If you have high blood pressure, ask yourself if you have balance in your life. If you feel you are off-kilter - here is what you can do:
1.Balance physical and mental exertion: Walk 10 minutes every day. No excuses: rain or shine, snow or ice. Bundle up for the weather and just go. Best times are after work, to release stress, and at noon to catch some rays of sun. — Shut off TV and computer - move more. Take up activities you like. Avoid weight lifting and isometrics, rough contact sports, races and competitions — your blood pressure is already high enough.
2.Balance inhaling and exhaling: Quit smoking and learn breathing exercises. Here is a simple one: Take three deep breaths every hour on the hour while awake. Always start with a deep exhalation.
3.Balance your electrolytes: Cut down on salt and salty foods like deli and canned goods. Food in restaurants and ready-made foods are loaded with hidden salt. Drink tons of water to flush out excess salt.
4.Balance warm and cold: End every hot shower with a cold shower: Turn the handle on very cold, start at your feet, then your hands and face. Finally the whole body. The whole thing takes just a few seconds. - Contraindications: uncontrolled high blood pressure, severe hardening of the arteries, Raynaud’s.
5.Balance your weight toward ideal. Even one pound less means that you have stopped the steady weight gain that people think comes normally with age. It does not. Five pounds totally changes your metabolism toward healthy.
6.Balance sleep and activity: Go to bed early, between nine and ten o’clock. Read yourself sleepy. Get up before seven o’clock. Follow your natural rhythm of sleep and wake. It is possible to go shopping at three AM, but it does a number on your system ... a HIGH number.!
7.Balance the seasons: Follow Nature's yearly circle. Eat in season: lighter in the summer, heartier in the winter. Open your window at night, avoid overheated or overly air-conditioned rooms. Engage in seasonal activities.
8.Balance the colors in your meals: The more colorful, the better. Try a new vegetable each month. Use olive oil for cold dishes, coconut oil for hot ones. Garlic and onions are good for your heart. Fish oil counterbalances the myriad of inflammatory agents in our diet.
9.Balance work and relaxation: Take time for your family and friends, music, arts, and hobbies. Learn something like yoga, meditation, tai chi or another relaxation technique.
10.Balance with herbs: Herbs are not first-line drugs for high blood pressure, but hawthorn flowers and berries might help reduce it. Always discuss herbs with your physician. Avoid unnecessary medication — especially over-the-counter (for instance, pain meds can increase blood pressure).
11.Balance your mood with natural herbs or pleasant activities instead of alcohol or drugs. After weight, alcohol is the most common cause for high blood pressure.
12.Balance your attitude: Avoid negative emotions like hate, envy, regret, jealousy, greed, contempt. Nourish your heart chacra: Anxiety and stress elevate your blood pressure; happiness lowers it. Look at your relationship with your significant other, with God and Mother Earth. Or with your pet. Bring meaning into your life by connecting with people — family, friends and people less fortunate than you.
13.Balance your week: Plan an outing/ excursion/ event each weekend. Do not stay at home to catch up on work.
14.Balance your minerals and other small molecules: Eat nuts - unless you have an allergy - because they provide all the important minerals for keeping your vessels elastic.
15.Balance stress with alternatives: acupuncture and acupressure, Ayurvedic Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, massage, cupping, aromatherapy, visualization, music therapy, art therapy, journal writing, biofeedback machines — anything that makes you feel good.
Measure your blood pressure at home and write it down for yourself and your doctor. Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
We Are Hard-Wired For Awe, Respect, Morals
May 7, 2010
A Yale study just concluded that babies already can differ between good and bad behavior. In eighty percent of cases, the baby chose the “good guy” puppet after they had seen a short puppet show.
Exactly what I always thought: We are hard-wired for awe, respect and morals. Unfortunately, we are also hard-wired to follow peer-pressure – and those two forces fight war over our souls. To enforce the knowledge of good and bad, we need a nurturing culture around us, in families, and schools.
Let’s not take morals too narrowly, though. Most morals have very little to do with sex (after all, it is a biological drive and, in all cultures and religions, has been hard to suppress), and very much to do with money and power. (Does not mean that I am a libertine; just means that sniffing out other people’s bedroom habits is not my cup of tea).
Religions often abuse our innate longing for goodness and request obedience to their rules and superiors. I personally think goodness is already undermined if you have somebody paid as a priest/minister/pastor; I hold that people should come together voluntarily and should stay unpaid lay celebrants. Religions that preach to hate, should be out. Spirituality that fosters kindness should be in.
This is what I want to see celebrated: Nature foremost because we would not be here without Good Mother Earth and her water, air and soil, families, nurturing traditions, worldwide community, justice, music, art, education and books. Read More
De-cluttering Your Home, Your Mind, Your Life
May 6, 2010
Believe it or not: A cluttered home is a severe stress factor in your life – at least, if I believe my patients. An untidy home makes people feel inadequate, ashamed and asocial. Because their homes are so messy, they don’t invite people over and become more and more isolated.
Feng shui, the Chinese art of bringing luck, health and prosperity to your life seems, on first look, rather outlandish – another form of quackery. On second look, feng shui (literally “wind water”) wants you to tidy up your place.
Actually, the “water” part refers to the place where you choose to live: It has to be at an “auspicious” spot - which sounds like weird magic. But in olden times, the perfect dwelling spot was near water; today, without having an inkling of feng shui, what appeals to us – a green neighborhood, a view from a little hill, not much traffic – is also a healthy choice (unless there is an undisclosed toxic dump nearby…).
The “wind” part means – at least in my interpretation – that you have to create space so that the wind can blow freely around in your home - a fancy way of saying you have no clutter around. The Chinese also call this wind “qi” (pronounced chi) - the positive life energy. In your house, is a visitor greeted by a pile of shoes, old newspapers and stacks of plastic bags that long should have been carried out to the garbage? Or is your entrance welcoming?
Now, with my cosmic greed for books, the wind has a bit of a hard time here. BUT those books I do love, they are not a burden on me, and I keep them in order by handing down some, from time to time, to local schools. I am really not the tidiest of persons. But here is a little secret, handed down from my late, beloved mother-in-law Hilde: If you don’t have time for big cleaning, at least keep the table free of clutter. Try it – immediately, the room looks better.
And here is the Ten-Minutes-De-cluttering Program I developed for my patients who are drowning in disorder and depression:
Have an egg timer (I use an egg timer for all sorts or weird things). Put it on ten minutes. Start de-cluttering in a corner – any corner, but preferably at the entrance. For everything you take into your hand, find a final place: file or shelf room, garbage, charity. And one box with "Cannot yet make up my mind." That box you store for one year; then throw it out.
When the egg timer rings, you are done for the day – unless you suddenly find yourself in the mood of doing some more. Next day, you do the same – even if you did over-time the day before. If you do only ten minutes per day, your place can’t but get "windier" – and you can’t but get relief. Read More