About Meditations

Different And Helpful Things To Know About Meditation Relaxation techniques are a great way to help your pursuit to reduce stress. Relaxation isn't just about peace of mind or enjoying a hobby. Relaxation is a process that decreases the wear and tear of life's challenges on your mind and body. Whether you have a lot of stress in your life or you've got it under control, you can benefit from learning relaxation techniques. Learning basic meditation relaxation techniques isn't hard. Explore these simple relaxation techniques to get you started on de-stressing your life and improving your health.There are ample of sources of stress in the world now a days. As the old saying goes, "there's no need to look for trouble, because trouble will find you all on its own". All of us have troubles and worries, along with all these stresses, few of us even have time to kick back and relax. If you suffer from anxiety and did you wish to ease that anxious moods you have and feel relax for a while? There are number of relaxations techniques you have that you take a little time and are highly effective which you can done anywhere even at work.If I were to find a perfect relaxation techniques I would preferred to make a fortune sharing with others. In this, there are a lot of great ideas, and these ideas published in different places but it seems no one got it gold. I know that the people around me seem to be more and more stressed as time goes along. More people tried many relaxation techniques but they only find nothing work for them. There are many different things you can try, but you may have to search for a while before you find something that works for you.Performing breathing can be therapeutic, and with enough practice, can become your standard way of breathing. To breathe with the diaphragm, one must draw air into the lungs in a way which will expand the stomach and not the chest. It is best to perform these breaths as long, slow intakes of air - allowing the body to absorb all of the inhaled oxygen while simultaneously relaxing the breather. To do this comfortably, it is often best to loosen tight-fitting pants, belts, skirts as these can interfere with the body's ability to intake air. The old-fashioned remedy of breathing slowly into a paper bag works amazingly well to relax you and restore proper breathing. Another version of this relaxation technique involves taking slow deep breaths. At first you may find you need to force yourself to breathe slowly, but persist and you'll soon be back to normal. And bear in mind that some people, especially those with significant psychological problems and a history of abuse, may experience feelings of emotional discomfort during relaxation exercises. Although this is rare, if you experience emotional discomfort during relaxation exercises, stop what you're doing and consider talking to your health care professional. Some relaxation techniques will work for some people, while some will leave others feeling cold. Write down all of your ideas and move through your list one at a time. This may help you find relaxation techniques that work best for you and your lifestyle. I know that the people around me seem to be more and more stressed as time goes along. More people tried many relaxation techniques but they only find nothing work for them. There are many different things you can try, but you may have to search for a while before you find something that works for you.Performing breathing can be therapeutic, and with enough practice, can become your standard way of breathing. To breathe with the diaphragm, one must draw air into the lungs in a way which will expand the stomach and not the chest. It is best to perform these breaths as long, slow intakes of air - allowing the body to absorb all of the inhaled oxygen while simultaneously relaxing the breather. To do this comfortably, it is often best to loosen tight-fitting pants, belts, skirts as these can interfere with the body's ability to intake air. The old-fashioned remedy of breathing slowly into a paper bag works amazingly well to relax you and restore proper breathing. Another version of this relaxation technique involves taking slow deep breaths. At first you may find you need to force yourself to breathe slowly, but persist and you'll soon be back to normal.Meditation can help you throughout your entire life.

This is Heaven

Is This Heaven? By Steve Pavlina / Source: MindTrip Magazine If you maintain a negative limiting belief about your reality, such as a belief that this reality is insane, crazy, violent, indifferent, apathetic, etc., then your attitude will absolutely cream you. You can't expect to get anywhere good with a belief that this reality is anything less than heavenly. You're not actually judging reality with such beliefs because you only have access to your limited perceptions of it, and those are 100% within your mind. So by labeling reality negatively, you're actually labeling a part of your own mind in the same way. That's a trap — a huge trap that you must avoid at all costs. The Trap of Labeling Reality Negatively Subconsciously your mind will respond to such beliefs by crippling your self-esteem and strangling your ability to leverage your skills and talents. Some people who go this route even kill themselves in the end. It's a completely foolhardy way to deal with reality. No good can come of it. Well… no good other than the eventual realization that it was a rather lame idea. Once you realize that your perceptions of reality are all you have to go with, the most sensible approach is to permanently rule out the idea of casting aspersions on your reality, since you're actually ridiculing your own perceptions, which can only make you go a bit insane. You can't afford to do anything of the sort. That cannot possibly do any good whatsoever — it can only take you down a path of self-destruction and ruin. What's the alternative? Do the absolute best you can to cultivate a harmonious and supportive relationship with your reality. Settle for nothing less. If anything conflicts with your efforts there, ignore it as best you can, and refocus your attention on re-establishing a harmonious and supportive relationship with reality. You cannot get anywhere in this life if you do otherwise. Some people have the belief that this reality is something of a proving ground between heaven (bliss) and hell (torture). They're mistaken. When those people experience physical death, if their consciousness continues, they'll only continue recreating more of the same flavor of experience they had here. They won't suddenly ascend or descend just because they drop the connection to this particular physical plane. When you disconnect your computer from the Internet, it doesn't suddenly upgrade or downgrade itself. If you want to upgrade your life experience, you must be the upgrader. How to Take Control of Reality This reality is actually as good as it gets. You're already in heaven now, if you believe such a thing exists. There is nothing better. Whatever you think you can create in heaven, you can create and experience here. This doesn't require magical powers or magical thinking. It does require taking full responsibility for how you relate to this reality. Since that relationship exists entirely within your mind, it's under your control… but only to the extent that you believe it is. If you think that's a Catch 22, you're also right, since that's just another belief. The benefit of a Catch 22, however, is that you can choose to be on the side that cheats, so no matter what happens, you win. I maintain the belief that reality is 100% on my side. This is not based on evidence. It is based on choice. The evidence comes after the choice, not the other way around. I even believe that reality conspires to go out of its way to help me, and I see evidence of this constantly (again, only after I chose this belief). And so this is what my experience of reality becomes. It's full of pleasant surprises. Today, for instance, I received an extra $900 out of the blue that I didn't even know was coming. Reality loves to bring me gifts like this — financially, socially, experientially, etc. And because I maintain this belief, people frequently help and support me on my path. No one is going to do that for someone who thinks this reality is somehow lacking or damaged — that belief will only get you drained, beaten down, and abused. If you seem to have a love-hate relationship with reality, then who's the abuser? It can only be you. If you wish to continue suffering, then by all means, do so. I won't stop you, especially when you do it in an entertaining way. What if the whole time you've been here, reality was conspiring to bring you the most heavenly experiences imaginable, and all this time it's been waiting for you to get with the program? Reality was functioning perfectly — within established parameters. But perhaps you've been slacking off in the imagination department. Have you been dwelling on what you'd love to experience and summoning it, or have you been muddling your mind with thoughts of perpetuating more of what you don't want? If you love what you're experiencing right now, you can just keep observing that, and it will self-perpetuate; if that's you, you're already golden. But you can't afford to let your mind dwell on your observations and their extended predictions if you've already established the pattern of creating experiences you don't desire to continue. If you want to break the pattern of what you're already experiencing, you need to shift your energy from observation and prediction to unfettered imagination and creation. Essentially that's a time management challenge — spend less time observing and more time imagining. Have you thought about what heaven might actually be like? It's surely not all harps and angels and clouds like you might see depicted in a movie. That might be fun for a few hours, but then you'd be bored for eternity. This Is Heaven Here's how I define heaven for me. Heaven is a state of existence that let's me experience the following: Beam - Enjoy my life immensely; feel deep appreciation and gratitude for this experience; laugh and smile Harmonize - Maintain a deeply positive, loving, and supportive relationship with my reality Shine - Develop my skills, talents, and habits to genius level; shamelessly express and share my creativity and brilliance Explore - Search, study, travel, learn, and discover, guided by my curiosity, desires, and intuition Open - Open my heart; actively invite and experience delicious connections that I desire Grow - Become more capable and free; release and shed fears and limitations Prosper - Create and enjoy tremendous prosperity and abundance No need to wait for an afterlife. This is achievable here and now.

Inspirational message to build child.s career.

This is a powerful message in our modern society. We seemed to have lost our bearing & our sense of direction. One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision. The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score. The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "none". The director asked, " Was it your father who paid for your school fees?" The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees. The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" The youth answered, "My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect. The director asked, " Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me. The director said, "I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.* The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid. The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water. This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future. After finishing the cleaning of his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother. That night, mother and son talked for a very long time. Next morning, the youth went to the director's office. The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, asked: " Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?" The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes' The Director asked, " please tell me your feelings." The youth said, Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship. The director said, " This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired. Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously. A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. When he starts work, he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the sufferings of his employees and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement. He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead?* You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

It takes money to make money, Biggest lie

"Go to the effort. Invest the time. Write the letter. Make the apology. Take the trip. Purchase the gift. Do it. The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret." - Max Lucado The Biggest Lie: "It Takes Money to Make Money" By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud "Congrats Steve, you just made $100,000 today," a lawyer said to me this week. I just bought a property, cheap. The lawyer thinks I could sell it for a six-figure profit right away. A friend of mine heard about this deal and said, "Well... it takes money to make money." I was surprised he said that, actually. To me, this little phrase is one of the biggest and most dangerous lies out there. It is a convenient excuse to simply not try to succeed. It's like the old joke: "Lord, I've worked hard all my life, why couldn't you have just let me win the lottery?" The Lord replied, "Why didn't you just buy a ticket?" You've got to try. And it doesn't "take money to make money." In my last real estate deal, one of my business partners put up no money at all. Instead, he's putting in "sweat equity." He's doing most of the work on this project, adding value to our investment. I'm certain he will come out with a six-figure profit when we sell. He could even make a couple hundred thousand dollars! Remember, he put zero money in. So in his case, it didn't "take money to make money." His situation is not unique in real estate. A common deal goes like this: A young guy comes up with an idea to make money. He finds a property he can buy for $100,000, put $20,000 into, and sell for $150,000. The problem is, he has no money. So he finds an old guy with money, and they agree to split the profits 50/50. If the deal goes according to plan, they both walk away with a $15,000 profit. He had the only two things you need: 1) an idea, and 2) the willingness to roll up his sleeves and make it happen. He did everything from finding the old guy and convincing him to invest, all the way through to selling the property. In both examples, the young guy didn't even have any risk in the deal. Real estate deals are an easy example. But it doesn't "take money to make money" in other areas, either. A young friend of mine came up with a simple idea. He launched a website that focuses on - get this - forklifts! It's like a Hotels.com, only for heavy-duty equipment. If you need to buy or rent heavy equipment, you can locate them through his website, and find the pieces you need that are closest to you and at the best prices. It's not the sexiest-sounding business, but it's a great idea. It cost him next to nothing to set up his website and call equipment owners to get them on board. Now he earns a commission from every sale or rental. Life is good. He doesn't work for "the man" anymore and hasn't for years, and he's making more money than ever. It doesn't take money to make money. You just need two things: A great idea. To roll up your sleeves and make it happen. You can't underestimate either of those things. The amount of effort and commitment required will be extraordinary. But that's the way it goes. You're trying to break out of the ordinary. So an ordinary effort won't cut it. You will need to sustain an extraordinary effort. This is hard. But it's how you make money. It is much easier to give up. It is much easier to say, "It takes money to make money" and never try. It is much easier to complain that you'll never win the lottery, without buying a ticket. (You know what I mean.) Don't ever catch yourself saying it takes money to make money. It doesn't. It takes a great idea, and the willingness to make it happen. Now get to it! You can do it...

SURRENDER

"Surrender to life itself and you'll just be rewarded with so many things. And I've been rewarded so many times, in so many mysterious ways. So I have no reason to be disappointed with anything." - Jason Mraz, singer-songwriter. "The word "surrender" is often interpreted as giving up, as weakness, as admitting defeat. Although this is one way to use the word, we will use it in a different way. Surrendering means letting go of your resistance to the total openness of who you are. It means giving up the tension of the little vortex you believe yourself to be and realizing the deep power of the ocean you truly are. It means to open with no boundaries, emotional or physical, so you ease wide beyond any limiting sense of self you might have." - David Deida, best-selling author. "Surrendering completely to love, be it human or divine, means giving up everything, including our own well-being or our ability to make decisions. It means loving in the deepest sense of the word. The truth is that we don't want to be saved in the way God has chosen; we want to keep absolute control over our every step, to be fully conscious of our decisions, to be capable of choosing the object of our devotion." - Paulo Coelho, best-selling author.

BIG LIE

BIG LIE #1 -- It is the government's responsibility to CREATE jobs. This is like saying a job is a RIGHT rather than a RESPONSIBILITY. They're going to pay you to exist. Which means all of us (as taxpayers) are under obligation to pay for things we don't want or need. What happens if you believe this big lie even a little? It robs you of your DRIVE and INITIATIVE. The poisonous pretzel logic goes like this: "If the government can't make me a job, who am I to make one?" You feel small, weak, and in need of being taken care of, EXACTLY how the politicians and power brokers want you to feel. THE TRUTH: Nobody is responsible for anyone else's job. Productive work is about finding unfulfilled desires and filling them. And the world is positively OVERFLOWING with unfulfilled desires waiting to be filled. BIG LIE #2 -- A good job leads to financial security. Your whole life you've been PROGRAMMED to accept the notion that if you go to school, study hard, and follow the path laid out for you by the establishment you'll be handsomely rewarded. Yet if you're like most people you've already been declared REDUNDANT several times during your working life. The reality is you were trained for a world that no longer exists. Rapid advancements in computing power and telecommunications have utterly disrupted the conventional pattern of commerce. ... First it was AUTOMATION and OUTSOURCING. (Your function was performed more cheaply by a machine, or by sending it offshore where the standard of living was lower.) ... And now it's the OUTRIGHT DISINTEGRATION of the old economic order. (Work that used to be done under one corporate roof is now a complex global collaboration between dozens of smaller unrelated companies and independent entrepreneurs.) THE TRUTH: The very concept of "job security" is an OXYMORON. Unless you BECOME one of those collaborating companies or independent entrepreneurs I just described, your financial condition will continue to deteriorate. BIG LIE #3 -- You need formal accreditation to succeed in the world today. Let's look at the origin of this wealth crippling fallacy... In the beginning, knowledge was transferred orally from one person to another. As knowledge deepened, craft guilds were established to ensure important skills were passed down efficiently from one generation to the next. Those in the upper echelons of the guilds held enormous sway and influence over the rabble. They controlled who would and who would not gain access to the sacred halls of power. And this continued for thousands of years until a disruptive new technology came on the scene -- Gutenberg's printing press. Publishing flourished and it became more difficult for the elite to maintain absolute control of the arcane knowledge that elevated their social status. And so guilds gradually morphed and merged into a more efficient means of COMMAND and CONTROL -- modern government. The transfer of knowledge became institutionalized in colleges and universities. And ever more elaborate rights, rituals and accreditations evolved in order to sanctify the elite's authority as the only legitimate source of learning. The clever ruse continues to this day. Of course today, a new disruptive technology has emerged -- the Internet. And with it, the barriers to information have come crashing down. The establishment's stranglehold on the dispensation of knowledge and expertise is effectively OVER. Now anyone can teach independently. And anyone can learn, apply and profit from any knowledge they please. There is simply no need for intermediary bodies in most areas of commerce. Knowledge flows from peer-to-peer and can be immediately TESTED and VALIDATED in the real world. And this new method of knowledge transfer is in fact infinitely superior to the outdated, outmoded method of institutionalized training and accreditation. It liberates and empowers, inspiring SELF-RELIANCE and INDEPENDENT RESOURCEFULNESS. The old way pigeonholes the learner, encouraging DEPENDENCE and CONFORMITY. It lags reality. It churns out bewildered people ill suited to thrive in the new economy. THE TRUTH: Education is all around you, and school is NEVER OUT. Endless ADAPTATION and INNOVATION are the new currencies. They now circulate directly from person to person. And you must learn to become both consumer and producer. BIG LIE #4 -- It takes money to make money. Adaptation and innovation are the new engines of wealth. Knowledge transfer is the fuel that drives them. And knowledge can be transferred instantaneously at practically ZERO COST over the Internet. You are reading my words. I paid nothing to get them to you. Yet I will earn handsomely from writing them. Anyone can do the same. Your existing skills, knowledge and expertise can be sold, monetized and leveraged independently on the open market. They can be transferred or applied anywhere in the world they are needed... from anywhere in the world you happen to be. And the demand is INSATIABLE ... The Internet has basically annihilated the transactional friction that gave rise to big business. Collaboration is now easier, less costly and more efficient than incorporation. The result is an EXPLOSION OF OPPORTUNITY for independent consultants, coaches and freelancers. Such entrepreneurs transact with almost zero overhead or expense. They collaborate with one another informally... assembling and disassembling shared resources at lightning speed... ...They easily run rings around traditional capital-and-employee-dependent corporations in many areas of the economy. Some even coach, consult and freelance within those same old guard corporations as they dis-integrate and downsize. THE TRUTH: All of the resources you need to grow a thriving knowledge-based business are now within reach. They are out there sitting idle, underexploited, or underappreciated. You can put them to work for little to no upfront investment in today's frictionless economy. BIG LIE #5 -- We're in a recession STUPID. You have no right to expect more when everybody else is suffering. THE TRUTH: The only people who are suffering from the big bad bogeyman of recession in this day and age are people who are still asleep... brainwashed by the inane babbling of media talking heads. Sadly, that's most people. * Those who think it's up to the government to create jobs... * Those who think a good job leads to financial security ... * Those who think you need formal accreditation to succeed in the world today ... * And those who think it takes money to make money ... The rest of us are thriving. In fact, there's a movement afoot -- The Independence Movement. ... A movement of FREE THINKERS, who see through the self-serving lies of power hungry politicians who will say and do ANYTHING to perpetuate an outmoded economic mainstream that's cracking at the seams ... ... A movement of COURAGEOUS CHAMPIONS, willing to seize the unprecedented opportunities available to them in the emerging new economy... where anybody with a little GUTS, DETERMINATION and DISCERNMENT can claim their financial independence. And I invite YOU to join.

OVERCOME ANY OBSTACLE..

Overcome Any Obstacle By Rich Schefren What if I told you that whatever is holding you back... whatever barriers are preventing you from increasing your income... whatever obstacles are keeping you from achieving financial success... can be overcome simply by thinking differently? Now I know that this might not be what you are accustomed to hearing. But the fact is, you don't need rah-rah rhetoric, secret strategies, quick-fix solutions, or incredibly complicated tactics you'll never apply to get ahead. What you need to see is that both the causes of and cures for your problems are found inside your mind. Over the years, I've shared the following techniques with my private clients. And I've received mind-blowing reports of the business success they have stimulated. You, too, can use them to bust through the obstacles that are preventing you from achieving the success you want. They are incredibly easy to incorporate into your daily routine. But their simplicity has nothing to do with their power. In fact, you may be surprised at how drastically these simple tools will impact your success. Get ready to see the world and yourself differently. Pay close attention. And be prepared for the payoff. Barrier Buster #1: Grade Your Performance When you think about the big, important areas of your life - your business, your family, your health, etc. - you may find that you aren't as successful as you want to be. Perhaps there is an area of your life where you have gone off track. An area that is currently on the failure curve. An area where you just can't seem to make progress. You can turn this area of your life around completely and achieve incredible results... by simply remaining conscious of your behaviors. This technique has been proven to work in many different ways. For example, tons of research shows that simply writing down everything you eat (as you're eating) can help you eat less and eat healthier. And one of the easiest ways to remain on the success curve is to issue yourself a performance grade, every day, for an important area of your life where you've headed in the wrong direction. The best way to do this is to take a moment each night, right before you hit the sack, to give yourself a score from 1 to 10 on your performance that day in that area. If your grade is lower than you'd like, write out what you'll do the next day to make certain you'll give yourself a better score. It really is as simple as that. Barrier Buster #2: Identify Your Most Expensive Words The costliest words you'll ever utter are the excuses you use to rationalize not doing the things that must be done. You might not be aware of them right now, because they may seem to be accurate and rational in the moment. But upon reflection, you'll see them for what they really are: Excuses that allow you to stay inside your comfort zone. Overcoming this success obstacle is easy. Simply keep a log of the excuses you use for not doing the things you know you ought to. Over time, you'll probably notice that there are a few excuses that you repeatedly use. You will also realize that these words are keeping you from turning your dreams into reality. And once you see them for what they truly are, they'll lose their power to impede your success. Common excuses include things like these... I'm too tired to work on this right now. I'll do it tomorrow when I feel better... Before I can start I need... It's too important to get this right. I need to talk to ___ before I go further... I've done enough already today... And so on... Once you've identified your excuses, be skeptical of their truthfulness when they surface. Instead of letting them stop you, turn them into reasons to take immediate action to achieve the success you desire. Barrier Buster #3: Use Micro-Goals to Create Instant Accountability How many times have you planned out your day... and by day's end hadn't been anywhere near what you should have or could have gotten done? This used to happen to me all the time. I'd write out some ambitious goal for the day in my journal. And then in the evening, I'd write how disappointed I was with myself for not staying on track - not doing what I'd promised myself. It was usually because, at some point during the day, I'd develop goal amnesia. I'd get swept up in something else... and totally neglect what was truly my most important task. This never happens to me anymore. And the method I used to get over it is so easy I know it'll help you if you're struggling with this problem. I realized that the time between writing out my ambitious goal in the morning and beating myself up in the evening was too long. If I simply compressed that time - and therefore the goal - I figured I wouldn't run the risk of allowing myself to get off track. So what I did was start writing one-paragraph entries into my journal every hour or two. I'd quickly recap what I'd accomplished since the last entry and what I was planning on completing before the next entry. Let's say you have to write a big report. To force yourself to stay on track, you might log journal entries at 6:00 a.m., 6:45 a.m., 8:55 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:05 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:45 p.m., 3:40 p.m., 5:45 p.m., 7:40 p.m., and 9:45 p.m. In each entry, you would write about the section of the report you have just completed, including the number of words you've written. Then you would write about the section you'll work on next, including the number of words you will complete. By simply working these three techniques into your daily routine, you will find that fewer obstacles stand in your path. I use all of them regularly, and I can almost guarantee that they will contribute significantly to your success. By the way, practicing these techniques has an interesting side effect... Once you get into the habit, you'll invent your own barrier-busting methods that will serve you even better than mine.

STRESSED OUT OF WOMAN

If you’re reading this email, then you’ve taken a time out from the stressors of your life…if only for just a moment or two. Good for you! I know how difficult it can be to take even a small breather when you’ve got so many people depending on you and so many responsibilities pulling you in a million different directions. The pressure to get everything done can be overwhelming. But taking time out for you—just you—is actually good for everyone in your family. Heck, it’s good for everyone you come in contact with. I know what you’re thinking. If you take a break, your whole world is going to fall down all around you. Who’s going to help the kids with their homework or put away the laundry? You’re probably imagining your to-do list growing into a mountain that you’ll never be able to climb back on top of after your so-called break. Am I right? But I have a secret to share with you—one that’s going to transform the way you look at “me time” from now on and one that has the potential of changing your life for the better. Once you really grasp the implications of this bit of wisdom, you’re going to be empowered to take back control over your life. You’ll finally be able to enjoy some balance in your life and start really enjoying yourself instead of feeling completely stressed and anxious all the time. You see, right now, you’re stuck in this vicious cycle of trying to please everyone, running out of energy, and then beating yourself up for not getting enough done or not making everyone in your life happy. How do I know that? Because I’ve been there—many times. It’s a crappy feeling, I know. You start to feel like everything in life is a chore, and a really, really hard one at that. It can be really defeating. I’ve got good news for you, though. You can stop that vicious cycle, and it’s not a chore. In fact, it’s a joy! It’s so simple and sounds too good to be true, but it really works. Ready to hear the one simple, too-good-to-be-true secret that is going to change the way you look at me time forever? Here it is: It’s not only ok, but it’s necessary for you to take time just for you. Yes—you read that right. It’s time to write yourself a prescription for alone time—every day. Yes, every single day of your life, you not only deserve, but you absolutely— without a doubt –need time just for you. So now that you know the big secret, here are the three easy steps to making this technique work in your own life. It’s so easy, you won’t believe that it actually works until you try it yourself. That’s ok. Roll the dice anyway, and see what happens. Here goes: 1. Give yourself permission to take time for yourself. Let go of any negative self-talk telling you that either a) you don’t deserve it or b) you don’t have time for it. 2. Take at least 30 minutes during the day to do something just for you. It doesn’t have to be meditation, especially if your attempts at meditation seem to only make you more anxious. The only rule is that you have to be completely alone so that you’re not unintentionally attempting to please anyone around you. 3. Repeat every single day. Do it religiously, no matter what! This is as important as eating and sleeping. Make it non-negotiable!

ANCIENT PRACTICES

Our ancestors did not have the facility of computer, internet browsing, TV and even electricity.... Yet they learnt ever so many useful and meaningful things which they taught us silently in their own modest fashion. If we fail to understand them, we are only the losers. We laugh at their acts and words, branding them fools and illiterates....If you go through the following select items, the scientific knowledge they knew could be understood and appreciated 1. Throwing Currency Coins into a River: You would have noticed some people throwing coins into rivers when traveling over river bridges. It is because people believe, it brings Good Luck to us. It is also believed that it will bring back Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi to our households. In the ancient times, most of the currency used was made of copper unlike the stainless steel coins of today. Copper is a vital metal very useful to the human body. The intake of copper with water is very good for health. Throwing coins in the river was one way our fore-fathers ensured we intake sufficient copper as part of the water. Rivers were the only source of drinking water. Making it a custom by saying it will bring good fortune to us has ensured that all of us follow the good practice 2. Joining both palms together to greet others: Greeting others by joining the palms together is termed as VANAKKAM" as per Tamil traditions. This is the most common way of greeting others Joining both hands ensures joining the tips of all the fingers together; which are denoted to the pressure points of eyes, ears, and mind. Pressing them together is said to activate the pressure points. This helps us to remember the person for a long time. The joining of hands at the level of the heart symbolically signifies the greeting from the heart/soul. Both hands join together at the palms straight across the chest signifies a salute from the soul, or a welcome from the heart. Some others say that it signifies, bow to the God in you or bow to you or my soul bows to your soul. But what is little known is that the five fingers represent the five elements“ this is best expressed in Mudras. Mudras are very common in various dance systems like Bharatha Natiyam, Kathakali and Kuchipudi. The significance of the five fingers is that Thumb stands for fire energy (which is why we have the thumbs up sign for success or victory?) Index finger stands for Air/Wind energy, Middle finger stands for space/Akash/Shunya“ the ring finger stands for Earth energy(another reason for putting the ring on this finger) and the little finger stands for water energy. The true meaning of VANAKKAM is the neutralization of all the energies by bringing both the hands together so that each finger of one hand touches the corresponding finger of the other hand, to denote that the person does not have any powerful positive/negative energies to affect the other person. Thus, it is a true gesture of friendship and welcome. Shaking hands often involve touching an other person. Even though it is a very friendly gesture, it can often transmit unfriendly germs. Sometimes, we might be uncomfortable shaking hands with a person who has a sweaty palm, or whose cleanliness we may not trust. But shaking hands in the corporate world is an accepted norm everywhere. Shaking hands is the most trusting gesture that we can see in day to day life, and is part and parcel of our everyday life. But is shaking hands the only way to greet? In an hospital, the attendant was telling everyone NOT to shake hands with patients , as it might transmit germs. This is especially true since we travel in buses, touch the doors, knobs, handles, purse, etc, and we do not know how much of germs we may carry. Whereas the Tamil way of greeting by doing VANAKKAM is so clean, and..cool! 3. Tying Mango and Neem Leaves to the doors on auspicious days: The general reason given for this act is that tying mango and neem leaves would not allow the evil powers to enter the house. [Note:On auspicious days and on special occasions, all of us gather at one place along with our relatives and friends. Photosynthesis is a process where in plants take in carbon-Di-oxide and give out oxygen. This process helps in circulation of oxygen and in turn keeps the room temperature at an optimum level. Mango leaves and neem leaves are very effective in the photosynthesis process comparative to other plants. Neem leaves purify the bacteria too. In order to keep the temperature cool and to circulate air, we tie mango leaves and neem leaves to all the doors.]

A TEAR ON MY PILLOW

A TEAR ON MY PILLOW When I lay and think, in my bed at night, the day you'll arrive, seems nowhere in sight. I toss and I turn, dreaming of you, opening my eye's... checking if my dream came true. It didn't, again, and a tear starts to roll, weeping quietly... my pillow I hold. Many sleepless nights I've prayed for you, my love.. God touched my soul from heaven above He's answered my prayers for my bride to be. I've never felt this lucky, God did this for me.. That's a question I asked each and every night. He must think your special, Joy, and I know he's right. No other has made me feel so complete, my whole life was lived, just so we could meet. All these thoughts and more going through my head. I fall asleep not worrying, but dreaming of you... instead

KEY OF HAPPINESS

The Key to Happiness When I was a kid, my mom would prepare special breakfast every now and then. And I remember one night in particular, after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite! When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: Honey, I love burned biscuits. Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone! You know, life is full of imperfect things.....and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults - and choosing to celebrate each other's differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. And that's my prayer for you today. That you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal-breaker! We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship! Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own. God Bless You..... Now, and always.... So Please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burnt one will do just fine!!!!

HAPPINESS

"Heaven gives you all the conditions you need for your evolution, but, as they do not usually present themselves in the form you were expecting, not only do you not see them, but you complain. You wait for God to grant you happiness in the form of success or glory, and when success and glory do not come you are unhappy. Well, this shows that you are neither intelligent nor perceptive. Study whatever happens to you, and ask yourself what the invisible world expects of you when it confronts you with difficulties and problems to solve. Reflect in future, and learn to see all those things you consider obstacles or failures differently. Then you will understand that there is always something to discover. Happiness is in a place where you are not yet able to see it. You would like it to be like your idea of it, wouldn’t you? Well, that is not possible. But do not be discouraged. You are not alone; there are many beings in the invisible world thinking of you and always teaching you and helping you."

THERE IS HEAVEN,LIFE AFTER DEATH

There is heaven, life after death - Dr. Eben Alexander, Neurosurgeon, Harvard University There IS A Heaven! Harvard Neurosurgeon Claims Proof Of The After-Life Filled With 'Puffy Pink Clouds' 35 129 Posted on Oct 10, 2012 @ 10:00AM print it send it By Debbie Emery - Radar Reporter Many people believe steadfastly in the existence of heaven but beyond deep-rooted faith it has never been scientifically proven – until now, according to a formerly skeptical neurosurgeon. While he doesn't claim to have met God or seen angels playing harps, he says there were butterflies and beautiful women! Dr. Eben Alexander was a successful academic teaching at Harvard UniversityMedical School when he was struck down with near fatal meningitis in 2008 that caused him to rethink his logical belief that heavenly out-of-body journeys all had solid scientific explanations. PHOTOS: Stars Who Look Like Other Stars "The brain is an astonishingly sophisticated but extremely delicate mechanism. Reduce the amount of oxygen it receives by the smallest amount and it will react," was his logical argument. However, after his disease plunged him into a coma at the Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia for a week while E. coli bacteria penetrated his cerebrospinal fluid and began eating his brain, Alexander "experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death," he toldNewsweek in an new in-depth interview. "For seven days I lay in a deep coma, my body unresponsive, my higher-order brain functions totally offline." revealed Alexander. "Then, on the morning of my seventh day in the hospital, as my doctors weighed whether to discontinue treatment, my eyes popped open." PHOTOS: Stars Who Died In Bizarre Ways As his body lay in a coma, "My brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension I’d never dreamed existed." Miraculously, the neurosurgeon who had been trained to hunt out logical answers said he discovered a "new world: a world where we are much more than our brains and bodies," and his account is very similar to countless people before him, although claims it has a unique quality to it. "As far as I know, no one before me has ever traveled to this dimension (a) while their cortex was completely shut down, and (b) while their body was under minute medical observation, as mine was for the full seven days of my coma," said Alexander. PHOTOS: Stars Without Make-up "My near-death experience, however, took place not while my cortex was malfunctioning, but while it was simply off," he explained. "There is absolutely no way that I could have experienced even a dim and limited consciousness during my time in the coma… much less the hyper-vivid and completely coherent odyssey I underwent." The scientist went on to describe a scene more akin to fantasy, with "big, puffy, pink-white clouds that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky. Higher than the clouds—immeasurably higher—flocks of transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamer-like lines behind them," he said. Rather than birds or angels, they were "advanced higher forms" that were "booming a glorious chant." PHOTOS: More Stars Without Makeup His experience got stranger still when a beautiful woman with high cheekbones, deep-blue eyes, and golden brown tresses came along for a ride on the wings of millions of butterflies, and the former cynic claims she gave him a speechless message, "You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever… you have nothing to fear." Alexander went on to pose questions to a silent wind that blew through and each time, "the answer came instantly in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty that blew through me like a crashing wave," until he came across a black orb that was a kind of “interpreter.” While he is well aware that many will assume he was delusional, the Harvard medic claims the event is as real to him as his marriage or the birth of his two sons, but is adamant that "the theory that the brain, and in particular the cortex, generates consciousness and that we live in a universe devoid of any kind of emotion, much less the unconditional love that I now know God and the universe have toward us," is drastically incorrect. PHOTOS: A-Listers Before They Were Stars "What happened to me destroyed it, and I intend to spend the rest of my life investigating the true nature of consciousness and making the fact that we are more, much more, than our physical brains as clear as I can, both to my fellow scientists and to people at large." Rather than dismissing all his scientific training, he is combining his spiritual and scientific views. "I’m still a doctor, and still a man of science every bit as much as I was before I had my experience. But on a deep level I’m very different from the person I was before, because I’ve caught a glimpse of this emerging picture of reality," said the self-described Christian-in-name-only. Dr. Eben Alexander has been a neurosurgeon for the past 25 years. His book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, will be published by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, October 23. http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/10/heaven-proof-harvard-neurosurgeon-after-life A prominent scientist who had previously dismissed the possibility of the afterlife says he has reconsidered his belief after experiencing an out of body experience which has convinced him that heaven exists. Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis. During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion "shut down" and that he then experienced "something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death." In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a "place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones" and "shimmering beings". He continues: "Birds? Angels? These words registered later, when I was writing down my recollections. But neither of these words do justice to the beings themselves, which were quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms." The doctor adds that a "huge and booming like a glorious chant, came down from above, and I wondered if the winged beings were producing it. the sound was palpable and almost material, like a rain that you can feel on your skin but doesn't get you wet." Dr Alexander says he had heard stories from patients who spoke of outer body experiences but had disregarded them as "wishful thinking" but has reconsidered his opinion following his own experience. He added: "I know full well how extraordinary, how frankly unbelievable, all this sounds. Had someone even a doctor told me a story like this in the old days, I would have been quite certain that they were under the spell of some delusion. "But what happened to me was, far from being delusional, as real or more real than any event in my life. That includes my wedding day and the birth of my two sons." He added: "I've spent decades as a neurosurgeon at some of the most prestigous medical institutions in our country. I know that many of my peers hold as I myself did to the theory that the brain, and in particular the cortex, generates consciousness and that we live in a universe devoid of any kind of emotion, much less the unconditional love that I now know God and the universe have toward us. "But that belief, that theory, now lies broken at our feet. What happened to me destroyed it." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9597345/Afterlife-exists-says-top-brain-surgeon.html Heaven Is Real: A Doctor’s Experience With the Afterlife When a neurosurgeon found himself in a coma, he experienced things he never thought possible—a journey to the afterlife. by Dr. Eben Alexander | October 8, 2012 1:00 AM EDT As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death. The brain is an astonishingly sophisticated but extremely delicate mechanism. Reduce the amount of oxygen it receives by the smallest amount and it will react. It was no big surprise that people who had undergone severe trauma would return from their experiences with strange stories. But that didn’t mean they had journeyed anywhere real. Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief. I didn’t begrudge those who wanted to believe that Jesus was more than simply a good man who had suffered at the hands of the world. I sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally. In fact, I envied such people the security that those beliefs no doubt provided. But as a scientist, I simply knew better than to believe them myself. In the fall of 2008, however, after seven days in a coma during which the human part of my brain, the neocortex, was inactivated, I experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death. I know how pronouncements like mine sound to skeptics, so I will tell my story with the logic and language of the scientist I am. Very early one morning four years ago, I awoke with an extremely intense headache. Within hours, my entire cortex—the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion and that in essence makes us human—had shut down. Doctors at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia, a hospital where I myself worked as a neurosurgeon, determined that I had somehow contracted a very rare bacterial meningitis that mostly attacks newborns. E. coli bacteria had penetrated my cerebrospinal fluid and were eating my brain. When I entered the emergency room that morning, my chances of survival in anything beyond a vegetative state were already low. They soon sank to near nonexistent. For seven days I lay in a deep coma, my body unresponsive, my higher-order brain functions totally offline. Alexander discusses his experience on the Science channel's 'Through the Wormhole.' Then, on the morning of my seventh day in the hospital, as my doctors weighed whether to discontinue treatment, my eyes popped open. Photos: Patients Draw Life-After-Death Experiences ‘You have nothing to fear.’ ‘There is nothing you can do wrong.’ The message flooded me with a vast and crazy sensation of relief. (Photo illustration by Newsweek; Source: Buena Vista Images-Getty Images) There is no scientific explanation for the fact that while my body lay in coma, my mind—my conscious, inner self—was alive and well. While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension I’d never dreamed existed and which the old, pre-coma me would have been more than happy to explain was a simple impossibility. But that dimension—in rough outline, the same one described by countless subjects of near-death experiences and other mystical states—is there. It exists, and what I saw and learned there has placed me quite literally in a new world: a world where we are much more than our brains and bodies, and where death is not the end of consciousness but rather a chapter in a vast, and incalculably positive, journey. On the iPad Read Newsweek’s 2007 story on how science is bringing more heart-attack victims back to life I’m not the first person to have discovered evidence that consciousness exists beyond the body. Brief, wonderful glimpses of this realm are as old as human history. But as far as I know, no one before me has ever traveled to this dimension (a) while their cortex was completely shut down, and (b) while their body was under minute medical observation, as mine was for the full seven days of my coma. All the chief arguments against near-death experiences suggest that these experiences are the results of minimal, transient, or partial malfunctioning of the cortex. My near-death experience, however, took place not while my cortex was malfunctioning, but while it was simply off. This is clear from the severity and duration of my meningitis, and from the global cortical involvement documented by CT scans and neurological examinations. According to current medical understanding of the brain and mind, there is absolutely no way that I could have experienced even a dim and limited consciousness during my time in the coma, much less the hyper-vivid and completely coherent odyssey I underwent. It took me months to come to terms with what happened to me. Not just the medical impossibility that I had been conscious during my coma, but—more importantly—the things that happened during that time. Toward the beginning of my adventure, I was in a place of clouds. Big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky. Reliving History: The search for the meaning of the afterlife is as old as humanity itself. Over the years Newsweek has run numerous covers about religion, God, and that search. As Dr. Alexander says, it’s unlikely we’ll know the answer in our lifetimes, but that doesn’t mean we won’t keep asking. Higher than the clouds—immeasurably higher—flocks of transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamerlike lines behind them. Birds? Angels? These words registered later, when I was writing down my recollections. But neither of these words do justice to the beings themselves, which were quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms. A sound, huge and booming like a glorious chant, came down from above, and I wondered if the winged beings were producing it. Again, thinking about it later, it occurred to me that the joy of these creatures, as they soared along, was such that they had to make this noise—that if the joy didn’t come out of them this way then they would simply not otherwise be able to contain it. The sound was palpable and almost material, like a rain that you can feel on your skin but doesn’t get you wet. Seeing and hearing were not separate in this place where I now was. I could hear the visual beauty of the silvery bodies of those scintillating beings above, and I could see the surging, joyful perfection of what they sang. It seemed that you could not look at or listen to anything in this world without becoming a part of it—without joining with it in some mysterious way. Again, from my present perspective, I would suggest that you couldn’t look at anything in that world at all, for the word “at” itself implies a separation that did not exist there. Everything was distinct, yet everything was also a part of everything else, like the rich and intermingled designs on a Persian carpet ... or a butterfly’s wing. It gets stranger still. For most of my journey, someone else was with me. A woman. She was young, and I remember what she looked like in complete detail. She had high cheekbones and deep-blue eyes. Golden brown tresses framed her lovely face. When first I saw her, we were riding along together on an intricately patterned surface, which after a moment I recognized as the wing of a butterfly. In fact, millions of butterflies were all around us—vast fluttering waves of them, dipping down into the woods and coming back up around us again. It was a river of life and color, moving through the air. The woman’s outfit was simple, like a peasant’s, but its colors—powder blue, indigo, and pastel orange-peach—had the same overwhelming, super-vivid aliveness that everything else had. She looked at me with a look that, if you saw it for five seconds, would make your whole life up to that point worth living, no matter what had happened in it so far. It was not a romantic look. It was not a look of friendship. It was a look that was somehow beyond all these, beyond all the different compartments of love we have down here on earth. It was something higher, holding all those other kinds of love within itself while at the same time being much bigger than all of them. Without using any words, she spoke to me. The message went through me like a wind, and I instantly understood that it was true. I knew so in the same way that I knew that the world around us was real—was not some fantasy, passing and insubstantial. The message had three parts, and if I had to translate them into earthly language, I’d say they ran something like this: “You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever.” “You have nothing to fear.” “There is nothing you can do wrong.” The message flooded me with a vast and crazy sensation of relief. It was like being handed the rules to a game I’d been playing all my life without ever fully understanding it. “We will show you many things here,” the woman said, again, without actually using these words but by driving their conceptual essence directly into me. “But eventually, you will go back.” To this, I had only one question. Back where? Photos: Patients Draw Life-After-Death Experiences The universe as I experienced it in my coma is ... the same one that both Einstein and Jesus were speaking of in their (very) different ways. (Ed Morris / Getty Images) A warm wind blew through, like the kind that spring up on the most perfect summer days, tossing the leaves of the trees and flowing past like heavenly water. A divine breeze. It changed everything, shifting the world around me into an even higher octave, a higher vibration. Although I still had little language function, at least as we think of it on earth, I began wordlessly putting questions to this wind, and to the divine being that I sensed at work behind or within it. Where is this place? Who am I? Why am I here? Each time I silently put one of these questions out, the answer came instantly in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty that blew through me like a crashing wave. What was important about these blasts was that they didn’t simply silence my questions by overwhelming them. They answered them, but in a way that bypassed language. Thoughts entered me directly. But it wasn’t thought like we experience on earth. It wasn’t vague, immaterial, or abstract. These thoughts were solid and immediate—hotter than fire and wetter than water—and as I received them I was able to instantly and effortlessly understand concepts that would have taken me years to fully grasp in my earthly life. I continued moving forward and found myself entering an immense void, completely dark, infinite in size, yet also infinitely comforting. Pitch-black as it was, it was also brimming over with light: a light that seemed to come from a brilliant orb that I now sensed near me. The orb was a kind of “interpreter” between me and this vast presence surrounding me. It was as if I were being born into a larger world, and the universe itself was like a giant cosmic womb, and the orb (which I sensed was somehow connected with, or even identical to, the woman on the butterfly wing) was guiding me through it. Later, when I was back, I found a quotation by the 17th-century Christian poet Henry Vaughan that came close to describing this magical place, this vast, inky-black core that was the home of the Divine itself. “There is, some say, in God a deep but dazzling darkness ...” That was it exactly: an inky darkness that was also full to brimming with light. I know full well how extraordinary, how frankly unbelievable, all this sounds. Had someone—even a doctor—told me a story like this in the old days, I would have been quite certain that they were under the spell of some delusion. But what happened to me was, far from being delusional, as real or more real than any event in my life. That includes my wedding day and the birth of my two sons. What happened to me demands explanation. Modern physics tells us that the universe is a unity—that it is undivided. Though we seem to live in a world of separation and difference, physics tells us that beneath the surface, every object and event in the universe is completely woven up with every other object and event. There is no true separation. Before my experience these ideas were abstractions. Today they are realities. Not only is the universe defined by unity, it is also—I now know—defined by love. The universe as I experienced it in my coma is—I have come to see with both shock and joy—the same one that both Einstein and Jesus were speaking of in their (very) different ways. I’ve spent decades as a neurosurgeon at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in our country. I know that many of my peers hold—as I myself did—to the theory that the brain, and in particular the cortex, generates consciousness and that we live in a universe devoid of any kind of emotion, much less the unconditional love that I now know God and the universe have toward us. But that belief, that theory, now lies broken at our feet. What happened to me destroyed it, and I intend to spend the rest of my life investigating the true nature of consciousness and making the fact that we are more, much more, than our physical brains as clear as I can, both to my fellow scientists and to people at large. I don’t expect this to be an easy task, for the reasons I described above. When the castle of an old scientific theory begins to show fault lines, no one wants to pay attention at first. The old castle simply took too much work to build in the first place, and if it falls, an entirely new one will have to be constructed in its place. I learned this firsthand after I was well enough to get back out into the world and talk to others—people, that is, other than my long-suffering wife, Holley, and our two sons—about what had happened to me. The looks of polite disbelief, especially among my medical friends, soon made me realize what a task I would have getting people to understand the enormity of what I had seen and experienced that week while my brain was down. One of the few places I didn’t have trouble getting my story across was a place I’d seen fairly little of before my experience: church. The first time I entered a church after my coma, I saw everything with fresh eyes. The colors of the stained-glass windows recalled the luminous beauty of the landscapes I’d seen in the world above. The deep bass notes of the organ reminded me of how thoughts and emotions in that world are like waves that move through you. And, most important, a painting of Jesus breaking bread with his disciples evoked the message that lay at the very heart of my journey: that we are loved and accepted unconditionally by a God even more grand and unfathomably glorious than the one I’d learned of as a child in Sunday school. Today many believe that the living spiritual truths of religion have lost their power, and that science, not faith, is the road to truth. Before my experience I strongly suspected that this was the case myself. But I now understand that such a view is far too simple. The plain fact is that the materialist picture of the body and brain as the producers, rather than the vehicles, of human consciousness is doomed. In its place a new view of mind and body will emerge, and in fact is emerging already. This view is scientific and spiritual in equal measure and will value what the greatest scientists of history themselves always valued above all: truth. Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, M.D. To be published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Copyright (c) 2012 by Eben Alexander III, M.D. This new picture of reality will take a long time to put together. It won’t be finished in my time, or even, I suspect, my sons’ either. In fact, reality is too vast, too complex, and too irreducibly mysterious for a full picture of it ever to be absolutely complete. But in essence, it will show the universe as evolving, multi-dimensional, and known down to its every last atom by a God who cares for us even more deeply and fiercely than any parent ever loved their child. I’m still a doctor, and still a man of science every bit as much as I was before I had my experience. But on a deep level I’m very different from the person I was before, because I’ve caught a glimpse of this emerging picture of reality. And you can believe me when I tell you that it will be worth every bit of the work it will take us, and those who come after us, to get it right. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/07/proof-of-heaven-a-doctor-s-experience-with-the-afterlife.print.html

COST OF M.P

Parliament Secretariat must be having email send it for circulation to all MPs An Important Issue! Indian government approves 200% MPs’ salary hike , Still some MP's are unhappy. Now , MP's take home salary is Rs 45 lakh per anum + other allowances. TOTAL expense for a MP [having no qualification] per year : Rs.60,95,000 For 534 MPs, the expense for 1 years: Rs. 325,47,30,000 3254730000 X 5 years = Rs.1627,36, 50000 ( One Thousand six hundred crores plus..) This is the present condition of our country: 1627 crores could make their lives livable!! Think of the great democracy we have… Do Mp's really need salary hike? Do they really wait for 30th of every month for salary credits to there bank accounts, like we do every month ???? FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL REAL CITIZENSOF INDIA !! ARE YOU? I know hitting the Deletebutton is easier...but....try to press the Fwd button & make people aware! PLS!!

A LETTER TO SON/DAUGHTER BY FATHER

This applies to daughters too. Use this in your teachings to your children. Following is a letter to his son from a renown Hong Kong TV broadcaster cum Child Psychologist. The words are actually applicable to all of us, young or old, children or parents. I am writing this to you because of 3 reasons 1. Life, fortune and mishaps are unpredictable, nobody knows how long he lives. Some words are better said early. 2. I am your father, and if I don't tell you these, no one else will. 3. What is written is my own personal bitter experiences that perhaps could save you a lot of unnecessary heartaches. Remember the following as you go through life 1. Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and I. To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful, don't hastily regard him as a real friend. 2. No one is indispensable, nothing in the world that you must possess. Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don't want you anymore, or when you lose what/who you love most. 3. Life is short. When you waste your life today, tomorrow you would find that life is leaving you. The earlier you treasure your life, the better you enjoy life. 4. Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one's mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness. Don't over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don't over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love. 5. A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags! 6. I do not expect you to financially support me when I am old, either would I financially support your whole life. My responsibility as a supporter ends when you are grown up. After that, you decide whether you want to travel in a public transport or in your limousine, whether rich or poor. 7. You honour your words, but don't expect others to be so. You can be good to people, but don't expect people to be good to you. If you don't understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles. 8. I have bought lotteries for umpteen years, but I never strike any prize. That shows if you want to be rich, you have to work hard! There is no free lunch! 9. No matter how much time I have with you, let's treasure the time we have together. We do not know if we would meet again in our next life.

MOTHER

MOTHER The officer at the Driving License counter asked the lady "What is your occupation?" The woman seeking renewal of her license seemed to be puzzled. So the officer said "Ma'am, are you employed, have your own business or........ The woman replied "Oh, yes!! I have a full time occupation. I am a mother" Officer: "We don't have 'mother' as an option for occupation. I will write it down as 'Housewife'. That takes care of all questions." This had happened long ago, and was forgotten. Years later when I went to get my license, the Public Relations Officer was a somewhat pompous. woman. "Your occupation?" she asked in a rather authoritative tone. I just had an inspiration and replied "I am a researcher in the field of Child Development, Nutrition and Inter-personal Relationships" The lady officer stared at me in amazement. I calmly repeated my statement and she wrote it down verbatim. Then, unable to conceal her curiosity, she politely asked "What exactly do you do in your profession, Ma'am?" I was feeling good about having described my occupation so calmly and confidently. So I replied "My research projects have been going on for a number of years (Mothers never retire!!). My research is conducted in the laboratory as well as in the field. I have two bosses. (One is God and the other is my entire family). I have received two honours in this field. (A son and a daughter) My topic is considered to be the most difficult part of sociology.(All moms will agree!!). I have to work more than 14 hours every day. Sometimes even 24 hours are not enough and the challenges are tougher than many other professions. My compensation is in terms of mental satisfaction rather than money" I could see that the officer was thoroughly impressed. After completing the licensing formalities, she came to the door to see me off. This new viewpoint about my occupation made me feel much better on my way back home. I was welcomed by my 5 year old research assistant at the door. My new project (my 6 month old baby) was energetically practicing her 'music'. I had earned a small victory over the Governmental red tape today. I was no longer 'merely a mother', instead I was now a highly placed functionary in a service vital for mankind -Motherhood!! 'Mother' - Isn't it a great title. Fit to be added to the nameplate on the door!! By this standard, grandmothers deserve to be called Senior Research Officers, and Great Grandmothers qualify as 'Research Directors'. Aunts and other ladies of that age group can be called 'Research Facilitators' Please share this with all mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, all ladies currently holding posts like didi-tai-chachi-mami-mausi-bua ...... They will all shower you with blessings and life will be happier. All husbands, fathers, please note. This is a must read for all !

Marriage Needs Routine, Not Passion For Being Successful..Shaadi-Saving Secret

Marriage Needs Routine, Not Passion For Being Successful..Shaadi-Saving Secret Turning every love guru’s advice to married couples on its head, writer and wife Elizabeth Weil tells why high passion means low stability MOST Americans, and married people anywhere in the world who’ve heard of Elizabeth Weil, and her recent experiment, think she’s bonkers. The San Franciscobased writer and husband Daniel Duane, married in 2000, volunteered for year-long couple therapy after nine years of marriage. The surprise? They didn’t need it. It was what Weil calls an effort to see if their good marriage could get better. In her just-released book, No Cheating, No Dying: I Had A Good Marriage, Then I Tried To Make It Better, the mother of two daughters wittily chronicles her private journey. “The idea of trying to improve our union came to me one night in bed. I’ve never really believed that you just marry one day at the altar. I believe that you become married, slowly, over time,” she says in an email interview. Weil convinced Duane to sign up for a pact that would test their micro-manias. “It was fascinating,” she says, “to watch the rapists tag you in a lab. I had distaste for French kissing. One therapist thought I was ‘subsumed’. You know, marriage is a teachable skill; you have to love each other completely to know what works in your marriage.” Soon, Weil realised she was treating her marriage as “one of those things”. “I had read all about it — how to be a good mother, how to have a good home. I wasn’t doing anything to my marriage. I wanted to ask questions. Trying to figure what was really missing became irresistible,” she says about her search. It’s a challenge, Weil feels, because modern marriages are under pressure. Couples are economic and romantic partners. They expect to face work stress, anxiety that kids gift them, and still be in love. Excerpts from an interview: Everyone who has heard about your book is asking, why would any halfway sane couple married for nine years opt for a yearlong training that could reveal ugly truths? Every couple is worried what a therapy session might bring up, because we’ve tried so hard to brush the unpleasant under the carpet. For me, my relationship with my husband had to be the core of my universe; I wanted to check if it was fine. People told me, ‘You’re crazy! How can you?’ Americans have this romantic notion about marriage — either you are in love or not. Your husband says he cooked his way back to a happy relationship. How does food help strengthen a marriage? Dan has always been interested in food. He’d cook in the early years of our marriage, then he started cooking for the kids; he made it his passion. The kitchen is a great place for a couple and family to bond. What is the one marital misdeed that could prove threatening? It’s a personal thing. For some, it could be infidelity. For me, it would be giving up. For instance, not paying attention to the other, not acknowledging that something’s wrong and then addressing it. Marriage is so complex, you can’t let it stagnate. A bad marriage is like ill health. Don’t wait to go to a doctor till you are very sick; you won’t make it. Imago therapy, you say, helped you focus on how your relationship with your parents had an impact on your marriage. How are parents and a spouse linked? The way we are raised as children, shapes us. If you’ve enjoyed a wonderful relationship with your parents, it’ll reflect in your dynamics with your spouse. The therapy looked at the baggage people carry from their origin. My close relationship with my parents was in fact, one of the few points of contention in our marriage. Pick one session you’d tag as the most bizarre? The Mastering the Mysteries of Love session demanded that we play the character of the spouse. I’ve spent years talking to him, listening to him. But this role play was bizarre. I ‘became’ him. The last stage of our training involved sex therapy. ‘Improving my marriage in one area often caused problems in another. More passion meant less stability,’ you say. Explain that? Passion can be explosive; it’s risky. Nobody can remain in a constant state of passion. Marriage requires calm, peace and routine. Stability and long-term passion in a marriage can’t co-exist. More passion means less stability. In India, urban marriages are falling apart. There are trust issues. How would you convince singles in favour of marriage? Marriage is amazing but you need to be committed. In a marriage, every day isn’t beautiful. It’s the being together for long where the beauty lies. Writer Elizabeth Weil and her husband signed up for a marriage improvement project to see if they could make their good marriage better Archana Puran Singh, actress and TV host, married to actor Parmeet Sethi for 20 years Every marriage undergoes compromise and failure. We belong to the old school, and so, we fought the cracks. My sister is my confidante, so is a close friend who is a psychologist. I consult her often. After six nights together, there’s no mystery. Sex will turn boring in a few years. But I enjoy routine. I don't want that butterfly excitement and passion. I want stability and sameness. It’s comforting.

LONGEVITY IN GEN.

Israeli researchers studied a population of Ashkenazi Jews who have lived to age 95 and older and found that their eating and lifestyle habits were no better than those of general population. In fact, men in the long lived group drank slightly more and exercised less than their average counterparts, said the findings in the online edition of Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. “This study suggests that centenarians may possess additional longevity genes that help to buffer them against the harmful effects of an unhealthy lifestyle,” said senior author Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The study involved 477 Ashkenazi Jews aged 95-122 who were living independently. A total of 75% were women. All were enrolled in an ongoing study that aims to uncover the secrets to longevity. Ashkenazi Jews were chosen because they are more “genetically uniform than other populations, making it easier to spot gene differences that are present,” said the study. Overall, the elder group had similar habits in terms of height-weight ratio, smoking, exercise level and diet as similarly matched people in the general population. Data on comparison subjects came from 3,164 people who had been born around the same time as the centenarians and were examined between 1971 and 1975 while participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Twenty-four percent of long-living men drank alcohol daily, compared to 22% of the general population, while 43% of the older group exercised regularly compared to 57% of regular men.

Wrap a rainbow of joy in your heart

Today... wrap a rainbow of joy in your heart, let the sun paint a smile on your face, remove all clouds of doubt & fear and receive God's Gift of LIFE. Have a blessed day with caress ~~* I can appreciate coffee without cream, pay without overtime, nights without lights, meals without rice, hugs without kiss, but never a day without greeting you.

YOU'RE IN MY HEART

There is a place for us that no one else can enter. It is a place that holds no secrets, only beauty, peace, understanding. A place that we come to, thinking we are one, only to have our souls fused together for a moment. And in that moment, I know you; every pore, every pulse, every thought, every fear. And I love you more. I feel myself laid bare before you, and I feel content . . . joyous that you are with me, loving me tremendously.

ART OF GIVING

"Rivers do not drink their own water, nor do tree eat their own fruit, nor do rain clouds eat the grains reared by them. The wealth of the noble is used solely for the benefit of others? Even after accepting that giving is good and that one must learn to give, several questions need to be answered. The first question is when should one give? We all know the famous incident from the Mahabharata. Yudhisthir, asks a beggar seeking alms to come the next day. On this, Bhim rejoices, that Yudhisthir his brother, has conquered death! For he is sure that he will be around tomorrow to give. Yudhisthir gets the message. One does not know really whether one will be there tomorrow to give! The time to give therefore is now. The next question is how much to give. One recalls the famous incident from history. Rana Pratap was reeling after defeat from the Moghals. He had lost his army, he had lost his wealth, and most important he had lost hope, his will to fight. At that time in his darkest hour, his erstwhile minister Bhamasha came seeking him and placed his entire fortune at the disposal of Rana Pratap. With this, Rana Pratap raised an army and lived to fight another day. The answer to this question how much to give is "Give as much as you can! The next question is what to give. It is not only money that can be given. It could be a flower or even a smile. It is not how much one gives but how one gives that really matters. When you give a smile to a stranger that may be the only good thing received by him in days and weeks! "You can give anything but you must give with your heart! One also needs answer to this question whom to give. Many times we avoid giving by finding fault with the person who is seeking. However, being judgmental and rejecting a person on the presumption that he may not be the most deserving is not justified. "Give without being judgmental! Next we have to answer How to give Coming to the manner of giving, one has to ensure that the receiver does not feel humiliated, nor does the giver feel proud by giving. In giving follow the advice, ' Let not your left hand know what your right hand gives? Charity without publicity and fanfare is the highest form of charity. 'Give quietly! While giving let not the recipient feel small or humiliated. After all what we give never really belonged to us. We come to this world with nothing and will go with nothing. The thing gifted was only with us for a temporary period. Why then take pride in giving away something which really did not belong to us? Give with grace and with a feeling of gratitude. When you help someone in need, give it before he asks for it; for if you place him under the necessity of stretching out his hand, you take away from him his self-respect which is worth more than the value of your alms. What should one feel after giving? We all know the story of Eklavya. When Dronacharya asked him for his right thumb as "Guru Dakshina", he unhesitatingly cut off the thumb and gave it to Dronacharya. There is a little known sequel to this story. Eklavya was asked whether he ever regretted the act of giving away his thumb. He replied, and the reply has to be believed to be true, as it was asked to him when he was dying. His reply was "Yes! I regretted this only once in my life. It was when Pandavas were coming in to kill Dronacharya who was broken hearted on the false news of death of his son Ashwathama and had stopped fighting. It was then that I regretted the loss of my thumb. If the thumb was there, no one could have dared hurt my Guru. The message to us is clear. Give and never regret giving! And the last question is How much should we provide for our heirs? Ask yourself 'are we taking away from them the gift of work'? - A source of happiness! The answer is given by Warren Buffett: "Leave your kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing! I would conclude by saying: let us learn the Art of Giving, and quoting Saint Kabir: "When the wealth in the house increases, when water fills a boat, Throw them out with both hands"

YOU ARE LIKE AN ART WORK

Your lips, your eyes, your soul Are like a work of art Your lips, your eyes, your soul Are like a work of art, The most creative thing of all Is your beautiful heart. If you were a painting, No colours could express The beauty deep inside you, A rainbow, nothing less. If you were a sculpture The clay could hardly make Your figure of an angel Without one mistake. If you were a euphony No choir could really sing All the beautiful music Your eyes could possibly bring. So here I am, an artist, With inspiration beyond belief But to capture such rare beauty, I'd have to be a thief.

IN THAT PRICELESS KISS OF FOREVER

In That Priceless Kiss of Forever! The first time I felt your lips I thought it was merely a dream I opened my eyes and to my surprise The most handsome eyes I've ever seen. I don't know why you love me But because of that I know dreams come true All I want is love and devotion Honesty and faithfulness from you. Since that very first day we kissed I just couldn't let it go I'd found a love to last forever And so much to experience and know. I couldn't believe what I was staring at You stole my heart away I love you with all my heart More and more each day. Whenever things get really rough And there's times I begin to miss I just close my eyes and begin to dream And remember our first kiss. I can't remember any kisses before you But it doesn't matter now I still can't believe it The feelings in that kiss I had found. It all just came in one day Two people who were perfect together And I found it all in one precious touch In that priceless kiss of forever.

WILL YOU DANCE WITH ME?

READ THIS VERY SLOWLY.... IT MAY SOUND PRETTY PROFOUND BUT IT DOES CARRY A VERY IMPORTANT IF NOT URGENT MESSAGE TO EVERYONE OF US WHEREVER YOU MAY BE. Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine. I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible. How often have your kids dropped in to talk to you, but have to sit in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television? Because we cram so much into our lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect! "We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get little Mike toilet-trained..... We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet ..... We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college ......We'll do the Tango again if the Wongs invite us to the Ball....... Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going to," "I plan on," and "Someday, when things are settled down a bit." My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy. Now... go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to do ...... not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you. Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sunset into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, did not notice his sorrow? When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift .... thrown away.....!! Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over. Show your friends how much you care. 'Life may not be the party we hoped for.. but while we are here we might as well dance'

I BELIEVE MYSELF

For many years of my life I wore my heart for all to see Making it much too easy For others to take advantage of me. I lived and I loved three times To the loftiest heights Always crashing to the ground When my loves took wings of flight. I put my whole being into love Never thinking of myself Whatever I truly needed Was put high upon a shelf. I thought another person Could make me whole Until I spent hours alone Looking deep within my soul. Life is different now I found the woman I used to be I know once again who I am inside In myself I now believe. I know what I have to offer I am kind .... I love .... I care No one will crush my spirit again For now I'm wiser and aware.

GREEN TEA : A MARVELOUS DRINK

Green Tea: the Marvelous Drink Currently, tea in the form of green or black tea, next to water, is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. According to Chinese legends, tea was discovered by the Emperor Shen Nong in about 2700 BC, when a gust of wind blew tea leaves into a kettle of boiling water. Teas contain polyphenols which act as antioxidants and exhibit numerous biochemical activities. Tea polyphenols consist mostly of catechins, the most powerful of which is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) which is found only in green tea. Since ancient times green tea has been considered a health-promoting beverage and currently researchers find more convincing proof of its healing qualities. Based on the growing range of studies that research health properties of green tea, I made this article about clear benefits you can get with regular drinking. 1 Longevity Green tea may protect against death from all causes, especially cardiovascular disease. Japanese scientists[1] analyzed data from a National Cohort Study that began in 1994 and had over 40,000 participants, age 40 to 79, who initially were free of stroke, heart disease and cancer. People were followed for up to 11 years. Compared with participants who consumed less than 1 cup of green tea per day, those drinking 5 or more cups a day had a significantly lower risk of death from all causes, especially lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and stroke. The findings might explain in part the reason why the Japanese live longer than people in any other country. However, there was no cancer prevention benefit of green tea. 2 Memory and learning One of the important health benefits of regular green tea drinking is improved memory and learning ability. In Japan there was revealed[2] that high green tea drinking maintains cognitive function. Also, green tea consumption may enhance learning and memory ability[3]. The main components of green tea that are thought to work on improving brain function are polyphenols, epigalochatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a very strong antioxidant. The high use of oxygen during the metabolic processes leads to the generation of a large number of free radicals (highly reactive molecules). EGCG can penetrate the brain's blood barrier and is able to enact its antioxidative affects on the free radicals that cause damage in the brain. 3 Weight control There is strong evidence that green tea has fat-burning properties and promotes weight loss, especially when combined with increased physical activity and a healthy diet. Green tea polyphenols are known to increase the metabolism of fats by the liver (thermogenic effect), inhibit lipase (fat absorption enzyme) in the digestive tract, and provide a feeling of satiety and fullness[4]. Green tea can reduce body weight in obese persons by increasing energy expenditure and fat oxidation[5]. Continuous ingestion of a green tea extract high in catechins promotes reduction in body fat, systolic blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol, that in its turn contributes to a decrease in obesity and cardiovascular disease risks. 4 Skin protection from Ultraviolet Green tea polyphenols protect the skin from the damage caused by ultraviolet radiation such as UV-induced sunburn, UV-induced immunosuppression and photoaging of the skin. They exert photoprotection by various cellular, molecular and biochemical mechanisms[6]. Also, green tea polyphenols protect the skin by improving the elastic tissues[7]. 5 Lowering cholesterol Green tea lowers total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels and improves the ratio of HDL to LDL cholesterol. People who drink green tea daily have lower cholesterol levels than those who do not drink it [8]. It is believed that one of the underlying mechanisms by which green tea lowers blood cholesterol levels is by reducing lipids absorption in the digestive tract and promoting their excretion from the body[9]. 6 Diabetes and blood glucose levels Green tea has been traditionally used to control blood sugar. Recent evidence also suggests it may help regulate the blood sugar and reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes. People who drink more than 6 cups per day are less likely to develop diabetes than those who drink less than 1 cup per week[10]. Green tea antidiabetic properties may be partly explained by its caffeine content. Japanese researchers[11] demonstrated that daily intake of green tea extract lowered the hemoglobin A1c level in people with borderline diabetes, that indicates the increased body's ability to utilize blood sugar. Hemoglobin A1c is a test that measures the amount of glycosylated hemoglobin molecules in red blood cells. These molecules attach to glucose and so people have more of them if they have more glucose in the blood. 7 Heart protection: Asian paradox Green tea may protect against heart disease. Green tea might explain the "Asian paradox" - when people living in Asian countries smoke cigarettes heavily, but have relatively low incidence of heart disease. The Japanese confirm[12] that the more green tea people drink, the less likely they are to have coronary artery disease. Underlying mechanisms for this include vasculoprotective, antioxidative, antithrombogenic, anti-inflammatory, and cholesterol-lowering properties of tea flavonoids. Green tea can promote cardioprotection and reduce heart muscle cells death after a heart attack (myocardial infarction)[13]. The primary catechin in tea, EGCG, prevents heart muscle damage by blocking the activation of inflammation-related compounds that promote the oxidative damage that kills heart cells in heart attack. EGCG also appears to speed up the recovery of heart cells. 8 Anti-hypertensive Green tea lowers blood pressure and helps prevent hypertension. Tea increases body's production of nitric oxide, which dilates arteries and thereby reduces blood pressure[14]. Among persons consuming tea regularly for at least one year, the risk of developing high blood pressure was 46% lower among those who drank 1/2 cup to 2 1/2 cups per day, and 65% less among those consuming more than 2 1/2 cups per day[15]. 9 Stroke Green tea shows promise in the prevention of stroke[1, 16]. Furthermore, the green tea polyphenols, particularly EGCG, have been shown to protect brain cells from destructive processes following stroke[17]. 10 Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases Green tea may reduce the risk of degenerative disorders of the central nervous system, such as cognitive decline, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Green tea catechin polyphenols produce several neuroprotective (i.e. lessening the damage to brain cells) activities like iron chelation, scavenging of radicals, activation of survival genes and cell signaling pathways, and inhibitory action on Abeta fibrils/oligomers formation[18, 20]. Japan scientists have discovered that people who consumed more than 2 cups of green tea a day had a 50% lower chance of having cognitive impairment, than those who drank fewer than 2 cups a day, or who consumed other tested beverages[19]. 11 Atherosclerosis Regular green tea drinking may be beneficial for the prevention of atherosclerosis, when the plaque builds up on the insides of the arteries [21]. Green tea has been shown to effectively lower the risk of atherosclerosis by lowering LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, lipid peroxides (free radicals that damage LDL cholesterol and other lipids) and fibrinogen (a protein in the blood involved in the formation of blood clots). Green tea is a powerful antioxidant and protects LDL cholesterol from oxidation[22]. Oxidized cholesterol gets sticky and tends to cling to the walls of he arteries, leading to the development of atherosclerosis. 12 Anticlotting effect Green tea also appears to prevent the formation of blood clots (thrombosis). Green tea catechins produce potent antithrombotic effect by inhibition of platelet aggregation (blood clot formation)[23]. 13 Increased exercise endurance Animal studies indicate that green tea increases exercise endurance. Green tea catechins increase metabolic capacity and utilization of fatty acid as a source of energy in muscles during exercise[24]. 14 Smoking Regular green tea drinking may protect smokers from oxidative damages and reduce cancer risk or other diseases caused by free radicals associated with smoking[25]. Green tea may prevent future cardiovascular disorders in chronic smokers[26]. 15 Bones Green tea may prevent osteoporosis and bone loss. Researchers at the University of Tokyo[27] have shown that green tea may increase bone mineral density. Australian researchers[28] report that bone mineral density is 2.8% greater in tea drinkers than non-drinkers. Over the 4 years period, tea drinkers lost an average of two times less of their total hip bone mineral density, than non-tea drinkers. 16 Tooth decay (dental caries) Green tea prevents tooth decay. It kills the bacteria that cause dental plaques and halitosis (bad breath) and increases the acid resistance of tooth enamel [29]. 17 Arthritis Green tea may help people with arthritis by reducing inflammation and slowing cartilage breakdown[30]. 18 Antimicrobal activity Green tea catechins have anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal activities[31]. These include some types of salmonella, influenza and herpes simplex. Its bacteria-destroying abilities can help prevent food poisoning. A component of green tea may be useful in treating severe sepsis, an abnormal immune system response to bacteria[32]. 19 Liver protection Green tea appears to support healthy liver and protect it from the damage by toxic substances such as alcohol. Men who drink more than 10 cups of green tea per day are less likely to develop disorders of the liver[33]. 20 Gastrointestinal tract In the gastrointestinal tract, green tea was found to activate intracellular antioxidants and reduce inflammation. Drinking more than 10 cups per day may prevent chronic atrophic gastritis[34]. Also, it may help reduce inflammation associated with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.