Ever since I started participating in the Carnival of Healing, majority of the articles I’ve received happen to be about fitness, losing weight and diets that work or don’t work and some on herbal techniques to cure various diseases.  Exercise, good nutritious diet and medicines are certainly helpful in the healing process but for a complete healing to take place,  inside and out, we need to understand the strong mind and body connection and find a way to live a balanced life.

Since diet articles weren’t doing much to my emotional and spiritual life, I’ve found other ways to find peace and calm and take care of stressful situations.  I’ve found that helping others in need in turn helps me feel better.  It’s easier to forget your own problems when you are busy helping others.  So, I’ve been volunteering some of my time to various causes as I believe that the real responsibility to heal ourselves lies with us taking some action and not just reading, writing or attending some counseling sessions else we will continue to hurt.

As you read this week’s healing articles, I would love to know what you practice to get rid of negativity and heal yourself from hurts and severely stressful situations.

Anmol Mehta presents 6 Safe and Natural Weight Loss Solutions posted at Mastery of Meditation.

Brain Blogger presentsClearing the Haze – Is Marijuana Addictive? posted at Brain Blogger.

“In the past few years, as addiction researchers have been mapping out the chemical alterations in the brain caused by alcohol, nicotine, methamphetamine, and other drugs, America’s most popular illegal drug has remained largely a scientific mystery. It is a drug that millions of Americans have been using regularly for years, and, from a clinical perspective, it remains the least studied illicit drug of all.”

Heartstrong presents A Fresh Look at Organic Produce posted at Healthy Hearts with Heartstrong.

Celes presents Overcoming Perfectionism posted at EmbraceLiving.Net.

“If you are a perfectionist, you would know that perfectionism sometimes disables you more than it enables you. As a perfectionist myself, I experience that often. Here are 8 useful steps to overcome perfectionism and make it an enabler in your life.”

Megan Wong presents Outstanding cure for symptoms of a sinus infection!! posted at Sinus Home Remedy.

Gin G. presents Recovery Diets posted at Sense Scribe.

“Learn the reasons for certain diets during illness and recovery stages and share with your family and friends.”

Kaushik Chokshi presents Awakening is Simple – FREE!! ebook excerpts posted at Beyond Karma.

“How do we free ourselves from the past, from depression and anxiety, from the unease of being which most of us experience? The joy of being is so utterly simple, right here and right now. Awareness and Release techniques allow this natural ease which transforms all of living–-health, relationships, and well-being!”

Crystal Wells presents Finding the Best Diets that Work for You posted at The Best Diets That Work.

“There are a number of diets that exist from starving yourself to death to eating prepackaged meals to only eating specific foods. But what diets work? Really the question should be what are the best diets that work for you?”

Catherine VanWetter presents To the Heart of the Matter – The Myth of Busyness posted at To The Heart of the Matter.

“Have you ever wondered who you are if you are not busy? Busy taking care of other people, busy working, busy doing “stuff”? In everyday life, how does one step off of the “dread mill” of busyness? Are you present?”

Victoria presents Don?t Let Your Breakup Make You Come Undone | Time To Get Married posted at Time To Get Married.

“It is important to not let a breakup ruin your life.”

Aparna presents Home Remedies for headache posted at Beauty and Personality Grooming.

FitJerk presents How To Boost & Strengthen Your Immune System With Top Herbal Remedies posted at FlawlessFitness.

Sarah Scrafford presents The Twitter Diet: 100 Tips, Tools, and Twitter Feeds for Your Weight Loss posted at Ultrasound Technician Schools.

Vera Nadine presents Channeling: Choosing Hope Over Fear – Vera Nadine posted at Vera Nadine.

Nancy Miller presents 100+ Ways to Spring Clean Your Mind and Body posted at Surgical Technician Schools.

Jennifer Mannion presents When Everything Changes – Change Everything by Neale Donald Walsch (A book review) posted at Heal Pain Naturally.

Robert Burton Robinson presents Saving Up to Buy Some Happiness posted at Mind Over Mania.

“Are you happy? If not, do you hope to be happy some day? Mr. Banks thinks he can buy some at The Happiness Store.”

WP presents 5 Simple Ways to Boost Your Immune Health posted at The Conscious Life.

“With flu virus on the loose, it is important to strengthen our immune system so that we do not get infected easily. Try these easy-to-use methods at home and stay healthy today.”

That concludes this week’s carnival of healing.  See Organicsyes’s Weblog for last week’s carnival, and look out for Clara Myers’ Mind Mart for next week’s submissions.  And if you want to get one of your articles published in this carnival, head over to Carnival of Healing Archives.

PS: It was a pleasant surprise to get a carnival submission from Anmol Mehta as I had recently found and added his blog to my daily feed reader.   All of the blogs above have very useful articles and I encourage all of you to go read them and if you like, share them with others.

Carnival of Healing #191 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As you know by now, Carnival of Healing is a weekly round-up of personal blog posts on the topics of holistic health, wellness, spirituality, and self empowerment. Posts range from tips on losing weight, sharpening your brain to stem cell research, Feng Shui to finding our true self! Eventually, it’s all about healing our minds, bodies and Spirit.

So how can today’s edition be complete without including that person who has given tears of joy and hope this week to millions around the globe? If you are one of the few who has not heard of Susan Boyle this week, you definitely need to watch her in this video and then read Clayton Makepeace’s article What Are You So Afraid Of?

Reminds me a quote “Success is never found.  Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.”

- Winston Churchill

So, here are this week’s healing articles

ChristianPF present Health benefits of cocoa posted at Natural Health Ezine , saying, “We all know cocoa has some health benefits, but is it all good?”

Robert Galway presents Ftiness Bootcamp posted at robertgalway.com , saying, “Boot camp exercises are chosen to build strength and total body conditioning through repetition, duration, and gradual intensity. A typical day of full basic training in the booth camp exercises are also easy to weave into your running program, as you can do them at regular intervals during your workout at a park, trail or track.”

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Teaser to Stimulate your Concentration Skills posted at SharpBrains, saying, “What about a quick brain teaser: can you count?”

Aparna presents Tulsi (Basil) to cure skin problems posted at Beauty & Personality Grooming, saying, “Tulsi has been found to possess extraordinary powers of healing and promoting health. Tulsi is found to be endowed with purifying and antiseptic qualities. The efficacy of the remedies of skin diseases is greatly augmented if they are used in conjunction with Tulsi”

Gerard Banhidi presents Meditation: Introduction posted at Health and Meditation Corner

floslib presents Finding My Beliefs posted at Spirited Script.

Kaushik Chokshi presents The Power of Intention – how to stop the cycle of madness posted at Beyond Karma.

Tom Maurer presents Mind-Body Healing posted at Simple and Spiritual.

Robin Birch presents Finding Our True Selves posted at Let’s Live Forever!, saying, “The “Observer” part of us has always been the same, and is always in ecstasy – we can get in touch with our higher self by being the Observer.”

Pat Doyle presents How To Arrange Your Bedroom For Good Feng Shui posted at Feng Shui Crazy, saying, “The bedroom is one of the most important rooms for Feng Shui. You spend one third of your life in bed, and a restful sleep is important for your general energy level.”

Margaret Garcia presents 100 Best Blogs for Living Healthy on a Budget posted at Surgical Technician Schools.

Julian Pollock presents Avoiding Allergies with Organic Lotion – and Discover the Major Skin Benefits for the Entire Family, From Babies on Up posted at Julian Pollock, saying, “Although the Internet abounds with the advantages of organic skincare, I still feel it’s worth bringing this to people’s attention. (As a private note on the anniversary of my mother’s death, I was quite touched with your writings about your father. I’m told it is a male trait that we try to fix other people’s problems – as opposed to being there for them; but still – I wonder if you know about the Sedona Method – a system of letting go I have been using for six or seven years now and treasure it.)”

Brad presents Playing Your Heart Strings posted at Tri-Freedom, saying, “Letting music take us deep within.”

Ross presents How To Cure Yourself of Hay Fever posted at Energise for Life, saying, “It’s that time of year again! I know it’s coming, you know it’s coming and all the signs are there: the mood of the nation lifts (wahoo!), we start saying hello to each other again, everyone desperately starts trying to get in shape, the sunny mornings give everyone a lift and a spring in their step and the clocks change (at last!). We don’t go to work and come home from work in the dark anymore and we start looking forward to Wimbledon, summer fruits and holidays.”

Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents Law of Attraction in Action: Complacency posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat, saying, “Being complacent takes life for granted and tells the Law of Attraction you don’t appreciate what you have. You can change that!”

Robert Burton Robinson presents How to Lose the Fat and Keep It Off Forever posted at Mind Over Mania, saying, “8 tips to help you lose fat and FINALLY keep it off FOREVER. You’ll feel better and be healthier when your weight is under control.”

Sarah Scrafford presents 50 Foods That Give You the Most Nutrition Bang for Your Buck posted at Masters in Health Care.

GrrlScientist presents Pioneering Stem Cell Research in Race Horses Now Helping People posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, “Several companies that I’ve been following have been redirecting their stem-cell research that they originally developed to help injured horses to help people recover from Achilles tendon injuries.”

Joe Tichio presents The Best Stress Busters posted at Inspirational Quotes Blog.

VikramKir presents What to eat to lose fat? Food for weight loss! posted at Thoughtfully Vikram.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of healing using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Watch for next week’s carnival #186 – April 25 2009: hosted by Jon, Beyond Within
Last week #184 – April 11 2009 carnival was hosted by Ji Hyang, Natural Wisdom

Technorati tags: carnival of healing, blog carnival.

Carnival Of Healing #185 – It’s all about having courage is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Last year when I started participating in the carnival of healing, I was going through myriad of emotions and was very angry at the helplessness that I felt after my dad suddenly passed away.   He was in very good health except a headache that lasted for a week and wouldn’t go away.  He had walked a couple of miles the day he was taken to the ER.  In the hospital, everything happened so fast, the doctors could not keep pace with his deteriorating health from some infection he had caught in the hospital.  We were devastated.  I cannot believe it’s already been a year since then.  Throughout his stay in the hospital he stayed very optimistic, as he always was and rather gave us strength.

I had seen people dying before but this was different.  This was very different as I loved (and still do) my dad more than anyone else in the world.  I felt closer to my dad than to my mother or siblings.  I felt he understood me and my feelings more than anyone else could.  So, this year has been the most difficult time in all of my life but I have to say that even so, as time passes, as most of you told me at the time, it has become easier as I try to understand life and death cycle and come to accept it.

Our mom, however week she is right now, is mentally and spiritually very strong.  She has seen us all break down at times and one day she told us that now we should be paying more attention to the ones that are living, than to the one that has moved on the next phase of his journey.  It sounded harsh at the time, but it makes a lot of sense.  Pay attention to your life and the lives of those you love.  And that is what the Carnival of Healing is all about too.  It has information on how to improve the quality of your life.

There are already a lot of great articles submitted to this carnival each week, but I also asked some of my friends who I thought could write on the subject or already do write on healing.  I met Sid Savara via Stumble Upon whose blog is not about ‘healing’ or ‘personal empowerment’ but he was kind enough to point me to one of his posts on inspirational quotes and the very first one is a gem.  I repeat that quote here:

“Life is but a brief moment. The years go by quickly and old age arrives suddenly before we have an inkling. People desire so many things and waste their days in vain. Some yearn for gold, others for power, yet others for glory and a higher station. But when death’s moment nears and they look back at their lives they’ve lived, they realize they’ve been happy only during those moments when they’ve loved.”
-Borje Vahamaki

1. Samir doesn’t write on holistic healing either, but was kind enough to write about what Holistic Health actually means in A Better Definition Of Holistic Health on his blog
2. Jenny’s blog is all about Healing Pain Naturally and this article on Healing – The Unlimited Possiblities, gives a good perspective.

There have been a lot of good articles that I tried to break down in different segments as healing entails all aspects of life: Physical, Emotional as well as Spiritual.  Take a look.

Emotional and Spiritual

1. Akemi presents Spiritual Self Protection And Clearing posted at Yes to Me .
2. Burak Bilgin presents Clear Your Mind posted at Distiller’s Corner .
3. Michael Miles presents Let your subconscious do the work posted at Effortless Abundance .
4. Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents Law of Attraction in Action: “I’m Fine!” posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat .
5. Ross “Tolemac” Cotton presents Law of Attraction Methods and Techniques: Part 1 posted at Tolemac’s Metaphysical Blog .
6. ITAKEOFFTHEMASK presents Balancing the Root Chakra for Health and Stability posted at itakeoffthemask.com .
7. Robin shared The Journey, With Brandon Bays posted at Let’s Live Forever! . .

Physical

1. Tristan presents Weights advice from a Beast! posted at Body And Fitness Blog .
2. Brad presents Calorie Restriction posted at Tri-Freedom .
3. Martin Russell presents Phentermine For Weight Loss – My Story posted at Self Help Blog .
4. Axel presents Jet-Like Motivation posted at axel g .
5. Farid Mostamand presents Skin Beauty Blog posted at Anti-aging Skin care for body .
6. Mike presents What Is Anti-Aging? posted at Daily Health Tips And Health Services .
7. ananga presents Discover What Causes Fatigue and How You Can Stop It posted at Ananga’s Living by Design Blog .
8. Health Tips 101 presents Summer Tea: Blackberry/ Raspberry Leaf Tea posted at Health  Health Tips 101

Getting rid of addictions and disease

1. Kalidasa presents Neck Pain: C5 The Most Common Cause And What You Can Do About It
   posted at Natural Healing And Back Pain Relief .
2. Peter Crump presents Can You Get Cancer From Drinking Chlorinated Water? posted at Which Is THE Best Drinking Water Filter? .
3. Gina Loree Marks presents Liver Has Sprung posted at Blog/Home .
4. Alvin Hopkinson presents Signs of Diabetes – The 8 Signs to Watch Out For posted at How to Control Diabetes .
5. Dean Moyer presents Back Pain and Massage Therapy posted at The Back Pain Blog .
6. 00FF00 presents Hibiscus as a treatment for cystitis and high blood pressure – ooffoo – free to reuse, swap, sell, give away, recycle and more posted at A member of the ooffoo community .
7. Alvaro Fernandez presents New Study Supports Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution .
8. Brain Blogger presents Lithium as a Neuroprotectant? posted at Brain Blogger .
9. ishanbansal presents How to Save Money on Prescription Drugs posted at Save Few Bucks .
10. Roy Schwartz presents 10 (Proven!) Reasons to Quit Smoking and How You Can Start posted at A Disease A Day .
11. Patricia Turner presents Top 50 Cancer Survival Inspiration Blogs posted at Radiology Technician Schools .
12. NAOMI STEVENS presents PRINCE CHARLES LAUNCHES DUCHY HERBALS posted at Diary From England .

And here are some more interesting reads that indirectly impact the whole holistic concept and mindset.

1. Chris Edgar presents Is There Such A Thing As “Boring” Work? posted at Purpose Power Coaching .
2. Travis presents Crossing Cultural Boundaries | www.datinginislam.com posted at Dating In Islam.
3. Yael Ernst presents Complementary & Alternative Marketing- a Review posted at Chinese Medicine Notes .
4. Online Wellness Association presents PRACTITIONERS: WHY HAVE A WEBSITE? posted at Online Wellness: A Safe Haven .

Check out previous week’s carnival @ Create a Thriving Business

And if you are interested in participating, here is the upcoming schedule for the next few weeks:

You can also familiarize yourself by reading more about Holistic Healing here

photos: Lepiaf.geo

Carnival of Healing #181 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

In a few hours from now, Barak Obama will take the oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the US.  We all know that putting such a huge responsibility on one person’s shoulders is most probably going to lead us all to disappointment but then like Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”

Right now, that is exactly all of us Americans feel.   Hopeful.  Heck, that is how most of the people all over the world feel about Obama’s rise to Presidency.  This is an amazing moment in our country’s history!    We certainly have come a long way from the day Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the “I Have a Dream” address on August 28th, 1963, but there is still a long way to go.

But with leaders like Obama, who can motivate and inspire others to do the right thing, there is a hope that most people will come together to keeping America strong and proud. In the video below, you can see how some of the very famous celebrities have come together and made pledges to Barack Obama, supporting his call for change. We ALL can do the same. Make a Pledge today to make that change happen, however small it might be.

The Presidential Pledge

Because, together we will be the change that we seek.

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You… is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As many of you have often mentioned I should get back to posting regularly, and have inquired how I spend my time now that I am not blogging regularly, I want to share that I try to stay in touch with the online world doing things that do not require a lot of concentration or time.   I am very much present in the social media scene and often vote your articles up and am always there to help you out in any way I can.   Occasionally, I have also participated in the small group writing projects/contests, especially when the rules to enter were not very difficult.  A lot of things have changed after my father’s passing as now I go to see my mother (after work in the evening) more often than before and that takes away from my time but even when I am at home doing nothing and am not busy, it’s been difficult dealing with all that has happened in the last year but I promise to do better on this blog.

Now this:

Just a few days ago, I received an email from Luciano Passuello of Litemind that he was running a project/contest for his readers to submit their best personal excellence tips.  This did not require a blog post as you would just need to send in a tip to Luciano’s email.

As I am still in need of some good ideas on how to get over my depression, I thought of sending in a few lines that may not be the best advice out there but they have become my mantra to get through my sadness, check out #28 in the list.  Luciano has published ALL personal excellence tips submitted to him, 66 tips so far. Great ideas given by Litemind readers and great blogs to discover.

The best part.

Since there are prizes worth some $800,  Luciano has asked his participants to vote by commenting on this post listing at least their favorite 5 tips/entries,  and as many as they like (no voting for their own entry of course).   This part is going to take some time for me to choose as I am in a position where I could use most of these tips to improve my life.   If you didn’t get a chance to participate,  you are not eligible to vote but I’d still encourage you to head over to Litemind and share your own very best personal excellence tips.

And I’d be delighted to hear your comments here too on what gets you through depression and sadness.

Personal Excellence Tips at Litemind is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to yet another great edition of carnival of healing .

Let me start by thanking all who submitted useful and practical advice filled articles to this edition of the carnival. I noticed a lot of the articles submitted were on physical well being and that is rightfully a huge part of our healing but I also feel that binge eating and not exercising and not taking care of our bodies etc. stem primarily from the way we are on the inside, how we feel about our current situations.

So, one of the major steps towards healing is to continuously be open to learning new skills for the changing circumstances throughout life :

Skills

• to stop the negative thinking cycle and calm the storms on the inside,
• to forgive people as well as circumstances that are beyond our control
• to break free from limiting beliefs
• to love ourselves

I am sure there are many more skills that help with healing and without further ado, here is some great reading material this weekend.

Dr. Ben Adkins presents Why Some People Are More Successful Than You posted at Dr. Ben Adkins.

Nicholas Powiull presents Conscious Flex: How to Easily Experience Lucid Dreams: by Nicholas Powiull posted at Conscious Flex, saying, “The more you can improve on your dreams, the more you can improve in your life. It is a reflection upon each other. Lucid dreams are a state of empowerment.”

Donald Latumahina presents 7 Winning Character Traits That Create A Lifetime Of Success posted at Life Optimizer.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brainy Haikus for brain training posted at SharpBrains, saying, “Enjoy this collection of fantastic haikus on brain and mind topics, and contribute yours!”

Grace Young presents Please Be Seated! posted at Grace R Young OT, saying, “Prolonged standing is stressful. Sitting while performing tasks takes 25% less energy.”

Erin Pavlina presents 2012 and the End of the World posted at Erin Pavlina’s Blog, saying, “I’m sure you’ve heard about it. The Mayan calendar ends in 2012, and there are signs in so many places … the world is going to end in 2012. I get at least 3 or 4 emails per week asking if I believe the world will really end in 2012 or if there will be a spiritual awakening, or if God is coming down to select his top 100 people to take to Heaven while the rest of us go to Hell.”

Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents Law of Attraction in Action: “Too Blessed to Be Stressed” posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat, saying, “When you regularly focus on appreciating your blessings, use the mantra, “I’m too blessed to be stressed” to attract relaxation during stressful times.”

AndrewB presents How to Stop Binge Eating posted at Stop Binge Eating, saying, “How I lost weight, overcame food addiction, and kept all the weight off.”

Kara-Leah Grant presents On the power of paying attention to your words posted at Prana Flow NZ, saying, “One of the most powerful actions we can take in our day to day life is to pay attention to our words. The language we choose to use reveals much about what we truly believe, and by choosing words that reflect our dreams and goals, we can change ourselves for the better.”

Kelly Turner presents Bulimic To Personal Trainer: Can Too Much of a Good Thing Be Bad? posted at Grounded Fitness.

AndrewB presents How to Stop Binge Eating posted at Binge Eating Forum, saying, “A post where everyone shared their best advice on how to stop binge eating or stop overeating, many great free tips to stop binge eating.”

Louis Burns presents Presuppose Greatness posted at NLP Marketing Blog.

fitnchic presents Diet food ? Weighing the Pros and Cons :: FitNChic.com – Get in Shape Fashionably :: posted at FitNChic.com – Get in Shape, Fashionably!.

Patricia Turner presents 5 Free Kettlebell Video Sites – EKG Classes posted at EKG Classes.

BoH presents Fat Chance! posted at buddha of hollywood.

Margaret Garcia presents Give your Children the Gift of Good Health – Radiology Technician Schools posted at Radiology Technician Schools.

Nancy Miller presents Bitter Pill to Swallow – Antidepressants and Weight Gain – Becoming A Radiologist posted at Becoming A Radiologist.

mag presents Heal yourself naturally by balancing your pH with acid/alkaline foods posted at The Magenpie.com, saying, “Many health problems that people suffer from these days are due to an imbalance of the body’s pH. The human blood pH should be slightly alkaline, at 7.35-7.45 pH. Anything below or above this range spells trouble.”

Mary@SimplyForties presents My Summer of Cancer posted at SimplyForties.

myln presents Simple Ways to Manage Stress posted at ManageYourLifeNow.com, saying, “Stress is not something that we cannot manage. There are ways to manage stress and reverse the negative consequences to our mental and physical health caused by stress. When we feel that stress is dominating our life we should take action immediately to find ways to manage our life and stress better.”

FitBuff presents How to Form Good Eating Habits posted at 3rd Chance Fitness Blog, saying, “We all wish we had good eating habits, but it’s hard. The good news is it’s also largely mental, and the following mindset will set you in the right direction.”

AndrewB presents Stop Emotional Eating Tips posted at Stop Binge Eating, saying, “why emotional eating is probably keeping you fat and how to instantly conquerit with these quick tips.”

AndrewB presents Courage – The World is Yours posted at Personal Hack, saying, “When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers. – Ralph Waldo Emerson”

Ray Dotson shows us How to Deal with Disappointment posted Freshblogger, saying, “I’m no psychiatrist, but I do believe there are stages that a person goes through in dealing with disappointment just like when grieving. In fact, disappointment could be seen as a loss of opportunity that certainly could trigger the grieving process.”

Caffeine Junkie presents Caffeine Content | My Caffeine Addiction posted at Caffeine Addiction, saying, “How to figure out the caffeine content in your drink.”

Pastor WD Favour presents Do You Have An Addiction? | wdfavour.com posted at wdfavour.com, saying, “Do you have an addiction? Do a personal check right away. Is there a specific activity, or a set of activities, that you are engaged in to the detriment of your health, mental state or social life? You might be blinded by the positive effects of that activity – probably you are making money from it or whatever: but if it’s hurting your health, mental state, or social life, its an addiction.”

Fiona King presents Top 100 Men?s Health Blogs posted at Massage Therapy Careers.

Khan presents Harmless or Deadly: A Personal Story About Asthma posted at Higher Education and Career Blog.

Steve Beisheim presents Free and Unlimited Exotic Massages posted at HowIHealed.com, saying, “A great resource for free massages”

Dean Moyer presents Microdiscectomy and Herniated Discs posted at The Back Pain Blog, saying, “Could the simple act of bending forward cause you to develop a herniated disc? What are the risk factors and what precautions should you take to avoid injury? And what about everybody’s favorite exercise; the sit-up? Is it really good for building core strength, or is it a dangerous practice? Since most health and fitness-minded people insist on “working those abs,” is there a way to perform sit-ups and crunches that minimizes the risk factors while actually enhancing results?”

FitBuff presents How Colon Cancer Warning Signs saved his life… posted at 3rd Chance Fitness Blog, saying, “Another 4 months of feeling winded and drained and he said “uncle” and called his doctor. It turns out, he HAD stage 2 colon cancer and was severely anemic from internal bleeding…”

Lizzie discusses Why Do Diet Fail on her FatLadySingz blog that just about everyone can benefit from

Vish presents The Illusion of Great Work posted at The Power To Realise God Through Self Enquiry.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of healing using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Previous Edition: Yourjoyouslife
Next Edition: howihealed

Technorati tags: carnival of healing, blog carnival.

Carnival of Healing #161 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As much as I try to write and move this blog forward,  new and weird issues continue to challenge me.  I’ve been sick for a week now with high fever and chills with a lot of body ache.  Not only that,  my desktop got infected with some virus and trojans which keep directing my browser to agoga.com.  What frustrates me more and more is that none of the spyware programs I have downloaded are able to clean this shit out and the pc has almost come to a halt.  It just freezes when I try running ad-aware or spybot – search and destroy.   I recently restored one of my friend’s computers because she was having the same problems and thought now that I did it once, it should be a breeze to return my own pc to some restore point but it wouldn’t work on my pc.

The restore shuts the pc and even restarts but the message comes up saying No changes have been made to your computer.  And a strange thing I noticed is that there are restore points only for the last three months, nothing before that.  I’m running Windows XP, SR2.   I also have a Dell laptop that is starting to heat up to temperatures beyond 200 degrees!   So, I haven’t been turning that one on fearing it’ll just blow up on me one of these days.

So, frustrated with the situation, I decided to start painting again (again, coz I had completely stopped painting when I started blogging).   Here are a couple unfinished oil paintings I did this week.  Of course every time I spent some time on these, the fever went up to 102°F but it definitely eased my anxiety.

This is a copy of course from a very famous French Artist 1841-1919) Renoir’s painting of a woman reading.  Here is the original

The flowers in a vase is also a famous painting but I couldn’t find who it is from.  I am copying it from a single sheet that’s been cut out from a magazine.  These are far from finished yet but something I thought of sharing.

This exercise also brought back memories of the days when we didn’t have computers to communicate with each other, or internet to do research on just about every topic.  I thought about expanding this article into a list of things you can do when there is no pc or internet available, but truthfully? I get tired of those instructional posts in just about every other blog.  On this blog, we will stick to informal conversations about things to do when there is no internet or when your pc doesn’t work. And of course if you know how to get rid of that ugly agoga.com thingy, please please let me know.

I’m writing this from my brother’s laptop as my pc continues to freeze with every click,  so I may not be able to reply to your comments right away but would love to read them.

Reminder:  The 161th edition of carnival of healing will be posted this upcoming Saturday (Oct. 25th).  So if you want to submit your post to be published, please send it it before Friday (Oct 24th).

When the going gets tough, tough feels like quitting is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

photo: sytoha

The Carnival of Healing is a weekly round-up of blogs across the Internet featuring information about healing, self empowerment, and spirituality.   This carnival is organized by Phylameana who writes about Healing on About.com.  My thanks go to Phelameana for letting me host this edition on my blog.

As I was reading through the articles submitted for this edition, I couldn’t help remember a quote by Helen Keller

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
– Helen Keller

No matter how big and difficult challenges we face, from illness, grief, losing a job, loss of loved ones, fear of failures in our relationships, or financial matters, no matter how difficult to overcome these challenges might be, we all find ways to get through them and survive but the hurt remains.  The articles that are submitted to this carnival are geared towards emotional, physical and spiritual healing.  They have been helpful to me in my struggle to overcome my challenges and I am sure you will find something to help you as you begin your healing journey.

So here comes:

Sonora presents Top 50 Medical Professor Blogs posted at Nursing School Search Blog.

Daphne presents Joyful Days » Laugh A Lot posted at Joyful Days, saying, “Laughter cures many ills in life. Doctors are starting to admit that patients who decide to think positively and laugh a lot have higher chances of surviving diseases including cancer. There are powerful biological processes that take place when we laugh that we are only just starting to understand.”

Anna Farmery presents Behind the Smile…. posted at Widows Quest, saying, “I try each day to smile, I know that the world lives on and that they have troubles of their own. So I try and listen to people, I try and be there for them, often to the detriment of myself…

SeanBissell presents Even Dogs Get De-Motivated posted at Yummy Fitness | Fitness For Fun People saying, “It’s very easy to get de-motivated if you get off track for too long, and one of the best ways to get back into your routine is just to make it fun for yourself in any way that you can.

Alvaro Fernandez presents ABC Reporter Bob Woodruff’s Spectacular Recovery From Traumatic Brain Injury posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, “You have may have seen a few weeks ago the interview between former US presidential contender John Edwards and reporter Bob Woodruff. All the resulting media coverage centered on Edwards’ declarations. However, there is something much more remarkable that surfaced at that interview: Bob Woodruff’s spectacular recovery.”

Donald Latumahina presents A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose posted at Life Optimizer.

Joshua Seth presents Fast Weight Loss Tips | posted at Joshua Seth Blog, saying, “Everyone seems to want to lose weight fast. I’d rather show you how to lose weight permanently. Not all fast weight loss methods are healthy and most of them don’t work long term. Still, a few methods do make the cut. So here is how to lose weight fast…”

AndrewB presents How to Overcome Overeating posted at test, saying, “Do you engage in overeating? Overeating is eating too much. We all do it to some degree, however it can lead to developing an eating disorder.”

mag presents Breathe your way to better health! posted at The Magenpie.com, saying, “Breathe better”

Grace Young presents No slouching! posted at Grace R Young OT.

Sam presents NEW !! Relief for Stress, Anxiety and Tension. Symptoms and Relief. Cope and Manage Stress posted at Surfer Sam and Friends, saying, “Relief for Stress, Anxiety and Tension Symptoms and Relief to Cope and Manage Stress Stress is the plague of the twenty-first century. Pressures at work and demands at home leave us feeling tension, anxiety and stress.
Akemi Gaines presents Heroes Of Healing: Gary Craig posted at Yes to Me.

Astrid Lee presents Pope’s Mass in Paris Brings Focus on Practical Spiritually posted at World Healing, saying, “Yesterday morning, together with a quarter million French people, I managed to participate in the public mass held in Paris by pope Benedict XVI. It was an unusually calming and healing experience…. (pictures)”

Marcus Ryan presents Top 3 Anti Aging Diets posted at Wrinkle Creams Review, saying, “If you want the top 3 anti aging diets for healthy skin, then have a look at this blog entry by Marcus Ryan where the anti aging diets full of superfoods for skin are featured.”

Ginsburg presents Supplement Boosts Immune Function & Helps Diabetic Blood Sugar posted at Live Immune, saying, “well-researched dietary supplement to boost NK fraction”

Brain Blogger presents HIPAA Doesn’t Exist For Doctors posted at Brain Blogger, saying, “Recently a very popular colleague of mine was hospitalized. His frequent visitors coming into the room began to hamper his recovery and his family was forced to try and enforce privacy rules and HIPAA.”

NickIrons presents Exercise — The Fountain of Youth! posted at Get Results! Fitness Blog, saying, “Exercise is the only proven way to drastically combat aging and to regain your youthful body. In fact, most people are able to regain up to 1/3 of their muscle strength and mass after participating in an exercise program for just a couple of months.”

Ginsburg presents Kabbalistic Speech & New Year posted at Live Immune.

photo:eye of einstein

Chris Edgar presents What’s Really Holding You Back: “Morality” Or Anxiety? posted at Purpose Power Coaching, saying, “When we feel anger, fear, or some other emotion we see as unpleasant, we tend to assume “morality” requires us to feel how we do. If someone else is the object of our irritation, anxiety, or something else, we tend to see them as immoral. In this article, I discuss how becoming aware of how we confuse our emotions with morality can help us transcend our fears and gain valuable self-understanding.”

Aanga presents How to Have a Healthy Autumn posted at Ananga Sivyer’s Living by Design Blog.

Bob Crawford presents Aligning with Success posted at Growing Your SELF Blog – Bob Crawford Online, saying, “Learning to become aligned with your inner self is crucial to manifesting your goals and dreams.”

Sagar Satapathy presents Top 100 Health and Wellness Sites for Seniors posted at RN Central.

Pastor WD Favour presents Supernatural Healing posted at WDFavour.com, saying, “A true life story of a miraculous and life transforming healing.”

Alex Blackwell presents 10 things you wish you had never learned

Evelyn created a movie: My Abundance Mind Movie [don’t forget to vote for her wonderful movie at YouTube)

And last but not the least, our very own Phylameana wrote about “Follow Your Heart”

That concludes this edition.

Past Edition: Sept. 13, 2008 Grace in Gravity

Next Edition: Sept. 27, 2008 Natural Pain Relief

Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of healing using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Carnival of Healing #156 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This is a short announcement to let you all know that on September 20th, 2008, I will be hosting the #156th edition of Carnival of Healing.

From the carnival home page:  Carnival of Healing is a weekly roundup of posts on topics of holistic health, wellness, spirituality, and self empowerment or healthy lifestyle.

I encourage ALL my readers who write about any of the above topics, to participate in this carnival and submit your most recent posts.  Once you have written the post that you want to submit, click on the image or go here and click on the orange box in the upper right corner to get to the submission form.

Please make sure your articles are related to the topics that are acceptable to this carnival.  Any posts that are not related will not be accepted.  If you would like to host this carnival, check out Carnival of Healing Home Page

Carnival of Healing Coming to this blog is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Today when I was logged in this blog, I noticed that I have written 186 posts which generated 2676 comments. I was surprised at how much I had written especially when at the time I started this blog, I had no intention of keeping it up. It was fun to write and it was fun to see comments on what I had written. It still is fun to see comments. But now I am much more self-conscious for some reason. This is also becoming one the reasons for the decline in my posting frequency.

Oh, writing that word, self-conscious reminds me of a brief conversation I had with Liz Strauss once and I had said I couldn’t write anything (apparently, this has been the case for some time now) and do you want to know what she said? Her answer was “Pearl, There’s no pressure. Doc Searls says “A blog is just an email to the world.” :) ” And that gave me a much needed push and I was fine for some time. Isn’t that so profound? Liz always writes such beautiful and inspirational words. Today while I was browsing StumbleUpon, I came across her article Let Yourself Join the Human Race that describes so much of what I’ve been feeling lately.

During the first few weeks and months into blogging, I remember I used to feel ‘free’ and would write as if I was talking to a close friend. But lately I’ve been feeling some sort of pressure to do well. The expectation. And when we start build expectations and start worrying about the results, it becomes that much harder to start. After reading that article from Liz, I felt as if she wrote that piece just for me. (I’ve had this feeling numerous times when I read Liz’s blog). Why am I so self conscious now? I know, once upon a time, these words didn’t exist. So, why now? I’m not sure why, but today I decided to join Liz and decided to drop this ’self-destructive’ word – self and decided to just start writing, whatever came to my mind.

So, while I am talking about writing, something else comes to mind. One of my job functions is to grade essays written by grown ups for employment. I can’t begin to tell you how horrendous some of these essays sometimes are. People just do not pay attention to their writing. I am far from writing perfectly, but I hope whatever point I am trying to convey, it does make sense to you.

So, when I recently graded some of these essays, I jotted down some of the problems I came across again and again. Based on my observations, I think if we kept following in mind, may be the articles or essays or whatever it is we are writing, would come out a bit better.

1. Use plain, conversational language.
2. Write to express, not to impress.
3. Use plain and familiar words.
4. Never use a long word when a short one will do.
5. Keep sentence structure simple.
6. Use the active voice.
7. Keep your paragraphs short.
8. Omit needless words.
9. Revise and rewrite. Improvement is always possible.
10. Write in a natural style.
11. Pay closer attention to spellings and grammar
12. Edit and proofread and weed out errors and clutter

In writing tips for writing, I couldn’t leave out the literary legend, George Orwell, who wrote an essay in 1946 called Politics and English Language, in which he provides the following rules for good writing:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Anything else to keep in mind when writing a good piece? Also, I would love to know how long it takes you to write and publish a post.

Technorati Tags: Writing, Tips

On Writing and Getting Un-Stuck is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

February 2nd was Groundhog Day in North America. And as Punxsutawney Phil, the one and the only official Weather Forcasting Groundhog declared that there will be six more weeks of winter, I had started to lose hope to get back in the swing of writing. But then, came this guest post by Paul Hannam, the author of The Magic of Groundhog Day, the book that is based on the movie Groundhog Day.

Author Paul Hannam believes that watching the movie, Groundhog Day, will teach you more about life and work than anything else you can do in less than two hours! He has taught thousands of people on personal development, and taught management and organizational psychology at Oxford University and in his new book, The Magic of Groundhog Day, he explains why the movie is so inspirational and life-changing.

I have found the movie so invaluable because it helps me see each day as a unique opportunity to improve the way I think, feel and act. We all feel stuck at times in our life. The difference is that, in the movie, Phil Connors is literally stuck in the exact same, repeating day. The town never changes; the events and the people never change. Only he can change. It is impossible for Phil to have any control over his outer world, so he is forced to change himself.

Groundhog Day brilliantly dramatizes one of the greatest spiritual and psychological lessons – that change comes from within, and that only we can create meaning and happiness in our lives. Every form of therapy and every self-help technique supports this wisdom, and nothing illustrates it better than the movie.

Phil has to find a meaning and purpose for his life to survive and prosper. It is the only way out of the time loop, and it is our only way out of a rut. He transforms his life by experimenting each day with new thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. He changes his life day by day and transforms the worst day of his life into the best day of his life. I find this idea very inspiring.

All that changes is his perspective on life, and we can emulate this in our own lives to turn a miserable day into a magical day. We all share this remarkable gift, the capacity to make today better than yesterday – and tomorrow better than today.

An Experiment for Transforming your Life Day by Day

Try this experiment. Tomorrow, when you wake up, imagine how you would feel if you too were stuck in time, about to re-live yesterday in the same place, doing the same activities, repeating the same conversations with the same people. What would you do differently?

How would you have made yesterday better?

Maybe you would have been less harsh with your partner, or listened more attentively to a colleague who needed your help or perhaps you would have phoned a friend to tell them how much they meant to you. And what about work?

Would you have spent more time on that important project that could boost your career – and less time lost in thought about how you dislike your boss, or what you are going to do at the weekend?

Well, you can’t change yesterday but the good news is that you can change today. You can press your personal reset button and forget about yesterday. You don’t need to carry yesterday’s mood into today. Like Phil, you can choose to make this day terrible or great.

How do you transform a Miserable Day into a Great Day?

The first step is to stop living on automatic pilot, and return your awareness to the present moment. I call this the Magic of Paying Attention. In the movie, when Phil first arrives in Punxsutawney he is oblivious to the town and its people. He is sleepwalking through his life, completely self-absorbed. By the end of the movie he is awake, and absorbed not in his own ruminations but in the rich drama of the community he has learn to love and serve.

How about you? How much of what you do is the same as yesterday? How much of your day did you spend lost in thought, unconscious to life around you?

I believe that we largely re-live the same day again and again in our heads. We tend to have the same thoughts, the same emotions, the same hopes and anxieties and the same moods. We are not trapped by a time loop. We are trapped instead by our conditioning that is like a gravity that holds us down, keeping us stuck in old patterns and habits going back to our childhood. Every day can seem the same if we experience it through our past conditioning, rather than in the present moment.

The good news is that we can break free of our conditioning. It all starts by paying attention as soon as you wake up. Start by altering your routine when you get out of bed. Do some yoga stretches instead of watching the TV news, eat something different for breakfast and travel a different way to work. Then during the day catch yourself slipping back into conditioned responses.

Stop yourself falling back on the old patterns of seeking approval, being in control or avoiding conflict. These patterns are not you, and you can get out of your rut and experience the magic of everyday life when you are mindful and shift back to the present moment.

Experiment with a new response. When your partner looks at you in that annoying, disapproving manner don’t fall for it. Break your patterned response, and just smile. This is your greatest gift. You can choose to let your partner control your mood, or take back charge yourself and not let anyone or anything disturb your balance and peace of mind.

The genius of the movie is that it intensifies all the focus on us to change ourselves, because everything else is fixed. Every day, Phil can try a new behavior and then measure and evaluate the results. He learns to realize that he cannot seduce Rita, he cannot manipulate her to fall in love with him. It is only when he becomes genuinely loving that she falls in love with him. If you do the same as Phil, if you experiment and evaluate the results in your journal you will make subtle changes in just one day. Then over a week and a month this new self-awareness will lead to a significant transformation.

By practicing moment to moment awareness we come alive and experience a world of hope and possibility. This is the first, crucial step in leading the life you choose to live, not the life you were conditioned to live. This is the Magic of Groundhog Day!

Paul Hannam, author of the Magic of Groundhog Day

How the movie Groundhog Day can lead to a happier and more productive life is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This is the ongoing survey question over at The Mighty Introvert authored by Mark Dykeman.

At the time I saw the survey,  57 out of 67 people had already answered that they were Introverts!  That is 85% – a huge majority.    I am assuming that most of the people visiting Mark’s blog and answering this question might also be bloggers.

I used to think the term Introvert was more applicable to the offline, face-to-face interactions but recently,  I’ve found myself struggling to participate in discussions on twitter and another network I am a member of.  I felt the same feeling that you get when you first start blogging with no readers.  Except, on twitter you already have people ‘following’ you.  That I think contributes to an already shy person’s nervousness even more.   Its almost like you are on a stage and people are watching you and waiting to hear the words coming out of your mouth.  Like stage fright you know?

But I am trying to participate and learn the network.  You could very well say I don’t need to try to get comfortable with the network if its making me feel this way, well, that’s the point.

Whereas I might consider myself an introvert at time, I am also very outgoing.  I am shy at times and find it hard to participate, but I have a drive to learn and be better.  So I keep trying.  I think no one can be a 100 percent introvert.

So here are my questions.

What scenarios make you behave as an introvert?  and why?

Are you an extrovert all the time?  What advice would you give to those who are not extroverts?

Are you an introvert or just shy? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I always say that Group Writing Projects are an easy way to blog. Someone else has already done the thinking and picked a topic for you to write your experience or opinions on.

And “Spread the Love NOW” couldn’t have come at a better time for me. There are a lots of the things in this project that resonate with me now. One, that the project is to write something about Compassion, a character trait that I saw a lot of recently when my very close friend passed away. Second, because compassion is a trait that I am very passionate about and I feel we can’t have enough of. Third, the project is organized by the three monks, Albert of Urban Monk, Kenton of Zen Inspired Self Development and Wade of The Middle Way, who so passionately write on all of the subjects that are very dear to me such as meditation, Buddhism, consciousness, spirituality, philosophy and self improvement.

As I understand compassion, it is what we feel when we see someone else in pain and we automatically are compelled to do something to relieve them of that pain. Feelings of selfless caring and kindness accompanied by love, regard and patience.

It is easy to find perfect examples of compassion all around us. I’ve been overwhelmed with so much care and kindness in the hospitals, where so many people are suffering and the nurses are helping the patients and their families with those tasks that sometimes even the closest family members avoid doing.

Doctors had told my friend’s family that there was nothing more they could do to save her. The nurses, the physicians, other staff members and just about everyone who had been taking care of her for months or had come in contact with her, as if turned into some sort of a saint, bending over backwards to help us with whatever we needed. It was overwhelming to see so much kindness and so much love and caring. These people would hug us when we were down in the dumps, they would cry with us and listen to us, talk to us about their own sad times.

And it did not matter what color, creed, race or religion someone belonged to in that setting of the hospital. This was in the cancer care institute and majority of the patients were with advanced stages. Its a setting where every one, regardless of their cultural background, becomes aware in a strange manner that we are all connected with each other via some strange common source and that we all have the same destiny in the end. Perhaps, that is the reason you can find everyone helping each other out in a most peaceful manner, trying to do whatever it takes to comfort each other. A true sense of altruism prevailed there. Amidst all the grief, their kindness made it easier for us to go through the ordeal.

As Dalai Lama said, “we do not need to become religious, or believe in any ideology, we just need to develop good human qualities to be happy.”

I think if we all exercised similar caring, compassion, kindness and love under normal circumstances, in our daily lives, we could be a much happier society. Happier societies would raise happier and more confident children. And when a person’s self esteem is healthier, he is more successful in life and does not feel the need to ‘attack’ any other and ’snatch’ from others.

==========================

I am so glad Isabella from Change Therapy tagged me for this project. Thanks Isabella.

The Rules of the Game
This is a joint effort by the Three Monks – Wade of The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-Inspired Self Development, and Albert of Urban Monk.Net. The watches are kindly provided by the coolest timepiece company ever – The Now Watch.
To participate –
1) Write a post as described above. You’re encouraged, although not required, to link to all three of the judges.
2) Contact any one of us, either by emailing, or leaving a comment in one of the judge’s posts.
3) You’re encouraged also to spread the word, tag your friends, and ask them to participate.
4) On 5 January 2008, the three judges will look at all the entries, pick the winners, and publish a list, so we can all share the links and traffic.
5) The results will be posted on 10 January 2008 on all three judge’s blogs. Winners will be contacted for mailing address details so we can send them to you!

UPDATE: I completely forgot I was supposed to tag some, so here it goes.. I’d love to hear what you have to say on compassion…

RennyBA,  Kaylee , David, Pelf, Aruni, Ad Tracker, Kim, Sueblimely, Mig

Technorati Tags: compassion, personal development, blog, Group Writing Project

Spreading the Love via Compassion is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As the year comes to an end, its time to reflect upon our accomplishments and a time to revisit some goals, offline as well as online.

I started this blog in April of this year, and at that time I had no idea about how long I would be blogging and didn’t have a clue if anyone would read it let alone become a subscriber of the blog.

I loved making connections with people all over the globe and learning about different aspects people shared about their lives, difficulties and successes.

But then somewhere along the line, I started thinking about monetizing this blog. Since everyone in the blogosphere is talking about different ways you can make money, I confess I was swayed in that direction and started putting those banners in the sidebar. Without even realizing, I got too hung up on signing up for different affiliate programs and trying different banners, all of which weren’t making any money, zero, nil! Well, because this is not a product blog, this is about interesting observations. And Some of you even asked me to clean up the sidebars but I just never took the time to do anything about it, or to confess, I found it hard to let go of those dangling carrots!

Until just a couple of days ago, when I came across a Group Writing Project about your Blogging Goals for 2008 at Daily Blog Tips via a most generous and lovely soul Karen Zara, who I recently met via Luciano’s Lists Project

So, in order for me to think of my blogging goals for 2008, I started reviewing what I was able to accomplish since I started this blog. Read on:

• Currently the Page Rank is at 4 – would like to take it to a 5 although I keep hearing that is difficult
• Alexa Rank is <70,000 – would like to bring it <40,000
• Technorati Rank broke the top 10k and even though technorati keeps fluctuating, I am sure the blog will continue to do better – my goal would be to bring it in the top 5k
• I never thought I would have even a single subscriber and was thrilled when the first time I logged in the FeedBurner and found there were 11 subscribers, now that number sits at 180 – I would love to bring it to 500 ( and if you like reading this blog, please subscribe via RSS feed or via email and help me get to my goals sooner than the next Christmas ) :)
• This blog was linked to by problogger in one of his speedlinking posts, by emoms and by ZenHabits and together these sites brought me a lot of traffic, great new bloggers and a good feeling of getting a bit known out there. So, for the new year, is it too unrealistic to want to be linked to by some of the other famous bloggers like copyblogger, successful-blog, Maki and such?

I’d also like to achieve something much more than the numbers

• get into a regular posting schedule
• clearly define the areas I want to blog about
• get better with writing
• get in the habit of participating more in the social networking
• write more guest posts
• get over my shyness – a huge hurdle in accomplishing just about everything
• learn about affiliate marketing
• learn php and CSS
• start a couple of niche sites

Some of these might be too unrealistic as I work full time and cannot devote as much time to blogging as I would really like, but it sure feels good to just have some concrete goals laid out here and have a clear vision.

I will sound contradictory to my own goals above in saying that one of my goals will be to not really get hung over the numbers as it has affected my writing and posting frequency. And the only way to do that is to not check the stats that often. As a matter of fact, I plan to not display the RSS subscriber numbers to avoid getting depressed when suddenly these numbers drop.

Have you thought of what you want to accomplish with your blog next year?

Technorati Tags: Goals, Self-improvement, Blogging, GroupWritingProject

Have you thought of your blogging goals for 2008? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Every other place you look on the internet, you can find people talking about Losing Weight after holidays or as a resolution for the new year.

I think we shouldn’t start out the holidays on a pre-supposition that we are going to definitely gain weight. Because when we associate holidays with gaining weight, we also take some of the enjoyment out of the celebrations.

Losing weight is not a simple matter as most would agree but there are simple things that can be done to help maintain it .

New Year isn’t too far and the holidays are upon us, so how are you going to maintain your current weight?

Here are some of the easy to follow “rules“ to remember

1. Exercise Moderation

Eat and drink in moderation. Being aware of what you eat and drink will help big time in your goal of keeping fit. The best way to enjoy any party is to stay awake (and not puking) during the whole event. While alcoholic drinks are part of the celebrations, they do add up your overall caloric intake. Choosing water over other drinks, alternating alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic low-calorie drinks will not only keep you well-hydrated, it’ll also help if you are serious about not only maintaining weight, but also losing it.

Even though, everything looks delicious around the food table, making it easier to over indulge, there are a few things that should be kept in mind. First of all, don’t fill up your plate with lots and lots of food. If you couldn’t resist and did want to try all the deserts presented, keep in mind that you don’t have to finish everything and empty the plate. Avoid second and third servings by walking away from the food. If you must sit around the food table, have lots of water nearby. Also, do not starve yourself all day in order to eat more at the dinner party!!

2. Plan for Diet Food Takeouts

While you are busy doing last minute shopping this week, it is very likely that by the time you get home, after waiting in lines and getting stuck in traffic, you are completely exhausted and if you are also working out of your home, the problem is even worse because you have less and less time to cook dinner. Chances are you’ll be tempted to pick up something on your way home.

While take out food can be a great time saver, pay attention to the calories for each item offered. Most restaurants are eager to please the diet conscious customer and with a little bit of planning, you can have the right kind of healthy food delivered ahead of time. Here is a list of Diet Food Delivery Services within USA as well as Abroad.

3. Stay Active

Holidays can be a very stressful for some of us. We all also know that exercise has many benefits and can get rid of stress so why do we stop exercising during holidays? This is the time we need to stay active more than any other time. Regular exercise will not only burns calories, it also helps to elevate moods!! and help us sleep better.

Because of shorter days and busy schedules during holidays, you are not likely to have as much time to exercise as normally. Instead of skipping it altogether, doing shorter versions of your regular routines might be better. Using stairs instead of elevators at work and escalators in the malls will add to your overall workout.

4. Manage Your Emotions

Winter and holidays together may not make you feel as happy and cheerful as you think you should be or are expected to, may be you feel sad, may be you feel lonely as the celebrations peak but this is no time to beat yourself over it either.

This is no excuse to hang around the refrigerator either. Because even though you may feel overwhelmed by these emotions, remember the adage, this too shall pass. So sticking to your sensible eating plan will not only give you the feeling of control, it’ll also help your self esteem by keeping the weight in control.

5. Finally, when Less means More

Point #5 is to always remember that:

Less weight means more fun, more happiness!

Any time of the year.

photo: Mr+G

5 Easy Ways To Maintain Weight During Holidays is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Group Writing Projects are always fun to participate in that they not only make for a nice linkbait, they also spark new discussions with new bloggers. Building Lists as part of the group project becomes even more enjoyable and useful because they offer how-to’s and best-of’s.

But if you were to pick top 3 from a huge list of participants, what are the things you look for?

That’s the dilemma going on this week at Luciano’s Lists Group Writing Project that I also participated in with my Best 101 Lists. The task is humongous for Luciano and I have no idea how he is going to handle it.

So, first, here are some of the things that come to my mind when picking the best: (although I may not be able to apply these for my selection)

• List should be fun for all readers. Many times lists are made with each point not clearly different than the one before, which can easily become boring;
• To avoid the above, Inject a little humor;
• Leaving a list incomplete can sometimes be a good idea so others can suggest and add to it, a way of encouraging participation;
• Inject controversy, as it more often than not sparks discussions, which always helps to build community

So, there, with some of these pointers, I hope the task to pick the top three would become a bit easier for you all.

Although I am still finding it very difficult to do but nevertheless, I will list some of my favorites, in no particular order.

After all, its Luciano who gets to decide, right? :)

UPDATE 1: I stand corrected! No Luciano will not be ‘voting’ for any lists as he reiterated in the comments here…

1. 5 surefire ways of increasing comments on your blog
2. 12 WordPress Editors You Can Choose
3. 35 Guaranteed Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers
4. 7 Tricks You Need To Fight Procrastination
5. 26 Ways to Change the World
6. 10 Life lessons Learned While Camping
7. Six Savvy Reasons Why You Should Travel Light
8. Escape The Rut
9. 5 Blogging Ups, 5 Blogging Downs and 10 Blogging Tips
10. No Cost Business Tools: 37 Free Applications that Make Your Life Easier

Okay I am done for the moment because there a too many of great lists submitted in that project…67 to be exact. Do check them out, there is something for everyone to enjoy!

UPDATE 2: Sunday, Dec. 2nd, 2007!

Seems like blogging is all I do these days! Here is another group of lists that I enjoyed

100 Ways To Promote A Startup by Jason Drohn
17 POWER Tips For StumbleUpon Beginners by Dr. Mani
18 Tips to Become a Productive Blogger by Monika Mundell
21 Punching Tips On Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization by Etienne Teo
8 Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople by Daniel Sitter
7 Powerful Tips to Overcome Failure by Donald Latumahina
10 Ways To Work Through Your Workout by Gal Josefsberg
ten things i didn’t know until last week by Blaiq
100 Resources To Improve Your Career, Relationships And Money by Lawrence Cheok
3 Things I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now by Stephen Hopson
5 reasons (not) to drink coffee by Lodewijkvdb

Rest of the lists that I just couldn’t leave out and I am sure I will be coming back to:

5 Ways To Win A Blog Contest by Erz
5 Reasons Why I Bought a Domain by WishBoNe
5 Ways to Become the Perfect Idiot by Lori
15 Tips to Prevent Repetitive Strain Injury and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome by CSS
100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann
10 Ways to Survive the Writers’ Strike by Cynthia Boris
100List – 100 Things I can do to make more money. by Dj Wright
Your Top 10 Inspirational Quotes by Sparky
My Top-10 Personal Development Blogs by Marco
The Quitter’s Checklist by Em Dy
Thirteen Reasons Why WordPress is Superior To Blogger by JHS
Get out of debt Quick: 7 Tips by Tejvan
Six Simple Steps to Remembering and Living the Abundant Life You are Meant to Live by Anita Pathik Law
To Do To Make Tomorrow Better by Bob
Top 7 Paid Review Writing Mistakes You Can Avoid by Prince John
9 Ways To Achieve Success in Life by Adebola Oni
40 ways to make your mind your playground by Fier
5 Crash Course Tips in Viral Marketing by John Murch
100 Sites I Seek Inspiration From by Iain Hamp
5 Things That I Believe To Be Lies by Krizza
List of Classes by Priscilla Palmer
Top 23 Motivation Tips, Tricks and Tactics from the Blogosphere by Mike Ambrose
Twelve Days of Classic Country Christmas by Scott
5 ways to crack or reset a forgotten Windows XP administrator password by Aseem Kishore
10 Things To Consider Before Acting As Your Own Contractor by Shawn Van Dyke
A Tester’s Dream – 5 steps to revive a Rejected Bug! by Debasis Pradhan
My Five Wish-list Classes I Would Enroll In by Al
10 Ways To Improve Your Personality by Z Hereford
The Top Ten Internet Business Ideas by John
3 Ways to Bring Back the Joy to the Holidays by Karen Lynch
Best 101 Lists by Pearl
13 encouraging questions by Isabella Mori
100 Things To Write A List Of 100 About by Kotsengkuba
Lovecraft & Cthulhu Christmas List by Cullen Bunn
List Of Why Blogs Are A Female Gender by Domtan
100 Things to do Before I Die by Joseph Gibbs
150 Funniest Resume Mistakes, Bloopers and Blunders Ever by Jacob Share
10 Productive Ways for Moms to “Relax” by Neena
10 Tips on How to Watch a Horror Movie When You are a Scaredy Cat by Migraine Chick
100 Ways to Personally Conquer Chaos at Work by Judy Martin
50 Ways to Start a Conversation by Dee
How to prepare for Christmas by Ajay
7 Seven tips for students to success by Xoel Cardigan
6 Steps to Take Writing Ideas From WordPress Themes by Karen Zara
What you think is what you see: 4 Ways to stop negativity by Holli Jo

Phew!!! Make sure to read ALL of the lists at your leisure! there is wealth of information in them!

What To Look For In List Posts is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

When I posted Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture video back in September, I watched it again and again and was amazed at how much courage this man has, how fearless he is and how happy he was, despite the fact he knew his world was coming to end, Literally!!  Now look at another clip “The lecture revisited”:

Here is another clip that is very inspiring and makes you think a little differently about your life!

These are people who found ways to stand out from the crowd.

These are people who did not allow their lives to fall in chaos. When I watch their winning attitudes, my own problems and heartaches seem trivial.  And my thinking goes something like this:

• I am not going to obsess about what I do not have, rather I am going to concentrate on what I do have;
• I will do everything to develop resilience and not let anything break me;
• What can I do to achieve my dreams?
• What can I do to be the best?

People turn their lives around all the time, especially in the face of adversity.  We all have the power to turn negatives into positives and find contentment.  All of us face failures, setbacks and all sorts of problems in life and many times, these things show up without any warning.

Often if we try and stay focused and not let bad times take over our emotions, not lose perspective by constantly being afraid of the unknown, we can handle just about any level of distress without going insane.   Because, we don’t always get to choose what we might have to face and what will come into our lives,  but we can choose how we react to the circumstances.

Staying positive will make it easier to go through rough times, than whining about them and getting more depressed!

How do you handle adversities, failures and negative circumstances?

This post is inspired by the Think Different Challenge hosted at I will change your life! I wasn’t tagged for it, but I loved the idea. If you would like to join and write about what makes you think different, just follow the rules:

The Rules
1. Write a new blog post in which you “think different”. Interpret the challenge the way you want and include a link and/ or trackback to this post so that readers know the rules of the challenge. Feel free to use the above banner (inspired, of course, by Seth Godin).
2. Include a link and/or trackback to the blogger who tagged you.
3. At the end of your post, go ahead and tag some fellow bloggers. Don’t forget to email them to let them know they have been tagged.

Think Different and Overcome Negativity is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

After reading Leo Babauta of ZenHabits on why bloggers WILL change the world and how we can help, I have to say, I felt motivated to do my bit and have been reading and educating myself on this issue. But, with thousands of web sites filled with information on what to do and what not to do to reduce the affects of global warming and save the environment, I feel kinda lost as far as writing something original!

So, in order to get a better perspective on what the big deal about this devastating phenomenon is, and not bombarding you with Top 50 things to do to stop Global Warming or writing another Global Warming Survival Guide, which obviously are far superior than what I could come up with, I thought of sharing some thought provoking videos I came across, made by National Geography , AndrewEdwardRoss, and elephantologist respectively!

note: this was supposed to be published at midnight, but guess my blog’s time needs to be fixed! but how?

UPDATE: (Idea copied from pelf…. See all other blog action day posts on technorati

Unity in diversity on Blog Action Day! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Blog Action Day is the day when the bloggers around the world will unite and post something about the environment on their blog.

I have registered to participate! Have you?

According to the Blog Action Day website:

Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

You can participate in any or all of the following ways!

• Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
• Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
• Promote Blog Action Day around the web

Watch a short promo video about this:

Following has been taken from the official Blog Action Day website:

“The best way to participate is to post on your blog something that relates to the environment. Your post can be about anything to do with the environment. So you could write a post which is offtopic for your blog OR relate the environment back to your topic in some way.

For example, if you had a blog about programming and technology, you could write about applications used for the environment, how to make your office more sustainable, how to stop wasting paper, why technology will save the environment, or just write about an environmental issue which has nothing to do with programming!

As another example, if you wrote about restaurants, you could write about kitchen practices that make for a more environmentally friendly workplace, food packaging, produce made from sustainable farming or any of a multitude of topics.

What works best is to keep writing as you normally would. Your audience reads your blog for a reason, you don’t need to suddenly change your voice, style or emphasis. Simply find an angle on your regular postings which relates to the environment.

Our aim is to get people thinking, discussing, questioning and talking about the environment, from every angle, niche, viewpoint and personality. “

If you decide not to, at the very least, check out their website and find who else has registered to participate!

del.icio.us Tags: BlogActionDay, Community, Activism

Have you signed up for Blog Action Day? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Do you ever find yourself thinking and reviewing the events that happened in the past? Things that happened just recently or sometimes even in the distant past? I used to spend way too much time thinking what happened, what could have been or even what will happen. This state of mind is not constant so to speak, but it stays in the subconscious. We all do it. We are constantly either thinking about something that didn’t turn out the way we expected it to or did turn out the way we wanted it… or how things are going to be in immediate or distant future. As a result we are constantly living a reactionary life.

This concept has been on my mind for a few days now because two years ago around the same time, I lost two relatives. Two uncles who were brothers, passed away within one month. That was the first time in my life I had experienced death from so close. I attended both funerals and was depressed for months after that! What I could not come to terms with was the time I could have spent with them and didn’t because of everything that was going on in my life. I have avoided things that I felt I could live without. And meeting uncles was something I definitely could live without. I loved both of these men dearly but we had strong differences of opinions. So having to go to meet them and spend an hour or two seemed like too much trouble at the time! But with their sudden passing, I was left with a hole in my heart. A huge resentment. I was haunted for weeks and months because of all things that now remain unsaid. The missed opportunities.

I believe we are all missing opportunities to some extent on a daily basis. We need to stop constant judging, speculating, criticizing, worrying about the future and getting angry about the past or even the people around us, and start living in the moment. We need to stop living a reactionary life, the life that is a result of something else and start living just in what is now. I came to this realization when after those two tragedies back to back I was killing myself with the guilt I felt, a friend presented me with the book called Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

I have started reading this book again because our minds play tricks on us and needs re-direction from time to time.
The book’s title says it all and some excerpts go like this

–”To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be.”

and

–”Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.”

So this change in our thinking should not have to wait for a tragedy to happen. We need to do whatever it is we need to do to start living in the now moment, believe in our abilities and go after our dreams without worrying too much about the outcomes. This is the only way to ultimate happiness. Be aware that what has happened will not change and what has to come, we do not know, there is only NOW, this very moment. Live it, enjoy it and make the most of it.

What’s your view on life at this very moment?

Being Aware of Now is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I have mentioned before that in the short time I have been blogging, I feel like I am addicted to it.  I also work full time and the whole thing is really getting me tired.  I am sure bloggers who have been blogging for longer periods of time would attest to some of the same experiences.

We all know blogging is fun but not easy.  It is difficult work.  And I confess, I am getting exhausted these days sitting in front of the computer for longer and longer hours.   I am sacrificing some of those areas of my life that if not paid attention to now can end up hurting me, for example today at work, I didn’t even ‘find’ time to take lunch break because I was too busy taking care of a huge project!   I have to get myself organized a bit better to straighten  this chaos.   As I have always done,  I needed to take a step back today and look at some things that I needed to either start doing differently or just stop doing completely in order to achieve some balance and be able to enjoy all that I want to do.  So I started brainstorming and came up with the following list.   This list is just the start and I plan to continue adding to it as more and more ideas come to mind.   I hope the items listed here will help some of you too. 

1. Don’t forget to take lunch break every day.
2. Get away from the desk and the computer. Go out of the building, even if it is for 20 minutes!
3. Do not schedule too many appointments in a single day, absolutely allow more time between appointments
4. Delegate assignments to others depending on their capability
5. Every day, do something I really enjoy, even if it is for half an hour
6. Learn to say NO to extra projects, social gatherings and activities that I do not have time for and will not be able to commit to [does it make sense?]
7. Try to get enough sleep [it is now 1 am and I need to stop doing this]
8. Iron my work clothes at night.
9. Do not procrastinate [this one is going to be very difficult]
10. Write things down instead of trying to remember everything – I missed a doctor’s appointment and forgot to return library books and here I am counting cents made in Adsense or from Kontera!
11. Limit caffeine intake to [ 2 cups a day? ]  currently I am on at least 4 cups a day!
12. Take a few minutes every day for some quiet time, down time when I am not thinking anything.
13. Hang around optimistic people and try to stay away from complainers.

There.  I am too tired to think anything else at this time.  But please add your stress busting ideas in the comments, and I will post the updated list next week with the provider’s site link next to the item.  I hope we can come up with a grand list of good stress busters.   Once we have enough ideas,  I will post the entire list in another page of its own so its easily accessible.  What do you say?

Tags: Stress Busters, List, Health, Blogging, Blog, Organizing

Beating Every Day Stress is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I love to read quotes and ponder upon their obvious meaning.  I also look for their hidden messages.   Analyzing everything is generally not a very good thing but it comes naturally to me and even when I try not to,  it just happens.

I read some of these quotes on temptation.  Each of them has a slightly different take but it got me thinking. 

“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”

“Resist no temptation: a guilty conscience is more honorable than regret”

And this one had me completely confused!!

“Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.”

Everyone struggles with something or another… it could be eating or drinking too much,  smoking several packs a day,  watching too much television,  shopping sprees when your closet is already overflowing,  gambling and such.  How difficult is it to resist to these temptations?   Do you end up yielding to them at times?  

Tags: self-improvement, life, health

Resisting Temptations or Yielding to them? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Ever since I have started blogging, I have been staying up later and later every night.  I feel I am in front of the computer a whole lot more than I was before, either it is checking out different blogs, or going through the readers, or even commenting on blogs.  Not only that, I am also talking about my blog to family and friends.  I talk about what I want to do with it, why I haven’t posted or how often I should post or if signed up with some affiliates.  The family members probably get bored with my rants about my blog!!  And I feel I am getting more and more exhausted physically but I love blogging.  This is like my new found hobby and I am addicted to it.  Although I am very tired for not getting enough sleep and rest, I feel immense happiness from even the minutest things that I am able to accomplish with my blog.

So, I am wondering, what wears people out more?  Physical exhaustion or mental strain? 

I think for most people, the obvious answer is mental strain.  Sadness, worry, boredom or even anger, can take even a bigger toll on us than any kind of physical activity.  But in order to get rid of  mental strain, many times you need to take a physical action.  Today I want to list some of the things that have worked for me in lifting my spirit up during times of stress and tension and may be you will find these helpful too.  If you do something that has worked for you, would you please share that with us?

• Turn on some tunes
  I feel whenever I am stressed out or sad about something, turning on some nice music always changes my bad mood and helps in decreasing tension.  Often times we become so engrossed in sadness that even the thoughts of changing that mood start making us feel guilty, as if we are supposed to stay in that state of mind.   Listening to music helps most people in the gym, if you ever notice, people with headphones are usually jogging faster than the ones who jogg in silence. 

• De-Clutter
  We all know how clutter can make us feel completely out of control and it definitely can be overwhelming if we are already feeling stressed and down.  Going through just one pile of clothes or papers, or even just one corner of a room can make us feel uplifted.  Simply accomplishing a goal, however minor it might be, can make us feel energized.

• Let go of grudges
  I find anger and sadness often take over if we continue to dwell on grudges, and almost always results in our hearts  racing faster causing increased blood pressure.   We all know that this can lead to impaired thinking, impaired immune systems and ultimately causing physical harm.  This is a really vicious circle to get trapped in.  As we think more and more of the bad things that happened to us or someone did to us, we get more and more angry and more and more sad with each thought.  I often try to practice – although I am not always successful – to try to forgive those who have become the cause of harm.  It actually does help relieve a lot of the tension and forgiving someone gives you the feeling as if you are back in control.  Forgiving does not mean forgetting the wrongs someone did to us, it simply means that we accept the fact that the other person did not know any better for them to cause harm to us.   This is probably one of the hardest things to do but it does help to great extent.

• Deep Breath
  Have you realized when we are angry, our breaths are shorter and shallow?  Less intake of oxygen into the lungs means less oxygen to brain and the entire body, which of course further drains our bodies of any energy.  Try to remember a sleeping baby.  Ever notice how their bellies rise and fall as they take deep breaths in?  That is what we as adults should try to achieve.  Deep belly breaths help the body to relax and while we are trying to concentrate on our beaths, it takes our minds off of the problem that caused the stress to begin with.

• Dress Up Nicely
  This one is especially helpful in times when you don’t feel like doing anything.  During sadness and tension filled stressful periods, not paying attention to the way we dress up is very normal.  But instead try dressing  up a bit extra sharp when you are feeling sluggish.  Dressing in nicer attire counters our image of ourselves and boosts our morale especially when we receive compliments throughout the day.  Catching a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror, all dressed for success,  will automatically counter our crapy internal state of mind.

and finally I believe

• Vent your feelings
  Keeping every negative emotion – fear, anger, anxiety and stresses – all pent up inside will eventually make us sicker. Talk to a friend, talk to some family member or just write it all down.  By giving some sort of vent to what you feel will eventually reduce its ability to sap your energy and will make you functional again.

Tags: Self Improvement, Life  health

Re-Energizing your spirit is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Wow!!!!!!!!.. I just watched an amazingly wonderful wonderful, incredibly moving and heartwarming video on Seth Godin’s website.

Paul is a very normal looking man and as Seth points out and you will see in the video, the judges are not all that impressed by his looks. But had he cared to listen to what others think of him, he would not have gotten to where he is today and we would all have missed those beautiful moments that he shared with us.

Shouldn’t we all continue to forge ahead in pursuit of fulfilling our dreams in spite of what others say? I watched the video a few times and each and every time I cried with joy!

Follow your heart despite of all the challenges and roadblock and someday you will find your destination…

I came across this video when I was reading his regular blog post “Just One Post” , which of course also inspired me to write this very post…:) Here is the excerpt from Seth’s site:

“A lot of people have blogs. But most people don’t.

I think you should. Even if you only have one post in you.

Having a blog is pretty daunting, especially if you don’t like blank paper and are the sort of person that hates falling behind. I can imagine that the idea of posting 50 or 300 times a year is a little bit nuts for many people.

But what if there’s just one thing you need to say, but you can say it clearly and well and in a way that hasn’t been said before? What if you’ve got one great blog post inside of you, and, even better, you’re willing to update that post as you learn more and gain more insight?

An entire post about a certain kind of fossil. Or the misuse of a certain word. Or about a key difference between two kinds of bluetooth…

Why not?”

He does make sense, doesn’t he? I admire the fact that in so few words he is able to communicate such a huge message. If you feel that you have something to say, why not take the plunge and say it, and what better way to get your voice heard than on your blog?

I find Seth Godin’s messages and his views really inspiring and every time I have visited his site, I have come back with an uplifted and motivated spirit.

You can read his post and comments on this video here!

PS: Lets hope this is my last post on blogger!! I will be finalizing my template and moving to wordpress this weekend so you may see some downtime on this site!!

Paul sings Nessun Dorma is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

There are nights I fall fast asleep as soon as I crash in bed and there are times when I am up all night.. I am sure most of us have experienced those nights when we just are not tired and cannot fall asleep… tonight was one of those nights for me.

It could be because its Friday and there is no worry of getting up early tomorrow and there is no rush…. it is 2am and instead of watching TV, I am blogging…. wouldn’t you call it getting hooked? may be I am hooked to blogging!

So, I have been thinking about what to post next. This is a very young blog and I have not yet decided what I want it to become when it grows up, so I am not limiting my writings to any tight ‘niche’.

In a way, I feel it is nice to not have to write within those constraints! I like having the flexibility of being able to write about a varied topics. Although I read somewhere that Google AdSense gets confused if you jump from one topic to another across niches, that AdSense will not understand what kind of ads to display and that way you may be displaying ads that are not relevant to your content and no one will want to click on them and hence you will not make any money. I understand that to some extent, but I am also starting to feel that there are numerous blogs writing about ‘how to make money’ off of Internet, not enough of them are writing about the real life issues, how the culture of our society is evolving and many other aspects from which we could take away some good advice.

Anyways, I am still testing waters so I will be writing just about anything and everything that I feel passionate about and topics for which I feel there is an interest in the community and gets a response from my readers.

So for tonight, I am not able to think much of what to write, therefore I am going to outline some ideas that may be helpful to someone who is also struggling to fall asleep ;) and as I start to write, I am already starting to doze off.. :)

So, here are some things that come to my mind at this ungodly hour!!

• take deep breaths and let go of worries as you breath out
• exercise at least two hours prior to going to bed
• avoid neon lighted or illuminated clocks
• avoid caffeine before going to bed
• visualize something peaceful and serene
• warm bath and warm milk are known to help

Do you know any more of those remedies that help fall asleep faster? :)

gn & sd

Ways to fall asleep is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

For over three weeks, I have been having sharp pain in my right elbow and for the last two or three days it started traveling down in my hand as well as in shoulder and someone suggested it might be tennis elbow.. So I made an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon and he gave me a Cortisone shot combined with Novocain! yesterday! To my surprise, the pain has increased instead of diminishing, and this mornig it is excruciating! The arm is a bit swollen too – couldn't sleep all night.. Needless to say, I am typing with my left hand… so it is taking extraordinarily longer to write.

I have been surfing the net though, checked out MyBlogLog, Bumpzee, added some contacts, joined a few communities because these can be done with just one click, checked few blogs and wrote a few comments, but typing with one hand (and that too with left hand if you are right handed) is darn difficult. I'm telling you, if you have never had tennis elbow, you have no idea how painful it is. I am alternating heat and cold packs but so far, nothing seems to help! So, I think I will rest a bit this weekend and share with you all something that was forwarded to me the other day. It is an online journal going around the web called Book of Gratitude. If you feel up to writing something in it, please do and then pass it on to someone else.

And in the meantime, I would love to hear from you all on my blog. If you visit, please do say a hi and tell me what is your take on – say gratitude, taking things for granted (e.g., I never thought of typing with my left hand, but now I am doing exactly that), or tennis elbow, if you ever had it, you know someone who had it, how they treated it, if cortisone shots really work or not, or just say a hi and tell me how my blog looks to you :) And I sure will return the favor as soon as I get better.

Have a wonderful relaxing weekend

Tags: Life, Blog, Tennis Elbow

Book of Gratitude is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Ray from freshblogger has a post about Maile of Breath by Breath and her naikan challenge. Maile asks her readers to take 30 minutes each day for the next 7 days and answer these questions (10 minutes per question):

And today when I stumbled upon it again, I see there is quite a healthy exchange of ideas going on between Mark of 45n5 and Maile over at freshblogger.

My personal opinion of this is that we are the happiest when we just let the nature, the universe take its course, when we let the events unfold without expecting ’something’ – anything – good or bad – from everything that happens.

By changing the way we think, by changing our outlook on life, we can control and even improve our attitudes and our actions and hence the outcome. If the result of our well thought out actions is not the one we were expecting, then we need to work on changing our perceptions.. I believe when we engage ourselves consciously in making a decision to choose, it empowers us with that unseen but definitely felt strength. And when we are empowered, we are automatically happy.

When daily pressures are surmounting, I often find myself a quiet place and try to stop my brain from having those racing thoughts and try to let go of ‘control’ of all outcomes; take a deep breath in and just let go of all feelings and emotions. I think about the statement ‘Everything that has happened had to happen, everything that must happen cannot be stopped’ and it instantly puts me in a state of relaxation. With the relaxed mind, I try to think of how thankful I am for everyone and everything that comes my way and I feel uplifted instantly.

My practice of coming out of one state of mind into another state – of relaxation – leads me into being happy and content. So being happy or content is choice available to all us and we can either choose to be happy or choose to be unhappy. Everyone has to find his or her own way of getting to that state. It is an emotion that we can create with our thoughts. We act upon our thoughts and these thoughts then become our experiences. And, whatever we focus our thoughts on, expands, doesn’t it? Think positive and you will have positive experiences.

Sometime ago, Time magazine had published an entire report on happiness along with scientific evidences, called Mind & Body: Happiness, along with a quiz called, well, The Happiness Quiz with which you could measure your happiness…

Here is that quiz:

and the results of a poll that was taken, of course most of the people who responded to the poll are from the US, but this is a fairly large population so this is I guess can be applicable to most of the people..

And “most of the people find happiness in family connections and friendships”..

All research aside, positive thinking and lightening up will definitely make us feel happy.

How to be Happy is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

“There is a striking parallelism between humans and horses when it comes to obesity,” said Philip Johnson, professor of veterinary medicine and surgery at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Some of the very same problems humans encounter with obesity may also occur in horses.”

“When exercising horses, owners should push their horses for a more strenuous exercise. It’s not enough to ride your horse twice a week for 20 minutes.”

It is saddening to learn the kind of health problems poor animals go through, especially when the conditions are caused by humans and the animal simply bears the pain.. very sad!

Humans aren’t the only ones with obesity problems is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.