Posts in category: Health

Baby, it’s cold outside! Well, not here in California, but I hear the rest of the country is shivering. A lot of my students in the Northeast are dealing with blizzard conditions, and I’ll bet many of them are worried about colds and flu, if they’re not already walking around holding a box of tissues.

Most of you know that you have the ability to heal your physical body and to maintain a high quality of health. Healing ability is natural; when you give your body the right tools to work with, it can keep you humming along no matter how nasty the weather is!

So, how are you feeling? A little fatigued, a little headachy? Are you doing what’s needed to boost your immune system and fend off the attack of the germs?

It’s always good to remember the basics of health and healing. I’ve written a blog for Psychology Today that goes into five of the top ways you activate your natural healing ability.  Go to https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mining-the-headlines/201401/5-easy-ways-activate-your-natural-healing-ability and stay well, with plenty of energy to accomplish all your dreams!

Looking for a way to feel good inside and out, maintain a healthy weight, ward off disease and slow down the aging process? To maximize the effects of your regular healthy diet, make it a habit to incorporate a few superfoods into your daily menu. Packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, they deliver the most nutritional bang for your caloric buck!

Here are a few healthy and tasty choices to consider:

Chia seeds – edible seeds that come from a flowering herb in the mint family. They were used as an energy booster in ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures, which makes sense, because chia seeds contain a high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids, and a healthy blend of carbohydrates, protein, fiber, antioxidants, and calcium. You can add these mild, nutty seeds to foods and beverages for a heart healthy energy booster!

Blueberries – delicious, easy to eat and packed with healthy antioxidants, blueberries are also high in potassium and vitamin C. Be sure to add them to your shopping list, along with their colorful friends, acai berries, goji berries, raspberries, cranberries, strawberries, and cherries. Not only can they lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, they are also anti-inflammatory (and did I mention tasty?) When selecting berries, the rule of thumb is that the darker the berry, the more nutrients are packed inside!

Kale – it’s been called the “healthiest vegetable on the planet!” Just one cup of kale contains about 100% of your daily requirements for vitamins A, C and K, providing major cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory benefits. It’s also rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, which promote healthy eyesight. Plus, kale is a great source of potassium, iron, phosphorus and manganese – as well as over 45 different varieties of antioxidant flavonoids that lend themselves to cancer prevention!

Salmon – veggies are great, but I always recommend that you add some protein in too. Lean protein helps you to feel full and satisfied, without adding fat to your diet. In addition, wild salmon, along with herring, sardines and mackerel is rich in omega 3s, which lowers heart disease risk, helps arthritis, and helps with memory loss and Alzheimer’s. It’s also believed that omega 3s are beneficial in treating depression.

Tea – swap out your morning coffee for a cup of tea! The overall antioxidant power of black tea is the same as green tea, but green tea also contains ECGC, an especially powerful antioxidant. A recent Japanese study on green tea found that men who drank green tea regularly had lower cholesterol. Researchers in Spain and the United Kingdom have also shown that ECGC can inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

Almonds – nuts are another superfood rich in healthy fats that help you slim down, and they’re a great way to get your protein on the go! Almonds are high in protein, heart-friendly, and very filling. While a bit high in fat, they are one of the few foods that, like olive oil and avocados, contain the healthy monounsaturated fat, which is proven to help stave off heart disease and diabetes and to help lower bad cholesterol. Limit yourself to 10 – 15 almonds a serving, and keep the skin on to maximize the healthy benefits.

These nutritional superstars are just a few of the foods that nutritionists and health experts are touting these days. I’ll be delving into this topic more deeply in my upcoming healing courses.

It’s that time of year, the beginning of a new year, when, once again, you’ve made a resolution to lose weight. And your first act is to step bravely onto the scale, with your eyes open. Horrors! You didn’t think you ate THAT much over the holidays! Or maybe it’s been years since you were ready to face the scale, and just kept buying new clothes (with elastic waists) as your old ones “shrunk.” Reality sucks.

So, how are you going to tackle those extra pounds this time? Atkins? South Beach? Weight Watchers? Jennifer Hudson looks pretty good. Are you going to track your calories, fat, protein, sugar, carbs, and water intake on sparkpeople.com? Are you setting goals for running that half-marathon in six months?

According to The New York Times, four out of five people who make New Year’s resolutions will break them, and a third won’t even get to the end of January before giving up. And the top resolutions are always losing weight and exercising more (and getting out of debt and saving more). Where did all that self-control go? Where’s the willpower to resist that donut or bagel or mocha frappuccino?

There has to be a better way than struggling with those self-defeating resolutions and then quickly regaining whatever few pounds you managed to lose. And there is.

Like everything else in life, you can approach weight loss from a spiritual/holistic perspective, not just calories in/calories out. To really lose weight, you have to lose the weight between your ears, not just around your middle. You have to change your thinking, your emotional connection to food, and the psychological issues behind your weight. Without addressing the true root of your weight problems, even if you lose a considerable amount of weight, the chances are good you’ll gain it all back.

So how do your subconscious feelings drive your eating? Some spiritual teachers have said that the cause of excess weight is fear, which blocks feelings of love. So when you overeat, or eat the “wrong” foods, you are feeding your feelings, not your body. Emotional eating is an obsessive relationship with food. What are you trying to get from food? What is missing in your life? Are you using food to numb your pain? Are you beating yourself up because you can’t seem to lose that weight?

In order to approach weight loss in a new, positive way, you have to be ready to do the deep inner work that’s needed to suss out your personal connection to food, eating, and weight. Yes, those are all different. And we are all different. There is no one answer that works for everyone, just as there is no one diet or exercise program that works for everyone.

By now you’re all familiar with the tools I’ve used to do the work of uncovering my own emotional blockages, especially journaling, meditation, and energy healing. If you have trouble doing this type of inner work by yourself, find a therapist or teacher or healer who can help you unearth the hidden reasons behind your weight.

Basically, we’re talking about weight loss from the inside out instead of from the outside in. The stronger your connection to your own divine core, the more you open and listen to your intuition and guidance from your Higher Self, the more support you will have as you tackle whatever lingering childhood issues or traumatic residues are behind your problems with weight. The road to success lies within. When you lose that weight between your ears and release whatever blockages are in your chakras, you’ll be able to lose more than just emotional blocks.

The optimal way to go about it is to make gentle changes in your lifestyle, in your approach to nutrition and fitness and health, along with doing the inner work. Check out my article on www.healyourlife.com on “Five Surprising Ideas on Weight Loss” for some recommendations you may not have thought about. Think of it as an adventure in consciousness, not another plunge into a restrictive way of living.

This year, stop worrying about your resolutions and, step by gentle step, walk the high road to lasting weight loss, and a happier and healthier life all around.

Not all stress is bad – here are 5 examples of occasions when stress can be good for you:

1.   Recovering from surgery. Going under the knife is stressful. But the short-term stress of surgery can work in your favor by actually helping you to heal faster. In nature, wounds usually happen following stressful situations, such as when a gazelle is being chased by a lion. Short-term stress hormones surge through the body in anticipation of the potential outcome–like the gazelle getting bit but managing to escape–and gets the body ready for the fast healing that will have to take place.

2.    Preventing colds and flu. If you’re feeling deadline pressure in the short-term, your body will most likely work overtime to keep you well. That’s because some stress is helpful to rev your immune system to fight off viruses and bacteria since it’s the stress-regulating adrenal glands that balance immunity.

3.    Increasing connections. Even if you’re not the type to actually embrace stress, it may motivate you more to reach out to others. In fact, short-term stress has been shown to boost levels of oxytocin, a.k.a. the bonding hormone.

 



4.    Enhancing memory. Have you ever been in a stressful situation where your mind felt super-aware and laser-sharp? It’s the rush of hormones to the prefrontal cortex (a brain region important for controlling cognition and emotion) that may boost your working memory, or the short-term kind used in speaking, problem solving and processing sensory information. 



5.    Toughening up. Whether you’re stressed because you lost your job or are having marital problems, those feelings could be life-changing–in a good way. Those of us who deal with misfortune are actually more well adjusted than those who’ve had no bumps in the road at all.