text: For years I've been drinking at least three to four cups of tea a day. For a long time I had been using straws in order to prevent teeth discoloration. Well, I recently learned that chemicals from regular straws often melt into hot drinks! Some straw wrappers print warnings which say "not for hot beverages", but most people take is as a warning associated to being burned. In fact, it's because the hot water extracts chemicals from the straw into your cup of hot coffee or tea and it can be harmful to ingest. Scientists us the same process to extract chemicals from materials they want to analyze. The thought of ingesting these chemicals into my body (3-4 times a day!) set me out to hunt for an alternative.
  After researching better ideas online, I came across a product called Hot Straw. Hot Straws are reusable, Eco-Friendly straws made especially for hot drinks. Here's a quick list of benefits to using these straws:
  These 4-pack straws come in two sizes, 7 or 9 inches, and are available in red, pink, or blue. Originally designed to help Parkinson's patients as a way to drink hot beverages without difficulty, 5% of Hot Straw sales continues to go to Parkinson's Research. Hot Straw was even awarded the Best New Non-Consumable Product award of 2012 by Coffee Fest.
  My husband and I are using these at home and at work. We are really pleased to have found a healthier option that has the added bonus of being reusable. Not only am I very happy to find such a fantastic alternative to the straws I have been using for so long, I think these straws would be a great idea for kids as well. Because of the flat, double holed design, I could see these straws being easier for little ones to use. I've already recommended them to my friends and family!
  Disclaimer: As always, our reviews our our own, honest opinions and may differ from yours. We are appreciative to Hot Straws for allowing us to try their product.
  We often find thoughts like these going around in our heads: "The buses are always late" or "She must be annoyed with me" or "I'll never be any good at my job". Well science has shown that the beliefs we have about why things happen to us can affect our happiness and our health. [1][2] But the good news is that we can learn to challenge this negative self-talk.
  Martin Seligman and his colleagues have shown that the way we see the causes of events that happen in our lives has a big impact on our well-being. When bad things happen, if we have an 'optimistic explanatory style' we're less likely to give up easily, more resilient to depression, more likely to perform better at challenging work and have better physical health than people with a more 'pessimistic explanatory style'. [1][2] This isn't because fewer bad things happen to us, but the way we explain these things to ourselves is different.
  When things go wrong, if we have a pessimistic style we see it as all our own fault (me); that things like this will always go wrong and never be any different (always); and that its not just in this one area or part of our lives that this thing goes wrong, but the other parts too (everything).
  On the other hand, if we have an optimistic style we tend to think that the reasons were outside of ourselves (not me); that the problem was just limited to now (not always); and only affect the one area that the problem occurred in (not everything). [2]
  It isn't a question of being blindly optimistic in our explanations or failing to see how we contribute to problems. It's about becoming more aware of our natural style and being able to challenge ourselves if our explanations are unhelpful. A pessimistic style can be as unrealistic as an overly optimistic one and it certainly doesn't help us to be happy. So it's about being a realistic optimist. Find out how below.
  Let's look at three examples of everyday things that happen and see how we might explain it to ourselves using either an optimistic or pessimistic style:
  Example 1: A friend doesn't call. Here the optimistic style might say: "She must be busy" whereas the pessimistic style might assume: "She must be annoyed with me".
  Example 2: The bus is late. Here the optimistic style might say: "The bad weather must be causing problems" whereas the pessimistic style might conclude: "Buses are always late".
  Example 3: You get something wrong at work. Here the optimistic style might say: "I struggle with doing that stock report" whereas the pessimistic style might decide: "I'll never be any good at my job".
  Step 1: Catch yourself. Next time something bad happens - What are your first thoughts about why it happened? What do you say to yourself?
  Was it always or not always? What might be the reasons this happened this time specifically? What is the evidence that it happened at other times? When didn't it happen?
  Was it everything or not everything? What is the evidence that it happened in other areas of my life? In what areas of my life doesn't it happen?
  Step 4: Get on. Now is there anything within your control that you could usefully do or change to move forward?