In our hectic lives the secret to finding balance and inner peace is often not about what you add to your life. It is about what you take away.

1. Eliminate Watching TV.

2. Eliminate Worry.

3. Eliminate Perfectionism.

Read more about things to eliminate from your life…

We live in a society built on efficiency and productivity. We stay busy, invent new time management strategies, and learn how to fill every second with some kind of activity so that we can “save” more time and fill it up with even more activities. But the question is – What’s the point?

1. “What you are doing does not matter so much as what you are learning from doing it.” - Egyptian Proverb

2. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

Read more about Zen productivity principles…

I don’t know about you, but the beginning of the week is sometimes hard for me. After a worry-free and entertainment-filled weekend, it can be challenging to get back in the right mood to work.

Don’t get me wrong, I really love what I do (I can’t even call it a job, because it gives me so much satisfaction and joy), but sometimes even I feel lazy, and regret that the weekend has come to an end.

What do you do to motivate yourself every week? Is there a routine you do every week that powers your motivation?

Maybe you watch an inspirational video, read a good book, or tell yourself that it is going to be a great day? Or maybe a meditation, or prayer, helps you to regain your inner balance and motivation?

I would love to learn what helps you boost your motivation at the beginning of the workweek!

Click here to share!

Simplicity… Clarity… Peace of mind… When was the last time we experienced that in our lives? When was the last time we felt truly happy just being in the moment? When our thoughts were not occupied by planning, prioritizing, analyzing or worrying?

There are some days when I just want to step back, close my life, take a long deep breath, and feel tranquility and peace wash over me.

If lately you too have been yearning to bring simplicity and clarity into your life, here are 7 easy steps that will help you to do just that:

1. Get rid of clutter.

I recently stumbled across a funny picture of Albert Einstein who appeared to be looking for something on his extremely messy desk. Below the picture was a quote “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?” – Albert Einstein.

And although, Einstein’s witty comeback made me smile, an empty desk does not necessarily imply an empty mind. Very rarely does clutter help us think and be more productive (like in the case of Einstein).

Usually it is quite the opposite. Psychologists have noticed that working at a messy desk impedes concentration and noticeably decreases productivity. Just as living in a cluttered house, may drain our energy and negatively affect our mood.

The first step to simplifying your life and to bring peace into your soul is to simplify the space you live and work in. Everything that is old, unneeded, unused, broken or spare needs to go! Be honest with yourself about what you truly need and what you have been holding on to without much thought. You will be surprised how refreshing it feels to reclaim your space back.

2. Get rid of mental clutter.

It is not only our homes and offices that get cluttered. Our minds get overwhelmed too with new ideas, important dates that we need to remember, things we must do and all the “where did I put it?” questions. Our mind works non-stop. Processing. Prioritizing. Remembering…

In reality uncluttering our mind is not that different from organizing our office desk – you bring order into your thinking, by not trying to keep everything in your head. This is what I do to organize my thoughts:

1. Make to-do lists, where I write down important tasks or events that I am afraid to forget.
2. Keep an idea journal for all the good ideas that I might have. I just write it down and take it off my mind.
3. Have “junk-thought” sheet by my computer, where I dump all of those negative, meaningless and distracting thoughts that keep cycling over and over, junking up my mind! Sometimes I can fill up the whole page in 15 minutes, with all those random thoughts that come to my mind. But after I am done, I always feel much more focused.

For some reason writing your thoughts down works like magic when you are trying to calm an overly agitated mind and gain clarity.

3. Separate your family from your professional life.

When we have to sacrifice our family time in order to finish an important project – we feel guilty. Whenever we are spending time with our family and think about how much we need to get done – we feel anxious. In any case life gets complicated, because you are not focusing 100% on work and you are not really being with your family. Keep your professional life separate from your personal life. When you are at work – work, when you are with your family – enjoy it to the fullest! And you will see how much simpler life gets.

Read more about how to simplify your life…

Early Years and Early Ventures

Big Opportunity and Even Bigger Risks

Usually, when we think of being in conflict, we think about our boss, who vented their frustration on us last week, about how our spouse has hurt our feelings, about our child, who is going through a difficult age or about an insolent shopping assistant, who has been plain rude to us.

But there is another type of conflict – one that is going on in our head. Inner conflicts may be less obvious than open confrontations with other people, but they are actually a lot more frequent and a lot more damaging for us in the long run.

Do you notice these inner daily contradictions about whether or not you should do or say something? Are you always sure about decisions that you have made or do you feel doubts afterwards? Have you been in a situation when your mind tells you to do one thing, while your heart ignores all the logic and tells you to do the opposite?

If yes, then you are not alone. We all sometimes feel torn between doing what we want to do and what we “ought” to be doing.

Psychologists say that there could be several different causes of our inner battles:

Preconceived Notions.

Sometimes we stubbornly hold onto our beliefs and judgments even though there is considerable evidence that they are wrong. In this case we feel torn between desire to defend our beliefs and accepting the necessity to face the facts.
It is easy, if not to avoid, then at least to minimize the number of inner conflicts caused by preconceived notions by keeping your mind open, which basically means not getting too attached to your opinions, ideas and predictions. Making a mistake or being wrong about someone or something does not make you ignorant. Being wrong and stubbornly looking for evidence that you are right – does!

Abstract social values.

It is not always easy to do the right thing. Especially when it is unclear what the right thing is. I wish that when we are taught to “be generous”, “compassionate”, “forgiving” there were specific instructions on how we should act in real life situations and detailed explanation of which moral and ethical values are more important and which ones can sometimes be “sacrificed”.

Let me explain myself…

Imagine that your friend is very upset and asks you if you can come over. The problem is that you have promised to have dinner with your family. What are you supposed to do? Tell your friend that you cannot be there for them? Cancel dinner with your family and hear the disappointment in your mother’s voice, because she has been cooking all day and was really looking forward to seeing you?

There you go! You have your inner conflict, because neither alternative is perfect.

Read more about how to find peace with yourself…

Summer is the perfect season to get back into shape and burn those unneeded and unwanted pounds that we have put on during the cold winter season. And the best part is that you can do it without having to spend hours on a Stairmaster or exhausting yourself with crunches and push-ups.

Here are 25 fun and easy ways that will help you to lose weight, get fit and look gorgeous in your new swimming suit:

1. Drink plenty of water

The heat outside makes it easy to drink those 8 glasses of water a day that health professionals suggest we should drink. Our body naturally craves fluid to prevent dehydration and maintain the healthy operations of almost all our internal organs. In fact, it has been shown that most of our hunger pangs are caused by dehydration of the body, not by the desire to eat something. So next time, you feel hungry, drink a glass of water and see if your hunger goes away.

2. Avoid diuretics

Most high-calorie beverages like soda, juices, sugared iced tea, coffee or alcohol instead of hydrating us and quenching our thirst during hot summer days, work as diuretics (which means that they increase the excretion of water from the body), dehydrating us even more. No matter what TV ads tell you, there is nothing better than a glass of water with lemon to quench thirst and detoxify your body.

3. Start your day with a nutritiously-delicious breakfast

If you are one of those people, who regularly rush out of the house without eating breakfast, you might want to reconsider. In fact, there are some very compelling reasons to make breakfast the most important meal of the day.

Research has shown that in the morning our levels of blood sugar are seriously low and skipping breakfast can backfire on us later in the day with lack of energy, poor concentration, headaches and dizziness. However, starting your day with doughnuts, chocolate bars, pancakes, Sausage McMuffin (or almost any other dish from a fast food menu) is not particularly healthy either. While all these items may increase your blood sugar, they contain plenty of fat and very little nutrients, which lead to weight gain, decrease in energy and a foul mood. Therefore, to feel great, incorporate fresh fruits, berries, nuts, yogurt, oatmeal and natural juices into your breakfast menu.

4. Get more sun to get fit

There is some scientific evidence that says serotonin plays an important role in regulating appetite and mood. It means that boosting your levels of serotonin can leave you feeling happier and noticeably lower your appetite, especially by reducing cravings for foods that are high in carbohydrates. The production of serotonin, in turn, is closely linked with the amount of natural sun that we receive. This is one of the reasons why we eat more during the cold winter months and less in summer.

There are also a number of foods that help to increase the serotonin levels in our blood. Some of the most popular ones are bananas, wheat germ, cottage cheese, turkey, flaxseed oil, and dark chocolate! So in order to lose those extra pounds, grab a banana and hit the beach.

Read more about fun ways to get fit this summer…

When I think about it, there are many people who have inspired and touched me in some way:

• my mom, who taught me to not be quick to judge other people
• my dad, who taught me to be honest no matter what
• my mentors, who have helped me to grow and who have never let me get away with any excuses
• my wonderful friends, who have always been there for me no matter if I needed a shoulder to cry on or some moral support and motivation
• spiritual leaders, who with their personal example showed me what true love, compassion and forgiveness was
• great writers, whose words have touched my heart and motivated me to change
• successful people, who have encouraged me to follow their footsteps and work harder toward my dreams
• my readers, who have inspired me to start this blog and continue to inspire me every single day

Is there ever been person in your life who has inspired you the most?

Someone who has pushed you beyond your limits? Someone who has encouraged you when you doubted your own abilities? Someone who would not let you quit just because it got hard? Someone who has inspired you to pursue your dreams, to grow, to become a little better in some way?

Who is he/she?

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