“Stress level: extreme. It's like she was a jar with the lid screwed on too tight, and inside the jar were pickles, angry pickles, and they were fermenting, and about to explode.” --Fiona Wood
It's a great visual. My brothers and I used to come home from school on hot, August afternoons when Mother was canning bread and butter pickles. They were angry pickles. The acrid odor of vinegar engulfed the entire kitchen and we'd sprint, eyes watering and throats tightening to keep from gagging, out the back door in pursuit of a breath of fresh air. The thought of being around a jar of fermented pickles ready to explode today is enough to send me running.
Imagine your stress-induced emotions as acetous pickle juice just waiting to explode from a pressure-filled jar. Maybe it's how you're feeling right now...as if you're on the brink of detonating into an eruption of anger, or find yourself jetting quickly toward an emotional melt-down. Prolonged stress can do that to the best of us. And while stress most likely won't be going away any time soon, we can learn to make choices which will help us better manage it.
The Negative Impacts of Stress
Stress is a normal part of everyday life, but if we don't learn to get a handle on it, it can wreak havoc on our mental and physical health. Based upon results of a stress study done by the American Psychological Association, 66% of people regularly experience physical symptoms of stress, and 63% experience psychological symptoms. Because our natural stress response is not designed to be continually engaged, we must find ways to shut it off. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that prolonged stress disrupts the balance in the brain, throwing off the normal cadence of brain cell communication. (https://psychcentral.com/blog/how-stress-affects-mental-health/) A study done by Columbia University Medical Center researchers found that negative impact of stress could be likened to smoking more than five cigarettes a day! (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2250106/Stress-bad-heart-smoking-cigarettes-day.html).
"Learn how to cope, sweet friend. There will always be dark days."
-- Kris Carr
Your Stress Triggers
Developing awareness around your stress triggers is a good place to start. Grab a journal, ask yourself these three questions, and note your responses:
Which situations occur on a regular basis which cause you to feel stressed?
Which people in your life could you name as sources of your stress?
Which circumstances turn routine situations into stressful situations? (For example, do you feel more stressed when you haven't eaten, or when you've overeaten? How does sleep (and a lack of) affect your stress levels? When you let your worries run rampant, do you find you're feeling more stressed?, etc.).
If you can become aware of your triggers, there's a good chance that you can avoid escalations, shifting behaviors before they turn toxic.
What are you feeling?
Do you recognize what stress feels like in your body? Those who have strong stress management skills are able to detect rising stress before it reaches a dangerous level. Physically, you may experience headaches, fatigue, or shoulder pain. Other common symptoms are stomach aches, excessive sweating, back pain, and a racing heart. Behavior-wise, you may find you are taking a habit to an extreme, like overeating or excessive smoking. You may find you're short-tempered, grinding your teeth, or driving too fast. Emotionally, you may find you are bothered by unimportant issues, getting the cry-feeling more often, or feeling depressed and dejected. Cognitively, you may have trouble thinking clearly, or struggle to translate your thoughts into clear words. You may find it hard to concentrate or find yourself more forgetful than normal.
Learning to recognize how stress rears its ugly head in your body is something you want to tune into. Next time a stressful situation arises, take a moment to notice what you're feeling and write it down.
"Everyone has the ability to increase resilience to stress. It requires hard work and dedication, but over time, you can equip yourself to handle whatever life throws your way without adverse effects to your health. Training your brain to manage stress won't just affect the quality of your life, but perhaps even the length of it." --Amy Morin
Stress Reduction Techniques
Though you may not be able to make the stressful situation or person go away, you can learn how to control your own responses. Here are some techniques you can try to reduce the feeling of stress. Which of these could you undertake, in the moments when stress arises?
Practice gratitude.
Take long, deep breaths.
Exercise.
Get some extra zzzz's.
Remind yourself that this too, shall pass.
Rediscover your sense of humor and laugh.
Listen to relaxing music.
Spend some time in nature.
Meditate.
Become a realistic optimist and focus on positive outcomes of the current situation.
Have a good cry.
Forgive...yourself and others.
Eat healthy food and resist junk food/stress eating.
Do something you find to be fun.
Slow down.
Practice boundaries (learn to say no when needed)
Forgive others' poor behavior.
Refuse to let irrational ideas and thoughts swim around in your head.
Visualize yourself in a peaceful place.
Pray or other spiritual practices.
Quit procrastinating and tackle some items on your to-do list.
Call a friend who is able to put you at ease.
Fill in the blank (what works for you?)
Create an Action Plan
Now that you're aware of your triggers, understand what you're feeling, and have a few techniques to use, it's time to create a plan. Grab a journal and write about these prompts:
1-The stress symptoms I need to notice and pay attention to are:
2-My current stress triggers, including both situations, people, and circumstances, are:
3-How do I currently deal with these stressors?
4-What's a better way I could respond to these stressors?
5-What is one technique I can incorporate to remind myself to engage in stress management, as I begin to recognize my symptoms?
6-When do I anticipate the next stressful situation to happen?
I get it--changes are hard--but remember the jar of pickles. Who wants to be splattered by pungent negativity every time you lose control of your emotions? Sure, it's tough to adjust how we respond to the stresses of life, but well worth the effort to learn to open that lid slowly and carefully so can enjoy its contents.
“You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” --Steve Maraboli
What do you spend your time thinking about? Does your mind wander and fall into self-defeating thought patterns or do you choose liberating and empowering thoughts? Emotions are as transient as the weather, but we have the ability to choose our thoughts. We do this by paying attention to our thoughts and replacing those that don’t serve us well with affirmations.
Affirmations are clear, short statements of who we are and who we want to be. Don’t waste any time or energy thinking about your shortcomings or what you need to do to change. Instead, accept yourself exactly as you are. Be kind to yourself. Use affirmations.
I first heard about affirmations 20 years ago through a friend who was suffering from severe depression. Her therapist suggested she try affirmations, but really didn’t explain to my friend how to write powerful affirmations or how to use them effectively. It wasn’t until I became a parent that I began to study how affirmations work and how to use them effectively.
I realized as a new parent that I would be no better at disciplining my child than I was at disciplining myself. That’s when I decided to develop my own parenting affirmations. I posted them on my bathroom wall and began saying them every morning and every night: I am a loving, nurturing parent. I practice proactive discipline. I respond calmly to all situations. I explore and discover the world with my child. I wrote ten parenting affirmations in all that are still posted by my bathroom mirror.
Whatever it is you need, whatever it is you want, put it in the form of an affirmation. Pay attention to your thoughts throughout the day. Whenever you find yourself feeling worried or afraid, repeat your affirmations. Whenever a negative thought comes to mind, acknowledge and release it. Then think instead of a positive affirmation: I am safe. I am healthy. I am prosperous. I am loved. By directing your thoughts to positive things, you will create positive experiences in your life.
The most effective affirmations are the ones that you choose and create for yourself. Whatever it is that you’d like to change or improve, put it into affirming words.Tape your affirmations to your bathroom mirror and repeat them frequently throughout the day.
Make sure your affirmations are completely positive. If you say, “I am debt-free,” you are continuing to affirm debt whether you mean to or not. Take out all negative words (no, not, stop, refrain) and negative ideas (debt, need, fear, want). Write your affirmations in the present tense: “I am strong.” If you write your affirmation in the future tense, “I will be strong,” that keeps the strength you want out in the future instead of accepting it into your present being.
I put my favorite affirmations into a short poem that I’ve used every day for years:
Your unique style of fit is a self-empowerment that allows you to explore your inner-most secrets and discover how you can design a life you will really love. You will see life in shades of colors and not just in black or white. Optimism leads to motivation which activates parts of the brain and your subconscious mind will reveal and provide you with different options and strengthen your problem-solving skills.
Life limits itself with a negative mindset, but with a higher level of thinking it brings clarity to our perception and increases our awareness of the unlimited power potential of the mind.
We are biological, unique, and we must tailor our weight loss program as the creator of our own experience. The Uniqueness of You is finding the creative fingerprint that puts you in an optimal state of mind to provide a creative flow to a pure consciousness and optimal mental state where you feel and perform your best.
Successful people:
· Regulate their emotional state
· Create and sustain interest and commitment
· Remain flexible: the person most flexible masters the situation
· Ignore the Weight Loss Experts! No measuring tapes! No Scale!
· Shift Your Focus from Food Cravings to Creativity
Focus is anything that consumes your time energy, attention. The only reason human beings fail is because of broken focus. Our minds work by consciously selecting the one focus that we want to register at any moment. By holding this one thing in conscious awareness, we give relative inattention to everything else.
Do you always eat healthy? List your favorite foods and understand which are healthy and which are not. Focus on eating healthy whenever possible.
You are confident, powerful and disciplined. Once you identify who you are… your life will change in amazing ways.
If you are suffering from PTSD then the very first thing you are looking for is ‘safety’. One of the biggest problems about suffering from PTSD is that you feel as if people do not understand you, what you are going through, or what you have been through. Most often, they do not! How could they? What you have been through is something that most people in the world could not conceive of. People can debate it, study it, talk about it, but unless they have been through it, they have no idea what someone who suffers from PTSD is going through.
So the very first thing you need is to feel safe, understood, and appreciated for what you have been through. You need to know that there is reverence for you, appreciation for something that may not be understood, yet still appreciated (this is reverence). Most therapists are textbook-driven, which means that they do not have an integral understanding of what real trauma is or feels like. The problem is that they cannot understand you and do not have the tools to bridge the gap between where you are and where they are. In fact, it’s more like a chasm in that it is just too broad of a gap for them to span consciously.
A therapist, who has spent his or her life studying textbooks and accumulating credentials, working with average every-day people, is not a good match for you. If you are a war veteran, rape victim, or refugee from a third world atrocity then there are precious few people who are going to understand and have the necessary reverence for what you have been through. In fact, more likely than not, only around 7% of therapists will actually be able to relate to you in a way that makes you feel appreciated for the sheer gravity of what you’ve been through. This is due to the fact that most therapists have not been exposed to any sort of extreme adversity within their own lives. In other words, it’s virtually impossible for them to relate to what you have been through from within the confines of an ‘atypical lifestyle’.
So you need to know that you are appreciated and respected for your ability to simply survive what you’ve been through. Instead of feeling isolated due to the sheer gap between what you and the average person have experienced in life, you need a safe place to be able to open and up express yourself. Without that feeling of safety then you may never be able to fully open up. This would seem to be obvious, yet most therapists are not quite there yet.
Emotional Integration on PTSD
The essence of pain and suffering is due to the suppression of painful emotions by your psyche. The psyche, in its inability to deal with extremely emotionally painful situations that arise, will attempt to protect you from this massive amount of pain by suppressing the emotions created from the experience. When this happens you are temporarily protected from the emotion of the experience and thus able to maintain your societal functionality. However, due to the fact that these painful emotions are suppressed in your psyche, they are not gone, but still present. Now, instead of being at the surface of your awareness where you can access them and know where the pain is coming from, they are deeply buried within your own subconscious. Here they will start to manifest adversity for you in the form of unconscious reactivity (which means to begin to feel badly and not know why, but further, to physically act out on this in ways that are attempts for you to not feel pain; drinking alcohol, taking drugs, and/or depression/violence/suicidal tendencies).
One of the trickiest aspects of deeply suppressed emotional charges is that they are suppressed because your psyche is trying to protect itself.
In other words, there is a part of you that feels as if it needs to keep you from ‘re-experiencing’ this trauma from the past. Further, that if you do not keep it repressed within your subconscious, you will be doomed to relive this trauma over and over again. So, in essence, your psyche does not want to let these suppressed emotional charges come up to the surface for fear of having to relive the event/s.
Emotional Integration is one of the first forms of therapy to cut straight through to the source of the problem; which is your deeply suppressed emotional charges from the traumatic experiences. Additionally, Emotional Integration is one of the first forms of therapy to recognize how the psyche operates and use this operational foundation as a vehicle for permanent healing. In other words, Emotional Integration respects the psyche’s right to protect itself and through honoring it, allows the psyche to actually healitself. The technique offers an unprecedented breakthrough in healing due to the fact that it addresses healing at the actual source. The source of all pain and suffering comes from your suppressed emotional charges. Once this has been healed you are free to live a normal, happy, and productive life again.
You need no longer remain imprisoned within your own mind.
Emotional Integration has one aim and one aim only: to access and release (integrate) your suppressed emotional charges. When you can access, in a safe place, your deeply suppressed emotional charges and allow them (in a safe place) to fully surface, magic can and will happen. This magic is the integration of one of your deeply suppressed emotional charges. The result is also an integration (bringing back into one) of the part of your psyche associated with this emotional aspect of yourself. When this occurs, you will not only feel more at peace within yourself and less emotionally reactive, but you will also experience a greater sense of ‘self’. This means that a part of your personality has been ‘freed up’ and can now bring additional intelligence back into your psyche.
Emotional Integration is powerful in that, quite often, you may experience complete healing in only one session. Often, total healing can be accomplished in as little as 6 sessions. This is because Emotional Integration bypasses the ‘why’ which would enable your ego to continue to create ‘phantom reasons’ for your pain and suffering. The ego loves statistics, reasons, logic, and rationale due to the fact that it can prolong its life and bolster its sense of ‘self importance’ in this way. Emotional Integration does not care ‘why’ you suffer, but focuses on the actual healing instead.
An important question to ask yourself is: ‘Do I want to know why or do I want to be healed?’
The ego wants to know why. The Soul wants to be healed.
Emotional Integration offers the fast track to reclaiming your emotional freedom and reclaiming your life. It is never too late to take your life back and to feel fully alive again.
Humans have their own uniqueness and genetic makeup so to lose weight isn’t one size fit all. Explore the inner workings of your mind to find your true authentic self in order to lose the weight you want.
It takes a certain amount of focus and determination to lose weight, so your mental attitude and self-confidence is imperative in finding your unique style of fitness.
Fasting and Spirituality will provide you with the consistency, determination, and the foundation you need to lose weight
· We need to feel that we were born for a reason.
· We want to feel value, a sense of importance.
· We want to live a life full of meaning and fulfillment with a sense of personal power.
· We have a need for success.
· And, we need to love.
Therapy of Thought helps one lose weight because the man or woman who is successful is thinking creatively, intuitively and above all optimistically.
In order to think creatively, intuitively, and optimistically, we need passion, energy, emotion, and focus.
Affirmations are a powerful way to establish a new guided attention for your life. Positive words and phrases will be absorbed in your subconscious mind when you read them daily. Your thoughts will become your reality.
I AM – I Love and Accept my body the way it is and work to make it better
I AM – Wonderful. I AM Brilliant. I have the Power to realize my goal
I AM – Strong! I Create My Reality. Power is in my Thoughts
I AM – The Master of My Life
I AM – Excited about the person I am about to become
I AM – Getting healthier and healthier
I AM – Pain free and my body is full of energy. I Love Myself
I AM – A unique person. I approve of myself
I AM – I Love Myself the way I AM
I AM – My Unique Style of Fit because I am Healthy and Happy
I AM – Free to Create my own Style of Fitness
I AM – Successful in All Areas of my life
I AM – Creative with Self- Empowerment because I radiate good health
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”.
My first experience with workplace diseases came in my teens. I landed a job in an office staffed mostly by workers approaching retirement age, and I was told that one person wasn’t in very much anymore because of a workplace disease that made typing painful. I was astounded. Apparently, you could develop a “disease” simply by sitting at a desk and using a laptop. Everybody really is facing a behind the scenes battle that isn’t always obvious. This made me think about the other types of work-related diseases out there. I’d also heard about asbestos in the workplace, and I began to ask related questions like white lung cancer, what is it? Let’s take a look at what else I found out.
Occupational hearing loss
This type of workplace injury is the most common workplace injury reported in the United States. Any workplace can leave workers susceptible to hearing loss where the noise level exceeds 70 dB. This can include workers employed in busy restaurants or bars, factory workers, flight crew, and staff working in the entertainment industry. Noises above 120 dB can cause instant issues with hearing. Always wear the appropriate protection to protect your ears from prolonged exposure to heightened noise levels.
Allergies - irritant dermatitis
Occupational skin disease is the second most reported type of work-related injury in the workplace throughout the USA. Symptoms range from hives on the skin soon after contact with an irritant to much more serious complaints involving contact with harmful chemicals. Workers involved in the cleaning industry are generally at a higher risk, as well as workers involved in the use of pesticides in the workplace. Always wear - or request - the proper personal protective equipment required to carry out tasks safely.
Lower-back disorders
This one is huge - almost one third of all non-fatal workplace injuries (resulting in days away from work) in the United States are linked to lower back issues. Whilst many people are affected due to poor posture whilst seated at a desk in an office (essentially seated in a stress position), there is also an issue with a lack of mechanical lifting devices in workplaces where heavy lifting is common. Workers also need to be aware that they should speak to their line manager where the guidelines - in terms of time - for the use of lifting devices do not reflect the amount of time required to complete the task.
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.
My mother poisoned me as a teenager. She didn’t mean to; but she did. I’m sure your mothers didn’t mean to poison you growing up either... But they probably did.
I still remember it being one of my favorite holiday presents ever - a box full of makeup! I was thirteen years old and felt as though I had won the lottery! Eyeshadows, lip glosses, eye liners, blushes, mascaras, a whole box full . . . of toxins.
Had I been living in Europe, these products might have been safe to use. However, I grew up in New Jersey and what my mother didn’t realize is that the makeup she had bought me, along with the soap, shampoo, body lotions, etc. that she provided for our household, were laced with toxic ingredients.
When my daughter turned thirteen and started wearing makeup, I knew better.
You see, ten years ago I started a business with a global Health and Wellness Company and what I learned was shocking . . . and scary. I was also poisoning my children! Our bathroom products were full of carcinogens, hormone disruptors, and other toxic ingredients.
Horrified, I quickly grabbed a garbage bag and dumped every product containing substances with the suffix ‘paraben’ or ‘phthalate’. Products containing mineral oil (a by-product of gasoline), lead, formaldehyde, and tallow were also trashed. Just Google “animal renderings” and you’ll be amazed to discover one of the cosmetic industry’s dirty little secrets.
What I quickly learned is that the European Union (EU) bans over 1400 ingredients from their personal care products. I wondered how many are banned in the USA…
Like my mother did before me, I try to protect my kids and keep them healthy. They eat well and get plenty of exercise. But what I didn’t realize was that it’s not just what goes in our bodies that’s important, but goes on them as well. Our skin is our largest organ and it only takes 26 seconds for an element to be absorbed into our bloodstream.
While I was feeding my children healthy foods and snacks, and sending them outside to play for healthy exercise, I was conversely bathing and lotioning them in toxins - on a daily basis! More shockingly, these toxins were building up in their system which could potentially make them sick.
Easy solution - I simply replaced all the harmful products we used with safe ones.
Of course, as much as we might like to, we can’t keep our kids in a bubble. They are, after all, going to walk outside and inhale fumes from cars. Despite this, we know better than our mothers did and should do better. We can choose not to consciously poison them.
Please, read your labels. The ingredient policy for my family’s personal care products goes above and beyond the EU’s strict standards and FDA approved ingredients, banning over 2,000 harmful substances. Start using products that are safe and nontoxic, and stop using products that are approved by the FDA.
After all, the FDA bans only eleven ingredients...and haven’t updated their laws regulating cosmetics and personal care products since 1938.
By Jill Kay
Arbonne Independent Consultant & Executive Regional Vice President
Let's take a brief look at how CBD could improve your mental health and overall wellbeing.
Managing your mental health is just as important as maintaining your physical health, yet for plenty of people, this can often be far easier said than done. With over 285 million people currently living with some form of mental health disorder, many often wonder if there is anything that can aid them outside the realm of purely prescription options.
CBD has been garnering a massive buzz over the last year for a variety of potential benefits improving the lives of people the world over. From facials to lattes, CBD seems to be everywhere and in everything in recent days.
With all this talk and the massive proliferation of CBD-infused products on the marketplace, is there any basis for all the hype? Thankfully for you, there is a useful new tool compiling the available research on CBD along with experience generated by users all over the world. Many of these user-reviews discuss the impact CBD has had on their health and lives, including whether or not it helped treat and manage a variety of mental health symptoms.
DidCBDWork.com is a crowd-sourced research platform that combines the current data on CBD for a wide variety of conditions with user-submitted testimonials about the effect CBD has had on helping on them personally. With plenty of half-truths and misinformation spread online, DidCBDWork.com aims to be a primary informational authority on CBD by combining academic and anecdotal evidence in a user-friendly way.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant. Cannabinoids are a group of closely related chemical compounds that interact with cannabinoid receptors in the body; this is known as the endocannabinoid system. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the most common of these cannabinoids and is most often associated with cannabis for its notable and potent psychoactive effect.
A critical distinction between the two is that CBD and THC bind with different endocannabinoid receptors in varying ways, ultimately producing different effects on the body. As CBD is non-psychoactive, users don't face the potential risk of intoxication or failing a drug screening.
CBD and CBD-based preparations have been repeatedly demonstrated to provide relief for a variety of symptoms and conditions. Both preclinical and clinical trials have shown the efficacy of CBD therapy in treating conditions ranging all the way from anxiety to PTSD.
Can CBD Help Mental Health?
Along with anecdotal evidence from patients all over the world highlighting the impact CBD therapy has had on improving their lives, they've also compiled available academic research noting the efficacy of CBD in treating and managing such conditions. One such study, from the University of Mississippi, found that high doses of CBD provide significant antidepressant-like effects. Their evidence suggests that larger doses, around 200mg, yield symptom management similar to that of traditional pharmaceutical antidepressants.
Not only has CBD been demonstrated to have efficacious antidepressant-like effects, but it has been shown to have notable anxiolytic properties. A double-blind, randomized controlled experiment from the University of Sao Paulo found that CBD not only dramatically improves mood but also reduces cognitive impairment and discomfort in anxiety-triggering situations.
As demonstrated above, there is a wealth of peer-reviewed academic research highlighting the promise that CBD can provide those struggling. Mental health and other healthcare professionals across all disciplines have been advocating the use of a supervised CBD therapeutic regimen to help treat and manage a wide variety of psychological symptoms and conditions.
As with beginning any therapeutic regimen, consult with your healthcare provider to ensure there aren't any conflicts with any other current treatments or medications. Furthermore, your healthcare provider could answer any additional questions you may have, helping you create an effective treatment plan to help manage your specific symptoms and conditions.
Have you or someone you know used CBD to help improve their mental health? DidCBDWork.com is currently gathering experiences from millions of people, just like you, who have used CBD to help manage their overall mental wellbeing. No matter if CBD worked for you or not, they would love to hear from you about your experience; these stories help those suffering see that there may be a solution out there for them.
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!
“All you need is love,” sang the Beatles many decades ago. It’s a song still sung today. And for good reason. The tune is catchy, and the message is hopeful: “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.”
Were it that simple. Love, after all, is our greatest joy. But it can also be complex and complicated. Loving someone “for better or worse, in sickness and in health,” means taking the good with the bad. And that’s not always easy.
Many—if not most—of us will have to take care of the person we love during an illness. It might be for a day, a week or even longer. Some may find it a daunting challenge. For me, it’s a call to action.
Over the past two and a half decades, my husband has been hospitalized many times. Often, it’s involved life-threatening illness with long periods of hospitalization and recuperation. In times like that, I do everything in my power to help him get better. Love is the starting point for advocacy.
Along the way, I have learned a lot about the hospital setting and the very real impact that families can have in making sure their loved ones get the best care. Hospitals are bureaucratic and scary places. For patients and their families, it can feel like being tourists lost in a strange land, not knowing the customs, the language or the culture.
Patients are weak and flat on their backs. They are usually in no position to advocate for themselves. Doctors are busy, rushing from one patient to the next; nurses are stretched, trying to meet the many needs of their patients.
Families can make a difference. They can represent the patient’s wishes and needs when their loved one is unable to speak for him or herself. Knowing the patient better than anyone else in the hospital counts for a lot when navigating the impersonal environment of a hospital setting. Families—working as members of the care team—can also connect the dots because doctors, quite honestly, don’t always communicate well with one another.
Families can fill in the blanks when the sick patient doesn’t fully comprehend everything being said or is not able to remember it later. They also can bring information, perspective and insight that patients may forget or are uncomfortable sharing themselves.
And when the patient goes home, continued care must involve the family to ensure instructions are followed regarding medication, doctor visits, exercise, restrictions, and more.
Much is written about patient-centered medicine. But research shows that patient and family-centered medicine provides the best clinical outcomes, increases patient satisfaction, lowers costs, reduces risks of readmission and can even save lives.
Families can and do make a real difference. They start with love and build from there. There’s one more line from the Beatle’s song that applies here: [There’s] … “no one you can save that can't be saved.”
The one you help save just may be the one you love most.
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Bonnie Friedman is 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.
We know that if we practice something often enough that perfection is inevitable. We know this because science has tested this hypothesis an infinite amount of times throughout the ages. Frequent repetition increases our familiarity, familiarity increases efficiencies, efficiencies reinforce familiarity, and so on.
Since we can predict certain outcomes and these outcomes are measurable, we can reasonably approach any activity or exercise (physical or otherwise) to guarantee the best outcome. Reasonable in a way that maximizes our abilities thereby maximizing our outcomes.
Practice is simply recreating a pattern over-and-over, again. It trains the nervous system to become exceedingly familiar with the movement-related aspects of physical performance. And, it trains the brain to become exceedingly familiar with reasoning & learning-related tasks. It simply doesn’t matter what the activity is, it is simply just a matter of your level of acquaintance. Repeat something often enough, and eventually you’ll elicit “muscle memory” (I really don’t like using that term).
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Potential > Memory
I don’t like using that term because a muscle cannot remember anything, period. This “memory” - or familiar movement pattern – occurs when the repetition induces certain efficiencies to develop which allow for the brain to do something else while the body is executing a certain string of commands that have already been programmed and tested. We perfect an activity by practicing it so much that when the initiative spark fires in the brain it sets off a harmonious cascade of precise and predictable nerve impulses. These impulses fire sequences of muscle contractions to cause precise movements. It would be far more accurate to call this phenomenon "muscle-potential", though the latter iteration doesn’t quite sound so appealing.
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Efficiency Over All
Regarding movement, the human body wants to do one thing, and one thing only. It wants to preserve its valuable resources. Economy – same activity, less energy. Same result, fewer resources. Conservation is the only motivation – do something often enough and it will take less time, less thought, and eventually less work.
Your body's primary motivation when performing any task boils down to just one thing – economy - Same activity, less energy. Same outcome, fewer resources. Conservation is key. Get more familiar with doing something and it'll take less time, less thought, and less work.
We've all experienced this in some form or another: whether with a Yo-yo, Rubix Cube, walking to jogging to running (did you know that you burn about the same number of calories WALKING one mile as you do RUNNING one mile? It’s true).
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We occupy this highly specialized, highly adaptive machine whose primary objective is preservation - resource-preservation. To put simply, its objective is to use the minimum resources needed to complete a task, and not a single iota more. This is true from both a metabolic standpoint as well as a mechanical one.
For many people, they’ve been trying to lose weight for what seems like an eternity but because this machine opts for efficiency – the harder you work, the better you get at working hard – AND the fewer resources you’ll use to accomplish the same task. Unless of course, you force the machine to continually adapt. How do you do this? Well, you're going to have to work harder than you did yesterday, every single day.
One Layer Deeper
This neural reprogramming is the first (and least demanding) attempt to make whatever action that you're practicing economical enough to preserve your body's precious and hard-earned resources.
Generally speaking, it's only after the neural improvements begin to maximize that the body begins to explore other avenues to improve the efficiencies of exercise.
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.
