How to plan the perfect spring break family vacation

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From time to time everyone needs some time away from their life. It does not matter if you are 10 years old and in 5th grade or 35 years old and working a full time job, to maintain good mental health you have to take the occasional vacation.

Some time around the beginning of April most public and private schools have Spring Break from School which is a great time to plan a vacation.

Most vacations when you have children become about them, and you wind up at places like Disney land or some other child orientated vacation spot, but what about you?

Las Vegas used to be known as an adult getaway where what happens there stays there. This is no longer the case. Over the past 15 years, Las Vegas realized that more money can be made from a family orientated city rater then just from gambling.

Many casinos started adding attractions for children like go carts and other amusements, and many other activities aimed at giving a child a good time, but the casinos also opened up day care centers, so parents can get some time to enjoy themselves as well.

I know when I would go to Disney World with my kids after the 2nd or 3rd day I was looking forward to getting back to work.

For the last several years we have been going to Las Vegas for our family Vacations over spring break and the kids enjoy it. They get to go on roller coasters, swim, play video games, watch movie the list really goes on and on for all the things they can do, and I get to spend a few hours ever day with my wife in the spa getting a message, eating in nice restaurants and playing some Blackjack in the casinos.

Since we started doing this I have seen my family grow closer. My wife noticed that I am in a better mood for the rest of the year after we get back from vacation. I am enjoying my job more and all in all life is just better.

Putting together a Los Vegas vacation is very simple to do. You can go to a travel agent, or do it yourself online. I have always preferred to go to a travel agent and just let them do it, but if you are trying to save money you can get some good deals online that a travel agent can't or won't offer you.

If you choose to do it yourself, it is easy to do. You can go to your computer and do a search for Las Vegas. You will see every casinos and hotel listed and you can go thru them one at a time and see what they offer for you and your family to do.

You will also see everything the city and surrounding areas have to offer, and there really are tons of fun things for everyone in Las Vegas.

I hope to see you and your family there.

Having confidence

No one wants a date with someone with low self esteem and a negative self image. Try to makeover your self confidence and learn how to be a desirable date with these ideas…

Make a list addressing all the things you are not comfortable with about yourself. Be honest. Establish which things people may not like about you and get an honest second opinion. Change the things that are easy first, and ensure you are comfortable with any alterations.

Address the way you look and dress. By changing the basic aspects of your looks, lifestyle and regime, you will instantly feel more confident. By looking and feeling good about yourself and widening your horizons your life has already changed for the better and your confidence levels are on the up.

There are a few changes that can be made in your daily life. Make sure you are in shape or attempting to be. If you are dieting or exercising, remember to be patient as these changes will take a little while. Also, start doing things you wish you always had the courage to do…maybe a hobby, sport, class or society. Learn to enjoy the smaller things in life and give yourself time especially for these things. If you like to cook for friends, then start having dinner parties.

Start dating…if someone has asked you out, accept. If not, be proactive and ask someone out yourself who you like. Just do it, and accept the fact that some people will say no…but many will also say yes. Begin to make conversation with the nice people you meet along the way. Become sociable and look good at every opportunity. Now start to be selective about what kind of people you really like. But by the same token, talk to everyone. The more people who are interested, the higher your confidence levels.

Remember to stay away from people that bring you down or criticize you. Whether a friend or a potential date, you deserve better. Walk away from anything you don’t like and instill a positive attitude in everything that you do.

Seven steps to self discovery - familyvision column

Paula is the most popular girl in high school. Only people who meet the criteria can join her social circle. The school seems to revolve around her. Her rival is Eva who is another snob. Eva hates Paula (and the feeling is mutual). One day Eva follows Paula home, hoping to find some dirt. Finally, Paula arrives at a homeless shelter. Eva becomes unhappy because she feels Paula is performing community service (just another medal on Paula’s chest). However, Eva is startled. Paula enters the food line and takes soup. She then sits her books on the bed and kisses two dirty old bums. Paula glances up and sees Eva. Paula is overcome with fear. One of the dirty bums looks up at Paula and says, “Tell momma who’s your little friend?” Paula gets hysterical.

The Major Question

How are you going to handle another crisis? Do you really understand yourself? If you don’t, how are you going to move forward in your life? These lines of questioning may appear strange until you look around and see people pretending to be something that they are not. In our daily living, online discussions, and seminars, we converse with many people on a very personal level. Some people appear totally together on the outside, but sadly enough, they are decaying on the inside. They are so obsessed with portraying the right public image that they fail to achieve their purpose. Images are the roles people play in life, like actors, to help them jointly co-exist with their personal needs and the demands of society.

Having the right image is natural and a part of you, unlike performing a role on stage. On stage, an actor recites lines, but when a person has the correct image, he or she writes the lines instead. Unfortunately, some people are only interested in what others think of them. Why else would people a) buy cars and homes they can’t afford, b) get in relationships with people they don’t love, c) join organizations that contradict their beliefs, or d) maintain friendships that are quite shallow? Are people really that lost? According to one study, 36% of people surveyed viewed their bodies as the most critical aspect of their self-esteem.

The Focus Point

Understanding how you feel about yourself is key to your success. Self-concept is a combination of beliefs that interpret how you feel about yourself and your environment. These beliefs start when people are children and continued to develop, as they become adults. Brian Tracy, goal-setting expert, says, “Whenever you have a high self-concept, you perform well.” The self-concept has three ingredients: self-ideal, self-image, and self-esteem. First, your self-ideal is a combination of all of the attributes and qualities of people that you most admire (an aunt, father, Michael Jordan, etc.). The self-ideal sets the course for your life. People are always measuring themselves against this model. Secondly, the self-image is the way you see yourself and think about yourself. Lastly, self-esteem is the single most important element that will determine your attitude and personality. Self-esteem is defined, as how much you like yourself. The more you like yourself, accept yourself, and see yourself as a valuable person, the higher your self-esteem will be. Here are some things you should consider:

1. How do I really feel about myself?

2. Do you have a vision of who you want to be?

3. Who am I trying to be like in my life?

4. What image am I portraying to my family & friends?

5. How positive is my self-concept?

6. Am I in negative surroundings? If so, can you change?

7. Are you willing to move toward your vision?

The Move Ahead

Your attitude is a good place to start changing your self-concept. Success begins in the mind. Your self-ideal determines your direction. Your self-image determines the way you will perform. Your self-esteem determines your energy level, motivation, and enthusiasm about life. The more you perform consistently from day-to-day in the way you want to perform, the higher your self-esteem will be. A good attitude provides a positive filter through which you can shield your self-image from all of the negativism. “Doing your best” simply means you recognize that success starts with doing your best with whatever tools God has given you. Start today!

How fears develop

There have been talks about fears and phobias, and how they affect life. Fear is really the misconception, the rejection, and the dread of life.

There are thousands of life definitions available around. Often, these meanings seek or require a happy, if not perfect, life in this world. We are urged to seek out a paradise or a niche of refuge where we can build our utopia or ideal world.

But what really is life? If we honestly study human drama in history, we would see that real life is the concoction of good and bad, sad and happy. How to be happy in all these circumstances is what you make out of your life. We all create our life meanings. We cannot just borrow others’ meanings or get one from a book. We discover real life through actual life encounters. How we end up after each ordeal gives us our real life.

Life is a concoction of both extremes. Real life entails going through these ordeals. When you reject this idea and look for other life meanings — the kind where you live happily ever after — fears start to develop. You begin to look for fairy tale stuffs in life and reject the ones you actually have. Fear comes in, rejecting what is real. People who live in war zones have a realistic idea of life: You live now; you may die the next moment. They see that life is temporary — which is the truth. Thus, they are prepared to die anytime. Fears are still intact, but considerably lessened.

People who reject the truth are afraid to look at scenes of death or tragedy. The more they reject them, the more the fear grows within them. Many books on fears tell their readers to avoid seeing violence. You ought not to look for violence and watch it, but you ought not to close your eyes to it when there is one right under your nose. Life will always show you both extremes.

Mother Theresa was a non-violent person. Yet, she watched injustice and violence everyday, right where she was. She didn’t feel fear for these daily scenes; instead she felt love and concern in the midst of it all. She knew and lived a real life. Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi were for non-violence. Yet they found real meaning and real life as they were caught in the middle of chaos and turmoil. These excellent people lived the real life. They even conquered others’ fears.

The rejection of the real life is the start of real fears. Fearful and phobic people refuse reality and build their own fantasy world.

Simple positive self talk

Doing positive self talk is not as hard as others would think. Positive self talk can be done by anybody who wants to apply the principle, it will only take just a few minutes in a day then achieve remarkable results after some time.

Positive self talk will not require you to do all those complicated stuffs including uber-science chanting of a mantra, it doesn't even require you to be cheerful or enthusiastic all day. Experts have demonstrated that positive self talk only require a few minutes to seconds of your daily time.

Positive self talk in its exact and simple meaning is the act of affirming positive thoughts and emotions from one's mind which results to inner peace. Some people even claimed that this inner peace manifests in the real world via getting rich or having healthy relationships.

Positive self talk when a person just happens to be at a deep inner peace with himself. It is a natural phenomena transferred to a person's deep subconscious mind and for some reason the subconscious mind on its own intellectual power takes this feeling up and transfer the message to the universal creator and then manifests itself into the material world

A powerful and effective step in positive self talk is meditative relaxation. This simple and often neglected technique can done by simple sitting in a chair or floor and then listening to cool and relaxing music, or by performing any relaxation exercise. The main task of positive self talk is clearing up all negative thoughts in one's mind so by putting someone in a relaxed state of mind all negative thoughts are eliminated from one's mind and such state will put someone in a positive mood. After some time those positive feelings will find their way to manifest in reality

Another technique for positive self talk is what we call Affirmations. This widely accepted technique is done by affirming positive statements to your self. These affirmations when made, are capable of achieving outstanding results especially if they are repeated often as the situation demands and if the affirmation is supported with positive thoughts.

Some examples of affirmations are:

-Everyday is getting better.

-I am a winner

-I am slowly becoming successful

Just as meditative relaxation the positive messages/affirmations in your mind will somehow manifest themselves into reality