Imagination Is The Engine That Drives Life

                                                     

Thinking outside the box is the most powerful thing in the world. But, how many people get out of their self-imposed walls in life? Not too many, and with the billions all over the place, too few get out of that box. For anyone willing to read or listen, I am ready to spill those beans on how to knock down those walls and be imaginative. So, here is a little advice to start off with: Stop caring what others think and start thinking genuinely for yourself.

Now, I did not say do not take advice if it is not good, but to get out of "the box", you must be genuinely selective, realistically creative, and honest with yourself to the core. The best lives follow a self-made pattern anyway, right down to trusting intuition mostly over the advice of others "who know better" and being genuinely selective about taking any advice. Indeed creative and synthetic imagination (in that order) is the driver of life. Creative imagination because there is a better way to do things than the established way waiting within reality waiting to be discovered, and synthetic imagination in that more can be done with what already exists when we look a little beyond it in productive and creative ways.

When I think of creativity and imagination, the first thing I think of is the word "different", not the word "better". Because, "better" is a value judgement that says hey this is better than this and there is not any better way to do it, that is it, this is where it ends. The word "different" can open up possibilities instead of ending them with value judgements. "This is better than that" makes false assumptions about reality, "we can do this differently" opens up more possibilities really. Different is the open road that leads to new and better places, better is a dead end. So, that is where creativity really starts, with that distinction. Creativity in those senses is the ultimate "gray area" in realistic thinking, better makes "black and white" absolute value judgements like "this is better than that", when it stifles creativity or betterment, that is unrealistic thinking and action, really.

So, start thinking about reality in different ways, not so much better ways, because it is through that difference that reality genuinely improves. For example, I remember when my Dad used to take his own car engine apart twice and putting it back together before starting it after he fixed it to see how he could improve its functioning with his knowledge of how to fix a car, and he actually succeeded at getting it to run better, that is an example of productively different thinking. Buying a "better" new car is not always the answer, is it? Sure, this end example is a basic example of how creativity works in reality. But, it shows what I mean by creativity is "different", never "better". New ways of looking at reality are the differences that makes things better anyway.

My name is Joshua Clayton, I am a freelance writer based in Inglewood, California. I also write under a few pen-names and aliases, but Joshua Clayton is my real name, and I write by that for the most part now. I am a philosophical writer and objective thinker and honest action taker. I also work at a senior center in Gardena, California as my day job, among other things, but primarily I am a writer.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10199212

Anxious? Angry? Sad? Here's How to Handle These Feelings Skillfully

                                                         

You may like to think of yourself as a rational being, but, in reality, your life is motivated by emotions. Emotions upset you, drive you, intimidate you, and inspire you. They motivate decisions, move you to action, or paralyze you in anxiety, stress, and fear. They are the basis of your best memories and the bond that creates deep connections with others. In this article, we'll explore four principles for skillfully working with your emotions and three tips to handle intense feelings such as anxiety, anger, and sadness when they threaten to overwhelm you.

Emotions are volatile. You can feel anxious one moment, angry the next, and then have waves of sadness flood through you seemingly out of nowhere. Because they can take you on such wild rides, it's natural to be somewhat wary of strong emotions - and do what you can to avoid them or keep them at bay.

You've seen what can happen when so-called "negative" emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness overwhelm you or others. You have memories of unskillful expressions of these feelings you wish you could forget. Images of emotional trauma are stored deep in your subconscious, warning you to be wary when you feel these emotions yourself or witness them in other people. Just thinking about these emotions makes you feel vulnerable.

In the face of vulnerable feelings, a more rational approach may feel safer. It's easier to focus on your thoughts and not venture into the scary world of feelings. Yet, reason has its limits. You may think you are more rational than you really are. While you can rationally weigh alternatives or consider different thoughts, the final "Yes this" and "Not that" arises from what "feels right." Even if you're focused on thinking instead of feeling, in the end, your decisions and actions are based on your "gut feelings."

Because emotions are so powerfully connected to decisions and actions, as well as being linked to threatening memories and your most powerful inspirations and interpersonal connections, it's important to learn how to handle them skillfully. Let's explore four principles for relating to emotions in a mindful, intentional, and empowered way. Practicing these principles grows your Emotional Intelligence, which is a skillset for handling emotions well.

Four Principles to Handle Emotions Skillfully

1. The only way out of an emotion is through it.

While your first inclination when you feel overwhelmed by uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, anger, and sadness, may be to distract yourself, downplay the feeling, or run away, this only causes emotions to go underground, into your subconscious, where they're stored as tension in your body, eat away at your peace of mind, and eventually surface as illness. Repressed emotions are the basis of compulsions and bad habits, as well as the source of overwhelm and flareups in relationships. You need to address them.

Emotions arise to give you specific information on what is happening inside you, around you, and with others-and this information will stick with you until it's acknowledged and heeded. So, it's important to shift your perspective from fear of emotions to seeing them as helpful guides. Emotions arise with information you need about your life and the energy to take action on this information. So, the number one principle of skillfully handling emotions is to stop ignoring them and pay attention to what they have to show you.

You can begin by paying attention to how you feel, in your body, right now. What are the sensations going on inside your skin? Especially, notice any areas of current discomfort, as these hold important clues to what you need to know and do now.

If you're not accustomed to checking in like this, you might not feel much at all or you may feel strong aversion to feeling discomfort. That's OK. Stay with it. Stay present with whatever feeling or lack of feeling is there. Attention to feelings takes practice. It's a real skill you can learn. Remember, if you don't pay attention to what your emotions are trying to tell you, they get stuck on repeat and keep cycling through you.

2. Mindfulness of what you feel shifts your relationship to it.

Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment. When intense feelings arise, instead of immediately trying to do something about them, take time to witness, listen to, and feel them. This act of mindfulness brings new neural connections into your habitual emotional patterns which enables them to shift. You bring a layer of awareness to your emotions which changes how they affect you.

Mindfulness releases you from being "gripped by" your emotions in a way that "takes you over." You gain freedom and space within and around the feelings you "have," by realizing that feelings do not define "who you are." They are simply information about what is happening inside you, around you, and with others.

3. Emotions come and go.

Knowing that all feelings are transient is reassuring when emotions run strongly or cycle repetitively. Emotions arise with a purpose and recede as you discover their message and use their energy appropriately. When you shine the light of awareness on your emotions, you can see what they have to show you, take appropriate action, and allow them to release.

4. Every emotion carries a message.

Once you've tuned into the sensation of an emotion in your body, ask it what message it has for you. What is this feeling telling you about how you are relating to a situation, to yourself, and with others?

Given this information, what action would be helpful for yourself and others? Just notice what comes to mind.

Because we aren't generally taught to recognize the meaning in emotions, we often miss, ignore, or avoid their messages. When we do this, emotional energy builds into overblown high drama to get our attention. It's as if our emotions say, "O.K. you didn't get the message in my civil indoor voice, so I'm going to yell it at you." You then feel extreme anger, overwhelming sadness, or anxiety that is through the roof.

When emotion has amped up to that point, it can be helpful to bring it down a notch to a manageable level. A few simple actions can help you do this.

3 Tips to Handle Intense Emotions

1. Pause, close your eyes, and take a few slow, deep, gentle breaths.

Stop what you are doing, close your eyes, and focus on slow, deep, gentle breathing, in and out through your nose. Closing your eyes and engaging in this type of breathing activates your body's natural relaxation response, which helps dissipate the pressure, energy, and intensity of strong emotions.

2. Feel the sensation of the emotion in your body.

Notice where the emotion is located in your body. Feel the quality of sensation there. Noticing feelings as sensations helps you witness them more objectively, so you gain space from what you are feeling.

3. Adopt the mindful perspective of a curious observer and query the emotion as if it is a friend who wants to tell you something important.

Remember that Mindfulness means paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment. With this attitude, ask your emotion questions, as if it is a friend who is trying to give you valuable information and you are a scientist seeking discovery.

When you follow these tips, you shift your perspective and take the "over-the-top" intense edge off of what you are feeling. Extreme anger can downshift to a firm "no," intense sadness can mellow into "letting go," and high anxiety can settle into a motivating spur to action.

Once a feeling has downshifted in intensity, it is easier to listen to it, feel it, and respond appropriately. You can take action to address the current situation. You can set boundaries, release what no longer serves you, and prepare for uncertain situations.

The bottom line is that, rather than fearing the emotional intensity of fear, anger, and sadness, see if you can move toward these feelings with a mindful, curious attitude. As you do this, notice how they shift and guide you to what you need to do right now.

Intense emotions getting the best of you? Learn 4 proven steps to find inner peace and calm clarity in the book, "Clear Quiet Mind." Available on Amazon: Click Here For More Information

Kevin Schoeninger is a writer and teacher of Mind-Body training, including Mindfulness, Meditation, Qigong, and Reiki. He is the author of the book "Clear Quiet Mind" and numerous guided meditations and programs in the field of personal empowerment and spiritual growth.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9945757

Become Successful by Doing the Simple Things Right Every Day

 

Everybody wants to understand the magic formula of how to be successful in life. And especially at the beginning of a New Year, we make resolutions to improve our lives, hoping to pivot towards success.

We set out to stop smoking, exercise regularly, learn a new language, or save more money. But studies have shown that 80% of all New Year Resolutions fail within weeks.

Why is it that people fail to stick to their resolutions? And how can you create lasting positive change in your life?

Any famous actor, athlete, or entrepreneur will tell you that success does not come overnight. Instead, being successful is the result of years of practice and making the right choices.

Master 3 Areas to Become Successful in Life

To experience the magic of great success, here are three areas we need to master:

First, we need to develop a life philosophy that helps us tackle daily life with the right attitude.

Second, we need to commit to lifelong learning.

And third, there are essential habits to heed that will make success unavoidable.

All the reasons why people don't succeed with their New Year Resolutions relate in one way or another to attitude, learning, and habits.

And perhaps we weren't ready when the New Year started. After all, it is just a random date, and any day is perfect for changing your life.

As the Chines proverb says, 'The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.'

And the good news is that we all already can excel in these success enablers.

1. Develop the Right Attitude to Excel in Life

We live our lives moment by moment. And a lot of those moments we pass with seemingly unimportant activities like making our bed, brushing our teeth, taking the escalator, ordering coffee at Starbucks.

We also call these daily life activities the mundane, and many of us perceive them as dull.

And we tend to overlook the little things because they often do not have an immediate result. Little things compound over time. And as such, they make all the difference.

And as the ancient Zen saying goes, "The Way a Person Does One Thing Is the Way They Do Everything," every seemingly small choice in our life matters.

When we control the small things in our lives, we demonstrate to ourselves that we are responsible for our lives.

Blaming the circumstances never gets us anywhere. And by being in control of the little things in our life, we also develop the proper focus that will eventually lead us to success.

95% of people fail at achieving most of their goals in life. How can this be when all we have to do is concentrate on the simple things in life? Successful people know that everything they do in life matters.

Unsuccessful people often think, unknowingly, that what they do right now does not matter.

Our view on life is our life philosophy. It determines our mindset and attitudes, feelings, and, of course, actions.

An essential part of our life philosophy related to success is knowing that we can improve our intelligence and abilities.

The Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck has called this the growth mindset. If you have a growth mindset, you don't believe that your current situation is everlasting.

This understanding particularly applies to how we deal with failures. When you come to see faults as proof of having an inept personality, this limiting and prejudicial fixed mindset will become a natural constraint to your growth.

Dweck found that those with a growth mindset managed to recover from failures. More accurately, she noticed that because the growth-minded students didn't regard their intelligence level as fixed, they did not perceive failure as a threat.

Instead, people with a growth mindset know they could learn from failure and use the experience to improve. As a result, they are more inclined to take on challenges and learn from them.

2. Lifelong Learning Will Help You Live up to New Challenges

Having a growth mindset, you understand that you can and must continuously evolve with your environment.

Good past choices that brought you where you are today might not keep you there as the world changes.

Reading a few pages every day of an educational or inspirational book can tremendously improve your life. By just reading a few pages every day, you could finish about one book every month.

When you learn something new, you need to practice to nurture retention. Practicing newly discovered materials also expands your understanding of the insights you get and makes them part of you.

The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, 'Knowledge without practice is useless, and practice without knowledge is dangerous.'

3. Use the Power of Positive Habits to Become Unstoppable

Letting go of a bad habit can be challenging. And many try hard in vain.

Here is how to effectively break with a bad habit:

Don't tackle the annoying habit head-on. Instead, supplant it with a positive habit and see your old ways disappear.

Good habits are an essential component of how to be successful in life.

But forming good habits requires effort.

Ability, education, experience, or means don't count until you do something.

Hence, the first and foremost habit we need to sustain is to show up and be present.

Likewise, this is what the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson meant when he wrote, 'Do the thing, and you shall have the power.'

It all starts with showing up, yet so many of us customarily don't.

So, time can be our best friend or our worst enemy.

If we are consistent with taking small, simple, positive actions, success will materialize over time.

In contrast, by ignoring the mundane matters in life, we forgo a powerful compound effect.

And to make your life easier right now, surround yourself with successful people.

As the saying goes, 'Birds of a feather flock together,' people of similar character or background tend to associate with one another.

In the same vein, if you want to achieve success, look at the people around you. Where are they heading? People around us naturally influence us. And if your closest connections are heading for failure, you might end up there, too.

So join people on the path of success if you want that to be your destination.

And remember: It does not matter where you come from, but where you go makes all the difference.

Svend Nelson is a writer, online entrepreneur and university lecturer. Svend lived and worked in various countries across Latin America, Europe and Asia and now spends most of his time in Thailand. A more detailed version of the above article has appeared on TumDaiNa, a Thai website with practical resources to become the best version of yourself.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10446673

Too Old? Too Young? Two Solutions

 

I know many young people feel the world doesn't take them seriously.

They might be in their tweens, their teens, even their early '20s or later.

And whenever they think of an idea, or they come up with a plan, people don't even give it a second thought. It's always the same:

"Yeah, but what would you know? Come back when you have some experience."

And yet the funny thing is - for a certain definition of funny - old people say the same thing happens to them.

No one takes their ideas seriously.

Everyone looks for the younger people, the people who are more up to date, more in touch, more energetic or whatever.

As if experience were a bad thing...

So we have on the one hand young people being pushed aside until they have more experience. And on the other, there's old people being pushed aside as if they've already been used up.

If you're on the receiving end of this, it sucks.

But you know choosing to play the victim is no choice at all.

What can you do about it?

I invite you to think about things this way:

Youth is a virtue and so is age, but the great thing is that they're not the same virtue.

They are different - even complementary.

Just think about all the positive things about being young - things like enthusiasm and energy and optimism and just this relentless drive to keep going.

And think about all the good things that come with age, like wisdom, experience and instinct, and just being able to see through the nonsense with a bit more perspective.

Whatever situation you're in, whether you're too young to be taken seriously, or too old to be taken seriously, or somewhere in between, I invite you to bring the best of both of those qualities.

You have two ways to do that:

The first is to lean into the strengths of your stereotype. If you lack experience, how can you compensate for that with your greater mental flexibility?

(After all, you haven't learned bad habits or false limitations yet... )

And if your credentials aren't as fresh as the next person's, how can you compensate for that with your worldly wisdom?

Some things to think about there.

The second strategy is to prove the haters wrong.

If you're young, then how can you be wise? How can you have a broader perspective on things?

And if you are older, think about all the ways that you could be enthusiastic and energetic again.

It's a classic strategy:

Lean in to your strengths and develop your weaknesses.

Give it some thought and you'll find the answers.

So that's one way to enhance your life.

But if self-improvement really interests you, what would you do with more techniques than you can use?

Like, say, 60 of them?

Get your hands on Three-Score Navike - the comprehensive and easy way to grow and evolve - right here:

https://guided-thought.com/navike/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10307206