Stay Positive


"In the midst of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

- Alert Camus








Friday, September 30, 2016

Get Proper Rest









Thursday, September 29, 2016

Kathleen Battle - Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileires No. 5


Beautiful, relaxing music helps you get through the day.



Kathleen Battle 1st movement of Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileires no. 5

concertoes for voice and eight cellists.
From "Gala of the Stars 1985"



LINK: https://youtu.be/woN47pZJsEI



Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Ring-tailed mongoose found in Madagascar

 
 
 
 

 The adorable ring-tailed mongoose can be found in Madagascar. Sadly, it's threatened by habitat loss and invasive species.






Source:

Strange Animals @Strange_Animals

Posting photos of amazing species you've never heard of. Highlighting the wonders of evolution and the extraordinary diversity of life. Contact: DM
Earth
Joined June 2013





Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Get Real




The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman


 




Establish Healthy Habits


"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." - Ancient Proverb






“If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless, in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry, because it can’t be solved.” – Zen saying


“If you have a problem that can be fixed, then there is no use in worrying. If you have a problem that cannot be fixed, then there is no use in worrying.” – Buddhist proverb

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison
 
I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work. – Thomas Edison

 “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill











I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison

One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But… I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success. – Thomas Edison

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense. – Thomas Edison







Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. – Thomas Edison

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. – Thomas Edison

Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless. – Thomas Edison

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves. – Thomas Edison


Plato
To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory; to be vanquished by one's own nature is the worst and most ignoble defeat.



Plato
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.



Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.



 
Marshall McLuhan’s 1969 Deck of Cards, Designed For Out-of-the-Box Thinking







Monday, September 26, 2016

Nevertheless it seems clear that happiness needs the addition of external goods; for it is difficult to do fine deeds without any resources.











 













Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Boost your self-compassion


Healthbeat

Four ways to boost your self-compassion


Take a moment to think about how you treat yourself when you make a mistake or fail to reach a goal. If you tend to beat yourself up when things go wrong, you, like most people, can use a little more self-compassion in your life.

Forgiving and nurturing yourself seem to have benefits in their own right. They can even set the stage for better health, relationships, and general well-being. So far, research has revealed a number of benefits of self-compassion. Lower levels of anxiety and depression have been observed in people with higher self-compassion. Self-compassionate people recognize when they are suffering and are kind to themselves at these times, thereby lowering their own levels of related anxiety and depression.

Learn to have self-compassion

Some people come by self-compassion naturally, but not everyone does. Luckily, self-compassion is a skill you can learn. Several methods have been proposed, and training programs are being developed, to help people discover and cultivate their own self-compassion.

Here are four ways to give your self-compassion skills a quick boost:
  • Comfort your body. Eat something healthy. Lie down and rest. Massage your own neck, feet, or hands. Take a walk. Anything you can do to improve how you feel physically gives you a dose of self-compassion.
  • Write a letter to yourself. Think of a situation that caused you to feel pain (a breakup with a lover, a job loss, a poorly received presentation). Write a letter to yourself describing the situation, but without blaming anyone — including yourself. Use this exercise to nurture your feelings.
  • Give yourself encouragement. Think of what you would say to a good friend if he or she was facing a difficult or stressful situation. Then, when you find yourself in this kind of situation, direct these compassionate responses toward yourself.
  • Practice mindfulness. Even a quick exercise, such as meditating for a few minutes, can be a great way to nurture and accept ourselves while we're in pain.
For more ways to draw on your strengths and find the positive meaning in your life, purchase Positive Psychology, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.


Image: iStock







Source: http://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/4-ways-to-boost-your-self-compassion







Monday, September 19, 2016

Kathleen Battle - 5 Japanese Love Songs


 
Hatsukoi (First Love), for voice & piano
Composed by Tatsunosuke Koshitani
with Kathleen Battle

Hana (Cherry Blossom Time), folksong
Composed by Rentaro Taki
with Kathleen Battle

Kono Michi, folk song, for voice & piano
Composed by Kosaku Yamada
with Kathleen Battle

Hamabe-no-uta, for voice & piano
Composed by Tamezo Narita
with Kathleen Battle

Sakura, Sakura, arr. for voice & harp
Composed by Kosaku Yamada
with Nancy Allen, Kathleen Battle

  • Category - Music


  • License -Standard YouTube License







Saturday, September 17, 2016

Life with an invisible illness

http://media.fyre.co/C1uaDIGgSvucMBjvADoW_I-dont-look-sick.jpg


“I don’t look sick”. Please share this brilliant graphic from Donnee Spencer telling us about life with an invisible illness


Created my 4th poster in my MS series One of the most common things people with an invisible illness hear is “But you don’t look sick!” so I created this as a way for those who suffer to remind people that looks can be deceiving.

Link: http://patienttalk.org/i-dont-look-sick-please-share-this-brilliant-graphic-from-donnee-spencer-telling-us-about-life-with-am-invisible-illness/#.VmcRVpyfPIw.twitter



Friday, September 16, 2016

QUOTES



“No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity.” -Seneca









If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now.     
  - Masaru Emoto



 
Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. 
- Harriet Tubman





















Thursday, September 15, 2016

Bill Haast, the Snakeman treated people suffering from various ailments like arthritis, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.

The Man Who Injected Himself With Snake Venom

By Nolan Moore on Tuesday, April 15, 2014
178504309
“Sometimes they pretend to be harmless, but they are not. That is snake’s nature, believe it or not.” —S.L. Hamilton, Snakes

In A Nutshell

While most people are terrified of snakes, Bill Haast handled these legless reptiles every single day. After opening his famous Miami Serpentarium, Haast devoted his life to studying and milking snakes. Even more impressive, Haast injected himself with snake venom every day . . . a bizarre treatment that actually saved lives.

The Whole Bushel

Bill Haast loved snakes. He started catching them when he was seven and was bitten by a copperhead and timber rattlesnake before his 13th birthday. During the 1920s, he dropped out of high school and toured with a traveling snake show. Eventually ending up in Florida, he went to work for a bootlegger and spent his spare time hiking around the Everglades, searching the marshes for fork-tongued reptiles. After his boss was arrested, Haast worked as a mechanic for Pan American World Airways, a job that let him travel the world and smuggle home cobras in his toolbox.
However, Haast wanted more than just to catch snakes. He wanted to study them and show these legless wonders to the world. In 1947, Haast opened his very own “serpentarium,” a snake farm just outside of Miami. Guarded by a 10.5-meter-tall (35 ft) cobra statue, the park attracted visitors clamoring to see the “Snakeman” in action. Every day, Haast put on performances where he handled deadly snakes and milked them for their venom, the key ingredient in antivenin. Afterward, Haast sold the toxins to pharmaceutical companies, and by the 1990s, he was producing 36,000 samples of snake venom every year and saving countless lives.

When he wasn’t milking snakes, Haast was busy mixing up his own bizarre brews. A big believer in the medical properties of venom, Haast treated over 6,000 patients with his homemade venomous elixir. With the assistance of a local doctor, the Snakeman treated people suffering from various ailments like arthritis, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.

However, after CBS did a story on his controversial therapy in 1951, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Haast to cease and desist—but they didn’t say he couldn’t treat himself.

For over 60 years, Haast regularly injected himself with a crazy concoction made of venom from serpents like mambas, kraits, cottonmouths, and cobras. Not only did he claim it made him healthier, the toxins also seriously built up his immune system, something which probably saved his life on multiple occasions.

During Haast’s long career, he was bitten over 170 times by deadly snakes like Malayan pit vipers and eastern diamondbacks. On one occasion, his wife had to chop off the end of his blackened finger, and another time, the White House secretly sneaked antivenin out of Iran to save the Snakeman’s life. (He wasn’t immune to “that” particular snake.)

On the flip side, Haast’s blood was so full of antibodies that it was actually used to save lives. On multiple occasions, Haast was flown to remote locations like the jungles of Guatemala where he donated his superhuman blood to rescue snakebite victims. In fact, his poison-proof plasma saved over 21 people.

Sadly, Haast shut down his Miami Serpentarium after a young guest was killed by one of his crocodiles. After closing up shop, Haast spent a few years in Utah before moving back to Punta Gorda and reopening his snake farm sans the showmanship. The Snakeman continued milking deadly reptiles until his 92nd birthday when he lost his finger to a pit viper. Despite his nubby hands, he kept on injecting himself with his snake serum every day, famously saying, “I could become a poster boy for the benefits of venom. If I live to be 100, I’ll really make the point.” Bill Haast died on June 15, 2011. He was 100 years old.

Show Me The Proof

Bill Haast obituaries from the New York Times, LA Times, and Washington Post

Bill Haast and King Cobra (CBS documentary)

Bill Haast and King Cobra, the Polio Project, circa 1951 

  



 Link: http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/04/15/the-man-who-injected-himself-with-snake-venom/


We need to be willing to change our identity to transform into a new way of being.

Living with chronic illness is difficult enough.  Not letting go of your previous identity of being able bodied and with plenty of physical energy can make the changes in your life harder to endure...








Sunday, September 11, 2016

Quotes

 
“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” - Rumi

 
"Compassion – particularly for yourself – is of overwhelming importance." - Mark Williams

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. JACK LONDON



Paul Gauguin playing the harmonium



 Paul Gauguin playing the harmonium in Alfons Mucha’s studio, Paris, c.1895




Barbara Hendricks "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child"


 

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Summertime - Barbara Hendricks sings Gershwin with Katia + Marielle Labèque



 Summertime - Barbara Hendricks sings Gershwin with Katia + Marielle Labèque

Link: https://youtu.be/QnOOvFzfss0




South American Magellanic penguin and the man who saved his life.


 South American Magellanic penguin who swims 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.


Today’s most heartwarming story is brought to you from a beach in Brazil.
It’s the story of a South American Magellanic penguin who swims 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.
Retired bricklayer and part time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, who lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found the tiny penguin, covered in oil and close to death, lying on rocks on his local beach in 2011.
Joao cleaned the oil off the penguin’s feathers and fed him a daily diet of fish to build his strength. He named him Dindim.


After a week, he tried to release the penguin back into the sea. But, the bird wouldn’t leave. ‘He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared,’ Joao recalls.
And, just a few months later, Dindim was back. He spotted the fisherman on the beach one day and followed him home.


For the past five years, Dindim has spent eight months of the year with Joao and is believed to spend the rest of the time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile.
It’s thought he swims up to 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.


‘I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,’ Joao told Globo TV. ‘No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.


It’s thought Dindim believes the fisherman is also a penguin (Picture: TV Globo)
‘Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years. He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February and every year he becomes more affectionate as he appears even happier to see me.’


Biologist Professor Krajewski, who interviewed the fisherman for Globo TV, told The Independent: ‘I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well.
‘When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.
And, just like that, the world seems a kinder place again.

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Brené Brown Quotes to Inspire Success and Happiness at Work

10 Brené Brown Quotes to Inspire Success and Happiness at Work

10 Brené Brown Quotes to Inspire Success and Happiness at Work

Dr. BrenĂ© Brown knows what it means to put yourself out there and join the conversation. As one of the world’s leading researchers on courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy, Brown has risen to fame through her wildly popular TED Talks, three bestselling books and speaking engagements around the world. She has interviewed hundreds of people from all walks of life about what it means to step into the arena, take risks and open oneself up to the possibility of pure joy. And she believes that if today’s professionals practiced more vulnerability at work, a world of innovation could await them.
Brown joined us in Austin at Indeed Interactive to speak about the power of vulnerability in the workplace and what it means to be a courageous business leader today. She shared insights on performance and change management, and the ways risk-taking and failure can create transformational growth in organizations. Below, we’ve rounded up 10 of the most inspiring quotes from her keynote presentation.
1. “Is there anyone that does not need to navigate uncertainty and risk on a regular basis? To be alive is to be vulnerable; to be a leader is to be vulnerable every minute of the day. You don’t get to opt out.”
2. “If you don’t understand vulnerability, you cannot manage and lead people. If you’re not showing up vulnerably as a leader, you can’t expect anyone to follow you—period.”
3. “The more uncertain times come, the more we look for models and methods and ways to engineer vulnerability out of recruiting, out of hiring, out of training. We try to dehumanize it and make it engineerable and put it in an Excel spreadsheet. I get it, but you will never be able to engineer the humanity out of what you do, ever.”
4. “The biggest shame trigger at work is the fear of your irrelevance. What drives the fear of irrelevance at work? Change.”

5. “When people are in difficult situations—fear, anxiety, shame, stress—they’re making up stories about what’s happening. As leaders, the only thing we can do is give “Is there anyone that does not need to navigate uncertainty and risk on a regular basis? To be alive is to be vulnerable; to be a leader is to be vulnspace and time to those stories and reality-check them to the best of our ability.”
6. “Are you willing to excavate problems that people aren’t talking about that they’re stuck in? Do you choose courage over comfort?”
7. “We need people to be braver, and we need to create a culture that allows for bravery.”
8. “Do you know what it takes to make an ethical decision in the face of a group of people who are willing to go the other direction? It’s one of the most single vulnerable acts of our lives.”
9. “Giving feedback is incredibly vulnerable for this reason: If you’re giving good feedback, you should not be able to script what’s going to happen when you sit down with someone. You should be willing to be able to hear.”
10. “When I looked at organizations that are doing amazing work, a couple of them have put ‘daring greatly’ on their performance evaluations.”

Bonus: “Vulnerability is terrifying and it’s dangerous and scary, and the only guarantee I can give you is it’s not as terrifying or as dangerous or scary as getting to the end of our lives and having to ask ourselves, what if I would have shown up?”


To learn more about the inspirational ideas shared at Indeed Interactive 2016, download our new research in the 2016 Talent Attraction Study: How Top Performers Search for Jobs.