Sharpen Your Intuition

Hands up—how many of you have heard that little voice in your head that somehow tells you what to do when you're stuck between two choices? Guess what—it's not just in your imagination; that voice is very real and it's called your intuition.
Why is it important for you to listen to it? Even Oprah Winfrey herself said, "Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself." While it may seem to arise from a mysterious inner source, intuition is actually a way your brain accumulates knowledge to help you form unconscious reasoning, a process known as chunking by the late social scientist Herbert Simon, PhD.
Research will also show that women have an edge when it comes to listening to their gut feeling. (Which is why some of us know deep down inside when our guy is telling us a lie.)
Our advice? Listen to your gut feelings instead of just brushing them aside. It may not be right all the time… but our instinct tells us that it can come in handy.
Here's how you can hone them to develop killer instinct.

1. Learn to trust it

Your intuition won't come in handy if you don't trust it. So the first step to honing it? Listening to what it has to say to you about the situation you are faced with.
Here's something to get you thinking: A University of London research team found that people who went with their initial response on a test of visual perception did better than those who were given more time to ponder. The team put this down to the brain's subconsciousness of being able to "spot" answers almost immediately.
In other words, when your gut 'tells' you that you should, for example, take another route instead of walking to that dark and empty street corner, learn to listen. Teymara Antonio-Wright, life coach and the founder of the popular "Born to be Free' seminar, says that our intuition is with us all the time. "Learn to trust your initial feelings. After you do this for a period of time, it will become second nature."

2. Tune into your senses

Says Laura Day, author of Practical Intuition, our instinct is actually an extension of our senses. So to nurture it, you should start paying attention to what you smell, hear, taste and touch throughout the day. This way, you'll be indirectly inciting your intuition to work harder and lead you to the right direction.

3. Give it a moment of peace

Think about the time when your brain switches from one thing to another? Or the time when you find yourself completely swamped with too many things at a time? Chances are you'll be in a state of funk where nothing seems to go right. For your intuition to work, it is important to give it a calmer and more peaceful "surrounding", says Lynn A. Robinson, an expert on intuition as well as author of LISTEN: Trusting Your Inner Voice in Times of Crisis.
"Intuitive answers often come to life's questions through self-reflection. Prayer and meditation are two ways we have of slowing down enough to listen to the still, quiet voice of our Higher Self." Her suggestion? To spend at least 15 minutes a day meditating (or praying). Choose a time when you won't be disturbed and make sure you switch your phone off. Clear your mind during the 15 minutes and simply pay attention to your breathing. As you come to the end, speak to your intuition, says Robinson. "Ask your intuition whether there is a message for you, and listen for answers that may come as a word, phrase, feeling, knowing or a physical sensation," she says.

4. Note down when your intuition was right

Keep an intuition notebook. Whenever your intuition came true, make sure you jot down details of the situation in the notebook. Why is it important to keep count?
Says Susan Apollon, intuitive psychologist and author of Touched by the Extraordinary: An Intuitive Psychologist Shares Insights, Lessons, and True Stories of Spirit and Love to Transform and Heal the Soul, "Intuition and confidence go hand in hand. And nothing builds confidence like a written track record of your intuitive abilities." So go on, track your intuitive wins!

5. Take small steps

Like with everything else, the more you use your instinct, the better you will become at it. Says Robinson, "If using your intuition is new for you, it may be best to use it in relatively low risk situations at first. This will help you develop your 'intuitive muscles'."
So take small steps. You'll find that as you become better at understanding at your intuition is trying to tell you, the decision will become clearer and you will be more confident of trusting yourself.(By SC Chua for Yahoo! Southeast Asia)

The 10 Commandments Of Investing

The biblical Ten Commandments were intended to act as a driver's manual for the road of life. "Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not bear false witness." These are life's versions of the stop-at-the-red-light-and-advance-when-safe rules of the road. In other words, they are all guidelines to keep people out of trouble. Because life's highways are full of potholes, blind turns and bad drivers, the investing world also suffers from scandals, scams and dishonest companies. Here are 10 commandments for the investing world designed to help keep investors - and their money - safe.(Courtesy of Andrew Beattie | Investopedia )

1. Thou Shalt Set Clear Goals
If you don't have a purpose or a set of clear goals to guide your investment strategy, don't invest. This sounds harsh, but there are so many types, styles and flavors of investing that, without a particular destination, you will be lost at sea.

2. Thou Shalt Put Thy Financial House in Order
To become a successful investor, you have to make sure that your personal finances are in order first. Investing without a purpose is bad, but investing when you have high-interest debt is much worse. If you are drowning in overdue bills and credit card payments that you can't meet, take care of those more serious problems before getting too deep into investing.

3. Thou Shalt Question Authority
Investing is more about the art of asking and answering the right questions than it is about deciding when to buy and sell. CEOs, CFOs, CPAs, CFAs and all the other acronyms that we use to classify Wall Street's professional caste can't hide the fact that they are human, and that humans sometimes lie. Analysts get kickbacks, CEOs get stock options and recent accounting scandals, show that impartial accounting is not guaranteed.
To question authority, you will need to educate yourself, especially on the subject of financials. Press releases are flakes of snow that rain down on investors and melt away, but financials stick around. Although financials can be tampered with, there is always a trail left behind.

4. Thou Shalt not Follow Sheep
Herd mentality leads to destructive rampages down Wall Street. Investing passively by sticking to funds, indexes and other mainstays of the coach potato portfolio is a perfectly acceptable practice. The danger comes when people move from being a passive investor to an active portfolio, but they continue to stick with the behavior of being a passive investor.

There is a lot of available information for such investors - much of which is true - but accepting it with an uncritical eye and neglecting to check it yourself is what leads to herding. This includes getting the latest and greatest stock tip from your Uncle George.

A person can effortlessly become one of the investors that the analysts shepherd into various "must-buy stocks" after they have become overpriced. This is how investors find themselves in the herd when skittish investors flee, causing the stock to plunge farther than it should have (whereupon a more astute investor buys a bargain off of your loss).
When people buy cars, they try to find the best value for the lowest price; when people buy stocks, they only see the price and, ironically, gravitate towards rising prices. If you are going to invest, you have to check things for yourself in order to find the true value and get the bargains. This takes more time, and it could even cause you to miss out on early gains, but it will tell you when to stay out or when to sell well before the herd hears the bell. 

5. Thou Shalt Be Humble
If you take the first four commandments to heart, there is a good chance that you will perform better than the majority of individual investors and many of the professionals. But sometimes, particularly during a bull market, gains are not dictated by investor actions as much as by having money in the market, so don't allow yourself to become overconfident. Overconfidence often leads to overtrading, taking unnecessary risks and eventual losses when the bull turns bear. Also, remember that you incur commissions every time you trade - this expense can often erase profits or increase losses.

6. Thou Shalt Be Patient
Patience is a virtue for a good reason: It pays for itself. When the market dips, or even when a particular stock dips, there are always investors who panic and sell. Selling should be treated just as seriously as buying. If it is just a bump, ride it out. If there is truly a problem with the stock, take your time as well - you may find a way to use it in a gain-loss transaction that will save you taxes. By the time you hear it, bad news has already settled in - taking your time isn't going to make it much worse.

7. Thou Shalt Show Moderation
Investing too much is not a problem many people have, but it can happen. It is said that the pain of a loss has twice the emotional strength of the pleasure of a gain. For some people, this results in pulling out of the market prematurely, as mentioned above.
For others, losing propels them into successively riskier ventures in an all-or-nothing attempt to win those losses back. Losses are hard to take, but look on the bright side: You can sell a loss to offset a gain in another sector or, if it is in a retirement account, you can use it as a tax write-off. Concentrating your money too much in one area, either by sector, risk level or even keeping it all in the stock market, is a sure way to see more of nothing than all in an all-or-nothing game.

8. Thou Shalt not Ogle Thy Investment
There is nothing like a market correction or a general upswing to change perfectly normal investors into fanatics who have market updates text messaged to their cell phones every five minutes. As with Fidelity, the axiom, "look, don't touch" is insufficient because the more you look, the more you want to mess around with your investments. It is not clear if it is a symptom or a cause, but this rabid over-monitoring almost always leads to unnecessary churning in sufferers' portfolios

9. Thou Shalt not Court or Spurn Risk
You should never put everything you have into futures, but you also shouldn't hold everything in Treasury bills. There is an appropriate level of risk for investors of every age and creed. 

10. Thou Shalt not Make Heroes of Mere Men
There is no perfect investor. Warren Buffett , George Soros and Peter Lynch have all slipped up from time to time. That doesn't stop them from being great investors who are worth studying and learning from. That said, you should never mimic an investing strategy that you do not fully understand.

There is too much guru-ism going on among investors - so much so that credentials are often lost beneath book titles in which the word "rich" is prominently featured. As with the early caution against trusting authority, you have to question everything. Even if a strategy works for a certain period of time, once it becomes widespread, it skews the system. For example, the publication of Lynch's tenbagger strategy has led to too many people searching for those stocks, leading prices to become inflated to adjust for the non-market driven demand. Skeptics survive on Wall Street much longer than believers.
The Bottom Line
Praying or getting behind the wheel expecting everyone else to follow the same rules you do are both acts of faith. Investing, in contrast, requires practice. To be a good investor, you have to make doubt a part of your creed and make double-checking a ritual. These guidelines should help you on your way. Happy driving.

Sun Sign and Kissing

Aries

The hasty and adventurous Aries natives often have tempestuous love lives. True to their nature, they prefer quick yet rapturous and passionate kisses that will leave them and their partner asking for more, and the temperatures soaring! The loving Aries will love it even more if their partner is equally enthusiastic in romantic overtures. 

Taurus

Taurus natives are grounded, and like to have a ready security net. No wonder they enjoy deep, heartfelt kisses, which promise more than just a fling. Not the ones to appreciate superficial feelings, they are sensual beings, and their soulful, sweet kisses are bound to linger on their lover's mind for a long time.

Gemini

Most Geminis love to talk. Communication is their life line. Thus, don't be surprised if your Gemini lover talks, giggles, comments, jokes or even babbles while kissing! Ignore the initial distraction, and soon you may see your kiss turning hotter and meaningful. Reciprocate with an equal zest, and be ready for fireworks!

Cancer

Sensitive and caring, Cancer natives like their kisses to be like their personality – warm, loving and soothing. Smothering their loved one with deep, lingering kisses is a sacred art to them, one rarely found with any other zodiac sign. And once they begin, they would want to cling on to the moment. Any reciprocation would only add fuel to their fire. 

Leo

Royal, arrogant Lions, like all things, prefer their kisses hot, sizzling and wild! Ardent and courteous lovers, they prefer treating their loved ones regally. And, they demand  equally ardent attention from their partner. Hence, a kiss is an event that has to be made special each time it's attempted. After all, a Lion's amour is well known!

Virgo

Virgo natives, akin to their basic nature, enjoy soft and gentle kisses. They themselves are soft kissers, and it's the quality that matters the most to them. Caring to the core, Virgos love to cuddle and run their fingers through their lover's hair as they seal their beloved's heart with a loving kiss!

Libra
Libra natives are known for their balanced, polished ways. No wonder, they make elegant but cautious kissers. A need to please everyone may make them very worried even while kissing. Romantic Libras need to let-go while kissing, if they are to enjoy the experience  completely.    

Scorpio

The Scorpio passion and drive are inimitable. Hence, when a Scorpio kisses, the result is simply sizzling, a definite turn on. Their partners, however, will need to keep pace with these frenetic, frenzied beings. Plus, many Scorpios may always be in a hurry, so their quick kiss may often be a brief prelude to the next, more important level.

Sagittarius

The otherwise self-absorbed Archers are quite loving and considerate when in love. Same applies to their kissing quotient. Adept and sensual kissers, they know how to impress their partners. And, if the partner happens to fuel their ego by reciprocating with an equal enthusiasm, things may really heat up!

Capricorn

It's rather difficult to estimate how hot and intense an otherwise prim and proper Capricorn could be in matters of love and intimacy. Their lucky partners are in for a real treat, when a much-in-love/ lust Cappy sets down to kiss. The sublime intensity and sensuality of their kiss can simply be surreal.

Aquarius

An Aquarius is often alleged for being flippant in his/ her approach. The fact that they  prefer keeping their eyes open while kissing may further that belief. But, that's how they like it, short and sweet. They do appreciate intensity, though, so in such times, it's like messier the better for them!

Pisces
The true romantics of the zodiac, Pisces natives prefer long, sensuous and dreamy kisses, and are sure to be hugely flattered if their feelings are reciprocated. They are wonderful kissers, and take their own sweet time to exchange big, amorous kisses. Never in a hurry, kissing may be like an independent act of passion for them.(Courtesy of GaneshaSpeaks.com)