Mind – Page 28

Give Up Coffee: How To Quit Coffee With Meditation

Give Up Coffee

“Is the cup half full or half empty?”

For a long time I have been addicted to coffee. Three to four cups a day addicted. After struggling with many different methods of giving up and quitting the world’s most popular drug I realized that my basic training in meditation could be the solution. In this post I want to talk about how I am going quit coffee using some simple meditation techniques. If you feel like you are drinking too much coffee then read through this post and apply the techniques to your own life. The meditations are basic and anyone can do them.

Why Quit Coffee?

Coffee is full of caffeine and caffeine is a drug. Like any drug it is addictive and this addiction is a negative thing for the body and the mind. Why? Because it makes you want more. You get a nice wake up jolt from the first cup but after a few weeks one cup is not enough and you need two. Then the same thing happens and after a year of drinking coffee you are on 4+ cups per day. I think it is called escalation.

Many studies have been done on the effects of coffee. Some studies say that coffee is a good thing and that it has many health benefits. For example, one study showed that drinking coffee lowers your risk of getting bowel cancer. Other studies, however, have painted coffee in a negative light. It is difficult to trust these studies because there are so many and they seem to come up with a different result every time.

So what do you do? What is the answer?

As far as I am concerned the best thing to do with coffee is weigh up the pros and the cons. You look at all the positive aspects of drinking coffee and then put them next to the negative aspects and see which column is bigger. In my mind the negative is bigger than the positive.

The Cons of Coffee
Here are some negative aspects of drinking coffee:

It is addictive: Anything that is addictive is bad for your mind. It makes you become a very dependent person because you feel like you cannot function without it. How many people do you know that have to have a morning coffee before they feel human? A lot.
It leads to other negativities: The other thing about addictive substances is that they lead to other negative substances. For example, when you drink a lot of coffee you will undoubtedly have sugar in it and sooner or later you will probably want more sugar. Another thing that coffee drinkers do is have a snack with the coffee. The more coffees the more snacks you have.
It is expensive: If you are like me and you buy your coffees from the local cafe or Starbucks then chances are you are spending a lot of money. Let’s assume you buy one coffee everyday and each coffee costs $3.00. In one year you will spend $1095 on lattes. Perhaps you drink more than one per day – after a while this adds up.
It makes you anxious: If you take a look at this post on foods that make you stressed you will see that I think that coffee is one of the main things that we consume that makes us stressed and anxious. When we drink coffee it speeds up our mind and then we have a crushing low afterwards. This is the main reason why I want to quit coffee.

The Pros of Coffee
Just to be balanced I thought I would include a few reasons why drinking coffee is a good idea. Seeing as this is a post on how to quit coffee it might be a good idea to skip over this section if you are a real caffeine fiend. [Read more…] about Give Up Coffee: How To Quit Coffee With Meditation

Originally posted on June 24, 2008 @ 12:56 am

Ever Had a Meltdown at Work?

Mental Health, Mind

I saw this video on YouTube and I thought I would share it with you all. I have had a few days like this.

Have you ever had a day where you just melted down and yelled at everyone around you? I’m sure most of us have.

Originally posted on June 8, 2008 @ 8:19 am

Work Causes Depression Says Study: What Do You Think?

Mental Health, Mind

Today I was watching the news and they had a story about a recent study that has shown that about one in six Australian’s can attribute their depression to their work. You can read the news article here.

I found this pretty interesting. I have never really considered that work would cause people to spiral into clinical depression. But I could be wrong.

I would love to hear what your opinions on this study are. Have you ever been seriously depressed because of work? Or has work magnified something that was already there?

What do you think?

top image: photo credit: azharc

Originally posted on June 2, 2008 @ 7:35 am

How to Work a Job and Still Attain Your Life’s Goals and Dreams

Inspiration, Mindfulness

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my job and how it seems to get in the way of the work I need to do to achieve my life’s goals. However, I need the job as it pays my rent and supports some of my hobbies. So how do you work a job while still trying to attain your goals in life?

How to work a job and still attain your goals in life

Music star, professional athlete, novel writer, home owner… everyone has a dream or a goal that they want to attain in this life. Here are some tips to help you work towards that goal while still working a day job.

1. Sleep when you are dead

“I never sleep cos sleep is the cousin of death…” – Nas

One of the hardest lessons to learn is that if you really want to attain a goal in life while working another job you need more hours in the day. This is probably going to mean that you will sleep less and work harder but getting up early is something that has to be done.

The above quote is one of my favorite quotes of all time and it comes from New York rapper Nas. It is a very profound quote and shows us the link between sleep and death. We have one life to do something meaningful. One precious opportunity. What waste it sleeping?

You can sleep when you are dead.

2. Write down your dreams
When you write down a dream that you have you turn into a goal. You make it something concrete and achievable. A dream is something that is a little bit far out and unreachable but a goal is something that you can actually get to.

If you feel like your work is getting in the way of your goals then write them down. Having something visual in front of you will help you get all those thoughts out of your head and let you calm down and assess the situation. Write down your dreams so you know exactly what you are trying to achieve.

3. Give your goals a time line
The next thing that you need to do to turn those dreams into concrete goals is give them a time line. When you affix a date to some dream you turn it into a goal that is now becoming a reality.

For example, if you say that you want to be able to play the guitar by the time you are 30 you have a much more specific goal than if you just said you’d love to be a good guitar player. By saying that you want to do it by 30 you now have to do the work that is required to do it in time. It is a lot like working towards exams in November – you know they are coming so you do the work.

4. Break them down
One problem I have is that I stress about everything way too much. I think about work and tax and staying fit and then on top of that I stress about when I am going to find time to achieve my dreams and goals. However, I have found that if you write them down, give them a time line and then break them down into smaller chunks the stress really dissipates. [Read more…] about How to Work a Job and Still Attain Your Life’s Goals and Dreams

Originally posted on May 28, 2008 @ 3:23 am

Foods That Make You Stressed, Anxious and Depressed

Body, Mental Health, Mind, Nutrition

Last week we looked at foods that help you concentrate and today I want to take a look at foods that make you stressed, anxious and depressed. I am a firm believer that what you eat has a big impact on how “healthy” your mind is. If you have been feeling unusually stressed lately and aren’t sure why then maybe it has something to do with your diet.

Foods that make you stressed, anxious and depressed

1. Coffee

The first one on the list is going to be the most controversial but I am willing to argue my point. Coffee is one substance that makes you stress and sometimes even depressed.

The reason for this is simple and it has to do with the sugar and the caffeine that comes in coffee. When we drink a coffee we usually get a caffeine hit and a sugar rush. This picks us up for a few minutes or perhaps even an hour but then comes the inevitable low. The crash. This is when we start to get feelings of sadness and stress and we cannot figure out why we are feeling so bad.

Test it out for yourself. See how you feel before a coffee, immediately after a coffee and then about two hours after a coffee. You might be surprised.

2. Meat

When I started eating a vegetarian diet I was absolutely shocked at how happy and “light” I felt all the time. I decided that I was going to do some research in to the matter and see whether eating meat causes stress or depression and it turns out that many ancient medical practices believe that it does. Every time I eat meat now I feel heavy and quite sick.

Many people in the East will tell you that feeling depressed after eating meat is due to the negative karma that is accrued due to killing an animal. Some more modern science, however, tells us that it might be due to the damage meat can cause your insulin levels as well as several other systems in the body. Meat has been linked to cancer, diabetes and other serious illnesses. One study even showed that vegetarians are happier than meat eaters!

3. Alcohol

photo credit: djprybyl

Alcohol has been shown to change the chemistry of the brain and make you more likely to experience long term depression. With alcohol we are not talking about a depression that lasts a little while – it is one that lasts a long time and usually leads you to your next drink. You then need to drink more than you used to to feel better and end up in a fast downward spiral. This is called tolerance and is a big part of why alcohol and any other drug is so addictive.

The sad thing is that people who are already feeling a bit depressed use alchohol to treat the depression. This just makes them feel even more depressed and doesn’t really get you anywhere.

4. Fast food

photo credit: 1773?

A few months ago I was lucky enough to be the personal attendant of a very high Buddhist Lama when he visited Australia. During this special week we spent lots of time discussing buddhism and talking about all aspects of life. Every night we would go out for dinner and I would try to take him to places that only made clean and healthy food. After a while we got on to talking about fast food joints like Maccas, KFC and Burger King. He told me that if you want to get a serious disease and have a depressed mind you should eat them often.

I have always thought that these foods were bad. They are full of preservatives, salt, sugar, saturated fats and a host of other horrible chemicals. Think about all the antibiotics and hormones that KFC pump in to their meat before they lace it with salty bread crumbs and deep fry it. No wonder you feel heavy after you eat it.

Try and avoid these foods at lunch time if you are feeling stress and anxious and depressed. This will also distract you from your work because you will feel full and sick.

Conclusion

The best thing you can do for your health is eat a natural diet that has as little man-made foods as possible. A diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, raw milk, eggs and other natural things will leave you feeling lighter, happier and full of long lasting energy. Avoid foods that are overly processed and full of refined sugar, salt and saturated fats.

Does anyone have any experiences with food making them feel terrible?

top image: photo credit: cortnie dee.

Main image source

Originally posted on May 22, 2008 @ 8:57 am

Is Your Work Life Taking Over? How to Make More Time for You

Mindfulness

I have noticed lately that my work has been taking over my whole life. The responsibility of owning my own business, paying bills, etc. has meant that I have been spending less time with my friends, family and hobbies. Last week I realized that it was getting out of hand and made a decision to find some ways to spend more time on me and my loved ones. In this post I want to show you how you can find more time for you.

How to make more time for you

It is very important to make time for yourself and the things you deem to be important. If we allow it to, money will take over our lives and we will have nothing of substance left. I see this happen to people all the time with work, study, etc. The focus only on that at the expense of everything else.

Here some things I have been doing lately to make more time for myself.

1. Get up early
A while ago I made the commitment to get up at 6am everyday without exception. At the moment the most important past time in my life is my meditation practice. However, between working and paying bills I never seem to get the amount of time to meditate that I would like. So I decided to get up earlier.

The reason this was so important for me is because I was making myself anxious. During the day I would think to myself “Oh I am going to have NO time to meditate again” and get really stressed. By waking up early and meditating I am taking a lot of pressure off my routine because I know I have done the most important thing in my day first.

If you think you might want to get up early you should read this post on how to wake up fresh. Many people don’t wake up early because they struggle to get into the routine. However, with a few handy tips like these you might find it a little bit easier.

Waking up early is also the perfect way to get some exercise into your day. Take a look at this post on how to exercise before work everyday.

2. Work only designated hours
These days it seems as though the 9 to 5 job is becoming rarer and rarer. At least in my life, I seem to think about work 24 hours a day. If you run your own business you will know what I mean – you think about the damn think every moment of the day.

It is very important, however, to only work in designated hours. If you allow yourself to think about work all day you will drive yourself mad!

What I decided to do was work until 4pm and then not think about it until 8am the next day. I effectively banned myself from working after 4pm. This was a very positive move. It means that I am now able to forget about work when I am not at work and as such give my family, friends and hobbies 100% of my attention. This is vital for successful relationships.

3. Give yourself specific time for things
Now that you have given your work a specific time in your day it is also a good idea to do the same for your other activities. The point is not to make your life 100% planned out and structured but to give you some guidelines so you can see when things are going to occur.

You see, if things are written down and planned you usually stop thinking about them. If you can see a calendar on your desk that shows you when you are working, when you are going to the gym, when you are having rest, etc. you will be much less worried about trying to fit all of those things in.

4. Plan specific time for doing nothing

photo credit: Josh Russell

One of the most important things you can do is give yourself planned time for doing nothing. This is not lazy. This is healthy. Laziness is when you don’t do things because you couldn’t be bothered. Actually planning time to do nothing is an important part of any healthy work life.

I like to give myself an hour after dinner. I eat my meal and then sit down with Mrs. Daily Minder and watch television or go for a walk. During this time I am just with her, not thinking about work and not stressing about life. This has really helped my mind.

5. Become more efficient at work
One of the main reason my work takes over is because I don’t work as hard as I should during work hours and then I stress about how little I have got done. I am sure we are all guilty of this.

Becoming more efficient at work is one of the best things you can do if you want to stop your work from taking over your life. If you get more done during the day you will be less likely to have to take work home with you or think about it when the day has finished.

Some tips for becoming more efficient at work include:

Work for 20 minutes and then take a three minute break
Eat only light and healthy foods so your mind stays clear
Get into a better sleeping pattern
Don’t take on more work than you can handle
Meditate

Work is only part of life and should not become the main focus. Family, friends and our passions should always come first otherwise we run the risk of living a life that is not what we intended. If you have any other tips that might help someone stop their work from taking over their life then please leave a comment.

top image: photo credit: daviddave

Originally posted on May 18, 2008 @ 5:41 am