Manage Your Opportunities To Enhance Your Mind And Body Health.

"Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesn't come before."

Shelby Steele

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

Thomas A. Edison.

Many people aspire to do more than what they are doing now. They, for example, may want to be able to loose weight, learn new hobbies, have more education so they can apply for the vacant post in their organization and change certain bad habits they have.

For every need, there is a solution that can be found within your reach. However, you have to have faith in yourself. With faith and tenacity, you will find opportunities in areas you never thought of before. People who manage their opportunities have some of the following qualities:

• They continue learning. Learning new things in their field of work or outside their profession prepares them to be confident and makes it easier for them to seize opportunities when they become available.
• They are open-minded and flexible and are prepared to work in groups for the common good.
  
• They do not procrastinate. Procrastination stifles self development and decreases productivity at work.
• They have internal locus of control, and hence believe that their actions determine their destiny, instead of some external forces determining their future.
• They take care of every aspect of their life including social connections, physical health, mental health and spiritual life.
  

"The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers"

Walter Percy Chrysler.

"There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there's only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen."

Wayne W. Dyer.

Nurture Yourself To Restore Your Mind And Body Health

"Once you choose hope, anything's possible."

Christopher Reeve.



"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by
people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

Dale Carnegie.

You sometimes feel overwhelmed with life's idiosyncrasies and vicissitudes. This can take away your enjoyment and ability to work well and be productive. It looks like you are not alone. Many people are going through the same feelings of stress and insufficiency at times. This can affect your work.

Pat Heydlauff has a recipe for these feelings that plague all of us. These are her prescriptions: Please, read on...

"Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome
danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm
inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is
meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there
is always tomorrow."

Dorothy Thompson.

Control Your Genes With Healthy Lifestyle Changes. A prescription For Your Mind And Body Health.

Poor health is not caused by something you don't have; it's caused by disturbing something that you already have. Health is not something you need to get, it's something you have already if you don't disturb it.

~Dean Ornish

The first wealth is health ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many of my patients with family history of cancer are terrified that they may fall victim to the same diseases their parents succumbed to. It is natural to feel this way. However, not everyone who comes from a family with a history of breast cancer or prostate cancer succumbs to the disease. Why is this so? This is the mystery which many scientists are working to unravel.

A recent study conducted by Dean Ornish, MD and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco tested the effects of dramatic lifestyle change on genes in the prostate. The study group consisted of men with a history of prostate cancer.

After 3 months of healthy eating, moderate exercises, psychotherapy and stress management, the investigators showed that biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle modification showed the genes that cause the prostate cancer were less active. Other genes that fight diseases were more active.

In 1995, Dean Ornish and his group showed similar results where they found lifestyle changes affected certain markers of prostate cancer, possibly slowing the progression of prostate cancer. Two of the cancer causing genes, RAN and Shock2 were suppressed in the study. The good news is that these genes are found in most types of tumors including breast and colon cancer.

"The implications may be much more widespread, and not just limited to men for that matter.”
Dean Ornish.

Though the results of the study are exciting, we have to await more studies to confirm the findings. However, what do you have to loose by embracing some the lifestyle changes included in the study? The following are some suggestions of lifestyle changes that may help:

• Find time to exercise. Exercise has other benefits that go beyond prevention of cancer. You do not have to spent money. All you have to do is walk. Keep it simple and build it into your busy schedule. The participants in the above study had regular exercise and ate the right foods.
• Eat the right food. Preferably, eat foods with complex carbohydrates and regard food as medicine.
• Find time to be spiritual. Spirituality builds resilience and cuts down your stress hormones that can damage your tissue at the cellular level and make you prone to diseases.
• Meditate daily. The relaxation response that you gain from meditation prevents the production of stress hormones such as steroids and adrenalin that can damage your cells and make you prone to diseases.
• If you're religious, practice your religion. For example, if you are a Christian and you believe in the tenets of the Bible, your daily devotion can give you hope. Jesus will become your psychotherapist as his words can restructure your thoughts and give you peace of mind. With Jesus in your boat, you should never be afraid of the storms in your life.

"In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships."

John Gottman, PhD

"We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are, someone with a wizard's power to melt stone to sunlight, who can bring us happiness in spite of trials, who can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical Someone is the face we see in the mirror: It's us and our homemade masks."

Richard Bach

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."

Author unknown

Reference: The New Scientist. June 18, 2008

Controlling Your Genes Wtih Healthy Lifestyle Changes Is A Prescription For A healthy Mind And A Healthy Body.

Poor health is not caused by something you don't
have; it's caused by disturbing something that you
already have. Health is not something you need to
get, it's something you have already if you don't disturb it.

~Dean Ornish

The first wealth is health ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many of my patients with family history of cancer are terrified that they may fall victim to the same diseases their parents succumbed to. It is natural to feel this way. However, not everyone who comes from a family with a history of breast cancer or prostate cancer succumbs to the disease. Why is this so? This is the mystery which many scientists are working to unravel.

A recent study conducted by Dean Ornish and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco tested the effects of dramatic lifestyle change on genes in the prostate. The study group consisted of men with a history of prostate cancer. After 3 months of healthy eating, moderate exercises, psychotherapy and stress management, the investigators showed that biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle modification showed the genes that cause the prostate cancer were less active. Other genes that fight diseases were more active.

In 1995, Dean Ornish and his group showed similar results where they found lifestyle changes affected the progression of prostate cancer. Two of the cancer causing genes, RAN and Shock2 were suppressed in the study. The good news is that these genes are found in most types of tumors including breast and colon cancer.

"The implications may be much more widespread, and not just limited to men for that matter,”

Dean Ornish.

Though the results of the study are exciting, we have to await more studies to confirm the findings. However, what do you have to loose by embracing some the lifestyle changes included in the study? The following are some suggestions of lifestyle changes that may help:

• Find time to exercise. Exercise has other benefits that go beyond prevention of cancer. You do not have to spend money. All you have to do is walk. Keep it simple and build it into your busy schedule. The participants in the above study had regular exercise and ate the right foods.
• Eat the right food. Preferably, eat foods with complex carbohydrates and regard food as medicine.
• Find time to be spiritual. Spirituality builds resilience and cuts down your stress hormones that can damage your tissue at the cellular level and make you prone to diseases.
• Meditate daily. The relaxation response that you gain from meditation prevents the production of stress hormones such as steroids and adrenalin that can damage your cells and make you prone to diseases.
• If you're religious, practise your religion. For example, if you are a Christian and you believe in the tenets of the Bible, your daily devotion can give you hope. Jesus will become your psychotherapist as his words can restructure your thoughts and give you peace of mind. With Jesus in your boat, you should never be afraid of the storms in your life

"In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships."

John Gottman, PhD

We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are, someone with a wizard's power to melt stone to sunlight, who can bring us happiness in spite of trials, who can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical Someone is the face we see in the mirror: It's us and our homemade masks.

Richard Bach

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."

Author unknown

Reference: The New Scientist. June 18, 2008

A Caring Father Is A Balm For His Children's Mind And Body Health

One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.

Anonymous



I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

Harry Truman

Today is fathers' day. it is a day to honor and remember our fathers who toiled to make us who we are. Today also reminds us of Tim Russert, the MNBC anchor for Meet the Press who died suddenly on 6/13/08. Mr. Russert honored his father who, even with meager resources, gave him the wings to fly. As a father, he also became the best friend and mentor of his son to the envy of fathers who could not devote much time and energy to their children.

Parents' role in the development of their children is important. Children, as little flowers in our garden, have to be nurtured so they can blossom. They respond to the attention and the time we devote to them. This makes them feel safe and make them less prone to stress. Stress produces steroids that can shrink the children's brain and predisposes them to depression and post traumatic stress syndrome.

Hence, if you're a father, find time to enjoy your children. Be their friend and find out what they really want to do with their life and be their best cheer leader. This is the only way they can give their best to any task they set their minds on. Your children's knowledge that you approve of their pursuits is enough to open the gates of their creative juices to be all they can be.

"Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing."

- Jim Rohn

"The work will wait while you show your child the rainbow, but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work."

-Patricia Clafford