Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Aquino upbeat over meeting with Japan PM
Aquino upbeat over meeting with Japan PM
President Benigno Aquino III arrived here Sunday “excited” over his one-on-one meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
President Benigno Aquino III arrived here Sunday “excited” over his one-on-one meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Aquino leaving for official visit to Japan Sunday
Aquino leaving for official visit to Japan Sunday
Fresh from his five-day official visit to the United States, President Benigno AquinoIII will embark on yet another trip, this time, to Japan where the government is expecting $1.1 billion in private investments on top of a loan package worth ¥9.2 billion.
Fresh from his five-day official visit to the United States, President Benigno AquinoIII will embark on yet another trip, this time, to Japan where the government is expecting $1.1 billion in private investments on top of a loan package worth ¥9.2 billion.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
OFW households saved less cash in Q3
OFW households saved less cash in Q3
Households that rely on money sent in by acquaintances and family members working abroad appear to have saved less cash in the third quarter, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Households that rely on money sent in by acquaintances and family members working abroad appear to have saved less cash in the third quarter, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
BAGUIO CAMP: Pacquiao, Roach start grind
BAGUIO CAMP: Pacquiao, Roach start grind
 |
| Pacquiao’s light workouts at the Planet Jupiter Gym in Makati |
Japan envoy looks forward to Aquino’s visit, lauds Sarah Geronimo
Japan envoy looks forward to Aquino’s visit, lauds Sarah Geronimo
On Sept. 27, the President will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. The next day, he will have an audience with the Japanese emperor who will host a “court luncheon” in honor of the Philippine head of state.After his meeting with the emperor, Mr. Aquino and his entourage will fly back to Manila.
Japan envoy looks forward to Aquino’s visit, lauds Sarah Geronimo
Japan envoy looks forward to Aquino’s visit, lauds Sarah Geronimo On Sept. 27, the President will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. The next day, he will have an audience with the Japanese emperor who will host a “court luncheon” in honor of the Philippine head of state.
After his meeting with the emperor, Mr. Aquino and his entourage will fly back to Manila.
Singapore to import ‘chop suey’ veggies from Philippines
Singapore to import ‘chop suey’ veggies from Philippines This is proof that our farmers can handle global competition. More reason why the JITCO Internship program on agriculture must continue to train local farmers in Japan. Great news indeed!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
How hard is it to get a US visa?
How hard is it to get a US visa? The mystery unveiled. Wala naman palang milagro. Tayo na.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Breathing and Meditation Techniques
So far so good. We are being helped reading this good article from health.howstuffworks.com. We salute the Overseas Filipino Workers who are giving their best to contribute to the economic development of the country where they are working. Our prayer is that you come home financially stable with the view of starting a new life in our beloved country, the Philippines. You are positioned to generate enough financial resources. The next step is for you to be financially literate in order to manage and grow your resources with the view that you are going to be a successful entrepreneur someday.
This is the last of the article on stress.
If you pay attention, you'll notice that most of the time, we breathe with our chests. During times of stress, when our breath is short, we can relax and take in more oxygen if we breathe using our diaphragms, a muscle below our ribcage. When we do this, the chest takes in more blood, which is good for heart functions. Like other muscles, the diaphragm needs exercise to get strong. The American Medical Student Association offers these suggestions for practicing diaphragmatic breathing:
- Place your hands on your chest and stomach.
- Breathe in deeply through your nose. Make sure that the hand on your stomach rises and the hand on your chest doesn't.
- Breathe out very slowly and then clench your abdomen muscles.
- Repeat these steps four times [source:AMSA].
Although often practiced by people in religious orders,meditation can be a useful method to relieve stress regardless of one's beliefs. Here are a few different kinds of meditations that supposedly relieve stress:
- Finding a happy place: With this form of meditation, you use your imagination to escape and relax. Think of a place where you felt relaxed -- on a dock at the lake, in the hot sun at the beach or with your friends and family, for example. Try to imagine that place in the greatest detail possible, down to the sounds, smells and textures. When you take a few minutes to really immerse yourself in this meditation, it can serve as an excellent relaxation technique.
- Repeating a mantra: Many religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism, use mantras. A mantra is a repeated word or short phrase that serves as a relaxing prayer. For example, a Jewish mantra is "shalom," which means peace. But your mantra need not be religious. When our lives become busy, it can get harder to concentrate on one thing at a time without other thoughts popping into our heads. This is when mantras become useful to clear our minds.
- Mindfulness meditation: In this kind of meditation, commonly associated with Buddhism, you focus in on the present moment. To accomplish this, concentrate on your own breathing. Through practice, you can get better until calming your thoughts becomes easy.
Exercise and Muscle Relaxation
Great. Now where moving on. This guest post from health.howstuffworks.com will help many of our Overseas Filipino Workers, who are hard working, faithful and reliable. They sacrifice to provide for their loved ones. They want their children to get the kind of education they haven't gotten because they know that a good education will set them up for a good life in the future.
You've heard it before: One of the most effective stress reducers is regular exercise. Evidence shows that those who are in good physical shape don't have as many problems with stress [source: University of Iowa]. Have you ever noticed that as you exercise your mind turns to upbeat thoughts? That's because exercise releases endorphins, chemicals that promote good moods and positive thinking. Exercise also provides a good physical outlet for releasing that energy that stress builds up inside of you. In addition, exercise increases blood flow to your brain, allowing it more oxygen, which has numerous advantages, including promoting clear thinking. Various kinds of exercise work to reduce stress, so you can take your pick. Walking, runningand playing sports all relieve stress. To get the stress-relief benefits, experts recommend setting aside a half hour a day for three days a week for exercise.
Massages can also significantly reduce stress by releasing tension in your muscles. Not only can a massage help with stress, but studies have shown that it can help boost your immune system, which may have been weakened during stress [source: MayoClinic]. Not all of us can fork over the money or the time for a professional massage. Luckily, there are a few methods of massage you can perform on yourself. You can give yourself an effective and stress-relieving massage on your hands, feet, face, arms, legs and shoulders. Gentle circular motions on your muscles for a few minutes at a time will help relieve their tension.
A physician named Edmund Jacobson invented a process in the early 20th century called progressive relaxation, which is proven to reduce stress. As with a self-massage, progressive muscle relaxation is something you can do all by yourself. Start with your head and work your way down to your feet, or do the opposite, as long as you generally go in one direction. If you start with your feet, focus on one foot at a time. Here are the steps:
- Gradually tense the muscles in your foot until you are contracting your muscles tightly.
- Keep the muscles contracted for about five or 10 seconds.
- Relax your foot.
- Pay attention to the release of pressure from the foot for a few seconds.
- Repeat these steps on the other foot and then move your way up your body, focusing on different muscle areas at a time [source: Helpguide.org].
In addition to these techniques, changing the way we breathe and taking breaks to practice meditation can go a long way in helping us relax. On the next page, we'll take a look at deep breathing and how to find your "happy place."
Stay relax and healthy.
How to Relieve Stress in Your Daily Life
This is a continuation of our guest post on Stress from health.howstuffworks.com. Go on reading it, it will help you a lot in managing your stress.
You've put it off for weeks. But that pit in your stomach reminds you -- the work presentation or final exam you've been dreading is tomorrow. There's no way around it. You're going to have to do a whole lot of work in a very short period of time. As you drive to the local coffee shop to stock your body up on caffeine for a long night of work, it hits you -- stress. Stress is a natural part of our fight-or-flight response to fear, and lucky for you, it can make you more productive. But you should beware of overusing that stress response. Eventually it will backfire. It will make you more susceptible to illness and even less productive in the long haul.
During stress, your brain sends messages to your body to release certain hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones cause your heart rate and blood pressure to rise, your muscles to tense up and yourbreathing to become short and shallow. Your digestive and immune systems shut down so that you can focus all your body's energy on the task at hand.
Given that your immune system temporarily shuts down and that your blood pressure rises, it makes obvious sense that frequent episodes of stress will gradually wear your body down. Your immune system becomes weak, which makes you ultra vulnerable to bacterial infections and viruses. Evidence also reveals that stress contributes to heart disease. Stress hormones will actually cause the body to increase blood clotting; therefore, stress can bring on a heart attack [source: BBC News]. Not only can being overstressed hurt you physically, it's also dangerous to your mental health. There is reason to believe that stress can trigger episodes of many disorders, including panic disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Learn More
|
Have you ever taken a "mental health" day off from work simply to relieve stress? If so, you're not alone. As many as a quarter of people in the workplace have taken such days off from work [source: Washington Post]. More and more people are experiencing high levels of stress in their lives. According to sources, work is the biggest stress factor for adults [source:AIS]. Work provides a significant source of stress for over 60 percent of people in the U.S. [source: Washington Post].
Now that you know stress can have dangerous consequences, are you ready to take a step back and relax? Take a deep breath and go to the next page for advice on stress relief.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jar0d/4649749639/sizes/s/in/photostream/
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jar0d/4649749639/sizes/s/in/photostream/
What Are The Physical Effects of Stress
Stress is part of our daily lives. Too much stress (distress) can cause physical problems. For all those who are working overseas, stress is multiplied a lot more. We have a guest post from health.howstuffworks.com, which we believe will help you understand and deal with stress. Read it and apply it to your daily life.
Do you find you constantly have too much to accomplish and too little time to get it done? Does your daily commute make you arrive at work angry and come home worn out? Do relationship struggles take their toll on you and your physical well-being? Can you literally feel the stress in your body? Well, you're not alone. As many as 40 percent of employees claim they're burned out because of work-related stress. It accounts for an astonishing loss of $300 billion each year in the workplace in the United States alone [source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health].
In this busy day and age, stress has a serious impact on our lives. One-third of Americans live with what they categorize as extreme stress. Half of them say that stress has a negative impact on their personal and professional lives, and 54 percent blame stress on the fights they have with loved ones. It's not surprising that 75 percent of Americans claim that money and work are the main causes of stress [source: American Psychological Association]. But it's not just a problem in the United States. Twenty-three percent of female and 19 percent of male executives throughout the world lay claim to feeling "super stressed" [source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health].
Take a Load Off
|
It's doubtful that anyone reading this article is surprised by any of these statistics. Our world moves at a breakneck pace, and there's a consistent onus put on us to work harder, move faster and get further before we die. Unfortunately, we could all die sooner because of this very notion. Stress not only causes depression and mental strain, but it has a big physical impact on your body as well.
Many of the things you might think are normal physical ups and downs are actually due to stress. That headache you always get may be caused by stress. Same with your asthma and eczema. The bad back you think is due to your advanced age? It could be because of stress. If you're constipated or have diarrhea, it might have more to do with stress than anything you've had to eat. These are just some of the effects of acute or temporary stress. Chronic stress over an extended period of time can do as much damage to your body as smoking, not eating right and failing to exercise.
Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartpilbrow/3345896050/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartpilbrow/3345896050/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)