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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Worried about 'Swine flu'?

'Swine flu' is only spread in few countries but in the whole world people are worried about this new disease. Many of us are searching the world wide web to get information about this epidemic. I have compiled few basic information about swine flu in this article along with few useful resources to learn more about this disease.

We know that in humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. The strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.

Definition of Wikipedia says: Swine influenza (also swine flu) refers to influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs (swine). Strains endemic in swine are called swine influenza virus (SIV)

Swine flu is common in swine and rare in humans. People who work with swine, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of catching swine influenza if the swine carry a strain able to infect humans.

Good news is that the majority of people infected with the virus make a full recovery without requiring medical attention or antiviral drugs. If a person gets sick, antiviral drugs can make the illness milder and make the patient feel better faster

For treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started soon after getting sick (within 2 days of symptoms).

Related and useful posts:

* 'Swine flu'

* Strengthen Your Immune System with Natural Immune Boosters
* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Swine Flu
* World Health Organization (WHO): Swine influenza
* Medical Encyclopedia Medline Plus: Swine Flu

* Swine Flu: 14 things you need to know to keep your family safe

Latest from 'reuters': The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it was moving closer to declaring a pandemic alert phase 5 for swine flu.

"It appears we are moving closer to that, but we are not there yet," Keiji Fukuda, WHO acting assistant director-general, said, adding that moving to phase 5 from the current phase 4 would be a significant step.

The WHO has said it might raise its pandemic alert level to phase five -- the second highest -- if it were confirmed that infected people in at least two countries were spreading the disease to other people in a sustained way.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Self growth with 'gratitude'

People who want to live a better life with the best of their skill level are enthusiastic about self development/self growth. 'Gratitude' or being grateful is a self improvement term which we are going to learn today. There is a review of an online community where you can

Wikipedia explains the word 'Gratitude' in these words: Gratitude, thankfulness, or appreciation is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

Gratitude is an emotion that occurs after people receive help, depending on how they interpret the situation. Specifically, gratitude is experienced if people perceive the help they receive as valuable to them, costly to their benefactor, and given by the benefactor with benevolent intentions (rather than ulterior motives).

Gratitude may also serve to reinforce future pro social behavior in benefactors. For example, one experiment found that customers of a jewelry store who were called and thanked showed a subsequent 70% increase in purchases. In comparison, customers who were thanked and told about a sale showed only a 30% increase in purchases, and customers who were not called at all did not show an increase

Five daily gratitude is an online community gratitude journal to help you increase your hope, optimism and happiness.

It is a positive psychology tool that helps you integrate the power of gratitude into your life by providing a quick and easy way to list five things you are thankful for each day.. It also helps you consistently take advantage of this powerful positive psychology technique by providing a subscription service that sends you a morning email reminder so you can stick to your commitment of increasing your happiness through writing Five Daily Gratitudes.

Latest Psychological research shows that integrating the power of gratitude significantly increases your optimism, health, and self-esteem as well as improves your sleep, motivation, relationships, and even your career..


Start spending a few minutes each morning to focus your mind on the positive things in your life and join this positive psychology movement of bringing happiness and gratitude to as many people as possible by listing your own Five Daily Gratitudes! Start cultivating the power of thankfulness today.

The research shows that in order to receive the psychological benefits of this powerful positive psychology technique you need to be consistent in writing out Five Daily Gratitudes.

What are the benefits of using Five Daily Gratitudes?
As UC Davis psychologist Robert Emmons has demonstrated in his research, “The evidence that cultivating gratefulness is good for you is overwhelming. Gratitude is quality that we should aspire to as a part and parcel of personal growth…Specifically, we have shown that gratitude is positively related to such critical outcomes as life satisfaction, vitality, happiness, self-esteem, optimism, hope, empathy, and willingness to provide emotional and tangible support for other people, whereas being ungrateful is related to anxiety, depression, envy, materialism, and loneliness.

Benefits of being grateful:

"Collectively, such studies present credible evidence that feeling grateful generates a ripple effect through every area of our lives, potentially satisfying our deepest yearnings – our desire for happiness, our pursuit of better relationships, and our ceaseless quest for inner peace, wholeness, and contentment. Gratitude is more, through than a tool for self-improvement.

Gratitude is a way of life."

A large body of recent work has suggested that people who are more grateful have higher levels of well-being. Grateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships.

Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self acceptance.

Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being more likely to seek support from other people, reinterpreted and grow from the experience, and spend more time planning how to deal with the problem.

Grateful people also have less negative coping strategies, being less likely to try and avoid the problem, deny there is a problem, blame themselves, or cope through substance use.

Grateful people sleep better, and this seems to be because they think less negative and more positive thoughts just before going to sleep.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

'The sycologist'

The sycologist is from Martin Jenkins but there are not any iformation about blog or blog author. But blog layout and design is simple without any ads and it attracts the attention of serious readers who want quality content.

I am quoting top posts which describe what we can expect at the blog:

Can a Dog Recognize itself?
Sangiran 17 and intelligent design
Running Around Wembley Stadium the Wrong Way
Urinal Psychology
Armageddon: you'll have time
Should US Muslims vote Republican?
All dogs are Buddhist
The Chicken or the egg?
Russian Roulette
Eddie Adams’ lasting legacy
Nokulunga Buthelezi: Snake or Woman?
Child on a leash
The Flaming Lips and the two-slit experiment
The World’s Greatest Conspiracy
The Fastest Man on Earth
The Black Swan

There are many interesting posts at the blog which kept me busy reading for hours

Friday, April 10, 2009

'All about life coaching' - Helping you grow spiritually

Blog 'All about life coaching' is one of those blogs which help you grow spiritually and get the most out of your life. 'Life coaching' words seems like joining or participating a course or a workshop but my opinion is that our life is a 'coach' itself if we intend to learn to make our life better. If we are keen and enthusiastic for self growth and self improvement there is a lot to learn around us.

Site itself explains about 'life coaching' in these words:

'Life coaching is helping people go from neutral on into their future. I (author) see life coaching as very individual to each every coach. It is an alliance - a partnership whereby the life coach acts as guide, support, objective observer, listener between the lines of their client in order to help that client achieve what they want to achieve in their life.'


All about life coaching is produced by Maia Berens who is life coach and former self improvement executive and known for her gentle intervention and tender wisdom. Maia graduated with a BA in Psychology from Rutgers University, which she attended on a full scholarship.

She has been dubbed 'Wise Fairy God Mother' by those who participate in her workshops, a title which she has graciously accepted.

Maia says about herself, "I have a natural ability to help people see what's good about what’s going on in their lives,” and she lives what she teaches, putting joy into each day.

As the founding director of the Mars Venus Institute, Maia trained more than 500 professional therapists and corporate speakers worldwide based on the principals of John Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and had the pleasure of working extensively with the book’s author for over 18 years.

Her blog 'All about life coaching' is not only a reflection of her work, but you can read a lot of useful self development articles and posts at the blog.

You can ask any self improvement related question by submitting at a given box (at the right side bar). One answer per week will be featured on the site. You can win Free book, "Once Upon a Time There Was You: Three Magic Secrets to Finding Your Real Self" if yours is chosen.

Site link: All about life coaching

Sunday, April 5, 2009

'PsyBlog' A site focusing on scientific psychology.

If you are interested in studies of mind and humans then 'Psyblog' would impress you. It focuses on scientific psychology but there are many posts which might be interesting and informative for all. Blog author is 'Jeremy Dean' who is currently a PhD candidate at University College London, having previously completed an MSc in Research Methods in Psychology at the same institution.

Psyblog is about understanding how our minds work and why we think and act the way we do.

Research covered here has been published in reputable academic journals in many different areas of psychology. To give you a flavour there is a series on the top 10 social psychology studies, the 7 sins of memory and the psychology of money.

There are lot of interesting articles which are based on scientific research or studies so scholars or students of psychology can learn a lot from the site.

The post about other psychology blog links: Discover the most accessible and well-written psychology blogs available on the web

A recommended post is: 10 Weird Psychology Studies: Vote Now For Your Favourite!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

A place for parents to stay and enjoy -'Parentricity'

'Parentricity' is a social networking site offering a place for parents to find quality products for their children. It is not an online shopping mall, but a community place where parents can share their ideas, tips at this site.

The site offers a productreview and rating program which is for parents and they are invited to rate and review the products they are using for their children.

It offers many other attractive features among which 'contests' may be of interest to many of us, as these contests are easy to participate. Contests are related to family and parenting photo submission and all are currently held by site itself.

- 'Advice' section of the site is very useful as there are many question answers which might be related to our own families and as you get the solution from an expert this advice or tips can be worth.

I think as a parent you should enjoy visiting this site as everything is related to our parenting and family sides. I really enjoyed the photos and video section with lots of interesting videos and lovely pictures.
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