Toluu : Pick the Brain

Pick the Brain

Stress is toxic.

Actually, that’s not quite true. Long-term stress is toxic.

In the short term – say, for getting away from a tiger – stress is very useful. It turns you into a temporary superhero. Your senses become sharper to detect danger, your memory is enhanced (so that next time you’ll remember not to blunder into the tiger’s territory), and your blood fills with energy-boosting and protective chemicals and rushes out to your arms and legs so that you can a) hit the tiger hard on the nose and b) run away quickly. So far, so good.

The long-term not-a-tiger problem

The problem is that in 21st-century cities, what we have is not a tiger (which you either escape from quickly, or… not). We have debts and relationship issues and work pressure. You can’t hit them, you can’t run away from them, and instead of being resolved in 20 minutes they can go on for months or years.

That’s when stress becomes toxic. The blood that’s stuck out in your extremities isn’t helping you, for example, to digest your food and otherwise run your internal organs. It’s at high pressure, and it’s thick with all of the chemicals that are the

10 Inspirational Quotes to Apply To Your FinancesSeptember 4

EVERYONE likes handy little money-saving tips, but getting control of your finances sometimes takes much bigger ideas.

Why not take these ten inspirational quotes and apply them to your finances?

“Worry, like a rocking chair will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.” – Vance Havner

Most of us are guilty of worrying about money, and whilst it might be justified in some circumstances, the actual worrying won’t solve any problems – and worse still, it can be bad for your physical and mental health.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” – Albert Einstein

When it comes to your finances, it’s important to learn from your mistakes. It means you will find yourself better off and more able to ‘live for today’ and have ‘hope for tomorrow’.

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” – Tyler Durden, Fight Club (via author Chuck Phalanuick)

Anti-consumerist and anarchist Tyler Durden’s methods might have been extreme in the novel/movie Fight Club, but the nihilist offered some wise words on mass-consumerism.

Think carefully about wha

The Myth of ‘Wishing Upon a Star’: 5 Real Ways to Get Things DoneSeptember 3

All of us have dreams. All of us wish we could be someone we aren’t today.

Just like poor little Pinocchio, wishing he was a “real boy”.

The question is; will a star grant our dreams?

From what I have learned I think that if you wait for your dreams to come true on their own, it will be a long wait.

On the other hand if you take charge and make things happen for yourself, it can go very quickly.

5 Steps to Accomplishing Your Goals:

Clarify your goals
Write down your goals on a piece of paper; make sure they are goals you can measure. You want to know when you have completed them.
For example, don’t set the goal; “I want to lose weight”.

Instead, set a target, a deadline and right it in the positive present tense, as if you already completed it e.g.; “I weigh 150 lbs. by the 31 of December 2010”.

This method activates the subconscious mind to start pulling these goals into your reality.

2. Make Plans

“Failing to plan means planning to fail” is a popular quote and it is very true.

When just starting out on the path to your goals, it will feel like making a plan is impossible, yo

4 Fool-Proof Methods for Slaying Health-Sucking VampiresSeptember 2

We live in an age of vampires. And their numbers are on the rise.

No, I’m not talking about the blood-sucking ones (I leave those to Buffy and Blade to deal with). I’m talking about health-sucking vampires.

Health-sucking vampires are those twisted creatures that consciously or not drain us of our vitality, vigor, and overall well-being.

You’ve met these villains of vibrant heath already – those that criticize your health endeavors, those that mock you for yourhealth diligence, and those that would drag your health quality down to their unacceptable level.

It’s time to fight back. It’s time we become health-sucking vampire slayers!

Distinguishing Between Price and ValueSeptember 1

If a book costs $50, is that good value?

Your first response might be “no way!” It seems like a lot of money for a bunch of pages bound together.

If a book costs $2, is that good value?

“Hell, yeah!” That’s a bargain-basement price.

The problem is, the price of those books doesn’t necessarily bear any relation to the value which the books have to you. A textbook packed with useful information for college might be well worth $50. On the other hand, a trashy, badly-written novel might not be worth even $2 – especially when you factor in the time cost of reading it.

“Cheap” Doesn’t Mean “Good Value”

Most of us find it hard to resist a bargain. Maybe we’ve got a coupon for a particular store, or we see something marked down to a great price. Of course, advertisers and marketers know just how to push our buttons too.

But just because something’s cheap doesn’t mean that it’s good value.

Perhaps it’s a shoddy product. You could pick up some cheap garden tools, but they might work badly and need replacing after a month – in the long term, you’d be better to invest in some qualit