If you approach your day with anxiety or relaxation, which will drain your energy more?
Which state will provide you with more productivity under pressure?
This is not a comparison between the tortoise and the hare, because you can certainly proceed speedily throughout your day in a more relaxed way.
Physical tasks requiring strength can also be accomplished by attacking each task with anxiety or they can proceed more smoothly with relaxation.
The choice is always yours, but you’ll find that approaching your day and the tasks within it will always be less de- energizing if they are approached with mindful relaxation rather than mindless anxiety.
Most people claim that they are under one kind of pressure or another all the time.
By utilizing your time effectively though, you can become more productive and thereby lessen whatever pressure you're under.
Eliminate statements like, "I don't have the time," because what you really mean is, "I don't want to bother making the time.
" The busiest people in the world are always able to find time for what they want to do, and not because they have any more time than others, but because they think in terms of "making" the time.
If there is pressure and stress in your life, vary your routine during the day.
Do things differently and problem-solving ideas will often be more easily generated.
It is just as easy to cultivate positive habit patterns as it is to cultivate negative ones.
Monotony is a bad habit.
Acknowledge openly to yourself and congratulate yourself when you have changed a negative habit to a positive one.
Pass over non-productive power stoppers as anger, irritation, revenge and hatred.
Turn them into tranquility, tolerance, forgiveness and love.
Your productivity will be assured and your pressure will be relieved.
If you feel stressful emotion welling up inside of you, say to yourself in a commanding way, "Stop, Calm, Calm, Relax," and allow the feeling to pass away.
Remember YOU choose your thought patterns.
If you give unpleasant thoughts time to build up, they are harder to control, so recognize and eliminate them early.
Write down the situation causing you pressure, and list all the stressful points.
Many times looking at the written form sheds new light on the subject, and a positive aspect can be found.
After finding the positive aspect, focus energy into it and magnify it.
This has a curious effect of minimizing the negative.
Thought precedes action, so direct your thinking toward action, rather than fear and worry.
For instance, what can be done about the situation?
Don't be afraid of making mistakes.
Those who don't make mistakes don't try anything.
The secret to productively accomplishing something is not in the "seeking to," but in the "expecting to" frame of mind.
Act as though you have already received or achieved what you have set out to do.
It will work wonders for you! Laugh at your stressful situation.
Look at the people and things causing you pressure as childishly diminutive in comparison to the universe.
Humor is a way of looking at things in another perspective and often has a relieving tendency.
When you’re under pressure, create some fun for yourself.
Make believe you are a particular guru you have read about.
Make decisions and take actions the way you think the guru would for a day.
Lighten up on yourself, and don’t take yourself so seriously.
Sit down and doodle or work some puzzles out for a while to change your routine.
Go play handball or tennis or go swimming at least once a week or when you feel particularly stressed.
Surround yourself with things that make you smile when you look at them or visualize for a few moments some things during the last year that made you smile.
Design a tape of positive affirmations for yourself to be played in your car while going to work or while at home washing dishes.
Select statements like, "You are becoming more productive every day in every way.
" "You are coping with daily situations more adequately.
" "Your thoughts are clearer and your alertness is keener.
" By listening to these and other statements during the day, your subconscious will begin to react positively to them.
There is a magic in words, and your subconscious has a strong tendency to obey suggestions, so make sure they're positive ones.
In some situations, you can simply sit for 5 minutes in a relaxed comfortable position and observe yourself slowly taking several deep breaths in and out.
Drop your shoulders and let them hang limp.
After the 5 minutes are up, you will feel calmer and more in control.
Your thoughts will be more ordered and less confused.
As soon as we start doing, we learn how to proceed.
Bill Mollison