How small things can make a big difference to your day

It is the small things that matter, that can change the world. Here are 20 random small things that that can make the difference to your day:

1. Treat yourself with breakfast in bed. Make it yourself and then curl back into bed and enjoy it!

2. Cuddle someone in bed in the morning. The best is to cuddle someone you love but your pillow will do when you are alone. Sometimes it just feels good to hold someone or something in your arms.

3. Give a smile to a stranger; and you may get one back.

4. Watching children playing carefree and laughing is a reminder to be playful and joyful. Pass a park or a playground on the way home.

5. Watch out for a small gesture of kindness from someone who loves you. The cup of tea made by your husband — now that is love!

6. Blast your soul with soothing music, when you want it. 

7. Have a picnic unexpectedly. Nothing invigorates a day like the feeling of sunlight on your face.

8. Five minutes of deep breathing.

9. Give someone an uncomfortably long hug today!

10. A small victory. Can you change that light bulb on your own?

11. A small change to your routine to make your day feel exciting.

12. Create an opportunity to be creative. Start a journal or a scrapbook, or get creative on a routine task at work to make it more exciting.

13. The moment after the rain stops. Everything smells clean, fresh, and revitalized.

14. A deep stretch. The benefits of loosening your muscles exceed enhanced relaxation. 

15. A beautiful sunset or sunrise. Nothing is more inspirational that tuning into nature’s majesty.

16. Playing a game you loved as a child. Play hide-and-seek with a friend during teatime at work.

17. An extra half-hour of sleep. Hit the sack a little earlier one night and see how this changes your day.

18. A thoughtful question from a friend. When she asks, “What’s your favourite childhood memory?” she is trying to learn what makes you happy. How beautiful that she cares to know.

19. Fresh, organic food. Organic food has higher nutrient levels and lower pesticide residues—and it often tastes better than non-organic food.

Why Massage Therapy is Good for You!

With modern life getting more and more hectic and subsequently stressful, massage therapy is gaining popularity as one of the ways to counter this stress.

Massage therapy has a range of both physical and emotional benefits.

The physical benefits

Massage therapy reduces muscular tension, aches and pains.

Both blood and lymphatic circulation can be improved by massage therapy. Blood circulation brings fresh blood to our cells and tissues, feeding them with nutrients and oxygen, while lymphatic circulation removes impurities and excess carbon dioxide from bodily organs. In this way the body is strengthened and the immune system is given a boost.

Our muscle fibers become twisted and knotted as a result of daily use, especially for those people in office jobs that provide limited movement or scope for stretching. Massage therapy will stretch out these tight muscles, ensuring optimum muscular function and range of movement. In addition scar tissue and muscle knots that have built up over time in the muscle fibers can be broken down, reducing pain and tension and helping to prevent injury.

Massage therapy can address tension headaches and even eye tension and strain caused by tension in the muscles in the head and spending more and more time on computers.

Massage therapy also has a range of emotional and psychological benefits. Massage therapy improves a person’s sense of general well being and promotes relaxation as it relieves stress, tension and anxiety. This results in easing insomnia and depression. The end result is that it energizes and stimulates both body and mind.

Health Tip:The Joy of almonds 

Almonds have as much protein per ounce as red meat. Adding almonds into your diet has shown to help reduce the risk of heart attacks by as much as 50%. This result is due to the good-for-your-heart vitamin E found in almonds. Monounsaturated fats can decrease your bad LDL cholesterol levels and increase your good HDL cholesterol levels. Antioxidants help keep your arteries young.

How to Live Long

+ Have a positive attitude - smile!

+ Eat a healthy balanced diet - include at least five daily portions of fruit and vegetables

+ Drink lots of water - at least 1 - 1.5 litres per day

+ Exercise for at least 30 minutes per day, and make sure it is aerobic

+ Make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep per day

+ Maintain a healthy lifestyle

+ Ban stress - make sure you relax

+ Have more fun - bring out the child in you!

+ Don’t worry, be happy!

+ Hug somebody you love every day! 

+Love yourself and treat yourself with some flowers, or chocolates!

Prayers, Praise and Promises for Women by LaTania Michelle. $5.99 from Smashwords.com
Praise and Prayers based on the Promises of God are two of the most powerful weapons we have as women. But with the busy life styles facing many of us today it is often a challenge to fit time for prayer into our hectic schedules. The prayers in this book will help you to build a closer more intimate relationship with God and walk in greater levels of abundance, peace and prosperity

Take a break from stress and relax

Stress getting the upper hand? Say no, and take control. Here are some every day tips:

©      Water has been used as a stress reliever for centuries. Go for a swim, sit in a sauna or relax in a Jacuzzi. Twice a month, soak your body in a hot bath to which you've added a cup of sea salt and a cup of bicarbonate of soda. It will relax your muscles and make you drowsy, helping you have a good night's rest and ensuring you wake up feeling refreshed and energized.

©      Exercise releases endorphins (feel-good hormones) and also burns off excess energy, which would otherwise make you feel grumpy or irritable:

• If your body is feeling tired and stiff, lie on your back on a firm, flat surface with your feet slightly apart and your hands at your sides. Relax your arms and turn your palms upwards, with your fingers slightly bent. Lie in this position for 10 to 20 minutes while concentrating on your breathing. Before getting up, turn onto your left side and place your left arm underneath your head. Lie like this for at least two minutes before pushing yourself up with your right hand.

• Lie on your stomach with your legs slightly apart. Put your hands on top of each other, with the palms facing down and turn your head to the side so that your cheek is resting on top of your hands. Close your eyes and breathe rhythmically through your nose. This exercise is especially effective for calming you down after you've had a fight with someone.

• Sit with your feet shoulder-width apart. Rest your palms on your thighs. Close your eyes. Spend five minutes passively listening to sounds in the distance, until you feel relaxed. You can do this behind your desk or in a parked car. Try it after struggling through traffic on your way to an important meeting or after a disagreement with a colleague.

©      Lie on your back in bed. Close your eyes and place your hands in a comfortable position behind your head. Press your thumbs into your ears to shut out the external noise. You will hear a sound rushing through your head – that's completely normal. Listen to it for 10 to 15 minutes, then bring your arms down to your sides, relax and go to sleep.

©      It is a proven fact f that vitamin C helps us to relax and lessens our stress levels. You can bolster your levels of vitamin C naturally by eating lots of citrus, strawberries, broccoli, guavas, spanspek, green pepper and tomatoes.

©      Laugh your stress away. When you laugh, feel-good hormones are released that inhibit levels of the harmful stress hormone cortisol, and bolster your immunity.

©      Some types of music, especially baroque music, calm you down by slowing your brain waves. Try listening to music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi (especially The Four Seasons) or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when you're feeling stressed.

Source: Ideas

Tips to boost your self-image

Never let how others think, talk or what they do, It is only you who can define how you choose to love and accept who you are; ignore what other people think or talk about you. Be true to yourself and trust in your own beauty and uniqueness. Spend less time worrying about how another perceives you.

The expectation created by the Media on the beauty and sexiness of a woman is nothing more than a learned behaviour. Throw out all of those so called beauty magazines. Why continue to fall into the Media’s traps of their view on what beauty is.

 Food is not the enemy. The enemy is you allowing the perceptions of others on what healthy or not healthy food are, to dictate to you – you must decide for yourself what to eat and what not to eat.

A positive self-image is vital to our own reflection, as we will never be able to see ourselves through another person’s eyes, only our own.

 The first thing to do in the morning when you wake up is to have a nice stretch – you will feel immensely good. After a good stretch, say to yourself: “I am UNIQUE, I am SPECIAL, and I am STRONG!

Take a long look at yourself in the mirror, the first thing you will see is the imperfections. Do not worry, just keep looking and after a while those imperfections will slowly become a familiar beauty.

Go through your wardrobe and replace all of those way too tight pants and low rise jeans for a style that your body type looks best in.

Embrace your age. Remember it is aging that allows you to continue to grow and experience life.

Spend less time reading negative articles and more time reading positive information that will make you feel good about you.

Get rid of as much stress as you can. You will be surprised at how much better and how much easier it becomes when you remove one stressful thing a day!

Make time for forty winks during the day.  Resting your mind and body is essential in gaining strength to carry you throughout life’s daily challenges.

Make time for exercising.  Feel that adrenaline rush like it fresh water running down your body, draining all the stress.

Take a long bath; it will make you feel more renewed.

Take up meditation. Meditation is a whole new world and a very effective relaxation strategy. You will be able to cleanse the mind through learning relaxation techniques as well as the stress levels.

Make time for reading. Reading is where the mind can subconsciously be freed from the realities that stress us out.

Take a few minutes to pat yourself on your back for the good things that you accomplished today.

Work on balancing all of your emotions. Try to feel more positive than negative about the small stuff.

Be your best friend. You are responsible for your own happiness.

Smile and be you, a very unique you, a very special you.

If you can feel the sunshine and the rain on your face, the wind blow through your hair, you are alive! So live.

Remember that only through your failures can you find success.

When you compare yourself with another, you are in-fact abusing yourself by destructing your own self-worth and self-esteem!

To envy another is a symptom of low self-esteem and solely disrespects your own uniqueness. Envy no one but yourself.

You are what you think you are. How you are thinking right now will determine the outcome of the rest of your day, so think POSITIVE.

Be that beautiful, vibrant woman – you are special, you are truly WOMAN!

Manage your anger

Everyone must allow himself or herself to feel and be angry. Never suppress anger. Suppressed anger can lead to pathological expressions, or the anger can turn inward, causing sickness or depression. Learn to identify and express your feelings sooner rather than later.

Know yourself and what triggers anger in you. From there, set yourself boundaries and manage your anger within those boundaries. Know when to stop.

Work out deep wounds that may come from the past, and what other emotions are tied in, and why. We cannot change the past, but we can change how we feel about it.

With anger also comes forgiveness. We must learn to forgive. By doing so we will have extra energy that we can use more productively, like loving someone. Forgiveness does not mean you condone the behaviour that wounded you, it means let bygones be bygones. Make a list of people you are angry at. Decide on a positive course of action now.

Learn relaxation through meditation, prayer, or visualisation.

Change the way you think. You will be overly dramatic when angry. Allow yourself time to let your rational self-take over. Logic defeats anger.

Remember that everyone who is engaged in hate is hurting deeply; and as you give, you will receive.

Lastly, but not the least, learn to count to 10!

The joy of dancing

Dance has been described as a non verbal communication. It is a body language that expresses itself without having said anything. Belle dance, break dance, hip hop or ballroom dance whatever the form all are a way of expressing different emotions and at the same time a good source of entertainment. Dance is an excellent way of conveying your feelings as well as letting out all the emotions buried inside you. It is a good exercise for the body. It keeps your body flexible and fit. Dance is good both for the body and the brain. So why not dance when it is advantageous.

Couples should always indulge into some kind of dance as it is important for them. Dancing for couples is a first-class way to be together, enjoy each others company and at the same time a good technique for exercising. In this busy world couples hardly find time to enjoy each others company especially when it is no more new and fresh. As the time passes by and a relationship grows old the responsibilities grow and couples very comfortable in the company of each other. They let things go as they are, prefer the normal routine of going to work, returning home, eating and going off to sleep with little or no other activity. This kind of routine makes a relationship dreary and desolate since there is no excitement. Dancing is a good option to make a relationship enjoyable.

How to dance when you really don’t know it? Well not a big deal. You do not have to be a perfect dancer. Get some dance videos and practice those steps. Try following the easier steps and once you get them you won’t need the videos. This is because you get into the rhythm and your body becomes flexible and as such you are able to get your own dance steps. If you want to be a perfect dancer then you could join a dance school and become a perfect dancer. If you are not keen in becoming a perfect dancer you can still go for it to get excitement and entertainment in your life. You do not have to go to a dance club as you can create your own dance hall in your house. You do not need much space. Just shift some of the furniture in a corner and make sufficient space to dance. Dancing shoes are not required you can dance bare footed as it is your own house. Then put on some dance music and dance together. Dance in whichever form you feel like. If you feel romantic put on some light music and do the ball dance and if you loaded with to much of energy then go for some bubbly number and dance to the notes.

Dancing in such a manner makes your life thrilling and lively. You do not feel like one of those dull couples who feel that there is no charm left in their married life and are just dragging their life.