Blog
JavaScript must be enabled to view images.
Talking about love...
There aren't many concepts in human life as complex and multifaceted as that of love. Just saying the word brings about a sense of power and awe. Most of the time, love is instantly associated with romance - age-old stories of die-hard lovers battling the odds of life together solely for the sake of staying together. Each one knowing that they couldn't (or wouldn't anyway) even desire to continue to forge through the perils of living without the other keeps their bond solidly unified until the end.
Even death doesn't separate some romantic lovers from their feelings - the living left to fumble through a world that should be so familiar. When one half of the union passes on into the next realm, the "survivor" strives to relearn everything that they were encouraged to take for granted for so long. It's a sad, sad thing to be left lonely and alone - aging and forced to endure.
Of course, romantic love isn't the only form of love. It's not even necessarily the most powerful. Many other types of love exist. There is the love for your family (which coincidently is often just a misconception of personal responsibility brought about by a shared bloodline). There is the love of the good-natured spiritual leaders like Jesus Christ and the Buddha. Some people feel a natural love for the children of the world - their innocence being the only necessary prerequisite for the emotion's bestowal. Others love the animals of the planet with the same type of non-need for reciprocation. Whatever the classification, love is something that cannot be denied or revoked - at least not without a high degree of suffered neglect or malicious intention.
Some people choose to stop loving another or others because of their needs to develop themselves. They may feel that they have to give too much of their energy to their love relationships and therefore end them. And sometimes that is exactly what is best for all involved. Love is often mistaken for a fear of loneliness or abandonment. Some people fear being alone so much that they will profess love for another even in its total and known absence. This happens when the person proclaiming the false love has never learned the most beneficial and wonderful love classification of all: self love.
If you do not take the intentional and regular time out to develop self love, then you are bound to endure a screwed-up life until you (hopefully someday) do. For people of confidence, it is a well known fact that if you do not love yourself first and foremost - above all else or others - then you will never develop to your fullest potential. If you are not developed as an individual, what do you really have to offer another? You must treat yourself in loving ways all of the time!
That doesn't mean that you should act high-n-mighty or be arrogant; it means that it is only healthy to value yourself and express love to yourself. When you do so, you become a more holistically stable person. You grow as a human being of kindness and compassion. You demand respect for yourself and you offer it more freely to others. People who do not love themselves enough to develop to their fullest potential are stealing from those that they may enter into (romantic or otherwise) relationships with. They are stealing the full, solid love that could result with another if they were more fully developed within themselves. They make the other settle to be with a person that is less than what he or she could be.
Regardless of the type of love that you are after, begin with exploring all of the ways to love yourself first. That is what is important. That is what will last forever. Love yourself like you want somebody else to love you. It will make you blossom into a fully developed individual who is able and ready to love another in return!
That's what I think anyway - now go check out my website!
Water Rich Food Intake: Nutritious and Delicious Foods for Your Health
Incorporating water rich foods into your personal food intake program doesn’t have to mean eating tastelessly. To the contrary, gourmet food has now taken on a whole new meaning in delicious health. It is no secret that the American diet is lacking in quality nutrients. Obesity levels continue to climb to levels unforeseen. 100% preventable diseases take their toll on progressively more and more people every year. There has been a terrible shift from the household kitchen to the local fast food “restaurant” as the primary source of our dietary intake. It is time to break the habit!It’s time to take back our health.
Many people erroneously consider healthy food to be bland food. We have good news! Eating water-rich foods doesn’t have to mean sitting in front of a plate full of raw vegetables and munching away until your teeth hurt; there is a better way! Because of the epidemic of malnutrition and food intake patterns loaded with saturated fats, there has been an amazing demand for the development of dietary choices that are not only delectable, but packed full of high-quality nutrients, omega-3 fatty acids, essential amino acids and other life-enhancing elements.
You need to know what to cut out and what to make sure to include in your food intake regimen. You have to understand why “diets” fail. You need to embrace a shift in the way that you look at food. Let’s examine some of the foods that we need to avoid and some alternatives for them. When you think about each of the following foods, really consider how it feels to eat them. Think about how your body feels after you eat them. Here we go:
Ø Deep Fried Foods
o Consider this: fried foods are placed in a cooking dish filled with artery-clogging fats. Your meal-to-be bathes in these oils – soaking them in deeply. The probabilities for contracting heart disease and cancer are both highly accentuated by the ingestion of deep fried foods. The human body is not meant to have to constantly endeavor to detoxify and metabolize such outrageous amounts of fats. Steam, boil, broil, bake or grill your foods instead.
Ø Processed Foods
o Our marvelous human bodies are designed to benefit from the foods that nature provides us – not what a laboratory does. Processed foods contain very little to no actual nutritional matter. Chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, fillers and fats are what you eat when you eat processed foods. Besides starving the body of what it requires for health, you are loading it with more elements to detoxify. Just because we have livers and kidneys to purify ourselves doesn’t mean that we have to work them to death! Concentrate on consuming the limitless food choices that have no labels. Food that is good for you is just being itself!
Ø White Sugar, White Flour – Anything Bleached
o It has been known (and overlooked) for decades that bleached foods are not only emptied of nutrients, they are detrimental to our systems. They also lack flavor. They are void of nutrients and filled (again) with elements for your body to have to fight to assimilate. Consider raw sugar – sweet and wonderful. Opt for whole grain flour and breads. They are loaded with amino acids and other very necessary nutrients that our bodies have to have in order to function, heal, repair, grow and sustain our lives. Choose long grain, wild rice. There are endless, delicious varieties from all over the planet!
Your health is only for you to protect. As much as anyone may love you, they are helpless to ensure your health. Embrace a mental change in the way that you perceive food. Change the ways that you prepare your food. Get back into the kitchen of your home and stay away from the fast food restaurants. Ingest food sources that are water-rich (like fruits and vegetables). Avoid high-fat foods like bacon and lasagna. Teach yourself to modify your favorite dishes to be healthful instead of hurtful.
Healthy eating doesn’t just taste better; it is so much better for you. Begin to enjoy and elongate your life through healthy food intake choices today and remember what it is to feel vibrant!
Check out more nutritional masterpieces here at http://10-4life.com/diet.aspx
Meditation: Learn to Meditate Constantly
There is a huge misconception amongst Americans concerning meditation. It is basic and paramount. Most Americans perceive meditation as something that you engage in periodically – say once a day. The truth is that meditation is a constant activity; it is something that you never stop doing.
While it is certainly beneficial to find a quiet spot during a quiet time each day to sit down and devote your attention to your breathing, a mantra or some other type of meditative technique - you have to learn to do it at all times. In order for this to happen, you have to understand what meditation truly is.
In a nutshell, meditation is the control of your breathing, thoughts, speech and actions simultaneously at every given moment of your life. You do not meditate for 15 minutes and then cease to meditate. You do not engage in controlled, appropriate thinking for a small period of time and then allow your thoughts to run rampant again. While that is better than nothing, it is not good enough.
You have to learn to “check yourself”. Of course, you can’t do it all in one day. Meditation is a lifelong process. You start out slowly. Ask yourself: Am I behaving in the manner that I wish to? Am I representing myself appropriately? Do I display the actions, speech and thoughts that I would wish upon myself? Am I an example for my fellow human beings to follow?
One of the underlying philosophical foundations of wisdom is to realize that the answer to all of those questions is always: No. We will not be perfect. We will continue to make mistakes. We will continue to find ourselves in states that lack awareness. We will continue to let ourselves down time and time again. Meditation only combats these truths. Meditation is a vehicle that we can utilize in order to minimize our failures.
When we meditate, we give our attention primarily to our breath. We give our attention further to our thoughts, words and actions. The goal of meditation is to progressively check ourselves more and more throughout every given day. The goal of meditation is to become aware of how we are and what we’re doing at every given moment in time.
Go ahead, sit down and meditate for 15 minutes or so. There’s nothing wrong with it. When you rise from your meditation session, try to let it live on. Try to never let it end! Attempt to develop the habit of checking yourself in a nonstop fashion. As the days pass, you’ll find that your skills increase. Your mind will naturally want to incorporate these positive changes.
Embrace the power of constant meditation!