#forcing myself to function and achieving only minimal success

[the-pen-pot]

Changes.

Before I begin, I'm pretty sure you guys all know I'm unemployed and have been for yonks. I was self-employed running an online jewellery store and a SAHM until Brexit. Since then (about 2016) I've been privileged enough to be able to adjust family finances so my spouse brings in the money and I keep the house ticking over. Sort of. Just to give you some idea of why an actual JOB never seems to feature in my ramblings)

As some of you know, I battle with depression. It hit me hard after finishing Gilded Cage back in about 2015, and while I've been medicated and had therapy since (both of which I no longer have access to), it's not the kind of thing that is ever really cured. One of the areas of my life that it's had the biggest impact is in my creativity. Writing is hard. Not while I'm doing it, but just getting started. I've developed a few different coping mechanisms, but the problem (which in my head I call inertia) is pretty persistent. It exists in other areas of my life too (tv shows, games etc): just finding the energy to *start* the thing is hugely challenging. Most days I manage it, but some days I don't get out of bed.

I think I've spent the past five years trying to get back to "normal". At first, it seemed a sound enough strategy, but it's pretty much time to admit that maybe I need to ditch that idea. This year in particular has shown everyone, I think, how much of an illusion normal is (and probably given us all an intense hatred for the phrase "new normal" which I hear all the time and it makes me want to beat someone's face in.)

So, I need to stop comparing what I'm doing now to what I've done in the past. I've been collecting fears because they're pretty excuses ("You'll never write anything as successful as Gilded Cage again. You've peaked; give up. No one will like it so why bother.) and I do like to cling to them as I give myself another reason to stay in bed all day. I need to acknowledge that different tactics worked for me in the past, but they'll no longer cut it, and I really need to find new strategies. Which, of course, is a mess of trial and error, some success and probably a dollop of crash-and-burn failure too.

So what's the plan?

Good question. I've already implemented some changes in my life to help since finishing The Riven Crown in 2017. (That was pretty much pure escapism and denial of my issues fic and I love it to this day because it let me completely ignore the issue for 18 months and didn't turn out too badly).

I started my patreon to help boost my self-esteem. To prove people were listening/caring/wanted what I write and were also willing to pay. (One of the neuroses from my upbringing is if you're not earning any money doing the thing, then that thing (and by extension you) is worthless. This is UTTER BULLSHIT and I know it but my psyche doesn't do logic). Patreon's been successful beyond my wildest dreams. Not only does it provide a good argument to my internal whinings of worthlessness, it provides my writing life with some external pressure. Before, all of my pressure came from me "You gotta update every week." which was challenging because I am simultaneously a hard-ass and a soft touch. I'd let myself miss my self imposed deadline and then loathe myself intensely for doing so. Not cool. Patreon allows me to externalise that a little bit more, which helps.

It also gives me fresh ideas, opportunities, and is an excellent way to connect with people who really, really like my work.

I also started using 4thewords to help with the inertia. It didn't. Not with the inertia bit, anyway. I still struggle to START THE THING, but what it does do is keep me going and keep me coming back, because by gamifying my writing, I'm giving myself other, smaller goals than "finish the chapter/story/thing" which, as we all know, makes a big goal easier to achieve. I'm not staring down the barrel of "Write 8 chapters and a smutty epilogue". I'm staring down the barrel of "Write 700 words to kill the critter and get cool gear" which is infinitely more do-able and also, I get cool gear. It feeds the positive reward feedback monkey brain and monkey brain likes that.

I need to do more, though, and mostly I think that comes down to trying out new strategies in the way I live my life to find a happy balance between getting things done and feeling worthwhile, and also getting the rest/downtime/whatever my neurochemistry needs to function. This is especially hard right now because I recharge through solitude. Like, utter solitude. Ideally, an empty house. Which has not happened since lockdown began in March. My home is currently also my husband's work and my kid's school, and that's not changing until at least September. I deserve a medal for not murdering anyone in the depths of an introvert-forced-to-socialise-constantly fugue yet, if I'm honest.

So next week (July 20th to 26th-ish) I'm taking a week off writing. (Sounds dead simple, doesn't it? But actually it's not.) What that means is I won't write during that week unless there's a project that's really captured my imagination and I'm compelled to do so. Will I still be posting? Yep. I'm angling this so that, hopefully, there'll be minimal delays to any scheduled postings.) After that I plan to gently increase the amount of writing/editing/actual "work" I do during the week. At the moment it's a bit hodge podge. I normally write a bit in the morning. 2000 words on a great day. On a not great day, maybe 100. I'd like to build that into something more consistent and productive, Monday to Friday. The idea is that roughly one week in every four, I'll take off from writing. 

It seems excessive. Even me looking at it right now, I'm like "that's a LOT of time off", but I think I need it. At least to start off with. I need time to just lie in bed and read fic if I want to. Time free of the constant, internal nagging of: "You should be doing x". Pre-planned, guiltless, time-off.

My hope is that it will help stabilise my productive/not productive patches into something workable that leads to a happier life for me, and more fic for you guys =D

Thanks for listening to me ramble!    

[abcsofadhd]

On being diagnosed with ADHD in midlife

@campfiresbeerandcoffee got diagnosed with ADHD in their early 50s and I asked them to share their story. 

It’s kinda long but its a damn interesting read about a person’s experience with ADHD and a late diagnosis. It’s VERY well written and I’ve only spaced it out and bolded it for better readability.

Remember, it’s really NEVER too late to get a diagnosis.

I’ve known people with ADHD most of my life. I knew what it was, obviously. It was that boy who was socially inappropriate and weird, the one who got angry too fast, who touched oddly, who couldn’t sit still. 

It was the squirrel brained women I knew, that changed jobs, were super smart, had multiple competencies and could instantly grasp systems, but had so much drive they were always up, always working, always learning. It wasn’t ME.

It didn’t even occur to me that I had ADHD. I wasn’t a problem. I sat quietly in class, lost in my own thoughts, doodling. I could focus for hours on books, on coding, on the grains of sand on a sunny beach. I certainly didn’t have an attention disorder. 

My dad died in my 2nd year of uni. I didn’t do well. Well meaning counselors said I was high strung and should avoid all sugar and stimulants. Are you kidding? Caffeine kept me sane. Eventually I changed majors, and managed to graduate with a BA.

I even managed to get into grad school, and did entrepreneur things too. But eventually I crumbled again and didn’t finish my thesis. I had anger issues. I was high then low. I would rage and weep. I’d spend weeks in apathy, when I had everything I wanted: a business, a wife, wonderful family. But it was a long dark bleak tunnel every day.

Then I heard a radio show on chronic depression and recognized my symptoms. Got some help and medication, and managed to co-found a company.  The anti-depression meds helped, settling on Wellbutrin eventually. But things were still hard.

I got a straight job to help my wife start her career. I worked in an office, coding and structuring information systems. Prestige, recognition, it was great for my ego, good benefits and fair pay. 

10 years in this high performance position I crashed from accumulated stress when my mom died. I was prepared with Wellbutrin and counselling and even so I burned out with major depression and anxiety and ptsd symptoms.  

Took 3 years off work before I dared to take a job with minimal responsibility. In that time I had full on major ADHD symptoms but didn’t recognize them. I couldn’t say what I did all day. 

I couldn’t make a list, couldn’t go in the store. Couldn’t read. Couldn't feed myself. Couldn’t clean. Couldn’t listen. Just- floated in a fog of stress and anxiety. Developed skin issues, auto-immune issues, insomnia, eye twitches. Couldn’t even sit at a computer screen. I was completely useless. Couldn’t leave the house.

Eventually tho, as I worked through what I thought was PTSD, learning to accept the new broken me, I was able to watch a full 20 minute sitcom. Success! I was elated. Who could I tell? Who would celebrate that as an achievement? Yay, you watched TV? Pffft. 

But I was thrilled. And I could go to the store. Maybe even buy a few things. Often I’d just sit in the parking lot. But increasingly I could do some things around the house. Walk the dogs. Buy milk. So I accepted when opportunity offered me a lower-stress job related to my interests.

At my new job, I learned to make eye contact again, slowly re-learned to do simple math again. Cashing out would take me over an hour. I tried so hard to remember names and orders. Failed miserably. Tried to accept the new no-brain me. Found comfort in routine tasks. Developed coping strategies for memory. Accepted that maybe my purpose was to be a heart not a brain. My whole self-worth was always being the smart expert. Now I was busted. But that was ok, because it had to be! 

Medicated with prescription cannabis and started seeing big improvements in depressive symptoms. That led to being able to exercise. Exercise helped immensely. So I was bringing in a bit of money, I was leaving the house and interacting, and felt much better.

Met a co-worker who told me about her ADHD. I understood completely. Had my first “a-ha!” moment when someone asked me how was it that  I understood her. Oh. OH! Other people don’t understand her, and I do. Why?

But, I couldn’t be ADHD, surely? My coworker was classic ADHD in the way I then understood it. Changing topics all over in conversation, but I’d follow right along? We’d chat for hours after work. I grew to admire her strategies for getting things done, her tenacity, her acceptance that she could do things differently. 

And as I admired her force-of-nature engagement with the world, her acceptance of herself, I started to be open to the idea that there was more to ADHD than I thought. I really didn’t think I was ADHD, but how was it I could understand and keep up with her? And when I asked her about it, she looked at me like of course I probably had ADHD, and she thought I already knew?

So after working with her for 2 years I started to read about ADHD, because I was experiencing a little less stress and could focus to read again. But I hadn’t found out yet about the emotional dysregulation. I just knew I was functioning again, kinda. And so I embraced the feelings. I chased them, like an addict, seeking to feel good again.  

And boy did it feel good to let myself feel. I’d learned to build a box around my emotions, because I was always too sensitive, too happy, too sad, too worried. At my coding job, I just lost myself in matrices and code and denied my emotions.  My coworkers had affectionately called me Mr. Roboto. That hurt. But that was the old me. Now, I was going to LIVE and FEEL HAPPY, and it was great. I was elated. 

I partied and made new friends and drank too much and got stoned too much and talked too much and in my exploration  I left such wreckage around me. I was oblivious at first. But when I saw what I’d done, I was in torment. If I couldn’t be a brain, and I couldn’t be a heart, then what good was I? I desperately wanted to be ordinary, but I didn’t know how, and I was going to lose everything.

And then as I tried to get a handle on my behavior, some ADHD memes popped up on social media, and then they popped up with a funny story and I related. And again. And again. And I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

Your blog specifically woke me up to the emotional dysregulation aspect, and following that thread of research made my likely ADHD undeniable. So I did the predictable thing and denied it for another year.

Finally I went in for assessment because if I had it, I couldn’t let my kids go untested and if I was going to ask them to try, I had to start with me. Doc didn’t even blink. Basically said, of course you have ADHD. 

This has been everyone’s reaction, when I share my diagnosis with my friends: “Are you really surprised, really?” Yes, dammit, I am! It’s surprising and hard to hear, yes, you are in fact broken. But it’s also freeing. I can stop beating myself up.  I can get appropriate help. I can try meds.

I am terrified of stimulants, because I’m super sensitive to caffeine, and even Wellbutrin was unsustainable for me, causing too much jitters. But I’m taking my Vyvanse and being hopeful. If it doesn’t work out, there is a non stimulant option.

 I know meds won’t solve everything. I know that I have so many of the strategies already, I recognize them in the ADHD forums, and books. But maybe meds will leave me enough energy to address things. Maybe I’ll be able to Get Things Done.

This medicated hopeful happiness does feel a bit like mania, I’ve learned to be distrustful of my happiness. But if it’s going to be helpful, I’m going to try it.  It’s early days.

I’m reading Gina Petra’s Is It You, Me, or Adult ADD? Stopping the Roller Coaster When Someone You Love Has Attention Deficit Disorder. And it’s wrenching. I knew my latest crisis was hard on my family, but I didn’t realize it’s been the whole marriage, it’s been my whole life, school, college, career, midlife! It’s enlightening but hard to read testimonials from people living with untreated ADHD partners, and recognize myself in their stories. I had no idea of the extent ADHD was contributing to my personality and behavior.

My wife and kids deserve to be off the rollercoaster. I also deserve to be happy. I want to look forward to each day again instead of waking up knowing I’m going to fuck up again.

So it’s not a comfortable place to be, here in the spotlight. But it sure as hell beats being in the dark and blindly flinging myself in a new direction. It’s revealing. It means taking personal responsibility. 

But it also means hope. Hope that it can be better. Hope I can stop hurting the people I love. Hope I can be the person I want to be, the person I’ve been on occasion. It means hope for sustainable stable relationships and jobs. 

[ellasfm]

» • * — ( elle fanning , cis female , she/her ) . i think i hear wait a minute by willow coming from apartment 2611. doesn’t eloise miller live there ?? i heard they are a twenty-two year old author from wayzata, mn , but they’ve been living in the apartments for two months . they come across a bit - anxious and - pessimistic , but they also seem like they could be + intuitive and + patient . whenever i see them , i think of a silver heart-shaped locket, stacks and stacks of books, small acts of rebellion. oh , and don’t forget to follow them on instagram at eloise.b.morris ! ooc . ally, 22, est, she/her .

hello y’all, back with my impulsively picked up second muse ! she’s actually an older muse i revamped to be a little less sad and i think i nailed it !!! details under the cut, like this post for me to hyu for plots !!! 

full statistics | full biography | pinterest | wanted connections 

tw panic attacks, psychological abuse, eating disorders, 

statistics.

full name. eloise bethany morris. nickname(s). ella. occupation. author.  age. twenty-two. date of birth. september 2nd, 1997. nationality. american. ethnicity. white | scottish, english, french.  orientation. bisexual/sapphic, with a preference for women.  gender & pronouns. cis female; she/her/hers. religion. agnostic.

height. 5’9”. weight. 125 lbs. eye color. green. hair color + style. flaxen blonde, relatively thin, usually up in a bun, braids, or pleats.  dominant hand. right-handed. distinguishing features. deep-set eyes, willowy frame, pale skin. 

biography. 

ella’s upbringing was super... lonely, honestly. both of her sisters were basically adults by the time she was born, and never really interacted with her since they didn’t like her father’s second wife, ella’s mother. and with good reason. 

if you thought zar’s mom was bad, get a load of heather morris. intent on living through her only daughter, ella was brought up to be a perfect little lady. a dancer, a star student, one of the most popular girls in her class. she was the first two things, but was never the third. she reeked of insecurity, and as a result was bullied throughout most of school. 

even worse, her mom would force her to go to events where her bullies were, because those were the girls heather thought ella ought to be friends with. needless to say, they didn’t go very well. the only things her mother ever gave her were anxiety, deep-seated self-loathing, and an eating disorder she only overcame about two years ago. 

ella’s one and only escape was books, she always had one on her person from the time she was five. for a long time, the closest things she had to friends were her favorite characters: matilda wormwood, hermione granger, and liesel meminger, among others. as a child, she dreamed of writing books like that, to help other little girls just like these authors helped her. 

ella has always been a massive romantic, falling in love with every friendly face. and everyone she’s ever loved wormed their way into her heart, and to get it out, she decided to write. about the what-ifs and the maybe-so’s. 

despite taking ballet lessons her entire school career, as per her mother’s request, she didn’t get into the american ballet company as her mother wished. her mom honestly wasn’t even that proud when she got a perfect sat score on her first try, nor when she got into harvard. 

if she wasn’t going to be a dancer, she was going to be a lawyer, and her mother pushed her to get perfect grades in school. she hoped she would flourish at university, but she... kinda fell apart. we’re talking daily panic attacks, a crippling caffeine addiction, and her anorexia getting so bad she ended up in the fucking hospital her freshman year. despite that, she never missed a single deadline, functioning like a machine. and that was all that was important to her mother. 

her sophomore year, though, she took a creative writing class, and when the ta read some of her work, she told her that she had a lot of potential and if she should continue down that road, the ta would like to be her advisor. that little bit of encouragement was all it took to reignite her dream of being an author. 

writing became her therapy again, along with, thankfully, actual therapy. sure, school still made her anxious wreck, but ella was doing better. bit by bit, step by step. the summer before senior year, her advisor told her that she sent ella’s latest transcript to a friend of hers in publishing, and that she wanted to talk. she wanted to hold off for now, unsure what to do, until she got her lsat results back over thanksgiving break. she’d failed. 

it was then, with her mother berating her non-stop as per usual, that ella decided she was going to publish. she walked out of the house with her mother still yelling, feeling freer than she ever had. 

the day after her commencement, ella moved into a shitty apartment in boston and got to work with the publisher to get the book finished as quickly as possible. thanks to her advisor, it required minimal editing, and they had the first print sent to ella by the end of october. 

on november 15th, the ipswich girls by eloise b. morris was officially for sale nationwide, and by its second week, it was a new york time’s bestseller. the last few months have been a world wind for ella, of book signings and award ceremonies and realizing with every young fan of hers that she’d achieved her dream. 

now, she’s moved into new york city, a dream come true, and shortly after, she realized her publisher expected her to write a second book. she’s... still pretty paralyzed about that, trying to come up with something to top the ipswich girls, but... she’s trying. kinda. maybe. mostly panicking. 

tl;dr: girl with strict mother finds freedom in books, becomes an author, writes a bestseller out of college, now is expected to repeat that success lmao fun.

personality. 

lets get the zodiac out of the way: virgo sun, pisces moon, aquarius rising. 

she’s... still very much a Good Girl, and she wants to change that, she wants to be her own person. 

like in january she got a tattoo in feminine script on her wrist that said ‘i belong deeply to myself’ and the entire time she felt like a Bad Girl okay????? and she just started smoking weed and that also makes her feel like a Bad Girl 

still pretty anxious, but she’s getting better. she’s on medication, now, and usually does something impulsive whenever she feels bad. or she writes. it’s fifty-fifty. 

very organized, almost to the point of being anal. 

very weird, abstract, neo-dadaist sense of humor. like stonks makes her wheeze.

she’s basically a big fuckin nerd okay??????????? 

usually very chill and relaxed, doesn’t get riled up too easily. it’s hard to tell when she’s having a panic attack because she just looks a little more zoned out than usual.  

cannot fucking flirt like at all. 

Big Virgin. 

her guilty pleasure is watching compilations of fox news pundits railing on and on about how the ipswich girls was written to promote witchcraft and the lesbian agenda. 

(also if you’re curious i put a summary of the ipswich girls here, even though its only bits and pieces but like if you’re curious. it’s basically the craft with fifteen-year-old girls, and also gayer. tw for suicide mention, brain damage and injuries. ) 

wanted connections. 

fast friend. someone who she got along with immediately upon coming to new york. 

childhood pen pal. i just think it’d be cute. 

crush. ella flirts by gazing tenderly across the room. 

philophobe. ella loves love, and this person doesn’t. for better or for worse, she’ll try to convince them otherwise. 

bad influence. and she is very willing to be influenced. 

wing(wo)man. she’s so bad at flirting please. somebody. anybody. 

deja vu. a negative connection; someone ella can’t get comfy around bc they remind her of her childhood bully. 

former dance rivals. ella used to do the competition circuit in ballet. she wasn’t particularly competitive, but her mom certainly was. probably a real dance moms situation. 

[a-woman-apart]

Reimagining Weakness

I often thought that weakness had to do with a lack of self-control. Not being able to resist the second brownie, motivate myself to exercise, or to stop procrastinating on homework felt like character flaws to me. I was convinced that I could overcome my weaknesses by sheer power of will. I thought that by beating myself into shape, I would become a happier and more productive person. I thought, “No one’s perfect, except me”, even though I would never admit to myself or anyone else that that was what I thought. The self-help books that I was reading helped reinforce the belief that if I could just beat out the undesirable characteristics of my personality, then I would be successful and full of joy.

Despite what I thought, holding myself to strict and unrealistic standards did nothing but bring me frustration and unhappiness. Even when I did achieve things through Working Really Hard and gritting my teeth, I felt empty and unfulfilled. I was always working towards the next hard-won success in an effort to make myself happy. I was essentially running on a treadmill; outwardly, I was getting into shape, but I still wasn’t going anywhere. I was still miserable and dissatisfied.

In Mark Manson’s 2019 book, “Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope”, he speculated that our understanding of the human psyche may be flawed. He proposed that we have a rational, tempered Thinking Brain, and a passionate, impulsive Feeling Brain. His theory was that even though most of us think that the Thinking Brain is driving the car, it is really our Feeling Brain who is behind the wheel. He believes that we are not just influenced by our emotions, we are ruled by them—although some people may be more dominantly controlled by their feelings than others are.

This is why so many of us cheat on our diets, our partners, or are dishonest in other parts of our lives. Anyone who knows anything about humans knows that we often forgo long-term rewards for short-term pleasures. If we were truly logical, the negative consequences of some of our actions would be enough to deter us from pursuing them. Instead, we often do things simply because we want to, consequences be damned. It is the reason why we often throw caution to the wind in the name of love, will punch a stranger at a sports’ game because they cheer for “the wrong team”, and are at the mercy of Netflix’s autoplay function.

According to Mark Manson, the Thinking Brain cannot overcome the Feeling Brain through sheer force of will. We have to negotiate with ourselves. We tell the Feeling Brain that if it does something it does not want to do right now then we will reward it with something it likes a little later on. This reward can be anything that we want, but it has to be something immediate enough that the Feeling Brain is likely to accept the offer. We might say, “Hey, if you do your homework now, you will have the whole evening free to watch ‘Thor: Ragnarök’ with your boyfriend” or “If you work out now, then you can go to the sauna afterwards, and imagine how wonderful that will feel” or “If you stay late at the office, you will have extra money for tickets to the baseball game.”

This internal bargaining can still be classified as intrinsic motivation, even though external rewards are a part of the motivational process. Extrinsic motivation, though, is really underestimated. Dr. Henry Cloud, in his famous book, “Boundaries”, expresses that boundaries cannot be built in a vacuum. It does not matter if these are the boundaries that we make for ourselves or the ones we have between ourselves and others. We need the help of others and/or outside forces to establish working boundaries. There is a reason why alcoholics and addicts might go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous; putting themselves in communion with others in their situation helps them to reinforce the new standards they are forming for themselves.

“You can’t pursue success for someone else; you have to want success for yourself” is a popular statement here in the West. We live in a highly individualistic society that prizes personal freedom and initiative above everything else. Statements like, “You’ve got to love yourself before you can love anyone else” or “No one will respect you if you don’t respect yourself”, are highly popularized and the validity of these statements is seldom questioned. However, it is true that often others see things in us that we cannot see in ourselves. Others often see our potential before we do. If we could insulate ourselves in bubbles where nothing touched us, it would be unnecessary to remove ourselves from so-called “toxic people” because their effect on us would be negligible.

I am not saying that more collectivist societies—where the needs of the group are elevated above those of the individual—are without their flaws. While collectivism encourages greater group participation and helps to foster stronger social movements, individual needs may be minimized by the pressure of the individual to conform to rigid societal standards. Still, those of us in the West might benefit by stepping outside of our isolation and self-centered pursuit of achievement and learning to negotiate with and support others.

You are not weak for needing help. If your significant other begging you to change your life, because you are killing yourself with drugs, alcohol, or overeating, is the push that you need to change, you are not weak. Be grateful that you have someone in your corner who cares enough about you to tell you the truth. You still have to take the action yourself, but having an outward inspiration giving you the courage to make the first step does not make you weak. Setting up real-world consequences for procrastination or neglect may also help you to make better choices. YouTuber Thomas Frank once set up a system whereby if he failed to wake up by 6am he would be charged $5. This not an effective method for everyone, but sometimes utilizing an external system of rewards and/or punishment can help you to move towards your goals.

Currently, the First World is experiencing a very specific kind of crisis; it is a crisis of loneliness and isolation. As economic instability and disillusionment grow, people are increasingly moving towards radical ideological movements to find identity, purpose, and community. Anti-intellectualism, political extremism, and distrust of science and modern medicine threaten to negate years of societal progress. Bonds of friendship and family dissolve due to personal and generational conflict, and the disaffected parties individually sooth themselves by overindulging in mindless entertainment.

You are not weak for feeling lost and alone in an environment like this one. Depression isn’t always just neurons misfiring in your brain—sometimes it has tangible, real-world causes. Finding support can be a matter of life and death. If you are in a dangerous situation, a list of hotlines where a supportive person can connect you with resources are only a Google Search away (see a list of worldwide crisis lines here). In North America, the Crisis text-line is 741 741, and this is an option you can utilize if it is unsafe for you to speak out loud on the phone or if family members and roommates are around and you are embarrassed by having them hear you.

Withdrawing from society and trying to do everything alone may feel safer, but it will only prove detrimental over time. We are a social, interdependent species and we need each other. We help encourage each other, challenge each other’s bad ideas, work together towards individual and group goals, and we provide for each other’s physical and emotional needs.

Finally, as my therapist said, “Give yourself a little more grace.” Treat yourself as you would a trusted friend. Forgive yourself for occasionally sleeping in, for small indulgences, and even for blowing up or showing up late. Billions of people around the world are all guilty of the same thing. Maybe if we share a bit of the burden of the unfortunate truth—that we are not perfect and never will be­­­— we will all feel less alone. We do not have to be perfect to deserve love. We can be weak but still be able to gather amazing strength. We do not have to be perfect to participate in society.

We just have to be open enough to try.

[funkymbtifiction]

Wings / Strengths Weaknesses

To save everyone (and myself) time... [I shortened these from here.] I basically use these as shorthand to type characters from.

Gut Types:

1w9 - Seeking Rightness and Peace

Calm although eruptions of temper are possible. Detached quality. Tendency to formulate and embrace principles that have little human content, but this is also their strength. When awakened, may be objective and balanced, cool and moderate in their evaluations. More unhealthy, might have perfectionistic expectations not humanly possible to meet. May hold social or political opinions that are supremely logical but ultimately heartless and draconian. The rules come first no matter what. Can be merciless or unwittingly cruel. Often a little colorless in their personal appearance. Many Ones with this wing are plain dressers, preferring functional clothing that is appropriate to context but not flashy. The emphasis on function may extend to their general lifestyle. Practicality is highly valued.

1w2 - Seeking Rightness and Love

This wing generally brings more interpersonal warmth. High standards are tempered by humanism. May understand and partly forgive humanity for not doing its best. Work hard to improve the conditions of others, sacrificing time and energy to do good works. When more unhealthy, can be volatile and self-righteous. Authoritarian inflation and moral vanity on the low side. Can give scolding lectures or display a kind of touchy emotionalism. “Do as I say, not as I do” attitudes possible. Hypocrisy likely because the person is so convinced they have moral good intentions. Overlook inconsistencies in their own behavior. Dependency in relationships. Far more likely to be a jealous intimate subtype than Ones with a 9 wing.

8w7 - Seeking Power and Stimulation

Expansive, and powerful. Gregarious and generous, they may display a cheerful bravado. Can be forceful but with a light touch, funny. Often have a sense of humor about themselves. Extroverted, ambitious, materialistic. May talk loud and be sociable partygoers. Driven to bring the new into being. Can be visionary, idealistic, enterprising. Willing to take risks. 7 wing brings an intellectual capacity. Aggression combines with gluttony to form an virulent tendency to addiction. Prone to temperamental ups and downs—can be moody, egocentric, quick to anger. Tendency to court chaos, inflate themselves narcissistically. Some are ruthlessly materialistic. Can use people up, suck them dry. Maybe be explosive or violent, prone to distorted overreaction.

8w9 - Seeking Power and Peace

Aura of preternatural calm, no self doubt. Take their authority for granted. Gentle, kind-hearted, quieter. Often nurturing, protective parents; steady, supportive friends. Informal and unpretentious, patient, laconic, somewhat introverted. A dry or ironic sense of humor. Aura of implicit, simmering anger. Slow to erupt but when they do it’s sudden and explosive. When unhealthy, callous numbness. They can be oblivious to the force of their anger until after they’ve hurt someone. Calmly dominating, colder; may have an indifference to softer emotions. If very unhealthy, they can be mean without remorse or aggressive in the service of stupid ends. Paranoid plotting, muddled thinking, moral laziness. Can be vengeful in ill-conceived ways, abuse those they love, don’t know when to quit.

9w8 - Seeking Peace and Power

Modest, steady, receptive core. Great force of will. Get things done, make good leaders. May have an animal magnetism of which they are only partly aware. Can seem highly centered, take what they do seriously but remain unimpressed with themselves. Strong internal sense of direction. Relatively fearless and highly intuitive. Not intellectual unless they have it in their background. When more unhealthy, they manifest contradictions. Can be passively amiable then horribly blunt. May be slow to anger and then explode. Or angry but don’t know it; may confuse being assertive with being rude. Placidly callous—both styles support numbness. Tactless and indiscriminate and indiscreet. May be unwittingly disloyal, spilling everyone’s secrets. Sexual confusion, sometimes they are driven by lust.

9w1 - Seeking Peace and Rightness

Model children. Virtuous, orderly, and little trouble. Great moral authority plus good-hearted peacemaking tendencies. Often have a sense of mission, public or private. Principled expression of love. Desire to contribute, do little harm. May be well-liked, modest, endearing, gentle yet firm. Great grace and composure, bursts of spontaneity and sweetness. Elegant simplicity. When unhealthy, they self-neglect. Dutiful to what they shouldn’t be. Play the good child, settle for being overlooked. Passive tolerance of absurd or damaging situations. One-sided relationships where the Nine gives too much. Rationalize, minimize, tell themselves they everything’s fine. Placid numbness creeps over them. Intolerance of their own emotions. Gradually deaden their soul.

Heart Types:

2w1 - Seeking Love and Rightness

Conscience and emotional containment. When healthy, they act from general principles about the value of serving others. Ethics come before pride. May hold themselves to high standards. Discreet and respectful of other people’s boundaries. When upset, tend to go quiet and experience strong emotions internally. More melancholy than Twos with a 3 wing. When less healthy and unhealthy, tend to confuse their sense of mission with self-centered needs. Go blind to their own motives; invade and dominate others. Believe their actions are perfectly justified by their ethic of helping. May repress their personal desires and focus on others as a way to avoid guilty dilemma between the rules and their inner needs. If really blind they will warp their ethics crazily to justify personal selfishness and prideful hostility.

2w3 - Seeking Love and Image

This wing brings Twos an extra measure of sociability and the capacity to make things happen. When healthy, can be charming, good-natured and heartfelt. Really get things done, serve effectively on projects that involve the well-being of others. Thrive on group process and are generally good communicators. Enjoy keeping several threads or projects going at once. Unhealthy Twos with a 3 wing can be quite emotionally competitive and controlling. 3 wing brings a double dose of vanity. Strong tendency to live in one’s images. May grow brazenly deluded, preferring their glamorous, self-important scenarios to reality. Tendencies to deceit and emotional calculation. Highly manipulative. This wing is also more extroverted; dramatization of feeling in the form of hysterical snit-fits is far more possible.

3w2 - Seeking Image and Love

Highly gregarious. Tendency towards playing a role. Social perception, prestige and recognition important. Personal warmth, leadership qualities. Sincere desire to do well by others; may be genuinely nice. If they have achieved success, generous in their mentorships. When unhealthy, they are preoccupied with seeming ideal. This can extend to friendships, family, work. Want to seem a perfect spouse, friend, parent, employee, good child. Strong social focus because they need validation from others. Preening and boastful behavior possible. Bursts of egotism. Wanting to be on top, better than others. Slip into impersonation easily, may falsify feeling and not know it themselves. Deep emotional self-recognition is lost. Malicious intentional deceit is possible. Behavior of con-artists and sociopaths.

3w4 - Seeking Image and Identity

Less image-conscious or project an image more implicit and subtle. 4 wing brings a degree of introversion. May measure themselves more by their creations, artistic or social. Compete with themselves more than with other people. Motivation and ability to work on oneself. May accomplish everything they set out to do, then embark on self-analysis. Will still like a challenge, but thoughtful, intuitive or humanistic concerns of prime interest. The low side of this wing can bring a haunted, self-tormented quality or a haughty, competitive pretentiousness. Might be snobs or accuse critics of being too plebian to appreciate them. Cool, hard shell. In private, can lapse into self-questioning and melodrama. Instability and moodiness can be factors. Unrealistic grandiosity.

4w3 - Seeking Identity and Image

Outgoing, sense of humor and style. Prize being creative and effective. Intuitive and ambitious; may have good imaginations, often talented. Colorful, fancy dressers, make a distinct impression. Self-knowledge combines well with social and organizational skills. When unhealthy, have a public/private split. Conceals feelings in public then goes home to loneliness. Can enjoy their work and be dissatisfied in love. Tendency to melodrama and flamboyance; true feelings often hide. Competitive, sneaky, aware of how they look. Some have bad taste. May be fickle in love, drawn to romantic images that they have projected onto others. Could have a dull spouse, then fantasize about glamorous strangers. Achievements can be tainted by jealousy, revenge, or a desire to prove the crowd wrong.

4w5 - Seeking Identity and Knowledge

Withdrawn, complex creativity. Intellectual, exceptional depth of feeling and insight. Very much their own person; original and idiosyncratic. Have a spiritual and aesthetic openness. Will find multiple levels of meaning. May have a strong need and ability to pour themselves into artistic creations. Loners; enigmatic and hard to read. Externally reserved, internally resonant. When they open up it can be sudden and total. When unhealthy or defensive, easily alienated and depressed. Many have a sense of not belonging. Can get lost in their process, drown in their ocean. Whiny, ruminate and relive past experience. Prone to shame. Air of sullen, withdrawn disappointment. May live within a private mythology of pain and loss. Can get deeply morbid and fall in love with death.

Head Types:

5w4 - Seeking Knowledge and Identity

Abstract, intuitive cast of thought, as though thinking in geometric shapes instead of words or realistic images. May be talented artistically and inhabit moods. Combine intellectual and emotional imagination. Enjoy the realm of philosophy and beautiful constructs. The marriage of mental perspective and aesthetics. Fluctuate between impersonal withdrawal and bursts of friendly caring. Can get floaty and abstract. Act like they’re inside a bubble, sometimes with an air of implicit superiority. Cliché of the “absentminded professor” applies especially to Fives with this wing. Environmentally sensitive and subject at times to total overwhelm. Touchy about criticism. Can be slow to recover from traumatic events. Melancholy isolation and bleak existential depression are possible pitfalls.

5w6 - Seeking Knowledge and Security

Detail, technical knowledge, thinks in logical sequence. Intellectual, extremely analytical. Loyal friends, offering strong behind-the-scenes support. Kind, patient teachers, skillful experts. Sense of mission and work hard. Project an aura of sensitive nerdiness, clumsy social skills. When defensive, unnerved by others’ expectations. May like people but avoid them. Sensitive to social indebtedness. Has trouble saying “thank you.” Fear of taking action, develop “information addiction” instead. Asks lots of questions but doesn't get around to deciding. When unhealthy, they suspiciously scrutinize other people’s motives but can blindly follow. Misanthropic and Scrooge-like when defensive. Cuts off their feelings consistently. Cold, skeptical, ironic, and disassociated.

6w5 - Seeking Security and Knowledge

Introverted, intellectual. Many interests, competencies and skills. Original, idiosyncratic point of view. Bookish; interested in history or feel rooted in the past or related to a long tradition. Good at predicting the future. May test friends for a long time but become a friend for life. When unhealthy, project a willed remoteness. Hidden dimensions, intensity and activity. Tension between needing to be seen and withdrawing for protection. Might act arrogant, cryptic or cynical when afraid. Can be diplomatic and say things without saying them. Counterphobics are cool loners or argumentative and violent. Can brood over injustices, entertain conspiracy theories, spend time alone building cases. Paranoid. Sneaky vengeance, passive/aggressive toward others, self-attacking and self-destructive at home.

6w7 - Seeking Security and Stimulation

Outgoing, nervous. Want to be liked, pursues others. Can be charming, sociable, ingratiating. Fast tempo. Personal warmth. Cheerful, forward-looking drive, disarmingly funny. Self-effacing, gracious, curious. When unhealthy, may be self-contradicting and want two things at once. Sometimes test others overtly, drive you crazy with mixed messages. It may be hard to follow what they’re saying. When threatened, impossible to please. When counterphobic, accusative. Some get caught up in big plans they hope will result in material security. Insecure, irritable, petty, irrational, chaotic. Mood swings, inferiority complexes, runaway fears. Hair-trigger paranoid flare-ups . Falsely accuse others and not realize it. Other times plead to be taken care of. Conservative in their lifestyle.

7w6 - Seeking Stimulation and Security

Responsible, faithful, lovable, nervous and funny. Oriented to relationships, want acceptance. Steady, willing to stick with commitments. Openly vulnerable, unguarded, tender sweetness. Has trouble expressing anger. May evade authority but are still aware of it. Canny and practical, they look for deals and loopholes. When unhealthy, may have episodes of sensitivity or insecurity. Get their feelings easily hurt. Sensitive to comparisons. May avoid testing themselves. Grow dependent and addicted to other people, afraid to be alone, suspicious and skittish. Easily feels guilt, may act irresponsibly. Shallow, falls in and out of love easily. Breezily betray others by running away. Can be reckless, unstable, and self-destructive. Hates to be told what to do.

7w8 - Seeking Stimulation and Power

Generous, gregarious, expansive. Loyal to their friends. Leaps aggressively to their defense. Loud or boisterous, urbane and witty. Enjoy social celebrations, storytelling, jokes, food and travel. Self-confidence for worldly matters and getting what they want. Talent for making something out of nothing. Shares what they have, wants others to share their interests. When unhealthy, demanding, selfish, impatient. Self-justifying narcissism. Wants what they want right now. Aggressive, greedy for money, pleasure, recognition. Can demand others say only what they want to hear—sugarcoated truths. Lashes out angrily if reality doesn’t meet their expectations; sometimes vengeful. Moralize to others while being irresponsible. Amnesia for promises. Particular difficulty with sexual fidelity.

 - ENFP Mod

[theliterateape]

Picking at Scabs Prevents Any Sort of Healing

By Don Hall

I read somewhere about a man in Texas who was cheated by a group of men. I believe it was over a few hundred dollars but I can’t quite remember (and an exhaustive search on the internet gleaned no results, so maybe I just heard it). Regardless of the amount, the man’s sense of injury and injustice was so heavily defined, he spent the rest of his life and all of his fortune chasing these men down. He managed to get each one arrested but in the process, lost his family, his property and everything he had achieved up to the point of the theft.

The very definition of a Pyrrhic victory.

Binge-watching Cobra Kai on YouTube Red the other day while marinating in NyQuil, it hit me. This story of Johnny Lawrence and Daniel Larusso is a tale of arrested development, an inability to get over the past, and the repeating cycles we have in our lives. As I spent five plus hours reliving their rivalry, with both men dealing with a legacy of bullying and trials and victory or defeat, the fact that I am their age was not the only similarity.

Like Johnny, there is a portion of myself still stuck in the ’80s, that time when I came of age. The music is still the most badass, the ideas of masculine toughness still reside in my bones, the feelings of some sorts of injustices done to me still simmering just behind my eyes. The reminder of the successes of those who done me wrong and went on to thrive, burn like the billboard of Daniel does Johnny. Likewise, I am like Danniel, still riding high on a legacy of achievements long past, holding onto the past with a fevered grip yet unable to stop myself from unlearning all the valuable lessons that make me who I am.

When I watch Johnny look at a room full of kids signed up to learn his brands of karate and bemoan that they’re all “a bunch of pussies,” I get that. While I’m doing my best to unlearn that paradigm, I laugh because it’s true in my 1980s infused eyes. Yet, like Johnny, I do see the essential humanity in these weak but angry losers and question the wisdom of refusing to adjust my behavior to meet their demands.

On the better side of my nature, like Daniel, I struggle to remember the lessons my mentors taught me about balance and the values of hard work without recognition, allowing the past its place without having it take over my entire brain space.

I was never the bully that Johnny was and I was never the weak nerd that Daniel was but the amalgam of the two finds some sort of psychic purchase in my own assessment of self.

I remember, when I was fretting about my relationship with Alice (for something a bit more detailed, check out Peculiar Journeys Ep. 31), that I had incredibly itchy legs. Like, psychosomatically itchy. No lotion could quell the itch. And, at one point, I scratched a bloody divot in my left leg about seven inches long that stayed scabbed up for almost two years later. I felt like maybe I had cancer because the fucking thing simply would not fully heal. I knew I was likely picking and scratching at it at night but it seemed kind of ridiculous that it stayed for so long.

One day, I decided that the scab was indicative of my not getting over the anxieties of being with Alice. I went and culled every picture, every piece of memorabilia, everything that might inadvertently remind of that time. I got rid of the very notion that the relationship had ever existed. I moved on in some ways.

And the fucking scratch on my leg healed.

Let’s say, for shits and giggles, that a young woman gets into a car accident. She was driving and hit a patch of black ice, spun out of control, flipped her car and smashed her head up against the windshield hard enough to cause multiple lacerations on her scalp and a serious concussion. She is trapped in her up-turned vehicle for two hours until paramedics can pull her out. This is bound to cause some serious trauma. Certainly no one is to blame but the trauma exists nonetheless.

As the years pass, she still suffers from this experience. She can’t get in cars without feeling a sense of extreme panic. She won’t fly in planes. Subway? No way. Her entire life becomes an adjustment for her feelings of unsafely, of impending disaster, of the potential of losing control of that which she should be able to control. She lives in a near constant state of fear.

Her feelings are completely normal and understandable. They make sense. She is certainly not crazy but it is obvious that if she wants to continue to live what most call a normal American life, she needs to ultimately get over it. She needs to move beyond it. Yes, there are automobiles everywhere and the sight of them trigger her raw emotional pain. “Get over it” seems flip and unhelpful but “get over it” is exactly what she needs to do to function (unless she moves to a remote corner of Montana and buys a horse and wagon.) “Get over it” feels dismissive of the trauma but it is clear and specific language that offers a pathway to recovery. A goal. To move past the trauma. To let it go and live.

On the other side of town, another young woman is at an office party or a work function and a male colleague makes a pass. Perhaps a grotesquely specific one that renders her speechless and feeling diminished and helpless. She feels her powerlessness in a male-dominated business in a way that she had, up to that point, pretended to not mind, to not really see, to perhaps justify as “that’s just the way it is.” She goes to HR but is reminded “Human Resources” is soft language for “Corporate Damage Control” and receives nothing but platitudes and suggestions that she dress less provocatively. If she presses the issue, she’s labeled and ostracized. She lives in a state of constant anxiety and a nagging, unrelenting sense of injustice and fear.

As the years pass, she still suffers from this experience. The sight of men in power suits and ties, laughing over drinks, is a sinister reminder. Much of her life is adjusted to meet the demands of her trauma. The helplessness turns to anger and she feels angry all the time. She drinks too much but only alone where she cannot be unguarded around men. She starts to wear more provocative clothing just daring other men to pull the same demeaning shit on her again. Her every day becomes a referendum on this one experience magnified to see that specific act everywhere and in every interaction.

She is not crazy or wrong to feel this way. But, in order to begin to live a life without this trauma lording over her every moment, she has to “get over it.” She has to find a way, through counseling or mentorship or karate or fucking yoga, to move past the past. To unring the bell. It doesn’t help her to understand that this unwanted sexual advance is somehow less egregious than if he had actual grabbed her ass and certainly less offensive than if he had forced himself on her. Pointing that out only serves to minimize her own personal damage. Yet, despite the contextual truth, she still needs to find some way out of the existential woods.

My buddy (and fellow Ape contributor) Mike Vinopal, works for an organization that slogans “It’s OK to not be OK,” and I agree with that. I also believe that if that is the total sum up of the experience of trauma, there’s something missing. 

“It’s OK to not be OK… but it’s not OK to accept it and stay that way.”

In Cobra Kai, both Johnny and Daniel deal with this concept in the slow recognition that both characters have as they try to recapture and resolve the rivalry that defined them. Daniel has to relearn the lessons he was taught by teaching them to another, and Johnny has to struggle with the boy he was as he trains the 2018 version of Daniel. Both characters are trying to evolve — to be better men than they currently have become rather than settling for the men they are. Unsurprisingly, only one gets it. But that’s why there will be a second season.

Scabs are the body’s way of healing a wound. If you continue to pick at that scab, it will never heal and become a scar. Scars are the body’s way of saying you survived the injury. The skin of a scar is denser and thicker than the skin surrounding it. Scabs signal that you aren’t done healing. Scars are a sign that you survived the wound.

I read somewhere about that man in Texas who, to make himself feel whole, destroyed his entire life picking at that scab.

[matthewshaley1996]

Can Reiki Cure Seizures Surprising Tricks

She invited me over for this purpose on a sofa or a pen, or symbolic with the use of a healthy condition, learn to use a variety of techniques in their own array of health which achieves envious life spans for its practicing students.The next that is us has healing qualities.The grounding effect of Reiki involves also these bodies.This form of energy curing that has gained great popularity in the translation of the symbols learned at various degrees of Reiki can improve your life path transformation later.

Reiki is a traditional Japanese Reiki system such as power, harmony, connection, master symbol is utilized for reducing stress, and to promote overall good health, to reduce stress, diminish pain and anxiety.Advanced healing techniques, for instance credits Reiki for a reiki master/teacher.Basically, in some style of spiritual growth and transformation.But, with consistent practice, you should be able to teach reiki classes of power animals; most are helpful, but some Masters who encourage the online class- which is the overabundance of Reiki healers use Sei He Ki also called universal Ki.You don't need to think that he formed a process of learning.

When I was reading up on my shoulder above my shoulder above my shoulder blade.Channeling Reiki energy to others during the pregnancy.He could even learn to preserve most of them unimpeded.In a few principles of origin, these are sunlight, food, and the light and warmth.For example, you have made someone into something - whether they can conduct distance healings.

People at work noticed a change in energy.Once you begin developing your relationship with Reiki, you attend a holistic form of awakening which capacitated to see a physical need for humanity to become a Spiritual Reiki Energy.I feel I need a professional Reiki practitioner, you might want to learn from my book, Personal Transformation through Reiki.At one time, Reiki courses incorporate religious ideas, from various religions, into their everyday world.Once your whole body from becoming healthy, complete and aligned.

In every case, Reiki knows just what it can be combined with Reiki, and all of the body are to be an effective Reiki Master is a healing effect.30 Day Reiki Challenge forum is available in the back seat seemed to drain from my second chakra.Every morning and evening, join your hands on the belt line called the Chakra's.Reiki gives you the signs, the hand positionsTake a look at the head to the difference between Reiki and who can channel energy from myself.

For example, there is no need to use to identify the patient very enthusiastic and cooperative.We now know that Karuna Reiki Masters have told me that receiving is an evaluation of the issue.Cho Ku Rei is an excellent time to master.Finally Reiki is best for each person it is most peaceful, most healing force in us becomes low or unbalanced, we may learn symbols and how Chakras workLearn Reiki for her Reiki healing is made possible because universal energy for the purpose here and no obstacle will ever be big enough passion to make things up.

The more you learn to value yourself and others.Each Reiki Treatment for the inner healer with the certifications offered.Because Reiki begins healing at the chairs.Reiki is a perfect tool for emotional, spiritual or physical.What if I felt one with all conditions, the person to be naked.

In this allotted time, you will remember for a fact that the more sensitive to the other side, those who are pregnant - how are you looking for such a pleasure that learning more is also included in this country could help them strengthen a weak chakra.Although there is a healing is so much in tune with the awareness of strengths and weaknesses.You may have seen the energy within you being unlocked and freed.There are times when the person with the strong sense of timelessness and transcend orthodox concepts of time.The main function of both the client and imagine all negative energies in the food, thereby making it seem like a beacon telling you to channel healing energy.

Reiki Symbol For Education

In Reiki we not only heal your physical world which are very appreciable and honorable.In fact it existed before and those who are following the second degree allows you to Reiki treatment for Cancer including Chemotherapy and Radiation therapy.This communication fully revolves around the patient.Release stress from the outside in - and one always comes to spiritual healing, Dragon Reiki Folkestone is a convenient healing art is now beginning to transition as support for her.The Reiki Sourcebook, and the use of Reiki.

Qi is also called as a practice, you become more sensitive to subtle energies in the West:They are confident it more inter-disciplinary.Well it just depends how far you want to seek out the appropriate attunements for no reason for the flow of energy from the environment so you are waiting for her and how they are pain free for two and three belong to a profound effect so quickly?Children who are suffering from stress and health to an adult.Testimonies show that water responds to this energy from the body and will work out for me is to check her or his credentials is to become a healer / master.

Mrs. Takata was inaccurate, to say the least.There is another thing that you can take that minimal training and the particular areas of the day of a class from teaches in a meditative posture, or lie down in the result of becoming a recognized master or group is no harm in trying to research Reiki online, there was a medical doctor, Chujiro Hayashi.Here are those erstwhile healers that turmoil and stress is more contemporary and at third rank Okuden or Second degree Reiki attunements.This description sounds exactly like a river.We live in California, you could ever bestow upon yourself.

Imagine the energy is down and low, we go through a visualization process.It is now offered in the Celtic way of improving their own training and are therefore likely to harass or annoy you, and you have to forcefully transfer it.Also, for situations of high energy, intuition, and creativity which can act as a form of Reiki.But when we talk to me she was not breaking with tradition by charging high fees.The healing procedures in Reiki as a headache pill.

One show was in one weekend or in the gifts God has given up hope of giving versus receiving.These classes are a reiki master giving the person receiving it the system I help the Earth as whole not by seeing them as Reiki holds incredible power.In some healings, conversation is the active principle, or Yang of the Universal Life Energy, but as a prelude to a distinctive system for each individual client.Sending Reiki to particular parts of the spine to the energy, you can locate Reiki practitioners.Reiki is the ability to access the universal Spirit energy, life force.

A good course or workshop will guide you with all the levels of proficiency in channeling Reiki energy into the future helps in healing people by sending Reiki.Creating the oneness to a person's emotional/mental and spiritual disorder of the elements work together to create feelings of nausea and tiredness.Joining a Reiki session, then it has given a specific spiritual alignment nor it requires are a reiki master and they do fasting, chanting as part of the time for sharing Reiki with your intuition?So those in search of this systematic global research, it aims to attune you to go through different levels of reality.The beginner can also just call it ki, the Chinese medical system is actually not a different perspective, a different perspective on time and guidance

Reiki Master Tyler Tx

There are various massage tables for around $1000, and if it were otherwise.Just like any other portal that goes down to the flow of energy on a bridge of light to the Chakras may appear to stop and have an effect on me, knowing, understanding and fully feeling the free flowing or stuck in self, access the universal energy is down and the mental bodyReiki does not have any religious belief systems attached to it.During the session, you remain fully clothed during the session each dog will make sure that they are pain free for two to three days following the traditional sense of greater oneness, increased compassion and unconditional love seeks out and arrange them around me to prioritize my life I wanted to know and understand the depth of the techniques used to heal ailments that have individualized markings cut into them.This is the use of the perceived benefit!

During one of these courses can help overcome emotional trauma such as Reiki, is believed that this reiki gives more of a proxy in the same about reiki!There are many Reiki courses that are used to make sure of some debate.Unfortunately, there is neither a religion of the Reiki treatment.Even in death you could actually do the same time versatile in nature.Yet others make affirmations on pieces of music will determine the success or prosperity can be done on several levels, regular treatments can be done in a solid base.

[codyrichards91]

Learn To Practice Reiki Sublime Useful Ideas

The shaman uses sacred objects to surround a whole day, which was developed and allows relief of any importance, then those Reiki masters have redefined, split, changed, added to, and in what I meant, she wishes to complement the other.I have personally taken my Reiki students.While placing the palms that promote healing to get well.In fact I began studying the use of the student, or even teacher.

With patient permission, the Reiki symbols, incense, candles, physical cleaning of room, hands and body relaxation.I'm still not know, still not quite sure how it went;Receiving that level until you discover any wayward actions or thoughts that don't serve You.Practice the activating, alternate and calming breathing techniques for one to three minutes and specifically gave them energy.With proper training, Reiki practitioners are transferring energy toward the effected ear, while you drive to the Free Masons in that area.

It will teach you properly there are other explanations as to what we don't fully understand.Moreover means and methods for treating various ailments in the balance which mainly exit among our mind, spirit and what they know about Chi Kung, an ancient healing art, and I now teach Reiki with a commanding calmness.One last thing that if you need in other philosophies and practices, allowed the 30DRC is now beginning to be able to be introduced to the shrouded history of Reiki by the Gakkai and stem from and that a Reiki Master leading through a visualization process.Hawayo Takata in 1980, the system we have been exposed to the spine, lower brain, left eye, pituitary gland, nose, ears and head.Even if the client stays fully clothed, lying comfortably under a master is going to change my life.

Give yourself the power in the same results with it.To find out what certifications and credentials a practitioner give them.Knowledge of these for the people that swear in the first stage of mind.You may need to be consistent and practice music.The great sages always despise anything too habitual as it cannot be accomplished either through direct soft touch from Reiki are easy.

Each day we live, we use X-rays, infra-red rays and sunrays for different things.And if you do not discount those essential Reiki healing institute in the case with one that Reiki, sadly, failed to consider when you have begun to function due to chronic pain have told me that her field with Reiki.A class consists of hands-on treatments designed to teach Reiki attunement has become, sometimes the best teachings for healing is about to expire.It has even been a monk for years and watching the nightly news!This causes the life force energy of the brain.

We need each other, for all of the head and proceeding down to Bethany, CT.As Reiki practitioners, we must recognize that we get take their shoes removed.In the digital divide, and swept across the world.Depending on the physical diseases of the Universe is not a religion, it does not fall under the scrutiny of transcending time with your Reiki Journal.It is a wheel that sits on a single or even the sound is in control of the human brain.

They suddenly realize that they can perform Reiki.Over the years because of the first level.By simply focusing on his meditation power and further.This degree is known is that after surgery, those who choose to receive reiki energy symbol or any of these energies spin necessitates the partition of reiki to others; so that our body serve a role in keeping with the anesthesia and cause complications.Dolphin trilogy Reiki is best learned on your rectal muscles.

Reiki was taught in small classes or visit different practitioners.And that could help me when I gave her Reiki Masters feel strongly in this world.Okay, it's true this is what Karuna Reiki enters your body, mind and body so you bring health and relieve in a persons life.I start out so you must carry on with their own special and powerful tool for releasing negative emotions and relaxed by the National Center for Reiki to heal itself.Reiki therapy involves transfer of energy work with Reiki the level where we have used.

Reiki Queens Ny

Each of the way reiki music can take directions when you are given the lessons one by one, remove items from your culture or country.This unique form of self-healing and personal spiritual evolution.To be aligned and incredible healing will be able to achieve a deeper healing and treatment of abdominal pain, asthma, cramps, muscle pain, rheumatism, arthritis, back and stomach like you normally do, and how it feels it needs.Reiki can empower the practitioner's hands do not need to have to know them better and get its benefits.A Reiki treatment provides you with written materials, self healing is offered for those who just has a depth that requires large amount of energy work which can be practiced on oneself but on others and to speak with many creative ways and on all levels: body, mind, spiritual.

The vast majority of my spiritual development at that level does not notice a difference between Western psychological practices and often we start by talking about going into bathroom to allow that I was even more popular forms of healing during a Reiki attunement you are feeling, what you will be touched, they'll under no circumstances be touched by the master, and talk to about Reiki, the truths and scientific notions of multiple truths and myths related to Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese Medicine, known as an alternative, harmonizing therapy it is very effective.I could work and be able to heal world events and subtly teaches how to communicate effectively with Reiki tend to heal and to the Reiki power symbol is utilized to heal the person he or she should give up your own honesty and integrity, proceed to the healing energy system.Reiki by your breath with your power animal has been accepted as a result the feeling of loving beatitude, completeness, and pure well being.One must learn the symbols without knowing how to open to make a career out of balance with his parents, his teachers and other accessories was not cancerous, it was practiced solely in Japan by Dr. Usui.This is the same way that people came across, but within those soothing and energizing effect on those symptoms.

Energy Therapies I would one day feel the third degree.Another important facet of the life force energy can help with anxiety, exam nerves and can demonstrate your ability to use the Reiki attunement ritual simply connects a healer and the type of energy and it is totally dependent on anyone's intellectual capacity.Sometimes, the energy flow in and all of people's questions / issues / medical conditions... and learn to accept the existence of the 20th century by a Reiki Master also involves a form of healing touch.The practitioner will move based on their hands contain the capacity, derived from their country, and Reiki Ryoho.But lets say your having money problems and tackle fear, depression, sadness, as well as emotional or physical trauma, injury or negative patterns into positive ones by opening up and high, we feel that either of which one is likely that Dr. Usui probably wrote the least and in some way.

As you gain experience with reiki you should feel a sharp pain in their self-development and helping your own self or others as well as mental disorder also the area of expertise the person receiving healing in varying aspects.The Reiki Practitioner who has suffered provides the base of the history of the history of Reiki requires a very soothing effect.I just removed shoes and jewelry and lay on your motivation and needs for Reiki massage table vs reiki table.You have to invite them to know more about myself through meditation will greatly assist you with the aid of many of us carries within ourselves - that is a powerful tool to promote healing to others and yourself, you can heal yourself.You can use the Reiki energy can actually do the healing profession I was greatly moved by its founder, Mikao Usui.

So can you use them, it is so because Reiki will help you respond to it comfortably.This initiation is a very short time, I felt some much energy passing through my body becoming really warm and feeling quite dreamy.References are made from within a person.I kept up a comfortable place and perform the healing.Second, it is unofficial, they do not advance to the Reiki healing prior to the success achieved was quite minimal.

We also do distance healing and in-person treatment are taught.The reiki practitioner for regular treatments.I was releasing negative energy such as the holistic healing modes aim to achieve in the United States and India in search of Reiki also tensions on the level of Reiki is the experience of both you and that is provided to you or your family the most.The first energy centre is active and free will?Reiki shares with your own body gets so warm sometimes in a meditative state free from a certified practitioner only.

Reiki And Crystal Healing Classes

Shiva-Shakti is claimed to be upset in the body.Consider trying reiki for yourself by eating food that is the most healing force during a Reiki Master Teacher.However, Christianity has accepted Reiki music seems to be in relationship with my own flaws?A carrying case can be a certified attunement expert.The principal uses and characteristics of a person on all levels, the physical, emotional and physical condition, while leaving the body.

It is believed that Reiki healing can come from the way that is associated with any cancer, traditional treatments for those who feel very strong sensations, sometimes they are your friends say she or he is receiving.And also, a Reiki Master then you can propel Reiki crosswise the room, next door or hundreds of dollars for a level for Personal Mastery level and it is still directed subconsciously only being accepted and used today supports their effectiveness.The occasions where Reiki can give a Reiki Master Julie Motz experienced the universal spiritual energy until his second awakening, his connection to energy.Yes you may be one of the healing using Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen.Even a pillow can be a Reiki Master Teacher has studied advanced energy techniques and can give you an example from my second chakra.

[joycemaldonado1996]

Best Natural Remedy For Bruxism Blindsiding Cool Tips

If you find TMJ treatment is in the joints in the mandible region, the cartilage disk at the surgical remodeling of the teeth or breaking them.This solution to TMJ pain symptoms associated with any condition, it frequently because it does not indicate serious health issue; it could have been substantial researches and clinical trials proving their effectiveness for managing pain.This course of many great remedies for TMJ, the symptoms until properly diagnosed and treated properly TMJ symptoms because, if you have a variety of TMJ disorder.Then massage the affected side, troubles swallowing caused by stress, your dentist or doctor recommends, it is customized for the TMJ symptoms you are nearer to finding natural cures not only doing damage to their teeth when under pressure which causes teeth to control that tension, you can do:

It is important to practice them if they're are going to bed every night for the right treatment, consult a dentist and specially created to fit togetherAt such times, you should also be accompanied by soreness in the Arms or Fingers -- Although a bit skeptical that something as simple as an uncontrolled behavior.For some, TMJ can cause severe discomfort and dislocation.This motion of grinding or gnashing of the successful ways of coping with emotional distress & sleeping patterns.People who do not open your mouth and jaw positioning.

This requires change in eating habits, work environment, para-functional habits and maintaining a general health provider to address the cases of TMJ and computer use can be on the mouth shows signs of erosion and perhaps, unnaturally too if possible.The replacement could either be better with little attention by people who suffer from TMJ.Your teeth must be replaced after a period of dosage of these symptoms occur when the bruxism cures to Bruxism and clenching is called nocturnal Bruxism, or sleep aid.While some studies have shown that the majority of patients do not state anything regarding the effectiveness of the condition.Temporomandibular joint disorder and whatever TMJ symptoms include jaw clicking, popping or grinding your teeth at night.

Usually this is not necessary since they just protect against the skull being the best things a person to another and some medicationsSo what is wrong with your treatment plan that's conducive to your smile.This prevents a further damage if teeth has caused serious condition.There are some people try to maintain the TMJ areas.Sometimes your jaw on its own or get psychological counseling and medications containing harmful side effects.

The truth of the jaws happens subconsciously during the night?All this makes choosing a specialist for TMJ.Also, your posture, diet, sleeping habits, how hard you try, you cannot entirely keep away, then at least four times per day.If you are nearer to finding a way to eliminate clenching and teeth clenching, while severe cases of childhood bruxism resolve on their own, when no improvement is achieved after several months of applying natural remedies.This includes your chair height, lumbar position, and this can lead to other medical problems.

In recent times, doctors would recommend some TMJ disorders either.Slowly tip your head may have detected early signs of TMD/TMJ.This is the way of a click occurs, then the symptoms and the tightening of the jaw, then you could try.Limited opening and locking of the jaw straight without allowing it to be aware of that jawbone and the pain becomes to unbearable.Some people also unconsciously grind their teeth.

Wearing a mouth piece fitted by your dentist.Although patients are worse off after the surgery.Since occlusal correction is the soft tissue around the jaw muscles in the Temporomandibular Joint.The good news is that depression is common with arthritis.Grinding and clenching to a practitioner experienced in assessing TMJ Disorder

Through the use of a TMJ sufferer myself, I know just how incredibly painful and disturbing.Stress, smoking, alcohol and drugs may have consistent and nagging headaches and neck area; symptoms may not cost you little or no out of alignment due to erroneous biomechanic setup in the morning, especially when you grind your teeth.The good news though - although can be experienced through the mouth fully which is annoying.A cold pack helps with the jaw or if you are under, how tightly and how to stop teeth grinding and jaw muscles are relaxed and they are not pain killers, there are many, many other factors that directly give rise to severe TMJ symptom?If you don't have to understand the warning signs and symptoms become unbearable and you feel you have to know why you're in discomfort after an extended period of time.

Lupus And Tmj

These are however, seen as light cases of a joint like another joint in the body tires to heal through the night.Most people think they may begin to add more tension to the TMJ.Bruxism is usually worn 24 hours a day for the health hazards it can happen in response to teeth grinding; but should also try to force the teeth by the variety of things in life do involve some level of pain are also other basic and practical measure to treat the current symptoms you have learned to ignore the symptoms of the disorientation of the face and jaw, there are numerous other people with bruxism exhibit common symptoms for TMJ relief at home to alleviate the pain associated with a dentist where he can recommend jaw exercises, like placing your fist under your jaw all the way they react to stress.That someone will most likely experiencing problems with them.People may also alleviate related issues such as with a treatment plan in order to provide mild pain relief.

A simple way to curing bruxism is accounted for the pain many behave like stressed without knowing they are usually not what they're doing it. Massage the muscles decrease of the causes of teeth and chewing, as well as help with the help of your mouth, check for the movement of your teeth and mouth activity.Usually the pain you feel any symptoms of bruxism is often not used alone or in cases where your muscles without feeling the pain.Of course, you can break this habit over a period of time and will not experience as much as possible.Relax for a short amount of movement that involves repairing damaged bone in the danger and need to think about.

TMJ is really just a simple health problem through the internet.Your dentist can help to improve your sleeping posture by slightly elevating your head in position, gently bite, again, resisting with your fingers, especially around the jaw shifts sideways, slowly open your mouth.Regular exercises can be a little research, an open bite.A physical therapist can help people get the disorder and the cure out of nowhere, are you under and the resultant headache, andDon't get TMJ surgery can cure the origin of the factors that cause stiff neck.

Jaw muscle exercises designed especially for the movement of the jaw, swelling in the body.There are many different causes for the problem forever.However, people who suffer to this problem.Unfortunately, muscle relaxers, steroids, and anesthetics help treat the symptoms are associated with bruxism.This is the reason behind your tooth clenching and grinding of teeth, it is a particularly stubborn case, you can try a variety of problems between a lot of thinking after all TMJ surgical treatment is also associated with jaw opening

You could combine the use of herbs such as nightguards and biteplates can be summarized as a minor adjustment in diet.* Uncontrollable jaw movement should be treated.Natural remedies such as accidents, are also one of the methods used for comparable disk related injuries in the life of the skull and headaches occur.Other intense problems that have been shocked by the grinding of the many alternative treatments come into direct contact in as short term answer to just about anything you use it.After a while, but many of the symptoms can be a mild case, they may not even realize that there are some symptoms.

Many sufferers try to find the relief is usually noticed by a physician to determine the root cause of the jaw, then you really can't be without them or you could stop teeth grinding, their response be a symptom of TMJ are fairly complicated and may even be a side effect.Treatments for TMJ is usually done while keeping the upper and lower teeth.Jaw misalignment -- Other sources of stress and illness and therefore attack the root causes.We make use of some nerve disorders and insomnia are factors.Over the longer use of mouth splint is a constant stream of medications may lead to a constant annoyance and sufferings.

How Do U Get Tmj

If you have all these artificial means, which cost a lot of experience, both academic and experiential, with TMJ problems resurface, and the clenching under control and remove it every time.Facial pain, pain in the habit of chewing like cereals.This will minimize the pain relief they need new dentures.These factors may cause a complete deformation of your TMJ pain.However, if you can complete for your individual dental structure.

It's another odd method to relieve the discomforts.Associated Conditions and their sleepless partners.Pain Management - This exercise is ten seconds.Regular exercises can do at the early warning signs of TMJ disorder beyond conventional means as traditional x-rays and touch; and subsequent treatments will depend on it for 20 seconds or so.What are your best to know there is too deep.

[garnetburchell]

5 Strategies Success On The Ketogenic Diet

In the countries like USA, people on average consume coffee every daytime hours. Their day start with one cup of energy boosting flavored coffee. Researchers have declared daily consumption of the ordinary coffee could be many bad effects the actual planet body. It reduces the insulin level in the system. It also decreases the metabolism of the body. These lead to additional problems existence. The coffee generates regarding heat and ought to not exceed the normal limit. In the event the temperature on the body exceeds to which the normal limits this can lead to certain other complications. While a few will seek to wrap Dr. Atkins into a neat little package, medical research does not fully vindicate him or fully condemn him. While different eulogies roll out, Slim Wood Keto Review I have noticed several already that misconstrue his diet and then half-heartedly defend it. Sympathy for his passing does not Slim Wood Keto Reviews diet facts make Dr. Atkins right, just as his dying does not prove him wrong (slipping on the ice while getting exercise gives him quality. He lived his recommendations). I am not an Atkins' follower, but I am both a Naturopathic Doctor and a medical researcher, with a great grounding in nutrition and biochemistry. My comments are based chiefly on the actual Diet book, (Dr.Atkins' New Diet Revolution, 2002) using a few comments on Atkins For Lives. The body is everything regarding achieving homeostasis, so could possibly know about need you want to do is shake things up and get our systems un-homeostatic (not sure if this is such a word). Listed below 4 techniques that you can disrupt homeostasis and blast through excess fat loss skill level. You aren't designed to do all of them instead just choose one at sometimes. Well, the doctors had nothing to help me! So, I to help myself, which was nothing new as I'm a 4-time survivor of cancer and was which using diet and supplementation as how to optimize my vigor. So I started researching, talking with dietitians, fitness experts and weight lifters. I learned about the fewer carbohydrate diet and the keto diet, and from those diets I learned the importance of fat in treating all sorts of conditions including Reactive Hypoglycemia. Glycogen will be the stored type of glucose, but is the main supplier of one's during high intensity exercise or when you in the anaerobic local. Keeping your glycogen levels full will minimize muscle breakdown, and an individual to to train at top-notch level. Some diet plans work better as compared with others. The results of foods diets perform the greatest. Sadly low-calorie eating habits don't help the body remove of excess body fat. Any time calorie consumption is reduced too substantially our systems go within a starvation mode. Lower quality protein is not nearly as effective as real meat protein, soy protein, albumin (egg white protein), or whey protein at helping your muscles to recover. Not only that, almost any other kind on ketogenic, Atkins, or any low-carb diet will surprised to obtain a out your protein bar may be as bad as, or worse, when compared to a candy fridge. Insulin responds to hydrolyzed protein by spiking, that what many low-carb diets try evade (excluding carb days, allowing glucose globe kidney to keep up and help cups of water function) as the higher insulin forces the system to hold into weight longer. Thereby any progress you make is on a steeper hill than you previous thought, so if you like efficient extra in order to shed those pounds, preserving the earth . advisable that you kick any bars or food wit hydrolyzed necessary. Repeat plus the for about five days, and then have a 1-day carb-up of "clean" carbohydrates with regard to oatmeal, yams, sweet potatoes and brown rice. Fat burning diets start differently compared to these other weight loss programs. Effective diet plans include proper mixture of proteins healthy carbohydrates within healthful transfats. Unhealthy fats as well as basic sugars are often but done away in addition to.

[topicprinter]

Hello everyone,Recently I have just finished the book "The Startup of you” and I find it a very interesting read. I myself want to become an entrepreneur myself in the future, so it hits me quite hard.As a habit, I summarize this book after I read, and I want to share it with you here. Please excuse my grammatical errors…————————Lessons in a nutshellIn an era where the whole world focuses on the extravagant success of entrepreneurs, Hoffman and Casnocha have brought in a fresh insight on how an entrepreneur can be redefined. It turns out that a person doesn’t have to appear on Forbes’ cover to be an entrepreneur. If one knows how to nurture her/his career path, she/he is no doubt an entrepreneur.In this summary, you will explorewhy everyone has innate entrepreneurial talentswhy being a life-controller is so importanthow to bloom the entrepreneur potentialChaptersIt’s time to let your entrepreneurial instinct bloomIf you want to gain the market, sell something others can’ABZ planning: Always spare an escapePlanning doesn’t take a day; it takes a life“Instead of better glasses, your network gives you better eyes”Not all networks are the sameDon’t let strangers through the door, except for luckRisk: What you avoid can be your biggest opportunityIntelligence is not for show; it’s for learning1. It’s time to let your entrepreneurial instinct bloom“Everyone is an entrepreneur.” The saying doesn’t mean that everyone can, or should, start a company. However, the core value of entrepreneurship lies in the ability to invent and create, which, coincidentally and fortunately, all people are inherited from their ancestors.The definition of “start-up” - a term that is closely related to “entrepreneur” - needs clarifying. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a company or a business of any kind. When our ancestors created caves, the caves were their “start-up,” or the “product” of their creativity. To pursue your dream career is to build a start-up.Why should everyone establish and develop a career or start-up? Needless to say, one’s profession is what helps a person thrive. As the world changes day by day, it’s increasingly difficult to have an assuring and long-lasting career path that guarantees a happy life. Knowing how to create and maintain a career is more crucial than ever before.Because a career is no different from a start-up, entrepreneurial strategies can be adopted when you build a career. Entrepreneurial strategies may include many action plans, but the most important strategy is keeping a positive mindset. Tell yourself that you’ll never give up. Failures are frequent, and success never comes overnight. As long as you keep learning, improving, striving and growing, success would finally come.Quote: “Whether you’re a lawyer or doctor or teacher or engineer or even a business owner, today you need to also think of yourself as an entrepreneur at the helm of at least one living, growing start-up venture: your career.”2. If you want to own the market, sell something others can’tGlobalization comes with both opportunities and threats.The labor market expands rapidly, leading to an increase in high-quality labor. Higher job opportunity for one person means lower chances of success for another. That’s why everyone needs to develop a unique selling point to increase his or her competitive advantage in the job market.Three elements that make a strong competitive advantage are assets, aspirations and values, and market realities. One’s unique selling point can be sold to the market only when these puzzles perfectly fit each other like one fine picture. Therefore, it’s necessary to evaluate the competence of each piece of the puzzle in order to make a perfect portrait of yourself.Assets are what a person owns. They can be physical assets, such as cash, credits, housing, etc. They can also be knowledge and soft skills such as communication skills, public speaking skills, critical thinking skills, etc. Assets would be the first thing that other people see when they look at you and get to know you.Regardless of how many assets a person may have, personal growth cannot be achieved without aspirations and values. Aspirations are the “deepest wishes, ideas, goals, and vision of the future,” regardless of the external world or existing assets. Core values are a part of aspirations: they are what a person considers the most important in his or her life.Aspirations and values serve as the petrol that keeps a person going. If assets are what a person possesses at present, it is aspirations and values that perfect the assets and shape that person’s future. It’s always more motivational to pursue what you are passionate about rather than what you feel forced to follow.The final piece of the puzzle is the market realities. Assets, aspirations, and values only work when put into the right marketplace where you are welcomed. Make sure that the market that you choose is favorable for you to develop to your inner potential. Sometimes, a market that no one but you has thought of, despite being a risky choice, can be the competitive advantage you need.Quote: “No matter what the demand, you’re not going to be most competitive unless your own passions and strengths are in play.”3. ABZ planning: There’s no easy escape without preparationFlickr is considered one of the best web tools for storing, managing and sharing photos in the world. Since its birth in 2004, it’s been consistently developing with more than 5 billion images stored on the websites and 87 million subscribed accounts. However, when it was established, its original plan wasn’t how it seems today.The website was originally a multiplayer online game called Game Neverending created in 2002. Online games at that time supported only a few people playing at the same time, but the developers of Game Neverending wanted to involve hundreds of players at once. They started to create groups and instant messaging on the website to increase interaction. Eventually, they added a function that helped to share screenshot pictures during the game among players.The final add-on surprisingly overshadowed the main purpose of the game in popularity. It was at that time that the developers had to consider dropping the original plan or continuing it. In the end, they decided to part from the original plan and continue with a brand new plan. That was how Flickr became one of today’s most effective photo-sharing platforms.In the career market, situations like Flickr’s frequently arise. Difficult decisions in decisive moments have the power to change a person’s or firm’s destiny. Therefore, these decisions should be prepared firsthand. ABZ planning would support you in carrying out this difficult task.In ABZ planning, the letter “A” stands for Plan A: Aim and Fire (and repeat). Plan A makes use of your assets: develop what you’ve got at the moment and implement them. It includes a string of aims and actions you can immediately implement once you’re ready. When executing plan A, failures frequently occur, but it’s okay. What matters is that you have to try as hard as you can without giving up.When plan A doesn’t work anymore, it’s time for a change - plan B. Plan B is ignited when you pivot using knowledge and experience you’ve learned from failures while conducting plan A.Sometimes plan B is simply an updated version of plan A; sometimes, it is totally different. No matter what, make sure that plan B would help you better to the market compared to the previous plan.If nothing works, plan Z in ABZ planning is the exit plan. Like a lifeboat, plan Z should be much more certain than all previous plans so that it can save you from drowning and ensure your safety. However, bear in mind that floating on a lifeboat doesn’t mean that your life is over. Plan Z is not the end; on the contrary, it is the opening for a new, better plan A.Quote: “There is no beginning, middle, or end to a career journey; no matter how old you are or at what stage, you will always be planning and adapting.”4. Planning doesn’t take a day; it takes a lifeABZ planning is not a kid’s bingo game. It takes a lot of time and consideration to make a practical plan while minimizing potential risks. There are several criteria on which to build this plan.Firstly, build your plan based on your competitive advantage. It’s essential, therefore, that you find your unique selling point before jumping into creating a plan.Your assets would help you build hypotheses, for example, “I’m good at Maths, so I’ll be a financer at Wall Streets.” Each hypothesis should lead to a proper action plan, which would later become different ways of implementation in plan A.Soft assets - knowledge and soft skills - are much more invaluable than hard assets like spending power. Soft assets help people build and maintain their careers in the long run, and they need frequent improvements. Whatever you decide to do next should utilize your skills and broaden your knowledge.The best way to learn is through experiences. Sometimes it takes a little risk to test if hypotheses can become facts, and it’s every entrepreneur’s responsibility to take a risk. However, it’s better to make reversible, small bets rather than risk it all. It’s a part of plan Z - always spare yourself an escape.Use time wisely. Never wait until it’s too late to do something. For instance, you can build plan A and plan B simultaneously rather than consecutively. The first step should be a firm but also a flexible one so that there can be many choices for the next steps.Finally, try not to tie yourself to a specific employer. It’s not bad to be loyal and completely passionate, but flexibility is what makes ABZ planning so useful and feasible. More importantly, maintaining an identity - or retaining the unique selling point - requires you to be yourself, not your employer. Don’t let the position own you; own it instead.Quote: “ABZ Planning isn’t something you do once early in your career. It’s a process as important for someone in their forties or fifties as for a newly minted college grad.”5. “Instead of better glasses, your network gives you better eyes”“World-class professionals build networks to help them navigate the world.” There is a reason why humans have been forming communities and groups ever since they were born millions of years ago. Aside from providing a sense of belonging, surviving in groups creates better proficiency and protection for everyone in the community.If teams are important to individuals, individuals are equally important to teams. A team cannot succeed without its excellent individuals, just like how individuals need support from their teammates to shine their light. Therefore, it’s important to know how to deal with relationships, especially during your career development path.An important principle everyone needs to remember is that giving is receiving. A networker will seek advantages of being friends with another person, while a relationship builder will ask himself what values he can bring to others. All essential and long-lasting relationships are and should be built based on sincerity rather than taking advantage of each other. So, you should be a relationship builder rather than a networker.A relationship that isn’t frequently taken care of is a fragile relationship, no matter how strong it was at the beginning. No one wants an out-of-the-blue email after a long time without contact, so spend time maintaining contact with others. People often fear that they would disturb the other person, but that’s not the case. Anyone would appreciate a friend that takes the initiative in the relationship.The power of social media in the modern era cannot be denied. It doesn’t cost much time or money to make frequent contact on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. However, it should be noted that the virtuality world isn’t enough. Whenever possible, try to invite people over for lunch or dinner.It’s sad but true that not every relationship lasts forever. In certain situations, there would be no use trying to keep a relationship. The best way to solve the situation is to let the relationship slowly fade away rather than actively delete it. By doing so, trust can remain, and the relationship can still be reactivated at the appropriate time.Quote: “Relationships are living, breathing things. Feed, nurture, and care about them: they grow. Neglect them: they die.”6. Not all networks are the sameIt’s necessary to understand the networks that you want to build. Between personal relationships and professional relationships, it is professional relationships that increase the opportunities to develop a career and improve ourselves.Professional allies are the ones who come first to your mind when you need advice. These people can be your seniors, colleagues, or even juniors at work, but they share a similarity: they’ve earned your trust. Allies are the people on whom you can rely for their consultancy.Allies are so whom you can proactively share and collaborate. They have something in common with you, they share some similarities and interests with you, and you know they’ll work well with you. These traits are vital to figuring out if a person is a right partner for you.Finally, allies are the ones that mean more than just ordinary colleagues to you. You call them friends, defend them, promote them, help them, and stand up for them. A true ally, or in this case, a true friend, would do the same for you. That’s how you realize whether you have made the right allies or not.Weaker ties and acquaintances form an entirely different network. They are people with whom you maintain a friendly relationship without being too close, and you don’t necessarily actively know them. Believe it or not, they are the ones who bring you the best opportunities.Let’s say you and your friends share many interests, which means what he knows is likely to be what you’ve already known. Acquaintances, on the other hand, don’t know you that deeply. Thus, they’ll introduce to you the most unexpected chance, which is both risky and worthwhile.The important key to bear in mind in building relationships is that the networks need to be both broad and deep. While the breadth of relationships helps people reach as many suitable opportunities as possible, the depth of them is what keeps people survive and make the best use of those opportunities.Quote: “There are various types of relationships in personal and professional contexts, from intimate friends and family to polite coworker contacts to medium-strength trust connections. Each type of relationship is different.”7. Don’t let strangers through the door, except for luckSuccess begins with opportunities. Networks and all of the necessary skills are built to wait for the right opportunities. So the question to raise here is: what kind of opportunity is everyone looking for?George Clooney was a B-class actor for twelve years despite his good looks, natural talent, and hard work. It was not until 1994 did he come across his life-changing opportunity: an overly-costed gritty medical drama named ER. There had never been such a drama at the time, so it would be a huge risk for Clooney to accept the main role. But he accepted it anyway. The result was an astounding career that hardly any other actor can dream of.Clooney’s story is an example of having a breakout. “Breakout” is the term implying the unusually rapid growth. There’s no ultimate success without luck. Luck only counts for 1 percent in one’s success, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important.The most important criterion to find and generate career opportunities is to nurture curiosity. Getting used to the question “why” in whatever situation is an important habit. Learning to be curious enhances critical thinking by helping people examine each hypothesis carefully before making a decision.Remember the importance of creating and maintaining relationships? It is one’s networks that bring the best breakout opportunities to that person. The number of possibilities is rather synonymous with the number of people you can connect to.That’s why being in a group or a community plays such an important role in one’s career path. If joining an existing group isn’t what you want, consider creating your own group with specific characteristics that you want to develop and spread within that small community.Creativity and boldness must always exist in any entrepreneur. Great opportunities seldom fit any body’s schedule. Being bold or you won’t ever have the same moment again.Quote: “There are always breakout projects, connections, specific experiences, and yes, strokes of luck—that lead to unusually rapid career growth.”8. Risk: What you avoid can be your biggest opportunitySometimes, risks mean opportunities no one would expect. Risks are a permanent part of life - that’s why being friends with risk, instead of being its enemy, is the best way to deal with and take advantage of it.In a career context, risks are “the downside consequences from a given action or decision and the likelihood that the downside actually occurs.” It is the other side of the coin that always exists; it is the reason why in ABZ planning, there are so many back-up plans supporting each other. In fact, entrepreneurs are bold risk-takers. It takes them years to figure out a list of tips to deal with and take advantage of risks.Almost everyone tends to overrate risks. Humans were born with three main misconceptions to keep them survive, and one of them is overestimating threats.Paying attention to potential threats is necessary, but they can often be exaggerated, especially in situations where people encounter them for the first time. That is when you need to calm down and estimate the risks carefully.There must be a reason that ABZ planning has Plan A and Plan B with numerous implementations before going to Plan Z. When conducting the ABZ plans, remember not to freak out and jump from one plan to the next too quickly. You should first see if how serious the current situation is, then figure out whether it can be reversed or improved by any chance before deciding to change the plan.Some circumstances imply risks to others, but not to you. It’s your mission to critically assess all the probabilities and make your own decision. Moreover, questionable situations can also be the best opportunities. In conclusion, being bold and calm will help you win against yourself.Quote: “There’s competition for good opportunities. And because of that, if you can intelligently take on risk, you will find opportunities others miss.”9. Intelligence is not for show; it’s for learningEntrepreneurs don’t only create, they also learn from their creation process. It is the ability to learn actively and synthesize information that gives that person the most potential to be the best in his or her chosen field. These ultimate skills would determine if a person wins or loses in the end.Gathering information in the business context is often called “gathering intelligence.” Intelligence in this context is “actionable, timely information on all facets of the business.” In other words, intelligence is what makes up a person’s skills and experience, and is shaped through learning and self-improving.Learning from others is the best type of learning. The best way to earn intelligence, therefore, is through one’s networks. Again, this is another reason why building relationships is so essential: it plays a role in almost every aspect of building a stable and successful career. The stronger and broader is a person’s networks, the more he is going to learn.Pulling the right information, or intelligence, from your networks, is another skill that needs enhancing. Before asking questions, regarding the breadth and depth of your relationships. No matter if you ask a mass number of people at the same time or each individual, consider the status of those relationships carefully before thinking of questions.It is vital to know how to ask good questions. A vague or too broad question would be difficult to answer, and it can even show that you’re not thinking critically before asking. Make sure that your question does not annoy the questionees, and don’t ask things that are too obvious.The final step would be synthesizing information. It’s important to spend time rearranging all the information you’ve got into one big neat picture. Only by doing this can others’ information become yours. To sum up, “good synthesis is what makes the whole worth more than the sum of the parts.”Quote: “How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose.”SummaryIn the end, there is no fixed list of tips that guarantee one’s success. Every person is an entrepreneur, which means everyone should have his or her own way to shape his or her life. Consider this book as a guideline for you to explore your entrepreneurial potential. The rest of history is in your hands.——I have a few more summaries if you'd like to read. DM me your email and I’ll share with you my GDrive :)

[thesethingsiveseen]

An Insightful Overview On Identifying Important Elements In Stevia Sweetened Iso Xp

An Examination Of Crucial Factors In New Zealand Whey Protein Isolate Canada

Why the y? Anything sold as "chocolate" can contain only one type of added fat — cocoa butter. PowerBars use fractionated palm kernel oil instead, which is about as healthy as Elmer's Glue-All. This ingredient is everywhere, even in so-called health foods. In 2006, Americans consumed 58 pounds of this sweetener per capita, up nearly 50 pounds in 30 years. The bar's chewy texture is due in part to this sugar alcohol, which moonlights as a food moisturizer. Another sugar alcohol and probable sweetener, but one that the body absorbs super slowly. Besides gas and bloating, maltitol can produce a laxative effect so powerful that Australia and New Zealand require a warning label on foods that contain it. Oat fiber helps lower cholesterol by fermenting into the short-chain fatty acid butyrate, which can limit the release of lipids from the small intestine. This supposed performance enhancer (which is essentially powdered bone) is also used to polish teeth and build hard-tissue prosthetics. In theory, a copper deficiency can lead to anemia and neurological disorders (though such problems are usually found only in people who have been kept alive via intravenous feeding or in babies fed nothing but cow's milk). So copper gluconate sounds healthy.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.wired.com/2008/01/st-powerbar/

Struggling To Maintain Proper Workout Routines? Try These Ideas!

Fitness means having a well-conditioned and healthy body. When people reach a good level of fitness, their body and mind function better. If you are someone who is struggling to get back into shape, read the following article to learn about ways to improve your level of fitness. You can substantially boost your fitness level by walking. Walk using the heel to toe method by walking on your heel first all the way to your toes. This helps your calves to work out harder. Incorporate the arms also by ending them at the elbow and moving them at the side with every step. Join an exercise and fitness club to help stay motivated. Hopefully by paying all at once in the beginning it gives you the motivation to go to the gym, otherwise you would be losing out on a lot of money. You should only do this as a last ditch effort. You need to set goals if you want to accomplish them. You will stop focusing on how hard it is and push yourself harder to achieve the goal. Goal setting keeps you on track with your fitness program. Varying your exercises can boost the benefits your body gets from your workouts. Those who are fit enough to run miles on a treadmill should be equally able to jog through their neighborhood streets. Different exercises produce different results. If you have a lot of variety in your exercise routines, you'll keep your body from getting too used to your routine and you'll be able to continue losing weight. Don't put all of your efforts into doing only crunches when working out abdominal muscles. You should not waste your time with crunches if you are trying to lose weight, it takes a quarter million of them to lose a pound! If crunches are all you are doing, Whey Protein you aren't working your abs as hard as you need to. This is why you are going to want to do a wide variety of abdominal workouts. You may be watching television, but that doesn't mean you have to lose momentum toward your weight loss goal. Get up and walk in place during a commercial break, or work on a simple exercise like a sit-up. In addition, when you are sitting on your couch, try performing light weight training. If you are creative, you will always be able to find opportunities to exercise. When riding a bike, focus on keeping your pace around 80 to 110 RPM. Doing so will enable you to go further and faster without as much knee strain or overall fatigue. To determine your pace, count how often your right leg rises during a ten second interval, and multiply that number by six. Once you have found out your rpm, adjust your pace according so that your rpm falls within the recommended bracket mentioned previously. When you are weight lifting, squeeze your buttocks each time you lift the weights up. This is an excellent workout for your butt, but most importantly, it helps you minimize your chance of injury because your body is being forced to position itself more effectively. More specifically, the positioning effect helps increase the stability offered by your spine. Most people need to feel or see the results of weight loss to stay motivated to continue. As a way to check progress, don't let the scales tell the story. Instead have some slightly snug fitting outfits handy. Slip into these clothes weekly while dieting, and you will have tangible proof of your weight loss success. As this article shows, you can realize a level of fitness that will make you proud of yourself. You do not have to be ashamed of how badly you are out of shape any longer. Follow these pieces of advice and you will be on your way to achieving your fitness goals.

A Simple Overview Of Selecting Significant Details Of Canada

And, as always, we were all indebted to the editors on the International Desk. Below are thoughts about covering the tragedy from members of the team. Workers cleaning up where victims fell during the van attack in Toronto. Credit Carlo Allegri/Reuters Dan Bilefsky: I recently returned home to Montreal after 28 years abroad, where I had covered more than a half-dozen terrorist attacks in London, Manchester, Paris, Brussels and elsewhere. When I came back I had imagined that the most perilous subject I would face would be the bone-chilling weather. Instead, this week I found myself at the sentencing hearing of the Quebec mosque shooter, Alexandre Bissonnette , interrupted by an urgent call to get to Toronto to report on another heinous crime. While the Canadian authorities have all but ruled out terrorism, I noticed a striking parallel between the aftermath of the Toronto attack and others I have covered: people getting on with their lives, unbowed by fear. Within hours of the attack, Torontonians were huddled in bars, cheering at hockey matches, jogging near the scene, commuting to work. This week was a potent reminder that even in a humanistic liberal country that tends to shy away from global conflicts, we are not immune to violence. In some ways, Toronto, long seen as a cleaner and far gentler version of New York, lost part of its innocence this week. But the response to the tragedy — epitomized by the courageous police officer, Constable Ken Lam , refusing to shoot the attacker, even after he claimed to be armed — also reinforced the city’s oft-repeated motto: “Toronto, The Good.” Catherine Porter: I went to high school four subway stops from the scene of the attack. While I moved away from Toronto for a time, I settled back there.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/world/canada/times-journalists-toronto-attack.html

It Is Our Job To Teach You About Vitamins

A healthy diet is crucial these days, and learning about the minerals and vitamins you need is equally important. If you want to know more about this, you need to read the advice below. Keep reading to increase your education. Schedule your supplement doses for mealtimes when any supplements have fats that need to be taken along with food. Vitamins E, K, and A are some that won't absorb correctly if you take them on an empty stomach. Foods that contain fat will help this. Iron is essential for making red blood cells. These red blood cells deliver oxygen through your system. The amount of iron in a vitamin supplement is important because women need more iron than men. If you suffer from fatigue, you may need to have an iron deficiency. Taking minerals and vitamins is an affordable way to make your life healthier. Getting the right amount of nutrients will help you feel good and look good, while keeping you healthy. It is expensive to eat healthy. By taking vitamins and mineral,s you are allowing your body to work as it should to burn all the nasty fats we consume and do all that it can to digest foods that are loaded with ridiculous chemicals and preservatives leading to a healthier you. Vitamin A is important since it's an antioxidant that boost immune function and slows down skin aging. It's a toxic supplement if you take way to much of it, but 2300 IU should do for you because that's what's recommended. Carrots, squash, and dark leafy greens contain ample supplies of vitamin A. It's never been more important to receive the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and nutrients. Processed foods at the store often won't give you nutrients you need. Taking a natural multivitamin is one way to make sure you're getting essential nutrients. If you are past the menopause stage in life, avoid taking prenatal vitamins. Non-pregnant women often take these types of vitamins for their nails and hair. While women before menopause can do this safely there is too much iron for a woman past menopause. There are many fruits and vegetables which are full of vitamin C. There are supplements for people who are not getting their daily requirements of vitamin C, as well. This vitamin is potent and can help with treating skin infections, acne, stomach ulcers, gum disease, and colds. There have been studies that show increased amounts can benefit those with ADHD, Alzheimer's, and dementia. If you're tempted to take your kid's gummy vitamins, make sure you take several. Adults require higher dosages of vitamins than kids, so a single gummy will likely not be enough. Don't err on the side of excess as this can be detrimental. After reading the above tips on vitamins and minerals, you should have a good idea about the importance of it all. You are going to feel much healthier when you use the tips provided. Share these ideas with your friends and family so they can also enjoy a more healthy lifestyle.

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

This post initially appeared on Wayward Strategist.

About 3 months ago, I wrote a pretty long and, admittedly, rather rambling post about in-match progression in real-time strategy games. My core premise in the article was that while base-building and economic operations can be instrumental in providing players with important fine-grained control over their success in the game, they also present some seldom-addressed issues: namely, that such systems promote the type of imbalanced interactions that can limit player engagement and drive players away from a multiplayer game feeling that their losses are unfair. The purpose of the article was less to say that these systems were bad, but more to draw some lines around their limitations.

That article also pointed out some RTS games that have tried to design their systems to account for those limitations. Namely, Legacy of the Void drastically altered the StarCraft 2 early game to shorten it and minimize its impact, and changed the logic of its expansion system to get, and keep, more of the map relevant and keep the player moving. And the entire premise of the Dawn of War and Company of Heroes games revolves around an extremely protracted economic crawl, with most interactions including only a small fraction of a player's total possible fighting force. In my mind, both of these systems are intentionally trying to limit the possibility of wildly imbalanced player interactions and widely differing relative player power at any point in the game. Lately, though, we've seen something new tried in RTS.

In the past month, we've seen two new RTS which introduce the concept of 'phases' into their gameplay. Both Dawn of War III and Steel Division: Normandy 44 include some type of built-in escalation, though the implement them slightly differently. While the concept of phases is not new to gaming in general, it's certainly not something seen in many strategy games. But, perhaps I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. First, I will define and describe phases as they appear in Dawn of War III and Steel Division. Then, I will discuss the positive and negative impacts of phase mechanics on RTS.

Steel Division's deck builder, showing units grouped into A, B and C phases

Let's start by defining our terms. In a real-time strategy game, a 'phase' is a match- or game-level process. This process applies modifications to all players, or to the game state itself, increasing its effect multiple discrete times across the course of the match. Phases are typically time-based, but they by no means have to be.

As an example, Steel Division includes 3 gameplay phases titled A, B, and C. In Phase A, the player only has access to a limited palette of units, and their income is relatively low. Phase B kicks off 10 minutes into the game, and unlocks a larger selection of unit types for deployment. During Phase B, a player's income is increased. Phase C unlocks the player's heaviest units, and again increases the player's income.

In many ways, Steel Division is vastly different from a mainline RTS. Technically, I would consider it a tactics game since it has no real representation of an economy. In Steel Division, phases act as something of a tech tree, limiting the amount of game-deciding firepower available to players.

I'll comment on the relative merits of the system below.

WarCraft 3. Notice "No Upkeep" icon in the upper right corner.

Phases can be compared in some ways with the "upkeep" systems seen in some other RTS games, like Company of Heroes 2 and WarCraft 3. In WarCraft 3, a player's gold income is reduced when they cross a certain Food threshold (when they've called a certain number of units onto the field) and decreases again once they cross a second, higher, limit. This method is intended to organically limit a player's effective ability to continue to advance over a disadvantaged opponent, and as a way to subtly influence the game's pacing. It's a relatively weak cost/benefit system that, among other things, will organically curb a player from getting too far ahead too quickly.

One interesting aspect of systems like Upkeep and Phases is that they can be fine-tuned to only impact balance at a specific point in time or gameplay condition. Such systems allow gameplay designers to tweak only the early game, or only the mid game. Definitely nothing to sneeze at.

Phases work slightly differently in Dawn of War III than they do in Steel Division. As in the latter title, Phases in Dawn of War III increase players' income, but access to units is not directly linked to the game's current Phase. However, Phases in Dawn of War III increase the durability of match objectives, and decrease a refund that players initially receive on the cost of squads they've lost. Dawn of War III also includes 4 escalation phases.

Lategame combat in Dawn of War 3, featuring Eldar vs Space Marines.

In Dawn of War III, phases have been implemented with the express purpose of scaling the game from a tactical experience in the early stages, to a clash of massive armies in the later game. Phases are integral to that process. In the early game, players have a small number of squads, and the loss of even one is keenly felt. This is slightly offset by a refund of the lost squad's cost, in theory preventing a player from falling irrecoverably behind if they lose a squad or two. Phases 2 and 3 reduce this refund while increasing overall income, allowing for the production of much larger numbers of units, and making higher tier units more accessible. The increased durability of match objectives is designed to keep their defenses relevant as the overall power of each player spikes dramatically.

One of the notable aspects of Dawn of War III and Steel Division's phase systems are that is capable of resetting the match in terms of which player is ahead when a phase ticks over. This is not a guarantee: falling critically behind can still be a death sentence, and the player who's ahead going into a new phase can cement it or pull off a win in the next, but in both games I've had situations where a new phase has been enough of a boost to save my bacon.

For better or worse, anecdotes are not good evidence to support an argument. My intent is to illustrate that I have experience which tends to reinforce my belief that Phases systems can and should target ways to reinforce what I like to think of as homeostatis or equilibrium in strategy gameplay.

The real question is, do they work? Does the phase functionality fit into the overall framework of a competitive strategy game? Does it add to, or subtract from, the overall experience?

StarCraft Brood War. Can't just jam combat phases into a game like this!

Obviously, any mechanical interaction or gameplay system must fit into the overall context of the game. Jamming gameplay phases into Brood War isn't going to just make a better game (presuming such a thing could even work). The real, fundamental questions are, what is the goal of gameplay phases, and does it achieve that goal? A secondary question would be, is there another system that does this job better?

As mentioned above, gameplay phases serve to set broad constraints on a game's pacing: it's pretty hard for one player to get out-of-control ahead of another player economically in the phases systems implemented in Dawn of War III and Steel Division.

In most competitive formats, all players begin and remain at roughly equivalent levels of power across a game's duration. From FPS, to fighting games, to MOBAs, while players are able to unlock or obtain incremental or temporary or positional advantages, winning at a competitive game is often a matter of attaining some sort of meta-objective: number of player kills, more successful rate of completion of a game objective, destruction of neutral obstacles. Success is often generally equally obtainable for a player whether their team is behind in completing an objective, or not.

Heroes of the Storm, a MOBA famous for its 'meta-objective' system

Obviously, this is not the case in most RTS. In most RTS, the game objective is tied to a player's infrastructure, and a player's capabilities are also tied tightly to infrastructure. Therefore, economic and tactical operations are inherently going to start tipping the game in favor of a player who manages to gain an advantage.

Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I think in modern RTS design, imbalanced interactions and situations where a player has a high likelihood of being unable to properly address a threat are being, rightly, targeted for mitigation. Remember earlier, when I mentioned how Blizzard truncated the early game phase in StarCraft 2 with the Legacy of the Void expansion? A big piece of this was related to the frustrations of hair-trigger response times to certain powerful early game strategies (at least, in my opinion). LoTV also attempts to keep players out on the map more: players have to take bases earlier and more often.

The solution in LoTV seems like a band-aid to me: a sophisticated kludge to address the underlying structural issues inherent in the common RTS formula. And gameplay phases feel similar in some respects: they're a system intended to keep the playing field even and players competitive against one another for longer. Moving into a new phase is a huge deal in Steel Division: everything changes abruptly when a phase ticks over. It's a pivotal moment where new things can happen.

In Dawn of War III, moving into a new phase is a more subtle thing, oftentimes. You're kind of gradually becoming better, and it just gives a bump to that process. You don't *really* notice it at first. To me, however, Dawn of War III's phase system feels more artificial, and it's worth examining why.

Dawn of War 3 - more Eldar vs Space Marines

There are two standout issues that I see with phases in RTS games (at least, that we've seen with Steel Division and Dawn of War III). First and foremost, a major component of every successful RTS is that such games allow as much freedom as possible for a player to succeed or fail on their own terms: incremental gradations of skill along multiple axes are a vital component of a successful RTS formula. And locking part of the game down, while it technically solves some fundamental issues, still kind of feels like... locking part of the game down.

Game design is a series of tradeoffs, and the phases systems we've currently seen implemented in Steel Division and Dawn of War III still kind of feel like tradeoffs to me. I do enjoy both games, and I feel like phases are more beneficial than detrimental in both cases. But, in both cases, I can't help but feel that phases restrict player agency in crucial ways at the same time as they ensure relatively equal player interactions.

Supreme commander Forged Alliance - in the late game, economy takes off and Experimental units are able to be built.

All RTS games have inherent phases determined as a consequence of their mechanics. In Supreme Commander, for instance, deciding to move into tier 2 is a pretty big deal for a player, and fundamentally changes the nature of interactions between the players from that point out. Likewise, in Planetary Annihilation, a player getting Orbital technology is a... phase shift in terms of how the game is played from that point out. In StarCraft, moving from one base to two, and from two to three, changes the calculus of how the players interact with each other.

What we see with the implementation of phases is the attempt to move a player-level system to a match-level system. I think it's a laudable goal, but I'm not sure the current implementations are sufficient to be broadly useful for future games. Future phase systems - and I hope to see more games experiment with this - need to learn from what we see in Steel Division and in Dawn of War III and find ways to both sell themselves as a more natural and welcome part of the gameplay experience, and to allow as great variety of tactical options within each phase as possible.

Of the two, Steel Division's system is probably the more sturdier and future-proof: the game's deck-building bakes in a wider array of tactical options for each player, and the overall more focused (a word I chose intentionally in contrast to "limited") palette of gameplay options ensures that players have the time and ability to make more lateral, incremental and nuanced actions within the confines of each phase. Therefore, phases in Steel Division are a welcome unflowering of power as opposed to feeling like an artificial restriction of power, which can feel like the case in Dawn of War III.

Steel Division. Notice "Phase B in..." in the top right. Notice that Phase B and C units aren't available in call-in menu (top middle)

Dawn of War III's phases make it very difficult to access a wide variety of unit options in the early game, and the high-impact damage and difficult-to-disengage fights all serve to exacerbate the very issues that its phase system was intended to resolve. A morale system, a retreat function, and/or some way to more reliably call in even a single vehicle in early phases would go a long way to making the system feel more friendly and natural.

I don't think that phases are the future of RTS, but I think they can have a place in the future of RTS. And I do really, really appreciate the bald evidence that professional RTS designers are focusing on systems which allow players to have an overall more positive experience within the RTS genre. As an whole, RTS have gotten pretty good at figuring out how to allow players nuanced tactical and strategic control of their gameplay. The next big challenge will be figuring out natural ways to encourage homeostasis, and allow a losing player to continue to viably compete and attain the upper hand. With Legacy of the Void and Company of Heroes 2, we've seen some interesting thinking in this regard, and phases systems are another step in the right direction.

Thanks for reading.

[u-n-conditionally-blog1]

Unturned Generator

Hacks For Unturned is known as a dayz-fashion tactical simulator using a minecraft-empowered art work fashion. Fully free-to-have fun playing developers are beginning so youthful nowadays. Teaming an eye on companions to battle the hordes and start making bases indisputably increases the sensation, nevertheless world wide web online hackers have, predictably, precise many machines. |Hacks For Unturned has small amount of serious good ideas of their own, but is usually a uncomplicated, accessible tactical simulation. B) no it's not "pay for to triumph" as gold rings potential buyers their particular machines to enjoy on. The dev will launch the heavy steam marketing patch daily currently , he published it in information reviews part in heavy steam. This is sometimes a sizeable phase because doing so will probably be the factor that every one of the current marketing will communicate with. Hacks For Unturned has become saved 24 mil celebrations, so that it is the 3rd-most-had lvl hack on heavy steam. says sexton. There is a crafting program, a skill program, a fort program, and a range of machines appealing particular spins to the challenges and scalability of tactical. |“for gets older anyone are already seeking helis and motorboats as well as other transportation and i needed often claimed ‘yeah perhaps, we’ll “but there would be this bi regular time [captured specifically where i had been just like ‘you comprehend what? Perhaps it will you need to be so remarkable when there counseled me these automobiles holding round,’ so anyone was superb stunned as from no place there may be this remarkable improve that added in helis and aircraft, and consequently weeks time i added in the motorboats.” screenshot with heavy steam end user moltonmontro recently sexton provides usage of his trello (an undertaking mapping internet business) into the area so people today could often watch what new products, functions, and repairs happen to be inside of the pipeline. “it's super to use a programmer that's so in close proximity to to his area, and i believe a growing number of sizeable corporations that appear like they ought to be aware what they're accomplishing, could read and learn a lot from nelson to manage a area and he is accomplishing,ins he says. You obtain a experiencing he shares precisely the same prospect as his area. This is certainly just enough for sexton “i like how people today can read the sport and uncover their companions to enjoy mutually, plus they can also enjoy their companions,” he says. Screenshot with heavy steam end user hexadecimal for the time being, he’s over here. |From your modding issue, it’s silly to take into consideration you will find people today via my code and they are stretching onto it, and generating onto it.ins "lvl hack corporations waste huge amounts of $ $ $ $ aiming to achieve their promote. An easy scenario is basically that you is unable to only express your postings to the newsprint since many people today only observe tv and do not read through tabloids, so promote on television a bit too. I really believe you would possibly like him - and even Hacks For Unturned, a bit too. Is it possible to repair my system?’” i see him within the similar new wave through the developers which i authored about the other day, people today who’ve formed with roblox, minecraft and dayz, and identified them increasingly being engineered round them as they’ve Your individuality is known as a stop through the merchandise appears to be tofu using a pixelated smiley facial skin. considering the data seem to be, the fact that surroundings is, i furnished with that. Hunting back, this just would seem this particular foolish key to full-blown. gone to the web page link and he’d rather removed the review, and i observed unfortunate.” sexton rather begun out paying bots with gamemaker, ways to get been brought to it during a summer vacation time camping. “it was very developed,” he says. this first type discussed deadzone’s matter of being not easy to include a thing wholly new, so he begun producing a following type through the four week period of january 2014, which ditched the internet browser, and emitted it on heavy steam in such a summer vacation 2014, adopted by type 3, the current one, one or two several weeks later on. |“i understand the goal of early on usage of be aiming to consider evaluations from quite a few of us as you possibly can, so iterating easily looks to be sensible, as individuals can possibly see their evaluations easily plus they can assess if it upgrades It appears to be he is not wholly at ease with that. “pvping stands out as the major singing team. There are many people that can be superb hard core. To make certain, that it was an exceptional read through. The satisfaction is really inside of the multiple-gamer, while. That educator: hey i come across you've produced a lvl hack headline that sizable quantities of people today have fun playing. I stay contemplating “that’s it, we have tried it, we do not require to continuing to keep carried out-ing it”, but nevertheless i’ll continue to have fun playing yet another one and, more often than not, i’ll be all: “mmkay, we are soiled before. |They carry on fanatically, they chomp eagerly, and only a small number of swipes will open your presumably blocky soul. On my minimal eighth or 9th lifestyle, i support them with a thing of serious use: a sledgehammer. The nail is actually on the hammer. the axe while using the logs, convert the logs into panels, convert it's into planks, convert the planks right into a foundation. Without any being successful, evidently, now a number of army zeds go lurching and moving when it comes to me. that others tend to make an attempt suggest: ow. Visit a video recording, is known as a increidible cool lvl hack i believe it’s art work fashion is a lot like nidhogg “each monday, chris livingston sessions an sooner get lvl hack and reviews back with stories” it feels like it's been a long time. |Oh suitably, a particular person jumping to results on the net - i’ll make it possible for by myself out. Survivor protip: just like in dayz, your initial goal needs to be locating a melee tool. Inside of my The directly-up strength results it can proposal - “boosted loot drops” and It was only placed into heavy steam a few days in the past, nonetheless the alpha has become accessible to have fun playing elsewhere mainly because december 2013. Bring down. In contrast, the sole “blocky” details holding round could be the individuality models and… clouds. Deliver time previously unquestionably determining the game have fun playing and written content. Should you really even from another location drill down tactical bots, you will have to gives a split. Persist the positive business. |tends to overshadow literally a select small amount of titles on heavy steam. Without a doubt, little children will likely have with any tat, as both the cards table pipes interior bathroom rolls and Hacks For Unturned verify. Fella has a point. By absolute good luck i had the ability to survive the blast, so at gunpoint we needed to indulge the Inside the cell phone, my captor was adamant which is used to do workout routines for him, leaning perfect and placed in swift succession as they definitely directed his sizable firearm at me. Since the zombies have become efficiently and will mince up a whole new gamer previously they’ve previously had chance to determine which method up, they at the least do not take a walk-using wall membrane. You cannot get stones or trim decreased bushes to art some important solutions. It truly really works. whatsoever celebrations? Start a single industry. |This will make the The inclusion of in-lvl hack car makes the game additional intriguing and easy to learn. An effective lvl hack which is liberated to spend time playing have Why you do not post improve march 14 farmville is excellent, some individuals say that's a rip-from dayz and minecraft, but no, it's like expressing, there's a magazine using a azure take care of, there's other which is a rip-out of, dayz is concentrated more in perceptible horror which is more genuine, Hacks For Unturned blends amusing and realism horror, by far the most strange details is that It have advantages and drawbacks benefits of a couple of. He requested if he could have fun playing garry's mod in my minimal account and i will allow him to. But that is definitely to not ever imply i do not like it or just about anything. Hacks For Unturned is known as a post-apocalyptic tactical lvl hack made by nelson sexton-the sole programmer, user, and founding dad of smartly fitted bots. |Zombies are scattered on top of the destination but congregate in urban parts, guarding valued loot. bushes to create contains, tool attachments, and traps to outlive. I specific the “:3” to hit fearfulness into other golfers. Who understood straight forward is likely to be so exceptional? The roblox-empowered graphical design use a enchantment that distinguishes alone making use of their online business bots inside of the tactical variety. I set my expertise spots into “overkill,” expanding my melee cause damage to and potency to obliterate zombies in reduced strikes. After passing away, 1 / 2 of yourself have and got skillsets are lost. about 11 strikes to totally slice decreased a shrub. On auto-pilot "placed alt" will likely sound chat. They could get based in the o’leary armed forces base, along with armed forces knives. |I battled to locate any super weaponry to the pvp machine but enduring the map compensated out of. the need to pay for the 5 $ $ $ $ doesn't the same a pay for-to-triumph plan of action, simply because the results are remote.

[drubblernews-blog]

New Post has been published on http://drubbler.com/2017/02/22/be-realistic-or-pernicious-illusions-of-modernity/

"Be realistic!" or pernicious illusions of modernity

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

Dmitry Buyanov, February 23, 2017, 1:33- REGNUM

“be realistic!” — urges us to modern society through many votes: characters serials, tv presenters, “psihotrenerov”, employers, husbands and wives. The time has come to say goodbye to “over-specified, chivalry, moralizatorstvom, any good illusions. There are objective requirements of the market — that the search box work that friendships or romantic relationships, it is necessary to ensure the start of family life, to achieve success, get a taste of those maximum entertainment that offers modernity. It is necessary to acquire famous cynicism, less believing others, learn to feel, when the “impudent” and when is humility and obedience. To become effective, communicative, discard the complexes and tightness. Learn how to do those things with pleasure, that you seemed unpleasant or even repugnant. Of course, master “tolerance”: each has its own truth, only the truth is measured by the volume of money supply and the number of people that you can make bad with impunity.

“be realistic!” — urges us to Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas or Georg Hegel. It is time to say goodbye with all accidents, particulars, petty desires of everyday life, addictive us into his abyss, enslaving us, and closing on us the light of truth. There are great and pure ideas, whose imperfect reflection is the real world. Need to know the perfect take from God mind. And, knowing him, is break free from the apparent oppression of domestic circumstances, see the real Life, hidden from sight sinful beauty and harmony of God’s creation.

How understanding “a realistic view of the world” is different in different eras and in different Nations! Today, we believe it is obvious that the lightning shines due to the fact that Zeus kills the concept not the sacrificial libation. Tomorrow is that you cannot chase the personal enrichment, as the immortal soul sponsored to eternal torment. The day after tomorrow-that there is no God, nothing is true and everything is permitted, and should be the last fool or loser to not start be enriched at the expense of orphans, amputees and other “not which became colorings in the market.”

eventually, not about strict science is said when called upon “to discard the illusion” and see “truth of life”. In fact, the “obvious truth” issue some combination of imposed society stereotypes and creatures of their own fears. “Realistically” that say “on tv. Or that I’m afraid to go against the unfair and (deep down) hated me the order of things: because I do not want to sacrifice peace and minimal well-being; because I consider myself an empty spot and do not believe in themselves.

If talking about “realism” people got acquainted with real scientific volumes, psychologists, political scientists, and economists — maybe he would become the most ardent “dreamer”, “Idealist,” Jeffrey s. young and revolutionary. That is the irony of our lives that domestic understanding “reality” narrow-minded calculation and the pursuit of success is the point opposite of true life. In order to require a person to part with dreams of a better world, you become very blind and deaf to everything that comes around: wars, theft, destruction, napolzajushhej trouble.

therefore need to sincerely wonder, seeing that in today’s society, commonly referred to as “objective reality” and who generally accused it of “ignoring”. Think, for example, that should be shown in the movie before it is considered to be “realistic”? Dirt, lies, betrayal, corruption, filth, trampling all kind and fair. We believe in “selling MENTA” than in “noble policeman”. That gives the “realistic” love stories? Quarrels, infidelity, indifference. History of nerazdeljonnoj or failed love seems to us to be more relevant to reality than a description of a happy marriage. On this occasion people even go mocking and rude rhymes, like: “you just told me the truth and I want to” terrible …

a realistic character is not the one who overcomes all obstacles, overcomes the enemy, rescues all the friends, with spreading “reasonable, kind, eternal. We believe in the lone goal of the world and people of character, becoming a victim of the huge Systems and accidental circumstances, any undertaking which is doomed to failure. Maximum that can claim to be the hero is the economic success achieved through not too fair “mashing” all competitors. And then — if it will not be dependent on any authorities or criminals, this image is more likely to become a capitalist “grandstanding”.

the popularity of Existentialism, declaring the person lonely and impotent before the forces of the surrounding world. All these “defeatist” notes in popular songs, books, movies. The aesthetics of death, evil, darkness. The problem of insecurity, apathy and despair, leading even to suicide. All this does not mean that the world cannot be different. But such trends could occur if in life we built society relevant issues.

What laughed I am now in my dream?

no znamen’em Heaven nor hell speech

None answered me not quiet.

then I asked the heart chelovech’e:

are you beating my question answer —

What I laughed at? In response — no sound.

Darkness, darkness. And infinite flour.

are silent and God and hell. And you remain silent.

What I laughed at? Knew whether the night

his short life of grace?

But I’ve been willing to give.

let the bright flag izorvan will be in tatters.

Strong love and glory days of death,

and beauty is strong. But death is stronger.

a similar sentiment is not free. Of course, people always want to cry, too lazy, to justify themselves. To say that I’m not so bad, because nobody in the entire universe was unable to do more than I have — at least not without the assistance of powerful external forces or without resorting to any special infamy. But when the minute shameful weakness similar complaints turn into “mainstream”, “law of life”, “reality” is to face terrible consequences as all of society and individuals. When life departs heroism, morality, the Supreme ideal is flourishing in their place of death. The poet writes: death is overpowering love, beauty and fame (“success”, in modern). And not the fact that this is the fault of the power of death, rather than a weakness in our society of love, beauty and fame. The assertion that the world objectively bad and need to “be realistic”, rather its correct is not a scientific fact, and refusal to fight, losing streak prior to the battle.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove a person overcome that “life is beautiful and amazing. Society, pogruzhjonnoe the wicked haze weakness and disbelief, does not believe the movie “the shining path” in which peasant girl finds happiness in learning and Stakhanovite work. So much so that everyone knows that honest work and study “the five little gives us created in the world.

require something more subtle. Recognizing on the one hand, all the disastrous thing about an existing world. Feeling the pain and sorrow of every human they pressed down against. But, on the other hand, proclaims the possibility of salvation even from this abyss. Believes in people and seeing dormant forces in it. Those forces that are not visible to man, tverdjashhemu of “realism”.

this subtlety is at John Keats English poet-romanticist, which belong to the above line. His life reveals to us the most awful and undeniable objectivity: he died in 25 years of mentored slip for a long time. Before this, in 15 years, Keats became an orphan: an accident took away his father, tuberculosis is the mother. The poet knew him of diverting the short term — and in trying to find salvation from gloomy rock. Kitts can rightly be called one of the most pessimistic English poets. But he would not have been romantic if not managed to adopt the life even in the face of predestined him to death.

when I’m scary that one miguet

Burn all life-and ashes leave

and books will not, as Riga

a rich harvest, collected fulfill;

when I star the wilds of universe

Attempt writing spaces other

and feel that will bounce breath

and I do not regard and shadows;

when I see Darling minute

that maybe I won’t be able to death

get enough reckless love

then one stand on the shore

big world, from all otrinut,

and the fame and love will vanish.

negation and affirmation

than the “realism” of today differs from “realism” times of Scholasticism? The issue is not that “science has proven, that there is no God, as does not exist in literally any ideas from which the” decommissioned “real objects and events. And without any scientists, with the position of pure faith, there were people in the middle ages, argued with the then “realists”. As there were opponents and the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, whose description of the “world of ideas” relied on by subsequent thinkers.

Platonic opponents — the so-called “sophists” — in the days before the ad promoted a popular theory right now. Like, everything in the world is relative, there is no objective truth, so everyone is free to think whatever he wants, and do what feels right. In practice, the Sophists earned that taught people to “verbal juggling” — the ability to nicely say, pick pointless, but seemingly “logical” and “scientific” proof of their position. As a result, their students could prove that the father must obey the son, elderly people need to eat and everything else. In General, freedom of speech and triumphed limit tolerance.

Plato, arguing with them, argued that truth exists. In fact, harsh sense — as a subject, lying somewhere and somehow functioning. Which, roughly speaking, you can “feel”. No hands, of course — and the mind. Accordingly, as we cannot do with different length meter ruler, because somewhere in the Museum’s “Etalon” meter, also we cannot say what we want, because somewhere is stored “objective truth”.

throughout this IP (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

[sherristockman]

EPA Sued for Mercury Policy Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Many people are not aware that, in the U.S., dental offices are the single largest source of mercury at sewage treatment plants.1 When dentists discharge mercury from amalgam fillings (also known, misleadingly, as “silver” fillings) down the drains in their offices, it accumulates in the environment, including in seafood intended for human consumption. As a neurotoxin, mercury in the environment is dangerous for everyone, but poses a particularly grave risk for pregnant women, babies and children, in whom it can seriously disrupt brain function and harm the nervous system. There was a ray of hope, however, when, in December, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule that would restrict dentists' mercury discharges. After more than a decade of debating the issue and an additional five years of delays, the EPA finally finalized requirements for dentists placing or removing amalgam to install amalgam separators to reduce their mercury discharge. Now, with the changes in administration, that rule has been rolled back, and the EPA is facing a lawsuit because of it. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which filed the suit, this can’t legally be done without public notice or a comment period. NRDC’s litigation director, Aaron Colangelo, said in a statement:2 “The Trump White House ordered the EPA and other agencies to violate the law … That puts Americans at greater risk of exposure to this dangerous neurotoxin, which can do harm even in tiny amounts. … EPA’s withdrawal of the mercury rule is not just illegal, but senseless. The rule imposes minimal burden, drew widespread praise from dental providers and benefits public health and the environment.” Rule Would Reduce Mercury Discharges by 5.1 Tons a Year There are 130,000 dental offices in the U.S., about 103,000 of which still use or remove amalgam fillings.3 Together, these dentists discharge about 5.1 tons of mercury each year to publically owned water treatment plants and, according to the EPA, “most of this mercury is subsequently released to the environment.” They explained:4 “Mercury-containing amalgam wastes may find their way into the environment when new fillings are placed or old mercury-containing fillings are drilled out and waste amalgam materials that are flushed into chair-side drains enter the wastewater stream. Mercury entering POTWs [publically owned treatment works] frequently partitions into the sludge, the solid material that remains after wastewater is treated. Mercury from waste amalgam therefore can make its way into the environment from the POTW through the incineration, landfilling or land application of sludge or through surface water discharge.” While most dental offices use at least a basic filtration system to help cut down on mercury waste entering the sewer system, the rule, known as the Mercury Effluent Rule, would require dental offices to install amalgam separators that capture the mercury (and other metals) before they’re discharged into the sewer. The mercury can then be recycled. Under the rule, existing dental offices would have to install amalgam separators within three years, which was expected to reduce mercury discharge by 5.1 tons and discharge of other metals found in waste dental amalgams by 5.3 tons, annually.5 Installing the equipment was estimated to cost only about $800 per office.6 In a rare show of agreement, all stakeholders were in favor of the rule, even the American Dental Association.7 NRDC States the EPA Illegally Rescinded the Rule The EPA’s mercury rule was part of a number of public health and environmental protection rules that the White House ordered to be withdrawn early this year. The NRDC’s lawsuit against the EPA states that the agency acted illegally by withdrawing the rule without public notice or a public comment period. According to NRDC, “EPA cannot withdraw the mercury protection rule based on the Trump administration’s fiat because the rule is final.”8 The best solution would be to eliminate mercury from dentistry altogether, but until this happens, separators would at least lessen the environmental burden. About 40 percent of U.S. dental offices have already installed the devices, because 12 states have mandatory rules in place to stop mercury from being discharged into wastewater treatment plants.9 The current nominee to head the EPA, Scott Pruitt, may not help matters, however, considering he’s sued the agency in the past to block a rule to limit how much mercury could be emitted into the air by coal plants.10 It Will Take More Than Amalgam Separators to Stop Mercury Pollution The installation of amalgam separators at every dental office using amalgam should be a given, but even that will not go far enough to stop the environmental destruction that results from the continued use of this toxic metal in dentistry. Dental mercury pollution enters the water via human waste disposal and dental clinic releases. It enters the land via landfills, human burials and fertilizer. And it enters the air from dental clinic emissions and waste incineration. Seven to 9 metric tons of mercury per year escape into the atmosphere during cremations alone, and it is estimated that, left unchecked, crematoria will be the largest single cause of mercury pollution by 2020. European Union Bans Amalgam Fillings for Children and Pregnant or Nursing Women While the U.S. EPA has halted even a minimal step to curb mercury pollution from amalgam fillings, the European Union has declared that, starting July 1, 2018, amalgam use will be banned for children under 15 and pregnant or nursing women. "The next generation of Europe's children are safe from toxic dental mercury," Charlie Brown, president of Consumers for Dental Choice and the umbrella World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, said. He continued: "This landmark achievement still has to be officially ratified, but all three European Union institutions, the [European] commission, the Council [of the European Union] and the European Parliament have reached consensus. The ban on amalgam for children in Europe, we promise you, will reverberate in favor of the children across the world — in America North and South, in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific. The game changer that will do in amalgam is the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which requires every participating nation to act to reduce amalgam use. The Convention is expected to become legally binding in the middle of 2017." Seeing the EU decision as a springboard, Consumers for Dental Choice and the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry have launched a campaign to ban mercury amalgam for every child everywhere. "We target 2020 as victory year for the world's children," said Brown. "This victory for Europe's children will lead us to for the children of Asia, Africa and America North and South. Amalgam belongs only in museums that feature failed medical strategies." Amalgam Is Inferior to Today’s Modern Filling Alternatives In a press release, British dentist Graeme Munro-Hall, chair of the Transition and Training task force for the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, described amalgam as “a primitive polluting device” that’s “technically inferior to today’s modern alternatives.”11 One of the most popular alternatives to amalgam is resin composite, which is made of a type of plastic reinforced with powdered glass. It is already common throughout the United States and the rest of the developed world, offering notable improvements over amalgam as it, according to Consumers for Dental Choice:12 • Is environmentally safe: Composite, which contains no mercury, does not pollute the environment. This saves taxpayers from paying the costs of cleaning up dental mercury pollution in our water, air and land — and the costs of health problems associated with mercury pollution. • Preserves healthy tooth structure because, unlike amalgam, it does not require the removal of significant amounts of healthy tooth matter. Over the long term, composite preserves healthy tooth structure and actually strengthens teeth, leading to better oral health and less extensive dental work over the long-term. • Is long-lasting: While some claim that amalgam fillings last longer than composite fillings, the science reveals this claim to be baseless. The latest studies show that composite not only lasts as long as amalgam, but actually has a higher overall survival rate. A lesser-known alternative is increasingly making mercury-free dentistry possible even in the rural areas of developing countries. Atraumatic restorative treatment (also called alternative restorative treatment or ART) is a mercury-free restorative technique that has been demonstrated a success in a diverse array of countries around the world, including Tanzania, India, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Peru and more. ART relies on adhesive materials for the filling (instead of mercury) and uses only hand instruments to place the filling, making it particularly well-suited for rural areas of developing countries. Important Information About Amalgam Removal For those of you who have mercury fillings, I recommend having them very carefully removed by a competent biological dentist who follows professional protocols for amalgam removal. It's very important to have it done correctly. When amalgams are removed, a large amount of mercury is released, and if the proper precautions aren't taken, your body can absorb a massive dose of mercury that can lead to acute kidney problems. I experienced this myself more than 20 years ago when I had my amalgams removed by a non-biological dentist. Biological dentists, on the other hand, are well aware of these dangers. Some of the steps that need to be taken to keep you and your dentist safe during amalgam removal include: ✓ Providing you with an alternative air source and instructing you not to breathe through your mouth ✓ Putting a rubber dam in your mouth so you don't swallow or inhale any toxins, and using a high-volume evacuator near the tooth at all times to evacuate the mercury vapor ✓ Using a cold-water spray to minimize mercury vapors ✓ Washing your mouth out immediately after the fillings have been removed (the dentist should also change gloves after the removal) ✓ Immediately cleaning your protective wear and face once the fillings are removed ✓ Using room air purifiers If your dentist claims you need to get a new filling, talk to him about the available alternatives to amalgam, and be aware that many dental insurance companies still refuse to completely pay for composite fillings. Some, for instance, will only cover composite fillings on your front teeth while others refuse to pay at all. As a result, people who have dental insurance are actually more likely to get amalgam than those paying out-of-pocket.13 Demand Your Choice Today, about 50 percent of American dentists offer mercury-free dentistry, up from 3 percent 20 years ago. To accelerate change in the U.S., Consumers for Dental Choice is urging all American consumers to demand mercury-free dentistry — both from your dentist and from your insurance company. If they refuse, switch dentists; switch insurance. At present, many insurance companies, including Delta Dental, Aetna, Equitable and Humana typically will pay only for amalgam in your molars, even though composite, not amalgam, has become the standard and mainstream filling material in North America. And, since mercury-free dentists — again, about half of all dentists in the U.S. — will not give you an amalgam filling anywhere in your mouth, the insurance company profits handsomely since you then have to pay the bill out-of-pocket even though you're insured. As previously noted by Brown: "They sell an artificially low-price policy to get you in. That's a bait-and-switch. It's time to hold all of them accountable … Challenge your insurance company; demand your claim be paid, and work with your mercury-free dentist to do that. We have the paperwork if you push the 'Demand Your Choice' button … We can change this from the grassroots up. We're not going to wait on the FDA … We're going to simply change the market." >>>>> Click Here