Best Aromatherapy Scents, Part One of Two

Jasmine: Improves hand-eye coordination, keeps you alert. Spritz on jasmine scented body spray or perfume to improve your ability at games and sports. Put jasmine scented air-freshener in your car to improve your concentration while driving.

Lavender: Sniff the scent or mix with water and spritz on bedclothes to help you sleep at night. Use in automatic air fresheners or diffusers to keep children and pets calm inside the house. Keep a vase of fresh lavender on your nightstand.

Citrus: Lime, grapefruit, lemon and orange scents in perfume will keep you alert during the day. Shower with citrus-scented bath gel to wake you up in the morning. Rub your hands with citrus-scented hand lotion for quick energy and to lift your mood.

Peppermint: Use peppermint flavored candies and oral hygiene products to distract you from hunger pangs and to give you instant energy. Add drops of peppermint oil to a foot soak or rub on peppermint-scented lotion to cure tired feet.

Nutmeg: Makes you feel comforted and soothed. Sniff the oil or breathe in the scent right from your spice jar before adding a shake to your afternoon coffee, or stirring into a dessert recipe.

Basil Oil: Keeps houseflies and mosquitoes away. Dampen a cotton ball with a few drops of the oil and keep where houseflies are a nuisance. Drip a drop of oil onto a candle and light it outside when you use your patio in the evening.

Strawberry: Use a strawberry scented lip gloss or air freshener to make you feel happy and optimistic.

Sandalwood Oil: Add a few drops to a warm bath a night to ease anxiety.

Sage Oil: Rub a drip into feet to stop feet from sweating, alleviate night sweats and stop hot flashes. Smelling sage also helps improve your memory.

Chamomile: Drop some chamomile oil into a nighttime bath to relax you or drink a cup of chamomile tea at night to help you sleep. Helps alleviate symptoms of depression

Best Herbs and Spices, Part Two of Two

Cayenne Pepper: contains capsaicin which thins out mucus, clears stuffy noses, and flushes germs from the body. It helps with digestion,boosts circulation and relieves itching or arthritis pain by rubbing it on the skin. In extract or capsule form, it may be able to stop a heart attack or angina.

Saffron: has anti-cancer properties and may delay tumor growth. Helps with depression, insomnia, and baldness (rub on scalp).

Mint: helps with digestion and irritable bowel syndrome, has antifungal and antibacterial properties, and allieviates asthma. Apply mint oil to temples to fight mental fatigue and stress and stimulate memory.

Bay Leaf (sweet laurel): increases insulin efficiency, contains enzymes that break down proteins.

Celery Seed: Useful for urinary tract infections and arthritis relief. May lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

Cardamom: reduces gas and counteracts stomach acidity. It also cleans the kidneys and helps lung function.

Best Reasons to Sing

Singing strengthens the immune system by increasing production of immunoglobilin A, a protein which functions as an antibody.

Singing releases endorphins, hormones that make us feel good by reducing pain and alleviating feelings of depression.

Singing is a tool that can help release pent-up feelings and emotions. Singing a happy song will naturally elevate moods.

Singing tones up your throat muscles. Singing every day can be an effective stop-snoring method by tightening up the soft palate in the back of the throat.

Singing lowers levels of the stress-hormone cortisol which reduces anxiety

Singing increases the flow of oxygen to the brain making you mentally alert

Singing strengthens the lungs and increases lung capacity, which can help with lung conditions such as asthma.

Singing tones up facial muscles, helping us to look younger.

Singing, memorizing melodies and lyrics and being able to vocalize them, is good exercise for your brain, improving brain age.

Singing tones your core muscles benefitting the back, stomach and bladder.

Best Ways to Detect a Liar

A good way to spot a liar is to evaluate their overall demeanor and determine if it is an affectation designed to cover the lie. You may spot excesses in behavior that will point to a carefully posed attitude. Look for overdone, insincere or forced friendliness (too gregarious) , coldness (too emotionally distant), or calmness (excessively deadpan). Evaluate whether the person is acting overly confident or if they are being too vague with roundabout, misleading answers.

Look for a preponderance of the following verbal signals: hesitations or repeating the question to gain time to think; false starts or ums and ers; answers that are either too short or way too long and detailed; and speaking with a higher vocal pitch or much softer than usual. Liars are busy thinking about their lie and the truth at once while speaking and tend to mispronounce words, slip up and use a wrong word or trip over their tongues.

Examine body language for further signals. Shrugging the hands, palms up, indicates uncertainty and frequent blinking indicates the higher mental activity associated with lying. Dilated pupils, which indicate arousal, may also indicate lying due to the liar’s higher level of interest during a deceptive conversation or that they are enjoying their deception. Touching one’s own hands, nose, mouth or eyes may indicate a liar’s anxiety, as these gestures are for self-encouragement.

Most of all, look for inconsistencies like a smiling mouth with angry eyes, calm facial features betrayed by a jittery foot, or giving an agreeable answer while shaking the head no. Learn to spot split-second facial expressions that may pop out unconsciously and are immediately replaced by the liar’s desired look. A liar makes changes in the story because a lie is hard to remember and will spend all day defending it, rather then getting angry with not being believed. Knowing how a person behaves normally will also help to spot changes in their behavior when they lie.