Holiday Spirit and Your Stress

There is not a more stressful time than the holidays. And, well, I can't name one person who actually enjoys the stress associated with holidays. The stress of dealing with family, the politics that comes with buying the right gift—or worse, making the decision not to buy the gift at all! Let's not even mention the stress of dealing with other stressed out holiday shoppers all vying for the "last" of whatever is the hot ticket item.

Fortunately, in this age of technology the shopping is not so bad as it once was; with a few clicks of a mouse, you can purchase your much-needed item, have it shipped to you, and all that's left is the wrapping. I'll admit, I did a lot more online shopping this Christmas than for Christmases past, and I liked it.

The truth about stress is that a particular amount of stress or anxiety is healthy. As a Crisis Coach I deal with clients who are moving through not just this heightened holiday stress level that comes but once a year—which, by the way, we are more emotionally, physically and psychologically ready for than we might realize since we "know" about the upcoming stress and the triggers that get our blood boiling: triggers like line cutters, not getting the "good" parking spot, or missing the extra 20% discount by an hour.

Continue reading here.

Postivity Tools for Your Business

Separating what is happening in your personal life from your business life and vise-versa is difficult during the best of times. Working through times of challenge or crisis can make keeping the two separate nearly impossible. We all agree that your outlook in life doesn't need to be positive 100% of the time, nor do any of your family, business associates and friends expect you to be "up" all the time. When you're confronted with challenges that look bigger than life itself, having a few tools in your emotional balancing kit will allow you to dance through the challenge with a feeling of balance and grace instead of stumbling.

Several reports show meditation supports a healthy standard of living, and it's considered one of the best habits to decrease stress. When our worry is reduced or handled effectively, our outlook on life improves. This, in turn, results in an upward spiral in all areas of your life. Individuals practicing meditation on a recurring basis understand how meditation directly supports their ability to improve their mind's tricks, resulting in a more peaceful, calm and focused point of view.

Basically, the human mind is the key to reducing pressure. With the aid of meditation we're able to feel calmer and more relaxed while experiencing increased clarity, better mental focus and a boost in a sense of harmony. As we meditate our amount of random feelings diminishes, as will our attachment to those feelings and identification with them. This is because we're generally not conscious of all the mental goings-on in which we're engaged. Like with any inspiring method in which we engage ourselves, our ability to allow ourselves to "just be" emerges when our inner artist flourishes. Our ability to create from nothing is a knack with which we're all born but only a few permit themselves to embrace. When we allow our authentic selves to step ahead and bask in the glow, our outlook effortlessly improves. With an optimistic outlook we're able to step into action through the most complicated of times and crisis situations.

Continue reading here.

Negative Body Image Issues

Both emotional specialists and psychologists generally agree that eating disorders are generally rooted in negative body image. When this happens, sufferers usually see distorted body images when they gaze in a mirror – and as such, feel "fat" or otherwise imperfect regardless of whether these terms accurately describe the structure of their physical bodies.

Negative body images can manifest from one or more of the following factors:

Negative Conditioning Our parents' and family members' attitudes toward food and concepts of beauty can significantly factor in our body image. For example, parents who emphasize the importance of outer appearance or who obsessively count calories may have children who retain or develop similar attitudes that can potentially result in negative body image.

Negative Thinking If you have low self-esteem and therefore constantly hound yourself about your appearance or give undue importance to other’s opinions, you can develop a negative body image over time.

Unrealistic Ideals Movies, articles, advertisements and other media propaganda often promote perfection as being attainable – which, of course, it is not. Aggressive marketing techniques seek to create unrealistic aspirations regarding beauty ideals for profit. Children and teens are particularly susceptible to these techniques and can therefore develop negative body image issues due to their desire to conform to media "norms."

Overcoming Negative Body Image

You will have to affect a dramatic change in your self-perception to successfully build a healthier body image. I'll readily admit that negative attitudes firmly entrench themselves in the subconscious over time...

Continue reading here.

Attitudes that Don't Foster Success

Success is attainable for those who seek it with both their thoughts and their actions. Unfortunately, people tend to give significantly more attention to their actions, not remembering that their thoughts and attitudes can dramatically impact their failure and success. Too often the negative messages we hear while we’re growing up and our overall conditioning further contribute to anti-success attitudes. For example, you likely have a negative attitude toward success if you repeatedly encountered the following types of messages while growing up:

• Don’t expect too much; you’ll just be disappointed in the end.


• You’re not good enough to deserve good things.


• Life is about dealing with problems.


• People are out to pull you down with them, not pick you up.


• Your capabilities are limited.


• When you don’t expect anything good from a situation, you’re being practical.


• “Optimism” is just another word for wishful thinking.

While these specific messages might seem harsh, peers and parents often unwittingly pass them along via their own attitudes and actions. For instance, constantly comparing one sibling to another can make one feel as though she can’t measure up or has only limited talents and abilities. Beliefs like this breed low self-esteem and ultimately result in failure.

Continue reading here.

Five Steps to Improve Your Spiritual Health

What does the term “spiritual health” mean? We all have our own perspective of what both “spiritual” and “health” mean in a general sense, but when we talk about spiritual health we define it as “a sense of wholeness.” For example, when we feel sick, we have two options: either we get better and recovered, or we don’t and complete our life cycle by finishing the connection with anything living. Some believe Spiritual Health is an art of healing: the ultimate medicine, a remedy that cures your inner sight as well as your spirit. There are those who believe it also provides you with the capacity of loving yourself unconditionally and reconnects you to your talents and gifts, which helps in feeling fulfilled with your life.

A healthy “spirit” does take a little extra effort, as it becomes a daily priority to embrace. In the beginning it is on your “to-do” list, but after a while it becomes second nature and a habit that for the most part you begin to do subconsciously. But what does that mean? Well, each day you will need to give spirit a top-level priority to do such actions as thinking positively or focusing on your successes and not your so-called failures. And your next question is most likely “Really? That simple, eh?” And my response in most instances is a simple yes. But it is not without effort and time before your perspective will shift to see it being just this simple.

Continue reading here.

Attracting What You Don’t Want?

Let’s begin at the beginning regarding the Law of Attraction: like attracts like. It is pretty much that simple, but for some we question all the “bad” or “ugly” in our lives and think, “I can’t possibly be attracting or wanting this in my life!” And for the most part, you would be right. On a conscious level we don’t call or request bad things to happen to us, but on a deeper, subconscious, soul level there may be a part of you that indeed called these experiences forward. The key then becomes asking the question, “Can your mind or thinking override this calling forward of negative experiences?” And the answer is yes, but and there is a big but here: you need to be fully active in your desires of what you are attracting. So, if you feel the Law of Attraction has not been working for you and you have been attracting things you do not want, chances are one of the following road blocks has been blocking your progress – all of which are on a subconscious level.

Wanting versus Believing
If you want something but do not truly believe you deserve it, the Universe will not be able to bring it to you. For instance, let’s say you want a happy and fulfilling relationship but suffer from low self-esteem/self-worth issues. You may not be able to attract the same into your life. It is important to understand that for the Law of Attraction to work, your beliefs and wants must not contradict each other—meaning that just because you say it is so does not make it so. Bringing your beliefs into alignment with your wants means you need to assess, address and accept. Assess your experiences from the past; address each situation from a learning perspective and accept the new perspective or lesson learned into your current belief system today.

Continue reading here.

Visualization and Intent in Reiki

Visualization and good intent are two elements that, if combined with Reiki, can make the therapy all the more powerful. Visualization is a very powerful exercise on its own, and conjuring up a mental image of what you want helps your body and mind focus on accomplishing the goals you have set for yourself. When you visualize Reiki healing the body parts you are channeling energy to, you end up using two complementary techniques to heal the same part, thereby making the therapy even more effective.

Even when visualization techniques are used while healing someone else, they help in amplifying Reiki’s power. Reiki practitioners are the channels through which the energy flows, so when a practitioner conjures up mental images of the energy healing the body parts of the recipient (of Reiki), the energy becomes stronger…

Continue reading here.

Feeling and Staying Attractive for Life

Don’t panic or click away too soon, because I promise this isn’t one of those articles where the writer offers beauty tips. Being a beautiful person means much more than looking attractive because a truly beautiful person isn’t necessarily one who is physically stunning. Beauty really is only skin deep, so the true mark of attractiveness is inner beauty and personality.

Continue reading here.

Feeling Attractive

How To Feel Attractive In Your Own Skin

No! This isn’t one of those “beauty tips” articles, since beauty, after all, is only skin deep! Looking attractive goes far beyond looking beautiful; an attractive person may or may not have great features or a perfectly chiseled body! What makes a person attractive is his/her personality and inner beauty.

How To Look Attractive

To look attractive you do not need botox injections or cosmetic treatments, nor do you need expensive make-up. All you really need are the following tools…

Continue reading here.