Harmony

Recently I have been working on bringing harmony into my life as a way of easing OUT of any stress and feelings of fear.

What does harmony mean to you?

A few definitions I found…

1. Harmony is when you feel happy. Harmony is when people are all getting along together. Harmony is when people are nice to one another. Harmony is the flow of life.
2. Harmony means peace. In music, it can also mean that the notes are sounding good together. For example, that couple live in harmony and they seem to perfectly complement each other.
3. armony is a concord or agreement in facts, opinions, manners, interests, etc.; good correspondence; peace and friendship; as, good citizens live in harmony.

What I’m noticing in myself (and others around me) is that our first reaction to seeing a new situation or person is that we see the differences first.  It’s almost like that’s our conditioned response to something new if compare what is different to us.

In other words we see what we don’t like or don’t want with greater speed… The next step is to recognize that in yourself and then find what it is you DO like or what you CAN harmonize with.

If we truly embrace that we are all connected then it is up to us to find a pleasing reflection and harmony all around.

Much love and harmony to you!

Stress Meditation Techniques

If you are suffering from stress meditation can be a great way to relieve the symptoms. Buddhist monks and nuns, who meditate often, are well known for being some of the calmest people on earth. Of course, meditation is practiced by Christians and people of many other religions too. Fortunately you can get a lot of the same benefits without booking in for life at the nearest monastery.

In order to relieve stress meditation is usually practiced regularly. It is possible, of course, to sit down and meditate whenever you feel especially stressed, but often times this is not convenient. Anyway, you will get better results if you practice it often.

Try to meditate every day at the same time. For most people the best time is either first thing in the morning, last thing at night or after an exercise session.

Anti stress meditation does not have to be practiced for very long. It is much more effective to sit for 10 minutes, six days a week, than to meditate for a whole hour once a week.

So here is how to do it. First make sure that you will not be interrupted during your stress meditation time. You might want to put a ‘Do not disturb’ notice on the door. Switch off your phone. Use some kind of timer or alarm so that you do not have to keep looking at a clock.

Then find a comfortable position either sitting or lying down. Lie flat on your back on the floor or on a mat, with no pillow. If you are sitting, you can be crosslegged on a cushion on the floor in the traditional meditation posture or use a chair. Be sure to keep your back straight. In a chair, have both feet flat on the ground.

Be aware of your breath flowing in and out through your nostrils. You can either close your eyes or have them slightly open, looking down. You may find it helpful to work through the body, relaxing each part. Do not forget the muscles of the face, which carry a lot of tension.

You will find that thoughts and emotions arise while you are doing this. Try to let them go. They will pass by themselves if you do not get caught up in them.

Some people find it helpful to listen to some relaxing music or sounds or water, birdsong etc while they meditate. There are many relaxation CDs that you can find in a music store or online. It is better to get something that is specially designed for relaxation and does not include any lyrics. Songs can be very emotive and can arouse strong feelings, making you more stressed instead of less.

Alternatively, you might want to investigate binaural beats which play a special rhythm designed to set the brain’s waves to a frequency that is associated with deep relaxation. You can play these on an MP3 player with stereo headphones. Just one warning: you may want to do this in the evening rather than earlier in the day, because binaural beats played during anti stress meditation can be so relaxing you will want to go to sleep right after you finish!

Festive Christmas Appetizers

Looking for ideas for festive Christmas appetizers for your Christmas dinner? Want something quick and easy to make, but without losing that Christmassy feeling? You are in the right place! In this article we have several ideas for simple Christmas starters.

One thing that all of these recipes have in common is the colors. It is so easy to make Christmas appies – you just have to use the traditional Christmas colors of red and green. What’s more, you can make these dishes quickly while other things are cooking, or you can even make them the day before and leave them in the refrigerator. It’s up to you.

So let’s go right ahead with our Christmas appetizer recipes. Each recipe is intended to serve approximately 6 people.

Christmas Appie #1: Tomato and Cucumber Salad

3 cucumbers
10-12 medium to large tomatoes
fresh basil, chopped

dressing:
3-4 Tbsp olive oil, according to taste
1 Tbsp balsamic or white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp mustard or mustard powder
a generous dash of soy sauce

Slice the cucumbers and tomatoes so that you have equal numbers of each. It’s great if the slices are around the same size, too.

Sprinkle the chopped basil over the tomato slices. Then arrange tomato and cucumber slices in rows on a long serving dish – one slice of cucumber then one slice of tomato then one slice of cucumber etc.

Mix the dressing and pour over the top. This can be served immediately but it will be even better if left to marinate in the dressing overnight (cover and leave in the refrigerator).  In the morning, spoon the dressing over the sliced tomato and cucumber again, and leave for another few hours before serving.

Christmas Appie #2: Christmas Holly Melon

1/2 a watermelon
1 melon of a green-fleshed variety
Juice of 2 lemons
Superfine (castor) sugar
1 mint leaf and a few red berries per person (e.g. raspberries, red currants, cranberries)

Cut the melons and either slice into thin crescents or make melon balls. Arrange attractively on individual plates or bowls.

Combine the lemon juice with a little sugar and sprinkle over the melon. If you don’t have superfine sugar you can grind some regular sugar in a food processor. Place one mint leaf and a few red berries on the top of each serving, to look like holly.

Christmas Appie #3: Easy Leek and Broccoli Soup

1 medium or 2 small leeks
1.5 lb broccoli
1 quart vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 red bell pepper

Chop the the leeks and broccoli and cook them in the stock until tender (approx 15 minutes). Remove from heat and leave for 10 minutes to cool a little. Blend with a hand held blender or in a food processor. Serve immediately or chill in refrigerator and reheat the next day.

Finely slice the red pepper and arrange on the top of the soup to serve.

Variations: you can replace some or all of the leek with onion if you wish. You could also make this with zucchini or green cabbage instead of the broccoli.

Just looking at these Christmas starters on your decorated Christmas dinner table will help your guests to get into the Christmas spirit!

Top Christmas Quotes

Top Christmas quotes can be used for many purposes. If you are making homemade Christmas cards or having cards printed to order, you can choose a quote for the greeting inside. You may also like to have a banner made for your home, or make one yourself, or put your favorite quote on a card that you can fix inside a wreath on the door to your home.

Religious Christmas Quotes

“Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.” – George F. McDougall

“Mankind is a great, an immense family… This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.” – Pope John XXIII

Religious quotes about Christmas are a great way to remind family and visitors of the deeper meaning of Christmas. If you are Christian, you will welcome the opportunity to do this in these days when the season has become so commercially oriented. Although it is nice to have gifts, you probably feel it is important to remember that this is mainly a festival to celebrate the birth of Christ.

If you want a way to spread this message to others without sounding like you are trying to preach to them, Christmas quotes are a great way to do it. And if you do not want to use quotes that specifically mention God or Jesus, there are many Christmas quotes about love that can have an effect that is almost as powerful.

“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?” – Bob Hope

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.” – Charles Schulz

Funny Christmas Quotes

“Christmas makes me happy no matter what time of year it comes around.” – Bryan White

“Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.” – Victor Borge

Not all Christmas quotes are religious or inspiring. You can also find quotes about Christmas that are funny, even cynical, if you want them.

Funny Christmas quotes can be great to use on cards, especially if you make your own Christmas cards or have personalized printed cards. You can pick out a quote and have the printers put it right on every card in your order.

If you choose the right quote, your card will be memorable and may be kept or shared with others. This could be a great solution if you are in business – but be careful not to pick a quote that could offend any of your customers!

“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.” – Garrison Keillor

“The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.” – George Carlin

I hope you enjoyed these Christmas quotes and can pass them along with the spirit of Christmas!

Christmas Gift Ideas: How To Make An Inexpensive Gift Mean More

Are you looking for Christmas gift ideas because you need to make your money go further this year? Do not worry. Many people are in this same situation in the current economic climate. Nobody will think worse of you if you spend less money on your gifts, as long as you make them special in some way.

If you don’t believe that, just think about it for a moment. How often have you been glad to receive a gift from somebody even though the gift itself was not something that you really wanted? If it was chosen for you, or made for you, or just made special in some way, it becomes a valuable present. It’s the thought that counts, as the old saying goes!

Keep in mind, however, that a cheap gift will not be appreciated unless it shows some imagination. Many people will enjoy a quirky or fun gift, no matter how cheap it was. But if you give them a cheap and boring grocery store shower gel, it will not have the same effect. Your gifts must be special in some way if they are going to pass the test.

If you do not have a lot to spend, one of the best ways to make a gift special is to have made it yourself. You will probably be surprised to find how easy it is, for example, to make candy, chocolates or Christmas cookies.

If you are skilled at needlepoint or other crafts you have probably already created some beautiful gifts, but if not, there are still many things that you can do. Grandparents will love pictures of your kids made into bookmarks or calendars. For other family members, you could consider customizing regular cheap CD holders or other items.

The second important point to remember when you are looking for cheap or home made Christmas gift ideas is that with inexpensive gifts, packaging is everything. That home made candy will be appreciated much more if it comes in a box or jar that you have decorated yourself.

Wrapping is important too. Regular Christmas wrap is cheap, and it’s worth buying a roll of gold or silver ribbon so that your presents will have that extra special touch.

Of course it’s true that if your kids or grandkids are hoping for a new bicycle, an Xbox or some other expensive item, they may be disappointed if all they find under the tree is a box of home made candy. And when kids are disappointed, they tend to show it, sometimes loudly and violently. In the worst cases, this can completely ruin Christmas for everybody.

So in that situation, be sure to sit down with your kids a few weeks before the holidays and explain why you cannot get them a big, expensive present this year. Tell them that you love them and you would love for them to have everything that they want, but your priorities have to be keeping food on the table and a roof over everybody’s heads right now. To make sure that they feel involved, you might want to ask if they have some inexpensive Christmas gift ideas for themselves or their brothers and sisters.

Top 3 Ways To Relieve Stress

It can be hard to think of any effective ways to relieve stress when you are in the grip of the negative feelings that stress causes. Whether you are depressed, panicky or feeling that you cannot cope, you need a way out and you need it fast.

Stress is a physical reaction to a threatening situation. At the beginning of our history, we needed it to prompt us to flee or fight when we were in physical danger. Now we feel stress in situations where running away or punching somebody are not usually good options. We need other options, or the stress will go on bugging us until it causes real damage.

So below you will find my top 3 ways to relieve stress. But before we begin, let’s just remember that reading them is not enough! You need to actually do them to have any effect on your stress levels. So pick one and start right now!

1. Relax

It may seem impossible to do when you are stressed, but regular use of relaxation techniques is one of the best ways to manage the stress of our modern lives. Take time out at least three times a week to relax with meditation, yoga, a binaural beat soundtrack, guided visualization or a positive form of prayer (not a list of your faults!)

Relaxation techniques like these will make you feel better right away. More importantly, they will also reduce your tendency to react to stress in your life in the future, if practiced regularly. They will also help you to sleep, which is often an issue for people who are suffering from stress and looking for ways to relieve stress.

2. Establish Healthy Habits

If you are in the habit of reaching for cookies, chocolate, beer, cigarettes or even coffee when you are stressed, it’s worth trying to change. Sure, when you are under a lot of pressure it may not be the best time to try to quit those bad habits completely, but do try to reduce your dependence on them instead of increasing it.

All of those substances will make you feel less than your best physically. They are a drain on the body’s resources. However good they may make you feel for a few minutes or seconds, the truth is that they are the last thing you need when you are looking for ways to relieve stress.

Instead, eat a balanced diet, drink water when you are thirsty, and take a warm bath or go for a walk or run instead of reaching for your usual stimulants. Playing with a child or a pet can be a great stress reliever too.

3. Realistic Scheduling

Plan your day, but don’t plan more into your day than a person can realistically do. If you are making to-do lists at work, keep the list short. Keep in mind that most of the things will take at least twice as long as you expect, plus you need breaks.

If you can come out with a well balanced, realistic plan for your day, you have a good chance of doing everything that you planned. This will give you a sense of achievement and will mean that you can relax at the end of the day. In fact, it is one of the best ways to relieve stress.

Trying to lose weight but having craving issues?

So you’re doing your best to lose weight, sticking to a good eating plan, exercising and then along comes that CRAVING for your comfort food of choice… what do you do?

Have you been able to notice a pattern between your feelings and the types of food you are craving?  Something I’ve been doing of late – which seems to be making quite a difference – is to ensure that I’m getting enough sleep AND I quit drinking coffee! 

When the afternoon energy drop hits, I have a large mug of Egyptian Licorice (if you don’t like licorice, perhaps you could try another sweet tasting herbal tea) after a 10-15 minute meditation… this gives me the energy boost I need and the great thing is that I don’t have that energy crash that we can get after having sugar.

By allowing access to the emotional and energy requirements of my body, I’ve cut way back on my snacking and oddly enough, my cravings have reduced markedly.

If you have not been able to connect your cravings to your emotions – let me know, there’s some tools and techniques I have that might help!

What Do YOU Think About Drastic Measures for Weight Loss?

I was chatting to someone recently about weight loss ideas and strategies and she asked me what my thoughts were on bariatric surgery…  I have to be totally honest with you here – the idea of surgery for weight loss horrifies me, in fact I know a number of people who’ve done it and they’ve gained a large portion of the weight back again.

So – here’s why I’m opposed to body weight being surgically removed (or having how much you can eat surgically manipulated)… if you don’t deal with the emotional issues about your body image and don’t change your mindset – I believe that your pretty much guaranteed to have the weight come back on.  
Maybe you won’t – but these problems or issues WILL show up in some other way… perhaps binging in another way such as shopping, hoarding, sex, etc.

I firmly believe that the ONLY way to live a healthy balanced life is to treat all aspects of what you need in life with honor and respect. By that I mean nurturing your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs.
Physical – nutrition, exercise, etc. Emotional – journaling, self-expression, etc. Mental – reading, inner dialogue (how you talk to yourself!), etc. and Spiritual – meditating, visualizing, feeling connected.

Quick fixes may get you where you THINK you want to be, but unless you adopt a holistic approach and realize that a healthy body is NOT a destination, rather – this body of yours is a sacred vessel which allows you to truly deeply enjoy your life experience… this is it, the journey is the gift.

Using the power of words to feel good!

I just got back from a lunch date with a friend whom I had not seen for many years… we had some really great conversations about how we each help clients in a similar way (reminds me of a quote “same same – but different!”).

Part of our conversation was around reframing the idea of having to do something to choosing to do it!

Think about it – how do YOU feel when you have to do something… for me, that energy feels heavy, like a burden – taking away my power of choice and feeling of being in control of what I do.

And yet – when I choose to do something… the energy is much lighter, life affirming and fun – because I’ve taken control and got my eye on what the end result is going to be.

This idea relates to pretty much any part of your life… but let’s look at exercise as an example of something that you may be struggling with doing.  Do you try to exercise from the viewpoint that you have to exercise in order to lose weight (or just maintain a healthy body)?

Would you be willing to start shifting that focus to be that you choose to exercise and move your body on fun ways so you can feel healthy and happy?

I’d love for you to try this out for yourself and let me know how it feels for you!

Weight Loss Gifts Giveaway Offers Best Selection of FREE Health and Wellness Related Products, Services & Memberships

I wanted to let you know today about a Weight Loss site that will allow you to download a ton of weight loss-related gifts. And the best part is that it is absolutely FREE!

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The Weight Loss Gifts Giveaway will be open only for a VERY LIMITED TIME from October 6th to October 27th, 2011. When you go there you’ll find a multitude of products – all FREE – provided by Weight Loss experts from all over the world. Here is just a small sample of what you will find:

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