Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Ever Thought About Self Love?

By self love I'm not talking about narcissism and lack of regard for others, but true, self love in terms of loving yourself for who you are. Do you? Despite all your weaknesses, perceived faults, parts of your body that you don't like... do you love yourself anyway?

If you can answer yes to that question - Fantastic! If you find it challenging to answer yes - don't beat yourself up over it! Many of us struggle to love ourselves - warts 'n' all. There is no blame here, just self awareness and self acceptance.

Let's look at this another way. There is an Ultimate Being, God, Buddha, Allah, Divine Spirit, Father Mother God, Creator, Holy Spirit, whatever your words for it, we know that there is an overall consciousness that inhabits everything. Is a part of everything. We can see this when we look at beautiful flowers, or landscapes, or stunning sunsets, the smell of fresh air, the taste of tasty food, the sounds of birdsong or rolling waves. Whatever you find relaxing or beautiful is infused with God consciousness. So when you look at, hear, feel, smell, taste, or touch these beautiful things it's easy to feel love for them.

Having accepted that God is in everything, we also then need to accept that God is within us. If we love God for being in everything, we also then need to love ourselves because of this. Otherwise we are rejecting God.

Now I know that these thoughts might be pushing some buttons in people because of the word "God". I make no apology for that. It's a terminology that is easy to use to get across the concept that the Ultimate Consciousness is within us all. Therefore Every Thing and Every One deserves to be loved by us - including ourselves.

Take some time to think more about yourself. Start to acknowledge more the things about yourself that you do actually like. Let go of negative thoughts about yourself that bring you down. You love other people warts and all, try doing the same for yourself. Take it gently, but take another step towards self love and self respect. Start by writing a list of 50 positive things that you love about yourself. It may take you a couple of days and that's OK. Take your time, but do make sure you complete it. Once you have your list can you make it longer? Every time you find something positive about yourself that you love or like, add it to the list and, each day.

Alun is a spirtual life coach focused on personal and spiritual evolution. You can read more about him and his work here http://www.lifesense.co.uk

Why Do People Go To Church

Monday, June 29, 2009

Improve Your Life This Year

We have a tendency to put off improving ourselves. We know there are things that we can improve in our life and even things that we should improve, yet many people procrastinate. Next year will be the year that they make the changes that they need to. Next year will be the year that they make their life better. Why not make next year this year instead?

When we put things off it can be because of many different things. The two most common ones are fear and the feeling that we do not know how to change. But the truth is that we can whenever we want. There are countless resources that you can use to help you to improve your life. You can further your education so that you make many improvements along the way.

When we are afraid, we are powerless. Take the power back and put it where it belongs. With you! You don't have to wait for anything to come along for you to decide to make your life what you want it to be. The better equipped you are and the more resources that you use to improve your life, the better off you will be.

Learn what you can do and what steps that you can take to make the life that you are living right now everything that you want it to be. Make this year a year of action and stop putting things off. Attract what you want and make sure that you do indeed get it!

Learn how to attract love, money, or happiness or all three in YOUR LIFE NOW! Go to http://www.successfulfather.com and SIGN up for the FREE newsletter and BOOKMARK the site and return as often as you can!

You can attract the life that you truly desire! All you have to do is learn HOW!

Bryan Appleton is an investor/entrepreneur who has dedicated himself to teaching others how to achieve their dream life. He is also a proud single father with one son.

You can publish this article as long as you leave it intact and in full as well as keeping the URL link clickable.

Stop Feeling Guilty Part 1

Choosing Subliminal CDs Or Mp3s - The Real Deal For Self Help

It is a sad, but true, fact that there are people in business in society who are less than 100% honest and ethical in many sectors of our struggling economy. They don't need to look very far to find trusting individuals who will spend hard-earned money in exchange for promises of prosperity, health or improvement; happiness, success and even miracles! In our experience within the self-help world, we have encountered both- some genuine, and others who turn out to be selfish, aggressive organizations that are good at promising great things to good people who just need a little motivation or tools to meet their own particular challenges. Some products may be inferior; and in the case of subliminal audio, it can be hard to distinguish between effective and ineffective producers. But, as in any other market, ours requires a commitment to quality, dedication to our trade and exceptional customer service in order to prove to our customers that we are for real.

Just because subliminal audio cannot be consciously heard and evaluated easily does not mean that potential clients are helpless in the choosing process. Contrary, we invite you to shop and compare. There are company that will help walk you through the process, since not many are familiar with the technologies involved in digital, subliminal audio files and discs.

If you are considering the use of such a product, for whatever reason, there are some details you should know first. For example, who designed and created the content that you are trusting to 'whisper in your ear?' Are they qualified to compose and mix the audio that you will be using to influence your subconscious mind? This is important! Which type of subliminal messages are you buying? There are several. Is the seller open and willing to share and interact with you on an individual level? Are they discrete with regard to your choice of product and your personal data? Are they overcharging you? Do you have access to reviews from others who have tried the same products, and are these testimonials genuine? Do you have a variety of choices to make for each product? These factors and others are critical to your experience and success.

If you choose music as your preferred background, can you hear a sample first? Does your prospective provider offer nature sounds, ocean waves or Silent Subliminal technology? If so, do you know how to decide which is best for you? Again, if you make the right choices before using these excellent tools, you have a better chance at beating that fear or phobia, sleeping better or changing unwanted habits. Whatever your desire in real results might be, selecting the right tool in this quest is like any other task- it can really make the difference in your future success. It's up to you to choose wisely in such an important endeavor!

Some producers of subliminal self-help audio claim to stack hundreds of audio tracks for a simultaneous experience- that the subconscious can supposedly hear each instance, using the Law of Repetition to effectively brainwash the subject by volume. We don't subscribe to this method at all. In fact your unconscious mind is much smarter than that and if it detects such a trick, forget it- all bets are off, your suggestibility factor will shut down every time. Another outdated method used by some self-help companies is hiding their subliminal verbal content with volume; the loudness of the background music or sound, or noise, is higher than the words that may or may not be consciously heard at times. Subliminal audio uses the inaudible frequency 16.5 KHz which cannot be heard by the human ear, but the subconscious definitely hears it. That is also why silent subliminal tracks are now possible, with no music or audible sounds of any kind.

Music is important, though; in most cases, it is the best background to keep your conscious mind interested in following through with listening to each entire track (repeatedly). After performing an extensive survey of people interested in self help audio, we decided to go with New Age music as our background of choice. It is beautiful, inspirational, and it evokes deep emotions for the greatest percentage of the population. This serves to create a positive experience for the listener, making it most attractive for the subconscious to accept the subliminal message on each hidden 'silent' track. Those who reject New Age are welcome to select ocean wave sounds or silent subliminal, with which you can play other music on another device to enhance your experience if you like. Just turn the volume up on the silent subliminal CD or digital track in this instance. You will not consciously hear it, but your inner self will!

If you have ever considered attending a motivational seminar, hypnosis or pro therapy, for any reason -performance enhancement, habit improvement, or success and wealth- you might want to try our subliminal audio first- because, It's All self-Help Anyway (IASHA)! And again, feel free to research for yourself; creative visualization really works to make each of us happier, healthier and more successful.

Yes, that's what each of our futures depends upon- creative visualization. Nobody ever created a fulfilling, satisfactory life without first dreaming about it. Once you define the details, deeply, and believe in them, your subconscious will get you there by inner determination. Sprudio Subliminal Audio may well be the most effective, economical tool to get you motivated and keep you that way- never, ever give up!

For more resource and subliminal cds and mp3s visit Sprudio website. For more then 4 years we helped people understand their inner behavior.

It's All self-Help Anyway http://www.sprudio.net

Sunday, June 28, 2009

How to Achieve a Confident Foundation of Self-Esteem

You know those people. The ones that when they walk into a room you just assume they are success. Confidence appears to flowing through them. Everyone wants to be that person's friend and you feel a bit jealous towards them as they look like they always get everything they want in life with ease.

In order to be THAT person you need to have a high level of self-esteem. To behave with that level of confidence you need to a solid foundation in the knowledge of who you are and what you want from life. This is the key to your self-esteem. Taking control of your life. Without high self-esteem, you wont achieve anything, unless you get lucky of course, due to a lack of self-belief.

So where to you start to build a solid foundation of self-esteem?

Self esteem is so important in everything you do. Be it in a relationship, as a parent, or at work. Your decision making and ability to cope with change is dependent on how well you know yourself and what you want. If you dread anything in your life you really need to look at changing what you are doing. If a decision does not give relief or cause excitement then you are not truly making decision for you.

You mental attitude towards anything you set out to do defines whether you action will be a success or failure even before you started.

If you are overly critical of yourself and start worrying about all the "what if" situations that might happen you are just going to paralyze your ability to do anything with confidence.

If you listen to other peoples opinions or think too much about what other people might be thinking about you, again you will not achieve what you want. It is your life not anyone else's so why leave decisions to anyone else. You can guarantee the right choice is being made if you made the decision for you to get you where you want to be.

Felix Nutter
Step Up Speak Out
To get more confidence, self-esteem and anxiety tips, visit http://www.stepupspeakout.co.uk to learn more about how to take control of your life

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Persuasion Techniques

Don't you just envy how some people seem to get their way more often than not? These people always seem to have all the right words and all the right moves. However, if you take the time to actually study these people, you may be surprised to discover that they have more than just a few persuasion techniques in common.

These persuasion techniques allow them to easily get people to their side and persuade others to their way of thinking. And if you read the rest of this article, you too will be able to tap into this extraordinary power.

Know your audience

As wonderful as it would be to just magically convince another person to share your views, life doesn't quite work that way. You have to know where your audience is coming from in order for you to know which angle you can best appeal to.

If you're dealing with somebody who is more emotional, you can actually use feelings to plead your case. The chances of your success will definitely increase.

Turn weaknesses into strengths

During a job interview orientation, one of the moderators gave me a very helpful advice. She said that when asked for your weaknesses, try to position your statement into something more positive. Instead of, "I'm very shy and soft spoken," you can say, "I'm currently working on my communication skills."

By using persuasion techniques like this, you don't run the risk of scaring your customers away. In fact, they will be delighted to hear somebody with such a positive outlook on life.

Cite the positive facts

Naturally, you would want to tell your audience what the benefits are. People are generally happy to learn what they can gain from something.

You're not going to lie or make up stories. Those do not fall under persuasion techniques. When you persuade, you have to be certain that all your facts are true. Otherwise, your lies will come back to haunt you.

Even when you don't have magic on your side, these persuasion techniques will certainly help you win your audience over. Just follow these basic steps and you'll soon be able to talk your way through anything!

Discover how you can use the psychology of persuasion to change behaviors and influence anyone to your way of thinking! Get a FREE course that reveals groundbreaking persuasion secrets at http://www.20daypersuasion.com/secrets.htm

Friday, June 26, 2009

Ethics in the Workplace

We've all heard these rules to live by: Don't hurt, don't steal, don't lie, and the more famous "Do unto others as you would have done to you." In our personal lives most people try to follow these rules. Ethics are often thought of by many as something that is related to the personal side of life and not to the business side. In some businesses, having ethics may actually be frowned upon. This is usually due to the fact that business is about doing what's best for the bottom line and not always about doing the right thing.

It is commonly understood that there are ethics and then there are workplace ethics. Often we don't stop to realize that there is no difference between personal ethics and ethics in the workplace; ethics are the same whether at work or in personal life.

After all, ethics are about making choices that may not always feel good or seem like they benefit you. Ethical choices are the "right" choices to make and are examples of rules to live by.

Practical Impact
Executives typically want the answers to two key questions about ethics in their offices: "How do workplace ethics apply to practical goals of my organization and the work of my employees?" and "Is there reliable data to support these assertions?" The Ethics Resource Center (www.ethics.org), a nonprofit organization, assists leaders to impact their organizations by identifying ethical risks and establishing systems to emphasize higher standards for business conduct.

The Ethics Resource Center annually conducts a National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) - a rigorous telephone survey of 1,500 U.S. employees. The NBES findings are encouraging for organizations that have an emphasis on positive workplace ethics. For example, employees have high expectations for ethics within their organizations. Nine in ten respondents say that they "expect their organizations to do what is right, not just what is profitable."

This suggests that most employees are not cynical about ethics at work, encouraging news when considering the implementation or development of ethics initiatives as the long term success of any program rely on the active support of employees.

Formal ethics programs and informal ethics practices were shown to affect certain key outcomes. Employees who work in companies with active ethics programs who observe leaders modeling ethical behavior, and also observe the application of values such as honesty, respect and trust applied frequently at work, report more positive experiences that include the following:

Less pressure on employees to compromise ethics standards
Less observed misconduct at work
Greater willingness to report misconduct
Greater satisfaction with their organization's response to misconduct they report
Greater overall satisfaction with their organizations
Greater likelihood of "feeling valued" by their organizations

Findings of Concern
The NBES uncovered a substantial gap between senior and middle managers and lower-level employees. A consistent finding with management was the perception that their organizations have a positive ethical environment. This conflicts with the perception of lower-level employees however. This suggests that executives may underestimate the importance of specific ethics issues and concerns facing employees.

This disconnect may also position executives to fail to address these issues adequately within their organization's ethics programs. Therefore it is important for executives to include input from employees at lower levels in the development of ethics programs and to continue to seek out their input and feedback on a regular basis.

In addition to the communications gap between employees and executives, one in three employees believe that their coworkers will perceive them as "snitches" if they report misconduct. This is roughly the same proportion of employees who believe that management will see them as "troublemakers" for reporting ethical concerns. A key element to take away from this discovery is the need to address and eliminate retaliation systemically, at the management and peer levels throughout the organization.

Questions Answered
Let's go back to our two key questions: "How do workplace ethics apply to practical goals of my organization and the work of my employees?" and "Is there reliable data to support these assertions?" There are a variety of practical reasons for executives to focus on workplace ethics and reliable data that supports these efforts. The NBES findings consistently link ethics programs to more positive organizations outcomes and increased employee satisfaction.

It would be nave to suggest that an emphasis on ethics will improve the work environment and solve the company's problems overnight. In many cases a well developed and organized effort to target key ethical issues sends an important message. It tells employees that your organization is moving in a positive direction, one that is positive for them as individuals.

Establishing an Ethics Program
Establishing an ethics program is not an exact science. As with any organizational program, it will involve the input and cooperation of many people. The effectiveness of any organization's approach will depend on characteristics that are unique to its culture, the leadership styles, proper planning, and so on. Since some people may be uncomfortable talking about the issues of ethics it can be helpful if management first asks, considers, and then responds to the following questions:

Why might good people in this organization do unethical things?
What are our organization's values?
Have we adequately articulated these values internally and externally?
Does our organization have written ethics policies, procedures, or structures?
To whom is our organization accountable?
What do we mean by "success"?
Does the leadership of our organization support the idea of an ethical workplace?

With the feedback obtained by discussing the questions above, management will have a better idea of the perceptions their employees have on how the company is performing ethically.

In the end, it's all about beginning with our personal and collective understanding of ethics. The second step is awareness of, and solutions to, questions concerning ethics as applied to the workplace. Many universities are now heavily applying the teaching of ethics to their curricula. Graduates of these programs take this information into the workforce with the understanding that solid, positive ethics need to be applied there as well as in the private sector.

In a perfect world, corporations will be better able to avoid embarrassing scandals that appear and reappear in both national and world-wide news scandals. Small businesses will be able to keep and attract more clients and customers. Negotiations between businesses could be accomplished with increased consideration for the other company. This is something for which we can all strive.

Christian Del Monte: creator of iBlogMarketing Internet Marketing Blog and Director of Operations for TMA E-Marketing has a B.S. degree in Marketing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. In addition, Christian has over 10 years in personal sales experience and has directed the operations for TMA for the last 4 years

He has directed and worked on Internet marketing projects for mid to large-scale clients including several fortune 500 companies. Christian continues to head up the operations for TMA as well as lead research and development on vertical search markets and business blogging

Thursday, June 25, 2009

How to Achieve Your Goals by Using Simple Proven Steps

Do you want to be rich? Do you want to live the kind of lifestyle you always wanted? Do you want to achieve the great success you always dream of? In fact, achieving great success is not as complicated as you might think. As long as you have the desire and willing to take the necessary action, it is possible for you to achieve what you want in your life.

If you are serious and truly want to achieve your goals, here are some simple and proven steps that you can follow right away...

1. You must be visionary and know what you want in your future. Many people live a mediocre life; they struggle through life without ever knowing why. The only reason for this is that they do not know what they really want in their life. Do you have dreams? Do you know what your goals are? Do you know what have any targets in your life? Knowing what you want is the first step to achieving it. You cannot hit a target that you cannot see.

2. Once you know what you want, you must then know why you want it. This is because without knowing why you want it, you will never achieve it. It is the reason that will propel you, motivate you and inspire you into taking action to make it comes true. If goal setting, visualization, law of attraction, affirmation, etc do not work for you, it is because your desire is not strong enough. Your desire will be backed up by the reason deep within you. So find out why you want to achieve what you want today.

3. After you follow through the first two steps, this step will be easy for you. You have to have the courage to venture out of your comfort zone and take the necessary action to make your goals and dreams come true. If you are just standing right there without doing anything, you will never reach another point of your life. You have to be willing to make the decision and take the action to achieve your goals.

These are the simple and proven steps how you can achieve your goals in your life. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Therefore, take the first step now to find out what you really want to achieve in your life, know the reasons and take the action right away.

Fail to achieve your goals or live the kind of lifestyle you desire? No problem. Just follow through my proven, step-by-step and FREE Success Blueprint system... You're about to discover how to master your mind, design your very own destiny and transform into living a successful life that you always desire

For more information, please visit http://www.TheMillionaireSecrets.net/success-blueprint.html

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Three Simple Steps to Beginning Inner Calm

As one of todays professional women, you face ever-increasing demands on your time. This demand creates stress and fatigue. It not only wears you out and makes you feel badly, but also ages you faster than you might like. Fortunately there are some strategies you can employ to regain the balance that you desperately need to support your complete well-being.

So what can you do? All three of the following strategies have been proven successful and, in combination, are incredibly powerful catalysts towards finding a perfect balance between work, home, and other demands.

One: Create Silence Set aside small windows of time in your day to meditate or enjoy complete silence.

Two: Release Worry Find strategies and tools to release those things that are creating stress.

Three: Build Support Create a support network of people who understand, who you support and who can be depended on when times get tough. Begin by supporting others and you will find that it comes back to you if you allow it.

Beginning your journey towards balance

The strategies listed above are best tackled in the order listed but are beneficial regardless of how many you accomplish or the order in which you try them.

The simple enjoyment of silence, or meditation, is a wonderful first step toward healing your mind. This practice will allow your mind to begin to build new networks of thought and new, stronger, more supportive perspectives. Just as its been proven that an athletes muscles need periods of rest to allow peak performance, our minds also need periods of complete silence (or rest), in order to allow optimal functioning.

Quieting the mind can be quite challenging for anyone who spends the vast majority of her time strategizing, thinking, planning and contemplating. Sometimes complete silence is overwhelming and the mind begins to race, so if you find that this happens, try a 5-minute guided meditation or listening to the sounds of nature (water is always good) as a first step in learning to rest your mind. Choose what feels best, and if you dont know where to begin, then guided meditation, which can be found on tape, CD or even downloaded on the web, can be the perfect solution.

The second phase of beginning a life of balance can be accomplished with a mind that is open to trying out new perspectives. There are lots of ways to make new choices about those things that create stress in our lives. Simple shifts in perspective can be accomplished by simply asking, Am I creating the stress? Might I be adding to the stress? Or can I choose to let this go and release the stress? If the answer to even one of these questions is maybe or yes, then the next step is to dig a bit deeper.

Knowledge is a powerful thing and when you realize that its not you, but rather your repeating patterns of thinking that are causing you additional stress, you are well on your way to finding new perspectives and solutions. I recommend reading books like Wayne Dyers, Theres a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, while you work with a coach who specializes in empowering and forward movement. Or simply read and do some introspection to begin. Just knowing that you are larger than your worries and separate from them is a giant step towards knowing that you can overcome them.

The third phase has to do with building a network of supportive friends and colleagues. This isnt work or magic or even a chore, this is about giving and receiving. As people, we dont realize how much impact we have on the world around us. You may be a giver and yet argue that you never receive. Or you may be someone who receives but rarely gives. The universal force behind those times when giving and receiving dont match up is our resistance to one or the other. If you feel as though you always give, but never receive, I challenge you to look at all the times you turned down help that was offered. Begin accepting the helping hand and life will balance itself out.

I am a firm believer that we were placed here to help each other and I have found over the years, that when I need a special support person to show up in my life, that person always shows up. Begin to notice who shows up for you, and I bet you will find that a network is ready to form right before your very eyes. You simply need to be watching so that you dont miss it. We all need a little support sometime, and on a day that youve tried everything else and life still feels too demanding, a supportive friend will hold you up while you regain the strength to tackle it.

To immediately lessen the stress in your life:

meditate or enjoy silence just quiet your mind

release those things that are creating stress

build a support network (be a support partner for others and accept their help in return)

Youll find yourself in a better place almost immediately and you will soon start noticing the balance returning. Expect that life will show up perfectly balanced in the not too distant future, but dont forget to follow this plan for more than a few days. You may even want to keep it as a permanent part of your newly balanced life. It works!

Julie Fisher, complete well-being coach and owner of Sol Journe, LLC, as well as President of Advertising by Design, Inc. provides coaching and mentoring for professional women all over the world. Register for her free e-course and e-coaching at http://womenbalanceworkandhome.abundanceforwomen.com or visit http://www.abundanceforwomen.com for more information.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Living With Limited Beliefs video for inspiration

Get off your butt and start your life in motion today.

Question Your Religion

You are free to copy this article to your site as long as you include the following resource information with an active link to my site:

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a motivation help library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

Living With Out Limits
Louis Braille

How Can My Fireplace Affect My Health?

Many people love the look of fireplaces in their homes. Having a fireplace creates a warm, inviting feel that makes visitors feel at ease, and creates a centerpiece that enhances the dcor of any room.

Although fireplaces are usually good for your home's energy, there are a couple of situations where having a fireplace can actually drain the positive energy of your home, and create an environment that can foster poor health.

This can happen when you have a fireplace that is located in the center of your home. Your home's center is the most important area for maintaining positive energy and good health. This is because the energy in this area affects all of the other areas in your living space. For this reason, it is vital that the energy in this area be kept as clear as possible.

The center of your house represents the center of your body. Having a strong element of fire in this area is just like having excessive heat running through your body. Having a fireplace in the center of your home can create a sense of exhaustion throughout your living space. It also affects your adrenal glands, and can weaken your immune system.

Obviously, if you have a fireplace in the center of your home, it is not practical to move it for the sake of improving your home's energy. However, there are a number of feng shui techniques you can use to stop the energy drain.

First, you can place a water feature, such as a small table top fountain or a fish tank, near your fireplace. Including the water element in this area will help to balance the energy created by the fire element.

If it is not possible to place a water feature near your fireplace, you can use objects that represent water, such as paintings or pictures of seascapes, rivers, lakes, or waterfalls. Hanging these pictures over or near your fireplace will help to improve the energy throughout your entire home.

You can also use black colored objects to represent the water element. Black planters, vases, and statuary placed near your fireplace will help to build positive energy to support your family's good health.

Hanging a mirror over your fireplace, or placing one in the surrounding area, will also bring in the water element. Using a mirror near your fireplace will stop the drain of energy, and you'll notice that your whole house just feels better.

Another area that is not ideal for a fireplace in terms of health is in the middle, left area of your home. This area also represents health, as well as family. Having a fireplace here can result in 'heated' family issues or over-activity in the body (such as high blood pressure, over-active thyroid, etc.)

Once again, the key is to balance out the fire energy with the element of water in the same ways as mentioned previously. Since this area is also associated with the wood element, you could also add some wood here - some ways to do that would be to bring in a plant or some flowers, a picture of flowers, plants or trees, or simply something that is made of wood. You could also use anything in the colors of blue or green.

It is important to take care of your health in any way that you can. If you have health issues and you happen to have a fireplace in either of these two areas - you'll want to consider these recommendations. They really can make a big difference.

Linda Binns shows you how to be more successful in all areas of your life by working with your environment. Get FREE Feng Shui Success Secrets. These powerful and practical secrets can help you transform your life. Go to http://www.fengshuiexplained.com now.

Linda Binns is author of Feng Shui for Your Relationships: Changing Your Environment to Create Better Relationships. She has been a Feng Shui Practitioner, Author, Speaker and teacher for over 10 years. She has appeared internationally on television and radio and in local publications. Linda is also the founder of The Feng Shui Success Institute - which teaches in-depth Feng Shui training and practitioner certification.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Five Things You Should Know About Religion

Most of us are raised from children into adulthood, to believe in someone else's religion. Most of us never even got the chance to choose a religion or spiritual beliefs to follow on our own. I came up with a simple list of five things that you should know about your religion, or you shouldn't be allowed to practice it.

1. Where did your religion or spiritual beliefs originate from? You should find out who started your religion and why they started it. Some of the worlds major religions were started by intelligent people. Do you think it's possible that your religion was created by an intelligent person, instead of a supreme being or multiple gods. Someone's just trying to trick you into believing.

2. How did you get involved in your religion or spiritual beliefs? Was it part of your upbringing, did your parents suggest this religion to you, how long has your family been involved in your current religious beliefs. Was your great, great, great, great, great grandfather or grandmother part of this religion or spiritual belief. How far back does it go in your family?

3. Do you believe in your religious doctrine or scripture? Is there any parts of your religious scriptures, writings or communication from other fellow believers that doesn't sit right with you? Does every part of your religion makes sense and can it be explained sensibly to someone outside of your religion?

4. Do you practice what you believe on a daily basis? If you're supposed to read your scriptures or pray daily, do you? If your religion teaches love and compassion, how do you treat people less fortunate than yourselves? Are you one of those people who can justify your wrong doings, to yourself and others, to give them the illusion, that you are a religious or spiritual person.

5. Do you know where you are going after you die? Are you going to someplace wonderful and extraordinary, like heaven? If you had to earn enough credits or points, do you think you have acquired enough, to enter the next level of existence? If you're bad, are you going to a bad place, with all the other bad people?

Try to always keep one thing in mind do you use, religion and responsibly.

These are just some of the answers, that I sincerely believe most people should know about their religion or beliefs. You should be able to answer at least one of these questions if asked by a nonbeliever.

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development

Greg is currently working on a spiritual religious articles filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion

Jon Kabat Zinn

Dr Success - A Discussion on Achieving Your Highest Success and Shifting Sands by Steve Donahue

As a society, we are trained from our earliest years to approach our lives like mountain climbers. From the time we enter school we are supposedly being taught what to pack for life's journey. By our teens, we have often laid out a detailed map and a kit of tools to our life and we are keenly aware of where our life journey is meant to go and where the summit is. Soon after starting that journey, however, we discover that life has its own paths, surprises and unexpected summits and challenges waiting for us.

The author of Shifting Sands, Steve Donahue, builds on an experience from his youth, where he and a friend seized the moment and unexpectedly drove across the Sahara Desert. Steve uses this as a life metaphor for the long journey of crossing an ever-changing desert when we "expect" to be climbing a well-planned mountain. In this book, the author shares that one evening the group had carefully planned their next step in the journey - it was completely laid out, right down to where the hills and sands and markings were. When they awoke the next morning, there had been a sandstorm and everything was different.

This becomes one of the author's core revelations: Use a compass instead of a map. Rather than following someone else's instructions and roadmap to the summit, Donahue encourages his readers to use our own inner compass and intuitive guideposts to plot our path day by day. Life is ever changing, and no amount of maps and markers can really plot our course - and if we think about it, would we even really want that?

One of Donahue's most poignant chapters is, "When You're Stuck, Deflate." When we get stuck in life, we often tend to dig in our heels (or wheels) and just try harder - the old adage, "If at first you don't succeed," ringing in our ears. But in life, like in the desert, sometimes that only bogs us deeper down into the sand. Being hell-bent to follow the map and do something the way we plan, can literally stop us in our tracks. According to Shifting Sands, sometimes we must simply stop, let go, and shift with the changing scene around us. The question thus becomes: How do I let go of my ideas and my ego and move forward?

As an executive mentor, my role is to uncover why we allow ourselves to get stuck and what we do to shift and rethink our direction and our summits. We know through positive psychology that as human beings we are sometimes stopped by our own experiences and comfort level over and over. Our ego will use this as a benchmark to allow us to feel "accomplished." We are thus compelled to repeat only what we know. By using an inner compass, you can use your own "True North" to overtake that mental goalpost and begin to create a different journey and conquer summits higher than we might have ever dreamed to set. As human beings, we like to assume we "know" how things will turn out and what steps we need to take to get there. We are gratefully reminded in Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change, that each life is an uncharted adventure to be joyously relished.

Dr. Success (aka Andrea Goeglein, Ph.D.)
http://www.ServingSuccess.com
DrSuccess@ServingSuccess.com
(702) 243-4040

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

How Do We Know If it is Spiritual Love Or Just Physical Pleasure?

Love is spirituality along with the actual realistic knowledge of knowing there is someone other than oneself in the picture. Spiritually as if your heart is not in your own body, it inhabits the space in the heart of the person you love, with that person's heart inhabiting the space in your own, as if indistinguishable who is who, and it does not matter. Physically there are two, though spiritually there is only one, and that one is love, body, mind, and spirit. It can not be broken, ever, period, at least if it is absolute love from the infinite timelessness of our spiritual being, in the present body.

Simple, yes if it is realized that our nature is love and our spirits are free of complications or delusional illusions of what someone else may tell us. In other words when we listen to anyone other than ourselves in the realm of our own spirituality in consideration of love we give up our truth and become as deluded as the ones telling us what to do or who to love. Delusion is rampant in to-days so called intelligent society because of the ego of the experts (supposedly experts) who give out guidance as if there were no tomorrow, even though they may say they are not orders it is implied that if you do not follow their guidance you will be left out. Our media circus is great at that one, and unfortunately many seem to be unable to reject or ignore the zoo keepers. It is akin to actors in Hollywood, or anywhere for that matter, being the character in real life as well as the part they play, so they really are confused as to who they are for the most part. Hence all the idiocy we see coming from so called celebrity status.

What is the circus selling? Pure and simply sex in all the glory it has. Glorification though of sex is like being blissfully ignorant, even though most buy it, or so it seems when we look at statistics of who watches what and what movies sell the most tickets. No there is nothing wrong with sex, or even liking it, and obviously it is a beautiful aspect of life, though it is perhaps the least understood in all that we aspire to understand. Difficulty is the fact that spirituality and sex go together, while sex can be apart from spirituality nothing comes from just sex by itself. Our deficit in spirituality leads to a loss of value to the human condition as well as some of what we see going on in the economy right now, greed for only pleasure/money/sex with no actual work being done.

Pleasure is not a bad thing, though sexual pleasure just for the sake of pleasure is what tears at the very foundations of our human existence, especially in the way of our spiritual realm. Spiritually we have occupied many bodies, we do not know how many, though the fact of our spirit remembering minute, less than perhaps molecular pieces of our past memories is why we behave the way we do, along with of course the cause and effect of our present surrounding. If from childhood we live without any trauma whatsoever we may grow up with full faculty of our own spiritual being, truly knowing who we are all the while not needing any type of mind altering substance or wanting to be altered. Rare indeed, and yet that in itself does not mean the spirit is ready for enlightenment, or love, though perhaps it may help, for example in the area of sex, it is known instinctively, no matter male or female, what is means to be attracted to the opposite sex and why as spiritual purity enables such innocent attraction to manifest with an intimacy which has nothing to do with the physical nature of the body. Of course one will know something is there, though with again the innocence of love. If there is a beginning to true or absolute love it is here in the innocence.

Just for the sake of looking at things from perhaps what some may call a rather different perspective, think of making love as something that everyone sees, not only those involved, hopefully a male and female who actually love one and other, in what we will say is in the spiritual realm. We will leave religious dogma out of the equation for now. When we leave the body at death of the body our consciousness or spirit searches for a womb, unless it has become as god consciousness or enlightened, in order to have a new body to house the spirit. How many spirits are watching when those in love are making love? Choose the womb carefully from Tibetan Buddhism is the relevancy of how and why spirituality is the most important factor in life, as in we are responsible for our own choices. In other words if we are not making love, we are not in love and sex is the only factor, the spirits who are ignorant may end up in a womb they are not meant to actually be in at that time (hence birth control, as in take away responsibility) and may need to start the search all over shortly thereafter, how ever unfortunate it is. Choose the womb carefully.

Sex for sale, narcissus, egotistical, sociopathic exhibitionism and or voyeurism are some of the factors of the spiritual deficit in the world, there is no love or spirituality in this scene. Like it our not religion is meant to be a structural support of love and spirituality, as human beings have always needed some kind of structure to help in behavior, which is why we are not still beating each other with sticks, hopefully. Our spirit is the foundation with love being the transporter which allows life in the physical body to exist, and why spirituality is the actual basis for the foundation. Point is this, the unrestricted sexual behavior of a non-spiritual nature confuses our own consciousness along with all the other spirits involved with our personal behavior.

Depression, irritability, anger, frustration, anti-social behavior all are part of the consequence of our behavior of any type in the realm of sex, be it physical or mental. Drugs, which by the way alcohol is one, are the emotional strength to delude the body and mind that all is just great. Our spirit knows, yet our mind and body pay no attention to the signs and leaves the spirit in the dirt. Of course this is why when it comes to the sex trade, no matter what is happening, drugs are a necessity to keep girls, boys, women, men in the game to profit from, another words exploit without spiritual consequences.

No consequences, is just a lie or delusion that goes with the behavior, even for those who may not actually partake to the extent of some and seem to keep their senses for the most part. It is like standing at the edge of a cliff thinking you are able to fly when you jump. Deviant behavior of a sexual nature must stop before any type of spiritual awakening is enabled. Love making is not deviant behavior, even though it may not be spiritual, though when it is done for an audience other than the female and male involved it turns into deviance, known or not. Usually this type of sexual behavior is not done without the help of some type of uninhibited mind altering substance, which bears repeating, or just plain delusion that there is nothing wrong with it.

In a free society such as ours here in America we must not try to control any-ones' behavior other than those who break the law. Our constitution was and is written in order to allow freedom of all people here in the United States. Behavior is something which is ones' own responsibility, owning up to it is another story perhaps, and spirituality does not necessarily need to be a part of any-ones behavior at least consciously, although it is always there waiting in the background to let us know when we have screwed up, ignored or not.

If love is based on spirituality it will be known to anyone involved as intimacy and innocence will allow the female and the male to actually get to know each other before any physical contact of a sexual nature takes place. When the time comes the female will let the male know what is going to happen or not, or how much, which is completely normal when all is right with the relationship. Meaning it is the female who controls the situation, yet this does not mean or imply she is somehow to blame when things may not go right. Problem is man, usually is the one who pushes or forces something which is not totally wanted, though interestingly younger boys, or young adults will respect the wishes of the girl before an older man will, which again is normal as the spirit is not yet pushed aside in the young man who realizes there is something more at play here than just sex. Point here is man will at times use force to control the woman, and this is and has been and most likely will remain the problem as long as man deludes himself into thinking that he is the one in control of woman. It is kind of a paradox as most men know this already though do not want to admit it because they want to think they are the boss though they know they are not, which ignorantly is why they continue with the stupidity. Of course not all men are stupid, which is why so many people are happily married and do have spirituality in there lives, mainly though because of and through the spiritual nature of woman, as she instinctively knows what is love and what is not because she has the womb the spirits keep wanting to enter.

What can be perhaps the most significant in importance is when there is a true spiritual connection between the female and male there will never be any force what so ever in any part of the relationship. Force is not needed at any time in the union of the female and male, it is the force of nature which is absolutely the way the universe intended in the realm of physical intimacy between the female and the male, as nature is what does and or has brought anyone together in a spiritual union. Fact is we may at times think this will not happen, though with a spiritual nature kept solid through discipline and will we do find we are brought together with someone to love in a spiritual way, which is one reason why they say, and it is true, patience is a virtue. Physical pleasure, or just sex will not happen under those conditions, the spiritual universe will not allow narcissus, egotistical, or a sociopaths behavior to exist in those conditions. Love, absolute spiritual love, is what the universe allows, period.

George Merritt is a Certified General Contractor, Welder, Writer, Machinist always learning something new, and never gives up hope on the love of life and the human condition in the quest for truth, love, peace, and joy among other things.

http://www.georgetmerritt.com

Chinese New Year Cookies - Top 8 Cookies That Prosperities Your New Year

Chinese New Year is a big event in Malaysia. About a quarter of Malaysian will celebrate their Lunar New Year, whispering for a great and prosperity New Year.

Malaysian always visits each others during the festival, meet with Friends, relatives and greet them all the best wishes! As a host, they normally will serve some light foods and drinks.

Below are top 8 famous Chinese New Year Cookies which you could serve to your friend during their visit in this coming New Year! They are top Malaysian Chinese Food!

- The Pineapple Tart Cookies is the must have during this festival. It present Money come your way. A lot of people know how to make pineapple tart but those really good one are soft butter and pineapple jam which won't stick to teeth.

- Kuih Bangkit, a Traditional coconut milk baked cookies are among the best! Bangkit in Malaysia Language means to Growth, to develop. This cookie brings you good career growth path and wishing you a growth Business!

- Peanut cookies - Peanut in the mandarin has good meaning that for those young couple to give birth for next generation! Eating this cookies also good meaning for growing your family members or generations in the coming year!

- Almond cookies - Almond which delivers a very unique flavor always be top choice in making cookies. Pronunciation of Almond in Mandarin has good meaning of wishing you to live in Happiness!

- Walnut cookies - Walnut cookies is kind of new type of cookies which have a little piece of walnut on top of an almond or butter cookies. Walnut in Mandarin spells wishing the whole family is live peacefully, cooperatively and united. Remember a proverb united is strength!!

- Cashew nut Cookies - the shape of Cashew Nut is in curve which means we must learn how to be humble in our way of life!

- CornFlakes cookies are kind of brand new cookies in recent year! The cookies are mixed with sweet honey. The look of cornflakes is in gold in color means you have a lot of gold to come in your hand.

- Green Pea cookies are a new bred in recent year too! The look is very much alike Peanut cookies but instead of using peanut, they are using green pea. Well, eating Green Pea cookies is as remind us to save our mother earth and save more greenery scene around us!

Everyone loves to be greeted with best wishes especially during the New Year! These are best Chinese New Year Cookies to serve your Malaysian Chinese Friend during the Chinese New Year Festival. We share with you top 8 famous Malaysian Chinese Cookies which made of Almond, Pineapple, Peanut, Walnut, Cashew nut, Green Pea, Coconut and Cornflakes! These one some of wonder from Malaysian Food which would brings you prosperity in the coming years!

Tan Sze Fong is the Malaysian Internet Marketer. He recently actively involve in Best Malaysian Food web portal to share most delicious Malaysian Food in Malaysia. Visit him at http://www.bestmalaysianfood.com/

Missing Attic Insulation

Sunday, June 7, 2009

You Can Do It If You Want Video

Get off your butt and start your life in motion today.

Question Your Religion

You are free to copy this article to your site as long as you include the following resource information with an active link to my site:

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a motivation help library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

Getting Up Earlier

Use Religion Responsibly - Spiritual Humor

Well you probably heard of the problems that some people get into when they drink a little too much and start to drive their cars. This is known as drinking and driving irresponsibly and can be hazardous to your health but more hazardous to your pocketbook. Overdosing on drugs, spending too much money shopping, gambling excessively and last but not least, spending too much time at your place of worship can be hazardous to others. Over time, our loved ones seem to suffer the most from our excesses.

I suggest most people use religion responsibly and try not to overindulge in the excesses of your spiritual practice. Like an alcoholic drinking until they feel good, only to wake up feeling bad the next morning. And then starting the process all over the next day.

Now for the big question, "Are You a Religiousoholic?" Do you spend too much time at church? Do you surround yourself exclusively with people that share your same religious beliefs?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, there's a good chance you're a religiousoholic. Like alcoholics and drug addicts, there is help for you, once you've identified your problem, we can help. We call it our 5 step program. Alcoholics Anonymous has a 12 step program for recovery but we have eliminated a couple and rearranged others in hopes for a faster recovery.

Religionolism is no laughing matter and should be handled with the utmost delicacy. Start with the first step and work your way down the list and within a short period of time you should find yourself free from the religious tyranny of your institutionalized religion.

Step 1. The biggest problem you're going to happen during your recovery will be the temptation from religious followers, wanting you to come back. Like a drug addict, saying no to drugs,it's hard, you're going to have to be strong here. Learn to say no to organized religion and yes to religious freedom.

Step 2. Instead of reading Scripture, start reading about other religions around the world. You will find some weird things and new ideas, but the bottom line here is that you'll be able to see some similarities, and silliness between the religions.

Step 3. You can still spend time praying, just spend more time praying about how grateful you are, instead of praying for something you want, start spending a little more time thanking God for the things in your lives that you already have. I have spent a lot of time praying for things I never got. When I stopped praying for the things, I thought I needed, I started getting the things I really needed.

Step 4. Start spending a little more time believing in yourself, some religions seem to give all the glory and credit to their gods and very little to the people that are actually making the sacrifices. I have also noticed that when something goes wrong, some religious followers tend to punish themselves and it just doesn't seem fair. God gets all the credit when things are good and you blame yourself when things go wrong.

Step 5. Start showing a little more compassion towards people who don't think the same as you do or believe in your religion. Love and compassion are the true acts of a religious believer. I believe you'll find that in every religious scripture... somewhere.

Sometimes we get a little carried away in our beliefs and tend to beat up other people who don't share them with us. If you're part of a religion who discriminates, shows intolerance, bigotry or prejudice to other nonbelievers, maybe this isn't the religion you think it should be.

Dalai Lama - "All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness, the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives."

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development. If we could communicate better and understand different religious philosophy and cultures.

Just how big of a deal is Money Organized Religion. Your money is used for various things and some of them, you might not really want to spend the money on. Something to think about.

If you want to read something funny and get your daily laugh in, you need to read this, it's funny Using Religion Responsibility. It's based on overindulgence.

Richard Dawkins

The Last Days Of Christianity

Jesus Wasnt A Christian

Saturday, June 6, 2009

What's so Important about Learning - Zig Ziglar Video

Zig Ziglar explains how the learned will inherit the earth.

Greg is currently working on a self help library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

Radical Religious Leaders
Richard Swinburne

Want to Know More About Guided Meditation? Read On!

One of the most significant devices in self help in order to accomplish inner calm and peace of mind is through meditating. In view of the hectic and stressful lifestyle of today, the increasing popularity of this activity is growing, day by day as more and more individuals discover about its marvelous advantages and benefits. And guided meditation is one of the most well known types of meditating being utilized by countless of people on a daily basis. In this article, we will talk about guided meditation and the technique or style of performing it. Guided meditation, in its most basic and simplest form is a form of meditating where the subject is guided on each and every process of his meditative practice.

Right from the initial step of sitting in a meditative position up to the last stage of completing and finishing the process, someone guides you along the way. Guided meditation instructions could be of several varieties and it depend on the methods being given and imparted by the teacher. Some of the very famous meditating methods applied in guided meditation are Vipassana-which includes contemplation on the breathing processes, dancing and prayer meditation, mantra recitation, visual imagination and mindfulness meditation, etc. The most effective and the best way of using guided meditation is trying to listen to the live instructions from a master.

However, if that is not at all possible, the second best option is recording all the written instructions of a meditating process in your own voice and then listen into it in your meditative practice. What truly takes place in a guided meditation is that an instructor or teacher provides some step-by-step coaching on what to do whilst on the process of meditating. Well, this is a very archaic way of giving meditative education and instructions to students. Yes, in those age-old times, this activity was trained or taught in groups or teams using this technique. But these days, many thanks to the progress of technology, we don't need to have the physical presence of the guru to lead us in meditative state.

By making use of pre-recorded DVDs or CDs, we could now listen to the guided instructions of a guru and then, voila-we could then perform our meditative practice. Nevertheless, without any of those professional CDs or DVDs or a guru or master, you could record in you very own voice the written tips of this type of meditation from a book and you can play them afterwards. Furthermore, if someone doesn't have the convenience of a DVD player or a voice recorder, a person could always ask his relatives and pals to speak verbally the written meditating order during the session.

In this way, we could make use and apply the benefits of the guided meditation even in the absence of any technical help. It also helps you reaping its benefits and advantages even though you're alone. If you have not yet tried this type of meditative practice yet, I suggest that you give it a try.

The author of this article Amy Twain is a Self Improvement Coach who has been successfully coaching and guiding clients for many years. Amy recently decided to go public and share her knowledge and experience through her website http://www.innerzine.com You can sign up for her free newsletter and join her coaching program.

Alexander Graham Bell

Friday, June 5, 2009

Weight Loss Motivation

Lack of motivation is a major reason many people fail when it comes to losing weight. I myself know first hand. All the daily distractions in life can leave you distracted from what you truly want. This article will address 3-ways to stay motivated and give you better chances of succeeding.

Weight Loss Motivation Tip #1

The first step is convincing yourself this is something you must have. Write down the three main reason why you must lose weight. It could be anything such as health benefits, wanting more energy, wanting to increase your life span, etc. Re-sight these on a daily basis to keep you focused on why you must succeed.

It takes years to get out of shape, and even less to get in shape. The average life span for a human is around 70 years. Did you know it can take as little as 6 months to 1 year to get in shape for the average overweight person? Before you start any program, make sure you are willing to commit 6 months to 1 year at it. It will not happen overnight. Its going to take time and energy. Remember your why reasons to help keep you on track.


Weight Loss Motivation Tip #2

The next step is finding a program that works to follow. You should not just buy the first fad diets or exercising gimmick you see on the television. Most people know a handful of people who have tried some form of diet or exercise program that worked. Go to these people and find out exactly what they did. If you do not know anyone, you can find many forums and review sites on the Internet of real user that explain exactly what they have done. Visit some of these websites to for ideas.

Weight Loss Motivation Tip #3

The final step is having someone to motivate and consistently push you to keep going. This could be a spouse, friend, partner, or even someone on an Internet message board. You do not have to go it alone in fact, having someone to keep you motivated will increase your chances of success.

Everybody wants to get in shape and life healthy. In my opinion, everyone can. Using these weight loss motivation tips can drastically help increase your chances of weight loss success. Remember to identify your why reason, stick to a program that works, and find someone to keep you motivated.

This article is written by M. Martin. Find more tips, articles, and reviews for the top diet and exercise programs at Lose Pounds Fast a blog operated by M. Martin.

M. Martin lost 60 pounds following Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet program. A full review for this program can be found at Lose Pounds Fast

Horatio Alger

Monday, June 1, 2009

You May Say I'm a Dreamer

Imagine There's No Heaven, It's Easy If You Try, No Hell below Us, above Us Only Sky, Imagine All the People Living for Today. Imagine There's No Countries, It Isn't Hard to Do, Nothing to Kill or Die for, and No Religion Too. Imagine All the People Living Life in Peace. Think about It.

It's hard to imagine, with the information today and even 50 years ago that most people still believe in religions all over the world, just because they were raised to believe in them. Religions of the future will have to adapt to change, a little faster as more people read articles like mine to promote education within your religion.

Find out a little bit more about Your Religious Freedom

You are free to copy this article to your site as long as you include the following resource information with an active link to my site:

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a religous help library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

Gay Teenager Problems
Why I Built Spiritualbooks4u

Ramadan - Fasting in 2009

Ramadan is the time of the year when Muslims must obey one of the five pillars of Islam, fasting. Fasting is an important step all Muslims must take.

What time does fasting begin and what time does fasting ends depends on the rising of the sun and setting of the sun. You can find out what day Ramadan begins and the last day. It is customary to open you fast with dates, which are very inexpensive and can be bought from many shops, if not than something sweet will do, such as fruits etc.

When a Muslim man or woman fast they are learning how precious life is and how we should be grateful for what we have and feel as others less fortunate then we are.

Tips for fasting. There shouldn't really be any tips on Ramadan or fasting as that would perhaps defy the whole point God found Muslims to complete this task every year. But there are some things Muslims can do. Drink plenty of water before starting your fast to avoid dehydration as you are not permitted any foods or liquids of any kind while fasting.

For all of you who want quick facts about fasting than here goes, Please remember these are guidelines.

1. No eating or drinking during fasting times

2. No smoking or taking of illegal drugs

3. No sexual activities

4. No behaviors which are considered harmful

5. Fasting is not allowed during menstrual periods.

6. Medical conditions which would require you to break your fast is allowed.

Remember this is a fast of not just food but also of the soul, of our daily luxuries.

This is the time of contemplation and spirituality.

Shazia Shah is a practicing Muslim and has been a driving force behind the Muslim Matrimonials website http://www.muslimandsingle.com and http://www.asians4asians.com With Muslim Members from all over the UK and rest of the world.

Spending 15 Minutes Each Day