How to Beat the After-Christmas BluesWritten by Susan Dunn, MA, certified Emotional Intelligence Coach
Christmas is an emotional storm, and next comes Valentine’s, so take a break. Move from emotion to thinking and action. 1.Start planning a Valentine’s Party, or Martin Luther King Party. If you were running a day late and a dollar behind for Christmas, learn from it. Budget and start sooner, but have fun of another “party” on horizon. NB: Planning is a cerebral activity, i.e., neocortex. 2.Get active – add an extra hour to your daily workout. This creates physical energy, clears mind, and flushes out toxic emotions. The less you feel like doing this, more you need to. If you're an introvert, tai chi, yoga or meditation may work better. 3.Clean your house til it shines, and do work yourself. This is a tradition for New Year’s in many cultures, symbolic of getting rid of bad stuff and making room for new stuff. Buy a special floor cleaning product. Sweep toward doors, or vacuum, then remove bag and carry it out to garbage. Out! Out! Clean furniture with something like Murphy’s oil, a soap and water-based product, not oil. Then clean floors with special cleaning product. 4.Clean yard, shovel away dirty snow, clean gutters, wash windows, rake leaves. It will be time to plant daffodils and prune roses before you know it. 5.Take a vacation. Go somewhere warm like a cruise to Caribbean. The sun will do wonders for an attitude adjustment, as well as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). At home, get outside more, sit in sunlight in your house for half an hour a day.
| | Top Three Secrets To Becoming A Better ThinkerWritten by Maya Talisman Frost
We all know there are ways to become a better thinker. We should read more books. We ought to go to lectures and concerts. We need to visit exhibits and appreciate art. We can take classes and expand our horizons through travel. Blah, blah, blah. Those are easy answers. If we really want to become better thinkers, there are three ways to do it that are guaranteed to get you tuned in to your brain and everything going on in it. Ready? Here are top three secrets to becoming a better thinker: #1 Interrupt yourself. That's right. The next time you find yourself talking for any period of time, or even thinking about something for more than a few minutes, simply stop. Ask yourself: "Where did this thought start?" "Have I had this thought before?" "Have I already examined this concept at length?" We tend to reiterate our opinions. We repeat ourselves (like I did right there). Imagine all time we spend on thoughts that just aren't taking us anywhere new and interesting. How many times have you had same conversation? Make a habit of stopping yourself to check in. Steer your thoughts or your conversation in new directions. Make room for new ideas by recognizing and interrupting repetitive thoughts, and you'll make huge strides toward becoming a more excellent thinker. #2 Appreciate lulls. You know when you're talking to someone, and there's a moment of silence before anyone says anything? Our tendency is to jump in, even if what we have to say is pointless. We talk for sake of filling up that few seconds of silence to keep that pause from becoming uncomfortable. Next time you find yourself with an unexpected moment of silence, try this: Smile and nod. You'll look thoughtful, and you won't fill air with silly-sounding expressions of agreement. Once you get good at smile-and-nod routine, you'll find that you'll use that moment as a way to be open to new thoughts that wouldn't normally have room to sprout through your typical "uh-huh, that is so true" or "yeah, I totally agree with that" comments.
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