What Is Positive Thinking or a Positive Mindset?

 By Robyn S Lee 

Photo: inspiredtunisiangirl.blogspot.com
 
What is Positive Thinking?
Simply, positive thinking is the opposite of negative thinking. Positive thinking might take place in your mind, when you feel happy or when you have achieved something you have been wanting to achieve for a while. It's a little voice in your head (the one that's reading these words), that can put us in a more positive frame of mind on a day-to-day basis as we go about our lives.
Positive thinking is also one way a person can experience the feelings of positive emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement.
It may also put a smile on our faces and a bounce in our step, and make us look forward to things more.
Whether one has positive thoughts or negative thoughts, our minds are occupied with thoughts and depending on some factors, for some, positive thinking occurs more often than for others. But the great thing is that positive thinking is a skill that can be taught, learned, practiced and mastered such as you would be taught sports, practice music, learn a new language or master a subject.
Positive thinking can also become a Mind Set which is the next level of just having positive thoughts from time to time. A Positive Mind Set is such that the majority of your thoughts will be positive. And again for some people, the opposite may be true, but through proven steps, tools and practice, anyone can reprogram their mind to counteract negative thoughts and a negative mindset.
Why positive thinking?
Positive thinking is valuable to us in many ways. For example, if you're competing in a cross country or marathon event at a sports day, and you're running and running, feeling like your legs are going to collapse under you and your stitch will kill you,... you feel weak, muscles are melting, your lungs feel like they're going to burst and every step is agony. Like many top sports people do, they will use positive thinking to push through, not just to get over the finishing line, but to win. A positive mindset is also referred to as a "Winner's Mind Set".
Who wouldn't want that?
And as we have established, positive thinking is the opposite of negative thinking. Negative thinking is the other voice or even other voices in our heads that might tell us we are stupid when we make mistakes or fail at something. Negative thinking can mentally paralyse some people too and stop us from asking for what we really want in our lives. For others, it might make them worry about things that may or may not happen.
With a positive mindset, you end up making better decisions, feel good and generally function better in life.
Positive thinking fuels positive energy which is a much higher and lighter energy than negative thinking and negative energy which is heavier and brings you down.
Imagine you are invited to go to a party or an event and you think negative thoughts such as,
"I won't go, no one will like me; I hate those people anyway"
Do you think you would be getting off to a good start to make new friends let alone a good impression? In fact you probably will end up not even going.
What if you went into it thinking
"How fun, new outfit!! I'll wear my new shoes!! All these new people I can get to know (or get to know me) I'm going to have so much fun!"
Which mindset do you think is going to end up having more energy and who do you think will actually go, stay and meet new friends at the party?
Positive thinking is not... about lying to yourself, or being fake. It's important to be realistic and truthful. Your brain will know if you aren't being authentic.
In order to begin thinking positive and living a life from a positive mindset, we have to start noticing positive things that occur all day long. This is being "conscious".
Being conscious is being aware of the thoughts you have, both positive and negative. It is also about noticing what's going on around you and how you internally react to these things and then translate and digest them into being positive or negative.
So to develop your positive thinking skills, beginning with being conscious is important. This is so you can really differentiate between negative and positive thoughts as they occur.
Thanks for taking the time to read, please let me know your (positive or negative) thoughts.

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Use These Effective Time Management Strategies

  by: Merrie C. Weeks

Photo: wahmwire.com
 
If you desire to have good time management then you need to have a strategy or an action plan. Following these strategies will help you get the most out of your days.

First thing to do is Prioritize your work.

Start each day by ranking the things that you much do. Starting with the most important and unpleasant tasks first, then go from there. Those things that can wait for later that day should be listed towards the bottom of your list. Don't make your list too long because there are only so many hours in a day and you don't want to feel like you will never get it all accomplished.

Second thing is to Assign Work Time Frame for each task.

At first this might not seem realistic but it is mostly so that you will have some sort of idea how long it will take to finish each task. You will find that once you start a task, it won't really take very long unless it is a big project. If so, then break it down so that you can see some progress.

Third Be Flexible.

Unexpected things come up from time to time so if you have to stop to take care of some other matter, do not worry and stress out if you don't accomplished a certain task in the time frame you set. Just like the saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day" so make sure you allow for those time when things come up. Don't let these things such as phone calls, important emails,kids and life in general frustrate you, the important thing to remember is that you are making

progress on your list.

Fourth thing is to Say No if it isn't important.

Whether you work from home or out of the home there are things that can distract us and waste time. Limit small talk with co-workers, family, friends, etc. while you are working. Respect your decision to make a plan and stick to it. Others will need to understand that if it isn't something that needs to be taken care of right this minute then it can wait.

Fifth is to Delegate.

Remember that you probably can't do everything yourself so if there is a task that you might not be very good at or like doing and there is someone that can do the task then by all means pass it on. In this way the task will get done and you won't waste time putting it off because you can't accomplish it yourself.

Compromise when necessary.

As your day progresses the urgency of a task may also change. There may be times when your tasks will need to be re-prioritized, rescheduled, postponed or dropped altogether, making adjustments

if things come up that needs your attention is important.

Everyone has limitations and if you realize what those are then you will know what you can work on later to improve those skills or know in advance what tasks you will need help with.

Learning to manage your time is not to stress your day so remember to relax and learn as you go. The more you practice managing your time, the better you will get at it. Time management is so that you will take control of your days and see how much you really can accomplish each day and then enjoy some time with family and friends. This is your only viable option no matter where you are working, this is the only way to accomplish anything worthwhile.

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The Reason Why Fear of Failing Damages Our Way Of Life

By Justin Cardwell  

Photo: lh4.ggpht.com
 
Could we be too perfect?
Higher accomplishing professionals pride themselves upon their own successes in academia, activities, hobbies and interests, and also careers. Routinely smashing through goals and objectives and being successful, each and every goal creates a never fail sort of thinking that creates some sort of individual disability when dealing with high risk. With each achievement, a possible failure looks excruciating, which generates a total fear relating to failure.
Staying the number of added hours, passing up your family meals, along with reducing personal lifestyles are generally are just some of the behaviors that high achievers make in order to avert a potential failure. That surrounds these individuals and haunts these individuals. Perfect can be an excellent success that is widely accepted as not possible, although the reach to become the impossible provides many of us a purpose. This purpose of perfection throws the natural balance of our own lives off, after half a century, doesn't provide us much to look back on.
Maintaining an Equilibrium
A lot of people run the daily gauntlet of maintaining a social life while trying to succeed in the market. It appears impossible occasionally, however the effort is often there. Are we in balance? Is losing sleep during the week really worth the payoff of a great time and a little more money? I really don't think so, here is why.
Stress certainly is the leading reason for illness in America. It's getting more prevalent that reducing stress through more sleep is critical to sustain our overall health. Stress is shown to cause significant damage in more than a single area including our immune system, hypertension, and quality of sleep to name a few.
Less sleep causes an increase in weight. Losing sleep causes us to eat more calories and choose foods dense in fat and sugar.
A study in 2005 revealed that individuals that get less than 5 hours of sleep are 2.5 times more likely to be diabetic, and people that got at the very least six hours rest or less were 1.7 times very likely.
Increased blood pressure. A rise in blood pressure leads to obstructive sleep apnea, and worsens the possible lack of sleep that you will be already getting, which creates a limitless cycle.
More prone to depression. With less rest, you're quite likely going to get depression because of large mood swings through a hormonal imbalance, a process that is needed for one's body to complete while asleep.
You age more quickly. The possible lack of sleep prevents one's body from fully healing, and weakens your immunity mechanism.
Maintaining a lively schedule may seem productive, but it only prevents us from stopping and realizing where we all are experiencing and enjoying the moment that we're in. Hard work at the appropriate time is essential, but a balance of working hard and rest should be maintained. Remember, we are on borrowed time and the journey is a lot more crucial compared to the goal.

You can find more information about overcoming fear at http://www.nofearhq.com.
Thanks for reading

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Craving for Success?

 By Dena M Khadr 

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Are you spending a lot of time thinking and thinking and rethinking about your options for having a successful life?
Are you trying over and over to find out what traits and capabilities successful people have that you think you lack?
This is when you are craving for success; you feel you have it inside you, the potential, the talent and the dedication but you just don't know how to make it true. Success really starts with an internal feeling that you are born to be successful and it is a feeling that just never ends but keeps on growing. Success is a track that you have to walk through, some people choose to walk and others to run so simply you choose which way you want to follow to be successful.
One simple advice for you seeking success is to feel this pleasurable feeling inside and then just do anything you can to transform this feeling into something materialistic that you can see and others can appreciate you for.
Every minute that passes in your day is a minute you lost so try to plan for all your time.
In life you will face many challenges and the hardest is when you challenge yourself. We all have 24 hours per day whether we are successful or not but the point is that some people know how to use every second of their time and those are the ones you should be observing well.
The top six steps you must have to start working and to be successful:
1. Be creative or find a creative partner to work with because a creative idea is your biggest asset in any business.
2. Take the idea into action and start PLANNING; Do some research in this step and see what similar ideas were done before and whether they were a success or failure and know why and just start to plan what tasks you need to be done.
3. Build a dedicated team because every success involves team work and don't let financial stuff ruin this because there are many people out there waiting for your call to work on a private work so start looking for this team within your friends and neighbours first then start looking outside. If you have a creative idea you easily can bring a group of enthusiastic players with you to form a brilliant team.
4. Assess your team's potential and capabilities and engage them in the idea and start dividing tasks among them.
5. Put deadlines for every task and monitor the daily work.
6. Marketing and Marketing. Marketing is your door to the real world so never rely on one marketing technique. Marketing is what will distinguish you from others; it is what will form your image, what will make you succeed or fail, and what will make your idea become real.
Now put a big title on a plain paper saying "i am successful" and then start with the steps and start planning for your life and believe in you and just then what you dream of will be just one step away.

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13 Reasons to Love Yourself

 By Tom McLaughlin, Jr.

Photo: lifestyle.allwomenstalk.com

Love is an adventure of discovery, whether the object of your love is a person, place, idea, or even your own self. Love involves desiring to know and serve someone or something that we love, and then setting out to explore and support the beloved through all seasons. The act of loving stretches us beyond our ordinary wants and needs, to include the desires and essentials of the one we love. The process of loving reveals and creates us as surely as it weaves an unbreakable bond between us and the object of our love, even when our service is unknown to the beloved. The love we offer serves to fulfill primal needs of our beloved: to be seen and acknowledged, understood and accepted, wanted and chosen. Likewise, our essential need to be useful is also satisfied. In a mysterious way that supports rather than diminishes our individuality and autonomy, we belong to what we love, and together we belong to Love itself, to that universal force that is infinitely grander than our individual selves. Lover and beloved, then, each has cause to feel safer in being fully ourselves, to give birth to and sustain the light and shadow of our being, no matter where be-ing leads us, and when.
When a person genuinely loves her or his own self, all of us win. Authentic self-love is an essential element of any healthy relationship between two human beings or 2 billion, or between a human and the Earth. Here are 13 reasons that self-love is an awesome part of a healthy love diet:

1. The more completely you love yourself, the more fully you can love others.
2. When you love yourself, you are better able to identify your passions, and more likely to live out of them, resulting in greater abundance for you and others.
3. When you love yourself, you are more likely to make authentic choices about what you do, where you go, and how you act.
4. You'll also have greater access to qualities within you such as courage, discipline, and perseverance that are necessary for fully living your dreams.
5. When you love yourself, you may deter, counteract, or even endure bullying. Kids and adults who consciously love themselves are less likely to bully others, more likely to intervene when they witness bullying, and less likely to take a bully's hurtful words and actions to heart.
6. Genuine self-love unleashes creativity in work and play and in personal and professional relationships.
7. People like being around and supporting those who treat themselves lovingly. I'm not suggesting that we should do or be anything inauthentic simply to attract companions. However, humans are social creatures, and the reality is that love-filled people attract us.
8. Even authentic self-love doesn't always translate into good feelings. But the woman who treats herself with love, even when she doesn't feel great about herself, is more likely to offer life-giving love to other people who don't seem so worthy of it, but are in dire need of it.
9. When you love yourself, you are more likely to treat your body in healthy ways. You'll eat better, be more active, and get sufficient rest.
10. You are also more likely to treat your mind in healthy ways. You'll educate yourself about things you consider important and exercise your creativity to solve problems.
11. You are more likely to treat your heart in healthy ways. You'll pay attention to your emotions and the insights they may bear.
12. And you are more likely to treat your spirit in healthy ways. You'll look at the interdependent whole of life, of which you are but a part, and you'll look for ways to make significant contributions to us out of your giftedness.
13. Finally, life is so much more fun when you're in love... with yourself!

No doubt there are plenty of other awesome reasons to love yourself. Take some time to consider your history of loving and being loved. Within your stories you'll find more reasons for loving yourself as well as others.
I'd love to hear about them.

Tom McLaughlin, Jr. is a writer, teacher, speaker, and integrative coach. He earned a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame. His MA from Marylhurst University focused on Spiritual Traditions and Ethics, and his thesis explored the relationship between telling personal stories and being an authentic human being. Check out the e-book and audio program of "100 Ways to Love Yourself... And Why It Matters" at http://www.100waystoloveyourself.com/.

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How the Media Affects the Perception of Beauty

 By M. Farouk Radwan 

Photo: fsc.yorku.ca
 
So, today beauty is defined by the skinny or boney legs, the explosive makeup or the six-pack.
Media does not only corrupt the way you look in the mirror, but it depresses you. Media defines things that should have remained without a definition. In many forms, from commercials to movies all the way down to cartoons.
Within the shallowness, the variable definitions remain similar, with the beautiful girl always of a specific shape and the guy dresses in a specific way and both remain with zero personality.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
It's true that media has hacked the minds of many men and women alike and directed their attraction to a specific shape and manner, yet beauty is not only in the shape or the thickness of the lips, but rather beauty is the person as a whole. You should not lose weight unless you want to get in a better shape. Yes, a better shape might mean the skinny, but not the boney.
I am yet to see one commercial that speaks of healthier beauty rather than the "skinny" beauty. Cosmetics and plastic surgery are not the answer to beauty. There is a fine line between artificial and natural beauty. Your skin might get irritated on the short or the long term of the powder you apply to your skin and your immune system might be weakened by the steroids you take.
So, what to do? You don't have to listen to the media and what it throws at you. Media does not always work in your favor, so, you should never change the way you see things because a commercial told you to. You should first listen to the sound of reason that tells you what to do instead of doing something you may regret later.
While bodybuilding and losing weight are always extreme processes that take time, the natural way is always the best. Do not starve yourself to lose weight and do not take pills that would starve you unless you're prescribed to. Do not take steroids that would damage your health later on just to reach the body you want for a limited time.
Always keep it healthy. Do not shy away from asking what this medicine contains or what the side effects are.
With that all being said, doing something you do not want to do will only work for so long. Why would you starve yourself because this guy likes skinny girls? The outer appearance will fade with age; it's life's cycle and only the inner beauty remains forever. If you believe that having a certain body or shape will make someone fall in love with you, you're definitely mistaken. If you think that plastic surgery will help you attract men, you are wrong.
There is no standard for beauty. Every man and woman sees beauty differently. We are blessed with a variety of options that differ from a person to the other and ultimately, the 'falling in love' process does not require artificial types of beauty. The only thing you need to do is to keep your health on the top of your priorities.
By the time you're a healthy 70 year old, you will remain beautiful. Health is an unchangeable priority in your life.

www.2knowmyself.com, The ultimate source for self understanding 10,000,000 Million visits and counting.
Beautiful women psychology

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Man Vs Ants - Who Will Win?

 By Ebenezer Grant 

Photo: schaus.org
 
Are you smarter than ant? You may say what kind of question is this? Or you may answer emphatically with a resounding yes. After all we are bigger, therefore our brains are bigger. They are tiny, therefore they have little brains. Right? Can you even picture the size of an ants' brain? It must be really tiny, right? Maybe so, maybe not.
Ok, here's the scenario that possessed me to ask such a question. Last year around this time just on the cusp of summer. I had a little ant problem. These little bastards decided that my home was the perfect location to scavenge for food after a long hibernation over the winter. The decision was made and they mounted an all-out attack around my kitchen sink. They marched obediently in a single file, reminiscent of my old army days. Some were coming and some were going. I just assumed they had to find food to feed the big fat queen, somewhere in the lair.
Upon witnessing this, I decided that my home was not big enough for my family and a whole army of ants. So I decided to fight back. I waged an all-out chemical warfare. I went to the local hardware store and bought some ant bait. I read the instructions carefully and mounted my own attack. The label said to put the bait in the infested area. I thought to myself, perfect, I'll just put the bait where they will have cross over it. So I put the bait smack middle in their perfect little single file trail they had going.
Upon encountering the bait, some scattered, some went around it, and some decided to eat it. Before long they all began to feast on the bait. I said to myself, good, eat and die you little bastards, and went about my business. A few hours later, I came back to check on my bait, and as expected, they was a mass of dead ants around it. A trail of dead ants all the way to the crack where they came from. My only hope now was that maybe some of the ants took the bait all the way to the queen. Terminating the queen is the only way to totally eradicate the population, as she lays millions of eggs at a time. Anyway, my ant problem was solved and I never saw another ant for the rest of the summer. The skull and crossbones on the package of the ant bait really meant something.
Fast forward one year, the following summer around the same time. At first I saw one little straggling ant. Not a threat, nothing the mighty hammer fist of a human hand can't handle, smash. Then there were two ants, the following day, hmmmm, then more and more. Ok, no problem, I know exactly how to deal with this. I went and got my bait with the skull and crossbones on it. But wait, I thought to myself, this thing was supposed to kill the entire colony along with the queen. Anyway, I was happy to be able to get rid of them for the entire season. So once again I mounted a counter attack.
Read Part II here

These are stories from my everyday observation. I'm all about self improvement and self empowerment and helping those around me. I write fitness articles also. For more or to receive email notifications about new articles or blogs, please visit my site at http://fitnessconnections.org

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