THE EMPOWERMENT WEEKLY

Truth in information by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2012-01-25T11:59:00.003-07:00

Stop! What are you sensing this very moment? What are you hearing? Feeling? Tasting? Seeing? Smelling? The list of data being received at any one moment is literally indescribable.

The incredibly complex computer we call our brain organizes, orders, remembers, files and acts upon what is received by the senses. Such gathering, evaluation and ordering goes on all day, all night (albeit on a reduced level), seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, throughout our entire lifetime. Amazingly, all this information becomes a part of us and in a very real way connects us to all the transmitters of the sensory data we have received — every thing and every person with whom you have ever come in contact. We take it all in and our inner world expands and grows with each experience. We learn to understand much of the data and how to use it for our advantage, but there are immeasurable ways of reading information, and how we ultimately comprehend sensory impressions is a complicated matter.

Learning to interpret and apply sensory data is a long and arduous process that we train for from the time of our birth. Anyone who has a newborn child can see that the baby is trying to “make sense” of what he is experiencing. Over time, the child will be programmed to read sensory information by family, friends, community, schools, religion or lack thereof, race, sex and the child’s environment, just to mention some of the influencers. This training, though culturally specific, is by no means uniform even within a community, much less in a global way.

We are most likely to find people who interpret information the way we do, and therefore agree with our views, when we live in close community with others who share our nationality, religion, education, culture, language or race. I have noticed such common agreement among people in Salt Lake City, Utah mainly because of their shared religion, language, culture and national view. Surprisingly, I was also aware of a similar harmony in the population of Ann Arbor Michigan, a town overwhelming influenced by the University of Michigan. Here I found a faculty and student body with wildly diverse cultural, religious and national views. Given such an eclectic makeup of people, one would imagine a community plagued by strife and deep misunderstanding; actually, they seem to be a very harmonious bunch. I suspect this is so because they share mutual intellectual foundations and aspirations; perhaps more important, they are in an environment of open and fluid thinking. Maybe their common foundation is a welcoming of innovation and new thought; perhaps we could even say that they have been programmed to the truth of education and unity in diversity.

In contrast, the Mormon community is much more fixed and closed, already having made clear choices of how they want to view life and the world. Not only are they less inclined to explore new options, to a certain extent they even find conventional education disruptive. In short, they have defined their personal truth and have constructed a community that conforms to that truth. So convinced are they of their lifestyle and the universality of their truth, they send forth missionaries to other communities to educate others in the Mormon Doctrine.

Often, time will modify our assumptions. Something that may be considered true now may not be considered true a year from now. After all, didn’t the early Christian philosophers argue that the earth could not possibly be a sphere because people on the bottom side would fall off? The volume of people believing the world was flat did not actually make it so. On the other hand, the fact that they held that belief did influence their thinking and actions, just as if the earth were flat. This is an example of how we can arrive at faulty conclusions when we don’t have enough perspective to give us a complete view of a situation.

Even though our senses are extraordinary in their capacity, we must also recognize that they are limited in their scope and extremely dependent on getting the right information. What happens when we are influenced to read information incorrectly or fed false or distorted data or even educated to misunderstand the facts. This happens everyday in politics and advertising, both dedicated to influencing your judgment. I often think that misinterpreting information at hand can be more dangerous than not knowing because when we misinterpret, we “think” we know. This often leads to stubborn actions by an ego invested in being right, even though it is mistaken. If we are presented false or distorted data we draw conclusions based on a false foundation. Checking the facts, thinking for yourself and questioning assumptions is critical if we really want to know.

THINK ABOUT IT….

Throughout the day note every instance whereby the media, an institution or person attempts to influence your judgment. How successful are they in shaping your thinking? Is it difficult for you to be the impartial observer?
If a society says something is true, does that make it so?
Is it ever appropriate to impose our truth on others who do not share our beliefs?
Does something become correct just because enough people agree with the proposition?
Is the harmony of consensus more important than truth?
What are the social implications of truth when it is inconvenient?

Dr. ELENA MORENO, ND, is the Editor of the EmpowermentWeekly, author of the Right Living Mentoring Series, andthe A Question of Truth Series. Her essay Eight Lessons on the Art ofSelf Love, is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, publishedby Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor ofNaturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, aneducational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essaysare also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellosde Saber.

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BACKGROUND01
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How to Find Islands of Ease in the Chaos of Life by Mary Jaksch

2012-01-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

When we see a wilting plant, we know what to do, right? We water it. But when we are exhausted and stressed, it’s often difficult to recover.

The problem is that the exhaustion many of us suffer from can’t be fixed by a holiday at the beach, or a visit to a day-spa. Because it’s not just our body that’s exhausted, it’s our soul.

When the soul is exhausted, we suffer from loss of joy and hope

Life then seems increasingly difficult, and sometimes even meaningless. In those times we’re estranged from a dimension of being human that adds ease and joy to life. We’re estranged from our natural spirituality. By natural spirituality I mean the insight and wisdom that comes from a deeper recognition of who we are, and of how our life is interwoven with all other beings.
I came to spirituality the hard way. Twenty-five years ago my life was in tatters: my marriage was disintegrating, I was homesick, having just emigrated to New Zealand, and work was a nightmare. That’s when I started Zen meditation. It wasn’t a magic bullet, but I began to find islands of ease within the chaos of my life.
Maybe you too are suffering, especially in this dire economic climate? In my experience, even if we are powerless to change our circumstances, we can learn to find island of ease within our distress.
I use the word ease because it implies that our body is relaxed and that we are at peace with ourselves. It also means that we are in harmony with everything around us. When we are at ease, even difficult tasks begin to flow.
Here are five ways of finding islands of ease. These five ways will help you to feel more alive and peaceful, instead of preoccupied and stressed.

1. Silence

Silence can heal. But many of us are afraid of it because we think it might make us feel lonely. Or because it might force us to face ourselves.
There are two kinds of silence. There is outer silence which is absence of noise. And there is inner silence when our thoughts die down and our mind becomes quiet. If you are not used to silence, you might like to try this island of ease in small doses.

Spend at least 5 minutes each day doing nothing.

Just notice sounds, sights, smells, and so on. Let go of planning thoughts or other distractions. This is a way to cultivate inner silence.

Eliminate background music.

Only play music if you can listen to it with full attention. That might be difficult for you if you tend to exercise to music or listen to music in the car. Maybe you could just try silence for one day and see what it’s like.

Turn the TV off if you are not watching it.

In many households the TV is blaring, even though nobody is watching it. Try turning it off as much as possible and see what happens.

2. Mindfulness

When our mind is neither in the past or the future and we are completely present, our experience changes in a significant way. Suddenly life seems more spacious, and more peaceful.
Mindfulness means being present with a clear mind, and an open heart.
When we are mindful, we are available for life, and aren’t trapped in our own little world. Whether it’s peacefulness, or anger, or boredom, or elation, or fear: mindfulness allows us to notice what we are experiencing right now.
Mindfulness means bringing full, soft attention to the task at hand.
All of us tend to let our mind drift when faced with a boring task. The good news is that if we pull ourselves back into the present moment, the task is transformed and boredom soon disappears. So, whether it’s washing the dishes, or cutting carrots, or driving in the rush hour – mindfulness can transform ‘lost’ time into islands of ease.

3. Walking

If we’re able-bodied, we do a fair amount of walking, wherever we live. In an urban area, most of our walking might be to get to work, or to the bus, car, or subway, or to the corner shop. And maybe we sometimes go for a walk in a park. If we live in the countryside, we may be used to long walks in nature.
What happens in our mind as we walk?
Often the mind churns away: it worries, plans, re-lives old hurts, or dreams of the future.
In order to turn walking into an island of ease, all you needs is a simple change: you need to focus on the experience of walking and let go of your busy thoughts. The following tip will assist you:
As you walk, touch forefinger and thumb together to remind you of the present moment.
Focus the feeling of your feet on the ground, on sounds, and on your breath flowing in and out as you walk along. Each time you find that your churning mind has taken you away from experience of ‘now’, gently refocus on the present moment.

4. Meditation

As I said before, I’ve been practicing daily Zen meditation for twenty-five years now. I do it because it makes me feel vividly alive. It gives me a sense of ease and peacefulness that is not dependant on my circumstances.
Science has put meditation under the microscope and has found amazing psychological and physiological benefits:
Psychological Benefits

Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation;
Increased happiness;
Increased emotional stability;
Decreased anxiety;
Decreased depression;
Greater creativity;
Decreased irritability and moodiness;
Improved learning ability and memory;
Increased insight and wisdom.

Physiological benefits

Deep rest (as measured by decreased metabolic rate, and lower heart rate);
Lowered levels of cortisol and lactate (two chemicals associated with stress);
Improved blood pressure;
Drop in cholesterol levels;
Improved flow of air to the lungs;
Significant slowing of the aging process.

The simplest and most natural meditation is a way that Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches: on your in-breath, silently say in, and on your out-breath, silently say out. If you do this even for just five minutes, you will notice that soul and body start to relax and find ease.
There is a lot more to meditation but it’s good to start simple. If you want to learn more, you can find ten important tips on how to meditate here.

5. Retreats

All spiritual traditions suggest taking time out to refresh the soul and nourish spirituality.
In ancient India and China, pilgrims used to gather during the months of the rainy season to meditate and study under the guidance of a teacher. In the Zen tradition, students leave home for a week at a time in order to attend silent meditation retreats.
It’s important to set aside time to nurture one’s spirituality. But that’s not so easy these days. Money is tight and holidays are scarce.
What to do?
It’s taken me a long while to come up with a solution that works. I now offer Virtual Zen Retreats , in addition to traditional ones. The great thing is that you can participate in a virtual Zen Retreat without leaving home or having to take time off work. Even more importantly, you can integrate what you learn, and explore islands of ease in your everyday life at home and at work.
Here’s what you can expect to put to use in your daily life from Virtual Zen Retreats:

a way to find your peaceful center regardless of the chaos around you;
the tools to stay in the ‘now’: breathing techniques, mindfulness, ‘islands of ease’, and others;
a system of coping with stress, anxiety, and depression;
ways to be in touch with your body for relaxation and healing;
increased feeling of vitality;
a regular meditation practice;
enhanced creativity.

Virtual Zen Retreats are innovative.
Some of my Zen teacher colleagues argue that our tradition should shun the Net. But I love the fact that we can use modern technology to foster our natural spirituality! For example, during the ten retreat days, participants receive daily emails with readings and practical suggestions of how to explore the day’s particular focus. And they can opt for Twitter reminders, share their experiences on a private forum, or email me personally. I think every tradition has to move with the times and adapt to changing circumstances!
By the way, Virtual Zen Retreats are by donation. That’s because I want those hardest hit in our difficult economic times to be able to find islands of ease and healing through participating in the Virtual Zen Retreats.
What’s really important is that YOU find islands of ease.
I hope that the five ways I have outlined above are helpful to you. I’d be interested to read what you think in the comments. Maybe you have found other islands of ease that work for you? Please do share them – we can all learn from each other.

Mary Jaksch is a Zen Master in the Diamond Sangha lineage. Head over to Goodlife Zen for more of her articles. If you would like to register interest for the Virtual Zen Retreats, please click here.
PALM ISLAND
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Nine Things Successful People Do Differently by Heidi Grant Halvorson

2012-01-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.
2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.
3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.
7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.
To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.
8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want to change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.
It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today. Her personal blog, The Science of Success, can be found at www.heidigranthalvorson.com. Follow her on Twitter @hghalvorson

DIFFICULT WAY UPWARD.
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Difficult way upward. A way to success.

Natural Antibiotics - SAGE by Dr. Elena Moreno

2012-01-25T11:28:00.001-07:00

Sage, an ancient herb that has been used for thousands of years for its antiseptic and antibiotic properties.

Sage is especially good for throat, tonsil, and respiratory infections as well as infections of the mouth. It is also wonderful for stomach infections, intestinal problems and dysentery. Sage will help reduce fever, chills and body ache when taken at the onset of colds and flu. During the winter daily use of sage in cooking is a good immune system booster and will help strengthen the digestive system and the lungs.

Sage is easy to find and is a must in your herb garden. Common sage is readily available in most super markets as a (fresh or dried) culinary herb. White or California sage is stronger than common sage but it is also a very effective remedy that can often be found at health food stores.

How:

Tea: Prepare sage tea by placing a tsp. of powdered sage or a tbsp of finely chopped fresh sage in a cup of boiling water. Allow the tea to steep for 15 minutes and drink hot - excellent for throat - respiratory problems or digestive complications.

Tonic: Sage water makes an excellent strengthening tonic. Pour a quart of boiling water over a handful of fresh leaves and allow the brew to sit over night. Strain and refrigerate. Drink through out the day as much as one quart per day for a week.

Antiseptic wash: Prepare a strong tea from fresh or dried sage and use to wash wounds and burns at least three to four times a day.

Gargle and Mouth wash: Prepare a mild sage tea for a simple mouthwash to be used daily. If you have a throat or mouth infection prepare a strong sage tea and gargle warm throughout the day to help control bacteria in the mouth and throat; use until the infection is completely gone.

Inhalant: Place a handful of fresh sage (white sage makes a particularly good inhalant) in a large pot with one gallon of water. Bring to a boil. Place pot in the sink and inhale the steam. You can place a towel over your head to make a tent for trapping the steam for a more intense experience. You can also place a gallon of very strong sage tea in a hot bath to promote sweating and to help break cold or lung congestion. Soak for at least 20 minutes.

Smoke: Burn dried sage as incense to refresh a room.

Powdered sage placed directly on an open wound will stop bleeding and promote healing.

And finally, brighten your patient’s mood by putting a few drops of sage essential oil in an infuser to purify and clear the energy in a room. It is particularly helpful in a room used by someone bedridden with a long-term illness.

SAGE AND SPOON
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Sage Bundle by author

Hearing as an extravagance by Erich Fromm

2012-01-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

A wonderful thought from Erich Fromm to ponder and appreciate.
"But man not only hears in order to survive; he can also hear as an "extravagance," biologically speaking, serving no specific biological purpose, except the general aim of increased life energy, well-being, aliveness. When he hears in this non-purposeful way, we say that he listens. He listens to the birds' songs, to the raindrops' patter, a human voice's warm timbre, a drum's exciting rhythm, a song's melody, a Bach concerto. Hearing becomes transbiological - humanized, active, creative, "free" - rather than a merely biologically necessary response."

TED VIDEO: On the Art of choosing with Sheena Iyengar

2012-01-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

WATCH this very interesting TED video of Sheena Iyengar as she tells us about how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions.

Why you should listen to her:

We all think we're good at making choices; many of us even enjoy making them. Sheena Iyengar looks deeply at choosing and has discovered many surprising things about it. For instance, her famous "jam study," done while she was a grad student, quantified a counterintuitive truth about decisionmaking -- that when we're presented with too many choices, like 24 varieties of jam, we tend not to choose anything at all. (This and subsequent, equally ingenious experiments have provided rich material for Malcolm Gladwell and other pop chroniclers of business and the human psyche.)
Iyengar's research has been informing business and consumer-goods marketing since the 1990s. But she and her team at the Columbia Business School throw a much broader net. Her analysis touches, for example, on the medical decisionmaking that might lead up to choosing physician-assisted suicide, on the drawbacks of providing too many choices and options in social-welfare programs, and on the cultural and geographical underpinning of choice. Her book The Art of Choosing shares her research in an accessible and charming story that draws examples from her own life.
Watch a Facebook-exclusive short video from Sheena Iyengar: "Ballet Slippers" >>

"The Art of Choosing explores the cultural, social, and biological forces on the complex process of decision-making but is also deeply personal."

"Books to Read Now," Seed magazine

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html

That Pig of a Morin by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

2012-01-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

"Here, my friend," I said toLabarbe, "you have just repeated those five words, that pig of a Morin.Why on earth do I never hear Morin's name mentioned without his being called apig?"

Labarbe, who is a deputy, looked at me with his owl-like eyes and said:"Do you mean to say that you do not know Morin's story and you come from La Rochelle?" I was obliged to declare thatI did not know Morin's story, so Labarbe rubbed his hands and began hisrecital.

"You knew Morin, did you not, and you remember his large linen-draper'sshop on the Quai de la Rochelle?"

"Yes, perfectly."

"Well, then. You must know that in 1862 or '63 Morin went to spend a fortnight in Paris for pleasure; or for his pleasures, butunder the pretext of renewing his stock, and you also know what a fortnight inParis means to a country shopkeeper; it fires his blood. The theatre everyevening, women's dresses rustling up against you and continual excitement; onegoes almost mad with it. One sees nothing but dancers in tights, actresses in verylow dresses, round legs, fat shoulders, all nearly within reach of one's hands,without daring, or being able, to touch them, and one scarcely tastes food.When one leaves the city one's heart is still all in a flutter and one's mindstill exhilarated by a sort of longing for kisses which tickles one's lips.

"Morin was in that condition when he took his ticket for La Rochelle bythe eight-forty night express. As he was walking up and down the waiting-roomat the station he stopped suddenly in front of a young lady who was kissing anold one. She had her veil up, and Morin murmured with delight: 'By Jove what apretty woman!'

"When she had said 'good-by' to the old lady she went into thewaiting-room, and Morin followed her; then she went on the platform and Morinstill followed her; then she got into an empty carriage, and he again followedher. There were very few travellers on the express. The engine whistled and thetrain started. They were alone. Morin devoured her with his eyes. She appearedto be about nineteen or twenty and was fair, tall, with a bold look. Shewrapped a railway rug round her and stretched herself on the seat to sleep.

"Morin asked himself: 'I wonder who she is?' And a thousand conjectures, athousand projects went through his head. He said to himself: 'So manyadventures are told as happening on railway journeys that this may be one thatis going to present itself to me. Who knows? A piece of good luck like thathappens very suddenly, and perhaps I need only be a little venturesome. Was itnot Danton who said: "Audacity, more audacityand always audacity"? If it was not Danton it was Mirabeau,but that does not matter. But then I have no audacity,and that is the difficulty. Oh! If one only knew, if one could only readpeople's minds! I will bet that every day one passes by magnificentopportunities without knowing it, though a gesture would be enough to let meknow her mind.'

"Then he imagined to himself combinations which conducted him to triumph.He pictured some chivalrous deed or merely some slight servicewhich he rendered her, a lively, gallant conversation which ended in adeclaration.

"But he could find no opening, had no pretext, and he waited for somefortunate circumstance, with his heart beating and his mind topsy-turvy. Thenight passed and the pretty girl still slept, while Morin was meditating hisown fall. The day broke and soon the first ray of sunlight appeared in the sky,a long, clear ray which shone on the face of the sleeping girl and woke her.She sat up, looked at the country, then at Morin and smiled. She smiled like ahappy woman, with an engaging and bright look, and Morin trembled. Certainlythat smile was intended for him; it was discreet invitation, the signal whichhe was waiting for. That smile meant to say: 'How stupid, what a ninny, what adolt, what a donkey you are, to have sat there on your seat like a post allnight!

''Just look at me, am I not charming? And you have sat like that for the wholenight, when you have been alone with a pretty woman, you great simpleton!'

"She was still smiling as she looked at him; she even began to laugh; andhe lost his head trying to find something suitable to say, no matter what. Buthe could think of nothing, nothing, and then, seized with a coward's courage,he said to himself:

'So much the worse, I will risk everything,' and suddenly, without theslightest warning, he went toward her, his arms extended, his lips protruding,and, seizing her in his arms, he kissed her.

"She sprang up immediately with a bound, crying out: 'Help! help!' andscreaming with terror; and then she opened the carriage door and waved her armout, mad with terror and trying to jump out, while Morin, who was almostdistracted and feeling sure that she would throw herself out, held her by theskirt and stammered: 'Oh, madame! oh, madame!'

"The train slackened speed and then stopped. Two guards rushed up at theyoung woman's frantic signals. She threw herself into their arms, stammering:'That man wanted--wanted--to--to--' And then she fainted.

"They were at Mauze station, and the gendarme on duty arrested Morin. Whenthe victim of his indiscreet admiration had regained her consciousness, shemade her charge against him, and the police drew it up. The poor linen draperdid not reach home till night, with a prosecution hanging over him for anoutrage to morals in a public place.

"At that time I was editor of the Fanal des Charentes, and I used to meetMorin every day at the Cafe du Commerce, and the day after his adventure. hecame to see me, as he did not know what to do. I did not hide my opinion fromhim, but said to him: 'You are no better than a pig. No decent man behaves likethat.'

"He cried. His wife had given him a beating, and he foresaw his traderuined, his name dragged through the mire and dishonored, his friendsscandalized and taking no notice of him. In the end he excited my pity, and Isent for my colleague, Rivet, a jocular but very sensible little man, to giveus his advice.

"He advised me to see the public prosecutor, who was a friend of mine, andso I sent Morin home and went to call on the magistrate. He told me that thewoman who had been insulted was a young lady, Mademoiselle Henriette Bonnel,who had just received her certificate as governess in Paris and spent herholidays with her uncle and aunt, who were very respectable tradespeople inMauze. What made Morin's case all the more serious was that the uncle hadlodged a complaint, but the public official had consented to let the matterdrop if this complaint were withdrawn, so we must try and get him to do this.

"I went back to Morin's and found him in bed, ill with excitement anddistress. His wife, a tall raw-boned woman with a beard, was abusing himcontinually, and she showed me into the room, shouting at me: 'So you have cometo see that pig of a Morin. Well, there he is, the darling!' And she plantedherself in front of the bed, with her hands on her hips. I told him how mattersstood, and he begged me to go and see the girl's uncle and aunt. It was adelicate mission, but I undertook it, and the poor devil never ceasedrepeating: 'I assure you I did not even kiss her; no, not even that. I willtake my oath to it!'

"I replied: 'It is all the same; you are nothing but a pig.' And I took athousand francs which he gave me to employ as I thought best, but as I did notcare to venture to her uncle's house alone, I begged Rivet to go with me, whichhe agreed to do on condition that we went immediately, for he had some urgentbusiness at La Rochelle that afternoon. So two hours later we rang at the doorof a pretty country house. An attractive girl came and opened the door to usassuredly the young lady in question, and I said to Rivet in a low voice:'Confound it! I begin to understand Morin!'

"The uncle, Monsieur Tonnelet, subscribed to the Fanal, and was a ferventpolitical coreligionist of ours. He received us with open arms andcongratulated us and wished us joy; he was delighted at having the two editorsin his house, and Rivet whispered to me: 'I think we shall be able to arrangethe matter of that pig of a Morin for him.'

"The niece had left the room and I introduced the delicate subject. Iwaved the spectre of scandal before his eyes; I accentuated the inevitabledepreciation which the young lady would suffer if such an affair became known,for nobody would believe in a simple kiss, and the good man seemed undecided,but he could not make up his mind about anything without his wife, who wouldnot be in until late that evening. But suddenly he uttered an exclamation oftriumph: 'Look here, I have an excellent idea; I will keep you here to dine andsleep, and when my wife comes home I hope we shall be able to arrange matters:

"Rivet resisted at first, but the wish toextricate that pig of a Morin decided him, and we accepted the invitation, andthe uncle got up radiant, called his niece and proposed that we should take astroll in his grounds, saying: 'We will leave serious matters until themorning.' Rivet and he began to talk politics, while I soon found myselflagging a little behind with 'the girl who was really charming--charming--andwith the greatest precaution I began to speak to her about her adventure andtry to make her my ally. She did not, however, appear the least confused, andlistened to me like a person who was enjoying the whole thing very much.

"I said to her: 'Just think, mademoiselle, how unpleasant it will be foryou. You will have to appear in court, to encounter malicious looks, to speakbefore everybody and to recount that unfortunate occurrence in the railwaycarriage in public. Do you not think, between ourselves, that it would havebeen much better for you to have put that dirty scoundrel back in his placewithout calling for assistance, and merely to change your carriage?' She beganto laugh and replied: 'What you say is quite true, but what could I do? I was frightened,and when one is frightened one does not stop to reason with one's self. As soonas I realized the situation I was very sorry, that I had called out, but thenit was too late. You must also remember that the idiot threw himself upon melike a madman, without saying a word and looking like a lunatic. I did not evenknow what he wanted of me.'

"She looked me full in the face without being nervous or intimidated and Isaid to myself: 'She is a queer sort of girl, that: I can quite see how thatpig Morin came to make a mistake,' and I went on jokingly: 'Come, mademoiselle,confess that he was excusable, for, after all, a man cannot find himselfopposite such a pretty girl as you are without feeling a natural desire to kissher.'

"She laughed more than ever and showed her teeth and said: 'Between thedesire and the act, monsieur, there is room for respect.' It was an oddexpression to use, although it was not very clear, and I asked abruptly: 'Well,now, suppose I were to kiss you, what would you do?' She stopped to look at mefrom head to foot and then said calmly: 'Oh, you? That is quite anothermatter.'

"I knewperfectly well, by Jove, that it was not the same thing at all, as everybody inthe neighborhood called me 'Handsome Labarbe'--I was thirty years old in thosedays--but I asked her: 'And why, pray?' She shrugged her shoulders and replied:'Well! because you are not so stupid as he is.' And then she added, looking atme slyly: 'Nor so ugly, either: And before she could make a movement to avoidme I had implanted a hearty kiss on her cheek. She sprang aside, but it was toolate, and then she said: 'Well, you are not very bashful, either! But don't dothat sort of thing again.'

"I put on a humble look and said in a low voice: 'Oh, mademoiselle! as forme, if I long for one thing more than another it is to be summoned before amagistrate for the same reason as Morin.'

"'Why?' she asked. And, looking steadily at her, I replied: 'Because youare one of the most beautiful creatures living; because it would be an honorand a glory for me to have wished to offer you violence, and because peoplewould have said, after seeing you: "Well, Labarbe has richly deserved whathe has got, but he is a lucky fellow, all the same.'"

"She began to laugh heartily again and said: 'How funny you are!' And shehad not finished the word 'funny' before I had her in my arms and was kissingher ardently wherever I could find a place, on her forehead, on her eyes, onher lips occasionally, on her cheeks, all over her head, some part of which shewas obliged to leave exposed, in spite of herself, to defend the others; but atlast she managed to release herself, blushing and angry. 'You are veryunmannerly, monsieur,' she said, 'and I am sorry I listened to you.'

"I took her hand in some confusion and stammered out: 'I beg your pardon.I beg your pardon, mademoiselle. I have offended you; I have acted like abrute! Do not be angry with me for what I have done. If you knew--' I vainlysought for some excuse, and in a few moments she said: 'There is nothing for meto know, monsieur.' But I had found something to say, and I cried:'Mademoiselle, I love you!'

"She was really surprised and raised her eyes to look at me, and I wenton: 'Yes, mademoiselle, and pray listen to me. I do not know Morin, and I donot care anything about him. It does not matter to me the least if he iscommitted for trial and locked up meanwhile. I saw you here last year, and Iwas so taken with you that the thought of you has never left me since, and itdoes not matter to me whether you believe me or not. I thought you adorable,and the remembrance of you took such a hold on me that I longed to see youagain, and so I made use of that fool Morin as a pretext, and here I am.Circumstances have made me exceed the due limits of respect, and I can only begyou to pardon me.'

"She looked at me to see if I was in earnest and was ready to smile again.Then she murmured: 'You humbug!' But I raised my hand and said in a sincerevoice (and I really believe that I was sincere): 'I swear to you that I amspeaking the truth,' and she replied quite simply: 'Don't talk nonsense!'

"We were alone, quite alone, as Rivet and her uncle had disappeared down asidewalk, and I made her a real declaration of love, while I squeezed andkissed her hands, and she listened to it as to something new and agreeable,without exactly knowing how much of it she was to believe, while in the end Ifelt agitated, and at last really myself believed what I said. I was pale,anxious and trembling, and I gently put my arm round her waist and spoke to hersoftly, whispering into the little curls over her ears. She seemed in a trance,so absorbed in thought was she.

"Then her hand touched mine, and she pressed it, and I gently squeezed herwaist with a trembling, and gradually firmer, grasp. She did not move now, andI touched her cheek with my lips, and suddenly without seeking them my lips methers. It was a long, long kiss, and it would have lasted longer still if I hadnot heard a hm! hm! just behind me, at which she made her escape through thebushes, and turning round I saw Rivet coming toward me, and, standing in themiddle of the path, he said without even smiling: 'So that is the way yousettle the affair of that pig of a Morin.' And I replied conceitedly: 'One doeswhat one can, my dear fellow. But what about the uncle? How have you got onwith him? I will answer for the niece.' 'I have not been so fortunate withhim,' he replied.

"Whereupon I took his arm and we went indoors."

III

"Dinner made me lose my head altogether. I sat beside her, and my handcontinually met hers under the tablecloth, my foot touched hers and our glancesmet.

"After dinner we took a walk by moonlight, and I whispered all the tenderthings I could think of to her. I held her close to me, kissed her everymoment, while her uncle and Rivet were arguing as they walked in front of us.They went in, and soon a messenger brought a telegram from her aunt, sayingthat she would not return until the next morning at seven o'clock by the firsttrain.

"'Very well, Henriette,' her uncle said, 'go and show the gentlemen theirrooms.' She showed Rivet his first, and he whispered to me: 'There was nodanger of her taking us into yours first.' Then she took me to my room, and assoon as she was alone with me I took her in my arms again and tried to arouseher emotion, but when she saw the danger she escaped out of the room, and Iretired very much put out and excited and feeling rather foolish, for I knewthat I should not sleep much, and I was wondering how I could have committedsuch a mistake, when there was a gentle knock at my door, and on my asking whowas there a low voice replied: 'I'

"I dressed myself quickly and opened the door, and she came in. 'I forgotto ask you what you take in the morning,' she said; 'chocolate, tea or coffee?'I put my arms round her impetuously and said, devouring her with kisses: 'Iwill take--I will take--'

"But she freed herself from my arms, blew out my candle and disappearedand left me alone in the dark, furious, trying to find some matches, and notable to do so. At last I got some and I went into the passage, feeling halfmad, with my candlestick in my hand.

"What was I about to do? I did not stop to reason, I only wanted to findher, and I would. I went a few steps without reflecting, but then I suddenlythought: 'Suppose I should walk into the uncle's room what should I say?' And Istood still, with my head a void and my heart beating. But in a few moments Ithought of an answer: 'Of course, I shall say that I was looking for Rivet'sroom to speak to him about an important matter,' and I began to inspect all thedoors, trying to find hers, and at last I took hold of a handle at a venture,turned it and went in. There was Henriette, sitting on her bed and looking atme in tears. So I gently turned the key, and going up to her on tiptoe I said:'I forgot to ask you for something to read, mademoiselle.'
"I was stealthily returning to myroom when a rough hand seized me and a voice--it was Rivet's -whispered in myear: 'So you have not yet quite settled that affair of Morin's?'

"At seven o'clock the next morning Henriette herself brought me a cup ofchocolate. I never have drunk anything like it, soft, velvety, perfumed,delicious. I could hardly take away my lips from the cup, and she had hardlyleft the room when Rivet came in. He seemed nervous and irritable, like a manwho had not slept, and he said to me crossly:

'If you go on like this you will end by spoiling the affair of that pig of aMorin!'

"At eight o'clock the aunt arrived. Our discussion was very short, for theywithdrew their complaint, and I left five hundred francs for the poor of thetown. They wanted to keep us for the day, and they arranged an excursion to goand see some ruins. Henriette made signs to me to stay, behind her parents'back, and I accepted, but Rivet was determined to go, and though I took himaside and begged and prayed him to do this for me, he appeared quiteexasperated and kept saying to me: 'I have had enough of that pig of a Morin'saffair, do you hear?'

"Of course I was obliged to leave also, and it was one of the hardestmoments of my life. I could have gone on arranging that business as long as Ilived, and when we were in the railway carriage, after shaking hands with herin silence, I said to Rivet: 'You are a mere brute!' And he replied: 'My dearfellow, you were beginning to annoy me confoundedly.'

"On getting to theFanal office, I saw a crowd waiting for us, and as soon as they saw us they allexclaimed: 'Well, have you settled the affair of that pig of a Morin?' All LaRochelle was excited about it, and Rivet, who had got over his ill-humor on thejourney, had great difficulty in keeping himself from laughing as he said:'Yes, we have managed it, thanks to Labarbe: And we went to Morin's.

"He was sitting in an easy-chair with mustard plasters on his legs andcold bandages on his head, nearly dead with misery. He was coughing with theshort cough of a dying man, without any one knowing how he had caught it, andhis wife looked at him like a tigress ready to eat him, and as soon as he sawus he trembled so violently as to make his hands and knees shake, so I said tohim immediately: 'It is all settled, you dirty scamp, but don't do such a thingagain.'

"He got up, choking, took my hands and kissed them as if they had belongedto a prince, cried, nearly fainted, embraced Rivet and even kissed Madame Morin,who gave him such a push as to send him staggering back into his chair; but henever got over the blow; his mind had been too much upset. In all the countryround, moreover, he was called nothing but 'that pig of a Morin,' and thatepithet went through him like a sword-thrust every time he heard it. When astreet boy called after him 'Pig!' he turned his head instinctively. Hisfriends also overwhelmed him with horrible jokes and used to ask him, wheneverthey were eating ham, 'Is it a bit of yourself?' He died two years later.

"As for myself, when I was a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in1875, I called on the new notary at Fousserre, Monsieur Belloncle, to solicithis vote, and a tall, handsome and evidently wealthy lady received me. 'You do notknow me again?' she said. And I stammered out: 'Why--no--madame.' 'HenrietteBonnel.' 'Ah!' And I felt myself turning pale, while she seemed perfectly ather ease and looked at me with a smile.

"As soon as she had left me alone with her husband he took both my hands,and, squeezing them as if he meant to crush them, he said: 'I have beenintending to go and see you for a long time, my dear sir, for my wife has veryoften talked to me about you. I know--yes, I know under what painfulcircumstances you made her acquaintance, and I know also how perfectly youbehaved, how full of delicacy, tact and devotion you showed yourself in theaffair--' He hesitated and then said in a lower tone, as if he had been sayingsomething low and coarse, 'in the affair of that pig of a Morin.'"

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents and a great commentator of the ironies of life and society.

How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking by Peter Bergman

2012-01-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

During a conference call with the executive committee of a nonprofit board on which I sit, I decided to send an email to a client.

I know, I know. You'd think I'd have learned.
Last week I wrote about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. Multitasking is dangerous. And so I proposed a way to stop.
But when I sent that email, I wasn't in a car. I was safe at my desk. What could go wrong?
Well, I sent the client the message. Then I had to send him another one, this time with the attachment I had forgotten to append. Finally, my third email to him explained why that attachment wasn't what he was expecting. When I eventually refocused on the call, I realized I hadn't heard a question the Chair of the Board had asked me.
I swear I wasn't smoking anything. But I might as well have been. A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs. What's the impact of a 10-point drop? The same as losing a night of sleep. More than twice the effect of smoking marijuana.
Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we're getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don't actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process.
You might think you're different, that you've done it so much you've become good at it. Practice makes perfect and all that.
But you'd be wrong. Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. In other words, in contrast to almost everything else in your life, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it. Practice, in this case, works against you.
I decided to do an experiment. For one week I would do no multitasking and see what happened. What techniques would help? Could I sustain a focus on one thing at a time for that long?
For the most part, I succeeded. If I was on the phone, all I did was talk or listen on the phone. In a meeting I did nothing but focus on the meeting. Any interruptions — email, a knock on the door — I held off until I finished what I was working on.
During the week I discovered six things:
First, it was delightful. I noticed this most dramatically when I was with my children. I shut my cell phone off and found myself much more deeply engaged and present with them. I never realized how significantly a short moment of checking my email disengaged me from the people and things right there in front of me. Don't laugh, but I actually — for the first time in a while — noticed the beauty of leaves blowing in the wind.
Second, I made significant progress on challenging projects, the kind that — like writing or strategizing — require thought and persistence. The kind I usually try to distract myself from. I stayed with each project when it got hard, and experienced a number of breakthroughs.
Third, my stress dropped dramatically. Research shows that multitasking isn't just inefficient, it's stressful. And I found that to be true. It was a relief to do only one thing at a time. I felt liberated from the strain of keeping so many balls in the air at each moment. It felt reassuring to finish one thing before going to the next.
Fourth, I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time. An hour-long meeting seemed interminably long. A meandering pointless conversation was excruciating. II became laser-focused on getting things done. Since I wasn't doing anything else, I got bored much more quickly. I had no tolerance for wasted time.
Fifth, I had tremendous patience for things I felt were useful and enjoyable. When I listened to my wife Eleanor, I was in no rush. When I was brainstorming about a difficult problem, I stuck with it. Nothing else was competing for my attention so I was able to settle into the one thing I was doing.
Sixth, there was no downside. I lost nothing by not multitasking. No projects were left unfinished. No one became frustrated with me for not answering a call or failing to return an email the second I received it.
That's why it's so surprising that multitasking is so hard to resist. If there's no downside to stopping, why don't we all just stop?
I think it's because our minds move considerably faster than the outside world. You can hear far more words a minute than someone else can speak. We have so much to do, why waste any time? So, while you're on the phone listening to someone, why not use that extra brain power to book a trip to Florence?
What we neglect to realize is that we're already using that brain power to pick up nuance, think about what we're hearing, access our creativity, and stay connected to what's happening around us. It's not really extra brain power. And diverting it has negative consequences.
So how do we resist the temptation?
First, the obvious: the best way to avoid interruptions is to turn them off. Often I write at 6 am when there's nothing to distract me, I disconnect my computer from its wireless connection and turn my phone off. In my car, I leave my phone in the trunk. Drastic? Maybe. But most of us shouldn't trust ourselves.
Second, the less obvious: Use your loss of patience to your advantage. Create unrealistically short deadlines. Cut all meetings in half. Give yourself a third of the time you think you need to accomplish something.
There's nothing like a deadline to keep things moving. And when things are moving fast, we can't help but focus on them. How many people run a race while texting? If you really only have 30 minutes to finish a presentation you thought would take an hour, are you really going to answer an interrupting call?
Interestingly, because multitasking is so stressful, single-tasking to meet a tight deadline will actually reduce your stress. In other words, giving yourself less time to do things could make you more productive and relaxed.
Finally, it's good to remember that we're not perfect. Every once in a while it might be OK to allow for a little multitasking. As I was writing this, Daniel, my two-year-old son, walked into my office, climbed on my lap, and said "Monsters, Inc. movie please."
So, here we are, I'm finishing this piece on the left side of my computer screen while Daniel is on my lap watching a movie on the right side of my computer screen.
Sometimes, it is simply impossible to resist a little multitasking.

(Editor's note: Fellow HBR blogger David Silverman has some different thoughts on multi-tasking in his post, "In Defense of Multitasking")

From the Harvard Business Review Blog http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski.html

Peter Bregman is a strategic advisor to CEOs and their leadership teams. His latest book is 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done.

Reflections on Truth by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2012-01-18T07:44:00.002-07:00

Truth is a difficult concept. The more I try to nail it down, the less clear it is. At best, truth is very complicated, almost to the point of being indefinable. Does truth in fact exist? A perception you may have may not be one that I share. Does that make one of us a liar? How can truth be absolute if we live in a world where everything is constantly changing, imperfect, and fallible? Can truth, the epitome of genuineness, be so fickle? Do we actually invoke truth when we should speak of opinion? Are our judgments merely personal assessments or evaluations – a best guess? When “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” is it really possible for me to guarantee truth? Would it not be more appropriate to say I swear to give the most accurate statement of my experience? These are questions to explore as we try to understand some of the aspects of truth. Many things wear the truth label, but what is truth?

Veracity is an accurate, correct and honest accounting or description of an event or a situation. When George Washington’s father demanded to know who chopped down his precious cherry tree, young George came forward and confessed saying, “I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree.”

A fact is a statement that can be proved. Facts are statements that give an accurate assessment of a condition, situation or position that can be proved by agreed upon standards. Look, for example, at the statement, The chair is 21″ high. I can measure the height of the chair with a ruler that marks inches, an agreed upon tool and method of measure, and find that it is 21″ high. So when I say, “That chair is 21″ high,” I am stating a fact.

On the other hand, an opinion or judgment is an assessment or evaluation that cannot be proved. That chair is ugly. This chair is more comfortable than that chair. These are both subjective statements that cannot be proved or disproved because the words ugly and better have no agreed upon meaning or method of measure. How do you define ugly? How do we prove levels of comfort?

The question of proof is important. For example, I love soft feather pillows and sleep best when I use one. That is a statement of fact that is true for me. A recent guest, who prefers to use hard, high foam pillows, told me my pillows were very uncomfortable. Is she correct, or am I? I suppose we could do a study to prove that I do in fact sleep best with a soft pillow, though I imagine if we did a study on my friend’s sleep performance, we would find that she did not sleep well with a soft pillow. The point is that these conclusions reflect personal preferences and not universal standards of measure. In this case, our proofs only relate to the specific cases at hand. It would have been more accurate to say, “In my opinion, or in my judgment….”

On the other hand, if someone had done a study of 10,000 people to see if they sleep better with soft or hard pillows, we could have taken the information from that study to support or disprove our theory. With evidence, the statement then becomes a proposition that is supported by verifiable data and is no longer just an opinion. However, the study still could not disprove the truth of our own experience.

Beliefs are fervent convictions that we hold, though like opinions and judgments, they cannot be proved or disproved. What sets beliefs apart is that they are strongly accepted by our brain and personal self to be true perceptions of reality, sometimes in spite of evidence to the contrary. One might even call a belief a personal truth. Can I actually have my very own truth and you yours? I believe so. A Christian conservative would passionately argue their beliefs against abortion, while the director of Planned Parenthood would fiercely argue to the contrary.

How can we share so much as human beings and yet hold such completely diverse beliefs? Experience is of course the answer. Life creates our beliefs.

To do:

Observe how you reach conclusions. How you make decisions.
Next time you are tempted to be judgmental of someone else, try to see their perspective. Try to understand how they have arrived at their point of view.
Use belief statements that offer your perspective: “my opinion”, “my experience” or “I believe”.
Do not make statements of fact unless you have all the information and are absolutely certain of the veracity of your statement and even then it is best to express your self in terms that are not absolute such as: “ the evidence indicates, signs point to, it appears that”.
Stop allowing the media and others to form your opinions. Do your own thinking and don’t be afraid to express and defend your thoughts.

TRUTH
© Heinz Teh Chee Siong | Dreamstime.com

Martin Klimas: What does music look like?

2012-01-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

Watch the magic of Martin Klimas: Like a 3-D take on Jackson Pollock, the latest work by the artist Martin Klimas begins with splatters of paint in fuchsia, teal and lime green, positioned on a scrim over the diaphragm of a speaker. Then the volume is turned up. For each image, Klimas selects music — typically something dynamic and percussive, like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Miles Davis or Kraftwerk — and the vibration of the speaker sends the paint aloft in patterns that reveal themselves through the lens of his Hasselblad. Klimas rose to prominence in the art world four years ago for a series of photos that captured porcelain figurines just as they shattered. For this series, Klimas spent six months and about 1,000 shots to produce the final images from his studio in Düsseldorf, Germany. In addition to the obvious debt owed to abstract expressionism, Klimas says his major influence was Hans Jenny, the father of cymatics, the study of wave phenomena. The resulting images are Klimas’s attempt to answer the question “What does music look like?”

Julie Bosman

NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/15/magazine/painting-with-sound.html?ref=magazine

Muhammad Ali speaks...

2012-01-18T07:35:00.002-07:00

“People look for wonder.

People look for miracles.

People look for surprises of all kinds.

Yet the greatest wonder, the greatest miracle,

the greatest surprises,can be found in one's heart.”

Muhammad Ali

Thoughts about the Internet

2012-01-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom. ~Jon Stewart

Advances in computer technology and the Internet have changed the way America works, learns, and communicates. The Internet has become an integral part of America's economic, political, and social life. ~Bill Clinton

I have an almost religious zeal - not for technology per se, but for the Internet which is for me, the nervous system of mother Earth, which I see as a living creature, linking up. ~Dan Millman

National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway. ~Tim May

While you are destroying your mind watching the worthless, brain-rotting drivel on TV, we on the Internet are exchanging, freely and openly, the most uninhibited, intimate and, yes, shocking details about our config.sys settings. ~Dave Barry

You can't take something off the Internet - it's like taking pee out of a pool. ~Author Unknown, 1995

It is YOUR internet. Do something!!!

2012-01-17T20:42:00.001-07:00

Congress is considering legislation that will dramatically change our internet. The freedom, innovation, and economic opportunity that the Internet enables is in jeopardy.
Don't just sit there; do something.
Let your voice be heard.

Learn More

Get Involved - Let Your Voice Be Heard

/r/sopa
List of companies that have expressed support for SOPA or PIPA.
List of tech companies, and their contact info, that have expressed support for SOPA or PIPA.
List of companies that have expressed concern with SOPA and PIPA.
Take Action Checklist at Stop Censorship.
Contact Your Representative with info and a widget to find them by EFF and Wired for Change.
Directory of Representatives
Senators of the 112th Congress
Helpful info on making phone calls to your Senator or Representative.
SOPAOpera.org keeps track of where your Congressmembers stand on PROTECT-IP and SOPA.

The Key to Peace of Mind is Contentment by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2012-01-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

It is so easy to think of all that we want and difficult to appreciate what we have. We all need to learn to recognize the quality, value and magnitude of the people and things in our life. Satisfaction is learning the art of contentment.
Contentment is the joy of being in the moment no matter what the moment may hold. It is learning to see the beauty and the purpose of all experiences. Contentment accepts with satisfaction what life has given us, even when we may have set goals not yet attained. To learn to be content with our condition in life, does not mean that we cease to strive or to improve our condition, but it does mean that we do accept what we have without greed, envy, malice, or jealousy.

Contentment insists that we learn to be equally happy with the good and the bad. It requires that we receive these very subjective opposites with equal weight and emotion. There will always be something positive in the negative and something negative in the positive. Both extremes flow by degree from one to the other so it is imperative that we react with equanimity to all situations that present themselves to us.

Living a contented life is to learn to receive with satisfaction the many situations that we move through. Contentment is learning to accept where we are right now and acting to meet the needs of the moment. If I am sick, then I will be sick, give in to my body’s needs and do what I need to do to get well. If I am in financial distress, then I admit my situation and take the steps to resolve the problem. If I can only afford to buy a used car, that is what I do and find beauty and worth in what I can afford. If I am dying, I will live the time I have left minute, by minute, grateful for each breath I take.
Meeting our fears and developing a plan of action is better than any sleeping pill. Learning to accept life in all its manifestations is the key to peace of mind.
If you are feeling sad, stop, take a breath and recall all the reasons you have to be happy.
If you step in s**t, don't get angry, wash your feet and keep on walking, but this time with one eye on the ground so you pay attention to where you step.
If you make a mistake don't beat yourself up, learn the lesson and move on vowing to do better next time.
Christmas a bit lean? Didn't get that gift you wanted or maybe you didn't have the money to buy a special gift for someone else, appreciate what you did receive and what you were able to give. Be thankful for your blessings.
Remember that the foundation of the art of contentment is gratitude - our ability to appreciate our blessings and to acknowledge all that we have or will receive. Gratitude is best expressed in the simple act of giving thanks and it is demonstrated in acts of generosity. It is said that it is not happiness that makes us grateful but gratitude that makes us happy. And from the simple satisfactions of life we find contentment. Only when we find equal blessing in the most painful of situations and the most joyful moments, will we learn the lesson of the moment and find the silver lining.

To do:
When was the last time you felt life was great? That all was right with the world?
When do you feel most content?
What are the greatest satisfactions of your life?
Think about the last time your felt envy or jealousy? What was the cause of your
feelings? How did you deal with them?
Does desire interfere with contentment?
Think of a situation that was very difficult for you to accept, such as the death of a
loved one, the dissolution of your marriage, financial reversal. How were you able to
overcome the feelings of loss and regain your satisfaction with life?
Even in a dark hour were you able to find some light?

Dr. ELENA MORENO, ND, is the Editor of the EmpowermentWeekly, author of the Right Living Mentoring Series, andthe A Question of Truth Series. Her essay Eight Lessons on the Art ofSelf Love, is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, publishedby Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor ofNaturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, aneducational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essaysare also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellosde Saber.

THE GIRL ON LAKE
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Sitting and Watching by Leo Babauta

2012-01-11T11:23:00.003-07:00

‘No matter what gets in the way or which way the wind does blow… I’ll just sit here and watch the river flow.’ ~Bob Dylan

Have you ever felt that we are rushing through life, that we get so caught up in busy-ness that life is passing us almost without notice?

I get this feeling all the time.

The antidote is simple: sitting and watching.

Take a minute out of your busy day to sit with me, and talk. Take a moment to imagine being in the middle of traffic — you’re driving, stressed out by the high amount of traffic, trying to get somewhere before you’re late, angry at other drivers who are rude or idiotic, completely focused on making your way through this jungle of metal on a ribbon of asphalt. Now you’ve gotten to the end, phew, you made it, wonderful, and you’re only a few minutes late … but did you notice the scenery you passed along the way? Did you talk to any of the other people along your path? Did you enjoy the ride?

No, probably not. You were so caught up in getting there, in the details of navigating, in the stress of driving, that you didn’t have time to notice your surroundings, the people nearby, or the wonderful journey. This is how we are in life.

Now imagine that you pulled over, and got out of the car, and found a grassy spot to sit. And you watched the other cars zoom by. And you watched the grass blown gently by the wind, and the birds making a flocking pattern overhead, and the clouds lazily watching you back.

Sit and watch.

We don’t do this, because it’s useless to do something that isn’t productive, that doesn’t improve our lives. But as Alan Watts wrote in The Way of Zen:

“As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.”

It’s interesting, too, what we see when we sit and watch. We will notice others rushing, and worried, and angry, and in them see a mirror of ourselves. We will notice children laughing (or crying) with their parents, and remember what we’re missing when we rush to improve our lives.

More interesting is what you see when you sit and watch yourself. You learn to step outside yourself, and act as an observer. You see your thoughts, and learn more about yourself than you ever could if you were rushing to take action. You see your self-doubts, and self-criticism, and wonder where they came from (a bad incident in childhood, perhaps?) and wonder if you are smart enough to let them go. You see your rationalizations, and realize that they are bullshit, and learn to let those go too. You see your fears, and realize what hold they have over you, and realize that you can make them powerless, by just sitting and watching them, not taking action on them.

By sitting and watching, you come to know yourself.

You learn the most valuable lessons about life, by sitting and watching.

And as we know from the observer effect in physics, by watching, we change what we watch.

Take a few minutes today, to sit and watch. It might change your life.

from: http://www.xenhabits.net

‘Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness.
It also happens to be one of the Top 25 blogs and Top 50 websites in the world, with about 230,000 readers, and is uncopyrighted. Zen Habits features one or two powerful articles a week on: simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment.
My name is Leo Babauta, and I’m the creator and writer here. I’m married with six kids, I live in San Francisco (just moved here from Guam), I’m a writer and a runner and a vegan. Read more: My Story.

The Porcelain Unicorn

2012-01-11T11:23:00.002-07:00

This summer, Philips and director/producer Ridley Scott launched a world-wide filmmaking competition dubbed

“Tell It Your Way” following its Cannes Lions award-winning short-film project Parallel Lines.

The entrants were given freedom of expression and could take up any theme they wanted.

There were two strict rules: Dialogue had to be 6 lines precisely and entrees could not exceed three minutes.

Here's the prize-winning entry, "The Porcelain Unicorn."

http://www.porcelainunicorn.com/

Don't you just love Betty White!

2012-01-11T11:13:00.002-07:00

TEDx: Dr. Terry Wahls - Minding Your Mitochondria

2012-01-11T11:13:00.001-07:00

Mitochondria

Watch Dr. Terry Wahls talk about how she used diet to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH
Learn how to feed your brain.
In 2003 Terry Wahls, M.D., was diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and soon became dependent upon a tilt-recline wheelchair. After developing and using the Wahls Protocol™ with a high nutrition diet designed to properly fuel her body and brain cells, she is now able to walk through the hospital and commute to work by bicycle.

She now uses intensive directed nutrition in her primary care and traumatic brain injury clinics. Dr. Wahls is the lead scientist in a clinical trial testing her protocol in others with progressive MS.

Thoughts

2012-01-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

“Let us enter the New Year cheerfully. Let us resolve to look on the bright side, to make the best of whatever may befall, to maintain faith that doing the right thing will ultimately bring victory. Let us cultivate sunniness, resist sourness. We can better wrestle with difficulties, obstacles, problems in a spirit of buoyancy than in an abject, morose mood. How much more the radiant mortal gets out of life and puts into life than the downcast, long-faced, self-pitying being!”

~B.C. Forbes

Age is an issue of mind over matter.

If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

~ Mark Twain

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. ~ Carl Sagan

Using Medicinal Essential Oils instead of Antibiotics by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2012-01-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

Looking for an alternative to antibiotics? Essential oils from medicinal herbs have remarkable broad-spectrum antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties that earn them a place in our medicine cabinet. Many of us use essential oils as an aromatic to freshen a room or change our mood, but these wonderful oils are also very effective for killing germs and bacteria.

Researchers from the Teikyo University Institute of Medical Mycology, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan did extensive studies on the effect of certain essential oils against various bacterial strains. They focused their research on the use of the oils in a gaseous or vapor state. Of 14 herbal essential oils that were tested they found that Cinnamon Bark, Lemongrass, Thyme, Perilla, Peppermint, Tea Tree, Coriander and Lavender oils were highly effective against six bacterial strains including pneumoniae PRC-53 a bacteria that is now resistant to penicillin. The strains that were tested are:

1) H. influenzae ATCC 33391

2) S. pyogenes ATCC 12344

3) streptococci

4) Penicillin-susceptible S. pneumoniae IP-692

5) penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae PRC-53,

6) S. aureus FDA 209P JC-1

This means that when these oils are used in vaporizers, inhalers, steamers or merely sprayed in a room, they have the ability to kill many airborne indoor pathogens and also when inhaled can be effective for healing respiratory and sinus infections.

How: (always use therapeutic grade essential oils)

For sinus infection, sinus allergies, cough and respiratory infections put 20 drops of cinnamon bark oil, lemon grass oil, thyme oil tea tree oil or rosemary oil in a qt. of boiling water. Remove the pot from the stove and make a towel tent over the pot trapping the steam so you can inhale the vapors. Inhale the steam for at least 10 minutes, two or three times a day. Or, you can also place 20 drops in a 1 qt. vaporizer, a diffuser or add a tsp. of oil to your hot bath. The idea in each case is to breathe the warm vapors.

This treatment is also recommended for cleaning the lungs if you are quitting smoking.

As a nasal wash: Place one drop (no more) in a cup of warm water. Cover the left nostril and snort the liquid into the right nasal passage allowing it to drain out the mouth. Repeat several times in each nostril two to four times a day. This same solution can be used in an atomizer.

Gargle: At the first sign of a cold, cough, or sinus infection, add one drop of essential oil to one cup of warm water, swish in the mouth and gargle; use five times a day.

Acne: Put three or four drops of any of the above essential oils in a cup of warm water and use as a facial rinse twice a day. I find that tea tree oil is especially effective.

Sanitizer: Add a drop or two of oil to a cup of water to sanitize your toothbrush, comb or hairbrush.

Disinfectant: Add ten drops tea tree oil or rosemary oil to a qt. of water to disinfect raw fruits and vegetables or sanitize kitchen sponges and scrubs.

Refreshing spray: Add five drops of any of the above essential oils to a pint of water. Put in a spray bottle and use as a room freshener, especially good if you are concerned about airborne bacterium. You can also use this spray as a disinfecting wash for killing germs on telephones, computers, refrigerators and surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom.

Fungal infections: Most of the above essential oils are effective against fungal infections such as ringworm, athlete’s foot, and jock itch. Wash or soak the affected area in a diluted solution of 5 drops of essential oil to one cup of water several times a day for two weeks. Apply for the entire two weeks even if all symptoms have disappeared.

Hair and Scalp: To keep your hair and scalp healthy add a drop or two of rosemary oil or lemon grass oil to your shampoo or conditioner once or twice a month.

Most essential oils should not be used full strength. Always dilute; it is best to err on the side of caution until you determine your tolerance.

Many therapeutic essential oils can be used internally for a wide range of diseases and infections, however, I suggest that you seek professional advise for specific long tern internal treatments.

The costly marriage crisis by Ruth Marcus

2012-01-03T21:40:00.002-07:00

Marriage is rapidly becoming obsolete for half of our society, said Ruth Marcus. Only 51 percent of Americans over the age of 18 are now married, compared with almost 75 percent 50 years ago. Marriage remains popular among the “better-off and better-educated,” but the working class and the poor are now choosing to cohabit—often in a series of troubled, short-term relationships. Two thirds of college graduates are married, compared with less than half of those whose education ended after or during high school. And those with college and postgraduate educations now tend to marry each other rather than, say, their secretaries.

Not surprisingly, the incomes of these well-educated married professionals are soaring far beyond those of the nonmarried, whose unions are often unstable. More troubling still is that this phenomenon is “grimly self-perpetuating”: Two thirds of kids born to unmarried parents see them split up, and the kids raised in these chaotic homes also fail to get good educations and to marry as adults. Getting married isn’t a “magic-bullet solution” to economic inequality—but if the marriage rate continues to decline, the gap between the haves and the have-nots will continue to grow.

The Washington Post

As reported in The Week; December 30 – January 6, 2011

BEAUTIFUL BRIDE
© Photoeuphoria | Dreamstime.com

Why Placebos Work Wonders By Shirley S. Wang

2012-01-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

From Weight Loss To Fertility, New Legitimacy For 'Fake' Treatments. Say "placebo effect" and most people think of the boost they may get from a sugar pill simply because they believe it will work. But more and more research suggests there is more than a fleeting boost to be gained from placebos.

A particular mind-set or belief about one's body or health may lead to improvements in disease symptoms as well as changes in appetite, brain chemicals and even vision, several recent studies have found, highlighting how fundamentally the mind and body are connected.
It doesn't seem to matter whether people know they are getting a placebo and not a "real" treatment. One study demonstrated a strong placebo effect in subjects who were told they were getting a sugar pill with no active ingredient.

Douglas B. Jones

Placebo treatments are sometimes used in some clinical practices. In a 2008 survey of nearly 700 internists and rheumatologists published in the British Medical Journal, about half said they prescribe placebos on a regular basis. The most popular were over-the-counter painkillers and vitamins. Very few physicians said they relied on sugar pills or saline injections. The American Medical Association says a placebo can't be given simply to soothe a difficult patient, and it can be used only if the patient is informed of and agrees to its use.
Researchers want to know more about how the placebo effect works, and how to increase and decrease it. A more powerful, longer-lasting placebo effect might be helpful in treating health conditions related to weight and metabolism.
Hotel-room attendants who were told they were getting a good workout at their jobs showed a significant decrease in weight, blood pressure and body fat after four weeks, in a study published in Psychological Science in 2007 and conducted by Alia Crum, a Yale graduate student, and Ellen Langer, a professor in the psychology department at Harvard. Employees who did the same work but weren't told about exercise showed no change in weight. Neither group reported changes in physical activity or diet.

Douglas B. Jones

Patients in a recent study were treated with placebos for an induced asthma attack. They reported feeling just as good as when they received an active treatment with albuterol.

Another study, published earlier this year in the journal Health Psychology, shows how mind-set can affect an individual's appetite and production of a gut peptide called ghrelin (GREL-in), which is involved in the feeling of satisfaction after eating. Ghrelin levels are supposed to rise when the body needs food and fall proportionally as calories are consumed, telling the brain the body is no longer hungry and doesn't need to search out more food.
Yet the data show ghrelin levels depended on how many calories participants were told they were consuming, not how many they actually consumed. When told a milkshake they were about to drink had 620 calories and was "indulgent," the participants' ghrelin levels fell more—the brain perceived it was satisfied more quickly—than when they were told the shake had 120 calories and was "sensible."
The results may offer a physiological explanation of why eating diet foods can feel so unsatisfying, says Ms. Crum, first author on the study. "That mind-set of dieting is telling the body you're not getting enough."
Studies across medical conditions including depression, migraines and Parkinson's disease have found that supposedly inert treatments, like sugar pills, sham surgery and sham acupuncture, can yield striking effects. A 2001 study published in Science found that placebo was effective at improving Parkinson's disease symptoms at a magnitude similar to real medication. The placebo actually induced the brain to produce greater amounts of dopamine, the neurotransmitter known to be useful in treating the disease.
At times, a weaker placebo effect might be desired. In trials of experimental drug treatments for dementia, depression and other cognitive or psychiatric conditions, where one patient group takes medication and the other takes a sugar pill, it can be difficult to demonstrate that the medicine works because the placebo effect is so strong.
With depression, an estimated 30% to 45% of patients—or even more, in some studies—will respond to a placebo, according to a review published in December in Clinical Therapeutics. An additional 5% of patients were helped by an antidepressant in cases of mild depression, and an additional 16% in cases of severe depression. (The clinically meaningful cutoff for additional benefit was 11%.)
Fertility rates have been found to improve in women getting a placebo, perhaps because they experience a decrease in stress. A recent randomized trial of women with polycystic ovarian syndrome found that 15%, or 5 of 33, got pregnant while taking placebo over a six-month period, compared with 22%, or 7 of 32, who got the drug—a statistically insignificant difference. Other studies have demonstrated pregnancy rates as high as 40% in placebo groups.
Ted Kaptchuk, director of Harvard's Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter, and colleagues demonstrated that deception isn't necessary for the placebo effect to work. Eighty patients with irritable bowel syndrome, a chronic gastrointestinal disorder, were assigned either a placebo or no treatment. Patients in the placebo group got pills described to them as being made with an inert substance and showing in studies to improve symptoms via "mind-body self-healing processes." Participants were told they didn't have to believe in the placebo effect but should take the pills anyway, Dr. Kaptchuk says. After three weeks, placebo-group patients reported feelings of relief, significant reduction in some symptoms and some improvement in quality of life.
Why did the placebo work—even after patients were told they weren't getting real medicine? Expectations play a role, Dr. Kaptchuk says. Even more likely is that patients were conditioned to a positive environment, and the innovative approach and daily ritual of taking the pill created an openness to change, he says.
Do placebos work on the actual condition, or on patients' perception of their symptoms? In a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Kaptchuk's team rotated 46 asthma patients through each of four types of treatment: no treatment at all, an albuterol inhaler, a placebo inhaler and sham acupuncture. As each participant got each treatment, researchers induced an asthma attack and measured the participant's lung function and perception of symptoms. The albuterol improved measured lung function compared with placebo. But the patients reported feeling just as good whether getting placebo or the active treatment.
"Right now, I think evidence is that placebo changes not the underlying biology of an illness, but the way a person experiences or reacts to an illness," Dr. Kaptchuk says.
Placebo can be more effective than the intended treatment. In a trial published in the journal Menopause in 2007, 103 women who had menopausal hot flashes got either five weeks of real acupuncture, or five weeks of sham acupuncture, where needles weren't placed in accepted therapeutic positions. A week after treatments ended, only some 60% of participants in both groups reported hot flashes—a robust immediate placebo effect. Seven weeks post-treatment, though, 55% of patients in the sham acupuncture group reported hot flashes, compared with 73% in the real acupuncture group.
WSJ Online
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577128873886471982.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
Write to Shirley S. Wang at shirley.wang@wsj.com

A Compact Guide to Creating the Fitness Habit by Leo Babauta

2012-01-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

A new year, a new slate of resolutions.

Perhaps the biggest resolution at New Year’s is to get fit — start exercising, start eating right, and all that jazz.
But resolutions never last. As you might already know, I’m not a fan of resolutions.
Instead of creating a list of resolutions this year, create a new habit.
Habits last, and they lead to long-term fitness (and more). They require more patience, but they are worth the wait.
As some of you know, fitness habits are what started me along the path to changing my life. I quit smoking, started running. Then I started eating healthier, became vegetarian (now vegan), quit the junk food addiction, started doing other types of workouts (bodyweight, weights, Crossfit, anything that was fun).
And six years later, I’m nearly 39 years old and in the best shape of my life. I have less bodyfat than any time since high school, more muscle than ever in my life, and I can run and hike and play longer than anytime in the history of Leo. That’s not to brag, but to show you what can be done with some simple fitness habits.

Reshaping Through Habits

The appealing thing about many fitness programs is that they promise quick results. You see testimonials from people who have gone through the program and lost 30 lbs. and gain a washboard stomach in just 4 weeks!
That’s all complete crap.
First, most people won’t achieve those results. Second, and more importantly, if you do get quick results, you’ll reverse those results very quickly … because you haven’t created new habits. You’ve just done something intense and unsustainable for a short period of time. That’s nearly worthless.
You should be focused on long-term results, and more importantly on a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle starts with changing your habits and ends with long-term results.
Changing habits takes time. I recommend one habit at a time, and give yourself about a month per habit. That takes patience, but you shouldn’t try to see amazing results in just 30 days. You should enjoy your new lifestyle, which will be an amazing result in itself that you can achieve immediately. In a matter of months and years, your body and health will change too.
Let’s say you change one habit at a time, one per month or so. You’ll have 12 new habits every year. Even if you only formed 6 habits that stuck and that you loved, you’d be amazed at what kind of changes those 6 habits would create in your life and fitness. If you did 6 habits a year for three years, you’d be transformed.
If you don’t have the patience to change one habit at a time, or focus on enjoying your new habits rather than getting quick results, you should stop reading now.

Which Habits to Choose

So let’s say you’re just starting out … what habit should you start with?
My favorite habit is daily exercise, but if you’re looking to lose weight probably the most important habits relate to eating.
In truth, which habit you choose first matters very little in the long run. You will be changing many little habits over the course of the next few years, and the order of those habits is unimportant. What matters is that you start.
Here are some habits that I’d start with, if you haven’t created them yet:

Exercise for just 5 minutes a day, adding 5 minutes per week. Make it a fun exercise.
Drink water instead of sweet drinks.
Replace fried foods with vegetables.
Eat fruit and nuts for snacks.
Eat lean protein, including plant proteins, instead of red meat.
Add strength exercises to your routine — pushups, pullups, squats, lunges.
If you’ve been doing all of the above for awhile, add some weights — compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, chinups, overhead presses and rows.

I’ve found that losing weight is simple: eat lots of veggies and plant or lean protein, reduce calories, do some kind of cardio, lift some weights to preserve muscle.
Gaining muscle is also fairly simple: eat lots of veggies and plant or lean protein, increase calories, do some kind of cardio to preserve heart health, lift heavy weights to grow muscle.
The weights should be compound lifts and heavy, the cardio should be enjoyable. Getting “toned”, btw, is just gaining muscle and losing the fat that covers the muscle, whether you’re a man or woman.

Forming the Habit

These are my top principles for forming habits. If you’ve read my writings on habits before, this won’t be new to you, but often it’s good to review these principles for things you’ve missed:

Make it social. This is an incredibly powerful too. I highly, highly recommend Fitocracy to everyone, as it’s a way to make exercise fun and social (invite code: ZENHABITS). It turns fitness into a game, and you log your exercises, get points, encourage others, complete fitness quests, get props for workouts you’ve done. Other great ways to make your habit change social: report on your daily progress to friends and family through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or email, find a workout partner, get a coach, join a running group, join online fitness forums, join a class.
Do one habit at a time only. People often skip this one because they think they are different than everyone else, but I’ve found this to be extremely effective. You increase your odds of success with just one habit at a time, for many reasons: habits are hard to form because they require lots of focus and energy, having many habits means you’re spreading yourself too thin, and if you can’t commit to one habit at a time, you’re not fully committed.
Make it your top priority. People often put off fitness and diet stuff because they’re too busy, too tired, to stressed out by big projects or the holidays, etc. But in my experience, those are great reasons you *should* be exercising. So make your new diet or exercise habit one of your absolute top priorities for the day. If you don’t have time, you need to make time.
Enjoy the habit. This is extremely important, and most people ignore it. If the habit is fun, you will stick with it longer. And even better, if you are enjoying it, you immediately win. You don’t need to wait for a bunch of pounds lost or other results — you get instant results because you’re enjoying the change. I find activities I enjoy, I join challenges or races to make exercise fun, I enjoy a conversation with a friend during a run, I eat healthy foods that are delicious (berries — yum!) and focus on savoring those foods. Focus on the enjoyment, and don’t make the habit change a big sacrifice.

Final Recommendations

Many people set fitness goals for the year. I’ve done it myself, but lately I’ve found that I can get fit without them. For one thing, when you set goals, they are often arbitrary, and so you are spending all your effort working towards a basically meaningless number. And then if you don’t achieve it, you feel like you failed, even if the number was arbitrary to start with.
You can create habits without goals — I define goals as a predefined outcome that you’re striving for, not activities that you just want to do. So is creating a habit a goal? It can be, or you can approach it with the attitude of “it doesn’t matter what the outcome of this habit change is, but I want to enjoy the change as I do it”.
So enjoy the habit change, in the moment, and don’t worry what the outcome of the activity is. The outcome matters very little, if you enjoy the journey.
The journey to fitness can have an infinite number of paths, and setting your path in advance by setting goals is limiting. Allow yourself to change course on a whim, without guilt of not achieving a goal, and you’ll find new paths you’d never have anticipated when you set out.
But the most important step of the journey is the first one. After that, the most important step is the one you’re presently taking. So take that step, and enjoy it.
http://zenhabits.net/

leo babauta

created zen habits
wrote focus
became minimalist
adores reading,
plus more

Quick and easy tips for improving your Android device's battery life by Sarah Gilbert

2012-01-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

I recently noticed that my Android was running out of juice in about half the normal time. I went to www.Tecca.com (a fantastic tech site with lots of great information about your smart device, Pad or Computer ) to see if they had any advice on how to resolve my problem. I found this very helpful article on improving the battery life of my Android. I followed the first step to check to see where my Android was spending energy (Settings to About Phone to Battery Use). I was very surprised to see that 74% of my juice was being used by my photo gallery! How could this be, I almost never used my photo gallery? I then went into applications (Settings to Applications to Manage Applications) and found that my Gallery app was automatically syncing photos with all of my accounts. I turned off the automatic sync and my battery life soared; in a twenty four hour period I used one third of what I had been using before I made the adjustments suggested by the Tecca article. So read on and hopefully you will get some hints on how you can improve your battery energy... (I suspect that you can follow similar steps to check on battery use with your iPhone or Blackberry.) Enjoy, Elena

How to squeeze as much Android juice out of your battery as possible. So, you're the proud owner of an Android device. You and your little robot do everything together, but you've noticed that your Android's battery is running out before the day's adventures have finished. Read on, and we'll show you some quick fixes to help you squeeze even more out of your battery life.

Dim the lights
On most Android phones and tablets, you can see which apps and features are using up your battery power by going to Settings > About Phone > Battery Use. The biggest battery hog is likely to be the display, so we'll start off by making a few tweaks there.

Tweak brightness settings. Turn down the maximum brightness of your device's screen by going to Settings > Display > Brightness and moving the slider over toward the left. If you like the effect, try checking "automatic brightness," which makes your device adapt to the lighting conditions around you.
Shorten screen timeouts. This setting allows you to adjust how quickly the screen goes dark after you stop tapping on it or interacting with it. The shorter the timeout period, the less battery power wasted illuminating a screen you might not be looking at. You can find the menu to adjust this in Settings > Display > Screen Timeout.
Turn off live wallpapers. Yes, they're pretty, but live wallpapers can chew through your battery power faster than a puppy through your favorite slippers. Consider switching to a static wallpaper if you're trying to squeeze every last available minute out of your device's battery. To change your device's wallpaper, long press on your home screen and select "Wallpapers" from the pop-up menu.

Take things to the next level
The power control widget gives you access to your wifi, bluetooth, GPS, sync, and brightness settings and can be your key to more advanced battery-saving moves.

Turn off bluetooth and GPS. As a general rule, you'll probably want to turn off your bluetooth and GPS when you're not using them, as they can run the battery down fast if they're left to do their own thing unattended.
Manage your wifi. Your wifi settings depend on where you are; if you're somewhere with a stable wifi connection, then leaving it on can help make your battery last. What drains your device's battery is when your device keeps losing its wifi signal and switching to your mobile data connection while searching for the lost signal. If you know you're somewhere with patchy wifi (or no wifi access at all), turn off the wifi. Likewise, if you're somewhere with a solid wifi connection, then using wifi can help save battery power by saving your phone from searching for a data connection.
Go 2G. If you're out in the countryside and have hardly any 3G coverage, it might be worth switching to 2G radios. You'll still be able to make and receive calls and SMS messages but won't have any internet access on your device. For the truly power-conscious, switch to airplane mode if you're not expecting any calls or texts. You won't be able to make and receive anything, but airplane mode might save you an extra few minutes if you're stranded with a low battery and know you'll need to use your device in an hour or two.

Watch your widgets
Widgets are one of the huge selling points of Android devices, allowing us at-a-glance information without having to launch tons of apps. You can add widgets to your home screen for services such as Twitter, weather updates, and Facebook, set to automatically update at set intervals with all the latest gossip and information from your friends, family, and favorite technology websites. However, widgets with very short default update intervals can drain your battery, taking the shine off knowing exactly what your friend had for lunch today.

You can adjust most widget update times in the main app's settings menu. Go to the app, hit the menu button, then settings, and then look for something such as "notifications" or "widget update interval." We'd recommend setting the interval to 30 minutes or above to get a balance between being connected and missing the party invitation because your battery died while you were out.

Set up defenses
We recommend Juice Defender (download JuiceDefender or JuiceDefender Ultimate from the Android Market) if you're having battery trouble. This highly customizable app can do anything from monitoring what's eating your battery to putting a targeted lockdown on your most power-hungry apps.

Following just a few of these tips will help see your Android device sipping from its power supply rather than gulping down its battery reserves and being thirsty again before lunch.

TED: Daniel Goldstein -The battle between your present and future self

2012-01-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

Listen to this wonderful Ted video where Daniel Goldstein explores how every day, we make decisions that have good or bad consequences for our future selves. (Can I skip flossing just this one time?) Daniel Goldstein makes tools that help us imagine ourselves over time, so that we make smart choices for Future Us.Daniel Goldstein studies how we make decisions about our financial selves -- both now and in the future,

Why you should listen to him?

Daniel Goldstein studies decision-making -- especially how humans make economic and social decisions over the course of our lives, and how we can give ourselves the right incentives, reminders, and rules of thumb to make long-term smart choices rather than short-term fun choices. He runs the blog Decision Science News. He's a Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research, on leave from a post at the London Business School.

"Goldstein is part of a really fascinating band of psychologists interested in heuristics -- that is, mental shortcuts that have the effect of helping us better navigate the world."

Malcolm Gladwell

WWW.TED.COM Ideas worth sharing.

Thought Monster. Monstrous Thought. by Joanne Armstrong

2012-01-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

I anticipate this is going to take time.

Assuming.

Guessing.

Fact. And no facts.

Comprehend. Yes. This conceivable idea.

No. Inconceivable. Or not entirely conceivable.

Certain.

Certain ambiguity.

Conclusion? Consider for a moment…

Hush.

Backwards.

Forwards.

Round

Around.

Envisage, briefly, the unexpected.

Epiphany.

Guess at it. Hold on to it.

Surmise.

A realization. Presumptuous!

Backtrack.

Reminisce.

Hold.

Image. Time. Idea.

Ask question.

Question answer.

Suppose.

A rationalization?

Gone.

Just like that.

Understanding.

No. Discombobulation.

I think. Too much.

I think I think too much.

THINKING THE MAN © Alexvalent | Dreamstime.com

7 ways to be closer to Friends and Family by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2011-12-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Never underestimate the value of family and friends. In the good and the bad times, we all need love and support to soothe our fears and to cover our backs. The whole is stronger than the parts. Intimacy, companionship and the feeling of being a part of a loving relationship are among the most significant indicators of happiness and the rich appreciation of life. The fear that comes from loneliness erodes our confidence and self-esteem and can even compromise our immune system.

"Happiness is only real when shared", Christopher McCandless

We derive great comfort and peace of mind knowing that we are not alone. When we develop a sudden illness or become incapacitated for a long period of time, possessions other than our cozy bed, mean nothing to us; friends and family, those who love and care for us become everything. Little is more valuable than a close friend we can turn to no matter what. And just as we need to receive support during a crisis, we also need opportunities to extend a hand to others in meaningful ways.

Human beings need to interact - to be a part of. Each of us wants to feel relevant. Yet, though we may strive to be and become a special individual, we all have a fundamental yearning to unite with others…to Love. When we are unable to connect with others we feel stressed and insecure. We are actually less healthy and prone to disease. We are more likely to feel vulnerable if we are alone than when we are embraced by loved ones. Studies show that friendly outgoing people are healthier and live longer, more productive lives than people who have few friends.
Yet curiously we are afraid of being misunderstood or rejected when meeting new people. In unfamiliar social gatherings we may feel shy about approaching people we do not know. So let us each bury our fear with the realization that the other person probably also fears that they might be rejected or misunderstood. When the opportunity presents itself, extend a hand to make a new friend.

Here are seven things you can do to be a better friend or to join in with your family.

Get together with friends. At least once a week plan a meaningful and fun visit. Make sure that you engage in enjoyable activities. Stop relying so much on social networks, pick up the phone and have a real voice to voice conversation.
Reconnect with members of your family – eat together, communicate through emails, telephone and make face-to-face visits. Be sure to let your family know that you care and take pains to tell them they can count on you.
Engage in real conversation. Seek to have conversations that will connect you with the other person in an intimate way. Exchange ideas. Explore topics. Be sure to ask the other person for their opinion or simply say, "What do you think about this?" Be a good listener.
Introduce yourself. Next time you are at a gathering and see someone you don’t know, introduce yourself. Invite them to join in a conversation, introduce them to others.
Expand your circle of friends. Invite new people to participate in social gatherings. Make people feel welcome in your home and included among your group of friends.
Meaningful collaboration. Find ways you can collaborate in group projects with like minded individuals; maybe through your church, yoga center, political party, school or an art or music group.
Have fun with your friends. Do silly unexpected things. Try new activities. Expand your common experiences to include new adventures that you can later build upon. For example plan a camping trip, go to an art gallery, take a class together or try an exotic restaurant.

BEST FRIENDS
© Verity Johnson | Dreamstime.com

A Quest To Seek The Sublime In The Spiritual by Eric Weiner

2011-12-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Eric Weiner

December 20, 2011
Surveys show religious people are happier than the secular. Why is this? Is it — as an atheist friend quipped — that "ignorance is bliss?" Not long ago, that's what I would have concluded. Like many people of my ilk — cerebral East Coaster, highly skeptical and, yes, latte drinking — I reflexively viewed the religious as less sophisticated. And, if I'm brutally honest here, somehow less intelligent, or at least more narrow-minded. I don't feel that way anymore.
I spent several years traveling the world, meeting deeply religious people from faiths as diverse as Buddhism and Catholicism, Taoism and Wicca. These people didn't check their brains at the temple door. They are intelligent, but theirs is an intelligence that extends beyond that of cold logic alone: an intuitive sense that I envy. And while it's true that some of those I met sought absolute certainty from their faith, the vast majority live comfortably with doubt and uncertainty. They fit squarely into a category that one psychologist calls the "Questers," those who see questions, not answers, as central to their religious experience.
Slowly, I've come to realize that I too am a Quester. To be clear: I consider myself a rationalist. I believe that reason, and its offshoot, science, are good. I also believe that there is more to the world than meets the eye, though I'd be hard-pressed to define what that "more" is. Am I an agnostic? Sort of, but I'm more active than that. We Questers do things. We meditate. We pray. And we do these things even though we don't fully believe in them.
What do you believe? That's our default question when it comes to matters of faith. Frankly, and with all due respect, I don't care what you believe. What do you experience? What do you do? Those are the more important questions.
I met a Kabbalist in Israel named Avraham, and he explained it like this. For years, he read religious texts but always wondered: "How do they know that?" One day, he shifted the question to: "What do they mean by that?" A subtle shift, but a crucial one, he told me.
Avraham is happy — happier than just about anyone I've ever met. Non-believers might say his happiness is based on a lie. But who are we to say what is true? As William James, that great chronicler of religious experience, put it: "Truth is what works." On the face of it, that sounds absurd. But James is speaking of a different kind of truth. If spiritual practices work for us, if they make us better, happier people, than they are true.
The debate between faith and reason is a false one. Science and religion don't occupy the same turf. Saying, "Now that we have science, there is no reason for religion" is like saying, "Now that we have the microwave oven, we have no use for Shakespeare." We need both, of course. Only then can we lead fully rounded lives. And, yes, happier ones, too.

Eric Weiner is a former NPR correspondent and also the author of The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World. His most recent book is Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine.

True friends are getting rarer

2011-12-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

November 25, 2011

The Week

For all their so-called friends on Facebook, most Americans have fewer close confidants now than they did a generation ago. Cornell University sociologists surveyed 2,000 adults and found that on average they had only two friends with whom they could discuss “important matters”—down from three in 1985. Nearly half of the volunteers listed only one friend, and 4 percent said they had none. A reduced social network “makes us potentially more vulnerable,” study author Matthew Brashears tells LiveScience.com, because talking our troubles over with a trusted pal provides “both emotional support and ideas for how to solve problems.” Brashears says that while we appear to be just as social as ever, our friendships seem to be shallower, leaving us with fewer people we can call on to lend us money, give us a place to stay, or simply keep us company during a tough time.

The state of our Mother Earth by Stuart Myiow

2011-12-28T13:25:00.001-07:00

Listen to Stuart Myiow, the representative of the Mohawk Traditional Council speaking of the current state of our Mother Earth. Link to ECOLIBRIUM, radio program on CKUT, 90.3.
http://ckut.ca/cgi-bin/ckut-grid.pl?action=showaudio&show=tuesday,11:00
(clic on Tuesday December 27, 2011, 64 or 128).

Stuart Myiow has been Wolf clan representative of the Mohawk Traditional Council, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, since 1987, and is among the last of the Mohawk Traditionalists to be born and raised by the chiefs and clan mothers within the Longhouse. He often speaks on the Constitution of the Five Nations Iroquois Confederacy - "the Great Law of Peace."

Christopher Robins

2011-12-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

“Promise me you’ll always remember:

You’re braver than you believe,

and stronger than you seem,

and smarter than you think.”

Christopher Robins

10 Steps to a better night sleep by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2011-12-13T19:35:00.002-07:00

Here are 10 steps you can take to encourage your body in the direction of restful sleep. It will take at least two weeks to imprint new sleep patterns and reset your internal clock. During that time be consistent in your schedule and mindful to create a pattern of activity that lets your body know when you are getting ready to sleep.

1. Meals: Make an effort to have your last meal of the day before 6 pm. Eat foods that are light and easily digested. Do not eat foods that are likely to produce gas, indigestion or discomfort.

2. No stimulants like coffee, black or green tea, caffeinated colas and chocolate 6 hours prior to your bedtime

3. Avoid alcohol. Drink no more than one glass of wine or one beer with your evening meal.

4. Activities: Start gearing down in the early evening. Do not engage in vigorous exercise or stimulating activities. An easy walk after your evening meal is good for digestion and to calm your mind, while a vigorous tennis game or dance class will keep you awake.

5. Sleep schedule: Sleep is good for your physical, emotional and mental health and works to keep you looking young and fresh. I suggest that you try for 8 hours a day. Figure out what is going to be your sleep schedule. Define your 8-hour sleep period: 9 pm to 5 am, 10 pm to 6 am, 11 pm to 7 am? Make an effort to rigorously follow your sleep schedule for a minimum of three weeks.

6. Begin to unwind at least an hour before bedtime: Take a hot bath or shower. Do some yoga or a short meditation. Read a good book, especially something that will take your mind off of your problems. Listen to soothing music.

7. Shortly before you go to bed drink a cup of warm milk flavored with cardamom, nutmeg or ginger and lightly sweetened with honey. Or drink a cup of chamomile tea.

8. Try using aroma candles or put some essential oils in your bath. Lavender, chamomile, neroli, rose, and lemon grass are very relaxing and will settle your mind.

9. When you sleep make your bedroom as dark as possible. Don’t forget to cover lights from computers, digital clocks, cell phones or other electronic devices.

10. If you feel that you need extra help to ease you into a new sleep pattern, you might consider these natural sleep aids.

- Melatonin is a hormone produced naturally in the pineal gland of the brain that is important in regulating sleep and appears to play a role in reestablishing the body's natural time clock. Melatonin is especially effective if your natural sleep rhythms have been disturbed by travel through different time zones.

- Calms Forte made by Hylands homeopathics is a natural sleep aid particularly good if you are under stress or worried.

- 5- HTP is an amino acid that helps to increase serotonin levels in the brain. It is especially useful to still anxiety, reduce the effects of hormonal changes and will calm the body and mind to allow sleep.

All three of these products are inexpensive and readily available at drug and health food stores. Follow manufacture instructions.

If you feel that you have a serious problem you should seek professional help.

Dr. ELENA MORENO, ND, is the Editor of the EmpowermentWeekly, author of the Right

LivingMentoring Series, and the A Question of Truth Series. Her essay EightLessons on the Art of Self Love, is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, publishedby Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor ofNaturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, aneducational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essaysare also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellosde Saber.

ASLEEP WITH A STUFFED HORSE 3
© Jason Schulz | Dreamstime.com

RUMI: High Self Esteem “Al-Mu`iss” by Neil Douglas – Klotz

2011-12-13T19:12:00.002-07:00

When we are guided to this pathway,

take the opportunity to contact the place inyour soul

where you find stability and feel evidenceof the One’s

beauty, grace, and richness in your soul,

the place of sacred high self-esteem.

Many of us find it much easer to deal with failure thanwith success. Outward success canbe so seductive that we know subconsciously we can easily be pulled off-centerand do something foolish. The fearof doing this almost always causes us to do something foolish. So we’d just as soon not try, and keepto ourselves instead.

You may find it difficult to reconcile the notion of highself-esteem with the Sufi idea that ultimately the ego we think of as ourselvesisn’t real. What “self” are wetrying to improve? And why build aself in order to tear it down?

Rumi, however, compares the situation to chickpeascooking in a pot. They keep tryingto jump out, and the cook keeps battling them back in with his spoon. Life is cooking us, and we resistbecause we don’t know our purpose in life, the “meal” that is beingprepared. The cook says to thechickpeas, “You were once drinking fresh dew in the garden. That was so you could be a nice mealfor the Guest. Don’t dwell on theself you think you are. Letyourself be transformed into something even better – a meal for theBeloved.” In Rumi’s view, thewhole universe is involved in transformation, in eating and being eaten for thesake of an evolution driven by love.

Perhaps life is showing you right now a face of theBeloved reflected somewhere within, which feels greater than your small self orany part of it, and you cannot deny it. Or, you are calling to the place deep within you that is ready tomanifest this face in yourself. This is not your spirit of guidance, which is always connected to theOne, but the most confident and faithful part of your nafs, or inner self, the reflection of “saving grace.” This place in your also honors others –it doesn’t have a messiah – complex – because it feels the source of its ownhonor in the certainty of the One.

Meditation: Center in the heart. Breathe rhythmically.. Isn’t thecertainty and esteem of the One already in every particle of existence? If so, why not in you as well? What others see in you really belongsto the Beloved, which everyone is chasing in various forms.

Thisexcerpt is taken from The Sufi Book of Life by Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D. A beautiful inspiring and accessible collection of Sufi lore, poetry, andstories, The Sufi Book of Life offers a fresh interpretation of thefundamental spiritual practices found in all ancient and modern Sufi schools -the meditations on the 99 Qualities of Unity.

http://www.sufibookoflife.com/

SELF ESTEEM
© Sofiene Issaoui | Dreamstime.com

Pronunciation...How good is your English?

2011-12-13T18:27:00.001-07:00

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.

To truly appreciate you should read aloud.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité

BALD WOMAN
© Oleg Mischenko | Dreamstime.com

Just for fun! Christmas in perspective.

2011-12-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

Jay Leno: The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn''t for any religious reasons. They couldn''t find three wise men and a virgin.

Dave Barry, Christmas Shopping: In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukka' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukka!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'

Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes: Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?

Richard Lann: Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.

Dave Barry
Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.

Ogden Nash: People can't concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December.

CHRISTMAS TREE 5
© Chrisharvey | Dreamstime.com

TED: Sarah Kay: How many lives can you live?

2011-12-11T21:17:00.004-07:00

Spoken-word poet Sarah Kay was stunned to find she couldn’t be a princess, ballerina and astronaut all in one lifetime. In this talk from TEDxEast, she delivers two powerful poems that show us how we can live other lives.

A performing poet since she was 14 years old, Sarah Kay is the founder of Project V.O.I.C.E., teaching poetry and self-expression at schools across the United States.

Why you should listen to her?

hands are not about politics /
this is a poem about love /
and fingers/
fingers interlock like a beautiful zipper of prayer
--Sarah Kay

Plenty of 14-year-old girls write poetry. But few hide under the bar of the famous Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan’s East Village absorbing the talents of New York’s most exciting poets. Sarah Kay also had the guts to take its stage and hold her own against performers at least a decade her senior. Her talent for weaving words into poignant, funny, and powerful performances paid off.
Now 22, Kay is a successful spoken word poet and codirects Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression). Founded by Kay in 2004, Project V.O.I.C.E. encourages people, particularly teenagers, to use spoken word as a tool for understanding the world and self, and a medium for vital expression.
Her poem "B" has been turned into a hardcover book >>

"A day with Sarah Kay reminded me of poetry's power to help us make sense of our lives, to see the world in a new way."

Deb Martin, Rowan University

Ideas worth spreading

TED.com

Be Afraid: Yoga's Satanic Side

2011-12-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

The former chief exorcist of the Vatican has denounced yoga as a tool of Satan. Father Gabriele Amorth, 86, who is the president-for-life of the International Association of Exorcists, says the increasingly popular Eastern discipline of stretching and breathing can lead devotees to Hinduism and thus to a “false belief in reincarnation” and an unholy worship of the body. “Practicing yoga is Satanic,” said Amorth. “It leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter.”

from The Week December 9, 2011

10 Ways to Get Your Boss to Listen by Steve Tobak

2011-12-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

(MoneyWatch)
When CBS first launched the reality series Undercover Boss, I was skeptical, to say the least. For one thing, I don't watch reality TV unless it's a cooking show. I'm also reasonably sure that no CEOs I've ever worked with in the high-tech industry would "go undercover" to connect with employees.

Then I started interviewing the Undercover Bosses, and a common theme emerged: "management doesn't listen or care." More often than not, the undercover CEOs wanted an unfiltered view of what was going down in the trenches with the ultimate goal of improving worker conditions and sparking employee engagement.
Come to think of it, as a young engineer at the bottom of the org chart at Texas Instruments, I had more than my fair share of beefs with management that I thought, at the time, went unheard. Of course, after long years scaling the corporate ladder, I've developed somewhat of a different perspective.
So, having been on both sides of the issue, here are the ten most important things to consider if you want your boss or your company's management to actually listen to you:
Make sure it resonates with them. All too often, employees think everything's about them. It's not. When you want to get someone to listen, you need to position it in terms of what's in it for them. Your ideas and feedback may be great, but if it's not a priority for the powers that be, it won't be heard or acted upon. Understand that managers have a long list of top priorities and an even longer list of responsibilities. Everything else more or less falls in a crack.
Don't beat around the bush. Most senior-level managers and executives aren't interested in nuance and, these days, nobody has time to listen. So give it to them straight, right between the eyes. Get in, tell them what you think, what you think they should be doing differently or better, answer any questions they have, and get out. End of story.

Survive the pinch of middle managementConsider your timing. Employees often act like everything is a life and death crisis. Sometimes companies have major stuff going on -- finance issues, a merger or acquisition, a major product launch or customer issue -- and your boss or management is distracted and can't be bothered. If you think that might be the case, pick a better time; you may not have more than one opportunity, so do it right.
Stay clear of politics. It's an unpleasant truth that most executives won't admit to employees and some won't even admit to themselves: in businesses and companies big and small, politics can be a big deal. Whatever you do, don't point fingers or place blame. Try your best to discuss the issue without throwing individuals under the bus. You'll come across far more professionally, as well.
Don't be difficult or intimidating. You might not believe this, but a lot of employees are way more intimidating and difficult to deal with than their bosses. If you want to be heard, don't be angry, emotional, annoying or inflexible. Just because he's the boss doesn't make you any less of a pain in the butt. Just get your ducks in a row and try to relax and be yourself. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have a sense of humor and humility.

Don't waste your breath on an incompetent boss. Oftentimes, bosses simply aren't competent enough to realize how important it is to take the time to hear an employee's or a line manager's views and share their own perspective. Concepts like communication, engagement and motivation are lost on these people who probably got their jobs via the Peter Principle. If that's the kind of boss you work for, don't waste your time.

Look at the big picture. What might seem obvious or important to you may not be such a good idea one or two levels up. The higher up you go, the more important it is to see the big picture. So be direct and maybe you'll get a straight answer. It's entirely possible that your ideas or concerns are just a bit naive or nonsensical. If that's the case, your manager may find it easier to just nod politely, say, "Okay ... great ... thanks for your time," and wait for you to go away. It happens.

Be sure you're talking to the right person. People are always complaining to the wrong person, often preaching to the choir. It happens all the time. Before you dump on your boss or some random manager because they have a certain keyword in their title, make sure they can actually do something about whatever it is that's bugging you. And remember, most management job descriptions don't include "listen to Bob," so don't act all entitled or you might end up making things worse on yourself.
If the entire management team is dysfunctional, forget it and move on. There's really no easy way to say this, so here it is: company culture is top-down driven, and when the executive management team operates in a dysfunctional manner that ripples down through the organization. If that's the case, you'll be better served networking to find a better place to work than wasting your time trying to affect change.
Maybe, just maybe, they are listening. Your boss may have sent your idea or feedback up the flagpole and, for whatever reason, it just didn't resonate with the mucky mucks above. Maybe he just hasn't circled back around to tell you or he doesn't want to admit defeat because it's a blow to his ego or he thinks it might demotivate you. Maybe he's listening and just isn't the decision maker. Also, these things take time. Try to be patient.

Steve Tobak is a consultant and former high-tech senior executive. He's managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a management consulting and business strategy firm. Contact Steve, follow him on Facebook, or connect on LinkedIn.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57336231/10-ways-to-get-your-boss-to-listen/?pageNum=2&tag=contentMain;contentBody

Leading the "Lazy" Generation by Ty Kiisel

2011-12-11T20:21:00.002-07:00

Lazy?
Earlier this morning I read a summary of a poll conducted on behalf of Workplace Options, a Raleigh, N.C.-based consulting firm. According to the study, 77 percent of workers believe that the millennial generation has a different attitude toward workplace responsibility than other age groups. “Furthermore,” writes Ely Portillo, “68 percent of respondents said they think millennial workers are less motivated to take on responsibility and produce quality work than others.”

I work with a team of mostly young people. They are not lazy. They are different than my friends and I were when we entered the workforce 30 or so years ago.
I’ve noticed that young people entering the workforce are more empowered and technologically savvy than any other generation I’m aware of. They’ve been taught since they were small children not to accept everything they’re told simply because it comes from someone in autority and they don’t want to spend time doing mindless things that appear to them to be a waste of time. What’s more they’ve been successfully collaborating together in teams since Elementary School; and are native to the technologies we are trying to leverage to make the workforce more productive.
It’s easy for us grey-hairs to misinterpret their desire to avoid what they consider “busy work” as being lazy, but I’m convinced this is not the case. On the contrary, I find them to be very motivated. On those rare occasions when my older associates and I talk about the younger people on the team, we talk about how their passion and energy is contagious. In fact, I think we universally agree that our younger colleagues keep us on top of our game. The luxury of sitting back and resting on our laurels just isn’t an option.
Saying that, I don’t think they are any smarter or more capable than any of their predecessors, however the paradigm they work with is based upon a mental model that allows them to take the work of previous generations and extend it in ways us old fogies might not recognize because our mental models don’t make the connection. We should be looking for ways to give them opportunities to make leaps forward based upon their mental models.
Calling this generation “lazy” or “entitled” is nothing new—in fact it’s almost become too easy and cliche to be meaningful anymore. “They don’t want to pay their dues,” they argue. That might be true, but I felt that way too when I entered the workforce. Thankfully there were senior members of the team who were willing to mentor me and help me find my place. In stead of complaining about how they are different, we should be doing the same thing.
I have been blown away by what the members of my team are able to accomplish when they are given the opportunity to do so. There’s a lot we can learn from our younger colleagues, but I think we need to take a fresh look at how we interactwith them. Here are a couple of suggestions:

Don’t try to fit a square peg in a round hole: I don’t believe a heavy-handed command-and-control management approach ever really worked, but it will not work with this generation. When working with younger colleagues, be prepared to explain why you’re asking them to do what you’re asking them to do. Nobody wants to waste time, and these people just won’t. They want to contribute to something meaningful and don’t want to waste time doing anything that could be construed as “busy work.”
Empower them to contribute at a higher level: Once they understand the bigger picture, it adds context to what they are doing and enables them to step up, take ownership and contribute at a higher level. We should be thinking less about controlling the chaos and more about leveraging their unique skill sets to make our organizations stronger and more capable.
Regular feedback is critical: These young people have been receiving a constant stream of feedback since they were old enough for it to “register.” What’s more, if their adoption of social media has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that they respond very well to positive feedback. In my opinion, taking queues from social media makes sense. We need to create a workplace where everyone’s accomplishments are transparent and recognized. Doing this will engage this generation within our organizations and ultimately make them more profitable and successful.

I sometimes take heat for suggesting that we adapt how we lead people to the rising generation. “Ty, you’re pandering to the millennials,” they say. I disagree. Our responsibility as leaders is to adapt our leadership and communication styles to maximize the value of the workforce. Otherwise, we would still be working under the lash and drawing pictures on cave walls with rocks.
I suggest it’s time for us to stop complaining about the “lazy” generation and rethink how we interact with them, redesign the tools we give them to help them better understand and organize their work and leverage their unique skills to make our organizations better.

Ty, Kiisel: As a work management evangelist; "accidental" project manager and marketing veteran with over 25 years of experience, I write about project management, leading teams and basically getting work done for AtTask (www.attask.com). I try to make the concepts and best practices of work management accessible to both the expert and novice business leader by weaving personal experiences, historical references and other anecdotes into a regular discussion around effective leadership approaches that maximize the effectiveness of teams.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2011/12/07/leading-the-lazy-generation/

24 Ways to Avoid a Cold or the Flu by Dr. Elena Moreno, N.D.

2011-12-07T12:14:00.004-07:00

Are you feeling like you might be coming down with a cold or the flu? Here are some simple things you can do to stay healthy.

Drink lots of water; though be sure to avoid heavily chlorinated water.
Get extra sleep. Take a nap. Don’t exhaust yourself.
Knock back bacteria and germs in your mouth and throat by gargling with warm salt water and hydrogen peroxide. How to: add 1 tbsp. of natural (kosher) sea salt and 1/2 tsp. of hydrogen peroxide to one full glass of warm water. Gargle. Repeat every three or four hours.
Chew Xylitol gum to kill mouth and throat bacteria. You can find Xylitol products at most health food stores. Trident gum with Xylitol is not 100% Xylitol.
Use a Neti pot or a natural salt nasal spray with Xylitol to keep sinus and nasal passages open and kill germs.
If your sinuses are congested try taking Ibuprofen, Aspirin or Advil to reduce nasal swelling and allow mucous to drain.
Wash your hands regularly before touching your eyes or nose.
Keep your head and feet warm. Stay out of drafts. Avoid drastic temperature changes.
Eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, brown rice and soups.
Take a non-dairy probiotic.
Eliminate all dairy and wheat products from your diet. Yes that means no milk, yogurt, ice cream, bread, pasta, cookies, etc.
Avoid eating red meat or other difficult to digest foods.
Avoid sugar and all commercial products with sugar.
Take extra Vitamin C, Zinc and Turmeric tablets
Drink green tea, chamomile tea, or black tea with honey, lemon and cayenne pepper to taste.
Wash your hands after you have been exposed to germs such as when you handle money, use a cash machine, pump gas, push a shopping carts, etc.
Wipe down surfaces that might be harboring germs especially telephones, computers, and other office or work equipment, light switches and doorknobs.
If someone is your family has a cold or the flu keep them out of the kitchen. To avoid contamination make sure that they have their own dish, glass, cup, silverware and hand towel that no one else in the family uses. If your spouse is sick with a cold or the flu, why not sleep in the guest bedroom for a few days.
Take time to go for a walk or to exercise, this will increase circulation throughout your body, helping to eliminate toxins through your skin and it will pump fresh air to your respiratory system clearing your lungs and sinus cavities.
Relax, do yoga, meditate and find ways to be especially kind to your body.
If you spend many hours in closed buildings try to get outside every few hours and breathe fresh air, stretch your body and get your blood circulating.
Avoid air travel. If you must fly. Drink lots of water while in flight and avoid germ contamination. Wash your hands frequently.
In general it is best to avoid drinking alcohol, though studies do show that people drinking a glass or two of RED wine are less likely to get a cold because of the vitamins and antioxidants present in red wine.
Avoid being around smokers, if you smoke cut back as much as possible. Avoid environments that can cause you to have an allergic or asthmatic reaction

Remember the secret to remaining healthy it is to keep your immune system strong and avoid foods that create conditions within your body that allow germs and viruses to thrive.

DR. ELENA MORENO, ND is the Editor of the Empowerment Weekly, author of the Right Living Mentoring Series, and the A Question of Truth Series. Her essay Eight Lessons on the Art of Self Love, is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, published by Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor of Naturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, an educational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essays are also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellos de Saber.

VEGETABLES AND FRUITS
© Pkruger | Dreamstime.com

ACTING LIKE A GROWN-UP by Robert Butler

2011-12-07T12:13:00.001-07:00

Being green isn’t right-wing or left-wing. In his latest Going Green column Robert Butler argues it's merely about behaving with courtesy
From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Spring 2011

During the French revolution, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, was living in Paris with her lover, Gilbert Imlay, and their young child, Fanny. Wollstonecraft recorded the various lessons that she taught her daughter. One day Fanny asked her mother what thinking was. Fanny was concerned that this was a skill she would never acquire. Her mother reassured her that she had already learnt how to think a little and reminded her of the afternoon when her father had been asleep on the sofa. Fanny had needed to cross the room to fetch a ball and had tiptoed past her father so as not to wake him, and then closed the door very quietly behind her. That was thinking.

It’s not the type of thinking that gets you top grades in class, but it may be the most useful kind there is. We need it the whole time. It’s why, when the doors open on the tube or the metro, we let other people get off before we try to get on. It’s why we stand to one side of the escalator, allowing those in a hurry to overtake. It’s why we don’t let the door slam in the face of the person behind us.

This isn’t about manners in terms of etiquette. It’s not about how you hold your knife and fork—ideas about that differ round the world. It’s about behaving with a degree of courtesy, and because we live in a globalised world, that courtesy now extends further than we might imagine. Going green is not about changing lightbulbs, measuring parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, shutting down Kingsnorth Power Station, owning a Toyota Prius or installing a personal energy monitor. All that may come later. First and foremost, it’s about what Mary Wollstonecraft was telling her child—noticing there’s someone else in the room.

For this reason, going green isn’t left-wing or right-wing. It isn’t a threat. It isn’t a conspiracy by scientists or a means of introducing socialism by the back door. It isn’t even anti anything much, except boorishness. (Though boorishness has many manifestations.) Its real enemy is not-thinking. If you poison the well, people can’t drink from it. If you overfish the ocean, you end up with no fish. If you burn coal, you warm the planet.

If you take more than your share and behave as if other people didn’t exist, you piss them off. One day they will strike back, as one or two of the world’s autocrats have discovered this year. There was a picturesque example of this a few years ago at a hotel on the Italian Riviera. A Welsh coach driver was so incensed by German tourists getting up at the crack of dawn and putting their towels on all the sun-loungers that he got up early one morning, gathered up all the towels and set fire to them. The other holidaymakers cheered.

The conservative philosopher Roger Scruton has a new book out, entitled “Green Philosophy”, in which he sees the environmental problem as arising from “the loss of equilibrium that ensues when people cease to understand their surroundings as a home”. One way to think of your surroundings as home is to think of the things you say at home, the things you say to your children or that were said to you as a child. We want our children to be reasonably polite—to say “please” and “thank you” and offer things to other people—because, even if they want something right this minute, we want them to be aware that they aren’t the only people in the universe. Getting what you want, just when you want it, and ignoring everyone else, would be spoilt. No child wants to be called that.

So we encourage them to think beyond the moment, to see that there needs to be enough to go round. These ideas can be boiled down to bumper stickers. If you make a mess, clear it up. If you break something, fix it. If you borrow something, you need to return it. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Leave a place the way you found it. Make sure there’s enough to go round. If you use it all now, there won’t be any for later. Make sure everyone’s had a go.

It’s not very complicated. Of course plenty of people will say this is terribly naive. The real world isn’t like this. They will have precepts of their own that they’ll want to pass on to their children. I want it and I want it now. We are exceptional. Our way of life is not negotiable. Shop till you drop. Drill baby drill. But, as Mary Wollstonecraft would have explained to her daughter, that isn’t really thinking. It’s not-thinking. Going green is about trying to act like a grown-up.

Robert Butler, a former theatre critic, blogs on the arts and the environment at the Ashden Directory, which he edits. His previous article was about the lasting power of "Heart of Darkness". Picture credit: BlueEyedA73 (via Flickr)

Food for thought

2011-12-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

Mark Twain
   The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do
   what you’d rather not.

Buddha
   To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong
   and clear.

Marcus Valerius Martialis
   Life is not merely being alive, but being well.

Paul Dudley White
   A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all
   the medicine and psychology in the world.

Francis Bacon
     A healthy body is a guest-chamber for the soul; a sick body is a prison.

Fish may protect the brain, study indicates by Rob Stein

2011-12-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

People who eat baked or broiled fish at least once a week may be protecting their brains from Alzheimer’s disease and other brain problems, researchers reported Wednesday.

Cyrus Raji of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and colleagues conducted brain scans on 260 healthy adults and examined whether there was a relationship between the amount of gray matter, which is crucial to maintaining a healthy brain, and their risk of developing Alzheimer’s or a condition known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) over the next five years.

After taking into consideration factors such as age, gender, education, race, physical activity and obesity, the researchers found that those who regularly consumed baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis were more likely, a decade later, to have more gray matter in several key parts of the brain, including the hippocampus, the posterior cingulate and the orbital frontal cortex, the researchers reported at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago. In addition, those who were regular fish eaters were almost five times less likely to develop MCI or Alzheimer’s, the researchers found. The fish eaters also scored higher on tests measuring thinking abilities, such as working memory, they said.

“Consuming baked or broiled fish promotes stronger neurons in the brain’s gray matter by making them larger and healthier,” Raji said in a news release. “This simple lifestyle choice increases the brain’s resistance to Alzheimer’s disease and lowers risk for the disorder.”

No such protective effect was found for those who ate fried fish.
www.washingtonpost.com/rob-stein/2011/03/.../ABOE4mP_page.html

XYLITOL instead of sugar by Dr. Chris Edwards

2011-12-07T11:46:00.002-07:00

We all love sugar, and it seems like we just can't get enough of it. Per capita, the average US Citizen ingests 1/2 cup of the sweet stuff per day. This increased sugar consumption has created a myriad of health problems, many of which are putting an enormous strain on our health care system. Weight gain, insulin resistance, gum disease and tooth caries are just a few of the many problems resulting from our passionate affair with sugar.

During WW II, sugar shortages forced researchers to look for alternative sweeteners and they discovered xylitol. By the 60's, xylitol had been purified and was being used in Germany, Switzerland, the Soviet Union and Japan, mainly in infusion therapy for patients with insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance. Xylitol is a natural substance found in fibrous vegetables and fruit, as well as corncobs and various hardwoods. It is a natural intermediate product, which regularly occurs in the glucose metabolism of man and other animals. Our own bodies actually produce Xylitol everyday.

Although it tastes and looks like sugar, xylitol is really sugar's mirror image. While sugar wreaks havoc on the body, xylitol heals and repairs. It builds immunity, protects against chronic degenerative disease and has anti-aging benefits. It is antimicrobial, and prevents the growth of bacteria. While sugar is acid forming, xylitol is alkaline enhancing. Xylitol has 40% fewer calories and 75% fewer carbohydrates, is slowly metabolized and causes negligible changes in insulin levels. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1963 and has no known toxic levels.

Eating sugar causes tooth decay by creating a highly acidic condition in the mouth. The acidity strips tooth enamel of minerals, causing it to weaken and making it more vulnerable to bacteria, leading to demineralization and tooth decay. Xylitol reverses all these destructive effects of sugar on oral health. It is non-fermentable and therefore cannot be converted to acids by oral bacteria, so it helps to restore a proper alkaline/acid balance in the mouth. This alkaline environment is especially inhospitable to all the destructive bacteria, including streptococcus. Streptococcus bacteria love Xylitol and will even bypass sugar for it. Fortunately, the bacteria's inability to metabolize it causes them to die.

Xylitol is available in many forms and is showing up in more and more products all the time. In crystalline form it can replace table sugar and be used in cooking and baking. It is also becoming more available in toothpastes and mouthwashes as well as candy, mints and gum. The most widely available source is chewing gum. Some varieties of Orbit and Trident contain it. Local health food stores stock pure xylitol as a sugar replacement, as well as Spry gum and mints and various xylitol-sweetened mouth care products. The recommended amount of Xylitol is 4 grams a day. Xylitol needs to be in the first three listed ingredients to be in a concentration that is therapeutic and effective against decay. Chewing gum has the benefit of increasing salivary flow, which dilutes the sugar and lessens the chance of decay.

Using xylitol right before bedtime, after brushing and flossing, protects and heals the teeth and gums. Long-term use suppresses the most harmful strains of oral bacteria. Xylitol has even been shown to enhance the mineralization of the enamel. Consistent use of small amounts of xylitol tends to increase protective factors in saliva. Research has shown xylitol has a positive impact on bone density and is even able to inhibit the growth of the bacteria that cause middle-ear infections in children and sinus infections in adults.

Editors note: I have also used Xylitol gum and nasal spray for a sore throat and sinus and ear infections caused by the Streptococcus bacteria and/or allergies. I found it to be was very effective in quickly eliminating symptoms.

A word of caution, some popular brands of chewing gum are now advertising that their product has Xylitol, however some use such minuscule amounts of Xylitol that it is often too small to make a difference. Read the label and make sure that Xylitol is the primary sweetener. You can find excellent Xylitol products at health food stores and on line.

Health & Medicine/ Florida Today

September 2005 Issue

Dr. Chris Edwards of the Smile Design Center is a leading expert on Xylitol and in the forefront of new research and ideas to help maintain oral health.

Become an Agent for Change! by Dr. Elena Moreno, N.D.

2011-11-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

Learn to see what is possible and then make it happen.

Transformation begins in the mind. It is the ability to use intentional thought to change, alter, adapt, transform or convert forms, states, natures, conditions or substances into another. We all practice mental transmutation every time we set an intention, say a prayer, repeat an affirmation, practice visualizations, or reject things as they are.

When we change our attitude circumstances and conditions are transformed. Having the ability to create a different point of view helps us to find peace and accept those things that cannot be changed. When my Mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer I prayed for her comfort and in so doing found solace in my own heart. When she died I helped my Father to overcome his grief and in so doing I was able to heal my own pain. One woman in our community quietly started to clean up the smelly garbage piled on a vacant lot. The next day other people in the community joined her to haul trash and knock down weeds. Her action changed community apathy into trees and a beautiful flower garden.

There are many techniques that bring transformation. We can us a specific cause to bring about a desired effect, try to change the energy or move ourselves out of the influence of a condition or state. Regardless of our approach, transformation must always begin with a thought that moves us to action.

When we are using our thoughts to bring about change there are some important points to remember.

We must be clear about what we are trying to achieve.

Large and small transformations will happen when we change.

There are always unintended consequences.

When we change our self and we change the world.

Change happens best when we expect the change to happen.

Mental transmutation will change our mind but can also change the mind of others.

Take care not to cause negative influences.

Do not direct anger or harmful thoughts toward others.

We must always strive to be ethical in our intentions.

The power of the mind can be used for good or bad.

Ultimately the energy, positive or negative, will circle back to the source.

We must not take advantage of others or unfairly try to bend them to our will.

Change is cosmetic and superficial unless it transforms the underlying foundation.

If someone causes us to act against our beliefs, ultimately we will turn on them for causing us to betray our fundamental morality.

To do:

· Identify a situation that you find frustrating and transform it by using a new approach.

· Try to use humor to diffuse tension.

· If you are resisting something, ask yourself why?

· Holding back? What is making you uncomfortable? Look at how you can change your attitude to make the situation better. Does your new attitude change the situation?

· Learn too act to bring about change. If you are hot, go swimming. If you are bored, do something, anything. If you are angry turn on some great music and dance away your frustrations. ACT!

· Pray for an intention. If you want education to improve in your community, pray for that to happen and then go help out in your local schools. If you want the economy to improve, pray for it to happen and also do things to make your economy better. If you want the war to end, pray for that to happen and hold the intention to live in peace. If you want to eradicate hunger, pray for it to happen and when you have opportunities take steps to alleviate hunger. If you fear our nation’s dependence on fossil fuels, pray for new sources of clean energy, support their development and find ways for you to be more energy efficient.

DR. ELENA MORENO, ND is the Editor of the Empowerment Weekly, author of the Right Living Mentoring Series, and the A Question of Truth Series. Her essay Eight Lessons on the Art of Self Love is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, published by Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor of Naturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, an educational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essays are also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellos de Saber.

The Internet…Sites for free learning

2011-11-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

The August 12, 2011 issue of The Week posted these really interesting sites with great educational videos. What a treasure they are!

AcademicEarth.org offers more than 1,500 video lectures by professors from Harvard, Yale, and other top schools, broken down into “single classes on topics as diverse as art, architecture, and astronomy.”

iTunes U proves that iTunes “is good for more than downloading music.” The site features more than 350,000 video lectures, including a virtual class on the Galápagos Islands and a journalism course from the Poynter Institute.

KhanAcademy.org provides a “refresher on finance basics,” as well as tools for helping your kids learn geometry. The 21,000-plus videos are shown on a neon blackboard that lets you learn at your own pace.

HowCast.com is divided into categories like environment, first aid, and parenting. Experts share their knowledge in videos that cover everything from surviving heart attacks to playing charades.

Cranberries are awesome by Dr. Elena Moreno, N.D.

2011-11-30T13:34:00.001-07:00

We should all be eating more Cranberries. These tart red berries provide such positive health benefits we should be including them in our diet on a regular basis.

Yes, many women drink Cranberry juice to help fight urinary tract infections, but did you know that Cranberries are also very high in antioxidants that protect against cell damage from the free radicals that cause many diseases. Most people are not aware that Cranberries are also heart friendly because they reduce the levels of bad cholesterol while increasing the levels of good cholesterol in the body. The National Institute of Health reports that preliminary research shows that Cranberries are effective in combating cancer, viral infections, strokes and in many cases can kill the H. pylori bacteria, which can cause stomach cancer and ulcers. And, this amazing fruit contains hippuric acid, which has potent antibiotic properties for the whole body. Some studies even indicate that drinking just one glass of Cranberry juice a day will improve general health and make us less prone to infectious diseases.

So don’t just wait for Christmas and Thanks giving for your cranberry fix, make a habit of including Cranberries in your daily diet. Cranberry juice is a wonderful beverage and dried Cranberries are delicious in salads, breads and as a quick low calorie snack. And of course fresh Cranberries are an easy to prepare food that can add zest and color to many dishes.

Oh almost forgot…Cranberries juice can also help prevent plaque from forming on your teeth and reduce gum diseases and mouth infections. Just imagine, Cranberry mouthwash might be coming to your neighborhood store one day soon.

DR. ELENA MORENO, N.D. is the Editor of the Empowerment Weekly, author of the Right Living Mentoring Series, and the A Question of Truth Series. Her essay Eight Lessons on the Art of Self Love, is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, published by Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor of Naturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, an educational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essays are also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellos de Saber.

Enjoy the wisdom of Andy Rooney

2011-11-28T20:27:00.003-07:00

I've learned..... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet
of an elder person.

I've learned..... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned..... That just one person saying to me, "You've made my day!"
makes my day.

I've learned..... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one
of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned..... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned..... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned..... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have
the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned..... That no matter how serious your life requires you to
be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned..... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold
and a heart to understand.

I've learned..... That simple walks with my father around the block on
summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned..... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer
it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned..... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything
we ask for.

I've learned..... That it's those small daily happenings that make life
so spectacular.

I've learned..... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants
to be appreciated and loved.

I 've learned..... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are
only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned..... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned..... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to
surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned..... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a
smile.

I've learned.... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned..... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take
the ones you miss.

I've learned..... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock
elsewhere.

I've learned..... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her
one more time before she passed away.

I've learned..... That one should keep his words both soft and tender,
because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned...... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned...... That when your newly born grandchild holds your
little finger in his little fist, you're hooked for life.

I've learned..... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain,
but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned..... That the less time I have to work with, the more
things I get done.

I've learned..... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned..... That money doesn't buy class.

TED: Living beyond our limits by Amy Purdy

2011-11-27T21:36:00.002-07:00

WATCH AMY PURDY tell us how to live beyond our limits. When she was 19, Amy Purdy lost both her legs below the knee. And now ... she's a pro snowboarder. In this powerful talk, she shows us how to draw inspiration from life's obstacles.

Amy Purdy became a professional snowboarder despite losing both her legs to meningitis. She encourages us to take control of our lives, and our limits.

Why you should listen to her:
After bacterial meningitis took her legs, Amy Purdy struggled with depression, and only beat it when she learned to accept her new reality, but not any limitations. After being unable to find prosthetics that would allow her to snowboard, she built her own. Today, she is a world champion female adaptive snowboarder. In 2005, she co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, a non-profit dedicated to introducing people with physical challenges to action sports.

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_purdy_living_beyond_limits.html

WWW.TED.COM IDEAS WORTH SHARING

Gratitude, Generosity and Abundance by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2011-11-23T10:38:00.001-07:00

This week as people celebrate Thanksgiving, it is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to reflect on this important gesture. It reminds us that the Thanksgiving celebration is a triangle of Gratitude, Generosity and Abundance. Gratitude leads to generosity and generosity brings abundance. Three equal sides to a structure that when placed in motion will generate a circling vortex of positive energy. This simple self-sustaining triad is extraordinarily empowering.

Gratitude that creates generosity will bring abundance that generates gratitude that brings generosity that flows into abundance. It is an endless circle of Love. While we can all appreciate the inherent beauty of these virtues, the key is to not merely wonder at their perfection but to practice them in our daily lives.

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” ~Johannes Gaertner

When we hoard our wealth the vortex collapses in on itself as gratitude turns to greed, generosity becomes selfishness and abundance generates fear – fear that there will never be enough or that someone will take what is ours. This of course is a fallacy, for blessings cannot be contained, they must be shared or the circle of abundance reverses on its own impoverished mind. A cup that is not emptied has no space for anything new and the contents stagnate. If we have the courage to share, new energy will flow forth to fill the void.

Giving is fun, the more we give the more grateful we feel and the more we want to share with others. Giving is not limited to money or material things it comes in shades and has many names like time, energy, service and love. Equally true, abundance should not only be measured in financial wealth but in terms like friendship, creativity, respect, and joy.

Love is something you can never give away; it will always come back to you.

I wish each of you the blessings of this beautiful circle of Thanksgiving that you may bring it forth into your family and your community and make it the foundation of your life.

Dr. ELENA MORENO, ND, is the Editor of the Empowerment Weekly, author of the Right

Living Mentoring Series, and the A Question of Truth Series. Her essay Eight Lessons on the Art of Self Love, is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, published by Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor of Naturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, an educational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essays are also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellos de Saber.

A Serving of Gratitude May Save the Day by John Tierney

2011-11-23T10:36:00.002-07:00

November 21, 2011

The New York Times

The most psychologically correct holiday of the year is upon us.

Thanksgiving may be the holiday from hell for nutritionists, and it produces plenty of war stories for psychiatrists dealing with drunken family meltdowns. But it has recently become the favorite feast of psychologists studying the consequences of giving thanks. Cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher long-term satisfaction with life and kinder behavior toward others, including romantic partners. A new study shows that feeling grateful makes people less likely to turn aggressive when provoked, which helps explain why so many brothers-in-law survive Thanksgiving without serious injury.

But what if you’re not the grateful sort? I sought guidance from the psychologists who have made gratitude a hot research topic. Here’s their advice for getting into the holiday spirit — or at least getting through dinner Thursday:

Start with “gratitude lite.” That’s the term used by Robert A. Emmons, of the University of California, Davis, for the technique used in his pioneering experiments he conducted along with Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami. They instructed people to keep a journal listing five things for which they felt grateful, like a friend’s generosity, something they’d learned, a sunset they’d enjoyed.

The gratitude journal was brief — just one sentence for each of the five things — and done only once a week, but after two months there were significant effects. Compared with a control group, the people keeping the gratitude journal were more optimistic and felt happier. They reported fewer physical problems and spent more time working out.

Further benefits were observed in a study of polio survivors and other people with neuromuscular problems. The ones who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling happier and more optimistic than those in a control group, and these reports were corroborated by observations from their spouses. These grateful people also fell asleep more quickly at night, slept longer and woke up feeling more refreshed.

“If you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep,” Dr. Emmons advises in “Thanks!” his book on gratitude research.

Don’t confuse gratitude with indebtedness. Sure, you may feel obliged to return a favor, but that’s not gratitude, at least not the way psychologists define it. Indebtedness is more of a negative feeling and doesn’t yield the same benefits as gratitude, which inclines you to be nice to anyone, not just a benefactor.

In an experiment at Northeastern University, Monica Bartlett and David DeSteno sabotaged each participant’s computer and arranged for another student to fix it. Afterward, the students who had been helped were likelier to volunteer to help someone else — a complete stranger — with an unrelated task. Gratitude promoted good karma. And if it works with strangers ....

Try it on your family. No matter how dysfunctional your family, gratitude can still work, says Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside.

“Do one small and unobtrusive thoughtful or generous thing for each member of your family on Thanksgiving,” she advises. “Say thank you for every thoughtful or kind gesture. Express your admiration for someone’s skills or talents — wielding that kitchen knife so masterfully, for example. And truly listen, even when your grandfather is boring you again with the same World War II story.”

Don’t counterattack. If you’re bracing for insults on Thursday, consider a recent experiment at the University of Kentucky. After turning in a piece of writing, some students received praise for it while others got a scathing evaluation: “This is one of the worst essays I’ve ever read!”

Then each student played a computer game against the person who’d done the evaluation. The winner of the game could administer a blast of white noise to the loser. Not surprisingly, the insulted essayists retaliated against their critics by subjecting them to especially loud blasts — much louder than the noise administered by the students who’d gotten positive evaluations.

But there was an exception to this trend among a subgroup of the students: the ones who had been instructed to write essays about things for which they were grateful. After that exercise in counting their blessings, they weren’t bothered by the nasty criticism — or at least they didn’t feel compelled to amp up the noise against their critics.

“Gratitude is more than just feeling good,” says Nathan DeWall, who led the study at Kentucky. “It helps people become less aggressive by enhancing their empathy. “It’s an equal-opportunity emotion. Anyone can experience it and benefit from it, even the most crotchety uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table.”

Share the feeling. Why does gratitude do so much good? “More than other emotion, gratitude is the emotion of friendship,” Dr. McCullough says. “It is part of a psychological system that causes people to raise their estimates of how much value they hold in the eyes of another person. Gratitude is what happens when someone does something that causes you to realize that you matter more to that person than you thought you did.”

Try a gratitude visit. This exercise, recommended by Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, begins with writing a 300-word letter to someone who changed your life for the better. Be specific about what the person did and how it affected you. Deliver it in person, preferably without telling the person in advance what the visit is about. When you get there, read the whole thing slowly to your benefactor. “You will be happier and less depressed one month from now,” Dr. Seligman guarantees in his book “Flourish.”

Contemplate a higher power. Religious individuals don’t necessarily act with more gratitude in a specific situation, but thinking about religion can cause people to feel and act more gratefully, as demonstrated in experiments by Jo-Ann Tsang and colleagues at Baylor University. Other research shows that praying can increase gratitude.

Go for deep gratitude. Once you’ve learned to count your blessings, Dr. Emmons says, you can think bigger.

“As a culture, we have lost a deep sense of gratefulness about the freedoms we enjoy, a lack of gratitude toward those who lost their lives in the fight for freedom, a lack of gratitude for all the material advantages we have,” he says. “The focus of Thanksgiving should be a reflection of how our lives have been made so much more comfortable by the sacrifices of those who have come before us.”

And if that seems too daunting, you can least tell yourself —

Hey, it could always be worse. When your relatives force you to look at photos on their phones, be thankful they no longer have access to a slide projector. When your aunt expounds on politics, rejoice inwardly that she does not hold elected office. Instead of focusing on the dry, tasteless turkey on your plate, be grateful the six-hour roasting process killed any toxic bacteria.

Is that too much of a stretch? When all else fails, remember the Monty Python mantra of the Black Plague victim: “I’m not dead.” It’s all a matter of perspective.

Photo credit

Why Inspiration Matters by Scott Barry Kaufman

2011-11-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

From the Harvard Business Review
"When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey." — Rudyard Kipling
In a culture obsessed with measuring talent and ability, we often overlook the important role of inspiration. Inspiration awakens us to new possibilities by allowing us to transcend our ordinary experiences and limitations. Inspiration propels a person from apathy to possibility, and transforms the way we perceive our own capabilities. Inspiration may sometimes be overlooked because of its elusive nature. Its history of being treated as supernatural or divine hasn't helped the situation. But as recent research shows, inspiration can be activated, captured, and manipulated, and it has a major effect on important life outcomes.
Inspiration has three main qualities. Pyschologists Todd M. Thrash and Andrew J. Elliot have noted these core aspects of inspiration: evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation. First, inspiration is evoked spontaneously without intention. Inspiration is also transcendent of our more animalistic and self-serving concerns and limitations. Such transcendence often involves a moment of clarity and awareness of new possibilities. As Thrash and Elliot note, "The heights of human motivation spring from the beauty and goodness that precede us and awaken us to better possibilities." This moment of clarity is often vivid, and can take the form of a grand vision, or a "seeing" of something one has not seen before (but that was probably always there). Finally, inspiration involves approach motivation, in which the individual strives to transmit, express, or actualize a new idea or vision. According to Thrash and Elliot, inspiration involves both being inspired by something and acting on that inspiration.
Inspired people share certain characteristics. Thrash and Elliot developed the "Inspiration Scale," which measures the frequency with which a person experiences inspiration in their daily lives. They found that inspired people were more open to new experiences, and reported more absorption in their tasks. "Openness to Experience" often came before inspiration, suggesting that those who are more open to inspiration are more likely to experience it. Additionally, inspired individuals weren't more conscientious, supporting the view that inspiration is something that happens to you and is not willed. Inspired individuals also reported having a stronger drive to master their work, but were less competitive, which makes sense if you think of competition as a non-transcendent desire to outperform competitors. Inspired people were more intrinsically motivated and less extrinsically motivated, variables that also strongly impact work performance. Inspiration was least related to variables that involve agency or the enhancement of resources, again demonstrating the transcendent nature of inspiration. Therefore, what makes an object inspiring is its perceived subjective intrinsic value, and not how much it's objectively worth or how attainable it is. Inspired people also reported higher levels of important psychological resources, including belief in their own abilities, self-esteem, and optimism. Mastery of work, absorption, creativity, perceived competence, self-esteem, and optimism were all consequences of inspiration, suggesting that inspiration facilitates these important psychological resources. Interestingly, work mastery also came before inspiration, suggesting that inspiration is not purely passive, but does favor the prepared mind.
Inspiration is not the same as positive affect. Compared to the normal experiences of everyday life, inspiration involves elevated levels of positive affect and task involvement, and lower levels of negative affect. Inspiration is not the same state as positive affect, however. Compared to being in an enthusiastic and excited state, people who enter an inspired state (by thinking of a prior moment they were inspired) reported greater levels of spirituality and meaning, and lower levels of volitional control, controllability, and self-responsibility for their inspiration. Whereas positive affect is activated when someone is making progress toward their immediate, conscious goals, inspiration is more related to an awakening to something new, better, or more important: transcendence of one's previous concerns.
Inspiration is the springboard for creativity. Inspired people view themselves as more creative and show actual increases in self-ratings of creativity over time. Patent-holding inventors report being inspired more frequently and intensely than non-patent holders, and the higher the frequency of inspiration, the higher the number of patents held. Being in a state of inspiration also predicts the creativity of writing samples across scientific writing, poetry, and fiction (as judged by a panel of fellow students) independent of SAT verbal scores, Openness to Experience, positive affect, specific behaviors (e.g., deleting prior sentences), and aspects of the product quality (e.g., technical merit). Inspired writers are more efficient and productive, and spend less time pausing and more time writing. The link between inspiration and creativity is consistent with the transcendent aspect of inspiration, since creativity involves seeing possibility beyond existing constraints. Importantly, inspiration and effort predict different aspects of an activity. Individuals who exerted more effort writing spent more of their time pausing, deleted more words, wrote more sentences per paragraph, and had better technical merit and use of rhyming in poems, but their work was not considered more creative.
Inspiration facilitates progress toward goals. In a recent study conducted by Marina Milyavskaya and her colleagues, college students were asked to report three goals they intended to accomplish throughout the course of the semester. They then reported on their progress three times a month. Those who scored higher on the Inspiration Scale displayed increased goal progress, and their progress was a result of setting more inspired goals. Therefore, people who were generally more inspired in their daily lives also tended to set inspired goals, which were then more likely to be successfully attained. Importantly, the relationship between inspiration and goal progress was reciprocal: goal progress also predicted future goal inspiration. As the researchers note, "this suggests that goal progress and goal inspiration build on each other to form a cycle of greater goal inspiration and greater goal pursuit." Finally, inspired individuals reported experiencing more purpose in life and more gratitude.
Inspiration increases well-being. In another study, those who were exposed to Michael Jordan's greatness experienced higher levels of positive affect, and this increase in positive affect was completely explained by their score on the Inspiration Scale. This inspiration was not transitory though, predicting positive well-being (e.g., positive affect, life satisfaction) three months later! Inspiration was more strongly related to future than to present satisfaction. The extent to which inspiration lasted was explained by self-reported levels of purpose and gratitude in life.
These findings show that inspiration matters a lot, which may cause someone to feel pressure to become inspired and helpless to do so considering the evocative and spontaneous nature of inspiration. The writer Elizabeth Gilbert rightly expresses this concern in her inspiring TED talk. I agree with Gilbert that one should not put pressure on oneself to become inspired. These key scientific findings suggest that inspiration is not willed--it happens. Knowing this should free you from the pressure to make inspiration happen.
This does not mean that inspiration is completely outside your control. Contrary to the view of inspiration as purely mythical or divine, I think inspiration is best thought of as a surprising interaction between your current knowledge and the information you receive from the world. There are things you can do to increase the likelihood of inspiration occurring. Research shows quite clearly that preparation ("work mastery") is a key ingredient. While inspiration is not the same as effort, effort is an essential condition for inspiration, preparing the mind for an inspirational experience. Openness to Experience and positive affect are also important, as having an open mind and approach-oriented attitude will make it more likely that you will be aware of the inspiration once it arrives. Small accomplishments are also important, as they can boost inspiration, setting off a productive and creative cycle.
Another incredibly important, and often overlooked trigger of inspiration is exposure to inspiring managers, role models, and heroes. As Gregory Dess and Joseph Picken note in "Changing Roles: Leadership In The 21st Century," our competitive global economy requires leaders to shift their focus from efficient management to effective utilization of a company's diversity of resources. They argue for five key roles of leadership:

Using strategic vision to motivate and inspire
Empowering employees at all levels
Accumulating and sharing internal knowledge
Gathering and integrating external information
Challenging the status quo and enabling creativity

Steve Jobs is the quintessential example of an inspiring manager, and he undoubtedly checked each of these boxes in spades.
To become personally inspired, the best you can do is set up the optimal circumstances for inspiration. As a society, the best we can do is assist in setting up these important circumstances for everyone. An easy first step is simply recognizing the sheer potency of inspiration, and its potential impact on everything we do.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/why_inspiration_matters.html

Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive scientist at NYU. He is also Co-founder of The Creativity Post and Chief Pedagogical Advisor of The Future Project.
Follow him on twitter @sbkaufman.

Photo credit
A GOOD IDEA 3
© Chrisharvey | Dreamstime.com

The Thanksgiving Myth by John Two Hawks

2011-11-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

'Thanksgiving' is a very ancient concept to American Indian nations who had celebrated seasons of gratitude thousands of years before Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed the ‘official’ Thanksgiving Day in 1637. The big problem with the American Thanksgiving holiday is its false association with American Indian people. It is the infamous 'Indians and pilgrims' myth.

Yes, it is good to celebrate Thanksgiving and to be thankful for our blessings. It is not good to distort history, to falsely portray the origin of this holiday and lie about the truth of its actual inception. Here are some accurate historical facts about the true origin of this American holiday.

'Thanksgiving' did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot, and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the 'pilgrim' survivors of the first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial 'Thanksgiving' meal, the Indians were not even invited! There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie.

A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian leader, and an 11-foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out! Officially, the holiday we know as 'Thanksgiving' actually came into existence in the year 1637. Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed this first official day of Thanksgiving and feasting to celebrate the return of the colony's men who had arrived safely from what is now Mystic, Connecticut. They had gone there to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women and children. Governor Winthrop decided to dedicate an official day of thanksgiving complete with a feast to 'give thanks' for the great 'victory'. As hard as it may be to conceive, this is the actual origin of our current Thanksgiving Day holiday.

For obvious reasons many Native American people do not observe this holiday. I see nothing wrong with gathering with family to give thanks to our Creator for our blessings and sharing a meal. I do, however, hope that Americans as a whole will one day acknowledge the true origin of this holiday, and remember the pain, loss, and agony of the Indigenous people who suffered at the hands of the so-called 'pilgrims'. It is my hope that children's plays about 'the first Thanksgiving', complete with Indians and pilgrims chumming at the dinner table, will someday be a thing of the past. Why perpetuate a lie?

Let us face the truths of the past, and give thanks that we are learning to love one another for the rich human diversity we share.

Photo credit
INDIAN CORN LINES
© Lawrence Weslowski Jr | Dreamstime.com

Grateful thoughts

2011-11-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing. Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love. Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns.

Marc Estrin

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melodie Beattie

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

Buddha

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart

So I would hope they would develop some kind of habit that involves understanding that their life is so full they can afford to give in all kinds of ways to other people. I consider that to be baseline spirituality.

Susan Sarandon

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

John F. Kennedy

Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.

Barbara Bush

Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.

Thornton Wilder

To those who followed Columbus and Cortez, the New World truly seemed incredible because of the natural endowments. The land often announced itself with a heavy scent miles out into the ocean. Giovanni di Verrazano in 1524 smelled the cedars of the East Coast a hundred leagues out. The men of Henry Hudson's Half Moon were temporarily disarmed by the fragrance of the New Jersey shore, while ships running farther up the coast occasionally swam through large beds of floating flowers. Wherever they came inland they found a rich riot of color and sound, of game and luxuriant vegetation. Had they been other than they were, they might have written a new mythology here. As it was, they took inventory.

Frederick Turner

Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.

Francois de la Rochefoucauld

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.

Winston Churchill

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Maya Angelou

Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.

John D. Rockefeller Jr.

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

G.K. Chesterton

There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.

The Seneca

TED: Paul Zak: Generosity, trust, morality -- and the hormone oxytocin

2011-11-23T10:32:00.001-07:00

WATCH PAUL ZAK explain generosity, trust, and what drives our desire to behave morally? Neuroeconomist Paul Zak shows why he believes the hormone oxytocin (he calls it "the moral molecule") is responsible for the trust, empathy and other feelings that help build a stable society.
A pioneer in the field of neuroeconomics, Paul Zak is uncovering how the hormone oxytocin promotes trust, and proving that love is good for business.
Why you should listen to him:

What’s behind the human instinct to trust and to put each other’s well-being first? When you think about how much of the world works on a handshake or on holding a door open for somebody, why people cooperate is a huge question. Paul Zak researches oxytocin, a neuropeptide that affects our everyday social interactions and our ability to behave altruistically and cooperatively, applying his findings to the way we make decisions. A pioneer in a new field of study called neuroeconomics, Zak has demonstrated that oxytocin is responsible for a variety of virtuous behaviors in humans such as empathy, generosity and trust. Amazingly, he has also discovered that social networking triggers the same release of oxytocin in the brain -- meaning that e-connections are interpreted by the brain like in-person connections.
A professor at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California, Zak believes most humans are biologically wired to cooperate, but that business and economics ignore the biological foundations of human reciprocity, risking loss: when oxytocin levels are high in subjects, people’s generosity to strangers increases up to 80 percent; and countries with higher levels of trust – lower crime, better education – fare better economically.
He says: "Civilization is dependent on oxytocin. You can't live around people you don't know intimately unless you have something that says: Him I can trust, and this one I can't trust."
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/paul_zak_trust_morality_and_oxytocin.html

TED.com TED ideas worth spreading

Kindness is more than being nice by Dr. Elena Moreno, ND

2011-11-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Kindness is much more than being nice. A nice person seeks to be pleasant and agreeable because they are motivated to appear good in the eyes of others. A kind person is generous, loving, considerate and compassion because they are motivated by a fundamental love of people, creatures and nature.

“The ideas that have lighted my way have been kindness, beauty and truth.” -Albert Einstein

Kindness, the concern and care for others is an elementary part of our humanity. We need to care for others, to become involved. It is as vital to our life force as the air we breathe. Kindness reaffirms our self worth and personal esteem.

Often a simple act of kindness can be life changing. We have all experienced the power of a gentle touch, a warm smile and the beauty of shared laughter. The importance and impact of a caring unselfish gesture towards another human being can never be underestimated or over appreciated. Compassion is all about being sensitive to feelings; it literally means being with the passion of another (con=with; passion). When we learn how to see beyond our own narrow interests, we strengthen the human family and ourselves.

Loving-kindness can never be given away; it will always come back to you. Kindness is contagious and self –affirming because with every gesture we make of kindness we are more than we were before the action. We feel better about our self and this encourages us to repeat the action. Those who benefit from our kindness, themselves also become inspired to greater virtue. Kindness is a living architect constructing a spiral of goodness that grows and expands infinitely.

“No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.” –Amelia Earhart

To do:

For one week diligently practice kindness with mindful attention. How does it make you feel when you demonstrate kindness to others?
If you are unkind to someone be sure to apologize for your behavior. Look inside and evaluate how you feel when you behave rudely or make a cutting remark.
Why do you think you feel better about yourself when you give unselfish help to someone? How does this change you?
Expand your sphere of kindness to include the environment? Take active steps to clean up and improve your neighborhood. Be kind toward the plant and animal kingdoms.
Be of service to others without expectation of reward.

Dr ELENA MORENO, ND, is the Editor of the Empowerment Weekly, author of the Right

Living Mentoring Series, and the A Question of Truth Series. Her essay Eight Lessons on the Art of Self Love, is featured in The Love, Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, published by Oracle Press. She is a lecturer, yoga instructor, doctor of Naturopathic medicine, and businesswoman. Twenty years ago she founded The Empowerment Series, an educational program for personal growth and spiritual development. Her essays are also featured on www.Bizymoms.com and in Spanish at Destellos de Saber.

Mario Salvio's words are so true today

2011-11-16T13:14:00.004-07:00

Mario Savio was the leader of the UC Berkeley free speech movement back in the 60's. His thoughts are very relevant today....

“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJKbDz4EZio&feature=related

Love feeds our Spirit by Chief Dan George

2011-11-16T13:14:00.002-07:00

My friends, how desperately do we need to be loved and to love. When Christ said that man does not live by bread alone, he spoke of hunger. This hunger was not the hunger of the body. It was not the hunger for bread. He spoke of hunger that begins deep down in the very depths of our being. He spoke of a need as vital as breath. He spoke of our hunger for love.
Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self-esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. We turn inward and begin to feed upon our own personalities, and little by little we destroy ourselves.
With it we are creative. With it we march tirelessly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice for others.
Chief Dan George

Chief Dan George is a much admired Hereditary Chief of the Coast Salish Tribe of the Vancouver area of British Columbia. He was chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation from 1951 to 1963.
A writer and philosopher, Chief Dan was most famous for his acting career, he was nominated for an academy award for his role in Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman.