Category: Lifestyle

The secrets to happiness are within the reach of almost everyone. Incorporate the habits, practices, and ways of thinking about the world that happy people use. Beware of the myths associated with happiness. Not gender, age, social, or marital status alone makes one happy.

Stress and pressures of life have negative effects on mood and behavior. They can even lead to heart attack, stroke, or depression. Positive feelings correlate with living longer and having more fun along the way. Randy Larsen and David Buss, chairmen of the Washington University Department of Psychology, co-wrote a textbook called Personality Psychology. They suggest getting in touch with the happiest times of your day, week, or month. Is it playing golf, having dinner with friends, or volunteering at an animal shelter? Try to do more of the things in your life that bring you joy. Here are a few suggestions to increase your happiness. • Just think of how lucky we are living the U.S., rather than the Middle East or somewhere else. We already have it made in terms of the opportunities in this country.

• Try to behave like an extrovert, even though it is not your disposition. Create opportunities to be social. Compliment a person at the grocery store, say hello to someone at a bus stop and have a five-minute conversation.

• Find a new outlet for energy. Clean out your closet or take a walk in a park you never visited. Try learning a new language. Walk on the beach at sunset and have dinner in a new restaurant. If you only read a certain class of book, try something new – an espionage novel or historical biography. Visit a place you haven’t been, somewhere local would be perfect for a weekend getaway.

• Have a few friends write down the five happiest days or nights of their lives. What did you think at that time and how has your perspective changed from the past to now? Get together and discuss it.

• Drop the habits of neurotic people, don’t complain. Be a listening ear for someone else and cheer up a friend who needs it.

• Don’t dwell on a problem or jump to a worst case scenario. We all spend too much time worrying about things that never happen. Keep things in perspective. • Try to find humor in a problem or even laugh at yourself.

• Decide to dwell on what is positive about your life. Before bed, make a short list of ten things you are grateful for today.

In time, that list will grow.

Life is short, and as long as you’re not hurting anyone else, do what makes you happy. But some wedding attire trends might make me change my lifelong motto. There are some things you cannot ‘unsee’ and therefore, permanent damage to one’s ability to believe in common sense is a distinct possibility. It’s not fair to invite unsuspecting folks to your nuptials, then make them watch a spectacle that will give them nightmares. If you’re going to do something bizarro, give the invitees a heads up, so they can politely craft an excuse to miss it. I thought I’d heard of everything when it came to weddings. Nope. Turns out, if you don’t keep up, the ever-increasing onslaught of weird news will run right by.

The most stomach-churning ones, to me, are the naked or nearly naked, bridal parties. The very idea gives me hives. That said, if it’s taking place at a nudist colony or nude beach, well then, anybody attending already knows what’s exposed, so those don’t count. Naked wedding parties are similar to the disappointment of going to a nude beach, because most who option out of clothing aren’t the ones we want to see in their birthday suits. From the pictures I’ve seen (my retinas will never be the same), the people who get naked-hitched aren’t exactly good-looking. That’s fine. I’m not passing judgment, I swear. But, gee golly willikers Bob, give the witnesses a choice. If invited, chances are they know the bride and/or groom and possibly much of the bridal party. They can calculate in advance how much alcohol to drink before arriving, or decide to be busy that day. I wonder if one such group knows their picture is on the first page of search results.

The bridesmaids wore G-strings and garterbelted stockings, stilettos, and red glittery pasties over their boobs. The groomsmen wore short-shorts and top hats. The generously sized bride and groom wore less than their attendants. And tattoos in the most interesting places. Not that there’s anything wrong with permanently coloring your body if that’s what you want to do. But making the rest of us aware of intimate details we really don’t want to know is just plain mean. Like the one bridesmaid who had the word “lefty” on her left breast, and “ritey” on her right breast. Yes, the tattoo artist got it wrong. Where I came from, if you could see the bride’s bra strap, it was an embarrassment. Of course, I’m from a tiny Mayberry-ish town in New Jersey.

Now I live in South Florida, and I should be used to anything and everything, but yikes. There was an expectant bride who was apparently very excited about the impending birth of her child because she wore a gown with a big hole cut out in the middle for her naked baby bump to protrude through. Another wore a topless gown to show off her enormous ta-tas, which had sequined white pasties over them. I do not understand this. I remember my father and my grandparents lamenting the new generation and the way they did things. I thought they were hopelessly old-fashioned. Jeez, maybe I’m just getting old.

Living out west in Coral Springs, Heron Bay, Parkland, and Boca Raton brings numerous natural rewards: an amazing panoramic view of the Everglades with beautiful sunsets and incomparable bird watching.

It also means sharing that beauty with wildlife. Bobcats, opossums, raccoons, and deer are valued as our unique natural treasure. Yet according to state wildlife officials, those very species are being wiped out by a singularly hungry snake that doesn’t belong here: the Burmese python. Rabbits and foxes already have shockingly vanished wherever pythons now dominate, say wildlife researchers.

In the 1980’s when pet snakes like pythons grew too large to keep, their owners “set them free” or they released themselves. It’s also believed that many more escaped when recent hurricanes battered South Florida’s pet stores and exotic animal importer warehouses.

Before long, these pesky Southeast Asian natives established themselves in the Everglades National Park, rapidly breeding and expanding their range northward.

Who can forget the unbelievable media images of huge pythons attacking and eating grown alligators, usurping the mighty gator’s place as top predator in the vast River of Grass?

Special hunts for Burmese pythons have proved ineffective because the Glades offer a very similar habitat to their home where they easily hide in high grass.

Now researchers estimate there at least 100,000 of them slithering around in South Florida. Each adult interloper reproduces an average of 30 – and up to 100 – voracious little pythons every year into Florida’s fragile ecosystem. They have gobbled up untold numbers of native animals and probably will never be eradicated, according to scientists who now only hope to keep their numbers in check.

Burmese pythons are non-venomous. Instead, they constrict their prey, literally squeezing the life out of them before slowly swallowing them whole. They are one of the most feared species of snakes because they can grow to more than 20 feet long and weigh 250 pounds. And the fact that they do not fear people, unlike most snakes, makes them that more dangerous.

So what should you do if you encounter a Burmese python in your yard? Your best choice is to just let it be. Most snake attacks are a result of the untrained trying to capture or kill them. Odds are it’s probably just passing through the area anyway. So give it some time and space to do just that

If you have small children or pets that play outside, never leave them unsupervised. To exclude pythons and other snakes, eliminate places for them to breed and hide (remove brush piles, fill in under decks and sheds, plug holes and other openings in the home exterior, keep your grass trimmed).

And always remember: Though you may fear them, most snakes are harmless and they all benefit us by eating unwanted bugs, mice, and rats.

If the python must be removed, call a humane animal control professional or a wildlife rehabilitation center. Report any Burmese python sightings to the Florida Wildlife Commission hotline: 1-888:IVE-GOT1 (1-888-483-4681) or visit Ivegot1.org.