What are the Easiest & Cheapest Ways to get Healthy?

When God created the universe, He gifted the all his creations, living and non–living; place to stay, purpose to exist and abundance of resources to for nourishment. Man was given extra-special attributes being created in his own image and likeness. Man wan is the highest form of creation. Given the brain to think, analyze, process, convert, discover, perform, and most of all free will to choose his path.

Because of this freedom, man went to the extremes of discovery, development, invention, production and implementation which lead to distraction and deterioration of mother earth rather than make it a better and enticing place to live in. Distraction was not limited and confined to the planet we call mother earth but extended to the resources made available to man as free and abundant. These free resources are air, water, space, sunshine and food. Yes, these are necessities for our existence and integral part in in beauty and wellness.

God is so good and generous; He has given us all these necessities for free! But because of our own doings, abundance became scarce.  We have to buy mineral water for assurance that we are not taking in contaminated water. We have to go out of metro to breathe fresh air. We cannot prolong our exposure to the sun because of the thinning ozone layer. Fast & instant food is all over tempting us and craves to have them for lunch, snacks, dinner, etc. We can’t afford to get enough sleep because we are usually caught up in traffic on the way home from the office and we have to watch our favorite late night show on TV.

To get a better understanding how all these affect us, we need to review the benefits we derive from them.

1. Water

• Transports nutrients and oxygen into cells
• Protects our vital organ
• Moisturizes the air in lungs
• Helps our organs to absorb nutrients better
• Regulates body temperature
• Helps with metabolism
• Detoxifies
• Protects and moisturizes our joints

    2. Fresh Air

• Fresh air is good for digestion.
• Improves blood pressure and heart rate.
• It makes you happier.
• Strengthens immune system.
• Fresh air cleans lungs.
• Gives more energy and sharper mind.

       3. Sunshine

• Reduce risk of Type 2 diabetes.
•  Reduce cancer risk.
• Strong bones for better bone health.
• Lower blood pressure.
• Reduce stroke risk.
• Sleep better
• Protect eye health
• Boost immunity
• Improve metabolism

        4. Food

• Next to air and water, food is needed for all living things to survive. Man does not only need food but good food or good diet.
• Weight Control
• Immune System Health
• Heart Health
• Energy

        5. Rest/Sleep

• Why good and enough sleep is important?
•  Most People Are Exhausted.  Fatigue is epidemic.
• All Healing Requires Extra Sleep.
• Cleansing and Rebuilding the Body Require Energy.
• Elimination of toxins,
• Most Emotional Processing Occurs During Sleep.
• Spiritual development

Not being able to maximize the benefits or just even the minimal balance requirements of our body we need to do something to restore the balance. There are lots of ways to do these but we have to spend not only so much time but money. Taking food supplements, taking diet pills, doing some strenuous exercises which most of the time are not effective or they don’t do much because we lack patience in following them.

What are the cheapest and easiest ways to restore the balance in our body to keep healthy?

The answer will also be using the five (5) necessities: water, air, food, sunshine & sleep in doing and performing; Detoxification, Breathe Thin exercises, Therapy & Massage, Alternative & Traditional Medicine and Healthy Recipes.

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• Part II – Baking Soda & Water Detoxification
• Part III – Salt Water Flushing & Kidney Cleanse
• Part IV – Liver & Gall Bladder Detoxification
• Part V – Guides & Tips to Detoxification

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Sales Report

Sales Report is a record of product sold during a particular time or inclusive dates kept by a sales person or management. A typical sales report might contain data on: sales volume per item or per group; how many new sales and recurring sales; sources such as online, market sites and direct sales.

This is one of the most important documents per management point of view which can determine the effectiveness of their present programs or promotions. This can also show which product they have to concentrate and which item can be subject for elimination.

Sales Report can be prepared on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. This is a tool that management uses in analyzing the overall performances of sales agents, online tools, and the demand for the product itself. Therefore a sales report should be carefully prepared base on facts. It can also include analysis in the form of a graph and recapitulation.

Sample Sales Report

Sales Graph

Sales according to sources

Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales. The product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew. It is the most widely used website statistics service

GA can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines and social networks, direct visits and referring sites. It also displays advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.

Google Analytics provides powerful digital analytics for anyone with a web presence, large or small. It’s one of the most powerful digital analytics solutions available.  If your site generates 10 million or fewer hits per month, then Google Analytics is free. If your site generates more than 10 million hits per month, then we offer increased limits as part of Google Analytics Premium.

Some features & tools of Google Analytics include:

• Gain insights that matter –It does not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back.
• Analysis Tools -It is built on a powerful, easy to use, reporting platform, so you can decide what data you want to view and customize your reports, with just a few clicks.
• Content Analytics –It help you understand which parts of your website are performing well, which pages are most popular so you can create a better experience for your customers.
• Social Analytics –It measures success of your social media programs. You can analyze how visitors interact with sharing features on your site (like the Google +1 button) and engage with your content across social platforms.
• Mobile Analytics -It helps you measure the impact of mobile on your business. Additionally, if you build mobile apps Google Analytics offers Software Development Kits for iOS and Android so you can measure how people use your app.
• Conversion Analytics -Finds out how many customers you’re attracting, how much you’re selling and how users are engaging with your site with Google Analytics’ range of analysis features.
• Advertising Analytics –It makes the most of your advertising by learning how well your social, mobile, search and display ads are working. Link your website activity to your marketing campaigns to get the complete picture and improve your advertising performance.

Dashboard

Google analytic sample

Daily Accomplishment Report

In a traditional and real office environment, activity and accomplishment reports are still needed particularly in production and sales departments. These are most needed in a virtual employment situation to document what have transpired or have been accomplished through the day. This does not require so much time and besides they are for your own protection rather than a requirement of the client. It can develop trust and confidence between the VA and the Client.

Daily accomplishment report can be done in word docs, excel, pdf and send it as an attachment to an email or can be incorporated in the message itself. If you wish you can do both.

Here’s a sample of Daily Report sent to client through Email.

Sample Daily Accomplishment Report

What are the best motivations for Virtual Assistants?

 

In this talk of Daniel Pink, “The puzzle of Motivation”, he cited the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and its effectiveness in handling and managing businesses. There are many ways motivation. In actuality, people are motivated by both internal and external factors, as there are always mixtures of reasons why they achieve, behave, learn and react. Personality and self-concept often determine whether or not you will be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated.

Let’s first clarify what intrinsic and extrinsic motivation mean.

Intrinsic means internal or inside of yourself. When you are intrinsically motivated, you enjoy an activity, course or skill development solely for the satisfaction of learning and having fun, and you are determined to strive inwardly in order to be competent. There is not external inducement when intrinsic motivation is the key to behavior or outcome.

When you are motivated intrinsically, you have fun and look for skill development and competency, personal accomplishment and excitement.

Like for example in my case: I’ve joined Sacred VA Institute because I am so keen on increasing or upgrading my skills and capabilities as a virtual assistant. (Just to give you an idea, I have 2 nephews and a niece with IT Engineering Course – well I sometimes ask them on topics to teach and guide me, they oblige but they go on “bra-ta- ta-ta- tat, bra-ta- ta-ta- tat” expecting me to catch every bullet being fired at the same time. So I end up telling them ok, I think it’s better for me to turn to “Google” and “Youtube” instead). Let’s go back to SVA, which I think one of the best decisions I made. Why? You can do the lessons at your own pace. You might think I am a bit slow or lazy doing things, Nope! In fact, I am a person who wants to get things done immediately, once I have the instructions and all the materials; I will never stop until I’m done.

The reason is not getting the job but the inner joy that it brings me being able to follow instructions, learn and do things new to me. I may not have done great but somehow I’ll be on my way of doing better if not the best.

Extrinsic means external or outside of yourself. This type of motivation is everywhere and frequently used within society. When people are motivated to behave, achieve, learn or do based on a highly regarded outcome, rather than for the fun, development or learning provided within an experience, they are being extrinsically motivated.

Trophies, medals, money, discounts, grades, entrance to programs or schools, higher commission percentages, new clothes and losing weight are all examples of extrinsic motivators. In childhood, bribery is used, schools use grades, trophies and academic recognition based on good behavior, shops & groceries use discount cards and coupons to save you money while you shop at their store and corporations use bonuses and commission scales to encourage growth and boost sales.

There are ways and methods of motivating employees and is a central point of concern for managers and owners of businesses. Extrinsic motivation is inherently easier for management to provide than intrinsic motivation. The latter form of motivation is a far more complex and internal state of being, involving idiosyncratic levels of satisfaction and accomplishment. While some progressive managers attempt to instill intrinsic motivation in their employees, it is much more common for managers and owners to rely on extrinsic factors such as pay increases and other financial benefits.

Alienation in the workplace is a difficult and common problem that undermines productivity, employee morale and the sense of intrinsic satisfaction. Companies will find it difficult to motivate alienated employees to perform at their highest level. Employees who identify closely with the work that they do take pride in its quality that is independent of how much they earn or how others evaluate their skills. Intrinsic motivation emerges out of identification with the work. When an individual views an activity as an expression of his inner self, he will take care to do it well and take satisfaction in the work.

This does not differ much from a Client and Virtual Assistant scenario. Working from a distant, relying only few briefing and instructions, a VA is left alone to do her job base on her own understanding and judgment. He/She may deliver exactly, more or less than the result you need but she does not have the means knowing without being told or informed.

Managing and motivating Virtual assistants are two different things. Like what Daniel Pink mentioned in the video that Management is for compliance while engagement is better achieved by self-direction. Most virtual assistants prefer to work on tasks at their own time, phase and techniques. That’s what they call autonomy, the urge to direct their own lives. Give them the chance to master their jobs, the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Make them feel that they are serving their purpose, doing what they do in the service for something larger than themselves.

Virtual Assistants have the obligations to deliver the results required of them but the client has contribution in making or turning his/her VA to be the best. Communication is a must and once they both have learned and understood each other, a beautiful and perfect partnership is on the way.

Photoshop – Frequency Separation

It has been my dream to learn few tricks in Photoshop. Instinct tells me that the first resource I have is “You tube”. From then on I’ve always make it a point to watch one or two tutorial videos, (Not once but thrice). While watching, I said to myself, “Oh that was easy”. But when I try to do the same it always comes out differently. I could not really get the results I wanted. More often I get stuck in the midst of doing a project.

I have been doing Virtual Assistant’s job but photshop, accounting, bookkeeping, taxation and other administrative but phoshop have not been my forte. I can do a bit of photo editing, flyers and my header and images for my blogs but that’s all. Time came when I joined the Sacred VA Institute  and one of our task is photo editing. Oh well – It was not specified that we used Photoshop but I thought, this is my chance to learn and so now I’ve started on that quest, Learning Photoshop! Care to give me some tips?

1. Open an image. Add two duplicate copies (layers) / Name layer 1 as low frequency / Name layer two as high frequency.

2 Hide the high frequency layer ans start working on the low frequency layer. On the low frequency layer =click on Filter  > Blur  Gaussian blur, setting the percentage between 10 to 15 depending on your image.

3. Activate the High frequency layer to start working on it. On the frequency layer = click image > apply image , On the On the dialog box ,  set “layer to “Low Frequency”, set the blending to “Subtract” with the” Scale” set = 2 and  “Offset = 128. (If you are working on a 8 bits image) and the “invert” box unchecked. If the image you are working on is 16 bits, set the “Blending” to “add”  with the Scale =1 and offset =0 and the “invert” box checked. Click Ok.

4. Set the blending to Linear light.

5. Activate the low frequency layer, duplicate the layer and click Filter > Blur >Surface blur, click OK. / Make a layer mask of the this layer by pressing ” Alt” key and the layer mask icon.

6. Work on the layer mask, grab a white paint brush and work on the color and shadow (Skin color or low frequency).

7. Activate the High frequency (Texture) and start working with the blemishes and irregularities on the texture by using combination of healing, clone, patch tool etc.

You can hide and activate other layers to check the progress in healing the texture of High frequency layer

10. See the result of your “Effort”!

Before *********and **********After

Thank you and God Bless!

Learning Adobe Photoshop – “Refine Edge”

Adobe Photoshop is the world’s most popular graphics and digital photo-editing software program. It is used by millions of graphic designers and photographers. There are free online Photoshop video tutorial course is the ideal introduction to the skills and techniques needed to master image manipulation and photographic re-touching. Guide through the Photoshop user interface which will enable you learn in a step-by-step manner how to use the basic essential tools for editing and enhancing your photographs.

Photoshop is so diversified and you can do a lot of things within the program.  You can remove background elements from the image, re-touch blemishes in the original photograph, crop elements out of the image, insert text onto an image, create marquees around elements to remove or modify them, and free transform a selection that has been cut from an image.

Photoshop is ideal for photographers and graphic designers whose ideas and creativity about image manipulation using the range of tools found in Photoshop is boundless.. It is also ideal for small business owners or home-based entrepreneurs keen to develop their image production skills and build a web presence using content created and produced independently.

Learning photshop is not overnight because there are a lot of topics and areas that any user must understand. The User Interface, ability to identify and effectively use the various tools within the program, use the individual versions of each tool to meet your specific needs.

I’ve been trying to learn photoshop and with various video tutorials I’ve watched on You tube, I’ve realized that you have really to sit down and practice a lot to learn and remember the functions and uses of each individual tools, filters, adjustments color manipulation, etc.,..

Here is my experiment in using Photoshop. Designers, photographers, internet saavy, please don’t laugh! At least I am trying to learn the trick.

Removing Background using “Refine Edge” feature:

1. Open a new fie that will serve as background ( here I used a rainbow background)

2 Open and image

3. Work on the image layer/ grabbed the quick selection tool/drag over the part of the image that you want to retain/ (You can add to the initial selection by pressing shift key and you can subtract by pressing alt key.

4. Press Refine Edge at the top – on the dialog box activate the smart radius and adjust by sliding the control bade on your image.

5. Adjust the smart radius brush and run it around the edge of the image. press the decontaminate colers then set it on output “New layer with a layer mask.

6. Lift off the mask and duplicate the image for further enhancement. nd I better stop here before I make a mess of my image.

Bye. bye and God Bless!

Photo Editing with MS PowerPoint

 

MS PowerPoint comes with picture tool format. This makes it more powerful and very useful especially when making presentation since you don’t have to use other photo editing software. You can also form different images by using different shapes lines and cliparts

Photo Editing tools include brightness and contrast adjustments, framing, recolor and some picture effects. Plus you can save the files in different file extensions like JPEG, GIF, TFF and PNG.

Below are samples of photo editing with MS Power Point. 

Cropping with MS Power Point:

Framing and Adjustments

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Another sample of photo editing with power point using different color adjustments:

 

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And here is the result which you can save into any picture format of your choice.

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Enjoy your editing!!!

Photo Editing with PhotoImpression 4

Photo Editing with PhotoImpression 4

The first photo editing software I’ve learned to use is photoImpression because it was bundled in the CD installer of the Benq Scanner I purchased way back. Although it’s capacity is not as good as that of Gimp 2.8 and Photoshop I find it very useful in making collage and joining or putting together different images.

It has limited tools that can be used for cropping, styling, framing, hue & color enhancing as well as brightness and contrast adjustments.

Cropping tools are: rectangular, Elipse, irregular and the magic wand tool.

Brush tools are : pen, air spray, paint, clone, eye dropper, blur and eraser.

It also comes with various effects and shapes for cutting.

Here’s how I do cropping with PhotoImpression:

Open an image]

Click on edit

In this image, I used the magic wand and irregular copping tools.

Using the irregular cropping tool

Using the Magic wand tool

Cropped Image

Here’s also an example of cutting using the rectangular cropping tool which is very useful for profile ID picture.

It can also perform the elliptical or circular cropping.

PhotoImpression can be used in enhancing colors and brightness as well as patching and eliminating blemishes in an image but again the effects are limited. Sample below have been edited using color enhancing, removal of blemishes, smoothing as well as brightness and contrast.

Sample Work in PhotiImpression :

 Before                               After

Google Site -“Mermaids’ Voices”

Google Sites is the easiest way to make information accessible to people who need quick, up-to-date access. People can work together on a Site to add file attachments, information from other Google applications (like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa), and new free-form content. Creating a site together is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it’s just yourself, your team, or your whole organization. You can even publish Sites to the world. The Google Sites web application is accessible from any internet connected computer.

As a matter of fact, I’ve used Google site as my training ground to build and put together ideas and information. This training module creating a page entitled “My favorite Song” gave me an idea of putting together in one place different song genres that I love to listen. Instead of going through searches every time or spend time in downloading.

In Google Sites, individuals or teams can build sites to share and collaborate on documents, videos, schedules, and more. Or build a public-facing site for your business.

• No HTML required – Creating a Google Site is as easy as editing a document, which means there’s no markup language for you to learn — just get started.
• Single-click page creation – Creating a new page for your Google Site just takes the click of a button.
• Get started with templates -It offer a growing list of page types — web page, announcements, file cabinet, dashboard and list — to help you get started with your Google Sites pages.
• Embed rich content -Google Sites is integrated with other Google products, so you can insert videos, docs, spreadsheets, presentations, photo slide shows, and calendars directly onto your Google Sites pages.
• Make it your own -Customization options let you give your Google Site your own look and feel
• Upload files and attachments -Use the file cabinet to upload files up to 10MB in size. Each Google Apps account receives at least 10GB of storage in Google Sites. Google Apps Premier and Education editions get an additional 500MB for each user account.
• Work together and share -Permission settings let you designate owners, viewers and collaborators (meaning they can edit pages) for your site. And you can make your Google Sites available to just a few people, your entire organization, or the world.
• Search with Google -You can search across Google Sites pages and content using powerful Google search technology. You’ll find specific pages and documents instantly, the same way you would on Google.com.

Get started with Google Sites with these easy steps:

1. Create a site
2. Insert maps, forms, and videos
3. Embed calendars and docs
4. Customize layout and appearance
5. Share or publish your site

Here is my new Google Site “Mermaids’ Voices”

Mermaids’ Voices>Home>My Favorite Song