I’ve supported an ongoing mission from my Church for several years and have been wanting to go see it in Haiti for some time.  Well the opportunity came up this spring to join a small team on a short term mission trip to help them with a leadership conference, the new church plant that has just started running for the last 4 weeks and to build some pews and signs for the new Church building.  I was happy to help in these areas and I had a fantastic trip where I learned a lot.

First thing I learned was just how beautiful Haiti is, despite everything you might see and hear on the media about the disaster it is in, the earthquake from 2010 and the poverty and problems there.  Most of that is true but in select areas, mostly around Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in Haiti it is much more of a tropical getaway. Don’t get me wrong, the economy is nearly non-existent in Haiti and it has very poor people throughout the country, however it has a lot of promise and hope at the same time.   I’ve been to the Dominican Republic several times before and Haiti has just the same country side, beautiful mountains and the only big difference is that there is far less forest and large vegetation in Haiti due to deforestation.   Unfortunately the crops and agriculture in Haiti is not really sustainable and many crops are grown for a higher price even if they destroy the little soil that is available.  This is important to help change as it will only continue to degrade their agriculture ability if they do not learn to improve their soil conditions and agriculture sustainability.  I helped to document the trip and so took many pictures while there, many of the scenery since I love nature so much. There are pictures of the landscape, mountains and vegetation, and some of the people and activities I was involved in which I hope you will enjoy in this slideshow of pictures.

During the trip, I was involved in helping to support the local church community that has just operated for 4 weeks with a new building on the property that my local church (OakPark Church of Christ) helped to fund.  The people in Port-Salut now are starting to feel that it is their Church to enjoy and they are operating the Church with a shared leadership group instead of a single Pastor who makes all decisions like most other Churches of Haiti.  We helped with a kids program that is totally new in the area where the kids can play games and have fun at Church while learning about God and stories from the Bible.  They love it and asked us every day they saw us if it was Kid’s Club day, which is right now only on Saturday.

We spent some time painting, putting up a couple of new signs for the Church and building pews since they only have some simple folding chairs right now and they will be needed for overflow seating since the Church right now only holds about 30 people inside, with room out on a covered patio for extra seating.  The local Haitians were very grateful and always willing to pitch in and help so we had a lot of fun building and working with them, even if we could barely understand each other.  Luckily, carpentry, painting and tools are quite easy to describe in a ‘Pictionary’ demonstration style, so it made working together easy and fun.

We helped teach at a 3 day leadership conference for the Church and community leaders from around the area and this was great to be part of.  They face many of the same leadership challenges as we do but they don’t have the learning resources and education available to them to help them deal with things.  This made the conference a big success since much of the material was new for them, they were deeply interested taking notes the whole time and shared with us how much they could use more materials and study materials if we can help provide that, which I certainly think we will be able to.  Its great to see how they are so passionate to learn and willing to tackle some of these challenges without being asked, they all want to improve the community and Haiti so badly, they are very willing to do whatever they can, its inspiring to see!

So, there are a lot of mission teams in Haiti, certainly not all Christian based, and there are many ways to help the people their so I encourage anyone who’s been interested in helping abroad and especially if Haiti has any special place in your heart, to find an organization to get involved with and to visit the country and experience the beauty, the great community of people there and to help inspire them to find ways to lead their country out of poverty.  I’m excited to have had this opportunity and hope to go again some day, to watch this work continue and to continue to support the people in Haiti who are leading change and helping to make it a better place for themselves and for their children, we can all hope for that at least!

I’m happy to introduce another guest author, Andrew, today on a new subject here on LearnThis.ca, eating well and foods that affect your mood.  I personally eat a good balanced diet and drink massive amounts of water, but many of these I’ve not researched or read directly.  I hope you learn some new ways to impact your mood and improve your diet from the article.  Please add your experienced and comments below!

You’ve heard it before: you are what you eat. Pop culture spends a lot of time talking about the “science” of mood and food. Some of it’s legit, and some of it’s bogus. So, can you use food to regulate your mood?  The answer is a bit more nuanced than you might hope. Of course, food cannot necessarily make us happy if we are going through a rough time in our lives, but alongside with exercise, talking to your loved ones about your problems, a wise choice of food can be a powerful ally.

Popular Claims about Food and Mood

Omega 3 Fatty Acids Can Lift Your Mood

According to the book, The Omega-3 Connection, by Andrew L. Stoll – it is sometimes true.  It really depends whether or not you’re dealing with depression. The evidence that these foods can help people who suffer from a mood disorder is quite strong. In fact, various studies have shown that it is just as effective as prescription medications in lifting the mood of depressed patients. The evidence is so compelling that the American Psychiatry Association recommends people who suffer from depression should take a supplement.  If it works that well for depressed patients, imagine how happy a normal person will be! Well…not quite. There’s no compelling evidence that omega 3 fatty acids are helpful for people that are just going through a rough patch or that “normal people” are just looking for a way to boost their mood.  That said, omega 3 fatty acids are good for your health in other ways, and there’s certainly no harm in consuming them. Even if you aren’t currently depressed, they could ward off the risks of depression occurring at some point in the future.  Omega 3 fatty acids are found in salmon, herring, sardines, and tuna. Six ounces a week of fish is the recommended dose, or you can use a supplement with DHA and EPA.

Avoid foods that contain omega 6 fatty acids, which can actually make you feel worse because they block the omega 3s. These include any of the hydrogenated fats found in processed food, as well as most vegetable oils except for olive oil. Saturated fats, like butter, don’t seem to affect mood, although too much isn’t great for your health. Alcohol can also block omega 3s.

Sugar Will Make Your Kids Bounce off the Walls: False

Believe it or not, this one’s just not true. Children do get hyper on their birthdays and Halloween parties, but various studies have shown that this doesn’t have anything to do with the sugar that they’re consuming. In controlled experiments, where one group received artificial sweeteners and the others real sugar, children behaved the same.  According to the reputable websites WebMD.com and the US National Library of Medicine, the sugar – hyperactivity relation is just correlation, with another substance often found in children’s food – artificial coloring – being responsible for ADHD and other hyperactivity problems.

Grumpy? Drink More Water: True

When you become dehydrated, this leads to fatigue. Fatigue, in turn, has all kinds of affects on your body and mind. Irritability is one of the strongest signs of fatigue.  It turns out that you don’t have to be dying of thirst for this to be true. Even moderate levels of dehydration can make you grumpy. It certainly doesn’t help that it can rob you of your energy and give you a headache.  Most people should drink at least two liters of water a day in order to avoid these problems. People who live somewhere hot or who exercise regularly should drink quite a bit more than that even.  Despite what some people say, however, it doesn’t much matter whether or not what you’re drinking is actually water. Almost any liquid will do the trick. Surprisingly, this even includes caffeinated beverages. On the other hand, alcohol doesn’t count, and it can actually dehydrate you.

Losing Focus and Energy? Have a Cup of Coffee: True

A quick search for coffee on Google Scholar shows a large number of studies about the effects of coffee. Most of them demonstrate that coffee (or better to say caffeine) really does give you energy and help you stay focused. It has been shown to elevate your attention level as well as your overall mood.  While there is some truth to the idea that coffee can become a dependence, the only threat it poses is to your wallet. People stop drinking coffee when they start feeling jittery, so they don’t consume the high levels necessary to harm your health.  One potential health threat is if caffeine starts becoming a replacement for a good night’s sleep.

Carbohydrates Will Boost Your Mood: That depends

Carbohydrates will boost your mood, but generally only if you aren’t eating right already.  It is true that carbohydrates cause a boost in serotonin, and serotonin is a chemical that helps you regulate your mood. It’s not illogical to think that this would mean carbs could boost your mood, but it’s wrong, despite the fact that this claim is still wildly popular.  The problem is that if you consume any protein at all, the effects of the carbohydrates will be neutralized. In other words, if you go an entire day without consuming any protein, you might be able to get a short-term mood boost. Unfortunately, this is a terrible way to eat and the long term impacts on your health, and yes, your mood, will be bad news.   In a stroke of irony, according to the June issue of “Health” from 2011, new evidence is starting to suggest that protein actually has a more powerful impact on your mood than carbohydrates, although these studies are still in their beginning stages.

Takeaways for Eating Well to Improve Your Mood?

A healthy diet can do a lot for your mood, and these are examples of certain foods that can have a direct impact on the way you feel, but there is no single magical food that can make you feel happy. Focus on getting enough protein and omega 3s in your diet, and be sure to drink plenty of fluids.

Andrej is a stay-at-home man who takes care of the family’s eating habits – making sure breakfast is never skipped! Working as a content manager for a Long Island elevator company. You can contact him via Twitter or LinkedIn .

Today, I introduce another guest author, Christian Arno, with his excellent article on how you can use social media to help find yourself a job.

Being unemployed is never an ideal situation.  The situation is nearly as bad if you are in the wrong job and not having much luck getting another position, whether it is a career change or advancement in your current sector. However, since we are living in the age of social media, help is at hand. Social media is something that should not be underestimated when you are looking for a new job. Because competition is rife for employment, every opportunity should be explored and social media is one of the best available. The following six tips will help in utilizing social media for employment purposes.

1. Join LinkedIn

Today, there are dozens of social media sites. However, one stands out amongst the others in its usefulness for employment purposes – LinkedIn. If you are looking for a social media site to help increase your job opportunities, then you should definitely join LinkedIn. Unlike Facebook and many others, it is aimed more towards networking rather than friendship. On your profile you can enter your work experience and skills and expertise. You also have the opportunity to write a summary where you can let potential employers know your main employable attributes; the summary section also provides the perfect opportunity to let everyone know if you are looking for new employment opportunities and, specifically, what you are looking to do.

2. Connect with people who can help

Once you have completed your profile, do not be afraid to be active – join groups and interact with potential employers and people in the industry you want to work in. You can just complete your profile and hope that you will be headhunted; that approach has worked for a few people. But for the best results, you need to get involved. Since LinkedIn is designed for you to connect with other people that are not necessarily your friends, you need take advantage of that and not hold back. You should request every contact you think might be useful, even if you have never met the person; if they work in the industry you want to be in or want to advance in, connect with them because you never know what avenues might open up from it.

3. Watch out for profile picture pitfalls

Your profile is going to be the first thing a potential employer will see. If you have a profile picture they will be immediately drawn to it. So, do not under any circumstances use that hilarious picture of you drinking out of a bottle of Jack Daniels at 4am as your profile picture. Yes, that might be fine for your private Facebook account, and your friends might get a good laugh out of it, but it is definitely not for your LinkedIn profile. It does not say to potential employers that you are fun loving and will be a great guy to have about the office. The same goes for a graduation picture if it is not current; it will instantly give the impression to employers that you are a recent graduate and not an experienced professional. It is better to use no picture at all than one that could potentially ruin your chances.

4. Do not attempt humor

If you are not looking for work in comedy, do not try to be funny in your LinkedIn profile; it hardly ever translates well and, simply put, is unprofessional. What you might think is witty and shows off your sparkling personality, might come across the exact opposite to a potential employer. It is best to stay on the safe side. Furthermore, avoid all modern abbreviations, such as ‘lol’. There are too many disastrous profiles that include sentences like, ‘I have been an IT Consultant for two years, but I am not a geek, lol. I am now looking to use my degree in Politics and pursue a career as a Diplomat.’ These modern abbreviations have no place in a professional piece of writing – and that is exactly what the text in your profile should be.

5. Set up an alternative Twitter and Facebook

After you have a professional looking LinkedIn profile and you are utilising its capabilities, it may be worthwhile setting up other profiles on Facebook and Twitter exclusively for job-hunting purposes. This is will be where you leave all you embarrassing Facebook pictures and controversial tweets behind for your other accounts. If you want to link your other accounts, make sure you make them private; this is so that potential employers do not have access to them and all your good work on your professional profiles will not be ruined.

A good thing about Twitter is that you can follow employers on the site for their latest job vacancies; which is where having an alternative Twitter account will be ideal to have if you are going to interact with any potential employers.

6. Do not forget about the smaller social media

So, you have got your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and perhaps even a YouTube channel sorted. So far, things are going well. However, you should not ignore other smaller platforms, such as blogs. By creating your own blog and interacting with people in your field via blogging, you will increase your chances of making potential employment connections. Places such as WordPress and BlogSpot are excellent places to become part of an online community and make valuable connections. Blogging has taken off in the past decade and there are millions of them everywhere now. You should, as with the other social media platforms, be active and get involved – comment on popular blogs that are in your sector, make contact with them and get them aware of what you are doing.

Social media is not an instant cure to employment woes. However, it opens up a world of opportunity that should be taken advantage of. The world is changing, and you should change with it by embracing social media and by managing your online digital portfolio. When it comes to job-seeking, just remember to make sure you social media presence shows you at your most professional.

 About the author

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, a provider of top translation services in Canada. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 150 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. You can connect with and read more from Christian by following Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24.

I am happy to introduce a new guest author today who has been in the field of personal development for many years.  I was asked for several writers to describe what impact personal development has had on their lives and Anita provides us with her account of it in her life below.  Please we’d love to see any comments and discussion on the topic and feel free to connect with her using her contact info at the end of the article.

I have engaged with personal development for over 20 years now.  On the one hand it saved my life. At the other end of that spectrum it has been the making of me, in terms of living with purpose and joy. The two areas of major impact were:

• enabling me to survive tragedy
• then to rediscover  that place beyond survival called living

This process was certainly not an overnight one, but I often think we find the true power of personal development when our back is against the wall, and we open our hearts.

Beginning in Personal Development

Personal development saved my life because at the time of first embracing it in my life, I was actually lucky to be alive, but having survived major family tragedy, I was not thankful to be alive initially.

It is something of a paradox that one can be alive yet dead on the inside, or die being alive on the inside.  Had I physically died at the time I would have died being dead on the inside. However my challenge in surviving tragedy was to move beyond and resurrect the life within me from that lifeless state.  Up till that point I had trained in psychiatry, yet my knowledge of psychiatry alone was insufficient for the journey I needed to complete.  Psychiatry was very much about helping people become functional and compus mentus, able to cope and manage situations.  That type of survival mode was not enough for me.  I write more about this in my book ‘Breaking Free From The Prison Of Survival – how I went from survival to living following major personal tragedy’

The difference that personal development made initially was to help me become more aware of my true nature, and that seed had been sown during my years as a psychiatric nurse. As I awoke to that I became more aware of my potential to change my life, something I had previously felt powerless or constrained to do.  The more I read about this aspect and listened to those who had  done likewise the more I started to feel inspired that these same processes could help me.  The next thing I started to grasp was about how my past conditioning had led me to feel so dis empowered and robbed of joy.

The Domino Effect

So my learning then involved reconditioning myself in the areas that felt greatly affected.  What I noticed then was that the questions I started to ask myself led to self awareness, as I observed my responses without judgement, and new solutions started to present themselves.  The increased self awareness led to a domino type effect. Insights led to seeing new possibilities. New possibilities bred new choices. New choices led to a feeling of empowerment with a new hope and confidence to change things.  This enabled me to identify the areas I wished to experience growth and change in, and then to draw up a plan of personal development that addressed each of those areas.

It was very much a case of practicing till new habits formed in my mind, emotions, body and spirit. This process of self awareness, new choices and skills acquisition was what enabled me to go from not being happy to have survived  major trauma, to surviving well.  However the journey felt far from complete at that point as being one of life’s survivors no longer felt such a noble destination point.

The key growth area for me now was learning to develop a deeply loving relationship with myself.

So many people have their identity invested solely in external things which can make for an inconsistent sense of joy and self-esteem. I replaced that with loving myself without condition and experiencing the joy that comes from genuine gratitude for all that I uniquely am and have. I added coaching and mentor-ship into the mix, as I had learnt about the power of these processes, and needed to form new habits.

Things  started to crystallize the more I grew as a person.  In truth whilst I had survived near death, it took me a while to move from managing my life to embracing my creative power.  The realization that I could start to design my life from here on in, rather than create by default, was one that filled me with a new lease of life, yet took constant exposure to start to grasp

Brain Tools

Two particular tools that helped me were applied kinesiology and brain wave entrainment. Kinesiology has several applications.  In principle Kinesiology works with the human energy field beyond the mere conscious level through muscle testing, to check alignment across a number of issues.

Through this process I was able to gain more accurate insights where my conscious and subconscious were giving conflicting information.  I was able to progress more rapidly with this tool in my hand and I had one of the country’s best practitioners, which was equally important.  I incorporate this in my coaching business now.  I thoroughly recommend kinesiology to assist you along your path too.

Brain wave entrainment provided a more passive form of meditation where my concentration was deficient, and enabled me to access deeper levels of relaxation and capacity to process change.

Finally intuition has played an enormous part in the doors that have opened up to express the value I bring to the world. I used to be very left brain dominant, yet as I developed intuition, the insights gained caused opportunities to present quickly.

Conclusions

Now as I look to publish my book which has already received top industry endorsement, I am left in awe and amazement at the processes described above that took me from mere survival to living, with a sense of purpose and vision I know I can realize.

I leave you with some tips to turn your life round or take it to a new level:

1.  Ask evaluative questions of your life and answer them honestly
2. Use kinesiology to check out your alignment
3. Learn to ask empowering questions of your life.  They will give shape to your life
4. Develop a deeply loving relationship with yourself as you would a best friend.  This will result in great joy and provide a powerful platform from which to create with intent.
5. Identify the areas of growth needed and identify those who have sufficiently mastered those areas that you can learn from
6. Cultivate your intuition.  It will be priceless
7. Constantly expose yourself to these processes till the areas you wish to see growth become second nature

Anita Narayan is a highly endorsed author, speaker and coach with specialities in reducing cardiovascular aging , accelerated learning and sports performance.  She is soon to release her book ‘Breaking Free From the Prison Of Survival – how I went from survival to living following major personal tragedy’ which has received top industry acclaim. You can find out more at www.mypersonalbestcoaching.com

A great list of top leadership blogs from Managing Leadership   

From those blogs I’ve seen some great content recently:

• 5 ways to be Coachable
• Good Supervisors Acknowledge Good Employees
• Leadership Development without the Straight Lines

 Additional Articles / Resources

• 30 Books I’m Glad I Read Before 30
• A cool resource for 50 Places Where You Can Get Free Books Online
• Top 10 Things That Determine Happiness
• Found Miss Minimalist’s list of 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life
• Here is an interesting music video about renewable and free energy
• Free program to help you start your own blog or website.  LocalWebFormula.com
• I thought this was a relevant and well covered article to improve your public speaking

Basic Training For Your Money

Author: Steve Repak, CFP

Steve Repak authors this easy to read financial guide from the perspective that most people really are stuck in a spending mode with a mindless system getting them into credit card dept, living from month to month and wondering how anyone ever really saves any money.  This was very hard to not be turned off by since I don’t struggle with those things and so you may feel the same reading this if you already know how to safely manage your money.  If you struggle with those things however, then Repak does a great job at empathizing with you, giving good tips for methods to break from your patterns and helps you get a plan in place to overcome that dept you may have, and spending more than you make tenancy.

This is the first financial book I’ve reviewed here and while it may be the first in hand book I’ve read on the subject, I am certainly no stranger to learning about managing money and knowing how to save. I learned this at a very young age thanks to my parents and have been careful with my money my whole life in order to have security, safety and plans for early retirement (which I can confirm are all very doable despite any skepticism). Anyway, I was offered a review copy of this book by the Cadence Group and was happy to enter the genre here since I felt I could read through it easily and understand it, since I have already developed such a foundation of knowledge around money, saving and investments.

Repak covers the foundations of wealth and refers to what he calls the six key traits to building wealth:

1. Spend less money than is made
2. Have little or no debt
3. Give and Save first
4. Have long term plans for money
5. Do not let emotions cloud  judgment
6. Start saving early in life