Happy New Year to all of you!

I’m always excited about a new year. A new year means a new hope. A new hope can make us happy. Happiness leads to health.

So, tell me, how did you enjoy your New Year Celebration?

I had a great dinner with my son. I thought, at his age (he’s teenager, right now), I wouldn’t have the chance to ask him out during New Year’s Eve (which is our tradition). But then, he was too sweet to say no to his beloved mother.

New Year’s Eve is a moment when my son and I can spend time just the two of us. My mom who lives with us always goes to my brother’s place every end of the year ’til mid January.

Now, I’d like to invite you to visit these great blogs where the owner shares great great New Year Celebration:

• Kerri shared her great time with her Grandsons.
• Adam Tow let us see some great pics he took on the New Year’s party at his house.
• Orient Aries told us stories about a lovely New Year in London.
• Darren shared his New Year with Clare, his daughter.

So, if you happen to have a wonderful story on the New Year’s Eve, just share it.

As mentioned in the January issue of Harvard Women’s Health Watch, besides having better health, the other good effect of forgiving is having greater happiness.

So, if you haven’t done it, I suggest that you do.

This weekend could be the moment.

Why wasting your time feeling bad about someone?

It’s time to move on.

Come to whoever you think has hurt your feeling, express it in a proper way, then fogive him or her, finally, forget all and start new happier relationship.

Is it your friend, your parents, your sister or brother, your children?

Let’s just forgive and forget in this beautiful weekend!

Have a nice weekend!

Have you ever noticed that sickness never stays long in your body while you’re busy and don’t really think about it? You keep doing your activuty as if you’re as fit and well as usual.

That’s because your brain tells your body that things are just fine and this calming warning makes you forget the sickness and be able to do all the task.

Mostly, moms are the ones who can do such thing. Their demanding kids, their messy home, plus their dirty laundry make them forget all the pain. Those things have to be taken care of and they manage to accomplish all.

That’s because they’r epositive that they can (or must) do it.

Actually, not only mothers can do so. Anybody can. What it takes is only POSITIVITY.

Any illness can be cured or at least lessened by being positive. Like what Thaleia’s husband did.

Praying and being positive, both will make anyone feel better.

It’s never nice when you feel like being trapped in something bad, such as anger. You don’t feel like being yourself. You become someone else, a bad person.

Whenever I’m in such a situation, I do these things below:

• scream out loud, but if that’s not possible (such as might disturbing neighbors, I scream to a pillow)
• Take a deep deep breath
• Write on my diary or blog to express my self
• Listen to a soothing music
• Dance into the music
• Eat chocolate (the dark one if possible as it can help defend against free radicals).

Normally, all or some of them help me a lot. Hope they can help Heather as well in dealing with her feeling, now.

Many people are trying to avoid depression by telling themselves that they’re just fine. In a way, it’s a good thing to think positively about yourself.

Yet, it might lead to denial. Especially if you don’t know the symptoms of depression.

The article below can help you get to know the symptoms, finding out the causes and observing the treatments to depression.

Depression: Symptoms, Causes & Treatments
By Gabriel J. Adams

Depression is an illness of the mind. It is where neurotransmitters in the brain are not balanced out. There is no way to overcome this illness without treatment and it can be serious and in some cases harmful.

Some of the symptoms of depression include:

- Feeling sad and upset a lot of the time.

- Thinking about the bad things in life and what has went wrong with your life.

- You feel like you’re always weighing other people down and holding them back from having a good time.

- You have physical pain over different parts of your body that has no medical cause.

Depression affects many people of this world and probably affects you or someone close to you. The good thing about it being so common is how easy it is to find a cure. Some of the cures for depression include:

- Medication. Medication includes different types of medicines which help to fight the symptoms of depression. They fall under three main categories.
1.tricyclics (example: Norpramin)
2.SSRI (example: Prozac)
3.MAOI (example: Nardil)
4.St. Johns’ Wort has also been proven effective in curing depression. This is an all natural herbal cure which some people prefer to medication.
Acupuncture has also been tried to help treat depression patients.

Changing the way you feel about yourself. While this seems like it wouldn’t work one of the best ways to fight this disease is to look at life with a positive attitude. What this means is to mentally tell yourself to stop sulking around and to think of all the good things that life has brought you.

Depression can be caused by abuse, bad feelings, and mental expectations that you can’t meet. Verbal and mental abuse seems to be some of the leading causes of depression. Some scientists believe that depression is a way of the patient asking to be treated better by the people around them. Studies suggest that depression works, in a way to achieve that goal.

If you have depression it’s best you seek immediate advice about how to treat your disease. Remember, if not taken seriously it can cause harmful long term effects.

Have you asked yourself that question? Even if you have, I doubt you answer it honestly.

But, to know whether you are depressed or potentially being depressed, please answer these questions:

• Do you feel desperate more than you used to, and think that things are never getting better?
• Do you lose your appetite? Or, you feel like eating too much?
• Are you having insomnia?
• Do you get panic easily with no specific reason?
• Do you lose interest in anything you normally like?
• Do you get angry easily to people around you?
• Do you feel like lacking of libido?
• Are you lack of motivation and feeling tired easily?
• Do you feel like a looser?
• Is it hard for you to concentrate?

If you answer “YES” to at least 6 of the 10 questions above, you’d better get help.

Most of the time, when you have to face an uneasy situation, instead of thinking positively, you end up thinking negatively.

Don’t you know that it only adds stress? Don’t you know that it’s only making it worse?

So, if you happen to be in an edgy situation, try to only have positive thoughts.

How?

Check out these 6 important things to do to be positive:

1. Give some time for you to contemplate. At least 30 minutes. It’s the time for you to understand what really happens. Ask yourself, do you really have to worry about the matter? Or, actually, it’s just something unimportant that is not worth to bother you.

2. Try not to talk to yourself. Do you know that 80% self-conversation are negative and irrational? It only makes you feel bad about yourself. The result is that you become more depressed, disappointed, or even frightened. Put in your mind…the thoughts might just be simply thoughts that might not happen at all!

3. Write down all your thoughts after you calm down. Afterwards, go through each point and write down on the side of the point all the alternatives that might happen, both the negative and positives ones.

4. Make the best decision. Don’t run away from your problems. Get the piece of paper on which you have written all your thoughts. Read once again. Then, choose the problems that really need to be solved. With a clearer mind, you can decide what to do in the wisest way.

5. Get relaxed. Do whatever you like doing. Enjoy it. And, keep telling yourself, “Everything will be just fine.”

6. Be optimistic. If you have tried all the steps yet none seems to work, just smile and again, tell yourself, “I will definitely find the way to solve it, tomorrow!”

Last weekend, I visited my Mom and Dad. I suddenly missed them. It wasn’t a planned visit. I just showed up at their porch and surprised them.

Mom got me her most delicious cookies. That made me feel like a kid. Yet, I wouldn’t mind. I’d rather feel like an 8 years old and be able to grab her cookies whenever I passed in the kitchen.

I got there on Saturday, at 3 pm. I prepared dinner for them. Then, I went to bed. At least, I tried to. But I couldn’t close my eyes. I wanted to read but I wasn’t interested in any books on the shelves.

I went out of the room. Sitting down in the living room, I taking a glance at each picture Mom put it on the fireplace. These pictures reminded me of those of my childhood. Now, some of them are in my room. The rest are in the attic.

FYI, I’m not the kind of person who gets freaked out easily. The dark attic didn’t frighten me at all.

So, I started climbing the stairs…on the forth step, I heard a sound of an opened door.

“Nadine…” called Mom.

“Yes, Mom, I’m here…” answered me.

She came to me, asking what I was doing there. I told her that I wanted to check out my pictures I put in the attic. At first she seemed to disapprove what I was about to do. But then, she thought that it was a great idea.

Two minutes later, there was I, in the attic, looking at old pictures, with my dear Mom.

I looked back at the early years of my existence on earth. It was beautiful. Looking back was beautiful, too.

This reminded me of Nikki, one of the Healthy Bloggers This Week! In some and other ways, she was also looking back. That made her chosen to be awarded.

Have you looked back?

Ginny once wrote a piece about fasting entitled “It’s Just Not about Food.”

She’s right. According to what the Moslems believe, when they are fasting, it’s not only about giving up food and drink, it’s more like training their soul.

I have mentioned earlier that not only fasting can help their physical health but it also can help their mental health.

By fasting, Moslems are training the soul, learning self-restraint, self-control, and patience. This way, they learn to see life in a more peaceful way. It will end them up to reduce the risk of getting stressed out which will get them to become mentally healthy.

Briefly, just like in other religions, such as Christian or Jew, fasting is always positive in result.