Ten Minutes of Gratitude for Planet Earth

by Karen Talavera
It has been well documented that expressing gratitude is essential to happiness. In several recent books published about happiness, such as Sonja Lyubomirsky's "The How of Happiness" and countless Oprah shows, we have been shown time and time again that giving thanks not only moves people from thinking about what they are lacking to a state of appreciation for what they have. It also just feels good.

Mainstream movies like The Secret drive the point home further by explaining that our thoughts actually generate energy waves which travel outward to initiate the process of manifesting what we think into reality; positive into positive, negative into negative. We really do create our own reality, whether we want to believe it or not.

So I've been thinking. Earth Day 2008 is April 22. Wouldn't it be great if we could use gratitude to help create a better Earth and make ourselves happier in the process? To heal the catastrophic environmental destruction we've inflicted in merely a century? We know by now we humans have poisoned, pillaged, and harmed much of the planet. There can be little argument that damage has been done. But we've also been told it's not too late.

Let's help undo the damage. Let's show the Earth, a living planetary organism, how grateful we are for all it gives us. Let's see what happens when we do the opposite of what we usually do with the Earth ' take it for granted ' and instead express our gratitude at large.

Here is what I propose: While there are thousands if not tens of thousands of Earth Day events planned worldwide (see http://ww2.earthday.net/~earthday/node/80), the one I am launching will not only be the easiest to participate in, but perhaps the most universal. It's called "10 Minutes of Gratitude for Planet Earth". This is what you do:

On Earth Day April 22, 2008 at 12:00 noon in any time zone, sit quietly and for ten minutes focus your attention on all the places, experiences, and moments of Earthly nature you have ever enjoyed, and be grateful for them.

Yep, that's it. You don't have to go anywhere, donate to a cause, or volunteer your time. Okay, I understand it sounds too easy. That's mostly because we've been conditioned to believe anything effective is difficult or complicated. Yet usually the best things in life are not just free, they're exquisitely simple. Nonetheless, for those wishing additional information, here is how I see this working as well as some useful guidelines:

1. Sit in a quiet space in which you will not be interrupted by people, electronics, or anything else.

2. Ideally, sit outside facing nature. Look at your garden, a pond, lake, ocean, mountain or park. If you're city-bound, find a tree or plant and focus on it. Even look at the sky, clouds or sun. The point is to keep the Earth's natural beauty and not a man-made creation in your vista.

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Your Perfect Workout

by Debi Silber, MS, RD, WHC

What does your perfect workout mean? Is it a stroll in the park, taking a class, a rigorous hour of tennis, or using the stairmaster during your favorite TV show? Maybe it means focusing on your breath in a yoga class, stretching your muscles with pilates or running to your favorite songs. While any of these workouts benefit your body, mind and soul, many moms don't exercise at all. In fact, the only exercise their getting is when they exercise their right...not to exercise.

If this sounds like you, it's time to find your perfect workout. But what if you haven't worked out in weeks, months, even years? What matters is that you find something that you can enjoy. What also matters is that you begin at a level that's only slightly more challenging than what you feel you can do. This way, you don't scare yourself off from beginning and sticking with a new routine. It's also a great way to build confidence in yourself. By setting a goal that's reasonable, then achieving that goal, you gain the confidence to keep trying. It's an empowering feeling to take back the reins and know that your fitness, health and priorities are up to you.

Now like many moms, let's say you haven't exercised in an embarrassingly long time. You're never ending to-do list got the best of you and the only way you could get everything done was by cutting your own self care right off your list. So unfortunately, your exercise was one of the first things to go. This may have worked for a while but at some point, you began to feel sluggish, lethargic and unfit. Maybe you noticed that your clothes weren't fitting as well as they used to. You may have realized that while you used to sprint up the steps, now you're huffing and puffing as you near the top. Whatever caused you to see that you need exercise in your life doesn't matter, as long as you use that information to get going. So, where do you begin?

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Keeping Your Teen Safe Online

by Mike Batta

If you want to try to control how your child is surfing the net, refer to the list of Controls listed at the end of this article. But first,it is important to understand that these types of software only solve part of the problem of online predators. Good parenting is the first control a child needs in his life. Software such as we will discuss help, of course, but they will not completely eliminate risks to your children. You have to be a part of and aware of his life by keeping an eye out for certain signs.

Be concerned if your child quickly minimizes the screen or switches the browser if you enter his room. Be concerned if you see a message such as "POS" when you are in the room. Get to know the IM language so you can see what is going on. "POS", by the way, means "parent over shoulder".

-Be concerned if your child receives phone calls from people you don't know.
-Be concerned if your child has new clothing; perhaps a predator is giving him gifts.
-Be concerned if your child suddenly does not want to attend school, or does not want to go online. He may be being bullied.

If you do think there is a problem, the first thing you need to do is report it. YOu can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children hotline. They are experienced in analyzing these types of problems and alerting the right parties. You should also notify your internet services provider;they are responsible for reporting any suspected cases of child pornography.

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Detaching from Unhealthy Connections

by Helene Rothschild


Are you feeling obligated to anyone? Do you feel responsible for other peoples' pain or survival? Would you like to be free of emotional ties that are draining you?

Cutting emotional cords has been a major practice in my counseling office. I discovered that many of my clients' were attached to others in an unhealthy way. Once the symbolic umbilical cords were cut, they reported feeling free, relieved, and lighter. The men and women had no idea that they were corded in this fear-based, energetic way.

For example, Joseph, a fifty-year-old engineer, loved his mother and felt very sad for her situation. She had been in a very dependent marriage, and cried often when her husband passed away. The loyal son felt he had to live close to her in order to ease her pain.

However, his dear mother was very controlling, critical of his wife, and wanted more of Joseph than he could possibly give her. No matter what he did, it was never enough. Joseph felt bad, and his relationship with his mother put a strain on his marriage.

When his wife, Katy, had enough and decided to leave the area, Joseph panicked and had the courage to leave with her. She felt the only solution was to live in another state.

Their marriage improved, but there were still some relationship problems. I said to them,

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How To Choose The Right Article Title For Your Article Topic

by Brett Michael

In addition to explaining the importance of using the right article title for your article topic, we'd like to share with you a bit about the history on article writing.

These areas include the importance of using keywords in your article, and the power of article writing and distribution as a cost-effective online marketing strategy.

There are few things to consider when choosing an article title for your article topic. Do they match? Do other article authors overuse the article title? (Notice we didn't say used. We said overuse). It is okay to have the same article title for your article topic as someone else.

The same use of an article title for your article topic is not legally binding. But, you should consider a fairly unique article title for your article topic so your article stands alone as much as possible.

You will also reduce the risk of getting mixed in with the many articles on the Internet using variations on the same article title for similar article topics. Having a unique article title for your article topic will also be useful in tracking where your article is on the Internet.

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The 5 Biggest Myths About Meditation

by Mary Rosendale

1. It’s relaxing.

This is a dangerous myth because people expect meditation to be like slipping into a hot tub. When they experience discomfort they think it’s not working or they’re not doing it right and they give up. In fact, it’s often not relaxing, at least not initially. In the beginning meditation is like exercise; if it doesn’t hurt you’re not doing it right. This puts off a lot of people right from the start. They’ve taken the odd Yoga class where you lie on the floor, close your eyes and let your poor body rest. Everybody loves this. You’ve been moving for an hour, your limbs are stretched every which way and you relish the opportunity to let gravity take your muscles and let them drop. Conventional sitting meditation may become like this over time but it probably won’t be right off the bat. When you sit down and face a wall or close your eyes and there’s nothing between you and the timer but your incessantly jabbering monkey mind it’s anything but relaxing. Horrifying and sobering are two more appropriate words that come to mind. Relaxing it ain’t.

2. You need time to meditate.

You don’t need time to set aside time to meditate. You can meditate for 5 minutes, 2 minutes, in your car, walking or chopping onions. It isn’t a specialized activity which you have to do in a room with specialized equipment. Cut out 15 minutes of TV time and there’s your meditation block.

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Article Cloning for fun and profit

by Jan Michaels

Ok ... The title is a bit misleading as there is no fun or profit involved in article cloning, but I got your attention! Article cloning, which is also called article spinning, or article rewriting, is the process of taking an original article and changing it so that it seems like a new article.

This process is not really a bad thing if done by the original author or a public domain article rewritten manually, but can become a mess when done using an article cloning program. There are several article cloning programs available, and they all pretty much do the same things .. turn a good article into a bad one.

What does an Article Cloner do?

Most cloners have options to replace certain words with similar word that may (or may not) mean the same thing, add blocks of text at the beginning, middle and end of existing articles and move blocks of text around.

Using the word replacement option, a line of text from the original articles is changed from this

"The Caption will display directly above your table. Kind of like a title! Your site visitors with normal browsers won't see the summary unless they view your pages source code",

To this

"The Caption will display directly major your table. Kind of like a title! Your station visitors with general browsers won't see the concise unless they purview your pages alpha code".

Not pretty is it? Now, lets consider that you have replaced words with the article cloner, and added new sentences top, middle and bottom in the same style as the changed sentence above. I'll tell you what will happen. Anybody reading that article will form an instant opinion (probably not a good one) of the author and article publishing site owner and most likely hit the back button on their browser faster than the land speed record!

The article cloning people may point out that the replacement word list for the particular software used wasn't as good as theirs. I say, it doesn't matter which version of cloning software you use, it's not gonna work for you. Heres why. Nearly all words have many different meanings and can mean different things in a different context. Computers just aren't smart enough to know which meaning of the word or context the author is using it in. Because of this, your article becomes mostly non-sense.

After cloning the article you are left with two choices. Submit it as it is (not a good idea if you really WANT traffic at your website), or go thru the article and fix everything. Neither is a good idea if you consider that by cloning, then fixing the article, you've wasted more time than if you had simply written a new article!

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