It is difficult to stay positive, when you lose your job and lose your money. At such a time, it is so easy to fall prey to negative thinking and imagining more disasters. Yet, it is at this time that positive thinking becomes so important.

If you let your thoughts become negative, if you feel despair, will this help you in any way? Absolutely not! You may say that the world conditions have changed and you can do nothing about it. You may say you are too old, or too inexperienced to get a new job, and that new jobs are sparse and hard to get. All this might be true, but there have always people who became successful even in difficult times.

You limit yourself by your thoughts, ideas and beliefs. Thoughts can be like shackles, tying you to the ground, and they can be like wings, taking you far away. It is your choice. A better life starts in the mind.

You might not be able to change you circumstances and the world around you, but you can change your inner, mental world. You can choose your thoughts, you can refuse to feel pity for yourself and picture problems and disasters, and you can fill your mind with positive thoughts and mental images.

All changes start in the mind, and you therefore need to change the way you think in order to improve your life. If you keep thinking about your current situation, of having no job and no money, you will get more despondent and unhappy and see more problems, because you focus on them, and do nothing to get out of this situation.

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A few days ago I went to the cinema with my wife and friends, to see the film Slumdog Millionaire. It is an interesting film, and we have enjoyed watching it, but it very different from the usual Hollywood movies.

The plot runs around the show “Who Wants to be a millionaire”, and shows the life story of a simple, uneducated 18 years old orphan from the slums of Mumbay, who takes part in show, and surprisingly has all the correct answers. This raises the suspicion that someone is helping him, and so, while being integrated by the police, he reveals how he knew each answer. The film is built of a series of flashback to the hero’s earlier life, all connected with the right answers to the questions of the show.

Through these flashbacks we learn about Jamal Malik, the hero of the film, about the other characters, and see different aspects of life in India. We are introduced to Jamal and his brother Salim, who became orphans when their mother was killed, and to Latika, another orphan. We see them, as they grow older, engaging in all kinds of jobs, and going through all kinds of situations.

Everything moves very fast in the film, from one scene to another and from one incident to another, not allowing any development of the character and behavior of the heroes’ of the film, yet the plot, sights, sounds and action are riveting and hold the attention of the spectators throughout the whole film.

I recommend watching the film.

Director: Danny Boyle
Jamal, main actor: Dev Patel
Latika, main actress: Freida Pinto

Watch a trailer from Slumdog Millionaire

There many techniques and methods to enhance memory. Here is an interesting article, which shows that doodling can help your memory.

Take Note: Doodling Can Help Memory
It actually keeps us on track with boring tasks, study suggests
By Kevin McKeever

You might look like you’re not paying attention when you doodle, but science says otherwise.

Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message’s details than those who didn’t doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream,” study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal’s publisher. “Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task.”

For the experiment, a two-and-a-half minute listing of several people’s names and places was played for test subjects, who were charged with writing down only the names of the people said to be attending a party. During the recording, half the participants were asked to simultaneously shade in shapes on a piece of paper without attention to neatness. Participants were not told they were taking part in a memory test.

Wiley-Blackwell, news release, Feb. 26, 2009
Read the complete article

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