Chakra - The Body's Energy Centre

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• Chakra - The Body's Energy Centre
• More Than a Third of US Births Unintended
• Subconscious Mind Control - Hype Or Truth?
• Half of Americans Drink Soda Everyday
• Haggis Got Caught Forging a Check
• Would the NYC Soda Ban Work? Scientists Crunch the Numbers
• Knowledge That Can Assist In Personal Growth
• What Time to Practice Meditation
• Pronunciation And Sentence Stress In EFL Teaching
• Non-attachment - Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An
• Successful Mind Conditioning
• Buddhist self-deniers beware!
• Haggis Decided at an Early Age to Be a Writer
• Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/24/2012
• Find Out Helpful Stress And Anxiety Reduction Tactics
• Light at Night May Raise Depression Risk, Study Suggests
• Yoga Meditation: 5 Must-Know Yoga Meditation Techniques To Enhance Your Serenity
• How the Mind Can Affect Fat Loss and Muscle Gain
• Talk to your child to remove exam fear from his mind
• Haggis Wasn’T Proud of His Early Years
• The Power of Meditation for Brain Health: Interview with Dr. Andrew Newberg
• Important Yoga Tips for Kids
• Sally Ride's Death: Why is Pancreatic Cancer So Deadly?
• Severely Obese Kids at Risk for Heart Disease
• Malas and Jeweleries as Yoga Accessories

Chakra - The Body's Energy Centre Posted: 24 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT by Eddi van W. Article by Anthony Holt Kundalini is the energy unleashed during creation, which manifests itself as the coiled energy lying dormant at the base of the individual's spine. It is then the purpose of Kundalini meditation to arouse said energy and make it rise from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, thus, attaining union with God. Said energy must pass through all seven subtle chakras starting from the Muladhara and ending at the Sahasrara chakra. What exactly is a chakra? It has a Sanskrit etymology - chakra meaning "wheel" or "turning" - and it is widely used in Hinduism and Buddhism particularly in the chanting mantras' tantric and yogic traditions. Although there are several interpretations of chakra, the most common characteristics are: 1. Chakras are energy centres depicted as rotating vortices of subtle matter permeating through the physical body. As such, these are considered as the most important points for receiving and transmitting energies during Kundalini meditation. 2. Chakras are part of the individual's subtle body, along with the nadis (energy channels) and the pranas (subtle winds). These are located either inside or alongside the spine, which is also where the central nadi known as Sushuma is located. As previously mentioned, the main purpose of Kundalini meditation music is to arouse the Kundalini in order to make it rise from the lowest chakra at the base of the spine to the highest chakra at the top of the head. It is said that with each level, certain physical, metaphysical and spiritual benefits are achieved with the main prize being unity with God. Of course, the benefit of listening to uplifting meditation music is also a plus. Each of the seven chakras affects various parts of the body as well. To name these seven chakras (the description is arranges as name of chakra; location; association) 1 Muladhara - Root; coccyx; earth, action of excretion and sense of smell 2 Swadhisthana - Sacral; ovaries in women and prostate in men; emot! ion, unc onscious self and sexual desires 3 Manipura - Solar Plexus; navel; digestion, power of fire, action of movement and sense of sight and stotram 4 Anahata - Heart; heart area; love and compassion, psychic healing, and charity to others 5 Vishuddha - Throat; throat and neck areas; creativity, sense of speaking especially self-expression, and sense of hearing 6 Ajna Brow - Third eye; pineal gland; power of intuition 7 Sahasrara - Crown; top of the head; higher consciousness and unity with God If you want to explore your chakras, we strongly suggest Kundalini meditation coupled with meditation music. About the Author The Sacred Music guide offers their music lovers of big collection of chanting mantras a sanctuary to explore the greatest ever meditation music of other personalities. This is website is inclosing extreme collection of stotram and instrumental music.\ Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

More Than a Third of US Births Unintended Posted: 24 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT CREDIT: Pregnancy photo via Shutterstock More that one-third of U.S. births between 2006 and 2010 were the result of unintended pregnancies, a new government report says. That means the overall rate of unintended births has not changed much since 1982. The findings showed that in total, 37.1 percent of pregnancies in 2006 to 2010 were unintended; the rate in 1982 was 36.5 percent. The rate rose to 39.1 in 1988, before falling to 30.6 in 1995. Reducing the rate of unintended births is important because these births bring social, economic and health consequences for the mother and child, the researchers said. Women who become pregnant unintentionally have higher rates of delaying prenatal care, smoking during pregnancy and not breast-feeding. Studies show these births are also associated with poorer health during childhood, and poorer outcomes for the mother and the mother-child relationship, according to the report. Among married women, 23.4 percent of births were unintended, the data from 2006-2010 showed. Half of births to unmarried women living with a partner were unintended. Among women who were unmarried and not living with a partner, 66.9 percent of births were unintended, a rise from the 2002 rate of 59.5. The highest rate of unintended births was seen in young women in this group — 78.9 percent of births to unmarried women ages 15 to 24 were unintended, the report said. Unintended pregnancies include both pregnancies that are unwanted, and those are mistimed, meaning the woman said she wanted to become pregnant at some point, but not at the time she did. Women's education levels also made a difference. About 83 percent of births to college-educated women were intended, while 59 percent of births to women with less than a high school diploma were intended. Researchers asked women who were not using contraception at the time they conceived about their reasons. They found that 35.9 percent said they did not think they could get pregnant. Additionally, 23.1 percent said they would not mind if they became pregnant, 17.3 percent said they had not expected to have sex, 14.3 percent said they were worried about the side effects of using birth control. Eight percent said their male partner did not want to use birth control himself, and 5.3 percent said their male partner did not want them to use birth control. The report is based on data gathered during the National Survey of Family Growth, which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers conducted in-person, 80-minute interviews with a nationally representative sample of 12,279 women ages 15 to 44, to get information about the factors affecting birth and pregnancy rates. They also analyzed data gathered during previous surveys conducted in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002. The data are based on pregnancies that ended in live births; those that ended in miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion were excluded. Pass it on: More than a third of all U.S. births were unintended pregnancies. FollowMyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source

Subconscious Mind Control - Hype Or Truth? Posted: 24 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT by ConnectIrmeli Article by Gregory Frost The good thing to note about this is that subconscious mind control has been around for a long time now, and this is something that we need to really pay attention to. These are the kind of new age elements that have been coming around to us the end consumer. At the end of the day, we have to realise that we are running around with a mind that is not performing up to standard. This is what has been going on with many of the new developments in the personal industry. In this case, we have to look at one aspect of the whole mind. One thing that you need to know is that there are many things we do not know about the mind. The subconscious mind is one of the most powerful things in the body, because it controls the entire matrix of the physiological functions of the body. In this sense, what you need to know is just how you are going to be able to understand how the mind works, and what you can do to actually leverage on this new knowledge as well. The terminus subconscious mind is applied in some distinct contexts and has no individual or straight definition. This greatly limits its meaning as a meaning-attitude concept, and in consequence the articulate tends to be voided in academic and scientific circumstances. In casual speech and modern penning, notwithstanding, the term is very usually seen. There is will refer to a supposed 'layer' or 'level' of cerebration located in some sense under deliberate cognizance -- though, again, the philosophy dependence upon daily 'folk-psychological' models that stay unclear means that the precise nature and dimensions of this 'underlying' cover are either never made clear or hold an ad hoc value. At several times, references to the 'subconscious' as an office may cite it with different abilities and abilities that those possessed by consciousness: the 'unconscious' may obviously commend, perceive and determine matters beyond accomplishment or hold off the self-conscious mind. The thought of the 'unconscious' as a prestigious or prestigiou! s author ity has appropriated the condition to become prominent in the Fresh Age and self-help literatures, in which investigation or controlling its theoretical cognition or force is seen as preferential. The 'unconscious' may also be unlikely to contain any number of primitive or different disavowed inherent aptitudes, urges, hopes and thoughts Of course, we need to have much more information about the subconscious mind before we can actually and truly get around the concept of self mind control. We cannot actually just try to simply download a piece of software from the net. Try and find as much as you can about how the preconscious mind works, and looking at the various forms of technology that is around, how, you can benefit from that and how you can understand the concepts are built on this. If you need much more information about this, all you can do is log on and find out more. About the Author Click Here to get your Free 'Ultimate Success Unleashed' Subliminal Cd and supercharge your success. Greg Frost is an authority in the subliminal industry for many years and has helped thousands of individuals worldwide to attain their dreams and goals with his subliminal messaging cds. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

Half of Americans Drink Soda Everyday Posted: 24 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT CREDIT: Soda photo via Shutterstock For about half of U.S. adults, soda is a daily drink. A new Gallup poll finds that 48 percent of U.S. adults say they drink at least one glass of soda a day. The poll is the first from Gallup to measure daily soda consumption. Among those who drink soda, the average amount consumed is 2.6 glasses a day, the poll found. Soda consumption was higher among young adults, with 56 percent of 18 to 34 year olds reporting they drink at least one glass of soda per day, compared with 46 percent of people ages 35 to 54. Soda consumption is known to contribute to obesity and other diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes. However, the poll found no difference between the self-reported weight of those who said they drink two or more glasses of soda daily, compared with those who do not drink soda. About four out of 10 in each group said they are very or somewhat overweight. The poll did not specify what type of soda participants consumed, and it's possible some drank diet soda. While soda consumption is high, it is not as high as coffee consumption: 64 percent of U.S. adults say they drink at least one cup of coffee daily. This percentage has stayed about the same since 1999, despite the increase in coffee stores and coffee products available to consumers in recent years. It's possible Americans are drinking larger, or stronger cups of coffee now than in the past, the poll researchers said. The results are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of about 1,000 U.S. adults, conducted between July 9 and 12. The findings are weighed so they are nationally representative. Pass it on: About half of Americans drink at least one glass of soda a day, and two-thirds drink at least one cup of coffee. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Findus on Facebook. Read More @ Source

Haggis Got Caught Forging a Check Posted: 24 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT by AlicePopkorn Article by Haamam Haggis got caught forging a check, and he soon left school. He was drifting, hanging out with hippies and drug dealers. Two friends died from overdoses. "I had a gun pointed in my face a couple of times," he recalls. He attended art school briefly, then quit; after taking some film classes at a community college, he dropped out of that as well. He began working in construction full time for his father. He also was the manager of a hundred-seat theatre that his father had created in an abandoned church. On Saturday nights, he set up a movie screen onstage, introducing himself and other film buffs to the works of Bergman, Hitchcock, and the French New Wave. He was so affected by Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" that in 1974 he decided to move to England, in order to become a fashion photographer, like the hero of the movie. That lasted less than a year. Back in London, Ontario, he fell in love with Diane Gettas, a nurse, and they began sharing a one-bedroom apartment. He was starting to get his life together, but he was haunted by something that his grandfather had said to him on his deathbed. "He was a janitor in a bowling alley," Haggis told me. "He had left England because of some scandal we don't know about. He died when I was twelve or thirteen. He looked terrible. He turned to me and said, 'I've wasted my life. Don't waste yours.' " One day in 1975, when he was twenty-two, Haggis was walking to a record store. When he arrived at the corner of Dundas and Waterloo Streets, a young man pressed a book into his hands. "You have a mind," the man said. "This is the owner's manual." The man, whose name was Jim Logan, added, "Give me two dollars." The book was "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," by L. Ron Hubbard, which was published in 1950. By the time Haggis began reading it, "Dianetics" had sold about two and a half million copies. Today, according to the church, that figure has reached more than twenty-one million. Haggis opened the book and saw a page stamped wit! h the wo rds "Church of Scientology." "Take me there," Haggis said to Logan. Haggis had heard about Scientology a couple of months earlier, from a friend who had called it a cult. The thought that he might be entering a cult didn't bother him. In fact, he said, "it drew my interest. I tend to run toward things I don't understand." When he arrived at the church's headquarters, he recalled, "it didn't look like a cult. Two guys in a small office above Woolworth's." At the time, Haggis and Gettas were having arguments; the Scientologists told him that taking church courses would improve the relationship. "It was pitched to me as applied philosophy," Haggis says. He and Gettas took a course together and, shortly afterward, became Hubbard Qualified Scientologists, one of the first levels in what the church calls the Bridge to Total Freedom. The Church of Scientology says that its purpose is to transform individual lives and the world. "A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology," Hubbard wrote. Scientology postulates that every person is a Thetan--an immortal spiritual being that lives through countless lifetimes. Scientologists believe that Hubbard discovered the fundamental truths of existence, and they revere him as "the source" of the religion. Hubbard's writings offer a "technology" of spiritual advancement and self-betterment that provides "the means to attain true spiritual freedom and immortality." A church publication declares, "Scientology works 100 percent of the time when it is properly applied to a person who sincerely desires to improve his life." Proof of this efficacy, the church says, can be measured by the accomplishments of its adherents. "As Scientologists in all walks of life will attest, they have enjoyed greater success in their relationships, family life, jobs and professions. They take an active, vital role ! in life and leading roles in their communities. And participation in Scientology brings to many a broader social consciousness, manifested through meaningful contribution to charitable and social reform activities." In 1955, a year after the church's founding, an affiliated publication urged Scientologists to cultivate celebrities: "It is obvious what would happen to Scientology if prime communicators benefitting from it would mention it." At the end of the sixties, the church established its first Celebrity Centre, in Hollywood. (There are now satellites in Paris, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Munich, Florence, London, New York, Las Vegas, and Nashville.) Over the next decade, Scientology became a potent force in Hollywood. In many respects, Haggis was typical of the recruits from that era, at least among those in the entertainment business. Many of them were young and had quit school in order to follow their dreams, but they were also smart and ambitious. The actress Kirstie Alley, for example, left the University of Kansas in 1970, during her sophomore year, to get married. Scientology, she says, helped her lose her craving for cocaine. "Without Scientology, I would be dead," she has said. In 1975, the year that Haggis became a Scientologist, John Travolta, a high-school dropout, was making his first movie, "The Devil's Rain," in Durango, Mexico, when an actress on the set gave him a copy of "Dianetics." "My career immediately took off," he told a church publication. "Scientology put me into the big time." The testimonials of such celebrities have attracted many curious seekers. In Variety, Scientology has advertised courses promising to help aspiring actors "make it in the industry." One of those actors, Josh Brolin, told me that, in a "moment of real desperation," he visited the Celebrity Centre and received "auditing"--spiritual counselling. He quickly decided that Scientology wasn't for him. But he still wonders what the religion does for celebrities like Cruise and Travolta: "Each has a good hea! d on his shoulders, they make great business decisions, they seem to have wonderful families. Is that because they were helped by Scientology?" This is the question that makes celebrities so crucial to the religion. And, clearly, there must be something rewarding if such notable people lend their names to a belief system that is widely scorned. About the Author download free software: hotspot shield hotspot shield hotspot shield hotspot shield Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included. Guided Hypnotic Meditation to Develop Psychic and Psychokinesis Abilities Headphones and ear plugs highly recommended This is a guided hypnotic meditation to help develop your psychic and psychokinesis abilities by one of the world leading hypnotherapist. Beginning with a 5 minute introduction than followed by a trance state meditation. Mentally move objects, influence dice, bend metal, produce visuals images on film, alter temperature,and much more. Anyone can develop PK abilities by invoking the proper techniques, practicing, starting off with small exercises and than expanding their "mind over matter" potentials. Psychokinesis Altered-State Mind Psychokinesis Altered- State Mind Programming: Use daily to rapidly develop your abilities. Following a chakra-balancing, aura-expanding introduction, your mind is programmed with powerful suggestions phrased for maximum acceptance. Also includes, visualizations, mantra, trigger-word post programming, and a "mudra" technique to instantly altered-consciousness when you desire to provoke PK-power. Psychokinesis Experiment Altered-State Session: An actual session to move or alter an object with mind power FAIR USE NOTICE: This video contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of spiritual healing, human consciouness, spiritual awareness,scientific, and research, etc. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in ... Video Rating: 4 / 5 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Would the NYC Soda Ban Work? Scientists Crunch the Numbers Posted: 24 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT CREDIT: Soda photo via Shutterstock The proposed "soda ban" that would limit the sale of large, sugar-sweetened beverages in New York City could reduce calorie consumption, but only if at least 40 percent of people make changes in their drink consumption, a new study suggests. If the large-drink ban is implemented, people would not be able to buy sugar-sweetened drinks larger than 16 ounces at fast-food restaurants, as well as at some other establishments, such as convenience stores and movie theaters.Some have pointed out that people who want a 32-ounce soda could simply purchase two 16-ounce drinks. Researchers analyzed information from receipts of about 1,600 consumers who ate at fast-food restaurants in New York City, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and Baltimore. The researchers, from New York University School of Medicine, first determined how many calories were in the drinks that consumers purchased. They found that 62 percent of all beverages purchased in the study would be banned by the proposed policy, and that study participants consumed, on average, about 200 calories from  sugar-sweetened beverages. Next, the researchers looked at how much the average amount of calories consumed would change if some people switched from drinking a 32-ounce beverage to a 16-ounce drink. They found that if all consumers who had been buying larger sizes switched to a single 16-ounce drink (and none bought two 16-ounce beverages), the average calorie intake would drop by 63 calories per meal. If 40 percent of consumers switched to a single 16-ounce beverage, overall calorie consumption would still decrease by close to 10 calories. If 30 percent switched, no decrease would occur, the researchers said. "In most but not all of our simulations, the policy appears to be associated with a decrease in calories from sugar-sweetened beverages purchased at fast-food restaurants," the researchers wrote in the July 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Pass it on:  NYC's proposed ban on large drinks could reduce calorie consumption if 40 percent of people comply, and do not feel the need to purchase several smaller-sized drinks at once. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source

Knowledge That Can Assist In Personal Growth Posted: 24 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT by AlicePopkorn Article by Woodrow Jones Personal development can be important because it helps you grow as a person. It add character, depth and deeper understanding to a person. This article can help you to understand what personal growth is and how a person can attain it. Sometimes it is intentional but sometimes it is the result of surviving a trying experience. Fasting is a great way to draw closer to God and find out what it is like to deny your flesh and focus on more important things in life. Fasting is a spiritual connection with God that allows your spirit to soar and detoxify from the daily trials, pressures, and sins of this life. It is hard sometimes to stick to your plans. For instance, plans change as well as guidance from above changing our plans according to what we think they are anyway. However, planning is still important and necessary for focus on where we are going. Stick to your plans, and make sure the distractions, which often seem positive, do not derail us from our most important plans. A great personal development tip is to use every part of your brain. When you think back on something, don't just use your memory, but rather you should strive to use your analytic thinking as well. Reflect on past events and interpret them in many ways to gain a full understanding. Try to learn something new everyday. It does not have to be anything complex. Even a new word in your vocabulary is something that can be useful. When you adopt this attitude in learning, you will become all the wiser. You will be amazed at how much you can learn by the end of the year, if you just learn a little bit everyday. When it comes to personal development it is much more important to not be fooled by guidance that sounds easy and wonderful. This is important because this may lead to greed or lust for power. Be careful of what you follow, and be sure that it is pure in intention. Are you a positive or negative thinker? Listen to your inner voice for the answer. If you constantly focus on the negative, then you could be sabotaging the ou! tcome of a goal you wish to reach. Listen to the positive voice that tells you you can do something, and ignore the negative voice that says you can't. Personal development is a very important thing to strive towards. Try to come up with a goal. A good example would be to start saving money. This is important because you can learn to develop your impulse control. Start by saving when you would usually spend on things you do not need. For instance, every time you would buy something out of a vending machine, put that into a bank account. By developing good spending habits, you will develop great personal habits. When it comes to personal development be sure that you act before action is needed as often as possible. This is important so that you are able to act as swiftly and thoroughly as possible. If something is inevitable, take action now before it is too late to do anything so that you are the one in control. Know your weaknesses. Don't focus on them, but be sure that you know what you need to work on so that you can start doing it. Be aware of what you need to get better at, so that you are always working toward becoming the best person you can be. Personal development also means integrity to many people. This means that you consciously choose the evolve and life within your own truth. Find what makes you whole and right for you and life by those rules every day. This will create a fullness that makes for your well-being. As stated before, many seek personal development. It lets people build on natural attributes to improve themselves. Depending on the attribute you wish to develop, personal development can be easy or hard. However, with the tips from this article to help you, you should find personal development a bit easier. About the Author Hi, I love sharing my stories and blogs with everyone. Thanks for stopping by and read my blogs. Thanks for visiting my article. If you want to discover more about tricks to short cut living, then i suggest you visit to Hack My Modern Lifestyle If you want to learn more about different kinds of inspirational quotes, then i suggest you read about great quotes to live by Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

What Time to Practice Meditation Posted: 24 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT by Mystic Lens Article by Anmol Mehta We are all now well aware of the enormous benefits that meditation bestows and one of the most important gifts you can give yourself is the gift of a deep, personal, daily meditation practice. There are many useful tips and tools that will help you achieve this goal and in this article I would like to provide you one such key piece of guidance. It is the answer to the question, "What time of day is best for meditation?". The best time of day to meditate is early in the morning. This time provides numerous important benefits and below is a list of the top 5 reason to meditate during these hours. 1. Mind is Most Quiet: Meditation is an opportunity to quiet the restless mind and experience the vast, peaceful silence that exists deep within us. This state is difficult to encounter once the day is in full flow and the mind is busy with all the hustle and bustle of daily life. In the early morning, the mind is not yet occupied with day to day problems and thus, is more readily silenced. 2. Greatest Amount of Prana: The air is fresh. We all feel this freshness when we head outside during the early morning hours, but from a yogic point of view the air during the early morning hours has the greatest amount of prana. Prana is the life force that is responsible for not just our life and is also the subtle energy which promotes in us health and vitality. Meditating in the early hours gives us access to this vital energy source and allows the body and mind to benefit from this precious gift. 3. Least Chance for Disruption: The key to a successful meditation program is, without a doubt, consistency. It is the most difficult aspect of a personal program to establish and without it, the vast benefits of meditation simply cannot be enjoyed. Meditating early in the morning reduces the chance of disruptions to your daily practice, and disruptions are the number factor in preventing consistency from being established. The first few activities in a day can be predi! cted muc h more readily than the rest of the day. Thus, setting up a time to meditate before the random events of the day throw a monkey wrench in your plans is a wise move indeed. 4. Sun's Rays are Most Beneficial: According to yoga, the rays of the sun at dawn create an environment which is most conducive for self-study and introspection. Meditation comes naturally at this time and is simply more effective than meditation done later in the day. So take advantage of the environment that nature is creating for you and plan your meditation for this period. 5. Creates a Meditative State of Mind for the Entire Day: By meditating in the early morning hour you inspire yourself to remain in a meditative and mindful state of mind thought the day. Starting out the day in this manner serves as an important and precious reminder of your spiritual nature and this reminder then helps you go through the day in a spiritual manner. Summary: So there you have it. If you are interested in enjoying the great many benefits that meditation practice brings, then get started with establishing your own daily practice and to help such a practice become strong and deep, pick the glorious early morning hours as your time to meditate. About the Author Anmol Mehta is a Yoga & Meditation expert. His massive Free Guided Meditation website offers excellent Free Online Yoga Videos and free Kundalini Yoga Poses & Exercises e-books and blog. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included. Left Hand Crochet - Left Hand Crochet Slanted Shell Variation 2 - Baby Afghan Crochet Slanted Shell Written Instructions crochet-mania.blogspot.com Cheerful Flower www.youtube.com Stripe Beanie www.youtube.com Crochet Shell Scarf www.youtube.com Puff Stitch Hat www.youtube.com Hat with Brim www.youtube.com Slinky Flower www.youtube.com Fower Rounds www.youtube.com Baby Hightops www.youtube.com Flower with Rounds www.youtube.com Crochet Blog crochet-mania.blogspot.com Granny Squares - Motifs - Applique crochet-mania-grannysquare.blogspot.com Video Rating: 5 / 5 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Pronunciation And Sentence Stress In EFL Teaching Posted: 24 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT by familymwr Article by Ian Stephenson sonami nature sound live - light rain and forest creek - chill out and relax with music from nature www.sonami.com Twitter twitter.com FaceBook: www.facebook.com © pictures used in this video: photocase.com (spacejunkie, dicknase, David Dieschburg, misterQM); sonami AG Video Rating: 4 / 5 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Non-attachment - Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An Posted: 24 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An One of the most important teachings of Zen Buddhism is non-attachment. The teaching of non-attachment may be easy to understand, but it is not easy to practice. Nevertheless, it is very essential to cultivate non-attachment if we are to live a serene and happy life in a world of constant change; for this reason it is introduced here. Our world is a world of desire. Every living being comes forth from desire and endures as a combination of desires. We are born from the desire between of our father and mother. Then, when we emerge into this world, we become infatuated with many things, and become ourselves well-springs of desire.  Through desire we give rise to attachments. For every desire there is a corresponding attachment, namely, to the object of desire. For example, we are most conspicuously attached to our bodies. When someone threatens the body, we grow anxious and try to protect it. We relish physical comforts and the enjoyment of the senses. Thus, we are strongly attached to the body. But if we consider this attachment, we will see that it is a potential source of suffering. For the body is constantly changing. We wish we could remain alive forever, but moment after moment the body is passing from youth to old age, from life to death. We may be happy when we are y! oung and strong, but we contemplate sickness, old age and the ever present threat of death, anxiety overwhelms us. Thus, we seek to elude the inevitable by evading the thought of it.  The lust for life and fear of death are forms of attachment. We are attached not only to our bodies but also to our possessions. We continually weave a net of clinging around our clothes, or car, our house and our wealth. We loath to part with these things and always try to accumulate more of them. We are also attached to memories concerning the past or anticipations of the future. Many people write diaries because they cannot part with their experiences, but wish to preserve them in such a form that they can always recollect them. When explorers climb a high mountain peak, what do they do? They leave their name on a rock trees. When the astronauts landed on the moon, they left their footprints ant the American flag. These attachments are based on the egocentric point of view, with its offspring, the notions of 'me' and 'mine'. Even spiritual experiences may become objects of attachment. Through meditation we may gain some unusual experience or even satori; then we become attached to these attainments. This is another form of attachment.  Zen Buddhism teaches us to extinguish attachment in order that we may discover the state of absolute freedom which is rightfully ours. The path to freedom is difficult to follow, but if we have sufficient determination, we can do it. The Zen teaching of non-attachment is very similar to the teaching of Taoism. The Tao Te Ching an ancient Taoist classic says: "When the sage walks, he leaves no footprints behind." What does this mean? It does not mean that when the Taoist sage goes for a walk one ! would ne ver be able to find the imprints of his feet on the ground. The sage is human like us, and so he has footprints. What the statement means is that in his journey through life the sage leaves no traces of desire and attachment clinging to him as he lives from moment to moment. Life is following, always changing, and the sage never looks back to the moment which has sped by, nor does he look forward to the moment which lies ahead. Rather, he lives in the present, flowing along in harmony with the rhythm of life, appreciating each moment for what it is worth and allowing it to pass on quickly to be replaced by the next.  The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that nobody can step into the same river twice. We may think that the river we step into tomorrow is the same river we stepped into today, but this is just an illusion. The river is always flowing along, so we can never step into the same water twice. Another saying famous in the West holds: "Nobody can say that today I live, and tomorrow I will live." In our minds we may have plans not only for tomorrow but for next year, and for ten years in the future, but no one can be certain that he will even live through the night. Recognizing the radical impermanence of life, Zen Buddhism suggests that we should not be too strongly attached to life, for if we are, we will find ourselves buffeted against the sharp rocks of change. Instead of living in the past and future, we should learn to live in the present as fully as possible. This moment, at least, we are alive, while we cannot be sure we will be alive tomorrow.  The secret of non-attachment is revealed in the philosophy of Chuang-Tzu, the great Taoist sage. According to Chuang-Tzu, life and death are two sides of! the sam e coin, so there is no reason to be attached to life and afraid of death. As Chuang-Tzu says in a poem:  There is the globe,  The foundation of my bodily existence.  It wears me out with work and duties,  It gives me rest in old age,  It gives me peace in death.  For the one who supplied me  with what I needed in life,  Will also give me what I need in death.  When Chuang-Tzu's wife died, his friend the philosopher Hui Shih went to his house to console him and found him not weeping and wailing as one might aspect, but laughing and singing. Asked how he could be so ungrateful to his wife, the sage replied: "When she has just died, I could not help being affected. Soon, however, I examined the matter from the very beginning. At the very beginning, she was not living, having no form, not even substance. But somehow or rather, there was then her substance, then her form and then her life. Now by a further change, she has died. The whole process is like the sequence of the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter. While she is thus lying in the great mansion of the universe, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of the natural laws. Therefore I stop."  From this story we learn that the key to happiness is non-attachment, and the secret of non-attachment is right understanding. If we cling to the desire for things to be permanent, then we will develop strong attachments, and because of attachment we will suffer. This is the second of the Four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha in the first sermon after his Enlightenment: "All suffering arises from desire." As a consequence, if we recognize rightly that all phenomena are subject to change and transformation, and then there will be no room in our hearts for fear and worry. We can accept anything, even death, with a peaceful, cheerful mind. The accomplished Zen man and woman can face all the vicissitudes of life and death without fear.  There are some Zen masters who know the time of their death several days in advance. When their time for departure comes, they gather their disciples together, give them final instructions and a gatha embodying the essence of their teaching and then quietly pass away, often sitting in the lotus posture. One Vietnamese Zen master named Tran-Nhan-Ton left the following gatha for his disciples at the time of his death:  All things have no beginning;  All things are without cessation;  If you understand this,  All the Buddhas are there.  So how can there be any coming and going?  The spirit of non-attachment is beautifully illustrated by the life of the life of the Buddha. When he was still a prince, married to a lovely wife and the heir to his father's throne, what did he do? He renounced his family, wealth and power and fled to the mountains to meditate upon the way of truth. After his Enlightenment, the Buddha continued to exhibit the attitude of non-attachment. Whereas most of the founders of other religions have claimed themselves to be the way, the light and the truth, the Buddha claimed to be the man who points the way. The Buddha is the wayfarer, the supremely enlightened guide along the path leading to the truth, but he does not claim to be himself the path of the truth. This is a very humble attitude, is it not? Since it is a man who shows the way, there can be many ways which men may follow.  Therefore we find a great deal of freedom and tolerance in Buddhism. The path which is right for one man may not be right for another. There are 84,000 Dharma-doors that lead into the inner chambers of the Awakened Mind, and every Buddhist is free to practice those Dharma-doors he feels are best suited to himself. We find in the same spirit that Buddhists are not too attached to their own particular beliefs, even when they accept them with deep faith. In this respect, they follow the advice of the Buddha, who urged his disciples not to become angry when others spoke critically of his teachings and not to become elated when others spoke in praise of it, but to maintain an equal, open mind in the face of both criticism and praise. For forty-nine years the Buddha wandered over India preaching his doctrine and instructing disciples, yet on the last day of his life he could say: "In these forty-nine ye! ars I ha ve not said a single word." Why did he say this? Because he did not want his disciples to become attached to his teaching. He wanted them to practice the teaching and realize the truth for themselves rather than grasp upon his own verbal and conceptual formulations of the truth.  He compared his doctrine to a raft which is used to cross from his shore of ignorance and suffering to the other shore of Enlightenment and Nirvana. The raft is to be used rather than carried around on the head, just as the Dharma is to be practiced and realized rather than merely studied. In Japanese Buddhism a Buddhist monk is usually called un shui. Un means cloud and shui means water, so a monk is a 'cloud and water' man. Why is he called so? Clouds are fleeting and insubstantial, and water is constantly flowing. So the Buddhist monk is to be like clouds and water, wandering from place to place to help and to teach people without abiding anywhere permanently. He has no attachment to anything and to no property. In Theravada Buddhism a monk owns just three robes, a bowl, a razor and some small utensils. The purpose of this is to eliminate attachment. The Buddhist sits loose and travels light. While we may feel that it is possible to own many things without being attached to them, still it is easier to be unattached with few possessions. Therefore, a Buddhist monk is not supposed to own more than what he needs. He is supposed to rise above all attachments, not only to his personal possessions, but to nation and family as well. A Buddhist monk does not think that only a particular group of people related to him by blood is his family or that a particular country is his nation.  He regards all sentient beings as his family and every! place a s his home. He is a universal man devoted to the welfare and the happiness of the whole world. The role of non-attachment in Zen Buddhism is very far-reaching. In fact, it may be said that the aim of Zen is to root out each and every point of attachment until there is not even a speck of dust left for the mind to grasp. This means that not only such coarse forms of attachment as the passions and desires must be left behind, but also the more subtle threads of intellectual attachment. Even such notions as Buddhahood, Nirvana and Enlightenment must be pulverized and scattered to the winds until only the Void remains, and even that must be cast away. This is the meaning of the Middle Way – the Way that rises above the duality of 'this' and 'that'. As long as one bears the concept of Nirvana or Enlightenment in mind, that concept is a barrier to his meditation. For this reason some Zen masters teach their students: "When you meditate do not wish to become a Buddha." Why do they say this? Because if one wishes to become a Buddha, then he is attached to the notion of Buddhahood. He makes Buddhahood an object and himself a subject, thereby constructing a false dualism once again. We must let go of everything, high and low, exalted and debased, pure and impure, existent and non-existent and the mind will become calm and pure by itself. From this calm, pure mind we can begin to cultivate the wisdom that will grow into Buddhahood.  When we cease to discriminate between subject and object, the two become one and we find that from the beginning our very mind is the Buddha. All men seek happiness. It is a universal trait of human nature. But men differ very much in their views about how happiness is to be achieved. One Vietnamese Buddhist writer compares happiness to a butterfly. He says: "Happiness is something very beautiful, just like a butterfly. On wa! rm summe r days the butterfly darts back and forth above the green grass and the colorful flowers, looking very beautiful. But one must not try to catch it, for when the butterfly is caught in the hand, it becomes no more than an insect." This means that we should let happiness come and go just like a butterfly. When it comes, we should just enjoy it and not try to grasp after it. And when it goes, we should watch it go calmly and peacefully; then it will come back again. If we try to grasp happiness and hold on to it forever, it will die in our hands. We must let its beauty come and go and enjoy it while it lasts. That is the way of life and the meaning of life too. This is the way of non-attachment. This concept of non-attachment in Zen Buddhism is revealed in a short poem by a Vietnamese Zen master:  Swallows fly in the sky,  The water reflects their images.  The swallows leave no traces,  Nor does the water retain their images.  METHOD OF PRACTICE  A common method to help the student lessen his attachment is the koan method of Rinzai Zen. The koan is a philosophical topic given to a Zen student for meditation by the Zen master. It may consist of a single word, a phrase, a sentence or a short passage. A most famous koan is called "the sound of one hand clapping." Everybody knows what the sound of two hands clapping is like, but what it the sound of one hand! clappin g? That is the koan. The student meditates on it until he can hear the sound of one hand clapping. Many of us have heard the sound of silence. If we can hear that sound, then we can hear the sound of one hand clapping also. This koan does not stop with hearing of not hearing, but goes further. If we can hear the sound of one hand, why can we hear it, and how can we hear it? If not, why not? Where does the sound come from, and where does it go? What is the nature of the sound, and what is the nature of the sound, and what is the nature of hearing? If their koan is solved, the meditator may consider that he has experienced kensho.  Source: Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice, Dharma Publishing, College of Oriental Studies, 1975, PP104-112. Read More @ Source

Successful Mind Conditioning Posted: 24 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT by Ramon Snellink Article by David Lyfe

Buddhist self-deniers beware! Posted: 24 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT No self is, in Pali, natthatta—never anattâ.  It is the philosophical position of materialists, the all too familiar belief that there is no self or soul.  Anattâ has to be handled much differently than natthatta.  The Buddha was not a self-denier.  When, for example, we read that material shape, the first khandha/aggregate, is anattâ we have to read it thusly: "Material shape is not the self." This is the only way it can be read, in fact. In this regard, anattâ is an adjective which modifies the noun "form" to denote its quality, that it is without attâ or self (all five khandhas are without self which is not the same as assuming there is no self).  The assumption that the Buddha denied the self is certainly not evident in passages like this which express, very clearly, the via negativa: "But monks, an instructed disciple [ariya-savako] of the pure ones...taking count of the true men...well trained in the dhamma of the true men, regards material shape as: 'This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self;' he regards feeling as:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self;' he regards perception as:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self;' he regards the habitual tendencies as:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self;' he regards consciousness as:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self.'  And also he regards whatever is see, heard, sensed, cognised, reached, looked for, pondered by the mind as:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self'" (M. i. 136). Turning to a passage translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi we see anattâ at work here which he translates with "nonself." "Bhikkhus, form is nonself.  What is nonself should be see as it really is with correct wisdom thus:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self.' Feeling is nonself... Perception is nonself...Volitional formations are nonself... Consciousness is nonself.  What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self'" ( S. iii. 22-23). Looking and Bodhi's particular use of nonself, keep in mind that the prefix "non" means absent. Thus, form is absent of self, feeling is absent of self, perception is absent of self, volitional formations are absent of self and consciousness is absent of self.  All this is meant to tell us that we should not regard the Five Aggregates as our self.  In other discourses, the Buddha points out the the Five Aggregates are suffering; and what is suffering is anattâ (lit., not the self) which, by implication, means the self is not suffering—only the aggregates suffer.  When the Buddha says:  "He beholds the self purified of all these evil unskilled states, he beholds the self freed" (M. i. 283) it could also be said, as well, that the self is freed of the Five Aggregates.    Read More @ Source

Haggis Decided at an Early Age to Be a Writer Posted: 24 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT by AlicePopkorn Article by Haamam Haggis decided at an early age to be a writer, and he made his own comic books. But he was such a poor student that his parents sent him to a strict boarding school, where the students were assigned cadet drills. He preferred to sit in his room reading Ramparts, the radical magazine from America--the place he longed to be. He committed repeated infractions, but he learned to pick locks so that he could sneak into the prefect's office and eliminate his demerits. After a year of this, his parents transferred him to a progressive boys' school in Bracebridge, Ontario, where there was very little system to subvert. Haggis grew his curly blond hair to his shoulders. He discovered a mentor in his art teacher, Max Allen, who was politically radical and gay. Flouting Ontario's strict censorship laws, Allen opened a theatre in Toronto that showed banned films; Haggis volunteered at the box office. Haggis got caught forging a check, and he soon left school. He was drifting, hanging out with hippies and drug dealers. Two friends died from overdoses. "I had a gun pointed in my face a couple of times," he recalls. He attended art school briefly, then quit; after taking some film classes at a community college, he dropped out of that as well. He began working in construction full time for his father. He also was the manager of a hundred-seat theatre that his father had created in an abandoned church. On Saturday nights, he set up a movie screen onstage, introducing himself and other film buffs to the works of Bergman, Hitchcock, and the French New Wave. He was so affected by Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" that in 1974 he decided to move to England, in order to become a fashion photographer, like the hero of the movie. That lasted less than a year. Back in London, Ontario, he fell in love with Diane Gettas, a nurse, and they began sharing a one-bedroom apartment. He was starting to get his life together, but he was haunted by something that his grandfather had said to him on his deathbed. "H! e was a janitor in a bowling alley," Haggis told me. "He had left England because of some scandal we don't know about. He died when I was twelve or thirteen. He looked terrible. He turned to me and said, 'I've wasted my life. Don't waste yours.' " One day in 1975, when he was twenty-two, Haggis was walking to a record store. When he arrived at the corner of Dundas and Waterloo Streets, a young man pressed a book into his hands. "You have a mind," the man said. "This is the owner's manual." The man, whose name was Jim Logan, added, "Give me two dollars." The book was "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," by L. Ron Hubbard, which was published in 1950. By the time Haggis began reading it, "Dianetics" had sold about two and a half million copies. Today, according to the church, that figure has reached more than twenty-one million. Haggis opened the book and saw a page stamped with the words "Church of Scientology." "Take me there," Haggis said to Logan. Haggis had heard about Scientology a couple of months earlier, from a friend who had called it a cult. The thought that he might be entering a cult didn't bother him. In fact, he said, "it drew my interest. I tend to run toward things I don't understand." When he arrived at the church's headquarters, he recalled, "it didn't look like a cult. Two guys in a small office above Woolworth's." At the time, Haggis and Gettas were having arguments; the Scientologists told him that taking church courses would improve the relationship. "It was pitched to me as applied philosophy," Haggis says. He and Gettas took a course together and, shortly afterward, became Hubbard Qualified Scientologists, one of the first levels in what the church calls the Bridge to Total Freedom. The Church of Scientology says that its purpose is to transform individual lives and the world. "A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to gre! ater hei ghts, are the aims of Scientology," Hubbard wrote. Scientology postulates that every person is a Thetan--an immortal spiritual being that lives through countless lifetimes. Scientologists believe that Hubbard discovered the fundamental truths of existence, and they revere him as "the source" of the religion. Hubbard's writings offer a "technology" of spiritual advancement and self-betterment that provides "the means to attain true spiritual freedom and immortality." A church publication declares, "Scientology works 100 percent of the time when it is properly applied to a person who sincerely desires to improve his life." Proof of this efficacy, the church says, can be measured by the accomplishments of its adherents. "As Scientologists in all walks of life will attest, they have enjoyed greater success in their relationships, family life, jobs and professions. They take an active, vital role in life and leading roles in their communities. And participation in Scientology brings to many a broader social consciousness, manifested through meaningful contribution to charitable and social reform activities." In 1955, a year after the church's founding, an affiliated publication urged Scientologists to cultivate celebrities: "It is obvious what would happen to Scientology if prime communicators benefitting from it would mention it." At the end of the sixties, the church established its first Celebrity Centre, in Hollywood. (There are now satellites in Paris, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Munich, Florence, London, New York, Las Vegas, and Nashville.) Over the next decade, Scientology became a potent force in Hollywood. In many respects, Haggis was typical of the recruits from that era, at least among those in the entertainment business. Many of them were young and had quit school in order to follow their dreams, but they were also smart and ambitious. The actress Kirstie Alley, for example, left the University of Kansas in 1970, during her sophomore year, to get married. Scientology, she says, helped her lose her ! craving for cocaine. "Without Scientology, I would be dead," she has said. In 1975, the year that Haggis became a Scientologist, John Travolta, a high-school dropout, was making his first movie, "The Devil's Rain," in Durango, Mexico, when an actress on the set gave him a copy of "Dianetics." "My career immediately took off," he told a church publication. "Scientology put me into the big time." The testimonials of such celebrities have attracted many curious seekers. In Variety, Scientology has advertised courses promising to help aspiring actors "make it in the industry." One of those actors, Josh Brolin, told me that, in a "moment of real desperation," he visited the Celebrity Centre and received "auditing"--spiritual counselling. He quickly decided that Scientology wasn't for him. But he still wonders what the religion does for celebrities like Cruise and Travolta: "Each has a good head on his shoulders, they make great business decisions, they seem to have wonderful families. Is that because they were helped by Scientology?" This is the question that makes celebrities so crucial to the religion. And, clearly, there must be something rewarding if such notable people lend their names to a belief system that is widely scorned. Brolin says that he once witnessed John Travolta practicing Scientology. Brolin was at a dinner party in Los Angeles with Travolta and Marlon Brando. Brando arrived with a cut on his leg, and explained that he had injured himself while helping a stranded motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway. He was in pain. Travolta offered to help, saying that he had just reached a new level in Scientology. Travolta touched Brando's leg and Brando closed his eyes. "I watched this process going on--it was very physical," Brolin recalls. "I was thinking, This is really fucking bizarre! Then, after ten minutes, Brando opens his eyes and says, 'That really helped. I actually feel different!' " (Travolta, through a lawyer, called this account "pure fabrication.") About the Author download free software: برنامج فورمات فكتوريا format factory محول الصوتيات والفيديو عربي format factory تحميل Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/24/2012 Posted: 24 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT "It is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings." ~Daisaku Ikeda Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

Find Out Helpful Stress And Anxiety Reduction Tactics Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT by familymwr Article by Mclean Dearth Anxiety is a common disorder. It is as common as depression and can be as devastating. It does not just happen to be people that have a disorder but it happens to others in a less severe basis that can still impede functionality. While in the midst of an attack a person may experience rapid heart beat, perspiration and thoughts that involve heavy self doubt and feelings of prosecution. Here are some relaxation techniques for anxiety. There are many options for people who suffer from this feeling of panic and restlessness. Often negative thoughts escalate to momentous and ridiculous proportions. If these negative thoughts are spoken out loud then the person will be able to see how ludicrous and unrealistic they are. It is even better to find a trusted companion to talk to because this person will serve as a ground base and help the person realize that the thoughts are not valid. There is also the option of exercise. A heavy physical workout can relieve stress in a few ways, such as increasing blood flow and releasing neurotransmitters that are responsible for good feelings like confidence and happiness. Exercise also increases focus. Although maybe not possible, escaping the anxiety provoking situation is a good idea. This gives time to think and to take a second look at the situation without the stress of being right in the midst of the thing giving such intense feelings. This gives time to be able to consider what is really happening and what is just happening inside the mind. Yoga is a good form of relieving tension. Yoga is the practice of steady breathing. Since anxiety can lead to hyperventilation yoga is a useful technique. Yoga also demands that the person focuses and clears the mind. This helps clear all those negative and self doubting thoughts. Everybody should have a hobby and for people who suffer this unfortunate mind set is not only an enjoyable activity but can reduce a that terrible restless panic. A hobby is excellent for this because finding a hobby ! and work ing on it gives a sense of power that counteracts the feelings of powerless a person has when in a panic. The hobby grounds the person. It is a reliable and predictable place to go to. Anxiety can be devastating but not hopeless. It is a barrier against the pleasures and productivity in life, however, with these helpful tips it can be overcome. About the Author Feeling weary of Anxiety? Learn exactly everything that a person can certainly do so as to make use of Relaxation Techniques For AnxietyLearn the "Secrets" to defeating Panic Attacks by visiting Stop Panic Attacks. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included. Lesson 6b - WORD STRESS - English Pronunciation This is PART TWO of four parts. Topic: Word Stress. In this segment I explain syllable separation and how to learn the placement of word stress. The main exercise of this lesson begins: How to pronounce the 50 states and capitals of the USA. Level: All levels, though the vocabulary and rate of speech in the interviews with native speakers will challenge beginners. Video Rating: 4 / 5 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Light at Night May Raise Depression Risk, Study Suggests Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT CREDIT: Working late photo via Shutterstock Constant exposure to light at night can cause depression, a new study in animals suggests. In the study, hamsters exposed to dim light at night for four weeks showed signs of depression, such as less interest in drinking sugar water they usually enjoy, compared with animals not exposed to light at night, the study found. The findings suggest exposure to artificial light at night may have contributed to the rising rates of depression over the last 50 years, said study researcher Tracy Bedrosian, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University. "The advent of electrical lighting permitted humans to stray from natural day-night cycles," potentially disturbing our biological rhythms and leading to changes in behavior, Bedrosian said. But the study also suggests good news: the negative effects of light at night were reversed in the animals after just two weeks of normal lighting conditions, the researchers said. "People who stay up late, in front of the television and computer, may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light at night," Bedrosian said. The findings add to a growing body of research that light at night is bad for health. Earlier studies have found exposure to light at night may increase the risk of weight gain and certain types of cancer. In the new study, Bedrosian and colleagues placed a group of hamsters in an environment that provided 16 hours of normal daylight, and eight hours of dim light, equivalent to that of a television playing in a dark room. Their behavior was compared to that of a group of hamsters that spent 16 hours in daylight and eight hours in total darkness. Hamsters exposed to dim light at night were less active each day, and were less mobile when placed in water compared to those that spent their nights in total darkness. Studies of the hamsters' brains revealed that a protein may play a key role in how exposure to light at night leads to depression, the researchers said. Hamsters exposed to light at night showed increased expression of the gene that produces the protein, called tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Blocking TNF prevented the development of depression-like symptoms in hamsters, even when they were exposed to light at night, the researchers said. TNF is part of the body's immune response to infection, and causes inflammation. While this inflammation is necessary to fight off infection, it can be damaging if constant, the researchers said. The study is published online today (July 24) in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Pass it on:  Exposure to artificial light at night may have contributed to the rising rates of depression in recent decades. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source

Yoga Meditation: 5 Must-Know Yoga Meditation Techniques To Enhance Your Serenity Posted: 24 Jul 2012 04:00 AM PDT by drumcircles.net Article by Amy C. Of all the types of meditation, the meditation that originated from Hinduism is the main type. In Hinduism, the meditation is known as yoga. " The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj which means "to join" or "to yoke:" the related meaning is "to focus attention on" or " to use". The main aim of yoga is to restore the mind to simplicity and peace, and free it from confusion and distress. "Yoga is the human quest for remembering our true nature, our deepest selves". There are number of branches of yoga: Bhakti yoga, Mantra yoga, Karma yoga, Hatha yoga, and Tantra yoga. Bhakti yoga is the yoga of devotion. Bhakti yoga is the most natural path for those who are dominantly seeking emotional fulfillment and well being. The person practicing bhakti yoga is called "bhakta". The "bhakta" usually practices meditation by visualizing, thinking and feeling that the Lord is sitting or standing before him. The "bhakta" pours out his heart's love and shares his deepest thoughts and concerns with the Lord until a continual flow of awareness moves between devotee and the beloved Lord. Mantra yoga is the yoga of sound. Mantra yoga makes use of sound to harmonize the body and focus the mind. It works with mantras, which can be a syllable, word, or phrase. "Yogi use mantras to achieve deep states of meditation and to invoke specific states of consciousness, and they believe that a mantra expressing a particular aspect of the divine will help to awaken that aspect of their own consciousness". Karma Yoga is the yoga of selfless action. Karma means action. Karma yoga practitioners believe that all actions whether bodily, vocal, or mental have far reaching consequences for which we must assume full responsibility. Karma yoga is meditating on living life so purely that people perform no hurtful or sinful actions. Hatha yoga is the yoga of physical discipline. Hatha yoga is the practice of harmonizing the body's inner currents until they are in perfect balance. ! The word hatha is a Sanskrit combination of the word ha (sun) and tha (moon), which is itself a union of opposites. Hatha yoga incorporates breathing exercises (pranayamas), stretching and strengthening exercises (asanas), and meditation. Tantra yoga is the yoga of continuity. Tantra yoga is the mastery of kundalini, a powerful spiritual energy that resides within everyone. Tantra yoga focus on awakening and applying kundalini, the tremendous physical, chemical, and electrical energies of the body, that concentrated in certain nerve plexuses located in specific parts of the body called chakras (wheel of light), and transmitting signals up and down in spinal column. According to tantra yoga belief, there are seven chakras running up the spinal column. Meditating on each chakra will activate its power that gives certain abilities and benefits. "Your energy body is part of you, but not part of your physical body. It is the layer of you consisting of the energy that flows in and around your body, through your nadis, and concentrates in your chakras" About the Author Amy is passionate about helping other live a serene and calm life. Amy invites you to browse high quality collection of meditative indoor fountains at http://www.TabletopFountainStore.com to enhance tranquility in your life. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

How the Mind Can Affect Fat Loss and Muscle Gain Posted: 24 Jul 2012 03:00 AM PDT by ConnectIrmeli Article by Sean Nalewanyj Is it true that there is an "inner game" in the bodybuilding world in which fat loss and muscle gain are controlled by the mind? Is it possible to "think" yourself into losing fat, and use the power of your mind to promote fat loss and muscle gain? The answer is a resounding yes. The truth is that your mind can help you during the bodybuilding process as much as your diet and weights can. The mind is a powerful ally in the bodybuilding world. It's up to you whether you see yourself as a 98 pound weakling and act accordingly, or think of yourself as a powerful Goliath who is able to lift heavy weights with ease and without fear of injury. How you see yourself affects not only how much effort you put into your lifting regimen but also how much time you put into planning proper meals and taking the right supplements. The power of the mind, especially the technique of visualization, is an extremely powerful one and is regularly used by athletes and other high level competitors. Visualize yourself achieving fat loss and muscle gain and you are bound to do it; similarly, you have to visualize yourself following a proper nutrition program if you actually want to do so. It all begins with the mind and its effects on fat loss and muscle gain. Try this experiment. Imagine seeing yourself as a 98 pound weakling and really feeling it. Now try lifting a heavy weight and see how far you can take it. Next, close your eyes and imagine yourself as strong as any of the professionals in the IFBB. Try to lift that same weight and see the results. If you've set your mind on achieving fat loss and muscle gain and can visualize yourself as someone who can do so, you are already on the road to building an impressive physique. When you know that you can achieve your goal, you will try harder. If you focus on your "inner game" and what you believe you can already achieve, you'll be able to achieve it. Let your mind control fat loss and muscle gain and your body will soon follow. At! first, a lot of how you perceive your body is all in the mind. When you behave as if you have already achieved your goal of fat loss and muscle gain, you will work harder and with more zeal. Sooner or later, you will actually meet your fat loss and muscle gain goals, and then, your outer appearance will resemble how you "see" yourself in your mind. Keep in mind that you have to visualize fat loss and muscle gain in order to achieve it. Otherwise, your struggles will be in vain because you won't be motivated enough to put in the effort that you really need to in order to make progress and achieve your goals. If you're happy with where you are at, you won't want to move ahead. To know more about the power of the mind and its effect on fat loss and muscle gain, do visit the website below... About the Author Access Your Bonus Gift: Discover the dead-honest truth to get bigger muscles with Sean Nalewanyj's famous 8-part bodybuilding tips course. Here's another great muscle building article for you: 1 Critical Tip For Quick Muscle Gains. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included. Loneliness and Pain Chris shares his thoughts on how to overcome painful feelings if you feel lonely.Get 5 Free Mins ~ Psychic Readings at PsychicDeals.com Get 10 Mins for .99 ~ Psychic & Tarot Readers at http This channel is sponsored by ethical reading sites which offer live online psychic readings, tarot readers and astrology. To see Chris's written works (pen name, Mystic Life) on spiritual and personal growth, visit Unification.com Follow on Twitter twitter.com "Like" on Facebook: facebook.com PLEASE HELP THIS CHANNEL OUT By Remembering To... SUBSCRIBE!!! Comment! Share! Rate! TAGS: UnificationDotCom lonely loneliness alone aloneness solitary confinement physical pain physically painful meditation thought thoughts mind mindful mindfulness Video Rating: 4 / 5 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Talk to your child to remove exam fear from his mind Posted: 24 Jul 2012 02:00 AM PDT by RON SOMBILON MEDIA, ART and PHOTOGRAPHY Article by Suresh Khare Test anxiety is almost universal. In fact, it is unusual to find a student who does not approach a big test without a high level of anxiety. Test anxiety can cause a host of problems in children, such as an upset stomach, headache, and loss of focus, fear, irritability, anger and even depression. Feelings such as frustration, fear, anger and anxiety cause the neural activity in the two branches of the autonomic nervous system to get out of sync. This, in turn, affects the synchronized activity in the brain, disrupting our ability to think clearly. Research has shown that providing children with tools and strategies that build both emotional skills and healthy physical habits when preparing for a test can help them overcome test anxiety and the associated symptoms, while improving their ability to prepare for and perform during critical testing. With exams around the corner, children can feel their heart beating faster. This tension and anxiety is even more prominent in children who have their board exams approaching. However, to succeed, they not only need full preparation but also a positive attitude and cam mind. Instead of letting the exam fear get the better of us, it is important to overcome this fear so as to pass with flying colors. Confidence helps in overcoming exam fear and that comes only through proper preparation and self-belief. Exam phobia is a self damaging factor which negatively affects the children and their performances. The student is unable to give the maximum productivity and the end result would be critical. Usually exam phobia is a slowly developing factor and sometimes early signs like physical and mental fatigue, irritability, difficulty in concentrating and negative self talk can be detected by the teachers and parents. School counselors can do a lot to help the children with exam phobia. Counseling and building confidence and educational therapy can help the student to gather more strength and accomplish the exam. Parents can also play a grea! t role i n helping children get rid of this exam fear. Instead of forcing them to read day and night, parents should give their children free time so that they can feel relaxed at the time of their exams. Moreover, by sharing a good time with the children before their exam helps them get rid of this fear. During this, children feel comfortable to share their feelings with their parents. The brain needs a lot of energy to maintain focus on a big test for several hours. Eating a hearty and healthy breakfast, including complex carbohydrates and protein to make their energy last as long as possible also helps them deal with their exam fears. About the Author The article above has been written by a school advisor working with OnlineSchoolAdmissions.Com, a leading portal offering web based school admission solutions to the parents. The portal has a school directory list from where parents can search for play way school or Play Way School malviya nagar where they want to admit their child. As per their choice, parents also can search for play way schools and can apply to the schools by filling up the application forms online. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

Haggis Wasn’T Proud of His Early Years Posted: 24 Jul 2012 01:00 AM PDT by AlicePopkorn Article by Haamam Haggis wasn't proud of his early years. "I was a bad kid," he said. "I didn't kill anybody. Not that I didn't try." He was born in 1953, and grew up in London, Ontario, a manufacturing town midway between Toronto and Detroit. His father, Ted, had a construction company there, which specialized in pouring concrete. His mother, Mary, a Catholic, sent Paul and his two younger sisters, Kathy and Jo, to Mass on Sundays--until she spotted their priest driving an expensive car. "God wants me to have a Cadillac," the priest explained. Mary responded, "Then God doesn't want us in your church anymore." Haggis decided at an early age to be a writer, and he made his own comic books. But he was such a poor student that his parents sent him to a strict boarding school, where the students were assigned cadet drills. He preferred to sit in his room reading Ramparts, the radical magazine from America--the place he longed to be. He committed repeated infractions, but he learned to pick locks so that he could sneak into the prefect's office and eliminate his demerits. After a year of this, his parents transferred him to a progressive boys' school in Bracebridge, Ontario, where there was very little system to subvert. Haggis grew his curly blond hair to his shoulders. He discovered a mentor in his art teacher, Max Allen, who was politically radical and gay. Flouting Ontario's strict censorship laws, Allen opened a theatre in Toronto that showed banned films; Haggis volunteered at the box office. Haggis got caught forging a check, and he soon left school. He was drifting, hanging out with hippies and drug dealers. Two friends died from overdoses. "I had a gun pointed in my face a couple of times," he recalls. He attended art school briefly, then quit; after taking some film classes at a community college, he dropped out of that as well. He began working in construction full time for his father. He also was the manager of a hundred-seat theatre that his father had created in an abandoned church. On Sa! turday n ights, he set up a movie screen onstage, introducing himself and other film buffs to the works of Bergman, Hitchcock, and the French New Wave. He was so affected by Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" that in 1974 he decided to move to England, in order to become a fashion photographer, like the hero of the movie. That lasted less than a year. Back in London, Ontario, he fell in love with Diane Gettas, a nurse, and they began sharing a one-bedroom apartment. He was starting to get his life together, but he was haunted by something that his grandfather had said to him on his deathbed. "He was a janitor in a bowling alley," Haggis told me. "He had left England because of some scandal we don't know about. He died when I was twelve or thirteen. He looked terrible. He turned to me and said, 'I've wasted my life. Don't waste yours.' " One day in 1975, when he was twenty-two, Haggis was walking to a record store. When he arrived at the corner of Dundas and Waterloo Streets, a young man pressed a book into his hands. "You have a mind," the man said. "This is the owner's manual." The man, whose name was Jim Logan, added, "Give me two dollars." The book was "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," by L. Ron Hubbard, which was published in 1950. By the time Haggis began reading it, "Dianetics" had sold about two and a half million copies. Today, according to the church, that figure has reached more than twenty-one million. Haggis opened the book and saw a page stamped with the words "Church of Scientology." "Take me there," Haggis said to Logan. Haggis had heard about Scientology a couple of months earlier, from a friend who had called it a cult. The thought that he might be entering a cult didn't bother him. In fact, he said, "it drew my interest. I tend to run toward things I don't understand." When he arrived at the church's headquarters, he recalled, "it didn't look like a cult. Two guys in a small office above Woolworth's." At the time, Haggis and Gettas were having ! argument s; the Scientologists told him that taking church courses would improve the relationship. "It was pitched to me as applied philosophy," Haggis says. He and Gettas took a course together and, shortly afterward, became Hubbard Qualified Scientologists, one of the first levels in what the church calls the Bridge to Total Freedom. The Church of Scientology says that its purpose is to transform individual lives and the world. "A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology," Hubbard wrote. Scientology postulates that every person is a Thetan--an immortal spiritual being that lives through countless lifetimes. Scientologists believe that Hubbard discovered the fundamental truths of existence, and they revere him as "the source" of the religion. Hubbard's writings offer a "technology" of spiritual advancement and self-betterment that provides "the means to attain true spiritual freedom and immortality." A church publication declares, "Scientology works 100 percent of the time when it is properly applied to a person who sincerely desires to improve his life." Proof of this efficacy, the church says, can be measured by the accomplishments of its adherents. "As Scientologists in all walks of life will attest, they have enjoyed greater success in their relationships, family life, jobs and professions. They take an active, vital role in life and leading roles in their communities. And participation in Scientology brings to many a broader social consciousness, manifested through meaningful contribution to charitable and social reform activities." In 1955, a year after the church's founding, an affiliated publication urged Scientologists to cultivate celebrities: "It is obvious what would happen to Scientology if prime communicators benefitting from it would mention it." At the end of the sixties, the church established its first Celebrity Centre, ! in Holly wood. (There are now satellites in Paris, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Munich, Florence, London, New York, Las Vegas, and Nashville.) Over the next decade, Scientology became a potent force in Hollywood. In many respects, Haggis was typical of the recruits from that era, at least among those in the entertainment business. Many of them were young and had quit school in order to follow their dreams, but they were also smart and ambitious. The actress Kirstie Alley, for example, left the University of Kansas in 1970, during her sophomore year, to get married. Scientology, she says, helped her lose her craving for cocaine. "Without Scientology, I would be dead," she has said. In 1975, the year that Haggis became a Scientologist, John Travolta, a high-school dropout, was making his first movie, "The Devil's Rain," in Durango, Mexico, when an actress on the set gave him a copy of "Dianetics." "My career immediately took off," he told a church publication. "Scientology put me into the big time." The testimonials of such celebrities have attracted many curious seekers. In Variety, Scientology has advertised courses promising to help aspiring actors "make it in the industry." One of those actors, Josh Brolin, told me that, in a "moment of real desperation," he visited the Celebrity Centre and received "auditing"--spiritual counselling. He quickly decided that Scientology wasn't for him. But he still wonders what the religion does for celebrities like Cruise and Travolta: "Each has a good head on his shoulders, they make great business decisions, they seem to have wonderful families. Is that because they were helped by Scientology?" This is the question that makes celebrities so crucial to the religion. And, clearly, there must be something rewarding if such notable people lend their names to a belief system that is widely scorned. Brolin says that he once witnessed John Travolta practicing Scientology. Brolin was at a dinner party in Los Angeles with Travolta and Marlon Brando. Brando arrived with a c! ut on hi s leg, and explained that he had injured himself while helping a stranded motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway. He was in pain. Travolta offered to help, saying that he had just reached a new level in Scientology. Travolta touched Brando's leg and Brando closed his eyes. "I watched this process going on--it was very physical," Brolin recalls. "I was thinking, This is really fucking bizarre! Then, after ten minutes, Brando opens his eyes and says, 'That really helped. I actually feel different!' " (Travolta, through a lawyer, called this account "pure fabrication.") About the Author download free software: انترنت دونلود منجر Internet Download Manager انترنت دونلود منجر Internet Download Manager Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included. Out-of-Body Experience? More Info: www.monroeinstitute.org Paul Rademacher describes his unearthly spiritual experience during a Gateway Voyage at The Monroe Institute. Was he OBE or out-of-body? 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The Power of Meditation for Brain Health: Interview with Dr. Andrew Newberg Posted: 24 Jul 2012 12:00 AM PDT by premasagar Article by Alvaro Fernandez Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains I recently had the fortune to interview Dr. Andrew Newberg, one of the leading researchers focused on meditation and the brain. Dr. Newberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology and Psychiatry and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has researched the brain impact of meditation, prayer, and how brain function is associated with mystical and religious experiences. Quuestion (Q): Dr. Newberg, thank you for being with us today. Can you please explain the source of your interests at the intersection of brain research and spirituality? Answer (A): Since I was a kid, I had a keen interest in spiritual practice. I always wondered how spirituality and religion affect us, and over time I came to appreciate how science can help us explore and understand the world around us, including why we humans care about spiritual practices. This, of course, led me to be particularly interested in brain research. During medical school I was particularly attracted by the problem of consciousness. I was fortunate to meet researcher Dr. Eugene D'Aquili in the early 1990s, who had been doing much research on religious practices effect on brain since the 1970s. Through him I came to see that brain imaging can provide a fascinating window into the brain. Q: Can we define religion and spirituality -which sound to me as very different brain processes-, and why learning about them may be helpful from a purely secular, scientific point of view? A: Good point, definitions matter, since different people may be searching for God in different ways. I view being religious as participating in organized rituals and shared beliefs, such as going to church. Being spiritual, on the other hand, is more of an individual practice, whether we call it meditation, or relaxation, or prayer, aimed at expanding the self, developing a sense of oneness with the universe. What is happening is ! that spe cific practices that have traditionally been associated with religious and spiritual contexts may also be very useful from a mainstream, secular, health point of view, beyond those contexts. Scientists are researching, for example, what elements of meditation may help manage stress and improve memory. How breathing and meditation techniques can contribute to health and wellness. For example, my lab is now conducting a study where 15 older adults with memory problems are practicing Kirtan Kriya meditation during 8 weeks, and we have found very promising preliminary outcomes in terms of the impact on brain function. This work is being funded by the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation, but we have submitted a grant request to the National Institute of Health as well. Q: Can you give an overview of the benefits of meditation, including Richard Davidson's studies on mindfulness meditation? A: There are many types of meditation - and we each are researching different practices. Which of course share some common elements, but are different in nature. Dr. Davidson has access to the Dalai Lama and many Buddhist practitioners, so much of his research centers on mindfulness meditation. We have easier access to Franciscan monks and to practitioners of Kirtan Kriya meditation. At its core, meditation is an active process that requires alertness and attention, which explains why we often find increased brain activity in frontal lobes during practice. Usually you need to focus on something - a mantra, a visual or verbal prompt- while you monitor breathing. A variety of studies have already shown the stress management benefits of meditation, resulting in what is often called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. What we are researching now is what are the cognitive - attention, memory- benefits? It is clear that memory depends on attention and the ability to screen out distractions - so we want to measure the effect of meditation on the brain, both structurally and functionally. To! measure the brain activation patterns we have been using SPECT imaging, which involves injecting small amounts of radioactive tracers in volunteers, and helps us get a more view of what happens during practice (fMRI is much more noisy). To measure functional benefits we use the typical batteries of neuropsychology testing. Q: If there is a growing body of evidence behind the health and cognitive benefits of meditation - what is preventing a more widespread adoption of the practice, perhaps in ways similar to yoga, which is now pretty much a mainstream activity? A: Well, the reality is that meditation requires practice and dedication. It is not an easy fix. And some of the best-researched meditation techniques, such as mindfulness meditation, are very intensive. You need a trained facilitator. You need to stick to the practice. In fact, that's why our ongoing research focused on a much easier to teach and practice technique. We want to see if people can practice on their own, at home, a few minutes a day for a few weeks. The other problem is that this is not a standardized practice, so there is a lot of confusion: many different meditation techniques, with different sets of priorities and styles. My advice for interested people would be to look for something simple, easy to try first, ensuring the practice is compatible with one's beliefs and goals. You need to match practice with need: understand the specific goals you have in mind, your schedule and lifestyle, and find something practical. Otherwise, you will not stick to it (similar to people who never show up at the health club despite paying fees). Q: New York Times columnist David Brooks recently wrote two very thought-provoking articles, one on the Cognitive Age we are living in, another on the Neural Buddhists, where he quotes your work. What is the big picture, the main implications for society from your research? A: I believe Philosophy complements Science, and all of us human beings would benefit from sp! iritual practices to achieve higher state of being, develop compassion, increase awareness, in ways compatible with any religious or secular beliefs. This is the main theme of my upcoming book, How God Changes Brain (to be published on March 2009): how we develop a shared knowledge of our common biology, and celebrate the differences which are based on our specific contexts. We are spiritual and social beings. From an education point of view, I believe schools will need to recognize that rote learning is not enough, and add to the mix practices to improve cognition, and manage stress and relationships. Q: That spiritual angle may prove controversial in a number of scientific quarters. What would, for example, say to biologist Richard Dawkins? A: I'd tell him that we all view the world through the lens of our brains, reflecting our cultural, social, and personal background. His view is based on his lens. Same as mine. All of us have a belief system. His is not particularly more accurate than everybody else's. We shouldn't throw out the baby with bathwater. I don't think religion is a black & white matter: yes, fundamentalism is a problem, as is rejecting data and ignoring scientific findings. But there are also good elements: the motivation to care about human beings, to develop compassion, to perfect ourselves and our world. Q: Dr. Newberg, thank you for your time today. A: My pleasure. About the Author Alvaro Fernandez is the Co-Founder of SharpBrains.com, which reviews resources for mental exercise and offers brain teaser selections. SharpBrains has been recognized by Scientific American Mind, The New York Times, and more. Alvaro holds MA in Education and MBA from Stanford University, and teaches The Science of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning Institute. You can learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/ Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included. Left Hand Crochet - Crochet Candy Cane - Left Hand Candy Cane Written Instructions crochet-mania.blogspot.com Please visit my crochet blog! Crochet Patterns crochet-mania.blogspot.com Crochet Mania www.youtube.com Crochet Tips crochet-mania-tips.blogspot.com Crochet Hats crochet-mania-hats.blogspot.com Granny Squares crochet-mania-grannysqua... 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Important Yoga Tips for Kids Posted: 23 Jul 2012 11:00 PM PDT by Terriko Article by Karan Khalsa Yoga refers to the traditional way of maintaining physical and mental disciplines through meditative practices. Yoga helps to get physical and mental fitness and create a balance between mind, body and soul. In the current scenario, yoga is very much useful for everybody, be it an adult or a child to fight away stresses. Nowadays children are under immense pressure of homework, extra-curricular activities, competition with others and performance anxiety. Yoga for kids delivers many a benefits to children for relaxing and making themselves able to cope with this increasing pressure of modern lifestyle. A distinct form of yoga, Kundalini yoga, plays an important role in children's yoga practicing. Children can practice yoga taking help from various Yoga DVDs offered by Spirit Voyage. A growing number of kids are turning to Yoga as it helps them to enhance self-consciousness, build self-control, generate better body awareness and flexibility over everything. By practicing Yoga, children can easily coordinate with the happenings around them. It will be more useful if they carry these skills in their daily chores. Yoga has the power to treat different illness even the severe ones. By practicing yoga kids can learn how to tune their own bodies and gaining control over both body and mind. Childhood is the first step of building a balanced future. So by bolstering self-esteem a balanced future can be achieved. Practicing yoga helps kids to attain this self-esteem paired with healthy body and mind. Yoga music can be a good help for getting the right mood while doing the asanas. A perfect yoga session ends with meditation. Meditation music enhances the atmosphere with its calm and soothing tunes. Some rules should be followed by everyone while doing Yogasadhana or practicing yoga. Like kids should not have heavy meal right before starting the yoga session. Yogasadhana in full stomach should be avoided. It is better to do yoga in quiet place as it helps to concentrate. Here yoga mat is very much ! useful a nd effective. Beginners can start with some easy poses and then go for the tough ones according to their own capability. Each yoga session should be completed with 'Do Nothing Pose' or 'Savasana'. Lying on the back with the arms resting alongside the body and the palms facing the ceiling while breathing very slowly is the original pose of Savasana. This pose helps to relax and rejuvenate one's mind and body. Yoga for kids also enhances the power of imagination and self-expression as it makes the mind clear from all unnecessary thoughts. Yoga controls and directs mind to a more focussed way. It teaches kids to be less dependent on others and more self-disciplined. Children get the confidence to work together and help each other to reach their respective goals. Yoga also helps to strengthen the family ties as different generations take part in Yoga session together. It makes the little ones feel closer to their families and loved ones. Children often experience tension and worries before tests or exams which can be healed by breathing techniques and meditation. Different types of Yoga is useful for kids like Hatha yoga and Kundalini yoga. The prime philosophy of Kundalini yoga i.e. identifying, exploring and exercising buried energy makes it an ideal choice for children of all ages. And when this yoga is practiced with meditation music, it becomes more powerful and effective as music generates more concentration. Music makes kids more interested in practicing yoga regularly. Spirit Voyage is an online company offering a vast collection of Yoga DVDs for kids. These CDs and DVDs for kids contain devotional chantings and divine musics where legends like Snatam Kaur, Shakta Kaur Khalsa, Deva Singh Khalsa and Wah! have lent their ethereal voices. This collection of Yoga music helps kids to attend yoga session regularly and keep all tensions and anxieties away from their daily life. About the Author The author writes of Spirit Voyage which is engaged in offering various kinds of yoga music and meditation music. The company offers different CDs and DVDs for practicing Kundalini Yoga and other yoga forms. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

Sally Ride's Death: Why is Pancreatic Cancer So Deadly? Posted: 23 Jul 2012 11:00 PM PDT CREDIT: Pancrease via Shutterstock Astronaut Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space, died today from pancreatic cancer at the age of 61, according to news reports. As a group, pancreatic cancers come with a very low survival rate — 75 percent of patients die less than a year after diagnosis, and 94 percent die within five years, according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PCAN), an organization in Manhattan Beach, Calif., that champions research and patient and family support. What is it about pancreatic cancer that makes it so lethal? One reason is that the cancer is usually not found until its late stages, Michelle Duff, director of research and scientific affairs at PCAN, told MyHealthNewsDaily in an interview last year. "By the time most patients are diagnosed, the disease has already spread," Duff said. The cancer often escapes early detection because patients display few warning signs that anything is wrong. When patients do experience symptoms, they are often vague aches and pains, such as indigestion or back pain, that can be attributed to other ailments. And unlike for breast cancer or prostate cancer, there are no screening tools available for pancreatic cancer, she said. Only 8 percent of cases are diagnosed before the cancer has spread beyond the pancreas, according to the National Cancer Institute. On top of being hard to detect, pancreatic cancer is very resistant to chemotherapy treatments, Duff said. And there are only three chemotherapy drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat it. The best treatment option is surgery to remove the tumor, Duff said, but only 15 percent of patients have their pancreatic cancer detected in time for surgery. In the other cases, the cancer has already spread beyond the pancreas to other organs. For this reason, the PCAN recommends that patients with pancreatic cancer consider participating in clinical trials testing new treatments. Pass it on: As a group, pancreatic cancers have a poor prognosis because they are often not detected until the late stages of the disease and usually resistant to chemotherapy. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source

Severely Obese Kids at Risk for Heart Disease Posted: 23 Jul 2012 10:00 PM PDT CREDIT: French fries via Shutterstock Two-thirds of severely obese children are at risk for heart disease, according to a new Danish study. Of the 255 severely obese children in the study, 56 percent had high blood pressure, 54 percent had high cholesterol levels, 14 percent had high fasting blood glucose(a risk factor for diabetes), and 1 percent had Type 2 diabetes. In total, 67 percent had at least one risk factor for heart disease, 17 percent had two risk factors, and 2.5 percent had four or more. The percentage of kids in the study with high levels of blood sugar, an indicator for diabetes, "is worrying, considering the increasing prevalence worldwide of Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents," the researchers wrote. "Likewise, the high prevalence of hypertension and abnormal lipids may lead to cardiovascular disease in young adulthood," they said. In the study, the researchers asked pediatricians for data on all severely obese children they treated between 2005 and 2007. Children were considered to be severely obese at age 2 if their body mass index (BMI) was 20.5, at age 12 if their BMI was 31, and at age 18 if their BMI was 35. The doctors provided data on each child's risk factors for heart disease. Severely obese children under age 12 were nearly as likely as older children to have one or more risk factors for heart disease, the study found. Sixty-two percent of these younger children had at least one risk factor. Only one child in the study was overweight due to a medical cause (hypothalamic tumor); the rest were obese due to their lifestyle, according to the study. A study conducted in the U.S. between 1999 to 2004 found that 4 percent of U.S. children between ages 2 and 19 were severely obese. Another study found that 84 percent of severely obese U.S. children (between ages 5 and 17) had one or more risk factors for cardiovascular disease, the researchers pointed out. Pass it on: Two-thirds of severely obese children already exhibit one or more risk factors for heart disease. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook and Google+. Read More @ Source

Malas and Jeweleries as Yoga Accessories Posted: 23 Jul 2012 10:00 PM PDT by Contemporary Jewish Museum Article by Karan Khalsa The ancient Vedic Hindu philosophy, Yoga has been derived from the Sanskrit word 'yuj' which means 'to reunite'. Yoga is the philosophy of reuniting one's ownself with the Supreme divine self. This reunion of the atma with the paramatma is not a very easy process rather it is quite a tough task to establish this bond. But from thousands of years ago, this ancient art is proving its potentiality to make a balance between human mind, body and soul - thus help an individual to create the bond with the Omnipotent power. Yoga and its various forms like Hatha yoga, Kundalini yoga, Ashtanga yoga, Kriya yoga and many more have the magical power to transform a human being into a higher level of spiritualism. And if it is practiced with yoga music probably one can expect the best result. Music has the magical power of soothing and relaxing the mind or brain with its melodious tunes. Some kind of devotional music like meditation music or yoga music increases the level of concentration and thus help people to awaken the self-consciousness. Various yoga DVDs available at Spirit Voyage promise to fulfill the demands of the global yoga practitioners, beginners or aspirants. A huge collection of online yoga music CDs and DVDs are offered by Spirit Voyage. This online music company also offers Yoga DVDs and CDs for each and every kind of yoga forms - like Hatha yoga, Kundalini yoga, Kriya yoga or Ashtanga yoga. The world famous spiritual singers like Deva Premal, Snatam Kaur, Wah!, Donna De Lory and Gurmukh have lent their pure soulful voices in these albums adding a devotional touch to them. One can check out the latest releases like Tantric Wahe Guru by Snatam Kaur, Live in Love by Shantala and Circle of Fire by Benjy Wertheimer etc. and experience the healing power of devotional music. Yoga accessories are also a great help for the practitioners. Yoga accessories help to relax the body and feel more comfortable while doing difficult yoga poses or asanas. Some accessories even help to develop! a bette r level of concentration. There are few yoga accessories without which your yoga practice will remain incomplete such as yoga mat, yoga clothings etc. Like these items, yoga jeweleries and malas are also inevitable for practicing yoga. Jeweleries like sacred mantra engraved karas, lotus ring help to uplift the spiritual senses within and thus make it easy to establish that divine bond. The yoga jewelery sets of earrings and pendants are very much helpful in doing meditation. And if it is paired with meditation music then one can expect perhaps the best result. Malas are considered as the most important accessories in meditation. We cannot imagine meditating without a sacred 108 Rudraksha mala. The sacred string of 108 beads helps one to focus and concentrate in the meditation practice. The power beads are the most significant spiritual tool to count the prayers or mantras. This helpful device enhances the spiritual mood of the practitioner. A wide range of malas are available at Spirit Voyage like Amethyst mala, Rudraksha mala, Lapis Lazuli mala etc. which will surely heighten the meditative state of the individual. Spirit Voyage aims to help the yoga aspirants in learning and practicing yoga all by themselves. Various Yoga DVDs like Lifecycles and Lifestyles by Yogi Bhajan and Advanced yoga by Rodney Yee are offered at this website which are also a very good option for the yoga lovers to learn and practice yoga at home. About the Author The author writes for Spirit Voyage which is engaged in offering various kinds of yoga music and meditation music. The company offers different CDs and DVDs for practicing kundalini Yoga and other yoga forms. Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

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