The Art of Stillness

By being still we can find that silence that renews us.

How to be Happier

Research shows there are some behaviors associated with life satisfaction and optimal wellbeing.

These include:

• practicing acts of kindness towards others – both in your existing social circle and outside of it.
• devoting time to nurturing and enjoying relationships with family and friends.
• acknowledging and expressing gratitude for the good things in your life.
• practicing optimism when thinking about the future.
• focusing on what you do well rather than your mistakes when you approach a new task.
• learning forgiveness.
• spending periods of time being “mindful” – focusing on the “here and now” rather than planning or worrying about your future.
• identifying goals that are important to you and actively pursuing them.
• working out what so-called “character strengths” you have (such as perseverance or playfulness) and finding ways to apply them often.

While some of these might seem daunting – how do you become more kind or more grateful? – the research has highlighted some specific ways you can take action.
Courtesy of ABC Health and Wellbeing

The Heart Remembers

Beating 100,000 times a day, this muscle pumps oxygen, food-derived nutrients, hormones and immune cells throughout every square inch of our bodies. By now, most of us know that a healthy diet (a controversial subject in itself), regular exercise, preventative dental care and plenty of fresh air support a healthy cardiovascular system; and that smoking, obesity, acidic blood, noise pollution, exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) and a sedentary lifestyle don’t.

• There is no time in utero that the heart starts to beat. The cells beat from the start. As the cells multiply to create the cardiovascular system, they take their cues on how to beat, at what rate, etc. from the mother’s heart. So, when did the mother’s heart begin to beat? If every cell was beating before it was a heart, then how could there be a single moment it became a heart? The heart (and arteries and veins attached), it turns out, is a circulation system with no beginning and no end. Perhaps that is why the Chinese refer to the heartbeat as the cosmic beat.
• The heart remembers. Modern medicine can now confirm that those early Egyptians were right. The heart has its own intelligence and remembers. Much has been written about transplant recipients receiving not only an organ, but the personality traits, temperament and memories of their donor.
• The Chinese pictograph for the word “busy” is composed of two characters: “heart” and “killing”. Hmm…
• That last one reminds me of a quote from Lily Tomlin that a friend shared today: “For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.”

Excerpted from Karen Ball

 

Leg or Foot Cramps? Here's Some Simple Do It Yourself Relief

Here are a couple remedies for foot or leg cramps:

For some leg/foot cramps the muscle needs to flex such as with night leg cramps. Keep a long scarf or cord at bedside. When the cramp occurs, lie on your back and bend the opposite leg, loop the scarf or cord around the arch of the foot that is cramping and slowly pull up with both hands flexing the foot and the whole leg. Hold for about 1/2 a minute and release. Do this a couple of times and the cramp normally vanishes.

On the top of the foot between the ankle bones you will find a little hollow. Press there.
If  the cramps are occurring often you may need to see a health professional.

Interested in more about Reflexology? Click here.

An Earth Village of 100

If the Earth's 6 billion population shrunk to a village of precisely 100 people where all the existing human ratios remained the same, there would be:

• 57 Asians
• 21 Europeans
• 14 from the western hemisphere (both north and south)
• 8 Africans
• 52 females and 48 males
• 70 non-Christians
• 30 Christians
• 89 heterosexuals
• 11 homosexuals
• 6 people posses 59% of the entire wealth and all 6 would be from the US
• 80 live in substandard housing
• 70 are unable to read
• 50 suffer from malnutrition
• 1 is near death and 1 is near birth
• only 1 would have a college education
• 1 would own a computer

When you consider the world from a compressed perspective its easier to see the need for both acceptance, understanding and education.

Philip M. Harter, MD, FACEP, Stanford University, School of Medicine (1999)

It Isn't Easy Being The Last One Standing

My mother is from a generation where you "sit and visit". This means that 1. we sit for hours and 2. she has the opportunity to tell me, in detail, the events of her life. There are only 22-years difference in our ages, but in my generation we're lucky to sit with someone for 1-hour, let alone several and we rarely speak in detail.

For me, at times, this is a painful exercise. However, for my mother, it is the only gift she asks for - please sit with me and listen while I tell you my stories. This gift is very inexpensive; a few days, several hours, occasional acknowledgement or question and no corrections when the stories aren't quite as I remember.

Until this last visit (she lives a distance away), I never realized that if you live long enough there comes a time where the friends and acquaintances that you make are dying off at a rapid rate. Suddenly the witnesses to your history - spouses, childhood friends, work friends, those acquaintances that you pick up along the way all transition and leave you behind. You're left with looking at your own mortality, no one who really knows those little things about you, no one who has taken a lifetime to get to know you. Those who have stuck by you despite your quirks. Those who remember you when you were quite the deal. In my mother's case, I'm the only one left.

So when I go to see her, we sit and visit.

She talks about her history. She talks not as much about longtime friends as a waitress at a restaurant who takes the time to chat with her. The neighbors who stop by to visit when she's outside. The people at the pharmacy who remember her name and take a moment with her. The mail person who will bring her mail to the door sometimes and take a minute to talk. Her stylist who takes time with her. These people all make her feel that they are genuinely interested and care about her. They may touch her hand or brush her arm to give her the gift of touch.

If we live long enough, it is the kindness of our children and of strangers that will make our days interesting and fulfilling.

Year of The Earth Ox

The 26th of January begins the year of the Ox. The Ox is the second sign in the Chinese zodiac and signifies new beginnings. The Ox is slow but sure in action - what it creates lasts. This year we must make good choices for what is begun now will have long term consequences. 

In case you haven't noticed with all the environmental talk, this is an Earth year. The good news is that this will be a yin year - the feminine less tumultuous side. It will be easier to react to circumstances and relaxing into situations rather than charging at them.

The element the the year of the Ox is water, considered a fixed element that can conflict with the other elements as we have seen in this past year's weather and world events. Fixed elements are also durable so this will be a good year to take action and get things done.

Good action includes planning, scholarship, intellectual pursuits, art, new projects, careers, self improvement, raising things to the next level.

2009 will be the year of lasting accomplishments for individuals, societies, governments and the world in general.

This will be the year that we will create actions that will have long term consequences.

Happy New Year

Natural Ingredients - Emu Oil

Nature frequently provides healing agents that outperform their chemical alternatives - examples of natural antioxidants are astaxanthin (pronounced as-tuh-zan'-thin) from microalgae, which is 550 times greater in antioxidants than the green tea antioxidant EGCG (epigallocathechin-3-gallate) and omega oils that occur in fish and emu.

Some believe that "natural" means the product's ingredients are not strong and effective, scientific studies prove the opposite.

Laboratory formulations that contain natural ingredients can provide optimum results.

The Aborigines in Australia have used emu oil for centuries. A recent study concluded that emu oil, applied topically could verifiably help heal inflamed, irritated and red post-operative skin including scars.

Because emu oil is close to the natural makeup of the skin's natural oils, it penetrates deep enough to treat cuts and fresh burns. Emu oil is about 70% unsaturated fatty acids, mostly oleric acid. 20% of this oil is omega 6 and omega 3. All of these ingredients are proven natural skin healing agents.

Welcome to Today

From Lori Gosselin

"Here you are – 24 pristine hours – just for you! You are free to do with them what you will. You can enjoy this day or you can miss it completely. You can carry into it bad memories of the past and nurse them, or you can fill it with dreams for the future, painting them in all their glory. You can submerge yourself into the Gift of the present; just being alive! You enter into the day without any awareness at all that this could be the day you change someone’s life with a smile or word, this could be the day you turn a corner you’ve wanted to turn, or the day you learn something that will fill your life with a whole new excitement and enthusiasm. This could be an ordinary day when you need an ordinary day, or it could be an extraordinary one [those are good too]. Even though you may believe you know what the day will bring, you do not know, not for sure. All you can know at its dawning is what you Intend for it. All you can decide now is whether to enjoy or squander it. Both choices are acceptable, though in any certain day, one choice will bring you more joy than the other. You get to decide. But when it’s over it’s over and Saturday June 7,2008 will never ever BE for you or I again. No renewals, no rain checks, no extensions!"

How You Can Help a Friend Get Through The Loss of Their Home

While this may be off topic as to what I do, it really isn't. What I really do is help people or facilitate them helping themselves. Thus, this blog is how you can help a friend who has lost to a fire.

The morning of October 27, 1993, I left my little cottage in Laguna Beach for a business meeting in Los Angeles. While at that meeting my home and all that it contained burned to the ground. What I wore and was driving was all that remained.

The loss of the physical structure was traumatic; the loss of all the things that defined me and had memories was devastating. The sorrow reached beyond me to my family and friends. Everyone wanted to help but weren’t sure how.

Here are some of the things that helped:

Shopping

Shopping for new things, even with the generous discounts offered by all the stores, was overwhelming. Many times I would wander through a store just to get the basics and walk out unable to decide or overwhelmed by the cost and just not liking to have to explain my situation once more. After several days of seeing me in the same cloths a girl friend went shopping with me. She helped mellow out my craziness, keeping quantities small, purchases appropriate and served as a buffer. She also could find the car after we were done.

Making Lists

One of the immediate requirements is to remember what you had and write it down. This is another painful and overwhelming process. Friends had me over to their home. Big yellow writing tablets were in every room. We began in the kitchen standing in a familiar room that would be equipped similarly helped me to remember things that I had like spices. Being with friends allowed me to be wacky or cry or both. As a team project, it’s not so overwhelming.

Throw a Shower

My elderly aunts gathered up family and friends, and gave me a shower. After everyone was settled my aunts asked me to tell the story – that way, I only had to tell it once. The story was over and we moved on to opening gifts for my new life. I still have many of those household items each time I see them they warm my heart.

Honor the Person

I was active in a business group. The president of the group called to say that they were holding a luncheon in my honor. Everyone showed up. Again, I was asked to tell the story – once to 40 people. Then, over lunch, each person stood and gave a short talk about what they liked about me and how I had unknowingly added to their life. The message was, even though my stuff was gone, I wasn’t and I have some value to a lot of people. It was a beautiful gift.

Have a Memorial

After a week or so, a group of fire friends got together at each one’s place. Some wrote poetry, some sang, some had things to say, some just attended. We talked about the place. The person who lived there talked about what they liked about the place, what brought them there, what they miss and what they didn’t miss, memories and things. We placed flowers, cried, hugged and when it was done had a picnic.

Support Groups

Encourage your person to get with a support group as soon as possible. These groups not only understand but there is a world of information that can be shared from insurance to rebuilding to health.

Gather Photos

Search your photo albums, encourage family members to search theirs, gather up photos, reproduce them and put them in an album. Be happy to go through the photos and all those memories.