• Bring more clarity into your life
• Control negative thoughts and emotions
• Balance your emotional state (lessening the high's and low's)
• Help manage feelings such as "loss of control" or utter "frustration"
• Set the foundation for greater self awareness, finding one's purpose and living a happier, more fulfilling life
• Bring calmness and peace to an otherwise stressful life
• Lower blood pressure, help control pain and improve one's overall state of being

Tall order right? 

So many people have tried and have given up on meditation because they just haven't found a way to make it work for them.

Correct…if meditation is frustrating, too hard or too complicated then you will not get the benefit and certainly will quit.

So, how can we make meditation easier?

1. Manage Expectations.

Many people begin meditation thinking that they should be able to immediately calm their mind and slip into some wonderful peaceful space within minutes of starting.  The reality however is that meditation is more a state where you have unconditional acceptance of your thoughts (and you should expect to have many racing through your mind in the beginning).  So instead of fighting those thoughts, accept them unconditionally (as if you are watching someone else's brain) without judgement – this will actually result in a calming of the mind.   The techniques outlined in Attracting Greatness take you through exercises that guarantee a meditative state – no matter what your current frame of mind. 

2. Know What Relaxes You

For meditation, there is no one size fits all.  For some, listening to a soothing voice helps them achieve different levels of meditation whereas I prefer sounds that bring me peace such as ocean waves or birds singing.  Whatever stimulus you decide to use, it should be somewhat repetitive.  Even a ticking clock can provide a terrific stimulus for meditation. 

3. Have Faith

Your first few weeks of meditation should be without expectation.  Just do it! What I found with meditation is that your first few weeks give you moderate satisfaction, but it is really after that first few weeks when you begin to see the real differences.  Differences in your emotional state, differences in how easy it is to enter a meditative state and an ability to better control the depth of meditation you enter.  It takes faith until you reach this point.

4. Rinse and Repeat

Like anything we want to master in life, practice makes perfect.  With meditation, whatever you do – be consistent.  I like to meditate for 15-20 minutes twice a day – once when I am first up and once in the early evening (when you finish work or after dinner).  If you miss too many sessions you will need to begin again.  If you can maintain continuity, you will find meditation so much easier and more effective. 

5. You Deserve This Time

When I really mastered meditation some 15-years ago, I convinced myself that above all else I deserved this 15-20 minutes each day.  This was MY time and if I was to be an effective, happy and fun person, then this time is more important than anything else in life.  If you do not feel you deserve the time, then you will let that time be impacted by other things in your life and soon you will have quit.  So commit to this 15-20 minutes of meditation as being SACRED time for you…then sit back and enjoy your experience.

If you are finding it challenging to meditate, study these 5 tips…after all, these 5 tips are the basis for us turning around years of frustration trying to meditate into a wonderful, simple practice that is now as normal as breathing for us.  Best of all, the longer you stick with meditation, the easier it will get and the more benefit you will see in your life.

Have a tip on meditation or a question?  Leave us a comment.

But how do you overcome (or at least manage) fear of failure?

After all, we are talking about a paralyzing force here that directs ALL of its energy toward preventing us from taking action – a force that is so deeply embedded in our subconscious mind that we often have no idea how it comes to be. 

Yet fearing failure cannot win…our happiness, health and professional/financial lives depend on learning to get past it.

I've been working hard over the last couple of years to try and manage emotion from big decisions and daily behaviors.

Notice I didn't say eliminate since burying your emotions or pretending they do not exist are both as unhealthy as letting them control you.

The key to managing feelings of fear though is to understand that 99% of the time we completely overestimate (to the point of fabrication) the negative consequences of any decision or action.

In other words, it's all about the worst possible outcome we can imagine instead of looking at the more likely, less negative outcome. 

It's not that we want to pretend that only the best will happen, we are not talking about living in a fantasy world, but we are also not talking about living in the worst possible situation either.

Instead of giving in to fear, try instead to  write down the positives and negatives, what you believe your chances are of succeeding, what would improve your chances and what the most likely outcome will be (not the worst possible outcome which is where our minds typically dwell)

I find that meditation, yoga, deep breathing and other mind-calming activities can help tremendously by recognizing and then calming the emotional reaction to decisions allowing you be more objective about the outcome. 

Suddenly, you begin to clearly see the real likely outcome of your actions and can quickly determine if you should continue and how to improve your odds of achieving the outcome you desire without being paralyzed by emotion.

The entire exercise of yoga or meditation (if it's done correctly) helps train you to remove the emotional reaction to things from the things themselves which helps tremendously when fear, frustration, anger, etc…tend to take over.

Stop being a victim to fear of failure, learn to be comfortable in proceeding with key life actions and watch your results soar.

One of those principles is meditation – and its incredible ability to bring you closer to your purpose, reduce fear and anxiety in your life, successfully manage stress and stay on track, motivated to achieve your goals.

Although there has been some recent research around meditation,  we still struggle to explain exactly why it has such a massive impact, but after years of experience we can only say IT DOES.

In our own life, we overcame a massive health challenge, galvanized our focus and ability to achieve goals and literally changed our lives forever.   Since then, through this blog and the 5 Pillars of Greatness we have witnessed the same thing happening to others.

But explaining WHY meditation is capable of helping reduce fear, empower us to break out of ruts, improve focus and make us happier, in-control of our lives has been tough…there is still much about the brain we do not know. 

This week, an interesting study (albeit with a small sample size of 48 people) does point to some physical transformations in the brain related specifically to brain areas that impact self-regulation – in fact the findings showed those involved in at least 6-hours of meditation (even more proven at 11-hours) had lower levels of anxiety, deptression, anger and fatigue. 

Of most interest is that after just 6-hours of meditation (let's say that takes you two weeks of 20-minute daily sessions) the brain shows physical transformation both in terms of physical sheathing and in terms of electical activity…proof that meditation IS directly impacting the brain.

Well worth the read, here's where I found the story, over at Awakening Potentials – a great blog in itself

Meditation For Introverts

I've never been a big fan of the distinction made between introverts and extroverts – mainly because it is simply not that black and white.

Someone who is an introvert in a group situation may be incredibly extroverted 1:1 or with a small group.

I remember a great friend of mine who always seemed to be so extroverted when in large groups…but I always wondered why he was so quiet and seemingly uncomfortable around smaller group settings…then he admitted to me one day that smaller groups really do make him more uncomfortable.

Indeed, the traditional view of the introvert would be the opposite, that they are more comfortable with 1:1 than large groups, but even that varies significantly depending on the phase in their life, the situation and who the small or large groups are.

One thing I do believe is that we all have "introverted" and "extroverted" points in our life and so knowing how to deal with life in either case is valuable.

Labeling one as "introverted" or "extroverted" can widen the gap for those already struggling with their own self-esteem – giving them further cause to beat themselves up and feel negatively about their place in life instead of embracing their positives and coming to terms with certain circumstances where they are less comfortable (something we all must deal with)

Calming A "Busy Mind"

But, here is an interesting observation for those who tend to spend more time "inside their own head" if you will.

You know who you are…you daydream, have trouble focusing, often can't relax or sleep easily, almost feeling tormented by the furious pace of thoughts that race through your mind…no matter how hard you try to "live in the moment"

Here's an interesting article that argues meditation is especially important for those who find themselves in this state of mind…where you may appear calm and quiet on the outside, but are a towering inferno of brain activity on the inside.  Meditation can be especially helpful for us when we find ourselves in that state of mind.

I know looming deadlines, especially challenging times in my life or even exceptionally busy times causes me to go quiet and defensively (I suppose) regress into my own mind where, on the outside, I may appear very calm, but on the inside their is a busy subway station of thoughts and internal dialog going on that threatens attention, focus, productivity, health and sleep.

So yes, if you find yourself frequently unable to stay focused, on track and externally "plugged-in" then meditation will have an ever BIGGER benefit to your life…I certainly know that it has for us.  In fact the meditation exercises inside Attracting Greatness were specially designed for the "busy" mind where past attempts at visualization, relaxation and meditation have been laughable at best.

While it won't happen without some effort, the level of benefit experienced by introverts and others who find themselves with "busy minds" is incredibly high.

Meditation Impact On Brain

For many people, they seek out meditation based the desire to relax, calm their brain and help to de-stress after having a bad day. 

In other words, to experience the temporary benefit of peace of mind, relaxation and taking some time to slow down a busy mind. 

Yet for others who meditate regularly, they find some pretty major improvements in their lives throughout the day – not just when they are meditating. 

Improvements in lowering stress, lower blood pressure, more controlled blood sugar levels, their ability to control anger, to reduce deptression, help manage addictions, boost their immune system and more. 

In fact, I was one of those people who used to see meditation as some fringe spiritual practice, then evolved to curiousity but not being able to really get in the proper zone right through to feeling the amazing advantages – calmness, happiness, improved health (literally overcoming a non-functioning digestive system). 

In fact, the blueprint in Attracting Greatness shares tips on how to properly use meditation as one of 5 Pillars on your road to personal and financial success. 

Finally, we now see science catching up with what many of us have known for decades (and others for centuries) – that meditation does work and that 20-minutes of meditation twice daily can have major, lasting impacts on the brain.

Neurosocience research (study of the brain including mapping out electrical functioning of the brain) has over and over again proven that not only does the practice of meditation alter

Studies like this one have linked brain function during times of meditation.
In this recent study  done in Boston – researches found that 8-weeks of meditation led to actual structural changes in the brain.

In other words, there were measurable changes in the structure/size of the brain regions that directly resulted from 1-2 20-minute/day meditation sessions. 
So we finally have proof that lasting change in brain function can be directly controlled by meditation. 

So what regions of the brain did meditation impact?

• memory
• sense of self
• empathy
• stress

I was especially pleased to see that the meditation tested was "mindfulness meditation" which simply means meditation where you focus on nonjudgemental awareness. 

For most people, meditation is extremely challenging, it took me years to get it down only because I was trying too hard.

With mindfulness meditation, you simply focus on one stimuli (a sound of waves crashing, looking at a spot on the wall, closing your eyes and focusing on one image, etc…) and simply allow your thoughts to flow each time nonjudementally bringing them back to the single stimuli. 

Using this approach, you are aware of these other thoughts racing through your mind, but you do not judge them – it is as if they belong to someone else and so you accept them and move back to your single focus stimuli – within minutes (sometimes it takes up to 15 minutes) you find yourself in a deep state of mindful meditation – without really trying that hard. 

What is really important here are the impacts on literally "growing" your brain power in each of these areas:

1. Memory:  Imagine being sharper, having access to more past memories – even recovering from age and disease related memory challenges just with 8-weeks of meditation?  I find that incredibly exciting!

2. Sense of Self:  This is so important…to a very large extent in life our self-confidence, purpose in life, link to what truly makes us happy and success itself is related highly to having a good sense of our self.  Likewise many of our fears, insecurities and anxieties come from doubting ourselves.  A huge advantage of meditation is the peacefulness, happiness and confidence that comes from a better sense of self. 

3. Empathy:  Our relationships, understanding of other people and ability to persuade and influence others has in large part to do with empathy.  Some people just have a knack for knowing what other people are feeling, for those that do not it is powerful to know that we can now improve our empathy through meditation.

4. Stress: Ok, this is a big one.  So much of our health, happiness and mere survival depends on us managing stress yet so many of us are WAY out of whack today.  A good deal of stress is in response to our own thoughts about situations.  For years one of the biggest advantages people claimed from consistent maeditation was an increased ability to see things as they are instead of as we fear them to turn out.  Phobias, fears, anxieties, frustrations all largely melt away when we see things more objectively – can you imagine that things like public speaking, risk taking, social situations or other limitations for you now could be gone in as little as 8-weeks?

For those of us who regularly practice meditation and experienced the "magic" of lasting effects, this study comes as no surprise, but it is great to see some scientific support for what we have known all along.

Do you meditate?  What have the effects been for you?

Have you ever felt like just taking off to a cabin in the woods for a week just so you can get your work done?

Have you locked the door to a room to keep potential distractions from disruption or distraction?

How about the desparate act of driving your car to a vacant parking lot so you can get a few minutes to get some peace and quiet, think or finish a project you have been working on?

I'm certainly guilty on all counts…in fact staying focused has become one of the major challenges of our lifetime.  In Attracting Greatness, there is no doubt that to achieve higher levels of success and maintaining happiness and fulfillment in your life, being able to periodically keep your focus is absolutely essential.

3 Methods of Staying Focused and Avoiding Distraction!

1. Reserving A Block Of Time For Essential Tasks:  This one may seem obvious at first, but really this means that you need to a) Understand what the critical, specific tasks are that you need to spend time on each day to achieve your objectives b) Which implies that you understand what your objectives really are and c) That you change years of habits where you previously have NOT operated by blocking your time  – so getting this right is much more challenging than you may first believe.  However, as someone who is merciless with their blocked time during the day can attest – you can achieve incredible things in your life by applying yourself to this one simple technique for staying focused

2. Have a Plan and Track It:  Step 1 is definitely knowing what you want to achieve and having a plan where you are crystal clear on the important tasks you must perform to achieve that objective, but you must also build in an ongoing realization that the best plans will not succeed 100% or even 50% sometimes, so you need to test and track your progress and re-align your plan at the end of each block of allocated time.  This will ensure that you stay on track, maintain your focus even when things seem to be coming off the rails

3. Vivid Visualization of The End Result:  I have found that staying focused is made much more likely when I have created vivid internal visualizations of what it will mean to achieve the end objective.  I internalize the feelings of what it will be like to live according to the plan of focus — who I will get to be around, what I will look like to others, how that will make me feel and all of the positives that will come from working toward achieving our goals.  I also like to keep a daily meditation routine where part of that meditation is focusing on the ultimate goals and objectives in my life.

Staying focused in critical to achievement of any kind (health, financial, relationships, personal fitness) - PERIOD! 

The good news is that keeping your focus is a learned behavior, you may not have been a focused person in the past, but you can learn it starting today.

In other words, what should meditation feel like? 

What short-term clues will I have when meditation is working versus spending time trying and either failing to even enter the "alpha" (original phase) of meditation or going too far and completely falling asleep?

Based on my years of experience with meditation and similar opinion from hundreds of others I've practiced with here are a few ways to know meditation is working:

• You have a wide flurry of thoughts that enter your brain seemingly without any trigger… this is quite common in the first 5-10 minutes of meditation as you try and focus or use contemplation techniques such as mantra's or white noise, you must allow this uncontrolled thought storms to rage on in your brain simply telling yourself that you want to put these thoughts aside for now – as if they are floating above you but no longer inside
• Your breathing should become deeper and more regulated.  When you feel your breathing begin to come easier and deeper, you can be confident that you are nearing the first phase of meditation
• You may feel your eyes flutter – similar to when you enter a REM sleep stage.  Sometimes this happens to me, sometimes it does not – use it as a clue not a certainty to know if meditation is working
• Your body may begin to feel light…almost as if you are rising above your body.  Many people describe this is if they were up above their body looking down at yourself, but with a very objective eye
• As you enter the next phase of meditation you begin to lose track of your surroundings and what is giong on around you…it is critical that you both allow yourself the "luxury" of entering this state and that you gently urge your mind to go even deeper
• It is this phase where you know meditation is working – a total sense of calm, serenity, non-hurridness, peacefullness and objectivity come over you.   Best if you can hold that state for at least 10-15 minutes before you slowlyl bring yourself out of the meditation.  If you can stay 20-30 minutes in that state, even better.  I prefer multiple shorter meditations through the day to one long one…it feels more effective to me
• Finally, after 1-2 weeks of consistently achieving meditation, putting yourself in to the sate of meditation becomes much easier – some even learn to do it "on-demand" even in the middle of a busy day. 

Don't worry if your first few meditation attempts don't work.  Try different mantra's, background music such as ocean sounds can often help – anything with a repetitive sound (like waves crashing on shore, wind blowing through a forest, etc…) will work to help make your meditation work. 

Stick with it and after the first few weeks you will notice incredible benefits in health, your ability to focus, be more productive and manage frustration, anger and stress in your life. 

To learn more about meditation techniques and how to combine them with an overall life plan for greater achievement – we recommend applying the techniques found in Attracting Greatness…one of the best programs we have ever put into practice.

The challenge is keeping consistently motivated and focused on our goals.

Especially when we go through stressful times in our lives, we tend to shut-down, stop being productive and get down on ourselves.

Sometimes that happens for a few days, sometimes the impact of stress becomes chronic and we get stuck in a rut that we wonder if we will ever be able to overcome.

FINALLY, A METHOD TO OVERCOME THE PARALYZING IMPACT OF STRESS

Stress distracts us, places us on the defensive, pushes us off course from our life plan and puts our goals into jeopardy, but it doesn't have to be that way.

There is only one really effective method for permanently dealing with any type of stress that impacts your life – we share our experiences and techniques in Attracting Greatness, but the root is a technique associated with meditation.

There are two massive aspects of meditation that empower you to limit the impact of stress on your life…

1. When you learn to properly meditate, you are taking 20-30 minutes out of the day to escape stress and refresh your mind and body, the impact is rather immediate in terms of added focus and energy

2. A major part of meditation is learning to look at your feelings, fears, frustrations and really…your emotions in an objective way which helps immensely in dealing with stress in everyday life.  When you meditate, especially when you get started, you will notice that many thoughts will stream into your consciousness – the more you try to calm your mind, the more these thoughts come rushing in…for a long time I thought that I was doing it wrong and gave up on meditation.

My breakthrough came when someone told me to NOT fight those thoughts, but let them pass through your brain as if it were a river and you were somewhere else watching all of this happen.

As soon as you become the "observer" instead of the "actor" in these thoughts, you have learned to look at all of this objectively and not let the stress or emotions directly affect you.

Long story short, after a week or so of doing this, I noticed a major difference in my ability to handle stress outside of my meditation times…it really was one of the biggest breakthrough's I have ever experienced in my life.

Since then, we have shared our techniques to help others achieve the same breakthrough ability to finally limit the impact that stress has on their life – a good place to start is the instruction & techniques inside Attracting Greatness…feel free to leave us your comments on how stress is impacting your life.

On first pass, you may dismiss one or more of these personal development techniques as overlapping – whether the purpose be relaxation, stress relief, improving your relationships for financial situation, the truth is that all three techniques can work better when combined as a full frontal assault on self improvement.

In the 5-Step power achievement system contained in Attracting Greatness common obstacles such as fear, frustration, toxicity, low self-esteem are tackled using a very structured set of techniques that include each of visualization, meditation and affirmations along with other relaxation and introspection techniques like yoga breathing exercises.

I meditate at least 20-minutes each day, ideal I have found is two 20-minute sessions, but that doesn't always happen.

For those that have trouble meditating or relaxing, then using visualizations can be the single best way to experience the power of meditation.  Think of the most relaxing place or situation you have ever been in…sitting by a beach, boating, sitting in front of the fire, being around family, etc…and use that to help calm your mind as you enter into a deeper state of meditation.

Affirmations – that's part of my morning exercise, what else do I do while shaving each day   Seriously, having definite, positive statements you repeat to yourself each day shouldn't just be about what you want OUTSIDE, but you should have a couple of affirmations about your personal development – reinforcing your relaxation meditations and visualizations.

Visualization is probably the first thing I picked up way back over 20-years ago when I was coming out of school – don't remember who I learned it from, but I have certain visualizations for relaxation, certain ones for achievement and others for health.  They pretty much happen automatically now through the day.

Finally – the key piece is to make sure all of this is purpose based, which does take additional time to figure out and needs to be re-visited every 6-months or so.  Once you get a meditation method that works for you, begin to add introspection and guided meditation methods that allow you to locate and identify your life purpose which can then be aligned with future goals reinforced by their own visualization, meditation and affirmations.

As you can see, the 3 personal development techniques can have much more impact working together than separately.

Fast forward 10-years and things were not so clear.  As we discuss, the health breakdown that occurred leading to the Attract Greatness Blueprint System was major and surely was the bottom leading to a recovery system and a renewal of a purpose driven life. 

What about you?  Do you feel stuck in a rut?  Unable to get motivated?  Are you stuck in a mode of negative thinking – and you just know that's not you?

For me, the worst point was the year following university when I had a job I hated, struggled in relationships, smacked in the chops by the cruel realities of life – or so I thought. 

Emotional negativity translated into health challenges which then fed a vicious spiral downward until I was able to break the circle by uncovering the common health challenges (outlined in Attracting Greatness) and working on overcoming fear, stress and improving self-esteem – all fueled by allowing my life purpose to guide daily behavior. 

Since then we have helped hundreds of others overcome health challenges, overcome fear and phobia, realize dramatic improvements in their self-confidence – but the question we get asked the most is "how do I find my life purpose?"

Here are 3 methods that will help you to recognize and live in concert with your inner life purpose:

1. Realization:  The first step is to realize that your life purpose is within you right now…not something that someone can teach you, tell you or give you.  So many of us look outside ourselves for a life purpose and end up living someone else's purpose.  I suppose there is a slim chance that by some amazing odds your life purpose may correspond to someone else, but the chances are so small that you MUST learn to look inward and discover your own purpose driven life. 

2. Introspection – getting to know you.  It is so true that many of us know those around us far better than we know ourselves.  Take a best friend, family member or spouse/date – think of the questions you ask over the course of your relationship.  Often these relationships are a river of learning about the other person, yet how many questions do we ask ourselves?  Really…how many times have you come up with questions about your happiness, fulfillment, and yes, life purpose and asked yourself in a moment where you really get a chance to think? 

One of the keys to incredible achievement in many lives I've studied (and indeed my own) involves techniques that let you become more in tune with your own beliefs, and life purpose.  Meditation is a critical method to use and by far the best way to access your life purpose.  Yoga, left-brain activities such as art or music also work very well.  Learning to block out things around you, put fear, stress and events around us into the proper perspective all play an important role letting your true purpose in life to come through naturally. 

3. Tend to your garden.  To discover your purpose in life it inovlves more about controlling the negative influences in your life than active discovery.  For many of us we live in a constant state of stress, fear, and toxicity which all serve to block us from finding your purpose in life.  We spend so much time on diversions (TV, video games, alcohol, and yes, the internet), in a state of fear (which puts us on the defensive and prevents us from living our true intentions), and under constant health toxicity (which leads to surviving instead of prospering) that there is no way our true life purpose can come through. 

By realizing that our life purpose exists within us to be discovered, and knowing that we must get our life in order to let that purpose come out naturally we can often completely alter our life in a matter of weeks – are you up the challenge?