Stop Whining, change your thoughts change your life!

6月 29, 2007 · Posted in Change Your Life · Comment 

Stop Whining, change your thoughts change your life!

Are you tired of the way your life is, your business is? Then Stop whining, make a change from the inside and become happy. Change your thoughts, change your life. It really is just as simple as that! Once you become happy with yourself you will be surprised how it changes everything else.

You say, Yeah Right!, Simple? My business is failing, my relationship is on the rocks, my boss or employees do not like me. How am I suppose to change that?

Well first of all stop whining about it, the more you focus on how bad things are, the more bad things will happen. You need to focus on the good things in your life, Yes there are good things!

Good things like, your able to get out of bed in the morning, you just witnessed the birth of a new baby, you have a family that loves you, maybe you even have a dog and they are always happy to see you.

The Pursuit of Happiness

The whole purpose of life is an old saying, In the Pursuit of Happiness! That is what you have to consistently do, is pursue happiness. In order to do that you have to change from the inside. You can change how you look, but until you change what is inside, you will always be the same. Change on the inside by saying affirmations, What a Great day!, It is so good to be alive!, or Today is the best day of my life!

Once you change your thoughts in your subconscious mind, you will start feeling happy instead of sad. If your having trouble with your relationship, then everyday write down what made you fall in love with your partner in the first place. Focus on everything good about them, then give it about 30 days and the love will return.

Decide what needs to be changed in order for you to be happy, then take it one step at a time. If you try to change everything at once you will become more stressed, and things will work just the opposite for you.

Fear

The biggest thing most people need to change is having fear, fear of failure, and even fear of success, maybe you think you do not deserve to have success. Another one is dwelling on the past, come on already, the past is gone. Another one is worrying about the future. What good does it possibly do to worry about the future when it is not even here yet.

When you focus on all the negative things in your life rather than the positive, you can be assured that you are heading in the direction of anxiety. Get rid of all the negative thoughts, what good do they really do you? Focus on only positive for true happiness.

The Perfect Syndrome

Do not get trapped in the, I have to be perfect syndrome? Well, no one is perfect. If you really think about it, if everyone were perfect, what a boring world we would live in. Holding yourself to the highest of standards can be draining emotionally and physically. There is no reason to put yourself, or you family through that!

Stop focusing on what you are NOT happy about, and start focusing on what WILL make you happy. Make room inside of you for that change, push out all the unhappiness that has been bottled up and stick in happy.

Relax

Learn to relax. When your relaxed things are easier to cope with, which makes it easier to make changes. When you are relaxed start writing down those things that you want to change inside of you, and then take them step by step toward your true happiness.

Break your old habits and start new happy habits. It will not happen over night, they say it takes 21 days to change. Be persistent and stick with it for at least 21 days, and watch how your life changes.

Remember, Stop whining, Be Happy, Change your thoughts, change your life!

Julianne Rowat, the author, is an internet marketing entrepreneur. She has wrote other articles, press releases and has videos on motivation, self improvement, and FAQ about having an internet marketing business. Her husband is a retired fire fighter/ paramedic. They have 4 children and 6 grandchildren. They travel all around the United States in their motor home while working their internet marketing business. Their mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own internet marketing business. You can read more about them in their blog at: http://www.juliannerowatsblog.com or check out their business at http://www.ultimatewealthfromhome.com Her and her husband also have another business that will save you fuel mileage and help purify our air quality. Go green at http://www.makefuelsafe.com


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Change Your Life Through Spiritual Life Coaching and Coaching for Leadership

6月 28, 2007 · Posted in Life Coaching · Comment 

Change Your Life Through Spiritual Life Coaching and Coaching for Leadership

Coaching for Leadership is an effective way to develop leadership skills in you and your team. The ripple effect of strong leadership will promote efficiency, build morale, improve customer service and, ultimately, lead to better performance.

 There are various options of tailored coaching programs like Leadership Coaching, Coaching Leadership & Training, Executive Business Coaching, Business Life Coaching, Growth Coaching, and Leadership and Communication Training that will polish up your or your team’s leadership capabilities, lend credence to your professional endeavors and result in long-term success.

 There comes a point in every business person’s professional life, when one feels overwhelmed and ill-equipped to move forward confidently. It becomes difficult to manage all the facets of a growing business like building infrastructure, coordinating teams and communication, managing financials and increasing sales. So, how does one manage and grow a successful business? By taking advantage of an effective, result-oriented Business Coaching and Leadership Coaching program that can help overcome challenges and confidently lead the company to success.

 Leadership Coaching and Business Training will help you achieve your business objectives by minimizing the hurdles. Business Coaching Training will teach you to look at things with a fresh perspective and take better decisions.

 Fulfillment in personal and professional lives is interdependent. If you are not happy in one, you can’t add value to other parts of your life. If you are not where you want to be, unfulfilled, stressed out, tired of the lack of results, or simply frustrated by trying to do it all by yourself, it is the right time to reach out for a helping hand to revamp your life. Personal Life Coaching or Life Skills Coaching is all about assisting you to bridge the gap between where the person is and where he/she desires to be.

 Inspirational sessions in Spiritual Life Coaching and Coaching for Balance encourage you to set spiritual goals and transform your life into a truly meaningful one. Coaching programs like Diversity Coaching and Growth Coaching can help the employees increase their cultural awareness, knowledge and skills, so that they can better integrate with the workforce.

 

 

For more information on Coaching for Leadership, Business Coaching Services, Leadership Coaching, Coaching Leadership Training, Business Life Coaching log on to SpiritualLife Coaching


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The Buddhist Theory of Unhappiness

6月 28, 2007 · Posted in Unhappy · Comment 

The Buddhist Theory of Unhappiness

 

It is an ancient tradition of India, first surfacing in the Upanisads, to be interested in unhappiness and the possibility of liberation from it.  Siddhartha Gautama, titled the Buddha, took this one step further, claiming that unhappiness and suffering are the basic issue for humanity, and that human efforts should be focussed on overcoming it.  He said “One thing I teach, unhappiness and the end of unhappiness”, and he laid out this project in a four point programme which became known as the Four Noble Truths.  The Buddhist theory of unhappiness begins with the first two of these, the first giving a description of unhappiness and suffering (dukkha),and the second stating its cause, and elsewhere other causes are added and a more detailed account given of how they operate.  However, it is actually difficult to find in the Buddhist texts a clear overall statement of the theory.  To arrive at that, one has to draw together scattered doctrines and draw out their meaning, and that is what I want to attempt in this article.

 

Unhappiness

 

Buddhism takes the simple view that the world contains some things that we find agreeable and which make us happy, and some things that we find disagreeable and that make us unhappy.  Accordingly the description of unhappiness in the First Noble Truth lists

1.  several examples of disagreeable physical situations we encounter in life, and

2.  a few examples of the mental states of unhappiness they cause in us.

 

Disagreeable Things

 

These are the things mentioned, picked out in bold type.  Right at the beginning of our life we experience pain at our birth – the first thing we do is cry!  Our mother also experiences pain and risks her life to bear us.  Being liable to experience pain is a feature of having a physical body.  So is the need to constantly maintain ourselves, keeping ourselves clean and having to earn money to feed and clothe and house ourselves.  We are emotional beings, at the mercy of our emotions.  We and the world we live in are subject to change – we may lose our job or our friends.  We sometimes find ourselves in a situation we don’t like, there are times when we are separated from the people and things we love, and there are many occasions when we don’t get what we want.  More seriously, we may succumb to illness or injury.  We become increasingly burdened with the restrictions and hardships of old age.  We suffer the death of loved ones, and have to endure dying ourselves.  According to the story, it was when the young Gautama witnessed old age, illness and death on the streets of India that he was spurred to dedicate his life to doing something about it.

 

Nowadays, in an effort to recast Buddhism in modern philosophical or religious terms, some people speak of dukkha in Buddhism as existential angst or spiritual emptiness.  But the original definition is clearly about the straightforward physical causes of the ordinary unhappiness of everyday life.  This is just the unhappiness we all experience at times in our life as a result of being a physical organism in a physical world.

 

Some people also anguish about how to translate ‘dukkha’, and too often chose the one word ‘suffering’.  But the definition makes clear that what is being talked about is the whole range of unhappiness caused by disagreeable things, all the way from the agony of searing pain at one extreme, through episodes of loss and hardship, down to the moment by moment petty irritations of everyday life.  The description gives a broad survey of this range of disageeable things, and I think that all other such things not actually mentioned are also implied.

 

Few of these disagreeable things can be eradicated, but many can be reduced to some extent, and this is the important part played by Buddhist ethics.  The principle underlying the Buddhist guidelines for living is that of doing what will increase happiness and welfare and reduce unhappiness and suffering.  So, it is a Buddhist value to minimise death by not killing humans or non-human animals.  Gautama urged caring for the sick, and spoke out against trade in anything harmful to health.  He was sceptical about the efficacy of much of the medicine being practised in his day, but later in Buddhist countries hospitals were established for humans and other animals.  Although poverty isn’t specifically mentioned in the list of disagreeable things, Buddhist ethics forbid trading in slaves, and specify that workers should be paid a living wage, treated well, and allowed time off.  Along with knowledge and mental training, morality is one of the three pillars of the Buddhist life, and tackles the physical causes of unhappiness and suffering.

 

States of Unhappiness

 

The remainder of the First Noble Truth gives a brief list of examples of the states of unhappiness caused in us when we experience disagreeable things.  The list is: pain, unpleasant feeling, grief, lamentation and despair.  These can be divided into two groups:

1.  feelings of pain and unpleasantness that may occur in the process of perceiving a disagreeable object, and

2.  emotional moods such as grief, lamentation and despair that may follow from such a perception.

 

1.  Painful and Unpleasant Feelings in the Perception of a Disagreeable Object

 

Buddhist psychology developed a detailed account of the perceptual process that occurs when we perceive an object.  This process is said to be composed of a series of causally linked conscious states that only last for an instant.  The object is noticed, we become conscious of it in the form of a bare sensation, it is received by the mind, then investigated, then when we have established what the object is, we respond to it, and register it in our memory.  When the object is disagreeable, feelings (vedana) of pain or unpleasantness are said to sometimes arise at specific points in this process.

 

The feeling of pain (dukkha, used here in a more limited sense) arises in our bare awareness of a tactile object of a sufficient intensity, and this is said to be the only conscious state in which pain occurs.  In other words, we feel pain when a sufficiently strong stimulus affects our tactile sense receptors, such as when we are hit or cut or burned.  Each conscious state of pain lasts for only an instant, but so long as the object continues to cause it these conscious states of pain will rapidly reoccur with each new perceptual process, giving us longer experiences of pain.  There are some yogic techniques which teach a degree of mental control over pain, and one might have expected Gautama to have taught them, but he didn’t.  Perhaps they had not yet been developed.  However, he did teach the mental control of our emotional reactions to pain.  There are also, of course, pain-killing drugs, some of which probably existed in early Buddhist India, but I’m not aware that Gautama advised using them, which is perhaps surprising.  Nevertheless, alleviating pain was the driving force of his code of morality, so he did advocate this in general terms.

 

According to the developed Buddhist psychology, the unhappy feeling of unpleasantness (domanassa) occurs only at the stage in our perception of a disagreeable object when we respond to such an object with aversion.  Unlike pain which is felt directly as part of our first consciousness of the object causing it, the mental feeling of unpleasantness can only arise when we have mentally established what the object is, which we do immediately prior to responding to it.  It is said that we are capable of some control over whether we associate a perceived disagreeable object with an unpleasant feeling, and gaining this may be part of the Buddhist mental training for removing the emotional response of aversion.

 

2.  Emotional Moods of Unhappiness

 

These are the remaining states of unhappiness listed in the First Noble Truth, the emotional moods of grief (soka), lamentation (distress) (parideva), and despair (upayasa), and we can take it that all other emotional forms of unhappiness are meant to be added to these examples.  The definition makes it clear enough that this is such unhappiness in this present life.  At no point in the definition is anything said about lives after death.  Gautama believed in rebirth, but his primary concern, as stated in the Four Noble Truths, was unhappiness and liberation from it in this present life.

 

However, when the Abhidhamma Buddhist psychology was formulated at a somewhat later date, these caused states of unhappiness appear in the account, not as occurring in this present life, but in another life after death into which one is reborn.  This is rather extraordinary.  The original central basic Buddhist project was concerned with unhappiness in this life, but the later more detailed account of it, apart from the unhappy feelings in the perceptual process, drops all mention of grief, lamentation and despair, etc., in this life, and instead talks of the unhappy perception of a disagreeable object leading, in some cases, to physical rebirth after death into a future unhappy life, in unfortunate circumstances on earth, or in one of a number of hells.

 

What seems to have happened is that the original phase of Buddhism, in which Gautama is said to have achieved liberation from unhappiness in this life, and to have led many other people, often quite ordinary people, to do the same, had come to an end.  The situation had changed to one we are familiar with today, where liberation in this life was rare indeed, and most followers of Buddhism didn’t even aspire to it, but just hoped for a happy rebirth.  The Abhidhamma Buddhist psychology seems to reflect this.  It concentrates on unhappy rebirth, and how to avoid it.

 

Nevertheless, it still owes us an account of the unhappy emotional moods such as grief, lamentation and despair, that arise in this present life and are listed in the First Noble Truth.  There is reason to believe that the Abhidhamma account of physical rebirth into other unhappy lives can also be taken as a poetical image of unhappy periods within this present life.  The wider context of Buddhism is the whole Indian tradition of liberation from the unhappiness of rebirth.  Here the rebirth that liberation is from is typically expressed in terms of physical rebirth after death.  Yet liberation from rebirth is also said to involve a mental liberation in this life which transforms one’s consciousness.  The rebirth this mental liberation is from has to be a psychological rebirth, so talk of physical rebirth also has to be taken as an image of unhappy human consciousness metamorphosing from one transient emotional state to another.  For the Abhidhamma account of physical rebirth to also have this psychological interpretation is therefore in line with the dual nature of the concept of rebirth in ancient Indian thought.  (See my article “Rebirth in Hinduism and Buddhism is Also an Image of Unhappy Consciousness”).  Also some schools of Buddhism explicitly teach this interpretation.

 

The Buddhist psychology says that an unhappy perception of a disagreeable object may be immediately followed by birth into an unhappy life, which we are now interpreting as an unhappy mood in this present life.  It is said that the conscious state of the perceptual process responsible for investigating the disagreeable object so as to establish what it is, and so the state that establishes that the object is a disagreable one, reappears as the first conscious state (patisandhi) of the unhappy mood, as the conscious states (bhavanga) which fill any gaps between perceptions throughout the duration of the mood, and as the final conscious state (cuti) of the mood.  This seems to describe the way experiencing something disagreeable can put us in an unhappy mood that continues the same despite perceiving other things.

 

It is said that some of the ‘hell’ moods contain some happiness mixed in with the predominant unhappiness, a likely description of cases where an unhappy mood is enlivened by the occasional lifts in our spirits when something agreeable comes along, but not enough to bring the unhappy mood to an end.  Other ‘hell’ moods are said to be entirely unhappy, which would be a fitting description of despair or depression.

 

The different unhappy rebirth lives, interpreted as unhappy moods in this present life, do not link up neatly with the examples of such moods given or suggested in the definition of unhappiness, but there is some connection.  Two of the hot hells are hells of lamentation, making them a suitable image of this emotional state and behaviour.  The cold hells would make a telling image of despair.  Being born as a Peta, a creature consumed by unsatisfied desire, makes a perfect image of the unhappiness of the situation of not getting what we want which is listed in the definition of unhappiness.

  The Causes of Unhappiness

 

This completes my examination of the First Noble Truth of unhappiness, and I move on now to the Second Noble Truth which states the cause of unhappiness.  This apparently simple distinction between the two isn’t quite as simple as it looks at first sight, because in fact, as we’ve seen, the First Noble Truth is also mostly given over to listing causes of unhappiness.  The causes dealt with there are for the most part external physical causes which may be reduced by ethical action but not eradicated.  What the Second Noble Truth moves on to is the mental cause of unhappiness, and this according to Buddhism (and the ancient Indian tradition) is something that can be entirely removed.

 

It is stated that the mental cause of unhappiness is desire (lobha, tanha, raga or upadana).  This may be desire for sensory things, or it can be attachment to ideas and thoughts and beliefs.  This isn’t an original idea.  Already in the Upanisads, a founding literature of  Hinduism, it was asserted that desire was a major cause of unhappiness.  As in the Upanisads, Gautama is actually saying that desire is the main mental cause of unhappiness, not that it is the only one.

 

This is because elsewhere he talked of there being two other mental causes of unhappiness: aversion and ignorance (avijja).  The latter is also not original, already presented as a cause of unhappiness in the Upanisads.  In part it means not knowing what causes unhappiness, having desires and aversions freely because you don’t realise that they are laying up future unhappiness.  As such it is really only an indirect cause of unhappiness, in that it allows the direct causes of desire and aversion to arise.

 

Gautama may have been a bit more original bringing in aversion (dosa, patigha, upanaha, kodha or vyapada) as a third fundamental cause of unhappiness.  Doing this effectively embraces all emotions, with desire being emotionally reacting for something, and aversion being reacting against something.  It is actually just desire and aversion that are the direct mental causes of unhappiness, and this means that what Gautama is really saying is that the mental cause of our unhappiness is our emotional responses.  One sometimes hears it said that Buddhism picks out ego as the cause of unhappiness, but this is not what the central Buddhist doctrine says.  Instead Buddhism takes the Behaviourist line that what causes unhappiness are our emotional reactions, both to sense objects and to thoughts.

 

The view was that in any conscious state containing desire or aversion, there is ignorance as well.  It is also the Buddhist view that you can’t have both desire and aversion in the same mental state – they are opposites so that the presence of one excludes the presence of the other.  It follows that the three causes of unhappiness actually operate as two alternative pairs.  Ignorance and desire together cause unhappiness, and ignorance and aversion together do so, although, as I have said, in each pair it is only the emotional response, of desire or aversion, which is a direct cause.

 

In somewhat later Buddhist texts more causes of unhappiness are added to these three.  This is partly because on various occasions Gautama remarked that some other mental or emotional quality would lead to unhappiness, so these had to be added to the list.  Of the three early Buddhist schools whose literature has survived, the Theravadins added eleven more causes, which are really only ten because two of them, thina and middha, both mean mental laziness.  They include envy (issa), meanness (macchariya), uncontrolled thought (uddhacca and vicikiccha), and a conceited self image (mana).  The Sarvastivadins and Yogacarins also list all of these, and in addition they both add seven more: carelessness (pramada), sloppiness (kausidya), hypocrisy (makkha), dissatisfaction (pradasa), doing harm (vihimsa), deceit (maya) and dishonesty (satheyya), and the Yogacarins tentatively add three more: forgetfulness (musitasmrtita), confusion (viksepa), and wrong judgement (asamprajna).  I can’t deal with all this extra detail in this present article, so I’ll restrict myself to the original three causes, ignorance and either desire or aversion.

 

How these mental causes of unhappiness operate is set out more thoroughly in the doctrine called paticca-samuppada.  It is presented as a list of twelve items, with each item said to be the cause of the following one.  From early in Buddhist history up to the present day it has been found bafflingly obscure, and has been given many different interpretations.  It has proved difficult to give a precise account of each link, and at the same time present the doctrine as a whole as both coherent and illuminating.

 

I think that what we have to do is to stand back, stop worrying about precise causal links, and just ascertain in general what the doctrine is about.  It is plain enough, and fairly widely agreed, that it is an elaboration of one of the pairs of main causes of unhappiness.  This is because the item at the end of the causal chain is unhappiness, represented by the phrase ‘old age and death’ (jaramarana), and among the other items on the list are the members of one pair of the main causes of it, ignorance at the beginning, and desire two thirds of the way through.  As we have already seen, it is said that where there is desire there is also ignorance, so that is why we have both causes here.  Out of desire and aversion, desire is held to be the more dominant cause, as such the one picked out in the Second Noble Truth, so that is why desire is featured here.  It is also said that if there is desire in a mental state, there cannot be aversion as well.  This explains why desire is in the list, but not aversion.  The emphasis on the list being a causal one is not, I think, because it is about causation itself, but simply because it is setting out how unhappiness is caused.

 

Let me now give an exposition of what the paticca-samuppada might be telling us about the main causes of unhappiness.  In order to do that it is necessary to relate the bare list of items with what is said about them elsewhere in the ancient Buddhist texts.

 

I believe the first three items on the list give an account of how ignorance (avijja), the first item, indirectly causes unhappiness.  Ignorance, in this context, is not knowing what causes unhappiness, (i.e desire and aversion), and these are mental components (cetasika) of conscious states.  The second item in the list, sankhara, is a general term for the mental components, including new components as they were added to Buddhist psychology, but originally referring in particular to the karmic or unhappiness- and happiness-causing components, and in this context referring to just the unhappiness-causing ones.  Because we do not know that these components will cause later unhappiness, we allow them to arise unchecked.  The mental components are constituents of conscious states (vinnana, the third item on the list).  They are responsible for making the conscious state they are in the kind of conscious state it is.  In the Theravada school of early Buddhism in due course eighty nine different kinds of conscious state (citta) were distinguished.  An unhappiness-causing mental component in a conscious state makes it an unhappiness-causing conscious state.  More to the point, unhappiness-causing mental components cause later unhappy conscious states.

 

The next six items present the view, central to Buddhist psychology, and widespread in ancient Indian thought, that desire arises at a particular stage in the process of perception.  Our unhappy, and all other, conscious states are found in association with our physical body, together constituting us as a sentient or perceiving organism (nama rupa, item number four).  The relevant part of our physical body is the five sense receptors, and the physical organ of mind, then thought by some to be the heart, but now known to be the brain.  These six (salayatana) are item number five.  Sense objects make contact (phassa, the sixth item) with these sense receptors and the mind organ to produce sense consciousness.  A similar process occurs in the case of mental objects (thoughts), the mind organ, and mental consciousness.  Where the sense object is an agreeable one, it may in the consciousness of it be accompanied by a feeling (vedana, the seventh item) of pleasure.  At the responding stage (javana) of the perceptual or mental process we may, due to our ignorance of its effect, respond to such a pleasurable perceived object with the emotion of desire (tanha, item number eight).  Repeated desire for a particular object causes habitual entrenched emotional attachment to it (upadana, item number nine).

 

This causes our normal unliberated everyday consciousness of life (bhava, item number ten), which is depicted pictorially in Buddhism in the Wheel of Life (bhavacakra).  This image has the three main causes of unhappiness, ignorance, desire and aversion, in the central hub, and the twelve items of the paticca-samuppada around the outer rim, and between them, where the spokes would be, the various ‘rebirth states’ which we are here interpreting psychologically as the different moods and circumstances of our life.  We find ourself born (jati, item eleven) into these different phases and moods, some happy with agreeable objects, some unhappy with disagreeable objects.  When disagreeable situations arise, such as old age and death (jaramarana, the twelth and final item) we are cast into unhappy moods.  Taken as a whole, this is the more fully developed Buddhist account of how unhappiness is caused.

 

But it leaves some details to be filled in, which is done in the Abhidhamma Buddhist psychology.  Here it is said that there will typically be a gap of time between the desire or aversion, and the unhappiness it causes.  What operates across this interlude is karma, which in this case is mental karma  in this present life.  To our modern eyes it looks a lot like the emotional response of desire or aversion as neural activity that causes a physical modification of the brain.

 

In the case of desire, what Buddhist psychology says is that past desire for an agreeable object influences our present perception of a disagreeable object, specifically our initial consciousness of it (vinnana), our receiving of it into our mind (sampaticchana), and our investigating of it to establish what object it is (santirana), and this may result in our being put into an unhappy mood.  Since the object we responded to with desire was agreeable, and the object we are perceiving now is disagreeable, it cannot be one and the same object reappearing unchanged.  But it could be the same object altered.  For example, if we have become attached to a beautiful possession, then if we now discover that thing broken it will have become a disagreeable object, and our perception of it will contrast how it is now with how it used to be making us all the more upset, and the more attached we were to it in the past, the more distraught we are going to be now.  It is interesting to see that here desire and impermanence are working together to produce unhappiness.  A different case of desire causing unhappiness is where we want something desireable, but face the frustrating situation of not being able to have it.  Wanting it strongly colours our view of not having it, and the more we want it, the more inconsolable we are.  Yet another case is being attached to being surrounded by beautiful things.  If we now find ourself somewhere ugly, our past attachment to beauty will give us a very negative attitude towards the ugliness and make us feel depressed.

 

In the case of aversion, past dislike of a disagreeable object or person influences our present perception of something disagreeable and puts us in a bad mood.  If it is the same object, for example the same person, then reacting against him in the past will cause us to view him negatively when we meet him again, making our heart sink.  If the two objects are different, then it will be our general tendency to react to unpleasant things adversely that will make us sensitive to any unpleasant thing we experience and liable to be cast into a bad mood by it.  Interestingly, unlike desire, aversion and impermanence work against each other.  If a disagreeable object changes into an agreeable one, that changes unhappiness into happiness!  This could be one reason why aversion is seen in Buddhism as a lesser cause of unhappiness than desire.

 

The Buddhist solution to all this is that we must train ourself not to react to things emotionally, so ridding ourself of moods, enjoying the good times without attachment or elation, and enduring unpleasant circumstances without aversion or ill humour.

 

 

Conclusion

 

We have found that the definition or description of unhappiness in the First Noble Truth gives two sets of examples, instances of disagreeable mostly external physical objects and situations, and examples of some of the states of unhappiness they cause.  These instances of unhappy states can themselves be divided into painful and unpleasant feelings that may arise in the perception of a disagreeable object, and unhappy emotional moods that may follow from such a perception.

 

As for the Second Noble Truth, we have found that this gives what in the Buddhist view is the main mental cause of unhappiness, but that there are also other mental causes in the Buddhist literature, such as ignorance and aversion.  The two direct causes are desire and aversion, which effectively stand for all emotional responses.  How desire causes unhappiness in the process of perception is set out in more detail in the paticca-samuppada doctrine, and in more detail still, for both desire and aversion, in the Abhidhamma psychology.  At first sight it can seem difficult to extract from the early Buddhist texts a clear statement of exactly how unhappiness is caused, but I hope I have shown that it is possible to piece together something like a coherent Buddhist theory of unhappiness.

 

 

Back in the 1970s Gerald Dupre wrote a series of articles on Buddhism and Science for The Middle Way, journal of the Buddhist Society in London, which were reprinted in a book of essays, and also translated into German. In the 1980s he was founder chairperson of the Scientific Buddhist Association and major contributor to its magazine The Western Buddhist, dedicated to setting out core Buddhist doctrines in clear language, as well as beginning to present Buddhist mental training in easy steps. He then moved away from Buddhism, studying philosophy at London University, and continuing studies in this area and that of consciousness for a dozen years. He has retained a great admiration for the ideas of the Buddha, and is now writing new, and, he hopes, more philosophically acute articles on this subject.


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Hypnotism:the Basics– for the Novice

6月 27, 2007 · Posted in Hypnotic · Comment 

Hypnotism:the Basics– for the Novice

Hypnosis

Introduction:

When you hear the word hypnosis, you may picture the mysterious hypnotist figure popularized in movies, comic books and television. This ominous, goateed man waves a pocket watch back and forth, guiding his subject into a semi-sleep, zombie-like state. Once hypnotized, the subject is compelled to obey, no matter how strange or immoral the request. Muttering “Yes, master,” the subject does the hypnotist’s evil bidding.

This popular representation bears little resemblance to actual hypnotism, of course. In fact, modern understanding of hypnosis contradicts this conception on several key points. Subjects in a hypnotic trance are not slaves to their “masters” — they have absolute free will. And they’re not really in a semi-sleep state — they’re actually hyper attentive.

Our understanding of hypnosis has advanced a great deal in the past century, but the phenomenon is still a mystery of sorts. In this article, we’ll look at some popular theories of hypnosis and explore the various ways hypnotists put their art to work.

Why the name “Hypnosis”?

James Braid, a 19th-century Scottish surgeon, originated the terms “hypnotism” and “hypnosis” based on the word hypnos, which is Greek for “to sleep.” Braid and other scientists of the era, such as Ambroise-Auguste Liebeault, Hippolyte Bernheim and J.M. Charcot, theorized that hypnosis is not a force inflicted by the hypnotist, but a combination of psychologically mediated responses to suggestions.

In the proper nomenclature, hypnosis refers to the trance state itself, and hypnotism refers to the act of inducing this state and to the study of this state. A hypnotist is someone who induces the state of hypnosis, and a hypnotherapist is a person who induces hypnosis to treat physical or mental illnesses.

History of Hypnotism:

People have been entering hypnotic-type trances for thousands and thousands of years; various forms of meditation play an important role in many cultures’ religions. But the scientific conception of hypnotism wasn’t born until the late 1700s.

The father of modern hypnotism is Franz Mesmer, an Austrian physician. Mesmer believed hypnosis to be a mystical force flowing from the hypnotist into the subject (he called it “animal magnetism”). Although critics quickly dismissed the magical element of his theory, Mesmer’s assumption, that the power behind hypnosis came from the hypnotist and was in some way inflicted upon the subject, took hold for some time. Hypnosis was originally known as mesmerism, after Mesmer, and we still use its derivative, “mesmerize,” today.

So what is Hypnosis?

People have been pondering and arguing over hypnosis for more than 200 years, but science has yet to fully explain how it actually happens. We see what a person does under hypnosis, but it isn’t clear why he or she does it. This puzzle is really a small piece in a much bigger puzzle: how the human mind works. It’s unlikely that scientists will arrive at a definitive explanation of the mind in the foreseeable future, so it’s a good bet hypnosis will remain something of a mystery as well.

But psychiatrists do understand the general characteristics of hypnosis, and they have some model of how it works. It is a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination. It’s not really like sleep, because the subject is alert the whole time. It is most often compared to daydreaming, or the feeling of “losing yourself” in a book or movie. You are fully conscious, but you tune out most of the stimuli around you. You focus intently on the subject at hand, to the near exclusion of any other thought.

In the everyday trance of a daydream or movie, an imaginary world seems somewhat real to you, in the sense that it fully engages your emotions. Imaginary events can cause real fear, sadness or happiness, and you may even jolt in your seat if you are surprised by something (a monster leaping from the shadows, for example). Some researchers categorize all such trances as forms of self-hypnosis. Milton Erickson, the premier hypnotism expert of the 20th century, contended that people hypnotize themselves on a daily basis. But most psychiatrists focus on the trance state brought on by intentional relaxation and focusing exercises. This deep hypnosis is often compared to the relaxed mental state between wakefulness and sleep.

In conventional hypnosis, you approach the suggestions of the hypnotist, or your own ideas, as if they were reality. If the hypnotist suggests that your tongue has swollen up to twice its size, you’ll feel a sensation in your mouth and you may have trouble talking. If the hypnotist suggests that you are drinking a chocolate milkshake, you’ll taste the milkshake and feel it cooling your mouth and throat. If the hypnotist suggests that you are afraid, you may feel panicky or start to sweat. But the entire time, you are aware that it’s all imaginary. Essentially, you’re “playing pretend” on an intense level, as kids do.

In this special mental state, people feel uninhibited and relaxed. Presumably, this is because they tune out the worries and doubts that normally keep their actions in check. You might experience the same feeling while watching a movie: As you get engrossed in the plot, worries about your job, family, etc. fade away, until all you’re thinking about is what’s up on the screen.

In this state, you are also highly suggestible. That is, when the hypnotist tells you do something, you’ll probably embrace the idea completely. This is what makes stage hypnotist shows so entertaining. Normally reserved, sensible adults are suddenly walking around the stage clucking like chickens or singing at the top of their lungs. Fear of embarrassment seems to fly out the window. The subject’s sense of safety and morality remain entrenched throughout the experience, however. A hypnotist can’t get you to do anything you don’t want to do.

Myths and Misconceptions:

There are many myths and misconceptions concerning hypnosis, for example, that a client is completely under the hypnotist’s control. A hypnotist cannot make an individual do anything under hypnosis that they do not want to do. Hypnotic subjects are totally alert under hypnosis and can remember everything that happened while they were in trance. And if an emergency were to occur during a session, such as a fire, the subject would simply snap out of trance, and attend to the problem at hand.

The Role of unconscious mind:

Often the conscious mind and the unconscious mind are in conflict or disagreement. For example, consciously you may want to stop smoking, but unconsciously you may still associate smoking with being macho or looking sophisticated. Or you may consciously want to eat better food and smaller portions, but unconsciously may associate eating with a positive experience like being nurtured or loved.

During a hypnotic session, clients are helped to progressively relax. As they do so, their conscious mind lets go more and more and the unconscious mind starts to play a more active, more dominant role. The same thing happens in the early stages of sleep; however, in the hypnotic state the unconscious mind maintains a peculiar ability to remain extremely alert and to receive whatever suggestions the client has asked to receive, without normal conscious resistance. In this way, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind are finally able to agree on the desired results. The hypnotist is the facilitator or guide during the journey.

Methods of Hypnotism:

Hypnotists’ methods vary, but they all depend on a few basic prerequisites:

1.The subject must want to be hypnotized.

2.The subject must believe he or she can be hypnotized.

3.The subject must eventually feel comfortable and relaxed.

If these criteria are met, the hypnotist can guide the subject into a hypnotic trance using a variety of methods. The most common hypnotic techniques are:

Fixed gazed Induction or Eye Fixation:

This is the method you often see in movies, when the hypnotist waves a pocket watch in front of the subject.

The basic idea is to get the subject to focus on an object so intently that he or she tunes out any other stimuli. As the subject focuses, the hypnotist talks to him or her in a low tone, lulling the subject into relaxation. This method was very popular in the early days of hypnotism, but it isn’t used much today because it doesn’t work on a large proportion of the population.

Rapid Induction:

The idea of this method is to overload the mind with sudden, firm commands.

If the commands are forceful, and the hypnotist is convincing enough, the subject will surrender his or her conscious control over the situation. This method works well for a stage hypnotist because the novel circumstance of being up in front of an audience puts subjects on edge, making them more susceptible to the hypnotist’s commands.

Progressive Imagination and Imagery:

This is the hypnosis method most commonly employed by psychiatrists.

By speaking to the subject in a slow, soothing voice, the hypnotist gradually brings on complete relaxation and focus, easing the subject into full hypnosis. Typically, self-hypnosis training, as well as relaxation and meditation audio tapes use the progressive relaxation method.

Loss of Balance:

This method creates a loss of equilibrium using slow, rhythmic rocking.

Parents have been putting babies to sleep with this method for thousands of years.

Before hypnotists bring a subject into a full trance, they generally test his or her willingness and capacity to be hypnotized. The typical testing method is to make several simple suggestions, such as “Relax your arms completely,” and work up to suggestions that ask the subject to suspend disbelief or distort normal thoughts, such as “Pretend you are weightless.”

Depending on the person’s mental state and personality, the entire hypnotism process can take anywhere from a few minutes to more than a half hour. Hypnotists and hypnotism proponents see the peculiar mental state as a powerful tool with a wide range of applications. In the next section, we’ll look at some of the more common uses of hypnotism.

Applications of Hypnotism:

Habit Control:

In this application, a hypnotist focuses on one particular habit that is embedded in your unconscious (smoking or overeating, for example). With the “control panel” to your mind open, the hypnotist may be able to reprogram your subconscious to reverse the behavior. Some hypnotists do this by connecting a negative response with the bad habit. For example, the hypnotist might suggest to your subconscious that smoking will cause nausea. If this association is programmed effectively, you will feel sick every time you think about smoking a cigarette. Alternatively, the hypnotist may build up your willpower, suggesting to your subconscious that you don’t need cigarettes, and you don’t want them.

Psychiatric Theory:

In a therapy session, a psychiatrist may hypnotize his or her subject in order to work with deep, entrenched personal problems. The therapy may take the form of breaking negative patterns of behavior, as with mass habit-control programs. This can be particularly effective in addressing phobias, unreasonable fears of particular objects or situations. Another form of psychiatric hypnotherapy involves bringing underlying psychiatric problems up to the conscious level. Accessing fears, memories and repressed emotions can help to clarify difficult issues and bring resolution to persistent problems.

Law Enforcement/Forensic Science:

Hypnotists may also tap dormant memories to aid in law enforcement. In this practice, called forensic hypnotism, investigators access a subject’s deep, repressed memories of a past crime to help identify a suspect or fill in details of the case. Since hypnotists may lead subjects to form false memories, this technique is still very controversial in the forensics world.

Medical Hypnotherapy:

Doctors and spiritual leaders all over the world claim that hypnotic suggestion can ease pain and even cure illness in some patients. The underlying idea behind this is that the mind and body are inextricably intertwined. When you suggest to the subconscious that the body does not feel pain, or that the body is free of disease, the subconscious may actually bring about the change.

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence to support this idea. Using only hypnotic suggestion as an anesthetic, thousands of women have made it through childbirth with minimal pain and discomfort. Countless cancer patients swear by hypnosis, claiming that it helps to manage the pain of chemotherapy, and some former patients credit their recovery to hypnotherapy.

The success of hypnotherapy is undeniable, but many doctors argue that the hypnotic trance is not actually responsible for the positive results.

• Conclusion:

Thus it is clear from the above topic that hypnotism though seems like hypothetical concept hypnotism is present in our life almost every day.

ranav Bhat.

Freelance web designer and programmer.
Visit Pranav Bhat’s Website


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Thought Power – Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

6月 27, 2007 · Posted in Thought · Comment 

Thought Power – Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

Thought power is the key to creating your reality. Everything you perceive in the physical world has its origin in the invisible, inner world of your thoughts and beliefs. To become the master of your destiny, you must learn to control the nature of your dominant, habitual thoughts. By doing so you will be able to attract into your life anything you desire with exact precision as you come to know the Truth that your thoughts create your reality.

For Every Outside Effect There is an Inner Cause: Every effect you see in your outside or physical world has a very specific cause which has its origin in your inner or mental world. This is the essence of thought power. Put another way, the conditions and circumstances of your life are as a result of your thoughts and beliefs. James Allen said it best when he said “circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him”. Every aspect of your life, from the state of your finances to the state of your health and your relationships, is accurately revealing your thoughts and your beliefs.

It’s an Inside Job: Most people have it back to front, believing that they feel or think a certain way because of their circumstances, not knowing the truth that it is their thought power that is creating those very circumstances, whether wanted or unwanted. By internalizing and applying this Truth, that your thoughts create your reality, you will grant yourself the power to create the changes you desire to see manifest in your life. Reality creation is an inside job.

Your Thought Power is Limitless: There is a single, intelligent Consciousness that pervades the entire Universe – all powerful, all knowing, all creative and present everywhere at the same time – the Universal Mind. Your mind is part of this One Universal Mind and since your thoughts are a product of your mind, it follows that your thought power too is limitless. Once you truly understand that your mind is one with the Single Source of All Power and that this power is within you, you will have found the only true source of infinite power for which nothing is impossible and impossible is nothing. Know that thought power comes from within. All power comes from within.

Your Thoughts are Alive: The greatest mystics and teachers that have walked the Earth have told us that everything is energy. This fundamental Truth has now been undeniably confirmed by modern science. Your thoughts too are energy. William Walker Atkinson told us that “where mind is static energy, thought is dynamic energy – two phases of the same thing” and Charles Haanel went on to say that “thought power is the vibratory force formed by converting static mind into dynamic mind”. Your thoughts are alive. Each time you entertain a specific thought, you emit a very specific, corresponding frequency or energy vibration.

What Frequency Are You On: The basic premise of the Law of Attraction is that like energy attracts like energy. You attract to yourself those things and circumstances that are in vibrational harmony with your dominant frequency, which is itself determined by your dominant mental attitude, habitual thoughts and beliefs. Mike Dooley, one of the presenters of the movie The Secret, fittingly suggests if you want to know what a thought looks like, just look around you. Keep in mind his three words “thoughts are things”.

Not All Thoughts Are Created Equal: The attractive power of any particular thought is determined by how often you have that thought and by the strength of the feelings or emotions associated with it. The more energy you give to a particular thought, the greater its power to attract its corresponding circumstance into your physical world through the Law of Attraction. Your one-off, passing thoughts do not have the same creative power as your habitual thoughts and beliefs. Remember, that it is of little use to entertain positive thoughts for just a short burst of time each day if you then proceed to think negative or unwanted thoughts for the rest of the day. Your reality is the sum total of all your thoughts.

Use Thought Power to Change Your Life: It is your subconscious mind that is the store house of your deep-seated beliefs and programmes. To change your circumstances and attract to yourself that which you desire, you must learn to programme and re-programme your subconscious mind. Since your mind is one with the all-powerful Universal Mind, the potential power of your subconscious mind is also limitless. The most effective and practical way to programme your subconscious mind for success in all areas of your life is to learn the simple process of creative visualization. It is the technique underlying reality creation, making use of thought power to consciously imagine, create and attract that which you desire. Your imagination is the engine of your thoughts. It converts your thought power into mental images.

Become Aware of Your Thoughts But Not Obsessed: It is important that you learn to be aware of your habitual thoughts and to appropriately adjust them so as to maintain an overall positive mental attitude. However, be careful not to become obsessed with every thought that enters your mind as this would be equally counter-productive, if not more so, than not being aware of them at all. Remember that to obsess over your negative, unwanted thoughts, is to give them power and as the saying goes, what you resist persists. So instead of resisting any of your negative thoughts, simply learn to effortlessly cancel them by replacing them as they arise.

Instantly Replace Unwanted Thoughts: To instantly neutralize the power of a negative thought, calmly and deliberately replace it with its opposite, positive equivalent. For instance if you think to yourself “I’m not good enough, I will never succeed”, mentally replace the thought with “I am good enough and success comes to me easily”. You can also use the “cancel cancel” technique made famous by the Silva Method. Each time you catch yourself thinking an unwanted thought, mentally tell yourself and the Universe “cancel cancel” and immediately follow it up with a positive statement.

Tame Your Dominant Thoughts and the Random Will Follow: It is estimated that the average person has between 12,000 and 70,000 thoughts a day. This is evidence enough to suggest that your goal should not be to control every thought. It is your dominant thoughts and beliefs that you must learn to bring under your conscious control as they are what largely determine your mental attitude. As you do, you will find your random thoughts themselves becoming more positive and more deliberate.

The following words of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha perfectly capture the essence of thought power: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.”

In a nutshell, your life is the perfect mirror of your thoughts, beliefs and dominant mental attitude. Whether you realise it or not you are already creating your reality through your thought power. Every effect you see in your outside world has its original cause within you – no exceptions. To gain access to the greatest creative power at your disposal, you must learn to control the nature of your habitual thoughts and to align yourself with the One Source of All Power of which you are a part. Your thoughts create your reality – know, internalize and apply this Truth and you will see your life transform in miraculous ways.

Tania Kotsos is the founder and author of Mind Your Reality – Your Ultimate Guide to Using Mind Power to Create Your Reality. She has been studying mind power and the nature of reality for the last 15 years.


Go to www.mind-your-reality.com to visit Mind Your Reality and learn all about mind power, reality creation, the universal laws, success secrets, relationship advice and much more – all for FREE.


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Yoga for Lower Back Pain : Cat Cow Yoga Pose for Lower Back Pain

6月 23, 2007 · Posted in Yoga Poses · Comment 

Learn how to do the cat cow progression pose when using yoga poses for lower back pain relief in this free exercise video from a hatha yoga instructor. Expert: Elizabeth Rose Bio: Elizabeth Rose is a registered Hatha yoga teacher with a background in modern dance, gymnastics, martial arts, and circus arts. Filmmaker: randy primm

www.myyogaonline.com This advanced Vinyasa Power Yoga class explores long standing sequences and arm balancing postures. Build strength and steadiness while expanding your awareness to inner connection. Demonstration by Neil Mark.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Feng Shui Numbers House – Knowing the Lucky House Numbers in Feng Shui For Luck

6月 17, 2007 · Posted in Feng Shui · Comment 

Feng Shui Numbers House – Knowing the Lucky House Numbers in Feng Shui For Luck

Feng Shui Numbers House

House numbers in feng shui have been one of the most revered and sacred information from this famed and authentic Chinese tradition. Such is the power and forcefulness of these house numbers in the art of feng shui that even real estate and property selling is influenced by the house numbers in Chinese based localities and in areas where the art of feng shui is looked up to as an idealistic and impressive art form.

According to the art of feng shui, a house number may not only affect your life, but also of every person’s life you come in contact with. Inauspicious numbers are harbingers of bad luck, while auspicious numbers are a sign of happiness and joy to come into your life. The interpretations of feng shui as to which numbers are auspicious and which house numbers are inauspicious are calculated by several methods. It includes the equations and calculations involving the five feng shui elements and the ever charismatic elements of yin and yang. Feng Shui Numbers House

The five elements of feng shui includes the Fire, Earth, Wood, Metal and Water elements that help you recognize and channelize the natural forces of energy. The yin-yang is the balancing force of the universe according to feng shui theory. Yin is the feminine symbol while yang is masculine. Feng shui maintains that both should be equally present in the house to attain eternal energy. In the case of house numbers in feng shui, both of the above discussed entities of feng shui contribute.

Even in the business of real estate and property sales in China, Hong Kong and other Chinese populated states, feng shui house selling is dominant. A house or property with an auspicious house number according to feng shui will conventionally and regularly beat a house with an inauspicious number in selling prices. This happens even though the latter may be ten times better than the former as far as area, space or luxuries are concerned.

The auspicious or unlucky quality of a house number in feng shui is not equal to the world’s viewpoint on lucky and unlucky numbers. To the western world number ’13′ is unlucky but its lucky as per feng shui is concerned. This is because the number 13 sounds like ‘sure live’ implying long life! Similarly number 4 is unlucky according to feng shui as it sounds like ‘dead’!

Therefore, even though house numbers in feng shui influence people in choosing their residential accommodation, it actually has more to do with the psychology of people than the ancient Chinese tradition. Feng Shui Numbers House

Getting bad luck recently? Not smooth in life?

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Myths of self-help: 59seconds on TV

6月 17, 2007 · Posted in Self Help · Comment 

www.59seconds.biz
Video Rating: 4 / 5

New Year’s Resolutions & Goal Setting ? Stop! Read This 1st Before You Start

6月 16, 2007 · Posted in Goal Setting · Comment 

New Year’s Resolutions & Goal Setting ? Stop! Read This 1st Before You Start

So, why do most New Year’s Resolutions end up by the wayside come February, March? Well, there is a lack of understanding of how goal setting works. The traditional methods used to set goals are often ineffective. Contrary to popular belief I don’t personally think that goal setting should rely on the highly popular, so-called SMART goals technique (Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Time Oriented-Realistic).  I think this is a useful small-goal tracking technique but should not be relied on for setting our goals in the first place. Setting goals and tracking goals are two totally different things in my view. Before you set about designing and setting either New Year’s Resolutions or Goals it’s worth considering the following:

Do You Have a Really BIG Goal?

The reason most people fail to realise their goals is that their goals are boring and uninspiring in the first place. Don’t sweat the small stuff. You need something that’s gonna have you jumping out of bed in the morning with exhilaration. Big goals require you to raise your game. They require you to step up. You’re actually more likely to strive to achieve some big audacious goals than some small boring ones. Indeed, it’s not important that you know how to achieve the BIG goal. The “how” will show up in due course. The added benefit of BIG goals is the journey you are taken on and the personal development required in order to achieve them. Setting small attainable goals is fine but best done as part of an overall BIG goal objective. For example, you’re more likely to keep a short-term goal (e.g. save 10% of your salary) if it’s part of your overall big goal (e.g. become a millionaire in 5 years time).

2. Are You Engaging Your Feelings?

If you can attach emotions and feelings to your goals, this will anchor them deep in your being. Feelings are the secret ingredient of successful goal setting.  This is somehow overlooked in most goal setting methods. Writing down lists of goals on a piece of paper rarely sparks our emotions.  However, describing and connecting with how one would feel (joyful, fulfilled, connected, wealthy, spiritual, proud, at peace, relieved, euphoric, etc) as a result of achieving a goal (i.e. the outcome) allows us to connect with our deeper selves. Some call this deeper part of us divine energy, source energy, spirit, immortality, God, etc. Really what you call it is irrelevant. What’s important is that you connect back up to that “something”. By associating feelings with our goals we connect with our deeper selves and our deepest desires in life rather than merely things to do on a list.

I once heard a guy talking about sales techniques and he asked people in the audience, what it was they were selling. People taught they were selling all kinds of products or services but actually what he said people were selling was actually feelings i.e. how the product or service made the person feel. I see goals we set for ourselves just like products we desire but what we really desire is the outcome, how it makes us feel.

Feelings elevate us from goal setting automatons into human beings driven by spirit/energy and a deeper purpose. The real benefit of adding emotions to our goals is that when we practice feeling the emotional outcome of the goal (before it has even happened) it removes disbelief and doubt from the goal setting equation. In a way it spiritualises the goal and you are drawing out your true self from within.

3. Do You Believe Without Doubt?

This is most often the missing ingredient in all goal setting. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, will forever be remembered for writing,”Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it will achieve.” The key word here is “believe”. As well as conceiving in your mind’s eye the circumstances and outcomes of your goals and achievement, you must believe you can do it in the first place. It’s not important whether anyone else believes or not, just you. You must be congruent, single-minded. One-directional certainty is required.  Belief is the missing ingredient in most goal setting. There can be absolutely no doubt in your mind but that you can achieve the goal.The more you believe, the more life-force you infuse; the faster your desired outcome will come about.

True belief that the outcome will come about is what most people have trouble with.

4. Are Your Goals Aligned with Your Values?

In addition to forcing goals upon themselves people sometimes set goals that are not in line with their values. Values tend to reflect your upbringing. However, when setting goals, try to filter out any voices in your head that may be telling you what others (society, the media, peers, parents, your boss or organization etc.) expect of you. Listen to your own inner voice. Decide what is uniquely important to you?

For example, there’s little point making one of your goals as “starting my own business” if deep down inside you don’t see yourself as an entrepreneur/business person. Everyone prioritize their values differently. For some family, friends, relationship are higher on their hierarchy of values whilst for others it could be creativity, personal accomplishment, wealth etc.

Your values dictate your destiny. Ultimately, you will do what’s highest in your values. If your goals and values are aligned and you take action you will succeed. If you are unclear on what your values ACTUALLY are then it could be a very useful exercise to sit down, think about, write down and clarify your values and see if your goals fit with them. Keep in mind your top 5 values currently when you set your goals for the year.

5. Is Your Big Goal Unconscious?

Goals are most likely achieved when they are not merely forced, conscious desires. 95% of our day-to-day actions are unconscious and it is said that our personalities, feelings, thoughts, memories, personal values, beliefs, and habits are all stored in the unconscious mind. Therefore, it make sense that if you can more deeply imprint the goal/outcome on your unconscious mind, your resultant conscious behaviours and activities will take you towards your goal despite yourself.

A goal deeply embedded in your unconscious mind becomes a must. There are numerous simple techniques to help you imprint goals onto your unconscious mind. Largely, it involves visualisation (or mental move making as I call it) – experiencing your desired outcome in your mind’s eye and engaging all your senses whilst you are in a deeply relaxed state. One of the key benefits of filling up your senses in mental movie making is that you bypass the possibility of disbelief in the conscious mind and imprint the desired program/outcome on your unconscious mind.  You can find out more about this in our other articles and on our website.

P.S. Visit MillionaireMindsetSecrets.com and sign-up for FREE insights, tips and exclusives on Setting”>http://www.millionairemindsetsecrets.com/”>Setting Goals – utilizing our powerful goal setting and wealth creation strategies can fast-track your wealth building so that you get rich for life and build wealth that lasts.

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Inspirational Quotes Video

6月 16, 2007 · Posted in Inspirational Quotes · Comment 

www.InspireThePlanet.com – Inspirational quotes by some of the greatest minds; including Brian Tracy, Aristotle, Buddha, Napoleon Hill, Jimi Hendrix and several others. Set to a relaxing combo of piano and strings.

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