Become More Creative - Here's What You Need to Know!

Would you like to enhance your creativity? Do you think that increased creativity is something that would improve your life?Before you answer yes or no to that question, take some time to explore what the word ¡Ècreativity¡É means to you. If you think that creativity is something that you only need if you¡Çre an artist, while you happen to be a middle-manager in a corporation, you may decide that increased creativity is not really important to you. But creativity is actually something far broader than artistic expression, and it¡Çs required in many areas of life. Your idea of a creative person might be someone who lives in a loft, painting gigantic canvases all day long. Or perhaps a writer at her computer, working on a long novel. Or a musician, actor, or singer performing on stage to an audience. All these people are expressing themselves artistically, and they can all rightly be said to be creative people, even if no one else enjoys their art. But what about an entrepreneur who has an idea for a new product, who forms a new company to produce and distribute it, eventually employing hundreds of people? Doesn¡Çt this also require creativity?What about a research scientist toiling in a lab, developing new compounds in an effort to cure disease? Isn¡Çt this creative? What about a single mother who manages to come up with healthy delicious meals on a tiny budget? Isn¡Çt that creativity? To one person, creativity can mean gluing seashells to a picture frame. To another, creativity might mean solving a grand unified theory in physics. And to another person, being creative might mean coming up with an ingenious new way to speed up a factory assembly line. When we define creativity only in terms of artistic expression, we miss a lot of other potential applications for creative thinking and problem solving. An artist painting a picture, or a writer working on a novel, both have something in common with the researcher in the lab, and the entrepreneur, and the person gluing seashells to picture frames. They are all working on problems and devising solutions that didn¡Çt exist before. These people are using their minds to imagine fresh ways of doing something, putting together existing forms and ideas in new ways. They may be creating a new idea, a new look, a new product, or new technique. Sometimes the ability to be more creative can lead to personal fame and fortune; sometimes it just provides a deep sense of personal satisfaction.Can we improve our ability to be creative? Yes, in fact, learning to be more creative can be quite enjoyable and easy to do. Most of us were very creative as children, before we learned the official rules about how things are supposed to be. We can resurrect our ability to be more creative by exploring some of the many techniques that have been developed to improve creative and artistic ability, as well as to improve creative problem solving. Some of the techniques that are used to improve creativity include brainstorming, mind-mapping, various forms of hypnosis and meditation, and guided imagery.The techniques that have been developed to try enhance creativity all have one thing in common. They are all trying to bypass the inner ¡Èjudge¡É or ¡Ècritic¡É we have in our minds.Most of us have an inner voice that is running a constant commentary on everything we think and do. We might barely notice this inner voice much of the time, yet it has a great impact on what we can accomplish in our life. In many of us this inner voice is usually very negative. No matter what we want think about, or want to do, this inner voice is running like a tape in the background of our minds, criticizing our ideas, our performance, and our ability to be successful. When we come up with a new idea, our inner voice may be saying, ¡ÈThis idea is stupid.¡É Or it might tell us, ¡ÈI should never be mediocre or average, I must be brilliant and perfect all the time. All my ideas should be totally brilliant and innovative. If my ideas aren¡Çt perfect right from the start, I am a failure and it¡Çs better not to even try¡É. Our negative inner critic does not always appear as a voice. Sometimes we see visual images of ourselves failing. Or we may have physical sensations of fear and embarrassment that stop us from pursuing new ideas or new actions. Your inner critic isn¡Çt being evil when it criticizes you, or when it tells you your ideas are not very good. Your critic is actually trying to protect you from being ashamed or embarrassed by the potentially negative comments and reactions of other people to your ideas. Our inner critic is trying to make us perfect and safe, but it can have an unforeseen damaging effect. If our inner judgmental dialogue is mostly negative, our creative abilities will suffer. Instead of helping us to come up with better ideas, this endless barrage of negative inner commentary will hurt our ability to come up with new ideas. You can¡Çt be creative, and be critical at the same time. These two processes require different ways of thinking. The critical, judgmental, analytical function of the brain is not the part that knows how to generate creative ideas. Even the types of brainwaves that you generate when you are being rational and analytical are quite different than the brainwaves that go with maximum creativity. When it¡Çs time for you to be creative, you have to send your ¡Èinner critic¡É out for a walk.

10 Characteristics of A Home Business Professional

Home Business Professionals are unique people. We are all very different people, with very different personalities and thinking processess. However, all successful home business professionals have the following characteristics in common.
1. Home business professionals are usually leaders, not followers. We like to set the standards, not adhere to them.
2. Home business professionals are always looking for new and better ways to do things. We believe that there is always a better, more effective way to get things done, and we seek to find it.
3. Home business professionals are very open-minded. We never say that an idea won't work without looking at all the facts, and if possible, testing the theory in question.
4. Home business professionals are generally very organized. We are our own bosses. There is nobody to tell us when, or how, to get things done. It is something we must do for ourselves, and being organized is usually the first step in getting things done effectively.
5. Home business professionals are hard workers. We know that starting a business is hard work, with long hours. However, we know that eventually, we will be able to work fewer hours and enjoy the same success. However, we do understand that work will always be involved, even if the hours are shorter.
6. Home business professionals like to help out others. If you talk to a home business professional, the chances are good that you will find that person does charity work of some sort.
7. Home business professionals are honest in their business dealings. When they see others being dishonest, they are quick to call them on it, and point it out to others.
8. Home business professionals are very dedicated. We love what we do. It is something we have chosen for ourselves. We make our own rules, and we love "going" to work each day. Our love for what we do drives us to do it better than anyone else and keeps us very motivated.
9. Home business professionals are very energetic. We don't have the stresses that the people in the corporate world have. We are not a part of the rat race. This allows us to have more energy. While traditional corporate employees tend to go home from work and stretch out on the couch to watch television, home business professionals walk out of their home offices ready to go have fun. We have alot of energy left over at the end of the day.
10. Home business professionals are happy people. We love what we do. We've made our own rules, and we are living the lives that we have chosen to live. Who wouldn't be happy?

Believe In Yourself

Believe In Yourself (Believe Your Way to Success)
Believe in yourself. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Some people will tell you it is easy and others will say it is impossible depending on their own experiences. Yet, most of us have learned that is necessary to believe in your abilities to achieve a particular goal.
Have you ever done something just because somebody told you to do it, but you didn't think you could get it done? I don't know what that task was for you, but I do know you didn't give it your best and it did not have a positive outcome for you. Think about that for a moment. You can probably make of list of the things you failed at because you did not believe you could do it or that you could not do it well enough.
On the other hand, you can probably think of successes in your life that were made possible because you believed in yourself and your capabilities even if no one else did.
You must learn, if you haven't already, that you can achieve whatever you set out to do. But... (there's usually a but) you must be willing to do what is necessary to build your competence and confidence; your persistence and your patience; and your knowledge and your stamina. These are but a few of the building blocks for learning to believe in yourself through preparation for the task to be accomplished.
The same applies to running a successful business of any kind. You must believe in yourself and that you are able to do whatever is needed to make it successful - for you. Not because you have to, but because you choose to prepare yourself for successes. I often say that "if you believe in yourself - you will prepare yourself"
When it comes to operating a successful online business you must prepare yourself for success. The best way to do this is to learn from the 'masters' or 'gurus' who have made their fortunes
on the Internet.
There are a numerous sources of information on internet marketing, etc., but many of them are pitiful, unproductive schemes. Fortunately, there are a number of informative online newsletters (Ezines) full of useful advise and resources to direct you on the right path to a successful business of your own.
Yes, it's true. You can believe your way to success.
Manna Success News, a free weekly Ezine provides short, information packed online marketing articles by experts in the industry. Each issue includes at least one FREE E-book for subscribers and links to the best resources to help you start or grow your business.
Until the next time Keep on believing.

Benefits of a Variety of Fruits and Vegetables

We know we need to eat a minimum of 5 servings of fruit and vegetables everyday. Actually now, to prevent cancer, 8 to 13 servings per day are recommended. A serving is one cup of raw fruits or vegetables, or ½ cup cooked. At a recent lecture I asked a lunch audience to raise their hand if they had at least one fruit or vegetable already that day. No one in that group raised their hand. This is not uncommon. Our processed and convenience foods contain very few fruits and vegetables. To prevent chronic diseases, fruits and especially vegetables are very important. Vegetables especially have the antioxidants, minerals, and phytochemicals in the correct combination that help keep the blood sugar in balance, create better energy in the body, and along with fruits build up the immune system. Each color found in fruits and vegetables focus on building the immune system in its own way. It is important to get a variety of colors, so that you will get a full range of phytochemicals (beneficial plant chemicals) in your daily diet. Research is finding that eating whole fruits and vegetables gives you many more nutrients than you could possible add to a vitamin and mineral supplement. There are over 12,000 phytochemicals, and I have yet to see a supplement, unless it has whole fruits and vegetables in it, have all of the 180 different vitamins or minerals that are required by our body to function daily. The different colors in fruits and vegetables help our immune system react to different stresses in our daily life. So look at the different colors in your diet. See if they include each of the colors listed below. This is one way to know that you are getting the full benefit of nutrients possible in your diet.Green Foods – broccoli, kale, leaf and romaine lettuce, spinach, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. Green foods are especially good for the circulatory system. They contain many minerals and B-complex vitamins. Some phytochemicals found in green foods are sulforaphane and indoles that are very powerful anti-cancer compounds. Researchers have tried to use these as isolated phytochemicals but find that they only work while in the whole food form. Red Foods – tomatoes, watermelon, red cabbage. Red foods contain many phytochemicals that reduce free radical damage. The phytochemical called lycopene is especially helpful to prevent prostate problems, and reduce the effects of sun damage on the skin. Lycopene is the phytochemical that make the red foods get their red color. Orange Foods – carrots, pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, apricots, cantaloupe. The orange foods have the carotenoids the help prevent cancer by repairing the DNA. As our mothers told us, carrots, and other orange foods, are especially good for our eyes, and help with night vision. The deep orange foods help our bodies get the vitamin A we need, without getting excess that can lead to osteoporosis. Green/Yellow Foods – yellow corn, green peas, collard greens, avocado and honeydew melon. This combination of green and yellow foods contains the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin that help reduce the risk of developing cataracts and macular degeneration. These foods are also helpful in reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Orange /Yellow Foods – oranges, pineapple, tangerines, peaches, papaya, nectarines These foods that are orange and yellow in color are high in antioxidants, especially Vitamin C, and help to improve the health of the mucus membranes and connective tissue. They help prevent heart disease by improving circulation and preventing inflammation. White/Green Foods – onions, garlic, celery, pears, chives White and green combination foods contain a variety of phytochemicals. Garlic and onions contain allicin, the anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal phytochemical, and they can act as a poor man’s antibiotic. Add garlic and onions in your meals to reduce the effects of potential toxicity of high fat meats. Celery has many minerals, especially organic sodium, that keeps the fluid in the joints healthy. Red/Blue/Purple Foods – red apples, beets, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, prunes, concord grapes, blackberries. These dark colored red/blue/purple foods are very rich in powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins that protect again heart disease by improving circulation and preventing blood clots. They have many anti-aging phytochemicals that keep the blood circulating reducing the effects of the Standard American Diet rich in trans fats and processed foods.When you make a salad make sure you have a variety of different colors. Strive to get at least 5 colors on your plate. Use fruits to balance the rest of the colors needed. This way you will get closer to the 8 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables required, and you will get the variety of nutrients you need daily.

Glamour Cars

Long and sleek! With Elvis as the hero of the day during the1950s, whatever he drove become the car of the day. And Elvis loved the glamour that shiny new tail-fins exhibited. His fans loved them, too, which led to over thirty heart-stopping models being designed during the 1950s. No one cared back then whether cars were gas-guzzlers or whether the paint job would last, or whether the shiny chrome that protruded out the back begged to have dents inserted within the first few weeks. The appeal of cars during the 1950s was more than just Elvis. It was prestige and glamour for even the average working person. The feeling of luxury seeped into one’s feelings and emotions, and romance bloomed with respect while riding in these elegant vehicles.The Chrysler Town & Country Newport coupe which came out in 1950 didn’t have fins (they started creeping into the designaround 1952). Yet it wasn’t the typical car of the 1940s. Almost a dinosaur compared to today’s styles, the Newport featured distinctive, external wood framing (referred to as being a ‘Woodie’) and strongly appealed to the hunter and sportsmen.Pontiac had a mascot – an Indian Chief– whose unsmiling faceformed the base of the front hood. His headdress consisted of streaks of chrome sliding back over the hood and being picked up again on the trunk. Sleek looking! Everyone wanteda car with a personality, and the Indian Chief gave the Pontiac one. Because the cars of the early 1950s had a somewhat dowdy appearance but reflected the potential of sparkling glamour,car designers became aggressive in their creativity. By 1957and 1958 the designers produced disastrously overblown responses. Sharp clean fins reached in all directions. They were streaked with chrome, and somewhere in the middle a body was grafted into them. Bright yellows! Passionate reds!Baby blues! And regardless of the weather where one lived, convertibles were in, even if you never lowered the top.The intense competition among the car manufacturers meant that each model became extinct quickly. Planned obsolescencemeant the customers had to choose between buying a new car each year or being a social leper. Because of the expense ofredesigning all models every year, the manufacturers took tokeeping the inner workings of the cars basically the same and only changing the outward look. By 1958 some models,such as the 1958 Oldsmobile, were beginning to be called ‘ugly.’ Some even said it looked like a brick with a hardtop sitting on it. However, the indented chrome on the doors still caught one’s eye of respect. All systems self-destruct from within. The era of the glamour cars had outdone itself and common sense dictated that what would follow in the 1960s would be based on performance, a concern for the environment, and conservativepackaging. During the 1960s people weren’t impressed with external appearances to the exclusion of what existed underneath. This attitude was reflected towards both people and cars. Yet, who will ever forget Elvis? Or the glamour cars of the 1950s? Cottis Pardens is the webmaster and operator of CarsUlike Dotcom whichtackles all motoring issues.

Be More Creative

Would you like to be a more creative person?
Before you answer yes or no to that question, think about what the word “creativity” means to you.
If you think that creativity is something that you only need if you’re an artist, while you happen to be a middle-manager in a corporation, you may think increased creativity is not really necessary to your life. But creativity is something far broader than artistic expression, and it’s required in many areas of life.
Your idea of a creative person might be someone who lives in a loft, painting gigantic canvases all day long. Or perhaps a writer at her computer, working on a long novel. Or a musician, actor, or singer performing on stage to an audience.
These are all people actively expressing themselves artistically, and they can all rightly be said to be creative people, even if no one else enjoys their art.
But what about an entrepreneur who has an idea for a new product, who forms a company to produce and distribute it, eventually employing hundreds of people? Doesn’t this require creativity?
What about a research scientist toiling in a lab, developing new compounds in an effort to cure disease? Isn’t this creative? What about a single mother who manages to come up with healthy delicious meals on a tiny budget? Is that creativity?
To one person, creativity can mean gluing seashells to a picture frame. To another, creativity might mean solving a grand unified theory in physics. And to another person, being creative might mean coming up with an ingenious new way to speed up a factory assembly line.
When we define creativity only in terms of artistic expression, we miss a lot of other potential applications for creative thinking and problem solving.

An artist painting a picture or a writer working on a novel does have something in common with the researcher in the lab, and the entrepreneur, and the person gluing seashells to picture frames. They are all working on problems and devising solutions that didn’t exist before. These people are using their minds to imagine fresh ways of doing something.
They are combining existing ideas or materials in unexpected ways, creating something different from what has gone before. It may be a new idea, a new look, a new product, or technique. Creativity can be exciting, fun, personally fulfilling, and even financially lucrative. It can also be frustrating, challenging and scary.
Can we improve our ability to be creative? Yes. In fact, learning to be more creative can be quite enjoyable and easy to do. Many techniques have been developed to improve creative and artistic ability, as well as to improve creative problem solving.
Thes include such techniques as brain storming, image streaming, mind mapping, and various forms of guided imagery and meditation.
All techniques that enhance creativity have one thing in common. They are all trying to bypass the inner judge or critic we have in our minds.
Most of us have an inner voice that is running a constant commentary on everything we think and do. We might barely notice this inner voice much of the time, yet it has a great impact on what we can accomplish in our life.
In many of us this inner voice is usually very negative. No matter what we want to do, this inner voice is running like a tape in the background of our minds, endlessly criticizing us, and our ideas.
When we come up with a new idea, our inner voice may be saying, “This idea is stupid.” Or it might tell us, “I should never be mediocre or average, I must be brilliant and perfect all the time. All my ideas should be totally brilliant and innovative. If my ideas aren’t perfect right from the start, I am a failure and it’s better not to even try”.
Our negative inner critic does not always appear as a voice. Sometimes we see visual images of ourselves failing. Or we may have physical sensations of fear and embarrassment that stop us from pursuing new ideas or new actions.
If we want to become more creative, we need to find a way to bypass or shut off our inner critic.
Our inner critic is trying to make us perfect, but it usually has the opposite effect.
If our inner judgmental dialogue is mostly negative, our creative abilities will suffer.
Instead of enabling us to come up with better ideas, it is far more likely that the negative inner dialogue will destroy our ability to come up with new ideas to dry up completely.
The creative part of us will feel inadequate and embarrassed and shut down.
Your inner critic isn’t being evil when it criticizes you, or when it tells you your ideas are not very good. Your critic is actually trying to protect you from being ashamed or embarrassed by the potentially negative comments and reactions of other people to your ideas.
The critical, judgmental, analytical function of the brain is not the part that knows how to generate creative ideas. The types of brainwaves that you generate when you are being rational and analytical are quite different than the brainwaves that go with maximum creativity.
Even if you have the most kindly inner critic in the world, you still need to bypass the judgmental part of yourself when you want to be creative.
When you want to be more creative, tell your inner critic to go out for a walk.

Beauty Basics - Eight Tips For Naturally Beautiful Skin

Not sure what to look for when choosing cosmetics? Need some advice on taking care of your skin? Here are eight tips to help your skin look and feel its best.
1)Select moisturizers made with vegetable oils. The lotions, creams and body oils that you use should be made with vegetable oils, not mineral oil. Vegetable oils, (like olive oil, sweet almond oil, corn oil, etc.) contain fatty acids which help to moisturize and soften the skin. Mineral oil is derived from petroleum and does not contain anything that helps to nourish the skin.
2)Look for herbs and herbal derivatives in your cosmetics. Herbs and their derivatives (essential oils, extracts, infusions) contain natural chemicals which soothe, tone and help condition the skin. Two herbs which are especially useful in natural cosmetics are Lavender and Tea tree. The essential oils of both lavender and tea tree are gentle, natural antiseptics.
3)Once a week soak your feet in warm water, and gently exfoliate dead skin with a pumice stone. Follow up by moisturizing your feet with a natural foot oil or foot lotion.
4)Every week soak in a tub of bath salts. Salt, especially salts mined from the Dead Sea in the Middle East, are rich in minerals and help draw impurities out of the skin.
5)After a shower or bath, seal in moisture by using a body oil or lotion made from natural vegetable oils.
6)If you have blemishes and your skin is dry, moisturize your skin in the morning and at night with products that contain vegetable oils which are high in essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids help to soften and hydrate the skin and they can also help soothe minor irritations. Vegetable oils that contain large amounts of essential fatty acids are: corn oil, sunflower seed oil, safflower oil, borage oil, blackcurrant seed oil and evening primrose oil.
7)Look for toners and astringents that are made without ethyl alcohol, rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol. These ingredients are solvents that are extremely drying to the skin.
8)Every time you wash your hands, moisturize them with a natural lotion or cream to help them stay soft.

Barriers to Self Care

For many women, the term self-care often becomes a foreign concept once motherhood occurs. Why?
I believe there are several key reasons why mothers find it difficult to take better care of themselves:
Time - One of the major barriers to self-care is the feeling that there’s just not enough time. Going from leisurely lunches with friends (before the days of motherhood), to sleepless nights, packed lunches and car pooling, is a huge adjustment. Often we are left feeling stretched for time.
Multiple Role Players - In today’s society, moms play multiple roles - everything from career professional, soccer mom and committee volunteer, to chauffeur and housekeeper. How can we find time for ourselves while juggling all these roles?
Guilt – Feelings of guilt play a huge part in why mothers spend little time taking care of themselves. Guilt can be associated with being away from our family due to work commitments, taking an hour to ourselves when there already seems to be so much to do, or by just trying to do something that is important to us and does not involve the family.
As moms, we believe that by being away from our kids, or not involving them in virtually everything we do, we are somehow not living up to our duties and responsibilities.
Perfectionism - The need for perfection in our lives is another barrier to self-care. Perfectionists are always seeking that ultimate feeling of having everything under their control, often not doing (or enjoying) anything unless it can be done perfectly.
Seeking perfection in our self-care may lead to not participating in it at all. Self-care can’t wait until everything else is perfect.
At times you will need to forego the housework, committee meeting or staying late at the office. Not all things can be completed before incorporating self-care into your day. For perfectionists, this concept is a difficult one, therefore adding to the neglect.
Lack of Support - Lacking a support system is a common reason many mothers do not participate fully in their self-care. Many women may not have the support of a partner or family members to help out in order to give them time to themselves.
Poor social supports and few friendships can contribute to the lack of connection women feel at times. This emotional connection is necessary for your health and happiness, and is also a major part of self-care.
Finances - Financial status may also play a part in the frequency in which women participate in their own self-care. Often mothers conclude that if only they had more money they would take better care of themselves.
As you can see, there are several reasons why we as mothers may put
self-nurturing at the bottom of our list. For our own health and happiness however, we need to start moving it up to the top.