Ananga Sivyer's Living by Design Blog

Living by Design Blog Carnival No.24

2008-05-11T18:21:52Z

Welcome to the latest edition of the Living by Design personal development blog carnival. Here's my pick for this edition - thank you to everyone who contributed.

First up is new contributer Maria Gajewski, an excellent writer with a very thought provoking blog:

Maria Gajewski presents How to Cross the Gap From Knowing to Doing posted at Never the Same River Twice, saying, "Do you have a bad case of self improvement inertia? Learn how to overcome your resistance to change and get moving!"

David B. Bohl presents How to Live with Gusto posted at Slow Down Fast Today!, saying, "here is an ancient Hebrew teaching that upon our death, not only will we be called upon to account for our sins, but also for every permissible pleasure we refused. Mind you, this isn’t permission to act irresponsibly or immoderately."

The Simple Art of Anti-Stress Breathing

2008-05-11T05:34:51Z

Your stress levels affect your breathing, but by changing your breathing you can flip things around and affect your stress levels - here’s how…

For many of us modern life equals chronic stress. We live with stress daily, we accept it as normal and when we talk to each other of our pressures and concerns we say: “tell me about it!” In other words, I have my worries and you have yours and such is life. But over time, chronic stress eats away at us from the inside, it makes our muscles rigid and tense, it weakens our digestive system, and impairs our immune response.

When Stress Feels Normal

When stress feels normal we forget how to relax and we forget how to breathe. We get used to muscle pain and tension. We may develop mystery abdominal pains as we upset the balancing energies of our bodies, our sleep becomes disturbed and we find it hard to sit still and take life in.

One easy way to start to unravel tension and lower your stress levels is to learn to tune in to how you breathe and start making some gentle adjustments.

Is Materialism Harming Your Mental Health?

2008-05-09T08:00:50Z

The World Health Organisation predicts that depression will be the second most common disease by 2010. Among the many research studies trying to pinpoint causes of depression, a growing number are reporting that our consumeristic lifestyle may be at fault.

Stuff vs Self: Materialism Blamed for Increase in Depression

John Abela, professor of psychology at McGill University has conducted a study of teenagers in Montreal and Shanghai, and he believes that China’s recent massive cultural change and eager adoption of materialism is to blame for increased depression rates in the country.

Similar research has found that nearly 50% of American students had suffered from depression, anxiety, or feelings of hopelessness at least once in the year 2006. And, as in China, materialism is once again suspected as being a big part of the problem.

In McGill University magazine professor Abela states: “Materialists have a fragile sense of self because their worth depends on attaining external things. The quality of their interpersonal relationships suffers and they feel more stress while pursuing extrinsic goals.”

5 Ways to Hold on to Your Energy

2008-04-17T13:14:40Z

Energy is a precious commodity. It's what we use to get things done, to work, to think, to get from A to B and to actively engage with our family and friends. When we are low on energy we don't achieve much and we don't feel so good about ourselves. So how can you look after your energy levels and avoid feeling washed out before you're halfway through the day?

The Energy Budget

Energy is like money, once it’s spent we have to earn more. We know that energy is earned by having a healthy diet and enough good quality rest, but what many of us remain unaware of is the fact that we may be squandering our energy, making bad energy investments, or hanging out with expensive company that will spend it fast and leave you with an energy debt.

Setting yourself an energy budget is a good way to keep your body running well without over taxing it.

The Anxiety Epidemic: Natural Ways to Find Some Relief

2008-04-11T18:15:35Z

Harvard Medical School has just reported that there are now over 15 million American people living with Social Anxiety Disorder. That's a huge amount of suffering individuals, each and every one of them a unique person struggling with genuine anxiety induced symptoms like palpitations, feeling faint or dizzy, shortness of breath, sweating, and fear of losing control in social situations.

Healthline.com recommends 4 Techniques That Really Work to Reduce Stress and Anxiety. The techniques include deep diaphragmatic breathing and gradual relaxation.

Here on Living by Design we have some free relaxation MP3s designed to guide listeners step-by-step through breathing and relaxation exercises - when you're feeling anxious it's hard to figure out how to get calm for yourself and that's why we made these guided MP3's, the idea behind them being that you can listen to them and follow along while you get guidance and support on how to get calm again.

Living by Design Blog Carnival No.23

2008-04-06T19:25:18Z

Welcome to the latest edition of the Living by Design personal development blog carnival. Here's my pick for this edition - thank you to everyone who contributed.

Mike King presents Passion Enhances Productivity posted at Learn This, saying, "This article looks specifically at how passion enhances productivity. This could be in the workplace or in home/personal life, but there are definitely impacts on productivity when a passion is what drives a person in that area. Here are some of the ways that I’ve learned how passion enhances productivity."

Rolf F. Katzenberger presents 3 steps to your Personal Mission Statement posted at Evomend | Timeless resources for personal organization., saying, "Do you need a Personal Mission Statement? What for? If you do it well, the statement will give you orientation, identity, decision support and sound relationships. It takes only 3 steps."

Lori Jewett presents Communication Skills: How to Speak and be Heard posted at Between Us Girls, saying, "Did you ever wonder why nobody seems to listen when you talk? Find out why and what you can do to change that."

The Undernourished Majority: Is the 5 a Day Recommendation Passing You By?

2008-04-04T11:26:51Z

Here in the UK, the Health Food Manufacturer's Association has been looking into how we're doing when it comes to eating the government recommended 5 portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day. After surveying over 3,000 people they found that over 80% were not following the guidelines and were not eating enough fresh fruits and vegetables.

This undernourished lifestyle is big business for the health supplements industry who are finding that millions of adults prefer to supplement their health with vitamin pills rather than eat a balanced diet high in fresh foods.

HFMA nutritionist Dr Marilyn Glenville has commented that: "With only 15 per cent of women and 13 per cent of men eating the recommended five-a-day fruit and vegetables, it is important that people are trying to keep themselves in good health by using supplements on a daily basis."

I disagree. Ayurveda (the ancient Indian system of health) advises that if we want to stay healthy and posses energy then we should eat that which naturally contains vital energy - or prana. That vital bio-energy is not as readily present in pills and powders as it is in fresh fruit and vegetables eaten as God and nature intended.

If people are lacking fresh foods in their diet, the answer is to find ways of introducing more, ways that are convenient and palatable. When your body is given fruit juices or lightly cooked vegetables it knows instantly what to do with them to benefit you, to keep you strong and give you energy. Swallowing a multi-vitamin tablet with a quick mouthful of water is not the same.

Salad head Photo by: ·Theresa·

Scents & Sensibility: The Power Your Sense of Smell Holds Over Your Emotions

2008-04-02T08:20:56Z

Most of us have experienced moments in our lives where a particular smell brings an old memory right to the front of our mind with incredible detail. In a study at Northwestern University researchers are looking into the link between the sense of smell and our emotions and why a certain perfume or the scent of baking pie can conjure memories of a long-dead loved one. While conversely, the smell of diesel fuel might trigger a flashback for a soldier suffering from PTSD.

Aroma Induced Time Travel

If I smell a particular home baking smell I can instantly see my Great Aunt Edna's kitchen, I can see her, her apron, the cooker, the griddle she used to make me Welsh cakes, the kitchen table where I sat to eat them. Everything in such incredible detail. Just from one brief whiff of a particular baking smell I'm instantly transported with full recall to that moment.

Sometimes we might find ourselves perfectly recalling an event that we thought we had forgotten about, but there it is available to us in stunning detail due to one specific scent flipping open a file in our brain, and there it is a complete memory with all it's detail. We can see what we saw at that time, hear what we heard, it's all there. What's also there is the emotional recall, instantly we feel how we were feeling at that time. In the case of Aunt Edna's kitchen that's a nice experience.

But what if the memory wasn't so good? To use a mild example, I used to feel nervous when I smelled methylated spirits. Why? Because the smell took me straight back to waiting to see my childhood dentist. The smell of meths still brings an image of a shiny lino floor leading from the waiting room to the room I sat in to have a tooth extracted, but due to a little trick I learned some years ago, it's now a memory without any sense of nervousness.

Emotional Freedom Techniques: How to do EFT

2008-03-31T14:01:59Z

EFT is a self-help tool that works wonderfully for dissolving negative emotions like anxiety, sadness and anger. If you haven't tried EFT for yourself yet, here's a quick guide to get you started...

To use EFT you tap with your fingertips on a set sequence of acupuncture points (see diagram) while you focus on one specific issue, or feeling, that is causing you disturbance...

Blissful & Balanced: Your Brain on Meditation

2008-03-20T06:19:33Z

Neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja grew up in a family where meditation was a normal part of life, but as an adult research scientist she decided to look for hard proof that what her parents practiced worked.

What she found surprised her: "I really didn't expect to find that meditation plays such a role in optimising brain function and health, from cognitive abilities to cardiovascular wellbeing."

The benefits of meditation have been know for thousands of years and are obvious to anyone who practices regularly. The benefits are real, and can be felt. We don't need to know what the circuit board of a digital watch does to tell the time, we just read the numbers.

But having rebelled against meditation as a teenager, Shanida decided to scrutinize the experience of mindfulness with EEGs and galvanic skin response meters (which monitor the skin for evidence of emotional changes). Her findings suggest that the benefits of mediation are experienced due to whole brain integration.