Lost souls are people who are spiritually adrift. For whatever reason, these individuals have blocked the intuitive guidance coming from their higher selves.  In doing this, they have also cut themselves off from feeling the infinite love of the universe, and this leads to struggle, anger and sadness.  As a result, a lost soul’s life is very challenging.

If you are currently working to raise your vibration and follow your highest path, you probably find it difficult to interact with lost souls.   These individuals can be some of the most frustrating people to deal with because they radiate lower vibrational energy, and the way that they interact with others can be quite off-putting.

However, if we want to help these people we must react with sympathy, rather than anger and hostility.  Lost souls need unconditional love more than the rest of us because they are so starved for it.  Although this may be challenging at times, love and acceptance are really the only things we can give to help others who have lost their way.

So, here are some of the frustrating symptoms of a lost soul, and how best for us to react in order to help them:

1. Defensiveness: a lost soul is someone who is operating from their ego, not from their higher self.  Because they are largely ego-driven, lost souls will often feel the need to defend their positions and assert that they are always right, and always know best.  Even friendly advice that will genuinely help a lost soul is often  immediately discarded with a “Yeah, but…” followed by a list of reasons why they believe the advice won’t work for them.

Your best reaction to this defensiveness? Accept it.  Do not engage in an argument with a lost soul, even if you feel like your advice is exactly what they need.

Remember, lost souls are blocking their inner guidance, so they will very likely block beneficial advice from wherever it is coming from.  The best you can do is lay your ideas on the table, but then back away from the discussion when they push against it.

Surprisingly, when I have done this in the past I have noticed that many such individuals will later tell me “I remember when you told me such-and-such, that was really good advice!”  The thing about lost souls is that they do not like to have their egos challenged, so if you do not debate against their rebuttals they are far more likely to listen to your well-intended advice because they didn’t feel threatened by your approach.

2. Closed-mindedness: Many times lost souls will not be interested in accepting different people and different choices.

Again, the higher self is all-loving, and all-accepting.  If someone is blocking the unconditional love from their higher self, they will be unable to radiate unconditional love to others.  As a result, their “love” will only be given out to certain people who are behaving in a way that their ego approves of.

Because of this, you will often see lost souls manifest themselves into people who are intolerant of other religions, bigoted, racist, homophobic or misogynistic.

Your best reaction?  If you feel as if something a lost soul tells you is intolerant or abusive towards others, very kindly tell them that it bothers you when they say things like that and then drop it.

Remember, arguing with a lost soul is always a waste of time.  Speak your mind and then move on.  If you do not challenge a lost soul’s ego, you will have the best shot at being heard.

3. Repeating the same mistakes, over and over again: It may take any of us a few tries to learn a lesson in life, but with a lost soul the pattern endlessly repeats itself.

You may often see a lost soul hopping from one abusive relationship to another, chronically being broke and out of work or even repeatedly being arrested and incarcerated.

To be clear, none of us is perfect, and we’re all making mistakes in some way.  However,  a lost soul’s repeated mistakes are very painful and can cause them a lifetime of personal grief.

Your reaction? Realize, yet again, that a lost soul has severed ties with the love of the universe, therefore they do not understand how to make choices based on self-love.  A lost soul has forgotten how to care for him or herself.

These individuals are not making their life decisions because they are trying to hurt themselves or anyone else, but rather because they have become blind to the guidance of the universe.  In fact, quite often they make poor choices because they are simply trying to distract themselves or numb the pain of the emptiness they feel from being spiritually disconnected.

Please do not judge them, do not chastise them, and do not belittle their struggles.  Accept them where they are, and love them anyways.

This doesn’t mean that you should allow them to pull you into their chaotic storms, but do let them know that you care about them and you want the very best for them.  Loving them from afar still counts!

It can indeed be very frustrating to deal with a lost soul.  The defensiveness, close-mindedness, and continuous self-harm can be very unpleasant to witness and interact with.

That being said, it’s good to remember that we are all on our own paths, and we each have the option of traveling through life in the way that we choose.  Although we may have found a higher calling, the lost souls are choosing to experience life in a limited way-and that’s their choice.

Not a one of us would want to be forced to think or believe something against our will, and if we want the freedom of choice for ourselves we must allow the freedom of choice in others, even when we feel their choices are damaging and hurtful.  We can speak our truths, but we shouldn’t feel the need to take on the job of changing the thoughts, beliefs and actions of others.

At the end of the day, all we can really do for the lost souls of the world is accept and love them as they are while being as happy, healthy and prosperous as we can be.  If we can shine brightly enough, we just might provide enough light to help a lost soul find its way back home.

Keep in Touch with Us:  Amad Ahmad

Can it be that ancient civilizations knew what they were talking about with the mention of “the third eye?” If so, then they were talking about the pineal gland.

The pineal gland, also known as the “third eye” is a pea-sized endocrine gland located near the center of the brain where the two hemispheres of the brain come together.

The pineal gland is comprised of rods and cones just like the eye and is directly wired to the visual cortex in the brain. A fascinating design since the pineal gland is denied direct access to light due to its location.

The pineal gland is best known for the production of melatonin. Melatonin regulates the body’s circadian timing and allows us to adapt to seasonal changes and a significant change in time zones. Melatonin is also responsible for our sleep patterns including the quality of the sleep we get.

It also plays a role in other bodily functions by working with the hypothalamus gland that controls thirst, hunger, sexual desire, our sense of direction and the biological clock.

What makes the connection of ancient civilizations reference to the “third eye” interesting is that throughout history the pineal gland has been referenced to as the intuition organ. While not scientifically proven, it is thought to be the connection between the body and spirit and provides a direct line to our inner wisdom.

Pineal Gland Calcification

Pineal gland calcification can begin at a very young age. The buildup of calcium phosphate crystals eventually hardens which causes the pineal gland to lose much of its functionality.

There is a great deal of speculation as to how calcification buildup occurs in the pineal gland with the most common claim being excess fluoride that is found in tap water and toothpaste.

The National Research Council of the National Academies of Science states that “fluoride is likely to cause decreased melatonin production and to have other effects on normal pineal function, which in turn could contribute to a variety of effects in humans.”

There may be other causes that contribute to the calcification of the gland. Food additives, artificial sweeteners, and even cell phones have been thrown around as possible culprits. This is all theory, however, as significant studies have not been able to substantiate the claims.

Decalcifying the pineal gland is important to keep the the third eye working optimally, which, of course, is important for restorative sleep, productive awake hours and weight control. Not to mention that since it is thought to play a role in spirituality, a decalcified pineal gland can help make the voice of intuition clearer and contribute to feelings of happiness.

Since fluoride is a known common cause of calcification, avoiding tap water that has fluoride added is a great place to start.

Another common source of fluoride that we can eliminate is in our toothpaste. Most commercial brands of toothpaste contain fluoride, but there are natural options without this element.

Heavy meats, like beef, are high in acid, and contribute to an imbalance in our bodies pH levels which can foster calcification of the gland. Reducing your meat intake can help maintain a healthy pH balance and help in the decalcification process.

Sunglasses block the ultraviolet rays that travel through the eyes to the pineal gland. Only 3-5 minutes of exposure to the sun’s rays daily are needed to be beneficial.

Besides being good for our overall health, a plant-rich diet of alkaline foods feeds the pineal gland.

Since mercury is toxic, it seems obvious we should avoid it. However, dental work such as fillings can often contain this substance. Many dentists today use mercury-free fillings, and you may want to consider replacing old dental work for the safer option.

Since the pineal gland is light sensitive, you want to create an environment that mimics natural light whenever possible. This includes when you sleep, which you can achieve by making the room as dark as possible.

Melatonin, apple cider vinegar and chlorophyll-rich supplements like blue-green algae will all help in the boosting of pineal gland function and aid in its decalcification.

Lavender, oregano, sandalwood, and frankincense essential oils may be helpful in the decalcification process. Add to a warm bath, dilute with oil for a massage or use in a diffuser to help stimulate the gland.

Meditation may help decalcify the pineal gland by stimulating the gland through vibrations that occur in our breath.

Many of the things that can help decalcify the pineal gland are also good for our health. A fully functioning pineal gland is important for many things, the most important of which is sleep. That alone is worth paying attention to keeping this gland healthy.

Keep in Touch with Us:  Amad Ahmad

Over time, our relationships with ourselves can become distant, and in some cases, harmful, if we don’t hear the alarm bells sounding off, trying to tell us to love ourselves like it’s our job. With the hurried pace of life today, many people simply don’t take the time to look after themselves, or feel too tired after a long day at work or school to even think about their relationship with themselves. So, we trudge on, just trying to make it through the day, but feeling empty and exhausted all the same.

If this sounds like you, start taking small steps in order to improve your relationship with yourself. This doesn’t have to mean quitting your job or dropping out of school to make time for yourself, but just carving out ten or fifteen minutes a day to have “me” time.

With so many people pressed for time and under pressure to keep up with their obligations, it comes as no surprise that a large part of the population feels disconnected from themselves. We don’t spend near enough time in nature, allowing the sunlight to grace our skin and letting the breeze carry away all of our problems. In short, we feel detached from ourselves because we have a broken connection with nature. We ARE nature, so we can find ourselves again by connecting more with Mother Earth and less with our jobs and phones and possessions.

If you feel like an alien in your own body, it might be time to do some deep meditation or yoga, or get back to nature for even thirty minutes a day. This will greatly improve your relationship with yourself and all of humanity.

More than anything, not feeling well should make the alarms go off in your head and tell you that you need to slow down, take some deep breaths, and do some deep reflecting. Stress is actually the culprit behind many common health problems today, so in order to combat the stress, you need to go to the source of it.  Once you eliminate the major stressors, you can begin to take your health back into your hands by meditating regularly, exercising, eating clean, whole foods, and living a life you truly enjoy.

You can’t live a positive life seeing through a distorted lens, so you must correct how you view yourself if you want to see big changes. Throw away all the man-made expectations of what and who you should be, and instead, see yourself as a manifestation of energy, perfectly worthy of occupying space on this Earth. Loving yourself and having a good relationship with yourself doesn’t have to be as hard as some people make it out to be.

You don’t have to read every self-help book out there and meditate for twelve hours a day just to gain acceptance from yourself. Just make that choice everyday to love yourself no matter what happens, what mistakes you make, or how your clothes fit you. None of this matters; the only significance is in how you see yourself. Because this is the lens in which you will see the world through.

Cutting, starving yourself, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, doing drugs often, and eating a poor diet all are indications that you need to work on your relationship with yourself. If you saw your friend or relative engaging in these types of behaviors, would you be concerned? You should have the same level of respect and care for yourself as you do for others, so treat yourself as you would want to be treated.

However, if you feel you cannot stop any of these behaviors, please seek professional help immediately.

Sometimes, we just feel restless and sort of trapped inside our 3D selves, and just want to escape somehow. However, in this lifetime, we have been gifted with our own personal vessel for a reason. Think of yourself as a little spaceship, traveling through life and having experiences that will help you lift off into some other dimension after you have explored this one. No one else gets to have the same ship as you, so you should see yourself as a rarity, a beautiful diamond that constantly gets polished with each new experience.

Instead of trying to run from your life, your problems, or yourself, just embrace the person you are. Feel blessed to have even landed on this giant rock spinning in space, and just focus on the present moment. You will enjoy life much more and have a better relationship with yourself if you simply express gratitude about this miracle we call life.

You might wonder how your relationships determine your relationship with yourself, but remember: you attract what you are. If you don’t have high self-worth, you will attract people into your life who don’t love themselves, either. Everything starts with you, so if you want to have positive, inspiring relationships, look at the person in the mirror first.

Motivation and inspiration must grow from within us before we can start seeing it branch out into other areas of our lives. If you don’t feel passionate about life, go into your heart and ask your Higher self for guidance. Sometimes it seems difficult to figure out what direction we must take, but you have to first silence the voice of the Ego, and listen to the one of your heart. It will always tell you what path will bring you where you need to go.

Keep in Touch with Us:    Amad Ahmad

For as long as one can remember, it was believed that people were born with a set level of intelligence, and what you had, is all you would ever have. And that your potential was a predetermined bar that you could not rise above.

However, recent studies have shown this to be totally incorrect. One such study at Michigan University was conducted by Susanne M. Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl. They found that at least one aspect of a person’s fluid intelligence, which was primarily thought to be fixed at birth, can vastly improve with proper stimuli. Another study from the University of Oregonfound similar findings when testing first grade students who were
struggling academically. They found that spending less than six hours playing brain games over the course of ten weeks enabled them to catch up to those students in the top of their class.

“When it comes to improving intelligence, many researchers concluded that it was not possible. Our findings, however, clearly show that this is not the case. Our brain is more plastic than we think,” said lead researcher of the Michigan University team, Susanne M. Jaeggi.

What these studies show us is that learning new skills makes the brain work better and faster by creating new neural pathways.

The following six hobbies can increase your intelligence, and I’ll tell you how!

1. Playing a musical instrument

Playing a musical instrument boosts creativity, helps develop analytic skills, and greatly improves overall  brain function.Glenn Schellenberg conducted a study at the University of Toronto which found that learning to play a musical instrument strengthens the corpus callosum that connects both hemispheres of the brain, thereby creating new neural connections. In fact, after testing students who were playing musical instruments, he saw an average jump of seven points on their IQs.

2. Reading

You can read anything, really anything, and your brain will thank you. There are three types of intelligence- fluid, crystallized, and emotional- and reading helps improve them all. Emotional intelligence involves awareness and understanding of one’s own emotions. According to IQTestExperts, “crystallized intelligence relies on existing skills, knowledge and experience to solve problems by accessing information from long-term memory.
Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, relies on the ability to understand relationships between various concepts to solve the problems. It is independent of any previous knowledge, skills or experience and accesses information from short-term memory or ‘working memory'”.

On top of improving those three aspects of brain function, reading also reduces stress, and who couldn’t use a little less stress in their life?

3. Exercising REGULARLY

Leg days at the gym, and the occasional strenuous workout won’t cut it. To reap the benefits of mental acuity, regular exercise is needed. A nightly walk, a daily swim, or even morning yoga will help improve memory, learning, focus, concentration and understanding. Exercising on a regular basis increases levels of a crucial protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. This protein is essential maintaining healthy neurons and creating new ones. The study done by Gomez-Pinilla at UCLA states that regular exercise can even repair the synapses in the spinal cord, relating to neuromuscular activity.

With these finding, the opposite has also been found to be true- lack of exercise and prolonged periods of inactivity actually inhibits our brain from functioning as well as it could.

4. Learning new languages

When we learn a new language, we trigger responses in the brain that improve skills like planning and problem-solving. Learning and speaking more than one language also positively enhances one’s ability to monitor their environment and helps them to process thoughts faster.

There is even research which was done at Pennsylvania State University that states learning a second language can actually increase grey and white matter in the brain!

5. Giving your brain a workout

Whether it’s solving a crossword puzzle, playing video games or board games, challenging the brain increases neuroplasticity, and makes you smarter. Neuroplasticity refers to noticeable differences and changes in neural pathways and synapses that happen because of changes in one’s environment, or situations. Basically it means the brain can adjust it’s own neurons to compensate for the changes we initiate in our own lives.

Solving problems causes us to be aware of new modes of thinking, and improves our cognitive abilities!

6. Meditating

There have been few studies on meditation as prolific as the ones Richard Davidson, a prominent neuroscience professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has conducted. His findings suggest that meditation can ultimately alter the structure and function of the brain.

Wired writes that Davidson suggested “if meditation could enhance the brain’s ability to produce ‘attention and affective processes’ – emotions, in the technical language of his study – it might also be used to modify maladaptive emotional responses like depression”.

The entirety of the research results can be found in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results were also published in the Wall Street Journal, and boy did it draw some attention.

The general concept here is understanding that the brain can change itself and heal itself (in a manner of speaking). Various activities engage different parts of the brain so you can improve your strengths and diminish your weaknesses.

There are literally countless ways to improve your brain function and increase memory, along with altering emotional responses to a more positive way of life. Two of my favourite brain enhancing activities consist of traveling to new places, and writing. I find that experiencing new cultures and lifestyles opens the mind up to endless possibilities and stirs the curiosity within. And writing is where imagination flows freely- letting the mind explore places I never knew were there.

What are some things you like to do to kickstart your brain? Leave us your tips in the comments!

       Amad Ahmad

We wake up, see the alarm clock, and roll over for another five minutes. But the act of even seeing what time it is, is something unimaginable for those without eyesight. And what about noticing the colours of flowers, the sky, or of your children’s eyes? Those who were born colour blind can never experience such things- or they couldn’t until now.

A non-profit organization called 20/20/20 has been helping those who have lost their eyesight to see the world again. 20/20/20 has found a simple way to correct a complete loss of vision, colour blindness, and even blindness from birth. The surgery costs around $300 and takes less than 15 minutes! How can this happen? The surgeon removes the defective lens that’s causing the blindness and replaces it with an artificial lens. The operation occurs through a small incision, and there are no stitches needed- just some bandages and a few hours of healing!

One of the most inspirational bits about this, is that 20/20/20 performs these surgeries to help children and adults in 40 of the world’s poorest countries; those who live on less than a dollar a day could never afford a $300 surgery.

On top of what 20/20/20 is doing, there are companies that are helping those with low vision and total colour-blindness. Esight has created a device which “uses a sophisticated high-speed camera, patented video processing software, a computer processor and the highest quality video OLED screens to project a real-time image that allow the legally blind to actually see”, according to their website. There is also EnChroma, who have developed specific glasses for those with colour-blindness, and they even have a test you can take on their website totest your vision!

Just be. Just be. Just be. Be in the moment. Be yourself. We hear about it. We say it. But do we truly know what it means? Does it mean being while having an agenda in the mind? Does it mean being, while having something to prove to others? Does it mean being, while giving up a part of ourselves, or seeking the approval of others? Or maybe it means being while worrying about everyone else’s beingness? It can take a while, (and I say this from experience) but in the end, you realize that it means exactly what the word conveys: BEing. It just means being. Ask yourself: What are the reasons I do not let myself fully BE who I am, with no facade over my heart? This question will most likely highlight all the fears you hold onto. And then, you can let go of them. Trust me, it’s worth it. Allowing yourself to just BE who you truly are is the most precious gift you could give to yourself and the world.

A team of 270 scientists tried reproducing 100 psychology and social science studies that had been published in three top peer-reviewed US journals in 2008.

Just 39 per cent came out with same results as the initial reports, according an international team of researchers known as The Open Science Collaboration.

Their findings are reported in the journal Science .

The topics of studies reviewed ranged from people's social lives and interactions with others to research involving perception, attention and memory.

No medical therapies were called into question as a result of the study, although a separate effort is underway to evaluate cancer biology studies.

"It's important to note that this somewhat disappointing outcome does not speak directly to the validity or the falsity of the theories," says Gilbert Chin, a psychologist and senior editor at the journal Science.

"What it does say is that we should be less confident about many of the original experimental results," says Chin, who was not involved in the study.

Study co-author Brian Nosek from the University of Virginia says the research shows the need for scientists to continually question themselves.

"A scientific claim doesn't become believable because of the status or authority of the person that generated it," says Nosek.

"Credibility of the claim depends in part on the repeatability of its supporting evidence."

Problems can arise when scientists cherry-pick their data to include only what is deemed "significant," or when study sizes are so small that false negatives or false positives arise.

Nosek says scientists are also under pressure to publish their research regularly and in top journals, and the process can lead to a skewed picture.

"Not everything we do gets published. Novel, positive and tidy results are more likely to survive peer review and this can lead to publication biases that leave out negative results and studies that do not fit the story that we have," he says.

"If this occurs on a broad scale, then the published literature may become more beautiful than the reality."

Some experts said the problem may be even worse that the current study suggests.

John Ioannidis, a biologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, told Science magazine he suspects about 25 per cent of psychology papers would hold up under scrutiny, about the same "as what we see in many biomedical disciplines."

One study author who participated in the project as both a reviewer and reviewee was E J Masicampo, assistant professor at Wake Forest College in North Carolina.

He was part of a team that was able to replicate a study that found people who are faced with a confrontational task, like having to play a violent video game, prefer to listen to angry music and think about negative experiences beforehand.

But when outside researchers tried to replicate Masicampo's study -- which hypothesised that a sugary drink can help college students do better at making a complicated decision -- they were not successful.

Masicampo chalks up the differences to geographical factors, stressing that the experiment showed how complicated it can be to do a high-quality replication of a study.

"As an original author whose work was being replicated, I felt like my research was being treated in the best way possible," he says.

There are ways to fix the process so that findings are more likely to hold up under scrutiny, says Dorothy Bishop, professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford.

"I see this study as illustrating that we have a problem, one that could be tackled," says Bishop, who was not involved in research.

She urged mandatory registration of research methods beforehand to prevent scientists from picking only the most favourable data for analysis, as well as requiring adequate sample sizes and wider reporting of studies that show null result, or in other words, those that do not support the hypothesis initially put forward.

Scientists could also publish their methods and data in detail so that others could try to replicate their experiments more easily.

These are "simply ways of ensuring that we are doing science as well as we can," says Bishop.

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