5 excellent ways you can crush negative thoughts

5 excellent ways you can crush negative thoughts5 excellent ways you can crush negative thoughtsWhen you grow up poor, negative thoughts come very easily. My parents worked hard as cattle ranchers in a remote area of Wyoming. There was no money to pay a hired hand, so my brother and I departureed helping out with chores at the age of six.By the age of eight, I could stack bales of hay, grease the baler, and move ahundred head of cows into another pasture.As a girl, I was expected to marry and start a family, not pursue a career. The standing joke was that college was for young women looking for an MRS degree. After all, higher education is not needed to work on a ranch.As I grew up, I heard self-limiting messages that looked at life in negative terms. They focused on what I couldnt do rather than in positive terms of what I could accomplish. There were times when the negativity of others threatened to sabotage my own efforts to move beyond my circumstances.However, I had the support of my parents to pursue a college degree, and I learned many lessons from them. Among the most important is that there are no guarantees in life, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.Negative thoughts can slow down yur business and partal goals. Successful entrepreneurs and business owners need ways to stop negative thinking when the economy spirals downward or competition threatens a portion of the market.Here are 5 excellent ways to crush negative thoughts1. Be mindful of how powerful your words areThe words you use are important. Words are powerful because they energize our thoughts. Words are thoughts spoken out loud. The words we say to ourselves can either inspire or destroy, depending on what our brain hears.When you think you cant accomplish a goal and want to quit, your brain puts barriers around achieving the goal often these are no more than self-limiting barriers because youve told yourself you cant do it.How To Make It Work For You Become aware of w hen negative thoughts show up in your life. Dont ignore them because they wont simply go away. Theyll hang around and continue to pop up. To counteract them, recognize the negative thought or emotion and then name it. Keep it to a couple of words because if you enter into a dialogue about the negative thought, you give it the opportunity to take root and become even more powerful.2. Stop using the word noResearchers have determined that when you see the word NO for less than a second, your brain releases dozen of stress-producing hormones and neurotransmitters. These are the chemicals that interrupt the normal functioning of the brain and impair our logic.Now, if you say the word NO, even more stress chemicals are released into your brain- and not just your brain, but into the brain of the listener as well.The word NO and other negative messages interfere with the decision making centers of the brain, often causing a partie to act irrationally. Mental toughness allows you to interru pt this flow of chemicals into the brain.How To Make It Work For You Since negative thoughts that hold you back are always based in fear, choose your words wisely and speak them in a slow manner. When your first reaction is NO, take the time to pinpoint the fear that sparked this response. Then replace NO with this question why not?3. Intentionally choose to be positiveWeve all been in tough situations where its hard to stop negative thoughts. Turns out that we have to intentionally choose to be positive because we all have an innate bias toward negativity. We process bad news faster than good news because our limbic brain system is survival driven. This explains why were driven to avoid losses far more than were driven to pursue gains.The brain responds less to positive words and thoughts. Thats because theyre not a threat to our survival so the brain doesnt need to respond as rapidly as it does with negative thoughts and words.How To Make It Work For You To overcome this natural b ias toward negativity, we have to repeatedly and consciously generate as many positive thoughts as we can. Researchers have discovered that to overcome an obstacle or break a barrier, you will need to generate at least five positive responses to counter each negative one. This allows you to interrupt your brains natural inclination to be negative.4. Create new brain connectionsWhen we reinforce a way of thinking, either new connections are formed or old ones are strengthened. So, when you maintain a strong mind that knows how to stop negative thinking, these connections become more durable and easier to activate.This is a tremendous concept, because it shows us how we can change our behavior. Our brain is more flexible than we thought and is capable of adapting to its circumstances. Our brain is a great survival machine because it can rewire itself to form neuro pathways that optimize the power of our senses.How To Make It Work For You When we use the word yes, we are training our b rain to make positive patterns more automatic. Since your brain is listening to everything you think about yourself, you might as well start using words that inspire and expand your vision of your life.5. Surround yourself with positivityThe only four-letter word I never heard in my twenty-four-year career as an FBI agent was quit. No matter how tough the training got, or hard a case was to solve, or the size of the obstacle in front of me, I found ways to crush negative thoughts.FBI agents are trained to overcome obstacles and break through barriers. It begins in the FBI Academy and continues through our career. This training created a mindset of like-minded people. We learned how to say yes to the unknown so we could move forward when confronted with the unknown. As a team, we stopped negative thinking in its tracks.How To Make It Work For You You increase positivity when you hang out with perpetually perky people. That can work, but the most powerful person in your life is yourse lf. You cant get rid of negative thought patterns unless you can identify what triggers them to surface. Get to know your negative thinking and whats behind it. Only with self-awareness can you begin to identify when it happens so you can make a choice to shift your attitude.Mental toughness is positive thinking on steroids. When confronted with obstacles and adversity, mental toughness is saying yes to the unknown.Thisarticlefirst appeared onLaRaeQuy.com.

Absorbable Electronics

Absorbable Electronics Absorbable Electronics Absorbable ElectronicsThe new field of green electronics promises electronics made from low-cost, environmentally friendly biodegradable synthetic materials. Theyre human friendly as well. That is, theyre compatible with the human body.The sensors and attendant electronics are meant to work for a few weeks, then completely dissolve over the course of about a day when immersed in fluids, says Mihai Irimia-Vladu, a materials science researcher at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria.Sometimes called zero-waste sensors and electronics, the devices can be used for a number of medical applications. They degrade naturally into the body, so they dont have to be removed surgically, which can cause surgical complications, says John Rogers, who heads the Rogers Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who has led research on ansicht electronics. Rogers is a chemist and a materials scientist at the university.The field ma rries material science with mechanical, electrical, and bioengineering, says Irimia-Vladu. Hes published several journal papers on green electronics topics and holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a graduate degree in materials science.Dissolution of a-IGZO TFTs and circuits on a PVA substrate in deionized water. Image University of IllinoisIn terms of medical use, biodegradable electronics could be used for dissolvable catheters or to monitor bacterial infection after surgery, while biodegradable sensors could monitor the kidney, heart, and lungs, he says.As for environmental applications, transient electronics could be used as sensors that transmit data from remote locations, and then degrade into the soil to eliminate waste, he adds. Other uses include soft robotics or disposable electronics used in food packaging or other disposable applications.A number of green electronics are now in the research and testing stages.For instance, working together, researc hers from a variety of universities and institutes in America and South Korea are testing a biocompatible pressure and temperature sensor integrated on a biodegradable silicon chip. The chip sits on the brains surface and is connected to a wireless transmitter attached to the outside of the skull.The sensor itself is smaller than a grain of rice, Rogers, says. When tested in rats, the device monitored intracranial pressure and temperature at least as accurately as existing devices.Rogers is lead author of a paper on the research that appeared in the February 2016 edition of the journal Nature.Some might be surprised to learn that silicon, not known for its biodegradable nature, is used for the chip. But in addition to being biodegradable (albeit over centuries), silicon is the most common semiconductor material used in todays electronic devices, Rogers says. The silicon dissolves due to hydrolysis, in which water and silicon react to form silicic acid. Silicic acid is environmentall y and biologically benign.Although it takes many hundreds of years to dissolve todays silicon semiconductors, thin layers of silicon can dissolve at rates of 5 to 90 nanometers per day, he adds.Although other organic electronic materials are also often biodegradable, silicon-based electronics have the advantages of an overall higher performance and the use of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor fabrication processes that allow for mass production, Roger adds.The researchers created the pressure and temperature sensor from thin layers of silicon.Many procedures in modern clinical medicine rely on the use of electronic implants in treating conditions that range from acute coronary events to traumatic injury, Rogers writes in the Nature paper.The researchers chose to focus their efforts on the cranial pressure and temperature sensor because, to treat traumatic brain injury, intracranial pressure and temperature must be continuously monitored. The biocompatible sensors would be a gr eat aid to monitoring, he says.Standard, permanent monitoring, along with other electronic hardware used in the body, acts as a breeding place for infection Bacteria form biofilms along wires or travel through the blood to cause other bodily tissues to become infected, Rogers says. Also these type of implantable electronics must be surgically removed, exposing patients to potential surgical complications.In clinical studies, their absorbable device compared favorably with that of traditional, non-absorbable devices, Rogers says.Researchers also showed their device neednt be wired through the skin. They connected a sensor to an implantedbut only partially absorbabledata-communication system, which proved there is no need for any percutaneous wiring, according to the Nature paper.The devices can be adapted to sense fluid flow, motion, pH or thermal characteristics, in formats that are compatible with the bodys abdomen and extremities, as well as the deep brain, suggesting that the sen sors might meet many needs in clinical medicine, according to the paper.Next up for the group of researchers biodegradable circuits made from various polymers.Were working on building more advanced circuits, and doing so with commercial foundries, and on back-end assembly techniques that will allow these circuits to be deployed on a range of biodegradable polymer substrates, Rogers says.Jean Thilmany is an independent writer.Learn how to leverage emerging technologies that create sustainable solutions at ASMEs COMS 2016 For Further DiscussionThe sensors and attendant electronics are meant to work for a few weeks, then completely dissolve over the course of about a day when immersed in fluids.Mihai Irimia-Vladu, FH Joanneum University

How to Reduce Stress in the Workplace

How to Reduce Stress in the WorkplaceHow to Reduce Stress in the WorkplaceAs anyone whos had a stressful job knows, the accumulated effects of too much stress can manifest in different ways, from long I-deserve-this lunches to non-stop Facebooking toplaying home run derby with the office printer.According to research conducted by ComPsych, a provider of employee assistance services, 34 percent of employees say they lose an hur or more per day of productive work time because of stress. That stress hour is often spent taking care of personal tasks such as finding child care, talking to coworkers, surfing the web or zoning out, said ComPsych spokesperson Jennifer Hudson.How many hours is your company losing to stress?Heres a quick math problem(Take the Number of Your Organizations Employees) X (.34) X (240 work days per year) = How Many Hours a Year of Productivity Your Company Loses to StressOf course goofing around at work at work isnt the only way workers deal with stress. According to various surveys, stress causes people to play hooky from work and, even worse for you, quit their current jobs for less-stressful jobs. Stress also adds to health care costs and increases the number of on-the-job accidents. All of these negative outcomes cost organizations money.The most common causes of job stress are bad relationships with supervisors and coworkers, high workload, poor work/life balance and job security, in roughly that order. These problems sound personal, but oftentimes theyre not. Workplace stress increases when employees face stiff demands but are given little control over their work, have excessive demands that do not match their ability and are not rewarded with compensation corresponding to their effort.Management plays an outsized role in employee stress. In Gallups State of the American Workplace, CEO Jim Clifton wrote, The single biggest decision you make in your job- bigger than all of the rest- is who you name manager. When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits- nothing.The telltale signs of a stressed-out workplace include workers taking more sick time, higher absenteeism rate, repeated complaints about the same individual or group to HR or management, more accidents and greater lethargy.So how can HR pinpoint the causes of stress?Anna Maravelas is the president of the conflict resolution firm Thera Rising and the author of How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress. To identify stressors within a company she conducts anonymous, hour-long, in-depth interviews with five to eight workers. She uses the data from these interviews to create surveys for the rest of the department or company. The information collected from these surveys helps companies locate their problems.I guarantee you if you ask the average person, they will have two to three hours of issues that theyre holding-gesellschaft back, Maravelas said.Executives are often surprised to discover that what the y thought was a clash of personalities or personality types was actually a problem with the way the company was structured.For example, Maravelas worked with a company that employed architects and construction workers. The architects thought the construction workers were blockheads, and the construction workers thought the architects were dreamers who were out of touch with reality.A classic personality conflict, right?That was only a small part of it. Turns out the construction workers compensation was tied to bringing projects in on time and under budget while the architects benefitted from innovations that landed their work in architectural digests, which increased their chances of landing better gigs. The construction workers had no incentive to innovate, and the architects fortunes were not tied to finishing jobs quickly and under budget. It would have been shocking if these two groups didnt eventually clash.If youre an HR manager, Maravelas says there are two ways to think abo ut stress in your workplace. The first is to look at structural tension. Are everyones roles clear? Are there too many sources of direction? Are there clashing incentives?The second is attitudinal and cultural. Does the company have a culture of appreciation? Are staff meetings being used to acknowledge contributions? Is good work being recognized?Workplaces that make the effort to deal with stress tend to focus on the following areas reducing stressors, implementing stress management programs and offering alternative work schedules, telecommuting, family-friendly benefits and health and fitness programs.Specific tactics to reduce stressors includeGiving employees more autonomyIncreased employee participation in decision-makingTraining managers to communicate betterTheres good news for you and your company contained within those solutions. They all reduce employee stress without sacrificing productivity.According to Gallup, the more hours per day Americans get to use their strengths to do what they do best, the less likely they are to report experiencing stress at work.Reducing stress isnt a matter of giving employees more time off during the year or longer lunch breaks. Its a matter of organizing the workplace to make it friendlier to workers. This is easier said than done. I once spent four months convincing an operations manager to let my staff work from home 2-3 days a week. Managements assumption was that workers goof off when theyre out of sight. And while some workers inevitably will, the company did not foresee that employees would value their jobs even more- and would be less likely to leave- if they received a great perk like telecommuting.We implemented the telecommuting program, and we saw productivity in our department increase. When the company was purchased, and employees fled every other department, our team experienced no turnover. Staff loved working from home. As one staff member told me, I drive an hour to work and an hour to get home. For a few days a week, I get two extra hours, and I use them to go to the gym. So not only did she get to work in a low-stress environment for a few days a week, but she increased the amount of time she spent in a stress-busting activity such as exercise.People want to do good work, and they want to do it in a low-stress environment.Are you doing all you can to let them?Read Related ArticlesBaby Steps to Meritocracy