Did you know that if you are depressed, you can help yourself just by doing something as simple as keeping a journal? Lots of people keep a journal for many different reasons. If you are depressed, I want to encourage you to journal your way out of depression.

As always, if you are depressed, you should always follow your physician’s instructions. If you have been prescribed medication for depression, do not stop taking it. Rather, think of journaling as an extra tool to help you walk out of that depression.

One of the most common symptoms of depression is extreme anxiety or a feeling of hopelessness about a situation. When you feel like you don’t have any control over a situation, you feel extreme anxiety because of it, which only feeds into your already depressive state.

Journaling is an outlet for you to express your thoughts and feelings without causing harm or damage to yourself or anyone around you. So often, a patient who is depressed will scream at others around them or lash out in anger at others, even though they don’t mean to. Journaling helps stop this.

Keeping a journal for your depression is very easy and simple to do. Don’t think that you can only write in your journal. You should use your journal in any way you see fit to help you work through what you are feeling.

The most important thing about journaling through your depression is that you put your thoughts and feelings on the paper. Whether it is through writing, creating collages, or drawing pictures. Any way you choose to do it is fine.

Do you use the power of creativity in your business? Some business owners tend to brush aside creativity as something that doesn’t offer concrete improvement in their business. But creativity can tremendously increase not only productivity but morale as well. So how then can you use creativity in your business?

One of the first things you can do, if you have employees, is to encourage and promote their creativity as much as possible. Most especially, if you see that certain employees possess greater creative abilities, do what you can to bring out this creativity in them and encourage them to use this creativity in their jobs.

Here are more ideas on how you can boost creativity in business:

• Creative ideas usually come at odd moments. Keep a notebook with you at all times to capture your ideas. Encourage your employees to do the same as well.
• Plan a weekly or monthly brainstorming session. Gather everyone together for a roundtable brainstorming session. Bouncing ideas off each other will generate even more ideas.
• Hire a creativity coach to teach you how to increase your creative thinking and fully apply it in your business. If you want to take your creativity to the next level, hiring a coach can give you even more ideas on how to use creativity in your business.|
• Have white boards installed on your office walls. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that white boards are conducive to creative thinking. The idea that you can write on the wall, map out ideas, plan new projects, etc. helps to stir creative juices.
• Don’t allow fear into the equation. The moment you allow fear to enter your mind, you squash creativity right then and there. Forget about fear of failure, fear of success, fear of anything. Allow yourself to be free to be creative at any point of the day.

Technorati Tags: creativity, creativity in business, business

QUESTION: I’m new to meditation, but I’ve heard about its powerful benefits. How long should I meditate?

ANSWER: The length of meditation varies from one person to another. It is basically at the discretion of each person. The best way to know how long you should meditate is to start practicing it and see what length of time works best for you.

For many people, a twenty-minute meditation each day is plenty enough. For others, thirty minutes to an hour works best. The key to productive meditation is finding the fine balance that works for you.

If you are new to meditation in general, you will likely find that you can only meditate for five or ten minutes at a time. The biggest reason for this is because your mind and body are likely not used to slowing down and being quiet.

Another issue many people have with meditating at first is that their mind wanders. If you are having trouble focusing and staying centered, this isn’t uncommon at all. Simply tell yourself (in your mind, not out loud), “STOP!” Make a greater effort to not allow your mind to wander.

Once you have practiced meditating for a short amount of time on a daily basis, you will slowly become more relaxed and be able to quickly segue into that quiet state of being. You will find that your mind does not roam as it did in the beginning. You will also probably find that you become calmer and relaxed throughout your meditation.

Eventually, the more you meditate, the longer the span of time will be. You may even come to learn that you enjoy meditating for 20 or 30 minutes two times per day. There really is no set time limit. It is totally up to your personal preference. The key to meditation is to allow your mind and body to relax.