Worth Every Minute

I've been trying to incorporate more calcium into my diet, and one of the ways I've done this is by sipping the occasional glass of milk. I drink one with breakfast, and one before going to bed. It comforts my stomach when it's upset and it's just nice as an in between snack.

I was looking up some information about the benefits of drinking milk (and the drawbacks) when I came across this site that I'd love to share with you. It has lots of great tips on how to incorporate drinking more milk into your life, and on the benefits of drinking it.

So go ahead, read, think, get a glass of the good stuff!

The Health Benefits of Drinking Milk by Michele Borboa

PS. Avoid taking calcium with iron-rich foods because they sort of cancel each other out. Vitamin C and D help with the absorption of calcium.

Expiration List

Picture by Ben Dalton

I've missed some posts due to the fact that our Internet subscription expired and being too late to renew it (although I did it on the day it expired) meant that I had trouble getting it back up.

So today's post is about this little lesson I just learned: I should really make a list of when certain subscriptions and services expire, so that I can renew them in time.

I don't have a big calendar in the apartment, but I would advice everyone to get one. The kind you put on the wall. They're great for birthdays, remembering when to put out the trash, AND noting down when you need to renew a subscription or pay a certain bill.

When you start this habit, you'll need to think of all the subscriptions you have and write down a list of them. Then, found out the dates that  they expire. Write down a note on your calendar about one week before the expiration date. That way you can schedule it in for the week to come.

Maintaining this is much easier than starting. Just make a new note whenever you've just renewed the subscription. That way you don't have to worry about it for the year to come. It's already noted. Taken care of.

I have a similar system with calling my grandmother. I call her every other week, and after each phone call, I make a new note in my Outlook diary for the next call.


Of course the best way to put these worries out of your mind is to make the renewing subscription automatic, and do the same for the payment. But don't forget to note down the money in your budgeting sheet, if that's the case.

Triple Inspiration: School Edition

Ready for some more inspiring quotes? It's Sunday again, the last one of the summer holiday, so I've found some quotes related to school and education that you may find useful in the week to come.

Get Productive!

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child."

(George Santayana)

Get Happy!

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

(Aristotle)

Get Inspired!

"I've never let my school interfere with my education."

(Mark Twain)

Control Your Cravings: 3 Snack Options

Picture by Arnold Gatilao

Let's face it: Our body doesn't always let us know what's good for us. At different times during the day we may crave something sweet, salty or greasy. None of these options are particularly encouraging for someone who is trying to eat well and stay healthy.
What you need is a way to fool your body into thinking you're satisfying a junk-food need, while really feeding it something reasonably healthy.
I've figured out some tricks to limit the amounts of ice-cream and salted chips/crisps that I eat.

1. Craving something sweet: Try to eat a sweet kind of fruit, maybe one that's on the verge of too sweet, like grapes or a very ripe mango. Dried fruits are even sweeter and guaranteed to make you crave some water instead!
   
2. Craving something salty and crunchy: Toast some bread and top it with some peanut butter and a little bit of salt. You could also use gomashio, which is a Japanese sesame salt that goes really well with peanut butter in my opinion! One of my go-to snacks.
   
3. Really hungry: Eat something that contains fat and protein. Ideal snacks to combine both are eggs, nuts and beef jerky. These are a great way to help tie you over until the next big meal.

Any idea what to do about craving french fries? That seems to be the one that's eternally difficult to control in my case. Can't imagine what it would be like if I lived in Belgium where they are pretty much everywhere! I used to eat them at least once a week.

Leave a Little Early

Running late

No one likes the stress of rushing to work. I hate it when I arrive late, or when I have no more than a couple of minutes to spare before I need to start teaching. Ideally, I arrive about 5 - 10 minutes early so I can fill in my papers and take a look at my lesson plans.
Not everyone has the same discipline though, and we don't have it all of the time. It helps however if you make leaving early part of your habit. And there is no better time to start than in the beginning of the new school year (or after any long holiday).

First of all, decide how long it takes you to travel to work. What's the longest time you have ever taken to get there? How long does it usually take?
Secondly, figure out what your 'leaving time' actually means. If you say you will leave at 7:30, does this mean that's the time you're out the door, or the time you start packing your things together? Those or not quite the same, it's about a 5 minute difference.
Add your preparation time and your traveling time. Then add however much extra time you would like to have to sip a cup of coffee or catch up with colleagues before you start your work day.
You then have the exact time you should start getting ready, and the time you need to be out of the house.

Having an extra couple of minutes means that there's a bit of flexibility. If you forget your phone and need to run back, it's not a big problem.

Do you usually like to arrive early, or are you someone who often runs late? What do you prefer?

Look on the Bright Side

Photo by Bruce Turner

The oldest advice in the book, and one I'm repeating today mainly because I need to remind myself of it.
I thought I was done teaching university students English here in China, turns out I'm not. Our boss had assured us we would only get two or three classes, but has set us up with a full schedule after all due to a teacher shortage.
So, not really what we were expecting or hoping.

That means it's time to take out those pink goggles and see the world in a whole new light: A bright light.
Teaching more classes means getting paid, keeping busy and active, meeting other foreigners on a more regular basis, etc. There's lots of good aspects too.

Just found out some bad news? Maybe you have to perform a task that you don't feel up to, or you need to meet with someone you really don't like. Maybe you just found out that an event that you'd been looking forward to, fell through. 
Take a few moments and try to spin the situation in the most positive light possible. 
Don't worry if it doesn't feel quite right yet. It takes a while for all those negative emotions to fade away. Try to regularly think of this task/event/change of plans in that positive light. Accept that there is nothing you can do to change it. Envision the positive results you will get once it's finished. 

Unpleasant tasks can come with great rewards, especially if they're challenging. Plans that fell through open up space to create new plans or take some you-time, and they can help you save money (if the plan was going to a show, for example.)

As you can tell, thinking positive is not easy. But it doesn't take a lot of initial effort, it just takes persistence. Write down some silver linings on pieces of paper and hide them where you know you'll find them (on the fridge, in your wallet, under your pillow).
We can't always control the way our lives unfold, but we can control the way we look at it.

Worth Every Minute

I've been looking forward to Wednesday just to get a chance to share this article with you. I read it a couple of days ago, and couldn't wait to feature it on Worth Every Minute.

The article gives 8 examples of words that are used in a certain way, and how to look out for them. Each of these words carries a negative effect or a hidden suggestion with it.
Mostly they're about becoming more certain of what you say, such as when changing I wish to I will or I deserve. 

The 8 words the writer discusses are: try, wish, I am, if, should, I can't, desperate and luck.

Enjoy the article in your own time:

Watch Your Words: 8 Ways to Choose Your Words More Carefully
by Caz Makepeace on lifeoptimizer.org

3 Ways to Drink More Water

Picture by Greg Riegler

One of the tips for a healthy diet that I usually find difficult to keep up with, is the one about drinking more water. Usually, I just forget about it unless I'm really thirsty. And now that the heat has subsided, and our life is quite relaxed, I don't feel thirsty half as often as I should.
So I need to find little tricks to remind myself to drink more water. I want to share with you today what has worked for me so far.

1. It's important to always have water ready for you to drink. Keep a pitcher of water on your desk, a bottle in your bag, a glass on your bedside table (for mornings, not evenings!)
   
2. Make sure to drink water that you enjoy. There's no use trying to get yourself to drink more water if you don't like the taste. The habits won't stick. And yes, water does have lots of different tastes. If you're in a country where you can safely drink tap-water, a filtering can or system can improve the taste (and the effects on your iron and washing machine). It's what my parents did, and the water tastes great!
   
3. Make it a habit to sip your water rather than drinking big amounts at once. You will soon get used to the fresh feeling, and the lack thereof can start making you feel uncomfortable.
   This also keeps you from downing full glasses that leave you feeling like a giant water balloon. Not a pleasant feeling!

When I was young, I remember one of my classmates actually being taken to the hospital because he was dehydrated.  I've never quite forgotten that.
Drinking more water can help purify your body, and can help you get a better skin and a slimmer waist. You just have to remember to do it.

Read the Label

"Cheese" by Oli Shaw

You know those small letters they have on clothes or on packages of food? You know how they got there? Years of consumer organizations struggling to get us, you and me, informed about what we're buying. We're used to seeing them on bottles, boxes and bags, but do you ever read them?

Well, it might not be such a silly idea.

While you're drinking your glass of juice for breakfast, read the information on the box. If you happen to have different boxes or bottles available, feel free to compare.
When you eat a snack, don't throw the wrapper out immediately but have a look at the ingredients on it. 
Buying a new t-shirt? There's a tag that will tell you where it was made. 

Even if you don't use the information, even if you don't change your mind based on it, it never hurts to be informed. Knowing what you put in your body is valuable, even if it is a dangerous chemical!

Reading these little words is a matter of seconds, but it can be a first step to living a healthier, happier and more satisfying life.

I once read a book (Food Rules: An Eater's Guide by Michael Pollan) which stated that if there is something on a food label that you don't understand, that you don't recognize as food, you should consider it a 'food stuff' instead of real food. Reading food labels I try to keep in mind that anything that looks like a chemical instead of a natural product is probably not that good for me. I'd rather eat sugar than high fructose corn syrup.
Reading the label on a bottle of juice, I like to see no more than: 100% juice (based on concentrate, in most cases).
Reading the labels on clothes, I love to see I am buying cotton or wool, and not acrylic or polyester. I also love seeing clothes with a fair-trade label instead of those made in Bangladesh or Thailand.

Whatever is on a label has been put there especially to keep you informed, usually against the will of the corporations who produce the product. It's your right to know.

Triple Inspiration in a Single Minute

Another Sunday, another set of delightful quotes to feast your eyes and mind upon. Read the full series of Triple Inspiration here in case these three don't quench your thirst.

Get Productive!

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
(Thomas Jefferson)

Get Happy! 

"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour."
(William Blake - From Auguries of Innocence)

Get Inspired!"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable." 

(Christopher Reeve)

Five 5-Minute Breakfast Options

French Toast by Annie Mole

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you start off with a good breakfast, it gets your metabolism going and can provide energy for the morning ahead of you, preventing you from reaching for snacks before lunchtime. We eat a big breakfast every day, with two eggs, a piece of fruit, and a slice of bread with cheese. But from time to time we like to change it up a little and eat something different.
These following breakfast menus all take about 5 minutes to prepare.

1. Scrambled eggs with toast. Beat the eggs with a bit of milk, melt some butter in the pan, and keep stirring the eggs while they cook. Finished in no time!
   
2. French toast. Again, beat an egg with some milk, dip both sides of a slice of bread in the mix, and fry the eggy bread in some butter. Tastes great with jam! French toast is a great way to re-purpose stale bread.
   
3. Smoothies. In for a light breakfast? Put some frozen berries and a banana in the blender with some yogurt. Easy and fast!
   
4. Granola and yogurt. Cereals are easy but often a high-sugar/low-nutrient option. Go for a cereal without added sugar (granola can be made with only honey). It's even better if you take out some time to make your own muesli. Make sure you mix in some nuts so you feel full longer. Eat with milk or yogurt.
   
5. Ham & Cheese sandwich. Get some cheese and ham, slice some cucumber and tomatoes to go with it. Put it all between two slices of whole-wheat bread and voila! No need for mayo, tastes great without it. 

Now there's no excuse for not preparing breakfast for your family. It only takes a couple of minutes. Try to make sure you get a bit of protein (not included in option 3) too, so you'll feel full longer. And keep in mind that if you eat vegetables and fruit now, you've already taken a first step toward those 5 servings per day!

To Do What You Wanna Do, Be Who You Wanna Be!

Picture by Sam Davis

Self-discipline and motivation has been a struggle for me since day one. I can remember my kindergarten teacher complaining about the fact that I couldn't finish tasks. In elementary school, I would finish 90% of a drawing in 20 minutes, and take forever over the last 10%.

And then my dad told us a story. I don't really remember much of it, but it was about this little guy, a toymaker, who could never finish all the toys he started making. His workshop was full of unfinished toys. This struck me, at the time and still now, as incredibly sad.
I realized that that was not the kind of person I wanted to be.

When you find it hard to do the kind of things you set out to do, or to follow the planning you have made for yourself, take a step back. Don't keep pushing yourself, because you risk starting to resent the task that you have set out to do, which brings you nowhere closer to finishing it.

Instead, take that step back and get some perspective. Imagine how the task fits in with the kind of person you want to be. 
Take 3 minutes to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What kind of person do I want to be?
2. How would that kind of person tackle this task?
3. How will finishing this task reflect on me as a person?

Realize that who you are is no more set in stone than the clouds in the sky. 'YOU' is a fluent concept. You are allowed to change and improve upon this concept, and more importantly, you can radically change it to become what you want it to be. 

True, some things we can't change, and some parts of our personality are less flexible than others, but I believe that who we really are as a person doesn't depend on those everlasting, unchangeable aspects (race, nationality, gender, sexuality) but on the choices we make every day.
I want to be the kind of person people can trust, and that I can trust. With every choice I make as that person, I come closer to becoming her.

Practice Patience

Picture by Gemma Bardsley

Patience is a virtue. I don't know how many times my elementary school teacher repeated that to us little kids. Patience wasn't very high on our list of priorities at the time, and for many of us, it's still something to work on. We find it harder and harder to wait in line, listen without interrupting and get put on hold. We can't imagine our valuable time slipping away and not being completely distraught over it.

But you know what? Patience is still a virtue, and it's still worth practicing.

There are countless situations in life that benefit from a patient attitude. Think of how much more comfortable it feels to stand in line patiently, for example, rather than feeling your heart race faster and faster because of how anxious you are. 
Patience will always benefit you because it's one of the best ways to prevent and reduce stress. It's an attitude shift toward acceptance.

But patience also benefits those around you. Having someone deal with you in a patient manner, listening patiently, waiting for you patiently, explaining something patiently, can make all the difference in the world. It's comforting, relaxing, and it does wonders for your relationships.

So next time 5 minutes seem to be slipping by and you're getting wound up over it thinking about how much better that time could be spent checking email, take a step back and try to become patient. Just wait for a moment. Just. Be.

Worth Every Minute

On Wednesday,  I traditionally share an article from another blog or website. This time, it's about decluttering, for a change. It's a post from SimpleProductivityBlog.com, a website I've posted on before (see here), and that I love catching up on from time to time.

The post explains how to declutter quickly, without having to waste too much time on it. They give you ideas on what you can clean up if you only have 5, 10 or 15 minutes to spare. All of these suggestions can come in handy, and I should probably just all do them in a series of small, quick tasks. But just in case you really only have a quarter of an hour to spare, you can just pick out one or two.

5, 10 and 15 Minute Decluttering by LJ Earnest on SimpleProductivityBlog.com

Have fun decluttering!

Learn a Card Trick

Picture by Robert Couse-Baker

Remember when you were a kid and magic still had the power to amaze you? Actually, for me that feeling never quite left. I can still be amazed at very simple tricks. Any riddle to which I don't see the answer has the power to captivate me and makes me want to find out the truth behind the trick.

But I also love being the person to put others to the test and see if they can figure out the mystery behind a trick. Asking someone whether or not they want to see a card trick, I have never yet had a negative response. Of course, maybe my friends and family are only trying to be polite, but once they see the trick, they have a hard time letting go of it. It's a good time to start bargaining about who's going to do the dishes!

Learning a card trick or two is very simple. Many card tricks come with simple explanations, and you may have to practice them once or twice, but that's it. It's only knowing the secret behind it that gives you all the power, and that takes as much time as it takes you to read the explanation.
I've used card tricks with family, friends and to motivate whole groups of students. They always work.

The website I use to get them is this one: www.cardtricksite.com. Here you can find a list of their easy tricks.

If you've tried this on others, let me know how they respond. Share it too if you have found one trick to be particularly fun!

I realize I am giving away some of my most valuable secrets, revealing this site, but I trust that none of you will take advantage of this and reveal me when the opportunity arises. Thank you.

Healthy Summer Snacks: Shakes

(source)

Summer and winter for me are both risky times when it comes to snacking. In winter, I always crave cookies and chocolate, in summer, I can't stay away from ice-cream and fruit pies. But there are so many better options available that offer our body much more nutrition and a lot less poison.

One of the ways I try to stay away from ice-cream is by eating fruit instead. But sometimes, that just doesn't cut it and I want something a bit more special. On those occasions, I get out the blender and make myself a quick shake.

I've based my shakes on either dairy or on juice. Some fruits mix better with milk or yogurt, others go really well with orange juice.
Some quick combinations for you to try out:

1. Mix some banana, yogurt (or kefir) and cocoa powder in the blender. This is similar to a desert my mother used to make that was a combination of melted chocolate and yogurt left in the fridge. This one is much faster though, and you get some extra nutrients from the banana
   
2. Mix any berries with apple juice. I love forest fruits in a juice, or in a blend. The tangy taste is just perfect for those hot summer days. To make it easy on yourself (and avoid a trip to the woods) frozen berries work just fine and add that bit of cold chill many people like.
   
3. Blend some mango with orange juice. Mango is one of my favorite fruits, and it's unbelievably good for you! To spice up this shake, add a bit of cinnamon and a bit of nutmeg to the mix.

Enjoy your summer full of healthy snacks, and don't forget to indulge in that bit of ice-cream every now and then anyways. You deserve it!

What kind of shakes do you make?
If you enjoyed reading this post, feel free to vote on it below.

Triple Inspiration: Douglas Adams Edition

It's Sunday again, and it is now an established and trusted tradition, that Sundays start off with three quotes to inspire you for a productive, happy and inspired working week.

Today, the quotes come from my all-time favorite author: Douglas Adams. He was the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the four other books that made up the trilogy.

He was also a famous atheist, and cared deeply about the way the planet was (d)evolving. But most of all, he is remembered for his extraordinary sense of humor.

Get Productive!

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Get Happy!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

Get Inspired!

"Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."

Bonus: one of my favorites as an extra
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

Cut Yourself Some Slack

Photo by Jan Willem Stad

Some days are just not quite 'it'. And sure, we can beat ourselves up about it, and feel miserable about all the lost productivity and the total waste of time, but that never seems to help either. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I pretty much felt tired from morning to evening, even though I did take two naps in between. Half-way through the day, I decided to just give in to the feeling and let myself have an off day.

If you feel low on energy, or slightly depressed (can be weather-related as it often is in my case) how about just allowing yourself to take it easy for a while. Take a couple of minutes to clear as much from your schedule as possible, so that you can focus on relaxing, sleeping and resting for a couple of hours. 
Perhaps, these little 'downward curves' are just a way for our body to tell us it's time to take a break and recharge the batteries. 
Don't beat yourself up if you need some time to just do nothing. There's no point in doing anything but using this time to just veg out on the couch.

If you can't clear your schedule, just go through the motions. Chances are, you already know how to do your job pretty well, and there's no need to always perform at 110%. Allow your skills to carry you through the day, until you're back in bed and looking forward to a new day which can only be better. 

There is a strong stress on performance these days, for everyone. My students feel it, my fellow teachers feel it,  my family and friends feel it. The people around us and the systems in which we work come with high demands. It's not unusual that at times we need to be able to just go through a day without giving in to all these expectations and demands.

Do you ever have days like this? Where it seems like you have no desire to do anything but sleep? How do you handle it? Do you try to motivate or energize yourself, or do you just go with the flow?
I bet people handle this kind of thing very differently depending on who they are.

Let Despair Inspire

(source)

For those of you who have been keeping up with the news, the stories of the riots in London, and other big cities in England, can't have escaped your attention. I was reading up on some eye-witness accounts yesterday, and the words of teenagers who are stealing and destroying property, and I couldn't help feeling shocked, enraged, and in the end, desperate. A feeling of 'what has the world come to' overcame me, and I had a hard time finding anything positive left to focus on.

And then I read this story about an old Hackney woman who told off some of the kids on the street. She treated them as what they are: kids run amok. And in seeing the video (you can watch it here), I felt inspired again in seeing that the worst can often bring out the best in people.

Life will throw a lot of situations at you that you didn't prepare for, and that you feel you may be unable to handle. It can be full of heart-ache and tragedy. In moments like that, there is often a sense of despair that is incredibly hard to shake off. It's like we can't imagine how the world could possible ever be a good place again. I remember how learning about the holocaust left me feeling that way for a couple of days. 

But those moments, however horrendous they may be, also offer opportunities to go beyond our limits and show ourselves stronger and more resilient than we've ever been before.
In a couple of desperate moments, we can realize that caring about something so deeply, gives us a power that we may not have felt before.

My thoughts go out to all of those who are affected by chaos, violence and destruction, not only in London the last couple of days, but also in other places and at other times.
I hope that from all this pain, a new strength and a new sense of resolution can find its way to both victims and perpetrators.

Think Before You Talk

(source)

We live in a world where people are allowed to say pretty much anything they want to. Under the cloak of free speech, not only do we declare things that are untrue, but we insult and harass each other too. Words are, more than ever before, powerful weapons. And you don't need a license to open your mouth.

Of course, it's wonderful that we don't get prosecuted for what we say. And we need people to voice concerns and objections to our most common ideas as well. People have to feel free and safe to tell their truths, but to me, that's not a license to just say whatever first gets into your mind, without considering the consequences. 

When you're in the middle of an argument, or about to tell someone something that may be quite sensitive in nature, try to take a moment to consider how your words will affect the other person, and which effect you're hoping to get. 
Now, try to find the best way to say what you want to say. The best way is the way the way that will bring you closest to a win-win: You will convey the message and the other person will be receptive to it. The best way is also a way in which you don't jeopardize the relationship between you and the other person. Keeping a line of communication open should be your first priority in a conversation.

 Remember that you can always convey your message at another time, when it's more appropriate or less tricky. You won't be able to take back any words already spoken.

I've suggested to others, to try and count to 10 before saying something hurtful or delicate. It's the trick that I've used to a couple of years. I used to be incredibly rude (ask my parents) and just say anything that would come up in my mind, no matter how offensive it was.
I'd like to think I've learned a couple of lessons in those days.

Worth Every Minute

I like zenhabits.net. Sometimes it's a bit over the top, but I often find very valuable and worthwhile thoughts on there. Plenty of the things I do in my daily life, stem from zen habits in one way or another.

Today is Wednesday, so I want to share another article with you. This one is about making decisions. We make a ton of decisions in our daily life, and some of them can really pose problems. We can take an awful long time deciding on things that don't really matter in the end at all, like what to have for dinner. I've written about deciding before in the post Make a Decision!

What Leo Babauta does in this article, is give you some ideas to make decision making easier. He explains that we are obsessed with making the 'right' decision, but that often we can't because we don't have all the information it takes to make that right decision.
As a way to help us decides, he asks you to listen to your intuition and view every decision as a chance to gain more information, to learn something. I hope you get something out of this one too:

Effortless Decision-Making by Leo Babauta

Let me know what you think!

5-Minute Yoga Routine

Eagle Pose in the Summer Palace

Finding time to exercise can be difficult, and even if you have free time, who says you want to spend your free hour working out? But I know many of you have that nagging feeling somewhere that you should be working out, or want to get fit.

I've found that yoga really helped me get back on the horse when it comes to regular exercise. I actually enjoy my work-outs, even if they're only 5 minutes or so, and I have noticed my body getting more flexible.

I can do yoga anywhere if I have a solid surface underneath my feet. For many poses you need a yoga mat, but you can also design a routine that doesn't require a mat.

Whenever you feel stressed, jittery or lack energy, try the following 5-minute mat-less yoga routine to get your energy flowing again:

1. Mountain: Start by placing your feet flat on the floor, toes spread out for balance. Stand up straight and control your breath.
2. Upward Salute: Raise your arms, with the palms together. Stretch and look upward.
3. Chair: keep your arms raised, but sink through your legs like you're sitting down on a chair. Great to create nice, firm thighs!
4. Standing Tree: bend your left leg, putting your left foot on your right thigh. Balance on the right leg while lifting your arms. Do the same for the other side.
5. Warrior III: stretch one leg back, and stretch your arms forward, putting your body horizontal, balancing on one leg. Same for the other leg.
6. Eagle: twist one leg around the other, and one arm around the other. Balance and sink through your leg until you feel it tensing. Then do the other leg and arm.
7. Extended Triangle: set your legs apart. Stretch your arms horizontally to the side. On an exhale, lean your right hand to your right foot, making an angle. The stretch on your side is phenomenal! Do the same for the other side.
8. Revolved Triangle: same, but in this case you move your right hand to your left foot and vice versa.
9. Wide-legged Forward Bend: keep your legs at the triangle position, but now bend forward (try to keep your back straight) and touch the floor.
10. Sun Salutation: go from lunge, to plank, to upward dog, and back to downward dog. See this site for a step by step guide to sun salutation.

In this whole routine, only your hands and feet need touch the floor at any time. So you can even do it outside, and not worry about your clothes getting dirty.
Enjoy!

Two-in-One: Combine Experiences

You know how much fun it is to do something you truly enjoy? Now how about doing two things you really enjoy at the same time? Double the fun, right?

There are lots of different treats that lend themselves to possible combinations. I got the idea for doing this while I was eating a piece of chocolate cake and thoroughly enjoying it. And then, all of a sudden, I got a whiff of coffee. The smell of the coffee together with the taste of the chocolate was just divine. I didn't have to drink a sip, and then eat a bite, I could enjoy both at the same time and make it a multi-sensuous experience.

(source)

Of course, it makes sense that you would choose experiences that enhance each other rather than cancel each other out. No point in trying to listen to two songs at the same time, or talk to a friend while on the phone. That's not really what I had in mind.

So what kind of experiences really complement each other? Senses that often go together are smell and taste, and sight and sound. But there are many more possible combinations.
Have a go at the following few to see which ones suit you best:

1. Taste & touch: Imagine receiving a relaxing foot rub while indulging in a cup of your favorite flavored tea. Let the warmth of the tea and the warmth of your feet become one. Absolute bliss.

2. Smell & sight: I'm a sucker for smells. It can be a strength ("Is that Chanel you're wearing?") and a weakness ("Please consider deodorant before getting on a crammed bus.") But my favorite time to focus on smell is when I'm enjoying a great view out in the mountains or something. Watching that splendor and breathing in the earthy smell at the same time, makes me feel like I'm in the Garden of Eden.

3. Touch & Sound: My mind is often wandering aimlessly. Even when I'm trying to physcially relax, it can get in the way and make me drift off. But if I give both my mind and my body something enjoyable to focus on, all the pieces fall into place. Try combining the experiences explained in the posts corpse pose and musical minutes.

Of course you can make any combination of senses, and even add more to the experience. Many of our day-to-day experiences already combine several senses. Think of eating popcorn (taste & smell) at the movies (sound & sight). But there are some we don't often put together. So get creative and think about what you love and how to enhance the experience.
Have fun with it!

Feel free to share your ideas with the other readers here too. I'm sure they (you) would welcome them.

Triple Inspiration in a Single Minute

Hello dear readers, it's another Sunday.
Unbelievable how the weeks keep flying by, isn't it?

Last week's quotes are all used up by now, so I've got three fresh ones for you to keep in mind for the next seven days.

If you want to have a look at all the old posts in this series, you can click here.

Get Productive!

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
(William James)

Get Happy!

“Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.”

(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Get Inspired!

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
(Arthur C. Clarke)

5 Reasons To Check the Weather Forecast

Storm over by Monday night

We've got a typhoon heading our way! By the time it reaches us, it won't be a more than a big storm, but still big enough to require some preparation (close windows, put screens up, etc). And how did I find out about it? We invited our boss out to dinner, and he said he'd have to wait and see what the typhoon did. I had to ask whether I heard him correctly. But sure thing, when I checked the weather report, it had the words 'typhoon' in bright red letters underneath.

Weather reports are one of those things we take for granted. Perhaps, we have forgotten how great they really are. 
It only takes you a couple of minutes to check a website that has the weather forecast. There's plenty of good ones available now. And what are the advantages? To name a few:

1. Save money. You don't have to buy another umbrella cause you made sure to bring your own when you saw the chance of rain. 
2. Be comfortable. You packed an extra sweater for that chilly weather on your holiday destination.
3. Plan ahead. You stocked up on groceries, so you don't have to run out in the snow.
4. Adapt. You postponed the BBQ, or got a tent, so your meat doesn't get soaked.
5. Warn others. Your neighbors, family and friends are eternally grateful to you for providing them with this excellent information! (Thanks boss!)

Are you a weather-forecast-checker or an I'll-take-it-as-it-comes kinda person? Have you ever wished you had checked the weather report, but didn't? Do you feel worse for knowing bad weather is heading your way?

I love to hear your comments (anyone still there?) and you can rate the posts below as well! Let me know which ones are your favorites.

5-Minute Sunbath

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Confession nr. gazillion-and-forty-six: I hate sunbathing. It gets all sweaty and sticky. You get way too hot and your eyes start to burn. It helps that every doctor says it's harmful for your health to go sunbathing for extended periods of time, but I'm afraid there are benefits to sun exposure that sound appealing too.

You need sunlight for the production of vitamin D. Every single cell in your body needs vitamin D to work properly, and I've heard that the current sunlight-phobia has caused whole countries to be vitamin-D deficient. Our Couch Surfers from Denmark told us that in their country, the government now has to warn people not to use too much sunblock. Imagine that.

But vitamin D is not the only reason to enjoy a bit of sunlight, it's also very uplifting. Sunlight affects my mood more than anything else. It's one of the things that I love about living in Yantai: So much more sunshine than gray and gloomy Belgium.

So I want to suggest to you that you expose yourself to the sun. But for a limited time only!
Take 5 minutes on any given, sunny day. 
Wear only as many clothes as you need to stay warm. If you don't need anything, then that works fine (check to make sure fences are peeping-Tom-proof!), but you can sunbathe in winter too. Try to leave as much of your skin bare as possible (also when just going outside). Get in a comfortable position, letting yourself be covered by the rays of the sun. 
Protect your eyes (maybe even your whole head) from the sun by wearing a hat or sunglasses. 

And ... enjoy! 
Especially in spring time it can be great to feel the rays of the sun sinking into your skin all the way to the bones. I need that feeling to get rid of the chill that has settled there in winter.


Caution: the best times for sunbathing are when the sun is not too strong. So early in the morning or in a setting sun is better than at noon.
Make sure you NEVER BURN! There's a reason it hurts. You can get perfectly tan without ever burning, if that's what you're after. And I can tell you from decades of experience, that burning will more often than not lead to peeling. Bye bye tan.

You can read more about the benefits of sunbathing here and here (the last article also discusses the dangers of sunblock. Which are pretty much the same as the dangers of any cream you put on your skin: If you wouldn't eat it, why put it on your skin?)

Are you a sun-worshipper? Do you love tanning? What do you do to get your fix in winter?

Stop-Checking-Stats Challenge

This is for all you fellow bloggers and website owners out there. Something you have told yourself endless amounts of times, I'm sure, but something that keeps creeping up again and again. How do I know? That's pretty much how it works for me, and I'm nothing out of the ordinary.

Stats are the underestimated drug of the blogger. And yes, it's a drug. Stats are addicting, and bad for your health (mental health, mostly). They have yet to contribute to anyone's life. Okay, I'll give in a little. Stats have helped me on one account: I found out where most of my readers are based, so I can sometimes adapt my links to where most of you guys are at. But I could probably have guessed that anyways. 50% from Belgium ... where almost all my family and friends live.
So I'm going to quit. Cold Turkey. Who's with me?

I'm not a masochist, so I won't cut out ALL stat-checking forever. But I'm taking a big step: I am now allowed to check my stats once a week, on Sunday morning. 

How do you keep yourself from checking stats? If possible, block the pages you go to. If that's impossible (because even though you're a fervent blogger, you have no idea how to actually DO stuff on the internet (yes, that was a confession)), think of a punishment you can give yourself for every time you check stats when you weren't supposed to. I'm going to make myself wash dishes. Something I utterly despise. 
Alternatively, you can also reward yourself for not checking your stats all day. Like making your hubby do the dishes. Chocolate works too. DO NOT reward yourself by checking stats! 

So, are you in or out? Is this a problem for you or not at all? Am I completely neurotic for having a stat-checking issue? If so, be gentle in your comments! 

MWH Stats for all to see

Worth Every Minute

Wednesday is the time for me to share some of the great stuff out there on the web. You can find the whole series of Worth Every Minute here.

It's summer time, and for many of us (including me) that means the reading rate goes up. I have a lot of family and friends whose idea of a relaxing time is reading a book in a park somewhere. It's how my sister and I spent half our time in Beijing last week.

I love reading, and I always want to read more. That is, I want to have already read more. There are so many books I want to experience, and so little time I have to read them. Summers are great for reading, but also for drinking cocktails, playing frisbee and having BBQ's. I can increase the time spent on reading, but I'd like to do the other stuff too. Are you the same?

One of the things that can help, is trying to increase your reading speed. Don't worry, you don't have to race through your books like a maniac, but a few little tricks can set you on the way to reading faster and reading more.

You can get some great tips in the following article from Lifehack.org:

7 Speed Reading Tricks by a Former Book-Hater by Karol Krol

Have fun reading!
Let me know what books you guys are into, I'd love to exchange ideas.

I recently finished The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry and thought it was pretty great. Difficult to put down.
Also read Elizabeth Gilbert's Commited and learned a lot about marriage. Very insightful!
Both books make excellent holiday reading!

PS. Today is my hubby's 25th Birthday ... so Happy Birthday honey!

Learn the Lingo Little by Little

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A holiday is the perfect time to submerge yourself in a new language. Even if you're not traveling to a foreign country (though I strongly recommend it to anyone willing to broaden their mind), you might have some extra time at home where you can close the door to unwelcome (i.e. native language) interruptions and create a foreign language environment for yourself.
But what if you don't really want to spend the hours it takes to learn a new language? You'll be glad to know that it doesn't take as much effort to learn enough to get by. All it takes is a couple of minutes each day of dedicated practice, and the willingness to test out your skill in real life.

When learning a new language, people often start cramming in vocabulary and grammar, thinking that this will eventually lead to full mastery of the language. It will ... eventually ... as in decades from today. But why do you need to get to a near-native level? Unless you want to teach the language you're studying, it's okay to make mistakes. (Actually, I know plenty of foreign language teachers that still make mistakes, including me.)

What you should focus on in the beginning, is picking up those key phrases that will get you in good graces with the locals. Find out how to say 'hello', 'nice weather today' and how to ask where the bathroom is. Learn one of these phrases when you have time, and then repeat it whenever you have the opportunity.

The key to learning a language is not dedication or the perfect course, it's repetition. Repeat, repeat, repeat! Ask any 3-year old. 

I learned English through endless repetitions of the same phrases on TV, on the radio, in my made-up conversations with guys I had a crush on (who never spoke English, so why I was making up conversations in a language we would never use together could go a long way to explaining why I was single all the way through high school.)
The Chinese I can remember is stuff I use from time to time. I'm forced to repeat it, so I'm forced to remember. The lack of repetition means you forget. No matter how many years you studied and how much grammar you knew!

Are you currently learning any languages? Which ones would you want to learn?

Take a Mental Holiday to Stimulate Creativity

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I recently had the luxury of spending 5 hours on a bus going through the Chinese countryside, i.e. being thrown from side to side and shaken up and down more times than when I was 5 and sitting on the back of my mother's bicycle as she conquered the Bruges' cobble stones.
As it was too bumpy to read (my eyes kept jumping around the pages) and I didn't dare get out my electronics since everything kept being lurched out of my hands, there was absolutely nothing to do but sit and wait for it to end.
...

And wait some more.
....

And then some.
...

And ... Wait! All of a sudden, I caught myself thinking of something. A glimpse of an original thought. An idea.

Your in-between and waiting time is not wasted time. It's time that has been given to you to let your mind do its own thing. You are in control of your mind, mostly. You guide its thoughts and you choose the input minute to minute. Your mind thus walks predictable paths every day, and after a while, this mental routine becomes your reality. It's who you are.
But hold on now, one sec. Do you really think it's possible to know all that's going on in your mind? Are you even aware of all your thoughts? How about all your memories? Can you honestly remember and think every thought in your brain? 
And isn't it possible there are thoughts in there that you didn't put there, but that arose out of that mix of neurons and axons without your knowledge?

Leave you brain alone for some time and follow your thoughts to where they lead you. Get lost in thought, but make sure to keep pen and paper ready, because you may just find your best idea yet.

On that bus, bouncing incessantly, I came up with a new plot for a novel and a couple of short story ideas. I found myself getting inspired and itchy about writing again. New ideas appeared vividly and effortlessly, or so it seemed.

Let me know what crazy/inspiring/weird/fun/beautiful thoughts pop up in your mind if you just let it wonder for a bit.