In the fitness world, the word miracle gets thrown around like a two-pound dumbbell. But when it comes to high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a very short workout, the benefits youve heard about are both legitimate andwell say itmiraculous.

HIIT is a combination of brief, very-high intensity bursts of cardio exercise followed by equal or longer periods of rest. Think 30 seconds to a minute of sprinting, followed by a minute or two of walking or slow jogging. Repeat this cycle for just 10 minutes, and youll complete a HIIT workout.

We now have more than 10 years of data showing HIIT yields pretty much the exact same health and fitness benefits as long-term aerobic exercise, and in some groups or populations, it works better than traditional aerobic exercise, says Todd Astorino, a professor of kinesiology at California State University, San Marcos, who has published more than a dozen study papers on HIIT.

Whether your goal is to improve your fitness, lower your risk for cardiovascular disease, lose weight, strengthen skeletal muscle or help get your blood sugar under control, a few minutes of HIIT seem to be as effective as much longer periods of moderate-paced running, cycling, swimming or other forms of traditional cardio. For well-trained athletes, HIIT may be the best way to elevate your physical performance.

MORE: The TIME Guide To Exercise

One small study of healthy but sedentary people found just one minute total of HIIT performed three days a week for six weeks was enough to significantly improve blood sugar scores and aerobic capacity, a measure of physical fitness. The study participants completed 10- to 20-second bouts of all-out cycling on a stationary bike, each broken up by a couple minutes of rest. The total workout time, start to finish, was 10 minutes.

Other research finds that HIIT may outperform traditional cardio when it comes to fat loss. A HIIT-induced surge in your bodys levels of growth hormones and other organic compounds can increase fat burning and energy expenditure for hours after exercise, says study author Stephen Boutcher, an associate professor of medical sciences at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

It doesn't just work for the young, fit and healthy. Among people with heart disease, HIIT improves cardiorespiratory fitness nearly twice as much as longer stretches of moderate-intensity running, cycling or other aerobic exercises, one review study concluded.

MORE: Why You Dont Have to Exercise Every Day

How can HIIT do so much good in so little time? During very intense exercise, the heart cannot pump enough blood to satisfy all the muscles, says Ulrik Wislff, a HIIT researcher and head of the cardiac exercise research group at the Norwegian School of Science and Technology. This lacking oxygen delivery to the muscles starts a cascade of molecular responses in most organs of the body that produces a greater training response than more leisurely bouts of exercise, he says.

Exercise of any intensity switches on genes that increase the growth of mitochondriathe power generators of the cellsand triggers all of the other beneficial biological changes linked with physical fitness, says Astorino. But to activate these genes with traditional cardiovascular exercises, you have to do fairly large or long bouts, he says. With HIIT, it appears that even very short bouts of training can switch on those genes, so it's an efficient workout.

HIIT can work for a wide range of people. But how you should practice it depends on your fitness level.

The key to HIIT is pushing your heart rate up above 80% of its maximum, Astorino says. Subtract your age from 220 to estimate your maximal heart rate, he says. (A heart rate monitor can provide an accurate assessment. But if youre really sucking wind after pushing yourself, you've probably hit your target, Astorino says.)

MORE: 7 Surprising Benefits Of Exercise

If youre fit, try sprint interval training. After walking or slow jogging for a few minutes to warm up, sprint as hard as you can for 30 seconds, then recover for four minutes by walking or jogging slowly. Complete four to six sets of this sprinting-recovery program. (For an even faster version, keep the warmup, then complete three sets of 20-second sprints, each separated by two minutes of recovery, Astorino says.)

If youre overweight or obese and you havent exercised in months, sprinting isnt necessary (or safe for your joints). Instead, 30 seconds to four minutes of brisk walking on an inclined treadmill or hill should be enough to push your heart rate up into the HIIT zone, Astorino says.

You can also practice these programs with a stationary bike, rowing machine or in the pool. Any form of cardio can push your heart into the HIIT zone, Wislff says. (This fact sheet from the American College of Sports Medicine offers more in-depth details on how to design a HIIT program.)

And yes, HIIT is safe. Wislff and colleagues analyzed nearly 50,000 hours of HIIT data collected from cardiovascular disease patients in Norway. In seven years of data, he turned up just two instances of (non-fatal) cardiac arrest.

He says people with unstable angina or serious heart issues should speak with their doctor first. But, in general, its much more dangerous not to perform HIIT than to perform it, he says.

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Don't Have Time to Exercise? Do This for 10 Minutes - TIME

Instead of neglecting our workout (and the mood-boosting benefits that come from it), we schedule ourselves a little one-on-one workout time with YouTube. The workouts are time-flexible, accessible and expert-led. In other words, its basically a treasure trove of fitness.

A quick search unearths everything from yoga to Pilates to HIIT training routines; whatever type of sweat session you prefer, YouTube likely has it. Thats why we decided to put together a list of our favorite online fitness channels just to help you narrow your search a little bit.

YOGA WITH ADRIENE.Adriene Mishler is the light-hearted yogi behind this YouTube channel. Her yoga videos range from targeted practices for anxiety, depression, sleep and pain (like this one for neck and shoulder relief) to power flows for strengthening and lengthening. Her goofy yet calming presence is enough to make you change into comfortable clothes, drink a cup of tea and relax into a yoga routine.

CASSEY HO OF BLOGILATES.Cassey Ho has been a mainstay on the YouTube fitness scene since she started uploading Pilates videos in 2009. Her website, Blogilates, provides fitness and nutrition advice, along with body-positive inspiration and sporty merchandise.

She specializes in workouts that build and tone muscle using nothing else but your own body weight. The workouts are hard but fun. Her bubbly and outgoing personality almost makes you forget your arms are screaming in the middle of a 15-minute workout (almost). Stay dedicated to her videos, try your best, and youll see real change.

TARA STILES.Although she does have videos fit for beginners, chances are that youll love Tara Stiless yoga videos if youre an intermediate or advanced yoga devotee. Her no-frills approach is quieting, calming and strengthening for both the body and mind. (If youre not super into yoga, check her videos out anyway, because they might majorly inspire you; shes the most graceful human being weve ever seen).

JEANETTE JENKINS.Jeanette Jenkins is a celebrity personal trainer (responsible for training A-listers such as Kelly Rowland) who posts a variety of different workouts designed to increase strength. Many of her videos are extremely short think no longer than 30 seconds just so she can show a few reps of effective moves. Then, depending on how much time you have, you can make it an extended workout, or just do a few circuits. Take this Zumba video, for instance. Its solely concentrated on planks and high knees for an intense cardio sweat.

THE TONE IT UP GIRLS.Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott started their Tone It Up empire to share workout, nutrition, and even lifestyle advice. Many of their workouts take place in front of a beautiful backdrop of the Pacific ocean, so you can kind of feel like youre working out while on a SoCal vacation (better than working out at home, right?).

Theyre also regular Byrdie contributors. Check out all of their stories. (Personally, we love this piece on the 5 exercises you should do if you sit all day).

XHIT DAILY.XHIT Daily is a YouTube channel that regularly posts workout videos ranging from Crossfit to Pilates. The three hosts are incredibly knowledgeable, reminding their viewers how to correct their form and get the most from their workouts throughout.

THE RUN EXPERIENCE.Weve covered yoga, Pilates, and strength training workouts, but this one is for any runners out there. The Run Experience has almost 70,000 YouTube subscribers, to which it shares motivating running tips, tricks, and advice. They have videos on everything from hydration and nutrition to race-day prep. Regardless if youre a runner or not, they share super-effective targeted workouts that are great for doing on the go.

WHITNEY SIMMONS.Simmons posts regularly on YouTube, so youll never be without a new workout to try. The best part? You dont need a ton of equipment. Many of her videos use your body weight, and maybe a dumbbell or two to target specific muscle groups. Plus, she produces videos on healthy meal prep, to keep you going throughout a busy week.

Get the latest celebrity beauty news, runway trends, health and fitness tips, as well as product suggestions from the experts at Byrdie.com.

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Fitness gurus to work out with for free on YouTube - Chicago Tribune - Chicago Tribune

FRIDAY, Aug. 11, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The early life of a very premature baby can be a hectic and stressful time for parents. But once the child is grown, parents are as satisfied with life as those whose babies were born at full term, new European research finds.

"Parents of very premature or very low birth-weight children did not differ in quality of life 27 years later compared to parents who had children born healthy and at term," said the study's lead author, Dieter Wolke.

"This is a testament to resiliency and coping," added Wolke, a professor of developmental psychology and individual differences at Warwick Medical School in Coventry, England.

A very premature baby is one born before 32 weeks' gestation. A very low birth weight is fewer than 3.3 pounds.

Being born very prematurely or with a very low birth-weight is linked to a higher risk of death, long-term health problems and higher costs, according to the study's authors.

These children may have trouble in many areas of life including motor, thinking and memory skills. Some may be unable to live independently as adults. They're also less likely to have a steady job or romantic partner, the researchers noted.

How these factors might affect the parents' quality of life hadn't been well-studied.

To get a better idea of how parents fare as very premature babies grow up, the researchers reviewed a whole-population study done in Germany. They looked at all births between January 1985 and March 1986.

Families of 219 very premature or very low birth-weight babies completed questionnaires for the study, along with the families of 227 babies who were born full-term.

When the children were grown -- average age 27 -- parents completed a quality-of-life survey designed by the World Health Organization.

The researchers found that parents of very premature or very low birth-weight babies were as happy by the time their kids reached adulthood as parents of full-term babies. Among the factors that didn't affect parents' quality of life included a child's disability, academic achievement or how good the parent-child relationship was during childhood.

But the child's mental health and peer relationships while growing up were crucial.

"We found that having good mental health and good peer relationships in childhood makes parents have a more satisfied life. Expressed simply, parents are happy if their children were happy in childhood and have friends," Wolke said.

Another factor seemed to matter a lot to parents, he said, and that was support.

"Families of [preemies] grew stronger together as they needed more help from grandparents, siblings, uncles and friends. Most described how this bonded the family closer together. It is likely this social support helped," Wolke said.

The findings are important for counseling parents, he said.

"There is light at the end of the tunnel they often cannot see with the initial shock and completely appropriate worries of the future at the beginning of their very premature or very low birth-weight child's life," Wolke said.

Dr. Pinchi Srinivasan is director of neonatology at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital in New York City. He reviewed the study's findings.

"This study is reassuring for parents. Stress is generally in the first year, but we have a lot of support systems now, like early intervention programs and parental support groups," he said.

Both experts said it's unclear if these results would be replicated in the United States. Germany has universal healthcare, they pointed out, so parents there wouldn't have the same stress over medical costs that American parents might.

The study was published Aug. 10 in the journal Pediatrics.

Another recent study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, also had good news for parents of premature children.

It reported that kids born prematurely seem to do just fine in school. Two-thirds were ready to start kindergarten on time, and nearly 2 percent achieved gifted status. Babies born at 25 weeks and later scored only slightly lower on standardized tests than kids who were born full-term.

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Parents of Preemies End Up Just Fine: Study | Health, Medicine and ... - Sioux City Journal

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, (AICPA) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) has announced the appointment of Babatunde Osho from Nigeria to the first Africa Regional Board with effect from August 2017.

The announcement was made public by the Regional Vice-President of the Association, Badibanga Promesse, saying, following a call for nominations and elections for the first Africa Regional Board under the Association, We are pleased to announce the appointment of Babatunde Osho and others from various countries to serve as board members for the next one year of extended term.

Promesse disclosed, I look forward to some exciting time under the Association and cannot wait to get things in motion and provide excellent services to our members and students in Africa.

Osho, a multi-functional business professional is currently Director / CEO MTN Liberia.

The Regional Boards serve as a key conduit between the customers, stakeholders and the CGMA Board of Directors. They serve as the eyes and ears of the profession from their individual and (geographical) representative perspective in identifying key macro and micro trends in the local marketplaces, impacting the customers and stakeholders understanding emerging issues with supply and demand of students, members, employers, universities and tuition providers.

The Boards understand the demand and potential value proposition of products and offerings along the entire value chain continuum, representing, engaging, presenting and advocating for the CGMA designation within the CIMA and AICPA membership bodies and the Association with members, customers, potential members customers, providing perspective into the development of the Associations and management accounting professional units three year strategic plan.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman will serve one year terms in such capacities with the Vice Chairman ascending to become the Chairman.

The members of the Regional Boards can serve a maximum of three consecutive one year terms to provide continuity while also creating additional opportunities for a large and diverse stakeholders.

Modestus Anaesoronye

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I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say this is good, this is bad, you have already jumped onto the thought process.

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

Thats the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being. Osho

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Osho Quotes (Author of Courage)

Ingenico Group, which has the worlds largest payment acceptance network, has singled out online skill-based games and education as new growth engines to better tap Chinas cross-border electronic payment business.

The company, a partner with Alibaba Group to help the Chinese internet giant expand the presence of Alipays mobile wallet in Europe, said it would continue to drive China-related businesses in the travel and retail sectors.

We see growth area in skill gaming which has largely remained domestic (business in China) until now, said Nick Tubb, Asia-Pacific chief of Ingenico ePayments. There are certainly opportunities here for us to pursue further growth of our businesses.

He added that online education would likely become another new bright spot in cross-border e-payment.

Last year, Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba, signed a partnership with Ingenico, paving the way for hundreds of European retailers to accept payment by users of the mobile wallet app.

Chinese shoppers are able to use the mobile wallet to complete their transactions at hundreds of physical stores within Ingenicos processing platform when travelling abroad.

Alipay targets Chinese tourists with US payment deals

Ingenico also manages cross-border electronic transactions for Alipay when mainland shoppers purchase foreign goods via e-commerce.

The industry is so dynamic that you never know when the disruptions can change the business landscape, Tubb said, adding that Ingenico is taking an open attitude toward future business opportunities in China.

The total value of Chinas cross-border e-commerce, including both imports and exports, is expected to hit 7.5 trillion yuan (US$1.1 trillion) in 2017, up 19 per cent from a year ago, according to iiMedia Research.

The industry is so dynamic that you never know when the disruptions can change the business landscape

Nick Tubb, Ingenico

In the past 10 years, the number of Chinese online transactions processed annually by Ingenico has grown by a factor of 180, a result of soaring cross-border e-commerce in China.

Tubb predicted cross-border e-payment by Chinese people would increase at an annualised rate of 20 per cent to 25 per cent in the coming years.

Chinas e-sports businesses, driven by peoples obsession with games, have created a mammoth market for online game developers.

About 560 million people, or 70 per cent of the countrys internet population, play games, according to market intelligence firm Newzoo.

China makes up 57 per cent of the global e-sports audience, according to an IHS Markit research report.

Last year, about 3.5 billion hours of e-sports videos were viewed by Chinese audience and 11.1 billion e-sports streams were delivered to them.

But few mainland people engage in online games across the border.

Alipay is also expanding its mobile payment application service into the United States through partnerships with payment processors First Data and Verifone.

Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

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Ingenico to tap Chinese cross-border spending on online games and education - South China Morning Post

WASHINGTON | Among the paintings and photographs that decorate Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sunlit, spacious office is the framed roll call from her Senate confirmation. Its a stark reminder of the bruising process that spurred angry protests, some ridicule and required the vice presidents tie-breaking yes vote.

Six months on the job, DeVos is no less divisive.

Critics see her as hostile to public education and indifferent to civil rights, citing her impassioned push for school choice and her signing off on the repeal of some protections for LGBT students.

Conservatives wish she had been less polarizing and more effective in promoting her agenda, noting that the departments budget requests are stalled in Congress and no tangible school choice plan has emerged.

DeVos is undeterred.

We have seen decades of top-down mandated approaches that protect a system at the expense of individual students, DeVos told The Associated Press. I am for individual students. I want each of them to have an opportunity to go to a school that works for them.

In her first comprehensive sit-down interview with a national media outlet since taking office, DeVos touched on some of the most pressing issues in K-12 and higher education.

She said Washington has a role to set a tone and encourage states to adopt choice programs without enacting a big new federal program thats going to require a lot of administration. At the same time, she confirmed that a federal tax-credit voucher program was under consideration as part of a tax overhaul. Its certainly part of our discussion, DeVos said.

DeVos, 59, appeared confident, but reserved during the 30-minute interview last week in her office, where photographs of her children and grandchildren and drawings and letters from young students are prominent. Large windows overlook the Capitol. Across the street, visitors lined up outside the National Air and Space Museum, which DeVos toured this year with Ivanka Trump to promote science and engineering among girls.

DeVos defended her decision to rewrite Obama-era rules intended to protect students against being deceived by vocational nondegree programs, saying that the last administration really stepped much more heavily into areas that it should not.

Liberals accuse DeVos of looking out for the interests of for-profit schools, and they point to Trump University, the presidents for-profit school that was sued for fraud. Supporters say the Obama regulations unfairly targeted for-profits and failed to track students long-term careers.

The decision by the departments of Education and Justice to roll back rules allowing transgender students to use school restrooms of their choice enraged civil rights advocates, who said already vulnerable children could face even more harassment and bullying. Conservatives saw DeVos fulfilling a promise to return control over education issues to states, cities, school districts and parents.

We really believe that states are the best laboratories of democracy on many fronts, DeVos said.

On the issue of school choice, DeVos was resolute. Another major flashpoint: charter schools, which are publicly funded but usually independently operated, and voucher programs that help families cover tuition at private schools. Theyre often criticized for a lack of transparency, and studies about their effectiveness have produced mixed results. DeVos disagrees.

I think the first line of accountability is frankly with the parents, she said. When parents are choosing school they are proactively making that choice.

For DeVos, who spent more than two decades promoting charter schools in her home state of Michigan, the closure of some low-performing charters was evidence of accountability. At the same time, there have been zero traditional public schools closed in Michigan for performance and I think thats a problem, she said.

DeVos got off to a rocky start in the Trump Cabinet.

She was satirized for some of her gaffes during the confirmation hearing, such as saying that guns are needed in schools to protect students from grizzly bears. Teacher unions accused her of seeking to privatize public education. Parents and teachers jammed Congress phone lines to oppose her nomination.

It took Vice President Mike Pences historic vote the first by a vice president to break a 50-50 tie on a Cabinet nomination to secure her position after two Republican senators defected.

DeVos is still sometimes met with protesters at public events, and her security detail has been bolstered at an additional cost of $7.8 million.

But DeVos isnt retreating.

She actively advocates for school choicce, once comparing education to ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, and saying that parents, like riders, need options. Of the 17 K-12 schools that she has visited so far, only seven were traditional public schools. DeVos didnt attend public school herself or send her children to a public school.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a recent speech that DeVos was a public school denier and quipped that DeVos can start talking about school choice even in reply to a simple greeting.

Conservatives say she may have oversold.

She has made things harder for herself by acting as the secretary for school choice instead of the secretary of education, said Mike Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute. She has missed the opportunity to make it clear that she wants to see all schools succeed.

Moderates are upset.

I have feared that in trying to rush in with a simplified notion of choice that she will love charters to death, said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a pro-charter group. At this point, six months in, I dont see any evidence that we are farther along on helping with achievement, equity, with moving the country forward.

Asked to name some of the strengths of public schools that she has observed in her job, DeVos said only that she is a very strong supporter of public schools.

But we also need to encourage schools, public schools that are doing a great job to not rest on their laurels but to continue to improve because unless youre constantly oriented around continuous improvement and excellence we know that theres going to be reversion to something less than that, she added.

DeVos proposal of a $9 billion, or 13.5 percent, cut to the education budget angered the left, but also drew criticism from top Republicans. The $20 billion school choice program that President Donald Trump promised during his campaign has so far failed to materialize. Last month, the House rejected his administrations plans for a $250 million private voucher program and a $1 billion in public school choice.

Petrilli said that was partly due to DeVos divisive rhetoric and problems filling senior positions at the department, as well as controversies plaguing the White House. Anyone in her position would be having a difficult time because of her boss, Petrilli said.

What grade should appear on DeVos report card after her first six months in office?

A very incomplete, said Patrick McGuinn, a professor of political science and education at Drew University.

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After 6 months on job, education chief still highly divisive - Online Athens

August 09, 2017

As online nursing education increases in popularity, researchers are finding institutional procedures may not be keeping up.

It is possible that institutional policies and practices that address support, resource allocation and faculty teaching have not kept pace with the rapid growth of online education, said Elizabeth Gazza, Ph.D., RN, associate professor at University of North Carolina Wilmington.

In a survey of 2,175 higher education faculty, 49% thought their institution did not provide enough technical support, and 48% thought they did not provide adequate support for course creation.

Gazza states online nursing education is not better or worse; it is just different.

Her research showed online instructors strived for the back-and-forth interaction necessary for teaching. In an online setting, teachers need to be available to students more frequently because students can work at virtually anytime.

Typically, instructors' workloads may be determined by credit hours. In online teaching, a better measure is class size. Institutions should evaluate this when scheduling faculty, along with workload allocation and compensation. A majority of study participants found online teaching takes longer than in-person teaching.

Results of Gazza's study appeared in the Journal of Nursing Education in June.

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Institutional procedures trail online education, study finds - McKnight's Long Term Care News

In the age of Instagram, self-help and wellness have never looked more glamorous and appealing, says inspirational speaker Danielle LaPorte.

But as she points out in her new book, White Hot Truth, sometimes the path to self-improvement can become self-destructive.

So much of the self-help space looks great. It looks liberated, progressive and great in yoga pants, she said recently over a vegetarian lunch in Venice. It looks like it is doing the right thing, and sometimes it is, but sometimes it isnt. It needs to be examined.

In many cases, she says, people are simply replacing one kind of addiction or problem for a better-looking one.

LaPorte chronicles hers and others stumbles along the path to enlightenment in her new book, as well as her prescription for doing it healthfully.

Here are four ways she sees self-improvement taking an unhealthy detour as well as strategies for dealing with them.

1. Spiritual bypassing

This term, coined by psychologist John Welwood, is defined as the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with our painful feelings, unresolved wounds and developmental needs.

In short, LaPorte says, sometimes we do the right things for the wrong reasons. But instead of medicating with alcohol or drugs to feel better, she says, were doing it with macrobiotics and metaphysics. Of course, these habits wont land you in rehab, she says, just in more goddess workshops.

One prime example, she says, is that friend many of us know, with a not-so-loving relationship with her body, who maintains a strict health-food regimen and talks a good game about body positivity but is merely disguising a mild eating disorder as a holistic wellness routine.

The fix: Examine your motives as you journey down the spiritual path; spend some time in self-reflection and asking yourself what you are really seeking and why.

2. Lack of boundaries

In the quest to grow, LaPorte says, many people women in particular become way too tolerant of other peoples bad behavior, thinking they are acting from a place of spiritual acceptance and compassion. This may manifest in staying in an unloving relationship too long, accepting blame and criticism from narcissistic friends, or ceding too much authority to a spiritual teacher even if the instructors approach feels like manipulation or raises alarm bells.

The fix: You have to keep your antennae up, LaPorte says. She advises her own 13-year-old son to have an open heart but to guard it with a big fence that lets in only people who are respectful and interested and really, really loving.

3. Guilt

If your spiritual regimen includes a rewards system or punishment, its a bad sign, LaPorte says. You shouldnt have to meditate for an hour, practice yoga every day or eat 100% gluten-free and organic to earn that chocolate or get that pedicure youve been wanting. Thats not self-love or self-care, she says.

If youre constantly adding to your spiritual to-do list and feeling bad about falling short, or if you find yourself getting competitive about your yoga practice and healthy eating, that may be a sign that youre seeking approval as much as enlightenment.

The fix: With any spiritual practice, she says, You shouldnt have to feel guilty when you dont do it. Do it when you need it and you want it, she says. A really powerful question is: What if no one was keeping score, would you do it? Its not about brownie points, its about the sweetness and the freedom and the euphoria of being a loving person.

4. One-size-fits-all spirituality

Many think they need to adopt all the habits and practices of a spiritual teacher or self-help guru, whether its Deepak Chopra or Tony Robbins. A good teacher should be meeting students at their level and seeing what they need, rather than prescribing a spiritual formula. If mantras are your thing, great. If crystals seem too far out there, fine, she says.

There are a lot of paths and they all work for someone, she says. Like anything else, she says, finding a spiritual practice and path to self-improvement is like finding your own beliefs after you leave a small, one-church town.

The fix: You have to learn to think for yourself, LaPorte says, and that includes being willing to take a break from that meditation practice, Reiki habit or vegan diet to see if its really working for you.

READ ON!

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When self-improvement is self-destruction: The 4 warning signs - Gears Of Biz

Readers can renew their depleted book collections soon at the Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library Summer Book Sale.

The Friends will host their semi-annual sale Aug. 23-26 in the Athens-Clarke County Librarys multipurpose rooms.

The sale will feature hundreds of gently used books, including fiction, non-fiction, childrens books, hardbacks, paperbacks, games, audio books, CDs and more.

The sale will begin with a Friends-only preview sale 2-6 p.m. Aug. 23. Shoppers can purchase a Friends membership at the door of the sale for $25 and then get first pick at the sale.

The sale will be open to the public 6-8 p.m. Aug. 23, then 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 24; and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 25, and on Aug. 26.

Saturday is Bag Day, when shoppers can fill a large grocery bag for just $10. The Friends provide the bags.

All proceeds from the Book Sale benefit the Athens-Clarke County Library.

For more information, call (706) 613-3650 or visit http://www.athenslibrary.org/athens and click on Friends of Athens-Clarke County Library.

The Athens-Clarke County Library is located at 2025 Baxter Street in Athens.

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Athens library summer book sale coming up - Online Athens