Archive for April, 2005

Self-Improvement - Something For Everyone (Part 2)

Saturday, April 30th, 2005

Just about everyone in the world can think of something they want to improve about themselves. With some people they may want to achieve more than one improvement. The best way to approach this is to make a list of what is most important to you. It could be something as simple as reading a book to help you improve the work you do or making time for yourself to indulge in reading of your favorite pastime. Once you commit your deepest desires about improving yourself to paper, it seems more attainable.

Start off with a plan. This means setting a goal for yourself. If you wish, you can even set a time limit, such as “I want to be able to walk five km. a day at the end of the summer.” When you start out knowing what it is you want to achieve, then it makes it easier on you to get what you want. There is no point in trying to do everything at once. If you take small steps and reach stages in your self-improvement process in increments, it makes the end result more worthwhile. If you could do it all at once, then it would be too easy and you won’t have the same sense of accomplishment as if it were something that you had to work really hard to get.

In some cases, the type of improvement that you want will necessitate spending money. If you want to become more confident at public speaking, for example, you may have to take classes in this. If you admire a friend of yours that can sew or paint really well and you would like to do this as well, there are many opportunities to take classes at night or on weekends. One thing that you do have to keep in mind is the amount of talent that you have for such a project. It is also something in which you have an interest. If you don’t like it, then you won’t master it.

Of course, self-improvement always involves health, whether it is health of the body or health of the mind. Once you achieve what you set out to do, it improves all of you - your body, mind and soul.

If you need self-help information or have articles on self-help issues, visit our reprint-content.com/Category/Self-Improvement/124 Self Improvement issues section for more in-depth resources. Free reprint-content.com reprint articles

Facing Your Dragons In Life

Saturday, April 30th, 2005

Uh oh! Here comes the big one and you’re up against it. This is the moment you’ve dreaded. Just when you thought you’d got some breathing space, you’re faced with a battle against the very thing you’re most afraid of.

It’s the stuff of every story ever told about determination, quest for truth and the struggle for survival. It’s the dark shadow that haunts us and challenges us to face it or escape to where we think it can’t find us.

Epic tales of courage in the face of danger have always celebrated the overwhelming challenge faced by characters facing their own dragons and triumphing. Think of Frodo, in ‘The Lord of the Rings’, terrified that he will succumb to the power of the Ring. His fear stems from the knowledge that he is capable of being overcome and he knows that he must find it in him to resist what he fears so he can fulfil his greater purpose.

It’s when he sees his fear for what it really is - an insubstantial shadow that cannot exist in the bright light of truth, that he understands that his own fear can only exist if he gives it substance and believes in it.

Remember the recurring theme in ‘The Matrix’? It portrayed that what we fear is an illusion and that the real battle is fought in our minds. The struggle is between what we firmly believe to be true and the reality of what is possible if we only let go of our preconceived ideas.

Like anger and fear, your dragons are simply imaginary constructs - and only by turning to face them can you truly unmask them for what they are.

Imagine this. Think of a set of stepping stones across the grass, and see yourself walking across them. And now imagine that they are towering pillars of concrete sunk into a deep river bed, with only the top surfaces visible above the rushing water. Think of how that changes your perception of what is dangerous and what is not. Isn’t it only just fear that holds you back from crossing the river? The possibility that you may slip and drown?

Remember that your imagination can be your greatest friend or the most deceiving of enemies. And you can learn to overcome your fear of your biggest dragons when you use the power of your imagination to see things in a clear, bright light.

And remember that things are never what they seem to be. You can decide the meaning of any situation in your life. It is your choice.

Neel Raman, is an author, presenter, workshop facilitator and coach to many. He has written ‘Hoops and Freedom’, a powerful self-improvement book, in the form of an entertaining fiction story, targeted at those who want and demand more from life. To get the first chapter for FREE and to receive FREE motivational lessons, visit: focusedon.com.au/blog focusedon.com.au/blog
To find out more about this book and to register to receive FREE newsletters and other FREE offers, visit: HoopsAndFreedom.com HoopsAndFreedom.com

How To Succeed Without Burning Yourself Out

Saturday, April 30th, 2005

Success is always a great thing to have but many times people sacrifice their life for it. Don’t let yourself be one of those people that are successful but are so burnt out that you can’t enjoy it. If you feel you are on this road here are a few keys to help you succeed without burning out.

1. Force yourself to take time off.

You may have a load of things to do but your body needs to have time to recover and rest. If you are always going and never take time to rest you will ware your body out. What good is success if you aren’t in a state to enjoy it? Sometimes all you need is a day or two.

2. Learn to delegate.

Don’t try and do everything yourself. First of all, you are good at everything so don’t try to be. You have to learn to give some tasks over to other people. Yes, they may not do it exactly the way you would do it but if they get the same results, who cares if they do it the same way as you. Focus on what you are good at and let people do what you are bad at. This will allow you to focus your efforts and not have to ware yourself out.

3. Stay focused.

One reason why you may feel like you are getting burned out is because you let yourself get distracted from what you need to be doing. If you need to work on something specific, turn off your phones, don’t check email, and don’t let anyone distract you. This will help you get complete what is needed to be done without being pulled in a hundred different ways.

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Can You Hypnotize Women? A Crash Course in Persuasion

Saturday, April 30th, 2005

The question is always there whether they ask or it not. When someone learns you are a hypnotist, either stage or clinical, there is the suspicion that you possess some sort of ability to compel others to do your bidding-for good or evil.

“Can you make people do things, can you hypnotize women? Imagine that!”

The innuendo is that through hypnosis you can influence the behavior of others in a direction that would normally be resisted. Kind of appealing to a would-be seducer. And kind of frightening to an unwilling would-be conquest!

So what gives, can hypnosis turn a frog into a prince so to speak? Consider the definition of hypnosis that states that it is “a naturally altered state of mind where a person becomes more willing to change his or her perceptions about self, other people and the world around us.” Change perception and behavior changes with it.

So hypnosis is a tool that increases what is described as suggestibility. However, it also true that persuasion takes place all the time with or without a formal hypnosis process.

Now in order for hypnosis/persuasion to take place there must be a strong bond of rapport between the two parties. Without rapport, suggestibility dwindles down to virtually nil. And the way that rapport is developed and strengthened is the essential paradox of the persuasion equation.

The truly persuasive person realizes that he must focus on the hopes, dreams and fears of the other person, not his own. This is what builds rapport. It is no accident that truly hypnotic people have the ability to make you feel as if you were the only person in the room. Is there anyone less spellbinding than the person whose favorite topic is himself?

So can you hypnotize women? Can you hypnotize men? The answer is yes, there are verbal and non-verbal hypnotic techniques you can learn that will increase your powers of persuasion. However they do depend on the ability get of your own way and focus on the other person instead. Imagine that!

James Malone, DCH, is a hypnotist from Point Pleasant, NJ. Did you find this article interesting? James Malone is a Certified Hypnotist from Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Did you find this article interesting? You can learn more about how to build your powers of persuasion with the online usfreeads.com/586136-cls.html Underground Hypnosis Course

A Different Perspective On Time Management

Friday, April 29th, 2005

Most people think of time management as a system for organizing the day or week in order to maximize efficiency. I’d like to propose a different view of time management that is complimentary to the traditional view but has far greater implications for your quality of life.

Rather than viewing time on the small scale of a day or a week or a month or even a year let’s think of how effective your time has been over a lifetime.

There are 8,766 hours in an average year. This means that by the age of 20 you have lived 175,320 hours, by 30 it is 262,980, by 40 you have lived 350,640 and by 50 the total hours lived adds up to 438,300 on so on.

My question is; are you getting value for those hours? If you were paying someone, by the hour, to build a magnificent life would you be happy that you had got your money’s worth if that person had built your current life in the total number of hours that you have lived?

With traditional time management it is easy to become super efficient each and every day and yet when viewed over a lifetime you have really not achieved anything magnificent or inspiring.

In recent years the emphasis in time management has been to ensure that you are doing what is important rather than what is urgent but still it is possible that you achieve many small victories in the short term yet your life as a whole has not been a masterpiece.

My suggestion is this; that at the beginning of each week, before you plan yours days and hours for the week, you imagine yourself looking back from ten years in the future. Then ask yourself; what do I need to do this week so that when I look back I will honestly say that those ten years were a magnificent part of my life and I am totally and enthusiastically proud to have lived them.

The only time that you can actually use is the precise moment that you are presently experiencing. However without a frame of reference most people fritter away those present moments. By viewing each moment as a dot of paint on the canvas of a magnificent life then it is far more likely that you will treasure the moment and use it to enhance your life.

At the start of each month repeat the weekly exercise but instead of thinking from the perspective of ten years into the future think from the perspective of look back from the last few moments of your life. Imagine that you have finally run out of time and you are assessing whether your life was a success, a failure or just another average existence. What would you really like to see? What sort of life would you really be happy to have lived?

Once you have this picture in your mind ask yourself how you need to use your time in order to be contributing to that amazing adventure that your life should be. There are many different religious and philosophical views on life after death and reincarnation and planes of existence but the only things you can be sure of is that you have this life that you are experiencing now and that one day this life will be over.

Life is not a practice session it is the real thing. Every moment you live is a little piece that, when taken together with all the other moments, creates your unique life. The clearer the picture you have of that life as a whole, the easier it is to know where and how this present moment best fits into that life.

Try the weekly and monthly exercises outlined above as you will find your life taking a more inspiring direction.

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Desire - The Secret To The Law Of Attraction

Friday, April 29th, 2005

The purpose of desire is to inform man what he needs at every particular moment to supply the demands of change and growth in his life; and in promoting that purpose, desire gives expression to its two leading functions. The first of these is to give the forces of the human system something definite to do, and the second is to arouse those forces or faculties that have the natural power to do what is to be done. In exercising its first function, desire not only promotes concentration of action among the forces in man, but also causes those forces to work for the thing that is wanted. Therefore, it is readily understood why the wish, if strong, positive, determined and continuous, will tend to produce the thing wished for.

If you can cause all the elements and powers in your being to work for the one thing that you want you are almost certain to get it. In fact, you will get it unless it is so large that it is beyond you, or beyond the power of your present capacity to produce; though in that case you have exercised poor judgment; you have permitted yourself to desire what lies outside of your sphere; and what you could neither appreciate nor use were you to get it. What you can appreciate, enjoy and use in your present sphere of existence, you have the power, in your present state of development, to produce; that is, you can produce it if all your power is applied in your effort to produce it; and when you desire any particular thing with the full force and capacity of your desire you cause all your power to be applied in producing that particular thing.

In exercising its second function, desire proceeds directly into that faculty or group of forces that can, if fully applied, produce the very thing that is desired.

In its first function it tends to bring all the forces of the system together, and inspires them with the desire to work for what is wanted. It acts upon the system in general and gives everything in the system something definite to do, that something definite in each case being the one thing desired. In its second function it acts upon certain parts of the system in particular; always upon those parts that can do what is wanted done; and it tends to arouse all the life and power that those particular parts may contain.

How desire proceeds, and how it secures results in this respect is easily illustrated. We will take, for example, a man who is not earning as much as he feels that he needs. Naturally, he will begin to desire more money; and we will suppose that this desire becomes stronger and stronger until it actually stirs every atom of his being. Now what happens? He is not only arousing a great deal of latent and unused energy, but all of his active energy is becoming more and more alive. But what becomes of all this energy? It goes directly into his moneymaking faculties, and tends to increase decidedly the life, the power, the capacity and the efficiency of those faculties. There is in every mind a certain group of faculties that is made by nature for financial purposes. In some minds these faculties are small and sluggish, while in other minds they are large and active.

But is it possible to take those faculties that are small and sluggish and make them large and active? If so, those who now have limited means may in the course of time have abundance. No matter how sluggish a faculty may be, if it is thoroughly charged, so to speak, with highly active energy, it simply must become more active. And no matter how small it may be, if it continues to receive a steady stream of added life, energy and power, day after day, month after month, year after year, it simply must increase in size and capacity. And whenever any faculty becomes greater in capacity and more alive in action it will do better work; that is, it will gradually gain in ability and power until it has sufficient ability and power to produce what you wished for.

Many may doubt the efficiency of the plan just presented, because as is well known, most people desire more money but do not always get it. But do they always wish hard enough? It is not occasional desire, or half-hearted desire that gets the thing desired. It is persistent desire; and persistent desire not only desires continually, but with all the power of life and mind and soul. The force of a half alive desire, when acting upon a certain faculty, cannot cause that faculty to become fully alive. Nor can such a desire marshal all the unused forces of the system and concentrate them all upon the attainment of the one thing wanted. And it is true that the desires of most people are neither continuous nor very deep. They are shallow, occasional wishes without enough power to stir to action a single atom.

Then we must also remember that results do not necessarily follow the use of a single force. Sometimes the force of persistent desire alone may do wonders, but usually it is necessary to apply in combined action all the forces of the human system. The force of desire, however, is one of the greatest of these, and when fully expressed in connection with the best talents we may possess, the thing desired will certainly be secured.

The Law of Attraction should be: Know what you want, and then want it with all the life and power that is in you. Get your mind and your life fully aroused. Persistent desire will do this. And that it is most important to do this is proven by the fact that in thousands of instances, a partly alive mind is the only reason why the goal in view has not been reached. It is necessary, however, that your desires continue uninterruptedly along the lines you have chosen. You may desire a score or more of different things, but continue each desire without change, unless you should find that certain changes are necessary to secure the greater results you have in mind.

To desire one thing today and another tomorrow means failure. To work for one thing this year and another thing next year is the way to empty handedness at the end of every year. Before you begin to apply the power of desire, know with a certainty what you want because when you get what you have desired, you may have to take it. If you do not know definitely what you really do want, desire a better judgment, a clearer understanding and a more balanced life. Desire to know what is best for you, and the force of that desire will tend to produce normal action in every part of your system. Then you will feel distinctly what the highest welfare of your nature actually demands. In deciding upon what you want, however, do not be timid, and do not measure the possible with the yard-stick of general appearances. Let your aspirations be high, only be sure that you are acting within the sphere of your own inherent capacity; though in this connection it is well to remember that your inherent capacity is many times as great as it has been supposed to be; and also that it can be continuously enlarged.

In choosing what you are to desire, act within reason, but go after the best. If the full power of desire is applied upon all the elements of your mind and character, what is latent within you will be aroused, developed and expressed; you will become much more than you are and thereby will not only desire the best, but be able to be of service to the best. And this latter fact is important. When we desire the great and the wonderful we must ask what we have to give the great and the wonderful in return. It is not only necessary to get the best — to realize our ideal, but it is also necessary to be so good and so great that we can give to the best as much as we are receiving from the best.

When we understand how desire works, and know that it works only when it is persistent, we realize that we have found, not only a great secret, but also a simple explanation for many of the failures in life as well as many of its greatest achievements. And from the facts in the case we conclude that no matter what an individual’s condition or position may be today, if they will decide upon that something better that they want, they may get it, provided their wish for it is as strong as their own life and as large as their own soul.

Donald Gordon Carty, founder of the thepdi.com Personal Development Institute, is an avid reader and passionate student of Human Potential and Development. He is not only one of the best presenters of Personal Development information in the World, but he is also a man on a mission; to awaken people to a new way of thinking about what it is to be human and what it takes to make life and work more rewarding and fulfilling.

Dr. Carty can be reached at mailto:donald@thepdi.com donald@thepdi.com or visit his web site at. The Greatest Self Help, Success, Spiritual and Personal Transformation eBooks ever written visit thepdi.com/SuccessLibrary.htm Success Library. Listen to Donald Gordon Carty’s donaldcarty.podomatic.com “Success Live” Podcast

Short Sleeves Insights - The Voice Of The Ancient Boy!

Friday, April 29th, 2005

The Tao Te Ching was written over 2500 years ago in China, by Lao-tzu. The work is timeless and covers so many of the topics we face each day. He writes about the Law Of Attraction, but does not call it that. It is a lesson in harmony. Harmony with nature, man, and himself. He knows he is all those things and lives his truth, united with his Source. He is unencumbered by any concept of sin, and doesn’t see evil as a force to resist, but simply an opaqueness, a state of self absorption which is in disharmony with the universal process of unity.

I picked one of his thoughts about government and man for this article, to bring awareness of how things can be solved by looking within, forgiving ourselves, in order to live in harmony with all life. Lao-tzu is speaking to us now, with words that were written in Chinese so many years ago:

“When a country obtains great power, it becomes like the sea: all streams run downward into it. The more powerful it grows the greater the need for humility. Humility means trusting the Tao, thus never needing to be defensive.

A great nation is like a great man: When he makes a mistake, he realizes it. Having realized it, he admits it. Having admitted it, he corrects it. He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers. He thinks his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts.
If a nation is centered in the Tao, if it nourishes its own people and doesn’t meddle in the affairs of others, it will be a light to all nations in the world.”

Lao-tzu uses the word Tao, to mean the way, the light, your truth, the higher self. It can be called by many names, as we all know, but it is what you believe in, innately. I believe we can live as Lao-tzu suggests, if we believe we can.

Hal Manogue is a poet and author of Short Sleeves A Book For Friends. Insightful thoughts for the 21st century. Hal’s 2006 collection and 2007 collection are available in bookstores and online. Visit Hal’s website: shortsleeves.net shortsleeves.net or blog: halmanogue.blogspot.com/ halmanogue.blogspot.com/ for more information about his work and life. Download a copy of the new E-Book,”Unite To Write” a collection of articles written by writers around the globe, that will inspire and fill you with useful information. It’s value is priceless. It’s Hal’s gift to you.

Are You Addicted to Negative Thinking?

Friday, April 29th, 2005

Barbara sought my help because of her chronic fatigue. She had been
going to different kinds of doctors and trying different nutrition plans for years and nothing was helping her. One of the doctors suggested that
she try psychotherapy.

In became evident early in our work together than Barbara was deeply
addicted to thinking the worst. Constant negativity went through her
mind about every aspect of her life. She would get out of her car and
worry about getting robbed. In social situations, she would tell herself
that people didn’t like her. She was always worried about money, even
though she was a successful graphic designer. Her husband could
never do anything right. There was something wrong with every doctor
she saw.

Negative thinking causes much stress in the body. I told Barbara to
imagine that she was telling these negative thoughts to a child. How
would the child feel most of the time? Barbara could see that this child
would, of course, feel anxious and stressed much of the time in
response to all the negativity and catastrophic thinking.

The medical profession has long told us that stress is one of the leading
causes of illness. Stress sets into motion the body’s fight or flight
response, pouring cortisol into the body and eventually exhausting the
adrenal glands. Adrenal exhaustion can be one of the results of so
much negative thinking.

While Barbara could understand the possible effect her negative
thinking was having on her health, it was extremely challenging for her
to give up her negative thinking. Barbara deeply believed that her
negative thinking kept her safe from disappointment. She believed that
thinking the negative thought before the bad thing would happen
prepared her to deal with it. She didn’t want to be caught off guard. She
believed that she could not handle the pain of disappointment, so that if
she knew about it ahead of time and actually expected it, she wouldn’t
feel disappointed.

In addition, Barbara believed that if she was vigilant enough and
thought through all the bad things that could happen, she could prevent
them. She believed that by thinking ahead, she could somehow have
control over the outcome of things.

Finally, Barbara also believed that she could control how people felt
about her by acting right and saying the right thing. She was constantly
vigilant about her behavior with others in her attempts to control how
they felt about her and treated her.

However, in trying to control her feelings, others’ feelings and the
outcome of things, Barbara may have been causing her illness. The
underlying cause of her negative thinking was her devotion to this
control.

The problem with all of this is that it is based on an illusion – the illusion
of control. The fact is that Barbara could not foresee every event that
could cause her some pain. She was devastated every time something
happened that she had not thought of beforehand. How could
something painful come out of the blue like that? How could she have
not foreseen it?

The paradox of all of this is that, in trying to foresee future catastrophes,
Barbara was not present in the moment. Real safety is in being present
in the moment so we can respond appropriately to whatever is
happening in the moment. When we are fully present in the moment, we
are available to receiving information from our inner Guidance. All of us
have a Source of Guidance that is always available to us, and that is
here to help us and protect us. But we can access our Guidance only
when we are fully present in the moment, not when we are trying to
control the future.

Barbara is in the process of becoming more aware of her negative
thinking. She is not yet healthy, but she has some better days now, days
that are lighter and more fun.

Moving out of negative thinking is a process that takes time. If you are a
negative thinker, you have been practicing this form of thinking your
whole life. It is not going to stop in a day. But if you tune into the stress
you feel and learn to connect your stress with your negative thinking,
you can slowly change this pattern.

Vitality and joy can be the result of letting go of your negative thinking
and learning to be present in the moment.

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight
books, including “Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?” and
“Healing Your Aloneness.” She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner
Bonding healing process. Learn Inner Bonding now! Visit her web site
for a FREE Inner Bonding course: innerbonding.com innerbonding.com or email her
at
mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com margaret@innerbonding.com Phone Sessions Available.

How You Dream Your World Into Existence

Thursday, April 28th, 2005

Reality is not real. It is a dream. This is not a metaphorical statement. On the quantum level of reality, only pure energy exists. We are finding true what Democritus of Abdera discovered a long time ago. Democritus (about 460 BC-about 370 BC) was a Greek scholar who is best known for his atomic theory. He is recorded by Diogenes Laertius to have said, “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.”

It was long believed that these atoms, at least, were like tiny billiard balls. Later, they were thought to be like little solar systems, with electrons flying around a nucleus.

Today, physicists consider atoms to be probability clouds because at the subatomic level particles appear and disappear and there is more space in an atom than anything else.

All this means that at the smallest level of materiality, there is only pure energy.

This energy coalesces into forms we find meaningful because of the work of consciousness. In other words, without the observer, reality is questionable.

You are that consciousness that is creating the dream. And you work in harmony with every other consciousness on the planet to make it happen on a global scale. We call the collective assembly of the dream, reality.

Over eons the dream of reality has attained depth and volume. It has become a creation. And this creation now includes us, and who we are is that which is exploring itself in the mirror of the space-time continuum.

Diogenes was right about the macroscopic world, too. It really is all about opinions.

This gives you a lot of leverage, because when you choose to believe in something, you create your reality. And to change your reality, all you have to do is change your beliefs about yourself and what you consider to be real.

In Quantum Physics it is even argued that the eyes with which you see shapes the world shapes that you see.

Perception is not passive, as most people who are unconsciously following the Newtonian paradigm believe, but active; in other words, it is an act of creation.

As consciousness, you get to choose your perception, and your perception shapes both you and your entire reality.

This means that you are not a spectator of life, but a creator, and the more you understand this idea the more fluid and dynamic do your creations become.

Most people live their lives in a state of passive acceptance of what is because they do not understand that their thoughts and feelings are actually cosmic waves that move things in and out of their experience.

Yet when you realize that what you think matters to everyone, whether you know about it or not, then you also have the power to start getting what you want and stop getting what you don’t want.

Manifestation is not an occult science. It is a fact of human experience. Rather than an oddity, it is the basis of consciousness.

Those who know about the power of manifestation also come to know how each thought is a message into the collective unconscious to bring you what you want as you need it.

On the level of mind, we are in perfect, albeit unconscious, telepathy with all other minds. Consciousness is not a bundle of separate units but a collective ocean in which we all participate.

Furthermore, minds also influence matter directly, rearranging molecules, and the evidence for this is all the self-healing that is possible when you think loving thoughts to your own cells.

Who you are, then, is an artist in front of a canvas, a sculptor in front of a slab of marble, an author who is writing the story of your own life and influencing the lives of everyone else in the process.

You are the creator in the thick of your creations.

What you think and feel matters. It spins worlds into existence.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas with you. Hunting everywhere for a life worth living? Discover the life of your dreams. His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html

Copyright 2004 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this
article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or
newsletter. It’s a shareware article.

Need a Memory Upgrade? How to Improve Your Memory, Part 5 of 11

Thursday, April 28th, 2005

Joy

Joy is a wonderful tool to improve memory. The subject of joy doesn’t usually make most lists of how to improve memory, so you might be surprised to see it here. However, I believe that joy is an essential component in keeping your heart, mind, and spirit in balance; and that your ability to remember and perform cognitive tasks are supported by that balance.

The thing about joy is that once you have it, it is easy to get more, right? It’s a bit like starter for yogurt or sourdough bread. If you have a little, you can open it and plant it, and it begins to rapidly multiply and then increase exponentially. Pretty soon your life is overflowing with joy.

If you are overwhelmed with school, or work, or family, or all three, then you may have misplaced your joy ‘starter.’ Just like with starting a new batch of yogurt or sourdough, there are a number of things you can do to get it back and start making your own again. Here are some ideas to help you remember your joy and help you create more. You can:

1. Get some from a friend. Make time to call or have lunch with someone you care about. Choose someone who cares about you, and someone who makes you feel good just being around them.

2. Remember a time when you were blissfully happy. Recreate it in your mind in as much detail as you can create.

3. Give yourself permission to do something you love to do. Your may need to do a little creative time management to fit it in your busy schedule, but you will find that even just 15 minutes a day of doing something you love can not only improve your memory, but make you much more efficient and effective too. This is a great investment in yourself!

4. Use comedy therapy. Laughter has incredible powers, including healing of both mind and body. Comedic shows are a way to help free up your laughter. See or hear comedy with others in order to increase the effect. Laughter is contagious just like yawns are, so you will find that you laugh more in groups.

5. Laugh at yourself in a wholesome way. By that I mean, laugh at yourself the way a small child laughs when s/he farts. This is a great way to lighten your heart, especially if as a student you are taking yourself too seriously.

Joy is a great investment in yourself, in your academic abilities, and in your future. So if you are finding that your life is short of joy, remember that joy is an essential part of keeping your memory working at its peak, and give yourself permission to reconnect with your joy as part of your study plan. You will be amazed at the how quickly your memory improves!

Here’s to your success!

Copyright © 2005-2006 by Teresa Bolen. All rights reserved.

Teresa Bolen is a teacher at Todaiji Academy, one of the top 5
schools in Japan, and the author of Master Plan to Master Exams:
How to Discover Your Hidden Abilities to Create the Success You
Desire. You can get her FREE ‘Academic Excellence Report’ at
MasterPlanToMasterExams.com MasterPlanToMasterExams.com