Showing posts with label focus your mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label focus your mind. Show all posts

3 Tips to Deal With Stress


Stress Stress Stress... Personally, we hear this word 20 times a day, at least! We're all stressed, and we are constantly exposed to stressors: work, deadlines, rush, traffic jam.

The pupils dilate, and the heart beats fast to pump oxygen through the body so muscles respond instantly. The good news is that our body is designed to experience stress and react to it. Indeed, stress is the most common form of physiological reaction among humans and mammals worldwide, and in certain moments it helps us to survive! The bad news is: stress may be very dangerous!

Today, in our frantic and busy life, we all deal with stress and our bodies strive to adapt and keep balanced and healthy. It is important to know that a prolonged state of stress can have unpleasant consequences for our health, especially on the long run.

That's why it is important to understand how to face and how to react to the stressors of our everyday life.

Here is the top list of the best methods to fight stress. We tried several remedies and these are our favorites: the first two are anti stress objects, to use at work, at home or every time you're feeling stressed; the last two are natural remedies, extremely effective and self enhancing!

1. STRESS BALLS

Stress balls are probably one of the most popular remedies known against stress. They are cheap, immediate, and it is kid of funny!

When we get stressed our brain has to channels: a sensory channel made of sight, sound, smell and feel, and an Intellectual channel which elaborates the information and our feelings in that moment.

When we start squeezing the stress ball, our sensory channel focuses on something different than the stressor, and the intellectual channel relaxes our body and our mind.

In this sense, any other object with this function is useful!

The important thing is to focus your mind on something different, for a while... These remedies don't guarantee a lasting remedy, unfortunately!

In this sense, the natural relievers could be of a little bit more of help.

2. ADAPTOGEN PLANTS

Adaptogen Plants are a class of herbs, roots, berries with adaptogenic properties: when taken over a period of time help our body to perform better under stress.

Specifically adaptogens help our body to adapt, and so to restore quickly our internal balance normalizing the body release of stress hormones.

Some of the most effective adaptogens against stress are Seabuckthorn, Lycium (or Goji berries) and Reishi. Those herbs increase the body resistance to stress!

Stress is a condition of threatened homeostasis (a set of regulated internal conditions that allow us to maintain balance), adaptogens' active components make each cell of our body more intelligent dealing with stress and so to reduce the negative impact of all stressors on our physical and psychological well-being.

It gives us a permanent remedy against stress, helping us dealing everyday with the pressure, the anxiety and stress!

3. YOGA AND MEDITATION

Take time to focus on yourself everyday! Yoga and meditation help us to control our thoughts, our anxiety. We'd only need 10-15 minutes once or twice a day in order to bring about more "mindfulness" and reduce stress or anxiety.

Yoga and meditation relax the body, relax the mind, giving us the opportunity to focus on our breath, and developing the connection between the mind and the body.

We tried them all and we can assure that they really work. Do you have any other suggestions? How do you deal with stress?


https://ezinearticles.com/?3-Tips-to-Deal-With-Stress&id=9946012

What Is Concentration?

Concentration is the ability to focus the attention on one subject, object or thought and at the same time exclude from the mind every other unrelated thought, ideas, feelings and sensations. It also means taking your mind off many things and putting it on one thing at a time. During concentration, the mind focuses on the object of concentration, and only one thought occupies the mind. The whole energy of the mind becomes concentrated on this one thought.

Many people perceive that meditation is concentration or vice versa. But It is not so. In fact, Meditation helps you achieve concentration.

How to attain concentration?

Exercise and Meditation are the keys to improve concentration. There are many techniques that can help.

1. First thing first, decide what you want to concentrate on.

It has often been noticed that you reflect what you perceive. You start impersonating someone's way of talking, walking or the way they eat in a matter of a couple of minutes just by concentrating on the act.

2. Avoid Multi-tasking.

It is always good to be proficient. But there is a difference between proficiency and multi-tasking. Being proficient means giving your best to successfully complete a task. This is attainable through concentrating on one task at a time. The time you consume thereby is significantly less. Whereas when you multitask, you are distributing your attention on more than one activity and therefore you are not able to concentrate on one particular task. It definitely increases the chances of errors and the amount of time consumed is high which in turn reduces your productivity.

So, you should ensure that whatever you do you should put your full heart and mind into it.

3. Key to deep concentration - Stay calm.

Deep concentration is a matter of increasing or directing your life-force or conscious, cosmic energy. The more you have this kind of energy, the better. Scattered energy doesn't help. It must be calm, focused energy. Learn to be calmly concentrated.

Rushing into things, bumping into goaded thoughts often leads to over excitement and exertion. Your thoughts flicker, your concentration breaks. So, it is always worthy to keep your eye right at your goal and stay calm.

4. Parameterize your energy.

One such technique is Paramhansa Yogananda's Energization Exercises. Controlling your energy is an important first step toward the ability to concentrate deeply.

5. Take breaks

Take a stroll, walk on the grass, inhale the freshness of the air, the smell of the flowers, the cool breeze and relax. Make yourself do this often and you'll be able to return to your task recharged and be ready to focus more creatively.

6. Practice Concentration

How can you practice concentration? It can be done by doing some exercises.

Meditation is the most powerful of all concentration enhancement techniques. Learn a few simple meditation techniques and practice them at least five minutes daily.

Sit in a place where you can be all by yourself. Practice focusing on an object. Stare at it continuously and find its intricacies.

7. While meditating, watch your breaths

Loosen yourself. Experience the calmness of your body. Breathe in and breathe out.

Just Observe!

This teaches you to focus your mind on one thing at a time. As you observe your breath, it will slow down, along with your mind (this is scientifically well-documented), and you move into a dynamic, peaceful (but not sleepy) state of being. Your mind will become rejuvenated and creatively receptive.

8. Switch between complex and easy tasks

To not lose the track, it is always desirable to switch between tasks which demand less focus and the ones that demand high focus.

Playing call of duty requires much more attention than watching a movie. When you toggle between such tasks, you contemplate the tasks better.

Conclusion

The power of concentration is immense. It helps to retain even the trivial details. Once you attain the power of deep concentration, it will bear fruitful results for you.

Harkuni Murakami, a Japanese writer, once wrote, "The power of concentration is the most important thing. Living without this would be like opening one's eyes without seeing anything".

You become more aware, more responsive. Your productivity shoots up. Your acumen and sense of adaptation amplifies. It eventually makes you more attractive and confident.

"Attain the power of concentration, attain yourself."

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Is-Concentration?&id=9464120

7 Steps Towards a Positive State of Mind

Woman Wearing Yellow Button-up Long-sleeved Dress Shirt

Most of us have heard the saying: The optimist sees the glass half full, while the pessimist sees it half-empty. In its simplest terms, positive thinking is optimism and negative thinking is pessimism. It is an attitude towards life, yourself and particular predicaments and events in life.

Positive thinkers quickly zone in on the positive side of even the darkest moments in their lives, and often see those predicaments as opportunities for growth and learning. Positive thinkers are resilient and able to deal with stressful situations in productive ways.

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."- Anthony J. D'Angelo

Becoming a positive thinker is not necessarily something that will happen overnight. Depending on the severity of the negativity, it can take time to make appropriate changes.

The practice of positive thinking, and making it a character trait rather than a one-time thing, takes effort, patience, and time. If optimism is not natural to you, there are ways to turn it around.

Work towards combating the negativity you identified and maintaining an optimistic nature and use these steps as tools in the process.

7 Steps To A Positive Attitude

1. Say something positive whenever you think something negative. The tricky part about this is catching each negative thought as is happens. As much as possible, stop the negative thought as it happens and say something constructive to yourself, such as "today is going to be great."

Positive affirmations can be recited daily to reprogram the mind of negative thinking. There is a positive opposite for virtually everything negative...

"The weather is too hot." versus "The sun feels good on my skin."

"People at work are annoying." versus "It's great to a have a team to help with the workload."

"I look fat in that dress." versus "I look awesome in that dress."

"I screwed up again." versus "I made a mistake that I will learn from."

"I should be graduating at the top of my class." versus "I am so proud that I am graduating."

"All this snow is a hassle; it makes life harder and creates more work." versus "The snow left my backyard looking like a scene from a postcard."

"My husband cooked dinner for me, but it was only pasta." versus "I so appreciate my husband cooking dinner for me."

"I worked hard all day but did not get nearly enough done." versus "Wow, what a productive day I had at work."

2. Laugh often. Negative thinkers tend to be very uptight, and it's no wonder considering the heavy burden they often carry and the lack of positivity in their life. Allow yourself to laugh and often. Seek out scenarios where you laugh, like hanging out with funny people or visiting comedy clubs. Learn to see the humor in life, even during painful times. Laughter reduces stress, stops you from taking everything too seriously, and yields a more optimistic outlook.

3. Surround yourself with positive people. Negativity breeds more negativity. A positive attitude is contagious, and the best way to adopt such a thought process is to learn first-hand from a master. Having positive people in your life will allow you to view first-hand what it looks like, and positive people will give you uplifting advice, feed a positive outlook and problem solving suggestions, as opposed to negative people who will only want to sink in the muck with you and feed your negativity.

4. View every experience as a learning opportunity. Consider this scenario. A positive thinker finds out that their significant other has cheated. They break off the relationship, evaluate what went wrong, and attempt to learn from the situation, viewing it as a growing experience and a stepping-stone to a brighter future with someone else. Their process is a positive one that will include pain, and anger, but the way the positive thinker deals with it is constructive. The optimist knows that not everyone is a liar or a cheater, and that they can and will meet someone honest.

A negative thinker finds out that their significant other has been unfaithful and thinks thoughts like, "all men/women are liars and cheats;" I hate them all." They will dwell in the misery, and pain, and not view the experience as a learning process. They may become consumed by anger and hatred and generalize the entire opposite sex as evil, and eventually they may fall into a state of depression and experience anxiety and other ill health effects. Their next relationship may inevitably suffer, as their general distrust of the opposite sex will surely affect intimacy.

The positive thinker's resiliency and attitude allows them to grow through the painful experience, come out better for it on the other side, and avoid possible health manifestations that can result from negativity and its stress.

The negative thinker's own attitude will result in them missing an opportunity to grow, and the stress that attitude puts on their emotional and mental health will only harm them in the long run.

5. Adopt practices such as yoga, meditation, aromatherapy, tai chi and deep relaxation. These practices help you to focus your mind, build self-awareness, and obtain a deep peace. They also help you to maintain awareness about your thoughts and feelings, which helps you to control them so that you can build more positive energy in your mind and body.

6. Use positive affirmations. Our own inner dialogue determines our emotions, this means that we must be deliberate and conscious about what we say to ourselves. Speak positive affirmations to yourself every day, as they can help re-program your mind towards the positive mode and control your inner dialog.

Our mind is a garden and our attitudes are the seeds of its life, so plant healthy and weed regularly! Always repeat positive affirmations phrased in the present and personal tense, for example:

"I like myself!"

"I love today!"

"I love my life!"

"I see the positive in everything!"

"I can deal with anything!"

"I am strong!"

"I am optimistic!"

"I enjoy being around positive people!"

"I am aware of my thoughts"

And my favourite of all - "You are stronger than you seem, braver than you believe and far more capable than you think you are."

7. Practice Gratitude. There are multiple methods to transform your negative feelings. One of the fastest and highly effective ways is to harvest feelings of thankfulness and appreciation directed towards:

• Yourself

• Other people in your life

• Material things

• Your life circumstances

• And even strangers

Practice starting your day by focusing on being grateful, and bring to mind several specific things. This will help you move your mind towards positive thinking and positive energy vibrations.

There is nothing stopping you from achieving a more positive state of mind other than yourself. Start by acknowledging your negative thoughts, determining their source, and then transforming them into positivity.

http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Steps-Towards-a-Positive-State-of-Mind&id=9388784

The Importance of the Power of Attention


Developing the Power of Attention

We all know that attention is a very desirable skill, but how many people you know possess this skill?
I don't need to tell you why it is an important skill, and what are its uses and benefits. It is a must for every person, in all areas of life.
In order to gain success you need to be able to focus your mind, and to calm down its restlessness and tendency to constantly shift from one subject to another.
Every act needs attention for its successful performance. Working, talking, conversing, studying and playing require attention. Even washing, cleaning the house or cooking require it, in order to be handled efficiently.
People are not born with the power of attention. It has to be developed. Its development and training starts from a very early age. We try to grab the attention of a baby by making strange noises. Later we focus the attention of the child by reading him/her stories. As the children grow up they are required to focus on their studies and homework. All of these activities, help to some extent, to develop and focus the power of attention, but they are not enough.
There are times when the attention becomes very strong, though involuntarily, and without exercising real control over it. You have certainly experienced a few times a total blankness to the outside world, when you were absorbed in an interesting thriller or while reading a captivating book. This usually happens when we engage in activities that we enjoy and love.
For this ability to be useful, it should be under the control of your will. You have to be able to decide where and when to focus your mind. Real and effective power of attention should be under your control, and you should be able to exercise it whenever you need it.
Every day you are presented with plenty of opportunities to strengthen the power of your attention. Actually, every action can be turned into an exercise. Hold your mind on whatever you do, and try to concentrate without deviating to something else. It is true that special concentration exercises are necessary, but if you cannot find the time and place to perform them, you can turn the whole day into an enjoyable exercise. Focus on whatever you do, and in time your ability would increase.
In this way, you will not only strengthen your attention and concentration, but everything you do will be done better, more efficiently, and even faster. In time, as your attention gets stronger, thoughts will lose their power to distract you, and you will find that you can absorb yourself in whatever you do. This will increase your efficiency, and make you enjoy whatever you do.

9 tips for strengthening the power of attention:


  1. When reading a book, focus your eyes and mind on the words, and do not to think of anything not connected with what you are reading. Ignore outside noises and any irrelevant thoughts.
  2. While dressing up, put your whole attention on the act of dressing.
  3. While having a shower, pay attention to every part of the body that you are soaping and washing.
  4. When you clean the house, mow the grass or cook, concentrate on each act and movement, without daydreaming or thinking about something else.
  5. While working, focus your mind on what you are doing, as if it is the only important thing in the world, even if you do not like your job.
  6. While working up, walking, or engaging in any kind of physical activity, don't daydream or think on whatever enters your mind. Instead, focus your whole attention on what you are doing.
  7. In conversation, listen attentively to what people are saying.
  8. While eating, focus your mind or your food and on enjoying it.
  9. Always do one thing at a time.
You don't have to do all the above, all the time. Even a few minutes, now and then, will do wonders for you, and develop your powers of attention. Persevere, and you will gain a very useful ability, which will help you on many occasions in your life.