2012

Early Morning Spiritual Consciousness Inspiration - 1/28/2012
How to Deal with Difficult People and Have Constructive Conflict
Infant Rattles Recalled by Lee Carter Co.
Multiple Births Can Multiply Mom's Weight
Creating Silence from Chaos
The Truth About Guarana

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST

"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence."

~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

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How to Deal with Difficult People and Have Constructive Conflict

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 10:00 AM PST

Life and relationships aren't always perfect. Take a minute to think of some difficult people you have to deal with in your life? These may be people you work with, the in-laws that come to town throughout the year, or your neighbor who can't seem to take a hint. For whatever reason, you're just not jiving with these people.

Do you flee? Or, do you get flexible and learn to interact?

When we encounter these extreme personalities it can feel like they are trying to make our life miserable, but more often than not, it's simply learning about these peoples' tendencies and how to interact in a more tactful way. Some conflicts are unavoidable and shouldn't be smoothed over or suppressed, though it's learning to deal with our differences, and how to understand, resolve, and learn from these interactions that's important.

Tips to dealing with problem people

Learn to recognize different personalities
First and foremost, we must develop self-awareness about our own personality tendencies. Are you more aggressive or passive? Are you more of an introvert or extrovert?

Once we know our personality tendencies we can learn to recognize other peoples' personalities and adapt and interact in a more effective way.

Learn how to communicate with different personality types
When we are dealing with different people it requires we approach them in the way they want to be treated. Some people need more detail and clarity in communication. Some people are very direct a! nd just want the facts, and others are more focused on relationships.

Consider how you can communicate verbally and through body language in the most effective way with these different types of people to build rapport and make them feel understood.

Know who triggers you and why
When we know who we tend to have conflict with and what it is that leads us to get frustrated, we can begin to be more proactive. We can learn to deal with this person more effectively by managing our own emotions and not be the target of their drama and unrest.

Learn to focus on strengths and positive qualities
A great way to deal with people more effectively in any relationship context is to focus on their positive qualities and to help them accentuate these when you can. Give people compliments, offer them recognition, and help them to use their strengths. We can empower others instead of knocking them down, and by doing so have a more positive influence and interaction.

Just because you apply these ideas doesn't mean that people will always respond in a positive manner. The only person you have control is yourself, so to make sure that an unhealthy conflict doesn't ensue work to build these traits.

Managing conflict is being there with:

Availability: Accept full responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, actions, values, and perceptions that you contribute to the conflict.

Flexibility: Offer a willingness to make some degree of change, so that both people can move toward a joint solution. Compromise may be required.

Specificity: Seek to focus the conflict of real, signific! ant issu es that point toward a practical outcome that is within the range of responsibility. Don't get personal.

Clarity: When the message intended and the impact received are nearly the same, communication is achieved. For this to happen, words, tone of voice, facial expression, posture must all be congruent with each other and context with they are said.

Here are some signs of constructive and healthy conflict.
You'll know you're on the right track when the following ideas are present.
Conflict is constructive when:

It opens up issues of importance, resulting in their clarification.
Results in the solution of problems
Increases the involvement of individuals in issues of importance to them
Causes authentic communication to occur
Serves as a release to pent-up negative emotions
Helps build cohesiveness among people, and allows them to learn about each other
Helps individuals grow and learn to become better in the future
We can learn a lot about ourselves and grow as a person when we work through conflict. It can also open up new possibilities and allow us to think differently about our beliefs and expectations.

Developing patience and tact to deal with others more effectively is a skill that can be applied in many areas of life. Continuing developing your ability to connect and influence others in a positive way.

Written on 1/28/2012 by Joe Wilner. Joe Wilner is a coaching and writer who manages www.shakeoffthegrind.com, where he inspires and empowers people to live a full, meaningful, and thriving life. You can also follow him on Twitter at @shakethegrind.

Photo Credit: spaceamoeba

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Da Bei Zhou 大悲咒

Hi this Video is about DaBeiZhou Song & Chinese God Photo and Video Hope you like it & Enjoy Photo : Singapore & Intetnet Held on : Singapore Eunos MRT Temple : LongNamDian

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Infant Rattles Recalled by Lee Carter Co.

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 11:00 PM PST

CREDIT: CPSC

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Lee Carter Co., of San Francisco, Calif., announced a voluntary recall of about 25,000 Infant Rattles.

Hazard: The rattle's handle is small enough to fit into a child's throat, posing a choking hazard and violating federal rattle standards.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported

Description: The recalled rattles are made out of multi-colored, woven plastic and have a bell inside. They measure about 4 1/2 inches long. "Made in Mexico" and "Lee Carter Company" are printed on a tag on a purple plastic loop at the end of the rattle's handle.

Sold at: Various Mexican specialty craft stores nationwide from February 2001 through October 2011 for about $ 4.

Manufactured in: Mexico

Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the recalled rattles away from infants and return them to Lee Carter Co. for a full refund or credit towards a replacement product.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, consumers should call Lee Carter Co. collect at (415) 824-2004 anytime, or visit the firm's website at www.leecartercompany.com.

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Multiple Births Can Multiply Mom's Weight

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST

CREDIT: Pregnancy photo via Shutterstock

Moms have often complained that the more children they have, the harder it becomes to shed the extra pounds gained during pregnancy, and a new mouse study may help explain why.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that mouse moms who gave birth four times were 45 percent heavier than mouse moms who gave birth just once, despite eating similar amounts of food.

The findings suggest that in mice, as in humans, giving birth multiple times, regardless of age, can lead to weight gain and inflammation in the body, according to the researchers.

Moreover, the researchers identified specific metabolic changes in mothers and in offspring that are likely involved in obesity, the researchers said in a statement.

The study was published Jan. 26 in the American Journal of Physiology — Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Researchers engineered a type of mouse that mimics human moms who gain weight after multiple births. They compared mice that gave birth four times with mice that gave birth only once.

Researchers weighed the animals, assessed the size of their fat deposits, tested the mice to see how well their bodies controlled their blood sugar levels and measured their levels of inflammation.

Study findings showed that mouse moms with multiple offspring had fat deposits several times larger than mouse moms with a single offspring. They also had larger blood sugar spikes after meals, a warning sign for diabetes.

Mouse moms with multiple offspring had higher levels of inflammation, compared with the mouse moms with a single offspring, as well as other moms who were given a high-fat diet. Elevated inflammation has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, cancer and a variety of other diseases.

Researchers performed similar tests in the male offspring of the mice.

They found that the male offspring of those who'd given birth multiple times weighed as much as 40 percent more than the male offspring of mouse moms with a single offspring, even though they didn't eat more food.

The differences became apparent when the offspring were older, suggesting that excess energy was stored as fat only after their growth slowed down, according to the researchers.

When the researchers examined genes responsible for storing versus using fat, the multiple offspring animals appeared to use less fat compared to the single offspring animals.

The researchers said that effective ways to help women lose weight between pregnancies could help maintain their health, and that of their children.

Pass it on: Multiple births lead to extra pounds in mouse moms and male offspring.

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Creating Silence from Chaos

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST

Post written by Leo Babauta.

We are often afraid of silence, because its emptiness feels idle, boring, unproductive, and scary. And so we fill our lives with chaos, noise, clutter.

But silence can be lovely, and therapeutic, and powerful.

It can be the remedy for our stress and the habits that crush us.

If we want quiet in our lives, how do we create it?

I've been exploring this myself. As a father of six kids, I have to admit that I don't always have silence in my life. That's not a complaint — I love the messy noise that my family brings — but silence can be a welcome refuge from that noise at times.

I create silence by subtracting, and not filling the resulting emptiness withe noise or clutter.

And so my life is a constant experimentation with subtracting. When I've subtracted, and learn to love the empty silence, I subtract some more. Subtraction is a beautiful process.

Prefer subtraction over addition.

Learn to be content with little, or nothing.

Realize that silence is beautiful.

Find yourself in the empty space that results.

Empty a room, and put almost nothing back except that which produces quiet.

Speak less, listen more, contemplate even more.

Walk in silence. Watch the leaves quiver, fall in silence, whisper in the wind.

Sit and do nothing. Listen to your mind make noise in the silence, allow it to subside.

Eschew video, iPods, books, the Internet, mobile devices, social networks, and other purveyors of noise.

Be quiet, so that life may speak.

—

A Mini-Course in Meditation

I will be leading an online mini-course in February on creating the habit of meditation. It will be very simple, but in those few minutes of meditation every morning, you will find lovely silence.

The mini-course will be available only to Premium Members of Zen Habits, which is a paid membership I haven't announced yet. What will the membership consist of? Exclusive bonus articles, videos, interviews, live webinars each month on simplicity, habits, clutter, fitness, finances, creating a business around your passion, families and more. Mini-courses every 2-4 months on topics you choose. Guest experts on all these topics. The ability to ask me questions about anything.

More next week. Thanks, my friends.

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The Truth About Guarana

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 02:00 PM PST

guarana seeds, caffeine, energy drinks, supplements

The seeds of the guarana fruit.

CREDIT: Antonio De Azevedo Negrão | Dreamstime

Bombastically named energy drinks such as Full Throttle, Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar all contain the herbal supplement guarana. The compound is also found in over-the-counter weight loss products, and it's been marketed as an aphrodisiac. What is guarana, and does it have any physiological effects?

Guarana is a South American fruit that looks like suspiciously like an eyeball, with a fleshy white fruit that surrounds dark brown seeds. These seeds are about the size of coffee beans, but they contain more than twice as much caffeine. As a supplement, guarana is considered "generally recognized as safe" by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The guarana vine originated in the Amazon basin, where local people have long taken advantage of its stimulating properties. A 17th century Jesuit missionary noted that guarana gave members of an Amazon tribe "so much energy, that when hunting, they could go from one day to the next without feeling hungry." Brazilian soft drinks have included guarana since 1909, but it only became widely used in the United States recently, when energy drinks gained explosive popularity.

Very generally speaking, whenever you see both guarana and caffeine on an ingredients list, you can read guarana as even more caffeine. Additionally, however, guarana contains tiny amounts of theophylline and theobromine (the later is chemical that makes chocolate poisonous to dogs and cats), which are similar to caffeine, although they exert subtly different effects on the body.

Guarana also contains molecules called tannins, which some say causes the caffeine in guarana to release slowly, producing a long-lasting energy plateau. (Tannins are found in some wines, where they bring a woody flavor.) The fact that guarana's doesn't readily dissolve in water also supposedly contributes to its long-lasting effects, but no one has conclusively shown that the body processes guarana-derived caffeine differently than the caffeine found in coffee beans or tea leaves.

The caffeine that humans seek in guarana serves a very different purpose in the wild: it's a natural insecticide that keeps plant-eating bugs at bay. Still, hungry birds can digest the fleshy, caffeine-free fruit, but the caffeine-rich seeds pass unscathed through their digestive tracts, often landing in a new location, helping give rise to a new generation of guarana plants.

Pass it on: Guarana is a potent source of caffeine; avoid it before bedtime.

Food Facts explores the weird world of the chemicals and nutrients found in our food, and appears on MyHealthNewsDaily on Fridays. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook.

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