Happiness is an emotional or affective state that is characterized by feelings of enjoyment and satisfaction. As a state and a subject, it has been pursued and commented on extensively throughout world history. This reflects the universal importance that humans place on happiness.

States associated with happiness include well-being, delight, health, safety, contentment, and love. Contrasting states include suffering, depression, grief, anxiety, and pain.

Happiness is often associated with the presence of favorable circumstances such as a supportive family life, a loving marriage, and economic stability. Unfavorable circumstances, such as abusive relationships, accidents, loss of employment, and conflicts, diminish the amount of happiness a person experiences.

However, according to several ancient and modern thinkers, happiness is influenced by the attitude and perspective taken on such circumstances.

A new study about the somehow controversial effects of black chocolate on human health adds new mounting evidence that links black chocolate with health benefits.

The study 

The study was financed by the University Hospital in Cologne and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on 5 july 2007, suggests that a tiny amount of dark chocolate consumed on a daily basis lowers blood pressure.

The volunteers for the study consumed six grams of dark chocolate per day, for almost five months.

The effects 

In the Western world (and not only) women are constantly under pressure.

The media is promoting the image of anorexic, skinny women as being a beauty ideal, and every women dreams to lose weight in order to try and get close to that image.

But there are some countries that haven’t been influenced by the media.

The opposite

In the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the situation is completely different. It’s is the mirror opposite of the West on questions of women’s weight.

To men here, fat is sexy. And in this patriarchal region, many Mauritanian women do everything possible — and have everything possible done to them — to put on pounds.

A 2001 government survey of 68,000 women found that one in five between ages 15 and 49 had been deliberately overfed. And nearly 70 percent — and even more among teenagers — said they did not regret it.

Altough this is also far from healthy, at least women here don’t have a psychological issues about their weight. The message “skinny is sexy” didn’t influence Mauritanian women too much.

In 2003, the women’s ministry mounted a slim-down campaign, wielding messages that were anything but subtle. One television and radio skit depicted a husband carting his fat wife around in a wheelbarrow. Another featured houseguests raiding the refrigerator because their host was too obese to get up to feed them. Doctors were recruited to explain health risks.

But messages spread slowly in the desert. Nearly three-fourths of Mauritanian women do not watch television, and an even greater share do not listen to the radio, said Ms. Haidy, the statistician.

Women are very sensitive about their weight and want to keep a good image, but the natural image of good doesn’t corespond to the image that the current television is promoting.

Air is life.

One of the most important factors that influences the quality of our lives is the breathing process. Breathing should be a simple natural act, but surprisingly its not and only a few people breathe correctly.

Thousands of people die every year due to oxygen starvation.

I am not a correct breather but lately I’ve started to pay close attention to the subject and I’m trying to fix my bad breathing habits. After a week of practicing correct breathing exercises I can already feel a significant improvement in my life. But it will take a lot more time and effort to turn correct breathing into an unconscious habit.

The bad habit

Shallow breathing causes one to tire out faster, adds stress, reduces the relaxation level, reduces the body oxygenation level and results in poor functioning of all body systems (digestive, respiratory, glandular, circulatory and nervous).

The good habit

These are the “rules” for a correct breathing process:

• Breathe using the entire lungs, not just the upper part;
• Breathe in through the nose as much as possible. This way the air is filtered and warmed before it reaches the lungs.
• Do not hold the breath between inhalations. This is a very common error.
• Fill the bottom of the lungs first, then the upper part;
• Use the diaphragm to expand outward (belly breaths);
• Take fewer breaths and get a lot of air with each, rather than many shallow breaths;
• Exhale through the mouth as much as possible;
• Exhalation should take double the time of the inhalation;
• Do not lapse into shallow breathing, stay focused.

The effectiveness of these guidelines depends upon your mental attitude during the time of practice. Each motion of the breathing process should be accompanied by the conscious effort to make it.

Did you know that every manifestation of the human soul was initially positive?

Current sins such as condemnation, greed, anger and hate were positive characteristics of the human soul.

God gave them to us to help us to do good, stay away from evil and reach a higher state of completeness.

Let me explain my view.

Gifts hidden in defects

Sins, no matter how repulsive they may look in their current state, are an expression of the power of our soul and a sign of it’s capacity. Sins are qualities put to use in a wrong way.

Every sin can be turned from a defect into a quality.

Let’s take anger an hate as examples. General understanding sees them as big defects and grave sins. But this isn’t necessarily right…

My view

Anger was given to us so that we could get angry at the evil inside of us. It was meant to use it on our own person but nowadays we are using it against other people, and mostly to do harm. By twisting it’s use, it has turned from a blessing into a sin. We should get angry on ourselves whenever we do something wrong…

The same could be said about hate.