Why do most of us find life boring, even depressing? The robotic patterns of waking up every morning, rushing to work and going through the motions at work can be mind-numbing. What is lacking is inspiration.
To be inspired you need to expand your mind. Think beyond yourself. Have a vision beyond your individual needs and aspirations and encompass global well-being. This vision must translate into a goal that is pursued with relentless focus, deep devotion and hard work. Then you will be so fulfilled at work that you will no longer need a weekend. The annual vacation will become redundant as your vocation becomes a source of joy and excitement. When you do not have a higher ideal, your thoughts gravitate to just your well-being. You become obsessed with yourself and fail to see anything beyond the next meal, the next fun thing to do, and the next movie to watch! Every other person becomes a competitor. You feel insecure. You imagine everyone else is out to get you. All your energies get wasted trying to protect yourself from imaginary enemies. Cut off from reality, you sink into an abyss of self-pity, self-obsession and, finally, self-destruction.
On the other hand, the moment you think beyond yourself you feel energised, enthusiastic, exhilarated. A higher ideal unlocks your potential, releases energy and gives happiness. All selfish people are unhappy. Selflessness is the key to happiness. The world does not need extraordinarily talented people. It does not need highly skilled people. It has plenty of super-intelligent people. We need ordinary people with extraordinary motivation. M K Gandhi was an ordinary man with amazing motivation to establish truth and justice. The Wright Brothers were ordinary people with a dream of flying.
You can also achieve exceptional results if you are inspired with a higher ideal. Replacing ‘inspiration’ with ‘information’ has led to knowledge being viewed as drudgery rather than as pleasure. Education has degenerated to data being transmitted from teacher to the taught without igniting the minds of the young with a higher purpose. So inspiration is not a luxury that only a few may indulge in. It is vital to human existence. You may find a powerful emotional inspiration and dedicate your life to a departed soul. Or you may be committed to an intellectual ideal – the environment, social justice, education. The highest inspiration is the spiritual goal. Like the athlete in the movie, ‘Chariots of Fire’ said – “God made me to run, and I will run for God!” Once you are motivated with the Divine, the Spirit functions through you. You overcome all obstacles.
How many of us wake up inspired, looking forward to a day of service? Who among us finds exhilaration in contributing to society, adding value to others? Life changes magically from boredom to excitement when you are inspired to serve. You redefine norms and achieve the impossible, paving the way to outstanding success. You find happiness at work, not in escaping from it. Most importantly, you evolve spiritually and attain Godhood. Inspiration gives ordinary people the courage and hope to make life better for themselves and for future generations. Find inspiration and life will transform into an exciting adventure of self-discovery.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Troubled with bad dreams? Scientists believe they can ease nightmares by teaching a modern version of self-hypnosis. According to 'Twenty-four Hour Mind' by Rosalind Cartwright, a pioneer in sleep research, even worst night terrors can be soothed. Few people can control dreams in the way the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio steals corporate secrets from the sleeping mind in the film 'Inception'. But dreamers can learn to "guide" them, says Cartwright.
Cartwright says that in the "downtime" of sleep, brain neurons randomly refire images and emotions from the day and "mash them up" into dreams. However, the brain tries to protect the dreamer by releasing chemicals that cut short the worst nightmares.
At dream clinics sufferers are taught "lucid dreaming", or how to become aware they are in a dream. Once that happens, they can control the narrative in many cases. Shelby Harris, who runs a behavioural sleep program clinic, helps sufferers to write such "scripts" by focusing on an image from a recurring dream and taking control of what follows in a manner of self-hypnosis.
One patient, who had dreamt of being surrounded by sharks, transformed them into dolphins; another changed a chasing man into chocolate and ate him. The trick, said Harris, is to turn the nightmare into fun.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Mind-Body-Mood Advisor: Two Ways to Make Stress Work for You
Yes, there's such a thing as good stress—and with practice and awareness, you can find the positive energy in any stressful situation.Change your attitude and appreciate "good" stress by appreciating challenges and cultivating a positive perception of anxiety.
Stress has gotten a very bad rap. Yes, it’s true that too much cortisol, nature’s stress hormone, will make you fat, sleepless, and forgetful. And overwhelming stress can give you a heart attack. However, not all stress is created equal. Negative stress, or distress, is what wears down your immunity and poses a health risk. It can also impair your performance and productivity. If your mind has ever gone blank from test anxiety, or you’ve choked in a tennis match, you’ve been sabotaged by distress.
On the other hand, positive stress. Good stress, or eustress, can actually feel invigorating and make you stronger and more productive. The good news is that you have a lot of control over whether a particular stressor is positive or negative. Often, the difference between bad and good stress is simply a matter of how you perceive a situation. And if you perceive it positively, stress can give you the energy and alertness to perform at a high level. Many of the people I work with thrive on stress. They look forward to challenging projects, deadlines, and risk. They don’t mind feeling a sense of urgency. In fact, they welcome it.
THE DETAILS: Consider one of the most universally stressful experiences—public speaking. Many people, even some with loads of experience at it, find their heart racing and their palms sweating as they anticipate getting up in front of an audience. However, even the most reluctant public speaker can learn how to turn the experience into a source of positive stress with a few specific strategies. Karen, one of my clients, has a fear of public speaking. Ironically, she’s actually a good speaker—once she gets going. She can be funny, articulate, and sincere. It’s in the days and weeks before her presentation that her anticipatory anxiety can spiral into a full-blown panic attack. However, once she is about three minutes into her presentation, she does fine. It’s the lead-up and the first two minutes that make her palms sweat. Here’s how Karen turned her distress into eustress:
• She worked on how to anticipate speaking in the days and weeks before the presentation. She practiced seeing and feeling her presentation positively. She imagined the attendees wishing her well, and being grateful for what she shared.
• She worked on reinterpreting her symptoms of anxiety. In the moments before and during her presentation, when she began to feel her heart beating faster and her palms sweating, she welcomed the feeling of anxiety. She even came to feel reassured by the anxiety, interpreting it as her body’s way of helping her to be fully energized and alert.
WHAT IT MEANS: Whether or not something is stressful to you depends on how you perceive it. Two people can experience the same event and have very different reactions to it, depending on their attitude and how they interpret the event. You can develop a “stress-hardy” attitude by learning how to perceive, and respond to, challenges constructively.
Taking charge of how you react to stress does more than make you more comfortable. Occasional sweaty palms or butterflies in your stomach won't put you in the hospital. But if you have prolonged symptoms of stress, you are flirting with health risks. For example, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, frequent insomnia, and frequent colds and infections are all consequences of chronic stress. If you’re self-medicating your stress with drugs or excessive food or alcohol, you’re putting yourself even more at risk.
Stress has gotten a very bad rap. Yes, it’s true that too much cortisol, nature’s stress hormone, will make you fat, sleepless, and forgetful. And overwhelming stress can give you a heart attack. However, not all stress is created equal. Negative stress, or distress, is what wears down your immunity and poses a health risk. It can also impair your performance and productivity. If your mind has ever gone blank from test anxiety, or you’ve choked in a tennis match, you’ve been sabotaged by distress.
On the other hand, positive stress. Good stress, or eustress, can actually feel invigorating and make you stronger and more productive. The good news is that you have a lot of control over whether a particular stressor is positive or negative. Often, the difference between bad and good stress is simply a matter of how you perceive a situation. And if you perceive it positively, stress can give you the energy and alertness to perform at a high level. Many of the people I work with thrive on stress. They look forward to challenging projects, deadlines, and risk. They don’t mind feeling a sense of urgency. In fact, they welcome it.
THE DETAILS: Consider one of the most universally stressful experiences—public speaking. Many people, even some with loads of experience at it, find their heart racing and their palms sweating as they anticipate getting up in front of an audience. However, even the most reluctant public speaker can learn how to turn the experience into a source of positive stress with a few specific strategies. Karen, one of my clients, has a fear of public speaking. Ironically, she’s actually a good speaker—once she gets going. She can be funny, articulate, and sincere. It’s in the days and weeks before her presentation that her anticipatory anxiety can spiral into a full-blown panic attack. However, once she is about three minutes into her presentation, she does fine. It’s the lead-up and the first two minutes that make her palms sweat. Here’s how Karen turned her distress into eustress:
• She worked on how to anticipate speaking in the days and weeks before the presentation. She practiced seeing and feeling her presentation positively. She imagined the attendees wishing her well, and being grateful for what she shared.
• She worked on reinterpreting her symptoms of anxiety. In the moments before and during her presentation, when she began to feel her heart beating faster and her palms sweating, she welcomed the feeling of anxiety. She even came to feel reassured by the anxiety, interpreting it as her body’s way of helping her to be fully energized and alert.
WHAT IT MEANS: Whether or not something is stressful to you depends on how you perceive it. Two people can experience the same event and have very different reactions to it, depending on their attitude and how they interpret the event. You can develop a “stress-hardy” attitude by learning how to perceive, and respond to, challenges constructively.
Taking charge of how you react to stress does more than make you more comfortable. Occasional sweaty palms or butterflies in your stomach won't put you in the hospital. But if you have prolonged symptoms of stress, you are flirting with health risks. For example, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, frequent insomnia, and frequent colds and infections are all consequences of chronic stress. If you’re self-medicating your stress with drugs or excessive food or alcohol, you’re putting yourself even more at risk.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Don't trust medical advice online
If you are among those who look for medical symptoms online for every problem, then beware, for at least 20 percent of the time your search will lead you astray, according to a new study. The study has suggested that half of the top search results actually come from companies that may be trying to sell you something. In fact, health websites run by nonprofit and educational organizations are usually better than commercial sites.
Minor injuries need focus
The study, which focused on sports injuries like tennis elbow and knee ligament tears, claimed that following bad medical advice can be harmful for patients and a pain for doctors who have to spend time correcting misinformation before settling on the best treatment plan. "Sometimes, it's a good thing for patients to take an active role in their health issues. Sometimes, it creates more problems than it solves," Discovery News quoted Jim Starman, an orthopaedic resident at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, as saying.
What they did
To gauge the problem's prevalence, the researchers searched Yahoo and Google for 10 common sports medicine diagnoses, including anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears, rotator cuff tears and meniscal tears. They took the top 10 results from both search engines and had three independent reviewers evaluate the sites for accuracy. The results revealed a huge amount of variability in the quality of sites that turned up, especially among academic and commercial sites. Nearly half of the top-10 sites were commercial some of these sites, including eMedicine and WebMD, were surprisingly good, said Starman. However, more often, commercial sites were sponsored by companies trying to sell products for diagnosing or treating the condition. These were less trustworthy, as they promoted their products as the best option without any evidence to support their claims, a full 20 percent of all results fell into this category. In general, the sites of nonprofit and educational organizations scored the highest.
But even then, it can be hard to tell whether a site is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated, said Gary Schwitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, a site that monitors the media for inaccurate health information. In the fast-paced world of health care, following guidelines that are even just five years old can be dangerous, he said. "One size does not fit all for any of us in health care. A good source leads not so much with how much we know, but is almost as quick to tell you what the unknowns and uncertainties are. We're talking about a science here. Uncertainty is rampant in health care," he said. The study has been published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
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