All about self-help

How to be more confident

2009-11-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Self-confidence is really important for sucess in life. In all the sucessful people that's the one trait you'll always see. I bet that like me, you have heard countless times the advice''just be confident''. That's a great advice and people say that to help you but that's not so useful if you don't show people HOW to FEEL confident. I emphasis on the word feel because people nominalize verb(they turn something that you do into something that you have) which take the power way from them. When you see confidence(or any feeling) as a concrete things that you don't have and that you need to get from somewhere else, you'll never get it because it's not a thing... it's a feeling and feelings are created in our own body, they're not something that come from an new car, a new relationship, a new ipod of whatever. So what can you do to feel more confident in your everyday life?

Here's some tips on how to do it:

1. Notice the voice in your head

- By the voice in your head I mean YOUR voice, if you're hearing voices in your head that's schizophrenia! All jokes aside, notice how you talk to yourself and how it make you feel, notice the things you say to yourself in you own head and practise talking to yourself in a more positive way. Notice the tone of voice, if you talk to yourself in bad tonality you'll feel bad, that's as simple as that, change the tonality and you'll feel different, practise talking to yourself in a smooth and confidence voice and saying useful things to yourself. Remember that you're the only person that's always with you, so be you own best friend and make yourself feel good instead of nagging yourself and putting you down.

2. Visualize yourself succeeding and feeling confident and at ease

- Visualization is a great tool for athlete and performer of any kind, but it's also great for having more confidence. Practise visualizing yourself being confident and sucessful as much as you can. Visualize yourself doing great before an event.

3. Change your physiology

- If you change your physiology you'll change how you feel at the same time. So stand as you would stand if you were feeling confident, move as you would move if you were confident.

4. Smile!
-When you smile your body produce the ''feel good'' hormone called serotonin. Smile and you'll feel instantly more happy.

5. Act as if you were already confident

If you act as if you're already feeling confident you'll feel confident in no time. This is not about trying to make yourself believe you're confident, it's about doing the things that you instinctively know make you feel confident.

6 . Use hypnosis CDs

- I know this is the tip you're most likely to not do, but trust me! I my experience that's what had the most effect on me. And it's not placebo-effect because I wasn't looking for an hypnosis CD to feel confident, I was looking for something to help me relax to sleep better, that's when I had mild insomnia problems. I stumbled across a free mp3 by Paul Mckenna, which wasn't even specifictly for increasing confidence!Anyway after about a month of listening to the mp3 each night before going to sleep I noticed that I was feeling much more confident than usual and that feeling never gone away. There's countless hypnosis mp3 and CDs, but in my opinion those by Paul Mckenna are the best, especially if you've never experience hypnosis, they're quick and efficient. Richard Bandler (co-creator of nlp, which is used in all good hypnosis CDs) ''Personal enhancement'' CDs are really good too.

7. Practise NLP exercises.

-That's kind of similar to point 6. But it's quicker than hypnosis and you can do it anywhere, also you don't need to go in an altered state. I won't make a list of exercises as it would be too long, but I'll share some NLP exercises later on in this blog.

Free Holosync Demo

2009-11-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

Holosync is giving away a free demo. If you don't know what holosync is, well it's an audio program designed to synchronize your brain wave just by listening to a binaural beat. Binaural beats are actually two different sound with different frequencies, one in each ears. For example if you would like to synchronize your brain waves to 25 hertz you would have a beat that goes at 22,5 hertz in one ear and an other of 27,5 hertz in the other. Anyway what does it have to do with self-help? Well they claim brainwave technology can help you meditate deeper, increase your creativity, your confidence, etc. Some go as far as claiming you can experience drug-like experiences, it's the case of the I-doser. Personally I haven't had much experience with this kind of technology but I'm positively looking toward experiencing with it.

Anyway here's the link for your free holosync demo : https://www.centerpointe.com/demo/?x=mainnav_products_index

If you have any experience with holosync or other binaural beats technology feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks!

Seb

Vegan Proteins

2009-10-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

For those that know me you know that I'm a big proponent of a plant based diet, there's many reasons for this, but I'll explain why in another post. In this post I'd like to clear up some of the misconceptions around proteins and proteins in the vegan diet as it is the misconception I see the most when it comes down to nutrition. Firstly, let's explain what are proteins, a protein is simply a chain of differents amino acids, the proteins we eat are broken down into amino acids during digestion. Proteins are needed to grow and repair each cells of our body, so protein is really crucial for health. The truth is it's not the protein we need but the amino acids they contain so our body can make his own proteins with these. Some misconceptions about proteins in the vegan diet is that vegans don't get enough proteins, the truth is, generally vegans take less proteins than meat eaters, but they generally meet or exceed protein requirements. Anyway let's start with the most common question for vegetarians and vegans!

Where do vegan get their proteins?

I could list all the foods that contains proteins... but it would have no ends because there's proteins in almost everythings, so more simply here's the main vegans proteins sources:

- Legumes(beans, peas, etc.)
- Grains (wheat,millet,quinoa, buckwheat, rice, oat, etc... )
- Nuts and seeds ( hazelnuts, almonds, walnut, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.)
- Soy( Tofu, soy milk, tempeh, soy based fake meat, etc.)
- Green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, etc.)
- Superfoods ( Like spirulina wich have the highest content of protein of all food(up to 70%), chlorella, hemp, goji berries, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA), bee pollen, macca, etc.)

But aren't vegetable proteins incomplete you may ask?

One myth about vegan proteins that don't seem to go away is the myth that vegan proteins aren't complete except for soy. A complete protein is one that contain all the amino acids. By this definition ALMOST ALL proteins from the vegetable kingdom are complete. For some people for a protein to be complete it needs not to only have all the essential amino acid, but to have them in a balanced proportion. By this definition most vegan proteins still are complete, but some for some legumes, grains, nuts and seeds there's one or more amino acid that is more or less lacking. That's why some people will tell you that you need to combine different source of plant proteins in the same meal to get complete proteins. That's just not true, it's better to combine different proteins in a meal, but it's not necessary as long as you eat a variety of food you should be fine. But anyway here's the combinations recommended:

- Legumes and seeds
- Legumes and nuts
- Legumes and grains
- Legumes,nuts and seeds or grains and any complete proteins source(for exemple ; soy, hemp, quinoa, etc.)

In conclusion, if you're vegan/vegetarian, want to become one or just follow a more plant based diet, there's no need to worry about protein as long as you eat a variety of protein sources in a decent amount.

Stay tuned!

Seb

The Secret

2009-10-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

If you,re interested in self-help product you've undoubtly heard of a self-help/new age movie called ''The Secret''. So What's the secret all about? The secret is a movie based on Rhonda Byrne's book of the same name, which is based on ''The law of attraction''. Basically, the law of attraction state that your thoughs define the reality around you. According to The law of attraction, if you think negative toughts you'll experience negative experiences, if you think positive thoughts you'll attract good things in your life.

I think this movie is really great to watch! I really liked it! The great thing about this movie is that it's made for a mainstream audience and it's really well made! After you will watch that movie, you will feel motivated and more positive than ever before. But the thing is it won't last forever... The movie is about being positive, believing in yourself and in your ability to achieve your goal. It's also promoting the use of positive visualisation, it's all great, but the thing is most people won't use the tools and implement the attitude and one reason for that is that most people won't fall for the argument saying that the universe align itself to manifest your thought! Well I certainly didn't liked that part. I think they should have given a more scientific explanation but that's just my view. How I see it is that the reason that you will have more good things happening to you is simply that by making you in a good state, practising positive thinking and visualizing succeeding you will notice more the good things in your life and the opportunity life offers you, that's it! It's that simple! The thing that I liked the least is about this The secret is the fact that it's focussed too much on attracting material things, I guess we can't really ask more for a mainstream movie.

I think despite the cosmic force explanation... the secret is worth watching. But don't think of it as a self-help product, it's more an introduction to positive thinking and successful attitude, or a reminder for those more advanced in that area, and mostly a quick motivation and positivity booster. Be open minded about it and ignore the universe aligning itself with your thought's part if that kind of new age stuff isn't for you (it certainly wasn't for me!).

If you haven't watched it yet go for it, it's worth it!

Please share your view on The Secret and the laws of attraction!

Stay tuned!

Seb

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

2009-10-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment is a self-help bestseller written by Eckhart Tolle a spiritual teacher. That book have been featured on Oprah's show. It's about spirituality. I'm really glad to make a review of the book as it is one of my favourite! Even if I don't agree with all that Eckhart Tolle say I have to say that this book as been life-changing for me. It teach you how to be present and in the now, free of the past and the future wich I think is the most important factor for happiness. In this post I'll do a quick overview of few of basic principles that Eckhart Tolle teaches in his book.

1. You are not your mind

Basically what he's saying is that you are not your mind but the consciousness watching your mind, you're the watcher, the observer of your mind. Identification to the mind is the cause of obsessive and non-stop thinking. When you're in a state of constant thinking you're missing the now, you're in your head instead of being present here and now. So what should you do to disentify yourself with your mind? Practice is key! Observe your thoughts and what's going on inside your mind, don't judge it just observe it!

2. There's no pain in the now

What Eckhart tolle is saying is that when you're present there's no psychological pain, and it's true! Most people are stuck in their head most of the time, they think about painful past events, they think about things they should have done in the past and regret, they make pictures of them failing in the future, it's no wonder why they're feeling bad! But if you're in the now, focusing on what happen now and accepting the present moment you won't create unnecessary suffering.

3. Ego is the source of all fear

According to Eckhart Tolle ALL fear come from the ego, or the fear of death of the ego. It's one of the point were I don't agree 100% with what he say(I believe there's three kind of fear, inborn fear like fear of high and loud sound, learned fear like when you associate something with fear by experience and ego fear), but he's right on when he say the ego(or self image if you prefer) bring fear, because most peoples fear doing some things for the reason that if they would fail or not get the result wanted that would devalidate how they see themselves. For example, that's the reason some people fear approaching others, because they see themselves in a certain way and because their sense of self (ego) is influenced by how people react to them(or view them) that would devalidate their ego if they're reject. If you want to learn more about the ego stay tuned I'll write more about the ego later in this blog.

I could explain more but if you're interesting in this stuff I really recommend that you read this book! That book has been life-changing for me and many other people I know who have read it, as you read this book you'll be having many moment of epiphany. Seriously if you haven't read it yet go read it as soon as you can!

Stay tune!

Seb

Introduction to Self-improvement

2009-10-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!!

In this first post I'd like to introduce you to self help and more precisely how to sort out and integrate the informations you're and will be learning within self help procducts. So what is what is self-help? Self-help or self-improvement is simply a mean of making yourself and your life better. That's a simple definition and it should be because self-improvement should not have to be long and hard! But nowadays there's so much self helps books, dvds,CD's, seminars and whatever that's for many people it can be really confusing, I mean you read one book that say ''do that and that and you'll be happy forever'' and then you read another that say '' no no no! don't do that you'll never be happy that way! Do this and that and this... ''. Anyway you get the point, with so many conflicting ideas out there it's hard to find whats really true and working for you.

So how do you incorporate these informations to your life? There's three principles I've listed that will help you with that. Here they are :

Number 1 : Take action and find what work for you!

- Let's face it, you can't be 100% sure of what is the best way to go if you don't try it! Experiment with different ideas, don't be fanatic about some gurus ideas, be scientific about it, view yourself as an experimentator. Also remember that what your friend or whoever say work best doesn't mean it's what work best for you!

Number 2 : Balance is best!

- There's something I like to call the self-improvement pyramid. It's made of three equal triangles of equal importance. They are the basic areas in which you should direct your efort to improve yourself. These three area are ; physical improvement, psychological improvement and financial improvement. Let's make a quick overview of each one.

Physical improvement

- Physical improvement is based on your health, fitness level, and physical appearance. This is probably the most underestimate area of improvement for most people! Don't make the mistake of underestimating this area, it's really important because it allow you more success in the others two areas.

Psychological improvement

- This is the category where most self help program fall into, it's about your emotional health, hapiness, stress management, spiritual practise(s), etc. It's really important for the other two areas.

Financial improvement

- I won't go into detail about this category because I'm not the person to ask about financial improvement! I'm beginning my journey toward this area, so you won't see so much post about it in this blog! But keep in mind this area is of great important! Can you be healthy,maintain a good level of fitness, stay happy and improve yourself without money? I don't think so...

So the second point is all about being balanced in your attemp to improve yourself, all improvement in any of these areas will affect the other two. You can go out of balance in one or two area but only to help in the other area of improvement, also remember that you'll need to go back to a more balanced way the sooner you can!

Number 3 : You need to set goal and set them the right way!
-Now that you know about the ''Self-help pyramid'' you need to set goals in each category (if necessary).

Here's some general guidelines about writting down your goal.

- State goals in the positive, you want to focus on what you DO want not what you don't!
- Be specific about your goals, don't hesitate to go in great details.
- Take into consideration what achieving your goal will have as an effect on your life, and life of others aroud you.
- Ask yourself : ''Am i in control of how I will achieve this goal?''. For example, winning the lottery would not be a realistic goal... but losing weight is because you're control about your weight.
- Write down how you'll know that you achieved your goal, what diference will it make in your life.

That's about it for how to set goals, I'll go in more details on goals setting later on in this blog.

Now that you're armed with three basic but efficient principles that will help in you search of self-improvement you should be well on your way!

If you liked that post please feel free to add me as a friend!

Thank you

Seb.