Kratom is a mysterious herb that has developed a passionate following in recent years due to its ability to relieve chronic pain, anxiety, and other physical or mental ailments. Used traditionally as a stimulant by tribes in Southeast Asia, this unique plant has now made its way around the world, offering people an all-natural option for addressing health concerns that were once only available through conventional medicine.
If you've been considering trying Kratom but are still determining how it may benefit you and what strains best suit your needs, look no further. In this comprehensive guide to Kratom, we will not only uncover some of the mysteries behind this ancient remedy; but also explain why it's growing in popularity and explore how different types of Kratom can be used safely and effectively.
What Is Kratom and Where Does It Come From
Kratom, known by its scientific name Mitragyna speciosa, is a tropical evergreen tree belonging to the coffee family. It can grow up to 82 feet tall and is mainly found in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Kratom has been traditionally used in these countries for medicinal purposes, including relieving pain, reducing anxiety, and as a stimulant.
Today, it is gaining popularity as a supplement in the United States and has raised concerns due to its potential for abuse and addiction. Kratom contains alkaloids that interact with the brain's receptors, producing effects similar to opioids and stimulants. Due to its controversial status, many countries have either banned or heavily regulated its use. Buy Kratom Online USA is a reliable option for people looking to source the compound from a trusted provider.
Understanding the Different Types of Kratom
Kratom is available in various strains, each with its own unique set of effects. Let's look at the most common types of Kratom on the market. The most commonly used strain of Kratom is Red vein kratom, which is known for its analgesic properties and can help with stress and fatigue. Additionally, red vein kratom can help with sleep and relaxation.
White vein kratom is known for its energizing effects and is commonly used to increase focus and alertness. Green vein kratom is known for its balanced effects, providing an energy boost and relief from minor pain or stress. Lastly, yellow vein kratom is a rarer strain that does not have the same intense effects as other strains but can still be beneficial in promoting relaxation and improving mood.
Potential Health Benefits of Consuming Kratom
Kratom has been used for centuries as a natural remedy to help with various physical and mental ailments. It is known to have anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and mood-boosting properties. Research suggests that Kratom can effectively relieve chronic pain from conditions such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, or injury due to its ability to bind to opioid receptors in the brain responsible for blocking pain signals.
Additionally, it may also reduce anxiety and stress and improve sleep quality. Though further research is needed to confirm the safety and efficacy of consuming Kratom regularly, growing evidence suggests that it could be an effective treatment for specific medical conditions.
How to Use Kratom in Your Daily Life
Kratom is available in various forms, including capsules, powder, and leaf. The method of consumption will depend on your desired effects and personal preferences.
For those looking for an energy boost, consuming Kratom in a tea or capsule form can be beneficial. For those seeking relief from minor aches or pains, consuming Kratom in powder form may be more suitable as the alkaloids are absorbed faster. Kratom can also be smoked, but this is not recommended as it increases the risk of lung irritation and other health problems associated with smoking.
It is important to remember that each strain has unique effects, so you should research before deciding which one to use for your needs. Also, start with a small dose and gradually increase as needed to avoid potential side effects such as nausea or dizziness. Please consult your doctor before using Kratom or any other supplement, as it may interact with certain medications or underlying medical conditions.
Potential Side Effects of Taking Kratom
Although Kratom has been used traditionally for centuries, there is still a lack of scientific evidence to support its use. Additionally, it can have some potential side effects if taken in high doses or with other substances.
Common side effects include nausea, constipation, dizziness, headache, and agitation. Additionally, Kratom may also cause increased heart rate and blood pressure. It is crucial to take Kratom in moderation and consult your doctor if you have any underlying medical conditions or are taking any medications, as it may interact with certain drugs.
Ensuring You Get Quality Kratom Products
When purchasing Kratom, it is crucial to ensure that you buy from a reliable source. Look for vendors who provide third-party lab results to confirm the quality and purity of their products. Additionally, look for vendors that offer customer support if you have any questions or concerns about their products.
Finally, please read up on Kratom safety and set realistic expectations for its effects before making your purchase. Doing this can help you determine if Kratom suits you and ensure you get the best possible experience.
In Conclusion
Kratom is an increasingly popular herbal remedy with a long history of traditional use in Southeast Asia. It has gained traction as a supplement thanks to its potential health benefits ranging from reducing pain to improving mood. Understanding the different types of Kratom, how to consume it, and potential side effects can help ensure you get the best possible experience. Finally, always purchase Kratom from a reliable source with third-party lab results.
Yoga is a group of mental, spiritual, and physical practices that promote physical and psychological well-being. As practiced in the United States, yoga emphasizes meditation (dyana), breathing techniques (pranayama), and physical postures (asanas).
Regular healing and yoga practice bring about physical benefits such as increased flexibility, improved respiration, and increased muscle strength, and psychological benefits such as reduced stress, improved sleep, and relief from depression and anxiety. But that is not all; yoga also helps individuals feel inner peace a. Many women find that with these benefits also comes the unexpected benefit of improved sexual health.
Below, we discuss how practicing healing and yoga can help women feel inner peace and improve their sexual health.
How Practicing Healing and Yoga Improves Women’s Sexual Health
If your time in bed with your significant other is a little lackluster, practicing healing and yoga may be what you need to breathe new life into your sex life. Here is how healing and yoga help improve women’s sexual health.
Reduce Stress and Fatigue
Feeling stressed and tired can put you “out of the mood” like nothing else can. Practicing healing and yoga reduces stress and, like other forms of exercise, gives you more energy.
Be in the Present
Healing through a Yoga practice can help improve a women’s sexual health by keeping you mindful. Mindfulness keeps you in the present. You are more fully engaged in sexual activity when your mind is present, obviously not thinking about the kids, the laundry, and the world. This is not always easy to achieve. If your thoughts do drift to other things during sex, yoga can teach you techniques to help keep you present.
Improve Your Body Image
Feeling good about and being comfortable in your body is one of the main contributors to healthy sex life.
When you practice healing and yoga, you familiarize yourself with your body on an intimate level. At the same time, you develop strength and muscle tone, so you will look better and feel better about yourself.
Increase Your Body Awareness
Yoga poses such as the child’s pose, cat pose, and happy baby require you to move your body in specific ways and teach you how to move certain parts of your body while others remain still. With time, you become more in tune with your body.
Increase Your Control, Sensitivity, and Flexibility
Most yoga poses can increase your flexibility, especially yoga poses like the happy baby. The Happy Baby pose is an excellent beginner pose. This pose can stretch the inner thighs, hamstrings, and groin. It can also release the tightness in the hips and back. These poses can help you gain more motion and, improve blood flow and circulation through the pelvis. Increased blood flow is so important to pelvic health.
Let me say this another way…
Increased blood flow to the pelvic region may help reduce sexual pain.
Some common problems that Women may experience as sexual dysfunctions include
● Pain during intercourse;
● A lack of desire for sex;
A Healing and yoga practice may significantly improve your arousal level and thus your level of lubrication. Incorporating healing and yoga into your daily routine also increase your desire for sex as you might feel more energized, and feel better about your body.
May Relieve Sexual Difficulties
Practicing more advanced specific yoga poses like the moola bandha may help relieve sexual difficulties in women and thus may improve a women’s sexual health. Moola bandha can be likened to Kegel exercises, which can help strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor.
Actually, many sex therapy centers recommend the moola bandha pose to help women become more self-aware, thus improving sexual desire and sexual experience.
— How Practicing Healing and Yoga Helps Women Feel Inner Peace
If you are looking to find inner peace, here is how practicing healing and yoga can help you:
Helps Relieve Daily Stress
A Healing and Yoga practice teaches you to pause, be honest with your body and yourself, and live in the moment. Once you start practicing healing and yoga, you do not stop encountering stressful situations, but your perception of stress changes completely.
You become more aware of how you react to stressful situations, and you begin to accept things as they are. The inner peace that healing and yoga bring helps rid the exhaustion, chaos, and frustration that commonly flood the mind.
Ridding the mind and body of stress will help you achieve inner peace and prevent you from spreading negativity to those around you.
Heightens Intuition
Yoga allows you to find answers to daily problems from within. Not only does this enhance the development of internal intuition, but it also helps you make decisions that unite your mind and heart.
In modern society, our voices and opinions can be drowned out by others’ voices and opinions. By practicing healing and yoga, you can achieve heightened intuition that can help you make decisions that are reflective of who you are, helping you achieve inner peace.
Enhances Circulation
The circulatory system is one of the most important body systems, as it helps keep your heart and blood vessels strong. Healing and yoga stretch your muscles and get your blood flowing to all parts of the body.
The more you practice healing and yoga, the more you will be able to hold poses longer (a sign of improved circulation) and feel more at peace when doing the different poses.
Provides Discipline
Most people have a negative perception of the word “discipline” and associate it with a type of punishment. Healing and yoga give the word “discipline” a new meaning.
Practicing healing and yoga naturally teaches you about commitment and enables a sort of discipline. You get a newfound will to improve on the progress you made during practice, which can only be achieved through discipline.
Discipline in healing and yoga is not forced. Instead, discipline is something that is cultivated with practice and trickles into other areas of your life, helping you become well-rounded. As a well-rounded individual, you will make better decisions that will give you inner peace.
Regulates Breathing and Attention
Healing and yoga regulate breathing and attention, lowers anxiety and stress, and regulate parasympathetic nervous activity by activating the part of the nervous system that tells your body to pause, relax, and rest.
These effects are associated with improvements in breathing and attention, and when you can breathe better and give all your attention to the tasks you want to complete, you are more likely to feel inner peace since your mind will be in a relaxed state.
Healing and yoga are practices that can be traced back to 1,500 B.C. Since then, it has been used to help people with different types of mental conditions such as depression and physical conditions such as arthritis.
But that is not all. Healing and yoga also improve women’s sexual health by countering stress and fatigue, improving body image, and heightening body awareness.
Adopt Regular Healing and Yoga Practices for a Better Life
If you are looking to feel inner peace, you can achieve this goal through regular healing and yoga practice. At the same time, if you are looking to breathe new life into your sex life, yoga may also be helpful.
Written by Jane Silverstein. Jane is the owner of Soul Source Therapeutic Devices located in Los Angeles. She is committed to women’s health issues and to helping women worldwide regain and/ or maintain their sexual health. She is passionate about helping others and has always been involved in a multitude of charitable causes.
Written by Jane Silverstein. Jane is the owner of Soul Source Therapeutic Devices located in Los Angeles. She is committed to women’s health issues and to helping women worldwide regain and/ or maintain their sexual health. She is passionate about helping others and has always been involved in a multitude of charitable causes.
Learning to breathe properly can transform your life. This may be an odd statement considering that we all naturally breathe in and out without thinking, but there are breathing techniques that can help you sleep better and easier, but also tackle anxiety and panic attacks. The way we breathe can also impact how well we can exercise, too. But how can we harness the power of breath so that it can make living much easier and more comfortable? Read on for the reasons why proper breathing techniques can help counter anxiety, get us a better night’s sleep, and enhance our exercise routines.
How Breathing Can Help Tackle Anxiety
Anxiety can make it difficult for us to breathe, and when we find it hard to breathe, we can become more stressed and anxious. This vicious cycle can be hard to break but learning proper breathing techniques and how to utilize our diaphragm can make battling anxiety a lot easier and more effective.
The best breathing exercises include:
— Inhale slowly (and deeply) through your nose. Make the most out of this by ensuring your shoulders are relaxed and that you are sitting straight. While inhaling slowly and deeply, your abdomen will hopefully expand, helping your chest rise a little.
— Exhale slowly through your mouth. With the air you have inhaled, you should slowly dispel it through your mouth. Make sure you keep your mouth and jaw relaxed so that you do not tense up. Keep your lips pursed ever so slightly and keep the rhythm the same.
— Repeat. You will need to repeat this process for several minutes if you wish to make the most out of it. Remember that you may not feel the effects straight away.
Breathing exercises can be used as often as needed and help counter anxiety attacks that may be bubbling in the background. It can take time before it makes you feel better, and if the process starts to make you anxious, then stop for now and return to the techniques when you are feeling better.
How Breathing Can Help Us Sleep Better
Sleeping with our mouths closed can stop snoring and improve oral health. Troubles with breathing when sleeping can cause discomfort and a poor night’s sleep that can impact a person’s mental and physical wellbeing. One way to help get a good night’s sleep is by investing in mouth tape. Mouth tape is, quite simply, a piece of tape that you put across your mouth. It is painless and easy to apply and remove. It also helps stop snoring and can reduce fatigue that is felt throughout the day. If you haven’t heard about mouth tape before, you can have your mouth taping questions answered by SomniFix.
How Breathing Can Enhance our Exercising Sessions
Have you ever run or swam and found it difficult to breathe after a while? Perhaps your mouth becomes dry and there is a pain at the back of your throat? Learning how to breathe properly when exercising can improve your performance but also make the sport much more enjoyable. It is said that the best way to boost your sporting performance and improve your breathing technique is by inhaling and exhaling through your mouth and nose combined. This can help your breathing stay steady.
Harnessing the power of breath can improve your life. Not only can you counter anxiety and improve your sporting performance, but you can get a better night’s sleep. All this can make your life much more comfortable and enjoyable. However, be sure to learn the best techniques for you, and if you need help, speak to a professional who can offer proper tips and tricks.
Coping with any loss may be one of the hardest challenges we face in life. It is a fact of life whether we admit or not. Let us be honest it scares us. When we lose a spouse, sibling, parent, friend, a favorite item, a house or anything that you think is of a value, that grief can be particularly intense. Loss is understood as a natural part of life, but we can still be overcome by shock, confusion, anxiety and fear, leading to prolonged periods of sadness, the blues or gray days, loss of interests, irritability, withdrawal The sadness typically diminishes in intensity as time passes, but grieving is an important process in order to overcome the feelings and emotions so to embrace the time you had with your loved one.
Everyone reacts to loss differently and employs various personal coping skills for grief and loss. An example is: Henry, a close friend of my father’s. I met him when my father asked for help with a memorial. It was for Henry’s Rose who had passed away from metastasized cancer. My Father was a Chaplain, Henry ask him to do the memorial. Well Henry always felt depressed, from the loss of his wife. So he change from reading daily to her, to reading to the resident of the care center daily and he continued that until he passed away himself. When we talked together at my dd’s home, he told me that going up to the center, help him living and close to his wife. Yes, he was lonely, yet this made his life have meaning and he felt it honored his wife’s love and memory. Did he grieve, yes daily. Thought it also gave him strength.
People and families do recover from loss in their own way through the passage of time when they have positive social/family/employments supports and healthy habits. It can take months or years to accept a/the loss. There is no “normal” time period for someone to grieve or to feel the sense of loss. Don’t expect to just pass through any phases of grief or in a linear way. Many people can be all over the map. It is ok it is normal. It will take some time and thought before you are able to look back on the and loss.
Human beings are naturally resilient, we have the capability to endure what we do not believe we can. People do continue on with our own lives yet there are some that hold on so tight and choose not to heal and grow. There are some people that struggle so much with grief and loss for long periods of time and feel unable to carry out their daily activities. People that suffer severe grief and loss or complicated grief could benefit from further intervention from family, co-workers, peers, or a professional counselor and grief support groups. We all need support and assistance through this time. It is a fact that we cannot do it alone.
Moving On With Life
Many have talked about ”Mourning”, some cultures have specific times for “Mourning” because it is understood that people do better when they can move on even with having feeling of the grief and loss. During this time there can also be a renewed sense of meaning to life that offers purpose and direction to life.
Grieving individuals may find it helpful to use some of the following strategies to help them process and come to terms with loss. The following is an incomplete list of ways to care for yourself when you have Grief and loss. It is not an exhaustive list and not everyone will experience grief and loss in the same way.
1) Talk about the death of your loved one with friends or colleagues in order to help you understand what happened and remember your friend or family member.
2) Avoidance can lead to isolation and will disrupt the healing process with your support systems.
3) Accept your feelings. You may experience a wide range of emotions from sadness, anger or even exhaustion.
4) All of these feelings are normal and it’s important to recognize when you are feeling this way.
5) If you feel stuck or overwhelmed by these emotions, ask for help a friend, a coworker, use the Employee Assistance Program at work (confidential) a community support group.
6) Take care of yourself and your family. Eating healthy foods, exercising and getting plenty of sleep can help your physical and emotional health. The grieving process can take a toll on one’s Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual self and life.
7) Make sure you check in with your loved ones and that they are taking the necessary healthy steps to maintain their health.
8) Reach out and help others dealing with the loss.
9) Spending time with loved ones they can be great support and you may be a good support for them. You can be good support for each other together. Whether it’s sharing stories or listening to your loved one’s favorite music, these small efforts can make a big difference to some.
10) Helping others can the added benefit of making you feel better as well. Remember and celebrate the lives of your loved ones.
11) Anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, or other events can be a difficult time for everyone, though it can also be a time for remembrance and honoring them.
12) Things that you can are: collect donations to a favorite charity in the family name, plant a tree or a community garden, donate a park bench, in another word when you are ready to celebrate life.
13) What you choose is up to you, as long it allows you to honor life and others that feel right to you. When the timing is right for you.
Grief and loss is a fact of life, I will not say it is not. It is painful, yet there is Healing, Growth and Recovery when you allow yourself to feel, have emotions, and feel those emotions, by taking care of yourself and your life.
When you stand by and follow your word (not promises) you build Integrity, creditability, and more important BELIEVABILITY.
Remember that your word (s) and action(s)/inaction(s), have:
1) Power- A) Internal B) External
2) Influence- A) Internal B) External
What you do or do not do/ say or do not say not only affects you, yet also the people, places and things around you. Even what you don’t see. It is the ripple effect.
AGREEMENT 2: DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
Everything is not about you. It is more than likely about the way you are acting, or something another person is trying to project onto you.
People react or respond to your behavior, not who you as a person.
When you take things personally you assume responsibility that is not yours. “Your Heart Is known by the path you walk.”
AGREEMENT 3: DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
Making assumptions set’s yourself and others up for conflict and chaos. This is no different than an expectation.
Assumptions are nothing more that faulty perception and beliefs. That you generally act on and create conflict and chaos.
AGREEMENT 4: ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
Your best is first for yourself not others, they are the honored recipients of you doing your best.
Your best will change from situation to situation, as you learn from each experience,
Your best will change over time.
By doing your best you do not give power or control of yourself to others.
AGREEMENT 5: BE SKEPTICAL, BUT LEARN TO LISTEN
Don’t believe yourself or others until you have listened. Most of our knowledge is based on faulty information, beliefs, and or perceptions. Question yourself, ask for more information. Even the decision you made has a little doubt (what is called second-guessing).
Reasonable doubt used in our Courts is a good way to be skeptical without closing off others or being rude.
Do not just listen to the words, but listen to the intent behind the words. Do the actions or behavior match the words and situations?
All information has a kernel of truth and insight, yet from there, anything can happen to it.
“Life (external) only intrudes, as long as we allow it”.
Many of us start off every new year with grand promises—whether it's to live a little healthier, or to learn a new skill. Sadly, not everybody successfully follows through as the days go by—but it’s not because these resolutions are impossible to achieve. Rather, a guide on A Life of Productivity notes that the best way to achieve your goals is to start small. While it sounds a bit counterproductive, you aren't actually downgrading your dreams—you're simply breaking them into more doable, actionable steps.
Though we might be approaching the halfway mark of the year, it doesn't mean you have to throw in the towel already. After all, it's never too late to start building a better life for yourself. With that being said, here are some simple lifestyle changes you can make for a happier you.
Pick up a new hobby
It's tempting to bury ourselves in social media, mindlessly scrolling through our feeds for hours in a day. To break this cycle and make room for something more productive, why not try your hand at a new hobby? Whether it's reading books or learning how to cook, such activities are sure to give your mind and body a refreshing reset. To this end, Tips Make introduces the 20-minute strategy, which basically entails devoting 20 minutes on something everyday for a month to make it into a habit. Remember to start small and make your steps concrete! For instance, aim to read a certain number of pages or commit to sampling a new, quick recipe everyday.
Never skip breakfast
This tip might sound a bit menial, but hear us out, as it actually can make a huge difference to your quality of life. As it turns out, they don't call breakfast "the most important meal of the day" for nothing. Research on The Ladders reveals that breakfast is a great way to spark your productivity. Right after you have your fill, your alertness and energy immediately spike up. Thus, you'd be surprised how such a small change can make the difference between a lethargic, slow day and a happy, productive one. It doesn’t always have to be an elaborate breakfast buffet—a slice of bread, your favorite fruit, and a glass of water are more than enough to start your mornings on the right foot.
Listen to your body
Most of us live very fast-paced lifestyles, but our bodies can only keep up to a certain extent. Attending social gatherings and meeting up with friends, for instance, is important for our mental and social health—but it doesn’t mean you have to say yes to every invitation and max out your energy all the time. True enough, an article on Economic Times India warns that regular weekend partying can leave you feeling fatigued, which can lead to even more problems like irregular sleep and a ruined diet.
This isn't to say that you should stop going out altogether. Instead, put more purpose into it and be sure to be responsible. If you find you’ve had too much to drink, make it a point to rest more and replenish. Lifestyle site PrettyMe recommends WrecOver pills as a way to help you curb the hangovers and headaches. Plus, the nutrients work to help detoxify your body. Of course, listening to your body applies to so many other aspects too—like keeping yourself from overworking even if you think you've got more productivity left in you.
Integrate exercise into your daily habits
Not everybody can just get up and start pushing heavy weights, especially if you're new to it. But if you do want to get fit sustainably, start by integrating it into your daily life. Simple things like standing while working, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and cleaning your house from top to bottom are great ways to sneak in that physical activity. If you think you’re ready for a real workout, our writer Michelle Schacherer finds that downloading fitness apps can guide beginners through the process.
Get the right amount of sleep
Being deprived of quality rest is no joke. Not only will you feel exhausted, but it throws off your mood, too. However, it isn't always easy to just drift off to dreamland. If you're having trouble, perhaps try making a few tweaks to your bedding situation—like changing your pillows. This Layla pillow, for instance, boasts memory foam and allows for more airflow. On the other hand, maybe all you need is a few moments before bedtime to get into the right mental state for rest. Guiding Tech suggests apps like Headspace and Calm, which feature guided meditation programs to clear your mind and set you up for relaxation. Even newbies can follow the steps, as every course can be customized to your needs and lifestyle.
All in all, changing your life for the better doesn't have to be complicated. Just like the age-old adage goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." So start with this simple list of lifestyle changes, and you'll be well on your way to the best version of yourself that you can be.
What “if” one simple concept might help improve your health and other areas of your life too? What if … life could be easier if we learned to change our perspective and see things in a new way?
Real love, unconditional love, is an energy, some say, is the foundation from which everything emerges into our world. It is the energy which grows us from microscopic cells into full grown adults without a manual! It is the energy which breathes us, pumps our heart, allows us to walk, talk, taste, see, touch, eat, digest food, eliminate waste without having to micro manage our bodies!! It grows everything in nature, including animals, insects and microscopic creatures we never even know exist! It never stops giving no matter how much we take.
Many of us love to hold a new born baby or puppy or kitten, fresh and still connected to their Divine Nature. Watch very young children and they rarely judge anyone by their color, deformity, wealth, race, age, poverty or gender. They just love everyone! They must be taught who to trust, who to fear, who to judge, who to love. None of these things come naturally. Soldiers must be trained and brainwashed into “hating the enemy” in order to be good, strong soldiers. It is not in their nature to just easily kill other people.
Loving without conditions means there is no judgement, revenge, punishment, inspiring feelings of guilt and shame. You can… not like or approve of what someone does, however, you still love them. You love for the joy love gives you, because it is your natural nature to do so. It’s like breathing. No one must act or behave in a certain way to earn your love. Love given without conditions is what heals, transforms, opens hearts, soothes the pain, turns someone around. While hate and revenge only continue to inspire more of the same!
When you judge, hate, feel wounded or enraged, your entire body suffers! Your breathing is more shallow. It’s more difficult for your heart to pump and your muscles all tense up greatly constricting many other functions in your body. You get fatigued very easily. Sometimes just for a few minutes, and other times for hours or you are angry for days on end! Stress is not beneficial for our bodies and can create illnesses and dis-ease..
No one forces you to judge, hate, and become enraged. These are habits often taught, or acquired and developed over years and years, often evolving from many sources. They can be changed. You are always “free to choose” how you respond to every single situation in your life.
When you learn to make “loving without conditions” a new habit, less and less things bother you anymore. As you learn to love yourself and others without conditions, you learn we are all doing the best we can every day, even though that might not be very good some days and better on others. When you choose to love, you think and respond with more compassion, understanding and clarity. You make better decisions. You feel better and are healthier because of this.
You cannot change the entire world, stop the wars, end hunger, prevent hurricanes and tornadoes, end mass shootings. You can, however, send all those situations, and all those people “Unconditional Love for their highest and best good.” Your unconditional loving energy can help transform the world, and in doing so, you also help yourself to live a happier, healthier, more joy filled life in many new ways!
I am so grateful for my beautiful oasis of flesh which carries me about in this garden of life.
Each little dimple and wrinkle, each crevice and valley all my own.
There is no where else on earth I could find a place such as this, so alive, so divine and uniquely me.
I rub my hands gently absorbing the stories it tells me of holding life and birthing babies, slicing and taking away my gallbladder, walking up mountains, climbing tall trees and jumping off.
I remember walking across coals and never being burnt. My spirit telling me to go ahead, because it was all an illusion anyway.
My beloved body carries me to and through every moment there is and beyond, allowing me to respond to life and its glorious magnificence. Feeling the wet grass beneath my feet, snowflakes coating my hair.
I inhale the fragrance of Freesias, appreciate their vibrant colors and taste chocolate upon my lips, all with this sacred vessel in which I can experience the Divine and the all which I am! I praise my own geography at last!
Changes are not easy; they bring with them a lot of resistance. However, I have learned to embrace them throughout the years, but, while they happen, they make me uneasy. They bring uncertainty, which drives me crazy. Nevertheless, whenever I find myself anxious about what the future will bring, I sit down, meditate and repeat the following mantra: "I trust". And I really do trust, I know that no matter what, the universe will never take me to a worse place, quite the contrary, I know it'll be to a better one.
And so, it was. After saying good-bye to toxic relationships, toxic environment I saw my life change for the better. The new changes I made included hanging out with positive people, people who were into health and nutrition, spiritual people, people who appreciated the different cultures of the world, open-minded people, and successful people. They say that you're the average of the 5 people you hang out the most with, so, I became very careful about who I let into my life, and, most importantly, who I spent my time with.
Moreover, I changed my environment for good: I got rid of blue lights and added incandescent lightbulbs to my house, Himalayan salt lamps, and an essential oil diffuser; I added blackout curtains to my room, and started using a night mask when I went to bed to make sure my body got adequate sleep; I made sure that the products I used on my body did not include SLS, Fragrances, nor a bunch of ingredients I was unable to pronounce (this was for anything touching my body such as shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, lotions, etc.); furthermore, I got rid of so much clutter in my living spaces: I kissed good-bye a lot of things I didn't use or old things which were only taking up room and not allowing new things to come.
When it comes to my diet, I went 100% organic and gluten-free, and reduced to almost 0 my sugar and vegetable oil consumption. Unfortunately, some foods will include these ingredients which makes it really hard to eliminate them from your diet. Some food examples where these ingredients lurk include: salad dressings, chocolate nut milks, bread, etc.
At the end, a major makeover was needed. And I took the same principles I used in fitness, diet and spiritualism to my professional life. I realized that drastic, overnight changes were destructive and that milestones needed to be achieved before reaching the big goals. I learned to give the best of myself that I could to every job I was doing, to care for it and to find answers whenever I didn't have them. I just had in place a system that worked in one aspect of my life and that I could replicate in other aspects of my life.
Life was good, life is good and I wake up excited every day excited, wondering what the next thing around the corner will be, what life will bring my way and how I will interpret it. I learned that I cannot change reality, so, I have to accept it. However, one thing I can change: the perspective or lens through which I see reality. That has helped me stay positive no matter how bad the outcome may be. If something's going to be bad, I try to find the silver lining in the bad thing. It works like a charm, so I invite you to try doing the same and see how the sad veil lifts up! :)
Sometimes in order to fix a bigger problem, we need to start by fixing ourselves. And that's where I had to start to release all the mental chains I had that prevented me from being myself. These included persons and ideas that kept me from reaching my highest potential.
The first thing I had to do was love myself. I know, you can ask anyone if they love themselves and they will say "yes", but, once they start digging deeper, they realize that they haven't really been loving themselves. In the same way that healing and personal growth require introspection and care, building a business aligned with your spiritual journey calls for choosing partners that resonate with your values. Looking into Zenbusiness reviews can offer insights into a supportive, efficient service to help manifest your vision into reality.
Someone who loves themselves would never allow anyone else to do something harmful to them. One important thing that helped me prevent this was when I started saying "no". It was not easy, but it has been one of the best things I have ever done for myself. What I realized after I started saying "no", was that I was saying "yes" to something I liked and that made me feel fine.
Another thing I did was start a meditation practice that I religiously continue to this day. Every morning, you'll find me taking at least 5 minutes to do conscious breathing, to be grateful, or to forgive. The 2 things that have benefitted me the most have been gratitude and forgiveness. Through gratitude, I have been able to really appreciate the small things in life: a warm cup of coffee, a goat milk yogurt (I mean, how often do you find that while traveling?!), people who love and support me for who I am, the food on my table, having a roof over my head, my health... Ultimately, being thankful for the magic and perfection of life on earth as a whole. Through forgiveness, instead, I learned to forgive myself and everything I've done wrongly. To forgive my mind always judging me and always criticizing every move I make or the body I have. I learned to forgive my parents for the way they reacted to my weight issues while I was a kid since their frustration didn't allow them to see the damage they were doing to me; I forgave anyone who had hurt me out of their own pain, because it was not them doing something bad to me on purpose, it was their own ignorance and suffering that made them act like that. Forgiveness is a selfish act. We forgive to free ourselves from the emotional burden, not to make someone else happy. So, if you haven't tried it out yet, now's the time to start!
Meditation and spiritualism, besides reinforcing the body-mind connection, helped me connect better to the world. Thanks to that, I no longer see things as independent, I see them as part of an interdependent system. This just became more evident after my mom passed away. An event like this transforms you either for your best or worse. But, in my case, it helped me learn that everything in life is energy: yourself, what you see, what you can't see, and your thoughts. Matter doesn't disappear, it just transforms. And, that's why, even if I miss my mom every day, I know that she's everywhere: In the air I breathe, the smiling child running in the garden, the tree I touch, etc.
Knowing how the type of energy I surround myself with and the one I vibrate on are important for my overall life, I decided to change my environment, and this included my relationships. It was not easy since I had to cut ties with many people and make drastic changes, but the results were astonishing...
Fake it ‘til you make it! That adage of the 1970’s may seem like a cliché now, a silly relic of a bygone era. But in reality, we fake it regularly when we lack full confidence but still manage to push ourselves to rise to an occasion—a job interview, negotiating the price for a new car or holding our ground in an important discussion.
Many people find it intimidating to talk to doctors. They get tongue-tied, afraid to ask questions or worry they’ll say the wrong thing. Research bears out the phenomenon. One study compared the frightened behavior of patients to that of hostages bargaining for release.
Whether you are the patient or it’s someone you love, getting good medical care shouldn’t sink to that level. That means speaking up even when you feel nervous. Doctors often rush from one patient to the next; some are gentle in their dealings, but others seem brusque and impatient. Patients and families can be left feeling too demeaned to even ask a question before the doctor is out the door.
That’s when it’s time to fake it. But you must be prepared. Patient advocacy requires many things – time, attention and perseverance to start. Diplomacy and respect are other essential ingredients. Effective advocacy also requires a strong dose of chutzpah, that wonderful Yiddish word blending personal guts and gumption.
I have been advocating for my husband for more than a quarter-century through multiple hospitalizations and illnesses. One thing I have learned is that my role is as important as the doctors and nurses in ensuring he gets the best medical care. Acting on that knowledge means working with medical professionals as an equal, trusting my instincts and speaking up when I have questions or think something is wrong.
One of the most important jobs of the advocate is connecting the dots – asking the right questions, paying attention to details and making sure that the entire medical team is on the same page. Taking up the charge requires confidence. That can start with basic research to better understand the patient’s condition and be poised to ask smart questions.
Keeping good notes and staying organized helps the advocate pay attention to details and follow up on questions or concerns. Doctors don’t always communicate well with one another, and nurses are sometimes left out of the loop. Issues can fall between the cracks, and misunderstandings can affect patient care. A well-informed advocate can help keep communication flowing.
Advocates who are strong, persistent and professional get a better response from doctors too. When you act with diplomacy and respect, you are more likely to receive those same courtesies in return.
When you put it all together – education, organization and perseverance – confidence in your role as an advocate can grow. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Remember, you know the patient better than anyone else in the hospital. That counts for a lot in a setting that can seem bureaucratic and impersonal.
Draw upon your strengths, life experiences, street smarts and common sense. You can apply that sense of assurance to your advocacy role.
Prepare questions in advance; practice making your case in front of a mirror. If need be, assume you are an actor taking on a role. Remember that even a shaky start is better than no start at all. Before you know it, you won’t have to fake it at all.
Bonnie Friedman is the author of Hospital Warrior: How to Get the Best Care for Your Loved One and host of the podcast Hospital Warrior: Advocates and Experts on the Whole Care Network.
Having high emotional granularity is a vital tool for reducing emotional eating. The term was coined by Northeastern University Psychology Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett shortly after the turn of the century and refers to the ability to recognize, identify and express a full range of emotions. People with high emotional granularity have “finely tuned feelings.” They value emotions and are in touch with them most of the time. Moreover, they don’t lump all emotions together, but feel and can describe their nuances. Upset might be parsed as frightened, dismayed or exasperated. Angry might be viewed as frustrated, helpless or fearful.
Says Barrett, “Emotional granularity isn’t just about having a rich vocabulary; it’s about experiencing the world, and yourself, more precisely. This can make a difference in your life. In fact, there is growing scientific evidence that precisely tailored emotional experiences are good for you, even if those experiences are negative.” (“Are You in Despair? That’s Good,” The NY Times, 6/3/16, http://clbb.mgh.harvard.edu/are-you-in-despair-thats-good/#more-7340, accessed 1/29/19).
“According to a collection of studies, finely grained, unpleasant feelings allow people to be more agile at regulating their emotions, less likely to drink excessively when stressed and less likely to retaliate aggressively against someone who has hurt them…Perhaps surprisingly, the benefits of high emotional granularity are not only psychological. People who achieve it are also likely to have longer, healthier lives. They go to the doctor and use medication less frequently, and spend fewer days hospitalized for illness. Cancer patients, for example, have lower levels of harmful inflammation when they more frequently categorize, label and understand their emotions.”
There’s evidence that emotional granularity improves mental health. Higher emotional granularity translates to better coping skills and, therefore, fewer maladaptive behaviors such as addictions. Relationships also improve when people are attuned to emotions.
How emotionally granular are you? Do you have difficulty identifying your feelings? Do you ignore them? Lump them together? Therapy can help because it provides a safe place to learn about and discuss emotions. By becoming more tuned in to them, you’ll up your emotional intelligence and do less mindless or binge eating.
Across the miles they drove, journeying four hours north on washboard roads until they reached this country hill.
“We want to talk about the conference,” they had said on the phone. “We can fill you in on the details in person. The more you know about us, the easier it will be for you to prepare.”
I heard their words, but I was deaf to their hearts, because as the date of their visit approached, the puddle of panic around me grew deeper and murkier. The faithless ponderings multiplied:
They’ll be sorry they traveled all this way to meet someone so ordinary. What if they want to quiz me on my theology? I’m sure they’ll take one look at my tiny kitchen and my beat up wood floors and decide that I’m a mess, too.
This, for me, has been the challenge of the Christian life: to boldly welcome others into the mess that is me, and then to trust – to trust that God will build a bridge between our hearts, and to trust that others will respond with acceptance and love.
As it happens, my new friends arrived a few minutes late – GPS’s aren’t much help out here! More important, though, when they showed up in my driveway, they did not arrive bearing an impossible yardstick or hearts of judgment. They were not expecting me to look or sound like a conference speaker or to live in a museum of Pinterest perfection.
We exchanged warm hugs and settled down to business. They shared their stories and described their community, drawing me into their fellowship of women:
the diligent seekers after Truth; the heartsick lovers of prodigal children; the faithful caregivers who bridge and mend the generations; the patient prayer warriors who battle daily on behalf of unsaved husbands.
We broke zucchini bread together and my worries about my mum-jeans and sub-standard housekeeping practices were forgotten as we engaged in sincere prayer for the planning of the conference and for the women who would be challenged by the Truth.
I was the girl with the teakettle on the stove and my Canadian grandmother’s delicate cups and saucers all arranged to receive guests, but these women who had traveled across two state lines on an early Monday morning were the true extenders of hospitality.
They transcended geography, opened their hearts, and welcomed me into their lives in the spirit that Paul describes in Romans 15:7:
Therefore, receive one another just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
Stretching out both hands to receive the world, Jesus’ act of cross-shaped love still flattens the barriers that appear so insurmountable to this fearful and self-protective introvert. God is mightily glorified when, by grace, we reach across the artificial boundaries of politics, race, or denomination in order to truly “receive one another” in unity and acceptance.
Wanting to send my new friends on their way with sweetness, I pulled tiny jars of apple butter from my basement shelves. But the greater gift that day was offered to me — the priceless welcome and deep hospitality of friendship.
Putting Emotions To Work To Overcome Your Eating Disorder
Whether you’re just beginning to address your under- or overeating problems or have been making steady progress over years or decades, there’s one area that you will have to come to terms with sooner or later to achieve full recovery. To achieve a satisfying, nourishing, happy, and successful life without food problems, you will have to learn how put your emotions to work for you. This means not dancing around them by eating or calorie counting, obsessing about what you can/can’t/should/shouldn’t eat, or focusing on whether the numbers on the scale are moving up or down.
For many disordered eaters, identifying and sitting with feelings is the last hurdle to becoming a “normal” eater. Most are willing and often eager to practice new food- and weight-related behaviors, such as making satisfying food choices, eating mindfully, taking larger or smaller bites, throwing out the scale, eating without distractions, taking deep breaths after each mouthful, and staying connected to the body’s pleasure center during the eating process. But most people with eating problems—actually, most people, period—have difficulty getting comfortable with feelings. It’s important for you to recognize that disordered eaters are far from the only ones who have difficulty handling emotions. To greater or lesser extent, everyone does.
Unfortunately, every time you use food (move toward or away from it) instead of feeling an authentic emotion, you miss an opportunity to discover something about what’s happening in your internal world. Think of your emotions as equivalent to your senses. The latter alert us to our reaction to our environment—thumbs up or thumbs down—through touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste. Our feelings have a similar function as they provide us with information about our reaction to people and situations. The function of both our senses and our emotions is to move us toward pleasure and away from pain. Emotions help us decide what is self-threatening—smelling smoke and seeing flames across the room—and what is self-enhancing—sensory delight derived from gazing out over the ocean as gulls soar overhead and the sun dips into the sea.
If you’re like most people, you don’t realize the value and purpose of emotions and assume they’re not important, or worse, that uncomfortable feelings should be avoided at all cost. But, I bet you’d never think of shutting off your senses and wandering through the world without them. Well, that’s exactly what you do every time you ignore or minimize a feeling.
What if emotions aren’t the demons you’ve made them out to be? What if emotions are your teachers and your care-takers? What if they’re not trash but treasures?
One of the reasons that emotions get a bad rap is that they can feel truly awful. We may believe that if something doesn’t feel good, it can’t be good, but this is far from the truth. There are lots of painful cures to what ails us that we tolerate because we know they are necessary and promote ultimate health and well-being—injections, dental fillings and implants, physical therapy, and surgery, to name a few. No one says, gee, terrific, I’m going to have my body sliced open today and then I’ll be in pain for weeks on end recovering. However, inspite of the fact that it’s often a nasty business, people schedule surgery because they know they’ll feel better in the long run.
The same is true of emotions. Just because they hurt or make you feel badly does not mean they are bad. Like musical notes and colors (and foods too!), there are no good or bad emotions. They’re what’s called value neutral. Think of them as messengers, giving you vital information about what’s happening within your internal landscape—you’re disappointed, ashamed, overwhelmed, overjoyed, furious, grief-stricken, content, shocked, revolted, elated, confused, lonely, excited, helpless. True, some of these feelings are excruciating and hard to bear, but they do pass and people survive them every day and have since the beginning of human existence. Half the battle is allowing yourself to be with your feelings without making judgments about them or the kind of person you are for having them. It’s a great deal easier to acknowledge, identify, experience, explore, and deal with feelings without all the associated criticisms you have of them or of yourself.
Recovering from an eating disorder means blossoming into a full, emotionally mature person. For that to happen, you must (yes, must) learn to experience all of your feelings; you can’t pick and choose. Becoming emotionally healthy is an all or nothing proposition, but one you can learn over time. If you believe you can’t bear your feelings alone, find a therapist who can guide you through them. Share your feelings with friends, start a journal, hug yourself, cry, holler til you’re hoarse, beat your pillow, sob til you’re exhausted.
At some point in recovery, you have to choose between food and feeling. You already know where your food obsession will lead you, so why not give feelings a try?
“The aim of trauma treatment is to update memories that have been encoded to produce fear, shame and other painful emotions in response to an event with new interpretations or meanings so that the memories become non-threatening.”
Not only does Courtney Armstrong have a deep understanding of the nature of trauma and treating its debilitating effects, she has the ability to explain complex theory in language that readers can understand. This winning combo makes much of the information in Rethinking Trauma Treatment, a book written for clinicians, worthwhile for trauma survivors as well as for the people in their lives who are trying to support and care for them.
The book is divided into three sections: developing the therapeutic alliance, transforming traumatic memories, and post-traumatic growth. Armstrong’s liberal use of case histories and client anecdotes illustrates what happens intrapsychically and interpersonally to people who have experienced trauma and are trying to move beyond its lingering, painful memories. Describing how therapists need to create safe havens in their sessions with trauma survivors, she underscores how attachment disorders leave them anxious, insecure, reactive and mistrustful of others, all of which make developing rapport and sustaining connection a challenge.
She goes on to present exercises that ground and soothe clients and are necessary not only for them to tolerate the therapist’s exploration of their traumatic memories, but for them to become less reactive in their lives. The range of Armstrong’s interventions is impressive, and her clinical examples show the reader what approaches work and how attunement is key to providing exactly what each client needs for healing. This process, similar to observing master therapists interview clients, will teach novice clinicians a great deal about how to approach and relate to all, not just traumatized, clients by paying attention to Armstrong’s nuanced and enlightened therapeutic responses.
Section two explains what happens to the brain and body when someone experiences trauma. Armstrong defines trauma as “a disorder of memory,” a definition which is key to understanding how she works with it. Early on in the book, she describes how the brain reacts to “emotionally stressful encounters” through the amygdala encoding “all the sensory information associated with the event into what is called an implicit memory . . . a network of neurons that contains the felt, experiential part of memory.” She stresses that implicit memory is far different from explicit or didactic memory which records the factual details of events.
The aim of trauma treatment is to update memories that have been encoded to produce fear, shame and other painful emotions in response to an event with new interpretations or meanings so that the memories become non-threatening. Armstrong uses the example of a “virus or software program with a bug that gets downloaded to a computer.” Just as the computer needs to be recoded when there are errors, so do our brains. Once memory updates are completed through a five-step protocol contained in Armstrong’s acronym RECON, the painful emotions experienced in an event lose their toxicity.
Section two also addresses specific types of trauma: sexual and combat, abuse from childhood, and traumatic grief and loss. Again, Armstrong uses an abundance of examples to illustrate the theory behind memory reconsolidation, so that what she is doing therapeutically, which may feel like magic to the transformed client, is grounded in intentional interventions that are tailored to resolving each type of trauma.
The final section of the book is devoted to clients’ improved mental health and to what therapists must do to hold onto their own. Most readers will be familiar with the term PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but many may not know what Post-Traumatic Growth is: the healthy, positive changes that occur in trauma survivors’ lives down the road. This transformation has been studied and validated by scientific research—many people who had horrific experiences that they thought would scar them for life, instead, have gone on to achieve five specific positive changes: “greater sense of personal strength, openness to new possibilities, greater appreciation for life, spiritual development, and enhanced relationships.”
Additionally, Armstrong cautions therapists who work frequently and intensively with trauma survivors to watch out for common hazards that might arise and impact their own mental health. She describes therapists’ risk for compassion fatigue or numbing out, loss of empathy for trauma clients, and emotional burnout from the stress of their work. Citing examples of each, she encourages therapists to take care of themselves by finding emotional balance in their lives.
Therapists who are new to the complexities of trauma resolution will be grateful for Armstrong’s inclusion of learning tools such as diagrams, client worksheets, and verbatim therapist-client dialogues. Clinicians who already use the book’s cutting-edge memory reconsolidation approach will deepen their knowledge of its principles and find myriad practices and applications to make certain that trauma survivors are well served.
