Exposed! The Brands You Choose Reveals the Real You
July 2nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
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In his book called “Emotional Branding : How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge”, Daryl Travis takes a look at the emotional side of business and explains that a brand name is an emotional symbol.
In order to tap into the methodology needed to make this emotional connection between brand and customer requires a little intuitive thinking.
Cars are a perfect example of how the myth of a brand works on the buying public. If traveling from one place to another was simply all there was to it, why are there so many makes and models of vehicles available? The price does factor into the equation, however there is also something else going on.
How does a BMW or Jaguar make you feel? Why does a Jeep scream adventure or a Porsche precision? Each form of transportation we choose really does say something about us because of the emotional connection we make with that brand.
Branded by Geography
The concept of emotional branding stretches even further to include such things such as geography. We are often branded by others based upon the State we live in.I’m branded a “Californian” and handled appropriatly according to how people see Californians to be. When I travel out of the country I am branded an American and treated accordingly. The same also applies to cities. As an example, my wife and I were shopping in an exclusive shop in downtown San Francisco, while chatting with a very nice, talkative cashier we let it be known that we were from the “East Bay” (which does not share the same status of San Francisco). The cashier’s nose instantly shot to the air and the cordial pleasantries stopped.
Class Distinction and Branding
This notion of associating tangible products with intangible emotions reminds me of what Paul Fussell stated in his 1983 publication “Class, A Guide Through the American Status System”. In it he describes that while the idea of class distinction may be seen by some as an adverse comment on American life, it is nonetheless present whether we care to admit it or not.
The application of class distinction is a universal concept. Regardless of the culture, there are those with more power and more money than others. Even among the wealthy there are even further class distinctions.
“Social class” cannot really be defined. It’s similar to the idea of what makes something “obscene”. Like Justice Potter Stewart, we as individuals can’t exactly draw the line, “but we know it when we see it”. Class distinction is not just determined by wealth but more importantly by the whole image an individual reveals about themselves.
Try As You Might, You Just Can’t Hide
Everything in our life divulges information about who we really are. From where we live, to the place we work, the clothes we wear, the car we drive and even how we talk. Incidentally, a business that helps students increase their reading skill used this idea within their own business slogan: “People judge us by the words we use.” You know them as: “Hooked On Phonics”.
You are familiar with the saying: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” However, it could be said that the insurance industry earns huge profits by “judging covers”. They are not interested in opening our pages to discover what we are all about. On the surface it may appear that their method of gauging risk is based on prejudiced. If you’re a 32 year old male, living in a rural area your car insurance will be lower than if you were an 18 year old living in the city. If your city has a population of 100,000 people you will pay more than a city with only 10,000 people. Owning a Volks Wagen would ensure lower insurance rates than if you owned a Rolls Royce. Insurance companies are in business to make a profit. By using accurate statistics they are guaranteed the profits they seek.
Insurance companies are not alone. Even you think in terms of category function that promote expectations and behavior. You have an opinion (we all do) and because of it you are biased. If you reject peaches that are bruised, you are discriminating and practicing segregation by selecting peaches that do not have bruises. To be acurate, you have a assumption that soft spots on fruit are bad. It is who you are that determines what you do and what products you bring home all based on category thinking.
Branding also has the same function, designed to promote expectations and hopefully, positive behavior such as purchasing. The Porsche is the brand name that promotes: Precision Engineering. The brand name Budweiser promotes: Here’s to you America, for being strong, for coming through. The brand creates a myth designed to resonate with their target market. Marketing is all about connecting you with the myth in the hopes of directing your behavior.
The simple conclusion to all of this is: What we do, and what we have are all inseparable from who we are.
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A Long Look at The Cosmic Ordering Service!
June 29th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Thanks to a recent spike in publicity, the last few years have seen an ever growing number of people showing an interest in the cosmic ordering service. Additionally, many are now realizing the potential benefits.
With many celebrity endorsements, now it seems everyone wants a piece of the action. But does it only work for celebrities? What chance does the average person have of successfully using the cosmic ordering service?
In fact theoretically it works for everyone, but people who have not been successful do not realize that they are subconsciously sabotaging their cosmic order. You see whatever you think will happen really does happen!
The cosmic ordering service is available to everyone to use. The service gives you whatever is desired. People say though that they did not request to be ill, ask to be broke (money wise), and unhappy and they would be saying a true statement.
The stumbling block is that they thought it would occur. When you think in negatives the Universe can’t understand you. When you think in your mind that you don’t want to be broke the Universe can’t understand the wording don’t. It only understands the words want and broke which makes it sound like you are concentrating on being broke!
Make that statement say I am rich in all ways wealth materially, happiness, and health. This way you accentuate the positive and the Universe can tune in on that. This is because you are talking about something you want rather than not want.
This is the area that many fail when they make affirmations or attempt to think positive. They see themselves as they are, not as they could be, and reaffirm their station in life instead of affirming the spot they should be and believing they are already received their cosmic order.
Life brings to us the belief systems of others. The kids in the third grade that teased you because you were fat, skinny, had glasses or didn’t wear the best clothes changed the belief that you have for yourself.
Children should grow up with not only support but understand that they do deserve anything they desire. But a child is told instead not to want a large quantity of stuff. Kids are told that it is almost evil to want things unless you do back breaking work for them and on top of everything then you still need to say why you should have the goody!
This is all wrong. There is more than enough for everyone. The fact that you exist means you’re allowed to order. You cannot take from others. This actually negates the system.
You may believe you have to snare someone else’s wealth to have enough of what you desire, If you think this way you will just enforce the negative side of the belief. This states that everyone has more than you do and that you do not have any wealth. In place of this rejoice for the others and acknowledge that there is plenty of wealth to go around to all.
The human brain can move a quark, the smallest particle we know of, simply by sending out waves of energy. This is not theory, but rather a fact which has been proven by modern science. Positive thinking releases positive energy and positive energy, gets positive results.
You can’t just say magical phrases and redo your old beliefs and patterns. You need to totally throw those negative beliefs and patterns away! They have a way of staying put in your mind with a firm hold; you need to utilize your tools to chase them out of your mind.
The tools are affirmations, subliminal suggestion, binaural frequency waves, and self-hypnosis, thy travel right past the portion of the brain that logic is and stops in the area where belief is and that is named the subconscious. They all help to caste out your old beliefs that hinder your ability to fully appreciate the cosmic order system to its fullest extent to get your desires.
You can control your destiny by ordering exactly what you want. You have to be strong enough to believe that you’ll get it. Use techniques that help you reinforce your belief that the cosmic ordering system gives you everything you desire.
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Improving Memory and Reducing Fatigue in your Elderly Parents
June 28th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
A few tips for reducing stress in dealing with elderly parents helping with improving memory is what this article is about. Elderly parents can be a medical challenge and a lot of stress for the children. In fact some elderly parents seem to think life is about having the best doctors and their self worth is actually determined by the number of doctors and specialists that they see–a subject that deserves it’s own article.
My mother started having symptoms of fatigue along with an irritable stomach and bowel twenty years ago. I took her to a reputable iridologist (reads the iris of your eyes) who made dietary adjustments (removed fruit and sweets from her diet) and started her on various supplements. Seems that my mother’s diet got skewed–she prefers fruit to protein and after several years of overdoing it with fruit, it fueled her symptoms.
The dietary change and nutritional supplements got her back to normal for a few years until she once again began abusing her diet with coconut syrup and fruit. The symptoms were very similar to what she had before. By now the iridologist had moved away and I have to find another iridologist or a new physician for her. I didn’t live with my mother so I wasn’t privy to her diet but suspected her symptoms were diet related. She, on the other hand, was certain she had some kind of infection similar to what her mother died from fifteen years before.
Finally I found a doctor and took her for weekly visits. It was a twenty minute trip and I soon became frustrated. To cut to the chase I began sitting in on the visits and within two visits it became evident that my mother had a severe case of Candida Albicans. I guided the doctor to have her remove sweets, coconut syrup and fruit and within a month she was feeling better once again.
Three years later, my mother’s symptoms returned along with a urinary tract infection. The doctor we had seen was no longer in practice and we had to find another one. He was young and I hoped would be nutritionally oriented–he wasn’t. He ordered a ton of tests–upper and lower GI track which showed nothing. He treated her for the urinary tract infection with an antibiotic (as I expected) and she responded by having panic attack in addition to all her other symptoms. Ultimately he decided she was suffering from depression and prescribed Prozac. She became more fatigued with more episodes of panic and continued stomach problems. I didn’t sit in on these sessions and in hind sight wish I had.
I suggested she look at her diet and again she was convinced she had an infection and needed to be hospitalized. In time she became frustrated with the depression diagnosis and we went searching for a nutritionally oriented physician. This time I decided I would accompany her in every session. With my direction, the doctor ordered tests to once again confirm the presence of Candida Albicans. Six months and a dozen doctor visits later, my mother’s panic symptoms were gone along with all stomach and GI track issues. However, the fatigue continued even after many nutritional supplements and chelation therapy with EDTA.
My mother stayed away from sugar to the extent she believed herself to be diabetic–for a while, but her energy never returned.
Another year or two passed and her diet again shifted to carbohydrates in the form of fruits and cookies from the health food store. The fatigue worsened and her stomach symptoms again reappeared. She wouldn’t listen to my dietary advice as she was certain she had this mortal infection. I met with her doctor privately before her session and shared my point of view regarding her diet–he agreed. During the visit he questioned her about her diet. She was eating primarily carbohydrates with no vegetables and little protein. He “read her the riot act.” She began adding veggies and protein and began feeling better.
Her regular doctor wasn’t available for her next med check (Armor Thyroid) and she saw one of the other affiliates in the same office. She refused to go back to the doctor who read her the “riot act”, began telling everyone how bad a doctor he was, and she continued being fatigued.
Her new doctor was new to the field of medicine and easy to work with. I suggested a test for Lyme disease and he concurred. We ordered a test from Central Florida Research Center at 1200 S. Pinellas Ave., Units 11 & 12, Tarpoon Springs, Florida 34689 (Phone # 863-956-3538). Chronic Lyme disease often shows up negative with standard tests. The lab uses microscopy and finds it when it’s often missed by standard laboratory techniques. Sure enough the tests came back positive and antibiotics were started.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t tolerate the antibiotics nor the naturopathic remedy of cat’s claw to replace antibiotics. About this time she met a man who recently lost his wife. She had an obvious renewed interest in life and with a fairly strict diet her energy returned–love conquers all.
With the passing of time, for various ridiculous reasons, she didn’t allow the romance to develop–fearful of what others would say. Nothing I could say would make a difference–her limitations are owned by her and her alone which could be the subject of another article.
Feeling much better, her diet began expanding to include more fruit and carbohydrates and within six months I took her to emergency at the hospital. Again she was certain she hada mortal infection and was discharged after a half dozen negative tests.
Now, you’d think that with all her past experience with diet, she’d be open to getting back to a healthy diet. However, her memory was significantly compromised. she had trouble remembering anything for more than a few minutes–a symptom of Lyme disease.
Again, I worked with her doctor in shifting her diet away from carbohydrates. But what’s left to eat? She dislikes meat of any kind (especially fish) and thinks eating two broccoli crowns a week is adequate.
At wits end, I ordered a Vita Mix and began making her a drink comprising of a clove of garlic, a red beet, stalk of celery, and a carrot with a cup of water. I told her doctor of my plan and he suggested I add protein powder, Pro Biotics and Intestinal Support with L-Glutamine (nutrients for the intestinal track), I went one step further and added a dropper of cat’s claw (for the Lyme disease).
After six weeks of shifting her diet towards meat protein and daily vegetable drinks her memory improved dramatically and even in the absence of romance, her energy returned.
Instead of wanting to see her doctor every day for relief, she now looks forward to her daily vegetable drink–a quart a day.
I suggest that if you want the best of care for your elderly parents and reduce your own stress accompany them in the visits with the doctor, look at their diet to make sure it’s not lopsided (older folks regress to child like preferences), and the drink I make with a Vita Mix will be healthy for every one–you as well as your parents.
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What Does An Anxiety Attack Feel Like? Learn the Most Common Panic Attack Symptoms
June 27th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Believe it or not, over 20 million individuals in the United States alone suffer from panic attacks, but many more are living with this problem and aren’t even aware of it. In fact, panic attacks are one of the most commonly mis-diagnosed health conditions within healthcare.
what are the symptoms of a panic attack? This article will cover the most common symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks, how to tell the difference between this problem and other health conditions that mimic it, as well as the most effective treatments for panic attacks.
Before we talk about what an anxiety attack feels like, though, we first need to briefly talk about what occurs with this problem so the symptoms and treatments make sense.
Within healthcare, an anxiety attack is actually classified as a psychological problem. But this is actually not completely the case, because this problem is actually more of a problem with the nervous system than it is mental.
Stress is the most common trigger, but panic attacks actually occur due to how the person’s nervous system reacts to that stress.
Basically, an individual who suffers with panic attacks experiences a much more intense reaction to what would make most of us nervous. In order to understand this, we need to first have an understanding of the parts of the nervous system that are involved when we experience stress.
They are called the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). Instead of making this boring like a text book, let me tell you a story to clarify how this works.
Let’s say that a bear enters the room as you’re reading this article. Your brain will perceive the bear as stress, because it threatens your life (and I don’t know about you, but I’m a little on the chubby side, so I’d make a pretty good meal for that bear).
Your brain is hard-wired to survive, so at this moment, it has to make a decision – do you run from the bear or fight it? Either way, the body needs to be prepared for this additional activity, so your brain will turn on the Sympathetic Nervous System.
This part of your nervous system prepares your body to either fight or flee – so your blood pressure increases (you need lots of oxygen to the muscles so they can help you run fast or fight), your heart beats faster, you breathe more deeply, and many other things.
Once the bear is gone, the brain turns on the other part of the nervous system that I mentioned (the Parasympathetic Nervous System), which does the opposite – it calms you down.
When an individual suffers with panic attacks, this reaction is intensified – so, their may only be 1 bear in the room, but your brain thinks there’s actually 5 bears. This is where the problem occurs.
So, with that said, what are the symptoms of a panic attack? Well, the symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks are different for each individual, and they can be experienced to different degrees.
Some individuals will have very minor panic attacks, so may not even realize what is occurring. Others have full-blown, very intense attacks that make them believe they may be dying.
Click here (what are the symptoms of a panic attack) to continue reading this article, where you’ll discover the most common symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks, as well as the most effective treatments available for relief from this health problem.
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self confidence training, motivational self improvement & influence skills training
June 27th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
We undersand that there are numerous values that one has to employ in order to take their lives up to the top level of achievement. Contemplating some of the main focus points that are necessary – we see that paying attention to lack of self confidence and really getting the key how to improve self esteem elements into focus in our lives will mean that with a enormous ammounts of surety one will move forward to succeed what they aim to in life. It is quite easy to interview some of the most profitable people who have gone on to achieve wonderful things in life - we see that they have always given a great deal of focus to the level of their improve self confidence as related to personal improvement.
Moving on from considering the scharacteristic of self confidence affirmations, one of the other key values that those around us who are intensely focused on self development is that of methods of perseverance as no matter where we want to go, we will have to face obstacles and making sure that the level of our self improvement and motivation is at the highest levels possible. The people in our midst who have built large and successful organizations are the ones who we can assure have developed high levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation skills which enable them to push through the problems that come in their way when excelling to achieving their goals.
We have talked about the qualities of how to build self esteem and success through a positive mental attitude audio and know that it is the individuals around us and our team that will enable us to accomplish more that we otherwise would have been able to. The values of customer service training is something that that if mastered will work in affiliation with how to increase self confidence and motivation techniques to propel any person forward to the dreams in their minds. As we see more and more people getting involved in personal development we will see that there will be many more information resources on values of contact and relationship marketing, motivational self improvement and lack of self confidence to enable people all over the world to move forward whilst focusing on the key features of personal improvement.
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Managing Stress–Breathing–The First Defense to Manage Stress
June 26th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
The first defense to managing stress is not Tylenol, Motrin…, but instead deep breathing. Caution, if you suffer from panic and anxiety and or agoraphobia, this technique is not recommended until after the symptoms are gone. This is because breathing techniques require internal focusing which is not recommended for anxiety sufferers. For them external relaxation techniques are recommended–see the resource box.
In response to stress, it is normal that our breathing is immediately affected. It becomes shallow and upper chest which is actually part of the defense mechanism. Even that stress relief sigh is usually a tense upper chest unhealthy breadth.
We generally make three basic mistakes in breathing:
- Then when we do take a deep breadth, we force our lungs to expand against our chest putting chest muscles in spasm. This can create chest and back pain.
- Some of us lift our shoulders to take in that deep breadth. It’s called “clavicle breathing” and it contributes to neck and headache.
- We’re so consumed with our appearance that we learn to hold in our stomachs which greatly limits our breathing to the upper chest.
Life is about stress and as we adapt to higher and higher levels of stress from one year to the next, our normal breathing becomes tense. Even as we sleep, we may breathe in a tense manner. The tense breathing also affects our posture, blocks our Chakras–the natural flow of energy through our bodies, and starves the body of much needed oxygen.
No matter what the physical health problem–muscle pain, headaches, back aches… (all direct effects of stress), or disease such as cancer, heart disease… it’s important to address breathing (except for anxiety sufferers as previously noted). The problem is that no one makes any money from deep breathing. No drugs are required so you will not hear an announcement on the radio, “Remember to do your stress reduction deep breathing exercise!”
Look for times during the day when you are feeling stressed, under pressure, in a rush, defensive, tense… It’s during these times that instead of tensing as you normally would, that you instead remember to do your stress relief deep breathing.
And all you have to do to engage your first defense against stress is to consciously become aware of your breathing. Then shift from your upper chest tense breathing consciously to an abdominal breath.
How to take an abdominal breadth—the first defense against stress:
• Let your abdomen and stomach relax.
• Breathe down through your chest into your stomach.
• Let your stomach expand outward.
• Let your chest expand slightly at the end of the breadth.
As you exhale:
• Pull your stomach inward.
• Expel all the air up through your chest.
If you can hear yourself breathe, you are breathing too fast. Ten to twelve breaths per minute is fine. If you feel your shoulders lifting as you inhale, it is a tense breadth. Just let your shoulders be loose and limp as you inhale and exhale. Let your arms hang from your shoulder like rope.
If you have the time, take a class in Yoga breathing to get in some serious breathing. Yoga will provide many healthful benefits.
When to do your deep breathing: Make a list of times during the day when it would be appropriate to take advantage of the deep breathing stress management technique such as:
• Whenever you’re at a red light.
• As you’re waiting for your computer to load a program or shut down.
• Before answering the phone or making a phone call.
• As you listen to someone conversing with you.
• Before eating or drinking.
• Before entering a building or an office.
• Whenever you notice yourself feeling stressed.
• Whenever you can remember to take a deep breadth.
Remember, no one makes money on deep breathing so you will not hear an announcer on the radio reminding you to take your deep breadth exercise to manage stress.
Several deep breathing exercises are available one one inexpensive cd to manage stress, live longer, and even eliminate hyperventilation. Practicing the exercises produces real results. Go to hypnocast.podbean.com/ for the podcast version of this article.
Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E., NGH certified is a prominent figure in the field of stress management. His best selling cds for managing stress are at www.DStressDoc.com and www.PanicBusters.com He aims to raise awareness as to how using basic stress management skills can be used to promote health. To find out more please visit
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