You Can Be Happy / 7 Steps to Becoming a Happier Person / School Calendar

Happiness 
is a state of
mind.
You can be Happy.
Be a Friend,
to yourself.
.
Only you
Truly
know yourself.

We
are capable of anything
our mind can think of.
If it is there,
it is possible.

You
are  the center
of your Universe.

“Reality is created by the mind.
We can change our reality
by changing our mind.”
–  Plato
Your brain
predicts
what any something
should be like,
then it generates a
vision,
based on the prediction.
It is this vision
that is experienced as the
real World.

.The mental reconstruction
of reality
is vivid, substantial and perceived
to be located in external objective space.
It becomes the brain’s
“model”
of the World.

Yes,
you are strong. 
You can do anything
you want.
.
Trust
in yourself.
And set your goal
to be Happy.
.
Do whatever it takes
to achieve Happiness.
Believe
in yourself,
and Love yourself.

 We 
can be Happy,
anywhere we are.
We do not need anyone’s
approval.

Let other people
be part of Life ‘s Journey,
but not the
destination.

Happiness
is always in your Hands.
It is
a state of mind.
Be a Friend,
a Best Friend,
to yourself.

 Let
no one
make you believe
otherwise.

We 
are capable of anything
our mind can think of.

You are
the possible.

So,
be Happy.
Become
your Dreams.
Believe
in Love,
and you will
Love,
Life.

Open the Door
to another Dimension. 
Life
is full of Light and Joy.
.
Brighten the darkness
all around.
With Smiles that
abound,
and many a cheerful
sound,
you will Light up
the Day.

Goodnight.

Choosing To Be Happy

Strategies for Happiness: 7 Steps to Becoming a Happier Person

Written by Tom Valeo

Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on March 04, 2010

click here to read more

A popular greeting card attributes this quote to Henry David Thoreau: “Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”

With all due respect to the author of Walden, that just isn’t so, according to a growing number of psychologists. You can choose to be happy, they say. You can chase down that elusive butterfly and get it to sit on your shoulder. How? In part, by simply making the effort to monitor the workings of your mind.

Research has shown that your talent for happiness is, to a large degree, determined by your genes. Psychology professor David T. Lykken, author of Happiness: Its Nature and Nurture, says that “trying to be happier is like trying to be taller.” We each have a “happiness set point,” he argues, and move away from it only slightly.

And yet, psychologists who study happiness — including Lykken — believe we can pursue happiness. We can do this by thwarting negative emotions such as pessimism, resentment, and anger. And we can foster positive emotions, such as empathy, serenity, and especially gratitude.

Happiness Strategy # 1: Don’t Worry, Choose Happy

The first step, however, is to make a conscious choice to boost your happiness. In his book, The Conquest of Happiness, published in 1930, the philosopher Bertrand Russell had this to say: “Happiness is not, except in very rare cases, something that drops into the mouth, like a ripe fruit. … Happiness must be, for most men and women, an achievement rather than a gift of the gods, and in this achievement, effort, both inward and outward, must play a great part.”

Today, psychologists who study happiness heartily agree. The intention to be happy is the first of The 9 Choices of Happy People listed by authors Rick Foster and Greg Hicks in their book of the same name.

“Intention is the active desire and commitment to be happy,” they write. “It’s the decision to consciously choose attitudes and behaviors that lead to happiness over unhappiness.”

Tom G. Stevens, PhD, titled his book with the bold assertion, You Can Choose to Be Happy. “Choose to make happiness a top goal,” Stevens tells WebMD. “Choose to take advantage of opportunities to learn how to be happy. For example, reprogram your beliefs and values. Learn good self-management skills, good interpersonal skills, and good career-related skills. Choose to be in environments and around people that increase your probability of happiness. The persons who become the happiest and grow the most are those who also make truth and their own personal growth primary values.”

In short, we may be born with a happiness “set point,” as Lykken calls it, but we are not stuck there. Happiness also depends on how we manage our emotions and our relationships with others.

Jon Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis, teaches positive psychology. He actually assigns his students to make themselves happier during the semester.

“They have to say exactly what technique they will use,” says Haidt, a professor at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. “They may choose to be more forgiving or more grateful. They may learn to identify negative thoughts so they can challenge them. For example, when someone crosses you, in your mind you build a case against that person, but that’s very damaging to relationships. So they may learn to shut up their inner lawyer and stop building these cases against people.”

Once you’ve decided to be happier, you can choose strategies for achieving happiness. Psychologists who study happiness tend to agree on ones like these.

Happiness Strategy #2: Cultivate Gratitude

In his book, Authentic Happiness, University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman encourages readers to perform a daily “gratitude exercise.” It involves listing a few things that make them grateful. This shifts people away from bitterness and despair, he says, and promotes happiness.

Happiness Strategy #3: Foster Forgiveness

Holding a grudge and nursing grievances can affect physical as well as mental health, according to a rapidly growing body of research. One way to curtail these kinds of feelings is to foster forgiveness. This reduces the power of bad events to create bitterness and resentment, say Michael McCullough and Robert Emmons, happiness researchers who edited The Psychology of Happiness.

In his book, Five Steps to Forgiveness, clinical psychologist Everett Worthington Jr. offers a 5-step process he calls REACH. First, recall the hurt. Then empathize and try to understand the act from the perpetrator’s point of view. Be altruistic by recalling a time in your life when you were forgiven. Commit to putting your forgiveness into words. You can do this either in a letter to the person you’re forgiving or in your journal. Finally, try to hold on to the forgiveness. Don’t dwell on your anger, hurt, and desire for vengeance.

The alternative to forgiveness is mulling over a transgression. This is a form of chronic stress, says Worthington.

“Rumination is the mental health bad boy,” Worthington tells WebMD. “It’s associated with almost everything bad in the mental health field — obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety — probably hives, too.”

Happiness Strategy #4: Counteract Negative Thoughts and Feelings

As Jon Haidt puts it, improve your mental hygiene. In The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt compares the mind to a man riding an elephant. The elephant represents the powerful thoughts and feelings — mostly unconscious — that drive your behavior. The man, although much weaker, can exert control over the elephant, just as you can exert control over negative thoughts and feelings.

“The key is a commitment to doing the things necessary to retrain the elephant,” Haidt says. “And the evidence suggests there’s a lot you can do. It just takes work.”

For example, you can practice meditation, rhythmic breathing, yoga, or relaxation techniques to quell anxiety and promote serenity. You can learn to recognize and challenge thoughts you have about being inadequate and helpless.

“If you learn techniques for identifying negative thoughts, then it’s easier to challenge them,” Haidt said. “Sometimes just reading David Burns‘ book, Feeling Good, can have a positive effect.”

Happiness Strategy #5: Remember, Money Can’t Buy Happiness

Research shows that once income climbs above the poverty level, more money brings very little extra happiness. Yet, “we keep assuming that because things aren’t bringing us happiness, they’re the wrong things, rather than recognizing that the pursuit itself is futile,” writes Daniel Gilbert in his book, Stumbling on Happiness. “Regardless of what we achieve in the pursuit of stuff, it’s never going to bring about an enduring state of happiness.”

Happiness Strategy #6: Foster Friendship

There are few better antidotes to unhappiness than close friendships with people who care about you, says David G. Myers, author of The Pursuit of Happiness. One Australian study found that people over 70 who had the strongest network of friends lived much longer.

“Sadly, our increasingly individualistic society suffers from impoverished social connections, which some psychologists believe is a cause of today’s epidemic levels of depression,” Myers writes. “The social ties that bind also provide support in difficult times.”

Happiness Strategy #7: Engage in Meaningful Activities

People are seldom happier, says psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, than when they’re in the “flow.” This is a state in which your mind becomes thoroughly absorbed in a meaningful task that challenges your abilities. Yet, he has found that the most common leisure time activity — watching TV — produces some of the lowest levels of happiness.

To get more out of life, we need to put more into it, says Csikszentmihalyi. “Active leisure that helps a person grow does not come easily,” he writes in Finding Flow. “Each of the flow-producing activities requires an initial investment of attention before it begins to be enjoyable.”

So it turns out that happiness can be a matter of choice — not just luck. Some people are lucky enough to possess genes that foster happiness. However, certain thought patterns and interpersonal skills definitely help people become an “epicure of experience,” says David Lykken, whose name, in Norwegian, means “the happiness.”

“The foolish man
seeks happiness in the distance,
the wise grows it under his feet.”
– James Oppenheim

Knowledge is power
and LIFE.

School Calendar

2022-23
Please check back regularly
for any amendments that may occur.

First Semester
Sept. 6 – December 16   2022

Sept. 6 (TUESDAY)               First Day of First Semester
Oct. 10 (Monday)                   Columbus Day Holiday
Nov. 21 – 25                           Fall Break (and Thanksgiving)
Dec. 16                                   Last Day of Fall Semester

Second Semester

Jan. 3 (TUESDAY)                 Second Semester Begins
Jan. 16  (Monday)                  Dr. Martin L. King Holiday
Feb. 20  (Monday)                  Presidents’ Day Holiday
Mar. 13 – 17                           Spring Break Holiday
April 7 & 10                           Good Friday and Easter Monday Holidays
May 26                                    Last Day of Spring Semester

Lyrics/songs texts/paintings/articles

are property and copyright of their owners
and provided for educational purposes.

Copyright Disclaimer
– Section 107 – Copyright Act 1976,
allowance is made for “fair use”
for purposes such as criticism, comment,
news reporting, teaching, scholarship,and research.
Fair use is permitted by copyright statute.

Non-profit, educational or personal use
tips the balance in favor of “fair use”.

© Copyright 1995-2023
The Anderson Private School.

“He who opens a school door,
closes a prison.“
– Victor Hugo

I wish you all
 Peace.

Hang on
to your Faith.
You will get there.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

Our Physical Being Simply Does Not Exist / 7 Things Never to Do to Lose Weight / School Calendar

Dedicated
to My Dear Friend
and Fellow B. S. A. Scout of Troop 17
Rev. Donald Graves.
Thank you
for your precious Friendship
and a Sacred Life of Dedication
to the Word of God.
.
“Compassion
is a Living, breathing, profoundly complex
Human interaction.
It represents a Heart – mind – Soul – connection
with someone who suffers.”
– Rev. Donald Graves
click here to read more

At the beginning
of the last Century,
physicists explored the relationship
between energy and physical matter.
Their research led to discovery
 that matter is absolutely nothing
but an illusion.
.
Scientists recognized
that everything
in our Universe
is made of energy.
My Dear Friends,
as startling and unbelievable as it sounds,
our physical Being
simply does not
exist.

Quantum Physics
reveals
that we are Beings
of energy and vibration.
Yes,
we are much, much
more
than what we perceive
ourselves to be.

What does it mean
that our physical material reality,
isn’t really physical at all?

One of the powerful revelations
of Physics
is that “the observer creates
Reality.”

My Dear Friends,
we can no longer ignore the fact
that our Beliefs, perceptions and attitudes
(consciousness)
create the World
we are aware of.
.
The Universe
is immaterial, mental
and most importantly,
Spiritual.

“We are not Human Beings
having a Spiritual experience.
We are Spiritual Beings
having a Human Experience.”
–  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Our Creator
of all Life
has placed within each person
the ability to know and Love
God.
If this Sacred Knowledge
can be discovered, experienced and accepted,
then each individual,
every one of us,
will be able to establish
a new Foundation for Living.

We
are the Real Art
of God
that flies beyond all understanding,
Time and borders,
to all Eternity.

Goodnight.

7 Things Never to Do to Lose Weight

By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD
click here to read more

Fighting the battle of the bulge can range from following a sensible diet to making ill-guided efforts that can have serious health consequences.

“People get so focused on weight loss they are willing to do unproven and potentially dangerous things that can backfire and cause serious health problems,” says Michelle May, MD, who teaches mindful eating.

Here are seven dangerous strategies you should avoid when trying to lose weight.

Starvation, Fasting, or Very Low-Calorie Diets

Severely slashing calories may lead to weight loss, but the lost weight includes precious muscle and lowers metabolism. Drastic calorie restriction also causes a shift toward a higher percentage of body fat, which increases the risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Unless medically supervised, don’t cut calories below 1,200 per day. Otherwise, you will struggle to get enough nutrients to fuel your activities and satisfy your hunger. Keep in mind that when you lose weight quickly, you may be at risk to pack it back on — with more fat and less muscle — especially if you’re over 50.
Supplements That Make Grand Promises

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Unlike makers of prescription drugs, companies that make supplements don’t have to prove that their products are safe or effective before putting them on the market. Even products that claim to be natural aren’t necessarily safe or good for you.

If you’re thinking about taking any weight loss product, ask your doctor first. It’s best to focus on what’s proven to work for weight loss, including your diet.

Cleanses or Detox Plans

At best, cleanses cause weight loss from water and stool weight. But they can be dangerous. They carry risks of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and more.

“Losing lots of fluid without medical supervision is risky, and when it’s combined with fasting, even riskier,” May says. “Your body is uniquely fine-tuned to detoxify and excrete toxins. So cleanses are unnecessary and can lead to serious complications by messing with your body’s system.”

Instead of detoxifying, be more mindful of what you eat. If you want to cleanse or detoxify your body, drink plenty of water and eat lots of high-fiber foods.
All Forms of Purging

Purging includes making yourself vomit, chewing food and spitting it out, and abusing laxatives. “These unhealthy and unsafe behaviors are not uncommon on college campuses, pose serious health problems, and are the first step in the development of eating disorders,” says Connie Diekman, RD. She’s the director of nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, where she also counsels students who have eating disorders.

Acid in the stomach is extremely strong. Strong acid is necessary to prepare food for digestion and absorption. Stomach contents are meant to stay in the stomach, not be regurgitated into the throat and mouth. “Extremely acidic vomit can cause erosion in the esophagus and mouth and on tooth enamel. This can increase risk for certain cancers, tooth decay, and more when purging becomes a ritual,” Diekman says.

Regular purging by vomiting or abuse of laxatives also causes excess fluid loss that can cause serious dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.

All of these forms of weight loss are dangerous, but the most dangerous is the use of syrup of ipecac, Diekman says. “One dose can trigger cardiac irregularity and can lead to cardiac arrest.”

Purging in all its forms is no way to whittle down the waistline. Eating and drinking healthfully is a much safer weight loss approach.
Extreme Exercising

Extreme exercise may make for good reality television. But in the real world, it can cause grave problems. It causes severe wear and tear; increases the risk for injury, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance; and psychologically turns exercise into punishment for eating, May says.

The American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association recommend getting at least 30 minutes of moderately intense cardio exercise 5 days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorously intense cardio exercise 3 days a week, and strength-training exercises that work all the major muscle groups two to three times a week. Some people think more is better and go way beyond what’s healthy. That kind of obsessive exercise can begin to control their lives in an unhealthy way. Take a moderate approach to exercise, and you’ll be more likely to stick with it for the long haul.
Legal and Illegal Drugs

Using drugs other than prescription weight loss drugs intended for weight loss is a mistake with dangerous consequences.

“The potential risks associated with abusing drugs such as cocaine, speed, and meds prescribed for attention deficit disorder, thyroid disorders, or diabetes to lose weight far outweigh any health benefit you may get from weight loss,” says nutrition counselor Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo, PhD, RD. Risks include addiction, relationship and financial problems, anxiety, severe headaches, stroke, and heart, lung, and kidney problems.

Using illegal drugs for any purpose is strongly discouraged, and using legal drugs for their unintended purpose without medical supervision is dangerous.
Smoking

We all know that smoking has countless health risks. Yet some people — especially young adults — use smoking as a diet strategy.

Nicotine has been shown to be an appetite suppressant, but the risks of smoking vastly outweigh any benefits.

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body; causes cancer as well as cardiovascular, respiratory, and other diseases; and reduces the health of smokers in general.

Beyond the numerous health risks, weight gain is often a side effect when smokers try to kick the addictive habit.

Bottom line: Don’t smoke for any reason, least of all to lose weight.

Best Weight Loss Practices

Choose a diet that works for your lifestyle. The best diet is the one you can stick with long-term. Use common sense, listen to your body, be mindful of what you eat, and pass on expensive, risky, and worthless weight loss schemes or products that are unproven.

Seek expert advice from your doctor or a registered dietitian if you are concerned that your weight loss methods may border on extreme or unhealthy.

WebMD Expert Column Reviewed by Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD

School Calendar

2021-22

First Semester
Sept. 7 – December 17   2021

Sept. 7 (TUESDAY)               First Day of First Semester
Oct. 11 (Monday)                   Columbus Day Holiday
Nov. 22 – 26                           Fall Break (and Thanksgiving)
Dec. 17                                   Last Day of Fall Semester

Second Semester

Jan. 4 (TUESDAY)                 Second Semester Begins
Jan. 17  (Monday)                  Dr. Martin L. King Holiday
Feb. 21  (Monday)                  Presidents’ Day Holiday
Mar. 14 – 18                           Spring Break Holiday
April 15 & 18                           Good Friday and Easter Monday Holidays
May 24 – 27                            Adventure Trip
May 27                                    Last Day of Spring Semester

Lyrics/songs texts/paintings/articles

are property and copyright of their owners
and provided for educational purposes.

Copyright Disclaimer – Section 107 – Copyright Act 1976,
allowance is made for “fair use”
for purposes such as criticism, comment,
news reporting, teaching, scholarship,and research.
Fair use is permitted by copyright statute.

Non-profit, educational or personal use
tips the balance in favor of “fair use”.

© Copyright 1995-2021
The Anderson Private School.

“He who opens a school door,
closes a prison.“
– Victor Hugo

I wish you all
 Peace.

Hang on
to your Faith.
You will get there.

.

What a BEAUTIFUL Way the Lord Speaks / Forgive and Forget / Sept. 7 School Begins

With
the Guidance of our Precious Lord,
Today can be made ingenious
mixing melancholy and Joy
in a Beautiful Masterpiece
of our Time –
Life.
.
No,
we cannot avoid the melancholic tone
of circumstance
laden upon our very fragile
and very Human Hearts.

But Hope
is embodied in every new Birth
of every precious Moment in Time.
And each new generation
of Prayerful Thought,
can help to make
a better World.

Beautiful and Timeless Messages
emanate from the Word
of God.
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WAY
THE LORD SPEAKS.

Like the charming and elegant Birds
dancing high in the Sky,
singing their favorite songs
in a perpetual Creation
of Divine Inspiration.
The spectacular landscapes
of the horizons of our Life
offer inspiration and pleasure
to purify our Spirits.

The Magnificent
and Celestial Essence of our Eternal Being
can be reached deep in our Hearts
in its reflections,
through the shining Beauty
of God’s very Soft and Gentle
Love.

There is so much Beauty
and Truth
in this World.
And it is there
for YOU.
.
Rest your thoughts,
quiet your bruised mind.
Open your eyes,
and open your Heart.
God is always near.
The Celestial Light
you will see and feel
is your own Light,
your own Love,
your own Beauty,
Created by God.

We Live
at the Edge
of Perpetual Creation.
The Divine Power of God
resides within each of us.
His Light of Divine Energy
is revealed in spectacular landscapes
created for the pleasure
of the Sacred Souls
of His Beloved Children.

Such Beauty
transports us into
ourselves.
Feel Eternally Grateful
for everything in this Life.
Share the Beauty
of everything you are,
everything that makes us whole,
everything that completes us.

“Happiness held is the seed;
Happiness shared is the
Flower.”
– John Harrigan

Don’t give up
on the person you are becoming.
Enchanting Love and Light
from the Sacred Heart of God
will touch your Heart
and reveal the Magnificent Being of Light
and Love
that you are.
.
The Beauty of God’s Love
is all around us,
emanating PURE energy,
allowing us to see and feel
Love
in every moment
of Time.

We need to remember
He made us
for His Wonderful Purpose –
to Love,
an be Loved.

The awareness
of our impressive inner Beauty,
and the brilliance of our Spirit,
 can give the Heart
an aura of calm and tranquility
that allows us to simply forget 
our sorrows and anguish.
In our World
we unnecessarily punish ourselves
every day,
by violence and the loss of respect
for Human values.
.
In the midst
of all this seemingly endless insanity,
there is Hope.
Our Faith,
in God and in each other,
can reach our Hearts
and revitalize us
with a wonderful and enchanting
realization
of the Ultimate Reality
that God is
Love,
and so are
WE.

Seek the Lord in Prayer,
where He will be found.
Call upon His Holy Name.
He is near.
.
Return Home,
return to the Lord.
Ask for His mercy,
for He will abundantly pardon.
He
is your Father.
And YOU
are His Sacred Child.
.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there, But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out with Joy,
And be led out with Peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing
before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
– Isaiah 55:8-11

Go
where you can go.
And Thank God
for you for being
you.

Be grateful for the Love
God has placed
into your Heart.

Seek Peace inwardly
and you will find it,
and ultimately,
your True Self.

Goodnight.

Forgive and Forget

click here for more

It’s not always easy, but the benefits of forgiving — and ‘forgetting’ — can be powerful. Here are some tips.

By Tom Valeo

Medically Reviewed by Cynthia Dennison Haines, MD on February 09, 2007

From the WebMD Archives

Many people view forgiveness as an offshoot of love — a gift given freely to those who have hurt you.

Forgiveness, however, may bring enormous benefits to the person who gives that gift, according to recent research. If you can bring yourself to forgive and forget, you are likely to enjoy lower blood pressure, a stronger immune system, and a drop in the stress hormones circulating in your blood, studies suggest. Back pain, stomach problems, and headaches may disappear. And you’ll reduce the anger, bitterness, resentment, depression, and other negative emotions that accompany the failure to forgive.

Of course, forgiving is notoriously difficult. “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive,” said C.S. Lewis.

And forgetting may not be a realistic or desirable goal.

“Despite the familiar cliche, ‘forgive and forget,’ most of us find forgetting nearly impossible,” says Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Hope College. “Forgiveness does not involve a literal forgetting. Forgiveness involves remembering graciously. The forgiver remembers the true though painful parts, but without the embellishment of angry adjectives and adverbs that stir up contempt.”

Forgiving (and Forgetting) Quells Stress

That type of angry “embellishment,” as Witvliet calls it, seems to carry serious consequences. In a 2001 study, she monitored the physiological responses of 71 college students as they either dwelled on injustices done to them, or imagined themselves forgiving the offenders.

“When focused on unforgiving responses, their blood pressure surged, their heart rates increased, brow muscles tensed, and negative feelings escalated,” she says. “By contrast, forgiving responses induced calmer feelings and physical responses. It appears that harboring unforgiveness comes at an emotional and a physiological cost. Cultivating forgiveness may cut these costs.”

But how do we cultivate forgiveness?

Frederic Luskin, PhD, director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project, readily admits that forgiveness, like love, can’t be forced.

“You can’t just will forgiveness,” says Luskin, author of Forgive For Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness. “What I teach is that you can create conditions where forgiveness is more likely to occur. There are specific practices we offer that diminish hostility and self-pity, and increase positive emotions, so it becomes more likely that a genuine, heartfelt release of resentment will occur.”

How to Encourage Forgiveness

For example, Luskin encourages the practice of gratitude — the active effort to acknowledge what’s good in your life.

“Gratitude is simply focusing your attention on the positive things that have happened,” he says. “That creates a biochemical experience that makes it more likely that forgiveness will occur.”

Stress management, whether through meditation, deep breathing, or relaxation exercises, also helps quell the stress of anger and resentment, he says. So does “cognitive reframing,” which fosters acceptance of the facts of your situation.

“You may wish you had a better mother or a better lover,” Luskin says, “but the world is the way it is.”

Finally, Luskin encourages people to change the story they tell themselves so they appear more like survivors who are hopeful about the future rather than victims with a grievance.

“You can change, ‘I hate my mother because she didn’t love me,’ to, ‘life is a real challenge for me because I didn’t feel loved as a child,'” Luskin said. “That makes forgiveness so much more possible.”

Two Types of Forgiveness

Everett L. Worthington Jr., PhD, a professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Theory and Applications, divides forgiveness into two types. Decisional forgiveness involves choosing to let go of angry thoughts about the person you feel has wronged you.

“You can tell yourself, ‘I am not going to seek revenge,’ for example, or, ‘I am going to avoid that person,'” Worthington says. “You could choose decisional forgiveness and still have a lot of emotional unforgiveness.”

The ultimate goal, however, is emotional forgiveness, in which negative emotions such as resentment, bitterness, hostility, hatred, anger, and fear are replaced with love, compassion, sympathy, and empathy.

“Emotional forgiveness is where the health action is,” says Worthington. “Emotional unforgiveness causes a chronic stress response, which results in obsessing about the wrong done to you. Rumination is what gets people into trouble. Rumination is the mental health bad boy. It’s associated with almost everything bad in the mental health field — obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, depression … probably hives too.”

REACH for Forgiveness

To help people achieve emotional forgiveness, Worthington has devised a 5-step program called REACH, with each letter representing one step.

“First you recall the hurt objectively, without blame and self-victimization,” Worthington says. “Then you empathize by trying to imagine the viewpoint of the person who wronged you. The altruistic part involves getting people to think about a time they were forgiven and how that felt. When it’s time to commit to forgiveness, people usually say, not yet, but when they finally do, they must then hold on to forgiveness.”

All this is not merely theoretical for Worthington. His mother was beaten to death with a crowbar in 1995, and yet, by applying the five steps of REACH, he managed to forgive.

“Within 30 hours I was able to forgive the youths who had committed this horrible crime,” he writes in Forgiveness and Reconciliation.

When Not Forgiving Is OK

But some people cannot forgive, and that’s OK too, according to Jeanne Safer, PhD, a psychotherapist and the author of Forgiving and Not Forgiving. For some of her patients, recognizing that they don’t have to forgive is a huge relief.

“Many don’t have to forgive in order to resolve their feelings,” Safer says. “They say, ‘I can never feel OK about these terrible things, but I’m not going to be vengeful.'”

To help them achieve this resolution, Safer offers a three-step process. The first step involves re-engagement — a decision to think through what happened. The second step, recognition, means looking at every feeling you may have about the injury. “You ask yourself, ‘why do I want revenge?'” Safer said. “Revenge is based on powerlessness and it’s doomed to failure.”

The final step involves reinterpretation of the injury, including an attempt to understand the person who caused it. “This is where forgivers and nonforgivers divide,” Safer said. “Sometimes you’re not able to reconnect with the person, but if you go through this process, at least you won’t be a victim.”

Forgiveness research proliferated after the publication in 1984 of Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve, by Lewis B. Smedes, who claimed that forgiveness produced benefits for the forgiver.

Safer, however, is wary of those who picked up on this idea and started to promote what she calls “promiscuous forgiveness.”

“What’s important is working it through and achieving resolution, whether it leads to forgiveness or not. Forgiveness involves wishing the other well. You’re already there if you don’t wish them ill,” Safer says.

“It’s sad, so sad
It’s a sad sad situation
And it’s getting more and more absurd
It’s sad, so sad
Why can’t we talk it over
Oh, it seems to me
Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

What do I do to make you love me
What I’ve gotta do to be heard
What do I do when lightening strikes me
What’ve I gotta do
What’ve I gotta do?
When sorry seems to be the hardest word.”
– Elton John and Bernie Taupin

Lyrics/songs texts/paintings/articles

are property and copyright of their owners
and provided for educational purposes.

Copyright Disclaimer – Section 107 – Copyright Act 1976,
allowance is made for “fair use”
for purposes such as criticism, comment,
news reporting, teaching, scholarship,and research.
Fair use is permitted by copyright statute.

Non-profit, educational or personal use
tips the balance in favor of “fair use”.

© Copyright 1995-2021
The Anderson Private School.

“He who opens a school door,
closes a prison. “
– Victor Hugo

I wish you all
 Peace.

 

 

Dancing in the Shadows of the Illusions of Life and Living / Prenatal Fluoride Exposure Associated with Lower IQ / Friday: Museum of Science and History

We
are in
but a fleeting moment,
dancing
in the shadows
of the illusions
of Life,
and Living.

Each precious moment,
like us,
quickly
disappears in
Time.

 “Whereas ye know not
what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your Life?
It is
even a vapor,
that appeareth for a little time,
and then vanisheth away.”
– James 4:14

Thousands
of yesterdays
make up Mankind’s
Joy and sorrow,
Today,
but not necessarily
Tomorrow.

The Light
of the Sun
flows through the
Skies above,
like Love
flows through our
Hearts.

         Like Love flows through our Hearts.

It Lights
the Dawn
like the Beautiful Song
of the early morning
Birds.

The Beautiful World
all around
is so profound,
as we come to see
there is nothing
but Beauty,
when the Love
of God
is near.

“Every Word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them
that put their trust in Him.”
– Proverbs 30:5

Freedom,
My Dear Friend,
is knowing that
YOU
are the center
of God’s Universe,
and that He
dwells within
His Loving Child –
YOU.

The embodiment of
Truth
is you,
Child of God.
Truth is in
everyone,
and it is
Eternally there.

Your strength,
your comfort,
your Happiness,
can only be found
deep within
yourself –
deep within,
where resides
the Love of
God.

Look
for Eternal Happiness
in the unconditional realization
of yourself,
enfolded within
the Loving Arms
of our Heavenly Father.

                          In the Heart of every Child.

Nestled in the Heart
of every Child
is the center
of the Universe –
a place of Worship
and tranquility,
in the Cathedral
of the Human Heart.

If
you look for God,
you will find Him there.
Pray,
as you peer inside
your Sacred Heart,
and you will never
want to leave.

To know
that God Loves
YOU,
is all you need
to know.

The most important
and Sacred Treasure
is Wisdom
that comes from
within.

It
is central
to our Spiritual lives.

If the illusions of Life
become too much,
close your tired eyes
and Pray.
Engage you Faith
openly and enthusiastically.

God
will embrace you
until the fear inside
subsides.

The Cathedral
of your precious and very fragile
Heart
is a Spiritual Gem,
a place of Beauty par excellence,
a Sacred Space to Worship
and reflect upon
Spiritual values,
the values
that are REAL.

At the very Heart of Worship,
is Worship with the Heart.
Only LOVE
gives you the strength to carry on,
truly Living in the moment,
and forgiving
the past.

My Dear Friends,
the World is far below
where we belong.
All we have
is the
moment,
to let Love
lift us up
where clear winds blow
through the cobwebs
of the mind.
We have Wings
and
we can fly,
so high
we can see
Eternity.
.
Yes,
there are mountains
to overcome.
We can climb
every step
of the way,
or fly
and let Love Lift us
up
where we belong.

There is a part of Life
that gives us
the Hope we need.
Hope to Light the Dawn
and cherish the day.
Hope and inspiration
can work wonders
in our brief Lives.

Life,
is worth Living
when it has been
Happy,
when someone holds you
by the hand
and helps you
see the World
for the illusion
it really
is.

There is only
ONE
revolutionary war
that can truly be
won.
All others
waste
Humanity,
as it wars
against itself.

To win
is
to engage in the perpetual struggle
of the mind,
with all the LOVE
deeply embedded
in your Human Heart.

Please
do not let
your precious Heart cry.
God
will always Love you.

Just,
keep Love
alive.

The whispers
of the leaves
rustling through the
Trees,
is all we need to know
about the presence
of God’s Love.
And,
as the withered leaves
collect at your feet,
and the wind
begins to
moan,
remember,
with the Sun
they fell
in Love.

“The Heavens declare
the Glory of God;
and the firmament
sheweth His Handywork.”
– Psalms 19-1

How
can a lonely Soul
appreciate Life.

The Human Heart
can be a Lonely Hunter,
crying through the night
with tears that reverberate
through time.

But Hope remains.
For you
are NOT
alone.

Goodnight.

Health News

Researchers Find Evidence Fluoride May Affect IQ

by George Citroner
on August 19, 2019
click here for more

A new study draws attention to potential issues with fluoride consumption.

A new study looks at fluoride exposure in utero and the potential link to IQ.

The 70-year-old public health effortTrusted Source that saw water fluoridation become common in the United States is applauded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source as one of the great achievements for public health in the 20th century.

Currently, almost 75 percentTrusted Source of the population use fluoridated water from their local water systems.

“Fluoride is a mineral that readily binds to bones and teeth. It’s typically used in dentistry to promote remineralization of dentinTrusted Source in the outer enamel of teeth,” explained Pamela Den Besten, DDS, MS, professor of orofacial sciences at University of California, San Francisco.

We now take for granted that the addition of fluoride to public drinking water not only prevents tooth decay, but is also basically harmless.

But now early research has brought up the possibility that fluoride could affect IQ levels in children exposed to the chemical in utero.

Prenatal fluoride exposure associated with lower IQ

Researchers studied 512 children in Canada to find that those who were exposed to higher levels of fluoride before birth had significantly lower IQ scores between ages 3 and 4.

The study was published today in JAMA Pediatrics.Trusted Source

For the study, about 2,000 pregnant women from 10 cities across Canada were recruited from the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) program.

The findings suggest that fluoride ingestion during pregnancy, within the normal range of water fluoridation standards, may affect children in utero.

The study concluded that fluoride ingestion during pregnancy should be reduced while additional research is conducted.

“To our knowledge, this study is the first to estimate fluoride exposure in a large birth cohort receiving optimally fluoridated water,” the study authors wrote.

Fluoride safety has long been debated

Information on consumption of tap water and other water-based beverages, like tea and coffee, was obtained from a self-report questionnaire completed by mothers during the first and third trimesters.

“Since the 1950s when water fluoridation began, its safety has been debated. We realized that there were major questions about the safety of fluoride, especially for pregnant women and young children. Decisions about safety need to be based on evidence,” study author Rivka Green, MA, a doctoral student in clinical developmental neuropsychology at York University, told Healthline.

The study found the association of prenatal fluoride exposure with children’s lower IQ scores held up even after accounting for factors like the mother’s education, socioeconomic status, location, and exposure to other toxic metals.

“Short of dosing women, we did everything we could to adjust for the factors that are typically controlled for in these types of studies. We studied an extensive list of other characteristics, like socioeconomic status and city, as well as other exposures, like lead, arsenic, and secondhand smoke, and our results remained,” Green said.

Previous research led by York University researchers had already found that fluoride levels were twice as high for pregnant Canadian women living in cities where public drinking water is fluoridated compared to those in cities where the drinking water isn’t.

“We found that fluoride in drinking water was the major source of exposure for pregnant women living in Canada. Women living in fluoridated communities have two times the amount of fluoride in their urine as women living in non-fluoridated communities,” Christine Till, PhD, an associate professor of psychology in York’s faculty of health and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Findings agree with previous research

This study adds to what we know from recent research that also found an association between prenatal exposure to fluoride and reduced intelligence.

“Some previous studies showed that higher levels of fluoride were associated with lower IQ scores in children, including another prospective cohort study published in 2017 by the ELEMENT group, which found similar results to ours,” Green said.

“However, our study was the first to look at prenatal exposure in a sample receiving optimally fluoridated water,” she emphasized.

Other potential fluoride issues

According to Besten, who wasn’t involved with the new study, aside from the findings of these studies, consuming more than optimal amounts of fluoride can stain and weaken teeth.

But consuming that much fluoride is unlikely to occur just from drinking tap water.

“The most obvious effect of fluoride is the formation of fluorosed enamel. Fluorosis occurs when excess fluoride is present when the tooth is forming, and this excess fluoride results in hypomineralization [softening and discoloration of tooth enamel], which gives a whiter appearance to fluorosed, as compared to normal, enamel,” Besten said.

She cautions that early research in animal studies have found a potential neurotoxic issue for high levels of fluoride.

They “show that neurotoxicity of fluoride is related to the dose, timing of exposure, and sex of the individual,” Besten said. “More recent epidemiological researchTrusted Source show associations between fluoride and neurotoxicity in humans,” she added.

Decades of use to stop tooth decay

In an emailed statement to Healthline, Dr. Aparna Bole, FAAP, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Environmental Health, points out that community water fluoridation has helped decrease tooth decay for decades, and that this is one study that pointed toward correlation, not causation.

“In most communities, tap water is a healthy and environmentally preferable choice,” Bole told Healthline. “This study is thought provoking, but the fact that results were different for boys and girls make them somewhat difficult to interpret, and fluoride intake in children was not examined.”

Bole points out that the AAP supports community water fluoridation.

“We support the public health sector’s continual evaluation of optimal community water fluoridation, and continue to recommend that children drink optimally fluoridated water,” Bole said.

“In addition, children should use age-appropriate amounts of fluoride toothpaste with adult supervision, and have fluoride varnish applied to their teeth according to the US Preventive Task Force guidelines.”

The bottom line

Recent research finds that prenatal exposure to “optimal” levels of fluoride in drinking water is strongly associated with reduced IQ when those children are between 3 and 4 years old.

This study adds to previous research that also found intelligence negatively affected in this population.

The American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health maintains that children should still drink optimally fluoridated water, use age-appropriate amounts of fluoride toothpaste, and have fluoride varnish applied to their teeth.

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Written by George Citroner on August 19, 2019

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War After War / 20 Ways To Never Get Cancer / Sept. 3 (Tuesday) is the First Day of Fall Semester

The Flowering of Truth
reveals the youth
of our existence.

Like a Child,
piece by piece
we combine bits of experience
into something elusive
and illusionairy.
As if we
define the World
around us.
And,
we do.

We plebeians of procrastination
often defer
from Peaceful pursuit.

               The Flowering of Truth.

In debt
from our desire
for prosperity,
we savoir the substance
of our circumstance,
while our good intentions,
rare for the moment,
perturbate in their orbits
around
the Human Heart.

In Time,
tainted with theatrics
in Love
with our self-esteem,
we live in isolated absence
of forethought.

In these tempest-tossed times,
there is the temptation
to tread lightly
upon the past,
which becomes prologue
and profound.
Our past is filled
with stones
to mark the Graves
of many,
known and unknown.

The Treasure
of our memory
is vast
and beyond Being.

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”                 – William Faulkner

The fierce breath
of History
emanates from our ignorance
buried deep within
the Human Heart.

Between the violent breaths,
prospects for Peace
grow into illusion,
and the cycle begats
war after war.

The sounds of silence,
from our precious breathless deceased,
spiral upward
with startling clarity,
in sufferance of
mortal and moral anguish.

And still,
we
do not listen.

The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains 24 permanent American burial grounds on foreign soil.

Let us remember the past,
and Honor those
who gave their precious Lives
for us.
Let us learn from the past,
so that we do not remain,
as George Santayana reminds us,
savages or infants.
Let us learn
and Lovingly create
a Peaceful future,
filled with Forgiveness
and Love for all
who transgressed
against us.
Let us do this
for our precious Children.

“Those who do not remember their past
are condemned
to repeat their mistakes.
Those who do not read History
are doomed to repeat it.
Those who fail to learn
from the mistakes of their predecessors
are destined to repeat them.
Those who do not know History’s mistakes
are doomed to repeat them.”
– George Santayana

My Dear Friends,
let us empower those
who can help
move our precious Lives
forward forever.
Let us help those
who can resurrect
the Future.

To do so,
let us help
ourselves.
Let us empower
we.

“Let there be Peace on Earth
and let it begin with me.
Let there be Peace on Earth,
the Peace that was meant to be.

With God as our Father
brothers all are we.

Let me walk with my brother
in perfect harmony.

Let Peace begin with me,
let this be the moment now.
.

With every step I take
let this be my solemn vow,

to take each moment,
and live each moment
in Peace Eternally.
.

Let there be Peace on Earth
and let it begin with
me.

– Jill Jackson-Miller and Sy Miller

Pierced by arrows
of discontent,
we cannot even now
define
our Blessings,
so abundantly bestowed.

  His Will is made abundantly clear.

To know
the Will of God
reveals the destiny
of Mankind.
And His Will
is made
abundantly clear
in His Word.

You
may not Believe
in God.
But,
He Believes
in YOU.

You Faith
is
your Love of
God.
And Love is,
at the end of Life,
truly ALL
that remains,
and all that
ever was.

Goodnight.

                 All that ever was.

20 Ways To Never Get Cancer

Little habits that can save your life.

By Richard Laliberte

First, the good news: You probably won’t get cancer.

That is, if you have a healthy lifestyle. “As many as 70% of known causes of cancers are avoidable and related to lifestyle,” says Thomas A. Sellers, PhD, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Diet, exercise, and avoidance of tobacco products are, of course, your first line of defense, but recent research has uncovered many small, surprising ways you can weave even more disease prevention into your everyday life.

Try these novel strategies and your risk of cancer could dwindle even more.

1. Filter your tap water
You’ll reduce your exposure to known or suspected carcinogens and hormone-disrupting chemicals. A report from the President’s Cancer Panel on how to reduce exposure to carcinogens suggests that home-filtered tap water is a safer bet than bottled water, whose quality often is not higher – and in some cases is worse – than that of municipal sources, according to a study by the Environmental Working Group. (Consumer Reports’ top picks for faucet-mounted filters: Culligan, Pur Vertical, and the Brita OPFF-100.) Store water in stainless steel or glass to avoid chemical contaminants such as BPA that can leach from plastic bottles.

2. Stop topping your tank
So say the EPA and the President’s Cancer Panel: Pumping one last squirt of gas into your car after the nozzle clicks off can spill fuel and foil the pump’s vapor recovery system, designed to keep toxic chemicals such as cancer-causing benzene out of the air, where they can come in contact with your skin or get into your lungs.

MORE: 7 “Healthy” Habits That Aren’t

3. Marinate meat first
Processed, charred, and well-done meats can contain cancer-causing heterocyclic amines, which form when meat is seared at high temperatures, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which get into food when it’s charcoal broiled. “The recommendation to cut down on grilled meat has really solid scientific evidence behind it,” says Cheryl Lyn Walker, PhD, a professor of carcinogenesis at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. If you do grill, add rosemary and thyme to your favorite marinade and soak meat for at least an hour before cooking. The antioxidant-rich spices can cut HCAs by as much as 87%, according to research at Kansas State University.

4. Caffeinate every day
Java lovers who drank 5 or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 40% decreased risk of brain cancer, compared with people who drank the least, in a 2010 British study. A 5-cup-a-day coffee habit reduces risks of oral and throat cancer almost as much. Researchers credit the caffeine: Decaf had no comparable effect. But coffee was a more potent protector against these cancers than tea, which the British researchers said also offered protection against brain cancer.

MORE: 13 Foods That Fight Stress

5. Water down your risk
Drinking plenty of water and other liquids may reduce the risk of bladder cancer by diluting the concentration of cancer-causing agents in urine and helping to flush them through the bladder faster. Drink at least 8 cups of liquid a day, suggests the American Cancer Society.

6. Load up on green greens
Next time you’re choosing salad fixings, reach for the darkest varieties. The chlorophyll that gives them their color is loaded with magnesium, which some large studies have found lowers the risk of colon cancer in women. “Magnesium affects signaling in cells, and without the right amount, cells may do things like divide and replicate when they shouldn’t,” says Walker. Just 1/2 cup of cooked spinach provides 75 mg of magnesium, 20% of the daily value.

7. Snack on Brazil nuts
They’re a stellar source of selenium, an antioxidant that lowers the risk of bladder cancer in women, according to research from Dartmouth Medical School. Other studies have found that people with high blood levels of selenium have lower rates of dying of lung cancer and colorectal cancer. Researchers think selenium not only protects cells from free radical damage but also may enhance immune function and suppress formation of blood vessels that nourish tumors.

8. Burn off your risk
Moderate exercise such as brisk walking 2 hours a week cuts risk of breast cancer 18%. Regular workouts may lower your risks by helping you burn fat, which otherwise produces its own estrogen, a known contributor to breast cancer. (Try these 14 Walking Workouts That Blast Fat.)

9. Skip the dry cleaner
A solvent known as perc (short for perchloroethylene) that’s used in traditional dry cleaning may cause liver and kidney cancers and leukemia, according to an EPA finding backed in early 2010 by the National Academies of Science. The main dangers are to workers who handle chemicals or treated clothes using older machines, although experts have not concluded that consumers are also at increased cancer risk. Less toxic alternatives: Hand-wash clothes with mild soap and air-dry them, spot cleaning if necessary with white vinegar.

10. Ask about breast density
Women whose mammograms have revealed breast density readings of 75% or more have a breast cancer risk 4 to 5 times higher than that of women with low density scores, according to recent research. One theory is that denser breasts result from higher levels of estrogen – making exercise particularly important (see #8). “Shrinking your body fat also changes growth factors, signaling proteins such as adipokines and hormones like insulin in ways that tend to turn off cancer-promoting processes in cells,” Walker says.

11. Head off cell phone risks
Use your cell phone only for short calls or texts, or use a hands-free device that keeps the phone – and the radio frequency energy it emits—away from your head. The point is more to preempt any risk than to protect against a proven danger: Evidence that cell phones increase brain cancer risk is “neither consistent nor conclusive,” says the President’s Cancer Panel report. But a number of review studies suggest there’s a link.

12. Block cancer with color
Choosing your outdoor outfit wisely may help protect against skin cancer, say Spanish scientists. In their research, blue and red fabrics offered significantly better protection against the sun’s UV rays than white and yellow ones did. Don’t forget to put on a hat: Though melanoma can appear anywhere on the body, it’s more common in areas the sun hits, and researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that people with melanomas on the scalp or neck die at almost twice the rate of people with the cancer on other areas of the body.

13. Pick a doc with a past
Experience – lots of it – is critical when it comes to accurately reading mammograms. A study from the University of California, San Francisco, found that doctors with at least 25 years’ experience were more accurate at interpreting images and less likely to give false positives. Ask about your radiologist’s track record. If she is freshly minted or doesn’t check a high volume of mammograms, get a second read from someone with more mileage.

14. Eat clean foods
The President’s Cancer Panel recommends buying meat free of antibiotics and added hormones, which are suspected of causing endocrine problems, including cancer. The report also advises that you purchase produce grown without pesticides and wash conventionally grown food thoroughly to remove residues. (The foods with the most pesticides: celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, and blueberries. See the full list of dirtiest fruits and vegetables here.) “At least 40 known carcinogens are found in pesticides and we should absolutely try to reduce exposure,” Sellers says.

MORE: 25 Ridiculously Healthy Foods

15. Do a folic acid check
The B vitamin, essential for women who may become or are pregnant to prevent birth defects, is a double-edged sword when it comes to cancer risk. Consuming too much of the synthetic form (not folate, found in leafy green veggies, orange juice, and other foods) has been linked to increased colon cancer risk, as well as higher lung cancer and prostate cancer risks. Rethink your multivitamin, especially if you eat a lot of cereal and fortified foods. A CDC study discovered that half of supplement users who took supplements with more than 400 mcg of folic acid exceeded 1,000 mcg per day of folic acid. Most supplements pack 400 mcg. Individual supplements (of vitamin D and calcium, for instance) may be a smarter choice for most women who aren’t thinking of having kids.

16. Up your calcium intake
Milk’s main claim to fame may also help protect you from colon cancer. Those who took calcium faithfully for 4 years had a 36% reduction in the development of new precancerous colon polyps 5 years after the study had ended, revealed Dartmouth Medical School researchers. (They tracked 822 people who took either 1,200 mg of calcium every day or a placebo.) Though the study was not on milk itself, you can get the same amount of calcium in three 8-ounce glasses of fat-free milk, along with an 8-ounce serving of yogurt or a 2- to 3-ounce serving of low-fat cheese daily.

MORE: How To Prevent Osteoporosis

17. Commit to whole grains
You know whole wheat is better for you than white bread. Here’s more proof why you should switch once and for all: If you eat a lot of things with a high glycemic load—a measurement of how quickly food raises your blood sugar—you may run a higher risk of colorectal cancer than women who eat low-glycemic-load foods, found a Harvard Medical School study involving 38,000 women. The problem eats are mostly white: white bread, pasta, potatoes, and sugary pastries. The low-glycemic-load stuff comes with fiber.

18. Pay attention to pain
If you’re experiencing a bloated belly, pelvic pain, and an urgent need to urinate, see your doctor. These symptoms may signal ovarian cancer, particularly if they’re severe and frequent. Women and physicians often ignore these symptoms, and that’s the very reason that this disease can be deadly. When caught early, before cancer has spread outside the ovary, the relative 5-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is a jaw-dropping 90 to 95%.

19. Avoid unnecessary scans
CT scans are a great diagnostic tool, but they deliver much more radiation than x-rays and may be overused, says Barton Kamen, MD, PhD, chief medical officer for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In fact, researchers suggest that one-third of CT scans could be unnecessary. High doses of radiation can trigger leukemia, so make sure scans are not repeated if you see multiple doctors, and ask if another test, such as an ultrasound or MRI, could substitute.

20. Drop 10 pounds
Being overweight or obese accounts for 20% of all cancer deaths among women and 14% among men, notes the American Cancer Society. (You’re overweight if your body mass index is between 25 and 29.9; you’re obese if it’s 30 or more.) Plus, losing excess pounds reduces the body’s production of female hormones, which may protect against breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and ovarian cancer. Even if you’re not technically overweight, gaining just 10 pounds after the age of 30 increases your risk of developing breast, pancreatic, and cervical, among other cancers.

MORE: 12 Big Myths About Breast Cancer

Richard Laliberte Richard Laliberte is an award-winning veteran health journalist and former senior writer at Men’s Health who writes for some of the nation’s best-known magazines, blogs for WeightWatchers.com, and has authored several books.

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The Stranger Within Is No More / Reasons to Eat Organic / Friday: At School (Shakespeare Production)

You may think
this Life is yours
alone,
and the night
will never end.

Every precious Life
is a deeply personal story,
an Odyssey of discovery,
and ultimately,
an encounter with the Author,
who reads every
line.

What plays out
in the Story of our Life,
is at the Heart
of our brief journey.

What is written
can become a Wonderful Book,
a Book that advances us
in consciousness,
and takes us from where we were,
to a place of understanding,
a beautiful encounter
with the Purpose
of Life.

             Love is a reflection.

In every precious Life
there is heartache
and pain.
But through the Clouds
and the rain,
we CAN see
Love shine
again.

My Dear Friends,
Love can NEVER hide
if you keep looking
for it.
For God’s Love
abides.
And
you may not be aware,
but His Love
is looking for
YOU.

It is here
and there,
and everywhere.
For God is
Love,
and His Love
is all around,
and to be found
in
YOU.

             A Beautiful Encounter.

“Love isn’t Love
‘Til you give it away.”
– Oscar Hammerstein

The Love you
share,
you give
to you.
Love
always becomes
a reflection.
And you are
a reflection
of God’s Love.
Your Love
is reflected
in the eyes
of everyone you
come to
Love.

“And, in the end
The Love you take
is equal to the Love
you make.”
– Paul McCartney

 You are
so amazingly beautiful!
So Divine.

YOU
are a Heavenly Masterpiece
of Creation.
Angelic,
Glorious
and Divine.

The Heart of the Universe
is Love Divine.
The Mind of the Universe
is God Divine.
And you,
YOU are
Heart, Soul and Spirit
a Treasure
to cherish
and be Loved by God
above all things on
Earth.

           Lift back the curtain.

Surrender
your fragile Heart.
And to whom
do we surrender?

To God.
And
to everyone.

“Surrender your Heart to God,
turn to Him in Prayer,
and give up your sins – even those you do in secret.
Then you won’t be ashamed;
you will be confident and fearless.
Your troubles will go away
like water beneath a bridge,
and your darkest night
will be brighter than noon.”
– Job 13-17

My Dear Friends,
Love
will find you.
It has been searching for you.
Look around.
You will see it
in the eyes of everyone,
and every Living thing
you meet.
This 
is the Love you felt
on the day
of your Child’s birth,
and
on the day
your were born.
.
The Love of
God
is the only thing
that is real,
that truly
exists.

Lift back the curtain
on a secret World
most of us
have no idea exists.
Do so with patience.
A new perspective
will encourage you to engage
the enigma of Life with Love
in a profoundly personal way.

Be unwavering
in the unconventional task
of coming to know
thyself.

The pangs of insecurity,
the disappointments of Life,
that never truly existed,
will dissolve in your mind
and melt in your Heart,
with your Trust
in the Lord our God.

We are part
of an Infinite Whole,
a Chapter
in a Never Ending Story,
that advances us in Consciousness
and takes us from where we were
before we were Created
by God,
to a new place
in understanding
Love.

As Children of God,
we cannot be explained
in simple terms.  
We are Infinitely multifaceted, 
fascinating, uplifting,
and Loving.

At the Heart
of your Story
is Love.
And your Author
is our Creator
– God,
who is Love.

Share a moment one day
amidst the wonder
of the Beautiful grasses
and
Flowers of the field,
immersed in the Beauty
of your Nature and the trees,
and the birds and other
Beautiful Creations.
.
Talk with God about
everything
and nothing,
and you.

There comes a point
in every sincere conversation
when you feel a strong and delightful
connection
to something Life affirming,
when you realize
  you are on the wavelength
of True Reality.
At that moment
of realization about Life,
pause,
and let God
into your precious Heart.
Invite Him in.
Say a Prayer
of Thanksgiving
for Life,
for Love,
for THIS moment.

He is listening
to your every Prayer,
and He is Loving
every moment
you spend with
Him.

There is a Beauty
  in these moments
that defies any explanation.
Later,
  you will come to recognize
the synchronous intensity
of the moment,
a moment you granted
to God.

And the Stranger Within
Is No More.

Goodnight.

   Essential Reasons to Eat Organic Food

• By: Michelle Schoffro Cook
• About Michelle
• Follow Michelle at @mschoffrocook

Organic food was the only option for thousands of years.  Now, with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and genetically-modified foods, organic is still the best option.  Here are 17 reasons to eat organic food:

1. Genetically-modified foods were unleashed on the environment and the public by corporations like Monsanto without prior testing to determine their safety.  In other words, eating genetically-modified foods (which most people in in large amounts) is participating in a long-term, uncontrolled experiment. Choose organic to avoid participating in this experiment.
   .
2. More and more research is coming in about the health threat of genetically-modified food.  The results range from intestinal damage, allergies, liver or pancreatic problems, testicular cellular changes, tumors, and even death in the experimental animals. For more information, read the excellent books by Jeffrey M. Smith Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette. I’ll discuss more of the problems linked with GMOs in upcoming blogs. Eating third-party certified organic foods or those that are guaranteed to be grown from organic seed helps protect you from the health consequences of GMOs.

4 Potential Health Risks of Eating GMO Foods

7.  Fruits and vegetables are real food, not pesticide factories. Eighteen percent of all genetically-modified seeds (and therefore foods that grow from them) are engineered to produce their own pesticides.  Research shows that these seeds continue producing pesticides inside your body once you’ve eaten the food grown from them! Foods that are actually pesticide factories…no thanks.
   .
8. They’re free of neurotoxins – toxins that are damaging to brain and nerve cells. A commonly-used class of pesticides called organophosphates was originally developed as a toxic nerve agent during World War I. When there was no longer a need for them in warfare, industry adapted them to kill pests on foods. Many pesticides are still considered neurotoxins.  Learn more about pesticides in The 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan.
   .
9. They’re supportive of growing children’s brains and bodies.  Children’s growing brains and bodies are far more susceptible to toxins than adults.  Choosing organic helps feed their bodies without the exposure to pesticides and genetically-modified organisms, both of which have a relatively short history of use (and therefore safety).
   .
10. In study after study, research from independent organizations
    consistently shows organic food is higher in nutrients than traditional foods.  Research shows that organic produce is higher in vitamin C, antioxidants, and the minerals calcium, iron, chromium, and magnesium. (For more information, check out The Life Force Diet).
    .
11. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that pesticides pollute the primary drinking source for half the American population. Organic farming is the best solution to the problem. Buying organic helps reduce pollution in our drinking water.
    .
12. Organic food is earth-supportive (when big business keeps their hands out of it). Organic food production has been around for thousands of years and is the sustainable choice for the future.  Compare that to modern agricultural practices that are destructive of the environment through widespread use of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers and have resulted in drastic environmental damage in many parts of the world.
    .
13. Organic food choices grown on small-scale organic farms help ensure independent family farmers can create a livelihood. Consider it the domestic version of fair trade.
    .
14. Most organic food simply tastes better than the pesticide-grown counterparts.
    .
15. Organic food is not exposed to gas-ripening like some non-organic fruits and vegetables (like bananas).
    .
16. Organic farms are safer for farm workers. Research at the Harvard School of Public Health found a 70% increase in Parkinson’s disease among people exposed to pesticides. Choosing organic foods means that more people will be able to work on farms without incurring the higher potential health risk of Parkinson’s or other illnesses.
    .
17. Organic food supports Wildlife Habitats. Even with commonly used amounts of pesticides, wildlife is being harmed by exposure to pesticides.
    .
18. Eating organic may reduce your cancer risk.  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 60% of herbicides, 90% of fungicides, and 30% of insecticides potentially cancer-causing.  It is reasonable to think that the rapidly increasing rates of cancer are at least partly linked to the use of these carcinogenic pesticides.
    .
19. Choosing organic meat lessens your exposure to antibiotics, synthetic hormones, and drugs that find their way into the animals and ultimately into you.
    .
20. Organic food is tried and tested. By some estimates genetically-modified food makes up 80% of the average person’s food consumption. Genetic modification of food is still experimental. Avoid being part of this wide scale and uncontrolled experiment.
    .
21. Organic food supports greater biodiversity.  Diversity is fundamental to life on this planet. Genetically-modified and non-organic food is focused on high yield monoculture and is destroying biodiversity.

Adapted from  The Life Force Diet by Michelle Schoffro Cook, PhD.
Subscribe to my free e-magazine World’s Healthiest News to receive monthly health news, tips, recipes and more. Follow my blog on my site HealthySurvivalist.com, Twitter @mschoffrocook.

In Philosophy Class
this week:

2018-19 Anderson School Calendar

Second Semester

January 8 – May 24   2019

April 30, (Tuesday)                            Scarborough Renaissance Festival
CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER

May 1                                               Tuition balance due for 2019-2020

May 20                                               Prep. Day for Adventure Trip        …………………………………………………….(no school)

May 21 – 24                                        Adventure Trip (Austin, Texas)

May 24                                                Last Day of Semester

Dr. & Mrs. Anderson may schedule 2-5 additional days
(to be announced later) for In-service Training.
Visit our website at http://www.andersonschool.net
for updated information.

    The School Calendar is subject to change.

There are no make-up days
if school is closed due to
 inclement weather.

Inclement Weather Policy:
the school will close if Fort Worth I. S. D. is closed.

(Calendar 2018-2019 / approved 7-29-18)

Lyrics/songs texts/paintings/articles
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and provided for educational purposes.

Copyright Disclaimer – Section 107 – Copyright Act 1976,
allowance is made for “fair use”
for purposes such as criticism, comment,
news reporting, teaching, scholarship,and research.
Fair use is permitted by copyright statute.

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tips the balance in favor of “fair use”.

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