7 Steps To Inner Peace

Inner peace is the most valuable thing that we can cultivate. Nobody can give us inner peace, at the same time it is only our own thoughts that can rob us of our inner peace. To experience inner peace we don’t have to retreat to a Himalayan cave; we can experience inner peace right now, exactly where we are. The most important criteria is to value the importance of inner peace. If we really value inner peace, we will work hard to make it a reality.

These are some suggestions for bringing more peace into your mind.

1. Choose carefully where we spend time.

If you are a news addict and spend an hour reading newspapers everyday, our mind will be agitated by the relentless negativity we see in the world. It is true, that we can try to detach from this negativity. But, in practise ,we will make our progress easier if we don’t spend several hours ruminating over the problems of the world. If you have a spare 15 minutes, don’t just automatically switch on the TV or surf the internet. Take the opportunity to be still or at least do something positive. The problem is the mind feels insecure unless it has something to occupy it. However, when we really can attain a clear mind we discover it creates a genuine sense of happiness and inner peace.

2. Control of Thoughts.

It is our thoughts that determine our state of mind. If we constantly cherish negative and destructive thoughts, inner peace will always remain a far cry. At all costs, we need to avoid pursuing trains of negative thoughts. This requires practise. - We cannot attain mastery of our thoughts over night. But, at the same time we always have to remember that we are able to decide which thoughts to follow and which to reject. Never feel you are a helpless victim to your thoughts.

“If you have inner peace,
nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.”
- Sri Chinmoy

3. Simplify Your Life

Modern life, places great demands on our time. We can feel that we never have enough time to fulfill all our tasks. However, we should seek to minimise these outer demands. Take time to simplify your life; there are many things that we can do without, quite often we add unnecessary responsibilities to our schedule. Do the most significant tasks, one at a time, and enjoy doing them. To experience inner peace, it is essential to avoid cluttering our life with unnecessary activities and worries.

4. Spend time to cultivate inner peace.

Every day we spend 8 hours a day to earn money, can we not find time to spend 15 minutes to cultivate inner peace? No matter how much money we earn, it cannot bring us inner peace, but, if we spend 15 minutes on meditation and relaxation techniques inner peace can become a possibility. Meditation does not just mean sitting still for 30 minutes; in meditation we seek to experience a state of consciousness which is flooded with inner peace. To experience this inner peace we cannot allow any thought to enter into our mind. True inner peace occurs when we can transcend the world of thoughts.

“You cannot buy peace; you must know how to manufacture it within, in the stillness of your daily practises in meditation.”

- Paramahansa Yogananda

5. Be immune to Flattery and Criticism

If we depend on the opinions and praise of other people, we can never have inner peace. Criticism and flattery are two sides of the same coin. They are both the judgements of others. However, we should not allow ourselves to be affected by either. When we do, we feed the ego. We should learn to have confidence in ourselves. This does not mean we will love ourselves in an egotistical way, it means we value our real self and have belief in the good qualities that are part of everyone.

6. Be Active Selflessly

Inner peace does not mean that we have to live a life of a hermit. Inner peace, can be felt amidst dynamic activity. But, this action should be done with selfless motives. When we serve others we forget our sense of self, and it is when we forget our limited self that we can have inner peace.

7. Avoid Criticising Others

If we want inner peace, we should feel that our inner peace depends on the well being of others. If we are indifferent to the feelings of others, then it is impossible to have inner peace for ourselves. What we give out comes back. If you offer a peaceful attitude to others this is what we will see return.

Source: http://www.srichinmoybio.co.uk/

How To Generate Big Ideas On Demand

Freeing your mind to think in an innovative way can be as easy as jumping in the shower and tuning out.What if we told you that you could come up with a great idea anytime you wanted?

We can show you how not only to summon new and innovative concepts on command but also to teach your people the same skill. This may sound like an infomercial (”Order our revolutionary system within the next 20 minutes, and we’ll throw in a set of steak knives absolutely free”), but it’s true.

The five techniques outlined below have one thing in common: They free your brain to let your best ideas flow.

As it is, you undoubtedly have too much on your mind. When you’re driving during rush hour, you are too busy dealing with traffic to notice the scenery and enjoy the ride. The following practices eliminate mental traffic and help you liberate the great ideas inside you desperately trying to get out.

1. Shower your way to creativity.

Yep, it’s absolutely true. There is a scientific theory that water hitting your head helps trigger the synapses and that’s why people get great ideas in the shower. But we think it’s simpler than that: The ideas occur because you are not making an effort to think. You aren’t worried about anything. You are not stressed. Hence some of your best thinking occurs.

2. Sleep on it.

Remember how your mom used to say, “Why don’t you sleep on it, honey?” when you were wrestling with a big issue? Well, when it comes to big ideas and problem solving, Mother really does know best.

The next time you want to solve a major challenge or be unusually brilliant, think about it in bed. Don’t push yourself to figure out the answer before you fall asleep. Instead, just go through the issues at hand and tell yourself that you will have the answer in the morning. In our experience, this technique amplifies the power of the shower, because there are even fewer distractions to occupy your mind when you are asleep.

You can employ an alternate version of this while awake. The next time you can’t think of a name, date, or important fact, just tell yourself aloud, “I will not think about this for a while, and the answer will come to me.” This technique clears the traffic in your mind and lets your subconscious go to work. Your answer will often pop into your head the moment you stop “thinking about it.”

3. Engage in mind-mapping

Purging is a great way to make new connections and create bigger ideas. Have a tough challenge to solve? Get a giant piece of paper (write small if you can’t find one). In each quarter of the paper, write a keyword related to the challenge. For example, if you want to plan a cool family vacation, you might write the words “destinations,” “transportation,” “memories,” and “kids.”

Then, in no particular order, begin to brainstorm any word that comes to mind when you think of each of the keywords. For example, for “Transportation”: plane, train, automobile, John Candy, pillows, sleep, sleeping bag, tent, treehouse, memories, dreams, daydreams, smells, popcorn, movies, adventure, pirates, islands, Swiss Family Robinson. Eventually, you will begin to make connections, and ideas that unify the key aspects of your goal will pop off the page.

Strive for as many words as you can, and don’t judge the words. Judging is looking at the traffic when you are driving—it keeps you from coming up with ideas. Eliminate the traffic.

You can employ this simple technique yourself or do it in groups to loosen up your team. Imagine how much fun you’ll have explaining to your family how you came up with the idea of renting a tree house for your vacation in Costa Rica.

4. Schedule Your Daydreaming

We all have a time of day when our brains work the best. For many, it is first thing in the morning, before rush hour. Unfortunately, the CrackBerry addiction has many of us checking our e-mail just when our brains are the most capable of creating.

The moment you check your e-mail, voice mail, or to-do list, you have hijacked your imagination. You have created a mental traffic jam. Do yourself a favor and schedule daydreaming. Unplug during the time that you know you do your best thinking and find a place that makes you feel energized. A lot of people love the local coffee shop. The buzz of conversation, the smells, colors, and energy create a safe haven for the mind to wander. Some prefer the library or the park. Whichever it is, go there. Let your mind wander.

5. Yuk it up.

Laughing is another great way to liberate your brain. Often consciously doing silly-seeming things will get the creative juices flowing. Spin a top. Get an ice cream cone.

As you test these five techniques, you’ll find some work better than others. If it turns out you really do get your best ideas in the shower, be conscious of the circumstances under which they occurred. What was the water temperature like? How long had you been in there? What time was it? Replicate the experience.

You’ll find the effort worthwhile. “The bottom line is that gifted performers are almost always made, not born, and that the journey to superior performance is for neither the faint of heart nor the impatient,” says Rand Stagen, senior partner of Stagen, a management consulting firm that specializes in helping mid-market companies scale. “Just as in sports, becoming an elite performer in business requires struggle, sacrifice, and honest (often painful) self-assessment. Depending on the scope and difficulty of the skill to be learned, it will take months and probably years to achieve a high level of proficiency or mastery.”

Learning how to implement these approaches is often what separates a brilliant thinker from a creative want-to-be. Really. At first, you may feel silly, but we promise they will work.

G. Michael Maddock is founding partner, and Raphael Louis Vitón is president, of Maddock Douglas, a company that invents, brands, and markets products “for companies driven by innovation.”

By G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Viton
Source: Business Week

Learn To Think Like A Millionaire

Rich people have a way of thinking that is different from poor and middle class people. They think differently about money, wealth, themselves, other people, and life. Let’s examine six crucial differences between how rich people think and how poor or middle class people think.

By doing so, you will have some alternative beliefs in the files of your mind from which to choose. In this way, you can catch yourself thinking as poor people do and quickly switch over to how rich people think.

Remember, beliefs are not right, wrong, true or false, they’re just past opinions which can be changed on your command. The fact is, you can CHOOSE to think in ways that will support you instead of ways that don’t.

1. Rich People Believe “I Create My Life”

Poor people believe “Life happens to me.”

If you want to create wealth, it is imperative that you believe that you are at the steering wheel of your life; that you create every moment of your life, especially your financial life. If you don’t believe this, then you must believe you have little control over your life and that financial success has nothing to do with you. That is not a very rich attitude.

Instead of taking responsibility for what’s going on in their lives, poor people choose to play the role of victim. Of course, any “victim’s” predominant thought process is “poor me.” And presto, through the law of intention that’s literally what they get; “poor,” as in money, me.

Here’s some homework I promise will change your life. For the next seven days, I challenge you not to complain at all. Not just out loud, but in your head too. I’ve given this little challenge to thousands of people and several hundred have personally told me that this exercise completely transformed their lives. I invite you to email me with the results of this experiment. I guarantee you’ll be astonished as to how amazing your life will become when you stop focusing on the “crap.”

It’s time to decide. You can be a victim OR you can be rich, but you can’t be both. It’s time to take back your power and acknowledge the fact that you create every moment of your life. That you create everything that is in your life and everything that is not in it. That you create your wealth and you create your non-wealth and everything in between.

2. Rich People Play the Money Game to Win

Poor people play the money game not to lose.

Poor people play the money game on defense rather than offense. Let me ask you, if you were to play any sport or any game strictly on defense, what are the chances of you winning that game? Most people agree; slim and none.

Yet, that’s exactly how most people play the money game. Their primary concern is survival and security, not wealth and abundance. So, what is your goal? What is your real objective? What is your true intention?

Rich people’s big goal is to have massive wealth and abundance. Poor people’s big goal is to have “enough to pay the bills…” on time would be a miracle! Again, let me remind you of the power of intention. When your objective is to have enough to pay the bills, that’s exactly how much you’ll get; just enough to pay the bills and usually not a cent more. You get what you truly intend to get. If you want to get rich, your goal has to be “rich.” Not just enough to pay the bills and not just enough to be comfortable. Rich, darn it, rich!

3. Rich People Are Committed to Being Rich

Poor people are uncommitted to being rich.

Most of us have good reasons as to why it would be wonderful to be rich, but what about the other side of the coin? Are there reasons why it might not be so great to be rich or go through the process of trying to get rich?

Each of us has a file on wealth in our mind. This file contains our personal beliefs that include why being wealthy would be great. But for many people, their file also includes information as to why being rich might not be so great. These people have mixed internal messages around money and especially wealth.

One part of them says, “Having more money will make life a lot more fun.” But then another part screams, “Yeah, but “I’m going to have to work like a dog! What kind of fun is that?” One part says, “I’ll be able to travel the world.” then the other part responds, “Yeah, and everyone in the world will want something from me.” These mixed messages are one of the biggest reasons that most people never become rich.

In fact, the #1 reason most people don’t get what they want is they don’t know what they want. Rich people are totally clear they want wealth. They are unwavering in their desire. They are fully committed to creating wealth. They will do “whatever it takes” to have wealth as long as it’s moral, legal and ethical. Rich people do not send mixed messages to the universe. Poor people do.

I hate to break the news to you, but getting rich is not a “stroll in the park.” It’s takes focus, expertise, 100% effort, and “never say die” perseverance. You have to really commit to it, both consciously and subconsciously. You have to believe in your heart you can do it and you deserve it. If you are not fully committed to creating wealth, chances are you won’t.

4. Rich People Think Big

Poor people think small.

We once had a trainer teaching at one of our seminars who went from a net worth of $250 thousand to over $600 million in only 3 years. When asked his secret he said, “Everything changed the day I began to think big.” In my book, SpeedWealth, I discuss the “Law of Income” which states that “you will be paid in direct proportion to the value you deliver according to the market place.”
Another way of understanding this is to answer the following question: How many people do you actually serve or affect?

For instance in my business, some trainers enjoy speaking to groups of 20, others are comfortable with 100, others like an audience of 500, still others want 5000 people or more in attendance. Is there is a difference in income between these trainers? You bet there is.

Who are you? How do you want to live your life? How do you want to play the game?

Do you want to play in the big leagues or in little league, in the majors or the minors?

Will you play big or play small? It’s your choice.

But hear this. It’s not about you. It’s about living your mission. It’s about living true to your purpose. It’s about adding your piece of the puzzle to the world. It’s about serving others.

Most of us are so stuck in our egos that everything revolves around “me, me and more me.” But again, it’s not about you, it’s about adding value to other people’s lives. It’s your choice. One road leads to being broke and miserable, the other leads to money, meaning, and fulfillment.

It’s time to stop hiding out and start stepping out. It’s time to stop needing and start leading. It’s time to start being the star that you are. It’s time to share your gifts and value in a BIG way. There could be thousands or even millions of people counting on you. Are you up to the challenge for our society and our children’s sake? Let’s hope so.

5. Rich People Are Bigger Than Their Problems

Poor people are smaller than their problems.

Getting rich is not a stroll in the park. It’s a journey that is full of obstacles, twists, and detours. The simple fact is, success is messy. The road is fraught with pitfalls and that’s why most people don’t take it. They don’t want the hassles, the headaches and the responsibilities. In short, they don’t want the problems.

Therein lies one of the biggest differences between rich people and poor people. Rich and successful people are bigger than their problems while poor and unsuccessful people are smaller than their problems.

Poor people will do almost anything to avoid anything that looks like it could be a problem. They back away from challenges. The irony is that in their quest to make sure they don’t have problems, they have the biggest problem of all… they’re broke and miserable.

The secret to success is not to try to avoid or shrink your problems; it’s to grow yourself so you’re bigger than any problem.

Imagine a “level 2″ character person looking at a “level 5″ problem. Would this problem appear to be big or small? The answer is that from a “level 2″ perspective, a “level 5″ problem would seem BIG.

Now imagine a “level 8″ person looking at the same “level 5″ problem. From this person’s perspective, is this problem big or small? Magically the identical problem is now a SMALL problem.

And for a “level 10″ person, it’s NO problem at all. It’s just an everyday occurrence, like getting dressed or brushing your teeth. Whether you are rich or poor, playing big or playing small, problems do not go away. If you’re breathing, you will always have so-called “problems.”

What’s important to realize is that the size of the problem is never the real issue. What matters is the size of you!
Remember, your wealth can only grow to the extent that you do! The idea is to grow yourself to a place where you can overcome any problems that get in your way of creating wealth and keeping it once you have it.

Rich people do not back away from problems, do not avoid problems and do not complain about problems. Rich people are financial warriors and when a warrior is confronted with a challenge they shout: BRING IT ON!

6. Rich People Focus on Opportunities

Poor people focus on problems.

Rich people see potential growth. Poor people see potential loss.

Rich people focus on the rewards. Poor people focus on the risks.

It’s the age-old question, is the glass half empty or half full? We’re not merely talking about “positive thinking” here, we’re talking about a habitual way of seeing the world. Poor people come from fear. Their minds are constantly scanning for what’s wrong or what could go wrong in any situation. Their primary mindset is “What if it doesn’t work?” or, more bluntly, “It won’t work.” Rich people, as we discussed earlier, take responsibility for creating their life and come from the mindset, “It will work because I’ll make it work.”

In the financial world, as in most other arenas, risk is directly proportionate to reward; generally, the higher the reward, the higher the risk. People with rich mentalities are willing to take that risk.

Rich people expect to succeed. They have confidence in their abilities, they have confidence in their creativity and they believe that should the “doo-doo hit the fan”, they can always make their money back or succeed in another way.

On the other hand, poor people expect to fail. They lack confidence in themselves and in their abilities, and should things not work out, they believe it would be catastrophic.

You have to do something, buy something, or start something in order to succeed financially. You have to see opportunities for profit all around you instead of focusing on ways of losing money.

T. Harv Eker will be a featured trainer with The Masters Gathering, which will bring some of the world’s greatest teachers together for on amazing event. Join the masters here…

A Boob A Day….

By Jonathan Hayter

Staring at women’s breast is good for men’s health and makes them live longer, a survey reveals.

Researchers have discovered after a 10-minute ogle at women’s breast is as healthy as half-an-hour in the gym. A five year study of 200 men found that those who enjoyed a longing look at busty beauties had lower blood pressure and less heart disease and slower pulse rates compared to those who did not get their daily eyeful.

Dr. Karen Weatherby, who carried out the German study, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine:”Just 10-minutes of staring at the charms of a well endowed female is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics workout. Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves circulation. There is no question that gazing at breast makes men healthier.”

“Our study indicates that engaging in this activity a few minutes daily cuts the risk of a stroke and a heart attack in half. We believe that by doing so consistently, the average man can extend his life four to five years.”

It Takes Backbone To Live The Life You Want

Great commentary over at Big Hollywood and the new movie “Revolutionary Road” which examines the struggle to pursue our dreams versus living a life that society deems appropriate.

An excerpt:

“It’s about the common 20-something realization that “being special” isn’t bestowed upon one at birth, it’s something only we can make for ourselves. It’s about the excuses we find to believe that the trappings of success are not only an acceptable substitute but also a responsible and wise alternative for life choices that most of the world labels “immature” and “careless.” It’s about acting as if we regret not “taking chances” when in fact we are utterly relieved. It’s about being honest with oneself that there are tremendous opportunities in life, and how few of those called to do something out of the ordinary actually answer that voice. And it’s about the pain some feel when they understand just what they’ve passed up.”

Check it out here: Big Hollywood

Seven Medical Myths

How much truth is there to all that hand-me-down medical advice that even doctors don’t dare refute? In the British Medical Journal, U.S. doctors Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll examined whether these common medical beliefs should really be doing the rounds.

“READING IN LOW LIGHT RUINS YOUR EYESIGHT”

Reading in dim light may make your eyes sore, but it won’t ruin eyesight as commonly believed. Turns out that this soreness is only temporary; there are no permanent negative physiological effects on your eyes. A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2002 suggested that such straining of the eyes could result in myopia (short-sightedness) based on the fact that the incidence of myopia has increased in the past few centuries. This may be the case, but we no longer rely on candles or gas lights to read, so dim lighting cannot be the reason for this increase in short-sightedness.

“SHAVED HAIR GROWS BACK FASTER AND DARKER”

To wax or to shave? Waxing advocates will tell you that shaving causes hideous stubble to grow back faster and darker than the hair that existed before. However, since 1928, several clinical trials have shown that shaving has no effect on hair thickness or rate of growth. So why do shaved legs feel less smooth than waxed legs a week later? The stubble that comes after shaving grows without the taper seen at the ends of unshaven hair, creating the illusion of increased coarseness.

“DRINK EIGHT GLASSES OF WATER A DAY”

Do we really need to drink eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy? This thinking may have originated from a recommendation made in 1945 when the U.S. National Research Council advised that a suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 L daily – equivalent to about eight glasses. Existing studies show that we obtain a lot of fluid through drinking juice, milk and hot drinks, and by absorption through food, negating the need to drink that much water. In fact, ingesting very large volumes of water – around 20 L - can actually be dangerous, causing blood dilution and eventually death, particularly if your kidney function is subnormal or you suffered a recent head injury.

“YOU ONLY USE 10 PER CENT OF YOUR BRAIN”

While certain people we know might seem to use only 10 per cent of their brains, advances in neuroscience have proved that lesions to any part of the brain can have negative effects on behavioural and mental capabilities. In his book, Mind-Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain, the late neuroscientist, Barry Beyerstein wrote about the origin of this myth and the evidence against it. We now know that certain functions are localised in different regions of the brain, which means that we may only use a small part of our brain to perform a certain task, and the active region of the brain used depends on the task performed. However, detailed anatomical and brain imaging studies have failed to identify this so-called “non-functioning 90 per cent” of the brain.

“MOBILE PHONES INTERFERE WITH MEDICAL EQUIPMENT”

In June 1994, The Wall Street Journal published the headline, “Clutter on airwaves can block workings of medical electronics” after a journal article in Health Facilities Management cited over 100 reports of suspected mobile phone interference with medical devices. There is some evidence from early studies that interference could happen at distances of less than one metre, but technological improvements have eliminated this. A 2007 study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found no mobile phone interference with medical electronic equipment in 300 tests of 75 treatment rooms.

“HAIR AND NAILS GROW AFTER YOU DIE”

Don’t believe everything you may see on CSI – hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after death. There is actually a biological basis for this myth, however, as forensic anthropologist William Maples explains in his novel Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist. After death the skin around the hair or nails dehydrates and recedes, giving the appearance of increased length. In fact, the growth of hair and nails requires complex hormonal processes, which do not occur post-mortem.

“EATING TURKEY MAKES YOU SLEEPY”

Don’t eat turkey and operate heavy machinery, as it may make you drowsy, suggests the common wisdom. Turkey meat contains the chemical tryptophan, an essential amino acid involved in making serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates sleep and mood control. But chicken and minced beef also contain similar levels of tryptophan (approximately 0.31 g per 100 g) while food such as cheese contains more tryptophan per gram than turkey. What is actually making you sleepy after a big Christmas dinner is probably not the turkey, but alcohol, bad conversation, relatives and a carbohydrate-laden meal.

by Michelle Kovacevic
Cosmos Online

So You Have A Pounding Headache…

For those who tied it on last night… the anatomy of a headache…. from Men’s Health

Oh, the pain, the pain. You went and let that party get the better of you. Now your muscles ache, your stomach is doing back flips, and it feels as if the marching band has decided to use your cerebellum as a big bass drum.

If you choose to drink, then you know a hangover can be the price you pay. You just keep forgetting how bad it makes you feel. So what is it about alcohol, anyway, that causes you so much misery? And is there anything you can do about it? Here’s a quick picture of what happens to your body every time you let a beer keg get the better of you.

First off, alcohol affects you by a simple formula: The more you drink, the more your system has to work overtime to flush it all out. Your brain says “party,” but it’s hard for your body to keep up.

For one thing, drinking to excess is like barging in on your central nervous system without knocking. Special sensitivity receptors embedded in your nerve-cell membranes were happily binding with important neurotransmitters until the booze showed up. Alcohol spoils the moment by throwing those receptors out of whack and upsetting those nerve cells. And it’s not enough that the booze ruined your brain’s evening: As your body purges alcohol the next morning, your central nervous system stays unbalanced and stressed out enough to cause vomiting, tremors, and agitation.

For another, as you consume alcohol, it metabolizes into acetaldehyde, which in high concentrations can cause rapid pulse, sweating, and nausea. Mix in that some booze contains flavor, taste, and color enhancers known as congeners that also add to hangover symptoms.

Besides forcing your system to deal with an army of its toxic byproducts, alcohol zeroes in on specific body functions and throws them off balance.

Drinking dries you out

Though it may seem as if you’re flooding your system every time you fill your party cup, you’re actually losing fluids as you drink. That morning-after thirst, dizziness, headache, and dry throat spell one thing—dehydration.

You’re all dried out because alcohol functions as a diuretic, encouraging your kidneys to create more urine by suppressing your body’s levels of the anti-diuretic hormone vasopressin. And the more trips to the bathroom you make, the more you deplete your body’s reservoir of fluids. Add an episode of vomiting or a case of the “sweats,” and you throw off your electrolyte balance even more.

Drinking disrupts your stomach

A few drinks might relax your mood, but they put your stomach on full alert. Alcohol inflames your stomach lining and increases production of gastric acid, as well as pancreatic and intestinal digestive fluids. Throw your stomach into overdrive with drinks, and you increase your risk of throwing up.

Drinking alters your blood sugar

As alcohol makes its way through your system, it disrupts your body’s production of natural sugars, or glucose. It also causes your liver to accumulate fat compounds known as triglycerides and adds lactic acid to your body fluids, both of which can trigger low glucose, or mild hypoglycemia. Since glucose is your brain’s chief fuel, low glucose levels can make you feel tired, weak, and irritable-all standard-issue hangover symptoms.

Drinking screws up your sleep

Funny how your hangover feels like the time you pulled an all-nighter during finals. That’s because alcohol disrupts your normal sleep patterns, decreasing the time you spend in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and increasing your deep, or slow-wave, sleep. You’re effectively turning your body clock on its head and giving yourself “jet lag.”

The best defense

How to stay ahead of the game and possibly outwit hangovers ahead of time? First of all, you could choose not to drink. But if you do, having just one or two, spreading your consumption out over the course of an evening, and drinking water between drinks will help your system step up to the job. Avoid mixing alcohol with nicotine or other drugs, and consider grabbing some chow before heading out for the evening. A stomach even slightly full will slow down alcohol’s trip into your bloodstream.

Once you’re home and ready to crash (or if it’s already morning and you’re squinting at this while nursing a pounding head), try to chug down some water or juice to restore your electrolytes and keep you hydrated. Be careful about grabbing a tablet of anything: Aspirin can upset your already-grouchy stomach, and acetaminophen, such as Tylenol, can damage your liver when it meets the alcohol still in your system. And forget about “the hair of the dog that bit you.” More booze will only restore alcohol to your already-addled system and prolong the pain.

The best cures? Get some more sleep, give it time. And consider laying off the alcoholic drinks in favor of water, juice, or soda next time.

By Tony Farrell, Men’s Health

Why Change Can Be A Challenge?

Great article over at Scientific American… Millions of us dream of transforming our lives, but few of us are able to make major changes after our 20s. Here’s why….

“The shortest path to oneself leads around the world.” So wrote German philosopher Count Hermann Keyserling, who believed that travel was the best way to discover who you are.

That was how 22-year-old Christopher McCandless was thinking in the summer of 1990, when he decided to leave everything behind—including his family, friends and career plans. He gave his bank balance of $24,000 to the charity Oxfam International and hitchhiked around the country, ending up in Alaska. There he survived for about four months in the wilderness before dying of starvation in August 1992. His life became the subject of writer Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book Into the Wild, which inspired the 2007 film of the same name.

Read more…

Symptoms Of Inner Peace…

by Saskia Davis

Watch for signs of peace, the hearts of a great many have already been exposed to it and it seems likely that we could find out society experiencing it in epidemic proportions, which then of course, could pose a serious threat to what has up to now seemed a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.

Tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experiences

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment

loss of interest in judging other people

loss of interest in judging self

loss of interest in interpreting actios of others

loss of interest in conflict

loss of interest loss of ability to worry *this is a very serious symptom

frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

contented feeling of connectedness with others and nature

frequent attacks of smiling through the eyes, from the heart

increasing tendancy to let things happen rather than make them happen

increase in susceptibility to love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.

WARNING!

If you have all or even most of the above symptoms, please be advised that your condition of PEACE may be so far advanced as being incurable!

If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting several of these symptoms, remain exposed only at your own risk. this condition of PEACE is probably at it’s most infectious stage.

by Saskia Davis

Tags:

I Am Thankful For…

December 9, 2008 by Editor  
Filed under Abundance, Better Living, Gratitude, Optimism

For the teenager who is not doing dishes but is watching TV, because that means he is at home and not on the streets.

For the taxes I pay, because it means that I am employed.

For the mess to clean after a party, because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.

For the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means I have enough to eat.

For my shadow that watches me work, because it means I am out in the sunshine.

For a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing, because it means I have a home.

For all the complaining I hear about the government, because it means that we have freedom of speech.

For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking, and that I have been blessed with transportation.

For my huge heating bill, because it means I am warm.

For the lady behind me in my place of worship when she sings off key, because it means that I can hear.

For the pile of laundry and ironing, because it means I have clothes to wear.

For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day, because it means I have been capable of working hard.

For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours, because it means that I am alive.

and finally….

For too much e-mail, because it means I have friends who are thinking of me.

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How To Be A Renaissance Man (or Woman)

November 11, 2008 by Editor  
Filed under Better Living, Creativity, Learning, Performance

Based from the book “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” by Michael J. Gelb. Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate multi-tasker: an accomplished scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. If you want to be a Renaissance Man, you can learn a lot from how Leonardo da Vinci lived and thought. Based on studying his life and work, anyone can emulate da Vinci with the following steps.

Curiosità

Curiosità is an “insatiably curious approach to life and unrelenting quest for continuous learning”. Great minds have one characteristic in common: they continuously ask questions throughout their lives. Leonardo’s endless quest for truth and beauty clearly demonstrates this. What makes great minds different is the quality of their questions. You can increase your ability to solve problems by increasing your ability to ask good questions. Like da Vinci, you should cultivate an open mind that allows you to broaden your universe and increase your ability to explore it. Here are some ways to apply Curiosità:

* Keep a journal. Bring a journal wherever you go and use it often. Write your ideas and thoughts there. Try to write several statements a day that start with “I wonder why/how…”
* Observe according to a theme. Choose a theme and observe things according to the theme for a day. For example, let’s say you choose “communication”. For the entire day, observe every type and instance of communication you come across. You can then record your observations in your journal.
* Stream of consciousness exercise. Pick a question and write the thoughts and associations that occur to you as they are. Don’t edit them. The important thing is to keep writing. This is also referred to as freewriting.

Dimostrazione

Dimostrazione is “a commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistake”. Wisdom comes from experience and the principle of Dimostrazione helps you get the most out of your experience. Here are some ways to apply Dimostrazione:

* Check your beliefs. Do you hold any beliefs that you haven’t verified through experience?
* Three points of view. First, make a strong argument against your belief. Next, take a distant view of your belief (for example, as if you live in a different culture) and review it. Finally, find friends who can give you different perspectives.
* Analyze the advertisements that affect you. Look at the advertisements in your favorite magazine and analyze the strategy and tactics they use. Find the advertisements that affect you most and find out why.
* Find “anti-role models” to learn from. List the names of some people whose mistakes you want to avoid. Learn from them so that you won’t encounter the same pitfalls.

Sensazione

Sensazione is “the continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience”. According to da Vinci, we can best practice Dimostrazione through our senses, particularly sight. That’s why one of Leonardo’s mottoes is saper vedere (knowing how to see) upon which he built his work in arts and science. Here are some ways to apply Sensazione:

* Write detailed description of an experience. For instance, describe your experience of watching a sunrise in your journal.
* Learn how to describe a smell.
* Learn to draw.
* Listen to different sounds around you. Learn to listen to different intensity of sounds from the softest (e.g. your breathing) to the loudest (e.g. traffic).
* Live in the moment. Practice mindfulness.

Sfumato

Sfumato is “a willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty”. An essential characteristic of da Vinci’s genius is his ability to handle a sense of mystery. Here are two ways to apply Sfumato:

* Befriend ambiguity. Find some situations in your past where you faced ambiguity (e.g. waiting to hear if your application for a job you wanted was successful). Describe how you felt.
* Ask yourself questions that relate two opposites. For example, ask yourself how your happiest and saddest moments are related.
* Practice the Socratic method. The goal with the Socratic method is to examine possibilities, and that is done by asking questions, not by giving answers. Socrates was known (and criticized) for asking questions to which he didn’t have answers.[2] The key to using the Socratic method is to be humble. Don’t assume that you or anyone knows anything for sure. Question every premise.

Arte/scienza

Arte/scienza is “the development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination”. This is thinking with the “whole brain”. Mind mapping is a powerful method that can help you combine logic and imagination in your work and life. The end result of mapping should be a web-like structure of words and ideas that are somehow related in the writer’s mind.

Corporalità

Corporalità is “the cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise”. Leonardo had amazing physical ability that complemented his genius in science and arts. Here are some ways to apply Corporalità:

* Develop a program for physical fitness. Your program should include three things: flexibility exercises, strength training, and aerobic conditioning.
* Develop body awareness. Study anatomy. Try yoga. Dance. Do some contact juggling. Whatever strengthens the connection between body and mind, go for it.
* Cultivate ambidexterity. Leonardo could work with both his right and left hand and regularly switched between them. You can cultivate ambidexterity by using your nondominant hand for relatively simple tasks like brushing your teeth or eating your breakfast. Later you can use your nondominant hand for writing.

Connessione

Connessione is “a recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena”. This, in other words, is systems thinking. One main source of Leonardo’s creativity is his ability to form new patterns through connections and combinations of different elements. Here are some ways to apply Connessione:

* Find ways to link things that seem unrelated. For example, you can try to find connections between a bear and the World Wide Web, or geology and the Mona Lisa (real name “La Joconde”).
* Imagine dialogues. Imagine talking with a role model to gain new perspective and insight. Or you can imagine how some role models would discuss your problem.
* Think about how things originate. Take an object and think about what elements are involved in its creation and how.

Source: wikiHow

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Advice From The Dalai Lama

November 7, 2008 by Editor  
Filed under Abundance, Beliefs, Better Living, Happiness, Optimism, Power, Purpose, Relationships, Self Improvement

It’s been making the rounds, so I figured, why not here for those who haven’t seen this list before. Instructions for Life in the new millennium from the Dalai Lama:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rules: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

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The Other Side Of Life - Video

August 27, 2008 by Editor  
Filed under Better Living, Negativity, Optimism, Relationships

We’ve all had those days were we think we’re the center of the universe. Sometimes we become so self absorbed in our everyday lives and make the mistake of thinking the world is out to inconvenience us.

Check out this video for an alternative look. Maybe it’ll make you think the next time your impatiently standing or feel the world is out to get you.

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Life Without Credit Cards?

August 18, 2008 by Editor  
Filed under Abundance, Better Living

Great article by by LaRita Heet over at Yahoo Finance. Even though I’ve got a number of credit cards, I’ve personally lived without credit card debt for some time now… I pay them off when I use them… but a lot of people don’t. In any event, a great article to ponder….

Is there life without credit cards? And if so, is it worth living?

In today’s instant gratification world, the thought of forgoing credit cards in favor of a cash-only lifestyle seems as foreign as mailing a handwritten letter through the post office: We know some people do it, but it’s hard to understand why.

Yet there are those who have declared, “Enough is enough!” and dedicated themselves to lives sans credit cards.

According to the Fair Isaac Corp., creator of the popular FICO credit scoring model, about 20 to 25 million people in the United States do not have any credit. An additional 30 to 35 million U.S. residents have a minimal amount of credit history, according to Fair Isaac statistics. These figures mean that approximately one in five Americans do not have access to traditional credit.

The Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer Finances of 2004 showed that as many as one in four U.S. consumers live without credit cards. This triennial study of approximately 4,500 respondents showed that 74.9 percent of those surveyed had credit cards. José Garcia, senior researcher at Demos, a national, nonpartisan, public policy research organization, divides noncardholders into two groups: those who are unable to obtain credit cards, and those who choose not to use them.

No Credit, No Choice

According to Garcia, many of those without credit cards simply do not qualify for credit due to bad credit, no credit, immigration status or another reason.

Gail Cunningham, senior director of public relations for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), says such mixed feelings over credit cards are common. When, during NFCC debt-counseling sessions, debt-ridden consumers — many of whom have already had their charging privileges suspended by the lender due to non-payment — are asked to cut up their credit cards, the reactions are often extreme. “Some people are like, ‘Give me those scissors! I never want to see plastic again,’ while others will clutch one of their cards close to their heart and say, ‘I loved this card,’” says Cunningham.

No Credit by Choice

Fifty-eight percent of credit cardholding households surveyed in the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances had balances on their cards, and until a few years ago, J.D. Roth and Ashkan Amouzegar were among them. Roth, 39, of Portland, Ore., has charted his foray into a credit cardless lifestyle on his popular personal finance blog, Get Rich Slowly.

Amouzegar, 30, a Portland, Ore., resident and business consultant in merchant financial services, made the decision to stop using credit cards two years ago. Though the anti-credit card crowd decline plastic for reasons ranging from anti-debt religious convictions to extreme wealth (and lack of “need” for credit), Roth and Amouzegar stopped using credit cards to help rein in their spending habits and control their finances.

Amouzegar — who once had 12 credit cards — used to think nothing of using his plastic to buy his friends rounds of drinks and expensive dinners. Once, he confesses, he even took a monthlong trip to Paris with a friend — and the entire trip was charged on his credit card.

“Through college and after, I used credit cards religiously and part of the problem was my irresponsibility of using it incorrectly. Most people, I think, don’t view credit cards as a loan from the bank, but as extra income, and I viewed it as, ‘Oh, my Citibank has a $5,000 limit’ — I thought it meant, ‘I have $5,000 to spend now,’” says Amouzegar.

Amouzegar, now only two years away from being completely debt-free, chose to not only discontinue using his cards but to cancel all the accounts, including his “emergency card.” The downside of no credit cards is that, even though financial experts advise consumers to save from three to six months’ worth of income in an emergency savings fund, Amouzegar says, “Well, for a lot of people, that’s not realistic. If there is a major car repair or something happens, what do you do if you don’t have that emergency card? Knock on wood, I haven’t been in that situation yet, but you never know when your refrigerator is going to go out. You never know when your car’s going to blow up, or that you need to fly somewhere due to a family emergency.”

NFCC’s Cunningham agrees. “None of us has a very well-polished crystal ball to know what tomorrow’s going to hold, and this person not using credit might think, ‘I don’t care; I’m not going to need credit in the future,’ but we really don’t know that,” she says.

Like most non-credit cardholders, Amouzegar uses his Visa-logo debit card in those situations that traditionally demand a credit card: renting a car, booking a hotel room, purchasing airline tickets and making online purchases.

He has run into occasional glitches renting cars with his debit card, as on a recent vacation. “The downside was, when I went to Maui, they would have done a charge authorization on a credit card, but since I didn’t have a credit card, they did it on my debit card, so they basically held $250 until I returned the car. So that tied up $250 out of my checking account.”

Turned Off

In 1998, GetRichSlowly’s Roth paid off his high-interest credit card debts with a lower interest rate home equity loan and now pays a single monthly payment. “When I did that, I made a vow to myself — and I promised my wife — that I was going to cut up my credit cards, and I did,” says Roth. “It’s perfectly possible to live a happy life without credit cards. They’re not a requirement. It seems to me that in our society, we get hung up on the fact that we must have credit cards, but it’s just not true.”

“The reality is that the practices of credit card issuers can be harsh on individuals,” Demos’ Garcia says. “It is those types of practices — tricks and traps — that I think will stop consumers. I think we’re seeing it more now due to that — that people, after a bad experience with a credit card, have stopped using them.”

Although it’s easy to blame the banks for high credit card bills, skyrocketing interest rates, and never-decreasing card balances, Amouzegar says that while card-issuing banks may be “crafty,” they are not dishonest. Instead, it’s the fault of the cardholder when debts get out of control. “Those people might just be making minimum payments on a really high interest rate. I would question, ‘How did that interest rate get sky-high?’ Did they make a late payment before? Interest rates don’t just automatically go to 18 percent or 24 percent — there has to be something done by the cardholder to trigger the rate to go from a preferred rate all the way up.”

Revolving vs. Nonrevolving Credit

Before canceling credit card accounts, stop to consider the long-term implications on your credit score, says NFCC’s Cunningham, noting that both revolving credit (in the form of credit cards) and nonrevolving credit (in the form of installment loans, such as auto loans, mortgages or other fixed-rate loans) are factored into a person’s credit score. “The elements that are weighed to create your credit score include a review of different types of credit, and how you handle those. For instance, a credit card is going to demonstrate how, if you pretty much have an open-end except for a credit ceiling, you can charge varying amounts each month, thus your payment each month is going to be different, and they like to see how you handle that, versus a fixed-rate loan,” she says.

Those who have paid off and then canceled their credit card account may end up “hamstringing” future efforts to obtain credit, because that old account will eventually rotate off your credit report after a period of time (usually seven years), says Cunningham. “It’s better to leave it open, because this is another element that is weighed in the credit-scoring model: They like to see longevity. They like to see that you’ve had an account open for a long time and handled it responsibly.”

Closing a credit card account can also adversely impact your credit rating by changing your debt utilization ratio — the amount of money you owe as compared to your available credit. For example, if you close an account with a $1,000 credit limit, your overall available credit number will lower, consequently skewing your debt utilization ratio.

The Bottom Line

Ask any personal finance expert, and she will agree that credit cards themselves are not the cause of anyone’s debt. Instead, it’s the misuse of credit that is to blame. Cunningham jokes about a sticker some debtors apply to their mirrors, which states simply: “You’re looking at the problem.”

Many people, once they’ve paid off their debts, are anxious to jump back on the credit card express to Debtville, says Cunningham. “A lot of people want to re-enter the world of credit simply because we live in a credit-dominated society.”

“I think the most important thing is, get your credit card and pay it off at the end of the month,” Garcia says.

According to Demos’ research, many of those who don’t pay off their balance in full every month simply cannot afford to, says Garcia. An increased cost of living, a set income and the lack of a financial safety net lead a lot of people into deepening debt, Garcia says. “So it’s not as simple as wanting to pay your credit card off. But if you can, pay it off. That way, you have a revolving line of credit, which is very useful. It’s short-term loans. Take the money upfront and then pay later so you don’t pay any interest rate or fees. But again, that’s not necessarily the reality with a lot of Americans and low-income individuals now that we’re close to a recession.”

Will Amouzegar rejoin the Land of the Plastic once he’s paid off his debt? “No,” he says without hesitation. “I personally don’t have the restraint to not view credit as extra income. I think that after the process of having been in debt and paid it off, I think I’ve learned my lesson, but still the temptation is there.”

“Ultimately, credit card companies are really a game, and you really have to be an educated consumer, and I think, be aggressive with them, because they bank on you not having knowledge,” says Amouzegar.

Yahoo Finance

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Napoleon Hill Discusses Andrew Carnegie

August 11, 2008 by Editor  
Filed under Abundance, Beliefs, Fear, Law of Attraction, Motivation, Negativity, Optimism, Power

An oldie but a goodie. Napoleon Hill talks about the wisdom the billionaire Andrew Carnegie shared with him some hundred years ago.

[youtube 1GCaEZscfvA&hl]

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