Make your happiness and peace of mind your number one priority. Once you have that you have power to really affect change. Helping others is a wonderful thing. Look at global efforts to help Tsunami victims and affected areas. You could rationalize it and say that helping is right thing to do, that contributing to any good cause is right thing to do. I agree.

But, we are not motivated by our intellect or rationalizations. It is emotion that moves us to act. Helping out makes us feel good and inversely we know that watching others suffer and not helping when we know we can will make us feel miserable. We don' t want to make ourselves unhappy.

If you can truly be honest with yourself you will see that beneath all sentiment is a need to tend to our own happiness. I like to volunteer because it makes me feel good. That is bottom line. The rest is just window-dressing. I have a selfish desire to feel good and so do you. There is nothing wrong with that.

Yoga, meditation and prayer make me feel good, too. Can you call those selfish pursuits? How about attending church or worshipping your higher power? Do those things make you feel good? Of course they do or you would not do them. If pursuing your own emotional well-being and feeling good is not what you would consider selfish, than I think that term "selfish" is highly misunderstood.

Tend to your "self" first. Be selfish. Then and only then can you really make a difference.

- David Parton 2005

David Parton:

Helping others and myself Improve their income and boost their health and energy levels with Tahitian Noni Juice.

So mystery has been solved, opposites really do attract? Actually… Not really. In part II we will explore why “the opposite’s attract” notion is a double-edged sword in world of dating and gender interaction.

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It is pretty common knowledge that opposites attract. We know that magnets with opposite polarity attract, so common cliché is actually a law of nature. However, rather than boring you with scientific evidence to prove this is true, let me cut right to chase: In part one of this article, I argued that opposites do attract, and both feminine energy and masculine energy are required for attraction to occur (which is mostly an inexplicable chemistry) and for a fulfilling relationship to ensue.

But don’t birds of a feather flock together? And don’t people who “have so much in common” usually have successful relationships? Sure they do. But this contradicts what I’ve been saying all along. Is it similarities or differences that are key to a perfectly balanced union? Therein lies important question, which actually has a much more simple answer than one might think.

According to a University of Iowa study on mating issues (mating based on similar or opposite characteristics), which studied 291 newlyweds that had participated in Iowa Marital Assessment Project, researchers found with very strong evidence that people tend to marry those who are similar in attitudes, religion and values. They also found that these were main reasons why people got married. However, it is similarity in personality that appears to be more important in having a happy marriage. The findings appear in February 2005 issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by American Psychological Association (APA). The couples were assessed on a broad range of personality characteristics, attitudes and relationship quality indicators.

The research suggested that, “there is no evidence that opposites attract.” The study was fascinating and comprehensive, but their conclusion wasn’t. The word “attraction” usually refers to initial feelings a person has that spark an interest in other. So in realms of courting dating and sexuality, being opposite and different, is fulfilling in many ways. Mystery, anticipation and excitement, curiosity and adventure all come from experiencing something different. Sure opposites clash, but that is often where sparks and passion is created. You can create heat without any friction (know what I mean?)

This is where many couples that start off well go really wrong. Many relationships are built on foundation of sexual attraction or simply lust. Those are fleeting feelings and certainly not enough to make a relationship work. If people don’t want same things, or have different values and beliefs, relationship is bound for failure.

Personality and attitude similarities are VERY important also. But these characteristics often come out later, as a relationship progresses and eventually settles. Frequently people are too involved by time they realize differences and people often “settle” while feeling unfulfilled.

Opposites attract in dating, courting and during escalated sexual tension, but opposites certainly clash when it comes to personality, attitudes and values. So to have best of both worlds, you must establish and lay out your beliefs, values and what you want out of life right away. Masculine energies and feminine energies are opposites, but do not cause harmful and destructive clashes in relationships when they are balanced out.