Stress is one of the leading causes of chronic illness globally. Researchers evaluate Blue Zones when looking for low-stress lifestyles. The regions hold the most centenarians because of a low risk of fatal conditions.

When comparing residents in Blue Zones to Americans, they found critical differences in their daily stressors and symptoms. Professionals examined five signs you need to reduce your stress, improving your health and well-being. Before reviewing the symptoms, we must assess what stress is and where it comes from.

Nobody likes to deal with open wounds. Not only are they painful and quite messy, but they also end up taking a lot of time to actually heal. They also tend to leave a permanent mark on your skin, which no one would want. Sure, you could put quite a few ointments and creams in the hopes of trying to heal it faster, but did you know that home remedies can be as effective as over-the-counter medications? Certain ingredients that are used in a ton of culinary delicacies also have multiple healing properties. We have curated a list of the most popular kitchen ingredients that can help you deal with wounds and scrapes.

Food is a substance the world absolutely needs. Without food, how would humans have built the empire we live in today? However, many people tend to believe that food is terrible for several reasons.

Despite all these negative misconceptions surrounding food, one fact remains; our bodies need food to thrive and survive. None of the food is bad for you; however, you must know the right amounts to eat. One of the best benefits about food is that some of them even help to reduce stress and put you into a good mood. Here are five of the best:

When we talk about health and nourishing our bodies, the conversation usually turns to diet and exercise.

In fact, dieting has almost become a national pastime. Turn on the television or look online and you can’t miss the ads for pills, drinks, classes and even surgical options for those looking to get healthy fast.

Sadly, these very popular “fast track” health options rarely create lasting results.

If you want better health, it may surprise you to know that it doesn’t start with supplements, equipment or most of the products sold online today.

Your best health begins on the inside. 

What’s left out?

The Practice:
Feel whole.

Why?

When I look back on mistakes I’ve made – like dumping my anger on someone, making assumptions in haste, partying too much, losing my nerve, being afraid to speak from my heart – in all cases, a part of me had taken over. You know what I mean. The parts of us that have a partial view are driven by one aim, clamp down on other parts, really want to have a particular experience or to eat/drink/smoke a particular molecule, yammer away critically, or hold onto resentments toward others.

The mega part – the big boss – is of course the inner executive, the decision-maker, and the driver – some call it the ego-centered in neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex, behind your forehead. This part is determined to a fault, running things top-down, ignoring bottom-up signals of growing fatigue, irritability, burnout, and issues with others. It draws on and gets wrapped up in the sequential, action-planning, language processing parts of you that are based in regions in the left side of your brain. (The statements here about sides of the brain are reversed for about half of all left-handed people.) Meanwhile, the boss part shames, disowns, and suppresses other parts of you, especially those that are softer, more vulnerable, and younger.

But when you open to the whole of your experience, you have more information and can make better decisions. You perceive more fully, seeing the big picture, putting things in perspective. You free up energy that was spent pushing down your real feelings. You tune into your body, your heart. You’re less fixed or attached in your views. You recognize the good things in you and around you that you’d tuned out. You feel more supported, more protected. You take things less personally.

You feel at home in yourself.

Skills to Build Mindful Self-Compassion Anytime, Anywhere

Just when we thought the pandemic was in the rearview mirror, cases are again surging along with stress over how to cope. Parents sending kids back to school or off to college, workers wondering whether to return to the office, everyone unsure what the future holds — who doesn’t feel worried, frustrated and disappointed?

September is Self-Care Awareness Month, yet many people don’t take the time they should to care for themselves. Maybe they think self-care is frivolous, time-consuming, or even selfish. Or they get so busy fulfilling the demands of making a living and caring for a family that they forget to put their own oxygen mask on first. When turbulence hits, they feel stretched too far and snap.

If you have been feeling stressed out, burned out, or beat up by circumstances in life, it’s time to start practicing mindful self-compassion.

Mindfulness is being able to face and acknowledge our difficult thoughts and feelings with a spirit of openness and curiosity. Self-compassion involves responding to these difficult thoughts and feelings with kindness, sympathy, and understanding so that we soothe and comfort ourselves when we’re hurting. Fortunately, mindful self-compassion is a skill you can practice anytime, anywhere.

Self-care comes in many forms. Some require you to stop what you are doing and take a break, such as taking a break to walk in nature, soaking in a soothing bath, or reading your favorite book at the end of the day. But there’s also another way you can practice self-care that only requires you to pause and evaluate what you need to feel better. I call this the SNAP system:

Medical research enjoyed a major breakthrough over the past decade when two factors were isolated that link almost every major disorder: inflammation and stress. Neither came as a total surprise. Inflammation was long known as a paradoxical process in the body. Disease and injured tissues need an added supply of oxygen and immune cells in order to heal, but taken too far, as in the case of severe burns, and inflammation can lead to shock and even death.

Stress is more clear-cut, since it has always been associated with harmful effects in the body and is linked to many disorders from depression and anxiety to hypertension and lowered immunity. But a breakthrough occurred when it was suddenly realized that the culprits in disease and aging were not acute, dramatic instances of inflammation and stress. Instead, the damage to the body is low-level and steady, a chronic condition that does its damage slowly at the cellular level. It turns out that aging and chronic disease actually begin almost invisibly at the cellular level long before any symptoms appear, over a span of years or most probably decades.

Treating your body with kindness isn’t just about doing what feels good in the moment. In fact, truly caring for the needs of your body is often much more about thinking long-term. It’s no secret that even in the short term — but especially over time — eating junk food can take a serious toll on the body.

Too much sugar can make you feel sluggish, processed meats can increase your risk of cancer and salt can elevate your blood pressure. Alternatively, there are so many foods that you can use to fuel your body for healthy longevity and immunity. There are so many amazing, natural sources of nutrients that you can turn to — from the fresh and sweet to the savory. Here are a few of those foods that can truly have a profound impact on your life and your body.

On August 9, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.* For two days I moved, stunned, beneath the dark shadow of those words, which I never had imagined would apply to me. I felt as if all joy and flow in my life had vanished. I couldn’t access the inner peace that had become so much a part of my daily experience. I couldn’t hear my soul’s voice. I was lost within the dramatic scenarios my mind was playing out, all of them shadowed and sad. I grieved the loss of my connection to spirit, to trust (and perhaps to life). Then a wise friend reminded me that I didn’t have to immediately be at peace, that it was okay to feel whatever I needed to, day by day. The light of peace would eventually return, as long as I remembered not to get caught in the mind drama, and just trust the divine process of it all. He was right.

Have you heard of intuitive eating? Hailed as a “revolutionary anti-diet,” intuitive eating is the practice of learning to listen to your body to decide what, when and how much to eat.

This idea may be appealing to people who have struggled to stay on restrictive or temporary diets. What could be simpler and more freeing than tuning into your body’s need for healthy food?

Before you try any kind of intuitive eating approach, it’s important to address the reasons why you eat — particularly any emotional triggers you may have around eating.

Emotions influence how we eat in complex and subtle ways, research has found. Emotional eating is also linked with obesity. Many people use food to reduce their underlying experience of feelings such as anger, sadness, or loneliness.

Why is it important to address the underlying reasons why we eat before trying intuitive eating? Human society has programmed people to eat for a huge variety of non-nutritive reasons. We eat for fun. We eat to socialize. We eat because the TV is on. We eat because the clock says it’s time. And for a lot of us, we eat to subconsciously — or even consciously — to medicate our emotions.

These difficult times bring increased stress, and a natural reaction to stress is anxiety. Far from being simple, anxiety is multi-dimensional, as symbolized in brain structure—the brain itself feels no emotions, because emotions occur in consciousness.  You are the product of the evolution of consciousness, and your anxiety has physical, emotional, and rational aspects.

Anxiety passes through each dimension in a sequence. What you need to know is that each dimension can generate fear, and yet in itself, consciousness isn’t fearful. Ancestrally, primitive fear originates in the lower brain, where the fight-or-flight response resides, an inheritance shared by almost all animals. Except in a sudden emergency or moment of alarm, modern humans have minimal need to this inheritance. But modern life generates low-level stress responses that we barely notice but which overload the nervous system, which needs the kind of stress relief few people find the time for.

Insomnia is widespread and affects millions across the globe. Having a regular sleep schedule has multiple benefits. Many people have been seeking new ways to overcome the condition and enjoy a good night’s sleep again. And the latest option is CBD oil, produced using a chemical compound found in the cannabis plant.

CBD oil represents a new solution for the frustrating symptoms of the condition like lethargy, irritability, and fatigue. Though sleeping pills (both prescription and over-the-counter) are widely available, they have potentially harmful side effects, from addiction to daytime drowsiness. Therefore, the benefits of CBD oil outweigh the risks of sleeping pills. It can be a non-narcotic option and is an attractive alternative.

Too often in the west, people look to their doctors to identify and fix what’s wrong with their bodies. However, another person can’t live inside your skin. As such, you can become the best physician of all by learning to listen to your physical cues.

Tragically, many people learn to disregard the physiological signs of trouble as they grow and mature. Regulating your emotions doesn’t mean ignoring your feelings and sensations. Here are six tips for getting in touch with your body and finding out what it needs right now.

1. Get Acquainted With Your Breath

You have one of the most powerful stress-busting tools in the world available anytime and anywhere. It doesn’t cost a dime to use. All you need to do is tune in to your breath.

After an exhausting day, it is vital to relax your body and mind for a night of restful sleep. Good bedding and a soft pillow are what you need at night time, but they are seldom enough. At times, it becomes difficult to sleep, and you only end up tossing in the bed. It may be a medical problem, but most times, mental clutter deprives you of the rest you deserve. Are you aware of the ways to relax and declutter for better sleep? Do not worry because there are many ways to experience sound sleep, provided you can eliminate the clutter from your mind. Let us share a few with you.

Reading

Reading is one of the best ways to unwind before sleeping. Many people have a habit of reading before going to bed. You can choose magazines, read some short stories, and explore motivational books to reduce stress. Avoid reading work-related emails, assignments, and messages. When you feel that it is time to rest, turn out the lights soon and catch up on your sleep.

When people experience traumatic events in their lives, it often leaves them suffering from lingering effects. The collapse of a condominium in Surfside, Fla., the isolation and devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the countless personal traumas people experience every day can leave long-lasting emotional wounds.

When traumatic experiences happen, it can be hard for us to move on. If we don’t properly process the emotions that come with trauma, it can feel like we’re reliving those feelings every day. This can prevent us from feeling happiness, developing deep relationships, and trusting others.

We believe that everything has an energetic vibration, from our physical bodies to our emotions. When emotions and experiences aren’t processed properly, their energies can become stuck in the body forming Trapped Emotions. These energetic imbalances may cause physical discomfort, emotional distress, and relationship problems that can block us from living life to the fullest.

Energy healing techniques, creative expression, mindfulness, self-care, and time can all help people heal from traumatic experiences. Here are some methods for coping with and working through unresolved emotions.

Hectic schedules often make it challenging to maintain a balance between both personal and professional lives. People end up going through lifestyle disorders such as stress, anxiety, restlessness, and lack of concentration. Are you also facing the same challenges? Is your mental focus out of place? Or are you unable to learn new things and perform well across varied situations? Fortunately, there are a few powerful ways to reset your mental focus. Let us explain the ones that really work.

Limit distractions

The first secret to resetting your mental focus is to limit internal as well external distractions around you. Video watching, cell phones, television sound, and social media scrolling are external ones. Your internal distractions can be anxiety, stress, worries, and low morale. To minimize these, you must have control over yourself and use positive thoughts to eliminate the negative ones.

Burnout is a vague label we often slap over “feeling stressed.” But, burnout is so much more than that. 

In truth, burnout is the state that teeters on total physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion and collapse. It can affect your physical and mental health,  job performance, personal relationships, and even your finances. 

In this article, we’re going to outline the key signs of burnout, and offer 5 strategies to get you on the road to burnout recovery. 

What is burnout?

Stress is a common and expected part of our everyday lives. 

However, chronic stress can get to a dangerous point where it negatively affects our physical and mental health. Chronic stress can cause heart issues, anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal problems, hair loss, headaches, and even premature aging.

Burnout is an extreme result of chronic stress. Burnout is a point of total physical and emotional exhaustion. No battery power left. 

With the increase of legal use of hemp along with other cannabis products, more and more consumers are now quite curious about this psychoactive plant. In 2018, it was removed from the classification of Schedule 1 drugs through the Farm Bill, and its legalization status has been growing ever since. There are two main components in marijuana; THC and CBD. CBD or cannabidiol is responsible for many benefits without producing a psychoactive effect, while THC provides benefits along with a ‘high’. Both of these have the ability to interact with the human body’s endocannabinoid system. THC offers quite a few benefits, out of which we will talk about the 4 most prominent ones.

Phillip walked into my office with his wife, his head down.

“Hi,” he said in a muffled voice.

“He’s shy,” his wife said apologetically.

“That’s okay,” I said. “It’s nice to meet you both. Have a seat.”

Phillip continued his reclusive demeanor, hunching down in the chair, his arm and legs crossed. He darted a glance in my direction and then hugged himself a little tighter. He was nervous and ashamed of being there. Another therapist. Please, not another one.

His wife patted him on the leg. “This is hard for him. He doesn’t like to talk about what happened. But it affects him every day. It’s affecting us. He’s not the same since he’s been back.”

I sat for a moment and just smiled at Phillip while his wife opened her purse and pulled out a Ziplock bag of medication. “This is everything they have him on. I don’t think any of it really helps.” I could hear the desperation in her voice.

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for letting me know.”

This only made Phillip sink deeper into his chair.

The current fitness and wellness market are literally flooded by a broad range of vitamins you can buy for prices ranging from “mind-blowing expensive” to “fantastically cheap.” Liquid vitamins, powdered supplements, special energy formulas, energy bars, are just some of the many different products currently available on the market.

There are many factors to consider before choosing the right supplement or vitamin for your health, and you should seek your doctor’s opinion first and foremost. However, we all know it’s not always possible to schedule an appointment with your family doctor to just ask him which one is the best vitamin you need.

Which ones are really good for your health, and how can you choose the ones your body really needs?

In this article, we won’t provide you any advice on the specific vitamin brands available on the market. We will just focus on the most important vitamins that can help you stay healthy at all times. Feel free to browse the Internet to find what’s the best supplement that suits your needs!