Archive for the ‘Relieve Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Stress’ Category

“This is driving me to drink” a once popular humours phrase is rooted in the fact that many times stress is the root cause for the consumption of alcohol.

While it may be true that someone under stress may have a tendency to seek a good stiff drink; it is just as true that the chronic consumption of alcohol can cause stress. Moderate consumption of alcohol can actually have some beneficial effects on one’s health. The problem lies when the alcohol consumption is heavy and becomes more and more frequent as a reason to relieve stress. This type of compulsive behavior over time will actually worsen the stress in one’s life.

Heavy alcohol consumption stimulates the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and the adrenal glands. A side effect of this is an increase in the amount of cortisol and adrenaline produced. Although both of these to chemicals alone don’t cause stress directly, it is believed they play a role in the symptoms.

As you may have experienced, stress makes it more difficult to concentrate and focus. These are also effects that accompany alcohol consumption. So you can see from the math that someone who is feeling the effects of stress and is under the influence of alcohol is getting a heavy does of concentration inhibition… probably at a time when they need clear thinking the most.

Exercise is known as one of the best tools and defenses against stress. Unfortunately consumption of alcohol doesn’t lend itself to motivating one to go have a workout. So, the more frequently the drinking the less frequently it is found that people engage in healthy activity.

In addition, heavy consumption of alcohol suppresses one’s appetite. Yet at the same time, alcohol is not calorie free. So again, someone who has the propensity to consume alcohol is getting a double dip by decreasing their motivation to maintain a healthy while consuming non nutritional calories provided in alcoholic beverages.

Along with everything else in the spiral of excessive alcohol consumption and stress, comes the fact that alcohol debilitates one’s mental faculties, thus making it even more difficult for the drinker to think rationally. In this state, more mistakes are made, important tasks and dates are missed or mis-timed which only heightens the stress that is already surrounding this person. In an alcoholic state, the person can literally not even think their way out of their predicament… again causing yet more stress.

As you can see, this is a perilous cycle a person get into… the stress encourages drinking and the drinking creates scenarios that produce more stress. Although the results of alcohol and stress vary from person to person, the lesson learned is that teaching yourself to have a drink to relieve stress is not a solution or a habit to get into.

If a person finds themselves engaged in this endless loop of self destruction, the key is to break the cycle. It is imperative that this person first finds an alternative for dealing with the stress in their life. By doing this, the individual will immediately relieve the alcohol induced stress and thus immediately reduce a significant portion of the overall stress right there.

In many cases something as simple as proper diet and beginning an exercise program or other physical activities are an excellent starting point.

Jeff Foster
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/stress-and-alcohol-139487.html

Human bodies must be detoxified. That is, the amount of toxins and pathogens must be removed from the body in order to maintain health and happiness. A healthy human body removes toxins through normal biological processes and waste elimination. But in today’s environment, our bodies are bombarded with pollutants that compromise health and the immune system. Body detox is a process through which we intentionally change, at the very least, our food and lifestyle choices to allow the body to process and reduce toxins and pathogens to a safe level.

The primary cause of toxin build-up is poor diet. Fast food, junk food, and the preservatives and additives in processed foods lead to any number of complaints as they throw bodily processes out of whack. Among the most harmful foods are those high in acidity like caffeine, carbonated beverages, meat, sugary foods, and processed (including canned and frozen) foods. Toxin overload can also result when your biological processes are not operating properly, including when you can’t eliminate wastes properly. Changing your diet in a good body detox program may allow your biological processes to recover to a normal state.

When toxins within the body exceed normal healthy ranges, a person can become exhausted easily, gain weight, develop muscle and joint pain, and even, in the extreme, develop cancer. Some scientists suggest that the formation of too many free radicals begins a chain reaction that overwhelms the healthy body. We know that an overly acidic pH level in the human body can create these symptoms.

Health is not just physical fitness and being free of disease. The chemicals, hormones, and enzymes in our bodies also affect the way we think and feel emotionally. Recall your mood the last time you were sick. When the body is not healthy, we tend to think more negative thoughts and feel more destructive emotions. As our bodies become more stressed, so do your spirits. And the opposite is true as well. Negative thinking and destructive emotions can attack our health and weaken our resistance to disease. Body detox helps bring purify not only our blood and organs, but our mind and spirit, creating not only better health, but a better life generally.

Short for “detoxification,” detox occurs on several levels. Physically, it involves cleaning harmful substances from the system and returning the body to a natural balance. Believe it or not, a health pH balance is as important to our health as maintaining a healthy temperature. There are a variety of body detox diets and programs available that will show you how to promote better health. Search for “detox diet” or “body detox” on the Internet to find an array of options for self-cleansing. Visit your local health food store for more ideas and advice.

Detoxification of the mind is also an important part of a body detox program. Reducing the stress, worry, frustration, and anger in your daily life can speed body detox up and help maintain healthy processes and chemical balances within the body. By attending to your psychological and emotional needs, you can transform stress to joy and transform illness to good health.

Eastern philosophers and religious leaders have long been aware of the importance of physical well-being to spiritual well-being. Fasting, which is an important part of body detox, is an ancient practice that coincidentally helps remove harmful toxins from the body. Doing this makes a person’s mind more clear and heart more stable. Though they wouldn’t have used the phrase, body detox is a basic part of a healthy spiritual life as well.

Concepts surrounding the process of body detox are relatively new on the science scene. However, many leaders in helping professions for physical, mental, and emotional healing believe that detoxification is essential in today’s world. A body detox program including a better diet, more regular physical exercise, and attention to one’s mental and emotional states may be one of the most positive changes we can make in our lives today.

Pollution, stress, conflict, and confusion are the hallmarks of modern society. As individuals, we can’t do a lot to eliminate larger environmental and social problems. But we can make a big difference one at a time as each of us works to make healthy, positive changes in our lifestyle and in the way we view life. Body detox can do much more than relieve aches and pains or help you lose weight. It can change your life and your outlook on life.

You don’t have to undertake a complex, formal body detox program to improve your health. Broad life style changes that may go a long way to restoring your health and outlook include:
1) Drinking 3-4 quarters of water every day
2) Eating more vegetables and fruit and less meat and dairy
3) Increasing the amount of regular physical exercise you get
4) Try short fasts (1-2 days)
5) Avoid caffeine, sugary desserts, carbonated beverages, alcohol, milk chocolate, and high-acid foods
6) Check into available alkalizing water and food supplements to help restore healthy pH balance
7) Schedule “me time” every day to restore your mental and emotional balance
Consider meditation or yoga

A final word of advice. If you’ve decided to undertake a detox diet or make major changes in your diet or lifestyle, visit your doctor first. Be sure there isn’t another physical problem that requires medical treatment before you commit to a formal detox program. Having said that, consider body detox to improve the quality of your and your family’s lives.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/detoxifying-the-body-8-simple-steps-to-a-healthy-lifestyle-708972.html

There are significant links between stress and blood pressure. Being stressed leads to many problems and blood pressure is one of them. If you are suffering from high blood pressure then your knowledge about stress can make relevant differences in your cardiovascular health.

Physical response of body towards different events includes secretion of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Due to these hormones blood pressure causes your heart to beat faster and also blood vessels to constrict.

Stress occurs on account of many reasons like problems in adjustment between office and home and overload of work. If it persists for a long term then it is disastrous for health as it increases blood pressure. Once stress is relieved body pressure returns to its normal stage. Temporary spike in blood pressure may result in damaging your blood vessels, kidneys and heart. Upon that if you react to stress by smoking and drinking alcohol then your problem of blood pressure can become worse. If this combination persists together for long period of time then it increases your risk of stroke and heart attack.

You can fight against stress and blood pressure if you know how to manage your routine activities. Proper balance between daily activities provides you peace of mind and thus reduces stress leading to normal blood pressure. Here are below mentioned some ways to manage stress and blood pressure:

• You should make flexible schedule of routine activities. Take out some time for rest and pursue your hobbies as it will bring satisfaction and peace to your mind and body.

• Being consistently busy in work exhausts body and mind resulting in stress and blood pressure in people. Hence schedule your time flexibly and follow it sincerely.

• Whenever you feel stress then relax and take high and deep breathe. It will relieve down your stress and blood pressure also gets normal with it.

• Consult your doctor for exercises which are beneficial in relieving stress and also keeps your blood pressure normal. Physical activities are a natural stress buster.

• Talk to friends, spouse or any close one if you are feeling anxious or worried.

• Take enough sleep.

• Eat healthy and avoid any indulgence in alcohol, drugs or smoking.

Jim Andrews
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/stress-and-blood-pressure-are-related-674603.html

If you’re hearing more about body detox these days, it’s no accident. Detox ain’t just for drugs or alcohol. It’s for all of us. We live in a world of air pollution, water pollution, and bad habits. The chemical revolution is still going on, and chemicals, both healthy and not, surround us everywhere.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Disease Control, performs a survey called NHanes that assesses the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States through interviews and direct physical examinations. They found that, in 2003-2004, two-thirds of adults in the U.S. were overweight or obese. Almost 20% of teenagers were found to be overweight or obese.

In today’s busy life, we bombard our bodies with fast food, processed food, and a mountain of preservatives and additives every day. And now, we hear about genetically altered “designer” foods whose impact on our bodies is still largely unknown.
Despite the popular focus on health and lifestyle choices, most of us are walking a very thin line when it comes to our diet. The current obesity epidemic is clear evidence that our diets and our lifestyle are out of control. Given this bleak picture, the good news is that people are becoming more aware of the foods they eat.

When we talk about “detoxification,” we’re talking about the process of removing toxins from our bodies. For our purposes in this article, body detox refers to the use of diets, herbs, and other processes to remove toxins and achieve better health.

If you’re concerned about your health and the amount of toxins you may be carrying around with you, it may be time to consider body detox. It’s a healthy choice in an otherwise unhealthy world. But don’t be fooled. Body detox means a change in lifestyle. It means eating a more balanced combination of healthy, natural foods. It means drinking more water and less coffee and soda. It means regular exercise. It means avoiding fast food, junk food, and processed prepared meals (including frozen dinners and canned goods). These changes will not be easy, and you probably won’t want to take it all on at once. But you can begin today to change the way you approach food.

Changing your lifestyle and undertaking body detox also means more and more regular exercise. You don’t have to join a gym and buy a bunch of new exercise clothes. You just need to get up and move more! Take brisk walks, go bowling, walk when you want to ride, carry your own groceries to the car. There are a million ways to get more exercise without even noticing it.

If you’re more serious about detoxing your body, you may want to investigate a detox diet. It will reduce the toxins in your body, relieve aches and pains, reduce the discomfort of allergies, improve digestive problems, and increase your energy level. You can find many body detox recipes on the internet. A trip to your local health food store is also a good way to learn about body detox foods and recipes.

When you’re committed to body detox, eat as many fresh fruits as you can. Favor nuts, beans, rice, and grains over fried foods and gravy. And try to avoid sugary desserts, caffeine, alcohol, yeast-rich dishes, and processed foods that contain many questionable preservatives and additives.

A one- or two-day fast is a good way to transition in and out of your body detox effort. Be sure to get plenty of liquids, especially water, during your fast. And don’t push it. If hunger becomes an obsession, have a piece of fruit or a few carrots or celery sticks. You don’t have to punish yourself during your body detox.

There are many other ways to detox and to change your lifestyle to one that promotes personal health and happiness. Re-acquaint yourself with nature. Go outdoors and enjoy the fresh air. Take a long walk at the beach or in your neighborhood park or nature preserve. Incorporate “me time” into your daily schedule, and make it a family affair too. Keep active and interested in the world around you. Get involved.

For a real body detox treat, go to the spa. Have a relaxing massage or deep-cleaning facial. When you shower, use a brush to accelerate the detox process. Brushing your skin gently will improve your circulation and help you shed those layers of toxin-rich dead skin.

Help your body eliminate toxins naturally. Drink at least four quarters (or liters) of water every day. Eat fiber-rich foods like raspberries, blackberries, broccoli, apples (with the skin), spinach, almonds or peanuts, and good old stone-ground whole wheat. And when you stop by that health food store, look for teas and other herbs that will encourage regular bowel movements.

Body detox involves some mind detox too. Negative thinking, believe it or not, contributes to the production of toxins and over-acidity in the body. Rid yourself of worry, anger, and pessimism. They serve no positive purpose, and they are unhealthy. Smile until you want to smile.

There’s no bad time to start body detox. Today’s hurried, high-stress pace cries out for a little personal self-care. And your family deserves the same healthy lifestyle. Body detox may be as simple as working on your attitude, ridding yourself of negative, destructive thinking that compromises your health. It can be as easy as taking a walk in the park or treating yourself to a long, hot shower. It can also be as complex as adopting and sticking to a strict detox diet that cleans your tissues and organs of harmful pathogens and over-acid chemistry. It’s your choice. The important thing is finding a way to cleanse yourself.

Whatever approach you choose, you’re doing yourself and those around you a favor. You’re bringing some sanity back into your life and setting an example for your children and your social circle. You’re living better and enjoying life more.

How much would you pay to have that miracle? Well, you don’t have to pay a thing! You just have to change your approach to your day – each and every day.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/body-detox-for-better-living-simple-everyday-ways-to-keep-your-body-toxicfree-708971.html

Stress is a part of life whether we like it or not. One of the most important self improvement skills you can ever learn is to better manage your stress levels in your lifestyle and workplace. Problems, big or small, can affect us emotionally, mentally and physically. High stress levels can leave us feeling chronic emotions of doubt, desperation, anxiety, and leave us feeling generally short tempered and irritable if we let it get out of control. It is important you learn to control stress before it even begins to grow ? and the secret to that self improvement success depends on you.

* Body self-improvement techniques *
Taking care of your body is a vital initial step to self-improvement. We should be sensitive to what our body needs by knowing how stress affects our physical self to adapt to it. Here are some techniques that you can use to improve your body and getting stress out of your system.

1. It is very important to know the limits of our body especially when it comes to dealing with stress. Some people would justify that the more our body is exposed to stress, the stronger we become ? this is just not true. If you feel constant aches and pains while working, then you should take some time off work and relax before it turns to something really serious. Chronic fatigue syndrome is one of the most common side effects of chronic stress out of control in your life.

2. Relax and enjoy. To help your body relieve stress then you need to engage in some fun activities that will help it along the road to recovery. A massage is perfect for energizing your body while getting rid of those tight muscles that will eventually lead pain and limit your body flexibility. Pamper yourself by visiting a health spa or massage clinic at least once week; a few hours with professional hands can do wonders.

3. Exercise and sweat it out. Not many people can allocate the time and effort for physical exercise, but if you really want to enjoy a stress free life then you better learn to manage your time to include some physical activity every week. Even better, some daily 1 hour exercise can do wonders to your cardiovascular functions and keep your heart in proper working order.

* Self-improvement for a stress free life *
The tips above cover the physical side of releasing stress, but your mind is still vulnerable to its attacks. Even if we feel the physical and emotional backlash of the problems that we face, it will always start with how you think and how you come up with creative ways in dealing with it. So before you can apply the tips above, you have to first condition your mind by focusing on the need to improve yourself and your lifestyle choices in getting rid of stress.

* Some Mental Activities That Will Help Relieve Stress *
Most stressed individuals think that doing fun activities will not reduce the effect of problems that they tackle under career, social or personal pressure. Since stress will first affect the mental functions of an individual, it is very important to teach the person focus his mind on positive thoughts rather than dwelling on negative ones. Logical functions are put to the test by introducing the Rubik?s Cube, Scrabble, and Bridge, into their curriculum. If you have no plans of visiting health centers to deal with stress, you can easily incorporate these games into your daily routine to give your mind some diversion from problems.

Engaging in some form of sports is a great way to relieve stress. You can opt for team sports like basketball, soccer or volleyball which provides socializing functions and exercise. The strenuous activities of a sport program can develop your muscles and improve your coping mechanism for dealing with stress, and allows the body to release chemicals and hormones that is beneficial to your physiological well-being.

Cardiovascular workouts can improve your heart and strengthen it to avoid stress related problems like strokes, high-blood pressure, chest pains and rapid heart beat. Note however that working out at the gym needs proper diet as well since your physical attributes will be worked to the limit to help fight off stress. Fresh fruits and vegetables are necessary improves digestion and supplies the body with the required nutrients it needs. Red meat can give your muscles proteins that will strengthen muscle tissues for added flexibility. Drink plenty of filtered water and cut back on soda and coffee.

A healthy dose of mental activities, physical exercise coupled with a balanced fresh diet can help a person avoid the signs and symptom of stress and will be on the road to recovery to a stress free life. These fundamental self improvement skills will help you to get and stay healthy for a better and stress free life.

Gen Wright
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/use-these-selfimprovement-tools-for-healthy-stress-management-683770.html