Do you know how to protect yourself from viruses?

The best way to protect yourself from any virus is to arm yourself with knowledge of how they operate inside you. Learn their survival mechanisms and vulnerabilities. There are more than 4000 known viruses. Scientists have argued whether viruses are even living beings.

From conception to death, proteins (amino acids) play a huge role in cellular health. Every living being is endowed with both external and innate protective mechanisms to ward off bacteria, viruses, fungi, and intruders. Indeed, pay attention to the protective protein coat that surrounds individual cells. And pay special attention to the enzymes that break down and repair amino acids. This is the key to all disease and a vibrant life.

Viruses invade a cell by changing the structure and permeability of the cell wall. Viruses can’t survive on their own—they must hijack a host cell, inject their own nucleic acid, and replicate themselves like an out of control copy machine. Viruses use a type of agglutinin (big word meaning a substance that glues things to itself) called hemagglutinin to bind themselves to sialic acid links on the surface of epithelial host cells. Once attached, the virus begins to alter the permeability of the host cell wall—it makes the cell wall soft, causes it to bend apart, and creates holes (pores) in the sialic acid links on the surface. Viruses enter the host through these pores to hide inside and evade the immune system. They do this by using an enzyme called neuraminidase. This particular enzyme can catalyze (break apart) sialic acid links on the host cell surface. These two important molecules classify viruses: Hemagglutinin (H) and Neuraminidase (N). Each virus has one type of H and one type of N. H1N1 for example, was responsible for the pandemic of 1918 while the swine flu pandemic was H2N2. As a virus mutates or jumps species, the H and N numbers change to reflect the shift. As newer, more virulent strains of viruses are formed, human antibodies against the older ones no longer recognize them and reinfection can occur.

Neuraminidase is a key player in the ability of the virus to enter and exit the host cell. This enzyme breaks apart chains of sugars and other glycoproteins. Mucin is a protective glycoprotein secreted in the mucus of the respiratory and digestive tract. The sugar molecules attached to mucins give them increased water holding capacity and make them resistant to digestive enzymes. The disruption or pore created in the chain allows the virus to escape the protective mucus fluid in the respiratory tract and travel via the spleen to the brain and other tissues. Viruses have evolved to use this enzyme to their advantage—neuraminidase prevents them from aggregating (sticking) to each other and being trapped in protective mucous.

A key player in virus prevention is the “Aquaporin.” Defined by the Farlex Medical Dictionary (link below): “A member of a family of trans-membrane channel proteins found in epithelial membranes that serve to regulate trans-epithelial water movement in tissues involved in body fluid homeostasis.” In other words, essential membrane proteins that tunnel into every cell, bring essential nutrients into every cell, and carry toxins out of every cell.

Ever heard of them? Doubtful. Are they important? Critical. Aquaporins are essential for cellular hydration and oxygenation. Hydrated cells protect against and remove toxins. Viruses in dehydrated cells have more time to multiply. And so it is with cancer. An external acidic pH, along with cellular dehydration, increased metabolism of sugar, and poor water perfusion—allow cancer cell invasion, replication, and metastasis. (Viral Infections are pH Sensitive; link below)

Neuraminidase inhibitors are effective treatments that work by reducing the fluidity of both the host and virus cell membrane; making it rigid and inhibiting the ability of the virus to enter the host cell. There are several herbal antivirals that are known to do this. Ginger, Rhodiola, Elder, Chinese Skullcap, and Licorice are neuraminidase inhibitors effective against both influenza A and B strains. (Buhner, link below)

A large part of your immune system is located in the gut—so proper digestion is critical. Digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid, probiotics, and fermented foods are essential for gut health. Viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites are all made of protein. Protease enzymes digest protein membranes surrounding viruses, leaving them unprotected and vulnerable to destruction. The Herpes Zoster virus has been successfully treated since 1968 with enzymes and no side effects. The Medical Enzyme Research Institute found that enzymes significantly limit the progression of early stage HIV. In HIV positive patients— enzyme therapy can delay onset of the disease—sometimes permanently. (Enzymes for Life, link below)

Hydrochloric (stomach) acid not only breaks down food, but also kills pretty much every pathogen known to man. Proton pump inhibitors like “the purple pill” inhibit the production of stomach acid. This is counterproductive. Hydrochloric acid supplementation is necessary. Probiotics and fermented foods like kefir, Kombucha, and fermented vegetables contain live cultures that repopulate your gut with beneficial bacteria that restore a healthy microbial balance. Healthy digestion means your immune system can spend less time breaking down food for energy, and more time identifying and destroying pathogens.

Finally—one absolute superstar—Colloidal Silver. Colloidal silver was considered an essential part of the human immune system until the late 1930’s. Ancient Greeks lined water and wine urns with silver. The Romans made poultices for burns. American settlers put silver coins in milk and water to keep it fresh and kill germs. The expression “born with a silver spoon in their mouth” came from the time when wealthy people put silver spoons and silver pacifiers in their children’s mouth to protect them from the germs of commoners. In the bubonic plague of the 1400’s—wealthy people remained mostly unaffected. In 1920, Alfred Searle wrote a book, “The Use of Colloids in Health and Disease,” designed to help doctors understand the healing properties of colloidal silver. Good old Louie Pasteur turned humans against the essential protective innate mechanisms, and critically essential microbes that will soon be our only hope against mutant resistant pathogens.

We’re poised to come full circle. Everything new is simply well forgotten old.

RESOURCES:

http://www.sciencebuzz.org/topics/2009-h1n1-flu/what-letters-h1ni-mean

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/herbal-antivirals-stephen-harrod-buhner/1116395381

https://www.amazon.com/Enzymes-The-Fountain-of-Life/dp/B004C32H48

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/aquaporin

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15242101

http://www.biology-online.org/articles/aquaporins_-_perfect_water.html

http://drsircus.com/general/viral-spread-ph-sensitive/

http://thesilveredge.com/benefits.shtml#.WNR2IhLyuRs

Thomasina Copenhaver is a naturopathic doctor and registered nurse with over 30 years experience in the healthcare profession. Her passion is writing, researching, and empowering all humans with knowledge of healing at the cellular level; to enable them to make educated and informed choices regarding their health. For more information visit her website www.notesfromanaturopath.com or to buy her book, “Notes from a Naturopath” visit Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Do you know how to protect yourself from viruses?

Mark Austin admits he told anorexic daughter "starve yourself to death"

The broadcaster Mark Austin has revealed how he struggled to understand his daughter’s anorexia and “failed utterly to grasp that she was seriously mentally ill”.

In a candid account, he admits he thought her “crass, insensitive, selfish and pathetic” and became so frustrated he once told her: “If you really want to starve yourself to death, just get on with it.”

But now the TV presenter hopes to break the taboo around potentially deadly eating disorders and is calling for improved mental health provision to deal with the crisis of more than 850,000 young sufferers, predominantly girls, in the UK.

Austin’s daughter Maddy, now 22, became ill in 2012, losing four stone and changing from a healthy and promising athlete to an “emaciated, ghostlike figure”.

He recalled: “I didn’t understand it at first. Cancer I understand … but this was my daughter wilfully destroying herself by not eating.”

Writing in the Sunday Times magazine, he described how Maddy would lie about how much she had eaten and “explode with rage” when challenged.

“She showered me with contempt. As a father you have to make a decision and I made the wrong one. I decided to go on the attack.”

He said: “I even remember saying, ‘If you really want to starve yourself to death, just get on with it’. And at least once, exasperated and at a loss, I think I actually meant it.”

The newsreader acknowledged that as a father he felt “excluded and hated” and found it hard to talk about issues of body image and weight control.

“I floundered and, in the process, ended up poisoning her against me further,” he said.

Austin described how things hit rock bottom for Maddy after a failed spell at a private inpatient unit on a regime of forced feeding. She resisted the treatment and threatened to kill herself. Maddy’s mother became so worried that when her daughter returned home she took time off work and slept on her bedroom floor so as to monitor her around the clock.

Maddy was eventually “saved” by a local NHS day-patient unit.

She recalled: “Eventually it was a local NHS nurse who really understood me and saw the Maddy without the demons. I was lucky, but mental health treatment should not be a lottery.”

Now her father is urging people to take the illness more seriously and is calling for “walk-in centres on the high street of every town and city in this country, manned by trained counsellors”.

He added: “As a country our response is bordering on the pathetic. It is a mental illness, but, almost uniquely, it is one that kills.”

One in 100 women aged between 15 and 30 are affected by anorexia and it is reckoned that one in five chronic anorexics will die as a result of the condition or because they take their own life.

The Beat youthline can help young people experiencing an eating disorder: 0345 634 7650. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here

Mark Austin admits he told anorexic daughter "starve yourself to death"

5 Ways to Form an Authentic Loving Relationship with Yourself

5 Ways to Form an Authentic Loving Relationship with Yourself

How to escape the overthinking trap: stop judging yourself | Mark Rice-Oxley

Before Christmas I took a young relative to a jazz concert. The thought of it ruined his whole day. He scuffed around the house like an alt-right voter at a refugee camp.

In the event, even he acknowledged that we had a fine time. But neither of us would ever get back the dreadful hours that preceded it. He’d fallen prey to a cardinal paradox – poisoning the present by agonising over a future hardship that never materialised.

We’ve all done that. The homo sapiens is so damn clever, and yet sometimes so stupid with it. We are the only species that can really think “offline” – wrapped up in things that haven’t yet happened or things that are long gone but can never be changed. This makes us excellent problem solvers, but appalling worriers at the same time.

Thinking is what gave humans ascendancy. But overthinking is threatening to bring us down. Critical thinking has undoubtedly advanced our cause and become one of the essential assets of being so brilliantly human, but introspective thinking – our near constant self-evaluation, who we are, where we fit, how we compare – is becoming one of the most destructive aspects of modern life. We must purge it.

We are in thrall to the rigid, judgmental thoughts we think about ourselves, prisoners of the sinewy web of cogitation that tells us we are strong, clever, important, unassertive, patriotic, hopeless, old, fat, hard done by, forgotten – when actually we may be many of these things rolled into one. This narrow view of ourselves shapes impossible expectations that can only lead to disappointment. It ripples outwards into our emotions and our behaviour. The results are to be seen daily on our front pages. A father thinks he is the ultimate authority in his family. When his daughter challenges him, he has her killed. A young man thinks he is strong, identifies through his supposed manliness; it directs his violent behaviour.

Our obsessive thinking about ourselves even informs the air of political revolt that made 2016 such a big turning point. In the richest, healthiest, most prosperous era we have ever known, people punish themselves by ruminating and finding that their lives don’t match up to those they think others are leading. It’s a short step from disappointment to blame, and a protest vote.

Too much of our behaviour is determined not by how things are, but how we think things are

But this overthinking tendency is not limited to politics. It embeds personal misery in an era in which we are tempted, even encouraged, to compare ourselves with other people: the teenager who feels low because of what her Instagram feed makes her think; the thwarted youngster, demoralised by the success of others; the employee who feels insecure because she thinks the boss blanked her on the stairwell; the hypochondriac who thinks he is dying of everything. Think bad, feel bad. Compare and despair. It’s no wonder there is a mental illness epidemic out there. Time to wake up, people. The voice in your head is not who you are. It’s just an excitable commentator. You are the game.

Too much of our behaviour is determined not by how things are, but how we think things are. But this thinking is not worth paying too much attention to, for two reasons. First, it is probably incorrect. Let’s face it: we are hardly objective in evaluating ourselves. We overexaggerate both our talents and failings. This is the original fake news.

And second, whether right or wrong, these self-evaluations simply are not helpful. They just make us feel worse.

We need a completely new relationship with our thoughts. Instead of viewing the world and our experience as we think they ought to be, we need to treat them as they actually are. We need to recognise when we are ruining a day, a week, a moment or a relationship with catastrophic thoughts and judgments, and understand that often it is the thought itself that makes us feel bad, not the experience itself.

But how to cultivate that sense of detachment from a poisonous, unhelpful or just plain wrong stream of thinking? Visual clues can help: a post-it on a computer screen (mine just says “thinking …”) or a screensaver on a phone. I wear a black wristband to remind me why I do this. A discreet tattoo might do the same, if that’s your thing.

Habit is even better: get used to observing, say, the first three thoughts you have upon waking every day – were they functional, workaday, banal; or were they judgmental, apprehensive, punishing? Some people like to use motifs – thoughts as a torrent of traffic, cars driving past, and you don’t have to get in the passenger seat. And that same recurring, corrosive notion can be an ugly polluting SUV that comes, stays and moves on again, without really affecting you. Or else thoughts are a busy stream, chattering away in front of you, often pulling you under. But each time you are submerged, eventually you notice and pull yourself out and sit undisturbed, again and again until it starts to become habit to notice the thought rather than believe it.

Happily, some schools are starting to teach this important element of psychological flexibility. It should be compulsory in secondary schools.The myriad apps that teach the practice of being present in the now are another entry point, helping us cultivate our observing selves, rather than our thinking selves.

Instead of obsessing, fuming, curdling about things we don’t have, we need to accept and celebrate what we do. Instead of worrying about things we can’t control – people’s opinion of us, for example – we need to direct our attentions to things we can influence, and leave the rest be. Instead of judging each other, and – worse – ourselves, let us simply take as we find. Instead of ruining our short time alive by setting expectations of how we think everything should be, from our jobs to our love lives, our children to our prospects, let us accept that some things will not always go as we wish.

You’re not who you think you are. You’re so much more than that.

How to escape the overthinking trap: stop judging yourself | Mark Rice-Oxley

Chemotherapy Recovery – Caring for Yourself after Chemo

Chemotherapy Recovery – Caring for Yourself after Chemo

Yes, you can actually work yourself to death. But is that a surprise? | Sohaila Abdulali

When I was 16 years old, I lied about my age and got a job working in the Hostess Twinkie factory in Natick, Massachusetts. Going in at 7 am in my brand new work boots, dollar signs dancing in front of my eyes, I felt mighty good. Coming out at 4 in the afternoon was a different story.

That night, I returned covered in sweet, white chemical goo. I could barely walk and nausea danced a merry jig from my gut up to my eyeballs. You just try standing on the floor with two conveyor belts in front of you, each moving at a different speed. One has Twinkies, one has cardboard boxes, and you have to put six Twinkies in each box. You can’t miss one or it squelches on the floor further down the line. You can’t vomit no matter how seasick you are. You can’t scream. You can’t move. You can’t pee. You might die if you have to do this one more minute. Turns out, you really might die.

A recent study found that the less control you have over your job, the more likely you are to drop dead. Researchers studied 2,363 Wisconsin residents in their 60s for seven years, and found that “those in high-stress jobs with little control over their workflow die younger or are less healthy than those who have more flexibility and discretion in their jobs and are able to set their own goals as part of their employment.”

They also found that people with less control in demanding jobs were 15.4% more likely to die than those with more liberty to structure their own timelines and goals. They recommend that employers ease up a bit, for the good of all and suggest “job crafting,” which involves employees to redesign their jobs to make them more meaningful.

The more freedom employees in stressful jobs have, in other words, the more they flourish. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a Twinkie factory or managing a hedge fund – if you get to choose when you have your coffee break and what you want to get done before that, you’re more likely to be productive, and to live to work another day. If the boss lays off trying to control you all the time, you also get better at your job.

These research subjects were a bunch of 60-year-olds, but the principles easily transfer to managing, say, 6-year-olds. We parents know this – give ‘em freedom (or the illusion of freedom) and they’ll grow in confidence and become more competent human beings.

Job angst is very real. In Japan, there is a word for dropping dead from work stress: karoshi. However, let us remember the word for dropping dead from no work and no possibility of work: starvation. Sure, spending your days feeling seasick in a Twinkie factory is awful. But spending your days wondering how you’re going to feed your children has to be worse.

We don’t all have control of our work circumstances, our bosses or too many other factors that box us in to the lives we’ve (sort of) chosen. But sometimes there are choices even within tight constraints. Herman Melville’s character Bartleby, who had a drab office job, one day simply said: “I would prefer not to.” He got away with it. Perhaps, armed with scientific proof that the alternative might be a shorter life on this marvelous earth, we can all find some courage and fight to have more autonomy at our jobs.

Yes, you can actually work yourself to death. But is that a surprise? | Sohaila Abdulali

Express yourself: how a charity is using dance to improve mental health

Ten young people from Manchester mental health charity 42nd Street are struggling to spin their legs round their bodies while keeping their hands anchored to the studio floor as they’ve been shown. Instructor Kevin Turner stops them and explodes into his own demonstration of high-speed repetitions of the sequence, while they watch in astonishment.

“Look, my legs are all over the place,” Turner pants mid dance. “They are going like crazy. When I was ill, I often felt that things were happening that were out of my control. Can anyone else relate to that?”

Turner, 34, sits down, perspiring, among the group of young people aged 16 to 25. Several hands go up hesitantly, and a young woman quietly says, “I can”.

Turner founded Manchester-based Company Chameleon in 2007 with his friend Anthony Missen. Their was aim to make hard-hitting contemporary dance exploring the reality of being male in greater Manchester. Turner has bipolar disorder, as does at least one of the youngsters in this workshop, and he has told them his diagnosis.

Kevin Turner’s workshops help young people to use dance to explore their mental health problems.

Three years ago, Turner was sectioned and spent more than a month in hospital and almost a year working his way back to the physical and mental health he needs to perform.

He wants the young people he’s teaching today to see that they can use dance to explore their own mental health problems, and the impact on the people around them. Most of them have never danced before, but 42nd Street is convinced that dance can help build trust and confidence, without the need for words.

Turner’s latest work, Witness, performed by Company Chameleon’s five dancers, portrays his own experiences of his breakdown and the perspective of his friends and family. It is premiering at Plymouth University on 19 October, and touring until the end of November. Each performance will be supplemented by a workshop with schools, colleges and youth groups.

Sitting in his baggy trousers and T-shirt, this “lad” from Stretford, is clearly in control of himself and is a powerful image of hope for the young people he teaches. His demonstration was not some kind of ego trip, but to help them tap into the shared emotions of breakdown and give them the confidence to use their bodies to tell their own stories. They start by using exercises, sections from Witness and their own moves.

Turner and mental health charity 42nd Street believe dance can build trust and confidence.

“Where dance is different from simply doing exercise – which of course makes you feel good because of the endorphins – is that it helps you to use the physical to experience your internal world,” says Turner.

He believes his own mental health problems started when he was a teenager, but he did not recognise depression and tried to ignore it until it was no longer possible.

Dancing helped him handle the pain of his parents’ divorce from the age of eight, when he became a member of the Trafford Youth Dance Theatre. He argues that young people need to be aware of how creative movement can support good mental health.

There is nothing fluffy about this. Dance work like this should be recognised as a pre-crisis intervention

Simone Spray

Recent figures suggest that last year, nearly a quarter of a million children and young people were in contact with mental health services for issues such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders. But research also shows that 28% of children referred for support in England – including some who had attempted suicide – received no help in 2015.

The number of referrals to 42nd Street is high. The charity, which has been running for almost four decades, is commissioned by the NHS to provide mental health support, including counselling, to young people across Manchester. However, advisers are having to tell suicidal young people they will have to wait more than four months for one-to-one support.

“It’s not something we are happy about,” says chief executive Simone Spray. She also worries about the short length of therapy, when it does happen, leaving young people without support before they are properly well. The charity’s solution is to invest heavily in the arts – including the new Horsfall Centre for performance, opening in December – to give young people what Spray calls “wrap-around support”.

Spray says: “There is nothing fluffy about this. Dance work like this should be recognised as a pre-crisis intervention, because it has such a positive impact on some young people.” In her view, it can prevent them needing to access therapy at all, or at least keep them feeling better until more formal help is available.

The young people in Turner’s workshop seem relaxed and focused. Kelly (not her real name) has bipolar disorder and was initially afraid she would not be able to do the exercises, but now she is beaming and keen to continue. “This has really drawn me in. At first I thought OMG! But now I’d like to do it again. People see bipolar as a joke, but Kevin has shared what happened to him and it’s helped us express the way we feel.”

• In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here.

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Express yourself: how a charity is using dance to improve mental health

Struggling With Self-Worth? Great Tips for Boosting Your Belief in Yourself

Struggling With Self-Worth? Great Tips for Boosting Your Belief in Yourself

5 Things You Must Tell Yourself When You’re Being Judged

5 Things You Must Tell Yourself When You’re Being Judged

NLP Tips for Success: How to Get Yourself to Focus

There comes a time in everyone’s day that they are going to have to focus, pay attention to detail, and remember that information. It’s just a part of life.

But some people have a hard time getting themselves to focus when it’s important, and often they miss out on information that will be useful to remember in the future.

Whether you are a student, a parent, or someone in the workplace, there will be times that you have to learn, and retain information. If you feel that you are a person who has a hard time doing this, or that it is simply out of your control, there is a very simple way to hone in your focus and get the job done.

Try out this little method to get yourself to focus…

Physically look up at the ceiling, close your eyes and completely clear your mind, and focus on your breath for a few seconds. Don’t think about the task at hand, don’t think about your baby at home, just make your thoughts quiet.

Then, open your eyes while still looking up, and while maintaining a clear head slowly bring your eyes down to your task while strongly imagining that focus staying right in your peripheral vision as you carry out your job.

If you feel your focus heading in another direction and need to regroup, start over and repeat the process. It doesn’t take more than five minutes, and can make all the difference in completing tasks and learning new information.

For other NLP tips visit iNLP Center – or check out this post on manifesting your desires.

NLP Tips for Success: How to Get Yourself to Focus

This column will modify your lifestyle: can you consider by yourself effectively?

The school summertime holidays are on us – and for any individual who’s a teacher, who lives with one particular, or who’s merely friends with one particular, that means only a single issue: Instructor Holiday Sickness Syndrome, a title I just created up for a phenomenon I surely didn’t. Within hrs of the final bell, it looks, half the nation’s educators contract a cold or anything similar, necessitating numerous days of duvet-based self-pity. For any individual who’s sceptical of the general concept that you can consider by yourself effectively – “You are going to never ever get in excess of that ebola infection unless of course you remain positive!” – this curious syndrome stands as a rebuke. Quasi-magically, teachers seem capable of declining to get sick when they can’t afford to, postponing the signs till later on. And it is not just teachers, or even humans: in accordance to a new review in the Royal Society’s flagship biology journal, animals – from birds to monkeys – appear to suppress the indications of sickness when there’s a truly good purpose, such as parenting duties, or sexual reproduction. Ailing male zebra finches grow to be remarkably much less ailing when there are female zebra finches all around.

1 achievable explanation for this could lie in how we think about sickness. The usual assumption is that illness deprives you of specified talents: it truly is the evil microbes that sap your vitality, rob you of your powers of concentration and make you not want to socialise. In accordance to an option evolutionary viewpoint, even though, these “sickness behaviours” are truly beneficial: issues the physique does in buy to conserve vitality and target on getting well, as component of “a hugely organised strategy to help in fighting the infection”, as the review’s author, Patricia Lopes, puts it. You really feel like hiding beneath the bedclothes, in other phrases, so that you’re motivated to do so, because that’s the ideal area for you to be. And so it follows that, if there’s anything even more critical for a creature to be carrying out in purchase to propagate its genes – such as sex, or caring for infants – it may well not really feel people signs and symptoms at that second.

The content implication here is that we may possibly be greater than we would imagined at increasing to the moment, putting illness aside when life’s most important priorities demand it. The much less satisfied implication is that there may possibly be specified aspects of contemporary lifestyle – such as overdemanding bosses, or stacks of unmarked A-level background papers – that trigger the identical response, even however they are not so critical to survival. It’s intriguing, by the way, that social status would seem to perform a role in this. In Lopes’s study, animals decrease down the pecking purchase had been much less likely to exhibit sickness behaviours, while larger-ups allow themselves get sick and take a break.

Being sick and feeling ill, then, are two diverse items – so perhaps you can’t rely on your body to allow you know when you’re functioning yourself into the ground. Even though it is also a reminder that feeling unwell can serve a type of function: it really is a way of enforcing a slowdown. In short, although it really is less difficult mentioned than done: if you really feel horrible, you require to target on renewal and restoration – and if you don’t come to feel horrible, you almost certainly need to target on renewal and restoration, also. Anyway, enjoy your vacation, teachers. I recommend whiskey with honey and lemon juice.

oliver.burkeman@theguardian.com

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This column will modify your lifestyle: can you consider by yourself effectively?

Feel You Cannot Stand To Do Some thing? Demonstrate By yourself Wrong

No matter whether you feel you can not stand one far more day at the office, or you are convinced you can not stand one more minute of a dull seminar, really do not give into people ideas proper away. In reality, the much more you believe you cannot stand anything, the much more crucial it is to show oneself wrong.

Just since you consider you cannot stand it, does not indicate it is correct. (See my preceding report on The 10 Pondering Errors that Will Hold You Back in Existence). You’re very likely in a position to tolerate much more than you give yourself credit for. Nonetheless, the much more you consider you cannot perhaps tolerate another 2nd, the worse you’re most likely to come to feel and the much more these ideas will influence your conduct.

Believe 1st (Photo credit: jDevaun)

Examples of “I Cannot Stand It” 

Picking to steer clear of unpleasant feelings gives some fast quick-term relief, but avoidance can lead to extended-term consequences. Right here are some techniques that thinking, “I cannot stand this,” leads to difficulties for folks:

•  If you consider, “I cannot stand getting hungry,” you may eat frequently to avoid any likelihood that you’ll experience hunger. You might commence consuming an further snack just before you head into a meeting or you might stop to pick up an added bite to eat prior to your commute residence. Even when you really do not come to feel hungry, you may decide not to consider any chances and consume as a preventative measure. Sooner or later, your waistline could suffer the consequences.

•  Thinking, “I can not stand my job any longer,” will probably result in you to only target on all the unfavorable facets of your perform. You could ignore something optimistic about your job and persuade oneself that you need to quit right away.

•  When you feel, “I cannot stand going to people boring department meetings,” you are not very likely to appear for answers that could make the meeting much more productive. Alternatively, you could get started to stay away from the meetings altogether or waste time complaining to other folks about how much you dislike the meetings.

Why Beliving Your Self-Doubt is a Negative Notion

Just since you come to feel unpleasant, doesn’t mean you require to give up appropriate away. Here are the causes why you must prove to oneself that you really don’t need to have to end carrying out one thing just simply because you consider you cannot stand it:

•  Thinking you can not stand anything influences how you truly feel. You are very likely to really feel a sense of dread, anxiety, or even anger as you approach some thing that you think you can’t tolerate. As you knowledge much more negative feelings about one thing, your thoughts are likely to turn into exaggeratedly unfavorable.

•  If you give up every time you can not stand something, you aren’t probably to attain your goals. It is likely that you tremendously underestimate your capabilities. You may possibly sell yourself quick if you give up each and every time you believe you can not stand something.

•  Giving up when the going will get tough can turn out to be a negative habit and it can alter how you see by yourself. You may begin to believe you’re weak or that you are a failure simply because you can not appear to stick with items long sufficient to see optimistic final results.

Demonstrate to By yourself You Can Stand It

When you consider you can’t stand one thing any longer, prove yourself wrong. If you feel you cannot stand anything for yet another minute, stick close to for two minutes just to show to yourself that you can do it. If you think you cannot stand 1 a lot more week at the workplace, resolve to perform at least two far more weeks. 

That does not indicate you require to perform at a job you dislike for 30 many years just for the sake of it, but by doing work 1 day longer than you thought you could, you can prove to oneself that you are stronger than you give your self credit score for. If you pick to quit your occupation, it’s crucial to recognize you quit by choice, not due to the fact you couldn’t stand the discomfort any longer.

When you conduct behavioral experiments that demonstrate your contemplating wrong, sooner or later, it will modify the way you feel. You’ll start to see that you have far more potential than you ever even imagined. You’ll be much less probably to think, “I can not do that.” Instead, you’ll recognize all the issues that you can pick to do.

Feel You Cannot Stand To Do Some thing? Demonstrate By yourself Wrong

Be By yourself, No Matter What They Say. 5 Ways How

Just be by yourself.

Sounds simple, does not it?  I’ve heard it a lot of times, and for numerous years, I imagined I was truly getting myself.

The reality is, I wasn’t. I was pretending.

When somebody asked me to do anything, I did it. I frequently did not pause to really feel what was right for me or what I wanted to do. Mechanically, I performed. I desired to be liked. I desired men and women to consider I was sensible, capable and wonderful.

I needed to be the “good girl”. I grew up with the idea that if i did what I was told, I was a excellent girl. I would get more smiles and significantly less conflicts. I wanted to be loved. Not currently being liked was the most unpleasant thing I could think of. So I adjusted to everybody at every single minute according to what they needed from me.

I smiled when I felt unhappy, felt guilt about feeling angry, and danced when i felt like sitting. In the meantime, I misplaced myself. I forgot who I was and what was crucial to me. I kept seeking on the outside for approval, and lost what I now know is most crucial to me: My personal voice.

My voice, my voice!! I get pleased just creating individuals phrases! Our voice is makes us special and extraordinary and is God-provided. It is our light that guides us by means of existence! Our sadness, our anger and our joy are all to be celebrated! Now I am the “bad girl”. I’m the lady who says “no” to factors I don’t want, even if other individuals consider it’s wrong, and yes only to items I do want. And this helps me feel more alive. Setting boundaries and embracing our emotions makes us lighter and a lot more energetic. Juicier. All of our emotions are exclusive to us, fresh and  true. What can be far better that that? Pretending to be some thing else? I really don’t believe so.

If we listen closely, our voice is speaking softly to us  each and every single second. Our voice can usually go against every little thing we were ever informed.  That is ok. It just means some thing new desires to be explored and that some thing new would like to come by means of you. And that can be scary. Simply because each and each a single of our voices is so special and various, it can often really feel alone.

But if we can have fun with it and transform it into anything innovative, what comes right after can be magical. Sadness can become a beautiful dance, anger a stunning sharing with a good friend, and joy, the most amazing meal you ever produced. Any feeling can be transformed into creativity. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is.

That magic, your magic, then serves the planet. And you had to do was be oneself.

5 practices that assist me be myself:

-Accepting and breathing with my emotions, which includes anger and sadness. They are all there to aid me find out one thing and guide me. They are my sacred truth

-Accept that I have my very own reality and was meant to live the daily life I truly want, not the life other folks believe is great for me

-Follow my very own voice and trust its intelligence and its goodness–no matter what

-Transform the energy of feelings into one thing inventive this kind of as creating or dancing

-Not taking myself too significantly. Soothing and having entertaining!

I would like to hear about your experiences about becoming by yourself in this world! Please depart your comment under.

Jivan Dios is a Canadian Family Constellation Therapist, specializing in Trauma Treatment. She is currently residing in Stockholm, Sweden and on the island of Crete in Greece. Online Treatment is also accessible.

Check out her www.opentherapy.se

Be By yourself, No Matter What They Say. 5 Ways How

Easy Techniques to Help By yourself Alleviate Overall performance Anxiety

Normal Remedies for Performance Anxiousness

Amid guys, nervousness regarding one’s sexual overall performance is a extremely widespread fret.

Overall performance anxiety is fueled by insecurities, which arise as a consequence of a man’s perceived need to have to, as the term implies, complete satisfactorily in a sexual romantic relationship. This anxiety can manifest physically as erectile dysfunction, fueling more anxiousness.

It can be the outcome of an ingrained need for validation, the fear of currently being deemed inadequate by oneself as effectively as other individuals, or even environmental stresses not associated to sex. Performance nervousness arises from a nexus of culturally influenced perceptions of what is masculine and the realities of our day-to-day lives.

What Can I Do to Alleviate Functionality Nervousness?

• Perform to conquer environmental sources of pressure which are not immediately related to your intercourse lifestyle, but which may possibly still be leading to you some substantial duress.


• Engage in pursuits that aid relax both your entire body and mind. Go outdoors, indulge your hobbies – no matter what assists you to neglect your sources of stress.


• Practice mindfulness. If you are continually educated on “the big picture” then you are less engaged in the present and are more most likely to allow your anxiety sources get to you. Get a phase back from time to time, close off intrusive ideas and just get in your present surroundings. If anxiousness and anxiety are manifestations of a distracted and conflicted mind, then mindfulness if the exact opposite.


• Performing breathing workouts or just focusing on your breath for a minute will support decrease anxiety, relax your muscle groups and calm your mind. This will far better enable you to handle your anxiety properly and offer erectile dysfunction treatment.


• Communicate openly with your spouse about your worries and discover techniques in which the two of you can function collectively to make oneself come to feel secure. You can’t actually relax and be relaxed with an individual if you really feel unable to speak honestly and freely.


• Let oneself and your partner some unhindered pleasure. Sex is meant to be a pleasurable activity, but it can only be so if you are fully existing. Speak with your companion about your respective requirements and desires, then cast off your worries and let yourselves a likelihood to indulge.


• Practice exercise routines which foster intimacy and comfort between by yourself and your partner. Non-intercourse actions such as hugging, touching, open communication about intercourse, or massage are a couple of examples.


• Discover to go through your companion. Via mindful attentiveness you can come to recognize your partner’s nonverbal cues and communicate during intercourse without having to really say a word.


• Sex is not a race. Enable yourself as a lot time as you desire to get into the “groove.” There is no need to have to rush the procedure.


• Attempt using positive self-reinforcement and individual affirmations to direct more good vitality toward your self. It is hard to influence any optimistic change in your lifestyle if you cannot even get yourself on board.


• If your anxiety proves to be specially resilient, contemplate giving hypnosis a try. By means of hypnosis you can attempt and uncover what may possibly be the significantly deeper roots of your emotions and locate effective erectile dysfunction treatment.


• Bodily issues can also be critical variables. Consider improving your diet program, rest patterns and physical exercise routines. We work greatest when each are minds and our bodies are in very good shape.


• Be sure to have reasonable sexual expectations. As with all things in existence, sex is not always as perfect and ideal as we envision it to be. If some strategies, ideas or approaches do not operate, really don’t get worked up about it. Be comprehending and consider it as a tutorial for later on.


• You may well consider consulting with a professional such as a sex therapist. Everyone with some kind of nervousness relevant to sexual functionality has his own special trigger, which can be rooted in a lot of different aspects of a person’s daily life. If you believe that the issue is far more rooted in a bodily cause, you could also want to talk with your major care doctor.


• Realize that the movie model of sex is not a great reflection of actuality. You shouldn’t really feel any stress to compete with or compare yourself to non-true depictions nor should you truly feel pressured to have comparable sexual experiences. This strain can show counter-productive and improve erectile dysfunction. A lot of guys do not seem to be to recognize that fantasy depictions does not reflect the type of sexual romantic relationship that most couples share.

Sexual anxiousness can be brought on by a multitude of causes, both physical and mental. However, when we are in a position to loosen up, detach ourselves from our sources of stress and shell out mindful consideration to the current we uncover that a lot of our anxiousness disappears. Try out applying these very same tactics of rest and mindfulness to other factors of your existence as effectively – you may well start to see fantastic alterations each in the bedroom and out.

If your sexual anxiousness persists, take into account contacting a medical doctor. A men’s health expert will have knowledge of an erectile dysfunction treatment method.  Additionally, most guys really feel much more relaxed going to an ED therapy specialist the embarrassment and social stigmata men truly feel might be much less when talking to someone who has knowledge in that location rather than the frequent family practitioner.

As a former victim of sexual dysfunction, John B. was ready to uncover relief by way of self-reflection and the aid of a treatment method professional. John encourages other people to let go of the stigma and shame surrounding erectile dysfunction.

Incredible Intimacy: Generate A Spectacular Marriage In and Out of the Bedroom

Easy Techniques to Help By yourself Alleviate Overall performance Anxiety

Ed Miliband: treat yourself and save the NHS

Also many older men and women are caught in hospital wanting to go property but unable to do so due to the fact the support is not there for them.

Also much money is wasted because our health and care companies are fragmented and concentrate solely on 1 portion of the body – a broken leg or large blood pressure – rather than on the man or woman as a entire.

Right now, a blueprint to deliver the technique into the 21st Century is currently being published by the Independent Commission on Total-Man or woman Care. It makes comprehensive suggestions to organise companies about the wants of folks, as an alternative of organising folks all around the needs of solutions.

Sir John Oldham’s report, commissioned by Labour final yr, recognises that such a re-shaping services does not require some heavy-handed top-down re-organisation like that of this government which invested £3 billion trying to impose a free-marketplace ideology on our NHS.

Alternatively, the report displays how we can work with the grain of the NHS to carry with each other local budgets and commissioners, as properly as providing patients a lot more say above the care they get.

It is component of my vision for people-powered public providers. These will be based mostly neither on outdated-design central control exactly where users as treated as passive recipients – nor a market place-primarily based individualism which assumes we can transplant the ideas of the private sector lock, stock and barrel into our NHS.

Certainly, the challenges of these days demand we place more energy in the hands of patients. And, far from utilizing up scarce sources, these modifications are vital if the NHS is to survive and enhance in an era of challenging fiscal restraint.

The Oldham Report sets out proposals to offer greater care for millions of older people and others with complicated demands who would benefit from a single care staff – doctors, nurses, therapists – working together to assistance them.

They would not only be provided their own individual care strategy – made by them and shaped about their demands – but also a individual care coordinator who is on their side and viewing their back at the most vulnerable occasions in their lives.

Labour believes men and women need to be offered a lot more electrical power to assist themselves simply because most care is not delivered by specialists but by individuals and their households. Our policy evaluation is hunting at how we can apply Sir John’s proposals to provide greater tips to help patients control their condition, aid them website link up with other folks with related conditions, and do a lot more to assistance carers.

Bringing with each other well being and care providers will also help spot problems early. Final yr more than half a million pensioners had an emergency admission that could have been averted if they had obtained greater care outside hospital.

This is an indictment of the false economies created by the Government’s undermining of neighborhood companies. The assure of a GP appointment within 48 hrs has been scrapped and hundreds of 1000′s of elderly and disabled men and women no longer get the care and help they need.

But it also demonstrates why we need to give higher priority to prevention. When an older man or woman falls and suffers a fracture it triggers soreness, distress and loss of confidence. It also fees the NHS £2 billion a yr. It would be much better to pay £50 installing a grab rail in someone’s home rather than £14,000 treating somebody with a broken hip.

Labour’s method would indicate vulnerable older men and women are asked if they need to have such aid – before they finish up in hospital. This will save the taxpayer cash, make lifestyle safer for older people and offer far more peace of thoughts for their households too.

It is through such sensible, useful measures that we will perform to integrate psychological and bodily overall health with social care.

I believe that is vital for people’s dignity, to stop our NHS becoming overwhelmed by spiralling fees , and to support it meet the difficulties of the 21St Century.

Ed Miliband: treat yourself and save the NHS

Befriend the elderly and do yourself a favour, as well

They are gone now, and their stories with them – but how fortunate I come to feel to have heard them. So this year I’ll do as the care minister suggests but I’ll be contemplating of it far more as a pleasure than a duty.

• Meanwhile, that endearingly retro item, the university scarf, has been appearing in the Telegraph’s letters webpage in latest days and once again, these days. Why, wondered Geoffrey Wyborn of Walton-on-Thames, do younger individuals no longer put on them?

Excellent question, Geoffrey. Warm, sensible and tribal – what’s not to like about a college scarf? But style has its reasons, of which explanation is aware of practically nothing. In my university days in the late Seventies, it was social death to be witnessed wearing your personal university scarf, whereas 1 belonging to a boyfriend was an fully diverse matter – chic, enviable and hauntingly most likely to be reclaimed by its owner at any second.

An unscientific survey of the youthful (that is, I Facebooked my son) finds that he’s distinctly unkeen on the thought of a school scarf, but mysteriously connected to his claret and blue West Ham one. “But does not that identify you as, um, a complete loser?” I wondered. I’d much better not reproduce his response right here. The West Ham followers between you can think about it for yourselves.

When it comes to dress, the line between amazing and hopelessly nerdy is each implacable and ever-shifting. It was beautifully demonstrated by yesterday’s Telegraph design page, on which culottes and desert boots – the two objects of ridicule inside of living memory – were trailed as 2014’s subsequent massive fashion issues, along with Seventies style – which is, I suppose, good news for me, as it was the era in which my sartorial tastes were formed.

As it transpires, I’ve already been contemplating about my very own look in 2014. I strategy to base it about a mixture of my favourite Christmas presents: a sweatshirt with an obscure anarchist slogan, and a set of knitted earmuffs in the shape of foxes’ heads. You could laugh now, but just you wait. By this time subsequent yr, you’ll all be sporting them.

Befriend the elderly and do yourself a favour, as well

8 Simple Methods To Be Kinder To By yourself In The New 12 months

We all want to be happier and healthier in the New Yr, but getting there can be a bit elusive (or entirely daunting). Right here are a few simple (and science-backed) ways to be kinder to by yourself and others in 2014. It turns out that past paying time on ourselves, keying in to the folks around us may be an even much more potent way to get closer to a sense of happiness and effectively-currently being.

Meditate for a healthier brain

Courtesy Wiki-Commons

It’s all over the news these days, and with great reason – meditation has the scientific backing to warrant its increasing acceptance. Studies have proven that meditation can assist us not only truly feel a lot more centered and relaxed, but it can also literally adjust the setup of our brains, from rising grey matter density to shifting how the neurons themselves are linked. Just lately, it was shown to set off alterations at the level of the gene, specifically genes that govern the stress and inflammatory responses. And in a moment-to-minute way, it just helps you feel greater all through the day, much like shutting down and rebooting a pc. So go examine out a meditation class in your spot, or discover equipment on the web to get you going. Your brain will thank you.

 

Get Bodily  

You might not want to hear it, but moving your entire body is 1 of the single best issues you can do for oneself, the two body and brain. Until not too long ago, the adult brain was thought to be reasonably unchangeable, but proof over the last decade exhibits that it can actually sprout new neurons, particularly in an area called the hippocampus, which is the seat of studying and memory. And bodily activity seems to be a sturdy trigger for this new neural development. Beyond the lengthy-phrase rewards that it can offer you the brain, exercise also increases endorphins – these small content-chemical substances make us really feel excellent at the end of the work out, and the promise of this “runner’s high” can get us going even when we do not really feel like receiving commenced.

 

Get A Practice

(Photograph credit: Wikipedia)

Making a program out of some thing – just about anything at all, provided that it is wholesome – can be existence-modifying, and for some individuals, life-conserving. Possessing a ritual to come back to is one of the methods to give your self a sense of security in rough instances. It nearly doesn’t matter what the practice is – run, walk, practice yoga, create, pray, meditate, chant, have a cup of tea at six a.m. although gazing out the window – just so long as it is a practice. We’re creatures of habit, and giving yourself a healthful one to fall back on (rather than a destructive a single) is a important to giving the brain what it desires – framework.

 

Eat Smarter and Simpler 

(Photograph credit score: Wikipedia)

Any listing of methods to be kinder to by yourself wouldn’t be complete with no the requisite food entry. There’s a handful of meals whose advantages are so effectively-illustrated that they’re identified as the electrical power food items. Between them are:

• 
  Blueberries, or any deeply-colored berry, are packed with antioxidants


• 
  Fatty fish, for the brain-healthier DHA and EPA varieties of omega-three fatty acids (note that these omegas are different from the omega-3s found in nuts and seeds)


• 
  Leafy greens are rich in folate, iron, and other important vitamins and nutrients


• 
  Turmeric, my private favored, whose anti-inflammatory properties have lengthy been linked to reduced Alzheimer’s threat.

There are many other meals that are great for the brain, and the rule of thumb for the brain as properly as for the rest of the physique is to drop the processed, pale-colored meals and change them with as numerous brightly colored, and entire, food items as you perhaps can.

Connect with those about you

Ok, the verdict is in: Social media can make us shallow, unhappy and jealous of the people close to us. Even worse, it has the unintended result of disconnecting, rather than connecting, us from the folks we enjoy. Genuine social interaction, on the other hand, improves psychological well-being, happiness, and is even linked to better overall health and longevity. So put down the smartphone and speak to the particular person sitting across from you (whether you know them or not). Or if it’s a choice between Facebooking your mom or calling her on the telephone, the telephone contact is absolutely the much better choice for a wholesome dose of social contact.

 

Practice mindfulness in every little thing

Mindfulness is an additional term that’s exploded in recent many years. All the evidence suggests that practicing mindfulness can support us be far more current in existence, rather than shuffling by way of it blindly. It is also been proven to support men and women quit smoking and lose weight. The key to mindfulness, as Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD has mentioned for several many years, is paying out focus to the existing minute, non-judgmentally. Observing your thoughts without having reacting to them is another way to consider about it. Regardless of whether you’re feeling generally anxious or striving to get to the other side of an intense food craving, inquiring into your own believed processes and physical sensations – with no judging them, but merely observing them – can be an enormously powerful instrument to get there.

 

Request about those close to you

We devote a lot of time focusing on ourselves these days, for far better and for worse. So from time to time it’s good to consider the concentrate off yourself and inquire into these around you a small a lot more deeply. Maybe there’s a person in your office who usually seems a little sad and could use some conversation. Or perhaps your buddy has been spending a whole lot of time assisting you through a dilemma in your lifestyle. Try out turning the tables a minor more this yr, and switching attention to the individual across from you. Doing so will make the folks all around you feel  more exciting and useful, and this will make you a more useful buddy in turn.

 

Be of services

This is an offshoot of the final item, but it plays out in an even cooler and much more obvious way. It is true that we need to have to enhance ourselves to be very good for other people (training yoga, going diligently to speak therapy, and so on), but the flipside is also true: We require to help out other individuals to heal ourselves. As Rob Schware, PhD, president of the Yoga Support Council and Executive Director of the Give Back Yoga Foundation, pointed out to me earlier this year, “Gandhi said, ‘if you want to know yourself, serve others.’” And a good deal of folks have identified this to be correct. Do some excellent for individuals around you, and you will uncover it aids heal you in a way that’s tough to put in words. So give it a consider in whatever way strikes your fancy. Discovering far more techniques to help other people in 2014 might be just the point to give by yourself a happier, more healthy new 12 months.

Stick to me @alicewalton or discover me on Facebook.

8 Simple Methods To Be Kinder To By yourself In The New 12 months