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Tag: There Is Always Hope

Published on Leave a comment on Rare Regent Honeyeaters Unexpectedly Spotted on NSW Mid North Coast

By Emma Siossian – ABC Good News

A group of birdwatchers arriving at a nature reserve on the New South Wales Mid North Coast has spotted one of the country's rarest birds before even leaving the car park.

The group had just got to Jolly Nose Mountain Bike Park in the Queens Lake Nature Reserve recently, when an eagle-eyed twitcher spotted a critically endangered regent honeyeater.

According to BirdLife Australia, there have only been five reports of the bird in the Port Macquarie area in the past decade.

Hastings Birdwatchers conservation officer Peter West was one of the few people among the group of about 20 who had seen the species before.

A Conservation-Bred Regent Honeyeater and Chick. 
(Supplied: Lachlan Hall)

"We got out of the car and the first thing someone said was, 'There's a regent honeyeater,'" Mr West said.

"To be honest I didn't believe they were telling me the truth, but it was true.

"The lady who organised the morning had a plan, which went out the window, and I don't think we got very far from the car park at all."

Mr West said they saw two regent honeyeaters in the reserve south of Port Macquarie, feeding with other types of honeyeaters in the trees.…

Published on Leave a comment on Scientists Show Strolls With Stops Use More Energy Than Continuous Walking

Researchers show more energy needed to get going than later in walks when body is working more efficiently.

Researchers have hit on an unusual tip for walkers who want to burn more calories: rather than plodding along steadily from start to finish, consider taking rest stops.

The advice emerged from a study of volunteers who were put through their paces in the laboratory to measure the oxygen and energy demands of short strolls versus longer walks.

Tests on the participants found that walking or climbing stairs in 10- to 30-second bouts required 20 to 60% more oxygen, a proxy for energy consumption, than covering the same distance in one continuous session, largely because walking is more efficient after several minutes in motion.

“When we walk for shorter bouts, we use more energy and consume more oxygen to cover the same distance,” said Francesco Luciano, a researcher at the University of Milan and first author on the study. “It’s like having a car that consumes more fuel during the first few kilometres than it does afterwards.”

The team launched the study after noticing that many estimates of the energy needed for walking drew on data from people exercising at a metabolic steady state.…

Published on Leave a comment on How to Stop Negative Thoughts – These Strategies Are Really Helpful

By Arlin Cuncic, MA from Very Well Mind

Negative thoughts can contribute to problems such as social anxiety, depression, stress, and low self-esteem. The key to changing your negative thoughts is to understand how you think now (and the problems that result), then use strategies to change these thoughts or make them have less of an effect.

"Our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are all linked, so our thoughts impact how we feel and act. So, although we all have unhelpful thoughts from time to time, it’s important to know what to do when they appear so we don’t let them change the course of our day," explains Rachel Goldman, PhD, a psychologist and clinical assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine.

Therapy can often be helpful for changing negative thoughts, but you can also learn how to change your thought patterns. This article discusses some of the steps you can take to change your negative thoughts. Some of the ways that you can get rid of negative thoughts include:

  1. Using mindfulness to build self-awareness
  2. Identifying negative thoughts
  3. Replacing negative thoughts with more realistic, positive ones
  4. Practicing acceptance rather than trying to avoid or deny negative thoughts
  5. Learning to cope with feedback and criticism
  6. Using a diary to track your thoughts

Combat Negative Thoughts With Mindfulness

Mindfulness has its roots in meditation.…

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Published on 1 Comment on To Reduce The Harmful Health Effects Of Sitting, Take A 5-Minute Walk Every Half-Hour

By Andy Corbley -Jan 18, 2023

A study looking to find the bare minimum of physical activity required to prevent the well documented ill effects of continuous sitting determined that 5 minutes of walking every half hour was enough.

By looking at blood sugar levels and blood pressure, two important metrics of heart disease, the scientists were able to determine how much daily movement was required to get back to equilibrium from the negative effects of sitting.

Picture if you will, an office worker. Waking in the morning in time for coffee and perhaps breakfast with perhaps a spouse or perhaps children, the day begins with at least some sitting. Then climbing into one’s car, the office worker drives in a seated position to the office. There, between lunch and desk work, the worker spends 8-9 hours sitting before returning home, sitting in their car. Once home, they likely sit down for dinner, and perhaps a bit of television or reading; both done from the seated position.

Sitting time for adults in industrialized nations has been climbing for decades, and it increases the risk for all the diseases typical of those nations, i.e.…

Published on Leave a comment on 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do – Insights By Amy Morin

THIS IS A FABULOUS ARTICLE NOW IN A BOOK AS WELL BECAUSE IT CAPTURED THE HEARTS OF MANY PEOPLE, AND STILL DOES (her article or her book). WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T MISS THIS - IT IMPARTS HOPE, IT INSPIRES MOTIVATION, THERE ARE PRINCIPLES EVERYONE CAN PRACTICE.

Amy, a Social Worker and Psychologist, experienced several family tragedies, including the death of a husband, her mother, and later her next husband’s father. She wrote the mentally strong article just as much for herself as for her readers.

After her article was published on Lifehack, she received a notice that was sent to all contributors — "Do not submit any new articles because the site is receiving much more traffic than normal!" Amy didn’t realize it at the time, but it was her article that triggered the wave of traffic.

Now in a book “13 things mentally strong people don’t do” Amy gives tips, exercises and excellent advice on increasing our mental strength which can change our entire attitude:

  1. They don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves.
    “Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim form reality” – John Gardner.
…

Published on Leave a comment on Lifeguards Carry Woman, 95, To Her Beach Chair Every Day During Her Vacation

Lifeguards in Alabama are being praised for carrying a 95-year-old woman to her beach chair every day while she was on vacation.

Kimberly Waterbury, and her 95-year-old mother, Dottie Schneider, from Indiana, travelled to Alabama's beautiful Orange Beach this October for a week-long vacation.

Kindness and Goodness Prevails - Generous Lifeguards in Alabama USA Help Lady 95

Dottie uses a wheelchair and cannot walk in the sand. Her family was struggling to get her from their condo to their beach chairs.

That's when Shane Martin, the lifeguard on duty, pulled up on an all-terrain utility vehicle and asked if the family needed assistance.

Shane helped Dottie into the vehicle and drove her close to where her family's lounge chairs and umbrella were waiting.

He carried her the rest of the way and gently placed her onto the chair, making sure she was comfortable.

Every day for one week, Orange Beach lifeguards met Dottie and her family to help assist her down to her beach chairs.

Then at days end they escorted her back to her condo.

"We are forever indebted to the guys with Orange Beach Surf Rescue," Waterbury told AL.com.…

Published on Leave a comment on Ben Struggled With Lockdown Loneliness. When Two Lorikeets Started Visiting, Their Friendship Went Viral. ABC

Rainbow lorikeets visiting his window have helped Ben Newmarch through a tough and lonely time.

When two lorikeets started visiting, their friendship went viral. The first time that Sydneysider Ben Newmarch posted a video on TikTok, it instantly went viral. "It's been difficult living alone in lockdown and not seeing people," Ben wrote in the video.

Ben The Sydneysider Finds Cheer With His Lorikeets

The first time that Sydneysider Ben Newmarch posted a video on TikTok, it instantly went viral.

"It's been difficult living alone in lockdown and not seeing people," Ben wrote in the video.

"Then this happened."

In the video, Ben showed an unexpected friendship he made in 2021: two rainbow lorikeets, he called Peter and Jane, who have been rocking up to his window pretty much every day.

It's racked up almost 6 million views, and now Ben's adventures with Peter and Jane - feeding out of his palm, hanging out with him while he's wearing a dressing gown in the kitchen - has a dedicated following of more than 60,000 strangers on the internet.

It all started in summer, Ben told Hack, when he was about to leave the house one day.…

Published on Leave a comment on 30 Ways To Brighten The Coming Months – See How Many You Did Not Think Of

By Janet Vargas - Owner Of This Website

WE CAN USE THIS TIME TO ADD VALUE TO OUR LIVES RATHER THAN LETTING THE QUALITY DIMINISH. HEY? WHEN WE ARE WORKING MORE, WE WISH WE HAD MORE TIME TO SPEND AT HOME - WE CAN TURN THIS TIME INTO SOMETHING POSITIVE - WE COULD USE THIS TIME TO DEVELOP NEW INTERESTS, WHATEVER.

Enjoy The Little Things - There Are So Many Of Them!!!

Start the day with a grateful heart. In the day or evening
Think of…. and Engage in these....

Nice things from the day or week before (no matter how small, it’s the little things that make up life).

Something you are looking forward to.

The advantages there are to having more time available.

Maybe learning something new over YouTube Videos (a new skill or hobby).

Ways you can make the coming weeks happy ones instead of sad.

Ways you can make your rooms nicer or inviting so you actually like being home.

How many negative thoughts you can change.

A negative thought pattern you can exchange for a better one.

Things you can feel glad about instead of sad.…

Published on Leave a comment on Two Disadvantaged Girls Find New Lives After Goodness And Generosity Were Shown.

HERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT STORIES OF YOUNG WOMEN WHO HAD THINGS REALLY HARD IN THEIR UPBRINGING AND THEIR LIVES HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED BY KIND, GENEROUS AND CARING PEOPLE THEY CAME INTO CONTACT WITH. IT'S A STRESSFUL WORLD WE'RE LIVING IN FOR MOST PEOPLE AND SOME CHILDREN HAVE A ROUGH START IN LIFE WITH NO CHOICE IN WHO THEIR PARENTS SHOULD BE. OFTEN THIS PASSES THE KNOWLEDGE AND ATTENTION OF PEOPLE, EVEN NEARBY SOMETIMES. WHEN DISCOVERING THESE ARTICLES, I JUST HAD TO POST THEM (previously). I FELT THAT I WOULD LIKE TO INCLUDE THEM IN ONE POST TODAY IN THE INTEREST OF GOODWILL FOR THOSE WHO ARE LESS FORTUNATE THAN OURSELVES AND A TOKEN OF CARING FOR THESE KIDS - TO ME, THEY ARE VERY SPECIAL!

Tory Was Battling Drug Addiction And In Jail When One Chance Led Her To A ‘New Life’

By Herlyn Kaur - ABC July 2020

Tory Puntigam-Locke has come a long way from where she was only a year ago. The 27-year-old was addicted to drugs and serving a prison sentence at Perth's Melaleuca Women's Prison at that point.

"My family has been quite dysfunctional, there's been violence, there's been addiction throughout my family," she said.…

Published on Leave a comment on Healing From Neglect As A Child: Find Keys – This Will Make A Difference!

By Janet Vargas - Owner Of This Website

Was there some way you felt unnoticed in your upbringing? Some of us experienced that with Teachers, an Aunty and Uncle, a big Brother or Sister but others have had rough beginnings with their Parents - believe it or not - who took very little notice of them and did not show much affection. This is something I've felt very passionate about since the 80's.

If you were neglected in some way as a child - unnoticed or lacking affection - I really feel for you because I experienced a sudden change at a young age of a different but similar nature, that left me decidedly empty and unfulfilled. Parents, please give each child your best in life. You may not have much else to give them materially speaking but please give them the "Best of You!" Lots of hugs, some undivided interest each day and some laughter in the Home are the Best Gifts and Start in Life you can give them - other things are not so important.

You need to apologise to your kids and change your ways if you don't.…