My Favorite Self-Help Stuff

Stay calm during the holidays? But what about all the stuff that needs to be done — yesterday?

Well, it won’t get done if you drive yourself nuts. Instead, take a step or two back, get a grip on the holiday stress, and calm down…

How?

Well, for starters, take a time out and breathe! If your response to this suggestion is “What?!” you need to read this article!

When you feel overwhelmed, and you don’t know how to fit everything you just HAVE to get done into the next 24 hours, you need to take a step back and… breathe.

And if you don’t think you have time for that, you need that moment of time out even more. So go ahead and read this article and get back in control.

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Why you MUST tame your stress!

The problem with feeling stressed and overwhelmed is that it makes you less than efficient. You basically spin your wheels and don’t get things done as quickly or as well as you would like.

What you need is a reset button. And we do have that, sort of. So here’s how to reset yourself and become productive and efficient again.

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1) Breathe

That’s right. When you get stressed, you forget to breathe, and that makes you even less efficient. Your body and especially your brain needs plenty of oxygen to function. In addition, when you breathe shallow breaths only, your body will go into fight-or-flight mode, which also makes your brain inefficient.

Slow, deep, rhythmic breathing, however, will reset your body and your brain by stimulating your Vagus nerve, which helps your body go back into “calm” mode so you can think again and get things done.

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2) Make a Gratitude List

Now you think I’m really crazy. But the thing is that being grateful switches you from being stressed out to feeling a whole lot better. So make a short list of things you’re grateful for, in your head or, even better, on a piece of paper. You’ll feel better and calmer almost instantly.

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3. Focus on what you DO want

Seriously. Instead of worrying about what if, conjuring up one disaster after another, visualize everything going smoothly. And if the cookies don’t come out quite right, so what! You can always make another batch, or even buy some in the grocery store. Uhm, what sacrilegious words. I mean it though!

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4) Go for a walk

Right. And who has time for that? You do. Just think of how much more energized you feel after having gotten some fresh air and exercise. Everything will go so much more smoothly. You can always pretend you’re getting some last minutes ingredients for some Christmas treats. Or presents…

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5) Get Tapping

If you don’t know EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) you must be very new to my blog. Either way, it’s high time you found out about it. EFT is a powerful method of helping you reset your body (and emotions) so you’ll feel calmer quickly.

It’s a bit like needle-less acupuncture: you tap certain parts of your body (mostly on your face) and a series of statements that focus on the problem at hand and where you want to be. In just minutes, you’ll feel a lot calmer — and ready to tackle whatever it was that was driving you crazy.

And if you don’t know how to do it yet — I’ve got a FREE gift for you: Yes, an easy guide to EFT. Just CLICK HERE!

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Another tip…

if you need some help with coming up with some yummy Christmas goodies, or even some easy yet economical gift ideas, or any other gift ideas, go to my Christmas Present Ideas blog and get your FREE recipe guide!

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas or other holidays, that time of year should be joyous and fun! So calm down already and enjoy it!

Happy Holidays!

Elisabeth

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The real secret to prosperity, at least if it is to arrive by way of internet marketing, is to create your own products, and to know how to promote them.

At least that’s the gospel according to Marlon Sanders, one of my all-time favorite gurus and the creator of the info product creation dashboard and the promo dashboard, along with a bunch of other dashboards.

He’s just come out with a new campaign to sell that promo dashboard, whcih I have owned for a couple of years, and which has helped me grow my online marketing expertise a LOT.

So I dug up my old review over at Ezinearticles.com and posted it on my web stuff blog and, well, it’s been so long that I reread it and there are some cool lessons in there.

Go ahead and read my Marlon Sanders Promo Dashboard Review over there…

OR

Get my nutshell lesson over here. And…

CLICK HERE for Marlon’s Video!

See the beauty of the dashboards is that they’re helping us overcome our tendencies to multi-task, and if we get stressed these days it’s because we’re so overwhelmed with all those things we have to do.

Well, promoting stuff is an overwhelming task with tons of moving parts. And especially when you’re new to it it can be totally overwhelming.

And one really good piece of advice from stress management is to focus on the moment and ignore all the rest.

Because right now, right in the moment, you’re okay. I’m okay. I’m doing something that brings me closer to my goal — or at least I would be doing someting if I weren’t fretting about what if…

And so the promo dashboard (and the other dashboards) force you to focus on one small task at a time, and while you do that, they take everything else off the table. It’s just gone.

Once you’re done, you go to the next one, and the next one…

CLICK HERE to Watch Marlon Explain it!

The same is true for the product creation dashboard.

Now Marlon adds more steps than some of my internet marketer friends who are into turbo product creation, but you can always make adjustments…

The truth is, that product creation also works better when you focus on one thing at a time. One page at a time. And get it done.

So I was surprised to discover that Marlon’s Promo Dashboard is a terrific Stress Relief tool for internet marketers.

And stress relief, of course, is one of the keys to prosperity.

Okay, so all by itself it won’t do the trick, but… without getting a handle on stress, you’re basically driving prosperity out the door. It’s the Law of Attraction, once again.

So this is how that all comes together, and ties back with the eMoney Magic, which, by the way, is available at a Cyber Monday Special price over at the Warrior Forum.

So if you haven’t gotten it, you may want to hustle on over there and grab yourself a copy before the price goes up sometime on Tuiesday…

And check out the links in the signature too — there are a few more temporary extreme bargains to be had…

And finally, to tie this back to Marlon and my review of his Stress Relief Promo Dashboard — you can catch a cool video right now and an INCREDIBLE deal (1 buck!!) to trie it out for a few days (AND get some COOL Bonuses):

CLICK HERE for Marlon’s Video!

Hey, the video even has my smiling mug shot in it! I was pretty surprised to discover that.

Imagine… you’re watching a video online and suddenly, you’re looking at yourself!

And while I love all of Marlon’s stuff, the Promo Dashboard is by far my Favorite!

Have a fantastic day and enjoy those deals…

Elisabeth
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Does your back hurt, either on occasion or a lot of the time? There are lots of possible reasons, but the most common ones have to do with stress, either general stress or putting too much stress on the back.

Now why is stress causing back pain? My chiropractor told me that the three T’s are the main causes for back pain:

Trauma, Toxins, and Thoughts!

Yup, that’s right. Thoughts. Specifically thoughts that cause you stress. So that’s a good place to start when it comes to relieving back pain.

How can you think thoughts that produce less stress?

It’s much like the stuff I’ve been writing about all along:

1) Think about what you want and avoid thoughts about what you do not want.

2) When you catch yourself thinking about things you’d rather NOT have in your life, ask yourself, so what DO I want?

3) Focus on taking deep, slow breaths

4) Go for walks in nature. Focus on enjoying the walks and your surroundings.

5) Meditate

You can also get my Stress Relief book… It’s on special, along with all my other books right now, to celebrate Halloween. You can find it here:

Products on Sale

More about saving your back:

You can also do a number of things that take care of your back. They can strengthen it, and they can take the pressure off of it, and they can minimize ongoing pressure.

One thing that puts a surprising amount of pressure on your back is sitting too much.

So get up, move around, and even lie down for a bit.

And here’s a FREE report on what to do about your back pain:

http://www.lowerbackpain-treatment.com

Ever wonder why you should bother with stress relief?

Does it make you feel like a wuss if you take action to reduce your stress?

Sure, there are people who are actively trying to make you feel that it’s a weakness to avoid stress because, after all, “everybody is stressed.”

Maybe, and maybe not. But you’re not everybody, and let other people make their own decisions.

Here are a number of reasons why YOU should do something about YOUR stress levels:

1) Stress feels bad

Yup, it makes you feel bad, and, as Abraham/Hicks say, “The most important thing is that you feel good.”

How so? Well, if you feel bad, you’ll attract more bad-feeling things. And who wants THAT?

The better you feel, the better things will be going for you.

So it’s really important to get on top of stress.

2) Stress prevents you from doing your best

You already know that, but it doesn’t hurt to provide a little reminder:

When you’re stressed, your brain shuts down. And if it doesn’t shut down completely, it’s still highly compromised.

So you won’t be able to do your best, and doing lousy work or treating your loved ones badly will come back to bite you.

3) Stress damages your health

Stress causes, in no particular order, the following problems:

* Obesity
* Inflammation
* Heart Disease
* High Blood Pressure
* Vision Problems
* Kidney Problems
* Cancer
* Diabetes
* Problems in the ‘bedroom’
* Stroke
* Heart Attack
* Fried Brain Syndrome

And that’s just for starters.

Why not simply learn some easy strategies that will help you get that stress under control WHILE it happens? Why not nip the darn thing in the bud?

You can check out my last article for a great resource (ahem, my own manual), which comes with great BONUSES if you act quickly enough:

CLICK HERE for Stress Relief & Bonuses

The bonuses are between you and me, so check the other article for details. They’ll arrive by email!

Mostly, you’ll be able to just take a quick look, pick out the best and easiest strategies, and start using them.

Here are a few of my favorites:

* Gratitude List
* Abraham Hicks techniques
* Breathing
* EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)
* Aromatherapy
* Going for a walk in the park

Plus there are lots more where these came from!

Plus, there’s a stress relief hypnosis audio I have recently added as a bonus, along with another audio that goes over some of the main points.

If nothing else, go take a moment and….

breathe…

Have a relaxing day!

Elisabeth

CLICK HERE for Stress Relief & Bonuses!

I’ve got an instant stress relief strategies update! And a prosperity and internet update too.

Instant Stress Relief Strategies is still available the usual way but now I have also set it up on a place called Rapbank, where it is available for affiliates to promote too.

And I’d like to celebrate this with a VERY special deal!

First of all, the price has dropped temporarily. AND if you take advantage of my special offer, you’ll get TWO very cool products completely FREE as a bonus! so that’s a buy one get TWO free deal!

What are the bonuses?

a) The Intentions Report (on how to use intentions to get what you want).

b) Find your life purpose coaching manual.

They are both excellent products and I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.

Check it out here:

CLICK HERE for Stress Relief

And once you got it, be sure to sign up — because your bonuses will come within 24 hours or so by EMAIL!

AND…

If you’d like to earn a bit of holiday money, you can promote either that product OR my Amazon Marketplace Strategies product and make Instant Commissions.

Well, instant for every other sale that is.

That’s how Rapbank works.

Anyway, what’s so special about Instant Stress Relief Strategies?

It’s no fluff and totally focused on helping you calm down when you’re stressed.

There are a bunch of strategies in there, so pick a few you like and experiment. Not everything will work for everybody, but I promise that everyone will find something in there that works for them.

CLICK HERE for Stress Relief

And if you want to take a peek at my Amazon product, you can find that here:

CLICK HERE for my Easy Bucks System

The Amazon book comes with bonuses too of course…

b) 100 Hypnotic Sales Tips

Want to make even more by promoting them?

Sign up here:

CLICK HERE for Affiliate Cash Info

Meanwhile, have a fantastic weekend!

Elisabeth

When you’re stressed and things look hopeless, remember there’s always a way. And in tough times, prayer can be a powerful tool for hope, renewed faith, and yes, stress relief.

Here’s how prayer works to give strength and hope in the darkest of times.

Whatever your belief system may be – if you believe in God or a Higher Power of any name, praying will help.

Here is the phone number of a prayer hotline that I highly recommend (Unity):

1-800-NOW-PRAY

It’s free, the people who will pray with you are wonderfully calming and reassuring, and they’ll even send you an encouraging letter afterwards. Meanwhile, your name will be held in prayer for 30 days after your call. You’re not alone.

Another wonderful Prayer Line is staffed by Science of Mind practitioners. It too is free, and you can call them around the clock at 1-800-421-9600.

Of course, you can also pray by yourself. In fact, that’s a very good idea.

Here are my two favorite books that have helped me learn how to pray more effectively:

Adventures in Prayer – Sharon Connors

Handle with Prayer – Alan Cohen

Both of them have their spiritual roots in Unity, which isn’t exactly a religion but more of a non-denominational spiritual movement of seekers, with strong emphasis on inclusiveness, and very compatible with The Secret and Abraham-Hicks teachings. I find it very life-affirming. No matter which religious background, if any, you come from, you will likely get some peace of mind from prayer.

In terms of how to pray: “Please help!” is always appropriate. Of course, “Please help me out by bringing that $10,000 I need to pay my Amex bill right now!” may not be the best approach, especially if you don’t believe it’s actually possible. However, “Please give me guidance on what to do at each step of the journey, and please give me the strength to handle whatever comes my way, and the faith and trust that everything will turn out for the best” may help a lot.

Even more importantly: Give thanks for the blessings already received and for those you anticipate. Pray as if you had already received them, as if you knew that the best outcome for all concerned (including you) were just around the corner and had already been provided: “Thank you for your divine guidance, and for keeping me safe.”

Feel free to pray to your guardian angel as well (provided that it fits with your faith). Or to other deities. It all depends on your beliefs. Ganesh, a Hindu deity, known as the destroyer of obstacles, for example, is very popular for obvious reasons.

Ready to let go of all that extra stress? You’re invited to download my FREE Easy Intro to EFT and get started right away. Why EFT? It’s an extremely powerful tool for stress relief!

Is Test Taking Anxiety getting you all stressed out?

You may want to read the previous couple of posts, for two reasons:

Time pressure is part of what causes test taking anxiety — since most tests are timed, and if you blank out you loose time too, which will only increase your stress, and that makes it even harder to function.

And the other part is the bit about needing to be in a better feeling place in order to get stuff done.

So you need to get past that anxiety and stress. But how?

Well…

Here are some options:

You could do some basic breathing and other stress management techniques.

Or get the free version of the above guide with some great stress tips.

Or you could try EFT — click here to get my FREE easy intro to EFT guide.

If you get that guide, you’ll also get ongoing tips on using EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) for all sorts of things, including exam anxiety, fear of public speaking, and much more.

And there’s also a fantastic program involving hypnosis that promises to calm you down and make test taking anxiety a thing of the past. I’ve checked it out and it really rocks:

Your Test Taking Anxiety Cure

Personally, I think those tools work great in combination. Hypnosis can be very effective, and the guy who has created the hypnosis program has been a professional hypnotist and therapist for a long time and has helped countless students overcome their test taking anxiety.

And chances are, it will take care of yours too. But it never hurts to have a few extra tools you can use quickly DURING the test — hypnosis might now be quite practical in that setting– just so iyou know you’re covered if the need should arise. And EFT fits the bill.

So this is the deal: Find tools that help calm you, so you can retrieve what information is in your brain.

Obviously, you’ll also need to study, or else there won’t be much for the brain to retrieve! Fortunately, the above tools will help with studying as well.

One more thing… Make sure you get enough sleep. In fact, take naps between sessions of studying, or go for walks etc. It helps make the info stick better. Really!

So do check out those tools, the free ones and also take a look at the powerful hypnosis program.

And good luck with your test!

Do you have too much to do? And far more than you have time to do it in?

Chances are, the answer is yes. And the result — Time Management Stress Big Time!

In this post, I’ll go over a variety of approaches that you might find helpful — and some of them are quite contrarian.

I’ll skip the truly traditional approaches, but will give you a resource for one that is taking it to the next level: Brian Tracy — the big guru of high performance action:

21 Great Ways to Manage Your Time and Double Your Productivity

That’s a good way to get started, and it complements some of the other things I’ll suggest. Tracy does believe in those charts and cschedules, but he lets you draw up your own. He teaches a whole philosophy around it, which, he says, should be internalized.

He strongly believes in focusing on the highest pay-off tasks, and includes positive self-talk, modeling, visualization and other such techniques.

Then, there’s my friend Jason Fladlien’s approach, which is VERY heavy on the carrot side of the carrot and stick approach, and will transform how you’ve been thinking about time management. In fact, where Tracy uses the 80/20 technique (focusing on the hightst pay-off tasks), Jason takes that principle to a whole new level.

He includes lots of principles from NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), but gives it his own twist, and manages to double, triple, and in some cases even quadruple people’s productivity, much of it by taking away resistance and ambiguity and helping them to get super motivated to tackle whatever it is that needs to get done.

When Jason put it together, he had especially internet marketers in mind as his primary audience. There’s a reason for that. That’s what he knows really well, that’s what his clients do, and that’s where there are a LOT of built-in obstacles to productivity, yet without producing you won’t get anywhere, especially not there.

And internet marketing is filled with distractions. All those enticing emails with the “next big thing”… And then, of course, there’s the “day job” that also requires attention.

That’s why his program includes a bonus called “Day Job Annihilator” that will help replace the money from the day job quickly.

Is this course only for internet marketers? Of course not. It’s great for any professional who works under a lot of pressure, especially time pressure, and who struggles with procrastination and difficulty deciding what to do first and next.

I’ve found his course very helpful — in fact, I’m IN the course. I was one of the people in the original webinar, which is also included. That’s where Jason went in and gave people some laser coaching on how to overcome their biggest time challenges. The guy is brilliant!

Click the following link to find out more about Jason’s Time Management approach.

Both those approaches have to do with increasing your productivity, and they both help.

Next time, I’ll talk about a couple of other approaches that will approach this issue from a rather different angle.

In the meantime though, don’t overdo the productivity thing. If you’re tired, you’re not going to be productive. If you’re stressed, you’re not going to be able to do good work. So it has to be a priority to take care of yourself FIRST.

Take a nap. Get help with stress management so you can tackle your deadlines and tasks with a refreshed body and mind. Trust me, you’ll be MUCH more effective.

Quick case in point — if I have to grade papers, one particular paper might take me 5 to 10 minutes of focused attention, which will allow me to read it, understand what needs to be done to improve it, and write a few comments to help the writer to upgrade it significantly.

If I’m tired, that same paper will take me half an hour OR MORE — because I end up reading and rereading it and my brain simply won’t cooperate. Should I struggle on? Absolutely not.

Getting through a stack of 10 papers will take me 5 hours or more, and the feedback will be far less useful than it would have been if I had been well-rested and could have done the job in an hour and a half, or maybe two.

So if you’re tired, go take a nap! And if you’re stressed, listen to a stress relief hypnosis CD or do some deep breathing or any number of other techniques designed to relieve that stress.

More next time

Elisabeth

Better sleep? Less stress? One depends on the other, and if you’re plagued either by insomnia or excess stress, you’re caught up in a vicious cycle, also known as a catch-22.

So what to do?

Not sleeping enough makes it harder to cope, and that will increase your stress. And being stressed can keep you from sleeping, right?

Ever spent a night fretting about something, an upcoming exam, bills, a job interview, your kids, your health? And the next day, things only got worse, and you were dog tired.

One way to break through that cycle is to break it somewhere.

By finding a way to cut down on the stress, you may well be able to regain your ability to sleep well.

And when you sleep better, you can cope with your life a lot better.

Here are a few tips:
1) Keep a notepad by your bedside.

This will help tame your overactive brain. Whatever worries you might have, just write them all down. You’re basically turning them over to your notebook (or the Universe, or God), where they will be where you left them, but probably less daunting.

And your brain actually goes to work on them once you go to sleep, so you might even wake up with a solution.

There are other techniques that will help you break through that cycle. There’s EFT, of course, and if you attended the EFT summit I wrote about recently, you’ll know all about that.

Look for my free ebook soon.

Then, there’s also the Sedona Method, a slightly different approach. Some people swear by it, and I found it quite helpful myself — and I still use it, though overall I personally prefer tapping.

You can find out more about it here (just click on the link):

Have Boundless Energy and
Sleep Soundly with the Sedona Method.

It’s easy, and you won’t need any tools really, other than the audios until you get the hang of it.

What else?

Meditation.

Yeah, right. If you’re stressed, how are you supposed to meditate?

Okay, I admit it. It’s not exactly easy, but it IS extremely helpful. And you don’t have to make it more complicated than necessary. Here’’s the easy meditation method recommended by Abraham:

Sit (or lie) comfortably, close your eyes, and take deep, slow, comfortable breaths. And just focus on thhose breaths, in and out, in and out, one after the other.

If you mind should wander, just gently bring it back to your breath. Do that for about ten minutes, and you’ll be a WHOLE lot less stressed.

It’s best to set a kitchen timer though so you won’t have to try to check if the ten minutes are up yet — or worry about going to sleep.

Unless, of course, you’re doing this at the end of the day. In that case, by all means, leave the kitchen timer turned off and just keep breathing and focusing on your breath, and before you know it, you’ll …. wake up.

Hope this helps.

For a LOT more Stress Tips, check out my Free Stress Tips Report or get my whole manual with Instant Stress Relief Strategies, which currently comes with a FREE Stress Relief Hypnosis audio!

If you already have my stress tips report, just sit tight and keep an eye on your inbox. I’ll send it to you really soon.

Everybody else — check this out:

I just expanded my FREE stress tips report and added a bunch of tips for how to reduce holiday stress. It’s now the expanded Special Holiday Edition!

And where can you get it?

Here:

Holiday Stress Tips Report

And that’s just for starters.

I’ve also added a ton of new stuff to my Christmas Present Ideas blog, and created two new Squidoo lenses on the subject too, one of them on Last Minute Gift ideas. And another one: Christmas Present Ideas. Yeah, more of them.

I guess it’s the season

After all, what to buy for whom is a great source of stress during the holiday season, so I figured I’d help you out.

And don’t forget — if you aren’t already on my email list, please click on the link above and get my Holiday Stress Tips Report It’s free!

Happy Holiday Season

Elisabeth

P.S.: A couple of years ago, I read about EggNogg’n tea (by Bigelow), but I couldn’t get my hands on a pack. But now I have. It’s great stuff! Yummm.

And Stash also has a great holiday tea with pumpkin and spice and stuff, and it’s even caffeine free!

A nice cup of tea can be very relaxing. And if you’ve found any special holiday teas you like, please share them here in the comments section .