Obama Speaks to school children (save my children!)

I watch the news less and less these days, with the exception of Public Broadcasting, most cable network news is all spin this includes MSNBC, Fox is not even an after thought. For the sake of ratings they are willing to have the most assinign discussion this side of reality TV The latest is that Parent are Concern about Obama speech to Children Cuting to the quick, lets be clear the only parents concern about this speech are a minority, because the majority, especially people of color, the idea of their child seeing a president that looks like them encouraging them to study is a God send

more about “Obama Speaks to school children“, posted with vodpod

What is sad is that this small and small minded group has gotten so much attention, what should be highlighted is that these parents are doing themselves and thier children a major diservice, this country is changing and children will have to compete on a multitude of levels

And you know who else is watching? the rest of the world

I Haven’t Forgot

It what may be the first presidential sermon, Obama preaches to the congregation of the NAACP 100 year celebration.  In an inspirational speech The  Commander in Chief demonstates that he knows his Black history, is keenly aware of the challenges that Blacks face, and the importance of seeing the big picture

If Success was Easy, Everyone Would do it

Taken from Change Your Thoughts

Success is a favorable or desirable outcome, the attainment of wealth or favor, as defined Webster’s Dictionary.  Success is different for everyone, but it is definitely not an easy thing to accomplish, otherwise, everyone would do what it takes for success.

Success is a feeling and can be created and recreated again and again.  Here are some tips to create success in your life:

Tip #1: Enjoy and celebrate each moment on the way to success. Success doesn’t have to be associated with wealth attainment.  In fact, most people have achieved a level of success in some part of their lives, achieving a “desirable outcome.”  Reminisce the feeling associated with your success achievement.  You must have been very happy, inspired to achieve more, and desired to repeat your success.  You may have thought that it wasn’t really that difficult to achieve success or maybe it was the hardest thing you did, enjoying in the feeling of accomplishment.  As you reach for your next goal, focus on progress only, rewarding yourself every small step of the way.  Each daily accomplishment is a small success story on the way to the bigger success story.

Tip #2: Keep the end in mind, always. If you have been striving for success in an area of your life, wealth or other, and are not reaching success, you might have lost sight of the end goal.  You might have given up because it was too hard, too much work, or maybe you think that you don’t deserve your goal in the first place.  Maybe someone convinced you that you can’t do what you set out to do and you folded and listened to them.  You may think that you don’t know enough to be successful.  If you focus on the end result as you defined success, you will keep striving for it and no one, not even you, will convince you otherwise.

Tip #3: Create, evaluate, and recreate. Life is about recreating yourself.  If something doesn’t work, rather than fold, find a way to recreate.  Troubleshoot or recreating is very similar.  You create, evaluate and then refine.  Keep up this pattern, with rewards for each step of the way on your path to success.

Tip #4: Success can be for anyone. Get out of your head that the successful are gifted or that they were handed their success on a silver platter.  If that were the case, they really haven’t achieved success.  Success takes work, perseverance, and determination.  It doesn’t matter your education, height, knowledge or other factors.  It can be for anyone that wants it bad enough.

Tip #5: Success is all about mindset. Know that you can, and you will achieve your goal.  Visualize your goal, and you will be even closer.  You will remain on the path and you will achieve your success.  Be positive and remain on the path to success!

When you see “If Success was Easy, Everyone Would do it,” you may think that it’s too hard to achieve and you might just give up.  Follow every tip given here, focus on your end result and you will enjoy success!

The Argument for Organic

I have an apple in my kitchen that has remained unchanged for 3 weeks

It looks as if it just fell from the tree.  Growing up if we didnt eat an apple within a couple of days then it was applesauce or worst, a waste of money

What was done to make an apple last so long? better still, what will happen to us for eating it?

8 Toxic personalities to avoid

 by Brett Blumenthal – Sheer Balance, on Wed May 13, 2009 8:01am PDT

Although we like to think that the people in our lives are well-adjusted, happy, healthy minded individuals, we sometimes realize that it just isn’t so. Personally, I’ve had moments where I’ll be skipping through my day, happy as can be, thinking life is grand and BAM, I’ll be blindsided by someone who manages to knock the happy wind out of my sails. Sometimes it is easy to write it off and other times, not so much.

Maybe you are a positive person, but when you are around a certain individual, you feel negative. Or, maybe you have an idealistic view of the world and when you are with certain people, you are made to feel silly, unrealistic or delusional. Or, maybe you pride yourself in being completely independent and in control of your life, but when you are around a certain family member, you regress into a state of childhood.

Some of these situations, and yes, these people, can have a tremendously negative impact on our lives. And, although we are all human and have our ‘issues,’ some ‘issues’ are quite frankly, toxic. They are toxic to our happiness. They are toxic to our mental outlook. They are toxic to our self-esteem. And they are toxic to our lives. They can suck the life out of us and even shorten our lifespan.

Here are the worst of the toxic personalities out there and how to spot them:

1. Manipulative Mary: These individuals are experts at manipulation tactics. Is a matter of fact, you may not even realize you have been manipulated until it is too late. These individuals figure out what your ‘buttons’ are, and push them to get what they want.

· Why they are toxic: These people have a way of eating away at your belief system and self-esteem. They find ways to make you do things that you don’t necessarily want to do and before you know it, you lose your sense of identity, your personal priorities and your ability to see the reality of the situation. The world all of a sudden becomes centered around their needs and their priorities.

2. Narcissistic Nancy: These people have an extreme sense of self-importance and believe that the world revolves around them. They are often not as sly as the Manipulative Marys of the world, but instead, tend to be a bit overt about getting their needs met. You often want to say to them “It isn’t always about you.”

· Why they are toxic: They are solely focused on their needs, leaving your needs in the dust. You are left disappointed and unfulfilled. Further, they zap your energy by getting you to focus so much on them, that you have nothing left for yourself.

3. Debbie Downers: These people can’t appreciate the positive in life. If you tell them that it is a beautiful day, they will tell you about the impending dreary forecast. If you tell them you aced a mid-term, they’ll tell you about how difficult the final is going to be.

· Why they are toxic: They take the joy out of everything. Your rosy outlook on life continues to get squashed with negativity. Before you know it, their negativity consumes you and you start looking at things with gray colored glasses yourself.

4. Judgmental Jims: When you see things as cute and quirky, they see things as strange and unattractive. If you find people’s unique perspectives refreshing, they find them ‘wrong’. If you like someone’s eclectic taste, they find it ‘disturbing’ or ‘bad’.

· Why they are toxic: Judgmental people are much like Debbie Downers. In a world where freedom rings, judgment is sooo over. If the world was a homogeneous place, life would be pretty boring. Spending a lot of time with these types can inadvertently convert you into a judgmental person as well.

5. Dream Killing Keiths: Every time you have an idea, these people tell you why you can’t do it. As you achieve, they try to pull you down. As you dream, they are the first to tell you it is impossible.

· Why they are toxic: These people are stuck in what is instead of what could be. Further, these individuals eat away at your self-esteem and your belief in yourself. Progress and change can only occur from doing new things and innovating, dreaming the impossible and reaching for the stars.

6. Insincere Illissas: You never quite feel that these people are being sincere. You tell a funny story, they give you a polite laugh. You feel depressed and sad and they give you a ‘there, there’ type response. You tell them you are excited about something and you get a very ho-hum response.

· Why they are toxic: People who aren’t sincere or genuine build relationships on superficial criteria. This breeds shallow, meaningless relationships. When you are really in need of a friend, they won’t be there. When you really need constructive criticism, they would rather tell you that you are great the way you are. When you need support, they would rather see you fail or make a fool of yourself.

7. Disrespectful Dannys: These people will say or do things at the most inappropriate times and in the most inappropriate ways. In essence, they are more subtle, grown up bullies. Maybe this person is a friend who you confided in and uses your secret against you. Maybe it is a family member who puts their busy-body nose into your affairs when it is none of their business. Or maybe, it is a colleague who says demeaning things to you.

· Why they are toxic: These people have no sense of boundaries and don’t respect your feelings or, for that matter, your privacy. These people will cause you to feel frustrated and disrespected.

8. Never Enough Nellies: You can never give enough to these people to make them happy. They take you for granted and have unrealistic expectations of you. They find ways to continually fault you and never take responsibility for anything themselves.

· Why they are toxic: You will spend so much time trying to please them, that you will end up losing yourself in the process. They will require all of your time and energy, leaving you worn out and your own needs sacrificed.

All of these personalities have several things in common. 1) the more these people get away with their behavior, the more they will continue. 2) Unfortunately, most of these people don’t see that what they do is wrong and as a result, talking to them about it will fall on deaf ears, leaving you wondering if you are the crazy one. 3) Most of these people get worse with age, making their impact on you stronger with time.

Frankly, life is too short to spend your time dealing with toxicity. If you can, avoid spending mucho time with people who are indicative of these behaviors and you’ll feel a lot happier. Have you encountered these personalities? What have you done? Any personalities you would add?

Oprah How Could You?

Oprah offered everyone free Chicken, which in and of it self  seems  suspicious

It was

Rethink KFC

Life Positively Reinforced

In operant conditioning, reinforcement occurs when an event following a response causes an increase in the probability of that response occurring in the future. Response strength can be assessed by measures such as the frequency with which the response is made (for example, a pigeon may peck a key more times in the session), or the speed with which it is made (for example, a rat may run a maze faster). The environment change contingent upon the response is called a reinforcer. wiki

Why it works  click here

A tutorial click here

Positive exercises click here

Positive Reinforcements for your kids  click here

Positive Reinforcements for your dog click here

Positive Reinforcements for your cat click here

Skinner on Reinforcement

A Cool Behavior Management Training Video .

9 ways to get happy in the next 30 minutes

In the next half hour, tackle as many of the following suggestions as possible. Not only will these tasks themselves increase your happiness, but the mere fact that you’ve achieved some concrete goals will boost your mood. Jay Gosney

1. Raise your activity level to pump up your energy. If you’re on the phone, stand up and pace. Walk to a coworker’s office instead of sending an e-mail. Put more energy into your voice. Take a brisk 10-minute walk. Even better…

2. Take a walk outside. Research suggests that light stimulates brain chemicals that improve mood. For an extra boost, get your sunlight first thing in the morning. Find the best walking workout for your exercise style.

3. Reach out. Send an e-mail to a friend you haven’t seen in a while, or reach out to someone new. Having close bonds with other people is one of the most important keys to happiness. When you act in a friendly way, not only will others feel more friendly toward you, but you’ll also strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.

4. Rid yourself of a nagging task. Deal with that insurance problem, purchase something you need, or make that long-postponed appointment with the dentist. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a rush of elation.

5. Create a more serene environment. Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Set the timer for 10 minutes and see what you can do. In that time, take a quick look around the house and see how to get organized using everyday items.

6. Do a good deed. Introduce two people by e-mail, take a minute to pass along useful information, or deliver some gratifying praise. In fact, you can also…

7. Save someone’s life. Sign up to be an organ donor, and remember to tell your family about your decision. Do good, feel good―it really works!

8. Act happy. Fake it ’til you feel it. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile boosts your mood. And if you’re smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable. There’s no need to walk around in a constant state of worry. After all, what’s the worst that can happen if you bounce a check or leave wet clothes in the dryer?

9. Learn something new. Think of a subject that you wish you knew more about and spend 15 minutes on the Internet reading about it, or go to a bookstore and buy a book about it. But be honest! Pick a topic that really interests you, not something you think you “should” or “need to” learn about. Keep reading: Get happy on the cheap. How to improve (almost) everything in your life, from your dinner order to your career. Learn 60-second relaxation tricks.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/9-ways-to-get-happy-in-the-next-30-minutes-444895/

Kids’ brains suffer from poverty, research shows

By Rob Stein
The Washington Post

Children raised in poverty suffer many ill effects: They often have health problems and tend to struggle in school, which can create a cycle of poverty across generations.

Now, research is providing what could be crucial clues to explain how childhood poverty translates into dimmer chances of success: Chronic stress from growing up poor appears to have a direct impact on the brain, leaving children with impairment in at least one key area — working memory.

“There’s been lots of evidence that low-income families are under tremendous amounts of stress, and we know that stress has many implications,” said Gary Evans, a professor of human ecology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who led the research. “What this data raises is the possibility that it’s also related to cognitive development.”

With the economic crisis threatening to plunge more children into poverty, other researchers said the work offers insight into how poverty affects long-term achievement and underscores the potential ramifications of chronic stress early in life.

“This is a significant advance,” said Bruce McEwen, who heads the laboratory of neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University in New York. “It’s part of a growing pattern of understanding how early life experiences can have an influence on the brain and the body.”

A Childs Brain

that influence intelligence, on environmental exposure to toxins such as lead, and on the idea that disadvantaged children tend to grow up with less intellectual stimulation.

“People have hypothesized both genetic and environmental factors play a role in why poor children don’t do as well in school,” said Martha Farah, director of the center for cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. “Experiential factors can include things like having fewer trips to museums, having fewer toys, having parents who don’t have as much time or energy to engage with them intellectually — to read to them or talk to them.”

But Evans, who has been gathering detailed data about 195 children from households above and below the poverty line for 14 years, decided to examine whether chronic stress might also be playing a role.

“We know low-socioeconomic-status families are under a lot of stress — all kinds of stress. When you are poor, when it rains it pours. You may have housing problems. You may have more conflict in the family. There’s a lot more pressure in paying the bills. You’ll probably end up moving more often. There’s a lot more demands on low-income families. We know that produces stress in families, including on the children,” Evans said.

For the new study, Evans and a colleague rated the level of stress each child experienced using a scale known as “allostatic load.” The score was based on the results of tests the children were given when they were ages 9 and 13 to measure their levels of the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine, as well as their blood pressure and body mass index.

“These are all physiological indicators of stress,” said Evans, whose findings were published online last week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The basic idea is this allows you to look at dysregulation resulting from stress across multiple physiological systems.”

When the researchers analyzed the relationships among how long the children lived in poverty, their allostatic load and their later working memory, they found a clear relationship: The longer they lived in poverty, the higher their allostatic load and the lower they tended to score on working-memory tests. Those who spent their entire childhood in poverty scored about 20 percent lower on working memory than those who were never poor, Evans said.

The findings indicate that education standards and other government policies that aim to improve poor children’s performance in school should consider the stress they are experiencing at home, Evans said.

“It’s not just ‘Read to our kids and take them to the library,’ ” he said. “We need to take into account that chronic stress takes a toll not only on their health, but it may take a toll on their cognitive functioning.”

Living in Poverty
In Alameda County, the poverty level is 11 percent, with per capita income at $26,680.
In Oakland, the poverty level is 19 percent, with per capita income at $21,936.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007

Previous research into the possible causes of the achievement gap between poor and well-off children has focused on genetic factors

Posted: 04/07/2009 06:30:48 AM PDT

eckhart tolle on being yourself

Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.

Eckhart Tolle illuminates the fundamental elements of his teaching, addressing the needs of the modern seeker by drawing from all spiritual traditions. When the pressures of future and past thinking disappear, fear and frustration also vanish, conquered by the moment

Visit his web eckharttolle.com