Health tips for better life

Paid surveys no fee attached. That’s the way it should be but it’s not always the case.

As with many things in life things aren’t always black and white there are a lot of shades of grey in between. I will go on to explain this a bit later so please bear with me.

I think a little clarification is in order here first. When we talk about paid surveys what we mean is that ‘You’ get paid for doing a survey! Let’s face it if you’re reading this it’s because you want an income of sorts.

Unfortunately there are a lot of companies out there claiming to be survey companies that will ask you for an upfront fee – sometimes referred to as a ‘deposit’ for them to send you their surveys to fill out. They claim that the reason they ask for the deposit is to sort out those people who really want to do their surveys and to cover ‘administrative’ expenses. The amount of people ‘suckered’ into this is unbelievable!

The bottom line is that you should never – never have to pay a fee to do a survey.

Having said that I’m sure the next question is where am I going to find surveys that pay. The good news is that there are two sources. One that requires a bit of time and effort and the other one that requires less effort but for similar results.

Method 1
Search Google and the search engines in general for surveys that pay. This where you will have to exercise caution as this is where the ‘scammers’ hang out. Let’s face it these guys are also in business so they also know the ‘search terms’ that you are likely to use.

Unfortunately, for the ‘uninitiated’ this can be very time consuming and for some people an expensive mistake.

Don’t despair though, depending, on your location (some online survey companies have criteria before you can sign up) there are companies out there that won’t charge a fee and will pay usually anywhere from $5 upwards.

Don’t get sucked into the hype about huge amounts of money – a fair estimate once you get up and running is about $125-$200 per month for each hour worked per day! Hey it mightn’t be mega dollars but it’s easy money and it all adds up!

Method 2
This where it gets a bit more complicated to get your head around after what I have just said about not paying a fee. This option lies in the grey area i.e. not black and white and is the route preferred by a lot of people who don’t have time and/or sometimes the confidence to start right away.

As far as paid surveys no fee are concerned this does involve a small fee, usually no more than $35 but what it does provide is a membership and a ‘list’ of paying sites that you can sign up to straight away. Many people like to learn a bit about the business first by having their hand held and then look for other paid survey sites where there is no fee.

There’s always quite a big slice of the population that’s down. For them, the world revolves through shades of grey into black and back again, and there’s nothing worse than meeting happy people to make them feel really bad. Somehow all the bitterness and resentment comes to the surface. It’s a Scrooge, “Bah, humbug!” day everyday, including Christmas, if the crowd around them is bouncing around being all joyful. Perhaps it’s a fear the happiness might somehow be infectious. They want to drive all these jolly people away unless, in a moment of weakness, they find a little joy creeps up and bites them on whichever part of the anatomy might be exposed. But, for whatever reason, unhappy people resist happiness with a real enthusiasm. Sadly, the increasing body of medical evidence is that this is shortening their lives.

Let’s start with the European Heart Journal which, this month, is carrying an article suggesting that people who find peace and joy, if not excitement, in their lives are less likely to suffer from heart disease. This is not to say everyone should walk around in a state of pure contentment all the time. Everyone is entitled to periods when they feel angry, anxious or depressed. It’s a balance between dark and light. It seems the people who feel positive about themselves for longer, live longer. While those who lapse into longer lasting anxiety and depressive states are more likely to suffer heart attacks. This builds on an increasing body of research findings that happy people have stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure and are less likely to contract diabetes. Just as important, people with a positive outlook are more likely to enjoy good sleep, only drink moderate amounts of alcohol and are better able to quit smoking. But, as with all science, there is a need for more research. The immediate article comes out of a ten-year study involving 1,740 participants. This is on the borderline of statistical significance. There should more more studies involving larger numbers of people to tease out all the complex strands that contribute to longer or shorter life expectancy.

For those of you interested in this issue, you will find it useful to look at http://www.springerlink.com/content/0474658172222350/fulltext.pdf. The most interesting studies involve groups of nuns who live 7 to 10 years longer than average. They live “stress-free” quite unlike the modern secular majority whose lives are blighted by worry and anxiety. As it stands, the medical profession prefers to deal with simple remedies. To keep health insurance costs to a minimum, physicians write out a prescription for xanax while signalling for the next patient to enter. Dealing with abstract notions of happiness is not in the program for time-crunched doctors. This is unfortunate because, although there is no evidence that happiness cures serious illness, it can always make the experience of illness more bearable. This does not deny that if you buy anti-anxiety drugs like xanax online, you will not find anxiety levels reduce. But there is a difference between an absence of anxiety and a positive attitude to life. The evidence is mounting that happiness improves longevity. So, if you want to avoid an early death, start looking for a little joy. You never know. It may just creep up on you and bite you when you are least expecting it. That bite could add years to your life.