Pay Dirt

Identify the reasons why you feel lonely.  In order to make changes that will truly help you, you will need to take some time to figure out why you are feeling lonely. [2] For example, say you assume that you are lonely because you don’t have enough friends and you go out and make more friends. You may still feel lonely after making new friends if your loneliness is the result of having too many friends and a lack of meaningful connections. Consider some of the following questions to help you determine why you are feeling lonely: Start a journal to track your thoughts and feelings.  Journaling can help you to understand your feelings of loneliness better and it is also a great way to relieve stress. [3]  To get started with journaling, choose a comfortable place and plan to devote about 20 minutes per day to writing. You can start by writing about how you are feeling or what you are thinking, or you can use a prompt. Some prompts you might use include: Practice m...

1. Limit Your Time on Facebook A recent cover article in  The Atlantic  magazine asked, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” and confirms what I have been seeing in my own practice over the last several years. When Facebook is used as a casual tool to keep in touch with friends or stay in the social loop, it can be a useful distraction. However, when Facebook is used to keep constant tabs on others or to promote a certain self-image, it can lead to an unconscious need to compare ourselves to everyone in our social network. This frequently leads to jealousy, insecurity, misplaced feelings of superiority or alternatively, feelings of inadequacy. Limiting time on ubiquitous social media sites like Facebook may be hard at first, but it may be one of the best things you do for your mental health. 2. Stop Living Someone Else’s Life  Often, depression occurs when we wake up one day and realize we aren’t living our own dreams but are instead trying to please our parents, our s...

Toxic people defy logic. Some are blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them, and others seem to derive satisfaction from creating chaos and pushing other people’s buttons. Either way, they create unnecessary complexity, strife, and worst of all stress. Studies have long shown that stress can have a lasting, negative impact on the brain. Exposure to even a few days of stress compromises the effectiveness of neurons in the hippocampus—an important brain area responsible for reasoning and memory. Weeks of stress cause reversible damage to neuronal dendrites (the small “arms” that brain cells use to communicate with each other), and months of stress can permanently destroy neurons. Stress is a formidable threat to your success—when stress gets out of control, your brain and your performance suffer. Most sources of stress at work are easy to identify. If your non-profit is working to land a grant that your organization needs to function, you’re...

Physical pain can be intimidating. Whether it's a soreness after waking up, a sports injury, or an unexpected twinge, pain can be scary if you aren't mentally prepared to deal with it. We spoke to a few experts to learn how you can deal with—and prepare for—physical pain without feeling overwhelmed or freaked out. Laugh to Keep From Crying Sometimes  distracting yourself  from pain is the best way to tolerate it. Replace the emotions of turmoil, anxiety, and despair with the complete opposite: humor. " Humor therapy " exists because humor and laughter have proven effects. A small set of studies,  published by The Royal Society , discovered a correlation between social laughter and an elevated pain threshold. While the studies seem more exploratory than conclusive, the researchers tested this hypothesis through several different experiments. Lead researcher Robin Dunbar explains in an interview with  The New York Times  that, "The causal sequence is lau...

Pan Pizza Recipe Card Ingredients for Pan Pizza Recipe Prep Time :  1-1.30 hour Cook time :  31-40 minutes Serve :   4 Level Of Cooking :   Moderate Taste :   Mild Whole wheat flour  1 1/2 cups Soya flour  3 tablespoons Wheat bran flour  3 tablespoons Fresh yeast  1 teaspoon Sugar  1 teaspoon Salt  1 teaspoon Olive oil  3 tablespoons For sauce Olive oil  2 tablespoons Garlic chopped  8 cloves Tomato concasse  1 1/2 cups Onion chopped  1 medium Tomato puree  1/2 cups Salt  to taste Black peppercorns freshly ground  1/2 teaspoon Basil leaves torn  6-8 Fresh oregano  4 Dried oregano  1/4 teaspoon For topping Onions sliced  2 small Mushrooms sliced  6 Mozzarella cheese grated  1 cup Red capsicum cut into thin strips  1 medium Yellow capsicum cut into thin st...