Vital Tips in Finding Your Passion

Some people take a lifetime in realizing what they really want to do and where they want to take their journey. It will be best if you will know the essentials in finding your passion while you are still young. This way, you will have lots of time to fulfill whatever you want to achieve and enjoy its effects and benefits as well.


It is not that easy to know what you really want to do for the rest of your life. There are people who end up pursuing a very unlikely route while giving in to what they really want to achieve whenever they have time for it. The reason for such varies. For some, they want to pursue their passion only after they have gone through several failures.



To help you in this regard, here are some tips that you can follow.

1. You should look at things around you. Determine what or who inspire you to achieve whatever goals that you have in mind. They can be your loved ones or a specific person that encourages you to be better. These can also be things. What are the objects that create some sparks and enhance you to move forward? Use these objects and people in order to find out for yourself what you really want to happen. You can list down the things and people or places that may come to your mind when you are thinking about this so that you will keep track of what really matters to you.

2. Think about happy thoughts. Reminisce about the times when you were most happy in your life. What brought about such happiness? What made you happy? And while you are at it, you should also think about when was the last time when you experienced such moment. If it has already been a long time, what do you think caused such state?

3. You have to go back to the things that ignited your passion in the past. Read your favorite book. This may be a great time to find console digging through self-help books. This is especially true if you cannot talk to anyone close to you regarding the matter in ways that you hope to be understood.

4. If you are stuck in a job that you detest and your only reason why you are doing that is for money, then you will have a harder time in getting to know where your real passion lies. You may want to look back at the point before you entered this job. What were you back then or what were you thinking to achieve at that point? If you have already saved enough, you may want to consider quitting your current job. This way, you can allot more time in pursuing the things that you really want before it is already too late.

5. You have to be open to whatever possibilities life may bring. You need to expect more than what you already have for you to acquire such and reach a level beyond your comfort zone. This can be done by being bold enough to take a risk at a time. It doesn't matter how small or how big it is. Once you start following your heart and mind to reach to the point where you think you will be happy and satisfied, you are on the right track. And finding your passion will be easier in the long run.

- Power of Mind

The Two Drops of Oil

A certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for forty days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.


Rather than finding a saintly man though, our hero, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world. The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man’s attention.


The wise man listened attentively to the boy’s explanation of why he had come, but told him that he didn’t have time just then to explain the secret of happiness. He suggested that the boy look around the palace and return in two hours.


“Meanwhile I want to ask you to do something,” said the wise man, handing the boy a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. “As you wander around, carry this spoon with you without allowing the oil to spill.”


The boy began climbing and descending the many stairways of the palace, keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he returned to the room where the wise man was.


“Well,” asked the wise man, “did you see the Persian tapestries that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that it took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchments in my library?”


The boy was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise man had entrusted to him.


“Then go back and observe the marvels of my world,” said the wise man. “You cannot trust a man if you don’t know his house.”


Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to his exploration of the palace, this time observing all of the works of art on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the taste with which everything had been selected. Upon returning to the wise man, he related in detail everything he had seen.


“But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you?” asked the wise man.


Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw that the oil was gone.


“Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you,” said the wisest of wise men.

“The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”

Source | Paolo Coelho, The Alchemist

-Power of Mind

Self Discovery – The Key to a Happier Life

The term “Self discovery” means identifying yourself and your needs. 

Even though it may hear a small word, in reality, it has a huge meaning and a huge role in people’s life. You may dream of leading a certain kind of life, but when you enter that kind of life, you do not seem to be happy. This makes self-discovery very important. If you do not discover yourself, and know exactly what you want form life, you always tend to be unhappy.
This is the major reasons why counselors go for self-discovery sessions. However, even without the help of counselors, you can discover yourself if are a little aware of your needs and feelings.

The first step to self-discovery is identification of your needs. Most of the people do not know what they want. They keep on searching for one thing and when they achieve that thing, they still are unhappy. To identify your needs, you first need to sit in a quiet place and relax yourself.

Then, when you are in a relaxed state of mind, meditate and focus on your thoughts. Ask yourself questions like what makes you happy, what makes you sad and so on. Along with the question of what, also ask why it makes you happy or sad. Seek a deep and strong reason behind it, not any fragile reason.

After you have the answer to all your questions, write them down in a piece of paper in a tabular form so that whenever you see it, you can understand it. This finishes the identification session. This is the most important part of the session of self-discovery.

Next, you have to prioritize your needs that you have identified from the first step. You may have several reasons that make you happy, but it is not possible to implement them altogether. Therefore, you have to prioritize them into first, second, third and so on.

This will make everything systematic and you can get all the happy things done one by one. Since you have also noted the things that make you sad, therefore, you can stay away from those things. There will be no confusions anymore if they are well written in paper as well as well engraved in your mind.

Next is executing these happy moments into actions. Thus, you discover yourself and lead a happier life if you are a well-disciplined and good follower of instructions.

-Power of Mind

How to Improve Your Memory

There are many ways in which you can improve your memory and the more you work at it, the better it becomes!

Memory is the mechanism by which we are able to store, retain, and recall information. As simple as it may sound, the process is a complex one which involves many different parts of the brain and serves us in a wide variety of ways.
As with so many of our other functions, the saying "use it or lose it" applies as aptly to the brain, as with anything else. The more you exercise your brain and nurture it with a good diet and healthy habits, the better you'll be able to process and remember information.

Before we get into how to improve your memory, it would be helpful to understand how it works.  

For example here are parts of the brain used for memory:

• The hippocampus is the primitive structure deep in the brain that plays the single largest role in processing information as memory.
• The amygdala is an almond-shaped area near the hippocampus, which processes emotion and helps imprint memories that involve emotion. 
• he cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the brain), depending on what kind of processing the information involves, such as language, sensory input or problem-solving, stores most long-term memory in its different zones.

Memory also entails communication among the brain's network of neurons, which are the millions of cells activated by brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Memory can be short-term or long-term. In short-term memory, your brain stores information for a few seconds or a few minutes. It is capable of holding, on average, about seven items at a time.

Long-term memory involves the type of information that requires a conscious effort to retain, and then recall. This would include studying for tests, factual data, or personal events; such as the first time you were able to ride a bike, or recalling your favorite movie. Another type of long-term memory is procedural memory, which involves skills and routines that you perform so frequently that they don't require conscious recall.

Tips on how to Improve Your Memory

1. Exercise your brain. The best way to exercise your brain is to engage in new experiences or expose it to varied sensory stimulation. When you break with routine or do something that is challenging, you create new brain pathways. An illustration of this would be writing, or dribbling a basketball with your non-dominant hand, or taking a totally different route to work. An example of sensory stimulation, would be smelling a particular fragrance while listening to a certain piece of music. To stir up brain activity in yet a different way, you can pick something usually done by rote, or on automatic pilot, and consciously change the way you go about it.

It is also a well know fact that people who engage in activities that exercise the brain, such as reading, writing, and playing card games, can delay the rapid memory decline that occurs as we age.

2. Pay attention. It is very difficult to remember something if you've never learned it in the first place. It takes about eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information through the hippocampus and direct it to the proper memory center. If you do not concentrate, get distracted easily, or are doing several things at once, your chances of retrieving specific information will be non-existent.

3. Incorporate as many senses as possible. While there are many different learning styles, such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic (touch), no matter which type you are, you can incorporate all of them in the process of trying to remember something. If you're a visual learner you can read out loud, even recite rhythmically to remember better. If you're an auditory learner, create a mental image or look at pictures as you read out loud. Relating information to colors, textures, smells and tastes is also very helpful.
4. Organize Information.  A good way to remember new things is to make associations and connect information to what you already know. Building on what you know helps you remember new material. Also, write important things down in notebooks, calendars and post-it notes, then reorganize the information in a comprehensive way in order to retain it.

5. Review frequently and over-learn. Go over what you've learned the same day you learned it, and review it frequently. When you review and over-learn information, it becomes embedded in your memory and therefore, so much easier to recall. It is also much more effective than trying to cram.

6. Use Mnemonics. Mnemonics are a memory tool or technique used for remembering difficult information. They are clues of any kind that help us remember something, usually by associating it with a visual image, a sentence, or a word. For example, "30 days hath September, April, June and November" is a rhyme for remembering the number of days in each calendar month. Another example of mnemonics would be to "chunk" information. Chunking is when you arrange a long list into smaller units or categories that are easier to remember. To remember a long number, you could chunk it into groups of 2, 3 or 4 for easier retention. You can also code and structure information by using vivid mental images. When you make the images colorful or even unusual, they are much easier to recall when you need them.
7. Practice good health habits. Exercise regularly. It increases oxygen to your brain and reduces the risk for disorders, such as diabetes and heart disease.  Poor health, of any kind, contributes to memory loss. Likewise, get plenty of sleep and eat properly. Sleep is necessary for concentration and clear thinking, while good eating habits supply the nutrients needed to nourish your brain.

8. Stay motivated and maintain a positive attitude.When you are positive about learning and experiencing new things, you automatically improve your memory. On the other hand, if you tell yourself you have a bad memory, you will actually impede your brain's ability to remember. Maintaining a positive attitude sets up expectation of success.

By incorporating the above tips and strategies into your routine, you will be able improve your memory significantly. Not only will you learn and retain more in school and at work, you will achieve more satisfaction in your personal and business relationships.

- Power of Mind

The Pursuit of Happiness

Are you still waiting for your circumstances to change before you’ll allow yourself to be happy? 

Most of us have preconceived ideas of what would make us happy, and we refuse to be satisfied until those things happen.

The problem is that even once specific things happen in our lives, we’re rarely satisfied with them!  Instead, we shift our focus to something even bigger and better, believing “it” will make us happy (or happier).  We never allow ourselves to reach a point of contentment.  Have you done the same thing to yourself?

The good news is that you can decide to be happy NOW – even if not everything in your life is perfect.  Below you’ll find 3 easy ways to do so:

 

1)            Be grateful.  Gratitude is one of the most powerful states of mind that you can adopt.  Not only does it make you feel good, it shifts your focus from what you don’t have to what you DO have, and keeps it there!  As you focus more on what you are grateful to have in your life (even the really small blessings!), you worry less about anything that may be lacking.  The result?  A more pervasive sense of happiness!

2)            Take time to smell the roses.  If you spend most of your days feeling rushed and scattered, it’s hard to feel happy and content.  In order to be truly happy, you need to make time for yourself to relax, dream, and take pleasure in life’s simpler moments.  Beginning today, make sure to spend time doing things you love on a regular basis.  Read books that stimulate your imagination; listen to great music; take long walks, and generally make an effort to enjoy your life as it is right now.

3)            Love the journey.  Many of us make the mistake of pinning all of our expectations on some vague, far-off result, like the completion of goals.  We believe that once we “get there” everything will be perfect and we’ll finally be happy.  However, there is much to be gained from enjoying the journey TO your destination!  Make it your mission to revel in every moment that you’re working toward higher goals.  Enjoy the sense of self-mastery and accomplishment you gain with every goal you achieve.  Make it a worthwhile journey and you’ll savor the end result that much more!

The most important thing to understand about happiness is that it is largely a CHOICE you make from moment to moment.  Though certain serious situations make it difficult to feel happy at times, most often we allow the little things to bother us and block any happiness we would otherwise feel.  Embrace happiness, and it will grow to monstrous proportions in your life!

-Power of Mind