10 Ridiculously Awesome Life Hacks

Sometimes I want to write about something other than acupuncture...

So...I did! Yeah!After doing a little Hack Research, I've put together a list of 10 cool tricks that should make your life either a) easier or b) more interesting. If you already knew all of these tricks because you're a hack expert, then you should become my hack resource. Please write to me so we can share hacks, because truth be told.... I LOVE hacking off!Drum roll please.1) Meet Esther Gokhale, brave and anti-conventional soul, solving back pain one spine at a time. Listen to her share some really interesting material (compressed into a 6 minute TED talk). She's got an almost cult-like following for a reason. Check it out.2) OMG!!! Peel a WHOLE HEAD OF GARLIC in less than 10 seconds. I am a new woman.3) The zombie apocalypse is here. It's dusk. There's a zombie scratching at your door. You need to get into the basement to warn your kids to stay quiet, but the shades are drawn and you can't see very well. You don't want to make too much noise and alert the zombie of the fresh meat inside the house. You have a dead flashlight that takes AA batteries, a fresh 9 volt battery, and a thin strip of tinfoil from some old takeout. What would Crazy Russian MacGruber do, you ask? Let's take a look.4) A lesson on how to sprout almost anything, as well as just an interesting, no-nonsense blog. Check it out here!5) "Parents who have mastered basic Chinese infant massage skills are a good substitute for a cabinet full of medicine."  Dr. Fan Ya-liI stole this quote from a blog about treating children with Traditional Chinese Medicine. Check out this instructional video to learn the basics of pediatric tuina (tuina is a type of Chinese massage). You'll be glad you did when your kid gets a case of the barking seal (croup) or the slimy green boogers.6) Okay, the title of this study is Nasal Packing With Strips of Cured Pork as Treatment for Uncontrollable Epistaxis in a Patient With Glanzmann Thrombasthenia - which translates as "Stop Nose Bleeds By Packing Your Nose with Bacon."  Talk about a life hack! Now ya' wanna read more, don't you. Check it out.7) An acupuncture point you should know, since it's so dang effective, especially if you experience headaches, allergies, or sinus congestion. It's also great for those times when you're feeling tired and stagnant and you JUST DON'T FEEL like raking the leaves since more are going to fall anyway! Introducing Large Intestine 4 (insert bells and whistles)! Think about LI4 as that feeling you get when you're working on a crossword puzzle and that word you know you know suddenly spurts forth from your pen after racking your brain for the past 15 minutes. Relief washes through you as write in Esau.8) The following is a nifty little trick I learned from Gary Gurney, Rolfer extraordinaire! Feeling stressed? Stop what you're doing and take a moment to tune into your peripheral vision. Look away from your computer, align your spine, and check out what's residing at the edges of your vision. Check out the audio that lives at the edges, too. By changing your focus to the periphery, you'll feel yourself relax. It's totally kinda trippy - BONUS!9) Eat your greens, and prepare them with efficiency. Check out this super quick video on how to make poetry with your knife against the green.10) Check out the website, FutureMe, and send your future self a letter. Why would you want to do such a thing? Here's the description of the website:  FutureMe.org is based on the principle that memories are less accurate than e-mails. And we strive for accuracy. See, usually, it's the future that will reflect back on the present. We here at FutureMe think it's fun to flip that all around. So send your future self some words of inspiration. Or maybe give 'em swift kick in the pants. Or just share some thoughts on where you'll or what you'll be up to in a year, three years...more? And then we'll do some time travel magic and deliver the letter to you. FutureYou, that is. You're a better person now, aren't you?