Feed Your Mind « 4/5 « A Miracle A Day A Miracle A Day

Archive for the ‘Feed Your Mind’ Category

Two Ways To Make Yourself Smarter Through Writing

Would you like to both appear, and actually be, smarter? There are many techniques out there that can help you to learn this or that easier, or improve your memory, but it's not quite so common to find techniques that allow you to increase your general ability to acquire and apply knowledge across the board.

If you're looking for such a way, or weren't particularly looking, but you're interested now that I caught your attention, continue reading this article. I have two such methods for you that both involve writing. Not only will they both help you to acquire, categorize, and interconnect knowledge, but because they involve writing, they will also improve your vocabulary (especially if you make that one of your goals while applying the techniques), which makes you sound (appear) smarter.

Alright, so let's get started… here is the first way to make yourself smarter:

Write About A Random Topic

Our first technique is to pick, or even better, have someone else pick for you, a random topic and write at least a page about it. If you want to get the most out of this method, write three to five pages about the topic. Write it as if you were writing it for someone else to read, not just for yourself, and it's even better if you do let someone else read it, as they can give you feedback to improve your writing. It can be whatever kind of writing you want… you can explain the topic, research it, introduce it, write fiction about it… whatever you want, they all work.

It doesn't really matter whether you know anything about the topic or not. If you do know something about the topic, then writing will help you to refine your knowledge and make it more concrete and easy to call to your conscious mind. If you write about a topic that you don't know much about, you will obviously have to learn something about it in order to write about it.

As you write more about things you know, you are practicing your skills of making information you already have usable and easy to recall. This makes it easier and easier to do this with any other topics as well… it's a general skill that you learn, not just applicable to the specific topics that you write about.

When you write about things you don't know you practice you skills involved in learning, categorizing, and applying new knowledge. Again, as above, this is a general skill which will improve your ability to do these three things with any new knowledge, not just a specific topic, and not even just when it comes to writing.

So, now on to the second way to make yourself smarter:

Connect Two Unrelated Topics

Our second technique is slightly more complicated, and really puts your mind to work. It works by picking two apparently unrelated topics, and finding a way to relate them. This can be anything… you can pick two random nouns from the dictionary, or as above, have someone else pick the two things for you. In fact, if you're really feeling adventurous, and wanting to push the envelope on this method, you can use more than two topics… but don't use too many, or the relations you draw between the topics lose their depth.

As above, this works best if you write it as if you were writing it for someone else, and actually allowing someone else to read it can result in feedback that improves your writing. It can also be any type of writing you want, but in this method you really need to write more than one page to get the full benefit. You can use up one page just introducing the two subjects, and you really want to give the connection between them some depth, as this is what makes this technique work.

This second technique teaches you how to see connections between two seemingly unrelated things. This is vital to pushing your intelligence to higher levels… being able to see the relationships between things where it's not obvious is what separates the smart people from the average people. It helps you to see more and more patterns in the world around you, and recognizing these patterns quickly and usefully is what intelligence is all about. Everything in the world, the universe, is related… there is a pattern that contains any two subjects, and of course there is the pattern that IS the universe.

Your ability and skills in the area of recognizing patterns will be stretched farther (and thus grow more) as the topics you use are less related. That means that if your two topics are monkeys and bananas, you're not stretching much, and won't get much. If you relate bananas and an allen wrench, that might be a bit more of a stretch, and thus you gain more.

Again, fictional stories also work for training these skills, though you might not get the added benefit of learning more about the topics as you would if you did another form of writing.

Shared Benefits

There's another useful thing that you can get out of using these techniques… if you have someone else who is reading your results, you are likely to be helping them improve their intelligence, as well. Their vocabulary should be expanding as yours does, and they, too, get to see connections between things they hadn't previously recognized as being related. Their benefits will be smaller than yours, because you are having to find those connections, while they are having them shown to them, but they will still benefit.

Make Either Technique More Effective

There are a few things that can make both techniques more effective. One of these things is to have someone else suggest your topics. This keeps you from going easy on yourself when you're feeling less motivated, and is likely to push you even more outside of your comfort zone. Another one is to have someone else, or several someone else's, read your end product. At least one of these people is likely to be the one who suggested the topics, but it's always good to include someone else, because they won't have any preconceptions based on knowing before reading what the topics were.

Another thing that makes both techniques more effective is to do it with a partner and suggest topics to each other, with a set time to finish your writing. After that time, which should be as short as possible without causing undue stress on either of you, you should give each other what you wrote, read the other person's writing, and then talk about it. This gives you added motivation to keep it up, added benefits from reading the other person's writing, and can make it more fun, as your suggestions for topics can mean something to you, and even if they don't before you write about them, they may have added meaning for both of you afterwards.

Summary

So… there you go. Want to be smarter, and make it apparent to other people as well? Practice one, or better yet both, of the techniques above. Make it work even better by finding a partner, or even a network (ie more than just you and one other person). Speaking of which, I'm interested in finding a partner or network for doing this myself… anyone interested?

Author

September 28th

Awareness, Communication, Feed Your Mind, Growth, Learning, Patterns

How To Reclaim Your Life From Marketers

These days every waking moment is filled with someone trying to get you to do this, or buy that. They use all kinds of sophisiticated techniques, developed in a lab, tested in focus groups, and spread across the world you live in. You hear it on the radio when it goes off to wake you up, you see it on the billboards on the way to work, even on bumper stickers on the cars filling the freeway. Then you get it again when you get home and turn on the TV to relax.

Some of them want you to do something to make them money… that's probably the most common. Some of them, however, do it because they think that whatever it is that they want you to do will make you healthier, like the anti-smoking campaigns. Speaking of which, can't they hire someone to make ads that aren't so ineffective that they actually make me want to smoke, just because the ad is so bad (and I've never smoked in my life)? They all have something in common, however… they all want you to align your life with their desires.

They break out all the tools to try to get you to do this. They use guilt, they use peer pressure, they use sex… oh boy do they ever use sex. All of it is designed to bypass your conscious mind's ability to rationally evaluate a proposition. They don't want you to actually think about what it is they're pushing you to do, they want you to feel like you have to do it. If you want to get the hot girl, you have to go buy our product. If you want your kids to love you, you have to go to our amusement park. If you don't want to die young, you have to stop smoking.

That last one at least has the benefit of being likely to be true, though my great-grandfather lived until he was 93 while smoking every day. But true or not, they are trying to make you alter your life to follow their rules. Now comes my turn, of course… what am I trying to get you to do?

Nothing… well, to be honest, I want you to subscribe to my website (it's free!) . But that's not the point… I'm not going to try to push you to do it. What I'm suggesting is that you break away from mindless consumerism (<– buzzwords), and reclaim your life. Use your mind and actually think about why YOU should do whatever it is that someone is currently trying to get you to do. Why is it that you, personally, would want to do whatever it is that they are pushing?

Here are five things that you might want to do when you feel like someone is trying to push you into something:

Engage your mind

The most powerful tool in your arsenal, and what marketers and salesmen try to avoid, your conscious mind is capable of actually making rational decisions and choosing not to buy the new Mega Ultra Thingamabob when you already have the Thingamabob Max, and wouldn't use any of the features added to the new Mega Ultra, anyway. Or even worse, to them… you can realize you have no need for a Thingamabob at all.
Discard guilt as a motivator

Guilt is a terrible motivator, and one abused by some marketers. One of the worst ways they do this is through making you feel like you're depriving your children if you don't go here or buy them that. If you feel guilty when it comes to your children… spend more time with them! Buying them things and taking them to places where you still don't pay attention to them isn't going to help them. Marketers also try to work the guilt factor when it comes to your significant other… the answer is still the same: spend more time with them! When it comes to guilt about yourself, like fitness/weight loss, just remember… you don't need to look like or be like everyone else. If you're happy the way you are, who are they to tell you that you need to change?
Realize it doesn't really matter what everyone else is doing

Why do you care what everyone else is doing? What difference does it make to you? Are you that eager to "fit in", that you would go out of your way to do something just because other people are? I know the answer for some people is "Yes", but why? You are your own person, living your own life, making your own decisions… you are who you choose to be. Why would you choose to be someone else?
Understand that no matter how many times they imply it, no product gets you hot girls (or sex)

A HUGE number of products use the allure of sex to get you to do something or buy something. They do this by showing you hot girls and their product over and over again. Just remember… it doesn't matter how many times they show the product with some hot girl… having it won't get you that girl. It's highly unlikely to get you sex, even if you already have a significant other. Unless, of course, you're a guy, and you buy your significant other shoes and a purse… there's something about those things that girls LOVE.
Figure out if YOU really care, and if so, why

Finally, take a look and see if you really care about what it is they are pushing. For example, if a marketer is trying to use sex to sell something to you, and you're already married (hopefully happily), do you really care even if it WOULD get you a hot girl? You're already taken, after all. Do you really care if that new diet pill will make you lose a few pounds? And I mean YOU… do you care for yourself, not because of the way other people look at you? Does whatever it is they are trying to get you to do really reflect who you are?

These really apply even to conversation with your friends or coworkers, when they try to get you to do something, not just the now omni-present advertising. Make your life your own… do things on your own terms, because you WANT to do it. Reclaim your life and do things that reflect who you are and who you want to be, not what someone else thinks you should be.

Author

September 24th

Awareness, Feed Your Mind, Free Will, Motivation, Relationships

The Eyes Of A Photographer

The world around us is filled with beauty. There is some way to look at anything around you and see beauty in it. Take, for example, the picture above… it's a photograph of an ordinary tree with a few small flowers around its base. You could easily pass by and not even notice it consciously… it is very ordinary. Looked at from the right angle, though, it can produce a very interesting picture.

Life is like that… you can find beauty in the most ordinary of places. There is, of course, the beauty of a truly happy smile… no matter whose face it is on. There is also the passing beauty that arises when one object is perfectly juxtaposed over another, like a palm tree silhouetted against a sunset sky.

Seeing these things, the extraodinary beauty in the common sight, is what it means to have the eyes of a photographer. You capture the moment, the precise frame, and store it, whether it's on film, a memory card, or just in your mind.

You can have the eyes of a photographer when it comes to the non-visual parts of life, too. You can find the beauty in a baby's laughter, a mischievious glint in a young boy's eyes, or the way your beloved touches you softly, looking into your eyes. These are beautiful moments that you can capture, just like a photographer captures a wondrous sight.

You can record them on the film of your mind, to review later, when circumstances warrant. You can bring them out to share with others, talking about the memories you have captured until the wee hours of the morning. You can look at them in the quiet of your own mind when you are sad, to remind you of the beauty of life (though sadness can be beautiful, too). Or you can simply have a quiet moment with your happy memories, reliving some of the best moments.

You don't have to capture every nuance of the scene in sharp detail… sometimes blurring background elements is part of the beauty of the whole. Look at the flower in the picture above, for instance… it is out of focus, blurred, but if it weren't, it would change the whole picture. It is often more useful to keep the important elements in sharp focus while allowing the rest to blur… it brings even more emphasis to the parts that are in focus, that you want to show.

So… where can you find beauty in the ordinary? Find something today, whether it's a picture, a sound, or a memory. And if you like, you can share it with me… you can find my email by clicking my name at the top of this article.

Author

September 21st

Awareness, Expectations, Feed Your Mind, Internal Quiet

One Man’s Change – Overcoming Depression

You may want to read A Potentially Fatal Mistake, the article that lead to this one.

When I was younger, I had great self-esteem, but horrible self-worth. Just because I was confident in my abilities didn't mean that I thought those abilities made me worth anything. Other people had worth, and always took precedence over me, because I didn't have any worth.

This low self-worth lead to me being depressed. I was depressed to the point where I didn't really feel emotions, didn't really care about anything, for years… about 5 – 6years, actually. Near the end, it was bad enough that I couldn't sleep more than 45 minutes a night, I thought about dying every day, and finally was ready to go through with it.

I went to the hospital because of the side-effects of such low amounts of sleep (seeing things move when they weren't, etc.). While I was there, I finally told someone who could help me about how I felt, and they ended up sending me to another hospital, where they gave me Prozac and a medicine that helped me to sleep.

I was on Prozac for 30 days, and in that time it cleared out the depression enough that I could take a good look at myself and my life for the first time in a LONG time. I realized that I was keeping myself depressed by my thought patterns… I would dwell on the things that made me feel bad, almost wallowing in the negativeness of it all.

So I made a decision. I changed my thought patterns… when my thoughts would start to go down that path of negativity, I instantly stopped them. I'm not saying that this is something that everyone can just instantly change, but that's what I did.

It worked. When those 30 days were over, I didn't suffer from depression any more. I was cured, and I no longer needed medicine to help me. Removing the cycle of negative thoughts removed the negative emotion of depression, and freed many of my other emotions, to some degree.

A couple years later, I had depression come back… I had allowed myself to fall back into the cycle of negative thoughts. Again, I needed a little help to clear my head, so I went to the doctor, told him of my previous experience, and asked for Prozac again.

It was the same story… I took it for 30 days, and during those 30 days, I really thought about what was going on, and I realized that I had only taken care of half of my problem the first time. I had dealt with the negative thought cycles, but not the problem behind them, which was my low self-worth.

What I found, with all that thinking, is that I had value intrinsically. I was worth something because I was a person… it had nothing to do with my intelligence, my looks, what I had or hadn't done. I had worth simply because I was a person.

I had felt this way about others all along. Everyone else had worth, regardless of who they were and what they had done. Not only that, but they all had equal worth, though some of them had more importance to me, being people I liked or loved or both (yes, you can certainly love someone without liking them). In other words, the worth had nothing to do with anything specific to the person, it was theirs by virtue of being a person.

And that value was mine, too. I was also a person, and I also had worth simply because of this. That revelation, along with fixing my negative thought patterns again, made my changes permanent this time. Since that time, I have been depressed, yes, but it has lasted, at most, a few hours.

Now, different people may have different reasons for thinking that every person has value. My "why" is that I believe that all of the universe is a part of God, including each person. I believe that God's universal awareness is present in, and perceives through, each person. So, in essence, any time you deal with any person, you are dealing with God, also.

I think it would be awfully hard to believe in God, and believe you are dealing with Him, even if indirectly, and think that the person that He is in has no worth. In fact, God's worth is so overwhelming that any difference in an individual's worth, if it exists, is insignificant in comparison with the worth that God being present in them adds… so every person is of equal worth.

In case you're wondering, I am Christian, but I think my understanding and beliefs are considerably different than average… you can feel free to ask about them, if you want, just send me an email (you can click my name at the top of this post to find my email).

Author

September 20th

Awareness, Beliefs, Feed Your Mind, Growth, Healing, Perseverance

The Difference Between Intelligence And Education

There is much confusion in the world about education and intelligence. Education is knowledge acquired in formal learning environments, such as school. Intelligence is that actual ability to learn, to acquire, assimilate, and use new knowledge.

We are taught from the time we first enter school to judge someone's intelligence by their education and their performance in such formal environments, also known as "book smarts". This is taught by words, actions, and attitudes, from both teachers and, later on, other students. This concept that education equals intelligence is pushed on us so hard that few people ever get totally past it, even as they grow older.

You Can Be Highly Intelligent Without Being Highly Educated

Two of the most intelligent people I've ever met did very poorly in school. One graduated, but just barely, and the other never finished high school. When it comes to learning anything that they don't associate with school, they learn fast… much, much faster than normal.

People of well above average intelligence sometimes do poorly in school due to boredom. They sit there in classes designed for the lowest common denominator which don't provide enough stimulation for them, so they become bored and stop paying attention. They are distracted by the smallest things. People of less intelligence, on the other hand may have more of their mind occupied by the class, and thus be less prone to boredom. They are also more likely to be aware that they need to work hard and study in order to do well, where smart people may feel that it's easy and not study even when they DO need it.

You Can Be Highly Educated Without Being Highly Intelligent

On the other hand, I have met people with advanced degrees, including doctorates, who are of no more than average intelligence. This is not a bad thing… they have shown that they are willing to put in the time and effort to master something that does not come easy to them. It does also show, however, that higher education is not proof of higher intelligence.

There are also certainly professions which require extensive training (education), but not extremely high intelligence. Your average family practictioner, for example, can operate just fine without needing to have a genius IQ. He is following established procedures, prescribing standard medications for conditions diagnosed by standardized methods. He needs the education to teach him those standards, but he is not creating the standards, just following them… so having average intelligence is not a big deal at all.

Conclusion

Education is not equal to intelligence, though it is often used as an external measure of it. Certain types of education can give you a pretty good idea that someone is at least of certain minimum intelligence (you can't actually be dumb and have an advanced degree in mathematics), but they don't provide a measure of how far beyond that minimum they are, and a lack of education says absolutely nothing about their intelligence.

And, by the way, neither education nor intelligence prevent you from doing stupid things. As far as I know, nothing in the world stops that.

Author

September 19th

Feed Your Mind, Learning

7 Macho Traits That Mean Nothing

What is the measure of a man? What does it mean to be a “good man”? What is it that makes one man a good man, respected by all who know him, while another is admired but not necessarily respected, and yet another is looked upon as unworthy of the title of “man” at all?

It is very common to use surface traits, traits that are easily visible from a distance, to judge a man. These traits, however, describe what a man has, rather than who he is. While you can measure a man by what he has, it easily leads to giving someone far more credit than they deserve, and putting your faith in someone who will fold under pressure.

There is a single word which sums up using surface traits as a measure of a man: macho. Someone who is macho possesses these surface traits, usually without the underlying core traits, is considered macho. Someone who possesses the deeper traits can be better described as honorable. The two are not quite mutually exclusive, but it is fairly rare to know someone who is thought of as both, because those who are honorable rarely play up the surface traits, often even downplaying them as unimportant.

Below is a list of seven of the most common of the surface traits that fall under the label “macho”, along with the “honorable” trait for which they are being used as a proxy.

Physical Strength/Toughness

Core Trait(s): Persistence, Inner Strength
Physical strength or toughness are often used as a substitute for persistence, or inner strength. There is something to this, as going on in spite of injury (toughness) does show persistence and at least a measure of inner strength, as does sticking with working out long enough to become strong. Both of these only show one small piece of persistence and inner strength, however… a man can be quite tough and strong physically, but wilt away like a flower when it comes to things like taking care of his family.
Showing No Emotion

Core Trait(s): Inner Strength
Many men make the mistake of thinking that being strong means not showing any emotions. This is silly… all people feel emotions, and denying yours actually gives them power over you, because you push them out of your conscious mind and into your subconscious, where they can still affect you, but you are no longer aware of what it is that’s doing the affecting. Denying that you have emotions, suppressing them every time you feel them, simply keeps you from actually dealing with them. True inner strength involves accepting that you have emotions, facing them, dealing with them, and doing what you need to do.
Being Aggressive

Core Trait(s): Honor, Respect
It is very common for men to believe that they need to aggressively demand respect from all of those around him, to prove their honor. Respect, however, cannot be taken. It must be earned, and that requires showing that you are worthy of it over time. Look at anyone who is REALLY respected, like the Godfather. How often is he aggressive? Rather than being aggressive, he stands his ground, and will not violate his honor, nor allow another to do so. Even when something physically aggressive is done on his behalf, it’s never him being aggressive… he just indicates that he wants it taken care of, and someone does so. Learn from his example… respect does not come from aggression.
Wealth

Core Trait(s): Strength, Respect
People often use a man’s wealth as a sign of whether or not he is worthy of respect. They also often think that having great wealth is itself a sign of strength. Whether or not these things are true depend on a lot of things, the biggest of which is whether the man earned the wealth himself or was given it. A man who was given wealth actually tends to be LESS worthy of respect, and weaker, than one who has no wealth to speak of. For those who earn it, the longer it took to earn the wealth, the more likely it is that they actually ARE worthy of the respect generally accorded to them just for their wealth. All that being said, wealth in itself has NO significance for how honorable or worthy of respect someone has. There are homeless people possessed of far more honor, and worthy of far more respect, than some of the wealthiest people in the world.
Political Power

Core Trait(s): Strength, Respect
This can be political power within any large organization, whether government, corporate, non-profit, or something else entirely. This is a surface trait… like physical strength, political power IS one measure of strength, but not a good indicator of the strength that matters, strength of character. A politician may wield power, that doesn’t make them worthy of respect. Just look at Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, etc… they had great political power, but the last thing they were is good men. They lacked honor, integrity, and were unworthy of respect as a person (it’s certainly arguable that some of their achievements deserve respect, but as a person, they don’t).
Fame

Core Trait(s): Strength, Respect
Fame is very similar to wealth. It does grant you power, as does wealth, but as mentioned many times already, power is not the same as strength, let alone the inner strength that is so important to being a good man.

Some people earn their fame through their accomplishments, like Mother Theresa (I know this is about men… but she is the most recognizable example of what I’m talking about that I can recall at the moment). Others achieve fame by accident, like a lottery winner. Still others acquire fame by virtue of their position, like the Pope, or the President of the United States (or even candidate for President). The fame itself is meaningless as a tool to evaluate who someone is. All it does is bring the person to your (and a lot of other people’s) attention. That makes granting someone respect, or assumptions of honor, simply based on their fame, silly.
Women

Core Trait(s): Strength, Respect
People often give men respect they don’t deserve simply based on which women they have been in relationships with, or, alternatively, the sheer number of women they have been with. Many women have poor taste when it comes to men… basing your opinion of a man based on some woman’s (or women’s) opinion is foolish. In fact, the fact that a man has been with a large number of women is a pretty solid indicator that their honor, integrity, and faithfulness are lacking. It may be a sign that they are virile, possessing strength in that sense, but certainly not the inner strength that is a reflection of who they are.

Be careful, when looking at a man, and evaluating him, that you separate the macho from the honorable, the surface persona from the core person. There are times when you will WANT to evaluate someone based on their surface traits, or what they have, rather than who they are… when you’re looking for someone to help you move, for example. It’s important, though, to do so consciously, when it is desirable, rather than using those macho traits as a substitute for who they are, what kind of man they are, and how much trust you can put in them.

Author

September 12th

Awareness, Communication, Feed Your Mind

Are You Anchored Or Adrift?

Do you know who you are, what you believe, and why you believe it? Are you aware… do you look around and choose a path for yourself, or do you just blindly follow the path laid out for you by others? People who fit the first description are anchored, while people who fit the second are adrift.

People who are anchored know who they are. They know what they believe and why they believe it. They are aware of their own ability to choose their path consciously, and do not simply follow what others have done before or direct them to do now.

Those who are adrift, on the other hand, are mostly who other people tell them they are. They shift with the wind, accepting and following the last input they received, never (or rarely) asserting their own power of choice. Sometimes they try to place a limit on who can affect them this way, keeping it to only those they consider authorities or experts in the field, but this often a false front, with them allowing all who give the appearance of authority, or even just certainty, the ability to decide who they will be and what they will do.

You probably know examples of each type. You can probably even think of examples of a "type of person" who is expected to be anchored, but in reality is adrift, like a preacher, a teacher, or other authority figure. The sad part is that other people who are adrift rely on these people who are "supposed to be" anchored, but in reality are not, to give them direction in their own lives.

At this point, some of you may be thinking that the people I'm referring to as anchored are probably close-minded. If you're thinking that, you are wrong. People who are anchored have no need to reject the opinions and beliefs of others without considering them. They know who they are and why they believe what they believe well enough that other people's beliefs are not threatening. Close-minded people are actually adrift, rejecting the input of others without considering it because they lack confidence in their own beliefs.

Fortunately for the majority of people who are adrift, it is totally possible to become anchored. Totally possible and totally easy are not, however, the same thing. If you want to become anchored, you need to take a few steps, and while they are simple to understand, they are not without effort, and likely not without pain.

Learn To See Your Own Beliefs

If you want to be anchored, you must be aware of what you believe. That means consciously aware, and able to articulate what it is that you believe. If you cannot say what you believe, you certainly can't understand why you believe it, and so it is likely that you believe it because someone else told you it was so. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean your belief is incorrect… it just means that it's not truly YOUR belief, it is someone else's belief where you are acting as if it is your own.

If you need help getting started, you can try a series I wrote a while back:
Choose Which Beliefs You Want

Once you have learned how to see your beliefs, you must choose, for each one, whether to keep it and make it your own or discard it as not being congruent with who you want to be. This process also helps you to resolve conflicting beliefs that can be the source of much, if not most, of the stress in your life. Each belief you choose to keep is now able to become your own, and part of who you are, not just part of a persona.
Understand The Why Of Each Belief

Once you have chosen to keep a belief, and indeed even while you are considering whether or not to do so, you will need to examine it. You should find out the details, EXACTLY what is involved in the belief, what type of circumstances it applies to, and most importantly of all, WHY you believe it. If you cannot say why you have a belief, then it is not yours yet… it is still a part of the persona you are projecting, not who you truly are. Once you are aware of a belief, choose to keep it, and can explain why you believe it, you can claim it as your own, a part of your true self, your core.
Align Your Outside With Your Inside

Now that you understand which beliefs are a part of you and which are part of a persona, you can reject that persona. You have enough knowledge of your self that you no longer need the affirmations of others to feel worthy. In fact, your self-worth (which is NOT the same thing as self-esteem… in fact, there is enough of a difference that I will probably write an entire article on it in the future) will be stable, neither ridiculously high nor ridiculously low. It will simply be enough to be who you are, and allow others to be who they are, and draw shared enjoyment where you can.
Be Aware

This is the last element on the list, but in reality it shows up earlier in the mix. The thing is, it may show up anywhere on the list… it may be when you first start, when you realize that you can, in fact, choose what you believe, or any other time in this process. It is at least virtually impossible, and probably actually impossible, to complete the steps above without becoming aware. So what does it mean to "Be Aware"? It means knowing, understanding, and accepting that you have the power to control who you are and how you respond to any situation. It means accepting responsibility for your own actions… ALL of them. It means, more than anything else, being aware that you are free, that no one can force you to do anything you choose not to do. They can force your body to do certain things, but you are not your body, and that real you is completely, 100%, irrevocably free.

When you have followed each of the steps above, which are not always strictly done in the order listed, especially #5, you will find yourself anchored amongst a sea of people adrift. This gives you many advantages, too many to be listed here, but I will list one benefit: peace. Peace comes with awareness. When you know that you are free, that you are who you choose to be, and not who you choose not to be, peace is unavoidable. It is only when you try to deny this freedom, and the responsibility that comes with it, that peace ever departs.

And that is a huge difference, and a huge benefit, in and of itself.

Author

September 11th

Awareness, Beliefs, Feed Your Mind, Free Will, Learning

Four Steps To Boosting Your Creativity (And Confidence!)

Some people, it seems, are born so full of creativity that it comes out of their ears. Others feel dull and lifeless. What is the difference between the two? Is creativity something you can learn?

The answer is both yes and no. The truth is that everyone has creativity in their soul and that you cannot actually teach creativity. What can be taught, however, is how to awaken the creativity that is already inside you.

First of all, let's consider what creativity is. Some people are creative with regards to formal art, like painting. Some are creative when it comes to writing. Still others are creative when it comes to music. And, of course, some people are creative in other ways.

The first thing to understand when you are seeking to ignite the creative fire inside of you is that creativity is NOT limited to what are traditionally considered creative activities. While some may be creative in music, art, or writing, others may be creative in seeing new uses for existing tools, in seeing what would make a good photograph, or coming up with new dishes.

If you want to see an example of someone who took their creative urge in a direction that is not generally considered a "respectable" form of creative expression, look at the art of Julian Beever. He took sidewalk chalk to a level that most people would never even imagine, and is famous worldwide for it. So don't worry that your particular form of choice is one that isn't generally associated with creativity.

There is one thing that all creative people have in common. They are all passionate about what they are creating, about the very act of creating. That passion is one of the very things that scares off people who don't feel they are creative. When you are uncertain of your talent, you may be hesitant, and that hesitancy can make you kill your own creative impulses.

So you've made the decision that you want to light the fire of creativity within you, that you want it to burn bright and high. Here are four steps to lead you in that direction.

Find Your Creative Calling

If you want to awaken the creativity within you, you have to find something that you enjoy, something you resonate with, something where you have the kernel of a flame of passion. This doesn't have to be an "approved" form of creative expression, it can be anything. There are even creative criminals, though I would advise against that path.
Make Small Changes

The second step is to start pushing your creativity in the area you have chosen. Take a step off the beaten path, and do something differently. Do it differently than you have done it before. Do it differently than the official "prescribed" way. Change it and make it your own. It doesn't have to be anything big, even small steps will help build up your courage for bigger steps later.
Build On Those Changes

The third step is to take encouragement from your small experiments and take a bigger step. Change a major component of something, whether it's the process for doing something, or changing the actual end product. You can't grow without change, so if you want to grow in creativity, if you want to light that fire inside you, you have to feed it, and it runs on pieces of old routine and "safe" ways of doing things.
Evaluate What You've Built

The fourth step, and the last one that I can guide you toward, is to look back and evaluate the changes you have made. Did things improve? Did they grow worse? How did it make you feel to make those changes… did it make you feel uncertain but more alive? Look back and learn… learn which changes were beneficial and which ones weren't, but most of all, learn that change is the only path for growth.

Some people are blessed with creativity burning bright from the time they are small children. Some people are not… some even have those flames of creativity intentionally doused by parents or teachers who think they are being "realistic". Even those who are born with the fire inside, however, sometimes find that the fire has burned low, and they need to re-ignite it.

Whether you are building the fire of creativity for the first time, or simply trying to build it back up to where it used to be, always remember what that fire burns as fuel: routine, "safe" places (where you are not mentally or emotionally challenged), and fear of failure. So break pieces of those things off and feed them to the fire! You'll be happier, more creative, and more confident in no time.

I have created a new contest! One lucky subscriber will win a free copy of The Secret.

Click the link below to enter:
A Miracle A Day Contests – Win A Free Copy Of ‘The Secret’

Author

August 22nd

Fear, Feed Your Mind, Growth

The Not So Well Travelled Road To Peace

Most people can barely find a moment's peace in their hectic lives, yet others, who accomplish the same amount, simply radiate peace at all times. There is a simple but difficult step that will move you from the former group toward the latter.

It is hard to find peace. There are few, if any, people who will deny that. There is a reason why it is hard to find peace… and that's because you lose the peace in your seeking. Peace is inside you, in your heart and in your mind. By seeking peace, you are looking at it as outside of you. Since it is, in reality, inside you, you will never find it by seeking it.

Yet those people mentioned in the first paragraph have "found" peace. They did so by learning that it was inside themselves, and giving up seeking it. You have control of virtually everything inside you, and can have more or less of it. Yet when you move it outside of yourself, you lose control of it. This is true for peace, happiness, sadness, anger… even mental focus and creativity. As soon as you make it something other than you, you lose the ability to control when you will have it and how much of it you will have.

When you seek for something to bring you happiness, you are, by that very act, placing the happiness outside of yourself. You're saying "If only I had that, I would be happy". When you say that, you are wrong. Even if you are happy when you have "that", by tying your happiness to "that", you allow someone else to take it away by taking away "that".

It works similarly with anger. When you allow something outside of you make you angry, you are giving up control of something internal. Others can control you by doing whatever it is that makes you angry. You can take that control back by understanding that it is truly your choice to allow them to make you angry, that if you merely reframe the situation, it would not make you angry at all, and therefore it is not the situation that is making you angry, it is your perception of it, thus taking control back for yourself.

When you look inside yourself, to who you truly are, and accept that true self, you can have peace and happiness at will. All you have to do is turn back to the you that is inside, rather than the outside persona that you assume for the benefit of others. Any time you turn away from that internal self, and seek validation from outside yourself, you are giving up control of your own internal self. You are giving it to people or circumstances outside yourself, allowing them to decide whether you are at peace, sad, happy, angry, focused or distracted.

To move from always seeking and never finding to never seeking and always having, take control back for yourself. Understand that everything that you do, and everything that you feel, is inside you. Everything is your own choice… and if everything is your own choice, then all the power to choose who you are is yours, too. You are that which you choose to be.

Remember that…

You are that which you choose to be.

I have created a new contest! One lucky subscriber will win a free copy of The Secret.

Click the link below to enter:
A Miracle A Day Contests – Win A Free Copy Of ‘The Secret’

Author

August 13th

Awareness, Beliefs, Feed Your Mind, Free Will, Growth

Feed Your Mind – New Experiences

Do you want to know how to keep from ever being bored, while at the same time growing smarter and more capable every day? The answer is not some ancient secret like meditation (though meditation IS quite useful, and CAN make your brain more flexible, thereby improving your ability to solve problems… ie smarter and more capable)… the true answer is to feed your mind by seeking out at least one new experience a day.

If you are bored, or feeling stuck in a rut, the easiest way to get over that feeling is to go do something new. How well it works, how far away it banishes those feelings, is directly related to how different the new thing you do is from something you've done before. If you do something completely new, especially if you find out you enjoy it, it can banish boredom for weeks. If it's just a little different, it might only get rid of the feeling for a day. But if you do something new every day, then it's hard to feel bored.

Doing something new also makes you smarter and more capable. That is because it forces you to learn new patterns. This is basically food for your mind (ie the title, "Feed Your Mind"). Increasing pattern recognition can work in one of two ways… you can refine a pattern you already know (seeing a new kind of car, especially if it looks fairly different, refines your "car" pattern), or you can learn an entirely new pattern. The second has more effect on your intelligence and "capable-ness". Either way, they make you better able to fit other new situations into the patterns you have, or better able to form new patterns. That means you solve problems faster (smarter) and easier (more capable).

So new experiences help you get rid of the deadly feeling of boredom, which is, essentially, the cause of quite a large number of stupid actions and decisions. They also make you better able to quickly and easily identify the solution to new problems. Thus they make you both appear smarter (others judge you based on your actions, mostly) and actually smarter. In other words, they feed your mind. So go… do something new!