Something to think about

Life is a chance to do things your way, not the cheapest way, not the most popular way, and not how others think you should. And a very, very, very precious chance, at that.

Celebrate, celebrate your life!

All religions have this in common. People looking for answers. People looking for a connection to something greater than themselves. People looking for comfort, companionship, hope, love, and a place to belong. People looking for understanding, in both senses of the word, understanding of the universe and other people that understand them. 

The truth may be that an actual fragment of the living God resides within the intellect of every normal-minded and conscious mortal. If this is true then here is something to think about

If it's not yet obvious to you, the real reason for this, and all seasons, is you. A more perfect child of the Universe has never lived. Until now, only celebrations cloaked in myth and mystery could hint at your divine heritage and sacred destiny. You are life's prayer of becoming and its answer. The first light at the dawn of eternity, drawn from the ether, so that you might know your own depth, discover new heights, and revel in seas of blessed emotion.

A pioneer into illusion, an adventurer into the unknown, and a lifter of veils. Courageous, heroic, and exalted by legions in the unseen.

To give beyond reason, to care beyond hope, to love without limit; to reach, stretch, and dream, in spite of your fears. These are the hallmarks of divinity - traits of the immortal - your badges of honor. May you wear them with a pride.

Your light has illuminated darkened paths, your gaze has lifted broken spirits, and already your life has changed the course of yours your families and your friends history.

This is the time of year to celebrate you and your contributions to life, love, family and friends.

Texting, email and tweeting

Sending texts, emails and tweets is common today but how do we recognize when you have gone too far, and may risk losing someone's trust because of the tweet or the email we send?

Value the long-term relationship

We are encouraged to be storytellers – entertaining, informing and piquing interest to uncover new facts, all with the goal to ensure the person continues to read and respond. Ask yourself – does the content keep the conversation going, and plant the seed for next idea?

Or does your subject line mislead your reader. For example, look no further than an email sent on behalf of the Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. The subject line simply stated “My Vice President,” and was sent around the expected time that the choice of running mate would be announced.

However, instead of revealing the VP choice, the Romney campaign asked its email subscribers to donate to the campaign. Again, this was a shortsighted strategy to raise open rates in the hope of increasing campaign donations.

Empathize with the person

Be mindful of the reader’s situation and current state.  “Effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.” – Brian Solis

Clear the way

Connection – Share something that demonstrates the relationship you have with the person

Credibility – Be truthful and back up your thoughts wit appropriate links or valid reasons why you believe "X"..

Paying attention to your friends needs instead of attempting focus on yourself, will pay off in the long run. You’ll encourage the engagement you deserve, “simply by being human.”

It's Never Too Late To Stop Shortening Your Life

The following was posted by  Fight Aging! in Sept. Fight Aging! began as a blog in 2004, an outgrowth of the non-profit advocacy organization the Longevity Meme, that itself ran as a news service and online resource from 2001 to 2011. Both projects originate with Reason, an advocate and technologist with a long-standing interest in the development of longevity-enhancing biotechnology for humans.

A lot of self-harm takes place when it comes to individual life expectancy. Smoking, eating too many calories, and being sedentary top the list in wealthier populations these days. Ignorance is also very important at the present time because of the prospects for the development of rejuvenation biotechnology: if you don't know that reversal of aging might be accomplished in future decades, then you can't make a choice to support that progress. Yet new therapies to impact aging will have a much larger effect on life span than any lifestyle choice. If they arrive in time, that is, which requires widespread public support and far greater funding than presently exists.
But people, as a general rule, don't tend to put a great deal of value on the distant years of their own personal future. We know this because there are so many who smoke, get fat, and don't exercise, and who choose to remain fairly ignorant of the workings of their own body vis a vis long-term maintenance.

Despite recent declines in the numbers of people smoking and tar yields of cigarettes, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in Europe. Previous studies had demonstrated that prolonged cigarette smoking from early adult life was associated with about 10 years loss of life expectancy, with about one quarter of smokers killed by their habit before the age of 70. Stopping at ages 60, 50, 40 or 30 years gained back about 3, 6, 9 or the full 10 years. However, the hazards of continuing to smoke and the benefits of stopping in older people had not been widely studied.In the current study, scientists tracked the health of 7,000 older men (mean age 77 years, range 66 to 97) from 1997 to 2012 who took part in the Whitehall study of London civil servants. Hazard ratios (HRs) for overall mortality and various causes of death in relation to smoking habits were calculated after adjustment for age, last known employment grade and previous diagnoses of vascular disease or cancer. During the 15-year study 5,000 of the 7,000 men died. Deaths in current smokers were about 50% higher than in never smokers, due chiefly to vascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease. Deaths in former smokers were 15% higher than in never smokers, due chiefly to cancer and respiratory disease.

Smokers who survive to 70 still lose an average of 4 years of life. Average life expectancy from age 70 was about 18 years in men who had never regularly smoked, 16 years for men who gave up smoking before age 70 but only about 14 years in men still smoking at age 70. Two-thirds of never smokers (65%), but only half of current smokers (48%), survived from age 70 to age 85.

Validating others

Communication is a important for your success but many of us do not communicate well. The following is one way that we do not communicate well. Source: Here

Invalidating communication treats people poorly, labels people, and denies their uniqueness. The non-supportive person “knows it all” and does not take into account other people's perspectives and feelings. 

On the other hand, a supportive communicator respects people, treats others as his or her equal, and works with people through problems and solutions to create a mutual agreement.

Let's say you want to go out to dinner with your partner who wants to stay at home. Invalidating responses to your partner staying home, along with the reasons they are invalidating, are:
“Just believe me we'll have a good time.” - communicates you are superior.
“You're always unwilling to do something interesting when I want.” - uses the diagnosing barrier by degrading your partner as being resistant to you. 
“Oh, come on. Don't be lazy.” - labels your partner as “lazy”.
Some validating responses that communicate support are:
“Do you have a solution that would help each of us get what we want?”
“Why do you want to stay at home instead of going out?”
“What if you choose what to do tonight and I'll choose tomorrow night for dinner or vice-aversa?”
Each of these three responses are validating because they value the person. People get “treated as worthwhile, competent and insightful” from validating communication. Whenever you can value someone and make them feel unique.