Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.

Does the smoothness of waterpipe smoke mean it is safer than cigarette smoke?
While hookah smoke is less irritating to the throat, it still contains tar, carbon monoxide, and nicotine. The smoothness of hookah smoke may actually encourage deeper inhalation and thus greater exposure to these elements. The World Health Organization estimates that hookah users may inhale as much smoke during one hookah session as a cigarette smoker would inhale consuming 100 or more cigarettes.
 
Does the water in a hookah filter out harmful ingredients?
The water filters out only a small amount of the carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar, and heavy metals found in hookah smoke. For example, less than 5% of nicotine is filtered out into the water. This nominal reduction of nicotine may be offset by a tendency to compensate by inhaling more deeply or more often to get the desired amount of nicotine.
 
Is hookah smoking safer than cigarette smoking because the tobacco is not burned?
While the tobacco in a hookah is heated rather than burned, it still produces smoke. In addition, hookah tobacco is often lit using charcoal, which itself releases high levels of carbon monoxide. The levels of carbon monoxide (CO) produced and absorbed by hookah smoking, which may be as high or higher than that of cigarettes, vary depending on hookah size (higher CO in smaller hookahs), the type of hose on the hookah (higher CO with a plastic hose), the type of charcoal, and the type of tobacco. 
 
My hookah tobacco says it has no tar. Does this mean it is safer to smoke than other tobacco?
Tobacco itself does not contain tar-tar is created when tobacco burns. While several studies have found that tobacco smoked through a hookah produces more tar than tobacco smoked in a cigarette, it has been suggested that it is the quality-not the quantity-of tar produced that is of concern. Since the tobacco smoked through a hookah is heated rather than burned, it reaches much lower temperatures than in a cigarette. The temperature at which tar is produced from burning tobacco may be related to how hazardous and carcinogenic it is, thus the type of tar produced by hookah smoke may be less carcinogenic than that produced by cigarette smoke. 
 
Is hookah smoking safer than cigarette smoking because the nicotine content is lower?
Since the nicotine content of both cigarettes and hookah tobacco varies greatly, it is hard to determine which product has higher nicotine. However, a meta-analysis of studies of hookah smokers found that a person who smokes hookah daily absorbs as much nicotine as someone who smokes 10 cigarettes per day, while an occasional hookah smoker (once during a four-day period) absorbs as much nicotine as smoking two cigarettes per day.
 
Can I become addicted to smoking a hookah?
Hookah smoking has potentially the same risks of dependence as any other way of using tobacco. However, the risks may be decreased slightly because of the intermittent, recreational nature of hookah use. The limited research on hookah dependence suggests that a transition from social to individual use, sharing less frequently, and a change of behavior to accommodate hookah use may be signs of possible dependence.
 
Is smoking non-tobacco, herbal maassel harmful?
While herbal maassel does not contain nicotine, it still produces tar and CO when burned.
 
Sources
CESAR FAX Volume 17, Issue 23 (June 9, 2008)
"Scientific Evidence of the Health Risks of Hookah Smoking"

Irony: As I started to write this article, I thought, "I'll just go play one Sudoku game first." I caught myself in the act and marched to my laptop.

People who say that procrastination is about laziness are probably the same people who think that anorexia is about not eating enough.

Procrastination isn't about laziness. It's about fear. It's about perfectionism. It's about overwhelm. We all experience it, and there are some tricks to help you get moving again.

Here are 9 ways to break the procrastination habit:

1 - When you get an idea, do some little thing to begin.
When I read Stephen King's book On Writing, I noticed something. I noticed that when Stephen King gets an idea, he writes it. Immediately and imperfectly.

Most people get an idea. Then they sit there. They wonder if it's a good idea. Then, they wonder if it's a good idea some more.
Got an idea? Begin it now!

2 - All hail small chunks of time!
Lots of us complain about having no time. My guess is that we all have lots of time. It just doesn't happen to be all at once.

Are you waiting for many hours of spare time to begin your idea, your project, or your taxes? Stop waiting! Learn to use the spare half hour that comes up here and there.
 
(I gave myself 45 minutes to write this article just to take my own advice.) 
 
3 - Agree to do it badly.
Set a goal to do it badly. Set a goal to show up. Let go of doing it ALL, or doing it WELL.

Some of my coaching clients' biggest victories have a lot more to do with getting over perfectionism and fear, than they do about getting it all done perfectly
 
4 - Commit aloud.
Call a friend and say something like this: "I'm going to spend the next half hour working on my Law School Essay." Then go do it.

Call the friend after the half hour and make her congratulate you. Repeat daily..
 
5 - Define quantities.
Nebulous goals make for nebulous results. "I'm gonna get my office organized" is a lot like saying, "We oughtta do something about Global Warming."

Most procrastinators have a hard time defining quantities. We think everything needs to be done NOW.

When are you going to do it? For how long? Which part of your office? The file cabinet? Or your desk?

Define the goal and acknowledge its completion.

Note: The Clutter Removal Action Process (or, "C.R.A.P.") is one of the many bonus elements of my new "Uplevel Your Life Mastery Program" - and it makes this step a BREEZE!

 6 - Install this System Upgrade into your Mental Hard Drive: Less is More.
Have fewer goals. Have no more than three priorities for a week.

Why? Because you're not lazy. You're just trying to do too much.

Find out what it feels like to accomplish one thing instead of not quite getting to everything. Wow - what a difference this makes!

7 - Do it first.
My first coach made me write songs first thing in the morning. He told me to schedule the 2-hour chunk as my first activity upon waking.

Why?  "Because you're telling the universe that this is your priority. And then the universe lines up everything to align with your priority."
 
Action grounds your priorities. It makes them real. It also makes your day easier because you're not wasting energy thinking about this thing you're supposed to be doing.

8 - Avoid nose-bleed activities.
Email, voicemail, web stats - any activity that bleeds itself into your whole day becomes a non-activity. It becomes a nose-bleed.

When you do it all the time, you never complete it. You just let it slowly drain the very life force from you. Define times for these activities. Then, turn off your email, your cell phone, your web stats, until that time comes.
 
9 - Don't ask how you "feel" about doing the activity.
Have you ever committed to getting fit? And then when the alarm goes off, you lie in bed thinking, "Do I really feel like going to the gym?" (Like you even have to ask!)

Change this pattern. Make your decision the night before. Commit to getting up and going right to the gym, the computer, the blank canvas. Don't have coffee and sigh and think, "I'll probably feel more like it at lunch time." You won't!

If it's a priority, don't waste time asking yourself how you feel about doing it. Feelings are an easy out.
 
----------------------------

There. I did it. I wrote this article. And now, I don't even want to play Sudoku! How about that?
 
Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her 'LiveCreative' weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FREE subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com to hard and tackle them according to your mood and your stress level! 

from Tricia Thibodeau

Program Director, California

If you could start your life all over what would be different? What would you change now if you were able to wave a magic wand and start from scratch?

Just imagine you have no ties, no burdens, no limits, no memories, and no past.

What would your life look like? If the answer that comes to your mind is different than what you are doing, why is that? Is it because of someone else's opinion? A spouse, a parent - or maybe your children?

The ultimate test of your life is to close your eyes and think of yourself on your deathbed. Lying there, preparing yourself to leave, look back at your life as you are currently living it.

How do you feel? Are you satisfied you lived completely? Or do you wish you had done differently? Very few of our senior citizens look back on their life and say, "I sure wish I had spent more time at the office!" Nobody says, "I wish I had watched more TV!"

This is what they say. "I wish I had been bolder. I wish I had given more. I wish I had tried harder to see more, do more and feel more." People wish that they had lived more.

I, for one, have to admit to a certain amount of holding back on dreams and goals because of our two boys. As my life progresses I realize there is no reason to hold back.

We have not been exactly standing still either. We have done our best to live our dreams. We built a sailboat and sailed for 7 years traveling on the open ocean. We lived in the snow in Aspen Colorado, and on the beach in South Carolina. An old brick mill was our home in Long Island, versus a boat dock in Palm Beach Florida. We are writers of books and music, actors in the theater, and we home- school the boys. We have built a horse farm, and businesses! Yet, there is so much more we want to do!

It is a balancing act. We all must have sufficient finances to support a comfortable lifestyle, (although most of us tend to spend way too much on that!) Part of this balancing act is understanding what we are passionate about doing so that work becomes a joy instead of a job.

Is this not a major reason of lost dreams and goals? Many people find work, call it a job and make a living at it. But they begrudge every minute of it, going as far as using the job as a reason for playing the martyr. Find something else!

There are many, many teachers of the attraction philosophies of "making a life". With as many opportunities today in every field imaginable, somewhere, something is calling to you.

Another part of the balancing act is to include those around you in frank and open discussions in what it is you want. I find some of my coaching clients have kept their wants and needs bottled up inside them forever! They had already decided for the other person in their lives there was no interest in whatever it was they themselves wanted to do! How absurd! How can we possibly know what someone else wants!

Would it not be tragic to spend your life in a big city for 40 years, working at a job you despise because you thought your spouse liked it, even though you wanted to live in the country and be a farmer? Then one day you overhear your spouse tell her best friend all she ever wanted to do was live in the country? 40 years!

Sure this is a bit far fetched - but you would be amazed at what I hear!

Make an attempt today to start with a brand new page of your life. Create your life story how you want it. If there are others in your life to be involved, have them do the same exercise. Then compare what your notes. If this matches your current life, congratulations! You are one of the few. Now make it better.

However, if your written life stories sound like someone completely different, then you are living a life of conflict.

Here is the good news. Your life is your life. No one can take that away from you. You are not indentured. You are not a slave. You are free to go, do, and be whomever you wish.

It might not be easy, but it sure might be worth it. I coach people daily who are changing their lives. There are so many things to be grateful for, and so many things open to us. We owe it to all the ones before us who gave us this opportunity to take advantage of it.

Today.

by Miami Phillips

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."

~Mary Kay Ash