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Maria Connolly, LPC Facebook Facebook Facebook

Category: Life Skills

Learn how to focus on the soft skills, the people skills like good communication, effective leadership, positive motivation, and managing your emotions.

How to Increase Self-Understanding? Use This Powerful Mindfulness Exercise

The beginning of self-understanding starts with mindful awareness of your world and how you respond to it, only then you can make responsible choices.“Why did I do that? Sometimes I don’t understand myself.” During a coaching session, has your client ever said that to you? Or perhaps you’ve felt that way yourself. If so, you’re not alone. Even though we live with ourselves 24/7, we don’t automatically possess total self-understanding. Just as it takes work to understand someone else, it takes time and effort to understand ourselves.

Oftentimes, we’re so busy and our lives and thoughts become so cluttered we get into a reactive mode rather than staying in a calm place of choice. This mindlessness makes us forgetful and causes us to feel separation from self, which creates a sense of merely existing rather than living a full and purposeful life. So how can harmony be restored? The answer lies in developing the skill of mindfulness. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. explains that 

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How to Choose Your State of Mind. It’s THE Power Tool for Positive Living!

Experience peace even under stressful situations, by teaching your brain to access any desired state of mind or mood quickly through anchoring.Every craftsman has a favorite, go-to tool that they always reach for because it reliably gets the job done. Have you thought about what tools you often reach for when you’re in a stressful or difficult situation? For some people, it’s anger. Other people use pouting. Are those the best tools to use? They’re more like using a screwdriver handle to pound a nail. It may do something, but you’re not going to be happy with the results. Plus, you’re more likely to get hurt. So what’s the power tool that you can use to easily shift your mood and choose a more resourceful state of mind, even under trying circumstances?

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Feeling Frazzled? How to Increase Productivity through Body Awareness

You can increase productivity through body movement by learning to match body sensations and emotions, then choosing the most resourceful responses.Breathless, clammy, fuzzy, hot, heavy, dizzy, queasy, or shaky are a few body sensations you may experience when you’re frazzled. What if you could replace those sensations and feel energized, full, expansive, smooth, and radiating? It would definitely not only enhance your productivity, but it would also make you more joyful and confident. But how can you increase productivity through body awareness? Why is body awareness the key?

You’ll often hear people speak of the mind-body-spirit connection. Yet doesn’t it seem like the mind and spirit get most of the attention? What about your body? By increasing your body awareness you’ll be amazed how it enhances your productivity.

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Become The Observer of Your Life, Then Lasting Change Will Follow

Like an artist, you can become The Observer in your life, to mindfully acknowledge each “brush stroke” as it transforms your “canvas”, your life.

A practice of mindfulness is priceless. Without it, we can go through life only experiencing things superficially, missing the things that bring lasting enrichment. However, when you become The Observer, taking in information without judgment, you’ll see what you want more of or less of, in your life. 

For example… how observant are you? If I asked you to identify the colors in a picture of a forest, no doubt you would say green, brown, and maybe some yellow. But an artist closely inspects each area for color or hue; she also sees the variances of shade (black added to the hue), tone (gray added to the hue), and tint (white added to the hue). Not only that, she detects the differences in intensity and value. Before the painting is done, the artist will have mixed hundreds of different combinations of paint, each one intentionally performing a specific function on the canvas. Why is this so important? Jon Kabat-Zinn explains “The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.”

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Manage Self-Sabotaging Thoughts to Empower a Life of Freedom

Self-sabotaging thoughts change your body chemistry and the way you move, yet you can become more open and joyful by adjusting your thought patterns.Which would you say is more stressful and damaging to your health — stress from a car accident or from a messy house? — a breakup with a romantic partner or a friend who makes you crazy because she never follows through on what she promises? — a harsh comment from a friend or self-sabotaging thoughts?

We’re well-equipped to handle short-term stressors or life-threatening situations. We deal with it, then we’re free of it. But if there’s constant, long-term, nagging stress, we suffer deeply. 

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