LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT

Life-span development studies human development from the moment of conception to the last breath. The goal is not to describe characteristics of any particular time period but to trace and predict the processes of “dynamic interaction”—how the present connects to a person’s past and future. Life-span science is relatively new, flourishing since about 1970 as a distinct area in psychology, but it has deep roots in developmental research on children and the elderly. The concept that early family experiences affect later life is implicit in a century of child-rearing research, especially from a psychoanalytic or behavioral perspective, and the idea that genes affect all of life, including intelligence and personality, has been central to the biological understanding of human life for decades. Life-span development acknowledges these genetic and early family influences but also holds that culture, cohort, and contexts are powerful. A basic tenet is that change is always possible: people are affected but not determined by their genes and early childhood. Life-span psychology overlaps with many other disciplines, especially anthropology, life-course sociology, inter generational family studies, and social history. Since life-span development is relatively new as a distinct field within psychology, with major foundations and discoveries in the past few years, current research and theory are particularly valuable. Both interdisciplinary and contemporary articles are often published in the latest issues of thousands of academic journals. Students and scholars who already understand the basic tenets of life-span may wish to jump to the Journals section and go online to seek the abstracts of the most recent issues of these journals, as well as to peruse other journals with life-span development in mind

MAKING YOUR OWN LIFE CHOICES

Become a Hero in Your Life Choices
Did you know that you can be a hero in life? I am not talking about becoming a superhero, I am saying that you can be someone that people respect and look up to. Let me ask you a question, is superman super because of his strength, his speed, or is superman super because of his desire to do what is right for people? It is truly his life choices that make him a hero, not his alien attributes. In the same way, with a positive attitude and an understanding that life is about choice, you too can be a hero.

Attitude is Everything
Honestly, I cannot stress this enough. Making the choice to live as a hero is how to change your life. This starts with having a positive attitude towards life. You have to want to live if you want to live with purpose and in abundance. One of my favorite quotations is from the movie Braveheart where William Wallace says, “Every man dies, not every man really lives.” It is this attitude that will spur life choices that make you a hero.

Life is about Choices
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, we all have difficult choices to make. When another sales person takes your commission, or when a customer is rude to a worker, it isn’t easy to be a hero. The easy thing to do is respond in kind, but these life choices are crucial in developing a hero within you.
In life, things will happen that you cannot control. You will not be able to control the actions of others. These things, however, offer a great chance to make life choices that make you a hero. You will be a hero to people because of the care, compassion, and love that you show. This positive attitude has a lasting effect on those around you.

Learning How to Change Your Life
The process of become a hero is not easy. It takes first the desire to want to help others and make life choices with a positive attitude. You take this desire and let it be your attitude about life. Remember, attitude is everything. When you change the way you react to the world, the world see’s you differently. They begin to see the hero inside you.
Of course, this is a lot easier said than done. Life is not going to stop challenging you. It is the choice to rise to this challenge and react with a positive attitude that will make you truly heroic.

Getting Help When You Need it Most
If you are honestly interested in living like a hero, you have to understand that you cannot do it alone. Support is one of the biggest forms of encouragement in our world. When you surround yourself with those that support your heroic desires to have a positive attitude and make excellent life choices, you increase your chances of success.
Another form of support can be found in a coach or mentor. They are people who not only know you intimately, but understand how to cultivate your heroic desires in a life changing way. They can teach you how to change your life by emulating the hero you want to be.

Take on All Life’s Challenges with a Positive Attitude
Learning to become a hero starts by choosing make good life choices. Making good life choices requires a positive attitude. Just like I said at the beginning, you may not have a choice about how life reacts to you, but you always have a choice about how you react to life. The first step in learning how to change your life is to know that it will always be your choice.
Live with Passion and Have Abundance in Life!

MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Invention of science, modern technology and various technical gadgets like cell phones, laptops, i-phones, i-pads, palm-tops and desktops have made life easier, comfortable and convenient especially to the youths. We may not be able to dream a day without using these gadgets. Yes, these wonderful instruments have brought in so much of comforts for us as most of air aspirations, jobs and needs are fulfilled by them in a fraction of a minute. SMS, Facebook, chats have opened a new world before us and we connect to each other so aggressively!!

Friends a mute question to be answered is whether these gadgets are used in the right way, for the right purpose and in right direction?

Our consciousness should say and admit the answer ?no?. our mobiles are for casual chats and endless phone calls. Our computers are usually used for accessing social networking sites and for playing games. This will not lead us anywhere except an instant enjoyment and continued frustration.

The right way of using them is to our sences. Our long- cherished goals in life. These gadgets are treasure of knowledge. What our elders missed is in their generation, we are blessed with. We can use them effectively for learning, teaching and communicating. Our thoughts, ideas and concerns on social-economic and political issues can be aired through them. Our blogs, messages and facebooks can be the harbingers in eradicating social evils promoting patriotism and moulding character, qualities of head and heart.

Friends we will see that gadgets are our servants and they obey us and not vice-versa

Rakhi: The Thread of Love

                        

In India, festivals are the celebration of togetherness, of being one of the family. Raksha Bandhan is one such festival that is all about affection, fraternity and sublime sentiments. It is also known as Raksha Bandhan which means a 'bond of protection'. This is an occasion to flourish love, care, affection and sacred feeling of brotherhood.

Not a single festival in India is complete without the typical Indian festivities, the gatherings, celebrations, exchange of sweets and gifts, lots of noise, singing and dancing. Raksha Bandhan is a regional celebration to celebrate the sacred relation between brothers and sisters. Primarily, this festival belongs to north and western region of India but soon the world has started celebrating this festival with the same verse and spirit. Rakhi has become an integral part of those customs.

An insight of Rakhi Rituals
On the day of Rakhi, sisters prepares the pooja thali with diya, roli, chawal, rakhi thread and sweets. The ritual begins with a prayer in front of God, then the sister ties Rakhi to her brother and wishes for his happiness and well-being. In turn, the brother acknowledge the love with a promise to stand by his sister through all the good and bad times.

Sisters tie Rakhi on the wrist of their brothers amid chanting of mantras, put roli and rice on his forehead and pray for his well-being. She bestows him with gifts and blessings. In turn, brothers also wish her a good life and pledges to take care of her. He gives her a return gift. The gift symbolizes the physical acceptance of her love, reminder of their togetherness and his pledge. The legends and the reference in history repeated, the significance of the festival is emphasized.

Unconditional Bond of Love
Raksha bandhan has been celebrated in the same way with the same traditions for many years. Only the means have changed with the changing lifestyle to make the celebration more elaborate and lively. This day has an inherent power that pulls the siblings together. The increasing distances evoke the desire to be together even more. All brothers and sisters try to reach out to each other on this auspicious day. The joyous meeting, the rare family get-together, that erstwhile feeling of brotherhood and sisterhood calls for a massive celebration.

For everyone, it is an opportunity to reunion and celebrate. People also share tasty dishes, wonderful sweets and exchange gifts. It is a time to share their past experiences also. For those who are not able to meet each other, rakhi cards and e-rakhis and rakhis through mails perform the part of communicating the rakhi messages. Hand made rakhis and self-made rakhi cards are just representation of the personal feelings of the siblings.

IMPORTANCE OF MOTIVATION IN LIFE

What is the importance of motivation when it comes to your personal life as well as the workplace? Well, unless if you don't have goals go work on and tasks to complete, motivation is quite worthless. Of course, you and I both know that there are always things to do in life. The biggest challenge that many people have is being able to have enough motivation to do the things they know they should be doing. One fact of life is that most of the things that will give us what we want are the things that we want to do the least. That's probably why most people will never really experience the life that they have always wanted. Let's look at what motivation is and its importance in different situations.

Motivation is basically a feeling of movement. When you are motivated, you want to go from doing one thing to another thing. Most of the time, you are going from doing nothing to doing something. This is the main problem when it comes to achieving your goals. You know you need to take a certain action in order to produce a certain result but what you are currently doing is more pleasurable than taking that action. Let's look at different situations and how a lack of action can lead to negative consequences.

Importance of Motivation in the Workplace
When you don't have the motivation to do your work, you will either eventually get fired or you will not likely get promoted and will stay where you are for a long time. If you are the supervisor or the owner, a lack of motivation throughout your company can create a rather unproductive workplace. This will lead to loss of sales, profits, and market share. In this case, it's important to do what it takes to create an environment where people naturally want to do their work. The importance of employee motivation shouldn't be taken lightly here. The company's survival depends on it.

Importance of Motivation in Business
If hate working for someone else and want to start your own business, that is great. However, as most business owners will find, having your own business will depend way more from you. This can be great if you're highly motivated but if you're not, that can be a bad combination. Without anyone on your back telling you to do your work and threatening to fire you if you don't, it's easy to just put things off until later. The worse thing that can happen is that you go out of business and if you have invested a lot of money into the business, it can be a tough situation to go through. Business owners normally work 12 to 16 hour days so unless you really hate working for someone else or you really love the business, you may want to think twice about this option. It's not for everyone.

Importance of Motivation in the Classroom
When you have no motivation to study, it can be hard to get the grades you need to accomplish your educational goals. Most students, believe it or not, are capable of doing very well in school despite what their current grades are showing. Most of the time, it's not the lack of ability to learn the material but the lack to interest and motivation to put in the effort to actually do well. If you are the teacher, it's important that you do what you can to teach the material in a way that will interest the students. Even something as boring as history can be taught in a stimulating way.

There's no question about the importance of motivation and how it plays a part in all areas of our lives. We all have dreams and goals that we want to see become a reality. If you had a never-ending stream of motivation, you can literally do anything. The problem is that most people will never put in the effort that is needed to live an extraordinary life. Why? Because it's easier to do nothing than to do something. Go do something!

Life Without Love Is Lifeless

                       

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."¹

Dr. Alfred Adler, international psychiatrist, based the following conclusions on a careful analysis of thousands of patients: "The most important task imposed by religion has always been, 'Love your neighbor….' It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow man who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring."

As I have said a number of times, it may not be the most desirable for many of us, but we can live healthily as a single or without romantic love in our life. But we cannot live healthily without loving relationships—or at the very least, without one loving relationship.

I would agree with Dr. Adler in that, more often than not, it is a lack of love that drives people into self-destructive behaviors such as: looking for love in all the wrong places and getting deeply hurt and disappointed; acting out sexually as a false substitute for love; and turning to drugs and alcohol as a means to anesthetize or deaden the pain of emptiness caused by a lack of love.

So, if we are lacking in love or feel that we need more healthy love in our life, where do we find it? Easy question; tough answer.

First, it begins by admitting to ourselves and to at least one trusted friend exactly how empty and lacking in love we feel.

Second, remember that we get damaged in damaging relationships and are healed in healing relationships. This means we need to be in relationship with at least one loving, accepting, non-judgmental, trusted person (a capable counselor if necessary) with whom we can be totally open and honest and, step by step, open up and reveal our true self—warts and all. It's only as we reveal who we truly are that we can be loved and accepted for whom we are, and not for what we have ever done or have failed to do. And as we are loved and accepted in this way, little by little we learn to love and accept ourselves.

This, of course, takes courageous work and time. However as we learn to love and accept ourselves, we are not only freed to change, but also in a position where we are attracted to loving people and they to us. Remember, we can only be loved to the degree that we are known—and we can only love and accept others to the degree that we ourselves have been loved and accepted.

Third, and most important, realize that we not only need the love of others, but most important of all, we need to know and experience God's love, forgiveness, and his divine acceptance. As we open up to him and confess our true self to him—sins, warts and all—and ask for his forgiveness, he forgives us totally. And, of course, we need to learn how to forgive ourselves. Then we are freed to experience God's love in the depths of our inner being. And joyously we will discover, as we grow in love towards others, our love for God will also grow and be enriched. As God's Word says, "If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us"

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to find a loving friend with whom I can feel totally safe to open up and share my true self—sins, warts and all—and give me the courage to so do. Help me, too, to grow in love towards others so that your love is made complete in me. And then, help me to give the same love to others as they and you have given to me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen"

"HOW TO LIVE A SIMPLE AND PEACEFUL LIFE"

        In our daily lives, we often rush through tasks, trying to get them done, trying to finish as much as we can each day, speeding along in our cars to our next destination, rushing to do what we need to do there, and then leaving so that we can speed to our next destination.

        Unfortunately, it’s often not until we approach our final destination that we realize what madness this all is. At the end of the day, we’re often exhausted and stressed out from the grind and the chaos and the business of the day. We don’t have time for what’s important to us, for what we really want to be doing, for spending time with loved ones, for doing things we’re passionate about.

STEPS TO FOLLOW:-

1.Decide what is important. Take a step back and think about what’s important to you. What do you really want to be doing, who do you want to spend your time with, what do you want to accomplish with your work? Make a short list of 4-5 things for your life, 4-5 people you want to spend time with, 4-5 things you’d like to accomplish at work.

2.Examine your commitments. A big part of the problem is that our lives are way too full. We can’t possibly do everything we have committed to doing, and we certainly can’t enjoy it if we’re trying to do everything. Accept that you can’t do everything, know that you want to do what’s important to you, and try to eliminate the commitments that aren’t as important.

3.Do less each day. Don’t fill your day up with things to do. You will end up rushing to do them all. If you normally try (and fail) to do 7-10 things, do 3 important ones instead (with 3 more smaller items to do if you get those three done). This will give you time to do what you need to do, and not rush.

4.Leave space between tasks or appointments. Another mistake is trying to schedule things back-to-back. This leaves no cushion in case things take longer than we planned (which they always do), and it also gives us a feeling of being rushed and stressed throughout the day. Instead, leave a good-sized gap between your appointments or tasks, allowing you to focus more on each one, and have a transition time between them.

5.Eliminate as much as possible from your to-do list. You can’t do everything on your to-do list. Even if you could, more things will come up. As much as you can, simplify your to-do list down to the essentials. This allows you to rush less and focus more on what’s important.

6.Slow down and enjoy every task. This is the most important tip in this article. Read it twice. Whatever you’re doing, whether it’s a work task, eating, brushing your teeth, cooking dinner, driving to work: slow down. Try to enjoy whatever you’re doing

7.Single-task. This is an important point. Do one thing at a time, and do it well.

8.Eliminate stress. Find the stressful things in your life, and find ways to eliminate them.

9.Create time for solitude. In addition to slowing down and enjoying the tasks we do, and doing less of them, it’s also important to just have some time to yourself.

10.Do nothing. Sometimes, it’s good to forget about doing things, and do nothing and don't worry.

11.SPRINKLE SIMPLE PLEASURES THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY. Knowing what your simple pleasures are, and putting a few of them in each day, can go a long way to making life more enjoyable.

12.PRACTICE BEING PRESENT. You can practice being in the moment at any time during the day. The key methods of being present include paying attention instead of daydreaming, observing what is going on around you, breathing attentively and meditating.

13.LIVE IN THE MOMENT. Instead of delayed gratification, try enjoying life right now.

14.Putting others first helps with living a peaceful life. Living in conflict with people hurts, and sometimes we feel so small after a minor or major argument. But if we could just look past their faults, they could look past ours maybe. Forgiveness helps with living a peaceful life, (at peace with ourselves and others around us).

15.Discover how you can live peacefully on the planet. Sometimes our actions bring harm to others or the environment without our knowledge. People are not always paid fairly for their work or nature is not respected. Being happy and living in harmony with others and nature is called sustainable happiness.