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Abusive relationship, also known as domestic or spousal abuse, occurs when one person in an intimate relationship or marriage tries to control and dominate the other person. Domestic abuse involving physical violence is called domestic violence.
Noticing and acknowledging the signs of an abusive relationship is the first step to ending it. No person should live in fear of the one they love. Abusive relationships often begin as an intense and passionate love affair. Abusers can be charismatic, committed, attentive, loving etc.

Abusers also use fear, guilt, shame, and intimidation to wear you down and keep you under his or her thumb. Abusers hold themselves back until they gain your trust and love. Your abuser may also threaten you, hurt you, or hurt those around you. If you recognize yourself or someone you know in the following warning signs and descriptions of an abusive relationship, please reach out and seek for help:

Extreme Fear of your partner.
If you feel like you have to walk on eggshells around your partner constantly watching what you say and do in order to avoid a blow-up, chances are your relationship is unhealthy and abusive. Also, a partner who belittles you or tries to control you, and when you have feelings of self-loathing, helplessness, and desperation. They are all signs of an abusive relationship.

Jealousy and Hypersensitivity
Abusers often have low self-esteem and take everything personally. They may be easily insulted or claim that the world is against them if they meet a slight setback. If you disagree about anything, no matter how trivial, you're insulting them to their core and calling them a terrible person who can't do anything right. Hypersensitivity refers to the jealous partner overreacting to little things: comments, jokes, or small issues. This often shows itself in a set of rules that have a clear double standard. If she glances at another man, she doesn't find her partner attractive anymore and is cheating on him. But if she comments on him blatantly staring at other women, she is calling him a pervert and accusing him of terrible things he would never do.

Dominating partner
Abusive individuals need to feel in charge of the relationship. They will make decisions for you and the family, tell you what to do, and expect you to obey without question. Your abuser may treat you like a servant, child, or even as his or her possession.

Isolates you
In order to increase your dependence on him or her, an abusive partner will cut you off from the outside world. He or she may keep you from seeing family or friends, or even prevent you from going to work or school. You may have to ask permission to do anything, go anywhere, or see anyone. Imposed isolation will begin with your partner criticizing, questioning, and making unwelcome your closest friends and social network. Abusers will also try to make you feel guilty for wanting to spend time with friends and family.

Unrealistic Expectations
When you notice that your partner has unrealistic expectations. They want the 'out of this world' relationship with very stereotypical gender roles. When he's expected to provide for the family, and his job isn't going well, there's a problem. She should keep the house, and if dinner isn't on the table when he gets home, there's a problem. Their happiness depends on their partner. If you're not living up to expectations, the world is ending. After all, you are their world!

Remember, abusers are very good at controlling and manipulating their victims. People who have been emotionally abused or battered are depressed, drained, scared, ashamed, and confused. They need help to get out, yet they’ve often been isolated from their family and friends. By learning these warning signs you can be sure of an escape from an abusive relationship and begin the healing process.
Read more on www.healthylifecoupon.com /5 Top Signs you're in an Abusive Relationship

Financial stability is as important to your account statement as it is to the aura in your home. It has been discovered that money problems, more than anything else, is responsible for many failed and failing marriages today. There's no family that can possibly thrive without money. Money in marriage and the family is a strong unifying factor. When money is absent, not properly managed, or not evenly distributed, there's bound to be problems in the home.

Contrary to popular belief, low earning is not the primary reason why most families experience financial difficulties. It is more of a function of lack of discipline in handling family finances, and little or no knowledge on how to manage whatever income comes into the family. Here are some proven ways to resolve financial conflicts in the family:

Cut spending down to the basics
Though it may seem tough to shift from normal spending to frugality, especially if you're accustomed to middle-class or upper class lifestyle luxuries. But when facing a financial crisis, it's imperative to reduce spending as much as possible.

Avoid debt like a plague
Debt will put your family in an unstable situation that can hamper progress and family development. If the sum total of what you owe is more than your income or what you have, you are in debt. Debt is likened to bondage. it will only keep you in bondage to your creditors. Settle your debts if there's any and after settlement of all debts, plan to live within the confine of your income.

Brainstorm together on your finances
It's ideal for couples to discuss financial issues together. This is necessary because poor communication about financial matters can lead to frustration and heartache in the family. Try to consider these burning issues: (a) Discuss about your priorities for spending and saving.
(b) Pinpoint areas where you have spent foolishly and consider options for adjustment.
(c) Agree on basic rules you will both adopt for a better family budget.

Develop a workable family budget
Budgeting is very important for the immediate and future needs of your family. In budgeting, you need to keep in mind, the priority of the moment and the exigencies of tomorrow (this is called short-term and long-term budgeting/plan). Your budget must take cognizance of the following essential factors (i) The family income- total monthly take-home-pay (ii) Your fixed expenses - This includes house rent, feeding, tax, savings etc. (iii)Variable expenses - This is total monthly fixed expenditures minus your monthly take-home-pay. Consider this simple calculation: Variable expenses = Monthly fixed expenditures minus Monthly take-home-pay. (iv) How best can you wisely spend the money left for your variable expenses?

Educate yourself about Money management
You need some knowledge about the principles of money management. Ignorance of this can keep you perpetually in the chaos of financial conflicts in your family.

Don't touch retirement funds
When faced with financial peril, it's easy to look at the large sums sitting in your retirement accounts and think they'll provide the life preserver you need. Your retirement savings are there to provide for you when you're no longer able to provide for yourself. They're not emergency funds.

Be Industrious
Being industrious is a cardinal requirement for marriage. Nothing should be regarded as too mean or small to engage in.

It is also believed that paying your tithe, can be regarded as a proven basis for sound financial management and prosperity.
Read more on www.healthylifecoupon.com /Solutions to Financial Conflicts in the Family

Fitting into your child's world creates a strong bond between you and the child. Most parents with busy schedules may find it difficult to spend sufficient time with their children, yet it is extremely important that you make time to be part of their world. Here are some guidelines that can help you fit into your child's world:

Observe
Watch your child closely to determine his skill level and favorite activities. Get down to his level, and spend time with him doing the things that he enjoys, to bring out the ability and creativity in him. Show interest. By showing you are interested in what he is doing, you're showing him that you truly care about the choices he makes, and that speaks volumes about what you think of him and more importantly how he will view himself.

Understanding
A child thinks, talks, behaves, acts reacts, and responds to situations in different ways from an adult. The pubertal hormonal changes he experiences affect his behaviour. Therefore, to have a great impact on his life, you must first understand and relate with him; that is empathise with his situation, knowing that as an adult, you've been there before, and probably did worse things than he/she is doing right now.

Play
Play is fun for a child. Through play, a child learns about himself, his environment, people and the world around him. As a child plays, he learns to solve problems and to get along with others. Play enhances his creativity and develops his leadership skills and healthy personality. Play develops the skills he needs to learn to read and write. Play in early childhood is the best foundation for success in school. Positive play experiences develop positive emotional well-being, and help the child fulfill wishes and overcome fears of unpleasant experiences. Sharing play experiences can create strong bond between parent and child. You are your child's first playmate, and the richest play takes place when you take an active role and play alongside your child, rather than just providing toys or supervision.

Interact
Engage your child in discussions but limit the discussions to issues at his level. Allow him the freedom of expression and do him the honour of just listening. Allow your child express their mind and give their opinion on certain issues or happenings in the society. By doing this, you'll get to know the level of his IQ, his worries and fears, and how to help him where necessary. This will also help him build some confidence in himself. Also listen to his concerns about school, the challenges he is facing, and let him ask all his questions, even silly ones. It is when you allow him to do this that you can have the chance to put him right if he's wrong. You must not be too quick to find faults with and be slow to appreciate him. Learn to offer words of encouragement, and praise him when he does what is right.

Be informed
You need to be well informed. Sometimes you need to surf the net, read books, attend seminars, seek expert advice and watch kiddies programs to keep up to date with activities and happenings among children of his age. If you are well informed, you will be able to keep up with discussions, games, and other things that occur in his world. And this makes it possible to relate with him better.
Read more www.healthylifecoupon.com /Incredible Ways to Fit Into your Child's World

For us to remain healthy, we must eat the right type of food our body needs in the right proportion. All we need to do is to find out what they are and take them correctly. It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. But by using these simple tips, you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create a tasty, varied, and healthy diet that is as good for your mind as it is for your body. While some foods should be eliminated from our diet, some foods also needs to be included in our diet.

Foods that should be eliminated or minimized from our diet.

White refined sugar
They have few or no nutrients at all, they contain only calories. Though originally contains carbohydrate and a quick energy producer, it has however been stripped of its vital mineral and vitamins especially Vitamins B complex which is essential to the digestion of sugar/sucrose.White sugar is responsible for many modern illnesses. It is related to obesity and the obese are more disposed to diabetes which is linked to arteriosclerosis, blindness, parkinson disease, un-healable wounds etc. Diabetes has a very low recovery rate and it is a leading cause of death. It is therefore best to let go of white sugar or take it only occasionally if need be.

White flour, refined rice, white bread, pastas..
Refining process today produces finer more delicate textured flour, but it steals away the life of the grains and basic nutrients. Most of these foods provide a lot of calories but little food value which is a major cause of ill health. In the process of refining some of these foods about 20 vitamins, minerals and proteins are removed and only eight are returned by synthetic enriching of the flour. The two life giving elements of the whole grain kernel which are removed in the refining process are; Wheat germ and bran.
Wheat germ is the richest source of the nutrient vitamins like niacin, riboflavin, vitamin E & K. In addition wheat germ is necessary for the absorption of Vitamin A and for general vitality and a natural source of Vitamin B complex and high quality proteins.
Bran found in whole grain is the outer layer of the grain that contains the fiber. It is rich in folic acid that helps prevent heart disease in minerals especially iron and protein.
Some clinical tests also reveal that crucial nutrients our bodies need to fight aging and diseases, evaporate within three days of processing.

Carbonated water and soft drinks
Carbonated water has been found to leach calcium from the bones. Soft drinks may also have a harmful effect on bones because of the phosphoric acid that is injected into the drinks. It also causes abdominal bloating and gas apart from the sugar. Soft drinks are high in phosphorus in the diet. When there is too much phosphorus in the diet it can lead to osteoporosis, the bone disease also referred to as the silent disease because it's presence may not be detected until the victim is well affected.

Saturated fats
These are usually found in meat. Because they are not fluid, they can be harmful as they remain solid in the body, and therefore have the tendency to stick together and form clots after they are ingested. Eating too many saturated fats increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, heart failure, which is a leading cause of death. They clog arteries and are predispose high blood pressure. Examples are animal fats, oils that solidifies under room temperature such as margarine and butters.

Meat
Research has shown that people who eat less meat and more whole grains, fruits and vegetables have lower incidences of cancer and metabolic disease. Excess protein in the body is converted to fat in the body tissues, it can therefore make the cholesterol level soar. It over burdens the liver and causes disorder.

Foods we need to eat more of and reasons
Read more www.healthylifecoupon.com /Great Ways to Eat Healthy, Lose weight and feel Good

If you've had regular, unprotected sex for more than a year without conceiving (or six months if you're older than 35), see your doctor. Ovulatory disorders is one of the most common reasons why women are unable to conceive, and account for 30% of women's infertility. These common practices are known to contribute a major factor for infertility in women:

Sucking of the Breast
The sucking reflex will stimulate the pituitary gland to secrete prolatin (a milk producing hormone) into the blood stream. Prolatin will suppress ovulation.

Diet and Exercise
Optimal reproductive functioning requires both proper diet and appropriate levels of exercise. Women who are significantly overweight or underweight may have difficulty becoming pregnant.

Psychological Impact
Infertility may have profound psychological effect, partners may become more anxious to conceive, ironically increasing sexual dysfunction. Fear of what the in-laws can do or rejection by husband will cause this anxiety. At such a time because you are not in a relaxed state, pregnancy cannot occur.

Marital Discord
Marital discord can lead to infertility, especially when couples are under pressure to make medical decisions. For instance the wife has gone for test while the husband refuses to go.

Emotional Stress
When there is emotional stress, pregnancy cannot take place. Some women might look at a calendar many times a day to check the next menstrual time since she's expecting it. Put your mind at rest and don't engage yourself in any emotional stress, it would surely come.

Alcohol
Alcohol intake greatly increases the risk of birth defects for women and, if in high enough levels in the mother's blood, may cause Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Alcohol also affects sperm counts in men.

Clinical Depression
As a result of regret and clinical depression, some women will think or say that their spouse might have been the wrong choice for them.

Missing Relationship
For a woman to conceive certain things must happen. Intercourse must take place around the time when an egg is released from the ovary.

Effects of Dreams
Some women believe that once they see blood in their dreams then menstruation will come. Some might dream of visualizing blood. Most times, it is what you preoccupy your mind with during the day, that you dream about at night. You could pray about it too.

The chances of successful conception are higher when you know your fertile period. The first day of a period is considered as day 1. Usually on day 14, the egg is released and is waiting for the sperm to fertilize it. The egg has a lifespan of just 12 to 24 hours whereas a sperm can last for about 72 hours in a woman.
Sex on day 12 and day 16 is important as it is the time that the woman has the highest chances for pregnancy.
Read more www.healthylifecoupon.com /Common Practices that Prevents Women from Getting Pregnant

Proper communication takes place when then there’s listening and talking in the context of self-control. Marriage counsellors agree that most marriage problems are rooted in poor communication. Researchers also agree that proper family communication is a basic characteristic of a strong, healthy family. It is an essential building block of strong marital, parent-child and sibling relationships, it is extremely important in the family because it enables members to express their needs, wants, desires and concerns to each other. The truth about communication in marriage is that; you either communicate OR your marriage will disintegrate. Most marriages today are on the rock due to poor communication.
There are five levels of communication, according to experts. They are:

Frivolous level
This is the communication we experience daily in our casual relationships. For example about entertainment, weather, the latest scores, clothes, and the likes which are discussed often.

Factual level
This is a little more content oriented than frivolous communication. It digs a little deeper into the knowledge of various subjects. But there’s no personal involvement.

Fellowship level
Now we’re beginning to get a little personal. We share ideas, judgments, and philosophies. We begin to risk rejection for our beliefs.

Feeling level
In this kind of communication, we go a step deeper. We not only share ideas and core beliefs but we share our feelings about those beliefs.

Freedom level
This is the deepest level of communication. We are completely open with our mate. We share our deepest fears, dreams, ideas, and feelings-without fear of rejection. Truly intimate communication encompasses all those dreams, beliefs, and feelings you wouldn’t share with anybody else. Freedom level communication is the secret of lasting love.

Open honest communication creates an atmosphere that allows couple to give counsels and advise, as well as to express their differences, love and admiration for each other. Through Proper communication, couples are able to resolve the unavoidable problems that would arise in the family, and have a good understanding and relationship with one another.

Communication must be an exchange of feelings and information without anyone blowing up. There can be talking and listening, but when anger enters the picture, proper communication ceases. Doors of communication will swing open in the home if members will realize that time and participation on the part of all are necessary ingredients. In couple’s discussion, differences should not be ignored, but weighed and evaluated calmly. Your point or opinion as a person usually is not as important as a healthy, continuing relationship. Courtesy and respect in listening and responding during discussions are basic in proper dialogue.
Read more www.healthylifecoupon.com /Proper Communication in Marriage a Better Means to Get Rid of Divorce

Kidney disease usually has no symptoms, and it can go undetected until it gets to an advanced stage. Major risk factors include diabetes, high blood pressure, a family history of kidney failure and being age 60 or older. A simple urine test can tell you if you have kidney disease. It's important to get tested because early detection and treatment can slow or prevent the progression of kidney disease and help prevent the need for dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Ways to prevent kidney problems:
Follow a healthy diet- eat a diet low in fat and salt.
Exercise regularly
Quit smoking
Limit alcohol
Lose weight if you’re overweight or obese
Have a regular check-up with your doctor

People with diabetes and hypertension should follow these extra principles to prevent kidney problems:
Firm control of blood glucose levels
Firm control of blood pressure: aim for lower than 130/80
Read more www.healthylifecoupon.com /Easy Ways to Prevent Kidney Problems

Answer these questions truthfully, to know if you’re at high risk of contracting HIV:

Do you have more than one sex partner?

Do you know if your spouse or sex partner has sex with another man or woman?

Have you been transfused with blood in the past five years?

Have you ever had an STI (sexually transmitted infection) like gonorrhea?

Have you ever shared with another person; razor blade, pair of scissors, clippers, and needle while dressing your hair?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions, you may be at high risk of having HIV. You need to get tested to know your status.

If you have already tested positive to HIV, It's very important for you to take your HIV medicines exactly as directed. Not taking medications correctly may lower the level of immune system defenders called CD4 cells and cause the level of virus in your blood (viral load) to go up. The medicines then become less effective when taken. Some people report not feeling well as a reason for stopping their medication or not taking it as prescribed. Tell your doctor if your medicines are making you sick. He or she may be able to help you deal with side effects so you can feel better. Don't just stop taking your medicines, because your health depends on it.
Read more on www.healthylifecoupon.com