7 Truly Unusual Ways to Be Happy

We've heard about meditating, exercising, and decluttering our lives in our quest to be happy. Tried all those? Then these quirky tips are for you.

By Adrienne Farr

Rub your ears!

1. Ear reflexology, the practice of stimulating those pressure points on the ear that are believed to correspond to various parts of the body (foot, bladder, even your trachea), also can work to reduce negative emotions (rejection, self-pity, even "bearing the burden of the world"). To counteract depression or a feeling of being overwhelmed, try massaging the outer ring of each ear.

2. Lunch on the beach!

If you eat at your desk, your happiness index score tumbles, according to a British study from the University of Sussex. Take your sandwich to a park bench, dine at a restaurant, or enjoy your meal at home to up your happiness quotient. The most happy midday meal? Find a spot at the shore.

3. Tell yourself you're having more sex than your neighbors!

According to research from the University of Colorado Boulder, survey data from over 15,000 people showed that those having sex two to three times per month were 33 percent more likely to be happy than those who did not have sex during the previous 12 months. Interestingly, people also reported having higher happiness levels not just by increasing the frequency two to three times a week, but also when they believed they were getting more than their peers.

4. Eat grass-fed meat!

An Australian study of 1,000 women found a strong correlation between mental well-being and red meat. Researchers noticed that participants who ate less than the recommended amounts of beef or lamb (between two and four ounces, three to four times a week) were twice as likely to suffer from depression or anxiety disorders. After ruling out various factors and other proteins, they believed that the animals' grass-fed diet factored into the results, as it produces meat higher in key nutrients like omega-3s.

5. Move to Norway!

Norway has been crowned "The Happiest Country in the World" by a Legatum Institute Prosperity study, which compared 142 countries around the globe. (The United States currently ranks 12th.) Why Norway? Maybe it's because 95 percent of residents are satisfied with their personal freedoms, or that 74 percent of Norwegians believe most people are trustworthy. It could also be country's natural beauty, including spectacles like the Northern Lights.

6. Sell real estate!

What's the happiest job in the country? Real-estate agent, according to Forbes. The jobs site CareerBliss.com polled more than 65,000 people on workplace happiness factors like office environment and compensation, and found real-estate agents at the top of the list. Other careers to consider for maximum joy include senior quality assurance manager, senior sales representative, and construction supervisor; the lowest levels came in for customer service associates, marketing coordinators, and legal assistants, among others.

7. Play video games!

When polling casual gamers with an average age of 77, 67 percent reported that video-game playing decreased their depression, and increased their well-being and social functioning.

I got this nice and helpful article from The Reader's Digest. My favorite is nos 1, 3, 4, and 6 maybe because I can relate to what they are talking.

HOW TO CLEAN THE LUNGS IN 3 DAYS.

Many people live their lives with healthy lungs and always fall prey to respiratory problems, and others smoke for 45 years, and there are still.

Not bring more mysteries than a regime of 3 days to give your lungs cleaning need. These steps will help.

It eliminates all dairy products two days before starting to clean. Dairy products may interfere with the detoxification process, since they are slowly digested by the body. The body must rid of toxins from dairy products much before starting to clean the lungs.

Drink 1 cup of herbal laxative tea before going to bed the night before the first day of regime. This frees the system of toxins in the intestines that may tend to begin a constipation. The lungs must not be overloaded work with locks in any part of the body during cleaning.

Squeeze 2 whole lemons in 300 milliliters of water before breakfast. This will prepare you to digest alkalizing foods that help the lungs to regenerate.

Drinking 300 milliliters of juice of grapefruit in the snack. If you don't like the taste of the juice, mix it with a bottle of mineral water or replace it with pineapple juice. These juices contain natural antioxidants that promote a healthy respiratory system.

Drinking 300 milliliters of pure carrot juice between breakfast and lunch. Carrot juice will help alkalize your blood during the 3 days of cleaning.

You have to drink 400 milliliters of a potassium-rich juice with lunch. Potassium is a powerful agent that acts as a tonic for cleaning when ingested in liquid form. It squeezed carrot, celery, spinach, parsley. A true disgust that changes your life.

400 Milliliters of cranberry juice drink before bedtime. It helps to fight bacteria in the lungs that can cause infections. Blueberries are powerful antioxidants.

Care of the body and exercise
A hot bath for 20 minutes every day. It is important to allow the body to lose toxins through perspiration as much as possible.

Once the day walks brisk. Walking promotes healthy breathing. As you walk, you focus on breathing slowly and fully. It keeps the pace.

Place 5 to 10 drops of eucalyptus in hot water. Then you put a dry towel on the back of the head and inhale the steam until the water is no longer hot. The properties of oil and steam can help loosen the mucus.

There may be many things that you can not afford in this regime to clean the lungs. If this is your case, limit yourself to carrot juice, juice of cranberry and walk for a week. They are the three pillars along with:

Don't smoke
Avoid caffeine
Consult your doctor 

The Voice of the Philippines Blind Auditions June 23 Episode Recap

The Voice of the Philippines Blind Auditions June 23 Episode Recap

Hosted by Toni Gonzaga, while Robi Domingo, and Alex Gonzaga will serve as the show’s V-Reporters or media correspondents and backstage hosts. Sarah Geronimo, Bamboo Mañalac, Lea Salonga, and Apl.de.Ap will serve as the four coaches and the judging panel of the show.

Morisette Amon, 16 originally from Cebu City. She performs “Love on Top” by Beyonce. Sarah Geronimo was the only coach who pushed the red button.

Radha Tinsay, 36 from Paranaque City. She’s a former vocalist of the band “Kulay.” She sings a Tina Turner’s song “What’s Love Got To Do With It”. Lea and Sarah turned their chairs! She chose Team Lea.

Isa Fabregas, 24 from Quezon City. A church singer performs “Lean On Me”. Bamboo and Sarah pushed the red button! She picked Bamboo as her coach.

• Michaellen Temporada from Zamboanga del Sur performs “Summertime” by George Gershwin. All the coaches turned but he picked Team Sarah!

Overall Results:

Team Lea:

1. Darryl Shy

2. Chien Berbana

3. Taw Muhammad

4. Radha Tinsay

Team Bamboo:

1. Deb Victa

2. Lee Grane Maranan

3. Isa Fabregas

Team Apl:

1. Thor Dulay

2. Cora dela Cruz

3. Grace and Guji Lorenzana

4. Sir Lord Lumibao

Team Sarah:

1. Junji Arias

2. Eva delos Santos

3. Morisette Amon

4. Michaellen Temporada

So excited to watch it next weekend.

Bamboo Mañalac says he is not yet an "institution"

WANTS TO BE NATURAL ON TV. Nakakailang episodes na ang The Voice of the Philippines na nagsimulang umere sa ABS-CBN noong June 15.

Pero ayon kay Bamboo, na isa sa mga judge/coach, hindi siya kumportable na pinapanood ang sarili sa telebisyon, kaya nang ipalabas ang The Voice of the Philippines Primer noong June 9 ay hindi siya nanood.

“I did not watch it because I don’t watch myself.

“I just get feedback from my friends, people that I trust. I asked them what happened and they told me how it went."

Paliwanag pa ni Bamboo kung bakit ayaw niyang pinapanood ang sarili, “I just don’t want to watch myself because I don’t wanna second-guess myself.

Charice still not in good terms with mom Raquel Pempengco: “Hindi po talaga... hindi po okay.

Inday Charice

Umaasa si Charice na magkakasundo rin sila ng kanyang ina at mga kamag-anak. Sabi niya, “Gusto ko lang pong sabihin na, alam ko pong nasaktan ko po sila, pero ito po talaga ang journey ng anak nila, kapatid nila—family will always be family.”

Kon ako sa imo inday migahon mo na lang mama mo. Kay wla naga asenso ang mga tawo nga naga bato sa ila ginikananan ay ambot na lang gid ya sa imo.

Benefits of Smiling

You’ve heard it before – it takes 43 muscles to frown and only 17 to smile. Sounds like an easier job to turn that frown upside down? There’s more to smiles – over the years, research has shown that by smiling you can inadvertently improve your health, change your mood for the better, and even influence others to feel good about themselves! To put a smile on your face, we present you these five benefits.

1. It’s a stress relief
When you smile, endorphins and serotonin are released. The combination of both helps to counteract and diminish the stress hormones, helping you feel more relaxed. So the next time you find yourself in a pull-your-hair-out moment, take a breather, smile, and you’ll soon realize that things are not that bad after all.

2. Smiling enhances your mood
Notice how you smile when you’re having a good day? Or are you having a good day because you’re smiling? Whichever it is, it has been shown that the endorphins that are released when you’re smiling do more than just keep stress at bay. As natural pain relievers, endorphins help to lift your mood, making you feel good about yourself as well as the moment you’re in. It’s the very reason why we can’t help but smile when thinking of good thoughts!


3. Smiling keeps the doctor away
Your stress reduced, your mood enhanced – it’s no wonder why you’re feeling better about yourself and healthier these days! When you smile, your body naturally relaxes. When you are in a relaxed state, your immune system works better and is able to function optimally, helping to fight off colds and flu. At the same time, by relaxing your mind when smiling, you are also lowering your blood pressure. So do things that you enjoy – whether it is playing with your pup or having a scoop of ice cream – and smile bad health away!


4. It helps generate positive thoughts
Try to do this: Think about bad things with a smile. Not possible, right? It’s a simple reason why – when you smile, your body automatically sends a feel-good signal, which leads to a positive state of mind. Smile and attract all that is positive!

5. It makes you more approachable
Nobody likes to be face-to-face with a grouch. In fact, we all try to avoid that grump in the office or within our circle of friends! So do everyone a favor and smile – this sends out the message that you are friendly and approachable. In fact, it can come in handy at the office: People like to surround themselves with you, they like dealing with you, and as a result, make you stand out among others! Your boss is sure to notice this friendly factor that will put you ahead of the race for a promotion. And need we remind you how a smile can also make you more approachable to the opposite sex? Try it the next time you’re out with a group of friends!

Boy and Girl Names that are truly Pinoy

We Pinoys love the unique name.

And nothing can be as unique as the 15-year-old from Baguio whose parents gave him 40 first names—Ratziel Timshel Ismail Zerubbabel Zabud Zimry Pike Blavatsky Philo Judaeus Polidorus Isurenus Morya Nylghara Rakoczy Kuthumi Krishnamurti Ashram Jerram Akasha Aum Ultimus Rufinorum Jancsi Janko Diamond Hu Ziv Zane Zeke Wakeman Wye Muo Teletai Chohkmah Nesethrah Mercavah Nigel Seven Morningstar—not including his surname San Juan.

While Ratziel is on the extreme end of the name game, non-Pinoys have found some of our typical names just as amusing.

From Bongbong to Dingdong

They point to grown men and women in the Philippines being called Boy or Girlie, Honey or Babe.

And laugh when kids are named Van Go or James Bondoc. (Well, we did, too.)

They note our propensity for repetition: Junjun, Tonton and, yup, Noynoy.

Then, they cite what they call the “doorbell names” such as Bing, Bong, Bongbong, Ting and Ping.

And not to forget the one that rings the loudest: Dingdong.

The grand name

While parents will come up with all sorts of cutesy nicknames for their kids, most of them will choose a given name that’s formal or grand.

For Manny and Jinkee Pacquiao, nothing, it seemed, was grander than naming their daughter Queen Elizabeth.

And that may be the same reason Alma Moreno and the late Rudy Fernandez called their son Mark Anthony.

If grandness isn’t a parent’s thing, then cleverness may come into play. Businessman Atom Henares called his filmmaker son Quark, the name of the particle that’s a component of an atom.

The mashed-up name

Mash-ups are even more irresistible.

Vandolph was named after the first name of his parents Alma Moreno (real name: Vanessa) and Dolphy.

The given name of Jejomar Binay, our veep, is composed of the first syllables of Jesus, Joseph and Mary.

And if you run into a Hermer or a Jerecy, you can probably bet there’s a syllable there or two that stands for the name of a parent, a lola or a lolo.

The pop culture name

When it comes to naming kids, pop culture has proven to be a goldmine.

Two of our esteemed senators are called Bam and Chiz.

On Facebook alone, we counted more than 20 Benjovis.

And over at the Don Mariano Marcos Elementary School, a student answers to the name Lord Voldemort Estioco.

The unique name

Obviously, his parents have never read Harry Potter but they may have been enamored by the noble-sounding “Lord.” And “Voldemort” does have a mythic ring to it.

Take the case of child actor Zaijan Jaranilla. Why would his parents name him after a Chinese term meaning “see you again”? Still, there’s no denying Zaijan sounds one of a kind.

His siblings’ names are just as unusual: Zymec (which turned up zilch for symbolism or meaning when we searched online) and Zildjan (which could’ve been the name of the cymbal manufacturer Zildjian, except for the missing letter “i”).

The normal name

Interestingly, the top baby names culled by the National Statistics Office from 2002 to 2006 were pretty run of the mill.

For female babies, the most popular names were Angel, Justine, Mary, Mary Joy and Nicole.

For baby boys, the top names were Angelo, Christian, John Paul and Joshua. Also popular were Luke, Matthew and Miguel.

What’s as intriguing is that the NSO included the alternate spellings for these names. For Miguel, Michele and Mikiel (aside from the regular Michael). For Matthew: Matthias and Matteo. For Nicole: Nicola, Nikita and Nicolette.

Indeed, parents do want their kids to stand out—if only in name.

 Not so ordinary names

In fact, the NSO recorded some pretty unique monikers among the 10 most popular baby names for the years 2007 and 2008.

For baby girls, they included Martina, Maya/Maia and Kaya.

Some of the popular boys’ names were even more unusual like Aiden, Keiran/Kearon, Isaac, Kayden/Kai and Jayden.

But now that the Kayas and Kaydens are of school age, how many other classmates do you think they’ll find sharing their “unique” first names?

Me, I still believed that a given name is a blessing or curse. Your living your name so if your name is from a saint you better be careful because you  lived that name accordingly. That is why when I named my son I study it and internalized. My name is a combination of my father and mother first names and I liked it.