Source: http://www.niashanks.com/life-problems/

Ever wish there was a simple chart that could help you solve many of life’s problems? Wish no more; here’s a flowchart you can use to solve many of your problems.

Life is packed with complicated messes. Clean one up and two more will replace it.

Ahh, life. She can be exuberant, beautiful, and magnificent. But she can also be filthy, confusing, and laden with choices and problems.

Complicated as life can be, there are instances that are made unnecessarily complicated. Heck, some people make things more convoluted than they need to be to stroke their ego and sound superior. If they make something appear incredibly complex — something you can’t possibly figure out on your own — you’ll have no choice but to surrender to their superior knowledge and expertise.

Health and fitness, saving for retirement and investing, learning new skills, you name it and there’s someone (or lots of someones) out there saying if you want to be successful then you must follow their plan without deviation.

As it turns out, many things in life aren’t nearly as complicated as some want you to believe. There are problems we face each day, for example, that have an incredibly simple solution. That is w…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/XzBVv2VLzqI/

“You can find peace amidst the storms that threaten you.” ~Joseph B. Wirthlin

Does your mind ever feel like a tornado of whirling thoughts?

And when that happens, do you wish for inner peace?

Well, not too long ago, after I quit my corporate job, I was stuck in that exact position. I realized that the degrees I earned and the jobs I chose made me miserable.

My inner chatter became unbearable, and my self-sabotaging, pestering thoughts sparked anxiety attacks, jitters, and nightmares. That forced me to go into therapy.

But even after a year of professional help, I felt so much despair that I thought I wouldn’t be able to survive it. My whole life lost meaning.

I was clinically depressed and needed chemicals to cut through the fog. I couldn’t even enjoy the activities I once loved.

The chemicals gave me jitters, so I tried deep breathing techniques, guided meditation, positive affirmations, and vision boards. Eventually, I found what worked for me.

The more I practiced what worked, the more comfortable I became with all my worries. No, my problems did not disappear, but I gained inner resolve and tenacity to become comfortable with the discomfort.

I’m proud of the efforts I made to ease my acute emotional distress. Whil…

Source: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2016/05/16/the-matrix-has-you-prisoner-take-the-2-week-break-free-challenge/

Every day, billion-dollar companies conspire against us. They use every possible tool at their disposal, hiring behavioral psychologists, and recruiting freaking scientists to capture the world’s most precious resource.

No, not money. Our time and attention!

You probably don’t even realize it, but we are being played at this very moment.

From Buzzfeed articles BEGGING us to click on them (“You won’t believe #5!”), to that tiny hit of dopamine we get with every new text alert, Facebook message, or email. And this has an impact on us – not just as we get distracted from our task at hand,  but long-term we compulsively seek out this “hit” more and more often.

In fact, I just checked my phone as I was writing this introduction because a text came in.

I feel like I’m trapped in a real-life version of The Matrix. This nerd classic explores a world in which the entire human race is hooked up to a virtual reality system designed to keep us blissfully ignorant and complacent, so we can be used as batteries for the machines. In short: we built machines to make our lives easier, and they ended up owning us.

Sound familiar?

In non-nerd terms, we’re hooked on digital “junk food:” Empty calories that we consume, making us temporarily happy but ultimately unfulfilled: soda, chips, candy. Because these things have minimal nutritional value, we eat …

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/L_cLzO3BmWQ/

“This is the root of Self. You are not your thoughts; you are aware of your thoughts. You are not your emotions; you feel your emotions…. You are the conscious being who is aware that you are aware of all these inner and outer things.” ~Michael Singer

I sat across from my colleague with a growing sense of discomfort. I had accepted an assignment from the boss, but I heard from my colleague an undercurrent of questioning and uncertainty—or so it seemed. It was so subtle that I couldn’t quite tell what was going on.

Did she not believe I could do it? Nobody else was stepping forward to meet the need. Was she saying it’s better to go with nobody than with me?

All I knew for sure was that I wasn’t hearing this outright. I decided to let it go, head on home, think about it tomorrow, and be fully present with my family instead. But the next morning as I pulled into my parking spot in front of the office, a subtle agitation rumbled in my stomach.

I walked into the quiet building and set my things down in the office, distracted by my disquiet and wishing I could focus on my task list. The thoughts prickling at me wouldn’t let go.

I laid my pen down and asked myself, “Okay, what’s going on?”

In my to…

Source: http://zenhabits.net/face-everything/

By Leo Babauta

We are, all of us, amazing at avoiding things.

Our minds are less “thinking machines” than they are “avoiding machines.” And the incredible thing is that we aren’t even usually aware that we’re avoiding thinking about something.

I’ll give you a few examples:

Right now you’re reading this article but probably avoiding the difficult thing you don’t want to think about.
We are constantly checking messages, news, feeds, notifications … to avoid doing something we don’t want to face.
When we’re facing difficulties in life, we try to tell ourselves that’s it’s OK because (fill in the blank), or get busy with some activity or numbing agent (like alcohol) so we don’t have to face the difficulties.
When a problem comes up, our reaction is to want to go do something else, put it off.
We put off paying bills, doing taxes, dealing with long emails, dealing with clutter, because we don’t want to face these difficulties.
We put off exercise because it’s uncomfortable.

In fact, there are thousands more examples, every day, that come up and that we don’t even notice, because our minds switch to thinking about something else.

Try this right now: pause for a minute and think about what difficulty you’re avoiding thinking about right now.

You will either notice a difficulty you don’t like, or your mind will quickly turn to…

Source: http://www.theminimalists.com/p022/

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

In this episode of The Minimalists Podcast, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus answer questions in front of a sold-out crowd in Miami, including:

How do you resist relapses into compulsory consumption?
Where do you purchase minimalist clothing?
What’s next for The Minimalists?
How can you best express the benefits of minimalism to others?
How can you reconcile your minimalists practices with the maximalist practices of family members?
How do you stay inspired and focused through the process of integrating minimalist practices into your life?
How can you encourage industries to integrate minimalist practices into their daily operations and future planning?

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Mentioned in This Episode

Book: Clutterfree with Kids
Book: Enough
Book: Essential
Book: Everything That Remains
Book: Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life
Book: The More of Less
Essay: 90/90 Minimalism Rule
Essay: Getting Rid of Just-In-Case Items
Essay: Let’s Play a Minimalism Game
Essay: Minimalism for Families with Children
Essay: My Exile Lifestyle
Essay: Packing Party
Essay: The Minimalists Open a Cof…

Source: http://mentalitywod.com/10415/how-to-get-to-the-crossfit-games-as-a-master-510/

Occasionally I feature posts from other individuals who have helpful input about the mental side of fitness, training or life. All of the other posts on this site are my thoughts, so I like to share different perspectives (especially so that you don’t get too tired of my ramblings).

Enjoy this post by Bruce Young, an incredible individual, CrossFit Masters Athlete (2015 CF Games Competitor) and someone who I’ve had the pleasure of coaching over the past couple of years.

How To Get To The Games As A Masters Athlete

Have Support At Home
* Being in good relationships with at least one person who really wants you to succeed as an athlete is an incredible help. Your support could come from family members, significant others, friends or even roommates.

I was very fortunate, and still am, to have a partner who is looking for me to really grow as an athlete. There were many times when I knew my wife, Cecile, would have rather I stay home but she knew how important this was to me. One way we managed this was to sit down every week and review what family events and couple time were coming up so that I could schedule around these valuable events. Putting this system in place will helped Cecile realize that she is just as important. When you are toget…

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/05/congressional-action-on-child-nutrition/

First the good news

The USDA is applying its school-food rules  to child and adult care programs.  It has just released its final rule for these programs.  These go into effect in October 2017.

Previously, the USDA released standards for the Women, Infants and Children program and for the National School Lunch Program.

Now all three food assistance programs are more or less aligned with the Dietary Guidelines.

The child and adult feeding programs will specify more fruits and vegetables, less sugar and fat, but have reduce the standards for whole grain-rich products and sodium.  Presumably, this will make the rules more acceptable to people who don’t like them, of which there are many (see below).

And now the bad news

The House has released its child nutrition reauthorization bill, with the Orwellian title: “Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act.”  Like all such titles, this one means the opposite of what it says.

The House bill increases reimbursements for school breakfasts (good), but then lowers the nutrition standards for school meals and makes it harder for schools to qualify for universal free meals.  Here’s the committee’s bill summary.  And here is what the House Education and Workforce Committee says in its fact sheet.

The Hagstrom Report quotes Margo Wootan of Center for Science in the Public Interest saying that the House bill will:

Freeze sodium reduction…

Source: http://summertomato.com/foodist-approved-mexican-pork-pozole-soup-recipe

Pork Pozole Verde Soup

I asked Darya what she was craving this week and she said a Mexican-style soup. I tend to cook a lot of food that’s French and Italian, inspired by my time living abroad in Switzerland, so I was thrilled to turn-up-the-heat and experiment with creating a dish that incorporates roasted peppers, earthy cumin, and slow-cooked pork shoulder.

If you haven’t cooked much with pork, this recipe will inspire you to try something new. Pork can be a healthy and richly satisfying part of your healthstyle if you seek out a butcher selling local meat that’s been raised humanely. After a long, slow simmer (a slow-cooker works best) the pork shoulder gets so tender that you can shred it into bite-size pieces reminiscent of Southern-style pulled pork.

To save time, this dish can be made with canned diced green chiles, but prying open a can isn’t nearly as much fun as charring a whole tray of fresh peppers (just try not to set off the fire alarm!). It takes just two to three Anaheim peppers to add some nice heat to the soup, but if you’re going to go to the trouble to roast fresh peppers you might as well char a whole bunch.

You can chop and freeze the extra roasted peppers in individual portions for future soup…

Source: http://greatist.com/live/internet-puts-guy-in-his-place-for-shaming-woman-at-the-gym?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

We’ll be the first to admit we’re guilty of gawking at others at the gym. (How do you think we figured out how all the machines work?) But the other sweaty Bettys fade into the background as we blast our music and focus on crushing our workout.

That doesn’t seem to be the case for this guy, who secretly filmed a woman working out and tried to shame her with the caption “TF she doing.” (For those of you who don’t keep up with the terms kids are using these days, “TF” stands for “the fuck.” Pleasant, right?) The video went viral on the website Worldstar Hip Hop:

She’s actually doing a legit exercise—the Jefferson Squat—but that’s beside the point. It’s never acceptable to film someone without their permission, and we’re thankful most commenters agree that this is a toxic, all-too-common practice. Here are some of our favorite replies:

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