Ten important steps to overcome your fear of public speaking

The fear of public speaking is as common to man as the sun is as common during the day and do not fear, almost everyone goes through the same process day in and day out, but just to be sure, here are some ten important steps to overcome the fear of public speaking.

Stage fright itself is a common factor affecting almost every public speaker, especially when going through the process for the first few times.
Eventually as time goes by and several speeches later, the fear and stage fright just comes to pass like the smoke in the wind.

Here are some of the most common and effective means to overcome your fear of public speaking.

Nobody is perfect, thus it is but normal for anyone to entertain a feeling of fear, so accept fear and allow it to pass, since it is very important to understand that fear will just go away as long as you understand how it affects you and how you can formulate steps to conquer it.
Focus on images and thoughts that will help you relax and develop a positive mental attitude.

You can also do this by trying to calm yourself and gain a firm foothold of any situation by using deep and gentle breathing exercises to help you gain composure.

Use positive biofeedback by telling yourself that you can overcome fear and that you can take control of the situation, using supportive and self-encouraging pep talk can help boost self –morale and esteem, making you more confident about dealing with the anxiety of the situation or your fear.

Never always ever lose track of reality, this will help you gauge how well you are adapting to any situation that you are in.

Dwell on your strengths and make it the driving force that will push you to try out anything new and to conquer your fears.

Take things one at a time, do not take on situations too seriously or you could lose focus and lose track of what helps you draw your strength towards achieving your desired goals and believe it or not, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a key factor that can help you develop that sense of reality.

Always be prepared ahead of time, since cramming is one of the contributing factors that can even help foster fear from within, although there are those who believe that cramming does carry some benefits, but in truth, the disadvantages of cramming far outweigh its advantages.

Always harbor and develop a good sense of self esteem, even if sometimes you do not feel confident about yourself. Self –esteem is the key to influencing others so make it a point to always have a high degree of self –esteem to help you overcome your fears.

When standing in front of a crowd and delivering your message, it would help diminish fear by letting yourself know that there are judges and members of a panel to scrutinize and grade you on your performance, thinking of them more as family and friends to help you achieve your dreams and overcoming your fears by counting and dwelling on your mistakes.

These are the ten important steps to overcome your fear of public speaking and as long as you know how to make good use of it, you’ll be surprised to see that your fear of public speaking may just become a thing of the past.

Helpful Tips to Better Your Memory

Through time, as you grow old, you will encounter many health problems that can be countered by leading a healthy lifestyle. This will also be beneficial in the goal to better your memory. In psychology, this is defined as one’s mental ability to encode the registered information, retain and use the helpful data whenever necessary.

You must do everything necessary to keep your brain functioning well. This way, you can avoid getting numerous disorders that are associated with the brain. As people grow old, the one aspect that usually gets affected is their memory. They are having difficult time remembering valuable information, especially at times when they need to come up with an answer. The following processes of how your brain functions get affected, especially when you just let it be and you don’t act upon the problem.

1. Encoding. When your brain receives information, it processes everything and combines pieces of what has been received with the data already stored in your system.

2. Storage. Your brain acts like the hard disk of your system where you store everything. But unlike the computer system, your brain records the information permanently. And it will stay there for as long as you are healthy and you haven’t encountered serious problems that have caused your brain to malfunction.

3. Recall. In cases wherein you have to answer questions and situations based on what has already been stored in your brain, you try to recall the data that may help you arrive at the right conclusions.

Improve Your Memory

The International Longevity Center released a report in 2001 that includes vital tips in improving your brain’s performance. The more pronounced tips include actively seeking new information through learning. This can be achieved by reading and training. You should also engage yourself in physical activities that promote blood circulation on your brain. You should also learn to keep your stress levels at a low by not thinking too much about problems. It is also recommended to get enough sleep and eat right. To help you exercise your memory to improve its performance, here are some more tips that you can opt to do.

1. Make it a habit to write down notes about the things that you want to do and whatever you want to remember. This can aid you in achieving your goal until you no longer have to resort to this activity or do it less often.

2. If you are reviewing for exams and the likes, you must get enough rest after storing too much information on your brain. You can repeat the process after you have rested and before the date of the exam to help your brain absorb more information and retain most of them.

3. You should also practice visualizing things that you need to remember. For example, you need to remember too many names at a short period of time. It will help if you will associate the faces of the people and their names on images that will make you recall them easily.

4. While some people may attest that cramming work for them, this is not healthy as you try to force and overload your brain with too many information for a short period of time. If you have to study, give yourself ample time to finish everything that you have to review. Give your brain time to rest after absorbing too many data. This will help better your memory and for you to perform well on your exams.

Overcoming your fear of public speaking helps in building an influential character

You would never know that even a timid person who succeeds in overcoming their fear of public speaking can help in building an influential character.

This is practically true in almost every aspect of the word, especially when fear is turned around to make way for courage and firmness.

Fear sometimes makes people lose focus or keep track of a good train of thought, but with proper guidance and positive mental attitude, fear can be overcome and pave the way to creating a better social personality, which is exactly the opposite of an introverted one.

People usually have the fear of speaking in front of social gatherings and events, which can be a good opportunity, in fact, to help in developing methods to overcome the fear of public speaking.

Here are some of the many ways you can exploit to help you overcome your fear of public speaking.

Lead the toast. Make the effort to stand up and say something about the event and how enjoyable you think it is, especially giving importance to the people who prepared the activity or those that are the reason for the event.

Emphasize on how much effort and time was spent by those responsible for the event on how much time and effort went into it.

If somebody may have taken the initiative of leading the toast, you could also grab the opportunity if replying to the toast, this may not be the same as what the one who led it commented on, you may focus on what you have seen to be special or noteworthy, like the reunion of long-time friends and family or a celebration of friendship and fun or whatever you think worthy enough to mention or recognize.

For social or club gatherings, you may offer to introduce the guests of honor or deliver the welcome remarks for the event, since these are opportunities you may try to make use to help you conquer your fears of going before the public.

Welcoming visitors for the gathering can be as easy as you think, since they won’t mind being asked what you may want to focus on when introducing the visitor.

For welcome remarks, you may want to take the advantage of the opportunity where you can discuss things that you could share with the group.

Another good opportunity to help you practice in overcoming your fear is asking to present an award, make every effort to study or learn why the award is being presented and how much the recipient deserves to have it.
If by chance you are the one going to receive an award, don’t miss the chance to say something, like how much the award means to you and how it would serve to push you to strive harder and better than before.

Also thank those who gave you the support and thought you deserved to have it, as well as colleagues who helped you shape the path to a better professional working and cordial relationship.

Lastly, whether you may be the one leaving for another place or a friend or colleague, take the chance of speaking before friends or colleagues, this will also give you the chance to practice even if no occasion calls for it.
By far these are some of those common ways to help you in overcoming your fear of public speaking that helps build an influential personality.

Learning to choose healthy foods

Today’s hectic and demanding lifestyle as well as the emergence of convenient stores is among the major reasons why people skip their healthy meals. After learning how to depend on fast food stores and convenience stores, it is easier for people to just grab a food that contains less nutrition compared to those foods that matter.

With all these drastic changes in the habit of eating, food preparation and food options, people have become more prone to various diseases because their bodies fail to absorb the nutrients it needs. Contrary to common conception, healthy foods need not to be expensive, rare or hard to prepare. In fact, most of these recommended foods for healthy living is cheaper, abundant, and easier to prepare compared to those that can be bought in the nearest convenient store.

Why choose healthy foods?

Most food and nutrition experts say that healthy eating is not about what people cannot eat, it is about what people could eat in order to get the optimum nutrition that their bodies need.

If you are one of those who are on their way of learning to eat healthy foods, the best valuable thing that you can do when buying inside the grocery store or super market is to pick those that are fresh, unprocessed and whole. This is very ideal especially if you plan to buy fruit and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and sprouts.

Considered as live foods, being fresh ensures that the food still contain the greatest amount of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that provides the body with optimum nutrition. Make sure that you eat fruits that are fresh, dried without sulfur dioxide or frozen without preservatives and avoid eating fruits that are canned and in heavy syrup because these have preservatives, additives, and sweeteners. Also, eat veggies that are fresh or raw, lightly steamed, baked and dried without sulfur and avoid eating veggies that are frozen with preservatives, additives, sweeteners.

Always opt for fresh sprouts and avoid veggies that are fried or overcooked. When it comes to grains, opt for whole grain products that are unprocessed, nonirradiated, non genetically modified, sugar free, no chemical additives, no preservatives and other whole grain & sprouted grain products like bread, muffins, tortillas, cereals, and pasta, crackers. Avoid products with white flour, unbleached flour, enriched flour, sweeteners, chemical additives, refined and processed grains, white rice, quick oats, instant oatmeal, and instant cereals.

When it comes to legumes, choose beans, peas, lentils, and chickpeas. Avoid using canned legumes prepared without animal fat, with chemical additives, sweeteners, pork and beans, and soybeans. Nuts and seeds such as almonds, filberts, pine nuts, cashews, raw seeds, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, raw nut butters, and tahini should be eaten raw. Avoid eating dry roasted nuts and seeds. Also, make sure that you choose animal foods such as eggs, poultry and other meat that are free range, hormone and antibiotic free as well as grass fed. In fish, opt for those that have the lowest exposure to mercury.

Aside from this, you should always consider eating organic foods over to those commercially-produced ones. Nutritionists say that organic foods are indeed the purest and healthiest foods out there because they are not yet contaminated with pesticides and have higher percentage of nutrition.

Lastly, learning to read and check the label of the food item that you are about to buy is one of the best ways to ensure that you will be eating healthy food. Checking if the item is properly labeled-especially these are pre-packaged-is your main defense and protection against possible adverse effects and unwanted ingredients or contents.

Learning how to landscape

Nowadays, learning how to landscape is one of the things that most homeowners are getting busy with. This is because aside from saving money because they don’t have to hire an artist to do it, they themselves could achieve the personal results that they want.

For those who are so much into home improvement, landscaping has become a very practical solution because there are so many options they can choose from. And, because of the availability of landscaping resources in various magazines and online tutorials, more and more people in getting interested to do it on their own.

How landscaping can improve homes

People-especially to homeowners who want improved homes-should bear in mind that landscaping if not done properly can ruin their homes permanently.

The basic thing that people who are planning to do their own landscape is that the house and the landscaping must complement with each other. They should always bear in mind that not all landscaping can look good in any home that is why they should really plan carefully before doing it to avoid wasting time, effort, and money.

As much as possible, all houses should have landscapes because these complement other features of the construction. But, due to lack of money, many homeowners cannot do anything about their homes. But now, since the emergence of “DIY” or “do-it-yourself” landscaping, many people are trying to beautify their homes using these simple knowledge.

In landscaping, harmony and balance are very important because it places everything into a very organized manner. For those you are first-timers when it comes to DIY landscaping, they should really consider, reconsider their plans, limit their choices to avoid being overwhelmed, and confused with so many options. They should also limit the extent of landscaping options to be able to come up with a successful one.

For beginners, there are actually so many aspects in do-it-yourself landscaping to consider. Some of these aspects include the budget allotted, the skills of the person who will do the job, the average climate or weather condition in your location, personal preferences in designs and tastes, and the availability of miscellaneous resources. To make the personal landscaping a success, one must ensure that the landscape has a year-round theme to ensure that it will never be outdated when seasons change. A perfect option would be to create a combination of plant-selection that contains flowering trees or shrubs with fall foliages.

Also, layering the garden’s flower beds when planting to achieve a uniform or standard look in the garden is a must. Planting beds in rows that include those filled with tall plants, those planted with the next tallest plants, and those containing the shortest plants can do layering.

Mixing the use of “annuals” to supplement “perennial” colors of flowers. In landscaping, it is best to use perennial flowers for flowerbeds because these have longer span of life. However, perennials only bloom in a specific period of time, it is best to supplement the bed with annual plants to fill up the empty space when perennial are not in bloom.

Lastly, learning to use “evergreens” for continuity will ensure the success of your very own landscaping. Although landscaping is more on trees and shrubs, this doesn’t mean that one cannot include other plants such as evergreens. This type of plant is perfect for it opens up more space, provide uniform structure, and a view of variety.

Treatments in overcoming fear of flying

Today, with modern technology and continuous advancement in research, overcoming fear of flying could be fast and easy. All one needs to do is to gather enough willpower to face his or her fear and the willingness to overcome that fear no matter what it takes.

Options for aviophobia treatment

Once the final diagnosis has been made by the psychologist, the person who has aviophobia can now start with treatments depending in the severity of the phobia. Nowadays, the most common treatment options available in overcoming fear of flying include drug therapy, natural remedies, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), relaxation techniques and airline-affiliated programs. Each of these offer different concepts and processes so it’s up to the person which one could be suitable to his or her needs.

1. The drug therapy. This is the mildest form of treatment available for people who are starting in overcoming their fear. Once diagnosis is made by the psychologist or psychiatrist, the most common drug prescription that they give include benzodiazepines and other relaxant drugs which are proven to control the symptoms of the phobia for a certain period of time. Although some can be bought over the counter, always remember to check with your health provider which drugs may help you overcome that fear while in flight. Their approval and prescription is very important because these will ensure that the problem will not get more complicated.

2. Several herbal and natural remedies. If you want to go the natural way, there are certain natural remedies that can be made or taken at home to help you control anxiety attacks during flights. These herbs include St John’s Wort, Scullcap, Passiflora incarnate, and Valerian are recommended because these are believed to help calm the person’s nerves while aboard. Because these contain properties that help people to relax, many are trying this treatment option. But since herbal or natural remedies don’t necessarily have clinical approval, it is best to test first the effects of these herbs before you finally go aboard.

3. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT. Experts say that one of the most effective methods for helping people overcoming their fear of flying is the process called “desensitization.” This is an educated approach to overcoming fear in flying because the process involves making the person face the fear “face to face”. How? The moderators introduce the patient to his or her fear and then, slowly, the idea of flying will be re-introduced. Other components of the method also include conversations on it, field visits such as the airport, and soon, you will be accompanied to take a real flight. During the sessions, the patient will be taught various relaxation methods as well as techniques so they can cope with the phobia and eventually eliminate it form their system.

4. Various relaxation techniques. Since anxiety is the main culprit for fear of flying, people who are experiencing this are advised to various techniques that would help them relax such as meditation and deep breathing as well as muscle relaxation. People who are afraid to fly are advised to practice these techniques at home so once they have mastered it, they can try using these relaxation methods when they finally able to take a flight. Learning these techniques are important because it will help the person reduce his or her anxiety, relieve the tension brought by the fear, and enable that person to take off his or her mind into untoward things and accidents.

Being a pilot may help in overcoming fear of flying

For some people who have a hard time overcoming fear of flying, there is no better way to conquer this feeling than facing it head. This very desire to defeat that fear causes some people to try a career in flying itself.

If you are one of those whose option is to face that fear, then being a pilot is the best option for you. The next question would be, how would you start choosing that flight school. In the field of learning to fly a plane, the most general and slightest significant difference among the types of schools is the minimum flight time necessary for the private diploma – 40 hours beneath Part 61, and 35 hours under Part 141.

Even though flight schools drop into two essential categories, Part 61 or Part 141, at hand is a third class that bears grave reflection by potential pilots, chiefly those setting up a specialized piloting career: generally qualified teaching institutions. Accredited schools have to meet up strict standards of answerability for practically every area of procedure and must apply to an accrediting organization documented by the U.S. Department of Education.

Collegiate aviation degree programs also play a great part in today’s education market, and you should think of earning a degree if you are setting up a professional flying profession. A plus in looking for a degree is that in numerous cases you are entitled for monetary aid and scholarships that will support you, not only in your scholastic activities, but in flight exercise as well.

Flying school options

If you are looking at aviation as a profession and you are rather youthful – age 35 or younger – this is a golden era for you. Since the late 1960s, it has never been so simple to get into the airlines, and by no means has the trail been so obviously clear and so well attended to by dozens of flight academies. Note down the expression is academy, not school. Today, the fresh class of flight school can get your $25,000 to $30,000 (monetary help is more often than not available) and nearly pledge you 1,500 hours, an airline transport pilot diploma, and a dialogue with at slightest a district airline – the entire in three years or fewer.

This is grave, hard-core flight instruction in the grand armed forces custom. Disregard about having verve outside of aviation, because these are overall engagement programs. Imagine of it as going away back to college, complete with moving away from home, textbooks, research, lessons, and friendship. This is not somewhat that will toil for a midlife predicament where you desire to swap your intermittent golf match with flying.

On the other end of the gamut, it’s also not a alternate for a university learning. Most airlines necessitate pilots to cleave to a four-year degree. While quantities of the flight instruction academies toil with locale colleges to assist students get degrees, earning a degree is not constantly part of the agenda. That is why aviation academies are particularly first-rate for those who previously have a degree and merely want profession training. Those who do not have a degree might do superior attending one of the many colleges and universities giving aviation-related degrees and flight schooling.

If you congregate the common credentials-you are able to go to the school’s site, let schooling a full-time profession for two to three years, and wish for an airline calling-the pathway is appealingly well mapped out for you. If that is not for you, you will need to consider your options in overcoming fear of flying.

Better Your Memory by Playing Card Games

Through time, there are many techniques that are being developed to help enhance one’s memory. There are various ways that you can opt to do if you want to better your memory. The first thing that you have to take note of is your lifestyle. If you want your brain to be active and retain as much vital information as it could even if you are already old, you must help keep it healthy. What can you do to help you achieve such goal? You may want to focus on improving your lifestyle.

It will be to your advantage if you will not drink too much alcoholic beverage. This can still be done but keep it at a moderate level. You must also refrain from trying prohibited drugs because these may cause damage to your brain as you age. You may not feel the bad effects of these vices at first. But eventually, you will notice how these are causing health risks as well as negative effects on how you remember things.

To help improve your memory, you must also engage in activities such as exercise to keep a good supply of oxygen on your brain. It is also favorable to get enough rest and sleep.

Understanding Memory at a Deeper Level

Memory is defined in psychology as the organism’s mental capability to absorb, keep and recall information. The study about this field started as part of philosophy. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the studies about memory are placed in the paradigms of what is known as cognitive psychology. In recent years, it has become part of cognitive neuroscience.

How the brain works is simple yet magnificent. This all starts when the brain receives information and it registers into your memory. After it has received and processed what came in, it will store the encoded information. When you need to use any of the information that has been absorbed by the brain, it will try to recall and retrieve such data to that you can utilize it on the spot.

If you will not take good care of your brain, these are the possible disorders that you may develop. Amnesia can occur as an outcome of an accident. It will vary depending on the impact of the scene and how healthy your brain is when such incident happened. Alzheimer’s disease affects not only your memory but your ability to recognize. This is usually being experienced by older people. There is also an organic brain disease such as the Korsakoff’s syndrome that gravely affects your memory.

Card Games to Help You Improve Memory

There are things that you can do to enjoy while you are exercising your brain in order to improve your memory. By engaging in activities that require your brain to react in certain ways, you are helping it to stay healthy. You may want to start learning a few card games that can help you achieve this goal.

A good sample of this is when you aim to improve your concentration. You may want to try card games like Pairs. You must be alert to retain the location of the pairs of the cards that you are holding. There are online versions of the game if you want to start learning and applying various techniques as you play it more often. While you are at it, you may also start your research about other types of card games that can help better your memory. You can choose to gather family or friends to play with you or you can also opt to play the games online.

Learning how to practice yoga

Today, people believe that yoga is all about experiencing pure ecstasy through the union of the mind, the soul, and the body. But most yoga practitioners and teachers would agree that apart from providing relaxation and peace, learning how to practice yoga is about the seemingly limitless capability of a person to be in control and unite with him or her inner self.

Many yoga practitioners believe that in one way or another, the ancient discipline makes it possible for the breath, the mind, and the senses to unite in creating balance. As defined, the word “yoga” is a Sanskrit term which means “union or joining.” It is considered as almost an ambiguous term because it encompasses a wide range of purely physical disciplines to purely spiritual.

Because of its benefits, more and more people across the globe are showing interests in learning yoga. Many are planning to learn yoga as a form of exercise while others want to use it as a way to relieve stress. Whatever your reasons behind learning yoga, it shouldn’t be as confusing as it seems because you don’t need to learn all the concepts and philosophies behind it.

Getting started with yoga

Many people practice yoga for so many reasons. Many want to explore its almost limitless possibilities as an ancient philosophy while others want to delve into its depths as a meditative practice or for pure spiritual discipline. And for some, they want to use its philosophies as an exercise for you to be fit and healthy. But, no matter what the reasons of people are, understanding the main objectives and the level of interest is a must to be able to find the right yoga program to suit the needs of a certain individual.

The first thing that you have to bear in mind before you totally indulge in practicing yoga is setting and determining your goals. You can do this by knowing first what are the possible health and fitness benefits you can get from yoga. Most yoga practitioners agree that the potential benefits of yoga may include the increase of strength and flexibility, creation of balance as well as the improvement of breathing and overall posture. On the spiritual aspect, yoga can serve as an exercise that can help you soothe your nerves, calm your mind while increasing your focal and concentration skills.

Next, undergo a general check-up. This is a sort of “SOP” before you begin practicing yoga or any type of exercise program for that matter. A check-up is important for you do discuss with your physician the advantages and disadvantages of yoga in your total health and well being. Since yoga involves physical endurance, you might also want to visit an orthopedic before you undergo a class to avoid possible injuries.

Before you start learning yoga, you must make sure that you have a good yoga instructor who can attend to your needs, you are aware of your physical and emotional limitations, and you know when is the best time suitable for you to practice yoga. It would also be best if you begin with the easy yoga poses before slowly advancing to the difficult positions and that you wear the right kind of clothes and that you have the yoga equipment you need like mats, foam blocks, and yoga pillows.

Keys to overcoming the fear of public speaking

Most people are resolved to the fact that they are never going to speak in front of a crowd, however, little do they know that the keys to overcoming the fear of public speaking is as simple as any practical solution could be.

People gain influence over others and one of the most notable feats that they are likely to possess is the ability to speak well before a group of people or before an audience.

Take note of the most famous people in history, most if not all of them, are good speakers in thei own right.

This was when people get win over by their speaking powers and verbal rhetorics, which makes these famous individuals possess the most quotable quotes and often listened to statements and opinions.

It all begins with two key points for consideration that can help not just students, but also business and other organizations as well.

First thing to help people overcome the fear of public speaking is getting to know how to prepare.

Preparation is key to understanding how things can go about, especially since it has been proven that people do get nervous with the fact that they will be speaking in public.

Not only can it make one feel comfortable during the course of the speech, but it initially helps to make one more adequately prepared with the things they have to say and do.

It is essential to also bear in mind that there is the need to choose, organize and systematize all possible materials that may be used for the speech.

Practicing and rehearsing is also a key component in preparation, that way one feels more confident in making the speech preparation a more productive and a good learning experience as well.

The more time that is spent to rehearse the speech or topic, the better, since this will provide you with not only a mastery of the subject matter, but also a more in depth discussion of it, whould there be any that may follow.

The next key is for one to take into careful consideration about presentation.

One does not have to be very intelligent and knowledgeable to be an effective speaker, however, it is important for one to overcome the fear of public speaking to become an effective one.

This is so since presentation not only requires focus, but also requires the speaker to also be alert for cues and signals that will help make the speech process a more fruitful one.

Making a mistake during the presentation process is nothing to be fearful about, nor should it be a cause for stress.

It is also important to know the key factors in making the presentation, first, know what may be expected, since this will give you an idea on how you may address the audience.

Considering the demographic and the cultural differences will help you determine how to make the presentation and how to go about it.
This may be done with a little research before preparing your material and may be valuable information that you can use to formulate your topics or discussion.

Lastly, prepare your tools and make use of necessary materials that may assist in maing the presentation, it could be gestures, graphic representations or such, but just make sure that it does not take the limelight away from you.

So take note of these helpful facts and keys to overcoming your fear of public speaking.