Ever Asked, What Can I Do To Make My Life Better?"

Ever asked, "how can I make my life better?" Here are some pointers that can help you change your life for the better and make yourself a better person.

Put in the time every day to look within yourself for how to change your life for the better.

A good objective to start with is to check out some material on to change your life for the better, say, one book every month, or perhaps begin a collection of CDs or videos.

To change your life for the better make certain you get enough sleep at night. By changing your routine you can establish much better sleeping habits that will help you create a better life.

Animals can supply an outlet for your love, however more than that, they can teach you how to be a better person and change your life for the better.

An animal can be an excellent instructor of remaining real to one's inner self when wanting to change your life for the better.

Like I 'd mentioned be sure to be getting a complete 6-8 hours each night and see just how much better you feel. If you don't feel better, ask within yourself; what's holding you back?

Be serious for an answer! Don't settle for less.

The Course in Miracles teaches us that, "The Holy Spirit will direct you only so to avoid pain."

One of the best methods is to leave work at work, and in fact involves leaving work at your front door.

If you're unattached or single, find groups to get involved with that help change your life for the better like, perhaps, a yoga class or other mindful, relaxing and enjoyable outlets.

If you want to effectively establish your individual side, it is very important to be reflective. Your life begins to change your life for the better.

The Course in Miracles helps us see that, yes, this is the miracle manifested!

Understand exactly what it means to actually be a human.

You will be able to accept that you have a lot to discover and learn, and so much more that may enhance you.

In conclusion, as you can see helping yourself change your life for the better, and resulting in being a much better person is not as tough as it may appear.

It just needs doing some seeking, a little research, making lists, and requesting help when you need it.

Once you see how it can help you live your life much better, the work will pay off.

To creating a better life!

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The High Cost of Physical Self-Abandonment (By Margaret Paul, Ph.D.)

I was sitting in the airport at my gate in Chicago, on my way home from the East Coast, having just completed a wonderful Inner Bonding weekend workshop at Kripalu in Lenox, MA. A very obese woman, who was obviously not at all well, sat down across from me, and was then attended to by another woman and by her husband, who was also not well.

I felt sad for these people. They obviously knew nothing about physical self-care - or they didn't want to take responsibility for their health and wellbeing.

We were in the air for about an hour when a flight attendant asked if there were any medical personnel aboard. I immediately knew it was about the same woman. After a doctor or nurse attended to her, the pilot announced that we would be doing an emergency landing in Des Moines to get the woman to a hospital.

As a result of having to make the unscheduled landing, we were about an hour late. For me, it was just an inconvenience. I was not thrilled with getting home an hour late and not get enough sleep, but I knew that I would be okay. However, many others had connecting flights they were going to miss, and of course I don't know what consequences that had for them.

I started to think about how many people are affected by someone who doesn't take responsibility for his or her health and wellbeing. Whether due to alcoholism, drug addiction, food addiction, eating junk food, never exercising, not learning to manage their stress or not getting enough sleep, these people are physically abandoning themselves. They are not only letting themselves down, they are letting down many others, such as close family members and good friends. In this case, the woman had negatively affected many people she didn't even know.

I don't know whether or not the woman on the plane even cared that her choices to physically abandon herself affected so many others. I do know that she seemed to be very demanding of the woman attending to her and of her husband. Both of them seemed scared of her reaction if they didn't immediately attend to her every need. At one point, the attending woman had to take the ill woman's shoe off because her foot hurt, and the ill woman was way too heavy to take her own shoe off. And then the ill woman got annoyed at the attending woman for how she put the shoe back on.

It seems to me that there is a kind of narcissism going on with people who don't seem to care about the effect their physical self-abandonment has on others. In my brief exposure to the ill woman, this seemed to be the case.

While I understand that people turn to many addictions to avoid their pain, in today's world with the Internet, anyone who wants to learn how to manage their painful feelings can find the help they need. But of course, they have to want the help. They certainly have the right to keep abandoning themselves, but what about the high cost of this self-abandonment? What about the high cost on people who care about them? What about the high cost to our health care system? And what about the high cost on their own inner child who is deeply suffering from the physical pain of living in an ill body?

If you are physically abandoning yourself, I hope today you consider the high cost to you and to others who care about you. I hope you consider learning how to love yourself by learning how to create a healthy body for your wonderful inner child to live in.

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How To Keep Your Focus - Staying On Task

There are times when you're carrying out a task and for some reason even though your mind is on the task you keep making error after error after error.

If this describes you there are some key things you might wish to consider:

- Did you get enough sleep the night before?

Sometimes fatigue can affect how your mind works. things you normally wouldn't think twice about can take you a lot longer to deal with.

- Do you have something on your mind?

Sometimes when you have something on your mind which is more pressing you may have difficulty focusing on the task at hand. So if you find your mind wandering and you're finding it a challenge to stay on track, take notice of what is coming up for you.

It could be that there is something else you need to be prioritising. If it is something that is stopping you from dealing effectively with the task at hand, stop what you are doing and spend some time with the issue that's plaguing you.

It might be there's an urgent call you need to make or an email you need to send. It could just be you need to schedule some time in to deal with the issue. Once you've dealt with the immediacy of what's on your mind you can put it aside and go back to your original task.

- How's your diet?

There's a saying 'you are what you eat'. It means that what you put in your body has a direct ink with how you perform. There's another saying 'garbage in garbage out'. So if you are eating foods on a regular basis that are low on nutrients your performance will suffer and your concentration will lapse.

So check your diet and ensure you're getting your fair share of vegetables and fruit. If this is not your thing, there are a number of fresh fruit and vegetable juices on the market you can use as substitutes.

In addition try supplementing your diet with a good quality nutritional product such as a tablet or juice. These give your body the necessary enzymes it needs for optimal performance.

- Are you drinking enough water?

If you're not drinking enough water, this can affect how you function because of dehydration. One of the effects of dehydration is that your mind is not as focused as it could be and your ability to work things out in your mind could be impaired.

So if you find you can't focus on what you're doing, try drinking half a pint to a pint (between one quarter and half a litre) of water fairly quickly. This may take some getting used to and when you do it initially you may find the water just goes straight through you! This should, with time and persistence, pass, and you'll find the water being absorbed by the body.

Drinking a large glass of water when you're sluggish has the effect of perking you up and making you feel a lot more energised.

- Do you need a break?

It is said that we generally work best in shorter bursts of up to one or one-and-a-half hours. After this time our concentration gradually begins to wane. Children have an even shorter attention span.

So when you're taking on a particular task, try taking regular breaks every hour or so for about 5-10 minutes, in order for you to remain fresh.

If you're finding your focus drifting, check when the last time was that you had a break. If you need one take a short 10-15 minute break to include you stretching your legs outside in the fresh air, then come back to your task. You'll not only feel fresher, but you're more likely to carry out your ask much more effectively

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Don't Let Stress Get the Best of You

We all have felt like we are under situations where our to-do lists seem endless; our days and nights become one but the overwhelming task just doesn't end. Situations when deadlines are fast approaching and you catch yourself saying 'My goodness, I am under so much stress'. That is a good understanding of stress.

But what is stress?

It is a condition under which the body feels like it is under attack and it switches to a 'fight or flight' mode. There are a lot of chemicals released in your body like cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine that change the functions of your body. All the unnecessary bodily functions shut down to help you escape this attack.

Let's use an example to better understand the fight or flight response of the body. Imagine you are walking down a lonely street and you are carrying enough money to enjoy a dinner with your friends at a five-star restaurant. Suddenly, a man jumps at you from behind a tree and points a knife at you. You could do one of the two things- 

Fight: you will make an attack strategy to knock down the thief and your body will prepare you for it.

Flight: you will look for the easiest escape route and run for your life, maybe even screaming for help on your way.

Let's list some causes that could give you stress in your life.

• Fast approaching deadlines at work or studying in a crunch time during exams. 

• Facing financial difficulties or road blocks in relationships. 

• Thinking you are not good enough for any task and feeling guilty for being a burden on everyone. 

• Not being flexible enough therefore having difficulty in adjusting to new situations. 

• Not being able to adjust or compromise easily. 

• Getting easily affected by anything pessimistic that others say.

Now we should look at the symptoms of stress; the ways in which we can recognize ourselves under stress.

• Difficulty in concentrating on the task at hand. 

• Not being able to remember small things you wouldn't forget otherwise. 

• Seeing negativity in everything. It becomes very difficult to see the glass half full. 

• Constantly worrying or being anxious. 

• Isolating yourself from everyone. 

• Feeling irritable or moody.

Stress is manageable. Before it gets out of hand we must learn to control it. Here are ways to keep stress from getting out of hand.

Adopt efficiency- when you have too many things to finish, make a time table and follow 

it closely. That way you will get everything done little by little and it won't stress you out.

Meditate- when your body starts reacting under stress, meditating will help you stay calm and on top of things.

Learn to say no- when you already have too much work to finish and someone gives you more work, don't feel bad in saying no. It is important to not wear yourself out. 

Eat right- when you are under stress you could either lose your appetite or it could become bigger than usual. But you must learn to eat the right kind of things and in an appropriate proportion.

Get enough sleep- but trying to finish all your work and skipping sleep, you won't be helping yourself. Your body will get tired faster and you will lose energy more quickly. 

You may be thinking that stress is a bad thing to have and you will try to escape it all the time. But don't worry, stress is good. It is only when you're under stress that you can push yourself to do better and achieve the impossible. You only have to keep it under control.

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Top 10 Actions To Increase Your Memory

There are numerous things that contribute to a good memory. The health of your brain is amongst the most crucial. It's natural for memory to decrease with age, however there are numerous ways to slow that decrease. A bad memory can be frustrating for everybody involved. There are simple steps you can take to enhance your memory at any age.

Increase your memory with these simple actions:

1. Change your diet plan. Research recommends that omega-3 fats and an anti-inflammatory diet can enhance memory. Your diet impacts all aspects of your body. Modify your diet and you alter your capability to store and recover memories. There are a number of variations of anti-inflammatory diets. Experiment and see which works best for you.

2. Handle stress. Stress is hard on your body, brain, and memory. Stress has been linked to decreases in memory. Set affordable expectations for your life. Discover how to relax and avoid stress. Ensure that you're getting enough free time.

3. Get enough sleep. Scientists are still puzzled about what occurs while we sleep, but it has actually been discovered that our brains don't work too well when we've been denied adequate sleep. One late night on the town will prove this fact to anyone. Get enough sleep and your memory will be enhanced.

Stick with a routine sleep schedule.

Avoid caffeine.

Try napping for a middle of the day pick-me-up.

4. Use repetition. It's much more effective to expose yourself to something consistently over time than to attempt to learn it in one sitting. If you're trying to learn French vocabulary words for example, six 5-minute sessions will be more advantageous than one 30-minute session. The popular flash card program, Anki, uses spaced repetition to help memory.

5. Keep your mind active. Do something every day that requires a lot of brain activity. Reading, crossword puzzles, chess, and numerous brain teasers work at keeping your mind active and sharp. Avoid depending on just a single activity. Mix it up and hit your brain from every angle.

6. Be creative. Creativity utilizes different parts of the brain than the more analytical functions we normally perform. Paint, draw, discover an instrument, or compose. Anything needing creativity can be beneficial.

7. Workout. Moving blood through your body and brain can boost memory. Obesity can cause blood sugar and circulatory concerns. Both can impair memory. You do not need to pretend you're training for the Olympics, however get your heart pumping for a few minutes each day.

8. Write things down. It's much easier to remember something if you write it down, instead of just hearing or reading it.

9. Say it aloud. Utilize all of your senses. State it so that you can hear it. If you write it, read it aloud, and imagine it, it will be a lot easier to keep in mind. Expose yourself to the information you want to remember in a variety of different ways.

10. Maintain healthy relationships. Some memory specialists think that relationships are the key to keeping your brain healthy and active. It has actually been found that those with the busiest social lives have the slowest decreases in memory.

Invest more time with friends and family.

Make some brand-new friends or join a club.

Volunteer.

Even if you think you've been pestered with a bad memory, it can be easily boosted.

Minimizing tension, challenging your brain on a regular basis, and getting enough sleep are a few of the steps that can be taken to enhance memory function. It's never too late to pay attention to your memory.

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