Imagery - A Powerful Stress Management Technique

Imagery is a powerful stress management technique for creating deep relaxation . Through the use of imagination you mentally create a scene of calm and tranquility to break free of the noise, stress and pressure of everyday life. The more intensely you p

icture the situation the more relaxed you become.

The idea is to involve as many as your senses as you can to make the scene as real as you can. When you consciously use your imagination in this way it has a direct impact on your physical world.You see, stress is a symptom of the countless impressions, ideas and thoughts we willingly accept into our lives without examination or consideration.

Whether it be from the home, the office or our social environment, the physical symptoms of stress are the results of this past 'acceptance' and can only be undone when we consciously take control. Instead of being passive recipients of the mind's activity we learn to direct it consciously. One way of doing this is through mental imagery.

Imagery helps us learn how to consciously direct the mind. It goes much deeper than a temporary relaxation method because we are beginning to exercise our mental muscles. Just try and sit for ten minutes and create a tranquil scene. You will most likely find that it's not an easy process. All kinds of different thoughts will come into your head and it will be difficult to hold onto the scene for more than a few seconds, never mind a full ten minutes. This is because our mental muscles have grown weak! We allow external forces to influence our lives and we lose our way.

Often, we end up coping with stress in an inappropriate way to get some short term relief. In the long term this only makes things worse and is not the way to inner peace. Imagine how life would be if we could consciously direct our minds at will? If we could block unwanted thoughts and only use the mind for necessary tasks. Would we not then become masters of our mind and in control of our own destiny?It is difficult to maintain balance when we are not in control. This is why the symptoms of stress including amongst other things burnout, anxiety, anger and depression, eventually manifest themselves in our physical being in the form of disease.

A life out of balance leads to dis-ease!It should be clear then that to achieve a natural balance we must regain control of our mind. Imagery, as a stress management technique is one of many things we can do to help us achieve that control. The effectiveness of this technique is only limited by the degree to which we practice it. Not only will we experience the immediate calming effect of the exercise but the lasting effect of control over our environment.When we make a conscious effort to use imagery on a regular basis we begin to take control of the mind. Over time we are able to choose the thoughts we entertain at any given moment. When we begin to master the mind we become increasingly self-aware. With self-awareness comes balance, and stress becomes a thing of the past.

A You Under Mind Control ?

How do you determine if you're under mind control? It's an interesting question that you can pass around at a party or among friends. The fact is that you just don't know. In fact everything you are doing could be a response that fits perfectly into another persons plans. If you take that as a possibility you could simply just give up and yield to the fact that NOTHING is truly within your control but there is a healthier option.

It's quite simple, just ask yourself "Am I acting or am I reacting?" If you are reacting then you are respond to something outside of your control and trying to gain some control back, a potential sign of some form of mind control. No one likes to feel powerless and out of control. The solution? To do something intentional and positive that is NOT a response to the external environment. I want to emphasize the word "positive" here because an intentional negative/destructive act has to act on or destroy something pre-existing.

It would be then something to which you are reacting. This is much harder that it might seem because it requires four qualities that most "sheeple" find hard to implement. They are:

1) Thought.
People don't like to think, in general. That is why we have an unconscious (reactive) mind so it will do most of our actions for us. Most of us rely on it entirely too much or in the wrong way and allow it to dictate our every move by letting our emotions guide us. Advertisers, politicians, spouses and other manipulators know this and often seek to control you by fear, anger, threats and frustration. Thought requires that you determine what would be your best emotional response.

2 ) Creativity.
Creativity can be difficult because it requires taking action that is not linked to some external stimulus. This, of course requires thought, but one can train themselves and their unconscious mind to be very creative. Think of what Salvador Dali was able to do. Nothing he did in the field of art could easily be compared to anything prior to him. The same was true with his life.

3) Action.
Action takes effort. People (sheeple?) tend to not want to act instead they react and conserve their energy. What they don't understand is that by taking creative action in the manner described creates energy. Going back to Salvidor Dali as an example, his life was FULL of energy that he created. When his peers in the high brow field of art tried to control him he would turn his response into a new form of performance art. In so doing he would baffle the people trying to influence him and entertain everyone else.

4) Courage.
Why courage? Because when people recognize that they cannot control you through fear and anger they will severely escalate their attempts through threats and maybe even violence. To free yourself from any form of mind control is no easy task. But nothing so rewarding is easy.

We Have A Power

Admit it or not, we all have a need for power. Power provides each of us with several very essential things, the feeling of being in control, the feeling that we're right, a sense of security and the hope that we can accomplish what we want most for ourselves.

With Mind Control there is no doubt that it appeals to that very base need for power. Even the most introspective and peace loving have to admit that the real power of mind control comes in two forms

1) external - controlling others and the environment and
2) internal - the ability to control our own thoughts, feelings and responses.

Here is a little mind control tip that anyone can use that will appeal to both aspects of mind control. When interacting with someone what can you do to allow them to perceive as if they have power? A simple example is ask them to do something that is slightly outside of what they believe is their current ability.

In asking that give them the support and encouragement that they need to get the job done. Here are the benefits as they relate to mind control. First it will demonstrate to you that you have at least some power over people and your environment secondly, and most importantly, it will demonstrate that you have some personal and internal control over yourself to do it.

The main problem with people who suffer from shyness and want control is that they are too much in their own heads wondering "What should I do next?" or telling themselves "This is stupid." In so doing they are not truly aware of their external surroundings and therefore not able to control it. By taking charge in this small way anyone can begin to see the real benefits of mind control.

Convince Conscious Mind For Subconscious To Work

Your conscious mind is the part of your mind that deals with reason and logic. It is the director of your subconscious mind, which is the part of your mind that deals with energy and creation. Your conscious mind is the logical mind that functions with logic. You think with the conscious mind and it is the programmer of the subconscious mind, which is the creative mind that carries out the program.

Convince your logical mind so that it will send the right instructions to your creative mind. The source of our ability to achieve anything we desire is the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind will accept any sustained impression, particularly fuelled by emotion, and therefore any sustained thought, and bring it into manifestation without question. It is the task of the conscious mind therefore to choose carefully which sustained thoughts and impressions the subconscious mind receives.

The subconscious mind is always in harmony and never argues about anything, so it is the conscious mind that needs to be convinced. The subconscious mind does not need reason to make things happen. When an impression is made upon the subconscious mind without conscious awareness, the subconscious mind will proceed to work on it automatically. But its effect will soon become noticeable by the conscious mind and will be interfered by it.

If your conscious mind cannot accept what is happening because it reasons against it, then it will send a conflicting impression that will undo the first. There are two conditions that need to be present for subconscious change to be sustainable.

The first condition is that the subconscious impression must be continually induced in order to maintain its strength over the mind.

The second condition is that the conscious mind must become convinced by reasoning the result as a logically acceptable event. When either one of these two conditions are present, the subconscious mind will be able to continue creating the thing it is programmed with.

When change happens unconsciously, it can also reverse unconsciously. There are times when you experience good or bad things happening to you for awhile. But you have no idea how exactly did you cause those things to happen because you were unconsciously creating them.

Then when your subconscious mind undergoes a change, the good or bad things begin to change as well. That is why if you want to have deliberate control over your reality creation, you need to have conscious understanding. Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate. That is why gaining awareness is so important.

All of life is a learning experience to become all that you can be. The purpose of all our experiences whether good or bad is for us to evolve in our consciousness. The more conscious we become, the more power we have as deliberate creators of our own reality. Awareness gives us freewill to choose our experiences. Even when you choose to use techniques or technology that bypasses the conscious mind to program the subconscious mind for unconscious change, you should seek to learn how it works.

When you are aware of the process and the logic behind it, you are able to have both your conscious and subconscious minds working for you. Total transformation involves the whole mind and not just part of it. It is your belief that the subconscious technique works that affects its influence over you as well. We seek to understand how everything works and to discover the explanation of every mystery that presents itself to us. It is because when we can comprehend all that we experience according to logic, we are able to master our situations instead of letting it master us.

Everything in the universe runs according to logic. When we encounter anything we do not understand, it is not because it is illogical but just that we have yet to discover the logic of it. Logic does not originate from the conscious mind but from the subconscious mind. No one invents a new idea that never existed, but he only discovers it through inspiration that comes from a place where it already exists with everything else. It is the conscious mind that plays with logic and then decides how shall the subconscious mind operate with it.

The truth is all programs already exist within the subconscious mind, but the conscious mind decides which ones it shall run. Perfect creation requires perfect harmony between the conscious and subconscious minds. That is why you need to find as much information as you can that supports you in believing in the possibility and success of creating what you desire. Conscious knowledge enables us to direct reality as we will. Understanding is the key to solving all our problems. Understanding the problem dissolves the problem. Understanding is the reason that convinces the conscious mind for the subconscious to work.

About Contrast – Contrast Clears Your Mind and Attracts Abundance

Every person on Earth has a set of preferences as unique as their fingerprints; no one else has the exact same set. My preferences are right for me and yours are just right for you. I prefer to be my own boss. I prefer to set my own schedule every day of the week. I prefer to work with people who are decisive and respond quickly. How did I discover my preferences?

Through experiencing contrast
- external events that didn't feel good
- I gained the opportunity to become clear about what I love to do and how I love to do it.

What do I mean by contrast? If you smell something that doesn't smell good to you, that's contrast. If something costs more than you thought it would, that's contrast. If someone treats you rudely, that's contrast. Anything that doesn't feel good produces contrast. Contrast is a prompt that something is unfinished, unexamined, or out of balance. It's a neutral term for your experience of external events that awaken your desire for change.

Contrast is essential.
Without contrast, we would remain clueless about ourselves and not make decisions. Through experiencing contrast, I have discovered that working with indecisive people is a drain on my energy. Feeling tired, worn down, even exhausted is in contrast to the feelings I experience when I work with people who easily make a decision and stick with it. Decisive people energized me. As long as I ignored the contrast, I continued to attract clients who drained me. Finally, I'd experienced enough contrast to make a decision: I want to work with people who are decisive. Without the contrast, I would not have been able to make this decision and would still be attracting less-than-ideal clients.

Resistance slows the flow.
So why doesn't it just happen? Why does it take so long? What can we do to make it happen faster? Why do we continue to experience stuff we don't like? If we could relax, joyfully expect our desires to be fulfilled, and enjoy life as it unfolds, all our desires would be manifested in seemingly record time. But most of us have beliefs and feelings operating inside us that resist the wonderful desires of our heart. So, contrast is a neutral term for the experience of external events that awaken our desire for change. Anything that doesn't feel good produces contrast. Contrast is essential-without it we wouldn't make decisions.

4 Clever Tips To Improve Memory Skills

There are significant age-related changes that take place in our brains. These changes can slow down some brain processes. As a result it's harder for us to learn new things as we grow older, and it's even harder to remember certain important information. But Thanks to many years of research it's now easier than ever to sharpen our brains with do-it-yourself techniques and tips that will boost our ability to remember as we age.I hope you will find the above information useful and worth reading:

Be careful with your brain usage.
Our brain is a machine. And although it is a very strong and powerful machine its still limited and needs rest. You should start economize your brain's power by taking advantage of calendars, planners, memo books,lists, maps, file folders, address books so that you can have routine information accessible. Also have a certain place in your home where you leave your car keys or your glasses and things you use on a daily basis. If you follow rules like that you will save a lot of your brain's power to use in more important situations and cases.It is also useful to try to brake new information into smaller parts so that you can keep track of your thoughts. It's easier to remember small parts of information. Have faith in yourself.

Do Not Be A Victim Of Stereotypes.
Have faith in yourself. There are myths about ones age that can lead to a memory failure. When exposing yourself to negative stereotypes about aging (for example that middle-aged people learn difficult and do worse in memory tasks) then you're not making a step forward. You are actually forcing your brain to believe that it will fail as you age.. There's absolutely no proof that your memory will lose its accuracy and strength as you age.

Repetition is Important.
When you learn something new that you feel it's important to remember or recollect later, try writing it down a few times. Or try to repeat it loud. For example when you meet a new person and you want to remember his/her name, use the name when you talk to him/her.

Make use of all your Senses.
Don't limit yourself to use certain senses when you learn new information. Try to use all your senses. For example when reading something try to hear the sounds when turning the page or even smell the book or magazine. Odors are powerful at conjuring memories from the past. Use your emotions to fill your memories with emotional content. It will be much more easy to recollect those memories later.Try to read aloud the new information you want to learn. Try drawing a picture. Try to visualize the information in your brain. It doesn't matter how you shape the information. It's the process of visualizing that's important because it forces the brain to make more precise information notes!

Find Out Your Dreaming

Every night before you go to bed, train yourself to take several deep breaths and relax. Then say to yourself:” Tonight I want to remember a dream and I will remember a dream. As soon as I wake up, I must write it down.” Go to sleep with a pad and a pencil beside your bed, expecting to remember. It may sound silly and you may say, “You can’t be serious!”, but it actually works.

If you don’t normally remember your dreams, you often wake up with only the feeling of what you dreamed about- for example, anger or calm- but you must still write down your feelings. After a few weeks, this routine will start producing results. Then, you can look back at what you’ve written and try to match what happens in your life with the dreams you’ve had. Yet, not many people remember their dreams.

For most of people, dreams disappear as soon as they wake up. However, according to Stephen LaBerge, with practice we can put ourselves into a state where we know we are dreaming. Stephen has called this state ‘lucid dreaming’. It means that having a dream is just like watching a film, but with one big difference- you are in control.

Many artists have used lucid dreams to experiment with shapes and colours, while writers can try out plots and dialogues. It is similar to day dreaming except that it’s much more powerful. However, Stephen admits there is a problem. “Learning to lucid-dream can be quite hard,” he says. “You have to follow a series of exercises to become aware that you are dreaming, and that can take months.” So he has invented a device to train you to recognize a lucid dream straight away. It’s called ‘DreamLight’ and is a mask worn over the eyes. “When you start to dream it recognizes your rapid eye movements and a light begins to flash inside the mask. When you see the light in your dream, you say to yourself:
“Aha! The DreamLIght! That means I’m dreaming.”

Your Conscience Secret

When I was a child my parents told me what was right and wrong, school had its rules and church had its sins. To be a good boy, all I needed to do was obey all the do’s and don’ts. If I did, I was led to believe I was following my conscience.This view of conscience can carry into and through adult life so that one’s perception of right and wrong is shaped totally by the dictates of others. Is conscience just a product of nurture? Are we mere blank moral slates at birth or do we have an inherent sense of ethic from the get-go? I have come to believe the latter is the case because of my own internal reflection from the time of self-awareness in early youth, and the fact that society throughout time has had the same basic thread of ethic. I have sensed right and wrong from earliest memory. I’ll bet you have too, if you reflect. It is there from the beginning just as the homing instinct is within a migrating bird breaking from the shell.

We spend a lifetime tinkering with our conscience, testing its limits, compromising, suppressing, denying and ignoring it in an attempt to cheat life and gain unfair advantage. But it remains solid and true at our core always ready to be re-discovered and acknowledged. We often learn best by making mistakes and feeling the pain. It is those pangs of conscience and guilt remaining with me for a lifetime that have taught me the lesson to listen-up when conscience speaks.The first step, however, is to reach within and decide what is your conscience as opposed to that of another.

Somebody else’s moral dictate does not equal your conscience. If we had been brought up in another society, with other parents, a different school system and religion, then the rights and wrongs would be different and our “consciences” would be different. Some societies practice cannibalism, infanticide and suicide bombing because that is the way their conscience is groomed by others. But the conscience I am pointing to is not contingent.

Conscience is like a receiver. We can tune it to the immutable law of universal truth or try to tune it out. Nevertheless, it remains there beaming to us whether or not we change the dial.To make conscience dependent upon the whims and seasons of humans is to marginalize it into ethical meaninglessness. For example, who to kill and how to kill is formulated by military leaders and an ingrained patriotic “conscience.” Each side in a conflict sees it as moral to kill the other. If we kill and maim one or hundreds of people, as long as they are the enemy, we are doing our moral duty and our “conscience” is being properly exercised.

In the legal profession, attorneys will defend the guilty and prosecute the innocent and do so completely in line with their conscience because the law (which others have devised) dictates that such is proper and right. In medicine, physicians prescribe drugs and practice surgery and other therapies that may do more harm than good. But they do so in good conscience because this is what medical school taught and it is in line with conventional standards of practice. If a patient dies as a result of therapy, the doctor can take comfort in thinking he has done all that can be done as defined by accepted medical standards. His conscience is clear. If a food manufacturer makes food composed of a variety of synthetics and food fractions, that’s considered fine as long as the food meets certain regulatory requirements and the label is designed “properly.” The product is perfectly legal to sell and the company need suffer no problems with conscience regardless of the health consequences to consumers. On the other hand, consumers feel they need only follow all the societal norms to be of good conscience. Let doctors take care of health, the government take care of the economy, the military take care of security, the attorney take care of disputes, the accountant take care of finances, the church take care of ethics, and the food industry take care of food choices. Sit back, watch TV, overeat, pay the bills and follow the rules.

All is well. This surrender of conscience first became apparent to me during a time in my life when I questioned the organized religion I was brought up in because I discovered it was committed to conformity to human edicts (church leaders), not the search for truth. This brought me to the following question:

If I were to deny such outside institutional moral authority and be left alone with only my own conscience, would I become a thief, rapist and murderer? To my surprise, rather than a sense of amoral freedom, over time and with more life experience I found myself like in one of those rooms in the movies where all the walls start pushing in.

Listening to the inner voice of conscience was far more exacting, demanding, constricting and at the same time liberating (the true inner me was in charge) than decades of religious mandate ever was. Virtue is choice, not obedience – a true (secular) epiphany for me. We think we exercise conscience in our careers and personal lives, but few of us do. We usually are following the choices others are making for us. And these choices are too often designed primarily to benefit those who are giving us our do’s and don’ts. We are moo-ing along back to the barn to be milked by the conscience givers.

Surrendering to others makes us too vulnerable to their self-interests. The end result, all too often, is that we become pawns, victims, experimental subjects, tools and objects of tyranny, resources and profit centers. Rather, we should reach out to become full human beings each individually exploiting our full potential and helping to bring the world to a better place through our own innate and cultivated inner voice.I’m not sure how to properly define conscience other than to say it is innate within our being, an instinct to serve as an ethical guide.

We will never come to know our conscience, however, until we free ourselves of the imposed consciences of others. This is not to say the views of others shouldn’t be considered, just that it seems to me that each of us are at least as justified in deciding what is right and wrong for ourselves as someone else is in deciding it for us.I’m not suggesting just dropping out and being self-willed. It means taking on the heavy lifting of being informed and exercising ones own judgment. A conscience nurtured by search, openness, and a commitment to reason and truth is a responsibility each of us must shoulder. To not develop an informed and self-reflecting conscience, but rather to follow the rules of various surrogate mommies and daddies through life, is to remain a child.

Set a Present Moment Agenda with Five Spiritual Steps

The past is important because we learn from it. The past helps us navigate through our current choices in order to evolve our soul. We’re in soul school from the minute we hit the ground until we cross over; it’s coursework made possible by the enriching and sometimes challenging conditions we have chosen.

We chart a learning program well before we get here, which includes our parents, our gender, and circumstances that will provide us with the greatest opportunity for personal and spiritual growth.Where we get into trouble is giving up our freedom to make new choices based upon the present.

Every day is new, no matter how you slice it. The sun comes up in spite of our mistakes or the despair we must face. But we are meant to continually move forward. Getting stuck in the past holds us behind, as prisoners within an incredible universe of opportunity. True empowerment stems from living now, not reacting to now from a mindset of the past or living with worry about what might happen tomorrow, next month, or next year. What can we do every day, no matter what has happened to in the past, to begin painting a positive life on a fresh, new canvas?

Classify the Past
The past is a collection of our emotions, experiences, and thought patterns as a result of living life. As adults, when we feel an emotion, it’s often based upon past experience. Life events trigger our emotional collection, and we interpret our current experiences through this lens.
The problem is the value we take away from the past. When we allow only the good to shine through, we are able to live in the present. When we worry about the future, or agonize over the past, we are not fully engaged in life. The trick is to stay focused on your capabilities to address the present. View your past as a wonderful, robust course in life and stop agonizing over your mistakes or what someone said.

Examine Emotional Carryover
Changing a negative outlook takes a bit of discipline because you have to deeply resonate with the idea of what you want in the present moment, and accept it as already happening. When you attune to an idea, goal, or state of mind, you want to attract it now, not in the future. It takes a lot of self-reflection. Do some simple mental housecleaning to discover if what you are feeling now is being embroidered upon by the past. If you’re discouraged, shift your thinking to the “today” setting and stop dredging up all sorts of feelings from the last twenty years – about your parents, jobs that no longer matter, or even people who let you down. Release those people and circumstances and be free. If you carry so much heaviness, you’ll never get out from under water. The past is over. Do yourself a favor and lighten your load – buoyancy guaranteed!

Be Inspired by Everyone
Life has many meanings but often we’ve got the definition backwards. As an exchange with others, life isn’t all about taking it in. It’s mostly about what you give out. This I know to be true, based upon my observations of many people who are critically ill yet have fantastic attitudes about sharing themselves with others. If you visit a pediatric cancer ward, you will see children who are physically challenged beyond words but are still an inspiration to everyone around them. Despite their prognosis, their light shines bright with hope because they are living one day at a time. They seem illuminated and, thankfully, keep the rest of us going.

Quite frankly, they are among the most inspirational people we have on earth, because they make everyone stop and think, “If life can be good despite those circumstances, then why am I holding myself back?” I believe part of their purpose is to give the rest of us a wake-up call to change our outlook. And if we find ourselves in the same boat, we too can keep everyone else going strong while we test our own abilities to stay in the present moment.

Release Fear and Self-Doubt
I think we are often fearful of believing we can have anything we want. When we look at the world, we see so much lack, unhappiness, war, starvation, pain, struggle, limitation. We begin to believe in it, and then we give those ideas power. With the number of people we see every day immersed in those conditions, it seems nearly impossible to trust that the normal human experience can be one of abundance, joy, peace, fulfillment, health, and ease. We’ve been told since childhood that “nothing’s perfect.” Nothing is worse than this type of programming, because we’re never going to realize our full human potential until we release our former ideas of what is possible. Life is a beautiful, perfect, glorious miracle. We choose our situations, our families, our painful experiences in order to evolve.

As we observe the full range of everything from despair to triumph, we see the huge opportunity that exists to make change. Despair challenges our perception of what can be. With fear and self-doubt in our toolkit, our capability to produce change is diminished. In the big picture, life is perfect because it is giving us room to grow. A little bad weather makes us sturdier. We need the rain, and even a cold winter solidifies us, making us more receptive to spring. But, sure as anything, we are going to grow despite our circumstances. There should be no fear of growth. We should be proud of surviving, overcoming, beating the odds, not living in fear of more to come, and especially proud of not dragging ourselves down, together with those around us, with emotions like fear and self-doubt that do nothing but keep us in the dark.

Consciously Create Your Day
Over the years, I have experimented with ways to release the past and move forward, living life in the present moment. I’ve noticed that when I start my day without any clear direction of how I choose to think, I don’t get the results I want. I used to spend years regurgitating old problems. Without establishing my expectations of the universe as to how I desired my day to unfold, I discovered I would replay those same issues over and over again. So I began to make a supreme effort to move disappointments, loss, and feelings of non-success farther from my mind each day.

Now, before I get up in the morning, I lie in bed for a few minutes and create my day by using a series of affirmative statements that are designed to do three things: they are positive, present-moment statements about what is, not what will be; they address some element of my life that needs improvement; and they get me to completely identify with the power within to manifest my circumstances.

To manifest means to bring into our immediate experience, and make that which is created by the mind into a tangible or observable reality. The power is derived from spirit, or the Divine, which pervades every inch of the universe. To achieve this goal, I say my affirmative statements with love, grateful to be alive and to have my chosen learning opportunities. Then I focus on being open to positive change.I also visualize life being unfolded to me in creative ways and ask the universe to show me its perfection in ways I would not expect.

I make a point of saying this because I think we can better understand the co-creative relationship we have with spirit when we release overly specific intentions and let the power of our own thoughts return to us in ways that give us feedback on our desires. When mentally creating my day in the morning, I’ve had new people walk off the street and become my employees because I saw a need in our organization. Abundance has arrived in the form of revenue streams I did not expect. When I see myself as a co-creator of the universe each day, I’ve attracted great results.

Remember, when you release the past, consciously create your day, and have the mental discipline to think positive, you’ll see results. Through constant awareness (aligning with powerful and positive ideas) you’ll begin to see a difference. A big part of conscious awareness and living in the present moment is about being open to the feedback the environment is providing. Be open to positive change and deeply love life. Be perceptive and positive!

The Power of Optimism for Enhancing Mental Function

You came into this world with a brilliant mind. It is standard equipment in the human organism. The question is, how well are you using it? The more positive thoughts and feelings you have about your mind, the better it will work for you.

And the most important thing you can do for your memory is to believe in it. You can accomplish this primarily by making only positive statements about your memory and your mind. This means you will have to dispel some current and very strong negative myths about memory and aging.

Don't Buy The Program How often do you hear (or say) something like, "My memory is not what it used to be," "I'm having a senior moment," or "I don't remember, I must be getting old." These and similar statements are made when someone is having trouble recalling a specific name or piece of information. Yet there are many very good reasons for that, which have nothing to do with getting older or becoming a "senior."In contrast to the above, how often do you say (or hear) statements like, "I have an excellent memory," "My mind is getting sharper everyday," or "My memory works very well for me." I find it odd that these kinds of positive statements are a little embarrassing and perhaps feel a little socially inappropriate, while the negative and self-deprecating statements are very likely to bring a knowing laugh from listeners.

To improve your memory, you're going to have to break some rules and risk being different. If you want to "fit in," you'll have to join in the popular game of being negative about your memory. However, if it's too embarrassing or socially awkward to be positive about yourself, you probably won't do it. So what you need are some skills you can begin practicing right now to make your mind work extremely well for you.

The Best And Most Important Memory Skill When you don't remember something, simply say, "It will come to me." If you're alone, you can say it to yourself, either silently or out loud. When you're around other people, you might add, "It's not coming to me right now. It will come to me." Variations would be, "I'll get it in a minute," or "I'll recall that soon."Forgetting is not permanent.

It is simply temporary blocking to what you're trying to remember. It happens when you're tired, stressed, distracted, or just have a lot on your mind. It seems to happen more as we get older, but that's simply because the longer we live, the more information there is to sort through. You can keep those memory blocks in place by saying things like, "I forgot." "I can't remember." "I can't believe I don't remember that." "What is wrong with my memory?" or "I must be losing my memory."

All of these statements send a message to your subconscious mind to keep the memory blocks in place. When you say, "It will come to me," you are telling your subconscious mind to access the information and give it to you.Then you have to "get out of the way," meaning you have to shift your focus to something else. After saying "It will come to me," continue the conversation or make a relaxed change of subject. The more relaxed and at ease you are, the more quickly you will access the information you were trying to recall.

Imagine for a moment that everything that has ever happened to you is stored in a large room in the back of your mind. This is your memory bank. Now imagine that there is a friendly, cooperative little guy sitting at a desk at the door to the large room. He is listening to everything you think and say about your memory and your mind. When you say, "It will come to me," he jumps up and quickly retrieves the information you are trying to remember. When you say, "I can't remember," "I forgot," or "I'm having a senior moment" he takes a nap and keeps the door closed to the room with all of the information.

If you decide that you have a brilliant mind and a fantastic memory, he starts working out every day and getting in really good shape. That way when you need information he can sprint at light speed to access it for you. Remembering Names If you don't remember someone's name, just smile to yourself and say, "It will come to me," and focus on something else. If it doesn't come to you in time, and you're on the spot to make an introduction, just smile and say, "Please tell me your name again," with no apologies.

Most people will be very gracious in these situations. The more natural and easy you are with all of this, the better you will feel and the better your memory will work for you.When you're preparing to attend a social event or business meeting, just picture yourself having a really good time.

Look forward to the event, with the expectation that you will be comfortable socially and remember the names you need to. This will prevent your negative "fear mind" from predicting an awkward or anxious time. Keep in mind that you are in the same boat as everyone else. Everyone deals with the challenge of remembering names at some time or another.

By practicing Good finding skills of looking for the good in your mind and memory, you will set yourself apart from the crowd and develop a fabulous memory!After someone tells you their name, repeat it back to them several times and you'll have it forever. You might also look at their face and say their name silently in your mind a few times to lock it into your memory.

And above all, have fun with all of this! Losing Your Train Of Thought Nobody likes it when this happens. And yet it happens to everyone. When this happens to you, just go on to something else. You may or may not need to say, "I lost my train of thought." When you say that, it is usually awkward for you and the other person(s), and serves no useful purpose.

Simply talking about something else related the subject you were discussing will usually do the trick. Either you will get back to that "train of thought" or you won't, and it won't matter. Nothing is worth getting upset over. When you lose your train of thought, you only make things worse by getting frustrated and stopping the conversation while you try to remember. And, it might make the other person feel uncomfortable.

Even a joking comment like, "Well, that thought is gone!" and then going on to another subject keeps the feelings light and comfortable for everyone. And, this will light, playful attitude make it more likely that you will remember what you need to.Consider also that sometimes you actually lose your train of thought because you were going down a path in the conversation that would be unpleasant or inappropriate for you or the other person. In such cases, just let it drop. Many times the other person is more than willing to pick up the conversation at this point and take it in a new direction.You are a lot wiser than you think you are.

Trust your mind and your memory, and they will just get better and better. Never, ever say anything negative about your mind, memory or age and you won't be "joining the crowd" that is laughing all the way to senility. It just isn't necessary.Age Well, Age Elegantly, Age With GraceAging is living.

Everybody does it, so we might as well learn to feel good about it. Memory loss with aging is simply not the inevitable problem that most people think it is. Through practice and positive thinking, you can keep your mind active and alert, and your memory functioning very well.

Here are some positive statements to say to yourself about yourself:
-I love life
-I am aging magnificently
-I have an excellent memory
-I love using my mind
-My mind is brilliant
-I remember exactly what I need to remember when I need to remember it
-Anything I need to know will come to me-I can count on my mind to provide me with the information I need
-The more I use my mind the better it will work for me
-I appreciate my mind and how well it works for me
-I choose to have positive thoughts about my mind and body
-I choose to have positive thoughts about aging and the entire life process