5 Life-Changing Reasons to Have a Gratitude Jar

• healthy living

• Judi Gerber
• February 24, 2014
• 11:05 am

I have always preferred to think of myself as quick-witted. But, since I have spent the past couple of years taking a good look at myself, I have to be honest and admit, what I really am, is snarky. I love sarcasm. And those of us who do, do not often have the most optimistic outlook on life. I know I will never be a complete Little Ms. Sunshine, but I have been working on at least being a bit less dark.

So, when I saw that many of my friends had created “Gratitude Jars” at the start of the New Year, I joined in and created my own. What exactly is a gratitude jar? Basically it’s a jar (or basket or container) that you fill with notes, thoughts, and scribbles about something that you are thankful or grateful for. Some people add something on a daily basis, some do it randomly, and some add things when they are having an especially hard time.
You can be as elaborate or as simple as you want, going as far as decorating your own jar, to doing what I did and re-purposing a jar that had been gifted to me filled with seed packets. As for reviewing your gratitude s, this also is entirely up to you. Some people do it at the end of the year, some involve their whole family and read some at Thanksgiving, and others, like me, read them when they are having a really tough day.

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Clint Ober Discusses Earthing Research (Part 3 of 7)

Mercola


 

Uploaded on Jul 7, 2011

 

http://www.mercola.com/ Natural health physician and Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola and Clint Ober discuss one of the most exciting new innovation on health, the earthing. (Part 3/7)

Why ‘Grounding’ May Be Crucial for Your Dog’s Health

Healthy Living

• Celeste Yarnall
• February 22, 2014

Artwork courtesy of Nazim Artist

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Grounding is a new buzz word for many of us who have learned the importance of connecting with Mother Earth. But have we thought much about the importance of grounding to our companion dogs? In a new book entitled, PALEO DOG, Give Your Best Friend a Long Life, Healthy Weight and Freedom from Illness by Nurturing his Inner Wolf, my writing partner Jean Hofve, DVM and I discuss the significance of grounding behind what we might take for granted: the daily walking of our dogs.

We all used to walk barefoot upon our Mother Earth every day. Both humans and their animal companions were in constant contact with the earth until they moved in with us and joined us in our modern twenty first century way of living. Now most of us are missing that direct contact and the wonders of the planet’s magnetic field. It is almost as if we are living on the moon today, because our buildings, our shoes, our cars, our furniture, everything keeps us separate from feeling the dirt, grass, rocks, and sand beneath our toes and paws! Whether we know it or not, we all have a powerful need for this contact, because we are bioelectrical beings living on an electrical planet.

The relationship between inflammation and disease has finally been recognized and been brought to public attention. Free radicals, which cause and perpetuate inflammation, are everywhere. The media, every health food store, pharmacy and grocery store sells nature’s best free radical fighters in the form of antioxidants along with natural forms of anti-inflammatories such as marine lipids.

Inflammation was previously considered to be the body’s urgent response to injury and infection and acute, normal inflammation is exactly that. But researchers today are concerned with chronic inflammation, and/or oxidative stress, which is now known to be an underlying cause of most common health disorders in both people and their companion animals, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and degenerative conditions like arthritis and cognitive decline (senility). But what, besides providing specific supplements and feeding a healthy diet, can we do about it for what my writing partner and I refer to as our Paleo Dogs? The answer is not that difficult, because we live right on the surface of what may be the biggest anti-inflammatory device ever conceived: Mother Earth herself. It is the Earth’s surface that provides the magnetic field that we were designed to walk upon.

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Clint Ober Discusses Earthing Research (Part 2 of 7)

Mercola·


 

Uploaded on Jul 7, 2011

 

http://www.mercola.com/ Natural health physician and Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola and Clint Ober discuss one of the most exciting new innovation on health, the earthing. (Part 2/7)

USDA: Americans waste nearly one-third of their food; worth $161 billion

By Paul Bedard | FEBRUARY 24, 2014 AT 10:55 AM

The Department of Agriculture said that in 2014, 14 percent of garbage dumped into landfills was...

Nearly a third of the 430 billion pounds of food produced for Americans to eat is wasted, a potential catastrophe for landfills and a wake-up call to officials scrambling to feed the hungry, according to a stunning new report from the Department of Agriculture.
The just-issued report revealed that in 2010, 31 percent, or 133 billion pounds, of food produced for Americans to eat was wasted, either molded or improperly cooked, suffered “natural shrinkage” due to moisture loss, or because people became disinterested in what they purchased.
“In 2010, an estimated 133 billion pounds of food at the retail and consumer levels in the United States went uneaten, and this amount is valued at $161.6 billion using retail prices. This amount of food loss translates into 141 trillion calories in 2010. These estimates suggest that annual food loss in the United States is substantial,” said Ag.
The report comes as the administration is growing concerned about landfills running out of space and struggling to help the one-sixth of Americans who go hungry every day. The report noted that 14 percent of garbage dumped into landfills is food waste, and that 49 million people, mostly poor, need more food.
While waste isn’t new to America, the volume revealed in the report is shocking, and the reasons sometimes just as surprising.
The report provides estimates of waste for different foods, including the top food groups wasted. No. 1 in 2010, the sample year, was the group including meat, poultry and fish. The report said 30 percent, or $48 billion, was wasted.
The reasons for trashing food included dented cans, spills, mold, poor coloring and even religion. Below is USDA’s list of reasons consumers trashed their food:

• Spillages, abrasion, bruising, excessive trimming, excessive or insufficient heat, inadequate storage, technical malfunction.
• Sprouting of grains and tubers, biological aging in fruit.
• Consumers becoming confused over “use-by” and “best before” dates so that food is discarded while still safe to eat.

Read More Here

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• Americans trash about 1/3 of their food, worth $161bn - USDA

Clint Ober Discusses Earthing Research (Part 1 of 7)

Mercola

Uploaded on Jul 7, 2011

 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/art... Natural health physician and Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola and Clint Ober discuss one of the most exciting new innovation on health, the earthing. (Part 1/7)

How Returning a Rescue Dog Made Me Re-Think Who I Am

Healthy Living

• Amy Ahlers
• February 22, 2014

I was blown away by the incredible, inspiring, and compassionate responses after writing a post about returning our dog, Rocky Blue, to his rescue group. After six months and with a baby on the way, we just knew he wasn’t a good fit for our home, resulting in my heartbreaking decision. (Of course I received some emails and responses from people that were outraged or felt like they didn’t want to be in my community anymore. And I honor that too … I knew it was a risk and am still proud I told the truth about my experience.)

The very day we dropped off Rocky Blue at the rescue group’s adoption fair, he was adopted by a young woman who fell in love with him. YES! That means that he never had one night without a home. And I know in my heart he was meant to be with us as our teacher for 6 months and is now settling into his forever home. I’m eternally grateful when The Universe conspires like this.

Among the dozens of lessons this experience has taught me, one in particular stands out: the idea of who we THINK we are. The story of who our ego tries to convince us we are and when we bump up against a situation or challenge that pushes us outside our perceived identity, it kind of … well … messes us up.

For me, I never thought in a million years I’d be the type of person to return a rescue dog to a rescue group.

The act of doing just that shattered a part of my identity and had me look at myself differently. I had an “Inner Mean Girl attack,” where my Inner Critic raked me over the coals for a day or so. (Thank goodness I have so many tools to help!) When we commit an act that feels contrary to who we think we are we open ourselves up to some very harsh Big Fat Lies. (i.e. “I should be better than this.” “I hate people who do things like this and now that person is ME!” etc.)

But it also showed me what my highest priorities truly are: to honor my husband, to honor my family, and to honor my limits. (Guess I’m not superwoman after all. DARN!) And it allows me to have access to compassion that I didn’t even know existed. I stop the harsh judgments of others who have done such things and realize that I can never know what others are going through.

This “who you think you are” phenomenon can also work when we do things beyond what we perceive our limitations are.

Read More and participate in the exercise Here

Be The Change : Would you give your jacket to Johannes? SOS Children's Villages Norway [OFFICIAL]

SOSbarnebyerNorge \

Published on Feb 19, 2014

For English, choose English on the captions icon in media player.
What would you do if you saw a freezing child?
We set up a hidden camera and placed Johannes at a bus stop, in Oslo, Norway. This is what happened.

The film is made to raise awareness of the situation for children in Syria, and to raise funds to SOS Children's Villages is their winter-campaign. Children in Syria are freezing and you can help by dontating. For more information: www.sos-barnebyer.no/Mayday/Syria

NORSK: En test utført av SOS-barnebyer bekrefter at det er mye hjertevarme blant folk i Norge. Nå håper vi at engasjementet også når fram til barn i Syria. Bidra du også send SMS SOS til 2160 / http://www.sos-barnebyer.no/Mayday/Syria

SOS-barnebyer i Syria deler ut tusenvis av varme jakker og pledd til barn på flukt, og samtidig mobiliseres givere i Norge for å kunne hjelpe flere barn gjennom givernettverket SOS MAYDAY.

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Would YOU offer to help a child freezing in the street? Hidden cameras capture reactions of people faced with dilemma... and what they did will warm your heart

• An 11-year-old boy was filmed as he struggled against the cold without a coat in Oslo
• But the kindness of those who saw his heartbreaking situation and handed him their clothing is inspiring
• It was a stunt for a charity helping freezing Syrian children who are fleeing the civil war

By Sam Webb
PUBLISHED: 14:38 EST, 20 February 2014 | UPDATED: 05:17 EST, 21 February 2014
A boy shivers in the harsh Oslo winter, pathetically wrapping his arms around himself on a bus stop bench. He isn't wearing a coat and temperatures in the Norwegian capital regularly plunge to -10C during winter.
A heartbreaking scene, but the actions of the ordinary people who witnessed the plight of 11 year old Johannes Lønnestad Flaaten is both joyous and inspiring.
A young blonde woman who sat next to the boy and notices him rubbing his arms. She immediately asks him: 'Don't you have a jacket?'

This 11 year old boy was filmed as he sat shivering without a coat at a bus stop in Oslo, Norway. The actions of people who saw his discomfort will bring a smile to even the most jaded souls

Caring: This young woman asks him why he has no coat in such cold weather. He replies that it was stolen

Warm heart: She takes off her own jacket and wraps it around the freezing boy

No, someone stole it,' he replies. She questions him and discovers he was on a school trip and was told to meet his teacher at the bus stop. She asks him the name of his school and where he's from as she selflessly drapes her own coat around his shoulders.

Later, another older woman at first gives him her scarf, then wraps him in her large padded jacket.
Johanne's predicament was a hidden camera experiment by Norwegian charity SOS Children’s Village as part of their winter campaign to gather donations to send much-needed coats and blankets to help Syrian children get through the winter. Many of the refugees have left their homes without winter clothing.
Throughout the day, more and more people offered Johannes their gloves and even the coats off their backs as they waited for their bus. One man even sat shivering in his t-shirt so Johanne could be wrapped up in his warm coat.

Sacrifice: This man endured the savage temperature in just a T-shirt so the boy could get warm

Read More Here


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When approached by the Make-A-Wish Foundation , Jayci Glover, a terminally-ill teen couldn't think of anything she wanted . Instead she chose to give back to the local High School that had done so much to support her.

Girl with terminal cancer donates Make-A-Wish money to her school

A. Pawlowski TODAY contributor

She may not make it to the basketball and volleyball games of her beloved high school teams, but a teenager with a rare type of terminal cancer is making sure they will play in style.

Courtesy Heather Glover

Jayci Glover, right, and a friend share a happy moment. The terminally-ill teen loves mangoes so a local business created a mango smoothie named for her.

When approached by the Make-A-Wish Foundation recently, Jayci Glover, a 13-year-old who lives in Kanab, Utah, simply asked for a new scoreboard for the local high school, where the students and athletes have embraced the girl and kept her spirits up during a difficult year.
“She just decided that she didn’t really need anything, that she has everything she wants and wanted to give something back to all of her friends and the local community that’s done so much to support her,” her mother, Heather Glover, told TODAY Moms.
Her mother said the family wasn’t surprised at all that Jayci’s would think of somebody else when making her wish.
“We had suspected all along that she was going to choose something for her two little sisters or for her friends… She can never think of anything she wants – for Christmas or birthdays.”
Make-A-Wish is paying $7,500 towards the cost of the new scoreboard, which will cost $20,000, said Karen Kelly, who is Jayci’s great aunt and works at the school. The plans are to put Jayci’s name on the scoreboard so she is always there in spirit and cheering on the teams.
The girl, who was diagnosed with peripheral T-cell lymphoma, is at home on hospice care now after spending much of last year in and out of the hospital, Jayci’s mom said.
“There just aren’t any more things they can try. We’ve tried every proven lymphoma treatment that there is and her cancer continued to grow through every single one of them,” Glover said.

Courtesy Karen Kelly

The Make-A-Wish check was presented during a ceremony at the local high school on Feb. 12.

“We just reached a decision… to just come home and try to let her be in her home with her two little sisters for as long as we can. We don’t know how long that will be. We don’t think it will be too long.”
Read More Here

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Hero teen, 13, with terminal cancer GIVES AWAY her Make-A-Wish to her school to buy new $7,500 scoreboard rather than enjoy a dream trip

• Jayci Glover, 13, is fighting a rare form of terminal lymphoma which has caused her to gain over 160lbs in the past year

• When the brave student received a $7,500 gift from Make-A-Wish she decided to give it to her high school rather than spend it on herself

• The check was presented before a school basketball game earlier this month and the team wore 'Fight Like Jayci' T-shirts

• Jayci left hospital for the last time on February 12 and received a hero's welcome in her hometown of Kanab, Utah

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 10:54 EST, 20 February 2014 | UPDATED: 17:23 EST, 20 February 2014
A Utah teenager with terminal cancer has made an incredibly selfless gesture after donating her $7,500 Make-A-Wish foundation gift to her high school.
Jayci Glover, 13, has been fighting a rare form of terminal lymphoma for over a year, which has caused the previously healthy young girl to gain over 160lbs.
When Make-A-Wish asked Jayci what she would like to do with the money, rather than ask for a trip to theme park, or a chance to meet a celebrity or sports star, she decided to gave her gift to Kanab High School to pay a new scoreboard for the gym.

Jayci Glover, 13, has been fighting a rare form of terminal lymphoma for over a year, which has caused the previously healthy young girl to gain over 160lbs

Make-A-Wish presented Jayci Glover's $7,500 check to Kanab High School before a basketball game on February 12

The foundation presented a $7,500 check to the school, in Jayci's name, before a basketball game on February 12, reports Yahoo News.
The boy's team also paid tribute to their benefactor with 'Fight Like Jayci' T-shirts and every player also gave her a rose and a hug or kiss before the game.

Read More Here

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Be The Change : It Takes A Heart To Be A Hero / Schoolkids on the Front Lines Raising Life Saving Donations to Help Kids With Heart Disease

 

Lucas Camacho

 

Even a $1 donation will help make a difference.  Help make a difference Today.

Join me in my efforts to support Jump Rope For Heart or Hoops For Heart! Even the smallest of donations make a big difference.

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Help me earn badges

I need your support! Hi,
We only have one heart! I want to take care of mine and help you take care of yours too! This year, I have set a personal goal to raise money for the American Heart Association at my school.
Heart Disease can happen to anyone so it's really important to be physically active and eat healthy. Did you know that heart disease is our nation's number one killer? Help me become a lifesaver!
Will you make a donation to help me reach my goal? It's fast and easy to do on my personal webpage. Just use the link below to support me today!
Your contribution will support the American Heart Association's work to:
- Put up-to-the-minute research into doctors' hands so they can better prevent and treat heart disease among patients.
- Fund groundbreaking pediatric heart and stroke research.
- Train more than 9 million health professionals and others each year in emergency cardiovascular care.
Please support me in my efforts - together we can save lives! Thank you very much!
Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support YM-GSA
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I'm joining millions of others to help save lives with the American Heart Association!
At my school, I'm learning how I can help make a difference by raising lifesaving donations to help kids with heart disease. I'm also learning about my own heart, and how to keep it healthy. And I'm getting active!
I'm excited about raising money for other kids - kids with hearts that don't exactly work right and to help fund new medicines and treatments to be discovered.
Please help me make a difference! Thank you!

Welcome to the Donation Page of

Lucas Camacho

Be The Change : 'Love Ninja': Mom shares one teacher's amazing strategy to combat bullying, loneliness

Glennon Doyle Melton TODAY contributor

Jan. 31, 2014 at 6:57 PM ET

This post was first published on Glennon Doyle Melton's blog, Momastery, on Jan. 30. In less than a day it was shared more than 1 million times. We wanted to share it with you.

A few weeks ago, I went into Chase’s class for tutoring.
I’d emailed Chase’s teacher one evening and said, “Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you’re sending home is math – but I’m not sure I believe him. Help, please.” She emailed right back and said, “No problem! I can tutor Chase after school anytime.” And I said, “No, not him. Me. He gets it. Help me.” And that’s how I ended up standing at a chalkboard in an empty fifth grade classroom staring at rows of shapes that Chase’s teacher kept referring to as “numbers.”

Little Moon Photography

Author Glennon Doyle Melton with her family; her conversation with her son's teacher sparked this post.

I stood a little shakily at the chalkboard while Chase’s teacher sat behind me, perched on her desk, using a soothing voice to try to help me understand the “new way we teach long division.” Luckily for me, I didn’t have to unlearn much because I never really understood the “old way we taught long division.” It took me a solid hour to complete one problem, but l could tell that Chase’s teacher liked me anyway. She used to work with NASA, so obviously we have a whole lot in common.
Afterwards, we sat for a few minutes and talked about teaching children and what a sacred trust and responsibility it is. We agreed that subjects like math and reading are the least important things that are learned in a classroom. We talked about shaping little hearts to become contributors to a larger community – and we discussed our mutual dream that those communities might be made up of individuals who are Kind and Brave above all.
And then she told me this.
Every Friday afternoon Chase’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.
And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, Chase’s teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns.
Who is not getting requested by anyone else?
Who doesn’t even know who to request?
Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?
Who had a million friends last week and none this week?
You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down — right away — who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.


Read More Here

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Be The Change : Labor of love - Volunteer NICU photographer focuses on tiny, most vulnerable babies

A. Pawlowski TODAY contributor

Like most parents of a premature baby, Erin Cox suddenly found herself in a whirl of doctors, machines and incubators when her daughter came into the world.
Evalee was born two months early, not long after Cox’s water broke without any warning 30 weeks into her pregnancy. When the baby was delivered via Cesarean section at a Kansas City hospital last June, she weighed just 4 pounds.

Courtesy Jessica Strom Photography

Erin Cox holds her daughter Evalee at the neonatal intensive care unit of a Kansas City hospital last summer.

“She was very tiny. I mean, you walk around in the beginning holding her and it’s like holding a bag of cotton balls,” Cox, 33, told TODAY Moms.
“When you go back and look at the pictures, it’s like, oh, my gosh. What a journey. How amazing is this that she was that little and that she had to be so strong.”
The pictures, tender portraits taken during Evalee’s three-week stay in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, came courtesy of Jessica Strom, a Kansas City photographer who has made it her mission to provide free photo sessions to local families of preemies.

Courtesy Jessica Strom Photography

Baby Haven, photographed in the NICU by Jessica Strom.

Various organizations have started similar efforts in recent years, including Preemie Prints, a Texas nonprofit that has about 60 volunteer NICU photographers in more than a dozen states, and Capturing Hopes Photography, which has 21 volunteers in Winston Salem, N.C. Most NICUs allow photography as long as no flash is used, said Sherri Crum, assistant director of Preemie Prints.
It's a service that may touch many families: One out of every eight babies is born prematurely in the U.S., according to the CDC. The agency doesn't track how many are admitted to the NICU.
Strom, who makes a living taking maternity, birth, and newborn photos, said it’s her way to give back to families who must leave their babies in the care of the NICU, which veterans like Cox simply refer to as “Nick-U.”

Baby love: Preemies in pictures

See photos of tiny babies that photographer Jessica Strom takes free of charge.

Strom calls the tiny patients warriors.
“It’s an amazing experience to be able to see what these little babies have to go through,” Strom said. “It’s awe-inspiring. The human body is just so amazing.”
“By the time I see them, they’re stable and they’ve already come so far from where they started… it’s just a really exciting time and I think the parents are relieved to be somewhat normal.”
That chance to be "normal" is as precious as the images themselves for the parents, who watch other couples take their babies home right away. Strom knows the pictures she takes allow these weary moms and dads to show off baby photos just like everybody else and give them a break from the day-to-day hospital routine.
Read More Here

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