Taking Care of Your Emotional Health

I’ve devoted a lot of time to talking about physical health in terms of diet, nutrition, and exercise but it is just as important to acknowledge the importance of emotional health. Our emotional health can be affected by many different situations:

• Stresses in our lives (family, work, financial, etc.)
• Relationships
• Physical health
• Disorders (depression, bi-polar, etc.)

With so much emphasis on physical well being and other concrete factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, etc., it is easy to overlook less tangible emotional wellness issues.  That doesn’t mean that emotional well being is any less important however.

In fact, left unchecked,  mental/emotional problems can lead to very real physical ailments.

Like many people, I am guilty of ignoring the signs of stress and other factors that affect my emotions.  It’s easy to get caught up in a hectic lifestyle and not take the time we need to decompress and rejuvenate on the inside.

This past week, I got clear signals from my body that stress levels were getting too high and I needed to take corrective action.  After much research and talking to professionals, I’d like to share some of the suggestions I’ve uncovered to help restore emotional balance.

Be aware of stress in your life and take time for yourself to restore relaxation and calmness.  Schedule time for yourself every day.  Even if it is only 15 minutes - make sure you have uninterrupted time to yourself.

When presented with a stressful situation, practice a relaxation technique.  Walk away from the situation, go for a walk, practice deep breathing, count to ten — these are all ways to help you deal with a stressful moment.

Surround yourself with positive people.  It’s amazing how contagious a positive attitude can be and conversely, how destructive a negative attitude can be.  Get the negative people out of your life.

Try to adopt a healthy diet and incorporate exercise into your daily life.  You may be surprised to know that poor diet and lack of exercise can lead to emotional issues.

If you suspect you may have a mental disorder such as depression, anxiety, or bi-polar , don’t be afraid to seek help.  Talk to your doctor about possible treatments — people with disorders can lead very productive lives with the right treatment.

In the following video life coach Corey Wayne discusses 38 different ways you can improve your emotional health so you can improve your emotional and mental outlook on life, and quickly change your state from a negative one into a positive one to keep yourself in a peak emotional state, which will improve the overall quality of your life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wshV47KdFrw

The bottom line is that you have to take care of your emotions just like you take care of your body.  Don’t fall into the trap of taking care of everyone else but yourself.

You’re worth the time and investment and more importantly, you deserve it!

I hope you’ll take a moment to leave a comment and share your ideas for dealing with stress or other emotional issues.

Originally Published Here: Taking Care of Your Emotional Health

Be a Good Role Model For Your Child

When my son was young, I had a bad habit of yelling at other drivers who did stupid things.  My common rant went something like, “You stupid idiot, why don’t you use your turn signal,” or “You stupid idiot, move over to the slow lane.”  No matter the issue, I always started with “You stupid idiot.”

One day, when Justin was about 8 years old, I was watching as he and a friend played in the living room.  It wasn’t long before Justin got upset with his friend and yelled at him, “You stupid idiot.”

The words hit me like a slap in the face.  I was his role model and I had inadvertently taught him that the way to express frustration with someone was to call them names.

“Stupid idiot” is a blatant example of how I served as a role model to my son.  There are many other examples that are less obvious; practicing a healthy lifestyle was one of them.  I regret now that I didn’t do a better job teaching him how to nourish and take care of his body.

We were one of those families that was always on the run.  Hockey practice, basketball practice, baseball practice, birthday parties, the list goes on and on.  It seemed like we were always on the go from one place to the next.

My husband worked a lot of evenings and often times it was just my son and I for dinner.  During those years, we ate a lot of fast food meals or mac and cheese with hot dogs.

At the time, I didn’t think anything of it because I wasn’t focused on my own health.  My son played a lot of sports so the bad food didn’t seem to be a big deal — he burned off all the calories he ate and then some.

What I will never know is whether a more nutritious diet might have helped him do better in school or prepare him to lead a healthy lifestyle as an adult, or if he might not have started smoking. What I do know is that there have been many studies to indicate that diet does affect a child’s performance in school.

A report by the Public School Review indicates: Many popular menu items are loaded with sugars, caffeine, chemicals, and sodium, and leave kids tired, unfocused, jittery, and sick—which not only impact students’ grades and performance, but also influences their behavior and moods.

I cannot go back and change the past but I can help educate those of you who may still have young children at home.  Please remember that you are the primary role model for your children — if your diet is unhealthy and you lead a sedentary lifestyle, your children will follow in your footsteps.

On the other hand, teaching your children about basic nutrition and how to eat healthy foods and exercise are lessons they will carry with them to adulthood.

Read More Here: Be a Good Role Model For Your Child

Exercising Pilates At Home: Does It Work?

Whether any fitness routine or regimen will work well if done at home is one question that does not apply to pilates. This is because pilates is nothing more than a set of movements designed to give a total workout to our body as well as the mind.

The muscles, tendons, bones and ligaments get a complete overhaul even as the individual exercises the mind focusing and concentrating on each and every movement.

You may have seen different devices and equipments in any gymnasium or fitness outlet offering pilates training. However, all the equipments and devices are incidental and ancillary.  What really matters is the concentration and focus with which you perform the exercises.

Hence, there is absolutely no doubt that benefits of pilates will accrue even if the movements and the exercises are performed at home.

One of the biggest criticism or negative point against exercising at home is that you never get the right atmosphere at home. Exercising requires passion, devotion and commitment. When you work out at home, you skip some exercises because you are tired and get busy doing something else.

Had you felt tired in the gym, you will feel as if the entire gym is watching you on your gym machine and you will push yourself harder. Further, we buy gym machines and install the same in our house only to never use it after a few days. This is the reason why many persons avoid exercising at home. They prefer going to the gym instead.

Again, this criticism does not apply to pilates. The role of equipment and machine in pilates is very limited. It is not possible to build your biceps without dumbbells. However, it is not compulsory to own a pilates reformer to enjoy its benefits.

All you need is a mat to lie down and some space to perform all standing exercises. Pilates is no different than dancing or light martial arts. Hence, practicing the same at home will never be a problem.

Those who prefer gyms point out that doing pilates at home may sound cool but it is very difficult to get all the movements right without expert guidance. This might have been valid before the World Wide Web became popular.

Today, you can log on to the web and check out videos of experts doing pilates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GEjVdP2YGk

Another better option is to log on to the World Wide Web and purchase pilates DVD's. You just have to play the DVD and watch the exercises on your television screen.

As far as personal guidance and consultation is concerned, you can always get in touch with your local gym and opt for a pay per day session. Attend a few days in a month to ensure your basic technique remains flawless. Inform the expert that you practice pilates on a daily basis in your home and just need to iron out some chinks in your movements, if any.

The combination of pilates, the World Wide Web and professional advice in your neighborhood is more than enough to get rid of all that extra flab in your body as well as your mind. You will face these problems only until you are stuck in the basic phase.

Once you move on to the next level and once pilates actually starts providing benefits, you will find it very easy to stay motivated and perform the movements properly.

You have the option of buying equipments like the pilates reformer and setting up a personal gym in your own house or continuing with mat exercises to enjoy the benefits of pilates without spending even a single cent on any gym machine.

Post Source Here: Exercising Pilates At Home: Does It Work?

7 Easy Feng Shui Tips For Office

Feng shui for office is an important aspect. It is aimed at ensuring that your office provides the necessary support needed from it. Your office should be capable of relaxing you and attracting positive energy to ensure you beat your deadlines.

Furthermore, it should be capable of relieving you from any negativity that is likely to interfere with the overall performance. An office consumes most of a persons time and it can only be beneficial with a positive environment.

Feng Shui provides you with ideas on how to arrange your office in a manner that will promote a positive working environment.

Below are 7 basic Feng Shui tips to help you transform your office.

#1. Avoid clutter

Clutter should not find room in your office space. Clutter transforms into messy space that reflects a bad Feng Shui. It results in confusion and chaos among all the workers since all the required items will often be displaced. As a result, it also results in unwanted stress.

Clutter should be cleared from your desk as well as on other digital devices that help in transforming your daily duties. Your office space should be organized neatly to avoid a stressful working environment and promote productivity.

#2. Have a reliable receptionist

All the offices are always expected to have guests regularly or once in a while. Every office should have a professional receptionist seated at the entrance in order to handle all the visiting guests. This practice improves the energies in the office and makes it easier handling office tasks.

They provide immediate support to the guests and direct them on where to receive the services they need. Offices without such a setup enhance a non-friendly environment to their visitors which creates a bad impression about the office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6u2SjSY68E

#3. Strategize the finance and accounts department

They should be located in a secured corner of the office. This provides only one single entry point to these departments. The person in charge of these duties should be seated with his back facing the walls.

This measure helps in improving the financial stability of the company. The position is also beneficial in enhancing easier management of internal security in the department.

#4. Eliminate or sharp corners

It is advisable that you check around your working area in order to notice the presence of any sharp corners that are likely to jut out towards you at right angles. Feng shui advises that such corners should be eliminated with ideas such as placing a plant or covering it using a piece of fabric.

Apart from covering up the sharp corners, water plants can enhance the wealth of the company. Before setting up the water plants, it is good to seek advice from a Feng Shui master to determine whether the wealth corner has some negative energy. If negative energies are present, they should be removed before setting up the water plants.

#5. Strategize on the major decision maker’s room

The office intended for the decision maker who in most cases is the big boss, should be located at a point where he can have direct access to other offices for his staff members.

Alternatively, it can also be placed at a location where the boss can directly have a view of his staff while in the office. Avoid situating his desk in a secluded corner of the office since this will promote lesser communication between him and his staff.

#6. Positioning of the office desk

Generally, no office desk should be situated directly facing towards the main entrance especially if it is near the door. However, the receptionist desk can be located in such a position since they will be directly in charge of receiving guests.

If the receptionist’s desk is located at such a point, it should have a higher counter that serves as a protection against any incoming energies that are likely to affect the stability of work and interfere with concentration. The desk should also not allow the back of any staff to face directly into the door way. Such a position prevents accumulation of qi’ which affects the level of stability.

#7. Lighting

The working desk and lobby of the office should be well lit at all working times. Light influences development of yang energy that is responsible for growth of all office functionalities.

Being careful about Feng Shui will provide an environment supportive of production and success. If you are wondering how to transform your office, try out these tips and experience the feel and wonder of a successful career.

Read More Here: 7 Easy Feng Shui Tips For Office

Got the Facts on Milk for Yogis?

Although the classic texts of Yoga discourage consumption of meat, they’ve long promoted milk as as a proper source of nutrition for practicing aspirants.

“The most conducive foods for the yogi are good grains, wheat, rice, barley, milk, ghee (clarified butter), brown sugar, crystallized sugar, honey, dry ginger, patola (a species of cucumber), five vegetables (leafy greens like spinach), mung beans and such pulses, and pure water.”

Hatha Yoga Pradipika, circa 1450 CE

And for years now the United States government has recommended that all adults take in at least three servings of dairy products every single day.

But there’s a growing rumble in the scientific and medical communities suggesting we need to stop consuming dairy – or at least consume much less of it. It’s not just coming from left field either. Based on the evidence, experts at Harvard’s School of Public Health now state clearly that milk and dairy should be limited to one, or possibly two, servings per day at the most.

“Calcium is important. But milk isn’t the only, or even best, source.”

Harvard School of Public Health

The Physicians’ Committee For Responsible Medicine recommends against the consumption of dairy. Here’s a link to their web page explaining why.

And some medical doctors, like John McDougall, vehemently oppose ALL dairy consumption and coax their patients onto total vegan diets. Here’s a link to Dr. McDougall’s newsletter explaining his reasoning.

My concern with a vegan diet devoid of all dairy and other animal products is a complete lack of vitamin B12. I’ve written about that before. Anyone choosing a meat and dairy-free diet needs to be taking a B12 supplement in the form of a manufactured pill or as an artificially added nutrient to commercial breakfast cereals or other foods. Plant sources aren’t active congeners in the human body.

Can a diet that excludes such an important nutrient without artificial supplementation be wholesome and natural? If you have to get a nutrient in an unnatural way, isn’t that saying something huge?

The vegan argument is that we’ve altered our food production and consumption habits, as well as our hygiene habits, in a way that has distanced us from the only real and initial source of vitamin B12 – bacteria.

Those yogis of old weren’t only drinking milk, they were also making cow dung patties with their hands and plastering them all over the inner walls of their huts. And their food was fertilized by beasts of burden like those that still work the fields of rural India today, dropping their bacteria-laden excrement onto plowed dirt and growing crops.

And I bet they were nowhere near to drinking three glasses of milk every day. While the classic texts recommend dairy consumption, they don’t suggest how much.

“At this time, however, the optimal intake of calcium is not clear, nor is the optimal source or sources of calcium.”

Harvard School of Public Health

The absolute bare minimum for B12 intake from dairy products is one 8-oz serving of yogurt, a cup of cottage cheese, or two cups of milk daily – although there’s some evidence suggesting the latter may increase the risk of developing prostate cancer.

Even the minimal amount of 8-ounces of yogurt daily doesn’t meet current US recommended daily allowance (RDA) guidelines for vitamin B12 consumption. It’s only about half of the RDA while some experts recommend we should actually be taking in double the RDA.

Confused? You should be. It’s clear medical science is only just beginning to understand the full implications of the relationship between diet and health. There’s a lot we don’t know.

While some data makes it look like too much dairy is bad for you, other data suggests that, at least on a meat-free diet, getting enough vitamin B12 from dairy products in an effort to eat naturally and avoid supplementation is almost impossible.

The Bottom Line

Classic Yoga texts and the USDA recommend dairy consumption while an increasing body of evidence suggests too much dairy intake is linked to poor health.  It’s safe and healthy to avoid all dairy as long as attention is paid to adequate vitamin B12 consumption.

For those yogis who want to follow the recommendations of the classic texts and who enjoy dairy products without intolerance or immune reactions, it’s wise to limit the amount to no more than one or two servings per day – preferably live-culture yogurt and low-fat milk. While that amount of dairy likely provides enough vitamin B12, it’s not clear just how much we really need.

For anyone rethinking their decision to continue consuming dairy, here’s the trailer for the film "Got the Facts on Milk?" (also known as "The Milk Documentary") that takes a humorous and provocative look at the current evidence and dares to question the conventional wisdom of the much publicized health benefits of milk and dairy products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m6VErjH5VY

 

Post Source Here: Got the Facts on Milk for Yogis?

How I Overcame My Fear of Being Alone

For so many people, days are filled with co-workers, children, friends, family members, those we serve, those we work for, or a myriad of others. They wake up and immediately surround themselves with other people, whether they add value to their life or not.

Then, if they do find time where they are suddenly alone, they fill it with busyness; working, cleaning, organizing, exercising, television, etc. They constantly have to have something to occupy themselves, and if there is nothing to do they become agitated, annoyed, and irritable.

I know first hand, because I used to be one of those people. I went through a very stressful transition in my life and to deal with it I became a workaholic. I woke up at 5:00 AM to go running and would then head right to the office to dive into work. I was usually the first one there and many times the last to leave. But it didn't end when I went home.

The company paid for me to have a blackberry, so I could be connected to email 24/7 (this was before true smartphones came out). I would go home, have a bite to eat, go running again (!), and end up either in my home office working lat into the night or at my neighbors house for a few drinks, because without some alcohol to take the edge off I couldn't relax. I worked almost constantly and even slept with my blackberry.

When someone I worked with sent an email from another time zone in the middle of my sleeping hours, I was right there to read it!

Sounds great doesn't it? It really doesn't, and I wasn't living any kind of real life; I was just covering my problems and my fear of being alone with work, exercise, and alcohol. I was terribly imbalanced and because of it I became very sick.

When we try to ignore our minds telling us something, it inevitably comes out physically, forcing us to slow down or stop and reevaluate. I did recognize just before I became sick that I needed to make a change, but I didn't know how, and by the time I left my job it was too late.

Once I left and became well again I was still mentally a mess! I had no clue what to do with all of this time and solitude. Admittedly I started to feel a little crazy.

I began journaling to reduce my stress and started spending most of my time reading everything I could get my hands on to overcome my inability to just be. Before the stressful transition in my life I was ok, but now I had a serious fear of just being when I was alone.

Yet, so many great things can come to light when we spend time alone. If we hold onto a fear of being alone we tend to either fill the time with busy work, or fail to do much of anything, becoming frozen. It took me a really long time, but I found that in order to overcome my fear I just had to do it.

It is almost like meditation, and at first I did go a little crazy, but the more time I spent alone, the more comfortable I became.

Eventually I got past the withdrawal period and would catch myself sometimes still trying to fill my time with something, but once I did, my creativity returned, my anger and irritability diminished, and I had a sense of calm instead of constant stress.

Journaling, yoga, and flower essences helped me understand more about myself and regain equilibrium. Honestly, I am a completely different person now. Overcoming my fear of being alone has lead me to try new things, relax, and figure out what I truly want out of life.

“In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for
constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being
alone.”

Rollo May

Read More Here: How I Overcame My Fear of Being Alone

Living A Plastic-Free, Zero-Waste Life And Buying in Bulk

A few months back I started to make a real effort at reducing, limiting, and removing as much of the plastic from my family's life as possible. I have always been fairly conscious of plastic in general and when another option was available I took it.

This usually happened for more obvious things though, like using reusable shopping bags or buying our soap in paper wrapping.  It wasn't until I really started to look around that I realized there was quite a bit of plastic still lurking in our lives.

The large container of vinegar I use for cleaning and laundry was plastic, as was the wrapping on the toilet paper I was buying, among so many other things!

I hadn't thought much about these things because optional products were going to take time and research to make a change. One day though, I took a long hard look at all of our recycling and thought, what actually happens to it all?

I didn't realize that most plastic is really downcycled not recycled, and honestly after taking a moment to get over my shame and embarrassment, I felt sick. How can we all continue to consume like that?

I am far from running a zero waste home or lifestyle, but I have made quite a few changes that were simple and have reduced our recycling by at least one-third.The first thing I did was start buying in bulk as much as possible.

I buy flour, sugar, sea salt, baking soda, beans, dried fruits, and soap in bulk now, just to name a few things. The bulk items available in my area aren't vast, so I am somewhat limited, but for staples I find I have plenty of options.

Another easy change I made was to buy organic cotton bags to place the bulk items in. I purchased mine from simpleecology.com. They came in a pack of six, three different sizes, two of each. They have a built in drawstring so I don't need a twist tie, and the tare weight is on a permanently sewn in label for easy check out.

When I get home, I empty everything into glass jars and throw the bags in the laundry. The glass jars did create an initial investment, but I purchased two or three a week until I had enough for everything in the pantry, eliminating the need for plastic bag storage completely.

Buying fresh produce that I place directly into my reusable bags helps too, and the bar soap I buy comes in bulk, completely eliminating even more packaging. I buy toilet paper wrapped in recycled paper now instead of plastic, and vinegar for cooking, cleaning, and laundry in glass.

The sad part is, I have a long way to go. I still have to use plastic trash bags, since that is the rule within my city, and I have yet to find a shampoo bar I love, but I am still looking. I hate paying for a product full of water and packaged in plastic just to wash my hair, but I do buy it in a huge bottle that lasts a few months.

I wish baking soda and vinegar worked for me, but I am not sure if it is the hard water in my area or the texture of my hair, or both, but it was an epic fail after a few months.

What creative things have you done to eliminate plastic from your life? I would love to know!

Learn More Here: Living A Plastic-Free, Zero-Waste Life And Buying in Bulk