Have your parents ever told you to stand up straight? Maybe they have even poked your back when you were least expecting it to remind you not to slouch?

My parents did it all the time. Especially my mom.

It used to annoy me tremendously, to the point where when I caught myself slouching I did nothing to correct my posture.

Today no one tells me to keep my back straight. Instead the occasional neck and shoulder pain reminds me about it.

In reality, the benefits of having perfect posture go far beyond simple back pain prevention. In many cases proper posture reduces tension headaches, fatigue and eye strain, improves blood circulation and digestion, enhances sleep and makes us appear younger and more confident.

Unfortunately, overcoming bad posture habits is not that easy, especially for those of us who work in front of a computer all day.

I do not know about you, but I do a lot of sitting these days. I sit at my desk for 6-7 hours. I sit as I drive home. I sit at the dinner table with my family. I sit during the long intercontinental flights between the US and Italy. I sit while I wait for my appointments.

All this sitting puts a lot of strain on my back.

I have to go to great lengths to correct my posture and stop myself from slumping and tensing my shoulders.

Here is a complete list of 10 Easy Tips  for Perfect Posture that I find very helpful:

1. Learn what perfect posture feels like

For those of us, who have been slouching for years, sitting or standing with a straight back may feel weird and even uncomfortable. This is the power of habit. If you want to break it, you need to know what proper posture feels like.

Try this: raise your head, free up your diaphragm by straightening your back area, and roll your shoulders back, sort of relaxing them into the correct position. You can double check yourself by making sure that your ears, shoulders and hips make one straight line. As you straighten your spine, you will notice that it becomes much easier to breathe.

2. Try the Balloon Method

What I call “The Balloon Method” is a little visualization exercise that I learned years ago when I was doing artistic gymnastics. This visualization alone has done miracles to improve my posture.

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The holiday season is a wonderful time. The air is filled with joy, anticipation, the twinkling of lights and the sounds of holiday music. And without noticing, we get into a Holiday mood, buying and wrapping gifts, spending more time with friends and focusing on the people that mean the most to us.

The only problem I see during the Holiday season is food, or to be more specific it is the QUANTITY.

Usually in the four weeks from Thanksgiving to New Year I gain a few pounds which I later have to lose. This year is going to be different!

And it can be different for you as well.

Instead of kicking off the New Year with a resolution to lose weight, why not make a Pre-resolution to stay fit and heartburn-free over the holidays?

Here are 22 Great Tips that can help us have a great time without putting on extra weight:

1. Have a smaller variety of food on the table.

The greater the number of dishes on the table, the more we and our guests will end up eating. The temptation to sample a little bit of everything is what makes us feel stuffed, sleepy and bloated before the dinner is over.

You can serve fewer dishes and still make your holiday dinner feel festive. A great way to do this is to put the same appetizers and snacks into 2-3 smaller bowls and set them on different sides of the table. If you have vegetarians for dinner you can also make similar salads in two versions: vegetarian and not.

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When I was studying for my midterm exams, scheduling two and sometimes three exams a day, I secretly wished for two things:

First, that I could learn how to bend the space-time continuum, earning myself a lot more time for studying and preparing.

Second, that it was possible to upgrade my memory just as we do with our computers, leaving plenty of free space in the brain to store new information.

As you have probably guessed none of the above happened and I had to turn to more conventional ways to improve my memory and boost my brainpower.

Below are 17 fun memory-boosting tips and tricks that I found very effective. The fact that I graduated from university in just three semesters, while managing to get good grades I put down partly to the fact that I had not realized what I was getting myself into. But largely I owe it to these techniques, as they helped me to memorize loads of information in a very short time.

Whether you are getting ready for exams, would like to stay mentally sharp or are tired of looking for your keys each time you leave the house, check out these 17 Memory tips, as they might be the answer to your problems:

1. Believe in yourself.

How often do you say things like, “I’m getting old”, “My memory is failing me”, “I can never remember where I put things” This could be somewhat true, but you should not say it. Nor think it, because your belief that you have a weak memory is the number one factor that weakens it. Studies show that if people are told that “aging cause forgetfulness” it is immediately reflected in their poor performance in memory tests. The contrary is true as well. Tell yourself that you have a remarkable memory and soon you will find yourself remembering all kinds of things.

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