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I regularly read a large Australian based car enthusiast forum. It’s something that has carried over from my late teenage/early 20′s years when I was really interested in cars. Nowadays, it’s just somewhere to kill some time when I’m bored at work. While the forum frustrates me at times, it always pulls me back in because it’s the one forum where I can post and have a reply in a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds.

The average user on this forum is around the 16-17 year old mark, however there are plenty outside of those years, and it is an interesting insight into how my generation thinks. I’m fairly judgemental with the other users on this forum – to me, the majority of them are ignorant idiots who never use their brains. They struggle to consider things outside of the norm, and live in a very sheltered world.

Recently a thread was started by a member who’s friend had just died. He was asking people what they wanted from life, and how to know what to want. The others replied talking about the good and bad things that can happen in a life, and how it makes them feel, but what they never seem to talk about is controlling these good and bad things.

I don’t really want to preach the whole “power of positive thinking” thing, but it is worth pointing out that much more is in our control than we may think.

For example, since beginning work as a teacher, my partner hasn’t been the best communicator. Whatever I’d talk to her it would always be an information overload of what her students were working on, how they were acting, and so on, but she would never really talk to me about how she was doing.. Whether or not she was tired, stressed, happy, sad and so on. For a while it was a real issue for me – I like to know everything about her life so I can help her out in any way that I can, but she wouldn’t give me the information.

We are all different communicators – she never meant to keep information from me, and had no need to – just subconsciously didn’t believe that that was information relevant to our conversations. I on the other hand come home from work and tell her how happy, frustrated, etc my day was. During this time it was something that I believed had to be changed by her. After all, she was the one that wasn’t telling me how she felt – how could I change that?

My life coach put me on to some different communication methods that could help me to articulate what it was I was looking for when talking to my fiancee. As it turns out, some people don’t respond well to blunt questions about their emotions. Rather than just sit there and get frustrated, I now pick my questions carefully. Something that was previously out of my control, is now well within my control. I am now able to communicate more effectively with my partner, and get the information that I need from her.

Depression is a big one. I work with a lot of people that are depressed, and truthfully, it’s the environment. The culture in my workplace is to avoid work at all costs, postpone change until later, and let someone else take responsibility for decisions. As a result, it’s a tough place to work. Some handle it fine, and others struggle with it to the point where it is visibly affecting their life outside of work. At first glance, I can’t change the culture. I can’t encourage change – I’m not a manager. Realistically though, you can. Myself and a few others are always proactively looking for new work to be taken on. While the uptake of this new work is rare, when it does come around, we are the first to be picked to work on it – after all, we are the ones that have been asking for it.

Even health issues can be within our control. Diabetes, heart disease, and so on is largely caused by poor diet and lack of exercise. The most important thing to any animal is their health, and it is well within our abilities to control this.

There are a million examples that I could use for this one, but the point is the same. We can control so much in our lives than we are led to believe. Next time you are in a bad situation, learn from it – figure out what could be done better, and take the positives from it. Educate yourself to control your life, not just sit in your seat and see where it takes you!

I posted up about six weeks ago about sleeping without a pillow. At the time it was something that I was just trying out to see how it goes, but I have to say – after the six weeks my neck feels like it used to as a kid!

It’s more flexible, I feel as though I sleep better, and my back in general feels great. No more minor pain here and there.. All just from ditching the pillow!

At first I did have to ask myself – “Is it good to sleep without a pillow?” however after doing some research, and applying common sense – I strongly believe that it is. How did we sleep before pillows?

The fact is that most pillows aren’t even designed to the contours of your neck. Babies aren’t given pillows when they are young so they develop a straight spine. Obviously as an adult ours aren’t developing as much as a child, but every little bit helps.

Give it a shot sometime – worst case scenario you don’t like it. All I know is my neck feels great at the moment!

In a world where we are surrounded by so much negativity, it’s my belief that no matter what, we should always look for the positives in the negatives. Throughout our lives we are faced with all sorts of negative happenings. This might be something small like a co-worker being a nuisance to you at work, or bigger things like having a partner cheat on you. The list is endless if you want to dwell on it!

With a negative mind, you can become frustrated, hurt and eventually depressed by these sorts of things, but if you view them in a positive light you become a much stronger person for it.

Take my parents for instance – they broke up when I was around 14. At the time my world came crashing down and I didn’t really know what to think. I lost the constant in my life – my home no longer housed a family, and my parents didn’t even speak anymore! Looking back on it all – they used to argue at home and it wasn’t the best environment to be growing up in (don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t any hitting or drunken rage or that sort of thing happening). My mum was just impossible to my father, and my dad pretty much just hated his life. While the divorce was hard for everyone, nowadays my dad is enjoying his life, and my mum has the freedom to do what she wants. The whole thing has made me much closer to my sister, and I have become a much stronger person because of it. With time to think about it, I can’t see there being any positives from my parents staying together.

Stay calm and stay composed – look for the positives in the negatives that surround your life, and enjoy them. There are plenty.

Did you know that the colour in fruit and vegetables come from chemicals called antioxidants? Antioxidants are found predominantly in plants, and in some animals that eat these plants and store a small amount of antioxidants in their own tissues.

While using the sun’s energy via photosynthesis, plants generate simple sugars, then later create complex carbs, fats and proteins. During this process, things can go wrong and free radicals can be created, which are potentially harmful to the plant. Luckily, plants are able to shield themselves from these free radicals, and then absorb them to protect themselves. This shield is made of antioxidants, which will block and “consume” these free radicals.

Antioxidants are typically coloured because of this process – the chemical property that absorbs the free radicals creates colour.

Some common colours are red (lycopene), yellow (beta-carotene), and orange (crytoxanthins), although there are many other shades, and some are completely colourless.

Humans also generate low levels of free radicals throughout our lives. These can be from all sorts of things, however exposure to the sun, exposure to industrial chemicals, or a poorly balanced diet are common factors.

In humans, free radicals cause our tissues to become rigid – similar to ageing, when our bodies become stiff and less agile. Cataracts, hardened arteries, cancer, emphysema, arthritis, and many others forms of illness have been proven to be assisted by uncontrolled free radical damage.

Unfortunately, we don’t produce our own shields against free radicals (like those in plants), as we do not perform photosynthesis, so we must source them from elsewhere. In it’s purest form, our only option is in plants.

It is amazing, and as I grown older I am seeing it more and more – when something is “right”, it just falls into place perfectly. Humans, like most animals, are attracted to bright colours. We were being encouraged to eat these antioxidants since we have been on this planet, without even thinking about it. The only problem is that nowadays we’ve lost that attraction to what is good for us.

Having a passion in life is something that I have always been lucky enough to have, without giving it much thought. While I feel very passionate about my fiancee, I think it is important for everyone to have something else to live for than their partner. For me, it’s bikes. Downhill bikes, road bikes, cross country bikes, commuting bikes and so on. My life pretty much evolves around riding them, reading up on new ones, building bikes, cleaning and maintaining them, and helping out others who are looking for advice. Riding bikes isn’t a hobby to me – my life has grown around it!

Some people just have hobbies, while others are just so passionate about what they do – it’s instantly visible about how they feel.

Last weekend I caught up with my brother in law. The usual drinks and talking led us to his study where he had his keyboards hooked up to his computer and speakers – his little home studio. While he has played in a band in the past, this is his way of being about to make music on his own at any given time. Up until now I’d never really thought much about it. It just seemed as though it was something that he did, however when he was explaining everything to me I could just see it in the way he was talking – he really loves music, and has a real passion for it. We mucked around for about an hour with a few different sounds that sounded really cool at the time – not sure what they sound like sober though.

Another of my friends is right into his culture. It sounds like an odd one – culture, and it has visibly taken a few years for him to find himself, but it is obvious now that he has embraced the culture that he has grown up with, and experienced overseas while travelling, and defined it into cooking, eating, drinking and so on. I know others that enjoy eating and cooking, but his life really evolves around it. He spends his time making different flavoured spirits – to the point where he is growing special roses just to get the right flavour, and always has something new about food to tell me about whenever I see him.

In a world where no-one seems to have any direction, it’s nice to see some other people with such a strong passion. It gives you a purpose and a path to where you are heading, and if nothing else, makes day to day living that much sweeter!