You’re reading Are You a Slave to Money? (and How This Belief Is Hurting You), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

How often have you heard these sayings about money?

• I’m just a slave to money.
• I work hard to serve the Almighty Dollar, but I never seem to make enough money.

These may sound like irrefutable truths. Yet, having these very thoughts about money is hurting you from welcoming more money into your life.

When you put yourself in the servant’s position, you relinquish all power you have. It’s playing into the victim mentality. It’s believing you are powerless to do anything about your financial situation, so why even try?

But what happens when you shift this relationship to one in which you are the master and money is your faithful servant, ready to do your bidding?

Money Is Just an Idea

First, let’s learn about what money really is. Before money, people traded with each other. If I was a blacksmith, I might have traded my metalwork for some bread with the local baker. But if the blacksmiths had nothing the baker wanted, then trade freezes.

So, money was invented to keep that trade flowing. Money is just a representation of stored value. The more value you are able to provide to the world, the more money comes into your life. Likewise, money is just an indicator of success.

Money’s Purpose

Money has several purposes.

• Enables you to live comfortably.
• Extend the good you are able to do in the world.
• Amplifies the time in which you can do it in.

The more money you have, the more comfortable you are able to live. Anyone who’s ever not have enough money knows how much it sucks to wander how she is going to pay for a dental procedure for a lingering toothache.

Once you’ve reached a certain median of income (about $75,000), money no longer brings you happiness. Instead, many people start looking at the changes they can bring to the world.

Money Is an Amplifier

Money is an amplifier of the good you can do in the world. For example, your deep desire is to help other people reach a higher-level within themselves. But they might be living in a country where access to safe and clean drinking water is next to impossible.

Then money helps you help them reach their goals. After all, when their basic necessities are taken care of, they can start working on self-actualization through education in order to build better lives for themselves and ultimately for their country.

Money enables you to help build their clean water infrastructure more quickly than if you went over there and did it yourself. Money enables that good to come more quickly into the world.

Key to Freedom: Awareness

Like any other thoughts that enter our minds, awareness is the key. Once you are aware you are having these destructive thoughts about money then you will be more likely to change those beliefs.

After all, thoughts lead to emotions. Emotions create a belief system. A belief system causes us to take action. Finally, actions create results. If you want to know what someone is thinking, then take a look at their results.

Changing your relationship with money involves an increase in awareness about your money beliefs.

Changing the Dynamics of Money and You

You’ve likely experienced a negative thought train. It goes something like this:

If I lose my job, then I can’t pay my bills. If I can’t pay my bills, then I’ll be out of a place to live. If I don’t have money, then I can’t pay for my new car and the medical bills. I can’t pay for my son’s education.

It goes on and on and on. Pretty soon, your stress levels go through the roof. Having an increased awareness means stopping this negativity train before it goes way out of control.

Once you stop this train, you can make it go in a new direction. This often involves thinking new thoughts about money, new thoughts such as…

• How can I cut my spending to create more money?
• How can I invest my money to make more money?
• How can I make more money to invest in the causes and movements I care about?

Money is energy. It represents our thoughts and feelings as well as our stored value. The first step to changing the master-slave dynamic is to see and believe it in your heart. Then the whole relationship dynamic changes. You will start attracting more money into your life.

Benson Wong is the Money Freedom Guy and helps people align their energy so that they can have more prosperity of wealth, health, and relationships into their lives. Find out how with your free eBook, Align With the Energy of Money.

You’ve read Are You a Slave to Money? (and How This Belief Is Hurting You), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading 7 Reasons To Meditate, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Do you always feel tired, stressed, and angry? Are you impulsive and can`t seem to stop snapping at people for the wrong reasons? If you say Yes, then you have to meditate more often.

Why You Must Meditate

Meditation is one of the best physical and spiritual activities you can gift yourself. For just 10 minutes each day, you can improve your mood, boost your energy and increase tranquility. But it`s not just about that. Researchers have found many answers to why you should meditate, some of which are listed here in this post.

1. It Can Protect You From Alzheimer’s

Many studies believe that meditation has positive effects on cognition, especially in adults. A 2015 study found that 12 minutes of daily Kirtan Kriya meditation lowered the risk of Alzheimer`s in adults with memory problems such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).

The study found that KK lowered the symptoms of both anxiety and depression in participants and improved their sleep quality. They also saw a 43-percent increase in a protein called Telomerase which protects the body against DNA damage and increases longevity.

2. Can Ease Rheumatoid and Asthma

If you have asthma or rheumatoid arthritis, then you should meditate. A 2013 study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that it increases tolerance for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, bowel disease and other inflammatory conditions.

To cope with chronic pain, the participants were asked to sign up for one of two stress-relieving programs. Both programs were quite similar. However, the second was a mix of physical moves and mindful meditation. And guess what proved to be more efficient? The second one.

Another study later confirmed these findings and found that regular meditation mimics the effect of anti-inflammatory drugs reduces the production of the body`s pro-inflammatory genes.

3. Helps You Sleep Better

Meditation is a fantastic treatment for insomnia. When having difficulty sleeping, many people, including me, meditate in bed. In one study, two groups of participants suffering from chronic insomnia were asked to either meditate or opt for a course on improving sleep quality. Those who meditated saw a notable improvement in both sleep latency and duration time compared to the other group.

4. Improves Your Immune System

Meditation is essential to the immune system especially for patients diagnosed with HIV. Studies suggest that it makes the body secrete specific anti-aging hormones that decrease the decay rate of a particular type of cells called CD4 T, which are the most critical cells in the immune system. These cells are usually attacked whenever someone is infected with HIV, making it quite dangerous whenever a patient faces anxiety or prolonged stress.

This is why HIV patients are instructed to meditate. According to a study by the University of California, mindful meditation overcomes the effect of specific proteins called, cytokines, which are released when you feel stressed.

5. Improves Self-esteem

Most human behaviors are impulsive. Think of worrying, overdrinking, or snapping at people for no reason, they all happen when we let emotions rule over logic, which is the case for most people. And guess what? The more impulsive you are, the less disciplined and less grounded you feel. Fortunately, you can reduce impulsiveness with meditation.

A team from Michigan State University told only one group of their participants to meditate before asking them to look at a bunch disturbing pictures while measuring their brain activity. The result? The meditating group was able to tame their negative emotions much better than their non-meditating peers.

Meditation can also help you understand yourself and what motivates to do certain things.

A recent study by Washington University suggests that paying attention to your current experience in a non-judgmental way —i.e., mindful meditation— might help you identify the blind spots in your self-knowledge that cause poor decision-making, poor academic achievement, low self-esteem and lower life satisfaction.

6. Increases Focus

If you feel distracted most of the time, then you should start meditating. A new study by the University of Waterloo in Canada found that you can improve focus by just doing 10 minutes of daily mindful meditation.

These 10 minutes, according to the study, taught chronic worriers, and highly anxious students, how to shift attention from their worries to the present moment, and thus increase their ability to complete a task undistracted.

7. It Can Help You Lose Weight

Though it doesn`t burn many calories, studies suggest that meditation — done solo or in groups— can be very effective against overeating, which is the root of all stomach evil.

A recent study by North Carolina State University found that meditation helped participants lose seven times more weight than their non-meditating peers.

After studying 80 participants and testing their levels of mindfulness, the team found that meditation increased mindful eating which helped the meditating group lose an average of 4.2 pounds during the study compared to only 0.6 pounds lost by another non-meditating group.

Marwan Jamal is a fitness and health blogger at healthline.com and a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym, and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.

You’ve read 7 Reasons To Meditate, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading 7 Reasons To Meditate, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Do you always feel tired, stressed, and angry? Are you impulsive and can`t seem to stop snapping at people for the wrong reasons? If you say Yes, then you have to meditate more often.

Why You Must Meditate

Meditation is one of the best physical and spiritual activities you can gift yourself. For just 10 minutes each day, you can improve your mood, boost your energy and increase tranquility. But it`s not just about that. Researchers have found many answers to why you should meditate, some of which are listed here in this post.

1. It Can Protect You From Alzheimer’s

Many studies believe that meditation has positive effects on cognition, especially in adults. A 2015 study found that 12 minutes of daily Kirtan Kriya meditation lowered the risk of Alzheimer`s in adults with memory problems such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).

The study found that KK lowered the symptoms of both anxiety and depression in participants and improved their sleep quality. They also saw a 43-percent increase in a protein called Telomerase which protects the body against DNA damage and increases longevity.

2. Can Ease Rheumatoid and Asthma

If you have asthma or rheumatoid arthritis, then you should meditate. A 2013 study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that it increases tolerance for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, bowel disease and other inflammatory conditions.

To cope with chronic pain, the participants were asked to sign up for one of two stress-relieving programs. Both programs were quite similar. However, the second was a mix of physical moves and mindful meditation. And guess what proved to be more efficient? The second one.

Another study later confirmed these findings and found that regular meditation mimics the effect of anti-inflammatory drugs reduces the production of the body`s pro-inflammatory genes.

3. Helps You Sleep Better

Meditation is a fantastic treatment for insomnia. When having difficulty sleeping, many people, including me, meditate in bed. In one study, two groups of participants suffering from chronic insomnia were asked to either meditate or opt for a course on improving sleep quality. Those who meditated saw a notable improvement in both sleep latency and duration time compared to the other group.

4. Improves Your Immune System

Meditation is essential to the immune system especially for patients diagnosed with HIV. Studies suggest that it makes the body secrete specific anti-aging hormones that decrease the decay rate of a particular type of cells called CD4 T, which are the most critical cells in the immune system. These cells are usually attacked whenever someone is infected with HIV, making it quite dangerous whenever a patient faces anxiety or prolonged stress.

This is why HIV patients are instructed to meditate. According to a study by the University of California, mindful meditation overcomes the effect of specific proteins called, cytokines, which are released when you feel stressed.

5. Improves Self-esteem

Most human behaviors are impulsive. Think of worrying, overdrinking, or snapping at people for no reason, they all happen when we let emotions rule over logic, which is the case for most people. And guess what? The more impulsive you are, the less disciplined and less grounded you feel. Fortunately, you can reduce impulsiveness with meditation.

A team from Michigan State University told only one group of their participants to meditate before asking them to look at a bunch disturbing pictures while measuring their brain activity. The result? The meditating group was able to tame their negative emotions much better than their non-meditating peers.

Meditation can also help you understand yourself and what motivates to do certain things.

A recent study by Washington University suggests that paying attention to your current experience in a non-judgmental way —i.e., mindful meditation— might help you identify the blind spots in your self-knowledge that cause poor decision-making, poor academic achievement, low self-esteem and lower life satisfaction.

6. Increases Focus

If you feel distracted most of the time, then you should start meditating. A new study by the University of Waterloo in Canada found that you can improve focus by just doing 10 minutes of daily mindful meditation.

These 10 minutes, according to the study, taught chronic worriers, and highly anxious students, how to shift attention from their worries to the present moment, and thus increase their ability to complete a task undistracted.

7. It Can Help You Lose Weight

Though it doesn`t burn many calories, studies suggest that meditation — done solo or in groups— can be very effective against overeating, which is the root of all stomach evil.

A recent study by North Carolina State University found that meditation helped participants lose seven times more weight than their non-meditating peers.

After studying 80 participants and testing their levels of mindfulness, the team found that meditation increased mindful eating which helped the meditating group lose an average of 4.2 pounds during the study compared to only 0.6 pounds lost by another non-meditating group.

Marwan Jamal is a fitness and health blogger at healthline.com and a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym, and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.

You’ve read 7 Reasons To Meditate, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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