I’ve come to the conclusion that I know a lot of useless information.

Really interesting stuff of course, but nothing of monumental importance. So todays article is about nothing in particular.

Like for instance did you know that pine nuts come from pine cones?

I know. Weird, right?

Or that we can fall in love from a long hug? Or why hugs are just so good in general?

Apparently it goes like this.

“The average length of a hug between two people is 3 seconds. But researchers have discovered something fantastic. When a hug lasts 20 seconds, there is a therapeutic effect on the body and mind. The reason is that a sincere hug produces a hormone called “oxytocin”, also known as the love hormone. This substance has many benefits on our physical and mental health, helps us, among other things, to relax, to feel safe, and to calm our fears and anxiety.”

Or that we are born with a certain amount of breaths?

This one I personally find particularly fascinating, although it is a little “head in the clouds-ish”. I don’t know if its actually true, but its a very interesting theory regardless.

You know how you hear people saying that someone has “taken their last breath”, or to not “waste your breath” on someone? Or that something that moved you deeply, “took your breath away”?

Well, it all comes back to the theory of being born with a certain number of breaths.

Apparently the yogis up in those remote areas in those communes, live till they’re pretty ancient, because they conserve their breaths through the art of meditation.

They say that dogs only have a lifespan of roughly 10-15 years because they take on average 24 breaths per minute.

Tortoises take an average of 4 breaths per minute and live up to ages in excess of 200 years.

Elephants live until around 70 years of age in the wild, and take just 12 breaths per minute.

As humans, we take an average of 12-20 breaths per minute.

That’s why meditation is important, and not getting so worked up about such silly things.

That’s why stress is the number one killer.

Think about if you have ever had a panic attack. If you have ever gotten so worked up during a heated argument. If you had stressed yourself out so much over the silliest of things.

I recall phoning my friend in London one night in tears (not just any tears either – snot running down my t-shirt, choking and coughing, foetal position type tears), trying to catch my breath, trying to tell her what I was crying about. I’d had an argument with someone.

“Calm down. Take a deep breath. You’re having a panic attack.” she calmly told me. “Don’t let anyone make you that upset again and waste your breath like that.”

And then she told me the story about our breaths and the number of them being numbered, and the importance of conserving our breath. I snapped myself out of it, and calmed myself down.

Thats why people are always telling you to go with the flow.

Slow down. Relax. Keep calm. Don’t overthink. Don’t get upset over silly things. Don’t get mad. Don’t waste your breath.

Another thing that is a totally useless bit of information that I have been quite curious about this week, is whether or not men actually fall in love as easily as what women do.

I’m impossibly curious. I talk a lot. I ask a lot of questions. I never claim to know all the answers. Just a little about a lot of random things. So I asked my friend for the answer.

My friend tells me that not only do men fall in love just as easily as women (sometimes easier), but they also fall harder. Which I think is kind of sweet.

And then I stumbled across this quote today from Rachel Cohn, about fairytales:


And to me it was a sign, and the answer, that yes, men do indeed fall in love just as easily as women, and do want the “happily ever after” just as much as we do.

So to wrap this article up, I hope you learnt some useless information today. Its nice to have an open mind and to stay curious and be like a sponge – absorbing everything around you. It makes for interesting conversation at some stage.

Now I have to add this end bit in today.

As I was writing todays article, I was listening to music.

I listen to music all the time. In the shower, while I’m cleaning, when I wash my car, when I do the gardening, at the gym, while I’m cooking. But never whilst I’m writing.

Today though, I thought I’d switch it up a bit and attempt to listen to music whilst I wrote.

And I failed miserably. Becoming distracted by playing the air drums when the beat kicked in, or by typing out the lyrics to whatever I was listening to, instead of listening to the dialogue that was going on in my head.

I complained about this on Twitter, and one of my followers suggested I creatively combine one of the lyrics into my article.

Now I’m still listening to music as I type this, even though its driving me mad, just so I can find the inspiration to write this little bit for you @Gemmasparkle.

I love the band No Doubt. So I hit shuffle, and listened out to what message the universe was trying to tell me (because I’m a dreamer, and a hopeless romantic, and love finding meaning in things).

The song began. “Underneath It All”. And so here’s those lyrics for you:

“There’s times where I want something more, someone more like me. There’s times where this dress rehearsal seems incomplete. But you see the colours in me like no one else, and behind your dark glasses you’re…you’re something else…”

And I thought to myself – that’s it. Don’t we all just want someone to see the colours in us, like no one else?

So even though I’m a little off the wall at times, probably talk a lot of shit, and ask too many questions, I’ve gotten the message today that, I’m really lovely underneath it all.

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