Stressed? Here are 4 quick and easy ways to lower your stress and feel better

Stress wreaks havoc on the body, we all know that. It can emulate the effects of a heart attack on the body, making the sufferer go through the motions of having a heart attack. It can disrupt sleep and destroy energy levels. Stress is one thing that can cause more damage than anyone could possibly foresee.

The longer that you allow stress to sit in your body and wrestle with your mind, the worse the effects become. A little bit of stress can be a motivator, absolutely. But when the stress starts causing negative feelings and emotions, it’s time to consider that you need to release some of it.

Here are four easy ways to kill your stress level, and feel better now:

1. First and foremost, the quickest, easiest and most effective way to release stress is to take some ‘me time’ and do something for yourself. You work hard, you do your best, and you deserve a reward. So take a nice warm bath, toss in some Epsom salts, and light a candle. Or maybe you’d rather sit in your backyard/nearby park with a nice drink (tea, beer, lemonade… whatever floats your boat!) and enjoy the scenery. Anything you want to do that takes you away from the stresses in life, just do it!
2. If you can’t walk away from your life for longer than 10 minutes right now, consider breathing deeply with your eyes closed. This simple and quick technique has immediate calming effects. All you have to do is close your eyes, inhale deeply and exhale slowly. Take your time. Enjoy a moment of silence and take in a good punch of refreshing oxygen.
3. Eat some fresh fruit. Whichever type of fruit you’d like, it doesn’t matter. But some fresh and vibrant fruit. First off, the bright colour will lighten your mood and lift your spirits. Secondly, the fruit will be chock full of natural sugars and vitamins that will give you an extra burst of energy and top up your energy stores. So grab a quick and fresh bite from your fridge, and enjoy the flavours and the colours.
4. Laugh! Read a funny joke, talk to someone that you find amusing, or watch a funny video. Anything that will make you giggle or full-out roar with laughter will almost immediately drop your stress level. Laughing both causes your body to move, simulating physical activity (which is also great for reducing stress, especially long-term) as well as causing your serotonin levels to rise and improving your outlook and stress levels very quickly.

On top of these four tips, consider the following few ideas to keep your stress levels down to a dull roar even at the worst of times.

1. Exercise regularly.
2. Eat healthy, fresh, raw foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains as often as possible.
3. Take time for yourself regularly!

Prepare yourself for the attack of stress, and you will be able to fend it off with much better results.

Remember that you are worth the effort, and you deserve to feel how wonderful it is to have little to no stress.

Do at least one thing for yourself everyday, even if it’s just five minutes. Take your time brushing your hair or in the shower and really enjoy what you’re doing. Slow down when you’re walking to or from the bus stop and look around at the beauty that surrounds you. Play with your kids or friends, boardgames, sports, or just horsing around! Just get out there and do something!

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go have a snack! Gotta keep my energy up and my stress down for my family, my health, and my work.

Update on coconut oil

So I wrote a review of coconut oil a while back, this great product that I got for decently cheap in a beautiful glass container. It is still working wonders for me, and I would love to share the ways how.

Firstly, it is a fantastic moisturizer for my lips. I still use lip balm, but only because I have a few sticks that M doesn't like. When my lips are actually irritated, I reach for the coconut oil and slather it on. It feels way more natural on my lips, and it's almost invisible that I have anything on my lips at all!

Second, great skin moisturizer. The winter has been wreaking havoc on my normally nice and smooth skin. Havoc I tell you! This year has been the worst for it so far, oddly enough, possibly due to me taking out so many unnatural products from my beauty regime. So instead of using those, when I'm in the shower I grab a small dab of coconut oil and rub it all over wherever has been the dryest (most itchy) and the surrounding areas. Typically it's my legs and my arms, and sometimes my face and neck. I keep rubbing it in while the shower is running, the heat helps it absorb into my skin more efficiently. Then, voila! Soft silky skin right out of the shower. When I do this, I also try not to rub my skin with the towel so I don't rub off any of the oil or anything.

Finally, because of how great it is at moisturizing skin, it is a great injury cream. I rub it on my feet when they have blisters or irritation. I rub it on the edge of my scalp (by the hairline) when my dry scalp irritates me. I put it on my eyebrows if they're irritated after plucking. The list goes on. As long as it's not a heat injury (because oil will cause your skin to retain the heat, worsening the injury) I slather on some coconut oil and rub it in good. Even burns, once the actual heat has gone away (usually the next day) I will start putting coconut oil on it. I will confess, I don't know the science of why it works, but if I had to guess it would go something like this: The skin is kept soft and moist using a natural product that does not irritate the cells, speeding up the healing process and laying the groundwork for effective white blood cell movement.

Like I said, this stuff is amazing. Not to mention that a little goes a long long way. When this jar runs out, you better believe that I will be buying a new one!

Anyone use a simple natural product in their health or beauty regime? Let me know!

Peace and serenity,

Laura

Enjoy my updated review on coconut oil? Digg it or share it on your favourite social networking site!

Magnesium and Your Health

I am all for natural remedies and homeopathic relief of any health problem that arises. I avoid pain killers, and haven’t used one in over 3 months. Instead, when I am in pain I opt for temperature therapy (hot/cold) and drink a lot of water. This has done me well so far, but I do not have any chronic pain issues.

My mother, however, does have chronic pain. She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia approximately 1 ½ years ago (maybe more, maybe less, I'm not 100% sure on that), and has been working forward with her health and general well being even more so now that she understands the source of her pain.

I found this book (The Pill Book Guide to Natural Medicines) at a garage sale this past summer and bought it for 50 cents. I decided to look through it for certain health problems that important members of my family, including myself, suffer from.

Turns out there is an easy way to relieve the pain and tension from fibromyalgia that many people overlook. Magnesium is the easiest and one of the safest natural remedies for fibromyalgia. It is also easy to consume if you eat a diet of whole, unprocessed, raw foods.

Magnesium is also essential for full calcium absorption. In fact, ingesting too much calcium can reduce the capability your body has to absorb magnesium. Without magnesium, even with vitamin D, your body is only able to absorb 500mg of calcium in one sitting.

Many common foods in the “standard American diet” contain little or no magnesium. This leads to an extremely common occurrence of magnesium deficiency. Simple and easy to eat foods contain magnesium including almonds, cashews, lightly cooked spinach and fresh fish such as halibut or pickerel. (more detailed information found at www.hoptechno.com/bookfoodsourcemg.htm )

How does this relate to my pain, my mother’s fibro, and life in general? Easy. Magnesium is a key ingredient to activating many enzymes in your body, and a deficiency in it can cause fatigue, confusion, heart disturbances, nerve and muscle problems and many other problems.

Want to reduce your pain, increase your health, and generally feel better? Consider adding some magnesium to your diet. Food sources are the easiest to digest, and are highly recommended by yours truly. Alternatively, if you aren’t able to eat enough, or you don’t want to risk it, there is the option of taking supplements. If you choose to take supplements, be sure to take them with food to ensure proper digestion.

Simple ways to increase your health and vitality. Improve your diet by adding magnesium.

Peace and serenity,

Laura
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Looking for other ways to improve your health through natural remedies? Stay tuned, I’ll be posting more information over time that is based on natural and healthy ways to increase your health and decrease your dependency on chemical drugs. Follow the new Natural Remedies tag for a full listing.

Do things for yourself

Stop right now. Stop whatever you're doing.

Think about what you're doing. Is it for you, or is it for someone else?

When was the last time you did something for yourself?

Can you remember?

Well, I want you to do something for yourself. Right now.

Eat something you enjoy. Write something you want to write. Give yourself 15 minutes to relax in silence. Listen to some music. Whatever you like.

Just do it.

It'll feel good, and you'll feel better.

You spend all day trying to do things for other people. Who is more important to you than yourself? If you answer anything other than "ME!" you have your priorities mixed up. Even if you have a baby, or a child, or whatever else, YOU are still the most important.

Why?

Because if you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to help other as effectively, and you'll burn yourself out. Then who will help those you were helping?

So take some time and do something just for you.

You won't regret it.

Peace and serenity,

Simply Me

Personal health tips to avoid the flu

With flu season beginning to bear it's ugly head, and myself just getting over a nasty cold, I figured I would share my thoughts on germophobia.

Keep in mind, these are my personal views, and if you don't like them, that's fine.

1. Hand sanitizer is a waste of money. It's cold, feels gross on your hands, makes you smell like a booze-hound, and is overall bad for you immune system.

Why? Because your body needs to maintain a certain number of bacteria to balance it's own system, and to keep your immune system in check. Using hand sanitizer just kills off all the bacteria, making your system start fresh. With consistent use, it also tells your body that it doesn't need to create those anti-bacterical systems, and lowers your own personal immune system. Just wash your hands regularly with plain soap (not that antibacterial junk).

2. Keep warm. I know, technically you don't get sick by being cold. But it certainly doesn't make you feel any better! Throw on an extra layer, and your body will thank you. Plus, you'll exert less energy shaking/shivering, and won't lose hydration so quickly.

3. Drink your liquids!!! This has to be the worst thing that people don't do when they're feeling ill. They stop drinking. Worst thing. Ever. Keeping yourself hydrated will make your body continuously flush out all the nasty crap in your system, keeps the good bacteria where they are, and keeps your kidneys and other organs happy. So just drink something.

4. Get your rest where you can. If your body isn't rested, it can't fight off bacteria or other infections. Try to squeeze in at least 7 hours a night, preferably undisturbed. If you're having trouble sleeping, try avoiding caffeine and sugar after 7pm (or approximately 2-3 hours before you're heading to bed) and don't drink too much before bed.

These are just the basics, the commandments, that I follow pretty much year round. Just remember, if you treat your body well, it's more likely to treat you well in return. Give it what it needs, and it will work harder for you.

Peace and health,

Simply Me

Day 13 of 30: Someone I wish could forgive me

With 8 days til the wedding, things are getting a little stressed out around here! I think that everything is pretty much done, but every time I think that, something new comes up.

With that, today's tweet is to someone I wish could forgive me. Now, this one kind of goes with yesterday's post because it happens to be to my daughter.

@EmiBear You may not remember it, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry it happened, and I'm sorry I didnt notice it sooner. I hope you can forgive me, I love you 


Some things in life are just hard to accept, and looking in the mirror only gets harder when my little girl does something or says something that reminds me of what happened to her. Nothing to severe, not like you hear about on TV. But bad enough for me. I wish every day that I had opened my eyes sooner, and left that *expletive* years before I did.

But the past is the past, and thankfully for the most part she seems to have recovered. She was top of her class in senior kindergarten, and I'm sure she'll be up there this school year. She is happy, smiling, intelligent (sometimes too much so). I love her dearly, and every day I pray and hope and wish that she turns out to be normal. So far so good.

Positivity and love spread across the globe,

Simply Me

To routine, or not to routine, that is the question

Sooo, yoga has pretty much fallen to the wayside, and sleeping in has taken over. I know, I know, not a good idea seeing as I'm just that much more exhausted when I go to work.

It's a vicious cycle really. I can't stop myself from falling asleep, sleeping in, almost being late for work, drinking 2-4 cups of coffee (with my reusable mug so it's really more like 4-8 cups of coffee) and shuffling through the day.

I need to boost myself up and force myself to stay awake, but it's sooo hard...

I will retry to restart my yoga routine this week, starting Monday.

Wish me luck!

Product review : Coconut oil

So I finally made a quick trip to Rainbow Foods. Didn't end up buying any of the bulk foods, but I need to make an inventory of what they provide.

I did however notice that the location had expanded since the last time I was there! Fantastic, they now carry organic bleach (who knew?) and also managed to find some coconut oil! I have been looking at buying some, and it seemed the only way to get it was online. Alas, to my great pleasure, this was not the case. They provide it in glass and plastic jars. I chose glass, even though the price was higher, because I feel much more comfortable reusing something that is made of glass. The lining of the lid more than likely contains some plastic, but it's significantly less than if the whole container were plastic.

I also got to put it to the test in terms of healing ability. I walked to work on Monday (45 minutes) and very much enjoyed the time spent outside, despite becoming slightly irked (well, very irked) with the amount of litter polluting the bike path. I also managed to give myself a blister. Right square in the middle of my left heel. Work sucked, as I'm on my feet all day, on said blister.

So, when I got home, after I showered, I put some coconut oil on it, rubbed it in good and hard. Kept my foot off the floor/sheets/everything possible. In the morning, I woke up, checked out the blister. Still there, BUT no redness, no soreness, and best of all, couldn't even feel it to touch. I can still see it, but it doesn't hurt, hasn't grown despite working on my feet and walking to work every day (except Wednesday and today). I'm very impressed.

I definitely recommend this for any skin irritation (maybe not chronic ones, like eczema or psoriasis or the like) but razor burns/blisters/heat burns etc, definitely. I also started using this as a facial moisturizer and putting it on my lips before bed. My skin isn't noticeably oily, and feels smooth.

Now to find an effective natural cold sore remedy that actually works, because apparently my lips hate me for this weekend