Health
Health is an important aspect in life.
Sadly many of us negleted it thinking that we are quite healthy.
We are actually living a very unhealthy life.
Coming up next…. I shall talk about health and how to maintain it. 
* picture courtesy of Tim Jacob
Effective Way to Deal with Anger and Stress
Budapest, Hungary
Effective Way to Deal with Anger and Stress
Dealing with explosive emotions like anger and stress is easy to say than to do.
How can we deal with them easily yet effectively?
Simply tap yourself over and over again.
The Chinese believe that emotions and body are closely related.
The organs and energy meridians in the body have emotional elements and how you feel will affect the body, and vice versa.
Therefore it is quite effective to deal with the emotion-body energy system to eliminate anger and stress.
Previously I blogged about Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) that effectively deals with emotions.
It has the function of triggering the emotion so that anger and stress can surface and manifest itself for us to eliminate, by tapping a few acupressure points that can get rid of them quickly and cleanly.
We can simplify the whole EFT thing to just tapping so that we can deal with our emotional problems directly.
The tapping itself is the main method to release emotional energy blockage and outburst, which is causing a lot of problems.
I shall outline some of the points to be tapped with your fingers (not nails) of both hands.
You simply need to tap each point rapidly for about 7 times.
Here’s a video demo of the points to be tapped. (just skip the non tapping part)
Although it seems ridiculous to get rid of anger and stress by just tapping but from the experience of many people it works quite well. Tapping for one round alone (tapping through the points mentioned above once) can greatly reduce the level of negative emotions.
When you are really in bad mood from exam, work, annoyance or anything else,
quickly do the tapping again and again,
even though this might not seem to work at first but after many rounds (10, 20 or 30 rounds, which won’t last for more than 10 minutes)
You will notice that the outburst is reduced significantly and the feeling of inner bliss is felt.
Always choose to do tapping when you are angry or stressed.
It is much better than hurting yourself, your loved ones and your valuable things,
and it deals with the root of the problem directly.
Sometimes anger or stress can be subtle so it is a good idea to do the tapping a few short rounds even though you are not experiencing outburst. The problem is there, it is just that sometimes we are not aware of it. It can cause muscular tension or dull feeling. So when you are taking a walk, waiting at train station or not doing anything, go through the tapping gently.
You might even notice that you feel calmer and less tense after doing it as subtle stress is removed.
I hope this simple tapping exercise will help you greatly to deal with your problems in life.
Have fun and keep experimenting.
Lemon is a powerful detox agent.
It can clean your digestive system effectively.
Drinking lemon juice does not only detox your body, but also kill germs.
It is healthy to drink a cup of warm honey lemon tonic everyday after you wake up from bed as it will give a boost to your organs to do some body cleaning jobs.
Sometimes this tonic will soothe stomach ache as well.
It is not difficult to make the tonic.
You just need to cut a lemon into two and take half of the lemon and squeeze the juice nicely into a cup or mug. If possible try to remove the lemon seeds.
Pour hot water into the cup and leave it cool down to lukewarm.
Next add a tea spoon of honey and stir the mixture.
Voila! You get a cup of tonic in no time.
Drink the tonic everyday and you will notice the positive changes of your body soon.
Have fun and keep experimenting.
With healthy eyes and sharp vision,
we possess the luxury to enjoy the visual beauty of life.
Modern life is quite hectic and the straining of eyes is causing visual problems amongst us.
Many people are short sighted nowadays.
We need to do something to restore the health of our eyes.
The main and common cause of short sightedness is the loss of flexibility of the eye muscles.
There is a set of muscles pulling our cornea to change the thickness of the inner lens so that images can be properly focused onto the retina.
When we overstrain our eyes by staring at close distance for prolonged period of time,
the eye muscles will loose their flexibility due to long period of visual fixation.
Hence, their ability to focus the image to the retina will decrease, and this causes short sightedness.
Glasses refocus the images to the retina but it doesn’t cure the fatigued muscles.
In other words, it rectifies the symptom but the cause of problem is still there.
Glasses itself may become a clutch for the eyes in the long run and this is not something good to hear.
LASIK surgery removes a thin layer of cornea so that images can be focused on the retina sharply.
It is like glasses, which eliminate the symptom and not solving the cause of problem.
To reduce the straining of your eyes,
look elsewhere far away every 10 minutes while you are reading or staring at the computer, for about 10 second and blink occasionally. Do this as often as possible so that such habit will form to maintain the health of your eyes.
Exercise for flexibility
This exercise is best done a few times a day to make the eye muscles flexible.
Hold a book or a line of printed words near to your eyes. Face your body towards somewhere far away, for example towards a hill or tower far away.
Focus sharply at the far away object, then suddenly look at the words you are holding. Next quickly look at the far away object again. Repeat this step of looking far and near alternatively, and keep the time interval of switching objects short.
By switching the visual objects quickly, your eye muscles are trained to focus your sight at different focal distance so that the flexibility of the muscles is increased. As you do this exercise consistently, you will experience improvement in your vision.
It is a good idea to exercise one eye at a time. One set of exercise is done typically for 5 to 10 minutes.
Twice a day of doing this exercise is recommended.
I hope this exercise will help to improve your vision and prevent future eye problems.
Most importantly, have fun in doing this exercise.
Don’t expect too much, what matters is that your vision improve as days go by.
Avoid overstraining your eyes in everyday life if possible. Rest your eyes from time to time.
Take care and be well.
The 5 Tibetan Rites is a set of exercises that I recommend you to do consistently.
Some of my friends who have tried it agree that the exercises bring vitality and make them feel younger.
I have been doing it for months and I find that the 5 rites improve not just the energy (chi) body
but also the flexibility and muscle strength as well.
It is said to be the simplified version of Indian yoga.
There are only 5 movements so it is easy to do the whole set in a relatively short period of time.
One of the mistake people make is trying to do them in 21 repetitions (max. number of repetition you can do) in the first few days.
They gave up due to exhaustion.
I recommend doing the rites step by step starting from just 3 repetitions and increase the number of repetition as fitness improves.
Overall it is something fun to do when you get used to it. I hope you enjoy the exercises.
Thanks to Life Events for creating the animated pictures and the website. You can find the complete instruction for the exercises there.
Here’s another good website with the instruction for the five rites.
The Five Tibetan Rites: Exercises for Healing, Rejuvenation, and Longevity
small talk :
Life Events is a spiritual development related organization based in Thailand.
They offer training in stuffs like Tibetan breathing, Yoga and other spiritually related exercises.
I have contacted them to ask permission to blog with their pictures and the webmaster agreed.
She also appreciate my blog and that makes me flattered
I really want to thank them for making a simple yet effective webpage on the 5 rites
otherwise the world might be learning it from some boring black and white still images hehe
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a tool that intends to relieve many psychological conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress, addictions and phobias. The basic EFT technique involves holding a disturbing memory or emotion in mental focus and simultaneously using the fingers to tap on a series of 12 specific points on the body that correspond to meridians used in Chinese medicine. The theory behind EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body’s “energy field,” and that tapping on the meridians while thinking of a negative emotion alters the body’s energy field, restoring it to “balance.”
Read more about Emotional Freedom Technique
You can get a free eBook on EFT here. Enjoy
Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive relaxation is a technique of stress management developed by the American physician Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920s. Jacobson argued that since muscular tension accompanies anxiety, one can reduce anxiety by learning how to relax the muscular tension.
Jacobson trained his patients to voluntarily relax certain muscles in their body in order to reduce anxiety symptoms. He also found that relaxation procedure effective with ulcers, insomnia, and hypertension. There are many parallels with Autogenic training, which was developed independently.
Jacobson’s Progressive Relaxation is still popular with modern therapists.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation steps
Sit in a comfortable chair–reclining arm chairs are ideal. Bed is okay too. Get as comfortable as possible–no tight clothes, no shoes, don’t cross your legs. Take a deep breath; let it out slowly. Again. What you’ll be doing is alternately tensing and relaxing specific groups of muscles. After tension, a muscle will be more relaxed than prior to the tensing. Concentrate on the feel of the muscles, specifically the contrast between tension and relaxation. In time, you will recognize tension in any specific muscle and be able to reduce that tension.
Don’t tense muscles other than the specific group at each step. Don’t hold your breath, grit your teeth, or squint! Breath slowly and evenly and think only about the tension-relaxation contrast. Each tensing is for 10 seconds; each relaxing is for 10 or 15 seconds. Count “1,000 2,000…” until you have a feel for the time span. Note that each step is really two steps–one cycle of tension-relaxation for each set of opposing muscles.
Do the entire sequence once a day if you can, until you feel you are able to control your muscle tensions. Be careful: If you have problems with pulled muscles, broken bones, or any medical contraindication for physical activities, consult your doctor first.
Now just relax for a while. As your days of practice progress, you may wish to skip the steps that do not appear to be a problem for you. After you’ve become an expert on your tension areas (after a few weeks), you can concern yourself only with those. These exercises will not eliminate tension, but when it arises, you will know it immediately, and you will be able to “tense-relax” it away or even simply wish it away.
source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_relaxation
Abdominal Breathing
Abdominal (BELLY) breathing is one of the simplest, yet most powerful stress management techniques you can perform. Basically, belly breathing can change your life for the better!
Your breathing directly reflects the level of tension you carry in your body. Under stress, your breathing usually becomes shallow and rapid, occurring high in the chest. When relaxed, you breathe more fully, more deeply, and from your abdomen (belly). It’s difficult to be tense and to breathe from your abdomen at the same time.
A newborn child breathes with the abdomen. As the child gets older, breathing becomes partially intercostal ( i.e. chest breathing). During adult life most of us breathe only through the chest. Abdominal breathing is almost forgotten.
RAISE AWARENESS
The key to natural, diaphragmatic and abdominal (belly) breathing is to begin to learn to sense unnecessary tension in our bodies and to learn how to release this tension. This requires great inner attention and awareness. It requires learning the art of self-sensing and self-observation…that is developing of a mind-body awareness.
PRACTICE
To practice abdominal breathing, sit comfortably with your back straight. Always breathe through the nose, which filters warm air. Place your right hand on the chest and your left hand on your belly. This will help you to be aware of your abdominal muscles as you breathe. As you begin to inhale, your left hand on the belly should begin to rise, while your right hand should move very little. Now exhale as much air as you can while contracting your abdominal muscles. Once again your left hand should move in as you exhale, while your right hand should move very little. This is abdominal breathing. Breathing through your abdomen will gradually become automatic if you practice it on a regular basis.
BENEFITS
Deep, abdominal breathing helps…
* Detoxify inner organs, promote blood flow and peristalsis, and bolster our immunity.
* Increase oxygen supply to the brain and musculature.
* Stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system: Promotes a state of calmness.
* More efficient excretion of bodily toxins.
* Improved concentration.
* Greater feelings of connectedness between mind and body. Anxiety and worry tend to keep you “up in your head.” A few minutes of deep abdominal breathing will help bring you down into your whole body.
source :
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~rccc/Breathing.htm
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