Stress Management Strategies - 5 Ways to Manage Stress and Increase Happiness and Fulfillment

By Jenna Beneck

Managing stress is an essential skill to possess in today's "Have It All" society. There is often a fine balance between fulfillment and overload and, if you get this wrong, you will soon start to feel those familiar symptoms of a tense, exhausted body and a fuzzy mind. You can use these 5 stress management strategies in your daily life to ensure that your stress doesn't get out of control and help you to live a happier, more fulfilled life:

Live a healthy lifestyle

Good nutrition and adequate sleep are an essential element in your stress management strategies toolbox. You may think that you can achieve more by drinking coffee to stay awake and then sleep better by drinking alcohol, but the reality is that these drugs will take their toll on your health over time. Evidence suggests that you would probably achieve more and sleep better by using meditation.

People who are stressed often do not eat properly. They may skip meals and live on junk food. This causes additional physiological stress as their bodies do not get the nutrition that they need which can lead to illness and lack of energy. Certain vitamins are depleted when we are stressed and it may be a good idea to take supplements in times of stress. Also, drink more water, instead of coffee, tea and alcohol to feel cleansed and refreshed.

Live in the present moment

This is important for your happiness and fulfillment as well as a helpful way to manage stress. Take time to stop and see the beauty of the world we live in. Wonder and marvel at what is all around us. Live in the present moment and enjoy it as best you can.

Don't hold onto the past. Forgive others instead of bearing grudges against them. Life's too short and we are all doing the best that we can with the experience that we have, most of us quite unskillfully.

Stop wishing you were somewhere in the future. Don't put off being happy until you have that new partner or new job or whatever else you are hankering after.

Happiness is a state of mind. Accept and be happy with what you've got now. Then change anything you don't like. Make a plan. Do one thing at a time. Be fully present in everything you do.

Take time out to relax

So much is expected of us now, and it's easy to find yourself busy from dawn to dusk. As part of your stress management strategies, set time aside each day to do something for you that will relax you and that you will enjoy. Quite often, relaxation is just a habit, and if we stop making time for it, we will quickly find ourselves unable to relax at all. Whether it's watching the television, going for a long walk, a sport or hobby, or simply a long soak in the bath, give yourself a break and make sure your relaxation time is a top priority.

De-clutter your life

"Mess is stress" and if you are a hoarder whose house is full of unnecessary clutter, then this will add to your stress levels. You won't be able to find the things that you need and you will feel swamped in "stuff". If it's not functional then you don't need it, so get rid. When you clear out the junk, you will be surprised at how much lighter your mind feels as you look around you at a clearer space. While you are at it, clear out those people who bring you down or don't add value to your life. Make some space for new, positive people who will add to your happiness and fulfillment.

Know your limitations

You can't achieve everything that you perhaps want to, if there aren't enough hours in the day. Stress management strategies are important but you need to be realistic and learn to prioritise. Learn to say no to other people when you need time for yourself. Make sure you get your relaxation time, whatever else is going on in your life. If you've got too much that needs doing, decide what you can realistically achieve in a day and let go of the rest. It will still be there tomorrow. If you cling on to the need to get everything done perfectly, you will give yourself additional stress.



About the Author: Learn to keep stress in check with more stress management strategies from http://www.squidoo.com/stress-management-strategies . Or for immediate stress relief, visit http://www.squidoo.com/StressReliefDownload to try a stress relief download.

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Achieve Your Vital Career Goals. Record Clear Goals And Follow The 15 Easy Steps To Career Success.

By R Sodoma

Career Goal Setting involves recording clear objectives and the actions required to achieve them. The main reason people do not achieve goals is that they do not set any.

To begin with. Use the following steps to focus your efforts and maximize your goal achievements. You can also use this process to set or team or group goals.

1) Define your goals clearly in writing. Writing down your goals increases the likelihood of achieving your chosen goals by at least 75 %. It increases your sense of commitment, clarifies required steps in the achievement process, and helps you remember important details.

2) Identify and focus on the benefits to you as well as others of achieving your goals. This is a most strong important motivator.

3) Define the purpose of your goals. Link your goals to a practical, specific purpose. To boost your own motivation, base your goals on inspiration, not just on simple logic.

4) Identify your supportive forces. Examples of supportive forces include instructors , books, training people who encourage you to persevere , skilled coaches or mentors , and printed as well as online research materials

5) Develop an action plan, set deadlines and act. Establish sub goals. Divide each main goal into logical progressive steps. Set deadlines for completing each step, and complete the steps on time.

6) Establish priorities. Take action in order of priority.

7) Make a public commitment. If appropriate, share your goals with someone who encourages you to go the extra mile. This will increase your sense of responsibility.

8) Be realistic about limitations. Do not set a short term goal to get a job requiring more education. Set separate goals to get an education, take an interim job, and then reach the ultimate goal.

9) Use positive self talk and affirmation statements. Do this each and every day. As often as humanely possible. Do them compulsively as if you were a Moslem completing his 3 daily prayer routines. Write down your statements and post them prominently in your bedroom, on your fridge and so that you can see them in the mirror in your car.

10) Use positive visualization. This more than boosts goal achievement

11) Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice new skills regularly. Get additional information, training, coaching and feedback on your progress.

12) Evaluate and revise goals as necessary. Evaluate your ongoing progress. Experiment from time to time with new methods especially if you are not getting the results you want. But most importantly remember to be patient. Rome was not built in a day. However if necessary you may want to revise your goals.

13) Persevere. Stay the course until you succeed.

14) Reward Yourself. Rewards are excellent motivators. As you make progress toward your goals, do something nice for yourself that you enjoy.

15) Record progress on your goals. As simplistic as it seems, al long series of check marks on a calendar or a wall chart may actually, motivate you by providing a vital sense of accomplishment. Do not let missing an occasional daily goal deter you, however. Keep focusing on your ultimate chosen goals.

Remember that your career goals are most important to you and your success. By setting career goals you are on the road to obtaining your ultimate success.

By recording clear goals and following the 15 steps outlines you will focus your hard won efforts and maximize your winnings.

Achieve Your Vital Career Goals . Record Clear Goals and Follow the 15 Easy Steps to Career Success.

Remember that your career goals are most important to you and your success. By setting career goals you are on the road to obtaining your ultimate success. Get Ahead with Dynamic Goal Setting . Follow the simple steps of dynamic goal setting to your career success . By recording clear goals and following the 15 steps outlines you will focus your hard won efforts and maximize your winnings.



About the Author: Mr. R. Sodoma Career Motivation and Trends Counsellor. Winnipeg Job Shark winnipegjobshark@yahoo.com http://www.winnipegjobshark.com

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Clarity & Purpose By Anthony Robbins

"Life will pay whatever price you ask of it"

By the way, for those of you who live in the UK Tony Robbins is coming to London in March 2014

How To Find Inner Peace

By Gary M. Miller

Amazingly, you have just come across the information that you need to find your own inner peace. Just look at the page in front of you. It’s you who is staring out at this page and it’s you that is the Source of your own inner peace. You just haven’t learned how to see yourself yet and you need a little guidance. Once you are able to focus in on who you really are, you will reach inner peace. You will know it because nothing will disturb you anymore and any feelings of dis-ease or “uncomfortableness” will be gone entirely. It’s not a joke. This is something that is possible for you and that has already happened for many other people. They learned to focus their inner consciousness onto themselves over longer and longer periods of time until, Boom! A breakthrough of consciousness happened that overwhelmed all of their old ways of looking at things and put them at peace with the entire contents of their mind. It’s almost entirely that simple.

If you are wondering how to do this yourself, it’s a pretty good question and deserves a bit more explanation. All you have to do is watch every thought and emotion that goes through your mind. No matter what it is, if you continue to watch, as simple as that seems, you will become an expert in no time at all. Go ahead and try it. Just keep to this process of watching each thought and each emotion as it floats by. There goes a sad emotion, there goes a happy one. There goes an angry emotion, there goes a scared one. Watch each thought such as the thought about your mean old mother-in-law or the thought about your newest recipe that you plan to use for dinner tonight. Learn to relax as you do it. It doesn’t matter what the thought is, just watch it float up out of nowhere and watch it disappear again into nothing. As you practice doing this each day, you will become better and better at it until one day, Shazzam! Many people report a sudden eruption of energy inside themselves like a conscious energy that bursts up through their heart and into their head which utterly transforms all of their thoughts and feelings like they never imagined. This is called the Kundalini energy in Indian terminology and the Holy Spirit in Western terminology. It doesn’t matter what you choose to call it. The fact is, it brings inner peace and makes you feel like a million dollars every time you raise it up inside yourself.

That’s right. Raising the Kundalini can be done at will once you have become practiced enough to make it happen the first time. This energy then becomes the source of all your happiness and inner peace in life. It becomes the thing that you look forward to each day as you prepare to sit down for another 30 minutes or so of meditation. In the beginning, if you are just starting out with A Course in Miracles or with any kind of meditation in general, you will find it quite hard to sit still. Everything inside you will want to move around and get up from your chair to go see what’s on television or happening down the street. Meditation can be so boring! Still, if you are one of those people who really believes that there is a great potential locked inside you, you will teach yourself to sit still each and every day for at least 30 or 40 minutes. Eventually , you will learn to sit for longer and longer periods of time and you will learn to be more and more content as you sit there doing nothing. It’s a battle with your ego is what it is. Your ego wants to get up from the chair and get back to the troubles of your life. Your spirit, however, will be stronger and will instruct you to just sit there and let the ego tire itself out. Over time, week after week, month after month, you will see that your mind becomes more and more contented with just sitting still. At the same time however, the ego will really get frustrated and try to throw up its worst attacks to try to stop you from keeping to your course. If you wait it all out and sit still no matter what, finally your ego will be broken and your Spirit will burst forth as the true champion. That’s basically how it works and you can pat yourself on the back for reading this far and learning what you just learned. It wasn’t an accident that you came here to read this and it won’t be an accident when you set your mind to the task of finding inner peace. The inner peace you search for is locked away inside yourself. It only takes a bit of serious intention and discipline to find it in there and then, you too will have the inner peace you have always wanted.



About the Author: Gary Miller was the World's Leading expert on Negative Thinking until he lost approximately $3 Million Dollars because of a lifetime of negative thinking. To learn more about his Journey to a Positive Thinking Recovery and weekly FREE Positive Thinking techniques, you can visit his web site at: http://www.positivethinkingnow.com

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What Has Happiness Got To Do With Business?

By Graham And Julie

Have you ever been really happy? Have you ever tasted the fruit of pure happiness? Have you ever completed a task with that feeling of YES! I gave it my all. I’m really happy and proud with what I’ve done. Have you ever had that inner glow and outer radiation? But was it happiness?

You see, most of us have replaced happiness with pleasure. Pleasure is those times when you feel terrific like after eating a fantastic meal with excellent company. Pleasure is when you loll for hours in that hot bath. Pleasure is when you indulge yourself in that spa weekend. Pleasure is when you watch our favourite team play…..But it ain’t Happiness!

The bad news is that Happiness is not an emotional state. Happiness is not the feeling you get when you are enjoying yourself. It’s much, much more than that. What makes people truly happy, satisfied and fulfilled?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, (pronounced "chick-sent-me-high-ee") director of the Quality of Life Research Centre at the Druker School of Management, Claremont, USA has spent years researching what makes us happy.

And he and his colleagues have found that happiness can only be achieved when you are totally involved in something. When, you are totally immersed. When, you are participating to the full. You know, when you are enjoying yourself so much you have no idea what the time is, what day it is, what is happening around you. You are really happy.

His research involving 250,000 people from every continent including chess players, rock climbers, musicians, people who meditate, artists, sports people and people from all walks of life shows that:

• the times when you find yourself fully absorbed in something. Totally focussed, totally immersed and totally concentrated. Whether it be at work, playing with the children or meditating.

• the times when you don’t notice time passing.

• the times when you keep going without being aware of what’s around you....The state where…… I give Graham a cup of tea and he doesn’t even know I’ve placed it on his desk next to the screen…..

• the state where you really enjoy what you are doing and when you come up for air you are totally satisfied with what you have been doing. In other words you are really connected: heart and soul. You really enjoy what you were doing.

• the times when you were reading a stimulating book and when you put your head up everyone has gone off to bed.

• the times when you are so involved playing your favourite sport, you forget everything else

that’s when you feel really happy.

Happiness is: the flow state. The state when you feel that you are on a roll. Where everything you do is effortless and just flows. The feeling you get when you completely lose yourself in what you are doing. The time, when time stops. You are in the “grove” and everything is working for you. You are in total harmony with yourself.

The irony is, that this great feeling of happiness happens, not when you are relaxing or watching TV or enjoying the company of your friends. Happiness is achieved when you challenge yourself.

When, you stretch yourself. When you are doing what you enjoy doing most. When you are totally absorbed in what you are doing. When, you put yourself out there. When, you exceed your expectations.

So what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose. All you have to do is put those oughts, shoulds and musts behind you and follow your heart. Lose yourself in what you really want to do. Enter the flow world where:

"Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.
Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."
(Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

That’s Happiness!

Go on. Go for it!

Good Luck

Graham and Julie
www.desktop-meditation.com



About the Author: To improve your intuition, initiative and energy levels. Please go to: http://www.desktop-meditation.com It’s free.

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Tony Robbins on Being Ready for a Relationship

By the way, for those of you who live in the UK Tony Robbins is coming to London in March 2014

Happiness - 13 Steps To Maximum Happiness!

By Jackson Tan

1.Set a goal and achieve it! - By setting a desired end in mind, it allows one to be able to concentrate fully on achieving the goal. When one goes through the process of gaining his/her targets, the person becomes satisfied and happy. It is a great feeling.

2.Smile everyday. – Having a smile on the face and trying to be angry is difficult. By smiling, it influences our state of mind. It makes one feel good and others who seen the smile feel good as well.

3.Positive mindset and attitude – What we focus, expands. Same goes with our attitude and perception in things. Adopt a positive mindset and look at the ‘good’ things. With a positive attitude, makes the best out of everything, don’t focus on the can’ts, focus on the cans. You be happier that way.

4.Relax and enjoy life. – Life is hectic and fast paced in this modernize era. We need to learn and take time out to adore ourselves. Meanwhile, learn to enjoy life and have fun at the same time. Relax our mind give us a enjoyable feeling.

5.Do what you love. – We always have something that we love to do and whenever we are able to do it, we feel great. However, sometime, it is difficult to pursue the things that we enjoy, but we can learn to love the things we do and be happy.

6.Be your true self. – Stop putting a mask on your face when you walk out of the house, it’s tiring. Be true to your inner heart. Buy things that you really like but do not overspend. Learn to accept things as some are not within our control.

7.Be a student and learn new things – The world is our teacher and everyone around us will be giving us lessons in some ways or another. Have a learning heart and learn from failures/mistakes and your life will be better and happier.

8.Giving. – The ability to give is a great feeling. When we have the luxury of giving others who are less fortunate, we feel happy as we are helping them.

9.Healthy lifestyle. – Health is very important on our life. Having a healthy lifestyle is a perfect platform to build our happiness. Without health, is almost impossible to be really happy.

10.Wish the best for others and mean it. – Don’t be selfish and only care for yourself. Wishing the best for others and they will in turn wish the best for you. You feel better and happy for them too.

11.Self control. – Discipline is needed if you want to achieve something; it is the same case for having happiness. There are some must dos and some must not. We need to self control in order to complete the task.

12.Appreciate the world. – Thank God in whichever religion you are faithful in. Life is short and we must learn to appreciate the world. Blaming others do not make us happier.

13.Good friends and companion. – With good friends and a good relationship, you should be happy!



About the Author: Jackson Tan is an University student who wants to promote and spreads the word of HAPPINESS to the whole world. He believes that everyone can be Happy as long as they choose to. For more free information on Happiness, go to http://projecth.blogspot.com/

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The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans: Daniel Amen

"Many of these brains could be rehabilitated, so here's a radical idea what if we evaluated and treated trouble brains rather than simply warehousing them in toxic stressful environments"

And the next time you judge someone else's behaviour, pause for a moment, and consider ...

Tony Robbins explains how to achieve your goals

"number one you focus on it and you get clear and compelling vision for what you want ... second pillar, you've got to get the best ... get the best tools ... get the best mentor ... the third pillar, you've got to resolve your inner conflicts ..."

By the way, for those of you who live in the UK Tony Robbins is coming to London in March 2014

The Cause of Unhappiness

By Michael Bloxton

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it.” — Eckhart Tolle

This quote is so true but it brings up an interesting point. If thoughts are really in control of our happiness, what are they and how do they control us? It has been said so many times, and in so many ways, that your thoughts are things that have a profound impact on your life.

This isn’t just a philosophical idea. Thoughts themselves are measurable. Brain activity and testing have revealed that thoughts have a very specific frequency that can be measured with the right equipment. Every time you have a thought, a pulse of energy travels through a network of neurons in your brain. Of course, the question remains – how is this pertinent to our lives?

Science has not yet discovered all of the interworking of the mind and the brain. It is a realm of knowledge that is still largely unexplored though progress is being made. There are two schools of thought… some believe thoughts have a direct impact on the lives we create and others believe this is untrue. Since neither argument can be proven yet, we will avoid taking sides.

To be clear, we are not talking about “The Law of Attraction” here. This isn’t a debate about whether we attract the things we think about. We are talking about your thoughts’ ability to create new outcomes based on their impact on your emotions, behaviors, and your actions.

Let’s just take a look at some obvious facts. If you believe your thoughts have no control over the life you live and the experiences you have, you likely:

1. Feel that you are at the mercy of circumstances in your life.

2. Think you have no control over your future.

3. Feel stuck or trapped by your current conditions.

4. Are often in reaction mode to events in your life.

On the other hand, if you believe that your thoughts direct the focus of your life and create the life you live then you more likely:

1. Feel that you can respond to circumstances in any way you choose and through that response, create an outcome you desire.

2. Think that you have total control over your future.

2. Feel limitless in your possibilities.

This whole article is about happiness so here is a question for you. Which of these belief groups is going to make you feel the happiest? Think about it, as Eckhart Tolle so beautifully stated, it is your thoughts about what happens that matters most. We have all heard at some point in our lives that it is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond.

There is an old saying that goes something like this: There are two types of people in the world; the person who knows things happen and the person who makes things happen. This concept, combined with the quote we started with, is truly empowering once you understand it.

Things happen. There is no denying it. If you “know things happen” then you go wherever the tide takes you. The events in your life are completely out of your control. If this is true for you, then there is no point in trying to change anything because it’s beyond your power to do so.

Then there is the person who “makes things happen.” This individual “knows” that events and circumstances do come up unpredictably and sometimes they are undesirable. S/he also understands that this is only 10% of the equation. They then apply the second part of the equation to that and respond with intelligent thoughts which usually starts by asking empowering questions.

We could write an entire article on the use of questions to assist us in creating our reality (and maybe we will soon) but for now, we want to give you a quick tip that will help you immediately. The most empowering questions always begin with the word HOW. Your brain always comes up with an answer to your questions… even when that answer is untrue.

For example, if you just got fired you might ask “Why did I get fired?” To this question, your brain will respond with the most reasonable answer it can find. But this could be anything from “Because my boss is an arrogant SOB” to “Because I suck at my work.” You aren’t directing your brain to give you something empowering. Instead, try asking, “How can I learn from this experience so this never happens again?” Aha, that should start you thinking in the right direction and that changes everything because thoughts are things.

Thoughts have the most profound impact on your life. A thought can take any menial task and make it wretched. A thought can take a pleasant situation and turn it sour. A thought can take nothing and make it something. Thoughts, whether you like it or not, are more powerful than you imagined.

The opposite can be said about a thought too. A simple thought or idea can start an industry. A mere thought of someone you love can turn any instant into a joyful smile. A thought can turn any bad into good and a single thought can take that good and transform it to great. The power to change everything in your entire world can be launched by a single thought.

You too can be the person who creates their situation by fully developing their thoughts about it.

By

Michael Bloxton,
President & CEO,
oneMYnd, LLC.




About the Author: For more information about OneMYnd - Coaching, Collaboration, Connection please log on to http://onemynd.com/

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Shea Hembrey: How I became 100 artists

A great example and role model for "be what you want to be".

And also thrown in is a great definition of what makes for great art: the 3 H's. Head, Heart and Hands. "It would have head in it would have interesting intellectual ideas and concepts it would have heart in that it would have passion and heart and soul and it would have hand in that it would be greatly crafted". Come to think of it, this is not a bad summary for any endeavour in life.

Oh, and it is funny too ...

Tony Robbin's Rapid Planning Method

RPM: Result, Purpose, Map (Massive Action Plan)

By the way, for those of you who live in the UK Tony Robbins is coming to London in March 2014