Source: Free Stock Photos Is your mind wandering? The Practice: Why? Moment to moment, the flows of thoughts and feelings, sensations and desires, and conscious and unconscious processes sculpt your nervous system like water gradually carving furrows and eventually gullies on a hillside. Your brain is continually changing its structure. The only question is: Is it for better or worse? In particular, because of what's called "experience-dependent neuroplasticity," whatever you hold in attention has a special power to change your brain. Attention is like a combination spotlight and vacuum cleaner: it illuminates what it rests upon and then sucks it into your brain - and your self. Therefore, controlling your attention - becoming more able to place it where you want it and keep it there, and more able to pull it away from what's bothersome or pointless (such as looping again and again through anxious preoccupations, mental grumbling, or self-criticism) - is the foundation of … [Read more...] about Is Your Mind Wandering?
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How To Reduce The Risk Of Lung Cancer
Home Health Disorders cure Disorders Cure oi-Praveen By Praveen Kumar | Updated: Wednesday, February 8, 2017, 9:08 [IST] Did you think that only smokers are at a risk of suffering lung cancer? Well, whether you smoke or not, you might be breathing in toxic fumes if you are living in a polluted city. And yes, smoking habit raises the risk at an alarming rate! And smokers raise the risk of passive smokers too! Also Read: Do Smokers Lungs Heal? Like any other cancer, even lung cancer can kill. And prevention is always far safer than cure. So, if you wish to know about lung cancer risk and how to prevent it, here are some points that might help you. Fact #1 One habit that can raise the risk of lung cancer by 250% is smoking. Yes, if you smoke, you are more at a risk compared to non smokers. Fact #2 Another risk factor is exposure to pollution. If you are living in an area where the smoke in the air is too high, your risk of lung cancer could increase. Also Read: Is … [Read more...] about How To Reduce The Risk Of Lung Cancer
15 Ways to Reclaim Romance, Love, and Intimate Pleasure
Source: Robert Indiana, Yale Digital Commons In an age of Internet love matches and instant sex hook-ups there may be some hope for romance. The magazine, “Humanities,” highlighted the work of Philip Kelley in October. He is compiling some 11,601 pieces of correspondence between Victorian poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, including their love letters. And the Journal of Popular Romance Studies is calling for papers this month for a special edition "Critical Love Studies" exploring love from romance to friendship. Today women are bombarded with advice from magazines on achieving “the big O” while men puzzle about love, obsess about size, or -- as do some young women -- take the "Tinder" way out for instant sex devoid of love and romance. During the days of courtly love, men wooed women and sang love songs to them. Women wrote adoring letters and pinned for men who were off fighting battles for the King. They … [Read more...] about 15 Ways to Reclaim Romance, Love, and Intimate Pleasure
Last Minute Holiday Toys that Break the Gender Box
Source: Karlyn Crowley Toy aisles divided into blue and pink are increasingly a relic. But as I watch kids in free play at houses, schools, playgrounds, the world seems forever gender divided. When I pick my daughter up from her after school program where kids get “free choice”--go outside on the playground or stay inside and make a craft--there’s not a boy in in the craft area and not a girl on the playground. At daycare, the morning begins with open play which really means girls doing art while boys stack towers. The everyday work of play remains gender segregated. With the holidays--however you celebrate--families and friends have an opportunity to help kids break out of limiting gender norms by choosing gifts that open worlds rather than reinforce patterns. Kids feel empowered when they’re whole. Kids not only learn skills playing across a gender “divide” but also make cross-gender friends which is essential to developing life skills and … [Read more...] about Last Minute Holiday Toys that Break the Gender Box
Train Your Brain for Gratitude: 3 Minutes a Day for 45 Days
Source: Copyright Rita Watson 2016 Last week I called a treasured friend for advice. She listened carefully then said, “You are not going to like what I have to say.” I reminded her that I was truly grateful for our long friendship and indeed I would be fine with it. Well, I wasn’t. She did not tell me what I wanted to hear. My Pollyanna disposition took a dive. I am a fixer. And my friend told me that I had to have patience. I dragged through the day and I couldn’t find my smile. The next day I took a long walk to the wharf and watched the sunset. There I thought of all the friends who had come to me wishing for a magic word to uplift their spirits. My usual suggestion is to count one’s blessings to outweigh sadness. Suddenly I began to question my own gratitude advice. Sometimes just a hug can be the ice breaker. But what happens when you just cannot muster up those loving … [Read more...] about Train Your Brain for Gratitude: 3 Minutes a Day for 45 Days