Having Faith In Yourself Will Give You A Healthy Mind And A Healthy Body.

"You may not see the end of the path. You may wonder if you have it in you to accomplish it. But, with each step forward, you build your skills for the journey. Doors open. Possibilities are uncovered. You draw in new ideas. Inspiration and intuition grow stronger."

Annie Robinson

In order to move beyond the ordinary in your life, you have to keep on developing yourself. You can only do that if you believe in yourself and have an open mind. A mind that is open is ready to look at the other side of the mountain, ready to taste the unfamiliar food and ready to try new ideas. Amy ( not the real name) is a cleaner at the Community Health Partners in Lorain, OH. I was in my on-call room this morning when she came to clean the room and change the bedding. She asked for the combination to the bathroom door so she could clean the bathroom.

She started talking to me about going back to school at age 45. She wants a carrier in the medical field. However, her husband does not want her to go back to school. The response she got from talking to her coworkers at the hospital was "cleaning is not that bad." She and her husband earn about $50,000 a year. She wants to elevate herself above her current status but nobody seems to encourage her. They are rather discouraging her.

I congratulated her for her burning desire to improve herself and have a better future. We also talked about various 2 year degree options in the medical field. She agreed to take a look at Nursing as a career. She walked out of my room, elated and ready to go and conquer the world. People who make things happen have these characteristics:

• They act on their dreams even when the odds against them are immense.
• They believe in themselves. They are their own pilot. If they cannot pilot their life, who can do it for them.
• They seek ideas from other people. They have the common sense to know which ideas are better and which are not.
• They are willing to go the extra mile to achieve their goals.
• They have their own inner compass directing them to their destination.
• They are like Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull who went against all odds to achieve perfection and freedom.

"Listen, everybody! There's no limit to how high we can fly! We can dive for fish and never have to live on garbage again!."

"You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now - and nothing can stand in your way! "The only true law is that which sets us free."

“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have And step into the darkness of the unknown Believe that one of the two will happen to you Either you'll find something solid to stand on Or you'll be taught how to fly!”

Bach

Meditation Can Help Your Mind And Body Health

"Plant the seed of meditation and reap the fruit of peace of mind."


"Meditate daily, and soon your inner strength and mind power will grow."

By Remez Sasson

Every human invention was created by the mind. Thus the mind is a powerful creative machine. However, it works well when it is in its creative state. This state is the mindset when the mind is as calm as a pool of quite water. It is at its best when it is not making waves. This is when it is able to be the inventor and creator.

The daily hustle and bustle make it difficult to focus the mind to be at its best. How then can you tame and focus the mind to be able to continue to be creative to contribute to the communal and personal effort to improve the world and your personal fortune?

Research done at the University of Pennsylvania and supported by the National Institute of Health found that even small doses of daily meditation may improve focus and performance. Meditation calms the mind and changes the way the brain works.

They found that meditation may modify the three components of attention, namely:

• The ability to prioritize and manage tasks and goals.
• The ability to voluntarily focus on specific information.
• The ability to stay alert to the environment.

The value of the above findings to practitioners of meditation is that even the practice of meditation for as little as 30 minutes a day is enough to have a great impact on their life. The take home message is that however busy you're, devote some time to recharge your mind to perform better when it is most needed.


Reference:Sciencedaily.com

Laughter Is Good For Your Mind And Body Health

"The best blush to use is laughter: It puts roses in your cheeks and in your soul."

- Linda Knight

"He who laughs, lasts."

-Victor Borge

There are times in your life that clouds form around you, making you loose your way. These occasions can be challenging. Your motivation and enjoyment well dry up. Your life becomes barren like an arid soil.

The result of this stress is that your stress hormone, cortisol, increases and attacks your immune system. The effect of cortisol is counteracted by another hormone called DHEAS. DHEAS, however starts declining at age 30, dropping to less than 20% of their maximum value by the time we reach 70.

Additionally, cortisol has effects on the heart and the brain. Studies from the University of Edinburgh, UK, showed that older men with high levels of cortisol have smaller anterior cingular cortices. Shrinkage of this brain area is linked with Alzheimer's disease and depression in older people. The researchers think these effects are caused by stress.

Stress is part of our existence, however, you should at all times find ways of walking away from stress. These are some suggestions:

• Laugh often. Laughter reduces stress and hence lowers the levels of the steroids in your body.
• Have a positive attitude and a sunny disposition. Optimism helps you roll with the punches so you can take one day at a time.
• Learn from your problems and find ways to avoid stressful triggers in your life.
• Be spiritual. Spirituality gives you hope. Hope gives you the assurance that you can live and fight another time.
• Don't be lonely unless it is self imposed for a particular project or purpose. Social interactions provide you with the necessary support in your time of need and hence can decrease your stress levels
  

"If taking vitamins don't keep you healthy enough, try more laughter:

The most wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed."

- Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort

Reference:The New Scientist

Lack Of Sleep May Destroy Your Brain Cells And Your Mind and Body Health.

"Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast."
William Shakespeare, Macbeth

"And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created."
D.H. Lawrence

The art of sleeping has its place in our lives. Yet, in these hectic times, more often than not, we encroach on our sleep so we can catch up on our homework, socializing, working and many other pastimes. Sometimes even when we wrap ourselves up in our bed to sleep, we scare sleep away because of our wondering mind. We free ourselves from the shackles of our restless mind only when we can train it to obey our will. By taming our mind, we can harness the benefits of a good night's sleep. If we miss this opportunity, we risk getting sick.


It appears that like a factory that has to shut down for maintenance, the brain does better when it goes to sleep. During sleep, the body rests and the production of stress hormones decrease. This gives the body the chance to repair its wear and tear. A recent study on rats by researchers from the Princeton University showed that lack of sleep in rats prevented the growth of cells in rats' brain area called hippocampus that is involved in forming memories. In two groups of rats, the group that had less sleep had higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone. When the investigators kept the corticosterone levels constant, the decrease in the brain cell growth was less. Even though the experimenters conducted this study in rats, it will be interesting to conduct the same study in humans.


The take home message is that sleep has its purpose in rejuvenating your body. Skimp on your sleep and you run the risk of stressing your body that would lead to increase stress hormones that may have effects on your brain and affect your immune system. The following are some suggestions to help you to sleep like a baby:

• Don't go to bed angry as the stress from your anger will prevent you from sleeping and increase your steroid levels
• Calm your mind before you go to sleep so you can have a stress free sleep.
• One way of calming your mind is to meditate. By simply calming your mind, relaxing your whole body and taking deep breaths slowly in and out of your nose, your mind would be calm and help you to sleep better. Your relaxed stress free body will produce less stress hormones, help you to sleep and maybe spare your brain.
• You may also read an inspirational passage that may calm your mind and give you less stress so you can go to sleep like a baby.
• Some people find that they can sleep better if they exercise before they go bed.

O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my sense in forgetfulness?

William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I

Reference: BBC On Line.

Obesity Can Give You Alzheimer Disease. Fight Obesity For A Healthy Mind And Body Health.

"All parts of the body which have a function if used in moderation and exercised in labors in which each is accustomed,

Become thereby healthy,

Well developed and age more slowly,

But if unused they become liable to disease,

Defective in growth and age quickly."

~Hippocrates~

"People who are obese at 60 are twice as likely to develop dementia by the time they are 75"

Professor Clive Ballard

"Living a healthy lifestyle will only deprive you of poor health, lethargy, and fat."

Jill Johnson

I have many patients who request medications to help them lose weight. They are right to be concerned with their weight; however, they have the wrong approach to managing their weight gain. They want a short cut solution to their obesity-a pill that will melt the fatty tissue. A recent article that appeared on the BBC on line and the Washington Post showed that obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol can lead to Alzheimer disease because they destroy the blood vessels in the brain and lead to the death of the brain cells. It will therefore appear that lifestyle changes can go a long way to prevent the disease. These are some suggestions:

• You should buy into the concept that food is medicine so you can eat the right food at the right time.
  
• Learn form the Nun study. The nuns who engaged their minds all the time were immune to the onslaught of the Alzheimer disease even though some of the nuns showed Alzheimer changes in their brain after death. This study gives us a healthy model to follow. It is a recipe for preventing Alzheimer disease.
• Find time to exercise. Exercise keeps the brain alive by inducing the growth of new cells. It will also keep your weight down and help reduce high blood pressure and increased cholesterol levels in your blood.
  
• Eat fish or take Omega 3 fatty acids as they help prevent Alzheimer disease.
  
• Embrace spirituality to help you reduce stress. When you are under continuous stress, your body comes under attack from the steroids you produce from the stress. The result of this steroid onslaught is to attack your immune system, your brain cells, your chromosomes and cause you to age prematurely. Spirituality gives you resilience and buffers you from stress so you can weather these stressful moments in your life.
  

"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness."

Edward Stanley

"If exercise came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body."

Cher

"He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the skill of the physician."
- Chinese Proverb