Community is the Key to Success!

In studying and exploring the ancient healing practices of the Native American traditions, I have always appreciated the focus on one key aspect to an individual’s healing — community.  Many in the Native American traditions, as well as other ancient healing practices, believe that a person who feels a deep sense of connection to their family, friends and community has a much better chance of healing.  Conversely, isolation and working independently without the support of others is thought to be more harmful to our overall well being.

Joining Together as Community

This concept of community may likely also be a key to success for small business start-ups too.  In a recent USA Today article titled “A Winning Formula:  When Small Businesses Give Back,” businesses across the country discuss how their personal value of “giving back” to the community was also beneficial to their business.  The businesses mentioned various approaches to giving back – whether raising dollars for a valued nonprofit organization, or having employees volunteer for a worthy cause or offering a sale to support a community effort.  The small business owner considered their personal values and then ensured that their business also reflected the same. For instance, one coffee shop in Virginia encouraged the building of community by supporting community-friendly events such as book launches, open mic night and offering a family reading room within their establishment.

Of course, it is possible to look at these actions by businesses to be purely for marketing purposes.  And that may well be true.  But wouldn’t we all prefer our local businesses to engage and be supportive of the community rather than only concerned with its financial success?  And further, instead of asking clients to contribute to a worthy cause, wouldn’t we prefer to know what the business is doing to make our community a better place?

Apparently this concept is important for the younger generation.  In a recent Forbes article, corporate culture or actually “corporate social responsibility” was a key factor in if the younger generation cared to work or buy from a business. This challenges all businesses to consider how they are supporting or improving the conditions in their local area.  Along with developing the mission, vision and values of the organization, it is important as well for businesses to consider how they will actually live the values that they have established.  What is the businesses’ approach to supporting the local community?  Businesses can no longer simply verbalize their commitment.  They must show how they are living their values.

Four Directions Wellness Celebrates Second Anniversary

On April 1, Four Directions Wellness will celebrate its second successful year in the community.  Its success (and really all of the fun) has been driven by its engagement within the community from its wonderful clients to being able to contribute to Alexandria!  Through the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, Four Directions Wellness has been able to network with Alexandria businesses and build community to learn, grow and thrive.  The Chamber recognize businesses that have helped and advocated for Alexandria residents.  Through the Chamber, others are recognized for their service and dedication to the community such as public officials, police officers, emergency responders and more.

Four Directions Wellness is located in Del Ray.  It is through the Del Ray Business Association (DRBA) that the community comes alive. The organization combines the art of supporting businesses with also holding monthly community and family-friendly events and activities.  The organization has created a “small-town, Main-Street” feel in the larger Washington metropolitan area.  It is not Del Ray but rather those individuals living and working in the area that have made it such a welcoming community.  Its success is dependent on individuals volunteering and engaging the local businesses to make it a “community.”  With community, there is health and prosperity.As the Native Americans so wisely state:

“Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together.  All things connect.”
Chief Seattle, 1854
Thank you to this wonderful community.
Getting Back to Nutrition Basics

Getting Back to Nutrition Basics

Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?, by best-selling author Mark Hyman, MD, opens with an important point that underscores most of our discussion of food: everyone’s confused or misinformed about what to eat on an ongoing basis. Scientists publish studies. Unsubstantiated “studies” are published by people who make drastic changes and capitalize (literally, for profit) on their exceptional results. And, the media report on most of them. And, advertisements promote them all, further mixing it altogether.

Humans have been developing nutritional habits from our ancient historical upbringing, and we can sustain ourselves on a wide variety of foods. In this week’s edition of the blog, I take a look at getting back to the nutrition basics so we can all understand food better and make good nutrition lifestyle choices.

Less Processed Foods | Getting Back to Nutrition Basics

In one of the largest studies of long-term food-related health ever done, T. Colin Campbell, MD, found a shocking connection between food and disease. (If you’d like to dive further, he detailed this in The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health, in 2006, and latest in his 2016 updated and revised edition.) This demonstrated a strong link between the overconsumption of meat and higher rates of cancer, among other diseases. The most important thing for everyday Americans is Dr. Campbell’s focus on promoting a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) nutrition lifestyle, which he wrote extensively about in Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition.

In brief, a WFPB nutrition lifestyle, as Dr. Campbell calls it, helps us all in getting back to nutrition basics. He recommends that we should be consuming foods that are closer to their origins (fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains) and so the less processed foods the better.

What is a processed food? And, why should you eat less processed foods, you ask? Processed food is simply any food that’s not how nature provided it; it’s been engineered and packaged mostly to taste different or stay edible longer. This provides benefits to the global food chain, manufacturers and retailers with less food spoilage in transit to stores and longer shelf lives while in inventory. It’s not all bad. However, in nature, whole foods don’t have these unnaturally added phosphate, sodium, sugars, unhealthy additives, and other unnecessary preservatives. And, that’s where a WFPB option can help you avoid a processed food.

CNN, in “‘Detox’ from overly processed foods: Why and how to cut back,” provides a great rundown on how to cut back on processed foods. A good rule of thumb is, if you have a choice between something fresh and natural, choose that over one that has been changed and packaged.

Avoid Fad Diets | Getting Back to Nutrition Basics

As you can see so far, I’ve deliberately not used the “D” word when talking about getting back to nutrition basics. It’s become an easy catchall phrase for any food methodology for weight-loss, sustained wellness, and renewed vitality. I am using nutrition lifestyle in this post to distinguish better eating healthy from the idea of following a one-size-fits-all plan that will work for everybody.

As part of any nutrition lifestyle, knowing more about what components make up food is important and how we measure them. This leads me to macronutrients, micronutrients, and calories.

Macronutrients are the “large” nutrients—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—the body needs to gain calories to function generally. On the other hand, micronutrients are commonly referred to as “vitamins and minerals,” and they are made up of the 28 essential nutrients the body needs to live; there are other micronutrients but they aren’t essential.

Calories are simply the amount of energy needed to sustain your life from day to day. It’s technical term in food parlance is actually the “kilocalorie,” or “food calorie,” which is how much energy it takes to increase the temperature of one gram of water one degree (Celsius). Often misunderstood, we don’t consume calories per se, but that we consume macronutrients that are the sources of our calories. Any macronutrient if not used by the body immediately for energy (or discarded as waste) is stored as fat in different deposit areas of the body.

With some fundamentals out of the way, we can better understand the basics of maintaining a healthy weight: use more calories (stored as fat) than you consume. If you eat less calories than normal and burn more calories from your fat stored, you lose weight.

Fad diets tend to make us believe that there’s a magical formula of specific macro- and micronutrient-carrying foods. No such thing. Food is food. Balance out your macronutrients according to one of the many, many, many, many pyramid and plate diagrams and you’re likely also going to get all the micronutrients you need as well.

We’ve already discussed that fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains, minimizing (not eliminating) processed foods, is the best nutrition lifestyle. So, you don’t need to diet and exercise. You need to create a healthy nutrition lifestyle and get in enough physical activity daily (walking around the neighborhood and walking up and down your stairs count!) to burn calories. No fad required.

Eat Seasonally Local | Getting Back to Nutrition Basics

Last but certainly not least is a concept Americans know but don’t embrace as much as they should, which is eating seasonally local. Getting back to nutrition basics also means getting back to the foundations of how food grows based on the seasons in your region.

Here in the Washington DC / northern Virginia region, we have the luxury of being southern enough that we get more warm weather for more fruits and vegetables than our more northern neighbors. And, we have farmlands galore, as we discussed before. Eating foods grown locally in season means that they are less likely to need to be genetically modified for long-distance travel, it typically costs less because supply is abundant driving down prices, and you get to support your local farming communities. An added perk is that you get greater variety of fruits and vegetables in your nutrition lifestyle while feeling good about less impact on the environment.

The greatest issue with eating locally in season is finding out what’s actually in season, and for that, the Web has provided. Seasonal Food Guide is beautiful and functional, providing fruits and vegetables by locating you and displaying options for the time of year automatically. Also, the DC Seasonality Chart does a great job on a one-page PDF showing what plus when it is available. If you need to broaden your culinary tastes beyond just your immediate geographic region, you can also find the fruits and vegetables in season by winter, spring, summer, fall, and even year-round.

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As Jason Phillips notes in his talk at Google, “All in Nutrition,” there are some “non-negotiables” you need to figure out in your lifestyle. Do you like specialty foods (ice cream and chocolate, anyone?)? The real solution is a nutrition lifestyle that includes those specialty foods. Don’t be fooled by the Paleo, Ketogenic, South Beach or Atkins diet fads.

You know the real recipe for health and fitness is getting back to basics. Track the caloric values of the macronutrients you’re consuming, and at the same time, keep a chart of how many calories you burn every day from physical activity. There’s a great app called MyFitnessPal (owned by UnderArmour) that helps tracking this information for you. We know that if we keep tally of what we eat and burn calorie-wise, even if we don’t share it with anyone else, we are helping to keep ourselves honest and accountable to improving. This helps us start to maintain a healthy nutrition lifestyle.

Have you made adjustments to your nutrition lifestyle in getting back to nutrition basics? Let us know in the comments!

Irish Healing Practices

Irish Healing Practices

What do you think of when you hear St. Patrick’s Day?  For many of us, we think of shamrocks, four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, the world of fairies, and yes, of course, green beer!  As March 17th is fast-approaching, it is equally an excellent time to explore the world of Irish healing practices.

Celtic Healing | Irish Healing Practices

Most of the Irish healing practices date several centuries back and those include the techniques offered by the Celts. The Celts’ history dates farther back than the 4th century BCE. Their healing practices came from the spiritual world. As they believed that all things came from the Celtic Otherworld, they based most of their healing practices on the guidance and observations through the lenses of their perceptions of what pleased their deities.

Notably, and a lesson we can take from the Celts, they heeded the concept of balance diligently. They believed that all negative consequences stemmed from imbalances with the Otherworld. Keep your worlds in balance, all will be fine. Don’t keep your worlds maintained, chaos ensues. Does that resonate with you in the modern era? I’m sure it does.

Celts believed in 10 elemental constructs for healing, including water, herbs, stones, fire, music, Nature, symbols, storytelling, deities, and rituals. Each healing element underpinned or connected to another element as a facet of Celtic life. If you’re interested in learning more about the Celts and Ireland generally, check out the fantastic book, How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History), by Thomas Cahill, the former director of religious publishing at Doubleday.

Medicinal Herbs | Irish Healing Practices

As early back as the 4th century AD, myths and legends began on the use of herbal medicines. As the story of Miach goes, his death (murdered by his jealous father) and burial lead to the growth of the 365 healing herbs of the world, that his sister’s tears helped nourish and then she harvested.

So, much of Irish traditional medicine is based on herbal remedies. But, this mythology turns to real science today as we have learned time and time again. Natural remedies used by ancient healers are explored by scientists and used for pharmaceutical drugs (e.g., morphine, salicin (of willow bark) turned into aspirin, and ephedra sourced for ephedrine). Here too, with Irish herbalism, we can learn about the source herbal medicines and mixtures that can help us in understanding healing remedies that don’t necessarily have to be harsh drugs.

And, Irish medical herbalists continue to thrive today, experiencing a modern renaissance. Herbalism in Ireland is seeing renewed interest in treating a wide variety of diseases, including most recently this study on the use of boswellia (an Indian tree) for reducing fluid inflammation in cancer patients.

Therapeutic Waters in Ireland | Irish Healing Practices

As an island state off the coast of Great Britain, Ireland has a culture built around water dating back to 10,000 BCE. So, it’s only natural that the Irish have many healing practices that incorporate water and the natural waters in the environments.

Ronan Foley, professor at National University of Ireland, has written Healing Waters: Therapeutic Landscapes in Historic and Contemporary Ireland (Geographies of Health Series). Healing Waters is a fascinating discussion on the “holy wells, spa towns, Turkish baths and sweat-houses, sea-bathing and the modern spa” in relation to how the Irish culturally connected to water and health.

Foley focuses on five specific curative aspects of water in Ireland—spirituality, rest, sweating, thalassic therapy (sea bathing), and the modern spa. Spirituality as a cure with holy wells through Ireland. Rest as a cure with spa towns, which are resorts that usually contain hot springs and copious opportunities to relax. Sweating allows toxins to excrete from the body (mind and spirit, according to Irish ancient healing practices) in Turkish baths and sweat-houses. Thalassic therapy cures many ailments for the Irish with bathing in the mineral-rich seas of the island. And, finally, the use of the modern spa that combines many different healing modalities to rejuvenate the body.

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All told, the rich historic tapestry of Ireland and the Irish healing practices can fill books (and probably has). The more we explore the variety of ancient healing practices in contemporary society and using modern science, the more useful, validated and widespread these natural healing modalities can be applied.

Are you of Irish descent? Do you know any Irish home remedies that your parents or grandparents have shared?

Wellness and Pet Companions _ Four Directions Wellness

Pet Companions and You Make for a Better Life

I opened the office door greeted by two friendly faces so excited to see me!  Both are medium-sized, brown-colored fur with tails that wag back and forth at a rapid pace.  Stella and Henry make me grin from ear to ear. And immediately, I know it’s going to be a great day.

As they run up to me, it is as if I was their best friend returning from a long journey. They welcome me with all of the enthusiasm that they can possibly muster up.

That simple greeting by Stella and Henry has warmed my heart and lightened my spirits. The emotional benefits are well-known with studies and surveys supporting the impact of having either furry or feathery companions to support our health and wellness.  Indeed, as far back as indigenous traditions have consistently indicated that humans and animals are all connected and therefore, both are reliant upon one another here on Planet Earth.

Supporting Our Wellness at Every Age | Pet Companions

Last year, an August 6, 2017 Time Health article highlighted a Harris poll indicating that 95% of owners think of their animal as a member of the family.  Half of the families buy their pets birthday presents, and vice versa. The same article showed how pets impact our physical health by lowering blood pressure, heart rate and heart-disease.  Obviously, loving and caring for our pets has a positive outcome on us too!

The article focused on several studies showing how various pets benefited humans.  The benefits are so impressive that the term being used in healthcare is “animal-assisted therapies.”  In one study, animals helped children who had challenging disorders by helping the child feel calm and reduce the child’s fear and anxiety.  Alan Beck, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University states,”Now, I don’t know of any major children’s hospital that doesn’t have at least some kind of animal program.” 

It’s not only children that pets are having a positive impact. In a May 2010 study by Gal Sorekt and Joseph Terkel, stress-ridden adults who pet a rabbit or turtle had reduced symptoms of anxiety.  And the adults were not necessarily animal-lovers. It was successful regardless of their love for animals.

And yet another study found that elderly individuals suffering with Alzheimer’s Disease faired better when able to watch fish in an aquarium.  The aquarium was placed in the middle of their dining room. The study found that the attention of the elderly was placed on the fish.  As a result, their eating habits improved. The study also indicated that the individuals were less lethargic and their pacing habits decreased.

Other studies have shown positive results with horses, guinea pigs, dogs, cats and even crickets.  The findings have spurred healthcare settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, assisted living facilities and even schools to include animal-assisted therapy to help with the emotional, mental, and physical aspects of humans!

Pets at Home Too | Pet Companions

Pets have also been found to help with those who live alone or feel isolated. The pet and person have a mutual task – both need the attention and support of the other.  In a 2011 Psychology Today article, pet owners were found to have significant benefits.  The benefits included: greater self-esteem, being more physically-fit, less lonely, more conscientious, more socially outgoing and had healthier relationships.  The research indicated that pets did not necessarily increase the pet owner’s personal relationship with others but rather that the pet was included in the owner’s beneficial relationships.

Pets seem to raise the awareness of those around them.  One dog owner I know has a dog that’s particularly skittish when he hears arguing. Even the slightest raising of voices and he dashes off to his crate. Of course, this is a signal to everyone in the household when tempers flare. It’s an immediate relationship course correction because his anxiety triggers everyone to stop and take stock of whether the argument is important enough to continue.

If you are not yet a pet owner, I am betting that the research is pretty convincing but other considerations should you explore?

What Do You Need to Know? | Pet Companions

If you are considering a pet for your home environment, the choices are endless.  The PDSA, a U.K.-based organization, has a quick quiz to help determine a pet that is likely best suited for your particular scenario.  The quiz encourages you to consider P-E-T-S! In this case, PETS stands for place, exercise, time and spend. The first is place.  Where would the pet be living? Then there is exercise. What type of environment would be available for the pet to be able to exercise.  The next item is time. How much time will the person have to be with their pet. And a final consideration is how much money does the person have to expend on the pet.  At the completion of the quiz, the person receives a list of potential pets best suited for their living and lifestyle.

Of course, it is also important to note that owning a pet comes with significant responsibility.  One friend states that it is like having another child. So be sure to consider the implications to you for owning and being responsible for a living creature in your home.

Once you have determined the best pet for you, know that the all of the wellness benefits will soon follow but most importantly, you will get that heart-warming feeling the moment you open the door and see your beloved pet waiting to see you!

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Pet companions benefit our lives in large and small ways worth acknowledging. How are you making the most of your time with your furry or feathery (or fishy!) pet companions? How can you take greater advantage of the love and shared moments with them? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Supporting Our Kids: Seeking New Approaches

My heart broke with the recent traumatic news from Parkland, Florida.  The statistics alone are shocking.  Over 170 schools in the United States have experienced similar situations since the Columbine High School shootings with 18 schools just this year.  Now our children – the students – are seeking to elevate the discussion to seek some resolutions. They have planned several national walk out events in the months ahead.  Wednesday, March 14 will be the first event and another planned for Friday, April 20, marking the 19th year since the student killings at Columbine High School.

National Walk Out Rallies Planned

 

The debate over how to reduce school violence is multi-faceted and needs our attention. One significant aspect is the issue of guns, how to acquire guns, background checks and types of guns available.  School safety is yet another component and how to modify schools to protect our children.  Other aspects include how our society can provide additional support to those who are experiencing mental health issues.  And yet another component is the amount of stress being experienced by our children. The time has come for this dialog and debate to happen.  It is long overdue.

 

The American Psychological Association (APA) found that every subsequent generation from the baby boomers to the latest generation are becoming more and more stressed. They are finding that children are experiencing added stress — more so than any other generation of children. These findings have implications to our kids and to our society at large.

 

Stress and Our Kids

 

So what should we consider when engaging with our children now?  The APA recommends the following tips for noticing when your children may be under stress.  The recommendations include:

  • Watch for negative changes in behavior.
  • Understand that “feeling sick” may be caused by stress.
  • Be aware of how your child or teen interacts with others.
  • Listen and translate; and,
  • Seek support.

The APA in their recommendations outlines additional aspects to each of these tips.  And I encourage you to read the link above.

 

Alternative Healing Approaches to Reduce Stress:

 

Whether through meditation, mindfulness, Tai Chi, Yoga, Reiki, Qigong, Native American indigenous healing, music therapy, pet therapy, acupuncture or other healing approach, our society knows that the above techniques help us physically to tap into our relaxation state.  That part that allows us to release the anxiety, the fear or the depression and to simply “let go.”  Our kids are able to tap into this approach more easily than we can as adults.  It is however a learning process.  It is better to begin early with the kids.  They learn the techniques now to support them in times of stressful life occurrences.

Alternative Healing Approaches Prove Helpful

 

Taking dedicated time to help your child to identify the “stress” or rather the emotion is a key step in the process.  Once identified, ask your child where on his or her body they feel that emotion.  This helps the child become aware that feelings, emotions, thoughts or beliefs often have a physical ramification to them.  We know that when we are scared, shocked or fearful are body often tenses up, the same is true for other feelings and thought processes.Then encourage your child to pursue an approach that helps them reach their relaxation state.  Many have been identified above.  A simple approach is to do a child meditation before going to bed.  It helps them fall asleep but also teaches them an important technique that can be built upon moving forward.

Four Directions Wellness Offers March Mindfulness for Kids!

Join Four Directions Wellness for its upcoming March Mindfulness for Kids

 

Let’s help support our kids early to lessen their stress today and tomorrow!  If you are interested, join Four DIrections Wellness Facebook for its upcoming March Mindfulness for Kids.  A new simple technique will be offered beginning on Sunday, March 4, for the week.  Each technique helps parents or guardians to incorporate meditation and mindfulness for their children.

 

Afterwards, please let me know your thoughts.  Would love to know if the techniques were helpful to you and your kids!

Winter Olympics 2018 Heroes - Four Directions Wellness

Heroes of the Winter Olympics 2018

“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
~Olympic Charter, Fundamental Principles

You may see them on the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes sometime soon. Or, they’ll be on the national newspaper covers. They’ll be interviewed on the morning news programs. These are the Olympic athletes of this year’s Winter Olympics, and they have much to discuss about their sports, their performances, and the stories of their rises to Olympic competition.

It’s an opportunity for the world to set aside its squabbles and relish in our combined abilities as a human race. If North Korea and South Korea can do it (since they’re technically still at war and they’ve collaborated with their Olympic teams), all of us can!

In this week’s post, I thought I would survey three of this Winter Olympics 2018’s heroes in Pyeongchang, South Korea—Yun Sung-Bin, Chloe Kim, and Pita Taufatofua. These Olympians are noteworthy not only because they made it to the Winter Olympics 2018, but for far more as you’ll read below.

Home Team Advantage | Winter Olympics

Let’s start with the home team, South Korea, for the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics. Originally from the south central island county of Namhae, Yun Sung-Bin was 18 years old when he was urged by a university professor to take up skeleton racing. What’s that, you ask? It’s a sport where skaters lie face down on a small sled and shoot down an iced skeleton track. Don’t worry, not many people knew this was a sport either.

Known colloquially as Skeleton Emperor in his country, Yun (his family name) skyrocketed to acclaim for several reasons. He’s the first Olympic gold medalist from South Korea for a non-ice skating event. He’s also the first non-European/North American Olympic sliding medalist. Pretty remarkable story for a person whose last Winter Olympics left him in 16th position! And, he did this all during the Lunar New Year holiday, so it’s really been exceptionally exciting for the South Korean people.

Yun’s celebrity isn’t going to go to waste. He’s on a personal mission to bring more athletes, and exposure, to skeleton. There’s more great things to come from this Olympian’s athleticism and personal drive for this sport.

USA, USA, USA | Winter Olympics

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Ready for some spring boardin

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Up next is Chloe Kim. She’s ethnically Korean, but she hails from Long Beach, California. And, she’s the 17-year-old star of Olympic snowboarding this year at the Winter Olympics. She’s had a stellar performance at this Winter Olympics, as the youngest Olympian to bring home the gold medal for snowboard halfpipe.

Kim is trilingual (English, Korean and French), has won the gold four times at the X Games, and secured a gold medal at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. But, most powerful about Chloe is her down-to-earth personality while being a superb athlete.

She’s become a Social Media sensation following her representing USA at the Winter Olympics, as perhaps the precursor to becoming a representative for Generation Z. Positive role models for the up-and-coming generation are important, and Kim is setting the standard high.

A Tongan with Cross-Country Skis | Winter Olympics

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#ZDFwinterspiele #PyeongChang2018 Die Spiele sind eröffnet! Große Begeisterung löste erneut der mutige Pita Taufatofua aus Tonga aus. Bei den Sommerspielen 2016 war der 34-jährige als Taekwondoka mit seinem eingeölten freien Oberkörper ein Blickfang der Eröffnungsfeier geween. Für Pyeongchang hat er auf Langlauf umgeschult, und er wollte vernünftig sein. "Ich werde sehr, sehr dicke Kleidung tragen. Ich will bei meinem Rennen schließlich noch lebendig sein", hatte er angekündigt. Ein Bluff: Taufatofua kam bei Minusgraden und schneidendem Wind in Sandalen, mit Röckchen und freiem Oberkörper, wieder gut geölt. (Bild 1) Doch die 23. Olympischen Winterspiele haben auch mit machtvoller politischer Symbolik begonnen. Ein historischer Handschlag zwischen Südkoreas Präsident Moon Jae In und der jüngeren Schwester des nordkoreanischen Machthabers Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, demonstrierte in Pyeongchang die vorsichtige Annäherung der verfeindeten Bruderstaaten Nord- und Südkorea. (Bild 2) Während der Eröffnungsfeier der Winterspiele sendet außerdem der gemeinsame Einzug der süd- und nordkoreanischen Sportler ein Zeichen der Hoffnung. (Bild 3) Viele Tänzer und Künstler lieferten den 35 000 Menschen im Stadion ein buntes Showprogramm. (Bild 4) Die 153-köpfige deutsche Mannschaft wurde von Fahnenträger Eric Frenzel (Kombinierer) ins Stadion geführt. (Bild 5)

A post shared by News von ZDFheute (@zdfheute) on

Last but not least is the Tongan-Australian, formerly of the Australian taekwondo team, Pita Taufatofua.  He became famous in in the Summer Olympics 2016, you might remember, for his flag-bearing appearance in the Parade of Nations, wearing nothing but a traditional Tongan taʻovala (a ceremonial skirt made of leaves and other plant fibers), flip-flops, and an oiled-up upper body. His glistening vistage was quickly made into global news.

Taufatofua performed in that Olympics and lost in the first round. With Hollywood and modeling gigs beckoning him, he turned them down and did what any rational Olympian would do. He decided a new athletic challenge and joined the Australian cross-country skiing team. This is a 34-year-old who had only seen snow for the first time a couple years before.

But, Taufatofua is not just a pretty face for the paparazzi. He’s got an engineering degree and is working on a master’s degree in the same field of academic study. When he’s not training (six hours of the day), he works his job at the Sandgate House in Brisbane, teaching independent living skills to homeless youth.

Pita Taufatofua is a story of genuine joie de vivre and an inspiration for all of us to experience life to the fullest.

The average American doesn’t know this, but Olympians don’t become wealthy from their performance in the Olympics games. Hence, why Taufatofua holds a dayjob. As explained by USA Today Sports,

They’re never going to get rich off their sport. It might, in some cases, even cost them. The biathletes, the curlers, the ski jumpers, the lugers and the Nordic combined athletes — they scrape by with help from their families and federations, juggle training with part-time jobs.

They train for years, just so that they can compete for approximately two weeks every quadrennial, otherwise out of the public eye.

These athletes aren’t in this to get rich quick. They’re there because of the fundamental principles of the Olympics Charter, by providing models for ethical standards of living, principled means to finding joy in life, and all that is embodied by the Olympics Movement. We can all take stock in finding ways to incorporate those concepts into our everyday lives in mind, body and spirit, as these Olympians have done.

Year of the Dog - The Chinese New Year - History and Meaning - Four Directions Wellness

Year of the Dog: The Chinese New Year – History and Meaning

Every year there is the largest human migration of which most of the Western World has little to no knowledge. Even more labyrinthine is that this migration happens at different times each year. Nearly three billion people travel during an approximately 40-day period surrounding it for this event. Have you guessed what it is yet? (Maybe the article title gave it away!) It’s the Chinese New Year.

The Chinese Calendar

To understand the history of the Chinese New Year and its effect on the holiday that is celebrated today, it’s good to know a little about how time was and is calculated in antiquity and today. For example, weeks in ancient China were typically 10 days long. And, a month alternated between short months (consisting of 29 days) or long months (lasting 30 days). Further, months began, according to the lunar cycles—hence why the Chinese New Year is sometimes known as the Lunar New Year—at the appearance of the new moon as it follows its circumnavigation of Earth. By mid-month, the full moon shows, and then it slowly disappears again over the balance of the month in preparation of the next new moon. Each lunar year is made up of alternating 12- and 13-month cycles, hence why the year doesn’t quite synchronize with the Gregorian calendar.

The Chinese New Year Celebration

That, of course, brings us to the holiday itself and its purpose. Borne out of lore and fear, the ancient Chinese believed that a lion-esque monster (Nian, or “year” in Chinese) was preying upon villagers. And, to vanquish the formidable foe, a wise villager told others to hang red paper cutouts outside their homes and make loud noises (such as drumming and firing off firecrackers) to scare away the beast. It was by doing so, the villagers were able to conquer Nian and the date of his death marks the new year. Some story, eh? But, that’s where the color red, adorned homes, firecrackers and general noisemaking that have come to be synonymous with the new year for the Chinese.

Of note is the fact that back in the age of dowries, women were married to their husbands and usually moved away to wherever the family of the husbands were settled. This meant that the only time a woman and her children saw her family and her children saw their maternal family was during this time of year. The migration I spoke of is the familial tradition of returning home and sharing time with one’s family.

All of this brings us to 2018, the Year of the Dog. On the 12-year Chinese Zodiac cycle, each year represented by an animal which dominates your personality traits, the Year of the Dog covers 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, and 2018 birth years. If you were born in one of these years, one fun fact is that rose, oncidium, cymbidium, and orchids are your Lucky Flowers.

The celebration of the Chinese New Year lasts 15 days, and relating back to our discussion about the lunar cycles, starts on the first day of the new year and goes until the next full moon. Now you can understand why it was called the Lunar New Year, since the Chinese (and many other Asiatic) people track their new year festival period by the phases of the moon.

Chinese New Year is marked by two symbolic festivals, the Spring Festival starts celebrations and the Lantern Festival closes them out. Spring Festival is a seven-day marathon week of…relaxation. Yes, it’s seven days of leisure (but for drinking and feasting with family) and is enjoyed by everyone in China. After all that comes to the Lantern Festival when the skies over villages, towns and cities become alight with paper lanterns floating up into the air by one and all. It’s truly a view when thousands and thousands of lights adorn the evening’s sky, to celebrate the start of the new year.

Reflections on Your Personal Renewal

Our Olympians performing in the XXIII Olympic Winter Games will have the unique opportunity to witness Lunar New Year traditions in Pyeongchang, South Korea. So, while Chinese New Year is not necessarily your cultural tradition, it is a time to stop and reflect on renewal.  It is the perfect time to reflect on the New Year’s resolution or intention that you made for 2018.  Is the resolution or intention working for you? How else might you refresh your life? How can you find unique ways to ward off any Nian, the emotional monsters that might be preying on you? Can you start anew this month in some way?

I would love to hear how you might be including the Chinese New Year into your life.  Take a moment to let me know. And, enjoy!

Matters of the Heart - Alternative Medicines for Treating Heart Disease - Four Directions Wellness

Matters of the Heart: Alternative Medicines for Treating Heart Disease

It’s February! The month when we recognize all of those in our lives that we love during Valentine’s Day. (And just in case you are not yet ready for Valentine’s day, here are gift ideas for your valentine.) February, though, is also the month dedicated to our Heart Health, a time dedicated to our own self-care and support of our health and cardiovascular system. As you consider a gift for a loved one, take time today to read this article on how you can also give the gift of wellness to yourself, supporting your heart healthy living.

Promising research is finding that ancient healing approaches are very effective.  Some of the most effective ways of supporting our heart are through natural treatments or healing techniques such as Reiki, Tai Chi and more.  Each of these techniques do not use prescription drugs, or drugs of any kind, and help the body to find balance, restoring itself to a place of optimal healing.

Heart Disease Is Running Rampant | Alternative Medicines for Treating Heart Disease

In the United States, according to the American College of Cardiology (ACC), somebody dies every 40 seconds from cardiovascular disease (CVD). This is a staggering number of lives—nearly one-third of all US deaths each year.

Concurrently, coronary heart disease (CHD) has the dubious title, the ACC also notes, as “the leading cause of death in the US.” With nearly 800,000 adults experiencing cardiac arrest each year, surely the medical professional community and those of us with hearts can do better!

While this should dismay even the steeliest of hearts, the odds are not insurmountable to saving more lives. Over the last 10 years deaths due to CVD have declined, and alternative medicines and ancient healing practices could greatly decrease mortality rates.

These are preventable diseases and as we’ll discuss next, there are alternative medicines for treating heart disease, whether that’s natural treatments and/or ancient healing practices.

Traditional Treatments Aren’t Always Effective or Healthy, and Current Alternative Options Are Available | Alternative Medicines for Heart Disease

While traditional medicine has some tremendous progress in the prevention of deaths from heart disease in recent years, alternative medicines for treating heart disease are starting to get more recognition. While more research and funding for that research is important, we already see great promise from those leading the charge in this area of scientific research. Let’s take a look at a few examples that you can try today.

As a Reiki practitioner, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Reiki is showing promising results in the battle for greater heart health, especially after an acute cardiac incident. Yale researchers found that “patients who received a 20-minute Reiki treatment within three days after suffering a heart attack showed improved mood and heart rate variability (HRV),” as explained on ReikiinMedicine.org.

On the preventative measures side, Tai Chi (which we’ve mentioned before here on the Healthy and Fit Blog) is an ancient healing practice and martial art. Not only does Tai Chi benefit you in many health-related ways that may preempt disease and disorder, Tai Chi has been shown to benefit people who have experienced heart failure, as detailed by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) (which is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)).

Aside from ancient healing practices, there are dangers to some high-cholesterol, coronary artery-risk patients who would take statins (i.e., drugs that control cholesterol levels) but that they can negatively affect their muscles. In those cases, red yeast rice has shown by studies from the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University that it could not only reduce LDL (“bad”) cholesterol but cholesterol overall in patients. Hopefully more research is done to prove that Nature’s available resources can be used more in these circumstances to heal the literal heart and body.

The door is open for alternative medicines for treating heart disease, as many more methods continue to show promise.

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So, for this Valentine’s Day, I urge you to research these alternative medicines. Email me with questions you may have about how natural remedies and ancient healing practices can be used to support your health and well-being. And, don’t be afraid to ask your health professionals about how these treatments can complement (not simply replace) their traditional healthcare treatments.

Enjoy Your Smoothie Fix Today

Let’s face it.  Our lives can be crazy with jammed packed schedules and difficulties finding time to make healthy and nutritional meals.  If simply for the sake of convenience and pure enjoyment, I thought it might be fun to explore the latest as it relates to healthy (and even not-so-healthy) smoothies.

I began my journey by learning of 20 healthy smoothies as determined by
Prevention Magazine.  Each smoothie offers a delicious way to start your morning or have a snack in the afternoon or finish your day – whatever you might be seeking.  One of the best aspects of smoothies is that they require a minimal number of ingredients and are usually easy to put together.  Plus, the recipes include yummy fruit flavors such as banana-ginger, orange dream creamsicle or very berry breakfast.  Here is our warning to our healthy eaters.  The so-called “healthy” smoothies may not be your definition of healthy.  For instance, the caloric intake varies from 100 to 300 with sugars averaging around 11 to 44 grams.  So you do need to read each recipe to determine if it is truly your kind of healthy.

Smoothie Recipes to Explore

Breakfast Smoothies:

If healthy is what you are really want in smoothies and you want to have at breakfast, then Fitness Magazine has the right list for you!  Their breakfast smoothie options are the following:  blueberry spinach, almond, strawberry banana oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly protein, intense workout high-protein, orange protein and possibly the most important one, the happy digestion smoothie.  Plus the Fitness Magazine writers walk you through important ways to keep your smoothie truly healthy.

Smoothie Options:

And just in case, you are really interested in exploring all of your options.  EatingWell has a whole section dedicated to the luscious and exciting world of smoothies.  They have categories for reference and to ensure that you get to experience the smoothie of your choice.  Your options include but are not limited to:  healthy vegan, healthy vegetable, healthy smoothie bowl, healthy almond smoothie, healthy chia seed, low-fat, healthy green and of course, the healthy 5-minute smoothie for those of us who need a quick and easy recipe.

So are smoothies really good or bad for you?  A recent article in the Center for Nutritional Studies found that smoothies can be helpful for your diet but there are some cautionary notes as well.  Since smoothies are liquid, it is important to realize that liquid is easier to go down than food.  Be careful to not drink more than you would usually eat.  Take time to read the nutritional value to truly understand what you might be drinking and many nutritional experts encourage us to eat rather than drink all of our nutrition.

I am curious.  What was your favorite smoothie recipe?  Or do you have one that you love and would be willing to share here?  Looking forward to hearing your favorites.

 

Praying: Does It Offer Health Benefits?

If you have ever been faced with a life-threatening illness or visited your local hospital when a loved one is receiving care, chances are you have entered into a moment in silence for yourself or a loved one. And you are not alone. An estimated 85% of us confronting a major illness prayed when we received the news, states a University of Rochester study. Praying offers a way of connecting with something larger than us and offers many a “sense of greater clarity, purpose, gratitude, presence, sense of connection and overall well-being,” states an article by Dr. Colbert titled “The Stunning Science Behind the Healing Power of Prayer.”

The Relaxation Response:

Does Prayer Help or Harm Our Health?

Prayer is not the only approach utilized when facing a health concern. Many with a spiritual leaning also use meditation to gain their inner strength. What, then, is the difference between prayer and meditation? In many spiritual practices, prayer is thought of as the opportunity for a person to confide in his or her Higher Power while meditation offers an opportunity for something greater than us to provide messaging back.

 

Whether you use prayer or meditation, those in the medical field see both options having an impact on your physical health. It is explained as the person tapping into his or her “relaxation response.” If you remember your biology class back in high school, you might remember the discussion on the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Your ANS is divided between your parasympathetic (rest and digest) and your sympathetic (fight or flight). When you hear that you or a loved one is facing a health concern, it may trigger the “fight or flight response.” Your body tenses up and leaves the person or their loved one unable to relax. A relaxed state allows the physical body to enter a state of homeostasis, or balance so that the body may heal more easily.

Prayer Research:

The inclusion of prayer and meditation within our healthcare system has varied throughout time but there is now growing interest in the field. In the past, a hospital might have a chaplain and a room dedicated for spiritual reflection. Now more healthcare providers are actually seeing the actual health benefits. Hospice providers have always known the importance of our spiritual beliefs. When a person is on hospice services, the person’s whole being is considered. The hospice team works as much on the person’s spiritual and emotional needs as his or her physical needs. The success of the hospice program and other similar medical approaches incorporating spiritual practices has many providers asking why we wait until the end of life to incorporate into the person’s overall wellbeing.

Research is indicating that spiritual considerations should be incorporated earlier in a person’s overall healthcare. Here are some examples provided in a recent Huffington Post blog titled “Why People Who Pray are Healthier than Those Who Don’t.”

  • National Institutes of Health Study: Found individuals who prayed daily were 40% less likely to have high blood pressure than those without regular prayer practice;
  • Dartmouth Medical School: Found that patients with strong religious beliefs who underwent elective heart surgery were three times more likely to recover than those who were less religious;
  • University of Cincinnati: Found that inner city youth with asthma who used prayer and meditation experienced fewer and less severe symptoms than their non-praying counterparts, and
  • Journal of Gerontology: Found that 4,000 senior citizens in Durham, North Caroline who prayed or meditated coped better with illness and lived longer than those who did not.

With all of the research available, no research found any harmful consequences to a person’s health when prayer or meditation was incorporated.

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear what you think about prayer, meditation and its incorporation into our healthcare system.