Learning and Development Archives - Page 15 of 36

Personal Skills Mindmapping Exercise

Before you do this mindmapping exercise please watch the Personal Skills Mind Map video below to get started…

The idea is to focus on all of your skills and talents and then dwell on all of the benefits and advantages that these skills bring you in life, business, etc.

This can be a great technique if you need a confidence boost or to raise your energy/spirits.

Set a 15-20 minute timer so you can do this quickly with as much focus as possible.

You will spend the whole time concentrating on your personal skills, natural talents, etc.

For each skill you uncover, you are going to acknowledge all of the advantages and benefits of having these skills.

This brainstorming session will help you mind dwell on your strengths and create a boost of confidence for your day!

Do this for yourself when you need a “pick me up”.

You might also want to try this with colleagues, friends or family as well. It can be a great collaborative exercise!

How Meditation Helps You to Deal with Stress

Many people have stressful lives today. But, some people seem to deal with the stresses of life better than others. What is their secret? It might be meditation. Medication has been scientifically proven to be helpful for dealing with stress.

Here is how meditation can help. It certainly will not hurt you to give it a try.

Provides Quiet Time to Reset – Everyone needs some quiet time where they’re unplugged from not just technology but from all the things that cause some form of stress (even good stress) during the day. When you meditate, you essentially “unplug” from all of that and give your mind time to reset and be calmer.

Increases Your Mental Resources – Studies show that regular meditation helps you think more clearly and become more creative. That’s because meditation is sort of like cleaning your hard drive on your computer, giving you more space for better things and less space for the stressful things.

You’ll Become More Capable – When you have a powerful tool to help you deal with stress, you will suddenly become much more capable of handling stress. That reset period allows you to deal better with stress when it comes to you than when you have no tool to help you.

You’ll Increase Your Focus and Clarity – When you have a way to let go of circular thoughts that cause stress, you’ll be able to better focus on any problem or issue with clarity and purpose. In fact, you can have a meditation session almost any time once you are accustomed to doing it.

You’ll Have a Method to Handle Sudden Stress – If something happens at any point during the day that causes you stress, the fact that you’ve developed a meditation practice will come in handy. It’s not that you must meditate each time you’re stressed; it’s that the ability to become mindful and in the present will serve to help you deal with stress as it’s happening.

You’ll Have Less Anxiety and Depression – Studies show that like deep prayer, regular meditation changes your brain chemistry so that you will have less anxiety and depression overall. It doesn’t mean you’ll be rid of it completely, but you will have less.

You’ll Be Able to Sleep Better – Most people who practice meditation also tend to fall asleep more easily and faster. You can make it a habit to meditate twice a day; once to promote energy and once to promote sleep. In the evening before you’re ready for bed, do five to 15 minutes of meditation to help you wind down for the day.

You’ll Reduce Your Stress Hormones – The stress hormone cortisol has been shown to be reduced through regular meditation. Too much cortisol can interfere with good sleep, cause daily anxiety, and even cause you to gain weight around the belly – risking your heart health. Anything that will reduce your cortisol levels is good for you.

You may not be able to get rid of the things that stress you. But, you can learn to deal with the stress better by learning safe meditation practices and techniques.

Aligning Your Purpose and Career – Questions To Ask Yourself

In terms of your career have you considered how it aligns with your purpose in life? Do you know how to find your purpose? If you posed that question to people around you, I suspect that the majority would likely answer no. It’s because there is a world of possibilities. People are often afraid to try something new out of fear of the unknown or because it is all too easy to settle for the here and now. They often don’t know how to go about looking for what they should be doing.

If you want to find your “Purpose” then you need first to ask yourself if what you are doing now is satisfying. Put aside the bills and your salary slip for a moment. Do you get a buzz out of getting up every morning to go to work? How do you feel on Sunday evenings, assuming you start up work on Mondays? Do you dread having to get up in the morning on Monday, or does it excite you?

Another problem is you may feel stuck doing something in which you don’t believe. Suppose you work for a company that isn’t living out its values or pays lip service to them. It pays well, or it is safe and comfortable and that is why you stick with it. You even like many of the people who work there. You need to ask yourself if you can continue to work in an environment which doesn’t fit well with you.

You will also need to ask yourself what will it take to make changes to get out of your current situation and into something you enjoy. It may require going back to college or perhaps undertaking some online training. Luckily, nowadays with the explosion of learning opportunities online there are many options available, and many of them are cheap or free.

If you find that the path is well laid out, ask yourself are you’re willing to put in the time and make an effort? If not, you haven’t truly found your purpose. You either need to continue what you are doing or find another path. Keep reflecting, challenging yourself until you reach a point where you are willing to put in the effort.

Your Career and Purpose Don’t Necessarily Mean The Same Thing!

You should keep in mind that your career is not necessarily your purpose in life. It may be a part of it, but for many people, there is a need to look a lot deeper. For instance, you may love helping others out and feel that is your purpose. If your current career doesn’t focus on helping people, this can help you determine where to look to make changes. Try to find organizations where you can make a difference.

If you go this route, you will align what you want to do for your career with what you feel is your purpose. That will make your new career choice fulfilling. It can give you a reason to want to get up to go to work, which is fantastic.

When you focus on aligning your career and your purpose together, the decisions needed to establish your new path becomes much more natural. Yes, you could of course randomly pick a way forward. However, it’s more likely you will succeed when you fit your career with who you are or who you want to become.

Nine Simple Meditation Techniques

I want to share some simple meditation techniques with you that I hope will prove helpful. Studies show that individuals who participate in regular meditation tend to have a more positive outlook and focus less on the negative situations that everyone has in their lives. It makes it easier for them to emotionally navigate issues affecting them. This is because meditation activates the more positive parts of your brain.

Learning to meditate is like anything else you want to do. You need to learn how to do it, then practice doing it, and do it regularly so that it becomes a normal part of your life. That’s really the process of developing any type of habit that is good for you. Keep practicing and keep doing it.

Nine Simple Meditation Techniques

Let’s look at some simple meditation techniques to make meditation work for you.

1. Prepare for Meditation – The best way to help yourself get used to meditating is to set up a process that prepares your mind and body for meditation. It might be having a cup of tea, drinking some lemon water, or doing something else that makes your mind think that it’s time to meditate.

2. Try to Sit Still – When you start meditating, it’s important to find a comfortable position to sit in so that you can sit still. Don’t try to make the poses that everyone else makes if you’re not used to it. The most comfortable sitting up position for you is best.

3. Pray or Use a Mantra – Sometimes, saying something repetitive can calm your mind and help bring your mind into the present. When you are meditating, you don’t want to think of the past or the future; you only want to think of right now. Reciting a prayer that you know, or a mantra, or even a poem can be helpful in bringing you to the present. If you have an Alexa device or something similar then you can also use some of the “Skills” that are available to support you in your meditation

4. Close Your Eyes – Getting rid of visual stimulation is something that will help you become more mindful. Try closing your eyes but don’t look down. Instead, keep your head up and your eyes upward even as they’re closed. This will help keep energy while you are meditating. Ideally, you don’t want to fall asleep while meditating.

5. Choose a Safe Place – When you meditate, you want to be in a safe place that helps you not worry about your surroundings. You don’t want flies attacking you or sounds to be interfering with your concentration. You want the temperature to be comfortable, and to ensure that you remain undisturbed during the process.

6. Get Comfortable – It’s important that you feel comfortable. If you have health issues, you can sit in a chair or on a pillow. You can even sit on a yoga ball while you meditate. The important thing is that you feel comfortable and aren’t experiencing a lot of discomfort and pain.

7. Make the Time – It’s important to set a regular time for meditation. That way your mind and body become accustomed to the fact that you’re going to meditate at that time. When you do something at the same time each day, in the same way, it forms a habit that you’ll need to include in your life.

8. Watch Your Posture – Keeping the right posture during meditation is a good way to ensure you can breathe well, not cause yourself pain, and maintain your energy. You can take on any number of poses, but the one that is best for you is the one that is most comfortable and doesn’t make any part of your body hurt or go numb from cutting off circulation.

9. Learn Proper Breathing Technique – One of the most important aspects of meditating in a way that helps is to learn to breathe properly. The most helpful method is to breathe normally the way you always breathe. But, some people tend to have shallow breaths. Ensure that you breathe in to raise your diaphragm so that you’re getting plenty of oxygen.

Once you set your life up for regular meditation, you’ll find that you get into the zone faster and more easily as time goes by. You will eventually even be able to take five minutes to yourself while waiting in line at the post office, and you will feel refreshed instead of frustrated throughout your day as you become accustomed to using meditation to help you. I really do hope that these Simple Meditation Techniques will help you.

Five Simple Ways To Improve Your Emotional Intelligence

How’s your Emotional Intelligence? Are you working to improve it? Many people are taught to stuff their feelings away. Then they become adults and they’ve lost out on how to recognise their own feelings, much less those of others. If you want to improve your emotional intelligence, try these tips.

Five Emotional Intelligence Tips That Work!

1. Notice How You Feel

The first way to improve your emotional intelligence is to simply notice how you feel at any given point in the day. Name your feelings even if you do so in your own head without voicing them. The more names you can put to your feelings, the easier it will be to start to acknowledge them to yourself and others.

2. Be Mindful of Your Behaviour

Do you find yourself being snappy, happy, or sad without knowing why? When you act in a certain way, it’s important to understand why. This way you can find out what motivates you, what makes you frustrated, and what works and does not work for you emotionally.

3. Question Your Opinions

Sometimes we surround ourselves with only like-minded individuals, and we read, watch, and participate only in ideas, news, and events that further our own preconceived ideas about life. The only way to understand why you believe what you believe is to truly examine it, along with the facts that you think you know.

4. Be Responsible for Your Own Feelings

People like to say that you can only feel the way you feel. That may be true, but you are still responsible for your feelings, why you have those feelings, and how you act regarding those feelings. Sometimes even hurt feelings are really just because you are misunderstanding someone else, and you’re responsible for ensuring that you really understand what is happening so that you know if you really have a right to be hurt or not.

5. Take Time Out Each Day to Be Grateful

Getting in touch with your feelings can sometimes bring up a lot of negative stuff. To help stay grounded, take time out each day to be thankful and grateful. A great way to accomplish this is to keep a gratitude journal that you write in each evening.

That way you can get in touch with positive feelings every night before you go to sleep. Or another simple and similar technique is to make a note of three positive things that have happened to you that day – then you will have something to look back on when you are feeling less positive.