Smile: [smahyl]  verb – to express amusement, pleasure, moderate joy or love and kindness, by the features of the face; to laugh silently.

Why is it so hard for people to smile? Even if it’s a fake smile, researchers have proven that a smile, fake or not, will automatically boost your mood. Why? Humans associate emotions with phyiscal activity or contact. If you are walking around sluggish and angry, you emit a negative energy around you. So what do you think would happen if, let’s just say, you smile? Duh! Positive energy all around.

So, I have  a social experiment for everyone this month: smile at a stranger. Scenario: you’re taking your dog for his morning walk. You are about to cross paths with a someone you don’t know who is also walking their dog. For some people this is awkward so they look away, or may even whip out their cell phone to pretend to look busy (I may be guilty of this one). Try and fight these urges and just offer a quick and harmless smile. Chances are you will receive a smile back. Now was that so hard? Smiling is contagious, it takes little effort and it’s free! What’s better than a free gesture? A smile can turn someone’s bad day into a slightly happier one.

Don’t just think of this as helping others. Think of this as helping yourself. By smiling you are sending yourself the message that you are a positive individual. And remember, “smile and the whole world smiles with you.” You can thank me later.

So where does all of this extra salt come from? According to Heart Healthy Magazine, “Roughly 10 percent of the salt in our diet comes from the salt we add ourselves (the salt we season with while cooking or sprinkle at the table) and 10 percent is naturally occurring. The vast majority of salt—amounting to about 80 percent of daily intake—comes from processed foods. Salt is added to processed foods to achieve a (very salty) taste profile. In many situations adding salt is what makes cheap, un-tasty food palatable. Salt also is added for stability and preservation reasons. But the amount of salt added is clearly above and beyond what’s required for the safety and function of the food supply. The simple math leads to the conclusion that going easy with the salt shaker is hardly going to put a dent in the unhealthy amount of salt in the typical American diet. It’s also hard to trust our taste buds when salt is involved. Some foods taste quite salty because the salt is on the surface, while other sodium-saturated dishes don’t taste salty at all because other flavors and textures (namely, lots of fat and sugars) cover up the salt.”

You can add great flavor to any of your dishes without salt. Here are just a few suggestions and alternatives to your meals. Getting active is another great way to keep your heart strong. Grab some friends and head to the park. Not only is this a great way to get your heart pumping (safely and within your limits), but you can also catch up on the latest gossip, a great stress reliever! President Obama has proclaimed February as American Heart Month. February 5, 2010 was National Wear Red Day, I hope you all wore red to show your support. But wearing red to show your support is not limited to one day a year. Wear red and share your ideas and tips with everyone, everywhere.

2.Get up and do something! Go for a walk and check out your neighborhood, window shop at the mall, take your dog for a jog at the park or join a gym and take advantage of their exercise classes. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you do, just get active. Get your heart pumping for at least 45 minutes each day.

3.Everyone needs time to wind down, especially after a stressful day. Find a hobby! Try learning to play a new instrument, cooking an unfamiliar dish, knitting, bird watching…etc. The possibilities are endless!

4.Laugh and smile! Laughing increases the levels of endorphins in your body making you less stressed and with a healthier immune system. Pop in a funny movie that will get you laughing in no time. Studies have shown that with just 15 minutes of laughter (even fake laughter) will burn 10 to 40 calories, depending on weight. Ever heard of laughter yoga? Pretty interesting.

5.Be positive. Living your life with the, “Why me?” attitude will only weigh you down. Life is a beautiful and precious thing. Don’t sweat the small stuff! Instead of questioning yourself and your self worth, question what you can do to make it better? There is always room for improvement.

6.Cut out the toxins – smoking, drugs and excessive alcohol consumption.

7.Adopt a pet! I can’t think of another way to get active. Pets are wonderful and loyal companions and they will show you unconditional love 24/7. Plus, you will always have an excuse to get out of the house to take them for walk. It’s a win-win situation!

8.Avoid these 5 ingredients as much as possible.

9.Track your ticker! 8.6 million women die from heart disease each year, worldwide. Get your blood pressure checked regularly and follow a heart healthy diet. Just by reducing your sodium intake and exercising everyday, you are on your way to a healthier heart.

10.Get those ZzzZzz! Try to sleep 6-8 hours every night. Everyone is busy, but your body needs time to recharge. By getting the recommended hours of sleep you will feel refreshed and energized in the morning. This will set your mood for the whole day.

“Austin, Texas, Dec. 20, 2000: “Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods.” (Source: Treehugger)

Washington, D.C. March 13, 2001: “There are some monuments where the land is so widespread, they just encompass as much as possible. And the integral part of the–the precious part, so to speak–I guess all land is precious, but the part that the people uniformly would not want to spoil, will not be despoiled. But there are parts of the monument lands where we can explore without affecting the overall environment.” (Source: Slate)

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2009: “The new steps I’ve announced today are the capstone of an eight-year commitment to strong environmental protection and conservation.” Check out this interesting graphic from the Natural Resources Defense Council illustrating the last eight years in environmental policy…

New Delhi, India, Mar. 2, 2006 “Obviously, nu-que-lar power is, uh, a renewable source of energy, and the less demand there is for non-renewable sources of energy, like fossil fuels, the better it off it is for the American people.” Well, he got the second part right, but nuclear energy produced from uranium is, uh, not renewable as far as we know… (Source: Treehugger)

Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005: “We’re spending money on clean coal technology. Do you realize we’ve got 250 million years of coal?” (Source: Slate)

Michigan, September 2000, explaining his energy policies: “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.” (Source: AP)

A Freudian slip made while addressing Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the APEC Summit, Sept. 7, 2007: “Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit.”

And a bonus: “[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system.”

While we’re talking about W, let’s give him a little help to pack up his junk at the Whitehouse. He needs to clear out for Obama. Click here: Help Bush Pack

Without a doubt, I am rejuvenile, not to mention too, that I have some weird connection with Weeds. There are just so many references that I can relate to, or that I already know about like the game “Carcassone,” which was incorporated into an episode. How many people even know or CARE about that? I know about it! And Dinah? They have free internet so I go there when I’m in town. Not too crazy about the food, however. Anyway, maybe it’s because I’m originally from L.A. that I simply see all of the stuff I grew up around. I haven’t lived in L.A. for a long time but it’s always fun to see my home town, a crazy wacko kooky village as it may be.

Back to Rejuvenile. Here’s an excerpt from Publishers Weekly: According to journalist Noxon, rejuveniles-adults who use childhood past-times as “a way of maintaining wonder, trust, and silliness in a world where these qualities are often in short supply”-are proliferating, and unlike other books on the topic of “kidults” (aka “twixters,” “boomerangers,” and “generation debt”), his book says this is largely good. Viewing the bright side of oft-bemoaned evidence showing increasing numbers of young adults living with parents and postponing marriage, Noxon has made an entertaining but incomplete read. In appropriately playful prose, he considers successful adults who play in rock n’ roll nursery rhyme cover bands, attend Disney World without kids, and happily plunk down 10 bucks to see Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie. Avoiding “The Downside of Now” until the end, Noxon almost admits that he isn’t telling the whole story of the rejuveniles: although it’s “nice to think of rejuveniles as freethinking romantics,” which he theretofore does, “it’s clear that outside forces also have a hand in shaping who rejuveniles are.” Those outside forces? Not crushing student loans, a stagnant job market or political age-bias, but “the media.” Of course, Noxon would probably just as soon leave worrying to grown-ups of the old school-he’ll be on the kickball field instead.

Want to get the book? Click the link below.

Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up

Download a free demo to try it out (PC)

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1. Change yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.

And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

2. You are in control.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.

You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don’t have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.

And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.

You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.

If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.

And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.

So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

You can check out a few effective tips to overcome this problem in How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips. Or you can move on to the next point for more on the best tip for taking more action that I have found so far.

5. Take care of this moment.

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.

Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences – or reflecting on past failures – of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.

Have a look at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment for tips on how quickly step into the now. And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit – a sort of muscle – that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

6. Everyone is…

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Now’s your chance to inspire the world and make the planet a greener place.

Are you under 18 and thinking green? Show us what you’re doing to be a part of the Whole Earth Generation. Are you recycling at your school? Planting trees? Forcing your parents to go green? Get in front of the camera and tell us about it.

Sing a song, rap, shoot a documentary, whatever – just send us a short video response showing how you’re making a difference. If we pick yours it’ll be featured leading up to Earth Day. You might even get to co-host one of our Whole Earth Generation Podcasts sponsored by Whole Foods.

Whole Earth Generation Details:
* Keep your video under two minutes.
* Be original and express your green self – we just want to see you being you.
* Keep it clean. No violence, profanity or direct attacks on individuals.
* Your video must be original and cannot infringe on any third party rights.
* Your video cannot have been previously published, broadcast, or otherwise publicly distributed.
* Winners will become “Green Ambassadors” and be featured as hosts in upcoming Whole Earth Generation podcasts.
* Make sure you follow YouTube’s Terms Of Service: http://www.youtube.com/t/terms

How to submit your video:
* Log in to YouTube. If you don’t have an account already, it’s easy and only takes a minute or so.
* Go to the YouTube video where our host is introducing the contest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpGoOwRC1uU
* Under “Comments and Responses” click on “Post a video response”.
* If you haven’t uploaded the video you’d like to submit for the contest to YouTube yet, do so by going to “Upload a Video”.
* If you have uploaded the video already, select it by going to “Choose a Video”.

OFFICIAL RULES
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ELIGIBILITY
Contestants must be between 8 years and 17 years of age and a legal resident of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia or Canada at the time of their audition to be eligible. All submissions become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned. Officers and employees of Whole Foods Market, their respective affiliates, subsidiaries and agents, and the immediate family members of the foregoing, are not eligible to enter. Sponsor is not responsible for late, lost, destroyed or misdirected entries. Odds of winning will depend on the total number of eligible entries received. Each entry must be submitted with a Submission Agreement to be eligible.

Full rules and regulations:

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/weg_rules.html

To see a video about what you need to do to enter the contest, click here.

Others will spend today watching depressing movies, perhaps love stories with the most sad endings ever imagined by some wicked French film maker that can’t resist concluding a film with everyone dying at the end, or at least one person jumping out the window.

Anyway. Don’t do that. If you’re date-less today, gather some of your other solo Valentines and watch happy romantic comedy movies together. That way, you’ll feel good and it’ll give you some hope that there IS hope! In any case, just have a fun, lighthearted day today and you won’t feel the need to eat crazy fattening foods.

Here are some happy love story movies (romantic comedies mostly) suggestions:

1. Death at a Funeral
2. Rushmore
3. Shakespeare in Love
4. Annie Hall
5. Serendipity
6. French Kiss
7. The Wedding Singer
8. Roxanne
9. Meet the Parents
10. Splash
11. Much Ado About Nothing
12. Reality Bites
13. Amelie
14. Moonstruck
15. Shall We Dance?
16. Notting Hill
17. Sleepless in Seattle
18. Muriel’s Wedding
19. So I Married an Axe Murderer
20. Music and Lyrics

May the best vegetable win.

play now

1. When you find yourself having a terribly negative attitude leading to grumpville, slap yourself with a large trout. (figuratively speaking, of course) Just stop yourself. It’s you who has control over your emotions. If you cannot control your own emotions, seek professional help.

2. During these times of unpleasant thoughts, try to examine WHY you feel that way. What is the evidence and proof that you should be able to feel this way. If you can find vast reasons to substantiate your negative feelings and attitudes, try to beckon your compassion. Try to laugh. Try to smile and even force yourself to think the opposite. How? Just understanding you’ll feel better, should be a great incentive.

3. When jumping into negative attitudes, try to conjure up different scenarios for why something is happening. Try to envision that all is happening for a better future outcome. Imagine that things will get better. Example: You break your leg on the ski slope. No one is immediately around to help you so help is delayed. Don’t jump into the conclusion that you’ll die. Don’t jump to the conclusion that your leg won’t heal correctly. Look for reasons that will help you not to do that again! Maybe you need ski lessons. You know that won’t happen again. That’s positive, right?!

4. Think about a positive attitude as much as you can, if not all the time. Even say out loud, “I have a positive attitude!” Words are powerful and you’ll be amazed at how that can change your life.

5. Remember that a positive attitude makes you feel good. ‘Nuf said.

From Slacker Manager:

“It’s that time of year again when most companies have holiday parties, which means most managers have to make an appearance and show their best side, at least for a few minutes. Being an office holiday party veteran, and having not always been as savvy about things as I am now, I thought I’d share my tips for surviving the holiday party. Share your favorite tips, or horror stories, in the comments section.

1. Moderation is the key – Don’t eat too much, don’t drink too much, and for heaven’s sake, don’t dance too much. Just be moderate and have a little bit of everything. Pukers are losers, so keep the amount of everything you do in moderation. If you’re even a little sick, be especially careful. A few year’s back I went to a holiday party and was sick, had a few too many appetizers, and wretched my guts out for over an hour. Oddly, I haven’t been invited to join that group for another event. I wonder why. NOT!
2. Fred Flintstone Can Dance at a Christmas Party! Smile at everyone – Nobody likes an office grump especially not at the holiday party. Take some time and smile and folks and folks will smile at you.
3. Give thanks – Think about your interactions over the past year with the person you’re standing next to. Did you work with them? Did they help you out? Did they win an associate of the month award? Anything specific is great, but even a nice “Thanks for all your help this year” goes a long way to building a great relationship for next year. Every year I make time to find the folks that help my team and me the most and to remind folks how much I appreciate their help…”

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About Eat, Pray, Love:

At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for “balancing.” These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert’s exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, “It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, ‘I’ve always been a big fan of your work.’”

Click here: Eat, Pray, Love

2. Watch a movie at home together – Rent a romantic comedy or romantic drama or even an erotic film (if you and your partner are up for that kind of thing).

3. Give each other a massage – grab some nice, natural massage oils and treat each other to a sensual massage. Now, where you massage is up to you, I’m just suggesting general ideas.

4. Take the day off work – If both of you can manage to take the same day off of work you can plan to spend a whole day and perhaps the night together (depending on your home life). This is especially great for parents to do while their kids are in school during the day. Plan a gourmet picnic and go to the beach or park or somewhere beautiful. If it’s too cold out, have the picnic in your living room or bedroom…

5. An Evening with Whipped Cream – Need I say more?

6. Feed each other blind-folded. Not blind folded at the same time! Take turns feeding strawberries dipped in quality chocolate and other smooth aphrodisiacs to your blind folded partner. Savor every moment…

7. Read an erotic story to each other – Ok, it doesn’t have to be erotic; it can be a romantic, light story or whatever you’re in the mood for. Your goal is to spend focused, quality time with your mate.

8. Paint each other – Find edible or at least non-toxic body paints, strip down and paint each other! Fun!

Be You TV

1.) It’s Fun. You’ll laugh a lot with these games and your happiness will come out like an uncontrollable happy attack.

2.) It’s Exercise. There’s nothing like getting your circulation going and your heart pumping to make you feel good. You haven’t heard? Exercise is GOOD for you. Try to get your 2D butt to turn into a 3D butt.

3.) Coordination. Hand and mind exercises help you. Your clumsiness might even be reduced. I said “reduced” not eliminated so don’t get your hopes up too high.

4.) Positive Quality Time. Spending fun time with family and friends is so good for you, it’s a duh-ism.

5.) Brain Games. The brain games are particularly great for stimulating and exercising your gray matter. Keep that muscle in shape and you’ll be alert way into your 100s. (If you live that long.)

NOTE: Remember that this activity should be done in moderation.

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