Take a few minutes and check out Cristina’s website: The Benefits of Positive Thinking. She’s also got a contest going on right now worth checking into. Just scroll down to the bottom of her Resistance Toys page to learn more.

Enjoy your Paraliminal Cristina!

Image by Donna Cymek via Flickr

I was listening to an EFT teleseminar early today that shared a fantastic way to raise your vibration and attract what you want. I found this technique to be so awesome that I wanted to share it with you so you can try it for yourself.

When you hold a high vibration, the law of attraction will bring more high vibration results into your life. Like attracts like, so if you’re feeling good, you’re also attracting more good things to you. Conversely, if you’re feeling any sort of negative emotions, it means that you’re focused on what you don’t want and that low vibration will cause you to attract more of what you don’t want into your life.

So if you want to attract good things into your life, it’s really important to use whatever tools and methods you can to keep your vibration high!

The Method To Quickly Raise Your Vibration

To do this method, you’ll need a notebook or some sort of online journal like Diary.com.

Once you’ve got your writing medium ready to go, start thinking back on your day and try to remember any moments in your day that felt good. It doesn’t matter if those moments only lasted a few seconds, you’re just looking for anything that felt pleasant. Even on the worst of days, we all have a least a couple of golden nugget type moments that felt good. These are the moments you’re looking for. When you think of one, write it down.

If you’re having trouble thinking of something, I’ll give you a couple of examples from my own notes that should help to inspire you:

• I woke up this morning to find our entire yard covered in snow and the sight was absolutely stunning. I really appreciated the beauty that winter can bring.
• When I logged on to check the traffic statistics on one of my websites this morning, I saw that it was up over 10% compared to the previous week. It was really exciting to see that growth.
• At one point I went to lie down beside my dog to do some reading. As I did, she stretched out contentedly and purred almost like a cat does. Her total relaxation and pleasure in the moment gave me a real sense peace and joy myself.
• When I went to bed last night, my stomach was feeling a little off, and when I woke up this morning, I noticed that I was feeling much better and I felt very relieved and thankful for the healing that my body experienced as I slept.

Once you’ve got your list, read through the first item on your list and take a minute or two to really sink into the memory of that moment. Relive it, try to feel exactly how you felt when you were experiencing that particular event. Once you start feeling those wonderful feelings again, send out an intention that you are experiencing more and more of those types of moments and feelings in your life.

Go through each item on your list in this manner, each time reliving that moment with as much detail and emotion as you can. As you do, send out an intention that you are experiencing more and more of those types of moments and experiences in your life.

If you know how to do EFT, you can tap each of the meridian points as you’re reliving the moment. The tapping will help you to solidify the memory and positive feelings into your subconscious mind.

You Can Also Use It To Attract Specific Things Into Your Life

You can also use this method to attract specific things into your life. To do this, you need to go back through your life and remember moments when you experienced the feeling state of what you’re looking to create.

• To create abundance in your life, scan through your memories and recall times when you felt truly abundant and use those moments as your point of focus and intention
• To create health in your life, scan through your memories and recall times when you felt physically great. Use those moments as your point of focus and intention
• To improve your business or career, scan through your memories for times when you had even just small moments of success and joy in your business or career and use those as your point of focus and intention.

These are just a couple of examples to explain the process. Just go back through your memories and look for positive moments that you can relate to what you want to create more of in your life. Then, use the list process noted earlier to really get into the feeling of those moments and intend for more and more of them in your life.

Conclusion

Often as we try to work with the law of attraction we are trying to attract things that we want. In principle this makes sense, we want the things that we don’t already have. The problem is that when we try to attract something that we don’t already have, we are often focused on the lack of it. You might not even be aware that you’re thinking about the lack of it, but it is likely happening at a subconscious level.

What makes this method so effective is that you are focusing on things that already exist in your life. There is no lack, you already have them, so the sabotaging subconscious thoughts just won’t hold you back. And as you focus on these wonderful things that you already have, you will cause them to expand and attract more and more of them into your life.

(Learn more about having vs. wanting)

The more you practice this method, the more habitual these positive feelings will become, and your life will just keep getting better and better. So take advantage of it and make it a daily habit to remember and focus on the golden nuggets of your day.

Technorati Tags: law of attraction, EFT, self-help, success

Most of us don’t think much about the foods we put into our bodies or how they affect our us and the environment. Not only that, we also rarely think about where our food comes from and how it got to be in that nice white shrink wrapped tray we see sitting on the grocery shelf.

Meat is an interesting one, it has a dramatic affect on your health, and the environment. Check out these 26 reasons not to eat meat…

1. Higher Body Weight – Meat eaters tend to consume more fat which often results in increased body fat levels.
2. Higher Cholesterol – Meat eaters usually consume more bad fats which results in higher cholesterol levels.
3. Higher Blood Pressure – The fats in meat tend to clog up your arteries which results in higher blood pressure.
4. Higher Risk of Diabetes – Meat eaters tend to eat less legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables which all help to prevent and control diabetes.
5. Higher Risk of Cancer – Meat eaters tend to eat less legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables which all have powerful antioxidants that help to prevent cancer.
6. Higher Toxicity Levels – Meats are usually treated with preservatives and other chemicals to help them look better stay fresher. These chemicals are toxic to the body and can lead to disease over time. The EPA also estimates that about 95 percent of pesticides in our diet come from eating meat, fish and dairy. Fish contain carcinogens (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury, arsenic; lead, cadmium) that cannot be eliminated by cooking them. Meat and dairy products are also full of steroids and hormones.
7. Digestion Problems – Meats are difficult to digest and eliminate. Over time this creates a toxic environment in the digestive tract which can eventually cause cancer.
8. Shortened Life Span – According to many University and government studies, vegetarians tend to live about 7 years longer than meat eaters and vegans tend to live about 15 years longer than meat eaters.
9. Higher Chance of Terminal Diseases – A British study that tracked 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters for 12 years found that meat eaters were 40 percent more likely to die from cancer and 20 percent more likely to die from other diseases.
10. Higher Food Costs – Replacing the meats in your grocery cart with vegetables and fruits will save you thousands of dollars a year.
11. Meat is Murder – Every day about 22 millions animals are slaughtered just to supply Americans with meat for food consumption. Give up meat and save the life of a conscious being.
12. Meat Eaters Use More Fossil Fuels – It takes twenty times more fossil fuel to grow and supply 1 pound of meat compared to 1 pound of vegetables. Eliminating meat consumption will help reduce fossil fuel usage and could help lower gas prices and help our precious oil supply to last longer.
13. Meat Eaters Use More Water – It takes 441 gallons of water to grow and supply 1 pound of beef compared to only 14 gallons of water for 1 pound of wheat.
14. Meat Production Wastes Food – It takes 7 pounds of grain to grow 1 pound of meat. If everyone gave up eating meat, we could feed 7 times the population that we currently do without needing any additional farm land.
15. Meat Production Causes Animal Extinction – In the United States, grazing has contributed to the demise of 26% of the federal threatened and endangered species list. It’s also estimated that for each hamburger made from rain forest beef, approximately 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammals, and reptile species are destroyed.
16. Meat Eaters Tend To Have a Lower Spiritual Energy – According to many religious traditions, the eating of meat brings heavy, stagnant energy into the body which hampers our ability to live at a high vibration. Avoiding meat consumption may help you to move toward enlightenment.
17. Meat Production is Destroying The World’s Largest Supplier of Oxygen – The rain forests in South America are being destroyed to make room for livestock.
18. Meat Production is the Biggest Cause of Global Warming – A 2006 United Nations report found that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.
19. Meat Production Pollutes The Environment – Animal farming creates massive amounts of manure and urine run-off which pollutes water supplies and local land.
20. Factory Farmed Meat and Animal Products Are Extremely Cruel To Animals – Many of these animals never see the light of day, they’re confined to pens that do not allow them to move or turn around. They live in their own waste, forced to constantly breathe in ammonia and other waste products. They are pumped full of antibiotics because of their polluted living conditions. They are fed foods that they are not designed to digest because “it’s cheaper and more efficient”. They’re pumped full of chemicals to make them grow bigger and produce more. They are often mutilated without the use of painkillers. And finally they are often slaughtered while they are fully conscious. In short, they live a life of living hell.
21. Meat Eaters Lose More Bone Mass as They Age – At the age of 65, the average bone loss of a meat eating woman is double that of their vegetarian counterparts. Experts attribute this to excess protein consumption from eating meats which can interfere with the absorption and retention of calcium.
22. Meat Eaters Are Heavily Exposed To Food Born Illnesses – Eating meat can make you very sick. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 25 percent of all chicken sold in the United States carries salmonella bacteria and the CDC estimates that 70 to 90 percent of chickens contain the bacteria campy-lobacter (some strains of which are antibiotic-resistant). Approximately 5 percent of cows carry the lethal strain of E. coli O157:H7 (which causes virulent diseases and death), and 30 percent of pigs slaughtered each year for food are infected with toxoplasmosis (caused by parasites).
23. Meat Eaters Risk More Back Problems – Meat eaters tend to consume more bad fats that often leads to arterial blockages which, according to Neil Barnard, M.D, can cause back problems. “Back pain appears to begin, not in the back, but in the arteries.” “The degeneration of disks, for instance, which leads to nerves being pinched, starts with the arteries leading to the back.” Neil Barnard, M.D., president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and author of Foods That Fight Pain (Harmony Books, 1998).
24. Meat Eating Women Have More Menopause Problems – Plant food sources contain a compound called phytoestrogens that helps to balance your hormones. Thanks to a meat-free diet, vegetarian women have much fewer problems related to menopause. They sleep better, have less hot flashes, have more energy, less weight gain, fewer mood swings, and maintain a higher sex drive.
25. Meat Eaters Stress The Financial and Health Care System – Diets that are heavy in animal products cost the country over $60 billion dollars a year in health care costs related to heart disease, cancer, food poisoning, and obesity.
26. Fish Eaters are Destroying The Ocean’s Fish Population – Fish are being over-harvested and according to the Food & Agriculture Organization, 11 of the 15 world’s major fishing grounds are almost depleted.

Personally, I’ve been a vegetarian for well over 5 years now. I feel good about my dietary choice. I lost weight when I stopped eating meat, I rarely get sick anymore (I used to get at least 5 colds a year), I have more energy, and I feel good about having a much smaller environmental impact on the world I live in.

What about you? Was this an eye opener for you? Do you agree or disagree that eating meat can have a significant negative impact on the human body and the world?

Technorati Tags: vegetarian, food, environment, health, diet

“Quit now, you’ll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you’ll be halfway there.” – David Zucker

We’ve all seen somebody cover their ears and start singing “La-la-la-la-la, I’m not listening!”. If not, I hope you at least know what I’m talking about. At any rate, I’m here to tell you that this is a completely acceptable way to handle things when somebody tells you to give up pursuing your dreams.

If you’ve been pursuing your dreams, or even talking about it, you’ve probably also had the unpleasant experience of someone telling you to give up or not even bother trying. When someone tells you to give up, it can be tempting to take their advice. After all, giving up is easy and painless right? It might especially seem that way when things don’t seem to be working out for us.

The problem is that giving up on your goals and dreams isn’t painless. Sure, you could learn to be content with the way things are, but I can promise you that your dreams will continue to gnaw away at you for your entire life. You’ll never be completely happy, something will always feel like it’s missing or incomplete, until finally one day you’re on your deathbed, full of regret, and wondering what your life could have been had you not given up.

Okay, so maybe that’s a pretty bleak picture to paint, but in many ways it’s true. Close your eyes for a moment and get your imagination going. Fast forward your life and imagine you’re in your final years on this planet. Do you think you will be glad that you spent your life playing it safe and taking the easy route? Do you think you’ll be glad you stayed in career you hated instead of pursuing your dreams? Do you think you’ll be glad you decided to take the easy way out and watched television every night instead of taking some small daily actions to make your dream a reality?

Giving up on your goals and dreams is not painless, and it won’t make your life any easier or better in the long run. But if that’s true, why would people tell you to give up?

The Two Types of Naysayers and How To Handle Them

Why in the world would somebody tell you to give up on your goals and dreams? There are two main reasons why someone might give you this flawed piece of advice.

1. They genuinely care about you and don’t want to see you suffer failure.
2. They aren’t currently pursuing their dreams, and the fact that you are is making them feel threatened by you.

1. The People Who Genuinely Care About You

If someone that genuinely cares about you tells you to give up on your goals, it’s probably because they don’t want to see you end up being hurt or disappointed. They worry that things won’t work out for you, and it can be hard for loved ones to watch us go through difficult times.

The way to handle this type of situation is to gently thank these people for caring enough to try to protect you from suffering. But you also need to let them know that you will also suffer pain and regret if you don’t try to succeed, and that you would appreciate it if they could try to encourage and support you instead. If they really do care about you, they will respect your wishes.

2. The People That Are Threatened By You

The other type of person that will try to discourage you are the ones that feels threatened by your ambitions. They might feel threatened for a couple of reasons, and both of them are very selfish ones!

1. When they see you going after their dreams, it reminds them of how they have given up and settled in life. This reminder can be painful. So instead of being inspired by you and following your example, they instead try to get you to give up so that they don’t have to suffer being reminded anymore. To deal with these types of people, feel entirely free to use the hand over your ears method and ignore them.
2. The second type of threatened person is worried that you’re going to leave them behind. They worry that as you move on, you’ll forget about them, or won’t have time for them anymore. To deal with situations like this, gently remind the person that they are being selfish and that if your relationship with them is truly important, you will both make time for each other no matter how much your life changes.

Conclusion

Stay strong, don’t give up, stay true to yourself and your dreams. Listen to the wise advice of David Zucker…

“Quit now, you’ll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you’ll be halfway there.”

And feel free to throw in a quick cover of your ears and a “La-la-la-la-la, I’m not listening!” just for fun.

Technorati Tags: self-help, success, personal-development, goals, dreams, advice

The Rhythm of Life – Living Every Day With Passion and Purpose is a self-help book that covers a wide range of topics. However, the overall goal of this book is to teach you how to become the best possible version of yourself.

Matthew Kelly is the author of several books, is a New York Times best selling author, and he has been speaking to audiences since his teens. Over the last ten years, more than three million people from all over the world have attended his seminars.

Kelly covers a lot of ground in this book, which makes it difficult to cover it all in a short book review. However, the main focus of every topic that Kelly covers is to teach you how to become the best possible version of yourself.

Here is a small sampling of the types of things you can expect to learn from The Rhythm of Life:

• Figuring Out What you Really Want From Life
• Figuring Out What Your Legitimate Needs Are
• Learning What Really Creates Happiness
• Finding Your Talents
• The Purpose Of Life
• How To Manage Your Day For Optimum Life Results
• How To Maximize Your Level of Energy
• The Ten Principles of Excellence
• How To Enjoy Your Life Journey
• How To Achieve Your Dreams

My Experience Reading The Rhythm of Life

Kelly has obviously learned a lot and been a very astute student of life. This book is filled with a lot of wisdom which really impressed me as I was reading it.

The Text

I found the text to be a bit repetitive at times, but I believe this was done on purpose to help emphasize certain key points. I can understand why Kelly does this, but I also find that this type of writing underestimates the intelligence of the reader. Due to this, the book probably could have been edited to be about 1/3 shorter.

Illustrating Stories

Kelly shares many personal stories, and stories of other successful people, to help illustrate points in the book. I appreciate it when authors share these types of stores. Personally, I find it interesting to learn how other people have become successful in any area of life.

Writing Style

The writing style was easy to read and easy to follow. Kelly managed to keep the book cohesive, yet also keep each individual section focused on it’s own core concepts.

Author’s Perspective

It was easy to tell that Kelly is coming from a Christian perspective, but at the same time, he wasn’t overly pushy about it. I believe he did this to try to keep the book open to a wider audience.

This somewhat Christian perspective may turn off some people, but I found that almost everything he teaches can be applied whether you come from a Christian background or not.

Recommendation

As I mentioned earlier, the Rhythm of Life offers a lot of wisdom on how to live a great life. It’s packed with ideas, tips, stories, and information that I’m sure you’ll find enlightening and beneficial. It’s definitely worth reading.

4 out of 5 stars

The Bible offers a lot of wisdom for living a full, happy, and successful life. Today I want to touch on what it teaches about mastering the law of attraction. In fact, it’s one Bible verse in particular that offers the key to mastering the law of attraction…

“Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” Mark 4:25

Having or Not Having is a Mindset

Whether you have, or have not, is a mindset, not a physical reality.

The law of attraction does not respond to your physical reality! It always, 100% of the time, responds to your thoughts and feelings. If you think thoughts of lack, the law of attraction will bring more lack into your life. If you think thoughts of having and abundance, the law of attraction will bring more prosperity into your life.

Here’s a couple of examples…

You can choose thoughts of lack…

• I don’t have enough money to pay my bills.
• I don’t have the clothes, TV, car, house, or furniture that I want.
• I don’t have the relationship that I want.

If you choose to focus on these types of things, guess what, you’re in a “have not” mindset. When you’re in a “have not” mindset, the law of attraction is going to bring more lack into your life.

Or you can choose thoughts of having…

• I have food to eat.
• I have clothes to wear.
• I have shelter over my head.
• I have furniture to sit on.
• I have a bed to sleep in.
• I have friends and family that love me.

When you choose to focus on what you have, the law of attraction will respond to that vibration of “having” and it will bring more people and things into your life.

How To Become a Person Who “Has” So That You Will Be Given More

Here’s a couple of ways that you can start turning your thoughts away from lack and toward thoughts of having and abundance.

It’s important that you practice these things daily. Preferably many times a day.

The more you practice them, the sooner they will become a habitual way of thinking. And, once your thoughts are focused on “having” at least 51% of the time, you will tip the scales of the law of attraction in your favor.

1. Be Thankful For What You Have

Instead of focusing on what’s missing in your life, spend some time every day being thankful for what you already have.

I have personally found writing a daily gratitude list to be very helpful in getting me to focus on the good things that are already in my life. I started doing this a few weeks ago and already I’ve noticed that my mind is starting to look for things to be grateful for all throughout the day. It’s almost like my subconscious mind knows that I’m going to write a gratitude list at some point during the day, so it’s now helping me to accumulate a list of things to be grateful for ahead of time.

Try it yourself. All you need to do is spend ten or more minutes every day writing a list of things that you’re grateful for. You can use a simple notepad, or you can use a free online journal tool like diary.com. If you’re having trouble coming up with things to be grateful for, I’ve created a good sized list of ideas to get you started on this post.

2. Imagine Having What You Desire

You attract what you focus on, so if you focus on wanting something, you’re actually attracting more “want” into your life. You need to get into the feeling state of already having it.

To do this, kick back and relax somewhere quiet and comfortable. Close your eyes, and ask yourself “What would my life be like if I already had what I wanted?”. Then, use your imagination to picture what your life would be like if you did have what you wanted. This will get your thoughts and feelings focused on “having” what you desire instead of “wanting” what you desire.

When you feel like you already have it, you will begin to attract it.

Conclusion

As you start to practice focusing on “having” vs. “not having”, be patient with yourself. You’ve probably spent many years thinking your current thoughts, it might take a while to change those habits.

By deliberately choosing to focus your thoughts on “having” on a daily basis, you will begin to reprogram your subconscious mind. Sometimes it takes 30 days, sometimes more. But at some point, the shift will begin to happen. When it does, watch the magic start to unfold in your life….

“More will be given to you.”

Not only is it Universal Law, it’s a Biblical promise!

Technorati Tags: self-help, bible, personal-development, law of attraction

By Logan Lindabury

Maybe you’re a football fan, maybe you’re not, but one thing is certain, you need to watch the Superbowl.

Why? Because some of the commercials are hilarious! I know I usually get a good laugh out of them. I’m sure you have too.

Why should this matter?  Well, for starters, Laughter Is Great™. Also, laughter leads to living life like nothing else. When you laugh, you let happiness overwhelm you.

When happiness overwhelms you, that’s when you’re really living life. Who wouldn’t want to feel happy?

So, take some much needed time off and laugh a little. Even a little laughter can go a long way at making you a livelier person. Don’t believe me?  Try it for yourself and tell me I’m wrong.

If you missed the Super Bowl you now have something to do this time next year.  In the meantime, you can see all the Super Bowl ads here: Superbowl Ads

I hope you have an amazing time laughing and living. Until next time!

This has been another contribution from Logan Lindabury of Laughtub.  Laughter Is Great™ is the slogan for Laughtub.  Just in case y0u didn’t know, Laughtub is a website where anyone can spread, share, and obtain laughter and happiness. Why? Because laughter improves lives!

Technorati Tags: laugh, laughter, self-help, personal development, self-improvement, superbowl

This is a tribute to my dear grandmother who passed away last Thursday, February 4th, at the age of 91. She was an amazing woman who made this world a better place during her time here.

My grandmother never verbally gave me any advice on life, but instead she provided a living example through the way she lived her own life. I’d like to share with you what I learned from her.

1. Speak Your Mind

My grandmother was never shy about speaking her mind. She would be quick to let you know if she was tired, hungry, thirsty, bored, or if she didn’t like something. I really appreciated that about her. I think that to many people waste time by being afraid to say what they’re thinking.

Just imagine if we all spoke our minds.

• No more trying to guess what’s wrong when someone is visibly upset. We could get straight to trying to solve the problem instead.
• We could get to know people for who they really are instead of the false fronts that so many people put on.
• We would know that the people who love us, love us for who we really are.

I think this would be a huge time and energy saver for everyone.

2. Exercise Every Day

Up until about the age of 89, my grandmother exercised every day. When she was younger she would be working on the farm that she lived on, and after she retired, she started walking 5 or more kilometers every day.

It didn’t matter if it was hot, cold, raining, or snowing, nothing stopped my grandmother from getting out for her daily exercise. For her, exercising wasn’t a should do, but a must do.

Regular exercise kept my grandmother strong and healthy. She was rarely ever sick, and she was never hospitalized for anything (except for a hip operation) until she was in the final year of her life.

3. Family is Important

What really matters the most at the end of your life is the relationships you’ve had. I’ve seen many interviews where successful people are asked what they would do differently if they got a chance to do it all over again. Almost every single one of them reply that they would spend more time with their families. They all seemed to realize that while success and accumlating money and things might be nice, it should never be done at the expense of your relationships with family and friends.

I think my grandmother understood this. Hardly a day went by that she didn’t spend at least some time with family. Sometimes her frequent requests for a visit seemed a bit frustrating, but now that she’s gone, I think our whole family really appreciates all the time that we got to spend with her.

4. Cook Everything From Scratch

My grandmother was a great cook. She made some of the best meals and pies I’ve ever tasted. And none of it ever came out of a box.

I think that part of her “secret” to having such a long and healthy life is that she avoided processed foods. Processed foods are usually devoid of any nutritional value and are often full of fat, sugar, and salt. My grandmother regularly fed herself and her family fresh, wholesome foods that provided them with plenty of vitamins and minerals.

5. Keep a Clean Home

My grandmother took pride in keeping a clean home. I never once saw any sort of mess, dirt, or dust in her home. She always honored both herself and her guests by having a clean home.

Just imagine for a minute that you got a call today saying that somebody of importance (the queen, the president, or the primeminister) was going to come over to your home for dinner tomorrow night. Would you end up going on a mad cleaning spree to get your home prepared for this person’s visit? You would want to honor this person and give them a good impression by having a clean home right?

Well, why not honor yourself by keeping your home just as clean for yourself? You matter just as much as they do. Not only that, a fresh, clean home makes you feel good, and if it’s well organized, you even tend to think more clearly.

6. Enjoy Life

Grandma ate a lot of nutritious food and she exercised regularly, but she also enjoyed life.

She didn’t deny herself the things she enjoyed, she just enjoyed them in moderation. Every day she would have one cigarette with her morning coffee. She enjoyed eating a little bit of something sweet everyday, and she would also enjoy the occasional drink.

When my grandmother did these things she wasn’t thinking of how bad they were for her, or how they were going to make her sick, or fat. She just simply enjoyed them. Being stress-free and enjoying life can go a long way to helping you to live a long and happy life.

My grandmother also had a lot of fun. She could often be seen cracking a subtle joke with a twinkle in her eye and a sly smile on her face. We even have many photos of her doing funny poses in front of landmarks, or laughing while wearing crazy looking green sunglasses.

Laughing and having fun helps to reduce stress. Stress can take a major toll on your health, so make sure you take some time to laugh and play everyday.

7. If You Love Someone, Tell Them Frequently

I never doubted that my grandmother loved me because she told me every time I saw her.

Feeling loved makes us feel good. Who doesn’t feel a bit better about ourselves and our day when somebody tells us they love us?

Don’t just leave it as an unspoken assumption. Tell your loved ones that you love them. It will make their day, and you’ll feel better for it to!

8. Work Hard

When my grandmother got married, she and her husband had nothing to their name. No home, no money, no car and their families had no money to help them out.

Since my grandmother never had anything handed to her. She always took the initiative to work hard to get what she wanted. It payed off. By the time she and her husband retired, they had a successful farm and a well funded retirement plan.

It’s always nice to receive a helping hand or a timely gift, but you should never expect it. If you want something, roll up your sleeves, get to work, and make it happen for yourself.

9. Get up Early

You’ve probably heard the saying “The early bird gets the worm”. I’m not totally convinced that it’s true, I see birds eating all day long. But there might just be something to it since many successful people seem to share the habit of getting up early.

My grandmother was one of them. She would always be up around 5am and by the time the rest of the world was rolling out of bed, she had already walked 5 kilometers or more and eaten her breakfast. Just imagine how much more you could get done in a day if you got out of bed an hour earlier.

I have also read in several health related books that going to bed early and getting up early is better for your health. Seeing as my grandmother lived to be 91, there might just be something to this.

10. Trust in a Higher Power

My grandmother always believed that God would take care of her. This belief provided her with a sense of security, and it also became her reality. It always seemed like things worked out well for her.

Almost all major religions, and more recently, quantum physics, teach us that our thoughts and beliefs create our physical reality. So if you believe that you will always be taken care of and that things will work out for the best, it actually will.

Just imagine how much less stress you would feel if you believed that there was a greater power out there looking out for you and taking care of you.

Technorati Tags: self help, personal development, success, grandmother

By Logan Lindabury

Hi again everyone. It’s me Logan. You might remember me from such posts as: Why Some People Hate Me, and Why I’m OK With It!.

I’m here to talk to you today about another reason why you might experience some negative vibes from other folks. If you live in any area of the world that gets snowy and cold weather for a couple months or more, you’ve probably experienced it. It’s called wintertime stress.

Wintertime Stress

The winter months can be stressful on people. They don’t get outside much due to the cold. And when they can get outside, they’re so bundled up, hardly any sunlight touches their skin. Top that off with the fact that the total amount of hours that we get to enjoy any sunlight is severely limited (thanks rotating earth axis!).

Most people can deal with this for the first few weeks, or even a couple of months. But after a while it begins to take a mental toll on just about everyone.

In extreme cases, some folks are even diagnosed with something called S.A.D – Seasonally Affected Disorder. S.A.D. a form of seasonal depression that is caused by limited exposure to natural sunlight.

[editor's note -taking a daily Vitamin D supplement and exposing yourself to a full spectrum light every day during the winter could be very helpful if you suffer from S.A.D - Colin]

As the mental toll keeps accumulating, people can start to get grumpy, and often times you end up taking the brunt of it.

What Can You Do?

Do what I do, hide out at home for a while, away from all the stressed out folks. I watch funny TV shows to make me laugh. I surf the internet for funny news, hilarious videos, and jokes. I read jokes in magazines and also my joke books.

If you do need to head out of the protective shelter of your home. Try to arrange it so that you can at least hang around some funny, positive people while your out. Trust me, it’ll make a huge difference.

It’s Almost Over

For those of you that live in the Northern Hemisphere of planet earth. There is hope. Winter will be winding down soon. It won’t be long now. You just need to hang in there a bit longer.

About The Author:

This has been another contribution by Logan Lindabury of Laughtub.com. Helping obtain, share, and spread laughter and happiness, Laughtub is there for you, no matter what mood you are in!

This month, I’m going to be giving away a free copy of the Focus and Concentration Paraliminal.

• If you’re not familiar with what a paraliminal is, check out this page to learn more.
• Follow this link if you want to learn more about the Focus and Concentration Paraliminal.

In short, listening to this CD will help you to…

• Set clear priorities among the competing demands for your time.
• Believe in yourself and your purpose.
• Expand your capacity for success.
• Communicate your goals with clarity and effectiveness.
• Open yourself to creative insights.
• Gain control of your time and your life.

How To Enter

Entering is easy. Just leave a relevant comment on our blog. That’s it!

You can enter your name every day by leaving a new comment.

Important Details

Contest Closes – February 28, 2010.

Prize Claim – I will contact you through the email address you used for your comment(s). So please be sure to use a real email address.

Draw Date – Early March.

Other Details:

• You’re free to comment multiple times each day, but your name will only be entered maximum once per day.
• Shipping costs will be covered by me.
• Draw will be done by listing all entries numerically, then randomizer.org will be used to randomly select the winner.

GOOD LUCK!