Let’s re-think

“A book of verse, a glass of wine and thou beside me sitting in the wilderness and wilderness were paradise enow…” go the words of the poet Omar Khayyam in his “Rubaiyat”.

“What does happiness mean to you?” asked the professor from his students.

The University students giggled. Most of them had boyfriends or girlfriends and felt that life was complete. So did they want a book for further reading? Or a glass of wine?

“I want to learn more about life from books and lectures but I don’t need wine or alcohol in any form.” opined Mallika.

“Why not?”asked the teacher.

“I feel that strong drinks cloud the intellect and at best are an opiate. You can also become addicted to liquor.” replied Mallika.

“But what about having a jolly good time after drinks?” chimed in Hiran.

“That is a preconceived mindset. If you are in good company, you can have fun even while drinking water or a fruit juice. You can sing and dance and enjoy yourself.” said Mallika.

“My boyfriend and I sit under the big tree in Peradeniya and we are happy. Sometimes, we read from books and poetry is one of our preferences.” commented Shalini.

“I think happiness means different things at different stages of life. Jith broke up with his long-time girlfriend and now he says that he is content to be a loner! He says that lovers make demands and he is now happy that he is no longer answerable to anyone.” said Hiran.

“So Omar Khayyam is not always right. But I agree with him that one must have someone to love, not necessarily a romantic love. There are men who are content with their mothers making them a cup of tea. There are women who are happy in the company of other women and who are not necessarily lesbians.” said Shalini.

Let’s re-think what we mean by happiness.

By Sirohmi
See more at: http://life.dailymirror.lk/article/5426/lets-re-think#sthash.fKlZGZyp.dpuf

101 Timeless Lessons Life Teaches

Take everything you’ve ever learned – all the crazy experiences

and lessons – and place it all in a box labeled “Thank you.”

What has life taught you?  Think about all the things you would love to tell yourself if you could travel back in time to give your younger self some advice about life.

This is what our sister site, Everyday Life Lessons, is all about.  Here’s a fresh sample of our favorite life lessons that were recently published on the site:

1. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.
2. In life, you usually get what you ask for, but it rarely comes in the package you think it’s supposed to come in.
3. Never let one bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
4. Just because today is a terrible day doesn’t mean tomorrow won’t be the best day of your life.  You just got to get there.
5. Tell the truth, or eventually someone will tell it for you.  Read The Four Agreements.
6. A mistake is an accident.  Cheating and lying are not mistakes.  They are intentional choices.
7. Sometimes the person you want most is the person you’re better off without.
8. Some people cannot stand that you’re moving on with your life, and so they will try to drag your past to catch up with you.  Do not help them by acknowledging their behavior.  Keep moving forward.
9. Surround yourself with positive people who are going to push you toward greatness.  Eliminate those who are trying to keep you from it.
10. Don’t let something that doesn’t matter cause you to lose something thatdoes.
11. Sometimes people aren’t who they seem to be, and sometimes people are so much more than you originally thought.
12. Loving someone isn’t just about saying it every day, it’s showing it every day in every way.
13. Maturity is not when we start speaking about big things, it’s when we start understanding the small things.
14. Of all the things that can be stolen from you – your possessions, your youth, your health, your words, your rights – what no one can ever take from you is your freedom to choose what you will believe in, and who and what your heart will love.
15. When you can forgive yourself and others and stop the imprisonment, you’re creating the love of your life.
16. Not forgiving is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
17. Age wrinkles the body.  Quitting on your dreams wrinkles the soul.
18. The past can’t hurt you anymore – not unless you let it.
19. Holding on to the unchangeable past is a waste of energy, and serves no purpose in creating a better future.
20. Sometimes you’ve got to emotionally let go of the things that once meant a lot to you, so you can move beyond the past and the pain it brings you, and open the next chapter in your life.
21. The path to our destination is not always a straight one.  We go down the wrong one, we get lost, and we turn back.  But maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on.  Maybe what matters is that we embark.
22. It doesn’t matter if you’ve failed or if you’ve been beaten.  All that matters is that you learn something, get back up, and try again.  Because winning is a good feeling, but winning when nobody else thought you could is an awesome feeling.
23. Knowing yourself is one thing, but truly believing and living as yourself is another.  With so much social conditioning in our society, we sometimes forget who we are.
24. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
25. You can grow stronger from the pain if you don’t let it destroy you.
26. Tell the negativity committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up.
27. The worst person to be around is the one who complains about everything and appreciates nothing.  Avoid these people at all costs.
28. Live in such a way that if someone decided to speak badly of you, no one would believe it.
29. If you love someone, tell them.  For hearts are often broken by words left unspoken.
30. Life is shorter than it often seems.  Sometimes we are only given a few minutes to be with the ones we love, and hundreds of hours to spend thinking of them.  Cherish the moments you have with your friends and family, because in one single second they can be taken away from you forever.
31. Things change, but the sun always rises the next day.  The bad news: nothing is permanent.  The good news: nothing is permanent.
32. It’s your road, and yours alone.  Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
33. We often accept the love we think we deserve.
34. If someone can’t accept you at your worst, they don’t deserve you at your best.
35. Without communication there is no relationship; without respect there is no love; without trust there’s no reason to continue.
36. If you leave someone at least tell them why, because knowing you’re not worth an explanation is even more painful than being abandoned.
37. Speak when you are very angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.
38. Choose your words carefully – they can’t be taken back once you give them away.  Harsh words are like bullets – they can leave deep wounds.  And most of the time saying “sorry” is not enough to heal the wounds you leave.
39. Never make a big decision when you’re angry, and never make a big promise when you’re overjoyed.
40. It makes no sense to be second in someone’s life when you know you’re good enough to be first in someone else’s.

Mystery Facts: Women

A woman is one of the greatest enigmas that presents itself to us in our lifetime here and centuries of living with the devil herself has done little but to confuse us more.

The countless theories and concepts that have been forwarded with regard to women remain abstract ideas with more exceptions than the rule itself.

It’s hard to prove a lot of things when it comes to the human psyche and even more so when it comes to the female one but it’s possible to establish the likelihood of a few facts on the subject of women with scientific proof to back it up.

Birth Control Pills Make Women Less Attractive

Contrary to the heading, the pill doesn’t make the woman less attractive as per se, but a recent study on the subject has demonstrated that men perceive women to be most attractive during ovulation at which point the male sub conscious picks up on subtle cues in the woman’s physical attributes which reveal that she is fertile and hence ideal for procreation.

This evolutionary mechanism helps to determine that intercourse occurs at the best possible time to increase chances of bearing offspring. The problem is that the pill inhibits ovulation thus attaining its purpose.

The study found that strippers earned at a strip club earned an average tip of 70 dollars when they were ovulating, 50 dollars when they weren’t and 35 dollars when they were menstruating.

Birth Control Shuns Mr. Right

Women are wired naturally to mate with males whose genetic makeup is different to their own as a mechanism to reduce abnormalities in their offspring, but for some reason the pill throws a wrench in this grand plan causing women to be attracted to men with similar genetic patterns.

The resulting issues are numerous and vary, aside from the obvious pitfall of increasing the risk for their offspring to be abnormal; it also causes the woman to lose attraction for the guy once she get off of the pill. The reason isn’t clearly known but it’s theorized that the pill affects women’s hormonal balances hence causing disruptions to their attraction mechanisms.

Orgasms Relieve Menstrual Cramps

Tell your woman to out with the Ponstan and just do you. A good, regular sex life alleviates those horrible menstrual cramps that plague women monthly. According to a 2005 article in Redbook, studies have shown that the oxytocin and endorphins, natural pain killer of the body released during sex can increase your pain tolerance up to 70%.

That means lower pain before her period -- and believe it or not, even during childbirth. Says sex therapist, couples counselor and sex advice columnist Dr. Miro Gudelsky, “Orgasms are one of the best cures for PMS. The reason being that orgasms relieve swelling around the genitals.” 

Blue Ovaries

Men aren’t the only ones who need release from intercourse, it’s been found that women who also possess similar erectile tissue in their genitals can suffer from lack of release following arousal.

The engorged ovaries can cause discomfort if sufficient release isn’t provided. Even though women may not ejaculate during orgasm, the orgasm is equally important. 

15% Of Women Can’t Get Off

That’s right, 15% of women can’t orgasm through sex alone. The reason being that some women have pleasure centers focused on the Clitoris and hence requires focused stimulation in order to attain orgasm. A point to remember the next time you slave away in bed. 

By Dilshan Senaratne  - dailymirror.lk/