Ya Helween June Issue

Ya Helween

Magazine

10

SLEEPING MYTHS YOU WON’T BELIEVE!

OPIOID

ADDICTION

What Prince taught us

BRAIN LOVE

Is there more than just a heart connection?

BETTER YOURSELF

Day By Day

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INTEREST

COOL FACTS

IS YOUR PASSWORD

SAFE?

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HAVE A secret that can ruin your life. et mel, idapri commodo tincidunt, eos string of It’s not well-kept secret, either.

Just a simple characters—maybe six ofex. them if you’redictas careless, 16 if you’re novum oratio detraxit Omnis cautious—that can reveal everything about you. imperdiet ex vis.

Your email. Your bank account. Your address and credit card number. Photos of your kids or, worse, of yourself, naked. The precise location where you’re sitting right now as you read these words. Since the dawn of the information age, we’ve bought into the idea that a password, so long as it’s elaborate enough, is an adequate means of protecting all this precious data. But in 2012 that’s a fallacy, a fantasy, an outdated sales pitch.

And anyone who still mouths it is a sucker—or someone who takes you for one.

No matter how complex, no matter how unique, your passwords can no longer protect you.

Look around. Leaks and dumps—hackers breaking into computer systems and releasing lists of usernames and passwords on the open web—are now regular occurrences. The way we daisy-chain accounts, with our email address doubling as a universal username, creates a single point of failure that can be exploited with devastating results. Thanks to an explosion of personal information being stored in the cloud, tricking customer service agents into resetting passwords has never been easier. All a hacker has to do is use personal information that’s publicly available on one service to gain entry into another.

Before freezing ground beef, place it in plastic bags and flatten. This will reduce thawing time when you’re ready to eat.

H

ens don’t actually “sit” on their eggs; they squat over them, supporting their weight on their feet and on the edges of their nest.

Australia was actually given its name before it was even discovered by Europeans. Rumors of Terra Australis (“land to the south”) persisted for centuries until the Dutch confirmed its existence in 1616.

There was a third Apple founder. Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the only two men who signed the Declaration of Independence who also went on to become President of the United States.

Many artificial color additives are prohibited by law, so farmers add marigold petals to their chicken feed as a natural color enhancer to give their egg yolks that sunny, yellow hue.

Jim Henson said he made the first Kermit out of his mom’s old coat. He used Ping-Pong balls for eyes.

It is estimated that 1 out of every 55 Canadian women will give birth in their car on the way to the hospital.

Chemotherapy drugs are designed to kill any rapidly dividing cells. Unfortunately, our hair follicles are some of the fastestgrowing cells in the body, which is why most cancer patients lose their hair during treatment.

Switch your romaine or iceberg lettuce for kale or baby spinach in your salad to get more protein.

Alfred Hitchcock was notoriously hard on actors. He was once quoted as saying, “Actors are cattle”—a quip that stirred up a huge outcry. In response, he issued this correction: “I have been misquoted. What I really said is, ‘Actors should be treated as cattle.’”

10THINGS

INTEREST

YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

RAMADAN

1. You can totally eat in front of us ....

For the next 30 days, Muslims around the world will abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t carry on business as usual. (Just turn a deaf ear to our growling stomach) 2. ... but try not to schedule a work lunch If you have to have a brownbag, you should. But don’t feel bad if we sit there, like a vegetarian friend at a churrascaria. Ditto for a happy-hour mixer. If your Muslim co-worker takes a pass, understand.

3. You don’t have to fast with us ...

You can if you want to see what it feels like. But it’s not going to hurt our feelings -- even if we’re best friends.

4. ... but you can join us for Iftar Iftar is the breaking of the fast after sundown. We like to make it a big communal meal. You should come.

5. You don’t have to know when it begins ...

Ramadan isn’t like Christmas or Thanksgiving, as in you know exactly when it’ll fall. It bounces around, because the Islamic calendar is lunar. When it begins depends on when the new moon is seen. That’s why the precise dates change from year to year.

6. ... but please be a little flexible How we determine when Ramadan begins is decidedly old-school -- you have to physically see the moon (even though there are apps for that). That’s why, if your co-worker says, “Starting tomorrow, can I start work early so I can leave sooner?” try to accommodate.

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E IF N I F Y L L A IT ’S TOTT IN FRONT OFE YOU EAFTERALL, WE’R US....A G TO HAVE A HE GOIN D MEAL IN T I SPLENDEVENING.

7. We’ll still go for coffee with you ...

No, we can’t drink. Not even water. But we’ll walk with you if you want to take a break.

8. ... but we may keep our distance One word: Halitosis. You try not eating or drinking the entire day. That’s why we’re standing a foot away from you when we talk.

9. You can say “Ramadan Mubarak” There’s no “war on Christmas”-level controversy surrounding the greeting. (It means “Happy Ramadan”). Your Muslim co-worker will appreciate the thoughtfulness.

10. ... but please don’t say “I should fast too. I need to lose weight” Ramadan’s not about that. Plus, one of Ramadan’s side effects is obesity if you don’t watch what you eat. (It’s all that post-sundown overeating.)

There’s more to Ramadan than fasting.

YOUR HEALTH

CURING BAD BREATH

HEELS BABY, HEELS! I have one pair of high heels, and they hurt.

The pain is mostly in my feet because they are forced into an unnaturally extended position with my toes bunched upwards and heel sticking up. My lower back isn’t too happy either. But who cares? I’ve joined the 78% of women who wear them almost daily, despite them causing pain, on average, after one hour and six minutes. High heels are perceived to be worth the pain because they make legs look taller, feet smaller and the body thinner.

But research published this month from South Korea in the International Journal of Clinical Practice suggests that high heels may actually alter the muscle balance around the ankle joint, leading to instability and balance problems. The Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery has reported that the number of high heel related injuries in America doubled from 7,097 in 2002 to 14,140 in 2012.

“Don’t fool yourself,” said a 1928 advert for Listerine mouthwash, “Since halitosis never announces itself to the victim, you simply cannot know when you have it.” Many of us do indeed worry that our breath smells fetid and sulphurous. There’s even halitophobia, when people are convinced they have bad breath but don’t. It is estimated that up to half of us have bad breath, which seems a bit excessive: the rate of “objectionable bad breath” is thought to be more like 2.4% of adults.

It’s hard to diagnose it yourself.

Breathing into your hands and sniffing them only tells you if your hands smell. Licking the back of your wrist and smelling it after 10 seconds isn’t accurate either. Flossing and then smelling is only likely to reflect any decaying food. The taste in your mouth isn’t closely related to how your breath smells. Breath clinics have machines such as halimeters that measure sulphur emissions, but the most reliable way is for an expert to smell and score the level and type of odour.

Or failing that, a close friend.

In 85% of people, halitosis originates in the mouth. You may think that’s obvious, but tonsillitis, acid reflux in the oesphagus and kidney and liver problems can also make the breath

smell. However, it’s the 600-plus bacteria in the mouth – particularly the ones producing unstable sulphur compounds from proteins breaking down – that are usually the culprits.

A BMJ review says that it is poor oral hygiene that’s usually to blame. The most likely cause is food and bacterial plaque on the tongue and teeth – especially when this causes gum inflammation. The main culprit is the back of the tongue, and some people happen to have grooves that allow a white coating to accumulate. A coating that is only 0.1mm thick can reduce the oxygen to the tongue, allowing the bacteria that grow best without oxygen to flourish and produce smelly compounds.

The solution Regular teeth-brushing and flossing will reduce the problem. A systematic reviewfound that tongue scraping (which I always thought was a stupid idea) might work – but do it gently, back to front, as there are more bacteria at the back.Another review found that mouthwashes with chlorhexidine gluconate, which reduce bacterial levels, can help, especially after tongue-brushing when the bacteria are exposed and defenceless.

YOUR HEALTH

THE

BIG CHEESE

JUST

CHILLING

Americans are eating record amounts of cheese—10.6 billion pounds were produced in the U.S. in 2011, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. Cheese has merits, including its bone-building calcium. But the way we usually eat it—slathered on pizza, poured over nachos, stacked on crackers—cancels out any health benefits. After all, cheese is high in calories (about 100 per ounce, on average) and fat (6 to 9 grams per ounce, most of which is saturated), and it often contains a lot of sodium. Still, small amounts can fit into most people’s diets. Here’s what you need to know.

Like all dairy foods, cheese provides calcium and protein, as well as some vitamin A, B12, riboflavin, zinc and phosphorus. And it’s a source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fat that may have anti-cancer, weight-reducing, and heart-protective effects. But you’d have to eat a lot of cheese to get meaningful amounts of CLA, which means you’d also get a lot of unhealthy saturated fat and calories. Low-fat cheese contains less CLA; nonfat cheese contains none.

The act of exposing yourself to the cold and feeling the cold and, gritting your teeth through the discomfort. It actually does appear to burn fat in an attempt to warm the body, and may carry some health benefits.

Cold exposure is a technique in which a person voluntarily expose themselves to temperatures below their comfort level.

This voluntary deviation from the body’s ideal temperature causes reactions in the body to maintain the internal temperature; some of these reactions are increased metabolic rate to produce heat, which results in weight loss.

The benefits seen are long term (adaptive), and thus not likely to occur with one or two isolated ventures. They are directly proportional (to a degree) to the variance between comfort level temperature and the temperature one partakes in.

Benefits have been seen at 6°C degrees below comfort level, which is typically 16°C (60.8 ºF).

Greater metabolic losses are seen with greater intensities of cold exposure.

STRAP HERE People say love is like an addiction.

According to some neuroscientists, they’re right! Romantic love can release so many happy-go-lucky neurotransmitters into your bloodstream that the effects can outdo some drugs. Here’s what happens in your brain when you stick with that special someone.

IN THE BEGINNING….

When you have butterflies in your stomach from meeting someone new, dopamine levels surge. All that dopamine gives you an extra thrill when you see your newly beloved, creating an intense craving to be around them. A neurotrophin called nerve growth factor accompanies all this euphoria and increases your emotional dependency.

Lastly, serotonin levels drop, which cranks up the dial for desire. This chemical cocktail is why lovestruck couples can be so infatuated with each other. Studies show that the chemical concentrations brewing inside the brains of newly minted lovebirds are similar to those who suffer from OCD. IS IT LOVE OR IS IT LUST?

Brain Love Have you ever wondered what happens to your brain in love? Is there really something behind the strange butterflies in your belly and those chill bumps that pop up on your arms? Read on to find out!

Romantic love is driven largely by the emotional center of the brain, the limbic system. Meanwhile, lust is controlled by the endocrine system. Parts of the hypothalamus prime the body for sex while steroid hormones amp up sexual desire.

But don’t dismiss lust as some primitive carnal instinct. When you’re lusting for someone, your brain does a heavy load of subconscious work. In one study, people were shown pictures of good-looking people and asked whether they found them attractive or not. It took them significantly longer to give a piece of eye candy the “okay.” To no one’s surprise, the extrastriate area of the brain—which we use to judge someone else’s body—was active. But the brain’s temporo-parietal junction also lit up, which is interesting, because that part of the brain is important for understanding your own body image. It seems that when you’re lusting, you’re not just judging someone else—you’re judging yourself.

AS THE RELATIONSHIP SOLIDIFIES… As the relationship wears on, lovebirds become less obsessive. The bonding phase begins. The raphe nuclei start producing

more serotonin, while, within a year, nerve growth factor levels usually return to normal. Things may feel less exciting, but the rise in serotonin helps produce a trusting, less needy attachment that primes couples for a long-term relationship. Oxytocin—the hormone that floods your brain during an orgasm— helps curb obsession even more and helps make things more stable. (Oxytocin, by the way, is the same hormone that makes maternal bonds so strong.)

YEARS INTO LOVE… The longer a relationship lasts, the less dopamine is released. But that doesn’t mean the bond is dying. In fact, a molecule called CRF (corticotrophinreleasing factor) helps keep couples together. CRF is released whenever couples are separated; it creates an unpleasant feeling that makes them miss each other. In men, a molecule called vasopressin also increases. Vasopressin is linked to territorial behavior, and it may explain why, in healthy relationships, men feel loyal and protective of their partners (while in unhealthy relationships, they’re possessive). Vasopressin also promotes fidelity. When scientists inhibited vasopressin receptors in prairie voles, the usually faithful animals became rampant cheaters.

WHAT ARE SOME ADVANTAGES OF LOVE? For one, it makes you think smarter and faster. In one study, participants stared at a computer as names flashed across the screen (but flashed so quickly that they couldn’t consciously recognize them). When the name of their loved one appeared, their ability to perform demanding cognitive tasks improved significantly. Scientists believe that’s because love activates the brain’s dopamine system—a system that’s been shown to boost cognitive and motor skills.

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The longer a relationship lasts, the less dopamine is released. But that doesn’t mean the bond is dying.

MOTIVATION

HOW TO, WORK Making the transition from employee to full-time business owner can be a tough adjustment for some.

After years of living the cubicle life, and sticking to a strict, structured schedule, it is natural to want to break free from the life that you used to know and settle into a life of freedom!

But when you make the switch to being your own boss, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all structure and discipline should go out the window. In fact, that mentality is the quickest way to set you and your business up for failure. A smart mogul in the making knows that there has to be some sort of structure to keep things flowing smoothly and make your working time productive.

When I decided I was ready to be my own boss and became a full-time entrepreneur, I thought that meant working in my PJs from the comfort and warmth of my bed, “multi-tasking” by watching television or chatting with friends and family members (you know, to make the day go by faster), and doing whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted to do it.

There was only one problem: I found myself not getting much work done. I realized that I was treating my business more like a hobby rather than the budding empire that I was trying to build.

It wasn’t until I made a conscious decision to make these changes that I saw a drastic difference in my business: Think Like a Mogul Coming from a corporate background, I realized that what made the company I worked for run so smoothly was the structure. There were set working hours, checklists of what needed to be

accomplished each day, and deadlines.

When I first made the switch, I was lacking all of these things. Then, I had an AHAmoment: what if you ran your business as if it was already a major empire. These days, I follow a schedule pretty closely to make sure I am actually getting work done and moving my business forward.

Now, I know you probably decided to go into business for yourself to free up more of your time, but the reality of it is you STILL have to work, sometimes harder than if you were an employee (more on that in a future post). Set a schedule that you will be able to keep up with, make daily to-do lists, give yourself deadlines to finish projects, and work as if you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Entrepreneurship does not mean you get to

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slack off.

Eliminate Distractions Distractions, such as watching television and taking phone calls, are the biggest productivity killers. It’s very hard to focus when you’re trying to catch up on the latest episode of Scandal (or whatever shows you can’t live without) or when your phone is ringing off the hook from friends that want to chat you up at any given time. I’m all for multi-tasking, but this will get you absolutely nowhere, fast. Turn off the television, make sure your friends and family members know and respect your work schedule, and stick to it.

Schedule Breaks I confess, I am a Facebook junkie! I am one of those people who must check

I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.

the goings-on every few minutes. Yep, I know it’s bad (hanging my head down in shame). My solution: I’ve decided to schedule breaks into my daily schedule. Just like if you were a 9-5 employee, you would typically get two 10-15 min. breaks, and an hour lunch. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you have to work straight through the day in order to be productive. Breaks are actually necessities. Make time to stretch, grab a bite to eat, and even pencil in social media or other activities you feel that you can’t go without. Depriving yourself only makes you want it more, so allow yourself to take a breather.

Get Dressed Up Sitting around the house in PJs all day is a sure-fire way to stay in lazy mode. When you get up in the morning, get dressed, comb your hair, put on your makeup, etc.

Do whatever it is you would do if you were heading into the office to work. Studies have shown that the way you look is directly related to how you feel. So, if you stay in that just-out-of-bed, hair-all-over-yourhead, fluffy-pajama-wearing mode, you’ll likely feel sluggish and unmotivated to get much done. However, if you pull yourself together, you’ll feel more ready and willing to tackle your to-do list head on.

Location, Location, Location Sure, working from the bed is the most comfortable place in the house, but it’s also the most dangerous.

Not in the actual “danger” sense, but meaning, it is probably the place that you will get the least amount of work done because to the average brain, bed = sleep, relax, tired, etc. Your environment can drastically affect your work productivity, so choose a location that is more conducive to getting things done. If you have a place in your home that can be turned into your “office” that would be the best choice. If not, consider the kitchen table, or any other quiet area that will allow you to stay alert and get things done.

Also, if you need a change of environment from time to time, drive over to your local coffee shop, café/ restaurant, or bookstore. The bumbling atmosphere will keep you awake, and just being out of the quiet and stillness of your home or office will up your mood, which is very important if you plan on getting anything done.

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Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness.

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PSYCHOLOGY

WHERE WORDS FAIL MUSIC SPEAKS

This is an experience shared by everyone: hear a piece of music from decades later and you are transported back to that particular moment, like stepping into a time machine. You can feel everything as if you were actually there. The relationship between music and memory is powerful, and new research is hoping to discover how these memories work for therapeutic effect. It is already used to help dementia patients, the elderly, and for those suffering from depression.

Music has been an important mnemonic device for thousands of years. David C Rubin is a specialist in autobiographical memory and oral traditions and in his ground-breaking book Memory in Oral Traditions he explains how epic stories like Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey were passed down verbally using poetic devices. Before the narratives could be written down, they were chanted or sung.

Oral tradition depended on memory.

The hippocampus and the frontal cortex are two large areas in the brain associated with memory and they take in a great deal of information every minute. Retrieving it is not always easy. It doesn’t simply come when you ask it to.

The technique remains important today. Neuroscientists have analysed the brain mechanisms related to memory, finding that words set to music are the easiest to remember. Just think of one of the first songs you could well have

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Music helps because it provides a rhythm and rhyme and sometimes alliteration which helps to unlock that information with cues. It is the structure of the song that helps us to remember it, as well as the melody and the images the words provoke.

sung: “A,B,C,D,E,F,G, come along and sing with me.” Text learnt to music is better remembered when it is heard as a song rather than speech. Try and remember anything set to a tune and your powers of recall will be stronger: “Now I’ve sung my ABC.” All in the mind There is a link then between music and memory, but why, when we hear a particular song, do we feel strong emotions rather than just being able to recite the lyrics? If I listen to Rhythm Is a Dancer, I recall the amazing feeling of travelling without my parents for the first time and all the fun I had as much as the lines of the song, which I might add wasn’t one I cared for particularly − the lyrics are banal or just plain bad. “I’m as serious as cancer when I say rhythm is a dancer” was described by one critic as the ‘worst lyric of all time’ and yet it evokes profound feelings.

There are different kinds of memory, including explicit and implicit memory.

Explicit memory is a deliberate, conscious retrieval of the past, often posed by questions like: where was I that summer? Who was I travelling with? Implicit memory is more a reactive, unintentional form of memory.

Rhythm Is a Dancer’ is the song that does it for me.

It’s a tune by the German Eurodance group Snap!, that was played a lot one summer as I travelled across Europe. I hear just one refrain from it – “It’s a soul companion/ You can feel it everywhere” – and the late nights and sandy beaches come immediately to mind. But were I deliberately to try and remember something particular from that holiday, without the music, I would recall nothing as immediate or emotional.

“A large part of memory takes place in the unconscious mind” Robert Snyder, a composer and chair of the sound programme at the Art Institute of Chicago, tells me. “There are aspects of memory that are remembered implicity, that is, outside of consciousness”. What’s more, he says, “implicit memory systems involve different parts of the brain than explicit memory systems”. It is the explicit memory systems that are damaged by conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Implicit systems are robust in comparison. Snyder explains that “things that can affect us from outside of consciousness are often regarded as powerful”. In other words, implicit memory is emotional as well as durable.

Notably, memories stimulated by music often come from particular times in our lives. Classic hits take us back to our teenage years and our twenties, much more than songs of later years. Psychologists have called it the ‘reminiscence bump’. It may work this way because this is an especially important and exciting time in our lives, when we are experience things for the first time and when we become independent. Everything is new and meaningful. Later, life becomes a bit of a blur.

Music evokes emotion, but the sound and feeling of it, while important ,don’t necessary define your feelings. A sad song could be associated with a happy time, a happy one with a sad one.

Love of PERFECTION

If you’ve ever cried about getting a B+ or ending up in second place, there’s a good chance you’re a perfectionist.

As a culture, we tend to reward perfectionists for their insistence on setting high standards and relentless drive to meet those standards. And perfectionists frequently are high achievers — but the price they pay for success can be chronic unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Here are 5 perfectionist traits.

“Reaching for the stars, perfectionists may end up clutching at air,” psychologist David Burns warned in a 1980 Psychology Today essay. “[Perfectionists] are especially given to troubled relationships and mood disorders.”

Perfectionism doesn’t have to reach Black Swan levels to wreak havoc on your life and health. Even casual perfectionists (who may not think of themselves as perfectionists at all) can experience the negative side-effects of their personal demand for excellence.

Here are 14 signs that perfectionism could actually be holding you back — and simple ways to start letting go.

1. You’ve always been eager to please.

Perfectionism often starts in childhood. At a young age, we’re told to reach for the stars — parents and teachers encourage their children to become high achievers and give them gold stars for work well done (and in some cases, punishing them for failing to measure up). Perfectionists learn early on to live by the words “I achieve, therefore I am” — and nothing thrills them quite like impressing others (or themselves) with their performance.

Unfortunately, chasing those straight A’s — in school, work and life — can lead to a lifetime of frustration and self-doubt.

“The reach for perfection can be painful because it is often driven by both a desire to do well and a fear of the consequences of not doing well,” says psychologist Monica Ramirez Basco. “This is the double-edged sword of perfectionism.”

2. You know your drive to perfection is

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hurting you, but you consider it the price you pay for success.

The prototypical perfectionist is someone who will go to great (and often unhealthy) lengths to avoid being average or mediocre, and who takes on a “no pain, no gain” mentality in their pursuit of greatness.

Although perfectionists aren’t necessarily high achievers, perfectionism is frequently tied to workaholism. “[The perfectionist] acknowledges that his relentless standards are stressful and somewhat unreasonable, but he believes they drive him to levels of excellence and productivity he could never attain otherwise,” Burns writes.

3. You’re a big procrastinator.

The great irony of perfectionism is that while it’s characterized by an intense drive to succeed, it can be the very thing that prevents success. Perfectionism is highly correlated with fear of failure (which is generally not the best motivator) and self-defeating behavior, such as excessive procrastination.

Studies have shows that other-oriented perfectionism (a maladaptive form of perfectionism which is motivated by the desire for social approval), is linked with the tendency to put off tasks. Among these other-oriented perfectionists, procrastination stems largely from the anticipation of disapproval from others, according to York University researchers.

Adaptive perfectionists, on the other hand, are less prone to procrastination.

4. You’re highly critical of others.

Being judgmental toward others is a common psychological defense mechanism: we reject in others what we can’t accept in ourselves. And for perfectionists, there can be a lot to reject. Perfectionists are highly discriminating, and few are beyond the reach of their critical eye.

By being less tough on others, some perfectionists might find that they start easing up on themselves.

“Look not to the faults of others, nor to their omissions and commissions,” the Buddha wisely advised. “But rather look to your own acts, to what you have done and left undone.”

5. You go big or go home.

Many perfectionists struggle with blackand-white thinking — you’re a success one moment and a failure the next, based on your lastest accomplishment or failure — and they do things in extremes. If you have perfectionist tendencies, you’ll probably only throw yourself into a new project or task if you know there’s a good chance you can succeed — and if there’s a risk of failure, you’ll likely avoid it altogether. Studies have found perfectionists to be risk-averse, which can inhibit innovation and creativity.

For perfectionists, life is an all or nothing game. When a perfectionist sets her mind to something, her powerful drive and ambition can lead her to stop at nothing to accomplish that goal. It’s unsurprising, then, that perfectionists are at high risk foreating disorders.

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DEVELOPMENT

Pushing Limits Breaking Boundaries

Outside your comfort zone can be a good place to be, as long as you don’t tip the scales too far. It’s important to remember there’s a difference between the kind of controlled anxiety we’re talking about and the very real anxiety that many people struggle with every day.

Everyone’s comfort zone is different, and what may expand your horizons may paralyze someone else. Remember, optimal anxiety can bring out your best, but too much is a bad thing. ere are some ways to break out (and by proxy, expand) your comfort zone without going too far:

H

Do everyday things differently. Take a different route to work. Try a new restaurant without checking Yelp first. Go vegetarian for a week, or a month. Try a new operating system. Recalibrate your reality. Whether the change you make is large or small, make a change in the way you do things on a day-to-day basis. Look for the perspective that comes from any change, even if it’s negative. Don’t be put off if things don’t work out the way you planned.

Take your time making decisions. Sometimes slowing down is all it takes to make you uncomfortable—especially if speed and quick thinking are prized in your work or personal life. Slow down, observe what’s going on, take your time to interpret what you see, and then intervene. Sometimes just defending your right to make an educated decision can push you out of your comfort zone. Think, don’t just react.

Trust yourself and make snap decisions. We’re contradicting ourselves, but there’s a good reason. Just as there are people who thrive on snap decisions, others are more comfortable weighing all of the possible options several times, over and over again. Sometimes making a snap call is in order, just to get things moving. Doing so can help you kickstart your personal projects and teach you to trust your judgement. It’ll also show you there’s fallout to quick decisions as well as slow ones.

Do it in small steps. It takes a lot of courage to break out of your comfort zone. You get the same benefits whether you go in with both feet as you do if you start slow, so don’t be afraid to start slow. If you’re socially anxious, don’t assume you have to muster the courage to ask your crush on a date right away, just say hello to them and see where you can go from there. Identify your fears, and then face them step by step.

There are lots of other ways to stretch your personal boundaries.

You could learn a new language or skill. Learning a new language has multiple benefits, many of which extend to learning any new skill. Connect with people that inspire you, or volunteer with an organization that does great work. Travel, whether you go around the block or across the globe. If you’ve lived your whole life seeing the world from your front door, you’re missing out. Visiting new and different places is perhaps one of the best ways to really broaden your perspectives, and it doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult to do. The experiences you have may be mind-blowing or regrettable, but that doesn’t matter. The point is that you’re doing it, and you’re pushing yourself past the mental blocks that tell you to do nothing.

NO MORE

DEVELOPMENT

THROWING

SHADE Encouragement. It sounds like such a small thing. Subtle. Cute. It’s what we do with timid kittens.

But encouragement isn’t cute—it’s fraught and powerful. When you’re encouraging, you’re instilling courage. That’s huge. And that’s hard.

And it’s way more compelling than motivation.

Motivation doesn’t depend on circumstances. Motivation is for people who are already inclined to try to succeed.

The commencement addresses that go viral are always more encouraging than they are motivational. The speakers recognize a specific concern—like needing to get a job or facing an uncertain future—and discuss ways it can be overcome. They don’t offer some vague challenge like “surmounting an obstacle” or “seizing upon your dreams” or “surmounting your dreams by seizing upon an obstacle” or whatever the current motivational clichés are. Do these addresses involve motivation? Yes. Are they “motivational” in that unctuous way that motivational things are? No. Commencement addresses make listeners accountable. Encouragement inherently involves accountability—and not just for the one being encouraged. The encourager is accountable, too.

How To Encourage Praise the actual. If you read all the research on motivation, it pretty much comes down to this: Praise works better than criticism.

“We all have an emotional tank. It works like the gas tank of a car. There has to be way more tank-filling than tank-draining,” says Ruben Nieves, former Stanford University men’s volleyball coach and current national director of training for the Positive Coaching Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Mountain View, Calif., that focuses on teaching and encouraging positive character-building in youth and high school sports.

Acknowledge the potential. Encouragement involves the acknowledgment of a negative thing—that the people being encouraged don’t know they’re not doing (or trying to do) the thing they should be doing. They might think they’re doing just fine, that they’re being appropriately effective and ambitious. Encouragement often involves bursting a confidence bubble.

To be encouraging, you must believe two things to be true. One, the person is not trying hard enough, which is probably not something the person wants to hear; and two, if the person tried, he or she could do great things, which is good. The key to encouraging is to deliver the bad news in a way that doesn’t force the person to dwell on inadequacies. The key to encouragement is tact.

Says Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of Bumble, a dating app: “Start off by telling them their strong points and acknowledging their efforts and talents. ‘You’re extremely creative and you’re brilliant, and you’re wonderful at coming up with new ideas.’ And then from there you can say, ‘I would love to see you be able to segue that into a more organized manner.’ It’s very easy for people to kind of lose track of what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong.”

Challenge specifically. You motivate generally. But you must encourage specifically. This holds the person accountable. “You should ask this person for help.” “You should go after that job.” “You should consider switching to this career.” Like that.

“For example,” says Wolfe, “‘I think you have the potential to be a fantastic leader and to have three people work under you … but in order to do that, I think we need to improve upon your time-management skills, your organization skills,’ vs. coming at them saying, ‘You’re disorganized.’ Approach it from a potential route.”

Why It Matters Encouragement means empowerment, says Samir Nurmohamed, an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“A lot of it comes down to guided autonomy,” he says. “So, on the one hand, we know from research that people are much better at work when they feel empowered, which consists of having meaning on the job, a sense of autonomy, a sense of confidence, and also an impact on what you do and the people you’re trying to help. Yet you don’t want to feel so autonomous that you have no direction. It’s one thing to feel autonomous in terms of your motivation, but it’s another thing to be autonomous and go in the wrong direction.”

You have to discourage before you encourage. That challenge is scary—for both parties. But the reward is sweet. Not only have you helped someone achieve a goal; you’ve helped someone achieve a goal that he or she didn’t previously have. That’s not merely motivational— that’s magical. You’re a wizard, a coach, a seer and (if we’re being honest) kind of a pain, all at the same time.

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MENTAL FLOSS

HAPPINESS IS...

I sat in the café wondering why I wasn’t happy. I had been listening to all the happiness and self-help gurus. I was meditating every morning. I ate a healthy diet. I exercised four times a week. I was working hard on projects I was passionate about. I wasn’t wasting time and watching my life tick away. Yet, somehow, as I sat in the café, I wondered how I could have been “doing it all right” and yet everything felt incredibly wrong.

There is no mistaking the feeling of being unhappy. I wasn’t quite sure where it originated, but I constantly felt exhausted, uninspired, and like the energy was being sucked from my body. I had this mantra constantly running through my head: if you only get one life, the solution is to cram as much stuff into it, every minute, and waste no time so that you will die fulfilled. But it just wasn’t working. So I did what we naturally do. I went to Google, the mystical tech god, to help show me why I wasn’t happy and to help figure out what to do. I tried all the usual suggestions. I started journaling and keeping a track of all my moments I was the most grateful for during the day. I started engaging in random acts of kindness; I would buy strangers’ coffee at Starbucks, pay for someone else’s toll, or leave a gift on someone’s windshield. I increased my meditation time to at least forty-five minutes per day, and focused on staying mindful throughout the day.

But the big problem was still there; I felt stressed constantly, unhappy, and had the weird feeling that even though I wasn’t wasting any time, and was using my life wisely, I just wasn’t enjoying life that much. I just could not understand why at the end of the day I felt so grumpy Every. Single. Time. And then, as most coincidences in life happen, I stumbled upon an article written by Martha Beck, the famous life coach, about how there was one overlooked path to success—and it wasn’t hard work. In fact, quite the opposite. And it was something seriously in short supply in the modern world. Play.

At first I thought, “What?” How is that possible? I’m having fun all day long. I go to work, come home, exercise (which I enjoy), work on my side project (which I enjoy), do some studying for a bonus class (which I enjoy). I play all day! No, no, no, Martha’s article said.

That is not play. Play needs to be restorative; it needs to be a time when your brain and body are turned off and simply in flow. I decided to do an experiment.

Every guru since the dawn of time has mentioned how children are closer to “the truth,” and that by observing them we could learn quite a bit.

So every day for a week I sat in a café. And I just observed. I did nothing but watch people interact, watched them come and go, and in particular, watched how children interacted. The first thing I noticed was something obvious: life is a game to kids. They spill milk and then laugh. Something breaks, and they act scared for a moment, then laugh. It’s pouring outside, and they jump in puddles and laugh. It’s incredible the 180 I noticed that I (and many other adults) make.

“

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never Grows old.

Spilled milk? Annoying. Now my clothes are dirty.

Broken wine glass? Great. Now I have to spend $15.

Raining outside? Ecstatic. I get to run around freezing and potentially get a cold. It was insanity. We were both experiencing the exact same things in life, and I was giving myself a heart attack, while little kids were rolling on the floor laughing. Same situation. Big difference.

I then did a flow test, where I wrote down every single moment of my daily schedule and analyzed whether I was having fun or not. I quickly realized I wasn’t playing.

I wasn’t engaging in the relaxed, restorative kind of play that leaves you feeling strong and healthy. I was too concerned with “making this one life count” that I was jamming every minute of every day with some kind of activity, for fear of wasting a single minute.

And the horrible irony was that I was seeking happiness by not wasting time… but “doing more” didn’t get me there. Isn’t that crazy? One of life’s most important practices is so easily overlooked because we take it for granted.

There’s the old saying about how kids smile 400 times a day, but by the time they reach adulthood they only smile 10 times a day. I think it’s true. And for me, the real secret to enjoying life, beating unhappiness, and beginning to reverse depression was all about playing more in life. And, like meditation, everything can become an exercise in playfulness.

Maybe this life-changing secret will help you too: if you aren’t enjoying life enough, stop pursuing happiness, and just play.

Happiness will come as an unintended side effect.

GET LOST IN THE

CONCRETE JUNGLES

Have you been bitten by the travel bug, but don’t know where to go yet? We’ve searched all around the internet for the best cities to visit...so get your visas ready!

Budapest is an elegant city with a youthful ambiance.

The city is famous for its historic gothic nature, natural beauty, gorgeous hills and islands. The city serves as the home to the most popular thermal spas in Europe, Gellert Spa. The Chain Bridge that connects the Buda to Pest provides a stunning view of the River Danube and beautiful buildings. The city is not only famous for its good looks, it is also well known for the owning of excess of plastic surgeons as well as it serves as the cosmetic surgery destination.

Burges with outstanding witness of the medieval architecture is the city that comes next in the list of top 10 most beautiful cities in the world. A tour on charming canals provides an opportunity to view the beauty of this gorgeous city. Though the Bruges is a small city, it is huge when it comes on beauty. The gothic monuments, oval canal and cobbled lanes attract the most tourists to visit the city.

The city that occupies the nect place in my list is none other than Vancouver. The city is also considered as the one among the world’s most livable cities. The city is the great spot for those who like to visit both mountains and sea beaches. The city is known for its eco friendly green spaces, Stanley Park and Coast Mountains. This is the 3rd largest metropolitan region in the nation. The attractions in the city are listed below

<-----Florence is the city that was recognized as the “World Heritage Site” by the UNESCO. There are only few most beautiful cities in the world than the Florence city.

Numerous Domes, unspoiled skyline, gorgeous hills and Duomo remains witness for this honor. The city holds the ideal examples of the renaissance architecture. If you plan a trip to the city, sure the beauty of the city makes your trip unforgettable in your lifetime.

Next is Amsterdam the city that is well known as the “Venice of North”. The city is packed fully with beautiful canals, relaxing charms and parks. If you are one who likes to enjoy your life without the bustle and hustle, then Amsterdam is the place that you can choose. The beautiful monuments, apartments, offices, restaurants and cafes are known for the progression of the city.

Effortless beauty of the city Lisbon impressed most tourists and made them to consider this city as the one among the most beautiful cities in the world. The perfectly landscaped parks, beautiful beaches, pre 18th centaury architecture and cobbled design streets stand as a proof for the beauty of the city. When you visit the city, you will experience the colorful picturesque streets in your each turn.

The most beautiful city in the world that won my list is none other than Venice in Italy. In addition, Venice is the most unique as well as interesting city in the world. Each building in the city is a piece of art that is breathtaking at the first sight. The piazzas are the perfect example for the beauty of the city. The city includes charming town squares, winding streets and canals.

When it comes on most beautiful cities in the world, it is very rare to find out a list without the Paris.

Paris serves as the capital city of France. The city is most preferred for light, love and culture. The city is known for the latest fashion and gastronomy. When we think about Paris, Eiffel tower is the famous site that will strikes in our mind.

AUTOS

S S BO CAR FIT FOR A

Every car Nissan redesigns lately turns to sales gold, and the 2016 Maxima is likely to be another solid success for both the company and midsize sedan shoppers alike. Nissan seriously reworked the Maximaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s V6 engine and CVT transmission and made navigation a standard feature. It also added a cockpit controller to the touch screen, and much of the tech you want can be found on most trim levels. The 2016 Nissan Maxima Platinum has the technology, the fit and finish, and the comfort to compete with other top cars in the segment, like the Chrysler 300$46,890.00 at TrueCar and the Chevrolet Impala$37,610.00 at TrueCar, earning it an Editorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Choice award.

There are two range-topper Maximas. The Maxima SR features sporty suspension, Alcantara power-ventilated seat inserts, and an integrated dynamics-control module (IDM) that tweaks the throttle and steering for $37,670. The Maxima Platinum trim includes premium leather ventilated seats, a power tilt/telescope wheel, and an Around View Monitor with moving object detection that warns you if a child or other object wanders near the car while you’re backing out. We tested the Maxima Platinum, which came out to a final price of $40,865.

Even the base model comes with 15 inches of cockpit screen real estate. In the center stack, nicely canted 7 degrees toward the driver, is an 8-inch touch screen, plus a 7-inch “meter display” (multi-information display, or MID) in the instrument panel. The displays work together: To bring up the map arrow and next turn info in the MID, just left-swipe the map image on the main screen.

An iDrive-like cockpit control wheel, the Display Commander, allows you to easily control most screen functions using the wheel and function buttons.

In profile, the 2016 Maxima Platinum looks like the 2016 Nissan Murano SUV with the plunging (in back) “Energetic Flow” roofline that floats atop blackedout pillars. This is another class-above cockpit, meaning it’s a $40,000 car that feels like a $50,000 car. The Zero Gravity seats (Nissan’s term) are truly comfy, and the backseat provides surprisingly ample legroom.

Nissan’s VQ35 V6 engine has more than 60 percent new parts, produces 300 horsepower, and is stronger than ever. The latest iteration of the company’s Xtronic continuously variable transmission (CVT) also shows improvement, including a wider ratio and less internal friction. (We’re at the point where the loudest Xtronic whine you hear is the CVT critics.) The combination returns 30 mpg highway, 22 mpg city, and 25 mpg combined, according to EPA ratings.

That’s good for a non-hybrid, non-diesel vehicle. Even though you’re not in the Maxima SR with its Alcantara-and-leather seats and 19-inch alloy wheels, this feels sportier than a 3,500 pound, front-drive car should.

“

This car packs a punch and looks just as sweet!!

CAR SPECS Infotainment works well, although the car was released too early to have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. The Nissan Connect smartphone link to the car provides connection for a handful of apps, including Pandora and iHeart radio, as well as a voice-input text messaging assistant. Nissan Connect also does stolen car tracking, geofencing of teen drivers, map send to car, and remote door unlock and start, in conjunction with SiriusXM services. You also get two USB ports.

Solid tech. Standard navigation. Touch screen supplemented by control wheel. Comfortable ride.

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HOW TO WIN AT BEING AWESOME!!

22 | Magazine Template www.website.com

W YOU ARE A

LIFESTYLE STRAP HERE

Awesome is defined by Merriam Webster as, “inspiring awe.” Now, you can interpret that many ways, both positively and negatively. What I think may be awesome might not be for you, or for someone else. This tutorial will define the definition of awesome, to mean inspiring awe, by being great. By becoming awesome in your life, you will open the door to the abundance of possibilities that come with putting out awesome vibes into the world. By learning how to be awesome and putting it to use in your own life, good things will start coming and happening to you on a regular basis.

Awesomeness is a way of life. It’s about how you behave and interact in the world. It’s about being your greatest self and putting yourself and what you have to offer out into the world. Being awesome is waking up each morning with the intention of moving forward on your journey, progressing as a person, and wanting to do whatever you can to make a positive difference in your life and the lives of others.

Here are some examples of being awesome; Being optimistic and having a positive outlook Reaching for, finding, and living your passions and dreams Facing your fears and overcoming them with confidence Leading by examples of honesty, integrity, and thoughtfulness Helping others and giving back to your community, however you can Treating others as they deserve to be treated: with kindness and respect, unless they are not deserving (aka.. not being awesome) Continue growing, learning, evolving, and participating in the world, helping to make a difference Having the courage to stand up for yourself and others Being able to raise your voice when no one’s listening Being of high character and having moral values Bringing out your inner creativity and showing it to the world etc…

Hopefully, you now understand a little more about how to be awesome at life. Just cleaning up some of the not-so-awesome aspects and characteristics will help you on your way to becoming more awesome in your life.

Benefits of being Awesome

WESOME

The benefits of being awesome are only limited to the amount of awesomeness you continue to attain.

Like I said earlier, it’s a process, a journey. Being awesome can’t happen overnight, but if you start to practice it on a regular basis, you will begin to change as a person. More than likely, you will begin to become the person you truly want to be.

Here are some clear advantages that come from acting in a more awesome-like fashion; The energy of awesomeness you put out into the world causes a ripple effect and does make an impact You will begin to feel better and will want to be happier, healthier, and truly free You will be inspiring and help people in their lives, making a difference

“

The journey of life will begin to feel just like that — a journey of the pursuit of greatness.

We all found ourselves, at some point in life, when we could have taken a risk in exchange for a greater gain. In the event you are an adrenalin junkie, a motto like “high risk, high reward” is not a bad thing to live by.

SUCCESS

HIGHLY

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE FOLLOW THESE TIPS We all want to believe we have the potential to be super successful. When it comes down to it, the prime thing that separates successful people from the rest of us are smart decisions. A common pitfall on the way to success is boasting, exaggerating, or losing your perspective.

However, by changing the way we approach challenges, we can better position ourselves to attack the next obstacle successfully.

BECOME YOUR GREATEST SELF Let’s take a look at this inspiring video first. At 6:17, it’s when you have to pay extra attention to.

To help unlock the secrets of successful people, the following seven qualities are ones you should try to do quietly.

They Network One thing truly successful people do quietly is network. In the professional world, networking is a balance between corporate interests and personal relationships. This means that overwhelming your new connections with business concerns can easily work against you. Not only that, but advertising far and wide your intentions to network could lead to new connections catching wind of your business strategy. This often makes people feel as if the have bee used and will impede your ability to form meaningful connections.

They Start New Projects Successful people also start new projects with humility.

Whether a new undertaking is at home or work, if your project is ultimately shelved, postponed, or changed, advertising your new undertakings too early could make you look foolish. That and bragging too much about new opportunities can be a tempting setting in which to lampoon your current or old positions. Don’t forget that mocking your previous positions is nothing more than ego run amok.

Nearly everyone starts off small, and making fun of this will likely alienate those beneath your position.

Additionally, being too open about fresh projects could give competitors inside information and allow them to offer competing products or services that are better than yours.

They Deal With Challenges Other things successful people do modestly is conquer challenges. Much like being too open about upcoming projects, giving away too much information about the challenges you’re currently facing might give competitors an extra edge. Not only that, challenges and assignments tend to look more intimidating while you are dealing with

IT’S NOT THAT HARD!! them; and seeming too stressed out or swamped could make you appear less capable, especially if your boss, or future employers, are considering you for a project. If you complain widely regarding feeling overwhelmed, you may miss out on a new opportunity or promotion.

They Incubate Ideas Successful people also know to consider ideas quietly. Even if an idea you have leads to a successful project or venture, it usually takes time to refine a concept before it makes any sense. In addition, competitors are happy to steal ideas from others, so it’s better to quietly sit on a plan until you’re putting it into practice.

They Interact Socially with Humility Much like networking, interacting socially is something successful people do quietly. Flaunting accomplishments and opportunities is off putting and abrasive. Additionally, nobody appreciates it when somebody habitually drops names.

Basically, treat everyone you interact with as equals and value and foster humility.

They Manage Employees Ethically Another way successful people become and stay successful is by managing any employees under them privately and with respect. Employees always prefer when their superiors

communicate with them in private. This way you avoid potentially embarrassing someone in front of others and preserve a professional atmosphere.

They Invest Finally, something potential successful people do quietly is invest.

Whether you are investing in real estate or stocks, giving away all your personal details can come off as crass if the people you’re sharing this with are not as financially secure. Additionally, giving away too much information about your investments is another way to give competitors information they can use to further their pursuits.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

Successful people also know to consider ideas quietly. Even if an idea you have leads to a successful project or venture, it usually takes time to refine a concept before it makes any sense.

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NUTRITION

Y H T L A E H

G N I T A E TS FAC

26 | Magazine Template www.website.com

Healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, improving your outlook, and stabilizing your mood. If you feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone. It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. But by using these simple tips, you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create a tasty, varied, and healthy diet.

How does healthy eating affect mental and emotional health?

We all know that eating right can help you maintain a healthy weight and avoid certain health problems, but your diet can also have a profound effect on your mood and sense of wellbeing. Studies have linked eating a typical Western diet—filled with processed meats, packaged meals, takeout food, and sugary snacks—with higher rates of depression, stress, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. Eating an unhealthy diet may even play a role in the development of mental health disorders such as ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, and schizophrenia, or in the increased risk of suicide in young people.

Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, cooking meals at home, and reducing your intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates, on the other hand, may help to improve mood and lower your risk for mental health problems. If you have already been diagnosed with a mental health problem, eating well can even help to manage your symptoms and regain control of your life.

While some specific foods or nutrients have been shown to have a beneficial effect on mood, it’s your overall dietary pattern that is most important. That means switching to a healthy diet doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet and make a difference to the way you think and feel.

Set yourself up for success To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps—like adding a salad to your diet once a day— rather than one big drastic change. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices.

Prepare more of your own meals. Cooking more meals at home can help you take charge of what you’re eating and better monitor exactly what goes into your food.

“

Make the right changes. When cutting back on unhealthy foods in your diet, it’s important to replace them with healthy alternatives. Replacing dangerous trans fats with healthy fats (such as switching fried chicken for grilled fish) will make a positive difference to your health. Switching animal fats for refined carbohydrates, though (such as switching your breakfast bacon for a donut), won’t lower your risk for heart disease or improve your mood.

Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories, think of your diet in terms of color, variety, and freshness. Focus on avoiding packaged and processed foods and opting for more fresh ingredients.

Read the labels. It’s important to be aware of what’s in your food as manufacturers often hide large amounts of sugar or unhealthy fats in packaged food, even food claiming to be healthy.

Focus on how you feel after eating. This will help foster healthy new habits and tastes. The more healthy food you eat, the better you’ll feel after a meal. The more junk food you eat, the more likely you are to feel uncomfortable, nauseous, or drained of energy.

Drink plenty of water. Water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins, yet many people go through life dehydrated—causing tiredness, low energy, and headaches. It’s common to mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you make healthier food choices.

Moderation is key Key to any healthy diet is moderation. But what is moderation? In essence, it means eating only as much food as your body needs. You should feel satisfied at the end of a meal, but not stuffed. Moderation is also about balance. Despite what fad diets would have you believe, we all need a balance of protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body.

For many of us, moderation also means eating less than we do now. But it doesn’t mean eliminating the foods you love.

Instead of emphasizing one nutrient, move to food-based recommendations.

What we eat should be whole, minimally processed, nutritious food. Food that is in many cases as close to its natural form as possible.

e N t ADDICTION

Social networks are massively addictive. Most people I know check and interact on social sites constantly throughout the day. And they have no idea how much actual time they spend on social media.

Social networks are massively addictive.

Most people I know check and interact on social sites constantly throughout the day.

And they have no idea how much actual time they spend on social media.

If you’re a social media addict, and your addiction is getting worse, there’s a reason for that: Most of the major social network companies, as well as social content creators, are working hard every day to make their networks so addictive that you can’t resist them.

Facebook: I wish I knew how to quit you Cornell Information Science published research earlier this month that looked at (among other things) the difficulty some people have in quitting Facebook and other social networks. They even have a label for the failure to quit: “social media reversion.”

The study used data from a site called 99DaysofFreedom.com, which encourages people to stop using Facebook for 99 days.

The site and study are interesting because they revealed the difficulty people have quitting Facebook because of addiction.

Participants intended to quit, wanted to quit and believed they could quit (for 99 days), but many couldn’t make more than a few days.

The addictive aspect of social networking is associated with FOMO -- fear of missing out.

Everyone is on Facebook. They’re posting things, sharing news and content and talking to each other 24/7.

The network effect itself is addicting, according to Instagram software engineer Greg Hochmuth, as quoted by The New York Times. (A network effect is the idea that any network becomes more valuable as more people connect to that network. The phone system is the best example of this phenomenon -- you have to have a phone because everybody else has a phone.)

In fact, Hochmuth and artist and computer scientist Jonathan Harris created a web experience called Network Effect. The site simulates the experience of browsing through social media by giving you a feed of people engaging on various activities.

Then, after a few minutes, the site won’t let you watch anymore (for 24 hours) so you can experience the subtle withdrawal symptoms.

In the world of social networking, Facebook benefits most from network effect.

Facebook happened to be the top social network when social networking busted out as a mainstream activity. Now, everybody’s on Facebook because everybody’s on Facebook. And even people who don’t like the social network use it anyway, because that’s where their family, friends and colleagues are -- and because of addiction.

The contribution of network effect to the

addictive quality of web sites is accidental.

But social sites are also addictive by design.

videos are getting -- it dwarfs the audiences of any TV show.)

That notification number

Shows like these trick the human brain into feeling like the YouTuber star is talking directly to the viewer, and makes the viewer feel like they have a personal relationship with the person in front of the camera.

One trick social networks use is a notification number, showing you the number of people at a glance who have mentioned or followed you.

Notification numbers appear on the app icon to draw you in, then on the top or bottom menu to draw you in further. They play the same psychological trick on you that clickbait headlines do -- they tell you that there’s information you really want to know, but they don’t tell you enough to satisfy.

Notification numbers work just like that. Seeing a red “3” on the Facebook notifications bar is like a clickbait headline: “You won’t believe what three people have said about you.” You’ve got to click or tap.

It’s compulsive. And over time, it becomes addictive.

The biggest tool in the social media addition toolbox is algorithmic filtering. Sites like Facebook, Google+ and, soon, Twitter, tweak their algorithms, then monitor the response of users to see if those tweaks kept them on the site longer or increased their engagement. We’re all lab rats in a giant, global experiment.

The use of algorithms for making social streams increasingly addictive explains a lot. It explains why Facebook (which has been tweaking its addiction algorithm the longest) now gets more than a billion users a day. It explains why Google never let you turn off algorithmic stream filtering all the way. And it explains why Twitter wants to algorithmically filter feeds, despite the general objection of users.

The tweaking of algorithmic filters for addiction means that in theory social sites get more addictive every day, and that the sites are in a war for survival where only the most addictive sites will survive. Meanwhile, our innate human ability to resist this addiction doesn’t evolve.

YouTube: The perfect cocktail of addictive ingredients YouTube is addictive, too, especially for people under the age of 20 or so, who use YouTube as their main source of entertainment. Serial YouTube video clicking is akin to the compulsion to TV channel-surf.

You flip through the channels endlessly because surely something better must be on right now. YouTube is like TV, but with a billion channels.

What habitual young YouTubers are watching is a key to understanding why it’s addictive for them. Most of this watching involves videos where YouTube stars talk to the camera. Here’s an example. Here’s another. (Note how many viewers these

Meanwhile, there’s another Darwinian contest taking place. YouTube stars have learned how to speak in a way that grabs and holds the attention of the viewer.

They’ve learned how to make their own onscreen personalities addictive.

It combines the innate human attraction for social interaction with a Darwinian contest among stars to master the art of attentiongrabbing charisma plus the channelsurfing compulsion plus an addictive social networking element in the comments sections.

How to kick the habit Social media addiction is real, and it can damage careers, degrade life and even harm relationships.

For most of us, though, we’re simply being manipulated by the social sites and content creators to waste far too much time in a way that benefits them, not us.

The best solution I’m aware of is to visit social networking sites once per day.

Schedule it. And keep track of how much time you’re spending there.

Try it. And if you succeed, you’re on your way to beating addiction without going cold turkey.

And if you can’t stick to your once-a-day habit, well, it sounds like you’ve got an addiction problem.

I’ll see you at group therapy.

8 WAYS TO BELIEVE

YOURSELF in Everything we have in life comes because of our belief that they are possible.

Yet, believing, especially in yourself, is much easier said than done. I know this first hand, because for the majority of my adult life, I suffered from one of the most debilitating diseases known to man – a disbelief in myself.

1) Not Guarding Your Heart

30 days.

Your heart is the most important tool you have. It is not your experience, knowledge, or skills. It is your heart that matters most of all. Don’t allow just everyone to have access to it. Guard your heart with all your might because everything you create comes from it. If we lose our heart, we have lost everything.

5) Thinking You’re The “Only One”

2) Allowing Garbage In Your Mind In this day and age, more content (blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, etc) gets published than at any point in the history of the world. Whatever we want to consume is accessible. The issue is what often lands on our plate is filled with negativity – from gossip posts to pure brainless themes like Cat memes. While individually, this content doesn’t do real harm, over time it eats away at our mind like a disease. Consume a disproportionate amount of inspirational content and cut out the crap.

3) Not Knowing What You Live For “What’s my purpose?” This was a question I asked myself a few years ago. Answering it changed my life instantly. It’s hard to know where you’re going unless you know who you are – your truth. To create your life roadmap, first identify and prioritize your values. Doing so will give clarity of what you need in life as opposed to what you simply want.

4) Not Training Your Belief System The first step to training your belief system is to use affirmations. Affirmations like, “Why am I so confident?

Why do I believe in myself? Why do I trust my intuition?” are empowering questions that focus your mind on why you are, in fact, confident. Next, force yourself into creating a habit of belief. Some people are born with an innate self-confidence, but most of us are not that lucky. It’s a good thing we can teach ourselves new habits. Most experts agree it only takes 30 days to change our behavior. Just like a good exercise program, use the suggestions in this post to map out what you will do daily to boost your “belief muscle” over the next

Do a quick read of ________’s biography (fill in the blank with the most inspirational person you know), and you’ll see how they also faced self-doubt at certain points in their life. If you are human, you have struggled with belief. I often find myself returning to Steve Job’s Stanford commencement address as a source of inspiration and guidance on how one of the most innovative men of our time dealt with self-doubt. This video is a different kind of soul food!

6) Allowing The Word “No” To Impact You No one ever succeeds without being rejected (many times). Expect to hear the word “no” time after time, and you’ll be ready to overcome, time after time. As best-selling author Karen Quinones so eloquently said: “When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.”

7) Not Accepting Compliments This is critical towards building your self-esteem, which is an important part of believing you can step into your purpose. Next time someone gives you a compliment, resist the urge to dismiss it, or question its authenticity.

Instead, imagine it is true and you might just find that it is.

8) Going At It Alone I write frequently about the importance of surrounding yourself with as many good people as possible. But let’s face it, sometimes the well for good friends is dry. That said, I don’t believe we were put on earth to be alone with our ideas. You must find your one supporter! When I decided to become a matchmaker, everyone told me I was crazy but I was able to find support from my wife.

All you need is one person to have your back and it makes your belief infinitely easier.

“

When you’re young, you’re very reckless.

Then you get conservative.

Then you get reckless again.

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TOP 10

Top 10 Sleep myths

1 More Sleep is Better There could be such a thing as too much sleep. The amount of sleep we need varies by person and also changes as we age.

Harvard researchers found that a lot of sleep (9 hours or more) is linked with poor sleep quality. So don’t aim for more sleep—even on the weekends. Aim for better sleep.

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You’d think the human race would have sleep down to a science by now, but many of us are still sleeping poorly (and so we need top 10 guides to getting better sleep). Part of the problem is we have outdated information and beliefs about this all-important health need. Let’s set the facts straight. Here are 10 things you might have been told about sleep but aren’t completely true.

2 Alcohol Helps You Sleep Alcohol, the original nightcap, can help most people fall asleep. However, it also can cause you to wake up more during the night, wrecking your sleep quality.

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Insomniacs Can’t Sleep

Waking up in the middle of the night is the pits, but it happens to all of us. We all hope to quickly fall back asleep, and so we tend to stay in bed hoping it’ll happen any minute now. If that doesn’t happen, though, within 15 minutes, most experts recommend getting out of bed to do something that occupies our bodies and brains without overstimulating us. Try not to check the clock either.

Insomnia is a complex sleep disorder. Difficulty falling asleep is just one of its four symptoms. The others, according to the National Sleep Foundation are waking up early and not being able to fall back asleep, waking often, and waking up feeling unrefreshed.

There are things you can do to alleviate insomnia and other sleep problems. The best treatment for the long-term usually isn’t medication; cognitive behavioral therapy may last longer.

5 The National Sleep Foundation offers recommendations based on age group, from newborns who need 14-17 hours of sleep each day to adults 18-64 who should get 7-9 hours each day, and older adults who should get 7-8 hours each day.

Children generally need more sleep. A Jawbone study found that people who sleep 8-9.5 hours each night report happier moods the next day.

6 Naps are awesome, but they’re not all equally restorative.

Depending on how long you nap, you might end up feeling groggy when you wake up. Aim for about 20 minutes if you want a boost in energy and mental alertness.

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One night of bad sleep—or no sleep—can definitely make you feel awful the next day, but if you’re consistently tired or feel sleepy during the day, sleep might not be the issue. Your diet, stress, or an underlying medical problem could be the cause.

Even allergies or the medications you’re taking could zap your energy. Consider your sleep quality, of course, but also look into other possible causes.

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Most people think of themselves as either morning “larks” or night owls, but there’s more to sleep cycles than that. People have different energetic times during the day that aren’t necessarily tied to our preference for sleeping late or getting up early. And you know that saying “the early bird gets the worm”? While our society—the workplace and school systems—seem to reward morning people, night owls can be just as productive and creative as their counterparts. In fact, doctors say schools should start later in the day for the health of students, who aren’t getting enough sleep. (I’d be up for later workday start times too.)

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Finally, this might be painful to admit, but snoozing your alarm will only make you feel worse. It doesn’t give you more time to finish sleeping but instead jolts you out of an even deeper part of your sleep cycle after you’ve dozed off between snoozes.

And then you’re a zombie for the rest of the day. So stop snoozing and drag yourself out of bed. You’ll have a better day and perhaps sleep better at night.

When we lose sleep during the week, we accumulate a kind of sleep “debt.” Think you can pay that debt back by sleeping in on Saturday and/or Sunday? Not so fast.

This might actually make you sleepier the next week. Instead of waking up later on the weekends, you’re better off going to sleep earlier or perhaps taking a nap in the afternoon.

PSYCHOLOGY

DOES THE

News Cause Depression

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n the past few decades, the fortunate among us have recognized the hazards of living with an overabundance of food (obesity, diabetes) and have started to change our diets. But most of us do not yet understand that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body. News is easy to digest. The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don’t really concern our lives and don’t require thinking.

That’s why we experience almost no saturation. Unlike reading books and long magazine articles (which require thinking), we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, which are bright-coloured candies for the mind.

Today, we have reached the same point in relation to information that we faced 20 years ago in regard to food.

We are beginning to recognise how toxic news can be.

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ews misleads. Take the following event (borrowed from Nassim Taleb). A car drives over a bridge, and the bridge collapses.

What does the news media focus on? The car. The person in the car. Where he came from. Where he planned to go. How he experienced the crash (if he survived). But that is all irrelevant. What’s relevant? The structural stability of the bridge. That’s the underlying risk that has been lurking, and could lurk in other bridges. But the car is flashy, it’s dramatic, it’s a person (non-abstract), and it’s news that’s cheap to produce. News leads us to walk around with the completely wrong risk map in our heads. So terrorism is over-rated. Chronic stress is under-rated. The collapse of Lehman Brothers is overrated. Fiscal irresponsibility is under-rated. Astronauts are over-rated. Nurses are underrated.

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e are not rational enough to be exposed to the press. Watching an airplane crash on television is going to change your attitude toward that risk, regardless of its real probability.

If you think you can compensate with the strength of your own inner contemplation, you are wrong. Bankers and economists – who have powerful incentives to compensate for newsborne hazards – have shown that they cannot. The only solution: cut yourself off from news consumption entirely. ews is irrelevant. Out of the approximately 10,000 news stories you have read in the last 12 months, name one that – because you consumed it – allowed you to make a better decision about a serious matter affecting your life, your career or your business. The point is: the consumption of news is irrelevant to you. But people find it very difficult to recognize what’s relevant. It’s much easier to recognize what’s new. The relevant versus the new is the fundamental battle of the current age. Media organizations want you to believe that news offers you some sort of a competitive advantage. Many fall for that. We get anxious when

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ews has no explanatory power. News items are bubbles popping on the surface of a deeper world. Will accumulating facts help you understand the world?

Sadly, no. The relationship is inverted.

The important stories are non-stories: slow, powerful movements that develop below journalists’ radar but have a transforming effect. The more “news factoids” you digest, the less of the big picture you will understand. If more information leads to higher economic success, we’d expect journalists to be at the top of the pyramid. That’s not the case. we’re We’re cut off from the flow of news. In reality, news consumption is a competitive disadvantage. The less news you consume, the bigger the advantage you have.

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ews is toxic to your body. It constantly triggers the limbic system. Panicky stories spur the release of cascades of glucocorticoid (cortisol). This deregulates your immune system and inhibits the release of growth hormones. In other words, your body finds itself in a state of chronic stress. High glucocorticoid levels cause impaired digestion, lack of growth (cell, hair, bone), nervousness and susceptibility to infections. The other potential side-effects include fear, aggression, tunnel-vision and desensitisation. ews increases cognitive errors. News feeds the mother of all cognitive errors: confirmation bias. In the words of Warren Buffett: “What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.”

News exacerbates this flaw. We become prone to overconfidence, take stupid risks and misjudge opportunities. It also exacerbates another cognitive error: the story bias. Our brains crave stories that “make sense” – even if they don’t correspond to reality. Any journalist who writes, “The market moved because of X” or “the company went bankrupt because of Y” is an idiot. I am fed up with this cheap way of “explaining” the world. ews inhibits thinking. Thinking requires concentration. Concentration requires uninterrupted time. News pieces are specifically engineered to interrupt you.

They are like viruses that steal attention for their own purposes. News makes us shallow thinkers. But it’s worse than that. News severely affects memory. There are two types of memory.

Long-range memory’s capacity is nearly infinite, but working memory is limited to a certain amount of slippery data. The path from short-term to long-term memory is a choke-point in the brain, but anything you want to understand must pass through it. If this passageway is disrupted, nothing gets through. Because news disrupts concentration, it weakens comprehension. Online news has an even worse impact. In a 2001 study two scholars in Canadashowed that comprehension declines as the number of hyperlinks in a document increases. Why? Because whenever a link appears, your brain has to at least make the choice not to click, which in itself is distracting. News is an intentional interruption system.

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ews works like a drug. As stories develop, we want to know how they continue.

With hundreds of arbitrary storylines in our heads, this craving is increasingly compelling and hard to ignore. Scientists used to think that the dense connections formed among the 100 billion neurons inside our skulls were largely fixed by the time we reached

adulthood. Today we know that this is not the case. Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. The more news we consume, the more we exercise the neural circuits devoted to skimming and multitasking while ignoring those used for reading deeply and thinking with profound focus. Most news consumers – even if they used to be avid book readers – have lost the ability to absorb lengthy articles or books. After four, five pages they get tired, their concentration vanishes, they become restless. It’s not because they got older or their schedules became more onerous. It’s because the physical structure of their brains has changed.

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ews makes us passive. News stories are overwhelmingly about things you cannot influence. The daily repetition of news about things we can’t act upon makes us passive. It grinds us down until we adopt a worldview that is pessimistic, desensitized, sarcastic and fatalistic.

The scientific term is “learned helplessness”. It’s a bit of a stretch, but I would not be surprised if news consumption, at least partially contributes to the widespread disease of depression. ews kills creativity. Finally, things we already know limit our creativity. This is one reason that mathematicians, novelists, composers and entrepreneurs often produce their most creative works at a young age. Their brains enjoy a wide, uninhabited space that emboldens them to come up with and pursue novel ideas. I don’t know a single truly creative mind who is a news junkie – not a writer, not a composer, mathematician, physician, scientist, musician, designer, architect or painter. On the other hand, I know a bunch of viciously uncreative minds who consume news like drugs. If you want to come up with old solutions, read news. If you are looking for new solutions, don’t. ociety needs journalism – but in a different way.

Investigative journalism is always relevant. We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth.

But important findings don’t have to arrive in the form of news. Long journal articles and in-depth books are good, too.

have now gone without news for four years, so I can see, feel and report the effects of this freedom first-hand: less disruption, less anxiety, deeper thinking, more time, more insights. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

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STRAP HERE

OPIOID ADDICTION The tragic, fentanyl-related death of music legend Prince has opened eyes and added new urgency to the nation’s attempts to deal with the opioid epidemic, which now kills 78 Americans daily. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising to see a tough-on-fentanyl amendment tacked on to a defense bill in early June.

Sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, the amendment included language that called for a 5-year mandatory prison term for anyone found with 0.5 grams of a substance containing the synthetic opioid fentanyl. That’s a 20-fold reduction from the current guideline of 10 grams.

While the amendment was no doubt intended as a way to rein in the growing reach of a highly dangerous drug by a senator whose state has been reeling from opioid-related deaths, what it would have meant in practical terms if passed is that more low-level users would find themselves behind bars rather than getting the help they need to return tohealth and productivity.

And that’s exactly the wrong direction for our nation to take, guaranteeing only that precious resources would continue to be diverted to punishment rather than to the evidence-based addiction care we know can work.

Agreeing were more than 100 civil rights, criminal justice, public health and faith groups, which denounced the Ayotte amendment in a letter to Senate leadership, noting what was at stake: “Our country has begun to change course on its criminal justice policy, recognizing that mandatory minimum sentencing requirements have done little to protect the health of American citizens or promote the safety of our communities. Instead, mandatory minimum sentences have resulted in persons convicted of nonviolent drug offenses receiving disproportionate prison sentences, including life sentences. We believe the Ayotte Amendments represent a step backward toward ineffective policy that fails to direct resources wisely, and their passage must be prevented.”

Action to combat our opioid epidemic must be taken, the letter continued, “however, in order to truly save lives and promote public safety, this response must be rooted in evidence-based [addiction treatment] practices.”

On June 14, common sense and compassion won. The defense bill passed without the Ayotte amendment even coming up for a vote.

I’d like to think this means we finally get it — that we understand we can’t end the epidemic of opioid abuse by continuing to lob shells in the war on drugs. But the reality is that we are still far from a true commitment to treat addiction as the illness that it is rather than turning to punishment to deal with our fearful new reality.

Fentanyl’s Potent Pull There’s certainly no doubt that the painkiller fentanyl is a frightening drug — 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. And because it can be easily manufactured, fentanyl has been embraced by drug traffickers as a cheap way to boost the strength of lower-grade heroin, sometimes without the buyer’s knowledge.

It’s also incredibly addictive. Kristin WaiteLabott, who became hooked on fentanyl while an ER nurse and wrote a memoir about her experiences, talked in an interview about how powerless she felt the first time she took the drug. “There’s getting high and there’s getting lost, and I just feel like I got lost once I took that,” she said.

But what’s also not in doubt is that treating those addicted to substances rather than putting them behind bars is not only the compassionate response, it’s the smart one. A 2012 study by Temple University and RTI International found, for example, that diverting just 10% of drug offenders to community based addiction treatment rather than sending them to prison would not only reduce future crime, it would save the criminal justice system $4.8 billion. If 40% were diverted to treatment, the figure would be $12.9 billion.

Addiction treatment, then, makes sense on every level, and that’s a concept that’s being increasingly recognized by social and government leaders.

The Obama administration, for example, has put its weight behind a “Smart on Crime”initiative that has led to changes in mandatory minimum sentences for certain low-level drug offenses. The administration has also called for an additional $1.1 billion in fundingearmarked to help those with opioid addictions. Access to medication such as buprenorphine, which can help in the treatment of opioid use disorder, has also been increased.

And throughout society, we see signs of change. A police chief in Gloucester, Massachusetts, for example, started a highly

lauded and now-growing program that promises any addicted person who walks into the police station ready to quit will be helped into treatment rather than arrested.

On the whole, however, access to care continues to fall far short of what’s needed.

According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, federal, state and local governments spend close to a combined $500 billion each year on addiction and substance abuse, but only 2 cents of each of those dollars goes to prevention and treatment.

There was also high hope for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was expected to dramatically boost access to care by requiring addiction treatment to be an essential benefit of its health insurance policies. A recent analysis by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, however, paints a disheartening picture.

Although the ACA mandated the coverage, it left the details about exactly what that coverage would look like to the states. None of the states’ so-called “benchmark” plans, which outline the minimum benefits its ACA plans must offer, had adequate addiction treatment benefits when all was said and done, the Center study determined. More than two-thirds had obvious violations of ACA requirements, many had harmful treatment limitations (such as incomplete coverage of medications approved to treat opioid addiction and no coverage for inpatient rehab), 18% failed to meet the required parity with other medical coverage, and the wording in 88% of the plans was so vague as to make a complete evaluation of the coverage impossible. And since that wording is the same wording that the policyholder

sees, figuring out what is covered and what isn’t can be an exercise in frustration for the patient.

Plagued by Stigma Beyond prison terms and incomplete benefits, another issue continues to play a role in keeping people from the help they need: stigma. Despite a growing body of research that helps us understand addiction as a complex, chronic brain disease, it continues to be viewed by many as a moral failing or a shameful weakness.

Prince, who is believed to have begun using opioids as a way to deal with the painful rigors of his performances, undoubtedly understood that stigma all too well. Did it keep him from reaching out for help when his substance use first began to be a problem?

And the big question: If he had reached out earlier, might he be with us today? We can only wonder.

One thing is certain: His death opened the eyes of many who suddenly understood how easily substances can overtake a life — even for those with talent, resources, wealth and a devoted circle of friends, family and admirers. And we also know that if the Ayotte amendment had been in effect when Prince was alive, he might have been one of those facing half a decade behind bars.

Prince didn’t live to see compassion for the addict become the norm in our society. But if our nation remains vigilant when lawmakers attempt to return us to the punitive policies of the past and if we finally commit to provide real help for those who are struggling with substances, perhaps it will become part of his legacy.

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Gratitude is the healthiestofallhuman emotions.Themoreyou express gratitude for whatyouhave,themore likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.

Rest in peace Muhammad Ali

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