Top 10 Destinations To Visit In 2015

Are you not too sure where to go on your next vacation in 2015?

Not to worry, you can know what are the 10 top destinations to visit next year.

To help get you motivated, we’ve identified 10 destinations that are sure to make headlines in 2015. Some will host major global events, while others will celebrate anniversaries, unveil new attractions or stand in Mother Nature’s spotlight. The event is meant to herald the arrival of a new Riviera – one full of 21st-century entertainment located right in Florida’s backyard. Read more…

Stress – Daily Health

It is very obvious that chronic stress and anxiety have significant tolls on us,both personal and economic. To address these notorious problem, we need to know the signs, symptoms and severity of stress, and at the same time helping people to understand and manage stress at the individual level. It is also equally important to identify new pathways to manage stress as so far there is no medical cure for stress. Read more…

Reversing Diabetes: Is It Possible – Daily Health

Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States in 2010 based on the 69,071 death certificates in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death. In 2010, diabetes was mentioned as a cause of death in a total of 234,051 certificates.Diabetes may be under reported as a cause of death. Studies have found that only about 35% to 40% of people with diabetes who died had diabetes listed anywhere on the death certificate and about 10% to 15% had it listed as the underlying cause of death. Read more…

What is Hypnotherapy all about?

What is it all about Hypnotherapy?

Overview: What is hypnotherapy?

The term “hypnosis” comes from the Greek word hypnos, meaning “sleep.” Hypnotherapists use exercises that bring about deep relaxation and an altered state of consciousness, also known as a trance. A person in a deeply focused state is unusually responsive to an idea or image, but this does not mean that a hypnotist can control the person’s mind and free will. On the contrary, hypnosis can actually teach people how to master their own states of awareness. By doing so they can affect their own bodily functions and psychological responses.

What is the history of hypnosis?

Throughout history, trance states have been used by shamans and ancient peoples in rituals and religious ceremonies. But hypnosis as we know it today was first associated with the work of an Austrian physician named Franz Anton Mesmer. In the 1700s, Mesmer believed that illnesses were caused by magnetic fluids in the body getting out of balance. He used magnets and other hypnotic techniques (the word “mesmerized” comes from his name) to treat people. But the medical community was not convinced. Mesmer was accused of fraud, and his techniques were called unscientific.

Hypnotherapy regained popularity in the mid 1900s due to Milton H. Erickson (1901 – 1980), a successful psychiatrist who used hypnosis in his practice. In 1958, both the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association recognized hypnotherapy as a valid medical procedure. Since 1995, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recommended hypnotherapy as a treatment for chronic pain.

Other conditions for which hypnotherapy is frequently used include anxiety and addiction. (See “What illnesses or conditions respond well to hypnotherapy?”)

How does hypnosis work?

When something happens to us, we remember it and learn a particular behavior in response to what happened. Each time something similar happens, our physical and emotional reactions attached to the memory are repeated. In some cases these reactions are unhealthy. In some forms of hypnotherapy, a trained therapist guides you to remember the event that led to the first reaction, separate the memory from the learned behavior, and replace unhealthy behaviors with new, healthier ones.

During hypnosis, your body relaxes and your thoughts become more focused. Like other relaxation techniques, hypnosis lowers blood pressure and heart rate, and changes certain types of brain wave activity. In this relaxed state, you will feel at ease physically yet fully awake mentally and may be highly responsive to suggestion. Your conscious mind becomes less alert and your subconscious mind becomes more focused.Some people respond better to hypnotic suggestion than others.

There are several stages of hypnosis:

Reframing the problem
Becoming relaxed, then absorbed (deeply engaged in the words or images presented by a hypnotherapist)
Dissociating (letting go of critical thoughts)
Responding (complying with a hypnotherapist’s suggestions)
Returning to usual awareness
Reflecting on the experience

What happens during a visit to the hypnotherapist?

During your first visit, you will be asked about your medical history and what brought you in — what condition you would like to address. The hypnotherapist may explain to you what hypnosis is and how it works. You will then be directed through relaxation techniques, using a series of mental images and suggestions intended to change behaviors and relieve symptoms. For example, people who have panic attacks may be given the suggestion that, in the future, they will be able to relax whenever they want. The hypnotherapist will also teach you the basics of self hypnosis and give you an audiotape to use at home so you can reinforce what you learn during the session.

How many treatments will I need?

Each session lasts about an hour, and most people start to see results within 4 – 10 sessions. You and your hypnotherapist will monitor and evaluate your progress over time. Children (aged 9 – 12) are easily hypnotized and may respond after only 1 – 2 visits. Read more…

Source via dailyhealthsolution.com, original source from Hypnotherapy | University of Maryland Medical Center http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/hypnotherapy#ixzz3LpjGnXoT

The best way to reduce injuries and also have amazing workouts each time

Injuries like this can be prevented.

I have many friends who are suffering injuries like knee ache and back pain after exercise. When I asked what happen, I had found that majority did not perform stretching or warm up before and after exercise. I started to write to highlight the importance of warm up before and after exercise.

You make-or-break your fitness regimen before you catch that barbell before it begins and before the discs are piled in by you, you must warm your body to do your best every moment up. But is the warm up currently helping you get to your full potential? On top of that, can it be “bulletproofing” the human body to withstand pains and harms?

“The largest error would be to shine on the warm up,” states Tony Gentilcore, CSCS, cofounder of Cressey Performance in Hudson, Ma.

“It is not unusual to find immediate improvements in the lift or lift,” states Gentilcore. “There is a powerful efficiency incentive to do a great warm up, as well as stacking the odds in your favour which you will not get injured.”

Steer clear of the problems of warm-ups that are inferior and just take a couple of minutes before every workout to get ready, develop more power, and prevent harms. You will be happy you did.

Source picture: philly.com (left) and besthealthmag.ca (right)

WHY MOST warm ups neglect?

Many men roam to the gym, do some reaches they discovered in Phys. Ed., and run on the treadmill for a couple of moments to perspiration. Then, even the guys who wander to start training and the dumbbells.

But strolling in and falsifying several exercises never prepares you for the determination of an extreme work out — a walk that is fast along with some arm shifts -lb bench-press is a formula to get shoulder operation and a bad work out.

Poor warmups make strength to the desk as you decrease your energy output, and relax your CNS never teach at your greatest potential; muscle tissue really relax.

Also, your trouble regions are neglected by them. “Most individuals have inferior glute service, inferior thoracic back mobility, feeble sides, as well as a feeble anterior center,” states Gentilcore. “Even the men that are raising lots of weight.”

Source picture: floridasportsinjury.com

In the event these problems are ignored by you, you will reveal you to ultimately traumas: poor glutes, by way of example, can cause leg malady, lumbago, while a a good thoracic spine may cause shoulder discomfort and hamstring draws.

As an alternative, utilize the warm up to bullet-proof your physique.

THE secrets into a GREAT WARM UP

A fantastic warm up enhances your motion quality, and removes your poor connections readies nervous-system and the human body to get a challenging work out. The effect? Muscle; harms that are less.

On power, athletes raise heavy-weights and stack at Cressey Performance. But throughout the initial couple of moments of each program, the trainers orchestrate motion preparation made for optimum operation, powerful exercises, and a cautious assortment of initial exercises.

This starts your body, and provides liquids to your own joints clears waste out of your muscles gets the blood moving — frequently, sportsmen who feel emptied ahead find relief with a warm up that is good. Re-search also demonstrates that warm up with dynamic stretches, which positively move your joints through the full array of movement, improves muscle performance.

Below, walking lunges as part of a warm up before jogging.

Source picture: chronicle.augusta.com

Below, plyometric lunge is improve muscular stamina, coordination, balance and endurance.

Source picture: ace-pt.org

Find out the “Most Important to Know Your Eating in the Magic Hour”

Additionally, feel place muscle tissue in the correct place of the warm up like getting the vehicle aligned — the proper combination of exercises will improve your stance, and help you to stay secure. “Do not quit with simply getting your pulse rate up,” states Gentilcore. “Right such things as position or unbalances and tackle that which you would like to enhance in the weight room.”

Author: Shawni, fitness consultant

Eating in the magic hour: What Need to know

Unhealthy food should not eat and should be avoided.

It is very important to know that you have to eat in between 3 to 5 pm and this should be a healthy snack which contains protein and less sugar.

Because it boosts your metabolism and balances your blood sugar. In this was your blood sugar will remain lower, and your body has less insulin to release, however, if your snack is not protein based, you can easily store fat.

You must be wondering, what snack you should eat in this magic hour? Pick up a protein bar, a piece of low-fat cheese, or some almonds with an apple.

It is better to eat (smaller size portion) every 3 to 4 hours to keep your blood sugar balance rather than stay more than 4 or 6 hours without eating.

Get to know best way to reduce injuries and enjoy great workout each time.

Right Way to eat healthy food.

Author: Shawni, fitness consultant

Gorgeous coat designer from New York

Photo: Karim Sadli

Isabel Marant doesn’t love being noticed, which she is all the time. To clarify: She likes it when she’s crossing the street and a stranger says “gorgeous coat” or something like that, but she doesn’t like it when people know who she is, so it’s a relief that she seems oblivious to the lady with the blow-dry and the chemically peeled skin who keeps peering, awkwardly, over her shoulder in the lobby of the Mercer Hotel.

“I am quite discreet,” Marant says. “I am not very happy when people scream oooooooooo in the street. And they do it a lot.”

Marant, who is 47, has had tremendous fashion influence in New York over the past couple of years: Those stacked sneakers, those ankle boots, the ascendance of the marled gray sweatshirt, all trace their roots to her designs. But trips to New York are rare. This one was for an upcoming ad campaign that she’d spent the previous day shooting in a top-secret location with a top-secret photographer (later revealed to be Inez & Vinoodh). Then it is back to Paris, to her husband, the handbag designer Jérôme Dreyfuss, and their 11-year-old son, Tal. The family typically spends the weekend at their postage-stamp-size cottage (no electricity) in a forest 35 miles from Paris, eating local things, kayaking on the river, smoking, and playing with an ancient set of tarot cards, and reminding themselves that if all the success and all of the sweaters and handbags and shoes were to disappear down that river, everything would be completely fine. Better than fine, even. So being in New York on a Saturday morning is a kick: “I am very interested in human beings,” Marant says.

Marant’s shop on Broome Street — opened in 2010, it’s one of only two in the U.S., the other being in Los Angeles — is small and sparse, but the big, crowded, and brightly lit chains that line lower Broadway are stuffed with watered-down versions of her look, and, quite often, direct knockoffs. “Sometimes I get really pissed off against certain labels that I feel just live on my back,” she says, “but that’s life, and I want to have a more philosophical approach to clothes than spending time on who has copied what.”

And what philosophy is that? “Well, I am anti-consumerist,” she says, and she laughs a big smoker’s laugh. “It’s very difficult,” she says of the obvious contradiction. “I have to be at peace with myself and what I am doing. I think it’s about feeling good, bringing some self-confidence and attitude, some pleasure. Sometimes when I feel bluesy and I feel like a piece of shit, I go and I shop and I buy something, and it makes me feel happy and it makes me feel better than going to a psychoanalyst. I think there’s a kind of psychoanalytic approach: It’s making good to yourself in a simple way and it’s also about the way you present yourself to people so it brings security and self-confidence. Whenever I start a collection it’s about saying, I don’t really need anything; what will make me feel like buying something new when I don’t really need it?”

Marant has been up since 4 a.m. — a combination of jet lag and habit — and is several cappuccinos in. The patrons of the Mercer trickle off the elevator bank: lots of high-tech workoutwear on the men and jeans, boots, and cashmere sweaters on the women. Marant, in white corduroy jeans, navy-blue T-shirt, gray sweatshirt, and tweed jacket, is the Ur-version of all this, the blueprint for the way a certain set of women get themselves up for moments exactly like this, brunch in the lobby of a chic hotel. She says she became a designer because she was the plain child (hard to believe) of a model mother with a long-lashed, beautiful brother. Clothes were a way of standing out.

Ironic, then, that what makes her so popular is her tendency to make clothes that blend seamlessly into wardrobes and lives, that feel from the first moment like old familiars. Everything about the way Marant looks, and what she sells, is easy: She doesn’t wear makeup and there are friendly wrinkles at the sides of her eyes. She doesn’t color her hair, or appear to be hugely bothered by styling it; almost always it’s stuck into a haphazard bun. It’s hard to imagine another designer who has resonated so much with her target customers. Love of Isabel Marant is profound in ever-widening circles, and her instinct for hits is unstoppable: There was the wedge platform sneaker, for example. “I think they have become quite far from my image,” she says, owing to their broad success and a million copycats. “They have become something super-vulgar, so I’m not feeling like I want to be the wedge-sneaker designer. It’s something I achieved and was very pleased about. In a few years, perhaps, it will calm down, and I can say I was the origin of that, and that will be nice. I mean, when I achieved them, I knew I had done something — I know most of the time when I have made a big hit, when something will be copied. There are the Dicker boots. And I was the first one to use linen jersey to do T-shirts, and I knew that was going to be something that was going to last for ages.”

If none of these feels like the reinvention of the fashion wheel, Marant would agree. She sees her role as a creator of things women not only admire but reach for again and again and again. “I feel more like a woman who talks about the mood of my time. I am a bit more like Chanel or Sonia Rykiel — not the super-creative women but women who really belong to their time and make things happen.

“Most of the designers I admire are men,” she continues, though she is quick to explain that she does not emulate them. “I think men are much more ahead of the game because they aren’t thinking about constraints. There are two basic ways of designing. As a woman, I have the more basic and intuitive approach. The men live more in a fantasy and are more able to advance fashion. Sometimes it’s quite easy to do crazy, fantastic things, but then I just say, I would never wear it.” For Marant, there is little purpose in complicated and uncomfortable clothing.

She lists both John Galliano and Martin Margiela as her design heroes, and even though she’s not a believer in the revival of old houses (“Stupid!”), she is pleased that Galliano is back. “Fashion killed him,” she says. “You have to be very strong to survive. I have a family — I think that helps a lot. You can be so lonely. You get very huge with celebrity, but it’s nothing after that. There’s a lot of fakeness, and it can leave you alone very easily. In the ’80s, fashion was a lot about sex and drugs and rock and roll, and I think now to be a designer you have to be the most healthy person — I wake up early and have a half-hour swim every morning to manage the stress. If you don’t go to bed early, with all those collections we have to provide all the time … really, it’s a race. I feel like a high-performance athlete more than a designer.” Marant finishes her coffee and prepares to step out into the autumn light. Her coat is boxy, and wrapped around her like a blanket. She is almost certain to be stopped.

*This article appears in the November 17, 2014 issue of New York Magazine.

Source: nymag.com

6 Essential Gadgets for Single People

Who needs a partner when there’s technology?

We’re not talking about a Spike Jonze-ian world of Siri-like virtual pals. We’re talking about helpful gadgets that make life for one just a bit easier, for those times you need a helping hand.

From simple jar openers to tools for clasping difficult jewelry, here are the six gadgets single people can enjoy.

1. Hands-free Baggy Rack

This gadget is perfect when you need an extra set of width=”608″ height=”360″ hands. Go ahead and pour those leftovers into a bag by your damn self.

Price: $7.50

IMAGE: AMAZON

2. Bracelet Assistant

For those times when you can’t turn to anyone and say, “Hey, can you help me put this on?” No, you’ve got the bracelet assistant, so you can put your jewelry on by your damn self.

Price: $24.95

IMAGE: SKYMALL

3. ZipHer

Zipping up the back of a dress alone requires everyone to channel her inner contortionist. Use the simple ZipHer to pull up that zipper by your damn self.

Price: $19.95

VIDEO: YOUTUBE, ZIP HER

4. Gripper jar opener

Is that pasta sauce jar too tight too open? Do it anyway by yourdamn self with the simple Gripper jar opener.

Price: $15.77

IMAGE: AMAZON

5. Lockitron

The Lockitron is perfect for singles who live alone. If you forgot to lock your front door, use the gadget’s synced up app to lock the door with just your phone (and also, your damn self).

Price: $179

VIDEO: YOUTUBE, LOCKITRON

6. Spotter multipurpose sensor

If you don’t have a lock compatible with Lockitron, try Spotter’s multipurpose sensor. Using just your smartphone, you can monitor “motion, sound, light, temperature and humidity.” That way, you can always be aware and feel safe in your apartment when you’re by your damn self.

Price: $33

IMAGE: FANCY

25 Business and Life Lessons I’ve Learned Since My Mother’s Death

One of the most trying times of my life happened six years ago when my mother lost her courageous battle with Stage IV colon and liver cancer six years ago in November.

I’ve had a lot of time since then to grieve and reflect on the beauty as well as the fragility of life. I believe people have the best breakthroughs in life when they are forced to break down, at least that’s what happened to me. Below is a list of things that I’ve learned since her death and I hope it can help you, too.

1. Listen to mentors of the past.

Make it practice every day to use your commute time as learning time. When I moved to San Diego six years ago, I started doing this and my life drastically improved. Every day I listen to recordings of motivational speakers such as Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn and others on my commute to work.

2. Stretch yourself.

Don’t set goals just for the sake of having them. Set goals that will stretch who you are as a person. Consider the question “What type of person must I become to achieve all that I want?” Stretch goals are essential because what you become in life helps you achieve further.

When you work 10 times harder on yourself, you’ll see phenomenal growth in your life. By taking the time to work on yourself now, you will reap benefits later. If you do what other people aren’t willing to do now, you will enjoy what people cannot even fathom later.

Decide the future you want. Whatever it is that you want, see yourself already in possession of it. Humans are the only life form that can change the course of their life in an instant. If you want success, you can obtain it. You have to believe that what you want is possible for you and that it’s already yours.

3. Be grateful.

Live a life full of gratitude. Every day I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with my mother. I am also grateful for the pain that followed her death because it taught me a lot about my resiliency and compassion. Be grateful not just for the good stuff but learn to grow from the lessons arising from the bad things that happen.

4. Value experience.

Treat experience like a rare jewel of exquisite value. Use what you learned in the past and invest it for your future. Experience, like money, can be very beneficial if you do not squander it but rather put it to good use. Let it serve you. Don’t be a servant to it.

5. Invest in personal development.

Never begrudge the money you spend on yourself for self-development. Don’t miss out on the class, the conference or the seminar. What price can be put on your personal growth? None. It’s priceless.

When I moved to San Diego, I began learning Portuguese. I’m still not as fluent as I want to be, but paying for lessons and learning this new skill really helped my mindset. When you move out of your comfort zone, new avenues of opportunity start opening up for you.

6. Be a problem solver.

When you invest in life by helping another person, your problems seem to disappear. I learned that while I was in deep pain after my mom’s death. It was through helping other people that I could get my mind off my grief and this slowly helped me heal. What problem can you solve for someone else that may inadvertently help you?

7. Become attractive.

To attain all that you want in life, you must become attractive. I’m not talking about physical beauty but about the beauty that you possess inside. For things to change in your life, you have to change. Success is something you attract by becoming an attractive person. It’s not something that you pursue because what you pursue always eludes you like a butterfly.

8. Show kindness to others.

Be polite to everyone you meet. Just make up your mind to be kind even to strangers. When you walk out a door, hold it open for the person behind you. Display good manners. Treat people the way you want to be treated.

9. Be a friend.

The greatest wealth of all time is friends. They know all about you and still like you. Joys are doubled and sorrows cut in half when you share them with a friend.

Be the kind of friend you want. Spend time with your friends. Value them. Treasure them. Make time for them. Widen out your circle of friendships. I have great friends who are younger than me, my age and older than me. Don’t go looking for a friend. Be one.

10. Stay in touch.

Sometimes months or even years may go by without your realizing that you haven’t kept up with close friends and family. When you lose a loved one, you begin to know all too well the importance of relationships. Make a list of 10 people you haven’t spoken to in a while. Call or write them. It really does make a difference.

11. Embrace the cycle of life.

After spring comes summer and after summer comes fall. It’s been that way since the beginning of time. You can also use the seasons as metaphors for life.

After good times, there will be bad times, but then good times will come again and so forth. When someone dies, a new life will be born. Life will always be a mixture of opportunity and difficulty. Since you can’t change this, you must learn to embrace it.

12. Be vulnerable.

Most people spend their entire lives hiding who they really are from others. The only way to really live authentically is to connect with others. Be open, honest and vulnerable. When you share your struggles, you give permission to others to do the same.

13. Embrace hardship.

Happiness or joy does not come from the things you possess. It comes from the substance of who you are. That substance is made up of your experiences in life. A pearl is created by the irritation of a grain of sand. When you experience conflict, adversity or irritations, they often create hidden pearls.

14. Forgive someone.

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing because you release the hurt and pain that you carry within you. It’s like a huge weight that’s lifted from your life. Don’t live your life in the past. Rather use it as a catalyst to make your life better. To truly forgive someone, you must release the person from his or her responsibility for the hurt caused you. Forgiveness is a choice.

15. Start a podcast.

The best way to move of your comfort zone is by trying something new. Starting a podcast was very scary for me; that’s why I knew I had to do it. When you stretch yourself, you become a new person with new skills. Those new skills can only help you later in life.

16. Take action.

Too many people wait until everything is just right before venturing out. Stop waiting. Take action now. Send out what you have into the world and then constantly improve upon it. Everything you do is a work in progress. So don’t procrastinate. Get started.

17. Start a 21-day challenge.

Experts say that it takes 21 days to form a habit. So make a list of some of the things you want to start implementing in life. Narrow it down and challenge yourself to stick with it for 21 days. You’ll be amazed by how awesome you’ll feel after you accomplish it.

18. Take to lunch people you admire.

A great way to acquire a mentor is to invite someone to have lunch — on you. Make a list of 10 people you want to get to know better. Each time you’ll be amazed at how much the other person will enjoy this. People love to talk about themselves and their accomplishments. This is a great way to get them to do it.

19. Banish toxicity.

When I stopped spending time with toxic people, my life improved beyond measure. Toxic people bring you down and you can’t flourish with them in your life. Make a list of these people. Stop associating with them or at least limit the time spent with them if the former isn’t possible.

20. Say I love you every day.

The word love is used for so many different things. People love their cars, homes, cities and even their clothes. But the kind of love I’m referring to is the unconditional love for your family and dear friends. Rarely do people say I love you every day to those they love. I learned that this is essential to say every day because you never know what tomorrow will hold.

21. Don’t be in such a hurry.

Don’t spend your life chasing after something. Slow down. Cherish what you have. Savor the goodness of life. Wherever you are, be there, fully.

22. Write it down.

Keep a list of your accomplishments. I like to keep things in a journal and I look at it whenever I need a pick-me-up. Writing can be therapeutic and when you review the major milestones you’ve reached, you’ll know that if you did those things, you can do so much more.

23. Recover quickly.

Losing a loved one is devastating and each person grieves differently. There is no timetable for this pain. What I’ve learned is that with all adversity, it’s best to recover as quickly as possible. Don’t stay in a saddened state one minute longer than you have to. Don’t let things affect you so long that you’re not able to recover.

24. Take care of yourself.

When you go on an airplane, the flight attendant says to first secure your own mask before you help others. You can’t help others if you neglect yourself. Take care of you first so you will be able care for others.

25. Smile frequently. Dance often.

A smile is the only circle that can make things straight. Be cautious of your face when you interact with people. A smile is a simple gift that you can give to others. Be generous with it.

My mother loved to dance and that’s why I love dancing. Thank you, Mom. I really miss you. Read more…

Source: entrepreneur.com | Author: Meiko Patton

The Most Important Hour of Your Life

An executive called me up a few months ago in existential pain. He had spent the last several years pursuing a career path he now admitted was not right for him. He had overstayed his time building a software company when he really wanted to be teaching and writing. An optimist by nature, it had surprised him to find how off track he had become without ever intending it. Almost as concerning as being off track was the realization that it had happened without any deliberate choice on his part. How was this possible? Why do otherwise smart people end up strategically adrift? And what can we do about it?

It’s not hard to see how this happens. It is as if the world has conspired to keep us perpetually distracted, addicted even, to the latest update regardless of its importance. On my worst days I wonder if my tombstone will read: “He checked email.” I am not alone.

TIME magazine recently reported that, on average, we check our phones 110 times a day. At the highest levels people check some 900 times a day.

Harris Interactive recently conducted research for Everest College that found 83 percent of Americans are stressed by at least one aspect of their work—that’s up 10 percent from the year before.

The New York Times recently published the results of a survey of 12,000 workers worldwide that found many lacked a fulfilling workplace. The most striking finding, to me, was that 70 percent of the workers felt they did not have “Regular time for creative or strategic thinking.”

The effect of this goes far beyond feeling stressed. When we are constantly taxed by the trivial we don’t have the space to think. We can end up getting lost and wasting years going in the wrong direction.

The German psychologist Jan Souman sheds some interesting insight on the problem. As part of a research project he took participants to the Sahara Desert and instructed them to walk in a straight line. It sounds simple but it turned out to be complicated: “[Some] of them walked on a cloudy day, with the sun was hidden behind the clouds [and with no reference points in view]. … [They] all walked in circles, with [several] of them repeatedly crossing their own path without noticing it.” Other participants did much better. They walked while the sun was shining, with faraway reference points in view. “These … followed an almost perfectly straight course.” In other words, if we can identify what is most essential and keep our eyes fixed on that it can help us from getting too far adrift.

This research came into focus for me a few days ago when I heard from my friend Enric Sala. Enric has applied essentialism to creating a meaningful career. He gave up a good post at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California to pursue an even more meaningful role at National Geographic. Then once he was there he continued to negotiate his way to what he felt was the best and highest use of him: to be an Explorer-in-Residence. He now travels to the most pristine oceans in the world in an effort to protect these areas as National Parks. He and his team have already secured areas the size of Alaska from being damaged.

When he reached out to me it wasn’t to tell me about his career. He told me he had been diagnosed with cancer of the kidney. He has recently had a successful surgery so he looks in the clear for now. But the experience challenged him to look with great urgency to what he will do with what remains of his “one wild and precious life.”

The questions he asked himself don’t take a long time to answer. An hour may be enough. But they have the power to improve the quality of every other hour of your life. Here are the questions:

Step 1: If possible get out into nature where you can feel the natural pace of the earth and not the hyperactive and inhumane pace of modern life.

Step 2: Write down the question “What would I do if I only had a week left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

Step 3: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had a month left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

Step 4: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had a year left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

Step 5: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had five years left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

Step 6: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had a life left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

Step 7: Finally, take 10 minutes to reread all of your answers while asking yourself, “How can I design my routine this week to more closely align with these answers?”

Life today is fast and full of opportunity. The complication is we think we have to do everything. The implication of this is we end up being pulled into endless distractions without pausing to really think. My position is we can make a different choice. We can discern what is really essential. We can design a life that really matters. Read more…

Source: linkedin.com