Saturday Study & Learn: HOW TO DAIL BACK STRESS

Every Saturday I try to feature something that we can all learn: And since I have felt a bit stressed at times, this article from Barry Eisen – Motivational Speaker, Hypnotist, Trainer and Coach – is spot on…Read for yourself. 

STRESS: Dial It Back! 

by Barry Eisen 

Stress is a huge influencer in most of our lives. Stress does not come from the world around us; it's our perception (our reality) of what's going on... our personal attachment and reactions. Stress can come from eating poorly, over promising, our reaction to traffic, noise, pollution, toxic relationships, disappointments, pain, fears, poor sleep, multi-tasking, etc.

The short list of not dealing with stress properly can be misplaced hostilities, strokes, poor sleep patterns, lack of focus, heart attack, diabetes, mood changes, sexual dysfunctions, erratic business performance, panic attacks, depression, memory loss, anger, etc. It's not pretty.

We are, in many regards, "too close to the trees to see the forest." But in slowing down to recognize and deal with things as they are, not as we justify them to be (everyone has a compelling back story as reasoning for self destructive behavior), positive change can make us physically healthier and mentally sharper.

7 STRESS MANAGEMENT IDEAS 

#1 Learn and use meditation or self-hypnosis regularly. Studies worldwide show fewer cases of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and memory loss for those who practice meditation and/or self-hypnosis. Meditation and S-Hyp. promote better sleep patterns. During quality sleep (REM) toxins (residual proteins and tags) are flushed from the brain cells. Toxic build up in the brain, over a period of time, is like rust developing on a neglected garden tool left outside in the rain. Take care of your brain and it will take care of you.

I prefer self-hypnosis because, aside from the health benefits of better sleep and energy, the advantages of using this state of mind to change habits and attitudes and improve performance and memory... is so valuable.

LEARN TO SLEEP WELL

1.  Darken the bedroom as best you can and keep the room temperature on the cool side. 
2.  Don't nap during the day. 
3.  Stop eating, drinking and exercise 2 hours before bedtime. 
4.  Use the bedroom for sleep and sex not as an office or a place to accumulate and use all your digital devices. 
5.  Create a bedtime routine (reading is preferable to TV). 
6.  Put together a to-do list and prioritize it just before going to sleep. 
7. Go to bed the same time each night. There are always exceptions to the rule, but heading in the direction that will well serve you allows your brain to anticipate creating and duplicating a good sleep cycle

#2 De-clutter your life. Organize the mess that may exist in your car, in your home, in your office and create filing systems that work so your mind can experience that the "tail is not wagging the dog." Your mind likes and appreciates, "neat!" Delegate responsibilities when you can. Dial back on negative relationships. Spend less time with the draining, negative, sarcastic life wasters around you. Being around supportive, well speaking, energetic, doers will keep you younger and healthier longer. Good food is good for the body; good mental stimulation is good for the brain.

#3 Find reasons to laugh. Outwardly. Holding a laugh back is repressive, letting it out produces an immediate endorphin rush.

#4 Exercise. Weights, aerobics, Pilates, yoga, stretching on a regular basis produce more endorphins and have an anti-inflammatory effect. Schedule the time and perhaps engage a workout buddy or personal trainer if you find it hard to maintain consistency. You know this is important--just do it!

#5 Eat well. Be conscious of what you choose to put into your body. Eating clean allows for better absorption and healthier more responsive muscular, respiratory, circulatory and lymphatic systems, producing less cancer causing free radicals. Weight loss and body health is 20% exercise, 80% nutrition and 100% mindset. What's good for the body is good for the brain. Let go of the old clichés and reasons you've used to justify doing what's easy, not doing what's right.

#6 Schedule to and show up for your appointments early. Feeling like you're constantly running behind puts extra pressure on mind and body. It doesn't have to be that way. Slow down and do more...comfortably. Manage your time or it will manage you.
Slow down once in a while and do a little check up from the neck up.

#7 Periodically throughout the day take a minute to do nothing but concentrate on taking deep slow breaths. Close your eyes, lower your shoulders, relax. Be MINDFUL of what you're doing and feeling.

There are, obviously, many more great ideas that can make a positive difference. Find and create small rituals or systems that work for you.

Thanks for reading. Please do pass this on.

Make it a great day!

Barry Eisen

For more information visit: http://barryeisen.com

Saturday Study & Learn: The Science of CHICKEN SOUP!

To keep with my winter cold theme…I thought this information might be useful from the NY Times.  Seems Mom might be right about Chicken Soup!

The Science of Chicken Soup

My doctor recently told me to treat colds, chicken soup may be a better choice than over-the-counter cough and cold medicines.

Andrew Scrivani for NY Times

Now, with government experts questioning the safety and effectiveness of cold medications for kids, the best option for parents this cold and flu season may be home remedies like chicken soup. As it turns out, a handful of scientific studies show that chicken soup really could have medicinal value.

The most widely cited of these studies, published in the medical journal Chest by Dr. Stephen Rennard of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He conducted laboratory tests to determine why chicken soup might help colds, beginning with his wife’s homemade recipe, handed down by her Lithuanian grandmother. Using blood samples from volunteers, he showed that the soup inhibited the movement of neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cell that defends against infection. Dr. Rennard theorizes that by inhibiting the migration of these infection-fighting cells in the body, chicken soup essentially helps reduce upper respiratory cold symptoms.

The researchers couldn’t identify the exact ingredient or ingredients in the soup that made it effective against colds but say it may be the combination of vegetables and chicken that work together. The tested soup contained chicken, onions, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, parsley, salt and pepper. The full recipe, as well as the scientific article, are available on the university’s Chicken Soup Web site. The researchers also compared commercial soups and found many of them also had a similar inhibitory effect.

Another study by Mount Sinai researchers in Miami also suggests that chicken soup has more than just a placebo effect. They looked at how chicken soup affected air flow and mucus in the noses of 15 volunteers who drank cold water, hot water or chicken soup. In general, the hot fluids helped increase the movement of nasal mucus, but chicken soup did a better job than the hot water, according to the 1978 report, also published in Chest. Chicken soup also improves the function of protective cilia, the tiny hairlike projections in the nose that prevent contagions from entering the body, according to a 1998 Coping With Allergies and Asthma report.

None of the research is conclusive, and it’s not known whether the changes measured in the laboratory really have a meaningful effect on people with cold symptoms. However, at the very least, chicken soup with vegetables contains lots of healthy nutrients, increases hydration and tastes good, too.

Read the full article from TARA PARKER-POPE 

at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/science-of-chicken-soup

Saturday Study & Learn: The Story of the 4th of July

The Declaration of Independence
We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.

But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).

It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).

And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).

So what did happen on July 4, 1776?

The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.

July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.

In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. If we’d followed this same approach for the Declaration of Independence we’d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed!

How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday?

For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, which went against their current policies.

By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change.

After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.

Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.

Info Provided by Constitution Facts

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