What Is Peace of Mind?

Happiness and suffering are states of mind, and so their main causes cannot be found outside the mind. The real source of happiness is inner peace. If our mind is peaceful, we shall be happy all the time, regardless of external conditions, but if it is disturbed or troubled in any way, we shall never be happy, no matter how good our external con- ditions may be. External conditions can only make us happy if our mind is peaceful.

Such peaceful moments are not so rare. You have experienced them in the past, at times when you were engaged in some kind of an absorbing or interesting activity. Here are a few examples:

• Watching an entertaining movie or TV program.
• Being in the company of someone you love.
• Being absorbed in reading a book.
• Lying on the sand at the beach.
• On vacation, when you experience some sort of mental numbness, forgetting your work and day-to-day-life.
• In deep asleep, when you are not aware of anything.

Such activities, and similar ones, take away the mind from its usual thoughts and worries, replacing them with an experience of inner peace.

The question is, how to bring more peace of mind into our life, and more importantly, how to experience it in times of difficulties and ordeals.

You might also ask, whether it is possible to turn it into a habit, and enjoy it always and under all circumstances. Actually, there are a few things you can do to enjoy more peace in your life.

Tips and Advice for Peace of Mind

1. Minimize the time you spend on reading newspapers or watching the news on TV. Since most of the news are negative news, and you cannot do anything about them, why should you think about them and feel stressed and anxious?
2. Stay away from negative conversations and from negative people. You don't want their thoughts and words to sink into your subconscious mind and affect your moods and state of mind.
3. Don't hold grudges. Learn to forget and forgive. Nurturing ill feelings and grievances hurts you and causes lack of sleep.
4. Don't be jealous of others. Jealousy means that you have low self-esteem, and therefore, consider yourself inferior to others. Jealousy and low self esteem, often, lead to lack of peace of mind.
5. Accept what cannot be changed. This saves a lot of time, energy and worries. Every day, we face numerous inconveniences, irritations and situations that are beyond our control. If we can change them, that's fine, but this is not always possible. We must learn to put up with such things and accept them cheerfully.
6. Don't dwell on the past. The past is not here anymore, so why think about it? Let bygones be gone. Forget the past and focus on the present moment. There is no need to evoke unpleasant memories and get immersed in them.
7. Learn to be more patient and tolerant with family, friends, co-workers, employees, and everyone else.
8. Don't take everything too personally. A certain degree of emotional and mental detachment is very helpful. On many occasions, it would be useful to inject a certain measure of detachment and non involvement. This would bring into your life more peace, harmony and common sense.
9. Learn to focus your mind. When you can focus your mind, you can more easily reject worries and anxieties, refuse to think negative thoughts, and reduce the constant chatter of your mind.

Inner peace eventually, leads to external peace. By creating peace in your inner world, in your mind, you bring it into your external world, and into other people's lives.

Believe in Yourself

Identify and ease your doubts.

Learning how to recognize when your self-talk takes a turn for the worse is crucial. When you hear yourself saying, “I can’t,” or, “I don’t know,” or, “What if,” a red flag should go up.

Instead of telling yourself, “I can’t do X,” say, “I can’t do X yet. But I’m working on it.”

Or if you start wondering, “What if I fail?” you can respond by saying, “Then I’ll try again.”

Doing this transforms a negative situation into an opportunity for growth. In the end, it’s about giving yourself a chance.

Stop listening to toxic people.

Toxic people are convinced that everything is impossible, and they are quick to shoot down ideas. They’ll poison your mind into a state of hopelessness.

Don’t let them steal your energy just because they’ve lost theirs.

Instead, surround yourself with supportive and passionate people who can both inspire you and bring out the best in you. You can find them among friends, family, books, or blogs like Tiny Buddha.

They will lift you up when you feel down and help you see the bright side of your darkest fears and doubts.

Recall your successes.

This one is tough. When you’re down, you’ll more easily remember the bad instead of the good. And oftentimes, the “rah-rah” pep talk just doesn’t cut it.

So, I suggest writing a list. Grab a piece of paper or small notebook, or open a blank document. Now write down your successes, big or small.

If you’re a bit bashful about your achievements, ask someone you trust to tell you the great things they think you’ve done. It’s refreshing and a great confidence boost.

And finally, keep your list with you at all times. It will help you find your way back to yourself whenever you get lost.

Trust and love yourself.

You probably spend more time being your own worst enemy instead of being your own best friend.

But you deserve to treat yourself better. After all, you have the rest of your life to spend with yourself.

Think of it this way: Would you mentally abuse or condemn your loved ones? Would you let them suffer in their time of need? If not, then why would you do it to yourself?

So, be kind to yourself. You are more capable and worthy than you give yourself credit for.

Give yourself permission to try…and try again.

Self-doubt never disappears. Over time, you just get better at dealing with it.

It will greet you every time you fall out of your comfort zone and whenever you strive to do something great.

But know that it’s not something you have to fear or resent. Your doubts are only thoughts, not your future.

Sure, something may go wrong. But if you never try, you’re losing an opportunity to improve your life.

Candice Swanepoel Workout Routine and Diet Plan

Candice Swanepoel or sometimes nicknamed as Flamingo (due to her long legs) is a South African runway model who works for Victoria’s Secret. Justin Gelband is her personal trainer who helps her in keeping toned legs. Justin says that there are 5 key exercises on which Candice works, the lower back, hip, butt, balance and stability.

The most important thing which a model needs while walking on the runway is the balance. So, she works out to keep her body balanced. This 5 ft 9 in model likes kickboxing, jumping ropes and building muscles. 

Candice also practices Yoga when she is too tired of boxing. She says that yoga keeps her to stay flexible and keep her mind quiet.

Further, Gelband insists on working out with quality over quantity. This video explains how Candice develops her body for runway with Justin Gelband.

As you must have seen that Justin works on Candice’s lower half of the body. He uses ankle weights (2 pounds) to develop her muscles by making her to do various agility exercises. Agility exercises involves muscles coordination, balance development.

Micro-Squat: "I like to focus on my thighs and bum, so I do a lot of squats," Swanepoel says. Stand with feet together, arms extended, and squat, lowering two inches per count for three counts. Hold, then rise on a three count. Repeat, first with feet shoulder-width apart, then with feet together, then apart again. That's one rep; do 10.

Leg Pulse: "The smaller the motions, the better the results," Gelband says. Lie on left side, left arm bent under head, left leg extended, right leg perpendicular at hip. Use your glutes to pulse right leg up and down 20 times, moving it slightly toward left foot with each rep. Switch sides; repeat.

One-Two Punch: "When I punch, I use my arms and core," Swanepoel says. Stand with feet hip-width apart, left leg just in front of right, fists at chin, elbows in. As you rotate and pivot right foot, punch right arm across body until arm is 75 percent extended. Return to start. Then throw a left hook by raising left elbow to shoulder height, arm bent 90 degrees, rotating through hips. Return to start; do 15 reps. Switch sides; repeat.

It does not affect much to her, as she has always been thin from her childhood. Also, besides eating her favorites, she eats healthy food as well like vegetables, proteins, drinks a lot of water and steak to develop some muscles.

She admits that it is too difficult to maintain a balanced diet plan while travelling. That doesn’t mean that she will deprive herself from eating. Rather, she eats whatever she wants, whether it is pizza, Brazilian cheese bread or anything.

The Less Toxic People, The More Peaceful Your Life Become.

There are certain ‘types’ of people that are simply not meant to be welcomed into your energy field if you want to live a happy life.  If you want to make the most of this life, surround yourself with people who add positive value to you. What follows are some types of toxic drainers that you should stay away from at all costs so that you don’t become one yourself.

1. The Lazy

Laziness is a disease, one that is highly contagious. Lazy people make other people lazy. The more you hang around the immobile, the less you will feel the need to be mobile. The mentally strong are not impervious. Hang around lazy people too often and you’ll notice your productivity and general enjoyment of life plummeting.

2. The Temperamental

Some people have absolutely no control over their emotions. They will lash out at you and project their feelings onto you, all the while thinking that you’re the one causing their malaise. Temperamental people are tough to dump from your life because their lack of control over their emotions makes you feel bad for them. When push comes to shove though, temperamental people will use you as their emotional toilet and should be avoided at all costs.

3.  The Big Talkers

Those that spend their time running their mouths spend little time doing anything else. It’s the mentally strong that don’t bother doing the talking because the work they are doing speaks for itself. The talkers, on the other hand, have nothing but the empty words they’re speaking.

4. The Envious

To envious people, the grass is always greener somewhere else. Even when something great happens to envious people, they don’t derive any satisfaction from it. This is because they measure their fortune against the world’s when they should be deriving their satisfaction from within. And let’s face it, there’salways someone out there who’s doing better if you look hard enough. Spending too much time around envious people is dangerous because they teach you to trivialize your own accomplishments.

5. The Judgmental

Judgmental people are quick to tell you exactly what is and isn’t cool. They have a way of taking the thing you’re most passionate about and making you feel terrible about it. Instead of appreciating and learning from people who are different from them, judgmental people look down on others. Judgmental people stifle your desire to be a passionate, expressive person, so you’re best off cutting them out and being yourself.

6. The Showoffs

Those who feel the need to be showy are always compensating for something and trying to prove their worth to themselves. Unfortunately for them, this is how you know they have little worth. Showing and trying to make other people envious is a waste of time, unless you’re trying to make yourself feel better about yourself at the expense of others. People that do such things are not the kind of people you want to keep around.

7. The Unintelligent

I’m not talking the kind of dumb that can’t be helped; I’m talking about the kind of dumb that is a result of an immense ego, voluntary ignorance and self-righteousness. Most of us know at least one or two people who are completely unintelligent as a result of continually making bad decisions and not learning from their mistakes for their entire lives.

8. The Manipulator

Manipulators suck time and energy out of your life under the façade of friendship. They can be tricky to deal with because they treat you like a friend. They know what you like, what makes you happy, and what you think is funny, but the difference is that they use this information as part of a hidden agenda. Manipulators always want something from you, and if you look back on your relationships with them, it’s all take, take, take, with little or no giving. They’ll do anything to win you over just so they can work you over.

9. The Parasite

Such people are only in your life to suck you dry and feed off of you. Being used can be helpful sometimes, but not with the parasitic. Their intentions are only for their self interest. Such people have to be avoided at all cost.

Milkshake

 A milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is usually made from milk, ice cream, or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, or fruit syrup. Outside the United States, milkshakes using ice cream or iced milk are sometimes called a thick milkshake or thick shake or in New England  a frappe, to differentiate them from thinner forms of flavored milk.
Full-service restaurants, soda fountains, and diners usually prepare and mix the shake "by hand" from scoops of ice cream and milk in a blender or drink mixer using a stainless steel cup. Many fast food outlets do not make shakes by hand with ice cream. Instead, they make shakes in automatic milkshake machines which freeze and serve a premade milkshake mixture consisting of milk, a sweetened flavoring agent, and a thickening agent. However, some fast food outlets still follow the traditional method, and some serve milkshakes which are prepared by blending soft-serve ice cream  with flavoring or syrups.
A milkshake can also be made by adding powder into fresh milk and stirring the powder into the milk. Milkshakes made in this way can come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate, caramel, strawberry, and banana.
Types
Hand-blended  
Hand-blended milkshakes are traditionally made from any flavor of ice cream; additional flavorings, such as chocolate syrup and/or malt syrup or malt powder, can be added prior to mixing. This allows a greater variety than is available in machine-made shakes. Some unusual milkshake recipes exclude ice cream.
Milkshake-like recipes which use a high proportion of fruit and no ice cream are usually called smoothies. When malted milk is added, a milkshake is called a malted milkshake, a malt shake, a malted, or simply a malt. An ice cream-based milkshake may be called a thick milkshake or thick shake in the United Kingdom or a frappe  in parts of New England and Canada. In Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, coffee syrup or coffee-flavored ice cream is used to make the local "coffee frappe" shake. Milkshakes with added fruit called batido are popular in Latin America and in Miami's Cuban expatriate community. In Nicaragua, milkshakes are called leche malteada.
Some U.S. restaurants serve milkshakes with crumbled cookies, candy bar pieces, or alcoholic beverages. The grasshopper milkshake, for example, includes crumbled chocolate cookies, creme de menthe liqueur, and chocolate mint ice cream.
Milkshake machines  
Restaurants with the highest volume of traffic, such as McDonald's, often opt to use premade milkshake mixtures that are prepared in automatic milkshake machines. These machines are metallic cylinders with beaters that use refrigeration coils to freeze premade milkshake mixtures into a drinkable texture. The number of different flavors that restaurants with automatic milkshake machines can serve is limited by the number of different tanks in their milkshake machines, so such fast food restaurants usually offer fewer flavors of milkshakes.
The smallest automatic milkshake machines are counter-mounted appliances that can make a single milkshake flavor using a stainless steel tank. Large restaurants that wish to offer multiple flavors can either use floor-mounted multi-flavor machines with multiple 5 liter stainless steel barrels or use carbon dioxide-based machines that mix the flavors during dispensing. Some fast food restaurants use "thick milkshake" machines, which are single flavor machines with a stainless steel tank.
Soft serve mixed with syrup  
Some fast food restaurants such as Dairy Queen serve milkshakes which are prepared by blending soft-serve ice cream  with sweetened, flavored syrups such as chocolate syrup and fruit-flavored syrup.

Direct and Indirect Speech

REPORTED SPEECH

DIRECT SPEECH | INDIRECT SPEECH

TENSE CHANGE | TIME CHANGE | PRONOUN CHANGE

REPORTING VERBS | USE OF 'THAT'

We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech.

Direct Speech / Quoted Speech

Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)

Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

For example:

She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."

Some people introduce a direct quote with a colon, and not a comma.

For example:

She said: "Today's lesson is on presentations."

When you lead with the quote, you use a comma.

For example:

"Today's lesson is on presentations," she said.

We use the same rules to report what people have written or thought. (Some people use italics.)

For example:

"I can do this," he thought. / I can do this, he thought.

or

"I can do this," he wrote.

Indirect Speech / Reported Speech

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

For example:

Direct speech / Quoted speech	Indirect speech / Reported speech
"I'm going to the cinema," he said.	He said he was going to the cinema.
"We could go to the cinema," he thought.	He thought we could go to the cinema.

Tense change

As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right):

Direct speech		Indirect speech
Present simple  She said, "It's cold."	›	Past simple  She said it was cold.
Present continuous  She said, "I'm teaching English online."	›	Past continuous  She said she was teaching English online.
Present perfect simple  She said, "I've been on the web since 1999."	›	Past perfect simple  She said she had been on the web since 1999.
Present perfect continuous  She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years."	›	Past perfect continuous  She said she had been teaching English for seven years.
Past simple  She said, "I taught online yesterday."	›	Past perfect  She said she had taught online yesterday.
Past continuous  She said, "I was teaching earlier."	›	Past perfect continuous  She said she had been teaching earlier.
Past perfect  She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived."	›	Past perfect  NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
Past perfect continuous She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes."	›	Past perfect continuous  NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five minutes.

Many modal verb forms also change:

Direct speech		Indirect speech
will  She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow."	›	would  She said she would teach English online tomorrow.
can  She said, "I can teach English online."	›	could  She said she could teach English online.
must  She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online."	›	had to  She said she had to have a computer to teach English online.
shall  She said, "What shall we learn today?"	›	should  She asked what we should learn today.
may  She said, "May I open a new browser?"	›	might  She asked if she might open a new browser.

!Note - There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to.

Direct speech	Indirect speech
"I might go to the cinema," he said.	He said he might go to the cinema.

You can use the present tense in reported speech if you want to say that something is still true, i.e. my name has always been and will always be Lynne so:-

Direct speech	Indirect speech
"My name is Lynne," she said.	She said her name was Lynne. or She said her name is Lynne.

You can also use the present tense if you are talking about a future event.

Direct speech (exact quote)	Indirect speech (not exact)
"Next week's lesson is on reported speech," she said.	She said next week's lesson will be on reported speech.

Time change

If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting.

For example we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of reporting.

Now	+ 24 hours - Indirect speech
"Today's lesson is on presentations."	She said yesterday's lesson was on presentations. or She said yesterday's lesson would be on presentations.

Expressions of time if reported on a different day
this (evening)	›	that (evening)
today	›	yesterday ...
these (days)	›	those (days)
now	›	then
(a week) ago	›	(a week) before
last weekend	›	the weekend before last / the previous weekend
here	›	there
next (week)	›	the following (week)
tomorrow	›	the next/following day

In addition if you report something that someone said in a different place to where you heard it you must change the place (here) to the place (there).

For example:-

At work	At home
"How long have you worked here?"	She asked me how long I'd worked there.

Pronoun change

In reported speech, the pronoun often changes.

For example:

Me	You
"I teach English online."	Direct SpeechShe said, "I teach English online." "I teach English online," she said. Reported Speech She told me she teaches English online. or She told me she taught English online.

Reporting Verbs

Said, told and asked are the most common verbs used in indirect speech.

We use asked to report questions:-

For example: I asked Lynne what time the lesson started.

We use told with an object.

For example: Lynne told me she felt tired.

!Note - Here me is the object.

We usually use said without an object.

For example: Lynne said she was going to teach online.

If said is used with an object we must include to ;

For example: Lynne said to me that she'd never been to China.

!Note - We usually use told.

For example: Lynne told me (that) she'd never been to China.

There are many other verbs we can use apart from said, told and asked.

These include:-

accused, admitted, advised, alleged, agreed, apologised, begged, boasted, complained, denied, explained, implied, invited, offered, ordered, promised, replied, suggested etc.

Using them properly can make what you say much more interesting and informative.

For example:

He asked me to come to the party:-

He invited me to the party.

He begged me to come to the party.

He ordered me to come to the party.

He advised me to come to the party.

He suggested I should come to the party.

Use of 'That' in reported speech

In reported speech, the word that is often used.

For example: He told me that he lived in Greenwich.

However, that is optional.

For example: He told me he lived in Greenwich.

!Note - That is never used in questions, instead we often use if.

For example: He asked me if I would come to the party.

Indirect speech for Interrogative (question) sentence.

For changing interrogative (question) sentence into indirect speech we have to observe the nature of question and then change it into indirect speech according to it rules for indirect speech. A question can be of two types. One type which can be answered in only YES or NO and other type which needs a little bit explanation for its answer and cannot be answered in only YES or NO.

Examples
          Do you like music? (It can be answered in YES or NO)
          How are you? (It cannot be answered in YES or NO but it needs a little bit                                    explanation i.e, I am fine.)

Questions which can be answered in YES/NO.

To change questions (which can be answered in yes or no) into indirect speech, word “if” or “whether” is used before the question in indirect speech. Rules for change in tense of question sentences are same as for change in normal tenses in indirect speech but sentence will not start with the auxiliary verb of the tense. The word “that” is not used between reporting verb and reported speech as conjunction in indirect speech for question sentence. Question mark is not used in indirect speech.

Examples.
          Direct speech: He said to me, “do you like music?”
          Indirect Speech: He asked me if I liked music. (Not, did I like music)
          Or Indirect Speech: He asked me whether I liked music.
        
          Direct speech:  She said, “Will he participate in the quiz competition?”
          Indirect Speech: She asked me if he would participate in quiz competition.
          Direct speech: I said to him, “are you feeling well?”
          Indirect Speech: I asked him if he was feeling well.
          Direct speech: They said to me, “did u go to school?”
          Indirect Speech: They asked me if I had gone to school.
          Direct speech: He said to me, “Have you taken the breakfast?”
          Indirect Speech: He asked me if I had taken the breakfast

Question which cannot be answered in YES/NO.

To change such questions into indirect speech, the words “if” or “whether” is not used. The tense of the question is changed according to the rules for change in normal tenses in indirect speech but sentence will not start with the auxiliary verb of the tense. The word “that” is not used between reporting verb and reported speech as conjunction, in indirect speech for question sentence. Question mark is not used in indirect speech.

Examples.
             Direct speech: He said to me, “how are you?”
             Indirect speech: He asked me how I was. (Not, how was I)
             Direct speech: Teacher said to him, “what is your name?”
             Indirect speech: Teacher asked him what his name was.
             Direct speech: She said to him, “why did you come late?”
             Indirect speech: She asked him why he had come late.
             Direct speech: He said, “when will they come?”
             Indirect speech: He asked when they would come.
             Direct speech: She asked his son, “why are you crying?”
             Indirect speech: She asked her son why he was crying.

Sources:

http://www.edufind.com/english-grammar/direct-and-indirect-speech/ 

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-reported-speech.php

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-DIRECTANDINDIRECTSPEECH.html

http://www.weblearn.in/direct_speech/

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html