Students Of Success

The first few days home from the hospital are important for both baby and parents. As parents you will have gone through intense birth process that is unlike anything else you have ever experienced. As a new mother you will be drained - both emotionally and physically. The father can often have feelings of being overwhelmed by the huge responsibility he now faces. There probably is not much anyone can say or do to help you to fully prepare for what you are about to experience.

During your first days at home it may be wise to limit the amount of visitors that you welcome into your home because you’ll need a lot of time to recover from the birth process. Other than your immediate family and good friends you might want to ask other friends to wait a week or two before they descend on you with gifts and wanting to hold the new baby.

New mothers will want to pay attention to the way that they feel so that those “baby blues” don’t creep up and surprise you unexpectedly. It is normal to feel a bit out of sorts and sad for the first couple of weeks after giving birth. Your body is going through some major physical changes after the birth of your baby. Your hormones will be changing and you likely will be feeling a lack of sleep. It is important to remember that this is natural and to allow yourself a good amount of time to recover from this. If you find yourself feeling more and more depressed it is advised that you should discuss it with your doctor to see if you are suffering from “postpartum depression”. Symptoms of postpartum depression include:

Overwhelming feelings of sadness and depression accompanied by crying.

Having little or no energy.

Feelings of guilt and worthlessness.

Having no interest in your baby or being overly concerned and worried about your baby.

Weight gain accompanied with overeating or Weight loss accompanied by not eating.

Insomnia or oversleeping.

If you do have postpartum depression then there are a few ways that you can try to beat it:
Try and get as much rest and relaxation as possible. When the baby is asleep use this quiet time to get some rest yourself.

Be more understanding with yourself and do not put yourself under too much pressure to “get back to normal”. Ensure that your family is aware that you need help with housework and so on.

Try to limit the time that you spend just alone - keep your mind and body relatively active (for example by taking short pleasant walks).

Get professional help if the depression seems to be ongoing.

Discuss with other mothers their experiences after birth. You may find that your friends and family members also went through the same issues as you.

During the first few days at home your family will be adjusting to the additional member of your family. If you have other children at home you may be dealing with feelings of jealousy as the new baby takes centre stage. Make sure that you include your other children in the day-to-day activities that are part of the new baby’s routine. Remember that you are trying to adjust to some huge changes in your life so allow yourself the understanding and care that you would give to family and friends in your situation.

Keziah Engineer is the author of the best selling ebook “THE BABY CARE BOOK” - a resource that teaches new parents absolutely everything they need to know about their newborn babies: http://www.global-ebooks.com/babybook.htm

Designing Your Kid’s Room is Child’s Play! By BatSheva Vaknin

Would your child’s room benefit from some fresh design ideas and
reorganization? Most could, but it can be hard to know where to
begin and what concepts to use. Obviously, the age and
personality of your child, not to mention your budget, will
dictate much of the design concept. But where and how to begin?
With these easy-to-follow tips, you will be ready to dive right
in and decorate. A room with a viewpoint Every piece of
furniture, wall-hanging and accessory in a child’s room
contributes to an overall feeling conveyed by the room. A sports
theme conveys excitement, while soft white clouds against a
light blue sky add a relaxing, inspirational touch. Choose the
design that is right for your child by having a conversation
with each object and piece of furniture before you place it in
the room, asking what it could contribute and where it would
like to be placed. Ask the room what color it would like to be
painted, or the walls what they would like hanging on them. Stay
open-minded and you will realize the answer to each question is
within you. Give your child the room of his or her dreams -
literally Did you know that children sleep for up to sixteen
hours a day and sometimes more, depending on their age? For
child development, sleep is as vital for health and well-being
as food. So your first consideration when designing your child’s
bedroom should be to create a space that feels comfortable, warm
and safe. Keep this in mind when planning to decorate, since
creating an atmosphere where your child can sleep peacefully is
more important than adapting the latest hot design trend.
Minimize distractions, maximize peace of mind Messy, cluttered
rooms add a subtle layer of stress to the inhabitant, and can
inhibit proper relaxation. Keep your child’s room
well-organized, with as few distractions as possible. Before you
begin to decorate your child’s room, remove all furniture, toys,
clothes, and wall-hangings. Clean the entire room, using natural
cleaners that won’t irritate your child’s sensitive nostrils and
lungs. Color me beautiful Paint can transform an ordinary room
into a world of your child’s own. Color will influence how your
child feels, so choose shades or combinations that promote
relaxation, security, happiness and love. Green, blue, pink,
pastel orange, and beige are all good choices. Let your child
help pick the color, but stay away from bright reds and yellows
which can be overly vibrant, making it hard for your child to
relax, and from dreary grays, browns or black, which can be
depressing and may affect your child’s mood. Paint should be
freshened every two to four years, and should provide a nice
backdrop for the rest of the room.

Bed sheets, blankets and bumpers should also be soothing to the
eye, so steer clear of bright, dominant colors. Pastels of any
color work fine here, as does plain white or cream. When it
comes to room accents, you can be creative with colors. A
child’s chair or step stool can be painted in bright primary
colors, eliciting feelings of excitement, while a large soft
teddy bear or rug can be light blue or pink, enveloping your
child in comfort and love. Clear that clutter! Once the paint is
dry, bring back in the bed. Place the bed in its ideal location,
then one by one, fill out the room with the other furniture
pieces (see Feng Shui Tips, below). If the room starts to look
cluttered, do not feel you must fit in everything. Trade the
chest of drawers for a closet organizer, wire or wood systems.

Clothes that no longer fit should be donated, passed to a friend
in need, or stored in waterproof storage boxes in a garage or
storage space, along with clothes that are out of season. (Make
sure if you are storing these clothes to clearly mark the
outside of the boxes for easy identification.) Limit toys and
books to those the child makes use of daily and weekly. Give
away unused toys, or store them in waterproof boxes in a garage
or storage space. The more clothes and toys you get rid of, the
more room you will have for future fashions and fun activities.
Feng Shui tips You may have heard or read about Feng Shui, the
ancient Chinese art of object and furniture placement. Feng Shui
explains that each area of a room attracts a different type of
energy from the other areas. Implementing Feng Shui in your
child’s bedroom design can maximize the effectiveness of the
furniture and art you are already planning to use. For example,
Feng Shui teaches that a bed should be placed in the corner of
the room farthest from the door. Your child’s head should be at
the end of the bed where the door can be easily viewed, and
there is no chance of getting startled by an unexpected visitor.

The northern section of your child’s room promotes stillness, so
this would be an example of an ideal placement for the bed. The
desk should be placed far from the door, in the Northeast part
of the room if possible, since this is the Knowledge/Education
Sector. This area is also a great place for educational posters,
such as letters of the alphabet or a picture of Einstein. Select
artwork carefully, taking time to notice any hidden messages.
Each image gives off a specific vibration, so only choose the
most positive pictures for the walls.

Of all the activities your child will do in his or her room -
including grooming, relaxing, studying, and playing - in mind
that sleep is most important and must be supported by the design
of the room. Take your child’s personality into consideration,
as well as his or her hobbies and special interests. Still, keep
all décor in check so that it does not overwhelm or clutter the
space. And finally, have fun! The energy, love and care you
bring to this project will permeate every object’s placement,
adding an invisible yet invaluable element to whatever design
you choose to implement.

Please find the original article and more information about this
subject at
http://www.homeandliving.com/DesignAdvice.aspx?Category=KidsRoom

If you would like to publish this article on your own site,
please feel free to do so. Please let us know the url of the
posted article by emailing the url to
batsheva@homeandliving.com. All we ask is that you include the
whole article, without changes, including the link to the
original article location, author information, this disclaimer
and the following link.

Find great home furniture online at www.homeandliving.com.

Copyright 2006 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

Unfortunately, when it comes to your website, the “if you build
it, they will come” strategy just doesn’t work. Fortunately,
there are several ways to drive high-quality traffic to your
website for little to no cost. The following 7 strategies will
show you how:

1. Optimize your site for the search engines.

You’d have to be a fulltime search engine optimization expert to
keep up with all the changes the major search engines make, but
there are a few basic things you can do to help your site come
up for relevant searches. Here are some to get you started:

a. Define your keywords - this is how people will find your
business online. The trick is to find keywords that are highly
relevant to what you offer and popular enough that they will
attract decent traffic to your site, but not so competitive that
you can’t rank well using them. Use your keywords in your web
page copy.

b. Create your metatags - this is how the search engines “read”
your site. Put your keywords in your metatags on each page of
your website.

c. Don’t use lots of graphics or Flash, frames, or “alt” tags in
HTML for pictures - search engines don’t like them because it
makes it hard for them to “read” your site.

d. Submit your site to the search engines (see #2).

e. Get links to your site - create a page in your website and
call it either resources or links and add GOOD links, meaning
relevant links. Linking is the second biggest indicator of how
your site is ranked.

2. Submit your site to the search engines.

Why wait for the search engines’ robots or spiders to find you?
Submit your website (it’s best if you submit every page
individually) to at least these three major search engines
manually. It’s easy and only takes a minute.

Submit your web pages to:

Yahoo at http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html Google at
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl DMoz at
http://www.dmoz.com/add.html

3. Use pay-per-click advertising.

Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture both offer pay-per-click
advertising options. You can create a ppc campaign for a very
small investment, and because you have complete control over
your budget, you can set it for whatever amount you feel
comfortable with. It’s very difficult to get to the top of the
“organic” search results (on the left side of the search results
page) but can be very easy to get on the first page of results
with a PPC, bringing targeted traffic to you. The best part is
you only pay when someone clicks your ad that takes them to your
website.

I’ve been told that Overture is actually easier to learn for a
beginner, but I personally use Adwords. I spend less than $50 a
month on my Google campaigns at the moment and it consistently
brings visitors to my website who are interested in what I have
to offer.

4. Place or swap ads with other ezines in your niche.

Seek out other ezines in your niche whose publishers might be
interested in swapping ads. They can either be formals ads, or
just a recommendation within the content of the ezine itself.
I’ve used this strategy myself, with the result being lots of
new visitors to my website and new subscribers to my ezine.

In addition to or instead of swapping ads, you could also
purchase ad space in an ezine in your niche that has a large
circulation. If you pay to place an ad, I usually suggest
running it for a minimum of three consecutive issues for the
best results.

5. Be a bonus participant.

You’re probably aware of the tactic of adding valuable bonuses
to your offerings to encourage people to buy. As a
traffic-building technique, you could do the same for someone
else’s product offering. For example, when Andrea Lee released
her second edition of “Multiple Streams of Coaching Income”
print book, one of my audio products was offered as a bonus to
those who bought the book. I received loads of new visitors to
my website and had a nice spike in ezine subscribers as well as
a result.

6. Become an “ask the expert” on a high-traffic website in your
niche.

Seek out websites that are information portals for your niche,
and see if they offer an “ask the expert” section (and if they
don’t, you could always suggest they do). Offer your services as
an expert, to answer questions from their visitors about the
challenges they face.

For example, I’m the online marketing expert at
www.womans-net.com, and I get targeted traffic from people
visiting that site.

7. Be an active participant on a large discussion list in your
niche.

Research and join a handful of discussion lists in your niche,
and schedule time every week to check in and see if you can
offer any valuable advice to the conversation. Be careful to
follow the list rules about promoting your website, though. Most
lists are intended to be a place where people can ask for help
without worrying about being sold to. However, most lists also
allow you a couple of lines in your email signature where you
can promote your business. Use this space to point people in the
direction of your website.

These 7 ways of attracting targeted traffic to your website are
tried-and true, meaning they do work. You may have to do a bit
of thirsty work, and give it some time, but the end result will
be more high-quality traffic to your online business.

Army Loans can be a great benefit for current and former members of the US Army. However, the amount of misinformation and ignorance about these wonderful benefits makes them scary for some. However, no matter which division you are in, there is some information that can help you with your army loan.

Question: Do I need to be stationed in the United States to get an army loan?

The answer is no. In fact, you can get an army loan from any country in the world as long as you have access to either the internet or a phone. Applications are often available on line or even over the phone. What’s more, they take very little time to fill out and the answer is usually back to you very quickly. From there, you can have the money sent wherever you need it: to your family in the States, to you at your base, or to someone else you need to get the money to via Western Union, mail, or even direct deposit if you so desire. It is that easy for you.

Question: Do I have to be currently serving to get an armed forces loan?

No you do not. Army loans are for currently active and retired military personnel. If you have served and are in good standing, then you are eligible for these quick and easy loans that are a great benefit to those who served.

Question: Can my wife take out the loan for me?

Actually, it depends. Army Loans, while only for those in the military or retired from it, can be had by those holding the power of attorney while you are away. If you are in the Marine Corps, Air Force, or even the National Guard and are away from home and have given power of attorney over to your wife, then she can absolutely apply for an receive an army loan on your behalf.

Question: How are army loans paid back?

That depends on what kind of terms you got and from whom you took the loan. With an army loan, though, you do have the added benefit of having payments removed from your paycheck each time you get one. Then you need not worry about sending in a payment or being on time when you are out of the country or in the midst of a move.

Do You Know You Have the Power to Harness Huge, Hidden Powers
of the Universe?

First there is your mind:

- your conscious mind: ideas, thoughts, emotions, attitudes
etc. you can directly perceive or conceive.

- your subconscious mind: your past, deeply hidden ideas,
thoughts, emotions, attitudes etc.

Then there is the unconscious mind, which is collective,
universal, common to all human beings and to all the Universe.

This Universal Mind has been called: Intelligent Energy, Supreme
Energy, Superconscious Mind (Carl Jung), Collective Unconscious,
Thinking Energy, Infinite Intelligence (Napoleon Hill), Supreme
Power, Intelligent Substance (Wallace Wattles), The Oversoul
(R.W.Emerson), Supreme Intelligence, Universe, God, and many
other things.

I personally prefer to refer to it as the “Universal Intelligent
Energy” (UIE).

It is everywhere. It is all-embracing. It permeates the totality
of the Universe.

It knows no difference between past, present and future (time),
here and there (space), what has been and what will be, what you
have now and what you want in the future.

The UIE makes no difference between thoughts and physical
objects.

And it has the ability to solve your problem. It has “all
abilities”, for that matter.

Your individual, conscious mind can join the UIE through various
channels, such as meditation, affirmations, visualizations,
intuition, telepathy, precognition and premonition…

For example: In his book, “The Sense of Being Stared At, and
Other Aspects of the Extended Mind”, Rupert Sheldrake a
Cambridge-trained biochemist quotes a dream that occurred five
days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “Mike Cherni, a forensic
scientist who worked 300 yards from the World Trade Center, had
a dream he was on an airplane. He became alarmed as the plane
took an unusual flight path very low over Manhattan.

“It was clear that we were flying directly south over the
southern tip of the island,” Cherni’s explained to the
researcher. “Then there was a tremendous impact and I woke up.
This dream disturbed me for days afterward, enough that I
described the dream to my wife.”

Sheldrake talks of “a kind of collective unconscious that allows
members of a species to draw from, and contribute to, the
collective memory of the species.”

In this article, we’ll be talking more specifically of
affirmations and visualizations.

If you express your “wants” or “wishes” often enough
(affirmations/repetition), they get impressed (or imprinted) in
the UIE, after travelling from your conscious mind and through
your subconscious mind. Finally, they become real, physically
real, because your wishes eventually pervade the whole Universe,
get into contact with whoever or whatever can fullfil them, and
get fullfilled.

For, “there is no problem without a solution”. Problems and
solutions follow each other like night and day.

Maybe it should be more accurate to say that problems and
solutions co-exist in the UIE. Or that they search for each
other like two eager lovers or Siamese twins who must urgently
be joined back together.

And the individual mind’s job is to join them together: this can
be achieved through the repetition of affirmations and through
visualizations i.e. seeing yourself as you are AFTER you have
received what you want.

A.M.Sall

Landscaping has been a favorite American pass time for hundreds of years. Recently through the added exposure of popular TV shows, the interest in sprucing up one’s landscaping has become greater than ever. Today, many shows are introducing everyone to new and fun ways to enjoy landscaping. There are even dedicated television channels, such as the Home and Garden channel, that explore all things beautiful to improve one’s living space and take it from just functional to luxurious through improved landscaping.

Landscaping is a pass time no longer limited to just seniors or those that enjoy a relaxing activity. Today, all across our great country, families are finding landscaping to be a great activity that everyone from Grandma and Grandpa down to the youngest children can enjoy together. Landscaping is a family activity that everyone can get on board with.

Landscaping, although relaxing, can also be a good source for exercise. With an ever increasing spot light on weight loss, adding landscaping to your routine can increase calorie burn.

Landscaping’s appeal has so many facets. Those looking to improve the look of home they want to sell as well as those looking to improve the look of their current home and neighborhood are finding landscaping to be a viable option. It is simply amazing to see what a difference a little landscaping can do to add curb appeal to a home or neighborhood. Many communities are improving their aesthetic appeal with professional landscaping.

To be an expert in landscaping, one must understand that it is not as easy as it seems. You need to do appropriate research, design and implementation in order for any landscaper to appreciate the outcome. This of it the way an artist looks at an empty canvas. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Take that into landscaping and you’ll see results that you never thought you could achieve.

James Calvin is bringing awareness to the web topics such as landscaping through his website www.landscaping-ideas.org For more details on landscaping be sure to visit his website. You may freely distribute or publish his article as long as this bio and an active hyperlink are accompanied with it.

Coffee may be a chief source of antioxidants in the American diet, as recently reported at the meeting of the American Chemical Society by Dr. Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton, but “that is not a license to make it a mainstay of your health regimen,” says Dr. Keith I. Block of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care & Optimal Health in Evanston, Illinois. Vinson recently found that, based on both the concentration of antioxidants in coffee and the relative amounts we consume of coffee and the more conventionally acknowledged antioxidant sources - fruits and vegetables - coffee contributes more to our antioxidant intake than any other food.

“Vinson’s results are perhaps more a reflection on the inadequacy of our fruit and vegetable intake than on the health benefits of coffee, which has some significant health concerns for many people,” noted Block. Caffeinated coffee joins several other popular caffeine sources in the diet in contributing to excess intake of this natural drug. Recent studies highlight the role that caffeine overdose plays in insomnia, anxiety disorders, elevation of stress hormones, urination and bladder problems in older women, and non-cancerous breast lumps. It produces a small but disturbingly significant elevation of blood pressure. Even decaffeinated coffee contributes to health problems. When it’s combined with high-fat milk, cream, sugar or flavorings, a single 16-oz cup can have over 250 calories - a questionable addition to the diet of anyone trying to keep their weight under control (not to mention their budget)! “Decaf and caffeinated coffee alike contribute to a range of gastric problems that are becoming ever more important in contemporary society, including both ulcers and the widespread gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD or chronic heartburn), which can be a precursor to esophageal cancer,” explained Block, who is co-founder and Medical/Scientific Director of the Block Center. “While a little coffee can be fine for most people, increasing beyond a cup or two a day can lead to clinical problems. The supersized caffeinated blends can actually be toxic! In fact some studies have found that increases in blood levels can be responsible for adverse effects among persons consuming only moderately increased doses over average consumption. Though usually toxic dosing requires quite high dosing, upwards of 150 ounces daily, toxicity can result for some people if they were to consume 35 to 70 ounces in a short period. This is only 7 to 14 cups at only 5 ounces per cup. Or, at the supersize 16+ ounce level, only a few!”

While many people may be able to tolerate coffee in the small cup or two per day that Dr. Vinson points out as being reasonable, anyone with health problems that are potentially coffee- or caffeine-related needs to examine their daily coffee intake closely.

“Yes, coffee is chock full of antioxidants,” says Dr. Block, “but don’t run to your neighborhood coffee-house in place of consuming fruits and vegetables. These colorful plants contain an array of plant chemicals that help reduce your risks of killer diseases like cancer and heart disease.”

The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care and Optimal Health, located in Evanston, Illinois, was founded in 1980 by Penny and Keith Block, M.D. with a focus on treating the patient as a whole person, not treating just the diagnosis or symptoms. The Center’s research-based treatment integrates an innovative approach to the best of conventional medicine with scientifically sound complementary therapies — therapeutic nutrition, botanical and phytonutrient supplementation, prescriptive exercise, and systematic mind-body strategies — to enhance the recovery process. Block has pioneered this “middle ground” approach to cancer care and optimal health - designing a total treatment plan that is tailored to the precise needs of each patient, using a unique set of clinical and laboratory assessments. The Block Center is breaking new ground with the creation and development of Cancer Rehab as an innovative treatment modality, and currently is the only private North American medical center using chrono-modulated chemotherapy. While the Block Center is a full treatment clinic, it is involved in collaborative research with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas as a Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) and is also engaged in clinical cancer research with other university facilities in the United States and Israel (www.blockmd.com)

Betty Hoeffner has been writing articles for various media outlets for the past 30 years. She is currently producer of a patient safety film called Things You Should Know Before You Enter the Hospital and president of Hey U.G.L.Y., Inc. NFP, a 501C3 nonprofit organization that empowers teens with self-esteem building tools, to help them counter challenges such as eating disorders, bullying, violence, substance abuse and suicide. U.G.L.Y. is an acronym meaning Unique Gifted Lovable You.