ScienceDaily (2011-01-13) — Students can combat test anxiety and improve performance by writing about their worries immediately before the exam begins, according to a new study. Researchers found that students who were prone to test anxiety improved their high-stakes test scores by nearly one grade point after they were given 10 minutes to write about what was causing them fear.

Apparently, unloading their anxieties before the test freed up mental energy needed to recall and perform better. Worry, stress or pressure ties up working memory, like too many programs on a computer ties up RAM. This can cause the mind to freeze up, just as a computer can freeze when too much is required of it.

Studies have found that expressive writing, journaling or freewriting, can help cleanse the working memory and help people process information better. So, write about your worries a few minutes before a test, a meeting with your boss, or beginning a project. If it works in one area, it works in others, as well.

For the full article, visit Writing about worries eases anxiety.

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This study found that meditation can improve concentration and learning. And the mind can show these changes after only 4 days of meditation.

ScienceDaily (2010-04-19) — Psychologists studying the effects of a meditation technique known as “mindfulness” found that meditation-trained participants showed a significant improvement in their critical cognitive skills — and performed significantly better in cognitive tests than a control group — after only four days of training for only 20 minutes each day. The results resembled previously studied cognitive improvements connected to far more extensive training in meditation.

Read more about this study at Science Daily.

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It’s the New Year, time for change and resolutions. The slate is clean and new intentions are ready to be written to improve your life.

* Have you had problems moving forward?
* When you try to make a change, do you hit a brick wall?
* Do you know why you can’t make the changes you want?

Linda-Ann Stewart, hypnotherapist, life coach and speaker is presenting a free teleclass to get you back on track to your goals. The teleclass will address reasons why you may have trouble breaking through and achieving your dreams. Drawing on her decades of experience, Ms. Stewart will cover some of those self-sabotaging beliefs that are holding you back and strategies to overcome them.

You’ll learn techniques to help you overcome your internal obstacles and achieve your goals. In this teleclass, you’ll discover how to use affirmations to make positive changes in your life.

“I appreciate the power of affirmations,” Ms. Stewart says. “They’ve been instrumental in allowing me to accomplish goals I would never have achieved otherwise.” You’ll also discover a secret and tools to successfully empower the Law of Attraction for you.

Join Ms. Stewart on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 5:30pm PST (that’s 6:30pm MST, 7:30pm CST, 8:30pm EST) for the one-hour teleclass, “Break Through To Your Dreams.” Space is limited. To learn more and to register, visit Break Through Teleclass.

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For years, we’ve known that stress ages people and may even shorten life. Now there’s a study of how to combat and reverse those effects. A study has found that meditation and a positive mindset are linked to longer cell life. This means that you’ll look, feel and actually be younger than your years.

When you take time to deep breathe, relax, or meditate, it activates an enzyme in your body that actually lengthens and improves a part of your DNA. Anything that leads to a positive mindset causes the production of the enzyme. That includes being able to reframe your response to a possible upsetting situation into a more constructive belief about it.

So here we have another benefit for looking at life from an optimistic, positive frame of mind. Not only does it help you to be more successful, be happier, it also can allow you to stay younger. I’d say that would be a good reason to cultivate looking at life through a positive lens.

The source for this article can be found at Meditation linked to longer cell life.

motivation, inspiration

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In some recent studies, researchers have found the people don’t like to work with others who are selfish. No surprise. But they also don’t like to work with people who are unselfish.

The control group, normal people, judge givers through their own filters and believe the altruistic ones have an ulterior motive. That somehow, the givers are doing so for some gain. Or that they broke the rules of everyone claiming the same reward, even if giving it up benefited the group.

The biggest complaint, however, were the unselfish people made them look bad. Their reputation somehow suffered because of the selflessness.

So it wasn’t so much about the unselfish ones, but was about how it affected the control group. They saw themselves as lacking in generosity, recognized how it made them look, and took it out on the people who were giving. Instead of using it as a model, they rejected the person who could make a true difference.

It’s a lesson that many creative, generous, compassionate people have learned all too well. We have to conform and hide our gifts or people will condemn and spurn us.

So we crater to survive, conform to what the average person does and avoid rocking the boat. Unfortunately, this means we won’t live up to our potential. It just bolsters the attitudes of the average person. We give them our power, and it means that the status quo thrives.

It’s interesting that in a society that teaches unselfishness, that very virtue is reviled. Our society may value it in theory, but in reality, it’s considered a vice. As children, we receive conflicting information about this issue. Is it any wonder that our culture is screwed up?

If we want to change our society, culture, or business, we can’t just cave into the people who are more invested in their egos than they are in progress or prosperity. “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

It takes courage to stand up to them and realize that their discomfort and accusations simply arise out of their own inadequacies. To fulfill our potential, we have to let our light shine and be authentic.

As more and more people have done this, it’s become more accepted and appreciated. The idea of practicing random acts of kindness has swelled in recent years. So, although the average person may shun the generous one, kindness has become popular.

To read about the studies, visit WSU Study Finds People Really Don’t Like Working with Unselfish Colleagues and Too good to live: People hate generosity as much as they hate mean-spiritedness.

And check out Random Acts of Kindness to see how it’s gained in popularity.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

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ScienceDaily (2010-08-23) — Researchers have found that yoga may be superior to other forms of exercise, including walking, in its positive effect on mood and anxiety. The findings are the first to demonstrate an association between yoga postures, increased GABA levels and decreased anxiety. Low GABA levels are associated with depression and other widespread anxiety disorders.

Read full story at Yoga Study.

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As a hypnotherapist, I’ve helped people quit smoking for over twenty years. One client had quit with the patch a couple of days before his first session, and he was having a terrible time with it. On our second session, he said it was like night and day. It was so much easier after his first session of hypnosis.

Hypnosis won’t make you quit smoking, but it does help make the process of quitting easier. Mainly, hypnosis imprints new information into your mind and focus on different thoughts about smoking. You focus on the advantages of not smoking and different strategies to get you through the cravings.

Over the years, people have argued with me about whether changing your thinking about smoking can make quitting easier. Finally, scientific evidence confirms this very premise. A new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers, using an MRI, found that focusing on the long-term negative consequences of smoking actually switched off the part of the brain that controlled cravings.

Apparently, this concept also worked with cravings for various foods, as well. When you consider the long-range consequences, you change your focus, and it turns off the craving. Eventually, you’re able to train your brain to switch off the cravings. With hypnosis, you’re able to make those changes quicker.

I wonder what else they’ll discover that you can train your brain to do that hypnotherapists have been doing for years?

Copyright 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation (more…)

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A study has shown that meditation increases pain tolerance. Apparently, it’s not just because of meditation being distracting (when you’re paying attention to one thing, it fills up your mind buffer and you won’t feel pain as much), but reduces emotional response to pain.

In my hypnotherapy practice, I’ve worked with chronic pain sufferers. The first stage of hypnosis, relaxation, can reduce pain significantly. What to you do when you first feel pain? Tense up. When you relax, it’s a natural calming agent to the nerves.

In the next phase of a session, I’ll usually help them use visualization and imagery to change the perception of the pain somehow. Once you show them that they can reduce it, even a little, it gives them confidence and reassurance that they have some control over it.

When you’re in hypnosis, you’re in the same brain wave level as when you’ve in meditation. So it’s no surprise that even a short meditation exercise can also influence the perception and quality of pain.

For the full article, read Brief Meditation Training Brings Pain Relief.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

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Depression tends to be accompanied, if not triggered, by negative thinking. Dwelling on those negative thoughts can create a mood that spirals downward. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help sufferers to change those negative thoughts and improve the way they feel.

However, most of the time, CBT therapists see depression sufferers between episodes, not during them. Now there’s another strategy for those already in the grips of depression.

Studies are now showing that mindfulness meditation is effective in treating depression and the possibility of relapsing. It’s been effective to reduce relapsing back into depression by 50%.

Patients are taught to take their focus off their negative emotions and put their attention on one thing, such as their breathing, a mantra, affirmation, or an object like a candle or stone. Growing evidence shows that brain patterns change from this kind of meditation.

Not only is the evidence increasing concerning meditation helping mental health, but physical health as well. Stress, heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, asthma, inflammation and pain are being reduced from practicing this simple technique.

Read the entire article Why Buddhists Don’t Get The Blues at the Express.co.uk – Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.

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I was introduced to this website that offers free online books on metaphysics, mind power, law of attraction, abundance, prosperity, success, manifestation, dream interpretation, self-mastery, joy, visualization and many more. The authors are legendary: Emile Coue, Thomas Troward, Henry Thomas Hamblin, Charles F. Haanel, Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles and others. There are even courses and videos available. I have many of these books in physical form and some in electronic form. These are the books that have inspired current best-selling authors. If you want to go to the source of where today’s writers have gotten their foundation, use this wonderful resource at PsiTek.com.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation, productivity, inspiration

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