Discover Active Relaxation

-
There is a huge difference between active relaxation and passive relaxation. When we play video or computer games, play cards, work in the garden, walk the dog, or play chess, we are interacting with the unexpected, and our minds are responding. All of these activities increase personal creativity and intellectual motivation. They are all active pursuits.

Active relaxation refreshes and restores the mind. It keeps it flexible and toned for thinking. Great thinkers have known this secret for a long time. Winston Churchill used to paint to relax. Albert Einstein played the violin. They could relax one part of the brain while stimulating another. When they returned to workday pursuits they were fresher and sharper than ever. Most of us try to deaden the mind in order to relax. We rent mindless videos, read pulp fiction, drink, smoke, and eat until we're foggy and bloated. The problem with this form of relaxation is that it dulls our spirit and makes it hard to come back to consciousness.

"Thinking is the hardest work we do," said Henry Ford, "which is why so few people ever do it." But when we find ways to link thinking to recreation, our lives get richer. We become players in the game of life and not just spectators.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Direct, Indirect and No Control

-
The problems we face fall in one of the three areas: direct control (problems involving our own behaviour); indirect control (problems involving other people's behaviour); no control (problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities). The proactive approach puts the first step in the solution of all three kinds of problems within our present Circle of Influence. Direct control problems are solved by working on our habits. They are obviously within our Circle of Influence. These are the "Private Victories". Indirect control problems are solved by changing our methods of influence. These are the "Public Victories". Most people have only three or four of these methods in their repertoire, starting usually with reasoning, and, if that doesn't work, moving to flight or fight. How liberating it is to accept the idea that I can learn new methods of human influence instead of constantly trying to use old ineffective methods to ...
Read more

Learn From The Past

-
Adversity comes into our lives because somewhere in our lives we open a door for it. It maybe because of some flaw in our character, thinking or attitude. It is therefore very important to analyse our thoughts and actions to understand what in us attracted this situation in the first place. A careful analysis of our immediate past can bring to light the real causes that precipitated the present adversity. It would help an individual to understand the role he played in precipitating the tragedy and what actions he should have done or not done to prevent it from happening. Was it because he was careless, ruthless, over confident, unprepared, or was it because he trusted an untrustworthy person? A careful analysis of one's past is therefore very crucial to understand the causes that brought about the adversity in the first place. In adversity it is normal for people to think about the past in an emotional way or prejudiced way. It is also normal on their part to try to forget abo...
Read more

Embrace the new frontier

-
Fortunately, for all of us, a new frontier is upon us. Because our nation, and world, has entered the Information Age, the old patterns for living are gone. An article by business writer John Huey appeared in the June 27, 1994 edition of Fortune . In it, Huey observed, "Let's say you're going to a party, so you pull out some pocket change and buy a little greeting card that plays 'Happy Birthday' when it's opened. After the party, some-one casually tosses the card into the trash, throwing away more computer power than existed in the entire world before 1950." In the old paradigm, forged in the Industrial Age, human beings became less and less useful and adventurous. We found lifelong employment in guaranteed jobs and did our jobs the same way until retirement. Then, once we reached retirement age, we became thoroughly useless to society and lived lives dependent on the government, our relatives, or our own savings that we accumulated in our "useful...
Read more