Did you know that just stretching for 5 minutes each day can protect your joints and muscles from injury.

Any exercise that stretches you will do.  Why not try Wake Up and Breathe!  which not only stretches your body but exercises your mind too as it’s a meditative exercise.

It’s easy to learn and anyone can do it.

click here now to learn more:

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Life isn’t the sweetest candy. Sometimes, when I feel like the world is just too heavy, I look around and find people who continued to live fascinating and wonderful lives. And then thoughts come popping into my mind like bubbles from nowhere – “How did their life become so adorably sweet? How come they still can manage to laugh and play around despite a busy stressful life?”  Then I pause and observe for awhile. I figured out that maybe, they start to work on a place called ‘self’.

So, how does one become genuinely happy? Step 1 is to love yourself.

My theology professor once said that “loving means accepting.”  To love oneself means to accept that you are not a perfect being, but behind the imperfections must lie a great ounce of courage to be able to discover ways on how to improve your repertoire to recover from our mistakes.

Genuine happiness also pertains to contentment. When you are contented with the job you have, the way you look, with your family, your friends, the place you live in, your car, and all the things you now have – truly, you know the answer to the question “how to be genuinely happy.”

When we discover a small start somewhere from within, that small start will eventually lead to something else, and to something else. But if you keep questioning life like it has never done you any good, you will never be able to find genuine happiness.

I believe that life is about finding out about right and wrong, trying and failing, wining and losing. These are things that happen as often as you inhale and exhale. Failure, in a person’s life has become as abundant and necessary as air. But this should not hinder us from becoming happy.

How to be genuinely happy in spite all these? I tell you- every time you exert effort to improve the quality of life and your being, whether it is cleaning up your room, helping a friend, taking care of your sick dog, failing and trying again, life gives you equivalent points for that.

Imagine life as a big score board like those which are used in sport. Every time you take a step forward, you make scoring points. Wouldn’t it be nice to look at that board at the end of each game and think to yourself “Whew! I got a point today. I’m glad I gave it a shot.”, instead of looking at it all blank and murmuring “Geez, I didn’t even hit a score today. I wish I had the guts to try out. We could have won!” and then walk away.

Genuine happiness isn’t about driving the hottest Formula 1 car, nor getting the employee of the year award, earning the highest pay, or beating the sales quota. Sometimes, the most sought after prizes in life don’t always go to the fastest, the strongest, the bravest or not even the best. So, how do you become genuinely happy?  Every one has his own definition of ‘happiness’.

Happiness for a writer may mean writing as much best selling books as possible. Happiness for a sportsman may mean getting the player of the year award. Happiness for a beggar may mean a lot of money. Happiness for a business man may mean success.

So, really now, how do we become genuinely happy? Simple. You don’t have to have the best things in this world. Its about doing and making the best out of every single thing. When you find yourself smiling at your own mistake and telling your self “Oh, I’ll do better next time” you carry with you a flame of strong will power to persevere that may spread out like a brush fire. You possess a willingness to stand up again and try – that will make you a genuinely happy person.

When you learn to accept yourself and your own faults. You pass step 1 in the project “how to become genuinely happy”.For as long as you know how to accept others, you will also be accepted. For as long as you love and know how to love, you will receive love ten fold back.

Again, throw me that same question “how to become genuinely happy?”. I’ll refer you to a friend of mine who strongly quoted- “Most of us know that laughter is the best medicine to life’s aches and pain. But most of us don’t know that the best kind of laughter is laughter over self. Because then you don’t just become happy- you become free.”

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Three common reactions to a stressful or irritating situation are bottling up emotions, getting defensive or lashing out. Neither of these reactions is healthy or a solution to managing anger issues. When an individual decides to bottle up their emotions of anger instead of seeking anger management help, there can be several negative consequences. Bottling up anger may be okay for the moment but the individual will soon discover the problem does not go away. Refusing to deal with the situation may eventually unleash negative thoughts which cause the individual to become even angrier. Bottled up anger can also transform into resentment which can last for an eternity. Without dealing with the problem, a person may accept the blame and guilt, causing them to feel discouraged and bad about themselves. Effective anger management help would help an individual work on these attempts to cope with challenging situations.

Getting defensive is a common reaction for people who have problems controlling their temper. Reacting quickly to upsetting encounters without considering the repercussions is normal for people with anger issues. Acting on raw emotions of hurt or pain will produce very hostile reactions and likely promote hostile responses. This is not effective in dealing with such situations. Effect anger management help would encourage people not to be defensive but rather evaluate situations before acting on them.

Situations which provoke anger often cause people to lash out. Using physical or verbal aggressions, individuals act on impulse. These negative impulsive reactions produce negative consequences and usually results which are later regretted. It is easy for an angry person to lash out but it is not quite so easy to find positive results from such behavior. Lashing out doesn’t resolve problems, rather causes more problems. In the end an individual will realize that their rash behavior didn’t solve a thing. Effective anger management help will teach the individual to control their anger and restrain from lashing out.

Anger management help can be effective if people are serious and dedicated to working on their problems. There are many sources of anger management help available today, much of it free to interested individuals. It is essential for people with anger problems to realize their need for anger management help. Until they are ready to accept responsibility for their actions and choose to make a difference, anger management help will not be effective. Committing to an anger management program will ultimately help an individual to effectively control their temper and logically handle confrontational situations.

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Numerous studies have determined that an holistic approach to our health is essential.  It’s not about exercise, or eating well, or enjoying your leisure or getting enough sleep – it’s about all these and more.  In fact, it’s not even just about you.

You don’t begin and end with your physical dimensions, you’re part of the world around you. The key to optimum physical and emotional health is to see the big picture.

LOVE

Your loving relationships need to be fulfilling and a source of strength but all too often we find ourselves trapped in negative relationships or situations.

Take a fresh look at your relationships, think about your attitudes and responses.  You can’t change how other people behave but you can change your perception of their behaviour and your reactions.

If you are trapped in a cycle with your partner, work colleagues, children and can’t see how to break this then book a session with a counsellor.  It can feel daunting to do this but they’re just human beings who are trained to help unravel the complicated web that we create in our personal relationships.  You may well be amazed at how a very simple change in your behaviour can positively affect your relationships.

FORGIVE

Holding onto negative feelings can block good emotions from reaching you.   Let negativity go.     If someone wrongs you then forgive.  Either to their face or internally.  As long as you genuinely mean it, it doesn’t matter how you do it.

This isn’t always easy but try to see it not as letting someone else off the hook but of freeing yourself from their hold.  This is liberating and energising.  Whatever your issue, whatever your loss, you can’t right old wrongs but you can free yourself from them.

ASK FOR FORGIVENESS

Have you been the cause of someone else’s pain? Apologise and admit you were wrong.  Can you put it right?  Sometimes, but if not then at least give a ‘from the heart’ apology.  Even if it’s not accepted at the time the positive energy you release will help you and, hopefully, in time the other party will be able to forgive and so benefit too.

DISCOVER NATURE

Just walk around your garden or the local park, sit under a tree.  Look, listen, touch, smell.  Use your senses and marvel at the living things surrounding us.

Be aware that you are a small but vital part of our world.

CREATE

Make music, paint, sing, dance, sew, knit, write.  It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you enjoy it.

GIVE BACK

Take part in your community.  If you have the time to volunteer great, if not then small random acts of kindness will benefit the community and increase the flow of positivity in your life too.  On the simplest level just smile.

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I am going to ask you to something very weird right now. First of all, I want you to listen to your thoughts. Now tell me, what thoughts fill your head? Would you label them as positive, or negative?

Now let’s say you are walking down the street with these thoughts. Do you think anyone who would meet you would be able to tell you what ís on your mind?

The answer to number one is up to you. But, the answer to number two can be pretty generic. Although people will not be able to tell you exactly what you think, they will more or less have an idea of how you are feeling.

Here’s another question. When you enter a party filled with friends, do they all fall silent as if something terrible had happened? Or does everybody there perk up as if waiting for something exciting to happen?

You know what? The answer to all these depends on your frame of mind.

Thoughts are very powerful. They affect your general attitude. The attitude you carry reflects on your appearance, too ñ unless, of course, you are a great actor.

And it doesn’t end there. Your attitude can also affect people around you.

The type of attitude you carry depends on you. It can be either positive or negative.

Positive thoughts have a filling effect. They are admittedly invigorating. Plus, the people around the person carrying positive thoughts are usually energized by this type of attitude.

Negative thoughts on the other hand have a sapping effect on other people. Aside from making you look gloomy and sad, negative thoughts can turn a festive gathering into a funeral wake.

A positive attitude attracts people, while a negative attitude repels them. People tend to shy away from those who carry a negative attitude.

We can also define attitude as the way of looking at the world. If you choose to focus on the negative things in the world, more or less you have a negative attitude brewing up. However, if you choose to focus on the positive things, you are more likely carry a positive attitude.

You have much to gain from a very positive attitude. For one, studies have shown that a positive attitude promotes better health. Those with this kind of attitude also have more friends. projecting a positive attitude also helps one to handle stress and problems better than those who have a negative attitude.

A positive attitude begins with a healthy self-image. If you will love the way you are and are satisfied, confident, and self-assured, you also make others are around feel the same way.

A negative attitude, on the other hand, has, of course, an opposite effect. So, carrying a negative attitude has a twofold drawback. You feel bad about yourself, and you make others feel the same way.

If you want to have a positive attitude, you have to feature healthy thoughts. This is probably very hard to do nowadays since, all around us, the media feeds us nothing but negative thoughts. A study shows that for every 14 things a parent says to his or her child, only one is positive. This is truly a saddening thought.

If you want a healthier outlook in life, you need to think happy thoughts, and you have to hear positive things as well. So, what can you do? Well, for starters, you could see a funny movie, you could play with children, spend some time telling jokes with friends. All these activities fill you with positive stimuli, which in turn promotes positive attitude.

Although it is impossible to keep ourselves from the negative things around us, you can still carry a positive attitude by focusing on the good things, the positive things in life.

And this positive attitude you now carry can be of benefit to other people. Sometimes when other people feel down, the thing people mostly do is try to give them advice. But sometimes, all they need is somebody to sit by them, and listen to them. If you have a positive attitude you may be able to cheer them up without even having to say anything.

If positive attitude is really great, why do people choose to adopt a negative attitude instead? One who carries a negative attitude may be actually sending a signal for attention. Before you get me wrong, feeling sad, angry, or gloomy is not wrong itself. But dwelling on these thoughts for far too long is not healthy either. There is a time to mourn.

As always, if you are beset by troubles, even in your darkest hour, focus on the good things in life, you will always have hope. Problems become something you can overcome.

You do not have much to lose by adopting a healthy, positive attitude. Studies show that such an attitude actually retards aging, makes you healthier, helps you develop a better stress coping mechanism, and has a very positive effect on all the people you meet every day. So, what’s not to like about a positive attitude? Adopt one today.

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