The better person you are, the better people, life situations and opportunities you will attract in your life. This is no mystery; there is no need for complex mathematical equations to understand this. What you give, you simply get back. Yet, in the fast-paced, egocentric world we live in today, it is easy for us to lose ourselves in this mediocre life.

We all want better lives, yet very few of us show much interest in being better people. I’ve worked in catering for the past six years of my life and man, the amount of arrogant and rude customers I’ve met in my entire career as a server, is outstanding. I GET IT – Often times, in the rush to achieve things, what might otherwise be used to flourish one’s character into becoming a better, more decent human being, becomes lost to selfishness and ambition.

BUT, do you ever reflect back and think about how you could’ve approached a situation differently? Like, not make fun of that one person just because he/she followed a tremendously different lifestyle than yours? Or not lash out at your loved ones simply because you had a horrible day at work?

Well, it’s a new year and with a new year, comes new chances. So, here are some tips you could put into practice on the path to becoming a more likeable, better person this year.

1. Be respectful

Learn to value other people’s perspectives, efforts, time and space. Put yourself into someone else’s shoe and ask yourself how you would want to be treated if you were that person – don’t cut in lines, don’t leave your thrash for someone else to clean, don’t discriminate, and words, such as, “please” and “thank you” come along way.

2. Be thankful

No matter how difficult life may be at a given moment in time, there is always something to be thankful for. You can always have more, but you could also have less, so appreciate all that you have, because somewhere, someone else is having it much worse than you.

3. Become a better listener

Stop yapping and start listening. Listen intently to your friends, parents, coworkers etc. Show people on the other side of the line that you are empathetic and that you care about what they have to say. Don’t always fall into the trap of being the talker.

4. Listen to your body

Your body is your temple. It breathes for you and pumps blood for you just so it could keep you alive. Learn to listen to your body’s signals. Are you feeling gross all the time or overly tired? Do you feel stressed? Maybe its time you cut down on too much junk food and processed food and ate healthily and exercised more often. Go for a walk or a jog. Put that bicycle to use and go cycling or get a gym membership. Socialise, take time for fun doing activities, spend more time with friends who make you feel good and allow other people to help you with tasks.

5. Learn to say no

Do you ever feel like you have too much on your hands, but find it hard to deny something to others? Saying yes to a task when the timing is not right, will only add extra stress to your life. Don’t sacrifice your own happiness. Being stressed will only make your life and the life of everyone around you miserable. Learn to say "no’ when the time is not right and "yes’ only when you are able to or truly agree with carrying on the task.

6. Learn to say yes

Stop turning down your friends and family invites to parties, movies and dinners. Don’t fall into the trap of shrinking back or opting out from situations. Don’t sit and stew at home. Saying "no’ to everything is only a product of wallowing in one’s own misery. Be positive. Get up, go out and live.

7. Give your all

Whether it is school or work, just give it your all. It’s my final year of University and often times I feel like giving up, but then I think to myself why give up now after all these years of hard work? Just give your all, then whatever happens, happens. Whatever the outcome it is not the end of the world. Remember, that you only teach yourself better by really trying.

8. Broaden your horizons

Go out and explore, do something you’ve never done before.  Explore a foreign land, go to random festivals, try a new sport, learn a new language, learn how to play an instrument, take an art class or go to dance lessons – It’s never too late to do anything. Broadening your horizons will allow you to grow, because you experience something new.

9. Unplug yourself from the electronic leash

Stop being so distracted and disconnected to the real world. Put your smartphones, iPads and laptops away and really connect to what is going on around you. Go to nature, enjoy the sunshine, spend more quality time with your loved ones and engage in more face-to-face interactions.

10. Help somebody

Whether giving up your seat to an elderly person on the bus, sharing an umbrella with a stranger on a very rainy day, helping someone carry his or her belongings, or assisting a coworker with a project, helping others is one of the most effective ways to become a better person. Helping will not only brighten up your day, but the day of everyone else around you.

11. Be accepting

Stop being so angry, hateful and judgmental all the time. Hate and anger will only make life harder for you and the people around you. Wouldn’t life be more peaceful for everyone if everyone simply accepted one another? In a world of almost 7 trillion people, how can you expect everyone to share the same beliefs and viewpoints as you? Learn to accept others for who they are, with their differences. Gay, straight, black, white, atheist, religious- at the end of the day, we are all human. So accept.

Are you a good person? No doubt. Can you be a better person, however? Yes. In order to be a better person and to have a better life, change is needed. Change can be scary, but why not embrace it? Life can’t be lived between the walls of our comfort zone. Everyone should want to be a better person. We have a finite amount of time on this Earth, so why not make it as pleasant as possible for ourselves and everyone else around us? If everyone tried to be better, everything would be better. Think about it.

The post 11 Tips to Becoming a Better Person this Year appeared first on The Third Eye.

Whether physical, sexual or emotional, domestic violence should never ever be condoned appropriate. Whether married or in a relationship, a fight between partners should never go to the extent of physically or psychologically abusing one another. Domestic violence is not a choice. No one should ever live in fear of the person they love, and no one person who loves another should ever feel the need or urge to use such extreme measures to meet resolutions, because if anything, problems do not get fixed this way.

In my opinion, people who turn to violence and abusive behavior always have a choice, and contrary to many people’s belief that domestic violence and abuse is due to the abuser’s loss of control over his or her behaviour, or them simply acting out of instinct, it is none but a deliberate choice (which could be avoided) made by the abuser, in an attempt to control the abused. To be so ignorant and in denial and to justify such an inhumane act, as most people do despite an ever-growing awareness, is a major cause for concern, because how will things ever change if people keep on believing that it is OK to condone abuse when it is done by your partner?

Other than that, when speaking of domestic violence, the first picture that is often drawn up in everyone’s head is a battered wife who has physically been violated by her husband. Truth is, this is rather misleading because men too could be victims of domestic violence and contrary to popular belief, it is not just women who suffer from domestic abuse, but men too. Many seem to overlook the fact that men can also be victims, and because of certain social stigmas that would otherwise (if reported) be attributed to them, men themselves often take domestic violence for granted.

Truth be told, I strongly believe that there is an urgent need to change the attitude in the way people view and approach the issue of domestic violence. There are ample organisations that offer protection and refuge to the abused nowadays, without the need to include the police. People should not be afraid to speak up. No one deserves to be beaten, nor bruised, nor verbally abused and truth in point if a person truly loves you, they would never go to that extent to harm you.  

Always remember that a relationship where one partner feels the need to control, manipulate or dominate is no stable relationship, because a healthy relationship is one where two independent beings come together as equals.

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1. How to Get Away with Murder

How to Get Away with Murder is ABC’s new compelling legal thriller, executive-produced by the very people who brought to the screens, Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. This show, starring Academy-Award Nominee Viola Davis, as a fierce yet brilliant criminal defense professor, takes murder to a whole new level, when she together with five of her most ambitious law students, who she picks to work at her prestigious law firm, get caught up in a murder plot that jolts the entire University, and changes the course of the students’ lives forever.

Why you should watch it. A compelling show full of thrills, twists and cheats with a touch of both college-like drama and the bitter-sweetness of everyday life.

2. Flash

Flash is DC’s latest superhero-based television show starring Grant Gustin (formerly known for his role as Sebastian Smythe on the Fox Series Glee) as Barry Allen aka Flash. This CW series chronicles the life and adventures of Barry Allen, a young scientist who is struck by lightning after an advanced particle accelerator malfunctions at the city center, bathing everyone with an unknown form of radiation. Ellen who is driven into a coma, awakes nine-months later only to discover that he has the ability to move at superhuman speed, a gift which he uses to protect Central City from “metahuman” criminals who developed the same mutation as he did after the malfunction.

Why you should watch it. A show full of action, drama, paranormal occurrences and the never-ending search for the super-hero’s mother’s actual “metahuman” murderer.

3. Gotham

Gotham is the creation of none but Bruno Heller, the mastermind behind shows like Rome and The Mentalist. It chronicles the life of detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) long before the birth of Batman, and his rise to prominence from rookie detective to Police Commissioner and ally of Batman. This Fox Series also acts as an origin story of DC’s most peccable super-villains and vigilantes, which foreshadows the life of young Bruce Wayne long before his Batman days, and foretells the origin stories of several Batman villains, including Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman and Poison Ivy among others.

Why you should watch it. A brilliant masterpiece which mixes the genres of action, crime and drama outstandingly well, and one which raises brows with its brilliant showcasing of a time where the villains we so know of today, were still merely in their infancy (or at least their thoughts of world damnation was).

4. The Affair

The Affair is perhaps Showtime’s most elusive and provocative drama of the year. It recounts the psychological effects of an affair between Noah Solloway (Dominic West), a married New York City schoolteacher, parent to four children, and struggling writer and Alison Lockhart (Ruth Wilson), a young married waitress from the resort town of Montauk in Long Island who’s struggling to piece her life and marriage together after the tragic loss of her child. The story unfolds after the two meet in Montauk, when Noah together with his family arrive for a summer’s stay at his in-laws’ estate. In between Noah’s book publishing struggles and Alison’s loss travesty, sexual infidelity happens, and with it a serious crime which drives the story into a series of biased recounts of “he-recalls-she-recalls” versions of the same story.  

Why you should watch it. A thought-provoking psychological drama with an intriguing mystery, that is unnervingly captivating and sexy.

5. Scorpion

Scorpion is a true-story based CBS series about the life of Walter O’Brien, an Irish genius and computer expert with a higher IQ than Einstein’s. O’Brien, who is arrested at the age of 11 for hacking into NASA to get their blueprint for his bedroom wall, now leads a complex team of geniuses that help the US Department of Homeland Security solve some of the worlds most complex and high-tech threats across the globe. Meanwhile, Paige Dineen, a former waitress and a young single-mother of a nine-year old who she thinks is challenged, only to discover later by Walter that he is actually a genius, translates the "normal’ world to them and in exchange they translate her mentally gifted son to her.

Why you should watch it. A rather peculiar show with a difference, full of tech-driven drama and one which uses a genius hoot to act as the last line of defense from some of the world’s most complex threats. So really what’s not to like?

The post My Guide to Fall’s Top 5 New TV Shows appeared first on The Third Eye.

"TBH Magazine’ is the work of forty-six vibrant third year Communication students at the University of Malta, who together with the help and tutoring of their lecturer Mr Malcolm Bonello, and as part of their yearly "Magazine and Digital Publishing Credit’, brought to life this vivacious magazine full of wonders, lies and honesties.

Yes, that’s right! For all those digitally ill-equipped, "TBH’ is an abbreviation of the phrase "To Be Honest’, and the sole idea behind this project was, in fact, to chronicle the array of lies people experience in everyday modern life. So what "TBH Magazine’ does, through its feature articles, is shed some light on the constant lies that we are living, and hopefully, just hopefully, makes one think twice upon contributing towards this "culture of lying’.

Although mainly directed towards university students, the students are not the only target audience of "TBH Magazine’. When asked, Simon Polidano, from the "TBH’ Communications team, stated that although by large the magazine is for university students alike, they aren’t the only target. In fact, the magazine was also distributed freely around Valletta and Sliema where the masses of different kinds of people lurk at large.

With that said, this annual magazine is definitely more than just one of the most anticipated projects of the year for the course, as it enables these students to exhibit and show-case their skills in journalism, desktop publishing, graphic and web design, public relations, marketing, and of course, knowledge of the printing processes.

The post Celebrating the "Culture of Lying’ on Campus with the Launch of "TBH Magazine’ appeared first on The Third Eye.

So again by no means am I implying that "selfies’ aren’t “evil”, and they can leave a negative impact on one’s perception of the self, but as a person who tends to look at the bright side of things, something good can actually come out of “the 50 selfies” a person would take,each time trying to fine-tune his or her body image, and so here are 5 ways "selfies’ can actually enhance your self-esteem and increase upon your body awareness:

1. Taking pictures doing the things you love doing. Whether it’s the gym you’re taking "selfies’ at or a hiking trip with your best buds, taking pictures of you doing the things you love most doing, and sharing those parts with other people through the images, can very well help you improve upon your confidence. Confidence is everything, and capturing those happy moments you feel most comfortable in, will definitely boost your self-esteem.

2. Taking pictures from angles, which you feel make you look good. Filters, angles, lighting and framing; all of these tactics makea huge difference on the way we look, and with "selfies’ you have full control of the way you want your pictures to turn out. Always keep in mind, that the standards you’re usually always comparing yourself to use all of these techniques, and more.

3. Taking pictures of yourself when you’re looking really good. Nothing’s more self- therapeutic than a picture of you looking stunningly gorgeous. Capturing such moments will surely make you and others embrace your uniqueness and beauty.

4. Look for things that you like about your body and capture them. Use "selfies’ to express your empathy towards those features which you’re most proud of. It could be anything really: whether it’s your eyes, your lips, your figure or your bum that you think is your best body feature, embrace it!

5. Use "selfies’ as a conscious reminder that your physical body does not define your worth and value as a person. There’s more to it than just the physical appearance. We are more than our physical characteristics; we are also our personality. Personality matters, and this is what makes a person who he/she really is. Always remember, that physical appearance by itself is worth nothing in real life, because at the end of the day it’s one’s personality that really matters. I mean really, what’s best; a person who’s really good looking with a horrible personality? Or an average person with a lovely personality that brightens up everybody else’s day?

So there you have it, this revolutionary period of the so called “selfies phenomena”, isn’t half as bad, as most sources would indicate, whenyou come to think about it, and when the above perspective is taken into view. Counteracting the negative with ideas like the above could make a person’s life a whole lot easier, especially, with "selfies’, because they sure as hell look like they’re here to stay.

The post 5 Ways Selfies can Actually Enhance your Self Esteem appeared first on The Third Eye.

What are these names? They are titles that symbolise a life-style in a foreign land, that are brought to life on the dance floors of Maltese clubs, some as weekly events in different seasons, others throughout the whole year. While Los Santos and Cosa Nostra are weekly winter events taking place on Saturday and Sunday respectively, and Gringos a weekly outdoor summer event dominating every Sunday in the sizzling calendar months, events by Shift, Badbox, Cubik, Disorder, Squadron and DonDisko and the rest of the collaborators take place throughout the whole year.

It is nightclubs like these merged across the streets of Paceville, Liquid Club, Tattingers and Gianpula’s Marrakech – that have made it possible for electronic dance lovers and party goers to listen to the world’s finest DJs on a weekly basis. So much so, that the grand Cosa Nostra has three international DJs playing every Sunday. Amongst the many DJs that visited these club nights recently, perhaps the most outstanding, as you may already know, were Dixon (listed as world’s no.1 DJ by Resident Advisor), Âme, Tale of Us, Joris Voorn, Guy J, Nina Kraviz, Steve Rachmad, Ben Klock and Gessafelstein.

One may choose to label this scene as a “Celebration of drug culture”, but those who are really into it know that these things are not what it is really all about. The emotion that clubbers describe is a result of the effect underground music has on them. Underground events feature crowds who unite together for one aim, “having fun with the music”.

These events are not to be compared with mainstream places, where the masses choose to hang out with friends, listening to music which they probably know little about, and ultimately end up ranting about different subjects drifting away from the original idea of a “nightclub”. The underground electronic dance scene is for the real music lovers.

 By combining the genres of House, Electro and Techno, developing sub-genres such as those of Deep and Progressive, and importing some of the finest underground DJs and producers from all around the world, Malta is proving to be one of the top destinations for any clubber wanting to literally live the underground dance culture.

The post Malta’s Underground Electronic Dance Culture Still Unexplored appeared first on The Third Eye.