how you want your body to look, and subconsciously you will begin acting in a way that will go in that direction. You become much more positive about your body, more accepting of your diet or fitness regime, and you will reach your weight goals more quickly and easily.

Effecting change through visualizing desired outcomes has become more and more acceptable in recent years. Psychologists do not understand exactly how it works but clearly the mind and body are not as separate as we often believe. It seems that if you truly want something it is more likely to happen - provided of course that it is something that is possible, and within your control. Visualization helps us to truly want to lose weight by creating a clear and happy picture of our fitter bodies. Without this we can often put psychological traps in our own path.

Many people who are overweight believe they cannot lose weight. Sometimes you may say it out loud, or hear friends say it about themselves. For other people this belief stays in the subconscious. But it is sure that it influences our behavior. Someone who believes it is impossible for her to lose weight will be constantly battling her own negativity when she is trying to diet. Her mind will be constantly telling her there is no point dieting, she cannot lose weight so she should just go ahead and eat everything she wants. Visualization is the strongest technique that we can use to overcome these negative thoughts and impulses.

If you are plagued by negativity either from your own mind or from the reactions of friends and family to your diet, go ahead and visualize yourself at your desired weight as often as you can. It works on the same level as all those negative voices and can annihilate their influence like nothing else can

It is important to practice every day - morning and evening if you can. You just need to take a few minutes in a quiet place and keep an image in your mind of your body at its ideal weight. Some people can do this easily, others need some help. If you have a photograph of yourself at your ideal weight in the past, you may find it easier to look at that. Or use a photo from a magazine but cut off the person's face. You need to visualize your own body, but thinner.

You can also visualize from the inside. Close your eyes and let your awareness focus on a part of your body - for example, your right thigh. Imagine it slowly becoming thinner in your mind's eye. Then move to the other thigh, and on through the body. It may help to start at the feet and move up towards the head, or vice versa.

As you go about your work or daily chores, during the holidays, think of yourself as already at your ideal weight. Create your own affirmations and repeat them often, always in the present tense ("I am glad to be flexible, fit and slim", not "I will ..."). Enjoy the feeling of having a positive self-image. Over time, this will help you to keep to your weight loss plan. You will find that fatty foods are less attractive and exercise is more enjoyable.

While your weight loss will of course be gradual, the wonderful thing about visualization is that it gives you a new body image right away. Use visualization and weight loss to make you happier right now, today!

ZEN AND GARDENING

Many of us find ourselves caught up in the stress of modern life as we struggle to achieve our goals in business, social and emotional lives.  I found this post by  by  Surabhi Johri posted at Friday  On October 7, 2011 and thought as we move closer to Xmas I would share it.

We all crave for time and space where we can shed our guard and just relax in a sanctuary that heals and soothes our senses. Our gardens play a vital supporting role, helping us get some respite from the pressures and chaos of the outside world and bring a sense of personal fulfillment.

Whether they are Zen gardens or Monastic Cloister gardens, throughout history gardens have played important role in healing.
The idea behind healing gardens is to create a therapeutic environment that provides a gentle stimulation of senses and act as a sanctuary. The considerations made while designing a healing garden are the same as any other garden; however these considerations take on a special meaning in healing environments.
Working with nature is central to a healing garden. It is important to keep the design
simple without much going on so that it is easy to understand and maintain. At the same time the garden should be full of sensory experiences. Lot of variety in terms of form, texture, colour, seasonal interest and scent will wake up the senses and create a new appreciation for the garden as well as nature.
Texture and foliage
Plant trees with interesting bark textures, either smooth or self patterned. Choose plants for their interesting foliage, delicate feathery ones like fennel or smooth and bold like magnolia. Ornamental grasses are full of drama specially when light falls on them and their leaves and flowers dance in breeze.
Plant the daintiest of flowers that invoke a feeling to protect or as bold and open as sunflowers. You can’t resist touching the petals of poppy or play with the snapdragons. Let the seasonal changes in the garden bring awareness to the transience in all life forms and awaken the spirit.
Get into the garden at every opportunity, day or night, and look for changes. Notice the effect of light, change in colours, sprouting of seeds, blooming of buds and fading of flowers, unfurling of new leaves and drop of old ones. This dimension of time is unique to the art of garden design and separates it from any other art form.
Sound adds a wonderful aspect. Try to keep intrusive noises to minimal. Use water features or wind chimes for calming effect or to mask the undesirable sounds. Choice of hardscaping should be subtle and not conflict with the needs of the user. Keep a balance so that the space feels stable as a whole. Make the transitions between spaces smooth. Lay out paths clearly. Do not forget to create focal points.
Create various spaces for different activities. Provide areas for varying degree of sun and shade. Make comfortable and suitable seating available.
You may choose to go with the theme of wildlife garden. Plant to attract butterflies or birds - nectar producing flowering plants for butterflies and berry producing fruit trees for birds. Keep birdbaths and bird feeders to encourage winged visitors.
Keep low maintenance fish in a pond. Watching them swim can be very relaxing. Going with edible garden theme can be benefiting in more than one way.
Not only cultivating edibles for the family will bring you satisfaction but also consuming fresh and organically grown produce will taste better. Design plant beds to grow personal favourite varieties surrounded by herb borders, interspersed with splashes of flowering plants.
Colours play a key role
Use colours for healing since they have strong associations with our feelings and memories. Choose red for vitality, orange to bring joy and optimism, yellow for the feelings of self worth and lifting depression, green for harmony, restfulness and relaxation, blue to encourage tranquility and contemplation, and violet to learn to love yourself. Do not neglect the role of aromatic plants in healing gardens. Aromas from carnation, citrus, eucalyptus, jasmine can be stimulating while rose, basil, lavender can be balancing. Cedarwood, juniper, mimosa are relaxing whereas chamomile, jasmine, rose, citrus work as anti-depressants too. Plant combinations can also be made for varying degree of fragrance desired in the garden.
Healing gardens have found special place in hospitals across the developed world. For the old age people, patients of psychiatry, cancer and alzheimer’s, and patients in rehabilitation centers the healing garden also provides horticultural therapy. This therapy may help them regain confidence. It works as a place where they can feel less pain, safe and to some level be healed by nature’s healing process. For old people, patients, physically challenged or people with limited mobility garden made in raised beds at wheelchair height become most functional. Plan to make their participation in garden easier. When living with limitations growing and harvesting bring a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Certain plants may have special meanings to them – use those. Design to engage senses beyond sight. Choose insect and disease resistant varieties to minimize pesticide use and discourage undesirable insects

A Message from the CEO of SHARE FAMILY SERVICES 

As you read  the message from Martin, consider your own community and those who need your help and if you can support the food bank in your town or city.

Every year, we count on our fundraising and foodraising in December to help us get through until the spring. While we will not have final numbers for the amount of food and funds that we have raised until January, we know that our efforts have simply not been able to keep up with the demand that we have been seeing. Even though we reduced the size of our Christmas hampers this year, we are still far short of the food and funds we need to put food on the shelves of the Food Bank in January. As most of you know, our Food Banks do not receive government funding…we are able to deliver these services only through the generous donations we receive from the Tri-cities community and the thousands of hours of volunteer time we receive from hundreds of caring people.

We need to generate significantly more donations in the next few days. At this point, donations of funds are preferred to donations of food, as funds allow us to act quickly to make appropriate food purchases. I would appreciate it if you would consider a donation and forward this message to others who might also be willing to help the children and families we serve with our food bank. If you are able to make a donation, you can easily do so by connecting to the following link:

 https://give.sharesociety.ca/donatenow

For those of you who have already made a donation, please forgive this appeal and accept our sincere thanks. If you could forward this message to others who might be able to help, we would sincerely appreciate it.

SHARE has a long history of finding a way to help when and where help is needed the most and this is certainly one of those times.

Thank you, everyone, for your consideration. I wish each of you the best in the year ahead. And, for those of you who are interested in discussing new approaches to tackle child poverty, please drop me a line so that we can include you on our mailing list.

Sincerely,

Martin Wyant

Chief Executive Officer

Self-improvement is indeed one type of work that is worth it

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.

I’d like to share with you some 10 of my favorite quotes on improving yourself. Hope you find them useful!

 10 Inspirational Self-Improvement Quotes

1. "Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." It sounds good to me, I mean the practicality of all things does involve money but it doesn't have to take an arm and a leg to get it.
2. "I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government." 'Enough said.
3. "There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?" This happens to be one of the classic ones. I mean the issue about life's little problems isn't all that bad, until 'he' shows up. Sure, relationships can get complicated, or does have its complications that probably any author about relationships is bound to discover it soon. We follow what our heart desires, unless you're talking about the heart as in the heart that pump blood throughout your body.
4. "Love is the answer, but while you're waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty interesting questions." And if you want more, just keep on asking!
5. "A fast word about oral contraception. I asked a girl to go to bed with me, she said 'no'." It sounds, 'practical', I think. And when it comes to everyday life, he really knows how to make the best out of every possible scenario, and it doesn't involve a lawsuit if he strikes a nerve.

Honour your strengths

Day 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!

Day 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.

Day 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.

Day 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.

Day 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.

Crash Course 7-Day 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 glamour. 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.

Day 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.

Day 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.

Happy people don’t just accept change, they embrace it

The only time most of us ever learn about unlocking our self-improvement power is when the whole world is crashing and falling apart. We think and feel this way because it is not easy to change. But change becomes more painful when we ignore it.

Change will happen, like it or hate it. At one point or another, we are all going to experience different turning points in our life – and we are all going to eventually unlock our self-improvement power not because the world says so, not because our friends are nagging us, but because we realized its for our own good.

Happy people don’t just accept change, they embrace it. Now, you don’t have to feel a tremendous heat before realizing the need for self-improvement. Unlocking your self-improvement power means unlocking yourself up in the cage of thought that “its just the way I am”. It is such a poor excuse for people who fear and resist change. Most of us program our minds like computers.

Jerry repeatedly tells everyone that he doesn’t have the guts to be around groups of people. He heard his mom, his dad, his sister, his teacher tell the same things about him to other people. Over the years, that is what Jerry believes. He believes its his story. And what happens? Every time a great crowd would troop over their house, in school, and in the community – he tends to step back, shy away and lock herself up in a room. Jerry didn’t only believed in his story, he lived it.

Jerry has to realize that he is not what he is in his story. Instead of having his story post around his face for everyone to remember, he has to have the spirit and show people “I am an important person and I should be treated accordingly!”

Self-improvement may not be everybody’s favorite word, but if we look at things in a different point of view, we might have greater chances of enjoying the whole process instead of counting the days until we are fully improved. Three sessions in a week at the gym would result to a healthier life, reading books instead of looking at porns will shape up a more profound knowledge, going out with friends and peers will help you take a step back from work and unwind. And just when you are enjoying the whole process of unlocking your self-improvement power, you’ll realize that you’re beginning to take things light and become happy.

Unlocking Your Self Improvement Power

When we look at a certain object, a painting for example – we won’t be able to appreciate what’s in it, what is painted and what else goes with it if the painting is just an inch away from our face. But if we try to take it a little further, we’ll have a clearer vision of the whole artwork.

We reach a point in our life when we are ready for change and a whole bunch of information that will help us unlock our self-improvement power. Until then, something can be staring us right under our nose but we don’t see it. The only time we think of unlocking our self-improvement power is when everything got worst.

Take the frog principle for example.

Try placing Frog A in a pot of boiling water. What happens? He twerps! He jumps off! Why? Because he is not able to tolerate sudden change in his environment – the water’s temperature. Then try Frog B: place him in a lukewarm water, then turn the gas stove on. Wait until the water reaches a certain boiling point. Frog B then thinks “Ooh… it’s a bit warm in here”.

People are like Frog B in general. Today, Anna thinks Carl hates her. Tomorrow, Patrick walks up to her and told her he hates her. Anna stays the same and doesn’t mind her what her friends says. The next day, she learned that Kim and John also abhors her. Anna doesn’t realize at once the importance and the need for self-improvement until the entire community hates her.

We learn our lessons when we experience pain. We finally see the warning signs and signals when things get rough and tough. When do we realize that we need to change diets? When none of our jeans and shirts would fit us. When do we stop eating candies and chocolates? When all of our teeth has fallen off. When do we realize that we need to stop smoking? When our lungs have gone bad. When do we pray and ask for help? When we realize that we’re gonna die tomorrow.

More tips on self motivaton

1. Stop procrastinating!
2. Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self-improvement.
3. Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second.
4. Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.
5. Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self-improvement.
6. X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on “extras” on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on.
7. You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.
8.     Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!

Tips on self motivation

1. Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self-improvement take place at work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things.
2. Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force.
3. Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay out of toxic people – the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success.
4. Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
5. Keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self-improvement.
6. Learn to love your self. Now isn’t that easy?
7. Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.
8. Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.
9. Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways – how they want things to be, and how they should be.
10. Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes.
11. Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate – are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?

Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark

Motivation: The Heart of Self-Improvement

Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change. Getting failing grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income. Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.

With the countless negativities the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z!

1. Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
2. Believe in your self, and in what you can do.
3. Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.
4. Don’t give in and don’t give up. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.
5. Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.
6. Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

To grow spiritually is to search for meaning

To grow spiritually is to search for meaning.

Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianism, Judaism, and Islam suppose that the purpose of the human life is to serve the Creator of all things. Several theories in psychology propose that we ultimately give meaning to our lives. Whether we believe that life’s meaning is pre-determined or self-directed, to grow in spirit is to realize that we do not merely exist. We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain knowledge and wisdom from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm. Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us during trying times; and gives us something to look forward to---a goal to achieve, a destination to reach. A person without purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at sea.

To grow spiritually is to recognize interconnections.

Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call other people “brothers and sisters” even if there are no direct blood relations. Moreover, deity-centered religions such as Christianity and Islam speak of the relationship between humans and a higher being. On the other hand, science expounds on our link to other living things through the evolution theory. This relatedness is clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the highest human need according to Maslow. Recognizing your connection to all things makes you more humble and respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in nature. It makes you appreciate everything around you. It moves you to go beyond your comfort zone and reach out to other people, and become stewards of all other things around you.

Growth is a process thus to grow in spirit is a day-to-day encounter. We win some, we lose some, but the important thing is that we learn, and from this knowledge, further spiritual growth is made possible.

Spiritual Growth: the Spiritual Challenge of Modern Times

To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and influence is a Herculean task. Modern conveniences such as electronic equipments, gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment through television, magazines, and the web have predisposed us to confine our attention mostly to physical needs and wants. As a result, our concepts of self-worth and self-meaning are muddled. How can we strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of our lives?

To grow spiritually is to look inward.

Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a day, week, or month. You need to look closely and reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Periodically examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the relationships you have, and the things you engage in provide useful insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must sustain and the bad traits you have to discard. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the midst of any situation. Like any skill, introspection can be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness to seek the truths that lie within you. Here are some pointers when you introspect: be objective, be forgiving of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.

To grow spiritually is to develop your potentials.

Religion and science have differing views on matters of the human spirit. Religion views people as spiritual beings temporarily living on Earth, while science views the spirit as just one dimension of an individual. Mastery of the self is a recurring theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works provide the blueprint to ensure the growth of the spiritual being. In Psychology, realizing one’s full potential is to self-actualize.

Maslow identified several human needs: physiological, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James earlier categorized these needs into three: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next. Achieving each need leads to the total development of the individual. Perhaps the difference between these two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a means toward serving God, while psychology view that self-development is an end by itself.

Being positive, and staying positive is a choice

Dart Pin #4: Past Experience It’s okay to cry and say “ouch!” when we experience pain. But don’t let pain transform itself into fear. It might grab you by the tail and swing you around. Treat each failure and mistake as a lesson.

Dart Pin #5: Negative World View

Look at what you’re looking at. Don’t wrap yourself up with all the negativities of the world. In building self-esteem, we must learn how to make the best out of worst situations.

Dart Pin #6: Determination Theory

The way you are and your behavioral traits is said to be a mixed end product of your inherited traits (genetics), your upbringing (psychic), and your environmental surroundings such as your spouse, the company, the economy or your circle of friends. You have your own identity. If your father is a failure, it doesn’t mean you have to be a failure too. Learn from other people’s experience, so you’ll never have to encounter the same mistakes.

Sometimes, you may want to wonder if some people are born leaders or positive thinkers. NO. Being positive, and staying positive is a choice. Building self-esteem and drawing lines for self-improvement is a choice, not a rule or a talent. God does not come down from heaven and tell you – “Royce, you may now have the permission to build self-esteem and improve your self.” 

In life, it’s hard to stay tough specially when things and people around you keep pulling you down. When we get to the battlefield, we should choose the right luggage to bring and armors to use, and pick those that are bullet proof. Life’s options give us arrays of more options. Along the battle, we will get hit and bruised. And wearing a bulletproof armor ideally means ‘self change’. The kind of change which comes from within. Voluntarily. Armor or Self Change changes 3 things: our attitude, our behavior and our way of thinking.

Building self-esteem will eventually lead to self-improvement if we start to become responsible for who we are, what we have and what we do. Its like a flame that should gradually spread like a brush fire from inside and out. When we develop self-esteem, we take control of our mission, values and discipline. Self-esteem brings about self-improvement, true assessment, and determination. So how do you start putting up the building blocks of self-esteem? Be positive. Be contented and happy. Be appreciative. Never miss an opportunity to compliment. A positive way of living will help you build self-esteem, your starter guide to self-improvement.

Building Your Self-Esteem

So how do you stay calm, composed and maintain self-esteem in a tough environment? Here are some tips you may to consider as a starter guide to self-improvement.

Imagine yourself as a Dart Board. Everything and everyone else around you may become Dart Pins, at one point or another. These dart pins will destroy your self-esteem and pull you down in ways you won’t even remember. Don’t let them destroy you, or get the best of you. So which dart pins should you avoid?

Dart Pin #1 : Negative Work Environment
Beware of “dog eat dog” theory where everyone else is fighting just to get ahead. This is where non-appreciative people usually thrive. No one will appreciate your contributions even if you miss lunch and dinner, and stay up late. Most of the time you get to work too much without getting help from people concerned. Stay out of this, it will ruin your self-esteem. Competition is at stake anywhere. Be healthy enough to compete, but make sure you are competing in a healthy competition.


Dart Pin #2: Other People’s Behavior
Bulldozers, brown nosers, gossipmongers, whiners, backstabbers, snipers, people walking wounded, controllers, naggers, complainers, exploders, patronizers, sluffers… all these kinds of people will pose bad vibes for your self-esteem, as well as to your self-improvement scheme.


Dart Pin #3: Changing Environment
You can’t be a green bug on a brown field. Changes challenge our paradigms. It tests our flexibility, adaptability and alters the way we think. Changes will make life difficult for awhile, it may cause stress but it will help us find ways to improve our selves. Change will be there forever, we must be susceptible to it.