One Skill That Will Improve ALL Your Relationships Listening seems quite basic, which is why most people believe they are excellent at it. The skill is actually more complex and more important than most people realize. We can make eye contact, hear words with our ears, come to a conclusion about what is being said and still completely miss the true message! Learning to listen consciously can inject even the most strained relationship with new life. A five-point tune-up for your listening skills and your life! 1. This is a very common place for communication to break down. 2. Be especially careful of this if there is a power imbalance in the relationship. 3. When you hear something like this “I saw the best movie last night,” resist the temptation to share your knowledge of that movie, or talk about what YOU did last night. Instead, let the energy linger with what was just shared. 4. 5. If you're guilty of some of these communication breakers, know that you are not alone! Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
Ben-Shahar's Happiness Model - Career Development from MindTools Finding the Right Path to Happiness (Also known as "The Hamburger Model") How can you ensure happiness now, and in the future? © iStockphoto/Kuklev Many people are raised with the belief that if you get good grades in school, get a degree from a good university, and then secure a good job, then you'll be happy. Sounds pretty familiar, right? The problem is that, sometimes, this approach to life doesn't make people happy. Sure, they might have a wonderful family, a good job and a lovely home, but they are still dissatisfied with life and are searching for something else. However, when we experience true happiness, our life takes on a joyful luster and vividness. So how can we find this type of happiness? According to Dr Tal Ben-Shahar, leading researcher and author of the book "Happier," we need to learn how to live for today and for tomorrow at the same time. The Model Explained According to Ben-Shahar's model, there are four archetypes that people can exhibit in the way they live.
9.4 Feature - Rebounding: A Defence Against Cancer Rebounding: A Defence Against Cancer by Linda Brooks Exercise, a major part of the human body’s defence strategy, can increase the number of white blood cells up to fourteen times their normal amount. That’s an able army to fight any battle, and it could be produced regularly! For example, gently bouncing on a rebounder for two minutes every hour is an ideal protocol for defence against cancer. Approximately one hour after rebounding, the white blood-cell count returns to normal, so it is time to rebound again to flush out the lymphatic system and to create another army of defensive cells. Rebounding exercise also strengthens each cell of the body so that healing can occur. The practice of rebounding against cancer is done using the “health bounce,” where the feet are kept on the mat, and a gentle bouncing motion is maintained for up to two minutes. Because rebounding is a compact force on the cells, finding your threshold for health bouncing is important in order to avoid overdoing it.
Getting More Exercise - Career Skills from MindTools Fitting Exercise Into a Busy Schedule Reap the benefits of regular exercise. © iStockphoto/bowdenimages We all know that exercise is good for us. But many of us don't realize just how good it is. For instance, did you know that spending just 30 minutes exercising every other day can raise your IQ, relieve stress, make you happier and more productive, and boost your energy levels? These are only some of the benefits you can get from regular exercise. In this article we'll look at why exercise is so beneficial, and we'll discuss how you can fit regular exercise into an already busy schedule. Benefits of Exercise There are many physical and psychological benefits of getting regular exercise: ... for the complete article: Mind Tools Club members, click here. Join the Mind Tools Club to finish this article AND get 1,000 more resources Join now for just $1, first month "When I started using Mind Tools, I was not in a supervisory position. Join the Mind Tools Club Find out more
The Everyday Chemical That Makes Breast Cancer 5 Times More Likely in High Doses November 19, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. This story was originally published by the Center for Public Integrity. Windsor, Ontario—For more than three decades, workers, most of them women, have complained of dreadful conditions in many of this city's plastic automotive parts factories: Pungent fumes and dust that caused nosebleeds, headaches, nausea and dizziness. The women fretted, usually in private, about what seemed to be an excess of cancer and other diseases in the factories across the river from Detroit. Now, workers like DeSantis are the focal point of a new study that appears to strengthen the tie between breast cancer and toxic exposures. The six -year study, conducted by a team of researchers from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, examined the occupational histories of 1,006 women from Ontario's Essex and Kent counties who had the disease and 1,146 who didn't.
Physical Relaxation Techniques - Stress Management Training From MindTools Deep Breathing, PMR, and Centering Explore how relaxation techniques can reduce stress. © iStockphoto/arsenik Imagine that you're having a particularly stressful day, and everything seems to be going wrong. You have a number of important deadlines due, several members of your team have called in sick, and you've just found out that you have to make a presentation to the board – tomorrow. When you have to deal with situations like these, your heart may race, your breathing may become fast and shallow, and you could even feel that you can't cope with the task at hand. All of us experience this occasionally, and, for some, it can be a regular occurrence. You can use these techniques whenever you're feeling stressed or tense. In this article, we'll look at deep breathing, progressive muscular relaxation, and centering – three physical techniques that can help you reduce muscle tension and manage the effects of your body's fight-or-flight response. ... for the complete article:
How One Simple Breathing Technique Can Prolong Your Life: Nadi Shodhana Christina Sarich, ContributorWaking Times In a recent six-year study conducted on over 2800 men from Copenhagen, Denmark, scientists discovered that the resting heart rate has a whole lot to do with the length of our lives. Ancient yogis knew this too, when they pointed to elephants and other large mammals with slow breathing rates and slow-beating hearts that lived to be over 100. Conversely, animals like dogs and squirrels live short lives because their hearts beat faster and their resting heart rates are often higher. Our resting heart rate is an indication of many important vital functions in the body, including our ability to regulate important endocrine secretions to balance hormones, and also to ensure the health of the autonomic nervous system. Our Nervous System is Like Grand Central Station The autonomic nervous system is what controls every involuntary activity of the body – our breathing, our heartbeat, digestion, respiration, cellular functioning and more. About the Author
How to Relax After a Hard Day - Stress Management Training from MindTools Leaving Work at Work © iStockphoto/pidjoe You had a challenging, productive, and sometimes stressful day at the office. You then battled traffic to make it home. Now you need to put your mind at ease, recharge your battery, and refresh yourself so you can do the whole thing again tomorrow. Yet the house is a mess, the kids are restive, and your partner wants to know what you're cooking for dinner (yes, it's your turn!) Or perhaps things at home are relatively calm, but your mind is anything but. If either of these scenarios describes your after-work evenings and weekends, you might need to work a little harder at something that seems like it should come easy: Taking a well-earned breather after a long day at the office. Like most other tasks, relaxation is a skill – one that repays the effort of learning it. Does relaxing really matter? If you're having trouble resting your mind away from the office, you already know it. ... for the complete article: Mind Tools Club members, click here.
7 Secrets of the Super Organized A few years ago, my life was a mess. So was my house, my desk, my mind. Then I learned, one by one, a few habits that got me completely organized. Am I perfect? Of course not, and I don’t aim to be. But I know where everything is, I know what I need to do today, I don’t forget things most of the time, and my house is uncluttered and relatively clean (well, as clean as you can get when you have toddlers and big kids running around). So what’s the secret? Are these obvious principles? If your life is a mess, like mine was, I don’t recommend trying to get organized all in one shot. So here are the 7 habits: Reduce before organizing. If you take your closet full of 100 things and throw out all but the 10 things you love and use, now you don’t need a fancy closet organizer. How to reduce: take everything out of a closet or drawer or other container (including your schedule), clean it out, and only put back those items you truly love and really use on a regular basis.