Combat Stress by Creating Your Own OasisWritten by Monique N. Gilbert, B.Sc.
Help your body and mind relax, and increase your sense of well-being, by creating a personalized comfort zone. Whether at home, work or when traveling, you can create your own oasis with these eight easy steps.Combat Stress by Creating Your Own Oasis By Monique N. Gilbert, B.Sc. Personal Health, Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach http://www.MoniqueNGilbert.com Stress and anxiety can prematurely age our mind and body. If not dealt with effectively, chronic stress and worrying can place undue strain upon our cardiovascular and immune systems. It can also make us prone to mood disorders and negatively affect our cognitive functions. Having a safe and comfortable place where we can relax and unwind can help improve our well-being and produce feelings of peace and tranquility. Ideally, creating an atmosphere that induces calmness throughout your home is best. However, if space is limited, you still can create your own oasis, even if it is in only a corner of a room or in a cubical at work. Here are eight easy ways to make your personal space a true comfort zone. 1. Tranquil Sounds. Your favorite music, sound machines and water falls can help you relax and unwind. Sounds have ability to alter our perceptions and instantly change your mood. 2. Living Plants. Live plants create a peaceful atmosphere. They improve ambiance and air quality of indoor environments, and induce a positive energy around them. 3. Soft Lighting. Soft and adjustable lighting can create a soothing atmosphere. Look for light bulbs that are bright, but not harsh. Being able to adjust brightness of your lighting will give you more control of mood of your space.
| | Just Breathe~ Is This Your Missing Link ?Written by
Deborah L. Shipley, RYT
Breathing is vital force of life. It is considered to be mind-body bridge. Breathing is something that is done everyday, unconsciously; yet majority of people do it improperly. When babies breathe, it is instinctive. Watching a healthy baby while sleeping, one may notice deep breaths that are taken which fill up diaphragm and move up into lungs. As a person ages, bad habits are picked up, health often declines, nutrition worsens, and stress overwhelms proper function of breathing. The word pranayama means “that which extends infinitely everywhere”. It is practice of prana or breath. The breath begins at an energy center inside and extends throughout body to keep one alive. We exercise our bodies, but what about our breathing? The balanced and peaceful individual is said to have more prana dispersed within body rather than outside of body. An image of a breath center with arrows pointing outward but staying within boundaries of physical being is one way to imagine an individual with healthy prana. It is thought that, when prana remains in body, individual is free of physical symptoms. If one feels ill, anxious, restless, or discontented, prana is at a greater force externally than within. This can show up in a variety of warning signs, from overt physical manifestations, to mental feelings of depression, lack of motivation, etc… The state of mind is directly connected to breathing. The quality of our breath influences state of our mind and vice-versa. They are one and same. The most obvious example here would be quality of breath in a stressful situation. The mind is overloaded with worries and breath, in turn, becomes rapid, shallow, and sometimes even forgotten altogether. If breath is used deeply and in a proper manner, mind’s focus is taken away from situation at hand and placed back into a state of peacefulness which shows an immediate reciprocation in calming of breath and mind. Humans generally, and often unknowingly, pollute themselves and Earth with toxic substances and various forms of rubbish whether it is in what is consumed, or in what is allowed in mind. Breathing suffers because of this. Breath, very most important thing that bodies need besides water, is neglected or contaminated. When body is filled with debris, breathing suffers, as there is not enough room for it to flourish in body. A daily breathing practice, along with other important aspects of a healthy lifestyle, can free body of detrimental breathing patterns and reverse process of destruction brought upon by our modern day society.
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