Archive for January, 2010

The Many Benefits of Fish Oil

It’s no secret that the Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils have numerous health benefits, but do you know exactly what those benefits are? Some of us may recall being fed cod liver oil as a child, because even many years ago people were aware of the benefits of fish oil. In the old days, cod liver oil was used to prevent rickets, which was a common health concern, especially in children.

Cod is not the only fish that provides a rich source of this valuable oil. Tuna, salmon, herring, sardines and mackerel also contain oils that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. Countries like Japan that have a diet consisting mainly of fish, have lower rates of heart disease, cancer and other ailments such as arthritis and infections. This is probably due to the high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids that are being consumed.

In addition to preventing rickets, adding a fish oil supplement to your diet can benefit you in other ways. It controls cholesterol levels, prevents heart disease and helps the body fight or even prevent some types of cancer. The fatty acids contained in fish oil are also essential for proper brain function. Most people find that taking a fish oil supplement improves cognitive function, enabling them to think more clearly. The effects of fish oil on the brain also include the prevention of depression as well as ADD/ADHD and protection from some of the damage caused by Alzheimer’s.

Important Steps on How to Overcome Shyness

Important Steps on How to Overcome Shyness

It is never too late to find ways on how to overcome shyness. If you are in this position and you think that you badly need help, you must act on it while the urge is strong and you are truly convinced that this is the right way to go. This way, you will be more focused about what you are willing to do to achieve your goal. You must understand that this can be easy but this can also be very hard. It actually depends on how shy you are. If you are painfully shy, you must allot longer period of time to be able to accomplish your goal. You must not be hard on yourself and expect so many changes to happen overnight. This is a process and the first thing that you need to do at this point is research.

Where do you start looking for tips about the matter? You must first understand the roots of this attitude. You can read about the matter on printed books and try to gather as much scientific data about the matter that will open your mind to what led you to have this kind of disposition. You can also look at the internet for this kind of data. If you want facts and figures that are easy to understand, you must search for other people’s experiences regarding this attitude. You will find such entries on personally blogs or even public forums where you can meet people who are still struggling with the attitude and those who have succeeded from overcoming such.

You can always seek the help of professionals to make matters easier on your part. But if you don’t have the money or you think that you can do this on your own, you may want to try the following tasks.

1. Sit down and think about the circumstances. Get ready with a pad and a pen to gather your thoughts. This way, you will be sure that you won’t forget anything and you will be able to address these factors when you are ready to do so. You can do this by drawing a simple graph. The middle part will be you with the attitude problem. You will try to connect your images to the reasons why you think you have developed such attitude. You can extend your thoughts by looking for certain connections what caused the main reasons of your problem to occur. After you have spent time on this task, you will have a better view as to what really caused the problem and so you can focus your thoughts as to how you can counter these.

2. You must also practice ways to enhance your social skills. This doesn’t mean that you would suddenly hit the party scenes and suddenly becomes the center of attraction. You do not have to take such drastic step because you can do this slowly and in accordance to your capabilities. You can start by simply greeting the people you see that you used to ignore because you are to shy to be the first one to even say hi.

Through these simple steps on how to overcome shyness, you are on your way towards growth and success on the goal that you have set for yourself.

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Is Shyness Inborn?

Is Shyness Inborn?

Is shyness hereditary? Is shyness in our genes?

The simple answer is: shyness is not inborn. We do not inherit it from our ancestors or from our parents.

Scientists argue that people are not born shy. This is because shyness has three major features: namely, excessive self-consciousness, excessive negative self-evaluation, and excessive negative self-preoccupation.

These three characteristic features of shyness all have the major component of a sense of selfhood. And based on scientific research, a sense of self in a young person (a baby, if you will) does not develop until approximately 18 months of age.

Since an individual is not born with a sense of self ? but developed only later ? that individual cannot be born shy.

Sense of self

In trying to learn more of the human psyche, some of the world? greatest thinkers in the past (including Charles Darwin) first undertook the search for an individual?s sense of self.

It was Darwin who first proposed that the self?s beginnings is when a child is able to recognize himself or herself in the mirror. Later researches showed the initial signs of the sense of self manifest around six months of age, becoming refined in about over a year.

At around the age of six months, children placed in front of a mirror tend to reach out and touch their image as if it is another child.

The logical question follows: how do we know if the child really recognizes itself or is just reaching out to the mirror image perceived to be someone else?

The scientists then applied a touch of red rouge on the noses of children and placed them in front of mirrors. Eventually, at age 15 to18 months, the children would touch their own noses and not the image in the mirror.

The conclusion would seem to point that children 15 to 18 months of age have already some sense of what their faces should look like and are curious about any variations of it (the red rouge on the nose seen in the mirror).

Inhibited temperament

While there is no evidence of people being born shy, there is evidence that 15 to 20%PRCTG% of babies are born what scientists call as an ?inhibited temperament.?

Generally, temperament is a biological characteristic that people are born with that serves to influence their behavior in their first few months. However, inhibited temperament demonstrates excessive physiological and behavioral reactions to surrounding stimulants.

A baby with an inhibited temperament kicks its legs vigorously, has a higher heart rate, and cries longer and louder when exposed to unpleasant noises like a popping balloon, for instance. Babies not born with inhibited temperament do not exhibit such reactions.

Another example is that two-year-old inhibited children tend to hide behind their parent?s legs upon seeing a stranger. At seven years of age, inhibited children engage in more isolated play rather than playing with other children.

This is when such behaviors are labeled by parents and everyone else as ?shyness?.
However, these behavioral expressions of inhibited temperament do not mean that such children will grow up to be shy adults.

The idea that people are born shy is just a belief on shyness, and is not a supported fact. There are many documented cases where shy individuals are able to surmount their shyness and become regular guys.

Shyness is definitely not inborn.

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Motivation As Key To Overcome Shyness

Motivation As Key To Overcome Shyness

Shyness is one of the major reasons why there are so many people who are unhappy in this world. Because of being shy, many people are not able to get the job that they want or meet others who they are interested with. Although shyness is a natural part of an individual’s personality, something should be done about it if it affects the entire well being of the person.

Seeing yourself

Although motivation from other people can be a good start in building a positive attitude in life and overcome shyness, this might not be applicable to all people especially to those who prefer to do things on their own.

If you are one of these people who would rather do things on his or her own, then now is the time to realize how big self-motivation can create in your life. Experts say that if one starts with the process of self-motivation to fight shyness now, it will be easier for them to accomplish greater things for themselves and for the people that they love in the future.

Experts agree that for one to overcome shyness and be successful in life, motivation is very essential. This is because knowing how to motivate yourself would help you deal with challenges that would come along the way. It will also serve as an inspiration that would keep your spirit high no matter how trying the times are.

Although there are countless advantages of motivation, it’s saddening to think that many people still don’t know how to adhere with it. For those who would want to start with motivation to deal with shyness, here are some tips that can help you get started with this.

1. Discover your cause or purpose in life. Indeed, the most powerful thing that can help a person get started with overcoming shyness is discovering your cause or your purpose in life. Once you were able to do this, you can find the reason in your heart why do you want to be motivated. The reason maybe for the betterment of your own self or for your family and others but no matter what it is, what?s important is you have something to hold on to in setting goals that you would want to achieve in the future.

2. Have a dream and hold on to it. Overcoming shyness is a not an easy task to start with. It would require lots of efforts and self-assessment to be able to maximize its full potentials. For people who would want to reap the benefits of overcoming shyness, use motivation now by having a dream that they could hold on to. The scale or the size of that dream doesn?t matter, it can be a big thing or a small thing, what’s important is the person is willing to do everything to achieve that dream. For some people, having big dreams work on them because they are looking forward to big rewards in the future that is why they are giving their best this early.

While some people opt to have small dreams because they want to make sure that they will be able to accomplish that dream and won’t have to deal with defeat or failure in the future.

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How to Overcome Social Shyness

How to Overcome Social Shyness

If you are inflicted with social shyness, it is high time that you do something about it before it becomes too late. You must realize that you have been missing out on so many things already. You could have done so many things and experienced bigger happenings if you have only done something to let yourself break free from such attitude. If you are not going to do something about it, you might end up thinking about the things that you wish you could have done if only you had the guts to do them. If you are the kind of person who hates the crowd and would do everything to miss out on events and parties where you will meet a lot of people, do you ever wonder how would it be like if you weren’t that shy?

There are many negative effects that may be caused by this attitude. First and foremost, you are limiting your world to the circle of friends that you have already grown accustomed with. You are too afraid to expand the circle by making the effort to approach people and initiate conversations. If you will allow this to happen for a long time, you will also be limiting the possibilities of learning something new from the experiences that you have failed to try.

If you are facing this kind of dilemma, it is high time that you do something about it. If you feel like you cannot do this on your own, you better seek help of professionals who can guide you through the process until you have solved the mystery on how you were able to develop such attitude. They can also help you plan out the procedures that you can try to be able slowly step up from the attitude until you have gathered more self-esteem and confidence.

You can also do this on your own as long as you are determined about what you want to achieve and you are focused that you will stay true to the plans that you have set your mind to do. Here are some things that you can start doing on your own to help you with regards to this kind of venture.

1. Gather self-help books that you must diligently read whenever you have free time. You will be able to find many tips that you can use for your own good. You can also find related tips online. Browse through various websites that offer help for this kind of problem or you may also want to check personal blogs of people who can attest that they have become triumphant over such situation and list out the ways on how they were able to do such.

2. Start going out to places or gatherings where you will be exposed to more people. You don’t have to speak to all of them in one night. You have to take things slow in countering your social shyness. Start with someone you feel like you will have something in common so that it will be easier for you to think about the topic that you can use to start a conversation with them.

After you have said you introduction, just go with the flow and enjoy the process. Do not be too rigid because you might end up looking like you are trying so hard.

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