Study these tips for public speaking

Here’s some great tips for public speaking and using your voice.

To use the voice to best effect in ashow involves us having to put a large amount of effort into how we manipulate it. So how does one best use your voice?

1. Adding some confidence. If our audience doesn’t believe in us, then why will they trouble giving us the time of day, not to mention sit thru our presentation?

2. Conviction in what we are saying is also key. Putting across our keenness, despite the incontrovertiblefact that we are genuinely convinced in our own discussion, may cause our audience to doubt us and put query marks over what we must say.

3. Passion, too, is essential. If we are assured and are convinced in our own debates, then highlylikely we may also come across as enthused. Being avid is also infectious. If we sound all fired up by what we say, the possibilities are we are going to have an easier ’sell in’ of our ideas than if we appear not so turned on by the topic matter in hand.

4. Our integrity is also something that must not ever be brought into question. If we try to bluff our way thru a sticky patch, we will be able to be certain the spectators will surely catch us out with the result that virtually the rest we say could also be challenged.

5. Naturally, if we are able to show we have got a widespread grasp of the subject in hand by being able to show off our information, then that too is crucial, though not always necessary. Or is it? Broadcasters most frequently talk about a subject with which they are not terribly familiar. Of course , not every broadcaster can be well versed in each subject. But the proven fact that they have done their research entirely gives them the wherewithal to ask looking questions of their interviewees and, as such, shows them to be ‘instant mavens’!

Finally, having a good voice is actually a valuable asset, but is hardly necessary to a good show. Few are blessed with really beautiful voices, but there are thousands more who are good presenters.

Ensure you add using your voice and enhance your public speaking confidence.

3 Crucial Ways of Improving Your Memory and Stopping Your Mind From Aging

People are waking up to the need to keep the brain working well as long as possible. Looking after your body isn’t so hard; we are bombarded with information on diet and exercise, and there are a ton of creams and cosmetic procedures you can buy.
It does not seem so simple to look after your brain though, and the little you hear about it makes you think that caring for your mind doesn’t matter, or is even impossible.
But there are steps you can take to care for your most valuable possession, and I’m afraid it’s not in a jar. It’s common sense, and you’ll thank yourself.

Improving Your Memory Starts With Mental Exercise
You’re used to the idea that you need to exercise your body, why should your mind be any different? Puzzles like crosswords and sudoku, reading books that make you think, and even having serious conversations all play a part in making your mind work effectively.

Courses aimed specifically at improving your memory are great for students - but also work to keep your mind working. You should never stop learning new skills and processes throughout your life, so continually practicing and improving your memory as you have more to remember. Try learning a new language, or a new musical instrument.
Physical exercise is good for your body, as you know, but it can also help your brain.

Eating Properly Is Good For Your Body - And Your Brain
Just like your body, your mind uses whatever fuel you give it in the food you eat. There are foods that are known to be particularly good for enhancing your brain power and for improving your memory, while there are some that are best avoided.

In general you should:

don’t forget to eat a healthy breakfast;
eat enough fish and eggs and the nutrients found in protein, vitamin B, fibre, and antioxidants;
drink a lot of water;
and avoid over-processed foods.

Memory-Enhancement Courses Help With Improving Your Memory
If you are serious about taking care of your brain’s health and Improving Your Memory, you need to build on these changes to your lifestyle by changing the way your brain deals with information by following a memory-enhancement course. Most people’s priority at all stages of life is to improve memory, whether it be to perform well at exams, to succeed at work, or to delay loss of memory in later life.
Studies have shown (see The New Scientist May 28 2005) that improving ‘neural systems’ can have a dramatic effect on brain power and therefore memory.
Using a tried and tested system for improving memory can build on everything else to protect your brain throughout your life.

Plus it is more effective at delaying your aging than any creams or surgery! Have a look at http://www.squidoo.com/memory-improvement-course.

Where To Find Memory Games Online

When it comes to ways to improve your memory one of the best things you can do is play a memory game. This is because by playing memory games you are not only working to improve your short and long term memory but more importantly you are having fun while doing it.

It is necessary to stay happy and optimistic while improving memory, otherwise it is not going to be a game but rather a task and you will find that you will not have nearly as significant results.

Memory Games Online

As with most other things, when it comes to memory games the Internet is really going to be one of your best resources. There are a number of different websites that offer memory games online, but a few in particular that have shown to be effective.

One website that offers memory games online is Buzzle, which offers an array of different games including card games, darts, memory games, treasure hunts, word games, adventure and fantasy games, and much more.

They are a website that is comprised of a truly dynamic network of authors and content contributors and as subject experts all of their authors work to create an informative and yet comfortable place for finding information about everything from animals to tourism.

Another website offering memory games online is the Explatorium. They actually offer a lot more than memory games online as they also feature explanations on the loss of memory and what is involved with it, as well as other things that you can do on a daily basis in order to improve your memory as much as possible.

If you think that you have a poor memory then it may also be that you just have some less than effective habits when it comes to taking in and processing information. Pay attention to things that are going on in your life because this will make a big difference, and you also want to involve as many of your senses as possible, as often as possible. Even if you tend to be more of a visual learner you should read out loud things that you want to remember because then you are hearing it as well and will be that much more liable to remember it for a longer period of time.

Improving your memory is something that can be done with a little time and a lot of patience. Just remember that the biggest changes are going to be noticeable long-term rather than right away.

The Fun Of Memory Games

We all want to improve short term memory; it is simply because we all know how valuable memory is in our regular lives. In fact, a majority of life successes actually depend on the capacity of memory encoding and retrieval skills. There is a great variety of serious techniques available in the market for enhancing memory skills. But people can also enjoy the time while enhancing their memory capability by simply getting engaged into various memory games as well. Let us explore a few popular memory games that can be played either individually or in a group setting.

Story Telling

When we need to remember the name and phone number, we simply repeat it few times before dialing. But some times after dialing, many of us simply forget the number. This is because we didn’t simply put the number into the segment of our long term memory. So we are unable to remember it later in time.

Story telling is a good memory game that focuses on the critical aspects of long term memory. The idea here is to simply connect the facts or items one needs to remember. When a story is told in a group, it enables the player to visualize a strong mental image of the incidences happening inside the story. This, in turn, helps in encoding the data to an image so that it can be stored in long term memory.

Matching Pairs

It is another wonderful memory game that involves matching pairs from a large bunch of playing cards that help to remember. This game can be played either individually or in pairs. The game can be started by laying out 24 cards containing 12 matched pairs. The player must not know the exact location of any single card in the bulk. The player must turn one card at a time, and look at the image on the card, and then the player turns its face down once again. The player needs to repeat this process till the image in the card matches with the card opened earlier. Now the objective is to find the pair by recalling its location from earlier drawings.

Remembering Names

This type of memory game is played in group of 10 to 12 people. In this game, the players may decide between themselves about the category of names to play with. Say, it is decided that the category will be ‘country’. The players can sit together by forming a circle.

Now the first player will say the name of one country, say, Italy, for example. The second player needs to mention the name already told by the first player in addition to maintain the right order and then add the name of the country he wants to say. If the second player likes to say, ‘Germany’, then following the game’s rule, he must say, ‘Italy, Germany’. The next player will say, ‘Italy, Germany, France’, where France is the name the third player wants to include in the list. It will be repeated in the same fashion for every one in the group. When someone will make a mistake in either recalling a name or maintaining the accurate order, he will be eliminated from the group.

Avoidable Habits That Can Affect Long Term Memory

Many things are unavoidable in preventing long term memory loss, such as ageing, Alzheimer’s disease and even getting a cold. So, you don’t need to encourage long term memory loss by engaging in habits sure to harm your brain and your memory. All of these habits are preventable or changeable. They need changes in lifestyle and help from your doctor to know about human memory facts.

What Is This I Need To Keep Again?

In case you’ve forgotten what long term memory is, it’s the core memories of your life, such as your name, where you were born, how to walk – that sort of thing. This differs from short term memory, which can be easily lost from a knock to the head. When you have a concussion or are thought to have had a head injury or any condition that left you unconscious, one of the first things you’ll be asked is who is president of the United States. That’s a long term memory question. Not knowing what day it is a short term memory question. Damage to your long term memory is usually indicative of some brain injury or damage.

Drinking Alcohol

Although alcohol is notorious for helping you forget, sometimes it can help you forget too much. Short term memory is most often the culprit, but long term use or even binge drinking has proven to damage your long term memory skills. This leads to poor decision making abilities, even when sober. Women’s brains will be harmed faster than men’s brains, for some unfair reason. So make the right decision and stop drinking.

Excessive Marijuana Use

Although we don’t entirely know how the brain processes memory, it is thought that the part of the brain called the hippocampus plays an integral role. Marijuana can affect the hippocampus. In studies where marijuana users had to try and recall a list they learned a month ago, they could not, while those who didn’t use marijuana did. Everyone’s short term memory is affected by marijuana, but it is thought that excessive marijuana use (several joints a day every day) can damage long term memory. Marijuana stays in the body for a full month after it is ingested or inhaled. However, when it’s gone, it seems to take its bad effects with it.

Bad Nutrition

Lack of vitamins and minerals found in healthy foods is thought to contribute to brain malfunctions like long term memory loss and mistaken identity. This is why it is important to eat not only a balanced diet, but a varied one, in order to get all the nutrients your body needs.

Ways To Improve Your Memory

One of the biggest things that people find themselves complaining about is memory loss and memory hooks, but it is important to know that there are things that you can do to improve your memory. There are many different games that you can use and strategies that you can implement but overall, if you want to improve your memory you just have to be dedicated and willing to do what it takes to increase and strengthen your brain power. There are a few steps in particular that you should follow which will be the most effective in improving your memory.

Believe it

Before anything else you have to believe in yourself and believe that you will be able to improve your memory. Convince yourself that you have a good memory and that you will be able to get it to improve. By being positive and optimistic about your situation you are already on the right path and getting off on the right foot here.

Stay Active

You also need to make sure that you keep your brain active, and so staying active is not only important in terms of the physical. The brain is not a muscle but exercising it on a regular basis is still very important and actually critical when it comes to memory. Learn new mental skills whenever you can, whether that means learning how to speak a new language or just doing crossword puzzles, you will be maintaining a certain level of brain activity and keeping it going.

Relax

One of the best things you can do to improve short term memory is just relax. When we get stressed our brains get overloaded and cannot handle even simple, day to day activities. Even though you may be super busy and feel as though you never have the time to sit back and relax even for a moment, it is important that you make the time for it.

Chronic stress in particular, although it does not tend to physically damage the brain, can make remembering things more difficult, especially if left untreated for an extended period of time. Even temporary stress can result in memory loss.

If you really want to improve your memory then using a combination of these techniques is going to be the best bet, and will be the most effective as well. Also remember that you should not just do these things once and then forget about them but rather implement them as often as you can into your everyday life.

Human Brain And Memory Process

Memory functions in the brain in a very complicated fashion. To date, scientists are unable to design computers that can compete with the human brain. But, it is promising in the next two or three decades that scientists may be able to devise advanced computers with the help of nanotechnology, cybernetics and biotech resources.

Scientists and researchers have put their wise efforts to discover and uncover all the elements of the human memory system in order to get a better understanding of its encoding and retrieving processes. These understandings are crucially important for improving the quality of an individual’s memory associations and recollection process.

Human Brain Structure and Memory System

Our thought, senses, memory and actions all influence distinct sets of nerve cells and chemicals within our brain. The hippocampus, the amygdale and close areas of temporal lobe are associated to the cortex with the help of complex nerve cells. This actually forms the fundamental structure of our memory system.

When a nerve cell in the brain gets activated, a low-charged electrical potential is sent to the axon. This helps in releasing brain chemicals or neurotransmitters, which attain across the synaptic gaps between nerve cells and bolt onto the corresponding receptors. The nerve cells that obtain the brain chemicals then send the signal along to other relevant nerve cells. This happens like a relay race.

When the same signals are received repeatedly, the synaptic changes occur more efficiently contributing to the physical changes among synaptic connections. This is how the human brain stores memory on a long term basis. Scientists and researchers on memory improvement tips assume that the changes in particular synaptic patterns in folds and ridges of human brain contribute to memory encoding for lengthy time span. In fact, convoying electrochemical associations constituted between different cells in human brain help storing memory including thoughts, skills, knowledge and experiences.

Research on Human Brain and Memory

There are debates on the distribution of memory over the human brain. While some scientists assume that human brain constitutes memory in a particular region within the brain structure, some others claim that human brain does not localize memory within a particular territory, that is, memory is all over distributed through out the brain structure.

Scientists claim that the cell functions corresponding to learning and memory process are indistinguishable at the biological level. In fact, proof has been already established in the support of the strong correlation between learning process and memory system. It is also assumed that to execute the learning process, the human brain employs multiple memory systems, each of which is engaged to encode different sorts of memory functions and to unlock memory.

Help For Memory Loss - Techniques And Assistance

There are numerous causes for memory loss including unconsciousness, depression, stress, menopause for women, head injury, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, viral infections, drugs and alcohol and Alzheimer’s disease. Also, most people have their memory affected as they get older. As people become older researchers believe that there might be modifications in the way the brain stores information and it may become more difficult for the brain to recall information. Some experts suggest that a loss of memory is a serious problem when it affects your daily life. If this occurs you should seek help for memory loss and help to remember.

How to Preserve Memory

Eating a healthy diet which is low in saturated fat and includes a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and fish can be helpful in maintaining your memory. Getting plenty of sleep and exercise can also be a help for memory loss. Smoking can decrease you ability to remember information due to reducing the supply of oxygen for your brain. You need to stimulate your brain with activities such as reading, learning new things, doing crossword puzzles, playing mind stimulating games and other activities.

Help for Memory Loss

Unfortunately there is no technique available for retrieving memories and memory associations that have faded out of existence or to retrain memories that have been damaged. You can use strategies that can help you work with your brain in its current state. Using routines can be very helpful in your daily life if you are having memory problems. Place your possessions in the same place when you are not using them. If you have activities or chores you want to do on a daily basis consider performing the tasks after a certain activity such as breakfast everyday. Another helpful technique is to concentrate on one task at a time. You will also learn and remember things better if there are no distractions.

Repeat words or phrases in your mind that you want to remember is the best techniques to remember. You can also use rhyming techniques or form a picture in your mind about something you choose to remember as help for memory loss. Assist your memory but writing down important information in a note pad or a wall chart and put lists in places in your home that you visit often. Write down activities that you have to do in the future so you won’t forget them. Use an alarm system such as a clock or your watch to alert you that you have to perform a task at a certain time. When learning a new task write down the instructions and keep them in an obvious location.

There are some drugs and alternative medicines that people are taking as help for memory loss but they can have serious side effects and the results are ambiguous.

If you are having some difficulties with memory loss your family doctor can refer you to a neurologist or a psychiatrist who specializes in helping senior citizens or a doctor in the field of geriatric medicine and these experts might be able to offer you help for memory loss.

Lifestyle Affects Memory Performance

Why does how we live from day to day affect our memory performance? Very simply, memory is part of who we are. It does not exist in a protected “black box” in our heads; rather, memory is an integral aspect of our physical and mental functioning. Therefore, if we are not taking care of ourselves - for example, not getting adequate rest, or feeling very anxious - we may see an impact on our memory ability. Many people are unaware that their lifestyle choices matter until they become concerned about how well they are remembering. But when they realize how those choices affect memory, they are motivated to change them.

How do these aspects of daily life affect our memory? In general, poor lifestyle choices compromise our memory potential by making it harder for us to focus our attention. Since attention is one of the most sensitive aspects of our intellectual functioning, it is quite vulnerable to influence from the ups and downs of everyday living. Attention is central to memory, and we must be able to attend to information in order to acquire it. Factors in our lifestyle, therefore, can make it harder for us to focus on information and acquire it effectively.

FEAR AND REASON.

“In civilized life it has at last become possible for large numbers of people to pass from the cradle to the grave without ever having had a pang of genuine fear. Many of us need an attack of mental disease to teach us the meaning of the word.” William James.

We have all heard the seemingly discriminating remarks that fear is normal and abnormal, and that normal fear is to be regarded as a friend, while abnormal fear should be destroyed as an enemy.

The fact is that no so called normal fear can be named which has not been clearly absent in some people who have had every cause therefor. If you will run over human history in your mind, or look about yea in the present life, you will find here and there persons who, in situations or before objects which ought, as any fearful soul will insist, to inspire the feeling of at least normal self-protecting fear, are nevertheless wholly without the feeling. They possess every feeling and thought demanded except fear. The idea of self-preservation is as strongly present as with the most abjectly timid or terrified, but fear they do not know. This fearless awareness of fear suggesting conditions may be due to several causes. It may result from constitutional make-up, or from long continued training or habituation, or from religious ecstasy, or from a perfectly calm sense of spiritual selfhood which is unhurtable, or from the action of very exalted reason. Whatever the explanation, the fact remains: the very causes which excite fear in most of us, merely appeal, with such people, if at all. to the instinct of self-preservation and to reason, the thought-element of the soul which makes for personal peace and wholeness.

Banish all fear.

It is on such considerations that I have come to hold that all real fear-feeling should and may be banished from our life, and that what we call “normal fear” should be substituted in our language by “instinct” or by “reason,” the element of fear being dropped altogether.

“Everyone can testify that the psychical state called fear consists of mental representations of certain painful results” (James). The mental representations may be very faint as such, but the idea of hurt to self is surely present. If, then, it can be profoundly believed that the real self cannot be hurt; if the reason can be brought to consider vividly and believingly all quieting considerations; if the self can be held consciously in the assurance that the White Life surrounds the true self, and is surely within that self, and will suffer “no evil to come nigh,” while all the instincts of self preservation may be perfectly active, fear itself must be removed “as far as the east is from the west.”

These are the ways, then, in which any occasion for fear may be divided:

As a warning and as a maker of panic. But let us say that the warning should be understood as given to reason, that fear need not appear at all, and that the panic is perfectly useless pain. With these discriminations in mind, we may now go on to a preliminary study of fear.

preliminary study of fear.

Fear is (a) an impulse, (b) a habit, (c) a disease.

Fear, as it exists in man, is a make-believe of sanity, a creature of the imagination, a state of insanity.

Furthermore, fear is, now of the nerves, now of the mind, now of the moral consciousness.

The division depends upon the point of view. What is commonly called normal fear should give place to reason, using the word to cover instinct as well as thought. From the correct point of view all fear is an evil so long as entertained.

Whatever its manifestations, wherever its apparent location, fear is a psychic state, of course, reacting upon the individual in several ways: as, in the nerves, in mental moods, in a single impulse, in a chronic habit, in a totally unbalanced condition. The reaction has always a good intention, meaning, in each case, “Take care! Danger!” You will see that this is so if you will look for a moment at three comprehensive kinds of fear fear of self, fear for self, fear for others. Fear of self is indirectly fear for self danger. Fear for others signifies foresensed or forepictured distress to self because of anticipated misfortune to others. I often wonder whether, when we fear for others, it is distress to self or hurt to them that is most emphatically in our thought.

Fear, then, is usually regarded as the soul’s danger signal. But the true signal is instinctive and thoughtful reason.

Even instinct and reason, acting as warning, may perform their duty abnormally, or assume abnormal proportions. And then we have the feeling of fear. The normal warning is induced by actual danger apprehended by mind in a state of balance and self-control. Normal mind is always capable of such warning. There are but two ways in which so-called normal fear, acting in the guise of reason, may be annihilated: by the substitution of reason for fear, and by the assurance of the white life.

Let it be understood, now, that by normal fear is here meant normal reason real fear being denied place and function altogether. Then we may say that such action of reason is a benefactor to man. It is, with pain and weariness, the philanthropy of the nature of things within us.

One person said: “Tired? No such word in my house!” Now this cannot be a sound and healthy attitude. Weariness, at a certain stage of effort, is a signal to stop work. When one becomes so absorbed in labor as to lose consciousness of the feeling of weariness, he has issued a “hurry call” on death. I do not deny that the soul may cultivate a sublime sense of buoyancy and power; rather do I urge you to seek that beautiful condition; but I hold that when a belief or a hallucination refuses to permit you to hear the warning of nerves and muscles, Nature will work disaster inevitably. Let us stand for the larger liberty which is joyously free to take advantage of everything Nature may offer for true well-being. There is a partial liberty which tries to realize itself by denying various realities as real; there is a higher liberty which really realizes itself by conceding such realities as real and by using or disusing them as occasion may require in the interest of the self at its best. I hold this to be true wisdom: to take advantage of everything which evidently promises good to the self, without regard to this or that theory, and freely to use all things, material or immaterial, reasonable or spiritual. I embrace your science or your method; but I beg to ignore your bondage to philosophy or to consistency. So I say that to normal health the weary-sense is a rational command to replenish exhausted nerves and muscles.

It is not liberty, it is not healthful, to declare, “There is no pain!” Pain does exist, whatever you affirm, and your affirmation that it does not is proof that it does exist, for why (and how) declare the non-existence of that which actually is non-existent? But if you say, “As a matter of fact I have pain, but I am earnestly striving to ignore it, and to cultivate thought-health so that the cause of pain may be removed,” that is sane and beautiful. This is the commendable attitude of the Bible character who cried: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” To undertake swamping pain with a cloud of psychological fog that is to turn anarchist against the good government of Nature. By pain Nature informs the individual that he is somewhere out of order. This warning is normal. The feeling becomes abnormal in the mind when imagination twangs the nerves with reiterated irritation, and Will, confused by the discord and the psychic chaos, cowers and shivers with fear.

I do not say there is no such thing as fear. Fear does exist. But it exists in your life by your permission only, not because it is needful as a warning against “evil.”

Fear is induced by unduly magnifying actual danger, or by conjuring up fictitious dangers through excessive and misdirected psychical reactions. This also may be taken as a signal of danger, but it is a falsely-intentioned witness, for it is not needed, is hostile to the individual because it threatens self-control and it absorbs life’s forces in useless and destructive work when they ought to be engaged in creating values.

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