Monday, September 14, 2009

Do You Ever Loose Your Keys - Planning Advice

You obviously don't need to read this article if you rarely lose your car keys. However if you misplace your car keys often and have a pretty good relationship with your locksmith, it's time to change these bad habits into good ones.

One of my friends, recently lost their car keys. I would like you to listen to what I'm about to say and see if it makes sense to you. Most people get two keys when they buy a car. This means, if they lose one key, they now have a spare key. When they lose their first key, this should give them a pretty good clue that the second key is now the only key, if they wish to drive their car.

Does that make sense? If you lose your first key, you don't have a second or spare key anymore. Now is a good time to purchase a spare key or have one made. Don't wait until you lose the second one, unless you are planning to change your bad habit into a good one.

Now let me get back to my friends who recently lost their car's key. The car they were driving was a new Honda and you can't go to the locksmith to get another key made. You have to order one from the Honda dealer and this key cost them over $200. That's a lot of money for one key.

Now my friends lost both of their original keys and now have one key to operate the vehicle and this key cost them over $200. Now if I had to pay this amount of money, I would make sure that I never lost this key ever again. I would do whatever it to to change my old habits and create some new ones.

How hard is it to get in the habit of placing your keys inside of your purse. Placing your keys in your pockets and then only removing them when you are going to place them inside of a drawer, container, cup, bowl or on a shelf in your bedroom. If you place your keys in a drawer, this will keep them out of other people's temptation.

If you choose to lay your keys in a bowl, in the kitchen, there's a good chance someone will take them or another member of your family could lose them. Place your keys in a protected area, do not leave them out in the open ever.

If you want some tips to prevent you from losing your keys, simply talk to someone who rarely if ever loses their keys. Most of these people have simple and easy to follow tips. You can consciously create a habit that can save you money and frustration in the future.

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a spiritual video library filled with great movies on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world.

Healing Through the Written Word

Healing through the Written Word - Writing is the medicine we need to heal our everyday wounds and provide us with the immunity to go forth and live, knowing we have a powerful healer at our fingertips.

Everyday wounds are those hurts that present themselves to us on a daily basis through our relationships and interactions with others and stay with us until they are addressed and eventually healed. Each day we are presented with situations that can develop into wounds or contribute to our growth as a Higher Ground Human. It all depends on what we choose.

"Everyday wounds" consist of the following:

* Fears we have not faced or embraced. * Hurt feelings that either are not recognized or addressed. * Blocks or obstructions that keep us from achieving our goals, evolving, or developing self esteem. * Lost dreams due to overwhelm. * Feelings of isolation. * Frustration * Negativity and judgments. * Unable to focus.

We can choose to walk in integrity taking us one step closer towards becoming a Higher Ground Human or as many of us do we can choose to take the safe route, hide our true feelings, protecting our vulnerability and safely hiding our fear.

When we choose the latter, we are being untrue to ourselves, the biggest sin of all. We are our own worst enemy. Once we realize and accept our hurtful behavior we are ready to step onto our healing path and begin the journey. To do otherwise would be deliberately unkind.

Writing is an untapped natural healer, which according to The Med Serv. Medical News, reporting on a study by Smyth & colleagues, concluded that "The simple act of writing about bad times can be potent, and a low cost, method of relieving pain and symptoms of chronic illnesses....

Healing our emotional wounds is necessary for us to move forward, to grow spiritually, to live peacefully and to Be the best we can be.

Walking in integrity means our thoughts; actions and feelings are all aligned, all in accordance all congruent (in agreement). Actively and consciously inhibiting and holding back our thoughts and feelings takes work AND can lead to stress, ultimately affecting our immune system often putting us at risk for major and minor diseases.

James W Pennebaker, PhD is his 1990 book; Opening Up showed a relationship between expressing our emotions through writing and the positive effect this type of writing has on our immune system.

Healing is learning to be true to ourselves. To be true to ourselves and to trust ourselves takes courage and a knowing of who we are. To become true to ourselves we must embrace our fears, walking through them to the other side. When we do this we open ourselves to trusting and experiencing life.

Knowing who we are is a life-long journey AND it takes willingness on our part to consciously take that first step.

I believe we are all aware of what happens when our emotions are left dangling with no where to go, or no release. They can manifest themselves into physical ailments, leaving us confused and often making visits to the doctor's office.

Healing our everyday wounds is necessary for our mental health AND for personal growth.

Everyday wounds are painful and many of us choose to simply ignore or eliminate the pain by being in a constant state of denial.

For those who choose to travel through the pain, we find integrity and personal growth on the other side.

Writing is a powerful tool to have when moving through the pain. Through writing we can make sense out of confusion, giving meaning to emotional hurts, pin-pointing the root of our pain and sadness and opening us up to a whole new world.

Writing on a daily basis at the same time is a simple everyday ritual we must develop. When you have a conflict between your thoughts and your actions sit down and begin to write giving yourself a prompt. Your prompt may be "Why was I angry yesterday.........?" and just let the words flow through your fingers onto the paper. This free writing is powerful. You will know when you are finished.

Now give yourself the prompt "Why was I not truthful .......?" and begin to write, letting the words flow out onto the paper.

Once you are finished sit quietly and read both writings. I promise, you will be exposed to the answers to both of your prompts, giving you the opportunity to make amends to yourself by bringing your actions and your thoughts in alignment. You will begin to walk your thoughts and your talk AND be yourself. There is nothing more powerful and a battle worth fighting.

The famous American poet, EE Cummings, said, "To be nobody-but-yourself----in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else---means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight...."

This exercise will take only 30 minutes of your time, yet it is invaluable when it comes to your personal growth.

Writing helps us get in touch with what is hidden from us, giving us answers to those questions that seem to baffle us often exposing the reason behind our anger.

Writing gives us energy and frees us from the ties that bind. When we write we create a spiritual, truthful connection with ourselves and with others.

Give yourself the gift of writing.

Virginia Dever Writer - Coach - Healer

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Ideas For A Second Wedding Anniversary Gift

The strict followers of tradition tell you that a second wedding anniversary gift item should be of cotton. Cotton doesnt translate into a plain cotton sheet or a pillow. Too little creativity makes your second wedding anniversary gift a little colorless. Think out of the box and you will hit on an innovative idea that can change your gift giving into an exciting experience.

The man or woman for whom you want to honor with second wedding anniversary gift will be a close friend of you. And you will have fairly good idea about their personal likes and dislikes. Just as you can see, they have gathered all the essentials for their home. Chances are higher that the bed sheet that you would give them will only join a huge pile. Bring your thought process to outside the existing norms. Hey, to live is to change constantly.

A personalized notepad or some enveloped with cotton paper would make a nice second wedding anniversary gift idea. You can bring in any number of innovations with your cotton notepad. No, dont stop your thinking of cotton gift here. You honor our cotton tradition here and shows a good gesture that you have some thoughts reserved for your friend.

What if you look to modern traditions of second wedding anniversary? You can think of china as a second anniversary gift. If you have a chance check to make sure your friend doesnt have a big collection of china. Even then the appeal of china is unmistakable and almost everyone likes to occasionally add a set of two of china to their collection.

Everything Chinese also can make good second wedding anniversary gift item. It can be a gift certificate to enjoy always demanded Chinese cuisine at a local Chinese restaurant or a gift basket treasure hunt with Chinese items like Feng Shui crystals or fortune cookies.

The options dont end here; in fact this is your starting point of finding a unique second wedding anniversary gift. Just make a search at eBay.com or Froogle.com to find out the rich variety of cotton and Chinese jewelry and craft items available.

It is the relationship between you and your friend and your simple gesture of thoughtfulness will be remembered for a long time.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning wedding. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting Wedding Anniversary Gift

Feng Shui Independent of Zi Wei Dou Shu (ZWDS) And Ba Zi (4 Pillars)? Part I

Chinese Metaphysics consist of many individual fields which can be classified into broad categories of Astrology, Feng Shui, Divination and Strategy.One of the common misconceptions is that these are stand-alone fields and that practicing one does not require knowledge and streamlining with other fields of knowledge.In addition, many held the belief that Astrology subjects like Ba Zi (4 Pillars) and Zi Wei Dou Shu (ZWDS) are merely tools to foretell our fixed-capacity destiny and fortune and Feng Shui solely holds the key to betterment of one's outcome and luck.

In actual fact, destiny is not entirely fixed. If destiny is entirely fixed, what is the use of consulting a doctor or surgeon for one's illness? Geomancy tools are effective only up to the extent it complements one's destiny and the key to betterment of one's outcome and luck lies in using holistically using Geomancy, Divination and Strategy to support one's destiny. A simple way to view this is to look at human as the object and Fengshui, Divination and Strategy as the tool.Astrology is tool to decipher human's well-being and hence takes precedence over Fengshui, Divination and Strategy in the scheme towards improvement of one's outcome.

Providing Feng Shui solution to client without considering their Ba Zi & Zi Wei Dou Shu charts is like a doctor prescribing medicine to patient without his own diagnosis.A Geomancer prescribing Feng Shui tools to improve wealth for his client upon request is like a doctor who prescribes aspirin to his patients because he relied on his patient to tell him the symptom of headache but did not investigate or is incapable of investigating if the headache is a symptom to other underlying illness.

It may cure the symptoms in the short run but problems may surface in the long term.For example, clients usually engage a Geomancer to improve their wealth.If this consultant did not consider the ramifications of the client's birth data, he may hastenthe windfall his client had asked, but in the long term this client may lose his health or life.Or he may get the career advancements he asked for but end up losing his wife to divorce.The various aspects of one's life are intricately linked and you seldom can improve one aspect without losing out on other aspects.Destiny is also a zero-sum game.

How important are knowledge of 4 Pillars and ZWDS towards the execution of Geomancy? Stay tuned for the answer in my next article.

I am a Fengshui Practitioner in private practice and I specialise in Ba Zi, Zi Wei Dou Shu ZWDS, Feng Shui, I-Ching, Qi Men Dun Jia QMDJ and other Chinese Metaphysics tools. My blog site is at: http://fengshuiforward.com and http://fengshuiforward.com/forum

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Having Good Luck in Your Life - Forever

While it is commonly known that good feng shui can bring good luck to the person who takes advantage of it, it is also important to understand that there is also bad chi. Basically, Sha Chi and Si Chi falls under the category of bad chi in feng shui. People who want to bring good luck to their lives must avoid bad feng shui.

Sha Chi is also referred to as "killing" energy by feng shui experts. It traces its origins from above ground and below ground; it has different negative effects on the person who suffers from it. ShaChi that comes from below group will sap the energy of a person and cause sickness. Usually, a person who suffers from it will feel tired and anxious without any reason. Meanwhile, ShaChi from above ground will usually cause illnesses and nervous complaints. It can also result to problems in a person's personal life such as broken marriages and financial concerns.

This kind of bad chi can be created by the sharpness of an object, either man-made or natural, that points sharply towards the entrance of your house or window. For example, houses at the corner of a T-junction are more likely to accumulate Sha Chi because the attacking energy goes to the main door. Inside the house, ShaChi can also be developed. For example, when there is a sharp angle that points to your work area or your bed, it will emit energy that attacks. In this case, the proximity of the sharp object should be looked into; the further away the attacking element is, the lesser its damage.

Other situations that can create Sha Chi include a house located opposite a dilapidated building, a noisy neighborhood, or cables and wires that obstructs the view. It has also been noted that the closeness to a graveyard can create ShaChi.

Si Chi

Another kind of bad chi is Si Chi. SiChi is also characterized by decaying and low energy that feels lifeless. It can lead to sickness and depression for people who are exposed to it for a particular period of time. Like ShaChi, Si Chi can also be found outside the home; usually, SiChi is created at the site of a massacre or the site of human tragedies. Si Chi can also be found inside homes and buildings as well. It is what we sometimes refer to as "bad vibes"; it can be felt when you have the urge to leave a particular area for no apparent reason at all.

Julia Vakulenko is a licensed broker associate with Tampa4U.com Realty. She has one of the hardest working Tampa Real Estate team in Florida.

Food - What is Milk?

There is strong evidence that proves that milk has played a very important role in the history of man. There are early records that frequently mention that milk and milk products were part of a man's everyday life from childbirth until old age. It was in the year 1922 that a temple near Babylon that was thought to be 5000 years old was discovered by a British-American expedition. In this particular temple can be seen painted walls with different milking scenes of the local people. On the mural, some men are depicted milking cows. The positioning of the milker is peculiar because they milk the cows from behind it instead of from the right, like the dairymen of modern times do. The milker is shown sitting on a milking stool. Another scene that is painted on the wall is men straining the milk into a certain container on the ground. There is also a third group of milkmen depicted collecting the strained milk into large stone jars and sealing them up. Another proof that attests to the role of milk in society is the book of Exodus in the Bible. It is described in Exodus 3:8 that Palestine is the Promised Land which was "flowing with milk and honey". In the Bible, milk stands for riches and abundance.

Every single human being has consumed milk at at least one point in life. We all know what it looks like. But what is milk? Milk is the white liquid that is especially produced by the female species of warm-blooded animals that they use to feed their young. Warm-blooded animals that produce milk are called mammals. Mammals have udders or mammary glands where blood that is pumped by the heart passes through. The mammary glands are specialized glands that have the ability to separate different substances from the blood and combined them into the substance we know as milk and then excrete them. To make 1 pound of milk, it takes 150 to 500 pounds of blood to pass through the udder.

Nowadays, the most common sources of milk used for human consumption are the cow and the goat. However, many people still get milk from other animals that are native to their land. In India and Central Asia, they drink the milk of the water buffalo and the zebu. They also milk camels, yaks and horses in Asia. The sheep provides milk for the people of Asia and Europe. Eskimos and the Laplanders use the reindeer and the caribou.

Milk contains several hundreds of chemical components. Even today, scientists are constantly finding something new in milk. Milk is best known for its good taste, high quality and high content of phosphorus, protein and most especially calcium. Since milk is a natural substance, it is easily broken down and digested making the calcium, phosphorus and other nutrients effortlessly available to be used by the body. Milk contains important vitamins needed for growth and normal functioning. It has large amounts of Vitamin B2 or riboflavin and some vitamin A. Some of the components of milk are only found in it and not anywhere else. These are the Milk Fat, Milk Sugar or Lactose and Casein, which is the major milk protein.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Food

Friday, September 11, 2009

Hot and Cold Italian Foods

When it comes to Italian foods, it is important to note that there are many forms of food that will grace a table. Some foods will be hot, while some will be cold. It is must be understood that regardless of the type of food that you try, it should not define and or forge your opinion on Italian food as a whole. There are just too many types of food to be enjoyed in the Italian culinary arsenal, and you would be hard pressed to try everything that it has to offer in your lifetime.

From Cold Cuts To Baked Ziti

It really does not matter what it is that you are enjoying in regards to Italian foods, as each and everything that you try will most likely tickle your senses. One moment you could be enjoying a great platter of cold cuts such a soppressata or mortadella, and the next you could be enjoying a wonderful baked ziti. Both have their merits and appeal, yet both are so opposite in the food spectrum. There is no question that you are going to enjoy both of these delightful entries in the fascinating world of Italian cuisine. Often you can find many items that are both hot and cold that can be combined or share space on the Italian dinner table at the same time. This is nothing more than a delight for those that are going to dine, as it offers you much in the way of variety and culinary experimentation.

Hot Pasta And Cold Pasta

Italian foods are not temperature specific, and this can be attested to by perhaps the most popular of all Italian foods in pasta. While some may assume that pasta is something that is always served hot, this is not the case as there are several dishes old and new that revolve around the use of pasta that has been chilled prior to serving. Great pasta and even Greek salads are known to be served in the warmer months in the Mediterranean region, and this is a great way to dine in the early afternoon on the terrace of a caf. Cool pasta tastes just as delightful as hot pasta, and the great thing about pasta is whether it is served hot or cold the texture always remains the same. This makes pasta an ideal food to work with, and it is obvious why it is a top choice for many chefs worldwide today.

Even Soups Have Variations

When it comes to Italian foods that are hot and cold, even soup has its own distinct differences. Many soups in Italian culture have been made specifically hot or cold depending on the season. One of the most common and popular cold soups in Italy is known as gazpacho, and this soup consists of several different finely chopped vegetables. All are mixed in a large pot and chilled for hours; the result is an absolutely wonderful flavor and simply refreshing texture.

Anna Fiori writes food related articles for the Italian Traditional Food website at http://www.italiantraditionalfood.com