Contrarian Investing

Would you consider purchasing a fireplace in the peak of summer or an air conditioner in the dead of winter? Would you invest in a sale even if you did not have an immediate use for the product you are purchasing? Do you place value on the things you get at a discounted rate?

The summertime almost always presents an opportunity for people to invest. It is a quiet period because most individuals are focused on spending money and having fun. Businesses tend to slow down and they offer significant incentives to attract new clientele. Most companies are focused on maintaining relevance, marketing and promotions. It’s a great opportunity for networking and seeking out new relationships. Investment of time and money can produce great rewards if strategically planned.

As a singer, songwriter or other creative artist, the summertime is the best time to work on your visibility and ability to earn significant money promoting your ministry and/or product. While everyone else is vacationing, you should be working diligently making connections, attending events and yes, even selling your product out of the trunk of your car. Going into non-traditional places for exposure will give you a chance to book your calendar for the remainder of the year.

Deep Secrets

It started in January of this year with an article I wrote here called “The Secrets We Keep”.
Sort of as an after thought at the end of the article I put a link to my telephone advice service.

Normally, I get calls from great people who are having typical issues we all as people face. Things like panic attacks, problems with stress at home or work and/or having relationship troubles. Normal people with normal life challanges who just need someone to talk with about them. That was the concept of the project from the beginning.

However, I never dreamed what would begin to happen once I posted that article about secrets on Jan 8th of this year. People began calling me to reveal their deepest, inner most secrets. Secrets they couldn’t tell anyone. Secrets that in some cases were killing them inside for more than 50 years as was the case with one caller. When this person was 8 years old, they accidentally set fire to their home killing their baby brother. They never confessed. Today, in their late 60’s it still haunts them everyday.

Amazing Self Stress Test!

Read the full description BEFORE clicking on the link and looking at the picture on the next page.

The picture you will see when you click on the link below has 2 identical dolphins in it.
It was used in a case study on stress levels at St. Mary’s Hospital.
This is quite possibly the MOST accurate self [...]

Relax and Reduce Your Risk of Heart Attack

By Guest Blogger: Dr. John M. Kennedy, MD, FACC – Marina Del Rey Hospital

Most people know that smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure are among the main risk factors for heart disease. Few of us realize that daily stress is another key risk factor. It can damage the heart and arteries even in people who are otherwise healthy.

Recent finding: A University of Southern California study that looked at 735 patients for more than 12 years found that chronic stress and anxiety were better predictors of future cardiovascular events (such as a heart attack) than other risk factors. The researchers estimate that those who reduce or stabilize their stress levels are 50% to 60% less likely to have a heart attack than those who experience increasing stress.

TOXIC OVER TIME
Researchers have known for a long time that sudden traumatic events can trigger heart problems. Three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, study participants — most of whom watched the attacks on live television — were questioned about their stress levels. Those who still were severely stressed were 53% more likely to have heart problems, and twice as likely to develop high blood pressure, as those with lower stress levels.
It appears that even “normal” stress — financial pressures or an unhappy job situation — is dangerous when it continues for a long time. It’s estimated that more than 75% of visits to primary care physicians are linked to stress-related disorders.

What happens: Chronic stress increases vascular resistance, the main cause of high blood pressure. It increases the activity of platelets, cell-like structures in blood that clump together and trigger most heart attacks. It increases levels of cortisol, adrenaline and other stress hormones that promote arterial inflammation.

Sharing Your Vision

This challenging economic season has created an opportunity for everyone to think outside of the box and create a plan of action utilizes your natural talents and abilities. Consideration to establish your own business is both personally fulfilling and a satisfactory financial vehicle as well.

It is imperative to identify your talent, write a vision and make it plain. Then, you must share your vision with others. This is what I want to discuss today. You’ve determined your true calling, you’ve envisioned yourself walking into your destiny and now how do you make that happen? Sharing your vision based on your talent with others will allow those individuals to assist you creatively with options of how to get started. After all, that is what deters people most often. They don’t know where to begin.

I recall sharing the challenges I faced when I first became an author. I wasn’t certain if I accomplished my goals and objectives. Fear of rejection made me keep the thoughts of my perceived failure to myself. To share that intimate information and allow myself to be open to criticism was new for me. After all, a reason why we don’t succeed is because we talk ourselves out of our destiny being afraid of what others might think. Or perhaps we didn’t get the results we were seeking the first time we tried. Maybe, you shared your ideas with the wrong people and they told you that you were chasing a dream, it wasn’t possible, you can’t achieve… I could go on. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had more to accomplish. So I went back to the drawing board. I had already identified the gift and I wrote the vision. It never changed. This time around I shared the vision with other people.

You see, I was independently successful the first time around based on my own skills.

But when I shared my vision with other people, they began to add creative ideas and suggestions I never considered.

Your Body: Owner’s Manual, Part One

Your body is the greatest vehicle that has ever been created! OH MY… the intricacies, the details, the overall quality, the precision of all the parts, the perfection of multiple systems all coordinating to work together with unexplainable synergy. This amazing vehicle allows us to walk, talk, eat, breathe, see, hear, etc… it’s literally unexplainable…

However, regular maintenance IS required…and therein lays the rub!

Now if we use a car as a metaphor we can easily understand this analogy. If you were to walk into Lamborghini dealer and decide to buy the top of the line vehicle from him he would spend a great deal of time explaining the care and upkeep that you would need to do to make sure that this amazing vehicle stayed working at it’s optimal level. In fact, he would make sure that you knew that if you didn’t take care of the vehicle in the manner that was best for it, your warranty would be null and void.

This makes sense right?

I mean it is a $400,000 Lamborghini.

Pillow Talks with Nurse Nancy

“Look Mommy! Look Mommy!” yelled Sarah as she rounded the door to the kitchen. “Look at what” I said as I crouched down to her level.

“My tooth, my tooth, it’s coming in!” she said.

Sure enough there was the first sign of a new tooth.” We have been waiting a long time for this.” I said and Sarah nodded her head. As Sarah jumped up and down in excitement I could not help but reflect back onto what could have been a traumatic and expensive chapter in Sarah’s and our family’s lives.

Sarah has been independent from the start. One day when she was nearly two, I was working in the kitchen when I heard Sarah crying from the next room, where she and her brother Michael were playing. I checked on her and discovered she had hurt her mouth from a fall, but there was no sign of an injury. I comforted her for a bit and then sent her on her way to play hard again with her brother Michael. The next morning I discovered part of her lower front tooth was missing; it had fallen out in her sleep. A quick call and an afternoon spent getting to the dentist found that there was nothing to do at this time. I could only wish this was the end of the story.

After her third birthday Sarah once again came to me. “Mommy, my mouth hurts,” she said. With a little poking and prodding a small abscess was found at the root of her chipped tooth. It was very sore. The dentist confirmed my suspicions that the root had been damaged and the tooth would have to be removed. The dentist said she would try extracting the tooth in the office, but that many children Sarah’s age were unmanageable in the chair. If Sarah would not cooperate the tooth might have to be removed in the hospital under anesthesia. As a nurse I knew that with anesthesia and surgery there would be increased risk of complications for Sarah, and I wanted to avoid surgery if at all possible. Knowing that hospital visits associated with dental procedures were not covered by our insurance helped with the urgency of making sure Sarah became the perfect patient. How could I possibly tame an energetic 3 year old for such a procedure?

Nicole B. Simpson – World Trade Center Survivor – Episode #23

Do you have what it takes to look certain death in the face and fight back? Our newest guest blogger here at StopStressingNow.Com did just that. In what is quite possibly the most famous terrorist attack in history, this inspiring lady dug deep within and found the sheer will to survive.

Her story has touched me personally, so I asked her to share with us some of what she has learned since the day the world stood still. She was there inside tower two on the 44th floor when the second plane hit just above her at the World Trade Center on September 11th 2001.

Don’t Panic, Heart Help is on the Way

Studies suggest that women who have experienced panic attacks may be at increased cardiac risk. In fact, a recent study found that postmenopausal women who experienced at least one panic attack were four times as likely to have heart disease as women who have never had a panic attack.

Symptoms of Panic:
If you suffer from panic attacks, common symptoms such as dramatic, overwhelming fear, anxiety and generalized irritability often occur and aren’t attributable to a real threat. When panic strikes, our body quickly shifts into overdrive causing a number of heightened and often uncomfortable feelings which include:

* Overwhelming sense of impending doom
* Difficulty breathing
* Palpitations and irregular heart beats
* Sweating
* Shakiness
* Dizziness

How do Panic Attacks Affect Our Heart?
Panic, stress and anxiety trigger the “fight-or-flight” response which leads to a flooding of hormones into our blood stream known as “catecholamines”. These powerful chemicals can be toxic to our heart causing decreased blood flow and making heart muscle irritable and prone to abnormal rhythms leading to palpitations. In some studies, researchers speculate that panic attacks trigger dangerous heart rhythms associated with sudden cardiac events, including heart attacks.

When You Live Your Life On Purpose

If money were not an issue, what would be your life purpose? Today is an opportunity to ponder this question in such an uncertain economic climate. Company layoffs are still occurring, physical ailments are increasing due to stress and anxiety, and many people are beyond financial devastation. Yet the message of hope and opportunity presents itself in the midst of the storm is being heard everywhere you turn. You hear the message but you are wondering if it applies to you. You’re doing all that you know to do and yet you still find yourself in the desert place.

How does one recover from a catastrophic event and begin the journey to recovery? Even with the best laid out plans, life happens. People die, people lose jobs, people separate, people start over, and people fall ill. At the root of many of these issues, lies the “elephant in the room.” How will I handle this financially? Life challenges are easier to handle when one is working and depending upon a check every week or two. But what happens when you are the one who received the latest pink slip immediately after a diagnosis of high blood pressure, diabetes or even cancer? What if you just decided to leave your spouse? Perhaps you are the one entwined in the midst of the subprime mess and when the interest rate adjusted on your mortgage, you could no longer handle your monthly obligations?

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