Are you a naturally negative person? Do you have trouble seeing the good in anything? Many people find themselves in this pit of negative thinking after having gone through a sequence of “bad” things happening to them. One way to help yourself out of this is to practice positive thinking on paper. Here are some tips to help you get started:

· Read books on self-improvement. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is head to the library and check out several books on self-improvement. Reading these books will help you develop yourself. They can also help you learn how to think more positively.

· Keep a self-improvement journal. Buy yourself a nice journal and ink pen. At the beginning of the journal, write a list of goals you’d like to accomplish. Every day make a record of what you did to reach one of your goals. Every day you should work towards one of these, positive thinking, being the main goal. At the end of every month, go back and read your journal entries to see what kind of progress you’ve made. At the end of the year, you’ll have a record book full of entries and you will be able to see how you’ve grown and are thinking more positively about yourself.

· Start a positive thinking note card journal. Check your local office supply store or Wal-Mart for a book of wire-bound index cards. Every time you see a quote you like, write it on an index card. Continue doing this until the entire book of note cards is filled. Place the book on your desk or carry it around with you for quick boosts of positivity.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Did you know that by simply changing your mindset and your way of thinking, you can spur positive changes in your health? By creating a more positive way of thinking, you can greatly improve your health.

Here are just a few ways having a positive mental attitude brings about positive effects on your health:

·        fewer headaches

·        reduced stress

·        lower blood pressure

·        reduced anxiety

·        health weight

When you create a more positive way of thinking, you may almost instantly begin to notice a decrease in headaches. Why? The answer is simple. Headaches are often brought on due to extreme levels of stress and pressure. When you have a more positive mindset, you will worry less, which means less stress.

Stress is one of the leading causes of anxiety and panic attacks. Once you start to get your stress levels under control, you should notice that your anxiety and panic attacks will decrease. With a decreased level of stress, your breathing will slow and return to normal and you will not get that tight feeling in your chest anymore.

Positive thinking can help reduce your blood pressure as well. What is the first thing that happens when you get angry? Your blood pressure rises! By practicing positive thinking, you can learn how to release that anger and control. This in turn will help to keep your blood pressure at a regular rate.

Finally, positive thinking can have a great impact on your weight as well. Most people with weight issues tend to suffer from low-self esteem, most of which is brought on by their own negative self-talk.

Popularity: 5% [?]

A core belief is a belief you hold deep inside. Much like a moral, core beliefs are your centrifuge and lead the direction you take in your life. If you don’t know what your core beliefs are, and your life seems in total disarray right now, that could be why. Let’s take a look at how core beliefs are formed, and what they mean.

A core belief is created when you do something that goes against your personal values. It becomes an inner message you play over and over to yourself, until you begin to believe it—whether it’s true or not.

One simple example of this is an abused woman. She starts out in a great relationship, and then one day out of the blue, her husband slaps her out of anger and calls her stupid. Later, he apologizes, but then the next week this same scenario is played out again, only he gets more physically violent with her.

This scene continues playing out, each time the husband telling her how worthless and stupid she is. Eventually, the woman has heard this same message again and again: “You’re stupid. You’re worthless.” And she begins to believe it. It becomes a core value.
Every time she does something and fails, she reminds herself, “I’m stupid. I’m worthless. That’s why I can’t do anything right.” Another core value is taking shape: she can’t do anything right.

As you can see, these core beliefs start taking on lives of their own. Sometimes this happens and you don’t even realize it because these are inner messages you play in your mind. But they become real to you and govern the way you think and live. They also become a deciding factor. You decide if you’re good enough, smart enough, sexy enough…

Learning to release these negative core beliefs and define better ones is recommended. In order to do this, you have to reprogram your way of thinking. This can be done with positive affirmations. Sometimes counseling and therapy are necessary to help purge all the negative input you’ve experienced that formed your current core beliefs.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Positive thinking is something that eludes many because they simply don’t understand or believe that positive thinking can help them in any way. There really is no single big secret to positive thinking. The miracle of positive thinking truly lies within yourself. In this article, I’m going to give you the keys to positive thinking and show you why they work.

SECRET #1: NOBODY’S PERFECT. When you can latch onto this simple little secret, you will be amazed at the change you’ll notice within yourself. You’ll no longer feel so angry all the time. You will start to give people the benefit of the doubt. Best of all, you will learn to forgive and not hold grudges.

SECRET #2: EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES. What’s the first thing that happens when you see someone make a mistake? Are you immediately judgmental? Do you think to yourself that they had it coming to them? Negative thoughts like these are detrimental, not only to the other person, but more so to you. Allow for mistakes, and refer back to Secret #1.

SECRET #3: BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. Just because you consider yourself to be a good person, that doesn’t exclude you from having anything bad happen to you. All too often, a negative and pessimistic attitude is brought on because of seemingly one bad thing happening after another. Life is filled with bad things and disappointments. It is up to you to choose how to react to them, though.

SECRET #4: YOUR MIND DETERMINES YOUR LIFE. You really can determine how your life will turn out, based on your way of thinking. If you constantly look for bad things to happen, guess what? Bad things will most likely happen to you. But if you turn your thoughts to a more positive nature, and find the good in everything, you’ll soon become a happier person and live a much happier life.

Popularity: 5% [?]

If you have survived a major traumatic life event and are finding it difficult to forgive, you are among millions of people who harbor ill feelings towards others. For some, a grudge takes hold when you focus on the bad thing that happened to you. For others, a grudge takes seed almost silently and unknowingly: you think you’re over it, but then you discover you still haven’t forgive the other person.

Forgiveness seems like such an easy thing to do, but it isn’t. Forgiving someone who has wronged you is a very difficult thing to do. Some people live their entire lives unwilling and unable to forgive someone else.

YOU’RE ONLY HURTING YOU
The only person being hurt by your inability to forgive is you. In fact, in many situations, the other person doesn’t even realize you have these bad feelings towards them. They often may have even forgotten about the incident that lives fresh in your mind every day.
Holding negative feelings against someone and never forgiving them causes you to become negative. This single event leads to a shift in your way of thinking. You might become pessimistic and feel like everyone else is out to get you. You might build a wall so nobody else can get close enough to hurt you again.

FORGIVE TO HEAL YOURSELF
The number one reason you should forgive is so that you can begin to be healed. When you are finally able to release what happened in the past and make amends with that person within yourself, you will be able to finally move forward in your own life. You’ll feel as though a huge burden has been lifted from your shoulders.
Forgiving someone else for something bad that happened isn’t for them. Forgiveness is for you.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Are you feeling tired and rushed all the time? Do you seem to always give to others and rarely receive anything in return? Here are some nice things you can do for yourself today:

1. Head to the gym. One of the first things that goes when we neglect ourselves is our body. Buy yourself a gym membership, then visit regularly. A few trips to the gym every week is not only good for your body, but you’ll be able to work out all your frustrations, as well.

2. Keep a journal. Journaling is a great place to vent about all your frustrations, too. It’s a safe place, for your thoughts and eyes only, where you can write about everything happening in your life. If you keep a journal only for such a purpose, you can burn it or shred it after all the pages are filled. It’s a healthy, disposable therapy session.

3. Take a Yoga class. Yoga is known for its healing and calming powers. There are often Yoga classes for beginners, which are great to teach you the basics of Yoga. Sign up for one and try it out.

4. Schedule a spa day. Sometimes you just need to unwind and relax with no worries and nobody around. Call your favorite spa and schedule some “you” time there.

5. Buy yourself some flowers. Flowers brighten anyone’s day. Why wait for someone else to give you flowers? Buy yourself a bright, pretty bouquet and place it on your desk or somewhere nearby. A simple, inexpensive bouquet of flowers can do wonders to brighten your mood.

6. Lay off the junk food. Practice healthier eating habits by ditching the junk. Instead of that mid-day candy bar, pack yourself a healthy snack of nuts, fruits, or raw veggies with dip.

7. Drink more water. It’s a fact that most people don’t hydrate enough. Buy bottled water to have on hand. It will be much easier to say no to another soda if you can grab a bottle of water to go.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Low self-esteem is something that many people across the world deal with on a daily basis. Poor self image and lack of confidence leads to a fearful mindset. This article will show you several symptoms of low self-esteem that you can use to see if you, or someone you know, fit(s) the bill.

Sign #1: Inability to make decisions. A person suffering from low self-esteem often has extreme difficulty making decisions for themselves or others. You’ll rarely find them in managerial or supervisory positions simply because they lack the ability to make good decisions in a timely manner.

Sign #2: Enormous amount of shame. Poor self-esteem always causes a sense of shame inside a person. They are ashamed because they don’t look a certain way or act in a way they think others expect them to. Shame is often a driving factor for someone suffering from low self-esteem

Sign #3: The need to be perfect. One of the major signs of poor self-esteem is the incessant need for that person to be perfect. A huge majority of perfectionists embrace that frame of mind because they think by being “perfect” they will please others or make others like them more.

Sign #4: Inability to handle criticism. The lack of confidence a person with low self-esteem has causes them to be unable to accept or handle rejection or criticism. When presented with such a circumstance, a person with low self-esteem often retreats or becomes depressed because of a comment made by someone else.

Sign #5: Overly pessimistic and/or critical. In order to protect their own feelings, a person with low self-esteem often takes out their inner feelings on others. They become extremely critical, especially of those closest to them. They are often pessimistic, and can rarely see the positive in any situation, let alone hope for the best.

Sign #6: Constantly worries about the future. A person with low self-esteem tends to “predict” the future by worrying constantly about things that “might” happen. They find it difficult to simply live in the moment and have an intense fear of bad things to come.

Popularity: 10% [?]

If you run a business, you may be wondering how you can foster more creativity in your employees. Creativity in business is often a rare thing, unless the boss is willing to allow some flexibility in ideas among employees. Here are some simple ways you can cultivate creativity in your business:

· Weekly brainstorming sessions – Start a weekly brainstorming session to get everyone’s creative juices flowing. Set up a roundtable discussion where anything goes and all ideas are welcome.

· Books on creative thinking – Provide your employees with books on creativity and creative thinking. If possible, you might even build a small library where your employees can check out books frequently on creativity in the workplace.
· Laugh often – Keeping a light tone in the work place can be highly conducive to creativity. Allow time for humor sessions or joke breaks and keep humor at a high in the workplace.

· Pair up for idea think tanks – Instead of having employees come up with plans or ideas for projects on their own, pair them up for think tank sessions. Lots more ideas can come from such sessions, than if you set people on a course alone.

· Use notebooks – Promote idea capturing by providing your employees with notebooks. Don’t buy dull, boring notebooks, but bright, flashy, and inspirational ones. Advise them to carry their idea books with them everywhere they go and capture every idea, no matter how seemingly silly it might seem at the time.

These tips will help you promote creativity in your business. In no time at all, you should begin to notice a shift in the thinking of employees, as well as a boost in creative ideas.

Popularity: 5% [?]

A new year brings about a sense of hope. Every new year people all over the world make resolutions and set goals for themselves. But not everyone accomplishes everything they set out to.

The purpose of setting goals is multi-leveled. Goals help you discover your inner desires. Goals create a sense of purpose. Goals form into a guide that can lead you to great fulfillment at the end. If so many people end up not reaching their goals, why set them in the first place?

Without goals, you might know what you want, but not have a clue as to how you can get to there from here. Goals help you lay out the steps, one by one, to reaching your desires. They make it seem possible for you to accomplish.

Goals can also spawn excitement and anticipation. Without these things, you might begin to work towards what you want, but then become bored and quit. And this is the key component to knowing that you have set good goals.

In addition to your goals being reasonable and achievable, your goals must stir up feelings of excitement and anticipation within you. It is these feelings that will keep you moving forward, even when you don’t feel like it, or don’t seem to be making much progress. The hope of being able to start and finish something will fuel your energy and desire to reach your goals.

Popularity: 5% [?]

If you run a business, there is no doubt or question that productivity is extremely important to keeping things running smoothly. But why is productivity so important? Can lack of productivity really harm a business? Take a look at these reasons…

1. Get more things done in shorter amounts of time. Without a high level of productivity, it is nearly impossible to get as much work done as necessary. High productivity leads to increased performance.

2. Everyone will be much happier. Happy people lead to high job performance. But when you mix discontented people with the workplace, you usually end up with decreased production and extremely large amounts of mistakes. High productivity means happier employers, which means happier employees.

3. Energy begets energy. Have you ever noticed how people who are happy and full of energy gets lots more accomplished in a shorter amount of time? That’s because they are motivated to get their work done, so it becomes a pleasure, rather than “work.” Energetic people become more productive, thus leading to greater turnover and higher quality work.

4. Productivity keeps things running smoothly. Have you ever noticed how one person’s lack of productivity can drag down an entire team? In order to keep things running in on even keel, it is imperative that productivity in the workplace remain at a high level.

Make no doubt about it. Productivity in the workplace is very important. Take a look at your employees and your business. How can you increase productivity? What can you do to motivate your employees to become more productive without a lot of prodding?

Popularity: 5% [?]