Constant ImprovementsDedicated To The Constant And Never Ending Improvement In All Areas Of Our Lives

Most of us have been there at some point. We’re overcome by a feeling that doesn’t seem to want to go away. Some event or circumstance may have brought this on, or it could possibly be a condition that we’re predisposed to. Depression.

It can be quite debilitating to some people. So much so that they get to the point where drastic measures need to be taken to protect their well-being. Most often at this point harsh drugs would be prescribed to control the depressive state.

However, for those who may not quite be at that stage, but are looking for a way out of their depression, there may be steps they can take to help lift the cloud. Here we will explore some options for self-help.

First of all, think positively.

It sounds easy, but this may be the most difficult step for a person suffering from depression to take. Whenever you find yourself drifting into thoughts of self-doubt, do your best to correct yourself and channel your thoughts to something more pleasant. It can be tough at first, but the more you work at it, eventually the easier it will be. The mind CAN be trained to think positively.

Do something nice for someone else.

Often times the act of performing a selfless deed can be quite rewarding. Help a friend if they’re in need, or if you’re feeling really ambitious, join a volunteer organization and begin a regular routine of chipping in some of your valuable time. You’ll be helping those in need and the sense of satisfaction you take from it can be more rewarding than you think.

Exercise.

Exercise is a terrific stress reliever and has the power to help foster a more vibrant attitude. If you’re feeling the effects of depression, get up and take a walk, or start a regular exercise routine. Set goals for yourself fitness wise and watch the results. Your sense of accomplishment at meeting and even surpassing your goals can be quite uplifting.

Sing.

Find a song, or CD you enjoy with an uplifting beat to it. Turn your stereo up and let fly. Have fun with it and before you know it, the blues will melt away.

Chocolate.

It may sound silly, but eating chocolate has been found to help lighten a person’s mood. Chocolate helps release endorphins, which help foster improvements in well-being, as well as help relieve pain. So indulge in your favorite chocolate when you’re feeling blue.

Associate with happy people.

The more you associate with more cheerful friends and family, the less chance you have of feeling down. So spend time with people you enjoy as often as possible.

These are just a few tips to help you along. If you have tried these tips with no success and you find that your depressive state has not improved, or has gotten worse. You would be strongly advised to see your doctor as soon as possible. You may suffer from a chemical imbalance or a disorder that may require professional treatment. If left untreated your condition could lead to serious harm to yourself or someone you care about. So if you feel you’re at risk, seek help immediately.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Depression

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By Dr Irina Webster

As a doctor I have worked with many women struggling with eating disorders. I am also a former suffer of anorexia and bulimia myself (this was the main reason I decided to learn everything I could about these conditions and help myself and other people to recover from it).

I believe that most eating disorders are learned behavior. It can therefore be unlearned. By behavior I mean not only actions but thought processes and attitudes as well. As with many behavioral problems, early detection often speeds up recovery.

Those who admit to their eating problem in the early stage and are frightened that they might continue – often are able to change their destructive eating habits with relative ease.

Many of the sufferers I see have already had years of individual psychotherapy. Often their therapists have focused on deep-seated underlying causes, which did not help the women in the here and now. Some sufferers have continued to feel bizarre and alone, even though they were told that their behavior was not uncommon. And there are some who have never admitted to their secret eating behavior.

Some therapists favor group therapy but I have found that group therapy is good and helpful only until a certain stage of recovery – the stage of admitting that “Yes, I do have a problem and I do need help”.

At this point to continue with treatment people are advised by councilors to come to group therapy where they return again and again, but this is not good. Here is what happens – they all become friends and get close to each other and understand each other. But to continue with the group you have be a member of it, to say it in other words you have to stay the same to continue to belong. Other wise if you recover you have to leave the group and all your friends, but it is difficult for most of sufferers to do this so they prefer just to stay the same and not recover.

While it is generally true that women in the early stages of an eating disorder recover faster, two factors seem far more relevant. The first involves the level of commitment to change. Second, but of equal importance, are the strategies she employs to overcome the eating disorder. What can she do in the face of all the anxiety? What can she substitute for binge eating, purging or starving herself? If the sufferer can call upon more productive strategies to cope with the stresses of daily life than group therapy, she is on her way to recovery. The commitment to initiate and maintain personal growth through alternative methods is therefore crucial.

The best treatment strategy, in my opinion, is when a sufferer is introduced to a special recovery program that they can follow at home. A program that is easy to follow and above all else fun to do. Yes that is correct fun to do, because if it is not fun it becomes a chore and the sufferer will simply stop doing it.

But it is also important to be very persistent and consistent with this kind of program so the role of a therapist is to actually make sure that the patient is doing it every day and everything is clear regarding the program.

The best program of the self help kind I recommend to my patients was put together by Karen Phillips (A lady who treated her daughter saving her life from anorexia and bulimia by herself). She wrote a book about her method called “Mom Please Help.” www.mom-please-help.com She approached me with it and I was so impressed that I decided to help her get it out to the world.

It is a very interesting method which has now helped many people to recover and beat their eating disorders. It fact I have discovered if the program is followed exactly then most sufferers will recover given time and stay recovered.

When I was treating myself I had unbeknown used very similar methods to what Karen had used, but it was only when Karen approached me that the penny dropped. She had done what I hadn’t done and that was documenting her every thought, action and words.

The simple fact is that eating disorders have been around for decades and conventional treatment has proven itself to be unreliable for just as long. The statistics say that the recurrence rate of eating disorders is very high even after sufferers have gone through all the group therapies, counseling and clinic admissions. You only have to look at the Hollywood stars to see that this is indeed the case.

It is now time for a different approach and I truly believe Karen has come up with that new approach. As I have used it and have the results with many sufferers making enormous advances in a short time to beating their infliction.

Dr Irina Webster. www.womenhealthsite.com

Dr Irina Webster is Director of Women Health Issues Programm which covers diferent areas of Women Health. Dr Irina Webster has a wholistic approach to medicine and her favorite area is to discover natural treatments for Women health problems and share these treatments and methods with other people. Dr Irina Webster believes that majority of women health problems can be treated naturally without drugs or surgical treatment. Dr Irina Webster started her medical career in 1987 after graduating from high school with distinctions. She then enrolled in the Medical University of Archangelsk situated in North Russia, graduating in 1993.Irina then started her internship at The Komi Republic Children’s Hospital 1993 to 1994 where she studied to become a Pediatrician. Then she did a lot of courses to specialise in Women Health. In year 2001 Irina migrated to Australia. There she has been working as a medical doctor in women health area for 3.5 years. At present she does Eating Disorder natural treatment research. To visit her web-site go to: http://www.womenhealthsite.com

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I learned the self help secret to conflict resolution and management many years ago when I was selling commercial explosives to the mining industry. I called on the manager of a rock quarry, who’s name was Tom. At that time, Tom was buying explosives from his son, who happened to be my biggest competitor. This may have had a little something to do with how our meeting began…

Right away, Tom pointed at me and said, “There are a lot of idiots like you around these days!” I immediately reacted, saying, “Well, I don’t appreciate the way you are talking to me.”

Upon hearing that, his face turned red; he raised his voice and he growled, “I’ll talk to you any way I want! It’s my office so if you don’t like it, leave!” I said in a cutting tone, “OK, fine” and stood up and stormed toward the door.

Five minutes later (not 5 weeks, 5 months, or 5 years), per Tom’s invitation, I climbed into his truck so he could give me a tour of his operation and provide me with information I needed to put a proposal together for doing business.

What did I do to make that possible? Obviously, during that 5-minute window between storming out of his office and climbing into his truck…something happened. Something BIG happened. Something profound happened, relating to conflict management and conflict resolution, which turned the tide and got the relationship back on track.

Keep reading! I’ll share what happened in a second…

Before I do that, I want to quickly point out that my “storming out the door” provides a great example of how quickly we can sabotage our progress toward desired outcomes. I called on Tom to develop a business relationship; that’s what I wanted. However, within seconds, my knee-jerk reaction had me storming out of his office with the intention of never returning again! I was recklessly sabotaging the very thing I wanted.

Do people ever say or do things that cause a knee-jerk reaction in you? Do your knee-jerk reactions ever instantly damage your relationships? Do your reactions ever lead to interpersonal conflict? Do your reactions ever leave you with a sense of regret because of how they derail your progress and leave you feeling lousy?

If so, here’s something you can do for conflict resolution, so you can repair relationships and get back on track creating what you want.

What happened in the ten minutes after I stormed out of Tom’s office? Three things happened, all of which you can apply to conflict management and conflict resolution in any relationship:

1. My sabotaging reaction to conflict was noticed
2. My sabotaging reaction to conflict was stopped
3. I shifted focus off of myself and feeling offended, and put my full attention on Tom - to help him get more of what he wanted.

When my harmful reaction to conflict was noticed, I stopped, turned to Glen, and said, “I’m sorry about the way this is going. I have no idea why you think I’m an idiot. All I wanted to do was meet with you, take time to learn about your operation, and see if we could help you reduce your cost per ton.”

Tom’s demeanor changed instantly. His job as Production Manager was to reduce the cost/ton at his operation. In fact, he received large bonuses when he accomplished that goal. If he kicked me out of his office, he might be letting a valuable opportunity slip away!

As a result, Tom invited me to take a tour of his operation. That began our new relationship. Eight months later, Tom gave me a nice piece of his business because he did, in fact, reduce his cost/ton. I got more of what I wanted by helping Tom get more of what he wanted.

You can apply this approach when you’re dealing with conflict in any relationship. With whom do you have conflict? What do they want, desire, value, and cherish? Once you know, simply help them get more of that stuff. They’ll love you for it; and, they’ll be more cooperative, pleasant, understanding, and helpful.

You’ll always get more of what you want when you help others get more of what they want. That’s the secret to conflict resolution and conflict management.

Copyright 2007

This article content is from Bill Dyer’s Award-Winning Book, How To Bounce Back And Be Happy When Life Blows You Down. The award-winning book is available at: http://www.bouncebackandbehappy.com

FREE info on “257 Ways To Appreciate This Moment And Create A Life You Love”, is also available at the above website.

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I’m sure you have heard of self help before but what about mental self help? If the truth be told, self help can only work if it starts in the mind. I have seen so many people try to implement principles and techniques so succeed but they don’t. The reason is because they haven’t applied the mental self help that is needed.

All success, no matter what area of life starts in the mind. You can read all the books in the world, go to all the seminars possible, and implement all the techniques that you can but none of it will matter if you don’t get it in your mind. I was talking to someone the other day and they told me that they have spent loads of money on all kinds of self help material.

As they were talking they kept saying things that were so negative that it was no wonder he hadn’t seen success in his life. You have to force your mind to change the way it thinks sometimes. If you allow your mind to keep thinking in a negative, pessimistic, and defeatist way, you will never break through to success in your life.

What is one area that is holding you back from what you want right now? Now, what do you need to do to change that? You have the power to change it. If you have all kinds of doubts and reasons why you can’t change it going around in your mind right now, it’s an indication that you need to get your mind right. Until you start the process of mental self help you will always sabotage yourself in almost every area of your life.

By Jason Osborn

Jason Osborn has dedicated himself to changing thousands of lives by helping people find their greatness and true potential through his Find Your Greatness Newsletter.

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Are you perfectly satisfied with you life just the way it is? I didn’t think so. No matter how much we love what he have now, it is human nature to want to keep growing, changing, and improving. But change is scary. It pushes us past the boundaries of our old, safe, familiar selves. It means finding the energy to grow rather than staying on cruise control and maintaining what we have. Change may mean leaving old, beloved, known things behind for the possibility of new and better things ahead. In a way, it is like death–we cast aside our old lives to embrace new and hopefully better lives. To put it simply, growth is not for wimps.

So, how does one set about this process of death and rebirth?

Know What You Want

Everyone has wants or goals, though some of us have become discouraged and stopped naming the goals. “It’ll never happen,” we say sadly, when we allow ourselves to think about it at all.

But if you can’t admit what you want, how do you expect to get it? Take a few minutes now to list twenty-five things that you want. They can be mundane (”I want to lose 10 pounds”) or fantastical (”I want to own a castle in England”). Just acknowledging your wants to yourself may open up your eyes and mind to possibilities you would not have seen before.

Every six months, check off the “wants” you have achieved and add new ones. This will show you how far you’ve come and encourage you to continue to grow.

Move

Physics teaches us that an object at rest tends to remain at rest while an object in motion tends to remain in motion. Be that object in motion. This doesn’t mean you need to take gigantic leaps forward every day. Baby steps are just fine. They are still motion.

If you’re still not sure how to proceed, choose one item from your “wants” list. Then list all the things you would have to do to make that “want” happen. For instance, if you want to visit Athens, Greece, your steps might include saving money, looking into accommodations and travel arrangements, getting time off work, learning a few words of Greek, and finding a traveling companion or overcoming your fear of traveling alone. Then break each of these steps into smaller steps and take one step each day toward your “want.” (For instance, “Today I will give up my Starbucks coffee and put the three dollars I save into my travel fund.” Or “Today I will order at least three tourism brochures.”)

You can work on several “wants” at once, or one at a time. It’s up to you. You are the architect of your own life.

Don’t Be Afraid To Give And Receive

Sometimes life simply hands us things, good and bad. Whatever the universe throws at you, accept it and make it a part of your life. I know a woman who was married twice. Both husbands died from cancer. Instead of crawling into bed and never moving again, as I would have been tempted to do, she started an organization to help people with cancer better understand their treatment options. Hundreds have benefitted from her two losses.

Receive riches gracefully and gratefully, remembering that they are a gift and not an entitlement.

Give of yourself daily, whether it’s a million dollars to the charity of your choice or a smile and a few soft words to a tired store clerk.

Growing means stretching beyond boundaries to occupy more space in our world. Let’s leave that space we occupy better than we found it.

Fight Frustration

The first time Sarah Brightman opened her mouth, do you think she produced the clear, sweet soprano notes so many of us love today? Probably not.

The first time Hemingway put pen to paper, do you think he produced A Farewell to Arms or The Old Man and the Sea? No.

Growth takes learning and practice. To be good at anything, you must first be willing to fail, frequently and often publicly. Take the attitude of Thomas Edison, who, when he was inventing the light bulb, announced that he had not failed but had simply found multiple ways that didn’t work; or the attitude of Margaret Mead who chided a reporter for asking about her “failed” marriages and informed him that she had had several successful marriages at different times in her life.

Every effort you make to try to improve yourself is taking you a step forward, whether you believe it or not.

Be Willing To Sacrifice

In order to grow, we must also be willing to leave behind. Leaving things behind is no small task. We cling to what we have and mourn for what we have lost, even if the loss is ultimately in our best interests, like ending an abusive relationship or leaving a bad job. But these steps must be taken, slowly perhaps, and certainly compassionately, but taken nonetheless.

Growing and changing is never easy. But the alternative is stagnation which carries its own pains and heartaches. Better to focus on becoming the person you want to be and working to make those changes than looking back in thirty years and thinking the saddest words in the English language, “Oh, how I wish I had…”

The best tips are yet to come! Sign up for the best self improvement newsletter and receive amazing and inspiring self improvement tips that will help you to achieve more happiness, self confidence and personal success! Visit SelfHelpWoman.Com for the best self help books. Or drop by the self help blog for your daily dose of free self improvement tips.

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Self help is about individual improvement and about the manner in which you can improve yourself, your state of existence and your life. It is connected to many different categories such as health, wealth, happiness, relationships, self esteem, abundance, and the list goes on. It is a concept based on one’s abilities to gather the “mental” strength needed to improve their life. By being able to help one’s self it allows them to regain control of their life, make improvements and help others with similar difficulties.

Self help, or Personal Development as it’s sometimes referred to, starts when a person realize a certain aspect of them self (or their life) needs to be changed, added or improved upon. This realization indicates that a time of great personal growth is approaching as they contemplate taking action towards making this change. This state of awakening is also known as self-empowerment which is the underlying force that will guide them to achieving their goal.

Natural Growth

As human beings we have little choice but to experience growth during our lives. I frequently tell people my life is an evolution, not a closed end or limited experience, because as I continually encounter growth; growth which I freely welcome. And, when inner growth is the focus, one’s external reality will reflect it in a positive way.

Personal growth is the natural course in everyone’s life however many people are resistant to it because it is commonly associated with change. In this case, their life appears to be stagnant even though they are unknowingly experiencing some growth. On the other hand, when change is welcome in one’s life, and personal development becomes a goal, the natural growth rate is enhanced and the positive results are greater.

Empowerment of Personal Development

Empowerment is a strong indicator that you believe you can achieve whatever you set out to accomplish. It is a function of the desire and commitment you need to reach the goal. It can also be viewed as giving yourself the authority to take personal responsibility for attaining your objectives. The most rewarding part of “helping yourself” is you decide what you want to bring into (or change) your life and how, where and when you’ll get it. And, obtaining the goal increases your ability for continued growth at a faster pace because it builds self-confidence.

Empowerment is an essential part of Personal Development because it strengthens your capacity to satisfy your own needs, solve your own problems, and acquire the necessary resources to take control over your life. The byproduct of it is finding inner peace, obtaining greater happiness and the increasing your self-worth.

Self Help and Meditation

The most astonishing factor to Self Help and Personal Development, which is frequently overlooked, is tuning into your inner being for help and guidance through meditation. The true source of empowerment comes only from within and will only be recognized when the mind is silent and clear of thought. The guidance from the higher intelligence which inside all of us is only realized when we make the choice to access it and accept it into our life.

Affirmations, declarations and positive thinking are tremendous tools which can help you reach your self improvement goals though they are practically ineffective when used in the normal “awake” conscious sate of mind. However, when the mind is quieted through mediation the effectiveness of these tools will increase dramatically. This is due to the greater focus and clarity achieved when in the meditative state.

In addition, meditation also gives you the ability to connect with your higher intelligence and use your mind in a genius like way. This added benefit gives you access to additional resources which lead to more effective and faster problem solving. In addition, you can also seek guidance from this amazing source when you need the answer to questions which are not available or apparent while at the conscious state of mind.

Helping Your Self

Individual improvement and self development begins by recognizing the need for change in your life. How the change manifests, and how you grow as a person, is proportional to the effort you put into it. Your desire and determination to make the change will dictate your success in reaching the goal.

Learning how to meditate, and how to use it to assist you in your Self Help needs, will not only speed the process, it will also help you to live a happier, healthier and more fulfilled life. It will help you become the person you desire to be and live life exactly the way you want. And, the best part is, this form of Self Help is always available to you.

English author Aldous Huxley summed it up best: “There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”

Ed McDonough is a professional Intuitive Life Instructor and Coach dedicated to helping people become self-empowered towards living the ideal life of their choice. Through private sessions and guided meditation he teaches unique dynamic meditation techniques which allow you to effectively create your future. For more information and to get a free report detailing how you can start living life the way you want, visit: http://www.AnIntuitiveLife.com

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Understanding the mind’s role in motivation and behavior is one of the most critical elements in fitness success. If you struggle with changing habits and behaviors or if you can’t get motivated, then even the best training and nutrition program is not much help.

A fascinating fact about your subconscious mind is that it’s completely deductive in nature. In other words, it’s fully capable of working backwards from the end to the means. If you “program” only the desired outcome successfully into your “mental computer,” then your subconscious will take over and help you find the information and means and carry out the actions necessary to reach it.

Many people are familiar with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to give instructions to your subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate mental training” technique is visualization. In one respect, affirmation and visualization are the same, because when you speak or think an affirmation first, that triggers a mental image, being as the human brain “thinks” in pictures.

You can use visualization to plant goals into your subconscious mind. You simply close your eyes, use your imagination and mentally create pictures and run movies of your desired results. If repeated consistently with emotion, mental images are accepted by your subconscious as commands and this helps with changing habits, behavior and performance.

Although there are some new and creative ways to use visualization, (which you are about to learn), this is not a new technique. Visualization has been used formally in the fields of sports psychology and personal development for decades and philosophers have discussed it for centuries:

“If you want to reach your goal, you must ’see the reaching’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”

- Zig Ziglar

“The use of mental imagery is one of the strongest and most effective strategies for making something happen for you.”

- Dr. Wayne Dyer

“Perhaps the most effective method of bringing the subconscious into practical action is through the process of making mental pictures - using the imagination.”

- Claude Bristol

“There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.”

- William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist and Author

Despite these glowing endorsements and a long track record, some people can’t get past feeling that this is just a “hokey” self-help technique. Rest assured, however, that visualization is an effective and time-tested method for increasing personal success that has been used by some of the highest achievers the world.

The Soviets started to popularize visualization in sports psychology back in the 1970’s, as detailed in Charles Garfield’s landmark book, “Peak Performance.” They dominated in many sports during that period, which validated visualization anecdotally.

In the last 10-15 years, there has been some groundbreaking new brain research which has validated visualization scientifically. Here’s something that was written recently by Dr. Richard Restak, a neuroscientist and author of 12 books about the human brain:

“The process of imagining yourself going through the motions of a complex musical or athletic performance activates brain areas that improve your performance. Brain scans have placed such intuitions on a firm neurological basis. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans reveal that the mental rehearsal of an action activates the prefontal areas of the brain responsible for the formulation of the appropriate motor programs. In practical terms, this means you can benefit from the use of mental imagery.”

So much for being a “cheesy” self-help technique.

Although visualization is widely used today, even people who are familiar with it often don’t realize its many applications. Arguably the most common use of visualization is by athletes, musicians and other performers as a form of “mental rehearsal.” Research shows that “practicing in your mind” is almost as effective as practicing physically, and that doing both is more effective than either one alone.

A common use of visualization in the fitness context is “goal visualization.” In your mind’s eye, you can see yourself having already achieved your physique goal or your ideal goal weight. You can also visualize a specific performance goal such as completing a difficult workout or a heavy lift like a squat or bench press.

One creative way you can use mental imagery is called “process visualization.” Once you’ve set your goals, it’s easy to come up with a list of the daily habits, behaviors and action steps necessary to reach your goal. So write down the action steps and visualize them - the entire process, not just the end result. See yourself food shopping and grabbing fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, ordering healthy foods from restaurant menus, saying no to sodas and drinking water instead, and going to the gym consistently and having killer workouts. Some people visualize their entire “perfect day” as they would want it to unfold. When you do this as vividly, emotionally and in as much detail as you can, you will be neurologically priming your brain to carry out those behaviors.

The least known of all mental imagery techniques is called “physiology visualization.” An example would be picturing the fat burning process in your body or seeing the muscle fibers growing larger and larger. Using this technique, could it be possible that you might be giving subconscious instructions to your body’s cells, organs and tissues?

Well, consider the work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a physician and cancer researcher who taught his patients (as one part of a comprehensive program), how to visualize powerful immune cells devouring the cancer cells. I’m not suggesting that you can cure cancer or materialize a lean and muscular body just by visualizing, (there’s a step in between thought and manifestation - it’s called action - a step that many self help ‘experts’ forget to mention). However, thoughts and mental images are the precursors to action and the fact that a mind-body connection definitely exists makes this an exciting prospect.

Scientists have established the mind-body link in many contexts, and not just by the existence of a placebo effect. There’s also direct evidence as in the way emotional stress can contribute to physical disease. The mind does influence the body! The mere fact that a branch of science has been devoted to this area is proof that it deserves critical investigation and is not just the domain of infomercial self help gurus. The science is called psychoneuroimmunology.

Using “physiology visualization,” you could, even in the middle of a workout, imagine the fat burning process taking place, and visualize fat being released from adipose tissue storage in your abdominal region or elsewhere. You could see the free fatty acids entering your bloodstream, being carried to the working muscles and being burned for energy in the muscle cells. You could also visualize the physiology of muscle growth.

To make your imagery as accurate and detailed as possible, my best suggestion is to refer to an anatomy & physiology textbook that shows pictures of fat cells, blood vessels, myofibrils, motor units, sarcomeres, and cell organelles like the mitochondria, so you know what the structures look like. You could also get more details about the processes by looking up lipolysis, hypertrophy or beta oxidation.

Even if you had no idea what the internal structure and workings of the body were like, you could still use this method. Your body responds to mental imagery even if it isn’t anatomically correct. We know from the field of hypnosis that the subconscious mind responds well to metaphor – maybe even better than literal suggestions. Facts and logic are the domain of the conscious mind, while emotion and metaphor can slip right past the conscious and into the subconscious. Dr. Simonton often wrote about his young patients who created (metaphorical) mental images of immune system cells as “knights in shining armor”, slaying “the dragon” of cancer cells.

One of your greatest mental powers is imagination. You can visualize anything you want and you can embellish and exaggerate your imagery as much as you want. For example, you could imagine the free fatty acids being burned for energy in the “cellular powerhouse” - the mitochondria - and you could imagine the mitochondrion as a fiery furnace… “incinerating” the fat! I think it’s a pretty cool idea to “see” your fat cells shrinking and visualize your body as a “fat burning furnace.”

Should you not believe that there’s anything to the physiology visualization technique, that’s ok, because we know that the subconscious is deductive. Just give it a goal, tell it what you want and it will get you there automatically by altering your attention and behavior. Therefore, we can be confident that physiology visualization will be effective even if only as a subconscious directive about your desired goal. If science someday provides us with conclusive evidence that visualization actually does cause cellular - physiological changes in the body, well, that’s just all the better.

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer, certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), certified master practitioner of NLP and author of the best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. Tom teaches you how to lose fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting http://www.BurnTheFat.com , home of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle and http://www.BurnTheFatInnerCircle.Com , the Internet’s premier members-only fat loss support community

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We all need to communicate well in order to build and maintain good relationships with people. Your job can even depend on it – you may need to sell, persuade, teach, lead… There are many times when you need to be a skilful communicator. Sometimes our communications may need some mental self help to make them better.

We all have times when no-one seems to understand us – it’s probably happened to you many times. You seem to be unable to get through to the other person, no matter how hard you try. Sometimes these differences can lead to the breakdown in relationships or even more serious consequences.

How do you get your message to the outside world?

A good question.

The first thing is to consider just how you communicate to the outside world.

You communicate with other people through your words, your body language and your tone of voice. A study of the effectiveness of these different means of communication showed that the content of the words you use is the least important, tone of voice is next while body language accounts for more than half of the communication.

When we look at these three things, the least important, your words, is the one is the one that communicates complicated ideas while the most important one, your body language, is most effective at communicating emotions and feelings. The first mental self help tip is to realise that human communications are a blunt instruments.

The exaggerated communications you see in television commercials are a result of the nature of human communication.

The final means of communication you need to think about for longer term relationships is your actions. These will enable people to build up a picture over time of how you respond in certain circumstances.

What’s In Your Mind?

One of the challenges of human communication is that we are all very complex psychological beings. You have a rich inner life. You have a complex system of beliefs, values, and deeper levels of identity and spirituality.

You have accumulated a lifetime of experiences. These experiences have been absorbed into your subconscious nature and they have produced deeply ingrained mental habits - as you get older this just gets worse!

You have also learnt from your parents, your teachers, your society… your life experiences in general a whole complex set of rules for simplifying and processing all the information that your senses take in.

One of the common sources of frustration with communication is that what you are experiencing is so complex and unique to you, you simply can’t express it!

Consider the other person

We’ve seen how complex your mind is and how the instrument of communication cannot convey enough data for use to communicate precisely. Everyone you try to communicate with is facing the same problems.

Looking at the process of communication in detail – you start with an idea which is a complex of emotions, thoughts and memories that are in your mind. First you have to simplify it and turn it in to actions and words. Which you can transmit.

The other person receives it through their senses which work a bit differently to yours, they process it through the filter of their own mind and finally they end up reconstructing a message that makes sense to them.

It’s a miracle we ever communicate at all!

However humans are miraculous creatures and we do manage to communicate quite effectively.

Mental Self Help - Enhancing your communications

The tools you have for communication are unsophisticated, to give yourself the best chance of communicating well, you need to make sure they are all saying the same thing. Your body language and your tone of voice, which tend to respond to subconscious information, and your words, which respond to rational thoughts most strongly should all transmit the same message.

In long term relationships, you need to make sure that your messages are clear and consistent over time.

The good news is that consistency in both communicating one on one and in your long term relationships happens when you are in touch with your core self and understand where you are going. In other words “when you are true to yourself”.

Mental self help note - take the time to evaluate your life and understand where you can be more consistent.

You can also improve your communications by taking the time to learn more about the mechanics of the human mind which we all use to communicate. Some basic information on nlp and the science of the mind can pay dividends!

Interested in finding out more about mental self help ?

By Kevin J. John
Kevin John has spent many years helping businesses owners, aspiring business owners, and private individuals to develop the understanding and skills needed to achieve the success that they want.

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By Jen Burmeister

Are you a die-hard self-help junkie? Do you love to read books about how to find your life purpose, how to find the perfect career or how to live your best life? If so, you’re not alone; there are a lot of us “junkies” out there, and we are all striving to create the happiest life, the best career or the most meaningful view on life. No matter how much you read, though, something doesn’t seem right – you aren’t getting from the books everything you’d like – and you don’t know exactly what that “something” is. But sometimes what you are looking for is closer than you can imagine.

Who am I to make such claims? I am a self-professed self-help junkie who has done nearly everything to try and find my specific path towards enlightenment, career fulfillment and life purpose. I’ve never smoked cracked or done any hard core drugs, but I can only imagine that being addicted to self-help literature is along the same lines, no pun intended.

Are you staring your life purpose in the face, and perhaps you don’t even realize?

Let me start by asking you three very simple, yet important, questions. Take a moment to ponder each one, and don’t forget to be completely honest with yourself. If you’re not, you are only hurting yourself by not opening up your mind to the possibilities that may exist for you. And you wouldn’t want to spoil that for yourself, would you? And – now, this is very important – go with your gut instinct on these questions; do not think too long about any one of them. Go with what comes to mind first and write it down.

1. What do you spend most of your “down time” doing?

2. Why do you choose that activity (or activities)?

3. If you didn’t have to work and had all the money you ever needed, what would you do (after the initial month, of course, in which you would probably veg out for days on end, travel to faraway places and shop until you drop. I promise … that gets boring after awhile.) If something doesn’t come to mind immediately, give it a few more minutes. Type or write it out until what you’ve come up with feels right.

These questions are important because they force you think about why you currently do what you do, how you spend your time and also what you would do if you had more time. Activities will surface that you may have put on the back burner because your job requires long hours, your social life is crazy or your family life is too demanding. Whatever the reason, remember you’re reading this article and taking the first steps toward rediscovering your passions. That is very powerful stuff.

There are a plethora of self-help books, e-books, websites and activities out there to help people like us find that one thing (or things) that makes us tick while time stops – some books call it “flow” (that is part of my self-help junkie lingo) – but it can be simpler than you ever imagined just by closing your eyes, thinking of the activities that you enjoy most and aiming for that feeling you get when you are doing that activity. You know that feeling I’m talking about – that excited feeling in the pit of your stomach, almost like a mild stomachache that makes you have to poo – it’s excitement. It’s the “Christmas morning” feeling that you may have gotten as a child. Am I saying that finding your life purpose is as simple as closing your eyes and imagining what you enjoy doing? Of course not. But I am telling you that it’s a start toward rediscovering the things that make your heart go pitter-pat. Now, going back to those three questions from before and thinking about your answers. Ask yourself why you chose what you chose. There is a reason you said what you said. Think about it.

Then, as soon as you can (today, if possible) do that activity. Do that activity whether it is five minutes or five hours and see how you feel afterwards. Do you feel exhilarated? Worn down? Utter joy? Relief? What did you learn about the time you spent doing that “thing” that you claim you love? You may feel like you found what makes you “flow”, or you may have just realized “not so much”. But that is a good thing too because that narrows it down for next time. Just mark it off your list and move on. Write down your feelings and reflect on them tomorrow. And keep doing this activity once a day until you find that thing (or things) that make your tummy ache!

Jen Burmeister is a freelance writer, author or “Ralphie – Being the Weird Girl” (Coming 2008) and soon-to-be mommy in Troy, Michigan. To read more articles of this nature, please visit http://www.jenburmeister.com AND http://www.girlfromasmalltown.blogspot.com

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By Susan L Reid

Go to any bookstore in the United States and you’ll find rows and rows of self-help books dedicated to overcoming negative habits and programming. It’s staggering and a bit overwhelming (yep, there are books about that, too) to know which book will actually do the trick, fix the problem, or solve the issue. So many things need to be helped, addressed, and saved. Yikes! Are we really that bad off?

Personally, when I stand in front of the self-help section-which I try not to do very often-within minutes my eyes glaze over and my mind turns to mush. I can’t see. I can’t think. Maybe there’s a book that could help me with that?

Self-Help Books to the Rescue?

Obviously, self-help books are hot commodities. After all, they’re here to help. Help who? Help you. Help you what? Get over the past, break free from the chains that bind you, forgive those who have hurt you, and overcome your problems.

Self-help books are making some amazing claims nowadays. Here are some examples I lifted from a recent walk-through at my neighborhood Barnes and Noble:

• Learn how to overcome negative programming from infancy.

• Learn how to re-program the negative experiences that have been hardwired into you from birth.

• Make friends with your critical inner parent.

• Discover how your childhood wounds are holding you back in your intimate relationships.

• This process will teach you how to start improving your current situation that is a result of years and years of negative thinking.

• Start getting the results you want today by overcoming your past.

• Get rid of the thick layer of negative thoughts and beliefs that are making you unconsciously manifest everything you don’t want in your life.

• Learn to work with your past, not against it.

Pretty impressive, huh? Well, don’t be fooled. Don’t allow yourself, even for one minute, to be lulled into these claims. Here’s why. Consider this: There is nothing to overcome. There is no hurdle that must be jumped, nothing to wrestle to the ground, and certainly nothing that needs to be fixed.

OK. Maybe there are some things that you’d like to increase your awareness of or learn more about. Fine. But fix? “Fix” is for things, not people. You are perfect just as you are.

Not All Self-Help Books Are Created Equal

There are two kinds of self-help books on the market today. Those founded on the belief that there is something wrong with you and those that aren’t. Books based on the premise that you are an incomplete, broken, and damaged person are books founded in flaw, deficit, and decay. Books based on the premise that you are a complete, intact, and whole person are books founded in wellness, fullness, and life.

The authors of these books know that the only thing hardwired into you is your eternal God-Self. They know that nothing “awful” from the past has any effect on your eternal God-Self. No matter how many years you’ve been thinking negatively, your eternal God-Self just is. It’s not separate from you. It’s who you are, all you were, and all you ever will be. Nothing can affect that. Know this. Live this.

Remember the WYTIWYG

Your greatest point of creation is in the now. If you want something to change, change your thoughts. Now. It’s really that easy. Just think thoughts in the direction of what you want. Your thoughts will become things.

The only reason we keep repeatedly experiencing what we perceive as negative things from the past is that we continually rethink the same thoughts. Don’t like what you’re manifesting? Change what you’re thinking. It really is that easy, folks. It’s easy, because your hardware is God-Self. Your software is whatever program you choose to run. Software in. Software out. Software is easy to uninstall!

Since we’re using the computer as metaphor, remember the acronym WYSIWYG-what you see is what you get? Well, the key to conscious creation is WYTIWYG-what you think is what you get.

So, the next time you feel the urge to change yourself; don’t run to the nearest bookstore. Save your money! Just remember WYTIWYG. Get it? Wit-ee-wig! Keep your wits about you. You don’t need to change anything except your thoughts. Change your thoughts, change your life!

Small Business Start Up Coach provides value, inspiration and direction to entrepreneurial women starting up and launching small businesses. Accidental Pren-her™ providing a place for pren-hers to share stories, build community, and embrace their inner Samurai. Welcome!

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