RANDOM 206. Lord, save me from a religious spirit.

That castigating, hell-prescribing condemnatory spirit that lacks understanding of the sacredness of life, and therefore cannot love those who don't know you yet.

The spirit of Pharisaism that lacks empathy and compassion. It elevates the letter of the law above the mercy of God.

The spirit that cannot appreciate the concept of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but believes that salvation is a co-effort between you and us, and salvation is based on human morality.

The spirit that values the quotation of scriptures above understanding of scriptures.

The spirit that suspends intellect for dogma, cannot be Berean, examining what is taught from the pulpit.

The spirit that does not recognise that spiritual growth takes time. It castigates the crawling young Christian.

The spirit of unforgiveness and self-righteousness. Let me be humble.

The spirit that thrives in the spreading of fear among those that are saved concerning their destiny in Christ.

The spirit that calls down fire at the slightest provocation, demonstrating a lack of understanding of your covenant of grace and mercy, and a temperamental flaw.

The spirit that elevates the word of a spiritual leader above the word of God. The spirit of dogma.

The spirit of a closed mind that puts a blanket ban on understanding of knowledge - be it of science, business, philosophy, and other disciplines. It sees science as counter faith.

The spirit that cannot see good or beauty in others, and cannot rejoice at the success of others. Every beautiful woman has a seducing spirit. Conjectural infamy is used to explain away the success of a fellow Christian in the business world.

Leke Alder

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

We all dream of living a careless life, devoid of brooding and depression. However, there is always something out there coming out very unexpectedly and making us stressed out. And we forget what does a happy life feels like. All in all, every one of us just fiercely desires to be happy and successful. That’s all that we need – seeing our family delighted, having a successful job, gaining more experience, and the list goes on.

But what exactly can make our lives happier? Let’s look atsimple life-changing habits that we all know of but ignore quite often.

1. Do not complain about things
We humans skilfully integrate complaining and nagging into our daily lives by constantly whining like some naughty kids.

Weather, queues, traffic jams, people around – we complain about everything that exists and doesn’t even exist. We keep going with it because it makes our lives easier, but not happier! It is like finding an excuse instead of actually going and getting what you need. Once you understand the way how this dire wheel of complaining worsens your life, you will be able to develop a more positive perspective about events and people, as well as become grateful for what you luckily have.

2. Let go of the past
Just stop being the victim of the past, instead focus on your here and the now. You can’t undo any things or take your words back, however, you have the opportunity to welcome joy back in your life and make your today better.

There is no point in keeping all the negative memories or holding grudges because in the general picture of your current state it has no sense. Maybe, it was something really worrisome and horrible yesterday but it does not mean you have to keep going with it today. Leaving all of the past unpleasant experiences behind and moving forward with enthusiasm and hope are the key for a happy being. If this one habit you can master, you will see your happiness-meter go up.

3. Change your surrounding
If you are that lucky social butterfly who has an amazing relationship with your family and friends, your life is full of beans for sure. But if you feel like you are not that delightful as you would like to be, probably that’s because of your environment.

Sometimes the people we communicate with, meet or even date affect our state of happiness more than we could ever imagine. And if you notice some detrimental addictive situations with any of your besties, it is time to change your surroundings. Give yourself and your close relatives or friends a little break and see how you feel. This period will let you understand who brings positivity and happiness to you and who is not worth your attention and dedication at all.

4. Smile more
Smile is a physical response of your body expressing happy and enjoyable moments that you experience. And if you try some smiling practice out, you can actually generate even more happiness to your daily life and reduce negativity. That’s an easy trick, however, very effective.

You can simply wear a real sincere smile, not fake or strange one, thus maintaining an elevated mood and well-being for the whole day or week. You shouldn’t be feeling like a psycho because it is really healthy and funny experience that might make you more adaptable to stress situations or some hardships. In fact, you will be better able to pursue the things you want if you wear that genuine smile on your face. This should be actually the first habit you can start working on.

Train yourself to become as happier as possible out of small and sometimes unreasonable things, then the positive energy inside of you will know no boundaries. So, more smiling, less worrying.

5. Spend time in nature
Last but not least on this list is the habit of spending time in nature. Thousands of people will tell you that it is the most efficient advice of all because our mood is closely dependable on environmental changes. Respectively, becoming closer to nature will help you soothe anxiety and relieve stress. If you are surrounded by wild animals near the swamp or river, you will 100% feel really refreshed and rejuvenated. And there is no much time to it, just 15-20 minutes a day in the fresh air and you will start feeling relaxed. Either after long and difficult working hours or nerve-wracking studying – what could be better for resetting your body and mind after this if not nature?

In any case, you have to remember that you are the only one responsible for saving the positive atmosphere and maintaining happiness in your life. Nobody else can help you out. If you find that harmony inside of you by following the above-mentioned tips, you will be on cloud nine. Accepting reality and stop regretting or connecting with new people and being closer to nature. Whatever path you choose, these habits will unavoidably lead you to happiness.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or a student, or just someone who wants to have a productive lifestyle, the first and foremost thing to learn is time management.

We all are blessed with 24 hours a day. While some can be couch potatoes and feel that time flies in a second, some others can seal more than one deal, finish a chapter, or learn new skills in the same 24 hours.

However, some want to be productive and yet feel like time doesn’t favor them. In reality, they haven’t learned to save time ultimately. If you are one of them, here are seven ways to save time and make the most of your day.

Make A Structure Of Your Free Time
Structuring your free time seems pointless since you will not be doing any work. But that doesn’t mean your free time cannot be productive. People tend to stay motivated and focused on the workplace because of the presence of a work structure.

Although you would like to spend your free time freely, the downside of doing so is that you will lose focus of time spending or spend it doing pointless stuff. Structuring your time, on the other hand, will give you direction and purpose. This will provide you with something to stay motivated and focused or even help you understand your free time value.

Keep a Diary Of Time Details
Like they say, time flies, you can hardly keep track of it. But keeping a time diary on what you spend your time gives you an insight. You can see what things impact your productivity in the right way and what things negatively impact it. Knowing the same will lead you to make decisions regarding how you can make better use of time.

A time diary helps you see patterns of time spent, keeps you from spending time on low low-leverage stuff, enables you to focus on priorities, etc.

ind Out Your Priorities
Every person is unique, and so is the time they spent. Some people may work hard for a successful career or career growth in general. At the same time, some others want to invest more in family time. But the critical question is, which one is you?

The Life Hype recommends taking your time to think about which part of life is more important for you and invest your time accordingly. People sometimes go with the flow and hardly know if they are working towards their priorities, often losing valuable time and not getting any work done.

Understand Why 24 Hours Is Not Much
If you think about it, the activities and things you do, 24 hours shouldn’t be less for you. If an average person spends 7-8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working, 1+1 hours for eating and chores in the house – it leaves only 6 hours for the activities you want to do.

This realization of having only a little time for your other commitments will remind you how important time is and how you have to be strict about spending it every once in a while. This will remind you to say ‘no’ to things that are not taking you anywhere and continuously drive you to make the most of the time.

Focus On High-Leverage Activities
The 80/20 rule is quite popular, and it says that you can work 20% and yet gain 80% success. But it also depends on what work you do in that 20% so that you get 80%. Every activity is either high leverage or low leverage.

Some people might only focus on low-leverage activities like watching the TV, which unbeknownst to ourselves take away a considerable part of our time. However, investing the same time in reading a book, meditating, exercising can provide fruitful results when the time is right.

Don’t Over Work
The right approach isn’t how much you are doing but the quality of work you are doing. Take Apple, for example. They are one of the most successful companies, and they have only a few product lines.
You can take a similar approach to your life. You can do fewer things and yet have a productive lifestyle.

Pack Your Lunch in Advance
While you’re busy with your schedule and work structure, you hardly remember about your lunch. But when it’s time, whether you are a slow eater or fast eater, you end up spending more than 1 hour for lunch. One of the common reasons why it happens is because you spend half the time planning your lunch.

The right approach is to plan your lunch and pack a cold lunch in advance so that you can take a small break during lunch.

Bottom line
Time management skills are not something you will pick up in a week. You will need to practice it regularly to make it a habit until it becomes your lifestyle.

Everyone has a different definition of success and what it means to them. Some seek wealth, others seek a loving relationship and for a few people, success is about leaving a legacy and making an impact on the world. Whether the impression that we leave on the world is large or small, everything positive that we help others experience is of equal value.

For those individuals who really want to dedicate themselves to helping others or making a difference, the following methods can be used to achieve these goals. Hopefully, they will inspire or help you to leave your own impactful legacy.

1. Consider an Altruistic Profession
One of the most common ways for people to make a difference is by adopting a profession that allows them to help others or change the world. There are a host of different jobs out there that allow you to do this, covering all manner of different skill sets and proficiencies so that no matter what you’re interested in, there is probably an altruistic job for you.

The most common choices in this category are healthcare and public service jobs. Doctors, nurses and social carers all dedicate their lives to helping others when they are at their most vulnerable which no doubt makes a difference. Similarly, firemen save lives every day and teachers live their lives educating the next generation to help further humanity. Even beyond these choices, engineers and scientists continually develop ways of generating energy without damaging the planet, whilst politicians aim to introduce policies that help millions to live easier, more comfortable lives. All of these positions all individuals to leave a lasting impact on the world and on the people around them.

2. Complete a Daily Random Act of Kindness
For those that won’t be able to change career comfortably or don’t feel that they have the aptitude for the role that they dream of doing, there are still other ways you can help others. Random acts of kindness are by far the easiest way to bring a little bit of warmth and happiness into the lives of others and, if you spent your whole life doing this, there’s no doubt that you will help tens of thousands of people.

Random acts of kindness can vary greatly depending on the situation. They can be simple behaviors like helping an old lady cross the road or carrying some shopping for someone, as well as kind words like telling a stranger that you like their outfit to boost their confidence. Often, random acts of kindness, whilst seemingly small, can have some of the biggest impacts when delivered to the right people.

3. Charitable Giving
Finally, we have doing our bit and giving to charity. If your financial situation allows it, regularly giving to charity can really add meaning to your own life whilst helping or saving countless others. In Islam, they call this Sadaqah Jariyah, the idea of giving continuous charity to support those most vulnerable throughout your life. By taking time and resources out of your own life to help others, it can bring a positive element to everything you do, helping boost your mood on a day-to-day basis.

Additionally, charitable giving allows you to support whatever cause you are truly passionate about. There are charities out there helping almost every type of person from almost every type of background and in almost every location, assisting you in making a difference where you really want to.

Whilst these three techniques are not the only ways for an individual to bring meaning or impact on their life, they are some of the most common and effective.

Hopefully, this has inspired you to find your own way to help others throughout your life.

“Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?”
—Socrates

Often in life, we witness testing times where we are stuck in a dilemma of choosing between what’s easy and what’s right. That is exactly when we face tough decisions using our conscience.

We should be goal-oriented and focused in life, but that shouldn’t come at the cost of our ethics. A successful person is not someone who amasses only an incredible amount of wealth, but someone who lives by his set principles in life and doesn’t get disillusioned by the wealth so much to indulge in rogue practices. A truly successful life is striking the right balance between a professional and spiritual life.

Is it even a success that doesn’t allow us to sleep peacefully at night? It is crucial to achieve our goals but how we go about achieving them is also no less important.

Today we live in a world where morality doesn’t grab any attention. Matters of ethics and spirituality are neglected amid cut-throat competition. Human beings hardly ponder over their day-to-day activities or take some time to introspect about their chosen path to attain their set goals.

Having clear and effective work-life ethics helps arrive at better decisions and enriches our lives by making them less stressful. While there are many personal and work-life ethics, significantly crucial ones must be incorporated like honesty, integrity, self-respect, respect for others, empathy, compassion, etc.

There are many benefits of leading a work-oriented ethical lifestyle.

Helps prioritize our goals: Having a clear roadmap for our goals leads to advancement in our career. It gives a fillip to our professional life through proper planning.
Enhances leadership quality: A leader is someone who leads others by example. When we are clear about our goals, we can undoubtedly motivate others around us to confide in us.
Effective goal-setting: It helps us to have a clear vision about long and short term goals, our inclination towards various opportunities and our will towards achieving them.
Leads to a balanced life: A person who trusts his instincts and makes the right decisions in life has nothing to fear and lives life to the fullest. A work-oriented ethical lifestyle helps us achieve the right balance in life, driving away stress and workload.
Increased credibility among colleagues: When a person stands by what is right at the workplace, his colleagues can confide in him, leading to increased credibility and cooperation, making it conducive for the team to work towards their goals.
The moral reasoning behind reaching our goals through ethics also implies doing the right thing at the right time at the right place. This mantra, if followed religiously, will not only lead to an enriched lifestyle, both socially and personally but also a productive life that perhaps every professional or student desires.

Never neglect the ethical consequences of goal setting because it impacts our overall psychology. It is the mind and its well-being that matter. Therefore, it must be our continuous pursuit to focus on our goals besides relentlessly working towards enhancing our personality by incorporating value-adding ethics and principles in our lives.

According to a new study, people who accept their negative emotions have better psychological health.
Pressure to feel upbeat can make you feel downbeat, while embracing your darker moods can actually make you feel better in the long run, according to a new study out of UC Berkeley.

“We found that people who habitually accept their negative emotions experience fewer negative emotions, which adds up to better psychological health,” said study senior author Iris Mauss, an associate professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.

© Yasmin Anwar and Melani King
The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, tested the link between emotional acceptance and psychological health in more than 1,300 adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area.

The results suggest that people who commonly resist acknowledging their darkest emotions, or judge them harshly, can end up feeling more psychologically stressed.

By contrast, those who generally allow such bleak feelings as sadness, disappointment, and resentment to run their course report fewer mood disorder symptoms than those who critique them or push them away, even after six months.

“It turns out that how we approach our own negative emotional reactions is really important for our overall well-being,” said study lead author Brett Ford, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. “People who accept these emotions without judging or trying to change them are able to cope with their stress more successfully.”

Three separate studies were conducted on various groups both in the lab and online, and factored in age, gender, socioeconomic status, and other demographic variables.

“It’s easier to have an accepting attitude if you lead a pampered life, which is why we ruled out socioeconomic status and major life stressors that could bias the results,” Mauss said.

In the first study, more than 1,000 participants filled out surveys rating how strongly they agreed with such statements as “I tell myself I shouldn’t be feeling the way that I’m feeling.” Those who, as a rule, did not feel bad about feeling bad showed higher levels of well-being than their less-accepting peers.

Then, in a laboratory setting, more than 150 participants were tasked with delivering a three-minute videotaped speech to a panel of judges as part of a mock job application, touting their communication skills and other relevant qualifications. They were given two minutes to prepare.

After completing the task, participants rated their emotions about the ordeal. As expected, the group that typically avoids negative feelings reported more distress than their more-accepting peers.

In the final study, more than 200 people journaled about their most taxing experiences over a two-week period. When surveyed about their psychological health six months later, the diarists who typically avoided negative emotions reported more mood disorder symptoms than their nonjudgmental peers.

At this point, researchers can only speculate on why accepting your joyless emotions can defuse them, like dark clouds passing swiftly in front of the sun and out of sight.

“Maybe if you have an accepting attitude toward negative emotions, you’re not giving them as much attention,” Mauss said. “And perhaps, if you’re constantly judging your emotions, the negativity can pile up.”

Next, researchers plan to look into such factors as culture and upbringing to better understand why some people are more accepting of emotional ups and downs than others.

“By asking parents about their attitudes about their children’s emotions, we may be able to predict how their children feel about their emotions, and how that might affect their children’s mental health,” Mauss said.

Success is the thing of the mind

Manchester City granted 'green light' to outpace Liverpool in £50m Martin Zubimendi transfer pursuit.

Manchester City have received a potential boost in their pursuit of Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi. Recent reports indicate that City are eyeing the Spanish international for a January transfer. Liverpool had shown strong interest in Zubimendi over the summer, but he chose to stay with Sociedad at least until the New Year.

An injury to City’s defensive midfielder Rodri, who is expected to miss the remainder of the season with an ACL injury, has fueled speculation that City may seek midfield reinforcements in January. Rodri has expressed hope of returning before the season ends, but City’s need for cover remains pressing.

Zubimendi reportedly declined a summer move to Liverpool, preferring to stay with his childhood club. However, recent updates suggest he’s now open to leaving La Liga in favor of the Premier League. According to The Sun, this shift has prompted City to closely monitor Zubimendi’s situation, with the club prepared to meet his £50.3 million release clause in the upcoming transfer window. Whether Liverpool will renew their interest in January remains uncertain after their unsuccessful attempt in the summer.

This season, Zubimendi has been a consistent presence for Sociedad, featuring in 16 games, scoring one goal, and providing two assists. He has played the full 90 minutes in all but one of his appearances, reinforcing his importance to the team.