Tag: Process

  • The 7-Point Trading Plan Template

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    One of the first things beginning traders are told to do is to create a trading plan that will spell out a trading strategy and a list of rules to follow in implementing that strategy. The only problem with that advice is that beginning traders don’t really have any trading experience, and thus are lost when attempting to craft a trading plan for their trading.

    Another problem with trading plans is that beginners are instructed to treat their plans as gospel and are told not to deviate from them. This prevents traders from adapting their strategies and rules to improve their performance, an essential step in every trader’s learning curve.

    Instead of a rigid document to be created early on in your trading career and never to be changed, you should instead view your trading plan as a living and breathing set of guidelines, capable of being modified as you gain trading experience. This article will teach you how to create a trading plan that will guide your trading efforts without stunting your progress.

    The 7-Point Trading Plan Template

    In creating your trading plan, here are the items you should include:

    1. Markets – What markets will you focus on? Be as specific as possible – if you’re trading stocks, what types of stocks will you concentrate on?

    2. Timeframe – How long will you hold your positions for? Will you be a day trader focusing on trades lasting a few minutes, or a swing trader holding trades for a few days?

    3. Time Period – What times of the day will you trade? You may have outside responsibilities that prevent you from trading an entire trading day. Pick which times of the day best suit your style.

    4. Trading Style – How would you characterize your trading style? Perhaps you are a momentum trader focusing on trending stocks? Or maybe you specialize in a particular sector? Again, this can and will change as you gain experience and learn from your results.

    5. Risk Management Rules – This is an absolutely essential and often overlooked component of your trading plan. How will you manage your risk, both on a per-trade basis and overall? You should have a “stop trading” point which is a fixed dollar amount that will force you to stop trading if you’re down by that much.

    6. Mentor – Who do you follow and learn from as a teacher? Attempting to learn trading all by yourself is not only lonely, but foolish as it ignores the hard-earned wisdom of other traders. You can either repeat the mistakes of other professionals and hope to eventually learn the lessons and techniques that they’ve learned, or you can simply learn from successful traders and bypass those initial frustrations.

    7. Learning Process – How will you structure your learning process as a trader? What steps will you take to ensure you’re always getting better? How will you structure your trading journal?

    Trading Plan Example

    To show you this trading plan template in action, I’m going to fill it out according to my own trading style:

    1. I trade the U.S. stock markets, focusing on volatile stocks with sufficient volume. These stocks are typically the focus of news items and are thus “in play.”

    2. I am a day trader and hold my positions anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. I’m primarily a scalper and am looking to take advantage of short-term imbalances between supply and demand. I will stay in a trade as long as I can identify a supply/demand imbalance.

    3. I trade throughout the trading day, although I focus most of my activity at the open and close of the trading day.

    4. While I have multiple styles, I would characterize myself primarily as a momentum trader that relies on tape reading to identify favorable risk/reward situations to enter in the direction of a trend.

    5. I’m fanatical about managing my risk, both on a per-trade basis and overall. Every trade I enter has a predefined stop-loss and I have a daily stop-loss to stop trading when I’m having a rough day.

    6. I’ve had a variety of mentors throughout my career, and now I talk with a select group of traders at my firm with similar trading styles.

    7. I review every single trade I make, always looking for ways in which I can improve. This may be as simple as cutting down my risk when trading certain stocks or altering my execution patterns.

    Your trading plan can be as simple as that, just a series of statements answering those 7 questions. You also shouldn’t spend too much time creating your trading plan as it will frequently change throughout your career.

    Summary

    Your trading plan will crystallize exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, but don’t view it as set in stone. Rather, your plan will grow and change as you gain experience and develop your own trading style.

    Your trading plan also doesn’t need to be a complicated document spanning multiple pages. You simply need to define what markets you’re going to trade, how you’re going to trade them (how long you’ll hold positions, what times of day you’re going to trade, and your trading style), how you’re going to manage your risk, and how you’re going to continue developing as a trader. By clarifying and explicitly stating those 7 key points, your trading plan will serve and support you in your trading career.

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    Source by Matt A Nadell

    Views: 0

  • Benefits of Appointing a Doctor Through the Online Scheduling Services

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    The busy and fast life and the unbridled lifestyle have created numerous negative impacts on our body as well as on our health. As a consequence, medicines and doctors have become the regular necessities of our lives. Medical emergencies are needed to be handled immediately as negligence can provoke harmful results. The instant involvement of a medical practitioner can save the life of your loved ones. But to visit a doctor, we need to get an appointment first, which can be quite a time-taking process and chances is there to get the help late.

    Doctors do have a very busy schedule and it is quite doubtful to get them exactly at the time of your requirement. In such a condition, the online scheduling services can be proved pretty beneficiary for all those who have an urgency to consult a doctor. It is pretty fast and quick and the websites are easily accessible. But most of all, these sites provide a list of doctors and medical practitioners, from where you can simply pick up the right one for you. Below are some of the advantages you can get, if you book an appointment online from these scheduling services.

    Time-saving

    Time is a big factor at the moment of the crisis. A little wastage of time can create an unfulfilled loss forever. The appointment scheduling websites utilize the time in a tactful way. From cardiologists to the general physician, they provide a list of doctors who are specialists in various medical fields, which makes your pursuit quite easy and effortless.

    All-time availability

    A crisis can occur even at the midnight. You don’t know when you will need to consult a medical expert. These online sites offer you the freedom to schedule an appointment according to your convenience, without creating a disturbance to the doctors apparently.

    The contact details in handy

    Finding a doctor is not enough. You need the proper address of the medical specialist and need to acquire the contact information too. An online scheduling service puts all these details on the website beside the names, designation and the images of the doctors.

    Easy to assess

    These scheduling sites provide a detailed profile of the specialists, including their qualification and the previous works they have handled, by which you can compare their expertise. This helps you to pick up the suitable one for you.

    Reliable and convenient

    In case of a manual consultation, in spite of standing for a long time in the queue, chances are high of getting late due to the doctor’s delay or for the lack of time. But if you book an appointment online, these things don’t create any effect at all. You can easily get your work done in an expedient and hassle-free manner.

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    Source by Luther Martin

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  • 5 Customer Survey Questions

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    Periodically, it makes sense to address your customer feedback mechanisms and receive some actionable, lived-experience insight into your operation’s strengths and weaknesses. Business leaders need to learn if the delivery of products, services, or other operational processes might be simplified. They need to know what customers would like to see more of. The smartest way to begin the customer feedback process is to decide what you want to know and what purpose that information will serve.

    Are you trying to develop new products or services, so that you’ll be able to give customers what they want before they know they want it? Or is business dwindling and you’re in damage control mode, attempting to win back customers? Some market research questions are best explored face-to-face with customers at a conference table with a leadership team member or two and maybe a front-line staff member present as well.

    Below are five draft survey questions for you to customize. Some apply to customers and others, to company leaders:

    1. What challenges or goals motivate customers to contact your business?

    2. What solutions to customer problems is your organization equipped to supply?

    3. What solutions are offered now? Might you add, re-tool, or drop any?

    4. What do customers most often hire you to provide or do?

    5. What do you (the business leaders) do next?

    Questions 1 and 4 pertain to customers. Questions 2, 3 and 5 refer to business strategy and should be addressed in-house, once you’ve spoken with two or more customers to figure out Questions 1 and 4.

    How you conduct the survey deserves some thought. It might be best for Solopreneurs and small business owners to convene a group interview that encourages comfortable and candid conversation. Larger companies might prefer to host a survey interview that’s facilitated by an outside market research firm.

    Question 1: What are the primary challenges facing (the customer’s) organization?

    Start with a “How are things going in your office?” question, or inquire about their next big project or objective (whether or not it would involve your organization). Find out what’s going on and let the customers talk.

    Questions 2 & 3: Which project or problem do you most want to take action on? How might that be done?

    Given your in-house expertise and resources and guided by the probability that the customer will contact your business to provide needed solutions, what additional customer projects might you be asked to take on (or what can you cleverly position your business to be hired to do)?

    Can your organization successfully deliver the desired outcomes of projects that are on your customers’ to-do lists? Can you discover how your customers are currently managing those challenges? Do your customers do business with any of your direct competitors? Do your customers have projects that are not getting resolved because s/he isn’t sure what to do, or there’s no budget to do the job?

    Question 4: Have our company’s solutions satisfactorily resolved customer needs or challenges?

    What projects have you been hired to do, or what products and services have been purchased by survey participants? What types of projects is your organization most often hired to do, or what are the best-selling products and services? How do customers feel about your company’s performance—is your ability to deliver services trusted and dependable? Do customers send referrals to your business? Does it seem that you could potentially receive more business from any of your customers?

    Question 5: What do you do next, based on customer responses?

    Here is the judgment call for you and your team. The success of the survey is in how you interpret the data received. What can your organization realistically do, based on the customer responses to Questions 1 and 4? Are there opportunities and strengths within your organization on which you might capitalize, as noted in questions 2, 3 and 5? What needs to be improved or discontinued?

    Within a week of the survey, tangibly thank your customers for participating. You may want to send a gift basket, or offer a 15% discount on their next order.

    Thanks for reading,

    Kim

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    Source by Kim L. Clark

    Views: 0

  • Schizophrenia and Psychosis Cure

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    Only a philosopher could discover that the human being is completely absurd since this fact means that humanity is totally crazy. A psychiatrist could not come to that conclusion without being considered crazy.

    Only a poet could listen to the inner voice of the unconscious wisdom, recognize her ignorance and feel how horrible it is to live in a place where everyone is crazy.

    The cure of schizophrenia and psychosis is the total and absolute respect to the moral principles of goodness. A schizophrenic is someone who is completely dominated by the wild side of his or her conscience.

    In case the patient is a murderer, one must learn how to forgive oneself, which is usually impossible to achieve since no one can forgive one’s own faults when they have caused despair and misery.

    Schizophrenia is a very serious mental and psychic disease that cannot be cured because the wild side has completely dominated the human conscience. There is no human personality in the psychic sphere. This is why schizophrenics cannot recuperate their human conscience once they lose it.

    However, they can learn the meaning of their actions and can regain their humanity if they are willing to endure suffering. Suffering is medicine when it gives the patient the necessary conditions that help one become sensitive.

    In case schizophrenic patients are victims of other people’s cruelty, they must learn how to forgive their enemies, which is impossible because their enemies hurt them too much.

    Schizophrenia is the result of human craziness, the massive craziness that governs our world, a world where terror, violence, immorality, hypocrisy, poverty and indifference coexist. This is the insane world of the crazy human being!

    Psychosis is also the result of the same global insanity…

    In fact, schizophrenic and psychotic patients are the biggest victims of violence and indifference.

    However, they can regain their mental, psychological and emotional health through dream interpretation, even though the process is very difficult and time-consuming. Everything is difficult when we have to deal with diseases as terrible as schizophrenia and psychosis.

    Time and many efforts are required, but the patients can be cured!

    This is a miracle!

    We can cure these horrible diseases and save the people who are affected by them today, but we must surely focus on craziness prevention from now on!

    We must put an end to all the horrors of our lives, so that schizophrenia and psychosis ceases to exist in our population.

    Massive psychotherapy is indispensable for humanity if we wish to save the human race and our own planet, since we have almost destroyed all the natural sources, and created an imbalance in the nature of Earth.

    Unconditional and unrestricted peace, truth, wisdom, patience, piety and goodness are the cures for schizophrenia and psychosis.

    Only when we become organized and everyone will be sensitive instead of being indifferent to the horrors they “don’t have the power to eliminate,” will humanity be characterized by psychological, mental and emotional health.

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    Source by Christina Sponias

    Views: 0

  • Mindset = Being Organized

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    I think we can all agree that we hate clutter. We hate it so much we pretend it doesn’t exist. Sometimes we even hide ourselves from the world because we’re afraid of what others may think about us because of it. Being unorganized or having a home full of clutter, which we hate to admit, is thankfully something we can overcome. From experience, all it takes is patience, vulnerability and an open mind to achieve what we want in our homes and in our lives.

    Today I’m going to give you 5 simple and modern-day tips on how to change your mindset so you can become more organized.

    TIP #1: Start small

    For some reason our brains are wired to believe that we MUST complete an entire project at once. Have you ever wondered why none of your tasks or projects ever gets done on time? I bet one of the reasons may be because the project you took on was way to BIG to complete and because you were so overwhelmed, you failed to finish. Not anymore! By starting small, whether it is organizing your pen cup to completing a major project, you will avoid the stress of fulfilling that task and find yourself finishing quickly and punctually.

    TIP #2: Listen to organizing podcasts

    One of the best things you can do in the morning or as you’re driving is to stimulate your mind by listening to things that arouse your mental and physical growth. I’ve noticed in my own life and others around me that doing so has made a world of positive change in our lives. Organizing podcasts like Organize 365 or A Slob Comes Clean are 2 podcasts that have kept me motivated in times when I was lacking. One of the secrets to truly changing your lifestyle is to change our mentality and by incorporating these simple methods in your life, you will get there in no time.

    TIP #3: Create a Checklist

    This may sound cliché but to-do lists really do work – of course only if you use them. As I mentioned above, clutter is a bi%#* and in order to combat it, you will have to tackle it head on in small intervals. Here are 2 examples how checklists can be effective in helping you stay organized. 1) By using a checklist to plan out the tasks you need to accomplish at home after work, will prevent you from being overwhelmed after a stressful day 2) An effective checklist will only have your priority tasks therefore you will know exactly what needs to be done to maintain order. Checklist, lists, to-do list, plans, whatever you want to call them is a habit that needs to be implemented in your life so getting organized and staying organized can become second nature.

    TIP #4: Keep things you Truly Love

    Here are a few common responses I’ve heard when it comes to this topic:

    I love everything in my home and there’s no way I can get rid of anything! All of my stuff has a meaning behind them! Here’s a better one. I’ve spent so much money and I haven’t even worn it yet! – But it’s been 2 years…

    These are just a few examples of statements my clients have said to me when I’d suggest they should only keep things in their home they truly loved. Let me explain what this really means. Lets start with an example. We love our family (our immediate family) and though we may have favorites (wink) we love them so unconditionally that we couldn’t live a day without them. This is the type of feeling I believe you should have for the items in your home. You love your pen so much; the mere thought of it not being in your possession is utter mayhem. If you don’t have this feeling towards the items in your home then it’s probably time to part ways with it. I’d be happy to witness the department!

    TIP #5: Make it a Habit

    New studies show it takes 2-8 months to form a new habit. I know that seems like an abnormal amount of time – at least to getting organized but this is actually great news. Creating new habits shouldn’t be viewed as one and done rather as a process that will create a better outcome. Committing to an organizing system and practicing it thoroughly, though you may have hiccups, will create a positive mind and improve your organizing skills.

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    Source by Judi Igwe

    Views: 0

  • How to Lose 10 Pounds in a Weekend

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    If you want to lose 10 pounds and have just 1 weekend to do it, then this article is for you. But before you get excited, you need to realize that this isn’t such an easy thing to accomplish and that it is going to take a lot out of you, so be ready for a challenging Friday to Sunday.

    In essence, you’ve got 3 days to lose 10 pounds. Physical exercise is probably not going to get this accomplished since you’re going to need a massive amount of workouts to burn so much weight off. A regular diet plan is also not going to work since you won’t be able to lose so much weight as fast with just any diet. Forget about pills because most of them are scams.

    You’re left with only one option I know to lose 10 pounds in 3 days: a detox diet.

    What a detox diet does is help you flush you body clean of undigested food and pollutants which has accumulated inside of you due to bad digestion, bad food, and environmental factors. You’re going to purify your body from within which can actually have additional benefit besides inducing a fast weight loss.

    A detox diet is a very low calorie diet so you shouldn’t do it for more than a few days at a time. In fact, most of the calorie consumption comes in the forms of special juices and teas which help with the detoxification process. However, as you only plan on doing this for 3 days or so, it is very possible.

    With a detox diet you may lose up to 10 pounds in a weekend. However, it needs to be said that the real challenge begins after you return to regular eating. Unless to watch what you eat and workout regularly, you can easily gain all this weight back again, so make sure to lead a healthy lifestyle from now on.

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    Source by John Davenport

    Views: 0

  • Relationships: Can Someone Be Emotionally Unavailable Even Though They’re In A Relationship?

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    It would be easy to believe that the people who are emotionally unavailable are single and the ones who aren’t are in a relationship. Or, if someone is emotionally available and single, it could just show that they are taking a break after going through a breakup, for instance.

    This is then typically going to be something that is very black and white. However, while it may seem as though this is the case, this outlook would have very little to do with how things actually are.

    An Illusion

    In the same way that someone who appears to be happy can be deeply unhappy on the inside; someone can be in a relationship but it doesn’t mean that they are truly in one. Still, from the outside it may appear as though they are in an intimate relationship.

    In fact, other people could often wonder what it would be like for them to be in a relationship like this. These people are then going to believe that this person has this area of their life handled, and are going to want to experience the same thing.

    Both Ways

    Furthermore, someone like this could also believe that they are in an intimate relationship. So, every part of their being is not going to be involved, but they will still see themselves as someone who is in a relationship.

    They are then going to share their mind and their body with their partner, yet the emotional part of their being won’t be fully on a board. This doesn’t mean that they won’t feel things, though.

    Absent

    Their body will then be with their partner, but their mind and heart can spend a lot of time being somewhere else; that is unless their heart has simply retracted. Now, this is not going to be the same as having distractions at work; it will mean that one will generally find it hard to be fully present with their partner.

    If their partner doesn’t have trouble being present, they might be able to sense that one is rarely, if ever, present. They might not be able to understand what is going on, but they will find it hard to deeply connect with them.

    The Clearest Sign

    If this is how someone is most of the time, it will be pretty clear that they are emotionally unavailable. Their partner shouldn’t need any more information in order to realise that something isn’t right.

    Nonetheless, if they are also emotionally unavailable, it might take a while for them to become aware of this. And even if this was to take place, if they are not aware of what is going on for them and the part that they will have played in being drawn to someone like this, they could end up feeling like a victim and blaming their partner.

    It’s not random

    What this comes down to is that they wouldn’t have randomly ended up with this person. This is not to say that they consciously chose to end up with them; it will have most likely been something that took place unconsciously.

    One way of looking at this would be to say that they were drawn to this person so that they could resolve their inner wounds and grow in the process. The only way this will happen is if they are aware of what is going on and don’t get caught up in their inner wounds.

    Back To the Main Point

    If someone is rarely present it will be clear that something is not right, and there can be other things that also reveal that they are not ready have an intimate relationship. Through having a weak connection with their emotions, it will probably be rare for them to relate to their partner on a deeper level.

    This can then cause the relationship to be very superficial and, thus, to lack the depth that is needed to enable a deeper connection to develop. As a result of this, the relationship might not progress.

    Avoiding Conflict

    Once the initial spark has died out and sexual side has settled down, there might not be a lot to hold the relationship together. But if their partner was to talk about how this, one could dismiss what they say.

    Another thing that they could do is to walk away if something like this is brought up, which will show that they are not willing to go there. This will be a further sign that they are only looking to get their feet wet, so to speak.

    An Obvious One

    If one was to continually talk about their ex, and even spent a fair amount of time with them, it is likely to show that something right. Their body could be in their present relationship but their heart could still be attached to their ex.

    It could go even further than this and one might actually still be sharing their body with their ex. If they are cheating on their partner, this will be another sign that they are not ready to commit.

    Awareness

    Obviously, the only way that someone can change their behaviour is they are aware of what is going on and have the desire to change. With this in mind, if one is in a relationship with someone who is not emotionally unavailable and they are not willing to do anything about it, it might be in their best interest to walk away.

    ​

    If they are used to attracting people like this, it will be a good idea for them to take a deeper look into what is going on for them at a deeper level. The assistance of a therapist or a healer may be needed here.

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    Source by Oliver JR Cooper

    Views: 0

  • Addiction Doctors – Can an Addiction Doctor Help You?

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    Suboxone doctors are something that are in big demand, right now. Unfortunately, more and more people find themselves on the losing end of an opiate addiction with each and every day that passes. In the past, there were other treatment methods that were used to treat addiction to opiates, whether your drug of choice was heroin, hydrocodone, oxycodone, or one of the other many pain prescriptions that are often abused.

    Some of the other courses of treatment include In patient rehabilitation centers and methadone treatment. Because of the restrictions that come with those forms of treatment suboxone doctors have become a more popular choice with each new person that tells of their experience with the suboxone doctor that they were able to find.

    Rehabilitation Centers in many cases require that you actually “check in”. when you do so, you are for the most part separated from the outside world, your family, job, and anything else that you hold close to you in the real world. The goal of most rehabs is to make you comfortable and to provide you with counseling in an attempt to get you through the opiate withdrawals. The biggest problem that most people find with this is the fact that opiate withdrawals are extremely unpleasant, and the absence of any sort of medication to curb the most undesirable symptoms of withdrawal make the process more than difficult. On top of that, it’s said that opiate withdrawal can, and usually does at least psychologically last for 45 – 60 days. So, even if the rehabilitation facility is able to keep them clean for a week or so, as soon as they hit the street, in most cases the urge to get high will have them running back to their opiate of choice again.

    A regimented methadone treatment has often proven effective, and in many cases has pulled people from the clutches of addiction. However, there is a very serious downside. Methadone in itself is a very addictive substance, and in many cases, the people using it to rid themselves of their opiate addiction find themselves as addicted to the methadone as they were their drug of choice. At the end of the day, they still end up having to take a substance day after day to be able to get through their lives. Basically, they are trading one drug for another, and if they should happen to stop taking the methadone abruptly, they will find themselves right back in withdrawal. Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?

    On the other hand, suboxone doctors are able to offer a solution to your addiction problem that is not only highly regarded as the most effective opiate addiction tool ever known, but it is temporary. Suboxone works by attaching itself to the same receptors that your opiate of choice used to, so your brain in essence still believes that you are “getting high”. In reality, you are stone cold sober. Typically suboxone doctors will put you on a short term program that is what I like to call, front heavy. What I mean is, in the beginning you will take a large dose of the medicine, and after a couple weeks, you start to ween off. By the time 45 days comes, your opiate withdrawal is over, and best of all, you no longer have the urge to abuse whatever your drug of choice is or was.

    The biggest problem with suboxone doctors though, is finding them. In order to have the ability to prescribe the drug, doctors have to go through a special training and education program. Plus, since the treatment itself is still relatively new, it hasn’t caught on yet the way something like methadone has.

    If you are starting to realize that you have a problem, and you’re ready to do something about it, I highly recommend searching out a suboxone doctor near you. If there isn’t one relatively close to you, look in the next city, county, or state. Finding one might be the only way you get clean, and it very well could save your life.

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    Source by Jeffery Mellenthal

    Views: 0

  • Dealing With Emotional Triggers

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    I write this article because I realized that while going through a tough season in my life and going through the emotional healing process there were moments when out of nowhere something and even someone would say or do something unbeknownst to them that would set me on an emotional spiral because it triggered a negative memory or life moment gripped by strong emotions.

    Once the moment subsided I started wondering what I could do to not be undermined by emotional triggers in my life. It has a lot to do with your thought process which works with your emotions. I have been in the process of healing my soul and crucial to that process was dealing with how I think and how it was effecting my life. For the most part I am positive but a long season of growing pains had created a lot of woundedness in my soul. I made the decision not to see through my wounds anymore and to see from a healthy soul which begins with ridding myself of the negative thoughts that have been bombarding me. To do so I began with prayer and seeking God for the wisdom and solution to deal with the hurt in my soul. Below are the solutions that has and continue to work for me. I am wired to be productive so this is incorporated into my day and what I will do for that day

    1) Pray and get quiet within yourself to hear the answer

    2) Once the answer comes stay committed to the healing process. It will take time to heal in your soul.

    3) Stay Diligent it takes 21 days to establish a new habit, and 90 days to become a way of life.

    4) I listen to and watch positive teaching on thinking and healing my soul daily.

    5) I wake up praying and then listening to teaching on the radio to replace negative thoughts and self talk with faith filled thoughts & words

    6) I Listen to worship music and worship God through song, I also listen to soothing music without lyrics sometimes. This creates an environment of peace conducive for my soul to heal.

    7) On hard days press in harder and don’t stop the healing process.

    8) It is crucial to guard your eyes, ears, and heart.

    9) Negative things do happen and it’s important how you manage your emotional response

    10) Believe in yourself and make the decision to not line up with a negative perspective and choose to see the good

    For example there is a great worship song that was sung at my sisters home going service and on a Sunday in church the song was sung. I began to come unglued emotionally inside but no one around me knew I was struggling and I wanted to run but The Holy Spirit reassured me I will be alright with a comforting peace. I just started saying Hallelujah to calm myself and stay focused on the worship. Till this day I can no longer hear that song but learning how to manage the trigger. My Pastor A. R. Bernard taught us that it will take twelve pieces of positive information to replace one piece of negative information. Yes it is a battle but worth fighting to be free indeed, healed and whole in your soul.

    This sums it up when dealing with Triggers… It’s crucial to Breathe properly to help calm yourself and gather your thoughts to respond and not react to your triggers

    Quote: Take a breath. Pause. Iyanla Vanzant

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    Source by Jana Hicks

    Views: 0

  • How Smoking (Drug Abuse) and Drinking (Alcohol) Affects Your Academic Performance

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    One day, Barack’s mother, Ann Dunham marched into his room, wanting to know the details of Pablo’s arrest. “Don’t you think you are a little casual about your future?” she asked. “What do you mean? he responded. “Bar, you know exactly what I mean. Your friend Pablo was just arrested for drug possession, and your grades are slipping. You haven’t even started on your college application.”

    Barack Obama was a serious and brilliant student before he gained admission into Punahou School, Honolulu. In this school, he joined the “Choom gang”. It was a self-named gang that spent time together drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and sniffing cocaine. Drugs made the choom gang popular in school. His relationship with the choom gang prospered, but his academics suffered. Drugs and alcohol made him lose focus. All he thought about was how to get high. He and his friends Ray, Pablo, Mark and others exhausted their time devising simply ways of doing drugs, which include total absorption (TA), the antithesis and the choomwagon. Reading was difficult because he was always high and confused. Indeed, he was heading towards becoming a junkie.

    His performance in school was a mess. Barack’s mother was right. His grades were going down every term. He was not even bothered about admission to college. All he thought was drugs because it was part of him. Truly, his friend Pablo was arrested by the police for drug possession.

    When pressure from his mum and his poor performance became unbearable, he thought about not going to college. Nevertheless, Barack’s mother kept encouraging him. She always told him that he could get into any school in the country if he just put in a little effort. Within him, he knew that the “effort” he needed was to quit drugs.

    He managed to graduate without mishap and was admitted into Occidental College in Los Angeles. Even without the choom gang around, Barack continued his drug escapade. To continue his education, Barack was transferred to Columbia University, New York.

    In New York, he decided to stop getting high. For the first time in years, Barack applied himself to his studies. He regained his love and strength for reading. Reading and understanding became easy because he was focused and at alert always. Barack began to trace out his future. It became clear that he had been wasting his precious time on drugs. He attended class regularly and soon graduated with good grades.

    “Using drugs and alcohol was a seriously misguided mistake. It was my greatest moral failure that could have destroyed my future. Maybe if I had not stopped doing drugs, I might have dropped out of school and wouldn’t have become the 44th President of the United States”, he once said.

    Lesson

    Drug and alcohol use on campus is universal. Students articulate many reasons why they do it, but most neglect to consider the academic and long-time consequences of their actions. Some are compelled to use drugs at social gatherings either because everyone else seems to be doing it or they believe it’s the cool thing to do. Others feel that drug and alcohol abuse offers an escape away from school or work-related stress, financial worries or relationship problems. Some feel that alcohol and drug abuse provide a way to compensate for feelings of shyness or low esteem.

    According to one study, 90% of teens said they have used alcohol; 50% have used marijuana; 17% have used cocaine, and 13% have used some form of hallucinogenic drugs. Drug use has been classified as a major problem of students as early as in primary 4. A recent report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration suggests that adolescents who receive grades of D or below are more likely than those in good academic standing to have recently used cigarettes, alcohol and/or other illicit drugs.

    The new research is part of a large-scale study of health and development conducted in New Zealand. Researchers administered IQ tests to over 1,000 individuals at age 13 (born in 1972 and 1973) and assessed their patterns of cannabis use at several points as they aged. Participants were again tested for IQ at age 38, and their two scores were compared as a function of their marijuana use. The results were striking: Participants who used cannabis heavily in their teens and continued through adulthood showed a significant drop in IQ between the ages of 13 and 38-an average of 8 points for those who met criteria for cannabis dependence. (For context, a loss of 8 IQ points could drop a person of average intelligence into the lowest third of the intelligence range.) Those who started using marijuana regularly or heavily after age 18 showed minor declines. By comparison, those who never used marijuana showed no declines in IQ.

    Researchers studying the effects of alcohol use on the brain are aided by advanced technology such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), position emission tomography (PET) and electrophysiological brain mapping (EBM) showed that long-term heavy drinking lead to shrinking of the brain which impairs learning, memory formation and retrieval. That is why most times we read and forget within a short period.

    The process of generating new brain cells (i.e., neurons) is called neurogenesis. High level of alcohol leads to a disruption in the growth of brain cells. The decline of the number of brain cells leads to problems in learning and behaviour. The number of brain cell a student possesses determines his level of understanding. A student who has a higher amount of brain cells will do better academically.

    Thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, is an essential nutrient required by the brain. Up to 80% of alcoholics have a deficiency in thiamine, which may lead to memory loss and mental confusion. It might also affect your attention and concentration. Substance abusers easily get distracted; misplace things, forgetting to keep appointments and so on. As the brain continues to adapt to the presence of the drug, regions outside of the reward pathway are also affected. Brain regions responsible for judgment, learning, and memory begin to physically change or become “hardwired.” Learning, reading, and comprehension becomes difficult because the brain had been wired to focus on alcohol.

    Alcohol can produce detectable impairment in memory after only a few drinks and as the amount of alcohol increases so does the degree of impairment. Large quantity of alcohol can produce a blackout or an interval of time for which the intoxicated person cannot recall key details of events or even an entire event. Think about how much study time you have lost because you were too hung-over the next day to go to class. Drug abusers oversleep and are always tired.

    Severe Hallucination is another problem faced by drug users. Most times they lose touch with realities during lectures or examination. Physically they are in class but mentally they are somewhere else. Academics requires both physical and mental alertness. Therefore, a “high” students can attend lecture but will derive nothing because he was busy building castles in the air. Hallucination leads to academic failure.

    Everyone who became a drug or alcohol addict started with “let me taste or try it.” Smoking cigarette or Indian hemp or drinking alcohol is not a sign of “big boy or big girl”. It is not a sign of maturity but immaturity. You should not please your company by abusing drugs or alcohol. Drugs and alcohol are slow poisons. It solves no problem, if you get high because of financial stress, relationship problems, shyness or peer pressure, after some minute, you will get low and the problem will still be there.

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    Source by Anyaehie George Kelechi

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