Please shed whatever lowly vestments you're currently using to hide your disgusting body, and slip into one of these pre-shrunk cotton miracles.

<div id="superlist_1646474_401582" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">1.</span> Biker Stryker</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Biker Stryker" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-22014-1340986976-21.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401554" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">2.</span> DJ Peace</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="DJ Peace" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-21946-1340986650-26.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401593" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">3.</span> DJ Caesar</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="DJ Caesar" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-21969-1340987108-13.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401585" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">4.</span> Boxer Rocky</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Boxer Rocky" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-919-1340987002-22.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401661" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">5.</span> Hunter Buck</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Hunter Buck" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-31927-1340987757-8.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401576" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">6.</span> Biker JD</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Biker JD" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-22014-1340986864-16.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401591" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">7.</span> Combat Sam</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Combat Sam" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-17092-1340987044-8.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401592" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">8.</span> Combat Stryker</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Combat Stryker" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web04/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-20421-1340987065-3.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401634" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">9.</span> DJ Jahman</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="DJ Jahman" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web04/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-22622-1340987658-4.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401646" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">10.</span> Graffiti Saber</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Graffiti Saber" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web04/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-22587-1340987698-3.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401668" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">11.</span> Navy SEAL</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Navy SEAL" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-19513-1340987807-7.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401674" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">12.</span> Smokin Jahman</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Smokin Jahman" class="bf_dom" height="557" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-19436-1340987849-4.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401685" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">13.</span> DJ Sarge</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="DJ Sarge" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-19498-1340987955-8.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401689" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">14.</span> Rocker Cooper</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Rocker Cooper" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-19516-1340987980-5.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401800" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">15.</span> Duck Hunter</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Duck Hunter" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/6/29/13/enhanced-buzz-19487-1340989395-27.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401728" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">16.</span> Big Cock Head</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Big Cock Head" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-5673-1340988493-7.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401697" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">17.</span> Guard Panzer</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Guard Panzer" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-31969-1340988031-9.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401707" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">18.</span> Nas T-Rex</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Nas T-Rex" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-5634-1340988149-12.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401716" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">19.</span> Punky!</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Punky!" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-5683-1340988287-12.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401726" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">20.</span> Backpack Kitty</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Backpack Kitty" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web04/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-22669-1340988456-7.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401735" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">21.</span> Come & Get It</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Come &amp; Get It" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-31927-1340988528-15.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401743" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">22.</span> Rastafurrian Kitten</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Rastafurrian Kitten" class="bf_dom" height="557" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-19513-1340988620-20.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401747" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">23.</span> T-Rex Tearing</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="T-Rex Tearing" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web04/2012/6/29/12/enhanced-buzz-22678-1340988662-20.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401812" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">24.</span> Golden Feather</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="Golden Feather" class="bf_dom" height="546" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/13/enhanced-buzz-31966-1340989485-14.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="625" /></div><div class="sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; background-color: transparent; color: #777777; float: right; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Source: <span style="background-color: transparent;">shop.themountain.me</span></div></div><div id="superlist_1646474_401822" class="buzz_superlist_item buzz_superlist_item_image" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -30px; padding: 15px 0px 15px 30px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; background-color: #ffffff; position: relative; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 24px; background-color: transparent; line-height: 32px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; color: #121212;"><span class="buzz_superlist_number_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline;">25.</span> My personal favorite (SOLD OUT!!!)</h1><div class="sub_buzz_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><img alt="My personal favorite (SOLD OUT!!!)" class="bf_dom" height="750" src="http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/6/29/13/enhanced-buzz-31857-1340989651-8.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-color: transparent;" width="394" /></div></div>

Please shed whatever lowly vestments you're currently using to hide your disgusting body, and slip into one of these pre-shrunk cotton miracles.

1.  Biker Stryker Source:  shop.themountain.me 2.  DJ Peace Source:  shop.themountain.me 3.  DJ Caesar Source:  shop.themountain.me 4.  Boxe...

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Risks in Loving Men Who Can’t Commit

<div><h1>Commitment phobic men are not wounded birds waiting to be nursed to health.</h1></div><div><img alt="" src="http://rsrc.psychologytoday.com/files/imagecache/article-inline-half/blogs/73955/2012/06/99479-96904.jpg" /></div><div>Should women spend time, energy, and emotion on a man who may never be a part of their future? All too often women say to themselves or their friends: “Well, he wouldn’t commit in the past, but I’m different.  I have more patience than the other women he dated, and I am more understanding than most women. I can help him.” <p> </p><p>If you have heard yourself saying the words “I can help him,” think of yourself as being trapped in the “wounded bird syndrome”  in which your desire to nurse someone back to health is so strong that it clouds your logical thinking.</p><p>Before getting too involved with a commitment phobic man consider asking yourself  these 20 Questions to Finding New Love and Marriage.  And then make a conscious effort to understand what is most important to you. 2 Virtues Enhance Falling in Love Forever. Also watch his body language and his actions towards you. If you are jumping through hoops for the commitment phobic man and thinking you can nurse him back to love – think again. Many commitment phobic men are reliving a dysfunctional family role (in fact, some women are in this trap as well.)</p></div>

Risks in Loving Men Who Can’t Commit

Commitment phobic men are not wounded birds waiting to be nursed to health. Should women spend time, energy, and emotion on a man who may ne...

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self-compassion consists of three components:

<ul><li>Self-kindness: Being kind, gentle and understanding with yourself when you’re suffering.</li><li>Common humanity: Realizing that you’re not alone in your struggles. When we’re struggling, we tend to feel especially isolated. We think we’re the only ones to experience loss, make mistakes, feel rejected or fail. But it’s these very struggles that are part of our shared experience as humans.</li><li>Mindfulness: Observing life as it is, without being judgemental or suppressing your thoughts and feelings.</li></ul>

self-compassion consists of three components:

Self-kindness: Being kind, gentle and understanding with yourself when you’re suffering. Common humanity: Realizing that you’re not alone in...

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I know I’ve been in sick relationships, but I don’t know what a healthyrelationship looks like.

<p>In the years I’ve been counseling and coaching, many people say, “I know I’ve been in sick relationships, but I don’t know what a healthyrelationship looks like.”</p><p>There are many long and complicated answers to this, but there is also a simple one: healthy relationships make your life larger and happier; unhealthy relationships narrow your life and make you crazy.</p><p>Healthy relationships do not include mind games, mixed messages, or control.  There is not a back and forth or continual makeup and breakup, or “I’m sorry, please forgive me” every week or so.</p><p><span id="more-32369"> </span></p><p>In healthy relationships, there is a partnership and a nurturing by both parties of that partnership.  At the same time, each person recognizes the need to have interests and time away from their partner to nurture themselves. They don’t need to have the same interests, but rather the same view of life. Healthy love is about taking care of yourself and taking care of your mate… and those things are in balance to the point where they seldom collide.</p><h3>What is Real Love?</h3><p>Healthy people lead to healthy relationships and healthy relationships lead to real love.</p><p>Real love does not seek another person to fill up what we are lacking. It takes a complete, whole person to really love and overly needy people cannot do it. Real love is balanced. Both partners love in fairly equal amounts. While the balance may shift back and forth, it is not lopsided. If you love someone who is not loving your back, or not loving you the way you love them, then it’s not real.</p><p>When you place expectations on people to fill your empty places, that is not healthy. It’s nice to have a partner, a companion, someone to help you weather life’s storms, but it is not okay to look for someone to complete you or fix your broken places. That is not real love; that is dependence, co-dependence, and unhealthy neediness.</p><p>Real love does not play games, cause us to lose <a title="sleep" href="http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sleep/">sleep</a>, friends, jobs, money, time and value in our lives. Real love is an enlarging and not a narrowing experience. And finally, real love does exist. But it is true that in order to find the right person, you need to be the right person.</p><p>To be the right person you have to do your work, examine your failed relationships and, find the patterns. Go to counseling if you have historical issues. Find out why you are attracted to a certain type that is not good for you. And, at the same time, build your life so that you are an independent, interesting, and attractive person.  You will attract other independent, interesting, and attractive people who are capable of good and loving relationships.</p><p>As I say over and over again, water seeks its own level. If you are attracting and attracted to unhealthy and dysfunctional, you are unhealthy and dysfunctional. Do your work so that real love andlasting love has a chance to walk in.</p>

I know I’ve been in sick relationships, but I don’t know what a healthyrelationship looks like.

In the years I’ve been counseling and coaching, many people say, “I know I’ve been in sick relationships, but I don’t know what a healthyrel...

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How to Keep Your Balance When There’s No Place to Stand and Nothing to Hold On To

<div><blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Know you what it is to be a child?… it is </span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">to believe in belief….</span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">– Francis Thompson, 19th c. British poet</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We don’t forget our first ah-ha experience any more than we forget our first kiss. The difference is we have some idea of what to expect from a kiss, but we don’t know what to make of an enlightening incident. The experience lingers in memory as something special, but since we can’t account for it, we’re apt to keep it to o urselves.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Only in my thirties did I realize that an experience I’d had in my teens was the analogue of that first kiss. About six years after discovering that our third grade science book contained mistakes, it struck me that anything could be wrong. There were no infallible truths, no ultimate explanations.</span></p><p> </p><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" src="http://rsrc.psychologytoday.com/files/imagecache/article-inline-half/blogs/31396/2012/06/99615-97018.jpg" /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">In high school we were learning that science theories and models were not to be regarded as absolute truths, but rather taken to be useful descriptions that might someday be replaced with better ones. I accepted this way of holding scientific truth—it didn’t seem to undercut its usefulness. But I still wanted to believe there were absolute, moral truths, not mere assumptions, but unimpeachable, eternal verities. My mother certainly acted as if there were.</span><p> </p></div><div id="inline-content-bottom-left"><div id="block-td_search_160"><h2><span style="font-size: medium;">But one day, alone in my bedroom, I had the premonition that what was true of science applied to beliefs of every sort. I realized that, as in science, political, moral, or personal convictions could be questioned and might need amending or qualifying in certain circumstances. The feeling reminded me of consulting a dictionary and realizing that there are no final definitions, only cross references. I remember exactly where I was standing, and how it felt, when I discovered there was no place to stand, nothing to hold on to. I felt sobered, yet at the same time, strangely liberated. After all, if there were no absolutes, then there might be an escape from what often seemed to me to be a confining socialconformity.With this revelation, my hopes for definitive, immutable solutions to life’s problems dimmed. I shared my experience of unbelief with no one at the time, knowing that I couldn’t explain myself and fearing others’ mockery. I decided that to function in society I would have to pretend to go along with the prevailing consensus—at least until I could come up with something better. For decades afterwards, without understanding why, I was drawn to people and ideas that expanded my premonition of a worldview grounded not on immutable beliefs, but rather on a process of continually improving our best working assumptions.Science Models EvolveIt’s the essence of models that they’re works in progress. While nothing could be more obvious—after all, models are all just figments of our fallible imaginations—the idea that models can change, and should be expected to yield their place of privilege to better ones, has been surprisingly hard to impart.Until relatively recently we seem to have preferred to stick to what we know—or think we know—no matter the consequences. Rather than judge for ourselves, we’ve been ready to defer to existing authority and subscribe to received “wisdom.” Perhaps this is because of a premium put on not “upsetting the apple cart” during a period in human history when an upright apple cart was of more importance to group cohesiveness and survival than the fact that the cart was full of rotten apples.Ironically, our principal heroes, saints and geniuses alike, have typically spilled a lot of apples. Very often they are people who have championed a truth that contradicts the official line.A turning point in the history of human understanding came in the seventeenth century when one such figure, the English physician William Harvey, discovered that the blood circulates through the body. His plea—“I appeal to your own eyes as my witness and judge”—was revolutionary at a time when physicians looked not to their own experience but rather accepted on faith the Greek view that blood was made in the liver and consumed as fuel by the body. The idea that dogma be subordinated to the actual experience of the individual seemed audacious at the time.Another milestone was the shift from the geocentric (or Ptolemaic) model (named after the first-century Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy) to the heliocentric model (or Copernican) model (after the sixteenth-century Polish astronomer Copernicus, who is regarded by many as the father of modern science).Until five centuries ago, it was an article of faith that the sun, the stars, and the planets revolved around the earth, which lay motionless at the center of the universe. When the Italian scientist Galileo embraced the Copernican model, which held that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun, he was contradicting the teaching of the Church. This was considered sacrilegious and, under threat of torture, he was forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest, making further astronomical discoveries and writing books for posterity. In 1992, Pope John Paul II acknowledged that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in condemning Galileo for asserting that the Earth revolves around the Sun.The Galileo affair was really an argument about whether models should be allowed to change without the Church’s consent. Those in positions of authority often deem acceptance of their beliefs, and with that the acceptance of their role as arbiters of beliefs, to be more important than the potential benefits of moving on to a better model. For example, the discovery of seashells on mountaintops and fossil evidence of extinct species undermined theological doctrine that the world and all living things were a mere six thousand years old. Such discoveries posed a serious challenge to the Church’s monopoly on truth.Typically, new models do not render old ones useless, they simply circumscribe their domains of validity, unveiling and accounting for altogether new phenomena that lie beyond the scope of the old models. Thus, relativity and quantum theory do not render Newton’s laws of motion obsolete. NASA has no need for the refinements of quantum or relativistic mechanics in calculating the flight paths of space vehicles. The accuracy afforded by Newton’s laws suffices for its purposes.Some think that truths that aren’t absolute and immutable disqualify themselves as truths. But just because models change doesn’t mean that anything goes. At any given time, what “goes” is precisely the most accurate model we’ve got. One simply has to be alert to the fact that our current model may be superseded by an even better one tomorrow. It’s precisely this built-in skepticism that gives science its power.Most scientists are excited when they find a persistent discrepancy between their latest model and empirical data. They know that such deviations signal the existence of hitherto unknown realms in which new phenomena may be discovered. The presumption that nature models are infallible has been replaced with the humbling expectation that their common destiny is to be replaced by more comprehensive and accurate ones.Toward the end of the nineteenth century, many physicists believed they’d learned all there was to know about the workings of the universe. The consensus was that between Newton’s dynamics and Maxwell’s electromagnetism we had everything covered. Prominent scientists solemnly announced the end of physics.There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.– Lord Kelvin (1900)</span></h2><h2><span style="font-size: medium;">Then a few tiny discrepancies between theory and experiment were noted and as scientists explored them, they came upon the previously hidden realm of atomic and relativistic physics, and with it technologies that have put their stamp on the twentieth century.</span></h2><h2><span style="font-size: medium;">Albert Einstein believed that the final resting place of every theory is as a special case of a broader one. Indeed, he spent the last decades of his life searching for a unified theory that would have transcended the discoveries he made as a young man. The quest for such a grand unifying theory goes on.</span></h2></div></div><div id="inline-content-bottom-right" style="padding-left: 15px; width: 465px; float: right;"><div></div></div>

How to Keep Your Balance When There’s No Place to Stand and Nothing to Hold On To

Know you what it is to be a child?… it is  to believe in belief…. – Francis Thompson, 19th c. British poet We don’t forget our first ah-ha e...

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Being and Flowing is a good place to begin Healing Your Thoughts.

<p> </p><p>The first part of the Being and Flowing Sequence is a basic relaxation session where some (or several) of the techniques of guided imagery or meditation can be used. In fact, for this type of relaxation, you can use new techniques or techniques that are familiar to you and that have worked for you in the past. If you do the sequence regularly, you can switch between techniques if you like.</p><p>One caveat: We find that general medical/therapy techniques, specifically those that are not associated with a particular spiritual path, work best for the Being and Flowing meditation in this context. (We link to some general relaxation techniques from the University of Maryland Medical Center, below). </p><p>Being and Flowing First Step: Basic Relaxation Session</p><p>One: Position</p><p>If you are outdoors, find a quiet, safe place in a garden, park, beach or woods. Remember, safety comes first. If you are indoors, find a place where you won’t be disturbed. Sit on a floor cushion or in a chair with your feet on the floor, or lie down in a comfortable position. Whatever position you choose, try to remember, you might choose not to move or shift while being and flowing, so make sure it’s really comfortable.</p><p>Two: Watch Your Thoughts</p><p>Once you are comfortable, the first thing to keep in mind: Don’t worry about your thoughts. Allow them to come and go as they wish. Give them their freedom to come and go as they like. Don’t try to control them. Just observe them. </p><p>Three: Watch Your Breath</p><p>Don’t try to control your breathing. Just observe your breath. If you are familiar with breathing techniques and want to try them, you could, but to forge a new path it’s sometimes good to let go and experience non-familiar meditative pathways.</p><p>Four: No Goal</p><p>If you feel stressed or anxious, remember: there is no goal here. Just passively watch where your thoughts and breath take you. If after a few tries anxiety (or boredom, which can be a symptom of anxiety during meditation) feels overpowering, take a break.</p><p>Five: Far Away</p><p>At some point, your thoughts may seem to “melt away”. They may feel far away; you know they’re there, but they don’t seem to touch you, or you don’t really touch them. There is a gulf between you and your thoughts, including your less-than-helpful ones. When they are so far away, their ability to control you is greatly diminished.</p><p>Help!</p><p>If you need help we recommend you try music. We really like (and recommend) Dr. Harry Henshaw’s relaxation music. (Last year, we interviewed him, <a href="http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therapy-soup/2011/09/healing-with-music-relaxation-therapy/" target="_blank">here</a>.)</p><p>Dr. Henshaw’s audio tracks of <a href="http://www.enhancedhealing.com/" target="_blank">free-floating music</a> are really de-stressing. We can best describe them as providing a musical pathway on which your thoughts can flow. His music doesn’t restrain or confine your thoughts as much as gently supports them. We really liked the ones on <a href="http://www.enhancedhealing.com/products_results.php?ProductCategoryID%5B%5D=1&Search=Search" target="_blank">these pages</a>; so far, we’ve sampled the uplifting music of Clarity, the gentle vibrato of Cosmic Reflection, the sweet tones of Equilibrium and the progressions of Inner Peace.*</p><p>If you want more concrete help the techniques of progressive relaxation (and toe tensing) can be very helpful. The University of Maryland Medical Center has <a href="http://www.umm.edu/sleep/relax_tech.htm" target="_blank">clearly outlined them.</a> They recommend the techniques for sleep disorders, but they are also helpful for tension and anxiety. One quibble: they don’t mention that slightly tensing each area of the body (not just the toes) before you relax that part, can be even a more powerful path to relaxation.</p><p>We’ve made our own relaxation recordings at home. We record our soft, slow voices giving a step-by-step progressive relaxation session. You might enjoy making your own recordings, too.</p><p>Being and Flowing Second Step: Journal</p><p>If you are in therapy, or even if you’re not, it’s a good idea to do a Being and Flowing journal. Some people like to share this with their therapist, others don’t. It’s up to you.</p><p>You might consider doing an audio or video recording if you don’t like to write. Writing or otherwise recording your general experience with your relaxation session, is a good starting point. Then, if you like, continue to write or otherwise comment on your experience of your thinking process. What were your thoughts? Were you able to let them drift by? Did any thoughts “stick” more than others? Did new thoughts, thoughts you never “thought” before, pop up?</p><p>Also, you might explore the self that observed the thoughts. And so on. If you don’t like to write and don’t want to do an audio or video recording, you can try illustrating your experience by drawing, painting, collage (found objects, fabric, and so on), photography, etc.</p><p>Once you have a sense of Being and Flowing, you’ll might find yourself being able to step back, even in a non-relaxing session, from your thoughts that are not beneficial. You might find it easier to dispassionately examine your thoughts (and beliefs, which are a type of thought often mingled with emotion) and see if they are really beneficial to you.</p><p>In fact, a very important, even central, part of therapy is examining thoughts and beliefs that hamper or are openly damaging to: your personal growth, relationships, mental health, and physical health. Therapy, in part, teaches you how to “rethink” things, even changing your most closely held beliefs, if they don’t serve your growth. Healing your thoughts is central to healing your life.</p>

Being and Flowing is a good place to begin Healing Your Thoughts.

  The first part of the Being and Flowing Sequence is a basic relaxation session where some (or several) of the techniques of guided imagery...

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How do you treat yourself

<p>How do you treat yourself?     How should you treat yourself? What should you think about yourself? How should you feel about yourself? Well..... how do you treat your best friend? What do you think about them? How do you feel about them? Now take that and multiply it by 10, multiply it by 100. Imagine how you would feel about somebody you were completely in love with, that you loved more than life itself, but it was an unconditional, open, free, healthy love, and not a needy, posessive, jealous, conditional love. Your eyes are wide open and you see all their faults and yet you love them despite their faults, perhaps because of them. Now perhaps you are getting close to how you should feel about yourself..........<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;">Simon Meadowcroft</span></p>

How do you treat yourself

How do you treat yourself?     How should you treat yourself? What should you think about yourself? How should you feel about yourself? Well...

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Smokers could one day be immunised against nicotine so they gain no pleasure from the habit, according to researchers in the US.

<p id="story_continues_1">They have devised a vaccine that floods the body with an antibody to assault nicotine entering the body.</p><p>A study in mice, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed levels of the chemical in the brain were reduced by 85% after vaccination.</p><p>Years of research are still needed before it could be tested on people.</p><p>However, lead researcher Prof Ronald Crystal is convinced there will be benefits.</p><p>"As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pacman-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect."</p><p>New approach</p><p>Other "smoking vaccines" have been developed that train the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to nicotine - it is the same method used to vaccinate against diseases. The challenge has been to produce enough antibodies to stop the drug entering the brain and delivering its pleasurable hit.</p><p>Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have used a completely different approach, a gene-therapy vaccine, which they say is more promising.</p><div>Continue reading the main story<h2>“Start Quote</h2><blockquote><p>If they start smoking again, they will receive no pleasure from it due to the nicotine vaccine, and that can help them kick the habit”</p></blockquote>Prof Ronald CrystalWeill Cornell Medical College</div><p id="story_continues_2">A genetically modified virus containing the instructions for making nicotine antibodies is used to infect the liver. This turns the organ into a factory producing the antibodies.</p><p>The research team compared the amount of nicotine in the brains of normal mice with those that had been immunised. After being injected with nicotine, the vaccinated mice had nicotine levels 85% lower.</p><p>It is not known if this could be repeated in humans or if this level of reduction would be enough to help people quit.</p><p>Prof Crystal said that if such a vaccine could be developed then people "will know if they start smoking again, they will receive no pleasure from it due to the nicotine vaccine, and that can help them kick the habit".</p><p>He added: "We are very hopeful that this kind of vaccine strategy can finally help the millions of smokers who have tried to stop, exhausting all the methods on the market today, but find their nicotine addiction to be strong enough to overcome these current approaches."</p><p>'Impressive and intriguing'</p><p>There are also issues around the safety of gene therapy in humans that will need to be answered.</p><p>Professor of genetics at the University of Kent, Darren Griffin, said the findings were "impressive and intriguing with great potential" but cautioned there were still many issues which needed addressing.</p><p>He said the main issue "is whether the observed biochemical effects in lab mice genuinely translate to a reduced addiction in humans given that such addictions can be both physical and psychological".</p><p>Dr Simon Waddington, from University College London, said: "The technology underpinning gene therapy is improving all the time and it is encouraging to see these preliminary results that indicate it could be used to address nicotine addiction, which is damaging to the nation's health and a drain on the health service economy."</p><p>If such a vaccine was developed it could also raise ethical questions about vaccinating people, possibly in childhood, before they even started smoking.</p>

Smokers could one day be immunised against nicotine so they gain no pleasure from the habit, according to researchers in the US.

They have devised a vaccine that floods the body with an antibody to assault nicotine entering the body. A study in mice, published in Scien...

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Coke and Pepsi contain tiny traces of alcohol, reveals French research

<p>Coca-Cola and Pepsi contain minute traces of alcohol, scientific research published in France has revealed. The revelation will cause concern among those who chose the carbonated soft drink for religious, health or safety reasons. According to tests carried out by the Paris-based National Institute of Consumption (INC) more than half of leading colas contain the traces of alcohol. Can't beat the real thing: The revelation will cause concern among those who chose the carbonated soft drink for religious, health or safety reasons These include the brand leaders Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, while it is mainly only cheap supermarket versions of the drink which are alcohol-free. ‘60 Million Consumers’, the French magazine, publishes the results of the tests in its latest issue. They suggest that the alcohol levels are as low as 10mg in every litre, and this works out at around 0.001 per cent alcohol.</p>

Coke and Pepsi contain tiny traces of alcohol, reveals French research

Coca-Cola and Pepsi contain minute traces of alcohol, scientific research published in France has revealed. The revelation will cause conce...

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NOBODY DIED FROM LACK OF SLEEP, AA MYTHs

<p><div id="leadItem"><p>Beyond leaving you drowsy and irritable, sleepless nights can take aserious toll on your physical and mental health.</p><p>"We know sleep is a critical biological function that influences a wide variety of physiological process," said Dr. Susan Redline, a sleep specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "Sleep deficiency can affect mood and the ability to make memories and learn, but it also affects metabolism, appetite, blood pressure, levels of inflammation in the body and perhaps even the immune response."</p><p>Lack of sleep has been linked to stroke, obesity, diabetes, anxiety, depression, and the country's No. 1 killers: heart disease and cancer. Read on to learn the health hazards of sleep deficiency and how you can sleep better.</p></div><div id="item_0"><h2>HEALTH HAZARDS LINKED TO LACK OF SLEEP</h2></div></p><table><tbody><tr><td>Stroke</td></tr></tbody></table><p><div id="item_0"><p>A new study of more than 5,600 people found those who slept fewer than six hours a night were more likely to suffer a stroke than their well-rested counterparts.</p><p>"We speculate that short sleep duration is a precursor to other traditional stroke risk factors, and once these traditional stroke risk factors are present, then perhaps they become stronger risk factors than sleep duration alone," Megan Ruiter of the University of Alabama at Birmingham said in a statement.</p><p>The study was presented today at the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston, Mass.</p><p>Stroke risk is also higher in people who are overweight, diabetic or hypertensive -- all conditions linked to poor sleep.</p></div><div id="item_1"><h2>HEALTH HAZARDS LINKED TO LACK OF SLEEP</h2></div></p><table><tbody><tr><td>Obesity and Diabetes</td></tr></tbody></table><p><div id="item_1"><p>Sporadic and irregular sleep can raise blood sugar levels and slow the body's metabolism,increasing the risk of obesity and diabetes, according to an April 2012 study published in Science Translational Medicine.</p><p>"The evidence is clear that getting enough sleep is important for health," said study author Orfeu Buxton, a neuroscientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.</p><p>Sleep deficiency can also lead to bad food choices, according to a study that found the sight of unhealthy food activated reward centers in the brains of sleep-deprived people.</p><p>"The results suggest that, under restricted sleep, individuals will find unhealthy foods highly salient and rewarding, which may lead to greater consumption of those foods," said Marie-Pierre St-Onge from St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University in New York, and lead author of the study presented today at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston. "Indeed, food intake data from this same study showed that participants ate more overall and consumed more fat after a period of sleep restriction compared to regular sleep."</p></div><div id="item_2"><h2>HEALTH HAZARDS LINKED TO LACK OF SLEEP</h2></div></p><table><tbody><tr><td>Anxiety and Depression</td></tr></tbody></table><p><div id="item_2"><p>Sure, sleepless nights make for miserable mornings. But chronic sleep deficiency can lead to anxiety and depression -- both serious mood disorders.</p><p>"People feel more anxious, restless, irritable, less satisfied," said Dr. Mark Dyken, director of the University of Iowa's Sleep Disorders Center in Iowa City, adding sleep deficiency can impact careers and relationships. "They have difficulty focusing and sometimes feel like they just don't care anymore."</p><p>Brain imaging suggests sleep deprivation can boost activity in the brain's emotional centers, according to a study presented today at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston.</p><p>"Our results suggest that just one night of sleep loss significantly alters the optimal functioning of this essential brain process, especially among anxious individuals," study author Andrea Goldstein from the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. "This is perhaps never more relevant considering the continued erosion of sleep time that continues to occur across society."</p></div><div id="item_3"><h2>HEALTH HAZARDS LINKED TO LACK OF SLEEP</h2></div></p><table><tbody><tr><td>Cancer</td></tr></tbody></table><p><div id="item_3"><p>Sleep deficiency has also been linked to an increased risk of cancer.</p><p>A 2008 study published in the British Journal of Cancer found women who slept fewer than six hours a night were more likely develop breast cancer, and a 2010 study published in the journal Cancer found those who slept fewer than six hours a night were more likely to have colorectal polyps, which can lead to colon cancer.</p><p>The biological mechanisms are unclear, but lack of sleep has been shown to boost levels of inflammation in the body and interfere with the immune response, both of which have been implicated in cancer.</p><p>"Sleep is restorative," said Dyken. "And if you don't get it, your health will suffer."</p></div><div id="item_4"><h2>HEALTH HAZARDS LINKED TO LACK OF SLEEP</h2></div></p><table><tbody><tr><td>Heart Disease</td></tr></tbody></table><p><div id="item_4"><p>Short and sporadic sleep may also raise the risk of heart disease.</p><p>A 2011 study published in the European Heart Journal found people who slept fewer than six hours a night were 48 percent more likely to develop or die from heart disease.</p><p>The link could have something to do with levels of inflammation in the body, but the researchers also found higher blood pressure and cholesterol in people with sleep deficiency.</p></div><div id="item_5"><h2>HEALTH HAZARDS LINKED TO LACK OF SLEEP</h2></div></p><table><tbody><tr><td>Get Your Sleep</td></tr></tbody></table><p><div id="item_5"><p>With hectic work and family schedules, getting a good night's sleep is no easy feat. But experts say a little planning can go a long way, helping you feel refreshed the next morning and for many to come.</p><p>"Make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet, and avoid reading anything that's going to make you excited or worried," said Dyken. "Try not to exercise or eat a big meal within three hours of your bedtime, but don't go to bed hungry, either."</p><p>Caffeine and alcohol can also interfere with sleep, according to Redline.</p><p>"Much of sleep deficiency is self-inflicted," she said. "But adults should do their best to get to bed at regular times and aim to have 7.5 hours on average of sleep. Set your schedule such that you honor and respect your sleep needs."</p></div></p>

NOBODY DIED FROM LACK OF SLEEP, AA MYTHs

Beyond leaving you drowsy and irritable, sleepless nights can take aserious toll on your physical and mental health. "We know sleep is ...

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If you settle for your wildest dreams, you will be selling yourself short.

<blockquote><br />If you settle for your wildest dreams, you will be selling yourself short.</blockquote>

If you settle for your wildest dreams, you will be selling yourself short.

If you settle for your wildest dreams, you will be selling yourself short.

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Quotations came directly from the 3rd edition of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous.

<p>Quotations came directly from the 3rd edition of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous. The most recent ones are nearest to the top of the page. Feel free to e-mail any quotes you may have or would like to see added.</p><hr /><p>"....and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray" (page 9)</p><p>" the remorse, horror and hopelessness of the next morning are unforgettable " (page 15)</p><p>"There is scarcely any form of trouble and misery which has not been overcome among us." (page 15)</p><p>" How dark it is before the dawn! " (page 17)</p><p>" The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. " (page 17)</p><p>"We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning" (page 19)</p><p>"Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs" (page 20)</p><p>"Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. they can take it or leave it alone" (page 20)</p><p>"He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde." (page 21)</p><p>" It meant destruction of self-centeredness. " (page 23)</p><p>"We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink." (page 24)</p><p>"We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed" (page 25)</p><p>"There is a solution" (page 25)</p><p>"An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature" (page 25)</p><p>"Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them." (page 27)</p><p>"A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, 'a design for living' that really works" (page 28)</p><p>"The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker." (page 30)</p><p>"The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed" (page 30)</p><p>" No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows." (page 30)</p><p>"He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. " (page 31)</p><p>"If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol." (page 33)</p><p>"To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have" (page 33)</p><p>"Whether such a person can quit upon a nonspiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not." (page 34)</p><p>"Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems" (page 42)</p><p>"Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you" (page 47)</p><p>"Here are thousands of men and women, worldly indeed. they flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking." p. 50</p><p>"The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime undertaking, one that can never be wholly completed. When under heavy attack, acute illness, or in other conditions of serious insecurity, we shall all react to this emotion - well or badly, as the case may be. only the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear." (page 55)</p><p>"There are those too who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest." (page 58)</p><p>"We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection" (page 60)</p><p>"Selfishness--self-centeredness! that, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate." p.62</p><p>"When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically." (page 64)</p><p>" It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness" (page 66)</p><p>"If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us" (page 66)</p><p>"The inventory was ours, not the other man's. When we saw our faults we listed them. We placed them before us in black and white." (page 67)</p><p>"We avoid retaliation or argument" (page 67)</p><p>"We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength." (page 68)</p><p>"If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let god take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lession" (page 70)</p><p>"More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor" (page 73)</p><p>"We must be entirely honest with somebody if we expect to live long or happily in this world" (page 73)</p><p>"The rule is we must be hard on ourself, but always considerate of others" (page 74)</p><p>"If we still cling to something we will not let go...." (page 76)</p><p>"We must not shrink at anything" (page 79)</p><p>"The spiritual life is not a theory" (page 83)</p><p>"As Gods people, we stand on our own feet, we don't crawl before anyone." (page 83)</p><p>"We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough" (page 84)</p><p>"And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol" (page 84)</p><p>"We have entered the world of the spirit" (page 84)</p><p>"Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear." (page 84)</p><p>"Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer" (page 87)</p><p>"Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone" (page 98)</p><p>"Life will take on new meaning." (page 89)</p><p>"You will begin to see that the world and it's people really dominate you" (?)</p><p>"We represent no particular faith or denomination. We are dealing only with general principles common to most denominations." (page 93)</p><p>"After all, our problems were of our own making. Bottles were only a symbol." (page 103)</p><p>"Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic. The entire family is, to some extent, ill." (page 122)</p><p>"Cessation of drinking is but the first step away from a highly strained, abnormal condition." (page 122)</p><p>"Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now." (page 124)</p><p>"Many alcoholics are enthusiasts. They run to extremes." (page 125)</p><p>"We alcoholics are sensitive people. It takes some of us a long time to outgrow that serious handicap." (p125)</p><p>" We absolutely insist on enjoying life." (page 132)</p><p>"We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it was just that for many of us." (page 133)</p><p>"The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear." (page 145)</p><p>"Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it." (page 152)</p><p>"Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that." (page 152)</p><p>"The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead." (page 152)</p><p>"No one is too discredited or has sunk too low to be welcomed cordially-if he means business. Social distinctions, petty rivalries and jealousies-these are laughed out of countenance." (page 161)</p><hr style="color: #ffa500; background-color: #ffa500; border: 0px; margin-left: 122px; margin-right: 122px; font-family: Times; font-size: medium;" />

Quotations came directly from the 3rd edition of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Quotations came directly from the 3rd edition of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous. The most recent ones are nearest to the top...

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103 "MUSTS" IN THE BIG BOOK.

<p>If you go to enough meetings, you'll hear it said that in AA, there are no MUSTs, only suggestions. Well, like most half-truths in A.A., if you hear them long enough you begin to believe them. But what does the Program have to say about this? It says in the Big Book on page 19, "We have concluded to publish an anonymous volume setting forth the problem as we see it. We shall bring to task our combined experience and knowledge. This should suggest a useful program for anyone concerned with a drinking problem." Then, in "How It Works" it says, "Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a Program of Recovery." So, it's the WHOLE Program that is suggested. It's sort of like making a pie. I once ate a really great pie at my Grandmother's house, and asked for the recipe. If I use the SAME ingredients, with the SAME proportions, in the SAME baking sequence, then AND ONLY THEN will I get the full, desired result. AA says that we have a way out that works very well for us. There may be another method you might use that you think brings about recovery from alcoholism, and if you so choose, have at it. You don't have to take the A.A. Program, only "if you want what we have AND are willing to go to any length to get it." And if you DO want what we have, the Big Book is very clear that the Program has some very definite requirements. It says, "To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the main purpose of this book" (page xiii), "If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking - What do I have to do? It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions SPECIFICALLY. We shall tell you what we have done" (page 20), and "CLEAR-CUT DIRECTIONS are given showing how we recovered" (page 29). AA's Big Book, by it's own admission, offers us specific instructions for recovery from alcoholism called "the Program of AA". Remember, half measures DO NOT avail us half results; "half measures avail us NOTHING" (and NO measures avail us less!). The suggestion we have to offer is our WHOLE Program, and the AA Program does include MUSTs, have to's, and requirements (IF you want the full, desired result). But remember, the process is very much worth it because just one of the promises of working AA's Program IN ITS ENTIRETY is that we will "know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes" (page 8)! Some of the phrases below don't contain the word MUST, but the wording indicates a MUST Condition.. Well, excluding the stories, here's the list: 1. Convincing testimony MUST surely come from medical men who have had experience with the sufferings of our members and have witnessed our return to health.(xxiii) 2. "Doctor, I cannot go on like this! I have everything to live for! I MUST stop, but I cannot! You MUST help me!" (xxvii) 3. Faced with this problem, if a doctor is honest with himself, he MUST sometimes feel his own inadequacy. (xxvii) 4. Though the aggregate of recoveries resulting from psychiatric effort is considerable, we physicians MUST admit we have made little impression upon the problem as a whole. (xxvii) 5. In the course of his third treatment he acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery. As part of his rehabilitation he (Bill W.) commenced to present his conceptions to other alcoholics, impressing upon them that they MUST do likewise with still others. This has become the basis of a rapidly growing fellowship of these men and their families. This man and over one hundred others appear to have recovered. (xxiii) 6. In this statement he (Dr. Silkworth) confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture MUST believe that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. (xxiv) 7. More often than not, it is IMPERATIVE that a man's brain be cleared before he is approached, as he has then a better chance of understanding and accepting what we have to offer. (xxiv) 8. The message which can interest and hold these alcoholic people MUST have depth and weight. In nearly all cases, their ideals MUST be grounded in a power greater than themselves if they are to re-create their lives. (xxvi) 9. I SIMPLY HAD TO believe in a Spirit of the Universe, who knew neither time nor limitation (10) 10. I MUST turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all.(14) 11. Particularly was it IMPERATIVE to work with others.(14) 12. Of NECESSITY there will have to be discussion of matters medical, psychiatric, social, and religious.(19) 13. Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, DEPEND upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs. (19) 14. Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process REQUIRES for its successful consummation.(25) 15. There was NOTHING LEFT FOR US but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our Feet. (25) 16. It is only by fully disclosing ourselves and our problems that they will be persuaded to say, "Yes, I am one of them too; I MUST have this thing." (29) 17. We learned that we had to FULLY CONCEDE to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, HAS TO BE smashed. (30) 18. If we are planning to stop drinking, there MUST be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol. (33) 19. But after a while we had to face the fact that we MUST find a spiritual basis of Life - or else.(44) 20. We HAD TO find a power by which we could live, and it HAD TO BE a Power greater than ourselves. (45) 21. DO NOT let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. (47) 22. Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking HAD TO BE abandoned. (48) 23. We HAD TO ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems this same readiness to change our point of view. (52) 24. When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we HAD TO stop doubting the power of God. Our ideas did not work. But the God idea did. (52) 25. When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we HAD TO fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't. (53) 26. Sometimes we HAD TO search fearlessly, but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found. It was so with us. (55) 27. The first requirement is that we BE CONVINCED that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success. (60) 28. Above everything, we alcoholics MUST be rid of this selfishness. We MUST, or it kills us! (62) 29. We HAD TO have God's help.(62) 30. First of all, we HAD TO quit playing God. (62) 31. Our liquor was but a symptom. We HAD TO get down to causes and conditions. (64) 32. If we were to live, we HAD TO be free of anger. (66) 33. We saw that these resentments MUST be mastered. (66) 34. Whatever our ideal turns out to be, we MUST be willing to grow toward it. We MUST be willing to make amends where we have done harm, provided that we do not bring about still more harm in so doing. (69) 35. We MUST be entirely honest with somebody if we expect to live long or happily in this world. (73) 36. Those of us belonging to a religious denomination which requires confession MUST, and of course, will want to go to the properly appointed authority whose duty it is to receive it. (74) 37. The rule is we MUST be hard on ourself, but always considerate of others. (74) 38. It is important that he be able to keep a confidence; that he fully understand and approve what we are driving at; that he will not try to change our plan. But we MUST not use this as a mere excuse to postpone. (75) 39. We have emphasized willingness as being INDISPENSABLE. (76) 40. UNDER NO CONDITION do we criticize such a person or argue. (77) 41. We MUST lose our fear of creditors no matter how far we have to go, for we are liable to drink if we are afraid to face them. (78) 42. We may lose our position or reputation or face jail, but we are willing. We have to be. We MUST not shrink at anything. (79) 43. Before taking drastic action which might implicate other people we secure their consent. If we have obtained permission, have consulted with others, asked God to help and the drastic step is indicated we MUST not shrink. (80) 44. Sometimes we hear an alcoholic say that the only thing he needs to do is to keep sober. Certainly he MUST keep sober, for there will be no home if he doesn't. But he is yet a long way from making good to the wife or parents whom for years he has so shockingly treated. (82) 45. Yes, there is a long period of reconstruction ahead. We MUST take the lead. (83) 46. The spiritual life is not a theory. WE HAVE TO LIVE IT. (83) 47. We MUST remember that ten or twenty years of drunkenness would make a skeptic out of anyone. (83) 48. Every day is a day when we MUST carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. (85) 49. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which MUST go with us constantly. (85) 50. If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we MUST go further and that means more action. (85) 51. But we MUST be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. (86) 52. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends-this is an experience you MUST not miss. (89) 53. The family MUST decide these things. (90) 54. To be vital, faith MUST be accompanied by self sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action. (93) 55. NEVER talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection. (95) 56. If he is sincerely interested and wants to see you again, ask him to read this book in the interval. After doing that, he MUST decide for himself whether he wants to go on. (95) 57. He should not be pushed or prodded by you, his wife, or his friends. If he is to find God, the desire MUST come from within. (95) 58. NEVER avoid these responsibilities, but be sure you are doing the right thing if you assume them. (97) 59. A kindly act once in a while isn't enough. You HAVE TO act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be. (97) 60. Argument and fault-finding are to be avoided like the plague. In many homes this is a difficult thing to do, but it MUST be done if any results are to be expected. (98) 61. But we MUST try to repair the damage immediately lest we pay the penalty by a spree.(99) 62. If their old relationship is to be resumed it MUST be on a better basis, since the former did not work. (99) 63. Both you and the new man MUST walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress.(100) 64. People have said we MUST not go where liquor is served; we MUST not have it in our homes; we MUST shun friends who drink; we MUST avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we MUST not go into bars; our friends MUST hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we MUSTn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so. (101) 65. But some of us think we should not serve liquor to anyone. We NEVER argue this question. (102) 66. We are careful NEVER to show intolerance or hatred of drinking as an institution. (103) 67. Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We HAVE TO! (103) 68. Wait until repeated stumbling convinces him he MUST act, for the more you hurry him the longer his recovery may be delayed. (113) 69. But sometimes you MUST start life anew. (114) 70. While you need not discuss your husband at length, you can quietly let your friends know the nature of his illness. But you MUST be on guard not to embarrass or harm your husband. (115) 71. You will no longer be self-conscious or feel that you MUST apologize as though your husband were a weak character. (115) 72. These family dissensions are very dangerous, especially to your husband. Often you MUST carry the burden of avoiding them or keeping them under control. (117) 73. NEVER forget that resentment is a deadly hazard to an alcoholic. (117) 74. Your husband knows he owes you more than sobriety. He wants to make good. Yet you MUST not expect too much. (118) 75. Though it is infinitely better that he have no relapse at all, as has been true with many of our men, it is by no means a bad thing in some cases. Your husband will see at once that he MUST redouble his spiritual activities if he expects to survive.(120) 76. We NEVER, NEVER try to arrange a man's life so as to shield him from temptation; The slightest disposition on your part to guide his appointments or his affairs so he will not be tempted will be noticed. (120) 77. The family MUST realize that dad, though marvelously improved, is still convalescing. They should be thankful he is sober and able to be of this world once more. (127) 78. He can scarcely square the account in his lifetime. But he MUST see the danger of over-concentration on financial success. Although financial recovery is on the way for many of us, we found we could not place money first. For us, material well-being always followed spiritual progress; it never preceded. (127) 79. We know there are difficult wives and families, but the man who is getting over alcoholism MUST remember he did much to make them so. (127) 80. We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads in the clouds with Him, but that our feet ought to be firmly planted on earth. That is where our fellow travelers are, and that is where our work MUST be done. These are the realities for us. We have found nothing incompatible between a powerful spiritual experience and a life of sane and happy usefulness. (130) 81. Whether the family goes on a spiritual basis or not, the alcoholic member has to if he would recover. The others MUST be convinced of his new status beyond the shadow of a doubt. Seeing is believing to most families who have lived with a drinker. (135) 82. State that you know about his drinking, and that it MUST stop. You might say you appreciate his abilities, would like to keep him, but cannot if he continues to drink. (141) 83. For most alcoholics who are drinking, or who are just getting over a spree, a certain amount of physical treatment is desirable, even IMPERATIVE. (142) 84. Though you are providing him with the best possible medical attention, he should understand that he MUST undergo a change of heart. To get over drinking will REQUIRE a transformation of thought and attitude. We all HAD TO PLACE RECOVERY ABOVE EVERYTHING, for without recovery we would have lost both home and business. (143) 85. While on the subject of confidence, can you adopt the attitude that so far as you are concerned this will be a STRICTLY personal matter, that his alcoholic derelictions, the treatment about to be undertaken, will NEVER be discussed without his consent? (143) 86. When the man is presented with this volume it is best that no one tell him he must abide by its suggestions. The man MUST decide for himself. (144) 87. An alcoholic who has recovered, but holds a relatively unimportant job, can talk to a man with a better position. Being on a radically different basis of life, he will NEVER take advantage of the situation.(146) 88. For he knows he MUST be honest if he would live at all. (146) 89. The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. NEVER could we recapture the great moments of the past. (151) 90. I know I MUST get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?" Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. 152) 91. They will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who MUST find a way out. (153) 92. But what about his responsibilities - his family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah-yes, those other alcoholics? There MUST be many such in this town. He would phone a clergyman. His sanity returned and he thanked God. (154) 93. He saw that he would HAVE TO face his problems squarely that God might give him mastery. (155) 94. Both saw that they MUST keep spiritually active. (156) 95. Though they knew they MUST help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary. It was transcended by the happiness they found in giving themselves for others. (159) 96. God will determine that, so you MUST remember that your real reliance is always upon Him. He will show you how to create the fellowship you crave. (164) 97. We alcoholics see that we MUST work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone. (563) 98. A.A. MUST continue to live or most of us will surely die. (565) 99. Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes, or religious experiences, MUST be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals. (569) 100. Though it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholics have nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they MUST acquire an immediate and overwhelming "God-consciousness" followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook. (569) 101. I think our profession MUST take appreciative cognizance of this great therapeutic weapon. (571) 102. Any therapeutic or philosophic procedure which can prove a recovery rate of 50% to 60% MUST merit our consideration. (571) 103. They know that they MUST never drink. (572)</p>

103 "MUSTS" IN THE BIG BOOK.

If you go to enough meetings, you'll hear it said that in AA, there are no MUSTs, only suggestions. Well, like most half-truths in A.A.,...

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How to Get the Most from Recovery

<h2>In order to get the most from recovery the individual should:</h2><ul><li>Try new things</li><li>Devote time to their relationships</li><li>Look for a good balance in life; avoid becoming too obsessed with just one aspect of life (e.g. workaholism).</li><li>Follow a spiritual path or any path that gives life meaning.</li><li>Keep an open mind</li><li>Realize that true happiness comes from the inside and not the outside</li><li><span style="color: #ff0000;">Develop humility and maintain a beginner’s mind</span></li><li>Try to live an honest life</li><li>Spend more time thinking about other people</li><li>Expect steady progress in recovery</li><li>Develop realistic expectations for life</li><li>Find interesting hobbies</li><li>Avoid comfort eating and obesity</li><li>Live a physically active life</li><li>Practice meditation<a href="http://alcoholrehab.com/alcohol-rehab/meditation-benefits/"></a></li></ul>

How to Get the Most from Recovery

In order to get the most from recovery the individual should: Try new things Devote time to their relationships Look for a good balance in l...

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