Mind Body Spirit 123

bob t asked:


I wanna start meditatin but i dont know what to think of when i meditate.

I♥Dejuan Washington!! asked:


how do you meditate

Steve Levinson, Ph.D. asked:




The promises they make give you goose bumps. “Just follow these 7 simple steps,” one program insists, and “you will reach heights of confidence, satisfaction and success you never imagined possible. Guaranteed!” How can you possibly resist? Why wouldn’t you invest your time, money and hope to get juicy benefits like these?

So, invest you do. But if you’re like most people, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with disappointing results. Of course, you probably won’t stay discouraged for long. That’s because there’s always another self-improvement program eagerly waiting for a chance to whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Again you succumb. Again your hopes soar and your spine tingles. And again you hop aboard knowing that THIS is the one.

And so it goes on the Self-Improvement Merry-Go-Round!

The self-improvement industry both feeds and feeds off our wishful thinking. It sells programs by making promises that essentially ignore an undeniably robust feature of human nature: Poor Follow Through! Even though we’re truly motivated to do what we know we need to do to get the results we want, we humans often do a lousy job of actually doing it. Of course, we usually start off with a bang. But more often than not, we fizzle out long before the job is done. The self-improvement industry knows it. And we know it, too.

Take dieting for example. What does someone really mean when they say “that diet program didn’t work for me?” Well, they rarely mean “I followed the diet to a tee, but I didn’t lose any weight.” It’s more likely they mean “I didn’t actually do what the diet required me to do.” In other words, they didn’t really follow the diet – at least not as long and consistently as it would take to get the promised results.

Please don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not scolding us for failing to follow through. Far from it. As a psychologist who has devoted much of his career to studying how normal people really treat their own good intentions, I know that failing to do what we know we should do – and doing it consistently for as long as it takes to actually get the results we want – is just part of the normal human landscape. Like it or not, it’s the way we are. It’s the way we’re wired. Sure, there are some people out there who consistently do a fine job of following through. But, frankly, they are as rare as people who are double-jointed, can play the piano with their nose, or can spell “backwards” backwards without any hesitation. The rest of us – the “normals” – at best, have spotty follow through records.

So, here’s my point. Poor follow through is a reality, and it’s a reality that causes self-improvement programs to deliver much less improvement than they promise.

If you were an architect designing a building, you wouldn’t think of ignoring gravity even though gravity makes your work challenging. Pretending that gravity doesn’t exist wouldn’t make it go away. Would you set foot inside a building that was designed by an architect who pretended that gravity doesn’t exist? Why, then, do we allow self-improvement programs to pretend that poor follow through doesn’t exist when they know – and we know – that it does? Why do we accept promises that are based on a totally make-believe assumption?

So, before you hop aboard the next self-improvement program, ask yourself, “Seriously, how well am I likely to follow through?” Then ask yourself, “What benefits can this program realistically promise given my own actual record of follow through?” Remember, programs that only benefit people who follow through perfectly benefit very few real people.

Copyright 2009 Steve Levinson

Jeff Weigang asked:




Packing and storing is actually a lot easier than you may think, you just need to invest a little bit of time and perhaps some money in order to keep your items safe and in great shape. Most just consider your time to think things through.

When you have a storage unit, you want to invest in a quality lock that cannot be easily broken. This will help ensure that your items stay safe and thieves cannot easily pick your lock. The disk lock is one of the most popular locks out there. You can purchase these locks at storage facilities and even at home improvement stores. These locks are high quality and make it extremely difficult for thieves to break. If you do not want to invest in a disk lock, ensure you invest in another lock that is secure and high quality. You can find these at storage facilities and at home improvement stores as well.

If you are using boxes and bins to store your items, make sure you mark your items clearly and you ensure that you can see these labels visibly. Mark every side of the bin or box. If you do not want to write on your bins with permanent marker, you can purchase labels and stick labels on each box and bin. To make things easier for you when labeling, try to group similar items together or group a room together. For instance, store together books from your home office, school notebooks, your children’s toys, or your shoes.

Only store items you need to in boxes or bins. If you can store clothes or shoes in trash bags, do this. Boxes and bins take up more room than trash bags. If you have shovels, rakes, and other outdoor items, store these all together in a trash bag. If you are storing items such as linens, towels, and clothes in trash bags. Do not overstuff your bags. Make sure you can tie them tightly and close them all the way. In addition, double up on trash bags for these items to avoid getting dust into the trash bags and ruining items.

Take these steps into consideration while you are packing and storing your items. Ensure that you take care and invest in a high quality lock to keep your stored items safe. The disk lock is common and one of the best locks to keep your items safe. In addition, make sure you label all boxes and bins clearly on every side so you can see what is inside easily. Make use of trash bags when you can instead of boxes for items such as clothes, linens, rakes, and shovels to save room.

gurlstylin asked:


I would like to make a spirit stick favor for a homecoming game to throw out to the crowd, any ideas?

ernestmisyuk asked:


When I try to meditate my mind cannot relax and keeps thinking, I cannot just relax for a second. Any suggestions?

Steph asked:


I really want to learn how to meditate but the few times I’ve tried it were hard. I find that I get tired and fall asleep or distracted. What are some suggestions? How do you know you’ve meditated successfully?

Hope Wilbanks asked:




Self improvement will not come if you just sit back and wait for it. You must set yourself into motion. To improve yourself, you have to act on the things you want improved.

Women are often among the majority of those who long for positive changes in themselves. Yet, as women, we often neglect ourselves most. If you are among those numbers, here are four basic self improvement ideas you can use:

=> Be kind to yourself. We take care of our families and work hard to provide their needs. At the end of the day, we’re all given out. When was the last time you were kind to yourself? Do you attend to your own needs as well? Take some time each day to give back to yourself. If you’re having a bad day, don’t berate yourself for being in a bad mood. Practice positive self-talk and be kind to yourself.

=> Change one thing. You’ve heard it said, I’m sure, that you have to start with baby steps. This is so true. To reach greater change, you have to start changing one thing at a time. I was unhappy for several years because I had started college classes a few times, but never followed through and completed college. I finally got tired of that hanging over my head. While my husband was deployed in Iraq, I took advantage of that time alone. I completed classes, that I started years earlier, at my local technology center. If you desire self improvement, change one thing at a time.

=> Be proud of who you are. This is one thing women are horrible at. For some reason, we always feel like we’re not good enough. Change that today! Be proud of who you are. Acknowledge your accomplishments and stop focusing on your failures.

=> No more negative self talk. This is key to self improvement. You have to stop the negative self talk. Stop telling yourself how incapable or incompetent you are. You have everything you need to start your self improvement journey today. You will learn as you start this journey. Cancel out the negative self talk with positive affirmations every day.

Dr. Raymond Comeau asked:




Studying and learning self-improvement material is essential for self-growth but it is only a prerequisite. We don’t actually grow by learning; we grow by doing. The world is filled with Mensa candidates who are also total and abject failures.

Case in point, William James Sidis, often cited as one of the most intelligent people who ever lived, had an IQ estimated to be between 250 and 300. He died at age 46, sad and alone. A destitute that never accomplished anything worthwhile.

On the other hand, the tales of great men and women who reached the pinnacle of success and achievements with little or no formal education could fill an entire library.

The brain does not become more effective and creative by assimilating but by expressing. Growth is an active process not passive one. A writer gets to be a better writer by writing and not by reading about the art of writing and no one would suggest that it would be wise to learn how to swim by reading about it.

Self-improvement is most effectively accomplished through experiencing first hand new situations and new conditions. We grow through the actual practice of problem solving, reasoning and creating. Each new experience opens up new channels and forms new circuits in the brain. That’s how we evolve and grow.

We don’t even know what we are capable of until we put ourselves in conditions where no retreat is possible. That is when we tax our resources to the limit and start exploring the rarefied strata of the intellect. Wisdom is found on the mountaintop, not in the valleys. We grow when we stretch ourselves, not when we complacently navigate in the placid waters of the experienced and known.

The analogy between self-improvement and bodybuilding is a great one. It is only by pushing himself to the limits that the bodybuilder will achieve outstanding results and it is only by forcefully stretching the mind to its limits that the self-improvement aficionado will ever become all that he could be.

The adage that says, no pain, no gain, takes on its full meaning in the realm of self-improvement. It’s always a lot easier to read a new book or attend a new seminar on the subject than it is to jump in the fray and put into practice what has already been learned. That’s the reason we have so many armchair coaches and unemployed gurus.

These people mean well and they have the feeling that they are growing and making progress. They feel that they are just waiting to find the ultimate secret that will unlock the door to huge success and grandiose accomplishments. The secret is there and they have seen it hundreds of time without ever grasping it. That secret is called, action.

No action, no accomplishment. No accomplishment, no new insight. No new insight, no self-development. It all comes back to square one, action. It is through massive action that we push back the limits. It is by pushing the limits that we expand and grow. There is no other secret; there is no other technique. The secret is here in a nutshell, action.

This is not an argumentation against education or self-improvement material in any of its forms. If we aspire to ever become all that we can be, we need some guidelines; we need to know what works and what doesn’t. We need the advices of the great gurus to guide us in our journey. But, we also need to know that knowledge without action is moot.

Fast Past asked:


I’m on an “adventure” in China in Sims 3 World Adventures, and the woman is telling me to go meditate in the Scholar’s Garden for 2 hours. But i don’t know how to meditate. I’m there but what do i press?