Maria Duval - Becoming A Student Of Life

Becoming A Student Of Life
One of the habits that has served me well throughout my life is keeping the mind-set of a student. I've always had an insatiable curiosity about a wide variety of topics, and I'm usually reading several books during the same time period. I've read about some really fascinating things, like quantum physics, and some really cheesy things, like romance novels. Truth be told, I've enjoyed them all!

It occurred to me the other day that it doesn't matter what I'm learning about, as long as I'm consistently learning. I'm like a sponge that gets dry and shriveled if I don't absorb something on a regular basis. My life then becomes boring and stagnant, and I feel sluggish and uninspired.

If this describes your life right now, you can turn it around pretty easily. Adopt the attitude of a student, and watch how it infuses you with joy, excitement, and motivation.

Being a student of life isn't just about reading books and learning as much as you can on various subjects. That can certainly be part of it, but it's more about the way you see the world around you and the way you handle your daily experiences.

Here are five tips to help you become a student of life:

1) Develop Awareness. - Most of us spend our days rushing blindly from one activity to another without ever noticing our surroundings. If we can instead slow down a little bit and just look around us, we'd SEE so much more in life. Take time to notice that beautiful sunset on the drive home. Step outside during the day and feel the sunshine on your face, and indulge in some deep, cleansing breaths. Become aware of your own spiritual self, and your connection to all living things. Give yourself the gift of just being, noticing, and breathing.

2) Keep an Open Mind. - Rather than assuming you know all about something already, approach each situation with an attitude of curiosity. Question everything. Explore new ideas, thoughts, and subjects you've always wanted to learn about. This goes for the people around you too. Don't assume you know what they're all about based on their appearance or some preconceived notion. Ask questions, get to know them better. Be willing to release any judgments you may have, and instead seek truth.

3) Keep an Open Heart. - Express deep gratitude for your life, and all of the experiences you have - even the not so pleasant ones. Be willing to be vulnerable in your connections with others, and allow yourself to feel. Too often we are afraid of our emotions and try to numb them or run away from them. Instead, let your emotions be your teachers. Listen to them, and honor them. They will teach you a lot about yourself.

4) Look for the Lesson. - In every experience, ask yourself, "What can I learn from this?" Sometimes the lesson is obvious, and sometimes you'll have to search for it. With every lesson, allow it to become a part of you and make you a better, stronger, happier person. Though we all make mistakes and stumble, the goal is to make new mistakes, rather than repeating the same ones over and over again. As long as we are making progress, we're doing great! Use your own awareness to overcome challenges and keep moving forward.

5) Enjoy the Journey. - Most of us take life so seriously! Yes, it does have its serious moments. But overall this is supposed to be a pleasant experience, and we can make it that way by simply choosing to. Don't worry so much about whether you're making as much progress as you should, and don't get frustrated when things don't always work out as planned. Instead take a lighter attitude and understand that it's all just a journey and the point is to relax and enjoy.

Imagine that you're a beautiful white sponge, and you come across these brilliant pools of colored liquid. There's a red pool of passion, a pink pool of love, a yellow pool of knowledge, a green pool of gratitude, and a purple pool of fun. Go ahead and dip your sponge toe into each of these pools, and your color will begin to change. Rather than being a plain white sponge, you are now a beautiful, multi-colored sponge, filled with passion, love, knowledge, gratitude, and fun.

Unfortunately, there are also a few pools of black, brackish stuff like negative self-talk, fear, regrets, etc. If you accidentally absorb some of this and it begins to taint your colors, don't worry about it too much. Just focus on revisiting the pretty, colorful pools and absorbing more good stuff. It will dilute the negative stuff, and eventually get rid of it all together. :-)

Wendy Betterini is a freelance writer who strives to motivate, uplift, and inspire you to make your dreams a reality. Visit her website, http://www.WingsForTheHeart.com for more positive thoughts to help you on your journey.

Guided Meditation vs UnGuided Meditation
The challenge new meditators have when learning meditation is whether to use a guided mediation or to use an unguided meditation. Our objective in this article is to look at both meditation types so that you can choose which meditation style will suit your requirements. Guided Meditation involves somebody guiding you through the meditation process. That is they literally talk you through the whole meditation process. There are some advantage and disadvantages to this technique. One of the reasons you may consider guided meditation is to help expand your understanding of the various meditation techniques. The Guided Meditation technique can be presented in a number of ways. You may do a guided meditation session in a small group with a meditation practitioner or you might do a guided meditation session using a meditation cd or meditation dvd. If you are first starting out, the Guided Meditation sessions is a good way to learn meditation as the meditation practitioner will talk you through the experience and to help you identify what you should be feeling and how to move you into the state that your meditation technique is trying to get you in. For example if your guided meditation session is teaching you how to master the deep-breath meditation technique then the practitioner will talk you through how to relax and release the tension within your body. They will also be able to tell you what you should be thinking and feeling. A good practitioner will also give you some exercises during the session to try at home that will help your experiment with the meditation technique. The obvious downside to guided meditation is that someone is actually talking to you during the meditation session. Sometimes what people will find is that it is difficult to get to that state we are trying to achieve when someone is talking during the session. Often what you will have to do is to follow a guided meditation session for a number of times till you can learn and remember the meditation process and then try it for yourself in an unguided meditation session on your own. Some meditation centres also offer unguided meditation sessions in a group. What this means is that the whole group meditates together but the session is done in silence with no-one speaking. Many group meditation sessions though will still use meditation music as the basis of the session. Some meditation classes in remote locations will undertake unguided sessions out in the natural surrounding and will use the sounds of nature as the tool to help bring the group to a point of relaxation. Once again though one of the key elements of these unguided sessions is that no-one is allowed to speak during the meditation period. The group leader will generally use a special sound to bring the group meditation session to an end. Most professional meditation practitioners will recommend that a person who is new to meditation take a guided meditation session so that they can learn how to achieve the state of mind the type of meditation they are trying. Learning to meditate is one of the most important tools any human can master and can help improve your day-to-day life and help you cope with your surroundings. Once you have undertaken a few guided meditation sessions you will certainly be able to pursue unguided meditation sessions on your own and the more practice you get the better you will be at meditation. It is also worth considering purchasing a few different guided meditation cd’s so that if in the future you are unsure of what to do during the meditation session, you can refer to the meditation cd as a reference.

Chris has Baroque Meditation Music available at - Meditation Music (Baroque Music) and a simple six step meditation program - Relaxation Techniques for Stress Management

Meditation Techniques For Time Pressed Executives
Meditation, quite rightly, has an image of relaxation, peace and quiet, and many may interpret this as meaning meditation can only be for those who have time to laze around half the day. For this reason, those people, such as business executives, who live a pressured life with little or no time to spare, may assume that meditation can never have a place in their lives. That is a shame, as meditation techniques can be quite flexible and quite easy to fit in to a busy day.

The benefits of meditation can be so great to somebody under pressure, that even a few minutes occasionally may bring a noticeable benefit. For a busy executive to have reached their position in life, they are likely to be determined and intelligent individuals. This can often mean that, should they perceive a benefit in an activity, then they will continue or extend that activity. It is therefore possible that an executive trying out even a brief period of meditation may soon adopt some meditation technique or other on a regular basis.

What type of meditation techniques may fit in with an executive lifestyle? Important features of meditation are being able to breathe well and consciously, relax and clear the mind, and then focus the mind. An executive with perpetual meetings and a full diary, with pressures to perform and maximise profits, may think such things cannot be fitted into their busy lives.

It is true to say that the most powerful and beneficial meditation sessions are prolonged. However, that does not mean short periods of meditation are a waste of time; far from it. An executive is probably geared up to packing as much into their day as possible and, although it may be difficult to clear a hyperactive mind, they may well learn to pack in short meditation sessions also. In so doing, they may well find that those sessions give them a boost that is far greater and more beneficial than caffeine.

So, what techniques can an executive use during their busy day? Here are a few ideas:

1. If using public transport to get to and from work, and you are able to sit down, it can be a good time to close your eyes, concentrate on correct breathing, and try to shut out the surrounding sounds. Commuting can be a very stressful experience every day of the week, so a snatched meditation session, even in far from ideal conditions, may minimize those negative effects, or even turn them on their head. In fact, it can be good practice to try to meditate in difficult conditions, as that makes ideal conditions even more beneficial later on.

The secret to these train or bus sessions is not to fall asleep, and to concentrate extra hard on maintaining the focus.

2. Do you go to a gym or health spa? Whether at lunch time or in the evening, this can be a good time to tag on a short meditation session. If you have finished your work out, you need some time to shower and relax your body a bit. Following that with a 10 minute or more period of meditation could work wonders. Most gyms or health spas will have a room you can use for a short spell of peace, so it is worth asking. A vacant massage room would serve the purpose.

3. Control your diary, and schedule in a mid morning and mid afternoon "tea or coffee" break. Only instead of tea and coffee, drink water, sit comfortably, focus on your breathing and then when totally relaxed, have a short session of meditation, focusing on something calming and not related to work. Even 10 minutes can provide a power inducing respite from the day's work, and the chances are you will not lose time, but rather gain time, as you will work more effectively.

Snatched meditation sessions spread through the day may not be the stuff of traditional meditation, but they are certainly better than none at all. Hopefully, the rejuvenated executive will perceive enough benefits to set aside time in the evenings and weekends to learn full meditation, and then be able to return to work at the top of is game every weekday morning.

This meditation techniques article was written by Roy Thomsitt, owner and part author of the Routes To Self Improvement website.

EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique - A Most Effective Self Help Treatment
Gary Craig attended a course on TFT - Thought Field Therapy (Dr. Roger Callaghan) but considered it to be too complex. Through experimentation he developed EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques to make this self-development technique as easy as possible to use but without detracting from its power. So what exactly is EFT? EFT is a technique which involves the stimulation of various acupuncture points whilst connecting to (thinking or talking about) the issue that the person wants to resolve. In order to understand the principals beyond EFT it is useful to start off with an understanding of acupuncture. For many thousands of years, acupuncture has been used by the Chinese as a technique to help people overcome physical, psychological and emotional problems and blocks. In its simplest form our understanding of how acupuncture works is this: - 1) There are a number meridian lines or channels contained within the body. 2) Along the meridian lines flows energy which is called 'Chi' (pronounced chee) 3) The ends and beginnings and parts in between of each of the meridian lines (acupuncture points) are close enough to the surface of the body for them to be affected by physical manipulation. 4) If a person has an particular issue, an experienced acupuncturist will know which meridian lines will have a blockage in them relevant to the issue, will know the acupuncture points appropriate to use for the resolution of that issue. 5) Acupuncture needles, which are very thin and hollow, can be inserted in appropriate acupuncture points to help the flow of energy through a particular meridian line. 6) With the blockage in the flow of Chi gone the issue goes or improves as well. Now acupressure is the manipulation of those same acupuncture points on the body but instead of using acupuncture needles, the fingers and thumbs are used instead. Forms of acupressure that you might have experienced before are reflexology or shiatsu. EFT is similar to acupressure from the point of view that needles are not used but acupuncture points are manipulated. A series of light tapping with the fingers is used. The tapping can be done by the person with the issue for themselves or a practitioner can do the tapping for them. Now at the same time the person is asked to repeat a sentence which describes the issue. The idea behind this is that the person stays connected to the issue (by repeating the description of the problem). At the end of one round of tapping on various acupuncture points, the strength of the issue is checked with the person. Of the issue is still present more rounds of EFT (tapping) will be used. To complete one round of EFT takes about 60-90 seconds. The majority of people who have experienced EFT report a decrease in the strength of the issue. With EFT being a process that anyone can use on themselves, it can be a very useful tool to help anyone deal with any issue whether physical, psychological or emotional. The amazing aspect about EFT is that you do not have to have to believe in it in any way for it to be effective. The only thing you require is may be a sense of curiosity and willingness to do it. The rewards are high as the loss of that old issue often results even for the sceptic. Today, thousands of people have become regular EFT users and there are many EFT practitioners in the UK and worldwide now available to help people rapidly.

Steven Harold
EFT London Practitioner
www.energytherapy-direct.co.uk
EFT London UK

Tackle Your Fears And Anxieties One Step At A Time
Your fears, anxieties, and other problems have the best of you and you don?t know what to do. You try to manage your fears but are not able to do so. At this point, what you need to do is to be smart in how you manage your fears and anxieties.

The most important thing to remember is to manage your fears and anxieties one step at a time. Some people make the mistake of trying to get rid of all of their fears at the same time. When they do this, they are unsuccessful and the fears and anxieties continue bothering the person.

Try to find out what is causing all of your anxiety. If you have trouble, then use the services of a professional to find out what is the source of your fears.

Once you know the source of your anxieties, then try to break the source of your fear into a series of smaller steps. Completing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.

For instance, let?s say that you have a fear of speaking in front of a large group of people. In order to get rid of this fear, get into the habit of speaking in front of 10 people. Once you feel comfortable, then try speaking in front of 20 people, then 30 people, and so forth. As you feel comfortable doing this, gradually increase the number of people you speak to. Breaking the overall goal into a series of steps will make it easier to get over your fear of speaking in front of a large group of people.

In addition, learn to take it one day at a time. Instead of worrying about how you will get through the rest of the week or coming month, try to focus on today. Each day can provide us with different opportunities to learn new things and that includes learning how to deal with your problems. Focus on the present and stop trying to predict what may happen next week. Next week will take care of itself.

As a Layman, I realize that our anxieties and stresses can sometimes get the best of us, however remember to tackle each fear one step a time. It might take some hard work and persistence, but eventually you will be successful in conquering your fears.

Stan Popovich is the author of "A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear? an easy to read book that presents a overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to: http://www.managingfear.com

You Have Always A Choice
People often say they have no choice when faced with a dead end. They say they have no choice but to take the one direction available, which is often a wrong one.

When they say that remark, they must understand that they have to take the blame for the consequences of what they will do.

However, truth is far from the often-circulated concept that man has no choice.

We do have choices. As long as you have rights to protect, you have a choice. When rights are denied, then so are options. When you let your rights be denied, this too is an option.

Just look at slaves. Most of them obey not out of willingness, but because they have no rights; and thus, they have no choice but to obey. Yet, in another light, it is really their choice that they are slaves. Even not having a choice is still a choice.

Some are willing slaves. They voluntarily throw their rights away because they believe the person to whom they render service to is worthy of treating them as such.

Some simply accept their lot as slaves, and that is their choice. Some refuse to be slaves and choose to assert their rights. All these are choices.

The kind of life you have is the life you choose. You cannot blame anyone for how your life ends up.

For instance, you can choose to live happily or miserably. It all depends on you. If you live a hectic life, that?s because you choose to be busy. No one can force a kind of life upon you, not even a superior who points a gun to your head. Every choice has its consequence.

Thus, if you choose to be healthy, live up to that choice. Be healthy. The choice will have to be followed by a decision to be disciplined.

Being disciplined means that you must exert effort to attain and maintain a healthy body. Eat right, exercise right, sleep right, and live right.

Don?t blame anyone else if you get sick. Getting sick is a choice. Some people cannot afford to be healthy because they choose not to afford it.

They can spend for something else but not for good health. To be able to prioritize good health in your budget, you have to live a simple life. Every choice entails a consequence, so you have to live up to your choices.

Do you believe that you can attain anything your heart desires? I'm telling you, you can! Rene Graeber uses and teaches will power and mind control for more than 10 years. Visit his website and learn how to unleash your full potential of your mind - just visit http://www.will-power-mind-control.com

Meditations: Using Meditation to Master The Art Of Success
Quick question before we start, please raise your hand if you have achieved everything you wanted to achieve in your life. Let me ask you another question … do you have a passion to succeed or to achieve something? Are you programmed to succeed? Would you like to know how? There are many theories that have been written by experts, historians and psychologists across the world and also across time on success but the one thing every single one of them always defines as the secret to success is that you must believe you are going to succeed and that you can achieve what you want to achieve and that you are prepared to continue to have a go and keep having a go, learning each time, till you achieve what it is that you want to achieve. If you ever get a chance to read a book by Napoleon Hill called Think and Grow Rich it is worth reading. The author, Napoleon Hill wrote this book back in 1937 and he was basically looking for a formula that anyone could follow to achieve success and in particular riches on an obscene scale. One of the 13 Secrets that he outlines in his book is that all millionaires and in this era billionaires know is the power of Autosuggestion. This was the term that was bandied around in the 1930's era and essentially autosuggestion means the reprogramming of your mind to believe something so much that your mind automatically pushes you towards success and in the case of Think and Grow Rich, obscene wealth. In today's hip culture, the guru's of the self-help industry refer to the power of autosuggestion more as affirmations than the autosuggestion term however they are essentially the same. The bottom line is this, for you to succeed you have to believe that you can succeed and you have to train your mind to succeed and to think successfully. Most people at this point and I are sure you are one of them, will go, yeah right what a load of hippy talk. Well maybe, but let us look at few facts. Let us look at some of the most successful people in the world and take someone who I am a great fan of Lance Armstrong and look closely at what he has achieved. Lance Armstrong is a leader and a hero in the cycling community. After being diagnosed with testicular cancer which had spread to his lungs and brain he fought this disease whole heartedly and not only beat the disease, but he used the power of his mind to go onto win the Tour de France, not once, not twice but seven times. There is no way in the world that this man could beat such a debilitating disease unless he had programmed his mind to say, I will beat this disease and get my life back and exceed what I had achieved before. In fact, going onto win the Tour de France seven times is a feat never before achieved in the history of the race. Knowing this information if you were faced with absolute adversity what would you do? Would you just simply stop, give up and die or would you keep fighting? Would you beat your adversity and then stop, or would you push your goals further out there to achieve more? If you want to be successful, you must train your mind to be successful. You must have an overwhelming belief or faith in yourself that you can do it, even when everyone around you is telling you that you can not do it. The key to this success is to program you for success. When I was doing a business course a few months ago one of the tasks that we were given was to write down ten things that we wanted to achieve. We were asked to identify specifically what those ten things are in business we wanted to achieve. The sort of items people wrote down - 1. I am going to make $200,000 cash profit this year 2. I am going to buy a new Mercedes 3. I am going to buy a jet ski 4. I am going to raise $500,000 to build an orphanage in Laos 5. I am going to buy the block Lot 4 Coral Coast Road in Townsville Australia 6. I am going to take my family to Las Vegas and have $5,000 spending money 7. I am going to raise the $4,000 to buy a Vintage Plane for the RAAF Museum 8. I am going to win the Archery at the next Commonwealth Games 9. I am going to learn to fly a plane 10. I am going to hike up Mount Kosciusko What people were then told was to right these elements down onto a sheet of paper and put them up where you could see them every day where you can read them and remind yourself of what you are going to achieve. Essentially what they told us to do is to follow the third secret to success identified by Napoleon Hill called Autosuggestion. However, what I noticed with all the people in course was that over a period of time, they began to give up. They did not read their ten items every day and they did not affirm that they would achieve what they wanted each day. Part of the reason this occurs is simply because the hustle, bustle and stress of everyday life and reality take over and your mind is cluttered with the stress. When the course finished they did not have the people in the course to continually speak with them to see if they were sticking to their ten things they wanted to achieve. Look ask any educator in the world, if you are stressed when trying to learn something, you will never learn the material as well as somebody who is not stressd. Why … because a mind that is not stressed and cluttered will allow you to absorb the information more effectively than somebody who does not and this leads me to how Meditation is one of the secret tools to success. Meditation on its own will NOT bring you success. The role of meditation in the art of success is to bring your mind to a point of calm where it can absorb all the material to help you succeed and in particular, so that you can ingrain into your mind the affirmations of what you are going to achieve. The first step in using meditation to help you succeed is to learn to meditate to eliminate the stress. Before trying to address anything else you must learn to relax and be calm and to clear your mind. That is, your mind must be free from clutter, worry, concerns and anything else that may stop you from programming your mind to succeed. There are many meditations that will help you in overcoming stress such as the breathing meditation technique, stillness meditation technique and the numbers meditation technique. Each of these techniques will teach you how to achieve focus and calm during your meditation session. Once you have mastered those techniques, you can then focus on your affirmations or autosuggestions each day of what you are going to achieve. The Buddhists use sacred phrases in their meditations to help them become better people on their journey towards achieving enlightenment. You can use the affirmations or ten things you want to achieve in exactly the same way. By reflecting on the ten things you want to achieve during meditation, you are reinforcing what you want to achieve in the way of success and ingraining in a clear mind these affirmations or autosuggestions, which means you will maintain your focus to achieve these ten things even when you are challenged by what is going on in your day. When you start using this technique over a period of time, you will be amazed how your mind will say to you, "Hey, you are off focus on what you want to achieve get back on focus". I recommend that for meditation to work effectively that you spend no less than 20 minutes in the morning and night meditating on the 10 things you must achieve. The reason that I recommend meditating twice a day is that you need to be reflecting on your affirmations for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, however most people find that it takes them about ten minutes of their meditation time before they are truly calm, when they are first starting out. You will find though as time goes on and you meditate regularly that you are able to get to a state of calm a lot quicker than when you first start out. Look the bottom line is this, if you want to succeed, you must believe inside of yourself that you can achieve whatever success you want. It is totally up to you as to what you want to achieve and only you can do it. Remember, that every great achievement in the world started out as a single thought that one person believed in enough to what to achieve it. To stay on the path to success, meditation will help you to control the clutter and the stress the world can pile on you on a day-to-day basis in your mind.

If you are interested in reading the Think and Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill and learning the thirteen secrets to success, it is available at our website as a PDF as well as an MP3 Audio version. The best type of Meditation Music is Baroque Music played at 60 beats per minute and this music is also available at our website.