How Karate Can Help With Meditation

Although the ancient origins of karate are somewhat unclear to us, the one thing I can tell you, is that about 1400 years ago, while teaching at the Shaolin Temple in China, Daruma Daishi used techniques that were similar to karate. Later these techniques developed into forms of karate known as Shaolin Boxing.

 

You need a clear mind to use Karate and meditating is the best way to clear your mind when you are in a sport such as karate. In 1955 one of master Funakoshi's last direct pupils came to the United States and was the first person to teach karate in this country. That same year he put together Southern California Karate Association, which has grown over several years to now become a national non-profit organization. 

 

As I meditated, I continued to learn more about karate. I learned in 1961, which happens to be my year of birth, Mr Caylor Adkins, one of Mr Ohshima's first black belts, began attending CSULB and soon formed the school's first karate club. In 1968 after being gone for a while he returned to CSULB along with a gentleman named Mr Don DePree. Mr DePree carried on the tradition and led the growing club until the year 1992, when he entrusted the leadership of the club to Mr Samir Abboud.

 

Still keeping my mind clear by meditating I learned that Mr Samir Abboud was a continuing student of Don DePree since the year of 1969.Samir was the CSUBL captain of the karate club, and assistant instructor to Mr Don DePree for many years. Through meditation children and adults learn breathing techniques that help them concentrate on karate. When first starting karate you will want to start with the beginners belt. The purpose of this level is orientation.

 

Students will be taught the general structure of the class, basic commands, the importance of self-defense and some basic combinations of self-defense moves. By concentration with meditation the student will learn to be familiar with and to perform any of the moves on the curriculum sheet. The students also should be able to stand in a Chunbi position for 1minute without moving. Minimal proficiency will be required.

 

The practicing time 5-10 minutes 3-4 times a week will be plenty for the beginners level. It will usually take 4-6 weeks to start your next belt. So whether you are a child or and adult learning karate for whatever reason, remember the key to karate is first using your breathing techniques and your meditation will help you to practice your breathing.

 

Meditation books are also very helpful, if you are interested in learning more about meditation just go to your local library and check some of them out. Take time out to study meditation and you could be feeling much better real soon, which is something that most of us all want for ourselves. Good luck and remember that keeping a positive attitude can really make a difference in your stress levels. Please take time out for yourself for meditation.

 

Sponsored Article

 

Becoming Who You Desire to Be by Developing Your Personality

Personality development is a dynamic tool that can really take you to height you never imagined. Personality development will help you improve on many parts of your life, including your social health, financial well-being and even emotional health. 

 

Before you get on to personality development, you need to first know your personality. What personality type are you? What are the strong points in your personality traits? What are the weak points in your personality? What are you doing to improve on your weak points and to make your strong points even better? When these questions are honestly answered, you can then get to the next step, which is actual personality development. 

 

The first thing you need to do for your personality development is to spend adequate time with yourself. This will help you to be in touch with yourself and it will help you to learn more about whom you are and what you do. This way, you will be able to challenge yourself. Next, you need to forge the way forward; clearly state what you want to see in yourself despite your weaknesses and strong points. You need to be realistic and stringent at the same time. Do not press yourself too much, because being unrealistic will cause you disappointment. Also, do not be too soft on yourself as this will make personality development a slow process. 

 

Forgive yourself for all the mistakes you have ever done in life. Trying to do personality development with a grudge and a bitter attitude towards you will be useless, because your mind and attitude will be hindered from being what it should be. View all your past failures as stepping stones to your future success. Personality development also demands flexibility. You cannot be rigid and expect personality development to work for you. Be open to whatever requirements personality development has. Do not fix your goals, because you might need to make some adjustments along the way. 

 

Tune your entire being to personality development, and the journey will be easier and more enjoyable. Make it even easier by drawing and making pictures of what you want to achieve. This will work perfectly because the human mind finds pictures more palatable than mere thoughts and plans. In order for the process to be quick, easy and effective, you also need to read and listen to material that aids your personality development. Buy the relevant tapes and books that will make personality development a possible venture to you.

 

How to Think Happy Thoughts and Learn to Fly – 1

Peter Pan was asked by his friend Wendy how she could fly like him. He replied that to fly, all she had to do was to think happy thoughts. Although this was a children’s story and a fictions character, the moral of the story was and remains true. Thinking happy thoughts may not help us fly, but we can be as happy as we choose to be. 

 

Many people allow their life circumstances to control them. Their sense of happiness rises and falls depending on what is happening in their life. This doesn’t need to be the case. We can focus on our happiness every day, so that feeling happy is a state of mind, not a reaction to the events in our life. 

 

Ask yourself daily what you can do to create happiness in your life. At the end of each day take a check of the things you did that made you happy and be honest. If you can’t think of anything you did that produced a feeling of happiness, ask yourself—why and make an effort to change things tomorrow. 

 

There are some ways you can help yourself to feel real happiness and you can practice these every day.

 

1. Help other people.

As long as your focus is always on yourself, you will be acutely aware of things that are not as good as they could be in your life. By focusing on helping others, we realize again the good in our own life. 

 

2. Find something to be thankful for every day.

Look around your world every day and find at least one thing to be thankful about each day. Write it down in a journal and review your journal regularly to help you remember the good things in your life.

 

3. Surround yourself with good friends and spend at least part of one day a week with them. 

Happiness is contagious. As you surround yourself with happy people who are positive, their happiness will affect you and your happiness will affect them. Keep gossip and other negative talk away from your gatherings.

 

4. Head down memory lane regularly.

Your life is full of happy memories. Write down why those things made you happy and laugh with someone who remembers them often. 

 

Read part 2 for other ways you can focus on nurturing and protecting your personal happiness.

 

How to Think Happy Thoughts and Learn to Fly – 2

In part 1, we explored some ways of nurturing the happiness in our lives so it is not dependent on circumstances around us. Here are some other ways that are guaranteed to help make you feel happy and keep you feeling happy and content with your life, even if the circumstances and events happening around you leave your feeling momentarily shaken.

 

5) Nurture those you love.

You may feel this step is logical and that you do this all the time as a spouse or a parent. Think carefully however. How much time do you invest into improving your marriage, or developing your parenting skills? Research shows that the happiest people are those with the strongest relationships with significant others. 

 

6) Look after your health.

Enjoy yourself running around with the children, doing Zumba at the gym or playing golf with your mates. Looking after your health feels you with energy and when you add laughter to the fun you are the winner.

 

7) Try something new you have always wanted to do.

Set yourself a challenge to do something new every week no matter how much you feel you can’t do it. Have a go and enjoy the experience. You may find yourself surprised by the results, and if you don’t succeed you will certainly enjoy trying it. Better still, try it with a friend and double the fun. 

            

8) Don’t expect too much. Instead, enjoy what comes to you.

Keep your expectations on yourself and others at a reasonable level. If you set the standard too high you are setting yourself up to feel let down. Accept and appreciate the things that people do for you and you are able to do for yourself and others. 

 

Happiness in our reach if we focus on achieving it. Taking time to appreciate the good things in our life and the gift of love that is given to us by our significant others are reasons to celebrate what is happening in our life. We should be focusing these things on each day as we think about the things we have been blessed with. They are the things that remain constants when other things in our life are not going as well. They help us keep the difficult moments we will inevitably face in perspective and give us hope when things around us may seem hopeless.

Changing Habits That Are Deeply Ingrained in the Subconscious

Ever trying changing a habit so desperately only to find out that something deep within is not willing? You have gone to counselors, the psychologists, spent money on self-help books and running to every sort of seminar that includes the self-help stuff only to find yourself at the same position you were in before? It is said that it is at this moment when the subconscious and the conscious are at logger heads and in most cases the subconscious wins. 

 

Our habits drive our lives, that is why it is important to bring the bad habits into our conscious awareness and replace them with the obstruct ones to be able to move forward. If you are not yet where you want to be or if you have not yet achieved what you have always desired for a long time then you ought to really examine your approaches to life.

 

I suggest you prepare a list of how you perceive things around you or your attitude toward life. Of course, you will have those that do not serve you well and you don’t have to beat yourself down because of it, after all you are human. All you have to do is eliminate them completely and replace them with their opposite ones. Say you think that you are looser and you cannot achieve anything in life or that life is way too hard whatever your perception is, your subconscious takes it in and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

 

So instead of saying that, think of the past achievements or think of how much you can achieve and conquer a lot and how easy life can get if only you apply the right skills. You may not believe it but I advise that you keep doing it, fake it till you make it. Keep repeating those words to yourself as much as possible and no matter how long it takes, you will enjoy its aftermath. 

 

This exercise requires some time, full time dedication and a burning desire to really do it and achieve your goals otherwise if you easily give up you will not go far. You should set time for some deep analysis of your habits and do more of meditation to help relax your mind. Keep the positive attributes coming until it becomes your new approach to life. Your mind will have a new command to steer you directly into your dreams.

 

Coming Out of the Money Trappings

Financial freedom has been said by many to be a ‘mission impossible’ since many are never able to reach this stage. Have you ever taken some time to ask yourself what magic those that are financially free use to reach where they are? The answer is simple, they are financially responsible as well as being organized. This is the key to attaining financial freedom. It is not as hard as many portray it to be. In that case, a personal financial budget is a vital tool when it comes to attaining personal financial freedom. To attain a perfect personal budget, it is compulsory for one to live within his or her means. 

 

Basically, our personal budgets are meant to control the manner in which we tend to spend our income. Without it, most of us tend to be extravagant. In most cases, our extravagance comes about unknowingly. We just find ourselves buying staff without having planned for them. Using credit cards is the most common factor that can be attributed to this act. Once you walk around and com across a beautiful shirt, all you have to do is to take out your credit card and purchase the shirt without necessarily thinking about the impact on your budget; at least not at that moment. To avoid such scenarios, there are particular tips that can help you live up to your budget.

 

To start with, it is important to be organized. As a matter of fact, there is no way that you can come up with a budget without being organized financially. As we all know, a budget is simply meant to help one keep track of his or her expense plus ensure that they stick within the limits of the total income. In short, it helps you live within your means. Therefore, only an organized person can limit his or her expenditures, budget for the necessary goods first then luxuries later and live by the budget. 

 

Secondly, cut all unnecessary costs. There are various way of doing this considering the modern lifestyle that most of us have taken in. For example, never eat out so often; this tends to increase costs in the end. Finally, set goals in terms of personal financial freedom. This normally acts as a self-motivation tool. Set a particular time frame within which you are to set up your own business side. You can even go to an extent of setting a time frame in which you are to clear all bad debts. At such a rate, personal financial stability will be in the palm of your hands within no time.

 

Financial Freedom Tips

We live in a very funny world. Today, the consumerism policy has taken over the business scene. This simply means that many tend to spend more than they can afford. In most cases, this occurs when one person tries to live up to the expectations of others. In the end, the general financial situation tends to be so poor. Such behavior has led to the common talk going around claiming that financial freedom is just but a myth. As a matter of fact, many have given up all hope. Sorry to say, but how do they expect to achieve financial freedom if consumerism is their financial policy in life? This can never happen. All in all, there are certain tips that one can use to achieve financial freedom. 

 

To start with, try and minimize on your expenses. In short, get rid of the consumerism policy that many of you unknowingly stick to. This can only be done by tracking your expenses. First and foremost, come up with a monthly budget. This way, you will avoid wasting your money on items that you had not planned for. Secondly, avoid using your credit card. As a matter of fact, only carry it when necessary. Statistics have shown that many waste 90% of their money due to their frequent use of credit cards. They are good but only if they are used wisely. Finally, come up with some sort of journal from which you will note down all your monthly expenses. This way, you will be able to identify the areas of which you are losing a lot of money and generally track your spending spree. 

 

On the other hand, it is wise for you to deal with all debts. Good debts are worth it, but bad debts will just derail you from achieving financial freedom. We have all heard of very rich and wealthy individuals losing all their wealth to debts. The same can happen to you. It is never wise to let your debts pile up, the results will be tragic. Therefore, concentrate on getting rid of all bad debts before you even start strategizing on how you will achieve financial freedom.

 

Still on that note, the only way you can get rid of all debts is by paying more than you are expected to. Once you get a loan, there is always a repaying agreement that states the minimum you are expected to pay on a monthly basis. It is advisable that you pay more than this amount in order to effectively get rid of all the debts quickly. 

 

3 Simple Financial Freedom Rules

Many tend to think of financial freedom something that cannot be achieved. Others think of it as a myth. This mentality has deeply sunk into their brains to an extent of the whole concept become just but an illusion to them. They have totally given up on the idea and the word ‘financial freedom’ is no longer part of their vocabulary. This should not be the case. On the contrary, achieving financial freedom is as easy as ABC. All that you should do is to follow some three simple rules and you will be on your way to a life full of financial stability.

 

Rule Number 1: Do Not Live Above Your Means. 

 

This is one of the main reasons why many can never achieve financial stability. Living above your means simply means that you tend to strain the little that you earn. In the long run, you end up dead broke. Your next hope of getting some cash is your next salary of which you still plan to use it all up in luxuries. Try and live below your means. There are a lot of luxuries that one can get rid of and still live comfortably. For example, boarding a taxi on a daily basis when going to work; why not save up by walking for the next two months and buy your own car in the third month. This is just but one of the few ways that you can simply save up. 

 

Rule Number 2: Save Up and Invest Whatever Remains.

 

I am sure that we have all heard of various saving options offered by banks or most of the money co-operatives we deal with. Some are using them while others just ignore them. Saving is one of the wisest things one can do. It is important to think of the future and not just today. See beyond your nose and plan for it. Look for a saving scheme that you can use and start saving. As for the amount that might remain, find a way of investing it. This way, your money will grow.

 

Rule Number 3: Improve on Rules 1 and 2. 

 

It is easy for one to plan to save or minimize on his or her expenses. The problem comes in after a couple of months or so when most of them quit along the way. Make sure that you do not fall into this category; improve on your saving skills day after day. Read periodicals and books dealing with these topics and talk to professionals. 

 

9 Steps to Financial Freedom

Financial freedom has become a trending topic in our streets today with many individuals trying their level best to attain this stage that is admired by many. Despite all the fuss, only a handful have achieved this condition. It has become sort of like an impossible mission for many as they quit along the way. This is basically due to the simple fact that they are not doing it right. As a result, various renowned business elites have come up with tips that have helped many achieve financial freedom. Among them is the profound writer, Suze Orman. She has written book entitled “9 Steps to financial freedom” that simply deals with financial freedom and how none can achieve it. 

 

In the book, Suze Orman has come up with a list of 9 simple steps through which one can attain financial freedom the soonest possible. The first step discusses just how much the past means to your financial future. As a matter of fact, she states that the past holds the key to financial freedom in the future. How is this? You all know that experience is the best teacher. The same applies in this case. It is the past financial mistakes one made that will help him or her be more careful when doing their finances. In the second chapter, she simply states that there is no way none can achieve financial freedom with a negative mentality. It is up to you to generate a positive mentality since it is all in your brain.

 

The third step is to simply be true to you. There is no living being in the world that knows you as much as you know yourself financially. It is only you that can point out your weakness and strengths. Therefore, it is very important for you to be true to yourself. In chapter four, Suze talks about taking care of those that you love. She says that in order to be fully financially stable, it is necessary to leave something behind for your family just in case something happens to you.

 

According to Suze Orman, how you treat yourself matters a lot in financial stability. In the fifth chapter, she says that one is supposed to respect themselves as well as their money in order to be financial freedom. In chapter six, she states that in addition to respect, trust should also be available and especially. Step seven, Suze encourages people to give to charity claiming that it is important to be open in order to receive what you are meant to receive. Finally, she explains the money cycle.