Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear

Press Release: Author and Harvard Professor Explains How to Turn Good Intentions into Actions

January 9th, 2011

Author and Harvard Professor Explains How to Turn Good Intentions into Actions

Dr. Srini Pillay shares 10 tips from his latest book, Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear

Cambridge, MA (Vocus/PRWEB) January 09, 2011

 

This year, you resolve to actually keep your resolutions. But fast forward to March and the plan to go to the gym regularly is off the table, you and your spouse have not resolved your issues and the alarm just went off to start another day at the same old job you were determined to leave.

Dr. Srinivasan Pillay, a Harvard assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, brain imaging researcher and author of Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear (Rodale 2010) believes you have the best chance if you understand some key biological realities.

How can you turn those sincere intentions into actions?

In terms of living your best life, here are his Top 10 tips:

• Things that seem impossible may only be imperceptible. Often the pot of gold you are seeking lies on the other side of the mountain and you simply cannot see it from where you are standing. Move your perspective!
• The law of attraction is not simply about being a magnet — it is about giving your brain the right instructions so that it knows what to look for. Never let your fears stand in the way of what you want. Shakespeare said, “Fortune favors the bold.” And racing great Mario Andretti said, “If everything is under control, you’re probably not going fast enough.”
• The absence of fear when you face your goals is a physiological impossibility. The fear circuit in the brain is always on." Instead, what matters is where you direct your attention. That is why it is often said that life is not what happens to you but the way in which you interact with life: your attitude.
• Living your best life is not necessarily about giving in to all your impulses now. According to Pillay, it is about doing the most intelligent thing for you. If it is a long-term relationship you are seeking, giving in to your libido sometimes sends the wrong messages to your brain. “You are not bad for giving in to such impulses, but you may not be cultivating the matching brain attitude that will get you where you want to go,” says Pillay.
• Depression is an illusory way to avoid mortality. It keeps you stuck but actually frees you from nothing but the fear of engaging in life. To live your best life now, you have to learn how to roll with the punches.
• Success in life is not about falling. Winners fall all the time. The difference is — winners also pick themselves up and rather than wasting time on blaming themselves for the fall, they focus on realigning themselves with their goals.
• Abandon the negative. If we waste most of our energy on fear and avoidance, what’s left will hardly be enough to find a solution. Learning how to abandon negative thoughts is critical to living your best life now. According to Pillay, “My favourite way of doing this relates to the song by Snoop Dogg: "Drop it like it’s hot." When you find yourself inundated with a negative thought, drop the thought like it’s hot.”
• Living your best life is different from living your perfect life. “Your best life is only perfect when you learn to forgive yourself for your mistakes,” says Pillay.
• Nobody ever achieved anything by not believing. The absence of prior evidence is essential for any discovery. To truly live a remarkable life of discovery, you have to be prepared to believe that things DO happen for the first time.
• According to Pillay, don’t visualize only yourself when imagining your resolutions. “For example, if you want to lose weight, don’t just try to see yourself thinner, as most people do See the needle on the scale shifting.. If you want to leave work, see the front door as you leave. Brain scans show us that if we visualize in this way, we can dramatically activate the “doing” centers of our brain.”

For more sage advice, visit http://www.srinipillay.com/