Tag: People

  • Alternative Medicine Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis

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    Plantar fasciitis (PF) affects approximately two-million people in the US, of both athletic and non-athletic populations. This condition can be debilitating and significantly affect one’s quality of life in a very negative way. There are few high quality studies on this condition and the most successful treatments. Treatments range from chiropractic care, physical therapy, injections and surgeries. Fortunately this condition can typically be resolved with conservative treatment and lifestyle modifications that can prevent going under the knife. Simply put, plantar fasciitis is a strain with subsequent inflammation of the thick tissue (plantar fascia) and muscles on the bottom of the foot causing heel pain. Plantar fasciitis (PF) is characterized by biting heel/mid arch pain when first bearing weight in the morning, or after long periods of rest. The pain typically subsides within 5 minutes of walking or running, then worsens with long term activity or weight bearing. It is also associated with tired, achy feet at the end of the day and foot cramps. PF is seen in both active and inactive people, and is rarely the result of an acute injury. PF can be the result of several different factors: repetitive overuse injuries, poor fitting footwear, overtraining, structural abnormalities of the foot and improper gait mechanics. PF often becomes a chronic and/or recurring problem if not given the appropriate treatment and follow up care.

    Some contributing factors to the development of plantar fasciitis:

    Structural abnormalities: Plantar fasciitis is very commonly seen with pes planus (pictured left), or flat footed individuals. As you can see, this individual’s medial arch is almost flush with the ground. This can create strain on the plantar fascia. Severe injuries resulting in the need for surgical fusion of the foot can also create strain on the plantar fascia. In these cases of severe structural abnormalities, orthotics are typically indicated. Rehabilitation including foot strengthening exercises, chiropractic manipulation and soft tissue techniques can relieve pain and help to alleviate strain on the tissues and resolve flair ups. We use custom orthotics from Foot Levelers in our office. Using a 3-D scanner, we can have custom orthotics made to support the full structure of your foot.

    Poorly fitting footwear: Wearing improper footwear over time can lead to PF. If a shoe doesn’t fit your foot properly, your gait is altered during any weight bearing activity. This has an effect on the entire kinetic chain and can ultimately cause strain on the plantar fascia. The strength and flexibility of your foot will determine your best type of footwear.

    Overtraining: Can be a huge contributor to PF. What many athletes, weekend warriors and the like tend to overlook is the importance of recovery in their training regimens. If your tissues don’t have optimal nutrition, rest and repair time they start DEgenerate rather than REgenerate. Especially when it comes to long distance running, or quick sprints, the feet have a lot of demand.

    Nerve Impingement: Plantar fasciitis can be a symptom of sciatic nerve impingement. The sciatic nerve is the thickest nerve in your body. It originates from your lumbosacral plexus of nerves typically L4-S1/S2 with some individual anatomical variation. Although this nerve is commonly blamed for all radiating leg pain, it is only responsible for pain along its trajectory down the posterior aspect of the leg and foot. In some impingement cases, the pain can skip the back of the leg altogether and go straight to the foot. Impingement along any portion of the nerve can result in pain, but it doesn’t have to be in the leg. If there is enough impingement along this nerve, any added pressure, say forced dorsiflexion of the foot when standing or walking, can be just the right tension to create exquisite foot pain. Our bodies are always trying to protect our nervous system; reflexively the muscles surrounding the nerve will tighten in an attempt to avoid any further stretch or tension of the nerve. Ultimately, this leads to inflammation of the plantar fascia and the surrounding muscles.

    Other Factors:

    Systemic Inflammation: Though general systemic inflammation is typically not the cause of plantar fasciitis, it will increase your symptoms. For this reason we strongly encourage our patients to eat an anti-inflammatory diet specific to their needs. We also understand no one is perfect or eats perfect all the time, which is why we encourage an 80/20 approach; eat clean 80% of the time and use the other 20% to indulge. Curcuminoids, like those found in turmeric are great to help blot down inflammation in acute cases of plantar fasciitis.

    Alternatives to conservative care:

    Cortisone or steroid injections are very commonly given for Plantar fasciitis. In some really tough cases this can absolutely be necessary to “put out the fire” that is the inflammatory cascade, to get you out of pain initially. We never recommend looking at this option as a cure. Cortisone is a very powerful anti-inflammatory that alleviates pain without correcting the underlying issue, potentiating further injury and recurrent episodes. Another option is surgical intervention. In some cases, surgery is the best option for a particular case. We prefer to exhaust conservative treatment options before travelling down this avenue. A study on an overweight and obese population (43 total) suffering with plantar fasciitis for an average of 34.8 months, were given decompressive surgery to the nerve to the abductor digiti minimi with partial plantar fascia release and tracked over a 4-year period. It was found that 75.6% of patients were in deed pain-free or had only mild pain post-surgery (pain decreased from an 8.5/10 to a 2.5/10). However patient satisfaction post-surgery was only 48%.

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    Source by Ann Barter

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  • My Husband Says That I Am Too High Maintenance

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    Any complaint that causes your husband to disconnect from your marriage, to distance himself from you, or to consider a separation hurts. There is no scenario where this isn’t painful. But I suspect that it can feel a little more painful when the reason for his distance seems personal.

    What I mean by that is that sometimes, a man will be unhappy because of reasons that have to do with him. He may be having a midlife crisis. He may believe that marriage doesn’t suit his ideology. He may be having a personal crisis. I am not saying that these scenarios are not horribly painful. They are. But at least the wife has no reason to blame herself.

    And then there are the scenarios where things do feel personal. These are the instances where your husband is blaming the issues in the marriage on the wife. It could be something that she has done or something about her, about her actions, or about her personality that is the supposed problem.

    Here’s an example. A husband might tell his wife that being with her is “exhausting.” She might explain: “for the past three months or so, I have been noticing my husband acting distant and weird. I confronted him about it right away, but he denied that there was a problem. Then we were at a family gathering this weekend and it was held outside in 90 degree heat. Like everyone else, I said it was hot and wanted to leave after dinner because I felt sick. My husband got angry at me and said he was tired of dealing with my ‘high maintenance personality.’ As we were leaving, he said that being married to me is ‘exhausting’ and that he may want a separation because he can not stand living his life this way anymore. He says that nothing makes me happy and that I can’t just sit back and roll with the punches of life like a normal person. He says that I am spoiled. He says that he feels like he always has to pick up the slack. I admit that I am not as thick skinned as some when it comes to sitting in the heat all day, but that doesn’t make me a bad person. And he knew that when he married me. I told him that I could try to change and he said that people like me never change and that we are just not compatible. He says that I make him ‘feel tired’ and he doesn’t want to feel that way anymore. Where does that leave me? I don’t want to lose my husband. This really hurts my feelings and feels like a personal attack. But I could forgive it and move on if he would give me the chance. The problem is that he does not seem at all receptive to me right now.”

    I understand why you are hurt. These types of issues can feel, and sound, like a criticism. When someone tells you that you are ‘exhausting,’ that phrase makes it seem as if they no longer want to do the work to keep up with you. Of course it hurts.

    Understand The Context In Which The Comments Were Made: I think that your husband’s ‘fatigue’ might be due to the fact that the maintenance issue may have bothered him for a while, but he sat silent and said nothing – even when you asked him what was bothering him. So things built up until they exploded. His silence is not your fault. And things may have been easier now if he had addressed the problem much earlier – before he became so angry that he lashed out at you.

    Know That Context Doesn’t Mean That It Isn’t Time To Take Action: It’s normal to hope that this will blow over. And it may – for now. But any time a husband is uttering words that indicate he is tired of your marriage or thinks that there is a compatibility issue, you want to pay very close attention and you want to take action right away. I say this not to scare you, but from the concerned place of someone who was in a similar situation. I hoped for the problem to pass over, but I ultimately ending up separated. I think that I possibly could have avoided that fate by taking action at the first sign of trouble.

    Moving Forward Quickly: It’s unfortunate that your husband waited so long to share that this issue has been bothering him, but you can’t undo that at this point. What you can do, however, is be careful of what (and who) you are presenting to him moving forward. It doesn’t sound as if he has made definite plans to move out or to pursue a separation, which means that you may have some time to address this.

    Sit back and be really honest with yourself. Which of his concerns have some validity? What is he right about? Is this issue something that other friends and family members have expressed? If so, then there is nothing wrong with addressing it. Sometimes, it takes a painful situation to stimulate growth. If you take this and use it to move you forward so that you grow and improve in some way, then at least the pain will have been for something. At least you can use this as a stimulus to improve your marriage.

    If you are very honest and you find that his words do not have validity, then you may went to dig a little deeper. Sometimes, a husband will project another problem onto to what is obvious or handy. It may not have been the heat or your personality at all during that family gathering. But the situation might have given your husband an easy explanation. Sometimes, a husband can be frustrated and not quite sure why. That’s one more reason why it’s very important to be extremely observant right now – so that you are taking action on the items that are truly at issue.

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    Source by Leslie Cane

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  • Best Tips On How To Cure Psoriasis From The Inside

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    Psoriasis is a disease that is difficult to treat because it is still not very well understood. Despite this, there are many treatment therapies that have been developed despite there currently being no “cure” yet. There are also various natural psoriasis treatments that have proven to be very effective for many psoriasis sufferers to keep flare-ups at bay. One of those is to use diet which many believe is one of the best ways on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out.

    How to Cure Psoriasis from the Inside

    Using food is an essential part of not only promoting general health and wellbeing but is also important to prevent various diseases and conditions. This is because various foods contain essential vitamins and minerals that boost the immune system and in addition for psoriasis, have various skin healing properties.

    Using the right foods is important. Especially those that are organic and free of chemicals and antibiotics as well as saturated and trans fats.

    Though many doctors may not believe that a healthy diet alone will cure psoriasis, they do believe that if making certain dietary changes provides some benefits, there is no harm is following a diet for psoriasis. Especially in the current absence of a psoriasis cure which makes it crucial to try various remedies to see whether they will work for you that are both conventional and unconventional.

    Following the theme of using natural remedies that may work to heal your skin from the scourge of psoriasis, here are some of the best tips on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out;

    1. Turmeric

    One of the top recommended remedies on how to cure psoriasis from the inside AND outside is turmeric. This is a spice that is native to India where it has long been used in the ancient traditional healing practice of Ayurveda in addition to its common use in various culinary dishes as it gives curry its yellow color.

    There are many seemingly unbelievable stories from various people that have used turmeric for various diseases and conditions including psoriasis touting this spice’s benefits for healing. So if you are struggling with psoriasis, you may want to give turmeric a try.

    The active ingredient that is believed to be responsible for turmeric’s healing properties is curcumin.

    Curcumin is a very rich source of antioxidants which help to prevent the activity of free radicals in the body. Free radicals represent oxygen molecules that cause harm in the body by damaging healthy cells as a way for them to live and thrive in the body. The damage may increase the risk of developing various diseases and conditions including various cancers, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, as well as psoriasis.

    Turmeric helps to reduce inflammation in the body which is why it is believed to be one of the most effective remedies for psoriasis whose development is considered among various other reasons also related to the level of inflammation in the body.

    As mentioned earlier, turmeric can be taken internally as well as applied externally to the psoriasis lesions. Either method or both is said to be effective. For internal benefits, turmeric can be added to any food or drink e.g. to stews, cereals, oatmeal, salads, stir-fries, to smoothies, green juices, etc.

    To apply turmeric topically, make a paste with the turmeric and apply to the lesions and cover with a plastic wrap or adhesive and leave for a few hours or overnight and wash off. When used topically, depending on your skin tone, you may notice a yellow caste especially if you are very pale which will dissipate eventually.

    2. Cold-water fish

    Another of the top tips on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out is related to a discovery by researchers that certain deep sea cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel and herring when consumed by people with psoriasis, reported a reduction in their various symptoms of psoriasis.

    While it is not very well understood why these oily fish are healing for the body and skin, it is believed that the omega-3 fatty acids that they contain are responsible.

    Omega-3s seem to be able to reduce the amount of certain compounds in the body – leukotrients and prostaglandins – that cause skin inflammation. Salmon has an especially high amount of omega-3s but the other oily fish previously mentioned are also beneficial. It is recommended that you eat 3 to 4 ounces of these oily fish per week.

    If you prefer omega-3 supplements, the recommended daily amount is about 3 grams. Be sure that the omega-3 supplements you use contain EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) which are long chain fatty acids that are especially beneficial for various skin conditions including psoriasis.

    Do not overdo the consumption of these oily fish or omega-3 supplements because high doses of fish oils can affect the body’s blood clotting mechanism so check with your doctor to make sure that the regimen you follow is within safe limits.

    3. Beta carotene

    While it is highly recommended to cure psoriasis from the inside by consuming more fruits and vegetables, certain vegetables rank a little higher. These are vegetables and fruits that contain beta-carotene such as tomatoes, carrots, spinach, cantaloupe, beet greens, winter squash, sweet potatoes, etc. Any colorful fruit or vegetable usually obtains its color from beta-carotene.

    Research has shown that those who ate at least seven servings of tomatoes were able to reduce their risk of developing psoriasis by a whopping 60 percent! For carrots, the reduction in risk was still high at 40 percent and the same for fruit consumption at 50 percent.

    Beta-carotene as well as vitamins C and E that these vegetables and fruits contain provide antioxidant activity in the body in addition to helping boost the immune system so that it is better equipped to fight off disease as well as to improve skin. Beta-carotene in particular is converted into vitamin A which along with vitamin E are known as the skin vitamins as they help to maintain the tissues that make up the skin.

    4. Low-calorie diets

    These are beneficial especially if you are overweight. Obesity is a factor in how you will respond to psoriasis treatment and the severity of symptoms of psoriasis that you will develop. It has been noted that people with psoriasis who are obese take longer to respond to treatment and psoriasis lesions return more quickly after treatment is stopped.

    Following a low calorie diet does not mean starving yourself. It means making better choices with food and avoiding high calorie foods such as fast food, various processed foods, fried foods, etc.

    5. Mediterranean diet

    There are many diets that are followed around the world that seem to present no health problems for the people who follow them around the world. The only diet that has been shown to increase the risk of developing various diseases and conditions is the Western diet, so any move away from this diet can be beneficial for your health.

    One of the most recommended diets which is one of the best ways on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out is the Mediterranean diet. This is one of the most complete diets that will provide you with most if not all of the nutrients you need every day. The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet arise because of its focus on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, chicken and olive oil all of which are foods that are beneficial for the body and can help heal skin.

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    Source by Terry Robbins

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  • Entrepreneurship and Its Challenges

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    One of the challenges of being an entrepreneur and the reason many dread to venture into it is, “delayed gratification”. The entrepreneur is like a Lone Ranger who is walking through a lonely part. Initially, he’s never noticed. As he’s grinding and working smart towards his goal, people don’t take note of him. He’s laughed at. He’s jeered at. He’s called a fool. But he perseveres with the knowledge that anything good does not come easy. And then somewhere along the line, his efforts begin to yield results. People now begin to take note of him. Those who thought him foolhardy will now come to him to seek his advice. “How did you do it? They will ask. They wish to be like him. But the question is, how many can pay the price that he has had to pay? The life of an entrepreneur is not easy but it pays to be one.

    In your journey of entrepreneurship, focus is key. You need to stay focused in order to keep your desire for success burning.

    Sadly, though, success doesn’t come easy. And because of this reason, a good number of people lose their focus. They lose their focus as long as they are not getting immediate success.

    There is no doubt that today’s successful people have had to face the same pressure to give up on their goals for this same reason.

    To keep staying focused however, you will need to engage in one very important aspect of entrepreneurship. And by that I mean, you need to engage in self -education through studies.

    Whether you are in Network marketing, Direct sales or you are in conventional business, self-development through studies is important for success.

    An average successful person reads at least, sixty books a year. By studying, you learn the skills that will enable you to succeed. You study the experiences of those who have passed through that lonely part before you in order to avoid certain obvious pitfalls. No doubt, you will still experience failures along the way no matter how much you try. But the wealth of knowledge you have garnered from your years of studying and copying successful people will, as a matter of fact, be your guiding principle. It will give you the inner strength to go on and on even when everything seems not to be working for you.

    Be rest assured that to be an entrepreneur in the modern era doesn’t necessarily have to require huge sums of startup capital. The advent of the internet has made it relatively cost-effective.

    Therefore, become an entrepreneur today.

    Stay focused. Act decisively. Seek opportunities. Seek new ideas. Be humble. Learn from your failures. Study people who are successful. Make the most of your time. Above all, cultivate readership attitude for through reading you learn the secrets of success.

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    Source by Sunny Ngene

    Views: 0

  • Healing Knee Injuries: A Few Helpful Exercises

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    The knee is one of our most crucial body parts. It plays an important part in our overall body fitness. That is the reason Knee injuries are usually of grave concern as knee injuries have the potential to significantly impair an individual’s mobility or put in plain words- ability to walk or run.

    But, knee injuries are not only the culprit that makes the knee inactive or defective. There are various systemic conditions, specifically few bone diseases like arthritis(osteoarthritis) that also significantly affects the knee joint. However, irrespective of the reason causing knee defects/injuries, exercises play a vital role in the healing process. In fact, Exercises play much more important role than medications in fast recovery from the knee injuries and disorders. In this article, though, we will focus on few extremely helpful exercises that facilitates the fast recovery process from knee injuries. But, before diving further deep into the topic, let’s get ourselves acquainted with knee injuries, its types & causes in brief.

    To start with, knee is made up of the following components- bone, ligaments, fluid & cartilage. Muscles & tendons present in the knee joint helps the part to stay mobile. Understandable, when one of these structures get injured/hurt or is affected due to any systemic conditions/diseases, knee defect/injuries occur.

    Knee injuries are characterized by extreme localized or overall pain, swelling, redness and causes severe impairment in walking activities.

    Knee injuries can be caused due to any accidents, sports activities or by simply awkward twisting of any one of the ligaments or tendons present in the knees. Treatment procedures for knee injuries usually contains a blend of medications & physical therapies( which mainly includes exercises), but in few cases surgical interventions ( such as knee replacement surgery) becomes necessary. In those cases, exercise becomes the only route to recover.

    Some of the major knee injuries include but are not limited to-

    a. Anterior cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries- Very common in people who are very active in sports such as- soccer, basketball. It usually occurs due to the drastic direction change of the knees which in turn injure the ACL which is one of the connecting ligaments between shinbone & thighbone.

    b. Fractures- It is the second most common cause for knee injuries. Apart from injuries, fractures can also be caused due to osteoporosis which gradually weaken the bones.

    c. Torn Meniscus

    d. Knee bursitis

    e. Patellar tendinitis usually affects the avid runners, skiers, cyclers, etc.

    Knee injuries can also be caused by some other body conditions like- excessive body weight which puts pressure on the legs, to be precise on the knees, dislocated kneecap (which can be treated through a knee replacement surgery), gout, rheumatoid arthritis, due to relapse or getting hurt on a previous knee injury site, due to decrease strength and flexibility of the muscles (may be caused by any number of reasons) and last but not the least due to participation in any type of dangerous sports.

    However, irrespective of signs, symptoms & causes, healing from knee exercises with relatively fast and naturally involve exercises. Types & sets of exercises depends on the nature, severity & type of knee injury and must be prescribed and authorized by the caregiver. Additionally, those exercises can only be done under guidance & supervision of a trainer. Here are few example of relatively simple knee exercises, that usually helps in healing knee injuries.

    Exercise 1-Leg straightening & stretching.

    Lie on your back preferably on a hard. Flat surface. Next, bend your one knee and place the foot on the flat surface. Then, straighten the other leg and raise it in air at the level of the bended knee. This makes the quadricep muscles of the thigh work and puts put very little or negligible strain on the knees. To get the best results, the exercise should be repeated daily 10-15 times in two-three sets. It is recommended to start with low frequency initially and gradually increase the frequency and number of sets gradually and slowly.

    Exercise 2- Hamstring exercises

    This exercise is relatively simpler than the other ones and can be done anywhere, anytime. This simple and easy exercise is known to benefit the knee joint b strengthening the hamstring muscles that are present in the back portion of the thigh and are important for proper knee joint functioning.First, stand on a flat surface, preferably on the floor. Then slowly raise heel of one let as close as possible to one’s butt and is required to stay/hold in that position for 25-30 seconds. Later, with practice the duration can be increased to even 1 minute. Then, repeat the same with the other leg. This exercise is also commonly known as “Hamstring curls”.

    This exercise should be done minimum 15-20 times a set for 4-5 sets daily.

    Exercise 3- Squats

    Squat is known to be extremely beneficial exercise for knee injuries. The position required to perform this special exercise, work up the knee muscles and charge them up leading to fast healing from the injuries. This exercise is an advanced form of knee exercise.

    First, one need to stand straight against a wall or a sturdy, flat and hard surface. Secondly, after standing, one needs to spread their legs apart in line with their shoulder-width. Next, bend very lowly keeping your back straight against the wall/surface. Hold on to that position for 15-20 seconds. But, if one feels uncomfortable, it is recommended to immediately stop doing the exercise.

    It is usually good for the knees if done regularly 10-12 times in 3-4 sets/daily.

    Exercise 4- Calf raising exercise

    Stand with back facing to a chair / sturdy table. One can also stand in front of a wall. Get your hands on the wall surface if needed for supporting your body weight without straining the knees. Then, slowly raise your heels as high as possible by you. Hold on to the raised heel position for 10-15 seconds and then slowly, very slowly lower your heels in the normal position.

    Repeat the exercise daily 10-15 times for at least 3 sets.This exercise helps the knee to get in better shape and help to recover fast from injuries.

    Exercise 5- Step ups exercise

    Very common and extremely helpful exercise for knee injuries.

    One can use staircase for this one or can also use a raised but flat platform. Keeping one’s pelvic level steady, put one foot on the raised level and then slowly bend your knee and then raise your knee. Next, repeat this exercise with the other foot.

    Recommended daily 10-15 times for 4 – 5 sets. Once comfortable and well-practiced, one can raise/increase the height of the platform gradually. The above mentioned are few very easy and simple exercises that are known to benefits knees recovering/healing from injuries. But, one should always remember that of doing any of knee exercises makes you uncomfortable or increases pain, swelling of the knees, then stop exercising immediately and consult your doctor/trainer/care provider without further delay. Staying alert and cautious are the keys.

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    Source by Gagan Deep

    Views: 0

  • Developing Emotional Control With The Fallen Angels

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    Emotional control is that thing that everyone wants, but no one knows how to get.

    How do you develop something that most people don’t even understand?

    Some say hours of meditation can do this. You just meditate for a set amount of time each day and you develop more balanced emotions somehow.

    That doesn’t make sense to most people so they don’t do it.

    Meditation is only one way to learn how to better control yourself, and thereby your emotions.

    The fallen angels have a very unique power, and that is to guide us to understand our emotions. They can give you insight on how to better self-reflect and understand yourself.

    That process alone can be quite a startling realization.

    Let’s say you wanted a little spark to start things off.

    How on earth would you develop more emotional control and resilience if you don’t know where to start?

    Well, allow me to show you the way.

    Hakemiah – Develop emotional understanding of yourself and others around you (if applicable)

    Melahel – Develop deep understanding of your emotions so as to bring yourself to a serene state of being faster.

    Vevaliah – Enables deeper understanding of yourself, namely your emotions, so that you can better manage your temper, anger and other negative emotions if they creep up.

    Omemiah – Enables conscious control over emotions in a way that you can self-reflect and know how to bring your emotions back under control. Aids control of conscious thoughts so intellect and emotions are better controlled.

    Eshaliah – Deepens our connection to the self so that we have a much deeper holistic understanding of our emotions and how to manage them.

    Take a deep look at these powers. Do you see how powerful this can be?

    When you have emotional control, you basically have control over your thoughts, your body and how you react to others, the things that happen to you, and your life in general.

    Am I over stating things?

    Actually, not at all. This is a pretty big deal no one really considers.

    We are diving very deep into the fallen angels, and this is uncharted territory for most of you.

    These angels are very easy to work with as long as you are willing to put some effort into your evolution – not many are willing to do that.

    What does that mean to put effort into your evolution? It just means that you care about becoming a better person and how you get there. The people who are technically ‘asleep’, who just go by day by day not self-reflecting and oblivious to the world around them are not ready for these angels.

    If you know what you want, and you’re just not sure how to get there, these angels can help you get there.

    Emotional resilience is a very big deal for those who are successful – it doesn’t really matter how you define success either. Being emotionally strong is just really seriously important, and I think you already see that.

    Nememiah – Helps us develop deep emotional resilience that allows us perfect self-understanding that leads to being much stronger emotionally.

    Literally everyone can use emotional resilience to better their lives.

    Asking if emotionally strength can help is like asking whether having extra money is a good thing – you don’t even question that.

    The tragic thing here is those who most need emotional help likely won’t be reading this. You are very likely one of the more emotionally awake people out there, and it’s interesting that you know you’re serious about developing your emotional strength.

    This isn’t a question of whether or not you want more emotional control, but of how enhanced emotional strength can help you.

    Can it help you cope with problems at work better?

    Can it help you deal with family drama in a more constructive way?

    Can it help you deal with stressful situations easier?

    It doesn’t matter what your situation is, the answer is Yes to these in one way or another.

    Emotional resilience is powerful, but I don’t think we pay enough attention to it to really change ourselves.

    I think that should change, don’t you?

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    Source by Donald B. Johnson

    Views: 0

  • Affiliate Programs For Beginners

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    Starting out, you need only two affiliate programs, one to recommend physical products, the other for information products.

    The clear winner for physical products is Amazon. For information products, the best one used to be ClickBank, but JVZoo has overtaken it this year.

    Here’s why Amazon and ClickBank are the two best options.

    Amazon Associates

    The Amazon Associates program is very well known. You use their links to promote certain products and you get a cut for every item bought through your links. Commission varies between 2% and 8%, depending on the product.

    But every time someone lands on Amazon trough your affiliate link, you get a cut of everything they buy during that visit, not just the product you recommended.

    This makes using the Amazon Affiliates program really powerful.

    The way to leverage the program is to write product reviews on your blog. It is the simplest way to make money online, especially for beginners.

    Once you’ve started making some money through your first few sales through the program, you can start to scale by reinvesting that money, and up your income.

    JVZoo

    There are loads of information products online. You could even consider the internet an information product. People, simply, use the internet to find information.

    Much of that is free, but people are willing to pay for information that will make their lives better.

    The commission you get by recommending these products can go up to 75% – a huge increase on what you get for physical goods.

    It is much harder, however, to sell information products. Commissions are higher, but coversions are lower.

    I would have recommended ClickBank before this year, but JVZoo has taken over for one reason.

    There are more product launches on JVZoo.

    Easy Way to Sell Information Products:

    Product launches make it much easier to sell information products.

    You do essentially the same thing as for physical goods, you write reviews and include an affiliate link people can use to buy the product.

    Product launches are specific days when a new one goes on sale. You choose a product to review, you can see upcoming launches through MunchEye, write your review, include your link and use the hype of the first day to generate traffic and sales.

    Since there are a lot more product launches on JVZoo this makes it much easier for someone starting out to make their first bit of money and attract traffic.

    People searching for a review are nearly ready to buy something. That makes it easier to sell to them. And a good review helps them. It helps them not waste money on products not fit for them or time having to research all the details themselves. You’re also not competing with the people who put out the product, in fact you are helping them.

    Those things make reviews great for affiliate marketing.

    You will have to work hard, but your reviews could be passively earning you money months or years down the road.

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    Source by James Pierce

    Views: 0

  • Music Sparks Emotion in a Video Commercial

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    Have you ever tried to watch a video commercial or advertisement without music? If so, there are few things you may have thought: that it was different due to the silence yet you seemed to like it, or you didn’t care for it at all making it easy to go on with your daily activities never giving it a second thought as to what the commercial was even selling. Ninety five percent of the time the latter happens because music is almost a sure-fire way to create emotions and moods in video advertising.

    When it comes to advertisements, music has the power to create better moods in video commercials, as well as to bring a more personal touch to these ads. As a result, it provides a better impact to their target audience, therefore effectively promoting products and services.

    While visuals might be appealing to marketers’ target consumers, the use of music in video media advertising tends to create a more lasting impression in consumers’ minds, providing a great chance for companies to build positive brand or company images.

    Setting the Mood

    Simple video advertisements sometimes could set the proper ambiance when they are without music. Of course, there are some scenes which might be perfectly shot and produced, but music enhances this mood and ambiance in any video media, providing a great complement to these scenes and stamping a long-term impact in the audience’s minds.

    Consider this situation: There is a video of a woman who seems to be standing in the middle of crowd. With the video alone, it doesn’t seem to mean anything. There is also a big chance that people would simply forget it, thinking that it is just some boring video. On the other hand, applying music in this advertisement would set a deeper mood – something that would connect better to the target audience. Slow music in this situation would set the mood of sadness, as if the woman is sadly waiting for somebody. On the other hand, upbeat music would set a more positive and outgoing mood, as if the woman would soon do something funny.

    Suggesting the Right Emotions

    The use of music in video commercials also hints what the audience or the target market should feel when they see these ads. Without music, people are sometimes confused as to how they should react to these ads. Music in video ads makes sure that your desired feelings are conveyed to your audience by suggesting certain emotions. It does not overly push the feeling towards your audience, but it acts as a way to make your audience think about what they should feel as suggested by the music. Music in video media ads, therefore, helps marketers and advertisers to somewhat help tell the target audience which kind of feelings should be felt in these video advertisements.

    Evoking More Intense Emotions

    Simple emotions found in scenes in video ads can be heightened further with the use of music. A scene of a sad woman would even be sadder with the right music, and can evoke more intense emotions to its viewers. Music can greatly affect the effectiveness of these video media ads because they can make the audience relate to a particular emotion or feeling. Affecting people’s emotions through music will make your advertised product, service or company to be related to a particular strong emotion, such as happy, uplifting, energetic or loving.

    Catchy Tunes Tend to Leave Longer Lasting Impressions

    Admit it – once in your life, you might have had some music stuck in your head because it was played in some video advertisement. Months or years later, you still remember that particular product, service or company whenever you hear the music. People tend to link music, brands and companies together, which just shows how effective music can be in video advertisements as compared to using only text or visuals. Video media advertising and commercials with music invest in long-term brand or company images in the consumer’s minds.

    Video advertisements that tend to be the most effective, almost always balance between the use of audio and video. Music can enhance the audio, and it should offset the video to effectively relay the marketers’ desired messages to their particular audiences.

    Some advertisements are better without music, but these are very rare and always depend from case to case. Most of the time, the best advertisements which leave lasting impressions are those with perfect mixtures of audio and video. The next time you watch a video advertisement, consider muting the audio. You will see a different message and effect as compared to watching it with the audio and music.

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    Source by Ann Rountre

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  • What Marketing Strategy Is the Best for You?

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    If you pick the right marketing strategy, you’ll be like that little guy in the middle of my diagram above. Yes! Winning! Fist pumps!

    The problem with marketing today is that there are way too many options and it’s much too confusing. It makes me dizzy just thinking about this stuff and I’ve been immersed in it for 35 years.

    Well, I lay down on my bed last week with a notepad and started to map out my “Unified Theory of Marketing Strategies” with an emphasis on online marketing.

    And I actually came up with something that’s not totally confusing, and might even be helpful to a few people.

    Here goes…

    It’s yet another four-quadrant grid where the vertical axis is a scale from easy to hard and the horizontal axis is a scale from passive to proactive.

    I emerged with these four snappy quadrants:

    Hard and Passive = Multimedia

    Easy and Passive = Publishing

    Hard and Proactive = Presentations

    Easy and Proactive = Email

    Now, all of these strategies can be effective. But, yes some are easier than others. And the passive ones tend to take a lot longer than the proactive ones.

    Hard and Passive = Multimedia (Videos)

    Everyone is crazy about video these days. It’s a challenging, yet passive strategy. You put a lot work into creating a video and then post it on YouTube hoping people see it.

    It’s difficult to do well. It’s time-consuming and it can be expensive. And most videos are pure crap. If you want to do it well, it takes a chunk of change and a lot of time.

    Throwing up a lot of little videos on your website can be a nice touch, but they usually don’t get people to call you in droves.

    So, as you can see, I’m not crazy about a video strategy for self-employed professionals. I’m not saying they can’t work, but it’s a whole lot of work to do right.

    Best example: A non-duality teacher named Rupert Spira (non-duality.rupertspira.com/home). He does live workshops and films everything. Then his staff chops them up into questions and answer segments and posts them on YouTube. They’re five to fifteen minutes long. And what you see is what you get. No pitch, no hype. It’s his teaching unadulterated.

    He has hundreds of videos on YouTube with hundreds of thousands of views. Does it work? Well, his workshops are always full and all he does is a low-key email announcement to his list every month or two.

    I like this approach a lot. Got a lot of good content? Look good on video (unlike yours truly)? Then you may want to emulate Rupert.

    Easy and Passive = Publishing

    I happen to like this strategy a lot as it, ahem, built my “Empire.” It’s relatively easy: Write a how-to article on your subject matter once a week, send it out to those on your e-list and publish on your blog. Fame ensues.

    But online publishing can be a lot more than that. You can take those same articles and publish them on Medium, LinkedIn, and Ezine Articles. And then you can announce them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Sometimes you can get big exposure when writing an article for a major online publication. Web traffic multiplies.

    The cost is zero; an article takes from two to five hours to write (unless it takes you several days). And your ideas are online for eternity to be discovered by those looking for practical ideas. Some will opt-in to your e-list and perpetuate this virtuous marketing circle.

    The downside, of course, is that, according to my extensive research, (a 10 second Google search), there are 2 million articles published online every day. The mind reels. So your stuff will be out there, but somewhat lost in a very big haystack.

    I’m still a big advocate of online publishing, but the mountain is getting steeper and steeper. Just writing an article or two here and there won’t help you much.

    Best Example: Well, other than mine, of course, check out Henneke of Enchanted Marketing. She has a wonderful, readable, fun blog on business writing and blogging. And she walks her talk. It’s all about well-written, relevant content. If you don’t have that as a foundation, it’s a total waste of time.

    Hard and Proactive = Presentations

    I built my business on presentations in front of live audiences at professional associations and chambers of commerce. It got me attention, added people to my mailing list and generated warm leads for marketing coaching.

    And I still do presentations today in the form of webinars. I just filled my recent group program with the help of a couple webinars (also called video conferences). They most certainly do work.

    But I put presentations in the hard category, not because they are all that hard to give, but can take a long time to prepare. The last one I did took me two full days. There were about 200 slides (whew).

    Yes, that’s not the only way to do a webinar. You can just go live on Zoom Video, and that can work as well. You ultimately have to find your style and test what works.

    Presentations are proactive in that at the end you can ask for the business. And, of course, you can turn the recording of the webinar into a video in a snap and send it out to those on your list. Watch it here.

    So presentations will always play a big part in my marketing toolkit.

    One other thing though – If you don’t have a LOT of people on your email list, good luck in getting much of an attendance. Yes, you can do guest presentations hosted by others, but you don’t have the same control and ability to pitch your professional services.

    Best example: John Nemo of LinkedIn Riches (linkedinriches.com). His webinar is a blast. There are a lot of them out there in the online marketing world. And many, Like John, have set them up as evergreen webinars that are scheduled to play automatically several times a day. These are kind of a hybrid between publishing and presentations.

    Easy and Proactive = Email

    In my opinion, email is the most powerful overall marketing tool. And it gets the least respect. But I can’t imagine even being in business without email marketing.

    Social media gets all the PR and all the attention, but email gets the business. A recent study showed that email generated 40 times the business results of Facebook and Twitter combined.

    Email is the online tool that’s been around the longest, and I think it’s taken for granted. Promotional emails have expanded exponentially over the years, but most of it isn’t very good.

    We wade through our email boxes like we sort our mail over the trashcan. Delete, delete, delete. Why? Because it’s either not relevant or it’s boring. Usually both.

    I feel that email has the greatest potential of all the online marketing strategies because it’s both relatively easy and the most proactive marketing medium of all. Your message goes right into the mailbox of your potential client. Nothing else can do that.

    Marketing email holds great opportunities for improvement in several areas:

    1. How to incorporate humor as the most powerful attention-getting device in existence (that almost nobody is using).

    2. How to telegraph your value proposition straight to the minds and hearts of your prospect.

    3. How to make your emails clear, focused, and easy-to-read.

    4. How to craft a compelling call-to-action that is hard to resist.

    5. How to get emails to thousands of your prospects without looking like spam.

    If you’re not working on ALL of these, your emails will not get the attention and response you want.

    Best Example: Therapy Practice Accelerator. Visit this site and get on the list just to see the brilliance of the email marketing. It’s all about demonstrating results.

    What marketing strategies will you choose?

    Take the four marketing quadrants into consideration. The easier a marketing activity, the more likely you’ll actually do it. And the more proactive a marketing activity, the faster the response you’ll get.

    Cheers, Robert

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    Source by Robert Middleton

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