“The holidays are more for the kids,” you’ll often hear weary parents moan, as they go through the motions but have long since forgotten their own connection to this time of year.

This year, instead of writing Halloween off as a sweets-laden waste of time, remember its your time to change who you are - to play “dress up” without any repercussions.

Why not dress up in a way that really suits the inner you (and sure, wicked witches are allowed in this category!) More than just dress up, dare to act it out. When was the last time you allowed yourself to make-believe? BE Dracula, down to the ominous stare. Get in touch with your Inner Ghost. Take some imaginative chances. Act the role.

Halloween exists for many reasons. It’s a powerful time of year, for one. But it’s also just a time to play, before it gets cold and our natural tendency toward hibernating sets in.

In short, LET LOOSE!

Therapy dogs help so many people. Many correctional facilities have created special programs where inmates train the dogs. After that, the dogs goes on to help others, who may need help in a myriad of ways. Let’s hear it for this continually wonderful and evolving program making such a difference:

When Allison Winn was just seven years old, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and her carefree life as she knew it was over. She soon underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and then began a grueling regiment of radiation treatments and chemotherapy, leaving her weak and ill.One of Allison’s doctors had a suggestion to cheer the child up: a therapy dog. At the nearby Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, prisoners have trained dogs specifically to assist people with disabilities and illnesses, and Allison seemed like a perfect candidate to be partnered with one of the program’s graduates. Not long after her family sent in an application, Allison was paired with a beautiful Bichon Frisé, who she named Coco.

“She made me feel better,” Allison told the Denver Post. So, when Allison finally began to feel like her old self again this spring, she made it her mission to help other children with cancer get support from their very own therapy dogs.

All summer long, Allison baked thousands of dog biscuits from her own special recipe, and sold them at a stand in front of her house and in local shops. She raised more than a thousand dollars, which is enough to pay for three therapy dogs for other children.

Last Tuesday, Allison and her mother drove back to the correctional facility to watch as another child received Allison’s gift: two-year-old Krysta Mullen, who is legally blind because of a brain tumor that had recently been removed, was able to choose from three available dogs waiting there. The toddler sniffed around and stroked their fur before choosing a black Labrador named Lucky Bug.

Krysta’s mother, Shanell Mullen, was amazed by Allison’s generosity. “I just think that is an awesome little girl,” she said as she watched her daughter bond with her new dog.

Allison is still planning to pay for two other children to receive their own therapy dogs with her leftover money, but she’s not stopping there: she’s already working on her next giant batch of biscuits.

Source: Alltop

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “Fake it till you make it.” If you’re like me, you’ve always been a bit wary of “faking it.” Not only is it inauthentic but tiring!

But there’s a fine line. Sometimes a little psychic push is needed to change your emotional parameters.

In a 1988 study, researchers at the University of Mannheim in Germany had participants look at Far Side cartoon strips under two conditions: One group of people was asked to hold pencils between their teeth, which forced their mouths into smiles. The others held the pencils with just their lips, which produced a frowning expression. According to the results, the people who’d been forced to smile found the comics far more hilarious than the frowners did.

So if you want to boost your mood, just grin and bear it. Soon enough, your smile will be for real. Science says so.

Source: Dr. Richard Wiseman’s Quirkology”

So many of us hold material items so dearly in our lives - as if we’ll be able to take them with us when we go! Of course, we can’t and that kind of possessiveness can lead to a certain coveting mentality.

“It’s mine! It’s mine! You can’t have it!”

Look around you and see what you can give away to help others - and try to include something in there that’s a little tough to let go, just for the sake of spiritual flexibility.

A Wisconsin priest is auctioning off his late mother’s collection of old silver pieces to raise money for a homeless shelter.

The Rev. Guy Blair donated 14 silver items, including five sugar urns dating back to the 1790s. Other pieces include vases and coffee and tea pots.

Tim Rigdon, a director at Heritage Auctions, says the sum of the items’ minimum bids is $21,000.

Blair hopes they fetch at least $50,000. He says that would cover the shelter’s costs for a few weeks. The proceeds benefit the St. John’s the Evangelist Church shelter in Green Bay.

Blair’s mother died in July. He says she agreed with him and his four sisters that the silver would do the most good if it were sold for a worthy cause. The auction is Nov. 10 in Dallas.

Source: MSNBC

Rev. Guy Blair, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Green Bay, sits next to what he refers to as the “first homeless family” inside the church. Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette

Did you know access to greenery can actually improve your health? Well, it stands to reason. We all know the relaxing effect we experience while walking in a forest or even playing in a park.

If you’re in a city, sometimes greenery is hard to come by - it’s a commodity. You may have to bring the green indoors with houseplants or even a rich, green room.

According to a recent Dutch study:

People who live near green spaces may be less likely than those surrounded by concrete to suffer a range of health problems, particularly depression and anxiety, according to a Dutch study.

Researchers from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam found that among more than 300,000 Dutch adults and children, those living near more green spaces tended to have lower rates of 15 different health conditions.

They found the link was especially strong when it came to depression and anxiety, suggesting that respite from stress and the hustle and bustle of urban life may be an important for reason for the benefits of green.

Past studies have found that people who live in greener environments tend to report better subjective health. But this study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, is the first to use objective data on specific mental and physical health diagnoses, researcher Dr. Jolanda Maas told Reuters Health.

The findings build on evidence that green space has a positive effect on health and is “more than just a luxury good,” Maas said.

She and her colleagues gathered their information from the electronic medical records of 345,143 patients of about 200 general practitioners.

They used an environmental database on land use to gauge the percentage of green space in the patients’ neighbourhoods.

Overall, the study found, greater amounts of green space within one kilometre - or 0.6 miles - of people’s homes was related to small reductions in the risks of health problems like heart disease, diabetes, chronic neck and back pain, asthma and migraine.

The strongest connection was seen with depression and anxiety. Among people who lived in areas with 90 per cent green space, for example, just over 2 per cent had been diagnosed with depression, compared with just over 3 per cent of those living in areas with 10 per cent green space.

Maas and her colleagues point out that greener environs could potentially have positive affects on health through a number of pathways, including better air quality and more opportunities for exercise. But, the researchers added, the link with depression and anxiety suggests that stress reduction and a lesser likelihood of “attention fatigue” could be especially important.

The study also found that the relationship between green space and health was particularly strong among children and lower-income groups, which, the researchers speculate, could be because they tend to spend much of their time close to home.

Source: www.reuters.com

The current recession is creating more than stress - it provides us with time. Here’s an example of a couple who took advantage of their spare time and put it back into the community:

After Portland, Oregon man Seth Reams lost his job in December, he spent all his time searching want ads and sending out resumés with no luck. But rather than getting down about his situation, he decided to start doing something useful with all his extra time until he could find a new job. He and his girlfriend, Michelle King, decided to create a blog, We’ve Got Time to Help, which would compile community volunteer opportunities for everyone who had a few extra hours to pitch in.

There are so many people out there who are willing to help, willing to step out of their lives and their homes to help their neighbors, their community and their city.

Since launching the website in January, Reams’ group has grown to more than 100 volunteers, including fellow laid-off employees, retirees, and stay-at-home moms, who have together tackled more than 60 local volunteer projects for Portland residents in need. Even though Reams is still looking for work, his new project has taught him that “there are so many people out there who are willing to help, willing to step out of their lives and their homes to help their neighbors, their community and their city,” he told Seattle’s KOMO News. “I think that’s probably the most positive lesson that I’ve learned.”

Source: Gimundo

Seth Reams, co-founder of We’ve Got Time To Help,

digs a hole for a fence for someone in need.

“Follow your bliss” says Joseph Campbell. And we all nod our head in agreement. But do we really know what our bliss is? Can your bliss change? Are you thinking too negatively to find that positive path?

Finding your bliss starts with some gentle observations. What activities do you perform where time seems to fly by? Where you feel immersed to a point where you feel totally in the moment? Maybe these aren’t “career choices” per se. This could happen while your cooking or riding a bike or talking to a friend. Don’t think in terms of the  big picture too quickly. This is about simple observation.

By mentally “taking notes” with no judgments attached, you begin to see where the proverbial flames are in your soul. It is then you can begin to “follow your bliss.”

As author and speaker Jeff Keller puts it:

When you follow your passion, you’ll be much more positive and excited about your life. That will transfer over into other activities as well. And you’ll be amazed at how opportunities open up for you. I’m not saying your passion is guaranteed to make you a lot of money. It may, but then again it may not.

In any case, don’t have money as your primary focus. You’ll be a happier, more fulfilled person when you follow your passion. And, take it from me, it’s a decision you will never regret, and it will do wonders for your attitude.

Another wonderful story showcasing the strength and power of one person…and many, many butterflies:

An Escondido man with a passion for the bright orange-and-black monarch butterfly will play a key role in the restoration of the butterfly’s winter home in Mexico’s Sierra Madre as a result of a binational initiative announced this week at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s climate summit in Los Angeles.

With the backing of California and Mexico officials, Bill Toone’s local nonprofit environmental group ECOLIFE Foundation is aiming to plant 1 million trees a year in the lofty mountain range where an estimated 750 million monarch butterflies winter.

“We’re trying to repair decades and decades of damage,” Toone said, in a telephone interview Thursday. “Trees are leaving illegally at a very unsustainable rate.”

Toone, a conservation biologist who celebrated his 54th birthday Thursday, said 200,000 to 250,000 oyamel fir trees are cut down every year in the range’s 140,000-acre Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve by people in nearby villages seeking wood for cooking and heating. And he said another quarter-million or so trees are cut down for sale in a black market believed to be supplying paper mills.

Toone figures he can’t do anything about the black market, but with some help his group can do something about the fuel-wood factor.

And, so, he has proposed planting 200,000 trees a year outside the reserve specifically for the purpose of supplying families with fuel for cooking meals and heating homes. Toone said the success of that effort will depend on donors worldwide.

But he said the reserve reforestation project will get a big boost from the binational agreement announced by California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Linda Adams and Mexican officials.

California officials are banking on the reforestation initiative helping the state meet its mandate to lower emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by 2020 to what they were in 1990.

Besides ordering the industry to reduce emissions, California plans to let factories, power plants, oil refineries and other large polluters reach their targets, in part, by buying so-called offsets. Companies would get emissions credits for pumping money into projects that slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Toone’s tree-planting initiative is one of those projects that California corporations will be able contribute to.

Source: North County Times

I heard a sermon years ago where the priest encouraged us to do one quiet, thankless act a day - one you didn’t tell anyone about, one you didn’t overly celebrate - just an act you performed quietly, humbly.

This isn’t as easy as one would think. Most of us want notice for the ways in which we contribute. We want to pat ourselves on the back for our act. None of this is bad per se, but there is a higher spiritual place one can attain by keeping the act to ourselves and being quiet, even to ourselves, about it.

What kind of acts? It could be something as seemingly small as a smile to someone who needs it, cleaning up a park or beach nearby, petting a lonely dog, playing with a child, calling a loved one you haven’t spoken to in a while. Or perhaps its time to look into some volunteer services in your area. (Many of us want to volunteer but something always gets in the way, doesn’t it?)

Give. Be quiet. Be humble in the face of your own act.

The great part about going green is that its not just a passing trend. The world is embracing the need to go green and in turn, governmental officials and corporations are having to keep in step. The pressure is on, globally-speaking…and that’s a good thing.

Such is the case in Brazil:

The Brazilian government has unveiled plans to ban sugar cane plantations in environmentally sensitive areas.

The proposal, which must be passed by Congress, comes amid concerns that Brazil’s developing biofuels industry is increasing Amazon deforestation.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the measures would mean ethanol made from sugar cane would be “100% green”.

The government agenda is becoming more environmentally friendly ahead of the 2010 presidential poll, analysts say.

The plans unveiled by Mr Minc would limit sugar cane plantations to 7.5% of Brazilian territory or 64m hectares, and prevent the clearing of new land for the crop.

Brazil has a well-developed programme of ethanol fuel

The proposed legislation, expected to be put to Congress next year, would also prohibit the building of ethanol distillation plants in food-growing areas or in the vast wetlands of the Pantanal, on Brazil’s border with Bolivia.

Brazil, the world’s top producer of sugar, has long championed ethanol as an environmentally friendly source of energy but concerns have grown over its potential hazards.

Critics have said that the spread of sugar cane plantations into areas like the Amazon and the Pantanal has increased deforestation.

“This legislation is extremely welcome because it sends a clear signal to farmers and to the world that the government wants to exercise control,” Paulo Moutinho from environmental group Imazon told the AFP news agency.

Source: BBCNews