Be grateful and you?ll never run out of writing ideas.
In honor of the forthcoming holidays, here?s a post on using gratitude to come up with writing ideas.
You might call your journal a notebook or diary. It?s the handy place where you store your thoughts, ideas, experiences, and your work, either on paper or in an electronic file.
A journal is an ongoing log, usually with dated entries. Some journals are topical (dream journals, travel journals, freewriting journals), while others are left open to explore just about anything.
Many topical journals are meant to improve the quality of life. For example, people who are working to lose weight might keep a diet and exercise journal. Folks who are trying to better themselves might keep a self-improvement journal. Parents may keep a journal of their children?s development. But there?s another type of journal that suits just about anyone, writers and non-writers alike, and that is the appreciation journal.
Journal Writing and Gratitude
Where do you get your journal writing ideas? Do you ever sit down to write in your journal and find that you don?t have anything to say? When you practice daily gratitude, you?ll always have something to write about.
There are a couple of ways to use gratitude to inspire journal writing ideas:
Every morning, spend 15 minutes writing about one thing you?re grateful for.
Every night, write a short list of things that happened throughout the day that you?re thankful for.
Don?t limit yourself to writing about big, momentous things. Be grateful for the little things, too. You can even dedicate a notebook for your daily gratitudes.
Over time, you?ll find that you have a lot to appreciate. You may also notice people around you who are ether appreciative or unappreciative. These observations can inform your fiction and poetry writing and will certainly influence your work if you write memoirs or personal essays. For example, a gracious neighbor could inspire a character for your novel, just as an ungrateful co-worker could inspire a villain in one of your stories. The people and things that you appreciate could become the subjects of poems and essays.
Benefits of Gratitude
While exploring your own gratitude can provide you with plenty of writing ideas, there are other benefits as well. Here are five reasons why documenting what you?re grateful for can be beneficial:
A great way to start your day. It?s not always easy to roll out of bed and propel yourself into your daily routine. Some days it?s downright dreadful, like when you know you have to attend a long, boring meeting, take a test, or see the doctor. If you write in your appreciation journal in the A.M., it will jump-start your day on a positive note and a day that starts off good is less likely to turn sour.
Good for the soul. The process of thinking about what you are grateful for and expressing your gratitude just makes you feel good. This could be contagious, and other people around you might absorb some of that positive energy. This makes life better for everyone.
Promote positive thinking. Because the things for which you?re grateful are the positives in life, when you focus on them, you are directing your attention away from the negatives. According to some experts, concentrating on the good things in life attracts more good things to you.
Generate new thoughts and ideas. This is especially useful for creative people, like writers. When you force yourself to sit down each day and think about something, the result is a string of thoughts and ideas. Some of these will be great fodder for articles, stories, and poems.
A great way to end your day. When it?s time to wind down and shift into relaxation mode, thinking about the good things in life will help you clear your mind and put you in a lighter, brighter mood. That?s an excellent way to prepare for a decent night?s sleep!
Over the years, I have kept an appreciation journal on and off. I find that after a few weeks of daily gratitude in my journal writing, being thankful becomes second nature. Though some days there?s not enough time to write down my thoughts, I try to start off each day by thinking about at least one thing that I?m truly grateful for. The result? My attitude is more positive, it?s easier for me to put a smile on my face (even when I?m dealing with adversity), and minor annoyances tend to roll off my shoulder. I just feel better overall. I?ve also found that thankfulness in myself and others (or lack thereof) has given me plenty of writing ideas, especially when I?m creating characters.
Try it for yourself and see how beneficial gratitude can be!
Do you keep an appreciation journal or any other kind of journal? Have you ever written a list of things that you?re thankful for? What are they? Do you spend much time on your own journal writing? How do you use your journal to promote creative thinking and inspire fresh writing ideas?
About Melissa Donovan Melissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter. She writes fiction and poetry and is the founder and editor of Writing Forward, a blog packed with creative writing tips and ideas.
The iPad is Apple's tablet computer, unveiled in January, 2010, and launched in April, 2010. The second generation of the iPad -- the iPad 2 -- was unveiled on March 2, 2011. It will be available for sale in the U.S. on March... More ?
Energy-sensing switch discovery could have broad implications for Biology & Medicine
Monday, October 22, 2012
Biochemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered a genetic sequence that can alter its host gene's activity in response to cellular energy levels. The scientists have found this particular energy-sensing switch in bacterial genes, which could make it a target for a powerful new class of antibiotics. If similar energy-sensing switches are also identified for human genes, they may be useful for treating metabolism-related disorders such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
"This discovery adds a new dimension to our understanding of how cells sense and manage their energy levels, which is one of the most important processes in biology," said the study's senior author, Martha J. Fedor, a professor the departments of Chemical Physiology and Molecular Biology and a member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI.
The findings are described online ahead of print on October 21, 2012, in the journalNature Chemical Biology.
A Fuel Sensor
This type of gene-switching sequence is known as a riboswitch because it appears on the strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that is first transcribed from a gene's DNA. Unlike other known riboswitches, which have relatively limited functions, this one acts as a sensor for the basic molecular fuel that powers all living cells and controls many genes.
The newly discovered riboswitch detects a small molecule known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the standard unit of chemical energy in all known organisms on our planet. Scientists had thought that cells use only large and relatively complex proteins to sense these all-important energy molecules and adjust cell activities accordingly. No one had found ATP sensors among riboswitches, which can alter cell activity at a more fundamental level?usually by interrupting a gene's transcription from DNA.
Moreover, previously described riboswitches are relatively simple feedback sensors that affect narrow metabolic pathways. Most of them merely sense and adjust the expression rate of their own host gene. "This is the first riboswitch that is known to be involved in global metabolic regulation," said Fedor.
In recent years, the Fedor team had found hints that such a riboswitch could exist. Many RNA sequences with possible riboswitch activity had never been characterized, and several riboswitches in bacteria sense molecules that are closely related to ATP. Fedor and a graduate student in her laboratory, Peter Y. Watson, therefore set out to find bacterial riboswitches that could indeed sense ATP.
Caught in the Act
The task was more challenging than it might have seemed. Watson could not simply expose suspected riboswitches to ATP and see which ones stuck best to the energy molecules. ATP is present in high concentrations in cells, and its interactions with its known protein sensors are necessarily fleeting, low-affinity affairs. Interactions with a riboswitch would be expected to look the same. "Such interactions are really too weak to be detected using traditional methods," Watson said. But he found evidence that an RNA interaction with an ATP-like molecule would occur in a way that allows the brief coupling to be caught in the act?using a burst of ultraviolet radiation, which can create a strong chemical crosslink between two molecules.
In this way, he discovered a stretch of apparent ATP-binding RNA known as the ydaO motif. Watson performed structure-mapping analyses of ydaO to confirm that it binds to ATP and to determine precisely where it binds. Attaching ydaO to a "reporter" gene, he found that in bacterial cells, the reporter gene's expression level stayed low when ATP levels were normal and rose sharply when ATP levels dropped?as would be expected if ydaO is really an ATP-sensing riboswitch. Even in unaltered cells of a test bacterium, B. subtilis, levels of the genes that normally contain the ydaO motif rose and fell in the same way in response to changing ATP levels.
The ydaO motif occurs in the large subset of bacteria known as gram-positive bacteria. Across these bacterial species, it has been found, to date, on 580 separate genes. "These ydaO-regulated genes encode proteins that have a wide variety of functions, from cell wall metabolism to amino acid transport," Watson said. "It makes sense that a riboswitch in control of such disparate processes would be responding to a central metabolite such as ATP."
New Possibilities
The finding has basic scientific importance because it is the first known example of a riboswitch that binds ATP; it is also the first known riboswitch that has such broad regulatory functions. "It opens up the possibility that RNA switches are involved in the general regulation of metabolism," said Fedor.
The fact that ydaO motifs serve as "off-switches" for key bacterial genes also makes them a potential target for new antibiotics. "Hitting these riboswitches with a small-molecule, ATP-mimicking drug so that they can't turn on genes that promote bacterial growth and survival could be a viable approach," said Fedor.
Her laboratory will now search for other ATP-sensing riboswitches in bacteria and in higher organisms, including humans. A human ATP-sensing riboswitch, if targeted appropriately by drugs, might be able to alter cell activity in ways that help treat common metabolic disorders. Type 2 diabetes, which presently affects several hundred million people worldwide, is known to feature the improper regulation of ATP levels in cells.
Funding for the study, "The ydaO motif is an ATP-sensing riboswitch in Bacillus subtilis," was provided by the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI.
###
Scripps Research Institute: http://www.scripps.edu
Thanks to Scripps Research Institute for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
Pennsylvaniastate officials are en??couraging government employees to figure out ways to spend less money and work more efficiently.
Gov. Tom Corbett put out the call for ?innovation initiatives? in March, and so far, 130 are in progress. Six employees this summer earned recognition from the governor. The significant results of their ideas:
Cutting the time it takes construction companies to obtain highway occupancy permits from a month to 10 days by allowing them to apply for permits online instead of in person. The state is looking at the new system for other permits as well.
Saving $2 million a year by requiring state employees to submit receipts for every expense on travel reimbursement requests. Previously, ?travelers had to show receipts only for high-dollar expenses. Employees in three departments worked together to make the change, which also lowered the mileage reimbursement rate. Employees are also now required to choose the most cost-effective vehicle for business trips?a fleet vehicle, a rental car or a personal car or truck.
Whittling the time it takes staff to prepare files for welfare benefits appeals by 80 hours a month by sending transcripts electronically. Employees used to have to photocopy, collate, organize, pack and send hundreds of documents for every court case. Bonus: The court receives the files within a week of opening a case, much faster than the previous eight weeks.
Redirecting about $200,000 per year in former administrative costs to programs that directly help prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The savings resulted when providers were allowed to accept payment directly from a patient?s insurance company rather than filing claims with the state.
Contact: Dan Egan in the Office of the Governor, (717) 772-4237.
Like what you've read? ...Republish it and share great business tips!
Attention: Readers, Publishers, Editors, Bloggers, Media, Webmasters and more...
We believe great content should be read and passed around. After all, knowledge IS power. And good business can become great with the right information at their fingertips. If you'd like to share any of the insightful articles on BusinessManagementDaily.com, you may republish or syndicate it without charge.
The only thing we ask is that you keep the article exactly as it was written and formatted. You also need to include an attribution statement and link to the article.
" This information is proudly provided by Business Management Daily.com: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/32582/pennsylvania-recognizes-workers-who-help-cut-state-costs "
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) ? Police say three people are dead ? including a 3-year-old child ? after a shooting at an apartment complex in northwest Ohio.
Mark Hummer, the police chief in Lake Township near Toledo, said a man shot five people in two apartments Tuesday night before coming outside and firing on officers. Two officers returned fire and killed him.
Besides the child, a 26-year-old woman ? believed to be the estranged girlfriend of the gunman ? was killed. Three other people shot in the apartments were hospitalized.
Hummer said two are in serious condition, and one is in guarded condition.
The chief said the officers responded to a reported domestic situation at the apartment complex at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
No names have been released. Hummer planned a news conference later Wednesday.
___
Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com/
Dan R. Littman, M.D., Ph.D., elected member of prestigious Institute of MedicinePublic release date: 16-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Deborah Sabalusky Deborah.Sabalusky@nyumc.org 212-404-3567 NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine
IOM membership is one of the highest accolades for outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in medicine and health
NYU Langone Medical Center announced today that Dan R. Littman, MD, PhD, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology, a professor in the departments of pathology and microbiology, and a faculty member in the Molecular Pathogenesis program in the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, has been elected a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Seventy new members and ten foreign associates were named during the IOM's 42nd annual meeting on October 15. Dr. Littman is NYU School of Medicine's ninth faculty member to be elected into the IOM.
"Being elected into the IOM is an extraordinary honor and is evidence of the remarkable and important contributions Dr. Littman has made to science and medicine," said Robert I. Grossman, MD, dean & CEO at NYU Langone Medical Center. "We congratulate Dr. Littman on receiving this significant distinction."
A renowned immunologist and molecular biologist, Dr. Littman has made seminal contributions to numerous fields including understanding the molecular basis of immune recognition, HIV pathogenesis, T-cell differentiation and selection and most recently, the role of commensal bacteria in immune system development and regulation. Dr. Littman is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, a member in the National Academy of the Sciences, and is a fellow in both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Microbiology.
Dr. Littman has been a leader in applying molecular biology and mouse genetics to study specification of T lymphocyte lineages and the differentiation of inflammatory T helper cells. Early in his career Dr. Littman isolated the genes for the CD4 and CD8 co-receptors and determined how their expression is regulated and their signaling influences selection of helper and cytotoxic cells. His group subsequently went on to demonstrate that CD4 and CCR5 collaborate as co-receptors for HIV, leading to therapeutic targeting of CCR5 in AIDS, and the demonstration that HIV evades host innate responses by failing to replicate in dendritic cells. In recent work, Dr. Littman discovered that the nuclear receptor ROR-gamma-t regulates differentiation of Th17 cells and lymphoid tissue inducer cells, and identified compounds that inhibit its activity and may be effective for autoimmune disease therapy. He identified a commensal gut bacterium that selectively induces Th17 cells and promotes autoimmunity in mice, which may be relevant for human diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, thought to be influenced by imbalanced microbiota. His work has thus had major impact in both immunology and virology, and is being translated into therapies for multiple diseases.
Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM is recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. New members are elected by current active members through a selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.
"The Institute of Medicine is greatly enriched by the addition of our newly elected colleagues, each of whom has significantly advanced health and medicine," said IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg. "Through their research, teaching, clinical work, and other contributions, these distinguished individuals have inspired and served as role models to others. We look forward to drawing on their knowledge and skills to improve health through the work of the IOM."
The newly elected members raise IOM's total active membership to 1,732 and the number of foreign associates to 112. With an additional 84 members holding emeritus status, IOM's total membership is 1,928. IOM's charter ensures diversity of talent among the Institute's membership by requiring at least one-quarter of the members to be selected from fields outside the health professions, such as engineering, social sciences, law, and the humanities.
###
About NYU Langone Medical Center
NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated, academic medical center, is one of the nation's premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of four hospitals Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the world's first university-affiliated facility devoted entirely to rehabilitation medicine; the Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the nation dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology; and Hassenfeld Pediatric Center, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services across the Medical Center plus the NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. The medical center's tri-fold mission to serve, teach and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education and research. For more information, go to www.NYULMC.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Dan R. Littman, M.D., Ph.D., elected member of prestigious Institute of MedicinePublic release date: 16-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Deborah Sabalusky Deborah.Sabalusky@nyumc.org 212-404-3567 NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine
IOM membership is one of the highest accolades for outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in medicine and health
NYU Langone Medical Center announced today that Dan R. Littman, MD, PhD, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology, a professor in the departments of pathology and microbiology, and a faculty member in the Molecular Pathogenesis program in the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, has been elected a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Seventy new members and ten foreign associates were named during the IOM's 42nd annual meeting on October 15. Dr. Littman is NYU School of Medicine's ninth faculty member to be elected into the IOM.
"Being elected into the IOM is an extraordinary honor and is evidence of the remarkable and important contributions Dr. Littman has made to science and medicine," said Robert I. Grossman, MD, dean & CEO at NYU Langone Medical Center. "We congratulate Dr. Littman on receiving this significant distinction."
A renowned immunologist and molecular biologist, Dr. Littman has made seminal contributions to numerous fields including understanding the molecular basis of immune recognition, HIV pathogenesis, T-cell differentiation and selection and most recently, the role of commensal bacteria in immune system development and regulation. Dr. Littman is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, a member in the National Academy of the Sciences, and is a fellow in both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Microbiology.
Dr. Littman has been a leader in applying molecular biology and mouse genetics to study specification of T lymphocyte lineages and the differentiation of inflammatory T helper cells. Early in his career Dr. Littman isolated the genes for the CD4 and CD8 co-receptors and determined how their expression is regulated and their signaling influences selection of helper and cytotoxic cells. His group subsequently went on to demonstrate that CD4 and CCR5 collaborate as co-receptors for HIV, leading to therapeutic targeting of CCR5 in AIDS, and the demonstration that HIV evades host innate responses by failing to replicate in dendritic cells. In recent work, Dr. Littman discovered that the nuclear receptor ROR-gamma-t regulates differentiation of Th17 cells and lymphoid tissue inducer cells, and identified compounds that inhibit its activity and may be effective for autoimmune disease therapy. He identified a commensal gut bacterium that selectively induces Th17 cells and promotes autoimmunity in mice, which may be relevant for human diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, thought to be influenced by imbalanced microbiota. His work has thus had major impact in both immunology and virology, and is being translated into therapies for multiple diseases.
Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM is recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. New members are elected by current active members through a selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.
"The Institute of Medicine is greatly enriched by the addition of our newly elected colleagues, each of whom has significantly advanced health and medicine," said IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg. "Through their research, teaching, clinical work, and other contributions, these distinguished individuals have inspired and served as role models to others. We look forward to drawing on their knowledge and skills to improve health through the work of the IOM."
The newly elected members raise IOM's total active membership to 1,732 and the number of foreign associates to 112. With an additional 84 members holding emeritus status, IOM's total membership is 1,928. IOM's charter ensures diversity of talent among the Institute's membership by requiring at least one-quarter of the members to be selected from fields outside the health professions, such as engineering, social sciences, law, and the humanities.
###
About NYU Langone Medical Center
NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated, academic medical center, is one of the nation's premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of four hospitals Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the world's first university-affiliated facility devoted entirely to rehabilitation medicine; the Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the nation dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology; and Hassenfeld Pediatric Center, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services across the Medical Center plus the NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. The medical center's tri-fold mission to serve, teach and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education and research. For more information, go to www.NYULMC.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tASqEU3ozxhfuf3szC7-JeNzvKag9uwPRJpWYoSH76r79tb8DepR451dfm63kHclq4Z_PHjjHB98lDlGWxnizW7NqSDYQckHyH0OGKSo4=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 16-Oct-2012
Share ]