IFramely Lets you View Link Content Right from your Gmail Message

Do you ever get links in your emails and wish you didn’t have to follow them. You need to see the video or read the article, but you just don’t want to take the time to switch away from your Gmail tab and load a new page. There’s a feature in Chrome called in-line previews that will actually embed content from links to popular web services, but it’s only experimental as of yet and supports a dreadfully small list of sites.

If you like the idea of in-line previews, but want more out of it, you need to try the Chrome extension iFramely. Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration explained in a recent article that with this extension installed, an emailed link becomes the content it links to. A link to a video becomes the video; a link to an article becomes the article. You get to see whatever your email links to without ever leaving your inbox.

If you send a lot of links to your friends, make sure they know about Iframely.

Iframely embeds linked images right in the message.

Original Source – Digital Inspiration – Better Inline Preview for your Gmail

Robert Kingsley is a former IT Support Engineer with a degree in computer networking. He left his desk job in 2011 to write full-time and has never looked back. You can check out more of his work on About.com where he is the Guide to Windows operating systems.

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One of the Best Goal Setting Exercises

Someone very smart once said, “How we spend our days is how we spend our life”. Life doesn’t usually change overnight (as much as we would often hope it would). It changes, because we make little tweaks in our daily habits. Sometimes we do it intentionally. But a lot of times we just kind of start doing something differently, considering it to be insignificant minor change, but these small actions add up to huge life changes over time.

This partly explains why the goal setting exercise that we’ll talk more about in this post is so effective. But before we get to it, let me explain what I mean by “minor changes” leading to huge results.

Nutritionists say that it’s enough to eat 250 calories less per day to lose 26 pounds a year. 250 calories are 2/3 of a Chocolate Chunk Cookie at Starbucks. This means that by not changing anything else in your daily routine except for eating 250 calories less a day will get you much bigger results than fad diets or irregular gym workouts.

The same is true for the finances. According to the Money Mag’s Millionaire Calculator there is no need to win a lottery in order to become a millionaire. It’s enough to save $5 a day for 40 years and you’ll hit a Millionaire status!

When you think about it, putting aside a tiny part of your salary a day or passing on a cookie is do-able. And it pays off in the long run. But for some weird reason very few people actually do it.

When we decide on what is it that we want to achieve in life, we rarely think ‘small changes over the serious period of time’. Usually it’s the other way around – ‘massive action, over the next two weeks’ (usually followed by the long breaks of inactivity and procrastination).

However, there is one very simple, yet powerful exercise that helps us to shift focus from short term-gain to smooth and steady long-term results. And no, it’s not the usual – picture what your life will look in 5, 10 and 20 years visualization.

The goal setting exercise I’m about to share with you is much more realistic, effective and creative. It’s called…

The name gives the game away really. All you have to do is sit down, turn the soft lounge music on and ask yourself one question – What I want my Average Perfect Day look like?

Take a piece of paper or open a blank document on your computer and write down your perfect schedule for the day.

What time do you wake up?What do you do once you are awake?Do you kiss you beautiful spouse?Do you open the windows and head to the beach to do your 20 minutes of Sun Salutations and 10-minute meditation?Do you say “Thank you” for all the blessings that you’ve been given?Then what do you do?

Write it down as detailed as possible, following your average perfect day step by step. Another key here is to focus on the word “average”. It shouldn’t be a day where you go on vacation, get married or bump into Johnny Depp while shopping at an antiques flea market.

It should be a day that you would re-live over and over again, without getting bored, exhausted or overwhelmed.

If you dig deeper, you’ll take away quite a few insights from this exercise. First, you’ll clearly see little habits that you can start instilling today to get yourself closer to your vision of Average Perfect day.

Some of the changes may seem bigger and more overwhelming. It’s okay. Just by having a clear goal of what you want your day to be like, will have your subconscious mind working to get you there. You’ll notice the opportunities that you haven’t seen before, you’ll do things a little differently and your set of circumstances will change, creating different, more positive outcomes.

Pick something simple, that doesn’t require you to move to a foreign country or change your career. Begin by saying thank you for your blessings. Spend 10 minutes meditating. Read a bedtime story for your kids.

We all have enough time, motivation and determination to stick with one tiny habit for 30 days (that’s the time it takes to make it automatic). Then you can move on to the next little goal and so on.

Go ahead and do it right now! This is one of the most powerful goal setting exercises ever and it can be eye-opening in terms of setting the right priorities. Why? Because how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. It’s really as simple as that.

Setting and achieving goals is one of the best surefire ways to improve the quality of our lives. 3 Common Goal Setting Mistakes

Featured photo credit: ::: M @ X ::: via photopin cc

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Create The "Why Habit" To Change Your Behavior

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7 Reasons Your Relationship Is Not Healthy

When it comes to developing a solid foundation in your relationship, it’s important for you to be aware of certain things that can weaken this process. Establishing a healthy and long-lasting connection between you and your partner is the key to building a solid foundation.

Below I will share with you 7 reasons your relationship may not be healthy. I will help educate you and give you deeper insight into why these specific reasons weaken your foundation. Finally, I will give you some practical steps to re-establish your foundation.

Resentment is the strong bitterness you feel when someone does something wrong to you. Do you have resentment building in your relationship? Having resentment in your relationship builds a huge wall right in between you and your partner. As the years go on, the bigger the wall of resentment will become. With this big wall, how can love possibly grow? It would be near to impossible to love your partner if you viewed them in a negative light.

Do you experience negative feelings whenever your partner does something? Or how about getting into an argument and bringing up the past? If you answer, “Yes,” to both of these questions, you have resentment in your relationship. The key to letting go of resentment is to learn how to forgive your partner. We are all human and make mistakes. Now is the time to decide to forgive your partner for their mistakes. If you are committed to developing a healthy and long lasting connecting with your partner, you must let go of resentment.

What does it mean when you air out your dirty laundry? Take a moment and reflect on the picture above. You see that there are adult pants, kid pants, and socks. Whoever put their laundry out felt that it was okay for others to see it. Use this analogy when it comes to a relationship. I have met some couples who felt that it was okay to air their problems out in public. These problems can include the physical, financial, emotional or psychological.

A relationship starts to become unhealthy when you talk about private issues out in public—whether it be with your friends, family, co-workers, or even acquaintances. When you are in a committed relationship, you must always be a united front. No matter what issues you are experiencing in your relationship, it must always stay between the two of you.

When you air out your dirty laundry for the public to see, it can become very embarrassing to you or your partner. When you put down your partner in front of others, you are embarrassing them. This act does nothing but destroy your relationship. Be consciously aware when you talk to others about your partner. When you do talk to others, always shed positive light about them. If you are experiencing some tough times in your relationship, this does not give you the “green light” to talk badly about your partner. This is when you need to have open and honest communication between the two of you. If it seems like you need a third party, seek a professional. There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeing a relationship counselor or a therapist. This can only help bring wisdom to your relationship.

Unplug from society every once in a while and plug into your mind. We live in a society that is filled with so many distractions and noise. It seems like we are constantly plugging into the latest trend, what’s on television and what others are talking about. When it comes to your relationship, all this noise can really affect your connection with your partner in a negative way. Our society sets a standard for how we are supposed to have a relationship. Whether it be how you should dress, how you should act, or what you should do when you get into an argument. Following society’s standard can have a huge impact on your relationship. This impact causes you to lose touch with who you truly are and what kind of relationship you want.

It’s important for you and your partner to decide between each other what kind of relationship you want to have. Women today are under a lot of pressure with their looks and appearance. Men are experiencing pressure on what it takes to be a “true man.” Living in a society where it seems like sex is everywhere, you must set the standard for your relationship. Decide between the two of you how you want to experience a loving and committed relationship.

“Stop living in the past. The only thing we should do about what happened yesterday is to learn from it. Yesterday, good or bad, is history. Tomorrow is a dream, a hope, a passion. Don’t let your history destroy your dream.” — Edwin Mamerto

Some of my clients experience this in their relationship. It’s important that you are consciously aware of when you bring up the past during the present. When this happens, it not only hurts your partner, but also builds a wall between the two of you. When a couple experiences an argument, it’s easy to bring up the past. When a person is upset and/or hurt in a relationship, there is a high possibility that their past experiences are coming up. Whether it be their childhood, a traumatic situation or something that happened between the couple that causes one person to bring up emotions of hurt, pain and frustration. A relationship can never develop when the past is constantly being mentioned. How can you and your partner possibly deepen the connection between the two of you when the past keeps coming up?

When you are experiencing emotions of pain, hurt and frustration from the past, it’s important for you to be aware of this. It’s even more important to not throw these emotions at your partner whenever you are in an argument. This causes your partner to become defensive and distance themself from you. You and your partner will be making mistakes along the way and it’s important for the two of you to work through these mistakes so you can both move forward and develop your relationship. Learn to forgive your partner and have an open discussion about your past and why you bring it up.

It’s all about balance when it comes to work and personal time. A lot of people have difficulty turning “off” from work when they get home. This can really affect your relationship.

If you allow yourself to continue to think about work when you’re with your partner, your relationship is not healthy. When you spend time with your partner, be with your partner. How can you possibly spend quality time with them when your mind is still at work? Allow yourself to disconnect from your job and connect with your partner. If you want to develop your relationship, it’s important to learn when to “turn it off”.

The number one cause of stress in a relationship is financial stress. When you find yourself arguing about finances on a consistent basis with your partner, you are experiencing financial stress. This stress can affect every aspect of your relationship. Whether it be in the bedroom, what you can buy, or lack of trust. Financial stress leads to an unhealthy relationship. You are constantly worrying about what you can buy or not trusting your partner.

The solution to financial stress is to be on the same page with your finances. Make sure you are able to have an open discussion and communicate in a way that is both productive and respectful.

One aspect of being in a monogamous and committed relationship is being sexually involved with your partner. If it seems like you are avoiding the topic of sex in your relationship and just going through with the process of sex, this is an issue that needs to be addressed. It’s important for you and your partner to openly discuss what you like and what you don’t like. Your relationship becomes unhealthy when it seems like it’s only a one way street, or you are giving of yourself without receiving anything. There’s a balance to be achieved. When you don’t feel open enough to talk about sex in your relationship, it’s a sign that this topic needs to be discussed.

I highly suggest reading the book Mars and Venus In The Bedroom, by John Gray. He shares wisdom on the difference between men and women and how to approach your partner so that you can  have an open and honest discussion about sex without feeling personal and defensive. How can you possibly please your partner when you don’t know what they want and vice versa? Open communication is important in every aspect of your relationship.

Here are the 11 telltale warning signs that you’re in an unhealthy relationship: 11 WARNING Signs Of Unhealthy Relationships You Need to Be Aware Of

Featured photo credit: Keoni Cabral via photopin cc

Tiffany Mason is a Professional Life Coach. Personal Development and Relationship Expert. As the owner of Mason Coaching and Consulting, she uses her expertise by helping busy women who feel disconnected in their life and marriage unleash their inner being and feminine essence in order to live a truly fulfilling and rewarding life. Visit Tiffanymason.com for a FREE audio series!

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Why I’m running the New York City Marathon (thanks in part to a TED Talk)

Culture TEDTalks May El-Khalil spoke on the power of marathons at TEDGlobal 2013. Her talk inspired me to get back to my life as a marathoner. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Every runner has a story.

Five years ago, I would never have imagined using the word “marathoner” to describe myself; I could barely run around the block, much less 26.2 miles. But one autumn Sunday, I woke up to the sounds of cheering and live music; the New York City Marathon was passing right outside my apartment building, and, for the first time in years of living in Brooklyn, I decided to see what the fuss was about. As soon as I walked up to Bedford Avenue, one of the longer stretches of the race, there was an energy in the air unlike anything I’d ever felt. I locked eyes with my first runner, a woman into her early 80s with the largest smile I’d ever seen — she looked so happy and she was crossing into Mile 14. In that moment, beyond all logic and fear, I decided to run those 26.2 miles myself.

Earlier that year, my father had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and my family was feeling heartbroken and helpless. I committed myself to helping find a cure, and signed up to run with the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Since that day five years ago, I’ve run three NYC marathons for Team Fox, two of them with a camera strapped to my head. (Watch the video below to see the result.) I’ve raised nearly $20K for a cause that’s important to me, I’ve joined clinical trials for PD research and mentored others to get started in their own running or fundraising.

But in 2011, I started to grow tired of running and all the training; I lost my oomph for it. Until I worked at TEDGlobal last summer.

On day two of the conference, May El-Khalil shared her running story. May El-Khalil: Making peace is a marathonA marathon runner herself, she spoke about overcoming the odds after she was struck by a car and her doctor told her she might never run again. She endured 36 surgeries and ultimately came back to the sport of running, founding the Beirut Marathon. She spoke about the power of the marathon to create a better future. Her words went straight to my heart — perhaps I wasn’t done with running after all?

Just a few weeks after hearing May’s talk, I learned that my good friend John Ryan had decided to run this year’s NYC Marathon. He has early-onset Parkinson’s … and I knew I had to run with him. John is undaunted; as he puts it, he’s merely “living with Parkinson’s,” not falling victim to it. With May’s talk echoing in my head, John’s mantra — “don’t cheer from the sidelines if you can run the race” — got me to sign up for the 43rd NYC Marathon with 47,000 other runners.

May’s and John’s story reminded me why I started running in the first place. Runner stories are what make marathons so special to me: What other event brings together so many of humanity’s greatest triumphs? Disabled veterans, wheelchair racers, seniors, my friends with Parkinson’s — these runners push me to keep going when my body starts to tell me I’m finished. In Lebanon, runner stories are so powerful that people can set aside years of conflict to run and cheer together — and that gives me hope for a better future. In New York, the relentless optimists that I’ve met through Team Fox enrich my life to no end. In the face of the tragic events in Boston earlier this year or Hurricane Sandy last year, our communities shine through, supporting each other in this feat of human endurance. Marathons truly bring us together in the most incredible ways.

This Sunday I will run my fourth marathon, and I’ll hear new stories that will challenge me in all new ways. And I’ve set my sights on a new crazy goal — qualifying for Boston. What a difference five years can make. I think it’s probably safe to say that I’m a marathoner now.

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Ditch Your To-Do List and Be More Productive

Have you ever been a slave to your to-do list and were almost always frazzled at how colossal it had become, but still you couldn’t stop writing every little thing down? I used to picture my life spinning out of control without my to-do list, but in reality, it was spinning out of control because of my list. I needed a new, less cluttered, and more effective method, so I ditched the list.

Believe it or not, ditching your to-do list can actually free you up and make you even more productive. But how can you get more done if you don’t keep a list of what needs to be done? It’s simple: pay attention to the world, not a sheet of paper. Below are some of ways in which productivity can improve without the list and the advantages of post-to-do-list life:

I always wondered how people who don’t use to-do lists remember all the tasks they need to complete if they aren’t reminded of them constantly. Then one day it hit me: people who don’t keep a to-do list get things done as they come up. They don’t put tasks off for later by writing them down; they see something that needs accomplishing and they just do it.

A to-do list is just an excuse to procrastinate. Instead of living with that excuse, ‘non-to-do-listers’ complete chores as they arise. If they see dirt, they clean it up. If they have a work assignment due, they work on it. If they think of someone they haven’t spoken with in a while, they call them. Because if they don’t do it then, they’ll forget it and it will never get done.

How rewarding it is when you’ve crossed out every item on your to-do list. There’s no better reason to sit back, relax, and reward yourself for having accomplished everything. In order to clear your list, you worked hard even after you hit the wall, and when you finished, you were completely beat. But it doesn’t have to be so exhausting. Don’t let the list dictate your life; if you have high energy, go out there and see what can be taken care of, and when you hit your wall, take a break and relax. You’ll eventually establish an even flow of productivity that keeps you churning out great work.

It happens to every to-do lister. We get so wrapped up in our list that we start writing things down we do regularly, like if we straighten our homes daily, we write “Clean” on the list. It feels like we’re cleaning every day, because we cross it out every day. But instead of being receptive to the world around us, we’re ignoring some of the bigger issues. If we think we’re already cleaning by simply straightening, we tend to let the more infrequent major scrubbing and dousing that needs attention go unnoticed.

Don’t lose sight of what actually needs doing in order to fulfill what you think needs to be done. If you don’t keep a list, you’ll be more attentive to the world around you. Chores will call to you, and you’ll be able to listen.

Once you’ve abandoned the list, the things that can’t be done or simply aren’t done won’t mock you. I had items on my list that were months away from being able to be completed, but there they were, every day, calling out to me from the little lined paper hanging on my refrigerator door. Once I let go of the list, I filled out my calendar to reflect the tasks in the future and finally felt the chains of the list lifted.

Our days are dynamic, and so are our moods. Sometimes we’re just not in the mood to be completing chores all day, and we’d rather go to the beach or read a good book on the couch. Sometimes we just want to curl up in sweatpants and watch television until our heads feel numb. And that’s okay — that’s a part of living. Go with your intuition every once in a while. When you’re older, you’ll never regret the days you decided to travel, to surprise a family member, the day you tried something new, the long walks you took, or the times you relaxed in the sunshine. But you’ll certainly forget the days you spent slaving over your list of chores. So allow for those fluctuations of mood that take us to new places, those unexpected dips and bends that remind us life is much greater than the list.

There are a lot of fantastic productivity apps out there that cost a decent chunk of change like OmniFocus, Things, Microsoft Office Suite, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t free alternatives that are just as good or even better. 26 Free Cross-Platform Productivity Apps to Help You Get Things Done

Featured photo credit: srmpbi via photopin cc

With a master’s of fine arts degree from New York University, J. Audrey Hoy has served as an Adjunct Instructor of Creative Writing at NYU and is currently a freelance writer. Originally hailing from the Chicagoland area, J. Audrey has previously resided in Iowa City, Brooklyn and currently lives in Burlington, Vermont. She spends her free time reading, writing, and enjoying the outdoors.

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10 Simple Ways To Maximize Productivity And Stop Working Long Hours

You don’t get a gold star for working more hours than everyone else in your office. The amount of time you spend at work says nothing about the quality of your work, so why not maximize productivity? You will get more done in less hours, saving time for the important things that really make you happy!

You cannot do every single thing, every single day. Write down the three most important things that must get done and focus on that. If you knock those tasks out with plenty of time to spare, then you can add the next three important things. Before you begin any task, ask yourself, “Am I doing this for a good reason or am I just passing time?” Answer honestly and adjust as necessary.

We all have the same number of hours per day, but we all don’t make the most out of those available hours. There are a few strategies you can use to start your day right. Choose the one that sounds most beneficial to you:

Option A: Eliminate the biggest source of stress.

If you would stop thinking about how much you don’t want to do the thing AND JUST DO THE THING ALREADY, you’ll be a lot less stressed. Due to this reality, let’s just isolate the thing that stresses you out the most and get it over with ASAP. No excuses. No complaining. Get it done!

Option B: Start with the most important task.

If one thing HAS to get done today, what is it? Do that. You’ll feel happy and accomplished, giving you energy to get through the rest of the day.

Option C: Feed your brain with words.

Not everyone can wake up and start working right away. Sound like you? Grab a book and read a few chapters with a cup of coffee or hot tea (bonus points if you do it outside with the sun rising and birds singing). Your brain will be ready to go after it gets a healthy dose of inspiration.

This is especially important for writers: if the door is shut, that means you are working and no one shall enter. It can take a little while to get your creative juices flowing, so being faced with constant distractions will take a toll on your productivity by the time you start-and-stop-and-start-again-and-stop-again-and-(you get the idea). If you are an office worker, the same rule applies: if you need to focus, tell your co-workers you need some quiet to finish (insert incredibly important thing here) and would appreciate it if they left you alone unless it’s an emergency.

Multi-tasking is just a slightly more productive version of procrastination. Stop kidding yourself.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time focusing on writing articles like this when I am interrupted by buzzing, chirping, or ringing from my cell phone every few minutes. There is no text that requires an immediate answer. It can wait.

While focus is the key that unlocks your productivity, there comes a time when the best thing to do is walk away. We are not meant to work for hours-on-end without a break from the grind. Working beyond your limits will only result in sub-par work that takes much longer to complete than it should.

It is more efficient to ask for help when it is needed than it is to stubbornly plow forward. I don’t know the first thing about design, but I know a whole lot of people who do (so I seek their input when I need it). Even if you don’t know a person with the answer to your question, you could get help VIA a simple Google search. You cannot be the expert of everything, so seek outside help to save your time (and sanity).

Different tasks require different mind-sets for effective completion. For example: writing a helpful article, crafting a thoughtful e-mail, studying for an exam, and making a sales call are very different tasks that require very different executions. Why not set one or two times where you send every e-mail, make every phone-call, or write every letter? Surely you have noticed that it typically takes longer to start a chore than it does to actually complete it. Knocking out similar tasks, all in a group, will eliminate the time it takes to set-up for each task, so you’ll have more time to enjoy your day.

A quick bout of exercise will boost your energy, helping you carry yourself with ease. A sedentary lifestyle, on the other hand, will leave you feeling lethargic and unmotivated. Your body is the vessel that carries you throughout this world, so treat it accordingly.

Getting more done in less time is great, but as time goes on it becomes harder and harder to make a task any more productive than it is. If you can’t take your productivity any further, shift your focus to the quality of your work (because isn’t that the point anyway?). Also, if seeking ever-growing productivity starts to drain the joy out of your work, let it go. Just because we can do something faster doesn’t mean we really need to. As Gandhi said, “There is more to life than increasing its speed.”

Be more productive and you'll have more time to rest: The 8 Habits of Highly Productive People

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The Ultimate Lounging Solution for Back and Neck Pains

It’s as common as websites, this malady we refer to as back and neck pains. If you are a freelancer like me, you tap away on your laptop most of your working time making you susceptible to back aches and neck pains.

Here’s a solution that will alleviate your pain problems. Dr. Robert Swezey, M.D., wants to help people who suffer from these issues so he designed a lounging solution to provide optimum relief and comfort.

Whether you want to sit upright or laze on a couch, BedLounge will bear your spine, shoulders and head from your lower back to your upper back and finally your neck. You can adjust the armrests to go in or out. Headrest can extend to 12” and you have the option to rotate it 90-degrees to carry your head and neck. This allows your head freedom to move around. Made of aircraft foam, it’s sturdy and it comes with a lifetime warranty. Transport is not an issue either since it’s lightweight. Additional features are — armrests can be folded up, the headrest can be extracted so you can store the whole package in a closet after each use. I discovered this product at The Gadget Flow.

Anthony is a Lifehacker who lives and breathes giving tips to make your life easier. He is also a broadcaster/professional blogger who is fueled by cappuccino and Rock Music. If he's not busy writing for clients, and churning out e-books for greenhorn broadcasters and freelance writers, he gives tips to entry level broadcasters and freelance writers on his site The Write Freelance

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The moon’s path is full of thorns: Fellows Friday with Johnson Urama

Culture TED Fellows

Nigerian astronomer Johnson Urama wants to promote the future of astronomy in Africa by looking deep into history. With his African Cultural Astronomy Project, he is gathering the lost ancient astronomical traditions and stories of indigenous Africa, hoping to show modern Africans that the science of the skies is relevant to their past, present and future.

The TED Blog interviewed Urama to find out much more. An edited transcript of our conversation follows.

So, tell us about yourself.

I’m from the southeastern part of Nigeria. By training, I’m an astronomer, and teach astronomy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. But I have a passion for indigenous astronomy — the ancient cultural astronomy of parts of Africa. Our forefathers had some knowledge of astronomy but it was, unfortunately, not written down, so much of it has been lost. My organization, the African Cultural Astronomy Project, is trying to recover part of this knowledge and use it to create awareness and interest in modern astronomy — and science in general — among Africans today.

How old are African astronomical systems? Have they been dated?

African astronomical systems are as old as the people themselves, because our forefathers depended on the skies for navigation, for agriculture, for their calendar, for their rituals. Practically everything revolved around the sky. The calendar, largely based on astronomy, determined farming periods, and everything was organized around that. Before the advent of the modern calendar, the African calendar was lunar. And even now, in some parts of Africa, calendars are still based in lunar systems.

How was the information lost?

The information was passed down orally in folk tales from generation to generation, and the present generation has no time to give for such folk tales. People are migrating to urban centers, and they’re just interested in Western education. Nobody talks about our indigenous knowledge.

A typical ancient wall painting in southeastern Nigeria, which portrays astronomical information. Photo: Johnson Urama

Give us an example an indigenous African astronomical practice or story.

Among the Hausa speaking people of West Africa, for example, they have it in their folk tales that the moon and the sun were friendly until the sun gave birth. Then the sun called the moon and asked him to hold her daughter while she went and washed herself. The moon took the sun’s daughter, but was not able to hold it, for it burnt him, and he let it go, and it fell to Earth — that is why humans feel hot on earth. When the sun returned, she asked the moon where the daughter was, and the moon replied, “Your daughter was burning me so I let her go, and she fell to Earth.” Because of that, the sun pursues the moon. Another variant is that the moon’s path is full of thorns, while that of the sun is sandy, and because of that the moon cannot travel as quickly as the sun. So when the moon can proceed no farther, he gets on the sun’s path, and the sun catches him. When the sun has caught the moon, the people take their drums and ask the sun to spare the moon. This “catching-up” occurs during an eclipse of the sun — usually partial or annular.

Also, among the Igala speaking people of Nigeria, when an eclipse happens it is believed that the world wants to come to an end, so the people start beating drums, buckets, plates and bowls as a plea to their god to spare the world. And when the eclipse is over, they start chanting, “Thanks be to our gods, for they have heard our prayers.” It is also believed that the moon has two wives — and these are the brightest stars that stay very close to the moon when it appears in the night, the most loved one staying closest to him.

On a practical level, how do you go about gathering these traditions? Do you approach community members for knowledge?

Some of the traditional practices are what we grew up with, and we are just trying to interpret them in scientific or astronomical ways. We also have some works of earlier ethnographers who studied the practices of different African ethnic groups many years ago — and some of these archival materials are now interpreted in terms of modern astronomy. Sometimes we also interview very old people who possess knowledge of ancient practices and traditions that are still unrecorded. Our cultural astronomy conference held in Cape Coast, Ghana, in 2006, had a training workshop component. Our 2014 may also incorporate a training workshop.

Ezeja Atama, the atama (chief priest) Ugwuojome of Nsukka, sitting inside his shrine. Such priests would traditionally examine the motions of heavenly bodies to come up with the calendar of the people. Photo: Johnson Urama

What will you do with the information that you gather? How will you store it or disseminate it?

Probably we’ll publish some as books, and some just as articles in academic journals. After the Ghana conference, we published a book on African cultural astronomy. There is also another book project about cultural astronomy worldwide. I made a contribution to that, but it was just about Nigerian perspectives.

I’ve heard you speak about some of the constellations over Africa. You said that as an astronomer, it’s interesting to be in Africa because of its dark skies.

Yes, Africa still has access to a good portion of dark skies. There’s simply not as much light pollution, or even radio pollution, as in some other climes. It’s not just only light; all this radio communication stuff is a problem for observing in radio frequencies. So Africa is still largely dark, and that is a plus for astronomy. Also, we have access to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, where you have lots of interesting stuff — star-forming regions, for example. In the northern hemisphere, there are a number of places that don’t have good access to that region of the sky.

Do you encourage other astronomers from around the world to come to Africa and bring equipment, knowledge and education?

There is an Office for Astronomy Development, located in South Africa, whose major goal is to facilitate the development of astronomy in a number of places like Africa, parts of Asia and a number of other places like the Caribbean islands, where modern astronomy is not yet well-developed. And there are a good number of people currently working on promoting African astronomy. Like TED Fellow Hakeem Oluseyi, who leads the One Telescope Project – he’s working toward having at least one telescope in every nation in Africa. There are also educational initiatives like Universe Awareness, Global Hands-on Universe, and so on.

The Odegwoo shrine in Lejja, Nigeria, is associated with fertility. Its worshippers sit at the north and south sides. The north-south orientation is based on the local philosophy that the “ingredients” needed for procreation are very fragile and should not be exposed to radiant heat from the sun (on the east-west axis).

Do you want to get young people interested in indigenous astronomy because it’s part of their history and culture? Or is it also important on a practical level?

I am invested in this because I’m an African. I understand some of these practices, some of the language, some of the stories. And I find it a good vehicle for communicating modern astronomy. The feeling among most of us — especially in equatorial Africa — is that we have no stake in astronomy. If you go towards the southern and northern tips of Africa, you find a higher level of interest and participation in modern astronomy. But closer to the equator, maybe plus or minus 20 degrees, there is lack of interest.

Part of the problem here is that people don’t find it easy to relate to astronomy. Many African people see astronomy as something that is very foreign; there is an attitude that the average African has no business with astronomy. In Nigeria, for example, people are just interested in oil, on the Earth. We don’t talk of anything in the skies. But I try to use indigenous, cultural astronomy to help them understand that our forefathers had knowledge of this for thousands of years. This has been an essential part of our lives. It’s just that we lost it somewhere, and we need to get it back. Astronomy should not be something foreign to us.

Given that interest in astronomy is low, how many students do you have in your astronomy program?

We have two levels. At my university, astronomy is a compulsory course for physics students, so every student is exposed to it. I got involved in astronomy through that course, which I took in my third year. And the other level is post-graduate. In a typical year, we have maybe maybe five to 10 students admitted to do an MSc in astronomy and maybe another one or two for a PhD.

There must be many different traditions throughout African cultures — a very rich body of knowledge.

Of course; it’s quite diverse. In Nigeria alone, we have over 200 ethnic groups. And when you talk about all of Africa, there are several hundred. That is why we’re also trying to encourage more people to come into this cultural astronomy project: it is always better if there is somebody from a particular ethnic group wanting to study their own indigenous astronomy. If you don’t understand the language, it’s difficult to research astronomy practices. Africa is quite vast, so we are trying to get as many people as possible involved. The hope is that, as we work in different regions and different ethnic nationalities, we’ll be able to see how we can begin to fit all the knowledge together.

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Ask the Entrepreneurs: 12 Things Entrepreneurs Should Stop Doing

Ask The Entrepreneurs is a regular series where members of the Young Entrepreneur Council are asked a single question that aims to help Lifehack readers level up their own lives, whether in a area of management, communication, business or life in general.

Here’s the question posed in this edition of Ask The Entrepreneurs:

1. Talking About Themselves

Entrepreneurs tend to get so wrapped up in the pitching, convincing and selling of their day-to-day life that sometimes it becomes all they ever talk about. Being well-rounded and conversational will help you have rapport with others around you. While talking about yourself and your business is important, doing so constantly comes off as being self-centered and oblivious to the world around you.

- Kim Kaupe, ‘ZinePak

2. Focusing on a To-Do List

The best leaders I know focus on building the right culture and energy in the office. Sitting in a corner and pounding out to-do items may feel productive, but don’t forget about doing the things that aren’t fully quantifiable. Helping teammates who may be having a bad morning or struggling with a project could be the single most valuable thing you do all day!

- Tyler Arnold, SimplySocial Inc.

3. Eating Pizza

When you head into the startup phase of your company, everything you used to do that was healthy is going to stop. You are going to put on weight. You are going to end up with too much stress and a back that is in constant pain. Don’t eat pizza. It will make it easier to get back in shape when you’re out of that phase.

- Andrew Angus, Switch Video

4. Using Social Media Distractions

Shut down all your personal social media distractions during the work day. Facebook, Instagram, Vine and Twitter will all be there after you complete your daily tasks. Many entrepreneurs don’t realize just how much time they waste reading and engaging on these mediums and also just how much it decreases their daily productivity. To succeed, use your time wisely.

- Anthony Saladino, Kitchen Cabinet Kings

5. Multitasking

Multitasking has its place in the business realm, but there are also times when it should be avoided. If you multitask two separate and very important projects, you can end up with two sets of dismal results. Know when to multitask and when to focus on a single task.

- Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

6. Waiting for the Right Moment

Stop waiting for the right time, and just get things done. Define the one thing you can do today that will help grow your business and not just keep you busy.

- Michael Mogill, Crisp Video Group

7. Attending Management Meetings

Admittedly, management meetings are sometimes necessary and useful beasts. But a culture of meetings is ultimately just a time suck. Everyone has had that experience of waiting for a meeting to end so that real work can resume. To increase productivity, reduce management meetings and time in meetings in general. When you must meet, have a clear agenda and stick to it.

- David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

8. Letting Interruptions Happen

Interruptions are just a part of life, but I take steps to prevent them. It is so hard to refocus after multiple interruptions. I don’t even want to calculate how much time I lose to redirecting my attention several times a day. If it gets to be too much, I go into do-not-disturb mode. I close the door, only take scheduled calls and tell my staff that they can email me and I’ll get to them later.

- Maren Hogan, Red Branch Media

9. Going out for Lunch

The lunch hour is one of the most active times of the day and a great time to get work done. After work is when most socializing should be done. Instead of worrying about getting back to the office or getting work done before you dip out, meeting at the end of the day takes off the edge. You can drink without a conscience, leave the office behind and invite others to join to optimize your time.

- Rameet Chawla, Fueled

10. Working on the Fly

One habit to break away from is working on the fly rather than with an agenda. With a startup, things will happen, and you can be pulled in different directions. Don’t make it a habit to make that the way you operate. Make it a point to be proactive rather than reactive.

- Fabian Kaempfer, Chocomize

11. Pleasing Others First

If you are allowing your time and energy to be diverted from your priority tasks simply to make professional acquaintances (e.g., individuals not in your inner circle) happy, then you’re not investing your time well. Focus on the people and activities that really matter, and you’ll be better off in the long run.

- Elizabeth Saunders, Real Life E®

12. Emailing Coworkers

The biggest breakthrough at ThinkImpact has been the realization that we don’t need to email each other. We can use different tools to communicate. Our new favorite is called Slack . It allows you to communicate in one of three ways: via office-wide messages with a related subject, a direct message with a colleague privately or a private group of colleagues.

- Saul Garlick, ThinkImpact

Entrepreneurship can be a long windy road filled with obstacles and it is often traveled alone. 4 Traits Every Entrepreneur Must Have

Featured photo credit: Confident business man smiling at the officevia Shutterstock

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying an Above-Ground Pool

When I was about seven, my parents put in an above-ground pool. It was only April, and the water was freezing, but I swam until my lips were blue. I loved it.

As soon as my dad got everything set up for the year, I swam every day. I would beg my parents to keep the pool open just another week, and not close up for the winter. As soon as I was old enough, my dad taught me how to check the chemicals, and it became one of my chores.

It was probably a huge expense for my parents to put in a pool, but I would recommend it to anyone who is considering adding one to their backyard… especially if they have a kid like me.

It’s always a good idea to check local zoning laws or, if applicable, ask your homeowner’s association. For example, some neighborhoods have pools, but the HOA doesn’t allow people to place one on their property.

Also, make sure to have the city come out and mark where the power lines in your yard are, so the installation crew doesn’t hit them if they do any digging.

Assuming everything checks out legally, you have to think about where you’re going to put the pool in the backyard. It’s important to consider the layout of the yard. Some yards have a slope that will have to be leveled.

Also, make sure that enough sunlight will hit the pool during the day to make the water warm enough to be pleasant. Try to work around any trees, or consider cutting them back if they give too much shade (they can also dump leaves in the pool, which isn’t fun to clean up).

Additionally, be careful when you are considering how to arrange the deck. If you’re planning a whole yard overhaul with a deck that runs from the house to pool, there may be certain zoning restrictions or laws. This kind of goes with the first point: you have to be aware of laws that dictate how close a pool can be to the house.

Your contractor should know this and abide by these laws, but it’s not a bad idea to do some of your own research ahead of time, when you’re deciding where to place the pool.

Pools come in various shapes and diameters — there are oval pools and round pools — and they vary in depth as well. Consider what would work best for your yard and your budget.

Obviously, bigger pools are going to cost more, and oval pools also tend to be more expensive. You also have to think in terms of how much water the pool will require: if it’s going to take longer to fill, you’ll need more chemicals to make sure the water is safe for the family.

The shape of the pool might also be determined by the shape of your yard. If the backyard is long and skinny, an oval pool might be your only option. If the yard is more squat, you may be limited to a round pool.

Despite what you might think, pools generally don’t add value to your house when you go to sell it. What they do add value to is the time you spend in your backyard with your family.

Pools are not something you should install casually; they can mean a lot of upkeep for little return. But there’s nothing better than hanging out in the backyard, floating around on a pool noodle, and watching your kid cannonball off the porch in a fit of glee.

One of my favorite pictures from my older brother’s graduation is one of him and me in the pool: me in my dress and him in his graduation robes. Pools create memories, and that can make them worth any expense.

Want to know more benefits of hitting the pool? Check out: Ten Benefits of Swimming You May Not Know About

Featured photo credit: Kids having fun in the swimming poolvia Shutterstock

Brian Penny is a former business analyst at Bank of America turned whistleblower and freelance writer. He's a frequent contributor to Mainstreet, and HardcoreDroid and an affiliate of Manduka and Amazon. He documents his experiences working with Anonymous, practicing yoga, and fighting the banks on his blog.

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Do You Know This Scientific Solution For Performing Well Under Pressure?

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13 TED Talks to cheer you up on a bad day

playlist TEDTalks

It’s a widely documented fact: bad days are cumulative. They begin with pouring yourself a bowl of cereal, only to find that you’re out of milk. They escalate with discovering that the hot water isn’t working in the shower, and they percolate over a terrible morning commute. Add in a thunderstorm or an unexpected tiff with a co-worker and, well, it is all downhill from there. Your bad day will keep on rolling, picking up more and more material as it spins, like a tumbleweed of annoyance.

Bad days are the worst. But these TED Talks are very likely to cheer you up. Enjoy.

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrongKathryn Schulz: On being wrong
Perhaps it’s maybe, kind of, sort of possible that something you did contributed to your bad day. Kathryn Shulz’s talk will make you feel very comfortable with the idea of being wrong, because fallibility is just part of being human. Bonus: the opening anecdote will make you laugh.Amy Webb: How I hacked online datingAmy Webb: How I hacked online dating
Maybe it’s that slippery thing called “love” that’s got you down. If that’s the case, this talk from Amy Webb is the answer. After a string of disastrous dating incidents, she decided to write her own algorithm for love and reverse-engineer online dating. The result: well, it’s really good. And her conclusion: the problem wasn’t that she was being too picky, it was that she wasn’t being picky enough.Phil Hansen: Embrace the shakePhil Hansen: Embrace the shake
When artist Phil Hansen developed a debilitating hand tremor, he thought his career was done. And then a doctor suggested: “Embrace the shake.” In this talk, he shares how a physical limitation drove him on to incredible creativity. Think: portraits in matches, painting with karate chops and tattooed bananas.Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a championRita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion
Work can be draining, yes. But this talk from Rita Pierson will have you up on your feet and ready to take on any challenge. A long time educator working in some of the most challenging classrooms in the country, Pierson has found a foolproof way to get through to any student: by actually taking the time to form a relationship with them.Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happinessDan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness
Psychologist Dan Gilbert has spent decades studying what makes us happy — and it isn’t what we think. This talk gives insight into why lottery winners and paraplegics report themselves as being equally happy a year after the moment that changed their life. Because of our incredible “psychological immune system,” which helps us synthesize happiness when things go wrong. It’s certainly something to tap into on a bad day.

Now get back out there, tiger …

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X Marks the Spot: The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts TEDx, plus more TEDx highlights

News TEDx A view of lunch at TEDxMet, inside the Temple of Dendur. Photo: Nadia Goodman

The weekend before last, we joined hundreds of New Yorkers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first-ever TEDx event at a museum: TEDxMet. The speakers included Nobel-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, artist Maira Kalman, legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones, and writer Andrew Solomon. The day was peppered with stunning music and dance performances, and thoughtful quotes that stayed with us long after it ended. (A stunner from Andrew Solomon: “The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality.”)

For lunch, we packed into the Temple of Dendur to eat chicken salad sandwiches among the stately ruins of ancient Egyptian temples. (If you’ve never been to the Met, you might know the Temple of Dendur from this memorable scene in When Harry Met Sally.) Not exactly an ordinary Saturday afternoon.

This is the kind of unique experience that many people have at TEDx events, which take place all over the world. Each week, we cover great TEDx talks, stories, and events on the TEDx blog. Below, some recent highlights.

From our favorite playlist, Hey girl, let’s snuggle and watch feminist TEDx talks together:

Inspiring the next generation of female engineers: Debbie Sterling at TEDxPSU
Close your eyes and picture an engineer. Chances are, you didn’t picture a woman. Debbie Sterling, a mechanical engineer and founder of GoldieBlox, wants to change that. In this inspiring talk, she explains how she’s preparing young girls to become tomorrow’s engineers.

Last week, we hosted a live chat on Twitter. Here’s the talk that inspired it:

Violence against women–it’s a men’s issue: Jackson Katz at TEDxFiDiWomen
Women lead the effort to prevent domestic violence, but according to Jackson Katz, it’s time for men to step up. Jackson is a tough-looking former football player, women’s studies major, and proud feminist who says that reducing violence everywhere starts with teaching men to practice peaceful leadership.

From a Halloween post on what we can learn from bat genomes:

The secret of the bat genome: Emma Teeling
What can bats tell us about how to cure deafness or human diseases? In this fascinating talk at TEDxDublin, Emma Teeling, director of the Centre for Irish Bat Research, explains how the bat genome may offer a key to exciting medical advances.

Plus, a mesmerizing opening video from TEDxRheinMain:

And finally, a cool doodle from a collection of TEDx idea maps:

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4 Ways Clutter May be Losing You Money

Have you ever stopped for a second and wondered how much the clutter around your home and work may be costing you? Many people keep a lot of clutter in their home or workplace, but why?

Some may have an emotional attachment and don’t want to get rid of things. Others prefer not to trash the clutter because they think that they might use the item someday and don’t want to waste it by throwing anything away too soon.  But all this stuff that’s burdening your environment could also be burdening your finances.

Clutter is costing you money, plain and simple and here’s how.

How many times have you spent more than a couple of minutes just looking for something that you need? Time is money and you are wasting time by having clutter everywhere. If you have a messy desk at work, you could lose important papers, projects or contacts that not only makes you look bad to your boss but wastes both your time AND your employer’s time.

A big reason for clutter is that you are buying things that you think you need but actually do not. You are wasting money on food by buying food that you do not eat. You are wasting money on clothing if it just hangs in your closet collecting dust. You are wasting money on random gadgets if you never use those gadgets on a regular basis.

If you have a lot of clutter in your house, then you may be losing money because you can misplace things that might be important. You might not notice a refund check that you received in the mail, or you may lose some cash that got mixed up in a pile of clutter.  Valuables or one-of-a-kind items can not only get lost but can also be destroyed or accidentally thrown away when it gets mixed up with useless clutter.

We’ve all done it at one time or another.  We’ve opened up a bill, put it aside and forgotten about it until we get another notice that we’re late.  So you can imagine how often this would happen if your bill got lost in a sea of other stuff around your house.  When you miss a bill, this usually means you’ll either be charged a late fee or pay interest on the amount.

Start with one room and tackle them one at a time.  If it’s too much to do at once, you might just start with one drawer in the kitchen, but it is a start. You will find that it gets easier as you de-clutter little by little, room by room.

Sort your items according to what you need, what you want, and what you absolutely do not need. This is the hardest part. The items that you do not need are things that you need to be realistic with. If you haven’t used an item in a couple of months, then you probably do not need it.

If you are having trouble with getting rid of clothing items, then you should to organize them a certain way. Flip all of the clothing hanging in your closet one way, and as you wear each item, turn the hanger around. After one month you will get an idea of what you wear and what you do not. After one season, get rid of all the items hanging that have not been flipped.

For items that you are keeping, put those away. For the rest, get rid of them as soon as possible. Donate them to a local shelter or Salvation Army or, if the item is not something that anyone would want, throw it away. You need to part with the items as soon as possible if you have a strong emotional connection to them, otherwise, you’ll end up keeping them and cluttering your house again.

Now that you have finally cleared the clutter in your house, the next step is to control any future clutter. Before you buy anything that you are not absolutely positive that you need, leave it on the shelf and come back to it. You can wait until right before you leave the store, or you can come back next time you are in the area. This helps eliminate a lot of clutter and emotional spending, because you have time to think about whether or not you want the item.

What’s the coolest gadget (high OR low tech) you have to help you keep your office space organized? Ask the Entrepreneurs: 15 Ways to Clean Up and Conquer Office Clutter

Featured photo credit: sindesign via photopin cc

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A buried artefact

Sometimes there is an accidental beauty in the most macabre of events. Having a bullet lodged in your brain can produce beautiful CT scans due to the scanner’s difficulty with imaging metal objects.

The scan is from an 8-year-old girl who was hit by a bullet that was fired into the air in celebration. She was reportedly fine but this scan is from her hospital admission.

This pattern is an unintended consequence. It’s called a ‘streak’ or ‘star’ artefact and is caused by a combination of the CT scanner beam being over-absorbed by the dense metal object and the image construction software not being able to make sense of the incoming information correctly.

There’s various other images online if you want more unintended brain glitter.

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Why Money Spent on Employees is the Best Money You Can Spend

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Hofstadter’s digital thoughts

The Atlantic has an amazing in-depth article on how Douglas Hofstadter, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gödel, Escher, Bach, has been quietly working in the background of artificial intelligence on the deep problems of the mind.

Hofstadter’s vision of AI – as something that could help us understand the mind rather than just a way of solving difficult problems – has gone through a long period of being deeply unfashionable.

Developments in technology and statistics have allowed surprising numbers of problems to be solved by sifting huge amounts of data through relatively simple algorithms – something called machine learning.

Translation software, for example, long ago stopped trying to model language and instead just generates output from statistical associations. As you probably know from Google Translate, it’s surprisingly effective.

The Atlantic article tackles Hofstadter’s belief that, contrary to the machine learning approach, developing AI programmes can be a way of testing out ideas about the components of thought itself. This idea may be now starting to re-emerge.

The piece is also works as a sweeping look at the history of AI and the only thing I was left wondering was what Hofstadter makes of the deep learning approach which is a cross between machine learning stats and neurocognitively-inspired architecture.

It’s a satisfying thought-provoking read that rewards time and attention.

If you want another excellent, in-depth read on AI, a great complement is another Atlantic article from last year where Noam Chomsky is interviewed on ‘where artificial intelligence went wrong’.

Both will tell you as much about the human mind as they do about AI.

Link to ‘The Man Who Would Teach Machines to Think’ on Hofstadter.
Link to ‘Noam Chomsky on Where Artificial Intelligence Went Wrong’.

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A multitude of PTSDs

A new paper in Perspectives in Psychological Science looked at all the possible combinations of symptoms that could achieve a DSM-5 diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder and found there are now 636,120 ways to have PTSD.

This shows one of the many drawbacks of having a ‘check-list’ approach to classifying mental disorder.

636,120 Ways to Have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Perspectives in Psychological Science
November 2013 vol. 8 no. 6 651-662

Isaac R. Galatzer-Levy
Richard A. Bryant

In an attempt to capture the variety of symptoms that emerge following traumatic stress, the revision of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) criteria in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5) has expanded to include additional symptom presentations. One consequence of this expansion is that it increases the amorphous nature of the classification. Using a binomial equation to elucidate possible symptom combinations, we demonstrate that the DSM–IV criteria listed for PTSD have a high level of symptom profile heterogeneity (79,794 combinations); the changes result in an eightfold expansion in the DSM–5, to 636,120 combinations. In this article, we use the example of PTSD to discuss the limitations of DSM-based diagnostic entities for classification in research by elucidating inherent flaws that are either specific artifacts from the history of the DSM or intrinsic to the underlying logic of the DSM’s method of classification. We discuss new directions in research that can provide better information regarding both clinical and nonclinical behavioral heterogeneity in response to potentially traumatic and common stressful life events. These empirical alternatives to an a priori classification system hold promise for answering questions about why diversity occurs in response to stressors.

Many argue that psychiatric diagnoses are mostly just descriptions of syndromes: groups of signs and symptoms that tend to group together rather than the result of a single underlying disorder.

Sometimes they are better thought of a convenient classifications for testing treatments against.

When diagnoses are developed, however, there is always the temptation to continually tweak the definition to allow the inclusion or exclusion of different experiences as valid targets for treatment.

These changes are usually well-intentioned but can lead to unintended consequences – as this study shows.

Link to locked paper from Perspectives in Psychological Science.

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How to Save Money for Christmas Shopping

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12 Indispensable Mindful Living Tools

The focus of my life in recent months has been living mindfully, and while I don’t always remember to do that, I have learned a few things worth sharing.

The first is a mindful life is worth the effort. It’s a life where we awaken from the dream state we’re most often submerged in — the state of having your mind anywhere but the present moment, locked in thoughts about what you’re going to do later, about something someone else said, about something you’re stressing about or angry about. The state of mind where we’re lost in our smartphones and social media.

It’s worth the effort, because being awake means we’re not missing life as we walk through it. Being awake means we’re conscious of what’s going on inside us, as it happens, and so can make more conscious choices rather than acting on our impulses all the time.

The second thing I’ve learned is that we forget. We forget, over and over, to be awake. And that’s OK. Being mindful is a process of forgetting, and then remembering. Repeatedly. Just as breathing is a process of exhaling, and then inhaling, repeatedly.

The third is that mindful living isn’t just one thing. It’s not just meditation. Nor is it just focusing on the sensations around you, right now in this moment. I’ve found mindful living to be a set of very related tools, perhaps all different ways of getting at the same thing, but each useful in its own regard.

I’ll share them in this post, and hope that you’ll consider each in turn.

Why bother to spend the time learning these tools? Is it just for some ideal of living a peaceful, stress-free life?

No. A stress-free life doesn’t exist, but these tools will definitely make you more prepared to deal with the stresses that will inevitably come your way.

But just as importantly, they’ll help you overcome the fear of failure and fear of discomfort that’s holding you back, that’s keeping you from making positive changes in your life.

These tools will help you launch your new blog, start a business, write a book, put out your first music album online, find your purpose in life, become the person you’ve always wanted to be.

This is what I’ve found. I’m certain you’ll find these tools just as useful.

This list, of course, is not complete. It’s a collection of things I’ve been learning about, and am still practicing, things I’ve found useful enough to share.

Meditation. Meditation is where mindful living starts. And it’s not complicated: you can sit still for even just 1 minute a day to start with (work up to 3-5 minutes after a week), and turn your attention to your body and then your breath. Notice when your thoughts wander from your breath, and gently return to the breath. Repeat until the minute is up.Be Awake. Meditation is practice for being awake, which is not being in the dream state (mind wandering into a train of thought, getting lost in the online world, thinking about past offenses, stressing about the future, etc.) but being awake to the present, to what is. Being awake is something you can do throughout the day, all the time, if you remember. Remembering is the trick.Watch Urges. When I quit smoking in 2005, the most useful tool I learned was watching my urges to smoke. I would sit there and watch the urge rise and fall, until it was gone, without acting on it. It taught me that I am not my urges, that I don’t have to act on my urges, and this helped me change all my other habits. Watch your urge to check email or social media, to eat something sweet or fried, to drink alcohol, to watch TV, to be distracted, to procrastinate. These urges will come and go, and you don’t have to act on them.Watch Ideals. We all have ideals, all the time. We have an ideal that our day will go perfectly, that people will be kind and respectful to us, that we will be perfect, that we’ll ace an exam or important meeting, that we’ll never fail. Of course, we know from experience that those ideals are not real, that they don’t come true, that they aren’t realistic. But we still have them, and they cause our stress and fears and grief over something/someone we’ve lost. By letting go of ideals, we can let go of our suffering.Accept People & Life As They Are. When I stopped trying to change a loved one, and accepted him for who he was, I was able to just be with him and enjoy my time with him. This acceptance has the same effect for anything you do — accept a co-worker, a child, a spouse, but also accept a “bad” situation, an unpleasant feeling, an annoying sound. When we stop trying to fight the way things are, when we accept what is, we are much more at peace.Let Go of Expectations. This is really the same thing as the previous two items, but I’ve found it useful nonetheless. It’s useful to watch your expectations with an upcoming situation, with a new project or business, and see that it’s not real and that it’s causing you stress and disappointment. We cause our own pain, and we can relieve it by letting go of the expectations that are causing it. Toss your expectations into the ocean.Become OK with Discomfort. The fear of discomfort is huge — it causes people to be stuck in their old bad habits, to not start the business they want to start, to be stuck in a job they don’t really like, because we tend to stick to the known and comfortable rather than try something unknown and uncomfortable. It’s why many people don’t eat vegetables or exercise, why they eat junk, why they don’t start something new. But we can be OK with discomfort, with practice. Start with things that are a little uncomfortable, and keep expanding your comfort zone.Watch Your Resistance. When you try to do something uncomfortable, or try to give up something you like or are used to, you’ll find resistance. But you can just watch the resistance, and be curious about it. Watch your resistance to things that annoy you — a loud sound that interrupts your concentration, for example. It’s not the sound that’s the problem, it’s your resistance to the sound. The same is true of resistance to food we don’t like, to being too cold or hot, to being hungry. The problem isn’t the sensation of the food, cold, heat or hunger — it’s our resistance to them. Watch the resistance, and feel it melt. This resistance, by the way, is why I’m doing my Year of Living Without.Be Curious. Too often we are stuck in our ways, and think we know how things should be, how people are. Instead, be curious. Find out. Experiment. Let go of what you think you know. When you start a new project or venture, if you feel the fear of failure, instead of thinking, “Oh no, I’m going to fail” or “Oh no, I don’t know how this will turn out”, try thinking, “Let’s see. Let’s find out.” And then there isn’t the fear of failure, but the joy of being curious and finding out. Learn to be OK with not knowing.Be Grateful. We complain about everything. But life is a miracle. Find something to be grateful about in everything you do. Be grateful when you’re doing a new habit, and you’ll stick to it longer. Be grateful when you’re with someone, and you’ll be happier with them. Life is amazing, if you learn to appreciate it.Let Go of Control. We often think we control things, but that’s only an illusion. Our obsession with organization and goals and productivity, for example, are rooted in the illusion that we can control life. But life is uncontrollable, and just when we think we have things under control, something unexpected comes up to disrupt everything. And then we’re frustrated because things didn’t go the way we wanted. Instead, practice letting go of control, and learn to flow.Be Compassionate. This sounds trite, but compassion for others can change the way you feel about the world, on a day-to-day basis. And compassion for yourself is life-changing. These two things need remembering, though, so mindful living is about remembering to be compassionate after you forget.

OK, that seems like a lot to digest and remember, right?

Well, there’s hope. I often forget all of this stuff, but then I remember, and say, “Ah, I was doing it again!” And then I practice again.

And then I forget, but I reflect, and I learn, and I practice again.

This is the process of learning mindfulness. It’s forgetting, and then remembering, again and again.

And it’s worth remembering, again and again.

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5 Must-Have Tools for Networking Online

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Daily Quote: Christmas is Not a Time Nor a Season

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. by Calvin Coolidge

Brian Lee is the manager of Lifehack.org who covers all sorts of tips for life. Brian has lived and studied in USA, Canada, China and Hong Kong and holds his BA in Global Business.

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Adventure is worthwhile in itself

Adventure is worthwhile in itself. - Amelia Earhart

Life can get monotonous with the daily grind. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are easy, simple ways that you can make life fun everyday. Before I give you the 5 tips to bring more adventure and joy into your life, I’ll share with you how I realized how important it is to integrate these tips into your life.

Over a decade ago I was enamored with the Jack Kerouac road-trippin’ adventurous lifestyle. I got on a plane to Costa Rica with only a small backpack and a guide book. No plans, no reservations and barely a word of Spanish on my tongue. That same year I traveled across Canada with a friend and spent my summer picking cherries in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. These adventures sparked freedom and joy into my life. I knew I had to maintain this feeling.

When I moved to Vancouver to pursue my studies in nutrition, I knew I had to bring that quality of adventure into my everyday life. I thought about how when you are traveling, or on the road, every new landscape is breathtaking. Every moment is a joyous surprise. I received pleasure from walks through unknown streets and forests on my many travels, and realized how simple it could be to bring this joy and adventure into my every day.

That was 8 years ago now, and to this day I still look for the adventure and joy in the everyday. Here are 5 of my favorite ways to keep life exciting:

5 Ways to Create Adventure and Joy Every Day

Brian is a Lifehacker who covers all sorts of tips for life. He is also fascinated with new technology. Contact him at brian@lifehack.org

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A promising first step for those with spinal cord injury: Further reading on electrical stimulation and how it’s helped rats (and one human!) walk again

Science TEDTalks Gregoire Courtine shares the story behind his work at TEDGlobal 2013. It begins with: an encouraging mentor. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Grégoire Courtine and the scientists in his lab helped a paralyzed rat learn to walk again, voluntarily, through a treatment that combined drugs, electrical stimulation of the lower spinal cord, the support of a robotic arm and a little bit of chocolate. When their study appeared in the June 2012 issue of Science, it sparked a lot of excitement. Articles in Scientific American (“With Willpower, and a Jolt of Electricity, Paralyzed Rats Learn to Walk Again”) and The New York Times (“In Rat Experiment, New Hope for Spine Injuries”) followed, as did a segment on ABC News (“Paralysed rats on ‘incredible’ road to recovery”).

Grégoire Courtine: The paralyzed rat that walkedToday, Courtine shares the story behind this work. The keys to his breakthroughs: a riveting call to action from Christopher Reeve, and a mentor who encouraged wild experimentation.

“The spinal cord below most injuries contains all the necessary and sufficient neural network to coordinate locomotion. But because input from the brain is inhibited, they are in a non-functional state — kind of dormant. My idea: we awaken this network,” explains Courtine in today’s talk. “After completing my Ph.D in France, where independent thinking was not exactly encouraged, I was afraid to talk to my new boss … [But] he listened to me carefully and responded with, ‘Why don’t you try?’ This was such an important moment in my career, when I realized that great leaders believe in young people and new ideas.”

In this talk, Courtine shares why his lab’s method worked so well — because it encouraged the brain to make new connections to relay information from the brain to areas below the injury. This, of course, raises a big question — could this treatment work in humans? After all, 50,000 people around the world suffer from spinal cord injuries every year.

Naturally, Courtine hopes so. His team is working hard to develop interventions that could potentially be effective in humans. And a recent study suggests that this may, in fact, be possible.

At the University of Louisville, neuroscientist Susan Harkema — who also studied with Courtine’s mentor, V. Reggie Edgerton — used electrical stimulation to successfully “awaken” a 23-year-old man’s lower spinal cord. In a paper published in The Lancet in June 2011, Harkema shared the amazing results of a study on a patient named Rob Summers. On the very first day of his treatment, Summers was able to stand up on his own. Soon, he was able to move his legs. He later was able to control his bladder and bowel movements, and regained sexual function.

“Rob’s is a pioneer recovery,” Courtine said, in a powerful article in IEEE Spectrum last month about this experiment. “What was surprising to me was that his was better than what we’ve seen in rats. It was really exciting for me to see.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given Harkema the go-ahead to continue the study with four more patients, to begin determining if the first study was a fluke or if this treatment could work for others. In their article, IEEE Spectrum profiled one of the four patients who will participate — Dustin Shillcox, a 26-year-old from Wyoming who was paralyzed after a car accident.

“I don’t want to be too optimistic, and I’m trying to be prepared for no results at all,” he told the magazine. “I hope that whatever they find from this research will at least benefit other people.”

Both Courtine and Herkema’s work builds on that of Edgerton, who long ago demonstrated that directly stimulating the spinal cord could produce movement, even if communication with the brain wasn’t a possibility. “Everyone, including us, was hung up on the idea that you have to stimulate at this high level to induce the movement,” Edgerton told IEEE Spectrum. And yet, it turned out that low-level stimulation produced far better results, allowing the lower spinal cord to receive sensory feedback from the body.

This story beautifully illustrates how a scientist’s finding is a beginning rather than an ending. One insight can spark subtle variations and brand-new ideas as others pick up the torch and carry the research forward. And while the finish line of a well-tested intervention for spinal cord injuries might be a long way off, it’s a race we are eager to watch.

(Note: For the latest from Courtine’s lab, check out the literature review “Personalized Neuroprosthetics,” published today in Science Translational Medicine.)

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