Is it possible to manage work place stress? Yes. And practice is necessary. And what could a counselor teach about workplace stress anyway?

Based on my experience with my anger management and domestic violence folks, everyone can give lip service to the idea that stress is experienced internally, but within seconds of saying that I need to change my thoughts to change my feelings, ect, almost all of my clients begin to tell me all over again about the external world, as if once that is in order, then there will be no more stress. Incidentally, that is a very important aspect of power and control belief systems, that controlling the external world.

In order to interrupt the thinking pattern which involves controlling the uncontrollable, I will ask my clients where they see me.

Most of them are quite surprised, and will answer that they see me across the room, somewhere outside of themselves.

I tell them matter of factly that they are wrong. And they are, they see me only in the visual cortex of their brain, inside their head.

While it looks like I am outside you, the experience of vision happens only in the brain, inside you, and the processing of photons is actually separate from the interpretation placed on the experience by your brain, but that interpretation is yours and yours alone, and if that interpretation changes the inside of your body in a way that brings adrenalin and cortisol, it is your words-in-your-brain interpretation that does that, not the external world.

I then ask my clients where they hear me, and repeat the same sequence of questions.

The same for the senses of smell, and its relationship to the limbic brain, taste, and pressure and the sensory motor cortex.

We end up with a everyone acknowledging that their entire sonsory experience and reality is created in their brain, and the human next to them may have an entirely different reality.

That usually stops the story telling and external focus for awhile, and I have actually layed down the groundwork for future reminders that about trying to control the external which is impossible.

So now folks have an object lesson about where stress exists, which is inside, and what causes the stress chemistry, which is their thoughts about the sensory experience.

Now we can begin to teach some tools about changing thoughts or breathing or both to change feelings, and then the next thing that we usually run into is the short lived length of stress management tools.

Those comments run along the lines of, ‘Well, I did that deep breathing stuff, and it worked while I was doing it but it went away as soon as the phone rang….’ as if to say that stress management should produce a high because adrenalin and cortisol can produce a high.

There are number of approaches that I use at this moment to teach about stress management as a heart beat by heart beat process or a thought by thought process.

I like to indicate to my clients, using some data from the book FLOW by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi,Ph.D. that the sensory nervous system processes data in packages of seven bits and that the shortest time between packages is 1/18th second, which is about twice as fast as you can blink your eyes, so this workplace stress managment is going to need to become as habitual as the stress producing thinking, then choices can be made. (Stress vs. unstress, if you will).

And then I use a metaphor of driving. If I can learn to pay attention to the inside of my body like I pay attention to changing road conditions and variables literally turn of the wheel by turn of the wheel, and make many small changes to the position and speed of the vehicle, I will get to my destination safely.

By extension, workplace stress management becomes a process of attending to my thinking and breathing and making small frequent adjustments to keep the stress chemistry in a place of eustress rather than distress.

If fact there is some excellent evidence from EEG research done by Barry Sterman, Ph.D., with Top Gun pilots that effective relaxation can be done by switching brain wave patterns from beta to alpha, work to rest, and back in cycles per second, so folks get it that stress management does not mean that they are going to achieve nirvana and never have adrenalin or cortisol again.

Now my clients need a tool that will help them get my metaphor physically and here is where I introduce a heart rate variability biofeedback program, which is a computerized program that gives clients an almost real time (very close) picture of how their thinking and breathing impact their body.

Most of my clients are pretty amazed at the changes the computer shows them about their heart rate variability coherence, which is impacted by thoughts, while the client is sitting quietly, looking at a computer screen, and that change happens heart beat by heart beat.

I have yet to have a session in over ten years of use that did not provide information to my client about the validity of changing focus from external to internal for workplace stress management.

There is lots of very interesting science that the heart rate variability biofeedback folks have made available to buttress their product, and I will weave that into my teaching, but what really gets the attention of folks actively engaged in work/career is the impact that relaxation has on the growth of new neurons, and the opening of higher perceptual centers when relaxed for better decision making.

We did not know that we grow new neurons daily, which makes the brain bigger, which is better, in my my mind, until 10-15 years ago, and the research is saying that we can minimize that newly discovered capacity of the human brain by exposing those new neurons to excess adrenalin and cortisol.

The key to workplace stress management then is attention and choice heart beat by heart beat. After all, if your heart stops, do you have to worry about stress management?

Stroke has been called the silent killer. It is the third highest cause of death in the United States, claiming 4.4 million lives every year. And for those who suffer from strokes yet live, it can have lasting repercussions on your health and well-being. Therefore, it is important to do all you can to prevent strokes.

The term “stroke” is given to problems with blood flow in the brain. It can result from either a blocked or burst blood vessel in or leading to the brain, which disrupts the flow of oxygen and essential nutrients to your brain. Due to loss of oxygen, brain tissue can quickly die, leaving you with problems in speech, movement, sensory information, thought, or many other areas. Because brain damage can become permanent in only four or five minutes, strokes can be absolutely debilitating.

Thus, there are certain things that you should do to protect yourself from stroke. First, your diet is a large part of your overall health, as well as the prevention of strokes. Consuming high levels of sodium can lead to high blood pressure, which increases your chance for stroke. Additionally, high cholesterol is a risk factor for stroke as well. Bad cholesterol can harden or block blood vessels, making it more difficult for the heart to pump life-giving blood throughout your body, including your brain.

Next, besides a healthy, low-sodium diet, you can also protect yourself from stroke by participating in regular exercise. Exercises not only lowers blood pressure, but it also helps give you better circulation. With regular workouts, you can also decrease your bad cholesterol levels to keep your blood vessels flexible and open.

Additionally, alcohol and tobacco usage can contribute to stroke. Heavy, frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages can greatly increase your blood pressure, increasing your risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage. One of the main ingredients in cigarettes, nicotine, has been shown to raise blood pressure as well as cause hypertension. Even if you do not smoke, you can inhale dangerous chemicals from secondhand or sidestream smoke.

Strokes can cause devastating damage to your brain, and thankfully, there are many things that you can do to help prevent this disaster. Sometimes, you may need medication and expert medical help to aid you in managing problems like high blood pressure so that you can avoid stroke. If you need help affording visits to the doctor, you should consider adopting or changing your health insurance plan to better help you.

General fitness refers to overall health. It means having the correct body weight and an ability to handle physical activity without wearing down too quickly. General health is being fit in a well rounded kind of way. Weight loss and maintenance of that loss is considered general fitness if varying activities were used to achieve good health. These activities include over all toning exercises or cardiovascular exercises. In other words, running or swimming at a moderate pace in order to get the heart pumping and increase oxygen to the rest of the body are the types of exercises used to gain and maintain general fitness. Lifting weights and strength training are also general fitness exercises.

However, when workouts are done to improve performance within a particular sport, then it becomes “specific fitness” as opposed to “general fitness.” As an example, hiring a personal trainer to help you improve your golf swing as a means of breaking onto the PGA circuit of professional golfers, is specific fitness training. Golfing itself falls into the general category of fitness.

General fitness workouts include walking, brisk walking or cardiovascular walking exercises. All of these forms of walking tone legs and arms in a general sort of way, meaning the muscle groups can be used to function in other sports and activities without specificity. These exercises contribute to overall good health. Good over all health reduces the risk of diseases associated with lifestyle and diet like heart disease, or adult onset diabetes, or obesity in general. A proper diet and regular exercise will all but eliminate certain “lifestyle-caused” diseases. This is general fitness functioning at optimum.

In addition, general fitness contributes to an improved mental outlook on life, it gives a sense of belonging and self confidence. Fitness helps to achieve healthy body weight, low body fat and better bone density, while improving circulation and heart function. This improved circulation will lower the risk of heart disease and regulate blood pressure and cholesterol. Regular workouts bolster the immune system and enable the body to heal itself faster.

However, is there a point when you’ve exercised too much? The American College of Sports Medicine says cardio should be done at a minimum of three times per week for at least 20 minutes per session. Ideally, anyone concerned about overall health and general fitness should workout everyday for at least 30 minutes per session. These general workouts should include a healthy amount of cardiovascular exercise like running or jogging or walking, combined with strength and weights training on alternate days. If you want to lose weight, adjustments in calorie intake should accompany the daily workouts.

It is important to vary your routine regularly to keep the muscle changing and challenged. It is also important to keep you challenged and motivated in continuing your workouts. Set goals and work toward the keep you going forward. When you reach a goal, set another one and start working toward the new one.

That dry, itchy scalp. Those white flakes that can be seen on your shoulders (if you dare wear dark colored clothing). Dandruff (also referred to as “seborrhea”) is not only uncomfortable; it can be downright embarrassing! Though there are several products on the market these days that promise to treat and cure your dandruff, several of these store brand products are loaded with dangerous and deadly chemicals. When looking to cure your dandruff, look for a natural dandruff home remedy.

What Exactly Is Dandruff?

If you are looking into using a dandruff remedy, it’s first important to understand what dandruff is. Dandruff is a form of eczema that tends to develop on areas with high sebum (oil) production. That’s why dandruff is usually found on the scalp, though it also can be found in skin folds, the ears, the face and the chest. Though the actual cause of dandruff in these areas is unknown, many experts believe that the yeast Malassezia furfur which naturally lives on our skin may be responsible. Poor nutrition, zinc deficiencies and using shampoos and soaps with a high alkaline content are also suspected to play a role.

How Do I Know If I Need A Dandruff Home Remedy?

There are several symptoms of dandruff that people suffer from (though, believe it or not, not everyone who has dandruff has the white flakes!). To help you determine whether or not you need to look into using a dandruff remedy, below are some of the most common symptoms:

• Dry, itchy scalp
• White Flakes
• Dry/Pink/Skin colored patches
• Itchy skin patches
• Skin scales
• Red skin
• Oily, yellow patches

What Is The Best Dandruff Remedy For Me To Use?

A favorite dandruff home remedy of mine is perhaps the easiest of all. Run a very hot steam bath, and then massage warmed olive oil into your scalp. As you soak in the tub, wrap a hot, damp towel around your head and leave it on for several minutes (I tend to leave it for 10 minutes to really get this remedy working!). In a short time, not only will your dandruff be gone, but your hair will also be stronger and shinier.

During the summer months, take lemon peels and immerse them in coconut oil for 8 to 10 days while leaving the concoction in the sunshine. After you sieve the lemon peels, apply the mixture directly to your hair. This will certainly leave you with a healthier scalp and silky hair.

Got apples? Make some fresh apple juice! Take two tablespoons of apple juice and add it to 2 tablespoons of warm water. Apply this directly to your hair, being sure to work it into your scalp, and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes. Afterwards, hop into the shower and give your hair a rinse! Using this dandruff treatment 2 to 3 times a week will leave your hair free of flakes!

Some other great remedies involve using:

• Tea tree oil
• Rosemary oil
• Pine Oil
• Cedarwood oil

Try out a different new dandruff home remedy until you find the perfect treatment that will leave you dandruff-free!

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The stomach is like a warehouse for processing and breaking down any kind of food or random junk that enters into our system. For example, many things that are trapped by our mucus end up swallowed and emptied into the stomach. This could include viruses, dirt, dust etc. Sometimes food might contain hazardous bacteria and it ends up right in your stomach. Even when you’re breathing, particles from the air typically go down the esophagus, not the trachea. But this is often good. The stomach is designed for this kind of treatment.

It’s all about the acidic environment that your stomach maintains. Many people are not aware just how powerful stomach acid is. It can eat through many different materials…even metal! So any of this random nonsense that lands in your stomach is usually put to rest. The stomach is a great way that our body naturally detoxifies itself.

It’s almost impossible for any living thing to survive the onslaught of stomach acid. Some bacteria can handle it. This allows our immune system to deal with other problems, while the stomach takes care of things.

It’s important to keep this level of acidity within normal ranges. For the most part, this isn’t an issue. However, a lot of prescription and over-the-counter drugs for stomach problems can inadvertently reduce this acidity. The irony is that in trying to help your stomach problems, these drugs have only made it worse – as is often the case with many drugs that you take for various symptoms.

Taking medication should be a last resort for stomach problems, as well as any other conditions. If you have these kind of problems, try out every other possible solution beforehand. Look at your diet, your allergies, any genetic conditions you have etc.

In fact, oftentimes when people complain about burning sensations in the stomach or acid reflux disease, it’s usually a case of less stomach acid than normal. This can be counter-intuitive, but let’s take a closer look:

If your stomach is performing effectively, it will break down food and send it on to the intestines. When you have lower levels of stomach acid, however, the stomach will hang on to the food for longer. It tries to break it down by sheer force, as it constricts itself around the food. Of course, this constricting affect will also increase the concentration of stomach acid within the area and you will feel these burning sensations.

The fact that these symptoms occur more often in older people makes this clearer. Obviously as people age, it’s not like their stomachs are going to become more efficient at creating acid – that wouldn’t make sense. It’s that their stomach becomes less efficient at making acid, so it has to resort to this constricting method to break down food and you get these symptoms appearing.

The answer is to first fix your diet to see if this takes care of it. But you can also take medication that will return your stomach acid levels to their normal range.

Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy is the use of water to heal, maintain, and restore health. Hydrotherapy is the most beneficial system of restoring normal functions in the body. Hydrotherapy treatments include enema, hip bath, the full sheet pack, local wet packs, steam-bath, hot foot bath, spinal bath, localized fomentation by steam, sponge bath, etc.

There is a physiological basis to hydrotherapy. It is used for people recovering from serious injuries, with joint problems and physical disabilities. Hydrotherapy treatments are often given at health recommended as home treatments. Various forms of hydrotherapy have been recorded in ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. A hydropathic establishment is a place where people receive hydropathic treatment.

There are different ways of treatment in Hydrotherapy.

Sitz bath:
Also known as a ‘hip bath’. Sitz bath is very useful in stimulating the liver, kidney pain, intestines, stomach, hemorrhoids and also for ailments affecting the urinary and genital organs.

There are two baths present, one filled with hot water and the other with cold. The person sits in one tub with your feet in the other tub, and then alternate.

Steam baths:
Steam baths are used to opening of skin pores. It has a cleansing and refreshing effect and reactivating the circulation of the blood.

Compresses: -
Towels or sheets are soaked in hot or cold water.

Wraps: -
The person is being lying down, enveloped in cold wet sheets. The person is then covered with dry towels and then blankets. These are left in place until the inner sheet has dried and the coverings are then removed.

When you eat food, the digestive process actually begins in the mouth, not the stomach. And there are things we can do to help this process along. First of all, the old advice of chewing your food is quite right. The more you break down food in your mouth, the easier it will transition through the different parts of the digestive system.

When food is broken into smaller pieces, it allows your stomach and intestines to better extract nutrients from it. Obviously our bodies need nutrients to perform almost every important function. Also, by making sure to chew your food really well, it’s easier for your stomach acid to break it down even further.

Another great aspect of your mouth is saliva. Let’s look at some of the key functions it performs, to help you process food:

Removes Bacteria

That’s right. Saliva creates a substance that removes bacteria in food. Actually it even helps remove bacteria growing in your mouth. Bad breath can often be mitigated by proper dental hygiene and simply allowing saliva to do its work.

Triggers Starch Digestion

Another chemical released by saliva begins to convert starches into sugars. Starches are pretty useless to your body, but sugar is absolutely essential.

Enhances Taste of Dry Food

We need moisture in order for our taste buds to register anything. What if you were eating a food that had gone bad, but weren’t able to taste this? Our saliva helps here to stop us from eating potentially dangerous foods.

Provides Lubrication

Obviously things move a lot easier when they’re lubricated. Saliva helps us move food around in our mouth and down the esophagus, into the stomach by providing lubrication. In fact, it would be quite painful and damaging to swallow something without the help of saliva.

Lowers Acidity

A healthy stomach can handle acidic food. Our mouths can’t. Saliva contains a chemical base that reduces the acidity of food, to prevent potential damage.

Creates Better Oral Hygiene

This goes hand-in-hand with the killing of bacteria. But also, saliva helps to wash away excess food which can remain in the mouth and cause bad breath.

Another last thing is the topic of drinking fluids while eating. This goes back to the whole food combining theory. Some people believe that drinking fluids reduces your body’s ability to digest food properly, by diluting the acids in your stomach that are used to break down food. Granted, a lot of people probably do drink liquid to wash food down when they should probably just be chewing it more thoroughly. This theory is not entirely grounded, however.

If you have an excessively dry mouth, meaning a lack of saliva, you should have this investigated by your doctor. Some people experience this condition after taking certain drugs. After reading this article, it should be quite clear to you the importance of saliva to your overall health.

How can we help the process along? Again, chew your food properly and, of course, maintain proper oral hygiene habits.

Hope that helps!

I have heard so many people TALK about starting something. Anything, working out, starting a new program, quitting smoking, start walking, etc. We, of course, see them every January 1. However, beginnings can start at any time. If we take a cue from schools, beginnings are in August. If you take a cue from the weekend, beginnings start on Monday and if you take cues from sleep, beginnings can start from the minute your feet hit the floor. Every single day of your life is a new beginning. You have a fresh canvas awaiting you. You get to pick colors, textures, prints, thoughts, ideas, and motives every day to change your canvas. Beginnings can begin every hour if need be. Every second of every day is a beginning. It begins with a thought, idea or dream. Once you decide, you follow the path for that journey.

But so many of us get sidetracked down some alternate path. It changes our destination and our journey. Sometimes for the better, usually just back to an old pattern that we are used to and comfortable with. NOT a good thing. For lasting change to take effect, you must commit to your decisions every hour. Every decision you make should be toward your new goal. We allow ourselves to be taken in by our old habits. Then we get down on ourselves and say oh well and give up. You were never told that it would be easy. The good stuff never is. To help you commit to your healthy decisions, focus on the end product…what is that you are trying to change?

Think of your body as healthy and how good you will feel AFTER working out, think how your children view you and your decisions. They will imitate you without even knowing it. Go beyond your own boundaries and envision a life that makes you happy. Every beginning needs a commitment, at some level, from you. Are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary to see your dreams become a reality? If so, don’t wait until tomorrow or Monday or Jan 1. Start right now. Commit to your dream, commit to your happiness, commit to your health, commit to yourself; after all, aren’t YOU worth your valuable time?

Water is one of the most vital ingredients for any living thing. A few days is all that a human being can go without it. In fact, a significant percentage of our body is composed of water. We don’t just get water by drinking a glass of it. We can get it through other liquids and even various foods.

For the purposes of this article, we will focus on drinking water — specifically, how the composition of water makes it good at harboring toxins, how these enter our water supply and ultimately our bodies.

Most of us are probably aware of the obscene amount of toxic chemicals pumped into the surrounding environment (mainly the air and soil) on a regular basis. What a lot of people don’t realize is a lot of these toxins eventually end up in our water supplies. All those chemicals in the atmosphere come back to the ground in the form of rain and mix with the soil, which typically is led to a body of water via underground waterways. We can quickly see how the water coming into our households might be very toxic. In fact, it’s guaranteed that their are toxins in your water; the question is to what degree. Let’s look at some of the materials that end up in our water:

Drug-Related Products

Many of the drugs that people take, whether prescription or over-the-counter, often do not become fully absorbed by the body. These excess chemicals go through the person and end up back into the water supply. This isn’t some half-baked theory either, there have been over 100 different drugs found in various water supplies around the planet. This is an actual issue.

But why wouldn’t these chemicals be removed, you ask? One of the main functions of water treatment plants is to remove the biological threats in the water, such as viruses, bacteria etc. Of course, there is a lot of work done to remove dangerous chemicals, but this process is not nearly as developed. There are simply too many potential chemicals for them to deal with, using present technology. Any kind of random drug that someone is taking can end up right back in the water supply and coming out your tap.

Sure, the levels of these toxins is quite small — but the thing about toxins is often the danger is precisely in small amounts that build up over a long period of time.

Waste Products

As it was stated earlier, toxins are pumped into our atmosphere and soil regularly from different industrial and commercial sources. What’s slightly weird is that chemicals are allowed to be put into the environment by default. It’s only when something is proven to be dangerous that legislation even beings to happen. The problem is that given the nature of these toxins and how they can sometimes take decades to produce effects, this might be a practice we want to reconsider.

Water Treatment

Yes, you read that correctly. As effective as water treatment is at removing certain threats, it often adds toxins into the water in the very process of doing this. You have to understand that the quality of water they bring in from the waterways is just awful. They have to perform many operations on it for it to be even remotely usable. For example, chlorine is often used to kill living organisms. Apparently the levels are too small to have any adverse effects, but would you really like to take that risk?

70% of losing weight and getting into shape involves dieting. That’s a fact and there is no way around it. People who often look for the quickest way to get thin are only delaying the inevitable. With the time they wasted trying those get-thin-quick plans, they could have started losing weight by facing reality that dieting needs hard work. For most people, dieting suck, Everyone would agree to this. But if you can stick it out thought even for just a few months at a time, you can improve your fitness results tremendously. here are a few tips that can be effective in trying to put together a diet plan.

Do not eat in the dark. What that means is try not eating between 7-8 pm. But if really have to eat, choose food that are low in carbs. Why carbs? Because when you eat carbs at night, your body processes them and stores them instead of using them. This happens because you are inactive during the hours that you sleep. Try avoiding surplus carbs as this might make you feel sluggish in the morning and you might find it hard to wake up.

If you feel a little hungry, drink water instead. Our body often times sends out mixed signals. A feeling of hunger can be attributed to many other factors and they may not be related to your body actually needing food. So, if you ever catch yourself feeling hungry or if you’re carving for some snacks, drink water instead. Water will fill your stomach and it will send a signal to your brain that you have a full stomach and this will help diminish your craving to eat.

Make sure that you get a lot of protein in your meals. Protein acts as a fuel to our body and it helps lessen the urges of hunger for the whole day. It is also important to recovery if you’re working out regularly.

Eat spicy food. Eating spicy food will actually send a signal to your brain that your cravings are satisfied because it’s more flavorful compared to eating food that are bland in taste. Also, due to the intensity of spices, it will also slow down your consumption of food. By spacing out your bites, your stomach will have time to send a signal to your brain that it is actually ingesting food. people who eat slowly often don’t over consume because their brain is able to communicate with their stomach better.

Don’t get rid of food altogether just to lose weight. It is unhealthy and ineffective if you crash diet. Instead of removing a specific food, find something else to replace it. Like replacing carbs with vegetables during your meals. Substituting helps you control the calories you intake while still providing enough food that your body needs on a daily basis.