How Stress Undermines Your Diet

Scientists scan the brain to see how stress undermines your diet
It's hard for stressed people to choose healthful foods over tasty ones, a new study says.

By SASHA HARRIS-LOVETT  (Los Angeles Times)

If you're trying to lose weight, kick off your diet by relaxing. Stress tinkers with your brain chemistry in ways that make it hard to make healthful food choices and maintain self-control, a new study finds.
Study volunteers who endured a somewhat stressful experience were 24% more likely to choose unhealthful snacks afterward compared with volunteers who hadn't experienced stress. And researchers think they know why: Brain scans showed that the stressed people had altered neurological connectivity between regions of the brain that process tastiness, make value judgments and plan for long-term goals.

Siberian Ginseng: The Almost Forgotten, Perfect Adaptogen - Balancer and Energy Booster

Eleuthero...the root of this plant helps provide the long term energy and the ability to cope with very difficult stress that is so often needed in many everyday walks of life...  a powerful tonic for energy and stress without the word "Ginseng" on the label so its use was successfully "swept under the rug" as a popular, and effective, energy tonic.

Original post on NaturalNews 

by Christopher Gussa 

For some reason, lately, Eleutherococcus (Siberian Ginseng) has almost vanished from becoming a subject when health tonics for energy and stress issues are discussed. It used to be so common place and for a very good reason; It works!

Why have we almost forgotten about this truly amazing, fast acting, totally safe, and extremely powerful energy booster? I believe a lot of the reason for this is that the FDA had once forced all marketing of this amazing tonic herb to be labeled as "Eleuthero" and to avoid the name of "Siberian Ginseng" on any labels (Siberian Ginseng is much less expensive than Panax Ginseng) Technically this "law" is still in the books.

Many people don't relate to the name "Eleuthero" as a powerful tonic for energy and stress without the word "Ginseng" on the label so its use was successfully "swept under the rug" as a popular energy tonic. Chalk one up for the FDA on this one; however the purpose of this article is to help undo the harm the FDA has done to healthy energy seeking consumers.

KEEP IT SIMPLE! feat. Iyanla Vanzant

Rebirth!...Restoring Self Esteem & Emotional Well-Being

I was the 3rd speaker at The Health Awareness Day hosted by NetaVital & Mariandina Foundation on Sunday 30th September, 2012, Brixton, London, and I feel it was resounding success.

It was so beautiful to see so many health conscious individuals seeking understanding and personal solutions to take charge of their health and well-being. As I looked across the sea of people before me, I was really nervous. Everyone looked wonderful and expectant so I used my nervous energy by accepting how I felt and sharing it with my audience. There were so many people there. It was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken in front of ... may be 300-400 people at the start of the event! Totally amazing! On the spot, I thought about what resources I could use that had helped me on other occasions when I was nervous before a presentation. Hmmm....?

I thought about doing what the others had done before me by getting everyone to share hugs with their immediate neighbour but thought no, they did that already. I thought about getting everyone to change their state by getting them to stand up but I thought against that and I decided to include everyone in a grounding and breathing exercise because I really needed it.

The first slide displaying on the projector was of rippling blue waters by a shoreline of trees so I had everyone absorb, tune into breathe deeply 2 or 3 times while thinking about the calming waters...

This did not take long but it did the trick! It got me in the right space to do what I had come there to do...help everyone discover simple ways to feel good and increase self-love and feeling good about self. I went on to share my story of major events that brought me to this point in my life and sharing this generally understated topic, yet valuable topic on self esteem and emotional intelligence. I started by sharing these ideas

DO YOU...

• Feel like you sabotage your own efforts to succeed... 
• Consciously want to heal, improve your eating habits, lose weight, get fit, find your ideal mate, or stop smoking... 
• Want to be more relaxed or stress free... 
• Keep finding yourself trapped in the same cycle or habit you been trying to break for years... 
• Not feel good about yourself... 
• Want to change and take action...  
• Have you ever experienced a traumatic event or an injury that no matter what you do, you still feel like you are NOT the same anymore...that something is missing, and it still causes you stress, pain or discomfort in some way? 
• Or have strong negative emotions when you interact with a certain person, or always get emotionally triggered by things people say to you, or by a specific memory? 
• How true is it that you don’t feel worthy, deserving, good enough to have what you want? 

The truth is, it’s hard to make any permanent changes to improve your health or your life unless you feel good about self inside and out.

Time was ticking as I didn’t have much time to get across the fullness of all I had prepared to share that day, I did want to touch on key areas that affect how we feel about ourselves, some of which is conditioned through upbringing, society, education, personal trauma and the affect of lies, deception and dis-ease upon us. I wanted everyone to know that each of us has within us the potential to heal if you only get the right keys, the right formula, to unlock that potential.

In summary, my topic covered these areas:

• 3 Scientifically Proven Facts About True Healing 
• How Beliefs, Thoughts, Feelings And Energy Really Affect Your Health & Well-being 
• Opportunities To Work With Me
• 10 Tips For Restoring Self Esteem & Emotional Well-being 

As I said, wanted to give as much as I could in the little time I had so I started out by sharing that self esteem is how you feel about yourself and how much you love yourself. You must feel good about yourself and honour your emotions for true healing to occur. The only problem is that some of our most self defeating thoughts arise from our own belief system stored deep within the subconscious mind at cellular and energetic levels. The role of the subconscious mind is to run the commands you program into it, on auto-pilot. This is a natural part of our make-up, but problems arise when the beliefs stored in the subconscious mind are based on lies and deception. The imbalance and internal conflict this creates has the power to undermine your happiness, destroy your health and sabotage your success.

My goal is to assist you to restore balance, peace and harmony within so that your subconscious mind is in alignment and congruent with your conscious mind. Aligning how you consciously feel about yourself with how you subconsciously feel about yourself will raise your vibration to resonate on higher frequencies that will restore health and wellbeing.

The service I provide uses a powerful neuro-lingual and stress relief technique that combines psychology with ancient healing arts to neutralize the connection to those hidden parts of yourself that trigger your negative reactions and emotions. By helping you to accept and honour your feelings, the process also neutralizes, uproots and plucks-out barren belief systems, based on lies and deception, that affect how you feel about yourself and things that have happened to you whether an emotion, an event or trauma, or a symptom in your body that needs clearing from your energy system. Is this for you?

This is for you if you are ready to ...

• be true to yourself; 
• feel good about yourself; 
• neutralise emotional triggers; 
• release the anger, guilt, worries, resentment, disappointment, loss, sadness, fear or pain that is subconsciously sabotaging how you really want to feel and all your efforts to restore wholeness to your mind, body and spirit. 

 In no particular order, I also shared...
Ten Tips for Restoring Self Esteem and Emotional Well-Being 

1. ACCEPTANCE. Acceptance Mirror Exercise. “I love, accept, respect and approve of you exactly as you are. I honour how I feel”. Acceptance of however you feel will help you move forward. 
2. HONESTY. Be honest with yourself and others - face your truth and confront the fears that this exposes. 
3. GRADITUDE. Be grateful for everything – even the hard lessons! Appreciate what we already have. 
4. LOVE. Love all of yourself: the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful about yourself, without limitations. 
5. FORGIVENESS. Forgive yourself and release the past ..so let it go then you can more easily forgive someone else. 
6. BREATHE. remember to breathe deeply and you will connect to your divine instructions - the Breath of Life. 
7. EXERCISE. Exercise regularly as our physical wellbeing relies on regular exercise to energise, redistribute energy around our body and keep it toned. 
8. EXPRESS YOURSELF. Keep a journal, sing, dance, talk to friends, draw, paint, do something creative to re-channel any potential stagnant energy 
9. MAP IT! Meditation, Affirmation, Prayer and Introspection – a key to self discovery. 
10. LAUGHTER. Laugh, express joy & Praise Yah in every possible moment - Hallelu Yah! 

I really enjoyed sharing this information and the event in general. All the speakers and entertainment were fabulous. It was standing room only towards the evening! All told, I’m sure there were over 600 people in attendance. The vibe was so high and healing in itself. I felt so good. My self esteem was boosted considerably from the interactions and conversations I shared throughout the event. I discovered also the next day that because of this boost in feeling good about myself and doing exactly what I was supposed to do, I was able to take action in areas of my life that I had been avoiding. I was standing in my power and being true to myself. I feel good.

How good do you feel?

Love, peace and blessings,

Tekhiyah 

Rofah Tekhiyah is a Divine Life Coach and a Doctor of Holystic Natural Healing & Regenerative Nutrition. To find out more on how to initiate your Rebirth! please feel free to contact me.

HEALability & Yoga

Stress Ah kill me!
part 2- How to Relieve Stress in the Body

by Tekhiyah
April/May 2011 (Business Focus Antigua)

This practice changed my life! Talk about “back to the middle”... I found my centre – it was gone for so long...pulled to extremes, this way and that...never resolving the stress of it all ...the trauma, the pain, the depression, the hurts, the disappointment...buried deep within... creating locks, blocks and stops to achieving the desired dreams of fulfilment ...but then I discovered how to relieve the stress...

It transformed me the first day I did it! No longer stuck, energy began to flow through me; I felt alive; balanced – for the first, in a long time. The oneness I had been seeking was restored to the temple of my mind, body and spirit within 60 minutes of practice! Just one week after daily practice, I received comments on how peaceful and relaxed I looked...the outward manifestation of exactly how I felt.

It all began in prayer and meditation. In prayer, I asked the question, “If I truly love myself, what should I do for myself?” In meditation the answer came... regular exercise – the health habit some find the hardest to follow. Despite their best intentions, most people allow exercise to fall by the wayside when life gets busy or stressful — which is all the time!!!

Stress simply disturbs our personal balance. When our physical safety or emotional equilibrium is threatened, the body's defences trigger a rapid, automatic process known as the stress response. This chemical alarm releases a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline, norepinephrine, and cortisol which race through the bloodstream. Any anxiety, worry or stress causes higher or faster brain waves to occur, increasing the pounding of your heart, tensing up muscles, and hastening breathing in readiness for “fight-or-flight”. The more cortisol produced, the more stressed you feel, the more vulnerable you are to disease and, the faster you age. Prolonged exposure to stress increases your risk of everything ... from heart disease, obesity, infection, constipation, anxiety, infertility, skin outbreaks, constipation, depression, to cancer. Mental, emotional and physical stress deposits itself within as blocked energy.

Stress can cause widespread damage, so it is essential to learn how to deal with stress to positively reduce its impact on your daily life.

Regular physical exercise is one of the most effective ways of relieving stress. For over a year, I’d been failing to motivate myself to reactivate this much needed energy cycle within. So last summer began by acknowledging the small voice I heard; show self-love by exercising regularly again.

The first exercise I chose left me feeling insane! No joke! I stepped into a 6-day-a-week challenge not knowing what I’d got myself into! I felt insanely exhausted every time I attempted this insanely challenging body sculpting method! It did make me stronger as I pushed myself to complete the first 30-days, I admit, but the six-days-a week whittled down to two or three over the next 30-day challenge.

YOU CAN DO IT!!! No...I can’t...and it’s okay!!!

Before the 60-days were up, I knew there had to be a better way for me to love myself. The insanity I experienced was just a bit too much for me... it was adding pressure not relieving it. I need something a little less taxing on the mind-body-spirit continuum, please! I lost a few inches yes, but my weight stayed the same. After weighing myself, I had to also weigh my options.

Ahhh(sigh)... what to do? ...The small voice said, try yoga...

Click here to read full article in issue 36, p72.
 

HEALABILITY is published bimonthly in Business Focus by Regional Publishers Ltd Antigua and Barbuda.