The new lifestyle that we all lead today can be both a bane and boon to our health and fitness. With the technologies that we have available now, it seems that work follows us everywhere. It seems we sometimes find ourselves unable to even lift ourselves out of our computer chairs. It is becoming more and more common that people wake up and realize how sedentary and stress-filled their lives have become. This is a good thing. As I teach my health club clients, reducing stress and increasing physical activity and the most important things we can do to improve our lives and our health.What keeps us from becoming healthy?
No one can escape the fact that convenience is right at our fingertips; with cars, the computer, internet, and all these remote controls, who can blame us for becoming more and more inactive. It is true that our minds are always stimulated, but while it has become the age of the intelligent and comprehending minds, it has also become a world of physical ineptitude. Let us face it; probably the only things that get real exercise aside from our brains are our hands and fingers. Couple that lack of physical activity with the stress of never-ending deadlines, economic challenges and the constant demands of daily life and you can easily see where we’re headed.With this realization, nobody wonders why the couches of psychologists and psychiatrists are always occupied. The demand for anti-depressants has risen in unbelievable proportions. Everyone is suffering from stress, in one form or another. You get anxious because of the competitiveness of the workplace; you get stressed because of the demands in your household. With all of this pressure we tend to push our own well being into the back of our minds. In effect, we de-prioritize our own bodies. Stress levels soar and sometimes we let it go too far and we suffer from various illnesses that crop up because of it.How do we get our mental and physical fitness back to the top of the ‘To Do’ list?
Enlist the help of friends and family. Make health and fitness a group priority. Consult with a professional, like the team of fitness and nutritional experts that make up our Ontario health clubs. Being healthy and reducing stress in your life means forming healthy habits. Sometimes being part of a fitness group or joining a gym where you have space and time for yourself can be a great advantage. More and more people are realizing the importance of fitness success in the achievement of lifetime goals. After all, what good can it do you if you have a world full of opportunities when you have a body and a psyche that cannot handle it?Getting advice from professionals can be important. Visiting with trainers and nutrition counselors is very beneficial in helping us understand how slowing down and taking time to be in an appropriate diet and exercise program is advantageous in the long run. After then, we need to make ourselves willing and able to put our hearts and minds into this health routine.Stress is a crucial matter that you need to address; when stress and anxiety levels are too high, you will have a difficult time putting work down and setting aside time and space to make room for personal well-being. For instance, you feel too anxious to get the most of an exercise program when you are thinking of how much time you will have left to make dinner or beat a deadline in the office. Or. Sometimes, you cannot even enjoy a meal because all the tasks that you need to finish are running in your mind.How do you deal with this? One answer is to organize your schedule, take control of your time and look for unnecessary things that waste time. Knowing what you have to do and writing it down can help immensely in keeping your life in the right perspective. Creating a schedule that allows you to finish everything on time will allow you to see that you can make time for yourself. If your ‘To Do’ list is out of control try delegating some tasks to work subordinates, team members or family members. But, and this is important, you also have to make room for the unexpected. Acknowledge the fact that you cannot control everything that happens; the world does not revolve around you after all and it will not stop working if you spend a few hours taking care of yourself.
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Nature Photography – Technology Or Art?
Nature photography has been around since cameras were invented, but in the past 20 years it has achieved new-found credibility as an art form. Before that, it had been largely relegated to the tourist industry, where second-rate nature photography was mass marketed on postcards and calendars. You certainly would not expect to find nature photography featured in galleries and on the walls of the well-heeled and tasteful.Over the years, postcards and calendars began to improve in quality as nature photographers with real talent entered the industry. High quality posters of whales, wolves, elephants and spectacular landscapes from around the world were suddenly worthy of framing. Finally nature photography galleries began to appear and, more importantly, turn a profit.When I opened my gallery in 1993, many people still felt that you could not make a living selling photography; that people would only buy paintings to hang on their walls. These days, new galleries are opening everywhere; some good, some not so good, and a few that have really hit the big time.All this activity in the world of nature photography has inspired new generations of photographers to look at nature photography as a hobby or possible profession. These new nature photographers grew up in a very different world than the one I come from. Technology that was unimagined back then is now commonplace, and new photographers have more power in their hands than ever before. But what implications does all this technology have for nature photography?Nature photographers must now decide how much they will allow their photography to be influenced by technology. In earlier days, good nature photography required a very simple approach; find a great subject, in the best possible light, and use your skill with a camera to capture what you saw. Today it is quite a different story. A nature photographer can (if they choose) find a decent subject, photograph it in whatever lighting conditions they happen to find, then go home and completely alter the colours, the contrast, and even the detail of the picture. The result can be an image that owes more to the marvels of technology than to the wonders of nature.Each to his own. It is not for me to judge the creative decisions of another photographer. But the question that is in the back of your mind right now deserves to be asked; is this nature photography?Every photographer is entitled to pursue their craft any way they choose. Of course skills with computer software are just as creative as traditional nature photography skills. However, the person who views a photograph deserves to know what they are looking at, especially if that person is a customer prepared to part with their hard-earned money.I know many photographers get quite defensive on this subject. Camera clubs around the world continue to wrestle with the issue of judging natural photos alongside manipulated photos. Some clubs have tried to divide competition into separate categories, only to find people sneaking their digitally altered photos into the unaltered category for equal recognition. Understandably, ‘software photographers’ want their talents to be recognised on the same level as the ‘in-camera photographers’. And so they should, but not in a way that ignores the difference between the two disciplines.This is not an attempt to denigrate the skills of the software photographers. It just seems to me that the viewer, and in particular the paying customer, deserves to know.Increasingly the public is becoming suspicious of good photography. Anything that is outstanding or unusual is now assumed to have been altered or manipulated using computer software. In many cases, it probably has. Unfortunately, this suspicion gives little credit to the traditional photographer (and there are still plenty of us out there) who prefer to do the creative work in the field, before they press the shutter, and reproduce what was captured on the day.You can’t imagine, unless it has happened to you, how frustrating it is to proudly display your best nature photography, only to hear people say ‘These days it’s all done with computers.’For the record, my photography is as traditional as it can be in the digital age. Software is becoming essential to my work, as I go throught the process of scanning thousands of slides from my years of travel. Not to alter a photo, but to balance the colour and contrast to make sure the printed photograph matches the original slide. It is also an enormous benefit to finally be able to restore images that have been scratched or otherwise damaged by age.I recognise that the trend towards using software to enhance and alter photos is not only inevitable, but just as legitimate as old fashioned nature photography. However, I continue to encourage people to learn true camera skills as well, so that the use of software to manipulate images is a creative choice, not a remedy for lack of ability. Thankfully, the demand for my ebooks suggests that there are plenty of people out there who feel the same way.
Home Insurance – The Disadvantage of Under Insured Homes
Your family life and your finances are represented by your valuables asset which your home is one of them. You need to insure your home wisely by avoiding most mistakes done by home owners and apartment renters. Without insurance, the task of repairing your home in case of damage will be difficult to achieve because the building materials would have increased. Search for home insurance plan that has 100% of the estimated replacement cost of your home. You need to avoid some pot holes when searching for plans with 100% estimated replacement cost if you really want to insure your home without stress. Though, they are calculation you need to make if you want to arrive at an accurate or estimated cost.It is wise to insure your home with full replacement value because of future purposes. Your insurer or the insurance company will not be held liable when there is need to rebuild your home. The Insurance Company will pay according to the agreed amount stipulated on the policy. It is right to know that when your home is under insured there is always penalty placed by the insurance companies. The negative impact which under insured homes bring is felt when the home is damaged. For instance you insured your home with $700,000 and the replacement cost is $900,000 this will make the insurer apply a depreciation value to any claim you may file. The reason for this is your inability to provide at least 80% of the new cost (replacement value). If you carefully check this, you will realize that it is wise to get a full insurance for your home unless you are prepared for bankruptcy.To avoid this case, you need to know the replacement value of your house and insure at least 80% of it covered.