1 to 21 Things to a Happy Self

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want

FOUR. When you say, "I love you," mean it.

FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask,  Why do you want to know?"

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility  for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

love, now and always, 

Love, Like Wind, Is A Force In Life

Love is like the wind. You can’t see wind, but you know if it is there. You can't control it, but you can harness its energy. You know wind is there because you feel it. What happens around you tell you that the wind is there. Wind is difficult to understand. It varies in strength and intensity. At times, it disappears, and you wonder if it will ever come back. Wind can be dangerous when it is out of control, becoming destructive, hurting and harming anything it runs into.

Love, like the wind, is a force in life. You can’t see it directly. Yet, you feel it in your relationships with others. You see its results, in kindness, or acts of affection, but you can’t see love, itself. You can’t force love. If you use force to try to get love, you are bound to lose it. To love out of coercion, threats, or fear, is not love, but compliance. Threats may be subtle, not in words, but with behavior or gestures.

You can harness love’s energy when, and if, it occurs. You do this by loving back in an accepting, non-controlling way. Nobody owns anyone else through love. Love is a freeing not an entrapping emotion. Love involves accepting someone for what and who they are, not what you want them to be.

To love is to make a choice, an emotional commitment to someone else. This is great in one way, but dangerous in another way. The more you invest in something, the more upset you are if your investment is lost, and the more you convince yourself you have the right to it, regardless of what others think. Love can become possessive, changing into jealousy and suspicion. A jealous person is obsessed with another person, but seldom takes a good look at himself, and doesn’t recognize that his destructive feelings are created by his own fears and inadequacies.

You harness love’s energy when you treat it right, when you give love the freedom to be, to exist in its unique and special way, not in the way that you believe it should or must be. You don’t control with love. You allow the other person to be himself.

You can’t create love. You can’t force it. Yet, you usually know when it is around. Love varies in intensity. Sometimes it is exciting. Other times it is calm and gentle. Recognize love in its many splendor forms. Avoid analyzing or chasing after it. Let it be, and enjoy it. Love may express itself in anger. A person may feel hurt and concerned, and their love and concern may come out as anger or rage. Love also has quiet times.

Valentines Day helps to focus on love and its importance in life. Love thrives when it is celebrated between people on a regular basis. You celebrate love when you give a loved one a hug, or say, "I like you", or go out of your way to do some little thing they appreciate, without their asking. Lovers develop their own personal ways of celebrating love and caring. Being the first to get up, leave your warm bed, and walking on a cold kitchen floor, to make a cup of coffee for your partner to have in bed, is an act of loving. Have you tried it recently? If not, think about it. After all, you can celebrate Valentines Day more than once a year if you want to, and in many, many ways.

love, now and always, 

Get HIGH with GRADES not with drugs

Psychoactive drugs are substances that act on the nervous to alter states of consciousness, modify perceptions, and change moods. They help people adapt to an ever-changing environment that’s why many people are attracted to those drugs. The three main categories of psychoactive drugs are depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens. These three main categories have potential to cause health or behavior problems or both.

Depressants are psychoactive drugs that slow down mental and physical activity. Examples of depressants are alcohol, barbiturates, tranquilizers, and opiates. Alcohol is a powerful drug that acts on the body primarily as a depressant and slows down the brain’s activities. Barbiturates, on the other hand, are used to decrease central nervous systems activity. Tranquilizers reduce anxiety and induce relaxation. And Opiates or narcotics are consists of opium and its derivatives and depress the central nervous system’s activity.

Stimulants are psychoactive drugs that increase the central nervous system’s activity. Amphetamines, cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy), caffeine, and nicotine are the most widely used stimulants. Amphetamines are stimulant drugs that are used to boost energy, stay awake, or lose weight. Cocaine, an illegal drug, is highly addictive stimulant drug derived from the cocoa plant that produces profound feelings of pleasure. MMDA, or ecstasy, is an illegal drug with both stimulant and hallucinogens properties. Caffeine affects the brain’s pleasure centers, so it is not surprising stimulating drug found in coffee, tea, and cola beverages. After a headache begins, caffeine may be helpful in aborting headaches, so it is widely used in combination drugs prescribed for relief of headache. Paradoxically, using caffeine to excess or too rapid withdrawal from caffeine may cause headaches in some individuals. Nicotine is the main ingredient in all forms of smoking and smokeless tobacco. It is extremely toxic and causing irritation of lung tissues, constriction of blood vessels, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and, in general, central nervous system stimulation.

Hallucinogens are psychoactive drugs that modify a person’s perceptual experiences and produce visual images that are not real. Marijuana -- also called weed, pot, reefer, grass, dope, ganja, mary jane, and hash -- is the drug most often used in this country. It is a mix of dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa). Most users roll loose marijuana into a cigarette (called a "joint"). The drug can also be smoked in a water pipe, called a "bong" Some users mix marijuana into food or use it to brew a tea. Hash users either smoke the drug in a pipe or mix it with tobacco and smoke it as a cigarette. LSD is the most common hallucinogen and one of the most potent mood-changing chemicals. It is manufactured from lysergic acid, found in a fungus that grows on rye and other grains. LSD, commonly referred to as "acid", is sold on the street in tablets, capsules, and occasionally in liquid form. It is odorless and colorless, with a slightly bitter taste. Users refer to positive LSD experiences as a "trip" and to acute adverse reactions as a "bad trip". Users may experience panic, confusion, suspicions, anxiety and loss of control. Flashbacks also occur after they stop taking the drug.

Teenagers of today always want to be INside the world and tend to always fit “IN”. They want to adapt to environments changes, to try things others tried, and to simply live life the way they taught it should be. But being IN is not always going on and sometimes fitting IN won’t lead you in the right path.

Many teenagers of today use psychoactive drugs to improve or hide what they feel and to fit IN to the immediate groups of friends they can be with. But these can affect the nervous system, their behavior and the lives of its users.

After reading about these psychoactive drugs, I think teenagers should not use these drugs to be able to fit IN, to be IN and to live IN. These drugs can break lives. These drugs have bad effects and good effect but still I believe that these drugs should only be used if it is needed by the body to survive. And my final point, teenagers should get high with grades instead of getting with these drugs. 

love, now and always,