Finding Relaxation with Computer Games

We welcome a guest post from Evelina Brown, an expert on the beneficial impact of computer games:

What do you think about computer games? Is this part of modern life evil or a good release for the brain? Today we would like to talk about those aspects of computer games that can only benefit you! Let's go!

Computer Games Are A Modern Method Of Recreation

Computer games are not just a way to have fun. Playing a computer, a person relaxes and plunges into a new world. The gameplay creates an alternative virtual place where the player does not spend a resource on physical presence, where the player literally may or may not be himself or herself. The effect of alternative reality can be vividly felt in role-playing games like The World of Warcraft, Fallout, The Outer Worlds and many others. The opportunity to have a role, being another person or character, gives a sense of freedom and relaxation. A sense of inner freedom and confidence is given not only by role-playing games, but also by other types of games.

What do people usually think about computer games? Often, when people wonder about computer games, they represent in their mind something that is not the most useful for our health. Especially for the health of the eyes and head. However, today we want to talk about the advantages of computer games for your health and general psychophysical condition. There are really a lot of pluses if you do it wisely.

Most of us are engaged in complex mental and physical labor every day. Studying, working and training are a big part of our life, which takes a lot of our energy. We usually spend a lot of energy and health on concentration and perseverance. Obviously, in order to keep yourself in good shape, you need to relax perfectly and have a good rest in your free time. There are quite a lot of ways for a quality holiday and each of us is suitable for his own. What is the beauty of computer games? Let's figure it out!

Moving in space

In order to travel, it is not necessary to book a plane and a hotel. Sometimes it's enough just to take a computer mouse or joystick! Moving between worlds is the main way of entertainment of the 21st century!

Fans of different worlds – plots of books, movies, TV series can find themselves right inside their favorite stories! Thanks to the realistic graphics of computer games and recreated to the smallest detail popular alternative worlds, modern people can literally travel in space. Doesn’t it sound fantastic?

Leisure with friends

The modern world is moving faster and faster towards digitalization and increasing the influence of the Internet on our lives. Most likely, you even have friends whom you met online and have never met. But at the same time, we communicate with them in exactly the same way as with friends from real life, except for the possibility of tactile contact. The days when we could contact a friend from another part of the planet only by phone or via SMS have already passed. Today we can spend evenings together and see each other as real!

Pleasure

Pleasure is one of the key reasons for the love of computer games.

So, for example, in the multiplayer game Path of Exile, you can not only have a cool time with your friends, but also make new ones right online! And if it seems to you that difficult tasks and hard leveling stages will cause negative emotions and impotence to you, then do not forget that players can use the poe carry service and enjoy the game to the fullest! Why be indignant and irritated after a tough day, if you can get a full range of positive emotions!

Logic and exercise for the mind

In contrast to the previous point, let's talk about computer games as a warm-up for the brain. Many studies of the scientific community from different countries have provided information that computer games are able to develop in a person such indicators as attentiveness, concentration, reaction speed, memory and even thinking flexibility. Games give you the opportunity not only to have fun and relax, but also to test your logic for strength. Going through difficult tasks and various stages, you train to keep your brain in good shape!

Skills training

It is difficult not to agree with the fact that in the modern world, various kinds of simulators are actively used, which allow you to hone certain skills while sitting at home and not being exposed to any unnecessary danger.

Are you planning to get a driver's license? Then try to play a car simulator for driving, which will help in practicing skills and memorizing the right actions in various road situations. You can even try yourself as a new profession if you play specialized simulators. And you've probably heard about the most popular truck driver simulator called Euro Truck Simulator 2, which has the largest fan base among similar games, whose participants create mods that include various cities of the world and much more. There are a lot of offers in the world of simulators! Try everything!

What is the main thing?

Life in the modern world has such a high pace that sometimes there is not even enough time for something uniquely useful. The passage of another computer game can take from several tens to hundreds of hours of real time.

At such moments, the realization comes: the main thing is balance and harmony in everything. Including hobbies. If you set aside a certain amount of time for this, monitor your condition and avoid excess, everything will definitely be fine!

Therefore, play for fun, keep your balance, look for new friends and spend your free time cool! As all the above facts show, computer games can be really useful both for your state of mind and for the stationary system.

 

One Secret to Longer Life Is ..... Sleeping!

According to Yahoo News, one surprising secret to longevity: sleeping.

Here's what the science says -

Relaxation could help you live longer. Whether you’re taking a leisurely stroll around your favorite shady park or carving out five minutes during your lunch break for meditation, science shows it’s time to prioritize rest. And there’s no better time to do it: 34% of Americans say that their level of stress is “completely overwhelming most days,” according to a poll by the American Psychological Association.

Chronic surges of stress hormones can take a significant toll on your overall well-being, setting the stage for life-shortening health issues like cardiovascular disease and cancer. Thankfully, relaxation can curb those hormonal spikes to support longevity.

The good news: Relaxation can make a real difference by curbing stress hormones and ultimately supporting longevity. Here are five facts science has revealed about how relaxation could add years to your life.

1. Residents of 'Blue Zone' regions prioritize sleep and relaxation

There are five areas in the world where people consistently live to be over 100 years old: the so-called Blue Zones. There are lifestyle commonalities among these five regions — Ikaria in Greece, Okinawa in Japan, the Ogliastra region on the Italian island of Sardinia, Loma Linda in California and Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica — that are often touted as the playbook for better health and, of course, longevity.

And rest is at the center of their healthy lifestyle. Centenarians from Blue Zone regions not only get a solid seven to nine hours of sleep each night, but they also take frequent naps.

Researchers have found that people who live in Blue Zones enjoy movement naturally throughout their day-to-day, have a sense of purpose, have stress-busting routines (like happy hour or naps) and generally belong to a faith-based community.

Dana Udall, a licensed mental health care provider and chief clinical officer of Headspace, tells Yahoo Life these “meditative or contemplative” practices are ways of regulating the body to decrease its stress response. “Also, coming together in community has been shown to have a host of benefits, including decreasing loneliness and depression and increasing longevity as well,” she adds.

2. Regularly engaging in 'waking rest' can be as restorative as sleep

Science has long celebrated quality sleep as a way to boost longevity. But living longer isn't just about napping. Consider waking rest — defined as quiet, reflective time that gives the brain a chance to acknowledge and work through thoughts that occur spontaneously. Studies show that ways to relax and restore the body and mind can boost immunity, self-control and the ability to retain information — all aspects of health that can add years to one’s life.

The alternative isn't pretty. Dr. Elizabeth Sharp, CEO and medical director of the New York City-based concierge medical practice Health Meets Wellness, tells Yahoo Life, “Poor sleep is a fast track to factors that can negatively impact health and longevity: increased levels of inflammation, poor eating habits, decreased levels of physical activity and mood changes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety.”

In a 2019 letter published in the journal Sleep, researchers noted that “waking rest can be incorporated into one’s life not only during periods of insomnia but also during the day to facilitate mental rejuvenation,” and “creating time for waking rest may be especially important for our feelings and emotional control and may help remedy various mental health and sleep problems.” They conclude: “We need to make waking rest culturally acceptable to increase health and well-being for our generation and those to come.”

Serena Poon, a longevity wellness expert, tells Yahoo Life that wakeful rest is just as helpful to overall health and longevity as sleep, because it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, a network of nerves that aids in rest.

And engaging in regular wakeful rest activity — something as simple as a daily meditation practice, especially before bed — can help combat symptoms of stress and can help you live longer, adds Sharp.

3. Meditating can slow cellular aging

Science also shows just how powerful a meditation practice can be to slow cellular aging: Research published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences found that meditative practices can lower stress hormones and reduce oxidative stress, which can damage cells, proteins and DNA and is linked to various life-shortening diseases (such as diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's). “When we meditate, we are lowering our blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen consumption, which results in higher energy levels and better immunity and sleep,” Udall says.

A similar analysis published in Frontiers in Immunology, which analyzed 18 previously published studies, found that mind-body practices like meditation and breathing exercises appeared to suppress the expression of genes and genetic pathways that promote chronic inflammation, which can take a toll on physical and mental health.

Udall notes that the beauty of meditation is that it doesn’t take long to prove beneficial. “Training your mind to be in the present, to be aware, to be welcoming of whatever comes up, can immediately decrease stress and can boost mood and focus and concentration in a very short period of time,” she says. “You don't have to meditate for 20 or 40 minutes every day. You can build up a practice that is really a few minutes.”

4. Slow, controlled breathing has been linked to longevity

Maximize your heart rate variability (HRV) and potentially live longer. That is according to research in the journal Breathe, which finds that controlled slow breathing practices appear to be an effective way to maximize HRV, or the variance in the timing between each heartbeat.

The study finds that "controlled, slow breathing appears to be an effective means of maximizing HRV and preserving autonomic function, both of which have been associated with decreased mortality in pathological states and longevity in the general population."

In other words, breathing slowly activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows the heart rate and reduces blood pressure and could help you live longer.

“On the flip side, reduced heart rate variability is tied to immune dysfunction, inflammation, cardiovascular disease and mortality,” says Poon.

5. Spending time in nature can reduce life-threatening diseases

Getting outside is study-proven to offer a bevy of benefits that could prolong your life. Using data from the U.S.-based Nurses’ Health Study prospective cohort, which studied approximately 100,000 women nationwide, Harvard researchers found that women who lived in areas with the highest level of greenness had a 12% lower rate of death compared with women whose homes had the lowest level of greenness. They even broke it down further, finding:

• 13% lower rate for cancer mortality

• 35% lower mortality related to respiratory disease

• 41% lower rate for kidney disease mortality

Another review, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, notes that time in nature decreases depression and anxiety, improves cognitive function and helps prevent chronic disease. “These are all important factors of living a long and healthy life,” says Poon.

These benefits may be attributed to the fact that spending time in green spaces has also been shown to decrease stress levels, she points out.

 

Colors For the Day You Were Born

I have heard that in Thailand, the day of your birth has a very specific color. To improve your luck through the year, you should wear your "birth color" on your birthday every year. The King was born on a Monday and the entire country, as a sign of respect and love, will be wearing yellow shirts on his birthday.

Here are the days and their colors for handy reference:

Sunday - Red

Monday - Yellow

Tuesday - Pink

Wednesday - Green

Thursday - Orange

Friday - Blue

Saturday - Purple

How to Bring Good Luck into Your Home

Maybe you’re the type of person who knocks on wood to stop yourself from jinxing. Or you keep an amethyst crystal on your nightstand in hopes of absorbing anxiety to help you nod off. In one way or another, these behaviors are linked to capturing positive energy.

"Superstitions give one a sense of control in a complex, apparently impersonal, and largely unpredictable world," says Phillips Stevens, Ph.D., professor of Anthropology Emeritus, State University of New York at Buffalo and author of forthcoming book Rethinking the Anthropology of Magic and Witchcraft (Routledge). The idea that an action or an object can prevent something bad from happening is a type of magical thinking. When it comes to the home, certain cultural do's and don'ts are tied to the idea of universal order—balance and harmony, the yin and the yang. The inside of a home should be peaceful and comfortable, to counteract the potentially risky and unpredictable outside world. As a result, each culture has created rituals, ways that capture the transition and transformation from outside to inside.

Take the ubiquitous superstition: opening an umbrella inside. Everyone knows it’s bad luck, right? But why? Stevens explains that, since an umbrella is an object related to bad weather, bringing it inside is akin to inviting the storm in. Better leave it in the foyer, closed, until it's needed.

In addition to magic superstitions, there are also sign superstitions that believers interpret as messages from the universe, such as seeing a black cat cross one’s path. "Some prefer the term 'folk beliefs', as superstitions can be a pejorative term," says Tok Thompson, PhD, professor of anthropology and communications at University of Southern California in Los Angeles and author of Posthuman Folklore. "Some superstitions are later proven by science to be true, and then are no longer superstitions but scientific belief. Likewise, science can change its mind, and what is scientific belief at one point can become superstitious belief later. In general, superstitions are beliefs about the world, and about what causes what, that are not approved by science."

One of the reasons people still believe in superstitions today is habit and routine. Think of it this way, if you always get up on the same side of the bed and get coffee but one day you crawl out on the opposite side and skip your coffee, your day might feel a bit off. Or if your favorite team wins the playoffs when you're wearing a particular t-shirt, you might feel inclined to wear it again the next time they play. "Persistent behaviors give you a sense of control and that’s terrifically important when processing the world at large," Stevens continues. That's why if you do something out of turn and the day isn’t great, it can be attributed to the anomaly, especially one that is dubbed a taboo. "Superstitions are a part of folklore, and have been around for a long, long time. Way longer than writing," Thompson continues. "But they change, die out, and new ones emerge."

The bottom line in our view: Better safe than sorry! To keep your household running smoothly, read on for 11 things to try so that your house is full of good juju.

Make the most of mirrors

Keep hats off the bed

Bring in some horns

Give Ghosts something to read

Arrange flowers in odd numbers

Never put shoes on a table

Powerfully position your bed

Save the spiders

Sweep strategically

Don't dine in the dark

Clean the commode

 

https://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/home-makeovers/g44266174/11-ways-to-bring-good-luck-into-your-home/?fbclid=IwAR1XRDDINFFkhZUFbP9om5ORRuaSOTmzGE0WFIfnpIWik9bjgd7AhbLaR6c_aem_th_AV-jWwLCg-ELK2UGfVh-e1jkvNvk-Krrd7xgx9MUC1LIrB35aL0YhC2pHeaSX1Yt8zA&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

 

Gene Krackehl's Message About Ascension and Mercury Retrograde

Gene Krackehl is an amazing healer whose recent email also covers the Mercury Retrograde. Here is his message to me and his many followers:

 

Ascension & Mercury Retrograde...

 

From a spiritual perspective "Ascension" is simply the raising of one's consciousness. It's something we all came here to experience. This process usually takes place over many lifetimes but on this planet is now happening at an incredibly intensified rate. The path to its completion can cause great pain and suffering as we continue to witness huge upheavals in every area of our existence. 

 

Qualities that we may have taken for granted (like honesty, integrity, truth, freedom, joy, harmony, unity, forgiveness & love) are being threatened in an alarming manner! Is it really necessary to fully appreciate what we have only after we lose it?

 

This process coupled with "Mercury Retrograde" which we're in now - (Oh no, not again!!!) is when Mercury appears to move backwards in relation to our own orbit. It's when all forms or communications & electronics go haywire - further exacerbating our lives.

 

Sometimes structures need to be torn down to make way for something better presenting us with a choice about how we want to live our lives... 

 

Instead of getting upset with what's going on around us (as in a greater sense they are only illusions) choose to focus on finding something to feel joyful about in every moment.

 

Teach others how to love unconditionally simply by loving them. Your life will change immensely and as a result so will everyone else's!

 

Wishing you the most fulfilling evolution of your life!