There are many effective methods of teeth whitening available, but some come with heavy price tags. Here are some steps you can take at home to whiten teeth naturally without breaking the bank.
Things You’ll Need:
Straw
Toothbrush
Lemon Juice
Salt
Baking soda
Hydrogen peroxide
Strawberries
Step 1: Limit your consumption of drinks that stain tooth enamel. A few of these include coffee, tea and red wine. If you simply can't cut back on these beverages, consider drinking them though a straw to limit the amount of liquid that actually comes in contact with teeth.
Step 2: Brush your teeth immediately after eating, especially if eating foods that stain easily, such as berries.
Step 3: Rub raw strawberries on your teeth, preferably pureed. There is an enzyme in strawberries that acts as a whitening agent. You'll want to brush and rinse after applying the strawberries to remove the natural sugars and acids they may leave behind.
Step 4: Eat crunchy foods that require a lot of chewing such as carrots, celery, broccoli and apples. These foods are abrasive and will remove built up plaque, which dulls the appearance of teeth.
Step 5: Dip your toothbrush directly into baking soda and brush. The results are worth the lousy taste.
Step 6: Combine lemon juice and one teaspoon of salt to make a paste-like substance. Brush your teeth and rinse. Again, not so pleasant on the palate, but your teeth will thank you.
Step 7: Use hydrogen peroxide to brush your teeth. Dip your toothbrush into a small capful of the peroxide and brush as you would with regular toothpaste, being careful not to swallow. Rinse with water.
- Tips -
Consider using one of the several whitening toothpastes on the market that have all-natural ingredients.
Brushing after every meal and flossing regularly are the first steps in maintaining a healthy smile.
Colours propel their presence in all locales and objects that we encounter in our day-to-day activities. Colours also specify certain moods and qualities. Take a glimpse at the significance of colours and use them appropriately in your Valentine's Day attire and gifts.
Red Red is the colour of energy, liveliness, love and sexual passion. That is why red roses, red attires and gifts wrapped in red play a dominant role on Valentine's Day. Red communicates your passion towards your beloved or towards love itself. Maroon and brick red symbolize fun and love.
Pink Pink is an expression of freshness, love, affection, understanding and sweetness. Pink can be the ideal choice for Valentine's Day and will subtly help bring to surface the love for your partner. It can also add more love into your lives.
Orange Orange is the colour of energy, creativity and practicality. It also denotes happiness and can pep up your moods when your spirits are low.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Peach Peach can bring about care, sweetness and serenity in your love. A peach dress or a shirt can look good on both men and women on Valentine's Day.
Yellow Yellow signifies inspiration, spontaneity, communication and novelty. This colour's liveliness and vitality encourage conversation. So communicate your feelings for your loved one near a soft yellow flamed candle. A Yellow dress for a woman will do well on Valentine's Day.
Blue Light blue symbolizes creativity, perceptivity and sensitivity. It also ushers a peaceful and a calm scenario and so is effective to smoothen or balance your emotions. Freshness is one of its properties and is suggested if you prefer a more steady and paced approach to your feelings.
Dark blue signifies intelligence, self-reliance and deep feelings. A combination of blue and green can promote self-expression. Dark blue can be an ideal colour for a man for Valentine's Day outfit.
Green Green suggests humanism, benevolence, observance and caution. Though a bit cautious in every approach in life and relationships, it induces understanding which is one of the most important requirements in one's relationship. Dark green shirt for a man and lighter shades of green for women's outfit will make good Valentine's Day attires.
Purple Purple denotes intuition. Intuitions play a major role in romance. This in turn can induce passion. Grapes are always oriented with love and wine is always a chosen gift for the loved one during Valentine's Day. Purple is purely feminine and a light purple or a mauve outfit for a woman will generate cuteness on Valentine's Day.
White White is a colour of purity, optimism and innocence. It consists of all the colours in the spectrum. White roses given to your beloved can mean ' You are celestial' or 'our love is pure'. They can be employed denoting the impeccable love that has stood the test of time and trials.
Both men and women can choose a white outfit for the Valentine's Day.
Grey Grey denotes good judgment capabilities and also non-involvement. So it may not be the right colour to be chosen for Valentine's Day dress or a setting. Though a beautiful shade on its own, it does not bring in the freshness desired for Valentine's Day when worn by a woman. However a grey outfit for man can look fine.
Brown and Black Black and Brown can both be incorporated in a man's Valentine's Day attire individually. Black denotes independence, authority and boldness while brown stands for honesty and a down to earth attitude towards life. Women can opt for more feminine and pastel shades for Valentine's Day.
So choose your outfits and gifts with the appropriate colours on this Valentine's Day
The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful.” - Dalai Lama
Life could be so much better for many people, if they would just spot their negative thinking habits and replace them with positive ones.
Negative thinking, in all its many-splendored forms, has a way of creeping into conversations and our thinking without our noticing them. The key to success, in my humble opinion, is learning to spot these thoughts and squash them like little bugs. Then replace them with positive ones. You’ll notice a huge difference in everything you do.
Let’s take a look at 10 common ways that negative thinking emerges — get good at spotting these patterns, and practice replacing them with positive thinking patterns. It has made all the difference in the world for me.
10 Deadly Sins of Negative Thinking
1. I will be happy once I have _____ (or once I earn X).
Problem: If you think you can’t be happy until you reach a certain point, or until you reach a certain income, or have a certain type of house or car or computer setup, you’ll never be happy. That elusive goal is always just out of reach. Once we reach those goals, we are not satisfied — we want more.
Solution: Learn to be happy with what you have, where you are, and who you are, right at this moment. Happiness doesn’t have to be some state that we want to get to eventually — it can be found right now. Learn to count your blessings, and see the positive in your situation. This might sound simplistic, but it works.
2. I wish I were as ____ as (a celebrity, friend, co-worker).
Problem: We’ll never be as pretty, as talented, as rich, as sculpted, as cool, as everyone else. There will always be someone better, if you look hard enough. Therefore, if we compare ourselves to others like this, we will always pale, and will always fail, and will always feel bad about ourselves. This is no way to be happy.
Solution: Stop comparing yourself to others, and look instead at yourself — what are your strengths, your accomplishments, your successes, however small? What do you love about yourself? Learn to love who you are, right now, not who you want to become. There is good in each of us, love in each of us, and a wonderful human spirit in every one of us.
3. Seeing others becoming successful makes me jealous and resentful.
Problem: First, this assumes that only a small number of people can be successful. In truth, many, many people can be successful — in different ways.
Solution: Learn to admire the success of others, and learn from it, and be happy for them, by empathizing with them and understanding what it must be like to be them. And then turn away from them, and look at yourself — you can be successful too, in whatever you choose to do. And even more, you already are successful. Look not at those above you in the social ladder, but those below you — there are always millions of people worse off than you, people who couldn’t even read this article or afford a computer. In that light, you are a huge success.
4. I am a miserable failure — I can’t seem to do anything right.
Problem: Everyone is a failure, if you look at it in certain ways. Everyone has failed, many times, at different things. I have certainly failed so many times I cannot count them — and I continue to fail, daily. However, looking at your failures as failures only makes you feel bad about yourself. By thinking in this way, we will have a negative self-image and never move on from here.
Solution: See your successes and ignore your failures. Look back on your life, in the last month, or year, or 5 years. And try to remember your successes. If you have trouble with this, start documenting them — keep a success journal, either in a notebook or online. Document your success each day, or each week. When you look back at what you’ve accomplished, over a year, you will be amazed. It’s an incredibly positive feeling.
5. I’m going to beat so-and-so no matter what — I’m better than him. And there’s no way I’ll help him succeed — he might beat me.
Problem: Competitiveness assumes that there is a small amount of gold to be had, and I need to get it before he does. It makes us into greedy, back-stabbing, hurtful people. We try to claw our way over people to get to success, because of our competitive feelings. For example, if a blogger wants to have more subscribers than another blogger, he may never link to or mention that other blogger. However, who is to say that my subscribers can’t also be yours? People can read and subscribe to more than one blog.
Solution: Learn to see success as something that can be shared, and learn that if we help each other out, we can each have a better chance to be successful. Two people working towards a common goal are better than two people trying to beat each other up to get to that goal. There is more than enough success to go around. Learn to think in terms of abundance rather than scarcity.
6. Dammit! Why do these bad things always happen to me?
Problem: Bad things happen to everybody. If we dwell on them, they will frustrate us and bring us down.
Solution: See bad things as a part of the ebb and flow of life. Suffering is a part of the human condition — but it passes. All pain goes away, eventually. Meanwhile, don’t let it hold you back. Don’t dwell on bad things, but look forward towards something good in your future. And learn to take the bad things in stride, and learn from them. Bad things are actually opportunities to grow and learn and get stronger, in disguise.
7. You can’t do anything right! Why can’t you be like ____ ?
Problem: This can be said to your child or your subordinate or your sibling. The problem? Comparing two people, first of all, is always a fallacy. People are different, with different ways of doing things, different strengths and weaknesses, different human characteristics. If we were all the same, we’d be robots. Second, saying negative things like this to another person never helps the situation. It might make you feel better, and more powerful, but in truth, it hurts your relationship, it will actually make you feel negative, and it will certainly make the other person feel negative and more likely to continue negative behavior. Everyone loses.
Solution: Take the mistakes or bad behavior of others as an opportunity to teach. Show them how to do something. Second, praise them for their positive behavior, and encourage their success. Last, and most important, love them for who they are, and celebrate their differences.
8. Your work sucks. It’s super lame. You are a moron and I hope you never reproduce.
Problem: I’ve actually gotten this comment before. It feels wonderful. However, let’s look at it not from the perspective of the person receiving this kind of comment but from the perspective of the person giving it. How does saying something negative like this help you? I guess it might feel good to vent if you feel like your time has been wasted. But really, how much of your time has been wasted? A few minutes? And whose fault is that? The bloggers or yours? In truth, making negative comments just keeps you in a negative mindset. It’s also not a good way to make friends.
Solution: Learn to offer constructive solutions, first of all. Instead of telling someone their blog sucks, or that a post is lame, offer some specific suggestions for improvement. Help them get better. If you are going to take the time to make a comment, make it worth your time. Second, learn to interact with people in a more positive way — it makes others feel good and it makes you feel better about yourself. And you can make some great friends this way. That’s a good thing.
9. Insulting People Back
Problem: If someone insults you or angers you in some way, insulting them back and continuing your anger only transfers their problem to you. This person was probably having a bad day (or a bad year) and took it out on you for some reason. If you reciprocate, you are now having a bad day too. His problem has become yours. Not only that, but the cycle of insults can get worse and worse until it results in violence or other negative consequences — for both of you.
Solution: Let the insults or negative comments of others slide off you like Teflon. Don’t let their problem become yours. In fact, try to understand their problem more — why would someone say something like that? What problems are they going through? Having a little empathy for someone not only makes you understand that their comment is not about you, but it can make you feel and act in a positive manner towards them — and make you feel better about yourself in the process.
10. I don’t think I can do this — I don’t have enough discipline. Maybe some other time.
Problem: If you don’t think you can do something, you probably won’t. Especially for the big stuff. Discipline has nothing to do with it — motivation and focus has everything to do with it. And if you put stuff off for “some other time”, you’ll never get it done. Negative thinking like this inhibits us from accomplishing anything.
Solution: Turn your thinking around: you can do this! You don’t need discipline. Find ways to make yourself a success at your goal. If you fail, learn from your mistakes, and try again. Instead of putting a goal off for later, start now. And focus on one goal at a time, putting all of your energy into it, and getting as much help from others as you can. You can really move mountains if you start with positive thinking
Now we know the Pakistani claim regarding the death of senior Al Qaeda leader Mustafa Abu al-Yazid -- also known as Sheikh Saeed -- was an exaggeration. Now we also know that the Pakistani 'deep state' possesses the godly capacity to bring a dead man alive.
In August last year, nameless Pakistani security officials gave the widest possible publicity to the international media by claiming that Yazid was killed in a Pakistani military operation in the Bajaur area along the Pakistani-Afghan frontier. Within days, of course, jihadi 'chat rooms' quietly began clarifying that Yazid was very much alive. But then, the world scarcely takes notice of jihadi chatter and the Pakistanis succeeded in planting a good story affirming their sincerity in the hunt for Al Qaeda.
At that time, of course, it suited the Pakistani security establishment to 'take out' Yazid. For, he had recently claimed responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. 'We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat (the) Mujhideen,' he was reported to have said.
Yazid's video message, which surfaced on Tuesday, is a serious development. He pointedly warned India of future Mumbai -style attacks. Referring to India's 'humiliation' in Mumbai, he threatened, 'India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan. The Mujahideen will sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan.' Yazid also called on the Pakistani people to overthrow their civilian government and President Asif Ali Zardari.
The Yazid phenomenon quintessentially underscores the mystique that surrounds Al Qaeda. The common impression is that Al Qaeda is a corporate body with a CEO, a No 2 and a treasurer and so on. In fact, Yazid himself is commonly referred to as Al Qaeda's 'financier.' But Al Qaeda is an idea and many forces conveniently work under its rubric. The pertinent question today, therefore, as we deconstruct Yazid's video message is, 'Who stands to gain?'
This takes us to the timing of Yazid's reincarnation. He has resurfaced even as India's rhetoric over Pakistan-supported terrorism has sharply escalated. Within the past week, there have been strong statements by Congress president Sonia Gandhi invoking the name of Indira Gandhi in the India-Pakistan context, and by army chief General Deepak Kapoor that 'surgical strikes' against Pakistan are feasible to be undertaken by the Indian armed forces.
Two, Pakistan is about to hand over to New Delhithe findings of its so-called investigation into the Mumbai attacks. By now it is clear that the Pakistani establishment is going to tell us to go and climb a tree -- at least, for the present. Islamabadestimates that whatever American 'pressure' on the issue has probably run its course. But New Delhi is now hard-pressed to consider the range of what the Indian officials have been repeatedly claiming as 'all options'. Three, Yazid's appearance coincides with the arrival of Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the region.
Yazid's message to the Indian establishment is blunt: 'Don't ever think of undertaking any military adventure against Pakistan, as we too have the capability to hit you hard within India.' This is probably the first time that Al Qaeda has publicly assumed this role -- as the defender of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity against an Indian threat.
Equally, there is a manifest attempt here to ratchet up India-Pakistan tensions and bring them on focus as a core issue in the agenda of discussions that Holbrooke will be developing during his visit to India. The Pakistani establishment does not like US President Barack Obama's body language. Nor has it taken kindly to Obama's decision to keep out India and Kashmir problem from Holbrooke's mandate. But it is confident that the last word has not been said in the matter, either. It will do the utmost to see that Holbrooke's mandate is expanded somehow or other.
Yazid's timely appearance is part of the Pakistani gameplan. Pakistan will want Holbrooke to focus on India's heightened tensions in relations with Pakistan. What better way to do this than by concocting an Al Qaeda video that is certain to receive huge publicity in the US? (Yazid, incidentally, is cited as a key plotter in the report of the US government commission investigating the 9/11 attacks.)
Yazid is no ordinary guy. He is nothing less than the Pakistani security establishment's 'asset' within the Al Qaeda. It is he who interfaces with Jalaluddin Haqqani, Pakistan's ace figure within the Taliban's politico-military structure. It is in extraordinary moments like this that the smokescreen lifts just enough for the onlooker to steal a glance inside the mystique world of what passes for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
What Holbrooke is going to deal with in Pakistan is far beyond the realms of cognitive processes. There is nothing like this in the Balkans where he impressed with his forceful diplomatic skills. The Khyber is a mysterious place that breeds poltergeist stories. Yazid's reappearance testifies to the region's strange powers.
