Forbes

Meditation For Energy: To Naturally Energize Your Body And Mind Forbes It's so tempting to get another cappuccino or Red Bull. I get it. It's 3 pm, you have hours of additional work, and the lure of caffeine feel overwhelming. There is another way. Here's an energizing meditation you can do for just thirty seconds that ...

Read more:

Meditation For Energy: To Naturally Energize Your Body And Mind - Forbes

Over the past few years, the wellness world has been focused on meditation and mindfulness and how it can help improve your life. Of course, meditation has also been around for millennia, but its apparent ease of access and minimal investment has definitely helped create its recent uptick in popularity.

And while there are many great reasons to meditate (increased concentration, lower stress levels, better sleep, to name a few), there's the small problem of it not going exactly as planned for many who practice.

In a new study published in PLOS One, "The Varieties of Contemplative Experience," researchers found that meditation didn't only deliver positive reactions it could also produce negative or "challenging" ones, such as fear, involuntary body movements and panic.

Noting that these types of results are often under-reported in literature, the study's authors interviewed almost 100 people who practiced meditation, as well as teachers from three main traditions (Theravda, Zen and Tibetan). They discovered that meditation affects seven main aspects: cognitive, perceptual, affective (i.e. emotions and moods), somatic (relating to the body), conative (i.e. motivation or will), sense of self and social.

The subjects reported a variety of reactions, both positive and negative, and they lasted anywhere from as soon as the person started practicing to 25 years into their practice.

While the introspective nature of meditation is meant to bring up difficult thoughts (as with people who re-experienced traumatic memories) and is certainly meant to be a challenge, many believe they'll automatically reap the benefits right away. But the practice isn't as simple as sitting down, closing your eyes and letting the good vibes flow your mental state, your teacher and even your physical location can make a difference.

This is a good example of how a contextual factor can affect associated distress and functioning, Jared Lindahl, one of the study's co-authors, said in a press release. An experience that is positive and desirable in one situation may become a burden in another.

Similarly, people have been questioning the use of apps and other technology, which coerce you to meditate for a certain amount of time or at a specific point in the day, to aid in mediation, which might also create stress with regards to a habit that's meant to be calming.

"Analytics motivate us, like fitness trackers, but then they create the feeling of wasted effort if we cant get our points," wrote Jon Mitchell, lifelong meditator and author of In Real Life: Searching for Connection in High-Tech Times, on his blog. "More content-heavy meditation apps, like ones that guide you or use particular sounds or images, insinuate themselves into your meditation. They dont teach a practice you can do without them."

There's no question meditation can help people, but it seems that it doesn't necessarily help everyone. And with the flood of good news stories on the practice, that can make people feel like there's something wrong with them, when that is not in any way the case.

During the interviews, some people learned for the first time that they are not completely alone in having had this experience, Lindahl said. The social awareness we think this project can raise could be a key way of addressing some of the problems.

Visit link:

Meditation Can Have Negative Effects, As Well As Positive Ones: Study - Huffington Post Canada

On May 20, San Francisco-based tech giant Salesforce.com Inc.showcased to the public its newest namesake towerSalesforce Tower Indianapolis.

It was Salesforce's latest local milestone in a journey that began almost four years when it announced its deal to acquire ExactTarget for $2.5 billion. ExactTarget had about 1,000 local employees at the time. Today, Salesforce officials said, its Indianapolis headcount exceeds 1,600.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was in town for the grand opening, and he spoke with IBJ about the company's plans to train 500 apprentices and hire additional exployees, as well as his vision for having all local employeesnow scattered across three buildingsin the tower. The conversation, edited for brevity and clarity, follows:

IBJ: Back in 2014 you told IBJ you wanted a tower in Indianapolis. Now it's here. How does it feel?

BENIOFF: Well, we've never been more excited about Indianapolis, and we've never been more excited about Salesforce. We have our tower here and we now have the ability to fulfill our dream to become not only Indiana's largest tech employer but also to help develop the future of Indiana's workforce with our next-generation apprenticeship program that we plan to pilot right here in Indianapolis.

IBJ: How will that program work?

BENIOFF: We know that the requirements for the workforce of the future are changing dramatically, and rapid advancements in technologywhether it's cloud computing or artificial intelligencemean that there's going to be a vast retraining of individuals looking for new jobs.

As part of that, we've made a new system thats available online called Trailhead. And Trailhead is a one-to-one learning system that helps people gain expertise in using our Salesforce platform. And we have hundreds of thousands of people on that system today. It's a very exciting online capability, and we are going to do that in a physical way with a Trailhead apprenticeship program. We're going to bring people into our company and provide that exact same knowledge that Trailhead provides to them virtually.

IBJ: What prompted this?

BENIOFF: We want to be the key people to provide that Salesforce knowledge to these people who we call Trailblazers. I'll tell you that of the top 10 jobs in the U.S. that are available now in the tech industry, two are Salesforce jobs. One is Salesforce administrator and the other is Salesforce developer. Indeed published that survey, and if you want those high-paying jobs, you need these Salesforce skills. We've taken factory workers and even ministers and we've been able to give them these valuable skills to transform their lives.

This is really important. The world is changing rapidly, especially with respect to technologyeverybody realizes that. We don't want anybody to be left behind, so we need to provide both online and in-person training at scale, and we plan to headquarter that right out of Indianapolis.

IBJ: Who are the types of people you plan to target for this and what's your goal? Do you plan to hire them?

BENIOFF: It's across the board, and if you look on the Trailhead website, you'll see the wide variety of people from different industries who have made this decision to learn these skills and how it's impacted their lives. Those are not our employees. Those are users of this technology; they work for customers of this technology.

IBJ: What are some the features of Salesforce Tower Indianapolis?

BENIOFF: First, you're going to see our Trailhead interior, which kind of has the resemblance of a national park with our green carpets, lightwood fixtures, and probably the most remarkable thing is the tremendous amount of open space and lack of offices. There are very few offices and very few conference rooms.

The second thing, of course, is that the very top floor of the building will be known as the Ohana Floor. We'll use that for collaboration, communication and coordination during the day for our employees to have events, lunches and dinners. But we'll make that top floor available to the communityreligious organizations, non-profits, and non-governmental organizationsso they can have catered events or programs on the weekend or when we're not using it.

In addition to that, every floor in the tower has meditation and mindfulness rooms. We believe it's really important to give our employees the ability to completely disconnect in a world that's always on. And so those mindfulness rooms are very popular in the world where we put them in. Of course, they serve all peoples and all religions.

And on each floor there's a Salesforce lounge, which is very similar to a home-living environment where employees have an opportunity to relax. Maybe they want to read or make themselves some type of food or snack. It's a residential environment with tremendous views made possible by the tower.

IBJ: Did you ever consider building from scratch here?

BENIOFF: We did. In fact, in our original discussions we thought we would have to build from scratch. But, as you know, through a twist of fate we were able to lease the tower for it to take on our namesake.

IBJ: How many towers bear the Salesforce across the globe?

BENIOFF: The big ones are San Francisco, Indianapolis, New York and London. There's also a very large facility in Munich, Germany. There's a large headquarters building in Paris, France. And I think those are the major facilities right now.

IBJ: Is there anything special about the Indianapolis tower?

BENIOFF: The view of Indianapolis.

IBJ: What's your long-term vision for real estate now. I understand employees are in three buildings right now. Do you want everyone in the tower eventually?

BENIOFF: Ideally, everyone is in the tower. Our goal is for everyone to be in one place.

IBJ: Last year, Salesforce said it planned to add 800 jobs in Indianapolis. It had about 1,400 at the time. How's hiring going?

BENIOFF: Hiring here has been great. We still have a lot of openings. We need technical talent. We need the best and brightest, especially in regard to our schools, colleges and universities. And we're also moving people here from other headquarters locations like San Francisco.

IBJ: How much of that relocation activity is actually happening? Is it few and far between or is there a lot interest?

BENIOFF: There is interest. As housing prices increase in places like the San Francisco Bay area, Indianapolis now with the Salesforce Tower provides an attractive opportunity for people in high-price urban areas to move here and have a great lifestyle at a reasonable price.

IBJ: As you may know, there are a whole host of tech firms that have official plans to expand headcount here. Do such plans make it tougher for Salesforce to meet its hiring goals?

BENIOFF: I actually think it'll be easier because there will be more people spreading the good news about Indianapolis. Yeah, we don't want to be the only ones. That is never a good situation.

IBJ: The ExactTarget acquisition was almost four years ago and it became the foundation for your Marketing Cloud. So what has theacquisition meant for Salesforce?

BENIOFF: Well it's transformed Salesforce from being just a B2B [software] provider to being a B2C provider. And you can see the tremendous growth from when we bought that company to where we are today. Just through that line, it's amazing and it's phenomenal how much we've been able to grow. And it's been a huge catalyst for that growth.

See the original post here:

In Q&A, Benioff riffs on Salesforce Tower meditation rooms, Indy strategy and more - Indianapolis Business Journal

Friday May 26 2017

Many types of meditation are practiced across the world

"Meditation can leave you feeling even more stressed," the Daily Mail reports.

The claim is prompted by a study of 60 practitioners of Buddhist meditation in the US which found they'd had a range of "challenging or difficult" experiences associated with the practice.

However, it's not clear how relevant the results are to the majority of people who use meditation apps or take mindfulness classes.

The study only included people in Western countries who meditated within one of three Buddhist traditions, and importantly who'd had negative experiences. So the numbers of people in the study reporting, for example, fear, is only representative of people who'd said they had a negative experience through meditation, not of all people meditating.

The study does make an important point, however, at a time when mindfulness and meditation has become more popular, that the effects of meditation are not always positive or harmless. Some people in the study reported feeling depressed or suicidal, and a few needed treatment in hospital as a result.

Classical Buddhist literature discusses potential pitfalls of mindfulness and meditation, such as maky (hallucinations) and "Zen sickness" a sense of imbalance and loss of identity. So these warnings should not be glossed over by teachers of Buddhist inspired techniques.

Also, healthcare practitioners who recommend meditation need to be aware of the associated risks.

The study was carried out by researchers from Brown University and the University of California in the US. It was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the Bial Foundation, the Mind and Life Institute and the 1440 Foundation.

The study was published in thepeer-reviewed journal PLOS One on an open-access basis, so it is free to read online.

The Mail covered the study particularly badly. It began by sneering at the celebrities and "yummy mummies" that practice mindfulness, without apparently noticing that the study excluded generic mindfulness-based interventions and looked only at specific Buddhist meditation practices.

It reported that 82% of people questioned had experienced fear, anxiety or paranoia, without making it clear the study only interviewed people with negative experiences. It also said that people who had previous psychological problems had been "ruled out" of the study. Yet the study reported 32% of people interviewed had a history of psychiatric disorder (only people with current mental illness, or similar unusual psychological experiences not linked to meditation were excluded).

Finally, the Mail said the study interviewed "nearly 100" people about their experiences, when they actually interviewed 60 people.

This was a qualitative study. Qualitative studies, like this one, use interviews to ask people open-ended questions about their experiences of specific issues, such as meditation.

Experiences were then grouped into categories. The researchers looked specifically for people who'd had negative experiences of meditation, because they say these experiences had not previously been properly investigated.

This type of research is useful to gather detailed information about people's experiences. It doesn't tell us how common these experiences are, what causes them, or why these people in particular experienced them.

Researchers recruited 60 people who were regular practitioners of one of three types of Buddhist meditation, and who had experienced a challenging or negative experience linked to meditation.

They interviewed them about what they experienced, how they understood it, and what effect it had. They also interviewed 30 "experts" mostly meditation teachers about their understanding of what caused challenging experiences and how they could be managed.

The interviews were used to compile models of types of experience (described as "domains") and models of the factors that could affect people's likelihood of having this type of experience. Researchers say this element should only be understood as the opinions (often conflicting) of the teachers and experts interviewed, not as a definitive list of causes.

Researchers identified eight "domains" of experience from the interviews, which included both positive and negative experiences. These were:

Of the practitioners interviewed, 60% were also meditation teachers, and 41% of them said their challenging experiences followed meditation of 10 hours a day or more. This suggests they were more intensive practitioners than the average person doing perhaps half an hour a day.

The researchers said the experiences were likely to be caused by meditation, as they'd passed criteria designed to assess causation. These included whether they happened at the time of the meditation practice, whether they were linked to more intense practice, whether they receded when people stopped meditating and returned when they began again, and that they were consistently reported by people in the study.

Some experiences were directly causedby meditation, while others might be secondary for example, fear at loss of sense of self or even tertiary for example distress at the way they were treated by a meditation teacher after having a challenging experience.

The researchers say the results suggest that "meditation practices on their own may produce challenging effects, but the specific type of effect, as well as its likelihood, duration, and associated distress and impairment, is influenced by a number of additional factors."

They add that the results "should not be interpreted as conclusive" because the study is one of the first in its field.

Many people around the world find meditation can be helpful. However, as with most things, there can be downsides.

Some people especially if they practice intensive meditation for many hours, such as on a retreat have challenging or difficult experiences. Some religious teachers within Buddhism say these can be part of the path of the religious experience. However, for people doing meditation hoping to experience health benefits, without a religious context, these experiences can be unexpected and difficult to deal with.

There are limitations in this study that mean we shouldn't try to apply it too widely. The people interviewed were quite a select group all had volunteered to talk about challenging experiences during meditation, the majority were meditation teachers, they were almost all white and highly educated (42% had a master's degree and 25% a doctorate). Their experiences may be different from those of the average person attending a meditation class orusing a meditation or mindfulnessapp on their phone.

The serious, long-lasting nature of some of the negative experiences reported, however, are cause for concern. People who experience depression,suicidal feelings or other serious problems after meditation should seek medical help.

See the original post:

Does meditation carry a risk of harmful side effects? - NHS Choices

The Red Turtle tells the tale of a man trying to escape a desert island. Photograph: Studio Ghibli

The legendary Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli knows a thing or two about talent. Co-founded by the great auteur Hayao Miyazaki, the company is the home of classic films such as Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and the Tale of the Princess Kaguya. But until the gorgeous Oscar-nominated feature The Red Turtle by Michael Dudok de Wit, Ghibli had never worked with a non-Japanese director.

It is not hard to see why Dutch animator Dudok de Wit caught the attention of a company that cherishes the traditional techniques of 2D, hand-drawn animation over the flashy computer-generated techniques favoured by many other animation studios. The Red Turtle is a work of profound simplicity and exquisite beauty. Although the films animation style is quite different to much of the Ghibli output, its themes a deeply spiritual examination of nature, magic and mystery chime perfectly with the companys ethos.

While The Red Turtle is Dudok de Wits first feature film, his gentle, elegantly sparse short films are considered to be masterpieces of the medium. Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, was struck first by Dudok de Wits six-minute 1994 film the Monk and the Fish; he subsequently fell in love with the Oscar-winning meditation on mortality, Father and Daughter (2000). In 2004, Takahata and Dudok de Wit met at the Hiroshima international film festival, and in 2006, Dudok de Wit received a letter offering him what he later described as the once in a lifetime chance to make a feature film with Studio Ghibli.

The result of a collaboration, which afforded Dudok de Wit a creative freedom beyond what he could have hoped for, is a truly stunning film. Perhaps closest in tone to the mythic fantasy and fairytale quality of Takahatas the Tale of the Princess Kaguya, The Red Turtle is nonetheless very much its own beast. His Ghibli collaborators stressed that they didnt want Dudok de Wit to adapt his style to fit in with the distinctive Japanese sensibility of their usual productions. This was to be a European film, the idea and approach was Dudok de Wits to choose.

The story he decided to tell has more in common with the fairytales and Greek and Roman myths that he devoured as a child, than it does with the bombastic assault of much of contemporary animation.

The Red Turtle is the tale of a man who is stranded on a desert island during a storm. His desperate attempts to escape, by lashing together bamboo canes to form a raft, are repeatedly thwarted by some unseen undersea force that shatters his vessel. On his third attempt, the man comes face to face with his saboteur, a giant red turtle

What follows is an unquestioning acceptance of the enchantment and mystery of the natural world that is very reminiscent of the Tale of the Princess Kaguya, a film that tells of a perfect female child who is found inside a stalk of bamboo. But while the story of Kaguya unfolds within the restrictions of the Japanese court, The Red Turtle embraces the wild unpredictability of nature, in a story that combines quiet moments of intimacy with the intense savagery and drama of the natural world.

Perhaps the most remarkable achievement is that the film does all this entirely without words. Dudok de Wit had originally intended to include a few lines of dialogue, but was persuaded not to by Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki. Its a bold decision that invests the films striking visual component with a potent magic. And visually, the film is a wonder.

The backgrounds were drawn using charcoal on paper, giving it a hand-hewn artisanal quality that works beautifully with the rough realities of the location. Dudok de Wit decided against the traditional palm-fringed island that has become a cinematic cliche. Instead, his island is unpredictable, with green glades smashed by furious and sudden storms.

This is not a film that hammers home a message; its more intriguing and elusive than that. But while there is no overt ecological agenda here, there is something that is both simple and powerful a reminder and a celebration of our spiritual connection to the natural world.

Read the original:

The Red Turtle: a moving meditation on our relationship with the ... - The Guardian

When your heart is alternately breaking and expanding with equal beats in a rhythm of truth you are fully alive, bearing witness to the events of our days. You are in each present moment awaiting the exercise of love.

Beyond all of the judgments and fear and hatred and blind loyalty and hopes that someone will save us is our inner powerful still small voice that knows what we need to look at in our lives, what actions need to be taken, what world comes into being with all that happens that there are the commitments we make to show up for someone.

This is a choice.

A privilege.

A way of being in a very human world.

There are actions we know we need to make for ourselves and those actions lead to the person we are, that remains unchanged, that stands in the vulnerable light of humanity and knows the care and consideration of being held and seen and supported and free from oppression and fear and joy and love and wildness and all that appears in these spaces. On the surface it may be a time of truly devastating tragedies and deep ungrounded indulgence bringing up all our worst fears, numbing us into inaction because what was will not be what is. Tempting us to fall asleep. On a deeper level we are being called and encouraged to move into the adult conversation, to open up wide to the great resourcefulness and incredible displays of true inner spirit we are longing to reclaim. TO STAY AWAKE OR TO AWAKEN WITH GRACE into the eternal now where we remember our power and beauty and love.

Like Mark Antony urging mourners into action over the body of Julius Caesar If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. It most certainly wont be the last. But, remember these are adult tears. Propelling loving action. Finding solutions. Standing up for what is right. Being the one who makes love a way of being.

Love, Mel

#FlightoftheSoul #AllSystemsLove

May love surround you and work through you.May you offer your heart to the service of love.May you find peace today and everyday. May blessings and peace flourish in your presence.

To join the Mels Love Land team, become a lover, and contribute to Mels Love Land #MiniMag or learn more aboutbecoming anAmbassador of Love please emailinfo@alwaysalice.com Download the PDF of the latest Mels Love Land #MiniMagMELS LOVE LAND ISSUE 10 | LOVE EVERYONE heremore information on Mels Love Land here.

See the original post:

Bare Witness and Excercise the Love of an aching Heart - Beliefnet

Exhibits at ashram enter Guinness Book of Records The Hindu Three exhibits at Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashram in the city, including the largest collection and display of bonsai trees, entered the Guinness Book of World Records. The certificates of records were conferred and received by Sri Ganapathy ...

Read the rest here:

Exhibits at ashram enter Guinness Book of Records - The Hindu

We wish every-one a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend honoring our veterans who gave their lives for our country.

Friday, May 19, was Plantation Lakes Cinco de Mayo happy hour on Abuelos restaurants covered outdoor patio. Kathy Haight, Darla Hamlin, Janet Galvin and Margaret Sobel were great hostesses.

Abuelos attentive staff served plentiful tasty tacos and refried beans. Several new neighbors came to the well-attended event.

Saturday, May 20, was the Third annual Plantation Lakes Large Mouth Bass Fishing Tournament, sponsored by the lake committee.

They raised $250 that they donated to the Help for Kids organization. For 25 years, the organization has helped children from below poverty level families by providing clothes, backpacks, food and toiletry items. Lynn and Joe Bethle did an excellent job as main coordinators of the tournament.

Jay Cunninghams 3-pound, 4-ounce fish won him first place for the second year in a row. Tony Owens won second place with his 3-pound, 2-ounce fish. Jerry Thompson won third place with his 2-pound, 5-ounce fish.

Grayson Cunningham won fourth place with his 2-pound, 3-ounce fish. Russ Scales won fifth place with his 1-pound, 14-ounce fish. Dave Smith won sixth place with his 1-pound, 12 ounce fish.

Nick Stefanchiks Ducatis Trattoria and Pizzeria donated a delicious lunch after fishing. Seventeen door prizes were awarded while everyone enjoyed the sheet cake dessert.

Monday, May 29, Plantation Lakes water aerobics fortunately resumes this summer. Morning classes start daily at 8:45 a.m., Monday Friday. Tuesday and Thursday afternoon classes begin at 4 p.m. The free co-ed classes require no preregistration. Bring noodles and water weights and have a great time.

The Architectural Review Board meets Thursday, June 1, at 9 a.m.

The board of directors meets Thursday, June 1, at 7 p.m.

Friday, June 9, at 7 p.m. is the Plantation Lakes Bucky Lewis Comedy and Music Show. This is a sold-out event for resident Don Bownes New England comedian friend returning here by popular demand. Clubhouse doors open 6 p.m. BYOB.

Thursday, June 15, at noon is the next ladies luncheon at Pine Lakes Country Club, 5603 Granddaddy Drive off Robert Grissom Parkway. Hostesses are Virginia Godwin, Linda Lucas, Sharon Mungo, Donna Rosenberry and Marlene Schenkl.

The $20 price includes tax, gratuity, salad, entre, dessert, and coffee or tea. By June 5, tell Linda at 843-796-2744 your entre selection when you RSVP.

Pre-payment for tickets is due by June 25 for the Sunday, July 2. Plantation Lakes wonderful annual pool party celebrating Americas 241st birthday. No tickets will be sold at the door. A non-refundable $5 per person cash fee is the cost.

Gates open at 1 p.m. for the party. Food will be catered by Ducatis Trattoria & Pizzeria owned by resident Nick Stefanchik. It will be served between 2-4 p.m. followed by dessert. DJ Buff will entertain again.

Call or text Debbie Poat at 843-855-0918 to book your reservation. Give your cash payment to her to receive your tickets for our most popular event.

The social committee meets Tuesday, June 27. Note the special date change this month.

Residents Rich and Mary Lippmans daughter, award winning Militia Vox, performed at Hard Rock Caf on Friday night, May 19, to a packed house with many Plantation Lakes patrons.

Carolina Forest Civic Associations meeting was May 17. Josh Kay, president and CEO of Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. spoke.

The industries they recruit are aerospace, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and technology. He and his staff are site selection consultants for the best location, expansion, or relocation of existing industry plants.

Atlantic Beach Bike Week is May 25-29.

Saturday, May 27, the Military Appreciation Days Parade is at 10:30 a.m. on Farrow Parkway at The Market Common, followed by a family picnic from noon - 2 p.m. at Valor Memorial Gardens with military exhibits and music.

A Red, White and Blue Salute to Veterans at Brookgreen Gardens is Saturday, May 27, from 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. American flags are placed at patriotic sculptures, some of those created by veterans.

Monday, May 29, at 11 a.m. is a Memorial Day ceremony with Grand Strand Patriotic alliance at Myrtle Beach Convention Center Plaza.

Summer one and eight-week class registration at Coastal Carolina University is June 1-2. Classes begin June 5.

Wednesday, June 14, the Famous Toastery at 2005 Oak Heart Drive is serving a special Brunch for Dinner fundraiser from 5-8 p.m. for the Carolina Forest Civic Association. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Civic Association.

Famous Toastery is owned by Plantation Lakes residents Tim and Michelle McGinnis.

Email us at friendpa@aol.com about events, meetings, personal or neighborhood news. Many thanks.

Have a great week.

Visit link:

Around the Lake: Water aerobics begins May 29 in Plantation Lakes - Myhorrynews

By Future Brown Herald Democrat

The Levitt Amp Denison Music on Main series kicks off Friday at Heritage Park in downtown Denison with its first concert of the summer. Brave Combo is scheduled to take the stage at 8 p.m.

Since the band is from Denton, a University of North Texas alumni night will also be held at the concert.

We want to bring people downtown so that they will return, Denison Main Street Director Donna Dow said. We want people to come for the music, but see the other offerings of downtown. We want them to want to come back and shop. This year, we are encouraging the stores on Main Street to stay open past 7 (p.m.) and we will give the people that go there and shop a T-shirt as a thank you for shopping on Main Street.

Brave Combo was formed in 1979 by Carl Finch, who recruited Tim Walsh, Dave Tito Cameron and Lyle Atkinson. Their first album, Polkamania was released in 1979. The group won Grammy awards in 1999 and 2004 for best polka album for their albums Polkasonic and Lets Kiss.

The bands website says Brave Combos music is a world music mix that includes salsa, meringue, rock, cumbia, conjunto, polka, zydeco, classical, cha cha, the blues and more.

The group has released more than 30 albums in their almost 40 years together. Their last studio album, The Liminal Zone, was released in 2015.

Current band members include Finch on guitar, Danny OBrien on the trumpet, Alan Emert on drums, Little Jack Melody on base guitar and Robert Hokamp on guitar.

According to their website, Brave Combos music has been featured in the Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek movie, Fools Rush In, and Ben Stiller and Christopher Walken movie Envy. The group was also immortalized in animated form in the 2004 Simpsons episode, Co-Dependents Day.

Last year, Music on Main attracted as many as 4,500 people from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Overdrive Entertainment booking agent Tip Jones, who helped put this years lineup together, previously said he hoped that the diversity of artists will bring in attendees.

For those that have never attended Music on Main, it is good music, diverse genres and artists of different genders in a relaxing family atmosphere in a lawn setting, Dow said.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival will perform at the next Music on Main concert to be held at 8 p.m. June 2 at Heritage Park. Shermans free concert series, Hot Summer Nights, is scheduled to start June 1 with a performance by Trout Fishing in America.

Original post:

Music on Main to hold first concert of summer - Nueces County Record Star

Home Brain Function Sleep Cant sleep? Try this

I used to say sleep was the third pillar [of health]. I was absolutely wrong. Its the foundation.

If youve ever suffered from insomnia or been sleep deprived, youll surely agree with these words by Dr. Matthew Walker, director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

After pulling an all-nighteror a few in a rowyou just arent able to be your normal self. Even if your health is in good shape, a couple of sleepless nights is all it takes to make your existence miserable. Youll discover new pains, youll have no energy In fact, the only thing that youll be sure of is that all you want to do is sleep.

Yet, despite the unpleasant aftermath of sleep insufficiency and the serious health repercussions of chronic sleep disorders, one out of every three adult Americans is sleep deprived.

Well, there are a myriad of things that dont let us get a good nights rest. Some of them are health-related and some have to do with our lifestyles. If youve been suffering from sleep problems for awhile, the first line of action is to see your doctor. Once common medical conditions that disturb sleep such as sleep apnea, hormone imbalances, and depression have been ruled out, its time to look at your sleep habits.

Do you sleep in when you dont have to be up at a certain time in the morning? If you do, youre probably not getting enough sleep during the week.

Meaning, get on a sleep schedule. Stick to the same bedtime and wake-up time every day.

Many people who have trouble falling asleep drink alcohol in the evening in hopes that it will help them unwind. Wrong. Booze fragments your sleep, so cut it out.

Yes, do something to help you unwind (without the assistance of alcohol). Stop checking your work emails and your social media accounts a couple of hours before bed. Or find a similar activity of the same effect.

Yes, sleep experts all around the world recommend leaving your gadgets outside the bedroom. But your devices can actually help you fall asleep if used wisely. The key is, whatever youre doing should promote your sleep rather than impair it. You can use your smartphone or tablet for a session of guided meditation, to listen to some relaxing music, or even do some journaling to let the thoughts that bother you out of your head.

No, you dont have to sacrifice your marriage for the sake of a good nights sleep. The two can peacefully co-exist together, but sometimes in different rooms. If you keep waking up time and again because of your partner, you may want to try sleeping in another room or even in a separate bed. Its normalin fact, about 30 percent of couples sleep apart.

If youve been having trouble falling asleep for awhile, you may have gotten used to this nagging feeling of tiredness and exhaustion. But the good news is, you dont have to commit yourself to this misery for the rest of your life. All it takes is getting your sleep back to normal.

Related:Sleep deprivation leads to weakened immune system: Study

Related Reading:

Getting more sleep makes you look healthier and more attractive: Study

Simple yoga exercises for restful sleep

http://time.com/4765198/insomnia-sleep-tips/

Go here to read the rest:

Can't sleep? Try this - Bel Marra Health