Relaxation Moments

Relaxation, Peace and Serenity for the Mind and Body

Are You the Biggest Barrier to More Relaxation?

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Relaxation

How do you rank when it comes to relaxation? Relaxation is a voluntary action which often makes it harder to achieve. Choosing to relax requires awareness, discipline, and self-love. Understanding the benefits of relaxation and making it a priority in life can be hard when so many things are competing for your time and attention. It’s often easier to sacrifice relaxation when you feel overwhelmed or overextended, but relaxation is the very thing that could resolve those issues.

It may seem as though there are too many barriers between you and relaxation, but the biggest one could be…you. The good news is, with some simple mindset shifts, you can remove the barriers, including yourself, from the equation.

Choose relaxation through awareness- Our sympathetic nervous system, or SNS, helps us in times of stress. When our SNS is activated, we experience an increased heart rate, boosted adrenaline and other hormones, and our fight or flight response kicks in. By contrast, our parasympathetic nervous system, or PNS, helps our bodies transition from fight or flight back to calm and connected.

Understanding that the SNS needs to shut down and PNS needs activation is important, otherwise we live in a heightened state of vigilance all the time. This can lead to chronic worry, anxiety, as well as high blood pressure.

Get out of your own way by recognizing when your SNS needs a break. Living with too many stressors can keep your body in fight or flight and it’s up to you to determine when you need to trigger your PNS and find peace.

Choose relaxation with discipline- Knowing you need relaxation for your mind and body is one thing, actively engaging in it is another. It takes discipline to make relaxation a routine part of your everyday life. In the same way you create other routines for your health, shift your mind to include relaxation. Find a way to relax that makes sense for you and your lifestyle and stick to it. It’s ok to try more than one activity until you land on the ones that work best for you.

Get out of your own way by scheduling relaxation into your day. Include meditation, a cat nap, or walking barefoot in the grass into your to-do list. For most people, marking it down on their schedule can help them make relaxation a priority until it feels like a normal part of life.

Choose relaxation out of self-love- There are lots of ways to relax. Deep breathing can help you achieve a relaxed state, but so can a wonderful massage. Relaxation should be a reflection of the love you have for yourself and your health. Melding relaxation with activities that bring you peace, joy, and comfort is a form of self-care that benefits your mind and body as a whole.

Get out of your own way by allowing yourself to do things that feel lovely and loving. Find relaxation by soaking in a warm bath or enjoying your favorite beverage. Relax alone or in the company of others. Learn to embrace relaxing activities as vital as eating and sleeping are for your health. Don’t allow anyone else to encroach on your right for relaxation.

Sometimes a busy day leaves no room for relaxation, but overall, it’s usually us that gets in the way of being more relaxed. Thankfully, we can control ourselves and make important shifts to being more relaxed and engaging in relaxing activities.

Relaxation is Important to Your Health and Well-being

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Somehow, the idea of relaxing has become synonymous with laziness. In a busy world of people grinding out their success and taking care of their families, the idea of relaxing doesn’t come easy. The thing is, we need to relax, every day, not just during the occasional vacation. 

Your health, both physical and mental are tied to your ability to relax. Here’s how-

Relaxation lowers blood pressure, regulates breathing, and heart rate. Relaxation eases tense muscles and helps release stress. Relaxation reduces anxiety, depression, and many mood disorders.

So, why aren’t more people relaxing?

We are over-committed- Now, more than ever, we are pulled in too many directions. We make to-do lists, build out our schedules, and over-commit to so many things. It never occurs to us to schedule down time to recover from the demands. Eventually, since we don’t prioritize some peace and quiet, our bodies demand it by reaching their limits and experiencing illness, injuries, and mental fatigue.

It’s not culturally acceptable- While some cultures covet down time and build it onto their societal fabric, others don’t. Americans especially feel the pressure to be productive, only taking time for relaxation on Sundays and accrued vacation time.

Our brains don’t know how- Sometimes our brains can’t shut off. Issues like anxiety and depression can keep our brains in overdrive and we avoid relaxing altogether to avoid the hyper-awareness of how we feel inside. Essentially, we would rather stay busy than feel our feelings.

We choose the wrong relaxation- Relaxing should be free from stress, worry, and negativity. Choosing the wrong activities when we relax can negate the positive effects of down time. If you choose to watch true crime, play intense video games, or read suspenseful books while you ‘relax’ you could be triggering your brain into fight or flight rather than relaxation.

What You’re Missing When You’re Not Relaxing

Relaxing is a lot like eating well and exercising, it’s good for you! Here’s how relaxing contributes to your overall health-

Relaxing lowers blood pressure- High blood pressure often has no symptoms and can lead to heart attack and stroke. Hypertension is a leading cause of death and diet and exercise can influence it, but so can relaxation. In the same way 30 minutes of cardio can lower your risk of high blood pressure, so can 30 minutes of routine relaxation.

Relaxing boosts blood flow- Relaxation helps blood flow to the brain and other major organs helping our systems work as they were designed. Restricted blood flow can cause illness and injuries.  

Relaxation improves digestion- Our bodies do many things on their own without us thinking about it. We don’t need to remind ourselves to breath, our heart to beat, or our food to digest, but we can influence these actions. Relaxation is voluntary and helps us calm ourselves and our bodies. This can improve digestion by loosening muscles and allowing for proper blood flow to the digestive system.

You may think relaxing is a luxury or something to experience on vacation, but it’s vital to your health and wellbeing and should be a part of everyday life.

What Does It Mean To Be In A Truly Relaxed State?

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Relaxation and the ability to be relaxed is a very powerful tool in life. Think about it, people say all the time, when your anxious ‘just relax’, or when you’re about to feel pain and you know it, people say ‘just relax’ and when you are about to speak in front of a large group of people, you say to yourself ‘Just relax’.

At even deeper levels, relaxation has the ability to show you something about yourself that most people wouldn’t believe unless they saw it for themselves. We will get to that later on.

What Is Relaxation?

When you are letting go of worry and concern in your mind, you experience greater degrees of relaxation. On the other-hand when you are encouraging worry and concern in your mind you, experience greater degrees of tension. When people learn to meditate in order to experience inner peace they are encouraged to relax.

When people enter into deep states of hypnosis, first they are taken through a process of relaxation. However, what is it exactly? It’s a silly question really, but the answer is this: Relaxation is the action of releasing tension in the muscles of the body.

Mental relaxation is the action of releasing tension in the thought process, done in various forms of meditation and hypnosis discipline.

So How Can We Make Use Of Relaxation?

Relaxation is something that can be employed by any of us, at any time in our lives. It is a tool that is very useful for dealing with situations and encounters that cause us mental anguish of any kind. It can also help us to experience a greater sense of well-being in our daily lives. Without tension, without stress, we experience greater peace. Inner peace is brought about by a relaxation in the mind and spirit.

At night, we can learn to go through a form of self-hypnosis exercise whereby we release the activities and attachments of the world by encouraging our bodies, mind, and spirits to let go, to relax and just let things be.

The positive effects of this type of mental training must be experienced to be believed, but needless to say, it is one of the most powerful tools we can have in our arsenal for encouraging greater health and wellness.

The Practice

Do these exercises at night when you go to bed, when all of the days’ work is done and there is nothing else left that requires your personal attention. It can be employed during the day also, but make sure you will have at least half an hour to yourself in an environment where you won’t be disturbed or interrupted.

Silence your phone, turn off the T.V, wear something warm, and find yourself a nice comfortable spot to lie down.

  1. When you are lying down, allow yourself to relax and focus on your breath.
  2. Pay attention to the feeling in your feet and allow every muscle in them to relax.
  3. Slowly move your attention up into your calves and do the same thing. Breathe slowly and allow all the muscles from your calves downwards to relax.
  4. Move your attention slightly higher into your thighs and buttocks and do the same. Let everything relax.
  5. Continue the process until you have covered, bit by bit, the entire length of your body, from foot to head.
  6. Be aware of your breathing. Just breathe naturally and allow every muscle in your body to be in this relaxed state of awareness for as long as you like, or as long as you can.

Doing this exercise will develop your ability to be relaxed and you will learn that everything that happens to you in the world, develops a certain amount of tension in your body and mind, and doing this particular exercise will allow all of that tension to slowly dissolve.

Practicing this properly can give you insight into the nature of meditation and has even lead some people to have unexplainable mystical experiences. However, the main aim with this is to uncover for yourself a truly relaxed state.

Once you get the hang of this practice, you can even take it with you into your everyday life, while going about your daily business. Focus on your body and encourage your muscles to stay relaxed, by consciously relaxing them.

Advanced students of this practice will even do it while in stressful situations, combined with ‘breathing focus exercises’ to support their state of relaxation, they can face challenges and stressful situations to a degree much higher than most other people.

In terms of being alive today in the stressful world of the 21st century, developing your own truly relaxed state is a tool that is well worth forging within your body, mind, and spirit.

Healing From Within

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Healing From Within: Using The Power Of Choice To Improve Your Quality Of Life And Wellness

Each of us has the ability to choose. We can decide what to eat each day, what clothes to wear, what restaurants to go to; we have the ability to choose what we want in life and what we don’t want.

Of course, some things we can’t choose like what color our skin is, what size feet we have, what day of the week it is, but we do have the ability to choose something that is really, really important.

How We Feel

The practice of developing wellness in our lives shows us that we do have the ability to choose how we feel. We can consciously influence our emotions and ourselves. We can use mental training strategies like self-hypnosis and meditation to encourage certain states and feelings within our minds.

We can choose how to react to a certain situation or to a certain person. We can control our emotions so that we don’t fall into negative, degenerative, or destructive thought processes. We can even use the power of choice to heal.

Healing From Within

The power of choice is very similar to the power of intention. When we hold an intention in our minds, we are attracting the result of that intention into our lives. When we make a choice, we are attracting the result of that choice into our lives. Therefore, if we learn to be very aware of our choices, and also be aware of where our choices will lead us, we can learn to remove destructive and negative influences from our lives.

When we remove negativity and destructiveness from our lives, we feel an all-pervading sense of wellness within our daily way of life. When we can learn to promote this feeling on a regular basis, the natural result is healing in the spirit.

Healing The Spirit Is Healing Both Body & Mind

The Spirit, the awareness of the entire cosmos, is connected to everything that is contained within it, indeed, they are one. Obviously, that includes you, and me, and everyone else. Therefore, when the Spirit is encouraged to heal, meaning, when healing is promoted within ourselves and without ourselves, naturally we experience healing on all levels.

But what does healing mean?

Healing or more specifically spiritual healing does not actually have anything to do with physical health. I know this may shock some of you, who are reading this, but it doesn’t and it’s actually pretty obvious why not when you can see the big picture.

For example, a person with a terminal illness can still have a very powerful and aware spirit.

A person who is incredibly fit and healthy physically can be completely negative in their minds and still practice many destructive forms of behavior.

Indeed spiritual awakening occurs to many people who are on their ‘death-bed’ so what are we talking about when we use the term ‘healing’?

Healing, In Reality

Having a complete awareness of what we are, knowing that in reality everything is okay, and understanding our position and function in life, that is what real healing is about. On the other hand, there is suffering.

Being lost in life, being confused about what is real and what is not, being angry and traumatized by past experiences, holding onto judgements and opinions about people, things or places which leads to a feeling of separateness, these things are all in the realm of suffering.

True healing can only occur when all of these things are overcome, when suffering is brought to an end inside our hearts. In reality, true healing and true spiritual wellness can only occur when the source of our suffering has been extinguished.

The Result

We have the ability to choose whether or not we suffer. By choosing not to suffer we are encouraging healing within our spirit. When healing is encouraged within our spirit, this has the natural effect of developing inner peace within our heart.

To truly heal, to remove all of the anguish, all of the confusion, all of the aggression, all of the conflict, all we have do is make a choice, a choice not to suffer, not to feed our problems, but instead, to take away the source of their inspiration.

Only we can do that for ourselves.

If we can choose not to promote suffering in our lives, naturally this has the effect of promoting greater quality of life and greater health. But even if our physical health is bad, as will be the case with most of us as we age and grow older, we can still have a mindset that doesn’t experience this as suffering, but simply sees that it is a part of the natural way of things.

For those of us who have health problems in our younger years, by making the choice to stop doing anything negative or destructive, we can encourage greater physical health as well and mental and spiritual health.

In order to do this, all we have to do is make a choice. What will you choose?

Is Your Life Designed To Support Wellness?

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The question we are asking ourselves here is whether our own personal life, in its current state, is designed to support wellness.

This requires a dual approach.

We must investigate exactly what wellness is referring to. Does it mean a general state of well-being? Can we be well physically but not mentally? Does this have anything to with spiritual wellness?

We must recognize whether or not wellness is suited to our life currently. Maybe we already live in a way that promotes wellness in our everyday life and maybe we do not. However, in either case we want to understand how well our life is suited to wellness.

For those of us who do not live in a way that promotes wellness, what do we have to do to inspire wellness in our current life? Do we have to make any changes or is it simply a case of doing more? Maybe it is a case of doing less?

What is Wellness?

Wellness is something that many people overlook. Most people think that how they feel is how they feel and there is nothing to be done about it.

For some, the primary goal of seeking good health is to prevent some possible future disease, like heart disease or diabetes.

Some others relate wellness only to the physical body and others relate it more to their mental state than anything else does.

Let us have a look at a holistic view of what wellness is. Quite simply, wellness can be understood as balance.

Wellness = Balance

When we feel well physically it is due to the fact of our bodies is getting what they need from a balanced lifestyle. This includes our level of physical exercise, our nutrition intake, our level of work vs play, and our personal and environmental hygiene. When we feel balanced physically, we feel well.

Mentally we feel balanced when our thoughts are aligned with our purpose in life. When we have an understanding as to what we are doing, why we are doing it and what needs to be done to maintain order in our life. When we are emotionally disturbed on the other-hand, we say that we feel out-of-balance, or perhaps mentally unwell.

Spiritually, we have a much bigger picture to look at. In order to determine whether we are spiritually well we need to be very honest with ourselves when asking that question. If we feel completely happy with our lives, if we have a genuine understanding of our function and position in the universe, as living beings, then we could be said to be spiritually well. But, and this is where the importance of self-honesty shines through, we must be clear with ourselves if we feel spiritually unwell.

Do we feel confused about our way of life, or our beliefs?

Do we have unresolved conflicts with our past or even perhaps our understanding of our life, or our purpose?

Do we feel inner calm and peace that supports and promotes our utmost quality of life?

Being spiritually unwell means that no matter what we do, or where we go, or who we are with, our happiness, our wellness is only temporary.

Eventually we always fall back into some form of despair or confusion, or suffering: like having a splinter in our minds that inevitably, always returns back to hurt.

The Best Thing About Wellness

The best thing about wellness though is that it is attainable, by anyone and everyone. Everyone and anyone on the face of the planet can achieve physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. Bearing in mind, that wellness does not mean ‘to be in good health’. If that were the case then no terminally, ill person could ever feel well.

This is what is meant by, wellness = balance. Even a person who is suffering from a terminal illness can feel well, if their life is balanced and fulfilled.

In order to encourage the development of a holistic wellness in our life, all we have to do is maintain a balanced way of life. This incorporates the physical, mental and spiritual worlds, since all of those things are within us.

Therefore, with regards to the question, is your lifestyle designed to support wellness, the above will give you an idea if it is, and only you will know the answer. If the answer is no, there are many things you can do to make changes, so make a plan and stick with it.

How A Healing Retreat Can Benefit Your Wellness

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 You’re tired, you don’t sleep well, you’re not eating right, and your body ache. You’ve had enough and decide it’s time to see a doctor. On your way there, you start visualizing what the doctor might prescribe to make everything right again. Visions of orange bottles filled with all sorts of pills pop into your mind.

The truth is the one thing your doctor can tell you that will make you feel better again is to heal yourself spiritually and mentally first. “Connect more with nature, disconnect from technology,” is what he’ll probably say. “It’s cheap and has no side effects.”

Your doctor then takes out his pen and prescription pad and gives you the following advice: ‘Go to a Healing Retreat’.

You’ve heard of healing retreats before, but never really thought of them as your kind of thing. The doctor leans in across his desk, familiar with the confused look on your face, and starts explaining in full detail all the benefits of a healing retreat:

  1. Acceptance:

This is the first benefit and it’s also the first step in any healing process. The only way you can get through difficult stages and reach a solution or find inner peace, or whatever your goal may be, is to accept how things currently are in your life.

Whether it’s health issues, financial troubles, relationship problems – if you can’t face it and accept it as part of you, you’ll never be able to be mentally or physically healthy.

  1. Invest in some much-needed ‘me’ time

Very few people have the luxury of taking time off regularly to pamper themselves and indulge in some self-care time. This is why a healing retreat is ideal for the majority of people who constantly prioritize everything else before their own needs.

Understanding your nature via self-exploration is an empowering, uplifting experience. By taking responsibility for your feelings and behaviors is a very powerful tool to embrace your fears in a safe, controlled environment so you can reach inner peace and strength.

At a healing retreat, you’ll meditate, do yoga, and take relaxing, energetic walks. You’ll meet with specialists who are good at listening and providing you with exactly what you need in terms of personalized healing treatments specially made for you. You’ll learn how to redefine your priorities and eliminate clutter from your life, both mentally and physically.

  1. Letting go

We often keep our emotions locked up; unknowingly just shoving them back in our minds, believing they’ll dissolve on their own, and just cease to exist, but what happens in reality is exactly the opposite. These emotions and thoughts sit there and fester like an open wound. Most of the time, they’re the reasons we have physical symptoms that ail us day in and day out.

Healing retreats have experts that encourage discussing pent-up emotions, either in a group-type setting where you can feel safe to share and open up, or during individual sessions which can provide clarity and liberation. These discussions are supportive, encouraging and are a great way to free all the negative, repressed thoughts and emotions.

  1. Re-energize the body

If you need to clear you mind, revitalize, and energize your entire system, then a healing retreat is the ideal place for you. You’ll be able to do many physical activities that leave you more balanced and energetic, along with spa therapies specifically suited for your needs.

After you leave, you’ll continue experiencing great benefits such as daily boosts of energy, focus, better concentration, enhanced memory retention, relief from chronic pains, strengthened immune system, better sleep quality, better digestion, glowing skin, and much more.

You’ll also get to meditate, practice yoga and learn how to stop over-thinking; these holistic approaches are productive for tackling negative motions, stress, anxiety, and depression. They are your guide towards a calmer outlook.

By improving your emotional balance, you learn to control your thoughts and keep issues in perspective. It also enhances your well-being and self-esteem.

You discover your purpose in life and learn how to put your body’s natural energy to better use so you can enhance your positive thinking, feelings, energy, and people. It’s also a gateway to inspiration and creativity.

Healing retreats can be as long or as short as you like, depending on the program that has been designed accordingly with your needs. It’s a great way to invest in your health and wellbeing so you can enjoy life with a healthy and happy, recharged and relaxed.

Creating A Home That Is A Wellness Sanctuary

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Meditation Room

How can you create a home that feels like “home”?

A place that you want to come back to every evening after a long day at work…

Where you truly feel safe and comfortable, and can really relax and unwind…

A place and a space that makes you feel peaceful, calm, and well.

There are a number of simple and cost-effective changes you can make to your home that will really help enhance your experience of your home as a wellness sanctuary.

  • One of the biggest health enhancers is to clear out all the junk: get rid of that stuff you no longer use, and de-clutter your living space. This will automatically give you a sense of spaciousness and relief, and will immediately help you feel more peaceful within. (You could even sell some of that stuff online and make a bit of extra cash, thus increasing the wellness of your wallet, as well as your home!).
  • Stay organized, nothing ruins peace, harmony, and calm than a cluttered house where you cannot find anything. This includes that pile of bills and mail that is sitting unorganized in plain sight and other piles of papers.
  • Keep a clean floor. Floors that are dirty or cluttered with papers, towels, clothes and other stuff make the whole room look unkempt and disorganized.
  • Have comfortable furniture; this is key in having a place where you can truly relax when you get home. Furniture that looks good is great, but you will quickly regret a purchase made for looks alone when you cannot relax in your own home.
  • Remember the old adage “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”? Well, you don’t necessarily have to feel holy about it, but having a clean living space is healthy for more than just the reduction in germs and harmful bacteria: it will smell good, look good and feel fresh, all of which will help you to feel good when you are in it!
  • Talking of scents and smells, essential oils are a natural and health-giving way of enhancing the comfort of your home: the scent of citrus oils adds a fresh, invigorating feeling whilst lavender helps you feel calm, for example. Frankincense and myrrh are wonderful in promoting a meditative air. You can use a simple oil burner or make an air freshener with nothing more than a few drops of essential oil in a spritzer bottle filled with distilled water.
  • Another way to increase your comfort level, and therefore your capacity to relax, unwind and de-stress in your home, is to add “ambience”: soft music, soft lighting, candles, and beautiful art pieces can all add to a feeling of calm and tranquility.
  • Color schemes affect our mood: for example, blues and greens are calming, whilst reds, corals, and maroons make a room seem cozy and warm. Keep this in mind when redecorating.
  • Can you find one area, or room, to devote to your spiritual self? A meditation cushion and a small altar with items of special meaning can turn an unused corner into a sacred space for prayer, contemplation, and connection with the Divine Source (whatever that means for you).
  • Having living plants in the home will help keep the air oxygenated, and give a sense of the presence of nature. Just remember to water them!
  • Use a water filter for great drinking water.
  • Keeping some windows open whenever possible will help the circulation of fresh air and will keep your home from getting stuffy and from feeling oppressive and claustrophobic.
  • Growing herbs in the kitchen will again bring a little bit of nature in from the outside and will help you connect to the earth in an immediate and practical way. Not to mention bringing some wholesome nutrition to your kitchen table.
  • Natural light in your home, as much as possible, can enhance your mood and provide some vitamin D (although there is no substitute for getting outside every day).
  • Remember to laugh, spend time with, and hug those you live with, to increase the good vibes in your home.
  • If you live alone, invite family and friends over to share a meal.

Balance and harmony are key in making your home a healthy sanctuary you will come to as a beloved place to decompress.

 

 

Health Is The New Wealth

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Health

Health Is The New Wealth, Are You Well-thy?

No matter how successful you are and how much money you have in the bank, without good health you will be ill equipped to enjoy your riches and achievements.

Recent surveys show a trend towards preventative health and the maintenance of good health. Values have shifted and where once acquisition of possessions was seen as the symbol of wealth, nowadays the trappings associated with health are becoming a bigger status symbol.

Green juice, for example, is seen as a signaling of wealth, status, and discipline, and displaying the accoutrements of good health is being viewed as more important than the accumulation of expensive cars, houses, jewels, and other material “toys.”

It has been shown that consumers are more interested in staying fit and healthy than they are in paying for health care once they have become sick. They are willing to pay a higher price for products and services, which will keep them fit and well.

So rather than looking at dollars in your bank, why not take a few minutes to assess your own fitness level and see how “well-thy” you truly are…

The areas you need to look at in order to assess your health include the following:

  • Diet
  • Exercise
  • Relaxation
  • Mental Wellness
  • Leisure and Fun
  • Community
  • Relationships
  • Spirituality
  • Finances

Take a look at the following questions and answer them by giving yourself a rating of 1-10 for each one.

Question 1: Diet

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= not at all and 10=extremely, how healthy is your diet?

Question 2: Exercise

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=not at all and 10=excellent (5 to 7 times a week), how good is your exercise regime?

Question 3: Relaxation

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=never and 10=daily, how much priority do you place on relaxation?

Question 4: Mental Wellness

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=very poor and 10=excellent, please rate your mental health?

Question 5: Leisure and Fun

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=very little and 10=plenty, how much leisure and fun are you having?

Question 6: Community

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very little and 10=plenty, how much do you connect with a community where you feel you belong?

Question 7: Relationships

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, please rate a) your relationship with yourself and b) your relationship with your significant other?

Question 8: Spirituality

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, please rate your relationship with your spirituality?

Question 9: Finances

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, how healthy are your finances?

Results

With this simple self-assessment tool you can easily see the areas of your life where you are truly “well-thy” and those where you perhaps are a little “poor.”

  • If you scored, 7 or more you are doing pretty well and can feel proud of yourself.
  • In the areas where you scored 5 or less you might want to take a closer look.
  • If you scored lower than a 3 on any area, it indicates that you really should take a closer look, and focus on some strategies for improvement in that area.

Even though you may be very successful in your corporate career and be absolutely loaded with the big bucks, if your relationships consistently suck or your blood pressure is too high and you are constantly running on overdrive, with a heart attack looming unless you lose fifty pounds, you might want to think about how wealthy you really are!

Perhaps as a society, we are starting to cotton on to the truly valuable things in life. Who knows, maybe we will follow the example set us by the Danes, and learn to measure our contentment and happiness by the level of “hygge” in our environment.

Hygge is something quintessentially Danish which has them being favored as the most contented people in the world. It comes from the word “hug” and is a quality of coziness and togetherness they are masters at creating.

Alternatively, we might get on board with the forward thinking Buddhist nation, Bhutan, who uses a Gross National Happiness quota rather than a Gross Domestic Product quota. Now that’s the true measure of prosperity!

 

Ways Relaxation Benefits Your Physical Health

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Relaxation

6 Ways Relaxation Benefits Your Physical Health

Stress is a normal part of life. Practically everyone has had some sort of stressor in their life, including relationship stressors, job stressors, and financial stressors. While we can, “white knuckle it” through life’s stressors, it may be easier to practice relaxation exercises so that the perception of stress is less.

Relaxation exercises promote relaxation that has positive effects on the mind and body. Some ways that relaxation can benefit your physical health include the following:

  • Relaxation is protective for your heart. Relaxation naturally decreases your heart rate, blood pressure, and the stress on the heart. Excesses of stress can do the opposite. Too much stress can increase the risk of heart disease by increasing blood pressure and heart rate, making the heart prone to heart attacks and other heart disorders. When you allow yourself to relax, you can actually protect your heart from diseases that are promoted by excess stress. No one knows exactly how stress damages your heart but things like increased blood pressure, increased catecholamine’s, and increased heart rate are believed to be the major culprits. Even stressors that are considered positive stressors, like getting married or having a baby, can increase the amount of catecholamines in the body, resulting in damage to the heart. This is why it pays to practice relaxation exercises on a regular basis.

 

  • Relaxation decreases your risk of viral infections. Research out of the Carnegie Mellon University has studied stress for the last 3 decades. They found that people who are under chronic stress have an increased risk of viral infections, particularly the common cold. During the research studies, the scientists found that chronic stress (stress lasting at least a month) increased the risk of catching the common cold by 100 percent. This means you have twice the risk of coming down with a viral infection when under stress. Since then, the researchers have found that inflammation appears to be the reason why we are so susceptible to viral infections in the presence of stress. Stress seems to interfere with the body’s ability to counteract inflammation so that the immune system is less sensitive to the hormones that decrease the level of inflammation in the body.

 

  • Relaxation increases your ability to memorize things. Studies have been done in mice under chronic stress and found that chronic stress interfered with the functioning of the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is that part of the brain we use to engage in cognition, abstract thought, and recognizing social cues. Other research in mice showed that brief episodes of stress blocked those parts of the brain responsible for learning and the ability to memorize things. In these studies, mice were exposed to stress and were placed in mazes. Those mice under the most stress did more poorly than mice who were not under stress. While this was a study in mice, there is every reason to believe that humans under stress would have the same reaction. Relaxation can counteract this negative effect of stress and can help you memorize things to a greater degree. Human studies on stress have indicated that the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease are increased in the face of stress. This means that stress could be one reason why people develop the disease or why the disease progresses so rapidly in people who already have the disease.

 

  • Relaxation decreases the risk of stroke. A study out of the University of Cambridge in 2007 showed that people who had an increased ability to cope with stress had a risk of stroke that was about 25 percent less than those people who were under stress and couldn’t cope with their stressors. Another study from 2011 showed that stress related to one’s work increased the risk of stroke by 10 percent. Relaxation and relaxation exercises might be able to counteract the effects of stress on the body’s risk of developing a stroke.

 

  • Relaxation has a positive effect on your weight. Increased stress naturally leads people toward eating a poor diet that is high in calories, fat, and sugar. This increases one’s weight and adversely affects one’s self-esteem. Relaxation leads to better food choices and eating a diet that lends itself toward having a normal weight.

 

  • Relaxation can curb cravings. People under stress release cortisol, which increases cravings and ultimately can increase your weight. Cortisol is released under situations of excess stress and the foods we choose while under stress tend to be higher in fat and sugar. Cortisol is believed to bind to those receptors in the brain that regulate the amount and type of food we crave. Those people who already are overweight may be more prone to increased cravings while under stress.

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