Phoenix Education

Step 1 – Listen Actively

You might be a good listener. But are you an active listener? Do you just sit there with a blank expression and take in everything that’s being said?

An active listener uses body language, facial expressions, and eye movement to let the person speaking know that they’re engaged and present. They are truly and deeply listening.

You use open-ended questions to try to get more information from the speaker. Active listening uses anything at your disposal to get the speaker to share more information. You communicate to that person that their feelings are understood.

A Simple 3-Step Process to Practice More Empathy

An empathetic person can identify with what someone else is experiencing. They may have had the same experience before. This isn’t necessary to practice empathy. You might just be very good at putting yourself in another person’s mindset.

Someone tells you they lost their job. They’re going through so many different negative emotions. They’re concerned about their mortgage payment and other financial issues.

A person that loses a dream job could start wondering what happened. It took them a long time to get the job they always wanted. They might have been great employees. Then something occurred that was out of their control. Perhaps the company went bankrupt.

This individual could start questioning his own role in the failure of the company. A ton of different negative emotions might be experienced. The empathetic person can fully embrace the emotions the other person is going through even if they’ve never lost a job before.

You might want to help your friends and family members by displaying more empathy. You care about them and want to help them when they’re in need. If that’s the case, simply put into practice the following three-step technique for showing empathy.

Have a Great Day!

Techniques That Stop Anger in its Tracks – 2.

Do Something Grand

Take your anger and turn it into activism. How can you use this to change the world? Sign (or start!) a petition. Volunteer. Get involved in the community and make the world a better place.

Write About It

Journaling can help you to work through your emotions in a way that might even help prevent you from getting mad the next time around. Understanding what it was about the event which triggered you will help reshape the trigger entirely.

Switch Perspective

It can be hard to use empathy when you’re upset. But if you can see things from their perspective, it might help you to calm your response. Many times, anger comes from misunderstanding the situation.

Forgive

This technique falls under expert level of anger management. By being the bigger person and forgiving the other, you’ll find you no longer have reason to be mad at all.

The key to all of these is simple: don’t let anger take control. The last thing you need is for you to fall under the power of negative emotion. Use the anger to make a better place or let it go entirely. In the end, you’ll be happier you did.

Techniques That Stop Anger in its Tracks – 1

You can’t believe they did it. Of all people, turning on you this way. You want to react in kind, drawing on the anger flowing through you to lash out. Make the other person hurt every bit as much as you do right now.

Wait a minute. You can’t. You’re not that person. You don’t want to BE that person. You’re better than this.

But how do you stop anger in its tracks before it gets the best of you?

Take a Walk

The physical act of walking will burn off some of the adrenaline while getting outside, giving you a distracting change in scenery. And it works even better if you’re walking away from the object of your anger. Sometimes all you need is some space.

Pay Attention to your Muscles!

Like walking, exercise is good. Also, anger tends to tighten you up, so a good stretch, or even better practicing progressive muscle relaxation, will knock the tension out.

Say Something

Choose a pet phrase or mantra which calms you. Say it several times, slowly, and deliberately to put your focus elsewhere.

Visualization

Escape somewhere else. Remove yourself from the situation that has made you mad and find a quiet place where you can visualize something peaceful. Build in as much detail as you can to make it as real as possible. Stay in this vision until you feel yourself start to calm down.

5 Techniques for Using Affirmations to Enhance Your Relationship

Affirmations are powerful positive statements. You may be aware of them as a tool for self-improvement or to help you reach your goals. Did you know that affirmations can help improve your relationships with your partner, family, friends, and even your colleagues?

By choosing your words carefully and meaningfully, you can improve relationships in every area of your life.

Show Empathy

You can use affirmations to show the other person that you see their feelings and acknowledge them. Affirmations can be used as a component of active listening. Listen to what they are saying, without interruption, and when you do speak, you reflect on what they said to you. You acknowledge where they are and give them space to vent or celebrate or just get their message across.

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

The key to showing empathy is to make sure you don’t contradict or negate their feelings. Don’t offer advice or give a contrary opinion. Just stand with them in their space.

Be Authentic

Make sure your affirmations come from a place of sincerity. Don’t say things you don’t mean. Keep your affirming messages to the point and focused on the other person.

Affirmations that are economical with the truth or speak out of character will undermine your relationship, not build it. Make sure you speak from the heart. And you don’t have to use flowery language, just be nice.

Tell Your Loved Ones They’re Loved

Saying I love you early in a relationship is easy. But as time goes on, it’s easy to let endearments slide. Get into the habit of telling your partner, your children, your family, your friends how much you love them. Don’t take it for granted that they feel loved, make sure they know it!

Say Thank You

When was the last time you said thank you for a home-cooked meal? Or for proofreading your job application? Or even for taking the garbage out?

No act of kindness should go unacknowledged. Show your family and friends and colleagues that you appreciate what they do for you. Affirm their role in your life.

Give Public Praise

Sometimes the best affirmations come in the form of public acknowledgment. Give credit where it’s due to your team members, your partner, and your kids. Show them you’re grateful and proud of them. Make it a point to acknowledge the extra effort and exceptional achievements.

Have a Positive week!

Final 10 ideas to boost traffic – 41 to 50

The aim of this blog is to help people on their journey to make a living Online. I am constantly searching and researching for articles I can share. One of the recent pages I came across was this piece of PLR called ‘50 ways to boost traffic’. I suppose I could have put all 50 down at once, though I think that would be too confusing. Too many ideas delivered all at once can just lead to procrastination – where do I start syndrome.

Instead I’ve decided to put them out 10 at a time. Choose at least one each time and work on it!

Sign up for HARO.com to be interviewed by reporters. One featured article can lead to lots of new traffic.
Stop using the same boring signature. Change it up to give people a reason to visit your site.
Submit your product or podcast to producthunt.com. If it’s added to their daily list, your traffic will increase.
To increase traffic and sales, create special offers and submit them to ‘Deal’ sites.
Use Skype on a regular basis? Include your site URL in your status to give yourself a traffic boost.
Use tools like Buffer.com and MeetEdgar.com to re-share your content and help grow your traffic.
Want to boost traffic? Start your own weekly (or monthly) podcast channel & ask others to promote it.
Webinars are a fun way to boost traffic. Pick a topic, invite your audience, and ask them to invite their friends.
Write quality, honest product reviews for companies in your niche. They’ll likely share it with their readers.
Your email list can drastically increase site traffic if you share relevant information they can use.

Next 10 ways to boost traffic – 31 to 40

Instead I’ve decided to put them out 10 at a time. Choose at least one each time and work on it!

Join LinkedIn groups related to your target audience. Share content with them to get more traffic.
JV with other businesses to sell/give away a mega-pack of products. Everyone will get a boost in traffic.
Local Meetups is a great way to showcase your expertise and it’s a good traffic building method too.
Looking to boost your local traffic? Host a community workshop & invite a guest speaker or two.
Offer to guest speak at conferences. You could gain more than just an increase in traffic.
People love images. If you have some good visuals, post them on Pinterest with links back to your site.
Post snippets of videos you created to social sites. Include a CTA directing viewers to your site.
Publish an Amazon eBook – for free or paid – to give your site a boost in traffic.
Repurpose content into slideshows and share on SlideShare to increase traffic to your site.
Sharing images is a great way to increase traffic. Submit them to photo sharing sites & include your URL.

50 ways to boost traffic – 21 to 30

Instead I’ve decided to put them out 10 at a time. Choose at least one each time and work on it!

Going on vacation? Send an email to subscribers letting them know and give them something to read while you’re away.
Have a new product or story to share? Write a press release. It’s a great way to boost traffic.
Have each staff member include a link to something on your site (besides the homepage) in their signature.
Host live streaming videos. Mention your site and relevant content to increase traffic.
Hosting a conference (online or off) is a great way to get free traffic. Invite guest speakers to attend.
How To videos are super popular. Post them on YouTube & include your URL for added traffic.
Increase traffic by getting interviewed on podcasts about topics relevant to your business.
Increase traffic with Quora. Add your website URL to your profile and answer relevant questions.
Infographics are not only educational; they can also drive traffic to your site. Just include your URL.
Interview influencers in your industry. They’re likely to share it with their lists, giving you a traffic boost.