Mind Power Through Mindfulness

Basic mindfulness exercises put you in a state of awareness where distractions are let go, and your mind power is able to function more effectively. They help you think more clearly and concentrate better. They are also easy exercises to do.

More Mind Power in Minutes

A basic mindfulness exercise starts with sitting down, relaxing and breathing deeply through your nose. Close your eyes and be aware of your breath going in and out. After a minute, move your attention to your body, one part at a time, noting sensations of cold, hot, tight, sore and anything else you identify. In a few minutes, start listening to sounds in the room, without thinking about them. Just listen.

When it feels right, open your eyes and look around as if you are seeing for the first time. Rest your eyes on an object for half a minute, examining it without talking about it in your mind. Then move to another object, and another, while still maintaining an awareness of your body, your breathing, and any sounds. Stay in this state of mindfulness until you are ready to get up.

Being aware of your body, breath and immediate enviroment, puts you more fully "in the moment." Your mind is in a very receptive state, with fewer mental distractions that prevent clear thinking. Doing a mindfulness exercise before important mental tasks will give you greater mind power, specifically more focus and concentration.

An Even Easier Mindfulness Trick

Try this one today: When you feel stressed, stop, and carefully watch yourself to identify what's bothering you. Maybe you're expecting something bad to happen, or an argument is going on just below the surface of your consciousness, or you're worried about something, or in pain in some way. Make a note of everything you find.

Then deal with these mind-irritants. Make a phone call that's on your mind, take an aspirin, apologise to whomever you were fighting with. Write things on tomorrow's list, to get them off your mind. If there's nothing you can do right now, tell yourself that. Do this exercise, and you'll feel less stressed, and more able to concentrate on the tasks at hand. You'll have more mind power today. 

Caring For Your Colon

The instance of colon cancer is on the rise. Colon cancer, like heart disease, is considered a twentieth century disease, as it was basically unheard of before the early 1900s. Most professionals consider colon cancer to be directly related to diet.

Taking better care of your colon and thus lessen the risk of colon problems or cancer can be accomplished by changes in your diet, exercise routine and lifestyle. Of the three, diet is the most important.

Lack of fiber in the diet is the number one cause of colon difficulties. Fiber helps the colon to function properly. By simply adding more breads and legumes to your diet can help keep your colon doing its job and allow your bowels to empty regularly. Soy products and increased calcium intakes have also been linked to positive colon health.

Water is essential to all parts of the body, but especially important in forming proper stools and colon elimination. The old adage of eight glasses per day is still true today. Soy products and other calcium rich foods can also be beneficial to colon health and well being.

Exercise is vital to colon health. Regular exercise, even simple walking, helps the colon by allowing the toxins to continue to move through the body. Sedentary lifestyles contribute to colon difficulties by forcing the GI tract into cramped and stifled space.

One of the worst things you can do to your colon is waiting to pass the stools when you feel the urge 'to go'. By not allowing your body to function, as it needs to, the stool backs up in the colon and begins to decay. Holding back can also lead to either constipation or diarrhea, depending on the toxins in the stool. By promptly discharging the stools as needed, the body rids itself of the toxins and thus keeps the colon and the entire GI tract healthy.

Minimizing the risks of colon problems can reduce the risks of other debilitating illnesses such as appendicitis. Good colon health can also prevent nutritional deficiencies. Any signs of constipation or diarrhea should be taken seriously and if they persist, should be discussed with your physician immediately. 

Dragon Tales - Review

Dragon Tales by Mary C. Fairbanks is truly and entertaining book, chock full of twenty-four dragon stories. Perfect for youth from the age of five to fifteen, even adults would be charmed by its pages. The images are unique and interesting, with a style that left me with the impression they were created on a computer.

Caregivers are likely to find the morals to each story helpful to deal with youth problems with social interaction, self-image, overcoming self-absorption, understanding others and more. The author tackles many issues through her lovable, yet egotistical dragons or even through sad and lonely dragons. She shows the importance of freedom and dictates communities working together to solve problems peacefully. The confusion between the way that dragons and humans view each other in this book will aid against racism. Her characters learn to not passively accept what everyone else believes and live by another's prejudices. Instead, Mary has the characters find out for themselves what is the truth. Often, the young characters have to 'think' their way out of a situation or learn to ask the right questions - rather than fighting it or running away from problems.

I would recommend this fictional, children's book of short stories to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

ISBN#: 1554102545

Author: Marie C. Fairbanks

Publisher: Zumaya Otherworlds 

Silicon Bracelets

Silicon bands or bracelets are not just mere silicon loops. They represent the human spirit that can fight all odds. These bands create awareness towards worthy causes. They have been popularized by cancer survivor and cycling champion, Lance Armstrong. He helped generate 15 million dollars for charity through selling these bands.

Silicon Bands for a Cause

With the help of these bands you can promote business, show your support to special causes and also make a fashion statement. You can distribute these bands in trade shows, conventions, team sports and fund raisers to bring about awareness and support for any cause or disease. They are made of silicon and are stretchable and come in an array of colors like pink, blue, purple, yellow, green and black. Some glow in the dark too.

Silicon Bands for Business Purposes

You can use silicon bands to promote your business too as an advertising medium. Wrist bands distributed at corporate functions would life the image of your business. You may distribute the bands during trade shows also.

Multipurpose Silicon Bands

Through these silicon bands, you can convey more than one message. You can stamp messages and designs crafted on them, whether it is for religious purposes, business purposes or social causes. You can order these silicon bands from various websites which are available at $1 -$5. You will get discounts from the vendors if you order in bulk quantities.

Silicon Band: Identifying Device

Silicon band is also used as an identifying device in crowded places. For example, silicon bands are used in music concerts and other such events as a crowd control device. In hospitals silicon bands are used as identification devices. Medical information is stamped on these patients for identification purposes.

Silicon Bands Are Hot

Customized silicon bands are hot now. The demand for these bands is increasing rapidly. From sports team to awareness groups, everyone is sporting a silicon band. By wearing them a sense of unity and spirit is fortified.

Buy a silicon band or gift it to your loved ones and spread the message of the fighting human spirit. 

Write A Novel Out Of Your Dream

Everyone might have a dream, but what would you do when you get up in the morning? I'm sure almost everyone forgot about as soon as they washed their face in a bathroom. What's so important about your dream? The answer is easily made, because I'm sure that you sure had an great experience in your dream something like adventured in the deep jungle, chased by terrific monsters and anything else. And I know that not all of you could remembered all of your dreams. Yes, me too, but I have got some techniques to dig your dream out of your unconscious mind and it will give you a new nice idea for your new novel.

Writing a novel is really hard. It hard to find a new idea to write it in your book. So, I recommend to use your dreams. Why your dream is gonna work, because I believe that what inspired (or terrified) you can also inspired the others. But the difficult things is to remember your dream. Almost everyone forgot their dream right after they wake up. Someone can still remember what they had dream but not very exactly.

Let's me tell you something about the "dream" that some of you may don't know. When we sleep, our eyes will move very rapidly, this is called REM (Rapid Eyes Moving) period and when our eyes will not move, this is called no-REM period. Our body will change from REM to no-REM from time to time. I'm not sure about exact periods time but it's about one hour and a half. When we are in REM mode, we will begin to dream. This theory can explain why our dream is not continuous and change very differently in one night. The other things about the dream is beyond the scope of this article and you can find more detail on the net.


Now, how can i write out my dream? you may ask. The answer is simple, grab a pen (or pencil) and write. It may be sound ridiculous but to write something at the moment you wake up is difficult. You have to practice to write after you wake up. Here are some tips:

1. Find some pen (or pencil) and some paper or notebook and put it right after your body before you go to sleep.

2. When you wake up, try to write down anything you can remember as much as possible. For example, when you dream of a monster that had chased you in the forest. Try to write down the very detail of that monster, does it has a horn?, does it has a crawl?, what color is it?, what detail of the forest you were running? Try to write down the detail of anything you can remember as the detail will help you recognize the other part of your dream.

3. After you finished you daily cleansing (or anything) sit down and revision what you wrote.

4. Repeat the process.It will take a bit time to practice until you can remember all of your dreams. Don't give up !

Lastly, I want to say that don't underestimate your dream. Dream can be a warn from the future, can be a new innovative creation, can be a new technology. And I'm sure it can be a new bestseller novel, too!.

Enjoy writing
Poom 


http://readbud.com/Articles/Writing/Write-A-Novel-Out-Of-Your-Dream

Succeed In the Music Business with Crazy Keywords

What is more important in today's music business?

A.) Having a great sound?

B.) Executing a great marketing strategy?

If you chose "B", you may be on your way to stardom. In today's music business, having an effective web marketing strategy can make the difference between you being a local, national or international music star.

A key element in your web marketing strategy should be the selection of your bands name. Why? Because your bands name will also become your bands keyword on the Internet.

I'm sure you've heard of references to AOL Keywords, but AOL isn't the only place where people use keywords for search. Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and many other search engines use keywords to help millions of people find what they are looking for on-line.

If someone is looking for information about your band on the Internet, they are most likely, going to type your bands name into a search engine. When the search engine returns the results, you'll want your website, or your myspace page to be in the top of the listings.

My suggestion is to choose a crazy (or very creative) keyword. A crazy band name, when used as a keyword, will help your listings in search engines beyond your wildest imagination.

For example, let's examine two keywords for two music acts - "Panic At the Disco", a rock band and "Algebra" a soul and r&b group.

When I Googled Panic at the Disico, Google returned 10,300,000 results. On the first page of Googles search results, every listing led me to information about the rock band, Panic At the Disco.

The very first Google listing, for Panic at the Disco, was for the bands video "It's Better If You Do".

The second listing for Panic at the Disco was their bands website, panicatthedisco.com.

The third result was Panic At the Disco at purevolume.com.

The fourth result was Panic at the Discos' myspace page.

Fith was Panic at the Disco lyrics.

Get the picture? The first page in Googles' search results was all Panic at the Disco. Panic at the Disco is on an Indie Label.

Now let's briefly look a Algebra, a R&B Group on a Major Label.

I Googled Algebra, and you can guess my results. The term "Algebra" returned 86,000,000 results in Google. Algebra, the R&B Group wasn't listed anywhere in the first 10 pages of results. Most people doing searches will not dig past page two - in any search engine. The likelihood of the R&B Group Algebra, having any success on the Internet (from a marketing stand-point) is very slim.

So the lesson to be learned here is: choose a crazy or creative keyword and band name. With a crazy keyword people can find you easily on the Internet and that can improve your on-line marketing efforts by over 100% 

http://readbud.com/Articles/Music/Succeed-In-the-Music-Business-with-Crazy-Keywords

The ride of your life: who's driving?

One of the biggest challenges that most people face in the exiting times we live in, is the feeling that their lives are just spiraling out of control. They feel like the events and circumstances of their lives have lead them along a torturous route and that they have no control over all the misfortunes and wrong doings that brought them to this moment in time.

The truth is that your life will not change until and unless you assume full responsibility for it. Responsibility, or your ability to respond, is not a way of accepting some form of blame as most people think, but rather a way of accepting your ability to respond to any situation. It is absolutely critical to realize and accept that it is never the actual events of your life but only your responses to these events that will shape and create your life. You are never the creature of circumstances and you have the ultimate ability to consciously decide what things mean and how to respond to it. You are the only one that can and the only one that will take you where you want to go in your life.

Responsibility is not some skill you need to go and find outside of yourself but it is something you already possess. All you need to do is to assume this power that calls on you to stop blaming any and everything other than yourself. Most of us have been conditioned to blame someone else for the parts of our lives that don't work. When you take full responsibility for your life you put yourself back in charge; you get back in behind the wheel of your life and now you have the ability to control and direct your life the way you choose to. Ultimately it is not the conditions of your life but rather the decisions about what things mean and what you are going to do about it that will create the real conditions of your life. 

When you are fully responsible you recognize that you are the creator of your life. At some level you were responsible. If not by your conscious actions, then by the meanings and emotions you attached to the events and experiences. Only when you accept responsibility for creating everything in your life can you start to un-create and re-create it the way you truly want. If you keep blaming someone or something else you will remain bound because you will always rely on something or someone else to be responsible for the way you feel and ultimately someone else will be responsible for the state of your life. You have to consciously unfold your arms, get out of the back seat and get back behind the wheel and start directing your life towards where you want it to go, instead of just going with the flow. 

See, there are only two real choices in life, the one conscious and the other unconscious: you can either choose to be directed by the events and circumstances of life and let the river of life take you wherever it's going or you can have both your hands on the steering wheel and decide that you are in full control. You get to decide where you go. Although you can't control all the events of your life, you can always decide what the events mean to you and how you are going to respond. Whenever anything happens to you, you have to respond to it in order to create the outcome. Most people have fallen into the cultural hypnosis that just passes the responsibility on to someone else. This is why their lives feel out of control, because it is. They have not taken responsibility.

You create your world. When you assume your responsibility you are in charge and this is an internal shift in your thinking and behaviour. Your psychology is not just a big part of your life but it is "everything." Winning and loosing in life is an internal game. By learning to control and direct your mind you get to choose what things mean and therefore you get to choose your response, also known as your responsibility. No one can ever give you responsibility. It is an internal process and a switch that only you can turn on or off.

Being fully responsible doesn't mean you live in blame and self pity. It means that you live life from a place of power where you know that on some level you are fully responsible for what happened and you will be responsible for everything that is to come. Be careful how you utilize your past experiences. With responsibility comes a new emotional territory that reinvents your past. You want to use your past as a place to learn from and a place to pull pleasure from. Right, wrong or indifferent, there is a gift in there somewhere. You just need to find it. It's never too late to have a happy childhood – you have the ability (and response-ability) to find an empowering meaning in whatever life gives you.

Responsibility means that you are in charge. You call the shots. Nobody and nothing is in control and to blame other than you. This is how you turn problems into opportunities and how an ordinary life becomes extraordinary. Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, said that life is either a daring adventure or nothing. What is it going to be for you? You can either let the environment steer your life or you can get behind the wheel and take responsibility for every aspect of your life. Life is one amazing adventure, but only if you perceive it as that. By being responsible you can take yourself anywhere you want to go because you are the only one who gets to steer your ship and direct the course. You can't control the wind but you can most certainly direct your sails. 

39 Ways to Live, and Not Merely Exist

Love. Perhaps the most important. Fall in love, if you aren't already. If you have, fall in love with your partner all over again. Abandon caution and let your heart be broken. Or love family members, friends, anyone -- it doesn't have to be romantic love. Love all of humanity, one person at a time.

Get outside. Don't let yourself be shut indoors. Go out when it's raining. Walk on the beach. Hike through the woods. Swim in a freezing lake. Bask in the sun. Play sports, or walk barefoot through grass. Pay close attention to nature.

Savor food. Don't just eat your food, but really enjoy it. Feel the texture, the bursts of flavors. Savor every bite. If you limit your intake of sweets, it will make the small treats you give yourself (berries or dark chocolate are my favorites) even more enjoyable. And when you do have them, really, really savor them. Slowly.

Create a morning ritual. Wake early and greet the day. Watch the sun rise. Out loud, tell yourself that you will not waste this day, which is a gift. You will be compassionate to your fellow human beings, and live every moment to its fullest. Stretch or meditate or exercise as part of your ritual. Enjoy some coffee.

Take chances. We often live our lives too cautiously, worried about what might go wrong. Be bold, risk it all. Quit your job and go to business for yourself (plan it out first!), or go up to that girl you've liked for a long time and ask her out. What do you have to lose?

Follow excitement. Try to find the things in life that excite you, and then go after them. Make life one exciting adventure after another (with perhaps some quiet times in between).

Find your passion. Similar to the above tip, this one asks you to find your calling. Make your living by doing the thing you love to do. First, think about what you really love to do. There may be many things. Find out how you can make a living doing it. It may be difficult, but you only live once.

Get out of your cubicle. Do you sit all day in front of computer, shuffling papers and taking phone calls and chatting on the Internet? Don't waste your days like this. Break free from the cubicle environment, and do your work on a laptop, in a coffee shop, or on a boat, or in a log cabin. This may require a change of jobs, or becoming a freelancer. It's worth it.

Turn off the TV. How many hours will we waste away in front of the boob tube? How many hours do we have to live? Do the math, then unplug the TV. Only plug it back in when you have a DVD of a movie you love. Otherwise, keep it off and find other stuff to do. Don't know what to do? Read further.

Pull away from Internet. You're reading something on the Internet right now. And, with the exception of this article, it is just more wasting away of your precious time. You cannot get these minutes back. Unplug the Internet, then get out of your office or house. Right now! And go and do something.

Travel. Sure, you want to travel some day. When you have vacation time, or when you're older. Well, what are you waiting for? Find a way to take a trip, if not this month, then sometime soon. You may need to sell your car or stop your cable bill and stop eating out to do it, but make it happen. You are too young to not see the world. If need be, find a way to make a living by freelancing, then work while you travel. Only work an hour or two a day. Don't check email but once a week. Then use the rest of the time to see the world.

Rediscover what's important. Take an hour and make a list of everything that's important to you. Add to it everything that you want to do in life. Now cut that list down to 4-5 things. Just the most important things in your life. This is your core list. This is what matters. Focus your life on these things. Make time for them.

Eliminate everything else. What's going on in your life that's not on that short list? All that stuff is wasting your time, pulling your attention from what's important. As much as possible, simplify your life by eliminating the stuff that's not on your short list, or minimizing it.

Exercise. Get off the couch and go for a walk. Eventually try running. Or do some push ups and crunches. Or swim or bike or row. Or go for a hike. Whatever you do, get active, and you'll love it. And life will be more alive.

Be positive. Learn to recognize the negative thoughts you have. These are the self-doubts, the criticisms of others, the complaints, the reasons you can't do something. Then stop yourself when you have these thoughts, and replace them with positive thoughts. Solutions. You can do this!

Open your heart. Is your heart a closed bundle of scar tissue? Learn to open it, have it ready to receive love, to give love unconditionally. If you have a problem with this, talk to someone about it. And practice makes perfect.

Kiss in the rain. Seize the moment and be romantic. Raining outside? Grab your lover and give her a passionate kiss. Driving home? Stop the car and pick some wildflowers. Send her a love note. Dress sexy for him.

Face your fears. What are you most afraid of? What is holding you back? Whatever it is, recognize it, and face it. Do what you are most afraid of. Afraid of heights? Go to the tallest building, and look down over the edge. Only by facing our fears can we be free of them.

When you suffer, suffer. Life isn't all about fun and games. Suffering is an inevitable part of life. We lose our jobs. We lose our lovers. We lose our pets. We get physically injured or sick. A loved one becomes sick. A parent dies. Learn to feel the pain intensely, and really grieve. This is a part of life -- really feel the pain. And when you're done, move on, and find joy.

Slow down. Life moves along at such a rapid pace these days. It's not healthy, and it's not conducive to living. Practice doing everything slowly -- everything, from eating to walking to driving to working to reading. Enjoy what you do. Learn to move at a snail's pace.

Touch humanity. Get out of your house and manicured neighborhoods, and find those who live in worse conditions. Meet them, talk to them, understand them. Live among them. Be one of them. Give up your materialistic lifestyle.

Volunteer. Help at homeless soup kitchens. Learn compassion, and learn to help ease the suffering of others. Help the sick, those with disabilities, those who are dying.

Play with children. Children, more than anyone else, know how to live. They experience everything in the moment, fully. When they get hurt, they really cry. When they play, they really have fun. Learn from them, instead of thinking you know so much more than them. Play with them, and learn to be joyful like them.

Talk to old people. There is no one wiser, more experienced, more learned, than those who have lived through life. They can tell you amazing stories. Give you advice on making a marriage last or staying out of debt. Tell you about their regrets, so you can learn from them and avoid the same mistakes. They are the wisdom of our society -- take advantage of their existence while they're still around.

Learn new skills. Constantly improve yourself instead of standing still -- not because you're so imperfect now, but because it is gratifying and satisfying. You should accept yourself as you are, and learn to love who you are, but still try to improve -- if only because the process of improvement is life itself.

Find spirituality. For some, this means finding God or Jesus or Allah or Buddha. For others, this means becoming in tune with the spirits of our ancestors, or with nature. For still others, this just means an inner energy. Whatever spirituality means for you, rediscover it, and its power.

Take mini-retirements. Don't leave the joy of retirement until you are too old to enjoy it. Do it now, while you're young. It makes working that much more worth it. Find ways to take a year off every few years. Save up, sell your home, your possessions, and travel. Live simply, but live, without having to work. Enjoy life, then go back to work and save up enough money to do it again in a couple of years.

Do nothing. Despite the tip above that we should find excitement, there is value in doing nothing as well. Not doing nothing as in reading, or taking a nap, or watching TV, or meditating. Doing nothing as in sitting there, doing nothing. Just learning to be still, in silence, to hear our inner voice, to be in tune with life. Do this daily if possible.

Stop playing video games. They might be fun, but they can take up way too much time. If you spend a lot of time playing online games, or computer solitaire, or Wii or Gameboy or whatever, consider going a week without it. Then find something else to do, outside.

Watch sunsets, daily. One of the most beautiful times of day. Make it a daily ritual to find a good spot to watch the sunset, perhaps having a light dinner while you do so.

Stop reading magazines. They're basically crap. And they waste your time and money. Cancel your subscriptions and walk past them at the news stands. If you have to read something, read a trashy novel or even better, read Dumb Little Man once a day and be done.

Break out from ruts. Do you do things the same way every day? Change it up. Try something new. Take a different route to work. Start your day out differently. Approach work from a new angle. Look at things from new perspectives.

Stop watching the news. It's depressing and useless. If you're a news junky, this may be difficult. I haven't watch TV news or read a newspaper regularly in about two years. It hasn't hurt me a bit. Anything important, my mom tells me about.

Laugh till you cry. Laughing is one of the best ways to live. Tell jokes and laugh your head off. Watch an awesome comedy. Learn to laugh at anything. Roll on the ground laughing. You'll love it.

Lose control. Not only control over yourself, but control over others. It's a bad habit to try to control others -- it will only lead to stress and unhappiness for yourself and those you try to control. Let others live, and live for yourself. And lose control of yourself now and then too.

Cry. Men, especially, tend to hold in our tears, but crying is an amazing release. Cry at sad movies. Cry at a funeral. Cry when you are hurt, or when somebody you love is hurt. It releases these emotions and allows us to cleanse ourselves.

Make an awesome dessert. I like to make warm, soft chocolate cake. But even berries dipped in chocolate, or crepes with ice cream and fruit, or fresh apple pie, or homemade chocolate chip cookies or brownies, are great. This isn't an every day thing, but an occasional treat thing. But it's wonderful.

Try something new, every week. Ask yourself: "What new thing shall I try this week?" Then be sure to do it. You don't have to learn a new language in one week, but seek new experiences. Give it a try. You might decide you want to keep it in your life.

Be in the moment. Instead of thinking about things you need to do, or things that have happened to you, or worrying or planning or regretting, think about what you are doing, right now. What is around you? What smells and sounds and sights and feelings are you experiencing? Learn to do this as much as possible through meditation, but also through bringing your focus back to the present as much as you can in everything you do.

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/39-ways-to-live-and-not-merely-exist.html