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Adult Acne: A Bumpy Ride Towards Aging
Picture this; the snow-white clear skin that you have been proud of since your teen years has suddenly poofed into a wicked witch's warty face upon reaching the age of 30! "Acne, at my age?" This is often the distressed statement of pockmarked men...
Anger and Your Driving: Use Self-Talk to Create Safer Vistas
Date: January 28, 2001
Place: Fashion Island, Newport Beach, California
The incident: Jane, a middle aged professional woman had an altercation with another woman who accosted her after she refused to give up her parking spot.
Jane...
Massage Therapy for Health
Yes, massage feels good. But, more importantly, massage helps maintain and promote good health. Three of the primary health benefits of massage are improved circulation, reduced muscle tension, and relief from the effects of stress. Massage...
Stress management - How a quick and simple exercise saved me from being driven to destruction by road rage
Everything happened so quickly, a huge object swept past my peripheral vision. Next I heard the sound of ripping metal.
'What the...' I was shouting at the top of my voice, as the realization dawned on me and I banged on the steering wheel in...
The Disciplines of Success
Success, in the dictionary, is defined as, “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.” So why is success in our society defined by the balance in your bank account, the car you drive, or how big your house is? You are...
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Five Things You Don't (And Should!) Know About Stress
Whether it's called stress management, relaxation training, or
its newest incarnation, "Resiliancy," it seems that the question
of healthy response to the stress of daily life is on everyone's
mind. But it's important to remember a few things about stress
that are rarely discussed--if known at all!
1) Stress won't hurt you. Hans Selye, the "father of stress" was
a polylinguist, whose first language was not English. Before he
died, he said that, had his command of English been more
precise, he would have been known as the "Father of Strain"
rather than stress. What's the difference? Enormous, from an
engineering standpoint. Stress is pressure divided by unit area,
whereas strain is measured in deformation per unit length. In
other words, while strain speaks to the load you are carrying,
strain deals with the degree to which that load warps you out of
true. In other words, it is NOT stress that hurts you. It is
strain.
2) Stress is necessary for life and growth. Far from being
something you avoid, when healthy, the body and mind respond to
environmental stress by becoming stronger. Look at this in the
arena of physical fitness. Imagine a triangle with each of the
three corners having a different designation: Stress, nutrition,
and rest. Stress equals exercise, nutrition equals the foods
taken in before and after the exercise, and rest equals...well,
rest. If you have either too much or too little of any of these,
the body breaks down. Note that astronauts in orbit must be very
careful to stress their bodies daily with stationary bicycles
and other apparatus: zero gravity decreases stress to the point
that the bones literally begin to lose calcium. The truth is
that, in life, we are rewarded largely for how much stress we
can take without breaking. The intelligent approach is to both
reduce unnecessary stress and to increase our ability to handle
healthy stress without straining.
3) Come of the best research comes from
Associated Websites
our former enemies!
Russian research into the body-mind dynamic has produced
valuable results. They figure that any physical technique has
three aspects: Breath, Motion, and Structure, and that these
three are dependant upon one another. Stress "dis-integrates"
this structure as it morphs into strain. The first to be
disturbed is almost always breathing. This is the reason that
martial arts, yoga, Sufi Dancing and so many other disciplines
can use the physical as a vehicle for spiritual transformation.
As we learn to handle greater and greater amounts of stress with
grace, we naturally evolve to higher levels of integration and
performance. It is our birthright.
4) It doesn't take years to learn proper breathing techniques.
Seek out a Chi Gung, yoga, or Tai Chi teacher and say you want
to learn proper belly breathing. A good teacher can convey the
basics of this critical skill in an hour or less.
5) You don't have to meditate for an hour a day to get the
benefits. While it's fabulous to spend two twenty minute
sessions a day, massive benefits can be gained with just five
minutes a day. Here's the trick: it's not five minutes all at
one time, it's five one minute sessions spaced through the day.
At every hour divisible by 3: 9, 12, 3, 6, and 9, simply stop
and breathe properly for sixty seconds. You can do this while
walking down the street, or sitting in a business meeting. The
important thing is to learn a proper technique, and to practice
it briefly, and correctly. This single act will improve posture,
energy, digestion, and turn stress into high performance. Five
minutes a day...it will seem a pain at first, but once you've
got the hang of it, it's the best 300 second investment you'll
ever make!
About the author:
Steven Barnes is a certified hypnotherapist, black belt martial
artist, Tai Chi instructor, and creator of the FIVE MINUTE
MIRACLE stress-busting program. Learn more at:
http://www.lifewrite.com
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