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Free Hosting, no charge! Sounds good to a new webmaster without much start up capital. If it says free and then attempts to charge you then guess what? It wasn’t free.

Free Hosting can be very good, and saves your pocket money. Most free hosts also offer other hosting package but has a basic or starter package that it advertises as free. These packages do not usually carry many features as the paying ones and are most suited to personal sites. Some free services offer a complete ecommerce site where all you need to do is to stock it with your own goods. The trick is as you market your site they benefit as your are benefiting their domain by driving traffic and pushing up their rank as their site grows without them doing very much.

If you are new to the net and want to try at selling products without expending a lot of money then a free service might be for you. While you get that main important website ready for listing, you can use a free host to quickly develop and promote your products on the web. Later on you can use this site to drive traffic to your main site.

There are point to note however, when you are looking for free packages to open a store. Consider the following factors.

1. Free might mean no support service. If it is a business site, then this becomes invaluable.

2. Free might mean insufficient resources with which to carry out the functions of the store. You might not have sufficient bandwidth, or disk space.

3. Free might mean that you do not have a domain for yourself. Rather you have a free sub-domain or sub directory. E.g. I have a web store at http://kimmieval.ecrater.com. This means that I am hosted through a free service and my URL reflects just that. Some search engines do not favour free services or sub domains when you submit your store. Bear in mind some persons have done it and have received rankings. But note that with changing search engine algorithms you might not be as lucky.

4. Free might mean they host their banners on your site which detracts from your business, and hurt potential page ranks as many links lead away from your site.

5. Some free hosts also do not allow you to host any form of advertising or pages outside of what is on their template. This make it difficult for you to participate in reciprocal linking or use services such as Google AdSense.

All in all the ultimate choice of host partners is dependent on you, your pocket and the needs of your business. But whichever route you go, make sure to do your homework. A minute spent in research equates to possible money saved. But if you still want to progree with a free hosting serve, then hosts like freewebs, ecrater and 50webs are there that offer basic free packages. For others, a simple search will yield quite a few.

How should it be promoted? What should it look like? Can it be done on my own or should a professional be hired to do it?

These are just some of the questions that need to be answered first before designing a web site. Experts on this field can be turned to help and do the job for you.

Doing it yourself would also be an option if you are taking into consideration the expenses and the time that can be saved by doing so. There are things that needed to be considered in designing your website. And questions, too.

What is the goal of the site? It would be helpful if you know from the start what you want your site to do. Simple as it may seem, you need to get ideas organized into clear details first. Think of the site in the point of view of others.

The impressions that they would surely have upon seeing your site. Putting graphics and pictures into the site as attention-seekers is important to keep up with the many sites available nowadays. Having a site does not only mean having information to give and share. It also means creating an art work that people will be interested enough to see and read through.

What have the others got? By doing your homework and looking up probable competition sites, you can get an edge on what your site should possess.

Do your homework. You can get lessons, feedbacks and even inspiration in seeing the works of other people. Looking them up does not mean you have to copy them. It means you have to think of other ways to get leverage over the others. Once this has been done, consider yourself on the frontline and be ready to set some trend.

How do you find a good designer? In this case, you have chosen someone to do the designs for you. In finding the right designer, choose someone who understands and is in harmony with what you want your site to be.

It is important to note that some designers want their designs put into your site and not your designs into yours. Consider someone who is interested in what you’re doing, think your thoughts and makes them the center of their goal.

Is it accessible? Make it easy for people to see your site and contact you for any complaints or suggestions. Putting contact details would make it easier for people to not only get into your site but you as well.

What is there to remember? Keeping it simple. From the words to the logos to the graphic designs. People did not come into your site for those so stick to the more important things.

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You could just send out your brochure to potential customers but it’s much better to personalise your mailing with a well written sales letter.

Personalise – Using the person’s name in a sales letter will give you the greatest success. It’s feasible to address sales letters to – “Dear Transport Manager” or “Dear Friend” or “Dear Sir or Madam” or no salutation at all. However this lessens your chances of getting a response.

You must have a good headline – You’ve got to grab the reader’s attention as quickly as possible. There must be a reason for them to read on. The same rules apply that you’d use in your advertising or your brochure; you need to start with words such as – “How to” or “Discover” or “The Secrets of”

Start with an anecdote – Introduce your message with a short relevant story. For example, you might use something like this if you were introducing a management training program – “Seventy percent of employees don’t leave their job they leave their manager” You’d then provide supportive statistics and give details on the cost of staff turnover. You would then go on to show how you could reduce these costs and improve productivity through your training program

Lots of “You” and no “I” or “We” – Make each letter sound like you’re speaking to that individual rather than to a group of people

It needs to tell the reader what’s in it for them – Tell them how they will personally benefit, how their business will benefit and/or how their problem will be resolved

Be believable – Don’t make “fantastic” claims for your product or service – your letter has to be credible

Write the letter as if you were speaking to the person – It has to sound human – warm, friendly, sincere; not too businesslike. Read your letter out loud and if it sounds pompous or businesslike – re-write it

You have to sound like someone your prospect would like to do deal with.

Appeal to emotions – Human beings are 100% driven by their emotions so that’s what you have to appeal to in any of your promotional materials. Use words like – “feel” – “You will feel less stressed when you follow this program”

Action – They’re must be a call to action – tell the reader what to do now and offer an incentive – “Phone now to receive the early bird discount” – Return the enclosed form today to receive your FREE gift.”

Signature – Signing each letter by hand (in blue ink) will increase your chance of a successful response. Depending on numbers, this may not always be possible so use the best software you can to make your signature look realistic.

P.S. – Include a P. S. after your signature, something that will “tease” the reader to read the text. People will look at a letter headline first – they’ll then go to the bottom of the letter to see who it’s from. They’ll then read the P. S. and that should encourage them to read the body of the letter – “P. S. The free report will be sent within two days.” They’re obviously encouraged to read the letter to find out what the free report is all about.

Remember the rule of seven – one letter won’t do it, you’ll need to send at least seven over a period of time.

Treat your reader with dignity, respect and courtesy. The trick is in not making a sales letter sound like a “sales letter.” It needs to come across like a personal message to the individual. If they feel that you understand them and care about their situation then they are more likely – to bring their business to you.

When you conduct parent workshops, you start to see the same issues coming up over and over for parents. The names and faces are different, but the issues are the same. And the truth is that parents are often responsible for many of these problems.

Here are three issues that keep coming up for parents, and an explanation of how parents can often solve their own problems.

Problem #1: My kids don’t listen to me

To expect that kids will listen to you perfectly all the time is an irrational thought. Kids are in a very different place than adults are in terms of their ability to listen and attend to things. Kids will often need you to repeat things a number of times in a patient, pleasant tone. And yes, your job is to be very patient with them.

It is often the “parental” tone of parents’ voices that is part of the problem with kids not listening. After all, who wants to be lectured about what to do all day? If things still don’t work, take actionkids will respond to action much better than they will to words.

Problem #2: My kids aren’t respectfulthey talk back and argue too much

One of the problems with not having obedient kids anymore is that kids feel more freedom to speak their mind. This can be irritating, but it’s far better than obedient kids that just do what they’re told.

If your child talks to you in a disrespectful way, you have choices. One choice is to be angry with them and to actually create more of the very behavior that you dislike. Getting angry when your child talks back to you is a great example of creating your own problems.

A better choice is to ask them what’s bothering them in a compassionate way. Kids will often take out their feelings on someone who they feel safe withyou! And remember that you can tell them in a calm and firm manner that it’s not OK to talk to you that way.

Arguing is a choice for parents. It still takes two to tango. Most parents who complain about their kids arguing are pretty good at it themselves. You may disagree often with your kids, but arguments can usually be avoided if parents can stay disciplined.

Problem #3: My kids aren’t achieving as well as they should

Whether its’ tying their shoes, getting better grades, or success at sports, parents will always be worried about how well their kids are doing compared to other kids. While there certainly are situations that require extra help and support, most of the extreme concern about your child’s development is a problem in itself. When parents worry about their child’s capability, it sends a powerful message to this child. Remember that Einstein and Edison were poor students!

The responsibility of parents is to believe in their child’s ability to succeed and to set high expectations for them. The rest is to be patient and to be aware of your own insecurities. It is these insecurities that may be part of the reason your child isn’t doing well.

While it’s easy to point fingers at your kids, remember the old saying: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Parents who attend to their own issues first will find far fewer “rotten apples” in their tree.

Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC, coaches men to be better fathers
and husbands. He is the author of “25 Secrets of Emotionally
Intelligent Fathers” http://www.markbrandenburg.com/father.htm
For more great tips and action steps for fathers, sign up for his FREE
bi-weekly newsletter, “Dads, Don’t Fix Your Kids,” at
http://www.markbrandenburg.com.

An article by Joseph Moran suggests that it’s been a long time coming, but it looks as if the new version of Microsoft Windows is finally just over the horizon. Microsoft’s long-awaited and oft-delayed next-generation operating system Windows Vista, is due to go on sale late this year or early in 2007.

What’s New :

Since Vista is still in beta, many of it’s features are still evolving, and exactly which ones make it into which version of the product is also somewhat still up in the air.

Productivity :

Perhaps the most talked-about aspect of Windows Vista is it’s revamped user interface, dubbed Aero. Aero’s features which will vary depending on the graphics hardware your computer has include a host of attractive visual effects like windows with translucent menu bars. Vista includes other interface improvements as well, like the ability to see thumbnails of your open application windows when you put the cursor over Taskbar items or switch between programs using the Alt+Tab keys.

Vista’s Start menu has also been overhauled and simplified so things are easier to find, and it no longer uses the word “Start”. Searching your system has also been greatly improved in Vista. It’s now highly integrated into the operating system, and you can much more easily search by keyword. You can also save your search results for later reference.

Security :

Most people would agree that keeping a Windows system protected from online threats is a major headache, so Vista incorporates a number of improved security features designed to allay those concerns. Vista’s built-in firewall, for example, can monitor both outgoing and incoming network traffic, and Internet Explorer 7 adds a host of security improvements.Vista also includes a utility called Windows Defender to guard your system against spyware (though not viruses), and BitLocker, which can encrypt an entire hard disk to safeguard data when a system is lost, stolen or intentionally discarded.

The business versions of Windows Vista are scheduled for release in November, with the consumer versions following (relatively) close behind in January 2007.

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Ekta Verma

When you’ve been a student for so long, sometimes it’s hard crossing that line into
the professional world. Of course, we should keep learning no matter “what” we are,
or things can get boring pretty fast.

But I remember having a hard time with this transition, and it wasn’t until my (brief)
return to grad school that I felt I broke through the wall separating student and pro.
You probably know that the line between those two categories often has nothing to
do with level of playing, but attitude.

There are students that play amazingly better than some professionals, and there
are students that are “pro” long before their time simply because they get paid to
play. But, I think the difference is mainly in how you perceive yourself.

I had a wonderful time in college at Eastman, growing and learning and changing all
of the time. With the help of my fabulous teacher, I was just starting to get a
glimpse of myself (and not his carbon-copy) as an oboist.

I left school and it quickly became overwhelming. I had never been completely on
my own before, and there I was in a brand-new city, supposedly a professional. But I
really didn’t feel like one.

Reeds became a struggle again, and they hadn’t been for the last few years.
Suddenly I was on my own and I realized I didn’t know what I stood for. I missed
being at school terribly, and felt an insecurity that I was sure would go away if I just
had someone to guide me again.

Well, somehow in the midst of that I managed to win a 2nd oboe job (Knoxville
Symphony). It was a whirlwind year, living the life of a pro with an actual job. Still, I
felt like I didn’t know myself yet as an oboist and I considered all kinds of things.

Ultimately, I ended up in grad school for just one semester at the Manhattan School
of Music, and it was there that somehow I found myself. I’m sure you are thinking
that it was the school itself, or the famed oboe teacher, Joseph Robinson. And I
suppose it was, in a way, but not how I expected it to be.

I started to hear my playing as different and special (everybody’s is, I realize now!)
and I found myself almost unconsciously trying to do the EXACT OPPOSITE of
everything Robinson told me to do.

I am generally a very accommodating person, but I realized that I didn’t believe what
he was saying, and I couldn’t pretend. It just wasn’t me, and it wasn’t until I felt
something so WRONG that I realized what I had in me was right. Right for me, that
is.

Absolutely everything I heard, oboe playing and otherwise was completely different
than how I thought of it, or heard it in my mind’s ear. I know he was frustrated that I
wouldn’t conform, but I just couldn’t.

IT was the first time in my oboe career that I had to reject someone’s teaching
purely because it didn’t fit me, and I had the guts to do just that. I realized that the
entire time I felt like I didn’t know myself, I was actually developing who I was.

And one day it was just there, and I could distinguish it from everything else.

So, if you are on this road, don’t be discouraged. Just keep trying to find the oboe
player in you, and don’t conform because you are supposed to. Despite what we
learn sometimes, there is NO right or wrong in music. It’s all about who you are, it’s
just finding “YOU” that is the challenge.

——————————————

Oboist and online entrepreneur Maryn Leister helps beginner and professional
oboists to be more productive and have more fun on the oboe. She publishes the
weekly Oboe:Space newsletter, the Oboe Insider, and gives away more FREE oboe
reed tips than she can remember with her Reed Guru service.

Sign-up for the Oboe:Space newsletter and start getting your FREE oboe reed tips
now at http://www.oboespace.com

A few summers ago I started running Triathlons. At my age, simply crossing the finish line alive is a real thrill. As my training continues my focus is on aerobic conditioning. Simply stated this is the ability to perform some form of exercise for longer and longer periods of time.

The method recommended by all of the professional trainers and doctors is Long Slow Distance, LSD. That is swim, bike, and run for longer and longer distances while maintaining a relatively stable heart rate. The results should be a stronger ability to perform at higher heart rates. As you maintain this training regimen, you will perform faster because your ability to replace oxygen increases. So, you will be able to swim, bike and run faster while maintaining the same heart rate.

Now, simply apply this idea to Prospecting and you can see the value of making cold calls on a regular basis. As you maintain your Prospecting efforts you get better and better at the skill. Also, you begin to build up a large reserve of potential customers with whom you will need to follow up in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

It doesn’t take long to realize the benefits from simply persisting at your Prospecting efforts.

Let’s consider how many real Prospecting/cold calls you make in any year. Now when I say a Prospecting call I mean that you “talk to a potential customer with the intent of making them a customer.”

When you stop in a talk to a receptionist, get a name, leave some literature and a card, but, don’t talk to the actual prospect that is only half a Prospecting call. You simply have another lead. When you call back or get that person on the phone, then you have made a Prospecting call.

Now with those parameters in mind how many Prospecting/cold calls did you make in the last year? Could you have made more? If you had, would your have been more successful in your mind?

Most of us have about 40 full weeks available in the year for selling. Vacations, holidays, meetings, etc. take up the rest of our year. Please consider the following idea.

In aerobic training, we are supposed to swim, bike, or run for a set period of time everyday of the week, weekends we can rest. For a few weeks of the year we need to add Anaerobic training, which is “speed work.” This builds up our ability to go faster in the long haul.

What would happen if you made one or two Prospecting/cold calls everyday you were selling? That would be 5 or 10 new prospect calls a week, 200 – 400 per year. That could be your “aerobic selling.”

Next, you could add a few “anaerobic” weeks to your selling by making several Prospecting/cold calls a day one week a quarter or so. You choose when.

What I suggest is that you simply decide IF you would like to do this or not. If yes, then start. Use our System for Prospecting and Making Cold Calls, or your own, or someone else’s. The important thing is that you actually DO the calls.

The more I train the more I see the similarity between athletic performance and selling performance. Unfortunately for me we have to go out there everyday, we can’t just think about it. If you don’t train or you don’t Prospect the results are obvious. The next time you show up at a “Triathlon” you may have trouble finishing.

Now you know why I feel that Persistence in Prospecting is Simply the Aerobic Training of Sales.

Sell Well and Often

Bill Truax

Bill@BlitzCall.com

© Copyright 2006 WJ Truax

Bill Truax is a Sales Management and Field Operations Consultant living in Cleveland, Oh. He conducts Sales Team Assessments, Management and Leadership programs, and works with Field Sales Professionals and Managers both in the field and in workshops. He has written 3 books and recorded 2 CD’s on Prospecting and Making Cold Calls and conducts a variety of skill based seminars, workshops, and train the trainer programs.
Bill has spent literally thousands of hours in the field making cold calls with sales professionals to teach his BLITZ CALL System. When Bill is in the field he actually makes many of the BLITZ CALLs himself, regardless of the industry. This is to demonstrate that anyone can prospect you just need to know how.
Bill writes a Free weekly Prospecting Succes Tip for subscribers at his website http://www.BlitzCall.com The site also details all the materials and programs Trufield offers.

Pilates exercises are a favorite fitness choice for many people including movie stars like Danny Glover and Gweneth Paltrow, professional dancers, and even some professional baseball players. Why this fascination with Pilates? What can it do that other forms of exercise can’t?

I began doing Pilates several years ago when I was searching for a different look for my body. I had been exercising for many years when I began to experience a level of dissatisfaction with the way my body looked. While I was lean and muscular, my body had a packed, crowded look to it. The more I used weights, the thicker my muscles looked. In addition, no matter how many crunches and reverse curls I did, I still had this abdominal bulge that would not budge. It drove me crazy.

I began to yearn for the body I had as a dancer – trim, strong, with elongated muscles. That’s when I stumbled upon Pilates. The people who did Pilates exercises had the long, lean look that I craved. So I began to do Pilates exercises and I have never looked back.

What are Pilates exercises all about?

They focus on your core.
Pilates focuses on strengthening the core of your body – the deep abdominal muscles and pelvic stabilizers, the back, the butt, and also creating flexibility in the spine. This continual focus on the core has helped me get rid of my belly bulge and also develop ’six pack’ abs .

They work your entire body as one unit.
Many people ask how Pilates exercises relate to yoga poses. In many instances, the poses overlap. However, while in yoga you often hold a pose, in Pilates you are always moving. In addition, no matter what area of the body you are focusing on, you are still engaging your entire body. For example, if you are doing an exercise for your legs, you simultaneously hold in your abdominal muscles and maintain proper body alignment while executing the movement.

They focus on quality, not quantity.
Pilates exercises are focused on quality, not quantity. With some exercises such as The Saw, you might only do 2 or 3 repetitions. In most cases, you will usually only do 10 repetitions of any given exercise. Yet because you are focused on the quality of each movement, you get a greater benefit from each exercise than with traditional strengthening exercises.

They focus on muscle balance and coordination.
Many people who do weight lifting have muscle imbalances. Strong muscles get over trained and weak muscles get more strained. That is because muscles are worked in isolation. With Pilates, you use many muscles at the same time. You also stretch and strengthen muscles during the same exercise. This helps correct imbalances and develops better body alignment. In addition, you learn how to more effectively coordinate movements in your entire body, which will help you as you go about your daily activities.

They focus on body awareness.
In Pilates, you are always focused on your body – your alignment, your breathing, the way you are doing your movements. This increased body awareness can help you maintain better posture, it can help you relax muscle tension through proper breathing, and it can help you reduce stress.

They are energizing, not exhausting.
With traditional weight lifting programs, your body often feels depleted after you finish your workout. An interesting thing about Pilates exercises is that after you do them, you feel more energized than before you started. The combination of deep breathing, high quality, low quantity movements, helps your body function better as a whole. The result — you have more energy to go about your day.

I love doing Pilates. I have seen dramatic changes in my body and I exert much less effort than I did when I was using traditional weight training programs. I have significantly strengthened my abdominal and back muscles and I have improved my overall posture. I also look better in a bathing suit.

Try doing some of these exercises for yourself. When you do, I’m sure you’ll be hooked on them too.

Della Menechella is a yoga and fitness enthusiast who has been involved in fitness for over thirty years. Her website http://www.beauty-fitness-yoga-source.com/ is filled with practical information about how you can make yoga and fitness a positive part of your life. Visit the site and get your free meditation e-book.

At these times, laptops, notebooks and personal computers have invaded most of our daily activities. Maintaining these ever so reliable equipments has been very important. The printer is the most important of all. Almost everyday, printers are widely used all over the world and the computer users have constantly utilized it.

Consider buying printers as a daunting task, but it is that most printer buyers are confused. Of course, everyone wants the best purchase in printers. Who would want to spend dollars for an unreliable printer that will wear out easily? You should be familiarized with all the different types of printers so that you will not get confused in buying one. It takes time though but it will be a perfect choice once you finally decide to buy.

Most printer users and owners feel the same thing when the inks try to fade on the printed pages. This simply shows the sign that the printer will soon run out of ink. This is depressing since inks are too expensive. Some people would even buy the generic brand. If you think that one refill last only for days, you should plan on how to save up with your printing. There might be some printing activities, which are not that important and does not require presentable, glossy finished print, save your colored inks for the important ones. You never know when your ink will run out so you need to be prepared when it happens.

You need to keep your printer in good condition so that it will last for years of printing. In buying printers, you need to check on the printer cartridge. A printer cartridge is expensive so you should choose a printer, which has a similar cartridge specification. Some cartridge may be hard to find for replacement. In choosing the ink, make sure that it is of best quality. Also, make sure that it is not harmful to the nozzle of your printer. If you are after the best quality of printing, you should use the ink cartridge that has the same brand with your printer.

You can check the printer’s warranty, which comes from the manufacturer. This is important so that you are secured that your printer will have a replacement when it encounters some problems and failures after weeks or months of usage. Although a printer may be known to be reliable but you are never sure when it will fail you.

For more information regarding the author and the article please visit Printing Company

No matter how hard we try to make them otherwise, some days are just awful. They start off bad, they never get any better, and they end on a low and sometimes even gloomier note. These days befuddle your mind, waste your finite resources and throw your calendar off. Some people call the state of mind accompanying this day ‘depression’ or are content to simply think of it as ‘having a bad day’. Sometimes there are logical explanations – mostly, though, these days seem to strike at will and we don’t understand how or why they have entered our lives.

What do you do at these times? How do you handle the ‘bad’ days? What are good strategies to make these days go away or, at the very least, lessen the pain, confusion or drama associated with them?

It’s Only Temporary!

The key to dealing with this kind of day (or week or month) is to remember that it is only temporary. No matter how bad it is, it will eventually be over. Even if you are dealing with an ongoing problem, remember, at some point it has to end! It may not seem like it, you may not be able to see any light at the end of any tunnel, you may feel like your life is one big mess, and that this problem will never go away, but none of these things is true. This problem, too, at some point or another, will pass.

We all know the prescription for a healthy life – pray, eat healthy foods, exercise, maintain a good weight, etc., etc. And those things are great, in their proper context. Right now, however, you need something that will get you through right now. Today. With the hope that tomorrow will be better.

What To Do

Your hormones are raging, your mood is in the toilet and there is no relief in sight. What should you do?

Have that pint of ice cream you are so desperately craving. Why? The body is seeking a chemical remedy to counteract its feeling ‘down’. Your body knows, and you instinctively know, that that ice cream cone, cookie, brownie or bag of potato chips will cause a sugar rush which will help you temporarily feel ‘up.’ For that moment, at least, you will feel better and that may be all you need to get through that hour or that moment when things look so bad.

Watch a sad, old tear-jerker of a movie and cry, cry, cry. You probably have been bottling up your emotions anyway. You’ll feel much better after crying over Lana Turner’s remorse over not acknowledging her mother in ‘Imitation of Life’ or Michelle Pfieffer’s loss of Robert Redford in ‘Up Close and Personal.’ Release is a wonderful thing and your body will appreciate its opportunity to vent some repressed emotion.

Go ahead and lie in bed all day. You were probably tired anyway and too busy ‘multi-tasking’ to notice. Your body is a finely tuned instrument and it needs fine care and attention. How have you been treating your body lately?

Make A Change!

Go ahead and dwell on all the things that are going wrong in your life. Yes, normally, it’s not good to think too long or too hard about these things, but sometimes bad things have to be faced. Perhaps you’ve been avoiding dealing with certain issues, which is why they’ve come back to haunt you now. Maybe you’re lousy with money or have financially bitten off more than you can chew. Review your finances. Find out why your lights are always in danger of being cut off or your mortgage payment has been 30 days late for the last year. No, it’s not easy to face it, but you’ll feel much better when it’s all said and done. Hunker down and come up with a budget to pay off your bills. Realize when you just need to say no. As in no to shopping sprees. And no to a new car. Maybe even no to your current job. Recognize where you are and what you can do to get out of that financial hole or that no-hope job.

Go ahead and think long and hard all those people who have mistreated you. Perhaps it takes just such a rotten, miserable day to realize the people you thought were your friends are not. Remember all the things you did for them and the few or paltry things they did for you in return. Remember all the negative, ugly nasty things that person said about you (behind your back no less!). And then recognize your need for distance from that person. Realize they have been poisoning your life. And let them go.

Think long and hard about all the bad things that have brought you to this day. Who did what, what you did wrong, what you didn’t want to or have refused to confront, etc., etc. Cry if you need to. Get mad if you need to. And then make efforts to change those things that you can. Accept the things that you cannot. And live with all the rest.

The reason it’s okay to be temporarily ‘down’ is that it helps to remind you of a simple truth – most bad days are the result of bad months, bad years, bad choices and bad situations. And being ‘down’ is a good time to acknowledge that truth. Sometimes you see more clearly in the midst of pain than at any other time. Most ‘bad’ days are not the result of any great mystery – there is usually a sound and concrete reason why this day is the day to end all bad days. Something, somewhere in your life has gone out of whack and you need to fix it. Ignore these signals your body and mind are sending to you on these days and miss out on some important clues about your life. Your body and your mind are trying to tell you something. Are you listening?

Sonya C. Triggs is the Founder of Urban Christianz Ministries, which can be found at www.urbanchristianz.com. Visit her website to find more articles and advice about relationships, spiritual matters and contemporary issues or subscribe to her newsletter at subscribe@urbanchristianz.com.