Smile Therapy

Smile Therapy

Research has shown that when you smile, your brain assumes you must be happy*.

The following exercise can be a good way to start the day, especially if you tend towards depression or are embarrassed about your smile:

1. Set the alarm on your computer calendar (PDA, iPod, alarm clock etc.) to give an alarm each morning.
2. When the alarm goes off, snooze it for one minute.
3. Practice the following simple meditation (preferably with eyes closed): - While inhaling, smile - While exhaling, relax deeply Feel free to try different smiles: mouth open or closed, a subtle hint of a smile, exaggerated smile, big and soulful, eyes crinkling, or just mentally imagine smiling.
4. When the alarm goes off again, continue with your day.

You can practice this exercise for longer periods if desired, but if you find yourself canceling the alarm because you can't spare five minutes, go back to the one-minute meditation. The cumulative value of doing this exercise over a long period of time is more important than how long you spend each morning.

You can also practice this exercise while driving to work (with eyes open, of course).

Trends in high school students and other young

Marijuana

Since 1975, the Monitoring the Future Study (MTF, for its acronym in English) has measured the use and behavior related to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes among adolescent students nationwide. The survey participants reported their behavior regarding the use of drugs in three categories: its use in life, in the previous year and the previous month for some drugs, also reported the use diary.

1. Initially the survey included only 12th grade students, but in 1991 the study was expanded to include 8th-and 10th-graders. The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan is conducting this survey under the auspices of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, for its acronym in English). The 35 th annual survey was conducted during 2009.

2. Positive findings:Cigarette use is at the lowest rate in the history of the survey among students in 8 th, 10 th and 12 th grade, for all categories. These findings are particularly noteworthy because snuff addiction is a major avoidable factors that contribute to many health problems in the United States.

No sign bird flu spreading in humans in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (AFP) – Hong Kong health authorities said Saturday there was no sign of bird flu spreading among humans after the densely-populated city recorded its first case of the virus in seven years.

"So far we feel that the risk of avian influenza in Hong Kong is still slim, and also there is no indication of human to human transmission," Secretary for Food and Health York Chow told reporters.

The city on Thursday recorded its first human case of the potentially fatal illness since 2003 and raised its avian influenza alert level to "serious".

The 59-year-old woman who tested positive for Influenza A (H5), a variant of bird flu, after returning from a trip to mainland China, was in a serious but stable condition in hospital, he added.

Tests conducted at 30 chicken farms in the territory had proved negative, he said.

Hong Kong recorded its last human case of bird flu in 2003, and was the site of the world's first major outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of a mutation of the virus, which is normally confined to poultry.