Spirituality and Self Help » positive thinking

Six Ways Spirituality Can Boost Wellness

shimon — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:02:14 +0000

This guest post is contributed by Karen Anderson, who writes on the topic of online bible colleges . Karen welcomes your comments at her email : karen.anderson441@gmail.com
It’s a diverse world we live in, one that is filled with a number of religions and Gods.

Some religions like Buddhism are a way of life, others like Christianity and Islam believe in the teachings of one God, while others like Hinduism have a pantheon of Gods and rituals.

On the other hand there are the atheists and agnostics, the ones who believe that there is no God or spiritual being who is responsible for our destiny.

Spirituality however is something that is innate in each of us; it is godly and goes beyond the belief in God because even non-believers are spiritual. To define it in a nutshell, spirituality is the voice of your conscience, that tiny nudge from inside that tells you if you’re doing right or wrong.

So here is how you can use spirituality to boost your wellness quotient, the instant feeling when you wake up in the morning that tells you all is well with your world:

1Listen to your conscience: In short, don’t do anything that makes you feel guilty after it’s done. If you knowingly do something wrong, your conscience is going to prick you continuously until you apologize for your mistake or seek amends in an alternative way.

2Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: This sounds like something from the Bible, but it applies to practical life very well. If you don’t like being lied to or cheated, don’t do the same to other people. If you want respect and admiration, be prepared to offer them yourself. In general, people respond to the way you treat them, and treat you accordingly.

3Expect very little: I always teach my children that expectation is the root cause of disappointment. When you expect other people to make you happy or relieve your sadness, you’re only building a dependence that could become addictive and unhealthy. Instead, trust your own mind and heart and find constructive ways to build your self-esteem and confidence.

4Give in to your loved ones: No man is an island, and the relationships we form as we go through life say a lot about us. When you value your loved ones and treat them well, you forge deeper and more emotional bonds with them. And you’re not going to lose anything when you give in to them once in a while instead of getting your way all the time. Relationships are all about tolerance and understanding, not who’s right or wrong.

5Let go of everything that’s unhealthy and stressful: It may be a relationship that is going nowhere; it could be the food that you gorge on; or it could be a lifestyle that is hedonistic – whatever it is, it’s best you give it up for your own good. It may be difficult at first, but when you strive hard and hold on to your willpower and self-control, you’ll be very satisfied that you beat a personal demon.

6Set a side a few minutes every day for some quite time. A time you dedicate for breathing and nothing else. If you suddenly realize you’re worrying about something just say to yourself: this is my quiet time, if I’ll need to I’ll dedicate a few minutes to worrying later. This act will replenish your energy and help you cope with everyday life.

Getting to know your spiritual side and becoming more in tune with it helps you become a better person, someone with fewer base emotions and more good ones.

Self Help Tactics To Reduce Depression

shimon — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:37:13 +0000

This is a guest post by Ashley Jennings. Ashley writes about depression help and self help techniques for a variety of mental health conditions.

Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. — Jalal ad-Din Rumi

If you ever feel exhausted, worthless, helpless, or hopeless, there is a possibility you are suffering from depression. Several steps can be taken to treat this condition.

If you are interested in self-help, there are resources available that can help you get on the right track to feeling more confident and better about yourself.

Self-help consists of several methods that can be performed daily in the comfort of your own home, and these methods are designed to help reduce the effects of depression.

Depending on the severity of your condition, you should seek medical help, but depression help tactics are a great way to start the healing process.

The following tips describe a few methods for reducing stress and building confidence. These methods can also assist in the reduction of your depression symptoms:

• Setting goals are a great way to build confidence especially if you can meet them quickly.
• Split your tasks into smaller sections. This allows you to complete your projects in a timely manner.
• Spend time with those close to you and participate in activities that you enjoy such as going out for a meal, seeing a movie or going to visit some friends. These can both help you feel better.
• Change your physical state: stand straight, smile, hold your head high. Do it in front of the mirror and remember a time you felt great.
• Exercise. It’s scientifically proven that exercise makes you feel better.

This video gives some more ideas on how to reduce depression.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCINURSEg2Y

part 2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MCN22iPTrU

If you choose to see a therapist to treat your depression, you may be treated with Cognitive Behavior Therapy or CBT. CBT can be considered a form of self-help because of the approach used in treating your depression symptoms. Your therapist may guide this process before allowing you to continue the therapy on your own.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy may consist of keeping a log or diary of your thoughts or facing the problems that may be causing your depression. This method of therapy also helps you to face the problems that may be causing your negative feelings.

Determining the causes of your depression is an excellent first step towards determining the best course of action. In some cases depression suddenly appear in one’s life without an easily distinguishable cause. When this happens, it may be best to see a therapist while continuing your self-help tactics.

How To Master Your Emotions To Achieve Peace Of Mind

shimon — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:25:52 +0000

Have you ever heard someone saying “he made me feel x” or “because of her I felt y” ? Maybe you even said it yourself. Stop for a moment and think about it, did they point a gun to your head and forced you to feel something? The truth is we and no one else are responsible for our emotions.

Have you ever felt great even though something you consider negative happened? For instance maybe it was raining and you were all soaked and you still smiled and enjoyed the moment, or maybe something you consider good happened and you still felt bad. These examples show us that we can choose our emotions and we don’t have to react to the situation or to the other person.

Change your negative emotions into positive emotions

Usually our decision to feel a certain emotion is unconscious but it doesn’t have to be that way. At first you’ll notice your emotions only after you feel them. Start by accepting your emotions and take full responsibility for them, you can’t change something until you accept it.

Think about the positive intent of the feeling. E.g. Perhaps the fear helps saving your life or gives you a feeling of safety. If you don’t know what the intent is you can use the Six-Step Reframing technique to find the positive intentions and to find alternative ways to accomplish your positive function.

Permit yourself to feel sad, frightened, angry or any emotion you consider negative. Explain yourself that it’s ok to feel that way and distinguish between the emotion and yourself. If you feel angry it doesn’t mean that you’re angry and if you feel scared it doesn’t mean you’re a coward.

Don’t try to block the emotion, instead let yourself feel it as much as you can. If you’ll stay with the emotion you’ll find peace. Notice if you’ve unpleasant feelings in the body every time you feel the emotion, if you do ask yourself what emotion lays underneath the first emotion and let yourself feel it. Keep doing it until you feel all the emotions.

Realize that you don’t feel that way all day long, there are times when you feel great. Think about all the instances when you felt bad, what do they all have in common? In most cases you’ll see that it’s related to a few areas in your life that require your attention. It can be areas like self acceptance and love, making independent decisions, loneliness and so on. These areas are related to limiting beliefs. Talk to someone about the things that bother you. It’s best to talk to a professional but your friends and family can help too.

Think about all the times you felt great. Remember what it was like feel the emotions, remember the things you saw, heard, smelled and so on. Make an image of the good times you had, make the colors of the image bright and vivid. Make the image bigger and bigger and notice how you feel about it. Play with it until you feel wonderful. Our thoughts influence our emotions, If you have a negative sentence that you keep repeating in your mind simply replace it with something short and positive.

8 Obstacles To Using The Law Of Attraction Successfully

shimon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:38:17 +0000

Have you ever tried to use the law of attraction to achieve something in your life? Have you ever failed?

Some people when they fail decide that “it is all just a big scam” or that they just weren’t “positive” enough. In this post I want to share eight impediments to using the law of attraction successfully.

By knowing the obstacles we can avoid them and deal with them if needed, it also provides another reason for the failure.

1 Negative thoughts- these are all the thoughts that negate the idea of the achievement. Let’s say you want a promotion at work or a better paying job , negative thoughts would be thinking about all the reasons why you won’t achieve it: The economy is in recession, your coworkers have a better connection with the boss, you don’t always succeed at your job and so on.

Clearly this way of thinking is the exact opposite of what you should be doing- thinking about all the reasons why you will succeed. It doesn’t matter what you think the “reality” is.

For example let’s take the last argument- you don’t always succeed at your job, think about all the managers you (If it didn’t happen to you it probably happened to one of your friends.) had who were less qualified then you. The “reality” is fluid it constantly changes according to your point of view. When you know you deserve it you’ll achieve it.

2 You’re not motivated enough- If I tell you that you have one year to make a million dollar or else I’ll kill you or your family and you can’t go to the cops will you achieve it? This is a radical example yet it shows that with the right amount of motivation you can achieve anything.

Find what motivates you, if for instance you want a luxury car go to the dealership and ask them to test drive it. Feel what it will be like when you’ll own such a car. Collect pictures of it and anything that will make you feel that you own it. Remind yourself why you want it. There are countless resources for motivation: books, seminars ,audio cassettes use them daily.

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing -- that’s why we recommend it daily. — Zig Ziglar

3Patience- Although you create your reality with your thoughts and emotions, it takes time. How much time? That depends on the ratio between beneficial and negative thoughts and upon your skills. It’s a simple math, the more positive thoughts believing that it is possible for you the quicker it will be achieved.

Another example is if you are working on changing your personality (e.g. become braver or more assertive) then you have to give yourself time to change.

4 Attachment- The word attachment means that you fear you’ll fail. You’re attached to the outcome rather than release it to the universe. The attachment doesn’t have to be a word or a phrase you say to yourself, sometimes it is just a feeling, a fear that you won’t achieve your desired outcome.

To release it remember that it is your job to decide what it is you want and do whatever you can to achieve it, after that the universe will do the rest.

5Doing nothing- It is not enough to visualize your desired outcome or to repeat affirmations. You have to help god help you. If you want to lose weight and you don’t eat less or exercise you’ll probably won’t lose weight. All the techniques should supplement they aren’t the main course of action. If it is difficult try a mentor or a coach someone that achieved it already or someone that will motivate you and give you tools to succeed.

In this video Will Smith talks about the law of attraction and about the importance of work.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pke9gEZfJXk

6Beliefs- Sometimes your believes get in the way of your outcome. For instance if you want to be rich but you believe that all rich people are greedy or that “money doesn’t grow on trees” and so on then even if you’ll make a lot of money you’ll find ways to get rid of it even quicker, after all you don’t want to be greedy right? You’ll need to work on those believes before you’ll see progress.

You can work on your beliefs on your own or use a professional.

7Asking god- Believe it or not asking god isn’t a good idea because:
a) He/she already knows what you want.
b) By asking you’re declaring that you don’t create your reality after all if you did you wouldn’t ask god for help right?
c) You implant the idea that you don’t have the things you ask for now.

What you can do is to feel and think as if the things you want are already present in your life. Don’t try to lie to yourself, if you’re trying to lose weight and you can’t say to yourself that you’re thin then at least you can say that you’re becoming thinner every day. Say it with emotion, really feel it and believe it.

8 Not wanting it enough- All the aforementioned impediments really come down to this one. All the obstacles are really excuses. If right now you’ll decide that you’re going to dedicate your life to become rich and really focus solely on this: you will go to seminars to get a financial education, you’ll find a mentor, you’ll work on your people skills etc, You will become rich without a doubt.

Yes it requires a sacrifice, you’ll probably have to watch less TV and maybe see your friends less often. So is it worth it? Your answer will determine your success.