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Click the play button at the end of this post to listen to the audio or save it by right clicking the text link and choose save as or save link.

I had the pleasure to talk to  a friend of mine and one of the legends in the personal development field… about goal achieving.

You know I am  always telling my friends and my clients, that it is so important to take time to sit down and think about what you really want in life and write down specifc goals that you want to accomplish. Most people go through life with just vague ideas on what it is that they want. Goal setting is something I believe we all should learn about! And wouldn’t it be great if we would encourage our children to be goal achievers from the start.

And the best person I can think of to talk about this is John Kanary.  John is inspired by the programs created by the Earl Nightingale, and John has really done what he is teaching.  John applied the principles he was learning to his own life and business before moving into the self development field with Bob Proctor where he shared the teaching and development of the Born Rich program.

John has inspired thousands of individuals from all walks of life to understand and realize their true potential. He will help you understand that ‘Being the Best’ is nice, but ‘Being YOUR Best’ is everything.

So, get ready to discover the exact formula for achieving your goals…

Enjoy and let me know what do you think?  I always love hearing from you!  Do you already have specific goals? What did you learn from this call? What questions do you have to John? Let me know!  And remeber to spread the word by re-tweeting this to your Twitter friends and facebook friends down below…

Have a wonderful day!

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To listen to the podcast, click the play button underneath this post or download it to your computer.

Let me share a personal story with you. Something that is commonplace in everyday interactions. When I was a child, I must have been around five or so and it was spring. My mother was so proud of all the beautiful flowers that my parents had in their garden. After a long Swedish winter the first daffodils were blooming and communicated a feeling new beginnings and spring. She was really happy for her flowers.

I saw the same flowers…and I decided to pick a beautiful bouquet to my mother, to tell your I loved her…and the more the better, right I picked ALL the flowers, and then I knocked on the door and when she opened it, she could barely see me standing there behind all of those flowers.

Now, she understood my thought behind this deed. And although she felt a bit sad for not having the flowers in the garden any longer, she responded with open arms and hugs and kisses. I was very proud that I had made my mother so happy! We had flowers all over the house, even in the play house after this.

My mother was wise enough to realize  that my intentions were good. We had seen different things in the same situation. And if we look at it, it is obvious that we do that. I mean we have all experienced different things in life and we look at the world correspondingly. But if we develop the awareness that our children have not yet learned all the rules and other people might not have the same background as we do in a certain situation, then we will have an understanding of why it is people do as they do…and sometimes even expand our own interpretation of different situations.

For example, think of something that you did for the first time. Something that you had never done before, say play baseball. You probably would have a different understanding of what the game was all about when you went to the first practice, than you would have after your tenth practice…right? You see, life is like that, and before we encounter something, we can’t really expect to know anything about it.

I believe that is so important to take that with us when we raise our children. There are so many things that we as adults have alreday learned and now master, but that our children face for the first time. And we as adults often make that mistake to treat our children as they should already have known. But how could they? And truthfully, if we look at our children’s perception of the world we will learn a lot that we have forgotten along the road to adulthood.

This is true in any encounter with another person. We all interpret the world around us differently. And I hope that you after listening to this podcast get a better understanding of this, so that the next time your children or your spouse do something really “stupid” then you can take a step back and regard the situation and try to see what that other person really saw in the situation.

So, what about you? What are your experiences regarding perception and misconceptions? Do you after listening to this have any examples of times where you now understand that you have reacted to a situation that you misread? I’d love to hear from you! Comment on this post and share your insights!

If you like this then please share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Enjoy!

As I was driving my children to daycare today we had the radio on. I was listening to it and my thoughts drifted away. I was thinking about all the things I was going to do today. I thought of my to-do list: “I must remember to mail that very important letter to my accountant, I need to make that phone call, I must remember to send the instructions to my webmaster for the new blog layout” and so on.

And it struck me: I was not really there. We were sitting right next to each other, but I wasn’t there. I was planning my day ahead of me. To be honest I have been a bit pre-occupied in my thoughts lately, my online business is launching, I have great projects coming up and I have a fairly long to-do list. And that is all very exciting but the truth is that what is most important for me is to spend precious moments together with my children, and here I was waisting them without being aware of it.

So this experience really reminded me to step back and focus my attention on what is going on right now and be with my children. I turned the radio off and started to talk to them instead. And when you are present; you start hearing and seeing things that you would normally miss when you are not present. You know those unspoken things, like body language and the spark, or lack of it, in their eyes.

For example, you might have seen parents busy talking to a friend on the phone while on the playground, and instead of being there NOW, kicking the ball with their children or watching them go down the slide, they are waisting that moment talking on the phone. And they might miss out on the proud expression in their child’s face when he or she manages to build a wonderful sand castle, they might miss out on how their child finds a wonderful treasure (like a brown leaf – that could very well, in their child’s mind, be just the most wonderful treasure…) because they focus their attention on something else. They miss out on the wonderful little miracles that we will add to our memory bank and that really are the joy of being a parent.  And really those moments, when you are there NOW, are the ones your children will remember. Not the presents you give, but the presence you give!

Sometimes we may think that we need to do something; making a phone call or sending an email before we have time to be with our children. Like me, you might have excused that by saying that before we can do that, I need to do this because it is so important, but if we think about it, what is more important; to make that phone call right now or to take advantage of the time we have with our children NOW? And what message does that convey to our children? We should all make an effort to make them feel important and worth-while, and by saying that something else is more important, like sending an email….Kind of makes one think, right.

Actually, with today’s technology; cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, and on and on.. we can stay in touch with friends, family and business partners very easily. And I love these services a lot! However, my point is that we should put it into practice to turn them off when we are having a family activity or are together. At least mute them  and only use them if it’s REALLY important.

For example, maybe you have seen updates on Facebook or Twitter where parents write something like “I am having fun playing soccer with my daughter” or something similar. If that is true, then they are not really there, they are telling their friends about them playing soccer but they are not there mentally because they are thinking about updating their friends about it and take time to leave the soccer to submit that to their friends. I hope you follow me.

Within a few days I will release another video in my free video series called 6 Power Parenting Principles (you can get them by signing up for my newsletter and I talk about how you can prioritize your days to have more time and less stress. That is not the topic of this article, but I cover a great example that I have learned from Earl Nightingale about being more effective; to focus and finish one thing at a time. The same principle applies here I think. When we are together with our children, then we should focus on that and finish that before moving on doing something else. That will enable you to be there NOW with your children and you will certainly see all those wonders that you might have missed before.

Sometimes we are overwhelmed by worry or stress and we might think that we need to focus on that to the exclusion of all other things….our children included. We might think that it would be nice to spend time together… but there is no way I can do that,  I have to many problems to take care of first. Well, the truth is that the more we focus on the problems we have, the more of it we will have in our lives.

Instead I encourage you to start focusing on what you already have in your life that you are greatful for. That will open you up to receive more of the good that you desire. Stay tuned for my next post where I will talk about the importance of feeling gratitude. 

Being a parent is wonderful and I am so grateful for all the adventures I get to experience together with my children! So how about you? What are you doing to spend quality time with your children and spouse?  What do you find challenging when it comes to being present? I would love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comment box below. And make sure you re-tweet or share it to your friends on Facebook (of course after you have finished reading this so that we can all encourage each other to live NOW!

Keep up the good work! Thank you for being here NOW!

Before I end, let me ask you this: if today was your last day, would you have any regrets? Listen to the lyrics of the song below and start making each moment count together with your children! Enjoy!

Have a wonderful day,

Click the play button to listen to the audio or save it by right clicking the text link and choose save as or save link.

Download the interview (26 Minutes – 24 MB)

Click Here For Instant Access to More FREE training from MindbodyFX

In this fantastic interview, I had the opportunity to talk to Melonie Dodaro the founder & CEO of MindBody FX. She specializes in changing the way people think so they can achieve permanent weight loss.

The fact is; it is important to send your children the right messages when it comes to health and their weight. And you are a role model for your children and you form their eating habits that they take with them for the rest of their lives, unless they choose to do something about it when they grow up.

Melonie has taught thousands of people how to have permanent weight loss and develop healthy eating habits.

Feeding our children good foods and being healthy is something that we all should be doing. But being a busy parent and trying to keep up with cooking, knowing what to feed your childen and maybe not having the right cooking skills may sometimes feel overwhelming … instead we might go for a quick solution.  Melonie can help you change your perception towards food and how you can choose a healthy diet and stick with it permanently. You lead by example and what you teach your children they will grow up to be.

Inside this interview you will learn:

• How to develop a positive self image in our children so that they feel good about their bodies.
• How your shift in thinking will help you choose healthy choices
• How to be able to choose healthy eating habits for busy parents
• What healthy eating is and that it is more simple to choose healthy than people think
• How to change your perception and start enjoying making foods
• How you can set goals about eating healthy
• Why you shouldn’t reward your children with food
• How to stop whining at the dinner table
• How to find the motivation to choose healthy eating habits
• And much more….

What I really like about Melonie’s approach towards weight and healthy eating habits is that she talks about changing the mindset and the attitude so that you can have permanent changes in your life. And in this interview she really over delivered and  really gave a lot of very valuable information.

If what Melonie talks about resonates with you, you can opt-in here for sample chapters from her new book:

http://www.mindbodyfx.com

Enjoy the recording and share it with your friends! Retweet or click the like button to share it with your friends! Let’s spread the word on how to choose healthy eating habits for your children.  I would love to hear from you.

Please comment below!

Have a wonderful day

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We want to develop and raise our children to follow their own hearts and not conform to things that they don’t think is fair, just because they want to fit in or don’t want to deal with the consequences of maybe letting someone down when they go after what they truly want. As long as they don’t violate someone elses rights then they should be taught to follow their inner guidance. And you are a great influence on them to become such a person.

The truth is, we as parents have a great influence on our children. We teach them so much, without being aware of it sometimes. It’s not always what you say, but what you do… For example, if you tell your children that they shouldn’t scream at their siblings, and then when they do something that you consider to be a bad behavior; YOU scream at them – then your children will be confused by these mixed signals. You might tell them that they can’t do something because they are too young or some other reason that will limit them and prevent them from becoming all that they can possibly be.

You need to be consistent in your job as a role model. In other words, look at yourself and your own behavior in different situations to get a better understanding for why your children might behave as they do. Sometimes you might find that you are in fact giving mixed signals and you can change that unwanted behavior in yourself. Of course, you won’t be able to eliminate all unwanted behaviors and attitudes in your children by only changing yourself and doing nothing else, but you help your children by giving them a consistent example of one person who lives life to the fullest and have self-worth.

If you want to learn more about this then feel free to watch this free video on this site:
Live your dream and be a great role model www.myvibrantfamily.com/blog/rolemodel

Stay connected and have a wonderful day!

Part one link

This is part two in my article series called Creating Harmonious Family Homes. In part one I discussed how colors affect us and how we can use different colors to feel and behave in certain ways. In this article I will  discuss some hidden messages that could be, and most likely are in some way or another, lurking around your home, affecting you and your children’s self-image and consequently also the results you are getting in life. The purpose of this article is to open up your eyes to some of the messages you and your children are exposed to everyday that could result in a lowered self-esteem, or used correctly a positive self-image.

Our Five Senses Are Always On

We have been trained to use our five senses to pick up information around us. These five senses are always on. When we wake up in the morning we just need to open our eyes in order to see (provided of course that we can see) and the same is true with our other four senses.  We can hear, see, taste, touch and smell. Think about that for a moment! We have five senses that are always on, gathering information and bombarding us with it. Are you aware of all the information that is presented to you all the time? And are you aware of how it is affecting you and your children?

Why is this important to understand when we are talking about creating a harmonious family home?

I am not going to go into much detail here about how the mind works and how our thoughts control our feelings and actions, because I cover that in other articles and in my programs. However, it is important for you to understand that what you pick up with your five senses, you have the ability to accept or reject. We pick up much information everyday that we just let slip by without us even reflecting on its value to us. You see the information we accept will also be accepted by our subconscious mind.

Our subconscious mind does not have the ability to reject, it knows no limitations, and will just gladly accept anything that is being presented to it. When the same ideas are repeatedly presented to our subconscious mind – those ideas will become our beliefs and habits.  Consequently, they will set our bodies in action and determine our results in life. Can you see now, how our thoughts are responsible for our results in life?

We sometimes say that children are like little sponges and that is very true! Our children do not develop their conscious mind until the age of around six (depending on what psychologist you read). That means that all the information that is presented to our children under the age of six is accepted as the truth, and will determine what they will become.

Let’s look at some of the messages in your home that might be affecting you and your children, without you even realizing it!

Television and Radio

What is it like in your home? Is the radio or television always on in the background? There is nothing wrong with that. However, what is the message of the shows? You might think that you are not listening to what they are saying and consequently not exposed to the message. You might not be consciously aware of what they are saying, but your five senses are always on. That means that your subconscious mind will pick up the message and accept it (because the subconscious mind can only accept). Unless it is a positive message that you would like to have in your life, I would advise you to turn it off. There are so many negative things that are said on television and radio that you don’t want to slip by unnoticed. Because you are not consciously listening to what they are saying, you are not consciously choosing your thoughts either.

Look at what your children are watching on television or what computer games they are playing. Are those shows and games conveying a message that you would like your children to be exposed to? They don’t have the ability to reject the information, and if it is not a positive message that you think will benefit your children and their self-image, then you should find a show or game that does.

Print on Clothes

My son got a t-shirt from a relative (who wanted to be nice and give him a gift). And the print read “under achiever”. I think that was a great example of negative messages that could be influencing our children’s self-image. Considering the fact that what our children pick up with their five senses go straight to the subconscious mind and is accepted as the truth, messages like these could be devastating to their self-worth.

What you accept as the truth on a repeatedly basis, you will get in your life

What messages does your house convey? Look at posters, pictures, paintings, movies, etc. Do they send out a positive message that you want in your life?  The messages of those will be affirmations that you are exposed to everyday. Knowing what you accept as the truth on a repeatedly basis, you will get in your life, you’d better make sure that those messages are positive ones. In fact, you can make your own paintings with affirmations on what you would like in your life.

For example, if you would like to feel peaceful throughout your day you could write an affirmation like I move through my day with inner peace and serenity. I always keep my calm! That is a positive message to wake up to, don’t you think.

I hope this article has given you inspiration and that you can use it in your life. I would love to hear about your experiences and what messages you have discovered in your home that you weren’t aware of before. Please, comment below and let us know your concerns and success stories!

The next article in this series will cover some ideas on what you can do to have a more organized home, and free up more time for fun things.

Until then, I wish you a wonderful day!

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I was talking a walk the other day and I saw a family playing in their yard. They seemed to be quite active and the son in the family was running around screaming. The dad was starting to get annoyed by his son’s screaming and started to scream at the top of his lungs to the child “DON’T SCREAM!”

I was watching this and I thought to myself. How interesting, this person doesn’t know what he is teaching his son. He thought that he could scream and expect the child to be a calm and peaceful individual. I thought that this was interesting. I mean sometimes when we are in the midst of a situation – it can be difficult to see what we are actually doing.

I belive that parenting all starts in the mind and I truly believe that the more we can focus on ourselves as adults, the better the results we will see in our relationships.

Ashley Montague said There are few if any occasions in our lives when we have been angry or lost our tempers on which we can look back without regret. (quote found in Wayne W Dyer’s book What Do You Really Want For Your Children).

I don’t know about you, but I think that everyone wants to live a peaceful life on the outside as well as the inside. So, what can we do to create a positive environment for our children that is serene and peaceful?

I am a true believer that everything starts within ourselves and how we perceive things. We cannot give anything that we don’t have ourselves, right. In other words if we feel anger or victimized under current situations, we will most likely expose that to our children.

It is important for us as parents to learn about how the mind works. In my ebook How To Raise Confident, Successful and Happy Children by Changing Your Mindset Paul Martinelli and I talk about that, so I will just touch briefly on it now. that I will post on soon.  Children up to around 10-years of age (depending on which psychiatrist you study) have not yet developed the conscious mind.

That means that they don’t have the ability to reject any ideas that are exposed to them. They accept anything that is given to them.
This means, that if we want to create a serene and positive environment – we need to provide a serene and positive environment. Everything that is presented to the child, the child will become to believe and form habits of doing the same thing.

I know that there are situations that are very stressful and we feel like we have problems that just eat us up. I have gone through an emotional journey myself, starting when I felt very stressed and thought I would have a heart attack. It isn’t easy to change the way we think, especially when we feel painted into a corner. However, no matter what we are facing right now (no problem or big problems), you always have a choice about your attitude and the mental environment you provide to yourself and your child.

If you start taking control of your inner peace you will get more back. It is like a boomerang. What you send out, you will get back. In other words, cause and effect.

When you have looked at yourself and how you feel inside and what you are modeling for your child, remember that you need to guide your child to be able to live a serene and peaceful life. They don’t have the same experiences as you do yet, and there are many things to be learn. We as parents are only guides and we need to let our children know how to behave, but also let them try their own wings.

To wrap this up. If that dad  I told you about in the beginning chooses anger as his major expression (I don’t know if he does, I don’t know this family), he can expect to have an angry child.
Let’s make this the best moment of our lives!
Have a wonderful day

Anna
P.S. I’d love to hear from you, please comment on this article and share your thoughts with the rest of us.

I hope things are great with you!

A few days ago my children and I visited with some friends. We were out playing in the snow and we just had a blast. It is such a treat to play with children and really take in all those impressions and happy faces. I love that.

Anyway, I thought I would share an incident that happened with you, as I believe we need to remind ourselves often times that we all perceive the world differently and that one thing that is obvious for an adult might not be perceived the same way by a child.

Our friends’ oldest daughter is seven years old. We were sitting down having a snack, when she suddenly looked at me and said “are you Jesper and Isabella’s grandmother?”. Her parents both felt embarrassed by their daughter’s question.

I can understand their reaction, but it just reminded me how we percieve the world so differently. You might have heard parents say to their children “do this” and the child won’t do whatever it is that the parent wants him/her to be done. To the parent it is obvious how to act in that situation, but the child might not know what the parent is talking about, simply because they have not been in that sort of situation before.

Many times we raise our voice and say the same thing again, without realizing that the child has heard us the first time, but just not understood what we were asking. I heard someone once say that “it is like putting someone who has never seen football and put him or her on a football field in the middle of a game, and just say play” You know, if the child has not experienced it before, then we can expect them to know how to act, right.

And regarding the comment from the daughter of that family, I think it just shows that we change our perception as we learn more (that is true for children AND adults). But it doesn’t mean that just because children are children, their actions and opinions are not as important. They are! And children should be treated as a complete human being.

One more thing that I would like to add is also something that we can learn from children. That girl, she didn’t say that to offend me, but her parents were upset with her because they thought I would be. For her, being a grandmother was nothing bad, it was just a relation, you know.  Somewhere along the way we learn that comments like those are offensive, but that is just a choice that we make, if we want to be offened by someone else. Paul Martinelli says “what other people think of you, is non of your business” and isn’t that a great quote!

Have a great day and please comment on this and share your OPINION

Anna

Welcome to this first article in a series of two about creating harmonious family homes! My name is Anna Liljekvist and I am a family life coach and the creator of www.myvibrantfamily.com . I have just bought a new house for myself and my children and in this article series I want to discuss some points with you on what you can do to change your life and live your dream life, by making small changes to your home. My last home was not ushering in positive energy and I have done some research about changes that I will make on my new house to get more positive energy and feel better. I want to share this information I have found with you as I think it will benefit you. 

I was having a conversation with a friend a while ago, and we discussed the fact that many people are longing to get away on vacation to recharge their batteries, so that they could work and have the energy to take care of their families for another year. That is a disturbing thought that many of us feel like we have to get away to be able to feel peaceful inside, don’t you think? I know it used to cross my mind many times, that “I need a vacation”.  And in this article series, I would like to discuss some things we can do with our homes to change our perception on life and being able to enjoy  the moment and being able to recharge our batteries every day. Because, we deserve to enjoy life all the time!

Being a parent is a challenge and it is a very important job that we as parents do every day, so that our children will grow up as healthy, confident and happy people. But we should not drain ourselves of energy in the process. Our children will not benefit from that! When we take care of ourselves we set an example of a person who values herself of himself – and that is what we want for our children, right. Your children will model l you, hence by taking care of you, you will also take care of your children

Are you longing for a vacation right now to go somewhere with your family to relax and recharge your batteries? Maybe you want to get away from the chaos at home?  Away from all the chores to do, errands to run, diapers to change, all the homework and you might just feel overwhelmed and out of balance? You might have a stressful job and maybe you don’t feel that your home is providing you with serenity? Maybe the global economy has affected you and maybe you feel depressed and you feel like you need a break?

Well, this article is not about planning your next family vacation. Vacation should be something fun and not a solution to solve ones problems or to be able to relax. This article is about creating a harmonious family home. My purpose with this article series is to give you some ideas on what you can do in your home to make a shift and get an aha-moment about small things that might affect your results, without you even knowing it.

In this first article I want to talk about colors and how they affect us.

Do You Know What Color Might Be Causing You To Feel Angry?

Colors are very important to us. Did you know that they control our thoughts, feelings and bodies? Have you ever noticed how different colors make you feel in a certain way? The wrong color in a wrong place is just…wrong.

When it comes to your home, what colors do you have on the walls, curtains, cushions, etc? What colors are your clothes? Obviously, you should wear and decorate your house in colors you like. We are all unique and respond differently to different colors depending on our personality and background.  But you can look within and find what colors you are drawn to right now and which colors you definitely don’t need right now. Because colors affect us, we might need different colors in different situations depending on where we are right now. Sometimes you might not stand a certain color, simply because you have too much of that color’s characteristics in you already and you might need another color, whose characteristics you lack in your life right then.

Right now I am drawn to the color green. Not a dark green, but a light color. And I was amazed to find out that green is the color of new beginnings and a better future. As I said I have just bought a house and my divorce has just recently come through. I have also come online with my business. This is definitely a new beginning for me.

Learning about the effect that colors have on us, can help you to change behaviors and feelings, hence it is important to choose colors depending on the situation or, in your house, what the room in your house is for. For example, if your child is shy in some situations you could have them wear orange, as this color creates enthusiasm and happiness and also help you feel stronger about yourself.

In your house it is great to have orange in a room, where you want to have a lot of conversations and hang out. It stimulates change, development and expansion.

If you have a very active child, you might not want to put them in red colored clothes as this is an active and outgoing color that stimulates courage and strength. If we already are very active and outgoing, too much red can cause us to feel aggressive.

But red is also warmth and energy. If a person is surrounded by the color red, the body will react with higher blood pressure and the pulse will be faster. The body wakes up and you want to start doing something fun, and it helps you release negativity.

You know we all have different levels of self-confidence in different situations. And by learning about colors is one way of helping yourself and your children when it comes to self-confidence. If your child is very confident at home but nervous in other situations, it might help them to wear the appropriate color (the topic of self-confidence is very important and involves a great deal more than colors, but colors will put your body in a certain mood.).

Green is the opposite of red and it has a calming effect on you. If you want to feel safe and taken care of you can use the color green. It is also a healing color. Furthermore, it is associated with success and wealth. This is a color for serenity and not for situations where you want to be active.

Pink can be used if you or your children are worried, angry or unhappy. It is healing and calming.

Purple is soothing and connected to our intuition and a conscious mind. This color is best used on accessories, like cushions, curtains, etc, in your house and not for entire rooms. It is good for creativity and artistic activities.

Blue and purple are similar in energy. You can use blue to find inner truth. Is stimulates and conveys peacefulness, reliability, stability and success.

It is also said to release pain and help you sleep better. If you use it in your bedroom you can also add some red or pink, or it will cool your passion… If you feel drained of energy too much of it can make you feel sad. But it is a calming color that can help you feel safe, gain a better perspective and more joy.

If you feel stressed you can use the color blue to help you lower your blood pressure and pulse.

There are obviously more colors to learn about, but I hope this has opened something up for you and helped you understand that we can work with colors to create the atmosphere we are looking for in our homes by using colors deliberately. You don’t have to redecorate your whole house now, but you can look at your house and your wardrobe and see what colors you have and what colors you need.

I would love to hear from you about your experiences and I look forward to hearing from you. Please, comment on this article below and share your experiences with the rest of us. What have you done with your home that improved the quality of your life? What questions and concerns do you have?

In the next article in this series I will discuss some hidden messages that could be, and most likely are in some way or another, lurking around your home that are affecting you and your children’s self-image and consequently also the results you are getting in life.

Until next time, I wish you a wonderful day.

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