What your Body feature says about you??

For many years of candid anecdote exchanges, many people believed that the features of the different parts of the body provide clues to the personality of the person. Some say that these are pure myth while others claim they are true. According to the Chinese art of body reading, the physical attributes of a person reveal his character, disposition, attitude towards life and even his hopes and dreams in the future. Whether these body tales are real or not, it is still worth finding out - just for fun. Check them out for yourself to see if they match with your personality.

Eyes

Deep Set - you're casual, easy-going and quiet
Protruding - you love to talk...and talk and talk
Large - you're friendly, open and warm-hearted
Small- you're direct but not particularly outgoing
Crossed - you are very patient Eye Color
Brown or black - you're warm and cuddly
Gray - you get high marks in the smarts department
Blue - you are downright friendly
Green - you have a tendency to be deceitful but you are sexy

Hair

Fine and straight hair - you are sensitive and cultured
Thick and wavy hair - you are strong-willed and have high principles in life
Dandruff-prone - you're frequently stressed

Ears

Small - you're unusually observant and attentive
Big - you're a good listener and an achiever
Flappy (sticking out from the sides of your head) - you're apt to be a conformist
Flat against your head - you're a person wth tremendous tact, a true diplomat

Nose

Small - you're thoughtful and endearing
Big - you're hardworking and energetic
Long - you're cautious
Short - you're an excellent worker, with your nose to the grindstone
Flat and broad - high-tempered but very patient

Lips

Full - you're sensuous and sexy
Thin - you're considered reserved and refined
Full on top, thin on bottom - you're warm and friendly
Thin on top, full on bottom - you exude sensuality

Chin

Small - you work hard
Broad or long - you can roll with the punches
Exceptionally broad - you're highly sensual
Dimpled - playfulness is your strong suit
Has a cleft - you're not afraid of change and adventure
Pointed (down south) - you can be self-destructive

Fingers

Short - you're quick and decisive
Exceedingly short - you're such a quick thinker that you border on careless, never giving problems the attention they require
Long - you're a planner and like to organize things
Square - you're stubborn, a stick-to-your-guns type

Hands

Soft - you're idealistic
Clammy - you are very easygoing
Limp - you are always on the go

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Top 10 Time Management Mistakes

Mistake #1: Keeping too many things in your head - A common mistake is trying to use your memory to keep track of all the things you need to do and places you need to be.

Mistake #2: Doing whatever grabs your attention next - When you are done with your current task, how do you choose what to do next?

Mistake #3: Not spending enough time on your top priorities - If you find you are busy most of the day, but don't accomplish the things that really matter to you. you may be spending too much time on low priority items.

Mistake #4: Doing very efficiently that which need not be done at all - According to top management consultants this is one of the worst ways you can waste your time, particularly when you don't even realize you are doing it.

Mistake #5: Poor Planning - You've probably heard the saying "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". Poor planning is one of the main reasons projects fail, fall behind schedule or miss their deadlines. Lack of planning leads to inadequate preparation, unexpected problems and poor execution.

Mistake #6: Working in a disorganized and distractive work environment - While you may not have too much control over your work environment, there are things that you can do to remove distractions and clutter from your desk.

Mistake #7: Attempting to do too much - In time management, the word 'overload' describes the condition of having too much work; more work than you can normally handle. Overload can be the result of external circumstances such as a big deadline, a coworker's resignation or a major crisis, but it is often self-inflicted.

Mistake #8: Always saying yes - Saying 'yes' to requests for your time is not always a bad practice. In fact better you are in managing your time and your projects, the more likely it is that you will be chosen to handle important tasks that need to be completed quickly with quality and care.

Mistake #9: Not managing your inflows - Workflow management is one of the aspects of knowledge work that traditional forms of time management have been unable to address adequately.

Mistake #10: Confusing activity with productivity - This final mistake is usually the result of a mismatch between the lower tactical levels of time management and the more strategic levels where goals, vision and purpose come into play.

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Body Language - What Are They Really Saying?

When we communicate with someone we will be doing so on a number of levels, not just the words that we use - tone of voice and body language are also important factors in non-verbal communication.

Eye contact - is one of the most powerful means of communication after words. It can be direct or indirect, long-lasting or short and more usually intermittent when talking to someone in normal conversation. Staring or holding eye contact for too long can make people feel uncomfortable and is unsettling. Appropriate eye contact is important for effective communication. People who like or feel comfortable with each other engage in eye contact more frequently. People who avoid eye contact are likely to be feeling uncomfortable, guilty or embarrassed.

Face - next on the list after the eyes. This is one of the first features we notice. By looking at someone's face we can read their emotion. Small gestures like the eyebrow flash happen almost subconsciously when we greet people we are pleased to see or who we know. A smile can also work wonders when greeting someone for the first time. It can also be used to calm and help people to feel at ease. A genuine smile lights up the whole face including the eyes, a forced or nervous smile tends to stay around the mouth. Where someone looks when you talk to them can tell you which side of the brain they're accessing and if they're a visual, auditory or kinetic person.

Posture - has a lot to say about how a person feels about themselves and the person they're with. Are they leaning in towards each other or away from each other? Mirroring someone's posture is a good way to create rapport and will happen naturally in some situations. Try it out but don't make it too obvious or it can be off-putting. What is the posture of someone who feels confident? How does someone sit/stand when they feel threatened or fearful? If you have to give a presentation and feel nervous - adopt a posture of confidence and think yourself into a positive mode. See what a difference it makes.

Hand gestures - particularly at the moment, we are exposed to the carefully managed gestures of politicians when giving their pre-election speeches. The use of hand gestures can be another interesting aspect of body language that show attitudes and emotions. An open palm signifies sincerity, openness. Steepling of the fingers is seen as authoritative, or used during negotiation when considering a proposal. Tapping or drumming the fingers shows impatience. Touching the face indicates thinking, the hair insecurity and the ears indecision.

Personal space - everyone has their own sense of personal space that we carry around with us. We should be aware of this personal space so that we don't invade someone's personal space uninvited. Invading someone's personal space can seem threatening and the person will move away to a more comfortable distance. In crowded situations personal space is greatly reduced and other factors will come into account such as avoidance of eye contact and the use of defensive postures.

Body contact - the handshake is the most recognised form of body contact and used in greetings and farewells. A firm handshake is preferred in both men and women. A weak handshake shows either ineffectiveness, insincerity or reluctance. Bone crusher handshakes on the other hand are seen as aggressive or overly dominant. People brought up where body contact is a normal part of family life tend to be more positive and open than those with less. Always be aware and observe what is acceptable with an individual or for different cultures.

When interpreting body language you need to take into account all parts of the body. Changes in a person's ‘normal’ body language indicate a change in emotion or attitude. Don't assume that because someone has their arms crossed they are being defensive, perhaps they really are just cold! Look at all the different signals before interpreting the final message - at least three to four and know what’s normal for that person.

Fun Exercise: Watch people's body language when you're next in a position to observe. How close are they? How much eye contact is there? Can you tell if they know/like each other? Are they strangers or friends? See how much of the conversation you can guess from observing people's body language.

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How to Make To-Do Lists Work for You

To-do lists are effective time-management tools - but only if they're easy to use. Here are six strategies for making your to-do lists work hard for you.

1. Keep it simple.Whether you use a computer-based to-do list or a paper tablet, it must be simple. If it's too complex, you won't use it... guaranteed. I keep my to-do lists on a 5" x 7" paper tablet. I list "major" tasks to be accomplished, with big sub-steps underneath each one. For example, "Edit The Golden Thread e-letter for AWAI" is a major task of mine. "Write main article," "write Quick Tip," and "write Introduction" are big sub-steps.Note: A major task is not necessarily one that takes a long time.

2. Limit yourself.Small paper tablets work well, because there's a limit to how much you can write on a page. I stick to a maximum of 10 tasks, all of which can be accomplished within a week of when I list them.

3. Set a due date - and stick to it.Due dates help prioritize what you do and when. Do not work on tasks in the order in which you write them down. Jot down the due date beside each one, and do them in the order of their deadlines.

4. Use a dark marker to reinforce your feeling of accomplishment.Cross off sub-steps as you complete them with a regular pen. Use a dark marker to cross off the major tasks. Boy, does it feel good!

5. Redo the list every workday.Do it every evening. This gives you a clear idea of what you have to do before the end of the next day.

6. Add "pop-ups" to your list.When something pops up during the day that has to be attended to (such as an important phone call), add it to your to-do list - even if you've already done it. Then cross it off. To-do lists not only tell you what you have to do, they can tell you if you're using your time well.

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Explations for forgetting

What are some of the major reasons why we forget information? One of today's best known memory researchers, Elizabeth Loftus, has identified four major reasons why people forget: retrieval failure, interference, failure to store and motivated forgetting.

1. Retrieval Failure Have you ever felt like a piece of information has just vanished from memory? Or maybe you know that it's there, you just can't seem to find it. One common cause of forgetting is simply an inability to retrieve a memory. One explanation for why retrieval fails is known as decay theory. According to this theory, a memory trace is created every time a new theory is formed. Decay theory suggests that over time, these memory traces begin to fade and disappear. If information is not retrieved and rehearsed, it will eventually be lost. One problem with this theory, however, is that research has demonstrated that even memories which have not been rehearsed or remembered are remarkably stable in long-term memory.

2. Interferance Another theory known as interference theory suggests that some memories compete and interfere with other memories. When information is very similar to other information that was previously stored in memory, interference is more likely to occur. There are two basic types of interference:

• Proactive interference is when an old memory makes it more difficult or impossible to remember a new memory.
• Retroactive interference occurs when new information interferes with your ability to remember previously learned information.

3. Failure to Store We also forget information because it never actually made it into long-term memory. Encoding failures sometimes prevent information from entering long-term memory. In one well-known experiment, researchers asked participants to identify the correct U.S. penny out of a group of incorrect pennies (Nickerson & Adams). Try doing this experiment yourself by attempting to draw a penny from memory, and then compare your results to an actual penny.
How well did you do? Chances are that you were able to remember the shape and color , but you probably forgot other minor details. The reason for this is that only details necessary for distinguishing pennies from other coins were encoded into your long-term memory.

4. Motivated Forgetting Sometimes, we may actively work to forget memories, especially those of traumatic or disturbing events or experiences. The two basic forms of motivated forgetting are: suppression, a conscious form of forgetting, and repression, an unconscious form of forgetting.

However, the concept of repressed memories is not universally accepted by all psychologists. One of the problems with repressed memories is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to scientifically study whether or not a memory has been repressed. Also note that mental activities such as rehearsal and remembering are important ways of strengthening a memory, and memories of painful or traumatic life events are far less likely to be remembered, discussed or rehearsed.

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Top 10 memory improving tips

Before you study for your next exam, you might want to use a few strategies to boost your memory of important information. There are a number of tried and tested techniques for improving memory.These strategies have been established within cognitive psychology literature and offer a number of great ways to improve memory, enhance recall, and increase retention of information.
1. Focus your attention on the materials you are studying.Attention is one of the major components of memory. In order for information to move from short-term memory into long-term memory, you need to actively attend to this information. Try to study in a place free of distractions such as television, music, and other diversions.
2. Avoid cramming by establishing regular study sessions.According to Bjork (2001), studying materials over a number of session’s gives you the time you need to adequately process the information. Research has shown that students who study regularly remember the material far better that those did all of their studying in one marathon session.
3. Structure and organize the information you are studying. Researchers have found that information is organized in memory in related clusters. You can take advantage of this by structuring and organizing the materials you are studying. Try grouping similar concepts and terms together, or make an outline of your notes and textbook readings to help group related concepts.
4. Utilize mnemonic devices to remember information.Mnemonic devices are a technique often used by students to aid in recall. A mnemonic is simply a way to remember information. For example, you might associate a term you need to remember with a common item that you are very familiar with. The best mnemonics are those that utilize positive imagery, humor, or novelty. You might come up with a rhyme, song, or joke to help remember a specific segment of information.
5. Elaborate and rehearse the information you are studying.In order to recall information, you need to encode what you are studying into long-term memory. One of the most effective encoding techniques is known as elaborative rehearsal. An example of this technique would be to read the definition of a key term, study the definition of that term, and then read a more detailed description of what that term means. After repeating this process a few times, your recall of the information will be far better.
6. Relate new information to things you already know.When you are studying unfamiliar material, take the time to think about how this information relates to things that you already know. By establishing relationships between new ideas and previously existing memories, you can dramatically increase the likelihood of recalling the recently learned information.
7. Visualize concepts to improve memory and recall.Many people benefit greatly from visualizing the information they study. Pay attention to the photographs, charts, and other graphics in your textbooks. If you don’t have visual cues to help, try creating your own. Draw charts or figures in the margins of your notes or use highlighters or pens in different colors to group related ideas in your written study materials.
8. Teach new concepts to another person.Research suggests that reading materials out loud significantly improves memory of the material. Educators and psychologists have also discovered that having students actually teach new concepts to others enhances understanding and recall. You can use this approach in your own study by teaching new concepts and information to a friend or study partner.
9. Pay extra attention to difficult information.Have you ever noticed how it's sometimes easier to remember information at the beginning or end of a chapter? Researchers have found that the position of information can play a role in recall, which is known as the serial position effect. While recalling middle information can be difficult, you can overcome this problem by spending extra time rehearsing this information or try restructuring the information so it will be easier to remember. When you come across an especially difficult concept, devote some extra time to memorizing the information.
10. Vary your study routine.Another great way to increase your recall is to occasionally change your study routine. If you are accustomed to studying in one specific location, try moving to a different spot to study. If you study in the evening, try to spend a few minutes each morning reviewing the information you studied the previous night. By adding an element of novelty to your study sessions, you can increase the effectiveness of your efforts and significantly improve your long-term recall.

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Quotes-by Buddha

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become."



“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.”


“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

“The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.”

“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself”

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”

“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky”

“However many holy words you read,However many you speak,What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?”

“A jug fills drop by drop.”

“The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood.”

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

“Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.”

“A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.”

“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”

“Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.”

“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”

“The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.”

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.”

“Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.”

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

“Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.”

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Quotes-Stress

The man who doesn't relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on. ~Elbert Hubbard


There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar


The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. ~Attributed to both Jim Goodwin and Sydney J. Harris


Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness. ~Richard Carlson


Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live. ~Margaret Fuller


Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. ~Ovid


For fast-acting relief, try slowing down. ~Lily Tomlin


No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick


We live longer than our forefathers; but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued only the muscles, we exhaust the finer strength of the nerves. ~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton


Give your stress wings and let it fly away. ~Carin Hartness


Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow. ~Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I'd Like to Give to You


The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it. ~Author Unknown


Maturity is achieved when a person accepts life as full of tension. ~Joshua L. Liebman


Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. ~Will Rogers, Autobiography, 1949


There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes


There are an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job. ~Peter Drucker


One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. ~Bertrand Russell


Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. ~Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind


Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering. ~Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne


Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way. ~Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I'd Like to Give to You


Is everything as urgent as your stress would imply? ~Carrie Latet


To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace. ~Milan Kundera


Sometimes it seems your ever-increasing list of things to do can leave you feeling totally undone. ~Susan Mitchell and Catherine Christie, I'd Kill for a Cookie


Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life. ~Danzae Pace

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. ~Jennifer Yane


There is more to life than increasing its speed. ~Mohandas K. Gandhi


The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself. ~H.L. Mencken


The field of consciousness is tiny. It accepts only one problem at a time. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery


A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
~William Henry Davies


A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. ~Aesop, Fables


Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you. ~John De Paola


Don't let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries. ~Astrid Alauda


How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward. ~Spanish Proverb


To be "on edge," you are literally not centered - not being in your spiritual center. ~Carrie Latet


Stress is poison. ~Agavé Powers


I try to avoid stress - it makes me feel like I'm rubber-stamping all my organs "Urgent." ~Berri Clove


If your teeth are clenched and your fists are clenched, your lifespan is probably clenched. ~Adabella Radici


When Mozart was composing at the end of the eighteenth century, the city of Vienna was so quiet that fire alarms could be given verbally, by a shouting watchman mounted on top of St. Stefan's Cathedral. In twentieth-century society, the noise level is such that it keeps knocking our bodies out of tune and out of their natural rhythms. This ever-increasing assault of sound upon our ears, minds, and bodies adds to the stress load of civilized beings trying to live in a highly complex environment. ~Steven Halpern


Loafing needs no explanation and is its own excuse. ~Christopher Morley


It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. ~Jerome K. Jerome, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow


There is precious little hope to be got out of whatever keeps us industrious, but there is a chance for us whenever we cease work and become stargazers. ~H.M. Tomlinson


Sometimes a headache is all in your head. Relax. ~Hartman Jule


If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles. ~Doug Larson


The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life. ~Robert Maclver


Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. ~Chinese Proverb


Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ~J. Lubbock


Stress is an admission of weakness, a cry of defeat to the world. ~Carrie Latet


When I look at my hands and in my heart, I see stress as Lady Macbeth saw blood. ~Berri Clove


A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward. ~George Jean Nathan


Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths. ~Etty Hillesum

If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. ~Don Herold


Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it. ~Mark Twain


Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday. ~Author Unknown


Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which will never happen. ~James Russel Lowell


If things go wrong, don't go with them. ~Roger Babson


Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. ~Leo Buscaglia


Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. ~Benjamin Franklin


If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. ~Dale Carnegie


I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time. ~Charlie Brown (Charles Schulz)


Troubles are a lot like people - they grow bigger if you nurse them. ~Author Unknown


If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. ~E. Joseph Cossman


Nerves and butterflies are fine - they're a physical sign that you're mentally ready and eager. You have to get the butterflies to fly in formation, that's the trick. ~Steve Bull


I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal - and soon they'll forget my number. ~Edith Armstrong


Nerves provide me with energy. They work for me. It's when I don't have them, when I feel at ease, that I get worried. ~Mike Nichols


I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. ~Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things"


People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross. ~Author Unknown


You can't wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. ~Pat Schroeder


The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Note Book, 1927


Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere. ~Glenn Turner


People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them. ~George Bernard Shaw, "Family Affection," Parents and Children, 1914


Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination. ~Christian Nevell Bovee


Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face. ~Nelson DeMille


For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe. ~Author Unknown


We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic. ~Cullen Hightower


If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you'll die a lot of times. ~Dean Smith


It only seems as if you are doing something when you're worrying. ~Lucy Maud Montgomery


A hundredload of worry will not pay an ounce of debt. ~George Herbert


As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. ~Thomas A. Edison


Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. ~Swedish Proverb


Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. ~Edward Everett Hale


That the birds of worry and care fly over you head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent. ~Chinese Proverb


We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it. ~John Newton


Worry bankrupts the spirit. ~Berri Clove


Worry ducks when purpose flies overhead. ~C. Astrid Weber


It is the little bits of things that fret and worry us; we can dodge a elephant, but we can't dodge a fly. ~Josh Billings


Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die. ~Attributed to Douglas MacArthur


You can never worry your way to enlightenment. ~Ed Northstrum


When you suffer an attack of nerves you're being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system? ~Russell Hoban


Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is to small to be made into a burden. ~Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook


I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating." ~E.B. White


There are two days in the week about which and upon which I never worry... Yesterday and Tomorrow. ~Robert Jones Burdette


A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. ~John Lubbock


As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men's minds more seriously than what they see. ~Julius Caesar


If worrying were an Olympic sport, you'd get the gold for sure. ~Stephenie Geist


Don't chain your worries to your body. The burden soon becomes heavy and your health will give too much of itself to pick up the extra load. ~Astrid Alauda, Dyspeptic Enlightenment


Worry is rust upon the blade. ~Henry Ward Hughes


Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed so is the body. ~Martin Luther


I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us. ~Dorothy Day


Worry is a complete cycle of inefficient thought revolving about a pivot of fear. ~Author Unknown


Loneliness, insomnia, and change: the fear of these is even worse than the reality. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966


It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. ~George MacDonald


Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are! ~Charles Dickens


Some patients I see are actually draining into their bodies the diseased thoughts of their minds. ~Zacharty Bercovitz


Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From the evil which never arrived.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson


I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. ~Mark Twain


My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened. ~Michel de Montaigne


If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you. ~Calvin Coolidge


When one has too great a dread of what is impending, one feels some relief when the trouble has come. ~Joseph Joubert


Some men storm imaginary Alps all their lives, and die in the foothills cursing difficulties which do not exist. ~Edgar Watson Howe


How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. ~Thomas Jefferson


When I really worry about something, I don't just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I don't go. I'm too worried to go. I don't want to interrupt my worrying to go. ~J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye


Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. ~Arthur Somers Roche


There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them. ~Josh Billings


Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be. ~John Dryden


Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due. ~William Ralph Inge


There are more things, Lucilius, that frighten us than injure us, and we suffer more in imagination than in reality. ~Seneca


We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us. ~John Lancaster Spalding


We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives. ~Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979


Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen. ~Pliny the Younger


Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night. ~Author Unknown


Do not be afraid of tomorrow; for God is already there. ~Author Unknown


Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~Theodore N. Vail


No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. ~George MacDonald


Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it's all small stuff. ~Robert Eliot


They need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end. ~Jack Kerouac


He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. ~Montaigne, Essays, 1588


Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weights you down. ~Toni Morrison


No human thing is of serious importance. ~Plato, The Republic


Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow. ~Philip Gulley


Don't fight with the pillow, but lay down your head
And kick every worriment out of the bed.
~Edmund Vance Cooke


Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway. ~Mary C. Crowley

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Quotes-Health

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind. ~G.K. Chesterton


There's lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven't the time to enjoy it. ~Josh Billings


The greatest wealth is health. ~Virgil


I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better. ~Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903


Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. ~Doug Larson


Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ~World Health Organization, 1948


The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around.... Throughout history, "tender loving care" has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing. ~Larry Dossey


Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway. ~Author Unknown


Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. ~Redd Foxx


As a people, we have become obsessed with Health. There is something fundamentally, radically unhealthy about all this. We do not seem to be seeking more exuberance in living as much as staving off failure, putting off dying. We have lost all confidence in the human body. ~Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979


In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired. ~Author Unknown


The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they'll ease
Your will they'll mend
And charge you not a shilling.
~Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990


He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors. ~Chinese Proverb


If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself. ~Leon Eldred


Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. ~Mark Twain


Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that's bad for you! ~Tommy Smothers


They claim red meat is bad for you. But I never saw a sick-looking tiger. ~Chi Chi Rodriguez


Physical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; some are taxed higher, and some lower, but all pay something. ~Lord Chesterfield


If the pain wanders, do not waste your time with doctors. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


The... patient should be made to understand that he or she must take charge of his own life. Don't take your body to the doctor as if he were a repair shop. ~Quentin Regestein


I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol. ~Author Unknown


Joy and Temperance and Repose
Slam the door on the doctor's nose.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


If I had my way I'd make health catching instead of disease. ~Robert Ingersoll


Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot. ~Dutch Proverb, sometimes attributed to William C. Hazlitt


Like everybody else, when I don't know what else to do, I seem to go in for catching colds. ~George Jean Nathan


Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body. ~Cicero


If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want. ~Elbert Hubbard


People who are always taking care of their health are like misers who are hoarding a treasure which they have never spirit enough to enjoy. ~Laurence Sterne


To feel keenly the poetry of a morning's roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness. ~Henri Frederic Amiel


The longer I live the less confidence I have in drugs and the greater is my confidence in the regulation and administration of diet and regimen. ~John Redman Coxe, 1800


A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. ~Irish Proverb


Fresh air impoverishes the doctor. ~Danish Proverb


There are two things in life that a sage must preserve at every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth. Some evils admit of consolations, but there are no comforters for dyspepsia and the toothache. ~Henry Lytton Bulwer


Water, air, and cleanliness are the chief articles in my pharmacopoeia. ~Napoleon I


The I in illness is isolation, and the crucial letters in wellness are we. ~Author unknown, as quoted in Mimi Guarneri, The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing


In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else. ~Alison Rose Levy, "An Ancient Cure for Modern Life," Yoga Journal, Jan/Feb 2002


Men that look no further than their outsides, think health an appurtenance unto life, and quarrel with their constitutions for being sick; but I that have examined the parts of man, and know upon what tender filaments that fabric hangs, do wonder that we are not always so; and considering the thousand doors that lead to death, do thank my God that we can die but once. ~Thomas Browne


What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease. ~George Dennison Prentice, Prenticeana, 1860


Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey. ~Marcel Proust


When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no "I'll start tomorrow." Tomorrow is disease. ~V.L. Allineare


My own prescription for health is less paperwork and more running barefoot through the grass. ~Leslie Grimutter


We drink one another's health and spoil our own. ~Jerome K. Jerome


In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible. ~Cicero

I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more. ~Henry Ward Beecher


Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open. ~B.K.S. Iyengar


Sickness is the vengeance of nature for the violation of her laws. ~Charles Simmons


Mens sana in corpore sano. (Your prayer must be for a sound mind in a sound body.) ~Juvenal


The appearance of a disease is swift as an arrow; its disappearance slow, like a thread. ~Chinese Proverb


Nature does require
Her time of preservation, which perforce
I her frail son amongst my brethren mortal
Must give my attendance to.
~William Shakespeare


Health is like munny, we never have a true idea of its value until we lose it. ~Josh Billings


A healthy body and soul come from an unencumbered mind and body. ~Ymber Delecto


Adam and Eve ate the first vitamins, including the package. ~E.R. Squibb


Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself, it will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies. ~Leo Tolstoy


Gold that buys health can never be ill spent. ~Thomas Dekker, Westward Ho, 1604


Disease is somatic; the suffering from it, psychic. ~Martin H. Fischer


Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it. ~John Henry Cardinal Newman


Diseases crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, rivel them up like old apples, make them as so many Anatomies. ~Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy


Sometimes I get the feeling the aspirin companies are sponsoring my headaches. ~V.L. Allineare


A healthy body is the guest-chamber of the soul; a sick, its prison. ~Francis Bacon


An imaginary ailment is worse than a disease. ~Yiddish Proverb


Health is a large word. It embraces not the body only, but the mind and spirit as well;... and not today's pain or pleasure alone, but the whole being and outlook of a man. ~James H. West


Hear your heart. Heart your health. ~Faith Seehill


Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a wearisome malady. ~François Duc de la Rochefoucauld


From the bitterness of disease man learns the sweetness of health. ~Catalan Proverb


If man thinks about his physical or moral state he usually discovers that he is ill. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


It's bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children's health than the pediatrician. ~Meryl Streep


An illness of the mind is an illness of the body, and vice versa. ~Madrianne Arvore


Just because you're not sick doesn't mean you're healthy. ~Author Unknown


Every man's disease is his personal property. ~Alonzo Clark


Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene
Supports the mind supports the body too.
~John Armstrong


When an illness knocks you on your ass, you should stay down and relax for a while before trying to get back up. ~Candea Core-Starke


I am pretty sure that, if you will be quite honest, you will admit that a good rousing sneeze, one that tears open your collar and throws your hair into your eyes, is really one of life's sensational pleasures. ~Robert Benchley, "Hiccoughing Makes Us Fat," No Poems: or around the world backwards and sideways, 1932


Physick, for the most part, is nothing else but the Substitute of Exercise or Temperance. ~Joseph Addison


A bad cold wouldn't be so annoying if it weren't for the advice of our friends. ~Kin Hubbard


Men make use of their illnesses at least as much as they are made use of by them. ~Aldous Huxley


I see rejection in my skin, worry in my cancers, bitterness and hate in my aching joints. I failed to take care of my mind, and so my body now goes to hospital. ~Astrid Alauda


If you don't take care of yourself, the undertaker will overtake that responsibility for you. ~Carrie Latet


The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart. ~Nikolai Lenin


The part can never be well unless the whole is well. ~Plato


The scientific truth may be put quite briefly; eat moderately, having an ordinary mixed diet, and don't worry. ~Robert Hutchison, 1932


If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands. ~John Locke


To avoid sickness eat less; to prolong life worry less. ~Chu Hui Weng


When the head aches, all the body is the worse. ~English Proverb


Healthy people are invalids who don't know it. ~Jules Romains, Dr. Knock, 1923


If your body's not right, the rest of your day will go all wrong. Take care of yourself. ~V.L. Allineare


After these two, Dr. Diet and Dr. Quiet, Dr. Merriman is requisite to preserve health. ~James Howell


When a man is ill his very goodness is sickly. ~Friedrich Nietzsche


The deviation of man from the state in which he was originally placed by nature seems to have proved to him a prolific source of disease. ~Edward Jenner


There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of manhood. ~Charles Dickens


Bacteria keeps us from heaven and puts us there. ~Martin H. Fischer


Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other. ~Joseph Addison


It is a lot harder to keep people well than it is to just get them over a sickness. ~DeForest Clinton Jarvis


Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well. ~Marcus Valerius Martial


The mind has great influence over the body, and maladies often have their origin there. ~Moliere


Without health, there is no point. To anything. ~Everett M�mor


Confidence and hope do more good than physic. ~Galen


Live in rooms full of light
Avoid heavy food
Be moderate in the drinking of wine
Take massage, baths, exercise, and gymnastics
Fight insomnia with gentle rocking or the sound of running water
Change surroundings and take long journeys
Strictly avoid frightening ideas
Indulge in cheerful conversation and amusements
Listen to music.
~A. Cornelius Celsus


My inner advisor is dying to heal me. ~Astrid Alauda


Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place. ~Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, 1977


Half the modern drugs could well be thrown out the window, except that the birds might eat them. ~Martin H. Fischer


How sickness enlarges the dimension of a man's self to himself! ~Charles Lamb, Last Essays of Elia


Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful. ~Denis Diderot


Sickness is poor-spirited, and cannot serve anyone; it must husband its resources to live. But health or fullness answers its own ends, and has to spare, runs over, and inundates the neighborhoods and creeks of other men's necessities. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


If you wish to keep as well as possible, the less you think about your health the better. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Over the Teacups, 1891


First need in the reform of hospital management? That's easy! The death of all dietitians, and the resurrection of a French chef. ~Martin H. Fischer


In the face of such overwhelming statistical possibilities hypochondria has always seems to me to be the only rational position to take on life. ~John Diamond


He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything. ~Arabic Proverb


A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter


Happiness lies, first of all, in health. ~George William Curtis, Lotus-Eating


It's no coincidence that four of the six letters in health are "heal." ~Ed Northstrum


If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer. ~Clement Freud, The Observer, 27 December 1964


If you start to think about your physical or moral condition, you usually find that you are sick. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Proverbs in Prose


If you do everything you should do, and do not do anything you should not do, you will, according to the best available statistics, live exactly eighteen hours longer than you would otherwise. ~Logain Clendening


It's no longer a question of staying healthy. It's a question of finding a sickness you like. ~Jackie Mason


Health is merely the slowest way someone can die. ~Author Unknown


May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer! or, may you rather die before you cease to be fit to live than after! ~Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1749


What linguistic genius
set up the sneeze and wheeze
To rhyme so very perfectly
with the word for allergies?
~Charlie N. Abbers


Those obsessed with health are not healthy; the first requisite of good health is a certain calculated carelessness about oneself. ~Sydney J. Harris


My fat scares me - it's a ticking time bomb. ~Carrie Latet


I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward. ~John Mortimer


So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health. ~A.J. Reb Materi, Our Family


Nothing is more fatal to Health, than an over Care of it. ~Benjamin Franklin


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

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Quotes-Yoga

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. ~B.K.S. Iyengar


The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren't enough. ~Amy Weintraub


Yoga is the fountain of youth. You're only as young as your spine is flexible. ~Bob Harper


You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state. ~Sharon Gannon


Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal.... But don't approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain. ~Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois


By embracing your mother wound as your yoga, you transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher of the heart. ~Phillip Moffitt


Yoga is 99% practice and 1% knowledge. ~Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois


Sun salutations can energize and warm you, even on the darkest, coldest winter day. ~Carol Krucoff


For me, yoga is not just a workout - it's about working on yourself. ~Mary Glover, "Health Profile: Yoga leaves aches and pains behind," Arizona Republic, 6 April 2004 (page E3, article by Connie Midey)


A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves. ~T. Guillemets


I do yoga so that I can stay flexible enough to kick my own arse if necessary. ~Betsy Cañas Garmon


The beauty is that people often come here for the stretch, and leave with a lot more. ~Liza Ciano, co-owner and co-director of Yoga Vermont, yogavermont.com


The last time I opened my chakra so I could feel my peace, I got thrown right out of the pub. ~The Quote Garden


Yoga in Mayfair or Fifth Avenue, or in any other place which is on the telephone, is a spiritual fake. ~Carl Jung


Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. ~Author Unknown


Vogue and Self are putting out the message of yoginis as buff and perfect. If you start doing yoga for those reasons, fine. Most people get beyond that and see that it's much, much more. ~Patricia Walden


When asked what gift he wanted for his birthday, the yogi replied: "I wish no gifts, only presence." ~Author Unknown


Yoga is bodily gospel. ~Reaven Fields


If I'm losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga. ~T. Guillemets


Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union - the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions. ~B.K.S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala


Don't just do something - sit there! ~Author Unknown


I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I'm looking out of my third eye and everything that I'm supposed to be doing. It's amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. "Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight, Mama's got the magic of Clorox 2." ~Ellen DeGeneres


Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success. ~Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika


Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. ~Patanjali, translated from Sanskrit


Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are. ~Jason Crandell, quoted in Yoga Journal, November 2005


Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self control. Energy within and energy without. ~Ymber Delecto


Corpse pose restores life. Dead parts of your being fall away, the ghosts are released. ~The Quote Garden


Yoga has a sly, clever way of short-circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety. ~Baxter Bell, quoted in "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006


Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight-or-flight mode. ~Melanie Haiken, about yoga and anxiety, "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006


Yoga accepts. Yoga gives. ~April Vallei


Warrior pose battles inner weakness and wins focus. You see that there is no war within you. You're on your own side, and you are your own strength. ~The Quote Garden


Mountain pose teaches us, literally, how to stand on our own two feet.... teaching us to root ourselves into the earth.... Our bodies become a connection between heaven and earth. ~Carol Krucoff


I tried yoga once but took off for the mall halfway through class, as I had a sudden craving for a soft pretzel and world peace. ~The Quote Garden


All unimportant matters drop off you in ragdoll pose. Very few things are genuinely important. The Truth sways before you. ~The Quote Garden


When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world. ~B.K.S. Iyengar


The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic system, which is often identified with the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic, which is identified with what's been called the relaxation response. When you do yoga - the deep breathing, the stretching, the movements that release muscle tension, the relaxed focus on being present in your body - you initiate a process that turns the fight-or-flight system off and the relaxation response on. That has a dramatic effect on the body. The heartbeat slows, respiration decreases, blood pressure decreases. The body seizes this chance to turn on the healing mechanisms. ~Richard Faulds


Tree pose grows confidence. ~The Quote Garden


Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God. ~Krishnamacharya


For those wounded by civilization, yoga is the most healing salve. ~T. Guillemets


Chair pose is a defiance of spirit, showing how high you can reach even when you're forced down. ~The Quote Garden


Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled. ~Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious. ~David Williams, an Ashtanga yoga teacher in Maui, Hawaii, quoted from yoga.com

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Meditation as medication

Meditators may seem serious, but taking time to clear your mind can boost your spirits-and your immunity. That's the world from a group of American scientists. Psychologist Richard J. Davidson and colleagues gave 41 people a flue vaccine. A little more than half of the subjects learned to meditateand followed a regular schedule of "OM Time" for an hour a day, six days a week. Another group just got the vaccine. After eight weeks, meditators had higher levels of flu-fighting antibodies then those who didn't meditate. They were also better able to deal with stress and had increased activity in the area of the brain linked to good mo0ods. The reasult weren't temporary: The feel-good effects lasted for up to four months after the meditation training sessions ended."Meditation produces measurable biological changes in the brain and body," says Davidson. "Its safe and can be of great benifit. It may be useful complement to treatments already underway."

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Eat more Soup

Japanese women have a low risk of breast cancer, and it may be partly due to soup. Compared with most American women, they take in nearly 700 times more isoflavones, the cancer-fighting substances prevalent in soy food. Scientists at the National Cancer Center of Japan collected data on the diets of 21,852 Japanese womenand found that who ate three or more bowls of miso soup a day had about half the risk of developing breast cancer as those who ate less than one (a bowl is a little less than half cup). The soup,made from soybean paste and Tofu, is high in salt, so don't overdo it. Men can benifit too, since isoflavones may reduce prostate cancer risk.Look for Fantastic Foods Miso with Tofu at your Supermarket.

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Living:-Body Language - What Are They Really Saying?

When we communicate with someone we will be doing so on a number of levels, not just the words that we use - tone of voice and body language are also important factors in non-verbal communication.

Eye contact - is one of the most powerful means of communication after words. It can be direct or indirect, long-lasting or short and more usually intermittent when talking to someone in normal conversation. Staring or holding eye contact for too long can make people feel uncomfortable and is unsettling. Appropriate eye contact is important for effective communication. People who like or feel comfortable with each other engage in eye contact more frequently. People who avoid eye contact are likely to be feeling uncomfortable, guilty or embarrassed.

Face - next on the list after the eyes. This is one of the first features we notice. By looking at someone's face we can read their emotion. Small gestures like the eyebrow flash happen almost subconsciously when we greet people we are pleased to see or who we know. A smile can also work wonders when greeting someone for the first time. It can also be used to calm and help people to feel at ease. A genuine smile lights up the whole face including the eyes, a forced or nervous smile tends to stay around the mouth. Where someone looks when you talk to them can tell you which side of the brain they're accessing and if they're a visual, auditory or kinetic person.

Posture - has a lot to say about how a person feels about themselves and the person they're with. Are they leaning in towards each other or away from each other? Mirroring someone's posture is a good way to create rapport and will happen naturally in some situations. Try it out but don't make it too obvious or it can be off-putting. What is the posture of someone who feels confident? How does someone sit/stand when they feel threatened or fearful? If you have to give a presentation and feel nervous - adopt a posture of confidence and think yourself into a positive mode. See what a difference it makes.

Hand gestures - particularly at the moment, we are exposed to the carefully managed gestures of politicians when giving their pre-election speeches. The use of hand gestures can be another interesting aspect of body language that show attitudes and emotions. An open palm signifies sincerity, openness. Steepling of the fingers is seen as authoritative, or used during negotiation when considering a proposal. Tapping or drumming the fingers shows impatience. Touching the face indicates thinking, the hair insecurity and the ears indecision.

Personal space - everyone has their own sense of personal space that we carry around with us. We should be aware of this personal space so that we don't invade someone's personal space uninvited. Invading someone's personal space can seem threatening and the person will move away to a more comfortable distance. In crowded situations personal space is greatly reduced and other factors will come into account such as avoidance of eye contact and the use of defensive postures.

Body contact - the handshake is the most recognised form of body contact and used in greetings and farewells. A firm handshake is preferred in both men and women. A weak handshake shows either ineffectiveness, insincerity or reluctance. Bone crusher handshakes on the other hand are seen as aggressive or overly dominant. People brought up where body contact is a normal part of family life tend to be more positive and open than those with less. Always be aware and observe what is acceptable with an individual or for different cultures.

When interpreting body language you need to take into account all parts of the body. Changes in a person's ‘normal’ body language indicate a change in emotion or attitude. Don't assume that because someone has their arms crossed they are being defensive, perhaps they really are just cold! Look at all the different signals before interpreting the final message - at least three to four and know what’s normal for that person.

Fun Exercise: Watch people's body language when you're next in a position to observe. How close are they? How much eye contact is there? Can you tell if they know/like each other? Are they strangers or friends? See how much of the conversation you can guess from observing people's body language.

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Health Tip: Hiccups Can Wreak Havoc

(HealthDay News) -- Hiccups can be annoying and even uncomfortable, and they can last for a long time.Here's information on what causes them and a couple of suggestions on how to stop hiccups from the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

1. Abdominal surgery, conditions that affect the nerves surrounding the diaphragm, and damage to the portion of the brain that affects hiccups can all cause them.
2. Eating hot and spicy foods or liquids or inhaling noxious fumes can also cause the hiccups.

To stop hiccups, try breathing into a paper bag or holding your breath.

Or you can try drinking a glass of water or swallowing a teaspoon of sugar to stop hiccups.

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Soothing Songs Please the Heart

If you have heart problems, you might want to plug in that iPod or pop in a CD of mellow songs.Hospital patients with coronary heart disease reduced their heart rates, breathing rate and blood pressure just by listening to music, a Temple University review of 23 previous studies found.The report, published in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, found that the soothing effects were greatest when these patients chose their own tunes. For example, patients' pulse rates fell by more beats per minute when they made the selections compared with those who listened to music selected by researchers."So we do know from clinical experience that if people select music they like, and the music has sedative qualities such as slow tempo, predictable harmonies and absence of sudden changes, they will be better able to relax to the music," researcher Joke Bradt, assistant director of the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple University, said in a news release issued by the college.The review looked at past studies on how music affected 1,461 patients with coronary heart disease, either during a cardiac procedure or within two days of hospitalization. In all the studies, the music used had slow tempos, but in some cases, a music therapist was employed to help with the song selections.Dr. Robert Bonow, a past president of the American Heart Association, challenged the findings. While agreeing that alleviating stress is important for heart patients, he said the new review shows "no conclusive evidence that this relaxation therapy actually reduces the stress, let alone reducing the outcome of the stress.""Exercise is beneficial because it reduces stress, but it also lowers blood pressure," Bonow, chief of cardiology at Northwestern University, said in the same news release.

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Trouble Sleeping? Try These Tips

Though the value of a good night's sleep is well known, it's not uncommon for people to get far less than the eight hours recommended for peak performance.The Comprehensive Epilepsy and Sleep Disorders Center at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Texas offers these explanations why, and tips on how to get more shut-eye:

• Control caffeine. The cycle of downing a large cup of coffee to wake up in the morning and more after dinner, whether out of habit or desire to stay up late, counters the body's ability to sleep soundly on its own. Go easy on the caffeine, especially in the six hours before bedtime.
  Stress less. Lying awake at night worrying about responsibilities at home or work does little besides making sleep more difficult, so just let your troubles go at bedtime. "Once your head hits the pillow, your only duty is to sleep," Raul Noriega, manager of the center, said in a Baylor news release.

• Reschedule that nighttime workout. Exercising helps your body, but doing it too close to bedtime might hurt it in the end, because it makes falling asleep more difficult. That's because sleep causes the body temperature to drop about a degree and, if you're heated up from exercise, it could take hours for you to cool down enough for sleep, Noriega said.

• Develop a sleep routine. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. Shut off the TV and music, turn down the lights and take a warm (not hot) shower to build an atmosphere of calm. And you might try reading in bed for a little bit before turning off the lights.

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Top 10 Lessons on How Not to Die

After seeing so many preventable deaths in the morgue, Dr. G has developed a set of basic instructions for how not to die. Her advice is simple, but it can have a profound effect on your longevity. Here are her words to live by:

Lesson #1: Know your numbers.You'll live a longer and healthier life when your body mass index (BMI) is under 25. It may be possible to have a full life span with a somewhat higher BMI (25-29) if you stay in good shape, but in no event should you tolerate a BMI over 29. Aiming for 24 should be your goal. The adverse health effects of obesity are multiple and avoidable.Know your blood glucose (blood sugar level). The consequences of elevated blood glucose are not only eventual plaque formation and narrowing of the blood vessels, particularly the coronary arteries, but also damage to your nerves, kidneys, eyes, and immune system. Millions of people are walking around with diabetes, with its effects already ravaging their bodies. Diabetes is sometimes not detected until something terrible happens, like a heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. Seize the initiative and have this simple test!Check your blood pressure early and check it often. Just about every drugstore I walk into has an automated blood pressure monitor, so use it. If your blood pressure is greater than 130/85, bring the information to a physician and take action. High blood pressure is a silent killer. You can feel great right up until the moment you die; I see this virtually every day. Hypertension is one of the leading cause of kidney failure (being on dialysis is no fun), and causes enlargement of the heart, accelerated atherosclerosis in your arteries, and sudden hemorrhages in the brain (hemorrhagic stroke), all of which can have sudden death as their first symptom.The last numbers that are essential to know are your lipid profile: total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol (the bad one, which should be low), and HDL cholesterol (the good one, which should be high). Heart disease, particularly due to atherosclerotic plaque buildup (narrowed coronary arteries), and ischemic strokes are major causes of premature death. Cholesterol-lowering drugs are a major success story in modern medicine. They're inexpensive, well tolerated, and extremely effective. Take advantage of this great medical advance.

Lesson #2: Listen to your body.If something doesn't feel right or you have an unusual pain that causes concern, pay attention to it. See your doctor and find an answer. Be proactive about your health and seek help early. Get regular physicals and have appropriate screening tests.

Lesson #3: Use as directed.So many things in life come with instructions-and for good reason. Instructions tell us how to do things right so we won't get hurt or injure others. To increase your odds of living a long and fulfilling life: Take your medicine as directed, follow your doctor's orders, and obey posted and written rules.

Lesson #4: Practice good hygiene.This advice isn't just your mother nagging you, either. Studies show that the more often you wash your hands, the less likely you are to get sick. Keeping your hands clean is one of the best ways to avoid illness. Along those same lines, use condoms when needed, since HIV is largely transmitted through sexual contact. Nearly 60 percent of AIDS cases diagnosed since 1981 could have been prevented by using condoms.

Lesson #5: Drive carefully.The tendency to take chances on the highway that can land you in traffic court can just as easily land you in the morgue. Wear a seat belt when driving and a helmet when bike riding. Don't drink or do drugs and drive. Observe all rules of the road.

Lesson #6: Just say no.Smoking is one of the best ways to ensure you'll wind up in the morgue. Get help to quit, if necessary. A little bit of alcohol may be healthy, but more than moderate amounts are not. Don't mess with recreational and illicit drugs, and don't abuse prescription drugs. The less you put of these things in your body, the greater your chances of being around for a long time to come.

Lesson #7: Watch your step.Think about the consequences of your actions. Sure, I see some unavoidable accidents in the morgue, but a large percentage could have been prevented, and that includes most car accidents. I have the choice of only five manners of death on the death certificate: homicide, suicide, natural, accident, and undetermined. If I could add another, it would be "stupidity." It's difficult to say a cause of death is an accident when the decedent's death was clearly avoidable if he or she had applied a little thinking to the situation.

Lesson #8: Have a good time.What's important isn't whether you got all of the food stains off your blouse or shirt. It's whether you had a good time at the picnic, the candlelit dinner, or the ice cream store with your kids. If you enjoyed yourself, then the experience was well worth it, whether your clothes looked good afterward or not. As you go through life, have fun and get a daily dose of vitamin H. Humor — through laughter and smiling — eases the burdens of life.

Lesson #9: Don't go it alone.Relationships are important to me. Life revolves around them, and it shows in our health. People who maintain close relationships live longer and more healthily. Tap into the healing network of family and friends, neighbors and colleagues, so that when stressful, difficult times come, you'll have supportive people all around. It may sound corny, but caring for others helps us care for ourselves and brings added meaning to our lives.

Lesson #10: Remember what matters.There's one thing that I'd like my kids to remember about me: I cared. I cared about my family, and I always put them first. We all need to clarify what's truly important and set priorities that make sense for us. When all is said and done, it's not how many years you live, it's what you do with those years.

Life has its challenges at times, and death is inevitable. We just don't have to help it along.

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