You’re reading The 3 Simple Steps to a Perfect Daily Routine (and how they can change your life), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
People want to see changes in their life.
Every single day.
People want to have a better job, intellectual improvement, or, more generally, to accomplish any goal they set.
People don’t understand, however, how naturally you can change your life to include more productivity, energy, and concentration, from a few little changes in your daily routine.
In particular, productivity comes from small changes that happen to our health. There are three basic habits to practice through the day to vastly improve your health.
These habits are not actually regarding your research for a better job, or a sudden change in your life, they act on a deeper level inside of you.
Indeed, these habits have another role in your life, and when incorporated consistently, they can literally change your life.
They will allow you to understand the basics of a life devoted to success and continuous self-development; and, we all know that if you are pursuing a healthy life, you are undoubtedly pursuing a life full of accomplishments and ongoing personal improvement, expressly at the intellectual level.
Adjustments in your life will happen if you are on the right path – one that lets you live a healthier life.
What path is that? It’s composed of three main routines:
This almost goes without saying – and yet it is imperative enough to repeat time and again. It’s not about preparing to climb Mount Everest (although that would be cool!) or having the most ripped body at the beach though. The habit of physical activity has much farther reaching implications – and, best of all, it takes just a 20-minute practice every day to improve health. “Mens sana in corpore sano” is a Latin byword that literally means: “The more you practice physical activities and keep your body healthy, the more your mind will be aiming towards productivity and success.”
Concentrated physical activity (having an elevated heart rate for 20 + minutes) – helps both your body and your mind, and is imperative to strike a balance, long term. Find a couple of exercises that stimulate you (a combo of both indoor and outdoor activities is best) and get to work! The benefits will begin almost immediately.
Even for this routine (and in the next case too) the requested amount of time spent practicing it is about 20 minutes. You don’t have to be an expert. You can do it perfectly just as a beginner, following those simple steps:
– Take your time, evaluate how much time you need to feel more relaxed and with a clear vision of your situation. Meditative sessions can last from 10 to 30 minutes, so it’s up to you to understand your necessity.
– Concentrate on your situation, which is definitely this: follow your breath, focus on it and let your thoughts go away.
– You can help yourself repeating a word (i.e. a mantra). Check up on the wiki’s what are the most used mantra for meditation.
The benefits of meditation are well-known. The levels of endorphin are higher than usual. The endorphins are covering a significant role in activating the immune system of the body; then, they increase the amount of antibodies, that help to fight disease. In stressful situations, you have immediate benefits due to a feeling of peace and satisfaction. Meditation helps at the physical level in the prevention and treatment of diseases that are difficult to heal concerning mental and emotional therapies. It contributes to achieving spiritual balance and to achieve the highest level of enlightenment too. Those who practice meditation easily stop smoking, stop drinking and stop taking drugs, leading a healthy life to happen. They will enjoy more their life and will find interests and new hobbies continuously, resulting in a well-balanced life and in a great mood.
This could sound a little bit odd, but I would definitely suggest this routine.
Why?
Because after we have supported both our body with physical activity and our spirit with meditation, we have to feed our mind.
You can take just 20-30 minutes of your time, per day, to improve your language, your IQ, your critical sense. Having a good case of knowledge, acquired by the books you are more interested into, is the only motivational goal you have to reach, every day, to pick up the fundamentals pieces of a successful life and start to build it.
However, this process is not free. You have to pay. What’s the price?
You have to pay all this process with a constant willpower.
You have to be determined in following the three mentioned routine, at least every two days, to guarantee a healthy life.
If you are not able to sustain those habits because you are lazy or use to practice bad habits, you are driving on the wrong way.
Keep your health at the best levels and your life will be astonishing and full of rewards.
You’ve read The 3 Simple Steps to a Perfect Daily Routine (and how they can change your life), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading How Board Games Can Make You a Better Person, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
It’s no secret that play is essential to learning. We learn best when we’re having fun. For this reason, games are widely acknowledged for encouraging development in a variety of different areas: empathy, reasoning skills, mathematical ability and vocabulary – to name a few.
Whatever aspect of yourself you’d like to improve, there’s a game for it. Educational games are used as experiential learning tools in schools for children of all ages, and some have even touted the benefits of playing puzzle games and doing crosswords in staving off Alzheimer’s disease and neural degeneration associated with old age.
The kings and noblemen of medieval times would test their wits and fortitude in games of chess against one another. In the ancient Greek kingdom of Lydia, the people survived famine for 18 years by eating only every second day. On days they didn’t eat, they’d distract themselves from hunger by inventing and playing games.
When we think of games today, most people think of immersive PC or video games like Call of Duty or addictive mobile apps such as Candy Crush, but it’s important that we not overlook the many advantages of bonding with family or friends over a good old-fashioned board game.
Here are just a few reasons why you might want to get out some of those dusty boxes in your cupboard and start planning your next games night:
Strategy games, such as Monopoly and Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow, teach logic, critical thinking and analytical skills while demonstrating the advantages of investing, financial independence and economic responsibility – crucial skills for success.
Cashflow, for example, has players caught in a “Rat Race” – a circuit on the board that you can only escape from once your passive income exceeds your monthly expenses. Once out of the Rat Race, players are moved to the “Fast Track” and only then stand a chance of winning the game. The game remains fun and entertaining for players (ages 14 and up) while teaching basic accounting as well as valuable, real world, fiscal insights.
Another strategy game worth mentioning is the award winning game, The Settlers of Catan, where players must engage in a strategic feudal conquest to compete for land and resources on the fictional island of Catan. The game is simple enough to learn to play that it is suitable for players of any age. Because of the infinite possible outcomes, the game remains exciting and nuanced even for more experienced players.
We all know the stereotype of the sweaty nerd playing Dungeons and Dragons with his equally awkward and equally male friends in his mother’s basement, but this stigma couldn’t be further from reality. The surprising truth is that role-playing storytelling games like D&D, World of Darkness and Aye, Dark Overlord! are great for building confidence and social skills by requiring players to exercise creativity, verbal intelligence, problem solving skills and even acting. Imagine all the benefits of reading, writing and spending time with friends all rolled together!
Dungeons and Dragons relies heavily on the creation of characters and storytelling. Finding interesting character quirks and drawing from personal experience enriches the game, and may even boost your own charisma.
Aye, Dark Overlord! involves similar quick thinking and imaginative storytelling, as players assume the roles of the goblin servants of an evil overlord (a preselected game master). Using card prompts, the players must then weasel their way out of wild accusations thrown at them by their merciless leader. This game not only requires wit, creativity and skilful negotiation, but also an enormous sense of humour. It’s said that no one can teach you how to be funny, but you’ll definitely get your practice in playing Aye, Dark Overlord!
Intelligence is not just about how much you know or good you are at solving problems, it’s also about how quickly you can operate at a level of efficiency. Games such as Speed, Jungle Speed and Snap are excellent for teaching or developing dexterity and quick reaction time. Whether you’re a parent wanting the best for your child, a teenager or adult simply wanting to sharpen up the reflexes, or a fighter pilot whose ability to make split-second decisions could mean the difference between life or death, you’re sure to benefit.
UNO is a great game for anyone looking to improve their ability to pay attention, as your success depends on concentrating on not allowing your opponents to run out of cards before you do.
There’s no better way to improve vocabulary than by playing Scrabble. Scrabble rewards players who can arrange the most uncommon letters into the longest words. Playing with people much better than you is a great way to expand your lexicon (if you can resist the urge to throw a dictionary at your cocky wordsmith friends.)
Dixit is a clue-based party game that dazzles you with imaginative artwork while training you to decipher often cryptic clues given to you by your opponents. The great thing about Dixit is that the difficulty of the clues relies entirely upon the creativity of your fellow players and so it can easily be adjusted to be suitable for players as young as six years of age.
To get the most out of the board games you buy, be sure to choose the right game for the right age group. A game should be just advanced enough to be challenging for younger players without becoming frustrating. Conversely, children may grow out of games designed for younger players because there is not enough of a challenge to occupy their attention.
In the end, it’s important to remember that while educational and often thoroughly involving, the point of games is to escape from the troubles of everyday life and become immersed in the world of fun and imagination. As in life, the important thing is to win and lose gracefully. If you take either too seriously, it ceases to be fun. The point is to learn, have some fun and enjoy spending time with the people you love.
David J Salmon is an editor and blog writer for writers-house.com. He’s passionate about reading fiction, watching good TV series and giving good advices on self-development and creative writing. Follow him at: Twitter, Google+
You’ve read How Board Games Can Make You a Better Person, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading How To Find the Power in Your Story, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Sometimes we feel powerless in our own life. We feel as though nothing we do is working in our favor. Life can feel like that. We have all had those moments, days or even weeks where life felt like – and was – a hard slog. Yet if we look more closely we can find that we still have power in our story, in our life.
We can find power in our story because we are the ones writing our story. It’s the distinction between events and story. The things that happen to us are often out of our control but we are in complete control of the story that we write around those events.
Think back to a time when you and someone else experienced an event that, when you spoke of it later, was remembered differently by each of you. Can you recall how surprised you were that they had a different recollection than yours? Right there, in that difference in recollection, is where story lives.
In order to make sense of the things that happen in our life we create a narrative, a story, around the event. This is what we all do. And that is where the gift of story lives. We get to choose what story we write. We get to choose what a given event means for us. That means we can choose to find the point of power in our difficult experiences.
When I was in my 20’s my best friend died of cancer. It was a devastating experience but within the devastation was the lesson of loving my friends and family deeply and consciously. I learned not to take the gift of them in my life for granted. I learned about courage and grace in the face of imminent death. I learned that I could survive that grief and come out the other side a stronger and more compassionate person. That was the story I chose to write because to do otherwise would be to disrespect the memory of my dear friend and the lovely soul she was.
I could have chosen to write a different story. A story of the unfairness of life that a young, kind, funny, smart and beautiful person was taken so soon. I could have written a story about how unfair it was that my beloved uncle had died of cancer just a few months before my friend’s diagnosis. I could have written a story of bitterness and anger at the loss of two people I loved so deeply.
In this case the choice was easy because it was so clear to me that to embrace bitterness would be the polar opposite of the response my uncle and friend would want me to have. But the choice isn’t always so clear. What about when someone has truly wronged you? What about when someone has intentionally done something that was damaging to you? How do you choose a different story then?
We choose a different story by recognizing that it is our choice. We choose a different story by understanding that we, first and foremost, will be impacted by our choice. Our happiness and our peace of mind are within our control.
Finding the power in our stories requires that we take the story apart and actively look for the lessons we can learn. We have to ask what can be difficult questions: What did I do here that I am happy about? What did I do that I regret and don’t want to do again? What lessons can I learn that will help me in the future?
In my case I learned to not leave things unsaid to those I care about. I learned that I can survive things I didn’t think were survivable. I learned that the power is in how I decide to hold my story, not in the events that create my story.
So when you find yourself struggling with an event that leaves you feeling out of control take a moment, take a breath – or several, and consider what your ideal response to the event would be. You aren’t trying to change the circumstances – if only we could. What you are trying to do is use the power of choice to get the best out of the event that you can.
As you write the story of what happened, be conscious about what pieces of it you wish wish to take going forward. Find the pieces that empower you and build your story on that foundation. Look for the opportunities to expand your capacity to love, to improve communication or to simply learn so that next time you make a better choice. Uncover the elements that will contribute to you being able to grow from what has occurred. Writing your story isn’t about changing the truth, it’s about finding the lessons we can learn and the places within where we are truly strong.
We often have no control over the things that happen to us but we have complete control over our response to events. Choose thoughtfully, create a story that enriches and expands your life. Create a powerful story that supports the highest vision you have for your life.
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Omkari Williams writes, speaks, and coaches on story and creativity. You can find her at omkariwilliams.com
You’ve read How To Find the Power in Your Story, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading 3 Public Speaking Brain Hacks From A Psychiatrist, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
The ability to speak clearly, persuasively, and empathetically in front of an audience – whether an audience of ten or of thousands – is one of the most important skills anyone can develop.
People who are efficient speakers come across as more comfortable with themselves, more confident, and more attractive to be around. Being able to speak effectively means you can sell anything – products, ideas, ideologies, worldviews, and, more important, yourself.
It seems that everybody knows that. There are tons of articles about public speaking explaining about presentations techniques, giving tips and hacks.
However, as a psychiatrist for the last ten years, I’m missing something.
Those articles tell us to make eye contact, to be vulnerable, to be funny if we can, to be ourselves, to let go of our egos, to tell stories. They say not to ramble, not to go on about matters that no one else is interested in. And they keep saying “stay calm.”
It’s all good advice, and it looks great in theory, but the practice is a little bit different.
If you get nervous before giving a speech, you probably know that there is a difference between theory and practice.
And you are not alone.
Research show that 48% of the American population has some degree of public speaking fear, and a survey from Harvard Medical School estimates that the lifetime prevalence of extreme public speaking fear, characterized as social anxiety disorder, is 12.1%.
When we turn these statistics into numbers, we see that 140 million Americans would get nervous before giving a speech.
To overcome the fear of public speaking is essential to go beyond simple tricks and understand how your brain works when you are giving a presentation.
Here are 3 brain hacks to improve your public speaking skill:
When you get nervous before a presentation, you have automatic thoughts and beliefs that contribute to your fear, like:
“People will think I’m stupid.”
“I’ll end up looking like a fool.”
“I won’t have anything to say.”
“My voice will start shaking.”
“I’ll seem boring.”
“I’ll blush.”
These thoughts are like traps. When you fall on them, you become anxious.
The first step is to recognize the automatic thoughts that underlie your fear. For example, if you’re worried about a future presentation, the underlying thought might be: “I’m going to blow it. Everyone will notice that I’m nervous.”
The next step is to analyze the thought. It helps to ask yourself questions about the automatic thoughts: “Even if I’m nervous, will people necessarily notice it?” or “Do I know for sure that I’m going to blow the presentation?”.
Through this analysis of your automatic thoughts, you can gradually identify some unhelpful thinking styles or think traps (check the most common think traps here).
Several changes happen in your body when you get nervous. But, there are techniques to teach you how to relax and reduce physical responses to anxiety.
One of the first body response in anxiety is that you begin to breathe racing. Rapid shallow breathing leads to physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a feeling of suffocation, increased heart rate, muscle tension, and dizziness.
Learning to slow your breathing down can help you bring your physical sensations of anxiety under control. Here is a breathing exercise to help you keep your calm in social situations.
One of the most important things you can do to overcome the fear fo public speaking is to face it.
While avoiding momentarily uncomfortable situations may help you feel better in the short term; it prevents you from learning how to cope in the long term. In fact, the more you avoid a feared social situation, the more frightening it becomes.
While it may seem difficult to face a feared social situation, you can do it by taking it one small step at a time.
In other words, it’s important to face your fears gradually.
The key is to begin with a situation that you can handle and gradually work your way up to more challenging situations. It’s like to climb a mountain. You’ll build your confidence and social skills as you move up.
It’s never a good idea to move too fast, take on too much, or force things. This strategy will backfire and strengthen your anxiety.
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José Hamilton is a psychiatrist on a mission to empower people to overcome social anxiety and feel more confident. He is co-founder and CEO at Youper, the first mobile platform to overcome social anxiety.
You’ve read 3 Public Speaking Brain Hacks From A Psychiatrist, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading The Psychology of Confidence: 5 Hidden Qualities of Bold Individuals, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Have you ever wondered what lies behind true confidence?
Sometimes it seems like there is a magic potion that separates highly confident individuals who act in the face of fear and everyone else who feel like they’re often going around in circles.
What psychologists will tell you is that there isn’t anything special behind these individuals, they’ve simply accumulated a series of habits and beliefs over time, either intentionally or by good fortune.
But before looking at these habits and beliefs, we need to go back and ask the question; what is confidence?
Confidence is simply the degree to which you believe that your actions will result in a positive outcome.
This is not the same as self-esteem.
Self-esteem is a more general feeling you have about yourself, where as confidence is the belief you have in your skills in a given situation. When most people say they want to be more confident, what they mean is that they want more self-esteem.
Unsurprisingly however, the more areas you become confident in, the more you are likely to naturally develop self-esteem.
Why do we want confidence?
Confidence is an evolutionary advantage that can help you approach whatever task is in front of you without hesitation or anxiety. It can allow us to do what we really want to do with our lives.
The problem is that most of the time the advice we get about how to be more confident can be a little generic.
“Fake it till you make it,” “Talk louder” or “Dress the part.”
To be fair, this isn’t terrible advice, it can actually have a positive impact on how you feel, but it doesn’t really instill you with the kind of deep confidence that results in real change.
Here are 5 hidden qualities of confident people.
Confident people don’t worry about the outcome of a situation. Their attention is focused on the action or activity as opposed to the external result.
In the event that they fail, they see it as a learning experience as opposed to a reflection of who they are as a person or even how much they’re worth.
This might seem counter-intuitive, but to develop true confidence you need to have a little bit of brutal self-honesty.
If you have unrealistic expectations about your capabilities, you’re likely to get shocked and disheartened when things don’t go as you expected. On the other hand if you have an objective assessment of your skills, this is less likely to be the case.
Another important thing to consider here is that they are able to accept constructive criticism from others without getting defensive. The attention of confident people isn’t focused on whether others perceive them as competent but on how they can improve for the future.
Ours brains have a difficult time distinguishing real memories and constructed ones. Self-assured people use this to their advantage by visualizing their competence in a certain area until their neural networks have been rewired for success.
One study revealed that weightlifters that practiced positive visualization found the practice almost as effective as the physical practice itself for performance enhancement.
You can’t be the best at everything and self-assured people know this. Instead they stick to what they known is going to make them confident.
For example, if they want to be a confident swimmer they might spend a lot of time running, because some of the skills are complimentary. But they’re not going to spend hours writing creative stories, because the overlap between the two activities is less significant.
Sometimes it’s simple enough to realize that if you want to feel confident, you should spend time just doing things your confident in.
This might not be what you want to hear, but it’s the truth. If you want to develop self-esteem, you need to need to push your comfort zone in a number of areas, but it is slow growth over time that will lead to deeper, long lasting confidence.
To feel more confident you need to better yourself in the area you want to feel confident in, and the only way to do so is practice.
Again, this is pretty obvious, but it means being able to focus on one area for a sustained period of time until you’re competent, instead of letting your attention drift all over the place and getting what is known as ‘shiny objective syndrome.’
As Dale Carnegie said:
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
Attention Pick the Brain Readers!
Do you want to start your mornings off with habits that generate true confidence?
Then grab a free copy of our new eBook: MORNING MASTERY: The Simple 20 Minute Routine For Long Lasting Energy, Laser-Sharp Focus, and Stress Free Living.
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Ben is a freelance writer, and the co-creator of Project Monkey Mind—a blog that helps you learn practical ways to live a productive, fulfilling and world-changing life in the digital age.
You’ve read The Psychology of Confidence: 5 Hidden Qualities of Bold Individuals, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Sig Nordal 