Postpartum Depression is a type of depression that a mother experiences immediately after childbirth. It is more serious and lasts longer than ‘baby blues’.

Postpartum depression occurs in approximately 10 percent of childbearing women.

Postpartum depression often requires counseling and treatment. Postpartum depression can occur after any birth, not just the first.

Does every mother experience postpartum depression?

No.

Symptoms?

The most common symptoms are:

strong feelings of sadness,

anxiety or despair trouble coping with their daily tasks, withdrawal from family and friends, trouble sleeping Loss of sexual interest Severe mood swings

Treatment options?

Without treatment, postpartum depression may become worse or may last longer.

Why does Postpartum Depression occur?

It is unclear exactly why postpartum depression occurs. There are many factors that will determine whether a mother develops postpartum depression.

The most common factors:

Decreases in levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Fatigue after childbirth Feelings of doubt about the pregnancy Lack of support from others. What is the difference between Baby Blues and Postpartum Depression?

The biggest difference is that Baby Blues goes away within a couple days of the childbirth.

Treatment Options?

Postpartum depression can be treated. The type of treatment depends on the severity of the condition. One of the most common treatments is attending a support group to talk with other women who are going through the same thing.

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

It’s all about routine

Graham Green, the famous English novelist, said that his success was down to writing 500 words a day. The value of routine in enhancing creative output is often underestimated:

a) Incremental goals such as the above produce far more output than random moments of waiting for inspiration or a “do your best” approach.

b) Inspiration and insight are the result of the mind working on problems at various cognitive levels. By keeping to a routine, problems constantly are identified and put into focus and the mind is tasked to solve them on a regular basis. Insight and inspiration are increased in frequency and duration.

c) The increased output that results form routine also increases the probability that quality will emerge. The relationship between quantity and quality should not be underestimated. Some of the most recognised works have been produced when the creator was being most prolific.

d) Routine increases the rate at which competencies, refined methodology, knowledge and process are learned, thus speeding up optimisation of performance.

e) Creative leaps or radical innovations are usually made by individuals who have significant experience in a field. Glover et al (1989) identified only three notable works produced before year ten of a composer’s career. If you want to make a breakthrough you have to put in the time.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

Organizations are finally creating cultures that support a work and life balance for their employees. After years of demanding high productivity and increasing on the job hours and expectations and not achieving the hoped-for better results, companies are finally embracing polices and procedures that support employees in integrating their life and work experience. The results are bringing higher productivity, better employee overall job performance, and fewer employee absences, resulting in greater profitability.

When companies first consider such programs, their biggest concern is how programs supporting life and work balance will help their bottom line vs. simply costing more money that they don’t want to spend. As more companies develop creative methods for integration of life and work, they see that the bottom line can’t be impacted upon positively without recognizing employees’ needs for balance. Employees are, after all, only human.

At first, companies we’ve presented these concepts to have resisted and felt that it was all simply added expense for them. In addition, they’ve seen the need for balance as an “employee” issue and not a company issue. In my experience coaching and consulting with companies around the world, I think that avoiding responsibility for integration of life and work is what is actually COSTING companies money, and if they’d invest some money in programs that support balance, they’d increase their bottom line through improved morale and productivity.

Here are the reasons that organizations are adopting life/work balance policies:

Employee hiring and retention: it is more difficult to recruit and replace employees if there isn’t a balance in their job, as they leave faster when they feel imbalance and the cost of constant retraining is money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Absenteeism decrease: when there is flextime, flexible schedules, childcare, etc. offered, it is well documented that absenteeism and tardiness go way down.

Stress is decreased: on the job tension often comes from the feeling of being out of balance, and stress creates illness, poor morale, and low productivity. People are not robots that can be switched on and off at will. All work and no play certainly does make Jack a dull boy, and companies now realize this.

Attitude and morale: employees who have a integration in life/work show higher job satisfaction, greater productivity, feel more loyalty, and file fewer law suits.

Organizations will be successful when they realize that without high quality workers who are loyal and who feel integration between family and work, they won’t have a dedicated workforce, and they will actually lose money. People are worth keeping and developing and are the most valuable asset that any company has, and yet it is the one asset that is generally overlooked.

People make a business… not machines, not books of accounts. In our world, nothing is free and people do have to earn a living, but they do also have to live a meaningful and productive life. When there is a fair balance between the two, this results in a happy and constructive human being who is able to give 100% because one aspect of their life is not demanding more than the other and there is no unhealthy imbalance. Companies who acknowledge this and incorporate strategies to allow for this, reap the rewards described above. Result? Everyone gets what they want and need. Everyone is happy.

Written by Terri Levine, MCC, PCC, MS, CCC-SLP, the CEO of Coaching Instruction.com, popular Master Certified personal and business Coach, sought after Public Speaker, and Author of bestsellers, “Stop Managing, Start Coaching”, “Work Yourself Happy”, “Coaching for an Extraordinary Life” and “Create Your Ideal Body”. She can be contacted via the web site http://www.TerriLevine.com or by telephone: 215-699-4949.

Much of the consumer spending boom in both the US and UK, has been led by rising real estate values. Some have sold their homes, using the net proceeds to fund purchases, but many more have re-mortgaged cashing in on the increase in value. This is fine, so long as their income is sufficient to re-pay these mortgages, at a time of rising interest rates.

But should interest rates continue to increase, and worse still, if house prices slip back, many people will have problems in re-paying their mortgages. This scenario is already apparent is some markets, and is likely to become more widespread.

What many people really need, rather than re-financing or selling their home in order to benefit from high prices, is an alternative which locks in the value of their home. They need a mechanism which enables them to remain in their home, but not suffer the risk of a declining house value. This now exist in the form of LIVE. These were developed precisely to address these problems, and afford a safe and effective means of ensuring that home-owners can remain in their homes, yet benefit from the massive equity gain the property has made.

The City of London has long been in the vanguard of the world financial markets, and at www.livepropertyservices.com is an example of a product which achieves the dual aims of securing your property value, yet not requiring that you to repay a new loan.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie

Have you ever found yourself in a rut where you just couldn’t see anything positive in your life? I know I have. Sometimes we get so caught up with what is going wrong we forget all that is so right. A way I have found of breaking out of this pattern is by using a gratitude journal.

The power of gratitude journaling is that it absolutely changes your focus. After you have been practicing for a while, you will become a “glass half-full” kind of person. It causes you to think about what is most important in life instead of getting caught up in the petty.

You can keep a gratitude journal in whatever way works best for you, but here is a way to get started that I first learned from Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book Simple Abundance. First, get a journal book that speaks to you in some way. Make it one that you will enjoy looking at every day and fits your personality. If you like the structure of lined pages, that is fine. If you prefer the unlined, open pages, that is great too. Just experiment and use what you feel will most likely inspire you every day.

A good way to start is to write five things at the end of every day that you are thankful for from that day. These five things can be as simple or as in-depth as you would like them to be. Now let’s face it, there will be days when you will not feel like writing in your gratitude journal, and those are the days when you absolutely must! It will come in handy to have a pre-made, basic list of things you are always grateful for to use on such days as these. Mine is: my health, my family (including my dog Frodo), my home, my friends, and my coach. The simple act of taking a few moments to remember your everyday blessings on the hard days will help you get through them.

You can really make your journal whatever you want it to be. Let my suggestions be a starting point for you. If you have time, and if you want, you can add pictures, poems, or whatever strikes your fancy. Just make it reflective of what is truly important to you. Have fun with it and notice the magic it can work in your life.

My name is Greg Ryan. For the last twenty years I have counseled thousands of personal trainers, fitness directors and gym owners on how be successful in the health and fitness industry. No matter where I go in the world, no matter the size of the gym the biggest reason for their lack of success is all the same. My question is, “Do you want to be a mediocre Personal Trainer or do you want to be a GREAT one?

Most of you will only be good ones if you are lucky. Only about five percent of you will be GREAT. What I mean by being a great personal trainer falls into three categories: love what you do, self employed and make a six figure income consistently. Here is how:

Part C: C is for Client (driven)

Remember why they hired you

Clients go to gyms and trainers for two things; encouragement and accountability. Balance them both and you will no problem with client retention.

The Psychology of Personal Training

Learn each client’s personality quickly. One program does not fit all. This is more important than your charts or membership numbers!

Client Retention

It is not how many clients you have; it’s how many you keep. If you don’t keep you clients on an average of six months or more, you need my help! If you have no shows you need my help. If you have cancellations you are doing something wrong and never be a $100,000 dollar personal trainer. More is not better!

Here is the Intro to my e-book - “It’s NOT about the Numbers!”

The personal training business is more unpredictable than even a sales, straight commission base job. It shouldn’t be, but most clients treat the service as a disposable income luxury. However, the customer still comes first, always!

A mental mistake I have made is focusing more so on my cash flow to pay bills than simple customer service. It really is true, focus on servicing your customer and the money will follow. I have also made the mistake of taking my business for granted. Be careful! If you have been a trainer for any length of time you know, that your income can fluctuate hundreds of dollars in any given week. One thing I try to keep in mind is,

You are only as successful as your last client. Treat each session as if your business depended solely upon them.

Greg Ryan is a Health club and personal trainer consultant, high profile fitness expert and former employee of Kathy Smith. He is best selling author of “It’s NOT aout the Numbers!” Discover how to make $100,000 year after year For FREE MINI COURES email me at greg@resolutions.bz

One of the most important choices any mortgage shopper must make is whether to choose a fixed rate or a variable rate mortgage. This can be a more difficult decision that it may seem, primarily because the right decision can hinge on the knowing the future direction of interest rates.

Since even financial experts find it difficult to accurately predict the future direction of interest rates, it can obviously be difficult to get this decision right.

It is important, therefore to decide on a variable rate or fixed rate mortgage in the absence of a crystal ball. There are a number of times when a variable rate mortgage makes a lot of sense, and this article will focus on some of the reasons a home buyer may want to choose a variable rate mortgage.

It is important, therefore to decide on a variable rate or fixed rate mortgage in the absence of a crystal ball. There are a number of times when a variable rate mortgage makes a lot of sense, and this article will focus on some of the reasons a home buyer may want to choose a variable rate mortgage.

One of the best reasons for taking out a variable rate mortgage is if you plan to be in your home for a short period of time. Those homeowners who plan to remain in the home for only three to five years are often best suited for a variable rate mortgage. This is because variable rate mortgages generally come with a lower initial interest rate than would a similar fixed rate mortgage loan.

A short term horizon like three to five years means that the buyer of the home is free to take advantage of this lower interest rate in the first few years. By the time the interest rate is ready to rise to market levels, the homeowner will be moving on to a new property, and taking out a new mortgage loan, hopefully at a similarly low interest rate.

Home buyers who are comfortable with the inherent risk of variable rate mortgages can also use them to save money in the initial years. Many home buyers are quite comfortable taking the interest rate risk that is inherent in a variable rate mortgage, and they can take advantage of the lower initial interest rate to save some money.

More

You arrived on time and completed your calculations. You worked up a presentation of all the things you’re going to do and items included, going over each item carefully. You’ve just given the customer the price. They look at each other. He says, “Okay. Thanks for the quote. Well get back to you. Of course, we need time to think about it. It looks good. I’ve heard good things about you. So there’s no need to worry.
We never make a decision without thinking it over first.”

You probably just lost the sale. Unless, of course, you se-verely underbid the job. Which all of your competitors will try to do, especially if your clients reveal your bid to them? Where did you go wrong? What could you have done to have a better shot at getting the ink on the contract?

Let’s go back to Marketing 101: What makes you better than others in your business? If we made a survey of your past customers, what would they say about you? Your knowledge/skill level? Your Professionalism? Your quality of work? Your creativeness? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you’re losing business and money (by not generating more profit per sale). By taking the time to answer these and other similar questions, you can start improving your presentations, more sales and a better bottom line.

Put it another way: People have no way of knowing how good you are without your telling them. They’re afraid to make a wrong decision. They have made bad decisions. Their friends and relatives and coworkers have made bad decisions and, miracu-lously, they become “experts”. They’ll tell your clients why doing business with you (or any tradesman they select) are just no good because they know better. The world is full of nay-sayers. Your presentation will over-come those objectionsif it is well thought out.

So what can you do? As we mentioned above, you need to answer certain questions. Having answered them, you can put that knowledge to work right from the get go. Your are now ready to create your own personal ‘VALUE STORY”. The more valuable you seem, the more people will trust you to do work for them and the more they will pay. It’s just that simple.

In the beginning of your first contact you should be mentioning something about your professionalism. When you first arrive, dressed appropriately and with a cordial greeting, you outline what it is that you are going to do on this visit. (A one-call visit is the same as a 2 or3 call process, just abbreviated.) You begin with asking questions. These questions help you demonstrate mastery as well as qualify and determine client needs and desires, which you will use later in the presentation stage. After completion of your quoting process, you arrive at the presentation stage. You start by demonstrating your recommendations, showing how your product or service is different or superior and, most importantly, how that benefits your client. It might go something like this:

“You asked for my quote for a good quality (whatever). In my experience, there are good and poor choices. While this is cheaper, this one will last twice as long but at only a little higher price.” Or “Let me ask you Mrs. Client, which is more important: A job well done at a slightly higher cost or a cheaper job that you’ll regret later? Let me show you why the product /service I’m recommending will be worth the extra cost.”
Stay Tuned: more next month.

John Stahl

If you want more info, just call me at 610-775-1500. I’ll gladly help you develop your best presentation.

Like enough of the noise awready! Geesh, people…

No, I’m not talking about the sometimes nearly overwhelming noise pollution that goes hand in hand with living in a big city. Traffic sounds, horns, sirens, airplanes, construction noises. I’m not even referring to the eardrum-shattering volume of the concert and bar bands - or the door-vibrating music coming from our kid’s rooms. Not even the irritating boom bass enlarging the size of the cracks on the car’s windshield next to us at the stoplight.

Yeah, the noise is bad and it seems like it’s getting worse. Sometimes I think about the warm, quite summer evenings from my younger days back on the farm when all there was to listen to was the crickets, a few frogs and maybe once in a while a coyote or two howling off in the distance. And I wonder, considering how the db level has skyrocketed over the past several years, why the heck I didn’t have the foresight to go into audiology instead of adult education. There are fortunes to be made in that career field. So who knew…?

But that’s not the kind of noise that concerns me most. The one that really bothers me - and makes me wonder just where the heck we humans are headed are the noises that are blasting out of our mouths.

YOU #@*&% IDIOT - WHERE’D YOU LEARN HOW TO DRIVE!!? I WANT TO SEE YOUR MANAGER - AND I MEAN NOW!!! WOULD YOU GET YOUR FAT REAR OUTTA THE WAY!!? IF YOU DON’T CLEAN UP ALL THE CRAP IN YOUR ROOM, YOUR BUTT’S GROUNDED!!! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!!? JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!!? DO I LOOK LIKE YOUR #&%@* SLAVE!!? WHERE’S MY #%&@* KEYS!!?

Whew!

We’ve all heard it. On the streets, in the stores, at the ball games, on the playground, next door. And let’s admit it. Almost every one of us at one time or another in our lives has “let it fly”. Unfortunately, for too many of us, this kind of communication - this personalized air pollution - has become a way of life. It’s what we do. It’s the way we are. I’ve even heard people describe high volume spousal relationships as “just their way of communicating and letting off steam”.

Houston, we have a problem!

One of the problems of course, is that as our volume increases the quality of our communications slides right into the crapper. Most folks normally react to shouting by implementing their most comfortable defensive action which is usually shouting right back. It becomes a “loud” contest. For sure, nobody’s listening.

And if that weren’t bad enough, it’s unfortunately fairly common for this type of confrontation to deteriorate even further into physical altercations with frequently disastrous results. First we say it, then we do it. Grabbing, slapping, punching, pushing… The self control has vaporized and we revert to our basic animal instincts.

Yeah, we could overcome some of these tendencies by applying one of the common anger management techniques. Back off, cool off and give ourselves some time to re-evaluate the situation and circumstances that led up to the shouting match. It can help. But it’s not the permanent solution.

And no, I realize that there’s not much we can do about “society”. There’s not much we can do about all the pressures we experience just by living in these times. The pressures that tend to fertilize our aggravations and worries - and our tendencies to relieve this stress by “spoutin’ off”. And we can’t change the fact that we perhaps grew up in a confrontational, loud household - and therefore have become programmed to act and react just like our parents did.

If we really want to though, we can change ourselves. If we’re tired of the shouting or at least not thoroughly convinced that this is the best way to go through life, we can do something about it. We can change our immediate environment - our personal world - into a place that’s a lot more comfortable to live in.

Just the realization that we don’t need to live this way any longer if we don’t want to is a major step in the right direction. But where do we go from there? If confrontational shouting is a life-limiting factor, the next step could be to seek professional help. A lifestyle filled with verbal, mental, emotional and physical abuse is not something we can move away from without assistance from trained helpers. There are plenty of people, organizations and support groups that are readily available to help us work our way out of our personal battlefield.

Beyond that, there are things we need to learn and experience. Part of it, I would suggest, is using the foundation concepts of personal development and self-help to gain a better understanding of our thought processes and learn the steps we can take to modify our mental/emotional programming so that we can move on to more peaceful (and productive) thinking techniques. Again, there is plenty of help and information immediately available to assist in this process - on the Web, in countless books and articles, tapes, CD’s and seminars - and in our local communities. All it takes is just a little bit of effort to identify these resources. Start with the information contained in this site and in our books if you wish, then take it from there to find your own personal best path to a quieter lifestyle.

I would suggest too, that to complement our attempts to upgrade our thought processes, that we seriously (or light-heartedly might even work better) consider looking into connecting with our spiritual selves and whatever/whoever we consider as our spiritual leader or master teacher. Finding our own personal spiritual path or belief system can help build a solid foundation for whatever we feel we want our life to become. It’s an important ingredient that is all too frequently overlooked in the developmental process. But believe me, it can make the journey one heck of a lot easier.

Where we go from here now is of course, up to each one of us individually. We can maintain and feed our chaotic, high volume lifestyle - or we can put forth just a little effort to start the transition to a more peaceful, productive, enjoyable environment. For sure, if you happen to be one of my acquaintances or next door neighbors, I’d really appreciate it if you’d at least try! Please…?

About The Author

Gene, through NuPathz.com, provides an easy reading self-help blog, articles and links along with affordable books and materials written to help folks find the road to a more enjoyable lifestyle, to pass on some of life’s “secrets for survival” in a chaotic world & offer a few smiles along the way. It’s a down-to-earth, simple approach to discovering a better life. You can visit Gene at http://www.nupathz.com/

gene@nupathz.com

Buying a house is a great long term investment. If you’ve never had a mortgage payment it simply means you’ll have to be more careful regarding the management of your finances. The first step before venturing into a mortgage if you’re not already in one is to consider your financial situation. Then decide to buy a home where the mortgage and down payments are according to your financial situation so that you can enjoy life and have a roof over your head at the same time. If you have no idea what your monthly budget can afford then you should take some advice from a finance professional first.

Regardless of your situation here are several ways to reduce your monthly mortgage payments:

• As interest rates keep on changing you should keep track of changes and consider refinancing at the right time. This would reduce your expenditures. Do the calculations to know your savings after paying costs and other expenditures.

• Find out which bank offers the lowest homeowner insurance rates. You might be able to reduce either your insurance or tax payments.

• Check your calculations properly and regularly to make sure that all adjustments are made correctly, even though it’s a bank sometime they make mistakes.

• Choose a mortgage that offers flexibility. You want a mortgage that allows you to pay in an easy way according to your earnings.

• Consider biweekly payments or accelerated equity plans. This will give you an additional payment each year and begins to reduce your mortgage quickly right from the start.

• Try short term loans or variable interest.

• Consolidate all your loans into a single one with lower payments. Make a table and analyze all your loans; education, car, home and bank loans for example. Study your expenditures. Try to consult a mortgage specialist, ask him about consolidations and how much it can reduce your monthly payments.

And last but not least, the mortgage crunching secret weapon:

• Change a short term mortgage into a long term mortgage - go for a 30 mortgage. This will allow you to pay lower monthly payments which will lower the amount of interest you pay. Now, check with your bank for their rules and regulations but the next step is to pay way more each payment than the minimum payment. Each time you do this you’ll be smacking down the cash on the principle of your mortgage. This is the big mortgage early payout secret and it’s been known in many cases to eat a mortgage really easily in under 10 years.

A mortgage or home loan is a long term debt but it doesn’t have to be a burden. You are advised to pay it off as soon as possible but arrange your budgets tactfully by keeping an eye on insurance, loan disbursements and their interest rates. Enjoy your new home; hopefully with a few of these tips it will be all yours sooner than the banks desire. If it’s paid for it’s yours, if it’s a loan or mortgage it’s still theirs in my opinion.

Submitted by Chad McDonald for investors looking for a mortgage investor corporation or searching for mortgage investor advice online.