As human beings, we naturally find it easier to just give up. This could also lead us to settling instead of seeking. We settle for being sad, instead of seeking happiness, we settle for expectations instead of seeking change. This can all happen in a matter of seconds, we see the door closing, but it’s just too far from our reach to grab, so we stop, left in a state of lingo, our self-esteem slowly moving further and further from our grasp.

What is the cause of this easy way out? Why do we just stop?  People tend to make us  feel like we deserve nothing more than what they have to offer.  This could also be their personality rubbing off on us. They may be less than inspired, demotivated or low achievers themselves.

Never settle for anything less than what you deserve. We’re constantly told that we need to be realistic in our expectations, but in reality is that not just an excuse?

Love cannot be counted, love is something you feel and it should overflow in abundance. The smile you’re greeted with when you wake up, the random hugs, the feeling that you’re truly safe, that’s love.

We are concrete human beings and love is abstract. That’s why we need an abundant supply of it, it soothes our souls and softens our hearts.

The need for love is not greedy, it’s never clingy or needy. We should never be expected to beg for it, we should rather turn around and fight for it. Fight with your powerful self-esteem, fight with your confidence in love, never stop fighting. Stop bowing down, get up and fight back.

Express your feelings, after all, that’s where love comes from and where it can be felt. You need no words, your gestures can signal your love and the need for it like the constellations above us. You deserve every ounce of it, not just because we’re told that’s what relationships are about, but because you deserve it.

Why settle for an ordinary lover when you could have an extraordinary one?

Knowing how great love truly feels should be enough motivation for you to realize how special love can be and when someone wants you in their life, they will do everything possible to show you how much love means.

Keep your eyes open, confront what is keeping you back and take yourself on, be it in the mirror, look at you, you beautiful creation. Your artistic make up is what makes you special, and it will never leave you.

Kisses, hugs, smiles and laughter, aren’t they energizing?

H/T RelRules

Every morning, I get up, make coffee and sit down to write. Essentially, I find myself regularly burning incense while I am in my deepest of concentration. The spicy, yet sweet scent of Nag Champa slowly drifting through the house is absolutely inspiring.

The burning of incense is peaceful, can lift the spirit and bring back the fondest of memories, it helps me to settle into my yoga ritual, cleans my mind from all negativity and leaves the home feeling warm and smelling beautiful.

Here are 12 fun ways to incorporate incense into your life:

Always choose quality, genuine incense, no need to breathe in toxic fumes while trying to be one with yourself.

2. Meditation

 As incense naturally soothes your nerves, you may find it eases your process into deep meditation.

3. To simply unwind

Life should be about feeling great, connecting with oneself and finding the sacredness in this rushed world we live in.

4. Emotional release

Each essential oil used in the production of incense possesses it’s own unique qualities. Find the right one that instills tranquility and calm for those moments when you feel truly frazzled. Continue reading →

Bursting open like literal land mines, China’s watermelons are under severe strain with their current wet weather and the overdose of growth chemicals they have been covering them in. China has stunned us all with their expectations of bigger, more profitable fruit by spraying their crops with a growth accelerator known as forchlorfenuron.

Around 20 farmers situated around Danyang city in Jiangsu lost up to 115 acres of watermelons due to this crisis. According to the U.S. EPA – “Forchlorfenuron is a cytokin which improves fruit size, fruit set, cluster weight and cold storage in grapes in kiwifruits.”

Professor Wang Liangju with the College of Horticulture at Nanjing Agricultural University believes that these problems occurred as they were improperly used.

He disclosed to The Associated Press that the chemicals were used too late into the season, causing bolting of the fruits. He also claimed that the variety of fruit grown could be the cause, stating that a thin skinned variety was grown which has actually been nicknamed the “exploding melon”, known for splitting. Continue reading →

Many years ago, we were on holiday and my family had the perfect weekend planned. We were going to go to the beach pretty much every day, get ice cream and visit the local curio shops. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of a sunny week like that? I woke the next morning to pretty much what I could describe as a tropical storm. “You can’t control the weather” was what my grandmother muttered.

According to new studies, there is, in fact, a way to control the weather, well some of it. Cloud seeding may assist by decreasing the severity of hail storms or for example, increase rainfall. This could very well be of a great benefit to drought stricken or storm battered areas. Earth’s climate is forever changing, so why not find a way to keep the conditions just right?

In essence, a process where planes fitted with emitters pass through clouds, which are then injected with silver iodide which induces precipitation. Around since the 1940’s, the success has been debatable.

The process is pretty simple – the silver iodide acts to catalyze water droplets in the cloud, resulting in rain or hail. Used for quite a number of years, cloud seeding has statistically reduced storm severity by up to 27 percent according to one of the success stories in Alberta. Continue reading →

We all know that water is essential to life on this planet, yet very few of us realize that only 3 percent is actually drinkable. Did you know that of that 3 percent, much of it is trapped in glaciers and ice caps? This is a deep-seated, growing problem as the demand for fresh drinking water is insecure and unsustainable.

There may soon be a way to make clean, fresh water more abundant and a team of engineers at Washington University may just have the answer in the form of a material known as biofoam.

Biofoam is made of two structural layers comprising of a sheet of graphene oxide and a bottom layer of nanocellulose which is interestingly produced by bacteria.

How it works is even more interesting. The sheet is placed on top of a layer of water. The bottom layer of cellulose has sponge like properties, drawing water up to the top layer of graphene. Graphene oxide possesses tremendous thermal conductivity, which works in unison with the sun, creating a concentration of solar energy  which heats up the upper layer of the biofoam sheet. Continue reading →

Ever been approached by someone while lighting up a cigarette, only to be told that you should really consider switching over to an E-Cigarette? According to some very convincing research, the electronic cigarette could be just as bad for you as smoking regular tobacco.

Scientists have found that the nicotine vapor we inhale does some pretty damaging things like raising the risk of heart disease and damaging key blood vessels. While monitoring 24 healthy, averaging 30 years of age participants’ hearts through smoking conventional cigarettes for 5 minutes and using and e-cigarette for half an hour, they claim that the most accurate results were achieved. The findings may shock you.

The two similar activities both led to stiffness in the aorta, which is a major cause of many well known heart problems and simultaneously, blood pressure was also quite drastically raised. Scientists stressed that this only essentially reveals short term damage, but it gives a pretty clear reading as to what’s happening. They also suggested that they will need to do further research into the long term effects. Continue reading →