When does a thought begin to affect you? When it repeatedly creeps into your mind! It then takes control over your emotions and you start feeling low and depressed. Thoughts, especially negative ones, don’t need your permission to enter your mind. They come as they please but it is up to you to push them out.

Of course, if you fight them, it will only be that much harder to make them go. So, what can you do? Challenge them! Follow the tips given below to challenge negative speculations –

1. Take Charge of Your Thoughts and Feelings – It is so easy to tell yourself to take charge. But, how do you do this? Medical science teaches you to apply Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Test the negative speculations with reality so that the situation gets clear in your mind. You understand that these thoughts are meaningless.

2. Replace Negative Thoughts With Positive Thoughts – Every negative thought is associated with a bad memory. So, when something triggers the memory, the thoughts return. Why not try to replace the bad memories with good ones. The result will be good memories and positive thoughts.

You can also practice affirmations to do this. If you have doubts that your husband’s love for your has decreased, practice affirmation. Repeat – I am happy in my husband’s love – as often as you can, till the sentence becomes a chant in your mind.

3. Seek Professional Help – One sure way to fight negative speculations is to seek professional help. You can seek the help of a hypnotherapist to help you release negative thoughts. They will work towards replacing the negative images with positive ones. Or, you can apply guided imagery to rid your mind of worries. Fight them back with positive thoughts and images and soon they will be a thing of the past.

4. Be In the Company of Friends – When you are in the company of your friends and peers, you will be able to forget the negative thoughts. Share your worries and unburden yourself. You will find that your load is lighter. It is also quite possible that you may find the solution to your problems.

5. Enjoy Life – Don’t keep brooding over your troubles. Enjoy life and try to engage your mind elsewhere. Read books, listen to music, go for long drives, watch a movie, do aerobics and others. There is so much that you can do to keep your mind occupied. Try out some of these options.

Negative thoughts may seem real to you when they occur. But, they are only as real as you let them be. Challenge their reasonableness and you will find that they are unable to face reality. They will vanish in the face of reality. Be aware of your thoughts as they come and go. Make a conscious effort to become aware of them. When they come knocking at your mind’s door, usher them in along with positive thoughts. You will be surprised at who manages to stay there.

Read quotes of great people wiser than you. You can find some awesome quotes here. Read them and follow them to challenge negative speculations.

It is almost accepted as a norm by most people that the level of creativity is innate in every individual. All we can do is just accept the way our mind works. The truth is, our growing environment in our tender years decide our graph of creativity to a great extent. Discouraging peers, restricting or overprotective parents, negative teachings, and distracting surroundings, all play their part in killing the imaginative powers and innovative ideas of young minds. Plus, the need of teachers and adults to make children conform to the norms is another way to discourage new ideas that dwell in their minds.

If you are one of the smart parents who wish to nurture your child’s creativity, here are a few tips that can prove to be helpful:

1. Provide Your Child with Artistic Supplies – Paint, brushes, canvas, clay, paper, are all the materials that impel children to create something. While a little guidance doesn’t harm but let your children explore their imagination to make what they want out of these supplies. Parents must realize that it is not the final product but the process of creating that is more important to inspire creativity in children. So, allowing them the freedom of expression is mandatory to nurture their innovative side. You may even encourage them to make their scary halloween costumes for 2012 themselves, if they are old enough.

2. Ask Them Open-Ended Questions – Questions that have a lot many possibilities can force a child to think deeply and you may even discuss various other alternative possibilities with your child, giving them a whole new perspective on things. What if questions, or questions like, how can you change or improvise this, or how do you feel about something, et al are all good examples of such questions.

3. Allocate Time For Imaginative Play in Their Everyday Schedule – Give children some time to indulge in their favorite activity once in a day, just for fun. It may be painting, dancing, playing any musical instrument, or anything else. It will help to limit the use of electronic toys as it restricts thinking. Empty boxes or building blocks are open-ended toys that best exploits the imagination of children. Also, keeping a check on TV viewing is also important as television often coveys a distorted view of others and promote gender-based, racial, religious, and cultural stereotypes.

Creativity develops a child’s ability to solve their own problems and fosters open thinking. Parents should try to adapt to children’s way of thinking as much as they can, instead of trying to structure their imagination to adapt to their own adult ways that are corrupted by what is “acceptable” to majority.

Lavender! The name brings to mind a soft, refreshing aroma. But lavender also has many health benefits. Although lavender has been an important ingredient in many traditional health recipes to treat sickness, but it is only now that the awareness about its benefits is catching up with people. Given below are 5 health benefits of lavender:

1. It relaxes the body and mind – Most of the body and massage lotions use lavender as a prime ingredient. This is because it has the property of relaxing your mind and body. Lavender contains a compound called linalool that de-stresses the mind. Adding 6-8 drops of lavender oil in your bath will relax you. Alternatively, you can also apply lavender oil after a shower.

2. It promotes deep sleep – With a fast paced life, sleep is becoming elusive. Lavender oil has properties that promotes sleep, relaxation, improves mood and enhances concentration. Yes, you may even order hgh pills for these benefits but natural ways are always the best. Right? You can either spray a few drops of lavender oil on your pulse points or use it as aromatherapy to have a deep and undisturbed sleep. According to Alan Hirsch, neurological director of Smell and Taste Research Foundation, the smell of lavender produces alpha waves in the brain that promotes sleep.

3. It reduces hair fall – In a study conducted by the University of Maryland, people suffering from excessive hairfall were asked to use lavender oil. After 7 months, these test subjects reported regrowth of hair.

4. Detox your skin with lavender – The environment is full of things that are not good for your skin. The pollution, dust and grime make your skin dull and lifeless. Use a lavender body wash to wash away this pollution and the grime. It is supposed to make your skin glow with health and youth.

A study by Johnson & Johnson also found that lavender contains antioxidants. As a result, using the lavender body wash improved coarse skin by making it smooth. It calmed the irritants acting on the skin.

5. Using lavender as a love potion – Men who used lavender found that they were more sexually aroused and were able to satisfy their partner better. The herb is not a love potion but is very effective all the same.

Use lavender in your life to promote a healthy life. The herb is natural and therefore, safe to use. You can use it as massage oil, in perfumes, powder or for aromatherapy purposes. The results are just amazing.

Rhiana Jones is a health expert and a freelance writer. In her free time, Jones loves exploring fashionable accessories. Recently, she came across a great site to buy sexy superhero Halloween costumes 2012.

Childhood obesity in not a parent ego issue but is actually a serious medical condition. Most people write it off as a parent’s attempt to better their image by making their child better looking but it is far from that. As kids, we are all drawn towards junk food like fries, burgers and sodas. Also, candy contributes to obesity but on some occasions like Halloween and Christmas, it is a part of the celebration.

Here are some points that would help you control the weight problems of your kids –

1.Watch The Weight Gain – This is the easiest and the most ignored solution for obesity issues. Most obesity problems are not complicated at all and you can control these problems by merely watching what goes in. Simply keep a tab on the diet of your child but don’t under nourish them. There are certain diet requirements based on height and age and you should follow them when you watch their food intake.

2. Encourage Regular Eating – It is best that you fix regular eating timetables and even join your kids when they are eating. As per the government health recommendations, there must be 3 meals and additional snacks per day of a healthy person. Hence, your child shouldn’t be going without food for more than 3-4 hours. If you join them during their meals, it would add more regularity to their timetable.

3. Inculcate Healthy Eating Habits Early – Healthy dietary choices not only prevent obesity but they also cancel out other health issues in a person’s life. But it is much more difficult to break someone out of an unhealthy eating habit than it is to incorporate it from an early age. Add fruits and vegetables in their diet plans when they are in preschool and you will notice that such kids stay away from fatty foods when they grow up.

4. Don’t Be Restrictive – It is okay to control their intake and monitor it up to a certain extent but you must try and not come across as some tyrannical food control freak. These are probably the best years of your kids in terms of digestion and you don’t want to be too much of a spoil sport. Another thing about being overly restrictive is that children tend to do the opposite of what you tell them to do. This means that if you keep them away from junk food, they will gravitate towards it and you don’t want that.

5. Join Them In Moderate and Healthy Eating – Your kids learn from your habits and even imitate your choices. The best thing is to join them and eat moderately in front of them so as to set an example. If you are gorging on burgers yourself and asking them not to, it creates double standards and makes them angry. So, when you ask them to eat their salad, do the same and things would be much easier.

Don’t be too strict while introducing the regimen. Be easy on the kids, they are children, after all. Be polite and give them a free treat occasionally to encourage them.

Smoking kills. Yes, of course that statement doesn’t need any re-clarification, but ask any smoker and he will tell you in detail about the numerous difficulties of trying to quit smoking. These start from the urges and cravings for the smoke to problems in concentration and lack of productivity at work. This is why E-Cigarette or electronic cigarettes are something that you must consider whether it is you or your close someone who is trying to quit smoking.

The problem starts with the fact that there is a raging debate about the beneficial effects of electronic cigarettes and it is believed by many to be harmful for your heart, doing little good than bad. Well, recent extensive studies and research has shown that they are completely safe and has no harmful effect on the heart. Still don’t believe this suggestion? Here are 3 reasons to stop worrying and start believing this result –

1. The Survey Is An Extensive One

Yes, right, that a survey can never be theoretically all encompassing reflecting cent percentage of the populace but at the same time in practice, an extensively done survey with a wide range of carefully selected sample subjects is the nearest you can reach to a statistical surety. This is why the survey which takes into account a reliable number of subjects, all of whom were made to sue the electronic cigarette, makes it a perfectly setup scenario.

The fact that the survey was done on people who were made to use the electronic cigarette and were monitored for problems right before and after the usage makes it perfectly clear that the harms from using the same are absent. Scientists and doctors have mentioned that there is a slight possibility that electronic cigarettes come with short term harm for some, but the same is extremely negligible to be taken into account.

2. Millions Of People Are Using Electronic Cigarettes

There are more than a million people all over the globe who are using the electronic cigarettes an alternative path to quitting smoking and reaping the benefits out of the same. The reports of problems or health hazards due to smoking an electronic cigarette are next to null and the rare instances can be safely categorized as cases of allergy, unadvised consumption or unregulated consumption of the same. Remember that no remedy is good if you overdo it and the same hold of the concept of electronic cigarettes.

3. Laboratory Analysis

There have been numerous analyses of the electronic cigarettes in the laboratory and it has been seen that it is free from any remote presence of carcinogenic substances which might be meddling with your health. The trace amount of whatever harmful substance might be there in an e-cigarette is negligible. The amount you accumulate from smoking an e-cigarette continuously for six to eight months is the same as one single conventional cigarette.

It is recommended that you start using the electronic cigarette or gift it to a loved one at the earliest and bunk any worries that you might have.