10 Hours Rain and Thunder Healing Sounds for Deep Sleeping Meditation Relaxation Ambient Spa Sounds

Natural White Noise Relax ,    Enjoy !

A Monk's Secret to Sleeping Better

As with all advice, always check with your health care practitioner before embarking on any regimen, especially one that you haven't tried before. Everybody's body is different. Having said that, I would like to introduce you to the secrets I discovered about sleep while living as Buddhist monk in the backwater jungles of Thailand.

I never slept better than when I was practicing the 227 rules of a Buddhist monk. The rules are designed to create a harmonious atmosphere for a community of monks so that they can live together peacefully and practice meditation, but I quickly discovered that these rules not only enabled us to live together in accordance, but they mystically improved every aspect of my life, including my physical and mental health.

The rules included only one meal a day and a lot of walking. We would walk into the surrounding villages at daybreak, usually a two to five mile walk, and collect that day's food from the villagers. We were not allowed to store food, so we had to make our walk every day. The food consisted of mainly rice, miniature Thai bananas, leafy vegetables, and occasionally a little protein, such as dried fish, grasshoppers, chicken -- all organic.

We would eat our one meal a day in the meditation hall, which was about a half mile from my hut, so I had to walk the half mile quite a few times, night and day. This was in addition to the walk into the villages. The walking, combined with the type and quality of fresh food, and the fact that the digestive system had to work only once a day, all promoted a restful night's sleep. The decisive factor, however, was the meditation practice, which has a tendency to relax the mind and resolve any outstanding conflicts so that one can really relax peacefully at night and experience a dreamless, invigorating sleep.

Now that I am stateside again, I still sleep like a baby. My regular routine is an hour or two of brisk walking every day, lots of whole grain brown rice (the bulk of my calories), very little fruit, maybe some blueberries, apples or grapefruit, lots of vegetables, beans, and olive oil, no sugar whatsoever, no wheat, dairy products, meat, etc. (small quantities of fish, eggs or chicken can be added), adequate salt, and lots of vitamins, especially vitamin C. I meditate regularly whenever I have time and always before bedtime. Walking, meditation, and a diet close to the macrobiotic model seem to work magic.

If you are lacking in either or all of these areas -- walking, vitamins, meditation, or diet, and you are having problems sleeping well, you might consider slowly incorporating this regimen into your lifestyle. It costs nothing, and actually your food bill will reduce dramatically, unless you buy designer brown rice. (Is there such a thing)? Another side benefit is that any health problems already active or soon to become active will probably be reduced or eliminated without the need of invasive drugs.

Overall, your health and mental outlook will improve dramatically; a good night's sleep is the best insurance policy for health, and since everything mentioned is natural, there are no side effects or long-term dangers as one may experience with drugs of any kind. The three key ingredients are meditation, diet, and exercise. The reason walking works so well is because it doesn't add to your stress levels. You can do it around home, no need to spend extra money to attend classes or involve yourself with stressful, competitive workouts.

Meditation is free as well. A beginning book on meditation will suffice, or free advice is available on my Southwest Florida Insight Center website mentioned below. Since none of this should cost you additional money, your stress levels should reduce, and with meditation practice, your stress levels should reduce dramatically. One added bonus is that meditation, over time, will reduce any obsessive wants and cravings, and this will help maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Sleep well!

E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit [http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com]

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9 Hours Ocean Waves Sounds ( Video ) Sleep ~ Relaxation ~ Meditation ~ White Noise ~ Music

Everywhere in the world, people from all walks of life are using these relaxing videos to help themselves and each other. People from every nation, every religion and every language are able to use these videos in a healing, helping, and peaceful way. This is great to relax, study, improve concentration, read,meditate,sleep, to fall asleep fast, to use as a peaceful background sound, for white noise, and more. 

10 Tips to Sleep Well Tonight!

Sleeping is very important to reinstall back our energy and rebalance our body. Sometimes we are not able to sleep well or known as insomnia. I was once like that, but now I found the 10 Tips that help me to sleep well every night.

1. Go to sleep when you are sleepy, and maintain go to bed at consistent times and get up at consistent times.

The disorder sleep will cause drained, difficulties in concentrating, feeling depression or frustration, and anxiety. For adult the general guideline should sleep between 6 to 8 hours per day. You should go to bed by 10pm and not later than 12am. When you maintain regular sleep hour, you will fall asleep easier, and your body will automatic wake at the regular hour.

2. Shift your clock or watch from your side when you are in bed.

Do not put your clock or watch that you can see it while you are in bed, because it will bring your unconscious feel stress up when you are not able to sleep. You maybe counting how many hours to go before to wake up, or perhaps you may think why I couldn't sleep and the time is so late.

3. Avoid taking drinks which contains caffeine such as coffee, tea, soft drinks and energy drink at least six hours before go to bed.

Caffeine has effect to bring alertness, which allows the brain not to relax and keep you awake.

4. Instead of drinking alcohols, you should drink some milk before go to bed.

Alcohols may help you fall sleep, but it will affect your quality of sleep and you probably wake up later.

5. Sleep on a comfortable bed and pillow.

Sometime people focus on to buy expensive mattress but forget about your pillow, pillow is equally important for a good sleep. Use white or soft color bed sheets, which allow calm and relax feeling that allow a better sleeping pattern.

6. Your bedroom wall should paint with white or soft color, and keep the temperature not too cold or too warm, cause the human body temperature will down when we are sleeping. As the air conditioner too cold will make you shivering and waken, you may use socks to keep your leg warm.

7. Write your journal before you go to sleep.

This will help loosen your mind about what happen during the day, which can help you more relax and easier to get sleep.

8. Avoid eat too much before go to bed or feel hungry. Eating too much will fill-up you stomach, that will cause you uncomfortable and not allow you to sleep peacefully at night.

9. Do slight exercises to burn some calories in your body. When the body burning the calories you will get tired, thus will bring you to good sleep.

10. Last secret is to listen to a "Lullaby", it works for baby and it works for adult too. You can change an instrumental music that used for meditation/yoga, or slow rock music; this will bring you mind to relax.

I hope those tips will help you to sleep well, sleep soundly like baby.

For more secrets to sleep well, please visit [http://www.secrectsleepwell.com].

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How to Build a Personal Brand

What is brand? Often even marketing professionals don't have an answer for this simple question. Some define a brand as a name, sign, or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller to differentiate them from the competition. Others define a brand as a promise or a pledge to deliver satisfaction and quality. A brand has also been defined as a set of assets linked to a name or symbol that adds value to the end user. Confused? Indeed, the word "brand" has many definitions.

To me, the best definition of a brand is "a collection of perceptions" that is designed to influence a customer or an end-user. As such, whether you are an executive at a Fortune 500 company, the owner of a small business, an electrician or a recent college graduate, creating a strong personal brand may be the difference between success and failure, between getting that job or not getting that job.

No matter where you are in your career, with the surge of social media, you not only have the ability, but you have the need to manage your brand, both online and in real life. Remember, a brand is the emotional and psychological relationship one has with customers, employers, employees, etc. Strong brands elicit opinions, emotions, and physiological responses.

Your goal in building your strong personal brand is to develop positive perception associated with your name. Perceptions such as honest, smart, eager, inventive, forward looking, team player, expert, etc.. are all important traits that employers look for in their employees. As you build your brand, think of your strengths and weaknesses, look at the traits in which you not only excel at, but need to elaborate on to enhance your brand.

Even when developing a personal brand, logos are an important as they are a representation of the brand. Logos are the "shortcut" to the brand. Clearly logos evoke emotion, when we see the Starbucks circle, we think of freshly brewed coffee, looking at AFLAC, we think of that crazy duck, and so on. Think of a simple logo that you would like people to associate with you and your brand. Logos for personal brands should be simple, clear and understated. Most individuals choose to use either a small geometric figure, their initials or just their name in a particular font as their personal brand logo. A logo makes your card, CV and emails stand apart from the others. Remember, your personal brand is most likely your name, and perhaps a tagline, such as financial executive or marketing expert, and so on.

Given brands are not concrete, but are the thoughts, feelings, and psychological relationships between two or more parties, your brand is the foundation of all your marketing activities, determining the position and strength of your entire marketing framework. Just like a house foundation needs to be strong to hold up a building, your marketing foundation must be solid. In other words, your brand must be the truth and it must be about you.

Personal branding yields both internal and external benefits. Externally, you create an identity that resonates with employers, potential employers and customers. Your brand needs to form emotional relationships with the people you are trying to reach. This is important because often people don't buy products or hire individuals based on logic, they often act based on their emotions and perceptions.

Your personal brand should act as an internal compass, driving you in the correct direction in all your actions. Every action you take will either reinforce or weaken your personal brand. A clear personal brand will set a clear understanding of what you are about.

Your personal brand is defined by all your actions. Your personal brand is the sum of many factors such as the clothing that you wear, your body language, the way you handle yourself in business and in personal activities, your personal style i.e. grooming, hair style etc.

There are several key steps on how to successfully build your personal brand.
Step one- Research and reflection. Before you develop your brand, you must define your core values, mission and goals. You need to analyze your audience and competition and establish your uniqueness, i.e. what makes you different from the competition. A solid brand will make you standout, giving you an advantage over competition. While this may be a subtle advantage, it is indeed an advantage.

Your personal brand is defined by all your actions. It is the sum of many factors such as the clothing that you wear, your body language, the way you handle yourself in business and in personal activities, your personal style i.e. grooming, hair style etc. and the people who you associate with. Take care in this step, as it is the foundation to your brand. Remember, your personal brand is basically the way you market yourself to the world.
In sum, the first step of developing a personal brand is simply defining who you are and what message do you want to deliver.

Step two- Define your logo and tagline. Once you determine personal brand, including your unique selling proposition, then define your tagline and logo. As discussed previously, your logo should be simple and understated, preferably your initials or a geometric design. Regardless of what type of logo you use, once it is developed, use it everywhere and anywhere. Use it in all your social media profiles, use it on your letterhead, your business cards (yes, order good quality personal business cards), email signatures, any press releases, etc. Your goal is to have people recognize your logo, hence your brand and your name.

Please don't get hung up on finding and thinking about a logo, a monogram or your name in simple text may be perfect. Indeed, the simpler the better. No matter what you choose, it is important that you stay consistent. For instance, if you determine your name will be in a certain font in a certain color, make sure this is the case all your communications i.e. your letterhead for your resume and cover letter, your digital signature and so on.
As stated earlier, a logo is a shortcut to your brand. Just think of logos, such as a swoosh, an apple, and good ole Col. Sanders, and think how quickly Nike, Apple, and KFC come to mind.

Your tagline should be several words that you believe describe you, professionally. Your tagline should be a very brief title or summary. In my career, I use several taglines: global financial executive, global banking expert, an accomplished author, or cost-saving specialist depending on the audience I want to reach. Warning: It is imperative to use this approach with extreme caution, as you do not want to confuse your audience, which may dilute the power of your brand. Your personal brand statement is merely a more detailed tagline, a sentence or two describing you and how you want the public to know you.

Step three -Develop your online reputation. Create a personal website tied to your first and last name. Use your logo and branding here. If you do not have a personal website, this is a must. It is cheaper and easier than many people think. Please look to future newsletters on how to create a personal website. As sure as the sun is going to rise tomorrow, your potential customers and employers will search your name to gather information on you, your personality, your career history, education and personal life, etc. After all, we all "Google" the people that we meet or speak to over the course of the day, especially those whom we want to impress or get to know better.
Build a solid brand name with online activities that will promote your personal mission, highlight your career achievements and illustrate your goals for the future. Just as it is important to build a positive brand, is equally, if not more important to protect yourself against any negatives factors influencing your brand.

Scrub your name, clean. It never ceases to amaze me how many people ignore this very important step. Start by reviewing the various social media sites in which you participate. Remember, you are no longer that 16-year-old wanting to impress your friends, enemies, and the "love of your life". Make sure that these sites are scrubbed of anything, repeat anything, that could negatively influence your reputation. Look at postings, pictures, tweets, and any other activity that would be viewed negatively. Remember, potential customers or employers may not look favorably at that picture of you and your buddies guzzling beer out of a funnel at that frat party, wearing togas. My motto is when in doubt, hit delete. But remember, once things enter cyberspace, it really never leaves it. So going forward, do not post anything online that you do not want to see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
After that task, search your name in various search engines and look to address any negative items that you can. While I'm not suggesting you should represent yourself as PollyAnn on social media, because people won't believe that either, it is however important that you stress the positives and minimize the negatives. Most people want to hire the boy or girl next-door or someone that reminds them of themselves or someone they wish they were at your age.

Step four -Write a blog. Find something that you are interested in and write about it. It does not need to be a work of art, another War and Peace, but it should be a short and pithy posting that informs the reader about something that you know, but they may not know. This is your chance to express some personality, so that potential employers can see another side of the multidimensional you. A word of warning, play it safe. Avoid controversial subjects in your blog in order to limit the chance of offending potential employers. Unless it is important to your career, do not touch on hot subjects such as politics, religion...

Writing a blog does several things, it is a source of information for your connections, it establishes you as a knowledgeable well-rounded person, and it keeps you in the forefront of people's minds. Do not underestimate the power of a short one-page article.

In addition to the external benefits, writing a blog keeps you interested in current events, develops your writing skills, and provides a level of discipline, assuming that you committed to writing your blog several days per week (which is highly recommended). Now that you wrote your blog, post it anywhere you can. Post it on your website, your social media activity pages i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter and post it to as many blogs as you can find.

The fifth and final step discussed in this series is participation. Now that you have a brand, an outlet for your brand i.e. your website and the blog, you need to get as many people as possible to see you and your work. There are many ways of accomplishing this, one of the easiest ways is commenting on other people's blogs, most likely they will return the favor. Moreover, it is yet another way to get your name out in social media. It is important however to keep your comments short, to the point, and non-confrontational especially if you have a different point of view. While you may add additional facts to support your point of view, it is likely better not to comment on that particular post. There are always other ones.

Now that you have your brand defined, your logo and personal statement developed and an active website you have completed the first steps in creating a brand. Going forward, think of everything you do as influencing your brand.

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Personal Branding Guru, William Arruda

Personal Branding Guru, William Arruda, the founder of Reach Personal Branding delivering a keynote speech ' Personal Branding for Project Managers' in Calgary.

Positive Personal Brand - The Power of Visible Authenticity

Being authentic in the workplace is recognised as key to delivering great results especially where collaboration with others is imperative. Positive personal brand is about knowing who we are and making this accessible to others in everything we are, everything we say and everything we do.

In this article, we will explore the similarities between corporate branding and personal branding and provide practical tips to work out how we add value by being ourselves and how this can be communicated to others in a consistent way.

Brand in the marketplace

We tend to think of brand in connection with the marketplace. What are the big brands we immediately think of? Perhaps its MacDonalds, Coca Cola, Rolls Royce, Virgin. These organisations have spent a great deal of time and money working out who they are, what they stand for, what they want to be famous for and how best to portray that in the marketplace.

Brand magnetism

When organisations get it right, their brand becomes compelling. We may sense in them some personal alignment with our own situation and may feel drawn to the brand to boost our own sense of self. In a similar way, notice how "brands of a feather hang out together". Do you recognise any of the following connections: MacDonalds and Pepsi and Disney; Rolls Royce and Mayfair Hotels; Carlsberg and football; Cobra beer and the Raj Put restaurant; Harry Ramsdens, Yorkshire Tea and Bettys; Mzuzu Coffee and Lake Malawi?

Richard Richardson and John Barnes touch on the power of brand magnetism (although they don't call it that) in their book Marketing Judo (November 2002). They show how a small brand can gain market credibility by being associated with bigger brands or even occasions. In the UK, the Harry Ramsdens fish and chips chain launched their Blackpool restaurant on the back of the Labour Party Conference and got many times more press coverage as a result. Modern train companies in the UK entice their customers with the aroma of their favourite coffee, flaunt the brand and sometimes even replicate the feel of the coffee bar in their buffet car.

Back to you and me

What has all this got to do with us? Well the truth is, "Everything!"

Who or what we associate with and how we look, act and communicate is all part of our personal brand. In 2008, I spoke on the power of a Positive Personal Brand at the National Internal Auditors Conference in the UK. Imagine being a manager in a bank and the auditor turns up dressed like a farmer, talking like a stand-up comic, carrying a tatty haversack and riding a Harley. OK, some of us would be pleasantly surprised and well-entertained. But I suspect at least a handful of clients would be suspicious to say the least.

So who are we?

We are unique and complex creatures set in the context of our world with a history of experiences and a myriad of personal characteristics and attributes. We have values, beliefs, commitments, talents, passions and ambitions. The more we understand what these are about, the more we will feel drawn to a better future for ourselves and those around us. To put it another way, it is from this understanding that we derive our sense of purpose.

As we take stock of who we are we can also begin to question whether we are accurately reflecting this in a tangible, positive and visible way. In other words we would be wise to be conscious about we how communicate through behaviours, actions, words, possessions and image. How we are perceived by others will determine the impact we have on them, how they respond and therefore our capacity to add value. That's the power of a positive personal brand.

So, I guess that's enough background. Let's explore.

Values

A value is something we feel strongly about, something that is important to us. Businesses use corporate values in order to signpost the behaviours that will be most helpful in delivering their objectives.

What values are important to you?

Understanding our values is a key part of understanding who we are. However, we need to remember that the power of a positive personal brand is about making who we are visible to others. One of the ways to translate values (which are essentially invisible to others) is to make them visible. Values become visible when they are lived out in the form of behaviours. So let's build on that.

Behaviours
If behaviours are the visible manifestation of our values, we should take stock again.

For each of the values you listed above, begin to identify a handful of behaviours to describe what others would see you doing when you are putting the value into practice.

Knowing the behaviours we will demonstrate to others is the first practical step we can take to developing a visible and positive personal brand. Let's do a bit more stocktaking on the invisible.

Beliefs
Whether we formally take stock or not, we also all carry a set of personal beliefs about the way the world or universe works. These can be simple personal rules or sayings we buy into or something we find particularly profound about our faith or culture.

Values and beliefs are closely linked phenomena. In fact we could say they are related. In getting our heads around the difference between values and beliefs we could consider values as the aspects of life that we hold dear and precious. For me, words like service and adventure fall into this category and are two personal values I hold particularly dear. I also know what these words (as labels) mean to me and the way they play out in what I do (descriptions of behaviours). Beliefs are different. These are the big rules that we consider to be profound or important about how the world operates.

I had a conversation with my son recently regarding his work as a salesman. He stated that one of his "big beliefs" is "what goes around comes around". It is very clear that this profoundly affects what he does. For me I have a set of beliefs that describe where I think we all come from, what our lives are about and what happens when we're through. They are very personal and spiritual and the more I understand them, the more they affect what I do with my life.

Take this opportunity to make a note of your key beliefs.

Our beliefs will shine through in the way we live our lives. Like values they may manifest as behaviours. They are likely to determine how we respond to situations verbally or physically. They may even be reflected in our possessions or dress sense. We may choose to keep the details of our beliefs invisible or subtle: this is a matter of personal choice. And in order to choose wisely it helps to think about it.

How do your beliefs become visible to others?

Commitments
Often neglected in the "equation of ambition" are our commitments. Everyone has them and the key here is honesty and thought. There is no point taking on challenges or responsibilities, however well-intentioned, in one aspect of our life if they conflict with our commitments in another aspect. If we fail to take our commitments into account in our lives we are likely to make unwise choices, especially regarding career and work.

For example, I feel a strong commitment to my family and whilst I have a love of travel and a desire to serve in places like Africa which are a long way from home, I have to balance these desires with my commitment to my wife, five children and others in my family. I am also committed to supporting the Open Arms Infant Home in Malawi and to my business in the UK. Lots of things to balance and I actually have fun in the process.

Name your top commitments and describe how you live these out

Talents
My top personal passion is talent. Clearly it isn't our only defining attribute and our brand is more than just how we show our talent. But talent is uniquely important in the world of work. It is through the best use of our talent that we add the most value in the work we do. That is why I have dedicated my life to the topic I call "talent liberation". I have summed up the talent liberation philosophy in the following statement (which for me is also a key belief).

Organisations reach prime performance when they recognise, value, develop and use the unique talents of all their people in the delivery of their objectives..

For now let's briefly consider talents in the context of positive personal brand. Like most of the attributes we are taking stock of, we can't see talent if it isn't used. And we won't be using it well unless we recognise, value and develop it.

Let's begin a talent liberation journey with the following questions:

What are your top talents? (recognise)

How do your talents add value? (value)

For example, does your leadership translate into team productivity; does your relationship building grow sales; or your craftsmanship produce beautiful objects that people will buy?

What are you doing to develop your talents further? (develop)

How could you use your talents more wisely - to add greater value to others, your employer or to you and your family? (use)

In terms of branding, how much of your talent is visible to others or reflected in what they might see or hear?

Passions
Even though our passions are essentially invisible, if we are consciously in touch with them we can provide very clear signposts to others. They will hear our enthusiasm, see the books we read, note the meetings we attend. The more in touch we are with our passions and how they become manifest in our lives the more people will understand what we're about and work with us to make "the right things" happen.

What are you passionate about?

And how does it show?

Ambitions
Not everyone would describe themselves as "ambitious". The word conjures up thoughts of goals, targets and plans. However, as we come to understand who we are and the needs of those around us, it is natural that we will feel drawn to make things happen for ourselves and others. The way we define this will depend largely on our values, beliefs and personal preferences.

Again, our ambitions are invisible but the things we do and say and the way we look will all provide clues. And these clues will affect the responses of others and consequently our ability to add value.

How would you articulate your ambitions?

Would they be goals, targets, ambitions, intentions, or a vision?

Under your chosen label, make a note of the things you want to accomplish.

How would others know what your ambitions are?

Putting it all together

We've really only just begun. In the exercises above, we've explored our values, beliefs, commitments, talents, passions and ambitions. We've touched on ways we might make these visible to others. I hope this journey has proved useful and as a final stock-take, I encourage you to consider the following:

Reflecting on your answers to the questions posed in this paper, what else can you do to make who you are visible and meaningful to others?

Consider the following:

Your language

Your behaviours

Your artefacts (possessions and items you place around you)

Your image

What actions do you need to take in the coming week?

Developing a positive personal brand may seem a bit like blowing our own trumpet and that's not something most of us feel naturally inclined to do. However, by taking action to make who we really are clearer to those around us, we are simply being straight forward and authentic. We are presenting our true selves in a manner that allows others to easily understand what we have to offer and to tap into that in an efficient way.

Clive Wilson is passionate about human talent, authenticity and consciousness. From his home in Harrogate on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England, he reflects, writes, creates and speaks on these subjects anywhere in the world. He invites those who can relate to his material to join him at the Sacred Space community on http://sacred-space.ning.com/ where the vision is one of people across the world meeting in nature to share deep wisdom in friendship and peace.

Picture is courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Seth Godin on Personal Branding

The business gadfly Seth Godin talks about connecting with customers for 'Behind the Brand' with Bryan Elliott.