2 Tablespoons of Health

Quote of the day: "When you are young and healthy, it never occurs to you that in a single second your whole life could change."-Annette Funicello

Breast Cancer has claimed and changed the lives of millions of women around the world. Today, I was inspired by a blog that I followed called "Just Because......" to write about, if you....or someone you know.....has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  I would like to share with Everyone some of the suggestions that  I read in an article entitled: "How to Hope, How to Cope with Breast Cancer".

IF YOU ARE DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER

• Expect to spend a year or more focusing on treatment and recovery.
• When possible, choose competent doctors who respect your needs and beliefs.
• With your family, decide whom you will tell, and when. This will allow your friends to show their love for you and to pray with you and for you.
• Cope with emotional strain through Bible reading, prayer, and upbuilding meditation.
• Talk with others who have had breast cancer and who will be encouraging to you.
• Try to focus on today's concerns, not tomorrow's. "Never be anxious about he next day, "Jesus said, "for the next day will have its own anxieties."-Mathew 6:34. 
• Budget your energy. You need sufficient rest.

Tip: Make an earnest effort to show your support of finding a cure for Breast Cancer by making a small donation to a creditable organization of your choice, and by volunteering your time to an organization that's main focus is on Breast Cancer awareness.

1/2 Cup of Truth

Quote of the day: "Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right.  He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something". - Eric Hoffer

**Bonus Word of the Day***: Paranoia-means a psychosis marked by delusions and irrational suspicion, usually without hallucinations.

Hi, Everyone!  Today, I decided not to talk that much, and throw a topic out there for You (my followers) to give me your opinions and or thoughts on.  Well.....here it goes!  Okay, so.....Do you or someone you know have trust issues to the point of paranoia?  Where the person is so suspicious of everyone and everything that it becomes overbearing to even be in their company or hang-out with them?  If so....do tell!!   I want hear what You have to say!

Is this you? - Suspicious all the Time

Tip: Until you have experienced firsthand someone you know crossing the line of distrust, we have to assume what people say or do towards us is legitimate.

A thief definitely shouldn't be trusted!

1 Cup of Love

Quote of the day: "Love does not dominate; it cultivates". - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love one another, don't fight each other.

One of many definitions of love is: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for others.  If you are in a relationship with someone that you love, you make it your business to show your significant other how much you love them by giving of yourself unconditionally.  With that said.....the first time he/she yelled at you by their demeaning words or got into a physical altercation out of anger, isn't demonstrating love.   The offender always....apologizes by saying "I'm sorry, but I love you" or "It won't happen again, I was just angry", and then it keeps happening so many times that you lost count, how is that love?  It is true that we all from time to time have disagreements and we say things that we don't mean but it doesn't give us the right to habitually scream and fight the one we attest to love so....much.  We have to be careful not to allow our disagreements with our significant other to escalate to what is known as mental and physical abuse.

I have seen too....many friends and acquaintances in abusive relationships that they construed as love.  They never leave their abuser because that's all that they've known or accept the abuse because of the fear of being alone.  Ladies and gentlemen if you aren't able to work-out your serious issues by first admitting that there is a problem and then seek help through counseling and your efforts fail, it isn't worth your life or well-being to continue in the relationship.  If you reason that" I stay in an abusive relationship because of my children", there are questions you are going to have to answer in order to come to a rational decision on whether to stay or go.  For instance, are my children immune to the unhealthy environment?  How are they going to be protected from the adverse affects of the abusive relationship?

Tip:  If you or someone you know is unsure on whether you are in a loving or abusive relationship seek counseling from your school, employer (health care provider) or local social services crisis help lines for support.

2 Cups of Honesty

Quote of the day: "I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business." - Harvey S. Firestone

There's a familiar expression that some companies like to promote which states...."Honesty is the best policy."  While I do agree that its always good to be honest in everything that you do, it isn't the sentiment of most people or organizations (even though they say it is).  Companies expect you to be a honest consumer, meanwhile they do the complete opposite of what they stand for.

For instance, you are in the market to purchase automobile insurance.  You do your research and finalize who is going to get your business.  You give the company a call and speak to a customer representative to discuss the type of insurance you're interested in and agree on a price.  A few days later, you receive a bill (or view online), not only didn't you get insured for the terms you and the representative agreed upon, but the original quoted price was doubled.  You call the company fuming and the representative says "you must have given incorrect information or the terms and rates didn't apply to you".  For whatever reason companies feel that its their right to deal with customers dishonestly and deceive them into thinking one way when it wasn't the case from the beginning.  The scheme is all designed for companies to make more money using deception.

Tip: Never conduct business with a company that doesn't honor their advertisements or quotes you a price that was more than expected.  Go shopping someplace else!

3 Cups of Self-Examination

Quote of the day: " Do you want to know who you are?  Don't ask.  Act! Action delineate and define you." - Thomas Jefferson

**Bonus Word of the day**: Delineate- to mark the outline of: Sketch or to picture in words: Describe

In order for us to have some since of who we are, why not take a personality test, just to find-out some information we may already know or not know about ourselves.

I found a really....cool and free online personality test from Learn Myself.com.  There is no sign-up required, it takes about 3-6 minutes (Start Quick), can generate a report to any email address you indicate.  Oh!...and did I mention that it was absolutely free:)

Note: If you have some spare time, you can take the Start Advance Personality Test that is approximately 6-12 minutes.

By the way....I wouldn't have you take a test without me doing so as well (please see my results below).

So, have fun!!!

Click Here!: Learn Myself.com http://www.learnmyself.com/

 
Tip: Learn something new about yourself by taking the Learn Myself.com personality test and see whether or not the test is accurate.  Let me know your thoughts!

2 Tablespoons of Health

Quote of the day: "People who don't know how to keep themselves healthy ought to have decency to get themselves buried, and not waste time about it."-Henrick Ibsen

I am by no means a skinny person and can definitely work-on being healthier, especially since I'm no longer invincible when it comes to my metabolism. However, the people who are diabetics but you can't tell that, based on the foods that they eat loaded down with sugar (they are worse off then I am).  The only way I'll have to eat my words, is if I continue on my path of not eating right and failing to exercise, which could ultimately result in me becoming a diabetic (that would not be cool).

I do have family members close to me who suffer with diabetes everyday.  While at times I can sympathize with how hard it could be to change your eating habits when there are certain foods you love and can't live without.  But at some point you have care about yourself and try to make a better effort to live a healthier life style by finding foods that aren't high in sugar through trial and error (most foods without sugar is quite nasty).  As well as, incorporating exercise on a daily basis (definitely not an easy task with our busy lives).

Here are some statistics from the American Diabetes Association (Data from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet released January 26, 2011):

25.8 million Children and Adults in the United States-8.3% of the population-have diabetes.

Under 20 years of age

• 215,000 or 0.26% of all people in this age group have diabetes.
• About 1 in every 400 children and adolescents has diabetes

Age 20 years or older

• 25.6 million, or 11.3% of all people in this age group have diabetes.

Age 65 years or older

• 10.9 million, or 26.9% of people in this age group have diabetes.

Men

• 13.0 million, or 11.8% of all men aged 20 years or older have diabetes.

Women

• 12.6 million, or 10.8% of all women aged 20 years or older have diabetes.

Tip: Watch the little over one minute video on how to prevent diabetes and let me know your thoughts.
How to Prevent Diabetes

1/2 Cup of Truth

Quote of the day: "Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do."-Benjamin Spock

Making the decision to attend college after 20 years of being outside of a school environment was probably the scariest thing I had to deal with besides bringing a child into this world. I wasn't sure if i was smart enough or even capable of learning new things that will help me to further my career and knowledge.  My apprehensions was so bad....that I had made-up my mind that I was only going to attend a certification program.  But once I realized that I wasn't a stupid person and could actually obtain good grades, I changed my major to a degree program.  I have been hitting the pavement hard, not even looking back!

However, it wasn't until I began to trust myself and abilities before coming to those conclusions.  I have always prided myself in being a strong willed person but this kind of empowerment is a totally different feeling. Now I really.....feel like I can accomplish anything and be an asset to any legitimate company.  Whereas in the past I would doubt myself (still do from time to time) frequently and sometimes felt inferior.  

Tip(s): You can accomplish anything in life, all you have to is be true to yourself and abilities and everything else will fall into place.  Also, never give-up or listen to haters who say "You Can't", because they'll be disappointed when "You Do".

Watch-out for Haters!

1 Cup of Love

Quote of the day: "Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you. 'Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'"

I think everyone would agree that Love can be a complicated situation, especially if we are plagued with infatuation instead of really being in love.  As a teenager I was probably in love every other week/month not realizing that it was only infatuation, but you couldn't tell me nothing.....I knew what I was doing. The "Love Jones" would be so far gone that I was determined not to listen to my parents and friends when they tried to convince me otherwise.

This has been a continuing problem with young people as well as adults not knowing the difference between love and infatuation.  Let's take a look at the definitions between the two:

1) Love can be described as feeling of intense affection for another person.  It is most often talked about as an emotion between two persons.  Hence is also sometimes referred to as interpersonal love.

2) Infatuation is the state of being completely carried away by unreasoning passion or love; addictive love.  Infatuation usually occurs at the beginning of relationship when sexual attraction is central.

I also found a chart online that I thought might be helpful in giving you examples of love and infatuation (was modified for viewing). - See below

Tip:  In order for us to have a healthy view of love we need to educate ourselves and then determine weather or not the relationships we're in is based on real love.

2 Cups of Honesty

Quote of the day: "Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest."-Benjamin Franklin

Being dishonest seems to be a common practice amongst the human race.  We even categorize it as a little "white lie", "half truths" or "just being polite".   How many times have we said to our family members and friends "You look really good" or "You are really....nice" when that wasn't even true?  

As soon as the person walks away we are thinking....to ourselves, that person looks a Hot Mess.  Or he/she is a total jerk.  If that wasn't our true feeling, then why do we tell people what they want to hear instead of being completely honest with them?  There shouldn't been any exceptions to the rule......or is there?

How do I look? Like a clown!

Tip(s): Being completely honest to the ones we love in a tactful way shows we are genuinely concerned and makes for stronger and happier relationships.  And it also helps us to relieve unnecessary anxiety towards others.

3 Cups of Self-Examination

Quote of the day: "There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves."-Richard Rorty

What is Self-Examination?

You are probably saying to yourself why is she asking that question.....I already know what it means.  But do you really......?  The definition of self-examination is looking into one's own state, conduct, and motives, particularly in regard to religious feelings and duties.

We often times never want to take responsibility for the things that we say or do (personally guilty of this).  We always use the excuse of blaming others for our shortcomings.  But when a real honest self-examination is made we may find that actually the problem is ourselves.  

Why is it so...hard for us to admit when we're wrong?  Or have wronged others?  I think our pride has something to do with it (Your thoughts are welcomed).

Tip: Accepting responsibility for our own thoughts, desires and conduct may be the beginning's to a healthier self.  Let's work on this together!

Recipe to a Happier Life.

3 Cups of Self-Examination

2 Cups of Honesty

1 Cup of Love

1/2 of Cup of Truth

2 tablespoons of Health

 

In order to make a good delicious cake, you must follow the recipe using all the ingredients.  If one ingredient is missing you would be heading for a disaster.  Its a similar situation when it comes to our lives and how we choose to live it.  Every now and then we have do a self-examination to check and see if certain ingredients are working or missing.  Are we loving, being honest, truthful or healthy enough when it comes to our personal relationships (son, daughter, mother, father, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife) with others?

If after some thought you have answered "No", there's no worries....."help is on the way".  My blog is going to provide various tips related to how important is for us to focus on ourselves before we can be an asset to anyone else regardless of our age or gender.

Now....Let's go and Find Happiness Together!!!