Consider Your Impotence In The Face Of Adversity As A Source For Your Mind And Body Health.

"If we never go through any valleys how will we know when we've reached a mountain top? How will we know if the mountain is even any good if all our lives we stay up on the mountains and never experience any valleys?I know we'd all like to avoid those "valleys" at all costs, But the most growth for anything happens during adversity."

Kim Broom

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant;

if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

Ann Bradstreet

We live our lives expecting everything to go the way we want it. When we don't win the prize, our world comes to an end. We stop enjoying life and withdraw from society and into ourselves. We forget about the many times we achieved our goals. We forget that just being alive and healthy is worth more that any amount of possessions we may have.

We never escape from our childlike reaction to our disappointments. Yet we know that when our children ask us for something, we sometimes don't give in to their demands. Needless to say, they feel sad when they cannot get the toy or the object they have falling in love with.

As children and adults, these occasions have their purpose in our lives. They teach us that nobody gets everything she wants. It is the ability to live with this realization that we appreciate the power of patience, hard work and the concept that "today's seeds would produce tomorrow's flowers". This faith forms part of the basis of the world's great spiritual lessons. The ability to have faith in the process. The faith makes us live moment by moment. Because, the previous moment's efforts produce the next moment's comforts.

If you become so paralyzed in the present moment and lose its opportunities, the future would be more unkind to you. As grownups some of us carry this childlike trait that destroys us.We grow up forgetting those lessons. We forget to slow down and take one moment at a time. The trust in the moment is so powerful that if practiced regularly, it can transform your life beyond belief. It means live each moment in meditation and savor its opportunities, for this moment lost is your future lost.

"There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy'
would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness."

Carl Jung.

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow
strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."

Peter Marshall

Red Wine Fights Alzheimer's Disease, A Panacea For Your Mind And Body Health.

"Fermented beverages have been preferred over water

throughout the ages: they are safer, provide psychotropic effects, and are

nutritious. Some have even said alcohol was the primary agent for the

development of Western civilization, since more healthy individuals (even if inebriated much of the time) lived longer and had greater reproductive success."

Dr. Patrick McGovern, et al. in The Origins
& Ancient History of Wine


"Bacchus we thank who gave us wine
Which warms the blood within our veins;
That nectar is itself divine.
"The man who drinks not, yet attains
By godly grace to human rank
Would be an angel if he drank."
Pierre Motin
French drinking song

"Knowledge enormous makes a God of me.
Names, deeds, gray legends, dire events, rebellions,
Majesties, sovran voices, agonies,
Creations and destroyings, all at once
Pour into the wide hollows of my brain,
And deify me, as if some blithe wine
Or bright elixir peerless I had drunk,
And so become immortal."
John Keats 1795 - 1821
Poems [1820], Hyperion: A Fragment, bk. III, l. 11

Though I don't drink, an article that appeared in the on-line Science Daily makes me want to drink wine. The French eat food with high cholesterol and saturated fats. Yet studies show they have low death rate from heart disease because of the consumption of the red wine.

An article that appeared in the Nov. 21 2008 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, written by Alzheimer's researchers at UCLA and Mt Sinai School of Medicine showed that chemicals called polyphenols in wine block the formation of toxic chemicals, plaques, that can destroy brain cells. The polyphenols can also reduce the bad effects of the existing plaques in the brain, thus prevent the plaques from causing Alzheimer's disease. Please, read on...

"Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages."
Louis Pasteur

"Wine is the drink of the gods, milk the drink of babies, tea the drink
of women, and water the drink of beasts."
John Stuart Blackie

Learn The Secrets To A Longer Life For Your Mind And Body Health

"Three passions have governed my life:

The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind.

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of people.
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living."

Bertrand Russell

We all strive for long life. The thought of sickness and death strikes terror in our hearts. We spend our days to do things that may bring us happiness and keep us healthy. In spite of that some people who live exemplary lives die early. Some of the reasons for early death may be genetic and high risk activities such as lack of exercise, gluttonous living and failure to control stress.

A new study by Drs. Howard Friedman and Margaret Kern of the University of California at the Riverside found that people who were less conscientious were 50 percent more likely to die at any given age, on average, than those of the same age who were more conscientious. Other findings that improve longevity include Increased socioeconomic status and intelligence. However, the findings in the above study far exceeded the effects of higher socioeconomic status and intelligence which are also associated with increased longevity. The following were the characteristics of the conscientious people who tended to live longest:

• Hard-working.
• Resourceful.
• Confident.
• Ambitious.
• Traits of responsibility.
• Reliability.
• Respectful people in the community who contribute time and energy to their community.
  
• People who co-operate with their colleagues and neighbors.

The study asserts that people with the above traits live lives that are more stable and less stressful. Less stressful is the operative word. With less stress, you're free to be all you can be. The self esteem, that goes with your achievements and successes, gives you the courage to even be more successful. The added benefit of peace of mind is a boon to your mind and body health.


Reference: New Scientist

Consider Setbacks As Vaccine For Your Mind And Body Health.

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance."

- H. Jackson Brown


"Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another."

- Walter Elliott

You cannot go through life without having disappointments and setbacks. Your success and happiness in life depend on how you sail through these vicissitudes and idiosyncrasies in your life. People who succeed in life have some of the following characteristics:

• They view setbacks as a challenge, a game to beat, an opportunity, or a way to learn something new, rather than barriers in the way of their goals.
  


• They view negative events in their life as less stressful and remain motivated.
  


• They move forward from difficult situations sooner.
  


• They learn form their mistake.
  


• They are more flexible with their plans in life.

When the going gets tough, regroup and go back to the drawing board. Talk to people who have succeeded in the the field you are working and get some help. The new knowledge and determination can goad you on to accomplish your project. Your motto should always be "never despair."

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
John Quincy Adams


"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

President Calvin Coolidge

Following Your Dreams Is A Recipe For Your Mind And Body Health

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Roosevelt, Eleanor.

Every invention we see around us was once someone's dream. The inventors did not only dream. They acted on their dreams. Sometimes they failed many times before they persisted and achieved their dreams. How many times have we not walked away from our dreams because of some of the following reasons:

• Lack of self confidence.
• Lack of knowledge of how to achieve your dreams
• Listening to your friends and family members who may speak negatively about your dreams
• Lack of will power.

The ability to stick with your dreams is what makes for success or failure. However it is not easy to build castles as it takes lots of planning, preparation, long sleepless nights and resources to bring the project to fruition. However, a farmer cannot sow seeds without preparing the land and adapt it to what he wants to grow. Hence nobody builds castles without preparations and resources. People who have achieved what they set out to do have some of these characteristics:

• They are open minded and have the thirst to learn new things.
• They are team players because they do not think they have all the answers. They surround themselves with smart people and are ready to listen and learn from them.
• They are not afraid to fail. After all what would be the worst scenario if they fail? They would move on to their next project.
• They have self confidence and the courage to stick with a project till it is completed.
• They have an inner compass that drives them to succeed.

Hence if you have any dreams to build castles, get off your procrastination citadel and start laying the "foundation" for them. For, if you don't you may one day find the castles in your neighbors backyard.

You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau.