11 essential things that can make your day more meaningful.

11 essential things that can make your day more meaningful.

Our society has went though many changes on the last century. It was been summited to changes of perspective as how we look at nature, rights, morals… Not only we have gone through a demoralizing process but also we have become a rushed society, which appears to be in a pendulum between the past and the future without acknowledging the present. Owing to the exigent society in which we exist, where things such as appearance, wealth and politics are really important factors, we start focusing all our energy in these few things which are extrinsic to our real needs and desires. Because of this, many of us have unconsciously overtaken a monotonous routine of life which does´t inspire us to thrive, grow better and fulfill our every day existence; even though thats the nature of our being.

As everything, we can hack the system and get out of our comfort zone. We can start to evolv our body, mind and spirit. We can find the beauty of being curious, learning, loving and thriving to become a better person, always seeking a balanced growth in all the faculties that make up our own being. Here is a list of eleven things which can improve our daily life, inducing us to a flow state and making us flourish into something more positive and mindset shifting.

1. Go outdoors, get grounded and have some sun.
We certainly live on a time where nature has been depreciated. Its importance goes beyond the possibility of turning natural resources into money, furthermore nature is a vital complement needed for our existence. Who does´t love to go to a lake or to a forest? Or simply go to the detoxifying ocean? Nature inspires pureness, serenity and love, thats why we feel good in it. Getting grounded is the activity of standing, sitting, or simply laying down on the ground. Recent studies by the Earthing Institute (http://earthinginstitute.net) have showed that grounding daily would improve overall health, including sleeping cycle, relieving tension and stress, increasing energy and improving blood flow. Grounding apart from being a medicine for your body, it is also for your mind and spirit. Grounding is used as a way of meditation, revitalizing and balancing our energy centers. When we connect directly to the earth, we are directly connected to a source of energy, therefore we charge up with pure and positive vibrations. The same goes for the sun. The sun is our main source of energy, thanks to it we have life in our planet. Just as plants that need sunlight for photosynthesis, we need sunlight for providing our body with pure energy and charging our energy centers. Sunlight is needed for regulating the way our body synthesis vitamin D, which is essential for having strong bones. (Check out this article for further information about vitamin D, calcium and cancer: http://www.naturalnews.com/022889_Vitamin_D_sunlight_supplement.html)
The best time to receive sunlight is during early morning or noon, but if you can´t receive direct sunlight because of health or time adversities, you should try the art of Sungazing. Sungazing is the practise of starring at the sun during the sunrise or sunset. It has been proved that Sungazing improves the production of melatonin and serotonin (hormones which regulate sleeping cycle, mood, and toxic radicals). Sungazing also increases energy levels and the size of the gradually shrinking pineal gland. Moreover, Sungazing is a practice that touches the spiritual realm, connecting us with nature and ourselves to a extraordinary extend.
The good thing about grounding, receiving sunlight and sungazing is that we can do these all at the same time, altogether they have a powerful positive impact in our health, simply go out on the early morning or at noon, bare foot, and stare at the sun or lay down and receive pure sunlight for 10-15 minutes. (Read this article for more sungazing! : http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/health-benefits-of-sungazing/)

2. Practice meditation.
Meditation, what a word. Thankfully it has become increasingly popular, for its multiple benefits and uses are being discovered by more and more people. It is generally believed that for meditation we have to put our mind into a blank state while we sit in a weird uncomfortable position; certainly there is people who practice certain types of meditation which might include something like this, but the reality is that meditation is more just than the sitting and ability to blank our mind. Meditation is a powerful tool which can be used to motivate, eliminate fears, connect to our spirit, relive stress, remove old and negative thoughts, energize, healing our bodies, materialice our thoughts… The list could go on for ever, and that is the beauty of meditation, it works for everything and any circumstance! When we acquire a stable positive mindset through meditation techniques, we can control how our mind and body reacts to other things. Before a meeting or a sport competition meditation helps for relieving anxiety and stress. Before working on homework meditation can put you into the focused creative mindset. For reliving anger and stress from a problem you previously had during your day, meditation can eliminate all those negative feelings. Meditation is a true gem, and the reason it has been put aside or not even outlined is because on our society the idea about sitting and closing our eyes seems like a waste of time. Everything is rushed and we always have to be doing something, wether it is Facebook, TV, or anything. But truly meditation is not ¨doing anything, actually it is one of the greatest tools for developing mind powers, such as a greater intuitiveness, creativity, focus, motivation… There are several types of meditation, some are Silva method (http://www.silvalifesystem.com), Kundalini meditation (http://www.3ho.org/kundalini-yoga), Vipassana Meditation (http://www.dhamma.org), Mindfulness meditation (http://www.mindfulnesscds.com), Zen meditation (http://zenhabits.net), Raja yoga (http://www.brahmakumaris.org)… Plus all thousands free videos you can find on places such as youtube.com. Meditation is essential to fight all the crazy things we experience throughout our life, providing us the mindset and tools to handle life more fluidly, healthy and happy! (For more meditation check out: http://www.the-guided-meditation-site.com/reasons-to-meditate.html). Practicing meditation can be anywhere at any time and as long as you need, it can be as short as 5 minutes and it can be squished into any busy life routine!

3. Practice breathing exercises/ yoga.
Have you ever been told to breath deply when you are mad or anxious? People say this because they somehow know that their breath is able to control their emotions at that point, and it is true. Our breathing is a mirror of our emotion. Pay close attention to you breath while you study, while you are at a party, while you exercise, while you get angry and happy. You will notice that all of them are quite different, knowing how to control your breath improves your ability to control your emotions at all the different possible situations. Breathing exercises such as Art of Living method (http://www.artofliving.org/cr-es), or Pranayama technique (http://www.yogapoint.com/info/pranayama.htm), will provide dozens of health benefits. Some of them are realizing tension, detoxifying the body, relaxing the muscles, reliving emotional stress, relieving pain, strengthing immune system… Here is a list of 18 benefits that are provided by conscious, breathing exercises: http://www.onepowerfulword.com/2010/10/18-benefits-of-deep-breathing-and-how.html. Breathing exercises are great to start of the day or before going to bed, there are specific exercises to wake up our body and provide energy, relax our body and detoxify our body. Once one gets the hang of it they won’t be able to ditch it, for all the benefits are clearly noticed and delivered quickly. Another type of breathing exercise is yoga. The good thing with yoga is that its benefits go even further. Becouse of all the ancient science behind it, yoga is a well fundamented lifestyle/exercice with works directly the body, mind and spirit. It provides benefits from activities such as meditation, breathing exercises, exercise session, streching session, quiropractic session, massage session… Depending on the level of the practitioner and the type of yoga, different things are target. For example Ashtanga yoga works a lot on strength and deep breathing. Hatha yoga is less intense than Ashtanga yoga and works more on loosing up the body. (For more information about yoga and its various types: http://life.gaiam.com/article/beginners-guide-8-major-styles-yoga). A yoga session or breathing exercise session can vary on length, depending on personal needs and time disponibility. A simple 5-10 minute breathing session in the mooring or at noon, and a 15min-1hour yoga session at night would do the trick.

4. Exercice.
Isn´t it simple, exercice. This word has become a cliche, every doctor, scientist, and regular person says, or at least knows, that we should exercise daily for at least 30 minutes. By not exercising we take so many risks that it seem like an obligation. It turns into the most painful activity of the day, when it should be fun and motivating. So what we need to do is to redefine our concept of exercising. Exercise is not only done at a gym but it can also be donde at home. Why not try yoga or P90X? People should also try sports such as football, soccer, martial arts, rock climbing, hiking, surfing, kayac, running, sprinting, gymnastics, cross fit… There are so many different sports apart from going to a treadmill and lifting wights. The idea about exercising is not only improving health, but also motivating the person. Why motivate? Because if we are motivated in a sport we will always thrive to get better and better, by this one can acquire mental strength and inner will power. Furthermore if the sport one practices is his/her passion, this person will frequently enter the state of flow, the optimal state of experience, where one is fully emerged in an activity where he is intensely focused and happy. Life is all about experiences and how we enter the flow state, once we find the activities that makes us unlock the pathway into flow, we will find ourselves fully motivated and with a redefined vision over our personal capabilities. Once this happens, all these attitudes that we acquired while we undergo physical and mental stress, such as perseverance, will power, never give up attitude… will be passed directly into any other daily life activity. So in other words we becomes motivated and passionate, with a strong body and mind to achieve any goal proposed. Go out and look for your sport, one sport can´t apply for everybody, thankfully there are hundreds of different sports. Look for which one makes you feel alive, and you won’t believe how much you can learn from yourself and grow only be practicing the sport that you find flow in it.
See more about flow at: http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow

5. Read a book, a printed book!
Because of the devastating modern media, movies, music, TV, and any of all the other distracting devices, some people have put a side reading. Reading is such a powerful tool that certainly if everybody would know its power and importance the secret elite would be already down (if there is any). Reading is beautiful, outrageously interesting and fun. Once some one gets the hang of it, they won’t want to stop. You can learn so many things, so many that can´t be fulfilled in a lifetime. There is surly a book for everything, whether you like novels about witchery, or books about the worlds history, or even how-to books about how to make a website or anything! It is interesting because I feel I have learned a lot more useful things by reading books and different websites than on the last year of school. With now a days technology we have ebooks and pdf files all over the Internet, but there is nothing like holding a book with our hands and reading it, plus there is no headache after long periods of reading time compared to ebooks.Go out and read all there is. Start with the short books, just so you can become accustomed to reading. Remember to seek for book of your interest, not any book, if not you won’t feel the lovely feeling of having an enormous intrigue while you read only by thinking about the next page and so on. My best recommendation is to pick a book, and hold it everywhere, any spare time you have, read it, you will see that many things will start changing. Your amount of knowledge, the way you speak, the amount of vocabulary you hold… Here is an awesome website to get unlimited amount of books for a cheap payment: https://www.oysterbooks.com
If reading and books weren’t that important, they would not be used since the 7th millennium BC.

6. Help, make the difference.
It is evident that our society now a days has been demoralized to the point that it turned into an individualist society. Many people have closed their mind into thinking that if they are on optimal conditions, anyone else is too, or it is not their obligation to help in anyway. Thanks to this mind condition there has been many problems, sizing from family or friendly problems to political problems.Things such as personal appearance, wealth and power have blinded people into a narcissist and fake life. If we would acquire the mentality about looking at all of us as a whole and that if one is harmed, all of us will be affected by the negativity generated, many problems would be solved. It is an ambitious thing to say and idealistic, but remember that the change start within ourselves. Within our circle and all of those who surround us. Helping and making a difference is so easy, everyday so many situations occur precisely to test our good will. Helping an old person getting on the bus, picking up and returning some lost item, giving part of your snack to a homeless person while you walk on the street… For helping we don´t have to specifically donate to a big organization or give all our clothing to an orphanage. Certainly these are great ways too, but lets not complicate. The reward from helping and doing something good, where you know some one else was aided is undefinably reward-full. Helping and making the difference provides an emotional fulfillment that nothing on life can provide, it is vital to help others sincerely if we want to fulfill in a balanced way our life. Go out and make your positive idealistic society real, if we have good intentions these will be acknowledge and conducted by others! Help everyday and fill deep fulfillment every day!

7. Love unconditionally.
Love is truly the essence of life. If it would not be because love exists, there would be no humanity. Love is key if we want to change all the problems we find on society. We can´t fight fire with fire, in other words we can´t fight negativity with more negativity. It is our job as light warriors to love, and express kindness and compassion to everyone who cross by our way. It seems easy, but when we encounter negative people, toxic individuals, mean and offensive people, it is hard to express love, kindness and compassion. Here is where meditation comes into importance. We first have to learn how to love our selves, then we have to learn how to accept and detach from unconscious emotions. Once we learn how to express love full time to anybody, we will find that our mind settles into a passive, unregretful state. Love your dog, cat, mom, dad, neighbor, brother… accept any negative attitude or characteristic they have, and look at them as teachers of patience. You learn from them how to be patient and love unconditionally. Love is powerful, if you still doubt about it, go out and try to express kindness, compassion and love to anybody who comes into your way, you will start feeling healthier, happier and more energized. More and more people will be affected by your intense radiation of positive vibrations and will start to seek for you naturally. Love intensely, be kind and compassionate every day, and every moment.

8. Socialice, productively.
Socializing is not a waste of time, as it is regarded by many people. If we seek for good, meaningful and productive relationships we will always encounter that our socializing moments are full on interesting, curious and creative things. These social conversation will probably be full of love, laughter and knowledge, and this is what we seek for. Socialice does not only mean talking with close friends, but also communicating with distant and old forgotten friends, probably someone you know is going through hard times and needs someone to talk to, or at least to feel loved by someone. Socializing also implicates conversing with relatives. Your family should be as important as your friends. People tend to let their family aside just because it seems like they will never go, but the truth is that we are mortals and casualties happen every unexpected moment. Socialice meaningfully with your friends, long distance friends, relatives and new people. Don’t forget to express kindness, love and compassion! Having a productive conversation everyday will cultivate your knowledge, social skills, reduce stress and anxiety, and fill your day with flow. Apart from this, socializing is a great moment to spread your ideas and great thoughts you might have, this way you can start having a positive impact on society.

9. Be curious, express your ideas.
Learning is beautiful, and even more, turning ideas into realities, but all of these happen when we turn into curious individuals. We should every day have the intrigue to learn something new, experience something new. It is the unseen, unexperienced, unknown, and different what motivates us. The only way to break through the monotonous barrier is to throw ourselves into unknown waters. That which is new for us and takes ourselves out of our comfort zone will make us enter the state of flow. During this moments our mind will develop exponentially, not only because we learn new thing but because we experience different and new things too. The more we put ourselves into this state, the wider our perspective will be. Having a wider perspective will enable us to have greater ideas, problem solving and creativeness. It is essentially required to write down all of our ideas, some of these could become into the next Noble Price or multi millionaire product. We should thrive to learn and seek for new exciting things everyday, equally we should work on our ideas and write them down, we never know the power these ideas can take until we test them and work with them. Be curious, learn and experience the new everyday! This could simply happen by reading articles about different things you have never read before, or by talking to random people at places you have never went before, or by doing new activities such as different sports or works you have never tried before. All of this will make you a critical thinker, wise person and widely skilled individual.

10. Reflect on your day, record.
This is probably one of the most important essential things one should do daily. There is a big difference between successful and unsuccessful people, it is that successful people reflect on their day, and worry about what they did wrong and how they could and will improve, unsuccessful people don´t. Analyzing your day at the end of it, looking at the mistakes you did, the negative things you practiced and also greeting yourself about the good you did will motivate you to do better and improve everyday. When we have record of what we do daily and how we improve we will start becoming more exigent with ourselves, always seeking to become a better person. More intelligent, kinder , more focused, happier, stronger, more impact-full… The key of progress is evolving and transmuting that which is provoking a hold back on our improvement. One way to reflect on the day is by meditation and just redoing the day on your mind looking at the things you could improve, such as actions and expressed emotions. One day can be easily recorded on a diary, by writing the big main events you were part of and influenced in.

11. Face your fears. 
Consider yourself being a muscle. When you exercise and apply stress to it, this muscle can be forced to adapt to the stress and grow, or breakdown as an injure. This same way your mind and body works against you fears. As we face them, we can either adapt and overcome them , or be held back by them.When we face fears and beat them, we grow thanks to intrinsic factors, such as will power, strong mind and focused mentality. As we face more fears all of our capabilities and abilities will be forced to grow, just as the muscle grows by the stress applied to it. Fighting at least one fear daily will make a huge difference between an ordinary and extraordinary person. We all have fears, fear of the new, fear of death, or simply fear of talking to strangers. But when we want to make progress, looking for fears does not comes down to these obvious fears. Fighting fears in a daily basis can be by fighting the fear of adding more weight into a bench press, trying a new hard yoga pose, or simply going for your first backflip you have been practicing on gymnastics. Fears are everywhere, they might seem simple, some almost inexistent just because we don´t consider them as fears, but they are. Extraordinary people differ from ordinary people just because they fight all of these small fears, they work on themselves every single day and seek for the state of flow every moment they can.

 

It is almost obvious that having a day where all of these eleven things are fulfilled is very hard. I say very hard because it isn’t impossible. We can all stop wasting the time we have between our own activities, we can ditch all the ego needs of social networks and such. We can fill our days with things such as meditation, reading, yoga, breathing exercises, productive socializing, trying something new, exercising, facing fears, going outdoors, loving, helping and expressing our ideas. When we take an active, critical and positive mindset we start developing to a whole new level. We humans thrive, and look for improvement. It is recorded in history. Industrial revolution, technical advances and big events like this mark big moments where people who thrived for progress did the unthinkable and unknown. It is in our DNA to seek for development. It is about time to breakthrough all the mental and social barriers that have been imposed to us. We have an infinite power on our mind to do great things just if we train ourselves and put ourselves into a productive and positive mode.

Get motivated, thrive and grow into a better you.

 

BY Jose A. Arvide