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5 Smart, Effective Ways to Protect Yourself from Negativity

6/25/2019

5 Smart, Effective Ways to Protect Yourself from Negativity

Negativity affects your life on every level. It has the power to ruin relationships, decrease work performance, and increase stress levels. The good news is that you can fight it by changing your mindset.

Not sure where to start?
Check out these smart, effective ways to protect yourself from negativity:

Don't Take It Personally

Most people act in a certain way based on their previous experiences and current circumstances. Perhaps someone took credit for your colleague’s work in the past, so now he doesn’t trust his team anymore. That doesn’t mean he has something against you. He simply doesn't trust people in general.

Stop taking things personally. If someone is misjudging you, prove to them that they are wrong. Be kind and authentic rather than stressing over it.

Set Boundaries

No matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to please everyone. On the contrary - people will always come up with new demands and take advantage of your kindness. That can undermine your self-esteem and keep you from focusing on your priorities.

Learn to say No and set clear boundaries. If someone reacts negatively or tries to hurt you, move on. That person isn’t worth your time or attention.

A true friend will understand that you have other things to do and that you're not available around the clock.

Adopt a Positive Mindset

Be grateful for what you have and then seek ways to achieve more. Start a gratitude journal and write a few things every day. That will reinforce positive thinking patterns and reduce negativity.

Your positive attitude will also inspire others and strengthen your relationships. The more you focus on the good in your life, the more opportunities will arise.

Find Solutions, Not Problems

Most people tend to focus on the problems they are facing instead of actively seeking solutions. That results in feelings of guilt and dissatisfaction.

Whenever you have a problem, take the steps needed to solve it. The longer you wait, the more obstacles you'll face along the way.

ay away from people who make a drama out of everything. They're only wasting your time and energy. Their negativity will affect you sooner or later.

Surround yourself with positivity. Build relationships with people who encourage and support you.

Remember that people don’t care that much about what you say or do. Focus on whatever makes you happy and stop feeding the negativity around you. Once you take these steps, you'll be happier and see new opportunities that you'd otherwise have missed.

What other people think of
you is none of your business.
- Regina Brett

12 Benefits of Keeping a Journal

6/16/2019

Some people find journaling appealing while others think it sounds like an incredibly boring activity.

If you don’t currently write in a journal regularly, you might want to reconsider.

There are numerous benefits to recording your thoughts, life, and aspirations on a daily basis.

Journaling can help your memory, problem-solving ability, achievement, emotional health, and even your physical health.

Consider these benefits:

A journal serves as a record of your life. Have you ever thought back on your high school or college days and thought, “What was his name?” Or have you ever wondered if a particular event happened in 1996 or 1997? A journal is a useful way to record the significant events in your life.

You’ll achieve more. Studies have shown that just writing down goals significantly increases the likelihood of increasing them.
Journaling organizes your thoughts and improves your problem-solving abilities. You can clear some of the clutter out of your head when you journal, and your subconscious can begin working on a solution to a challenge.

4. You can see your progress. When you record your thoughts and your life, they’re right there in front of you. It’s easy to see how much your life is, or isn’t, progressing. Just looking back at your old entries can tell you a lot.

5. You will progress. When you record the most important happenings for the day, you’ll start to make new things happen. You’ll be embarrassed or annoyed with yourself if you keep recording the same old boring stuff each day. You’ll do new things in order to have something interesting to write about.

6. You’ll achieve more. Studies have shown that just writing down goals significantly increases the likelihood of increasing them.

7. Journaling organizes your thoughts and improves your problem-solving abilities. You can clear some of the clutter out of your head when you journal, and your subconscious can begin working on a solution to a challenge.

8. Your memory will improve. If you reflect on your life at the end of the day, and record it, you’ll be much more likely to remember it. It’s a great workout for your brain and an effective way to remember more of your life.

9. You’ll be in good company. Many famous people kept journals. John D. Rockefeller, George Patton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Marie Curie, and Mark Twain are just a few that believed in the power of journaling.

10. You learn about yourself. When you keep a journal, you quickly see your behavioral patterns and tendencies.

11. You can leave them to your children. Depending on the types of things you choose to write about, you might want to leave your journals to your children or other family members.

12. Journaling can lead to improved health. One study at the University of Auckland showed that writing in a journal can lead to faster wound healing and minimize the symptoms of several ailments, including asthma and irritable bowel syndrome.

Consider using pen and paper instead of a computer for your journal. While using a computer can be more convenient, writing engages your mind at a higher level.

There are so many benefits to keeping a journal, not giving it a chance would be a shame. Try journaling for a full month and then make an evaluation. Decide for yourself if you want to continue. A journal is a great way to organize your thoughts and record your life.

Give yourself some time to reflect and balance yourself after writing.

Key Elements for Creating Healthy Boundaries

5/16/2019

If you truly want to be your best you, to have a happy and healthy life, you need to learn how to set boundaries.
Boundaries are being clear about what your limits are, and they are necessary to ensure you don’t get overwhelmed by the demands of other people. Without boundaries, you are likely to be overburdened, stressed, and resentful, and it’s up to you to set and maintain your limits.
You are the only one responsible for your happiness and wellbeing. No one else can do it for you.
If you find it hard to say no, and it’s affecting your wellbeing, you need to stop and recalibrate.

Here are some key elements for creating healthy boundaries:

Know your limits
Knowing yourself is the key to creating and maintaining good boundaries. Know your emotional, mental, and physical limits. Work out what makes you feel uncomfortable or stressed and what feels good.

Learn how to read your feelings
In assessing where your limits are, you will have felt a range of different emotions. Two key emotions that signal that your boundaries are being crossed are resentment and discomfort. If you feel you’re being taken advantage of, not appreciated, or even being exploited, that’s a sign you’re being pushed beyond your boundaries, and it’s time to reassert those boundaries and say no.

Give yourself permission to enforce your boundaries
It’s okay to say no. In fact, it’s necessary for your self-respect to maintain your boundaries and refuse an unwelcome request. There is no room for guilt or self-doubt in this. Having clear boundaries and sticking to them is not selfish. In putting yourself first, you’re ensuring that you will have the energy to do the things you want to do and be there for people when its right for you.

Be clear about what’s up for negotiation
Know what you need to stay happy and healthy, whether it’s your daily walk, a gym session, or yoga practice. Make it clear that these are non-negotiable parts of your daily schedule. Similarly, be clear that you won’t host family parties, but you will contribute with food or drinks. Being clear and direct about your boundaries leaves no room for doubt, guilt, or leverage.

Be direct
When you're clear about your boundaries, you don’t need an excuse, a backstory, or a note from your mother. Be direct and leave it at that. You can be polite and kind about it, but in the end, it’s okay just to say no and keep your boundaries strong.

IMPROVE THESE 5 SKILLS TO INCREASE YOUR HAPPINESS

5/14/2019

Want to be happier? Most people do! The good news is there are some simple practices to make you happy, and they don’t cost a cent! And, you can get started as soon as you finish reading this article.

Appreciate Appreciating people for what they have done for you helps improve your level of happiness. It strengthens your relationships and draws more positive people to you. Studies have shown that people who show gratitude consistently live a healthier life. They don’t have constant ups and downs in emotions, they sleep well and have fewer health problems.

Give Sharing what you have with people who cannot afford to own such things not only makes them happy, it also makes the giver happy, abundant and fulfilled. Merely showing simple acts of kindness boosts people’s trust in and love for you. Studies show that those who show kindness felt happier than those who didn't. Having the desire to share your time and resources with others starts with acknowledging and appreciating the positive things you have in your life. When you start practicing gratitude consistently, you’ll naturally want to give more.

Empathize Lots of people fail to appreciate the fact that putting other people’s point of view into consideration keeps them happy. When people discover you understand them, they become closer and free with you because you make them feel good about themselves. Making others happy makes you happier indirectly—it’s a beautiful cycle that keeps on going around. Empathy helps you turn negative characters or features in a person into positive ones by helping them see new ways of approaching them in their everyday life.

Aspire Are you hopeful? Believing that the best is yet to come brings you joy that no material thing can. Hope regularly relieves the mind of stress, and a mind that’s free from stress makes you happy. Being hopeful creates a vision for the future in which you know that you are living for a purpose, which brings you a wellspring of ongoing joy. When you aspire to great things, you help others do the same.

Savor Savoring the positive is the best way to free the mind from stress. When you continually place your mind on the good things you have achieved, it increases your happiness levels. This boost makes you more hopeful for greater things to come and also inspires you to do more. Savoring the present moment and all that we have in our lives helps us be the happiest and healthiest us we can be.

Common Mindfulness Questions Answered

1/23/2019

Mindfulness has been a hot topic for a bit and for a good reason. Mindfulness has been shown to have a range of benefits and can improve your physical, mental, and emotional health. Whether you want to practice mindfulness to help you deal better with stress and anxiety, or to help you live a more positive life, you’re likely to have lots of questions.

Here are some answers to the most common questions people have about mindfulness:
1. How do I do it?
2. How do I breathe properly?
3. How do I stop my mind wandering?
4. How do I find the time for mindfulness?

Getting Clear on Your Business and Life Goals

1/10/2019

How Vision Boards Work

A vision board is a planning tool that allows you to unleash your creativity and daydream in a tangible format. By collecting images, words, and phrases that represent your biggest goals and keeping them within sight, you’ll be better able to focus on the next steps to take to reach them.
Not only that, but vision boards can serve to keep you inspired when boredom strikes (as it inevitably will), and remind you of why you’re working so hard when all you want to do is take a nap or numb with social media.

If there’s one thing that keeps people stuck, it’s a lack of clarity.
You want to take a beach vacation, but you aren’t sure where to go—or how to make it happen.
You want to grow your business, but aren’t even sure what that means.
The truth is, with ambiguous “goals” such as these, in five or ten years, you’ll still be stuck right where you’re at today.
But with a little clarity, you can achieve any goal you can conceive—and even some you cannot yet dream of. And the first step is to simply visualize what you want.

Seek Your Own Goals for Greater Fulfillment

1/9/2019

Leave Comparison Behind: Seek Your Own Goals for Greater Fulfillment

Succeeding in life can seem like an uphill battle. You're probably striving for the same things as everyone else.
Especially now with social media, there seems to be a certain standard as to what’s an acceptable measure of success. But think about it.

Don’t you think it's time to take a step back from comparison, ignore what the world is saying, and pursue goals based on what’s important to you – not someone else?

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

Improve These 5 Skills to Increase Your Happiness

1/5/2019

Improve These
5 Skills to Increase Your Happiness

Want to be happier? Most people do! The good news is that there are some simple practices you can do right now as soon as you finish reading this article.

How to Set SMART Goals for the New Year

1/2/2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I KNOW that 2019 is going to be your BEST year yet!
One of the best ways to guarantee goal-setting success is to ensure that each of your goals or New Year's resolutions fits the SMART formula. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. When your goals have these characteristics, you are much likelier to achieve them.

Goal Setting Success
Setting short term, medium term, and long term goals for yourself is a key to success in your life. If there are things that you want to achieve or ways that you want to grow, setting goals as stepping stones is an important part of getting there.

Liz Fuhro, LPC
LFCounselingLLC@gmail.com
(314) 529 -0010

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