July

Hello everyone, it is your host Sevina. This month’s topic will be relaxation. We are in the middle of the summer; it is the perfect time to relax, unwind, and take some time off.  But just in case you don’t have the luxury to take a vacation and rest, here are some things you can do from anywhere.

Enjoy the articles below.

Namaste!

The Ability to Relax is Essential to our Health and Emotional Well-Being.

By: Sevina Altanova

When most of society is overstimulated, overworked, and overburdened, you need a practical way to counteract the bad health effects of a high-pressure lifestyle.

Fortunately, there is practice that will let you manage your stress – Relaxation! 

Just 30 Minutes of deep relaxation prolongs your productivity for 2-3 hours.

The benefits of stress reduction are powerful. The benefits of relaxation in mental health and physical arenas are significant. By shutting off the SNS (sympathetic nervous system), you open the door to health, wholeness, creativity, etc.

1. Happier Outlook

Research has shown that relaxation has a protective effect against depression and anxiety. In older adults, the effect has been reported to be even more pronounced. In another study, group-based relaxation skills training reduced anxious and depressive symptoms. With reported rates of depression on the rise, isn’t it nice to know that simply learning how to relax can be a protective shield against what researchers call the disease of modernity?

2. Upgraded Memory

Scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the California Institute of Technology found that stronger and more lasting memories are created when the brain is influenced by theta waves. These brain waves are associated with relaxation. “Our research shows that when memory-related neurons are well coordinated to theta waves during the learning process, memories are stronger,” said Adam Mamelak, a neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

3. Stronger Immune System

Researchers in the field of psychoneuroimmunology concluded that your state of mind has the power to enhance or degenerate the immune system. A meta-analysis of over 300 studies revealed that chronic stress degraded all aspects of immunity, from fighting the common cold to warding off cancer. Practicing relaxation keeps the immune system operating at full capacity.

4. Reduced Risk of Heart Disease

According to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, relaxation via meditation may play a valuable role in preventing or reversing heart disease. Dozens of studies performed over the past two decades have shown that relaxation simultaneously reduces heart disease cofactors such as stress, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, and poor sleep quality.

5. Improved Relationships

Judy Ford, a licensed clinical social worker and author of Every Day Love: The Delicate Art of Caring for Each Other says, “Stress impacts our love relationships more than we are aware of or acknowledge.” Ford compares stress to a game of ping-pong where tension is the ball that bounces back and forth between partners. “Stressed-out couples quarrel and fight more often, withdraw from each other, feel disconnected, sad, frustrated, angry.” The antidote to stress is relaxation. By engaging in activities that calm the fight-or-flight response, you are better able to connect to a partner. In a state of relaxation that you are able to give and receive love.

6. Better Sleep

The body cannot enter into sleep when it is in survival mode. Relaxation slows down the busy mind by helping you to process the day’s events prior to sleep. There are specific relaxation routines that can be used prior to sleep to facilitate deep rest. Researchers have suggested that relaxation may help address insomnia and help you have a better night’s sleep.

7. Increased Energy

Stress naturally uses more energy than relaxation. When you practice stress management and take frequent relaxation breaks, you can conserve energy throughout the day. Instead of leaving work drained and worn out, working in a state of relaxation allows you to leave work with energy left for leisure, family, and exercise! Relaxation breaks also carry over into your work, allowing you to access the mind-boosting benefits of a calm and centered awareness.

8. Enhanced Creativity

The daydreamers always have been creative types. Now we know why. According to research in neuroscience, creativity occurs in moments of rest rather than while working or thinking. People who are constantly engaging their minds may hamper their creative impulses. Current research points to why meditation, which is a type of integrated mind-body relaxation, has been shown to enhance creativity.

9. Decreased Pain

Everyone experiences pain sometimes. But before reaching for a bottle of pain relievers the next time you have a headache, try turning inward to the inner pharmacy. Relaxation in the form of mindfulness meditation has been found to be an effective and powerful pain reliever.

10. Expanded Motivation

Have you ever felt motivated to work on your personal goals or dreams when you’re feeling stressed out about work, finances, or relationships? Most likely not. Motivation stems from inspiration, which in turn flows out of relaxation. If you want to enhance your motivation, start by carving out some time to relax your mind and enjoy life. When you are calm and connected, you will find the motivation to pursue all your worthwhile goals.

30 Minutes of deep relaxation prolongs your productivity for 2-3 hours.

Take advantage of these relaxations!!!

If you like them, please visit:

http://www.StressManagementResources.com/shop

Links to preview:

“Anxiety Relieve” Relaxation/Meditation

“Overcoming Panic Attack” Relaxation/Meditation

“Clearing Chakras” Relaxation/Meditation

“Gamma Light/Sound” Relaxation/Meditation

Anxiety Relief Relaxation 

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Relaxation for Overcoming a Panic Attack

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Clearing Chakras Relaxation

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Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy with Combination of 40Hz Light and Sound

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Expand Your Awareness to Expand your Life

By Deepak Chopra M.D.

This year the arrival of summer coincides with the perfect time to expand your life. A difficult year has created problems that have gained publicity like increased anxiety and depression. But at a deeper level, even noticing no symptoms, almost everyone has experienced contracted awareness. When awareness contracts, you are less optimistic, see fewer opportunities, and fear that normal life has grown risky.

Constricted awareness is tense, closed, insecure, and stuck. Expanded awareness is open, carefree, secure, and flowing. That’s where you need to be if you want your life to expand, because your state of awareness is the lens through which you see the world. So how do you expand your awareness?

Here’s a seven-step program for change that you can follow without strain, choosing any recommended step at your own pace and comfort level.

1. Return to center

When you are centered, you feel relaxed, calm, and quiet inside. There were a lot of reasons this past year to feel the opposite, in a state of restlessness, distraction, and stress. It’s good to remind your nervous system what it feels like to be centered. Make it your policy, as soon as you notice that you are not calm and centered, to find a quiet place. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, then meditate until you feel centered again. When you open your eyes, be sure to take a moment before going back into activity.

2. Minimize stressful input

In times of crises people stay glued to news and social media even though they are feeding a person’s stress level. Anything that makes you feel pressured, threatened, or anxious automatically contracts your awareness. Make a conscious effort to reduce stressful news items and if possible do without them.

3. Practice positive time management

A very good idea is the so-called “time menu,” which gives you choices for how to manage your time every day. You already select certain items from the menu, namely work time, meal time, and sleep time. But there are other items that will help you expand your awareness. There is down time, alone time, and play time. Down time should be a few minutes out of every hour where you get up, stretch, and walk around. Alone time should be two sessions in your day when you take 5 to 10 minutes to meditate or reflect or simply be quiet, still, and alone. Play time is shared with others usually, and is marked by any activity that makes you smile and laugh. Play time is for being carefree, not for fierce competition or video games.

4. Act on your highest values

Spiritual values haven’t changed over the centuries. They are expressions of love, devotion, service, compassion, and kindness. But values remain dormant if you don’t act on them. In constricted awareness you are wound in a tight protective posture, so spiritual values have less of an outlet, or none at all. To expand your awareness, act on the values you hold most dear. No one is asking you to be a saint. But there is always an instance during the day where a kind gesture or word, an expression of affection, or a small act of service gives you an opportunity to live out your values.

5. Undo your isolation

Physical isolation has been enforced for a year, but less noticed is psychological isolation. It blocks us from emotional contact and bonding with others. As you undo your physical isolation, renew the bonds with the people who matter most in your life. Bonding occurs in person—emails and texting won’t do it. Start sharing positive emotions like hope and optimism with your friends and family. Avoid the emotions that make people contracted inside, which means avoiding stressful news, complaining, blaming, and being woeful about the state of the world.

6. Express your inner world

The most enjoyable way to expand your awareness is to express yourself joyfully. Creative outlets are one way that works beautifully, but that’s just one path. You need to express whatever you most value in yourself. This could be love, caring, kindness, or selfless service. The key is that you feel the real you coming out, because the real you is the source of bliss.

7. Renew yourself

The present moment is the only place where life is renewed. It is the location of flow. It is where invisible possibilities become real as thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. But if you carry the baggage of old beliefs, anxiety, worry, inertia, habits, and conditioning around with you, you will never experience the present moment, and therefore you will not be renewed.

There is no mystery to being in the present moment. You are just yourself, and being here feels like all you need. Being creative is very present moment, so that’s a desirable pursuit. But there is also a presence that goes deeper, call it a divine or spiritual presence. It radiates from your source in pure awareness.

If you lived from your source, you would experience life as a field of infinite possibilities, and your state of awareness would be blissful. Make that your vision. You don’t have to achieve it on a timetable, but if you are guided by a vision, you will come closer to your source, in or out of meditation. You will begin to feel that creation is embodied in you, which is actually the truth.

Life is abundant, but that’s only an inspiring notion until you experience it first-hand. When you have a glimpse of beauty, love, innocence, wonder, or joy, pause and value it. Say to yourself, “This moment reflects the real me.” These are the moments that renew you, because they are when you walk in the light.

Sweet Potato Toast with Almond Butter & Banana

Warm toast with peanut butter is a traditional breakfast treat. This recipe kicks it up a notch on the healthy chart by using sweet potato as the toast and almond butter with bananas as a topping. It’s a little sweet and savory and a filling and indulgent breakfast food you may enjoy even more than the classic version.

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup creamy almond butter
• 2 bananas, sliced thin

Directions:

Cut the pointy ends off of each sweet potato and slice them lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick slices. Toast them in your toaster or in the oven until they begin to brown. 

Once toasted to your liking, spread almond butter over each slice and top with the banana slices. 

Serves 4