Goals – Supercharge Your Goal Setting By Operating at the Right Brain Wave State

Your brain operates at different levels throughout the day.  Brain waves are electrical waves that can be measured.  There are four distinct brain wave patterns – Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta.  You can operate in a reasonably wide range within each of these levels.  The Beta level is the level you recognize the most – it is your normal awake cycle.  You see and communicate in the Beta level.  If you are debating someone, you are operating at a higher level in the Beta state. If you are just listening to a television show, you are operating in a lower Beta state.  When you are talking to someone, you are operating in the middle of your Beta state.  In the Beta state, your conscious mind is actively engaged in what you are doing.

Alpha State

The next most active brain wave is the Alpha state.  You pass into and out of the Alpha stage several times a day.  When you are not engaged actively in work, talk, reading, viewing, etc, you are in the Alpha state.  When you relax after completing a task, you typically fall into the Alpha state.  When you consciously control your breathing and begin to meditate, you are in the Alpha state.  The Alpha state opens your subconscious mind to instant access.

Theta State

Theta state is the next level of brain wave activity.  People daydreaming are in the Theta state.  You are in the Theta state when you are on ‘auto–pilot‘ driving you car on the freeway – you probably can’t remember passing a particular landmark that you see every day.  It works with freeway driving since the scenery doesn’t change very much.  You would not typically expect to transition into the Theta state when driving on a back country road where the scenery changes often.  The Theta state is an excellent opportunity to let your subconscious mind determine solutions to your problems.

I was always amazed at how many problems I was able to solve when I drove, but I never realized it at the time.  Over time I learned that my best ideas came from driving, but I was never cognizant of the freeway versus residential driving until lately.  I use extended freeway driving for thinking and learning.  I pose various questions to my subconscious mind and allow it to provide solutions.  I pose a problem to my subconscious mind in the form of a ‘how’ to or ‘what’ question and let it offer suggestions.  For example, “How can I focus better on the things I need to accomplish to meet my immediate goals?”  Or, “What do I need to do today or tomorrow to begin making progress on my goal?”  Additionally, I use this same time for learning by listening to self-improvement CDs.

Theta state can be achieved when running long distances or any other time that your mind is totally relaxed – in the sauna, during a massage, taking a nap, etc.  The Theta state is your most positive mental state because your thought process is without any guilt or censorship attached to it.

Delta State

Your brain waves are the slowest when you are in deep sleep – Delta state.  At the end of a tough day you are tired and tense.  As you relax you enter the low Beta state.  In the low Beta state your subconscious mind is open for programming – continued reinforcement of what you already know, or new programming.  Watching television, reading a book or surfing the Internet prior to going to sleep floods your highly susceptible subconscious mind with thoughts, issues, comments, concerns, problems, etc.  What you focus on you become!  If the majority of things you think about before going to sleep are negative, then you will maintain or reinforce negativity in your life.  Most of the negativity in your environment come from the television – that’s a clue – turn it off.

When you close your eyes as you prepare to go to sleep, you begin your transition from a low Beta state back briefly to the Alpha state and then quickly through the Beta state again and then into the Theta state.  This is an excellent time to imagine or visualize your goals.  It is an excellent time to identify the biggest problem you have that is holding you back from achieving your dreams, and concentrate on it with a ‘how’ or ‘what’ question.  Don’t solve it consciously.  Let your subconscious mind reflect on it as you sleep.  You may or may not wake up with solutions, but you are getting solutions to your problems running around in your brain.  Shortly you will get the best answer your subconscious mind can come up with – and, you will have support of your subconscious mind to help you solve that problem since your subconscious mind actually determined the solution to your problem.

Delta state is typically achieved in cycles of 90 minutes.  You are in deep sleep.  It is not uncommon to transition back and forth between the Delta state and Theta state as you are sleeping.  The last thing I read every night is a chapter or two on personal development or self-improvement.  As I’m lying still with my eyes closed I tell myself that I sleep (present tense) deeply and always awaken relaxed and refreshed.  I go through a quick routine of affirmations and visualizations for reinforcement.  I also think about the one or two things I must get done tomorrow, but I think about them in the context that I am enjoying the fact that I have finished those actions.  Again, your subconscious mind only understands present tense, positive and personal statements.  Statements incorporating ‘will’ and ‘not’ are not processed by your subconscious mind.

Summary

In summary, you can use your brain wave patterns to supercharge goal achievement.  You need to spend your time focusing on your goals in the Alpha, Beta and Theta states to optimize your achievement.  The ‘snooze’ minutes might be your most productive part of your day if you plan to use that time to focus on solving the problems that are stopping you from achieving your dreams.  Let a nine-minute dream work for your.  Be productive while you snooze.

Choices have consequences.  Your Prosperity Professor, Red O’Laughlin

Health – Laugh Out Loud and Lose Inches

Two out of every three adults are over weight – that is no laughing matter.  However, what is a laughing matter is that laughter can help your lose weight.  Ridiculous you say!  Did you hear the one about…?  Really, laughter has been shown to be a very effective weight loss tool.  You won’t lose tons of weight overnight, but it will help with weight loss and improve other aspects of your overall health.

There is a new branch of psychology called ‘laughter therapy.’  Some hospitals have incorporated this therapy for pain relief and depression.  You might have seen the movie, Patch Adams.  Robin Williams played a real life physician who was also a clown.  Dr. Patch Adams found significant improvement in his patients when laughter therapy was used.  Laughtercising is a new exercise craze that gets you laughing when you don’t feel like it.  Laughter has been shown to stop cravings – and those between meal snacks.

Laughter has been used for over a thousand years to improve your health.  Proverbs 17:22 states that a cheerful heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit makes one sick.  Martin Luther used humor to counsel people with depression.  Immanuel Kant, an 18th century German philosopher used laughter to restore balance and equilibrium.  Clowns were brought into hospitals in the 1930’s to cheer up kids with polio.

There are a few famous quotes on laughter.  David Nathan said, “Laughter is part of the human survival kid.”  Joel Goodman said, “Seven days without laughter make one weak.”  E. E. Cummings said, “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”  My favorite is from Milton Berle, who said, “Laughter is an instant vacation.”

A lot of people eat because of stress.  Emotionally, you feel relief or happiness from eating.  It’s the first level of happiness – physical senses.  You eat, you feel better; therefore, you stress seems to be lessened.  It takes a little more than a two-second laugh though.  Laugh out loud – a nice hearty laugh for at least 30 seconds or longer.  Do this ten or more times a day and you will feel happier and notice that you no longer rely on that extra piece of chocolate cake.  You also notice that you have more energy.  You develop a better sense of well being.

Most people cannot laugh for 30 seconds ten or more times a day.  We could when we were kids, but something in our psyches has changed over the years and we just don’t let go like we used to.  We take everything more seriously today.  It takes time and you have to work hard at laughing out loud.  Extended laughter actually requires a great deal of physical exercise and muscular control.

Think of a belly laugh as internal jogging.  It works on the same principles.  At least fifteen facial muscles and dozens of other muscles are involved when you laugh.  The louder you laugh the more intensity you exercise your muscles.  You will notice your pulse and respiration increasing which results in more oxygen entering your bloodstream.  Can you imagine that your doctor might prescribe a regimen of  laughing out loud for fifteen minutes a day for weight loss – it might be here before you know it?

There are multiples causes for you being over weight.  It is rare when one factor alone is responsible.  Diets and exercising can be supplemented with a laughing regimen – and it doesn’t really cost you anything but your time – and you feel better for doing it.  Laughter is not aerobics.  Laughter is mood enhancing and strengthens your emotional base.

In the past forty years researchers have found that laughter increases blood flow, increases your immunity, decreases stress levels and calms your nerves, releases endorphins, lowers your blood sugar, increases your energy, increases your feeling of well being, increases your HDL cholesterol, and relaxes you for better sleep.  Laughter improves the emotional and physical quality of your life.  Some will tell you that laughter increases your joie de vivre – the joy of living.  Laughter actually makes you more attractive.  Happy people appeal to others.  A very interesting aspect of laughter is that it can reduce pain.

Look at life with laughter in mind.  Don’t be so serious all the time.  Be serious when you have to, but keep in mind that everything in life is not meant to be viewed as serious.  Keep smiling – it’s a beginning to a laugh.  Choices have consequences.  Choose to smile and laugh as often as you can.  You will feel better, look better and lose a few pounds.

Choices have consequences.  Your Prosperity Professor, Red O’Laughlin

Subconscious Mind – Maximize Learning While You Are Sleeping

One great way to learn something new is when you brain is in a relaxed, but aware state – the alpha state.  The normal state of your brain during waking hours is the beta state.  Beta brainwaves oscillate between 13 and 25 cycles per second.  In the relaxed alpha state, your alpha brainwaves fluctuate between 8 and 12 cycles per second.

During the day, you will slip in and out of the alpha state many times.  Did you ever wonder what happened when you were driving and all of a sudden realized that you don’t remember passing something you see all the time?  Have you ever been looking at your computer screen and mentally dozen off for a few seconds?  These are occasions when your brain goes into a relaxed state.  You are still aware of what is going on, but not acutely aware.

Another time you enter your alpha state is just before falling asleep – and, also just before awakening in the morning.  Researchers have found that we learn most effectively when we are in the alpha state.  It doesn’t sound right, but your beta state actually puts up barriers to learn.  In the alpha state you have no barriers to block your learning process.

How can you take advantage of learning using your alpha state?  There are many methods to purposely put you into the alpha state.  Here are a few of the easier methods:  meditation, yoga, relaxed breathing, and in conjunction with your sleeping routine.  Meditation includes a number of ways of arriving at a calm state of mind.  Select a quiet location, get comfortable, and focus your attention on an object, an image, or a mantra.

Yoga offers several positions that allow entry easily into the alpha state:  full lotus posture, half lotus pose, Burmese pose and the Egyptian pose.  Each can easily be found on the Internet.  Relaxed breathing involves a slow, even-paced breathing.  Expand your lungs fully and slowly release your breath.  As you are doing this, relax your neck and shoulders and allow the increased oxygen intake to relax and soothe you.

As you fall asleep you will naturally transition from beta to alpha and then into a deeper sleep.  During the alpha phase you are still aware of your surroundings, but you feel comfortable, relaxed, calm, tranquil and even serene.  Upon awakening, before getting out of bed, relax and focus on an object in your room, or just keep your eyes closed and become aware of your awakening.  Now recall what your subconscious was working on while you were asleep.

Once you are in the alpha state, you can take advantage of this super learning opportunity.  Preplan your learning event.  This can be with notes, thoughts, images, music, a learning CD, etc.  Whatever medium you choose to use, have it queued up and ready to go.  If you decided to take a nap to relax and learn, then while you are in the near-sleep to sleep mode, you can listen to a learning CD.  If you are relaxed from a deep-breathing exercise, you can go over you game plan for a project you are working on – or your goals in life.

Let me suggest some methods to maximize your subconscious mind to help you learn, to solve your problems, or to help your work on a problem.  Before going to sleep, read several pages – or even a chapter – of whatever topic you are trying to learn.  As you drift off to sleep, refresh your mind with the key points of what you just read.  This can be done with a CD or DVD instead of a book.  Let your brain flow with the terms, points, issues, complexities, tips, etc. that were given to you in the book, CD or DVD.

Plan your sleep routine to include a review of your goals just before going to sleep.  Read them out loud (if possible, but certainly read them to yourself).  As you drift off, think about one goal, the most important one – or, the most troublesome – or, the one you procrastinate about all the time.  Let your subconscious think of what you have done that didn’t work and tell your subconscious – yes, actually talk mentally to your subconscious, and tell it to find a solution.  Tell it that you expect a solution when you awake.  Let the onus be on your subconscious while you are asleep to figure out a better way to accomplish what you want.

An improvement to the last suggestion is to read aloud onto a CD, tape or into your iPod, the problem, goal or learning objective that you want to tackle.  This has added benefit because your subconscious brain hears you tell it that this is important and it recognizes your voice – as if you were talking directly to your brain (which you are).  Since you are in the alpha state, your ‘relaxed’ brain is not blocked by obstructions, obstacles and any other hindrance that your ‘awake’ brain would pose.  The neat part about using an iPod or CD is that you can let it run while you are actually asleep.  Your brain continues to learn while you are asleep.

Tell your subconscious brain before any learning experience that this material you want to learn – or task your want to accomplish – is critically important to you.  Tell it that you don’t care if you didn’t do it before, it is really important now.  Give your subconscious brain a deadline – when you awaken, by the time you get to work, after you get finished exercising.  Let it know that it has to respond by a certain time.

This may sound unusual, but I find that I have to keep a note pad near me because I awaken and have a really good thought, or possible solution, and then as I go through the day, I forgot what I learned.  So, I write it down as soon as I am fully conscious, before I have had a chance to loose that thought.  I can usually recapture the thought by another round of alpha learning, but I lost some time that I could have been more productive.

Choices have consequences.  Your Prosperity Professor, Red O’Laughlin

Motivation – Are You Burned Out? What Can You Do?

Psychologically, ‘burnout’ is emotional exhaustion with a severely diminished interest in activities which used to entice or captivate you.  Most of the time ‘burnout’ is work related.  Nonetheless, burnout can be personal, resulting from health, personal relationships, etc.  Companies desire healthy productive workers and want to prevent burnout from happening in their workplaces.  We, as individuals, should have the same objectives – a healthy and productive life.

What are some of the symptoms of burnout?  How can you tell you might be ‘running on empty’?  You perceive every day as a bad day.  The boss doesn’t like you.  Your peers aren’t interested in you.  You do not feel emotionally connected to what you are doing.  You believe you are unappreciated in all aspects of your life – work, family, and friends.  You suspect that there is an obvious detachment between your own personal values and what is expected of you.  All your goals appear as if they are unrealistic or unreasonable.  There is no fulfillment in what you do.  You have no happiness or satisfaction in what you are doing.  You suffer from exhaustion regularly.

Management, coworkers, family members, friends can see distinct phases people go through with burnout.  Some of the more obvious phases are:  an obsession to prove yourself, personal conflict with no obvious reason, depression, degraded behavioral interfaces with others, bouts of working longer hours and a sense of working harder than needed, withdrawal, substance abuse, denial, conflicts, mental collapse, etc.

Not everyone experiencing burnout will have every one of the symptoms listed above, but they will have several.  Burnout is not the same as depression.  Depression is usually diagnosed when a personal has five or more of the following symptoms for a period of at least two weeks:  feeling sad, hopeless, worthless, pessimistic, eating and sleeping disorders, agitated, irritable, difficulty concentrating, self-hate, inappropriate guilt, weight gain or loss, thoughts of death or suicide.  Depressed people tend to be evaluated as angry and discouraged.  Burnout is usually seen as hopelessness and helplessness.

So, how can burnout happen?  It usually starts when you become overloaded and cannot handle the stress.  Most of us have too many meetings, too little time, too little recognition for what we really do, but we handle it.  When distractions become crippling to your emotional base, you begin to drift into burnout.  How many times have you told someone that you were running on empty?  But, a night or two of good sleep and you are back in there fighting again.

Burnout fundamentally results from a lack of balance in one’s life – a lack of equilibrium and stability.  Just like when you lose your balance riding a bicycle, you fall over.  Most of us can get back up again and keep going.  In burnout, we find it extremely difficult to get back up.  Larger companies have employee assistance programs in place to assist with stress and work related anxieties.  They provide counseling, training and other services to help employees get through that phases of whatever problems they are going through.

Individually, we have access to these kinds of stress management programs and counselors, but we typically don’t see a need for them.  And that is the biggest problem when you are depressed or experiencing burnout – you can’t see what is wrong.  You can feel it, but you can’t see it.  In order to cope and recover, you need to identify what is causing the stress in your life, rebalance your life, realign your personal goals and values, reassess the criticality of your metrics in life – how you measure your work success and failure.

After you realize that you are approaching burnout, or in the middle of burnout, you should consider a few options.  Stop and slow down – smell the roses, so to speak.  Use some vacation or sick time to cut down on the work stressors.  Talk to someone you trust – minister, priest, family member, mentor, former boss, etc.  Reset the boundaries for your work life and your family life – how many hours are you spending in each – and, what kinds of family activities should you be doing.  Include an extra couple of hours of sleep every night – good quality sleep, not sleep imposed by drugs, meds or alcohol.  Set a daily routine that is realistic and controllable.

In summary, recognize that you may be approaching burnout and do something before your get mired in emotional turmoil.  Start reversing the damage done by stress.  Seek counsel and support from those you trust.  Work on those activities that build you immune system, improve your physical stamina, enhance emotional health and balance your life.

Choices have consequences. Your Prosperity Professor, Red O’Laughlin