Category Archives: Health

Meditation Health Benefits: What The Practice Does To Your Body

Meredith Melnick writes:

We hear it all the time: Meditation can improve our creative thinking, our energy, stress levels and even our success. Prominent artists, businessmen and politicians cop to the practice. Would it work for you?

“It did to my mind what going to the gym did to my body — it made it both stronger and more flexible,” said Dr. Hedy Kober, a neuroscientist who who studies the effects of mindfulness meditation, which she has practiced for 10 years, at her lab at Yale University. She admitted during a TED Talk that she started meditating to deal with a break up, but found that it helped her handle stress and unpleasant feelings in all areas of her life.

Studies show that meditation is associated with improvement in a variety of psychological areas, including stress, anxiety, addiction, depression, eating disorders and cognitive function, among others. There’s also research to suggest that meditation can reduce blood pressure, pain response, stress hormone levels and even cellular health. But what does it actually do to the body?

Continue reading →

Be Here Now: How Major Surgery Changed My Outlook

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Harper Spero shares this story:

I grew up in a family that strongly believes in the concept “be here now,” a saying from spiritual teacher Ram Dass, and though my family isn’t a religious one, it still resonates deeply with us. 

It was January 2012, and over the past three months I’d developed a severe cough—similar to what one gets after a three-pack-a-day habit. In those 12 weeks my general practitioner had diagnosed me with bronchitis and pneumonia, and prescribed three medications and inhalers, none of which did anything for me. My mom, like any incredible Jewish mother, kept mentioning that it was time to call the doctor for further review. Continue reading →

Wholeheartedness = courage, compassion and connection…

220px-Brene_portrait_cropWEBTime to mix things up again. Thanks to my friend Tim Kastelle for sharing Brené Brown’s TED Talk on vulnerability. She writes here on cultivating worthiness…

Practicing courage, compassion, and connection in our daily lives is how we cultivate worthiness. The key word is practice. Mary Daly, a theologian, writes, “Courage is like—it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.” The same is true for compassion and connection. We invite compassion into our lives when we act compassionately toward ourselves and others, and we feel connected in our lives when we reach out and connect. Before I define these concepts and talk about how they work, I want to show you how they work together in real life—as practices. This is a personal story about the courage to reach out, the compassion that comes from saying, “I’ve been there,” and the connections that fuel our worthiness.

Brown, Brene (2010-09-20). The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Suppose to Be and Embrace Who You Are (p. 7). BookMobile. Kindle Edition.

Here’s the TED Talk in case you haven’t seen it yet…

7 Reasons to Love Apple Cider Vinegar

Jess-Ainscough-wellness-2Jess Ainscough writes:

I was first introduced to apple cider vinegar (ACV for short) several years ago after reading in a magazine that Fergie (Black Eyed Peas, not Duchess of York) takes a couple of teaspoons each day to assist weight loss. A body like Fergie by drinking apple cider vinegar? That is one bandwagon I was quick to jump on. While I’m still waiting for Fergie-like abs, I have been reaping the many other health benefits associated with including a little ACV in my diet. ACV has been touted for it many medicinal properties for yonks and it really is a cure-all remedy.

These are just a few benefits of apple cider vinegar…

Full story at: 7 Reasons to Love Apple Cider Vinegar.

It sounded disgusting to me, but I got used to it and it will certainly benefit your body more than that Coke you’re slugging with your meal. Continue reading →

15 Great Excuses Not to Form the Fitness Habit

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Leo Babauta writes:

Lots of people know they should be getting fit, but they can’t seem to find the time to form the fitness habit.

And while I understand this completely — I was stuck in overweight, unhealthy mode for years — I think it’s useful to take a look at the justifications we give ourselves to put it off.

I put things off because I didn’t have time, or energy, or I had too many family commitments, or not enough motivation, or work kept getting in the way, or I didn’t feel good enough to run, or I was sick, or other people would make things difficult, or I didn’t have the money for a gym membership … you get the idea.

But I’ve learned to kill all the excuses. Or to put it less violently, I’ve found loving ways to let them go and embrace the joy of a fit and healthy life.

I did it with six kids and a wife, a full-time job (and now my own business), a ton of family and work commitments, freelancing on the side, building a blog on the side, while writing various books … and so the excuses were ultimately meaningless.

Why might you be putting things off? Let’s look at the justifications, and try to blast them.

Full story at:  » 15 Great Excuses Not to Form the Fitness Habit :zenhabits

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Get Up. Get Out. Don’t Sit.

Thanks to David Kanigan for finding and sharing this:

“…New research this month finds that the more time someone spends sitting, the shorter and less robust his or her life may be. The findings were sobering: Every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes. By comparison, smoking a single cigarette reduces life expectancy by about 11 minutes. Looking more broadly, they concluded that an adult who spends an average of six hours a day watching TV over the course of a lifetime can expect to live 4.8 years fewer than a person who does not watch TV.  Those results hold true even for people who exercise regularly. It appears a person who does a lot of exercise but watches six hours of TV every night might have a similar mortality risk as someone who does not exercise and watches no TV…”The researchers found that those people with the “highest sedentary behavior,” meaning those who sat the most, had a 112 percent increase in their relative risk of developing diabetes; a 147 percent increase in their risk for cardiovascular disease; and a 49 percent greater risk of dying prematurely — even if they regularly exercised.

“We might convince ourselves that we are not at risk of disease because we manage the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day.” But, she says, we “are still at risk if we sit all day…If you exercise for 30 minutes a day, she says, “take time to reflect on your activity levels for the remaining 23.5 hours,” and aim to “be active, sit less.” via Get Up. Get Out. Don’t Sit. – Lead.Learn.Live..

What Drinking Coffee Does to You

Ouch! Sore subject. This morning, I had to forego my usual superstrength coffee while blogging because I had a blood test at 8:10 this morning. What did I learn? It’s easier for me to give up alcohol than coffee! I was a whiny baby until I got my first cup immediately after the blood test. Should I play through the pain and give up coffee? Not likely…

Consider the data for yourself at: What Drinking Coffee Does to You.