10 Morning Mood Boosters

Have you ever noticed that what happens during the morning hours often sets the tone for the rest of the day? When things go smoothly, you tend to feel more relaxed and ready to face whatever the day may bring.There are 10 pick-me-ups that will have your mood rising like the morning sun. Try one (or all!) of them for a happier and healthier you.

1. Pick one “spoil-me” task to do.
When you wake up, give yourself 30 seconds to think of at least one nice thing you can do for yourself that day…and then do it

2. Eat a well-balanced meal.
Start your morning with a nutritious mix of complex carbohydrates and proteins that will last you until lunch, such as oatmeal or toast with peanut butter (include a sprinkle of cinnamon, which one study linked to improved mood and alertness, for an extra boost). Other research found that a moderate amount of caffeine (200 mg, or the amount in about two cups of coffee) elevated mood and mental sharpness.

3. Get some fresh air.
Head out for some “green exercise”—physical activity performed in an outdoor setting—even if you only have a few minutes to spare. Researchers found that people experienced an enhanced mood and higher self-esteem after just five minutes of various types of green exercise, including walking and gardening. The study also found that exercising near water amplified the effects, so if you live near a lake, river or waterfall, even better.

4. Listen to the sounds of nature.
Capture the benefits of the great outdoors, even if you can’t get outside, by listening to recorded nature sounds. In a recent study, participants recovered from a stressful situation more quickly when they listened to a recorded combination of running water and bird sounds. Open your window in the morning so you can hear Mother Nature’s music as you get ready, or invest in an alarm clock that eases you awake with nature sounds.

5. Focus on feeling good.
Right after waking up,take five deep breaths and make the decision to feel good for the day.Throughout the day, you “take five deep, intentional breaths and remind yourself of your decision to feel good.”

6. Drink hot chocolate.
A recent study found that sipping a drink containing cocoa flavour improved participants’ moods and levels of alertness—even as they worked on a series of challenging math problems. So go ahead and savor some hot cocoa made with low fat or skim milk and dark chocolate. The protein and carbs in the milk will help keep your blood sugar levels stable until lunch, which will help you hold on to your mood momentum.

7. Take a moment to assess yourself.
Don’t jump out of bed right when you open your eyes in the morning. Instead, take five minutes to pay attention to your body and notice if you feel any stiffness, then do some light stretching while breathing deeply.

8. Envision the negative.
You’ve probably heard that gratitude is a mood elevator, but here’s a surprising twist to that tactic: Think about a positive event from your life—how you got your dream job or met your ideal partner, for instance—and then imagine what your life would be like if the event hadn’t happened. Though it seems like this would have the opposite effect, it actually improved the mood of one study’s participants more so than simply thinking of the positive event itself.

9. Breathe in some mint.
Researchers found that sniffing peppermint enhanced mood and attention while also fighting fatigue. Try keeping a bottle of peppermint essential oil or bag of peppermint tea on your nightstand so you can inhale the positive scents right as you wake up. Another happiness helper is chewing gum, which elevated the moods, alertness and attention spans of another study's participants. Pop a piece of peppermint gum after breakfast for a double-duty perk-up.

10. Smile.
There’s one thing you can do just about anywhere: Smile.Smiling is a simple way to change your mood—and the mood of those around you, too. So spread your good-mood wealth by baring those pearly whites as often as possible in the morning as well as throughout the day.

2011 annual horoscopes for Youngsters

2011 is shaping up to be an exceptional year of personal growth! Several of the signs will encounter difficulty in terms of career and income, but with little permanent damage. The 2011 yearly horoscope seems to hint that these struggles are designed to help build self-reliance or guide certain signs away from areas where they have struggled and not found success. However, certain signs such as Leo and Aries find themselves at the top of their game and reaping the rewards they have earned through prior years of struggle.

In terms of personal relationships, the 2011 yearly horoscope shows that many of the signs are looking at growth in romance. Although there are some fiery encounters lined up, many of these encounters seem orchestrated with a built-in plan for self revelation. Libra will experience a passionate encounter while struggling with the will power to fight off an all consuming passion. The secretive Scorpio will be encouraged to unlock that vault to the heart. Other signs have to tackle issues such as success over jealousy or confusion over an independent spirit.

The 2011 yearly horoscope also predicts an exciting year for education and travel. Several of the signs are eager to learn, as education in particular areas of interest will bring about success for many in 2011. Both Pisces and Capricorn are eager to build upon whatever success they have obtained and cannot quench that desire for knowledge. For many of the signs, travel is about personal relaxation and renewal. For the Cancer, travel might be a way to bridge issues in an interpersonal relationship.
Health-wise, the rules still apply. Self care leads to prosperity. Many of the signs are urged to slow down and find balance, as poor mental health is often a cause of poor physical health. There are those who will struggle with greater issues and are urged to stay on top of maintenance and doctor visits. Turning to a professional whenever in doubt is the quickest route to resolving an issue but a healthy lifestyle can avoid many such issues in the first place.
Ultimately, the 2011 yearly horoscope promises a year of excitement, personal growth and joy for life. Regardless of whether success in love, career or money is obtained, the 2011 yearly horoscope shows that all of the signs continue to grow and develop. The signs in 2011 all point to excitement at the idea of working towards that personal best.

Gilles Babinet: 10 digital music bets for 2011

                                             

French digital music entrepreneur Gilles Babinet - chairman of Eyeka, MXP4 & Awdio - makes his predictions for this new year about digital music industry trends.

                                               


For each of the past ten years almost without exception, the music industry has been associated with bad news. It is widely held that music is a shrinking business (yes, sales have dropped by almost two thirds this decade), incapable of shifting its model, and moreover not really able to cope with the internet.
It is a well-known fact that not only did the industry poorly manage the transition towards the internet (I can remember that in 2000, we were often advised not to utter the word mp3 when we had a meeting with execs from the industry) but in addition it has been unable to create any kind of alternative offering… As a result, the industry didn’t really counter the inscrease in piracy and things went only from bad to worse.
However, 2010 has been an interesting year and there are many reasons to believe that 2011 will be a critical – and surprisingly positive – year. Here are ten key trends for the year to come:

1° In Europe, the drop in sales will come to a halt:

We admit that this is quite a risky prediction, but based on interim sales reports from several European countries, it seems that the downturn has, for the first time, stopped in most developed countries. Even France, where piracy is rife, witnessed a small increase in consolidated music sales on a runrate year basis. We believe that for the first time, paid-for online music could compensate the loss of physical sales. This may not mean that traditional players will stop suffering; rather, internet newcomers and majors will enjoy most of the growth, while indies will keep suffering.

2° Cloud is Music:

 Streaming music has become common… Even though Spotify has been struggling for almost a year to sign the licenses that would let it enter the US market, its model is admittedly becoming the best one, far beyond iTunes’: no mp3 files to manage, accessibility from any computer, social features embedded, almost unlimited catalogue, and piracy rendered almost impossible…

3° iTunes will shift to the cloud:

 From its inception ten years ago until now, iTunes’ offering has hardly changed, bar the removal of all DRM 2 years ago. As a result iTunes is clearly perceived as old fashioned, while a significant part of its user base sees it as tricky to use, according to researchers. We can bet they are having a hard time finding better features than Spotify already offers.

4° No longer one leading player:

Over the past ten years, the dominance of iTunes has been impressive. Up to 88% market share in the US – according to Steve Jobs – and a global market share of 70%. Majors have learned the lesson and will make sure that it won’t happen again. Good news for them: there are plenty of newcomers ready to take their share of the business.

5° Mp3 is progressively getting old:

 The once-hip format was invented more than 20 years ago. It is clear now that in terms of compression efficiency and fingerprinting, it is far from the best. Above all, the shift to the cloud will turn it into history.

6° P2P traffic decreases:

Maybe for the first time in more than ten years, P2P exchange has experienced a strong backlash, with actors such as LimeWire being obliged to stop their activity while the founders of PirateBay’s prison sentences have been confirmed by a Swedish court. As a result, overall P2P traffic has either stalled or decreased. Piracy though is still doing fine thanks to fast download, VPN and illegal streaming sites. For 2011, the increasing number of laws (such as Hadopi in France) may reverse the trends, at least in Europe.

7° Fans are coming back… on Facebook:

You don’t care about Facebook’s hipness and you think “fans” are insignificant in terms of music business? You may be wrong. In recent years, researchers have demonstrated that youngsters are not listening to music alone anymore, or as their elders did: they watch videos or play videogames at the same time. This explains a lot why the face value of music has plummeted almost to zero for this demographic category. However the good news is that 12 of the top 20 biggest fan communities of Facebook are music artist-related. And these artists are just about now realising that they can easily monetise these fans. The example of the boom in social gaming has also proved that the number of page fans is not just bullshit, but rather a very serious income source. Linking up fans (through social networks) and music may be the next music killer move. Not only would it at last create a funnel to recruit new music fans, but it would bring to youngsters the listening experience they have been involved with  for these last few years; listening to music while they are doing other stuff. A few start-ups – including mxp4 – are now engaging themselves into this area. Business is still in infancy, but there are reasons to believe that it can boom even more than the once the ringtone business did…

8° Value changes hands and clearly shifts from traditional labels towards internet players…:

 Obviously,  e-tailers (iTunes, Amazon…) and media players (Spotify, Pandora…) are definitely taking an increasing share of the music revenues (majors can defend their share but indies clearly can’t) ; but more interestingly numerous producing or licensing segments (CDBaby, Orchard, Believe are good example…) are increasing their market share. It is still unclear if these new players’ revenues are recognised and acknowledged by the music industry (we assume the situation differs from a country to another).

9° Long tail creates value:

 Even though this concept popularised by Chris Anderson has gone through a lot of criticism, we cannot void the fact that the long tail music business has significantly grown and that it now represents a large chunk of the newly-created revenues.

10° 2011 may see an artist breaking on Facebook:

 Recently Mark Zuckerberg made clear that he wants to “reorganise” the Content (including music) business, thanks to new features on Facebook. He clearly understands that he has built the most powerful media to break new artist. Our bet is that in 2011, we will have the first artist to hit worldwide fame and recognition, thanks to Facebook alone.

Source: http://blog.midem.com/2010/12/gilles-babinet-10-digital-music-bets-for-2011/

10 Winter Skincare Tips...

We may sweat more, shave more, and soak up more sun in warmer months, but with the winter comes a whole new tricky set of beauty issues we must contend with. Slathering on head-to-toe moisturizer may seem like the solution, but preventing dried out, flaky skin involves a little more work. Follow these basic rules and you’ll stay silky smooth all over till spring.

1. Opt for oil-based moisturizers                            
The main switch in your winter skin care regimen should be selecting an oil-based moisturizer, so look for one that contains avocado or almond oil. These will lock the moisture in your skin and build a protective layer on the top surface.

2. Use a humidifier
Heat can dry out more than just your sinuses. With added moisture in the air, your skin won’t be as flaky.

3. Avoid very hot water
It may feel good, but you should never shower, bathe or wash your face with extremely hot water.It can not only break the capillaries in the face, but also break down the lipid barriers in the skin, which will lead to a loss of moisture.

4. Hydrate skin while it's damp
Applying moisturizer immediately after taking a shower or washing your face will help lock-in moisture.

5. Never ever lick your lips
Stash soothing lip balms in your purse, car, and desk to keep lips from chapping.You can also apply few drops of olive oil mixed with few drops of honey to your lips for few minutes to hydrate.

6. Swap your liquid foundation for a cream formula
Liquid foundation can actually freeze!.One of the benefits of using cream is that it will give your skin an extra protective layer and help keep the moisture in your skin.

7. Don’t ever leave the house with wet hair
Have you ever had your hair freeze in the cold? This will cause damage to your scalp and hair can actually break off, so it may be better to shower in the evening. Since hair can get dry and damaged just like our skin, protect it by conditioning more in the winter and blow dry hair on a cooler setting.

8. Wear a hat to prevent a dry scalp
Besides keeping you warm, a hat will hold in moisture and protect your scalp from dry air and flaking. Make sure your hat is not too tight and made of breathable material.

9. Give your hands extra love
The skin on our hands are extremely thin, which means they already have a limited amount of moisture,Apply moisturizer frequently, especially after washing your hands, and avoid cotton gloves, which absorb moisture and stay wet.

10. Don’t forget your sunscreen

Apply sunscreen about 30 minutes before going outside. Reapply if you're spending the spending the day outside

Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/10-winter-skincare-tips-2431224/

Autumn Winter Colour Combinations for Youngsters

Navy & Camel

Navy and Camel. Simply because they’re two colours which have been extremely popular this season, and two colours which compliment each other perfectly! It’s a colour combination that is a great starting block to work with. Notice how with these three colour combinations I’m showcasing toned down colours which will look great, but wont have your friends asking “Why the drastic fashion change?”.

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Dark Green & Brown

I love this combination. Two true A/W colours (earth tones which are always on trend) combined to really compliment each other. The colours also fit perfectly if you’re trying to establish the ever-strong military look.
No rules apply as you can see from the looks I’ve picked. A brown bag with green trousers? A brown and green jumper with brown boat shoes? Want to use different tones of each colour? Go for it, experiment with whatever looks best on you but remember to keep them toned down!

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Black & Beige

Another simple but effective colour combination. Similar to my favourite pick – navy and camel – this colour combination uses darker tones. Perfect as a starting block due to the fact these two colours are very common and nearly ever man will have them in their ward/floordrobe!

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http://www.fashionbeans.com/mens-style/autumn-winter-colour-combinations/