Ways to Overcome Stress

It seems like you hear it all the time from nearly every one you know – “I’m SO stressed out!”

Pressures abound in this world. Nearly everyone is juggling multiple roles and responsibilities. We seem to be constantly facing one demand or another: work, deadlines, bills, kids, marriage, sickness, you name it.

As a result, we go through the day under a growing feeling of anxiety and tension, commonly known as “stress.” If we don’t alleviate these feelings, they can end up making us sick. Literally, sick. In fact, stress accounts for 80 percent of all illnesses either directly or indirectly.

If not controlled, stress can affect your sleep, your sex life, your concentration abilities, even your mood. It can raise your blood pressure and increase the likelihood of a stroke. It can interfere with your immune system and thus make you more vulnerable to such illnesses as the common cold or the flu. At its worst, stress can lead to unhealthy behaviors like overeating and abuse of alcohol or drugs.

Unfortunately, most of us can’t avoid stress. It’s part of our daily lives. However, how you react to it makes all the difference in maintaining health and well-being. By practicing coping techniques, such as guided imagery, yoga, tai chi, or meditation, you can learn to manage your stress. Sometimes, a lifestyle change may be necessary.

There are also various natural herbal and homeopathic remedies that may assist in providing stress relief. One such product is called PureCalm™. It has been shown to help soothe nerves and balance emotions. It’s 100% pure and non-addictive.

Read more about it here.

Negative Thinking Makes You Sick

“Your mind can make you sick or well. The choice is yours.” That’s the conclusion of Pete and Jennifer Koerner in their excellent article on how your thoughts can affect your health. They firmly believe that when you master your thoughts, you will master your life.

Go here to read more on how negative thinking can make you sick. 

Pete and Jennifer are personal development coaches who focus on helping you eliminate emotional and psychological stresses in your life. Visit their blog, Explore · Expand · Evolve.

Start a Daily Gratitude Journal

The theory behind a Gratitude Journal is basic: You write down five things (or more) that you are grateful for every day.

So many of use simply go through life and never think about all the things we have to be thankful for. Instead, we fill our minds — and our conversations — with all the things we don’t like. Did you know that feelings of depression are often the result of negative thoughts?

By keeping a Gratitude Journal, you begin to ‘train your brain’ to focus on the things you like  instead of the things you don’t like. You reprogram your mind to think more positive thoughts. Very soon, you will discover you are truly appreciating life and all that it has to offer.

Even when you go through dark times in your life and feel you don’t have anything to be grateful for, you would be wrong. There is always something to be thankful for. You may just have to dig a little deeper or look a little harder. For example, be thankful for food on your table, your home, your family, your friends, your health, your pets … or even your comfortable bed. If nothing else, just be grateful you’re alive!

Studies have shown that nurturing a positive attitude results in greater amounts of high energy, more positive moods, a greater sense of being connected with others, and improved sleep patterns. You will also have more enthusiasm, determination, and attentiveness, as well as better overall health.

Being grateful sets in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given to you.

Here’s how to get started:

• Keep your eyes open for things happening during the day for which you are grateful. Make mental notes or jot them down right then. Some people carry a small notepad in their purse or pocket.
• Right before bedtime, look back on the day and think about the things that made you feel good … the warm sun on your face, a hug from one of your children, a phone call from an old friend … and write at least five of them down. You can use a blank notebook, a fancy journal, or even your computer. The important thing is to put them in writing.
• Every day, try to look for the positive side of things. Try to see obstacles as opportunities. Remember, the more positive energy you release, the more will return to you.

As your Gratitude Journal becomes more and more a part of your daily routine, watch how your focus begins to shift to a more positive outlook. Pay attention to how people react to you. You may be surprised at the changes that you will experience in your life.

Energy Drinks and Your Health

Energy drinks are everywhere. You can get them at the corner grocery store, at gas stations, even in bars.

But are they healthy?

Energy drinks are supposed to provide mental and physical stimulation; in other words, they can make you feel more alert. However, you need to be careful when drinking energy drinks because excessive consumption can lead to anxiety, insomnia, and irritability.

The active ingredients in energy drinks vary. The most common ingredients are caffeine and sugar, but they may also include any of the following:

• Ephedrine – a stimulant that is commonly found in weightloss products and decongestants. There are studies raising concern and issues about its effects on the heart.
• Taurine — a natural amino acid needed by the body to help regulate heart beat and muscle contractions. Currently, researchers are trying to discover its impact as an energy drink additive.
• Ginseng — a kind of root thought to have several medicinal benefits. It is said that ginseng relives stress and can increase your level of energy.
• Vitamin B — a group of vitamins that can change sugar to energy.
• Carnitine — an amino acid. Its effects can be mainly on the metabolism of fatty acids in the body.
• Creatine — an organic acid which energizes the muscles for muscle contraction.
• Inositol — a member of the vitamin B complex that helps relay messages within cells in the body.
• Ginkgo biloba – comes from the seeds of the ginkgo biloba tree. There are studies claiming it has memory enhancement capabilities.

Not all of these ingredients are good for you.

How Do Energy Drinks Increase Your Energy?

The reason energy drinks work is because the ingredients cause the pituitary gland to release adrenaline, which makes you heart beat faster, your eyes to dilate, and your liver to release extra sugar to your bloodstream. All this results in the extra surge of energy needed for intense physical or mental activity.

While the short term benefits may seem positive, long term effects from an energy drink can be a real downer. Once the temporary stimulation wears off, a sudden mental sluggishness sets in. Also, since it takes up to 12 hours for caffeine to completely leave your system, your sleep may be affected.

Some energy drinkers have reported getting “the shakes,” as well as experiencing hot flashes, dizziness, and lightheadedness.

Some energy drinks have instructions on how they should be used. Follow these instructions. And limit your consumption to no more than two drinks per day (preferably only one).

It is never a good idea to mix energy drinks with alcohol. You may think you are feeling alert and sober, but this is a false feeling and could lead to excessive drinking and dehydration.

Pregnant women, young children, and people with high blood pressure or heart disease should avoid consuming energy drinks.

While energy drinks may not be considered ‘unhealthy,’ they can adversely affect your health if overdone. As with everything, moderation is the key.

101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health

Since your health plays a major role in how much you enjoy your life, I want to tell you about a terrific book titled 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health. It’s a compilation of 101 proven, reliable, tried-and-true strategies that will help you become a healthier — and happier – person.

This book is literally the “Who’s Who” of the top health experts in the world with contributing authors such as: Dr. Joseph Mercola, Gary Craig, Dr. Marcus Laux, Dr. Susan Lark, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, Dr. Julian Whitaker, plus many other leading health experts.

If you are serious about:

• Achieving Great Vibrant Health
• Eating Well
• Losing Weight
• Reducing Stress
• Sleeping Better
• Reducing Chronic Pain

… or just plain feeling better, then now is the time for you to investigate this book and learn how it can — and will — change your life!

From holistic healing to natural supplements, from diet and nutrition to improving your health through general self-improvement, this book covers every single aspect of the health arena that you can possibly imagine!

Don’t expect to read the same old health tips you see everyday. The experts who contributed to this book — some of the world’s best physicians, doctors, and health gurus — reveal many lesser-known facts about health so you can ensure your body, mind, and spirit are as fit as possible.

David Riklan, the president and founder of the #1 self-improvement website in the world, SelfGrowth.com - is the creator of this amazing collection of health knowledge, and he bundled the book with a goldmine of bonus gifts! The combined value of the gifts amount, literally, to thousands of dollars, but you’re getting ALL of them for FREE just by purchasing one copy of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health.

Take a look for yourself. I think you’ll be amazed not only at all the information that’s contained in this astounding book, but the extremely reasonable price.

BTW, your purchase is completely guaranteed.

If you care at all about improving and/or maintaining your health, I urge you to go here now.

The Baby Boomer Anti-Aging Diet

What did you eat this morning? Was your breakfast a cup of coffee and maybe a bagel (loaded with cream cheese, of course)? What about the rest of the day? Did you eat a well-balanced diet full of whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables, and fruits?

You are what you eat. And what most Americans eat is the greasy, fatty, high-sugar-content fast food diet. Even if you live elsewhere, you probably aren’t eating a diet that’s rich in the foods that are important to your aging process.

If you are eating foods like this, whether you realize it or not, your diet is killing you prematurely. As a Baby Boomer, you have plenty of life still left in you, so why are you cutting short your time on this planet by following such a terrible diet? Just look at what it is doing to you …

• If you have a larger midsection to your body, then you have a high risk of having a heart attack due to heart disease. Just a few extra pounds is all it takes.
• If you consume a diet that is rich in salt, you are destroying your kidneys as well as some of the other organs in your body.
• If you are eating fatty foods, you’re killing you heart by suffocating it under layers of cholesterol.

If all of this scares you, which it should, isn’t it time to consider changing your diet? We’re not talking simple weight loss. We’re talking a major change in your eating habits.

If you simply want to lose weight, you can find weight loss diets everywhere you look. The bad part is that they tend to go from one extreme to the other — high protein (puts your heart at risk because they increase cholesterol) to low fat (doesn’t provide you with protein to build muscle mass, which actually helps you to burn fat). Extreme diets like this rarely work.

Enter the Baby Boomer’s Perfect Diet

The important thing is not to think of the Baby Boomer Diet as, well, a diet. Instead, think of it as a better way of eating because it is not something you’re ever going to give up or throw aside. It is a way of life.

There are some things you will have to give up, but it is still one of the easiest diets to follow. In fact, if you do decide to eat something that isn’t good for you, just go back to eating well from there out. It’s all about controlling how much of the bad stuff you take in and making sure that the good stuff outweighs the bad.

Here’s how to do it. Split up the foods that you eat into a pie graph — 50% of what you eat should be good carbohydrates, 25% should be lean proteins, and the final 25% should go to fats.

This way of eating is enjoyable and it’s easy to follow. Here are some more specific points to keep in mind:

1. The carbohydrates that you consume should be made up of mostly fruits and vegetables.
2. The proteins that you eat should be from beans, tofu and other types of plant sources. About 1/3 of the protein you eat should come from animal meat and then it must be lean.
3. For fats, you want to obtain this from good fats, such as olive oils and nuts instead of fats that come from animals. Look for poly and mono saturated fats.

That’s it. You pick the foods and as long as they fit within this diet regimen, you know you are working on creating a healthy and anti-aging diet that will propel you to health and wellness.

Herbs Can Offer Powerful Healing

Many people today are choosing herbal remedies over traditional medicines because they have discovered that with herbal medicines, they generally have fewer allergic reactions or side affects. Many doctors are even prescribing herbal remedies, especially when other medications are not working.

There are all types of old wives’ tales about how herbs cured coughs and colds. And many people today still claim that it was Grandma’s tonic that cured what ailed them! Whether or not this is true, there are many old herbal remedies that are still in use today — things like jewel weed to help relieve poison ivy, or rose hips added to vitamin C.

Health specialists have found that herbs have some powerful healing properties. Even herbs that you find growing in ditches or your own back yard can be useful for treating common problems like coughs, bee stings, sore muscles, allergies, and rashes.

Some natural herb remedies seem to work better than prescribed medications. For example, clove oil can relieve a toothache as well as any gel you can buy, chamomile tea works wonders as a sleep aid, and peppermint can help with heartburn better than some anacids. When you start researching herbal remedies you may be surprised what these little weeds can do for your health.

Some other examples include:

Allspice — mouthwash, pain relief
Caraway — menstrual cramps
Cayenee Pepper — arthritis pain
Chicory — dissolves gallstones, cleans the liver
Dill — insomnia
Fennel — bad breath
Garlic — antibiotic
Ginger — thins the blood
Horseradish — chest congestion
Oregano — reduces fever
Parsley — bad breath
Mint — heartburn, stomach aches
Mustard — sprains
Rosemary — antioxidant
Sage — insect bites, stings
Tarragon — insomnia, depression

Of course, there is always the possibility of an allergic reaction to any form of medication — whether prescribed, over the counter, or even natural herbs. This is why it is always important to speak with a medical professional before you decide to try any type of self medication with natural herbs. Just as some people are allergic to things like milk and strawberries, someone could be just as allergic to valerian or burdock.

Discover Yoga for Better Health

Yoga is at last coming into its own in the Western world. After many years of being dismissed as a bizarre cult attractive only to eccentrics, it is today recognized as a fundamental art and skill. More than that, many of its most bitter opponents have now embraced it as a way of life.

The ancients who formulated the science of Yoga were way ahead of us in our modern world of stress and hurry. Thousands of years ago, they recognized man’s basic need for discipline to counteract the physical and spiritual deterioration caused by the mere fight for survival and evolved a science which is as ancient as it is modern.

Yoga embodies the secrets of successful living and combines profound and age-old truths with a way of life acceptable to the modern mind. It is a philosophy which integrates the individual life and the world surrounding us to achieve a basic harmony and equilibrium in the heart and mind of man.

To function on a higher level, either mentally or physically, the first step must always be to rid the body of the impurities that cause disease and which impede spiritual development. One can draw the analogy of the window which must be cleaned before one can see the light clearly through it.

This basic principle of purification underlines all Yogic practice. At the same time, it aims to establish a balance in the body so that it functions, as it were, like a perfect machine. When this state of physical balance is achieved, one realizes the ultimate in pure thought and reason.

Many Westerners, moving as they do in a world of hurry and stress, feel that Yoga holds nothing for them and that the whole philosophy is rather remote, vague, and impractical. They fail to see how the ancient system of Yoga provides an effective answer to the many problems of modern life and can act as a protection from the numerous stresses of the environment.

If you …

• Are overweight and lack the will-power to diet
• Sometimes find yourself unable to cope with the tumult of everyday life
• Are irritable, worried, and nervous
• Are plagued by indigestion and other stress symptoms
• Are simply seeking something, you know not what, that goes above and beyond the superficial level of everyday living …

Then it may be time to investigate the art of Yoga. Discover how it can influence and help you in your daily life. Discover how it will gradually invade every part of your life, from your attitude towards your fellow humans to the way you sleep, breathe, think, and even eat.

Why Green Tea is Good For You

There is considerable focus in today’s world on improving and/or maintaining health. We want to live longer and feel better, which is why more and more companies are focusing their attention on producing products that have potential health benefits.

Tea is considered a very healthy drink. The Chinese have been using it for its medicinal benefits for over 4,000 years. In some other countries, especially those with cold climates, tea is almost as popular as water.

Basically, tea has four types: the black tea, the oolong tea, the green tea, and the white tea — each of which is said to have benefits that can help the overall well being of a person.

But among all these types, green tea stands out.

Experts say that the reason that green tea is so good for you is because it contains EGCG, which is a very powerful anti-oxidant. It is also processed differently than other teas because the leaves are steamed. This is to ensure that the EGCG will not be oxidized. Other teas use a fermentation process, which causes the EGCG to be converted into complex compounds.

Drinking green tea helps to prevent many diseases and illnesses, such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular diseases, infections, tooth decay, and various impaired immune functions. An added benefit is that it can also help people to lose weight!

People who already have cancer are often advised to drink green tea because of its high EGCG content. Experts believe the EGCG may inhibit the growth of cancer by killing the cancer cells without causing harm to other cells and tissues.

Individuals with high cholesterol may want to consider drinking green tea because it has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol levels while inhibiting “thrombosis” — the abnormal formation of blood clots in the body which are the major causes of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and stroke.

For those who have dental concerns, green tea has been known to help prevent dental decay because it contains properties that kill the bacteria in plaque.

Although green tea has many proven benefits to people who use it as a health drink, experts still warn that it should be used in moderation. Green tea does contain caffeine, which can cause insomnia attacks to people who have low caffeine tolerance.

Overall, however, green tea is a healthy drink that is good for you in many ways.

Green Tea is a Great Health Drink

Green tea is one of the best health drinks around. In fact, the Chinese have used it for more than 4,000 years!

The benefits of drinking green tea include regulating your blood sugar, preventing certain cancers, fighting plaque, lowering your cholesterol and slowing down the aging process.

But what makes green tea so special is the fact that it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate also known as EGCG.

EGCG  is a powerful anti-oxidant that does two things:

• First, it inhibits the growth of cancer cells, and
• Second, it kills cancer cells without harming any healthy tissue.

It also lowers your cholesterol by inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots which causes someone to have either a heart attack or stroke.

Green tea is even able to fight tooth decay because it inhibits the major bacteria called Streptococcus mutans from forming in between the teeth. Plus, drinking it regularly also helps prevent gum disease.

Do other types of tea have the same benefits as green tea? They do – but what sets green tea apart is how it’s processed. The other products are not steamed, so the EGCG compound is not oxidized.

Green tea does contain caffeine, but it has 50% less than coffee so it’s better for you. Naturally, people who are allergic to caffeine should not drink green tea and if you are pregnant, drink it in moderation.

Proper storage of green tea is important. Once you open the box, be sure to store it away from light and keep in an airtight container. You can also put it in the refrigerator at a temperature between 38 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now that you know what a great health drink green tea is, the next time you go to the supermarket, be sure and pick up a box and start drinking it regularly. If you find the taste is bland, add sugar, honey, or even a lemon wedge. Or do as the English do and serve it with a few bisquits.