A Goal-Setting Exercise That's Effective + Fun

Of all the goal-setting exercises I've done, this one is the most effective and fun.

First, grab a friend who's ready to dream with you and imagine that it's about one year from now: December of 2016.

You are getting into vibrational alignment with the very experience you are hoping for and working toward.

 

Next, start reviewing the year you are imagining you've had with your friend. Talk about all the amazing things that happened — the new car, home, relationship, travel destinations, and financial and business success. Revisit all the milestones you hope to see in 2016 as though they were already memories.

Describe in the past tense all the love, inspiration, and adventure you've experienced in the past year. Once you've run out of ways to describe these things on your own, your friend should ask you questions to help you dive deeper.

• What month did you get that promotion?
• Where did you meet your partner?
• How did that feel?
• What was Bora Bora like? (Who doesn’t want to go to Bora Bora?)
• What risks did you take?
• How do your successes feel?
• What didn’t you expect to happen that did?
• (And my favorite): What do you wish you had known a year ago, after achieving everything you've achieved?

Usually it’s something like, "I wish I knew that it was all going to work out this way — that it was all going to be okay."

Here are some guidelines to help you make the most of the experience:

1. Keep going even when it feels silly.

2. Try to do the exercise for at least five minutes per person. Don't allow yourself to “pop out for a minute.” You’ll want to, but that’s your mind's discomfort with exploring "what if" scenarios, which is the whole goal of the exercise.

3. Don't laugh or even smile at your friend’s wild dreaming. You might hear things that sound outlandish, but remember, you're holding space for their vision. It only feels ridiculous if you let it.

4. If you feel stuck on any of the “when did that happen” questions, just say the first thing that comes to mind. Resist trying to make it realistic.

The idea is that you are playing. Allow yourself to be inventive, and notice how free you feel afterward.

Once you've both gone through the process, set an intention to literally hold the vision for one another. Picture your friend in Bora Bora or getting married with all their friends and family around. Tell each other afterward how you saw their face light up when they talked about certain things.

Trust that your deeper self actually knows when these dreams are going to become reality. When you allow yourself to play and dream out loud, you are getting into vibrational alignment with the very experience you are hoping for and working toward. You’d be surprised how accurate your intuition is. And if you involve a friend in the experience, seeing those dreams come true will be that much more exciting.

If you notice any resistance coming up, just keep going. Allowing yourself to dream out loud is an unfamiliar practice for most. You have to give yourself some time to get into it.

I'd love to hear all about your experiences with the practice.
Looking to make 2016 your best year yet? It's not too late to join on to mbg's free New Year, Do You reboot.

Photo Credit: Stocksy
*Source>mindbodygreean.com

4-Minute HIIT Workout For Long, Lean Legs

Watch the video for a short, killer leg workout, or follow along with the detailed gifs below! All you need is a clock or interval timer so you can track how long you're performing each exercise. HIIT workouts consist of 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of active recovery. I'll walk you through it — let's get started!

1. Squat With Inner Thigh Click (20 seconds)

Gif created by Chloe Bulpin

Lower into a deep squat. When you jump up, bring your inner thighs together (so they touch) and click your heels together. When your fit hit the ground, sink back into that deep squat. Repeat this exercise for 20 seconds.

2. Boxer Shuffle (10 seconds)

Gif created by Chloe Bulpin

This exercise is a form of active recovery to keep your heart rate up. Shuffle your feet from side to side. Perform for 10 seconds.

3. Reverse Lunge With A Hop (20 seconds)

Gif created by Chloe Bulpin

Bend your leg into a 90-degree angle lunge. When you bring your leg up, jump so both feet are off the floor, and raise one leg to a 90-degree angle before returning to the lunge position. Repeat on one side for 20 seconds.

4. Boxer Shuffle (10 seconds)

Gif created by Chloe Bulpin

Don't just stand there, boxer shuffle! Repeat for 10 seconds. Then, return to exercise #1, the squat with inner thigh click and run through the exercise again (switching legs on the reverse lunge). Perform each exercise four times for a killer leg workout!

This workout is part of mbg's New Year, Do You Challenge. Join now!
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*Source>mindbodygreen.com

The 10 Best Songs To Work Out To This Month

It's January and you're back in the gym like everyone else. Nice work! Ready to take your workouts up a notch? All you need is some good tunes. Download this killer playlist, made up of the best workout songs of 2015 — as voted on by more than 100,000 people — courtesy of the workout music site Run Hundred. Here it goes:

1. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, Uptown Funk (Dave Aude Remix), 124 BPM

2. Katy Tiz, Whistle (While You Work It), 162 BPM

3. Kelly Clarkson, Heartbeat Song (Nebuer Remix), 135 BPM

4. Jess Glynne, Hold My Hand, 123 BPM

5. Walk the Moon, Work This Body, 135 BPM

6. One Direction, Drag Me Down, 139 BPM

7. Icono Pop, Emergency, 126 BPM

8. Andy Grammer, Good to Be Alive (Hallelujah), 120 BPM

9. The Magician & Years and Years, Sunlight (Radio Edit), 122 BPM

10. Demi Lovato, Confident, 130 BPM

Photo Credit: Stocksy
*Source>mindbodygreen.com

Intelligent Life On The Web: 2015 MTV VMAs Fashion hits and misses

Intelligent Life On The Web: 2015 MTV VMAs Fashion hits and misses:   It was easy to get distracted during the 2015 MTV VMAs -- whether by Kanye West promising to run for president in 2020 or Nicki Minaj...

List of animals that have been sent to space

Natural Space Shield

Tiny microscopic invertebrates named tardigrades, or water bears, were able to survive an open exposure to outer space for 10 days with only their natural protection available!

 

Man has been sending different animals to space ever since the dawn of space technology. Needless to say that most of these animals were destined for doom―about two-thirds of primates launched into space by the U.S. did not survive! But what prompted man to put these animals through this ordeal in the first place?

These animals were used to test whether living systems could survive spaceflights and a microgravity environment. The first animals to be flown to outer space were fruit flies. These blasted off into space on February 20, 1947, to investigate the effects of radiation exposure at such high altitudes.

These trips have helped scientists to understand motion sick in microgravity, learn about the instinctive behavior of animals in an unfamiliar environment. It also helped us humans to understand the concepts of loss of muscle, bone, and tendon mass in microgravity. Further experiments of animals in space helped us better understand muscle atrophy in people with limited physical activity.

Till date, countries like the former Soviet Union, United States, France, Iran, Argentina, China, and Japan have flown animals into space. Here are some of the animals that were sent to space.

Dogs

In the 1950s, the erstwhile USSR sent dogs on many sub-orbital and orbital space flights in order to determine if spaceflights were safe enough for humans. During this period, the Russians commissioned around 57 passenger slots to determine this. The total number of dogs that took flight in these missions were much less as some dogs were flown more than once. Most of the dogs made a safe trip back home. The fate of Laika―a stray dog from Moscow, and the first animal to orbit Earth―was sealed by the scientists as they couldn't come up with a reentry strategy for her shuttle.

Monkeys

A total of 32 monkeys have been flown into outer space by countries like the U.S., France, USSR, Argentina, and recently by Iran. Initial attempts were made to investigate the biological effects of space travel. The monkeys were anesthetized before the launch. Several species of monkeys like the rhesus monkey, cynomologus monkeys, squirrel monkeys, pig-tailed macaques were used for these experiments. Albert II was the first monkey to survive the flight to outer space, but died on impact due to parachute failure.

Cats

Two cats were sent to outer space on October 18, 1963, and October 24, 1963, by the French Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Médecine Aéronautique (CERMA). One cat Félicette survived the fifteen-minute spaceflight. The other cat unfortunately did not survive the ordeal as the recovery of the capsule took a little longer than usual. Félicette had electrodes implanted into her brain that recorded all the neural impulses of her trip.

Mice

In the 1950s, the U.S. launched several mice into space. On August 31, 1950, America launched its first mouse into space. The shuttle carrying this mouse traveled 137 km above the surface on the Earth. The mouse did not survive this journey, as the parachute system of the vessel failed. Other countries that have managed to send rodents into space include Russia and China.

Spiders

On July 28, 1973, two garden spiders, Anita and Arabella were launched into space by Skylab 3. This was done to study the effects of microgravity on their ability to spin webs and hunt. Garden orb spiders were aboard on the last flight of Columbia in 2003 as well, which did not meet a successful end. In May 2011, the space shuttle Endeavour carried two golden orb spiders named Esmeralda and Gladys.
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Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-animals-that-have-been-sent-to-space.html

Biography of Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong is the famous American cyclist, known for winning the prestigious Tour de France cycling race for seven consecutive years. Lance was an athlete from a very early age and won many racing competitions in his cycling career. However, more than all these accomplishments, he is respected for recovering from the dangerous disease of cancer when doctors had declared that his chances of living were very low.

 

Early Life and Career
Lance Armstrong was born on September 18, 1971 in Plano, Texas to Linda Mooneyham and Eddie Charles Gunderson. When Lance was born, he was named as Lance Edward Gunderson but his father left him and his mother when he was two. Later his mother married Terry Keith Armstrong who adopted Lance and gave him his name.

From a very young age, Lance was interested in sports and took up racing, swimming and cycling. At the age of 13, he participated in the Kids Triathlon, which included 1000 meter swimming, bike ride for 15 miles and running for three miles. In the following years, he continued to take part in triathlon tournaments and became the national sprint-course triathlon champion at the ages of 16 and 17.

By this time, Armstrong realized his keen interest and passion for cycling and decided to take it up as a career. Leaving his senior high school, he went on to join the U.S. Olympics Cycling Development Team in Colorado for training in cycling. With this he started his successful cycling career where he won numerous awards like the U.S. National Amateur Champion, the First Union Grand Prix and the Thrift Drug Classic. Armstrong achieved the World Road Race Championship in 1993, becoming the youngest person to win the competition.

Cancer and Career after Cancer
While Armstrong was riding high on his success, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Armstrong's condition was very serious, as the cancer had spread to his lungs, stomach, brain and lymph nodes. Doctors had very little hope of his survival but Lance Armstrong was determined to win the battle with death. After going through a surgeries to remove the cancerous testicle and the brain tumors, he opted for a different regime of chemotherapy (from the standard one) and came out fully recovered.

Post recovery from the dangerous disease, he began his new innings in the world of cycling. He took part in the Tour de France tournament in 1999 and despite all that he had gone through during his cancer days, emerged as a winner. However, his success did not stop here. Rather, Armstrong continuously won in the tournament every year till 2005, breaking the record of cyclist champions who won the tournament for five consecutive years like Miguel Indurain, Greg LeMond, etc. After his seventh win in 2005, Lance Armstrong retired from cycle racing.

Personal Life
On May 1, 1998, Lance married Kristin Richard whom he had met a year before. Their first child, a son, was born in October 1999, whom they named Luke. In November 2001, they had twin daughters, namely Isabelle and Grace. However, Armstrong's marriage with Kristin did not work out well and they got divorced in 2003. In the same year, he met Sheryl Crow, a singer and song writer. Although they got engaged in 2005, they broke off in 2006. After this he dated Tory Burch, a fashion designer and Kate Hudson for short periods of time. After these unsuccessful relationships, Armstrong started dating Anna Hansen. The couple had a baby boy on May 9, 2009 whom they named Maxwell Edward Armstrong.

After his retirement, Armstrong gave all his time to cancer research and social activism. He has started cancer organizations which help people affected with cancer. He along with some of his companions organized a charity cycle race (Ride for the Roses) in Austin, Texas to collect money to help cancer patients. He has also penned two books It's Not About the Bike: My Journey to Life and Every Second Counts which have become best-selling autobiographies. Looking at the biography of Lance Armstrong, one can say that his life is definitely an inspiring one.

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Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/biography-of-lance-armstrong.html

Arguments Against Global Warming

Imagine: the year is somewhere in the future. Man's environment has undergone a dramatic upheaval. Trees are scarce and you can find them in abundance in only carefully maintained sanctuaries. The air is filled with particulate matter. Visibility has greatly diminished. The vast ocean is being pumped and the seawater is being processed in desalination plants. Tigers and lions have become extinct. The Himalayas have lost their snow cover. Antarctica has become a warm continent. Much of Asia and Africa has become uninhabitable because of very hot climate. Cancer and lung diseases are rampant. The weather has become fickle - you don't know what to expect. A cold winter spell is followed by a scorching summer, which will perhaps be followed by torrential rain.

 

Scary, right?

 

Global Warming - What is the Hullbulla All About?

 

From today's perspective, the above scenario may be classified as 'science fiction'. However, it could become our future, brought on by global warming. Global warming is the increase in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere caused by greenhouse gases. A lot has been said and heard about global warming, more so in the last few couple of decades. The proponents of global warning warn that if immediate preventive steps are not taken, global warming will have a disastrous effect on future humankind. The detractors, however, argue that the problem is grossly overestimated. They also argue that the steps to tackle the problem will hinder economic progress.

 

Some Arguments Against Global Warming

• It is argued that global warming is a minor issue because of which major issues like HIV/AIDS, Nuclear proliferation and poverty are not being devoted their deserved time and resources.
• Global warming is even argued to be merely a vested interest of scientists. It is said that scientists exaggerate the effects of global warming because they receive funds from environmental companies.
• Global warming is believed, also, to be the outcome of failed computer climate models. It is argued that these models are not able to predict even tomorrow's weather accurately, so how can they predict long-term climate change?
• It is argued that human activities are not the only cause of global warming. There are other factors involved in global warming too.
• Detractors of global warming also hold that newspapers sensationalize global warming in order to sell. They distort the picture of global warming when actually that it is not as severe an issue as they make it out to be.
• Detractors also say that since scientists have made wrong predictions before, science and scientists are not always right. Perhaps they have made an error in their calculations or drawn incorrect conclusions on available evidence, thus making global warming a virtual rather than a real problem.
• Since we don't have long term historical records of the climate that Earth has witnessed, global warming could well be only a hypothesis.
• It is argued that water vapor plays a major part in global warming. Anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, hydrocarbons and other green-house gases have only a minor role to play. In fact, some people even believe that global warming is a natural phenomenon. Man has no role to play in it. Only our environment is responsible.
• The data on temperature increase that scientists keep producing as evidence is nothing to worry about because the increase in the temperature has in fact been gradual, spread over more than hundred years. Also, the earth was warmer before. That did not have harmful consequences on humans. Why will it now? In fact people argue that the increase in temperature will help plants grow in currently cold and uninhabitable areas. The increase in the level of carbon dioxide will also stimulate plant growth.
• Another common argument against global warming is that the upsurge in solar activity has caused global warming, not anthropogenic effects of development.

One realizes that most of the arguments against global warming are factually incorrect or far fetched. People advocating these arguments have a vested interest in activities and industries that contribute to global warming. Unfortunately they are able to sway a section of the population into believing that global warming is not a serious issue. Earnest efforts must be taken to dispel these myths and make the earth a better place to live in.

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Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/arguments-against-global-warming.html