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Ever since I decided to go vegetarian, I find myself constantly defending my decision to others. The most ridiculous accusation I have gotten are comments like “Just dont become fanatic about it”.

As I mentioned in one of my posts, the movie Earthlings was the inspiration behind my “If Slaughterhouses had Walls” t-shirt.

The following video is a must-see for those people out there who think that the vegetarians among us are the “fanatics”..

(Originally posted on Dare To Wish)

According to a recent poll in Self Magazine emotional eating affects the majority of women. Traditionally, we women are the nourishers of the family, we feed them and soothe them, but we sometimes get out of touch with our own emotional needs and that’s when we start looking to our food to be our friend as well as our fuel.

This article explores four ways to become more aware of your emotions and eating habits so that you can discover how to nourish yourself without reaching for the biscuit tin.

1. Know Your Triggers

The more aware you are of the triggers that prompt you to eat when you’re stressed, bored, or upset, the more control you will have over your eating habits. You can build awareness by keeping a brief food journal of what you eat, where you eat, and why you eat. Discovering why is not always so easy at first but as you get into the habit of increasing your awareness, you will soon discover some interesting clues.

Avoid Adverts: Many of us watch TV to “get away from it all” for a while. Unfortunately in that inert, and sometimes unhappy state, we are a prime target for adverts for comfort junk foods. Skipping the adverts is one way to deal with this, but better still is skipping TV. TV time could be replaced by a walk, some gentle breathing exercises, a shower, a chat with a friend, or anything else that’s upbeat and feels nice and supportive to you.

Tackle Cravings: Once we start to become aware of our triggers then we can work with changing them. If there’s a particular food that you frequently crave you can download my free quick start guide to Emotional Freedom Techniques here. Any time you feel a craving for that food you can work through the EFT sequence and reduce your desire to eat it. This is something I may write more about later, but in the meantime you can read this excellent article on EFT’s success in controlling emotional eating.

(Continue reading this post via Living by Design)

What can addiction teach us about personal development?

A lot. There is much wisdom to be learned by the addict’s journey from addiction to recovery.

I realize that many of you reading this now are probably not drug addicts and alcoholics. That’s fine – but you stand to gain great insight from the experience of those who have fought and overcome a serious addiction. There are several parallels between recovery and personal development. Many would argue that their paths are actually one and the same.

As a recovering drug addict and alcoholic with over 7 years clean and sober, one of my passions is exploring the process of overcoming addiction. While there are many different recovery programs, most of them share many of the same characteristics, so people who find success in recovery do so by following a similar path.

Here are some of the things that lead to long term sobriety, while also having practical application for personal development:

(Continue reading this post via The Urban Monk)

The new law in Israel prohibiting smoking in public areas and restaurants means one step closer to cleaner, greener living, right?

Not exactly, walk by any coffee shop in Tel Aviv and the first thing you will notice are dozens of cigarette butts surrounding the area.

Why is this happening? Restaurant owners are prohibiting smoking anywhere on restaurant property (including tables outside) and requesting that their customers smoke just outside the property line before returning to their tables.

The result? City sidewalks and curbs are turning into heavily littered personal ashtrays.

“Yeah, but what could I possible do about it?”

(Continue reading this post via Green Your Day)

I am writing this to the woman who wants it all.  I am all about wanting it all.  I dream big, I aim (really) high, I think whoever thinks I have delusions of grandeur apparently doesn’t know me well enough, and I sip from a glass that’s half-full. 

It’s wonderful, really. 

What ISN’T wonderful is the insane amount of stress that can come from having to multi-task and drudge through a way too busy day.  Stress is like quicksand right at the very center of your dreams.  You add to, tweak, or create new dreams and goals and while you are trying to move forward with all of your plans, the quicksand sucks you and your strength away as you try to forge on!  The less strength you have, the less you are able to manage.   Regardless of what success is for you, effort and energy is required to make the engine of your dreamboat purr.  If you want to be  super-mom, a straight-A student, a star at work, handy-sans-the-man,  or (eek) everything at once–

You’re going to need a system. 

If You Can’t Think Straight, Don’t.

Gifting yourself a few minutes in the midst of all the mind clutter can be the best thing you can do for your day.  Sometimes all the external stimulation, rushing, and chronic anxiety undermines your efforts instead of contributing to your productivity.  So, as a major fan of Me Time, I suggest that you take some to regroup and energize yourself.  Find a quiet area away from all distractions (even if it’s a bathroom stall at work) and take five.  Close your eyes and still the currents of thoughts in your mind.  In this moment, your only job is to drain it all away.  Relax every tense muscle in your body.  Not only will catching your breath energize you, it will help bring clarity to your thoughts.  That clarity will come a better ability to manage your tasks…

(Continue reading this post via In My Heels)

When you were a child, you may have been told to “Stand up straight!” or “Don’t slouch!” from your parents and teachers. I remember when I was younger, my mother would poke my back out of nowhere to remind me to stand up straight. I hated this as a teen and was determined to rebel for no reason other than to be stubborn and go against what I was told. My purposeful slouching eventually turned into a habit and carried with me into adulthood.

Now that I’m older, I understand why my mother was so insistent. My poor posture now makes me feel:

1. Pain in my back and shoulders.
2. I am breathing shallowly.
3. I appeared to lack self confidence.
4. Energy was not flowing efficiently throughout my body. I was often tired.
5. It made me look and feel weak.

I have spent much time correcting the damage, and undeveloped muscles, from my rebellious teen years. Like any habit, breaking bad posture can be a challenge, but definitely doable with some attention and practice.

Many of us may like to improve our posture, but we often don’t know how, or where to start…

(Continue reading this post via Think Simple Now)

 What exactly is Positive psychology?

Positive Psychology is a fairly new field that has all ready gained recognized from the American Psychological Association. Many stress-control experts are having great success with its principles. In an upturned nutshell, Positive Psychology focuses on finding and promoting the conditions and factors that make people’s lives better. Instead of focusing their energies on things that cause unhappiness, researchers in the Positive Psychology field center their research around the ingredients of a good life. Sound good? Personally, I think it sounds great!

I’ve always been the sort of person who tries to focus on the positive. When my husband and I were first married, we moved from a very large apartment to a much, much smaller one. When writing letters home, or talking about the move, I always referred to the move as being one, “to a cozier apartment.” I came to love that cozy apartment. In fact, it and its 4 rooms are one of my favorite homes ever. The outlook, I’m sure, had a lot to do with moving from an apartment to one that could fit into it’s living room….and thinking that it was a great thing. I also called upon my inner Mary Poppins a few years back when we moved from a large beach house on Pensacola Beach to a small house in Earlington, Kentucky. (Granted I had to call loudly for her, she had locked herself in a closet.) After a few days of what we might as well call shell-shock, I started looking forward to Kentucky’s gorgeous autumns and springs. I even started looking forward to the Kentucky winters that I’d grown up with. I had, honestly, missed beautiful snow and (as it turned out) ran outside to greet it on the first day it snowed. In my pink housecoat, white houseshoes, and morning coffee I’m sure I looked like a complete idiot. But I was a happy idiot!…

(Continue reading this post via Self Help Daily)