When most people think about a body detox system they often think that the only way to work with this is through diet and nutrition. The truth of the matter is that detoxification can be greatly implemented by the use of movement and exercise; in fact, some people say that detoxification is something that cannot happen without it! Any way you look at it, you’ll find that moving your body freely and with enthusiasm is something that many people agree will make you feel better. The symptoms that are addressed by full body detox, including lethargy, constant loss of energy and depression, can all be addressed through exercise as well, so when you are looking into a natural body detox, make sure that exercise is part of your regimen.

When you are thinking about a full body detox, you will need to think of the ways that toxins actually leave your body. You’ll find that your skin is actually one of your major eliminative organs, and that you can get a lot of the toxins out of your body by sweating them out. Take some time to think, though, about the last time you sweat. Whether it is due to wearing clothes that are too tight, or don’t allow your skin to breathe because they are synthetic, you’ll find that sweating is something that we often take pains not to do. Similarly, the masses of skin care products that we put into our skin can also be quite difficult when it comes to making sure that toxins are leaving our bodies, so make sure you think about what this has to do with your body detox plan.

Good exercise can help this out a great deal. When you exercise, your body is allowed to sweat freely, and you’ll find that toxins will be removed from your skin. When exercising make sure that you wear loose-fitting clothes made of natural fibers. This will allow you to really get the toxins out when you are working out. Working out will also increase your circulation, allowing your body to fuel the metabolic processes that help you during a natural body detox.

The important thing to remember is that your exercise should not be a source of stress, as stress, after all, is another thing that can cause toxic buildup in our systems. Find a type of exercise that you enjoy and make sure that it is one you want to stick with. Whether you are a dancer, a martial artist, someone who loves treadmills or someone who prefers tae bo or jazzercise. You’ll find that there is a great deal of different exercises out there for you that can help you with a full body detox. Take some time to really consider what you are doing and why; don’t keep doing one exercise over and over again, take some time to find a few that you like and rotate to keep from being bored.

Exercise is an important part of any good body detox plan, so make sure that you don’t take it lightly. The more you like your exercise regimen, the more you’ll want to do it, and you’ll find that with just a little bit of work, you can really get into the swing of your chosen body detox system and feel great.

About The Author:
John Khu is a health enthusiast and author of a new eBook titled \”Body Detox Tips\”. He is devoted to educate others on the benefit of body detoxification. He is also the owner of the website called http://www.bodydetoxtips.com which provides complete and up-to-date information.

Your internet marketing business pivots around several key ingredients that make it hum. Today I’d like to share techniques for getting the actual product that you can sell online.

People who produce their own products must research things very well. On-line marketers who wish to develop their own product must research the demand for what they envision.

There is a completely different approach to this that I teach in my free on-line 5-day course. This is an approach that makes all the difference in what you do.

What you are going to do before you ever select a product is to know how well it sells, how popular it is, and what people are willing to pay for it. What a great business approach you now have available with all the product sales statistics at your fingertips as you move through the selection process. The choice is yours as to which product of the thousands availale you would like to have.

There is a huge demand for products that can give people information on how to make their lives better. A huge on-line warehouse is available to you for product selection.

These products are managed by a company that does the lion’s share of selling in this massive market. The producers of these information-based products actively seek to have people sell them.

Product owners can be quite generous, paying you up to 75% in many cases.

A huge amount of groundwork has been accomplished for you. The fun part is in choosing a product that interests you and that you feel will do the best job for you. You should use the product criteria I like to consider when I am choosing the next project that I want to work on.

Look for a product that solves a problem people have. Additionally, focus on a product that you would like to have yourself. Look for a product with a good, compelling sales letter and other exciting sales materials. Look for testimonials from satisfied customers as well as popularity rankings of the product you are considering.

You should take note of the commissions available and go for 50% minimum.

Make a practice of actually buying and using the product you choose. Your customers will be more convinced that it’s a good idea to buy your product if you can say how well it helped you do something better.

A company that does all this can be found in one stop at: http://www.clickbank.com

Spend some time at this website so you can appreciate the products available to you for your use. At this site, you will also find rankings of all products so you can locate the best ones.

It’s a very simple matter for you to establish yourself as an affiliate. As quickly as you establish your affiliate account you are in position to benefit from each customer that visits and acts on your site. You simply register to get a user name (also known as a nickname) established with clickbank.

With that nickname you are established to get credit for all the sales of any and all products that you choose for your project. More than 10,000 products are yours from which to choose.

You can earn an amazing 75% on some products. Clickbank has high converting products which drive a high return on your marketing efforts.

The ‘product warehouse’ company keeps track of everything and makes sure the product-owners pay what you are owed.

You can get your own web site established for a very reasonable price these days. Get your site set up and people can go there right away and learn about your product.

About The Author:
Casey Moher - Caseymoher@comcast.net (801) 941-3334

Mr. Moher is a Registered Pharmacist and Life-Long Marketing and Sales Professional. You Can Get His Free Five-Day Mini-Course on Building Targeted Website Traffic by visiting: http://www.newtrafficmaster.com

In hot humid climates, such as are encountered in tropical and sub tropical regions around the world proper humidity testing and control can be crucial to properly understanding and solving a mold problem.

In fact many coastal homes in Florida and the South East experience mold problems in the absence of any leaks. Many homeowners and even mold inspectors fail to properly understand the connection between common building defects that cause humidity and the buildings mold problems. Sometimes large oceanfront mansions have constant or reoccurring mold problems that go on for many years.

According to all the reliable text and experts including but not limited to Bioaerosols Assessment and Control, Institute of Inspection Cleaning Restoration Certification S500, and S520, EPA Guidelines and many more mold can become a problem when humidity goes above 60% to 65% RH. Pleases note that 60% RH is not optimal but may be just barely adequate humidity levels to support a small amount of the most drought tolerant molds. The higher the humidity, the more mold growth will occur.

Humidity levels that are too low also cause problems. Humidity levels below 30% cause dry lips, dry throats, and other increased health complaints such as drying mucous membranes and an increased risk of catching colds. Low humidity can also increase static electricity that can in return damage computer data. To be on the safe side, keep your humidity between 30% and 60% RH.

A few species of xerotorlant pen asp mold are commonly found indoors. Xerotorlant is just a fancy was of saying drought tolerant. I like to call these molds humidity molds. These molds by definition do not require as much moisture as other molds, but they still require moisture. They can grow in the absence of leaks by simply living on the humidity content (ERH) that they absorb from growth surfaces in humid environments.

Simply, here is how it works. Humidity in the air absorbs into the growth surface such as drywall, wood or clothes, the humidity levels in these substrates known as equilibrium relative humidity goes up in direct proportion to the humidity in the air. This causes the available moisture content (wA) in the substrate to go up. Thus, the humidity in the air eventually ends up being absorbed into the clothes in your closet and into the drywall in your home and then by the mold.

Humidity in and of itself causing mold growth is not the only concern from elevated humidity. It will also prevent proper drying of wet surfaces when leaks occur. If you own an ocean front property in Florida, Louisiana, or the Carolinas, and have high indoor humidity and a leak occurs then you are courting trouble. Especially, if you are out of town when all this occurs because the leak will not dry up before mold sets in.

This inspector (DW) often finds two types of xerotorlant molds, again these molds do not require much water but only what they get from humidity. One specific type of humidity loving xerotorlant pen / asp mold grows on dark black clothes and black leather shoes and purses. Why does this mold like black clothes? It grows on all clothes but it is almost always completely invisible on other clothes because the mold forms small white circles about 1/8 inch across that only shows up on black clothes. This mold loves clothes, luggage, leather, wicker items and sometimes walls. It starts out first in your closet because drying air circulation is typically lower in closets.

If you find your mold inspector inspecting you shoes and clothes don’t freak out, he is just doing his job.

One important fact is that this mold when it first starts may be almost completely invisible to the untrained eye, yet it has been demonstrated to cause seriously elevated spore levels in the air, furthermore you may be wearing this mold on your clothes and the mild odors associated with it everyday and suffering from allergenic reactions as a result long before you find out what is happening.

The other most common xerotorlant humidity mold that I know of that grows in humid indoor environments but does not require leaks is a slow growing golden tan form of pen /asp. Specifically it is a type of Aspergillus that loves to grow on painted wood, painted drywall, and on books, it also forms colonies about 1/8 inch across and like the white mold above is not found around leaks. If you find your mold inspector looking at your books he is likely not reading but may be inspecting for these mold colonies. If you are familiar with faxing or yellowing of old books and documents you already have an idea of what this mold looks like. This mold and the oxidation of paper that results in faxing are likely sometimes confused with each other.

There are many ways that humidity or moisture can be measured in the air. Inspectors utilize two methods on a regular basis during comprehensive mold testing and humidity testing investigations.

Relative Humidity

Relative Humidity compares how much water vapor is present in the air to how much water vapor would be in the air if the air were saturated with water vapor.

Mixing Ratio

Mixing Ratio also measures the amount of water vapor in the air. But, mixing ratio measures the mass of water vapor for a given mass of dry air. We typically express it as grains of moisture per pound of dry air. That is grains not grams.

RH vs. MIXING RATIO

There is a strange phenomenon to take into consideration when measuring the amount of water in the air using relative humidity - the colder a parcel of air is, the more humid it becomes, even if you do not add water to it. And the warmer a parcel of air is, the less humid it becomes, even if you do not remove water from it.

When measuring the amount of moisture in air using mixing ration, temperature will not change the inspectors readings, thus the inspector should use mixing ratio measurements in hot or cold spaces so temperature changes do not affect the readings.

Example I:

Inside an attic in a tropical region the temperature may be 100

During a typical mold investigation, one of our first steps is an interview the client to determine specific details in regards to any known mold problems, any health complaints, or any known changes or defects at the subject property that may have resulted in mold or moisture problems.

Next, a comprehensive visual inspection is conducted of accessible areas of the Florida property, concentrating in areas of known mold problems, in areas where plumbing fixtures and AC units exist and where condensation problems and moisture damage may exist.

Usually inspections and testing takes us about 2 to 3 hours and around 5 to 10 air samples are taken on residential mold investigations, sometimes more and sometimes less. Most testing firms use Air-O Cells or Micro 5 spore traps, however, CyClex, Andersen and other impactor plates are also used. With these airborne spore testing devices at least one outdoor sample is taken as a control for comparison. Samples are used for measurement of spores per cubic meter of air and for identification of mold genus. Some mold testing firms take air samples from inside suspect walls.

Direct samples of actual mold or moldy materials called bulk samples, or impression type samples of mold using simple clear tape or swabs are sometimes taken as well for identification of mold types. Such sampling methods lets the inspector know the type of mold growing on the surface that was sampled, but this provide less information in regards to your air quality.

Because of high humidity in some area such as Florida, both indoor and outdoor readings of humidity are also commonly taken during mold testing.

Temperature and dew point levels should also be monitored.

A moisture meter should be used to measure moisture levels in representative building materials.

Finally, after sample results are returned from the lab, your inspector will rely upon his or her knowledge of your specific buildings conditions, general building sciences, lab result interpretive skills, and interview information they obtained from you to draw conclusions regarding your mold problem. They should also come up with solutions to the problem as well. Information should be communicated to you in the form of a comprehensive and professional written report.

Some examples of the type of information you should expect to find on your report are as follows:

1) The causes of moisture or humidity problems at your property.

2) Did toxic mold testing indicate airborne mold spore levels at your property to be higher than normal.

3) What should be done to professionally and safely correct the mold problem without causing the mold spores to be dispersed during cleanup.

About The Author:
Daryl Watters is president of A Accredited Mold Inspection Service, Inc. He provides home, mold, and indoor air quality investigations in South Florida. He is also the creator of MIR forms designed to aid inspectors in the production of computer generated indoor air quality and mold inspection reports. For more inspection information visit http://www.floridamoldinspectors.us http://www.florida-mold-inspection.com

All online business owners need a steady flow of traffic and paying customers to their websites in order to keep the cash register ringing and profits flowing. Most webmasters struggle with exactly how to make that happen, until which time they discover pay-per-click (PPC) advertising through the search engines, utilizing the Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing programs.

As small business owners discover the powerful advantage of using PPC advertising, they tend to spend a lot of time learning the systems and figuring out how to use these top-tier search-marketing tools to gain an advantage over their competitors.

In the growth curve of any business, a day will come when the business owner realizes that his or her personal time is best spent taking care of other business processes. When this time comes, the business owner will seek out other people to manage his or her PPC advertising campaigns.

It is at this juncture when business owners will either hire an in-house marketing person, or they will employ a third-party PPC Management company to service their PPC advertising accounts. This is where most businesses using pay-per-click advertising start to go wrong.

In-House Marketing Staff

It is true that the business owner needs to get back to the tasks that will make his or her business a true success. Part of the growth cycle is to find people who can replicate certain business processes, freeing the business owner to focus on other more important areas like product or service fulfillment, customer service, sales, human resources management, strategic planning and financial management.

But, finding the right person or company to best represent the needs of the business, in regards to PPC Management, can frequently be a crap shoot at best.

Racing to the local university to find a recent marketing graduate to bring into the company often results in opening a can of worms. Most college grads, which leave college with a degree in marketing, leave school with a very general understanding of basic marketing principles, human psychology, consumer behavior, advertising and promotion concepts, business finance, organizational management and strategic planning.

Although most universities do a good job at preparing their students for an entry-level job in marketing, few give their students any hands-on training in specific advertising methods that will be used in the real world, let alone with the advertising methods that enable commerce to flow on the Internet.

Pulling a marketing person from another business is often as problematic as hiring a recent college graduate. Unless one hires from a company that has used PPC advertising for some time, one might find the new hire possesses the same lack of hands-on experience with PPC advertising methods as the college grad.

Don’t get me wrong; marketing professionals are essential to the overall implementation of a business’ marketing plan. The problem is that the process of managing pay-per-click advertising campaigns really requires someone with very specialized experience, skills and knowledge.

The Problem With Most PPC Management Companies

An alternative to hiring someone in house is to hire a professional PPC Management company. The problem with most PPC Management companies is the same problem most people have with ordinary marketing companies.

First, typically there is that huge down payment to get the job started;

Most marketing companies require an ironclad contract committing the buyer to a six-month or twelve-month service contract;

Marketing service companies typically require huge monthly fees to maintain the contract (with most PPC Management companies, these fees frequently run in the range of 10%-20% of your monthly PPC spend);

The worst part about the typical Marketing company and PPC Management company is that while they extract a high toll from their customers, these companies seldom if ever offer any kind of real guarantee of results for the work that they will do for you.

After being burned two or three times by Marketing or PPC Management companies, most businesses start shopping for performance-based service providers. Unfortunately, it is a buyer-beware market out there.

PPC Management companies frequently suggest that their services are \”performance-based\”, but what they define as \”performance-based\” is often different from what you or I would define as truly \”performance-based\”.

How to Identify a \”True\” Performance-Based PPC Management Provider

When you are spending thousands of dollars per month on your pay-per-click campaigns, there are certain things that you should be able to expect from any PPC Management provider, who is claiming to offer performance-based services. I will outline some of the questions you should ask here:

How are your performance-based programs structured?

How will you measure performance improvements?

Will I have to pay any fees that are not directly linked to performance improvements?

Will the compensation that I have to pay be in proportion to the results you achieve for me?

Who will be working on my account? Is their compensation fixed or is it derived from the real performance improvements they make for my account?

How are you going to help me bring additional net profit to my business?

What other clients have you worked with, and what kind of successes have you achieved for them?

How long will I be required to keep my commitment to your company, if you are not producing real measurable performance improvements?

Do I have any recourse if you do not produce better results than I can accomplish on my own, without your help?

The problem within the PPC Management industry is that most management companies see themselves as advertising services companies. They often lack the in house skill that it takes to consistently produce significant performance improvements for client accounts. Their only recourse to stay financially viable is to offer fee-based services where client payment is guaranteed but clients’ results are not.

But, when a marketing management company adopts a true \”performance-based\” stance and begins to see itself as a partner in its client’s future, then the management company will have the appropriate incentives to take care of its client’s businesses in the same manner that it would take care of its own.

About The Author:
Greg Jerum is a principal at Net Return Marketing, a company which delivers true \”performance-based\” PPC Management to its clients. Net Return Marketing’s programs require little to no up front investment and the long-term compensation that a client pays is based directly on account performance. Whether you are just getting started with PPC advertising or spending $100K plus per month, Net Return Marketing could be the solution to your PPC management needs. Learn more at: http://www.netreturnmarketing.com/ppc-management.html

Search engine optimized press releases are still relatively new in the field of SEO (during some research I found an article from 2004 claiming they were the new “secret back door to top search engine ranking”), but they are incredibly beneficial to an SEO campaign.

But why?

Some of the most frequently asked questions I get from clients are “Why does my company need to do press releases? How will press releases benefit my SEO campaign?”

Part of the answer is in the anatomy of an optimized press release. A properly optimized press release will include your top keywords as well as links to your website.

Backlinks:

Once the optimized press release is distributed, it gets picked up on various sites and channels including news search engines such as Google news and Yahoo! news. Every time another website picks up the press release, it reproduces the release along with all of your keywords and links. This has the effect of generating widespread backlinks (links back to your site).

These backlinks are one of the factors Google uses for determining a website’s search engine ranking. Google looks at how many backlinks you have, and where they’re coming from, so add in the fact that most of the backlinks are coming from news websites which have very high page ranks, and you have a good amount of quality backlinks that will increase the page rank and link popularity of your website.

Increased Keyword Rankings and Visibility:

News stories on the web are considered more time sensitive than regular web pages, so when your press release is distributed, it will be linked very quickly, giving you early visibility in news sites, news searches and standard search engines. Many news web sites also archive stories which can help to deliver long term link value, rankings and visibility.

In addition, online news search queries are generally much more targeted than standard web searches. In other words, people searching for news related to your industry are more likely to search for the terms that are used in your press release, which gives you a better chance at increasing the ranking of your website for popular and competitive search terms.

Credibility and Increased Traffic:

Last but not least, well written content will always add credibility to your website. The more information you show that you know, the more trustworthy you become. When your press releases start appearing in Google news and Yahoo! news for your keywords, potential customers searching for your product or business will see that you are a credible source of information in your industry and that you can be trusted. Those with Google alerts for your keywords will automatically receive your press release in their inbox, which will generate interest and relevant traffic to your site as well.

Bottom Line:

So bottom line, “Why does my company need to do press releases?” Because search engine optimized press releases are one of the quickest and easiest ways to start generating more backlinks, visibility and traffic for your website, and are a beneficial addition to any SEO campaign, no matter what your industry.

About The Author:
Getting your target audience to find you is increasingly challenging, which is why adding the Press Release to your online marketing arsenal is of key importance. Learn more about the SEO Optimized Press Release by visiting us.

Many people suffer daily from the effects of acid reflux, to one degree or another. Unfortunately, the constant strain of this condition on the body can lead to premature aging.

The reflux of stomach gas and fluids during the night, even on a modest level, inhibit proper sleep patterns. It is a known fact that sleep is the most important factor affecting the aging process. If you do not get enough quality sleep at the r.e.m. level, you face each day with low energy, which can be described as a form of chronic fatigue. This syndrome will eventually drag you down and make you feel and look older than you should. It may even shorten your life. Many people are not even aware that they suffer from this condition.

Acid reflux or gerd (gastroesophageal reflux disease) occurs when the LES (lower esophageal sphincter) relaxes and allows gas and fluids from the stomach to move upward into the esophagus. The LES is a ringed muscle at the bottom of the esophagus. It opens in order to allow food to enter the stomach, and then closes in order to keep the digestive fluids where they belong. It is when this muscle is too relaxed or damaged, that the contents of the stomach can escape up into the esophagus thereby causing acid reflux.

The medical community would have us to believe that drugs are the only answer to the problem of gerd. Of course this is not true. Antacids are, at best, a temporary fix and are loaded with harmful ingredients such as sodium and aluminum. PPI drugs (proton pump inhibitors) like Nexium and Prilosec should only be used for eight weeks, at most. It says so right on the label. Furthermore, these drugs only mask and hide the symptoms and they have hundreds of harmful side effects.

The acid reflux condition can be the result of poor eating habits or even the aging process itself. We all know that certain foods can trigger indigestion; tomato sauce, raw garlic and onions, chocolate, coffee and alcohol. The ingestion of these foods can make you acidic in nature, resulting in acid reflux. Yet most of us can’t resist one or more of these items on a daily basis. Besides eliminating \”trigger\” foods from our diets, there are many natural herbs and supplements that can be helpful in staving off this malady.

Chronic indigestion can also be caused by a lack of hydrochloric acid. Some people produce insufficient amounts of stomach acid as they grow older. Besides the proper digestion of food, hydrochloric acid is necessary to keep harmful bacteria, which are found in the digestive track, in check. Without this defense, infections can develop which make the acid reflux condition even worse. This particular condition can be improved with hydrochloric acid supplements, or even ingesting small amounts of apple cider vinegar. Although these conditions are different in nature, they both cause acid reflux and can result in premature aging.

Other things that should be considered in dealing with this condition are:

Smoking cessation (Smoking creates an acidic body)

Loosing weight

Eating small portions of food throughout the day

Chewing food well and eating slowly

Eating at least three hours before retiring

There are many subtle changes in lifestyle which can remove the threat of the acid reflux condition. By eliminating this unnecessary and harmful strain on the body, one can live a more healthy life. Getting better quality sleep will increase your chances of retaining life-force, which means living a longer and more youthful existence.

About The Author:
(c) 2006 Wind Publishing

Charles Stewart Richey resides in Pike County, PA.
Mr. Richey is a self-educated expert on how to cure acid reflux disease, by natural means and has written an extensive report entitled, \”REFLUX GONE FOREVER, Natural Acid Reflux Remedies\”. He explains how the proper application of herbs, health store items, meditation, diet and exercise can heal acid reflux, gerd and heartburn, without the use of drugs. For information on how to heal acid reflux the natural way, go to: http://www.refluxgoneforever.com

Life is a necklace with various events that have been strung together in a series. In itself a particular event in life does not have specific negative to positive connotations and most events are fairly neutral in themselves. It is the mindset of the individual that is viewing the event that makes a specific event positive or negative.

Take for example, a simple event like ‘rain’. For an indoor person who likes to sit in his portico enjoying a hot cup of coffee, nothing could be better. However, the same event can be fairly negative and spoil all plans for someone who has planned an extensive shopping trip with a friend.

If a simple event that is fairly neutral can be perceived as positive and negative depending upon who is actually thinking of the event, consider the enormity of the complexity when it comes to events that have social implications.

For a father who excelled in basketball, a son who takes no interest in sports whatsoever is a situation that can cause a fair amount of tension. However, the same situation may not perturb the mother at all if she does not have specific pre-conceived notions about what she wants her son to be.

It is fairly clear by these examples that events in themselves are not positive or negative but it is the manner in which we perceive that that makes then stressful. And therefore, it is fairly obvious that all that we need to do to reduce situations that cause stress is to change the manner in which we perceive events.

We need to shed our biases, expectations, prejudices and subjectivity and try and view events from a completely objective stance. There is also a need to avoid being judgmental about the various events that take place and the people who are responsible for those events.

However, executing such a suggestion is easier said than done. The fact of the matter is that our opinions on various situations are formed based on our parents, society and the various events that take place in our life. We form these opinions over time and then find it only too easy to overlay them onto other people and events.

To be able to actually view events and therefore life in an objective manner you should be able to put yourself in the shoes of the other person and then view the actions that have been taken. Try and appreciate that your perspective may not and actually is not the ‘right’ perspective. In fact in most cases, there is no right and wrong and there is no negative or positive situation in the first place.

If you sit and ponder for a while, you will realize that the significance of life is not as large as we often think it to be. How does it matter if your son is not interested in sports? He may excel in some other sphere that he is interested in. What significance does it have on your life per se if you are unable to go shopping on a specific day that you had decided? Why is it so important that you wear a specific dress that you planned to at the prom? Honestly, no situation is worth bothering yourself about. If something has been done, sitting and brooding about it is not likely to change what has already happened. Also, it is a wise man that can accept that there are certain situations where your hands may be tied. If you cannot change something, reflecting and sulking about it will not change things.

This does not mean that you let life pass you by. When certain events take place, assess the implications of the event, evaluate what role you can play in the future and take those actions. Thinking positively about the events and planning the next steps to take is a far better way of leading life than pouting over issues that you can do nothing about!

About The Author:
Vishal P. Rao writes on holistic living and self-improvement. He has created a Squidoo lens, Stress Management Tips and Advice, where you can find proven techniques and resources for managing stress.

When you’re exhausted from working, overwhelmed, burnt-out, little visions come visiting. Visions of distant beaches, cabin hide-aways, foreign adventures.

Vacation-land.

And so, off you go, on vacation. And, when you come back, by noon on Monday you’re as exhausted as you were when you left. Did you take the wrong vacation? Or is there something wrong with vacations?

Vacations only solve one of two problems

If you are crispy from working in your business, then you probably have two problems going on.

The first problem: physical and mental fatigue.

You’ve probably worked long hours, doing too much, just plumb worn out.

For this, you need rest. Sitting around, doing nothing, taking naps, lounging.

What does resting do? Resting empties you out. When you’re exhausted, it feels as if you are empty, but the truth is you are full.

You may be empty of juice, but that’s because you’ve been doing so much that your being has become full of all the doing-ness. Rest isn’t recharging your batteries- it’s dumping out all the stuff you’ve been piling in there, like to-do lists, worries and responsibilities, and unresolved commitments.

But, when you come back from vacation, it’s all waiting for you as soon as you enter your office. It only takes a few hours before you’ve filled your heart with the same lists, worries, and commitments.

Suddenly, you’re full again. And… exhausted to be carrying it all, even though you’ve been back from vacation for exactly 180 minutes. Because you haven’t handled the second problem.

The second problem: Lack of Connection

What keeps you from getting filled up again? By being full already.

Nature loves a vacuum, and fills it up. To avoid filling it up with all the stuff waiting for you in the office, you need to fill your heart with something else. With Connection.

Your heart’s connection to Source has been blocked by all that stuff. If you fill yourself up with spiritual practices, with Remembrance, then all that stuff can come pounding at you, but the door is already closed. \”Sorry, you’ll have to take the next elevator.\”

Ahhh… finally, true peace. Even though you’re hundreds of miles from the beach.

Live in your heart’s world, not your stuff’s world.

In Sufism, the word for heart is ‘qalb’ which means ‘to turn.’ This is because the heart is always turning between the world of Source and the material world.

Your job isn’t to get everything done in the material world so you can finally rest. Your job is to keep your heart turned towards Source as much as possible.

This keeps you living in your heart’s world, not in your stuff’s world.

But does that mean I don’t get any work done?

Sure you’ll get work done. In fact, you’ll get more of the right work done, and less of the wrong work done. Because you won’t be digging yourself out of a hole, instead you’ll have a clear perspective.

So how do you access this magical happy heart space that protects you from overwhelm? And, does this mean no more vacations? I think you’ll want to keep reading:

Keys to Spiritual Retreat

Is your vacation a running away, or running towards?

Sometimes a vacation is just trying to ‘get away from it all.’ Other times it’s because you want to take an adventure and go somewhere you haven’t been before.

If you are just trying to ‘get away from it all,’ then I’m guessing you are dealing with the two problems I discussed above. Try creating a mini-vacation where you take off two days in a row to do absolutely nothing, even if it’s around your house, or a weekend get-away.

This will relieve your exhaustion, and give you a sense spaciousness. Then you can save your funds, and your time, for adventure vacations that really take you somewhere you want to go.

Take on a fill-you-up spiritual practice.

For what I’ve been discussing here, I recommend taking on a spiritual practice that connects you and fills you up with the Divine presence. I say this because some spiritual practices are meant to be emptying practices, which are great.

But the filling up, such as I teach with Remembrance, is key so that there is no void that can suddenly be filled with stuff.

A key way to tell if your spiritual practice works or not is: does it have a carry-over effect into your work life? Sometimes folks have spiritual practices where they feel great sitting on the meditation cushion, but as soon as they walk in their office, bam, it’s the same as coming back from vacation.

Take a spiritual retreat.

There are places where you can go and be contained and guided by spiritual teachers, who will have you spending your days in spiritual practices. The carry-over effects of these kinds of retreats are amazing, and I recommend them highly.

Keys to look for? You’ll want a retreat center that has teachers available for daily check-ins, to guide you through the internal terrain of your heart. Spiritual practices can bring up a lot of old emotions, like doing a spring cleaning of your basement. I don’t recommend cleaning out either your basement, or your heart, on your own.

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver

About The Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Why is our nation so focused on everything large when it comes to business? Multibillion dollar financings, acquisitions and meltdowns have us transfixed like rubber neckers on a highway. Is it possible that we need to revisit the thought that bigger isn’t necessarily better?

The most recent poster child for large corporate blunders is Bear Stearns. How could people that were smart enough to create a company that as of November 30, 2006 had total assets of $350.4 billion. (Institutional Investor) allow their shareholders and 14,000 employees to lose almost everything?

And yet, according to the US Dept of Commerce, 60-80% of all new jobs are created by companies with less than 500 employees.

One group that knows this well met last week in Los Angeles. They are the entrepreneurs, investors and professionals that participate in the Reverse Merger industry. This group hailed from the US, China, India, Korea, Vietnam and more. The industries represented there were wide ranging including technology and health care companies from the US and infrastructure companies from emerging nations. Some were startups but most were established businesses in need of growth capital. What they all had in common was an interest in becoming publicly traded in the US.

In the past, these companies may have looked forward to funding and liquidity for their shareholders by going public via a traditional Initial Public Offering (IPO). Today this dream has all but evaporated with the average current IPO in the US raising over $250 million.

In addition, according to Ian Mount writing for Fortune Small Business, “A combination of Sarbanes-Oxley’s steep compliance costs, Wall Street’s neglect of small caps regardless of their performance, and heightened investor distrust has turned running a public company into a far less appealing proposition”.

Even with these issues to overcome reasons still exist to be publicly traded in the US including:

Utilizing public stock to acquire other companies without using cash.

Attracting and retaining professional management through stock options and other stock based compensation.

The potential to raise capital through public equity markets at higher valuations than private companies.

One alternative to the IPO for going public is known as a Reverse Merger. This is when a private company merges into a publicly traded company with little or no operations and is issued a majority of the shares. The management of the old public company resigns and the private company’s Board of Directors replaces the old Board. One of the biggest advantages of going public this way is that it typically takes much less time ( 4-8 weeks) and the risk of an IPO being canceled is avoided.

No industry is left out of this process. According to the Washington Post, a defense contractor, Argon ST, went public through a reverse merger and is in one of the hottest sectors of the defense industry. Other notable former reverse mergers include Turner Broadcasting and Acclaim Entertainment.

A significant drawback of the reverse merger is that unless a private financing is completed simultaneously with the merger, the formerly private company is now public and has taken on the significant costs of being public without having raised any capital.

The comparison between the health of IPO’s and Reverse Mergers for small and mid size companies speak for themselves.

According to Tim Keating of Keating Investments there were only 9 IPO’s on average per year over the last 10 years that raised under $25 million.

In 2007 alone there were 220 Reverse Mergers. 100 of these transactions included simultaneous private placements.

In the first half of 2008 only 23 IPO’s were completed including deals of all sizes. (SPAC’s and REITs omitted)

It is not only homegrown companies that are attracted to this method of becoming publicly traded in US markets. According to Robert Comment of Johns Hopkins Univ. The % of co’s going public in the US via Reverse Merger that are non US has gone from approximately 14% to 37% over the last 10 years.

Companies receiving financing using this method create primary US jobs for printing companies, mailing services, transfer agents, lawyers and accountants and their staffs, employees of our stock exchanges and the government employees that regulate them.

This does not include the employees of these now funded companies and their suppliers as they use the new capital to buy equipment, develop new products, open new markets and more.

In the past this method was largely unregulated and often abused. Thanks to thoughtful regulations developed by the SEC and the NASD in conjunction with input from industry members, the quality of the companies accessing capital through Reverse Mergers has improved steadily. Revenues for these companies went from approximately $5 million in 1997 to $16 million in 2007 according to Mr. Comment.

With the IPO market minimums continuing to grow, we are sure to see more Reverse Mergers filling the gap in the coming years.

About The Author:
Allen R. Goldstone is President of Creative Business Strategies. Inc, a corporate development and turnaround consulting firm based in Boulder Colorado. Alleng123@gmail.com