Teplok Online Magazine | There's Only Good News For You

What You can learn from Poverty

2009-10-25T21:18:00.004+08:00

Who likes poverty to come to us? No one I think. But being in a poverty doesn't look bad at all. There are so many lessons of life you can take from it. This is how we see poverty in different perspective that gives a lot of lessons to our lives.

I've been trying to find its benefits, and I found many things. Here they are:

Guidance from one's Higher Self is most appreciated.
Addictive behaviors become evident and reveal energy blocks.
Humility and Reverence can be frequently experienced.
Meal planning can become personalized and more healthful.
Innovation and creativity can provide unique solutions.
Assertiveness is easier to learn and practice for fear of loss and coerciveness of power have little to threaten against.
Meditation can be a low cost anxiety relief with no adverse side effects.
Self-sufficiency adds to one's self-esteem and provides independence, security; and freedom.
Challenges provide opportunities to improve one's coping skills.
Time management skills can be more easily developed with less distraction.
Experience facilitates empathy with the many with similar incomes.
Healthful exercise (walking) often goes with low cost forms of transportation.
Mass media is less available and less distracting -- TV, radio, movies, papers ....
Friends who are sincere are recognized apart from friends-of-convenience.
Planning and organization skills help one conserve and better utilize space.
Foods are less costly if freshly prepared, not overprocessed, nor requiring toxic chemicals for preservation and artificial flavoring and color.
Persons who manipulate and deceive in order to personally gain, avoid you.
Freedom from debt, and credit, reduces your obligations to others.
One can choose to spend more time with family members and friends.
Changes in career, educational level, skill expertise and choice of relationships become less resisted by relatives, friends and associates --- and often receive encouragement.

Yes You Need to Know The Benefits of Smoking

2009-10-24T01:40:00.003+08:00

This may seem very strange, but we feel that smoking is actually good for you. There has to be a good side to smoking, otherwise nobody would be doing it. Here is a list of some of the benefits of smoking:

Enjoyable
Cope with stressful situations
Relaxing
Combats boredom
Keeps weight down
Helps focus
Fights loneliness and depression

Smoking is one of the main ways people handle stressful situations. Just the simple act of smoking allows you to go outside to smoke. Think about it. Going outside:

Allows you leave the stress
Puts you in a different environment
Allows you to clear your head

Also, the way you smoke can be relaxing. Taking a deep puff and holding it in for a few seconds is very similar to what’s called relaxation breathing. In relaxation breathing, you take a deep breath, hold it in for a few seconds, and then exhale slowly.

Another benefit of smoking is that is lessens feeling of depression or anxiety. It’s the nicotine in your cigarettes that is responsible for making these feelings go away. Think of the nicotine as a medication, and your cigarette as a medication delivery device.

After taking a puff, the nicotine in the smoke travels to your brain where is causes a chemical reaction. This reaction is what picks up your mood or lessens anxiety.

The nicotine travels to your brain in less than seven seconds. That’s faster than if you were to inject it into your veins, and it’s one of the reasons why nicotine is such an addictive drug.

The anti-depressant and anti-anxiety properties of nicotine explain why so many people who smoke suffer from depression and anxiety. The cigarettes are treating those conditions with every puff!

If you smoke as a way of dealing with depression, then quitting may make you feel depressed. The quit smoking medication Zyban helps in two ways:

Wards off withdrawal symptoms
Fights depression

Another beneficial aspect of smoking is that it keeps the weight down. Cigarettes do this by:

Keeping food in your stomach longer
Suppressing your appetite
Artificially speeding up your metabolism

Not everyone gains weight. The typical amount gained is 5 pounds, but some people gain more. There are many effective weight control methods designed to keeps the pounds off when you quit.

Focusing on the benefits of smoking is a good first step because:

better prepares you to quit
allows you replace the good side of smoking with things that are safer and healthier for you, while achieving similar results

Good News: Go and Hug Someone You Love!

2009-10-03T20:08:00.008+08:00

Do you like to get a hug from the ones you love? I do believe that no one denies that when we get hugged we'll feel better of relationship, feel more comfortable and keep us in better mood to face the day. This simple act accomplishes many things that you may have never considered. Hugging is a natural activity of nurturing and the sign of care to others.

According to family therapist Virginia Satir:

“We need 4 hugs a day for survival.

We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance.

We need 12 hugs a day for growth.”

Is it so great, isn't it? and Here are some benefits of hugging I've concluded from some articles.

It feels good.
It dispels loneliness.
It overcomes fear.
It opens doors to feelings.
It builds self-esteem.
It fosters altruism.
It slows down aging (huggers stay young longer).
It helps curb appetite (we eat less when we are nourished by hugs and when our arms are busy wrapped around others).
It eases tension.
It fights insomnia.
It keeps arms and shoulder muscles in condition.
It provides stretching exercise if you are short.
It provides stooping exercise if you are tall.
It offers a wholesome alternative to promiscuity.
It offers a healthy, safe alternative to alcohol and other drug abuse (better hugs than drugs!).
It affirms physical being.
It is democratic (anyone is eligible for a hug).
It is ecologically sound (it does not upset the environment).
It is energy-efficient (saves heat).
It is portable (you can take it with you).
It requires no special equipment.
It demands no special setting (a fine place for a hug is any place from a doorstep to an executive conference room … from a church parlor to a football field).
It makes happy days happier.
It imparts feelings of belonging.
It fills up empty places in our lives.
It keeps on working to dispense benefits even after the hug is released.
Reduces heart disease
Diminishes stress
Promotes longevity
Strengthens social ties
Lowers blood pressure
Lowers heart rate
Benefits the hugger and the huggee equally

Look, we list it so much, still not enough? Go and huge someone you love, your family, your best friend, your child and all the ones who have less of it and then add good things you get by hugging them into the list.

Good News: "Have a nice Dream" could be meant "Have a Nice Life"

2009-10-02T22:18:00.002+08:00

Sometimes dreams make a lot of sense — like when we’ve been working hard and we end up dreaming, alas, that we’re still at work. Other times the meaning of dreams is less clear. That doesn’t mean the dream isn’t important to our well-being, however. Retired teacher Barbara Kern can vividly recall the details of a dream she had nearly four decades ago, for instance.

“I’m lying on my back, holding the bottom rungs of a fireman’s ladder that has been extended to its full height,” she explains. “A boy is at the top of the ladder, swaying it back and forth, while I try to control it, but I can’t and I’m afraid he’s going to fall.”
For Kern, 79, who now lives in Lakewood, N.J., the dream was a symbolic expression of real-life concerns about her ability to reach a boy with severe learning problems whom she remembers as “one of the most challenging students I ever taught.” She characterizes the dream as a nightmare, recalling that it kept her up half the night.

Dreams, memories, and emotions
The dream — likely a means of coping with a major life stress — helped Kern, explains researcher Rosalind Cartwright, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychology at Rush University in Chicago. “It’s almost like having an internal therapist, because you associate [through dreams] to previous similar feelings, and you work through the emotion related to it so that it is reduced by morning.”

Although some researchers believe dreams are just a byproduct of sleep, others think dreams are important for memory consolidation or conflict resolution. Cartwright has found clues to suggest that dreams may help with mood regulation.

Dreams occur during both REM (rapid-eye-movement) and non-R.EM sleep, but sleep studies show that brain activity is heightened during REM periods. When sleep-study participants are wakened during the first non-REM period, those who recall their dreams tend to report thinking about a piece of emotional unfinished business. The dreamer may then restate or reshape the problem in a different form during the next REM cycle, and so on, through the night.

Dreaming may help depression
Sleep is without a doubt beneficial. According to the National Sleep Foundation, humans spend more than two hours dreaming each night (with the most vivid dreams occurring during REM sleep). Rats deprived of that precious REM sleep for four days produce fewer nerve cells in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center.

Among humans, dreaming may also help alleviate depression. In sleep studies of recently divorced women with untreated clinical depression, Cartwright and colleagues found that patients who recalled dreams and incorporated the ex-spouse or relationship into their dreams scored better on tests of mood in the morning. And they were much more likely to recover from depression than others who either did not dream about the marriage or could not recall their dreams.

“It really shows that there was an ongoing working through the night in the dream material, and eventually that the depression lifted in those people,” Cartwright says.
Looking back now, Kern says she was highly stressed at the time and the dream helped her realize how much the boy had been controlling her life. “It didn’t solve the problem,” she says, “but it helped put it in perspective.”

Good News: There's nothing like deep breathing, You should try!

2009-09-30T20:24:00.003+08:00

Deep breathing involves flexing your diaphragm while taking deep, even breathes. When done correctly deep breathing can be therapeutic and have noticeable health benefits. With enough practice it can even become your standard way of breathing. Deep breathing is very often used as therapy for problems like hyperventilation and anxiety disorders. By simply adding a few minutes of deep breathing here and there through your day you can greatly increase your health while decreasing your stress.

How does deep breathing help your general health? Well first off it can reduce stress. When stressed people have the tendency to take shallow breathes. Some studies can shown that a fast breathing rate is linked to high blood pressure To relax you do the opposite. In the same vein of thought it can help to clear and focus your mind. Deep breathing can increase your energy level and helps turn off racing thoughts.

Deep breathing also releases endorphines into the system. These are our bodies natural painkillers. This can help relieve general aches and pains, as well as help ease problems with sleeplessness. Deep breathing also relaxes muscles, a major cause of neck, back and stomach pains. Some studies have shown that deep breathing can also benefit asthma sufferers. This is partly because deep breathing can strengthen weak abdominal and intestinal muscles, and who doesn’t want that?

To try deep breathing you must draw air into the lungs while expanding the stomach rather than your chest. Sit or lie down somewhere quiet and get comfortable. To be able to feel the difference between your regular breathing and the deep breathing you can place one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. This will let you feel when you are breathing correctly.

Take breathes that are long and slow. This gives the body the ability to absorb more of the inhaled oxygen. Breath in through your nose, nice and slow. Exhale through pursed lips just as slowly. As you breath feel the motion of your stomach. If your rib cage is expanding, keep trying and focus on breathing with your diaphragm. Relax and repeat until you are comfortable. If you don’t get it right away, don’t worry. This is supposed to relax you, so do not let it cause stress. Try again later if you become frustrated.

After you become comfortable with the exercises, take them on the road. Try to make deep breathing a habit. You can do it while driving to work, sitting at your desk working, waiting in line sitting, while watching television, just about anytime. at the computer, standing in line at the grocery store, sitting in traffic. It can help deal with the stress of daily life.

Good News: Contagious and Healthy? It's Yawning!

2009-09-29T20:02:00.006+08:00

Though it is said that Yawning is often connected to sleepiness.Yawning is not just a human response. Most animals yawn as it provides relaxation too.Technically, a yawning is a reflex widening of the mouth which is followed by the the process of deep inhalation and slow exhalation of oxygen .

It is an involuntary reflex action controlled by the spinal and nerve centers of our body.A yawn lasts about six seconds.One should very well know about the physical benefits of yawning,it is generally seen on a plane, as it aids to balance the air pressure between your middle ear and cabin air during take off and landing of the airplane.thus we notice that we yawn because oxygen levels in our lungs is ow.A wide prolonged yawn has some benefits. It helps in exercising our jaw and facial muscles and stretches our lungs too. It also increases blood flow to the brain, raises our heart rate and helps with breathing. The out come is that we feel a little more awake after wards.

Researchers has also found out that our brain burns up to 33% of the calories we consume and generate heat.yawning cools our brain cells as it is involved in a process of long inhaling of oxygen and thus make them more efficient as it is known fact by know that oxygen activates the cells ,It has also been found that the process of yawning increases the blood flow and helps maintaining the optimum level of functioning ,They say we are hard wired to yawning .It helps us to stay alert and protect our self from danger.

Finding show that fetuses have been observed yawning in the womb,even though they don't inhale oxygen in through their lungs.Moreover it is also observed that we yawn when we get up in the morning, even after a good night's rest.May be we start a day with a long yawning because inhaling plenty of oxygen help us to activate our mind for a day's work.

Studies have shown that during our normal, at-rest breathing position, we often don't use our lung to their full capacity and breathe enough air,our body typically just use the air sacs at the bottom of the lungs, these air sacs called alveoli,when do not get enough fresh air, they partially collapse and our lungs stiffen a bit. As a result,our brain send message to our body to take a yawn to get more air into the lungs by deep breathing.

Good News: Express yourself by Painting! Get the relaxation!

2009-09-27T20:06:00.007+08:00

Painting is a good expressive activity. It has good benefits to our mind. And Quite literally, painting will change your life. You will gain self-esteem and a confidence you never knew you possessed. Painting provides an excellent source of personal relaxation and even physical therapy.

It allows you to associate creativity with every aspect of your life, not just on the canvas. Many have been led to find pleasure in music, reading, writing, sewing, gardening and much, much more as a result of painting. Through painting you will discover in yourself a greater awareness of the beauty of nature.

Good News : Screaming as loud as you can! and your stress will go away!

2009-09-26T20:41:00.008+08:00

It's not a secret how highlights screaming can be so effective to reduce our stress. So many people agree of this statement because everyone can do it themselves. Some studies find that highlights screaming is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to reduce stress and increase your chances of passion between the sheets.

And The research assessed the physiological and physical benefits of having a good scream and the results were very positive for both domestic and work scenarios. All 10 of the volunteers in the study had their stress levels fall sharply following a brief scream and couples reported feeling more loving and passionate towards one another afterwards.

Other key benefits from screaming highlighted in the report include:

Increasing strength and stamina
Reducing tensions
Feeling less inhibited
Burning off calories
Drawing couples together
Feeling more energetic and exhilarated

The problem is, in today's society, there are very few acceptable opportunities for letting out a full-throated scream. However, you still can freely do this such as going to a beach, mountain or even in your bed room. Screaming whether at home, at work or in the car will leave a you in a better frame of mind to cope with life's unavoidable stresses and strains and could even put the passion back into an uninspiring sex life.

Good News: And Now It's necessary to have a Pet in Your Home!

2009-09-25T21:20:00.006+08:00

The companionship of a pet is something man-kind has done for thousands of years. Dogs have worked by our sides, and provided us with endless affection and love. There is an incredible bond between human and furry companion that can't always be explained. Most of the time it can only be felt with the heart.

Not only do animals provide us with physical and social benefits, they also work on an emotional level that enriches our lives. The following are just some of the ways a pet will help provide more meaning, balance and structure to your daily life.

Nurturing a pet makes you feel needed. It gives you a reason to get up on days you may not feel like it. The dog needs to be fed and let out. Having this responsibility gives you a sense of accomplishment. The wonderful thing about a pet is they are always so happy you care for them and they ask for nothing in return. For senior citizens, having an animal can help take away their loneliness and give them a reason for living.

You feel safer when a pet, especially a dog, is with you at home. If you tend to not like to be alone when your spouse is gone, having a dog may help you feel less anxious because you feel safe knowing your dog will protect you.

The stress of your day will just melt away when you open your front door to a wagging tail. You can't help but smile when your dog is happy to see you. Petting your dog can melt away your problems and worries and possibly help you put all your challenges into perspective.

Animals can help you if you are grieving the death of someone close to you. If you don't have the emotional support you need, a pet can help you feel less depressed. Just the mere presence of your pet will give you hope. They will motivate you to look for the good in all situations.

A pet provides the much needed importance of touch. Having a cat to stroke, or dog to pet, nurtures you physically and emotionally to the powerful healing a touch has. They help you feel connected to something bigger than yourself.

Walking your dog daily not only has a positive effect on your physical health, it gets you out and meeting others in your neighborhood. Dogs are natural at making friends, furry or human. This can help you feel less lonely and also feel connected to others around you.

Even though we may not want to admit it, we all crave structure in our lives. Pets help keep our lives in order and keep us on a routine.

Acceptance of others and not judging is something animals teach us all the time. Also animals accept death as part of life, and that can help us with not fearing death and taking our queue from them.

Pets don't ever judge, they make us laugh with their funny antics, always trust and love us unconditionally, make us feel needed and are always willing to just sit and listen. With all these qualities, I think you can see why they have such a powerful and positive impact on our lives.

Good News : Forgiving, Why not?

2009-09-23T10:34:00.003+08:00

Betrayal, aggression, and just plain insensitivity: People can hurt us in a million ways, and forgiveness isn’t always easy. Whether you’ve been cut off in traffic, slighted by your mother-in-law, betrayed by a spouse, or badmouthed by a co-worker, most of us are faced with a variety of situations that we can choose to ruminate over or forgive. But forgiveness, like so many things in life, is easier said than done.

Forgiveness can be a challenge for several reasons. Sometimes forgiveness can be confused with condoning what someone has done to us: “That’s OK. Why not do it again?” Forgiveness can be difficult when the person who wronged us doesn’t seem to deserve our forgiveness -- it’s hard to remember that forgiveness benefits the forgiver more than the one who is forgiven. Ultimately, forgiveness is especially challenging because it’s hard to let go of what’s happened. However, it’s important to let go and forgive. Here are some reasons why:

* Forgiveness is good for your heart -- literally. One study from the Journal of Behavioral Medicine found forgiveness to be associated with lower heart rate and blood pressure as well as stress relief. This can bring long-term health benefits for your heart and overall health.

* A later study found forgiveness to be positively associated with five measures of health: physical symptoms, medications used, sleep quality, fatigue, and somatic complaints. It seems that the reduction in negative affect (depressive symptoms), strengthened spirituality, conflict management and stress relief one finds through forgiveness all have a significant impact on overall health.

* A third study, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that forgiveness not only restores positive thoughts, feelings and behaviors toward the offending party (in other words, forgiveness restores the relationship to its previous positive state), but the benefits of forgiveness spill over to positive behaviors toward others outside of the relationship. Forgiveness is associated with more volunteerism, donating to charity, and other altruistic behaviors. (And the converse is true of non-forgiveness.)

So, to sum it up, forgiveness is good for your body, your relationships, and your place in the world. That’s reason enough to convince virtually anyone to do the work of letting go of anger and working on forgiveness.

See this article for some simple strategies on how to forgive, or scroll down for more resources.

Sources:

http://stress.about.com/od/relationships/a/forgiveness.htm

Karremans JC, Van Lange PA, Holland RW. Forgiveness and its associations with prosocial thinking, feeling, and doing beyond the relationship with the offender. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, October 2005.

Lawler KA, Younger JW, Piferi RL, Billington E, Jobe R, Edmondson K, Jones WH. A change of heart: cardiovascular correlates of forgiveness in response to interpersonal conflict. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Octover 2003.

Lawler KA, Younger JW, Piferi RL, Jobe RL, Edmondson KA, Jones WH. The unique effects of forgiveness on health: an exploration of pathways. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, April 2005.

Good News: Complaining? Yes You Need

2009-09-16T19:20:00.005+08:00

It's really hard when we try to resist complaining about anything bad around us. Sometimes it's just like hiding a ready-to-blast bomb inside our head and make bad feelings. This is a natural thing.

Humans have a capability to see the right and the wrong. When we see anything disorder, our brain immediately knows it and then show image of correction inside our head and force us to do it, then if we can't correct it and being disturbed, it gets us irritated. This is one of the reason why we need to complain.

When does complaining become a good thing?

Complaining is not resemble to the anger. Complaining becomes so useful if we do it creatively. Creative complaining isn't attached by anger, it's just to show how to do something well and point the wrong then being corrected. That's it!

Creative complaining is healthy for individuals and groups. It exposes problems, generates actions to correct them, and keeps people’s energy high. As the process continues, people get honest about their resistance. It lets them hold new and unfamiliar changes at arm’s length until they realize it won’t hurt them. As we deal with new things, our actions become more positive, and defenses aren’t needed.

By way of summary, creative complaining means:

Be brief
Be clear
Be honest
Be humble and use humor
Avoid hurtful words.

What are the benefits of complaining?

One benefit is venting bad feelings. It really works for me, when everything gets right it feels like that the God loves us because we do it well!

Another benefit of complaining is that it highlights what’s wrong. If we don’t know something is broken, we can’t fix it. So complaining airs the problem. When I complain about something at home or work, I’ve developed a habit of stating the complaint once and then shutting up. Next I determine what I can do and take steps to correct it. Even if I can’t completely fix the problem, doing small things helps me feel better. Eventually, whatever I complained about is no longer broken; I’ve done what I can. If I can’t fix it, I think about something else.

Complaining brings people together in a common cause. And that is usually good because of the energy it generates. But gathering chronic complainers spreads negativity. Breaking the cycle means limiting the amount of time spent complaining. Keep time, and allow five minutes for complaints. When time expires, complaining stops; focus on what you can do. It’s been shown that when people act on a small part of a problem, they improve their well being and lower stress.

And that's all! So, if you want to complain, become smart on doing it and it won't take you into along bad feelings but satisfaction.

Good News : You Bloggers Should Read This Good News!

2009-09-15T19:18:00.004+08:00

Today I try to find a good news that is directly pointed to the most readers here because It's important to me to give you a good information and make you happy of what you do now, and sure you're doing this good thing now!

Yes, It's about the benefits of blogging! I've decided to write this because about 90% visitors here are bloggers. I've been googling and searching through some articles and surprisingly I found many information about this.

What's blogging? is it a beneficial activity?

Blogging is an activity about writing our experiences, thoughts, ideas or knowledge and most of bloggers do it just to share to others. Scientists have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.

Some scientists believe that blogging can be a placebo effect of getting satisfied and it reduces mind stress. This argument is supported by fact that humans are a social creatures that need to communicate and share to others.

Besides, blogging can build friendships. By visiting each other, commenting or just doing a small talk to others, it will raise our happiness by making friends. For business blogging can make it easier to advertise and meet the consumers or business partners in global chances.

Those are small benefits of blogging I concluded from many articles. You could find more its benefits here :

Health benefits of Blogging
Benefits of Blogging for business
Benefits of Blogging in practitioner's perspective (This is interesting)

Good News : Anger is Not Always Destined to Go Wrong

2009-09-14T01:49:00.006+08:00

Although uncontrolled anger can be quite costly, when channeled properly anger can also be very positive. Among other things, anger can motivate us to work harder to accomplish our goals. This could mean playing harder on the defensive end in a basketball game, studying longer for an exam, or putting in more time when learning to play an instrument.

Anger can sometimes lead to newer, higher level goals, possibly fueled by the desire to prove others wrong. Perhaps anger and frustration due to getting cut from his high school basketball team are what inspired Michael Jordan to achieve such greatness in his sport.

Anger can also alert us that something is wrong and that we need to respond. When we defend ourselves or defend someone else, it is often our anger that spurs us into action. This can be the love of a mother protecting her child, a classmate or colleague standing up to a bully, or an innocent bystander intervening on behalf of a victimized stranger.

Generally speaking, anger is what prevents us from passively accepting societal wrongdoings and ignites us to take action. Many of society’s most important changes have come about because people got angry with the way things were and set out to correct those injustices. Some examples include the Women’s Rights Movement, the abolishment of slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Over the years, many groups and organizations have formed in an effort to channel their anger in a positive, constructive manner. Among them are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the numerous anti-hate groups that exist today.

Outraged by the mistreatment of others, many have pushed for new laws over the years including those to protect children, the mentally ill and mentally challenged, people of different religions and ethnic backgrounds, the handicapped and disabled, and many other groups. Countless people have been helped by the actions of those who experienced anger and decided to do something positive to make things better.

So the next time that you lose your cool and say or do something that you regret, just remember that anger does not have to be your downfall. Instead of blaming someone else or wallowing in self-pity, take responsibility for your actions and get to work on improving your anger management skills. After all, look at all the great things that can be accomplished when anger is channeled properly.

Source: http://www.angermanagementgroups.com/AngerCanBePositive.html

Good News : Eat Using Hand? No problem!

2009-09-12T21:49:00.004+08:00

Have you ever eaten using your hand? I do it in each meal time. Traditional society in Indonesia prefer to eat using hand than using spoons or forks. I try to find it myself why I do it too and get some reasons and benefits of eating with hand. Here they are:

1. It's so simple, using hand makes us easier to take some foods or mix the flavors.
2. Make food more delicious, it's because we can mix the flavor completely.
3. It's healthier, I had ever read that upon our fingers there's an important chemical compound that affect to our health. So when we're using hand to eat we put that chemical compound inside the body.
4. It builds good solidarity, why? it's a natural things, it's fun, it's the sign of freedom of yourself. When you eat by spoon it looks more formal, too much rules, and not making free at all.

So try this! it's fun especially when you eat together with friends in one big plate using your hand!

Note: Absolutely you have to wash your hand to do this :)

Good News : Organic Food: Not Dangerous, Healthy and it's even Delicious

2009-09-12T00:51:00.013+08:00

With so many food choices available at the supermarket these days, it can be overwhelming to try to choose quality foods. The dizzying array of labels also adds to the confusion stating things like “organic”, “all natural”, and “hormone free”.

While many of the foods containing these labels can often be a bit more expensive, the question of “is it really better for me?” is bound to arise. The answer is a resounding yes. Not only is organic food better for your body, it is also better for the environment.

Toxins
While significant numbers of research studies have not been conducted comparing organic foods and conventionally grown foods, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Organic foods do not contain large amounts of harmful herbicides and pesticides. A single strawberry contains over 27 different chemicals, many which do not disappear upon washing. This means your body has the job of trying to break down the chemicals and excrete them. Unfortunately, our bodies have a tough enough time trying to identify these harmful substance let alone be able metabolize them. Studies have linked pesticides to cancers, birth defects, damage to the brain, nervous system disorders, and Parkinson’s disease. Children absorb far more pesticides than adults do when compared with similar exposure because children have more skin per surface size, take in more breaths per minute than adults, and have yet to be developed detoxification pathways. A study conducted in 2006 analyzed the urine of children aged 3 to 11 who ate only organic foods. Upon commencement of the study, researchers found no pesticide metabolites in the children’s urine. However, when the children resumed eating a non-organic diet, metabolites of 2 toxic pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were found in their urine in concentrations as high as 263 parts per billion.

Nutrient Density and Flavor
When comparing organic produce with conventionally grown, studies have shown organic foods are significantly higher in many vital nutrients. A 2003 study found that organic produce was about 50% in cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventional produce. An independent review found that organic produce had higher amounts of 21 nutrients, including vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and phosphorous; as well as greater amounts of trace minerals. Organic food also tastes better, try a home taste test with your family and see which foods they like better. A main reason for the better taste is that organic food is close to how you would find the food in nature, as it doesn’t have anything added, or anything taken away.

Environment
Organic farmers practice sustainable agriculture, meaning they optimize farming methods that will preserve the land for generations to come. In addition, organic farming practices do not produce chemicals that remain in our soil, spread through the environment via air, or end up poisoning our waters. Organic animal products also ensure the animal was treated humanely and was allowed to graze in open pastures.

Value
Organic food does tend to be slightly higher priced than conventional foods but it important to look a little closer. The price difference, on average, ranges from 22 – 65 cents higher. That results in only pennies a day, a small price to pay for better health. Considering organic fruits and vegetables can contain as high as 50% greater nutrient content, you would have to eat double the amount of produce you currently eat and that would certainly add up. Current US statistics reveal Americans spend 90% of their food budget on unhealthy and fast foods.

In the long run, choosing organic is the better choice for you and your family. Review our Organic Baby Food – Know the Facts post for additional information on organic baby foods.

References:

* EC Multicentre Study on Antioxidants, 1997
* Committee on Toxicity (2002) Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment: Risk assessment of mixtures of pesticides and similar substances, Crown Copyright, September 2002
* Worthington V (2001) Nutritional quality of organic versus conventional fruits, vegetables, and grains. The Journal of Complimentary Medicine, vol. 7, No. 2, p. 161 - 173.
* Carbonaro et al M (2003) Modulation of Antioxidant Compounds in Organic vs Conventional Fruit (Peach, Prunus persica L., and Pear, Pyrus communis L.). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2002, 50, p. 5458 - 5462).
* http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/16/dining/16WELL.html
* Davis D. et al. "changes in USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops 1950 to 1999" J of the Am College of Nutr. vol 23, no. 6; pp.669-682

Source : http://www.mummums.com/2008/03/Organic-Food--The-Benefits-of-Eating-Organic

Good News : Walking, walking, and walking!

2009-09-11T23:32:00.006+08:00

When the last time you walk by foot? Scientists agree that walking is one of the healthy thing we should do daily. They suggest 30 minutes a day of walking or at least 10.000 steps. Nowadays we are eased by modern technology on transportation. Cars help us to go anywhere easily.

This easy of going anywhere makes us getting lazy ourselves to walk by foot even just to near place. Here are some benefits of walking you should know :

* Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
* Lower blood pressure
* Reduce high cholesterol and improve blood lipid profile
* Reduce body fat
* Enhance mental well being
* Increase bone density, hence helping to prevent osteoporosis
* Reduce the risk of cancer of the colon
* Reduce the risk of non insulin dependant diabetes
* Help to control body weight
* Help osteoarthritis
* Help flexibility and co-ordination hence reducing the risk of falls

So, this kind of exercise is necessary to us. At least do it 30 minutes a day, just walk to the near place you could reach and making friends on the way, it's cool!

Good News : What's the most economical-healthy-safe activity in the world? it's absolutely biking!

2009-09-10T23:17:00.006+08:00

Okay, we all know bikes are one of the few methods of getting there that doesn’t produce carbon dioxide emissions. But biking also offers far-reaching benefits to you.

Find out what biking can do for you and the planet:

Easy on the Earth
Rather than adding to the pollution problem, biking is a completely clean form of transportation. The only fuel it burns is your own calories!

Biking is also quiet, a huge plus for all of us suffering from the ill effects of noise pollution.

Fitness
Not only good for the atmosphere, biking is good for your derriere, and lots of other body-parts as well. Firming, toning, calorie-burning: Biking has it beat over driving any day of the week.

How many calories will you burn in a hour of moderate biking? Or 30 minutes? Find out with this handy biking calorie-calculator.

Boosting Your Mood
Even moderate exercise, like a leisurely bike ride, will boost levels of euphoria-producing hormones called endorphins. Translation: You can bike away your blues.

Enjoying the Scene
When we whiz past scenery in a car, we miss so much. The slower pace of biking enables ups to experience the beauty of locale. Avid bikers report the satisfaction of smelling newly mown grass, or flowering trees, or the fertile damp earth as one of the added bonuses of cycling.

Meeting Like-Minded Others
You can bet that fellow cyclers are probably health-and-environmentally-minded. Many bikers say that deep friendships often form among cycling enthusiasts because of their common ground.

Source: here

Good News : And Now You Should Sleep in Complete Darkness!

2009-09-09T00:06:00.002+08:00

We were designed to sleep at night, when it is totally dark. One part of the human body’s cycle is melatonin production. Melatonin is a hormone that helps us to sleep. The pineal gland, which produces melatonin is very sensitive to light, and shuts down production if there is any light.

Melatonin has benefits to reduce insomnia and improve REM sleep cycle.

Even if you get up in the night and turn on the bathroom light, you will shut down production, probably for the rest of the night, because the pineal gland assumes that once it sees light, that it will be light for many more hours. Melatonin is only one part of the wake/sleep cycle that depends on light. The more time you spend in full daylight, during the day, and the more complete the darkness at night, the better you will sleep.

Do we have to fear to sleep in the dark? It's healthy indeed.

Good News : Let's have a glass of plain water in the morning

2009-09-08T22:48:00.011+08:00

Some people say that by drinking a glass of plain water after waking up in the morning may help us healthier.

Early in the morning, there are some enzymes inside our mouth that when flushed down together with the water into our bodies, will benefit our general health.Also, plain (good quality) water will aid in the detoxification process that takes place in the morning.

And drinking plain water in the morning is to begin digestion/metabolism which in turn burn calories, which, decreases glucose levels even not have use to cure diabetic.Though it doesn't have many supports but some claim that drinking plain water regularly can lose their body weight.

Good News : 8 Ways to Instantly Calm Yourself

2009-09-08T00:50:00.005+08:00

We all have felt anxiety before. No matter how confident and relaxed you are, you know what it’s like to be nervous before an interview, trembling before a speech, or cold and clammy over the pending results of your graded quiz.

The point of this article is to provide you with eight different ways to release this tension. There are more powerful ways in which you can relax (as we will provide in our products) however this article provides eight ways you can use anywhere. Hardly anyone will actually notice that you are using them. You will not have to sit in a meditation position on the floor, or chant mantras to relax yourself… so no worries.

Also, notice the title of this article is not “…Calm Yourself Down”. We don’t calm down. We calm up.

Calming yourself involves not detaching yourself from your environment, but integrating yourself with it while you mentally move inward to obtain steadiness. You should not feel tired or detached. You should simply become “in the zone”: Alert, focused and relaxed.

Chair Press-Up

This one’s great for if you are waiting to give a speech or if you are nervous in a group setting. Simply put your feet flat on the floor. Put your hands on the arms of your chair. If your chair doesn’t have arms, place them on the edges of the seat. Brace yourself. Now, take a deep breath, and push up with your arms and feet as you exhale. Lock your arms – let your torso hang from your locked arms for a moment while you finish exhaling… long and deep. Go limp, but remain locked in the up position. Now sit back down. You feel like a noodle, and everything is cool.

Breathing

Breathing is absolutely crucial to calming yourself. I recommend you do some in-depth research on Eastern styles of breathing, and how to breathe powerfully with your diaphragm. Breathe in strongly and slowly through your nose as you expand your diaphragm. Your stomach should rise, not your chest. Now, blow it out strongly and steadily through your mouth. Repeat this a few times. You can feel the tension leaving your body.

Spread Legs

This one may not seem like much, but it has serious subconscious value. When most people are relaxed (particularly us guys) we have a tendency to spread our legs slightly and take up more space. By consciously spreading your legs while sitting (or standing) you will take up more space, which is what we generally do when we are comfortable in a setting. Perform the action, and the feeling of comfort will follow.

Slouch Slightly

Yes, slouching is bad for your posture. Slouching for years will curve your spine. Slouching for a few minutes will not. This is another habit most people demonstrate when they are relaxed and comfortable: They slouch. So, next time you feel antsy about a situation, allow yourself to lean back your head and slouch slightly in your chair. Once again, the feeling will follow the action.

Power Hands

Powerful people are often calm, relaxed and comfortable in their actions. When they sit around a table, they often do one of two things with their hands: Steepling, or the hands-behind-the-head. To steeple, put your elbows on the table, and steeple your hands in front of your face – like the bad guy does in the movie when he’s going “M’yesss…. Muwahaha…. I can see it all coming together so perfectly…” Think of yourself as the bad guy when you steeple your hands. You know you are going to win. You steeple your hands as you turn over your master plan inside your head. Everything is falling into place so perfectly. Muwhaha. For more of a “corporate” power / relaxation effect, lean back in your chair and put your hands behind your head, lacing your fingers together. This is how bosses sit when they are talking to people who work for them. It has profound effects in making you feel more powerful and relaxed.

Anchoring

This is an incredible psychological tool we will cover in more depth in our products. Your subconscious mind anchors certain actions / stimuli with certain feelings and responses. Psychological anchors and triggers are used everywhere. It is the reason behind many strong emotional connections. If you had a song played at your wedding, hearing the song played at a later date may make you cry. The emotional event was your wedding, and you heard a song during it (the anchor). Thus, the song became tied to the feelings you felt during your wedding. Upon hearing the song again (the trigger) you feel the same feelings again.

Another example is if you became very ill once from a certain drink, you may become sick simply from smelling the drink in the future. The emotional event was becoming very ill, and the anchor was the drink. Therefore, smelling the drink in the future could make you sick very quickly. Anchors are used everywhere, in positive and negative emotions. To use them to calm yourself, develop a specific anchor every time you are calm. My anchor is to place my hand palm-down on my thigh. Every time I am relaxed, I do this, to reinforce the anchor. Then when I need to be calm, I simply fire the trigger (palm on the thigh) and my mind recreates the emotion tied to that anchor – which is relaxation. Pick an anchor you don’t use that much, such as touching your ear, or putting your hand on your knee. Do it whenever you are relaxed, and when you need to become relaxed, doing it will help to put you in that mental state.

Kill Internal Dialogue

There are many ways to do this, but here’s one good technique: If you are talking yourself into a worrisome state, or worrying while talking to someone during a conversation, do this immediately. Defocus your eyes, and open your peripheral vision. Look at two areas ahead of you, to each side. Picture your conscious thoughts in those areas. Now, draw your gaze up from both points at 45 degree angles until they meet in the high-center of your vision. Next bring the gaze straight down, so it is directly in front of you (a person’s face if you are talking to them). Now, picture your gaze coming straight back to your own head, as you return your consciousness to your own mind. Not only does it help increase focus, but the simple effort required to perform the exercise will often stop any distracting internal dialogue you are having at the time.

Centering

If you feel a general anxiety of your whole body, such as being self-conscious of your hands, feet, or body position, this exercise can work wonders. Close your eyes. Take a few deep, long breaths: in through your nose and out through your mouth. Place your tongue on your front pallet, directly above the backside of your upper teeth- this is effective in stimulating cross-lobe integration (and relaxation) in the brain. Picture a point far in front of you. Project your thoughts there in your mind. Continue breathing, and keep your thoughts there, until you are fully relaxed and have forgotten about clammy hands, sweaty feet, or mismatched socks. Once you are relaxed, slowly bring the point in front of you closer as you return to a fully aware state.

Source: Free Article

Good News : Noon Nap, put it into your must list!

2009-09-08T00:23:00.003+08:00

It's not even noon, but you can't keep your eyes open another second. Now the hard, polished surface of the conference table looks like the perfect resting place. In fact, you'd trade anything for a short nap.

If you feel sleepy during your busy work day, you're not alone. According to a 1992 report by the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, which was created by Congress in 1989, Americans in general are grossly sleep-deprived. Most of them get 20 percent less sleep than people did 100 years ago, the commission's report says.

The cost of this national need for shut-eye is staggering. The commission estimated that in 1990 the cost of accidents, lost productivity, and poor decision making related to sleepiness was $15.9 billion.

In a January 1994 survey conducted by the Better Sleep Council, a nonprofit organization supported by the bedding industry, one in five adults surveyed said they have at some time called in sick or have showed up late for work because they didn't sleep well the night before.

This national sleep deficit could be easily reduced if exhausted employees and employers alike simply napped once a day. But napping still bears a heavy social stigma in our highly productive, fast-paced society.

"It's associated with laziness because we don't put a very high value on sleep," explains Andrea Herman, director of the Better Sleep Council, based in Alexandria, Va. The group wants to restore sleep to its rightful place in what it calls the triumvirate of health--eating properly, exercising regularly, and sleeping well.

Nightly sleep requirements vary among adults, but 7 to 10 hours is the norm. During that time, the body moves in and out of physically healing NREM (nonrapid eye movement) sleep in cycles of about 90 minutes. This is when the body's metabolism slows down enough to permit repair of the daily wear and tear on the whole system.

Roughly a fifth of slumber time is spent in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, or dreamland, where a lot of psychological healing is accomplished. Interruption or shortening of either sleep cycle intensifies the midday sleepiness already determined by the body's circadian rhythms, which set sleep and other physiological patterns.

The midday slump, say researchers at the Institute for Circadian Physiology, in Cambridge, Mass., is totally natural and has virtually nothing to do with lunchtime dietary indiscretions. People who rise and shine around 7 o'clock usually conk out between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. Earlier risers start dragging at noon and don't perk up until 2 o'clock. But because the slump is exacerbated by sleep debt, some doctors are becoming strong advocates of napping.

Dr. Jeffrey Migdow, who practices holistic medicine and directs yoga programs at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, in Lenox, Mass., says napping has a venerable tradition. Ancient yogis, having discovered how napping relieved stress on the nervous and immune systems, built 20 to 30 minutes of it into their daily practices.

"In 10 to 15 minutes, today's business person can get the same benefits," Migdow says. "The body is a very resilient system that to rejuvenate. If you take time to turn the nervous system off, the whole system recharges."

Dr. Karl Doghramji, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia, recommends naps only for people who suffer sleep deprivation, not for sufferers of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, in which breathing stops temporarily, or narcolepsy, a frequent and uncontrollable desire for sleep. "I do not recommend napping, in fact I forbid it, for people who are insomniacs, or who have a weak sleep drive," he cautions. "If you're getting eight hours of sleep at night and still need a daily nap, then something else might be going on in your sleep that needs medical attention."

If you're not getting eight hours of sleep and suspect a daytime snooze might boost your creativity, productivity, and mood, here's how to make it work:

1. To avoid disrupting your circadian rhythms, schedule your nap about eight hours after waking and eight hours before bedding down for the night.

2. Create a routine that includes napping even on days you don't feel particularly tired.

3. Lie down to nap if possible--it's the optimal position.

4. Close your office door and turn off your phone so you don't subliminally worry about being disturbed.

5. Take a minute for some slow, deep breaths before hunkering down. These will help your body relax into sleep.

6. After you wake up, take a minute to reorient yourself by taking a few more deep breaths and stretching. Don't kick into gear too abruptly. Such a shock to the nervous system undermines the wonderful benefits of napping.

Meredith Gould "Power napping - benefits of middday sleeping". Nation's Business. FindArticles.com. 07 Sep, 2009. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1154/is_n2_v83/ai_16420323/

Good News : 5 Things That Become Easier When You Wake Up Early

2009-08-29T23:35:00.006+08:00

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a night owl if you’re doing it for all the right reasons, but when you focus on getting better sleep and waking up early you tap into a number of benefits that most people don’t get by staying up late. Busy workdays often lead to weary evenings, and in the rush to keep up important things can fall by the wayside. It’s not easy for anyone to keep it all balanced, but waking up early can give you a definite advantage when it comes to getting more of what you want out of life. Let’s look at 5 things that get easier when you give waking up early a chance.

#1 – It’s Easier To Feel Good About Your Day

Most of us live lives that are pretty damned busy. Sometimes way, way too busy. Because of that, it’s easy to be frazzled, hurried and stressed when you wake up after hitting the snooze button and realize that you have to hit the ground running if you hope to get going in time. That rushed feeling doesn’t go away easily for most of us, and we carry that stress throughout the day (and night). But when you wake up early, you get to start the day on your own terms. You get time to “warm up,” to let your thoughts settle, and relax before it’s time to spring into action. You get to be proactive – rather than reactive, which gives you a greater feeling of control (and cuts your stress during the day).
#2 – It’s Easier To Keep Your Life Balanced

The greatest thing about waking up early is that almost nobody else does. :-) This means you have a chunk of time where you’re likely to be free of interruptions and demands – and you can finally do some things for yourself (for a change!). The things you’ve been putting off – exercise, journaling, reading, relaxing, attending to your personal or spiritual growth – these are all things that you can start making time for “under the radar” of a day that crouches in wait with infinite urgencies and demands. By setting aside a slice of your day for you, a more balanced life becomes something you’re actually working for, rather than hoping for.

#3 – It’s Easier To Sleep Well At Night

When you know that the next morning will give you a chance to meet the day on your own terms, and that you’ll have an opportunity to bring more balance to your life, you’ll feel a lot better when you put your head down on the pillow. You won’t feel so rushed, so overwhelmed, so running behind … and you’ll be able to relax more at the end of the day, knowing progress awaits in the morning. And while that’s not a guaranteed cure for insomnia or other sleep disorders, it certainly can’t hurt.

#4 – It’s Easier to Stay Focused And Productive

This is a given (and that’s why it’s towards the bottom of the list). Tasks tend to expand to meet whatever time limits we set for them, and that can be dangerous late at night, when you’re geared up to “just work a little longer ’till it’s done.” But when you block out time in the morning to do something, the deadline becomes more real. You’ve got to get a task done before the kids get up, or before it’s time to go to work, and you hustle more to get it done. You resist distraction and stay more focused. And that’s a good thing to have going for you.

#5 – It’s Easier to … (you fill in the blank)

The “teaser” post for the Better Sleep series received a lot of great comments from all of you, and I’d love to hear more. If you’re an early riser already, add to the list via the comments below. If you’re an early riser-in-training, comment on what you’re planning to “make easier” when you start meeting the day on your own terms. And if you need some help waking up early, click here to get it.

Waking up early isn’t as grueling as most people think – but there are some very real obstacles, which I’ll discuss in the next post, Why Waking Up Early Can Be So Hard. Sign up for RSS or email updates and don’t miss a post in the Better Sleep series.

Good News : Boredom truly has benefits to us...

2009-08-29T02:42:00.005+08:00

Over the centuries, many religions and philosophers (not to mention mothers!) have feared and even damned boredom. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard called it “the root of all evil”. Wordsworth described it as a “savage torpor”. Early Christians classified it as one of the seven deadly sins. We talk about being “bored to death”, “bored stiff”, “bored to tears” and “bored silly”. Crime waves are often blamed on disaffected youths who claim they cannot find anything else to do.

However, in addition to negatively numbed minds, there are also constructively bored minds. If one is brave enough to hang out with boredom for awhile (in oneself or one’s children), boredom can be the great motivator, a push to develop one’s inner resources and a tool for creativity.

Here’s what writer F. Scott Fitzgerald had to say on the topic: “Boredom is not an end product; it is, comparatively, rather an early stage in life and art. You’ve got to go by or past or through boredom, as through a filter, before the clear product emerges.”

Many times while writing I have found myself lingering over the keyboard, considering some new procrastination tactic, feeling bored and uninspired with my work and unable to write another word. But I pushed on through those feelings, past that situation, because I am a writer...and thus motivated to write (partly because I love the very process as much as the rewards that come with the product). Actually, as I think about it, I did more than push through boredom; it pushed me.

Boredom seems to have been the mechanism that prompted me to clear my mind and refocus. Sometimes I’d go for a walk or clean the kitchen. But I didn’t stay bored for long, because I began to look around and notice things I hadn’t seen before – including new thoughts. Maybe the unfocused time had allowed my mind to rest and my subconscious to scan the horizon for a new perspective, which was followed by new interest in the task at hand. For whatever reason, soon I would be back engrossed in productive work. And inevitably, that work would be better than what I was producing earlier.

Psychologist and author Mihaly Csikszentmihaly would say I was back into the flow. Csikszentmihalyi is chiefly known as the architect of the notion of flow in creativity. He describes flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

So maybe, when we’re bored, we seek to feel those good feelings associated with flow. In his book Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play Csikszentmihaly examines motivation based on a study of a half-dozen groups of people involved in pursuits like rock climbing, composing, dancing and playing chess. He chose these groups in an effort to understand more fully what motivates people to stop watching boring television shows and instead, engage in activities that are extremely challenging or offer few external rewards (like writing a poem or pondering a chess move). He found, simply (and these are my words – he seldom writes simply), that the answer is in the high they get from experiencing flow.

I remember as an only child feeling bored sometimes (at least that is how it was labeled at the time), especially during summer vacation when my time wasn’t programmed by somebody else. If my mother noticed, she would nag at me to “do something”, then she might create some busy work to try and alleviate my boredom. It seldom worked, possibly because I was stubborn enough to reject her suggestions on general principle, probably because she confused solitude with idleness, maybe because you can’t alleviate somebody else’s boredom for them, and often because I wasn’t really bored, but tinkering, messing about, just looking like I was doing nothing. And sometimes, my cries of boredom were really cries for my mother’s attention, rather than for one of her projects designed to keep me out of her way. Eventually my down time would end and I would find something new and more challenging to do than the busy work she provided. If left alone long enough, boredom motivated me, forced me to lean on my own inner resources, to develop my imagination and to envision wonderful possibilities. Maybe I was subconsciously looking for things that would let me experience flow! And probably there was lots going on in my subconscious while I was bored, which surfaced at some later time.

At other times, I remember being bored because I was disinterested in what the adults around me were chatting about. Bored with the conversation, I would become enthralled with people’s voices and with the sounds of their words and their accents. Later, in the safety of my own room, I would try to replicate those accents, an activity which no doubt increased my vocabulary and trained my ear for future writing projects. In the same way, I once watched my young daughter lying on a blanket under a tree. As she grew weary with observing the passing clouds and gently blowing branches, she suddenly sat up and began to point out faces, animals and other objects that she was seeing above her. Soon, she had picked up a pencil and was feverishly drawing what she was imagining. Boredom turned quickly to creativity; doing nothing had allowed her to “see” things in a new way and inspired her to “do something” as her grandmother would have worriedly urged if she had been there.

At any rate, and contrary to my mother’s concerns, boredom got neither me nor my daughter into trouble. Nor, as is so often a concern, did it turn either of us into passive people waiting to be entertained or taught. My life learning daughter was already fully engaged in the world, eagerly entertaining herself and others, and actively learning from life. As for me, I already was a bit inclined toward passivity, as a result of being trained in school to accept the prospect of repetitive tasks, rote learning and intellectual conformity. I like to think it was the boredom of school, combined with my comfort in being alone born of the solitude of being an only child, in an era of little or no influence from television, that allowed me to become a prolific creator.

If that is true, I was lucky. One of the main things I wanted to avoid for my daughters by allowing them to learn outside of the school system was the numbing lack of imagination that has created the repetitive and monotonous way we deal with learning in the school setting.

Given that most of us experienced that type of schooling, it is no wonder a distaste for boredom and drive for diversion is embedded in our culture. Ironically, work, education and even many of our leisure pursuits often involve what seem like difficult, unpleasant and boring chores. For too many people, making a living is something one does not out of joy, but in order to earn enough money to stay home on weekends and a couple of weeks in the summer, and on which to retire early. Learning skills like reading and multiplying is thought to be difficult and painful, and has to be forced on children. Keeping fit often involves forcing ourselves to eat things we don’t like and pound the pavement or pedal to nowhere on a stationary bike once a day. And even our attempts at entertaining ourselves involve brief diversions through watching the latest pseudo-reality television show or banal hit song rather than a joyful flexing of our own creative powers.

Knowing the way life learning challenges the schooling mentality, just think what would happen if everyone started to act on the motivation of boredom and look for ways to live totally in the flow! I am willing to bet that besides a lot of happy and creative people, we would also have fewer bored, antisocially behaving young people, but that’s another article.

We certainly would, I believe, be a calmer group of people. This morning, as I sat writing at a sidewalk café, I wondered whether all the people speeding by me were really fruitfully engaged in the world, or if their rushing to and fro was mostly an effort to avoid boredom, to keep their minds active and engaged.

What if, I wondered, as I enjoyed the sites and smells of the early morning, more people paid attention to the journey of life, not just the destination? What if they paid more attention to their experiences moment by moment? I suspect they would find that boredom is, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, a filter through which emotions, experiences and, yes, solitude can pass, resulting in a soaring of creativity and imagination – not to mention less stress. They might also find that it can be an alarm bell, motivating us to alter the way we are thinking, living and learning. Unlike caged animals whose neural pathways are altered by their boredom to the point that all they can do is pace, we humans have the potential to break through anything that limits our happiness and creativity, boredom included.

Source : http://www.naturallifemagazine.com/lifelearning/boredom.htm

Good News : The Family who Eats Together, Stays Together

2009-08-28T02:20:00.007+08:00

"Come and get it!" It may be dinnertime, but when was the last time your family sat down and enjoyed a mealtogether? With music lessons, ball practice, play rehearsal, and work schedules, it can be tough. Rounding up the troops for an evening meal can be almost impossible! However, research is beginning to show that eating as a family has great benefits for your children and teenagers. Here are 8 more reasons why you should try to sit down together 5-6 times a week, whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Reason #1: Communication and Well-Being
Conversations during the meal provide opportunities for the family to bond, plan, connect, and learn from one another. It’s a chance to share information and news of the day, as well as give extra attention to your children and teens. Family meals foster warmth, security and love, as well as feelings of belonging. It can be a unifying experience for all.

Reason #2: Model Manners (and more)
Family mealtime is the perfect opportunity to display appropriate table manners, meal etiquette, and social skills. Keep the mood light, relaxed, and loving. Try not to instruct or criticize—lead by example.
Reason # 3: Expand Their World…One Food at a Time
Encourage your children to try new foods, without forcing, coercing, or bribing. Introduce a new food along with some of the stand-by favorites. Remember that it can take 8-10 exposures to a new food before it is accepted, so be patient. Trying a new food is like starting a new hobby. It expands your child’s knowledge, experience, and skill.
* Include foods from other cultures and countries.
* Select a new vegetable from a local farmer’s market.
* Have your child select a new recipe from a cookbook, web site, newspaper, magazine or check out the recipes on SparkPeople.

Reason #4: Nourish
Meals prepared and eaten at home are usually more nutritious and healthy. They contain more fruits, vegetables, and dairy products along with additional nutrients such as fiber, calcium, vitamins A and C, and folate. Home cooked meals are usually not fried or highly salted, plus soda and sweetened beverage consumption is usually lower at the dinner table.

Reason #5: Become Self-Sufficient
Children today are missing out on the importance of knowing how to plan and prepare meals. Basic cooking, baking, and food preparation are necessities for being self-sufficient. Involve your family in menu planning, grocery shopping, and food preparation. Preschoolers can tear lettuce, cut bananas, and set the table. Older children can pour milk, peel vegetables, and mix batter. Teenagers can dice, chop, bake, and grill. Working as a team puts the meal on the table faster, as well as makes everyone more responsible and accepting of the outcome. Improved eating habits come with "ownership" of a meal.

Reason #6: Prevent Destructive Behaviors
Research shows that frequent family dinners (five or more a week), are associated with lower rates of smoking, drinking, and illegal drug use in pre-teens and teenagers when compared to families that eat together two or fewer times per week. Even as older children’s schedules get more complicated, it is important to make an effort to eat meals together. Scheduling is a must.

Reason #7: Improve Grades
Children do better in school when they eat more meals with their parents and family. Teenagers who eat dinner four or more times per week with their families have higher academic performance compared with teenagers who eat with their families two or fewer times per week.

Reason # 8: Save Money
Meals purchased away from home cost two to four times more than meals prepared at home. At present time the restaurant industry’s share of the total food dollar is more than 46%. Due to scheduling, commitments, and activities, families eat out several times each week.

It is time to bring the "family" back to the dinner table. Sharing dinner together gives everyone a sense of identity. It can help ease day-to-day conflicts, as well as establish traditions and memories that can last a lifetime.

Good News : 8 Healthiest Drink

2009-08-26T16:36:00.007+08:00

When you think of good-for-you beverages, water immediately comes to mind, but there are others worth adding to your diet. "Some drinks have tremendous health benefits, from relieving minor ailments like indigestion to protecting against serious ones like osteoporosis," says Dan Nadeau, M.D., medical director of Exeter Hospital's HealthReach Diabetes, Endocrinology and Nutrition Center in Exeter, New Hampshire. Here, eight choices that are packed with disease-fighting nutrients. Now that's easy to swallow.

1. Green Tea
The Benefit: Helps reduce risk of osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease and cavities. Green tea contains a rich concentration of flavonoids and polyphenols, natural antioxidants that may protect cells from carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) and inhibit tumor growth by helping to neutralize free radicals in the body. The tea's antioxidants may also guard against heart disease by relaxing blood vessels, inhibiting the formation of blood clots that trigger heart attacks and strokes. Green tea also contains fluoride, which strengthens teeth; the flavonoids may build up bones as well, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and tooth decay.
Calories: 0

2. Mint Tea
The Benefit: Eases cramps and helps ward off indigestion. "Mint is an antispasmodic, so it can relax muscles, which combats stiffness and aches," says Susan Lark, M.D., author of The Chemistry of Success (Bay Books, 1999). It also aids in digestion by promoting the movement of food through the digestive tract.
Calories: 0

3. One Percent Reduced-Fat Milk
The Benefit: Curbs cravings and helps protect against osteoporosis. Because it has the components of a healthy meal-carbohydrates, protein and a little fat-you absorb it slowly and stay full longer, says Molly Pelzer, R.D., a nutrition educator in Tipton, Iowa. It also stabilizes blood sugar, so you're less susceptible to cravings. Milk is the ideal source of calcium, because it contains vitamin D, which is needed for maximum calcium absorption. It may also help your body stop storing fat. In a recent study, women who consumed three to four servings of low-fat dairy foods (milk being one) lost nearly twice as much weight as those who took in lower amounts. 'The calcium causes your body's cells to burn the fat instead of holding on to it," says Pelzer. "This makes it easier to reach and maintain your goal weight."
Calories: 120 for eight ounces

4. Soy Milk
The Benefit: Lowers risk of heart disease. Soy milk contains soluble fiber and soy protein, which lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and triglycerides, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. If you're drinking it instead of cow's milk, buy soy milk fortified with calcium and vitamins A and D. One caveat: Soy contains phytoestrogens, which may be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. Talk to your doctor about drinking soy milk if you have a family history of the disease or have had it yourself.
Calories: 81 for eight ounces

5. Hot Chocolate
The Benefit: Improves mood and may help protect against heart disease. Chocolate increases the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is responsible for regulating mood. (Low levels of serotonin have been associated with depression.) Cocoa is also rich in polyphenols, plant-derived antioxidants that may protect cells against oxidative damage that can lower HDL (good) cholesterol levels, possibly putting you at higher risk for a heart attack.
Calories: 195 for eight ounces homemade cocoa; 115 for a powdered mix

6. Low-Sodium Tomato Juice
The Benefit: May protect against numerous cancers. Processed tomato products are the richest source of the antioxidant lycopene, which has been associated with a reduced risk of lung and stomach cancer, as well as pancreatic, colorectal, esophageal, oral, breast and cervical cancers. Lycopene also appears to protect the lungs and heart against oxidative damage, helping to ward off cardiovascular disease.
Calories: 31 for six ounces

7. Cranberry Juice
The Benefit: Helps prevent gum disease. Research suggests that the same anti-bacterial properties present in cranberry juice that fight off urinary tract infections may also protect against periodontal disease. Experts theorize that a component of the juice called nondialysable material (NDM) inhibits bacteria from sticking to the gums. Many nutritionists are wary of fruit juices because of their sugar content, so limit your intake to no more than one glass (six to eight ounces) daily. "Make sure the label says 100 percent juice, not 'juice drink' or 'cocktail,'" suggests Heidi Reichenberger, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. You can find this type of juice in health-food stores and some supermarkets.
Calories: 140 for eight ounces

8. Orange Juice
The Benefit: May ward off cataracts, cancers and birth defects and boost immunity. An excellent source of vitamin C, orange juice is also a potent antioxidant that may protect against a variety of diseases including cataracts (a clouding of the eye's lens that can lead to blindness) and lung cancer. Vitamin C may prevent oxidative damage that can cause cells to become cancerous, and it improves immune-cell functioning, enabling your body to fight off infections more efficiently. And it's a good source of folate, which protects against neural-tube defects in fetuses. To get the extra benefit of bone protection, try some calcium-fortified orange juice.
Calories: 115 for eight ounces

Source : http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/drinks/healthy-choices/healthiest-drinks/