Being healthy and happy isn't just about what you eat and how much money you have.  Sure, what you eat is very important, as good nutrition plays a role in your immunity, energy levels, weight, and other areas, affecting your health in many ways both subtle and obvious.  Certain foods even help prevent certain diseases, and can help you heal when you are sick or injured.

How much money you have is also important.  Regardless of your personal associations with money, it is a form of exchange that can buy you freedom, experiences, education, travel, medical care, inspiration, the list is limited only by your imagination.  "They" say money can't buy you happiness, but it can sure give you more freedom to choose to spend your time doing and acheiving things that you enjoy. 

True happiness, seems to me anyway, to require personal achievement and growth, coupled with a sense of responsibility for your life, actions and consequences.  There is much to be said for the achievement you 'created', rather than the one you think you achieved by 'luck.'  Personally, I'm not a big believer in luck, but that's probably best left for another blog post at another time.

Anyway, I am going to leave you with the words of someone who knows exactly what he wants and how to create his own success.  We all know him as someone who speaks the words of other's, but these words are all his. 

I introduce to you, Will Smith :

For more information on getting the life you want, you can also check out our road map to a better life, "Get a Life."

Today, let's have a look at a form of exercise that is more than just exercise.  It is a lifestyle.

The practice of yoga offers innumerable benefits. There are physiological, psychological and bio-chemical benefits of yoga.

With regular practice of the Asanas, Pranayama and meditation, various ailments such as diabetes, blood pressure,

digestive disorders, etc can be cured.

Yoga helps reduces stress levels and enhances powers of relaxation; blood circulation is improved; our skin not only

becomes healthy but there is that additional glow as well that we have all yearned for; our immune system gets a boost;

our stamina is built and we achieve flexibility; helps in control and coordination.

Amongst the physiological benefits there is improvement in asthma, reduction in pain, improvement in respiratory

problems, high blood pressure is controlled, helps in reducing weight, there is relief provided to the joints i.e. arthritis

gets relief. Relaxation techniques and meditation help reducing pain.

Amongst the psychological benefits improvement in self awareness and mental performance is achieved. Apart from

these, spiritual benefits like discovering one self is achieved. With regular practice of yoga our concentration levels

increase, memory and attention improve, self acceptance increases, learning efficiency improves, and social adjustment

increases.

Some of the bio-chemical benefits of yoga are decrease in glucose, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, total cholesterol, s

odium; and increase in HDL cholesterol, hemoglobin, lymphocyte count, vitamin C, and thyroxin.

The benefits of yoga are very may and there is no better form of exercise that will help us receive so many benefits.

It helps unite the mind, the body, and the spirit.  So if you want to take the most of these benefits of yoga go ahead and

practice this great form of exercise and meditation.

For more information on Yoga, we have a great yoga package in the bookstore.  Click here to check it out.  

“If a ship does not know to which port it is sailing to, then no wind is favorable.”

How many of us are like a ship that is meandering through the sea of life, with no direction or meaningful attempt to acquire a form of navigation? Many of us are quite content to simply take a back seat and assume an entirely passive role when it comes to our life, and for others, whilst we designate certain “ports” (life ambitions and aspirations) the truth of the matter is that we end up getting distracted and derailed. Our journey alters from a linear one to one that is so confused and muddled that Odysseus himself would struggle to make any measure of sense of it.

Part of the problem is that many of us end up setting the bar a little too high meaning that our goals are not feasible or realistic in the long term, and as a result the inevitable happens: we fail to achieve them. When we fail to attain the demanding goals we set ourselves we mentally kick ourselves and become very depressed and withdrawn as a result of the perceived failure on our part. This self-auditing can be a positive feature, as it can provide us with the necessary motivation to propel us further into a particular path, but taken to an extreme…. we end up never even trying anything new, for fear that we fail.

Therefore, whilst goal setting is an important tool in order to ensure that we can channel our energies and because it provides us with a clearly defined ambition to work towards, it is imperative that we exercise care when it comes to goal setting, otherwise the idea of goal setting for the achievement of happiness will quickly become a bitterly ironic statement indeed.

Don’t list an overarching goal and then leave it at that, it is far better to take a big goal and sub-divide it into a series of smaller objectives, than leave it as it is. If your goal is to achieve a certain position within your job, then make sure you take the time to jot down a series of smaller steps and milestones that you will no doubt encounter and have to contend with on your path to the main goal.

If we can take the example of achieving a certain post in your employment, then you may include the skills that you will need to cultivate in order to actually grow professionally, and develop as a person.  Expand your resume, cultivate personal connections, and acquire more degrees and educational qualifications. Engage in relevant voluntary work that will help you develop the tools for achievement and success.

Life Resource Downloads has many tools for improving your life.  In fact, our Self Improvement category is growing all the time.  Click here to check it out.

 How many of us are unhappy about the way our life is, and long for something more? Numerous psychiatrists and sociologists have used and relied upon a number of buzz words and labels to not only define this sense of unhappiness with life but also, to actually pinpoint the causes for it. Emile Durkheim, the so called father of modern sociology developed his theory of functionalism and made reference to the phenomena he dubbed “anomie” to describe the individuals alienation from society as a whole. Robert Merton sought to expand upon the workings of Durkheim and developed his own theory, “Strain theory” whereby the lack of access to legitimate avenues for success alienates members of society.

However, the problem with all of these different theories is that they attempt pigeon hole an entire society  into a clearly and somewhat rigidly defined label with little to no consideration for the subtle nuances and differences that exist between different people. Therefore, the only person who can ever truly improve your life is….you. You ARE the master of your destiny, and the direction which your life will ultimately take. Exercise that right, use that responsibility and take charge of your fate, and achieve all that you want!

In order to resolve a problem it is necessary for us to first actually identify just what exactly it is, and so the following exercise should go some way to assisting you to narrow the range down. Write down all of the various outlets in your life (such as work, family, hobbies) and then note the degree of satisfaction you have with those areas. Be honest, and do not hesitate when jotting them down.

Once you have identified your weaker areas, the next step is to work out just why you feel so blue about them. Are you spending too much time in some parts of your life, to the detriment of others? Does this have the effect of knocking you off balance as a whole? If so, then it is important that you take proactive steps to resolve such unhappiness and disharmony.

Identify the steps that will make you happy, such as getting a promotion to ease money woes. Once you have done that, you need to then identify the smaller milestones you will need to achieve in order to fulfill the larger objective. Make sure that you set a deadline for these goals and mark them in a prominent position so that you do not lose sight of them (both literally and figuratively speaking.) Try and set a deadline that is realistic, but which poses enough of a challenge so as to actually move you out of your comfort zone if even for a little while.

 Happy New Year.  Make It Whatever You Want It To Be !

What did you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner today? No matter what foods your list contains, you can guarantee that everything you have eaten is not within it. Taking a quick look at the back of any food packaging will reveal an extensive ingredients list with all sorts of letters and scientific words that very few people actually understand. If you are one of the millions of people that do not understand them then ask yourself the question – what are you eating?

There are so many additives and preservatives added to food today that it is importable to keep up to date with that we are putting into our systems. Preservatives are used to ensure that foods last for as long a time as possible by preserving their color, scent and taste, although it can be argued that some preservatives alter all three artificially. Some decades ago, preservatives were natural because they often took the form of salt and vinegar. However, today they tend to be artificially created in laboratories.

Additives are also created in much the same way and can be used for the same purposes. However, they also enhance the flavor and lower the overall price of the food, meaning that we benefit from reduced costs in the supermarket. This may sound like a good thing right now but it is not so good when you realise that some hidden additives and preservatives actually have serious adverse effects in some individuals.

Visiting the FDA website can be incredibly insightful if you want to know more about the specific hidden and unknown preservatives and additives that are mixed in with our food today. There is currently more than a thousand different approved additives listed and you can find them all within the products on supermarket shelves. However, the FDA is a little less forthcoming about the side effects. Some are known to cause migraines, organ damage, cancer, allergies and even birth defects should an individual have an adverse reaction to them.

Unfortunately, the above information is not the scariest of that available on the unknown additives that we eat. Instead, that honor goes to the fact that food companies are not legally obliged to list everything that is contained within their products. According to an article by Dr William Rice, entitled “The Dangers Of Food Additives”, there are 93 different additives that do not have to be declared in bakery goods, 31 in cheese products, 76 in drinks and 58 in any desserts that are frozen. This is scary given that we can have absolutely no idea exactly what we are eating unless we make it ourselves or go organic.

It is time that everyone started looking a little more closely at what they eat on a daily basis because all of us should have absolute knowledge about what we put into our bodies. As technology has progressed, we have lost sight of that but now is the time to take back the power and make our bodies much happier and healthier as a result.

There is a long list of benefits from utilising the Hydroponics System, most of which are the primary reasons why this system is widely accepted around the globe for production of food. Some of them are listed below:

·                     You don’t need to use soil in hydroponic gardening.

·                     There is efficient water conservation since water remains back in the processing system and can be recycled.

·                      There is a high capability of controlling the level of nutrition of the entire process therefore you spend less in nutrition costs.

·                      Pollution of the nutrition need not be released to the free environment since system is generally controlled.

·                      Hydroponics achieves high yield and high stability.

·                      The insects and its related diseases can be easily eliminated from the soil since the container is mobile.

The progress is so fast and the end result has achieved very well-defined advantages compared to most conventional techniques in horticulture. In so many countries, hydroponics has been proven to be generally a practical application. There are two main benefits of the gardening of plants without soil. First, yielding capacity of crops is higher. Secondly, hydroponics might be applied in locations where there is the impossibility of gardening or agriculture on the ground itself.

Aside from being profitable, hydroponics systems have been proven for their great beneficial contribution to people, such as city-dwellers who live on crowded urban streets and find it impossible to have gardens. They can cultivate fruits and fresh vegetables placed on the rooftops. With the application of hydroponics, places like such can still achieve high yield and an ample stock of fresh vegetables. Even in rocky, stony and desert locations in mountainous areas, or even in sterile and arid lands, hydroponics can be applied at a considerably lower cost.

Faster growth of plants and immunity, stability in crops, and the high quality and excellence of the produce are also some of the great advantages. Growing area is also considerably reduced so very little space is actually needed. Weeds practically could not exist, while the old methods and the automatic operations provide lesser cost and less labor.

There are also some disadvantages with the use of hydroponic system.

Hydroponic conditions, with high humidity and application of fertilizer can make a condition that could generate salmonella growth. The other disadvantage is of pathogen attacks which include damping-off because of the Verticillium wilt produced due to high level of moisture as a result to over-watering and hydroponics of plants grown in soil.

Though hydroponics system requires low cost maintenance, setting up a new hydroponic system demands a considerable capital. Many family farm supporters are quick to judge that the hydroponics’ technological approach is precisely the variety of venture designed to draw investment. An investment like this will continually dominate American agriculture by the centralization of ownership and capital. Some of the giant corporations like the Control Data, General Mills, and General Electric are doing experiments with fully mechanized hydroponic factories. Some of these ventures often lead to controlled levels of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere. This technique is called "controlled-environment growing” with respect to this type of technology.

Have you ever wondered how fresh the vegetables that you buy from your groceries store are? To be honest they are not at all fresh. In some cases they are weeks old by the time they reach your kitchen.

Some vegetables taste great when they are fresh and that is why vegetable gardening is considered the best source of getting fresh veggies. You can grow all sorts of veggies out there. This means, if you know how to go about vegetable gardening then you can grow even the out of season and exotic vegetables by controlling the temperature, light and humidity levels.

Vegetable gardening can be a lot of fun too. You can also involve your kids who will find this to be a very exciting way to learn about things. Even toddlers can help you and have fun at the same time when you go out for vegetable gardening.

If you have space in your house for this, then you shouldn’t waste any more time and start your own immediately because this way you can cut down your grocery bill as well. Just think of all the benefits that you can get out of vegetable gardening and all the fun you and your family can have at the same time.

You actually don’t need a huge place to do it. Whatever space you have can be utilized for vegetable gardening. This may have its limitations like the quantity or variety that you might want to grow, but then even small quantity can be a lot to boost up your pride in your newly found hobby.

If you have been working on your veggie patch for a while, consider reading a bit about it. This might help you in improving your vegetable gardening skills. I think there is no harm in learning a few new tricks from the experts.

To get started in growing your own vegetables, check out “Home Vegetable Gardening.” 

Happy sowing, 

Melissa

For many people depression is has different meaning. Some consider it a mood swing while for others it is a phase of sadness because of a bad event.  Others consider true depression to be more deeply rooted than that, resulting in a chemical imbalance. 

The fact is that we all have our good and bad days if our moods change with the events then it’s OK, but when the mood remains depressed all the time then it is a matter of concern because that’s what real depression is all about.

Just think that if a friend remains sad all the time even without a reason, then there has to be depression, because depression is an illness and not a regular change in mood.

In depression there doesn't necessarily have to be a reason for your state of mind, because chemicals in the brain which are responsible for mood control are out of balance and you may feel bad even though everything in your life is pretty much OK.

Like any other disease or illness depression needs to be treated so the person can lead a happy healthy and a fulfilling life.

There are several options available to you through which you can cure your depression. These include medications and psychotherapy. What you should do initially is read about it, because knowing the problem helps you understand and then fight it off in a better way. It is also necessary for family members and friends of a depressed person to understand the condition and help him or her to get cured because depression needs a lot more than just medication, it needs love assurance and reassurance to get back on track!

If you are concerned that you or a loved one suffers from depression, please see your health care professional.

If you are looking for more information on natural health care for patients with depression, we have an excellent resource called "Beating Depression with Homeopathy."  You can find more information about this resource by clicking here.

Until next time,

Melissa  

Planning a pregnancy? Here is part 2 of some great ways to understand how you can prepare yourself for getting pregnant!

11.Get ready for some important radical lifestyle changes.. no more frequent night outs  and partying.

12. Get in touch with your care provider.

13.Inform your doctor about any medical history that you might have so that he takes enough precautionary measures so your pregnancy is smooth.

14. Change your diet… Have nutritious food and drink plenty of water

15. Take pre natal vitamins and iron tablets, folic acid to improve your health and make your body respond to pregnancy better.

16. De-stress your body. Take up meditation and yoga and exercise.

17. Update your immunizations.

18. Get a dental check up done. Ensure that you do not have to visit a dentist or take painkillers during your pregnancy period.

As you prepare to get pregnant, a number of issues will storm your mind. You will want answers to these. Do you really want a baby? Will you be a good mother? Will you be able to make all the sacrifices necessary to raise your child? Are you ready to take additional responsibilities? Especially if you are a working mother. Consider all of these before you give yourself the green signal.

Good luck and happy 'breeding'!

For the next step, learning everything you need to know about your pregnancy, check out our ebook Pregnancy From A to Z.

Planning a pregnancy? Here are some great ways to understand how you can prepare

yourself for getting pregnant! After all your body needs some mental and physical preparations before you plan your pregnancy.To begin with…

1.      You must prepare your body for being pregnant. Eat well, stay healthy. Stay fit and

strong. You’ll need all the energy you have during childbirth.

2.      Keep track of your menstruation process. You must conceive at the time your system  

permits the highest ovulation process. There are days in a month where you cannot conceive. You must be aware of those days. You must know your most fertile days. Generally it is after 2 weeks from your first completed cycle for the month.

3. Keep your mind free of stress. Prepare yourself mentally that you are going to become  a mother!

4. Plan your pregnancy and conception

5. Discard the pill. If you have been taking pills to avoid getting pregnant, get rid of it immediately once you’ve planned to have a baby.

6. If you are above the age of 35, you must consult a gynecologist.

7. If you are into the habit of smoking and drinking, stop now!

8. Consult a doctor if you have had miscarriages or abortions previously.

9. Be ready to take labour pains.

10. Are you too figure conscious?… If you are drop the idea. Your curves could go haywire.  

For everything you need to know about pregnancy, check out our ebook "Pregnancy from A to Z."