Stress: Burn, Baby, Burn!
Stress. These are just six letters that can mean the difference between two eight-letter words - survival and insanity. What a fine line the 6.6 billion people of this world walks on! But as we still see human beings ruling the planet we call Earth, we can safely surmise that humans have the most developed sense of coping with stress. Us and crocodiles, maybe. But that is another story.
One of the better ways to cope with stress is to burn it off and be gone with it. Before you get ideas about whipping out your cigarette case, selecting a fine roll of cigarette, lighting it most suavely, and drawing upon it with deep breaths, this is not it. Smoking is but a temporary relief from the symptoms of stress and can do more damage than good to both your emotional and physical health. And what good does that do except feed on your stress?
Rather, you can burn off in other ways. Here is how.
#1 Burn Off Calories
You can exercise to burn off both calories and stress. Scientific studies have proven the beneficial effects of even moderate exercise on physical health, which can help in developing a well-balanced mental health.
When you exercise regularly, you produce less stress hormones and more happy hormones. Thus, you will feel less depressed, less anxious and less restless, all of which you will appreciate in stress management. And you will have a more fit and fabulous body, to boot!
#2 Burn Incense and Candles
And while you are at it, meditate! You need not meditate on spiritual things if you are so inclined. The important thing about meditation is its positive effects on stress reduction specifically in attaining an enhanced state of relaxation and concentration.
And the fact that meditation allows for control on blood pressure and heart rate is a welcome bonus. You will come out of meditation feeling more relaxed in both mind and body. Soon enough, you an meditate even without the scented incense and candles to set the mood, maybe even do a walking meditation like the Buddhist monks.
#3 Burn Your Thoughts
Not put your head on fire literally with those Zippo lighters of yours! Gee, that would be a very horrifying sight indeed. Rather, you can write down all your negative thoughts on paper and burn them literally.
This can be a symbolic sort of goodbye much like how you burned all the personal mementos, even the littlest of personalized cufflinks, of that jerk whom you call your ex. Very cleansing, don’t you think?
So, the next time you feel like dragging on a smoke and burning your lungs to chase away the stress, why not opt for burning other things like calories, candles and crap?
Teaching Children Listening Skills
There are many reasons and many different ways that we as adults can use audio books. But for those people that use audio books have you ever considered using an audio book for a child? Have you ever thought about using an audio book of a children’s story before? Well maybe it is about time that you broadened your audio book use to your children.
Do you travel a lot with your children? Do you enjoy reading and telling stories to your children? Have you ever tried audio books in your home? Maybe you should try an audio book on your next road trip with the children.
Using audio books download instead of just plugging in the portable DVD player will help your child’s imagination grow and flourish. Even though your child has seen the latest Harry Potter movie or Narnia Chronicles why not try these books out in an audio book format. Let them see how wonderful a book really can be.
I remember as a small child that my parents would use audio books while driving for me and my siblings. We would start out in the car and the story would begin. We would be so enthralled with listening to the story that we would forget that we were driving and we would forget to fight and we would forget to ask are we there yet. Audio books of children’s stories are wonderful for that.
You can get these online audio books and download them to your personal computer or laptop. After that you can either choose to burn a CD and bring it into the car or you can simply transfer the audio book file to an MP3 player or an iPod and bring that into your car with some kind of adapter. Either way your child will be able to hear their favorite book come to life in an audio book and they will be able to experience it in a whole new way.
Improve Your Memory: Games To Improve Your Memory
To use memory improvement game to improve your memory, you first have to have an understanding of what memory is. There are actually several types of memory. There is the picture you hold in your mind of your first home. There is the knowledge that New York is called the Big Apple. There is the ability to ride a bike or knowing the face of the people you love. And there is the telephone number you learned just five minutes ago.
Amazingly all of these processes depend upon memory.
When a person memorizes a phone number that they dial and promptly forget they are using working memory. This type of memory is fragile and unless you commit the data to long-term memory the information is quickly gone. Researchers believe that you have the ability to easily remember 7 bits of data quickly but more than that is difficult. This is why you can remember the telephone number but need the credit card in front of you when you order online.
Long-term memory happens when you attach a new memory to another that has already been committed to memory. For instance the cell phone number of your neighbor is ‘attached’ to the memory of the face of your neighbor.
There are ways to improve memory ability by using games. One game to improve your memory is storytelling. Storytelling is a way to remember the information you need committed to long-term memory. The story connects the ideas and facts making them easier to recall. It also a way to increase participation which increases memory – as opposed to the use of a laundry list of items.
For instance, when you are storytelling you make up images of what is happening. This is also a very powerful technique to achieve your goals. Set your goal, tell it in a story of your life and ‘see’ yourself in the story. Use that story each day to commit this memory to long-term memory and increase the possibility that it will happen.
This can be a fun game to improve your memory when done with a group. Practice by laying out a group of items on the table and try to remember them. Each member takes a turn adding the object to the story. Once the objects are included in the story the objects are taken away and everyone sees who can remember the most objects.
Go Fish is another game to improve your memory that is fun to play alone or with friends. Use a standard deck of playing cards and remove 2 of the 4 suits. Leave yourself with 2 of each number and picture card. Now, with the 24 cards (making sure all have a match), place them face down on the floor or table. Move them around so you don’t know where each is located. One at a time pick up a card and then another trying to find the match. If there is no match put them back where they were and try again. This helps to improve your short-term memory. Time yourself to see how much faster you can do it each time.
Another inexpensive game to improve your memory is using a puzzle – but put it together without referring back to the picture on the box. Look at the picture first, giving yourself a couple of minutes; mix up the pieces and work on putting them back together.
In March 2007 Reuters news bureau reported that using computer games that are designed to help memory and cognitive function may be better than classic games at delaying age-related mental decline. There is a new group of games designed for older adults from Nintendo and Mattel, based on studies that show older people can improve their brains.
In a study at the University of California researchers studied 45 patients who had diagnosed mild cognitive impairment using either the Posit Science Brain Fitness program by Mattel or comparable computer-based tasks. The group using the Posit program had a significant improvement in visual spatial memory and a trend toward short-term and long-term memory improvement.
More research is showing that our cognitive abilities are not stagnant and that like a muscle if we don’t use it we lose it. Exercise your brain power and play some games to improve your memory!