My Essay Blog

Smile right now! Regardless of what is going on in your life I want you to smile. Smile big. Smile goofy. Smile a smile that spreads from your lips to your entire face and eyes, even your neck, shoulders, and scalp. Just smile!

Let me talk to you about choices for a moment. Each moment we have a choice about how we feel. Most often, we are caught up in the events of the moment, and forget we have that choice. Whenever we remember, however, we can shift gears with a simple physical action: a smile.

Our emotional state at any given moment is a result of our brain’s chemistry. If you’ll forgive the term, a “heady” combination of hormones and neural chemicals result in the particular ‘flavor’ of our brain soup. Our brain spices are different when angry than when sad, or ecstatic. Based on this idea that each emotion creates, or results (causation is not an issue in this article) in a particular chemical balance in our brains, it is pretty obvious that we can not entertain two opposing emotions at the same time. Just as your stove top chowder can’t be ‘too salty’ and ‘not salty enough’ at the same time, so your brain can’t be chemically spiced as ‘sad’ and ‘happy’ at the same time.

So…in those moments of lucidity when you become aware of who controls your brain’s spice cabinet, here is what I suggest&ndashalways season your brain, and your day, with a smile.

Let me suggest an experiment you can do right now. Just as you are sitting there now and reading this: Recall a less than glorious experience. As you recall this experience, notice how your brain and body begin to feel correspondingly poorly. Don’t let yourself feel too bad. Feel just bad enough to notice a change in your brain soup.

As soon as you notice a poor feeling, smile. Stop smiling. Smile bigger. Stop smiling. Smile even bigger. Stop smiling. Smile your biggest goofiest smile. Now, try to stop smiling. Hard to stop smiling, isn’t it?

Smiles seem to be one of those physical postures or actions that are ‘hard-wired’ to a particular emotional state. You simply can not feel sad while smiling. Try it.

Smiling is only one easy physical gesture that is hard-wired to an emotional state. Frowns are as well, but why fiddle around with negative states? Instead, let us consider some other posture or activities that are naturally connected to positive, or enjoyable emotional states.

Here is a good one…try feeling depressed while standing up straight. Hold your head high, breath high into your chest, and try to feel depressed or sad. Most people can not do it. Knowledge of such postural effects on emotions is deeply engrained into our language. Think of such phrases as “Hold your head high” or “chin up” as encouraging phrases offered to suffering friends.

Many people can’t feel bad when simply looking up with their eyes. Try it. Try to recall a sad or depressing thought while aiming your eyes high.

Use your body to flavor your ‘brain soup’. You’ll like the positive flavor.

This is another helpful tip from Richard Lefever and the brain weavers at Quit! Check us out at “.quitsmokingoregon.com.”

Why am I writing this? I don’t know. I can give reasons, but I can’t be sure they are accurate. Such ignorance is okay, or at least it should be. The temptation is always to explain, but that often does nothing useful. In fact, it can just get in the way of actual understanding. Let me explain…

Rationalization 101

John was hypnotised, and given the post-hypnotic instruction to get up and put on his coat whenever the doctor touched his nose. Once out of the trance, they talked. During the conversation, the doctor scratched his nose, and John immediately stood up and put on his coat.

The doctor asked him why. “Oh, I thought we were finished,” John said, and he took off the coat. A minute later, the doctor touched his nose again. John again immediately stood up and put on his coat. “It’s getting cold in here,” he explained.

This scenario is not unique to hypnosis. There’s a lot that goes into our decisions and actions, and we act as though we’re aware of it all. Just like poor John, we feel compelled to explain ourselves - and to believe our explanations. Rationalization is one of our strongest habits.

I Don’t Know

A child throws a plate at his brother, and his mother demands “Why would you do that!?” He says, “I don’t know,” which is true, but not acceptable. Pychologists couldn’t, in five seconds, understand the child’s action with certainty, but a six-year-old is expected to do just that.

He may not understand, but he learns quickly to explain himself. By adulthood, it is rare for any of us to say “I don’t know” when asked about our behavior. There is a problem with that, though. How can we ever learn the true causes if we already accept our explanations?

Accepting Our Ignorance

A better way to approach these issues is to get in the habit of saying “I don’t know.” You can follow it with “Maybe it’s because of…” and let the explanations spill out, but don’t be too quick to accept any of them. Understand that it isn’t always necessary to explain.

For example, even if you never know why you avoid a certain person, isn’t it better to leave the question open than to accept a false explanation based on a habit of self-justification? Leave questions unanswered, and you may someday have a better understanding. Quick answers mean a quick stop in your thinking.

Self-explanation can be the death of self-understanding. Learn to accept your ignorance, and to keep observing yourself. Just say, “I don’t know.”

1. Unconditional Love. This is the font of happiness, renewable and eternal. We often think that being loved is the best feeling in the world, but it’s the second best. The best is loving someone else. Love is the polar opposite of fear, emotionally and neurologically. Thus, it is the antidote to fear and the first step toward real bliss.

2. Boundless Optimism. Genuine Optimism provides power over painful events. Optimism is understanding that the more painful the event, the more profound the lesson. Once you bring this knowledge into your heart, you can never again look at any event as all bad. Optimism gives you power over fear of the future and over regret for the long dead past.

3. Sizzling Courage. This is your fiercest weapon for overcoming the split-second power of fear. You can’t rise above fear without courage, because fear is hardwired into your neural circuitry. If fear is eternally programmed into your brain, though, so is courage. It comes from the neocortex and is a product of the spirit, the intellect, and the higher emotions of love and generosity. It is nature’s natural balance for the fear that has helped us survive. It’s the quality that allows us to overcome.

4. An unbridled sense of freedom. Nothing expands the soul like freedom.Liberty is choice, and choice is what makes us human. When we choose, we define who we are. Everyone has the power to make choices, but unhappy people don’t know they have it. They think it’s only for the rich. It’s not. I’ve met a thousand rich people who didn’t feel free. Choice is available to anyone who taps the strength to exercise it.

5. Powerful Proactivity.Blissful people participate in their own destinies and forge their own happiness. They don’t wait for events or other people to make them happy. They’re not yielding victims.

6. Solid Security. Blissful people know that nothing, over time, lasts - not money, not approval, not even life itself. So they don’t measure security with a calendar or a calculator. They simply like who they are. They’re not slaves to popularity, longevity, or financial status. They know that security is an inside job.

7. Powerful Health. Happiness and health are interdependent. It’s hard to be happy if you don’t feel healthy, and it’s hard to be healthy if you’re not happy. Of special importance for happiness is healthy mood chemistry. You can have a happy life and not even know it if you’re tortured by faulty mood chemistry. An imbalance of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, for example, can mask the happiness that bubbles within.

8. Soaring Spirituality. Happy people aren’t afraid to go beyond the boundaries of their own lives. They let go, and welcome extraordinary experiences. They have markedly less fear of death. They’re not concerned about dying - they’re concerned about failing to live.

Here are practical, easy to apply techniques that will help. Once the initial, analytical stage is completed, the techniques outlined here are simple ones that can be applied on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, as a matter of routine.

Preparation Week: the first step is the most time consuming one: analysing your current situation. To establish in what condition your management of time is at this moment, you will need to complete at least a week, perhaps two, of preparation. You will also need to make note of any activities that fall on a monthly basis, such as team meetings, or budget performance reviews.

Recording Your Activity: for one week at least, on a daily basis, you will need to keep a detailed record, diary, or log, of what activities you are involved in, and how long you spend on each of these. Be as detailed as you can, so that you can analyse your activities in depth. The experts in the time management field recommend that you split your day into at least 15 minute periods, and for very busy periods even smaller time periods of 5 or 10 minutes. For example, for that first 30 minutes after starting work in the morning, don’t just write down 8.30 to 9.00 Started work, opened emails, talked to colleagues, you need to break this down into at least three x 10 minute periods. If you have chosen an unusual week, for example when you are absent from the usual routine, on a training course, complete the log for the missing days, the following week. Be disciplined about this. Use a notebook, or diary, or prepare a paper or pc based time-sheet for each day. Take this with you everywhere, or at the very least, complete it every time that you return to your personal work area. If it will help you, get the support of your colleagues, and ask them to remind you that you should be recording your activities diligently.

Analysing Your Activity: at the end of this period you will need to carefully analyse these records. The primary aim is to identify negative activities and events. These will include activities that you shouldn’t be involved in, or could delegate, activities that you are spending too long on, activities that are unproductive, and events which are disruptive or unproductive. Some of the activities that you identify here will be unique to your situation, but some will be common to most professionals, such as being inappropriately interrupted by colleagues, by telephone calls aimed at others, by attending meetings which are not relevant to you, by surfing on the internet, by focusing on low-priority tasks instead of more important, but more difficult, ones. However, it is also important to identify the positive activities and events, so that you can consider how appropriate is the time that you are currently allocating to these. Examples could be how much time you are spending in supporting, or coaching, your team members, or how much time you are giving to the building and maintaining of relationships with others, or how much time you are spending on addressing quality management issues. With a clear picture of how you are spending your time, you can then move on to the next step.

Talk With Stakeholders: these are the colleagues, the teams, the managers, perhaps suppliers, perhaps customers, who have a legitimate interest in how you perform at work and who will be affected by the changes that you will be making. You may also need to arrange discussion with key individuals, before you take the next few steps that follow.

Listing Your Responsibilities: separately from the recording activity, you should make time to review your job description, yourself if it is current and up to date, with your line manager if it is in need of a formal review. The purpose of this is to clarify what your role is and what are your formal responsibilities. It is often the case that, because of poor time management and the problems that this creates, role and responsibilities are allowed to drift, to the point where the individual is not carrying out the activities that they are meant to. A clear picture of what the role and responsibilities actually is an essential part of building a strong foundation on which to plan your new approach to managing your time.

Listing Your Goals: this is another essential part of building that foundation as a professional, a manager or specialist, you will have corporate level and operational level goals which your activity is meant to contribute to and help achieve. In parallel, you will have personal work performance and personal development goals that you should be working towards. Identifying and reviewing these will enable you to clarify them and take them into consideration when you plan the changes that you will be making.

Eliminating Or Reducing Unnecessary Activities: with the information that you have collected and considered, it is now time to take some action. In simple terms this means identifying those activities, events, and periods of time, that are not contributing to you fulfilling your role and your responsibilities, and not helping you to contribute to the achievement of the corporate and operational goals nor your own personal goals. In your action plans, and your daily, weekly, monthly, lists (that we discuss below) you can then ensure that you do not continue wasting time and effort on any of these negative, unproductive, activities.

Prioritising Activities: you may need to talk with your team, and-or with your line manager, possibly with internal or external suppliers and customers, to clarify and confirm what your priorities should be. This could be an opportunity to discuss how you could delegate some tasks to others, perhaps simply because you should not be doing them in the first place, perhaps as a developmental activity to help a team member learn new skills. The aim is to have a clear picture of which are the high, medium, and low priority tasks and events. You can then allocate an appropriate time of day, week, or month, to work on these, and an appropriate time period that ensures that you will be able to complete these successfully.

Preparing Action Lists: sometimes called To Do lists. This is a relatively simple activity, where you look at the tasks and events of the coming day, week, and month, and list the activities that you intend to carry out, and when and for how long you will work on them. You will, of course, need to continually check that these activities match up with your role, responsibilities, and goals.

Starting Each New Day: in reality, this can mean taking action at the end of the previous day, your last task of the day being to plan your specific activities, perhaps as a simple actions or to-do list, with times, perhaps as a list of priorities, that you intend to complete on the following day. Then, on starting work the next day you will have an action plan waiting for you. As the day proceeds, you should review your progress at intervals, and make adjustments where necessary. Then, at the end of the day, draw up the action plan, the list, for the next day.

Building In Break Times: don’t fall into the trap of trying to work continuously, all day without stopping, working through all your breaks, and worse, not taking a lunch break. Overwhelming evidence shows that we need to have breaks, and that without them our performance deteriorates dramatically the longer we go without. You should take at least one short break mid morning, a minimum of 30 minutes at lunchtime, and a short break in the afternoon. Your organisation should encourage you to take these breaks, as it is required by health and safety at work legislation.

Starting Each New Week: try to adopt the same approach as with daily planning. At the end of the last day of your working week, draw up an action plan for the next week, or at least for the first day in detail and the rest of the week in outline. Starting Each New Month: again, adopt the same approach as with weekly planning. During the last week of the calendar of budgetary month, prepare your action plan for the following month.

Strategic Planning: in parallel with the daily, weekly, and monthly planning, you should also have background plan that focuses on medium term and long term objectives. These can be workplace performance targets, such as end of year financial results, but should also include softer, but equally important targets, such as the development of individuals and teams (not forgetting your own, personal, development objectives). They can also include targets such as the improvement of working conditions, or relationships, for example between departments or with suppliers. These longer term plans should be referred to and progress reviewed, on at least a monthly basis.

In summary: without a structured approach to managing your time it is inevitable that you will run into difficulties, miss important deadlines, not give enough attention to your career and personal development, not deal fully with the needs of your team members, allow others to dictate how you spend your time at work. The result is that work will become a burden, and your performance will deteriorate. In addition, others will notice and your performance will be judged negatively. By following the simple, practical, steps outlined here, you will take control of the time you spend at work, and take control of the activities that you carry out. Once you have consistently applied these techniques for a month or two, they will become habit, absorbed seamlessly into your daily work life. You will find that you have less conflict, fewer problems, and you will meet most of your deadlines and targets. You will be managing your time effectively.

Saturn Returns are major milestones in life. Saturn Returns occur for each of us every 29.5 years. Saturn returns between the ages 28-30, 58-60, and 88-90. Feared and misunderstood, Saturn Returns are indeed times when the chickens come home to roost. This can be either good or bad depending on what you have learned in the previous 29.5 years and how you have put this knowledge to use.

A well-maneuvered Saturn Return corrects and furthers out path, and brings magnificent results. A particularly difficult Saturn Return, the person may not survive.

Examples of difficult ones are if the person has lived unconsciously, irresponsibly, has failed to mature and learn the lessons Saturn teaches, and if they have lived in fear or in response to someone else’s wishes for their life rather than their own and their own spiritual path.

A Spiritual Path reading can tell you your reason for being here, and what you are meant to do. A Saturn Return reading can give you much insight.

Saturn Returns often bring about such momentous changes that the person’s name or title changes. Here are some examples:

At her first Saturn Return, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of France, became the Queen of England.

At his third Saturn Return, Picasso became a neo-expressionist.

At his second Saturn Return, Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II.

Lafitt Pincay, a Panamanian jockey, became a U.S. jockey at his first Saturn Return.

Winston Churchill was called a Conservative until his first Saturn Return. Then he was called a Liberal.

Phillipe Jaroussky stopped being a violinist and became a counter-tenor at his first Saturn Return, winning the French lyricist award.

At his first Saturn Return, Luciano Pavarotti became an international opera star, premiering in both the US and at La Scala. At his second Saturn Return, he stopped being Adua’s husband.

Afonso Henriques, an unusual young man, already had his own political ideas at the age of 11. At this tender young age, his mother exiled him from her kindgom for political reasons. At the age of 14, he returned with an army to take back his kingdom. At his first Saturn Return, he declared himself Afonso I, the first king of Portugal.

Charles Stuart tried unsuccessfully to save his father from execution in a country torn by religious issues. At the age of 30, he became Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

At his first Saturn Return, Ludwig von Beethoven, the pianist, became Beethoven the composer of symphonies. Beethoven, arguably the world’s most popular composer but a tortured individual, died at his second Saturn Return.

At his second Saturn Return, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Harvey Pitt gave up his job and title. Ending his tumultuous reign as the nation’s top securities regulator amid unfolding financial scandals, Pitt said, “the turmoil surrounding my chairmanship” had rendered him incapable of fulfilling his duties.

Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov took control of the church in Russia at his first Saturn Return, subordinating it to the state. You know him by the name Peter the Great.

British soldier, T.E. Lawrence, was sent to investigate the Arab nationalist movement at his first Saturn Return. His new name became Lawrence of Arabia.

You have waited all year for this day. Today, you will empty every coin left in the bank to get what you want. Your victim lies beneath you, unmoving and unable to stop or delay your actions. The creature is completely helpless against your will. From the way you see it, you have worked hard in life, so you deserve to get what you want. Nothing and nobody is going to stop you! You steady your weapon in the air and then bring it crashing down upon your victim. Crack! Your victim - your plastic piggybank - splits, revealing a pile of coins large enough to buy the new sneakers you have been saving for. As we become adults, coins are not enough to buy the houses that we want. For those who have been unable to save enough before purchasing one, no money down loans are ideal.

Piggybacking Loan

Few people are able to buy houses in cash, but many are also unable to make a down payment before buying one. For them, no money down loans is the solution. These are perfect for the recent college graduate who has a good job and good credit, but has been unable to save up much money. Recent college graduates typically rent an apartment for the same cost as a house payment. It seems to make more sense to shift the rent money to mortgage money. Without money to put down, however, a standard loan cannot be availed of. You may need to get a piggyback loan. It equals 20% of the home’s cost, while the first loan equals 80% of that value.

Pygg and Pig

Even if you must search for no money down loans to purchase a house, it is never too late to start saving. Perhaps nothing symbolizes the act of saving more than the piggy bank. But have you ever wondered how the piggy bank got its name? Near the 1400s, the term “pygg” referred to a form of orange clay. Then by the 1700s or so, the word “pygg” sounded the same as the animal known as a “pig.” So somehow, someone had the idea to create a “pygg” jar that was shaped to look like the animal.

Saving after Piggy Banks

After taking out no money down loans, adults usually start saving in accounts rather than in piggy banks. Still, with the added expense of paying off a mortgage, it is wise to engage in practices that will increase how much one is able to save. Here are some tips to achieve that goal.

* Stop trying to always have the biggest and the best products. We often spend more money to buy products that are more extravagant than what we need and can truly afford. If you stop and think about what you are spending money on, you can surely find ways to save a few bucks here and there. This will definitely help to pay off no money down loans.

* Try before you buy. If you are planning to buy something with a big price tag, try, borrow, or rent one first before you open your wallet. For example, after buying a pair of self-shaking salt and pepper shakers, you may realize that the product is either boring or unnecessary.

* Carefully define what you want and need. You need things such as shelter, clothing, transportation, and food. You want a mansion, a designer suit, an SUV, and steak dinners.

For those who have not been able to save much, no money down loans are ideal. However, after securing the loan, it is never too late to start saving.

From the time Jennifer was a little child, she was demanding of attention, especially from her mother, Sarah. With two older brothers, Jennifer had a “special” place in the family as the baby and the only girl. She made sure to establish a “special” relationship with her mother, who relished the connection since she didn’t have much of a relationship with her emotionally distant husband.

It was easy for Jennifer to control her mother’s attention. Because her mother was needy for emotional connection and afraid of not being liked, all Jennifer had to do was get angry at her mother and Sarah would capitulate, giving Jennifer the attention she craved. Jennifer learned early to control her mother by becoming angry, critical and withholding love when her mother didn’t do what she wanted. Unwittingly, Sarah contributed to Jennifer’s neediness, entitlement issues, and the belief that happiness was dependent on approval and attention from others.

Jennifer, now in her late 30’s, finds herself continuing the pattern she started with her mother - attaching to others in needy and demanding ways. The result is she has not been able to have a successful relationship with any of the men she has dated.

We all have a need to feel special. It is not the need that is dysfunctional, it is how we go about getting the need met that can be either dysfunctional or healthy. It is dysfunctional when we make others responsible for making us feel special. When others have to give us attention, compliment us, seek us out, and attend to our wants and needs in order for us to feel special, our behavior is dysfunctional.

HEALTHY SPECIAL-NESS

You will stop pulling on others to make you special only when you accept the full responsibility of making yourself feel special. This means learning to give yourself all that you may be trying to get from others &ndash treating yourself in the loving ways you desire from others. There are many ways of making ourselves feel special. Instead of trying to get others to give you what you want, you can:

* TAKE EMOTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY:

o Attend to your feelings throughout the day and explore what you may be doing that is causing painful feelings, rather than making others responsible for your feelings.

o Attend to your own needs rather than expecting others to meet your needs.

o Accept yourself rather than judge yourself. Validate yourself, approve of yourself &ndash tell yourself the things you want to hear from others. Value your talents and gifts.

o Value your intrinsic worth rather than just your looks or performance &ndash your kindness, compassion, creativity, caring.

o Behave in ways that you value &ndash being loving, kind, integreous, compassionate, understanding, caring.

o Pursue work you love, work that fulfills you, if possible.

* TAKE PHYSICAL RESPONSIBILITY:

o Feed yourself well to maintain health and appropriate weight.

o Get enough rest and exercise.

o Create balance between work and play and creative time.

o Make sure you are physically safe such as when riding a motorcycle.

* TAKE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:

o Make sure you are financially independent rather than dependent upon another, if physically able to do so.

o Spend within your means to avoid the fear and stress of debt.

* TAKE RELATIONSHIP RESPONSIBILITY:

o Stand up for yourself and speak your truth rather than complying, defending or resisting in the face of others’ demands or criticism. Don’t be a victim.

o Refrain from blaming others, with anger and criticism, for your feelings and behavior. Don’t be a victim.

* TAKE ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY:

o Do what you say you are going to do regarding time and chores.

o Make sure your living space and work environment are clean and tidy, and esthetically pleasing.

* TAKE SPIRITUAL RESPONSIBILITY:

o Take the time to connect with the love and truth of God/Higher Power.

o Take time throughout the day to bring the love down to the level of your feeling self &ndash your Inner Child.

Treating yourself in these loving ways will eventually result in feeling internally special rather than needing others to make you feel special.

As Jennifer practiced making herself special, she discovered that her relationships with others were becoming stronger and more fulfilling. People were no longer pulling away from her, resisting her, or defending themselves against her demands for attention. Her behavior naturally and gradually changed with others when she was treat herself as a special person.

Quite often I am in contact with people who discuss acting as an ADD Coach for their child or spouse. While supporting and helping loved ones with ADD is a great idea, acting as an ADD Coach really isn’t a great idea. There is just way too much emotion involved and an ADD Coach needs to be far enough removed from the situation to be an effective ADD Coach.

I have recently seen people talking about being their own ADD Coaches. That is just a really bad idea. As both an ADD Coach and a first born child who has a very hard time asking and accepting help myself, I can see both sides of the coin. It just becomes second nature to want to do things ourselves and not trust in others to be able to help us.

People with ADD are usually their own worst critics. No matter how well adjusted people with ADD are they can never be fair and impartial when it comes to their own thoughts and ideas. They need another person to bounce their ideas off and for that person to be completely non-judgmental when coaching them.

Working with an ADD Coach can be very helpful to people with Attention Deficit Disorder. An ADD Coach can help by adding a different perspective on things. ADD Coaching can help a person with ADD come up with strategies to complete projects and tasks. Some times a very small change in the way a person goes about doing something can make a huge difference.

An ADD Coach can help a person with ADD figure out his or her strengths and talents. Quite often when a person with ADD tries to coach himself or herself he or she just focuses on improving areas of weakness. ADD Coaching can help people with ADD find a balance between the two.

Just what is a silent subliminal message? Surely if you can’t hear a silent message it won’t work?

Well yes and no. You see, silent subliminal is really a misnomer. Whilst it’s called silent, it isn’t really. It’s actually either a very high frequency message or a very low frequency one. Either way, it’s inaudible to humans. Which means it really ought to be called an inaudible subliminal. Except that wouldn’t sound as catchy.

Silent subliminals have been around for some time. The patent application for them was filed way back in 1989. You can search it out if you’re technically inclined.

Ok, so we’ve established what a silent subliminal is.

Now, what do you do with them?

Essentially, they’re a hidden communication. Providing that silent subliminals work, they can be added anywhere so long as the frequency range of the “carrier” medium is wide enough.

Oh, and also if the “carrier” medium doesn’t use some kind of lossy compression. So your MP3 collection is almost certainly safe from silent subliminals. MP3’s get rid of information that we can’t hear in order to keep their file size down.

On the other hand, your CD collection could be harboring silent subliminal messages if the artists you listen to are crafty enough to include them.

Of course, systems like the Centerpointe Holosync CDs are up front about their use of silent subliminal messages. In fact, it’s part of their selling point.

Rock bands could use silent subliminals. After all, they have been accused of other dodgy practices over the years, such as including backwards messages in their tracks. Whether or not that is true is a matter of conjecture. It could just have been dreamed up by the band’s publicity department in an effort to encourage rebellious teenagers to buy the music. Who knows?

The first ‘accessory’ that is required to stop smoking is within you- your commitment! Without this, no tangible results are possible! All your habits, good or bad will have a direct bearing on your body and mind, and skin is an all-embracing part and therefore, it assumes priority! Whether smoking has something to do with skin care? Definitely yes! Even the hard-core smokers will admit to this fact.

Stopping smoking will benefit the skin. Well, almost immediately! For, there is no doubt that smoke, tar and nicotine are all drying agents and contain carcinogens. Its harmful effects are beyond dispute. So, the glow or dullness of your skin has something to do with the smoke that you inhale.

Therefore, the decision to quit smoking should be firm and irrevocable! Just as a wavering candle can not withstand a storm, a wavering mind will not be able to quit smoking! Our food intake, the quality and content, is bound to show on our skin. Look at the face and observe the skin of a young adult who is smoking for the last, say, 8 to 10 years. The strong effects will definitely show; wrinkles are the sure indicators. The skin will look aged.

The overall blood circulation is also affected due to smoking. The outer layers of the skin are the first to suffer the maximum damage. The reason is not too far to seek. Oxygen supply and nutrients are deprived to the skin, so also the Vitamin A, which is of utmost importance to the health of the skin. It is the beginning of decay of elastin and collagen, two substances absolutely necessary for the elasticity and strength of the skin.

Exercises are generally for good of the body; they are for its health and shape. But this smoking exercise is the most damaging, taken from any angle! How many times a smoker opens and closes his mouth, while smoking just one cigarette? While inhaling pursing of the lips is involved. And you squint your eyes to escape from the smoke. Will it not contribute the fast arrival of more and more wrinkles? The heat generated from the burning cigarette, as it becomes smaller and smaller, will definitely change the color of the lips. No smoker’s lips have ever been rosy. The black patches on the lips look very dirty and unappealing!

So, the conclusion is obvious. Try to recapture the lost glow of your skin, which is only possible by quitting smoking-not now and then-once for all!