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Archive for the ‘Lifestyle & Health’ Category

I was clearing out some notes and found the following technique typed up with the name “Wendy Metcalf” below the notes. I attended a breathing class about a year ago, Wendy was our teacher. I thought I’d share it with you today.

1. Sit comfortably with a straight back, hands in your lap. Close your eyes.
2. Start to breathe in through your nose and out through a slightly open mouth.
3. Notice how the breath feels as it enters and leaves the body.
4. Put all your attention on the quality of the breath. Enjoy the breath.
5. Start to breathe more deeply, feeling your rib cage expand as you breathe in.
6. Take even deeper breaths in and longer breaths out.
7. As you breathe, imagine you are breathing in all the things you need – energy, alertness, a sense of well-being…
8. With each out-breath, imagine you are getting rid of all the things you don’t need – anxiety, fear, self-doubt…
9. With each in-breath, you become more energized and with each out-breath, you become more relaxed.
10. Notice how your body is feeling. Retain the feeling for as long as you can.

Burn, Baby, Burn – taken from Secrets of Gorgeous, Hundreds of Ways to Live Well While Living It Up by Esther Blum

Try to think of exercise as an opportunity instead of a punishment. It is a privilege to be physically able to do what we want, when we ant. So the trick is to do things you really enjoy that will also give you results. Be mindful of the different between activity and exercise. Activity encompasses the day-to-day movements that are part of your routine. Gardening, carrying groceries, getting the paper, climbing the stairs in your home – doing these every day may initially get your metabolism and derriere a boost, but after a few months of repetition you’ll need to add new challenges to the mix. Get a work-out partner or invest in a personal trainer to keep you motivated and help you reach your fitness goals. And make sure you reward yourself for reaching your goals.

From the same book, “You don’t need a gym to get you fit. There’s simply no excuse for not getting your rear into gear. Grab a friend, personal trainer or go by yourself, but get going”: Read the rest of this entry »

Stress, a familiar word, sometimes a good word, but more often than not, a word that many of us don’t like and don’t want in our Personal Vocabulary. Whatever you feel about the word, there are side-effects that are not pleasant, are unhealthy and occasionally, look really bad. A stressful life style can often be seen in physical manifestations such as nail chewing, obesity, sore muscles, bad skin, etc, but the emotional toll of conditions such as depression is not often seen, the effect of your stress on your family and friends is very rarely identified.

Most of us have read something about how to reduce stress or how to manage stress better. I thought though that I would remind you of some of the familiar methods, and my interpretation of these various stress-reduction methods:

1.  Meditation. This is not just about the regualr practice of meditation and it’s benefits, but it is about using the quietness of inactivity to allow you time to re-balance your thoughts and replenish your emotions.

Allow yourself to be bored, stare out of the window for a little while and don’t think of anything, watch the clouds drift by – quite simply, waste a little time without feeling guilty. I think that sometimes we feel pressured to fill up our time and because we have so much technology at our fingertips, we can very easily fill up our time with things that keeps us constantly stimulated. The idea here is to compose your mind so that you can calmly and rationally approach your life.

 2.  Movement. This is not just the hard-core activity of exercise. Try:

• Walk wherever you can,
• Do some of your own housework,
• Wash your car regularly,
• Go to a dance or painting class – do something that makes you move.

 Note: Exercise and movement reduces the stress hormone (cortisol) while at the same time, it increases the body’s natural feel good chemical (endorphins). This is why exercise is considered a natural way to decrease stress while at the same time increasing positive emotions.

 3.  Breathe. This is both a physical and a mental activity: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure that I have mentioned before that I read a lot. My mother encouraged me to read as much as I could and I did. I find it really sad today that so few children read, even my own – despite encouragement and occasionally threats. Anyway, I was browsing today trying to find some books that a friend recommended. I Googled best selling books and was duly rewarded with extensive search results. So I thought that I would compile a list of books that seem to be on many of the best selling lists. I have read some of the books on the list but haven’t yet decided what to order. The inclusion of a cookery book (Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights) is not an accident… I love the presentation of this book. I saw one of my favourite books, The Time Traveller’s Wife is on Amazon’s top 10 best-selling books of the decade.

I have linked the books listed below in a new category called Best Sellers in my Amazon Store and have added some of the titles in audio books – I have bought quite a few audio books lately and am enjoying the experience and then with some of the titles, I’ve also added in the additional support / other products such as The Secret Daily Teachings. The Goddess Experience offers “more than 1000 valuable tips that anyone can afford, to bring a little Goddess magic into your life” – I have started putting a few of the tips into practice.

There are so many categories of best sellers out there, but here’s a selection I picked from various best selling lists, all linked in My Amazon BookStore for your convenience (although I have linked some books specifically for your convenience): Read the rest of this entry »

I am overweight and I feel it at most SALE time. It is mid-season sale time everywhere I look at the moment and it’s driving me mad. At the best of times, I object to buying clothes that cost more because the manufacturer has used more fabric to make it when it feels like there’s a little unfair pricing involved– some stores charge the same no matter the size but some stores seem to charge more than necessary.  I can understand the argument that bigger clothes cost more to make and therefore the cost should be passed onto the overweight person – after all its “nobody else’s fault but your own if you are overweight.” What I don’t get though, is that it seems as though smaller clothing is actually cheaper at SALE time. I have noticed this many times but perhaps I’m just being sensitive.

The psychological cost of being overweight is one thing, the actual health cost of being overweight is another, the cost (in some cases) of eating more food is yet another cost; then there’s other costs such as travel, postage (bigger clothes cost more to post because they weigh more – simple), the cost of wider shoes for some overweight people or for boots that fit wider calves – they are always more expensive than boots for people with normal calves because manufacturers see us a niche market “ripe for the picking”. And lingerie, well that’s just something that doesn’t work for me. There are other costs that overweight or obese people bear, some more willingly than others, such as the cost of additional supplements, diet products, the cost of higher (life or medical) insurance premiums, etc. Read the rest of this entry »

Wikipedia had one of the simplest definitions and called it “a broad concept including proper prioritizing between career and ambition on one hand, compared with pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development on the other” Related but broader terms include “lifestyle balance” and “life balance”.

As the separation between work and home life has diminished, this concept has become more relevant than ever before. As a young working adult, I thought the right thing to do was to work so that my employer was pleased and therefore I got my increase when it was due, got the occasional bonus for good work and above all, kept my job.

I think by now, that all my readers know I am a woman, and as women do, we get married, sooner or later have children, but continue to work full time. Our expectations of ourselves do not necessarily adjust and so we continue to work hard at work, while keeping a husband and growing family happy as well as being a home-maker. It’s a vicious cycle and one that I am not going to belabour here, suffice to say that one must spare a thought for husbands – they don’t actually have it as easy as we sometimes think. Read the rest of this entry »

The basic meaning of holistic is derived from a Greek word “ηολοσ” meaning “whole” (Mulligan, 2007). The Macmillan English Dictionary defines holistic as “thinking about the whole of something, not just dealing with particular aspects”.

There are several parts that make up a whole. Our bodies are made whole by a collection of several parts, internal organs, blood and other fluids etc. Usually when one part is affected, the whole body is affected in some way. For instance, if you have a cold, your muscles are sore, your eyes are watery, your nose is blocked and you have a headache. The whole body needs relief and to be cured.

Similarly, our thinking and planning should be adapted to take the Whole into account so that we can integrate our lives and Earth’s resources; in other words, instead of making decisions based on parts, we should start making decisions based on the (personal and universal) Whole.

I think it’s possible that one can become bogged down in trying to make decisions based on the Whole if you are new to it. By the time you have thought about everything that should be included, you may just decide it’s too much and not do whatever you were thinking about. Take it one step at a time. If you are used to thinking about just yourself or just your family, start by becoming aware and interested in general. Your growing awareness will soon expand into consideration and the consideration will assist you in thinking more holistically.

Learn more about refocusing your life and habits holistically. Plan for your future via Holistic Management. I’ll be doing some of the research for you and will regularly post blogs on The Holistic Approach to Life.

Today is Mahamata Ghandi’s birthday so I felt it appropriate to write a short article. Born 2 October 1869  – 30 January 1948), he is often remember as a  pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. What makes him stand out as a political activist is perhaps his philosophy of “Change through non-violence”. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon Ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: mahātmā or ‘Great Soul’. He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence. Read the rest of this entry »

I have linked some of my favourite books and other items that I think you may like in My Amazon Bookstore. I’ll keep updating the store and posting links for books as required in posts, so check back regularly.

You can view my choice of products using the tab above, the link in this post,  the carousel on my blog’s homepage for my current favourites or browse the “My Amazon Bookstore” category.

If you order via my my Amazon Bookstore, you will receive the same excellent level of quality and care that you usually receive from Amazon.

One of the difficulties of meditating by yourself or as a novice is not knowing whether you are doing the “right” thing or what the benefits should feel like. You may get to the end of the meditation wondering what all the fuss is about or feel irritated and stop without working your way through.

I would suggest that you work your way through this or any other meditation a few times just by reading it step by step and when you are familiar with the meditation, you will remember the process and can build up from the suggested minimum time of 10 - 15 minutes to around double that. No need to do the follwoing meditation every day, but I’d suggest once a week specifically to balance your chakras. Read the rest of this entry »