Three Steps to Achieving Happiness by Beth Banning & Neill Gibson

Do you hear the phrases “self-love” or “loving yourself” and wonder what that really means or how to go about doing it? Are there things about yourself that you’re not sure you even like, never mind think that you could love? No matter where you are in your life, or what you may think about yourself, read on to find self love techniques that will bring more happiness and satisfaction to your life.

Whether you’re single, married, or divorced, the sooner you start loving yourself, the faster all of your other relationships will be filled with fun, closeness, caring and happiness. Why? Because what you focus your attention on grows. When you start noticing all the wonderful things about yourself, other people will have no choice but to see them too.

In this article, we will focus on the three beginning steps toward self-love and achieving true happiness.

Step one: Investigate your thinking. Believe it or not, the things that you think a/bout determine how you feel about yourself and everything else in your life. We are raised in a culture that teaches us to focus on what’s right and what’s wrong. When you’re always focusing on what’s wrong with yourself, you’re bound to feel bad. Practice investigating your thoughts by using your feelings as an alarm. The next time you feel uncomfortable in any way, try to identify what you were thinking about just before you started feeling uncomfortable.

Step two: Know what’s deeply important to you. The fastest way to achieve life-changing results is by discovering what’s most important to us. These things are hidden beneath the storm of feelings that we experience every day. Using step one, you have now identified what you were thinking about just before you started feeling uncomfortable. At this point, you could start asking yourself questions such as: “What is so important to me in this situation that makes me feel this way?”

For example, underneath profound sadness, there might be the regret of a dream lost. Hidden within confusion could be a strong desire for understanding. Beneath anger, there could be a need for effectiveness. When you can get beyond your feelings to what you value—what’s deeply important to you—you will start to notice wonderful qualities about yourself that you can enjoy and can easily learn to love.

Step three: Remember that you’re never alone. Although at times you may feel very lonely, once you learn to pause when you start to feel uncomfortable and identify what is most important to you beneath your feelings, you will find that you always have YOU. Using these self-love techniques you are guaranteed to find the best friend you’ve ever had and will be well on your way to mastering the true art of happiness.

Finding authentic happiness isn’t as impossible as it may sometimes seem. If you’d really like to boost your self-confidence and learn to consciously raise your self-esteem, sign up for our thought-provoking and motivational Weekly Action Tips eMail series at: http://www.FocusedAttention.com/cmd.php?ad=081030

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Article Source: Self Improvement Articles from PositiveArticles.Com

Relaxation techniques and methods

For a deeper state of relaxation you might want to use a combination of these relaxation techniques.

Relaxation techniques: Meditation
Meditation is a mental exercise. You choose an object or a visual image and focus on it. A popular method is focusing on the breathing. A lot of people prefer the lotus position when doing this exercise. By keeping the spine straight, energies are allowed to flow better.

This helps to develop something called mindfulness. Random thoughts are reduced when mindfulness is being developed. You can be more productive with fewer random thoughts because you can focus on one thing at a time.

Relaxation techniques: Progressive relaxation
Muscles are use with the progressive relaxation technique. This technique is use to help identify the difference between tensed and relaxed muscles. When you can recognise tensed muscles you can consciously relax them.

It is best to lay down when practicing this technique. You should focus on one muscle at a time. Tense the muscle for about 10 seconds. Then consciously relax it. Pause for a moment before moving on to the next muscle. Moving from each muscle from the top of the body through to the toes. After the exercise, each muscle should be totally relaxed. You may want to lay still for a while and enjoy the relaxing feeling.

Relaxation techniques: Breathing
There is a logical reason why breathing exercises helps you to relax. If you are tense you may have noticed you are breathing with your chest. Maybe fast and shallow.

This exercise helps you to get into the habit of breathing using your belly. You can notice the difference if you place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Inhale deeply and allow your belly to expand. The hand on your belly should move more.

To do the exercise sit in a comfortable chair. Your back should be straight. Both feet should be flat on the floor.

Inhale deeply through your nose and hold for as long as it feels comfortable. Exhale through your mouth which should be only slightly open. A pause before repeating the process has a better calming result with this exercise.

Relaxation techniques: Imagery
Another powerful technique is visualisation where you use your imagination. Guided imagery is a term often used for this technique. The practitioner imagines being in a calm and pleasant place. It doesn’t have to be a place you have been to. Just as long as it is nice to imagine. The objective is to imagine being in a place where you are surrounded with things that makes you happy.

Used on there own, any one of these techniques can be quite relaxing. Used together you will find that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

If you wish to use a combination of these exercises, start with the progressive muscle exercise to relax you. Use the breathing exercise to maintain the relaxed state. And then use meditation or the imagery exercise to focus your mind and help reduce random thoughts.