http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-9985/25-habits-of-people-who-are-happy-healthy-successful.html

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-9795/5-tips-to-get-more-time-to-yourself.html

1. Take time for yourself to start each day (Practice)

2. Establish a routine. 

3. Delegate. 

4. Make a list or become aware of where you spend most of your time. 

5. Spend less time consuming media. 

7 Physical & Mental Benefits of Cold Showers

What are the key benefits of cold showers? Cold showers are incredible. By taking cold showers, you can improve your physical and mental health listed below.

Updated 8/9/2015

1. Increased Tolerance to Stress

Exposure to cold water gives your body a higher tolerance to stress by purposely exposing it to stress. If you can withstand a cold shower, the rest of your day’s challenges will seem like a breeze.

2. Increase in Lucidity

A cold shower turns a mundane task into a lucid practice. You begin to feel the sensation of each water drop hitting your skin. You notice an increase in gratitude for the fact that your internal organs are able to rapidly pump blood to regulate your body temperature.

3. Increased Blood Circulation

Exposure to cold water causes your blood flow to be redirected to your vital organs, it forces your body to circulate your blood more efficiently & effectively.

4. Healthy Skin and Hair

Cold water helps close pores. This keeps your skin looking smooth & healthy while not drying your skin out as hot water showers can sometimes do.  The cold water will help keep your hair look shiny and keep your skin soft, rather than itchy, ashy and dried out. Just one of the many benefits of cold showers 😉

5. Immune System Supercharge

Cold water immersion has been shown to  increase metabolic rates due to shivering and activating the immune system.

In Siberia, in a ritual called Rodnichok or cold springs, parents dump a cold bucket of water over the heads of children. They do this year round for ages 2-6. Again, this is in Siberia. Those kids are tough. It’s shown that about 95% of the kids who participate are healthy through the flu season as opposed to 75% of the those children in groups that don’t participate.

6. Increased Testosterone

In a world where men are increasingly willing to pop prescription pills to solve low-testtosterone problems, the solution is actually in their own bathroom. A 1993 study done by the Thrombosis Research Institute in England showed cold baths to be correlated with high testosterone levels.

7. Anti-Depressant Properties

Due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a cold shower is expected to send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an anti-depressive effect. Also, cold showers have been linked to an increase in , a protein that is helpful in regulating glucose levels and breaking down fatty acids.

Two bonus positive side effects:

1. Improved Lymphatic System Functioning

The lymphatic system takes waste away from your cells to help fight disease. It’s separate from your blood vessels, but is moved around by the contraction of your muscles. Cold showers cause your entire body to contract and forces the lymphatic system to push the lymph fluids throughout your body rather than pooling in one part of your body as it would if it were compromised or inefficient.

2. Better Sleep

Doctors recommend insomniacs take cold showers to help aid sleep. It might be because the feeling you get after the initial shock of the shower helps your body calm down & relax.

It may seem daunting at first…. I promise it gets easier each time so take the plunge!! It might just change your life. 😉

Some of the tips above can be contributed to: http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-health-benefits

Cheers to my friend @PhilFeelsGood who first introduced me to cold showers!

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

Authentic Happiness is the homepage of Dr. Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of positive psychology, a branch of psychology which focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions.

I recommend you take the “VIA Survey of Character Strengths” test. Over a million people have taken the test to learn more about some of their strengths.

I wonder how biased the data is to someone’s liking. I received the 5 strengths below and I feel that my life will be a continuous journey to accomplish some of the strengths listed.

“We found that the happiest people take pleasure in other people’s successes and show concern in the face of others’ failures. A completely different portrait, however, has emerged of a typical unhappy person—namely, as someone who is deflated rather than delighted about his peers’ accomplishments and triumphs and who is relieved rather than sympathetic in the face of his peers’ failures and undoings.” ~ Sonja Lyubomirsky from The How of Happiness

How about you? Are you celebrating other people’s successes?

In his great book The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker tells us to “Bless that which you want. If you see a person with a beautiful home, bless that person and bless that home. If you see a person with a beautiful car, bless that person and bless that car. If you see a person with a loving family, bless that person and bless that family. If you see a person with a beautiful body, bless that person and bless their body.”

The scientific fact is that: “You can’t be envious and happy at the same time. People who pay too much attention to social comparisons find themselves chronically vulnerable, threatened, and insecure.”

Plus: “The happier the person, the less attention she pays to how others around her are doing.

Via Entheos.com

Outstanding pictorial & textual guide to beginning & advanced asana backbends:

http://www.mryoga.com/backbends

Benefits of backbends: Improves spinal flexibility and strength creating better posture, stimulates the central nervous system, abdominal organs and aids in digestion, tones the adrenal glands, kidney, pancreas and liver thyroid gland, abdominal organs and lungs, stretches the chest, lungs, upper and lower back, throat, shoulders, hip flexors, can relieve menstrual cramping and menopause for women, and calms the mind.

Life is meant to be loved.

Happiness is attainable.

Living a life of truth can be a reality.

In daily life, if you happen to tell a lie, ask yourself, “Why did I really lie?” Did you lie for social gain or ego purposes? Did you lie to create a false reality to make yourself feel better? Did you do it to benefit another person you care a lot about? Ask yourself after you tell your next small lie.

Consciousness of Gods Presence

The secret is to see God in everything and to not become attached to anything. Answer to God.

Be conscious each day. If you had a great day, acknowledge God. If you had a terrible day, acknowledge God. God is the reason why we are here. Your heart is God. We all are God.

One who sees God will not “sweat the small stuff” because he or she is free and willing to be happy.

-BL

Happiness should never be influenced or subject to any outside influence. People have the ability to manifest in their minds anything they want. “Plain living and high thinking” is an awesome way to practice and go about life.

A way to attain peace: Focus your intention on meditation, physical activity (yoga, running, sports), and learning. Do not let the environment you are living in dictate your inner peace. One can be taught realization and ways to acknowledge the breath. Once you hear your breathe you may become conscious and if you become conscious you may realize God’s presence. You may see that in this world of 7 billion plus people, we are all One.

-BL

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/technology/self-driving-cars-for-testing-are-supported-by-us.html?hp&_r=1&

Self Driving Cars will be giving the next generation much more free time.

“Do the things you love to do. Do the things that make you happy.”