photo by Willow&Monk

Bears do it.

Koi fish do it.

So do frogs, squirrels, and several other animals. So why should you allow yourself to feel bad when you feel it’s effects? What I’m talking about here is hibernation.

Of course, humans don’t hibernate fully, but when the cold and short days of winter come around, many of us feel a physical change. We may want to sleep more. We may want to eat more. We may want to be less active and leave our home less frequently. I had a revelation about this recently. Since this is totally normal and most everyone experiences it, then there is absolutely no reason to feel bad about it!

The way to transform your winter blues is simple. Reconsider these winter changes from a new perspective. Here’s how:

Read the rest of this entry »

The answer is a resounding “Yes!” according to Matthys Levy, who wrote “Why the Wind Blows: A History of Weather and Global Warming.” Why? Levy states that reversing the global warming course will help future generations. My belief is that through choosing greener ways of living, we improve our own lives today as well.

I think you will enjoy reading Mr. Levy’s personal insights to questions I posed to him recently. I know I did!

Read the rest of this entry »

photo by Stitch

Did you know that a major key to happiness is giving to others? This is substantiated in an excellent book by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks,”How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People–Their Secrets, Their Stories.” In the book, they describe the profound effect giving to others can have on your level of happiness.

Read the rest of this entry »

photo by DavidDennis

So many of us, myself included, get caught up in life. We move from one thing to another, doing all the things we think we “should” do or have to do. And we never stop to think that there might be another, more pleasurable way, to skin that cat in front of us.

What made me think of this is a belly dancing class I signed up for. It’s completely fun and silly and you know what? It tightens your abs! Who knew you didn’t have to do boring sit-ups in order to get your tummy in shape. That little revelation got me thinking of all the other areas of our life where we just keep doing things the same old way even if it is drudgery because we think life has to be hard. But here’s the news flash: Life Doesn’t Have to Be Miserable! You can increase your enjoyment by making some simple changes.

So here is a listing of some areas that might feel like obligatory hardships followed by some alternatives to consider to make your life more enjoyable.

I hope that these ideas prompt you to take a little more enjoyment from life starting today! I’m going to try too! I think I’ll be belly dancing, playing more guitar, and playing with my son some more! How about you?

Please Share!

How do you choose to make life more enjoyable? All comments big and small are very welcomed!

If you found this post valuable, perhaps you’ll be kind enough to vote for this with a Stumble or Delicious bookmark. Votes are always appreciated!

You can Support Life Learning Today by visiting one of my sponsors, making a donation, or making a purchase at Amazon through one of my links. Thank you!

Don’t Miss a Single Tip!
Free Email Subscriptions:

Tired of online dating?

There are many good ways to meet new people.

Check out my guest article at Dumb Little Man for 25 ways to find a date.

DumbLittleMan.com: 25 Ways to Find a Date Offline

Please Share!

Got any good stories on finding a date? All comments big and small are very welcomed!

If you found this post valuable, perhaps you’ll be kind enough to vote for this with a Stumble or Delicious bookmark. Votes are always appreciated!

If you want to Support Life Learning Today, you can visit one of my sponsors, make a donation, or make a purchase at Amazon through one of my links. Thank you!

 

Cool Stuff I Learned This Week

Here is a round up of some cool things I’ve discovered this week. I hope that you find them useful and interesting too!

Interesting

Spontaneous Urban Gatherings: From Subway Parties to Pillow Fights. This new wave could spark something wonderful. Does it give you any fun ideas? Web Urbanist always has some very interesting stories about cities around the world with amazing pictures. Check out Web Urbanist home page too for some more gems. (Image from Web Urbanist)

Writing

How to Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits by Leo Babauta at Dumb Little Man

Business

Thinking of starting a web based business? Read this first: Learn From an Adsense Millionaire: Notes on Markus Frind and PlentyofFish.com by Maki of DoshDosh.

Money

Massive Personal Finance Resource List by Brett McKay of The Frugal Law Student

Living

Zenhabits.net . You know what? I just can’t pick one from this blog. There are so many good ones. I learn and am reminded of useful things here every week. Check out Leo’s superbly useful articles!

Kindness from Be Inspired Every Day blog. Kindness always makes sense. This article will make you feel good because it helps you release negativity.

Technology

Did You Buy an iPhone? If so check out 4 ways to get your money back and 200 reasons to love american express - an article by social media maven MSaleem.

Sudden Hard Drive Crash. Lorie Morero’s (happy ending) story of a hard drive crash. Are you ready if your hard drive crashes?

Please Share!

What great articles did you read or write this week? All comments big and small are very welcomed!

If you found this post valuable, perhaps you’ll be kind enough to vote for this with a Stumble or Delicious bookmark. Votes are always appreciated!

If you want to Support Life Learning Today, you can visit one of my sponsors, make a donation, or make a purchase at Amazon through one of my links. Thank you!

If you don’t have a blog, you can skip this post. But if you do have a blog, and you’d like the chance to win some extremely valuable services that can help take your blog to the next level, then you’ll want to check this out.

I recently came across a prize giveaway by one of my favorite bloggers, David Airey. David Airey is a graphic designer specializing in logo design. He is holding a prize giveaway to celebrate the one year anniversary of his blog. There are more than $4,000 worth in free prizes! Find out how to enter by reading the details on David’s logo designer blog.

To whet your appetite, here are some of the prizes that are up for grabs:

• Logo design from David Airey.
• Custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill of Nate Whitehill dot Com. It’s vital to set yourself apart from the crowd, and Nate will help a great deal with your very own custom WordPress theme.
• Personal marketing / advertising plan from Maki of Dosh Dosh. Maki is an expert where blog advertising is concerned, and he is kindly donating his time to help you make the most of your new custom blog.
• One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley of I Love Typography. John has kindly donated his time and will do everything you need to get your new custom blog hosted on one of Media Temple’s dedicated servers.
• Signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress. The book contains excellent blogging tips for beginners to pros.
• Logo design from Tara Roskell of Graphic Design Blog. You only need to visit Graphic Design Blog to realise that Tara really knows a lot about great design.
• Website critique from Randa Clay of Randa Clay Design. If you want some expert advice on how to improve your website design, you won’t be disappointed by this offering.
• One hour SEO consultation with Lyndon Antcliff of Cornwall SEO. Lyndon will conduct a Skype consultation with the winner of this prize, and he comes highly recommended for search engine optimisation and linkbaiting.
• $60 of books from Amazon courtesy of Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. Is there a book you’ve been meaning to buy on Amazon? How about getting it free? A great donation from a professional blogger.
• Logo / blog header design from Jonathan-C. Phillips of Smart Wealthy Rich. Jonathan has donated his expert skills to help your blog stand out from the crowd.
• One hour blog optimization consultation with Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips. This consultation will cover design, SEO, monetization and blogging strategy, from the author of one of blogging’s most useful resources.
• Revolution Premium WordPress theme package (personal package) from Brian Gardner, WordPress designer and consultant. Brian’s WordPress skills are second to none.
• Blog review and email interview published on Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak. The man to ‘make it great’ will critique your blog and feature you on his very own PR5 blog.
• $25 via PayPal courtesy of Gayla McCord of Mom Gadget. Free money! Who doesn’t want free money?
• 2GB USB storage key x 3 courtesy of Jamie Clague at Terinea Weblog. Three USB sticks will make up three separate prizes, with free worldwide postage. Jamie, Edinburgh Computer Services, has also kindly donated his valuable time to helping with the prize draw administration.
• Full blog review with deep links and images published on Blog-Op with Chris Lodge. Chris knows how to piece together an excellent blog review, giving you an added insight into the impression your website is giving.
• Blog review from Aaron Russell of miLienzo. Aaron has been coding WordPress themes for a while now and certainly knows his stuff where blog design is concerned.
• Expert WordPress blog help from Lakshmi Mareddy of Chilligavva. Have you ever had any ideas for your blog that you haven’t been able to incorporate? Lakshmi has kindly agreed to offer her WordPress skills, helping you out with either code or graphics.
• Blog review from Hock Ng of Marketing Tools Review. Hock will focus his review on your blog content, design, SEO and usability.
• Blog makeover from Charles Jordan of The Queer Chef. Charles is proficient with design for the Blogger platform, and can also design WordPress. He’ll tantalise your taste buds with one of his blog makeovers.
• Blog writing consultation with Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog. Ben has offered his expertise to review 3–5 of your articles, providing tips and giving suggestions on writing, plus a quick guide to social media and how you can benefit from it.
• Two 45 minute coaching consultations with Mark McGuinness of Wishful Thinking. Mark specialises in coaching creative professionals, and is a real expert in his field. The first session will involve goal setting, with the second session reporting on progress and making adjustments.
• 4 hour business growth consultation with Rebecca Caroe, via telephone / Skype, or face-to-face in London / Cambridge. Rebecca is a business growth consultant for creative agencies, so if you’re looking to expand your company then this is the prize for you. If you want Rebecca to visit your offices simply pay her travel expenses.
• Tele-Coaching with Tammy Lenski. A one-hour, private telephone consult with professional mediator and conflict coach Tammy Lenski. Figure out how to deal with a challenging client, strengthen your contract negotiations, or confront difficult conversations with more confidence and success. Free call within the U.S., via Skype outside the U.S.
• One hour product launch consultation with Design Translator (DT) of Design Sojourn. Whether you’re launching a line of t-shirts, custom furniture, electronics, or any other product, DT will lend you his product launch expertise.
• Blog improvement or monetization advice with Easton Ellsworth of Business Blogwire. You choose, do you want to generally improve your blog or do you want help making money from it? Easton has kindly offered his help.
• 728px by 90px banner ad for 30 days above the fold on The Blog Experiment, courtesy of Sara. This is quite a new forum for bloggers, but already there are approximately 5,000 posts! You must supply your own artwork.
• 125px by 125px image ad for 30 days on Smart Wealthy Rich. An excellent donation from top blogger, Jonathan.
• Ad icon located site-wide in the top left of Blog-Op, courtesy of Chris Lodge. Another kind gift from a fellow blogger in Scotland.
• 30 day text link ad shown site-wide on Contest Blogger. This is a great way to advertise your very own blog contest. Blogging is about giving something back, so get your contest featured.
• 125px by 125px image ad for 30 days on Freelance Folder. Another superb offering from Jonathan a.k.a Smart Wealthy Rich.

If you’re interested, find out how to enter the drawing by reading the details on David’s logo designer blog.

A Little Secret with Big Benefits

If you’ve been feeling bad about yourself lately, you can turn that around pretty quickly. The key? Be improving. Be improving in some area of your life. When you are improving on something you are moving forward, you are getting better, and you will feel better.

Perhaps you’re experiencing a life crisis, early life, mid-life, or early life crisis. Or maybe you’re simply in a rut. Maybe you’ve noticed how aging is affecting your body. You can break past this! All you have to do is get busy improving on something you enjoy, and you will begin to feel better and better each day.

Just know that it is never too late to start, and today is the perfect day to start!

Things You Could Improve On

• Physical: walking, jogging, biking, tennis, soccer, sailing, windsurfing (if I can do it, you can!), kayaking, skiing, golfing, etc.
• Hobbies: fishing, whittling, model making, pool, quilting, crochet, knitting, arts, gardening, working on a vintage car.
• Parenting: take a class, take an online course, read a book, find a parenting blog.
• Skills: painting, sculpting, public speaking, writing, teaching,
• Learning: take a class on something that interests you such as a foreign language, history, creative writing, art, etc.
• Relationships: find a great book, such as in Follow Your Heart by Andrew Matthews, and apply it a little bit each day. Focus on yourself and what you can do to make a relationship more positive.

How to Be Improving

1. Pick an area that interests you.
2. Plan a start. (example: Plan to walk 20 minutes each day at 7am. Plan to go to bed by 10pm. Lay out shoes and workout clothes night before.)
3. Start slow.
4. Do it everyday.
5. Challenge yourself a little bit more every day. (example: Want to start jogging, but you can only jog for one minute. Do a combination of jog/walk. Each day try to jog a few minutes more within your 20-30 minute session.)
6. Track your progress on a simple calendar.
7. Find a success buddy who will support you and encourage you. Everyone knows someone really positive and enthusiastic. Call that person and ask them to cheer you on via email or via phone calls every once in a while.
8. Plan a special treat for after 30 days of continual improvement.
9. Celebrate, smile and enjoy how it feels to be improving!
10. Start Today!

Please Share!

What will you improve on this month? All comments big and small are very welcomed!

If you found this post valuable, perhaps you’ll be kind enough to vote for this with a Stumble or Delicious bookmark. Votes are always appreciated!

If you want to Support Life Learning Today, you can visit one of my sponsors, make a donation, or make a purchase at Amazon through one of my links. Thank you!

Building a Smarter, Stronger Brain - Part 1

This series will introduce you to brain workouts you can use to improve your brain. This is part one. Each installment will offer 3 different types of exercises you can do today to grow your brain.

How Our Brains Compute

Our brains differ from computers in many ways, but the most elemental difference is in how we process information. Computers process information in a logical fashion, computing each step that it is programmed to do.

Our brains, on the other hand, process information via a neural network. This means that many different parts of the brain are working on the processing. The programming comes from the type of brain routines we run most often. Many different parts of your brain can participate. Each part is in communication with the others. Some step up more often, but this can be altered at any time.

How Brains Improve

The most powerful brains are the ones where many parts of the brain are activated and communicating on a regular basis. So how do you achieve this? Exercise! Brain exercise, that is. You need to give all the different parts a workout from time to time so that they will join in on the every day processing to make your brain smarter and stronger.

The more you exercise the different parts of the brain, the more you get all the jets of your brain firing and contributing, creating a symphony of power!

Parts of the Brain

There are two major parts to your brain, the right and left hemisphere. Some of us work with one side more than the other. And some of us only work in limited ways with that one side. Getting both sides flexing and comuunicating from the surface down to deeper levels will power up your brain.

Exercises to Grow Your Brain Smarter and Stronger

Try each of these exercises today to grow your brain. And click here to subscribe for future brain building exercise articles.

Right Brain Exercises

1. First throw out any notion of “I can’t draw.” No one has to see this. Just have fun!
2. Find something to trace such as your hand, a picture from a magazine, a coin, a bottle.
3. Trace the object.
4. Draw in additional detail. Start with obvious major lines, then finer detail, and then finally shading.
5. Do this once a week to work out your right brain and be amazed how you progress! That’s your brain improving!

1. Pick a simple subject like a coffee cup, a glass with water, a bottle, a pencil, whatever!
2. Start drawing lots of lines very quickly.
3. Keep your hand moving, going over and over lines darkning where you “get things right” and leaving behind lines that are off the mark.
4. Have a rhythm of continuous movement and drawing.
5. Start with major outlines.
6. Add large sections.
7. Add smaller sections.
8. Add smaller detail.
9. Keep your hand moving and sketching.
10. Add shading.
11. Then step back and enjoy your masterpiece.
12. If you have time, do a couple more. The more you do this the stronger you build your brain!

Left Brain Exercises

1. Do the crossword puzzle in your local newspaper.
2. Or do the USA Today online crossword puzzle.
3. Or check out BestCrosswords for multiple printable or online crossword puzzles.
4. This deductive thinking exercise uses your brain’s logic synapses heavily.Do this with some frequency and feel your brain grow.

1. Pick an even number of words, say 10-20 words. You can use a theme or not. Try for variety of type of word (noun, verbs, adjectives, etc) as well as length of word.
2. Make up a clue for each word. Clues can be in the form of missing word from a famous quote, “sounds like” word, place where you would find or do this word, or whatever system you want to use. Refer to other crossword puzzles for how they write their clues.
3. Download this crossword template from Microsoft for Word.
4. Or Use graph paper.
5. Take the longest word and put it in the middle.
6. Start adding in words across and down.
7. When done, lay graph paper on top to make the blank puzzle by numbering the squares and blacking out the unused squares.
8. Make copies and give to your friends.

Combo Right/Left Brain Exercises

1. Pick something to read which has the potential to be dramatic such as a poem, story, or inspirational speech.
2. Read it out loud with dramatic flair. Really get into it.
3. This will activate your right brain with reading and left brain interpreting the feelings of the words.
4. Bonus: do this for a child and you’ll be growing two brains! Yours and the child’s! Have fun!
5. Bonus Bonus: create a mini play  with a child to act out (use one of the child’s favorite stories). Do it a few times!

1. Find a song you like.
2. Search for the lyrics on Google: “Song name lyrics”
3. Sing it with drama and flair.
4. Singing with the radio is ok too.
5. Bonus: engage a child to play along! Have fun growing the connections between both sides of your brain!

Subscribe to get the next installment of this series!

Please Share!

What are your favorite left/right brain exercises? All comments big and small are very welcomed!

If you found this post valuable, perhaps you’ll be kind enough to vote for this with a Stumble or Delicious bookmark. Votes are always appreciated!

If you want to Support Life Learning Today, you can visit one of my sponsors, make a donation, or make a purchase at Amazon through one of my links. Thank you!

Technorati Tags: Brain, brain exercises, exercise, Health, Personal Development, Smarter, stronger

What is Truemors?

This is a cool, new, online, information sharing medium, co-founded by Guy Kawasaki, Will Mayall, and Kathryn Henkens. If you like Digg and similar sites, but would like a little less negativity, you’ll probably want to check out Truemors. It’s like a cross between Twitter and Digg, but so far without the nastiness that you see on Digg. They are looking for true rumors or stories that will democratize the spread of information.

Here’s how they describe themselves: “Truemors is a web site that enables you to “tell the worldâ€?—within the bounds of good taste and the law anyway. You can post your rumors, news, and sightings, and anyone with web access can read and rate them within minutes.” They are not looking for “crap” (although they do have a heading for it). The crap they don’t want is defined as “profanity, pornography, bullying, libel, slander, and advertising….(and) gossip.”

The content they are looking for is “true rumors that is relevant, helps you make sense of the world, and also possibly entertains you. Gossip, by contrast, is less urgent, less useful, and almost always deals with people’s private lives.” Gossip is not what they are looking for.

Truemors for Friends (TFF)

This is being tested on Facebook currently if you want to check it out. They are looking for beta testers. It sounds pretty cool. You can share information with just your friends, and only the ones you select. The information on TFF won’t post to Truemors.com which is for “sharing with the world.” TFF is for “sharing with your friends.”

Here’s how to get started with TFF:

1. Sign-in to your Facebook account.
2. Go to Truemors for Friends and click on Add Application.

Usefulness Value

You can browse or search for new information in the following categories: Auto, Business, Crap, Entertainment, Food, Gaming , Health, News, Odd, Politics, Science, Sex, Sports, and Tech. The information on this site currently seems to be living up to it’s name. Information here seems to be reliable. The idea is that if it is true, it will get voted on more. And if stories are real “crap,” not the category “Crap,” then anyone can email them to notify them of that it should be reviewed.

You can post your own information that you discover by phone, email, text message, or online form. You don’t have to register to post a truemor. But if you want to register you can and then you’ll be able to add pictures and videos too.

Entertainment Value

There is a high level of entertainment value with this site. You can discover many interesting stories and bits of information to mentally chew on. Here are some examples:

The Final Verdict

Head on over there today! This is a cool place to share information that is true. Since Truemors is so new, as a contributor you have a chance to make a name for yourself with the truemors you post. As a commenter you can share your opinion and leave a link to your website. As a reader, you can pick up some cool new information without the hype and negativity you might see on some other information sharing sites.

Please Share!

What do you think of Truemor? How do you use it? What would you like to see changed on Truemor? All comments big and small are very welcomed!

If you found this post valuable, please SHARE THIS below with a Stumble or Delicious bookmark. Votes are always appreciated!

If you want to Support Life Learning Today, you can visit one of my sponsors, make a donation, or make a purchase at Amazon through one of my links. Thank you!