Time to Take It Slow

Personal Development and Taking It Slow

When you decide to start betting yourself through personal development, one of the first things you need to do is take a breath. The world is very fast paced and that leaves a lot of people scrambling to keep up. It can be difficult because people do not know what to do with a world that moves by like a speeding freeway. We become stressed, confused and depressed. There is an old saying that tells people to stop and smell the roses, and that is something you need to do when you are involved in personal development. You need to take the time to slow things down and just enjoy the time around you.

We too often feel that everything moves fast and therefore we must move fast, and if you do not want to move fast you can become depressed. Depression is a nail in the coffin of personal development, and you need to find a way to beat it. That comes from practicing the concept of Carpe Diem, which is Latin for Seize the Day. You want to seize the day because by doing that, you better yourself. This is why people create goals and bucket lists, they want to be able to seize the time they have and better who they are. They want to reach the end of their life knowing that they have done all that they can and are better for it.

How does this come into taking it slow? Well if you do not appreciate life and the time you have, you cannot seize the day. You do not want to rush through life because you will not spend the time you want to better yourself. If every day is about going to work, coming home and working, then going to work the next day, how do you have time to take it slow? Do you want to better yourself by learning a new skill? Well, then you should take the time to learn to do something like cooking. If you only buy microwave food because you are thinking you are too busy, you are not doing yourself any favours.

Look at something like Tai Chi, it is about moving slow and becoming one with your spirituality. There is no rushing; it is the joy of the movement. People like to go out on the water but they go out on motorboats rather than canoes. By taking a canoe you have more time to reflect on the quiet around you. Taking it slow allows you to look inward at who you are and to take the time to better yourself. We would all like to have infinite time but that is not going to happen, so instead you need to take it slow so you can make time for what matters in your personal development. Rushing through your life is just getting you to the end sooner, and that is something you are not going to want. Breath, relax and take it slow.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Mar 13, 2011

Music and Personal Development

The Power of Music For Changing Your Life

The type of music you listen to says a lot about you, however to say that a person who listens to Metallica is angry, or a person who listens to Beethoven is sophisticated, is simply wrong. Yes, the music you listen to influences you, but anyone can listen to all forms of music and appreciate it all. However, discussing the point of music and what music is better is not what is being done here. No instead, we are going to look at how music can help to change your life and lead to personal development.

Music is very important to the human condition. Music was probably one of the first artistic things humans ever did beyond painting on cave walls. Today, there is so many choices with music that you can literally never get through it all.

In terms of personal development and music, music can be used to not only make you happy, but to motivate you as well. For example, if you listen to sad music, you will most likely feel down. However, if you listen to upbeat music, you can most likely become happy.

In professional sport leagues, teams will often play loud music that has a lot of energy to it so that they can get ready for the game and get pumped up for it. They are essentially using music to change their lives. They are using music to implement something and influence a part of themselves. In their case, they are influencing their energy and adrenaline so they can play better.

In your case, you can use music that will get you pumped up, but you can also use music that will make you happy. Look at your collection of music and choose songs that inspire you and make you smile. Picture yourself walking down a nice beach on a sunny day and think of the music you would like to hear. What music relaxes you in that case and makes you smile. You want to think about that because by choosing the music that relaxes you and makes you smile, you can then create the same feelings as that beach by just listening to the songs. It has been proven that music can relieve stress and brighten your mood, so why wouldn’t you use it when you are trying to change who you are. You cannot change who you are and better yourself if you are not optimistic about who you are going to be. You need to be in the right frame of mind and the best way to do that is to listen to music that makes you happy. You can think about happy things, but music just works better for stirring the emotions that influence you to better yourself.

So, go and download the mp3 of your favourite song that makes you happy. Sit back, and listen to it and imagine yourself changing your life. Think of how happy you will be and think of how it will change who you are. Before you know it, you will be happy and ready to begin a journey of personal development.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Feb 13, 2011

Exercising Is Good For Personal Development

Personal Development and Exercise

Personal development is not just about changing your physical self. In fact, it is mostly about changing who you are in the inside, rather than on the outside, but that does not mean exercise does not have some sort of impact on your personal development. Yes, it will help you lose weight and that can make you feel better about yourself, which raises your self-esteem and confidence, but it goes beyond that.

When you exercise, you reduce stress and stress is one of the biggest causes of diseases. Prolonged stress can lead to heart problems, weight gain and low-self esteem. However, when you get out exercising, you are releasing endorphins into your body. The release of these endorphins will make you feel happy and when you feel happy, you will be more motivated to better yourself.

If you are sad or depressed, or stressed for that matter, it is nearly impossible for you to want to go out and better yourself. The motivation is just not there and no motivation means there is any desire to embark on personal development. Of course, that being said being sad and depressed can make it hard to exercise as well. However, exercise can be something as simple as going for a walk and a walk in a park will brighten your day, while giving you exercise.

When those endorphins begin releasing, your mood will increase and you will become addicted to feeling better about yourself and exercise. That addition will lead you to going out and exercising more, which then releases more endorphins into your body.

As time goes on, you will begin to lose weight, you will find you are happier and you will continue to better yourself. When you look in the mirror, you will be happy at whom you are seeing in the reflection and you will be more apt to continue with the exercise that is making you feel so good.

In order to make sure you actually get out and start exercising to help make yourself feel better and venture on the road of self-improvement, you need to make the first step. It can be hard when you are down or sad to actually get out and go for the walk but trust us when we say that when you do start exercising, you will begin to feel good about yourself. Once you take that first step, you will know that you have made the right choice, and you will begin to believe that you are actually going to better yourself. Personal development is not a science, it is about making the effort to choose to better who you are and exercise is a big part of that.

So, today, stand up and begin walking. You do not have to walk anywhere particular or specific; you just need to go for a walk. When you are walking and exercising, don’t think about it as exercise, but as a chance to get out and enjoy the world around you.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com This article originally published on the above website on Jan 8, 2011

How To Develop Good Habits

Developing Good Habits

If you want to better yourself and go on the road to personal development, then you need to develop good habits. These are habits that will help you become a better person, and feel good about yourself. They come down to getting your body, mind and spirit in better shape so you can meet challenges and overcome any problems that may arise on your road to personal development.

1. Personal hygiene is important because it will make you feel better about yourself, and it will keep you healthy. Making yourself look good and smell good will make you feel good and push you to better yourself.

2. Sleeping well will ensure that you are alert during the day. When you have a good night’s sleep, you will often be able to meet the challenges that life gives you with eyes wide open. As well, a good night’s sleep will keep you from becoming too lazy and not pushing yourself to better who you are.

3. Healthy eating will keep you feeling healthy and good about yourself. Being able to eat something and feeling good about what you are eating will go a long way to motive you to be a better person. When you have a salad instead of a hamburger, you will feel good about the decisions you are making and that will build confidence in you.

4. Developing the ability to meditate is important because it will keep you calm. When you are calm, you will not feel stressed and you will be able to concentrate on bettering yourself and becoming a better person. Meditation is a very important habit to develop.

5. Take the time to read and learn as much as you can. Instead of watching television, develop the habit of reading so that you can better yourself. You can learn anything that you want with nothing but a $10 library card and that will help you learn as much as you can to better yourself.

6. Practice the habit of being a more humane and better person. By helping people, being a person who socializes and who helps others, you will be able to feel better about yourself and you will be motivated to help. The better you feel helping others, the better you will feel about helping yourself.

Developing good habits is very important because it will make you feel good about yourself. Good habits also teach you to motivate yourself and better yourself. They say that you can develop a good habit in the space of a month, and that means you need to make the commitment to better yourself by getting good habits.

When you are trying to start good habits it is important to remember that you need to do the following:

1. Remember why you are motivating yourself and that will keep you on the right path.

2. Every day, make sure you remind yourself of the progress you are making.

3. Like who you are becoming and the good habits will become part of who you are.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Dec 16, 2010.

Will Self Help Books Help Your Personal Development?

Personal Development and Self Help Books

When you think of personal development, you probably think immediately of self-help books. Self-help books is a billion dollar industry will millions of people buying books that apparently teach them how to live better and be better at whatever it is they want to improve. However, the question is, do self-help books really help your self? Should you spend your money on these books?

To start, self-help books are books written with the intention of instructing the reader on personal problems. They get the term of self-help because they are apparently teaching you to help yourself. These books focus on psychology like romantic relationships, human behaviour, controlling will power and more. Self-help books usually advertise themselves as being able to help you find satisfaction within your life.

These books will often tell you that they will help you when other therapies cannot. They often tell you they can do it faster and that entices many who want to fix things now, rather than working for the change. There are also many celebrities who offer self-help books, even though they have no training in self-help.

Most of these books are bogus and you should not waste your time with them. When you are looking to develop yourself personally and better yourself, you cannot do it quickly. We live in a society that wants everything now and instantaneously. We want things fixed immediately because we are a one-hour photo society. Things do not happen quickly, they take time, they will not be fixed immediately. When you want to change yourself, you must look inward of yourself and make the change. It takes time and it is a long personal journey. Self-help books are a lot like diets. When you find a fad diet that helps you lose weight because you are only drinking apple juice and eating cucumber sandwiches, you lose a lot of weight. Then when you lose the weight, you stop the diet and gain all the weight back. This happens because you did not take the time to truly change who you are. You just followed diet till you got what you wanted, then went back to your own ways. If you want to lose weight you have to alter your lifestyle, with exercise and eating right. Then when you lose weight, you keep it off. Self-help books offer you a quick fix and initially you may feel as though they are working, but they are not. They are just giving you what you want and then when you think you have what you want, you stop following the self-help book guidelines and you revert back to the way you were.

If you truly want to better yourself, you need to take the time to look inward and begin that long inward journey without having a self-help book or celebrity telling you have that is going to happen. Things do not come quickly, so don’t think they will. Take things slow and you will be happier in the end.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Nov 27, 2010.