7 Years & Still Going Strong

Today is a very special day for me. I think it's fitting that it snowed. Reminds me of the purity of God as He washes us whiter than snow. Seven years ago today, in Nashville, TN, I received my miraculous healing from what man has called an incurable disease, multiple sclerosis. My life has never been the same. I don't look the same nor do I act the same. And, praise God I have rarely even been sick (a common cold now and then)! God has granted my request. He has heard my prayers. He has healed my land. He has called me, equipped me, and I have dedicated the rest of my life to laying hands on the sick and praying for their healing.

My life scripture: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! (Matthew 10:8)

People who chew gum report feeling less stressed

It's not so pleasing when it glues your shoe to the pavement but a new study suggests chewing gum could be a great stress-reliever, with consequent health benefits. Perhaps the finding could help explain why Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson - an incessant gum chewer - has coped for so long with the stress of top-flight football?

Andrew Smith at Cardiff University surveyed over 2,000 workers and found that the 39 per cent of respondents who reported never chewing gum were twice as likely to say they were extremely stressed at work, compared with gum chewers, and one and a half times as likely to say they were very or extremely stressed with life in general.

Of course, rather than chewing gum having a stress-relieving effect, it's perfectly possible that some other factor reduces stress and encourages chewing gum. Indeed, Smith looked at a range of potential confounds and found that women, lower earners, younger, less educated respondents, smokers, people with demanding jobs and neurotic extraverts were all more likely to chew gum. Crucially, however, the link between chewing gum and lower stress held even after taking all these extraneous factors into account.

What's more, chewing gum was also associated with better mental and physical health. Again, this remained true even after controlling for extraneous factors, such that gum chewers were less likely to have symptoms of depression and half as likely to have self-reported high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Smith concluded that chewing gum may be a "readily available and relatively cheap method of addressing" stress and stress-related ill health. Possible mechanisms that might explain the associations reported here include an effect of chewing gum on autonomic nervous system activity and/or on the neurotransmitter serotonin. Smith noted that he has an intervention study underway that will provide a more robust test of the possible stress-related benefits of chewing gum.
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Smith, A. (2009). Chewing gum, stress and health Stress and Health, 25 (5), 445-451 DOI: 10.1002/smi.1272

Psychology X-factor

Last time you voted for the healing power of empathic doctors. What was your favourite from among the last seven Digest items?:

Wonders of New Zealand

Here's a compilation of all the wallpapers and beauty of New Zealand. :)


download 1600x1200 here.



download 1280x800 here.



download wide angle 2560x1600 here.



download wide angle 2560x1600 here.



download 1280x800 here.



download 1600x1200 here.



download wide angle 2560x1600 here.



download 1280x800 here.



download 1600x1200 here.



download 1280x800 here.



download wide angle 2560x1600 here.



download 1280x800 here.



download 1600x1200 here.



download 1280x800 here.



download 1600x1200 here.



download 1280x800 here.



download 1600x1200 here.


Do you know where these places are? Hehe...

People think that money affects happiness more than it really does

With dogged determination we lie, rob, borrow, gamble and sometimes work too, in the hope of boosting our income. So zealous is our pursuit of money, it's as if we think it will somehow make us happier. Strangely enough, whilst psychologists and economists have conducted numerous studies showing that the relationship between income and happiness is weak, only one prior study has asked what lay people really believe about money and happiness (and this was focused on middle-income, working women). It's into this empirical desert that Lara Aknin and colleagues arrive with a survey of hundreds of North Americans of mixed age, gender and wealth. Aknin's team have found that people do indeed overestimate the link between money and happiness, especially at lower levels of income.

The study worked by asking people what their own income and happiness levels were and then asking them to estimate the happiness of people on lower or higher incomes than themselves. The participants' estimates of the happiness of people on high incomes was largely accurate, but they massively underestimated the happiness of people on lower incomes. The picture was the same in a second study that asked people to estimate how happy they'd be if they earned more or less than they really did.

More detailed analysis showed that people on higher incomes were more likely to overestimate the relationship between money and happiness, perhaps because they had more to fear from losing the ability to maintain their current standard of living.

"We demonstrate that adult Americans erroneously believe that earning less than the median household income is associated with severely diminished happiness," the researchers said. "[This is] a false belief that may lead many people to chase opportunities for increased wealth or forgo a reduction in income for increased free time."
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Aknin, L., Norton, M., & Dunn, E. (2009). From wealth to well-being? Money matters, but less than people think The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4 (6), 523-527 DOI: 10.1080/17439760903271421

Related Digest posts:

How much money to make you happy?
The price of money - selfishness.

One Day Trip to LCCT

The other day I took a ride to LCCT via the KLIA Transit from KL Sentral.




Yep, after so many endless questions on when will KLIA Transit cater to LCCT journey than just KLIA, finally something is realizing.

Rather than building a route straight to LCCT, they used the KLIA transit trains which run to KLIA every half an hour; but instead of stopping at KLIA, they stopped at Salak Tinggi, a stop away from KLIA, and there you will get on a bus waiting at the station to bring you straight to LCCT.




I thought it was quite troublesome, little to my knowledge. “Why not just build a straight route to LCCT?” I asked my baby.

But I was determined to find out anyway before being judgmental.

So I packed my handbag with a book and headed for the KL Sentral one morning.




Before starting my journey, I had to start my day first.

So I went to Starbucks to grab an ice chocolate. :D


Ok. Now we can go. (Let me bring you on a journey ok?)




So we head over the KLIA Transit counter to purchase two tickets to LCCT
(using first term subjects here: you and I ;) and switching to present tense).


You will then have two tickets in your hands: one for the KLIA transit train, and the other for the bus.




Four for You and I.

The fee cost RM22 for two ways. CHEAP!

And go through the ticketing machines and down the escalators where you’ll find yourself underground waiting for your train to arrive.


Like an excited little girl



Waiting



And it’s here!


The train arrived just in time as the schedule on the dashboard showed. Not a second too late. Punctuality is always a plus.

Board the train and settle nicely on a nice face-to-face four comfort-seaters.




Unwind your things. I brought my book, what about you?


Prince of Ice: erotic fiction. Tee hee.


Now leave me be.


Enjoy enjoy~


The seats are so comfortable and provide ample space that when the train calls out for Salak Tinggi, I thought only couple of minutes have passed.




So reluctantly I pack my things and we step out of the train onto the Salak Tinggi station, move up the escalator toward the exit.




Right at the exit, a bright maroon bus is waiting for us.




Pass the conductor the tickets and we’re well on our way.






The bus ride is quite a brief one that cannot have lasted for more than 20 minutes.


I move to the back to find us two free seats next to each other.


Read two chapters on your book and we have arrived!


*yawn* it’s good to be out again


And when I turn around, it is LCCT!!





Airport runway has always been enticing to me when I was a kid


I have arrived without any fuss!!


Suddenly I have the tendency to take my passport and fly somewhere now. Heh~


I decide to buy some crispy crepes for lunch. Hehe..




The most spontaneous long journey I have taken in a long time. Wait, I think I went to Genting two weeks ago to grab dinner and back.

In the end, the trip was fast, convenient, and less hassling than I thought. Maybe part of the reason was that I didn’t have any luggage with me, but despite that, the ride was, well.. very easy. I didn’t have to wait at all between transits, was most impressed when I got out from the station and the bus was there to wait for me. In fact, if you time your time well, you won’t have to even wait for the train, seeing how on time it is.

Anyway, thanks for joining me on this journey, let us shake.


Thank you, you… me.


Alrighty! Now to head back!




Seriously, that book is good shit. You should buy it (as long as you’re over 18).

Robbed in Barcelona

Before I departed for Barcelona, I have two people telling me consecutively that their friends have been robbed in Spain while during. It was really unnerving, considering that my own uncle told me the same thing when I arrived in England.

It got even more unnerving when I saw this yesterday when I was walking the town.


apparently a backpacker?


Scam? Or real?