These techniques are meant to be suggestions for bettering yourself. Not all of them will necessarily apply to you, but all of them are interesting nonetheless. Remember, these are not supposed to be rules so much as suggestions; in the end, the only one who has the right to decide exactly what to do is you.  

Prizing:

Positive Affirmations: 

Positive affirmations are an important skill to have: the ability to tell yourself what is happening can oftentimes cause said thing to actually happen, or at least aid it in becoming a reality. To begin: 

1. Begin your affirmations sentence with the phrase, “I am…” This is important for bringing your awareness to the present and centering it properly.
2. Continuing in the ‘present focus’ vein, use the words ‘now’, as well as verbs indicating present actions. [AKA words ending in –ing]
3. You are only allowed to make positive statements. Any negative words or words with negative connotations should be eliminated.
4. Use words to describe whatever it is you’re doing; use as many descriptive features and adjectives as you can think of.
5. Be enthusiastic about your affirmation. Give the words lots of positive energy, and you’ll see what they’ll give back to you.  

 Listening: 

Listening to other people is a skill most people don’t have. You may think you have it- after all, listening is fairly easy- but chances are that, when others are talking, you’re only partially listening. Most likely you’re mostly thinking about how you’ll reply, or that you don’t really want to have the conversation, or any number of things. It doesn’t make you a bad person- it just means you’re a person. However, people can often tell when this is happening to them- the person they’re with isn’t really listening to them. It’s happened to you before- how did it feel? Frustrating, perhaps? Did you want to yell at them, or end the conversation? Not being listened to, especially on important subjects, is maddening. Naturally, anyone would appreciate it if people listened to them more, right? Then the easiest way to make sure people listen to you is to listen to them first.

When people communicate, the words that are spoken are about a tenth of the message that’s sent. The rest actually requires your attention to pick up. Things like body language, facial expression, tone of voice; these all send messages as well. Stronger messages than merely the words used, as a matter of fact. If someone tells you their day was all right with marked distress in their voice, for example, you’ll probably pick up on the tone of voice and ask for more detail. If they didn’t have that inflection, though, you’d most likely leave the subject alone and move on. When people lean towards you when you’re talking it seems like they’re really interested, that they’re trying to catch every word said. When they are doing a crossword puzzle at the same time, though, you can assume they’re not really interested.

Listening to someone is easy, once you learn how. You have to focus on them and them alone. Pay attention to them, what they’re doing as well as the words they use. Offer appropriate feedback, but hold off on advice until you’re certain they’re through telling you their story. Do your best not to judge them or tell them to grow up- saying things like that often means specifically that you’re either not listening or you don’t care about them. You’ll find you can learn a lot about a person in a relatively short time by paying close attention to them as they speak. And other people respond to this kind of listening- they’ll become fonder of you, wanting to spend more time together, and to listen, in turn, to you and your words. You can listen well to someone even if you don’t agree with them- the mere act of caring enough to set aside time to hear someone fully can turn an argument to an exchange of opinions, a short conversation into a full discussion, a quick greeting into a heart-to-heart. And that’s really what it is; connecting to the heart of someone else. The heart of their words, the heart of their problems, their heart. Once you connect to someone else’s heart, they’ll want to put aside time to connect with yours

Commitment:

The word itself holds all sorts of connotations, seeing as how, mostly, the word is used nowadays to indicate a wish to become “more serious” in a relationship, or to mean the requirement that you pay someone for a prolonged service you may not even want after a while. But the word itself isn’t bad – it’s really just a promise you make to yourself about something. It means you’re willing to complete and see through whatever it is you’re committed to. It’s a very good skill to have, to be able to dedicate yourself to something wholeheartedly. It means you are able to respect your own needs and your ability to do things for yourself. It also allows you to take a step back and review all the things you’ve committed yourself to, and question whether it is appropriate- or even realistic. If not, you can go about fixing the problem, thus empowering yourself further. The process of committing yourself is almost always very difficult, either to make or to follow up on, but in making a commitment to one’s inner self, the reward of your hard work- becoming a better, stronger person- is always worth it.