Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Six Tips To Help You Change Your Life For The Better

By Alva D. Miller


Simple but powerful mindfulness exercises bring us a wide range of benefits. You don't have to sit in lotus position or become a Buddhist. Interest in mindfulness coming out of scientific research is making it mainstream.If I were to tell you that you can learn to release yourself from stress, improve your well being, increase your emotional intelligence, make better decisions and be happier and more successful just by sitting on your butt and watching your breath for a few minutes each day, would you be persuaded? Probably not. If you think about it, that's strange because you probably do sit on your butt for much of the day and you never stop breathing. So what's the problem?
[How To Make Positive Changes In Your Life]


I work from a spiritual, rational, and physical perspective that is holistic and based in a philosophy that includes all three metaphysical (aspects of being) and epistemological (aspects of knowing) planes. We cannot discount the importance of the spiritual and intuitions of the heart where we talk about and experience such things as trust, faith, hope, and love. I draw my philosophical understanding from my studies of intellectual history. I particularly draw from one of my favorite philosophers, Blaise Pascal, who gave me a good argument for a spiritual, rational, and physical perspective for my practice that includes a strong theological and scientific base.

There's increasing evidence that training attention with the right kind of attitude has many benefits. Much of the scientific work has been done on depression. People who attend a course for eight weeks, going to a weekly two hour class and doing around half an hour each day over the duration of the course, works at least as well as taking antidepressants. The effects are long lasting and can be seen in changes in the brain and continuing the habit has even greater benefits.

Yes, exercise. The human body is connected to the human mind and the two are inseparable. One affects the other and it is necessary that we take care of each of them.Many people do not exercise because they do not like to sweat. We can still exercise without sweating.Begin getting fit slowly. There is no need to go all-out from the beginning and that is not recommended anyway. Begin by taking a slow walk through the neighborhood or go to a large shopping mall and just stroll through it. Take your time - there is no hurry.Over time begin walking a bit quicker. Stay comfortable; don't hurt yourself, but walk. Begin working your body a little bit more each day. Walk a few feet further today than you did yesterday. Walk it a bit faster and begin getting that heart pumping, get that blood flowing.

What the information in this book adds to my practice is a holistic perspective that includes making referrals and recommending information on medication, nutrition, exercise, social interactions, behavior changes, along with the talk therapies and other treatments I offer as a mental health counselor. Dr. Amen states he is one of very few psychiatrists that offer these types of brain scans and consultation on mental health problems. They are also rather expensive. He states the purpose of the book is not for everyone to go out and get their brains scanned but to explain a wide variety of human behaviors in terms of the images that SPECT provides and show they can be treated on a medical model as well as the traditional psychological and social models (Amen, 15).

Dr. Amen by no means argues that talk therapy is not effective for treating these empirically detected 'brain disorders'. His point is not that physical things can only be treated physically but to show a fascinating explanation of thought and behavior using the brain images. For example, his research shows that depression is associated with limbic system (an area of the brain) over-activity and that bonding can decrease this over-activity (Amen, 41). One example of this is that orgasm is like a mini-seizure in the limbic system and lessens deep limbic activity (Amen, 41). He found that when a patient who was depressed had a scan before and after having passionate sex with his wife his brain scan showed his limbic activity was significantly decreased (Amen, 41). He then goes on to explain how casual sex does not work and is so damaging for many females because they have a larger limbic system than males that bonds more deaply, crashing harder when a bond is broken. He also writes that healthy bonding between mothers and children, between family, friends, and even pets affects the limbic system positively.

It often may happen that you get worried out of minor issues arising in your daily life.On the other hand, do you get frustrated when things go haphazard? Do you think that you are not happy as much as others are? Do you get angry at the slightest mistake? If these entire attitudes have covered your life, then learn some positive thinking strategies to make life easier and happier.Only an optimistic person can lead a happy and peaceful life.Now you may ask what exactly the meaning of positive thinking is and how important it is. The answer to this is positive thinking is a process of thinking everything in life or surroundings from a positive or brighter side even if it reflects a negative tone.

A body that is not rested means a mind that is not rested. It makes for a very difficult day, so do your best to get enough sleep.Set a certain time to go to bed and stick to it. Your body needs a 'pattern'; it needs to do certain things at the very same time each day.If you make time for 'you' and get to sleep at the same time each night, exercise every day and do what you can to eliminate external influences in our life so you can get quality sleep, you will awake rested and ready to go.You will feel much better and your life will go much better in return.Skyscrapers are never built unless a plan has been prepared first. Your life is no different. A plan will help you set goals and goals are important. If you don't know where you are going you could end up going where you never wanted to go, so make a plan.There are short-term plans as well as long-term plans and you should make both.Begin with a short-term plan. What do you want to do tomorrow? Where do you want to go and how will you get there? What do you want to accomplish while you are there and why? Making such a plan will give you cause to think about things you have not considered? What do you want to do next week? Make a plan for the entire week, not just one day of the week.What about next month? What do you want to accomplish next month? Having a better idea will help you make the time to do that and you will begin to make better use of your time.Work your way up to a one-year plan. Where do you want to be one year from today? Why do you want to be there? How will you get there? The answer is one day at a time.




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