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"To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him." – Shunryu Suzuki

Note: This is a post by Aaron Gaul. Aaron is a Stress Relief Trainer. He has studied in India and has a four year degree from Antioch University in spiritual psychology. You may visit his website at StressReliefTraining.com

A quiet mind is the centerpiece of any relaxation technique. And a quiet mind is developed only through skill and practice. Because, stress is automatic but relaxation is learned.

Not all stress is bad. Stress is a necessary and important element of daily life. In an instant, stress can prepare the body and mind for situations that require immediate strength and action. A little stress can improve concentration and job performance. But when stress continues throughout the day or longer, it becomes chronic stress. There is no good side to chronic stress. Chronic stress suppresses the immune system, causes rapid aging, makes the body retain excess fat, dulls thinking, increases pain, is the root cause for more than 80% of illnesses today, and generally reduces quality of life.

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Photo courtesy of Julian Beever

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." ~ Wayne Dyer

Have you ever fought about a position you had with another person and you simply couldn’t figure out why he or she just could not agree with you? It seemed so obvious and so darn right. "What is the matter with you? Can’t you see that I am right?"

In this article I want to look closely on the matter of different perspectives and how our own perspective shapes what seems right and wrong. Seeing something from a different perspective can raise your own awareness and enable you to find better solutions, especially if you have a lot of arguments with other people within your work or private life.
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Yesterday I heard this little podcast on the spiritual website elsajoy.com about a peom for Barack Obama . In the introduction he says "This guy isn’t just a politician. He is a teacher, a leader. Obama is to politics what Mozart was to music. "

An amazing statement but it rings true. He is mindful, elegant and with a big heart. You get the feeling that as a politician he not only talks about integrity but actually has it. Looking from the outside (Germany) to the approaching election one dares to say: America, Obama is the best thing that could happen to you now! The only thing you have to do is make it happen.

I actually researched some of his speeches and found the following 10 Quotes to be most inspiring and convincing, I hope you do too.
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“Imagine being asleep in your bed for years and years, having dream after dream. In these dreams you could experience a whole variety of things. You could have wonderful dreams and nightmares. When you’re in the dream, they feel so real. You’re either flying around the world and doing your absolute favorite things or running for your life with heart pounding. It all feels incredibly real!” ~Ariel Bravy

Ariel Bravy is author of his site ArielBravy.com and he writes amazing blogposts about spiritual growth. The content is not only Enlightenment or Spirituality in general, but there are also different insightful posts about creation, manifestation and the nature of reality.

After the first part in the interview-series with Evelyn Lim of AttractionMindMap, which focused on Personal Development and also the Law of Attraction, this interview is all about Spiritual Development.

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Photo courtesy of Made Underground

"King Solomon once searched for a cure against depression. He assembled his wise men together. They meditated for a long time and gave him the following advice: Make yourself a ring and have thereon engraved the words "This too shall pass". The King carried out the advice. He had the ring made and wore it constantly. Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful." (The Story of King Solomon )

This is a very personal post today. I want to share one of the darkest periods of my 34 years of life so far. It was the time when I was studying and when I suffered from a clinical depression or major depressive disorder. It was an extremely difficult and numbing time but it taught me a lot and I came out of it pretty strong.

My intent is to show what I have learned from it, how I came out of it and to inspire people who think they are in a hopeless situation right now.
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How not to communicate ;)

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." ~George Bernard Shaw

If you are working with other people (and who is not?) one of the most important skill to master is definitely communication. Even if you are working on your own, being able to communicate clearly with friends and family is very helpful.

In my personal journey I learned that there are a lot of skills that are important to succeed: focus, imagination, strategic-planning, result-orientation. However, the one single skill that has the most leverage with people is the art of communication.
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"I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness." ~Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness

The quote of Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama makes clear the obvious: everybody on earth is seeking happiness. Is there anything more important than happiness to you? What are we aiming for if we want to be successful, to be respected, to have the perfect mate, to get more money? Those "things" in themselves are not important to us. It is what we get from them. It’s the elemental need to feel good - to be happy.

The Dalai Lama talks a lot about happiness and how to achieve it. It’s always a real pleasure to hear his wisdom as well as his sharp mind speaking. In his book "The Art of Happiness" he and co-author Howard Cutler are getting to the very heart of the matter.

His Guide to Happiness is of course influenced by Buddhism. But it really is not a religious approach but rather a very practical one: We can achieve happiness by developing our mind and applying it, in other words by personal development. Read more…