Put on your thinking cap when you visit CITB - here you'll find Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts and "Outside The Box" thinking, plus we call Bullsh!t for what it is. Enjoy the ride, and if we stimulate your brain, please tell others about us!
We all have stress sometimes. For some people, it happens before having to speak in public. For other people, it might be before a first date. What causes stress for you may not be stressful for someone else.
Sometimes stress is helpful - it can encourage you to meet a deadline or get things done. But long-term stress can increase the risk of diseases like depression, heart disease and a variety of other problems.
Yoga, Meditation, and Other Relaxation Techniques
Yoga can be an effective tool for dealing with work related stress. This video offers short exercises that can be done at your desk for stress relief and relaxation.
This is a video featuring Dr. Jon Kabal-Zinn. He describes the revolution in medicine that has occurred over the past 30 years that has integrated the mind back into the body and developed a remarkable range of practices for integrating one's experience, reducing stress, healing the body, coping more effectively with emotions such as anxiety, anger, and depression, and cultivating greater well-being and happiness.
Chronic Stress is stress that lasts a long time or occurs frequently. Chronic stress is potentially damaging. Family problems, a difficult class at school, a schedule that is too busy, or a long illness can cause chronic stress.
Symptoms of chronic stress can be:
eating disorder
upset stomach
headache
backache
insomnia
anxiety
depression
anger
In the most severe cases it can lead to panic attacks or a panic disorder.
If you have chronic stress, the best way to deal with it is to take care of the underlying problem. Counseling can help you find ways to relax and calm down. Medicines may also help. There are a variety of methods to control chronic stress, including exercise, healthy diet, stress management, relaxation techniques, adequate rest, and relaxing hobbies.
Ensuring a healthy diet containing magnesium may help control or eliminate stress, in those individuals with lower levels of magnesium or those who have a magnesium deficiency. Chronic stress can also lead to a magnesium deficiency, which can be a factor in continued chronic stress.
Having personally experienced the effects of stress. How stress effects your life varies from person to person. Here is a collection of links to help you and your loved ones with this issue.
Major Life Changes: This list is a handy tool to keep available at all times. Anytime you’re faced with major changes, you experience physical and emotional stress. This list will help you make choices about how many stressful situations you’re willing to juggle at one time. For instance, if you’re expecting a child, it might not be the best time to consider relocation, a new job, or to decide to head back for that college degree.
Major Life Change: Chaos Could Be a Good Sign: Although this article is brief and to-the-point, life coach Laura Young looks at the positive side of stress. When you deal with crises, you can develop inner strength and confidence in your abilities. Read on to learn more positives!
Stress at Work: NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) provides a comprehensive yet concise list of tools and information where you can learn all angles about work-related stress and relief from that stress.
Stress Management: This is an About.com site that focuses on stress management in all areas of life. This is one of the most comprehensive sites we’ve encountered on this topic, as it provides a blog, articles, and tools to help recognize and deal with stress issues.
Stress Relief: Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, visualization, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, and yoga can help you activate this relaxation response to stress. This site shows you how to plan for and achieve a level of relaxation that may help you to cope with everyday stress triggers.
Stress Relief Exercises: Unlike exercises for physical strength, these tools will help you learn how to relax so you don’t hurt your body or shorten your lifespan.
Top 10 Steps to Making Life Changes: This PDF file was created by life coach Steve Davis, and he provides some sound advice on how to alleviate many stressful situations. For instance, if the bank forecloses on your apartment building, the stress won’t be half as bad on you if you have money set aside to handle a blow like this.
Work-Related Stress: Health & Safety Executive (HSE) provides a four-pronged approach to work-related stress. Learn how to tackle stress, about management’s role in this issue, about good practices, and advice for individuals.
CITB Quote of the day: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover" - Mark Twain
Posted by Thom Byxbe | Under Concept, Idea
Tuesday Mar 11, 2008
In the course of writing CITB we read and research a LOT of web sites. While surfing the web today I saw a link to VistaRewired.com. I no longer am a Microsoft Windows user having made the move to Linux several months ago. But, in my humble opinion, no Microsoft operating system is more bloated and convoluted than Vista. When I visited Vista Rewired I knew I had found a site that was a gold mine of simple, easy to use, solutions to the mysteries of Windows Vista.
Vista Rewired was created by two aspiring young entrepreneurs with the intent of solving the headaches of Windows Vista users, and to educate them on the operating system. The easy to use tips and tricks will help Vista users so they can use the operating system to its full potential.
Here is a LIMITED selection of links to Vista Rewired articles that I felt many users would find helpful.
The complete index of articles on the site can be found HERE. Remember that this site is adding important information and growing daily. Be sure to bookmark it or subscribe to their RSS feed to stay updated on this VALUABLE resource to Windows Vista.
We give this site our HIGHEST recommendation. We think it such a valuable resource that we have added it to our permanent list of Important Blogs on CITB's sidebar.
CITB Quote of the day: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work!"- Thomas Edison
Posted by Thom Byxbe | Under Idea, Thought
Wednesday Feb 27, 2008
Remember the film of the Hindenburg disaster? Even if you are much too young to have been alive when it happened, you've doubtless seen the dramatic (and tragic) newsreel footage. After seeing those images in their local theaters (back in the days before television, when you got to see the news in motion pictures before you saw the feature film), an awful lot of people decided that there was no way in hell they wanted to travel by Zeppelin. And, since there were alternatives (planes, which might crash but at least didn't put one in the position of having to choose between being burned alive or jumping to one's death), the Zeppelin all but disappeared. Which, in a way, is a real shame, because it was probably a much more elegant way to travel (no, I am not old enough to remember).
Anyway, my point is that a dramatic video can bring out the worst in people's fears. Today we have companies wanting to put wind turbines along the shore of Lake Michigan, and of course there is local opposition. Well, just wait until that opposition sees this video from Denmark:
Now, I'm not saying that wind power is totally dead - I'd love to see any type of energy production developed that doesn't involve the use of petroleum or other fossil fuels. But, I have to tell you, I'd rather live next to a nuclear power plant than in the shadow of one of these wind turbines (not that living next to either would be my first choice). I can see all sorts of problems with those massive blades whirling in the wind, and the video just confirmed my suspicions that things can go very wrong. This video will probably be played at every local council meeting where the idea of putting wind turbines near residential areas is being explored.
As an aside, why isn't anyone exploring the use of wave energy in Lake Michigan? On the west side of the lake, we have gentle waves even on days when the wind is relatively calm, and when the wind kicks up a bit there is a massive amount of energy in those waves. And, anything that captures the energy in the waves probably isn't going to throw huge chunks of metal into someone's home (I suppose it could happen in a really nasty storm, but the probability is seriously low, and a large log or other chunk of driftwood could probably cause similar damage). I know, there are probably a three or four months where the lake is frozen over to the point that there are no waves, but still, for the other eight or nine months of the year - and particularly during the summer, when air conditioning usage is high - I suspect that a significant amount of power could be derived from wave energy!
Posted by Thom Byxbe | Under Thought
Wednesday Feb 27, 2008
The Mayans created the most sophisticated calendar system of all the known civilizations. Their knowledge of the celestial cycles thousands of years ago rivals our collective knowledge today. The Calendar has never erred. On December 21, 2012, our solar system will enter into its Galactic Day for the first time in Humanity's history. The Calendar has prophesied that as we move out of the darkness, great calamities will come with it. They warned us...
Never before in history has one date, one moment in time, been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, so many scientists, so many governments and to so many people all around the world.
The ancient Maya believed the Earth's final day will be December 21, 2012. Native Americans, Egyptians, Chinese and others arrived at a similar conclusion, each without a knowledge of the other. The Maya claimed that this future end-time would include a solar shift, a Venus transit and mounting earthquakes.
2012 is sometimes claimed to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or apocalypse). Many sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order.
Polar Shift
Polar Shift is a theory that on December 21st 2012 Earth will experience earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or other natural disasters. In 2012 the next polar reversal will take place on earth. This means that the North Pole will be changed into the South Pole. Scientifically this can only be explained by the fact that the earth will start rotating in the opposite direction, together with a huge disaster of unknown proportions.
Magnetic Somersaults
In the first quarter of 2001, the Sun switched magnetic poles. This occurs every eleven years. Prior to this the Sun's north magnetic pole was at the north rotational pole. Now the Sun's north magnetic pole is at its south pole. Since opposite poles attract, the magnetic poles of the Earth and Sun are now at their most stable.
Just about the time of 2012 Winter Solstice, the Sun's poles will switch back. During this switch there will be a tendency for the Sun's magnetic field to pull the Earth's field with it.
If the Earth's magnetic poles switch, this would put stress on the planet aggravating earthquakes and volcanos, not to mention destruction of the electrical power distribution grid. And, if the switch happens fast enough don't ever expect your computer to work again. But if you have old tube type equipment, keep it. It should survive just fine. It will work if you can find electricity.
December 21 2012 THE END
A recent Google search of the date "December 21 2012" produced 147,000 results. There are entire websites dedicated to this moment in time. There are blogs, discussion boards, chat rooms and scientific studies.
I have read stories the last few months about underground cities and government actions that make sense if we are preparing for an ELE (Extinction Level Event). Take a look at the underground complex at Yamantau that the Russians are building. Could this be a haven for surviving a solar blast? And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is investing along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, in what is called the "doomsday seed bank". Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen.
We offer this story as food for thought. There will be much more excitement and controversy as December 21, 2012 draws closer. We plan to explore anything that offers credibility to the many theory's surrounding this topic. Please give us your feedback and opinions.
TWB
CITB Quote of the day: "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." - Albert Einstein
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Thomas Byxbe is the Publisher and Editor of Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts & Bullsh!t.
Thom has been a respected Internet author for over 12 years. He has written extensively on the Internet, Technology and Lifestyle topics. Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts & Bullsh!t is one of 3 current blog projects he writes and manages.
Mr. Byxbe is President and Chief Internet Visionary of Metamorphosis Idea Lab located in Madison Heights, Michigan.
In addition, Thom is an Ordained Minister focused on pastoral counseling. He has been a certified Neuro-Linguistic Practitioner for over 20 years. In his current counseling practice he utilizes a blend of talk based counseling with NLP programming techniques.
If you have suggestions, comments or would like to submit recommendations for articles to appear in Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts Bullsh!t, please feel free to contact him at:
photo credit: jepoirrier
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