What do The "Seven Deadly Sins" Have to Do with Self Improvement?

As I have previously stated in a prior article in this blog, entitled “Why do we need self-improvement anyway?” self improvement generally refers to improving one’s peace of mind by eliminating stress and anxiety. The stress and anxiety can be found within our intellectual, emotional, psychological or spiritual levels of our life or in any combination thereof.

Many people turn to their religious faith for their guidance. There is a strong parallel in whatever religious teaching we [meaning you or I] have chosen to follow. All religious teachings provide us with moral codes and other ethical guidelines that are essential to live in peace and harmony within our community.

According to Wikipedia; the “Seven Deadly Sins”, a classification of “Cardinal Sins” has been used since early times by the Christian Church. The “Seven Deadly Sins” are usually defined as anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.

I think it is interesting to note that when we examine our emotional drives of apathy, grief, fear, lust, anger and pride, we find that the “Seven Deadly Sins” actually correlate with our emotional drives. So now, we can look at the “Seven Deadly Sins” in a somewhat different way; the manner they relate to the things that drive us emotionally. For instance:

 Apathy includes sloth in addition to the emotional feelings of depression, being overwhelmed, powerless, etc;
 Grief stands alone. One will continue to grieve until one can let go of the past and accept the challenges of the present moment with joy.
 Fear, which includes the emotional feelings of anxiety and worry;
 Lust including greed, gluttony and envy;
 Anger, which also includes defiance, frustration, impatience, rage, rebellion, resentment, stubbornness, etc.
 Pride, which incorporates the feelings of arrogance, dogmatism, hypocriticism, judgment, selfishness, stubbornness, etc.

Here’s some other interesting tidbits to for you to think about:

 Five of the six categories listed above are emotional drives.
 The emotional categories of lust, anger, and pride are identified as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins”
 Lust is the most significant emotion in the list of the “Seven Deadly Sins” as greed, gluttony and envy are all attributes of lust.

Therefore, it is my belief that this would imply most of our emotional attachments are considered as sins in the eyes of the Christian Church.

Thus, it should stand to reason, that religious teachings are, indeed, important guides to self-improvement and that there is a strong correlation between religion and self-improvement.

Ways to Help Children Save Money

To think of ways to help children save money can be an interesting challenge of your parenting skills. Developing ways to help your children save money provides them with priceless knowledge and insight to the value of money.

Saving money is not easy, especially within our current local, national and global
situations that are prevalent in the major industrial nations today (year of 2011).

There is some literature that chastises by laying blame on those people who were not proactive by not incorporating saving habits in the early years of their lives. While judgment of this sort is never justifiable, many people have endured great hardships during this economic downturn.

This one reason, alone, provides good reason to help children save money by teaching them the value of money.

Another benefit of finding ways to help children save money is that they not only learn the value of money but this knowledge is essential tool as they reach adulthood.

In a very real sense, the advertising media has created a jungle filled with all sorts of predator emotional animals with new names which appeal to our every appetite to enjoy "the good life" filled with the luxury of fine houses, cars, vacation houses, becoming beautiful, etc.

"What's a mother (father, parent) to do?"

Here a few ways to help you children to save money as well as creating an atmosphere of enthusiasm as their savings grow. Put on your "thinking cap" and add any other ways that you can think of to this list.

** Set an example by practicing what you are trying to teach. Discover and enjoy the free things in life. In my community, the businesses often join together and sponsor free concerts and other outdoor activities. Take advantage of them and socialize with your neighbors. Get your neighbors involved by organizing periodic block party events where everyone contributes food, tables or other dinnerware.

** Another idea would be to have a family contest to see who can save the most money in a jar within a specified period of time with a prize being awarded to the winner. This could be a special trophy that is passed from winner to winner.

** Find ways to help you children to save money by earning money doing jobs for family and/or friends. This can be jobs mowing, raking leaves, babysitting or by helping with chores in the house.

** Establish a savings account for each of your children at your financial
institution. This is an excellent way for them to learn to monitor their both their saving and spending activities in addition to the interest income that is added to their account balance.

Developing the ways to help you child save money can be a fun project involving the
participation of the members of the family and ultimately strengthening the bonds of your family in many unexpected ways.


























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Saving money is difficult in this day and age, especially with economies all over the world

failing, and especially with a lot of people scrambling to get money that they should have

saved years and years ago if only they had been more proactive. If you are regretting not

being able to save much earlier, now is not too late. First, you can start setting money

aside so that you can get more money to spend in the future. And second, you can teach your

own kids to save so that they do not end up in any financial messes from which they cannot

recover.

Saving money may not be an obligation for your kids, however, and it can therefore be

difficult for them to get any work done if they do not feel that spending and saving are

relevant to them. In fact, many kids are supported by their parents until they reach high

school or college, and their conception of the value of money, not to mention the value of

hard work, can be twisted, if not immature.

Moreover, with mass media structured the way it is, you need to contend with the social need

to spend, spend, and spend on luxury, novelty items, or to simply meet trends. How do you

bump up against this kind of mentality and save your kids from the poorhouse?

Here are a few tips that you could follow when you start thinking of how your kids should

save.

- Set a good example. It can be difficult for your kids to simply save when they see you

spending money at every chance that you get. Instead of going to the mall to get the latest

DVD player or flat screen TV, take your kids to the park on Sundays and have a nice family

lunch. Instead of going to a fancy restaurant routinely, go only on special occasions and

teach your kids to budget their money.

- Save visibly. Have a jar set out where you can drop pennies and other spare change so that

your children can see it eventually fill up. This way, they can set up their own jars too.

Have a contest and turn it into a race: see who can fill up their jars the fastest and you

can give more money to the best saver!

- Encourage your children to work over the summer. It can be hard to correlate work with

earning money, and you can start your children early with this kind of life lesson. Start

out small: give them small change for helping out with some chores, such as mowing the lawn,

raking leaves up, or cleaning the upstairs bedroom. Encourage your kids to get together with

their friends and put up a service, such as babysitting or house cleaning. Build on these

lessons until your children rely on their own resources for money and job hunting.

- Have a savings account exclusively in your children’s names, but do not hand them credit

cards! They need to have their own means to save and monitor their savings and spending, but

do not provide them with the illusion that money is easy to spend, and all that they need is

a piece of plastic.

- Have a Threshold Award. If your child reaches a certain point in his or her savings, offer

to add to a certain amount of money to his or her account as a reward.

6 Simple Tips for Adult Motivation

There is not a lot of material written about the subject of adult motivation. A review of research indexes indicates there is, unfortunately, little interest in learning about adult motivation. Yet, it is an important driving force in our day-to-day lives.

Consequence of Overlooking Adult Motivation

It is very easy to overlook adult motivation until we become discouraged which can lead to depression. It’s the old downward spiral of the apathy whirlpool that literally sucks our creative energies “down the drain.” As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Add Adult Motivation to Your Self Improvement Arsenal

Therefore, it is extremely important that we add the hidden strengths of adult motivation to our self improvement arsenal. We can, then, activate this tool when it becomes necessary for us to call upon our adult motivation arsenal when those “blue” moods come to visit us.

Each Decision IS a Goal

Whenever we decide to do anything, the result of that decision is a goal, howbeit, ever small. Motivation can be defined as the power force that keeps us on the path to achievement. True, we can give up achieving the goal; but, then, that decision transforms into a questionable action and the power of adult motivation "goes down the drain" along with the goal.

Here are some simple things you can do to enhance your awareness and strengthen your adult motivation. By incorporating these into your daily life, you will have the tools cope with those “blue” moods before they become more serious obstacles.

6 Simple Tips to Acquire and Maintain Adult Motivation

 Cultivate your sense of humor. Take time to enjoy comedy. Watching “raw” videos that people publish of the funny things their pets do. Find ways to laugh at yourself when you make a mistake. Listen for and to laughter. It is a wonderful antidote in laying the foundation to keeping your adult motivation levels in good repair.

 Observe life around you. Watch how other people resolve their life challenges. You can emulate them; or you learn what not to do if their methods do not “ring your bell.”

 Take pride in your successes and always congratulate yourself.

 Strive to do better and achieve your next desired goal with less stress.

 Be an example to other people. Walk with your head held high and with a firm gait. You can be rest assured someone is watching you, even if you are walking in the park for exercise. I know because I live next to a park that has a walking trail.

 An essential part of adult motivation is having a good moral code. By living by a good moral code, you will experience far fewer “guilt trips” and, hence, a reason to feel “blue”.

Transform these simple tips into habits and you will have a good foundation for adult motivation which will serve you very well in the days, weeks, months or years ahead.

TAKE CONTROL OF DEPRESSION

If you do not take control of depression, it quickly becomes a downward spiral, much like a whirlpool, into chronic apathy accompanied by inactivity. Much like a whirlpool, it effectively sucks your energy down the drain into despair.

As mentioned before in one my earliest blogs, depression is an aspect of apathy. Depression is commonly described as a low or negative mood and associated with an aversion to activity. It is well-known that almost every human being becomes a victim to depression at one time or more times during his/her lifetime.

CAUSES OF DEPRESSION

The primary cause of depression continues to be the subject of much debate among the experts. Whatever the cause of depression, whether it is from some external event from which we lack control or just one or more days of frustrating events, taking control of depression is absolutely essential.

DIFFERENT INTENSITIES OF DEPRESSION

There are many intensities of depression. Different people react to life events in many differing ways; and, as a result, they can and do experience different intensities of depression ranging from being demoralized to thinking of suicide.

Take heart! If you are experiencing depression, you are not alone. Depression is a common human problem and affects almost everyone one or more times during their life time.

COUNTERACTING DEPRESSION

The first step you need to take in counteracting depression is to recognize that the power to take control of depression is within you. While it is not easy, you need to admit to yourself that you, alone, allowed yourself to slide into this mood. And, now, you have the task of climbing out of this damnable abyss of depression.

 First and foremost, be aware that you are feeling sorry for yourself, discouraged, frequently exhausted or fatigued and/or helpless [just to name a few examples of depression].

 Once you comprehend your feelings and why you react the way you do to certain situations, you can then set about arranging your life so as to avoid those situations in the future. And thus, you are better prepared to handle them when you encounter similar situations in the future.

 It is important is to understand that it is possible to become alert to the intuitive alarm that warns you to take preventative steps to stay clear of infectious negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are the seeds of depression. These negative thoughts are like internal video recordings of past failures and disappointments which effectively overwhelm our mood. They lay dormant in memory just waiting for the right set of circumstances to trigger them into replay and we have the pleasure of experiencing the past pain all over again.

It has been said, dangerous self talk and replaying these internal tapes of past failures and disappointments are the most debilitating activities a human being can engage in. In truth, these thoughts only serve to reinforce a negative self image.

 It so often happens our initial perception of the situation at hand turns out to be completely inaccurate. Generally speaking nothing is ever so bad or, as good as it may at first appear. As I have mentioned before, my favorite description for this is: “Confused Imagination”. So, the next step is learning, understanding and accepting that you can take control of depression by what you allow to be accepted as fact by your brain. The axiom, “Garbage in, garbage out”, can be applied to almost every thing we do.

 Therefore, it is essential that negative self talk be immediately replaced by constructive self talk and optimistic visual imaginings. Those negative tapes and videos in the mind must be deleted and recorded over with new images of your successes and achievements. Start writing a daily log or journal, if necessary. I promise, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with your achievements.

SUMMARY

In summary of this blog article, you can conquer depression by taking that first step to control your future thoughts and activity. You will effectively take control of depression when you take control of what you allow to enter your brain. Your future is in your thoughts.

Make the decision today to take charge of your life and to live it as you want to and not as others would have you live it.

Whatever you do, do it for you!