Take Charge of Your Health!
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Your Health –Take Charge!
Your health is important –taking charge of it yourself is a wise thing to do. Particularly these days, when both Canada and the US rank so low for life expectancy! (The latest study published in Health Affairs revealed that the United States now ranks 49th for male and female life expectancy worldwide.)
That’s a big fall from the fifth place ranking the US had in 1950. If that isn’t discouraging, add in the fact that U.S. per capita health spending rose at nearly twice the rate of other developed countries between 1970 and 2002.
What’s more, three of the “big killers” — obesity, traffic accidents and murder — cannot explain the United States’ dismal life expectancy data, as other countries have similar death rates from these factors.
Your Health Should Not Rely on Drugs!
Many are speculating that this is a result of the fact that the medical system relies on drugs and surgery to treat illness, rather than focusing on prevention and wellness.
It doesn’t help that the U.S. now ranks last out of 19 countries for unnecessary deaths, deaths that could have been avoided through timely and effective medical care. For example, more than 2 millions Americans are now affected by hospital acquired infections EVERY YEAR and 100,000 people die as a result. It’s not uncommon for people to go into the hospital for a “routine” medical procedure, only to contract a severe hospital-acquired infection or drug reaction or other medication mishap.
Ten years ago, Professor Bruce Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in the US. Yikes! This statistic alone should get you taking charge of Your Health!
Your Health–The Good News
So that’s the bad news. But there’s tremendous GOOD NEWS. The good news is this: YOU are in CONTROL of your health. So take that control. Don’t believe that exercise and eating right are just positive things to do. They’re required for good health.
And now, thanks to Youtube (http://www.youtube.com), you can take any kind of cooking class and exercise program over the Internet.
So, take action charge of Your Health now–while you still have the option!
Keeping An Open Mind
By · CommentsThe Importance of Positive Thinking:
We all have the propensity to think some things are impossible. But if you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, you know how important it is to keep an open mind and practice positive thinking.And all of us in these challenging ‘economic’ times need to keep ourselves clean from the rampant negativity that’s in the news and around us.
When I’m coaching people, I spend a good deal of time ‘conditioning’ their minds so first of all, they can be successful and secondly, so that they can hold on to the success they create. Because if outside success doesn’t match the vibration a person has inside, it won’t stick anyway.
How To Cultivate Positive Thinking:
One of the easiest ways of getting yourself into positive thinking is to surround yourself with positive experiences and people. Here is a wonderful YouTube to get you realizing that really anything is possible. Enjoy!
Practicing Positive Thinking is like going to a ‘mental gym’
It will make you feel strong yet light-hearted. Getting yourself in a state that’s strong and light-hearted is hugely important if we want to create great lives. Positive Thinking isn’t just a nice thing to do. It’s essential for growth and success!
The World’s First Bionic Burger!
By · CommentsLately I’ve been changing my diet. I’m fascinated with the relationship between diet and happiness so I’ve been experimenting with eating more alkaline foods rather than acid forming foods. One of the things I’ve noticed as a result is how much calmer I feel. And less reactive. Maybe it’s just co-incidence, but I find it interesting. My sleep is better too.
As I’ve been reading about alkaline and acid foods, and alive food versus dead food and toxic food, I came across this fascinating video. The story began about 2 decades ago when a man bought 2 Big Macs. He ate 1 and stuffed the other one in his pocket for later…. that later didn’t happen for a year….. here’s what he discovered—check it out. Be prepared to groan! Here’s the link to the World’s First Bionic Burger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyDXH1amic&feature=player_embedded
It reminds me of that film by Morgan Spurlock, Super Sized Me.where he vividly demonstrated the consequences of trying to sustain yourself on a diet of fast food. After just FOUR WEEKS, Spurlock’s health had deteriorated to the point that his physician warned him he was putting his life in serious jeopardy if he continued the experiment.
His cholesterol had soared and he started suffering from depression, lack of attention, and sexual dysfunction, just to name a few of the health problems that surfaced once he traded in his normal diet for three square meals a day from McDonald’s.
His documentary ended up earning the Writers Guild of America award for Best Documentary Screenplay in 2005.
Responding to claims that it’s food is ‘dead’, McDonalds has fired back stating that their burgers will indeed decompose if given “enough time.” But just how much time has yet to be determined. Based on private experiments, like the one in the video above, two decades is still not enough time to make these burgers and buns disappear by natural means. Here’s the link again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyDXH1amic&feature=player_embedded
114 Years Old!
By · CommentsWalter Breuning turned 114 years old on September 21. According to Wikipedia, Mr. Breuning is the fourth-oldest living person in the world and the world’s oldest living male.
Born in 1896, Walter has lived in three separate centuries.
View the video to see how sharp this gentleman still is at 114 – and hear his advice on the simple, natural secrets to living a long, healthy life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpOf6iqdPng&feature=player_embedded
And like Walter says, “Every day is a good day”–so make this a very good one!
Your devoted coach–
Karen
Happiness and Music
By · CommentsWe all want Happiness:
Here’s a sweet video for you about Happiness. It’s just a few minutes long.
I like it because it shows how ‘happiness’ can be there even in circumstances where we wouldn’t think it might be! (Which is just another ‘story’ the mind tells us.)
Happiness is Always There:
You can use videos like this (there are hundreds on YouTube) to flip the game board of your own mind when it tells you something should ‘make’ you unhappy. Happiness is ALWAYS an inside story. And it’s yours to write!!
The video is s inspiring! To view it, click HERE:
And, just to let you know, I’m in the final stages of writing my new online course, How to Have Big, Beautiful Energy, Even When you feel Small and Frumpy! You’ll be one of the first to know when it goes ‘live’!
Every blessing to you! Be Happy!
Observation That Will Make You Smile
By · CommentsA Funny Story About Awareness:
A lecturer teaching medicine was tutoring a class that involved observation and awareness. He took out a jar of yellow-colored liquid.
“This”, he explained, “is urine. To be a doctor, you have to be observant to color, smell, sight, and taste.”
After saying this, he dipped his finger into the jar and put it in his mouth. His class watched in amazement, most, in disgust. He passed the jar around. Eager to be good students, as the jar made its rounds, one by one, each student dipped one finger into the jar and then put it into their mouth.
After the last student was done, the lecturer shook his head:
“If any of you had been observant, you would have noticed that I put my second finger into the jar and my third finger into my mouth.”
: )
Awareness and the Big Picture:
Now that I’ve got you smiling, I want to point something out. The students got fixated on the shock of what their prof was doing and stopped observing. That’s what we all do. We notice the shocking, the awful, the bad stuff and lose our awareness of everything else.
As I’ve mentioned before, the brain has a propensity to notice what’s wrong–that’s a defense mechanism from when we lived in caves and had to be on the alert for sounds and sights that could mean danger.
These days, however, we need to balance that brain tendency by keeping our awareness on what’s good –otherwise we’ll lose perspective and get depressed. With 1 in 4 people suffering from depression in our culture, it’s crucial that we keep a balanced point of view. So, today, ask yourself a few times, “What’s good in my life?” Or, “What’s good right now?”
Awareness and the Search for Good:
This question will lead your brain to find good things. And when it does, you’ll feel happier. And feeling happier creates health–in our bodies, in our work place and in our relationships.Besides, happier people live longer! So, use your awareness for a richer and longer life.
Happiness Quizz
By · CommentsTake this simple test by assigning a number for each statement, ’10′ being totally true and ’0′ being not true at all.
1) Basically, I like myself.
2) I get regular exercise.
3) I have major fun at least once a week.
4) I limit the things I don’t like to do and the people I don’t like to be with.
5) Mostly, I love my job.
6) I have loving, supportive family/friends.
7) I rarely dwell on past hurts and disappointments.
I take 100% responsibility for my thoughts, feelings and outcomes.
9) I use my ‘higher power’/God/angels etc to help me.
I’ll explain over the weeks why each of these in important and give some ways to increase your score. But if you’d like to kick start yourself into much greater happiness now, despite what may be going on in your life right now, give me a call and I’ll give you a complimentary ‘Idea Session’. In it, I will help you develop a clear action plan for moving into far greater happiness and inspire you to embark upon it.
Fun Video for You!
By · CommentsI have a delightful video that will make you smile, but let me tell you about something first. It’s something I’m excited about.
I’m just putting the finishing touches on a course called ‘Change Your Energy, Change Your Life’.
I’ve developed this course because so many people I work with want to feel good even when other things in their lives (stress, relationships, health, finances) aren’t so good. Even if the rest of their lives aren’t going badly, most of them want to be in charge of how they feel not victims of the ups and downs of the world around them.
The ‘Change Your Energy, Change Your Life’ will teach specific practices –meditations, acupressure tapping protocols, special breathing techniques, affirmations and a host of other tools so people can change negative and energy-sucking thoughts and emotions into positive, life-enhancing ones. This course will teach people how to feel good from the inside out.
More about the course next week.
Meanwhile, click HERE for the great video.
Meditation & Happiness
By · CommentsDr. Richard J. Davidson, PhD, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been studying the brain structures behind not just anxiety, depression, and addiction, but happiness itself!
Using brain imaging technologies, Davidson has been able to “map” the brain of people who were meditating. In this fascinating study, he mapped the brains of employees at a biotech company, more than half of whom completed about three hours of meditation once a week led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
After four months, the meditating subjects noticed a boost in mood and a decrease in anxiety, while their immune systems became measurably stronger. Davidson vividly showed that meditation produced a significant increase in activity in the part of the brain responsible for positive emotions and traits like optimism and resilience.
In another study that involved meditating monks, he found that during meditation, this area of the brain lit up like the lights in Times Square, showing activity beyond anything he and his team had ever seen.
These and other findings of Davidson’s have bolstered mounting research suggesting that the adult brain is changeable. Even for those who have a predisposition towards depression or anxiety, meditation can help our brains incline towards a happier outlook.
This new research represents a huge paradigm shift in the study of the brain and the actual sense of possibility for people dealing with difficult emotions.
If you’d like to experience for yourself how powerful meditation can be, I’ve posted a few audio meditations on this site for you to try. One of the ones I like best is ‘All Is Well’. It’s short sweet. To try it, CLICK HERE.
Or, go try out some of the others I’ve posted on the site. CLICK HERE
Accepting ‘What Is’
By · CommentsHere’s a great quote from Eckhart Tolle on Accepting ‘What Is’ ….
“The shift in consciousness happens the moment you say ‘yes’ to what is, because the entire structure of the egoic mind-made self lives on resistance and opposition and on making the now into an enemy.” Eckhart Tolle.
Contemplating this quote takes me back to time when my father was dying. He had throat cancer and I spent a lot of energy being in an emotional turmoil about it, resisting/resenting the fact of his illness as strongly as I could. I spent a lot of time reading about his illness, researching options etc. It was exhausting.
Accepting ‘What Is’ is Powerful
Then I remember one day, just lying down and letting myself accept that he was so ill. Instead of this being hugely depressing and emotional, I was shocked at the calm it brought. From then on, I still did lots of his behalf, but the energy was completely different–I moved from a place of lovingness for him, not from any fight or drive for a specific outcome. After all, who was I to say what my father’s life was about?
Acceptance is a choice!
It’s a powerful thing to know you can let something be. It reaffirms that you are big enough. That you have what it takes to simply abide. Simply abiding is what all great people learn to do. They abide until the right moment comes, then they take action with great skill. They can do this because they haven’t wasted all their energy reacting here, there and every where.
Try it. Accepting ‘What Is’ will help you move with the flow of life.
