Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves.

So here's a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth.

Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one's health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.

Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck.

The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.

According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date.

In fact, listening to that one song -- "Weightless" -- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants' overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates.

That is remarkable.

Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created "Weightless", Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener's heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn't be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer's, or influenza.

In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you've got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.

Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, "'Weightless' was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous."

So don't drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:

10. "We Can Fly," by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)

9. "Canzonetta Sull'aria," by Mozart

8. "Someone Like You," by Adele

7. "Pure Shores," by All Saints

6. "Please Don't Go," by Barcelona

5. "Strawberry Swing," by Coldplay

4. "Watermark," by Enya

3. "Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)," by DJ Shah

2. "Electra," by Airstream

1. "Weightless," by Marconi Union

I made a public playlist of all of them on Spotify that runs about 50 minutes (it's also downloadable).

There's also a free 10-hour version of "Weightless" available if you want a longer listening experience.

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"Where words fail, music speaks." -- Hans Christian Andersen

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  By Melanie Curtis Writer, activist@melaniebcurti | Inc.com

There are already very good lists of startup lessons written by really talented, experienced people (hereand here). I’d like to add another one. I learned these lessons the hard way in the past four years. If you’re starting a company, I hope you have an easier path.

People

Fundraising

Markets

Products

Marketing

Sales

Development

Company administration

Personal well-being

Thanks to Michael Glukhovsky for reviewing this post.

If your working on a project and need fonts, photos, graphics, videos, sounds; check out this website.  Lots of free stuff for you to use. You'll want to bookmark this site:

CLICK HERE!

This site gathered all the best, honest, practical, no bullshit pieces of financial advice from thousands of business and self-help books here in one article.

1. If you rely on earning a wage or salary to put money in your pocket, you will be forever caught up in the vicious cycle of needing money, earning money and spending money.

2. People who drive Lamborghinis and jetset around the world did not get there because they “Got Rich Slowly” by investing in mutual funds, clipping coupons, and maxing out their 401(k)s. Those techniques are not an effective road to wealth.

3. The “Get Rich Slowly” approach is faulty because it takes a lifetime of work, it’s dependent on getting lucky with your investments, and even if you do get rich, you’ll be too old to enjoy it.

4. “Think about it. Have you ever met a college student who got rich investing in mutual funds or his employer’s 401(k)? How about the guy who bought municipal bonds in 2006 and retired in 2009? I wonder if that guy driving a $1.2-million car can because of his well-balanced portfolio of mutual funds? These people don’t exist because the youthful rich are not leveraging 8% returns but 800%.” (Source)

5. People think that working hard for money and then buying things that make them look rich will make them rich. In most cases it doesn’t. It only makes them more tired.

6. Rich people believe that financial freedom is more important than displaying high social status. You can display high social status all you want, but if you’re still dependent on active income then you’re one very vulnerable fella.

7. If you think you can afford it, you can’t. When you buy something cheap, like a candy bar or a pair of $10 sandals, you never ask “can I afford this?” or “how can I make this purchase work?”. If you are trying to justify a large purchase to yourself, then you can’t really afford it.

8. Your debts are parasitic because they force you to work harder and longer. Your mortgage, car payment, credit card bill, etc. all force you to work more than you had to if you bought less stuff. Having to work limits your choices. When you’re making a big purchase, consider its time cost. Is that $50k BMW worth 1 year of your life?

9. The key to controlling parasitic debt is to control instant gratification. It’s much easier not to eat chocolate cookies if you don’t bring them home from the grocery store, and it’s easier to avoid debt if you don’t buy useless things. When you’re thinking about buying something, think about whether you really need it, whether you’ll still be using it 6 months from now, and so on.

10. In general, jobs suck because you have limited leverage (being more productive will not get you a raise) and limited control (what if you’re fired? What if your company is doing poorly and forces you to take a pay cut? etc.) General problems with jobs: you’re selling your time (and your life) for money, the experience you accumulate is limited (you’d learn much more running your own business for a month than working for someone else for a year), you’re subject to the whims of your boss/employer, you have to deal with office politics, and you have almost no control over your income.

11. Take advice from people who have lived what they wrote. If they are primarily writers and public speakers, and that is their business model, toss the book and move on. The best advice comes from people who have lived it. Don’t waste your money on expensive ($3k+) seminars and workshops. Those make the speakers rich but are rarely worth the money for attendees.

12. Amateurs have a million plans and they all start tomorrow. Professionals work hard on a single plan detail by detail. Thinking big is overrated. Ninety-nine percent of success is to get the work done.

13. Find a need, create a business to meet it and affect millions (or fewer but for lots of money per sale), exceed expectations, plan the business to lead to a major liquidation event down the road, sell, let that money earn for you for the rest of your life and live off the income. The more your money works, the less you will have to work.

14. The vast majority of millionaires became rich by being in their own business.

15. People don’t pay to satisfy your need to do what you love, they pay for you to solve their problems.

16. When you’re not a pushy asshole, people trust you. When they trust you, they do business with you.

17. Most businesses work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.

18. Use the wisdom, knowledge, and skills of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you an aura of efficiency and speed. That’s how billionaires are made.

19. People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.

20. Unsuccessful people procrastinate by giving up on their long-term goals for immediate gratification. Procrastination is like an addiction. It offers temporary excitement and relief from boring reality.

21. Being wealthy is not about money, fancy cars, expensive vacations, or vacation homes in Fiji. Being wealthy means being healthy, being surrounded by great friends and family, and the freedom to live life how you want to live it.

22. The more scared we are of a work to improve our business, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

23. Process, Not Product. If you find yourself avoiding certain tasks because they make you uncomfortable, there is a great way to reframe things: Learn to focus on process, not product.

24. Clarity about what matters the most in your business provides clarity about what does not.

25. Use the 80/20 rule. Give 80 percent of your effort to the top 20 percent (most important) activities. Another way is to focus on exceptional opportunities that promise a huge return. It comes down to this: give your attention to the areas that bear fruit.

26. Assume and expect every project will take 10x the resources and put effort into it accordingly. Literally, the amount of resources you think a project will consume, multiply that by ten and that is what is required. (Source)

27. Opportunities are everywhere, people just don’t see them. Whenever you hear people complaining or you observe inefficiencies, those are great opportunities to start a business!

28. If you have a great idea but someone is already doing it, don’t worry and do it anyway! There will always be competition, and you should aim to be better than them, not to run away from them.

29. Forget chasing big ideas and instead try to take something and make it better. Starbucks, McDonald’s, Walmart, etc. are all iterations of ideas and businesses that had existing for many years.

30. The price of freedom is money. Whether you want to buy a nice car, start a non-profit foundation, or work on your personal dream project, not having to worry about money is what lets you focus on those things. Figure out what you want so that you can work backward and figure out what you need to get there.

TO SEE THE REMAINING 30 TIPS, CLICK HERE

Looking to start a business this year?

Many people think that starting a business in the midst of a recession is a crazy thing to do.  

But the truth of the matter is, that if you have what your potential target market is wanting, then it’s not such a crazy thing to do.

If what you offer fills truly a need or provides goods or services at lower price or higher quality than the existing players in the market,  then your business will stand a much better chance of surviving in a recession or downturn than the longer established businesses.

Businesses like Fedex, Microsoft, CNN,  Burger King, HP and GE were all started in recessionary times.

If you still need convincing  as to why now is the right time to start a business,  think about this:

If you want help in creating a business plan you can download a free template to get you started:

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

By Brooke Preston, Manta Contributor - June 29, 2017

Facebook Insights is a free tool that gives you lots of useful information about your audience. Here are the metrics you should pay attention to.

Facebook is a great way for small businesses to build a social following, generate new leads, and turn followers into paying customers. Why? Because that’s where your potential customers spend their time online. According to Pew Research Center, 68% of all U.S. adults use Facebook.

But do you know anything about the type of customer you’re attracting to your page or how much engagement you’re really earning? Facebook Insights can help you find out—and it’s easy to understand, even for those of us who aren’t data analysts.

Facebook Insights is a free, built-in tool which shows you all kinds of statistics about your Facebook business page. It’s only visible to you (the page administrator), and it can help you judge how well your page is performing.

The amount of info can be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start. Here are a few simple metrics from Facebook Insights that business owners should pay attention to, according to Dennis Yu of BlitzMetrics:

To learn more about building an audience on Facebook and turning followers into customers, check out Manta’s complete guide, “Facebook for Small Business: 23 Expert Tips to Reach More Customers on Social Media .”

Worried about what to post on social media? Don’t stress! Let Manta help manage your social strategy. Get started with a FREE Social Media Report for your business.

Here are some amazing words of wisdom from some of the top entrepreneurs in the world.

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