Meaning of Life…

Why you should always ask why

I’ve been asked on several occasions what is the meaning of life??? Well I’ll tell you… The meaning of life is whatever you decide it is for you. There is no purpose or value that is greater than your own and that goes for everyone. So what is the meaning of life for me? To give more than I take and to make a difference in some ones life other than my own. To feel worthy of the life I was given by being significant to the ones around me. It’s not them that gives my life meaning or purpose but without them I can’t say I’d have much of one, It is the feeling I get from my significance in their life that brings me joy and happiness. It is also what makes me want to do and be better.

To become fulfilled and have inner peace you need acceptance. Not from others but from yourself. If you cannot accept you for who you are you can never be happy or fulfilled nor find peace within. If it is happiness you are looking for then you will be disappointed for most of your life. Don’t want tomorrow when you haven’t lived today, it will always leave you empty and awaiting what you think you want. I mean once you have what you think you want then what?

It’s easy to get wrapped up in society and the world around you, influence and expectations of others, but you can’t forget who you are or why. Personally I like to learn any and all things and wake up everyday knowing that I am ignorant. For most it would be hard to say “I’m ignorant” and accept that to be true because egotistically you feel like you are not dumb. Indeed you are, you can not possibly know what you don’t know and what we don’t know is far greater than what we do know. So keeping the state of mind that knows I have much to learn, keeps me open to possibilities and knowledge.

We never learn if we already know it all and that’s why I get up knowing today I may know more than I did yesterday but there is far more that I don’t. This helps me grow because I am more open to others opinions and beliefs. Your meaning of life has everything to do with interpretation and perception on things and your environment has every influence on what you think and believe. You perceive things in your own way and that forms your own meaning of life. It can mean whatever you want it to, your not limited by a belief, because you can always choose to believe something different. One way or another doesn’t have to be the only way of living or believing.

Purpose

Having a purpose in life is what some would say gives their life meaning. Having purpose is more fulfilling as well and gives you a reason for living and doing the things you do. Most people have a hard time finding their purpose or place in this world and that’s because they are looking for something although they don’t know what. When you are looking for something you usually miss what’s right in front of you and your purpose usually comes from what’s right in front of you. To make this a little more insightful, it goes back to interpretation and perception, what you choose to see is what keeps you where you are or allows you to grow. If you are open to different interpretations or perceptions then you can expand your world view and also expand your own possibilities.

“You’ll never find yourself by being wrapped up in someone else”

Colleen Hoover

Everyone sees their purpose as different when indeed it is all for the greater good. The greater good being your own beliefs and perception. What you believe is your purpose is based on what you see and how you see it. However you have to stop and ask yourself is it your greater good or does it contribute to the greater good of humanity? Is what you do to work towards your purpose really a purpose that the fellow man can benefit from in a progressive way? Having a purpose is what gives your life meaning and everyone’s is different based on perceptions and belief systems, which as we’ve discussed can be changed as we progress.

Perception Or Deception

Is what you know your own perception or is it someone else’s expectations or beliefs that you’ve incorporated into your own B.S. (belief system)? The concepts in which you’ve seen, heard and learned from have indeed formed your own B.S or (belief system). So in order to find your own purpose and develop your own perception of things you have to be able to make sense of what you believe. Ask yourself is what I believe something that makes sense? If so then how? If not then why do you believe it? If you find yourself wondering why you ever believed something that you now discover doesn’t make sense chances are it’s because it was always someone else’s B.S that you never questioned.

Knowing that you can now choose to believe something else that makes sense to you. Now you have a different perception and interpretation of what is and what can be so you can develop your own B.S. in a way that helps you to find your own purpose in life and know that it is your own and not someone else’s. We lie to ourselves all the time trying to make sense of what we believe because we don’t understand that we can change that belief to fit our own perception not the other way around. You can’t force yourself to believe something unless you know why you believe it and if it makes sense to you.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Explore what Imposter Syndrome is, what causes it, and strategies you can use to overcome it.

There are a range of perspectives about imposter syndrome including research and theories about the characteristics, symptoms, causes and strategies to manage behaviors and thoughts.

  1. Explore what Imposter Syndrome is, what causes it, and strategies you can use to overcome it.
    1. Today we will:
    2. So who is this for:
    3. What is Imposter syndrome?
    4. Just because you doubt your abilities doesn’t mean that you’re suffering from impostor syndrome.
      1. Imposter cycle
    5. Let’s try an exercise and Imagine yourself in this situation……
      1. Let’s Reflect
    6. Types of imposter syndrome:
    7. Who experiences imposter syndrome?
  2. Reflect
    1. How do you know if you have it?
    2. Causes and symptoms of imposter syndrome.

Today we will:

  • Explore what imposter syndrome is
  • How to overcome it
  • Learn how to tackle feelings of inadequacy
  • Identify and address negative thought and behavior patterns
  • How to develop your own leadership style
  • Learn how to communicate change and transformation
  • Know and understand effective leadership skills
  • Demonstrate good judgment
  • Learn to act on critical reflection of effective practice and integrity
  • Learn how to transition to leadership

So who is this for:

  • This is for anyone who is a leader or wants to lead.
  • Anyone who is transitioning from a corporate job to business owner
  • Someone who is trying to establish an authority role or figure
  • Anyone that has anxiety or feels pressured when making decisions

When transitioning from any position into another one of authority, it’s normal to feel these types of inadequacy, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting that you feel out of your element. For most of us it just takes a little time and practice in our new roles before this feeling will go away. All you’re really experiencing is inexperience and unfamiliarity and that reduces your confidence in becoming the leader you and I both know you can be. By answering the poll below you will be contributing to a larger part of the research done on imposter syndrome if you’d like to participate your feedback is important.

What is Imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is also called Imposter Phenomenon, or Fraud Syndrome and is a term to describe the psychological experience of feelings like you don’t deserve your success. It’s just “an internal experience of intellectual phoniness”. If you say things like “I got lucky” or “I don’t belong here” or even “I’m a fraud, and it’s just a matter of time before they find out” You may be experiencing Imposter Syndrome. Most of us have experienced feelings of doubt and unworthiness at some point in our professional and personal lives. Although it can affect anyone, research has shown high-achieving individuals experience it often. Research has also shown that less than half of men thought that imposter syndrome affected their personal lives, whereas more than 73 percent of women thought it did.

First introduced in 1978 in an article written by Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes, they described the phenomenon as: “an internal experience of intellectual phoniness

At the time, their research focused on women in higher education and professional industries. This syndrome is essentially our subconscious way of saying to yourself and others that “I am not enough” or “I am unworthy”. You feel you are undeserving of awards, accolades, and recognition you’ve received. Along with these feelings, you may carry guilt that you are deceiving others into thinking you are more competent than you believe yourself to be and fear that someone will eventually find you out and expose you. These moments of doubt pose a barrier for individuals to achieve their full potential.

Maybe you can you relate to some or all of these common imposter beliefs and behaviours: Make a note of the ones that resonate with you. We will explore ways in which you can overcome imposter syndrome.

  • feeling like you’re a fraud and that it’s only a matter of time before you’re ‘found out’
  • feeling you’re not ready, worthy or in some way ‘good enough’
  • suffering from unhealthy levels of self-doubt, self-criticism or self-judgement
  • feeling exhausted by any/all of the Deadly P’s: Perfecting, Pleasing, Proving, Performing, Pretending and Procrastinating
  • undervaluing your talents and downplaying or belittling your accomplishments
  • holding back in meetings, not expressing your opinions or sharing your knowledge
  • passing up opportunities and staying ‘safe’ in roles for which you are over-qualified or have outgrown
  • being haunted by subtle feelings that you don’t belong in your role, your team or your organisation

Just because you doubt your abilities doesn’t mean that you’re suffering from impostor syndrome.

Sometimes, you really will be out of your depth! In these instances, it’s important to be honest and seek help from your manager or others.

Next we will explore the cycle of imposter syndrome and how we can get caught up in a dangerous loop of self-talk and thinking.

Imposter cycle

The imposter cycle describes a pattern of behaviour commonly experienced by individuals, especially those who move into new roles or commitments. Proposed by Pauline Clance in 1985 the model provides a visual representation of the thought processes and feelings at particular points when an individual is provided with an achievement-related task. You begin to have feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt, and that you have tricked your organisation to employ you. Each time you are given a new task, the struggle is internal, and you feel that no matter how hard you work, you end up in the same spot.

Let’s breakdown each step of the cycle, using the workplace as an example. Although, you can get caught in the cycle in any situation in your professional or personal life. Just a brief exercise to see where you stand on things…

Let’s try an exercise and Imagine yourself in this situation……

I want you to imagine your supervisor has come to you with a task they would like you to complete by the end of the month. It’s a report on the latest costings for a new product that is being developed. As the task and expectations are explained to you, your mind starts to kick in with anxiety, self-doubt and worry. “I’ve never done this before”, “Why are they asking me to do it?”… all the while you are outwardly displaying confidence. You supervisor then leaves you to it, and inside you are starting to experience heightened levels of anxiousness. At this point of the cycle, you might either procrastinate or over-prepare to the point of stress.

Imposter Syndrome is feeling like you’re always wearing a mask.

Once you have completed the task, meeting set deadlines and expectations, you experience a feeling of relief and your supervisor provides you with positive feedback on the results. You discount the feedback and attribute it to high effort (over-preparation) or just luck (with procrastination).
This then leads to sustained feelings of perceived fraudulence, self-doubt, depression or anxiety. “Phew, I can’t believe they liked the report”. “I got away with that one”. “I got lucky that time”. There is a spike in these feelings of fraud.

The cycle continues to loop over and over, and you may find yourself feeling trapped. Essentially, any challenge will cause someone with imposter syndrome to freak out, setting off the cycle of worry and self-doubt. To cope, they fall into either a pattern of procrastination or perfectionism or toggle between the two.

Perfectionism and imposter syndrome often feed off each other. In the workplace, it can manifest itself as over-working or over-preparing in a constant effort to achieve the unachievable goals set. When the individual fails to reach the goals, feelings of self-doubt and worry rise within themselves. Self-talk continues to be “I knew I wasn’t capable of doing it.” “I don’t have the skills or qualifications to take on this task”. “I don’t know why they gave that task to me”. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Let’s Reflect

How did you feel when you were given a task that you believed should be given to someone else?

How did you approach the task?

What was the outcome?

Which camp did you fall into? Perfectionist or procrastination – or juggle between the two?

Did you feel as if you weren’t suitably qualified for the job or have the skills to do it?

It’s important to note, continuing to be caught in the cycle can affect the following:

  • work performance
  • taking on responsibilities (either at work or in your personal life)
  • self-doubt
  • attributing success to outside factors
  • avoiding seeking promotion
  • job dissatisfaction and burnout

Types of imposter syndrome:

Perfectionist: Set excessively high goals for themselves, and when they fail, they experience self-doubt and worry about measuring up. This group can also be “control freaks” which may not sit well with some, however, perfectionists feel like if they want something done right, they have to do it themselves.

Ask yourself:

  • Have you been accused of being a micromanager?
  • Do you have difficulty delegating?
  • Even when able to do so, do you feel frustrated by the results?
  • When you miss something, do you accuse yourself or think that you are “not cut out” for your job/role and go over and over it in your head for days?

The Expert: measure their competence based on “what” and “how much” they know how to do something. They believe they will never know enough and fear being exposed as inexperienced or unknowledgeable. It’s true, there’s always more to learn, however this can be taken too far.

Ask yourself:

  • Do you shy away from applying for jobs unless you meet every single requirement?
  • Are you constantly looking to do courses or certifications because you think you need these to improve your skills to succeed?
  • Even though you’ve been in your role for a long time, do you still feel as though you don’t know “enough”?
  • Do you feel embarrassed when someone calls you an “expert”?

The Soloist: asking for help reveals their phoniness. It is ok to be independent, but not to the extent that you refuse assistance just to prove your worth. There is no shame in asking for help.

Ask yourself:

  • Do you firmly believe that you need to accomplish things on your own?
  • “I don’t need anyone’s help.” Does that sound like you?
  • Do you frame requests in terms of the project rather than your need?

Natural Genius: judge their competence based on ease and speed rather than their efforts. If they take a long time to master something, they feel shame. Set their internal bar impossibly high (similar to perfectionists). They judge themselves on being able to achieve something the first time. They should see themselves as a work in progress.

Ask yourself:

  • Are you used to excelling without much effort?
  • Do you have a track record of straight ‘As’ or gold stars in everything you do?
  • When you’re faced with a setback, does your confidence tumble?
  • Do you often avoid challenges?

The Superperson: convinced they’re phonies amongst real-deal colleagues and often push themselves to work harder and harder. This is considered a false cover-up for their insecurities and the work overload may harm not only mental health, but relationships with others.

Ask yourself:

  • Do you stay later at the office than the rest of your team?
  • Do you get stressed when you’re not working and find downtime completely wasteful?
  • Have you left hobbies and passions – sacrificed to work?

The core reason that people experience imposter syndrome is really due to our unrealistic, unstainable notions about what it means to be competent. Reflect on the ones that resonate the most to you and don’t forget to leave us a comment and your experience with imposter syndrome.

Who experiences imposter syndrome?

The short answer is everyone. Even all the famous and well known leaders have confessed to feelings of self-doubt, fear and inadequacy.

Albert Einstein, Penelope Cruz, Agatha Christie, Michelle Obama

Have you felt these emotions as a leader? If so, you are in good company!

Consider and write down your thoughts on the following questions.

  • Would you have thought these people would have experienced insecurities or felt like they didn’t deserve their success?
  • Why do you think high achievers are more likely to suffer from imposter syndrome?
  • What would you say to someone who you admired who confessed that they felt like a fraud?

Leadership theory could exhaust a lifetime of study. It is more important to consider the impact of imposter syndrome on leadership styles and vice versa.

For those in a leadership position or aspiring to be a leader, at some point you will come up against a situation and think “I don’t know what to do”. It may be a team issue that you can’t seem to solve, or maybe you need to lead a project which lies outside of your field of expertise. Whilst imposter syndrome feels uncomfortable and unpleasant, it’s not the real problem. The problem occurs when feelings of self-doubt and insecurity causes you to stop trying, to back off or to quit.

As a leader, when you stop believing in yourself, start second guessing your decisions, stay quiet or take a back seat it can potentially limit your leadership pipeline or produce an underperforming team.

When leaders appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of a practiced leadership style, they develop greater awareness of their abilities, values and beliefs, as well as greater understanding of how they are perceived by team members. The understanding and practice of a leadership style creates a personal leadership framework that can be further developed, extended and refined through everyday workplace leadership experiences.

Leaders also need to consider how compatible their fundamental leadership style is with their organisation. If the styles are clearly incompatible (e.g. a servant leader in an autocratic, command-and-control, hierarchical organisation) effective leadership will be difficult. Therefore, the same leader may be very welcome and successful in one organisation, and struggle and possibly fail in another.

Reflect

If you are currently in a leadership position (paid or voluntary), reflect on your current self-talk and self-belief. Take a step back from those you are leading, try and observe how the team is functioning. What impact are your thoughts, feelings, beliefs having on their performance, as a team and individually? What is the impact on you as a leader?

If you are not in a leadership position (paid or voluntary), is there an opportunity for you to undertake this type of role? What might be stopping you from seeking this opportunity? What is your current self-talk or belief?

How do you know if you have it?

You may have already recognised some elements of the syndrome in yourself as you explored the videos and content. It’s not simply the feeling of insecurity and self-doubt which most of us have felt at some point in our lives, but is a pattern of an inability to internalise success. As you’ve already discovered, it isn’t uncommon and 70% of people have experienced it at some time or other.

So, how do you know if you are experiencing imposter syndrome? You have already spent sometime asking yourself questions, particularly related to type, however, this section provides you with a number of resources to access which will provide further insight and guidance for you.

  • do you attribute your success to luck or external factors?
  • are you sensitive to criticism of any kind?
  • do you apologise over even the smallest mistake?
  • do you downplay your expertise even when you are truly the expert?
  • do you feel like someone is watching you and will call you out as a phony?

You need to become comfortable confronting some of the deeply ingrained beliefs you hold about yourself. This can be hard, because you may not even realise you hold them. Overcoming imposter syndrome requires self-acceptance; you don’t have to attain perfection to be worthy of the success you’ve achieved and any accolades you earn along the way. It’s not about lowering the bar, it’s about resetting it to a realistic level that doesn’t leave you forever overreaching and feeling inadequate.

Think of a time when you may have had some of the feelings associated with imposter syndrome. Consider and write down some thoughts in response to the following questions:

  • What were the thoughts associated with the feelings?
  • Are these thoughts valid? What is the evidence?
  • What would an alternative thought be?

Causes and symptoms of imposter syndrome.

We know that certain factors can contribute to the more general experience of imposter syndrome.

Across the board, it’s more common when trying something new or feeling the pressure to succeed. Those who suffer from imposter syndrome often have similar personality traits, including an external locus of control. This means they believe their accomplishments to be attributed to external factors such as luck or timing rather than the hard work they put in or their expertise. At work, people often experience acute imposter syndrome when given praise or reward.

Generally though, the emotions associated with the syndrome are internalised within the individual, rather than shared with others.

Early family dynamics – pressuring you to do well in school, praising you only when you do something good, comparing you to siblings or other children, overemphasizing your natural talents and shaming you when you struggle, or being over protective (helicopter parents) and instilling fear.

School and work experiences – Past stories of success and failure can affect how you see yourself and how you feel about taking on new projects and assignments.

Cultural pressures – We live in a culture of “-est”. That is we admire the biggest, prettiest, richest, fastest etc. We learn to measure success and ultimately worth through external factors including dollars, awards, number of likes on social media. In this environment it’s easy to judge ourselves.

Engaging in something new – we can be creatures of habit and comfort and it can be challenging when you start something new. Imposter syndrome can show up when you’re trying something you’ve never done before.

Write down and share your ideas about the following aspects:

“What core beliefs do I hold about myself?”

“Do I believe I am worthy enough?”

“Must I be perfect for others to approve of me?”

Reflect on the following:

Do elements or all of the characteristics of imposter syndrome sound familiar to you?
Are you surprised about some of the information presented?

Setting Intentions 101

How setting intentions means progress!

Setting an intention gives you direction, it gives you a destination. Most of the time we come up with a plan just to not have a general direction to drive the plan towards success, because we forgot to set an intention. Setting an intention is practically like having an obtainable goal that’s already done. Once an intention is set, it is what determines the outcome of the situation. That’s how your brain interprets it anyway.. As an intention it becomes an inevitable event that your determination will drive forward.

I like to set two intentions for the day, so I swap between personal, business and relationships, and rotate the three . This way, it balances the scales and I stay on top of my life in every aspect. With intentions set, I have complete and total control over my thoughts and feelings for the day. Having that inevitable goal to reach keeps me on track throughout my day. I am left feeling more fulfilled and confident as well as a sense of accomplishment. The feeling of doing something worth your time is so satisfying.

Do you find yourself unfulfilled?

I’ve found that on days that I don’t have an intention for that day, I’m not as productive. That’s mostly due to the fact that I have no end goal to reach, no intention means no actual advancement throughout my day. Which is fine every now and then but it will leave you feeling a bit insignificant on some days. I don’t know about you but I like to feel important or a sense of purpose. I try to spend my time and efforts valuably so that I feel like my life has a significant meaning even if only to myself. I don’t need others to validate me however others need to feel validated, and I enjoy putting a smile on someones face even if that’s all I do. Some sense of fulfillment is necessary and to reach fulfillment you really do need to set an intention.

What is an intention you have for yourself?

So what are some things you know you been putting off? Or maybe just an outcome you want to happen at the end of your day? Take some time to reflect on your own wants and needs and try setting an intention every morning and your mind will be put to work looking for ways of it happening. Let me know in the comments what intentions did you set and how long u until you achieve this goal?

 

No More Anxiety And Depression!

What Makes Us So Irrational?

Steady anxiety has turned into a typical and terrifying problem. An expected 284 million individuals overall experience anxiety, making it the most common psychological health problem. Anxiety is a reaction to the pressure we feel when confronted with a situation that we believe is threatening toward our well-being.

Feeling some degree of anxiety before a test, a meeting, or proposing to your loved one is typical. These sentiments stay for quite a while and afterward before they disappear. However, in the event that anxiety is never-ending, causing intense worry, extreme fear and stress, it is a condition called anxiety disorder.

At the point when one is going however extreme anxiety, it reflects inside the body as migraines, stomach aches, quick heartbeat, perspiring, wooziness, rapid breathing, straining of muscles and so on. Extreme anxiety can cause respiratory, stomach and gut related conditions, which weakens the individual, fueling the condition further with additional and more frequent episodes.

So it is critical to comprehend what occurs inside the psyche and body while it goes through an episode of anxiety. Our thinking and breath are associated. The manner in which we believe is the manner in which we relax.

While encountering extreme anxiety the breath becomes shallow and fast, and the cerebrum get significantly less oxygen, which thusly makes the psyche beat the contemplations of dread and stress into a cyclone like impact.

As of now the “flight or battle” reaction component kicks in with the arrival of huge dosages’ of cortisols and poisons in the body which after dreary episodes debilitatingly affects the internal organs.

Back in the day, when we needed to avoid wild creatures for endurance in the wild, the “flight or battle” reaction assisted with dodging the looming risk. However, in present times, tension is set off by circumstances around work, family, cash, wellbeing and other significant things, which needn’t bother with a flight or flight reaction. What that focuses to basically is that we want better ways of adapting to these outer elements which are significant as far as we’re concerned to be content yet are not hazardous.

nature forest waves trees
Like a fast flowing river of anxiety!

There is simple misalignment of the body, brain, feeling and energy. From this viewpoint, it just means that there is an absence of inward satisfaction despite the fact that the triggers are outside. Having a purpose brings satisfaction from inside which is a side effect of the brain, body, feelings and energy being as one with one another and with the bigger presence without depending other improvement.

It is essential to comprehend that we are complete beings without anyone else and need nothing more from an external perspective. When this understanding is supported by the experience of satisfaction, dread and stress become essentially non-existent. Many individuals who are persistent worriers have discovered these restless sentiments disperse when they begin to find themselves.

Certain individuals are more inclined to be more anxious than others. Extreme anxiety means that the thought patterns, stress and dread are out of control. The sort of ambiance we maintain in our brain and body decides how much anxiety we experience. The two fundamental requirements for carrying on with a anxiety free life are internal bliss (delight) and a healthy body.

Blissful individuals will quite often be less anxious than the people who tend to have anxiety or depression. Having areas of strength for a sound physical make-up likewise makes the psyche stronger to pessimistic sentiments averting anxiety. If we work towards creating these two states we truly live a fulfilled life.

In circumstances such as these many individuals are showing up at reflection as a wellspring of help from the pressure of the unexplored world. What better chance to start a reflection rehearse than during when a large number of the most widely recognized interruptions have previously been taken out from your life?

Check out my video on how to be successful with anything you do!!

So you’ve begun an everyday contemplation that maybe you do in the mornings which permits you to begin the day revived and alert. At last however you really take a look at messages, web-based entertainment, and start to draw in with others and gradually start to wrap back up again like a yo yo.

The vast majority take part in life just on the flat plane of past and future. Replaying recollections and contemplating where they need to go. As we collaborate with individuals this tape continues to play and in numerous ways we become much more related to it as we contrast our involvement in the individual addressing us.

Denying the speaker with what they need the most, unadulterated consideration. Unadulterated consideration permits the speaker to feel freed on the grounds that instinctively they realize they are not being decided from the perspective of your related involvements and conclusions.

We can see this mindfulness as the upward plane which offers a mark of revelation established in the at this point. That embodiment of now is at last what your identity is and is likewise freeing for you as the audience since it liberates you from the impulse of relating to a misguided feeling of self.

Here are a few hints and inquiries you can pose to yourself to turn out to be more established in the now and take your reflective state with you over the course of the day:

Could you at any point detect the energy field of your body? The aliveness in different pieces of your body? Shut your eyes and check whether you can feel your hands without really moving your hands. Sure it would most likely be bizarre on the off chance that you shut your eyes mid discussion with somebody or while going for a stroll. Luckily you can likewise work on interfacing with that energy field while keeping your eyes open. Likewise utilize your breath as an anchor of attention to control impulsive responses and contemplations. Accompany your breath first.

As you check in with your breath and body you ought to have the option to detect roomy mindfulness consistently among you and anything considerations are happening in your mind. This roominess is additionally present while talking, particularly while talking. Presently a change in cognizance happens on the grounds that you’re not suspecting the same thing, you’re basically answering what is important. What’s more, when you are believing you’re not relating to those contemplations.

This is what it resembles to be at the time with individuals and to answer what is happening. Have you at any point thought about what it should resemble to know yourself in the now, without connecting with memory? Awareness isn’t an article; it is your embodiment. Knowing yourself as this roomy mindfulness liberates you from accepting that you are your own set of experiences, which is stuff you’ll unavoidably bring into your connections, making way for struggle.

It’s fine and amusing to discuss stories, things that have occurred, things that you’ve heard and know. However, you can recognize the universe of structure while not being caught in this aspect. At the time of association, realize there is another aspect present and work on interfacing with it. All things considered, what makes a house a house isn’t the stuff inside it, it is all the space which empowers things to be there. Dial back and relate to the space.

The following are a couple of ways to that that inner joy and to becoming sound

  • Reflection is extraordinary practice for bringing solidness, adaptability and versatility in the body. These practices include consolidating the breath with explicit thoughts to make the inside organs solid. It develops the psyche body association with assistance make a blissful brain and sound body, which makes one more sure about giving outside circumstances.
  • Exercising makes a steady body and psyche. Practicing outside in the normal components guarantees the body gets sufficient sun, wind and dampness. Openness to outside air and regular light can be quieting and recuperating.
  • Self care reflects and improves ones consciousness of one’s own considerations and feelings. By fostering this mindfulness we can beginning noticing our responses to outer circumstances, which assists us with making a remedial move.
  • A healthy eating regimen which incorporates a solid blend of new natural products, nuts and mixed greens, and home prepared feasts with fundamental nutrients, cell reinforcements, minerals, proteins and starches is a portion of the uneasiness fight won.
  • Become part of an encouraging group of people, or make your own. Converse with like-minded individuals who are strong, like a relative or companion. Support bunch administrations may likewise be accessible in the neighborhood on the
  • Anxiety doesn’t control you. YOU are in charge. However, to reach this point requires a way of life change, and that implies forfeiting the helpful persistent vices, and putting forth the attempt to assume responsibility for your anxiety. Those with extreme anxiety often blame others and the world. Making these way of life changes toward turning into a more joyful and better individual will extra time diminish your dependence on an outer source – the specialist.
  • Keep track of that inward satisfaction by being your own wellbeing advocate since you deserve it!
  • Partake in this contemplation as an initial move towards tracking down help from anxiety.

The fact that 7 out of 10 American adults fight anxiety or depression is very concerning to say the least. I’ve done a fair amount of research on this subject and examined just how anxiety works and why. At some point, anxiety and stress affect everyone. They can manifest differently in different people, and the level of anxiety one experiences can vary, but there is one thing for certain: there are ways to manage anxiety, even if it feels out of control.

Solution to feeling defeated and how to just keep going!!

The Symptoms To Look For

Both can improve with help from a psychological wellness proficient. It’s not by any stretch uncommon to feel miserable, low, or irredeemable now and again, particularly during troublesome or difficult life circumstances.

Yet, sensations of misery and vacancy that keep going for longer than fourteen days can propose gloom, particularly when positive occasions or changes in your current circumstance don’t appear to anily affect your temperament.

Alongside a low, miserable, or void temperament, misery can likewise include the accompanying side effects:

  • loss of interest or pleasure in your standard exercises and leisure activities
  • a feeling of sadness or negativity
  • outrage, touchiness, and anxiety
  • an absence of energy or a feeling of feeling dialed back
  • ongoing weakness or rest issues
  • changes in hunger and weight
  • trouble concentrating, deciding, or recollecting data
  • unexplained a throbbing painfulness or gastrointestinal worries
  • sensations of responsibility, uselessness, or powerlessness
  • contemplations of self destruction, passing, or biting the dust

A great many people experience some tension — sensations of dread, anxiety, and stress — every now and then. Nervousness is essential for how you answer pressure, all things considered, so you could encounter some uneasiness:

  • prior to significant life altering situations
  • while going with significant choices
  • while having a go at a novel, new thing

Be that as it may, in the event that you experience determined or outrageous uneasiness generally speaking for quite a long time, you might have summed up tension turmoil (Stray) or another nervousness problem. Nervousness problems go past stress over surprising or testing life conditions. Your apprehensions could base on additional regular worries, like your wellbeing, execution at school and work, or connections.

These concerns can provoke waiting considerations and fears that in the long run start to influence day to day existence like:

  • trouble overseeing dread and stress
  • crabbiness, actual fretfulness, or a feeling of being tense
  • a feeling of fear, destruction, or frenzy
  • rest issues
  • persevering weariness
  • mind haze
  • actual side effects like cerebral pains, muscle pressure, sickness, and the runs
  • Covering side effects

While it’s memorable essential not every person with sorrow, uneasiness, or the two circumstances will encounter similar arrangement of side effects, the two circumstances generally include a few of similar side effects.

Side effects if you have both anxiety and depression include:

  • changes in rest designs
  • changes in energy level
  • expanded crabbiness
  • issue with fixation, concentration, and memory
  • a throbbing painfulness or stomach gives that have no unmistakable reason

Rumination can likewise occur with the two circumstances. In fundamental terms, rumination alludes to a determined circle of dull, miserable, or other negative contemplations. You may not need these considerations, but rather you actually just can’t quit thinking.

The uneasiness you can track yourself:

  • caught in a cycle where you investigate, again and again, every one of the potential ways a circumstance could turn out badly
  • unfit to quit contemplating every one of the things concerning you, in any event, when you realize you can’t make any significant difference either way

The sorrow you can get on track yourself:

  • focusing on responsibility about not having energy to invest time with companions
  • going again and again previous occasions and faulting yourself for things you have zero command over, including sensations of discouragement
Anxiety

What Strategies Are Often Used in Treating this Dual Diagnosis?

Evidence-based research suggests that both anxiety and depression be treated at the same time.

Effective strategies often used in treating these co-occurring conditions include:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – CBT is often used to treat people with both disorders. Fears, anxieties and tendencies toward depression are managed by seeking out their root causes. Once uncovered, patients learn how to take control of their emotions and life.
  • Antidepressant medications – Often combined with CBT, these may be prescribed in treating both disorders. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are new antidepressant drugs that produce fewer side effects than their predecessors.
  • Exercise – This can be very helpful for both disorders. Physical activity causes feel-good chemicals to be released in the body. This aids in relaxation and feeling of well-being.
  • Relaxation techniques – This typically involves meditation or mindfulness. These techniques can often help to remedy both disorders and improve quality of life.

Why does anxiety return?

Even if you’ve learned how to manage anxiety, it’s a safe bet that you’ll experience some level of anxiety again in your lifetime.

Anxiety may creep up in response to events such as:

Your anxiety level is likely to fluctuate throughout your life, depending on what’s happening or what’s on your mind.

Remember — anxiety is not inherently bad. It can help us be prepared for whatever comes our way. But when you’re feeling anxious all the time and feel unable to calm down, this is a cause for concern.

Chronic anxiety that is out of proportion to the stressor or situation may signify an anxiety disorder.

What you can do about your tension at the present time

  • At the point when you feel restless, it might assist with recognizing the way that you’re restless. In the event that you would be able, attempt and make a stride back and think about the circumstance. Distinguishing who or what is making you restless can be a helpful adapting device.
  • During seasons of pressure and caution, it can assist with recalling that your sensations of nervousness ought to pass once the unpleasant occasion is finished.
  • The following are a couple of things you can do to assist with bringing down your nervousness at the time:
  • Contact somebody you trust for help. In some cases, talking things through can assist you with acquiring quiet and ease concerns.
  • Put down stopping points. Attempt to work on expressing no to work or individual solicitations on the off chance that you have a great deal for you to handle.
  • Practice exercises that could end up being useful to quiet or focus you:
  • Reflection
  • Yoga
  • Profound relaxing
  • Taking a walk
  • Your number one sort of activity
  • Accomplish something that assists you with unwinding genuinely:
  • Absorbing a hot shower
  • Playing mitigating music
  • Appreciating fragrant healing
  • Watching your #1 Program or film
  • Assuming you practice CBT or DBT, take a stab at taking advantage of a portion of your misery adapting instruments, and attempt to divert your way of behaving or consideration carefully.

Here is a basic outline of certain things you can do to assist with lessening tension in the long haul.

The World Wellbeing Association (WHO) suggests no less than 150 minutes of moderate activity seven days for most grown-ups.

A recent report found that this measure of activity can diminish side effects of tension and wretchedness.

Practice care and contemplation

Being careful means venturing back, blocking out the immaterial, and focusing on what’s going on at the time. Care includes tuning into your environmental factors and what’s happening inside you.

Contemplation is the act of preparing your psyche to divert your considerations and channel your concentration and mindfulness.

Gain more confidence in yourself.

There are many sorts of reflection, and every one of them require some training. Numerous assets are promptly accessible to assist you with beginning.

Consider downloading a reflection application or taking a contemplation class to assist you with learning. The procedures you learn in contemplation can prove to be useful while adapting to an unpleasant circumstance.

Rehearsing contemplation is related with numerous medical advantages, including further developed rest and lower pressure.

Get a lot of rest

Getting sufficient soothing rest is fundamental for your general wellbeing and prosperity. For grown-ups, 7 to 8 hours of rest a night is great.

2020 exploration Believed Source associates absence of lay down with raised daytime uneasiness. The Public Organizations of Wellbeing (NIH) reports there are numerous other antagonistic impacts Confided in Source, as well:

In youngsters, hyperactivity can happen.

In grown-ups, feeling grumpy, depleted, and testy is normal.

The two youngsters and grown-ups may encounter inconvenience centering.

Certain individuals have a sleeping disorder and are constantly under-resting, or have medical issue that influence rest.

Here are a few hints and assets for focusing on a decent night’s rest:

Apparatuses and Stunts to Quiet Your Uneasiness lastly Get Some Rest

10 Motivations to Get More Rest

10 Solid Rest Cleanliness Propensities

Eat well

A differed and nutritious eating routine is quite possibly of the main thing you can accomplish for your physical and emotional well-being. This incorporates keeping away from food sources you are hypersensitive or delicate to, which cause aggravation in your body.

Continuously contact a dietitian, nutritionist, or your essential consideration specialist prior to rolling out significant dietary improvements.

Restricting admission of specific food sources Believed Source is additionally critical to diminishing the gamble of ailments like coronary illness and diabetes. It can assist with ensuring you keep up with solid energy levels and get every one of the supplements your body needs to work.

Attempt to consume the accompanying with some restraint:

  • sugar
  • liquor
  • caffeine
  • sodium
  • The US Branch of Farming (USDA) can assist you with surveying your ongoing eating routine and distinguish which food varieties to incorporate.
  • Certain food varieties have been related with decreasing uneasiness and other emotional wellness issues. These food varieties include:
  • green tea
  • dim chocolate
  • salmon
  • yogurt
  • Remain socially drew in and get support
a fearful woman covering her mouth
Don’t Think!

Focus on keeping areas of strength for an organization. This could seem to be a little gathering of close, confided in companions or a more extensive net. Social communications can occupy you from your own stressors and give you somebody to go to when you want to talk.

Investing energy with loved ones who you have a solid sense of security and agreeable around can assist with restricting social tension. It can likewise give a place of refuge to share sentiments and stresses to keep them from developing inside you.

You could likewise find it supportive to associate with other people who are managing nervousness. You’re not restricted to face to face association, all things considered. You can connect on the web, on the telephone, or through video talk.

Need a Little Extra Help Try These Resources:

  • Uneasiness and Sadness Relationship of America
  • Psychological well-being America
  • The Clan Wellbeing People group
  • Elective treatment choices

There are numerous ways of treating uneasiness that exist outside customary medication. These may not work for everybody, and not every one of them are upheld with research. Notwithstanding, it tends to enable to investigate your choices, and you may very well find another methodology that makes a difference.

Needle therapy

-Utilization of needle therapy to help tension is filling in prevalence. Needle therapy is an old Chinese treatment millennia.

During a needle therapy meeting, an expert will embed little, slight needles into pressure focuses on your body. Coming down on these focuses is remembered to adjust the body’s frameworks, lessening agony and stress.

2018 exploration Believed Source recommends needle therapy might be a protected and viable elective method for reducing uneasiness. Nonetheless, specialists concur more examination is expected to decide its viability.

Massage

A massage is the act of utilizing hands, strain, and contact to ease agony and stress in the body. There are many kinds of back rub, and frequently a permit is expected to work as a masseuse.

  • Famous kinds of back rub are:
  • Swedish back rub
  • Shiatsu rub
  • Sports rub

Trigger point treatment

2014 examination on patients who have gone through heart medical procedure proposes rub is a powerful approach to altogether lessen wellbeing related tension.

Creature helped treatment

Creature helped (pet) treatment is a kind of treatment that integrates the human-creature security into an individual’s emotional well-being treatment plan. Progressively, creature helped treatment is presented by psychological wellness specialists.

Normal treatment creatures include:

  • Canines
  • Felines
  • Ponies
  • Pigs

During creature helped treatment, you might be brought together with a canine, feline, pony, pig, or other creature. You might collaborate with this creature during treatment meetings, or you might get a proposal for a help creature, for example, one utilized for close to home or clinical help.

Specialists have found various advantages in animal comfort:

  • feeling less alone
  • feeling more good in friendly circumstances
  • lower generally speaking sensations of tension
  • Light treatment
  • Getting sufficient daylight, which contains vitamin D, means a lot to your general wellbeing.

Absence of legitimate daylight is related with numerous antagonistic wellbeing impacts, which can thus influence pressure and tension levels. Related conditions include:

  • type 1 diabetes
  • hypertension (hypertension)
  • particular sorts of malignant growth
  • asthma
Alzheimer’s infection

Focusing on getting sufficient daylight can help your state of mind and energy, which can decrease restless sentiments. While getting daylight, make certain to wear satisfactory sun insurance, including sunscreen and shades.

Counterfeit light treatments are progressively normal and have been related with various medical advantages. In any case, some actually stay disputable, and not all specialists concur they work.

Light treatment might include different shaded radiates (frequently red or blue) and is coordinated into planned meetings.

Different light treatments target:

  • gloom
  • states of mind
  • headache
  • skin issues
  • wound recuperating

A 2018 investigation of 58 epilepsy patients found day to day light treatment was helpful for lessening their tension and despondency.

Music treatment

For some individuals, music treatment might be a useful method for lightening or forestall sensations of uneasiness. All through mankind’s set of experiences, music has been utilized to calm, invigorate, and rouse.

Music advisors are specialists in showing individuals how to utilize music to help their emotional well-being.

Music treatment can seem to be:

  • paying attention to music all alone
  • working with a music specialist in individual meetings toward explicit objectives

Paying attention to music has been displayed to have a few advantages for your wellbeing, including:

  • bringing down pulse
  • assisting with rest
  • lessening tension

Regular cures

However the accompanying normal cures have been connected to decreased nervousness in certain examinations, more exploration is expected to demonstrate a conclusive supportive association. Nonetheless, many home solutions for tension and mind-set issues have for quite some time been famous and have a great deal of narrative help.

It’s vital to counsel a specialist prior to beginning any of the accompanying normal cures, particularly in the event that you have previous medical issue or are taking drugs. Regular solutions for uneasiness include:

  • CBD (comes in different structures)
  • chamomile (counting tea and oil)
  • magnesium
  • valerian root

Viewpoint

Everybody encounters uneasiness at some time. Uneasiness for the most part disappears once the setting off occasion is finished, yet it might repeat relying upon your life conditions.

A tension problem can turn into a drawn out condition. Whenever left untreated, tension problems can decline and significantly upset your life. Nervousness has been connected to an expanded occurrence of despondency and substance use issues, among other unexpected problems.

Living with Addiction

Why is it so hard to give ourselves what we need?

There are lots of people living with addiction. Some don’t know they are addicts, others just ignore it and try to lie to themselves, then there are the ones much like myself that fight it everyday. Living with addiction and knowing that at any moment’s notice that urge can overtake you if you let it. That has been the hardest thing to take control of. The one thing that is destroying you is the hardest thing to let go of. It has been hard to face myself and know that I deserve better, my daughter deserves better. I look at her and there are days when I just don’t feel strong enough for her. When I don’t feel good enough to keep fighting, those are the most difficult days for me. It’s so easy to forget about my life for just a moment and relieve all that stress and tension and just give in. However I realize that it takes a much stronger me to pull myself up and keep fighting.

It is not easy nor does it happen fast but if you can just give yourself the credit you deserve and stay strong then things are bound to get better. This is just a test to see if you’re ready for better things. Well are you? Good things don’t come to those who wait, good things come to those that are ready for good things. Fighting is much harder than giving in but it is so worth it. You are so worth it! Facing those demons is scary and it’s not easy, but the things that don’t come easy are the things in life that are worth fighting for. I can’t tell you where I’ll end up at times because the road is dark and weary, but I do know that through the cloud that is addiction it will be ok and so will you.

You are not alone, no matter how alone you feel there is someone that sees your worth and wants to pull you out of those murky waters. Take that hand and swallow your pride, shame and guilt and take the helping hand. It takes that first step up to get you on your feet again. Although that first step is the hardest one to take you don’t have to do it alone. You asked for strength and got a task that feels impossible but will make you stronger in the end for having fought for yourself and your freedom. Just know that you are valuable and you have a greater purpose even if you haven’t found it yet. Good things are coming but only if you are willing to accept them once they arrive. Keep fighting and you will prevail.

What is Insignificant

You can’t possibly believe that you are insignificant…..


I remember dreading going to school cause I had to wear hand-me-downs from my neighbors kids.
Yeah that wasn’t embarrassing getting on the bus with them and them making fun of me, needless to say
I got in a lot of fights, and learned not to take anybody’s shit. So don’t take anybody’s shit it’s not yours to deal with anyway, they got their own shit to handle.

  1. You can’t possibly believe that you are insignificant…..
    1. We’ll agree to disagree
      1. Judgemental
    2. Resistance
  2. Progression is thriving
  3. Choice is yours

That’s how I learned to love myself enough to be myself regardless of what anyone thinks…
Find your own crowd, people that think like you, that have similar goals, dreams, and can motivate you because they too are working on theirs. The people that give you good advice and don’t try to bring you down, are always going to be the best kind of crowd for the type of mindset you will need to grow.
Forget the ones that say you can’t or you shouldn’t.

You’re already on the right path, you don’t have to apologize for being you. You definitely don’t have to lower your standards to accommodate the ones around you. Don’t be afraid to raise your standards, because truth be told their probably not high enough. I mean if you think about and just look around it, the standards we have slowly slip away year after year. I hate to say it but my generation is the worse about not having respect and manners or consideration and tend to be rude like it’s normal and to them I suppose it would be.

We’ll agree to disagree

Now I post some things that people disagree with and that’s ok. If other people disagree with you, then that’s actually a good thing. It just means that you have different beliefs and opinions, and provides a different perspective. That’s how you learn and grow. I’ll always stand up for what I believe in but I’ll never fight you if you believe something different. I’d rather learn to understand your beliefs. Just make sure their you’re own beliefs and not someone else’s. So many have these beliefs that don’t align with
who they are, mostly because those beliefs were pushed onto them by someone else who thought that’s what they should believe only because they believed it.

End up wandering through life pissed off and unfulfilled because you believe something that doesn’t even make sense to you. You have to find your own path and know that’s what you want not anyone but you, Only you can give yourself more or better if you really want it. The world is becoming soft and we should never jeopardise our integrity by conforming to others. It’s really not worth the pain and suffering we endure especially when we don’t have to suffer. Follow your own path whatever that is and just do what you want have your beliefs and own who you are the people that love you will love you and the ones that don’t so what just keep going.

YOU WILL BE JUDGED!!!

It doesn’t matter what you do or how you act YOU WILL BE JUDGED. It should only matter to you, only you have the right to judge you. BE who you wanna be & do what you wanna do because people
will judge you anyway no matter what you do or don’t do, Don’t ever let others opinion of you dictate how you feel about yourself.

What you do is your preference you don’t have to live a lie to impress anyone Because you don’t have to impress anyone as long as you are happy as you are there’s no need to change if someone doesn’t like you oh well their loss and you don’t need them in your life anyway cause chances are they’ll 🤯🙄 just be extra baggage you don’t need anyway JUST BE YOU!!

Judgemental

It’s a little beneath us to label and judge people for speaking their truth isn’t it?
Yes I’d say it’s rather ignorant of you to do so actually. I mean just think about it, what makes you think you know any better and even if you do judging and labeling others isn’t going to do anyone any good whatsoever.

Instead you could act like you have some intelligence in that head of yours and actually hear the other views on life, politics,money, beliefs, experiences, and differences. As much as you may want to argue why you’re right, I think you should just realize how ignorant you are and how division is exactly what they want.

Just realize you can’t possibly know what you don’t know and the world has been programming us to be this way since god knows how long. Most of us are either experiments, or are fucking puppets to a society that is following the wrong leaders for all the wrong reasons. Most of this may not make a lot of sense but to the ones that do get it, Is it harder knowing??

For me NO it’s easier, Knowing is what allows me to go forward with such certainty that tomorrow will be better than today and If we disassemble this madness from the inside then my purpose will be fulfilled and my kid saved. My point to this message today is don’t be so quick to judge or think you know something is rubbish or not. Just consider it to be possible.

Resistance

Right or wrong doesn’t matter, it really isn’t relevant. What’s relevant is what you think you know and what you really have no idea about. It’s been an interesting period of resistance this last week of two, it seems I’m not the only one that has felt this, but it’s been the greatest stage of resistance I’ve felt in quite some time.

In fact I’d have to say the whole year, the idea of you vs you had come into play more so than ever since being on this journey. This year so far has been a pivotal part in my journey of becoming, discovery and realisation. Especially in people’s greed, and just how much of it there is in the world.
A slight sense of stagnation, seems to have become present.

Greed & Scarcity


Greed is something that has existed within the human condition for as long as we have been a species inhabiting this planet. it’s often something that stems from our deficit needs way of thinking, The survival, fight or flight narrative. In the times of early cavemen, small tribes scattered across the lands and would fight within there small bubbles for survival to get food, shelter, protection and warmth, because that was seemingly there only option. At this point humans had never been more connected to nature, the very thing they are a part of.

But as time went on, they began to discover build and grow, small villages maybe 3-5 small straw and mortar huts somewhere within a canyon trail or a top a cliff’s edge.
Slowly they began to realise they were not the only ones out there, building, growing, there were others.
The art of growth itself implies to take or gain resource to contribute to something bigger, however the origin of such resource is often an uncertainty in such scarce times, but that’s just it.

This is seemingly why there is so much greed in the world today, people are so used on there own small bubbles of reality trying to get by in pure desperation, disregarding others in the process. Not realising there is much more, it’s around us all the time 24/7, but to notice these nuances is something else entirely, that takes a bit of work.

We have created a world that is far to advanced for the current way of thinking, now this is not to say that we must go back to basics and stop this progress. But as human population we must up our game, our minds. Like the complex pieces of technology they are in all there glorious intricacy.

The fear of not making progress leading to a scarcity mentality, then leading to lack of progress. Sounds rather silly when you think about it, it kind of is. A scarcity based mindset is one of biggest and quickest ways to fall into greed and self interest, the Fear of lack, of missing out, of failing. Ultimately results in operating within a needs based way of thinking, survivalist mentality. Self interest and desperation.
But nothing more than that. Quite like that of a caveman and his family in the wilderness. However we are in very different times.

There was no governance in such times as the cavemen era, at most a minor family dynamic, but society didn’t exist, we were yet another species on the earth doing what it does quite like any other. Simply smashing through the ranks of the food chain. But at this point in history to say we were at the top of that chain would be a massive lie.

The point is we now live in a world where it’s not longer about surviving but about thriving, these two things are not the same at all. To thrive implies to be progressive in every aspect, to be navigating life in a way that no longer hinders your potential but accelerates it, yet people remain within there survivalists way of thinking in a world that renders it obsolete.

Progression is thriving

This isn’t necessarily going to happen in the ways you thought or hoped it would. But progress nevertheless. It’s like trying to thrive in the kind of world we lived in thousands of years ago. But I’m today’s world. What else are you expecting to happen. You can begin to see now why this great stagnation has been bestowed upon humanity across the board. We have let this happen. The tribe leaders. Or now so the “powers that be” understand this. And have capitalised on this.

Convincing us that we must “survive” as opposed to thriving. Where we are stagnant, even regressive in our evolution. If you try to adapt to a life that no longer exists but is in fact a fragment of a much larger past in humanity. The results of that will reflect on the progress or lack of progress.

Within your mind just look at how many unhappy people there are in the world struggling with mental health, that’s enough on it’s own to suggest something is fundamentally going wrong in the way we live.
Now I don’t know about you guys. But I think it’s about time we got up to speed with the current times.

“Get with it” per say.

And unfortunate as it may be for some of your to hear, that isn’t going to include being wrapped up in cotton wool. If we begin living like we are in a future we know lies over the horizon. Our minds will reflect that. It’s part of evolution within our very fibres to always progress and discover more. Problem is we just let the small minority of people do the discovering and action taking.

Now there in control. We all have that very same capacity. It’s about time you got the f*** out of your own way and started capitalising on that. We’re not cavemen anymore. We’re limitless. Stop trying to survive. Start thriving. Stagnation. Progression. Systematically both cannot occur in the same instance.

Choice is yours

Go forward with such certainty that tomorrow will be better than today and If we disassemble this
madness from the inside then my purpose will be fulfilled and my kid saved.
To thrive implies to be progressive in every aspect, to be navigating life in a way that no longer hinders your potential but accelerates it, yet people remain within there survivalists way of thinking in a world that renders it obsolete.

It’s like trying to thrive in the kind of world we lived in thousands of years ago. But I’m today’s world. What else are you expecting to happen.
But you can begin to see now why this great stagnation has been bestowed upon humanity across the board. We have let this happen. The tribe leaders. Or now so the “powers that be” understand this. And have capitalised on this.

China’s Collapse Will Affect Us All

Are we on the verge of a global economic collapse?

  1. Are we on the verge of a global economic collapse?
  2. The Real Estate Bubble
    1. Pumping money into the economy only prolongs the inevitable
    2. What about their stock exchange?
  3. Go here to get your free crypto for taking the time to read until the end!

With Interest rates skyrocketing, injecting even more money into an economy as a last ditch effort to stay afloat just a little bit longer seems like the wrong way to go. China is not only experiencing one of the worst housing bubbles in history, but their economic slowdown has already begun to impact the rest of the world and there are some serious implications for all of us that you should be made aware of. It’s not a matter of if it is, but a matter of when and that is something that needs to be addressed.

Up until recently China was on an unstoppable trajectory set to overtake anyone or anything that’s been in it’s way. That’s because over the last 30 years China has been at the forefront of production international investment and rapid productivity all because of an exchange that occurred back in 1979 which gave China diplomatic relations with the United States and the rest of the world. All of a sudden China shared a common objective with the global economy.

With that door having been opened to money for it countries from around the world to invest in Chinese infrastructure, they took advantage of low cost labor and helped bring much needed funding to areas that were previously closed off. Even though this did bring down the cost for almost every item that we use today, China’s growth has been exceptional, with all the increased trade and worldwide investment 400 million people were lifted from poverty.

In addition to that their economy is now 11 times larger today than it was in 2001, however not everything was exactly as appeared. The more China grows the more powerful it became in relation to every other nation and they maintained tight control over their businesses the more regulation they deem necessary. The question isn’t If but more of when will it all collapse?

The Real Estate Bubble

The more difficult to join forces with members of the World Trade Organization reached the Chinese that provided an illegal state subsidies to businesses who are with the products discriminating against controlling supply chains. China will enforce strict lockdowns, maintain high regulation and anything in their power to prevent population from becoming infected.

It’s already begun to already make a huge difference. Chinese stocks have experienced the worst quarter in years. Their economy has begun to lose ground as local recession fears increase. Supply chains have continued to be severely impacted by the shortage and the growth is expected to be non existent. Dictation and isolation along with the challenge compounding even further onto the real estate market.

Just as China’s economy has been rapidly expanding nothing saw increases as large as the housing market percent from 2001 to 2017. The Chinese government recognized this becoming a major issue so they imposed regulations on who is able to get along but it was too little too late. March developers took advantage of all the real estate enthusiasm by selling 3 billion units that didn’t even exist.

With the assumption that they would be worth a lot more than the future by the time they were eventually complete citizens maybe they could cities as a way to store wealth it’s excessive demands meant that there is very little oversight to ensure that all of these properties were actually being built now in a market that’s constantly going up.

This wouldn’t be an immediate issue because developers could always raise more capital by selling and more pre built units but with sales having completely collapsed and their worst property downturn on record those previous projects are now being completely abandoned, leaving buyers defenseless and forcing them to make payments on a property that isn’t even being built. Finally the third nail in the coffin.

Pumping money into the economy only prolongs the inevitable

Wall Street Journal reports that from 2014 to 18 China’s debt has inflated by 20% annually housing prices are nearly twice the levels that led to the great financial crisis of 2008. Loosening lending requirements to ensure that growth is maintained at all costs even at the expense of the global economy. In terms of what we’re dealing with today and how this could lead to potentially another ticking time bomb here’s what’s happening right now as mentioned earlier in response to slowing growth and declining property market and falling demands.

China lowered interest rates to help stimulate more growth while at the same time pumping $60 billion into the financial system as a way to incentivize lending, however they reassure everyone that the government won’t roll out massive stimulus measures or put the financial system with too much new money that wouldn’t set name for stable prices and a relatively good economic performance. Once more that doesn’t exactly pair well with the realities as it grows estimates have been revised down and zero COVID policy has taken priority leaving China with an economy that now has even more room to fall and on the verge of collapse.

They’re president was expected to maintain a third term in power, recently he came on record to say that he would rather temporarily affect a little economic developments that dress harming people’s life safety and physical health especially the elderly and children. While others worry that this is simply a scapegoat to avoid much deeper issues of economic instability. Mainly the fear of spending money.

See in any growing economy you want people to feel comfortable and opting out their finances to buy more products then more money to borrow against their assets able to reinvest into growing infrastructure. With China’s weakening outlook of potential collapse, more people are holding back. Creating a self fulfilling prophecy and the prices are falling because people are not spending enough money that distributes itself.

pexels-photo-4386340.jpeg

These are government issued coupons that give discounts for shopping at various businesses. By offering an incentive to spend more money people will in fact spend more money. So in terms of making the numbers seem better than they are it’s working proponents as you know the insulation vouchers have boosted spending by three to 10 times their face value while others argue that it only helps the people who have the extra income to spend without addressing the root cause of the issue.

China’s economy is rapidly deteriorating, now when ordinary markets such a rate cut and injection of money into the economy would be seen as a bullish signal for almost anything but in this case it’s seen as a negative sign in a failing attempt to keep the economy running. Mortgage boycotts pop up and made people a lot more reluctant to buy a home leading of course the 28.8% fewer sales then it in turn reflects the loss of confidence in the housing market. Which in turn reflects the loss of confidence in the entire economy and that is something that cannot be solved with lower interest rates.

What about their stock exchange?

On top of that oil prices have also started to fall with the expectation that China’s economy is officially started to decline, after all China consumes 15% of oil and imports more crude than any other country. So when they’re slowing down the rest of the world yes of course, what does that mean watching and how would that affect all of us in the US?

Well lower world demand, you get cheaper prices at the gas pump although there are a few key points to watch out for. The first is through the delisting of Chinese stocks in the US Stock Exchange. In just the last few days five statement companies were removed from the US stock market citing high administrative burden costs as the reason for their decision. The timing comes just months after the SEC flagged those companies for failing to meet United States auditing standards leading to the assumption that may be more corrupt businesses. If you’re in the US it’s required that all companies follow strict disclosure requirements.

If they’re gonna be publicly traded and that includes a fully verified third party audit on a regular basis to ensure accuracy and transparency. This prevents disastrous scenarios like luck and party which was accused of falsifying financials, raising money in the US and then collapse once those numbers proved to be as sustainable.

As of now 261 Chinese stocks could be on the chopping block should they choose not to comply which is the reality that we should be prepared for. The SEC responded by saying that they’re reluctant to let overseas regulators and spent local accounting firms due to national security concerns and with the clock beginning to tick down, either China needs to comply or over $1 trillion could be delisted from our US based markets.

The second where is it it could take a long time to unfold since China publishes their own numbers and maintains an extremely tight grip on their economy. There is no guarantee that they can’t just keep kicking the can further and further into the future and they have the ability to inject as much money as needed to resolve this situation at least temporarily.

In a weird way trends slowing growth and global recession could help ease demand an upward price growth meeting with less resources being consumed. Inflation could begin to subside or even decline, none of these are very broad assumptions. Moving definitive of timeline for when they could unfold but it is a very worrying sign that we’re not gonna know the full effects of what’s to come until most likely it’s too late.

Go here to get your free crypto for taking the time to read until the end!

3 Reasons We Are Egotistically Driven

Why do we let our ego get our asses in hot water?!?! So you can hear the joke at the end 😉

Have you ever wondered why they say “hot water” instead of “cold water? I have and it’s just the same if you were to get your ass in cold water. Being egotistically driven isn’t always a good thing, but why are we then? I’d have to say it’s because of the suppression we’ve all been conditioned to. Of course we could argue that this world isn’t perfect but it’s the one that we have so we might as well make the best of it right? Isn’t it this form of thinking that has supported the non activity and suppression of the human spirit for so long? The more uncertain we become the more unconscious we become and what I mean by unconscious is not really thinking about the things that are more important. Being so focused on the things “we think” we need, and forgetting about the things we actually need.

  1. Why do we let our ego get our asses in hot water?!?! So you can hear the joke at the end 😉
  2. Why we are Egotistically driven
    1. How to become less egotistically driven

Lots of times we question our reality because it’s not the one that we created and we know that it doesn’t benefit us in the best way possible. Most of the time our pride gets in the way as well as our ego and we think we have to be right just so we can win an argument. However if you took a step back and instead of trying to win the argument try and learn something how much more different do you think that conversation would go instead of getting in an altercation, or a back and forth battle that goes nowhere. Instead, you could actually learn something you could put that knowledge to use one day. Only If you apply that knowledge will it become useful.

They’ve always said knowledge is power, however it’s really not,, it’s the effort put into the knowledge that makes it worthy of the power. I mean if you learn how to change a flat tire but never change a tire or teach someone else how to change a tire isn’t that really useless knowledge? So knowing that learning the only way to progress and grow it’s kinda silly to think we let our ego get the best of us and keep us from growing huh?

Egotistically driven

Why we are Egotistically driven

So my question to you is why do you let your ego get in the way? Why are we egotistically driven? Now this cannot be known for fact but as humans we’ve always been egotistically driven for quite some time if not always. It was just less noticeable 100 years ago because we were still too busy surviving and hadn’t got to a point yet when we were more socially involved. It matters more what someone thinks of you as opposed to if you can actually go and kill your own food for dinner tonight.

This causes for an even bigger ego as well. Although it is a choice to be egotistically driven or more spiritually guided, most feel like they can’t help it or it’s almost like instinctive to be egotistically driven. That’s because no we are always in a defensive mode with the world being in an uproar all the time and negativity always lurking. If we connect open-minded people with traditional communities, we will generate empowerment in both! In communities, through income generation, cultural and environmental appreciation and increased self-esteem. And in the visitors, an enrichment of how they perceive the world from embarking on our experiences.

How to become less egotistically driven

Life, reconnection, breathing and time – this is what we bring to the world. Everything that our busy day-to-day lives keeps us away from in a consumerist world that keeps spinning faster and faster.

We should brings a new meaning to travel: opportunities for positive impact in the receiving communities, personal transformation and reconnection with human values that are so important such as simplicity, togetherness and love.

Now you may not think of yourself as an enemy to yourself but you are more often than not you are actually against yourself all of the things that you can’t accomplish that barrier you can’t get past it’s caused from your own doing. Most of the time it’s subconsciously that we end up holding ourselves back without fully being aware that we’re doing so. Just try something new today ok and try to not have to be right. Accept something someone tells you with curiosity and awe.

Try letting your guard down and showing some well needed love to your friends or family. Above all live today as if it were your last….. Because you never really know do you?

1000 Deaths From Extreme Heat Waves

More than 1,000 deaths have been linked to the extreme heat waves in Portugal while in Spain it is at least 500. Firefighting helicopters were dropping water, one after the other. Winds in excess of 80km/h (49mph) have made it harder to contain the fire. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from surrounding areas, including eastern Gerakas, which is home to nearly 30,000 people.

More extreme heat is affecting the southern half of the UK with temperatures predicted to reach the mid 30s Celsius

I thought that all the fire hydrants were above ground turns out in the UK, It’s all neatly tucked away under drain covers so as not to get damaged. Even the most rural of properties has a supply of water which can be accessed by the fire brigade in an emergency. Its not well known but, some that are not near a mains water supply have reservoirs that the fire brigade regularly check and fill to make sure if something happens they can respond.

In Portugal, some 900 firefighters were fighting two active fires in the country’s far north.

Major fires have also affected Italy in the past days, causing the country to be put on its highest heatwave alert for Thursday. Italian infrastructure has also been heavily impacted, with temporary closure of a key rail route between Rome and Florence. As the heatwave moves north-eastwards, parts of Germany have recorded 38C (100.4F) on Wednesday.

Despite the heat waves, heavy rain, strong gusts of wind of around 100 km/h and even hail are forecast. Thunderstorms are also expected in Belgium.

Dry lightning strikes when there is less than 2.5mm (0.1in) of rainfall.

Scientists have identified the weather conditions that create dry lightning, which starts California’s most devastating wildfires.

These conditions can be modelled over the long term to better predict these very rare weather events.

And this will help governments and emergency services respond more quickly, as extreme wildfires increase in frequency and size.

The lower part of the Earth’s atmosphere – the troposphere – is so dry that the rain that normally comes with lightning evaporates before it falls.

Now, the scientists have identified the conditions that cause this:

  • higher land temperatures
  • dryness in the low troposphere
  • moisture and instability in the mid-troposphere
  • The high temperatures and dryness are also ideal conditions for vegetation to burn.

And climate change is expected to raise temperatures and reduce rainfall in California in coming years.

In August 2020, more than 12,000 dry-lightning strikes started over 650 wildfires across California, burning more than 1.5 million acres of land, with hundreds of thousands of people evacuated.

Lightning is suspect to have ignited the McKinney fire, the state’s largest this year, burning for the past week.

New Bill on climate control passed

Despite the US courts putting the environment last on the list, they managed to pass a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Which is another attempt at curbing fossil fuels and fuel emissions from power plants.

How will the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) work and what will it achieve in terms of reining in global temperatures?

Well this time they’re going with a tried and tested approach by putting it in the hands of consumers and voters.

Consumers will get incentives under the bill to purchase new and second-hand electric cars, to warm their homes with heat pumps and even to cook their food using electric induction.
Bidens promise
Electricity generators will get ten years of tax credits to supply more wind and solar power, which will lead to more renewable energy being supplied to the market. This will displace emissions-heavy gas and coal.

Although the US bill provides $370bn in climate spending, those of us in the Global South are wondering why the US and other rich countries have failed to keep their own promise to collectively provide $100bn of climate finance to poor and vulnerable countries by 2020. Track Global Temperatures

The war in Ukraine and global worries over inflation and fuel supplies next winter are dominating public concerns, despite the heat waves and droughts that are currently stalking the world.

There’s a way we can show definitively where this extra CO2 came from. The carbon produced by burning fossil fuels has a distinctive chemical signature.

Tree rings and polar ice both record changes in atmospheric chemistry. When examined they show that carbon – specifically from fossil sources – has risen significantly since 1850.

Analysis shows that for 800,000 years, atmospheric CO2 did not rise above 300 parts per million (ppm). But since the Industrial Revolution, the CO2 concentration has soared to its current level of nearly 420 ppm.

Computer simulations, known as climate models, have been used to show what would have happened to temperatures without the massive amounts of greenhouse gases released by humans.

The question remains will we be able to cut the necessary use of fossil fuels and reduce our emission output in enough time to slow the heating of the earth before it’s too far out of our control?

Balancing the Scales

How to handle resentment and unresolved issues!

It’s almost inevitable in any relationship even with yourself, to not have resentment that builds overtime. Most of the time it’s caused from unresolved issues. Either you’re not being heard, not speaking up, or just trying to ignore the issue. Over the course of your life you probably have more unresolved issues than you’d like to admit. (I know I did, hell still brewing a few) 😅 Nevertheless how do we start to solve the issues we aren’t even fully aware of? Problems always come from a much deeper place than just the surface. The only reason they go unresolved and build resentment is not being fully and consciously aware that they exist. So the question remains what can we do to resolve them and not let them cause havoc in our life? The answer is simple although it’s not easy.

ASK MORE QUESTIONS…

Say you’re irritable and taking your frustrations out on your significant other. (Subconsciously) you end up punishing yourself. However, you’re not really focused on finding out why you’re upset, There’s an internal part of you ( your subconscious) that’s always working against you. I’ve learned to listen more to my heart than my mind, but in order to do this, I have to remain very self aware. I’ve taken the time and effort to discover myself at my core and understand the why behind the why…. I’ve figured out all my triggers, all my deepest frustrations, my patterns, my core values and my BS which is what I call my (belief system).

I learned how to become neutral to others and their beliefs, not let them upset me or affect me as much. I did this by asking more and more questions about the thoughts I had and my language patterns. Changed what I did not like with habitual behavior and started to accept all of my flaws and imperfections and love who I am. Truth be told if we’re ok and can accept these flaws then these things are only a problem for others to accept. Just don’t change who you are to please others, because that only leaves you feeling unworthy and insignificant to whoever you rely on for emotional support.

Balancing the scales
Download a list of fundamental values

Resentment is created from our resistance!

When we aren’t even honest with ourselves half the time how are we supposed to be honest with each other? More often than not we tell ourselves little white lies from our subconscious, just so we can feel better about the person we are and the decisions that we make. You’d have be a freaking saint if you’ve never done anything, that later you felt ashamed of, at least once in your life, right? I think we’ve all been there. So going back to that feeling of shame and guilt, allow that feeling to exist within you. If you just sit with yourself and allow yourself to feel the sadness and regret for a few minutes. By doing this unique method our body, mind and spirit realign and balances out the scales within the universe. Otherwise not taking the time to “deal” with that emotion only creates resistance within us at our core and our subconscious.

Fundamental Core Values

We know at our core that what we did we should be ashamed of because of our belief system (which can be changed btw). However, now because we didn’t take that time of pain and discomfort (as our subconscious knows we should be punished for the shame), it now creates our own self destruction path because it is still trying to resist that feeling of shame. It’s now an internal conflict that creates a punishment within ourselves. This is why it’s so very vitally important that we work out these core values of ours and make sure the decisions we make align us with who we are at our core self. Having these core values allows us to really discover who we are fundamentally and why.

Core Values

So what are core values and why are they so important?

Core values are what you believe, and they represent a person’s highest priorities. They are traits or qualities within all of us that make us unique. Some examples of pretty common core values are:

  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Honor
  • Loyalty
  • Responsibility
  • Courage
  • Honesty
  • Love
  • Dignity

You can set a good example just by having the most important core values and actually living by those values. It allows you and others a smoother friendship as well as helps you feel like a good person. Having core values is especially important when you have kids. As parents we want better for our kids and teaching them the fundamental core values and meaning of those values will only benefit both parent and child. There are different kinds of values, such as;

Personal Values – Behavioral and Traits:

Personal Values – Rights and Causes

Life Values – Core Values

As a race, we are beginning to ask questions, more powerful and incisive questions about who we are and why are we here. These questions are both taking us down a dark rabbit hole of uncertainty and fear – as well as helping us ascend into the light.
It’s a time of deep introspection and exploration into the very nature of who we are as individuals and as a race. How we choose to represent ourselves in this life and in the universe, as well as an investigation into exactly how deep the rabbit hole goes in societal terms. What has brought us to this point of the abyss or ascension?

The problem for each and everyone of us is a simple question, that will determine the future of the human race. The most important question of our lives, and it’s only now
that we get to ask it of ourselves in earnest… Can we accept that we can be more than we are? This is a difficult personal question for all of us to answer, as by association this means we’ve been less than we could have been — and thus we are less than we can be.
Egotistically, this is very difficult to accept for most people in an actionable way, as illusory superiority twists our perspective reality away from our potential.

So set in our ways of personal limitation and identity are we, that we deny to ourselves our birthright of what the true nature of freedom is. The freedom to explore ourselves and the
experience of life, beyond what we’ve been conditioned to or suppressed by. Unfortunately, society psychologically lobotomizes people (including you and me) so they conform to its structures of certainty and behaviour to serve its energetic agenda.

It does this to us from around the age of five in many ways that become part of our identities, so we lose exactly who we really are and forget our potential in terms
of our capacity to live in a state of joy, peace, curiosity, love and wonderment.

Consequently, we fall asleep, and in that slumber we are reluctant to wake as our minds languish in a state of unconscious conformity to a world that makes no sense,
but asks us to live in non-sense and inversion. For some, they thank their lucky stars for their mental prisons, that allow them to navigate a world with pain and suffering inside and outside, so long as they don’t see it in front of them — as it makes them uncomfortable — it reminds them on a very deep level of what they’ve traded in for the addiction to having and not being.

Meaning, Purpose and Destiny

In this limited way, they can move within an inauthentic social identity avatar that is primarily restrictive and self-serving, unconsciously creating their projected reality through the words and thoughts of their daily lives. Thus the mind becomes a prison, a place of security and a sense of certainty — that simply cannot look beyond the shores of what we call an “island of certainty in the sea of eternity”. In this state, we unconsciously choose to look the other way, and deny that there is anything more to our existence.

The inverted societies we live within happily confirm this state of ignorance in every way possible, so we conform to a useful social role and a life that makes no sense beyond being a generator of wealth and an unconscious consumer without the thought of WHY? The why behind the why behind the why behind the why behind the why … and that’s where the core values come into the picture. See if we are grounded by our fundamental core values and live by them without selfish monetary gain, then we’d be a lot happier. I have found that the more aligned with who we are at our core gives us more of a satisfaction. A satisfaction that most people are steadily chasing and are left empty and depressed.

It’s not easy to find your purpose in life and most don’t until later in life if at all. However a bit of soul searching and unplugging from the world while you do it, helps tremendously. We are all to distracted by things that shouldn’t matter yet somehow we don’t even know how we got here. Before you go out into the world all willie nillie without a plan or strategy in place you should know, that kind of instability will lead you right back to square one every time. Take some time for yourself, find out what you like doing and what you’re good at doing as well as what makes you feel good about yourself. Doing something more with ourselves fills a void that keeps us from spiraling into darkness and depression.

Having more isn’t necessarily being more…..


Side Hustles – Affiliates

There are many many network marketing companies you could join and make decent money as a side hustle. There are also plenty of affiliate marketing programs as well. Here I’ll go over the few I recommend. Now most of these consider it starting a business and if you ever wanted to make some serious money with any of these, I would suggest making it a full time gig.

WordPress

So first we have a wordpress site which you could start a blog or even an informational site. With all the plugins available now you can even have an e-commerce site. There are a number of sites you could actually set up…..

With all the choices of plugins you can make money from google adsense if you create a good enough site and start having lots of foot traffic that is. WordPress makes it really easy to create a site and as I said they have all kinds of plugins for any site you could possibly want. The best part is it’s free to start. A great automated side hustle if you ask me. I would also recommend wealthy affiliate as well. They have all the things that wordpress does only you don’t have to pay extra for it like you do with wordpress.

Now there are some downfalls to this and that is the amount of time and effort building a site yourself if you don’t know how it’s done. It takes a lot of effort to figure everything out and causes a lot of frustrations and wasted time. However like any business it does require your time and effort. In the end it ends up being worth it considering all you have to do is update the content regularly and post new content and after it’s all set up. you got yourself a reoccurring stream of income.

Day Trader

Next up is a day trader , and a day trader either learns the markets or loses a lot of money and quits. The best things about becoming a day trader is the amount of freedom and money it gives you if taken seriously. There’s an academy that I would highly recommend called IM academy . They are inexpensive and that’s where I learn, trade took me a about 4 months to learn the strategy that I now make a decent living from. Although it does take discipline and patience so if you don’t have at least one of those 2 qualities day trading probably isn’t for you. However if you would be willing to learn just one strategy like myself you could afford to quit the job you hate with a family to take care of as well as yourself and live like a king. Disclaimer: This is not financial advice nor am I a financial advisor, and results from trading really all depends on your willingness to learn the trade.

Affiliate Marketing

There are no shortages of affiliate programs you could join and make good money from. Just about every site you use and go to has an affiliate button at the bottom of their page. You can sign up and send them traffic and get paid. This is a really good way to make money. Clickbank is one of the oldest places to sign up as an affiliate for multiple products. Most people starting out as an affiliate like to start there.

Youtuber

You could become a youtuber and make videos. It could be on anything you want from informational videos, reviews and or your very own course. You could get someone from upwork to create your banner and logo for your channel. Being a youtuber could be a fun side hustle. Or you could get a software like prezentar.

Why do expectations always hurt?

For most people expectations cause disappointment, but that’s mostly based on their current perspective of things. In all fairness expectations don’t usually cause disappointment, having expectations that are too high do. See it’s ok to have dreams and dream big, however not having small goals within reach causes people to fail or give up. Expectations are almost inevitable to have. They can be good or bad depending on how you’re looking at things really. They also cause one to work harder than the bare minimum. The way to lower your expectations without lowering your standards is don’t put the bar so high to begin with. Work your way up to the bigger goal with smaller goals to achieve first. Now I do understand that maybe your expectations are of a person. Maybe a friend, or relative, and in this case just try to remember the only person whom you can control is yourself.

It’s good to have expectations as long as they aren’t devastatingly disappointing. In my own personal experience as long as you’re not to hard on yourself when you fail you won’t have much disappointment. However having this disappointment causes us not to keep trying or at least try again. Failure happens but only when you give up or quit. Sometimes our expectations aren’t our own expectations at all, rather someone else’s expectations of us. Most people tend to never live up to their own expectations but that’s because we try to go for the bigger goal first then it seems too far away to even reach.

Sometimes just roll the dice and see where they land!!!

I’m certain that if we weren’t so hard on ourselves when it comes to our own expectations of ourselves then there would be a lot less disappointment in the world. Just accept what is and what isn’t and go with the flow of things and you’ll find more joy in life that way. As for the standards you have and set for yourself they will probably always be different than whoever isn’t living up to yours and that’s ok. Expectation is defined as believing that something is going to happen or believing that something should be a certain way. An example of expectation is a belief that you will be getting promoted. An example of expectation is a belief that you should behave as a proper lady or gentleman.

Some examples of expectations:

  • Life should be fair. …
  • Opportunities will fall into my lap. …
  • Everyone should like me. …
  • People should agree with me. …
  • People know what I’m trying to say. …
  • I’m going to fail. …
  • Things will make me happy. …
  • I can change him/her.
  • I can’t change my life
  • Everyone should be nice

Social acceptance isn’t a must, it isn’t even a need. honestly we should learn to accept ourselves before expecting others to.

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and any suggestions for future post you might like to see.

4 responses to “Why do expectations always hurt?”

Worthy

Being good enough is more or so based on what you feel is your worthiness. We often judge ourselves too harshly and this results in a less confident self image. If you feel like your life has no meaning or you aren’t valued then chances are you don’t have a purpose. When you have a purpose then you feel worthy of the life you were given. Becoming more than you are enables you to become more of the person you were meant to be.

One of the things people ask me quite often is how do I find my purpose? The answer is always this “You find you’re purpose when you become fulfilled.” Becoming fulfilled means accepting all that you are all that you’ve ever been and the fact that you can do more with yourself and your life if that’s really what you want. They’re are very few people that find that fulfilment, that is absolutely blissful , however the ones that do happen to work everyday to keep that mind-space open.

It takes extreme discipline to feel the worthiness that most people crave and yearn for. Most people never really get to live up to their own worthiness because the discipline it takes to get there is just to hard for them to keep trying. So the lesson here is the best things in life are worth it if you think it’s worth it. Sometimes we fake it till we make it, meaning we pretend to be happy until it becomes real. So telling yourself you’re amazing everyday, eventually you start to believe it then it becomes true.

It’s easy to get distracted or pulled off course and out of your comfort zone. That’s where the most accomplished dreams are met, in the sea of uncertainty. Once you experience that freedom you get when you just let go of all the “what if’s” and “I don’t knows” and just enjoy the experience. That’s really where all the joyous times in your life happen, when you’re just simply experiencing life. If you are completely consumed by life instead of directing and producing your own story then you will end up missing out on your life.

Make sure to surround yourself with people that appreciate the value you bring to the table. Also find the things that make you feel good like helping others and being a good person when it counts. Get on the good side of Karma and you will be rewarded. Most importantly make sure you’re giving yourself credit where credit is due, and celebrate your wins. If you do something you should be proud of then make sure you take that moment to pat yourself on the back. You don’t have to judge yourself so hard, nor try for perfection because some thing are just enough.


10 Things you can do to feel more Worthy

  • Help others
  • Be proud of your accomplishments
  • Do more for others in your life
  • Donate your time or money to a good cause
  • Surround yourself with appreciative people
  • Write a book to help someone else
  • Do something worth wild and unexpected
  • Go on a trip
  • Create a community or a following with your knowledge
  • Tell yourself daily that you are worthy

The Need For Validation

You may feel like you need the approval of others when really you don’t. Accepting yourself flaws and all are very powerful and eliminate the need for validation. Your flaws are actually only flaws to others, maybe you’ve been told you’re too big or have a big head. So now you think your head is too big for your body. Truth is if you can accept it for the way it is then it’s no longer a problem.

man in brown coat and gray backpack posing for a photo
What is your opinion of yourself?

Something you should probably be more conscious of is why do you need validation? If other people’s opinion about you affects your own opinion, then try and figure out why. Is it because you are a people pleaser, or you just like the feeling of acceptance? Either way understanding why will help you to change it. Chances are you just want to be accepted but if you can accept yourself 100% then other people’s opinion of you won’t bother you. Then you’ll no longer find yourself changing who you are to fit someone else’s narrative.

Finding out what about yourself is your own opinion or someone elses is also very important. My advice would be to figure out all the things you like or don’t like about yourself then ask why. If you ask why and get an answer that isn’t “because Jamie told me so” or “well my mother always said” and it’s legitly because of your own formed opinion then you can choose to change it or accept it. I’d just accept it because you have to remember we’re not perfect and there’s no such thing.

Trying to please others just ends up with you being sad all the time. You have to find a way that you can be happy even if that means others are unhappy. We simply can not please everyone especially if in the end you’re the one that’s sad. Sometimes we compromise for others even though they aren’t willing to do the same for us. This is called people pleasing and it’s a bad habit. It’s ok to sacrifice for others that are willing to do the same for you but the others will just end up a dissapointment.

When you realize just how much you depend on others opinion, it can be quite scary to know you’re putting your happiness in their hands that often. It’s no wonder we are so unhappy, when we are making it someone else’s responsibility to make us happy. You really should never give someone else that much control over how you feel about yourself. So what if they think you are bossy or opinionated or shy, remember that’s only their opinion and that doesn’t make it a fact. It definitely doesn’t mean it’s something you have to accept as your truth.

We change and evolve constantly and so will our own opinion of oneself. We will adapt and adjust as we grow and learn to fit our own narrative. Just make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and not because of someone else’s judgment.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Steve Jobs

The 6 Dynamics of Life

We are going to explore the 6 dynamics of life: personal, social, environmental, situational, universal, and finally spiritual. The impact they have on our daily lives and the impact each one has on how we grow and evolve over the years. It will help us in expanding our world veiw as well as get in touch with our inner selves

PERSONAL DYNAMICS

We speak more than 15,000 to 16,000 words a day. 15-16k…a lot! Words have enormous power. We can create or destroy with these words. It’s just a matter of our choice; create or destroy? While time is an opinion, it can be of the essence in this case as our lives are at stake and at some point we will have to stand up and make a decision. Stop putting off the inevitable. We create our own reality through our thought and language patterns. So how can we create the reality we want? How can we make our minds more agile and unleash our limitless creativity? The first step is to understand why we think the way we do in the first place. These thoughts come from somewhere, they come from the unconscious conditioning we have received throughout our lives through which we create for ourselves the perspective reality of this limited life.

To remove these limitations, we need to understand our language patterns. Let’s make our own rules. Everything we do and say is programmed, and the more we act, the more we plan our minds to see the big picture of infinite possibilities instead of blinding us to our full and infinite Hypotheses for exploiting potential. We all have this infinity inside of us, it’s just that it’s adjusted by us to fit the constraints and needs of society to make us happy like this.

But that’s just a small part of life. For us. When we put the heart in the right place with the right intentions, we start to say that there is no such thing as a box – hell with boxes. By opening this box, our minds become free – free to allow our minds to be more creative and agile.

In unpacking (layers peeling off), we begin to unpack all the thoughts in our minds and begin to question them. Why do I have this idea? what does that mean?

Search allows us to shift our personal drive from negative to positive. To better understand the gifts the universe has to give.

If we wake up in the morning and say to ourselves, “What can I learn today?” Not just for knowledge, but for experience to change ourselves from who we are, to who we are meant to be – someone, who is every fiber of his existence is absolutely infinite.

SOCIAL DYNAMICS

We have an adoptive perspective reality which means everything is not as it appears to be. Life, ones growth is about being able to become more objective so one doesn’t continue to allow the subjectiveness of what is happening around him or her to tint the lease of perception. It’s in that spark of clarity where one begins to realize that there is way more to life that what her or she made it out to be more. Way to more to us than what we have been believing there is to be. It’s in those moments where one gets the strength and courage to start asking questions. How does one know what questions to ask? Maybe just as long as one starts to actually ask questions because those questions will lead to other questions which will lead to other questions and so on and so on. Just ask a question. That’s all it takes is one question to get the ball rolling on a journey that is the most beautiful mind, body, and soul experience one could ever experience.

We must learn though to become neutral on this journey. After all, if one is going to start asking questions, one also has to be prepared that he or she is going to be presented to perspectives that are going to be way different than what they have been carrying around for so many years. It’s asking oneself; “is it fair to ask someone to be open to my view point when I cannot be open to theirs”? When someone is challenged and one hears something that is a trigger point, one runs the risk of becoming stagnant. Now, there are many many reasons why this could bet, but the biggest one of these are fear and doubt. One may feel doubt of where their path is leading them and they stop asking questions. One may feel fear because they are afraid of not being accepted.

The key is to keep pushing forward no matter what curveballs may be thrown in our way. Are we going to duck and avoid getting hit by those curveballs or are we going to find our footing and just take a swing and see what happens? The only way we strike out in life is by dropping the bat, walking away and giving up. Just ask yourself this one question; You made it this far, don’t you think you’re still worth fighting for and never giving up on yourself?

ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMICS

The environment we place ourselves in influences our way of thinking a great deal. And knowing what I do know, the more toxic that environment is, the less and less we are going to be able to recognize our true potential and the more the core of who we are is going to be suppressed. The flow of our creativity gets turned off therefore we’re not able to think as clearly, faster, or more strategically. How does that solve anything? It doesn’t.

It’s also about surrounding ourselves with more like minded and uplifting individuals. From my own personal experience, this has allowed me to express myself in ways that I’ve never dreamed of, that I haven’t been able to before. Which has expanded on my confidence and now I don’t hold back when I have an idea to share or question to be asked. There’s such freedom and clarity in that and that allows us to become more strategic, more creative, and a more expansive worldview than what is right in front of our very eyes.

There are many environments that one can not only take themselves out of, but place themselves into that will allow them to grow leaps and bounds beyond their current perspective reality. It’s just a matter of reaching that breaking point and saying to him or herself that if they truly want to make a difference in their lives and therefore in the world, a change must be made. And that change must first start from within by not denying oneself the opportunity by wanting to learn and explore the world around us.

Imagine then what we can achieve as a collective when we call all come together? And we start by coming together to ask questions about why things are they way they are which will allow us to come up solutions on how we can resolves the issues that are plaguing society today. The social issues we could solve is quite extensive: world hunger, poverty, homelessness, civil rights, health care – you get the picture.

I can’t think of a more beautiful, more inspirational thing than to come together as one heart, one mind in co-creating a better world.

SITUATIONAL DYNAMICS

Our situation is always changing. Always ebbing and flowing within our current environment. However due to the environments that we have been exposed to, a majority of people have become so resistant to change that it may be hard for them to see that the situation is ever changing. Or even for that matter that even our environment is even changing because of the situations we find ourselves in.

Change is an inevitable part of life. We can fight it kicking and screaming all we want. But maybe a question to ask is why do some find it so difficult to accept change? Is it because they may find it hard to accept themselves? If they cannot accept themselves, then how are they able to accept the changes going on around them? If they are denying themselves who they really are, then of course they are going to deny anything to do with change.

When we accept that everything does and will eventually change, it is because then it becomes easier to adapt to the new situation that is being presented to us and therefore we become more agile in our thinking since changes are all about being able to pivot and adjust, even at a moment’s notice.

The more we work with the mind, it’s actually there to help us, the more and more powerful it becomes. The more we fight against the power of our minds, the more and more in the left side thinking of our brain we go into.

We don’t have to use one side of the brain more than the other. Why not let both sides come together to create this beautiful synchronicity of consciousness.

UNIVERSAL DYNAMICS

Taking the mind out of where we are and placing it where it can be, in the infinite loop of possibilities and perspectives that make up the dynamics of life. No one possibility or perspective is greater than the other, there is no right or wrong. Just an acceptance that in asking better quality questions and expanding our world view beyond what is playing on the TV that evening, we really can be more.

There is an entire universe out there to be explored, and not just in the cosmos, but as part of a collective consciousness. In exploring the dynamics that make us who we are and why we are the way we are. Exploring others for who and why they are the way they are. It’s not about accepting one particular viewpoint as truth, as the end all be all, as that will absolutely keep us limited in our world view. Life is all about the acceptance and understanding that there are way more vantage points and layers to explore billions upon billions about how and why life is the way it is. We could have a discussion for an entire week and barely even begin to scratch the service, we’re just that expansive. Yes, I include us in that because we are part of a life force after all.

When I was sitting on the music pier last night watching the waves after some rain moved through, I could see a storm off in the distance out over the ocean. It was dark and to see the sky light up that way was really one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Besides the most amazing sunset I saw the night of the fireworks. It’s about being in the present moment and shutting out all the noise. It’s about looking up every so often because you never know what you will see over the horizon, what amazing colors you are going to see that will just leave you speechless and take your breath away.

SPIRITUAL DYNAMICS

Why do we think the way we do and where do these thoughts come from?

A couple of deep questions for someone who may be just starting out in expanding their mind and moving from the shell identity to our core identity. But then again, who is our core identity exactly? To put it simply; our core identity, the heart and soul of who we are, is someone who is a beautiful soul who is ever growing and evolving into a person who has let go of the limitations so they can finally feel that limitless love and acceptance for themselves.

Given the dynamics that we are in, it does take a lot of courage to break free from that box of conditioning. Why is that? Is it because we are afraid of change? Afraid of that we will no longer be accepted by friends and family?  Then again maybe we should be asking ourselves why it’s so freaking important to us to be accepted by others to begin with? Why should we want to be accepted by those who have confined us to, up until now, a lifetime of limitations and conditioning so we’re basically not able to think for ourselves?

It’s having that love and respect for ourselves to break free from that box, because when we start letting go of all that toxic stress and start to flip the narrative on our thoughts, it allows us to clear the mind to the point where we can actually hear ourselves think therefore paving the way for us to being able to ask those questions that have been bubbling at the surface. The more questions we ask, the more answers we get therefore the more we are going to discover about how our minds work, who we want to be, and about life. We are the ones who hold the key to unlock that power source of infinite adventure and passion for wanting to learn and explore not only who we are, but who we are meant to be and what life, at its core is all about which is love. For everything begins with love.

For when we connect with something so deeply, there is no doubt that we are on the right patch. It lights us up like a Christmas tree inside. We feel all giddy like a kid in a candy store on our birthday. It’s as if our hearts literally begin to sing and our soul takes that big sigh of relief and we envision ourselves running through a field of sunflowers chasing after butterflies.

Written By: Carla

What If…..

How “what if” becomes possibility instead of a fear.

Most of the time when we think “yeah but what if” and it’s usually because we are thinking of everything that can go wrong. What if you could flip that into a positive wonderment? How would that change things for you? I’m sure it would probably shift things pretty dramatically for you huh? It’s all about perspective, and the more positive one you have the better the results will be that’s called your life. So what if you thought in wonderment as we did when we were children before we got to know just how tough the world really was? Back when we used to imagine what it would be like as an adult and could do whatever we wanted.

Here’s the thing WE CAN!! See maybe we aren’t little kids anymore but we can still dream, still imagine and still have wild thoughts. I sit here and I think “what if” all the time but I’m only thinking about all the possibilities for me and my life. Most people don’t really know their own potential, and I’m sure I don’t give myself the deserved credit so I don’t even know my own potential. We as a whole are almost none exsistant, what do I mean by that I mean most of society only thinks of what’s right in front of them right then. We are to consumed by what someone did or how we feel about something that we don’t think about the big picture which is everyone is a part of life the same as you. We all make a major diffrence in the world and are stronger together.

So what if there was no such thing as money? How would things work then and could we all survive and still have a healthy planet with less polution and more happiness? I think so simply because people would only have to do some work to make sure things ran smoothly. People would then only take what they needed, no more no less. Wastfulness is caused by greed and if you take more than you need chances are you won’t use it all or it will just go to waste. Of course there would need to be a system that provided us with the essentials faily easily.

What really matters to you, because after you’ve clumb that latter of success and are at the top what and the thrill wears off then what? You have to ask yourself what really matters and what doesn’t. Eventually nothing material will matter as if it ever did anyway. So ask yourself what matters to me now and should be more important than money. Family, and who you are is more important than any assets you can aquire and working more will not fulfil you and will not bring you joy. Finding joy isn’t something you have to look for it is something that is already here inside you and all around you. Being happy with yourself as you are is joyful.

Only You Can Choose

Why aren’t you choosing what you want?

Things become very clear what you need to do but for some reason it isn’t what you want to do. This causes major conflict within. You begin to doubt yourself and what’s really right and wrong. It’s not really about what’s right or wrong but then again it is. You see if you’re doing something you know is wrong but it’s what you want you’d still be unhappy no matter how hard you try to be happy. Sometimes you just have to take a chance and do what you want for once because if you don’t you’ll end up being unhappy anyway.

Much of the time the only reason we are unhappy with our decisions is for the way we are all connected as humans and it’s hard to accept hurting someone else and there’s always someone that’s going to be unhappy with your decision. It’s your choice though and you cannot please everyone and yourself. I understand it may affect someone else with your decision and it’s ok to feel a bit of resistance to just go for it. However the best things in life come from being uncomfortable and making those hard decisions. Just remember it’s your life not theirs and only you have to be able to live with the decision you make.

So the question becomes can you live with yourself and the decision you made? What are the benefits? What are the pitfalls? What is an outcome? Is it what you want for you or what someone else wants? Why do you want what you want and is that reason good enough to go after it? Not all things in life come easy, as a matter of fact most things that are worth anything in life are hard and you have to work at it. Personally I have been a real piece of work myself and it’s hard at times to be ok with who I am now. Not because I’m a bad person or anything but because I care so much of others that It hurts me when I need to make a decision for me but it affects them in some negative way.

I try to convince myself that it’s ok and for the right reasons and I cannot be held responsible for their feelings. Is that selfish? I’m not really sure but I think we are all entitled to our own feelings and we can choose how to feel about something if we choose to see it from a different perspective. Life doesn’t happen to me, Life happens because of me, but not if I’m not living that life. If I’m not living then I’m dying.

Psychology Of Human Behaviors

Why do we act in the ways that we do, and how can we apply our knowledge of human behaviour to the world of business?

We will explore behavioural economics and what we know about how people make decisions. Additionally, you will learn how vital it is to choose the right messenger and the influence of those who communicate information. You will understand the definition of norms, and how and why people follow them. With this knowledge, you will learn how to apply and harness positive norms to specific audiences.

Identify the ways in which you can harness ego to create desired behaviours with:

  • -Decision Making
  • -Alternatives
  • -Uncertainty
  • -High Risk Consequences
  • -Interpersonal Issues
  • -Complexity
  • Learn how to utilise effective messengers, understand the influence of socio-cultural norms, and recognise the role of the ego to better serve the needs of your employees and your customers.
  • Discover nudging and the rational model
  • You’ll explore behavioural economics and what we know about how people make decisions.
  • This will help you identify the shortcomings of the rational model of human behaviour and give you an understanding of heuristics and biases.
  • You’ll learn how vital it is to choose the right messenger and the influence of those who communicate information.
  • Exploring the main characteristics and differences between hard and soft messengers, you’ll learn how to choose the right one to communicate an effective message.
  • Learn how to harness norms and ego
  • You’ll understand the definition of norms, and how and why people follow them. With this knowledge, you’ll learn how to apply and harness positive norms to specific audiences.
  • You’ll also identify the ways you can harness ego to create desired behaviours.
  • Demonstrate how to leverage effective behaviour change using different social psychological factors.

Behavioural science is the science of human behaviour. It combines insights from many fields but principally sits at the intersection between the two disciplines of economics and psychology. This learning activity will introduce the economic approach to human behaviour. It’s often said that economists like to explain 90% of the behaviour with 10% of the information, relying on a bare-bones model of behaviour which hopes to predict rather than describe. Traditionally, economists have been interested in how people respond to incentives: if we change the costs and benefits of different courses of action, then people will respond in predictable ways, without us needing to know exactly what is happening inside their heads.

The canonical model, sometimes referred to as homo economicus, depicts humans as self-interested and hyper-rational creatures. Like Star Trek’s Mr Spock, a character who operates solely within the realms of pure logic, humans have all the information about their decisions, know what they want, and have unlimited willpower and cognitive capacity. They think meticulously through every consequence of their decisions and act accordingly. They not only have access to all available information—they are able to process that information perfectly rationally.

Economic approach

Although few economists truly believe this is how humans behave, they believe it is a good starting point for predicting human behaviour, on average. Through modelling people as having individual preferences, and acting consistently based on those preferences, we can know how they will respond to changes in the costs and benefits of their decisions.

Many criticisms of this rational model have focused on its unrealistic assumptions. People rarely have all the information they need to make a decision. People are not just self-interested but are social, behaving altruistically towards others and hoping that their behaviour will be reciprocated. And people use a variety of heuristics or mental shortcuts which help them to make day to day decisions.

An important insight of the economic approach is that these nuances of human behaviour may not matter for prediction. The notion that ‘price goes up, demand goes down’ is a cornerstone of the economic approach. When economists model this, they assume that people respond to prices like Spock, paying attention to everything they could buy and responding immediately to any changes in price so that they get the best deal. As a result, if the price of a commodity increases, people will buy less of it—and vice-versa.

Although the model isn’t strictly true, several authors have shown that you can instead assume that people are irrational, that is, they choose what they buy completely randomly and still predict that a higher price means less demand. On average the rational theory does give us sensible predictions about consumer behaviour: namely, that they will buy more of something when it’s cheaper, and less when it’s more expensive.

One consequence (or cause) of economists’ approach is how relaxed they are about individual preferences. They generally view choice as a good thing and think individuals should not be judged, or at least not interfered with by politicians for the decisions they make. In the model of homo economicus it doesn’t matter what preferences are for—they could be for unhealthy foods or a gym membership—because people will still respond in the same way to changes in prices, income, and other characteristics of the goods. To an economist, all that really matters for individuals to be rational is that they behave consistently: if they prefer bananas to apples, and apples to oranges, they shouldn’t prefer oranges to bananas. There is no judgment over which is the better fruit to choose.

Another reason for the longevity of this standard economic model is its versatility. Many of the quirks of decision-making can be readily incorporated into the model. Economists can therefore see precisely how departures from reality lead to behaviour that deviates from the rational model. This is why behavioural economics, which accounts for these deviations, has become so widely accepted into the mainstream.

How does an economist’s approach differ to that of a psychologist?

In this article, we will look at the information deficit model, an approach used by both practices, and examine where it falls short.

Psychologists have typically been interested not just in our behaviour but in our attitudes, perceptions, moods, and beliefs. They are interested in describing our behaviour as well as predicting it.

According to psychologists (and other social sciences), we only have access to limited information in order to make our decisions. We have limited ability to process this information and may disagree on what it means. We have to choose which information to pay attention to, and how to incorporate it into our behaviour. Additionally, this process is affected by factors in our environment outside of our control, such as the people around us or even the weather.

How psychologists spend a lot of time on the following descriptions of behaviour:

  • How goals and values are formed.
  • How individuals perceive reality.
  • How people reason their way towards a decision.
  • How irrational processes (like emotions or external stimuli) affect behaviour.

These generally require direct studies of individuals. For this reason, many psychologists’ empirical studies are laboratory experiments that look in-depth at a limited number of people, allowing them to investigate behaviour at a high level of detail. For example, a widely used approach in psychology tracks eye movement to see what people are paying attention to. Individuals who have a choice between different foods—crisps, bars, sweets, drinks, sandwiches—may only look at a limited number of them, forgetting about sandwiches and drinks as they make their choice. They will also look at the crisps more if they are going to choose them.

Another prominent idea in psychology is the intention-behaviour gap. We frequently pledge to eat more healthily, drink or smoke less, to exercise, to be more patient, kinder, and more productive, but we frequently fall short. If choices simply reflect preferences, then there’s no room for a gap between what we want to do and what we end up doing. But this is simplistic and leaves out the all-important question of how we bring our behaviour into line with our intentions, which may be good for our well-being.

Ironically, although psychologists have a radically different approach to economists, they have historically converged on a similar model of how to change behaviour, known as the information deficit model. This holds that improving decisions is a matter of providing people with the right information: a pamphlet, a website, or a class. For psychologists, if our behaviour is determined by our attitudes, beliefs, and goals, then by changing the way we think we can change our behaviour. For economists, information can help us to better approximate the rational model and understand the costs and benefits of our decisions.

As we will see throughout this article, the information deficit model leaves a lot to be desired. A major failing is its inability to explain why more and better information does not always lead to better decisions. Sometimes information will have no effect at all on behaviour, and at other times it might lead people to actively ignore it. There continues to be an anti-science sentiment—vaccine hesitancy, conspiracy theories, creationism, and climate change denial—even among educated people and in an age of freely available information.

We have seen that economists have traditionally focused on predicting behaviour, using parsimonious theories to make testable statements about peoples’ decision making.

We have also seen that psychologists have traditionally focused on describing behaviour, investigating the nuances and complexities of individuals and how they make decisions.

How do psychologists view risk?

We all have attitudes to risk in our day-to-day lives, and all look at risk differently: we are risk-averse, risk-neutral, or risk-loving. Some of us might invest in stocks while others choose a savings account at the bank. Some of us may participate in extreme sports while others exercise in their back garden. Some of us may completely change our career paths mid-life, while others prefer to stay the course in their current job.

Economists typically approach risk through an approach known as expected utility. As you might guess, this involves the diligent calculation of the costs and benefits of a decision, using the probabilities of each outcome. For example, say you had a choice to engage in a bet where you tossed a coin and won $100 if it turned up heads, and nothing if it came down tails OR to take $50 for certain. The expected value of the gamble is the same as the certain amount.

Economists classify people as risk-averse if they turn down the gamble and take a certain amount (as would most people), as risk-loving if they accept the coin toss and as risk-neutral if they do not mind either way. Economists would tend to observe peoples’ choices when faced with gambles like these (and many more complex ones) to measure their risk attitudes and test their theories of behaviour.

As a takeaway task, we would like you to consider instead how psychologists might approach risk attitudes.

  • How would we describe, as opposed to predict, attitudes to risk, remembering the key differences between how psychologists and economists approach things?
  • Which influences might there be on people’s’ risk behaviour that aren’t accounted for in the above example?
  • Would people have the same risk attitudes over time and across contexts?
  • Is behaviour rational?

As we have found so far in the articles this week, there seems to be a clear affinity between the economic and psychological approaches, despite the differences we have seen.

By bringing a richer and more realistic account of how human beings make decisions, psychologists can help economists make accurate predictions and better understand the world. By bringing rigour at the theoretical and empirical levels, economists can help psychologists to discipline their approach rather than having a range of conflicting experimental results.

It was two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who revolutionised the field of behavioural economics when they applied psychological insights to economic models. Kahneman and Tversky were fascinated by the quirks of human decision-making and identified a number of heuristics and biases we still use today (Kahneman and Tversky, 1974).

Heuristics are the mental shortcuts we use to make decisions. Biases result when the heuristic leads to faulty decision making. As Kahneman and Tversky are keen to emphasise, heuristics are extremely useful, but they misfire, and when they do, they lead to biases.

A famous example of theirs was of a sergeant in the Israeli Air Force who praised his pilots for landing well and admonished them for doing badly. He noticed that the ones he praised went on to perform disappointingly in the next round, while those he admonished went on to perform better. He concluded that praise was counterproductive, while criticism was effective—the most obvious explanation based on the information available to him.

The sergeant was unaware of a widely observed phenomenon in statistics known as regression to the mean. Tall parents tend to have shorter children; students who perform well in a test tend to do worse in the subsequent one, pilots who have landed smoothly tend to mess up next time, while those who land badly tend to do better next time. It’s probable neither the sergeant’s praise nor his criticism were having much effect.

Kahneman and Tversky also popularised the notion that people compare themselves to reference points, which they explore in their widely cited paper Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk. Reference points are points of comparison: individuals might notice changes in their wealth relative to their existing level, rather than the absolute level. So, if your salary starts at a low level and increases each year, you might feel better than if you started with a much higher salary that gave you more money in total over the years but that never increased. We will look at reference points much more later in the course.

Behavioural science has followed on from the examples of Kahneman and Tversky, as well as other pioneers like Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, to identify the key drivers of human behaviour. It involves the use of mathematical models which are not strictly true, but which predict behaviour well in the lab or the field. It also involves some looking ‘under the hood’ of human behaviour and measuring brain activity. Behavioural science is inherently pluralist in its approach, seeking to use the best methods to understand human behaviour.

A prominent example is the availability heuristic, which retrieves information most vivid and readily available to us. Availability explains why people tend to fear statistically improbable accidents such as terrorism or lightning strikes, which are fantastical and often reported by the media; versus probable ones like car crashes or falling down the stairs, which are more mundane but more likely and just as deadly.

How does availability bias affect you? What type of things do you worry about in terms of risks of going out or risk of death? Are you more likely to be scared of terrorism than a fall down the stairs?

As the discipline of behavioral science has emerged, some key ideas have become central to how we think about behavior. Perhaps the most prominent of these is the idea that there are two systems of thinking.

The Dual Processing model

Behavioral scientists often use the Dual Processing model of human behavior, popularized by Daniel Kahneman in his bestseller Thinking, Fast and Slow (1). The model splits human decision making into System 1 and System 2, which can be thought of as processes in the brain.


System 1 is fast, effortless, and automatic—it’s how you know that 2 + 2 = 4. It is considered more basic and is shared by animals and humans. Sometimes it might happen 100% automatically, like being automatically repelled by an insect or salivating when seeing an appetizing dish.

System 2 is slow, effortful, and reflective—you would use it to work out 37 x 59. It is slow and sequential, allowing for the abstract and analytical thinking that characterizes the human mind. System 2 is more closely related to what we would normally consider intelligence.

We will learn much more about Dual Processing Theory (DPT) as the course goes on, but for now, it is worth bearing in mind two warnings. Firstly, DPT does not imply, and nor is it considered true, that there are literally two systems in the brain. There are a variety of areas in the brain and virtually any thought process will engage multiple areas at once. DPT is a model of the world used by behavioral scientists to understand behavior, rather than a literal description of it.
Secondly, it is tempting but inaccurate to think of System 1 as irrational and System 2 as rational. Although System 2 is generally more reflective and would be used for making big, complicated decisions, System 1 can be extremely fast and effective, even with limited information.
The German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer has emphasized the benefits of intuition and using System 1 for some decisions: doctors regularly make quick, life-saving decisions (2). This is a good example of where lots of training and experience using System 2 allows decisions to move into System 1 and, on the face, be made without too much effort. Think also of how sports players train hard and then play as if they are not thinking about their shots.

Reflection on two systems

How does the two-system model make you reflect on your own behavior? Can you think of everyday examples where you use System 1 and System 2?

So far, we have seen that behavioural science sits at the intersection of the two disciplines of psychology and economics, and has evolved to incorporate the best elements of both to become the science of human behaviour.

While psychologists have been primarily interested in describing behaviour, economists have primarily been interested in predicting behaviour. Drawing their insights together has led to rich and realistic models of behaviour that can be used to predict behaviour change.

Behavioural scientists have identified the heuristics and biases that characterise human behaviour. Heuristics are the mental shortcuts we use to make decisions quickly and with minimal effort, while biases result when these heuristics misfire.

A prominent example is the availability heuristic, which retrieves information most vivid and readily available to us. Availability explains why people tend to fear statistically improbable accidents such as terrorism or lightning strikes, which are fantastical and often reported by the media, versus probable ones like car crashes or falling down the stairs, which are more mundane but more likely and just as deadly.

Behavioural scientists most commonly draw from a model known as Dual Process Theory (DPT), popularised by Kahneman, which splits the human mind into two systems. System 1 is fast, effortless, and automatic; System 2 is slow, effortful, and reflective. System 1 knows how to walk without thinking too much about it; System 2 is used to decide which direction you need to walk in to get to the restaurant. System 2 is more often associated with what we think of as intelligence, but that doesn’t mean it is always right or morally superior; functioning without System 1 would be nigh-on impossible.

The most widespread application of behavioural science has been nudge, popularised by Thaler and Sunstein. Nudge harnesses DPT to argue that we can change behaviour by changing the environment in which people operate. Traditionally, the Information Deficit Model (IDM) held that changing behaviour was just a matter of providing people with the right information so they could make informed decisions—in other words, engaging System 2 by changing their minds. However, this has proved to be ineffective as changing peoples’ minds is extremely difficult.

Since System 1 is affected by the decision-making environment where people will go for the easiest choice, the most attention-grabbing choice, the choice others are making, or the expert-endorsed choice. By manipulating the environment we can exert reliable influences on behaviour without having to change minds. Crucially, nudge relies on a libertarian paternalist approach, so while choices are affected, none are taken away. People can still make the choice they want to make but are nudged towards ones that are judged to be good for them and society at large. The use of nudge has proliferated across the globe, with many successful examples in areas ranging from health to crime to the environment.

We have synthesised existing behavioural science to come up with the MINDSPACE framework, a pneumonic that captures 9 reliable influences on behaviour. MINDSPACE stands for Messenger, Incentives, Norms, Defaults, Salience, Priming, Affect, Commitment, and Ego. It is a recipe book from which you, as future behavioural scientists, are encouraged to draw from, to design ways to change behaviour pragmatically and carefully. In the rest of this course, we will begin to explore each element of the MINDSPACE framework in much more detail.

Have you ever checked if you turned the oven up or if you locked the house? If you have it’s because you’re having to think about something that you’ve automated. Your system one has made it easy for you to turn the oven off and lock the house up in ways without you having to think about it. So when you think about whether you’ve done it, you’re not sure. Your processing models have really been the biggest advance we’ve seen in behavioural science over the last couple of decades. So much of what we do simply comes about rather than being thought about.

Now, it is worth saying that there aren’t really two systems in the brain, but it’s a nice characterization of how we make our decisions because for a very long time, we thought about system two, your effortful conscious thoughtful self, being the star of the show. If you think about something, you act upon it. Actually, it turns out that, as I say, most of what we do simply comes about rather than being thought about. System one, your automatic unconscious effortless brain, is making most of your decisions for you. And most of the time, that’s fantastic, right? Because it makes life easy for you. It turns the oven off, it locks the house.

This is all very exciting because what it means is that we can think about changing behaviour without having to change people’s minds. Because, actually, changing your mind is really effortful, isn’t it? And actually, we don’t do it very often, right? Think about the last time you actually really changed your mind about something important. Probably quite a long time ago, if ever. Whereas changing environments or context within which people act can have very powerful effects on what we do.

So this tool processing model is actually really exciting if we want to change behaviour because we don’t have to rely on changing people’s minds, we don’t need to change the way they think about things, but change the environments within which they act. So, for example, if you want to eat more healthy food or you want your staff to eat more healthy food, then put the healthy food towards the front of the canteen rather than the back. You’re making it easier for system one to do the right thing without having to properly engage system two to think about whether to do the right thing or not.

This provides us with so many opportunities to not only change behaviours in individuals, but in large populations relatively cheaply, easily, and quickly.

We would like you to reflect on the usefulness of nudging your research from the previous step. Nudges have been tried in a wide variety of settings and in some, they have proved useful while in others they may not have worked as well. In some settings, nudges may be enough but some behavioural scientists now argue for stronger policies that move beyond nudge to change behaviour. And there are also those who argue against nudges on ethical grounds, an issue that will come up later in the course.

Use the following poll to tell us your opinion of nudge, and the comments section to discuss with other learners the nudge(s) you investigated and why they led you to the conclusion they did.

Based on your research from the previous step, do you think nudging is an effective way to change behaviour?

Yes, nudging is effective

No, nudging is not effective

Unsure/depends

Situational blindness

It wasn’t that long ago that many more planes crashed than is the case now. You know, one of the main reasons for that is planes were taking off without co-pilot. Now, that seems a very obvious thing, doesn’t it, to have a co-pilot present? It’s obvious that it’s often overlooked. When a pilot is sitting in the cockpit, he or she is paying attention to what’s in front of them. Are the engine’s running and so on? But not paying attention to fundamentally what really matters, for example, whether there’s a co-pilot there. This is called situational blindness. We pay attention to what’s in front of us, and not necessarily to what really matters.

One of the most powerful ways to overcome situational blindness, and this has led to fewer planes crashing, is to have very simple checklists. The pilot would have a checklist that contains the item, is there a co-pilot. Tick, done, plane takes off safely. The power of checklists has been shown in so many other environments, too. For example, surgical operating theatres, where again, really simple items on the checklist have a really significant effect on outcomes. Are we operating on the right patient? I mean, really, really obvious things that sometimes get overlooked. I can’t emphasise enough to you how much the obvious gets overlooked. And we can think about using checklists in behavioural science, too.

Let’s draw out the main mechanisms that influence us, largely through system one processes, so that policy makers and decision makers have those in front of them when they’re designing behavioural interventions.