Meditation&Exercise |

June 25, 2010

Is Surrendering To the Now of Mindfulness Meditation Really Possible?

Mindfulness Meditation is a type of meditation that essentially involves focusing your mind on the present in a way that allows you to witness your thoughts and actions without judging yourself.

Is there a secret to allowing what is?

If there is a secret to Mindfulness Meditation, it is creating a still space that will serve as your doorway to Now.

Can you be still?

Does the constant conversation in your head ever stop?

A friend of mine had a particularly hard time with never stopping thought. I’ll call her Pamela.

Pamela was a very together lady.

She ran a day care out of her home, and you never saw a place so clean, tidy and on schedule!

The woman appeared to have calm and serene down to a science. When she picked up a bell and rang it, the toddlers buzzing about her feet jumped up and began singing “clean up clean up everybody everywhere, clean up clean up, everybody do your share”.

They all did their share and the room was clean in a flash. It was an amazing sight to see. I thought that only happened on television.

A super hero disguised as a little old lady!

I felt like I should ask for her autograph. The woman had everything under control!

She became a good friend to me, and “Auntie Pam” to my young daughters.

When the two of us decided to take a meditation class together, I saw a side of Auntie Pam that shocked me. Continue reading article →

Social Connection |

June 24, 2010

| by Carrie Tucker

Are You Too Proud To Heal From Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome?

When you think of “shell shock” what comes to mind?

During World War One Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome was a huge problem. Doctors believed that the tell tale “thousand yard stare” was a sign that the close proximity of exploding shells had caused trauma to the brain.

If you take that reasoning into consideration, it is troublesome to discover that it was common practice for Doctors to prescribe rest away from the front for Officers, while enlisted men were often accused of being cowards and sent right back out to the battlefield.

Some were shot for cowardice, or punished in a variety of creative ways. Though enlisted men would be more likely to have been in close proximity of exploding shells than Officers, wouldn’t they?

If you are likely to be shot on the spot or court martialed you aren’t very likely to seek help when you need it most.

It seems that the history of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome is one of shame and persecution.

With soldier suicides being such a huge issue in today’s world, you hear a lot about what they are doing to identify those who need help in an effort to control the climbing death toll.

The struggle today is to get soldiers to admit that they need help before it’s too late. They aren’t facing a firing squad, but they feel like they are letting their unit down. They aren’t keeping up their end.

Admitting that you need help with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome feels like admitting a weakness.

When you think of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome you might think of soldiers at war. However, emergency response workers are on the front lines of daily life.

Identifying those who need help among emergency response workers can be very difficult as well. Admitting you need help might endanger your job and your livelihood.

Family caregivers are at risk as well. Continue reading article →

Ideal Weight |

June 23, 2010

| by Carrie Tucker

Want an Easy To Follow Healthy Diet Plan?

Don’t you feel great when you plan ahead and prepare healthy foods for on the go?

The good food choices keep you feeling your best. Being prepared and having all your bases covered feels great as well.

Have a few hectic days in a row, and it really exhausts your reserves. Grab unhealthy fast food and keep a frantic pace for even one day and you are running on empty, have several in a row and it creates a deficit that can be hard to recover from.

Once you establish a new healthy diet plan it will create continued success only so long as you stick with it.

Sue lost 120 pounds over about 2 years.

She was so proud of her accomplishment!

Sue knew that she would never go back to the way she used to live. Her new life was worth all the difficult changes she’d made. She would gladly trade all those comfort foods that used to be so much a part of her day, for the friends and activities that now crowded her busy schedule.

Life as Sue had become accustomed to it ended abruptly one night when she answered the phone and found out that her father had experienced a major health crisis and her family was gathering at his bedside.

The next morning she bought tickets and made arrangements for the trip back to her parents home in Montana.

Her sister picked her up at the airport and 2 weeks of emotional highs and lows followed. Sue was glad to have the support of her family, but she still found herself needing those familiar comfort foods she had given up to reach her goal weight. She was worried about the pounds she was packing back on, but figured she would have to deal with it once she could return to some sort of normalcy.

At the funeral, Sue just could not stop eating. All the foods of her childhood where spread out on a table, and the raw heart ache from losing her father had her reeling.

On the flight back home the following morning, Sue felt puffy and bloated as well as heavy with grief. She looked forward to getting back to a routine.

Coming home was certainly comforting. But Sue was surprised to find that she had cravings that drove her crazy. It wasn’t as easy to step back into the regiment that she had created for the 2 years of successful weight loss.

Her heart was aching, and it seemed to cause an appetite for all the wrong foods and it was next to impossible to ignore the relentless cravings!

Green Smoothies were something Sue had always resisted. She didn’t mind eating wholesome foods, but the thought of blending them up and drinking them made her want to gag.

She began to give the disgusting green drink more thought when one of her friends shared her testimonial about complete relief from cravings almost immediately after starting Green Smoothies.

Sue almost hated to admit it when her cravings stopped after her very first Green Smoothie. She wasn’t enjoying chewing her breakfast every morning, but hey whatever works!

The pain of grieving kept Sue using Emotional Freedom Technique to work through her most difficult times, but those Green Smoothies were the secret weapon that kept her from sabotaging herself with comfort food.

When you get off on the wrong track, Green Smoothies can rescue your healthy diet plan!

To Maintain All the Benefit Your Green Smoothies Offer …

Remember these tips: Continue reading article →

Heart Disease |

June 22, 2010

| by Carrie Tucker

Is It Just Stress? Chest Pain Isn’t Always Serious, Is It?

Do you ever feel significant chest pain?

Does it worry you?

Any type of chest pain that causes you concern or that is accompanied by any of the following symptoms, should be considered an emergency:

Pressure, tightness and squeezing pain across the chest
Pain radiating down the arm, shoulders, jaw, neck, and back, particularly on the left side
Shortness of breath
Dizziness, sweating, weakness, overwhelming fatigue
Feeling of impending doom
Headache, blurry vision, light-headedness, feeling faint
Gastrointestinal symptoms such as indigestion, nausea and vomiting
Coughing and palpitations

You are much better safe than sorry.

If you experience symptoms like those above, you want to get to a hospital and rule out the possibility that you are having a heart attack.

Do not reason it away and lose valuable time.

There are many other causes of chest pain that can become worrisome, but they won’t give you sudden extreme symptoms like those of a heart attack.

Any of the following might give you chest pain:

GERD or heartburn
excessive belching
hiatal hernia
gastric ulcer
pulled muscle

Suffice to say that if you are worried, seek the advice of your doctor.

With that said, let me also say that even if you think your chest pain is related to stress, it is still cause for concern. Continue reading article →

Heart Disease |

June 21, 2010

| by Carrie Tucker

Is Your Screen Time Causing Your Early Signs of Heart Disease?

How much time do you spend every day staring at a screen?

That is television, computer, text messaging … all of those screens.

You may spend more time than you think you do.

Did you know …

Researcher Professor David Dunstan told London’s The Independent that even if someone has a healthy body weight, sitting for long periods of time still has an unhealthy influence on their blood sugar and blood fats.

A study from Australia reports that every hour you spend watching television increases your risk of heart disease by 18%. I’m no math wiz so I won’t tell you what that adds up to, but suffice to say

Your Screen Time Could Most Definitely Be Causing Your Early Signs of Heart Disease!

That same study found that people who spent hours watching television greatly increased the chances of dying early from heart attacks and strokes.

TV increases your risk of cancer death, and your risk of death from all causes.

A lot of the normal activities of daily living that use to involve standing up and moving the muscles in the body have been converted to sitting.

Sitting and reading a book for an hour, could also increase your risk of death.

Is your work increasing the chance of death? If you have to sit at a desk for long hours … Yes.

Do you know what the early signs of heart disease are? Continue reading article →

Mind Set |

June 20, 2010

| by Carrie Tucker

How Long Does It Take To Work Through the Stages of Grief?

There is no right way to grieve. There is no time limit to grief.

The rest of the world may want you to “get over it” and rejoin the living, but you will grieve until you have allowed the grieving process to heal you.

That can be challenging, because grief hurts so much it feels like it will kill you. It is hard to “allow” an emotion that feels so harmful.

It is hard to allow the stages of grief.

Denial feels so much better than grief within the moments that your heart is breaking.

Lena was very close to her family.

Her parents had a very deep love, and they shared that Love with her and her younger sister.

When her Father passed, her Mother wasn’t far behind. She said she knew her mom wouldn’t stick around without him.

Lena felt orphaned. Her grief was so deep and wide that she thought it would swallow her whole.

Lena’s sister passed only a few years after her parents, and then Continue reading article →