Do You Have Anxiety Issues?

Posted by Hussein Adamally

Hi friends,

I just returned from a trip to South Africa, I have not posted anything for about 5 days, so my apologies. Many are plagued by this topic that I am writing about today. Hope this will help anyone of you who have anxiety issues.

If there’s one thing in life that I’m really good at, it’s worrying. I’d get a gold star for it. Anxiety runs in my family and I often wonder whether it’s in my genes or whether it’s learned behavior. Whichever way you look at it though, I spend a lot of my time fretting about things. This is one of the reasons

Most people experience anxiety in some form or other, and in these uncertain times stress and worry are very much on the increase. But according to statistics, around one in 20 people are now thought to suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), where negative and anxious thoughts dominate daily life. Doctors dish out anti-depressants as a quick-fix for these problems but this doesn’t provide a long-term solution. Here are some techniques for tackling anxiety that I’ve found to be helpful, and I hope you find them helpful too.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

5 self-help tips to beat anxiety.

1.Breathing exercises 

If you are feeling anxious, a simple way to calm yourself down is through focusing on and regulating your breathing. When we feel nervous the in-breath becomes more dominant than the out-breath, so in order to restore a sense of calm we need to reverse this.
Focus on your breathing and try to breathe in for a count of five and breathe out for a count of five. Don’t worry about the speed at which you’re counting, just keep to a steady pace of five in and five out. Now start to extend the out-breath by holding the exhalation for an extra count of two. Don’t strain, just let the breath settle into a gentle rhythm. As your out-breath becomes longer your relaxation response will begin to take over. The only thing that will take you away from this are your thoughts and imagination. The more you practice this the more you will feel able to gain control of your anxiety.

2.Visualization
Visualization is a powerful tool for calming the mind and reducing feelings of anxiety and nerves. A simple visualization exercise involves conjuring up in your mind an image of a ‘special place’, a place where you feel safe and free from fear. (I’ve used this very exercise during a harrowing visit to the dentist and I can tell you it got me through the ordeal.). Start by closing your eyes and bring to your mind an image of a place where you feel safe and happy. It might be a tropical beach, a meadow, a forest, or even your bed. It’s entirely up to you – just use your imagination. Make the image vivid in your mind by thinking about what you can see, hear, feel and smell. Use your senses to guide you to a state of calmness. Stay in this calm place until you notice that your breathing is more regular and your mind is calmer. When you feel ready, open your eyes and breathe deeply in and out.

3.Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a technique which originates from Buddhist meditation and it’s particularly effective in calming anxiety and focusing the mind. We spend so much of our time worrying about the future or agonizing about the past that we forget to enjoy the present moment. This is where mindfulness comes in as it encourages us to focus on the present without allowing our minds to get caught up in unhelpful thought patterns. Here’s a few ideas you might want to try:
Sit or lie somewhere comfortable and begin scanning through each part of your body, paying attention to all the physical sensations you feel. Start with your toes and move up your legs to your stomach, chest, shoulders, neck and head, gently easing away any tension you notice. Finish by taking a few long, deep breaths. When you are getting ready in the morning, really pay attention to everything you are doing, instead of worrying about what’s coming ahead in the day. When you’re in the shower, focus on the sound of the water and feel the sensation of it washing over your body. Enjoy the feeling of getting clean. When you’re brushing your teeth, focus all your attention on the task. Do the same with getting dressed and making breakfast. Each morning make sure you take five to 10 minutes to be quiet and meditate. Look out of the window, listen to the sounds you can hear and be aware of everything around you. Be aware of the stillness and enjoy the quietening of your mind.

4.Dietary changes
stabilizing your blood sugar is an important factor in keeping anxiety at bay. Nervousness and a rapid heartbeat can often kick in when blood sugar levels become too low. The trick is to eat little and often, aiming for three meals and two snacks per day, and try to eat some protein with every meal. Good sources include fish, chicken, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, tofu and eggs.


5.Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
This is an interesting technique which is based on similar principles to acupuncture in that it addresses imbalances in the body’s energy flow. I must confess I felt a bit silly when I first tried it, but it did help to calm my nerves, which is why I’m sharing a shortened version of it here with you.
The belief is that disturbances to the flow of energy are removed along with the emotional response and anxiety.
If you find yourself getting really anxious about something, try tapping gently five times on each of the following points with the forefinger and middle finger of one of your hands: between your eyebrows; under one of your eyes; under your arm (about two inches lower than your armpit); on the chest (just below the collarbone in the middle, you will find a spongy indentation). Lastly, tap on the outer side of the hand five times. You should begin to feel your breathing regulating.
Good luck and I hope these techniques help you in your anxiety. I’d love to hear any feedback you might have.

Home Is Where The Heart Is.

I have travelled to many countries and stayed at many wonderful Hotels and visited many great places, but wherever I go, for me, there's nothing like home. seeing my family, being with them overpowers me more than anything. I thank the lord for giving me the opportunity to travel around and visit places and meet new people, But I am most gratefully for giving a wonderful family.For me home with my family will always be where my heart will stay.

How to Save Money

Posted by Hussein Adamally

I had numerous requests to write on this topic. Many of my employees who earn substantial monthly incomes are unable to save a penny. They start the month with zero and end the month with the same zero. When they look back on time and analyze on what they have achieved, they find that there is not much to show. Hence I hope this post will help you plan to save for your future.

Saving money is one of those tasks that are so much easier said than done. There's more to it than spending less money (although that part alone can be challenging). How much money will you save, where will you put it, and how can you make sure it stays there? Here's how to set realistic goals, keep your spending in check, and get the most for your money.

1. Kill your debt first. Simply calculating how much you spend each month on your debts will illustrate that eliminating debt is the fastest way to free up money. Once the money is freed from debt payment, it can easily be re-purposed to savings. Plus, the sooner you pay off debt, the less interest you'll pay, and that money can be saved instead.

• If you choose to start saving before you completely pay off your debt, however, look into consolidating your debts so that you're not paying as much interest.
• The only money-saving that should take precedence over getting out of debt is to create an emergency fund (setting aside enough money so that if you lose your income, you can survive for 3-6 months).

2.  Set savings goals. For short-term goals, this is easy. If you want to buy a mobile phone, find out how much it costs; if you want to buy a motor bike, determine how much of a down payment you’ll need. For long-term goals, such as retirement, House you’ll need to do a lot more planning (figuring out how much money you’ll need), and you’ll also need to figure out how investments will help you achieve your goals.

3. Establish a time-frame. For example: "I want to be able to buy a Motor Bike/Car in two years from today." Set a particular date for accomplishing shorter-term goals, and make sure the goal is attainable within that time period. If it’s not attainable, you’ll just get discouraged.

4. Figure out how much you’ll have to save per week, per month, or per paycheck to attain each of your savings goals. Take each thing you want to save for and figure out how much you need to start saving now. For most savings goals, it’s best to save the same amount each period. For example, if you want to put a Rs 60,000 down payment on a Motor Bike in 12 months (I year years), you’ll need to save about Rs.5,000/- per month every month. But if your paychecks amount to Rs 20,000, it might not be a realistic goal, so adjust your time-frame until you come up with an approachable amount.

5. Keep a record of your expenses. What you save falls between two activities and their difference: how much you make and how much you spend. Since you have more control over how much you spend, it's wise to take a critical look at your expenses. Write down everything you spend your money on for a couple weeks or a month. Be as detailed as possible, and try not to leave out small purchases. Assign each purchase or expenditure a category such as: Rent, Car insurance, Motor Bike/Car payments, Phone Bill, Utilities, Gas, Food, Entertainment, etc.

• Keep a small notebook with you at all times. Get in the habit of recording every expense and saving the receipts.
• Sit down once a week with your small notebook and receipts. Record your expenses in a larger notebook or a spreadsheet program.
• There are also many apps you can download to your phone that will help you keep track of your expenses.

6. Trim your expenses. Take a good, hard look at your spending records after a month or two have passed. You’ll probably be surprised when you look back at your record of expenses: Rs.2,500 on Junk Food, Rs.5,000 on Drinking with friends? You’ll likely see some obvious cuts you can make. Depending on how much you need to save, however, you may need to make some difficult decisions. Think about your priorities, and make cuts you can live with. Calculate how much those cuts will save you per year, and you'll be much more motivated to save.

• Can you move to a less expensive apartment or house?
• Can you save money on Cigarettes/Alcohol/Junk Food or give up altogether?
• Can you get a better price on insurance? Call around and make sure you are getting the best price you can.
• Can you reduce your phone bill, Maybe get a better package and restrict those unnecessary browsing of the net on the phone and reduce on the text messages?
• Cut Down on un necessary buying of clothes that you may not need. This is called impulse buying.(Buy only what you need)
• Can you cut down on your utility bills?
• Can you restrict eating out? Buy food in bulk?? Cook more at home? You might be able to save a lot of money when grocery shopping.

7. Reassess your savings goals. Subtract your expenses (the ones you can't live without) from your take-home income (i.e. after taxes have been taken out). What is the difference? And does it match up with your savings goals? Let's say foe example you've decided you can definitely get by on Rs.15,000/-  per month, and your paychecks amount to Rs.25,000/-  per month. That leaves you with Rs.10,000/-  to save. If there’s absolutely no way you can fit all your savings goals into your budget, take a look at what you’re saving for and cut the less important things or adjust the time-frame. Maybe you need to put off buying a new Motor Bike/car for another year, or maybe you don’t really need a big-screen TV that badly or that Expensive Mobile Phone.

8. Make a budget. Once you’ve managed to balance your earnings with your savings goals and spending, write down a budget so you’ll know each month or each paycheck how much you can spend on any given thing or category of things. This is especially important for expenses which tend to fluctuate, or which you know you're going to have a particularly hard time restricting. (E.g. "I will only spend Rs.1,000/- on my mobile bill a month ")

9. Stop using credit cards. Pay for everything with cash or money orders. Don't even use checks. It's easier to overspend when you're pulling from a bank or credit account because you don't know exactly how much is in there. If you have cash, you can see your supply running low. You can even bundle up the predetermined amount of cash allocated for each expense with a label or keep separate jars for each expense (e.g. a bundle/jar for coffee, another for gas, another for miscellaneous). As you pull money from a jar for that particular expense, you'll see how much remains and you'll also be reminded of your limit.

·         If you need to have credit cards but you don't want the temptation of having them available to use day-to-day, restrict that section of your wallet with a note or picture reminding you of your savings goals.

·         Credit cards are not inherently evil; it's all about your self-control. If you use them responsibly (i.e. completely pay them off every month), you can benefit from them. But the reason most credit card companies make money, however, is because people end up spending money that they don't have. Unless you are one of the people who can religiously pay off the balance in full every month, you're better off foregoing the promotions that credit card companies use to lure you in)

10. Open an interest-bearing savings account. It’s a lot easier to keep track of your savings if you have them separate from your spending money. You can also usually get better interest on savings accounts than on checking accounts (if you get interest on your checking account at all).

11. Pay yourself first. Savings should be your priority, so don’t just say that you’ll save whatever is left over at the end of the month. Deposit savings into an account (or your piggy-bank) as soon as you get paid. An easy, effective way to start saving is to simply deposit 10% of every check in a savings account. If you get a check or sum of cash, Rs.30,000/- take 3,000/- out immediately. This works well and requires little thought; over several years, you've a tidy sum in savings.

• You can set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account.
• Many employers allow you to deduct savings from your paycheck. The money is directly deposited in your savings account so you never even see it on your paycheck.

12. Don't get discouraged and don't give up. You may not think you can become wealthy but to become a millionaire is possible if you set up an aggressive savings plan and stick to it. You may be surprised how much money you can put away for something far more enjoyable than what you could buy with short term savings.

Good things often take time and the longer you save the more interest you will be making on your savings as well!

A lesson in how to frame headlines that grab attention

No disrespect for any clergy or religion. A powerful message with a twist of laughter, just to cheer you up. Hope this will bring a smile on your face. We are sometimes so concerned about what others think about us. Well I hope their is a lesson to be learned from this post. No pun intended either.

A Pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.

The Pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again and it won again.

The local paper read:

PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day the local paper headline read:

BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS.

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Pastor to get rid of the donkey.

The Pastor decided to give it to a Nun in a nearby convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:

NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The Bishop fainted.

He informed the Nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read:

NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Nun to b uy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read:

NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The Bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story

Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery even shorten your life.

So be yourself and enjoy life.

Stop worrying about everyone else’s ass and you’ll be a lot happier and live longer!

Your Attitude - The Whole Truth

Posted by Hussein Adamally

I use this during my Motivation Sessions, I find it very effective. Hope this will help you to understand the true meaning of Attitude.

Cheers

Live Your Life Like It Matters

Posted by Hussein Adamally

Happy week to all of you.

Here are some powerful tips to help you and others to Live Your Life like It Matters:

• Choose to be enthusiastic at work today. If you encounter anyone who is being critical or negative, spread some sunshine their way. Your enthusiasm can positively affect others. Misery might love company, but enthusiasm is contagious! Help others catch it!

• Challenge yourself to “raise the bar.” Set personal goals to improve your job and the interactions that are a part of your daily routine. Compete against YOU – don’t compare yourself with others or wait for someone else to elevate your performance.

• At the end of each day, or project, or week: replay your performance. Take an inventory of what you did well, and what you can do better. Learn from your successes and from those things you didn’t handle that well.  As you consider all your activities, where do you see potential areas of improvement?

Truly effective people wear an invisible sign that reads…

UNDER CONSTRUCTION;

Working to be better today than yesterday – and better tomorrow than today!

20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time

Posted by Hussein Adamally

Are there a hundred different things you wish you could do with your life someday  anything from exercising to meditation or yoga to writing that novel you always wished you could write to reading more to relaxing and watching the sunrise? But perhaps you never have the time, like most people.

The truth is, we all have the same amount of time, and its finite and in great demand. But some of us have made the time for doing the things we love doing, and others have allowed the constant demands and pressures and responsibilities of life to dictate their days.

It’s time to move from the second group back into the first. Reclaim your time. Create the life you want and make the most of the free time you lay claim to. It’s not hard, though it does take a little bit of effort and diligence.

Not all of these will be applicable to your life choose the ones you can apply and give them a try:

1.     Take a time out. Freeing up your time starts with taking a step back to take a good look at your life. You need to block off at least an hour. Several hours or half a day is better. A whole day would be awesome. A weekend would be even more ideal, though not necessary practical for many folks. With this block of time, take a look at your life with some perspective. Is it what you’ve always wanted? How would you get to where you’ve always wanted to be? What do you enjoy doing, but don’t have enough time to do? What things actually fill up your day? Are there things you could drop or minimize to make more time? Well look at some of these things in the following items, but it starts with taking a time out to think and plan.

2.     Find your essentials. What is it that you love to do? Make a short list of 4-5 things. These are the things you want to make room for.

3.     Find your time-wasters. What do you spend a lot of your time on that isn’t on your essential list? Take a close look at these things and really think about whether they’re necessary, or if there are ways to reduce, minimize or eliminate these things. Sometimes you do things because you assume they’re necessary, but if you give it some thought you can find ways to drop them from your life. Figure out what you do simply to waste time maybe surfing certain sites, watching TV, talking a lot at the water cooler, etc. You’re going to want to minimize these time-wasters to make room for the more important stuff, the stuff that makes you happy and that you love to do.

4.     Schedule the time. As you sit down and think about your life and what you want to do, versus what you actually do, you will be looking at ways to free up time. It’s crucial that you take a blank weekly schedule (you can just write it out on a piece of paper, or use your calendar) and assign blocks for the things you love the stuff on your essentials list. If you want to exercise, for example, when will you do it? Put the blocks of time on your schedule, and make these blocks the most important appointments of your week. Schedule the rest of your life around these blocks.

5.     Consolidate. There are many things you do, scattered throughout your day or your week that you might be able to consolidate in order to save time. A good example is errands instead of running one or two a day, do them all in one day to save time and gas. Another example is email, or any kind of communication  batch process your email instead of checking and reading and responding throughout the day. Same thing with meetings, paperwork, anything that you do regularly.

6.     Cut out meetings. This isn’t possible for everyone, but in my experience meetings take up a lot of time to get across a little information, or to make easy decisions that could be made via email or phone. As much as you can, minimize the number of meetings you hold and attend. In some cases this might mean talking to your boss and telling her that you have other priorities, and asking to be excused. In other cases this might mean asking the people holding the meeting if you can get the info in other ways. If so, you’ve saved yourself an hour or so per meeting (sometimes more).

7.     De clutter your schedule. If you have a heavily packed schedule, full of meetings and errands and tasks and projects and appointments, you’re going to want to weed it out so that its not so jam-packed. Find the stuff that’s not so essential and cancel them. Postpone other stuff. Leave big blank spaces in your schedule.

8.     Re-think your routine. Often we get stuck in a routine that’s anything but what we really want our days to be like. Is there a better way of doing things? You’re the creator of your life  make a new routine that’s more pleasant, more optimal, more filled with things you love.

9.     Cut back on email. I mentioned email in an earlier point above, regarding consolidating, but it’s such a major part of most people’s lives that it deserves special attention. How often do you check email? How much time do you spend composing emails? If you spend a major part of your work day on email, as many people do (and as I once did), you can free up a lot of time by reducing the time you spend in email. Now, this won’t work for everyone, but it can work for many people: choose 2-3 key times during the day to process your inbox to empty, and keep your responses to 5 sentences.

10.  Learn to say no. If you say yes to every request, you will never have any free time. Get super protective about your time, and say no to everything but the essential requests.

11.  Keep your list to 3. When you make out your daily to-do list, just list the three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Don’t make a laundry list of tasks, or you’ll fill up all your free time. By keeping your task list small, but populated only by important tasks, you ensure that you are getting the important stuff done but not overloading yourself.

12.  Do your Biggest Rock first. Of the three Most Important Tasks you choose for the day, pick the biggest one, or the one you’re dreading most, and do that first. Otherwise you’ll put that off as much as possible and fill your day with less important things. Don’t allow yourself to check email until that Big Rock is taken care of. It starts your day with a sense of major accomplishment, and leaves you with a lot of free time the rest of the day, because the most important thing is already done.

13.  Delegate. If you have subordinates or coworkers who can do a task or project, try to delegate it. Don’t feel like you need to do everything yourself. If necessary, spend a little time training the person to whom you’re delegating the task, but that little time spent training will pay off in a lot of time saved later. Delegating allows you to focus on the core tasks and projects you should be focusing on.

14.  Cut out distractions. What is there around your workspace that distracts you from the task at hand? Sometimes its visual clutter or papers lying around that call for your attention and action, or email or IM notifiers on your computer that pops up at the wrong time, or the phone, or coworkers. See if you can eliminate as many of these as possible the more you can focus, the more effective you’ll be and the less time you’ll waste. That equals time saved for the good stuff.

15.  Disconnect. The biggest of distractions, for most people, is the Internet. My most productive times are when I’m disconnected from the grid. Now, I’m not saying you need to be disconnected all the time, but if you really want to be able to effectively complete tasks, disconnect your Internet so you can really focus. Set certain times of the day for connectivity, and only connect during those periods.

16.  Outsource. If you can’t delegate, see if you can outsource. With the Internet, we can connect with people from all over the world. I’ve outsourced many things, from small tasks to checking email to legal work to design and editing work and more. That allows me to focus on the things I’m best at, the things I love doing, and saves me a lot of time.

17.  Make use of your mornings. I find that mornings are the absolute best times to schedule the things I really want to do. I run, read and write in the mornings three of the four things on my Essentials List (spending time with family is the other thing on the list). Mornings are great because your day hasn’t been filled with a bunch of unscheduled, demanding, last-minute tasks that will push back those Essentials. For example, if you schedule something for late afternoon, by the time late afternoon rolls around, you might have a dozen other things newly added to your to-do list, and you’ll put off that late-afternoon Essential. Instead, schedule it for the morning, and it’ll rarely (if ever) get pushed back.

18.  The Golden Right-after-work Time. Other than mornings, I find the time just after work to be an incredible time for doing Essential things. Exercise, for example, is great in the 5-oclock hour, as is spending time with family, or doing anything else relaxing.

19.  Your evenings. The time before you go to bed is also golden, as it exists every single day, and its usually completely yours to schedule. What do you want to do with this time? Read? Spend time with your kids? Work on a hobby you’re passionate about? Take advantage of this time.

20.   Lunch breaks. If the three golden times mentioned above don’t work for you, lunch breaks are another good opportunity to schedule things. Some people like to exercise, or to take quiet times, during their lunch breaks. Others use this time to work on an important personal goal or project.