How to spend more time with your family

 When your life is too complicated, and the stresses of normal life get in the way, the first thing that normally suffers are those relationships you hold so dear.

While we hate to think what would happen if we found out we were dying, but would one of the things you think about be how you needed to spend more time with those you love?
Living simple is all about turning away from those things that keep you from living the life you want. If you get lost in the modern world, either by a busy commute, or too many activities, you have let the world consume you and drive you away from the primary reason for life…to love and be loved.
Simply living or living a simple life start with you:
The next time you pick up your phone to check Facebook do something different and call a loved one or if you don’t have time for a call how about a short text to let them know you are thinking about them.
Before you head out the door for a busy day how about leaving 30 minutes early and meet someone for a quick coffee.
The first few minutes of coming home will set the tone for your evening. Make those re-connect moments with your spouse wonderful. Send the kids outside to play, turn your phone off and meet your spouse at the door, make those first few minutes all about your spouse.
Instead of lunch out of the office spend that time making a phone call or writing an email to a family member you love.
Look forward to spending the extra time with your family.  Go for a walk, play ball, read a book, do anything that connects you to those you love.
The people in your life need to know you love them and that you want to spend time with them. Make the choice today to turn your back on those things that pull you away from what is important and start living a family centered life.

9 tricks for waking up earlier

TEHRAN (FNA)- Not only does the early bird get the worm, but he's generally happier and has a higher overall satisfaction with his life.
"We don't know why this is, but there are a few potential explanations," writes researcher Renee Biss in a study conducted by the University of Toronto. "Evening people may be more prone to social jet lag; this means that their biological clock is out of sync with the social clock."
While there's a strong argument that this bias is a holdover from when we were a farming society — research shows that people have naturally varying sleep profiles, also known as "chronotypes" — the fact remains that modern society is shaped around the early-bird ideal.
For those of us who aren't naturally early risers, we've assembled a few tips for waking up earlier.
1. Decide that you're going to wake up early.In one German study, researchers found that people who were warned that they were going to be woken up at 6 a.m. already had alertness-driving stress hormones building in their bodies at 4:30 a.m. Folks who weren't warned didn't have any of those hormones — and were groggier upon waking.
"Our bodies, in other words, note the time we hope to begin our day and gradually prepare us for consciousness," says Psychology Today writer Jeff Howe.
2. Clear out your morning.
Psychologists talk about "cognitive loads" like most people talk about the weather. To say that something has a high cognitive load means that you have to put a lot of mental effort into it, like memorizing a poem or figuring out what to do with an Excel spreadsheet. You don't want high cognitive loads in the morning, since it's a waste of the scarce amount of willpower we have in a day, and it's annoying to have to think about things when you just woke up.
Routine is an ally in the war against cognitive load. Wear the same clothes, eat the same breakfast, do the same workout every day, and it'll free up mental space.
3. Get sun as soon as possible.
Like every other (non-nocturnal) living thing on Earth, humans get turned on by sunlight.
A University of Liege study found that people who got a bit of bright light early in the morning were more alert than a sun-starved control group. They also showed more activity in cognition-heavy parts of their brains.
Plus, as the Huffington Post notes, it makes it easier to get to sleep at night. It also helps fight off Seasonal Affective Disorder during the short days of the winter months.
4. No matter what happens, don't hit snooze.
You wake up with a wave of stress hormones; it's your body's way of getting you ready for the day. But if you hit the snooze button, then you're telling your body to do the opposite, so you'll end up feeling even more clumsy than if you'd just stayed upright.
5. Give yourself a pinch.
A University of Michigan study found that participants who massaged their pressure points got a boost of alertness. The way to do it, care of HuffPo:
The study had volunteers stimulate five pressure points on the body for three minutes each: the top of the head, the point between your thumb and index finger, right below the center of the knee cap, below the ball of the foot, and the base of your neck.
6. Get up at the same time every day.
Our bodies function most effectively when they've got a consistent rhythm, which sleeping in on the weekends can interrupt. If you wake up at the same time every day, you can train yourself to wake up without an alarm clock.
7. Wake up with a more gentle alarm clock.
The more jarring the sound that you wake up to, the more "sleep inertia" you'll feel when you open your eyes.
"Sleep inertia can feel worse when you're awakened abruptly," says Hans Van Dongen, an assistant professor in the University of Pennsylvania's Division of Sleep and Chronobiology. "A clock that allows you to wake up gradually may ease those first few moments of sleep inertia, which are the worst."
8. Get moving.
Your blood gets a little stagnant when you've been sleeping all night. Get your circulation going by exercising. It doesn't have to be a marathon; three minutes of basic yoga poses can wake your body up.
9. Get hydrated.
This one's easy. You lose water by sweating and exhaling through the night — it's part of the reason you lose a pound or two by the time morning comes — so you naturally need to replenish liquids when you wake. One full glass of water should do the trick.