Archive for April, 2010

“This is driving me to drink” a once popular humours phrase is rooted in the fact that many times stress is the root cause for the consumption of alcohol.

While it may be true that someone under stress may have a tendency to seek a good stiff drink; it is just as true that the chronic consumption of alcohol can cause stress. Moderate consumption of alcohol can actually have some beneficial effects on one’s health. The problem lies when the alcohol consumption is heavy and becomes more and more frequent as a reason to relieve stress. This type of compulsive behavior over time will actually worsen the stress in one’s life.

Heavy alcohol consumption stimulates the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and the adrenal glands. A side effect of this is an increase in the amount of cortisol and adrenaline produced. Although both of these to chemicals alone don’t cause stress directly, it is believed they play a role in the symptoms.

As you may have experienced, stress makes it more difficult to concentrate and focus. These are also effects that accompany alcohol consumption. So you can see from the math that someone who is feeling the effects of stress and is under the influence of alcohol is getting a heavy does of concentration inhibition… probably at a time when they need clear thinking the most.

Exercise is known as one of the best tools and defenses against stress. Unfortunately consumption of alcohol doesn’t lend itself to motivating one to go have a workout. So, the more frequently the drinking the less frequently it is found that people engage in healthy activity.

In addition, heavy consumption of alcohol suppresses one’s appetite. Yet at the same time, alcohol is not calorie free. So again, someone who has the propensity to consume alcohol is getting a double dip by decreasing their motivation to maintain a healthy while consuming non nutritional calories provided in alcoholic beverages.

Along with everything else in the spiral of excessive alcohol consumption and stress, comes the fact that alcohol debilitates one’s mental faculties, thus making it even more difficult for the drinker to think rationally. In this state, more mistakes are made, important tasks and dates are missed or mis-timed which only heightens the stress that is already surrounding this person. In an alcoholic state, the person can literally not even think their way out of their predicament… again causing yet more stress.

As you can see, this is a perilous cycle a person get into… the stress encourages drinking and the drinking creates scenarios that produce more stress. Although the results of alcohol and stress vary from person to person, the lesson learned is that teaching yourself to have a drink to relieve stress is not a solution or a habit to get into.

If a person finds themselves engaged in this endless loop of self destruction, the key is to break the cycle. It is imperative that this person first finds an alternative for dealing with the stress in their life. By doing this, the individual will immediately relieve the alcohol induced stress and thus immediately reduce a significant portion of the overall stress right there.

In many cases something as simple as proper diet and beginning an exercise program or other physical activities are an excellent starting point.

Jeff Foster
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/stress-and-alcohol-139487.html

In our modern world we are under increased pressure to perform and be profitable whilst under risk of downsizing, outsourcing and off-shoring. Both men and women are increasingly stressed with the strains of work and family life. Women in particular become stressed from trying to juggle their full time job and caring for their family.

You may find that you suffer from headaches, a lack of sleep and mood swings, so you go to your doctor for help. The doctor listens to what you have to say and then prescribes you some drugs. If you are fortunate, you may even get some time off too.

The drug alleviates and suppresses the symptoms so you start to feel better and then you go straight back into the situations without any changes; except to increase the drug dosages you are taking.

Whether you take the drug or not, the stress levels are still there. The problem with the medicine is that it masks the symptoms of stress so you believe you are ok and not stressed.

There are a number of natural alternatives to prescription medicine that you can use to reduce your stress. Even the busiest of people can fit this into their life, so find out what works best for you.

When you start to feel yourself getting stressed take some deep breaths. As stress is the triggering of the fight or flight mechanism you will find that you start to breath shallowly, usually without even being aware of it.

Breathe from your stomach so it inflates (sticks out) when you breathe in and pull your stomach in so it expels your breath as you exhale. This oxygenates your system which helps prevent muscle cramp and headaches. As you breathe deeply, you will find you relax. Deep breathing like this makes it almost impossible to be stressed.

If you start to feel a headache then take these deep breaths and gently massage your neck and shoulder muscles to relieve the tension. Pay particular attention to your jaw muscles and make sure you relax those too. You will find you are tensing the muscles unconsciously and by relaxing them you can let go of the stress.

Human beings have been talking to each other for as long as they’ve been capable of speech, and it’s an excellent stress reliever. A problem shared is a problem halved. Even just general chit-chat to people will help to reduce your stress levels.

Exercise is one of the best forms of natural form of Stress Relief. When you get stressed a hormone known affectionately as ACTH is released into your system. Usually it would be worked out of your system through the fight or flight response. In modern society, it is not generally practical for this response to be engaged so the ACTH remains in your system and builds to dangerously high levels.

Taking some exercise will work this ACTH out of your system and help you feel better. Not only that, but it releases endorphins into your body too, which is nature’s happy drug. Whether you choose to join a gym or go for walks is up to you, but make sure it is something that you enjoy.

Your diet contributes greatly to your stress levels, believe it or not. These days people consume a lot of caffeine and sugar which add to your stress levels. Caffeine actually triggers the fight or flight mechanism and causes stress! By taking care of your body you can help to alleviate your stress.

If you can plan your day in advance then you can reduce the stress of running around from pillar to post being pulled in all directions. Take some time the night before to (realistically) plan what you want to achieve the next day. Plan your errands for the day and makes sure you perform them efficiently. This will help immensely in reducing your stress levels.

Stress is a natural physiological response and is best when dealt with naturally. Natural methods may take slightly longer to work, but will have a better long term stress reducing effect.

Jason Johns
http://www.articlesbase.com/stress-management-articles/drug-free-stress-relief-59137.html

The Basics

What’s the big secret that copywriters use to write effective copy?

Here it is: Everybody is in a trance. The number of people who are self-actualized and completely aware is so small that you can discount them when you’re writing sales copy. The people who are going to read your sales copy are caught up in their lives.

You might want to check out the movie, “What the bleep do we know?” It’s the most useful explanation of this phenomenon I’ve ever seen.

People are living inside their heads.

They just drove home from a job they hate to a spouse who doesn’t understand them, or understands them far too well. Their bratty kids are whining about some silly thing. The bills are due and they don’t have the money to pay. Their mind is anywhere but where they are.

Or… They’ve spent the entire day changing diapers, mopping floors, and

watching daytime T.V. Their mind is on the cross-dressing librarian they couldn’t tear themselves away from on the box, their feet hurt, and they’re worried sick about some movie star’s love life.

Or… The limo driver was late, the board meeting was hell, and Warren Buffet just dumped his holdings in their publicly traded corporation, and is advising the world to do the same. The S.E.C. is skeptical about last year’s financials and the little weasel in accounting who threatened to squeal hasn’t been at work in three days.

Your mission, should you accept it, is to know exactly who you’re writing to, and walk a few thousand miles in their shoes. Get inside their mind. Find the pain, and then frame your solution to soothe their pain.

I’ve seen grown men cry as they sat at their desk, visualizing their readers, and their reader’s lives.

That’s the big secret.

Now, let’s look at the nuts and bolts of copywriting.

We’re going to focus on the “big seven” components of a well-written sales page.

1. Headline

2. Bullet-points

3. Subheads

4. The Body

5. The Guarantee

6. The Close

7. The P.S.

Once you master those, you’re ready to start writing copy.

The Headline

90% of your effort should go into writing your headline, because 90% of the effectiveness of your copy depends on it.

Write a lot of headlines. Fifty isn’t too many.

The purpose of the headline is to pull the reader’s mind out of its daily trance, and into your sales copy.

Professional copywriters, who are an educated, savvy bunch, read the

magazines you find at the check-out counter at the grocery store like text-books. “Elvis Marries 2-Headed Space Alien In Shotgun Ceremony!” “World Ending Thursday, 7:13 P.M., According To Secret Prediction!” “Oprah Loses 250 Pounds Eating Ice Cream- You Can, Too!”

That sort of thing.

Why? Because they stop you in your tracks and make you want to know more. Intellectually, you know they’re bull-poop, but people don’t buy with their intellect, they buy with their emotions.

There are an infinite number of ways to approach the writing of headlines, but let’s confine ourselves to five good ones for now.

The Question

Ask a question that can’t immediately be answered with “yes” or “no.”

“Do You Make These Seven Copywriting Mistakes?”

You can’t answer that unless you know what they are. You have to read the first sentence of the copy to find out. You want to know, don’t you? What are those mistakes? Do you make them? What are you going to do about it?

Let’s try another one.

“How Can YOU Fire Your Boss?”

Again, you won’t know if you don’t read the first sentence of the copy.

“What If You Could Double Your Sales In Ten Days?”

You can turn simple sentences into questions-

“You Want Financial Security, Don’t You?”

“She Deserves The Best, Doesn’t She?”

Here’s a special kind of Question headline:

“What Can A 29 Year Old Bottle-Washer From Cleveland, Texas Teach You About The 17 Shameful Secrets Of Shampoo?”

How can you resist?

The Call-Out

This is the easiest headline you can write, and it’s very effective if your product is for a specific niche.

If you’re selling a headache remedy, try “Headache Sufferers!”

If you’re selling guitar strings, try “Guitar Players!”

If you’re selling investments, try “Investors!”

You’ll only get the attention of the very narrow group that you “call out,” but if your product is that tightly focused, that’s all you need.

A Little Psychology

One of the psychological tools I discuss in Influence101 is “Social Proof.” You can get your copy of this audio home-study course at http://www.influence101.com.

Humans are herd animals. If “everybody” is doing something, then “you” must need to do it, too. Everybody else can’t be wrong, can they?

History is full of examples of ‘everybody” being wrong. “Social Proof” is how peer group pressure works.

The fashion industry, the soft drink industry, the religion industry, and the politics industry know this one, and use it all the time. .

We can use this principle to craft effective headlines.

One that has been over-used lately, but is a good example is:

“Who Else Wants To Make $20,000 A Week?”

Another way to use it is:

“Don’t Get Left Behind!”

Or: “20,000 Blind Albino Aviators Can’t Be Wrong!”

Intellectually, you know that they can. Writing sales copy has nothing to do with the intellect. People buy with their emotions and justify it with their intellect.

Imagine That…

Create a picture that draws your reader in.

Like: “Imagine How Much Freedom You’ll Have When You Master

Copywriting!”

“Picture This- Your First Million Dollars!”

The trick here is to paint a vague picture that is enticing, and let the reader fill in the details.

In the headline: “Picture Yourself In The Car Of Your Dreams!” The reader will do exactly that- providing the make, model, year and color for you.

The more detail you provide, the tighter your focus- and the smaller your potential target.

Quotes-

Anything with quotation marks around it will stand out.

“The Best Cigar I Ever Smoked,” Britney Spears.

“All My Men Wear Levi’s,” Elton John

“They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano, But When I Began To Play…” This may be the most famous headline in history, by the way. It ran, successfully, for decades.

Steal This Ad

As you start thinking like a copywriter, you’ll start noticing advertisements from a different perspective. Pay special attention to the headlines that get used over and over. Major advertisers are constantly testing headlines- if you notice an ad that runs for several months with the same headline, write that headline down!

It’s working.

Another interesting thing to note about successful copywriters: they steal. Every copywriter worth his salt has something called a “swipe file.” This is where they put copies of ads that they like. When it’s time for them to write a headline, the first thing they do is go to their swipe file and try to find one they can modify to fit their assignment.

Advertising may not be the oldest profession- although, it’s closely related. It has, however, been around a long, long, long time. Occasionally, some genius will come up with a headline that hasn’t been used before, but it’s very rare. Trust me, start snagging great ads and start your own swipe file.

Caveat- don’t steal word-for-word. Use your swipe file for inspiration. As you read the ad, see if you can analyze it to discover why it worked, and use that knowledge to create one that will work the same way.

Another interesting thing about copywriters- they sue. For example, there have been instances where a copywriter has been so impressed by Ted Nicholas’ copy that he used it verbatim. He regretted it almost instantly.

Bullet Points

There are at least three kinds of readers-

1. Those who will read every word you write.

2. Those who skim, focusing on headlines, bullet points, and major points.

3. Those who read the headline and then skip to the offer.

They all read the P.S., by the way.

As you design your copy, you need to keep all three readers in mind. You need to tell your story with your headline, sub-headlines, bullet points, and P.S., for the benefit of the skimmers- and you need to do it in a way that allows your copy to flow smoothly.

Bullet points are used to call attention to benefits.

Do you know the difference between a feature and a benefit? It’s a little tricky, but it’s a distinction you need to learn.

“Fine German engineering allows this car to cruise at 120 m.p.h.” is a feature.

“You can be playing golf while the others are still driving,” is a benefit.

Are you starting to see the difference? The feature is the description. The benefit is what it does for you.

Let’s look at another one.

“This pizza contains broccoli, spinach, and spirulina,” discusses features.

“Healthy pizza for building strong, sexy bodies,” discusses benefits.

Now let’s look for a benefit of the benefit:

“Healthy pizza that will make you so strong that girls will be asking you

out.” The benefit of the benefit “so strong” is “girls will be asking you out.”

Bullet points are only slightly less important than headlines. Almost all of your readers will read them. If you need ten bullet points, write a hundred, and then choose the best ten.

Sub-Heads

Sub-Headlines are like bullet points, but they stand alone, and introduce a new section of copy.

Everything we’ve discussed about headlines and bullet points applies to sub-headlines.

Use them to grab your reader by the shirt-collar and make him or her read the following copy.

Here are some examples of sub-headlines:

“But Wait- There’s More.” Personal note: whenever I hang out with copywriters, I’m silently watching the second hand on my watch. It’s only a matter of time before one of them quotes this sub-headline, and then the others laugh uncontrollably.

“New For 2006!” Would be a way to introduce benefits and features that have been changed for the new product year.

“How can a 165 year old technology revolutionize your sales path?” is a sub-head that was used for our very successful “Think and Grow Rich Automatically” sales page.

“Living a Lifestyle Beyond the Dreams of Avarice” helped us sell a pile of

“The Myth of Passive Income.” (www.mythofpassiveincome.com)

Get the idea? A sub-headline is just like any other headline, except it leads into a specific section of copy. When you’re writing your list of potential headlines, be sure and note the ones that would make good sub-heads.

The Body

This is the meat and potatoes of sales copy.

This is where you identify your customer’s pain, and provide him with the magic secret that will make the pain go away.

You may be wondering, “how long should the copy be?” The answer is, as long as it needs to be. There is a rule of thumb that states that the more expensive the item you’re trying to sell, the longer the copy needs to be.

Don’t be afraid of long copy. Remember your three kinds of readers. A person who is contemplating a purchase, especially the purchase of an expensive item, wants to know all there is to know about the item.

The very first step is to visualize who you’re writing to. What trance are they in as they begin to read?

What did they do all day? Was it fun? What do they want to do? Are they

hungry? Are they thirsty? Are they broke? Are they looking for the perfect

diamond ring?

You’ve used your headline to stop them in their tracks.

You’ve listed a few bullet points to make them curious.

You’ve got their attention with your sub-head.

Now you’ve got to lead them to the bottom of the page and help them press the “buy now” button.

Try to meet them where they are and take them with you. Imagine their objections and address them in your copy.

Avoid using big words when smaller words will do, and adjust your vocabulary to fit your reader. If you’re advertising reverse amortization mortgages in the secondary market, you’re going to use a completely different vocabulary than you will when you’re selling diapers.

One way to pull them into your copy is to tell them a story.

I’ve used this one several times.

“I used to be a broke blues guitar player, living on $30-$50 a night, a few nights a week. I lived in a mobile home, until it got repossessed. I know more ways to cook pinto beans than anybody else in North America, because pinto beans is about all we could afford to buy at the grocery store. “

Hopefully, by this point in the story, I’ve got my reader nodding his head. He’s been broke before. He’s identifying with my story, and putting himself in my place.

He’s ready for some good news:

“Then, one day I met Dr. Joe Vitale at a restaurant in Wimberley, Texas, and he handed me that book. What book? “Spiritual Marketing”.

The secrets contained in that book gave me the knowledge and power to re-frame my life, and create a lifestyle that gives me freedom, happiness, and pleasure. “

If I’ve done my job, my reader is asking “Where can I get that book?”

Your story doesn’t have to be about you. It does have to draw the reader into your sales copy. Use your story as an opportunity to stress the benefits of the product in a personal way.

Another strategy for writing compelling sales copy is to round up your best sub-headlines and put them in a logical order. Then use your copy to expand and explain the benefits mentioned in the sub-head.

Let’s look at some other strategies for leading our customer to the “buy now” button.

One technique I rely on a lot is the “problem-solution” copy.

You might start out by asking a question:

“Do You Have Dandruff?” for example.

Then describe the heartbreak of dandruff. Maybe tell a story about a man who lost his wife, his job, and his self-respect because of dandruff.

That’s the problem.

Then, just before our poor dandruff sufferer hangs himself from a shower-rod, you present the solution.

“Rub this duck oil on your head twice a day, and you won’t have to worry

about losing your wife, your job, or your self-respect.”

I’m exaggerating just a little- they gym where I work out has a t.v., and today I went during the day, when the soap operas were on. Daytime t.v. is pretty educational, if you’re a student of advertising.

I’m not exaggerating very much. For certain audiences, that approach works like a charm.

With appropriate modification, it will work for any audience.

Testimonials

The sales copy can contain testimonials, or you can use them to break up the copy into sections.

Testimonials are essential. Instead of just one person (you), who has a financial interest in the sale, telling them how great the product is, you can gather a crowd to tell them.

The two best kinds of testimonials are from experts and people just like your customer.

There is a trick to getting a testimonial, even from an expert, by the way.

It’s a secret, but I’ll tell you.

“You ask.”

Don’t tell anybody.

Use testimonials to build the case for your product.

The Guarantee

Use your guarantee to shift the risk from the purchaser to you.

You want your customer to feel totally confident when they buy your product. If they feel like they’re going to be stuck with it if they don’t like it, they won’t buy it. This is especially true on the internet, where they can’t touch, or even see the actual product.

Here’s a rule of thumb I learned from a very famous copywriter who was speaking at a seminar- “The longer the guarantee, the lower the return rate.”

Think about it. If you know you’ve got three days to decide if you like something, you’re going to be in a pretty big hurry to find something you don’t like. If you know you’ve got a year, or a lifetime, you don’t feel any urgency. In fact, you may forget about it completely.

I believe in strong guarantees.

I watched Joe Vitale offer a “double your money back” guarantee on a product that sold for almost a thousand dollars. That’s a very gutsy guarantee. It worked. He sold almost half a million dollars worth of product in just a few days- and one of the reasons was that outrageous guarantee.

Clickbank, and most merchant account companies, keep a reserve to pay for refunds. They use an algorithm based on your refund history, the price of the product, and the phase of the moon- I guess. I really don’t know how they do it, but I do know that they keep part of the sales revenue for a long time to make sure there’s money there to pay for refunds.

It’s worth it.

The Close

This is where you ask for the sale.

There’s no point being shy now. Either you’ve built a strong emotional case for your product or you haven’t.

Ask them to click the “buy now” button.

The trend right now in online sales is to hit them high, and then offer a lower price.

Like this:

What would you pay for that kind of freedom? What’s your financial independence worth to you?

You’re probably thinking, “At least a million dollars.”

And you’re right- but because you’re one of my treasured subscribers, I’m offering it for only $497…. But Wait, There’s More!

If you buy today, or anytime before next Tuesday, you can have our guide to financial freedom for only $17- But hurry, this is a limited time offer.

Again, I exaggerated for effect- but all the pieces are there. Establish a high value for your product and then give a believable reason why it’s cheaper in your offer. Create a sense of urgency- and stick to it. If you say that the price is going up on Tuesday, make darn sure you raise the price on Tuesday.

The close is where you mention the bonuses.

Whenever another author asks me if I’ve got anything laying around they can use for a bonus, I always answer “yes,” even if I have to write it specifically for their project. Most marketers and authors are the same way.

Why?

Because we embed links to our web pages and our products in those bonuses. They are an excellent tool for driving traffic to our websites. The more traffic, the more sales for us.

You will have no trouble gathering up as many bonuses as you need.

Let’s say you round up ten e-books as bonuses, and can realistically valuate them at $30 each. That’s $300 in bonuses that you can give away that didn’t cost you a cent.

Those bonuses will make your “close” a whole lot easier to write.

Like this:

Buy “Grow Tomatoes Automatically” for only $17, and get these bonuses, valued at $300, absolutely free!

Remember, people buy with their emotions and justify the purchase with their intellect. What sort of emotional response do you think you’re going to get, when you offer to trade $317 worth of product for $17 in currency?

Bonuses make sales.

The P.S.

After you’ve asked for the sale, you sign the sales copy and go home, right?

Wrong.

One of the most important lines on your sales page is your P.S. Put it right under your signature.

Everybody reads the P.S.

This is where you restate the most important aspect of your sales letter.

Like this:

P.S. There is no risk on your part- our products are guaranteed for your lifetime, and the lifetime of anybody who looks like you. Buy now!

Or:

P.S. Don’t wait- offer ends tomorrow!

Use the P.S. to convince the reader who has passed right by the “buy now’

button to retrace his steps and buy.

Some copywriters will add a P.P.S. and a P.P.P.S.

I don’t know if there is an upper limit to the number of these things that can be used effectively. I try to limit myself to two.

Pat O’bryan
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/the-absolute-beginners-guide-to-copywriting-124505.html

Human bodies must be detoxified. That is, the amount of toxins and pathogens must be removed from the body in order to maintain health and happiness. A healthy human body removes toxins through normal biological processes and waste elimination. But in today’s environment, our bodies are bombarded with pollutants that compromise health and the immune system. Body detox is a process through which we intentionally change, at the very least, our food and lifestyle choices to allow the body to process and reduce toxins and pathogens to a safe level.

The primary cause of toxin build-up is poor diet. Fast food, junk food, and the preservatives and additives in processed foods lead to any number of complaints as they throw bodily processes out of whack. Among the most harmful foods are those high in acidity like caffeine, carbonated beverages, meat, sugary foods, and processed (including canned and frozen) foods. Toxin overload can also result when your biological processes are not operating properly, including when you can’t eliminate wastes properly. Changing your diet in a good body detox program may allow your biological processes to recover to a normal state.

When toxins within the body exceed normal healthy ranges, a person can become exhausted easily, gain weight, develop muscle and joint pain, and even, in the extreme, develop cancer. Some scientists suggest that the formation of too many free radicals begins a chain reaction that overwhelms the healthy body. We know that an overly acidic pH level in the human body can create these symptoms.

Health is not just physical fitness and being free of disease. The chemicals, hormones, and enzymes in our bodies also affect the way we think and feel emotionally. Recall your mood the last time you were sick. When the body is not healthy, we tend to think more negative thoughts and feel more destructive emotions. As our bodies become more stressed, so do your spirits. And the opposite is true as well. Negative thinking and destructive emotions can attack our health and weaken our resistance to disease. Body detox helps bring purify not only our blood and organs, but our mind and spirit, creating not only better health, but a better life generally.

Short for “detoxification,” detox occurs on several levels. Physically, it involves cleaning harmful substances from the system and returning the body to a natural balance. Believe it or not, a health pH balance is as important to our health as maintaining a healthy temperature. There are a variety of body detox diets and programs available that will show you how to promote better health. Search for “detox diet” or “body detox” on the Internet to find an array of options for self-cleansing. Visit your local health food store for more ideas and advice.

Detoxification of the mind is also an important part of a body detox program. Reducing the stress, worry, frustration, and anger in your daily life can speed body detox up and help maintain healthy processes and chemical balances within the body. By attending to your psychological and emotional needs, you can transform stress to joy and transform illness to good health.

Eastern philosophers and religious leaders have long been aware of the importance of physical well-being to spiritual well-being. Fasting, which is an important part of body detox, is an ancient practice that coincidentally helps remove harmful toxins from the body. Doing this makes a person’s mind more clear and heart more stable. Though they wouldn’t have used the phrase, body detox is a basic part of a healthy spiritual life as well.

Concepts surrounding the process of body detox are relatively new on the science scene. However, many leaders in helping professions for physical, mental, and emotional healing believe that detoxification is essential in today’s world. A body detox program including a better diet, more regular physical exercise, and attention to one’s mental and emotional states may be one of the most positive changes we can make in our lives today.

Pollution, stress, conflict, and confusion are the hallmarks of modern society. As individuals, we can’t do a lot to eliminate larger environmental and social problems. But we can make a big difference one at a time as each of us works to make healthy, positive changes in our lifestyle and in the way we view life. Body detox can do much more than relieve aches and pains or help you lose weight. It can change your life and your outlook on life.

You don’t have to undertake a complex, formal body detox program to improve your health. Broad life style changes that may go a long way to restoring your health and outlook include:
1) Drinking 3-4 quarters of water every day
2) Eating more vegetables and fruit and less meat and dairy
3) Increasing the amount of regular physical exercise you get
4) Try short fasts (1-2 days)
5) Avoid caffeine, sugary desserts, carbonated beverages, alcohol, milk chocolate, and high-acid foods
6) Check into available alkalizing water and food supplements to help restore healthy pH balance
7) Schedule “me time” every day to restore your mental and emotional balance
Consider meditation or yoga

A final word of advice. If you’ve decided to undertake a detox diet or make major changes in your diet or lifestyle, visit your doctor first. Be sure there isn’t another physical problem that requires medical treatment before you commit to a formal detox program. Having said that, consider body detox to improve the quality of your and your family’s lives.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/detoxifying-the-body-8-simple-steps-to-a-healthy-lifestyle-708972.html

Keeping the memory in good condition is a vital part of the brain’s function. In not only work, but all aspects of our lives, our actions greatly depend on a lot of information we retrieve from our memory bank. Such information can either be short term (such as specific tasks that we have to do) or long term (such as the ability to drive a car or repeat an instruction we read from a book). While long-term memory may come spontaneously without too much effort when the need arises, short-term memory requires recalling information from the accumulation of things stored in our memory. This is why you need to keep your memory in great shape to achieve efficiency in your daily endeavors:

1. Keep your attention focused on the needed information to be stored in your memory bank. Even with distractions around you, stay focused on the subject. The more concentrated you are on the information, the better the chances of retaining it in your memory.

2. Utilize the most ideal sense or senses when gathering the information. This what we call acuity in sensing our environment. Be aware of the color or details of a picture, or the particular sound or smell of the thing involved. All our bodily senses are attuned to collect information depending on the circumstance at hand. While our sense of vision may be the most used in gathering information, our senses of hearing, smell, taste, and touch are equally important and helpful in remembering things, situations, and information about something or someone.

3. When you’re not sure that the information you are about to remember would really be retained by your brain, it would be better to write the information. This could be proven effective especially in gathering very long and tedious information like lecture notes or a personal interview. Just be sure you don’t forget that you have a note at hand; and of course, don’t misplace the note.

4. Maintain a balance diet. A well-proportioned diet will result to a conditioned memory. Oily and sweet foods may cloud the memory. If you cannot completely eliminate a bad diet, gradually cut down your intake of these memory-inhibiting foods. Doing it gradually cushions the effect of withdrawal symptoms and you’ll get adjusted to the new lifestyle you are creating. This is not only beneficial to the memory, but we can say you’re on your way to a healthy life. Drinking lots of water brings lots of advantages to your overall health, and memory is not an exception.

5. Don’t deprive yourself with enough rest and sleep. Having enough sleep does not condone laziness; oversleeping does. So don’t feel guilty resting or sleeping as long as it is not overdone. You need it badly to keep you revitalized from the tiresome demand of work.

6. Take time to relax. Breathe deeply if you must. Keep your thoughts organized before acting on them. Keep away from stress and anxiety. It may be impossible to completely eliminate stress since it is part of our challenging generation, but try to keep it down as much as possible. Stress may bring your memory into its inefficient level. Avoid the habit of saying to yourself that you might forget things, because you’re more likely to if you do. This just builds your anxiety level up to its panic mode.

7. Stay positive, creative, and energetic. Your memory needs to be within a circle of various things. Things that come in various shapes, sizes, and colors can motivate your creativity. This is a positive way of discovering your surroundings in all its variations and diversities. Avoid being enclosed within the four walls of your room just like you’re a prisoner. The only time to be enclosed is when you have to rest or sleep. Don’t be a couch potato. There’s a very exciting world out there waiting to improve your memory.

The very best time to improve your memory is between infancy and adolescent. As we grow old, memory starts to fail. But a strong memory that we can develop during the prime years of our lives will definitely enhance us to be good thinkers. This can be done by continuously exercising our memory through reading and other cognitive activities like the habit of solving crossword puzzles. The more you do these, the better memory retention is developed.

As far as health is concerned, high blood pressure can lead to stroke and heart ailments. It also results to poor memory retention. Memory function declines when blood pressure is high. Researchers have observed that people with normal blood pressure, especially at midlife, have a higher cognitive function. Concentration, decision-making, and remembering functions falter as a result of high blood pressure. What is healthy for the body is likewise healthy for the memory.

Jennifer Stromsteen
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/maintaining-your-memory-in-top-condition-469038.html