10 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR RELATIONSHIP HAPPY AND HEALTHY

10 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR RELATIONSHIP HAPPY AND HEALTHY

1. Communicate Openly
Research shows that communication style is more important than commitment levels, personality traits or stress in predicting which couples will stay happy. Healthy couples don’t avoid conflict, but they do know how to keep the lines of communication open. Happy couples know that the best conversations happen without the distraction of phones, tablets and laptops.

2. Don’t Forget the Small Things
Saying please and thank you shouldn’t be reserved for the company. Manners are important – even with the person you’ve been with for 20 years. Extend the same respect to your spouse as you would to a visiting guest. Say please and thank you, make polite conversation and why not offer your partner a drink? A few manners and niceties will go a long way to maintaining a culture of mutual respect.

3. Exercise Together
Studies show that couples who exercise together are not only healthier, but more satisfied with their marriage. Psychology Today cites several studies that report that the symptoms of physiological arousal (the type of high you get from exercise) mimic the effects of sexual and romantic arousal. If you work out together, you will feel sexy, and in love!

4. Go On Vacation
A couple’s retreat can be energizing for a relationship, but so can traveling separately! Many happy, healthy couples take their own short vacations, or have regular trips away with a social group. Being alone, meeting new friends, or enjoying adventures without your partner can be very empowering. Ultimately, you will return to your partner energized, enthusiastic- and more in love than ever.

5. Laugh
Laughter relaxes the whole body, boosts the immune system and releases endorphins. Laughter expert, Lesley Lyle, author of the book Laugh Your Way To Happiness, says that smiling and laughing will make you feel better -even if it is forced! So, even if you and your loved one are both having a hard day, try smiling and laughing for no reason at all. The physical act of laughing will make you happier and healthier.

6. Eat together
Families that eat together, stay together. The supper table is a place for couples and their family members to connect and to receive nourishment – both physical and spiritual. Eating healthy food together at a table will not only encourage good family nutrition, but provides a regular, sacred space for conversation and laughter.

7. Have Sex Every Day
Having sex every day removes the anxiety that some couples feel when it comes time to “perform”. In his book, How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days (No Excuses!), author Douglas Brown claims that having sex every day not only reduced this tension, but brought him and his wife closer together, after 14 years of marriage. Plus, sex itself can lower blood pressure, improve sleep, reduce stress and even prevent prostate cancer! Couples who have sex every day, claim that it not only strengthens their relationship, but improves their health.

8. Switch roles once in a while
Boredom and routine can make a relationship stagnant. If hubby always drives, why not switch it up next week, so she can take the wheel? Or if she always cooks, why not suggest a few meals prepared by him? Switching roles will not only mix things up a little- it may make you appreciate things from your partner’s perspective. It goes without saying that switching roles in the bedroom can spice up a relationship. If your partner usually initiates sex, maybe it’s your turn!

9. Never Go to Bed Angry (But Do Sleep On An Argument)
There is an old saying, “never go to bed angry”. But is half-past midnight really the time to discuss a problem? If you have a disagreement in the evening, do not discuss things if you are both tired. Set a time to talk the following day, say goodnight, and sleep on it. Things will be much clearer in the morning.

10. Be tolerant of physical change
As your partner and you grow old together, you will both mature and change – and because you have grown so comfortable together, you may be quick to point out flaws in each other. But, if you want your happy relationship to last, you should never mention the the stretch marks, the beer belly or the bald spot! No matter how old and wrinkly you both get, the answer to “How do I look?” is always: “You look beautiful (and I love you)”.

Russian to English

Уже — Already
Вовремя — In time
Вчера — Yesterday
Вчера утром — Yesterday morning
Давно — Long ago
Всегда — Always
Завтра — Tomorrow
Завтра ночью — Tomorrow night
Сейчас — Now
Иногда — Sometimes
Когда — When
Когда-либо, всегда — Ever
Немедленно — Right away
Недавно — Not long ago
Никогда — Never
Поздно — It is late
Сегодня — Today
Послезавтра — Day after tomorrow
Позавчера — Day before yesterday
Рано — It is early
Редко — Seldom
Тогда — Then
Часто — Often
Только что — Just
Каждый год — Every year
На этой (прошлой, следующей) неделе — This (last, next) week
Каждый день — Every day
Через два дня — In two days
Через неделю — In a week
Через месяц — In a month
Через год — In a year
Через несколько лет — In a few years

HOW TO WRITE A FORMAL EMAIL

HOW TO WRITE A FORMAL EMAIL

Whether it is for business or for other purposes, knowing how to write a formal or professional email is an extremely valuable skill.

In the subject line of your email, be sure to use a short, clear description of your reason for emailing. Avoid things like 'Hello' or leaving the subject line blank.

Before you’ve even started to write your email, it’s important to know how to use titles when addressing someone.

- For men, using ‘Mr’ along with either their surname or first name is appropriate

- Married women should be addressed with ‘Mrs’

- ‘Ms’ is used for women regardless whether they are married or not.

- University professors may be addressed as 'Prof.’, and doctors are 'Dr’

Now, let’s look at how to start your email!

If you know the name of the person you are emailing and have a formal relationship with them, begin by saying ‘Dear Ms [Surname],’. If you don’t know the person’s name, use ‘Dear Sir/Madam’, or ‘To whom it may concern’.

Top Tip: Remember to always include a comma after ‘Dear [Name]’!

If you have a more casual or informal relationship with the person you’re emailing, something like ‘Hi [First Name]’ or ‘Hello [First Name]’ is perfectly acceptable.

Introduce yourself, and explain why you are writing

Explain who you are, including any important information that is related to your enquiry.

Tell your reader why you are writing. Make sure to include any details that will help them with your question, if you have one. Let’s take a look at an example at what we’ve got so far:

‘Dear Ms. Smith, My name is Jane and I am a 26-year-old from Colombia. I am writing to ask for more information about the English courses you have available at EC Oxford. I have studied English in school, but would like to improve my abilities at your school.’

Signing off

This, again, depends on your relationship with the reader – let’s take a look at the best ways to sign off formal and professional emails for now:

Using ‘Sincerely’, ‘Cordially”, and ‘Best’, followed by your full name are all excellent ways to close your email.

‘Thank you very much for your time.

Sincerely,

Jane Smith’

8 SIGNS YOU’RE A POTENTIAL CREATIVE GENIUS

8 SIGNS YOU’RE A POTENTIAL CREATIVE GENIUS

1. You’re introspective
Creativity comes from thinking critically about one’s own life. Charles Dickens, one of the best creative writers known, had a habit of walking 12 miles or more to simply get away from the world and dive into his own mind. He took this time to think critically and become introspective about his life and work. Often times, these walks provided him with content for his books. If you have a strong sense of self-awareness like Dickens, you have potential as a creative genius.

2. Your habits facilitate the use of both left brain and right brain
If you often finding yourself practicing activities that facilitate the use of left brain abalytics with right brain activity, you have potential to be a highly creative person. Writing is one such habit — trying to craft the perfect story takes creativity, but also requires some analytical, strategic thinking in order to create a plot worth reading.

3. You prefer being alone and have more “me” time
Time spent alone is good for the soul. It allows you to make time for the first sign: being introspective. In your alone time you can meditate, read, write, paint, play an instrument… the list goes on. Thomas Edison spent plenty of time with himself, and look what happening; he changed the world.

4. You have contradictions in what you think and how you behave
You often find yourself thinking one thing, then changing that thought to the total opposite. It’s almost like you’re an embodiment of multiple individuals. It’s a good thing, I assure you — it simply means you’re more creative, empathetic, and able to see things from multiple viewpoints.

5. Your learning is more lateral (understanding many topics) than vertical (specializing in one topic)
People have called you a “jack of all trades”. You love learning about tons of different topics and fields of knowledge. Rather that sticking to one industry, you thrive by having a solid foundation on a wide range of subjects. You might even have a bookshelf full of books on a hundred different subjects!

6. You don’t like jumping to conclusions
You always come up with lots of options before making a decision. While you may have an intuition about the conclusion, you want all the cards on the table before taking a stand. You never want to put anyone in the spotlight without being sure they committed the deed they’re being accused of.

7. You love daydreaming or tend to have frequent work breaks
Your daydreaming may be frowned upon by modern society, but don’t let the naysayers get you down. Daydreaming and taking breaks is actually a big sign of creative genius and success. It is the kids (and adults) who spend time daydreaming that end up being some of the most successful the world has seen.

8. You read a lot
Dragons, magic, pirates, knights in shining armor and a dansel in distress! You love the thrill of falling out of our world and into those pages. On the flip side, you find yourself yearning to learn more from the biographies and skill books available. If curling up with a good book is a part of your day, you’re probably on the path to becoming a creative genius.

10 HABITS OF REALLY HAPPY COUPLES

10 HABITS OF REALLY HAPPY COUPLES

1. Go to bed at the same time.
I used to think it was silly to want to go to bed at the same time as my partner, but it does wonders for your relationship! If one of us stays up later than the other, our whole evening feels off. There’s something cozy about sliding under the covers together, talking about what happened during the day or what’s on the list for tomorrow. My fiancé works the night shift, and without realizing it, my schedule also changed until I was a night owl, doing my freelance work during the late hours while he was at his job. When he came home early in the morning, I’d go to bed with him just to get that connection you can only get from sleeping and waking up together.

2. Cultivate common interests.
It’s important to keep your own hobbies when you’re part of a couple, of course, because you want to stay true to yourself and not change your personality. But you and your partner can cultivate common interests without changing who either of you are, and it will make your relationship stronger as a result. I love reading and writing, which are typically solitary hobbies, but my fiancé doesn’t hesitate to grab a book and sit next to me on the couch, or he’ll write a story too, and we can give each other feedback. He loves painting, and I can hardly draw a stick figure, but when he asks me to help him with a painting, I love to try and do my best with bright streaks of color. As a result, we’ve both found that it doesn’t matter what you do together (or in the case of my painting attempts, how well you do it), just that you’re doing enjoyable things together.

3. Walk hand in hand.
My hatred of hand-holding started in elementary school, when you had to hold hands with a buddy so you wouldn’t get lost on a field trip. Since then, I’ve never held hands with anyone and not gotten immediately sweaty palms. It’s one of the worst feelings! With my partner, though, I love holding hands. It makes me feel so happy and connected to him just to hold hands as we walk through the neighborhood, or even around the grocery store. Even if we don’t hold hands, we keep pace and walk side by side. I find that more often than not, my hand either finds his, or I slide my arm around his waist. There’s something really nice about walking perfectly in step with your partner.

4. Make trust and forgiveness your default mode.
It’s so easy to fight about stupid nothings and hold a grudge, but that’s not the way to be happy in a relationship. You have to forgive your partner after a fight, even if it’s something major. You might feel like they’ve betrayed your trust, but if you don’t give them another chance, then your relationship can never feel natural again. There will always be a rift because you don’t trust your partner, and feel like any time your back is turned, they’ll be doing something hurtful. On the other side, your partner won’t feel loved in the relationship because they’ll have never gotten your full forgiveness. Let your heart love easier by truly forgiving and honestly trusting your partner.

5. Focus on what your partner does right, not wrong.
No one likes a nit-pick! Don’t chastise your partner every time you think they do something wrong. There are nice ways to inform someone if they hurt your feelings, or to correct them if they do something in a bad way. But instead of yelling at your partner for breaking a plate, thank them for washing the dishes for you—hey, soap makes things slippery! Your partner will appreciate that you’re seeing the positive things they’re bringing to the relationship, and being more positive and complimentary will make you feel better than being negative all the time.

6. Hug each other when you see each other after work.
This one is easy—who doesn’t want to melt into a comforting hug after a hard day? And if you had a good day, share your excitement with a hug. You can’t beat ’em. And once you start hugging, you’ll feel so much happier that you’ll find it easier to make time to cuddle with your partner instead of getting stressed by the things you need to get done around the house.

7. Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” every morning.
Another easy tip! Saying sweet words to each other is never a waste of breath. My fiancé and I say “I love you” any time we part—whether it’s on the phone, when he leaves for work, when I run an errand. It makes you feel much happier, and is always a good note to end on when you go about your days.

8. Say “Good night” every night, regardless of how you feel.
Same with “Have a good day,” saying “Good night” when you and your partner go to bed puts a nice, loving haze on the end of the day. My fiancé and I have a nightly routine we say before falling asleep. I won’t reveal it here because it’s special to us, but it includes “Good night,” “I love you,” and other nice phrases that make you feel good and inspire sweet dreams!

9. Do a “weather” check during the day.
A “weather” check is where you call your partner during the day to see how they are. A caring phone call or text can really brighten their day and show them that you’re thinking of them. As an added bonus, it gives you a heads up about how their day is going. If they’re having a tough time, you can curb your happiness about a work promotion and be more sympathetic as soon as you get home. You can tailor your attitude to make them feel that much better when you both get home.

10. Be grateful for what you have.
This is the simplest tip of all, because if you’re in a relationship, you clearly value your partner. Be thankful that you have someone you love who loves you back. Be thankful that they help you with household chores and support you during tough times and cheer you on during the good times. Look at your partner as much as you can and just smile that you have them by your side.

Source: WORLD in English

Start Recycling, Go Green, Create Revenue

Start Recycling, Go Green, Create Revenue

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6 Cheap And Hidden Insurance Covers You Aren't Aware Of

Do you think you are aware of all the insurance covers? If yes then think twice. There are few insurance covers that are free and cheap, but are hidden and you are not aware of it. Few products and services when sold have insurance covers, which most of the customers aren’t aware of. Some of the home appliances do have insurance cover such as LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas), which is one of the most basic necessities in your day to day life. It is seen that there is a free insurance cover of up to 4o lakhs if you buy an LPG but dealers often don’t inform their customers about this. Usually this is a group insurance which dealers take it and they pay the premium, but for customers it is free so they don’t bother to inform about it. However, Neha Pandey Deoras of Business Standard has compiled a list of such free and hidden insurance covers.

Insurance Policies For Deposits

Have you ever thought of having insurance for deposits? Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee operation is the second oldest deposit insurer who are in charge of taking care of interests of small depositors. The best part of this premium is that you don’t need to pay a penny for this insurance as bank is the one who pays the premium. If you have a deposit of 50, 000 then adding your interest of 5000 your insurance coverage will be around 55,000. Any deposits beyond 1 lakh are automatically insured even without your concern.

Policy For Online Transactions

Ever heard about policy for online transactions? If no let’s see what is this transaction all about. Due to increasing frauds during online transactions, National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has come up with an idea of insuring both domestic and international transactions. This policy mostly comes along with the credit and debit cards, which includes cover for transactions based on PIN in ATMs, e-commerce transactions, point of sale. It is insurer’s responsibility to provide an insurance of about 10 crore and 50,000 per card according to NPCI. Often the insurers do not inform the customers about this, but if something goes wrong with the transactions customers will be at risk.

Domestic Appliance Insurance Policy

Most of the domestic appliances have insurance covers hidden in them, which are not always disclosed to customers by the manufacturers. This coverage benefits you in case of any damage to your home appliances due to electrical or mechanical breakdown. Often these insurance covers come into light during festive seasons where manufactures advice the customers to buy it putting some extra charges for it. When consumers look at the rates they would think of buying such policies by their own instead of buying it with the products.

Third-party Liability And Travelling Insurance

Wondering what is third-party liability insurance? Third-party liability insurance provides you with the coverage for any material or physical damage caused to the third person by you. Usually motor vehicles don’t have insurance for the damage caused by it, but if you possess one motor vehicle you should have third party liability insurance to use it wherever you are. It is mandatory in countries like United States and Canada due to high liability claims and amounts involved.

Travel insurance provides you with the coverage of damage, theft of baggage, loss and in addition to that it also includes extra cost caused due to death, illness and accident. You can even add medical insurance to your travel insurance but this facility need to proper enquiry.  

Pension Plans

Unit linked and endowment are two kinds of cheap pension plans offered by the insurance companies often people not aware of. In Unit linked plan you can stop putting money after a period of 10 years but the money will be added to your corpus till the completion of period. Rate of returns are very less in case of endowment plans.

Term Insurance

Do you own a term insurance? No? Better get it soon.  As we know death is unpredictable it can come to anyone anywhere, so protect your family from financial crisis. This insurance is for a specific period of time and the premium paid is the lowest, however, the best part is that you can extend the term period according to your wish. Waivers like kids, parents etc. can be added in between the term and in case of your untimely death family members will get benefited.

Source: Silicon India