Category: Preservation

Forgive For Your Health

Healing / Maintenance / Preservation / Sound Mind / Strong Body

A couple years ago I was injured in an accident. Very soon afterward I called my mother. Her advice: “Forgive the other driver or you will never heal.” It turns out my mother was right (So not shocked there.), and here is the info that backs her up.

The upshot: Forgive and Heal

Holding a grudge, refusing to let go of bad feelings, constantly thinking about and seeking revenge for real or perceived harms exacts a tremendous toll, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. On the other hand, when we release the baggage of negativity and forgive others, we’re set free from that toxicity. Feelings of hurt, helplessness and anger naturally dissipate – whether or not the person forgiven forgives in turn or even knows they’ve been forgiven. Research published in the journal Aging & Mental Health found that forgiveness has a protective factor in health and well-being. In particular, said the authors, self-forgiveness among older women was protective for depression, when the reported feeling unforgiven by others.

Read the full article here.

Why Work/Life Balance Isn’t Good

Preservation / Sound Mind

Margarita Tartakovsky has an interesting article where she explores work-life balance flaws. In it she champions work-life satisfaction instead of balance.

Consider the three key categories. Loflin breaks his life down into these areas: work, self, and relationships. He regularly asks himself honest questions about each area to understand his satisfaction. He shared these examples:

  • Work: “What did I do to move a project forward today? If I used my time like I did today for the next 30 days, would my business grow or shrink?”
  • Self: “Did I start my day in such a way that it provided me with the physical, emotional, and mental energy I needed? Am I a better person because of the choices I made today?”
  • Relationships: “Did I do my best to be an encouragement to everyone I interacted with today? Did I do my best to grow at least one relationship today?”

This is a great read, well worth your time. You can find it here.

Need to Get Away, But Can’t Take the Time? Mini Vacations May Be for You

Preservation / Sound Mind

In his Article, The Value of Mini-Vacations author Jamie Gruman PhD. explores the benefits of mini vacations as oppose to one long vacation per year. He makes the point that you get the same restorative value from a mini vacation as a long vacation, but if you take mini vacations more often you get a longer benefit. So, instead of a week long vacation, you take 4 or 5 long weekends a year.

 

Read the article here. 

Focus: How to Maintain It

Preservation / Sound Mind / Uncategorized

In our busy loud world it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain focus. Here are some great ideas to help maintain your focus form Suzanne Kane and PsychCentral.

  1. Personal Time Out – Clear your head and do nothing.
  2. Self Discipline – It is the only way to get what you want.
  3. Real Family Face time – Connecting with your family over meals grounds you.

Like what you read? Read more about it here.

Time to Move On…

Preservation / Sound Mind

Is it time to move on in your life? Time to start fresh? Kick the hurt and pain of the past away? This article can give you 5 ways to begin. My favorite, and one I have a hard time with, Forgive.

…forgiving yourself may be an important part of this step as well, as sometimes we may end up blaming ourselves for the situation or hurt. While we indeed may have had some part to play in the hurt (see step 2), there’s no reason you need to keep beating yourself up over it. If you can’t forgive yourself, how will you be able to live in future peace and happiness?

Read the full article here. 

Procrastination: Good or Evil?

Preservation / Sound Mind / Uncategorized

Most people agree that procrastination is not good, but is it always bad? This article list 10 reasons procrastination is good. Here are some highlights:

1. Procrastination helps you learn to manage delay.

The ancient Greeks knew a thing or two about living the good life. In fact, Greek philosophers highly valued procrastination, as much as stating that it is good to learn to manage delay. Of course, there’s a significant difference between active and passive procrastination, where the former can be considered good and the latter — just sitting around doing nothing, for example — is decidedly in the category of bad. Knowing when to act, even though that may mean delaying action, is good advice.

2. Procrastination provides time to reflect on what’s most important.

You need time to think about what matters most in life. Not in the sense that you’re contemplating weighty philosophical issues, simply what’s most important to you. By taking your time to think through some things – or think of nothing at all so that your mind can clear, you’ll discover the kernels of importance that reside in your mind and heart. Then, you can act accordingly.

3. Much better decisions may result from procrastination.

Rushing in to deal with this or that task, project or item on your list of things to do doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be done well or provide any meaningful satisfaction for their completion. You might also find yourself accepting projects and tasks that aren’t right for you, that you’re ill-equipped to handle, shouldn’t do because they’re someone else’s responsibility, or it’s simply not the right time to get started on them. Just because something is on a list is not always a green light to work on them. By procrastinating, your decision may be better informed as a result.

4. Prioritization may be the offshoot of procrastination.

If you’re putting off things, procrastination could help you jumpstart prioritizing. This is helpful to get rid of unnecessary tasks, things you might have begun that weren’t worth your time, at least now.

5. Cooler heads prevail when you procrastinate saying you’re sorry.
While you might feel pressure to apologize when you’ve wronged another and anxious to get it over with, if you push yourself to do it immediately, who knows what might come out of your mouth? This is a case where allowing yourself time to think carefully about what and how (and perhaps where and when) you’ll issue the apology will result in a better, sincerer apology. Even if it’s taking an hour or so and breathing in and out deeply, you’ll be in a calmer state of mind and your tone of voice and body language will be more relaxed.

To read more about it click here.

Intermittent Fasting for Women

Healing / Maintenance / Preservation / Sound Mind / Strong Body

Intermittent fasting has a whole host of good things. While you deny your body of food, it heals and rebuilds (autophagy), it burns fat for weight loss, and it improves glucose tolerance. However, this article reveals that these benefits may not be as robust and in some cases reversed in women during childbearing years.

Studies show that intermittent fasting for women within childbearing years actually have disturbed sleep patterns, loss of lean muscle mass instead of fat during training, stimulation of the Sympatheic Nervous System (fight or flight response), resistance to autophagy, reduces glucose tolerance, weight gain, and infertility. Not cool. Maybe wait on the intermittent fasting until Menopause.

As it stands right now, I’d be inclined to agree that pre-menopausal (and perhaps peri-menopausal) women are more likely to have poor—or at least different—experiences with intermittent fasting (at least as a weight loss tool).

Cholesterol is Good

Healing / Maintenance / Preservation / Sound Mind / Strong Body

I am not sure science can be relied upon for much these days. They seem to be contradicting themselves constantly. The most recent reversal? Cholesterol. A new study, “Dietary cholesterol promotes repair of demyelinated lesions in the adult brain” by Berghoff, Gerndt et al, finds a link between dietary cholesterol and the remyelination of the adult brain. Specifically, dietary cholesterol plays a significant role in the repair of demyelnation in the brain. Multiple Sclerosis sufferers may have help on the horizon.

Is Laughter Truly the Best Medicine?

Healing / Maintenance / Preservation / Sound Mind / Strong Body / Therapeutic

It is said that Hippocrates prescribed laughter to his patients in 4 B.C.E. Was he on to something or was he a fraud?

How Laughter Helps

Actually, modern research agrees with Hippocrates. Researchers have been studying this since the 1970’s, but it really gained traction in the early 80s  when writer Norman Cousins cured himself of ankylosing spondylitis with vitamins and laughter. In the mid 80’s a study by Dillon, Minchoff and Baker (1985) found laughter increased antibodies that fight infection. Du Pre’s 1998 study indicated laughter increased the disease-fighting killer cells and lowered blood pressure.

Further research shows that those who scored high on a sense of humor scale also score high on optimism and self-esteem measures that results in quicker recovery, increased stress coping abilities, enhanced immune function, and reduced pain experience (Friedler 2010, Lefcourt 2002). In some cases, all you need to do is think about laughing to accrue these benefits (Berk, Berk, and Tan 2008).

Conclusion

So, is laughter the best medicine? It increases antibodies and enhances the body’s immune functions, lowers blood pressure and stress, speeds recovery,  reduces pain, and according to Cousins, cures incurable diseases. — That’s a resounding YES.

 

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