Vitamin C for Managing Stress

Vitamin C has been one of the most sought after and widely-known nutritional supplements for many years. Its absolute necessity for preventing conditions such as scurvy and its proven efficacy in overcoming infection, colds and flu are well documented. It even became controversial when some experts revealed study results claiming that vitamin C in sufficient dosage can prevent heart diseases and cancer. However, the benefits of vitamin C don’t end there.

Researchers have added another reason why people should consider taking vitamin C supplements. This vitamin is being touted as a very effective supplement for alleviating the symptoms of stress and perhaps should be included as part of your stress management plan.

Vitamin C is an Effective Stress Buster

Studies show that those people who had been regularly taking vitamin C supplements and have been eating vitamin C rich foods were found to exhibit far less of the physical and mental signs of stress than those who had low levels of Vitamin C.

One study conducted by German researchers showed that those individuals who were regularly given 1,000 mg of vitamin C had lower levels of measured stress hormones even after being subjected to highly-stressful events such as public-speaking and mathematical calculations.

However, those people who were not given Vitamin C supplementation, experienced increased blood pressure after undergoing the same events.

From these findings, it has been suggested that taking vitamin C supplements are beneficial against the debilitating effects of stress.

Vitamin C Improves the Immune System

Another study showed that Vitamin C can help prevent the overproduction of stress hormones in the body. Excessive production of stress hormones in the body contributes to suppression of the immune system. Therefore, a regular intake of vitamin C can lead to improved immune system functionality, as well as reduced susceptibility to many illnesses which are brought about or made worse by too much stress.

This theory was proven when researchers studied marathon runners. Those who regularly took vitamin C were found to be less vulnerable to the common cold and other respiratory illnesses compared to those marathon athletes who ignored this supplement.

Sources of Vitamin C

Vitamin C is very sensitive to air, temperature and water. Steaming, boiling or blanching a vegetable may result in the loss of vitamin C by as much as 25%. Loss may also occur when a vitamin C-rich food undergoes thawing and freezing.

When a vegetable or fruit is cooked for 10-20 minutes, only half of its vitamin C content remains.

Eating fruits and vegetables while they are still raw and fresh is the best way to maximize your vitamin C intake. The following are some of the fruits and vegetables that contain high levels of vitamin C:

” Bell peppers, hot and green chili peppers
” Mustard greens, kale, cauliflower, broccoli
” Papaya, kiwi, orange, strawberries, tangerines.

Vitamin C is best obtained through eating fresh fruits and vegetables. However, taking vitamin C supplements may also be helpful especially to people who are living in places where fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce or seasonal.

There is no one single magic bullet to prevent or relieve stress. Sufferers need to review all aspects of their life including diet. Using vitamin C in conjunction with other natural stress reduction techniques will help build resilience in mind and body to better cope with your stress.

Hypnosis for Stress

Hypnosis or hypnotherapy for stress, can serve as a powerful tool to change the way people use their minds. Hypnosis has been found extremely helpful for alleviating stress and anxiety.

Hypnosis refers to the artful manipulation of a person’s attention, context and language to be able to establish a temporary belief which can influence a person’s behavior and perception. This practice is rooted in a belief that an individual’s mind can be manipulated by suggestion, the kind that is powerful enough to affect one’s body.

The practice of hypnosis still stirs up debate among some professionals from the more mainstream fields of health and medicine. But, there have been studies conducted to prove its potency in helping people ease their pain and cope with the debilitating effects of stress.

Brain Scan Reveals How Hypnosis Works
Hypnosis has been proven by research conducted in Stanford University which employs the latest and state-of the art imaging tools to be able to capture what goes on inside the brain during and after hypnosis. A specialized MRI brain scan revealed decreased activity in two areas of the brain under hypnosis – the one responsible for visual processing and the other one involved in handling conflicts.

Experts say that the decreased activity in these two areas explains why a hypnotized brain becomes more accepting to suggestions. It’s been shown that hypnotic suggestions are powerful ways to influence brain activity which in turn can also influence an individual’s behavior.

How Hypnosis Helps to Combat Stress
Stress and anxiety are emotional health problems and hypnosis dives into the sub-conscious mind. Hypnosis actually gets to the root of the problem, which is a great place to start!
Through the power of suggestion, the mind can tell the body how it should respond to stress. If the mind can tell the body to relax and stay calm during a stressful episode, the body will immediately obey.

Hypnosis is also used to find out what the trigger’s for the stress or anxiety problem is. Once the mind is in a deep, relaxed state and all negative thoughts have dissipated, the brain no longer has room for stress to be in it.

Some people like to try self-hypnosis, while others use the help of a trained hypnotherapist. People that have become adept at using self-hypnosis find it easier to reduce their level of anxiety when stressful situations are imminent. It is also through hypnosis that they have learned how to spot situations that trigger a stressful response.

Stress and Anxiety

Stress and anxiety are two conditions that are not entirely different from each other. Anxiety is often a product of long term exposure to stress while stress is one of the major components of an anxiety disorder. There are many ways in which anxiety and stress seem to contribute to each other.
Our instinctive reactions, which are responsible for releasing our stress hormones, are governed by our subconscious minds. Any reaction to a stimulus, real or imagined, that results in negative or even heightened feelings, may be perceived by the subconscious as a ‘threat’.

Our subconscious minds, which operate on feelings, reacts the same way to any perceived threat, whether it be a verbal one or a physical in origin. Experiencing some stress or challenges can be actually beneficial as it can help us to exert more effort, physically and mentally.

The problem arises when the stress responses are repeatedly triggered and there is no corresponding ‘fight or flight’ reaction to utilize and dissipate the released stress hormones. If this happens the body and mind remain in a state of agitation and this is when we feel anxiety and stress.

If this scenario is recurring and ongoing, the stress can become chronic and when stress and anxiety reaches the chronic stage an individual can expect to suffer from its deleterious consequences. So, while incidences of stress can be beneficial, when they occur repeatedly with no resolution the results can also become long-lasting and harmful to a person’s overall health.

How Stress Impacts the Brain
In order to understand how stress changes the brain, we must first understand how our body’s limbic system functions. The limbic system consists of the hippocampus, cingulate cortex and amygdala. Experts refer to the limbic system as the “anxiety” switch. This is where the emotions and drives are regulated. A human’s desire for food, desire to be the best, to be loved, to be appreciated and to be special are all being controlled by the limbic system. It is also the reservoir of other emotions such as fear, pain, anger, happiness and pleasure.

When an individual experiences an incident or behavior that thwarts their effort to achieve pleasure or fulfill their desire, the limbic system also works to help prevent them from experiencing pain or sadness, then and in the future.

It does so by repressing negative feelings relating to the current incident while encouraging the individual to repeat those acts that promote pleasurable feelings and to avoid those that incur emotional pain. People who are successful in coping with their negative feelings are those whose limbic system is functioning at its best. It enables them to react to stress well.

When Stress Harms the Limbic System
However, there are often times when a person’s limbic system is compromised, which will more likely to happen if the body is constantly barraged with highly stressful events. Once the limbic system is compromised, a misfiring of neurotransmitters in the brain can occur.

In turn, inappropriate responses to stressful events will manifest as a result of distorted reactions and damaged sensory perceptions that are taking place inside the brain. Unfortunately, if these distorted patterns of responses become chronic, the person’s endocrine, immunological and neurological systems will also experience some abnormalities. In short, anxiety or depression will now start to develop.

Ongoing studies indicate that stress develops into anxiety due to the following reasons:

Inability to cope well
The inability to deal with life’s pressing issues can cause stress. Prolonged exposure to these adverse situations may lead to the development of a chronic condition if one has poor coping mechanisms. If left unchecked, chronic stress may later develop into an anxiety disorder.

If a person continually relies on alcohol to be able to get through tough situations, they will eventually diminish their ability to properly cope with stress. This is because alcohol only serves to numb the reactions to stress and if this becomes habitual the mind will become dependent on this process of numbing. This will then make a person more inclined to lose their natural ability to cope with stress, thereby paving the way for the onset of anxiety disorder.

Hormonal issues
When an individual is battling with highly stressful issues in life for an extended period of time, there is an increasing risk that their mind and body will experience changes that could adversely impact the proper functioning of neurotransmitter hormones. In other words, the body will become less capable of producing the required brain chemicals and other hormones, at the right time and in the right amounts. When this occurs, physical and mental problems that contribute to the development of anxiety disorder will become more prominent.

Negative thoughts
Experiencing constant bouts of stress will often lead to negative thoughts which ruminate in the mind day and night and increase a person’s risk of suffering from anxiety disorder.
Experts agree that persistent stressful thoughts can cause significant changes in a person’s brain chemistry and overall health, even if not accompanied by external events. Unfortunately, these changes can also further diminish the ability to cope with traumatic events and other stressful issues in the future.

Traumatic events
PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition experienced by a person who has experienced a traumatic event or events that caused extreme stress. The experienced is too much for them to contain or overcome at the time of the incidents. The profound impact of this stress and its subsequent triggers was powerful enough to trigger the development of an extreme anxiety disorder.

What Does It Mean To Be In A Truly Relaxed State?

Relaxation and the ability to be relaxed is a very powerful tool in life. Think about it, people say all the time, when your anxious ‘just relax’, or when you’re about to feel pain and you know it, people say ‘just relax’ and when you are about to speak in front of a large group of people, you say to yourself ‘Just relax’.

At even deeper levels, relaxation has the ability to show you something about yourself that most people wouldn’t believe unless they saw it for themselves. We will get to that later on.
What Is Relaxation?

When you are letting go of worry and concern in your mind, you experience greater degrees of relaxation. On the other-hand when you are encouraging worry and concern in your mind you, experience greater degrees of tension. When people learn to meditate in order to experience inner peace they are encouraged to relax.

When people enter into deep states of hypnosis, first they are taken through a process of relaxation. However, what is it exactly? It’s a silly question really, but the answer is this: Relaxation is the action of releasing tension in the muscles of the body.
Mental relaxation is the action of releasing tension in the thought process, done in various forms of meditation and hypnosis discipline.

So How Can We Make Use Of Relaxation?
Relaxation is something that can be employed by any of us, at any time in our lives. It is a tool that is very useful for dealing with situations and encounters that cause us mental anguish of any kind. It can also help us to experience a greater sense of well-being in our daily lives. Without tension, without stress, we experience greater peace. Inner peace is brought about by a relaxation in the mind and spirit.

At night, we can learn to go through a form of self-hypnosis exercise whereby we release the activities and attachments of the world by encouraging our bodies, mind, and spirits to let go, to relax and just let things be.
The positive effects of this type of mental training must be experienced to be believed, but needless to say, it is one of the most powerful tools we can have in our arsenal for encouraging greater health and wellness.

The Practice
Do these exercises at night when you go to bed, when all of the days’ work is done and there is nothing else left that requires your personal attention. It can be employed during the day also, but make sure you will have at least half an hour to yourself in an environment where you won’t be disturbed or interrupted.

Silence your phone, turn off the T.V, wear something warm, and find yourself a nice comfortable spot to lie down.
When you are lying down, allow yourself to relax and focus on your breath.
Pay attention to the feeling in your feet and allow every muscle in them to relax.
Slowly move your attention up into your calves and do the same thing. Breathe slowly and allow all the muscles from your calves downwards to relax.
Move your attention slightly higher into your thighs and buttocks and do the same. Let everything relax.

Continue the process until you have covered, bit by bit, the entire length of your body, from foot to head.
Be aware of your breathing. Just breathe naturally and allow every muscle in your body to be in this relaxed state of awareness for as long as you like, or as long as you can.
Doing this exercise will develop your ability to be relaxed and you will learn that everything that happens to you in the world, develops a certain amount of tension in your body and mind, and doing this particular exercise will allow all of that tension to slowly dissolve.
Practicing this properly can give you insight into the nature of meditation and has even lead some people to have unexplainable mystical experiences. However, the main aim with this is to uncover for yourself a truly relaxed state.

Once you get the hang of this practice, you can even take it with you into your everyday life, while going about your daily business. Focus on your body and encourage your muscles to stay relaxed, by consciously relaxing them.

Advanced students of this practice will even do it while in stressful situations, combined with ‘breathing focus exercises’ to support their state of relaxation, they can face challenges and stressful situations to a degree much higher than most other people.
In terms of being alive today in the stressful world of the 21st century, developing your own truly relaxed state is a tool that is well worth forging within your body, mind, and spirit.

Is Your Life Designed To Support Wellness?

The question we are asking ourselves here is whether our own personal life, in its current state, is designed to support wellness.

This requires a dual approach.
We must investigate exactly what wellness is referring to. Does it mean a general state of well-being? Can we be well physically but not mentally? Does this have anything to with spiritual wellness?

We must recognise whether or not wellness is suited to our life currently. Maybe we already live in a way that promotes wellness in our everyday life and maybe we do not. However, in either case we want to understand how well our life is suited to wellness.

For those of us who do not live in a way that promotes wellness, what do we have to do to inspire wellness in our current life? Do we have to make any changes or is it simply a case of doing more? Maybe it is a case of doing less?

What is Wellness?
Wellness is something that many people overlook. Most people think that how they feel is how they feel and there is nothing to be done about it.
For some, the primary goal of seeking good health is to prevent some possible future disease, like heart disease or diabetes.
Some others relate wellness only to the physical body and others relate it more to their mental state than anything else does.
Let us have a look at a holistic view of what wellness is. Quite simply, wellness can be understood as balance.

Wellness = Balance
When we feel well physically it is due to the fact of our bodies is getting what they need from a balanced lifestyle. This includes our level of physical exercise, our nutrition intake, our level of work vs play, and our personal and environmental hygiene. When we feel balanced physically, we feel well.

Mentally we feel balanced when our thoughts are aligned with our purpose in life. When we have an understanding as to what we are doing, why we are doing it and what needs to be done to maintain order in our life. When we are emotionally disturbed on the other-hand, we say that we feel out-of-balance, or perhaps mentally unwell.

Spiritually, we have a much bigger picture to look at. In order to determine whether we are spiritually well we need to be very honest with ourselves when asking that question. If we feel completely happy with our lives, if we have a genuine understanding of our function and position in the universe, as living beings, then we could be said to be spiritually well. But, and this is where the importance of self-honesty shines through, we must be clear with ourselves if we feel spiritually unwell.

Do we feel confused about our way of life, or our beliefs?
Do we have unresolved conflicts with our past or even perhaps our understanding of our life, or our purpose?

Do we feel inner calm and peace that supports and promotes our utmost quality of life?
Being spiritually unwell means that no matter what we do, or where we go, or who we are with, our happiness, our wellness is only temporary.
Eventually we always fall back into some form of despair or confusion, or suffering: like having a splinter in our minds that inevitably, always returns back to hurt.

The Best Thing About Wellness
The best thing about wellness though is that it is attainable, by anyone and everyone. Everyone and anyone on the face of the planet can achieve physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. Bearing in mind, that wellness does not mean ‘to be in good health’. If that were the case then no terminally, ill person could ever feel well.

This is what is meant by, wellness = balance. Even a person who is suffering from a terminal illness can feel well, if their life is balanced and fulfilled.
In order to encourage the development of a holistic wellness in our life, all we have to do is maintain a balanced way of life. This incorporates the physical, mental and spiritual worlds, since all of those things are within us.

Therefore, with regards to the question, is your lifestyle designed to support wellness, the above will give you an idea if it is, and only you will know the answer. If the answer is no, there are many things you can do to make changes, so make a plan and stick with it.

Health Is The New Wealth, Are You Well-thy?

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No matter how successful you are and how much money you have in the bank, without good health you will be ill equipped to enjoy your riches and achievements.

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Recent surveys show a trend towards preventative health and the maintenance of good health. Values have shifted and where once acquisition of possessions was seen as the symbol of wealth, nowadays the trappings associated with health are becoming a bigger status symbol.

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Green juice, for example, is seen as a signaling of wealth, status, and discipline, and displaying the accoutrements of good health is being viewed as more important than the accumulation of expensive cars, houses, jewels, and other material “toys.”

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It has been shown that consumers are more interested in staying fit and healthy than they are in paying for health care once they have become sick. They are willing to pay a higher price for products and services, which will keep them fit and well.

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So rather than looking at dollars in your bank, why not take a few minutes to assess your own fitness level and see how “well-thy” you truly are...

The areas you need to look at in order to assess your health include the following:

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Diet

Exercise

Relaxation

Mental Wellness

Leisure and Fun

Community

Relationships

Spirituality

Finances

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Take a look at the following questions and answer them by giving yourself a rating of 1-10 for each one.

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Question 1: Diet

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= not at all and 10=extremely, how healthy is your diet?

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Question 2: Exercise

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=not at all and 10=excellent (5 to 7 times a week), how good is your exercise regime?

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Question 3: Relaxation

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=never and 10=daily, how much priority do you place on relaxation?

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Question 4: Mental Wellness

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=very poor and 10=excellent, please rate your mental health?

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Question 5: Leisure and Fun

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=very little and 10=plenty, how much leisure and fun are you having?

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Question 6: Community

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very little and 10=plenty, how much do you connect with a community where you feel you belong?

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Question 7: Relationships

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, please rate a) your relationship with yourself and b) your relationship with your significant other?

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Question 8: Spirituality

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, please rate your relationship with your spirituality?

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Question 9: Finances

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, how healthy are your finances?

Results

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With this simple self-assessment tool you can easily see the areas of your life where you are truly “well-thy” and those where you perhaps are a little “poor.”

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If you scored, 7 or more you are doing pretty well and can feel proud of yourself.

In the areas where you scored 5 or less you might want to take a closer look.

If you scored lower than a 3 on any area, it indicates that you really should take a closer look, and focus on some strategies for improvement in that area.

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Even though you may be very successful in your corporate career and be absolutely loaded with the big bucks, if your relationships consistently suck or your blood pressure is too high and you are constantly running on overdrive, with a heart attack looming unless you lose fifty pounds, you might want to think about how wealthy you really are!

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Perhaps as a society, we are starting to cotton on to the truly valuable things in life. Who knows, maybe we will follow the example set us by the Danes, and learn to measure our contentment and happiness by the level of “hygge” in our environment.

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Hygge is something quintessentially Danish which has them being favored as the most contented people in the world. It comes from the word “hug” and is a quality of coziness and togetherness they are masters at creating.

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Alternatively, we might get on board with the forward thinking Buddhist nation, Bhutan, who uses a Gross National Happiness quota rather than a Gross Domestic Product quota. Now that's the true measure of prosperity!

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Are You A Nervous Wreck?

Everybody gets anxious or nervous from time to time in situations like going through financial problems or speaking in public. For some individuals, anxiety becomes so dominant and occurs so often that it starts to take over their lives.
How can you tell if you are a nervous wreck and have crossed the line into a mental disorder?
It isn’t easy. Anxiety can come in several different forms, including social anxiety, phobias, and panic attacks. The distinction between normal anxiety and an official diagnosis isn’t always evident.
If you want to know if you are a nervous wreck, check out these symptoms:
Excessive worrying. The main feature of GAD (generalized anxiety disorder}, which is the largest kind of anxiety, is worrying excessively about the everyday things—both large and small.

However, how much worrying is too much?

In the case of generalized anxiety disorder, the anxiety must be so bad that it interferes with everyday life and is associated with symptoms that are noticeable, such as tiredness.

Problems with sleeping. Difficulty in staying asleep or falling asleep is linked to a variety of health problems, both psychological and physical. Typically, the individual tosses and turns with the expectation of having to have a job interview. If you find yourself chronically agitated, worried, or lying awake, this may be a sign of some type of anxiety disorder.

Some experts recommend that nearly half of all people with generalized anxiety disorder will have sleep difficulties. Anxiety might be involved if you find yourself unable to calm down, your mind is racing, or you wake up feeling wired.

Irrational fears. Some anxiety isn’t at all generalized. On the other hand, it is attached to specific situations or things, such as crowds, animals, or flying. If the fear overwhelms you or if it is disruptive and out of proportion to the risk involved, it’s a sure sign of a phobia, a type of generalized anxiety disorder.

Although it can be crippling to have a phobia, they aren’t always obvious. In fact, they may not show up until you get into a specific situation and find out that you’re incapable of beating your fear.
Muscle tension. Constant tension in your muscles, whether it comes from flexing your muscles throughout your body, balling your fists, or clenching your jaw, is often an accompaniment to anxiety disorders.

The symptoms can be so pervasive and persistent that those who have lived with them for a long period of time will stop seeing it after a while. Getting regular exercise can help control the muscle tension; however, the tension might get worse if an unforeseen force or an injury disrupts the individual’s workout habits.

Having chronic indigestion. While anxiety may begin in the mind, it often shows itself in the body by having physical symptoms or chronic digestive difficulties, such as diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, cramping, and stomach aches.

If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), it isn’t always connected to anxiety; however, the symptoms of IBS and anxiety often go together and can cause each other to become worse. Your GI tract is very sensitive to stress. The social and physical discomfort of chronic digestive issues can make you feel even more anxious.

Having stage fright. Many people get nervous prior to addressing a large group of people or otherwise being the one in the spotlight. However, if the fear is so strong that no amount of practice or coaching will get rid of it, or if you spend a lot of time worrying and thinking about being on stage, you might have a type of social anxiety disorder known as social phobia.

People who have social anxiety generally worry for weeks or days leading up to a specific situation or event, and if they do go through with it, they are usually extremely uncomfortable and may think about it for a long time later, worrying that they were judged.

Being self-conscious. Social anxiety disorder doesn’t just have be related to being the center of attention or speaking to a crowd of people. In many cases, the anxiety is caused by everyday situations such as having a conversation at a party, or drinking and eating in front of a small number of people.

In these types of situations, those with social anxiety disorder generally feel like everyone is looking for them and they often have symptoms of talking difficulties, profuse sweating, nausea, trembling, and blushing. These symptoms can be so unsettling that they make it difficult to advance at school or work, maintain social relationships, or meet new people.
Bottom Line
In reality, if “nervousness,” anxiety or worry are interfering with your quality of life, there is a problem. It could be something as common as work related stress that is causing this.
Get help, speak with your doctor, or a therapist, and address your stress issues first and foremost.

Symptoms Of Unwellness

A general feeling of “unwellness” can mean many different things and can manifest in various ways.
It is important first of all, to identify exactly what it is you are feeling when you experience “unwellness.”
What are your specific symptoms? They can vary widely and from person to person: everybody is different.
For example, do you feel tired or lethargic all the time?
Do you suffer with aches and pains? Are they in the joints or the muscles?
Do you find that your performance in daily tasks is suffering?
Are irritated, stressed out, and annoyed much of the time?
Are you overweight?

Do you sleep well or do you find that even though you seem to sleep all night, you wake up feeling as if you’ve been pulled through a hedge backwards? Is your sleep light and fitful, where you are woken up by the slightest noise? Do you find yourself waking up every night at the same time, say 3am, and then finding you cannot get back to sleep again until the wee hours?
Are you taking medications? Have you checked the possible side effects? Could these be contributing to your feelings of unwellness?

Possible Medical Causes

These are dependent on many factors and it is very difficult to pin down exactly what might be causing your malaise. Some common conditions that cause a feeling of general malaise include chronic fatigue, depression, fibromyalgia; you could have anemia or low blood pressure, or, you might have a urinary tract infection.

Problems that are more serious can include HIV and AIDS, cancer, diabetes and adrenal gland dysfunction. If your feelings of malaise go on for more than seven days, it is wise to see a medical practitioner.

The most obvious step is to discuss your symptoms with your doctor who is going to give you a thorough check-up and an educated diagnosis. It is important to get your health checked out to rule out the possibility of anything serious, or, if it is something serious, to catch it early and hopefully treat it successfully and prevent major problems from developing further down the line.
Your doctor will give you a physical examination and probably want you to get some blood tests or x-rays done to rule out certain problems such as thyroid disease or cardiovascular problems.

Identifying Your Needs and Deficits

Optimal wellness begins when we address the whole person, also known as Holistic Wellness. This means that we need to take care of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, along with considering our financial (the main cause of stress for many people) and occupational wellness.
In order to assess your own wellness, it’s important to take an honest and comprehensive inventory of your life and self to identify problem areas in order to begin the journey to reach an optimal level of wellbeing.

Basic Ways You Can Improve Your Overall Wellness

Manage your sleep: There are a number of ways to help your sleep: for instance, don’t eat after 6pm. Try to turn off your computer at least one hour before you go to sleep. Reading is a good way to make yourself drowsy last thing at night. Meditation or listening to a relaxation recording can be helpful. Drinking a cup of warm milk before bedtime is soothing and helps you to settle down.

Eat well: a sensible diet with plenty of leafy greens and fresh fruits and vegetables is key to feeling well. Try to avoid too many carbohydrates as these can make you feel sleepy and light-headed.
Exercise, in moderation, is beneficial to your overall sense of well-being. Walking for half an hour daily can help you feel better.

Rest and relaxation: Getting enough of both of these will ensure you feel and perform your best.
Drink plenty of water and avoid alcohol, sugary drinks, and caffeine: Water can help flush your body of toxins and avoiding stimulants like sugar and caffeine can help calm the nervous system.

Reduce Stress: Whenever possible try to eliminate stress from your life. Create a calm and welcoming home environment. Avoid people who are negative and complaining. Find time to have fun. Connect with others and grow your social network. Laughter alleviates stress.

Self-care: At the core of all successful wellness attempts is self-care. This means making yourself and your wellbeing a priority, it is truly the foundation of your wellness.

5 Natural Ways To Thrive

develop harmony

What does it mean to thrive?

According to standard definition, it means to grow, to flourish, to prosper.
This is a beautiful term, something that resonates deeply with anyone who wants to encourage and inspire wellness. In terms of wellness then, to thrive means that we are constantly encouraging wellness within ourselves, within our bodies and of course, within our minds.
This leads us to an awareness of an –all-pervading sense of wellness within our spirits. To thrive is something beautiful and it is something that each of us can learn how to do.

How Do We Thrive?

We thrive, quite simply by allowing ourselves to and by encouraging ourselves to do so. For some, this is easier said than done. There are many people who have tried to thrive, but who have faced too much difficulty, they eventually give up because they think their life is just not cut out for it.
No matter how hard they try, something always gets in the way or pushes them back in the wrong direction. There are some things that we must understand about thriving, about constantly evolving, growing, and moving forward.

Knowing How To Thrive

To know how to thrive we must fully understand the process. Thriving, though the definition is of growing, prospering, and flourishing, is not always a case of thriving.
Sounds contradictory doesn’t it? Let me explain.

The tree that thrives in nature faces many obstacles. It faces potential destruction in its early stages by animals walking by that could possibly crush it underfoot. It has to compete with all the other trees and plants in the forest to get the sunlight it needs and even when it has fully matured still it must face gales and storms and through all of this, it must continue to strive towards thriving.
It can be seen then that thriving is not actually something that is achieved; rather it is something that one must aspire towards and to do that we must accept that we will face challenges.
Indeed in order to thrive it is essential that we face challenges and it is also essential that we overcome those challenges or at least have a mindset that will strive to overcome them.

5 Natural Ways To Thrive

Motivate Yourself – Without motivation, it is impossible to thrive. Motivation is inspired through passion, whether that is related to doing something for yourself or for others, maybe your passion relates to providing a future for your children. It doesn’t matter what motivates you, use your motivation to thrive. Use it to grow, and to push you to the next level.

Accept all challenges – When you are challenged, you are forced to thrive. This doesn’t mean that when somebody challenges you to a game of pool for example, and you win the match easily, that you are thriving.

No, a true challenge is something you find difficult, something that you cannot easily achieve, something that requires that you grow, or learn a new skill, or visit a new environment or face a fear, to achieve. This is true thriving, pushing your boundaries, expanding your limits, forcing yourself to thrive.

Face your fears – Fears, in every case are designed to limit us. By facing our fears, we are pushing ourselves into an area of life that we have been too afraid to visit. To truly thrive we must want to be able to do anything and we must be able to do everything without limitation. In order to do this we must allow the formation of mental barriers to what life presents us with.
Everything that comes our way can be used as an opportunity to thrive and by facing our fears, we will make the most of every opportunity that does.

Balance – Balance your life from the perspective of ‘Body & Mind’. In order to truly thrive we must develop a way of life that promotes balance. If we cannot promote physical wellness then our mental wellness will struggle and the same goes in reverse. By developing balance physically and mentally, we allow our spirits to thrive.

Develop harmony – Harmony is something that is very important when it comes to thriving. Without harmony, we face too much opposition in the world, and this opposition leads to restriction of our ability to express ourselves.

If we cannot express ourselves freely, we cannot thrive. Learn to accept what happens around you and even within you, be selfless if it encourages harmony and not only will you thrive, but you will see that everyone else that you interact with will also, in their own way, will thrive.

How to Keep Your Teeth Healthy Into Old Age

One of the most upsetting things that tend to change or deteriorate as we get older is our teeth. As we age, our teeth will often start to become discoloured and wonky. Some will fall out and our gums will recede. Often we’ll have some plaque and decay during our younger years too, which can lead to fillings and extractions.

In fact, our teeth and our age are so closely related psychologically, that this has given rise to expressions like ‘long in the tooth’. Dream analysis also tells us that dreams of losing our teeth are normally really dreams about getting older…
So the question then becomes: how can you keep your teeth for longer, so that you may stay looking younger? Here are some tips that can help out…

Go Easy On Them
Your impulse when planning on keeping your teeth younger and healthier may be to start brushing more regularly and vigorously and perhaps to use expensive toothpastes with whitening properties.
The problem is that this can actually be quite misguided and end up doing more harm than good. The reason for this, is that brushing too hard can actually wear away your gums and the enamel that actually protects your teeth.

Likewise, if you use whitening toothpastes, they will often cause damage to the enamel too which will then expose your teeth to more damage.
Even fluoride – found in the majority of toothpastes – can actually cause discoloration and other issues. Choose something gentle and natural and brush gently too – you don’t need to push against your teeth to clean them thoroughly!

Follow Advice
Then again, being conscientious is definitely a plus in other regards. In particular, you need to make sure you are brushing your teeth regularly and more importantly that you’re eating the right diet. That right diet means avoiding simple sugars (candies in particular) and it means eating lots of nutrients like calcium and like magnesium that will strengthen your teeth.

Floss!
Flossing is something else important you need to do, that will help to remove lodged bits of food that can lead to tooth decay and other issues too. Flossing regularly is also good for your general health and although it might seem fiddly, it’s massively important.

And remember too – you can always use cosmetic dental surgery if you need it to turn back the clock on stained or crooked teeth.