Green Energy – The Way of the Future

You may have heard a lot about green energy the past year or so. Whether you’ve jumped on the green energy bandwagon or not, it is definitely not a trend. Green energy is the way of the future. Let’s take a look at exactly what green energy is, why it’s important and how you can use it to improve your life and your environment.

What is Green Energy?
Green energy is energy that produces little if no by products that harm the environment. For example, fossil fuels like oil are expensive to mine, destructive to the environment during the actual drilling process and produce many toxic byproducts. These very same by products have been directly contributing to greenhouse gases and global warming not to mention polluting our waterways and air.

Green energy, like solar, wind, and geothermal do not cause destruction to the environment either during their harvesting stage or as a byproduct. When you use solar cells for example to store and create energy, you’re using energy directly from the sun. There’s no by product create and no waste.

Benefits of Green Energy
The benefits of green energy are vast. Initially you may think about two primary environmental benefits. They include no waste or pollution from the energy sources or emissions. Eliminating harmful emissions would drastically improve our planet’s outlook and virtually eliminate global warming caused by greenhouse gasses.
Additionally, green energy means no more destruction of the earth as we harvest fossil fuels. No more oil spills, digging in the midst of our pristine wilderness and destroying our natural resources.

However, beyond the immediate and apparent environmental benefits, in the long run green energy is significantly more cost effective. Imagine if your entire home ran on energy from the sun? How much a month would that save you in heating your home and in your electric bill?

Over the course of a year you’d save a thousand dollars or more, right? What about over the course of ten years? Yes, initially it will cost to transfer your energy source from fossil fuels to green energy sources, but that initial expense is usually paid for within a few years.

Green energy is infinitely sustainable and economically sound. That’s why it is the wave of the future.

How to Use Green Energy
The good news is that green energy can be utilized in smaller increments. You don’t have to change your entire home over to sustainable fuel sources in one fell swoop. You can add a few solar panels, use passive solar, and support sustainable practices. Some energy companies even offer a membership where you can specify a certain amount of your energy come from wind or solar. This depends on where you live but check it out.

Finally, you can support businesses that use green energy. It may take a while to spread throughout the world, however green energy is more than a passing phase, it is the wave of the future.

Five Easy Toning Exercises you can Do Anywhere

Exercise is an important part of our lives.  Staying in shape is one way to increase your life expectancy.  Weight bearing exercises are important also for increasing muscle mass and bone density as you age.

Most of us have learned what to do when it comes to exercising.  The problem is where and when to get the job done.  With a busy lifestyle, making time for exercise is a challenge.

Weight bearing exercises aren’t just for bodybuilders.  As you age, especially once you hit the age of forty, you begin to lose muscle mass.  For women especially, bone loss becomes a problem.  When the body is in need of calcium it can rob it from your bones.  Building muscle not only increases their mass but your strength.

Here are five easy toning exercises that can be done anywhere and whenever you have time.  At home, at the office, or on vacation, you can do these easy yet extremely effective exercises.

1. The Bridge Butt Lift – Sounds like a plastic surgery technique but it is an easy way to tone your buttocks.  Lay down with feet flat on the floor, legs shoulder width apart.  Place your hands, palm side down, on either side of your body.  Pushing with your feet, squeeze your gluteal muscles and lift your butt off the floor.  Hold the position for a count of five to ten and release down to the floor.
2. Squats – Squats work the butt, the hamstring muscles and the quadriceps.  If you aren’t sure of proper form, you can use a chair.  Stand with feet shoulder width apart and feet firmly planted.  Push your butt back as if you were preparing to sit in a chair.  Keep your abs tight and your upper body straight.  Once you reach chair level stop and hold the position for a count of two to five and release.  At the lowest point, place all of your weight on your heels for balance and maximum toning.
3. Reverse Lunges – Lunges work the quadriceps muscles.  They can be hard for people with knee problems.  A reverse lunge still tones the right muscle groups but with less pressure on the knee.  Stand with feet together and arms at your sides.  Take one leg and move it backwards until you are in lunge position: front leg bent at a 90 degree angle and back leg extended until you are on the ball of your foot.  From this position lower yourself down until the back knee almost touches the floor.  Hold for a count of two and return to starting position.
4. Push-ups – This is a classic toning exercise that works all areas of the arms plus the chest muscles.  If you aren’t comfortable or strong enough to perform a pushup on your toes, lower your body to your knees.  Be sure your arms are tucked into the body and your back straight as you lower and lift your body.
5. Crunches – Abdominal muscles can be worked every day to build strength and muscle tone.  Lying on the floor in sit up position, lace your fingers behind your head.  Squeezing your abdominal muscles, lift your upper body until your lower back is about to come off the floor.  Hold for two to five counts and return to starting position.

These five exercise moves can be done whenever you have time.  The best thing about exercise is that its effects are cumulative.  Even five or ten minutes at a time will work to your advantage.

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Time to Wake Up - Again...

(This was originally posted in February 2009.  I felt it was still relevant to current circumstances, and just reading it again made me feel empowered.  I'm re-posting so that it can be a reminder to me and anyone else out there who might need it!)

Have you ever had one of those dreams – where you’re trying to scream but no one can hear you?  Or where you are telling anyone and everyone something so important that your life depends on it – and NO ONE believes you or will even LISTEN to you?   Well – welcome to the nightmare I’ve been living in for the last few months. 

We’ve been dealing with family drama – which has subsequently seeped its way into the business area of my life as well.  It hasn’t been easy – and not just for me, also for those close to me.  Many things have transpired:  a little back-stabbing, some under-handed manipulation, some false rumors, a little bit of taking credit where it ISN’T due, along with lots of word-twisting and lies, lies, lies.  And all this for the love of money, power and control. 

Because of these things, my life has been turned upside-down – my workload has tripled, my home life has been greatly affected and even my children have felt some of the ripples of this negativity.  The worst part of it all, though, is not being heard.

There are many people in my “world” that don’t believe you need to be heard.  They believe that you can let go of many things on your own.  This can be extremely frustrating – not just on a personal level, but especially when, as a professional, you try to address a business problem in a professional manner, only to be shut down because that person doesn’t want to “hear it”. 

So, several months of being overworked, never being heard/validated and becoming more and more tired, started to make me feel a little depressed.  But, just as I was beginning to give up, I received a very special email...one of my daily “Notes from the Universe” which I subscribe to on www.tut.com:

"When you can look beneath their behavior that hurt you, Kelly, and you can see the frightened child - it becomes nearly impossible to be angry and carry a grudge.
And you SO can.          

ILY, The Universe          

Besides, Kelly, your happiness, abundance, health, and friendships are NOT dependent on how others behave."
(emphasis added by me)

When I read that, I felt a huge rush of relief.  All of a sudden I got it.  I got what some of those around me were trying to tell me… but there was a BIG difference in the presentation.

There are kind, gentle, loving ways of getting a point across to someone.  Being supportive isn’t just about getting that person to the end result.  Being supportive is also about listening, being that shoulder to cry on, or that friend to lean on.  Being supportive is about being there.

(Telling someone you don’t want to hear it, is quite frankly, just plain mean!  And it conveys the message that you just don’t care and can’t be bothered.)

So now, I wake up each morning and remember that MY happiness does not depend on the behavior of others... 

It’s as if those are the greatest words I’ve ever heard.  That one simple sentence is so freeing to me. 

No one can control me, insult me, make me feel sad or unhappy – unless I let them.  

At least not anymore - I’m taking my power back.