Manifestation miracle
Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts
Success Tip: Practice Makes Progress, So Let Go of Perfect and Focus on Process
Practice is a powerful tool for developing and sustaining skills. But for many people, the word has negative connotations.
Why? Well, how many of you remember being called inside to practice the piano when you wanted to be playing with your friends? Definitely not fun.
In addition, practice can feel boring and/or painful at times. Think about the bumps and bruises involved in learning a new gymnastics skill. Or how about learning the basics of writing code or of speaking Chinese or French or German? Practice usually involves a lot of time and a lot of repetition. It's not something you'd often call fun.
And then there's that expression: "Practice makes perfect."
I can't think of a more daunting and discouraging way to frame this pursuit. If 'perfect' is the goal of your practice, you are going to feel perennially disappointed in yourself. And that's a set-up for stepping away from practice entirely.
Focus on Progress
Practice is a step-by-step process. The benefits are incremental, and at times, it may be difficult to know whether you are making progress.
Continuing a practice when you're not seeing the benefit is challenging. So that's why I suggest that you keep a brief learning log. Take a moment after each practice session and make note of what you learned.
This gives you, over time, a clear record of your progress. You may be surprised at some of the things you learn. Sometimes you'll be noting gains that have to do with the skill you're practicing. And sometimes you'll be learning about yourself.
The more you work with this log, the better you'll get at recognizing your gains. And as you improve your ability to see and acknowledge your progress, just watch your motivation soar. This keeps you practicing, which can't help but build your skills -- a win-win.
Let go of perfectionism...
And remember, what's vital here are the practice and the process. Your goal is not an endpoint but an ongoing process of continual improvement. And getting to 'perfect' is, quite simply, impossible.
Perfectionism eats up the energy and undermines the confidence of countless bright, energetic, and talented people. Are you one of them?
Well, my hope for you, as we start a new year, is that you embrace practice as an empowering tool for yourself. And at the same time, I hope you'll let go of the unattainable goal of perfectionism.
7 Keys to Learning How to Speak With Confidence in Public
How to speak with confidence? How many people have asked this question? How many people have become stressed over a public speaking engagement? Public speaking can be a nerve-rattling experience, but there are ways to develop the confidence to step on a stage or in front of several people.
Coaches Should Learn How to Speak in Public
You would think that all coaches would be good at public speaking. Their job requires them to not only listen to clients, but speak to them with confidence. However, speaking one-one-one and speaking to a room full of strangers is an entirely different experience.
But, coaches should learn the art of public speaking. This will allow them to give seminars and speak at conferences and public events - providing them with an additional way to earn income. Every coach should take some type of class about how to speak with confidence.
How to Speak With Confidence
If you think public speaking is about reading off a teleprompter or memorizing a few topics and regurgitating them to your audience, then you really don't know much about public speaking.
The way you speak matters as much as what you say.
If you don't sound like you should be listened to, your audience just might tune out. If you don't sound like you expect and deserve respect, you may not get any!
7 Keys to Speaking With Confidence
How to speak with confidence involves many different tricks of the trade. They are easy to learn and remember. How to speak publicly with confidence is about learning these skills and then practicing them.
- Slow down. If you speak too quickly, your audience will miss what you say. You will also sound nervous. Sounding nervous may elicit some empathy, but it won't earn you any respect.
- Don't go too slow. Slowing down is important, but going too slow will put your audience asleep. It is essential to find a workable balance. All lists on how to speak with confidence will talk about the importance of slowing down, but don't slow down too much or you will lose your audience to their smartphones!
- Eliminate any filler words. Obviously you'll always have a few, but the audience will catch on if you use too many of them. Say what you came to say as clearly and as concisely as possible. If your speech is three minutes shorter than the allotted time, it's not a problem; in fact, it may be more powerful.
- Breath when necessary. Don't try to finish a sentence or a paragraph without breathing if you need to take a breath. Obviously the audience knows you have to breath!
- The power of the pause. Adding a deliberate pause is part of slowing down. Putting pauses in your sentences adds authority to what you are saying No list on how to speak with confidence would be complete with the pause!
- A touch of emphasis. Speaking in a monotone will quickly put your audience into a coma. Adding emphasis to certain words breaks your words into section and keeps the audience interested. You could be telling them how to make a million dollars in the next month, and if you were speaking in a monotone, many of them would drift off.
- The last tip of this list of how to speak with confidence is to practice in front of a mirror - don't feel embarrassed about it. It's one of the best ways to get comfortable speaking and to practice your topics. Practice may not make perfect, but it makes your public words deserving of respect.
https://ezinearticles.com/?7-Keys-to-Learning-How-to-Speak-With-Confidence-in-Public&id=9477281
Building Confidence Isn't Easy - But There's Hope
Theoretically, building confidence shouldn't be complicated. And theoretically, confidence coaching shouldn't be necessary.
The key word here, of course, is theoretically.
Because in practice, things act differently. - Like they often do.
Building confidence should be easy. Because the principles aren't very hard to grasp.
Most of us even know most of them. In fact, here are a bunch of great principles for confidence, straight from the top of my head:
- Have a goal in life that you continually work towards
- Evaluate yourself continually
- Practice active appreciation towards life and your resources
- Learn something new every day
- Stop comparing yourself to others
- Do something you're passionate about
- See the possibilities, not the limitations
- Get out of your comfort zone and do things that unsettle you
- Practice physical exercise 20-30 minutes daily
- Meditate 10-20 minutes daily
- Eat lots of vegetables, legumes, whole grains, fibres and protein
- Don't eat processed foods, junk foods, starchy carbs, saturated fats, candy, cake, etc.
- Don't smoke or do excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol
- Sleep 7-8 hours every night
- Surround yourself with people who support and affirm you
- Shun people who bring you down and hold you back
- Stand up for yourself, speak up when you want to, fear nothing, never give up, accept what you cannot change, etc.
I could go on, but hopefully you get the point.
... Which is, like I said, that by far most normal people know by far most of these things already. I mean, most of these points are common sense and knowledge.
Why, then, is building confidence so hard for some people?
Because there's a difference between "easy" and "simple".
Casually sketching the formula for a great life is, in fact, almost insultingly easy. However, carrying it out in practice is what's hard. And, for many people, downright impossible without help.
The good news, then, is that it's simple.
In fact, building confidence is like building muscle. It's hard, and it takes effort, but it gets easier over time and if done consistently.
Also, what I've found is that the same principle goes for the vast majority of people: It doesn't matter as much what you specifically do with your life rather than the fact that you do it while you maintain building confidence.
In fact, if you keep building confidence continually, it won't matter much what you do, because you'll be able to do pretty much anything. And you'll be confident enough to calmly accept the things you cannot do -- for now, anyway.
It's like taking a shower, brushing your teeth, or even owning a car: If you want it to keep working, you gotta maintain it.
Yes, it's hard. Yes, it'll take time and effort. But that's no reason not to do it anyway. Because there is no such reason. There is only the excuses that we make for ourselves out of fear.
ACTION ITEM:
This week, get out of your comfort zone. Do just ONE thing that really scares you, but which you really want to do. It could be talking to someone about a problem; or how you feel about them. It could be walking up to a complete stranger asking for directions. As long as it's something that really unsettles you.
Why would we do something like this? Because, when practiced regularly, getting out of our comfort zone makes us grow. It strengthens us and makes us more confident. So for goodness' sakes: Do it, and keep it up.
https://ezinearticles.com/?Building-Confidence-Isnt-Easy---But-Theres-Hope&id=9762834
Center As You Enter
I open my eyes. Morning.
Quiet time. Meditation.
I relish this moment. Yes, there is much to do. The difficult conversation ahead. The pile of work sitting on my desk and on my mind. The emails to return. The seminar to design. Do I have time?
Yes. I will make time. I will sit quietly and do nothing. Nothing except to notice the breath coming in and going out of my body. The thoughts, the physical awareness, the birds chirping outside my window. All coming and going, like the breath.
Wendy Palmer, a teacher of aikido and leadership presence, categorizes the many ways to practice centering into three areas: committed practice, ritual practice, and spontaneous practice.
Committed Practice
Committed centering practices are ones you do every day, such as:
- Meditation
- Prayer
- Quiet sitting of any kind
- Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong
- Other similar mind-body practices
The committed practice is your foundation. When you begin the day in a centered way, you will more easily come back to center as the day unfolds and challenges occur.
Centering Rituals
Centering rituals are activities you do with the purpose of reinforcing the centered state. For example, I consciously center myself when I:
- Put on my seat belt
- Stop at a red light
- Touch the door knob as I enter my house
- Listen to the first ring of my telephone
- Breathe in and out from center before each meal
People often ask if physical exercise activities like running, swimming, or aikido are centering practices. If you engage with the purpose of reinforcing the centered state, then they are. For example, when I swim and I consciously extend my arms and legs--and my ki (energy)--from center, I'm practicing the centered state.
Spontaneous Practice
A spontaneous centering practice can happen anytime you notice you're not centered, stop, and re-center yourself.
- In a difficult conversation, I notice I'm about to push for my way when it would be more useful to wait, listen and acknowledge what I hear.
- I'm driving in heavy traffic and someone cuts me off.
- A customer service representative puts me on hold and after 5 minutes of waiting, the call disconnects.
You're more likely to center spontaneously if you also have a committed practice and rituals that you regularly engage in.
Center As You Enter
At Marin County Day School in Northern California, Aikido is part of the curriculum--they call it Energy Time--and the practice of centering is reinforced throughout the school. Signs posted above classroom doors encourage students and teachers alike to:
Center as you enter.
Breathe before you leave.
Their moving YouTube documentary, "Center As You Enter," is a vivid example of the possibilities available for centering training in K-8 elementary schools. As the Marin County students put it:
- "I think you have to do it a lot to do it really good."
- "Yeah, you have to practice."
How do you practice centering? Do you reinforce your centeredness in a consistent way, so that you're less likely to falter when life throws a curve?
Life weighs heavily at times. But right now there is only this moment. Center now, and let this moment expand beyond all there is to do and say, until just being present is a gift.
Breathe. Smile. Be.
https://ezinearticles.com/?Center-As-You-Enter&id=9907577
The Last Great Confidence Secret
Thank you for reading my article The Last Great Confidence Secret, and because you are reading this I know you are a fellow seeker of more confidence, and that excites me.
As you are a fellow seeker of more confidence, it's all right for me to reveal to you the Last Great Confidence Secret. This is a secret that never quite gets revealed by confidence "scholars". I've read hundreds of articles on confidence, read book after book, and tried to stay awake watching video after video on confidence (most online confidence videos really need to be better thought out) and they never reveal this secret.
I know that the Last Great Confidence Secret is both going to thrill you, but also disappoint you.
So what is the Last Great Confidence Secret?
Without further waffle I can reveal that the Last Great Confidence Secret is:-
There is no secret to being confident!
"What" you say! There must be some:
- Magic,
- Trick,
- Secret,
- Formula,
- System, or
- Key to being confident? There must be!
Sorry, there is not. If you ever want to be confident, you should stop looking for such things - right now.
The secret to confidence is that it's a skill just like any other. A skill that can be researched, studied, learnt, memorised and practiced.
I told you you'd be disappointed didn't I?
But here is the thrilling part.
But the fact that confidence is nothing special and is just a boring bog standard skill, is really good news for you, because you are an expert at gaining and becoming very good at boring bog standard skills. Just think about it. Everything you know now, and I mean everything, at one time or another you didn't know anything about these skills and had no experience in them. Now you are an expert in these things.
If you put your mind to it - very soon you will be an expert at confidence, and will as a result - be very confident.
And now to the practical part.
I hope by reading the above you've:
1 - Realised that confidence is no more than a skill like any other skill, so it can be learnt, studied, and practiced, and
2 - Decided that you want to and will practice this skill of confidence.
If you have come to the above realisation and decision, the next bit is for you.
What you need to do now is to ensure that you study confidence every day for the next year. You may think that doing this is hard, but it's not. As long as you set it up in the right way. And I am now going to show you how to set it up.
All you need is a bit of spare paper, and a pen (or an electronic equivalent).
What you need is a list of every day for the next year, including today. Either create or print off a readymade calendar. I usually use an A4 sheet of paper, which I print out columns as the months and horizontal rows as the days in each month.
Once you have this divide the year into quarters. I usually do this by getting four coloured pens and outline each quarter in a different colour.
Once you've done this, all you need to do is:
In the 1st Quarter - just spend a minimum of 5 minutes researching confidence each day.
In the 2nd Quarter - just spend a minimum of 10 minutes researching confidence each day.
In the 3rd Quarter - just spend a minimum of 15 minutes researching confidence each day.
In the 4th Quarter - just spend a minimum of 20 minutes researching confidence each day.
And each day once you've done it, just mark your sheet (I do this by filling in the day with green highlighter).
Doing this is really easy to start, as five minutes is roughly the time it will take you to websearch then read one webpage on confidence.
If you miss a day, don't stress about it, just carry on the next day. All I do is mark the day on my sheet with a red highlighter, and forget about it.
If you do this and use such as sheet, I guarantee that in one year's time you'll be:
(1) Much more confident than you are today,
(2) Be set up for a lifetime of increasing confidence.
So before you do anything else, and I mean, do it NOW,
(1) Decide that you'll do this,
(2) Produce your sheet, and
(3) Get your first five minutes done, and marked off.
If you do this you will have discovered the Last Great Confidence Secret.
https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Last-Great-Confidence-Secret&id=9742143
How To Conquer Pressure Like A Brain Surgeon
Some people would say that I have a high-pressure job. I'm a professional speaker. My job is to do what, to most people, is their number one fear: speaking in public. In a few days, I'll be speaking to an audience of 5,000 people - and I'm fine with that. For many people, though, that would be more pressure than they could handle.
You know who I think has a high-pressure job? Brain surgeons! See, if I screw up, what happens? The speech doesn't go well, and I probably don't get invited back. If the brain surgeon screws up, what happens? The patient dies. So I think we can all agree that the brain surgeon is under much more pressure, right?
You know who might not agree? The brain surgeon.
"How is that possible, Bill?" you ask. "Surely the brain surgeon knows, better than anyone, how much pressure she's under?"
But here's the thing. Most speciality surgeons (brain surgeons, cardiac surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, etc.) don't feel nearly the amount of pressure we mere mortals might think they do.
Why is that?
Largely, it's because of one word: repetition.
When a surgeon steps into the operating room, she has performed that procedure so many times before that, in her eyes, it's routine. It's just another day at the office.
The training generally follows a process called WDT, which stands for Watch, Do, Teach.
When learning a procedure, the doctor/student will Watch this procedure being done by surgeons who have already mastered it. And then they'll watch again. And again. And again.
The next step is to Do the procedure - at first under close supervision and then, finally, as the lead surgeon.
The final step, which some say is the most critical, is to Teach others how to do the procedure. When you can teach it to others, you know you have it mastered.
It's the same in your world. Even though you may not be aware of it, you probably went (or are going through) the same steps. And what do they have in common?
Repetition.
When you Watch a skill being performed when you Do the skill, and when you Teach the skill - dozens, hundreds, thousands of times - you are repeating it to the point where it becomes routine. And when it becomes routine, it eases the pressure.
Do you think your pilot starts shaking and sweating when it's time for him to land the plane? Probably not. Why? Because he's done it thousands of times - it's routine.
Why can I get up and speak to 5,000 people without falling to pieces? Because I've spoken to hundreds and hundreds of audiences before.
Here's the equation: As repetition increases, pressure decreases.
Do you recall the pressure you felt the first time you got behind the wheel of a car? If you're over, say, 30, you may not even remember it - but it was there! Do you feel that pressure now? Probably not (unless something out of the ordinary occurs). There's no pressure anymore. It's routine.
Bottom line: Whatever high-pressure skills are involved in your job, practice them. And then practice them again. Over and over and over. Until they become routine.
It works for the brain surgeon, and it'll work for you.
https://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Conquer-Pressure-Like-A-Brain-Surgeon&id=9933037
The Winners Or Those Who Can Take It Best
Persistence is more powerful than talent or innate ability, although both can help when you have them. Thinking about the art and reality of persistence, some of the greatest things, inventions and work have come out of persistence, even greater than natural talent can yield at times. That reality is what this article is about, and that is what you are going to get in the purest sense of that reality. After all, persistence and genuine desire and practice prolonged productively can make a force of nature out of a person that is superior to "natural talent" and "innate skill".
When I think about the life of a quitter, it is a bloody mess, that is it. If you can survive the bloody messes, then persist and persevere past them, that is when winning starts. Even Michael Jeffrey "Air" Jordan did not make his high school basketball team on the first try before winning all he did in basketball. Indeed, perseverance despite bloody messes and scars is where winning starts, nobody can tell anyone with sense any different either.
A genuine dyed in the wool "lucky" winner in life that has everything really working for them had lots of practice first, and lots of perseverance before genuinely "getting there". That person had so much practice and perseverance that it would look effortless. At least, that is my line of thinking on the realities of genuine winning. That is why genuine winning really is rare, and lottery winners who "get lucky" seem to be a "dime a dozen". Who wants to train and work when it is "easier" to "get lucky" too many rationalize. But when you earn it harder, you lose it harder and keep it better, any genuine winner rightly rationalizes.
Sure, moving "the big iron ball of reality" is a daunting task for so many, as it should be. Effort and earning is better than having it given to you always instead of depending on "easy lucky breaks" because it is appreciated more at least at a deeper level of mind and spirit or subconscious level of mind because of the fact that it was not easy, and it was earned.
After all, some of the greatest tragedies stem from the lucky breaks, unearned and easily given successes without the effort and perseverance to genuinely earn something. After all, life means nothing but the next genuinely great and sustained effort anyhow, and the earned means everything, the given and luckily "come by" means nothing. Not being able to duplicate a success can crush the spirit, being able to be permanently successful through genuine effort makes better and enriches the spirit permanently. Giving up leads to nothing and sustained effort leads to everything anyway.
https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Winners-Or-Those-Who-Can-Take-It-Best&id=9996509
The Power of Habit
Aristotle once said, "we are what we repeatedly do" and this shows the power of habit. If we are repeatedly doing things that lead to greater success, then we will be successful but if we are repeatedly doing things that hinder our success then we will not get what we want in life.
Create a Habits List
Before creating a to do list think about creating a 'habits list', this is a list of the habits you want to create and a tracker to help you track those habits. Let's say for example that it is your goal to lose weight. In order to lose weight you need to exercise regularly and so onto your habit tracker you would put exercise and then each day that you exercise you would tick off that item on your habit tracker and know that you have taken a step closer to your goal. If you just had to exercise once though it wouldn't be much help so you need to make a habit of exercising at least three times a week.
How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit?
Some people say 21 days, others say you should aim for three times that amount. Personally, I think it is better to aim for three times that amount because if you give yourself a break too early then you may find that the habit is easily broken and it is too easy to fall back into bad habits. By challenging yourself to practice this habit for longer you are ensuring that it becomes a part of your life and you are less likely to give it up as it becomes part of you.
Breaking Bad Habits
In addition to creating good habits, if you want to really achieve success then you also need to break bad habits that are hindering you from becoming all you can be. Let's go back to the weight loss example and say you have a habit of getting take-aways for dinner every night. If you want to lose weight then exercising in itself is not going to be enough, you need to learn to develop healthier eating habits and that means breaking the bad habit of getting take-aways all the time. Learn how to do meal preparation and plan healthy foods that will promote weight loss.
"We are what we repeatedly do" and so we need to create habits that are going to help us achieve success. It is not enough to simply do something once and hope it will bring you success, you need to do it repeatedly. Create habits that will help you become the person you want to be.
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Power-of-Habit&id=9596232
Deliberate Practice: Your Key to Mastery
Deliberate practice is a skill that allows you to make the most of your time. It's a path to mastery that we all can follow.
And yet, it may come as news to many... as it did for Performance Psychologist Noa Kageyama, Ph.D., who's written an excellent essay titled "The Most Valuable Lesson I Learned from Playing the Violin." He shares his experience as an aspiring violinist and his interest in learning how much he needed to practice in order to become a master of his craft.
You've all heard the expression "Practice makes perfect." There is truth to this, as repetition trains the body and mind, transforming the new and unfamiliar into something known - something you can do in your sleep. But do you really want to be doing things in your sleep? Is rote repetition truly the way to go?
Here's what Dr. Kageyama learned as he searched for the answer to his guilt-provoking childhood question, "Am I practicing enough?"...
I scoured books and interviews with great artists, looking for a consensus on practice time that would ease my conscience. I read an interview with Rubinstein, in which he stated that nobody should have to practice more than four hours a day. He explained that if you needed that much time, you probably weren't doing it right.
And then there was violinist Nathan Milstein who once asked his teacher Leopold Auer how many hours a day he should be practicing. Auer responded by saying "Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Practice with your mind and you will do as much in 1 1/2 hours."
Deliberate Practice: It's About Focus... But More
In order to engage in deliberate practice and move toward mastery, finding focus is vital. But I would argue that it takes something more.
It takes a quality of attention that brings your presence as fully and completely as possible to your practice. This quality I would call Mindfulness.
Deliberate, mindful practice is efficient and effective. The irony is, however, that in order to do it, you need to even put the benefits out of your mind and simply bring yourself fully into the moment. Whatever is a barrier - worries, resistance, distractions, even goals - is set aside and you are simply present to what you are doing.
This is mindful and deliberate practice, and you reap powerful rewards when you engage in it.
Mindless practice is the opposite and has the opposite effect, eating up lots of your time and fielding few benefits (and sometimes even leaving you worse off). When you engage in any activity mindlessly you are that much more likely to make mistakes; and when you are repeating those mistakes in mindless practice, you are developing unhelpful habits.
So, if you are looking to learn a skill, how do you go about it?
I highly recommend mindful, deliberate practice as a powerful path to finding time and finding mastery.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Deliberate-Practice:-Your-Key-to-Mastery&id=9936502
Practice! Picture! Pull Off!
We all want to do "it". What I mean by doing "it" is achieving what we genuinely want in life and existence. We all want to be master players in our game, not spectators outside the stadium, or could-have-been types, even. Indeed, to become a winner and do "it" something is needed: persistence, perseverance, practice, picture, pull off! Call it all what you want. I consider all those qualities needed, though, if anything will be achieved. I am not just writing from opinion, I am writing about a reality I genuinely understand here.
A quote I always quote somehow in many of my articles is the 1972 Olympian Mark Spitz quote about "We all want to win, but who loves to train?" Loving to train as well as win is the life secret of anyone who "makes it" or makes it to where they want to go.
I, in this article am going to leave some thoughts seemingly incomplete to give you room to think and be creative in your thinking about how the realities of this article apply to you. (As you can already tell.) Call it "audience participation", but as philosopher Soren Kierkregard and William Clement Stone paraphrasing him once said, "Sure, when you read a book or article and get something out of it, that is it. But, when a book reads you well, that is when you really get something out of it. That is the idea I have here, I want to go beyond that, I want you to read yourself extra well. Professor Xavier in the X-Men was right when he told Logan the Wolverine, "Read your own mind and thoughts, that is where you will find your greatest insights." That is also what I am telling you, practice your success before it happens, picture your success before it happens, and use your insights to pull it off wonderfully when the success happens. Genuine understanding of yourself is the best insight you can have in life. So, stop, think, analyze yourself! You have your answers within you. They sure are not outside of you in any way.
Realistically, our expectations are realistic when we are genuinely honest with ourselves. So, I end with words from the Song of Solomon modernized: "As a person thinks in their hearts, so are they!" How much simpler can I end? We are what we think about to the tune of Earl Nightingale and reality.
What Is Your Sacred Practice? (By Beverly Molina)
Have you been lucky enough to find a practice that brings you into the Now Moment, your personal Truth Place, your authentic Heart Space?
And if you have, have you surrendered to it in its entirety?
Have you let it take you on its expansive journey into the unknown and creative flow that makes you feel... And therefore feel alive?
Maybe you have found your practice in hiking, gardening, jogging, painting, snowboarding, surfing, drumming, cross-fitting, meditating, or being in nature. Your practice is the one that feels right to you.
And have you ever wondered what might happen if you fully devoted yourself to this personal passion for even a short amount of time, whatever it may be?
I got to find out, firsthand, recently.
If you've known me even for a short time, then you know that free form dance is the sacred practice that does it for me!
I've been free form dancing for seven years, once or maybe two times a week - but I recently found out what happens when I spend a concentrated amount of time with my favorite practice.
Find That Which Reveals Yourself to You
Exactly one month ago, I found myself aboard the first ever Ecstatic Dance Bus Tour - a weeklong tour made up of myself and 31 other colorful people, for whom ecstatic dance (also called conscious dance or free form dance) is a passion and a practice.
For 9 days and 8 nights we travelled over 2000 miles up and down the state of California and brought our ecstatic dance practice "to the people." We danced in other ecstatic dance venues and connected with ecstatic dance tribes in 9 different cities. We danced on lakeshores, beaches, mountains, and parking lots. We immersed our bodies in authentic dance expression, shared what dance meant to us, and danced with others in hopes of inspiring.
I got to dance for hours everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. This intense immersion in free form dance was a first for me, and I am feeling the rhythmic reverberations inside me still today. I've been processing these significant changes within me for the last month and I want to share some of those with you.
It was 11 pm on a Sunday night when I finally made it home from the bus tour, and I had to work the next morning. That next day on duty, and in the week that followed at home were intense. I was suddenly feeling deep reservoirs of emotions - all kinds of emotions - pulsing and rising up to the surface. Sadness, fear, anger, resentment - they all came pushing their way up out of an unbeknownst well, which had up to this point remained mostly invisible to me. And they actually felt good to be spilling out all over the place. But why now, why did these emotions, all of a sudden, decide to show up and demand to be seen and felt? What did it all mean?
The Truth Will Set You Free
Over the next week, the answers came from my heart:
For 9 days you dropped out of your conditioned mind and habitual routines.
You entered your body, allowing yourself to be moved through the practice of ecstatic dance.
You listened and allowed the body to inform you.
And your body became the Teacher.
And you became the Dance.
And your movements showed up authentically, freely, and radically true.
You experienced Being your pure, personal truth.
I spent 9 days in this radically true and free space, free to be myself at a very deep and profound level. And when I came back to my life as I knew it, my body was still informing me from this place of truth.
Unaddressed, suppressed, stuffed, and forgotten feelings and emotions, therefore, came bubbling to the surface. And they were grateful to be finally seen and felt. Even now they continue to be addressed, healed and released.
I am learning that it is actually a welcome surprise to be greeted by joy, silliness, sadness, fear and anger on and off the dance floor.
I am grateful to feel the essence of myself alive as these juices of life - all feelings and emotions - pour through me.
I get that my dance practice is perfect for me. When I dance I am able to freely access my truest self, somehow more easily than when I get caught up in the busyness of everyday life.
I get that I want bring this authenticity off the dance floor and into my life - always.
I get that once my body and soul have experienced truth and authenticity, it's hard to turn back.
I wish this for all of us, that we may find whatever it is that lifts our souls. What would happen to us individually and collectively, if we all lived from our authentic heart space in every moment?
May you find joy in the discovery of your own sacred practice and truth.
May you welcome and feel the spectrum of emotions coursing through your spectacular human body.
May you feel alive!
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Is-Your-Sacred-Practice?&id=9706731
Winning Friends And Influencing People (By Emette Massey)
If you've been following me, you know that I tend to write about sales, marketing, and business development topics.
So, I thought that it would be nice to start your day with something positive instead.
I recall one of favorite copywriting mentors, Gary Halbert had a great (and very healthy) way to start your day.
Best of all, Gary's morning routine did not involve a bunch of complicated workouts, routines or the typical crap you get from health gurus.
Here's how it goes...
And I quote...
- "Set your alarm clock to go off 10 minutes earlier than usual.
- The first thing, after you get up, is to immediately remake your bed.
- Go to the kitchen, pour yourself a glass of water and drink it all.
- Go to the bathroom, take care of "business," brush your teeth, wash the sleep out of your face and eyes and comb your hair.
- Next, put on some exercise clothes like sweatpants, a sweatshirt and take a 20-minute walk.
- As soon as you get back, woof down a nutritionally-dense protein drink made by mixing the content of a packet of Myoplex, Met-RX or Lean Body with eight ounces of fat-free milk and a banana.
- Scarf down a packet of vitamins and minerals like Dr. Julian Whitaker's "FORWARD PLUS."
- Take a shower.
- Dress in fresh, crisp clothes and go about your day."
So, there you go. A nearly complete system for success. And you won't find a simpler or more effective way to go about your day.
And while this seems overly simple, there's some "deep" stuff connecting and "writing" positive instructions to your mind and body that benefits you in all areas of your life - physical, mental and spiritual.
Now you may be wondering what does this have to do with winning friends and influencing people, right?
Victor Schwab wrote the print ad for Dale Carnegie's book How To Win Friend and Influence People. Though the ad was written over 72 years ago, even the most skillful write would be hard-pressed to top it.
This book directly ties in to Halbert and self-help. Hands down Carnegie's book is one of the best self-improvement books found anywhere!
If you have not read How To Win Friend and Influence People, then you should get your hands on this book immediately and read it cover to cover... at least once a year.
In fact, it should be an essential part of your personal and business library.
And if you'd like to step your game up a notch or two consider...
... the complete course called
... wait for it
... The Dale Carnegie Course.
It is based around his famous book, "How To Win Friends and Influence People."
As I reflect on my days as a Realtor, my buddy pushed me into the course. Not only did the thoughts of standing in front of group of total strangers and having to give talks scare the bejeebers out of me, the thought of shelling out $750 (which I didn't have at the time) certainly rattled my cage.
But I sucked it up, paid the money and stuck out the course to the end. In fact, I won an award for one of my speeches.
Let me just say, to date this has been one of the best $750 buck investments I've ever made. Bar none!
Here's the take away. Self-Improvement takes courage and constant practice. Remember fear is just a temporary state of mind. I learned that F.E.A.R. is simply False Evidence Appearing Real.
So true and I've proved it time and time again. Now, don't get me wrong, I still get the jitters when talking to groups (even small ones) but I get through it just fine. And feel proud and confident about myself when done.
Here's Your Marching Orders:
Decide to take better care of yourself. Consider adopting Gary Halbert's daily AM routine and start the day of right.
Get and read a copy of Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People. This is self-improvement for your life and business.
Be willing to set your ego aside and learn to conquer your F.E.A.R. It's takes developing the right mindset and a little practice but it is doable.
Until next time, I bid you success, wealth and happiness.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Winning-Friends-And-Influencing-People&id=9862537
The Secret to Achieving Any Personal Growth Goal!
We all have unfulfilled desires-aspects of our lives we want to change or grow. And we all know - from experience - that having a desire, an intention, or even a plan is not enough. How many times have you wished, intended, and planned to lose weight, start meditating, write that novel, get a new job, or change a relationship pattern-only to find yourself repeating the same old habits that give you the same old results?
There is one tested and proven secret to attract and create what you desire. This secret has been used by the leaders in every field to achieve every kind of goal. It's not natural talent, perfect timing, or good fortune. It's something we all can do, no matter who we are or what we've been through.
That secret is Daily Practice - taking one action every day to engage in what you desire.
Daily Practice is the way you take life into your own hands-and invite Providence to assist you. It insures that you live your priorities and shows the Universe what's important to you. It insures that what is most important isn't pushed aside.
To create a powerful and sustainable Daily Practice - one that is both doable and effective, simply ask yourself the following 12 questions. You don't have to take a lot of time with this or give it a lot of thought-though you can, if you want. Simply ask yourself each question and see what comes to mind. Then, go on to the next question.
Are you ready?
Here we go!
QUESTION #1: What is your number one personal growth goal?
What is most important to you right now? What's your dream? Choose one thing you want to practice, no matter how big or small.
QUESTION #2: Why do you want to practice this?
What's your purpose? What do you hope to experience, gain, or contribute?
If you don't know why you are doing something, it will fall by the wayside. When you don't feel like doing it or when something else comes up, you will let it go. Knowing your "why" keeps you going strong!
QUESTION #3: What exactly will you do?
Define the actions you will take.
For instance saying "I'm going to eat healthier" and "I'm going to start exercising" are good intentions, but poorly defined practices. Instead, it would be better to say that "I'm going to stop eating fried foods and I will eat at least one cup of fresh fruit or vegetables three times a day" or "I will take a brisk walk for twenty minutes every morning." Be specific.
QUESTION #4: How often will you practice?
The recommended answer here is "daily." Daily practice establishes your practice as a part of your circadian rhythm, your 24-hour life cycle. Actions repeated daily become "grooved" faster, run deeper, and have greater effect. So, do at least one thing, every day that moves your practice forward.
QUESTION #5: When will you practice?
Set a time. Then, put it on your schedule.
If you don't schedule it, inevitably, other things will come up. Before you know it, you'll be at the end of the day. It's likely that you will feel too tired at that point. Then, you'll put it off until tomorrow. My friend, Matt Clarkson, passed along a great illustration about "tomorrow." He tells me there's a pub in England with a sign that says, "Free Beer Tomorrow."
QUESTION #6: How long will you practice?
Commit to a specific minimum. If anything, under-commit, so you'll say, "Oh that's nothing, I can do that." If you commit to too much, you're more likely to skip it or see it as "too much effort." Once you get started, you're likely to do more because you're "into it." So, start small and expand from there.
QUESTION #7: Where will you practice?
It's important to choose a place that's conducive to what you're doing. For instance, if you are starting to meditate and you try to do it in a busy or noisy place, it's not likely to work well.
To support your practice, decorate your space with appropriate pictures, quotes, or décor that signifies what you are doing and why it's important to you.
QUESTION #8: Do you need any special equipment, supplies, or support for your practice?
Some examples include: having the right food in your house for your nutrition or weight loss practice, having the right tools and materials for your creative project, setting appointments with a personal trainer for your workouts, or downloading a guided meditation to support your meditation practice.
What will help you succeed?
QUESTION #9: How will you track your practice?
Especially when starting something new, it's a great idea to keep a journal in which you define what you're doing and why, list your goals, and make notes on your experiences.
Logging your efforts makes your practice more concrete, substantial, and real. It records the work you've put in. You are more likely to stick with something that you've put a lot into it.
Making notes on your practice also enables you to review what you've done.
QUESTION #10: How often will you review and modify your program?
Check in with yourself and see what's working, what isn't, and what changes you'd like to make so your practice is more enjoyable and effective.
At first, you might want to review and modify on a weekly basis. It's likely you'll go through some trial and error. Rather than being discouraged when things don't go well, use that as information to alter your routine to make it even better.
QUESTION #11: How will you keep your practice fresh and inspiring?
The same activity will be different every day, if you stay alert, purposeful, and present with the fine details of what you are doing-rather than mindlessly going through the motions.
Become a life-long student of your practice. Read what others are doing. Experiment. If things are getting stale, mix it up. Practice in a new location, adjust your technique, or practice with someone else. Use variety to keep your mind fresh and awake.
Remember "why" your practice is important. What do you want to achieve? What are you afraid might happen if you let this go?
QUESTION #12: How will you remind yourself to practice?
Put your practice in your schedule. Post a note on your alarm, your bathroom mirror, your refrigerator, or the dashboard of your car.
Now, you're ready to go! If you've answered these 12 questions, you've set yourself up for success. Now, it's time to take action.
Remember, Daily Practice is THE PATH to achieve any personal growth goal. It's the way to engage in and live your dreams every day.
So, what will you grow in your life?
Enjoy your practice!
Innovation Is the Key to Success
Innovation is the key to success and is a powerful weapon to have when you are traveling the road to success. Innovation does not belong to the rich or powerful, it belongs to everyone that lives today! Facebook, Amazon, and Apple started out as a dream from ordinary people. The same can be said about you, the reader; you have that potential to be someone great in your personal or business life.
It takes practice on your skill or niche to overcome any obstacle that you will face on your journey towards success. This article will give the mental software to reprogram your brain for success by being innovative in your personal or business life.
1. If you have an innovative idea, keep it to yourself. You have to protect your dream at all cost! Sharing your dream or idea will only lead to criticism and theft. Those people who have stolen your dream will claim all the credit, leaving you in the dark.
2. Achieving success for your innovation requires that you spend a great deal of time making your dream a reality. Organize your daily schedule where you can find the time to work on your dream. If you have a day job, you can plan a time before, during, or after work in which you can start working on your innovation.
3. If you are having trouble thinking up of an original idea for your project, get up and move around to get the blood flowing to your brain. As I was writing this article, I had to get up and move around for a couple of minutes to think of original ideas for this article; as many of you can tell, writing articles is my innovation.
4. Don't be afraid to write your dreams or ideas in a journal or notebook. It will surprise you to see how powerful your brain is when you use it as you are jotting down your innovation. This is how ordinary people become successful in life.
5. People love to hear or read ideas that are unique and original. Take the time to look at the great works of famous artists. No 2 paintings are the same; each one is different and tells a story that will capture the attention of the audience. For example, I have six children that are growing up too fast; each day they leave a huge mess for me to clean up. One day, I was searching the internet on how to quickly get a house cleaned up. Website after website, I was reading the same old stuff that I learned as a kid until I came across a YouTube video that showed one technique that I have never heard of before; the result was a clean house in 20 mins!
6. As an expert article writer, with many of my articles being used on many high-ranking websites, all I needed was a computer, internet connection, and the desire to succeed. You will only need the basic tools to make your dream a reality. If your innovation is to write a book, all that you need is a piece of paper and a plain pen or pencil. If you are looking to start an affiliate marketing career, you will need a computer and an internet connection. If you want to become a great scientist or mathematician, start reading books and memorize the formulas.
In conclusion, you can see why innovation is the key to success. It will lead to personal and financial wealth.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Innovation-Is-the-Key-to-Success&id=9236285
Advanced Techniques That You Can Use to Master Mindfulness
How can a person develop mindfulness to improve the nature of his responses to stressful situations?
You need to remind yourself to look inward at all times so you can become a calmer and more relaxed spectator-participant of the world.
Today's post will center on some advanced techniques that you can also use to master mindfulness. It must be noted early on that there is no shortcut to deep mindfulness and you have to continue practicing if you want to be naturally mindful at all times.
How can you become more mindful despite the presence of stressors?
Mindfulness can be likened to a very sharp sword that can slice stressful situations in half.
However, you have to be willing to wield it before it can help you conquer stress. If you're ready to vanquish stress through mindfulness, here are some additional steps that will help refine your mindfulness:
1) Suspend Your Judgments - We now live in a world where people are constantly required by society to choose, decide and judge things. We pass small and big judgments on anyone or anything that comes our way.
The problem with passing judgment all the time is that you end up spending too much mental energy on even the smallest inconveniences of life.
The result is that you will feel exhausted and burnt out even if you are just sitting in the office. Mindfulness requires us to adapt a mindset of acceptance instead.
How does the mindset of acceptance work?
You must avoid viewing things as positive or negative; instead, you must simply accept what is happening at the present time and mold your action or response to suit your present needs.
As you practice suspending your judgment, you will soon find out that many of the stressors that have been "chasing" you around are actually insubstantial are not deserving of your time, effort or energy.
The fogginess caused by stress will also begin to lift and your mind will become as clear as the sky. A clear mind is something you will definitely need if you want to manage your stress more effectively.
2) Avoid Instant Reactions - The human brain was designed to create routines or patterns of thoughts and behaviors that are used automatically in different situations.
These predetermined patterns, as you may already know, are not always useful or productive. I call these behaviors and thoughts "reactive elements" of the mind because they come to the surface without the need for conscious thinking.
Instant reactions can foster a life full of stress because it's easy to let the stress get the upper hand because it feels 'right' for the situation.
However, if you continue to let stress get the upper hand, you will become unhappy and less productive in the long term. In order to combat these subconscious reactive elements, you have to practice conscious thinking.
How does conscious thinking occur?
The human mind is divided into two distinct parts: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind actually gives instructions to the conscious mind. The latter protects the subconscious mind from intrusions (e.g. potentially harmful ideas).
Conscious thinking will require you to shift the power of thought to the conscious mind so you can exert more control over what takes place in your subconscious.
Conscious thinking is also a great way to create actual solutions that you can use to remedy problems for good. The subconscious mind can help with creating solutions but only if it's not on "autopilot."
3) Be More Compassionate - The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines compassion as "having empathy and pity for the misfortune of other people."
Choosing to be more compassionate automatically hampers negative judgments and knee-jerk reactions, which then leads to a quieter and more peaceful mind.
Being more compassionate toward other people and their situations in life is a great way to beat stress because your mind will be focused on empathy rather than on negative thoughts and emotions.
Immersing yourself in compassionate thought and action can also break down the hard shell of pessimism that many people develop as a way of dealing with stressors.
When you see reality as a series of bad situations and misfortunes, you definitely need a dose of compassionate behavior to reverse your pessimism. A person who chooses to be compassionate at all times is more likely to find inner peace and happiness than someone who makes a conscious choice to be critical of other people's words and actions.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Advanced-Techniques-That-You-Can-Use-to-Master-Mindfulness&id=9437806
How You Can Get Lucky in Life With These Three Tips!
When you say someone is lucky, what do you usually mean by that? Do you mean that person has anything he could ever want? That he's living the life and making the most out of it? That he just keeps going at his goals, achieving them, and getting more opportunities thrown at him?
Basically, yes, that is what people often mean when they express how lucky someone is.
Most of the time the words 'Wow, he's so lucky!' also come out with a tone of amazement, and sometimes even longing. When people see how lucky someone is, they start wondering if luck is ever going to come their way too.
The answer? YES, luck can and will come to you eventually, but you have to put a little effort into attracting luck in your life! To help you with this, below are a few tips on how you can get lucky in life:
According to a number of behavioural scientists, there are two types of people. People who think that 'world happens to them', and those who think that 'they happen to the world'. The former group thinks that things just happen, and they can't do much about it. On the other hand, the latter group thinks that they are responsible for the things that happen. In other words, the first group just lets luck happen, the second makes their own luck. Guess which ones tend to get luckier in their lives? The ones who sit around and wait? Or the ones who get off their butts and look for it? The answer should be obvious, so get up, and look for your luck!
Shane Sorensen, an author at Make Your Best Self states that the chances of winning an Olympic gold medal are around 1-662,000. Obviously, those are pretty big odds, but remember Michael Phelps? Remember how he won not just one gold medal, but eight? You can probably say that Phelps is one of the luckiest men alive, beating the 1-662,000 odds eight times! However, despite beating those amazing odds, we can't say this was the work of pure luck alone. How exactly was Phelps able to pull off eight Olympic Games and win the gold medal in all of them? The answer is through practice and hard work! As Thomas Jefferson, an American historical figure once said, 'I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.' If you want to get lucky, if you want to get that promotion, or if you want to get a date with a girl you like, work hard for it!
Reader's Digest writer Richard Wiseman did a series of experiments dealing with people's thoughts and behaviour, and how it affected his participants' luck. He measured how lucky they thought they were through a questionnaire, and instructed them on what lucky people usually do. Wiseman told participants to break their routines and try something different, to be more open towards opportunities, and having the 'things could've been worse' mindset whenever bad luck would strike. In over one month, he indicated in his study that 80% of his participants not only became luckier, but happier and more satisfied with their lives! The bottom line? Practise a more positive outlook in life and learn to change things up a bit when your life becomes routine-ish!
I know that all the people around me who believe they are lucky, always are. My best friend and I grew up with different backgrounds. Her parents were positive with no fear and therefore embedded this into my friend's brain.
My parents on the other hand (not intentionally) were always worrying about the future and looked at it like everything was difficult, that they were cursed, and therefore embedded this into our minds from a young age. We began to feel 'unlucky' and therefore went through a lot of these so called unlucky experiences.
Some of these unlucky experiences, of course, allowed us to open our wings and grow, but I believe we could have made things easier if we had dropped the fear and hardship from our belief patterns to begin with.
Therefore, it's important you keep what you learned here in mind in your attempt to become luckier in life. In general, always remember to keep your heads up, and learn to shrug off and deal with bad luck more positively!
How to Remember Names: 3 Sure-Fire Tips That Work
.png)
When I first began to speak for a living I found it difficult to remember the names of the people who hired me or those I met during refreshment break or during the chit chat session at the end of my presentation. I knew I had to do something to improve my memory. How could I continue to speak on relationships and communication and not recall the names of the people I was relating to and communicating with?
After much research, study, and practice my memory improved to the point where now people frequently ask how I am able to remember the names of so many people. Here are my secrets. Practice them and in no time you too will be able to impress others with your remarkable memory.
The most important memory technique is DESIRE. You've got to really want to remember a person's name. Most forgetting is not the result of a poor memory, but rather the result of a lack of desire or intention to remember in the first place. You have only ten seconds to lock a name into your memory. If you don't lock it in within ten seconds it is gone.
Memory Techniques
* Pay attention and listen carefully. Listen carefully when someone gives you their name. Pay strict attention. If the name is unusual ask the person to spell it. Pay attention to the spelling. Use the name frequently in the conversation.
* Repetition
Repeat the name mentally five or six times after it has been given to you. This alone is often enough to lock the name into your memory bank. I have found that if I have quite a few names to recall this strategy doesn't work as effectively. For one or two names it works well.
* Association and Exaggeration
When a name is given, associate it with a mental image. The image you come up with should be off the wall. Research has found that the most bizarre images are the ones most easily remembered. Exaggerate the size, shape and action of the associated image. This too promotes memory retention.
Examples of these techniques in action
Name to Remember: Annie Davis
Think of a woman's fanny and an Avis rent a car. Now picture the fanny getting into the car with a huge Avis sign on the door.
Bill Dewar
Imagine a man covered with dollar bills digging for dew worms.
Connie Adams
Think of a woman in a striped prison uniform (CON) with a newspaper on her knee reading the help wanted ads. con + knee + ads This should be enough to give you the name when brought to mind.
As silly as these might seem, they do work. To practice this exercise go to the phone book and select names at random and try to apply this technique to the names selected. The more you practice the easier the process becomes. Pretty soon you will be able to recall names using this techniques without thinking much about it.
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Remember-Names:-3-Sure-Fire-Tips-That-Work&id=8948369
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
