Spirituality and Self Help » Motivational

Top Five Self-Help Apps To Improve Your Life

shimon — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:41:43 +0000

This is a guest post by Elaine Hirsch. Elaine is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and history to medicine and video games. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites and writing about all these things instead.
In addition to enhancing our job productivity and allowing us to have access to social networks on-the-go,

smartphones and tablets can also help us to improve our mental well-being and become more content and self-actualized.

It’s not really that surprising that self-help applications are becoming more popular than ever as buying apps from iTunes and the Android Market become increasingly available to professionals, academics, and master’s degree students. These applications help balance out the power of electronics today and their ability to distract us from our responsibilities.

MyThoughts+

Getting work done while you’re down in the dumps is a hard task to accomplish. Many people swear by the power of positive thinking. Noted cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, credits his uncanny ability to devise hilarious comic strips with his positive attitude.

MyThoughts+ displays positive affirmations on a customizable background, transitioning from one quote to the next while playing soothing music in the background. If you can’t afford a mountain retreat to the Himalayas, MyThoughts+ just might be the next best thing.

LiveHappy

One of the best ways to accomplish any goal or complete any task is to break it down into manageable, bite-sized pieces. LiveHappy is an application which helps cultivate optimism in your daily activities.

Based on the book, The How of Happiness, by Sonja Lyubomirsky, LiveHappy helps you to keep track of your personal progress as you work towards obtaining inner peace. It features a built-in personality test as well as plenty of tips and tricks on conceptualizing a happier you.

iStress

Not only is stress a detriment to your daily well-being, it is a contributing risk factor in illnesses ranging from heart attacks to strokes. iStress is a comprehensive stress management application which features a number of helpful exercises aimed at reducing stress and encouraging positive thinking.

It includes a compendium of motivational sayings and affirmations to help you reduce your stress levels when you feel overwhelmed. It also allows you to keep a journal of positive or negative thoughts and emotions so that you can identify stress triggers and avoid them in the future.

Gratitude Journal

Brought to you by the good people at Happy Tapper, Gratitude Journal is a fun way to give thanks for what you’ve got. Too often in life, we focus on the negative and completely forget about all the positive things that happen to us. Gratitude Journal gives you an easy way to keep a log of what you’re thankful for that you can turn to when you’re down.

The Habit Factor

Most of us are creatures of habit. We tend to perform at our best when we incorporate positive habits into our daily routine. The Habit Factor is a tracking app that allows you to set goals and commit to forming good habits.

You can use the application to monitor your adherence to your resolutions and check them off as you accomplish them. If you’re trying to form good habits in your personal and professional life and stick to them, it helps to have a constant reminder like the one The Habit Factor provides.

In Conclusion

We’ve often been told by self-help authorities that happiness comes from within. Despite being a cliché, the sentiment remains true. Getting your house in order has a lot of direct and indirect benefits. Happy people are more successful, tend to earn more, and have better relationships with those around them in general.

The best way to get to that happy place is to help yourself. After all, nobody in the world understands what makes you happy better than yourself. The applications listed above should help you in taking the first step towards achieving happiness.

The Key To Manifesting Your Heart’s Desires

shimon — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:25:52 +0000

This is a guest post by Darshan G. Shanti. Darshan “The 24 Hour Champion” is a Business and Life Turnaround Specialist: His particular expertise is working with small to mid-sized businesses that are actively dying and bringing them back to life in 24 hours…or less. Whether he’s on the stage speaking
to 1000s, tightly huddled together in a small group workshop, or working one on one with a CEO, Darshan will transform your most important, valuable assets and the real bottom line; you and your people.

What do you want?

If you’re like most people, you want to be happy, fulfilled, healthy, wealthy and you want to be at peace, free to live your life the way you want to live it.

The question is how?

The answer is your beliefs. Simply put, as you believe, so shall you be! The Law of Attraction states that thoughts become things. What you think about, you bring about. Your thoughts create your reality.

According to Jane Roberts, an American author,

“You are given the gifts of the gods; you create your reality
according to your beliefs. Yours is the creative energy that
makes your world. There are no limitations to the self except
those you believe in.”

Therefore whatever you put energy into strong enough, clear enough and with enough belief will indeed happen. Here is the critical part. Many, many people are living lives that are far less than their heart’s desires because of what’s going on unconsciously.

In other words, their unconscious, negative beliefs about themselves and their world are what they are manifesting. Remember this.

The unconscious wins every time.

Why? Because it’s sending out stronger messages over and over. The Universe gives you what you ask for whether you’re conscious of it or not. So, if consciously you say you want to be wealthy, but unconsciously you don’t believe you deserve it, you won’t have wealth

So, to live the life you really want, you must first uncover your unconscious beliefs and then question your conscious ones. The reason is simple. It’s not what you know about your life that runs it, it’s what you don’t know and you can’t change what you don’t know. But you can change what you do know.

Then, you have to believe you can have that life. You have to believe that you deserve that life. You have to believe that you are good enough. You have to believe that you will succeed. You have to believe in yourself, wholly, completely and beyond a shred of doubt.

Here’s why.

Since your beliefs run your life (whether you know what they are or not), it stands to reason that If you’re not living the life you want, then you need to examine the things you believe and then test their validity against reality. For example, a common misbelief (but a belief nonetheless) that people have is that they are not good enough.

To test that belief (if you have it) ask yourself this question, “Who or what am I not good enough for?” In other words, who or what are you comparing yourself to that you believe you are not good enough? What is your standard of measurement?

Do that with as many of your “negative beliefs” as you can and watch how fast things will start to change for the better in your life.

The reason that its true is that when you discover a false belief, and see it for the lie that it is, it loses all its power. It simply can’t hold up under the light because there’s nothing to it in the first place. It just appears real in your mind.

Take it slow in the beginning. You may get anxious and want to get rid of all of your beliefs that have not served you right away, but that won’t work. In fact, it will have the opposite effect.

For more information about getting rid of the beliefs
that disempower you, please visit www.the24hourchampion.com

7 Creative Ways to Stop Panic Attacks

shimon — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:54:22 +0000

This is a guest post by Ryan Rivera. Thanks to modern and creative techniques of treating anxiety and panic disorders, Ryan Rivera is finally anxiety-free. Learn more about his anxiety struggles and survival techniques at www.calmclinic.com.

Did you know that 25 percent of the emergency room patients who complain of chest pain are actually experiencing panic?

Yes, panic attacks are common. In fact, about 20% of the adult population suffer from it.

Take the case of Anne. She was having second thoughts on whether or not to take the flight to Chicago. She always fears flying, even the thought of it.

She can’t seem to dismiss some crazy thought that something bad will happen the minute the plane takes off. She took it anyway.

As the plane was gearing to take off, Anne suddenly turned frantic, was out of breath, and dizzy. She was clearly overwrought. She was having a panic attack. But for Anne, the rest of the passengers and the airline crew, it would seem a heart attack. To make the story short, Anne was escorted off the plane and brought to the hospital.

Like Anne, panic attack sufferers fear the unknown. Their baseless reactions often cause them a pounding heart, nervousness, shortness of breath, discomfort, abdominal stress, dizziness etc. Classic symptoms of a heart attack…only it isn’t. It’s a case of a panic attack.

Yes, people have the right to worry. More so with all the bad and sad news we hear every day, but this goes beyond normal if it happens ever so often. In the case of Anne, it has been happening quite a lot. The airplane incident was just one of many.

Panic attack sufferers usually need professional help. Emotional support from their family and friends also helps. The psychologist will have to assess the underlying cause of the fear so that appropriate treatment may be given. The support system will provide the assurance that the patient is not alone and has support and understanding from the people who matter.

People who suffer from panic attacks should also know that the condition is highly treatable and preventable. In fact, there are creative ways to prevent it from occurring. Here are seven of them:

1Watch funny videos online. At the first sign of attack, turn on your computer and search for funny videos online. Watch a series. You’ll enjoy watching them and therefore lose focus on the negative thoughts. You will realize that laughter is really the best cure. Scientifically speaking, laughing helps decrease your blood pressure, slow down your heart rate and relax your muscles.

2Listen to your favorite tunes. Lie down on your couch and listen to your favorite songs playing on the background. Think about the beautiful lyrics that accompany them. Think of happy thoughts. Let the music take you to a place or time where you felt you were at your most peaceful and happiest.

3Leave your home. If you are home alone and suddenly feel alarmed for no reason at all, go out to change the atmosphere. Gardening is among the most recommended activities for relaxation. It takes your mind off the thing that agitates you.

Why not invite a neighbor over? Share a light snack and engage in small talk. You can also walk, jog, go to the mall and do some window shopping, go to a museum or an art gallery. These activities will help you forget your feelings of fear and worry.

4Write. As soon as you feel bad and negative thoughts are meddling with your mind, brush them off by writing. Either write about your feelings or scribble things that make you happy. Write about your goals and dreams in life. Writing therapy helps you express your feelings and thoughts in a gradual manner. This gradual process helps deal with or eases the pain caused by panic attacks.

5Perform a breathing exercise. Find a space where you can do a breathing exercise. Make sure it’s quiet. If darkening the room can help you focus more, do it. Close your eyes and keep your attention to your breathing. Inhale as if you are accepting all the things that are running through your mind. Exhale as if you are blowing them all away. Do it at least 5 times or until you feel relaxed.

6Do a general cleaning. Find an area in your home that you seldom clean, like the attic or the garage. Remove all the dust and throw away what you no longer need. Sweep and wipe the walls and floors with a wet cloth. You may find yourself dirty and sweating all over but it doesn’t matter. You’ve forgotten about the thing that threatened you earlier.

7Participate in charity works. Sometimes one needs to see the suffer of others to realize how lucky he is. Check within your community if you can participate in charity works. Later on, you will realize that you are not only helping others, You are also helping yourself. Your focus is redirected to things that are far more important and actually exist.

Fear is a natural human instinct. There are situations that can really trigger panic, But to constantly fear the unknown is detrimental to your growth. Always take control of the situation. Be in command. Don’t submit yourself to fears. Submission means you’re depriving yourself with the chance to live a normal and happy life.

If however, you’re already suffering from panic attacks, seek help. The earlier, the better. You can then use these creative ways as supplements to whatever your therapist recommends.

Learning for Joy

shimon — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:28:52 +0000

This is a guest post by Natalie Hunter. Natalie is addicted to learning and research, and grateful for the invention of the internet because it allows her to spend some time outside rather than just poring through books in a library. She is fascinated by the different methodologies for education at large today, and particularly by the advent of online schools. She also loves to travel and learn via interaction with other people and cultures.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. — Jim Rohn

Image courtesy of photostock

Learning is one of the most rewarding joys in life for many people. The continuation of learning after its obvious necessity has passed can be very helpful for people looking lead happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

Continued education can be done anywhere at any time, from online school to reading a book. It is not just an activity for young college students, it can be enjoyed by anyone with a passion for knowledge.

Boundless rewards come from learning. When new information is absorbed through either reading or auditory retention, a person feels accomplished and successful. One can never know too much; new information is the best gift in the world. Not only can a person feel proud of themselves when they learn something new, there are also proven scientific and economic results relating to happiness when people exercise their brains.

The Benefits

One obvious reason to pursue the joy of learning is for one to qualify oneself for better employment. Economic statistics state that educated workers with a bachelor’s degree in the United States earn around 60 percent more than those with a high school diploma.

Adding to the happiness of extended education, the economic benefits of doing so are limitless. While money is a positive thing, it does not always equate to happiness for individuals. Learning, on its own and the economic benefits aside, lead to many more stimulating aspects of a person’s personal fulfillment.

On that note, education comes along with personal fulfillment and pride. When one is educated, one had boundless opportunities for their professional lives. With an education, a person can pursue any vocational path they desire. The mental and stress relieving benefits of obtaining a job in a field that stimulates the mind are well worth the effort of continuing education. Such an achievement makes a person proud of themselves, and can allow them to attain their goals and dreams.

Pursuing further education has health benefits as well. Mental stimulation, just like physical exercise does for the body, prevents cognitive degeneration of the brain. Common brain problems associated with old age, such as memory loss and motor skills, comes with a lack of stimulation for the brain.

That is, if the brain is not used and exercised, it will lose much of its muscle and power, just like muscles when they are not regularly exercised. There are many exercises one can undertake to make their brain stronger and more adept.

Another great exercise for the mind and the spirit is traveling. It is thought that Homo sapiens became the dominant hominid species because of the fact that they traveled far from their comfort zones, which required our brains to be more creative in order to adapt to different situations.

Experiencing other cultures, countries, and ways of life increases one’s experiential knowledge and opens your mind up to different lifestyles and worldviews. It is important to stay resourceful when visiting an unfamiliar place, which keeps your mind attentive and creative. Besides, seeing beautiful sights, eating interesting food, and meeting new people can do wonders to refresh a stagnant spirit.

A sound education is one of life’s most rewarding and pleasurable activities. Mental stimulation opens doors to the possibilities of the world. The joy of learning is something everyone should undertake, be it for economic reasons, sheer pleasure, or for health related reasons. Learning brings joy to life in a multitude of ways that cannot be measured from any statistic.

Spirituality and Self Help » Motivational

Top Five Self-Help Apps To Improve Your Life

MyThoughts+

LiveHappy

iStress

Gratitude Journal

The Habit Factor

In Conclusion

Related Articles

The Key To Manifesting Your Heart’s Desires

What do you want?

The question is how?

The unconscious wins every time.

Here’s why.

Related Articles

7 Creative Ways to Stop Panic Attacks

Related Articles

Learning for Joy

The Benefits

Related Articles