How do you protect your mental garden? - Photo by D. Hennessey

To help grow success and reduce success in our lives we must use the great activator in our brains to sew the right seeds in the first place everyday. There is no other way. The great activator is our conscious mind that we can use moment to moment to program our subconscious mind to help us create all we want in our lives.

BUT BE WARNED the conscious mind can be dangerous to your mental wellness since it does not judge between good or bad. If you think negative thoughts it passes them unfiltered to your subconscious mind to build your future. The thoughts then become the materials you use to create your future actions.

This information is not new but still less than five percent of people really use their minds in a manner that will reduce stress and increase success. Most people leave it all to chance and chances are they will only reach part of their personal potential during their lifetime.

The following ideas will help you use your mind more effectively:

One

Know deep inside that your subconscious mind is like a garden of rich soil and your conscious mind is the farmer sowing the seeds. The soil is alive and willing to support and nourish all you plant but if you sow negative thoughts (seeds of doubt and failure) you can only reap negative experiences. It is impossible to grow oranges if you plant thorn seeds. You only reap what you sow.

Two

Like the farmer, you need to check the garden of your mind daily to make sure it is healthy by removing any unwanted seeds of destruction (negative thoughts). Some of these thoughts can be hidden in being overly critical of yourself and others or in simply harbouring the thought that you cannot improve your life even thought you want to. This means you need to be very conscious of what you say and think. Most people fail here since they do not want to take the time to make the habit to monitor their minds.

Three

Like a farmer, you need to water the positive seeds in the garden of your mind by adding daily more samples of the same thoughts to build on what is already in place and then you must follow up your mental desire with action.

Four

Use the available tools that help you harness the power of your mind.

* Visit the resource section and read about Mini Motivational Cards

* Use CDs, like I do, including The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale – I wrote about this excellent personal development tool in this article.

* Read this article on Autosuggestion.

* Read empowering books. For example,  I read The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy and As A Man Thinketh
by James Allen.

Continued Success and Wellness to you,

David

Playing with Stones for Fun and Focus - Photo By D. Hennessey

At the beach it is always fun to play with stones to see what I can do. In the fun (like what I was doing in the picture) I teach myself more focus and patience. I like mixing games with learning it makes the process less intense.

When I was a teen I used to think playing board games was just for children. Then I found out that some games really make you work on your strategy and help you develop lateral as well as linear thinking – all excellent mental tools to enhance your personal and professional problem solving skills.

Indeed, you can develop mental skills with video games but my personal preference is to be off the computer so I can play games in person with one or more friends around a table, if possible, outside in the fresh air.  It also helps gives my eyes a rest from the computer screen.

Scientifically speaking, games can help keep our minds strong as we grow older by keeping our brains active and they can also help our children learn to use their minds in a new way. So not only is there a learning bonus but a health bonus too. Here is one link to an article in the journal of Neurology about the powerful positive effect of board games.

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Below you will find a list of some of the games I have enjoyed over the years.

The links under the names are to wikipedia details.

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Rush Hour – a game of focus and problem solving that can help you enhance your ability (in my opinion) of how you look at problems using visual memory. This game is played alone.

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Chinese Checkers – a game for building strategic thinking skills where you have to make plans and keep in mind the actions of the person you are playing with.

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Mastermind – one of the older games that is also about using your mind to figure out patterns like in a code breaking exercise – you use your deducting reason in this game.

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Many card games like Skip Bo can be nourishing for the mind young and old as it help you work on strategy and counting skills. Finally, although I have little experience with cross word puzzles they are definitely away to work the brain. Soduku is also a great way to work the mind.

If you are interested in feedback other than mine or pricing on one of these games you can visit Amazon without obligation by clicking on one of the links below

Mastermind

Rush Hour Award Winning Game

Chinese Checkers

SKIP BO Card Game

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What games do you enjoy?

Cheers,

David

Have you every wanted to stop an old habit? I definitely have and it used to take me a long time until I found out that if I want to remove a habit from my life I must replace it with an equally valued but more desirable habit.

There I used to be trying to delete the old habit and leave a vacuum. Now I know I must put something in its place, a more desirable habit. This is a simple and valuable truth.

For example, people who are trying to give up smoking often are said to crave the deep breathing sensation they experience while smoking. Apparently, smokers who take up breathing exercises that are involved in programs like Yoga succeed better when trying to quit the habit since they find another way to get the deep breathing experience they desire without the negative physical side effects.  Good to know.

When I recently re read The Art of Happiness. I came across on page 219 important information on how to bring about change in ours lives and here, in my words, is what is said.

“To change you must

Learn what is wrong

Have conviction to change

Determination to change

Take action

Continue Action”

There are lots of good ideas in this book that makes it a refreshing read. I do recommend you check out The Art of Happiness.

Finally, if you are curious about other ways to help you change a habit to make your life more of what you want I offer several special articles to Subscribers to my posting updates. To receive these articles and my postings directly to your inbox simply complete the form on the top right side of this page.

Enjoy a wonderful day,

David