15 Things You Can Start Doing Today To Be Happier

Image: g1wallz.com

Albert Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results. Well, doing the same things everyday but with a slightly different approach is actually the key to happiness. Start bringing those changes in your attitude towards life and you’ll see how simple it is to be happy.

Here are 15 significant attitudes that help you become happier in life.

1. Gratitude
Appreciate what you have and value it. Try counting your positives and be grateful for all the good things and people in your life. Stop complaining and be thankful for what you already have and you’ll soon start feeling happy.

2. Stop Labeling
Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open.

3. Optimism
Treat failure as an opportunity to learn a new and better lesson from life, and that’s the trick to manufacture optimism in life. Never give up trying because that’s an indication that something better is in store. Once you start harbouring an optimistic attitude towards life, success will automatically follow.

4. Release The Past
The past you are now longing for — the past that you are now dreaming about — was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now. Work on this by practicing with simple tasks every day. For example, when you cut the grass, just think about the grass and nothing else. When you’re washing the dishing, immerse your full presence in dish washing. Eventually, your life will revolve around your day today, not yesterday.

5. Avoid comparison
Nothing is as awful as comparing yourself to someone else. If you think you’re better that the other person, you’re letting yourself regale in an unhealthy sense of superiority. If you demean yourself in front of others, it means all your hard work and progress has been in vain. While social comparisons are unhealthy, self-improvement is effective.

6. Kindness
There’s a scientific reason behind every act of kindness that you do. Helping someone selflessly releases serotonin in your brain (Serotonin is the hormone that controls your mood) and hence makes you feel good about yourself almost instantly. Try doing one act of kindness everyday to flush out the toxins of depression from your system.

7. Stop Using Excuses
Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses — excuses that most of the time are not even real. We sabotage ourselves beyond belief. If you find yourself making excuses, ask yourself why you are creating the excuse in the first place?

8. Nurture Relationships
Relationships keep us alive and kicking. In fact, according to research studies loneliness doubles people’s mortality rates. A circle of good friends, loving family members and cheerful colleagues are a reminder that you have people who care about you. There’s nothing like having someone who you can share your experiences with. So nurture these relationships and say goodbye to a lonesome existence.

9. Forgiveness
Hatred is a negative feeling and harbouring it will have nothing but negative effects on your well-being. Stop thinking about the hateful emotion/person and let it go. Forgive if needed, take things lightly and let it not affect your system.

10. Avoid Impressing Others
Success may have nothing to do with how much money you have or how many cars you have, but how you choose to live a life of abundance which comes in many forms, many of which have nothing to do with material things. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take off all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.

11. Commit To Your Goals
If you have a goal, work towards it. Anything is achievable if you put your heart into it. Wholehearted dedication and diligence can bring extraordinary results and consequentially add to your happiness. It is very easy to lose vision for what we truly want in life, but it is your dedication towards your goals above and beyond all obstacles that will make the difference.

12. Care For Your body
Love yourself and love your body! Your physical condition has a direct connection with your well-being. A fit body and healthy mind is reflective of happiness. Start working towards the health of your physical, mental and emotional energy by caring for your body.

13. Believe
Connect to a higher power. You’re probably already doing this with or without knowing. Just a quick meditation or prayer is easy. If you have the time, join a local prayer group, visit a meditation center, or simply spend some time alone in nature. People who believe in a deity are generally happier than those who don’t. Sometimes all you need to be happier is a little faith!

14. Dream
Imagination fires motivation. Create a dream board and dream up something new you wish to experience. It could be finding a new lover, climbing a mountain, learning calligraphy, or going back to college. Dreams motivate, inspire and expand our sense of self. They also make us happy because they give our lives a sense of purpose. Happy people usually love what what they do, and if they don’t, they love who they are. Dreams remind us who we are.

15. Give
Cultivate a habit of sharing with others — your money, knowledge, service, wisdom, care, love. Find a person who shares a lot with others, and you will find a happy person. In giving, you always receive more. Not only do you get pleasure from giving, you give someone else pleasure. Giving has many unexpected benefits from attracting more happiness into your life, to inspiring others, and changing the lives of those you touch. In the end the whole world is made into a better place. Ask, “how can I serve?” Pay it forward. Give freely.

Source: RealFarmacy.com via Prevent Disease

11-Year Old Tells us What's Wrong with our Food System

Check out this awesome 11 year old food phenom. He breaks down the food system and what's wrong with it in this 5 minute video.

Image: EatLocalGrown.com 

Sign this petition to ban all bee killing pesticides!

Image: facebook.com/gardenofeating

A shocking 31% of America's honeybees died over the winter and this has been happening for the past 7 years. We're speeding towards the disastrous point at which we will not have enough bees to pollinate our crops.

Related: Insecticides to blame for massive bee die-off in Minneapolis

Neonicotinoid pesticides are known to cause bee deaths yet the EPA continues to approve their usage despite warnings from their own scientists. In fact, the EPA has just approved, Sulfoxaflor, yet another pesticide that is known to be highly toxic to bees.

In contrast, the European Union just banned this entire class of pesticides in an effort to protect its dwindling honey bee populations. The U.S. needs to follow Europe's lead, and fast!

We're almost to the goal!

Sign the petition here:http://www.change.org/petitions/epa-ban-bee-killing-pesticides-now

BREAKING: McDonald’s sues Australian town for rejecting its fast food

Image: www.campusscope.co.kr

(NaturalNews) Plans by fast food giant McDonald's to build its first restaurant in the Australian town of Tecoma, located in the state of Victoria, are being challenged by nearly 100,000 individuals who recently signed a petition demanding that McDonald's stay out of the area. According to Yahoo! TV in Australia, representatives from an activist group known as BurgerOff recently flew 10,000 miles to the McDonald's global headquarters near Chicago to deliver the petition and signatures, which company officials reportedly refused to touch.

For over two years, BurgerOff and the people of Tecoma have been fighting to keep McDonald's out of their town, pointing out that the company's intent to build a large, 24-hour drive-thru location near an elementary school would be "a giant advertisement for junk food" for young children who would walk by it daily. But according to the International Business Times, this massive grassroots effort that has included public demonstrations, flash mobs, social media and other forms of community outreach has thus far been unsuccessful at thwarting McDonald's plans.

So to raise the stakes, BurgerOff went straight to the heart of the beast, bringing along signs, petitions and plenty of fervor, which has put the effort in the global spotlight. The group even set up little inflatable kangaroos at a busy McDonald's location in Chicago, which helped draw even more attention. The ultimate goal of the protest, of course, is to show McDonald's that it is not welcome in Tecoma and needs to look elsewhere for its expansion endeavors.

"They sent out a P.R. [public relations] lady and a guy from corporate responsibility," explained Garry Muratore, a Tecoma McDonald's protester, to Australia's Sunrise Live recently about how McDonald's responded to the arrival of four BurgerOff members. "They wouldn't touch the actual petition; it was like we were giving them poison. They handed the 7,000 pages [of the petition] to a poor security guard there."

Despite the fact that the vast majority of Tecoma residents, according to Muratore, are in opposition to the project, McDonald's plans to move forward with it anyway. The company has even gone so far as to file a lawsuit against the protesters in an effort to keep them away from the proposed construction site, alleging that the project is well supported throughout the local community. But according to Muratore, this claim is absolutely false.

"That's a lie that McDonald's in Australia keeps pushing," he told reporters. "We know that nine out of 10 people don't want this."

McDonald's claims lawsuit will somehow 'protect' people of Tecoma

Muratore and his allies have, of course, challenged McDonald's on this claim. But the response they received is both nonsensical and almost cryptic, as the burger giant claims that suing the protesters is the best way to protect them.

"We then pointed out that if they were being responsible, why are they suing us? And it was a little bit like the quote from the Vietnam War that we had to destroy the village to save it," added Muratore. "They actually told us that they were suing us for our own legal protection... I don't know what that meant, but they seemed to think it was a great idea."

You can keep up to date with all the latest in this David versus Goliath story by checking out the BurgerOff website: http://www.burgeroff.org.

Article source: naturalnews.com

Sources for this article include:

http://au.tv.yahoo.com

http://www.ibtimes.com

http://www.burgeroff.org

Washington DC next in line to decriminalize marijuana?

by Drake Dorm | Medical Jane

Image: www.marijuana.com

According to The Washington Post, 10 of 13 Washington D.C. council members signed a bill Thursday to decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce of cannabis within the city limits. The bill was proposed by council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) earlier this year and calls for fines no larger than $100. “Less than one ounce would not be a crime,” Wells explained. “That would no longer mean a drug-arrest record.”

“Less than one ounce would not be a crime… That would no longer mean a drug-arrest record.” – Tommy Wells

Furthermore, Wells and the office of the attorney general said they could be able to come to an agreement on fines as low as $25.

The move comes as the result of a two-part public hearing arranged by Wells and Marion Berry (D-Ward 8), at which council members heard testimony in regards to The Simple Possession of Small Quantities of Marijuana Decriminalization Act of 2013. NORML, among other organizations, spoke in favor other the bill, and Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said he supports it.

With that said, Mayor Gray stressed that it is decriminalization, not legalization, that he is in favor of. “I support decriminalization. Legalization is another issue. I’m not here on that issue, yet,” he explained.

A likely explanation for this is the results of two recent polls that placed D.C. among the worst for racial disparity in regards to marijuana arrests. One by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in particular found that 9 out of every 10 people arrested for simple drug possession in the District are black.

“Punishment for drug crimes disproportionately falls on the shoulders of blacks and Latinos,” Wells said. “We don’t want to accuse the police, we don’t want to accuse anybody… but it is a major societal justice problem, and we are going to fix it.”

Source: medicaljane.com

8 Best Foods to Eat For Healthy Teeth

by John Summerly

Image: wellnessmama.com

There are far more than eight foods for healthy teeth, but I've found these to work especially well to prevent and even reverse tooth decay and gum disease in the long-term.

1. Butter Oil
Butter Oil, is a key ingredient to re-enameling teeth because it contains certain fats and activating substances that help bond the nutrients in the body to the bones. The butter must be organic from cows or goats eating rapidly growing green grasses.

2. Raisins
Naturally sweet, raisins don’t contain sucrose, or table sugar. Sugar helps bacteria stick to the tooth surface, letting them produce plaque. Raisins are also a source of phytochemicals, which may kill cavity-causing plaque bacteria. Some compounds in raisins also affect the growth of bacteria associated with gum disease.

3. High Vitamin Cod Liver Oil
This marvelous golden oil contains large amounts of elongated omega-3 fatty acids, preformed vitamin A and the sunlight vitamin D, essential nutrients that are hard to obtain in sufficient amounts in the modern diet. Samples may also naturally contain small amounts of the important bone- and blood-maintainer vitamin K. In numerous studies, the elongated omega-3 fats found in cod liver oil have been shown to improve brain function, memory, stress response, immune response, allergies, asthma, learning and behavioral disorders, including bipolar syndrome and manic-depression.

4. Tea
Compounds called polyphenols, found in black and green teas, slow the growth of bacteria associated with cavities and gum disease. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that people who rinsed their mouths with black tea for one minute, 10 times a day, had less plaque buildup on their teeth than people who rinsed their mouths with water. What’s more, the size and stickness of their plaque was reduced. Tea undermines the ability of some bacteria to clump together with other bacteria, the researchers said.

5. Coconut Oil
The human body converts the lauric acid found in coconut oil into an amazing monoglyceride called monolaurin which is only found in abundance in one other liquid–breast milk. It has anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-protozoa properties. Lauric acid is a powerful virus and gram-negative bacteria destroyer, and coconut oil contains the most lauric acid of any substance on earth. It is able to attack the bacteria that cause tooth decay.

6. Crunchy Veggies
It takes serious chewing to break down foods such as carrots, apples and cucumbers. But all that crunching isn’t in vain. Chewing disturbs dental plaque, and serve as a cleansing mechanism. So instead of remaining in your mouth and settling on teeth, bacteria get cleared away.

7. Vitamin-rich Foods
Foods containing calcium such raw (unpasteurized) organic hard cheese, almonds and leafy greens — and foods high in phosphorous — such as eggs and wild fish — can help keep tooth enamel strong and healthy, according to the American Dental Association. Acidic foods and beverages may cause tiny lesions on tooth enamel and calcium or phosphate help redeposit minerals back into those lesions.

8. Cranberries
Cranberries contain polyphenols (just as tea does), which may keep plaque from sticking to teeth, thus lowering the risk of cavities, according to a study published in the journal Caries Research. A caveat: Because the fruit is so tart, many cranberry products have added sugar, which may affect any potential benefits for teeth, so make eat raw unsweetened cranberries or even blend frozen unsweetened cranberries into a smoothie.

John Summerly is nutritionist, herbologist, and homeopathic practitioner. He is a leader in the natural health community and consults athletes, executives and most of all parents of children on the benefits of complementary therapies for health and prevention.

Source: realfarmacy.com via Prevent Disease