Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 How to Use This EBook ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Thanks ................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Balanced Nutrition.................................................................................................................................................... 8 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 7 Secrets to a Healthy Breakfast ........................................................................................................................ 9 A Simple Guide to Frugal Organic Eating ........................................................................................................... 12 8 Great Foods You Are Probably Missing ............................................................................................................ 16 Cheap and healthy grocery list for a bad economy .............................................................................................. 18 How to Make Going to the Gym Interesting ....................................................................................................... 24 9 Secrets of Choosing the Best Workout ............................................................................................................ 27 The Minimalists Workout ................................................................................................................................. 31 Essentials for Minimal Home Workouts .............................................................................................................. 33 5 Golden Rules that Have Helped Me to Lose Weight for Good .............................................................................. 35 Your Most Frequently Asked Running Questions Answered .............................................................................. 39 Balance Your Life in Two Days....................................................................................................................... 48 How to Know What Your Life Is Missing .......................................................................................................... 51 How to Spend Time with Yourself and Why ..................................................................................................... 54 10 Simple Ways to Live a Less Stressful Life ................................................................................................... 58 Page 2
Spirituality ............................................................................................................................................................ 98
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Introduction
Hi, my name is Anastasiya Goers and I am the author of the Balance In Me Blog. I want to thank you for downloading this eBook and taking time to think about balance in your life. Some of you might think that balanced living means dividing your life into 6 areas (family, finances, career, friends and social life, health, spirituality) and then giving equal amounts of attention to each of those areas. This is not what this book is about. Life balance that I am talking about is: inner peace and happiness, understanding that your life is full and yet you have plenty of room to bring something new into it, a happy family and smiles on the faces of your children, taking care of your body without forgetting your soul, walking outside and seeing the beauty around you that gives inspiration for everyday life, faith, true friends, being in harmony with the world around you. If you are ready to accept this type of balance in your life then I am happy that you have downloaded this eBook.
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If you know that you do not feel harmony in any of these areas then I suggest that you jump right into the chapter that interests you and try to find great tips for you. You can get back to this eBook whenever you need inspiration in life or you are feeling down. You can read this book from cover to cover and make sure that your life is in balance. If you have not found the answers that youve been looking for then I will be enormously happy to get an email from you and help you bring harmony into your life. You can contact me (Anastasiya) at anastasiya [at] balanceinme [dot] com or balanceinme [at] yahoo [dot] com If you have any feedback about this eBook please do not hesitate to send me a few lines in the email too. I am always willing to get to know you, my reader!
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Thanks
This eBook consists of various posts written by very talented bloggers. I want to thank every one of them for providing their wonderful articles for this eBook. Bloggers mentioned in this eBook: Ali Hale, Aliventures Anastasiya Goers, Balance In Me (thats me) Arvind Devalia, Make it Happen Celestine Chua, the Personal Excellence Blog Chris, Zen to Fitness David Cain, Raptitude David Turnbull, Adventures of a Barefoot Geek Dragos Roua, Brilliantly Better Fr. Michael, Live Holiness Jeffrey Tang, The Art of Great Things Jules Clancy, The Stone Soup Justin, A Little Better Lana Kravtsova, Daring Clarity Len Penzo, Len Penzo dot Com Leo Babauta, Zen Habits Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 7 Mark Brown, The Naked Soul Mary Jaksch, Good Life Zen Miche, Serenity Hacker Sherri Kruger, Serene Journey and Zen Family Habits Steven Aitchinson, Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life Zeenat, Positive Provocations
Balanced Nutrition
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I have picked organic eating for my family because it is healthier and organic food does not contain chemicals, pesticides and other artificial ingredients that might be dangerous for our health in the long run. I believe in balanced eating, not necessarily in organic eating. In fact organic is often just a label that manufacturers put on their Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 12
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The Book of Wisdom: 50 Ideas for the All-Around Balanced Life 5. Potatoes are one of my favorite foods. My husband
once said that its one of those foods that you can hardly mess up because no matter what you do to them they are always good. I think that many people abuse potatoes by deep-frying them, smothering them in fat and cream and turning them into sayhello-to-heart-disease chips. Potatoes are a wonderful comfort food that despite common opinion are not bad for your diet and weight management. You just need to cook them right. These vegetables are high in vitamin C (I personally never thought of mashed potatoes as an alternative to an orange), potassium (responsible for water balance in the body and healthy blood pressure), vitamin B6 and fiber. Most of the nutrients are stored in the skin that we recklessly throw into the trash can. In order to get the best out of a potato I prefer to cook them with the skin without adding extra fats. Mashed potatoes can be healthy if you cook them with the skin and use skim milk or water instead of cream and butter. When you bake or roast potatoes you need to watch the amount of fats that you add to them. That includes olive oil, butter, cream, mayo, cheese and bacon. substitute it with regular chicken breasts (only dont forget to cut off all the fat and skin if there is any before you cook it). Chicken is my best friend in the kitchen because its easy to fix and its a great source of animal protein.
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Onions are used in so many recipes that I cant even imagine my life without them. I would call onions the ultimate taste-booster because it can enhance the taste of almost any meal. Onions are rich in sulfur-containing compounds that are responsible for many health-promoting effects like lowering blood sugar, cholesterol and fighting cancer. One of the most famous effects of onions is their anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial activity. The recent study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests that onions also boost bone health and prevent osteoporosis. Onions are a must in my kitchen.
Frozen vegetables like broccoli, corn, bell peppers, and sweet peas. Vegetables are necessary for a healthy diet and each vegetable has its own benefits and its own unique taste. Using fresh veggies is always better but you cant store them for a long time that is why frozen vegetables are always good to have. 2% cheese bars like Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack or any other. I prefer 2% milk cheese because I watch my calories and cholesterol but you can use regular types too if they taste better to you. Buying cheese bars is cheaper than buying sliced or shredded cheese and you can use this cheese for anything: slice it for sandwiches, shred it for spaghetti or salad or cut it in cubes for quick snacks. A little bit of cheese can enhance the taste of practically any meal and give your dish a hearty flavor. Even though cheese is high in saturated fat it is still a very good source of calcium and protein.
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Garlic is a close relative to onions but it offers many more health benefits. Promoting cardiovascular health, protecting against cancer and viruses, fighting free radicals and carcinogens as well
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The Book of Wisdom: 50 Ideas for the All-Around Balanced Life 14.
Lettuce is one of the evening traditions in my house. Crispy green leaves with carrots and tomatoes are the best beginning of any meal. When it comes to choosing the best lettuce its always better to opt for dark green leaves like Romaine lettuce or spinach. These greens are high in folic acid, vitamin A, K and C but are extremely low in calories. The combination of nutrients in lettuce is responsible for its cholesterol lowering activities that make it a heart-healthy food. The thirteen products that I mentioned above are my best friends in the kitchen. No matter if I have 10 minutes or a few hours to fix a meal I can always create something interesting and healthy for my family using these ingredients. If you are wondering what you can do with these foods then you are welcome to check out Healthy Meals on a Budget Week 1 to pick up a few healthy supper ideas.
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Balanced Body
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We all know that exercise is an essential part of a healthy and balanced lifestyle, however sometimes we feel that Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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If youre doing all of this daily or can make at least 80% of it part of your life, then how often do you really need to go to the gym or work out? Not much. If you want to stay in optimal shape and gain muscle, 2 times per week is plenty. If you want to maintain shape or achieve a lean and athletic body composition, once per week will be just fine. Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 31
Day 2 Pull This day will be 3 sets of 8-12 reps of compound pulling exercises. Deadlift 3 x 6-10 Pullups 2 x Maximum Reps (Without straining) Bent Over Row 2 x 10-15 Upright Row 2 x 8-12
With all of these exercises, keep the momentum up, but take a short rest (45-90 seconds) between sets, then move onto the next exercise. Thats It! Keep healthy with fundamentals outside of the gym, and use workouts as a tool for increased performance, body composition and athleticism!
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This is a post by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. Follow him @zen_habits and keep your life simple and productive.
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
Do you sometimes get that feeling when you are leaving your house that you forgot something? You look around; check your pockets or your pocket book but you still cant remember what you are missing. The thought that you forgot something important is driving you crazy but still you leave the house and go on with your life. Sometimes you feel the same way about your life (I know I do). You feel that you have everything and yet something is missing. This missing part keeps you from being happy and completely satisfied with your life. You keep searching for
Strategy #1 Let me get back to the analogy about leaving the house. You know a lot of times when I leave with that funny feeling that I forgot something I realize that I actually didnt forget anything. I had everything I needed and my trip (to whatever place I was going) was very successful. It was just an illusion that bothered me. Look around your life. Are you really missing something or is it just an illusion? Do you set unrealistic goals for yourself? Page 51
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This is a post by Lana Kravtsova of Daring Clarity. Follow her @LanaKravtsova to find clarity in life.
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This is a post by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. Follow him @zen_habits and keep your life simple and productive.
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This is a post by Zeenat of Positive Provocations. Follow her @zeenatsyal or on Facebook to stay more positive every day. If you want to be happy, be. ~Leo Tolstoy We have all been hearing and reading so much about Happiness. How to find happiness? How to be Happy? This is not going to be one of those articles where I tell you how to find happiness Why? Simply because I believe happiness is within each and every one of us. We need not look for it elsewhere. We dont need to search for happiness, because it can never be found! How do you really find something that isnt lost in the first place?? Happiness can be self controlled and enhanced through certain practices. A large portion of being happy comes from our own power to change. Change is usually a good thing, especially, if youre in a dormant not-going-anywhere kind of situation. So today I will give you 5 simple steps/practices that will enhance and improve your happiness quotient: 1. Be Grateful: Write letters of gratitude to people who have helped you in your life. Maybe it was something small or something bigbut write that letter. Email or Text Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 61
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This is a post by Arvind Devalia of Make it Happen. Follow him @arvinddevalia and make it happen for a better you and a better world. We had made a special trip to London and watched the film in Leicester Square just a few days after its release watching it was a defining moment in my life. I have watched this remarkable movie about a remarkable man many times since then. Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood. Einstein I have read a lot about Gandhi since then and also been influenced by my late father who collected a huge library of Gandhis teachings. It is now up to all of us to apply Gandhis teachings in our daily life after all his message about peace and nonviolence is more pertinent than ever before today. On this 140th anniversary of his birth, here are 6 keys lessons for all of us to apply in our life from today. 1. Be the change you wish to see in the world. This is possibly Gandhis most famous phrase and tells us that before we can go and change the world, we have to change ourselves. From the being, comes the doing and ultimately the having.
Today is the 140th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. So he would have been 140 today had he not been assassinated in 1948. Gandhi may not be around anymore but his legacy and his message of non-violence lives on and he is indeed the light the world needs today. He has always been one of my heroes from a young age and I remember crying after watching Richard Attenboroughs famous film Gandhi.
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This is a post by David Cain of Raptitude. Follow him @daviddcain or on facebook to get better at being human.
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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This is a post by David Turnbull of Adventures of a Barefoot Geek. Follow him @dturnbull and enjoy his laid back life hacking. too focused on the stuff aspect of simplicity. Yes, getting junk out of the house and acquiring less is important, but really, as most articles centered on this topic will tell you: Stuff is just stuff. That idea goes both ways. Your thoughts are more important than what surrounds you and even a lone ascetic in a cave can live a cluttered life if theyre not mindful of their consciousness and how it behaves on the spectrum of emotion and logic. I feel its the mental capacity in which you can simplify that will provide long-term clarity and peace of mind. This is not about turning your brain off (not even the Dalai Lama can do that), but being aware of whats pervading the flow of your thinking and carefully working towards a life that isnt inundated with shallow fuzz and mindless fluff. Cut compulsions. For those that follow me on Twitter you may have noticed my announcement that Ive decided to stop following anyone. I still use the service as a broadcasting and communication tool, but my compulsive nature compelled me to read every tweet that came my way and, while I didnt have too many incoming tweets, it was the constant checking that interrupted my work and cluttered my thoughts.
Things. Things. Things. Just as people are too concerned with stuff so is the recent upswing of minimalism advice Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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This is a post by Lana Kravtsova of Daring Clarity. Follow her @LanaKravtsova to find clarity in life.
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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How to Find Happiness and Serenity with the Help of Seashells (and without them)
If you sometimes have those days when everything seems to go from bad to worse, then this article is for you. The other day I had that type of day. I could not get any work done, the babies were misbehaving, my husband had a headache and was in a bad mood and on top of all that I had an argument with my mom and grandmother who live in Ukraine. If you do not see people you love for more than a year then you definitely do not want to argue with them. When it was time for the babies to go take their afternoon nap they went into hysterics and screamed and cried for about an hour, making sure that I had a steady and irritating headache. If you do not have little children then you probably do not realize how important these naps are. These are the 2 hours that let me and my husband recharge and feel that we have at least some control over our lives and we are not being completely manipulated by our little munchkins (whom we love to death of course ) Anyway, that was the type of day I was having and I was not happy (in spite of the constant practice of gratitude, mindfulness and other happiness-boosting techniques.) My husband got a phone call from our real estate agent and told me some of the best news I could hope for we were closing on a house wed been waiting for 6 months in a day. WOW, you would say, but my happy-o-meter was not registering any emotions. Mu hubby suggested that I go for
This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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What are your ideas about being the best? Do you think it is important to be the best, or would you rather be happy and balanced by using the Good Is Good Enough principle?
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This is a post by Sherri of Serene Journey. Follow her @serenejourney to learn more simple tips how to enjoy life.
1. Sit up straight. Many people who spend a lot of time at the computer likely dont sit properly. Theres a tendency to slouch, stoop and sit cross-legged. Is there a correct way to sit? You bet. Choose a comfy chair, preferably one with arm rests. Sit with your butt to the back of the seat, shoulders back and feet flat on the floor about hip distance apart. Maintaining good posture can help you avoid injury and promote proper bone alignment. When walking tall with good posture you both look and feel more confident, fit and pulled together.
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Spirituality
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This is a post by Mary Jaksch of Good Life Zen. Follow her @Mary_Jaksch to get your daily dose of practical inspirations for a happier life. Let me ask you, are you a spiritual person? Or not? I think that everyone is a spiritual person. Because spirituality is a natural human attribute. Its a gift that comes with being human. Spiritual traditions fail to acknowledge that we all have natural spirituality. As most of you know, Im a Zen Master. Most spiritual traditions Zen included work from the premise that their way is the right way. So when people join a particular tradition they are promised: Do exactly what tradition says, and you will experience something special. In other words, if you dont follow the rules, you will never have that special experience! This attitude loses sight of something very important: Every human being has natural spirituality In fact, nobody can give you spirituality. No teacher and no tradition can do that. Why? Because we already have it! If we honor this human capacity, we can learn to live in a way that supports and strengthens our natural spirituality. The richness of spiritual traditions is then in service of the natural spirituality of human beings, and not the other way around! Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 99
What is natural spirituality? There are three core experiences of natural spirituality. Here is the first one: #1 The present moment is a mysterious doorway. When we are completely present, without the mind dwelling in the past or the future, our experience changes in a significant way. Youre skeptical? Too much spiritual mumbo-jumbo? Ok, then lets look outside the sphere of spirituality to discover how people experience this mysterious change. The Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that athletes who are absorbed in present moment experience being in the flow. This is a state in which you feel relaxed, confident, ecstatic, focused, and have no sense of time passing. All actions seem effortless, with mind and body working in perfect unison. You can read more about this in my article Turbo Charge Your Performance: 7 Steps to Being in the Flow In martial arts being in the moment is sometimes described as having a dont know mind. Dont know means keeping an open mind and responding according to circumstances, not according to how we assume things will be. A dont know mind sets us free from the constraints of expectations. The experience of being in the flow, as well as the dont know mind, are both expressions of the fact Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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This is a post by Mary Jaksch of Good Life Zen. Follow her @Mary_Jaksch to get your daily dose of practical inspirations for a happier life. Why meditate? On one level, meditation is a tool. It can help combat stress, fosters physical health, helps with chronic pain, can make you sleep better, feel happier, be more peaceful, as well as be present. But on a deeper level, meditation is a doorway into the unknown. It can help us get a sense of the mystery of who we are. When you start meditating, you will notice how unruly the mind is. I remember being quite shocked by this! I noticed that my mind was all over the place. Profound thoughts about my past or future jostled with mundane thought clips about what groceries I needed to buy. Some time afterwards I would come too and notice that I had spend 15 minutes running a painful memory over and over. It was like sitting in a crazy cinema! So, if youre starting out with meditation, please dont beat yourself up about your wild mind. It is a natural condition. In time you will learn to work kindly with the barrage of thoughts and you will some clarity and peacefulness. Here are some simple tips on how to start meditating. Maybe those of you who already practice meditation could please add your comments of what has worked for you.
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1. Posture Whether you sit on a chair or cross-legged on the floor, make sure that your spine is upright with head up. If you are slumped your mind will drift. Mind and body are intertwined. If your body is well-balanced, your mind will also be in balance. To straighten up, imagine that your head is touching the sky. 2. Eyes Try and keep your eyes open. Open eyes allow you to be more present. Just lower your eyes and let your gaze be sort. If you close your eyes you will be more likely to drift away on thoughts and stories. However, its important to do what is comfortable for you. Some people find closing their eyes much more effective. Its good to experiment and see what feels best for you. 2. Focus In ordinary consciousness we are hardly ever present. For example, sometimes we drive the car on autopilot while being preoccupied with thoughts. Suddenly we arrive at our destination and dont remember anything about the drive! So, meditation is a wonderful way of waking up to our life. Otherwise we miss most of our experiences because we are somewhere else in our mind! Lets take a look at what focus is. In ordinary life, we tend to equate focus with concentration. Thats like using the mind like a concentrated beam of light. But in meditation, that kind of mind isnt Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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This is a post by Miche of Serenity Hacker. Follow her @SerenityHacker to get her tips about serene and peaceful living. How good are you at keeping your focus and sense of inner peace when youre busy? Do you stay clear; maintain your center and ability to concentrate, even when theres a lot you need to get done? What about when time or a lack of it adds to the pressure? During busy times many of us adopt a frenzied, scattered pace. But a scattered mind cannot be present, and does not lend itself to peace, efficiency, or focus. Wouldnt it be better to deal with busy-ness from a place of inner calm? When youre calm and centered you dont feel so busy, even if you are. Being present increases inner peace. Inner peace keeps us calm and clear. With clarity, focus becomes more effortless.
That may sound simple but its true. The problem is weve been encultured to believe that we need to get everything done and finished first in order to experience inner peace and renew our sense clarity. But this is really not the case. From that mindset, everything takes more effort. Remembering becomes a chore. Focus takes enormous mental exertion. Peace and calm are put off as luxuries while we battle on relying solely on will to get things done. Were less effective and efficient at our tasks, we have too Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 106
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Knowing
part of my journey as I am sure they are part of the journey for many people. We are very intelligent beings and it is no surprise that we ask questions about beliefs which we have no empirical data to support. It is of no surprise that in todays world that we ask for proof, hard facts that would remove all doubt about the extent of our journey and our purpose. In fact it is good that we are mindful and that we ask these types of questions. Asking questions about this part of our journey is an essential element of our human experience. For many years I believed that we feared what we do not know and we feared the fragility of who we are. Along my journey I have learned that this was not correct, we dont fear what we dont know and we dont fear how fragile we are. NO, we fear what we really know deep inside, we fear how powerful and magnificent we truly are and we fear that acknowledging who we really are will be too much for us to handle. We fear what we view as the challenge of our own truth! The irony of our fear is that when we push through our fears, when we step outside our fear and truly come home to know who we are we find that we are eternal energy and that we are eternal Love and that this human experience is part of an eternal journey that we are a part of.
I have recently been asked by a few people How can you be so certain that when we die that this is not the end of our journey? Let me first say that along my journey I have been at points where I believed this was it and that there was nothing after we died. At one time I believed dead was dead and that the idea of life after this life or of God or higher source was a human belief concocted to placate the weak minded, to help to alleviate the fear of the finality of death for some and for others to create fear of how one should live their life in order to apply control and to prevent total anarchy. Yes, these thoughts and beliefs have been Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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This is a post by Fr. Michael of Live Holiness. Follow him @frmichaelnajim It is a Christian post, so you can choose for yourself whether you will benefit from it or not. families with a large school to boot. It was a wonderful place for a new priest. One of the great blessings was ministering to the many youth in the parish. I remember one email exchange I had with a high school student who was very involved in our youth group. She took her faith seriously and she wanted to grow in her relationship with the Lord. Her email to me was simple: I want to spend more time in prayer and deepen my relationship with God, but Im not quite sure how to pray. Can you give me advice? Maybe you find yourself in the same position as that girl now a wonderful young woman whose wedding Ill be doing in May. You want to grow in your relationship with the Lord, but youre not sure how to enter into deeper prayer. When you go to pray your mind is filled with distractions. So you sit there and fidget. Your questions may be similar to hers: How can I have an intimate relationship with God? How should I pray? What should I say? For me prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look towards Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy St. Therese of Lisieux My first assignment was at St. Philips parish in Greenville, RI. St. Philips is a vibrant parish comprised of about 3000 Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Id like to suggest how you should begin your prayer, for the way you begin your prayer sets the tone for how the rest of your prayer will unfold. The one mistake that many of us make when we pray is that we begin by focusing on ourselves: my intentions, my needs, my feelings. If we Page 112
As I begin this time of prayer, help me to know how much You love me. I know that Your heart and Your arms are open, ready to embrace me. You dont look at my sins and failings. You dont look upon me in judgment. You look upon me with love: infinite, unconditional love. You want me to be very close to You. Lord, sometimes its hard for me to admit, but You really do love me. In fact, the more deeply I become aware of Your love for me, the more I see that I am truly lovable. You desire to be in an intimate friendship with me. How amazing! Please let this time of prayer simply be a time of letting myself be loved by You. Thats the deepest desire of my heart, Lord, just to know Your personal love for me. Nothing else matters at this moment. Clear my mind and heart of all distractions and fill my heart with Your love. Thank you so much for loving me Lord. My past is gone; my future is not here. We simply have this moment together, and so I give myself entirely to You in this moment. I sit in silence Lord. Now I will just let myself be loved by You, and I will listen to You speak to my heart. Once you have begun your prayer in this way, its a matter of sitting with the Lord and letting Him love you. So now go do it. Hes waiting for you!
Find a quiet place where you wont be distracted Sit in a relaxed posture (although not so relaxed that youll fall asleep) and close your eyes Take a few deep breaths and then breath normally Let these first moments be focused on becoming aware of Gods loving presence, nothing else: picture the loving eyes of Jesus gazing upon you. Take as long as you need to become of aware of His loving presence. Once you are aware of Gods loving presence, speak to Him about His love. Heres what I was moved to write. Feel free to use it for your own prayer, but eventually you should speak to the Lord in your own words:
Lord, I know that You are here with me. I know that You have called me here. I wouldnt even have the desire to pray if You didnt put it on my heart. You have drawn me to this sacred moment because you desire that I be close to You. You have spoken to my heart, and now I come to listen.
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Balanced Lifestyle
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This is a post by Dragos Roua of Brilliantly Better. Follow him @dragosroua or on Facebook to make your life brilliantly better. Consciously inserting your intentions in these very first moments will have a huge effect. Taking charge of those moments its like activating some subtle, unconscious triggers which will ultimately determine your whole daily experience, exactly the way you want. Mornings are fundamental. This is why I experimented a lot with my very first moments of the day. Here are at least 33 ways in which you can transform your days by only spending 5 minutes every morning. 1. Write in Your Journal I love the morning stillness and the unspoken promise of something ready to start. Mornings are fantastic for journaling. Whenever I do it, I feel like I already consumed several hours from that day and yet Im only at the very beginning of it. Journaling acts like a mind emptier and out of nowhere I feel energized and ready to go. Not to mention that in the morning I have less inhibitors and my journaling is far more authentic. 2. Enjoy the Morning Silence And do nothing. Just feel the silence and let it spread over your mind and body. Im fascinated by all the little noises that are born from that morning silence: from my familiar house noises (wife and daughter waking up, steps, Page 115
Mornings are underrated. I consider them fundamental for the whole diurnal experience. What you do in the very first moments of your morning will fundamentally and inexorably shape your entire day. Most of the time you spend your mornings by routinely performing some habits, on auto pilot. Hence, your days will routinely unfold towards you, the same way day after day, on auto pilot.
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This is an article by Chris of Zen to Fitness. Follow his exciting journey to health and fitness on his blog.
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
Cultivating healthy habits is something most of us put on their New Year resolution lists and never actually get to. Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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A Simple Way to Nourish Your Body and Soul without Spending a Dime
Yesterday was the first sunny day after a week of rain and clouds. I do not want to sound too trite but I felt like life returned to our house. I had this burning desire to go running however there was nobody to stay with the babies while they were sleeping. After sitting at the computer half of the day and trying to figure out what to write about I decided to do something new. Every other day I do my Pilates and Yoga workout in the living room but yesterday I decided to take this workout outside. Having the baby monitor right by my side I headed out to the porch. It was almost like a summer day (actually better, because I didnt have a flock of bugs chasing after me ) and I was totally inspired for my workout. I had the best hour devoted completely to myself that Ive had in the last couple of months. Yesterday was a total revelation for me. There is nothing ground-breaking in the fact that being outside is inspiring and totally healthy. I just thought that we spend so much time inside that we forget how important it is to be outside. Our lives revolve around computers, offices and desks. We are proud to be intellectual workers and we bury ourselves in the prison of modern-day comforts. After work a lot of us go home and watch TV or drive to the gym to lift weights and run a few miles on a boring treadmill. Even Mind & Body practices like Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates take you inside
This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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As you have probably already understood a simple way to nourish your body and soul without spending a dime is being outside. There are hundreds of things you can do outside on most days of the week and it could be a great idea to spend some special occasions outside too. My husband gave me a wonderful surprise on our two year wedding anniversary. He took me hiking on a beautiful mountain located 45 minutes away from where we live. I could not get a better present than that. Restaurants, movies and adventure parks simply do not compare in my opinion. After we got to the top of the mountain we found a quiet spot overlooking the entire city of Charlotte and had a glass of wine to celebrate our special day. It was so amazing! Page 133
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This is an article by Steven Aitchinson of Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life. Follow his blog to find life changing lessons. A lot of us suffer from irrational thinking which can affect our lives in a dramatic way. It can separate the successful people in life from the unsuccessful ones, it can mean the difference between loving someone and hating someone, it can be the difference between peace and war. All wars, Yes I mean ALL, are caused by irrational thinking. In this post I will look at seven common irrational thoughts and hopefully if you suffer from irrational thinking it will help you to change. 1. If someone criticizes me there must be something wrong with me There are many reasons why people criticize each other but it does not mean there is something wrong with you if they do criticize you. It means they have a differing opinion to you which is fantastic as without differing opinions in the world it would be a terrible place to live. 2. I must always seek approval in order to feel good about myself Many people have thought this at one time or another in their lives, however it becomes damaging when it is an entrenched belief. There is no way you can please everybody all the time so there is no point in even trying. Seek approval from yourself and if youre happy and feel Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 135
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37. The Happy Couple Cheat Sheet: 15 Steps to a Balanced and Happy Marriage (Relationship)
This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced. The other day my husband and I were talking about our marriage and how happy we are together. Then we somehow started talking about our friends and how some of their marriages and relationships didnt work out. It was sad to see some of them go through painful divorces or experience great disappointments in people who were considered their second halves just a while back. Its not a secret that rates of divorces are rising like crazy all over the world now (in the United States 50% of all marriages end in divorce and in Ukraine the rates are just a little bit lower). I am not going to go into the details of why it is happening but I would like to share my experience of a happy and balanced marriage. I hope that maybe these tips will help some couples to live happily ever after. 1. Be honest with each other. I think marriage and any serious relationship starts with honesty. My husband is a scuba diver and he has a few scuba buddies. If you do not know much about diving then I want to share one secret: it is EXTREMELY expensive (you need at least $3000 on average to get your own gear and as you become better at it you will want more expensive and more professional equipment). For the reason that I cannot figure out scuba diving is a real addiction for men and they cannot stop buying new equipment no matter how much they have Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 139
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This is a post by Justin of A Little Better. Follow him @alittlebetter to learn his personal development tips and tricks. We frequently hear about the rising divorce rate, and unhappy marriages, but people still want familes. There is nothing wrong with this, but these stories can be quite discouraging. The hope of marriage lasting seems all but gone. Does this mean that there is nothing we could do to make a marriage more likely to last? Not at all. In my story, I make it clear that it was the idea of kids like me that really motivated me to delve into self improvement. One of the factors that I really wanted to take care of was a happy marriage. Its not fun or wholesome to grow up in a family where the mother and father do not get along, and if there is no example of what proper love is for a child growing up what standard will they have to measure love by when they are adults? So I started asking anyone who I saw that appeared to have a happy marriage, and I still read everything I can find on relationships and marriage. This is what Ive found so far. Learn to Manage Your Finances The most frequent cause of divorce is finance. Both you and your partner must make it a priority to at least have a general understanding of finances. You should have a shared philosophy on how money should be handled. Examples to work on together for this area are as follows. How much money should be set aside for entertainment? How much should be put in an emergency fund? What Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 143
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This is a post by Miche of Serenity Hacker. Follow her @SerenityHacker to get her tips about serene and peaceful living. times. We really dont plan on creating happy memories, they just seem to happen, yet wed all like it if we knew we could have more of them. But how do we go about intentionally making them happen? What are the things that we remember most? Sure, a vacation might do the trick, or another big life event, but these dont always occur very often. And even though we really cant guarantee that well be able to create more joyful memories, there are manageable things we can do in the present that deepen bonds, increase mutual joy and aliveness, and raise the odds that well have more memorable times to look back on in the future. Most of these involve, at least in some way, breaking from our routines. Even good relationships tend to stagnate when routine sets in time slips by, without any real memories being made. This is when we look back and wonder where the time went there are no real markers to set things apart. Stressed or difficult relationships are also undermined by routine: things have become so uncomfortable or tough that any routine that keeps the status quo, or the stress at bay, is often adopted. No good memories are created in this place, and with time, this increases the chasms that separate us from those we care about. Page 146
Theres almost nothing more rewarding in life than close relationships, be it with a spouse or loved one, friends, children, or our families. One of the things that all of the most cherished and satisfying relationships have in common is lasting memories. Memories, especially joyful ones, fortify relationships and increase their endurance, especially through difficult Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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This is a post by Mary Jaksch of Good Life Zen. Follow her @Mary_Jaksch to get your daily dose of practical inspirations for a happier life. Making new friends seems easy these days: you can buy them, or friend people at the click of a button. But is that really making friends in the true sense of the word? What is a true friend? True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. ~ George Washington I once heard Zen Master John Tarrant say something unforgettable about friendship. He said, If you have a true friend, one of you will sit at the others deathbed. That puts things into perspective, doesnt it? I cant quite see my 2000 Twitter followers crowding around my bed in the Intensive Care Unit during my final days! What John Tarrant reminds us of, is that true friendships are long-term connections that flow through our life like rivers. I remember some beautiful moments of friendship when my mother, Joan Jaksch, died. I was with her as she passed away and immediately rang up my son Sebastian and three of my friends. They came at once and we all sat around my mothers bed, holding hands and shedding tears. Page 150
A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of ones heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away. ~ Arabian Proverb Maybe you thought that friendship cant be bought. Wrong. You can buy 3000 Facebook friends for only 14.6 cents apiece from Usocial.com. Twitter friends are even cheaper. You can acquire them in bulk: 25,000 Twitter friends only cost 3,4 cents each! Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
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This is a post by Arvind Devalia of Make it Happen. Follow him @arvinddevalia and make it happen for a better you and a better world. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a positive and effervescent outlook on life. (by the way, I really like the words effervescent and effervescence they evoke colourful images of energy and gas bubbling out of a huge bowl and honest, I am not on any drugs, just high on life). If you are such a positive bubbly person, have you noticed how it is the norm for people around you to be realistic and always look on the downside of everything? You tell them it is nice and sunny and they say, yes but it will probably rain later. You tell them it was a great meal and they complain about the dessert. Have you ever been around someone who is maddeningly positive and full of life and zest? Did they annoy you so much you wanted to just stamp on them? Or maybe YOU are one of these highly positive people with boundless energy and zest for life?! Well, if you are, then many congratulations! You get my point. At the same time, being so positive, are you in danger of losing all your boring friends?! I have gradually come to the conclusion that sometimes you simply have to let negative people be. I used to try so much to get them to see things differently, but now learnt that its a waste of time and energy to try and make others around you see a more positive outlook.
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This is a post by Celestine Chua of the Personal Excellence Blog. Follow her @celestinechua or on Facebook and learn how to be your best and live your best life. ability to scrutinize and zoom into every little problem there is. Following which, they fixate on these issues and offer unwanted opinions on them. If thats not enough, they top it off with their projection of all the possible bad things that can happen. In my article on Are You Emotionally Generous?, I shared why we should be cut out the emotional stinginess and why emotional generosity is the way to go. Critical people are emotionally stingy, because they are so bent on harping on flaws and whats not there. They seem to have an automatic filter which mentally blocks out whatever goodness before them. Rather than give praise, they can only criticize. 8 Helpful Ways to Deal With Critical People Naturally, critical people arent the first people youd think of hanging out with. While you can try to get out of their way, you are bound to run into one or two of them in school or at work. Here are my 8 handy ways to handle them: 1. Dont Take It Personally Most of the times, their criticisms reflect more about themselves than about you. They react in this manner because of certain beliefs and frameworks they have about life. You may think the critical person is all out to get you, Page 161
Imagine this. You are in a good mood today. Theres something you are really happy about and you decide to tell your friend to share the excitement. However, your friend listens mainly in nonchalance while you are gushing away. Worse still, he/she starts giving his/her 2 cents about how its not really not that great. Talk about a wet blanket! Before you know it, your mood has done a 180 degree switch from happy to one of annoyance and irritation. Does this sound familiar? This is a typical behavior of critical people. Critical people can be real downers, just like energy vampires. No matter what you say, they always find some way to derail the mood of the conversation. You cant even remember when was the last time they ever gave a compliment or encouragement. They have an uncanny Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
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Balanced Parenting/Family
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This is a post by Sherri Kruger of Zen Family Habits. Follow her @ZenFamilyHabits to get all the important advice about parenting and happy family life. Here are my top 10 essential family values. 1. Belonging. It is important that each member of my family feel that they are loved, that they belong and that they matter. Being a cohesive family could mean that you spend every spare minute together doing family activities but keep in mind that everyone is different. Creating a strong family unit is great but each person should be allowed the space and freedom to explore the activities they think they may enjoy. People are more courageous and more willing to take chances if they know they have a safe place to come back to when things dont quite work out. Coming together for special occasions and holidays and just spending time together as a family is what helps build that sense of belonging. How do you define family values? In our home family values are rules or ideals that, as a family, we agree to live by and stay true to. The list of essential family values would be a mile long no doubt and the top 10 lists for each family would be as unique as the one that came up with it. Having strong well defined family values helps solidify the foundation for a strong, tight knit family. When cultivated long enough this closeness provides a soft place to fall when life doesnt go according to plan. Strong and consistent family values are important in building trust and confidence in each family member. Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com 2. Flexibility. Im all for order, schedules and structure in my family to help maintain some level of sanity. But too much structure and the unwillingness to give a little can result in a lot of unhappiness and resentment. The more flexibility you have in decision making, for example, the happier your family will be for it. Imagine one member of the family always thinking they are right and enforcing their way of doing things. This certainly wouldnt lead to much happiness within the family unit. 3. Respect. This is a bit more difficult to define. For my family, to respect each other is to take feelings, thoughts, Page 168
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This is a post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me. Please follow me @balanceinme and keep your life balanced.
If you are a parent, then you probably face a dilemma between spending time with your kids or getting things Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com
1. Stop multi-tasking. It might sound tempting to work while you are watching over the kids but this is Page 171
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This is a post by Sherri Kruger of Zen Family Habits. Follow her @ZenFamilyHabits to get all the important advice about parenting and happy family life. Nobody said parenting was easy. When you first find out youre going to be a parent youre thrilled, excited, and perhaps a wee bit nervous. There is a lot of pressure on parents today to be perfect, to be everything to everybody and to keep it all together all the time. Honestly, I think this is an impossible standard to live up to. Becoming a parent for the first time can be intimidating. Even now with two young kids I find myself constantly second guessing much of what I do as they each move through the various stages of growing up. I figure Im not alone. To get other perspectives and different takes on parenting I asked 4 parents to share their top three pieces of parenting advice. I feel each of these parents get it that every child and situation is different. With that in mind, you should do what works for you. Whether your parental status is newbie, to-be or veteran Im certain a lot of the statements to follow will resonate with you. Here is the best parenting advice from 4 parenting experts themselves. Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 175
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This is a post by Ali Hale of Aliventures. Follow her @alihale or on facebook to get all her tips n how to get more from life. If youre following me on Twitter, youll know Im doing a lot of creative work at the moment. The next few months are a good time for me to focus hard on my novel, and I probably sound quite obsessed at the moment with word counts, hours spent, plot problems resolved So Ive been thinking about (mainly creative creative) work and obsession. I wrote about this last week, in Loving Your Work: Dont Be Obsessive, Be Tough. Several people chimed in with comments, particularly about this paragraph: Although we have terms like workaholic to describe people who fall into this trap with career-related work, Im not sure that we have a corresponding way to talk about artists and creative types who succumb to obsession. We might feel that musicians, painters and writers should approach their craft in an obsessive way: we think this is good for them and for the work. And then, basking in the glow of everyone agreeing with me (ah, if only this would always happen in real life), I read Jonathan Meads post How to Make a Living Out Of Your Obsession (over on Productive Flourishing), where he wrote:
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This is a post by Jeffrey Tang of The Art of Great Things. Follow him @jeffreytang to learn his tips and habits for effective living. A few years ago, a financial advisor treated my co-workers and me to lunch one of those deals where you get a free meal in exchange for listening to a sales pitch for financial planning services. The central theme of the advisors pitch was: Start planning and saving for retirement now! The sooner you get started, the more secure youll be in the future. Good advice, to be sure. But none of us left that day feeling particularly motivated to consider the prospect of retirement. And I suspect we arent the only ones to feel less-than-anxious about the far-off land of retirement. Why? Most people arent concerned about what money means in the far, far future theyre concerned about how money affects their lifestyle right now. Bottom line: we dont want to be rich; we want to be rich now. But rich means different things to different people. One person might be driven to create a fortune, while another would rather live freely on a tight budget. Each one considers him/herself to be rich, and theyre both right. Keep your life balanced! www.balanceinme.com Page 183
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This is a post by Len Penzo of Len Penzo dot Com. Follow him @LenPenzo to keep your finances under control.
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This is a post by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. Follow him @zen_habits and keep your life simple and productive.
Debt is a major problem for a lot of people these days. The problem is, even if they know they want to get out of it, they have a hard time figuring out how to start. If you fit this description, this 12-Step program spells it out for you. Now, there isnt one way to get out of debt, and the best program should be tailored to each persons individual situation. But if you feel like you just dont know how to begin, this program is designed to give you a sort of guide one that should be adjusted to fit your financial situation.
The Zen Habits 12-Step Get-Out-of-Debt Program 1. Acknowledge the problem. The first step is admitting you have a problem. The first week, all you have to do is say to yourself, I have a problem with debt. I got into this because I spend money I dont have. But I believe that theres a way out, and I can do this. I can control my spending, make a plan, and slowly get out of debt. Thats a major step. Now set aside just 30-60 minutes a week to deal with your finances make it a set day and time, and dont let yourself miss this appointment. Page 189
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Whats Next?
If you have found this eBook helpful then I suggest that you keep reading the Balance In Me Blog. You can also contact me via email if you have any questions, suggestions or want me to help you find your inner balance and happiness. You can contact me (Anastasiya) at anastasiya [at] balanceinme [dot] com or balanceinme [at] yahoo [dot] com Here are a few books for you that I have found helpful in my journey towards life balance. Some of these links are affiliate links, so Ill get a small commission if you buy these books. 1. The Zen Habits Handbook for Life by Leo Babauta 2. The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life by Leo Babauta 3. Zen to Done by Leo Babauta 4. The Power of Less by Leo Babauta 5. Get the Life You Love by Arvind Devalia 6. Your Life. Live It. Love It by Sherri Kruger 7. The Mother's Guide to Self-Renewal: How to Reclaim, Rejuvenate and Re-Balance Your Life by Renee Trudeau 8. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin 9. Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption (P.S.) by Paulo Coelho 10.The Balanced Mom: Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Self by Bria Simpson
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Photo credits
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