12 Ways to Improve Your Circulation for Healthy Blood Flow, According to Doctors

This is a partial reprint of an article by Krissy Brady on Prevention.com, a list of a dozen natural ways to improve circulation. Visit the article to see all the details. 

My personal interest in healthy circulation is due to gum recession. I don't yet know if this will help, but dehydration and poor circulation can affect teeth and gums, and I believe that incorporating some of these ideas - I've been rather lazy of late - will not only improve overall wellness, but help my gums as well. 

What is Your WHY for wanting to improve your circulation? When you have a WHY, you are more likely to start a plan and stick with it. So, go for it! 

1 - Go on regular walks.

“Contraction of the calf muscles causes venous blood to be pushed back up to the heart,” says Misty Humphries, M.D., a board-certified vascular surgeon and associate professor of vascular surgery in Sacramento, CA. “The arteries dilate when patients walk and improve blood flow all throughout the body.” 

2 - Take more work breaks

Do your best to take stretch breaks every 15 to 20 minutes, and get-up-and-go breaks from sitting every hour—even if it’s just a power walk around your home.

3 - Eat more fruits and veggies

Besides reducing your sugar and fatty food intake to steer clear of high blood pressure, plaque formation, and diabetes, adding more fruits and veggies to your repertoire leads to more nitrates and other compounds in your diet, says Dr. Patel, which your body then uses to create nitric oxide—a chemical compound we exhale that boosts blood flow by relaxing blood vessels.

4 - Stay Hydrated

“Your blood is about half water, so staying well-hydrated will help keep it moving,” says Dr. Patel. When you’re dehydrated, not only does the amount of blood circulating through your body decrease, but your blood retains more sodium, causing it to thicken and making it that much harder for your circulatory system to do its thing.

5 - Quit smoking

Smoking causes a build-up of plaque in your arteries that can ultimately lead to peripheral artery disease (PAD). 

6 - Manage your blood pressure

Exercising, cutting back on sodium, and reducing stress are some of the lifestyle factors that can help lower your blood pressure and improve your circulation in the process. 

7 - Control your blood sugar

Elevated glucose levels can cause damage to the lining of your small blood vessels and this can mess with your circulation.

 8 - Wear compression socks

Wear compression socks from morning to evening to steadily squeeze your legs so your veins can move blood more efficiently. 

9 - Elevate your legs

Elevating your legs (at or above heart level) improves blood flow to the rest of your body by keeping the blood from pooling in your lower legs. “When you elevate your legs it helps take the pressure off your veins, since they don’t have to work against gravity to get blood back to the heart,” says Dr. Patel.

10 - Drink green tea

Green tea contains catechins, which are compounds that help to improve blood vessel function.

11 - Take it easy on the booze

“Alcohol consumption at levels above one to two drinks per day is associated with high blood pressure,”

12 - Finally, have a family meeting 

“Even without classic risk factors, your genetics and family history play a key role in plaque development.”

Creative Health Tip 14 September 2009

Today's tip is about Acceptance.

Your tip this week is actually coming from Eckhart Tolle in his book A New Earth.

I was reading this the other night, and he's talking about the "modalities of awakened doing" which means how we live our lives and do all the things that we do in a conscious manner.

He talks about the three modalities of Enjoyment, Enthusiasm, and Acceptance. While Enjoyment and Enthusiasm probably don't need a whole lot of explanation, Acceptance is really interesting in the way he presents it, and that is what I want to talk about today.

I’m going to read from his book A New Earth, pages 296 to 297.

"Acceptance

"Whatever you cannot enjoy doing, you can at least accept that this is what you have to do. Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly.

"Performing an action in the state of acceptance means you are at peace while you do it. That peace is a subtle energy vibration which flows into what you do. On the surface, acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it is active and creative because it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, that subtle energy vibration, is consciousness, and one of the ways in which it enters this world is through surrendered action, one aspect of which is acceptance.

"If you can neither enjoy or bring acceptance to what you do – stop. Otherwise, you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you can really take responsibility for, which also happens to be the one thing that really matters: your state of consciousness. And if you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for life."

That's the end of our quote.

Remember, every single thing you do, every attitude you bring to those things, is a vibration that you are putting out into the universe.

You are also taking it in to your body and creating your outer physical being as well as your inner physical being.

So, this week, think about Acceptance when you're doing something that is not your "cup of tea" as they say. Just accept that there it is, and that's how it is, and if you don't like it you know it's going to get better!


Have a great week!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 12 June 2009

[At the 2 minute 16 second mark, the word I was trying to think of was trampoline!]

Here is your Heaven On Earth Creative Health Tip for this week:

Stand up and stretch!

At least once every hour or hour-and-a-half - this is critical, especially if you are working at a job where you do a lot of sitting without moving around – standup, stretch out a bit, walk around for five minutes, loosen up your muscles, breathe in more oxygen.

The reason this is important is two-fold.

First, if you are working at a desk, you often tend to sit a little hunched over which means you are not taking as much oxygen into your lungs because you are leaning forward and you lung capacity is compromised.

If you stand up, you elongate your body, you unfold yourself, and you can get more good oxygen into your lungs. The oxygen spreads throughout your body, of course, and helps to relax your muscles.

If you're not getting enough oxygen as you sit there at your desk, your muscles are going to start to become tense, and then when you do stand, you'll experience the uncomfortable "pins-and-needles" thing where you try to kick out your leg muscles and stretch a bit to relieve the discomfort.

You can save yourself that discomfort by just standing up and getting in some deep breathing every hour or hour and a half.

The second part of this is your lymph system.

Your lymph system works along with the movement of your muscles. Sitting still and quiet while working at your desk, your lymph system is very sluggish. It's not doing very much; it's not removing all those used and dead cells in your body nor any of the toxins that you've taken in. It's not getting them out because it's just not moving fast enough.

When you stand up and start moving around a bit with your muscles, that kicks your lymph system into a higher gear.

In fact, the best thing you can do for your lymph system is rebounding. Get one of those little trampolines and bounce on that for five minutes, or even three or four minutes….it doesn't need to be a long time. That will really rev up your lymph system and get a lot of that stuff out of your body.

A lot of that stuff (old cells and toxins) is what causes illness because it's just sort of sitting there and blah.

So….stand up! Stretch, Breathe Deeply, Move Around a little bit, and Feel Good!


Have a fabulous weekend!

Michelle

Stress Relief Tip 20 March 2009

Today is the Vernal Equinox, so Happy Spring!

Here is your Heaven On Earth Stress Relief Tip for this week!

Spring into a realistic day. It may seem a good idea to book appointments one right after the other, but it's healthier and more prudent to leave some wiggle room.

For example, yesterday I went to the office at 3:30 with the intention of doing a couple of web updates and meet with our former bookkeeper…..should easily have been done by 4:30.

Well, it turned out that it took a while to track down the accounting bit while the universe threw us a curve ball and had a good laugh about it (and so did we). Almost the moment we finished, the musician stopped in and we discussed the songs for our next program. Since I had the songs, I went ahead and printed the programs because I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time at the office this morning due to another meeting. Then a woman came in who had ordered a set of CDs from us, then……

You see where this is going, I'm sure! I finally headed home at 6:30, and still had to stop at the office supply store, and then pick up something for dinner! It could have been crazy, but I didn't have anything else going on that evening so I knew it would all be ok.

Always leave yourself some extra time, and you can join in the laughter when the universe decides to throw you a curve ball!

I am going out of town for a few days next week, so there won't be a stress relief tip on Friday the 27th. I'll be back with a new tip on April 3.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Michelle

Stress Relief Tip 13 March 2009

Here is your Heaven On Earth Stress Relief Tip for this Fabulous Friday the 13th!

Do one thing at a time!

In our fast-paced and hectic world, it seems like a good idea to be able to multi-task, doesn't it? Multi-tasking has almost become a survival skill!

However, it takes a toll on your stress levels and your sanity. The number of "mental health days" taken from work these days is staggering! Unfortunately, many of those days are unpaid, too, and that raises those stress levels even more because your bank account may be stretched to its limits. You don't need a day off, but you Need a day off!

The other thing is, it's really very disruptive to your ability to get anything done when you are forced to flit hither and thither doing little bits of this and that. You aren't doing yourself any favors by juggling all those balls, and someday one is going to drop, and it's going to make a big nasty splat.

Do yourself a huge favor and be mindful. Work on only one thing at a time, and do it to perfection. You will be less harried and much happier, and your stress levels, not to mention stress hormones, will allow the clear-headedness you need to get things done in a way you can be proud to call your best.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Michelle

Does Thinking Make You Fatter?

Today's article is a reprint of one I received in today's free newsletter from Dr Joseph Mercola of Mercola.com It's another valuable lesson on the exercise and nutrition we need, and how stress can throw our whole system out of whack!


A research team has demonstrated that intellectual work induces a substantial increase in appetite and calorie intake. This discovery could help to explain, in part, the current obesity epidemic.

The team measured the spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of three tasks: relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, and completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer.

Each session of intellectual work required only three calories more than the rest period. However, despite the low energy cost of mental work, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer tests than they did after relaxing.

Blood samples taken before, during, and after each session revealed that intellectual work caused bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels -- two critical components in the body's regulatory and energy machinery -- than rest periods.

Jean-Philippe Chaput, the lead author of the study, said that mental work "destabilizes" the levels of insulin and glucose, thus stimulating the appetite, apparently in response to a need to restore the body’s energy balance.

Sources:

ABC News September 10, 2008

Psychosomatic Medicine September 2008 70:797-804

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

After a hard day of mental work, you can be just as physically exhausted as if you had spent the day doing physical work. So it makes sense that thinking hard also increases your appetite. The researchers found mental work “destabilizes” your insulin and glucose levels, and that’s what they suggest is causing the increase in appetite and eating.

For now, it’s safe to assume that many factors can increase your appetite, and of them many are related to your mind.

How Your Mind Makes You Hungry

One of the mental states that leads to more eating is stress (remember, a mental challenge is a form of stress). This is a major one that almost everyone can relate to, and to some extent this is hard-wired into you.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found that when rats are chronically stressed, the release of glucocorticoid steroid hormone (cortisol in humans) leads them to engage in pleasure-seeking behaviors, including eating high-energy foods. When they ate these foods (things like the human-equivalent of greasy pizza or chocolate chip cookies), they developed abdominal obesity, but the negative aspects of chronic stress were blunted.

The researchers concluded that craving, and eating, comfort foods may actually “apply the brakes on a key element of chronic stress.”

Well, relieving stress is good, but not when it’s at the expense of abdominal obesity or “belly fat”, which has been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and more. Nipping stress in the bud at its root source is a much better option than soothing your nerves with a bowl full of ice cream.

Meanwhile, stress is not the only emotion that leads you to eat. A 2004 study by British researchers found that about half of adults turn to food in times of not only stress but also boredom and loneliness.

Then there are many other, very subtle, reasons why people feel hungrier, such as:

• Seeing food, which makes your body anticipate eating.
• Time of day. Your body is conditioned to eat at certain times.
• Drinking alcohol, which can impair your judgment and make you eat more than normal.
• Eating refined carbs, which generates a rapid rise in blood sugar, followed by a subsequent “crash” that makes you want more food.

• Portion size. Studies show that the larger the portion, the more you’ll eat.
• Eating too fast, which allows you to consume more food before your body has a chance to let you know it’s full (it takes about 20 minutes for this to happen, so you should wait at least 20 minutes before going back for seconds).
• Not sleeping enough, which triggers hormone imbalances that boost your desire to eat.

Does This Mean You’ll be Fat if You do a Lot of Mental Work?

Of course not, but knowing that your appetite may be stimulated after a long meeting or hours at the computer is something to keep in mind. And it’s not as though a stimulated appetite is a bad thing at all.

If you feel hungry, you should listen to your body and eat something. Just make sure it is something that will actually nourish your body, not just keep it going temporarily followed by a major crash. Finding out your nutritional type, and eating accordingly, is really the best way to feel satisfied and give your body the nutrients it needs -- without having to worry about gaining weight.

Now, if you do a lot of mentally challenging tasks it’s a good idea to eat plenty of these foods that are known to nourish your brain:

• Organic eggs
• Leafy vegetables like spinach
• Seeds and nuts (especially walnuts)
• Organic grass-fed beef and chicken
• Green tea
• Omega-3 fats (like krill oil)

That said, some of the worst foods for your brain are refined foods (white sugar, white flour, processed anything), alcohol, and trans fats. So focus on eating whole foods (especially those from the list above) if you do a lot of mental work. And if you’re worried about gaining weight, be sure you’re getting plenty of exercise as well. Not only will the exercise burn calories, it will help to relieve your mental stress and optimize your brain function all at the same time.

Recession Fears Threaten Workers' Vacation Plans

Here is another article on vacations just posted today by the same man who wrote the artilce I posted immediately before this one. He offers some updated info, and good suggestions for ensuring that you do get that well-deserved break!

Recession Fears Threaten Workers' Vacation Plans

Experts Offer 10 Ways to Take a Necessary Break

Tom Musbach, Yahoo! HotJobs

http://hotjobs.promotions.yahoo.com/tahiti/frontpage_article.html

The slowdown in the U.S. economy is threatening a necessity for workers: vacations.

According to the annual Yahoo! HotJobs vacation survey, 51% of respondents said they plan to skip taking a vacation this year, opting to save money instead.

Not a Frivolous Matter

"Vacations are usually the first thing to go when people feel job or economic pressure," says Joe Robinson, a trainer in work-life balance and author of "Work to Live." He continues, "We're programmed to believe that free time is worthless, a frill to shove aside, but vacations are as important as watching your cholesterol or getting exercise."

Skipping a vacation can also be bad for your employer.

Milo and Thuy Sindell, founders of Hit the Ground Running and authors of "Job Spa," say, "You are not helpful to the company and your coworkers when you are not operating at full capacity. Vacations help you to get rejuvenated to come back to work at full capacity."

Make It Work With Less

For those tempted to skip vacation this year due to financial worries, experts recommend the following tips:

• Remind yourself: Vacation is not a luxury. "You owe it to yourself, your family, and your company to take care of yourself by stepping out of the office for at least a few days at a time," says Liz Bywater, president of the Bywater Consulting Group, which helps improve organizational performance.
• Put aside some funds each week. "Even $50 a week [or less] can add up and make your trip happen," says Robinson.
• Plan leisure activities near home. "Stay at home and read, garden, hike, jog, bike, or whatever you like to do but never have enough time for during the weekends," say the Sindells. "Or be a tourist in your own city."
• Try home-swapping. You can swap with someone you know in another city, or use an online service, such as homexchange.com or even vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). "It can have the look and feel of a vacation at a much more affordable housing cost than paying for hotel or resort lodging," says Michael Haubrich, president of Financial Service Group and an expert in financial planning for career issues.
• Keep the itinerary simple. Travel columnist Donald D. Groff recommends selecting a destination within 200 miles (a three-hour drive) from your home. If you're traveling by plane, fly nonstop whenever possible. "The sooner you get to your destination, the sooner your relaxation begins," Groff says.

Stress-Busting Strategies

The economic downturn is also adding to workers' stress levels. Nearly a third of the respondents (31%) are worried by how the economy is affecting their workplaces, and 34% said they feel pressure to improve their performance for fear of being laid off.

With 55% of respondents admitted to being "burned out" by work, stress and fatigue add another threat to vacations. Experts say you can prevent the threat in the following ways:

• Start small. "Start with an afternoon off to do something you really enjoy, even if it's just a walk at the beach or a visit to a farmer's market," says Beth A. Levin, author of "Making a Richer, More Fulfilling Life a Reality."
• If planning is a burden, don't. "Instead of planning a vacation, just take time off to be at home and figure it out each day as you go," the Sindells suggest.
• Enlist back-up support. Ask a trusted coworker to back you up while you're away and offer to return the favor, Bywater suggests. "It's much easier to relax when you know someone's got you covered."
• Choose according to what you need. You may need a peaceful retreat from stress, or you may benefit from something more active and exciting. "Avoid the kind of vacation that will leave you even more exhausted than before," she adds.
• Give yourself a deadline. "Stop thinking about it and just do it," says Bywater. "Think of it as 'doctor's orders.'"

Vacations threatened by work burnout

Even your computer knows you need a vacation!

I posted this article last year, but as we approach summer, I felt it was worth a reprint because the burnout and lack of vacations is still as big a problem as it ever was.

Work Burnout Threatens Vacations by Tom Musback, Yahoo! HotJobs May 21 2007

Despite summer's reputation for being a time of travel and leisure, many U.S. workers are not using all their vacation time and are too tired to plan a getaway, according to a new Yahoo! HotJobs survey.

Nearly half of the respondents (49%) said they feel "burned out" by their jobs, and many did not fully use vacation time as a remedy. Out of 1,800 professionals surveyed, 45% said they did not use all of their vacation days allotted in 2006, and 39% said they were too tired to take a "real" vacation during their days off.

"People don't always realize the true benefits of taking vacation time," says Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing at Yahoo! HotJobs. "They focus more on the absence from work and related details, when in fact a vacation allows time to recharge batteries and come back to the office with new energy and increased productivity."

Why Create More Work?

There are several reasons why workers don't use all their vacation time: having too much work to do to take a vacation (36%), not being able to afford a getaway (34%), wanting to save vacation time for emergencies (32%), and worrying about coming back to an excessive workload after a vacation (15%).

"I think people have thrown in the vacation towel," says Debra Davenport, a professional mentor, licensed career counselor, and employment agent. "What's the point of taking a vacation when you're still strapped to your cell phone and laptop, and, worse, you return to the office from your break only to have 500 emails, 100 voicemails, and weeks of work to catch up on?"

Taking a “Mental Health Day”

When people do take time off, it's often used in ways unrelated to vacations. In fact, nearly a third of respondents (31%) said they use the time to run errands, such as doctor visits, and 30% said they often use vacation time as "mental health days" to cope with stress.

"The issue," says Davenport, "is making self-care a priority. Vacations are an extension of that mindset."

The Problem of Presenteeism

Liz Bywater, president of Bywater Consulting Group, which specializes in organizational behavior change, suggests that elements of corporate culture may be responsible for the work-vacation imbalance.

"Part of the problem is that our culture supports an ethic of 'presenteeism,' whereby employees show up for work even when they are too ill or tired to be effective on their jobs," she says. "There is an expectation, sometimes unspoken, that people will come to work under all but the most extreme circumstances."

Making Vacation a Priority

Bywater offers the following tips for making the most of vacations:

• Choose the vacation that best meets your needs. You may need a peaceful retreat from stress, or you may benefit from something more active and exciting. Avoid the kind of vacation that will leave you even more exhausted than before.

• Plan ahead for your time off. Take practical steps to manage your workload with your upcoming vacation in mind. Try to wrap up important projects before you leave. Don't leave behind time-sensitive tasks that only you can handle.

• Enlist help. Ask a trusted coworker to back you up while you're away and offer to return the favor. It's much easier to relax when you know someone's got you covered.

• Have no regrets. You earned the vacation, so enjoy it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michelle here….does anyone else see the irony in this article?

How many of you searched for just the right job with just the right perks, which included three weeks of vacation a year, and don't bother to take any of them?

Employers should insist that employees take vacations. They should also insist that the employee leave the cell phone and laptop computer at home when they do take a vacation, but it is unlikely that they will. Why let go of someone, even temporarily, when you pay them to work a forty-hour week and then have them on call 24/7/365?

Stress is causing more and more illness in the forms of anxiety, depression, heart trouble, high blood pressure, skeletal and muscular problems, and yet do people consider serious stress-relief except on the most superficial, temporary level?

Not often. Employees and employers must find common ground on this topic. Employers must arrange for a person's job to be covered when they go on vacation….remember when that used to happen? I do. A person could go away for a week and not have two weeks worth of work waiting when he or she returned.

Employers, you are not doing yourselves any favors by burning out your employees. In the long run, you will lose more in sick days and training replacements than you will gain in working your people 24/7/365.

Employees, you must take the time that is yours by right and protect your health. In the long run, that is what a vacation is meant to do, give you a chance to get away from the craziness of the work world and enjoy the rest and relaxation of the leisure world….without cell phones and laptop computers!

A great vacation is one of the most holistic methods to reduce stress!

Make your plans now, and have a Great Vacation!

The High Price You Pay By Being A Workaholic

It is a fact that men tend to be workaholics more often than women, and that up to 90% of office visits to the doctor are for stress-related symptoms.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH):

Job stress has become a common and costly problem in the American workplace, leaving few workers untouched. For example, studies report the following:

• One-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.

-Northwestern National Life

• Three-fourths of employees believe the worker has more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.

-Princeton Survey Research Associates

• Problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than are any other life stressor-more so than even financial problems or family problems.

-St. Paul Fire and Marine Innsuance Co.

Job Stress and Health: What the Research Tells Us

Cardiovascular Disease
Many studies suggest that psychologically demanding jobs that allow employees little control over the work process increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Musculoskeletal Disorders
On the basis of research by NIOSH and many other organizations, it is widely believed that job stress increases the risk for development of back and upper- extremity musculoskeletal disorders.

Psychological Disorders
Several studies suggest that differences in rates of mental health problems (such as depression and burnout) for various occupations are due partly to differences in job stress levels. (Economic and lifestyle differences between occupations may also contribute to some of these problems.)

Workplace Injury
Although more study is needed, there is a growing concern that stressful working conditions interfere with safe work practices and set the stage for injuries at work.

Suicide, Cancer, Ulcers, and Impaired Immune Function
Some studies suggest a relationship between stressful working conditions and these health problems. However, more research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.

-Encyclopaedia of Occupational Safety and Health

[So, what are you going to do about it? Here is an article from Yahoo!HotJobs that identifies five main workaholic behaviors and how to change them.]

The High Cost of Being A Workaholic

Caroline Levchuck, Yahoo! HotJobs

In a nation of overachievers, hard work is a virtue. If you work hard, you'll achieve your goals. If you work even harder, you'll achieve even more. Right?

Perhaps not. There are, in fact, several downsides to working too hard. Being the office workaholic can cost you coveted promotions, hurt your home life, and even turn friends into enemies. Evaluate yourself with the following five questions.

1. Are you busy ... or disorganized?

Are you constantly staying late and coming in early yet producing the same output as others? If so, your boss may come to view you as inefficient and possibly disorganized. Dave Cheng, an executive coach with Athena Coaching, says, "There are some people, type A's, who get a lot of satisfaction from doing lots of work, but the quality isn't necessarily superior."

Focus on getting your work done in a reasonable time frame. If you have perfectionism or time-management issues, ask your supervisor to help you prioritize things and learn when to let go of a task. Cheng says, "Just because you're working longer doesn't mean you're working better."

2. Are you delegating ... or hoarding?

If you have any aspirations at all to move into management, you must learn to delegate work. Again, tasks need to be completed in a timely fashion; if you're having trouble finishing a project, you must delegate to other team members, even if you happen to relish the task you're giving away.

Cheng, who has more than 12 years of experience in corporate human resources, reveals, "Some workers feel like if they do everything and they're the only one who knows how to do it, they're making themselves irreplaceable. However, sharing information and teaching others around you is a valued skill as far as management is concerned."

Focus on completion and quality and be generous enough to let a colleague learn and shine. If you lack sufficient support, ask your boss about expanding your group.

3. Are you hungry ... or is your plate full?

Once you've solidified your reputation as the office workaholic, you may find that when your dream project comes through the door, you aren't asked to work on it. Why? Your boss probably thinks you don't have the bandwidth to take on anything else. Always keep a bit of room in your schedule to sink your teeth into new challenges and opportunities.

Cheng reminds professionals, "Your ability to say no to certain things gives you the freedom to say yes to others."

4. Do you have friends ... or 'frenemies'?

Your workaholic ways are likely alienating once-valued associates. Above and beyond the obvious grumblings of, "You're making the rest of us look bad," your colleagues may dread collaborating on a project with you.

Lose the overly methodical approach, don't expect folks to come in early or stay late for meetings, and focus on process and outcome.

5. Do you work to live ... or live to work?

The best workers are well-rounded professionals with full lives, in and out of the office. Each year, new studies abound about the importance of vacations, hobbies, and enjoying your leisure time. But are you listening?

Your friends and family will be in your life a lot longer than you'll hold most jobs. Also, pursuing leisure activities you're passionate about can lead to a second career.

Cheng concludes, "Work-life balance is a choice. If you reflexively say yes to taking on extra work, you may live to regret it."

Daoism on Concentration

19th century Phrenology chart, from Fowlers & Wells

courtesy Wikimedia

"Imagination, song, the soaring spirit.
Separate them to know them as aspects of the whole,
Join them to know the mystery of totality.”

"The mind, if focused, can become the most powerful force we know. Yet for most of us, we are lost in the vastness of our own uncharted minds. We play around with different aspects, find certain modes that we can get by with, and leave the rest unexplored. Those who follow Tao do not do this. They want to explore all the dimensions of the mind so that they may find a wholly integral mode of consciousness.

"The primary means of exploration is through concentration of the mind. Practitioners first select an aspect and delve into it by daily focus. Only when they have fully understood do they go on. It is like studying. When you are first introduced to a subject, you must put your attention to work in order to master the knowledge. Such concentration leads to absorption, like mixing liquids together in a bottle: Once they are combined, they cannot be distinguished from one another.

"With concentration, all the various aspects of the mind can be joined together into one superconscious mode. Sound is the same as sight, taste is the same as smell, touch is the same as thought, and all that we are is identical with the spiritual energy that resides within us. In this high concentration, there is complete union, and we feel the joy of total integration with all our facets."

"Concentration" from 365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some years ago here in the U.S. a television commercial solicited money to send young minority students to college. The tag line was "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

When you think about your ability to concentrate or to be focused, you realize that you waste an awful lot of your mental acumen on flitting thoughts and idle mental chatter. This contributes to stress by making you feel unproductive, unable to cope with whatever is going on, and just generally ineffective.

Not only that, concentration seems to be something of the past in this day of multi-tasking where you type away on a laptop computer or a PDA, and engage in a phone conversation at the same time. These demands on your mental resources also contribute to stress.

When was the last time you were driving, eating, and talking on your cell phone all at the same time? I'll bet it was not all that long ago....last week? Yesterday? This morning? When was the last time you were reading a book for pleasure or a bedtime story to your children but kept losing your place as you mentally slipped over to tomorrow's "To Do" list?

The mind is an amazing thing, but it can concentrate on only one thing at a time. Consider this experiment: in a dark room, you must read two reports on related topics. The "light" that allows you to read each report is your mind but, like a flashlight, it enables you to concentrate on only one page at a time.

Shine your mind (the flashlight) on one piece of paper and read the first sentence. Now, flick the light over to the other piece of paper and read that first sentence. Now, flip back to the first paper and read the second sentence; flip to the second paper and read the second sentence; flip to the first paper and read the third sentence; flip to the second paper and read the third sentence. I encourage you to perform this little experiment for real and then assess how much of the content of any of those sentences is still in your mind, and how well you can distinguish the writings from the first paper to the second.

How well did you do?

Not only did you start to get stressed out, but the information from each of the reports is all jumbled together, isn't it? Now, multiply the results of the experiment by twelve, fourteen, even sixteen hours each and every day.

This is how most people use the “most powerful force we know,” by dividing it and scattering it until it is useless. Think of the most powerful army in the world. How powerful would it be if its forces were divided and scattered all over the globe? (You’ve heard of “divide and conquer,” haven’t you?) Your army would be very weak and ineffective, and so too is your mind when you scatter your mental forces in too many directions, onto too many tasks at once.

Consider the accomplishments of someone you admire; an Olympic athlete perhaps, or a wealthy entrepreneur or successful business-person. Do you think this person rose to the heights of fame or fortune he or she enjoys by flitting from one thing to another? Or, did he or she use dedication, focus, and concentration to achieve his or her success?

This is the most important statement in today’s writing: "The mind, if focused, can become the most powerful force we know.” If you are completely focused, if you are mindfully dedicated to attaining whatever goal you set for yourself no matter how large or small it is, You Cannot Fail.

Air pollution, heart disease, and anger

I saw this story the other day, and I can't say the result of the study is surprising. It's sad in that industry doesn’t seem to care enough to want to do anything about it, which is also not surprising.

I have long felt that even the smallest, "don't worry it isn't enough to hurt you" amount of toxicity and pollution has severe and long-lasting effects on people.

The story below discusses heart disease, but I think there is also a link between pollution and anger. People seem to be more and more angry, easier to anger, and their feelings of anger last longer.

I believe that the cause of anger can have more to do with the stress of environmental pollutants that the stress of an overwhelming lifestyle.

In Chinese medicine, the liver is the organ connected to the emotion of anger. I very sincerely believe that when the pollution entering through the lungs ends up in the bloodstream, and the liver has to filter all these chemical pollutants and toxins, the liver becomes over-stressed. (It also becomes very stressed by having to filter all the food additives and medications that people take, but that is for a different time and article.)

Even though accumulating these toxins together in one organ – the liver – causes stress to that organ, it may not show up on medical tests as "disease." However, I can assure you, there is a great deal of dis-ease in a liver that is constantly called upon to filter from the blood the overwhelming pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the air and lungs.

I wonder if we would see fewer incidents of road rage, school shootings, and other senseless acts of anger and violence if we cleaned up our act and cleaned up our air.

Another thing I would like to mention is a word of warning to parents who walk their children in strollers. Please avoid walking along streets busy with traffic. The face of your child in his or her stroller is just about even with the exhaust pipes on most cars and trucks…in effect, your baby's face is right beside the exhaust pipes of every vehicle that drives by.

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Bad air raises heart risks in young adults: study

By Tan Ee Lyn Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:02 AM ET

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Bad air can trigger in young, healthy adults a string of adverse biological changes that are linked to cardiovascular disease, a Taiwan study has shown.

Writing in the second August issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the researchers described how they observed changes in 76 students living on campus at the Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taipei.

"Urban air pollution is a cocktail of pollutants, when you breathe it gets into your body, through the nose, the respiratory tract, then the lungs," said professor Chang-Chuan Chan at National Taiwan University's College of Public Health.

"The different air pollutants observed here can go into your lungs and invoke inflammation effect in days. They can also go directly, without causing inflammation and affect cardiovascular function, like heart rate variability," Chan said in a telephone interview with Reuters.

Chan's team took blood samples from the students, aged between 18 and 25, and monitored their hearts via electrocardiogram (ECG) three times between April 2004 and June 2005.

They then checked to see if there were changes to four indicators that are normally linked to heart disease.

The four are inflammation, oxidative stress or damage to tissues and cells, coagulation in blood vessels and autonomic dysfunction or disruption of unconscious bodily functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure and temperature regulation.

"After exposure of between one and three days, we can see these kinds of biological responses in young adults," Chan said.

"They hardly can feel the effects, but there are these changes. If your blood is drawn and your heart rate variability is monitored, then definitely there are some changes."

The results of this study are consistent with previous studies, but this is the first time scientists have established a correlation between all four indices and air pollution.

Chan stressed Taipei's air was no different from that in many other cities. The type and amount of air pollutants observed, like suspended particulates of 2.5 and 10 micrometers, nitrate, sulfate and ozone are consistent with those seen elsewhere.

"Even though we use Taipei in this study, these pollutants are commonly experienced by people living in cities ... in China, the amount of their particulates are even higher," he said.

Although such damaging changes were reversible if periods of air pollution were brief, consequences could be dire if exposure to bad air was prolonged.

"If the dirty air stays longer, say for months, or years, then there could be chronic exposure effect," Chan said.

"We're worried for people who already have heart disease and air pollution becomes too serious, then this will be a tipping point, leading to adverse effects, including death."

See original story at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070815/hl_nm/pollution_health_taiwan_dc

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSHKG15456720070815?sp=true

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Work Burnout Threatens Vacations

The following is a reprint of a Yahoo! Hot Jobs article from May 21, 2007


Work Burnout Threatens Vacations
by Tom Musback

Despite summer's reputation for being a time of travel and leisure, many U.S. workers are not using all their vacation time and are too tired to plan a getaway, according to a new Yahoo! HotJobs survey.

Nearly half of the respondents (49%) said they feel "burned out" by their jobs, and many did not fully use vacation time as a remedy. Out of 1,800 professionals surveyed, 45% said they did not use all of their vacation days allotted in 2006, and 39% said they were too tired to take a "real" vacation during their days off.

"People don't always realize the true benefits of taking vacation time," says Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing at Yahoo! HotJobs. "They focus more on the absence from work and related details, when in fact a vacation allows time to recharge batteries and come back to the office with new energy and increased productivity."

Why Create More Work?

There are several reasons why workers don't use all their vacation time: having too much work to do to take a vacation (36%), not being able to afford a getaway (34%), wanting to save vacation time for emergencies (32%), and worrying about coming back to an excessive workload after a vacation (15%).

"I think people have thrown in the vacation towel," says Debra Davenport, a professional mentor, licensed career counselor, and employment agent. "What's the point of taking a vacation when you're still strapped to your cell phone and laptop, and, worse, you return to the office from your break only to have 500 emails, 100 voicemails, and weeks of work to catch up on?"

Taking a “Mental Health Day”

When people do take time off, it's often used in ways unrelated to vacations. In fact, nearly a third of respondents (31%) said they use the time to run errands, such as doctor visits, and 30% said they often use vacation time as "mental health days" to cope with stress.

"The issue," says Davenport, "is making self-care a priority. Vacations are an extension of that mindset."

The Problem of Presenteeism

Liz Bywater, president of Bywater Consulting Group, which specializes in organizational behavior change, suggests that elements of corporate culture may be responsible for the work-vacation imbalance.

"Part of the problem is that our culture supports an ethic of 'presenteeism,' whereby employees show up for work even when they are too ill or tired to be effective on their jobs," she says. "There is an expectation, sometimes unspoken, that people will come to work under all but the most extreme circumstances."

Making Vacation a Priority

Bywater offers the following tips for making the most of vacations:

• Choose the vacation that best meets your needs. You may need a peaceful retreat from stress, or you may benefit from something more active and exciting. Avoid the kind of vacation that will leave you even more exhausted than before.

• Plan ahead for your time off. Take practical steps to manage your workload with your upcoming vacation in mind. Try to wrap up important projects before you leave. Don't leave behind time-sensitive tasks that only you can handle.

• Enlist help. Ask a trusted coworker to back you up while you're away and offer to return the favor. It's much easier to relax when you know someone's got you covered.

• Have no regrets. You earned the vacation, so enjoy it!

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Michelle here….does anyone else see the irony in this article?

How many of you searched for just the right job with just the right perks, which included three weeks of vacation a year, and don't bother to take any of them?

If you are one of those people who are too busy to take a vacation, I hope your life insurance is paid up…..your family will need it.

Employers should insist that employees take vacations. They should also insist that the employee leave the cell phone and laptop computer at home when they do take a vacation, but it is unlikely that they will. Why let go of someone, even temporarily, when you pay them to work a forty-hour week and then have them on call 24/7/365?

Stress is causing more and more illness in the forms of anxiety, depression, heart trouble, high blood pressure, skeletal and muscular problems, and yet do people consider serious stress-relief except on the most superficial, temporary level?

Not often. Employees and employers must find common ground on this topic. Employers must arrange for a person's job to be covered when they go on vacation….remember when that used to happen? I do. A person could go away for a week and not have two weeks worth of work waiting when he or she returned.

Employers, you are not doing yourselves any favors by burning out your employees. In the long run, you will lose more in sick days and training replacements than you will gain in working your people 24/7/365.

Employees, you must take the time that is yours by right and protect your health. In the long run, that is what a vacation is meant to do, give you a chance to get away from the craziness of the work world and enjoy the rest and relaxation of the leisure world….without cell phones and laptop computers!

A great vacation is one of the most holistic methods to reduce stress!

Make your plans now, and have a Great Vacation!

This is a reprint of an excellent article on About.com regarding a study done in Great Britain on the diseases resulting from workplace stress. If we truly desire to reduce the cost of health care, it seems that reducing stress in the workplace would be a good step in the right direction.

Chronic Job Stress is a Risk Factor for Heart Disease

From Elizabeth Scott, M.S.,

Stress and Metabolic Syndrome

Important New Findings According to a study by the British Medical Journal, chronic stress has been linked to the development of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, as well as other conditions. Here are the highlights of the study:

· Researchers followed 10,308 British civil servants aged 35-55 over a 14-year period to study the role of chronic job stress in the development of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

· They examined the link between chronic job stress and metabolic syndrome, which is a group of factors that, together, increase the risk of these diseases, including high blood pressure, insulin resistance, central obesity (excessive abdominal fat, which has been linked to increased cortisol in the bloodstream, as well as several other health problems), and a few other factors.

· They found that greater levels of job stress did indeed increase people’s chances of developing metabolic syndrome. The higher the stress level, the greater the chance of developing metabolic syndrome.

· Social factors played a role as well. Lucky subjects with higher status jobs were less likely to have the syndrome, and those with lower status jobs were at a higher risk.

· They also examined and discovered a link between metabolic syndrome and exposure to other health damaging behaviors like smoking, heavy drinking and lack of exercise, especially in men. Poor diet was also a risk factor, and tended to show up in the form of few fruits and vegetables. These factors, of course, lead to additional health problems as well as additional stress.

· One possible explanation for this are that prolonged job stress may affect the nervous system. Another possible reason for this is the fact that chronic stress may affect the body’s hormonal balance and .

Here’s What You Can Do: It’s important to take steps to take care of oneself and one’s body. The good news is that there are several things you can do to stay healthy. Not only that, but you can reverse many of the negative effects of stress in a surprisingly short amount of time, with a few relatively minor lifestyle changes:

· Reduce Daily Stressors You can reduce stress in your life by making lifestyle changes like becoming more organized, better managing time, and making other changes at work. Getting enough sleep and maintaining a positive outlook are also important in overall health. Here is a list of healthy habits that can improve your overall health.

· Learn Stress-Reducing Practices Learning and practicing a stress management technique or two can also help your health by activating your body’s relaxation response (the mechanism in your body that counteracts the ‘fight or flight’ response to stress, returning hormone levels and other systems to normal). Here are my top ten stress relieving practices; one or two of these could become an important part of your life and a valuable tool to stay healthy.

· Maintain a Healthy Weight Diet and exercise help tremendously. Another recent study found that metabolic syndrome can be reversed in as little as three weeks with healthy diet changes (65-70% complex carbohydrates, 15-20% protein, 12-15% fat and extra fruits, vegetables and whole grains) and moderate daily exercise (45-60 minutes of walking). Previous studies have found that losing even 10 lbs. makes a significant difference in lowering blood pressure, stabilizing blood sugar levels, and contributing to overall health and wellbeing, even when subjects were still obese.

Making changes may feel challenging at first. This article may help you in making your chosen changes, which will soon become ingrained, leaving you feeling less stressed and with increased physical and psychological health for years to come.

Updated: March 12, 2006

The one thing that will get rid of stress

Could this be you?

"What is the one thing that will get rid of my stress?" someone asks.

I ask back, "What is the one thing that caused it?"

That usually prompts a litany that goes something like this: "Well, I've had to work late the past few weeks. Sally is out sick, so I'm covering some of her work. Plus, I have a new client; big project, big headaches, you know how it is. Little League started last week, so I have to rush home, pick up Jimmy and Bobby, grab dinner on the way over there. My husband Dan can't help as much as he used to because his company has him traveling a lot now, after his promotion. I noticed a water spot on the kitchen ceiling after that rain we had, I think there's a leak in the roof…I'll have to call someone on that when I have a second. Yeah, speaking of the kitchen, lately I've been experiencing a bit of heartburn…what's up with that? Oh, and our dog is at the vet…the neighbor's little boy bit him…cute kid, but a little strange; I don't think his parents pay enough attention to him……"

At first sight, you may think there are a lot of things causing this woman's stress although she is hopeful that one thing will cure it. You may even identify with a lot of her stressors if you are overwhelmed with work, family, house, dog, and other tasks.

There are a lot of ways to reduce stress in this situation: have another co-worker help with Sally's tasks; ask another Little League mom to take the boys and arrange to drop off her kids after the practice.

However, if this is you, and if you carefully read between the lines, you will see that there really is only one thing that causes stress: YOU. Your attitude and behavior determines whether you are stressed-out or stress-free.

Does the fictitious, overburdened worker-wife-mother reciting the litany of problems have a choice? Do you have a choice? Absolutely.

The thing you need to examine is your motivation.

What motivates you to live a stressed-out life? What motivates your attitude and behavior? Boiled down to the most basic components, it's a combination of three things: status, money, power: wanting them, getting them, keeping them.

I'm not implying any of these things is bad in and of itself, but if you really want to beat stress and not just complain about how it's ruining your life, you have to do it on an honest playing field.

Frankly, I think there are a lot of people out there who just want to complain about it. In fact, complaining about stress has become a status symbol; if you're not stressed out, there must be something wrong with you. Not only that, people moan and groan about how stressed-out they are, but use every excuse to reject every stress-reducing or stress-eliminating technique they read about because it's too hard, it's too easy, it takes too much time, it won't work for me (even though they have never tried it), it costs too much, it's too cheap so it must not be any good, I'm too busy to go to it…..and on and on. If you are one of those people, then God Bless You…you're going to need it.

To get back to motivation: if you truly want to reduce stress and achieve a stress-free lifestyle (yes, it really is possible!), you must be completely honest with yourself.

If, along with the money, status, or power, you have high blood pressure, a heart condition, Acid Reflux Disease, high cholesterol, insomnia, constant headaches, and (fill in the blank), you must feel disease and suffering is worth the status, money, and power.

That's fine, and I truly have no problem with it, but if that is what you have chosen, you must also realize that you can choose how you deal with the stress it can bring.

For the people who really do want to reduce stress, back to the original question: "What is the one thing that will get rid of your stress?"

Answer: YOU.

YOU are the best disease-preventative you have. YOU are the only thing that will get rid of your stress. It calls for making big changes in mind and emotion, attitude and behavior, to reconsider and revise the way you think and act.

A while ago I wrote about the Ecosystem of YOU. I want to emphasize again that YOU are a whole and holistic system (whether you treat yourself that way or not) of spirit, mind, emotion, and physical body. Whatever you do to one part of YOU affects every single other part of you, your whole person.

To get rid of your stress, take responsibility for yourself. Don't expect your employer, your doctor, you mother, your family to take care of you. They won't. They're too busy expecting you to take care of them. (If that wasn't true, you probably wouldn't be working late, paying for anti-anxiety or antidepressant medications, and rushing around like a headless chicken to get all the errands done.)

If you can't change your attitude or behavior, you must leave the circumstances that cause your stress, or get help in coping with them. Just as with any repetitive physical injury that returns if you continue the behavior that caused it, if you are suffering mental or emotional stress but remain in the circumstances that cause it, you may find temporary relief, but no lasting cure.

If a Daoist had composed the error messages that appear on a computer screen….

A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

The Web site you seek
cannot be located but
endless others exist

Aborted effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.

The Dao that is seen
Is not the true Dao, until
You bring fresh toner.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Stay the patient course
Of little worth is your ire
The network is down.

A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone.

Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that.

You step in the stream,
but the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

(Submitted by Patrick Pujda, Associate Editor, “Qi Dao” newsletter February-March 2006)