Tag: Worth

  • Why Improving the Look of Your Leveraged Sales Products Matters

    Why Improving the Look of Your Leveraged Sales Products Matters

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    A New Year has come upon us and it's time to relook at some of the leveraged sales products. If it's been at least six months since you've reexamined your products, now is the time to take a fresh look. Are you achieving your sales goals with them? Did they drop off in the last few months? If you feel like something in your product line can be improved, it's time to relook at everything and make improvements. In some cases, the rework is easy and done within in minutes. While others take more time, and may need a specialist to help. Don't give up, there are ways to improve your sales, you just need to look at the data and try something new.

    The "Why" in improvement for leveraged sales.

    Better looking leveraged sales products could mean a dynamic improvement in sales. It's always preached in book writing groups, that your eBook cover should be improved. If you're selling eBook's, maybe it's time to see if you can get a new cover that may help with your sales. Some folks never change their covers and let them set on the shelves for a long time. While its costly to change them, the sales and shares are worth the investment. The new cover can add a whole new life to the material. It shows your visitors that your serious about helping them by displaying an improved cover.

    Maybe you need to look at the material in your leveraged sales and improve the copy. The material can be outdated, especially if your eBook's or guides have been in your online store for a year or longer. Other content may need just simple formatting changes and background changes. These cosmetic changes can enhance the beauty of your work and bring about new sales, increased trust and authority. However, a bad design is really difficult to overcome, be careful and do some research before granting final approval.

    How the New Look of Your Leveraged Sales will play a major role in your marketing?

    Reworking your leveraged sales is important, especially if you're a newbie in the business. People do judge a book by its cover and the first impression is always the lasting one. If your work comes across as lame, or unprofessional. Most people will never ever give you a second chance. So, by applying some effort to your project, you can create an impression that is favorable. Your first effort may be good, but you always want to try to improve upon your craft. In this regard, your prospects will develop a stronger relationship with you. Your leveraged sales will play a master role as you look to connect and build sales on your social media channels.

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    Source by David L. Feinstein

    Views: 1

  • Real Grief Requires Attention – Real Grief Healing Requires Attention

    Real Grief Requires Attention – Real Grief Healing Requires Attention

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    As you experienced your personal grieving key questions must be addressed: How can you overcome floating on a cloud of despair? How do you overcome your sorrow and loss? Can you overcome your sorrow on your own? Can God give you additional inspiration and strength? When and how do you give attention to your grief? What action steps must you take to start healing and stop grieving?

    Five Essential Healing Attention Stepping Stones To Help You Restore Your Happiness And Find Peace Again:

    1-Let Happiness Sneak In The Back Door

    “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” ~ John Barrymore

    Happy moments are ever-present. Happy opportunities are abundant even at times of your unwanted grieving. Often, new happy healing possibilities sneak unnoticed through the door you left opened, setting motionless waiting to be recruited and embraced. During your unique personal grieving, you may not have perceived their value. Look again for all happy joyful moments, opportunities and possibilities.

    2-Be Grateful For All Good Things

    “Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” ~ Marianne Williamson

    Grief happenings come in many dosages, but true about all grief happenings, happy happenings are also present. Counting your grateful moments, as bad as your grieving condition may be, is healing to the soul and your emotions. Often during a grief experience it is not uncommon to not look for joy in your life; it’s seldom easy to find.

    “Half the joy of life is in little things taken on the run… but let us keep our hearts young and our eyes open that nothing worth our while shall escape us.”

    ~ Victor Cherbuliez

    Your grief experience may have had you on the dead run on a sorrow path. Your eyes may need adjusted so that nothing worthwhile will continue to escape your view or grasp. Counting your blessings will help concentrate on the good things that are part of you.

    3-Accept Personal Responsibility

    Certainly, you may not have been able to prevent or control how your grief from happening in your life.

    “Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.”

    ~Walter Anderson

    Although you may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, you are responsible for your attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that may darken your life.

    I beg you – Do not despair for behind every dark and dismal grief cloud is a beautiful blue sky with a happy rainbow of future hope available for you. Seek it! Decide what you can do-and do it!

    4-Don’t Waste Your Days – It Is Your Proper Time To Live Not Merely Exist

    I am sure you are familiar with the often-quoted phrase: “The saddest words of tongue and pen are it might have been.” Your challenge is to carefully examine your grief condition then execute actions to live your life, given your grief circumstances, with no misgivings and no uncertainties.

    Even given your horrendous unwanted grief experience, you must learn to enjoy all grateful healing moments as you learn to take the actions necessary to release all anxiety and hesitation.

    Treat each day as a new opportunity. As you choose your personal action plan be sure you plan is one with full awareness and intention. Don’t waste your days grieving; live your life fully don’t merely exist. Don’t squander your time – start healing and stop grieving now!

    5-Thoughtfully Choose All Healing Possibilities

    Consider all opportunities. In the midst of your grieving stay alert and aware of all healing doors which may be available for you to open. You really are the one who determines your permanent destiny. Accept the challenge to rejoice for those things you have.

    At all times, embrace all positive available social media, technology, internet, and all other beneficial and essential resource solutions. Think about asking for Gods help. Overcoming despair, grief and loss should be your highest priority. To stop grieving, start healing grief, loss, and sorrow – and finding hope and joy is vital to you experiencing lasting peace and happiness.

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    Source by Duane Marchant

    Views: 0

  • Commitment & Determination – What Makes You an Entrepreneur

    Commitment & Determination – What Makes You an Entrepreneur

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    What makes you an entrepreneur?; this question is simple but very difficult to answer. For a long time, people have studied the science behind entrepreneurial process, what drives a great entrepreneur, the things that make an ordinary person transforms into a job creator.

    To answer this question, it’s much better if we try to understand what’s behind entrepreneurial process. At the heart of every entrepreneurial process is the founder, the opportunity seeker, the creator and initiator, the leader, problem solver, and motivator; the planner and the guardian of vision and mission. Without this human energy, behavior, drive, and vitality, the greatest ideas-even when they are backed by an overabundance of resources and people-will fail, grossly underperform, or simply never get off the ground. Brilliant athletic aptitude and potential is not equal with the great athlete. The difference is invisible and intangible: commitment, tenacity and determination.

    Commitment and determination are seen as more important than any other factor that inspiring an entrepreneur. It makes an entrepreneur can overcome incredible obstacles and also compensate enormously for other weaknesses. Almost without any exception, entrepreneurs live under extreme, constant pressure (when they start their business, for them to stay alive, and for them to grow). A new business requires top priority of entrepreneur’s time, emotion, patient, and loyalty. The level of entrepreneur’s commitment can be measured in several ways: through a willingness to invest a substantial portion of his or her net worth in the venture, through a willingness to take a cut in pay because he or she will own a major piece of venture, and through the other big sacrifices in lifestyle and family circumstances. Clearly, commitment and determination usually demand personal sacrifice.

    What you should keep in mind is that the desire to win never equal to the will to never give up. And this is actually a critical distinction. So many lead entrepreneurs say that they really want to win, but only few have the dogged tenacity and unflinching perseverance to make it happen. Just take an example of a young entrepreneur who made several phone call but none were returned. He made a few more calls but still, no response. Over the next week he made yet another series of calls that once again received no response. At that point, what would you do? Would you keep trying, or decide to move on and not waste any more time? Only you can answer this question, and the answer will gives a clear picture of your persistence’s level.

    Entrepreneurs who successfully build new business seek to overcome hurdles, solve problems, and complete the job. They are disciplined, tenacious, and persistent. They are able to commit and recommit quickly. They love to win and love to compete at anything. However, if tasks are unsolvable, an entrepreneur will be the first person to give up than the others. There is a fair opinion says that while entrepreneurs are extremely persistent, they are also realistic in recognizing what they can and can’t. They know where they can get help to solve a very difficult but necessary task.

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    Source by Rendy Dalimunthe

    Views: 0

  • How To Outsell All Affiliate Marketers

    How To Outsell All Affiliate Marketers

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    If you do these things you will absolutely outsell other affiliate marketers, and put yourself in an authority position within every niche market you choose. I promise you. Because the truth is, if you want to make a lot of money in affiliate marketing, you can't be afraid to do some work and to go beyond what other affiliate marketers are doing.

    You need to stand out. You need to give people a clear reason to listen to you so they'll click on your links and purchase the products you recommend. The work you do now will undoubtedly pay off in the end. Once you're making $ 10ka month, you can be lazy. Now isn't the time. Right now, you need to do the upfront work that will set you up for long-term success.

    So, where should you begin? What are the absolute essential steps that you need to take to start making money while looking out for the future? I touched on it already, but keep reading and I'll jump into the trenches with you and show you exactly where you should start.

    Keep a Steady Eye on Your Market

    If you want to make a ton of money in affiliate marketing, you absolutely must be fanatical about keeping tabs on your market so you can effectively position yourself in front of your target audience long before others do.

    In fact, the easiest way to make money in affiliate marketing is to have your system in place weeks before the launch ever happens. That way, you not only position yourself in the search engines (and in front of the line with subscribers) for when the big day comes, but you're given enough time to create content, value enhancers and bonus products that will draw customers to you, rather than the competition.

    When you subscribe to a JV or launch notification program, you'll receive emails and updates about upcoming product launches long before the information is made available to potential customers. In fact, many times, you'll find out about upcoming product launches long before the merchant even begins to contact their own affiliates!

    If you aren't sure where to begin, or who these developers are, you can join Muncheye, which is a launch notification system that will send you emails about upcoming launches.

    If you're interested in business and Internet marketing products, check out JVZoo.

    You'll need to apply for approval with each vendor, but typically it only takes a couple of hours to get approval. Then, you'll have immediate access to their JV promotional page where you'll be able to download swipe files, banners, ad copy, and more.

    Plus, you'll get to see their entire sales funnel and how you can earn more money through their back-end offers. There are countless other affiliate marketplaces online so run a Google search to find a few that offer products that you are interested in and then subscribe to their updates. The sooner you know of a product launch, the more prepared you will be; it's as simple as that.

    If you only start prepping your website and list within a few days of an upcoming launch you'll struggle to generate enough traffic through your affiliate links to make it worth your while. Instead, if you know of an upcoming launch weeks, even months ahead of time, you can set up a killer system that will maximize exposure, and of course, profits.

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    Source by James Savage

    Views: 0

  • My Separated Husband Says I’m Smothering Him And I’m Not Sure How To Stop

    My Separated Husband Says I’m Smothering Him And I’m Not Sure How To Stop

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    As a wife who has been very reluctantly separated, I would argue that there is a natural and undeniable inclination to cling tightly to what you are afraid of losing. And when you are a wife who does not want to lose your marriage or your husband, then it’s very natural to cling a little more tightly. In some instances and with some husbands, this doesn’t matter. Some husbands do not mind the clinging.

    But when you are dealing with a husband who was demanding space and who seems to be distancing himself from his wife, it can matter – quite a bit, in fact. Many husbands push back against this type of clinging and distance themselves even more. They may use phrases like: “smothering,” “holding on too tight,” or “coming on too strong.”

    The wives hear what the husband is saying, but they also point out that their husband is expecting something that just isn’t natural. She might say: “last night, my husband told me something that I never ever expected him to say. He told me that I was smothering him. We have been separated for about three weeks – at his insistence. If I had my way, he would still be living at home. But as it is, he is staying with a male friend. He has been restless and unhappy for months. He finally told me that he needed some time away from our marriage. I immediately panicked and assumed that he wanted a divorce. He swore that he didn’t. But I am still not sure that I believe him. I just don’t understand why a middle aged man should need space from his marriage unless he is planning to end the marriage or break his vows. And that is why I feel that I need to be in touch with him every day and know what he is doing. But when I try to do this, he tells me that I am “smothering” him. I believe his exact words were something like: ‘I felt like I was being smothered at home and now I feel like I can’t escape even now that I am here. You have got to stop smothering me. I have got to be my own person.’ It’s almost like he is accusing me of acting like his parent – and I absolutely am not. I just care about him and I think that I have the right to know what is going on with him and with my marriage. I don’t think that our talking a couple of times per day is too much to ask. I don’t call that ‘smothering.’ Do you?”

    I am going to be honest because I honestly want to help you. And I want to help you because I have been in your shoes and, because I made so many similar mistakes that almost costs me my marriage, I learned a hard truth. And it is this: It really doesn’t matter if you or I wouldn’t call checking in “smothering.” Because if he perceives it as such, then he is going to react to that perception. And his reaction may be detrimental to what you really want. And isn’t that all that matters?

    Understand That Ideal End Game: I suspect that you what you really want is both for him to come back and for him to come back willingly – and not with his tail between his legs because you have worn him down. Believe me, I understand the strategy. I never consciously thought about it. But looking back now, I think I figured that if I could bug my husband enough or remind him of our marriage enough, he’d eventually get sick of the back and forth and come back home.

    Instead, he distanced himself from me even more. We’ve reconciled now. But he’s confided in me that there were times when he considered divorce because he felt that might be necessary to “escape” my constant contact.

    I’m not here to debate whether or not my husband legitimately needed space from me. He and I will probably never agree on that. But what does matter is that he thought that he did. And frankly, that is all that matters. Because these thoughts formed his actions. Whether his thinking was faulty or not, he was going to act on it. And this thought process made a huge difference in what happened in our marriage.

    I know that we wives like to think that if we just do or say the right thing, he will change his mind and not want space from us anymore. But frankly, this isn’t as likely as him just getting frustrated that you are not listening.

    If What You’ve Done Isn’t Working, Consider Trying Something New: For me, the better call was backing away. I tried initially just telling my husband that I was going to let him call me next time. This did work – some, at least. But there were times when he would not call and I would panic and then come on too strong. So I took some time off by putting literal miles between us by returning to my hometown for a while. This forced me to back away – because I didn’t have much of a choice.

    This didn’t feel ideal at the time. Honestly, it felt like giving up at that particular moment in time. But it did eventually make a positive difference. Eventually, my husband started reaching out to me. And as this started to work, I didn’t have to force myself quite as much anymore. I literally saw that it was working, so the struggle became much less because finally I was starting to see the tide turn. For this reason, I was more than willing to go along because I knew it was the better alternative.

    I am not suggesting that you need to do the same thing. That may not work for you. But I am suggesting that you ask yourself if backing away – even for just a little while – might be worth a try. You can always reverse course if it doesn’t work for you. But once you know for sure that what you’re doing isn’t working – and once your husband has literally told you in harsh words that he’s getting frustrated – then these are both good indications that you may want to change course, even if only for a little while. At the very least, maybe try a form of communication that he doesn’t find “smothering.” You may not technically be smothering, but if he thinks you are, then that is what matters.

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    Source by Leslie Cane

    Views: 0

  • Reiki Healing Can Ease Your Pain

    Reiki Healing Can Ease Your Pain

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    I was looking through a newspaper the other day and one thing that caught my eye was an article about the opioid crises. In this article, addiction specialist Dr Robert Lefever, spoke about how so many people are hooked on drugs that are designed to take pain away.

    When this happens, someone will end up taking them for years instead of a matter of days or weeks. He didn’t blame the drugs companies, though; he pointed the finger at the doctors that are happy to keep prescribing them.

    A Powerful Figure

    In the western world, a doctor is often perceived as an all-powerful, all-knowing figure. Therefore, if a doctor tells someone to do something, it is unlikely that they will question what they are being told.

    The fact that is has come out of this persons mouth can be seen as a sign that it is the right thing to do. Thus, if someone is in a bad way and a doctor prescribes then more pills, pills that are designed to take their pain away, why would they bat an eyelid?

    Another Part

    When it comes to drugs or even healing modalities, the placebo effect is often spoken about. Quite simply, this relates to the effect that one’s mind has when it comes to the impact that a drug or healing modality has on them.

    In other words, what they take or what is done to them is not the only factor involved in the healing process. The way that their mind perceives what they are given or what is done will also play a part in how effective something is.

    The Connection

    So due to how one perceives their doctor, this person can also play a part in what effect something will have on them. Someone can then find that they feel better simply for being in their presence.

    And, if this person was to give them a load of sugar pills but told one that they were powerful pain killers, they might find that they feel better after they have taken them for a while. It could be said that the placebo effect is always at work and this is because the mind can’t be cast aside.

    A Number of Solutions

    This doctor didn’t just talk about on what is not right or say that doctors need to change their approach, he also spoke about a number of other options that should be offered instead. There was acupuncture, transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TNS), and Reiki.

    I was familiar with the first thing, hadn’t heard of the second thing, and had experienced the benefits of the last thing. From my own experience, I can say that Reiki can be used to take pain away and to heal the body.

    A Real Example

    A little while ago, I had a minor operation and once the anaesthetic wore off, I experienced a fair amount of pain. Fortunately, I had learnt Reiki healing many, many years ago and was able to use this healing technique on myself.

    I placed my hands on the area where I felt pain and my hands soon felt incredibly warm. I did this for about half an hour and from that moment onwards, the pain was not as strong as it once was.

    It’s not a Magic Wand

    I continued to use Reiki on this area for a number of days and for the same amount of time each time, which caused the pain to diminish even more. It was then not that I did it once and then everything was fine – I was consistent with it.

    In the same way that a pill needs to be taken on a regular basis to work, Reiki healing also needs to be experienced on a regular basis to have a big impact. That is, of course, unless it doesn’t, and one or a few sessions is enough.

    Final Thoughts

    After reading this you may believe that Reiki healing can assist you and be open to giving it a go or you may be sceptical. If you are sceptical, I can relate to what you are experiencing as I can also be very sceptical.

    However, the best thing may be for you to give it a go and to see what happens. If you are in pain, and this pain has been with you for a while, it must surely be worth a go?

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    Source by Oliver JR Cooper

    Views: 0

  • Wisdom For Living

    Wisdom For Living

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    Do you have wisdom? Wisdom is the key to successful living on earth. Lack of it is to be groping in the dark and be surrounded by great woes, wailing and destruction. Wisdom makes the difference between success and failure, life and death, poverty and prosperity, health and sickness. Possession of wisdom is to possess life.

    “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion… I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness… The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old… Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him… – Proverbs 8:12, 17-18, 22, 30 (NKJV).

    The Lord founded the earth by wisdom (Proverbs 3:19) and so man needs wisdom to be able to occupy her successfully. Wisdom is the principal thing to possess in order to enjoy living on earth. Every challenge in life is basically a wisdom problem and to have wisdom for any challenge is to have 50% of it solved.

    Wisdom was God’s master craftsman in creation. He utilized wisdom to successfully create all we see, use and enjoy. With wisdom you have prudence, knowledge and discretion; a complete package that will help you not to stumble or make mistakes in your words and action.

    The choices you make are measures of the wisdom available to you. The more the wisdom you acquire the better your choices and the outcomes you get. It is your responsibility to go for wisdom in all areas of your life. You need wisdom to live a victorious Christian life and also to live every phase of your life very well and remarkably: as a child, student, worker, spouse, parent, friend, leader, neighbour, colleague, group member, boss, employee and client. The list can go on and on. Your level of wisdom will affect your relationship with others and so is important that you possess it.

    Your tomorrow is a product of your application of wisdom today. The wisdom seeds you plant today grow and add up to give you a glorious future. The wisdom steps you take today will take you to your ultimate peak tomorrow. The prize you pay today to get wisdom cannot be compared to the returns that will come to you in future. The outcome of wisdom is worth all you have to put in or sacrifice to get it. The success of your life depends on it, so go for the wisdom for living.

    The word of God (The bible), which is the bag of wisdom seeds, has all the wisdom you need to live a triumphant life on this earth. Search the word for them, for whoever finds wisdom finds life and obtains favour from God.

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    Source by Ngozi Nwoke

    Views: 0

  • The Psychotherapy for Drug Addicts

    The Psychotherapy for Drug Addicts

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    The field of research and psychoanalysis and the behavioral modification is considered one of the most important methods of treatment of drug addiction, in addition to the other two elements 1- the medical element, 2- social element, and it is known that there are multiple methods of The psychotherapy for various types of addiction.

    It is a basic principle in this field that the treatment that suits a patient and leads to the improvement of his condition may not be suitable for another patient suffering from the same illness, that means that the therapist can choose between several therapeutic alternatives to suit the patient, and it increases the chance of the treatment, more importantly, more treatment methods are being invented in the present time, which will raise more hopes for the foreseeable future. One of the most famous psychological treatments in this field is the group of behavioral treatments for addiction and it is considered among the main applications of modern psychological science in the field of the psychological disorders.

    It is based on the essentials that indicate that all forms of behavior (including drug abuse and addiction) of the individual are acquired and grow under certain living conditions (psychosocial and social) and thus ratified by the laws of the acquisition of the habits and its growth, all the differences must be taken into account in the categories of the different habits in terms of levels of support and installation available to them.

    Since the practices of the drugs abuse when taking over the abuser and it managed to lead to dependence or addiction, it means that it has reached the formation of the habits, meaning that the treatment (any attempt to get rid of the set of habits that serve the continuation of the drug abuse) will not be easy, However, it will not be impossible. It requires a high degree of cooperation between the addicts and the therapist with some remedial measures, in addition to perseverance to receive this procedure for a several months, followed by another period of follow-up and integrity.

    One of the method psychotherapy is Boudin HM `s method and it is based on three main elements:

    1. To train the addict to self-observation;

    2. To train the addict on self-assessment;

    3. Then programming behavior modification based on the data reached from the previous two items.

    Training on self-observation is considered one of the most important methods used in modern psychotherapy (ie, self-observation and monitoring). There are three functions under these treatments as follows:

    1. Monitoring specific types of behaviors of the individual related to the subject of the required treatment, before therapeutic intervention;

    2. Monitoring these types of behavior at intervals during and after the therapeutic intervention to assess the impact of this intervention.

    3. Sometimes it is used to facilitate the desired changes, and there are multiple ways to perform this self-observation and conduct the monitoring resulting in the methods taught by the therapist to the addict.

    The objective of training the addict on this self-observation is to achieve the capture and monitoring of the "functional patterns" that reveal his or her addictive behavior.

    The functional pattern in this case is the sequence that begins with the occurrence of an event or chain of events that will raise the motivation to use the drug, Then the act of abuse itself, and thereafter the feelings and behavioral events that support the behavior of the addict.

    In other words, the functional pattern is the set of behavioral precedents that precede the occurrence of the act of abuse, then the act of abuse itself, and then the act of the direct drug abuse.

    The therapist evaluates these patterns in terms of the appropriate ways of modifying or changing the behavior according to the case that he is handling, in order to choose these methods that he deems appropriate and avoids their masculinity. If the patient showed a relative improvement, and then to a new stage in which he teaches him how to evaluate his functional patterns, as he teaches him a ways of changing his behavior.

    One point remains to indicate that the therapist does not end up treating the case except by assessing the effect of the treatment on the basis of four important elements: the level of performance of the addict in his work, the level of his personal and social dealings and the number of times he may be involved during (and despite) the therapeutic program and, finally, the number of times it conflicted with the law throughout the treatment period.

    The implementation of this program takes a few months, and can be applied to the addicts who are held in sanatoriums, and can be applied on the basis of the outpatient clinic system, which is considered to be flexible and thus maximizing its benefits.

    It is worth noting that this therapeutic system has already experienced a number of heroin addicts who have been sentenced to obligatory treatment, and their results have been highly efficient. However, there are many other behavioral treatments, and some therapists prefer to do some of these treatments combined with CBMTS at the same time. The field here allows for many scientific differences that ultimately aim at more efficient treatment service.

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    Source by Mohamed Al Marzooqi

    Views: 0

  • Pompeii by Marry Beard

    Pompeii by Marry Beard

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    Marry Beard’s Pompeii succeeds in several quite different and sometimes surprising ways. This is a guidebook, a history, a survey of social relations, a description of culture and religion, a catalogue and analysis of art, and an archaeological record. It is also an excellent read, highly informative, enlighteningly descriptive and scrupulously accurate.

    Pompeii is a complicated site. At first glance, it may appear to be very simple. One day in 79 AD a coastal town in modern-day Campania, near Naples, which was then at the heart of a Greco-Roman culture, was buried under volcanic ash that spread from the eruption of the nearby Mount Vesuvius. The town was completely destroyed, smothered under metres of ash. The disaster progressed quickly giving the town’s inhabitants little chance of escape, let alone a chance to gather their possessions. This naive description might thus suggest that all archaeologists need to do is uncover what the ash buried, and first century life in a Roman town will be revealed.

    The reality, however, is somewhat different. The volcano did erupt and did bring about the end of Pompeii. But the town had previously in AD 62 suffered an earthquake, which had damaged many buildings, some of which was still not repaired in AD79. And Pompeii has been excavated many times. Some digs a couple of centuries ago extracted treasures for the titillation of monarchs, before volcanic ash, original construction materials and much of the historical and other material was randomly piled back to fill the holes. On the other hand, some areas have never been excavated and others still wait to be uncovered, but possibly not for the first time. Much work in previous centuries was undocumented, so who would know? Only the finds, and only some of those, were lodged in museums, and the provenance of many of those remains unclear.

    Such a complicated history presents tremendous difficulties for modern archaeologists. There are many layers of possible interpretation, many potential complications. A great strength of Mary Beard’s book is that she always acknowledges these difficulties and, where simplistic, convenient or fashionable positions might create more attractive copy, consistently she is cautious with her assertions and considered in her conclusions. Refreshingly, where evidence is lacking, contradictory or merely open to interpretation, she usually leaves the matter open, thus allowing the reader to appreciate how hard it is to be definitive about the unknown.

    Descriptions of everyday life in the first century AD are in many ways reassuringly familiar, with one significant exception. The modern reader may be rather shocked by how much daily life seems seemed to revolve around sex. But Mary beard does point out several times that this may be an overstatement. One is tempted to imagine how a modern town might be seen, if, once buried and uncovered, all that could be identified were advertising hoardings along a street where the only shop not to be obliterated sold sex toys. Our contemporary lack of knowledge about Pompeii’s inhabitants is illustrated by our inability to decide what might have been stored in the terracotta jars that were built into many of the town’s shop fronts. Mary Beard points out that theories they might have contained wine or oil are undermined by the simple fact that terracotta is porous, so it is more likely they contained dry goods. In one shop, a jar may have been a till, because it was found to contain a stash of small coins. But who knows whether the shop’s owner, frightened by a sudden eruption, merely tipped a box of small coins into the jar in a vain attempt to fill the box with more valuable possessions that might be carried?

    The area of life that was clearly different in first century AD was that of religion and beliefs. There seemed to be a market in gods, as well as one in goods, and most buildings seem to have paintings or altars dedicated to a panoply of deities, drawn from several different traditions. Whether people did pick and choose, or whether people’s origins or ethnicity dictated allegiance, we simply do not know.

    Pompeii clearly did have its own version of mass entertainment, both in theatre and amphitheatre. There was even a famous riot after a disputed contest, where supporters from a nearby town fought with locals. It made regional news. There was also a local language that was not Latin, but we have precious little of its literature.

    A concept such a slavery, which in the modern mind is inextricably linked with the trade of recent colonial powers, is yet another aspect of ancient Roman life that is more complicated than contemporary assumptions allow. Mary Beard regularly refers to the complexity of these relationships throughout the text and long before then end we feel we really have learned something about a culture that quite suddenly feels much more distant than a mere couple of millennia.

    Mary Beard’s Pompeii is a brilliant book that is worth reading in itself. But anyone who has visited or plans to visit the site will find it brings the experience or memory completely to life. It is a comprehensive description of the site and its culture, but makes clear that there are still stones to be turned. Unusually, however, readers who previously might have thought they were well-informed on the history, culture and archaeology of Pompei might just find, after reading this book, that they knew rather less than they thought.

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    Source by Philip Spires

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