Five Great Tips for Staying Mentally Healthy in an Unhealthy Economy
The current economic crisis has wreaked havoc on, not only the financial conditions of many, but also on their mental and emotional well-being. Stress is the order of the day with the stock market serving up unhealthy portions of anxiety, worry, fear, doubt and uncertainty. The housing market contributes to the feast with its daily side orders of loss of value, foreclosures and depression. Then there’s the host of the meal, the media, that loves to shove it all down our throats making sure we get our fair share and taste every bitter morsel.
Just as the quality of food we ingest affects us positively or negatively, so does the quality of mental food. And we’re fed lots of crap, wouldn’t you agree? Mental fast food fed to us by the Golden Arches of the Airways, the big “M.” And you probably can guess that the” M” doesn’t stand for McDonalds; it stands for” Media.” Even Social Media. Why? Because, unfortunately, people like to regurgitate the crap their fed, chew on it a while, and then feed it to all their friends.
My suggestion is this… when you’re fed a bunch of crap, don’t swallow it! Spit it out! Even better, don’t sit down at a table full of crap in the first place! In other words, don’t watch the news and don’t engage in gossip about the news. Don’t Facebook the news, tweet the news or post the news. By then it’s no longer the news, it’s now the “olds.” What I’m suggesting is hard to do, I know, because we’ve become addicted. We have drama, therefore we exist.
Since what I’m suggesting is next to impossible for most of us, here are five great tips to help you keep your mental and emotional fitness up even while the economy’s fitness is down:
1) If you must watch the news, don’t participate in it. Don’t comment on it, neither to yourself nor others. Don’t gossip about it or engage in conversations about it (unless it’s good news). Just observe it, that’s all, with your only intention being to stay up to date.
2) Practice “perceptual shifting” when observing the news to help you stay detached. Rather than watching the TV thru your own eyes, try watching yourself watch the news. Huh? Yes, pretend your body is in a theater room watching the news and you are in the projection booth watching yourself in the theater watching the news. I’m not crazy! You’ll be changing neural pathways. Just play with it, whether you’re watching, reading or listening.
3) Stop the inclination to judge events and circumstances as “Good” or “Bad,” “Right” or “Wrong.” Things just are. Life is. Quite often, though we can’t see it in the moment, “Bad” things have to happen in order for “Good” things to show up. Remember, you heard it here first!
4) Take away the “to me” or “to us” part of the sentence. Example: Look what Wall Street is doing “to us.” Don’t be a victim. This type of language causes you to become a victim of circumstance and an active participant.
5) For every minute of the news you allow yourself to observe, pay a positive consequence. Read a self-help or spiritual book for an equal amount of minutes. Or Meditate, exercise or journal for an equal amount of time. Find ways to balance the positive with the negative.
The world is in an unhealthy place but you don’t have to be. Stop participating. Stop swallowing the crap. Detach. Feed yourself mental and spiritual food daily. Think outside the box because what’s in the box stinks! Furthermore, you may be surprised at what you find once you’re outside the box everyone else is in.
“Sensei” Ron Thomas invites you to visit http://changehowithink.com and get a FREE Mini-Course on The Prosperity Mindset. As a Transformational Life Coach, Author and Speaker specializing in Focus, his training and vast background qualify him as a leading authority in Personal Development and Human Potential. Visit http://changehowithink.com today! Change how you think and change your life!
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Do You Get Panic Attacks? – 5 Best Tips for Getting Your Life Back!
Panic Attacks are a physiological reaction to the emotional state of Anxiety. Emotion trapped in the body. Panic Attacks are a perfect example of how, in my line of work, we stress the fact we don’t have a mind AND a body. They are not separate, they are one system. So, more accurately stated, we have a Mind-Body. One can and does affect the other. The mind can affect the body. The body can also affect the mind.
To many people a panic attack feels like a heart attack. Needless to say, the first time someone experiences a panic attack, it is a frightening experience. Unfortunately this only adds fuel to the fire by giving the anxious person one more thing to worry about… having another panic attack!
If you suffer from panic attacks, it’s important to work on your mind AND your body. Let me put it this way… it’s important to master anxiety and realize that your body can help you do that. How you treat your body, what you put into your body and how you use your body can help you greatly in reducing the mental component of anxiety and also vent out or release the trapped emotional energy stored physically in the body. The question is, how?
1) Maintaining Proper Sugar Levels
Let me be very clear. When your body experiences a drop in sugar levels, your mind goes into hypnosis or trance. You may not realize this, but you can be in a trance and not know you are in a trance. As a clinical hypnotherapist, you will have to trust me on this without me going into all the details. The point is, when you are in a trance you are hyper suggestible. Meaning, your subconscious mind is wide open. Since the subconscious mind is the domain of your emotions, any negative emotion like Anxiety becomes that much bigger in a trance state. You also lose your ability to focus and your memory lessens. Most people notice this around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
The key here is to eat a low carb / high protein diet. Eat a small amount of protein every 2 1/2 – 3 hours. Avoid (or at least cut down) sugar and caffeine. Change everything from white to brown (pasta, potatoes, sugar, rice). There’s more to the story, but you get the picture. I’d suggest consulting with a nutritionist.
2) Exercise
Give your body what it needs… MOVEMENT! Exercise also releases chemicals in the brain that reduce stress, and stress is caused by anxiety mostly. Also, movement helps the body release trapped emotion.
3) Sleep
Make sure you are getting enough sleep. More exercise will help you do this.
4) Breathe
Most people don’t breath properly and/or deeply enough. Oxygen is important for the mind and the body and breath control is important in mastering emotion. I suggest practicing breathing in for a count of 8, hold for a count of 8 and breathe out for a count of 12. Make sure to breathe all the way into the pit of the stomach and breathe in through the nose.
5) Hypnosis
Find a qualified and certified hypnotherapist who can help you do the unconscious work that needs to be done. Hypnotherapy can help you vent out stored up emotion trapped in the mind or the body and renegotiate the way your body responds to the mind and vise versa. Hypnosis is also a great way to reprogram the subconscious mind and deal with any underlying core issues that may be at the root of panic attack.
Note: People who lack understanding about hypnosis may have a fear of it. There are many myths and misconceptions out there. It should be noted that n0 harm has ever been proven to come from hypnosis.
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Could a Coach Help You Master Motivation?
Motivation. Your success depends on it, right? Your business, your career, your relationships, your health, your weight, your finances, your talents, your possibilities, your options, your choices, your actions, your lack of actions, your results, your well-being… your EVERYTHING is woven with your motivation.
The word alone conjures up a host of personal issues and emotions. Why? Because most people are simply not getting the results they really want and, on an unconscious level, they realize that their motivation (or lack of) is at the core of the results they ARE getting. The mistake people make is that they believe they “lack motivation” and therefore need more of it.
The truth is, no one “lacks motivation.” Behind every action, even the absence of action, lies a motivation. Doing nothing has a motivation… the motivation to do nothing! A person is lazy because they are motivated to be that way.
The reasons for one’s motivations are to be examined if one wants better results. It’s a mistake to think you need “more” motivation. In reality, you just need to change the direction of your motivation. If you want better results, you simply need to change your thinking. You need to “shift” into what I call “Motivational Thinking” which will ultimately intensify your desire to be more of who you are rather than less. This feels like “more” motivation, but really it’s an intensification of desire and focus.
Now, to do any or all of what I’m talking about here will indeed require a coach. And so I agree with the person who put up this motivational (and inspirational) video on You Tube who says; “Everyone needs a coach whether they realize it or not.” This video demonstrates the power of a coach for sure. I would only add that a coach is not always an athletic coach, or even a life coach and success coach like myself. Coaching comes in many forms; an accident, injury or illness, a foreclosure, bankruptcy or divorce, a book, article or movie. All of these can be forms of coaching that can help motivate us by changing our thinking. Thank God for coaches! Watch and see what I mean…
Also… in this video, the young player has a certain idea about what his “best” is. The coach, however, changed his player’s thinking and helped him realize his potential which was far more than what he previously thought his “best” was. This is a fantastic demonstration of what my new eBook, “The Best You Can Sucks,” is really about… your Potential and how to access it. CLICK HERE FOR YOUR eBOOK!
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