I have always felt that it is extremely important for each and every one of us to do our part at making this world a better place. That is why I wanted to discuss the benefits of recycling, because it can sometimes seem to make little difference, though the reality is that by recycling you are making a positive impact on the environment, imagine if you could talk all of your friends and family into doing the same, the results would be fantastic.

Around our house, recycling plays a very large roll in our lives. We attempt to recycle anything and everything we can get our hands on including plastic(sorted by numbers), aluminum, glass and even food which we turn dinner scraps into compost for our plants. Old cellphones are shipped off to Cell Phones for Soldiers and other electronics are either donated or recycled in the proper manner.

I will be the first to admit that this recycling “craze” we have takes a fair amount of our time, but I also believe that it is well worth the effort if for nothing more than we are doing our part to protect the planet. We have spent a lot of time teaching our kids to recycle and the benefits of doing so, in hopes that when they are older and move out on their own, they will make the choice to recycle as well. All of our friends have been converted to savvy recyclers along with family members and neighbors.

Facts about garbage and the benefits of recycling

• Americans throw away on average 694 plastic bottles every second in this country. At this rate, over the course of a single day 59,961,600 plastic bottles will be thrown out.
• The average American will produce 4.6 pounds of garbage every single day, which means there is 1,679 pounds of garbage produced annually by a single person. If you live in a typical 4 person household, your family alone is producing 6,716 pounds of garbage each year.
• The U.S. is home to a mere 6% of the worlds population, yet we produce half of the worlds garbage.
• Waste paper is New Yorks single largest export. If a single ton of that paper had been recycled, they would have saved 17 trees.
• Approx. 25 – 30 percent of Americans garbage is plant matter and could easily be composted.
• It takes only six weeks for the average aluminum can to be recycled, remelted and back on the shelves of your local grocery store.
• The U.S. throws away 40 million tons of paper each year rather than recycling it and saving trees.
• Recycling can reduce the amount of waste that enters landfills and incinerators by 25% – 50%.
• Manufacturing aluminum cans from recycled aluminum requires 90% less energy than making new ones.
• If you were to recycle 1 ton of cardboard, it would save over 9 cubic yards of landfill space.

Are you starting to see the bigger picture yet? There are a lot of benefits to recycling your waste and as you can see above a lot of negative side affects if you don’t. There are numerous ways to reduce your carbon footprint, don’t you think its at least worth a shot.

So I have decided this week that I would start learning to read tarot cards, for fun mostly. Its really an art form that has been around much longer than any of us, yet there is still a lot of people around the world that believe strongly in the power of tarot cards. I pulled together some information in case any of you are interested in learning yourselves.

The History of Tarot Cards

According to Wikipedia:

The tarot (also known as tarocchi, tarock or similar names) is a set of cards typically featuring twenty one trump cards, the fool, and an extra face card per suit, in addition to the usual suit (face and pip) cards found in ordinary playing cards. Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play Tarot card games.^[1] In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, Tarot cards are utilized primarily for divinatory purposes^[1][2] with the trump cards plus the Fool card comprising the twenty two major arcana cards and the pip and four face cards the fifty six minor arcana.

Evidence shows that the first Tarot playing cards entered Europe between 1410 and 1430, though Tarot readers would argue that these cards were created much earlier. These new Tarot cards were originally called carte da trionfi or triumph cards. As of current, the oldest known surviving Tarot cards are fifteen hand-painted decks, created in the mid 15th Century for the Visconti-Sforza family, which at the time were the rulers of Milan.

No documented examples exist prior to the 18th century of the tarot being used for divination. However, divination using similar cards is in evidence as early as 1540; a book entitled The Oracles of Francesco Marcolino da Forli shows a simple method of divination using the coin suit of a regular playing card deck. Manuscripts from 1735 (The Square of Sevens) and 1750 (Pratesi Cartomancer) document rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the tarot, as well as a system for laying out the cards. In 1765, Giacomo Casanova wrote in his diary that his Russian mistress frequently used a deck of playing cards for divination. -Source

Learning to Read Tarot Cards

You can find plenty of great books on the subject of learning to read tarot cards at your local bookstore, but I also found the video below very helpful to understand the meaning of each card and how they each play such a significant role in a tarot card reading.

Tarot card reading guide

Throughout the years many great people have studied and developed theories on why we dream, but the truth behind those theories are questionable. The fact is that even to this day, scientists really have no answer to why we dream. Even after countless hours studying sleep and dream behavior the best they can offer is another theory and some information about a persons state of mind while they are dreaming which to be honest, only leaves us wanting to know more.

So to better understand why we dream, we first have to understand what happens when we dream. According to Brady Riedner, a researcher with the UW-Madison Center for Sleep and Consciousness, “What we do know is that during dreaming sleep, the brain is just as active as it is during waking, but in a different way.” The University of Wisconsin-Madison followed up on Brady Riedner’s research by saying,

He explains that because the sleeping brain is mostly disconnected from the rest of the world, its activity can be more spontaneous, bouncing around to any number and combination of thoughts, in no apparent logical order. That’s why dreams – though seemingly very real – tend to progress in weird and unpredictable ways.

At the same time, dreams aren’t totally random. They often relate to events and thoughts from waking life. Why? Scientists know the brain’s structure is shaped by the stimuli it takes in while awake; for example, thoughts and experiences are known to strengthen the connections between certain neurons. Dreams, therefore, might merely be echoes of these daytime changes.

In reality, all of this makes sense. Dreams may simply be a reflection of the thoughts and activities we experience throughout the day, although many people would disagree with this completely. Consider the people that believe in spirituality and higher powers, may argue that dreams are a method of transporting our minds outside of our bodies or even a window into the past and/or future, which would also make sense from their prospective.

The problem with what I say above, is that it again brings us back to theory, nothing more. There is no evidence that would back up or coincide with what was said, they are only peoples thoughts on the subject. Which leads to me to the next portion of this article, theories on why we dream. Read over the theories below and decide which one you may be inclined to believe and let me know.

Theories on Why We Dream

Alfred Adler believed: “Dreams attempt to solve problems according to the individual style of life and they are not to be interpreted as common sense. It has been shown that the ancients always considered dreams in connection with a problem of life. That they were right in doing this is shown by the fact that the more satisfied a person becomes, that is, the less his problem disturbs him, the less he will dream. It has also been shown by Individual Psychology that in dreams we attempt to ‘fool’ ourselves. The two ideas are not contradictory. We fool ourselves into an inadequate solution of a problem, inadequate from the standpoint of common sense but adequate from the standpoint of the style of life. We do this by dismissing important facts and leaving only a small part of the problem which can, if everything is put into figurative form, be solved easily.”

Ernest Hartman believes: “Activation patterns are shifting and connections are being made and unmade constantly in our brains, forming the physical basis for our minds. There is a whole continuum in the making of connections that we subsequently experience as mental functioning. At one end of the continuum is focused waking activity, such as when we are doing an arithmetic problem or chasing down a fly ball in the outfield. Here our mental functioning is focused, linear and well-bounded. When we move from focused waking to looser waking thought–reverie, daydreaming and finally dreaming–mental activity becomes less focused, looser, more global and more imagistic. Dreaming is the far end of this continuum: the state in which we make connections most loosely.”

Sigmund Freud wrote in his book, “The Interpretation of Dreams” that: “Dreams are disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes.” “He also described two different components of dreams: manifest content and latent content. Manifest content is the actual images, thoughts and content contained within the dream, while the latent content is the hidden psychological meaning of the dream.”

Jung: “believed that archetypes such as the animus, the anima, the shadow and others manifested themselves in dreams, as dream symbols or figures. Such figures could take the form of an old man, a young maiden or a giant spider as the case may be. Each represents an unconscious attitude that is largely hidden to the conscious mind. Although an integral part of the dreamers psyche, these manifestations were largely autonomous and were perceived by the dreamer to be external personages. Acquaintance with the archetypes as manifested by these symbols serve to increase one’s awareness of unconscious attitudes, integrating seemingly disparate parts of the psyche and contributing to the process of holistic self understanding he considered paramount.”

“Jung also believed that material repressed by the conscious mind, postulated by Freud to comprise the unconscious, was similar to his own concept of the shadow, which in itself is only a small part of the unconscious.”

By now you should be able to see just how widely these dream theories tend to vary from expert to expert, which makes sense as to why no single person has the ability to point to a direct cause for dreaming. So what are your theories on why we dream, or which one of these theories do you lean more towards believing?

I’ve only recently come across the health benefits of hula hooping and how you can use hula hooping in your daily exercise routine to not only tone up your tummy, but add a little fun as well. We can probably all think back to our younger days when we would hula hoop at school and for fun at home, it was always worth a few laughs, but as I personally grew older, the hula hoop faded into the background as one of those “kids” activities that I had simply outgrown.

Well not any more! It appears that hula hooping is making a come back, but more interestingly with the adult crowd. Women around the country have dropped some of those boring exercises and picked up their hoops for a fun workout, and they even learn a little dancing as well. Check out the video below for a few fantastic hula hooping pointers:

So just what are the health benefits of hula hooping? Well as you can see in the video above hula hooping really can be a great full body workout. However, the main concentration is in your mid or abdominal section, helping to strengthen your abs, tighten your stomach and lose weight. Should you get good enough to pull off some of the tricks in the video, you can really tone your whole body with this very fun and exciting old way to exercise.

Aside from the health benefits of hula hooping, it is also a fun activity for the whole family, maybe you should get your hula hoop today!  If you want more fun exercise ideas for you and your family check out these fun family fitness plans.

Its a question many Americans find themselves asking and it can sometimes be a difficult question to answer. There is no doubt that you have been told that debt consolidation is an easy way to regain control of your financial situation. But is it the best choice for you? Debt consolidation loans have a lot of draw backs that you may or may not be aware of. The smarter option may be to try and finance the loan yourself, rather than using one of the many debt consolidation firms out there today. In short, determining which option is best for you depends on your current financial status, credit status and the amount of debt you have. I often tell my clients that if you can finance your debt consolidation independently, you should choose to do so. If financing yourself is not an option you might begin looking into debt consolidation firms in your area to ask their advice. Below is a short checklist to determine the possibility of covering your own debt, if you can answer yes to any of these, you may consider going that route.

Can Your Family Help You Get Out of Debt?

Believe me I know how difficult it is to ask your family for money, I have been there before. But the fact is that this is one of most affordable methods to consolidate your debt. Often times a family member will not charge you interest on your payments, which will allow you to pay off the loan a lot faster than more traditional methods. The problem that many people run into here is re-paying the family member. Many people figure that since “Uncle Bob” loaned you the money he doesn’t really need a monthly payment, you can just pay him when you have some extra cash. Don’t do this! Aside from destroying any relationship you have with your family, its just bad practice. If you decide to turn to family for help, setup a monthly payment plan that will work for both parties involved.

Do You Currently Have any Equity in Your Home?

Obviously, in order to have equity in a home you have to first own one, do you? If you do currently own your own home, it may have built up some equity over the years which would allow to get a home equity loan and pay off your debt. By choosing this method, you would be able to then consolidate all of your debt into one easy loan, the home equity loan. Home equity loans are usually inexpensive, the interest rates are often fairly low and for the most part they are easily obtainable. Should you decide to go with this option, you must remember that your house will be used as collateral for the re-payment of the loan, you don’t pay, you don’t have a house any more. So make sure that it is within your budget to make the monthly payments on the equity loan.

Can You Obtain a Loan from the Bank?

If you have access to a low-interest loan through your local bank you may be able to use that to consolidate your debt into one monthly payment. This would eliminate the need to make multiple payments each month, begin to clear up your credit record and save you money by paying everything under the single low-interest payment.

Do You Already Have, or Can You Obtain a Low-Interest Credit Card?

You can use a low-interest credit card to consolidate all of your debts into one easy monthly payment without the need to risk loosing your home. However, the credit card would need to have a high enough limit that it would cover all of your accrued debt, and still have an affordable monthly payment. If your current credit card has a very high interest rate, paying this amount off would be very difficult at best, so you may consider looking into a card with a lower APR. Check with local banks and other financial institutions in your area to find a card with a low interest rate that will work for you.

Which Option Works Best for You?

As you can see by some of the ideas I have given you above, there are a lot of options that will help with your debt consolidation financing. Since what may work for one family may not work for another, you need to sit down and decide which option is best for you, before jumping in head first and losing everything.

I raise my hand plead guilty to not being able to delegate tasks very efficiently, but it is something that I have worked on and gotten much better at doing for several very good reasons. Learning how to delegate tasks will increase your efficiency in the workplace, at home and just about everywhere and every time throughout your life.

The majority of you that have a hard time with this, are probably experiencing the very same problem I had. Something in my head told me that I could do the given task better, faster and with less worries than if I were to delegate that to someone else, even if it meant that I had to work myself to the bone to get everything finished. However, that’s the problem. When you begin taking on to many tasks in the course of a day, you begin to rapidly lose the valuable time needed to accomplish your days work, which coincidently makes you less efficient than you would have been had you just let someone else do the job in the first place.

So in an attempt to combat the evil that resides in all of us, I decided to share some of the tips that I used when learning how to delegate tasks.

Tips for Learning How to Delegate Tasks:

Get over yourself: Yes, you are probably very good at everything you do or have been trained to do, but that doesn’t mean that no one else is just as good at the same thing. Even if another person does a given task in a different manner, doesn’t mean that they are doing it wrong or don’t know what they are doing. Everyone does stuff differently and what works well for one person may not work so well for you. So try not to be quite so impressed with your own abilities and allow others to show you theirs.

Organize yourself and your schedule: Before you can even consider which tasks to delegate, you have to know which ones will free up the most time for you. Simply choosing the easiest tasks, sometimes known as “busy work”, and passing those off to someone else is not properly delegating. The tasks should be chosen very strategically so that you can get the most out of your day, while completing the most important jobs yourself.

Choose your helpers wisely: This where a lot of people go wrong, though it sounds like common sense. When delegating any task be sure that the person you are delegating it to knows what they are doing. Handing out jobs carelessly to anyone you see will only get you in trouble, because chances are they might just make matters worse. So choose wisely and be sure that you have given the job to the most capable candidate.

Explain the task thoroughly: I don’t think it can get any clearer that that. Anytime you are delegating tasks be absolutely sure that the person in question completely understands what it is that (s)he should be doing. This will avoid any confusion and problems that arise from lack of communication.

Be sure to follow up: Anytime you have gone through the process of delegating tasks to family members, co-workers or whom ever else it may be, make sure to follow up at the days end. Ask questions, how did it go, were there any problems with the given task, did you complete the task and so on. If there was a problem, this is a perfect opportunity to discover why the problem arose, was it on their end, your end or out of everyones control? You should also take this opportunity to offer a little praise if all went well, everyone loves to hear thanks or great job once in a while.

So what do you think? Can you delegate tasks or are you a do it yourselfer? Share your tips for learning how to delegate tasks in the comment section below.

There is no arguing that teens can make money disappear quicker than the world’s best magician, those of you with teenagers are well aware of that, the question is, how can teens replenish their parents money supply or hey, even just make enough that they don’t need to borrow money any more.

Teens are busy people, between dating, school, sports and having some fun with friends, finding time for a part-time job can be difficult at best and worse yet, the job usually takes away from their schoolwork. It doesn’t have to be that way, there are plenty of ways for teens to make money, you just have to be a little creative and willing to do a little work. I know to a teen “work” is a bad word, but it can be fun too!

Here are Some Teens Making Big Money

Teen, Ashley Qualls launched her MySpace resource site, Whateverlife.com, at the young age of fourteen only two years later she reportedly received an offer for $1.5 million from an interested buyer. These days her website is still around and running strong making Ashley quite an impressive young entrepreneur.

Cameron Johnson started his own greeting cards business at the age of 9 and by the age of 11 he had managed to save up several thousand dollars. After running several successful websites and selling merchandise on eBay, Johnson, now 15 was making $300,000 plus per month in his ventures. He was total assets were worth over $1 million before his highschool graduation.

Fraser Doherty began making jams and selling them out of the kitchen at the age of 14, by the young age of 16, he had quit school and began making jams full-time to keep up with orders. After stocking the shelves of high-end markets throughout the UK, his company Superjam hit $750,000 in sales last year.

Ways for Teens to Make Money Offline

Not so surprisingly, there are a lot of ways for teens to make money offline if you just put your mind to it. Teens can pretty much do anything anyone else can, they just have to want to because that’s where most teens fail, is in the motivation department. I was a teen once, I remember not wanting to get out of bed until noon, or even later. But if a teen has the drive to succeed in life and many of them do they can make a very good living before they are out of highschool.

Here are some different ideas that teens can use to make money offline:

Mowing Lawns/Landscaping

Computer Repair/Training

Dog Walking

Gift Baskets

Babysitting

Ways for Teens to Make Money Online

Niche Blogging

Freelance Writing

Build a Social Network(Teens know what teens want)

Web Design

Build a MySpace Resource Site

Affiliate Marketing

Virtual Assistant

Now obviously these are only some ideas to get teens started thinking about different ways to make money, but with a little creativity the possibilities are endless. Try thinking about what other teenagers are interested in right now, whats in style at the moment? Mix ideas together and see what you can come up with, often times the strangest ideas are the most successful.

What other ways for teens to make money do you know about or have you done yourself? Share your thoughts with everyone below.

Having been a smoker myself for many years, I know how difficult it can be to quit smoking, but I also have the ability to reflect back onto my days of smoking and say, “Geez, why didn’t I quit sooner”. First let me tell you that there is no benefit to smoking, period. It doesn’t make you feel better, worse in fact, it takes time away from other more important things in life and of course smoking will also shorten your life, allowing less time to spend on this Earth with the ones you love.

Maybe its time to step out from behind that cloud of smoke and join the rest of us, so if you need a little incentive to kick the habit, these smoking facts should do the trick.

Smoking Facts:

• For each person that dies from a smoking related disease, at least twenty more people will have at least one serious illness from smoking.

• Smoking not only harms the person smoking, but also his or her family members, coworkers and anyone else that might breathe the cigarette smoke. This is called secondhand smoke.

• Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the U.S.

• The health care costs that are associated with exposure to secondhand smoke average $10 billion annually.

• In the U.S. alone, smoking is responsible for approximately one in five deaths each year. That equals about 438,000 deaths per year just from smoking.

• Throughout the World, smoking causes more than five million deaths each and every year.

• Plain and simple, smoking is an addiction and it can be far worse than any other drug simply because tobacco is readily available. Cigarettes contain nicotine which is a very addictive drug that can make it very difficult, but not impossible, to quit smoking.

• A teenager with parents that smoke is twice as likely to become a smoker than one who’s parents are non-smokers.

• On average, many smokers will die thirteen to fourteen years earlier than non-smokers.

• The current smoking trends show that tobacco use alone will cause more than eight million deaths annually by the year 2030.

• The Nicotine from a cigarette reaches the brain in about eight seconds, while injecting many street drugs such as Heroin takes twelve seconds.

• Each time a person smokes a cigarette, their heart speeds up from 10 to 20 beats per minute.

• On average, a person that smokes one pack a day will spend around $1500 each year on cigarettes alone, what could you do with the extra money?

• Smoking is responsible for around 25% of deaths from residential fires, causing nearly 1,000 fire-related deaths and 3,300 injuries each year. Those numbers are in addition to the amount of deaths caused by smoking related illnesses.

Well, do you feel like quitting yet? Listen, the truth is it will be difficult to quit smoking but I really hope that these smoking facts have had an impact on you to make the right decision.

Public speaking is one of the most common fears of professionals. Some of you worry to much about what others might think, some have little confidence in themselves and others might just be afraid they won’t know what to say. Regardless of the reason for your fear, if you plan to succeed you’re going to have to overcome it. In reality, public speaking can be a lot of fun if you allow yourself to have fun with it.

While there are a lot of different techniques people use to build up their comfortable zone, these are my favorite ways to not only overcome this fear of public speaking but also to build more confidence in yourself.

Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking

Don’t be afraid of failure: Many people don’t realize it, but failure is one of the best learning tools at our disposal which is exactly why you shouldn’t fear it. I like to think back to the old adage “What doesn’t kill us, only makes us stronger.”, believe me, that saying holds an abundance of truth. A bad presentation won’t be the end of the world, but it will be a stepping stone to build on and improve your skills for the next time around. So rather than worrying about failure, think of it as an opportunity to grow.

Try some deep breathing exercises: Don’t hyperventilate on me here, but if used properly deep breathing techniques help to lower your blood pressure and calm your mind and body. Having the jitters before stepping up to the podium is normal, but you are going to want to relax yourself as much as possible in order to give an excellent presentation. Lifehack.org has a great article on deep breathing techniques you should check out. If presentations and public speaking are a big part of your chosen career, you might consider investing in some yoga classes which will not only teach you breathing but a lot more calming secrets as well.

Know your material: One of the biggest fears people face when it comes to public speaking is forgetting what they plan to say. You may already picture yourself standing on stage with a giant blank spot where your thoughts used to be, but if you know your material you have nothing to worry about. Try and allow yourself a minimum of two weeks before speaking to write your thoughts down and study them daily. Once you have everything in your head, start reciting it to yourself in front of a mirror without looking at your notes. Knowing your material will build your confidence and make for a much smoother presentation.

Join a Toastmasters Club in your area: Practice makes perfect and some times you just can’t do it on your own, but there is help to overcome your public speaking woes. Toastmasters International is a unique non-profit organization that provides an outlet for professionals like yourself to give presentations and learn how to function in a group setting. Currently they have over 226,000 members in 11,500 clubs throughout 92 countries so chances are there is a location near you. Club dues are only $27 every six months, so this is a very affordable option for everyone.

You can’t control the audience: Right from the start you have to realize that you can’t control the audience in front of you. They will either love what you have to say or they won’t, but you can’t force them in any direction. Simply presenting properly thought out and targeted information is all you can do the rest is out of your control, so please don’t allow that to effect your performance.

Act and speak natural: The last thing anyone wants is their speech to appear forced or unnatural. If you normally use hand movements as you talk, then use them on stage as well because that is what is comfortable for you. Pasting your hands to your side makes you look like a stiff and you will probably be very boring to watch. You should also try and communicate as you would in any old conversation. There is no need to put on an act when you are speaking, people came to listen to you not a robot drone that doubles as you, so just give them what they want.

Focus on one person in the audience: Right at the beginning of your speech pick one person in the center of the audience to focus on. This could be a friend of yours or just someone wearing a funny hat. As you make your speech keep your attention pointed towards that person and occasionally scan the audience as you are talking. What this will do is allow you to narrow in on a single person and take your mind off of the actual size of the audience, believe me it works wonders.

Drink a cup of coffee before going on stage: A lot of people recommend avoiding caffeine before a large presentation to avoid the jitters, but in reality caffeine has a lot of benefits to weary public speakers. According to Wikipedia: “Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system first at the higher levels, resulting in increased alertness and wakefulness, faster and clearer flow of thought, increased focus, and better general body coordination, and later at the spinal cord level at higher doses.” Now I don’t know about you but better thought, focus and alertness during that presentation sounds good to me, so drink up.

Dress for success: How you look can be another great confidence booster. Most often public speakers want to come across as professional but also relaxed and fun. Consider choosing a sharp looking business casual outfit that really makes you stand out. Take the extra time to do your hair and nails if need be, maybe even an extra spritz of cologne or perfume that morning. Once you’re finished, take a look in the mirror and say “Now that’s a good looking person who knows what they want!”. Just remember, if you feel good about yourself, the audience will feel good about you too.

Get plenty of rest: All stress and no rest is hard on your mind, body and soul, so make sure that you get plenty of sleep the night before and avoid scheduling anything that may effect your mood the day of the big speech. The last thing you need is to be sleepy or have something else on your mind, think clear thoughts.

If you follow my advice, your next bout with public speaking should be a positive one. I wish you the best and remember all that matters is what you think of yourself, not what others think of you!