The Secret to Staying Centered and Happy in a Troubled World
Many of us are probably so used to crisis in the world that it has become a natural part of our mental scenery. We've grown accustomed to living in a world where acts of bitter conflict, unrest, and inhumanity are everyday things, and their constant contradiction with our essential values almost seems normal.
But are we really aware of the effect that these daily messages have on our minds and attitudes, on our inner life? How do we deal with our real feelings about the war, terrorism, the elections, the environment, and other issues? Do we even know those feelings are, aside from our general opinion? It's surprisingly easy to carry silent resentment, fear, and deep anxiety about these things without even realizing it.
Everyone knows it's important for any individual to stay balanced, but how can one do it when the pressure is on, when one is assaulted by negative messages from all sides?
Get in Touch with yourself.
People are usually much more willing to analyze an external issue and give opinions than to look inside themselves. Take a moment to get in touch with your inner response to a much talked about and urgent current event. Use some adjectives to describe your personal way of relating to the events you are aware of, and write them down on a piece of paper. Do you feel concerned, combative, hopeful, disgusted, despondent or numb? Are the feelings obvious or vague? Allowing your feelings to become clear to you gives you more power to influence them.
Decide what gets inside your head.
Every day, Americans are bombarded by information from advertisements and the media. Maybe in years past, news about world events used to come at a slower pace, often by word of mouth, but nowadays it's easy to overdose before finishing breakfast, on information about events occurring on the other side of the world.
Just as you make choices about the foods you eat, be judicious about what you allow to enter your mind. What you hear and see affect what you think, and what you think over time determines the quality and substance of your life. How necessary is it to read the entire newspaper every day, or to listen to and share office or family gossip? What other possibilities can you think of for your valuable time?
Train yourself to consistently stay on guard, and watchful of the external messages constantly contending for your precious attention. Make it a point to actively allow or deny them entrance, according to your best judgment. Over time, this kind of work on yourself will help you be freer of the invasion of external messages, and to help you think more clearly and precisely.
Invest in your personal Vitality (Wind your Clock)
Much like a car depends on gas, everything you do in life is made possible by your level of vitality or energy, especially the decision to remain inwardly balanced and happy. Surprisingly, your energy comes from many more sources than just the food you eat.
For example, in Hypsoconsciousness by John Baines, a book of consciousness-developing exercises, the author describes a consciousness building exercise where the individual moves very slowly and carefully, in a relaxed manner, mentally concentrating on the movement. Any physical movement (such as writing or walking) works and is performed at an exaggeratingly slow pace for five to ten minutes, and sometimes more. After practicing this exercise, you should feel an increase in vitality, presence, and greater mental clarity. Try this exercise when you feel fatigued, and see how it makes you feel.
Take life as a Challenge
When life is taken as a healthy challenge, difficulties seem more like an engaging game; it becomes more intense, joyful, and real. To spend most of our lifetime fearfully avoiding problems ultimately doesn't work, because fear contaminates our every act, and in the end, we have to deal with even more problems. Things take a different color when we accept difficulties as normal, patiently work through them, and don't assign so much negative emotional weight to them. This takes development of the will.
Try this suggestion: Set one small goal for yourself this week. For example, if you hate washing dishes, set yourself the challenge of washing the dishes with a light, cheery attitude for the entire week. If you tend to be shy around people, go to a party with the specific aim of chatting comfortably with a few strangers. Whether you succeed or not, if you take the right attitude with this exercise, you will see yourself and your possibilities differently. Remember to take small steps - making the challenge too difficult or too easy defeats the purpose.
Seeing the Big Picture
Have you ever been positively influenced by a person who had some quality you admired? Sometimes just one well balanced and positive person can affect a great number of people just by the way he or she "is". It's been said: "If you want to change the world, start with yourself." Though it's tough to accept at first, each of us who is concerned about the world can make a contribution with our own development, with our own growth. It's easy to feel powerless in the face of negative events on a global scale, to give up, to contaminate each other with opinions, or to avoid how we feel. These things only make matters worse, on the inside and out. The most potent tool each person has for attaining genuine happiness is his or her potential for self development, and the greater the number of people who work on themselves, the greater the effect on the world.
Junod Etienne is a Seminar Presenter at the Institute for Hermetic Philosophy in New York. The ideas and exercises in this article originate from the Teachings of philosopher and author Dario Salas Sommer, who writes under the pen name John Baines. For more information about the Institute visit http://www.ihpny.org or write to seminars@ihpny.org.
Showing posts with label Happy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happy. Show all posts
Design Psychology: How Our Sensory Responses to Aromas Create Happy Homes
Design Psychology: How Our Sensory Responses to Aromas Create Happy Homes
Our sense of smell elicits strong emotional reactions and triggers powerful memories, whether we're consciously aware of it or not.
Scents and Feelings
Our olfactory system sends a chemical message about the scents around us through the limbic part of our brain, which is the oldest part of our brain. In seconds, that message is telegraphed to our central nervous system, which, in turn, controls how our body functions and how we feel about those smells.
Scents also influence the temperature we feel emotionally. For instance, a grass matting floor covering has a pleasant scent, and makes us feel cooler, while the aroma of fresh baked bread creates a warm feeling of being loved. Marine scents, such as salty sea air, refresh us, while spice and wood scents bring warm thoughts.
The Evolution of Aromatherapy
The ancient civilizations of Arabia, Babylon, China, Egypt, Greece, India, and Rome all used the aromas of scented plants, flowers, and woods to heal and protect. Religious and spiritual ceremonies have used aromas to arouse mankind's deeply spiritual nature from the dawn of time. Today, the science of aromatherapy, which is a holistic healing practice, uses essential oils and herbs, to treat stress-related illnesses, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, and digestive ailments, and even skin problems.
The Effects of Scent on Emotions
Essential oils influence our emotions within seconds of inhalation. For instance, clary sage stimulates the thalamus to release a hormone called encephalon, a neurochemical that creates a sense of euphoria and provides pain relief. Lavender and chamomile fuel the release of serotonin, which has a calming effect on fear, stress, aggravation, or insomnia.
Scents activate the deep part of the brain, where memories are stored. You can recreate pleasant memories and share them with your family and friends through the use of smells. For instance, my mother often baked a cake just before we kids arrived home from school. Now that I've grown up, we don't eat as much cake in our home, but sharing a vanilla scent with my children often prompts them to share stories about their grandmother.
Smells are a powerful link with the memories of our past. My mother used to tell me stories of her grandmother, whose home smelled like baked cinnamon rolls in the morning and exotic, tangy spices in the evening.
The sense of smell, a potent tool in Interior Design Psychology, brings a feeling of harmony and serenity to any room in a home. Embrace the scents you love and those that conjure pleasant memories, and make the use of scent an integral part of your overall design plan.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Jeanette J. Fisher
Jeanette Fisher, Design Psychology Professor, is the author of Joy to the Home eNewsletter. Discover innovative Interior Design Psychology and makeover your home to support happiness, productivity, and well-being. For Design Psychology information, see http://www.designpsych.com/ For more information about "Joy to the Home," see http://www.joytothehome.com/
Our sense of smell elicits strong emotional reactions and triggers powerful memories, whether we're consciously aware of it or not.
Scents and Feelings
Our olfactory system sends a chemical message about the scents around us through the limbic part of our brain, which is the oldest part of our brain. In seconds, that message is telegraphed to our central nervous system, which, in turn, controls how our body functions and how we feel about those smells.
Scents also influence the temperature we feel emotionally. For instance, a grass matting floor covering has a pleasant scent, and makes us feel cooler, while the aroma of fresh baked bread creates a warm feeling of being loved. Marine scents, such as salty sea air, refresh us, while spice and wood scents bring warm thoughts.
The Evolution of Aromatherapy
The ancient civilizations of Arabia, Babylon, China, Egypt, Greece, India, and Rome all used the aromas of scented plants, flowers, and woods to heal and protect. Religious and spiritual ceremonies have used aromas to arouse mankind's deeply spiritual nature from the dawn of time. Today, the science of aromatherapy, which is a holistic healing practice, uses essential oils and herbs, to treat stress-related illnesses, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, and digestive ailments, and even skin problems.
The Effects of Scent on Emotions
Essential oils influence our emotions within seconds of inhalation. For instance, clary sage stimulates the thalamus to release a hormone called encephalon, a neurochemical that creates a sense of euphoria and provides pain relief. Lavender and chamomile fuel the release of serotonin, which has a calming effect on fear, stress, aggravation, or insomnia.
Scents activate the deep part of the brain, where memories are stored. You can recreate pleasant memories and share them with your family and friends through the use of smells. For instance, my mother often baked a cake just before we kids arrived home from school. Now that I've grown up, we don't eat as much cake in our home, but sharing a vanilla scent with my children often prompts them to share stories about their grandmother.
Smells are a powerful link with the memories of our past. My mother used to tell me stories of her grandmother, whose home smelled like baked cinnamon rolls in the morning and exotic, tangy spices in the evening.
The sense of smell, a potent tool in Interior Design Psychology, brings a feeling of harmony and serenity to any room in a home. Embrace the scents you love and those that conjure pleasant memories, and make the use of scent an integral part of your overall design plan.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Jeanette J. Fisher
Jeanette Fisher, Design Psychology Professor, is the author of Joy to the Home eNewsletter. Discover innovative Interior Design Psychology and makeover your home to support happiness, productivity, and well-being. For Design Psychology information, see http://www.designpsych.com/ For more information about "Joy to the Home," see http://www.joytothehome.com/
How To Be Outrageously Happy
How To Be Outrageously Happy
You can be as happy as you want whenever you want. Zen masters have proven this - all you have to do is just "be" with whatever you have right now. Yeah, I know. Sitting on the floor contemplating your blank space may not be what you're after. Highly successful people are outrageously happy because they have fulfilling ways to meet their values. What are values? Well I'm not talking about Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown, or Limp Bizkit's recent family values tour. Values are simply what is most important to you.
Do your values move you towards great possibilities? Is your energy directed towards meeting your values in ways that excite you and make you stronger, capable of going for even more? When you are clear on your values, your vision is bright, and you will feel primed to go for it.
How To Achieve A Big Vision
Get clear on your values
Set specific outcomes that stretch you
Model outstanding people who have similar achievements
Take action and go for it 100%
Be aware of what's working and what's not
Change your approach until you get your outcome
Model For Rapid Success
The 21st Century - what an exciting time to be in business. We have eBusiness, eCommerce, eLove (well maybe not yet, but I'm sure some VC or Angel is working on it), eEtc. In this competitive environment where everything is moving at eSpeed, modeling outstanding people is the fastest way to eSuccess.
Highly Successful Entrepreneurial People
They focus on what they want, rather than on what they fear
They see what's possible, where others lack vision
When they are doing the right thing, they just know it
They focus on the big picture, without getting lost in the details
They are interested in how to get results now
They take massive action and intelligent risks to get what they want.
© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.
Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/
You can be as happy as you want whenever you want. Zen masters have proven this - all you have to do is just "be" with whatever you have right now. Yeah, I know. Sitting on the floor contemplating your blank space may not be what you're after. Highly successful people are outrageously happy because they have fulfilling ways to meet their values. What are values? Well I'm not talking about Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown, or Limp Bizkit's recent family values tour. Values are simply what is most important to you.
Do your values move you towards great possibilities? Is your energy directed towards meeting your values in ways that excite you and make you stronger, capable of going for even more? When you are clear on your values, your vision is bright, and you will feel primed to go for it.
How To Achieve A Big Vision
Get clear on your values
Set specific outcomes that stretch you
Model outstanding people who have similar achievements
Take action and go for it 100%
Be aware of what's working and what's not
Change your approach until you get your outcome
Model For Rapid Success
The 21st Century - what an exciting time to be in business. We have eBusiness, eCommerce, eLove (well maybe not yet, but I'm sure some VC or Angel is working on it), eEtc. In this competitive environment where everything is moving at eSpeed, modeling outstanding people is the fastest way to eSuccess.
Highly Successful Entrepreneurial People
They focus on what they want, rather than on what they fear
They see what's possible, where others lack vision
When they are doing the right thing, they just know it
They focus on the big picture, without getting lost in the details
They are interested in how to get results now
They take massive action and intelligent risks to get what they want.
© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.
Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/
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