In this ‘new age’ we are told over and over again that maintaining positive thoughts is the best thing that we can do for ourselves. Now whether you believe in this whole New Age movement, this whole law of attraction bit, I hope that you do realize that a positive state of mind is a good thing no matter how you think about it.

You do not need to believe that thoughts create reality in order to realize that a positive state of mind will create a positive effect. If for example you are about to partake in any activity, if you engage in this activity with a positive state of mind, one that makes you feel confident and energetic, you will definitely realize better results. In other words you don’t need to maintain a positive state of mind just so that you can attract those things that you want metaphysically, a positive state of mind will also help you in the objective sense.

But how do you attain this positive state of mind? There seem to be an infinite number of exercises and ideas about how to do this. Most of them seem to be quite complicated if you really think about it; its usually this step by step formula where you are supposed to feel this, imagine that and make it all brighter or smaller or something. Sometimes these methodologies seem like a cooking recipe.
Well if I have not bored you completely and I have not scared you off with my proposition of another method for attaining a positive state of mind, then please let me give you an exercise that is incredibly simple and only requires one thing; the power of your focus and attention.

You see fundamentally all of these exercises really rely on this one principle; the principal of focus. If you’re able to maintain your attention focused on one positive thing no matter what, you will be able to maintain a positive attitude in just about any situation.

When I say focus, I do not mean stress or strain. If you stress or strain yourself you might actually hurt your body and perhaps even give yourself an ulcer. There’s a big difference between concentrated focus and physical effort. The body gets tired and too much tension can be quite detrimental to it, but the mind never tires and it is always going even when you are sleeping. The trick then is to use your mind to focus your attention and not your body.

An easy way to know if you’re doing this correctly, is to see if you are tense. If you are tense when you are trying to focus your attention on something then you are doing it wrong. Try to relax your body first and then focus your attention. Over time you will be able to focus your attention without the need to tense up your body as well, it is most important that you learn to do this properly.

Okay so now finally to my little exercise to help you stay positive in any situation. Well it’s as simple as this: focus on a word.

Let’s say for example that its gloomy day outside and you just want to get a little happier. Then all you need to do is just to focus on the word HAPPY. Just try and hold that word in your mind for as long as you can and you will notice instantly that the longer that you can focus on this one word, the happier that you will get. It will instantly begin to correlate with happy memories that you might have had in the past and with happy thoughts or goals that you might have about the future.
And that’s it, that’s the entire thing.

But the trick comes when you want to try and maintain your focus on that one word. If the power of your attention, if the strength of your focus, is not that good then your ability to maintain your attention on this one word will be quite difficult. Most people have difficulty maintaining their attention focused on a single item for a few seconds. If this is the case for you, then what you need to do is just keep practicing.

Practice is a simple thing, all you need to do is to bring your mind back to the one word that you want to focus on. For example as you try and focus your mind on the one word HAPPY, you might start thinking about what you’re going to cook later or about some responsibility that you have to take care of. What you need to do is to catch yourself mentally wandering off and refocus your mind on the word. Don’t get frustrated and just keep refocusing your mind on that one word.

It is possible to attain an incredibly powerful focus. But this takes time and I suggest that you do not get discouraged at first. Just try to increase the amount of time that you can focus on the one word that you have chosen. See if for 15 to 20 minutes you can focus more on the word that you have chosen and less on all the other stuff that keeps popping into your mind. Continue like this and see if there ever comes a point when you can actually think about that word for the entire 20 minutes!
If you feel confident, increase the length of time that you spend thinking about this one word.

With this incredibly simple exercise, you will be able to focus your mind to a great degree. If you’re able to maintain your focus on the one word that you have chosen long enough, then maintaining a positive state of mind will become quite easy for you. You will certainly have to work on the power of your focus and attention but having this strong power of focus and attention will benefit every aspect of your life. Think of it like exercising, a pleasurable exercise, that will give you so much that is worth every single bit of sweat that you lose doing it.

There are many things written about fixing your life. This entire site is devoted to self improvement and there are many methods that I outline that can greatly help you in all aspects of our shared reality.

While all of this material does aid in helping you deal with the difficulties that you might experience in life, there is one main aspect that is always overlooked. It is overlooked because it can be a very hard pill to swallow for most and the reality is that most people just aren’t willing to follow this methodology.

Why is it that most people will not follow this one methodology that would allow them to improve so many aspects of their life? It is because the entire world devotes most of its time to telling you that life is a certain way and to think otherwise is self delusion and egomania.

This most wonderful self-improvement tactic is very simple:
love yourself!

It is that simple but it is almost impossible to do for most. We are told over and over again that to love ourselves and to think of ourselves is selfish and self-centered. No matter what religion or theology that you care to study, you will almost always be told the same thing; that you are not the center of the universe and that you are here to fix something about yourself or worship something beyond yourself. In our Western society, we believe that we were born sinners and to think of ourselves, let alone love ourselves above all other things; well that is just out right sin.

Even if you are a highly logical person and an atheist, you will definitely not want to love yourself. Since science believes that we are just biological units existing in a mechanical universe, the idea that we are in some way important and worthy of love seems almost idiotic. And if you were to love yourself, what good would it do? Emotions and positive thoughts after all seem to have such little consequence in this reality.

But take a chance and do something completely rebellious, I use the word rebellious because of its connotations; love yourself. Practiced just loving yourself, accepting yourself or who you are now and no matter what you do for an entire month, just love yourself above all other things in the world. Contemplate how wonderful you are and how great it is to be here in this world and how lucky this world is to have you in it.

This does not mean that you have to love your family or your children any less. You will be surprised at the fact that by loving yourself more you will be able to love them more as well. Realize how lucky they are to have you in their lives, how you make their lives so much better in so many ways.

I dare you to sit around for 20 minutes and just love yourself completely. Send as much love as you can to ‘yourself’, and adore who you are right now. If you are able to do this then the next day I want you to do the same thing but this time while you are looking in the mirror. Will you be able to do this? Will you have the ability to just love yourself without judgment or recrimination?

Most people can’t do it. They can’t do it because they believe that they are unworthy of things. When they look at themselves or think of themselves they only see all the blunders that they made or how much it is that they need to improve. Try to fight this urge by just loving yourself and forgetting about all those little voices that tell you that you should not or could not love the one thing in your life that is the most important thing on Earth.

How terrible that must sound to some. To tell yourself that you are the most important thing on earth. Why do you believe that this is not so? Study this belief by asking yourself why you are feeling what you are feeling now. Ask yourself over and over again ‘why’, until you get down to the root of these feelings. The root of these feelings will be the belief or beliefs that you hold that make you think that you are not worthy of self-love.

When you discover what these beliefs are, change them because you deserve better. I have shown you in other articles how to change beliefs, use these techniques to change that negative belief right now. The most important beliefs that you hold are the beliefs about yourself and how worthy you are.

I dare you to love yourself. And if you take my dare you will find an incredible thing; that by just loving yourself and accepting who you are totally, you will overcome many of the problems that you think you now have.

• Through love of self you will be able to find a better job, one that doesn’t make you suffer but that makes you feel good about what you’re doing.
• Loving yourself will allow you to have the strength to be with those that love you as you should be loved and to stay away from those that would abuse you or use you in any way.
• Loving yourself will create a positive attitude in your life that will naturally begin to change your ideas about what you deserve and these will naturally create a better future for you.
• Loving yourself will allow you to feel good again.

Why is it that when we were children we seemed so far more understanding and wise? It is a common response, and in some ways true, that our simple joy really came from the fact that we were so mentally guileless at that age. That we did not know the horrors of the world and that we were literally naked babes upon the land.

This can explain many things about a child’s nature and a child’s vulnerability, but it does not explain the full extent of it. If you remember back, truly remember back to what it felt like when you were a child, you will remember that there was far more to it than just a simpleton’s mind. If you truly remember, you will realize the children seem to have a far greater connection to the world than adults do. Children seem to have this trusting connection and this greater understanding that we as adults seem to lose as we clog up our minds with the many facts that allow us to participate in this world.

Children have a natural type of identification that allows them to perceive the world in a far deeper and richer way than adults can. Why is it that children have such a rich connection while we as adults seem to be like aliens living in a foreign world?

The reason for this, I believe, is that we have lost our empathic connection to the earth and to all of the beings around us. Empathy is usually given a rather unfair definition; empathy is usually seen as this negative characteristic that is quite feminine and weak. This is highly incorrect, not to mention the fact that characterizing something as weak just because we perceive it as feminine is highly flawed indeed.

Empathy is neither feminine nor masculine. Empathy is a highly practical capability that can allow you to develop a sixth sense that can give you a great advantage. An empathic person can tell you what another person is feeling and thinking, they can have a sense about what is good and bad, and they can discover trouble or reward within any environment. Those that are empathic enough can sense profit or ruin and therefore have an advantage over those that have no empathy at all.

Many fear empathy because it is believed that those that are empathic will somehow lose themselves in their intuitions. It is seen as weak because in a world where we are taught to crush our enemies, it is never a good idea to be able to feel that crushing ourselves. But even in this, the definition of empathy is wrong; not that I wish to propagate the crushing of enemies per se, but it is wrong to think that you will be lost through your empathic visions. A skilled empath can feel others and the world around them but at the same time understand that he/she is a separate entity. True empathy does not mean being lost in the emotions or feelings of others, but it is the ability to understand the reality of the self and of the other at the same time.

So why is it that children seem to be such wise little people? Why is it that children seem to be continually happy and at one with their environment? The biggest reason for this is because they have not tainted their connection with the other and as a result are highly empathic beings. You can regain this connection, you can also have a life filled with joy; and all that you need to do is to learn to play like children do.

If you ever watch children playing, you will notice that they love to pretend. They will pretend that they are pirates or soldiers, they pretend that they live far into the future or that they are from the great past. What children are wonderful at is ‘discovering themselves outside of themselves.’

In order to develop your empathic abilities you must also do the same thing. You must use your imagination and playfully pretend that you are something or someone else. You could for example pretend that you are the same person that you are right now but that you are 100 years in the future, at exactly the same place where you are right now. Use your imagination now and try to imagine what it would be like to be at exactly the same place you are now but 100 years in the future.
Use your imagination to pretend that you are a parent, if you are not already one, and explore your feelings and how you would feel if this were the case. Imagine what it would be like to be an incredible genius that can solve all the problems of the world.

If you have ever watched children play, you will also notice that they like to pretend to be things that you might find quite repulsive. Children for example like to pretend that they are dead or that they are so old that they can barely move. You should do the same and extend your mind to pretensions that you might at first find quite difficult. Pretending what others would act like if you died is a wonderful children’s game that many kids play and perhaps you should too.
I know some of this might seem difficult but it’s a wonderful way to ‘discover yourself outside yourself’.

Also try to pretend that you are different objects or different things in the world; try to imagine that you are a lake and feel what it would be like to have people on you, swimming inside of you. Imagine that you are a rock or that you are a bird flying really high up in the sky. Explore your feelings while you’re doing this and discover in this way what it would feel like to be something completely different from yourself.

These simple games, done with a fun and playful spirit, can teach you a great deal about the people and the world around you. You might be very surprised at what you discover and I can guarantee you that if you pursue this game with an open spirit, you will find great wisdom inside yourself. By understanding the world through your empathic vision, you will quickly learn a better way to deal with everything around you.

Become the wind, the sunshine, and the trees. Discover in this way what it is to be what you truly are; a child of the earth and the stars. Children are never lonely, and they always seem to have fun wherever they go. You too can have this kind of joy, delight, and wisdom. Learn to play like you used to and re-discover the wisdom that you had forgotten.

More and more people seem to be stressed out. The fast pace of our modern lives guarantees a more stressful existence. Here is a list of the top 8 ways to reduce stress. Use it as a quick list to help you cope and to help you find new ways to beat what has become a chronic illness for some.

Here are the top 8 ways to beat stress:

1. Manage time: make sure that you take stock of the amount of time that you have each day and that you try and prioritize objectives. A little day planner is a great way to plan tasks so that you stay on schedule and you don’t feel that you are getting overwhelmed by the world around you. I suggest that you don’t get too serious with your task planning; just a rough idea of what you have to do on the day so that you know you have enough time for everything. Too much planning and scheduling will make you feel trapped and this will increase your stress. Remember also to allocate time to having fun and for restful breaks.

2. Communicate better: This does not seem like a stress reliever but it is very important to make an effort to communicate better. Much of our stress comes from interpersonal relations, if you can communicate with friends, coworkers and family better, you will find that your stress level will go down quite a bit. Try reading.

3. Gain inner balance: This means that you should take the time to get to know who you really are. You have to learn to set your personal standards. You must learn how to say “no” gracefully and to have the courage to follow your own path. You gain inner balance by discovering who you are and in order to do that, you need to be able to have the time to be by yourself. In your little day planner, make sure that you schedule lots of alone time.

4. Learn to relax: Learning to relax is the key to beating stress. Stress is really the buildup of tension. I recommend you read ‘How to relax’.

5. Make time to relax: It is so very important that you always make time for yourself. If you don’t do this, you will soon stress out completely and you will get sick. Many relax by doing something that allows them to completely forget themselves. Hobbies, television or video games can be incredibly soothing as long as they are not pursued to excess.

6. Take time off: One of the great benefits of managing time is being able to see that you do have some time left over to take a vacation or a break. You should make sure that you always make time to take small breaks when you are working, and you should also plan to take longer breaks and vacations on a regular basis. You don’t have to take a trip somewhere, just take some time from your regular work to break routine and spend as many days as you can just having fun and doing what you like to do.

7. Develop an interest: A hobby is a great way to relax and beat stress. It allows you to focus on other things and if it means that you have to go out and socialize then all the better. Just remember to do something that you want to do and not something that you think that you need to do. Start a walking club; a fun relaxing walk will do anyone wonders.

8. Improve your diet: We are what we eat, so treat yourself well. Stay away from too much refined sugar. Reduce the coffee intake, as this will greatly help with relaxation and anxious feelings. Make sure you get your vitamins and minerals. A good way to do this is to try and get creative and find fun and novel dishes that you can try. Look through health cookbooks in the store and see if you can find a dish that looks good, then try and cook it. Do this often and you might find that eating healthy is not so hard.

Stress can be overcome. Beating stress means relaxing and having more fun.Think of the battle against stress as an opportunity to do all those things that everyone else is telling you not to do.

I think that most of us would agree that we would like to be happier. Being happy is a type of pleasure and as pleasure seeking beings, happiness satisfies our instinctual desires.  Any problem that arises from seeking happiness, tends to present itself because of a person’s insistence on being happy all the time.  While being happy all the time might sound good, it is the case that every individual needs to experience a wide range of emotion because each emotion has a purpose.  If you force happiness, trying to make yourself see good things in everything or make yourself smile when you don’t feel like smiling, you can create a repressive state where a buildup of negative (in this case, emotions that are not happy) emotions is present.

You can though quite naturally extend the amount of happiness that you feel.  This is done by extending those happy moments that you feel naturally.  You do this by focusing on those good emotions when you do have them; by being more aware of your emotional state and consciously extending the length of time of the positive emotions that you feel.

See if you can go through a large part of your day being totally aware of your emotional states.  This will require a certain amount of concentration on your part in that you will need to stay focused on yourself but at the same time be able to let yourself experience the world about you naturally.  This type of awareness does take some practice; the best way to go about it is to create a type of third person perspective where you are able to imaginatively look down on yourself and watch yourself experience things naturally.  Once you can develop this third person perspective, you can easily keep an eye, as it were, on your emotional state.

This is an incredibly powerful exercise and will teach you a great deal about yourself.  You will notice that you have a very wide emotional variance throughout your day and that your emotional states are affected by both internal and external stimulus.  Sometimes you will feel certain emotions because of something that you witness or are part of physically, and you will also notice that your emotional states are also greatly controlled by your subjective experience; what you think about throughout the day.

Once you become aware of your emotional states, become particularity aware of when you are feeling happy.  Paying close attention to when you are feeling happy, you will be able to discover what it is that is causing this happiness.  This happiness will teach you about you, it will allow you to discover what you consider to be good and pleasurable to you personally.  This personal discovery is priceless because it will tell you what you need to do more of in order to be happier.  For example, you might really enjoy looking at wild birds and as such it makes all the sense in the world for you should pursue any hobby or occupation that allows you to look at wild birds more often.  You might also discover that you are quite happy whenever you are thinking about a certain person or place.  It is even possible that you find yourself the to be far happier when you are looking at the world through a certain perspective. 
Through greater personal awareness, by being able to see your emotional states from a third person perspective, you will discover those things that cause you greater happiness.  You then expand your happiness by doing or thinking more of those things that bring you joy and satisfaction.  In this way, joy and happiness can quite easily be extended and your life can become far more rewarding.

You do not need to fake happiness.  It is actually the case that if you try to fake happiness, you will actually end up getting it’s opposite.  Happiness can only be developed through a natural amplification of those things that cause you happiness.  Happiness then essentially becomes what it truly is; an emotion that is meant to empower you and guide you towards greater personal fulfillment.

Using this same method, you can see that negative emotions(in this case emotions that you do not consider happy) are also empowering energetic impulses that can teach you about your personal reality.  Using the third person perspective, you can discover what is causing the negative emotion.  With this discovery you can make sure that you do not engage in activity or thoughts that extend this negativity.  Looked at in this way, negative emotions become what they truly are; a catalyst for personal understanding and change. All emotions are there to help you discover your personal beliefs.

To ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ might be a good way to get out of a slump in the short term but it can create many problems in the long term.  Forcing yourself to do anything that you are not feeling, is essentially trying to coerce your own nature.  Instead of trying to fit yourself into a mold of what others believe you should be, I suggest that next time you choose instead to experience your own nature naturally.  Become more aware and discover for yourself what it is that makes you happy, extend that happiness naturally by doing more of those things that bring you joy and less of those things that create negativity with an you.  You can be happier by just learning to extend those happy moments, without denying or suppressing your natural emotional reality.

Stress is something that is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in our modern, fast-paced lives. Stress is an indicator that is letting us know that we are overwhelmed and overworked and that we need to take a break. The hyperactivity of the modern lifestyle increases the likelihood that you will experience stress because of its incredibly fast paced nature.

Our modern world has become the world of gadgets. We all have some kind of gadget, whether it’s a smart phone, a tablet of some kind, or a laptop. These gadgets are constantly feeding us information and keeping us up to date on scheduling, which have turned most modern life into a robotic existence. None of these gadgets are helping us to really cope with stress, if anything they tend to aggravate the situation even more.

Most people have even begun to consider stress to be an enemy. They think of stress as something that has to be fought off, as an inconvenience that must be beaten somehow. You must realize though that stress is actually an indicator, it is your body’s way of showing you that you need a break. When you ignore this indicator, your body must take more aggressive action to get you to relax and recuperate. It is therefore very important that you learn to identify the indicators of stress so that you are able to deal with this situation before it escalates.

Early indicators of stress are different for different people. Some people tend to feel stress as a type of bodily tension while others might see stress as a barrage of negative thoughts and feelings. What is most important is that you identify your own personal indicators so that you are able to deal with stress in a timely manner. Remember that stress is just your body trying to tell you that you need a break, if you do not identify these early indicators of stress, your body will take measures to get you to relax in a different way. When early stress indicators are ignored; some people get migraine headaches, others have a stomach upset, while others might be affected by a cold or the flu. What the body is doing here is that it’s taking matters into its own hands and is creating a situation where the body must stop what it’s doing and relax.

If you maintain a highly stressful life, where stress is something that you continually have to deal with, it is possible that your body can take more drastic measures to get you on the right path. Do realize though that these are not measures that are done behind your back as it were, or measures that you do not have any control over. If you would learn to listen to your early stress signals and question yourself as to why you are stressing out at the moment, you would discover why you are having a problem. Understanding why you are having these problems, you can then try to change your situation so that you can deal with it. If you ignore these problems and these early stress indicators, you will find different ways to deal with your situation.

All of this can be seen quite consciously by you if you’re willing to pay attention to yourself and how you are feeling. Nothing is ever hidden from us if we are willing to consciously experience our reality and to continually discover the reasons for all our feelings. If you consciously do not take responsibility for your stressed-out life, A different part of you, that you might even label as ‘subconscious’, will take over and make sure that you take the time to relax as you should.

It is very important that you become aware of your personal emotional life. You must begin to understand the early signals of stress. In this way you will be able to take conscious action and relieve that stress, which just means; Take a break!

Remember stress is just a body signal that is telling you that you need a break, that you need to take some time off and see things from a different perspective, or that you just need to let it all go for a while. If you become adept at identifying these early stress signals and act on them when they present themselves, you will have a happier, healthier, and far more successful life.

Worry is a great drain of energy. Worrying about things makes us feel very bad and most of the stuff that we do worry about is unnecessary. I suppose that you would not believe me if I told you that worry is actually supposed to be an ally; that it should really be a helping hand that allows us to discover where we need to take action in order to change our circumstance for the better. If you are not willing or able to recognize the power of this ally, you must do everything in your power to lessen the dominance that worry has in your life. If you don’t, you will drain away the energy that should be used to take positive action.

You can eliminate most worry by figuring out what is important and not important. If you look at all the things in your life that worry you, you will find that many of the things that are causing you a lot of worry and pain are really not that important. It is advisable then that you study what is making you worry so that you are able to decide consciously whether this certain situation is really worth all that waste of energy.

It is the case that we also worry about things that are very improbable. You should always figure out whether something that is worrying you is really that likely to happen. When we worry about things and we say to ourselves that we are just worried and leave it at that, we tend to give up our power to control this worry. You must never just let yourself worry over nothing; that is exactly what you are doing when you are letting worry happen all by itself and you are not questioning what is making you worried and how likely that worrying situation really is. Next time that you worry about something, ask yourself how likely that situation is. Explore the situation and logically come to a conclusion as to how worried you should actually be. In this way you are able to eliminate your stress by realizing that most of the things that you worry about are quite unlikely, or at least not as severe as you might imagine.

If you run across certain worrying situations that have a kind of chronic mania to them, you must learn to let them go. For example there are situations that we worry about, that we might have some small or large reason to worry over, that we are powerless to change. In other words, it’s a situation that you have to learn to live with for the moment. When you face such a situation you must be able to let that worry go. You do this by knowing that you have studied this situation that is worrying you and that even though there’s nothing that you can do to stop this worry at the moment, you must be part of the situation for now. With this understanding you can let go of the worry for now, understanding that the worry is there to show you that you need to take action to change something that you do not like. That you will take this action as soon as you can but that for now there is nothing that you can do but to let go. You lessen this worry by planning ahead to the time when you can take action.

All worry is lessened when you are willing to look at it. When you are willing to look at and study the source of your worry, that worry loses its power. By studying and exploring these worries, it keeps them all in proper perspective. You understand their reason and you also understand that worry is just a type of warning system that is telling you that things need to change. Worry then just becomes an ally that allows you to plan in order to overcome obstacles that you might face in the near or distant future. Worry is your friend, face it, understand it, use it to overcome the obstacles in your life.

Stress is something that is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in our modern fast-paced lives. Stress is an indicator that is letting us know that we are overwhelmed and overworked and that we need to take a break. The hyperactivity of the modern lifestyle increases the likelihood that you will experience stress because of its incredibly fast paced nature.

Our modern world has become the world of gadgets. We all have some kind of gadget, whether it’s a smart phone, a tablet of some kind, or a laptop. These gadgets are constantly feeding us information and keeping us up to date on scheduling, which have turned most modern life into a robotic existence. None of these gadgets are helping us to really cope with stress, if anything they tend to aggravate the situation even more.

Most people have even begun to consider stress to be an enemy. They think of stress is something that has to be fought off, as an inconvenience that must be beaten somehow. You must realize though that stress is actually an indicator and it is your body’s way of showing you that you need a break. When you ignore this indicator, your body must take more aggressive action in to trying get you to relax and recuperate. It is therefore very important that you learn to identify the indicators of stress so that you are able to deal with this situation before it escalates.

Early indicators of stress are different for different people. Some people tend to feel stress as a type of bodily tension while others might see stress as a barrage of negative thoughts and feelings. What is most important is that you identify your own personal indicators so that you are able to deal with stress in a timely manner. Remember that stress is just your body trying to tell you that you need a break, if you do not identify these early indicators of stress, your body will take measures to get you to relax in a different way. When early stress indicators are ignored; some people get migraine headaches, others have a stomach upset, while others might be affected by a cold or the flu. What the body is doing here is that it’s taking matters into its own hands and is creating the situation where the body must stop what it’s doing and relax.

If you maintain a highly stressful life, where stress is something that you continually have to deal with, it is possible that your body can take more drastic measures to get you in the right path. Do realize though that these are not measures that are done behind your back or measures that you do not have any control over. If you would learn to listen to your early stress signals and question yourself as to why you are stressing out at the moment, you would discover why you are having a problem. Understanding why you are having these problems, you can then try to change your situation so that you can deal with. If you ignore these problems and these early stress indicators, you will find different ways to deal with your situation.

All of this can be seen quite consciously by you if you’re willing to pay attention to yourself and how you are feeling. Nothing is ever hidden from us if we are willing to consciously experience our reality and to continually discover the reasons for all our feelings. If you consciously do not take responsibility for your stressed-out life, A different part of you that you might even label as ‘subconscious’, will take over and make sure that you take the time to relax as you should.

It is very important that you become aware of your personal emotional life. You must begin to understand the early signals of stress. In this way you will be able to take conscious action and relieve that stress, which just means; Take a break!

Remember stress is just a body signal that is telling you that you need a break, that you need to take some time off and see things from a different perspective. If you become adept at identifying these early stress signals and act on them when they present themselves, you will have a happier, healthier, and far more successful life.

Self-esteem is the prerequisite to self-confidence and to greater and better personal accomplishment. It is something that you must always work towards developing within yourself because it is the great resource that creates fine accomplishment. Self-esteem is also responsible for your internal happiness and is the one thing that can help you begin to truly enjoy your life. It is seldom the case that we all naturally feel great self-esteem, it is usually something that most of us have to work at.

In order to develop your self-esteem, begin to attack those prejudices which might lead you to undervalue who you are. These prejudices are beliefs that we hold about ourselves. Many times we believe that these beliefs are unquestionable and we therefore turn these beliefs into concrete facts that we cannot change. The reality of the situation though is that these beliefs are interchangeable and that there is no belief that is bedrock fact, there are only beliefs that you will not question. It is critical then that you question these beliefs that would have you believe that you are a lesser person.

In order to develop your self-esteem you must also learn to stifle that inner critic. That inner critic is that little voice or that feeling that you have that tells you that you are not special. It usually questions everything that you do and tells you that you are not capable. This critic is the end result of those beliefs that you have about yourself, those beliefs that are telling you that you are a lesser person. By questioning your beliefs you begin to stifle this inner critic. Whenever this inner critic begins its rhetoric, try to question what it’s trying to tell you. For example if your inner critic tells you that you are not good enough, ask yourself why you believe that you are not good enough. Using your inner critic as an ally you will discover those negative beliefs that you have. With this realization you should find it easier to change these beliefs and to replace those ‘supposed’ facts with a belief about yourself that is far more empowering.

People with low self-esteem tend to have a double standard; they tend to judge themselves unfairly while they give others great leeway. Because of their low self-esteem they tend to think that everything that they do is wrong while others seem to have a free pass. Many do not even realize that they’re doing this but it does contribute to their low self-esteem and it confirms those beliefs that they have about themselves. Pay attention next time that you are dealing with others and see if you are treating them and yourself differently. Do you have a double standard?

Whenever you do anything in life you should always try to do the best that you can. As long as you are doing this you should not feel bad about your actions or about your results. Try not to berate yourself for not being perfect because perfection is a lie. Those with beliefs that create low self-esteem tend to believe that they can do nothing right and therefore find it impossible to find the perfection that they seek. By questioning your beliefs you should be able to realize that many of the standards that you hold yourself to are quite unrealistic. There is no such thing as perfection because everything is always in a state of becoming more. While you might think that doing something exactly like someone else, perhaps an expert in the field, might be perfection; the reality of the fact is that perfection is not possible in that way because it is impossible for you to do anything exactly like someone else. The reason for this is that you are not that person and every person has different capabilities. You should use the standards of experts as reference but you should always realize that you need to do things in your own way and by doing things in your own way you will never achieve perfect duplication of their actions. Greater self-esteem should allow you to realize that you need to do things your own way.

As you begin to question your beliefs about low self-esteem you might realize that you are spending an awful lot of time with people that are bringing you down. Always try to spend more time with people that make you feel good. Those with low self-esteem tend to naturally gravitate towards those people that would confirm their beliefs about themselves. Usually these people are negative and tend to treat you in a negative way. Begin by changing these negative beliefs and also try to let go of those people from your past that are bringing you down. Try to find and spend more time with those that bring you joy and happiness. Spend more time with those that empower you instead of making you feel like you are nothing.

As you can see, self-esteem is definitely something that most of us need to work at. By understanding this fact and realizing that most likely low self-esteem is directly related to what you believe about yourself, you can begin to pull yourself out of this quagmire and start to develop more positive beliefs about yourself.

Happiness cannot be found through exterior circumstance. Happiness is something that we all search for, this is perhaps because when we are feeling happy it usually means that everything is going our way. Feeling good after all feels good. The positivity movement tells us that we should be happy all day all the time, but is this really a good thing? The reality of the situation is that if you try to make yourself happy when you’re really feeling sad, you are suppressing emotion and this can be very dangerous. Stifled emotion can create all sorts of psychological and physical problems.

Happiness can be found through friends, things, situations, and family. Sadness and anger can also be found through friends, things, situations, and family. Happiness is also not the be all and end all of life, and while happiness and good feeling can make life much easier, it is a bad thing to think that these emotions are the only cause of external abundance. Anyone that is telling you that you should be happy all the time and every day is really telling you that you should become half yourself and this is no way to live life, no matter how much abundance and wealth you think you might get as a result.

If emotions are created by thoughts and thoughts create reality then you must realize that thoughts are created because of belief systems. In order to create more personal happiness, which is a natural result of having a better life situation, you have to begin to understand what your beliefs about life are. Many believe that the external world is responsible for happiness, others believe that you have to fake happiness to make happiness; true happiness though can only be achieved through internal understanding. While external things can allow us to see how we feel about certain things and therefore tell us about our beliefs, the only way to change these beliefs and understand them is through internal contemplation.

Generally speaking if you are not a very happy person, it is most likely the case that you have to make some large changes in what you believe life is. A great way to change these general concepts about life is to realize that you are a mortal being, that you are going to die. Even though this might seem a bit morbid, it is nonetheless a great way to motivate yourself into a better understanding of your life experience. By realizing that this moment can literally be your last moment, after all you must appreciate the fact  that death can come at any time anywhere, you can begin to truly appreciate the preciousness of your present reality. By understanding your own mortality you begin to ‘juice life’ and stop taking so much for granted. An understanding of your own mortality is also a great way to get over the pettiness that you might feel. Nothing is better at letting you know that what you do matters than death.

It is my belief that only through the realization of your impending death can you truly begin to experience happiness. It is a funny juxtaposition really in that this realization of your own mortality allows you to feel both frailty and great strength. While in the one hand you feel just how frail your position is on this Earth and how many things can take it away, the awareness of your personal death also allows you to re-channel your energies so that you finally begin to experience life as a fully awake and strong individual. Happiness therefore is an internal quest and must be balanced through the understanding that while happiness is something that you must aspire to, you must also allow all your emotions to have their time.