Auld Lang Syne

Auld Lang Syne
by Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pou'd the gowans fine;
we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin' auld lang syne

We two hae paidled i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne

And here's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

Enjoy Life in Abundance

Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

John Petit-Senn

Cheers!

Here's to the days of good will, cold weather, and warm hearts.

Dreams Come True

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.

William Arthur Ward

Warmth of Kindness

“One kind word can warm three winter months.”

 Japanese Proverb

No Such Thing As Bad Weather

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin

Merry Christmas!

Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.

Dale Evans

Feel It

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Helen Keller

Close Relationships, Longevity and Health

People who are able to confide in close friends or life partners have been shown to live longer and healthier lives. This is due to the alleviation of stress, boredom, and depression. The result will be a mentally and physically healthier person. Cherish your friends and family.

Look On the Bright Side

Having an optimistic point of view is healthy and those who drink from the cup that is half full tend to have a much stronger resilience to any health problems.

Success and Happiness

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

Albert Schweitzer

Be One Happy Person

The best vitamin to be a happy person is B1.  ~Author Unknown

The Road to Happiness

The road to happiness lies in two simple principles; find what interests you and that you can do well, and put your whole soul into it - every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have.

John D. Rockefeller

True Beauty

True beauty comes from within! Maintain positive thoughts about yourself and others. Be positive inside and you will glow on the outside.

Beauty Tips

Sunshine of Life

"Friends are the sunshine of life."

John Hay (1871)

A Happy Life

Remember this - that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Marcus Aurelius

Beauty and Happiness

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

Anne Frank

Living Life

If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert.  He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator.  He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself.  He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day. 

W. Beran Wolfe

Be Grateful

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.

David Steindl-Rast

Having New Eyes

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust

The Truly Wise

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise person is color-blind.

Albert Schweitzer

Be A Positive Thinker

Become a "possibilitarian". No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities - Always see them, for they are always there. -

Norman Vincent Peale

Smile and Be Happy

No matter how much madder it may make you, get out of bed forcing a smile. You may not smile because you are cheerful; but if you will force yourself to smile, you'll end up laughing. You will be cheerful because you smile. Repeated experiments prove that when man assumes the facial expressions of a given mental mood - any given mood then that mental mood itself will follow.

Kenneth Goode

The Way to Happiness

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

Maria Robinson

The Health Benefits of Positive Thinking

Researchers continue to explore the effects of positive thinking and optimism on health. Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:

* Increased life span
* Lower rates of depression
* Lower levels of distress
* Greater resistance to the common cold
* Better psychological and physical well-being
* Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
* Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

It's unclear why people who engage in positive thinking experience these health benefits. One theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body. It's also thought that positive and optimistic people live healthier lifestyles — they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and have reduced rates of smoking and alcohol consumption.

Source: Mayo Clinic

Life Challenges

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

Dale Carnegie

A Positive Outlook in Life

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Circumstances and situations do color life but you have been given the mind to choose what the color shall be.

John Homer Miller

Women Are Best At Being Buddies

A four-year study by sociologists at The University of Manchester has found that women are much more likely than men to make deep and lasting friendships.

The investigation into social networks by the University’s Research Centre for Socio-Cultural Change found that men are more fickle and calculating about who they should be friends with. Women on the other hand, stand by their friends through thick and thin.

Adding to the bad news for male prestige, the study confirms the stereotype that men are likely to base their friendship on social drinking. Of the 10,000 individuals studied who took part in the 1992 to 2002 British Household Panel Surveys, women are much more likely to stay with the same friends. Single people, older people and white collar workers are also good at paring up. Middle class people are more likely to cast their net of friendship far wider, whereas the working class tend to stick to their own kind.

Dr Gindo Tampubolon said the findings on female friendship were doubly significant because the data suggests we are much more likely to socialise with people from our own gender - 75 per cent of best friends were with the same sex. Dr Tampubolon, who is based at the School of Social Sciences, said: “Friendship between women seems to be fundamentally different to friendship between men. “It’s much deeper and more moral: it’s about the relationship itself rather than what they can get out of it. “Women tend to keep their friends through thick and thin across geography and social mobility.“And women’s view of friendship has something to do with how they express themselves and form their identity.“Men, on the other hand are more fickle with their relationships and seem more interested in ‘what’s in it for me’”.

He added: “The findings reflect our view that friendship is not a choice. We have contact with friends, family, neighbourhood and work which we are or are not able to turn into friendships.“Middle class people are more adept at doing this and tend to define friendship more widely such as work, family and the pub. “Working class people, on the other hand, are more limited: they’re likely to form a best friend with another working class person.”

Source: ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2007)

Making That Choice

We have the ability to determine our happiness hour by hour and day by day, through our thoughts and actions. We make that choice every morning when we get out of bed.

Catherine Pulsifer, from Happiness Is Not The Absence of Problems

Simplify Your Life

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.

Elise Boulding

Coffee, Anyone?

Everyday, millions of people around the world look forward to a cup of coffee. Whether at home, while on the move or at work, the aroma, taste and the sense of feeling “refreshed” after a cup of coffee brings pleasure to many of us, as we go about our daily lives.

Research shows that coffee, when drunk in moderation as part of a healthy diet and physically active lifestyle, is safe for healthy adults and can even have beneficial health implications such as preventing stroke in women and delaying aging.

While the body requires oxygen, it can also cause harm through the natural process called oxidation. Oxidation is said to be the primary catalyst for much of the damage associated with aging. This process produces potentially harmful by-products. In cells, these by-products are called oxygen free radicals, also known as reactive oxygen species. Free radicals can cause extensive damage to proteins, cell membranes, DNA, and the mitochondria which is the main source of energy. The damage made by free radicals makes the mitochondria less efficient in generating energy. Free radicals also produce bodily changes associated with aging.

Antioxidants, as the name suggests, counter oxidation. These are molecules capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of highly reactive molecules. They neutralize free radicals to inhibit them from further harming the cells. Antioxidants have the ability to hinder free radicals from inflicting damage to cells and affect the body’s genetic material that lead to irregular growth and cell reproduction.

Some antioxidants are found inside the body. The body produces natural antioxidants like glutathione peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) that counteract the negative effects of oxidation. But as a person gets older, he produces fewer antioxidants. This is the reason some health experts advise adding antioxidants to diet. The defense system of antioxidants also includes common nutrients like Vitamins C and E.

Foods rich in antioxidant include fruits, vegetables, nuts, certain meat products, and coffee. Berries, tomatoes, carrots, cherries, and grapes are known for their rich antioxidants content like Vitamins A, beta-carotene, and lycopene. Coffee, meanwhile, is famous for its polyphenolic antioxidants and thousands of various antioxidant compounds.

To stay youthful inside out, it is very important that a person lead a healthy lifestyle by getting enough sleep, proper exercise and having the proper diet.

Your Body Clock and Sleep

The human body is so wonderful! Have you ever realized that inside every one of our brains is a very accurate "Clock"? Yes, we have a very accurate time keeping apparatus that functions like the conductor of a symphony orchestra, keeping everything in rhythm. The Body Clock keeps all the various functions of your body coordinated, and moving to the same rhythm.

The Body Clock is located deep in the center of the brain, in a little group of cells known as the Pineal Gland. Within the Pineal Gland is a store-house of the neurochemical messenger Serotonin, which is the chemical "mainspring" of the Clock. Each day the Serotonin is chemically converted to a related compound, Melatonin; and then the Melatonin is converted right back to Serotonin. The whole cycle from Serotonin to Melatonin and back to Serotonin takes exactly 25 hours - and this forms your Body's Clock.

The Body Clock cycles every 25 hours under experimental conditions of an unchanging environment, such as in a cave kept at a constant level of illumination for weeks on end. If, however, a person is exposed to a natural outdoor cycle of daylight and darkness, the Pineal Gland will automatically set itself to a 24 hour day to match its cycle to the length of one Earth's day. That way, noon in the Pineal Gland is always noon on Earth. If exposed to daylight, the Pineal Gland will neither gain nor lose time, but will always cycle exactly in concert with the Earth as our planet twirls through space. The whole process of setting the Body Clock to Earth time takes about three weeks.

The 24 hour cycling of the Body Clock is important. It adjusts your body chemistry for sleeping and for waking. Every evening your Body Clock will set your physiology for sleeping; then you feel drowsy and sleep soundly. After a while, your Body Clock adjusts your physiology for waking. You then wake up and feel refreshed. Isn’t it a wonder?

A Hot Topic

Got your attention? This really is about the health benefits of capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers. Capsaicin is the substance that makes chili peppers hot. It is a phytochemical which when taken in lower concentrations can offer a myriad of health benefits.

Here are 7 reasons why chili pepper is good for you:

1. Fight Cancer
Capsaicin inhibits growth of human cancer cells by causing cancer cells to commit suicide. In a research conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles, it was noted that capsaicin inhibits growth of human prostate cancer cells in petri dishes and mice.

2. Provide Pain Relief
Capsaicin is a natural pain killer. A topical form of capsaicin is a recognized treatment for osteoarthritis pain.

3. Prevent Sinusitis and Relieve Congestion
The potent antibacterial properties of capsaicin fight and prevent chronic sinus infections or sinusitis. Due to its hot nature, capsaicin also helps to stimulate secretions that in turn help clear mucus from the nose, thereby relieving nasal congestion and sinus-related allergy symptoms.

4. Fight Inflammation
Capsaicin is a potent anti-inflammatory agent. It works by inhibiting Substance P, a neuropeptide which is a key transmitter of pain to the brain and is associated with inflammatory process. Capsaicin is being looked at as a potential treatment for arthritis, psoriasis and diabetic neuropathy.

5. Soothe Intestinal Diseases
A Duke University study found that capsaicin may lead to a cure for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The substance can prevent stomach ulcers by killing harmful bacteria such as H. pylori.

6. Burn Fat and Lose Weight
Capsaicin is a thermogenic agent, which means it increases metabolic activity. This in effect helps burn calories and fat. Many popular "fat-burning" supplements on the market contain capsaicin, as the substance may significantly increase metabolic activity for over 20 minutes after it's eaten.

7. Protect Your Heart
Capsaicin helps protect the heart by reducing cholesterol, triglycerides and platelet aggregation. It may also help the body dissolve fibrin, a fibrous protein involved in the clotting of blood. In addition, cultures around the world that use hot peppers liberally in their meals were found to have significantly lower rates of heart attack and stroke than cultures that do not.

Dare to Move

Some months back, I got this text message from a friend:

Three Simple Rules

1. If you do not go after what you want, you’ll never have it.

2. If you do not ask, the answer will always be a no.

3. If you don’t step forward, you’ll always be in the same place.

So simple yet so true! Learn to take risks, and see where your brave heart can take you.

Laugh Your Way to a Healthy Heart

A laugh every day can keep the heart attack away.

The old saying that “laughter is the best medicine,” definitely appears to be true when it comes to protecting your heart. Laughter, along with an active sense of humor may help prevent heart disease. According to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

Researchers have shown for the first time that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels while mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, which can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack. Laughter appears to cause, the endothelium, the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow. At the very least, laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endothelium.

This is no laughing matter but have a good laugh anyway. After all, laughter is still the best medicine for your heart.

Take Time to Smell the Roses

An English idiom which simply means to relax; to take time out to enjoy or appreciate life.

Unless you are allergic to pollen and strong scents, literally smelling roses is beneficial to your health. Attar, the essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of rose, promotes physical relaxation and mental tranquility. So, slow down. Stop and smell the roses now and then.

Stress-Free The Sweet Way

When you're stressed, eat desserts because "stressed" when read backwards is "desserts"!

Yeah... sounds funny but this actually has scientific basis. Researchers believe chocolate cravings for example, have something to do with serotonin, a brain chemical that makes us feel relaxed.

According to Deborah Waterhouse, author of "Why Women Need Chocolate", "It's Mother Nature's solution via food cravings to try to elevate those chemicals, help us feel better and to function more efficiently." "We will crave chocolate or some other food that has sugar and fat to help bring those chemicals back into balance."

The trick is to give in only a bit. The equivalent of a half ounce, which is about a third of a candy bar, or a couple of Hershey Kisses will do it, and it's a surprising small amount.

Always Look on the Sunny Side of Life

A very refreshing picture I found on the net. Life is so beautiful if we always look on the brighter side of things. Isn't it?

For A Wonderful Beginning

Here's a hearty meal of fried egg sunny side up and toast to start the day right. Have a great day!